CAIRO — It was a bloody ordeal with tick-tock drama and a watching world.
The hostages at a gas refinery in the Sahara desert faced four harrowing days trapped between two dangers: Islamist militants who forced some of them into wearing explosives belts, and the Algerian military, which showed no inclination to negotiate for their release.
After the army carried out its "final assault" Saturday, Algerian officials said that at least 23 hostages and 32 militants had been killed since gunmen startled the world and rallied Al Qaeda-linked extremists by storming the refinery in the predawn hours Wednesday.
The nationalities of the hostages were not identified. Nearly 700 Algerians and 107 foreigners had been freed or had escaped from the gas field in eastern Algeria over the last two days. When the final assault began Saturday, at least 30 foreigners, including an estimated seven Americans, were unaccounted for.
The U.S. is "still trying to get accurate information" on what happened, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters while traveling in London. The only confirmed American death was Frederick Buttaccio, 58, of Katy, Texas.
Many details of the tense, bloody hours at the refinery remain murky. Foreign governments whose citizens were hostages, including Britain and Japan, complained that the Algerians did not apprise them of what was unfolding. Reports suggest that no foreign capitals were consulted before the army's first raid on Thursday.
"The loss of life as a result of the attacks is appalling and unacceptable," said British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond, who confirmed word from the Algerians that the hostage crisis was over. "We must be clear that it is the terrorists that bear full responsibility for it."
French President Francois Hollande praised Algeria's handling of the crisis.
"When you have people taken hostage in such large numbers by terrorists with such cold determination and ready to kill those hostages — as they did — Algeria has an approach which to me ... is the most appropriate because there could be no negotiation," he told reporters.
Algerian officials said the heavily armed militants planted mines and threatened to blow up the refinery and kill hostages or use them as shields to escape across the desert into Libya. Media reports and accounts from freed hostages suggest a number of hostages were killed Thursday when an army helicopter fired on four, or perhaps five, vehicles moving within the compound.
At one point, the militants reportedly offered to trade two captive Americans for two extremist figures jailed in the United States, including Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of plotting to bomb landmarks in New York.
Saturday's army raid killed 11 militants but not before extremists executed their final seven hostages, two of whom may have been Americans. By nightfall, troops had discovered 15 burned bodies and were securing the plant, where hours earlier firefights played out amid the refinery's silver pipes and prefabricated housing.
"Our determination is stronger than ever to work with allies right around the world to root out and defeat this terrorist scourge and those who encourage it," said British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Other captives unaccounted for included 14 Japanese; five Britons; two Malaysians; and six employees of Statoil, a Norwegian firm. Their fates exposed the heightened risks to Algeria's gas and oil fields — and the skilled foreigners who help work them — at a time of growing Islamic extremism radiating across much of North Africa.
The militants were connected to a group known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which arose from the Algerian civil war in the 1990s. The attackers reportedly included Libyans, Egyptians and at least one commander from Niger. They said their assault on the compound was in retaliation for French airstrikes this month on rebels fighting to forge an Islamic state in neighboring Mali.
A White House official discounted that theory, saying the attack was planned far in advance of the French intervention in Mali. Accounts by freed hostages and statements by Algerian officials indicated that the militants, some of whom wore fatigues and appeared to know their way around the compound, may have been assisted by contacts inside.
The refinery, in a town called In Amenas, sits on a border rife with militants, traffickers and weapons, many of them looted and flowing in from an unstable Libya. The alleged mastermind of the hostage crisis was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed Al Qaeda recruiter, whose nicknames include Mr. Marlboro for his smuggling networks. He was believed to have been aiding the rebels in Mali.
The militants at the plant were armed with machine guns and rocket launchers, according to Algerian officials. Since early Thursday the compound was encircled by army tanks, troops and special forces. The intensity of the firefights and fear within the plant was described in recent days by freed captives.
A man identified as Brahim, an Algerian driver for refinery technicians, told French media of his escape with three foreigners early in the siege:
"As bullets rang out nonstop, we cut holes in the metal fence with large clippers, and once through, we all started running," he said. "There were about 50 of us plus the three foreigners. We were quickly taken in by the special forces stationed just a dozen meters from the base. I didn't look back. All I saw during my escape was that a plane was flying over the site."
The natural gas refinery at In Amenas is operated by BP, Statoil, and Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company. BP said four of its employees were missing.
"While the situation has evolved, it may still be some time before we have the clarity we all desire," said Bob Dudley, BP Group chief executive. "While not confirmed, tragically we have grave fears that there may be one or more fatalities within this number."
jeff.fleishman@latimes.com
Times staff writer Henry Chu in London contributed to this report.
On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. This small panorama of the western sky was obtained using Pancam's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer color filters. This filter combination allows false color images to be generated that are similar to what a human would see, but with the colors slightly exaggerated. In this image, the bluish glow in the sky above the Sun would be visible to us if we were there, but an artifact of the Pancam's infrared imaging capabilities is that with this filter combination the redness of the sky farther from the sunset is exaggerated compared to the daytime colors of the martian sky. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth is, the Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from the Earth. The terrain in the foreground is the rock outcrop "Jibsheet", a feature that Spirit has been investigating for several weeks (rover tracks are dimly visible leading up to Jibsheet). The floor of Gusev crater is visible in the distance, and the Sun is setting behind the wall of Gusev some 80 km (50 miles) in the distance.
This mosaic is yet another example from MER of a beautiful, sublime martian scene that also captures some important scientific information. Specifically, sunset and twilight images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into the atmosphere the martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. The long martian twilight (compared to Earth's) is caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere.
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — As Dave Grohl tool to the stage at the Park City Live, he gave the audience an expletive-laced warning: “It’s going to be a long night.”
But fans were rewarded Friday night as Grohl brought out members of the Foo Fighters, ex-bandmates in Nirvana, plus John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, and several others in a three-hour plus concert that celebrated his directorial debut — the film “Sound City.”
Earlier Friday, “Sound City,” a documentary about the music made at the recording studio of the same name, had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. “Sound City” includes interviews with some of the key musicians who made music at Los Angeles-based studio, including Nicks, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney and others.
At the packed concert, Grohl brought on stage some of those same players, named, appropriately enough, the Sound City Players. Fogerty performed some of his classics, including “Proud Mary,” ”Traveling Band” and “Centerfield”; Springfield jammed with Grohl and others for his hits, including “Jessie’s Girl” and “I’ve Done Everything for You”; and Nicks performed songs including “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”
“I wish we could play 100 songs, but we have 17 musicians tonight,” Grohl said at one point.
One of the concert’s highlights came when Grohl brought out Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, his old Nirvana partner Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear together for a set that included Taylor belting out the Fats Domino classic “Ain’t That A Shame.”
“This, without any (expletive) is a dream (expletive) come true for me,” Taylor said, echoing the sentiments of many in the crowd as well.
The Sound City Players are featured on an upcoming album that came out of the documentary: “Sound City — Real to Reel.”
Grohl has more appearances scheduled for his Sundance film premiere this week, and the Sound City Players plan to perform other shows in the near future.
___
Online:
http://www.soundcitymovie.com
___
Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP’s Global Entertainment & Lifestyles Editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi
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When people fall in love and decide to marry, the expectation is nearly always that love and marriage and the happiness they bring will last; as the vows say, till death do us part. Only the most cynical among us would think, walking down the aisle, that if things don’t work out, “We can always split.”
But the divorce rate in the United States is half the marriage rate, and that does not bode well for this cherished institution.
While some divorces are clearly justified by physical or emotional abuse, intolerable infidelity, addictive behavior or irreconcilable incompatibility, experts say many severed marriages seem to have just withered and died from a lack of effort to keep the embers of love alive.
Jane Brody speaks about love and marriage.
I say “embers” because the flame of love — the feelings that prompt people to forget all their troubles and fly down the street with wings on their feet — does not last very long, and cannot if lovers are ever to get anything done. The passion ignited by a new love inevitably cools and must mature into the caring, compassion and companionship that can sustain a long-lasting relationship.
Studies by Richard E. Lucas and colleagues at Michigan State University have shown that the happiness boost that occurs with marriage lasts only about two years, after which people revert to their former levels of happiness — or unhappiness.
Infatuation and passion have even shorter life spans, and must evolve into “companionate love, composed more of deep affection, connection and liking,” according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside.
In her new book, “The Myths of Happiness,” Dr. Lyubomirsky describes a slew of research-tested actions and words that can do wonders to keep love alive.
She points out that the natural human tendency to become “habituated” to positive circumstances — to get so used to things that make us feel good that they no longer do — can be the death knell of marital happiness. Psychologists call it “hedonic adaptation”: things that thrill us tend to be short-lived.
So Dr. Lyubomirsky’s first suggestion is to adopt measures to avert, or at least slow down, the habituation that can lead to boredom and marital dissatisfaction. While her methods may seem obvious, many married couples forget to put them into practice.
Building Companionship
Steps to slow, prevent or counteract hedonic adaptation and rescue a so-so marriage should be taken long before the union is in trouble, Dr. Lyubomirsky urges. Her recommended strategies include making time to be together and talk, truly listening to each other, and expressing admiration and affection.
Dr. Lyubomirsky emphasizes “the importance of appreciation”: count your blessings and resist taking a spouse for granted. Routinely remind yourself and your partner of what you appreciate about the person and the marriage.
Also important is variety, which is innately stimulating and rewarding and “critical if we want to stave off adaptation,” the psychologist writes. Mix things up, be spontaneous, change how you do things with your partner to keep your relationship “fresh, meaningful and positive.”
Novelty is a powerful aphrodisiac that can also enhance the pleasures of marital sex. But Dr. Lyubomirsky admits that “science has uncovered precious little about how to sustain passionate love.” She likens its decline to growing up or growing old, “simply part of being human.”
Variety goes hand in hand with another tip: surprise. With time, partners tend to get to know each other all too well, and they can fall into routines that become stultifying. Shake it up. Try new activities, new places, new friends. Learn new skills together.
Although I’ve been a “water bug” my whole life, my husband could swim only as far as he could hold his breath. We were able to enjoy the water together when we both learned to kayak.
“A pat on the back, a squeeze of the hand, a hug, an arm around the shoulder — the science of touch suggests that it can save a so-so marriage,” Dr. Lyubomirsky writes. “Introducing more (nonsexual) touching and affection on a daily basis will go a long way in rekindling the warmth and tenderness.”
She suggests “increasing the amount of physical contact in your relationship by a set amount each week” within the comfort level of the spouses’ personalities, backgrounds and openness to nonsexual touch.
Positive Energy
A long-married friend recently told me that her husband said he missed being touched and hugged. And she wondered what the two of them would talk about when they became empty-nesters. Now is the time, dear friend, to work on a more mutually rewarding relationship if you want your marriage to last.
Support your partner’s values, goals and dreams, and greet his or her good news with interest and delight. My husband’s passion lay in writing for the musical theater. When his day job moved to a different city, I suggested that rather than looking for a new one, he pursue his dream. It never became monetarily rewarding, but his vocation fulfilled him and thrilled me. He left a legacy of marvelous lyrics for more than a dozen shows.
Even a marriage that has been marred by negative, angry or hurtful remarks can often be rescued by filling the home with words and actions that elicit positive emotions, psychology research has shown.
According to studies by Barbara L. Fredrickson, a social psychologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a flourishing relationship needs three times as many positive emotions as negative ones. In her forthcoming book, “Love 2.0,” Dr. Fredrickson says that cultivating positive energy everyday “motivates us to reach out for a hug more often or share and inspiring or silly idea or image.”
Dr. Lyubomirsky reports that happily married couples average five positive verbal and emotional expressions toward one another for every negative expression, but “very unhappy couples display ratios of less than one to one.”
To help get your relationship on a happier track, the psychologist suggests keeping a diary of positive and negative events that occur between you and your partner, and striving to increase the ratio of positive to negative.
She suggests asking yourself each morning, “What can I do for five minutes today to make my partner’s life better?” The simplest acts, like sharing an amusing event, smiling, or being playful, can enhance marital happiness.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 18, 2013
The Personal Health column on Tuesday, about making marriages last, misspelled the given name of a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, who studies happiness. She is Sonja Lyubomirsky, not Sonya.
I AM the youngest of 10 children in my family, and the only one born in the United States. My father was a municipal judge who fled Haiti during the Duvalier regime. He and my mother settled in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, but could not initially afford to bring over my four brothers and five sisters, who stayed in Haiti with relatives.
Jean S. Desravines is the chief executive of New Leaders Inc. in New York.
AGE 41
FAVORITE PASTIMES Karate and taekwondo
MEMORABLE BOOK "How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character," by Paul Tough
Since he did not speak English fluently, my father worked as a janitor and had a second job as a hospital security guard. He later took a third job driving a taxi at night to pay for my tuition at Nazareth Regional High School, a Roman Catholic school in Brooklyn. My parents were determined that I was going to get a good education, and wanted to keep me away from local troubles, which did claim two of my childhood friends.
Working so many jobs overwhelmed my father. He had a heart attack and died at age 59 behind the wheel of his taxi. My mother found it difficult to cope without my father and moved back to Haiti in 1989 with two of my siblings. I thought I would have to leave school because I had no money for tuition, but Nazareth agreed to pay my way.
I wound up sleeping in my car for almost three months, showering at school after my track team’s practice. I also held down two jobs, both in retailing, and one of my sisters and I rented a basement apartment in East Flatbush.
After graduating from high school in 1990, I attended St. Francis College in Brooklyn, on athletic and academic scholarships. I worked first at the New York City Board of Education, where H. Carl McCall was president, then in his office after he became New York State comptroller. I later worked in the office of Ruth Messinger, then the Manhattan borough president.
I broadened my nonprofit organization experience at the Faith Center for Community Development while earning my master’s of public administration at New York University. I married my high school sweetheart, Melissa, and we now have two children.
In 2001, I began to work toward my original goal — improving educational opportunities for children — and joined the city’s Department of Education. I was later recruited under the new administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to help start a program as part of his Children First reforms.
In 2003, I became the Department of Education’s executive director for parent and community engagement, and, two years later, senior counselor to Joel I. Klein, then the school chancellor. He taught me a great deal about leadership and how to change the education system. But I began to realize public education could not be transformed without great principals who function like C.E.O.’s of their schools.
So in 2006 I returned to the nonprofit world, to New Leaders, a national organization founded in 2000 to recruit and develop leaders to turn around low-performing public schools. Initially, I managed city partnerships and expanded our program in areas like New Orleans and Charlotte, N.C.
In 2011, I became C.E.O., and revamped our program to produce even stronger student achievement results, streamlined our costs, diversified funding sources and forged new partnerships. We have an annual budget of $31.5 million, which comes from foundations, businesses, individuals and government grants, and a staff of about 200 people at a dozen locations.
We have a new partnership with Pearson Education to provide greater learning opportunities to public school principals. The goal of these efforts is to have a great principal in each of our nation’s public schools — to make sure that, just as I did, all kids get a chance at success.
Los Angeles Board of Public Works President Andrea Alarcon announced Friday that she is resigning from her post, and she apologized for what she described as "the missteps of my past."
Police have been investigating Alarcon, 33, on suspicion of child endangerment after her 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall on the night of Nov. 16. She also is facing separate child-endangerment and drunk-driving charges in San Bernardino County.
Alarcon, an appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, did not mention either incident specifically in her announcement, saying instead that she had learned "difficult lessons."
"I understand and have prayed deeply on the gravity of my actions. I have profound regret for the missteps of my past and apologize to the Mayor, Council, Department of Public Works, the city family and the residents of Los Angeles," she said in a statement.
"I am grateful for the difficult lessons that I have learned and am now healthier and stronger," she said. "Through this experience, I have been reminded of my most important job -- being a mom. I look forward to the next chapter in my life dedicated to my family and my daughter. I ask that our privacy be respected as we continue to heal. It has been an honor and privilege to serve this great city."
Alarcon went on a leave of absence in the wake of the incident in November, saying she was seeking professional help.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey's office determined that the matter being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department did not rise to the level of a felony and forwarded the case to City Atty. Carmen Trutanich. Trutanich's office said recently it would likely send the matter to state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris because Alarcon, as a city employee, is a client.
Alarcon’s father, City Councilman Richard Alarcon, said his daughter did not receive a special severance package and was under no pressure from Villaraigosa to leave her $130,000-a-year post.
"As a father, it gives me pride to know when your kids make a misstep, they can recover," he said. "And as a father, I'm relieved that she's getting out of the glass house and I'm very excited about her future.”
Alarcon's last day of city employment is set for Wednesday.
Villaraigosa said in a statement that Alarcon was "tireless" in her work at the Board of Public Works, which handles such issues as trash pickup, street repair, sidewalk maintenance and sewer systems.
"I am encouraged by her commitment to addressing personal issues that have surfaced in recent months and know that she is already on a good path forward," the mayor said.
Nokia has opened its arms to 3-D printing with the release of printable design files and instructions for making your own Nokia phone case — and customizing it however you wish.
The mobile phone giant announced the new endeavor today, which gives Creative Commons-licensed access to the printable files for the Lumia 820′s shell. It’s the largest affirmation of 3-D printing by a major corporation thus far, bringing the world of on-demand product generation and customization one step closer to the desktops of consumers worldwide. That is, to the desktops of those who have printers so far.
In Nokia’s Conversations blog, community and development marketing manager John Kneeland discusses the launch of the project. “We are going to release 3D templates, case specs, recommended materials and best practices—everything someone versed in 3D printing needs to print their own custom Lumia 820 case,” he explains. “We refer to these files and documents collectively as a 3D-printing Development Kit, or 3DK for short.”
The files, in standard 3-D printer formats, are available on the site in three versions of the rendering: two STL options and one in STP. The company also launched a 3-D printing Wiki with material and software suggestions, and possible projects that consumers could design into these CAD files, such as built-in SIM card holders and bike mounts.
There may be more to come from Nokia in this space as well. “In the future, I envision wildly more modular and customizable phones,” Kneeland says. “Perhaps in addition to our own beautifully designed phones, we could sell some kind of phone template, and entrepreneurs the world over could build a local business on building phones precisely tailored to the needs of his or her local community.”
While the printing community has large libraries of user-generated, printable files hosted on sites like Shapeways and Thingiverse, there has been little corporate involvement in the arena.
Last year, Swedish synthesizer manufacturer Teenage Engineering released the design files for replacement knobs and dials for its popular OP-1 synth keyboard, sharing their designs through Shapeways. And while companies like Apple release the design specifications for its products to third-party case makers, no companies of Nokia’s stature have launched a 3-D printing initiative with the actual CAD files for their products.
Nokia’s project could lead to other manufacturers following suit, from car manufacturers to sporting good makers to anything in between. And while there will undoubtedly be discussion about piracy, some feel that offering the files for simple products like cases and knobs is beneficial to a company by moving a low-revenue product out of their supply chain and into the hands of the consumer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey‘s interview with Lance Armstrong is more than an illustration of a hero athlete tumbling from the heights. It’s also a pivotal moment for a famous media figure trying to climb the ladder back up.
Winfrey’s OWN network is showing signs of life after a rocky start, and the Armstrong interview offered a chance for many more viewers to check it out. The former Tour de France cyclist admitted to cheating with performance enhancing drugs throughout his career during the first half of the interview Thursday night.
That program was seen by a total of 4.3 million viewers in Thursday’s back-to-back airings, OWN said Friday. But it drew only 3.2 million viewers in its first airing, an audience that fell short of OWN’s most-viewed telecast: an interview Winfrey conducted with the Whitney Houston family last March following the singer’s death the previous month.
The second half of the Armstrong interview is to air Friday night.
The interview “showcases the No. 1 asset this network has over everybody else — and that’s Oprah Winfrey,” said Erik Logan, co-president of the network with Sheri Solata. It also showcased about everything else; OWN relentlessly advertised its programming on just about every commercial break.
Winfrey, who hosts “Oprah‘s Master Class,” ”Oprah’s Life Class” and a weekly interview show on OWN, attended a real-life television management class over the past three years. The network launch at the dawn of 2011 came during the last season of Winfrey’s popular syndicated show, and that proved to be a major strategic error.
The daily talk show gave Winfrey’s fans their Oprah jolt, and they had little reason to watch the Oprah Winfrey Network. Winfrey wasn’t much of a presence there, anyway. She was concentrating on making sure her syndicated show went out with a flourish.
OWN flailed for direction with little-noticed celebrity reality shows featuring the Judds and Ryan and Tatum O’Neal. A Rosie O’Donnell talk show was an expensive flop.
Discovery Communications, which sunk a reported $ 250 million into OWN, told Winfrey she needed to be more involved with OWN, on and off screen. In July 2011, she became CEO as well as chairwoman of OWN, replacing Christina Norman.
“The initial expectations for this network turned out to be unrealistic,” said Brad Adgate, an analyst for Horizon Media. “Oprah wasn’t on camera. The shows weren’t all that good. The network got raked over the coals. People thought the network would be doing a million viewers (on average) and it’s doing a third of that.”
The Discovery networks save money by sharing services, yet OWN had set up its own fiefdom. That ended. Discovery brought in its executives to take over legal and business affairs, and OWN laid off one-fifth of its staff last March. To the outside world it looked like a sinking ship, while to Discovery the ship was being righted.
“We were always a lot more confident internally than it looked externally,” said David Leavy, chief communications officer for Discovery.
Like all cable networks, OWN has a dual revenue stream with advertising income as well as payments from cable and satellite operators to carry it on their systems. In its early days, OWN was operating on fees negotiated for its predecessor network, Discovery Health. Now much larger fees negotiated specifically for OWN are kicking in, many of them at the first of this year. Discovery says OWN will turn profitable this year.
A network still needs viewers to sustain itself, and there are some signs of life there, too. OWN’s prime-time audience averaged 310,000 in 2012, up 30 percent from 2011, the Nielsen company said. Isolate the last three months of each year and the increase is 61 percent, even more among the target of middle-aged women.
OWN is carving out a small niche where it hadn’t expected.
The Saturday night lineup of “Welcome to Sweety Pie’s,” about former Ike and Tina Turner backup singer Robbie Montgomery’s soul food restaurant that she operates with her family, and “Iyanla: Fix My Life,” an advice show with inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant, represent the most successful non-Oprah shows. Another new program, “Six Little McGhees, which follows the life of an Ohio couple with sextuplets, is also on the Saturday lineup.
The shows have drawn an audience of African-American women put off by more youth-focused programming on networks like BET. OWN’s audience is roughly one-third black.
OWN recently reached a deal to develop scripted programming with Tyler Perry, the creative force behind movies like “Madea’s Family Reunion” and the TBS series “Tyler Perry‘s House of Payne.”
Winfrey was known for attracting stars and confessions on her syndicated show — remember Tom Cruise’s couch jump? And even before landing the Armstrong interview, Winfrey has delivered the goods as an interviewer on her Sunday night show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter.”
Her talk with David Letterman that aired earlier this month was one of the most remarkable interviews the reticent CBS host has ever given. Besides last year’s interview with the Whitney Houston family, high-rated episodes of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” have featured Rihanna, Usher, Pastor Joel Osteen, the Kardashians and Steven Tyler.
The Armstrong interview aired before the usual Sunday night time slot partly because it was considered newsworthy enough to rush, but also because Winfrey had scheduled and promoted a talk with Drew Barrymore for Sunday.
Considering many viewers still have to search to find the network on their cable system, that’s a particularly strong lineup for OWN. She’s more competitive with the much bigger broadcast networks than could have rightly been considered.
The impact of the Armstrong interview won’t be known for a while, Logan said. Winfrey has called it the biggest interview of her career and it has already drawn more attention to OWN’s content than anything else so far. Removing the stench of failure in itself would be a big step.
The interview could also help OWN reach the 20 million or so cable and satellite subscribers across the country that currently don’t have it on their systems, Adgate said.
“They’ll be calling their cable operators and saying, ‘How come I’m not getting this?’” he said.
___
Television Writer Frazier Moore in New York contributed to this report.
___
EDITOR’S NOTE — David Bauder can be reached at dbauder(at)ap.org or on Twitter(at)dbauder.
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This week, the Recipes for Health columnist Martha Rose Shulman asks readers to go beyond wild rice and get adventurous with their grains. She offers new recipes with some unusual grains you may not have ever cooked or eaten. Her recipes this week include:
Millet: Millet can be used in bird seed and animal feed, but the grain is enjoying a renaissance in the United States right now as a great source of gluten-free nutrition. It can be used in savory or sweet foods and, depending on how it’s cooked, can be crunchy or creamy. To avoid mushy millet, Ms. Shulman advises cooking no more than 2/3 cup at a time. Toast the seeds in a little oil first and take care not to stir the millet once you have added the water so you will get a fluffy result.
Triticale: This hearty, toothsome grain is a hybrid made from wheat and rye. It is a good source of phosphorus and a very good source of magnesium. It has a chewy texture and earthy flavor, similar to wheatberries.
Farro: Farro has a nutty flavor and a chewy texture, and holds up well in cooking because it doesn’t get mushy. When using farro in a salad, cook it until you see that the grains have begun to splay so they won’t be too chewy and can absorb the dressing properly.
Buckwheat: Buckwheat isn’t related to wheat and is actually a great gluten-free alternative. Ms. Shulman uses buckwheat soba noodles to add a nutty flavor and wholesomeness to her Skillet Soba Salad.
Here are five new ways to cook with grains.
Skillet Brown Rice, Barley or Triticale Salad With Mushrooms and Endive: Triticale is a hybrid grain made from wheat and rye, but any hearty grain would work in this salad.
Skillet Beet and Farro Salad: This hearty winter salad can be a meal or a side dish, and warming it in the skillet makes it particularly comforting.
Warm Millet, Carrot and Kale Salad With Curry-Scented Dressing: Millet can be tricky to cook, but if you are careful, you will be rewarded with a fluffy and delicious salad.
Skillet Wild Rice, Walnut and Broccoli Salad: Broccoli flowers catch the nutty, lemony dressing in this winter salad.
Skillet Soba, Baked Tofu and Green Bean Salad With Spicy Dressing: The nutty flavor of buckwheat soba noodles makes for a delicious salad.
On Friday the Federal Reserve released the transcripts of its discussions in 2007, the year the housing market, the financial markets, and the broader economy began to unravel. Focusing on the crucial period from August to December, reporters from The Times shared their findings on what the transcripts reveal in the blog entries and tweets below.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 18, 2013
An earlier version of the 12:51 p.m. entry in this post misidentified the speaker at a December 2007 meeting who said, "I’m actually very, very worried," describing his concerns about derivative products. It was Frederic Mishkin, not Eric S. Rosengren.
WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden laid out the White House’s plan to prevent future gun violence before the U.S. Conference of Mayors here Thursday, saying the proposal “isn’t just about guns.”
Speaking to a gathering of the nation’s mayors, Biden acknowledged that they are faced with a plethora of problems, but he labeled gun violence as the most immediate and urgent.
“Everyone acknowledges we have to do something, we have to act,” Biden said, adding that the Newtown, Conn., school shooting has affected the public psyche “in a way I’ve never seen before.”
Biden thanked a number of mayors for their input during the monthlong deliberations that brought in 229 groups to help form the administration’s gun proposals.
The vice president said he and Obama supported the 2nd Amendment but believe that certain individuals should be “disqualified” from gun ownership and the country needs to make “common-sense judgments” about how to keep military-style weapons off the streets.
PHOTOS: A look ahead at 2013’s political battles
Biden, who spoke extensively about high-capacity ammunition magazines that “leave victims with no chance,” stopped short of making a resounding call for an assault weapons ban.
“The president believes that there should be a new and stronger assault weapons ban,” Biden said, but he admitted that the gun industry would eventually find a way around legislative standards.
But he did call for focus on the nation’s background check system, which is plagued with inadequacies, as The Times noted in a recent article.
“Today there are 17 states that have made fewer than 10 mental health records available on the mental health background system,” Biden said, calling not only for increased funding but for universal background checks to cover all firearm sales.
Taking a jab at the National Rifle Assn.’s proposal that armed guards be placed in every school, Biden trumpeted Obama’s proposal to allow schools to decide on an individual basis whether they want to use federal funds for armed guards or other preventative measures, such as counseling.
“We don’t want rent-a-cops armed in schools,” Biden said, to the applause of a number of mayors.
PHOTOS: Past presidential inaugurations
Also in his pitch, Biden praised adjustments to the nation’s mental health services system included in the Affordable Care Act, with the caveat that there is still much more to be done, and he called for federal agencies to be given more flexibility in examining the underlying factors behind gun violence.
“Quite frankly, we don’t have sufficient data,” he said. “And as an informed society, we need data.”
Biden’s speech, which ran beyond the “10 or 12 minutes” he promised at the onset, provided a preview of the administration’s expected push for its gun proposals to the American public.
“I’ve been in the fight a long time. I have no illusions about the fight ahead of us,” Biden said, adding that he was confident that with public support founded on “common-sense” consensus, “the political obstacles that will be put up in front of us are not impenetrable.”
Editor’s Note: James Daily, a lawyer and co-author of The Law and Superheroes, typically focuses his legal critiques on the superhero world at the Law and the Multiverse website he runs with fellow lawyer and co-author Ryan Davidson. Today, Daily takes a look a very important cultural document for Wired: The contract between Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves in The Hobbit.
Ordinarily I don’t discuss legal issues relating to fictional settings that are dramatically different from the real world in terms of their legal system. Thus, Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien’s Middle Earth, etc. are usually off-limits because we can’t meaningfully apply real-world law to them. But the contract featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was just too good a topic to pass up, especially since you can buy a high-quality replica of it that is over 5 feet long unfolded.
First, it seems fairly clear (to me, anyway) that Tolkien wrote the Shire (where hobbits live) as a close analog to pastoral England, with its similar legal and political structures. For example, the Shire has a mayor and sheriffs, and there is a system of inheritance similar to the common law. The common law fundamentals of contract law have not changed significantly since the time that the Shire is meant to evoke, so it makes sense that the contract would be broadly similar to a modern contract (and likewise that we could apply modern contract law to it).
So, without further ado, let’s get to it.
The Contract in General
As mentioned, the contract is quite long. This is in contrast with the contract as described in the book, which is very terse. Its terms amounted to this:
For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all travelling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for.
Even in the book’s version we see an issue: the dwarves accept Bilbo’s “offer” but then proceed to give terms. This is not actually an acceptance but rather a counter-offer, since they’re adding terms. In the end it doesn’t matter because Bilbo effectively accepts the counter-offer by showing up and rendering his services as a burglar, but the basic point is that the words of a contract do not always have the legal effect that they claim to have. Sometimes you have to look past the form to the substance.
But back to the movie version: It has at least 40 major sections and numerous footnotes and digressions in smaller type. We will begin at the beginning and go on till we reach the end, except where the form of the contract requires some jumping around.
Bilbo’s Obligations to the Dwarves
Two clauses describe Bilbo’s primary obligations:
I, the undersigned, [referred to hereinafter as Burglar,] agree to travel to the Lonely Mountain, path to be determined by Thorin Oakenshield, who has a right to alter the course of the journey at his so choosing, without prior notification and/or liability for accident or injury incurred.
The aforementioned journey and subsequent extraction from the Lonely Mountain of any and all goods, valuables and chattels [which activities are described collectively herein as the Adventure] shall proceed in a timely manner and with all due care and consideration as seen fit by said Thorin Oakenshield and companions, numbering thirteen more or less, to wit, the Company.
All contracts require some consideration from all parties to the contract. Consideration, in the contract sense, means a bargained-for performance or promise. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 71(1). Basically, this is something of value given or promised as part of the agreement. This can be anything that the parties agree is valuable; the classic example is a single peppercorn. Whitney v. Stearns, 16 Me. 394, 397 (1839).
Here, Bilbo is promising to go with the Company to the Lonely Mountain and performing various services there, including extracting the treasure, plus a few more services we’ll get to later. In turn, as we shall see, the Company promises to pay Bilbo one fourteenth of the profits, plus a few other obligations. Thus we have “a promise for a promise,” otherwise known as a bilateral contract.
There are some other details to notice in these clauses. One is the use of defined terms (e.g. “referred to hereinafter as Burglar”). The parties to a contract may define terms however they wish, even in ways that contradict the definition used in statutes or regulations.
This is important in this case because of the use of the defined term “Burglar.” Contracts to do something illegal are ordinarily unenforceable (e.g. collecting on an illegal gambling debt). But here what matters is not that the parties used the word ‘burglar’ but rather what sort of meaning they assigned to that defined term. As we shall see, the contract doesn’t require Bilbo to do anything illegal (or at least not obviously illegal), and so the contract will probably not fail for use of a questionable term.
Thorin’s Right to Alter the Journey
These two clauses also pose something of a contradiction. On the one hand we see the first of many liability waivers:
[Thorin has] a right to alter the course of the journey at his so choosing, without prior notification and/or liability for accident or injury incurred.” But on the other hand we see this explicit obligation of care: “[the Adventure] shall proceed in a timely manner and with all due care and consideration.
Ordinarily “due care and consideration” signifies taking on liability for negligence, so this conflicts with the earlier liability waiver. Perhaps the two can be reconciled by the phrase “as seen fit by said Thorin Oakenshield and companions.” Thorin and Co. could always claim that the amount of care and consideration they saw fit was extremely minimal, though that runs the risk of making the clause meaningless, which courts usually don’t like to do. ”As a general proposition, whenever possible, the law favors reconciliation of clauses within a contract which appear contradictory.” City of Columbia v. Paul N. Howard Co., 707 F.2d 338, 340 (8th Cir. 1983). Taken together with the numerous other waivers and disclaimers, I think a court would probably conclude that Thorin & Co. were not taking on any particular duty of care. ”A writing is interpreted as a whole.” Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 202(2).
Waivers or disclaimers of liability are an important part of many contracts. These can include waivers of a product warranty (seen all the time in software license agreements) and waivers for liability due to negligence (often required before doing something dangerous like skydiving). But there are limits to liability waivers. While a party to a contract can ordinarily waive liability for negligence (although not in every jurisdiction), one cannot waive liability for gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. So the numerous (and sweeping!) waivers and disclaimers may not be as effective as they appear at first glance.
So far the Dwarves haven’t committed any unsalvageable drafting errors or done anything that might jeopardize the validity of the contract. We’ll see if that keeps up!
Waivers for Notoriety and ‘Unlooked-for’ Misfortune
The next section is yet another waiver:
Burglar holds harmless and without blame in perpetuity the Company and its successors for any notoriety, incarceration, or proceedings brought against, in regard to or as a result of the adventure or any activities related thereto.
Also includes slander, libel, loss of face or of social standing in country of Burglar’s origin.
Remedies shall similarly not be sought for any unlooked-for misfortune befalling Burglar’s home during his absence.
The smaller text is written in the margin or otherwise in smaller writing. There’s a lot of that kind of writing in the margins that we’ll be referring to as we go through the contract. For the most part the size of the print doesn’t matter, but there are some contract terms, such as warranty disclaimers, that must be printed conspicuously, which usually means large print or all caps. UCC §§ 2-316(2), 1-201(b)(10). At common law we suspect the rules were even looser.
This set of waivers is not particularly objectionable. As discussed in the prior post, the actual scope of the waiver may not be as broad as the language suggests. For example, if the Dwarves intentionally burned down Bag End, this waiver would not prevent Bilbo from suing them for the damage.
It may bear mentioning that the slander waiver only protects the Company. Bilbo could still sue the actual slanderer, of course. Traditionally this has been easier to do in England than the United States. At common law, for example, truth was no defense to criminal libel (also known as seditious libel). Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 67-68 (1964).
Payment (and Funeral Expenses) for the Burglar
Now we come to some terms of the contract actually described in the book:
Cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of the total profit [if any]. Not including any of the gross paid to other parties in lieu of royalties or help and provisions given or loaned.
All traveling expenses guaranteed in any event. But refer to attached and appended conditions, clauses and riders regarding any Return Journey. ‘Traveling expenses’ shall be understood to mean basic fare as seen fit by the Company. ‘Luxury’ catering or accomodation over and above this standard shall be enjoyed only at Burglar’s considerable [but justifiable] expense.
Funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for. Basic funeral to ‘commoner’ or peasant standard is allowed for only. Lavish ceremonies and jewelled (sic) or gilded coffins not provided. Plain pine box is the normal standard. Transport of any remains, in whole or in part, back to the country of Burglar’s origin is not included.
Most of these clauses are fairly straightforward. In terms of the plot, the more important clause is the one regarding profits. Already we see part of the definition: it excludes royalties paid to others and anything given or loaned to Bilbo counts against it. In the margins we see some more relevant terms:
Burglar acknowledges and agrees that each item of the Company’s valuables, goods, money or merchandise which he recovers from the Lonely Mountain [the 'Recovered Goods'] during the term of his engagement with the Company, shall remain the Property of the Company at all times, and in all respects, without limitation.
Furthermore, the company shall retain any and all Recovered Goods until such a time as a full and final reckoning can be made, from which the Total Profits can then be established. Then, and only then, will the Burglar’s fourteenth share be calculated and decided.
So Bilbo can’t just pick up some treasure that he likes and decide that it’s part of (or the entirety of) his share. Instead, as provided by yet another clause, he will be paid in gold or its equivalent, in correct weight or of good quality, respectively. And he can’t lay claim to any particular article of treasure. Indeed, the Dwarves could conceivably purchase gold from somewhere else and pay him with that. He’s not entitled to any part of the treasure itself as such.
There are several ways in which these contract terms affect the plot. The book has been out for about eighty years, but nonetheless, spoiler alert:
As anyone who has read the book knows, the definition of Bilbo’s “fourteenth share of total profits” goes directly to a major issue in the plot, namely Bilbo’s taking of the Arkenstone. In the book Bilbo feels comfortable taking it, since he figures it’s worth his fourteenth share, and the contract didn’t say which fourteenth he could take. This contract eliminates that possibility. We doubt that the plot will actually be modified to take this into account, but it may be an example of the writer of the contract being a bit too clever.
Next we have a non-disclosure or confidentiality clause:
Confidentiality is of utmost importance and must be strictly maintained at all times. During the course of his employment with the Company, Burglar will hear, see, learn, apprehend, comprehend, and, in short, gain knowledge of particular facts, ideas, plans, strategies, theories, geography, cartography, iconography, means, tactics and/or policies, whether actual, tangible, conceptual, historical or fanciful. Burglar undertakes and agrees to maintain this knowledge in utmost secrecy and confidentiality, and to neither divulge nor make known said knowledge by any means, including but not limited to speech, writing, demonstration, re-enactment, mime, or storage and retrieval within means or apparatus currently known or unknown or as yet unthought of.
(It is a plain drafting error to refer to “the course of [the Burglar's] employment with the company”, since a later clause specifies in no uncertain terms that “Burglar is in all respects an independent contractor, and not an employee … of the Company.”)
This confidentiality agreement is a little overbroad, since by its strict terms it requires Bilbo to keep confident anything he learns on the journey, not just things he learns in confidence. The fact that information is already publicly known is usually a defense to a breach of confidentiality, since the information wasn’t actually secret. Overbreadth probably isn’t fatal to the clause, however.
What’s really unusual about this part of the contract is that it doesn’t appear to include a clause acknowledging that monetary damages alone would be inadequate compensation in the event of a breach of confidentiality. The purpose of such a clause is to make it easier to obtain an injunction ordering the breaching party to stop disclosing the confidential information. Ordinarily breach of contract results in a payment of monetary damages, and getting an injunction usually requires showing, among other things, that those damages are insufficient to remedy the harm done.
What’s doubly weird about this is that the contract does have this clause later on:
Burglar acknowledges that monetary damages alone will be adequate compensation for a breach of this contract by the Company.
It’s curious that the contract only contemplates injunctions defensively (i.e. protecting the Company from them) and not offensively (i.e. making it easier to enjoin Bilbo).
Mandatory Binding Arbitration in the Dwarvish Tongue
There are also a group of clauses dealing with disputes arising under the contract. This is an important part of many contracts. If you’re going to the trouble of creating a formal legal agreement, then you might as well contemplate what might happen if the deal goes bad. Somewhat anachronistically, the contract contains an arbitration clause:
Disputes arising between the Contract Parties shall be heard and judged by an arbitrator of the Company’s choosing
I say “somewhat anachronistically” because although arbitration has a long history in the common law — going back at least as far as 1609 — it was for centuries frowned upon by the courts. One early case, Vynior’s Case, held that mandatory arbitration clauses (i.e. requiring a party to a contract to submit to arbitration) were revocable. In other words, parties could submit to arbitration but only by ongoing, mutual agreement. It was not until the 1800s that mandatory arbitration really became acceptable in either England or the US. See, e.g., Burchell v. Marsh, 58 U.S. 344 (1854).
The other issue is that the clause allows the Company to choose the arbitrator. This is highly unusual and may actually invalidate the arbitration clause. In order to comport with due process, a mandatory arbitration agreement must, among other things, provide a neutral, impartial decision maker. Typically this is done by allowing the parties to jointly select an arbitrator or to have an impartial third party (such as an arbitration agency) select one.
The next part of the arbitration paragraph is a rarity for an American lawyer:
… and all pleas shall be pleaded, shrewed [sic], defended, answered, debated and judged in the Dwarvish Tongue
Obviously this is a significant disadvantage for Bilbo, as he evidently cannot read (and presumably cannot speak) Dwarvish. Choice of language clauses like this one are much more common in international contracts than in contracts between parties in the United States. They are also much more common in contracts that contain arbitration agreements rather than forum selection clauses (e.g. “any disputes arising under this contract will be heard in the courts of Capital City, State X”) because in most countries the courts only deal in one official language, making a choice of language clause redundant. But when the case will go to arbitration, the chosen arbitrator could potentially speak multiple languages.
However, the most common reason for a choice of language clause is when the contract itself is translated into multiple languages for the benefit of the parties. In that case it is common for the contract to specify that one version is the “authoritative” version.
Jurisdiction: The Shire vs. the Dwarven Kingdom?
The one thing that leaps out at me about this contract is that it doesn’t contain a choice of law clause. Such a clause allows the parties to specify what jurisdiction’s law will govern the contract. This is particularly useful when multiple jurisdictions may potentially apply. The area of the law that deals with figuring out which court has jurisdiction and which law applies is known as conflict of laws.
Conflict of laws is a complex subject. Typically it is a stand-alone course in law school. So we won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice to say that arguably both the law of the Shire and the law of the Dwarven Kingdom could conceivably apply to this contract. Some of the factors that a court might consider include:
The parties are a Hobbit of the Shire and a group of Dwarves.
The contract was signed in the Shire.
The contract concerns services to be performed in the Dwarven Kingdom.
The most likely source of the breach of the contract occurs in the Dwarven Kingdom.
Since the applicable law is debatable, this is precisely the kind of case in which a choice of law clause makes sense, so its absence is notable.
Ownership of the Ring: Specialized Equipment?
Given the clauses describing ownership of the recovered goods, one might wonder whether the Company has a claim to the One Ring. After all, Bilbo has expressly agreed that he has only a right to 1/14th of the profits, to be paid in a form determined by the Company, and no right to the treasure itself. So could it be that the One Ring merely forms part of the treasure? The contract seems to indicate otherwise.
First, the contract describes the extraction of goods from the Lonely Mountain as being the subject of the Adventure, whereas the One Ring was found underneath the Misty Mountains. Second, the contract includes this clause:
Specialist equipment required in the execution of duties in his professional role as Burglar shall be purchased, procured, purlioned [sic] or obtained by Burglar, by whatsoever method Burglar sees fit.
The One Ring is definitely “specialist equipment” and it turns out to be required in the execution of Bilbo’s duties in his professional role as Burglar. Certainly he could not have defeated the spiders, evaded the Wood Elves, or snuck past Smaug without it (possibly only the last counts as proper burgling, but the point stands). So the Dwarves would not appear to have any claim to the One Ring.
I probably would have left out the “purloined” part, though. That comes dangerously close to making the contract unenforceable on the grounds that the subject matter of the contract is illegal.
Closing Thoughts
One the whole, the contract is pretty well written. There are some anachronisms, unnecessary clauses, typos, and a small number of clear drafting errors, but given the contract’s length and its role in the film (which is to say not a huge one, especially in the particulars) it’s an impressive piece of work. I congratulate prop-maker and artist Daniel Reeve on a strong piece of work. A lesser studio or artist might have been tempted to go with several pages of lorum ipsum written in Cirth. If you’d like an even more accurate replica of the contract, Weta’s online store has a version with hand-made touches by Mr. Reeve.
(Reuters) – Former Beatle Paul McCartney has recorded a new version of his 1971 song “Heart Of The Country,” and directed fans to YouTube where the song accompanies an animated clip featuring his late wife Linda.
“I did a new mega simple version of ‘Heart Of The Country’ for the Linda animation on YouTube,” McCartney posted on Twitter on Wednesday. The 40-second clip was posted in the United Kingdom on January 11 by “Linda McCartney.”
“Sounds cool to me!” he said in Wednesday’s tweet. In an earlier post, McCartney tweeted “Looks great – love it!”
In the clip, an animated Linda McCartney snaps photographs, prepares and serves food for children and animals and plays music in a forested setting.
Linda McCartney, who died 15 years ago, was an accomplished photographer and dedicated vegetarian and animal rights activist.
The singer did not say why he re-recorded the song, but people who posted comments on YouTube speculated that the clip and accompanying music would be used for a new advertisement for Linda McCartney’s line of vegetarian food products.
Media reports said the ad would air later this month.
“Heart Of The Country” was recorded for Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 “Ram,” which was the only album credited to the pair.
Linda McCartney died of breast cancer in 1998 at age 56.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Patricia Reaney and Stacey Joyce)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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Suleika Jaouad writes about her experiences as a young adult with cancer.
There are a lot of things about having cancer in your 20s that feel absurd. One of those instances was when I found myself calling my brother Adam on Skype while he was studying abroad in Argentina to tell him that I had just been diagnosed with leukemia and that — no pressure — he was my only hope for a cure.
Today, my brother and I share almost identical DNA, the result of a successful bone marrow transplant I had last April using his healthy stem cells. But Adam and I couldn’t be more different. Like a lot of siblings, we got along swimmingly at one moment and were in each other’s hair the next. My younger brother by two years, he said I was a bossy older sister. I, of course, thought I knew best for my little brother and wanted him to see the world how I did. My brother is quieter, more reflective. I’m a chronic social butterfly who is probably a bit too impulsive and self-serious. I dreamed of dancing in the New York City Ballet, and he imagined himself playing in the N.B.A. While the sounds of the rapper Mos Def blared from Adam’s room growing up, I practiced for concerto competitions. Friends joked that one of us had to be adopted. We even look different, some people say. But really, we’re just siblings like any others.
When I was diagnosed with cancer at age 22, I learned just how much cancer affects families when it affects individuals. My doctors informed me that I had a high-risk form of leukemia and that a bone marrow transplant was my only shot at a cure. ‘Did I have any siblings?’ the doctors asked immediately. That would be my best chance to find a bone marrow match. Suddenly, everyone in our family was leaning on the little brother. He was in his last semester of college, and while his friends were applying to jobs and partying the final weeks of the school year away, he was soon shuttling from upstate New York to New York City for appointments with the transplant doctors.
I’d heard of organ transplants before, but what was a bone marrow transplant? The extent of my knowledge about bone marrow came from French cuisine: the fancy dish occasionally served with a side of toasted baguette.
Jokes aside, I learned that cancer patients become quick studies in the human body and how cancer treatment works. The thought of going through a bone marrow transplant, which in my case called for a life-threatening dose of chemotherapy followed by a total replacement of my body’s bone marrow, was scary enough. But then I learned that finding a donor can be the scariest part of all.
It turns out that not all transplants are created equal. Without a match, the path to a cure becomes much less certain, in many cases even impossible. This is particularly true for minorities and people from mixed ethnic backgrounds, groups that are severely underrepresented in bone marrow registries. As a first generation American, the child of a Swiss mother and Tunisian father, I suddenly found myself in a scary place. My doctors worried that a global, harried search for a bone marrow match would delay critical treatment for my fast-moving leukemia.
That meant that my younger brother was my best hope — but my doctors were careful to measure hope with reality. Siblings are the best chance for a match, but a match only happens about 25 percent of the time.
To our relief, results showed that my brother was a perfect match: a 10-out-of-10 on the donor scale. It was only then that it struck me how lucky I had been. Doctors never said it this way, but without a match, my chances of living through the next year were low. I have met many people since who, after dozens of efforts to encourage potential bone marrow donors to sign up, still have not found a match. Adding your name to the bone marrow registry is quick, easy and painless — you can sign up at marrow.org — and it just takes a swab of a Q-tip to get your DNA. For cancer patients around the world, it could mean a cure.
The bone marrow transplant procedure itself can be dangerous, but it is swift, which makes it feel strangely anti-climactic. On “Day Zero,” my brother’s stem cells dripped into my veins from a hanging I.V. bag, and it was all over in minutes. Doctors tell me that the hardest part of the transplant is recovering from it. I’ve found that to be true, and I’ve also recognized that the same is true for Adam. As I slowly grow stronger, my little brother has assumed a caretaker role in my life. I carry his blood cells — the ones keeping me alive — and he is carrying the responsibility, and often fear and anxiety, of the loving onlooker. He tells me I’m still a bossy older sister. But our relationship is now changed forever. I have to look to him for support and guidance more than I ever have. He’ll always be my little brother, but he’s growing up fast.
Suleika Jaouad (pronounced su-LAKE-uh ja-WAD) is a 24-year-old writer who lives in New York City. Her column, “Life, Interrupted,” chronicling her experiences as a young adult with cancer, appears regularly on Well. Follow @suleikajaouad on Twitter.
LONDON — Two expensive acquisitions have come at a steep price for Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining giant.
The company, the world’s second-largest mining company after BHP Billiton, said on Thursday that it was taking a $14 billion write-down on the value of aluminum and coal mining assets — a huge amount that came as a surprise to some analysts and investors.
As a result, the company’s chief executive, Tom Albanese, resigned after five years in the top post. The company quickly named Sam Walsh, head of the iron ore unit, as its new chief.
The write-down is a significant blow for Rio Tinto, which once looked poised to capitalize on a global economic boom. Analysts said that the size of the write-downs signaled just how much the company had misjudged the values of the acquisitions, one of which happened as recently as two years ago.
“The level of the write-down is very disappointing, and it does come as a surprise,” said Keith Bowman, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “There have been some rash takeovers in the mining industry, and I hope this continues to prove a lesson.”
The write-downs are linked to two of Rio Tinto’s biggest acquisitions in recent years: Alcan, an aluminum producer based in Canada, and the coal producer Riversdale Mining, which is based in Australia and manages mines in Africa.
The company blamed falling aluminum prices for $10 billion to $11 billion of the charge. Most of Rio Tinto’s aluminum assets stem from its $38 billion acquisition of Alcan, a deal that was led by Mr. Albanese.
The acquisition of Alcan was part of a multibillion-dollar takeover frenzy in the mining industry at the time. It was driven by soaring metal prices, and it led to Rio Tinto itself becoming a target in what would have been one of the biggest takeovers in history. In the end, Rio Tinto rejected the offer, by BHP Billiton, as too low.
Rio Tinto successfully outbid the American aluminum giant Alcoa to acquire Alcan in 2007. Rio Tinto seized on the merger, hoping to take advantage of rising metal prices on the back of a booming Chinese economy. But then global economic growth slowed, and demand for aluminum dropped quickly.
“In hindsight, it was a bad call,” said Richard Knights, an analyst at Liberum Capital. “But it was a different environment back then.”
The acquisition of Alcan in particular has weighed heavily on Rio Tinto’s performance. Mr. Albanese acknowledged last year that the company had paid a high price for the deal and he had repeatedly come under pressure to resign after the Alcan takeover had burdened Rio Tinto with debt.
Last year, Mr. Albanese decided to forgo his bonus after the company reported a 59 percent drop in 2011 earnings because it wrote down $8.9 billion on the value of Alcan assets.
“We are also deeply disappointed to have to take a further substantial write-down in our aluminum businesses, albeit in an industry that continues to experience significant adverse changes globally,” Jan du Plessis, Rio Tinto’s chairman, said in a statement.
About $3 billion of the $14 billion write-down was related to lowered estimates of the value of its coal business in Mozambique after the company failed to secure crucial government approvals to ship coal it mined in the African country.
Rio Tinto also overestimated how much coking coal it could recover there. Rio Tinto bought Riversdale Mining for around $4 billion in 2011 after increasing its offer price to resolve a standoff with Riversdale’s shareholders.
Mr. du Plessis said in the statement that the scale of the write-down related to the assets in Mozambique was “unacceptable.”
Rio Tinto cited strong currencies and high energy and raw material costs as other factors leading to the write-down.
Doug Ritchie, a Rio Tinto executive who led the purchase of coal assets in Mozambique two years ago, also stepped down on Thursday.
Rio Tinto’s shares fell about 1 percent in trading in London on Thursday. The company’s shares have dropped 6 percent in the last 12 months, even as the stock price of its competitor BHP Billiton increased 0.8 percent in the same period.
Mr. Albanese said in the company’s statement that he fully recognized “that accountability for all aspects of the business rests with the C.E.O.”
Mr. Albanese will stay on until July 16 to help with the transition. He will not receive a bonus for this year and any outstanding remuneration in the form of deferred stock bonuses would lapse, Rio Tinto said.
LONDON — A helicopter smashed into a crane atop a high-rise building in central London and plummeted to the ground during the morning rush hour Wednesday, killing the pilot and a person on the ground, police and witnesses said.
More than a dozen people were injured in the shower of debris, but "it is probably miraculous that this wasn't much, much worse," Cmdr. Neil Basu of Scotland Yard told the BBC.
Video footage showed flaming wreckage on the ground where the chopper came down shortly before 8 a.m. in the Vauxhall district south of the Thames, close to MI6, Britain's spy agency. The site is also near the Nine Elms neighborhood where the U.S. is planning to build a large new embassy.
PHOTOS: London helicopter crash
The crash occurred on a gloomy morning with thick clouds or fog low in the sky. The nearby London Heliport said in a statement that the pilot had requested, via air traffic controllers at Heathrow Airport, to divert to the heliport and land there because of bad weather. But the chopper and the heliport never established direct contact.
Helicopters are a common sight over London, particularly around the financial district, where many high-rises are clustered.
Witness Patrick Gartland said he heard "an almighty crash" overhead and "a lot of yelling" from around the building, which is under construction.
"The helicopter had just plowed into the top of the crane. Rotors and debris sort of exploded, and then the helicopter had just gone into this massive sort of cart-wheeling," Gartland told Sky News. "It careered just over the flower market and just exploded when it hit Wandsworth Road."
The helicopter charter company RotorMotion identified the pilot as Peter Barnes, 50, a highly experienced flyer who had accumulated more than 12,000 flying hours.
Police said the chopper was not carrying any passengers. Seven people were treated at the scene for minor injuries, and six were taken to local hospitals, all for minor wounds except for one person who suffered a broken leg.
It’s the time of year when we promise ourselves that we’re going to eat better (and less), exercise more and drop some weight. Turns out you might want to skip the weight bench and hit the treadmill if you want to keep that last resolution but don’t have a lot of time to work out.
Researchers at Duke University have examined the impact of aerobic and resistance training on body and fat mass in overweight and obese adults and concluded that when it comes to losing weight, aerobic exercise has an edge.
“If you’re overweight, it’s good to lose fat and body weight,” Dr. Leslie Willis, an exercise physiologist at Duke and lead author of the study, said of aerobic exercise. “Spend time doing cardio training if that’s your main goal.”
She noted, however that she isn’t saying that resistance training is by any means a bad thing, and in fact remains vital because it promotes lean body mass — which becomes more important as we age.
The study, published last month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, surveyed 234 adults aged 18 to 70 who were overweight or obese. They participated in one of three eight-month programs consisting of aerobic training, resistance training and a combination of the two. The aerobic training group exercised at 70 to 85 percent maximum heart rate for 45 minutes three times a week. The resistance training group did eight to 12 repetitions on resistance machines, increasing weight as time progressed so they’d remain challenged. The remaining group combined the regimens of both groups. When they were done, each participant was weighed, measured and tested for cardio fitness, body composition and strength.
The study found the aerobic training group and combination groups lost the most weight, around 4 pounds. Those who did resistance training alone actually gained a similar amount of weight in lean body mass. While the cardio group lost weight, they also lost lean body mass. The cardio and combination groups also saw a reduction in waistline, the cardio group losing 1 and combination group losing 1.66 square centimeters. These groups also lost 1 and 2 percent body fat, respectively, whereas the resistance group saw little to no change. However, in the aerobic group, there was no alteration of lean body mass like there was in the groups that had some sort of resistance regimen.
Read this way, the study suggests that if you only have a few hours a week to work out and your goal is losing weight, concentrate your energy on aerobic workouts. It also shows that if you have the time, resistance training plus cardio is best to build lean body mass.
A problem, however, is that sometimes studies like this are taken too literally, said Dr. Abbie Smith-Ryan, an exercise and sports scientist at UNC. Although the science behind the study is “flawless” and adds great data to the body of knowledge on the subject, she said, it’s also important to consider additional practical factors before changing your workout routine.
“When I look at the changes in body fat alone,” she said, “it was just 4 pounds. While statistically significant, we would hope to see a larger change in body fat and weight with such a comprehensive training program.”
Much of Smith-Ryan’s research is in high-intensity interval training, where she noted that over less time performed a week, they are seeing some large changes. She agrees, though, that you shouldn’t tell people to stop resistance training, which can directly and indirectly influence metabolism by breaking down our muscles. The repair process is where the caloric demand arises, and the more intense the workout, the more calories we burn rebuilding those muscles.
“This to me doesn’t say, ‘Don’t do resistance training training, or just do aerobic training,’” she said. “They are both important. This study also highlights the importance of nutrition. Exercise is not only the important part of weight loss; nutrition is a big factor. The subjects were on a 2,000-calorie diet, which is practical, but there was such a small change in body fat and weight over a six-month period.
The main takeaway, then, is to find something that fits your goals (losing pounds, changing your shape, improving your cardio fitness) that you will stick with. Chances are if you only lose a few pounds and a percent or two in body fat in eight weeks, you won’t stick with it. Those looking to change their overall look need to up the ante with intensity and frequency. Oh, and eat less.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood and the video game industry received scant attention Wednesday when President Barack Obama unveiled sweeping proposals for curbing gun violence in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
The White House pressed most forcefully for a reluctant Congress to pass universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
No connection was suggested between bloody entertainment fictions and real-life violence. Instead, the White House is calling on research on the effect of media and video games on gun violence.
Among the 23 executive measures signed Wednesday by Obama is a directive to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and scientific agencies to conduct research into the causes and prevention of gun violence. The order specifically cited “investigating the relationship between video games, media images and violence.”
The measure meant that media would not be exempt from conversations about violence, but it also suggested the White House would not make Hollywood, television networks and video game makers a central part of the discussion. It’s a relative footnote in the White House‘s broad, multi-point plan, and Obama did not mention violence in media in his remarks Wednesday.
The White House plan did mention media, but suggested that any effort would be related to ratings systems or technology: “The entertainment and video game industries have a responsibility to give parents tools and choices about the movies and programs their children watch and the games their children play.”
The administration is calling on Congress to provide $ 10 million for the research.
The CDC has been barred by Congress to use funds to “advocate or promote gun control,” but the White House order claims that “research on gun violence is not advocacy” and that providing information to Americans on the issue is “critical public health research.”
Since 26 were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, some have called for changes in the entertainment industry, which regularly churns out first-person shooter video games, grisly primetime dramas and casually violent blockbusters.
Hollywood, in turn, has suggested willingness for self-reflection. Motion Picture Association of America chairman and CEO Christopher Dodd — a former longtime U.S. senator from Connecticut — earlier said the MPAA stands “ready to be part of the national conversation.”
After the Newtown massacre, Wayne Pierre, vice-president of the National Rifle Association, attacked the entertainment industry, calling it “a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people.” He cited a number of video games and films, most of them many years old, like the movies “American Psycho” and “Natural Born Killers,” and the video games “Mortal Kombat” and “Grand Theft Auto.”
President Obama‘s adviser, David Axelrod, had tweeted that he’s in favor of gun control, “but shouldn’t we also question marketing murder as a game?”
Others have countered that the same video games and movies are played and watched around the world, but that the tragedies of gun violence are for other reasons endemic to the U.S.
Several R-rated films released after Newton have been swept into the debate. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former California governor and action film star, recently told USA Today in discussing his new shoot-em-up film “The Last Stand”: “It’s entertainment. People know the difference.”
Quentin Tarantino, whose new film “Django Unchained” is a cartoonish, bloody spaghetti western set in the slavery-era South, has often grown testy when questioned about movie violence and real-life violence. Speaking to NPR, Tarantino said it was disrespectful to the memory of the victims to talk about movies: “I don’t think one has to do with the other.”
In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children. The decision claimed that video games, like other media, are protected by the First Amendment. In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer claimed previous studies showed the link between violence and video games, concluding “the video games in question are particularly likely to harm children.”
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the government can’t regulate depictions of violence, which he said were age-old, anyway: “Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed.”
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As mentioned, the contract is quite long. This is in contrast with the contract as described in the book, which is very terse. Its terms amounted to this:
