Hubble Takes Snapshot of Jupiter’s ‘Black Eye’

Abstract: A team of astronomers used the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope to snap a picture of Jupiter ’s new black eye on Thursday. The spot, roughly 5,000 miles long, according to the Hubble team, led by Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., was formed when a small comet or other object crashed into the giant planet on Sunday. It was discovered Sunday night by an amateur astronomer in Australia, Anthony Wesley, who sounded an alert that has had all telescope eyes turning to Jupiter. The Hubble photo marks a triumphant return to the scientific arena for the fabled telescope, which shut down last September when a computer router failed. It underwent its last orbital overhaul in May. The Hubble astronomers, who were still in the process of bringing the telescope back on line when Jupiter was smacked, interrupted their methodical procedures to get a snapshot with the new Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed during the May mission and is still not completely calibrated. Hubble scientists said they were planning to unveil the rejuvenated telescope with a barrage of new pictures and data in September. But for now the word is out. Hubble is back.

Hubble Space Telescope
Jupiter (Planet)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space
Science and Technology


At Prestigious Rhode Island School, an Investigation Into Sexual Abuse

Abstract: BOSTON — The prestigious St. George’s School in Rhode Island has been investigating what it says are “multiple credible reports” of sexual abuse of students in the 1970s and ’80s by three former employees, and said in a statement that its investigation was nearing an end. The Rhode Island State Police is also looking into the accusations. Capt. Matthew Moynihan said the school had contacted the state police in early November. He said he could not say when the police inquiry might be completed. St. George’s School, a coed boarding and day school for grades 9 to 12, began its investigation nearly a year ago, according to its statement, issued Tuesday. The statement, which was not signed, said the school had kept its alumni informed about “this important and difficult process” in letters sent in April, August and November. The investigation was prompted by a lawyer for a former student, Anne Scott, who started at St. George’s School as a 10th grader in 1977, according to a detailed account Monday by The Boston Globe. She told the newspaper that she had been sexually molested and raped by Al Gibbs, the athletic trainer, who died in 1996 at age 86, but that he had warned her not to tell anyone, and for years she did not. In her 20s, she said, she brought a $10 million lawsuit against the school. Although she dropped that case, she and her lawyer in 2012 urged the school to send letters to alumni telling them it was investigating possible sexual misconduct. That letter prompted “tens of women” to complain about Mr. Gibbs, the Globe said. Ms. Scott’s lawyer, Eric MacLeish, has recently gained notice through the film “Spotlight” about the cover-up of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests. The most recent letter to alumni, sent Nov. 2 and quoted in The Globe report, said the school had received “multiple credible reports of sexual misconduct at the school, ranging from unprofessional behaviors to outright sexual assault” by former employees. It also said there were two other suspected perpetrators who no longer live in Rhode Island, but did not identify them. The letter apologized for what happened and for the school’s failure to respond. It said the school would establish a fund for counseling costs related to the sexual abuse and would arrange victims’ support gatherings. The school’s statement issued on Tuesday concluded, “Today, as the investigation nears its end, we remain steadfast in our efforts to help our alumni address any wounds from long ago.”


Elderbloggers Stake Their Claim

Abstract: PRESCOTT LUSTIG, 84, posts to his Weblog every day or two, writing on the demise of such things as orange crates, or on more serious issues like "the conditions of aging and the challenge of living with those conditions." Mr. Lustig, a marketing consultant who lives in central Illinois and goes by Pete on his site, named his blog Late Life Crisis (spaces.msn.com/latelife). "If you want the drama of lifestyle crisis, wait until you get to late life," Mr. Lustig wrote in his blog. "That's when things really change -- and adapting becomes a challenge." He and his wife share commentaries on aging, current events and their lives. With a breadth of experience and perspective, older bloggers are staking out a place in the blogosphere -- a medium overwhelmingly dominated by the young. Perhaps more attentive to grammar and less likely to use cutesy cyberspeak, older bloggers expound on topics as varied as poetry and politics, gardening and grandmothering. According to a recent report by the Perseus Development Corporation, a research company that studies online trends, the Internet is home to approximately 54.3 million blogs, nearly 60 percent written by people younger than 19. Just 0.3 percent of blogs are run by people 50 or older, yet that's still about 160,000 bloggers. "I'm a big, big advocate of older people blogging," said Ronni Bennett, 65, author of the large and active Time Goes By (timegoesby.net). The "blogroll" on the left-hand side of her site has links to more than 100 blogs written by people 50 and older, many of them 65 and older. Ms. Bennett, a former television and radio producer who lives in New York, spoke recently on a panel called "Respect Your Elderbloggers" at South by Southwest, an annual arts festival in Austin, Tex. She said that blogging has a lot to offer older people. Blogging helps keep older minds sharp, offers a platform in which to express views and opens social networks all over the world, Ms. Bennett said. Mort Reichek, a retired journalist in Monroe Township, N.J., who writes a blog, octogenarian.blogspot.com, has gotten to know a circle of friends, a group as disparate as a Dutch farmer, a retired librarian from Ohio State University and even some conservative evangelical Christians. (Mr. Reichek's political posts are somewhat left of center.) "I'm 81 years old and this blog has opened up a whole new world to me," Mr. Reichek said. "And I'm not doing this because I'm a lonely old man. I don't lack for social interaction. I find it a fascinating hobby, and a fruitful one." In one posting, Mr. Reichek wrote about what he thought was the insanity of the Iraq war, which prompted volleys of comments from pro- and antiwar partisans. "There were 14 or 15 people using my blog to have an argument about their positions on the war," he said. Still, does all this online activity isolate people from the real world? No, says a recent report called "The Strength of Internet Ties" by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit group that studies the effects of the Web. According to the report, "The Internet is enabling people to maintain existing ties, often to strengthen them and, at times, to forge new ties. The time that most people spend online reduces the time they spend on the relatively unsocial activities of watching TV and sleeping." Blogging can have an enormous impact on the blogger himself, and perhaps nobody personifies that more than Milt Rebmann, 74, who writes Milt's Muse (milts.blogspot.com), about "existing with incurable cancer and the depression that inevitably results," as its masthead says. "It's a therapy for me," said Mr. Rebmann, who retired from the electronics business and lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho. "It's pretty much gotten me out of the depression. I'm not having so many dark thoughts about death as I used to. I can see improvement in my thinking." Mr. Rebmann also gets something by visiting some of the other bloggers who visit his site. " "It's kind of like talking over the backyard fence," he said. "Like a neighborhood." While the 65-plus age range is notoriously tech-shy, many say that the blog-hosting companies make it simple to start and maintain one. Mr. Reichek said that when he went to Blogger.com -- which is owned by Google -- the site showed him how to set up a blog in easy steps. "I'm a technophobe," he said. "But 1, 2, 3 and suddenly, I've got a blog." Linking Up in Cyberspace Here are some Web sites to help you start your own blog: WikiHow (wiki.ehow.com/Start-a-Blog) Blogger (blogger.com) BlogDrive (blogdrive.com) Live Journal (livejournal.com) TheDiary (thediary.org)

AGED
BLOGS AND BLOGGING (INTERNET)
RETIREMENT
COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET


Détente in the Hotel Bed Wars

Abstract: THE hotel "bed wars" are over. But are business travelers the winners? Most frequent travelers would probably say they are, citing the remarkable evolution of hotel beds from the no-nonsense affairs of the late 1990's -- just mattresses, sheets and bedspreads -- to the superpremium sleep "experiences" of today. Harley R. Myler, an engineering professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Tex., is not among them. When he checked into the Marriott University Park in Tucson for a recent academic conference, he decided the bed wars had gone too far. "There were several pillows and bedspreads," he said. "I didn't know what they were for. I didn't know what to do with them." He added, "I would much prefer that they offered free high-speed Internet." Marriott International, like virtually every other hotel chain, recently upgraded its bedding -- one of the final salvos in the bed wars that began in 1999 with the introduction of the Heavenly Bed by Westin Hotels and Resorts, a unit of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. The Marriott beds feature 300-thread-count sheets, a feathered mattress topper, stylish pillow shams, a decorative bed scarf and extra pillows. Perhaps the last salvo in the bed wars was fired earlier this month, when Hilton Hotels announced a $1 billion effort that included the addition of its branded Serenity Bed to many of its properties, with its signature mattress pads, down pillows, linens, decorative bed pillows and bolsters. Hilton has offered its own branded bed since 2001. Most hotel executives concede that the war is now over. That is to say, every hotel chain that believed it could benefit from upgrading its bedding has probably done so. The question now is, Have their most frequent customers also benefited? Mr. Myler does not think so. He sent a letter shortly after his stay in Tucson to that Marriott hotel's general manager, Joe Armbrust, complaining about the surplus pillows. Mr. Armbrust agreed that the pillows "seem to be overkill," but he said that customers had "expressed a desire to have the room similar to what they have at home." In other words, the guests made Marriott do it. But Mr. Myler maintains he never asked for the beds, and Westin, which started the bed wars, says its customers didn't, either. "We wanted to differentiate ourselves from the competition," said Sue A. Brush, Westin's senior vice president, who was the vice president of marketing when the Heavenly Bed was introduced. "It wasn't anything that came through in the research." Roger G. Hill II, the chief executive of the Gettys Group, an interior design company specializing in the hospitality industry, agreed that customers had not clamored for new beds, nor had they asked for some of the more frivolous amenities that many properties now offer. "I've never seen a survey where guests said, 'I want four pillows instead of two,' " he said, adding that some of the recent bedding packages were, in his opinion, "over the top." The argument that hotel guests, in general, and business travelers, in particular, demanded bigger and more luxurious beds is difficult to sustain. A much easier argument to make is that the hotel marketing departments were eager to join the bed wars, and that once they did, many of their customers approved of the changes. By the time Marriott got around to remaking its beds last year, it had ample evidence that its customers would go along with the improvements. The company's customer research confirmed that the new beds were better than the old. "We also had a chance to one-up Westin," said Michael E. Jannini, executive vice president for brand management at Marriott. "And I think we did." The bed wars, it turns out, were a sound investment for the hotel industry. Not only have guests endorsed the changes by rewarding better-bedded hotels with their business, but last year, Westin sold $10 million in bedding accessories to its customers. Hilton opened a new online store, hiltontohome.com, where guests can buy things like linens or clock radios. Hilton would not reveal its sales figures, but Bill Brooks, its vice president for product development, said the site had done better than expected. He said he thought consumers were the winners in the bed wars. Some lodging analysts say that is a commonly held belief in the hotel business. "Most travelers seem to be extremely positive about the improved quality of beds and bedding," said Bjorn Hanson, an industry analyst with PricewaterhouseCoopers. In fact, the bedding revolution has led to changes in the way people sleep at home, with guests modernizing their bedrooms after sleeping in hotel beds. Mr. Hansen knows that not all guests are pleased. "Some travelers do not like duvet-style bedding or very high or low beds." I am not one of those people. Five years ago, when Hilton introduced its new bed, I bought one (strictly for research purposes), which persuaded me that the bed wars were a positive development. But like Mr. Myler, I am concerned about the excesses of the conflict -- the unnecessary pillows and bedspreads. Business travelers may not be victims of a bed war, as he suggests, but they are also not the obvious winners. That designation belongs to the hotels with upgraded bedding, which are now finding that a room that offers a better night's sleep can also command a higher rate. SOUNDING OFF E-mail: elliottc@nytimes.com.

WESTIN HOTELS & RESORTS
HILTON HOTELS CORP
BEDS AND BEDDING
HOTELS AND MOTELS
LINEN AND LINEN SUPPLIES
TRAVEL AND VACATIONS


Armed and Determined, Civilians Look to Prevent Another Chattanooga

Abstract: MANCHESTER, N.H. — As parents shopped for baby clothes and children played arcade games at stores in an indistinct strip mall here, some 10 heavily armed civilians stood outside the military recruitment center, guarding the recruiters inside. Hundreds of miles away in Hixson, Tenn., two men sat in folding chairs, one with a .40-caliber handgun on his hip, guarding a recruiting center just miles away from the two military sites where a gunman opened fire last week, killing four Marines and a Navy petty officer at a training center. Across the country, from New Hampshire to Washington State, armed civilians could be seen standing at recruitment centers in similar fashion. The military has ordered increased security at recruiting centers and other facilities across the United States in the wake of the Chattanooga shootings, but many of the armed civilians said they had decided not to leave the issue of security to state, federal or military policy makers. Some said they would continue their watch until recruiters were armed or had their own guards. “We felt that if our government wasn’t going to protect our men and women of the military at these locations, we felt it was our duty,” said Stevie D, 48, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who stood outside an armed services recruitment center here on Tuesday with several others, including one man who carried an AR-15 style assault rifle that, he said, he had made himself. Mr. D — who has legally changed his last name to a single letter — was armed with a .556-caliber battle rifle and a .45-caliber pistol, and had ammunition strapped to his chest. Image A civilian from Norfolk, Va., had a handgun at his hip on Monday in case of trouble as he stood watch outside a storefront Armed Forces Career Center in Huntsville, Ala. Credit Eric Schultz/al.com, via Associated Press For the military, the armed civilians create a dilemma: While it is nice to be appreciated, recruiters rely on the openness and accessibility of storefronts to reach potential recruits, and the presence of armed civilians can be intimidating. “Our concern about recruiting stations being welcome and open is valid,” said Brian Lepley, a public affairs officer for Army Recruiting Command. “It’s the reason they are at malls and strip malls. It’s the reason they are in high-traffic areas and out there where people see them.” He said the Army Recruiting Command was neither encouraging nor discouraging the civilian effort. A Marine Corps Recruiting Command statement was more direct. “While we greatly appreciate the support of the American public during this tragedy, we ask that citizens do not stand guard at our recruiting offices,” it said. Police officers asked a civilian in Silverdale, Wash., to put his weapons in his car because they were scaring people, according to The Kitsap Sun . In Manchester, a police sergeant, Chris Biron, said officers had not been called to respond to any issues with the group there. “Open carry is allowed and legal in New Hampshire,” he said. On Tuesday, passers-by brought cups of coffee to support the guard, while so much food had been donated that at least one run was made to the local food pantry to drop some off. Still, the presence of the armed civilians in a strip mall with stores — Toys “R” Us and Chuck E. Cheese, to name two — that draw children and families was unsettling for some, including a child who walked by with her mother and said simply, “Scary.” Image Scott, a civilian who refused to provide his last name, was on his guard and on the move at a recruitment center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Credit Michael Ciaglo/The Gazette, via Associated Press In Hixson, Merrell Crumley, 40, a truck driver, and John Chenkus, 68, a retiree, sat between a mattress store and a rent-to-own furniture and electronics shop, across the street from a Walmart where the gunman in Chattanooga, Mohammod Abdulazeez, bought ammunition on July 11. Mr. Chenkus had a .40-caliber handgun in a hip holster. “I just felt like I needed to do something to show my respect for the servicemen that put their life on the line for us every day, but yet they’re unarmed,” he said, referring to the two sites that were attacked last week. In an interview with Fox News, Gen. Ray T. Odierno, Army chief of staff, said his branch might consider arming recruiters , subject to legal restrictions. The National Guard in several states is considering arming recruiters or providing them with guards, or has already done so. In states like Delaware and Mississippi, Guard recruiters have been moved to larger facilities. But security experts cautioned that arming recruiters might not be appropriate or effective. Soldiers trained for battle may not have the police-style training needed to provide security at a mall recruitment center. “Whether it’s a citizen or soldiers who are not trained in policing, I don’t think either of them should be in charge of providing security at these centers,” said David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security in Durham, N.C. Late Tuesday, Stewart Rhodes, the president of a national group, the Oath Keepers, called on members, who include former and current members of the military and law enforcement, to take up positions outside recruiting centers. The Oath Keepers, which is sometimes described as a citizen militia, took up armed positions on rooftops in Ferguson, Mo., after the Michael Brown killing. Mr. Rhodes said he expected the number of guards to grow. “I think you’re going to see a groundswell of volunteers,” he said.

US Military
Military Bases
Vigilante
Murders and Homicides
Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez
Hixson
Military Recruiting and Draft
Chattanooga Tennessee


Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Before President Obama left the White House on Tuesday morning to fly to an event in Albany , several aides intercepted him in the Oval Office. Within minutes it was decided: the president would endorse same-sex marriage on Wednesday, completing a wrenching personal transformation on the issue. As described by several aides, that quick decision and his subsequent announcement in a hastily scheduled network television interview were thrust on the White House by 48 hours of frenzied will-he-or-won’t-he speculation after Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. all but forced the president’s hand by embracing the idea of same-sex unions in a Sunday talk show interview. Advisers say now that Mr. Obama had intended since early this year to define his position sometime before Democrats nominate him for re-election in September. Yet many of the president’s allies believed he would not do so, trusting instead in his strong support from gay voters for having ended a ban on openly gay people in the military and disavowing a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Such caution was understandable, the allies said, given the unpredictable fallout the president would face by taking a clear stand on one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day, before what is likely to be a close election. Mr. Obama’s closest advisers say only the timing was in question. Mr. Biden’s unexpected remarks undoubtedly accelerated the timetable. Initially Mr. Obama and his aides expected that the moment would be Monday, when the president was scheduled to be on “The View,” the ABC daytime talk show, which is popular with women. Certainly, they thought, he would be asked his position on same-sex marriage by one of the show’s hosts, who include Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg . Yet the pressure had become too great to wait until then, his aides told him; on Monday, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney , was pummeled with questions from skeptical reporters about Mr. Obama’s stance. After the Tuesday morning meeting, Dan Pfeiffer , the president’s communications director, contacted ABC and offered a wide-ranging interview with the president for the following day. And so it was that Mr. Obama on Wednesday afternoon sat down in the White House with ABC’s Robin Roberts and made news, after nearly two years of saying that his views on same-sex marriage were “evolving.” “At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Mr. Obama said. Long a proponent of civil unions, Mr. Obama said his views had changed in part because of prodding by friends who are gay and by conversations with his wife and daughters. “I had hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought that civil unions would be sufficient,” Mr. Obama said. “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people, the word marriage was something that invokes very powerful traditions and religious beliefs.” Mr. Obama also invoked his Christian faith in explaining his decision. “The thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the golden rule — you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated,” he said. “And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids, and that’s what motivates me as president.” Reaction to Mr. Obama’s announcement was largely predictable — including immediate opposition from his presumptive Republican rival, Mitt Romney — yet people on both sides of the issue pointed to the historical significance of a president endorsing marriage between people of the same sex. It was a Democrat, Bill Clinton , who signed the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which the Obama administration last year decided not to enforce in the courts. While Mr. Obama’s announcement was significant from a symbolic standpoint, more important as a practical matter were Mr. Obama’s decision not to enforce the marriage act and his successful push in 2010 to repeal the “ don’t ask, don’t tell ” law that prohibited openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. For that reason, gay rights groups had been largely enthusiastic about his re-election campaign while being pragmatically resigned to his not publicly supporting same-sex marriage before the election. Mr. Obama’s announcement has little substantive impact — as an aide said, “It’s not like we’re trying to pass legislation.” But the political impact is a wild card, even Obama advisers acknowledged, and it came one day after voters in North Carolina — the site of the Democratic Party ’s nominating convention — supported a ban on same-sex marriage. But while the president has now injected a volatile social issue into the campaign debate, both sides say the election still is all but certain to turn on the economy. Public support for same-sex marriage is growing at a pace that surprises even pollsters as older generations of voters who tend to be strongly opposed are supplanted by younger ones who are just as strongly in favor. Same-sex couples are featured in some of the most popular shows on television. Yet opponents include white working-class voters, among whom Mr. Obama has long had weak support, and many African-Americans, led by influential ministers in their churches, whose support is critical to Mr. Obama in swing states like Virginia and North Carolina. Representative Barney Frank , Democrat of Massachusetts , one of the first openly gay members of Congress, said he told the White House months ago that it should not worry about the politics. “This country is moving, and what’s interesting is every time somebody does something that’s supportive of our rights, it turns out to be (a) popular and (b) not very controversial,” he said in a telephone interview. Many Americans already assumed Mr. Obama supported same-sex marriage, Mr. Frank said, adding, “Politically, it’s kind of a nonevent.” Obama strategists had rejected the idea of announcing the president’s support during a fund-raiser or at a speech to a gay rights group, because, as one Democrat close to the White House put it, that would “look like pandering.” Then last Friday, Mr. Biden taped his interview for NBC ’s “Meet the Press,” shown on Sunday morning. Afterward, Mr. Biden’s aides circulated a transcript around the West Wing, with the gay marriage remarks highlighted in yellow. A flurry of e-mails ensued about how Mr. Biden’s office should explain it once the interview was broadcast. The news media attention escalated on Monday when Mr. Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan , acknowledged in a television interview that he also supported same-sex marriage. Editorialists, columnists and bloggers criticized Mr. Obama as appearing calculating by his continued ambivalence. An administration official, who like others did not want to be named discussing internal White House deliberations, said that until this week, the one certainty was for Mr. Obama to take his stand before September to avoid a convention fight. “It’s not helpful to go down there and have a big conflagration about including this in the platform,” the official said. But several events loomed that would also force attention on the issue, leaving Mr. Obama vulnerable to continued criticism. On Thursday, Mr. Obama is to visit the Los Angeles home of the actor George Clooney for a campaign fund-raiser expected to raise about $12 million, much of it from Hollywood people active in the gay rights cause. Mr. Obama is scheduled to give the commencement address next week at Barnard College in New York City , where he will receive a medal along with Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a leading advocate for same-sex unions. Mr. Wolfson, who had written that he would “whisper in the president’s ear” to support same-sex marriage, said in an interview on Wednesday, “I’m going to shout, ‘Thank you!’ ” Also on Monday, Mr. Obama is to speak at a campaign fund-raiser for gay rights supporters. And on June 6, he is to return to Los Angeles to speak at a gala benefiting the gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Barack Obama
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
2012 Presidential Election
Homosexuality
US Politics
ABC News
Joe Biden
Mitt Romney


GTT

Abstract: Our quirky, discerning picks for the most interesting things to do around the state this week. LUBBOCK The Three Amigos The Flatlanders ’ 40th-anniversary show in Lubbock, where the trio formed, will be like Willie Nelson playing Austin or Lyle Lovett playing College Station — absolute devotion between audience and performers. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock formed the band in 1972 to purvey the first wave of Americana music, but by the end of ’73, after an unsuccessful debut album, the Flatlanders had flat-lined, and each member embarked on a solo career. The threesome reunited in 1998 and has been together on and off since, producing three more albums. Those albums are what the Flatlanders sound like now. But the 2004 CD “Live at the One Knite,” an unearthed recording of one of their Lubbock shows in 1972, resurrects the original vibe and braces you for what may be dug out of the vault on this milestone night. Cactus Theater, June 9, 7:30 p.m., theflatlanders.com HOUSTON Fusion Sounds Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, the humorist Martin Mull once said. And simply talking about music — communicating what makes this strange math likable or not — is also complicated. But the Concerto in Eight Courses, a pairing of fine food with live classical music, intends at least to get the dialogue going. This dining experiment is the collaboration of two men who are pioneers in their fields: Ryan Hildebrand, chef of the avant-garde Triniti restaurant , and Antoine Plante, conductor of Mercury, the baroque orchestra. Mr. Hildebrand’s restaurant will be reconfigured like a stadium so that the diners have a full view of the performers. “We’ll introduce each course and discuss how the pairing came to be,” Mr. Hildebrand said. Mr. Plante added, “Mainly it’s about the texture and flavor, and how they relate to the music.” Will Vivaldi’s “Concerto for Four Violins” suit the lobster laced with strawberry, corn, mustard shortbread and pickled kumquat? Will Handel’s “Concerto Grosso” evoke the rustic qualities of uova de raviolo? “These are pretty abstract when put together,” Mr. Plante said. “One of the beautiful things will be hearing everybody talk about it.” Triniti, June 10, 6 p.m., trinitirestaurant.com SAN ANGELO Hop Aboard The great troubadour Woody Guthrie romanticized hobos with his Dust Bowl folk songs, which made riding the rails a path to freedom for some. But, for most, this wanderlusty lifestyle was born of necessity. “Hobos were sort of the upper echelon of people during the Depression who were traveling across the U.S. trying to find food, shelter and work,” said David Wood of the Railway Museum of San Angelo, host of the Santa Rita Oil and Hobo Day . This event was formerly just Hobo Day, an immersion into the culture, with washer competitions, costume contests and a chuck wagon serving hobo stew. This year, tribute will also be paid to Santa Rita No. 1, the oil well that established the San Angelo area as the temporary oil capital of Texas in 1923. The railway played an important role in that, and when the boom went bust, the railway became a hangout for hobos. This timeline will be chronicled with exhibits and oral histories. “I’ve gotten e-mails from some hobos, saying they’re coming to the festival,” Mr. Wood said. Railway Museum of San Angelo, June 9, 10 a.m., railwaymuseumsanangelo.homestead.com NACOGDOCHES Little Blue Dynamos “Blueberry Fields Forever” is the theme song of the Texas Blueberry Festival . “They’re high in flavor and low in fat, no cholesterol or any of that,” sings Shelby Bond, a k a Cowboy Max, a performer at the festival. “So y’all come down and stuff your face. ’Cause we got blueberries all over the place.” Blueberries are an excellent source of vitamin C and fiber, and antioxidants thought to help stave off Alzheimer’s disease and forms of cancer. That should justify your asking for a second piece of cobbler à la mode at the Blueberry Hill Soda & Sweet Shoppe or another stack at the Blueberry Pancake Breakfast. Downtown, June 9, 8 a.m., texasblueberryfestival.com MATAGORDA Closer Look Adventures in Beachcombing & Riparian Discovery , a day of sifting through the sand-filled environs in Matagorda in the minutest detail, could yield treasures that you can’t put a price tag on. Matagorda Bay Nature Park, June 9, 8 a.m., lcra.org NEW BRAUNFELS Word Play It will be all about the lyrics when the singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell performs songs from the new album “Kin,” which he wrote with the memoirist Mary Karr, a fellow East Texan who had a hardscrabble upbringing similar to Mr. Crowell’s. Gruene Hall, June 9, 9 p.m., rodneycrowell.com

Music
Culture (Arts)
Texas
Classical Music
Folk Music
Restaurants


Court Upholds Rangers Cheerleader's Charges

Abstract: A federal judge in Manhattan yesterday denied motions to dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in 2004 by a former ice skating cheerleader for the Rangers against Madison Square Garden and two of its employees. Courtney Prince, who was the captain of the squad, said she had been fired after she told other skaters of being solicited for sex by a Rangers executive. She said in her complaint that she and the other skaters were required to be sexually alluring, encouraged to fraternize with Garden management and expected to engage in sexual conversations. Judge Robert Sweet said that Prince provided sufficient evidence of a hostile work environment and other claims. The incidents of harassment, Sweet wrote in his opinion, "are insulting, demeaning, and objectifying, and could be considered severe by a reasonable employee." In a statement, the Garden called the allegations "baseless claims that should have been dismissed" and said Sweet's ruling "makes no judgment on the merits of the case." The Garden is the subject of a second sexual harassment suit, which was filed in January by Anucha Browne Sanders, a former Knicks executive, against Isiah Thomas, the team's president. Thomas has denied Sanders's accusations that he berated her with sexually explicit language and made sexual advances.

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
NEW YORK RANGERS
PRINCE COURTNEY
CHEERLEADERS
HOCKEY ICE
SEX CRIMES
SUITS AND LITIGATION
PORNOGRAPHY AND OBSCENITY
SEXUAL HARASSMENT


FILA President Raphael Martinetti Resigns

Abstract: The president of FILA, wrestling’s world governing body, quit in the wake of the International Olympic Committee’s decision to remove the sport from the 2020 Olympics. Raphael Martinetti’s resignation was announced at the FILA executive committee meeting in Phuket, Thailand. He had been in the position since 2002.

FILA Federation Internationale des Luttes Associees


Alibaba’s Profile Is Global, but Its Fate Is Tied to China

Abstract: HONG KONG — Jack Ma has been in the global headlines lately for meeting with President Trump and for discussing world affairs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But for the company he founded, the story is still at home. Video President-elect Donald J. Trump said he had a “great meeting” with Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, on jobs. Where those jobs would come from is unclear. Credit Credit CNBC On Tuesday, Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, posted strong earnings for its third quarter and beat analysts’ estimates. The quarter, which ended in December, is an essential one for the company: Its biggest sales event of the year is in November. Nonetheless, the results showed how Alibaba — despite Mr. Ma’s global profile and its 2014 initial public offering in the United States — is still dependent on China. The results also demonstrate that while Alibaba’s global ambitions have made progress, they haven’t yet become a major driver of its results. Alibaba’s big day Of central concern to investors is the durability of Singles Day, a company-created, shopping-oriented “Hallmark holiday” that falls on Nov. 11 each year. While sales growth from that event has steadily slowed, leading the company to pump up entertainment around it, the holiday nonetheless drove earnings growth. In the quarter ending in December, Alibaba said revenue grew 54 percent, compared with the period a year earlier, to $7.7 billion. Net profit rose 38 percent, to nearly $2.5 billion. Jack Ma: Davos man At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Mr. Ma warned of the dangers of a trade war between the United States and China. With Mr. Trump, he asserted that his company would help create a million jobs in America. (Significantly, details were scant.) His international appearances underscore a tough truth for Chinese internet companies: While they are often held up domestically as beacons of innovation, they have long struggled to build a market abroad . Alibaba has been trying to break that blockage, yet it has mostly focused on recruiting foreign brands to sell on its sites to Chinese consumers. In its third quarter, only 7 percent of its revenue came from commerce outside China. Digital expansion is easier One important way that Alibaba is looking to build its foreign businesses is by offering computing services to companies, much like Amazon does with Amazon Web Services. To that end, Alibaba has built new data centers around the world. Analysts are also bullish on the company’s cloud revenue, which in its third quarter more than doubled, to $254 million. A proxy for China Investors have often looked to Alibaba to see how the broader Chinese economy is doing . Alibaba has repeatedly argued that it should outperform the economy because online buyers have grown more quickly than total consumption. As that customer growth has slowed, Alibaba has worked to make more money from users, especially those using mobile phones. To that end, the company said the jump in revenue came from an increase in how much its online vendors spent per consumer as well as an increase in clicks because of improved targeting to customers.

Alibaba
Jack Ma
Earnings Reports
China
Economy
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Davos World Economic Forum


A Reprieve for California Shelters

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — In a reversal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a stopgap bill on Wednesday to restore financing to the California’s shelters for victims of domestic violence. Mr. Schwarzenegger eliminated money for the shelters in late July with a line-item veto as the state struggled to close the remainder of a $24 billion budget hole. The veto stripped the 94 nonprofit groups that run the state’s shelters of about $200,000, causing most to curtail services and a few to close altogether. Mr. Schwarzenegger said he had never wanted to cut domestic violence programs but was forced to by the Legislature’s inability to give him a fully balanced budget. On Wednesday, however, his message was more positive, praising the stopgap bill as a “creative solution to keep these shelters open,” adding that the state needed to find permanent funding solution for the programs. The bill he signed is not a permanent fix but rather a loan, diverting $16.3 million from an alternative fuel and technology fund to the state general fund. That money must be repaid by June 2013. It also places administration of the domestic violence program with the state’s emergency management agency instead of the Department of Public Health, which had overseen financing of such programs since their inception in 1994. Camille Hayes, a spokeswoman for the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence , which lobbies on behalf the state’s shelters, said the bill was “positive news in the sense that it’s a step in the right direction.” But she cautioned that the money might not be available in time to prevent further closings or to potentially reopen shelters which have closed. She also said new legislation would need to be written to ensure domestic violence financing continues past this fiscal year. “This is only a one-year fix,” Ms. Hayes said. “And this is a pretty big ship we’re asking to turn.” In the face of the cuts, many shelters across the state had already cut services, including reducing the number of beds, eliminating legal counseling, and laying off staff members. State Senator Leland Yee, a San Francisco Democrat who had fought for the restoration of funding, added to the chorus of bittersweet praise, saying in a statement that while he was pleased Mr. Schwarzenegger had signed the bill, “I am still dismayed that he would put women and children at risk in the first place.”

Budgets and Budgeting
California
Domestic Violence
Schwarzenegger Arnold


How the Bombardier Beetle’s Bomb Goes Off

Abstract: The bombardier beetle is famous for producing a hot, lethal toxin expelled forcefully through a channel near its abdomen. Now, using a technique known as synchrotron X-ray imaging, researchers have witnessed exactly what happens inside the beetle’s body when the explosion occurs. “The beetle has a really complicated explosion system that’s all connected together,” said Christine Ortiz, a materials scientist at M.I.T. and an author of the new report, which appeared in the journal Science. The beetle has two chambered glands in which the explosive chemicals are produced. When a predator approaches or the beetle becomes alarmed, a valve opens and a single drop of the chemical falls from one chamber into the second, where it combines with a catalyst and sets off an explosion . Bombardier Beetle Blasts Credit Credit Video by Bob Demers/UANews A flexible membrane closes off the valve while the spray is being released. After the explosion, the valve reopens so another drop of the toxin can enter the explosion chamber. The mechanism creates a pulsed spray of toxin, rather than a steady stream, which allows the explosion chamber to cool down between pulses, Dr. Ortiz said. “It can be much hotter than a stream, and it can go much faster because it’s a smaller amount of material,” she said. Dr. Ortiz and her colleagues are studying the beetle and other species to develop military armor inspired by biology. They have already developed a flexible protective material based on an armored fish.

Beetles
Science Journal
US Military
HazMat
Christine Ortiz


Australia Leader Proposes Refugee Hub in East Timor

Abstract: SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Julia Gillard unveiled her strategy for tackling one of the country’s most divisive issues on Tuesday with a sweeping plan to establish a regional center for processing boat people aiming for refuge in Australia . In her first policy speech as prime minister, Ms. Gillard announced plans to create a regional hub for processing refugees on the island nation of East Timor as a means of deterring thousands of mainly Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers from paying criminal syndicates for passage to Australia in the hope of gaining residency. “A regional processing center removes the incentive, once and for all, for the people smugglers to send boats to Australia,” Ms. Gillard told the Lowy Institute for International Policy here. “Why risk a dangerous journey if you will simply be returned to the regional processing center?” She gave few details, but said she had discussed her proposal with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and leaders of East Timor and New Zealand. East Timor’s deputy prime minister, José Luís Guterres, said on an Australian radio broadcast that his government was considering the request and would make a decision in the coming weeks. But he expressed some concern that the impoverished country already had “many issues” to resolve without the extra burden of a regional refugee camp. Refugee advocates were also cautiously supportive of the idea, provided that it had the support of the United Nations and that it was carried out humanely. The United Nations refugee agency, which has criticized Australia’s asylum policies in the past, said it was too early to comment on Ms. Gillard’s proposal. Although boat arrivals account for just 1.5 percent of Australia’s 190,000 new immigrants each year, the issue has long been a contentious one, stirring Australians’ anxieties over immigration . For most of the past decade, Australia has had one of the toughest asylum programs in the developed world, placing “irregular maritime arrivals” in isolated detention centers, surrounded by electrified razor-wire fences while their claims are assessed. With boat arrivals now at five-year highs, many of those centers are operating beyond capacity, and the issue has regained political prominence. The conservative opposition Liberal Party has argued repeatedly that the government has made Australia more attractive to boat people by unwinding many of the policies enacted by John Howard when he was prime minister. Those policies include denying asylum seekers permanent residency and the right to be reunited with family members, as well as charging refugees for the cost of their detention.


A Retailer’s Bet on Tony Bennett

Abstract: ON his new holiday album, Tony Bennett does not sing the song from “Mame” called “We Need a Little Christmas.” But retailers, confronting what may be the most challenging holiday season in years, are sponsoring a sleigh full of promotions — even one featuring Mr. Bennett — meant to convince consumers they still need to do a little — nay, a lot — of Christmas shopping. Many retail campaigns will start appearing on Saturday; the day after Halloween has become the traditional start of the crucial holiday shopping season. But the timing could hardly be worse, coming amid the financial crisis and the turmoil on Wall Street — and two days after the release of dismal economic data showing that consumer spending dropped for the first time since 1991, a severe recession year.  “Nobody is going to say the fourth quarter won’t be tough,” said Jack Hruska, executive vice president for creative services at the Bloomingdale’s division of Macy’s Inc. Still, “we didn’t pull back,” he added, because that would be “foolish.” “People want to feel good about the holidays and what the holidays mean,” Mr. Hruska said, “sharing time with family and friends.” And “shopping can take your mind off the uncertainty we have to live with every minute of the day,” he added. “Even if you don’t buy anything, you can always wander around and do something free at Bloomingdale’s.” Bloomingdale’s is making Mr. Bennett the centerpiece of an elaborate holiday promotion with the theme “Oh what fun.” The campaign extends a fall promotion focused on music with elements that include selling in stores and online special versions of the new Bennett album, “A Swingin’ Christmas Featuring the Count Basie Big Band,” that contain a bonus track, “Jingle Bells.” Mr. Bennett has been asked to perform when the holiday windows are introduced at the Lexington Avenue store on Nov. 20, and an organization named Musicians On Call will get help raising money to bring recorded and live music to hospital patients. The campaign features Mr. Bennett’s work as an artist as well as a singer. His painting of Santa Claus and a Maltese — modeled after his own dog — riding in a taxicab past the windows will be featured on the Bloomingdale’s holiday shopping bags. “One thing about the holidays: No matter what happens, the holidays soften everybody,” Mr. Bennett said in a telephone interview from Dallas, where he performed two concerts this week. The campaign comes two years after Mr. Bennett promoted an album, “Duets,” with two retailers, Target and Starbucks. As a native New Yorker, Mr. Bennett said, he has a fondness for Bloomingdale’s, explaining: “My mom was adamant about not buying anything. Except if it was from Bloomingdale’s, it was O.K.” Mr. Bennett’s son, Danny, who is his longtime manager, was asked about his father’s appearance in a campaign for a big retailer at this fraught time for the national economy. “If you look at history, during the Great Depression , entertainment became the escape for everybody,” Danny Bennett replied, adding: “For $10, you can buy a CD you can have forever. In a time where there’s belt-tightening, music is an excellent value and makes an emotional connection.” According to Mr. Hruska, Bloomingdale’s is not changing any aspects of the campaign because of the recent economic downturn. That includes having the Infiniti luxury division of the Nissan Motor Company sponsor the introduction of the holiday windows and selling, through the 725,000 copies of the Bloomingdale’s holiday catalog, a “premier edition” of the 2009 Infiniti G convertible. “The luxury market has been impacted like the rest of the car market” by the economy, said Ben Poore, vice president for marketing at Infiniti. But “there’s still great demand for product like this that’s unique, that’s exclusive,” he added, referring to a plan to limit to 200 the number of Infinitis to be sold through Bloomingdale’s starting Nov. 10. By comparison, another coming holiday campaign, for an organization known as the Alliance for Downtown New York, has been modified since the financial crisis intensified in mid-September. The organization manages the Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District. “We’ve tweaked the message to reflect consumer uncertainty and anxiety,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, president of the alliance, by “emphasizing value and affordable luxury” at the stores in Lower Manhattan in the campaign. “To the extent people are buying presents,” she added, “we want them to buy them down here.”  A goal of the campaign, scheduled to start in mid-November, is to counter some of the negative publicity generated by the financial crisis. “The national media keep conflating what happens with financial services, ‘Wall Street,’ with Wall Street,” Ms. Berger said. “There isn’t a story that doesn’t show our sign,” she added, referring to the street signs the organization furnishes that appear in high-profile locations like outside the New York Stock Exchange. The campaign, with a budget estimated at $300,000, is being created internally at the organization and by Farago Design in New York. It carries themes like “Downtown: Your season ticket to the holidays” and promotes restaurants and attractions, in addition to stores. The idea is to attract residents of the New York area considering thrifty holiday “staycations,” Ms. Berger said, as well as tourists. The campaign consists of brochures, ads in newspapers and magazines, posters, billboards, e-mail newsletters and a section of the organization’s Web site ( downtownny.com/shop ). The media plan was expanded after the financial crisis grew, she added, to include a presence in PATH train cars and on station platforms. An additional $40,000 will be spent to generate interest in Lower Manhattan among retailers and the real estate brokers who find the spaces they lease or buy for stores. As part of that effort, the downtown alliance will be represented at an annual conference sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers, to be held at the New York Hilton on Dec. 8-10.

Retail Stores and Trade
Christmas
Sales
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Bennett Tony
Advertising and Marketing


Uganda: Inquiry Into Ivory Theft Opens

Abstract: Uganda said Tuesday that it was investigating the theft of almost 3,000 pounds of ivory from the vaults of its state-run wildlife protection agency and had suspended five staff members. Raymond Engena, acting executive director of the state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority, said three of the suspended staff members had kept keys to the vaults where the ivory vanished about two weeks ago. The remaining two were security guards. Seizures of contraband ivory have increased in Uganda in recent years. Poaching is most acute in central Africa, which experts say has lost at least 60 percent of its elephants in the past decade.


Canada and Europe Reach Tentative Trade Agreement

Abstract: OTTAWA — Canada and the European Union tentatively agreed to a sweeping trade agreement on Friday. But while billed as a free-trade pact, the limited information released about its terms suggests that the details of any final deal may focus on adjusting import-export quotas and fine-tuning regulations as much as the easing of tariffs. Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of a trade pact with Europe. Despite that, the negotiations, which began in 2009 and largely took place out of public view, provoked relatively little notice in Canada. Dairy farmers, who enjoy tight controls on imports, have been critical, as have some groups fearing the pact may increase the cost of drugs. Most of the political controversy in Canada focused on Mr. Harper’s presenting a legislative agenda for a new session of Parliament on Wednesday and then leaving for Brussels the next day, before he could be questioned. An agreement on the trade deal had not been expected this week and opposition politicians charged that Mr. Harper had announced the pact on Friday to deflect attention from an expenses scandal involving some of his Conservative appointees. “This is the biggest deal our country has ever made,” Mr. Harper said in Brussels on Friday, calling it a “historic win for Canada.” Announcing the deal, Mr. Harper and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Union, said they hoped it would be in effect by 2015. Once a final text of the agreement is completed and signed, it would require ratification by the European Parliament, all of the European Union’s 28 member states and every Canadian province and territory. Any Canadian pact with Europe will pale in economic terms with the 1988 trade deal between Canada and the United States, which was folded into the North American Free Trade Agreement. According to the Canadian government, the United States accounted for 69.5 percent of its international trade in 2011, when Canada had exports of $532.4 billion, while Europe accounted for only 10.4 percent. The European Commission estimates that Canada accounts for about 1.8 percent of its external trade. Once the agreement is put into effect, the European Commission expects trade between Canada and the European Union to increase nearly 23 percent, or 25.7 billion euros ($35 billion). “Businesses in both Europe and Canada will be delighted to see new market opportunities open up at a time when global economic performance remains sluggish,” said Markus J. Beyrer, the director general of Business Europe, an industry lobby group in Brussels. “We look forward to seeing the technical aspects of the agreement concluded quickly.” While in Canada, the talks have not been prominent, the business community has generally been supportive. As a result of the pact, Canada said that 98 percent of European tariffs on Canadian goods would be lifted, though neither Canada nor Europe offered a similar statistic for Canadian tariffs. Some tariffs are more significant than others. Several sectors of Canada’s agricultural industry — dairy, poultry, eggs and pork — are protected by tariffs as high as 300 percent, as well as by import quotas. Groups representing dairy farmers and cheese makers in Canada said they had been told that while the tariffs would remain, Europe would be allowed to export about 33,000 tons of cheese a year to Canada duty-free, an increase from about 14,000 tons. Europe has long wanted Canada to match its longer patent protection for pharmaceutical drugs. It appears that Canada has agreed to extend patents by two years for drugs that are subject to lengthy reviews. Canadian provinces, which deliver health care under Canada’s public system, have demanded compensation for any increased drug costs. But, as with everything else about the agreement, the details regarding drug patents remained fuzzy. Stuart Trew, a trade researcher for the Council of Canadians, a nationalist group, said that secrecy surrounding the deal’s specifics made it difficult to assess its impact. “There’s been a wall of confidentiality that has stopped any serious discussion,” Mr. Trew said. While the negotiations have had an even lower profile in Europe than Canada, the tentative deal received similar praise from businesses and some politicians there. David Cameron, the British prime minister, said the deal would inject £1.3 billion, or about $2.1 billion, into Britain’s economy, increase exports to Canada by about a third, create thousands of jobs, and give a fillip to the negotiations for a deal between the Europe and the United States. “We must now seize on today’s success,” Mr. Cameron said, “and focus our efforts on concluding all the other trade deals on the table.”

Canada
EU
International trade
Stephen J Harper
Europe


The Week’s Men’s College Basketball Games to Watch

Abstract: 20 MEMPHIS at 15 CINCINNATI Thursday, 7 p.m., ESPN With the A.A.C. so crowded at the top, anything is possible in this final stretch. Memphis rebounded from a bad loss at Houston on Thursday by completing a sweep of the season series against Louisville. The struggling Bearcats were handed their third loss in five games when they fell to UConn, 51-45, on Saturday. 25 KENTUCKY at 1 FLORIDA Saturday, Noon, CBS Kentucky Coach John Calipari was ejected from Saturday’s 72-67 loss to South Carolina as the Wildcats dropped consecutive games for the first time this season. Kentucky (22-8, 12-5 Southeastern Conference) is far from playing its best basketball of the season and had to rally in the second half to beat Alabama, 55-48, on Tuesday. Florida (28-2, 17-0), which routed South Carolina on Tuesday, 72-46, extended its team-record winning streak to 22 games. 14 NORTH CAROLINA at 4 DUKE Saturday, 9 p.m., ESPN The Tar Heels (23-7, 13-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) have won 12 straight after hanging on to beat Notre Dame, 63-61, on Monday, and now can focus on their showdown against the Blue Devils (23-7, 12-5) to end the regular season. Duke, which was upset by Wake Forest, 82-72, on Wednesday, has the longest home winning streak in the nation, at 32 games. 21 NEW MEXICO at 10 SAN DIEGO STATE Saturday, 10:05 p.m., CBS Sports Network New Mexico has some work to do to win its third straight Mountain West Conference regular-season title. The Lobos, who beat Nevada, 72-58, on Sunday, host Air Force on Wednesday before finishing the regular season at San Diego State. The Aztecs (25-3, 14-2), who beat Fresno State, 82-67, on Saturday, play Wednesday at U.N.L.V. The Lobos (23-5, 14-2) beat the Aztecs, 58-44, on Feb. 22 and could sweep the season series on Saturday.

College basketball
TV
UNC
Duke
University of Kentucky
University of Florida


Transgender on the Force

Abstract: After years of focused preparation, Aiden Budd was well on his way to fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming an officer in the New York Police Department. He had served in the United States Army and had worked for years as an agent in the department’s School Safety division. He studied for the exam to be promoted and he passed. He was set to start at the Police Academy on July 7, 2015. But first, there was something else he felt he had to accomplish. When he became a recruit, he wanted to be recognized officially as Aiden Budd, male police officer — settling, at least legally, a question of identity he had struggled with since he was a child. He had grown up as a girl in the Wakefield neighborhood in the Bronx, the oldest of three children in a West Indian family. He could tell early on that something did not feel right. It went beyond being a tomboy, the one student in his all-girls Catholic high school who refused to wear a skirt, even though it meant detention almost every day. Even after he came out to his family as a lesbian in high school, he felt an overwhelming discontent that continued into adulthood, poisoning his personal relationships. “I couldn’t find happiness with myself,” Officer Budd, now 33, said. “There was something missing.” He had to come out again. He was transgender, and about a year before he started at the academy, a time of exams and interviews and extensive digging into his background, he began his transition to physically becoming a man. “I’ll put it like this,” he said. “It was a rebirth.” He knew his decision had the potential to jeopardize his relationship with his family, one that had been strained since he came out the first time. And as he followed his uncle, a father figure, into law enforcement, Officer Budd feared that his identity would keep him from being accepted into the fraternity of police officers. “I didn’t want to be judged before they got to know me as a person,” he said. “I didn’t want to be a science project.” Still, he pushed ahead. These days, the New York Police Department embraces “Out and Proud” as a motto. Officials boast of the hundreds of gay officers who help make up the department’s ranks. And inside Police Headquarters, on the monitors that serve as electronic bulletin boards with fliers for retirement parties and charity golf tournaments, among the rotating messages is one reminding officers of their rights to use the bathroom or locker room aligning with their gender identity. The public support by police officials in New York has come at a time when the nation is grappling with transgender issues — when lawmakers in some states have pursued so-called “bathroom bills” limiting restroom access for transgender people, but also when such legislation has met with fierce resistance. In June, the United States military lifted its ban on enlisting transgender people; the secretary of defense, Ashton B. Carter, called the move the “right thing to do.” In New York, activists said the progress had not erased the Police Department’s turbulent history with gay people, where tensions remain today. But police leaders described their institution as one that, with each new class of recruits, has increasingly reflected the city’s diversity. And it has made strides, they added, not only in hiring a more diverse group of officers but also in welcoming them into the fold. “We look at the individual for who they are,” said Deputy Inspector Joseph Simonetti, the commanding officer of the Sixth Precinct, which covers Greenwich Village. “We’re all cops,” he said. “We’re all police officers.” But officers coming to terms with their gender identity said they faced a dilemma. Those who delay making the transition while on the force face the corrosive toll of living what feels like a fraudulent life; those who do make it risk being rejected from the tight-knit fellowship of law enforcement that was also central to their identity. Denise Dragos, who had been a detective in the Police Department investigating computer crimes, put off transitioning to female from male until after she retired two years ago. She worried how colleagues would react. “It was going to be difficult,” Ms. Dragos, 43, said. “Things are changing in leaps and bounds over the last several years, but even four or five years ago, it didn’t seem in the scope of possibility.” Now, after she wore a No. 2 buzz cut for two decades, her hair reaches to her shoulders. A judge signed off on her name change in June. And she came out last year to a group of her former colleagues, though not in a way she had anticipated. Ms. Dragos had maintained dual lives on social media. On Facebook, she kept her old “boy” page, as she called it, and one for her new life as a woman. Then, she said, her “girl” page showed up on the list of suggested friends of a police colleague, who took a screen shot and posted it in a group message, noting a resemblance. Image Denise Dragos was a detective who waited until she retired from the Police Department before she began her transition two years ago. “Things are changing in leaps and bounds over the last several years, but even four or five years ago, it didn’t seem in the scope of possibility,” she said. Credit Alex Wroblewski/The New York Times Some thought it was a joke. One person asked if Ms. Dragos was “pulling a Bruce Jenner,” a reference to the decathlete who in 2015 became Caitlyn Jenner. Ms. Dragos was traveling and received a text message from someone in the thread, asking if she had seen it. She recalled feeling a range of emotions: anger, fear, nervousness. But also relief. She decided she had to tell them. “So … Yes, that’s me,” she wrote in a group message. “I have known this about myself for many years now, and kept it hidden deep down inside. I am now at a point in my life where I have thought about all of my options. I’m going forward and have decided to take the step so you know this isn’t a decision that was made overnight. “I’m happy, and that’s what it is.” The initial surprise and confusion gave way to support. People who had made the earlier remarks apologized. Others encouraged her. And then, the conversation in the thread turned to baseball. She came out to other friends and acquaintances this summer, changing her name on social media to Denise and posting a picture of herself from a pride event. “That was a very stressful experience, coming out that way,” Ms. Dragos said. “But it turned around and was one of the best things that happened for me.” Tcops International, or the Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs, started in the late 1990s as a support group for a small network of officers to share their experiences online. For many of them, fears about coming out or transitioning were rooted in a harsh reality. Among its members from around the United States, there are stories of co-workers responding awkwardly or with outright hostility. Transgender officers have said they have been referred to by the wrong gender or the wrong pronouns. They have lost their jobs or have seen careers that once seemed to be on an upward trajectory suddenly change course, their reputations appearing to vanish along with their old identities. And access to bathrooms and locker rooms has been a recurring issue. But some have expressed optimism, believing that a broader cultural shift in the acceptance of transgender people was finding its way into policing. “Officers hired in the past five to 10 years have a better understanding of who we are,” said Julie Callahan, a founder of Tcops International, who retired after 30 years as a police officer in San Jose, Calif. “More and more people will understand that we’re not villains,” she said, noting that the exposure many veteran officers had to transgender people was limited to interactions on the job, negatively shading their impressions. “They see sex workers, they see drug abusers, they see people stealing to support their habit or to survive,” she added. “They translate their experiences with those people to all transgender people.” Officer Brooke Bukowski of the New York Police Department got her start in what police officers call an “A-House,” one of the precincts in New York where crime and violence persists, the kind of place where young officers can earn their stripes. After the academy, she was assigned to the 75th Precinct, which covers the East New York section of Brooklyn and has consistently had one of the highest murder rates in the city. Officer Bukowski, a United States Coast Guard veteran who was raised in rural Illinois, had started taking a low dose of hormones to transition before she joined the Police Department five years ago. She stopped when she entered the academy. But once she graduated, she resumed taking the hormones. When she moved to the 70th Precinct, in Flatbush, her transition became more apparent. Her hair grew longer, and her body changed. While she was on patrol, people on the street would refer to her as Miss, and she remembered overhearing two men in custody discussing her. “They literally start arguing over what gender I am,” she said. She reached a point where she was “male failing,” as she put it, a term in the transgender community meaning one could no longer pass as male. And after speaking with her superiors, she addressed roll call, explaining her transition. “Listen guys, I still have the same work ethic,” Officer Bukowski, 33, recalled telling them. “I’m still going to back you up. It’s just a few physical changes here and there.” Her colleagues have mostly been supportive and encouraging. But there have been obstacles, mostly bureaucratic encounters within the department. For instance, she had a hard time getting a new identification card. She was told she was not due for one yet, though her appearance had drastically changed. (She eventually got a new card.) And around the time that Ms. Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, Officer Bukowski was working on a detail with an older officer who made disparaging remarks about transgender people, unaware that Officer Bukowski was herself transgender. She opted to quietly finish the shift without saying anything. “I had an hour left with the guy,” she said. Because of her experiences, Officer Bukowski felt a pull to be open in the department and to help train other officers, even if it went against a competing urge to keep quiet, working as a woman and going home to her boyfriend. “You go through a lot all your life, so when you finally get there and you’re lucky enough to pass,” she said, a large part of her wanted just to embrace it. Image Brooke Bukowski finished her transition after she graduated from the Police Academy. When she could no longer pass as male, she explained it to fellow officers at roll call. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times “They just see me as any other female,” she said. For most of the past three years, Officer Bukowski has helped to train recruits at the Police Academy on transgender issues, replacing the video that had been shown when she was there. She is now assigned to the Sixth Precinct, and Inspector Simonetti praised the energy she has brought to her work, and her instincts as an officer. He added that the department also benefited by having officers with life experiences like hers, who can establish a dialogue with a group of New Yorkers who have viewed the police with suspicion. “It opens up avenues or lines of communication that in years past may not have been there,” he said. Still, in a department with 36,000 uniformed police officers, Officer Bukowski is part of subset that is virtually microscopic. She said she had met a few other transgender officers; only one of them is out. “As far as the open community,” Officer Bukowski said, “it’s Aiden and I, as far as we know.” Aiden chose his name because it did not strike him as overly masculine. He figured it would help soften the impact for his family. As the academy approached, Officer Budd said he was in a mad dash — changing his name and gender on official records and almost everywhere else that had his former identity on file. He pulled it off: On July 7, he was Aiden Budd, male recruit. He fit in well and became the company sergeant, a position of leadership among fellow recruits. “They took to him pretty quick,” said Officer Ayesha Marty, an instructor in the academy. “They respected him.” But in his push to transition, he made an ambitious move: Two weeks in, he scheduled his “top surgery,” a procedure in which breasts are removed and the chest is recontoured. He told fellow recruits he needed to have a growth removed. After he returned, he pulled his company aside and told them he was transgender. “I thought it was important for them to know that part of myself,” he said. They responded positively and without much of a fuss, he said. Officer Budd has an easygoing manner with a broad smile. He looks young for 33, so much so that fellow officers have given him the nickname “Benjamin Button,” after the character who ages in reverse. His fiancée, Idalia Sumpter, said he was genuine and had a self-assurance that made people feel comfortable around him. But Officer Budd’s transition has been transformative in more ways than physical, Ms. Sumpter said. He wasn’t always so confident. “He has come a long, long way,” she said, laughing. His struggles with identity had been a source of pain and confusion. As a teenager, he was outed as a lesbian when his mother found notes from a high school crush. After high school, he enlisted in the Army as a woman, but that was in the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a policy that allowed gay and lesbian soldiers to serve, but not openly, and he said he was discharged after almost a year because of his sexual orientation. (After the policy was rescinded, he re-enlisted as a reservist, still as a woman.) “I remember asking God a couple of times as a child why I wasn’t born a boy,” Officer Budd said. “If he knew how I felt, why didn’t he just make it happen that way, to avoid all these issues with me liking women and me wanting to be in men’s apparel and doing boy things?” “I never really got that answer as a kid,” he continued. “I kept those feelings to myself.” His transition has not been without hurdles. Some family members had a hard time. His sister, with whom he is very close, looked at it at first as if she were losing a sister. His uncle, whom Officer Budd considers his role model, did not attend his graduation. But that unsettled feeling that had rankled for most of his life has faded. He has been surprised by the people who stuck by him, including his great-grandmother. He and Ms. Sumpter, who met while working as school safety agents, plan to marry next year. On Dec. 29, 2015, he graduated from the academy, accomplishing that lifelong goal. He aspires to someday make detective. And in July, he said, he went on his first training exercise as an Army reservist since his transition, staying in the male barracks without issue. Even as more women have joined the police force, many officers still talk of their profession as a brotherhood, and it is one that Officer Budd wants to be part of. Anxieties over acceptance still linger as more of his colleagues learn of his background. “I think I’m only worried about not being man enough,” he said. “Once somebody finds out the truth, they may think, like, ‘Oh, this guy’s not really man enough — what does he know about being a man?’” He added that he was learning that “a lot of it is my own fear.” Since his graduation from the academy, Officer Budd has been assigned to the 20th Precinct in Manhattan, spending most of his time on the streets of the Upper West Side. One officer heard a rumor that he was transgender and gently asked about it. Officer Budd was certain others knew as well. But as he starts his career, his focus has been on building a good reputation, earning the trust of other officers. “Like any other rookie, you want the guys to know you as a good cop,” he said. “Nothing else.”

Police
Transgender,Gender Dysphoria
NYPD
NYC


In Many Species, a Family Dinner Means Something Else

Abstract: Humans are sometimes said to occupy a “pecking order,” but of course the term actually refers to chickens and other poultry. Mild pecking is normal behavior in the flock, employed by dominant birds (or “despots”) as a way to remind subordinates of their lower social position. But the practice can turn gruesome when thousands of birds are packed wing to wing. Then, some bottom-of-the-order birds are pecked to death — and eaten. As poultry and egg farms increased in size in the 1920s and 1930s, feather-pecking and cannibalism, known in the trade as “pick out,” became serious threats. In 1939, Joseph Haas, founder of the National Band and Tag Company, devised a fashionable method to deal with cooped-up cannibals: mini sunglasses equipped with red celluloid lenses on a hinged aluminum frame. Poultry farmers were informed that having their chickens see the world through rose-tinted cheaters would “make a sissy of your toughest birds.” Until relatively recently, the party line among scientists was that cannibalism occurred in only a few species in the wild, like black widow spiders and praying mantises. Cannibalism, researchers felt, was an aberrant behavior resulting from a lack of alternative forms of nutrition or the stresses associated with captive conditions. But over the decades, evidence has been gathering for an alternative view. Cannibalism, it turns out, occurs in hundreds of species, perhaps thousands. The behavior varies in frequency between major animal groups — nonexistent in some, common in others. It varies from species to species and even within the same species, depending on local environmental conditions. As important, the behavior serves a variety of functions, depending on the cannibal, and some of these have nothing to do with stress or captive conditions. There are even instances in which an individual being cannibalized receives a benefit. Before his death in a boating accident in 2000, Gary Polis, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis, came up with a list of cannibalism-related rules for invertebrates. Immature animals are consumed more often than adults, he found, and many species do not recognize individuals of their own kind (especially eggs and immature stages) as anything other than food. He noted that cannibalism was more common in females than in males, and that as alternative forms of nutrition decrease in availability, incidents of cannibalism will increase. Lastly, in a given population, cannibalism is often directly related to the degree of overcrowding. Image A black lace-weaver spider sacrificing herself to feed her young. Credit Premaphotos Wildlife/Minden PIctures By the 1990s, Dr. Polis’s generalizations had been observed among widely divergent animal groups, not just invertebrates. The benefits of consuming one’s own kind, it seemed, can outweigh the costs. That price, though, can be substantial. Cannibals that consume their own relatives remove those genes from the population, reducing what scientists call their inclusive fitness. But the most significant drawback appears to be a greater chance of acquiring harmful, species-specific parasites or pathogens. In the most famous example, the Fore people of New Guinea were nearly driven to extinction as a result of their ritualized consumption of brains and other tissues cut from the bodies of deceased kin. Many had died of kuru, a neurodegenerative condition similar to mad cow disease, and their tissues contained the pathogen, spreading it even further. The Kids Menu As a new generation of researchers builds upon the work of scientists like Dr. Polis and Laurel Fox, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, cannibalism in nature has begun to seem almost normal. We now know that a significant amount of cannibalism occurs in mollusks, insects and arachnids. Additionally, thousands of aquatic invertebrates like clams and corals have tiny eggs and larvae that are often a major food source for the filter-feeding adults — itself a form of indiscriminate cannibalism. In many fish species, adults can be a million times as large as their own eggs. Fish eggs, larvae and fry are vast in number, minute in size and high in nutritional value. This makes them a nonthreatening and easily collected food source. It is also why ichthyologists consider the absence of cannibalism in fishes, rather than its presence, to be the exceptional case. Although both fertilized and unfertilized eggs are probably eaten by thousands of species, the practice of consuming eggs from the same species has led to an interesting take on the “kids meal.” So-called trophic eggs, produced by some types of spiders, lady beetles and snails, function solely as food and often greatly outnumber the fertilized eggs in a given clutch. Image A snowy owl chick swallowing its sibling in Finland. Credit Markus Varesvuo/Minden Pictures But the black lace-weaver spider (Amaurobius ferox) takes the concept of prepackaged meals a step further. One day after spiderlings hatch, new mothers lay a clutch of trophic eggs, which are doled out to their hungry babies. This keeps them satisfied for the next three days, after which the spiderlings are ready for their next stage of development. After their first molt, black lace-weaver spiderlings are too large for their mother to care for, though they are in dire need of additional food. In a sacrificial act of parenting, she calls the babies to her by drumming on the web and presses her body down into the gathering crowd. The ravenous spiderlings swarm over their mother’s body. Then they eat her alive. In sand tiger sharks (Carcharias taurus), the babies doing the cannibalizing are not even born yet. The young of sand tigers, like hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena) and blue sharks (Prionace glauca), develop inside the females’ oviducts, a developmental strategy known as histotrophic viviparity. Scientists who first looked at late-term sand tiger embryos in 1948 noticed that these specimens were anatomically well developed, with mouths full of sharp teeth — a point (or several) driven home when one researcher was bitten on the hand while probing the oviduct of a pregnant specimen. Strangely, these late-term embryos also had swollen bellies, which were initially thought to be yolk sacs, a form of stored food. This was puzzling, since most of the nutrient-rich yolk should have been used up by this late stage of development. Further investigation showed that the abdominal bumps were not yolk sacs at all — they were stomachs full of smaller fetal sharks. These embryos had fallen victim to the ultimate in sibling rivalry, a form of in utero cannibalism known as adelphophagy (from the ancient Greek for “brother eating”) — sibling cannibalism. Such behavior is possible because sand tiger shark oviducts contain embryos at different developmental stages (a characteristic that also evolved in birds). Once the largest of the embryos run through their own yolk supply, they begin consuming eggs. Image A lion devouring a cub that may have been the offspring of a rival. Credit Barcroft Media, via Getty Images And when the eggs are gone, the ravenous fetal sharks begin consuming their smaller siblings. Ultimately, only two pups remain, one in each oviduct. This is similar to the “lifeboat strategy” seen in birds like vultures and egrets. Here cannibalism is often the end result of asynchronous hatching: two eggs are laid, but one hatches several days before the other. The firstborn chick uses its extra bulk to win squabbles over food with its younger brother or sister. In instances where the parents are unable to provide enough to eat, the firstborn will kill and consume the younger sibling. During times of stress, this is an efficient way to produce well-nourished offspring — albeit fewer of them. Examples of animal cannibalism are as numerous as they are interesting, from spadefoot toad larvae who eat their own brood-mates to legless amphibians called caecilians whose hatchlings peel and consume their mothers’ skin. And they occur among mammals, too. Polar bears consume other polar bears, and were doing so long before climate change impacted their hunting practices. And male lions, after taking over a pride, will eat the cubs that another male has sired. Both are examples of heterocannibalism — the eating of nonrelatives. In lions, incoming males seek to terminate the maternal investment in unrelated cubs. More important, a lioness with cubs will not come into heat for a year and a half after giving birth. But, as has been observed in other mammals, like bears, a lioness that loses her cubs becomes sexually receptive almost immediately. It Isn’t Just for Animals Are there instances where, as in the animal kingdom, human cannibalism makes sense? And if so, could this behavior resurface in the future? Cannibalism may be gruesome, and repugnant to our current sensibilities, but it has been widely practiced for a variety of reasons. Funerary cannibalism was practiced by groups like the Fore of New Guinea and the Wari’ of Brazil. These indigenous people were as mortified at the concept of burying their dead as newly arrived missionaries and anthropologists were at the thought of consuming their own departed loved ones. Image The crab spider is one of many animals that practice cannibalism. Credit Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures, via Getty Images From kings to commoners, Europeans, too, once routinely consumed human blood, bones, skin, guts and body parts. They did it without guilt, a form of medicinal cannibalism. They did it for hundreds of years, and then they made believe it never happened. Throughout their long history, body parts were such important ingredients in Chinese culinary cannibalism that the historian and author Key Ray Chong devoted a 13-page chapter in his book “Cannibalism in China” to “Methods of Cooking Human Flesh.” Rather than an emergency ration consumed as a last resort, there are many reports that exotic human-based dishes were prepared for Chinese royalty and upper-class citizens. Human cannibalism has also been an instrument of terror. The practice was used to instill horror and intense fear in dissenters during China’s Cultural Revolution, and Japanese soldiers cannibalized prisoners of war during World War II (a fate that President George H. W. Bush barely escaped after his plane was shot down). While filial piety is a highly regarded Confucian virtue, it was also the basis for an extreme act of cannibalism-related self-sacrifice. According to Chong, from ancient China through the 19th century, relatives provided parts of their own bodies (thigh and upper arm were the most commonly used) for the consumption and medical benefit of their elders. Then there are the more familiar stories, the tales of human cannibalism that springs from hunger. Throughout history and across multiple cultures, when people faced extremely stressful conditions like sieges, famines and strandings (the snowbound Donner Party), many eventually consumed their dead — even their own relatives. In a procedure that had become known to seafarers as “the custom of the sea,” sailors cast adrift on the open ocean drew straws. The sailor who drew the short straw gave up his life so that rest might eat. In perhaps the most famous case, in 1765 a storm dismasted the American sloop Peggy, leaving it adrift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with its captain, nine crewmen and a single slave. After consuming the ship’s cat, their uniform buttons and a leather bilge pump, and after the captain had retreated to his cabin clutching a pistol, the crew decided to draw lots. The loser was to be served up as dinner. By an incredible coincidence, the slave drew the short straw. Although the man begged for his life, the captain was unable to prevent his murder, later writing that as the crew prepared to cook the body, one sailor rushed in, tore away the slave’s liver and ate it raw. This is the horrific origin of the term “lifeboat strategy,” co-opted by ornithologists over two centuries later to describe the fate of unfortunate nestlings. As scientists have come to understand, factors like overpopulation and a lack of alternative forms of nutrition lead to cannibalism among animals, and it is clear that even modern humans have been driven to the behavior on many occasions. What, then, of the future? Populations are growing. Resources are dwindling. Deserts are spreading. And the societal rules that bind us together are proving more fragile than we ever imagined they could be. Maybe it is wise to remember that human cannibalism, so unthinkable now, was not uncommon not so long ago.

Cannibalism
Birds
Spider
Biology and Biochemistry
Nutrition


Big Labels Take Aim at Pandora on Royalties

Abstract: The music industry has opened a new front in its war against Pandora Media: royalties for songs made before 1972. On Thursday, several major record companies filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accusing Pandora of violating the state’s common-law copyright protections by using recordings of older songs without permission. Along with a string of cases filed last year against Sirius XM Radio, the suit highlights an obscure legal issue that has come to the fore with the rise of streaming music online: that recordings made before Feb. 15, 1972, are not subject to federal copyright protection and may be missing out on tens of millions of dollars in royalties, according to industry estimates. In the suit, the three big labels, Sony, Universal and Warner Music, along with ABKCO, an independent label that controls the rights to many early songs by the Rolling Stones, accuse Pandora of playing old songs without licenses. Like the suits last year against Sirius XM — the band the Turtles (“Happy Together”) acted first, with a $100 million class-action suit, and the labels followed with their own complaint — the case argues that even though songs from before 1972 are not under federal copyright, Pandora should have to get permission to use them under state law. “This case presents a classic attempt by Pandora to reap where it has not sown,” the labels say in the suit. “Pandora appropriates plaintiffs’ valuable and unique property, violates New York law and engages in common law copyright infringement and misappropriation and unfair competition.” María Elena Holly, the widow of Buddy Holly, said in a statement circulated by the Recording Industry Association of America, which coordinated the suit: “Just because Buddy and the other ’50s musicians recorded songs before 1972 doesn’t mean their songs have no value. These companies’ failure to pay the rock ’n’ roll pioneers is an injustice and it needs to change.” The suit includes a long appendix of songs by major acts from the 1940s to the early ’70s like the Beatles, Hank Williams, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, James Brown and the Rolling Stones. A Pandora representative said the company was confident in its legal position and looked forward to a quick resolution of the matter. Under federal copyright law, online and satellite radio services like Pandora and Sirius XM must get licenses to use recordings made after 1972, so both companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars for these recordings. Those licenses and payments are usually administered through SoundExchange, a nonprofit royalty organization that is an offshoot of the Recording Industry Association. Recordings made before 1972 do not have federal copyright protection, but are covered by a patchwork of state laws. Traditional radio stations have a longstanding exemption from paying for recordings, although all kinds of radio outlets — Internet, satellite and old-fashioned AM/FM — pay separate songwriting royalties to music publishers. (In the music world’s complex licensing structure, “on demand” services like Spotify and Rhapsody, which let users pick exactly what songs to listen to, negotiate with record companies directly for a different kind of license, and do not face the same issue with pre-1972 recordings.) But whether Pandora, Sirius XM and similar services need licenses under state law for the older recordings is unclear, and the current wave of lawsuits represents a concerted effort by the music industry to establish what could be a major source of revenue in the future. Pandora, with more than 70 million regular users, and Sirius XM, with about 26 million subscribers, are two of the most popular listening services, and their contributions represent most of the $656 million in performance royalties collected by SoundExchange last year.

Pandora Media
Royalties
Copyrights
Lawsuits
Audio Recordings
Sony
Universal Music Group
Warner Music Group
Music


New York Today: A Little History of Christmas

Abstract: Updated at 10:15 a.m. Good morning on this breezy Friday. New York can’t quite take credit for Christmas, but apparently, several seemingly timeless holiday traditions were invented here . In large part, we can thank New York’s own Washington Irving. Upset that there were few real, unifying holidays in early America, Irving decided to give his compatriots a little push, with help from both English and Dutch traditions. In his 1809 “ A History of New York ” (a comic recounting of the Dutch era), he declared the European gift-giver St. Nicholas to be the state’s patron saint, claiming that his image appeared on the masthead of the first Dutch ship to arrive in New York. Clement Clarke Moore , whose family owned the neighborhood of Chelsea, took up the cause, too. He claimed to have written a poem for his daughters, “ An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas ,” in which he described the saint as “a right jolly old elf,” based on “a portly rubicund Dutchman,” in the neighborhood, with some other elements borrowed from Irving’s St. Nicholas. Suffice it to say, with his “eight tiny reindeer,” he bore little resemblance to the original Saint Nicholas , who lived in what is now Turkey during the fourth century. St. Nicholas Day is traditionally celebrated on Dec. 6, but Moore’s poem set his visit on Christmas Eve, informally tying St. Nicholas to the holiday. The poem was first syndicated in The Troy Sentinel in New York, and later across the country. Other Christmas traditions started here too: A Santa in Thanksgiving Day Parades (Gimbel’s in 1920; Macy’s in 1924); one of the first public Christmas trees in 1912 (Boston’s was lit only 30 minutes earlier ); and the sale of poinsettias, beginning in 1870, among others. One week to go! In the meantime, check out our Week in Pictures slideshow . New York’s Week in Pictures: Dec. 18 8 Photos View Slide Show › Image Damon Winter/The New York Times Here’s what else is happening: WEATHER Today’s high is 53 , but don’t let that figure deceive you: It will be chilly. The temperature will fall to around 44 by 5 p.m. with a breeze that will pick up as the day progresses. Over the weekend, there should be mostly sunny skies with highs in the low- to mid-40s and strong winds on Saturday. Winter coat watch: Have one ready for nighttime. IN THE NEWS • Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan to monitor and combat homelessness in the city. [ New York Times ] • The city will pay a $2.75 million settlement to a wrongfully convicted man who spent nine years in prison. [ New York Times ] • A judged ruled against the city’s flu shot mandate for young children. [ New York Times ] • Brooke Astor’s son experienced “atrocious” treatment at Rikers, according to his family. [ New York Times ] • After the conviction of State Senator Dean G. Skelos, activists are pushing to remove his name from sports fields. [ Capital New York ] • A giant boa constrictor caught a ride on a bus in Brooklyn. [ New York Post ] • Scoreboard: Panthers maul Devils , 5-1. Wild submerges Rangers , 5-2. Avalanche squashes Islanders , 2-1. • For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Friday Briefing . COMING UP TODAY • Help select the region’s best coquito , a traditional Puerto Rican holiday drink, at Brooklyn Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. 5:30 p.m. [Free] • Listen to traditional Christmas music from the Byzantine Empire at the Metropolitan Museum. 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. [Free with $25 suggested admission] • Adult film scripts, culled from responses to a fake Craigslist ad, are acted out at the Knitting Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 8 p.m. [Tickets start at $8] • Relive Christmas in the ’90s with “Home Alone” at the I.F.C. Center in Greenwich Village. 11:15 a.m. and 11:15 p.m. [$8] • Knicks at 76ers, 7 p.m. (MSG). Nets at Pacers, 7 p.m. (YES). Rangers at Jets, 8 p.m. (MSG+). THE WEEKEND Saturday • Join in a worldwide recitation of William Butler Yeats’s “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” at Wolfe Tone’s Irish Pub in Flatiron. 9:30 a.m. [Free] • Pedal to New Jersey for breakfast at the Brooklyn Bike Crew’s annual pancake ride , meeting at Bedford Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. 10 a.m. [Free, but bring money for the ferry and breakfast] • Observe winter waterfowl during a nature walk in Baisley Pond Park in South Jamaica, Queens. 11 a.m. [Free] • Celebrate all the winter holidays at the Winter Wonderland at the Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center in Norwood, the Bronx. 12 p.m. [Free] • Keep your eyes peeled during The Amazing Brooklyn Museum Scavenger Hunt . 2 p.m. [$30] • Islanders at Coyotes, 9 p.m. (MSG 2). Devils host Ducks, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Knicks host Bulls, 7:30 p.m. (MSG). Jets at Cowboys, 8:25 p.m. (NFL Network). Sunday • Make your own snow-globe gift box at Wave Hill House in Hudson Hill, the Bronx. 10 a.m. [Free] • Celebrate the longest night of the year (one day early) at the Van Cortlandt Golf House in Van Cortlandt Park. 4 p.m. [Free] • Check out the stars during the Ursid meteor shower at Wolfe’s Point Pond Comfort Station on Staten Island. 6 p.m. [Free, look up] • Raise your voice during the annual singalong of Handel’s “Messiah” at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Carroll Gardens. 7 p.m. [$20] • Giants host Panthers, 1 p.m. (FOX). Nets host Timberwolves, 1 p.m. (YES). Devils at Bruins, 5 p.m. (MSG+). Rangers host Capitals, 7 p.m. (MSG). • For more events, see The Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide . • And if you seek things to do outside the city, The Times’s Metropolitan section has suggestions. See this weekend’s listings for Hudson Valley , Long Island , New Jersey and Connecticut . COMMUTE • Subway and PATH • Railroads : L.I.R.R., Metro-North , N.J. Transit , Amtrak • Roads : Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s . • Alternate-side parking : in effect until Dec. 25. • Ferries : Staten Island Ferry , New York Waterway , East River Ferry • Airports : La Guardia , J.F.K. , Newark • Weekend travel hassles: Check subway disruptions and a list of street closings . AND FINALLY … Many of our readers wrote in to suggest potential honorees as New York Today’s “New Yorker of the Year.” We decided only to include those who received five or more nominations. Here we go, for a second time, in no particular order: Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer and star of the Broadway musical “Hamilton.” Senator Bernie Sanders, Brooklyn native and presidential candidate. Brandon Stanton, the photographer and creator of “Humans of New York.” Pizza Rat, subway hero. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Foundation of America. Mayor Bill de Blasio. Fast-food workers. The Rev. Ann Kansfield, the Fire Department’s first lesbian chaplain. “Not Donald Trump.” If you already wrote in or commented to nominate a New Yorker who now appears on this list or if you have already voted, you don’t need to vote again. New York Today is a weekday roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning. You can receive it via email . For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook . What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com , or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday . Follow the New York Today columnists, Tatiana Schlossberg and Noah Remnick , on Twitter. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com .