Some Sequels Really Are Worth the Wait

Abstract: SEQUELS to great games fill me with a mix of excitement, hope and dread. The hope is that they will contain the same wondrous mix of elements that made the original so enthralling. The fear is that the sequel will veer off in some odd direction that shows the designers didn't appreciate the original as much as I did. Square Enix's action/role-playing game Kingdom Hearts II immediately put my fears to rest with a beginning that perfectly matched the tone of the original, as magic and mystery slowly seep into the lives of a group of young friends as they while away idyllic summer days. In the cliffhanger ending of the original game, the young hero, Sora, is separated from his friends and adrift in a foreign world. The sequel doesn't rush to reconnect with that story. Instead it focuses on Roxas, a boy living in Twilight Town who has begun to have vivid dreams of Sora's adventures from the first game. Roxas doesn't know what these dreams mean, or who Sora is, but he comes to believe they are connected to a series of strange events. As Roxas joins his friends in trying to earn money for a day trip or investigating local folklore, the ordinariness of his life is interrupted by mysterious cloaked figures and a creature that steals both objects and the very words for those objects. These mysterious events are so engrossing that it is a little jarring when, after a few hours, Roxas's story is supplanted by Sora's search for his friends. In the first game, Sora discovers that there are worlds beyond his, and that his destiny is to save those worlds from monsters known as the Heartless. These worlds are all from Disney cartoons. In the sequel, Sora again fights alongside Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. The three meet Mulan in China and roam the African plains with Simba from "The Lion King," dispatching the Heartless hordes in hectic battles with their weapons or magical bolts of lightning. Battles are fun and furious, and the sequel has added a series of context-sensitive attacks that make fighting more varied and exciting. Sora also has a number of special actions, and can temporarily transform himself into a more powerful warrior, team up with his comrades for special moves or summon powerful characters like Genie or Chicken Little to help him. Unfortunately all of this is done through a cumbersome menu system that is generally more bother than it is worth, although at certain times special powers can be transferred to the context-sensitive attack button. The battle system, like much of the game, is a bit of a mess but fun all the same. Besides battles, Kingdom Hearts II serves up a number of entertaining minigames. In the undersea world of Atlantica you keep beat with lively musical numbers, although none of the songs are nearly as good as "Kiss the Girl" from "The Little Mermaid" movie. While visiting Winnie the Pooh you must race through the 100-Acre Wood gathering honey. There is also a much-improved version of the first game's space battles, which are thrilling and beautiful. Kingdom Hearts II is in many ways superior to its predecessor. Battles are more exciting, the game is much longer, and unlike the original, it allows one to skip the beautifully animated story scenes, saving the player from watching a two-minute introductory sequence to a difficult battle five times in a row. What the sequel lacks is the narrative momentum of the original. In the various worlds, Sora helps Disney characters through truncated versions of their movie adventures, but with most of the character development stripped out, the stories feel flimsy. And with many of the more exotic Disney worlds like Alice's Wonderland and the belly of the whale from "Pinocchio" exhausted in the first game, Kingdom Hearts II relies on more mundane settings from "Mulan" and "Beauty and the Beast," although there is a truly inspired black and white world patterned after Disney cartoons from the 1920's and 30's. The game also fails to make Sora's search for his friends compelling. It's been four years since Kingdom Hearts was released, yet the sequel simply assumes a player remembers and cares about its characters. In its last third, as the game returns to the central mysteries introduced in Twilight Town, Kingdom Hearts II gains momentum, and the ending is wonderfully satisfying. While the game is less focused than the first, it does retain much of the charm and excitement. The exposition is sometimes muddled and some of the gameplay ideas are underdeveloped, like a skateboard in the game that serves little purpose. But Kingdom Hearts II can be criticized only when compared with its predecessor; it is still far superior to the vast majority of games. It is deeply gratifying when a game lives up to one's expectations, and heartbreaking when it doesn't, as with the Jak and Daxter games. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released in 2002, was a delightful action adventure game, but its two sequels exhibited a darker tone and more frustrating gameplay. Much to my surprise, the sequel I always wanted has suddenly appeared, not on the PlayStation 2, which featured the original games, but on the hand-held PSP. Daxter, developed by Ready at Dawn Studios, is far closer in spirit to the original game than Jak II or Jak 3, with wacky humor and imaginative puzzles and action that are challenging without being torturous. While the game doesn't bother to explain this, Daxter is a young man who was turned into a muskrat by black magic. The game details the events that lead up to Daxter's rescue of his friend Jak near the beginning of Jak II. After establishing that Jak has been imprisoned by bad guys, the game forgets about him altogether as Daxter finds work as an exterminator specializing in deadly robotic insects. Electric fly swatter in hand, Daxter heads out in search of adventure, climbing walls, leaping chasms, sliding through tunnels, piloting hovercraft and using attachments to his bug spray canister that turn it into a flamethrower or a jet pack. When all the excitement is too much, he can sleep, dreaming in fun minigames that he is the hero of "The Matrix" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark." By turns cocky and cowardly, Daxter is amusingly abrasive as he flirts with an attractive woman at a construction site or chats with a dopey surfer dude, and the mix of lively, imaginative challenges and colorful graphics emulate everything that was great about the original game. Daxter's story is so underdeveloped that by the time he gets around to saving Jak you hardly remember who that is and don't especially care. Like everything else in the game, this is completely in keeping with the original, where the story was entirely forgettable. Like any great sequel, Daxter leaves me feeling both happy and relieved. But I'm already having mixed emotions about the inevitable release of Daxter 2 in a year or two. KINGDOM HEARTS II Developed and published by Square Enix for PlayStation 2; for ages 10 and up; $50. DAXTER Developed by Ready at Dawn Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation Portable; for ages 10 and up; $40. GAME THEORY E-mail: Herold@nytimes.com

PLAYSTATION INC
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READY AT DAWN STUDIOS
SONY CORP
REVIEWS
COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES


Video: Skier Flirts With Danger, and Almost Pays

Abstract: Behind the Line is a video series produced by Teton Gravity Research that takes you into the minds of skiers. In each episode, the athletes will look back on a line, a jump or a session, and discuss the moment. Deep in the Neacola Mountains of Alaska, professional skiers Todd Ligare, Ian McIntosh, and Angel Collinson discover a technical line that requires jumping two bergschrunds. Formed near the head of a glacier, these crevasses provide both challenging terrain and tremendous danger. After a helicopter drops the Teton Gravity Research athletes above their lines, they watch each another navigate the steep mountain face and the bergschrunds in their path. At more than 3,000 vertical feet, this towering face offers ample challenge — even before factoring in its crevasses. And for Ligare, a fall during his descent presents even more danger.


Democrats and Fox News Make Friends

Abstract: Standing in front of a television camera last week, the chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s campaign, Terry McAuliffe, uttered four words that the Fox News Channel would not soon forget. “Fair and balanced Fox!,” he exclaimed, noting that the network was the first to project Mrs. Clinton’s Pennsylvania primary win. Fox executives could not have asked for a more rousing endorsement. The next day it showed up in promotions. All of a sudden, the once-frosty relationship between Fox News and the Democratic candidates seems to have grown warmer. Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama , who steadfastly refused to attend Fox-sponsored debates last year, are now giving plenty of interviews as they court Fox’s viewers, who are largely white, conservative and undecided. “It’s probably true that we appeal to white working-class voters,” said Brit Hume, the network’s Washington managing editor and the host of “Special Report.” “The candidates are going where the voters are.” Conversely, Fox seems to have softened its stance toward the Democrats, mindful of the intense viewer interest in the prolonged primary season. Although Fox News remains firmly in first place among news channels, CNN has crept up in the ratings on primary nights. So Fox wants to appeal to people who might otherwise flip the channel in search of more time with the Democrats. In short, Fox News and the Democrats abruptly find each other useful. “I think the candidates are starting to realize that they need to reach the people who we reach already,” said Marty Ryan, the network’s executive producer for political programming. Last year the Democrats declined most of the network’s interview requests. Barack Obama rejected the network for so long that the show “Fox News Sunday” resorted to a public demand in March, showing a weekly “Obama Watch” clock that counted the days since the senator had promised an interview and failed to make good. Then the thaw came. Mrs. Clinton has been on Fox 10 times this year, and Mr. Obama has appeared seven times, compared with three times for Mrs. Clinton and two times for Mr. Obama last year. Mr. Obama appeared on “Fox News Sunday” last week, perhaps in pursuit of moderate voters in Indiana and North Carolina. On Wednesday and Thursday, Mrs. Clinton was questioned for an hour on “The O’Reilly Factor,” whose host, Bill O’Reilly, is something of a poster boy among liberal voters who think of Fox as the media arm of conservatives. “You’re a polarizing personality,” Mr. O’Reilly chuckled during the interview. “You’re like I am, and I hate to say that,” he said. (Perhaps the same words could have been said to him by Mrs. Clinton, though they were not.) The first part of the interview set a year-to-date viewership record for “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Nielsen Media Research, with 3.66 million people tuning in, about one million above average. Political calculations are evident on both sides. With Fox leading the coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s remarks, it was logical for Mr. Obama to appear on Fox and respond. “In the end, they don’t do it for us — they do it for themselves,” said Chris Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the Democrats and their decisions to come on the show. He said that he assumed that Mr. Obama’s “defeats in Ohio and Pennsylvania convinced him that he needs to reach out to blue-collar, moderate and conservative Democratic voters.” On Sunday, when Mr. Wallace will interview Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, it will mark the first time in 18 months that Mr. Dean has agreed to an interview on Fox. Although Fox’s surveys show a big constituency among Republicans, whites and males, the network is by no means devoid of Democratic viewers. With an election studio dressed in flag-blue window frames and red-striped walls, Fox tries to play the patriotism card, hoping to attract viewers from both parties. Perhaps because the Democratic race is so close, Fox faces stiffer competition for viewers than it did in the last presidential election cycle. This year CNN and, to a lesser extent, MSNBC have challenged Fox among the 25- to 54-year-olds coveted by advertisers. Yet the gains by CNN and MSNBC have largely come on primary nights, while Fox’s viewers return reliably every night, making Fox by far the most popular cable news channel. In any given hour, nearly one million viewers are watching Fox News, compared with about 600,000 for CNN and 380,000 for MSNBC. The consistent ratings have long been a boon for its parent, the News Corporation, whose cable segment has posted a 23 percent increase in profit in the last quarter of 2007. To keep posting a healthy profit, the network realizes it has to stay nimble. After CNN scored some primary night ratings victories in January, Fox modified its election coverage, switching to the moniker “America’s Election HQ” from “You Decide 2008.” The network introduced a new 5 p.m. hour of political coverage starring two youthful anchors, and a weekend show called the “The Strategy Room.” Fox’s popularity is a point that its executives lean on to wave off complaints about political bias — and to lobby the campaigns for interviews and debates. “Why would they want to eliminate the largest audience in news? That would be stupid,” said Shepard Smith, the anchor of "The Fox Report.” He said the candidates had moved toward the political center as the general election neared, “and that’s where we are.” Last year, under pressure from liberals, the candidates declined to attend debates sponsored by Fox. This prompted Jay Leno to joke on the “Tonight Show”: “How are you going to stand up to terrorists when you’re afraid of Fox News?” The controversy divided Democrats, with some arguing that the candidates should boycott Fox altogether because of the network’s perceived bias. That viewpoint cropped up again this week on left-leaning Web sites like Daily Kos as Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton made their appearances on Fox. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has distanced itself from the anti-Fox camp. Days before Mr. McAuliffe’s comment, Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania and a Clinton supporter, said that Fox had done the “fairest job” covering the race and had “remained most objective of all the cable networks.” And Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said the campaign had received a “fair shake from Fox when we’ve been on the network.” Mr. Obama’s aides have been more reticent, and some supporters say privately that Fox has been the most aggressive in covering the inflammatory comments by Mr. Wright. Mr. Obama’s own complaints about the sound bite coverage of his former pastor at times seemed directed toward Fox. Before Mr. Obama’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” an unnamed Obama adviser told the Web site Talking Points Memo the campaign was “clear-eyed about Fox’s role in the dissemination and amplification of Republican talking points.” But neither candidate has criticized Fox in public. “Fox clearly takes on a conservative bent or slant in its coverage,” said one aide, who asked for anonymity to avoid angering other media organizations. On the other hand, “with Fox,” he said, “at least you know what you’re getting.”

Television
Presidential Election of 2008
Fox News Channel
Democratic Party
Clinton Hillary Rodham
Obama Barack


‘Karate’ Means Empty Hand, but a Handheld Device Is Needed

Abstract: LEARNING a martial art is a true challenge, both mentally and physically, because there is so much to master and remember. Turning to an app for help might not seem like an obvious course, but many apps do provide worthwhile support. Brazilian jujitsu, which largely focuses on ground fighting, is quickly gaining in popularity, and one of the most popular styles, the Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu jitsu, has some particularly strong apps. They include videos that document techniques like defenses and escapes. Each video is performed by experts and filmed from different angles so you can see exactly what’s going on. There’s also narration about the moves, and the video pauses at key points. These videos supplement what you learn in person, and they are part of a 16-week course that gets progressively more complex. As teaching supplements, the apps will certainly help you brush up on techniques, but apart from the videos there’s not much content. The apps are also expensive. One on iOS costs $15 for the first four weeks, and the remaining three apps are $10 each. A great alternative jujitsu app is iBJJ, which is $4 on iOS and Android . Instead of video, iBJJ relies on still photos that you can scan through in the style of a flip book. The app makers say this is to help you see the techniques at your own pace, instead of at the forced pace of a video. The photos have descriptive text, and there’s also an option to see frames from a reverse angle to better illustrate the way the body should be positioned. The iBJJ app is easy to navigate, with techniques broken down into categories like “top guard” or “back attacking.” The flip-book teaching style may suit beginners, while serving as an encyclopedia of moves for more experienced practitioners. And the app has plenty of content. Karate practitioners may appreciate the app Learn Karate by Fitivity. This app, which is free on iOS and Android (where it’s called Karate Training instead) could be a useful practice resource. In addition to lessons on karate techniques, it has sections on how to keep flexible and build strength. It also has a section for the many katas, or symbolic attack and defense postures that practitioners must learn. The lessons include videos as well as still photos and descriptions of how to move. Over all, it’s a nicely designed app with a professional feel that tries to please beginner and expert karateka alike. Though the basic app is free, higher levels require an in-app payment of $5. Taekwondo is another popular martial art, with Korean origins. Unlike many of its rivals, Taekwondo Bible, a free Android app , has been frequently updated, which means it may run better on your device. The app contains detailed instructions on how to practice the patterns, including diagrams on how to place one’s feet, and it even includes explanations of what the Korean names of the moves mean. It’s straightforward in design, and looks good — a nice contrast to many Android apps. However, while the first five taekwondo patterns in the app are free, you have to pay for the full list. On iOS there are surprisingly few good taekwondo apps, but Taekwondo White Belt is a free app that has been recently updated, a nice sign that its developers are paying attention. Taekwondo White Belt is aimed at beginners, and it describes some of the history and philosophy of this martial art. It also has detailed instructions that explain many taekwondo techniques using photos, text and video. It’s easy to navigate this app, which offers more advanced moves as you go, and its design is simple and frill-free, which may keep you focused. But clicking through the different sections of the app takes time, and sometimes menus feel unresponsive. In addition, only a few lessons are free — the full content costs $1. Tai Chi is another a martial art, though you might think of it as a slow-moving health-based activity. Yang Tai Chi for Beginners is a comprehensive iOS and Android app for learning one of the more popular forms of Tai Chi. It uses video-based lessons to talk you through the precision movements of the form. The video demonstrations are backed up with text-based instructions and explanations of correct posture and what the movements are for and what they mean. The app has a short sample of its content available free, but the full content requires an in-app payment of $10. There’s also a second app that completes the lessons. Quick Call Microsoft recently released Outlook, its well-known email program, for iOS and Android users. Far from being a cut-down version of the software many of us use to manage our work email, the apps are full-featured and work well on phone touch screens.


Promising Young Talent Promises to Rekindle Mets-Braves Rivalry

Abstract: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Chipper Jones is on the back end of his career, but the Atlanta Braves are getting close to introducing the next edition, a ferocious left-handed hitter who could torment the Mets for the next decade. His name is Jason Heyward, a 20-year-old slugging right fielder who has drawn comparisons to Darryl Strawberry and Fred McGriff. Worse, for the Mets, his mother is from Jamaica, Queens, and before being drafted by the Braves his favorite team was the Yankees. He is 6 feet 4 inches, weighs 220 pounds and looks like a lean tight end. And he can absolutely crush the ball. “He’ll hit the hardest shots you’ve ever seen,” Braves Manager Bobby Cox said. “He’s going to hit home runs, there’s no doubt about that. But he’s a line-drive hitter.” Heyward started playing professionally in rookie ball at age 17, and in the last two years in the minors he hit 28 home runs, almost all of which came when he was a teenager. The legend of his power has grown rapidly this spring, with Heyward shattering two windshields on cars outside the Braves’ complex in Orlando, Fla., during batting practice. “He hits some looooong home runs,” the former Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur said. “He’s a big kid and he’s got brute strength. It will be interesting to see, but I think they would be smart to start him this year.” Heyward had one hit and two walks in the Mets’ 4-2 victory over the Braves on Tuesday, and one of the former players that he is compared to was impressed by his plate discipline. “That kid has the goods,” Strawberry said. “He’s got a ton of talent. You can see it. He’s going to be a very good ballplayer, there’s no doubt about it. He’s only 20?” Indeed, he is, but if Heyward is going to be the face of the Braves for the next decade, then perhaps the Mets can counter with a big left-handed slugger of their own in Ike Davis. Davis, the Mets’ first-round pick in the 2008 draft, is a standout defensive first baseman who can also hit the ball with authority. He is likely to begin the season as the Mets’ Class AAA first baseman, but Citi Field does not seem far away. On Tuesday, Davis was impressive at the plate, hitting a line-drive double to the gap in right-center and showing the ability to go the other way, fighting off a two-strike pitch on the outside corner for a single to left. Like Heyward, Davis is big; 6-4, 215 pounds. He will turn 23 on March 22. On Tuesday, both were wearing jerseys with numbers in the 70s, a sign that they still have work to do before establishing themselves as major leaguers. But over the next few seasons, both could emerge as key figures in the Braves-Mets rivalry. “That’s the hope,” Davis said. The Mets are planning to be patient with Davis. Daniel Murphy is the starting first baseman and the Mets have some hope for him, too. But Davis clearly is the bigger prospect, the one the Mets expect to counterpunch with Heyward, maybe all the way to 2020 and beyond. As for Heyward, he says his goal is to make the team this year, and Cox, who is planning to retire after the season, seems to fancy that idea. “He’s got the head for it,” Cox said. “He can certainly handle all the media attention and not let it get to him.” When approached to do an interview on Tuesday, Heyward at first declined because he had work to do in the batting cage. But when he finished, he was engaging and straightforward, confident without being brash. Born in Ridgewood, N.J., in 1989, Heyward moved with his family to Macon, Ga., where he grew up a fan of the Yankees for two reasons: one, his grandfather George Benjamin of the Bronx, who was drafted by the team as an outfielder but never played after falling ill. The other reason, not surprisingly, is the success the Yankees enjoyed during his youth. “I’m a big fan of winning and I have a lot of respect for the Yankees, but definitely the Braves also,” he said. “The Braves are definitely a winning organization.” His family is from Queens, he loves the Yankees and he hits long home runs for the Braves. Sounds like a bad combination for the Mets. INSIDE PITCH The Japanese reliever Ryota Igarashi earned the save in his first appearance in the Mets’ Grapefruit League opener, and also unveiled the new slider that Dan Warthen taught him last week. Igarashi threw it for a ball in an 0-1 count and gave himself a C-plus for the pitch. ...Manager Jerry Manuel altered his lineup because of heavy rain all morning. He did not want his stars to play on the wet surface. ... Closer Francisco Rodriguez still has pinkeye and has been told to stay away from the park until it clears up. ... No surprise, but the Mets had an injury in the game. Pitcher Elmer Dessens took a ball off his right knee and had to leave the game.

New York Mets
Heyward Jason
Atlanta Braves
Davis Ike
Baseball


New Emblem of an Elemental Conflict: Seized West Bank Land

Abstract: WADI FUKIN, West Bank — At the edge of this small Palestinian village, an asphalt road turns into a dirt path that winds through a fertile valley where natural springs irrigate lush plots planted with a rich ratatouille of vegetables, as well as orchards and vines. Goats graze on the steep, rocky slopes, some bare and rugged, others planted with olive and almond trees and pines. The veneer of pastoral serenity was shattered just over a week ago when a new crop suddenly dotted the hillsides: dozens of bright yellow plastic boards tied to metal stakes, printed with the logo of the Israeli military’s Civil Administration and in large, red Hebrew letters the words “State Lands — No Trespassing.” The same warning appeared less prominently in small, black Arabic letters, as if to minimize the potential impact of a move that local Jewish settler leaders said could herald a new Jewish city in the area. Palestinians and anti-settlement groups like Peace Now described the action as possibly the biggest land grab in the occupied West Bank in 30 years. The signs accompanied Israel’s formal declaration that it was laying claim to nearly 1,000 acres of territory in this area of the West Bank, prompting a storm of international criticism and a blunt call from the United States to reverse the decision. Wadi Fukin and four other villages directly affected by the announcement — Surif, Hussan, Jaba’a and Nahalin — instantly became the latest symbols of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, pared down to the elemental struggle over the land. Ahmad Sokar, the head of Wadi Fukin’s village council, said the signs appeared “to the north, south, east and west” of the village of 1,300 residents, who, he added, fear that they will find their community surrounded “like an island.” It may be years before any settlement construction can take place. Palestinians with claims to the land were given 45 days to register objections. Village leaders and farmers are now poring over maps, meeting with lawyers and gathering documents for what is likely to be a lengthy appeals process in the Israeli courts. But the episode has again illustrated the distance between the Israelis and the Palestinians months after the breakdown of American-brokered talks meant to establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, and after a bloody war between Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that rules Gaza, and Israel. When it comes to the basic question of who owns the land, the sides lack any common language. “The concept of land for the Palestinians is not like in the West,” said Ata Munasra, a local tour guide. “It is part of your culture, your heritage, your existence. You can’t just move from here to there.” He added that when it came to the laws governing the land, “Israel picks and chooses what suits it.” And villagers said the international condemnations had not yet influenced anything on the ground. “It’s like cat and mouse,” said Abdel Hakim Munasra, a relative of Ata Munasra and the secretary of the village council. “The settlements creep across the land gradually. They start small and expand.” The Palestinians and most of the world consider all Jewish settlement in the occupied territories illegal. Israelis said the choice of the 1,000 acres seemed to have been calibrated to cause the least physical damage to the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state, though Palestinians point out that it was made unilaterally. The newly declared state land lies in what the Israelis call Gush Etzion, or the Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem. Israel says it intends to keep the bloc, which is part of the 60 percent of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control, under any permanent agreement with the Palestinians — though negotiations for a state would require the Palestinians to agree and Israel to offer a land swap in return. The pre-1967 armistice line between the West Bank and Israel runs just to the west of Wadi Fukin. To the east is Beitar Illit, an ultra-Orthodox, urban Jewish settlement of up to 50,000 residents that Israel expects to include within its eventual borders. But precisely as President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is demanding a definition of the borders of his future state, the Israeli move blurs the boundary. While Palestinian negotiators have agreed in principle to minor adjustments and land swaps along the 1967 lines, Xavier Abu Eid of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Negotiation Affairs Department said the Palestinians “have never accepted the idea of settlement blocs” as unilaterally defined by Israel. Most of the elongated tracts of newly appropriated land run adjacent to the 1967 line, stretching between the Palestinian villages, with a finger extending inward toward Gvaot, a tiny Israeli settlement of a few families in temporary homes. Dror Etkes, an Israeli expert on West Bank land issues who advocates on behalf of the Palestinians, said the intention was “to fill in the gap,” consolidating the connection between Gush Etzion and Israel. Defenders of the Israeli policy say that the newly declared state land was never privately owned, and that it was land whose status was to be determined. They also say that Gush Etzion has historic value for Israelis: Jews lived there until 1948 and returned after Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. It is also the area where Palestinian militants kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers in June. The land declaration came as compensation for the settlers and was a punishment for the Palestinians at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under political pressure over the war in Gaza. When Israel took over the West Bank in 1967, only one-third of the territory was recorded in the area’s land registry, adding to the legal ambiguity, Israelis said. Israel froze the registration process, and in the 1980s it began appropriating plots that had not been cultivated in three years, or were less than half cultivated, based on what Mr. Etkes described as “a manipulative interpretation of Ottoman law.” Mr. Etkes said that only small parts of the newly declared state lands were cultivated, though he cautioned that construction in the area would be likely to choke the intensively cultivated parts. In Wadi Fukin, villagers said that a large part of the appropriated land was owned by five extended families, and that some of it was planted with cereals for grazing. Proving ownership will be difficult for most, unless they can produce Turkish land deeds, experts said. Mr. Munasra, the council secretary, said he owned an acre of land planted with olive saplings that was included in the appropriation. He said that he had tax receipts from the period of the British Mandate, and that the land was in the name of his grandfather, who died in 1970. On a recent weekday, only an insistent drill from a distant construction site broke the silence in the valley. The apartment blocks of Beitar Illit spilled down a ridge above the farmland. Maher Taher Sokar, a farmer, was sitting barefoot under an old mulberry tree, his work pants rolled up. He said he had fought in the Israeli courts to prove his ownership of more than 85 acres of land on a nearby mountain that is planted with wheat and olive trees. Once, he said, he waited two years for a signature from an Israeli official at the Civil Administration headquarters. He won the case in 2011, he said, after a 16-year legal battle.

West Bank
Israeli settlement
Israel
Palestinians
Hamas
Judaism


Assad Frames Syrian Struggle as Him Against Western Colonizers

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday night described what he said was an insidious Western attempt to recolonize his country, and he appeared to reject any thought of compromise or negotiation with the insurgency seeking to topple him. “The truth is, what is happening is a war,” Mr. Assad said in an interview broadcast on Syrian national television. “It is not security problems. It is a war in every sense of the word. There are big powers, especially Western powers, who historically never accepted the idea of other nations having their independence. They want those nations to submit to them.” By the United Nations count, the two-year war has left more than 70,000 people dead, millions displaced and untold numbers traumatized by atrocities and fear. The interview on the country’s Al Ikhbariya channel — conducted on Syria’s Independence Day, which celebrates the end of French occupation 67 years ago — suggested that Mr. Assad’s views on the conflict had only hardened. The opposition and its allies have called those views delusional. “We must ask ourselves, did the colonizer take our sovereignty with him when he left?” he said sarcastically, referring to the end of French rule. Mr. Assad extolled what he called the strength of Syria’s society, rejecting a widespread view that the struggle in his country has become a sectarian conflict pitting his Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, against an insurgency drawn largely from the Sunni majority. Not once in the interview did he use the term Sunni or Muslim or name any religious sects. He characterized his opponents as terrorists, mercenaries, hooligans and members of Al Qaeda. “We have to bet on the awareness of the people, and the Syrian people proved over the past two years that they’re aware,” he said. “I can say, without exaggeration, that sectarianism is less pronounced in Syria now than at the beginning of this conflict.” At another point in the interview, Mr. Assad asserted: “We are not afraid of sectarianism, so there are no dividing lines. The communities are coexisting and mingling in the same villages, so there can be no division.” He stressed that rumors of Syria breaking up into sectarian statelets in the near future were nothing but “psychological warfare” propagated by his foes. “They want to convince Syrians that they are no longer capable of living together,” he said. “They’re telling them you can’t coexist as a people.” He accused foreign powers and the international news media of framing the conflict in simplistic terms. He said that the media portray the Syrian conflict as “a president holding on to his seat against a population who wants him gone, but that’s not the case.” Mr. Assad also expressed growing irritation with Jordan, which has become a point of entry for foreign fighters and weapons, rejecting Jordanian denials of complicity with the insurgency. “I hope they learn the lessons that the Iraqi authorities learned,” he said. “Iraqi authorities know very well how important stability in Syria is. They learned that a fire in Syria will inevitably spread to the region.” Mr. Assad’s answers were delivered without pausing or rephrasing during the interview, suggesting they had been rehearsed. Asked how it could be possible that so many of Syria’s neighbors were wrong about him and that he was the only one who was right, Mr. Assad answered, “We mustn’t blame those countries because they’re not independent; the decision is made by foreign countries.” He ridiculed what Western powers have described as humanitarian intervention in Syria as a euphemism for occupation and colonialism. “We saw their humanitarian intervention in Iraq, in Libya, and now we see it in Syria,” he said. At the end of the interview, Mr. Assad said he remained confident that his side would prevail. “If there wasn’t optimism in Syria, we wouldn’t have fought in the first place,” he said. “But we get it from the people and I get it, personally, from meeting with citizens, especially the families of martyrs who offered their sons for this nation. They tell me they have lost a son but are willing to give a second one and a third one for this nation. This is nationalism without bounds.”

Syria
Arab Spring
Bashar al-Assad
International relations


European Antitrust Regulators Question Phone Operators

Abstract: PARIS — European Union competition authorities are questioning five of Europe’s biggest telecommunications companies to see if a series of meetings they held since 2010 on strategy and technical co-operation constituted collusion. A questionnaire, which represents an information-gathering process and is not an official investigation, has been sent to Vodafone , France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefonica, as well as to the operators’ trade group, the G.S.M.A. The move is a sign of how relations between Brussels and Europe’s telecommunications incumbents are at a low ebb as fights over reducing roaming charges and how to finance costly network upgrades come to a head. The inquiry also comes as operators are struggling to develop new services and technologies ranging from mobile advertising to new messaging technologies to counter competing and often free services from Apple and Google. These new efforts are leading big operators to increasingly seek to work together, and as a result have now attracted attention from competition watchdogs. The initiative to hold meetings among the big five telecom operators was started by the France Telecom chief executive Stephane Richard in late 2010. At that time he cast it as a way for the operators to discuss the major strategic and policy issues facing them. For example, Mr. Richard has said the group discussed issues such as standardization of technologies, whether they could work together on a common “app store” to sell games and software for mobiles to better compete with Google and Apple, and how to get these technology giants to contribute to the cost of building out networks. The most recent meeting of the group was at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February, and its most recent initiative focuses on developing a so-called Rich Communications Suite, which can enable video and picture chats on mobiles. Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for the E.U. competition regulator in Brussels, confirmed that the questionnaire had been sent, but said the commission has not opened formal proceedings. “The requests for information relate to the manner in which standardization for future services in the mobile communications area is taking place,” he said, “These fact-finding steps do not mean that we have competition concerns at this stage, nor do they prejudge the follow-up.” A spokesman for E.U. commissioner Neelie Kroes, who oversees the telecom sector, declined to comment on Wednesday. Craig Pouncey, managing partner at law firm Herbert Smith in Brussels, said that competition authorities can issue such questions without it necessarily leading to an official investigation. “Such a questionnaire is not an infrequent occurrence,” Mr. Pouncey said. Still, people in the industry expressed surprise about the E.U. questionnaire, saying the meetings among the top operators were done in a transparent way with precautions taken to address anti-trust concerns. Lawyers were always present and a written account of each meeting was sent to regulators in Brussels at the time, according to people in the industry. The move come as European regulators are imposing steep cuts to fees operators can charge their customers traveling abroad and ratcheting down mobile termination fees more quickly than expected, both moves that directly hit the operators’ profits. A debate has also been raging behind the scenes since summer about whether Brussels will reduce the amount incumbent telecommunications companies can rent out their old fixed-line copper networks as way to spur the groups to invest in new high-speed broadband networks. The war of words escalated at the recent mobile conference in Barcelona, where executives accused regulators of sapping the industry of much needed capital just when it faces huge investments in new, faster, fixed and mobile networks. Vodafone’s chief executive Vittorio Colao charged that the European Commission’s “auto-pilot regulation mentality” risked crippling the region’s economic growth, while Mr. Richard at France Telecom said the priority should be on investment not regulation. In response, Ms. Kroes, who has steered much of the regulation, hit back by saying she sided with consumers and “did not respond well to threats.”

Telephones and Telecommunications
Antitrust Laws and Competition Issues
European Union
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry


U.S. Troops Causing Instability, Iran’s Religious Leader Tells Iraqi Premier

Abstract: TEHRAN — Iran ’s supreme leader told Iraq’s prime minister on Monday that the American forces in Iraq were the biggest obstacle to Iraqi stability. The message from the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , was the most authoritative public word to date on Iran’s objections to long-term security agreements currently under negotiation between the Bush administration and the government of Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki . The American military has been operating in Iraq under a United Nations resolution that expires at the end of this year. At a meeting with Mr. Maliki as part of the Iraqi leader’s three-day visit to Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei told him that “the most fundamental problem of Iraq is the presence of the foreign forces,” according to excerpts of their meeting reported by the news agency ISNA. “The Iraqi government, Parliament and all the authorities who have been elected with public vote should take charge,” the ayatollah said. Iranian officials strongly oppose the American military presence in Iraq, which they consider a major threat on their border. Yet it was the American-led effort that overthrew their hated enemy, Saddam Hussein, and brought about a coalition government in Baghdad dominated by Shiite political leaders, including Mr. Maliki, with strong ties to Iran. “When a foreign force gradually increases its interference and domination in all the affairs of Iraq, it becomes the most important obstacle in development and prosperity of the Iraqi people,” the ayatollah said, without directly referring to the security agreements. The Iranian accounts of the meeting between Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr. Maliki did not give Mr. Maliki’s response. But he had assured Iranian authorities on Sunday that his country would not become “a platform for harming the security of Iran and its neighbors.” Tensions between the governments in Tehran and Washington have escalated under the Bush administration, which has accused the Iranians of working on a nuclear weapons program in secret and of financing and supplying deadly weapons to anti-American militants in Iraq. Iran denies the accusations. In Iraq, negotiations over the security pact have become a major political issue, further splitting Shiite allies of Mr. Maliki and the political movement of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric. The New York Times reported last month that aides to Mr. Maliki from his Dawa Party said that American negotiators were demanding continued control of Iraqi airspace, immunity for American soldiers and security contractors, authority for more than 50 long-term bases, and the right to continue to carry out unimpeded military operations. Iraqi officials object to those terms, and are particularly insistent about limiting immunity for security contractors and ensuring that future American military operations are restricted and have the blessing of the Iraqi government, according to Ali Adeeb, a senior Dawa official close to Mr. Maliki. Some Iraqi officials have also complained that while the American military would maintain a large presence under the pact, it would not be obligated to protect the Iraqi government from aggression, either from outside or inside its borders. American officials have denied any plans for long-term military bases, but have acknowledged that they are seeking some other terms that Iraqi officials object to. The Sadrists have long opposed the occupation, and they also complain that Mr. Maliki’s recent operations against Sadr militiamen in Basra and Baghdad never would have succeeded without the backing of American military forces. During Friday Prayer last week, Sadrist clerics excoriated Mr. Maliki’s political allies over their recent criticism of elements of the proposed security pact, saying that their public comments were only a pretense and that they were sure to sign the agreement after making minor changes. “Shall we follow those who refuse the agreement totally, or shall we follow those who temporarily refuse it, but who will later agree to it after making some amendments?” Sheik Salah al-Obaidi, a top Sadrist official, said during prayers in Kufa, where he singled out Mr. Maliki’s Dawa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, another powerful Shiite party. Also on Monday, Iraqi security officials said three people were killed, including an Iraqi soldier, and 12 were wounded by a car bomb in central Baghdad. Gunmen also killed three people during a robbery at two gold shops in Baghdad. And three unidentified bodies were found in the capital. In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed two sheiks from nearby Tal Afar who were visiting the city and who had been important leaders of reconciliation efforts in Tal Afar and in the fight against Sunni militants, according to Tal Afar officials.

Iran
Politics and Government
Khamenei Ali
Maliki Nuri Kamal al-
United States Armament and Defense
International Relations


Father and Son to Pay $1.1 Million for Insider Trades

Abstract: A former Deloitte & Touche partner and his son will pay more than $1.1 million to settle claims they illegally traded on inside information about the audit firm’s clients, federal regulators said on Wednesday. The former partner, Thomas P. Flanagan, traded shares while serving as a liaison between the companies’ management teams and their auditors at Deloitte, the Securities and Exchange Commission said . Mr. Flanagan also tipped off his son, Patrick T. Flanagan, who made trades in the companies, which included Best Buy and Sears, the S.E.C. said. The father will pay almost $1.1 million in profit, interest and fines, while his son will pay more than $120,000, the S.E.C. said. They did not admit or deny wrongdoing under the settlement, according to the agency. Thomas Flanagan, 62, served as Deloitte’s advisory partner for Best Buy, Sears and Walgreen, a position that granted him access to income statements and press releases before the documents were made public. In trading on the results, the S.E.C. said he had violated the regulator’s auditor independence rules and Deloitte policies that restricted employees from buying securities linked to clients. Thomas Flanagan worked at Deloitte and its predecessor firm for more than 35 years before leaving the company as a vice chairman in its Chicago office in September 2008. He traded on material nonpublic information at least nine times from 2005 to 2008, reaping more than $430,000 in profits, the S.E.C. said. Thomas Flanagan passed information on at least four occasions to his son, who earned more than $57,000, the S.E.C. said. The biggest profits came from trades tied to Walgreen. A Deloitte auditor e-mailed Mr. Flanagan a copy of the drugstore chain’s fourth-quarter income statement on Sept. 25, 2007, showing the company had earned 40 cents a share, a 3.8 percent decline from the same period a year earlier, the S.E.C. said. Mr. Flanagan paid $39,148 three days later for 350 options that gave him the right to sell Walgreen shares for about $47 each. When Walgreen reported earnings on Oct. 1, 2007, its shares fell 15 percent. Mr. Flanagan made $217,329 after selling his put options, the S.E.C. said. Mr. Flanagan also provided false information about his securities holdings in filing taxes, according to the S.E.C.

Flanagan Thomas
Insider Trading
Deloitte & Touche
Securities and Commodities Violations


Across Borders, Talent Swaps Help Develop Skills and Careers

Abstract: On a recent Wednesday, Giuliano Barolo worked in Dow Chemical ’s business process service center in Mumbai while Swati Tribedy worked at Dow’s manufacturing plant in Mozzanica, Italy. He was doing her old job, and she his. She even sat at his old desk. Since early April, Mr. Barolo, 28, and Ms. Tribedy, 31, have been in a talent swap, a foreign assignment in which employees in the same company from different countries temporarily switch jobs. The new sharing economy includes things like house and apartment swaps, car transportation and co-working spaces. Now the same kind of philosophy is gaining traction in the corporate world, at least for some overseas employees. Talent swaps, which typically last less than a year, can involve less paperwork and expense than traditional expatriate assignments, in which companies have the added cost of moving a family and dealing with schools and costly housing. “It is shorter term, lower risk and easier to administrate,” said Peter Clarke, leader of the Global Mobility Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers . The swaps are also effective for career development, to promote cross-border mobility earlier and to attract and retain employees who are seen as having high potential. Mr. Barolo heard about the idea from a colleague from his hometown who had recently returned from a talent swap. “She was very enthusiastic,” he said, “and I was immediately drawn to it.” Ms. Tribedy, who studied mechanical engineering in college but had never worked in manufacturing, said: “I really wanted to experience another function. It’s different from what I imagined.” A recent PwC report predicted a 49 percent increase in talent swaps in the next two years, with more than one in five global businesses planning to introduce the concept. “Typically, the two swapped employees share a similar wage-pay structure and skill-experience level, so it’s basically a plug-out-plug-in situation,” Mr. Clarke said. Sometimes employees even swap housing, which is convenient for workers and a cost savings for companies because a spouse and children often remain at home. And candidates often volunteer for the assignment, he said. That was the case for Karen Jung, a manager at PwC in Tysons Corner, Va., who switched jobs in early February with Marie-Claire Delpin, a manager with the company in Paris. Like many swappers, both are young at 29, junior level and unmarried with no children. The short length of the talent swap was appealing, and Ms. Jung recalled pushing for the assignment. Things quickly fell into place. Ms. Delpin was approached, and she, too, liked the short commitment. “You can enjoy a professional experience without changing everything in your home country,” she said. Image Swati Tribedy, who now works in Mozzanica, Italy, swapped jobs with Mr. Barolo. Credit Chiara Goia for The New York Times The benefits, the women said, were as varied as learning the differences between American and French tax law to breaking down cultural stereotypes. And the experience created a closer connection with clients and colleagues based in the United States, Ms. Delpin said. PwC said that many companies engaged in the practice on an ad hoc basis and look to formalize and expand their programs. A recent survey by the firm found that 71 percent of younger workers wanted to work internationally and considered it essential to career growth. “Now, organizations are saying: ‘Hey, what can we do to retain talent and give younger workers the experience they want?’” Mr. Clarke said. “It is an increasingly important part of mobility strategy and a global mind-set. ” But not all multinational organizations or their clients engage in talent swaps or are even familiar with them. “They do happen but generally more on a one-off basis,” said Achim Mossmann, a principal in KPMG ’s Global Mobility Services practice. “Often the logistics proved too cumbersome — it is difficult to identify like-for-like candidates and release them from their roles at the same time.” And there are downsides: possible loss of productivity, disruption to clients and companies, and lateral moves for employees, said Dennis J. Garritan, co-managing partner of the private equity firm Palmer Hill Capital. “They learn new skills but are not being promoted — not everybody is in love with that,” he said. “But they want to check that international box as early as possible, and they are smart to do that.” Since Dow’s talent swap program began three years ago, 126 employees in 18 countries have participated. Of the 76 people in the first two groups of swaps, all returned or will return to new positions or promotions within six months, said John Kolmer, Dow’s manager of global leadership development. “We swap people across all geographic areas and functions,” he said, adding that goals include gaining cultural fluency, expanding professional networks and “intentionally taking people out of their comfort zones.” Employees and their company “get the benefit of a catalyst early on that can be leveraged for the rest of their careers,” Mr. Kolmer said. The approach worked for Alex Hoffmann. Five years ago, he was head of strategy for Europe at PayPal in Luxembourg when he sought management experience. A colleague, a managing director in Paris, wanted stronger strategic skills. The two swapped jobs, an idea proposed by their manager. “I remember my first week on the job,” Mr. Hoffmann said. “I got a call from a top salesperson who said we were about to lose the account of our biggest client. It became a bit of a firefight.” But he worked with the team and kept the account. “I honed skills as a line manager and had a totally different professional experience. I learned a ton of things.” Afterward, both swap partners were promoted. Today, as executive vice president for business development and global product at MoneyGram International in Dallas, Mr. Hoffmann continues to use both skills. “It worked out well,” he said. “I would do it again.”

Appointments and Executive Changes
Jobs
Barter
Careers and Professions
PricewaterhouseCoopers,PwC
Job Recruiting and Hiring
Dow Chemical
KPMG
Productivity


A Console With Quirks, for Tinkerers

Abstract: For every Prada, there’s a Gap. For every Four Seasons, there’s a Holiday Inn Express. For every Lamborghini, there’s a Corolla. Why shouldn’t the same logic apply to video game consoles? The aging Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles cost $200 and $270. Their successors, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, will cost $400 and $500 when they arrive this holiday season. But do all game fans truly need the raw, hulking power of a mainframe computer sitting beside their TV screens? Maybe that’s why a scrappy team of game designers decided to create the Gap of game consoles: the Ouya ($100). It began life as a project on Kickstarter, the site where inventors ask the public to help finance their pet projects in exchange for little more than a sense of participation; eager gamers kicked in over $8.5 million. They were rewarded by delays, bugs, delays and frustration. But now, at last, the Ouya (pronounced OOH-yah) is a real product for sale in real stores, at least where it’s not sold out. What you get for your $100 is a plastic black cube, about three inches on a side, and a standard cordless Xbox-style controller. The size is a virtue; you can shove your cube into a coat pocket and head over to a friend’s house or a hotel room. Don’t try that with an Xbox. The cube runs a version of Android, Google’s phone software. That’s no coincidence; its guts are about what you’d find in a phone or tablet. Image The Ouya gives humorous status messages and offers 200 video games to owners, like Final Fantasy III and Beast Boxing Turbo. It connects to your television with a single HDMI cable. The controller’s top panels pop off magnetically, so that you can insert an AA battery into each leg. When you turn everything on, instructions on the TV guide you through “pairing” the controller with the cube. Then you’re asked to help it onto your home Wi-Fi network. Finally, you’re treated to a long update process, as the Ouya downloads the latest software. Someone put a lot of work and humor into the “please wait” status messages that appear beneath the progress bar during the update. They float by, offering notifications like these: “Shifting bits ... Reducing complexity ... Opening flaps ... Calculating odds ... Refactoring Bezier curves ... Herding cats ... Rearranging deck chairs ... To be honest, just downloading a firmware update.” It’s funny. Finally, you arrive at the main menu. There, a Discover button reveals the Ouya’s main attraction: hundreds of games, instantly ready to download and play. (Unlike the Xbox and PlayStation, this console does not accept discs.) Every game is free to try. Some are free forever. Some are free to play for an hour, then require payment (usually $5 to $20). Some let you play only the beginning levels until you pay. Here’s the thing with Ouya games: You won’t mistake them for Xbox or PlayStation games. Many are terrible. Some are adapted from phone games. Some have jagged, bitmapped graphics like video games from 20 years ago. Some look like Wii games; some, like Vector (a parkour simulation, the acrobatic urban running sport), have a great stylized look. But the games rarely approach the movielike realism of the best Big-Name Console games. There’s nothing like Halo or Call of Duty on this thing. However, the 200 available games have charms of their own. They’re indie. They’re alternative. Some are goofy and hilarious. I watched a trio of elementary-schoolers laugh themselves silly for over an hour playing a game called No Brakes Valet. It’s a free, not even finished game in which you try to park skidding, nearly brakeless cars in a parking lot. There’s a lot of crashing and helpless giggling. Image Final Fantasy III, one of the games offered on the Ouya. Their parents split their own sides, thanks to You Don’t Know Jack, the brilliantly snarky trivia game from the mid-’90s. (After the sample round, the full game costs $10.) Knockoffs and remakes abound. Final Fantasy III is here. Polarity is like a low-rent Portal. Ouya says that 500 more games are in the works. But here’s a big deal; this box is open-source and hackable. Already, a not-so-secret society of tinkerers has written emulators — that is, software impersonation modules — that can turn the Ouya into a Nintendo DS, PlayStation 1, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Genesis and other old consoles. If you can find games for them online (the fuzzy legal ramifications don’t seem to stop anyone), you can load them onto the Ouya on a flash drive or from a computer and play them. Try that, Sonyheads! You can connect up to four controllers to play other people at parties, which is fun. But you can’t play against people online, and there’s no leader board to keep track of your scores and achievements. There seems to be only one way to peruse the catalog: scroll through screens full of game icons. There are no descriptions, no prices, no ratings, no master alphabetical list. It’s a problem. Unfortunately, the lack of polish evidenced in the motley game catalog also extends to the console itself. In its early, public testing days, the Ouya was notorious for bugginess. The sound would stop, the screen would go black, the console would lose its pairing with the controller. The retail version (the one sold in stores) is much better, but still buggy. It still requires reminding of its controller pairing at each start-up, for example. Image A scene from Beast Boxing Turbo. It would also be nice if the Ouya had apps for services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video and HBO Go, like most set-top boxes these days. (There are a couple of lesser ones, like Flixster and TuneIn.) Ouya, the company, says the rough edges are all part of the charm. A representative explains that Ouya’s “innovative approach to hardware is more like the typical approach to software development, meaning continually iterative — always changing — always getting better — never ‘finished.’ ” Whereas most companies keep their products secret until they’re fully ready, “we are getting all the benefits of developing in public (exposure, feedback, a real connection with our community, support) and all the drawbacks (misguided customer expectations, anger, etcetera).” If you’re a cynical person, that might sound like a nonapologetic way of acknowledging that this machine is not quite fully baked. Even if, as the company maintains, the quality and features will continue to grow, no software download can improve the hardware quality. The controller feels cheap. During the excruciating process of typing in your network password, e-mail address, Ouya password and so on, you’re supposed to arrow-key your way across an on-screen alphabet grid — but the right-arrow key sometimes takes you down a row, to your increasing frustration. Fortunately, you can plug in an Xbox controller to use instead. Ouya’s best feature is that it lives in Quirksville. The box, the people who make games for it and the people who buy it will find themselves delightfully unencumbered by the red tape, bureaucracy and corporate conservativeness that weigh down bigger-name consoles. All kinds of fascinating, funny, oddball games emerge as a result — and all are free for you to try. But the Ouya’s worst feature is also that it lives in Quirksville. The game quality varies wildly, and there’s no corporate screening at all. The company crowdsources new games — puts them into a category called Sandbox, where Ouya fans can try them and promote the best games into the “real” catalog. But there’s still a lot of chaff around the wheat. So yes, the company will spend the coming months running around stomping bugs, and game creators need time to dream up more offbeat winners. But already, Ouya is different, and entertaining, and portable, and open-source. And eminently entertaining and playable. Even at this, its never “finished” stage, it’s worth $100, especially if you don’t already own one of the more expensive consoles. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: the Corolla of game consoles has just pulled up.

Computer and Video Games
Ouya
Kickstarter
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Open-Source Software
Android


India Prepares a Budget, Surrounded by Secrecy and Big Expectations

Abstract: NEW DELHI — In a subterranean workshop in India ’s Ministry of Finance, roughly 100 government workers are nearing the end of their captivity. For nine days and nights, while they proofread, printed and bound 10,000 copies of the budget to be presented on Saturday morning, the workers have been sequestered behind doors sealed with wax and denied access to telephones or email, said officials who have taken part in traditional “lock-ins” in the past. Food brought in for the workers has been tasted to reduce the risk of food poisoning, which would require removal from the “sanitized” area to a designated room in a government hospital, watched by a “shadow” from India’s Intelligence Bureau. Indeed, some of the pressmen are themselves agents from the bureau, a retired intelligence officer said, planted in the workshop to guard against possible leaks to corporations. India’s budget always gets a lot of attention , but this year nerves are especially taut. Nine months have passed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi won an election vowing to revive India’s economy, and some of his supporters are expressing impatience with the pace of change . Though economic growth figures look promising, a drumbeat of editorials from industrialists and economists have exhorted Mr. Modi to announce something momentous and politically risky in his first full-year budget, like sharp subsidy cuts or tax overhauls. Some have taken an urgent tone, warning that the window of opportunity for structural change has already begun to close. Whatever the budget contains, it is sealed in a remarkable cone of secrecy. India’s elaborate confidentiality measures date to the time of the British Raj, when taxes on tea or spices could set off hoarding or dumping. More elaborate precautions were introduced after independence, when government spending essentially drove the economy. Some analysts say the need for confidentiality is receding now, as outside factors, like consumer spending and corporate investment, grow in importance. But for the workmen who oversee the budget’s production, secrecy remains an article of faith. “I am proud to say that the Indian budget has never been leaked,” said one official who has taken part in more than a dozen “lock-ins,” who like most other officials contacted would speak only on condition of anonymity. “The process ensures that it is a total secret. Who wants to change it? Nobody! Nobody will take the risk!” On Feb. 19, the workers — copy editors, binders, computer technicians, machine operators, plate makers and other laborers — filed into a warren of pressrooms and dormitories in North Block, the government’s drafty, elegant Raj-era office complex. “I have seen the place where all this happens in the Finance Ministry, and it is like a cellar, a subterranean chamber there — it is huge,” said S. Narayan, a former finance secretary, in a telephone interview. “It must have been built very long ago. I cannot imagine in the last 20 or 30 years anybody digging such a big hole in the North Block.” Image The release on Thursday of the railway budget. The main document was to be released on Saturday. Credit Money Sharma/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The lock-in begins with a ceremony in which the workers share halwa, a dense, sweet dessert, said the official who has taken part. Incense is burned around the printing presses and binders, giant machines imported from France and Germany. “We feel the budget is a puja,” or religious ceremony, he said. “We worship that machine on that day. We pray to the God that the machine will work on that day.” The entrances are sealed after that, with three rings of security put in place, and a only a handful of Finance Ministry officials allowed to enter or exit. The workers bring quilts, but little else, and say goodbye to their families, leaving a contact number in the Finance Ministry in case of emergencies. What follows are long spells of unbroken work, fueled by unlimited tea, with breaks for sleep in barracks. The official, who acknowledged missing his family during his time underground, said he could recall only one instance when a worker left the lock-in. It involved a poor laborer from Rajasthan, who got the news that his 6-month-old baby had died. The man left North Block under the guard of a team from the Intelligence Bureau, traveled to his village for a night — and the next day, the official said, he returned to the lock-in to continue work. “He said, ‘Sir, I came back, because if I do not, you will be discomfited, and your work will suffer,’” the official said. “I was very proud.” Intelligence agents perform background checks on all the workers who take part, watching for unexplained infusions of cash, said the retired intelligence officer. He said there was particular concern that press workers would be cultivated by representatives of large corporations, who might reach out through mutual friends, or send gifts for a child’s birthday, in hopes of securing an early glimpse of the budget. This could help them profit from the policies about to be announced, for example by investing in infrastructure companies, if large projects were planned, or in auto companies if excise duties were going to be changed. Such leaks would not be unprecedented. Over the last two weeks, the police in Delhi have arrested at least 16 people — government clerks, top executives, independent consultants and a news reporter — on charges of corporate espionage for illegally procuring government documents, which they allegedly provided to India’s top energy companies. “Dealing with a human brain is a very difficult task,” the retired intelligence officer said. “You may be sitting with me and say that I am a very good man. You may take all the measures. But nobody knows how I will act.” The pressmen’s work ends a few hours before dawn on Saturday, when trucks arrive to cart away the budget documents. By early afternoon, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finished his budget speech, the workers will emerge blinking into the sunlight. There is relief, of course, but mostly they feel pride, said the official who has taken part in the lock-ins. He has never read a budget document himself, but that hardly matters. “For me, these days are very exciting,” he said. “I am a printer. I want to print such a document that all the world wants to know about.”


U.N. Study Finds More Women in Politics

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — Women have entered politics in greater numbers than ever in the past decade, accounting for 18.4 percent of parliament members worldwide, according to a study released Thursday by the United Nations Development Fund for Women. The proportion of women has increased by seven percentage points since 1995. Much of the increase was driven by women realizing that they needed to attain power rather than just lobby for change, said women who spoke at a ceremony for the study’s release. “We need to convince women that the only way to really make a change is to stop complaining and just be the owner of power,” said Senator Cecilia López Montaño, the speaker of the opposition Liberal Party in Colombia. “It is a huge fight because men have been controlling power for centuries.” If the rate of change holds constant, it will take until 2045 for women to reach parity in the developing world, which the study by Unifem, as the development fund is known, defined as holding 40 percent to 60 percent of elected parliamentary seats. The report also examined how women were affected by economics, the courts and crime, among other issues. Quotas that reserve seats for women have proved instrumental in increasing their numbers. In elections held in 2007, women in countries with some form of electoral quota captured 19.3 percent of the seats, as opposed to 14.7 percent in countries without such quotas, the study said. Of the 22 countries where women constitute more than 30 percent of the national assembly, 18 have some form of quota. Provisional election returns from Rwanda, announced in news reports on Thursday, indicated that its Parliament, which reserves 24 of 80 seats for women, will become the first in which women hold a majority, with 44 seats. The genocide in Rwanda was also a crucial factor in galvanizing women to get more involved politically during the country’s reconstruction, said Inés Alberdi, the executive director of Unifem. “If you are in a secondary position, you can never fight for women,” she said. The study found a high correlation between the number of elected women and legislation related to women’s issues, including agriculture services, day care and street lighting for security. It also cited British research that women turned out in higher numbers to vote in elections when there was a female candidate. In addition, the study suggested that women held far fewer party leadership posts than their membership in the rank and file would suggest. A Latin American study quoted in the United Nations report said that while 47 percent of party members in Paraguay were women, they held just 19 percent of leadership positions. In Mexico, 52 percent of party members were women, compared with 31 percent of the leaders. In Panama, the numbers were 45 percent and 19 percent. “You have to be three times more intelligent, you have to be four times more transparent, you have to have everything more than men,” said Senator López, of Colombia. “We still have a male chauvinist society.” It will continue this way, she said, until the “democratic deficit” is closed, meaning equal representation for men and women.

United Nations
Women
Politics and Government


A Review of Mompou Tapas Wine Bar and Lounge in Newark

Abstract: So many American restaurants feature tapas these days that traditional Spanish tapas seem new again. A fine place to reacquaint yourself with the more authentically Spanish version is at Mompou Tapas Wine Bar and Lounge in the Ironbound section of Newark. What wonders the kitchen works with the simple red bliss potatoes that it transforms into patatas bravas, a dish that is beloved at bars and restaurants throughout Spain. Crispy and creamy, patatas bravas — angry potatoes, because they are also spicy — are much more exciting than French fries. The secret to preparing them, Steven Yglesias, the owner with his wife, Mia, said on the phone after my visits, is a three-step process: Simmer them first, to keep their interior creamy, then fry them, to create a crunchy exterior, and finally sauté them in a mix of aioli and pepper. The heat of the guindilla peppers ground into the sauce sneaks up on you. It’s a perfect dish to down with beer. Image The menu includes hanger steak served with horseradish sauce. Credit Brian Harkin for The New York Times Equally Spanish and expertly prepared is the tortilla Herminia. A wedge of eggs that have been cooked on the stovetop with potatoes, onions, and in this variation, spinach, it is a little more dense than a quiche and more crusty than a frittata because, unlike a frittata, it is flipped in the pan. The secret to making a good tortilla is to use plenty of olive oil, at least at the initial stage, Mr. Yglesias said. Because Spain, too, is improvising with tapas these days, Mr. Yglesias, a Newark native whose parents were born in Galicia, said he encouraged his staff to be creative. Unlike more traditional tortillas, this one arrives beneath a tangy pool of a blue-cheese-and-aioli dressing, a fine balance to the sweetness of the other, milder ingredients. Mompou was originally a sporting-goods store. With exposed brick walls, a copper ceiling and recessed lights, Mr. Yglesias transformed it into a restaurant in 2005. Named after the Catalan composer and pianist Federico Mompou, the restaurant features live music on some nights, but even in the absence of music, it has a beat. The tapas are one reason, the fully stocked bar is another. Illuminated by a row of filament lights, it offers eight microbrewed beers on tap, 30 kinds of bottled beer and more than 100 kinds of wine, with a heavy emphasis on those from Spain. Even on weeknights, the bar attracts a crowd. One more small dish worth sampling is piquillos rellenos, smoky peppers stuffed with a creamy mix of chicken and shrimp and covered with a slice of manchego cheese. A reduction of Rioja wine drizzled over the peppers softens the cheese and brings out its tangy edge. Image Tres leches cake. Credit Brian Harkin for The New York Times A slightly larger small-plate offering is charcuteria con queso, a selection of Spanish meats and cheeses. Although the three cheeses it featured on one occasion were slightly dull and hard to distinguish from one another, each of the meats was first-rate and distinctive. Serrano ham, similar in appearance to prosciutto, has a nutty flavor and the texture of silk. Spanish chorizo looks like pepperoni but has more verve, a result of the Spanish paprika used to cure it. Finally, the pale, sweet slices of expertly cured pork loin offer a more subtle pleasure. The longer you chew, the more flavor they yield. Served with a ramekin of salty green olives and garlic cloves, the charcuteria accompanied by several tapas makes a fine, light meal. Several of the eight entrees also highlight the bold, lusty flavors of Spanish food. The plain cubes of white-meat chicken in pollo al Mompou are perfect for soaking up the fiery red sauce, its heat generated by chunks of Basque pork sausage. What the sauce lacks in complexity, it makes up for in potency. I blinked when I first tasted it. Then I cleaned the bowl. Grilled marinated baby lamb chops are not entirely Spanish — the lamb itself is from New Zealand — but this dish, too, exerts a force, thanks to a garlic and mustard marinade. That marinade and a creamy horseradish sauce enhance the flavor of the hanger steak, another hearty meat on the menu. The broccoli rabe served with the lamb and the spinach accompanying the steak are sautéed in the right amount of garlicky oil, not overcooked. The menu has soft spots — cod croquettes that lack flavor, forgettable salads and, in an attempt to broaden the menu, a very non-Spanish plate of tuna sashimi served too cold — but work around them and you will find excuses to linger. Chief among these are, for dessert, a coconut flan and an irresistible tres leches cake that achieves that perfect, soggy texture of a doughnut dipped in just the right amount of coffee. It and the people-watching will keep you in your seat.

Restaurant
Mompou Tapas Wine Bar and Lounge
Newark NJ
New Jersey
Spain
Steven Yglesias


Exemptions May Color Deal to Lift New York State’s Minimum Wage

Abstract: ALBANY — Over the last several years, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has repeatedly invoked a mantra of New York as “one state,” a place where all people, upstate and downstate, are treated equally. Except, perhaps, when it comes to the minimum wage. Sometime in the next few days, Mr. Cuomo and other leaders in Albany could announce an agreement to raise wages in the state to $15 an hour, after an intense, union-backed campaign that has involved a steady stream of demonstrations and publicity stunts, including a patriotic R.V. emblazoned with the name of pro-wage forces: the Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice, which has spent more than $1 million on its efforts. But the deal that could emerge from the frothy mix of agendas may well include a variety of caveats, carve-outs and compromises, resulting in a patchwork of differing wages taking effect at different times in different regions and perhaps even exempting some professions. Moreover, some published reports have suggested that the $15 hourly rate — a benchmark of a nationwide movement to increase pay — might not be achieved at all in some areas north of New York City, a prospect that inflamed some of its most passionate backers. “We’re tired of going and begging for crumbs,” Mark Emanatian, the capital district organizer for Citizen Action of New York , said during a protest near the State Capitol on Thursday. “We want the whole table and all of the food.” The governor’s proposal, unveiled in January , has always called for a phased approach: $15 an hour for New York City jobs by Dec. 31, 2018, with the $15 hourly rate reached statewide in July 2021. In remarks to reporters at the Capitol on Friday, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat in his second term, seemed optimistic that his proposal would succeed, but he stopped short of guaranteeing that a deal was imminent for a $15 wage statewide. “My proposal is $15 upstate, downstate,” he said. A moment later, after a reporter’s question about a possible $13-an-hour compromise, or a longer timetable, he was curt: “I support my proposal.” As he has done before, Mr. Cuomo said the economic realities in upstate regions were weighing on talks with State Senator John J. Flanagan, the Long Island Republican who serves as majority leader, and the State Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat. “You have different economies in this state,” the governor said, noting the 10 different economic regions identified by his administration. Then he added, “Now, you can have more nuances, you can say Long Island is a separate region, you know, that’s part of the conversation.” The stakes for Mr. Cuomo would seem to be significant: Since January, he has made the $15 hourly wage and a paid-family-leave bill two of his major legislative priorities, and both are likely to be part of the state budget due on April 1. On Friday, he said that he was having “good conversations” about the issue of family leave, though questions about its length and funding were still percolating. A deal on the minimum wage would continue to repair his relationship with the left wing of his party, which was damaged by a first term spent working closely with Republicans. And for Mr. Cuomo, who is rumored to have national ambitions , the establishment of a statewide $15 hourly wage would be a landmark achievement: No other state has done so, according to the National Employment Law Project, though more than a dozen municipalities have. ( Voters in California are expected to take up the issue of a statewide $15 wage this fall , with a proposal that would just outpace New York’s, with statewide wages reaching $15 an hour in January 2021.) For Mr. Flanagan, the impact of a $15 minimum wage could be even more immediate: Voters on Long Island — who are generally more moderate — will decide in a special election on April 19 who will succeed Dean G. Skelos, the former Senate majority leader who was convicted of corruption. They will also choose whether Republicans can hold their slim majority in the Senate; polls there have shown a close race between the Republican candidate, Chris McGrath , a lawyer who is an adjunct legal professor at Hofstra University, and the Democrat, Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky . Opponents of the $15 minimum wage fear that Mr. Flanagan and other Republicans may be compelled to accept the plan, to avoid alienating moderate voters, who could hand control of the Senate to the Democrats. “We understand that there’s a special election in a couple of weeks; we understand that the governor has a pretty hefty stick right now,” said Mike Durant, the New York State director of the National Federation of Independent Business , adding, “We’re feeling the heat.” In remarks at the State Capitol on Thursday, Mr. Durant called on the Senate to reject any deal outright, saying that the notion that Republicans might broker a delay in increases or secure lesser increases upstate — with faster increases in New York and its suburbs — only confirmed assertions that a $15 wage would be disastrous for upstate jobs. “When you start hearing about carve-outs and caveats and bifurcated wage, it’s almost like Albany now is starting to acknowledge that there is an impact on the upstate economy,” he said. On that point, even ardent supporters of the $15 minimum wage seem to concede that some businesses, particularly those in rural areas, deserve special treatment. “We all know that the city of New York and downstate is a different economic situation than upstate New York,” said Mr. Heastie, adding that dairy farmers, for instance, are subject to federal formulas that regulate prices. Asked about other industries, he said, “If we’re going to take an action that causes a raise in their expenses and they can’t set their revenues, then I think it’s the state’s responsibility to deal with that.” Indeed, the New York Farm Bureau has been steadfast in its opposition to the $15 minimum wage, and it even opposes any carve-out for agricultural interests, something that Mr. Cuomo suggested this week could be a part of a wage deal. “Farmers must still pay a competitive wage to attract quality workers,” said Steve Ammerman, a spokesman for the bureau. “They’d be hard pressed to find someone willing to milk cows for less money than they could earn at McDonald’s.” For his part, Mr. Flanagan seemed relaxed when asked about the negotiations this week, calling discussions with Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Heastie fruitful. But it also seemed that he would like to extract concessions from the two men, including eliminating the ability of the governor to call a state wage board — which was responsible for the $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers, without legislative input — as well as getting traction on some of his own legislative priorities, including loosening business regulations and expanding small-business and middle-class tax cuts. Reforms to workers’ compensation might also be in the mix. Mr. Flanagan strongly rebuffed notions that Republicans are being forced — by political pressure — to embrace the $15 minimum wage, noting past increases that have passed with the support of members of his party. “You have unique circumstances that should always be taken into account,” he said, adding, “We believe in working men and women.”


Reaching Out With a Flourish of Indian Art

Abstract: In presenting “India: Public Places, Private Spaces — Contemporary Photography and Video Art,” the Newark Museum set an ambitious task for itself: to dazzle visitors while reaching out to New Jersey’s growing South Asian community. More than a quarter of a million South Asians live in New Jersey, an increase of 52 percent since 2000, according to 2006 American Community Survey estimates. “We felt it was timely and appropriate for the museum to debut this groundbreaking exhibition, given the unprecedented growth and influence of the Indian diaspora,” said Mary Sue Sweeney Price, director of the museum. What the museum came up with exceeded expectations: 100 works by 28 photographers and video artists, spread over 7,000 square feet. The 15-week run of the show will be augmented by music and dance, a fashion show, lectures, gallery tours and symposiums with Indian writers, artists, academics and filmmakers. Many of the events are being co-sponsored by and presented with other organizations, including Rutgers University and William Paterson University. The timing of the show is a “happy coincidence,” Ms. Price said, coming as the 60th anniversary of Indian independence is putting a spotlight on the country’s economic development and rich cultural heritage. Further augmenting this tasting menu of Indian culture, the Princeton University Art Museum is coincidentally presenting a show of photographs taken in India by Fazal Sheikh. The Newark show is big, and a bit tough to navigate. The museum’s entire downstairs has been put to use, which is terrific, but works in a couple of rooms upstairs off the Asian collection galleries are rather lost. There is lot to take in: intimate views of the rag-pickers who collect trash to sell; picturesque landscapes and architectural scenes; portraits of Bollywood stars and adolescent beauty pageant contestants. Some of this work is mundane, some traumatic; some makes for great art. Over all, this is a forceful and affecting show. Photojournalism predominates, or at least a brand of photography that has its roots in photojournalistic traditions. Raghu Rai takes informal pictures of important people and events, providing insight into the social and the political, while Ram Rahman seeks to capture simple occasions and street scenes that charmed him but that also evoke broader aspects of Indian life. The extensive use of black and white is one of the things distinguishing South Asian photography from the work of artists in East Asia and elsewhere. Another is scale: In an art world where everything is now huge, much of the work in this exhibition feels intimate. While I was visiting the gallery, Mr. Rahman was looking over his work. He speculated that the popularity of black- and-white film was partly because it could be processed and printed at home, while until recently, color film was expensive to develop commercially. Another reason, he suggested, was that many Indian photographers had been photojournalists comfortable with shooting in black and white. It may also have something to do with the subject matter, for a great deal of the imagery is socially and politically engaged. Some works even tackle dramatic national crises. Among these is Navjot Altaf’s multiscreen video installation at the entrance to the exhibition dealing with the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat that left more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Images and words relating to the violence scroll over the screens, building up a dreamy, fragmentary picture of the event. But it is not all documentary art. The exhibition co-curators, Paul Sternberger, an art history professor at Rutgers, and Gayatri Sinha, an independent curator and critic in India, have tried to include examples of other photographic techniques, subjects and styles. Though the variety is perhaps not as broad as it could be, there are thematic groupings of pictures on issues like personal identity, the collision of public and private space and the Indian diaspora. Moving away from street scenes, these works take us to more private places. “Playing Inside: Photography, Video and Personal Identity” is the most engaging of these sections, with the work of a dozen artists exploring video and photography as tools of expression. Often their works are playful and whimsical. One piece, Vivan Sundaram’s theatrical restaging of scenes from his family archive of photographs, is a heartfelt if hilarious act of ancestral homage. Nearby is Ranbir Kaleka’s simple, poignant video of a man chasing and capturing an escaped cockerel. Then there is Atul Bhalla’s sequence of self-portraits showing him submerging his head into a pond. Coming to the end of this section, I wanted more. As the exhibition of photographs by Fazal Sheikh being shown concurrently at the Princeton University Art Museum reminds us, while some aspects of Indian society are changing, others are not changing quickly enough. Mr. Sheikh is presenting two series of recent documentary photos addressing the treatment of women in India. Having grown up in New York and studied photography at Princeton University, he has devoted himself to photographing the poor and dispossessed. One series, the more compelling one, documents the plight of dispossessed widows in the Indian holy city of Vrindavan, while the other examines the challenges confronting young Indian women, especially the poor. The two series together include about 150 pictures, mostly black-and-white photographs of people. Some of the subjects recall traumatic experiences that are described in text panels. The plight of the widows of Vrindavan, who migrate there after being cast out or abandoned in a society where Hindu brides marry into their husbands’ families, is profoundly affecting; Mr. Sheikh has alternated the women’s portraits with street scenes giving a sense of context. Mist fills the air, for the photographs were often taken early in the morning as the women made their way to ashrams to pray. It is difficult to think about people being so callously discarded, yet these pictures are so voyeuristic and intimate that they take your breath away. This is powerful photography.

Art
Museums
Newark Museum
Princeton University Art Museum
Genocchio Benjamin