Bottom Line on Doing Good

Abstract: “IT’S alluring and very much in vogue to connect social responsibility with profitability,” an article in The Harvard Business Review begins. “If you can make a business case for positive social action, everybody wins — employees, shareholders and society at large.” That, of course, leads to the question: Is there such a link? The issue has been studied to death. And after reviewing a huge number of the studies, the writers say, the answer is that if there is a link, it is “not a strong one.” Joshua D. Margolis of Harvard Business School and Hillary Anger Elfenbein of the University of California, Berkeley, say they analyzed 167 studies conducted in the last 35 years that examined the issue of whether social responsibility leads to increased profitability and found that while it certainly did not hurt — that is it did not diminish shareholder value — there was only “a very small correlation between corporate behavior and good financial results.” And that minor correlation, they add, could be explained by the fact that companies that have performed well over a long period of time have enough money to contribute positively to society. Conversely, corporate misdeeds, once they become known, do have a significant negative impact on financial performance. So, intriguingly, it is easier to prove the negative in this case. “Perhaps the easiest way to communicate our findings is to say that only 2 percent of the studies we reviewed showed that managers who dedicate corporate resources to social performance — taking actions that consider in the interests of society — impose a direct cost to shareholders,” they write. “Companies can do good and do well, even if they don’t do well by doing good.” STAYING PUT For years, senior executives have been worrying about how to capture all the knowledge of their baby boomer employees who are expected to start retiring soon (the oldest of the boomers are now 62). But it appears that older workers are not in any hurry to retire. In fact, they show signs that they will continue working, according to HR magazine, citing figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which show that the number of workers older than 64 is expected to increase by 74 percent from 2004 to 2014. That is “nine times faster than the number of workers between the ages of 35 to 44,” the magazine points out. The magazine gives no reason for the growth in older workers. But data suggests that a majority of people in their 60s have not saved enough to retire the way they want. Another explanation could be that most people in their 60s today do not consider themselves to be old. “Baby boomers represent about one-fifth of the work force and most of senior corporate leadership, according to Novations, a global consulting and training firm,” the magazine says. EASIER UPGRADE As has been well documented, using frequent-flier miles to obtain an upgrade has become much more difficult since airlines have started to reduce capacity on their domestic routes. One way to increase your chances, writes Julie Moline in Entrepreneur , is: “Don’t fly out of your preferred carrier’s hub. There is less competition for upgrades from secondary airports.” FINAL TAKE Here’s one way to (seemingly) gain a dramatic return on your money, courtesy of “Next Month’s Business News” in Condé Nast’s Portfolio . “In keeping with its philosophy of offering upbeat business news, the Fox Business Network will begin broadcasting Nasdaq quotes from 1999,” Andy Borowitz writes, with tongue firmly in cheek. In case you have forgotten, the Nasdaq was at 4,069 as 1999 came to an end. It closed at 2, 340.02 on Friday. PAUL B. BROWN

Harvard Business Review
Executives and Management
Labor
Magazines


Cavaliers Hand Nets Fifth Straight Loss

Abstract: Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker hit late 3-pointers, Cleveland got 52 points from its bench and the Cavaliers won their third straight game, 93-91 over the reeling Nets on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark. J. J. Hickson led the Cavaliers’ balanced attack with 18 points. Ramon Sessions and Jamison each added 15 points and Daniel Gibson had 14 as Cleveland beat the Nets for the ninth straight time. “I said all along that our bench could be one of our strong points and our guard play could be one of our strong points,” said Byron Scott, the Cavaliers’ coach. “That was the case tonight.” Travis Outlaw scored a season-high 27 points for the Nets, who have lost five in a row after opening the season with two wins. Devin Harris added 18 and Brook Lopez had 16 for the Nets, who got 17 points from their bench. “We were fighting,” Outlaw said. “That’s the most important thing. We have to continue to fight. We have to continue to keep our head up and keep pushing.” PACERS 144, NUGGETS 113 Indiana made its first 20 shots of the third quarter, missing out on a perfect period against visiting Denver when Josh McRoberts was off on a 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left. Mike Dunleavy scored 24 of his 31 points in the Pacers’ 54-point period. Indiana, which shot 64 percent over all, led by 113-76 at the end of the third quarter. Darren Collison scored 29 points, Tyler Hansbrough had 20 points and 9 rebounds, and Danny Granger added 19 points for the Pacers. Indiana set league season highs for points, field goals made and field-goal percentage. Ty Lawson led Denver with 19 points. Carmelo Anthony shot 5 for 15 and scored 13 points . JAZZ 116, HEAT 114 Paul Millsap scored a career-high 46 points, including a putback at the buzzer to force overtime, and Utah got two free throws from Francisco Elson with 0.4 of a second left to defeat Miami. The Jazz erased a 22-point deficit, overcoming a 39-point night from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James’s 29th career triple-double — 20 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds — to hand the Heat its first home loss. HORNETS 101, CLIPPERS 82 Willie Green scored 19 points and Jarryd Bayless added 15, helping host New Orleans remain unbeaten with a victory over Los Angeles. With Chris Paul on the bench, Bayless and Green took over in the fourth quarter, combining to score the Hornets’ first 19 points in the period to give New Orleans a 20-point lead. The Clippers played most of the game without Chris Kaman, their starting center, after he sprained his left ankle. STORE TO CLOSE The N.B.A. store on Fifth Avenue will close at the end of February, and the league is searching for a new location. The league has been in the current outlet in Midtown since September 1998, and the league said it notified the landlord, Kushner Companies, under its original lease that it will move out after the holiday season and the N.B.A. All-Star Game. Sal LaRocca, the league’s executive vice president for global merchandising, said that Kushner was seeking an increase comparable to the one obtained when the Japanese clothing company Uniqlo signed a lease for other space in the building said to be worth $300 million over 15 years. “The amount of dollars the landlord is requiring from the next tenant, we couldn’t find a way to make it work,” LaRocca said. “The asking price is well over $2,000 a square foot.”

Cleveland Cavaliers
New Jersey Nets
Basketball
Indiana Pacers
Denver Nuggets
National Basketball Assn


South Dakota: Keystone XL Pipeline Permit Renewed

Abstract: State regulators on Tuesday again approved the section of the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would go through South Dakota, despite the project’s stalled status at the federal level. The Public Utilities Commission’s decision also hinges on a requirement that TransCanada Corporation receive a presidential permit for the project. President Obama blocked the pipeline in November, but it could be revived by the next administration. TransCanada’s proposed pipeline would go from Canada through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries along the gulf coast. Opponents had argued that the company would have to start from the beginning with a new application. The Public Utilities Commission rejected that thinking last month. The state authorized the pipeline in 2010, but permits must be revisited if construction does not start within four years. The commission voted to accept the company’s guarantee that it can complete the project while meeting the conditions of the 2010 approval.


Giants’ Rout Aided by Review

Abstract: The San Francisco Giants scored seven runs in the seventh inning and beat the visiting Chicago White Sox, 7-1, on Wednesday after a video review led the umpires to overturn an out call at home. With one out in the seventh, Chicago first baseman Jose Abreu fielded Joe Panik’s grounder and threw out Gregor Blanco at home. Giants Manager Bruce Bochy challenged the play, and the umpires ruled that catcher Tyler Flowers’s left leg had illegally blocked the plate before the ball arrived. White Sox Manager Robin Ventura argued and was ejected. With the victory, San Francisco snapped a five-game skid, and Jake Peavy (1-3) earned a win for the first time since April 25. TIGERS 8, PIRATES 4 Nick Castellanos homered and tripled, and host Detroit rallied past Pittsburgh, snapping a four-game losing streak. In his major league debut, the Tigers’ Buck Farmer allowed four runs in five innings. INDIANS 3, DIAMONDBACKS 2 A one-out homer by Zach Walters in the ninth inning gave host Cleveland a win over Arizona in the first game of a doubleheader. RED SOX 5, REDS 4 Mike Napoli hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs to help Boston defeat host Cincinnati and wrap up its first winning trip of more than three games this season. CARDINALS 5, MARLINS 2 Justin Masterson pitched seven scoreless innings in his best outing since joining St. Louis, and the Cardinals averted a series sweep at Miami. PADRES 5, ROCKIES 3 Rymer Liriano hit his first big-league homer to help host San Diego beat Colorado for its fifth straight win. BRAVES 3, DODGERS 2 Ervin Santana won his sixth straight start at Turner Field, and Atlanta snapped a two-game skid with a victory over Los Angeles. ROYALS 3, ATHLETICS 0 Jason Vargas threw a three-hitter for his sixth career shutout, Omar Infante hit a two-run homer, and host Kansas City beat Oakland. CUBS 4, BREWERS 2 Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo hit back-to-back home runs to lead host Chicago past Milwaukee. TWINS 3, ASTROS 1 Joe Mauer homered to break a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, and Kyle Gibson gave up one run in seven and two-thirds innings to propel Minnesota past host Houston. RAYS 10, RANGERS 1 Chris Archer had a career-high 12 strikeouts in seven innings as Tampa Bay defeated host Texas. DARVISH TO D.L. Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish was placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his right elbow, a move that was retroactive to Sunday. TULOWITZKI DONE FOR YEAR The Rockies’ Troy Tulowitzki will have surgery on his left hip Friday and will miss the rest of the season, the team said.


Chemical Maker Files Suit Over Approach to Merger

Abstract: In his more than three decades on Wall Street, Leon D. Black has played many roles, including wunderkind investment banker and private equity mogul. On Monday, however, he assumed an altogether different one: defendant in a civil lawsuit. Apollo Management and two of its founders, Mr. Black and Joshua J. Harris, were sued on Monday by the Huntsman Corporation , accused of interfering in the company’s $10.6 billion merger with an Apollo company, Hexion Specialty Chemicals. Huntsman, a chemical maker, is seeking more than $3 billion in damages. Shares in the company closed at $12.80, down about 0.3 percent and far from the $28 that Hexion agreed to pay in July. The lawsuit, filed in a Texas state court, is the latest legal salvo in one of the few big deals remaining from last year. Apollo and Hexion sued Huntsman in Delaware’s Chancery Court last week, seeking to end the merger agreement. The two said that, given Huntsman’s lower earnings and increased debt, completing the deal would plunge the newly combined company into insolvency. Given that, the banks that had agreed to finance the deal, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, were unlikely to lend the $15.35 billion needed, Apollo and Hexion argued. And given the state of the credit markets today, alternative financing would probably not be available. The lawsuit filed Monday, in Huntsman’s home in Montgomery County, Tex., is not a direct reply to that legal action. Instead, Huntsman argues that Apollo made false promises as it sought to break up an earlier deal between Huntsman and Basell, a Dutch industrial company. Apollo, through Hexion, eventually bid $28 a share, persuading Huntsman to abandon its earlier merger agreement. Having eliminated Basell as a rival, Apollo then sought to delay closing the deal while it tried to force Huntsman into lowering its ultimate selling price, Huntsman argued. Its lawsuit says that the strategy was personally approved by Mr. Black and Mr. Harris, both of whom are managing partners at Apollo, a private equity firm. “Despite its representations, it is now apparent that Leon Black and Joshua Harris never intended to allow Hexion to consummate the merger at a price of $28 per share,” Huntsman said in its complaint. “They never wanted Hexion to pay a price that high.” Huntsman pointed to Apollo’s hiring of an outside financial adviser, without consulting Huntsman, to provide a valuation of the chemical company. Apollo then made the valuation opinion public without conferring with Huntsman, the complaint said, calling that action proof that it was seeking only to force talks for a lower price. A Hexion spokesman said in a statement that Huntsman’s lawsuit did not contradict the earlier lawsuit’s claims. “It is unfortunate that Huntsman has chosen to file a baseless lawsuit against Apollo and to personally sue two of its principals,” he said. “In fact, Huntsman’s suit does not dispute that the combined company would be insolvent.” Struck during the zenith of the buyout boom, the merger between Huntsman and Hexion began to falter as the credit markets collapsed. Several private equity deals have already collapsed, including those for Sallie Mae, the student lender, and United Rentals, a rental equipment operator. Huntsman appears to be taking a page from a leveraged buyout that nearly collapsed in a legal showdown, that of the radio and billboard giant Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel made similar interference claims in a lawsuit it filed in Texas against the banks that had committed to finance its takeover by two private equity firms. Both companies sought jury trials, hoping for a sympathetic audience.

Apollo Management LP
Huntsman Corporation
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Suits and Litigation
Hexion Specialty Chemicals
Black Leon
Harris Joshua H.


Vanuatu Death Toll Is Likely to Rise as Glimpses of Cyclone’s Fury Emerge

Abstract: HONG KONG — Initial glimpses of remote parts of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu , which was lashed by a cyclone over the weekend , indicated widespread devastation, relief workers said Tuesday. Communication with many islands in the archipelago remained patchy on Tuesday, but accounts trickling in from pilots, satellite phones and radio messages pointed to extensive damage, Aurélia Balpe, the Pacific regional head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said by telephone from Fiji. A pilot who had flown to Tanna, an island in the south that was crossed by the eye of the cyclone, reported that “basically, there were no traditional houses standing,” Ms. Balpe said. It remained unclear how many people had been killed. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report that it had confirmed 11 fatalities, revising an earlier estimate of 24. But the count did not include more isolated islands where fierce winds of 160 miles an hour and higher leveled many homes as the cyclone struck Vanuatu starting late Friday, and relief workers were concerned that the toll could rise. An Australian air surveillance team said in a report shared with aid workers late Tuesday that there was widespread destruction in the smaller settlements on Tanna. About 70 percent of the buildings in the island’s capital, Isangel, were damaged, it reported, and crops appeared to be spoiled but were still standing. But in smaller settlements on the island, including Yarouareung in the south and Lowiteul in the north, all of the buildings had been damaged, the report said. In some small settlements, no people could be seen from the air. The devastation in the smaller villages is “frightening,” said Tom Perry, a spokesman for Care Australia. Mr. Perry added that the runway at the Tanna airport was functional but that the roof of the terminal had been blown off. Image A boy walked amid the ruins of his house on Monday in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Aid agencies said it could be one of the worst disasters to ever hit the region. Credit Pool photo by Dave Hunt Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for Unicef in Port-Vila, Vanuatu’s capital, said the cyclone’s destructive power had forced 80 percent of Tanna’s population of about 30,000 to abandon their homes. Vanuatu has a population of about 270,000 people on 65 inhabited islands, with 50,000 people in Port-Vila. Up to 60,000 children need humanitarian assistance immediately, Unicef said, and one aid worker on Vanuatu, Gaelle Sevenier, reported that food supplies were quickly running out. “Everything is wiped out,” she said in a report provided by Unicef. “There’s some fruit on the ground from fallen trees, but soon there’ll be nothing. Families have told me they only have a little rice left, if anything at all.” Narua Joe Kwane, chief of a 200-person village near Port-Vila, said the cyclone had torn down all the houses. “We now have to live outside, sleep outside with the children, and it may rain again,” he told Unicef workers. “So far, no one came, no one gave us food. We have no water, nothing.” The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said on Tuesday that her country would send a search-and-rescue team to Vanuatu later in the day to assess damage and recovery needs. The Australian defense minister, Kevin Andrews, said that forces from Australia, Britain, France and New Zealand were flying reconnaissance missions or providing aid, and that the United States was prepared to send a disaster relief team.

Vanuatu
Hurricanes
Cyclone
Humanitarian aid
UN
Fatalities,casualties


De Blasio’s Budget Raises Spending Without Big Cuts

Abstract: Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced a $73.9 billion budget plan for New York City that included significant new spending on education, social services and municipal payrolls — but virtually no service cuts or new channels of revenue. The proposal, Mr. de Blasio’s most detailed blueprint to date for the city’s fiscal future, would increase spending by 6 percent compared with last year’s plan. And it includes a long-term commitment to pay $17.8 billion in compensation, including some retroactive wages, to the city’s labor unions over a period that will stretch into the next decade. The plan did not challenge the prevailing notion of Mr. de Blasio as a liberal Democrat intent on using budgets to right societal wrongs and improve the lot of city workers. And it lacked the tough-minded, cautionary tone of his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, who regularly stressed how little money there was available to spend, and whose relationship with labor deteriorated during his final years in office. Mr. de Blasio, for his part, hailed his plan as humane and prudent. “Part of being an honest progressive is recognizing the world as it is,” he said at a news conference in City Hall. “If you believe in the positive role of government as I do, then you need a strong and stable foundation.” City officials said the total labor expense over several years would be reduced to less than $8 billion by tapping unused reserve funds and by cutting billions of dollars from the cost of union health care plans. But the de Blasio administration has not explained how the health care cuts would be achieved, and it has insisted that workers’ premiums will not rise. Some fiscal experts said on Thursday that they were uneasy about the city hinging its fiscal future on savings that remained murky. “This is a grand experiment,” Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said, noting that the mayor did not include specific plans for tax increases or other spending cuts to offset municipal costs. “There are a lot of unknowns about this.” The plan is a more detailed version of a preliminary proposal the mayor unveiled in February. A final budget must be negotiated with the City Council by the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1. The mayor’s political priorities, including the fulfillment of some campaign promises, were laced throughout the new municipal balance sheet. Mr. de Blasio, who used the word “progressive” five times in unveiling his proposal, announced that he would be directing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to the public school system, including $145 million set aside for after-school programs. Funding for the library system will be increased by 25 percent from last year. The public-housing network will receive an additional $70 million to address security issues and a repair backlog. Student aid programs at the City University of New York were granted $20 million in funding. And the mayor directed $29 million for traffic safety measures, including new speed cameras, speed bumps and traffic enforcement agents, in keeping with his heavily promoted “Vision Zero” plan to reduce traffic deaths. By law, the budget for the coming fiscal year is balanced — a feat achieved in part by using a surplus left over from Mr. Bloomberg’s most recent budget. For the fiscal year starting July 1, 2015, however, the budget is projected to show a $2.2 billion deficit, twice the size of what was anticipated in previous plans. Deficits continue to appear in the plan through 2018. Mr. de Blasio, at the news conference, called those gaps “manageable,” adding, “We’re confident that we will be able to handle them in time.” His aides said that, as a percentage of the city’s revenue, the deficits projected in the plan were small in comparison to those projected in previous years, and reflected more “accurate” forecasting. Councilman Vincent M. Ignizio, a Republican of Staten Island and the Council’s minority leader, said he was not wholly convinced that the deficits were benign. “My concern is that we are just passing along and spending money today that we may not have tomorrow, should the city go into an economic downturn again,” he said. Much of the discussion on Thursday about the mayor’s budget focused on its large labor costs. Mr. de Blasio began his term facing negotiations with 152 municipal bargaining units, all of whose contracts had expired. City officials said they believed they could fairly compensate the public work force while reducing fiscal shock by spreading the costs across many years. Much of the cost of retroactive pay for city teachers would not to be paid until the last years of Mr. de Blasio’s theoretical second term. Aides to the mayor said they had cultivated a newly cooperative relationship between the city and labor negotiators, and they believed the unions would make good on a commitment to reduce their health care costs by $3.4 billion. If not, they said, the city reserved the right to enforce some of the terms. “These savings are enforceable by arbitration,” Mr. de Blasio said. “These savings will happen. Period.” Still, even with the health care savings, and barring a significant uptick in existing tax revenues, the city will have to find ways to offset the higher compensation for workers. “The labor agreements are not paid for,” said Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Despite the bureaucratic nature of a budget presentation, there were moments of levity. Mr. de Blasio found himself in the decidedly unfamiliar position of directing a PowerPoint presentation, a ritual of corporate culture more closely identified with his predecessor. At one point, asked if he had included some wiggle room for raises, Mr. de Blasio paused and smiled. “I’m not a wiggle room kind of guy,” the mayor said.

Bill de Blasio
Budget
NYC
Affordable housing
K-12 Education


Turkey Arrests Kurdish Leader

Abstract: ISTANBUL — Turkish military authorities arrested the leader of the country’s Kurdish political party on Tuesday, saying he had illegally avoided military service. The arrest capped weeks of attempts to shut down the party, and his supporters said it was political. Military authorities detained the leader, Nurettin Demirtas, in the airport in Ankara as he arrived from Germany late Monday. He was formally arrested later and is being held in a military jail in Ankara, Turkish officials said. The party he leads, the Democratic Society Party, known by its initials in Turkish, D.T.P., is the only pro-Kurdish party in Turkey. Turkish authorities have shut down more than three of its predecessor parties. Turkey has long oppressed its sizable Kurdish minority. Although conditions for Kurds have improved in recent years, a deep suspicion lingers. Strains re-emerged in October, when Kurdish militants ambushed Turkish troops. The next month, Turkish authorities began an investigation of the party, questioning the relations between its members and the outlawed Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K. Police authorities had opened a case against Mr. Demirtas and many others for illegal avoidance of military service months ago. But the military has taken it over, and some of Mr. Demirtas’s supporters saw politics in the timing. “This arrest is just another way to interfere in politics, especially now that there’s a closure case against the party,” said Hasip Kaplan, a member of the party, and of Parliament. “It’s part of the part of the psychological attack against D.T.P. that’s been happening for some time."


Campbell Soup Considering Sale of Godiva

Abstract: CHICAGO, Aug. 9 (Reuters) — Campbell Soup said on Thursday that it was exploring alternatives for Godiva Chocolatier that included selling it, and analysts said there could be many suitors for the well-known luxury brand. The decision came as part of the company’s review of its portfolio, which also includes Pepperidge Farms cookies and crackers and V8 vegetable juice. “The premium chocolate business does not fit with Campbell’s strategic focus on simple meals — including soup — baked snacks and vegetable-based beverages,” Douglas R. Conant, Campbell’s president and chief executive, said. But the business could fit with several other companies, including Hershey, Cadbury Schweppes, Mars and the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. Wrigley tried to enter the chocolate business in 2002, only to see its $12.5 billion agreement to buy Hershey fall apart. Analysts said Godiva could fetch more than $1 billion. It has annual sales of about $500 million out of Campbell’s total of more than $7.3 billion. “My sense is that there will be interest among all the large confectionery businesses,” said Mitchell Corwin, an analyst who covers the confectionery business at Morningstar. The higher-end chocolate business has become more competitive in recent years, with companies like Hershey selling more premium products at grocery stores and convenience shops. At the same time, Godiva’s chocolate shops face growing competition from others, including Ethel’s Chocolate Lounges, owned by Mars. Campbell said it had retained Centerview Partners as its financial adviser. Its shares fell $1.70, to $35.25, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Campbell Soup Co
Godiva Chocolatier
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Chocolate


Yankees Struggle Through Heat to Beat Athletics

Abstract: As humidity enveloped commuters and the sun baked the city’s sidewalks, the Yankees struggled through the heat like other New Yorkers on Friday afternoon while they prepared to go to work in their return to Yankee Stadium. The pregame measures — canceling batting practice and keeping the players on a hydration regimen, for example — seemed all the more necessary as the game stretched to 3 hours 41 minutes, thanks to home runs by Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira in a nine-run third inning and a laborious, disconcerting outing from Phil Hughes. But the Yankees’ 17-7 victory over the Oakland Athletics will probably be best remembered for the ovenlike setting — and all that came with it. It was 100 degrees at first pitch, the hottest game-time temperature at the new Yankee Stadium, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The last time it was 100 degrees in the Bronx at first pitch of a Yankees game was July 5, 1999, against Baltimore. “I’m not sure I can ever remember it being the numbers it is here without a breeze,” Gene Monahan, the Yankees’ trainer since 1973, said of the temperature. “In my 39 years, I’m not sure I remember it with the numbers they’re talking about with the day games tomorrow and Sunday.” Perhaps a real reason for worry this weekend is that pitchers other than C. C. Sabathia will be starting. The Yankees are not sure what they will get when Sabathia is not on the mound, and Hughes’s performance Friday is certain to add to the debate about how they should bolster the rotation nearing the July 31 trade deadline. The Yankees gave Hughes plenty of cushion, getting to A’s starter Trevor Cahill for 10 runs in two-plus innings. But Hughes pitched as if he were trying to surrender the 12-run lead he was handed after the third, failing to command his fastball. Hughes, in his third start since returning from the disabled list, allowed seven runs and nine hits in four and a third innings. “I would have liked to be better, but we won the game,” Hughes said. “It’s not like we got our butts kicked tonight, so it’s sort of easier to sit back and be like, O.K., what do I need to work on? I know what needs to be better.” The pitching issues were out of focus before the game, though. Instead, the start of the Yankees’ 10-game homestand was notable mostly because of the atmosphere — in the most literal sense. To combat the heat, the Yankees took precautions that included setting up cold whirlpools near the dugout and recommending a meal plan replete with fruits, vegetables, water and sports drinks. “Hydration is No. 1,” Monahan said. “We like to prehydrate, so we don’t get the associated cramping and pulling. When you lose water and electrolytes through sweating, your muscles aren’t going to function, and it starts with cramping.” The decision to cancel batting practice, however, was a result of both the heat and the team’s 3 a.m. return on Friday after a flight home from a series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Instead, a few of the Yankees took practice swings in a batting cage in a cool area near the dugout. The A’s did not cancel their batting practice. It would seem the Yankees did not need extra work in the batting cage, and the steamy air might have even helped their productivity. In the third, Swisher blasted a three-run homer off Cahill, who lasted only five batters into that inning. Teixeira capped the Yankees’ offensive outburst in the inning with a grand slam off Michael Wuertz. The nine runs were the most the Yankees have scored in an inning this season. On particularly hot days, players have been known to switch jerseys to keep from getting bogged down in a sweaty, heavy jersey. Other players have been said to place towels soaked in spirits of ammonia and water around their necks, to cool them down and also to perk them up. When Manager Joe Girardi was a player, his teammates would put pieces of cold lettuce on their heads during hot days. And while he would not admit to trying it, Girardi offered a prediction for why his teammates did it. “I think it was iceberg,” Girardi said of the type of lettuce. “Maybe that’s why it worked.” There were no reports of lettuce in the Yankees dugout Friday, but there may be a need for inventive remedies as the heat wave settles over the area this weekend. The Yankees are scheduled to play a pair of day games, when temperatures will be at their highest. INSIDE PITCH Joe Girardi said it was “definitely possible” that Rafael Soriano, who has been out with right elbow inflammation, and Eric Chavez, sidelined with a fractured left foot, could rejoin the team during this homestand. ...Hector Noesi (2-0) picked up the win after throwing three and two-thirds scoreless innings in relief. ... Brandon Laird singled in a run in the eighth inning for his first major league hit.

New York Yankees
Oakland Athletics
Baseball
Weather
Teixeira Mark
Swisher Nick


Screenwriters Seek Bigger Slice of Half-Eaten Pie

Abstract: LOS ANGELES, Nov. 11 — As Hollywood digs in for a second week of a strike, the screenwriters might want to send a few angry picketers over to Will Smith’s place. Or Steven Spielberg’s. And maybe the studio executives should think about joining them on the line. As it turns out, the pot of money that the producers and writers are fighting over may have already been pocketed by the entertainment industry’s biggest talent. That is the conclusion of a surprisingly bleak new assessment of financial dynamics in the movie industry titled “Do Movies Make Money?” The researchers’ answer: not any more. The report, prepared by the research company Global Media Intelligence in association with its partner Merrill Lynch, concludes that much of the income — past and future — that studios and writers have been fighting about has already gone to the biggest stars, directors and producers in the form of ballooning participation deals. A participation is a share in the gross revenue, not the profit, of a movie. Through the twists and turns of contemporary deal-making, major studios in theory give away as much as 25 percent of a film’s receipts under such arrangements. The actual take is lower, because of certain adjustments. (This is Hollywood, after all.) But a Hanks, Cruise or Carrey whose movie brings $600 million back to the studio from all sources might easily wind up with a $20 million salary, and an additional $50 million on the back end, while an A-list director and producer could take in tens of millions more. Industrywide, the tab for participation arrangements piled up to $3 billion or more last year, by the research company’s reckoning, helping push the business of making films, which was somewhat profitable a few years ago, into a loss. Roger R. Smith, a former film executive who worked more than six months on the report, said the effect of participations is huge, because “they can easily be paid out on money-losing pictures.” For the study, Mr. Smith and his team examined all films distributed in recent years by the six major studios, plus DreamWorks, which was independent before its acquisition by Paramount Pictures. It included movies from the primary studio operations, along with the bigger movies from specialty film units like Warner Independent Pictures. And not all of the films are completely owned by the studios, as some have equity investors. The study estimated that all such releases last year would yield a combined loss of $1.9 billion after collecting the revenue from an entire first cycle of sales to domestic theaters, foreign theaters, home video, pay television and every other source of income. Total sales for last year’s slate, the company figures, will ultimately be about $23.7 billion, down about 4.6 percent from 2004. Total costs, meanwhile, rose to $25.6 billion, up 13.2 percent. As he began working up the numbers last spring, Mr. Smith, who is the executive editor and motion picture analyst for Global Media Intelligence, a unit of the London-based Screen Digest, anticipated a harsh response from the studio owners. But with writers on the warpath for a larger share of what they see as expanding corporate profits, Mr. Smith said he was now braced for skepticism from the labor side. In fact, neither side should be cheered by figures that describe an industry that has increasingly doled out its wealth to star performers and filmmakers, at the expense of almost everyone else. (The workings of the theatrical movie business contrast sharply with the economics of television. There, superstar writer-producers like John Wells of “E. R.” or Marc Cherry of “Desperate Housewives” are among those who get the biggest take.) Part of the bad news for the film industry came from a sharp decline in foreign DVD sales. Those dropped 15.5 percent in the period, while domestic DVD sales fell at half that rate. But the real killer was the growth in participations. Their precise amount is difficult to reckon, because deals vary and details are seldom disclosed publicly. But Global Media noted that at Disney — unusual in that its financial reports break out annual outlays for participations and residuals — the figure had grown at a compound annual rate of 37.6 percent for the last five years, to $554 million. If the other companies are spending at a similar rate, said the researchers, they are paying out shares worth $3 billion, while piling up an almost $2 billion loss on their new films. A relatively small part of that goes to the guilds in the form of residuals, the contractual payments that writers get when their work reappears in various media — and which the writers are insisting be increased for media of the future. According to a report from the Writers Guild of America West , which represents the lion’s share of Hollywood writers, movie residuals were just $121.3 million in 2006, a mere drop in the $3 billion bucket. A big star, by contrast, can easily make $70 million or more from a single hit, if he or she enjoys a so-called first dollar gross deal. There is a marketplace justice to such arrangements. Unlike the much-derided “net profit” deals granted weaker players — those points seldom get paid, because there is always some studio charge in the way — gross participations give valuable talent a real share of the action. “Profit participations are negotiated between a willing buyer and a willing seller,” said Steven Blume, chief operating officer of Content Partners, a Los Angeles company that buys participations in return for cash. The terms, he noted, can change with every movie, making them more flexible than residuals, which become locked into long-term master contracts with the guilds. But, from the studio point of view, this sort of payment is a bit like having a mortgage that doesn’t amortize. “These participations are paid in perpetuity,” Mr. Blume said. And therein lie new problems for studios that may have gotten too comfortable with such payouts in the last decade or so. According to Global Media Intelligence, studios a few years ago could count on rising DVD sales to lift their properties into profitability in a five-year first trip through the marketplace. Then, fully paid for, the movies would provide a smaller but near-endless stream of income from library sales over the decades. Now, however, those same releases are joining the library with multibillion-dollar losses in tow — and they continue to be weighed down by gross participations that never stop. Even Disney’s strong corporate performance in the last year does not necessarily bode well. The company’s studio unit, which was profitable for the year, had essentially flat revenue, at about $7.5 billion. Despite a huge hit in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” much profit, company executives said, came from the mining of its library with clever ploys like the “Little Mermaid” Platinum Release DVD, which sold nine million units without the burden of star participations. Once it is understood that the biggest stars and directors can rake in dollars even from money-losing movies, it becomes easier to understand why companies dug in their heels when asked to make richer residual payments on media of the future than they offered on home video of the past. These would trigger higher payments to other guilds, and would probably create pressure from lawyers and agents in search of still fatter participation deals for their star clients. It is also not hard to see why the situation is especially galling for movie writers, who typically do not share in the most lucrative gross deals. When it comes to finding more money, some of the stars and filmmakers who have joined them on the picket lines may be able to say where it could come from.

Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers


Beware the Tapeless Camcorder

Abstract: When geeks sit down to tell their children about nature’s great cycles, they don’t talk about birth and death. They talk about the way bulky gadgets get smaller over time, expensive ones become commodities — and how recording tape always gives way to digital storage. Usually, the death of tape is a good thing. Not many people survey their DVD collections and pine for the VCR days, or heft their iPods and mourn for the days of eight-tracks and cassettes. But in camcorders, the demise of tape is a little more complicated. Most consumer camcorders still record onto tape — they’re the last gadget holdout — but that won’t last much longer. According to the NPD Group, sales of MiniDV digital tape camcorders are plummeting, from about half the market last year to only 31 percent this year. Camcorders that record onto miniature DVDs (29 percent) or little hard drives (22 percent) are about to overtake them. The reason, obviously, is the hassle factor. Even now, you might have cassettes that are piling up in your closet, recorded but unwatched, simply because it takes so much time and effort to find the right tape and then the part you want. If you had a DVD camcorder, you may figure, you could just grab your cruise vacation disc and pop it into your TV’s DVD player. Maybe you still hope to edit all your tapes someday into enjoyable, watchable highlight reels. After all, both Macs and Windows PCs come with software that lets you edit MiniDV footage and then burn the resulting masterpiece onto a DVD, or play it back onto a fresh tape with 100 percent of the original picture quality. But life keeps intruding on your plans, and you’re finally giving up on the fantasy that you’ll really edit those piles of tapes. Meanwhile, these new tapeless camcorders end the tyranny of rewinding and fast-forwarding; you can jump directly to play back any scene. Who could resist? Actually, there are several more reasons you might want to resist, or at least to pause. Capacity and price are two of them. Few people realize, for example, that the miniature discs required by those DVD camcorders hold only 15 minutes of video. The discs cost around $3 each, which is steep on an hourly basis. The newer “dual layer” discs hold 27 minutes, but cost $7 apiece. MiniDV tapes, on the other hand, still cost about $3 and hold 60 or 90 minutes. Hard-drive and memory-card camcorders have a different problem: once the drive or card is full, the camcorder is useless until you empty it onto your computer. (You can buy a spare memory card, of course, but most people can’t afford to amass stacks of them.) Picture quality is another consideration. The video signal on MiniDV tape provides terrific color, contrast and clarity. MiniDV camcorders are so good, they’re occasionally used for broadcast TV shows and even movies (like “Open Water” and “28 Days Later...”). The picture quality of high-definition tape camcorders, which also record onto standard MiniDV cassettes, is even more amazing. Most tapeless camcorders, on the other hand, store video in a variation of a format called MPEG-2. It looks positively crude next to MiniDV, with blown-out whites, muddy blacks and grain everywhere between. Not many editing programs recognize MPEG-2, either. That situation is improving. Last year, Sony and Panasonic developed a new format, expressly for high-definition tapeless camcorders, called AVCHD. On the right camcorder, and at its highest quality setting, the AVCHD picture is gorgeous. (It’s a relative of the format used by Blu-ray high-definition DVDs.) But AVCHD presents a different kind of burden: editing it requires a monster computer. In theory, tapeless camcorders ought to be ideal companions to editing software. When you get right down to it, they hold nothing more than a bunch of computer files. You should be able to copy them to your computer in a matter of seconds, rather than playing them from the camcorder in real time. In practice, the story isn’t quite so simple. The AVCHD format wasn’t designed for editing; it was designed to cram a lot of video data into as little storage space as possible. Its footage is heavily encoded, and only a few editing programs can handle it. They include the latest versions of Sony Vegas, Ulead VideoStudio, Pinnacle Studio Plus, and (for the Mac) iMovie and Final Cut Pro. Some of these programs, like Apple’s, work by converting the balky AVCHD files into a format that they can edit — and that conversion can take a crazy amount of time; 60 minutes of AVCHD video takes more than two hours to prepare for editing. Most Windows programs, like Pinnacle, can edit AVCHD without conversion; instead, you experience short delays each time you try to play a clip or apply a transition. But to edit AVCHD smoothly in any of these programs, you need a serious, honking slab of computer. For iMovie ’08, that means an Intel-based Mac and at least 1 gigabyte of RAM; for Pinnacle, that’s at least 1.5 gigs of RAM, plus a Core 2 Duo 2.4-gigahertz chip or faster. Finally, consider the future. Suppose, for example, that you buy a hard-drive or memory-card camcorder. And suppose that, when the card or disk gets full, you dutifully copy the movies to your computer. But then what? You can’t just leave them on the PC’s hard drive forever; they take up too much room, and your current hard drive won’t still be around 20 years from now. Even if you keep buying new, bigger ones every few years, are you sure you want to entrust your only copy of your home movies to something as crash-prone as a hard drive? The only cheap long-term solution is to burn the movies onto DVDs — a time-consuming hassle that you can’t postpone. MiniDV cassettes, on the other hand, are self-archiving; once a tape is full, you can just stick it in a drawer. In other words, all tapeless camcorder footage eventually winds up burned to DVD. And that presents the final concern: longevity. Unfortunately, nobody knows how long recordable DVDs last; they haven’t been around long enough. According to aging simulations by the government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, a homemade DVD can last anywhere from “a few weeks” (if left in direct sunlight) to “several tens of years” (if you buy the most expensive discs and keep them in their cases, in the dark, at a constant, cool temperature, and so on). Of course, tapes don’t last forever, either. In both cases, you have to remain vigilant. Once every 10 years, you should recopy your videos onto fresh tapes, discs or whatever the most promising storage gadget is at the time. All of this brings up larger questions: What, exactly, is the point of home video? Why do we make it? Who is the audience? Some people hope that their children will want to watch these movies when they’re grown, or even their grandchildren. Others shoot video only as a short-term record, intended to be shared on YouTube or a DVD that gets passed around. As the popularity of cameraphone video demonstrates, sometimes the last things people care about are quality and longevity. That’s why, for some people, the problems with tapeless camcorders are irrelevant. For some purposes, convenience trumps all. But everyone else should keep the advantages of MiniDV in mind: storage price, capacity, quality, editability and archivability. The death of tape may be an inevitable part of nature, but it would be nice if that moment didn’t arrive until we had an unequivocally superior replacement.

Camcorders
Recording Equipment
DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)


Energy for a Rainy Day, or a Windless One

Abstract: With new energy supplies and demand growing rapidly worldwide, companies in the United States, Europe and across the developing world are spending billions of dollars each year on new power plants, wind turbines and solar panels. Now the focus is increasingly on how to store the bonanza, so that electricity generated from the likes of renewables can be quickly pumped into a country’s energy network as demand skyrockets — say, when people return home from work. To meet global climate change commitments, the International Energy Agency recently called on the United States, the European Union, China and India to invest a combined $380 billion in energy storage by the middle of the century. That would fund a total of 310 gigawatts of new projects, or more than 28 times what is currently expected to be built by the end of the decade. Electric utilities, technology start-ups and research institutes worldwide are beginning to rise to the challenge. “For many companies, energy storage is seen as the holy grail,” said Logan Goldie-Scot, an analyst at the data provider Bloomberg New Energy Finance, who expects worldwide storage capacity to rise from the current 1.2 gigawatt to 11.3 gigawatts by 2020, or the equivalent of roughly 10 traditional power plants. Despite the lofty goals, energy storage must overcome significant hurdles before it goes mainstream. Or, as Mr. Goldie-Scot put it, “A lot of the technologies still need to move beyond the proof-of-concept stage.” Just as in the early days of renewables, when high manufacturing costs made it difficult for companies to fund solar and wind farms, many of the latest energy storage advances, including highly efficient flywheels whose stored energy can be released to produce electricity, remain up to 10 times more expensive than generating electricity from fossil fuels. Image The Audi e-gas facility, left, in Werlte, Germany, is a power-to-gas plant that produces enough fuel to power 1,500 Audi cars for the consumer market that were retrofitted to run on natural gas. Credit Audi Ag Start-ups, industrial giants like General Electric and governments are placing bets on different types of technology. That includes so-called power-to-gas storage that uses excess electricity generated from solar and wind farms to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules in a process that — when combined with carbon dioxide — eventually creates natural gas, which can then be used in a country’s energy network. German energy researchers and Etogas , a Stuttgart-based start-up, recently tested a successful pilot project using the technology. And Audi opened a power-to-gas plant last year that now produces enough fuel to power 1,500 of the German automaker’s cars for the consumer market that were retrofitted to run on natural gas. In contrast, a consortium of large industrial companies, including the German utility RWE , has spent millions of dollars over the last three years to develop a different approach that instead relies on stockpiling compressed air in vast storage tanks. When demand spikes, the air is released through turbines to generate electricity. The consortium, called Adele, expects to complete a demonstration plant in Germany as early as 2016 that will have a capacity of 90 megawatts, or roughly the equivalent of a small wind farm. In the United States, a group of energy companies announced plans last month to spend a combined $8 billion on an energy project that would link a large wind farm in Wyoming with a compressed-air energy storage plant in Utah. The project, which is awaiting regulatory approval, would be one of the world’s largest for energy storage, and would send power through the electricity grid to customers in Southern California. LightSail Energy , a California start-up that has received funding from Bill Gates, also is developing similar technology, though analysts say companies must still improve the efficiency of how they store energy to compete against fossil fuels. “The key to making energy storage work is to improve the efficiency rate,” said Paul Davies, an infrastructure partner at the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, who says new projects, although still more expensive than traditional energy generation, can retain up to 70 percent of the stored energy compared with less than 50 percent for many existing options. “There’s a real prospect that we will achieve mass energy storage within the next decade.” More than 95 percent of the world’s energy storage capacity is based on decades-old hydropower plants in countries like Germany, Japan and Brazil. These systems pump water uphill into large reservoirs when electricity prices are cheap, and then release the water through turbines when extra power is needed. Image A rendering of the Tesla Motors lithium-ion battery factory planned near Reno, Nev. Yet since few locations exist to build new dams, particularly in the Western world, governments are pushing companies toward new forms of technology. California, for example, passed laws last year demanding that energy companies build up to 1.3 gigawatts of energy storage — roughly the equivalent of a new natural gas power plant — by the end of the decade. And Germany, which is already one of the world’s most developed renewable energy markets, has budgeted 200 million euros (about $258 million) for up to 60 energy storage pilot projects. Countries like Japan and Britain and cities like New York also are providing subsidies to jump-start interest in energy storage. That includes financial support for small-scale projects in homes where energy storage can be connected to solar panels on roofs. Analysts say the biggest opportunity, at least in the long run, could be a technology that has been around for decades: batteries. Asian manufacturers like Samsung and Panasonic have spent years improving the efficiency of so-called lithium-ion batteries that already power smartphones, laptops and other wireless devices. Tesla Motors — considered a pioneer in electric cars — announced last month that it would build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery factory in Nevada , which would produce enough batteries to fuel 500,000 cars annually by the end of the decade. Analysts say electricity from battery storage still costs at least double that of power from traditional energy sources. But firms are looking for opportunities. Utilities hope that as more energy-efficient batteries flood the market, costs will fall. That is what happened when increased competition from solar panel suppliers cut the cost of producing energy from the sun by roughly two-thirds since 2008. And companies see opportunities in combining battery technology with existing renewable resources. Duke Energy, for example, added battery storage to a large wind farm in Texas last year; utilities like Enel of Italy and Hokkaido Electric Power of Japan have announced plans to use batteries in conjunction with existing renewable energy projects. “Batteries make the most sense. They are cheap, safe and efficient,” said Sam Jaffe, an energy storage analyst at the consulting firm Navigant Research in Boulder, Colo. “And it’s a lot easier to get approval to build a warehouse full of batteries than anything that involves a smokestack.”

Energy industry
Storage
Electric power
Renewable energy


Data Devotees Emerge Victorious in Election

Abstract: It was not on any ballot, but one of the biggest election contests this week pitted pundits against pollsters. It was a pitched battle between two self-assured rivals: those who relied on an unscientific mixture of experience, anecdotal details and “Spidey sense,” and those who stuck to cold, hard numbers. When the results were tabulated, it became clear that data had bested divination. The election results that delivered a second term to President Obama on Tuesday left some well-known pundits, many of whom have a partisan bent, eating crow on Wednesday morning — including analysts like Karl Rove, Dick Morris and Michael Barone, all of whom had confidently predicted a victory by Mitt Romney . The results were much kinder to pollsters and the data devotees who aggregate and average polls, or who use mathematical models to make projections. “While the election’s biggest winner was President Barack Obama, the other victory on Tuesday night went to the careful application of reason, data and, yes, to the science of modern survey research,” Mark Blumenthal, the senior polling editor of The Huffington Post and the founding editor of Pollster.com, wrote on Wednesday. “The losers were the amateur poll mavens who sought to ‘unskew’ the polls and the pundits who saw what they wanted to see.” Quite a few of the numbers-crunchers could claim bragging rights on the morning after. The models used by Sam Wang at the Princeton Election Consortium , Drew Linzer at Votamatic and Nate Silver, who writes the FiveThirtyEight blog for The New York Times, all came remarkably close to forecasting the final result, depending on which candidate ultimately wins Florida. The average of polls published by Real Clear Politics had Mr. Obama ahead on Election Day but understated his margin. And Moody’s Analytics, which models presidential elections based on economic projections, predicted that Mr. Obama would get 303 electoral votes, which is what he has now, pending the Florida outcome. If the data geeks were left arguing about who had come closest to predicting the popular vote down to the decimal point, many commentators were left struggling to explain why they had favored the wrong man. Mr. Morris, the former Clinton strategist who is now an analyst for Fox News, acknowledged Wednesday that he had “egg on his face” for having predicted a Romney landslide. Mr. Rove, the former strategist for President George W. Bush, wrote in The Wall Street Journal last week: “My prediction: Sometime after the cock crows on the morning of Nov. 7, Mitt Romney will be declared America’s 45th president.” In an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning, he summed up the election this way: “Well, if you look at the exit polls, basically Obama kept the coalition that he had in 2008.” Polls are by no means perfect, as anyone who remembers the 2008 Democratic primary in New Hampshire can attest to. The polling there showed Mr. Obama with a lead over Hillary Rodham Clinton that was not evident on the day of the vote, which Mrs. Clinton won. And polls face more challenges now than ever, as fewer people choose to respond to them; they also sometimes fail to capture the opinions of young people who have given up their land lines. But with some exceptions — including the Gallup Poll, which estimated a whiter, more Republican electorate than the one that voted Tuesday — most polls held up remarkably well this year, even as they faced frequent attacks from conservatives who said they were biased. A Web site called UnSkewedPolls.com , which aimed to “debunk the media bias and shatter the false illusion being created by the mainstream media,” created a sensation on Twitter with its contention that pollsters for media companies were questioning too many Democrats and too few Republicans. The site tried to adjust the polls’ findings to reflect what the results would look like if more Republicans had been questioned. But the site’s author, Dean Chambers, acknowledged that his assumption that more voters would identify themselves as Republicans proved to be wrong. “The polls that were assuming that the turnout was going to be plus 5, or plus 6, in favor of the Democrats, those folks weren’t deliberately skewing — they turned out to be correct,” he said in an interview. “A lot of people on the right, politically, they didn’t want to believe the polls, for whatever reasons. A lot of people told me, ‘I read your site, I really hoped it was true, and now my hopes were dashed.’ “ Nationally, exit poll results that have not yet been finalized showed Democratic voters outnumbering Republicans, 38 percent to 32 percent — similar to the difference four years ago, when it was 39 percent to 32 percent. When Mr. Bush won re-election in 2004, in contrast, Democrats and Republicans made up equal shares of the electorate. To appreciate the difficulties in modern polling, consider this: a third of voters surveyed in exit polls on Tuesday said that they had only cellphones, no land lines. They supported Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney by 11 points, 54 percent to 43 percent. And it is a group systematically excluded from some automated polls, like Rasmussen Reports, because the law requires that cellphone numbers are dialed by actual people, not computers. Some corners of the conservative news media, who had sown doubt about the polls over the course of the race, changed their tune on Wednesday. “The polls,” Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday on his radio show, “were right on the money, as it turned out.”

Polls and Public Opinion
Presidential Election of 2012
United States Politics and Government
Obama Barack
Romney Mitt


Making a Little Fun of Russia’s Powerful

Abstract: MOSCOW — It is not, from a purely technical standpoint, impossible to make fun of Vladimir V. Putin . His head is shaped a bit like a light bulb, with eyes that are heavy-lidded, as if to convey that he has just been reading your dossier. He has a needle nose, a prizefighter’s swagger and a fondness for posing shirtless. If all else fails, there is always the matter of height. But caricatures of the Russian prime minister long ago vanished from state-controlled television. Ten years ago, the creators of the show “Kukly” came under such pressure from the Kremlin to retire their grotesque puppet of Mr. Putin that they responded, rather sardonically, by depicting him as a burning bush. The show was eventually canceled , and caution has prevailed since then. A talk show, “Real Politics,” included Mr. Putin in cartoons, but he was seen only from the neck down. So it came as a surprise on Friday morning a few minutes after midnight when 3-D animations of Prime Minister Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev appeared on a New Year’s special on Channel One , Russia ’s leading channel. The two figures performed a soft-shoe on Red Square, singing slightly raunchy doggerel about gas pipelines and Ukrainian debt. Hardly shocking stuff, except for this: Mr. Putin’s and Mr. Medvedev’s figures are being added to the regular cast of “Mult Lichnosti,” a biweekly show lampooning public figures, according to Konstantin L. Ernst, the channel’s director. Gleb O. Pavlovsky, a political consultant who advises the Kremlin, said “the ability to joke is appearing” after a long pause that he attributed mostly to fear. “So far, there is a very careful selection of targets,” said Mr. Pavlovsky, who hosted “Real Politics” for three years. “But I think nothing frightening will happen if that selection is lifted. Of course, it cannot happen overnight, because there is still a sense that the president should be above the fray, at a higher level, a level where he cannot be hit by a rotten apple.” Mr. Ernst said he was exploring a sharper-edged humor because younger viewers demanded it. One of the channel’s recent success stories is “ Projector Paris Hilton ,” in which four comedians riff ironically on current events, à la Jon Stewart. He said he was not obliged to consult with the Kremlin while developing animations of Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev, but allowed that “we have to be careful.” “One shouldn’t do anything insulting,” he said. “You can insult someone in show business, because a person like that is selling himself, and does not answer for anything else. Whereas the president and prime minister also represent the work they do. When you insult one of them, you insult many things at once. In any case, our authors have no desire to insult them.” He added, “There are some jokes that are unpleasant, but don’t injure your heart.” But critics of the government say there is no sign that political satire will be allowed to return to Russia’s airwaves, which have become squarely supportive of the nation’s leaders. The first three episodes of “Mult Lichnosti” (the name translates as “cartoon personalities” but is a play on the Russian for “cult of personality”) dole out their harshest treatment to safe targets: pop stars and politicians out of favor with the Kremlin. President Viktor A. Yushchenko of Ukraine is shown in a wheat field, idly inflating balloons with Russian natural gas diverted from a pipeline. President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia lustily consumes his own tie. President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus sits in a wooden hut, so aching for a call from Moscow that he pays an impersonator to mimic Mr. Putin’s voice. American leaders are there too: President Obama, perpetually dribbling a basketball, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, mooning over Russia’s foreign minister like a lovesick schoolgirl. Only Russia’s leaders, it seems, are immune. Until they come in for equal ridicule, this is not satire, said Viktor A. Shenderovich, who wrote scripts for “Kukly” and has since become an opposition activist. He recalled an old joke: An American and a Soviet are debating free speech. The American boasts that he can go to the White House and yell “Reagan is an idiot” with no consequences. The Soviet proudly says that he is equally free to go to Red Square and yell “Reagan is an idiot.” “A satirist is someone who criticizes the authorities,” Mr. Shenderovich said. “So Jon Stewart criticized Bush, and now he criticizes Obama. Because regardless of where his sympathies lie, that’s where the power is. And on this show there is no Kadyrov, no Putin, no Medvedev.” Ramzan A. Kadyrov is president of the Russian republic of Chechnya. “It’s a simulation,” Mr. Shenderovich said, “and a simulation of satire might be worse than an absence of satire.” It is unclear whether the ruling tandem will face real mockery on future episodes of “Mult Lichnosti.” But close observers of Russian television — and some inside it — say the boundaries of televised humor do seem to be expanding, if slowly. Arina Borodina, who covers television for the newspaper Kommersant, said she was struck by recent episodes of “Projector Paris Hilton” in which the hosts “carefully, and I stress carefully,” made fun of such things as the emblem of the Sochi Olympics and Mr. Putin’s four-hour televised question-and-answer session. That edgy humor, rare on television, paid off last year, vaulting the show into the 20 most popular, she said. Vladimir V. Pozner, who hosts a political talk show on Channel One, described the change as “much slower than a turtle.” But he said executives were under pressure to engage a younger and more sophisticated audience. “They’re sick and tired of pap; they want something they can sink their teeth into,” he said. “There’s been some change, I know that. You can feel it.” Mr. Pozner himself appears on “Mult Lichnosti”; his character occasionally plants his face on his own desk, having put himself to sleep with his stories about the old days. He said he believed that the channel had been “given the green light” to lampoon Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev — but, green light notwithstanding, there is, he said, no way to guarantee that they will not take offense. “The minute you start making fun of someone, it may rub someone the wrong way,” he said. “If I had a different disposition, I might be angry. There’s always that danger. It depends a lot on the guy — when he got up this morning, was he in a bad mood or a good mood?”

Mult Lichnosti (TV Program)
Russia
Putin Vladimir V
Medvedev Dmitri A
Politics and Government
Comedy and Humor


Nick Watney Beats Dustin Johnson by Two at Doral

Abstract: MIAMI — For most of the final round at the World Golf Championship event on Sunday, it was a battle of big bombers, Nick Watney and Dustin Johnson, two of the longest hitters in the game trading punches like heavyweight boxers. But the difference between winning and losing the W.G.C.-Cadillac Championship at Doral Resort and Spa was putting. Watney one-putted five of the last seven holes and finished Johnson off with a lethal stroke from 12 feet for a birdie at the 72nd hole. With Johnson trailing by a stroke and watching from 151 yards away in the 18th fairway, Watney, 29, gained his third PGA Tour victory. Watney’s final-round 67, for a 16-under-par total of 272, gave him a two-stroke win over Johnson, who closed with a 71. “I know how good Dustin is,” Watney said of his final birdie, which reduced Johnson’s final option to holing out a 9-iron shot from the fairway for a tie. “It wouldn’t have surprised me at all, if I made a par there, that he would have made a birdie to force a playoff. “I kind of wanted to make him hole it.” At that point, Johnson, 26, probably had a better chance of holing the shot than holing a putt. The longest putt he made all day was just over 5 feet for par at the fifth hole. But that 9-iron shot stopped 9 feet from the hole, and Johnson did not make that putt, either. “I really didn’t make anything,” said Johnson, who birdied the first hole and then parred 12 straight before a 2-footer for birdie at the 14th put him in a tie for the lead. “I was hitting it really good and rolling it O.K., but nothing went in.” There was no arguing that. Johnson missed a 5 ½-foot putt for birdie at the seventh hole and a 6 ½-footer for birdie at No. 8. He bogeyed the 16th hole after bunkering his approach and missing a 17-footer for par, the same distance as the putt Watney holed at the 13th that started his run to the clubhouse. It was a dream putting round at Doral and helped Watney expunge some bad memories. Two years ago, he finished second to Phil Mickelson here, leaving a birdie chip at the final hole about one turn short. At last year’s P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits, Watney led by three strokes after 54 holes and shot an 81 to finish tied for 18th. Coming down the stretch, he motivated himself by thinking about those events. “Two years ago came into my head,” he said. “And also Whistling Straits, just the letdown and the disappointment of the way that I performed that day. So I just wanted to, you know, give myself, or allow myself to play well and execute. And I was able to do that.” Johnson also experienced tough losses last year: at the United States Open , where he had the 54-hole lead and shot an 82; and at the P.G.A. Championship, where he was penalized at the last hole for grounding his club in a bunker that he did not recognize as such. He bounced back at the end of the year by winning the BMW Championship and said he was not unhappy to see Watney, his friend, get his own bounceback Sunday. “Nick is a good friend of mine,” he said. “I told him walking off that if I was going to lose to somebody, I was glad it was him.” Tiger Woods also had a bounceback, closing with a 66 that was his best final round since the 2009 Deutsche Bank Championship and his lowest competitive round in the United States since a 65 in the first round of last year’s Barclays. Woods, who has gone 484 days since his last victory, birdied seven holes, bogeyed one and had his first top-10 finish in a nonmajor tournament since his return to competition last year. He putted more like his old self, taking just 25 putts, and was smiling when it was over — something else he has not been doing lately. “It’s definitely getting better, there’s no doubt,” he said. “I’m putting the pieces together. Everything is kind of shaping up and heading the right direction, which is good, and peaking right at the right time — right for Tavistock Cup.” The last bit was tongue in cheek, a small plug for the made-for-TV tournament Woods will be playing in Orlando, Fla., starting Monday. The real reference was to the Masters, the season’s first major championship, coming up the first week in April. Is Woods on track for Augusta? “Oh, yeah,” he said, smiling. Liking his chances? “Mmm-hmm,” he said, nodding and widening his smile. He has some new company in that regard. Johnson and Watney, who have games ideally suited to Augusta National, are on track as the Masters comes into view. So is Matt Kuchar, whose fifth-place finish was his fifth in the top 10 in seven events. Players in their 20s made up five of the top 10 finishers at Doral. The real run-up to Augusta has begun, and Watney is leading the way.

Golf
Watney Nick
Woods Tiger
WGC-Cadillac Championship (Golf)


Dow Jones Turns to Financial Side in Naming Its Next Chief Executive

Abstract: Ending speculation about its succession plans, Dow Jones & Company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, named a successor yesterday to its chief executive, Peter R. Kann. In doing so, it bypassed Mr. Kann's wife, Karen Elliott House, publisher of The Journal, who is leaving the company. Dow Jones picked its chief operating officer, Richard F. Zannino, as chief executive, ending the reign of one of the storied power couples of the corporate media world. Mr. Kann announced the changes yesterday morning at his monthly meeting with senior managers. Though Ms. House had a higher profile inside and outside the company, she reported to Mr. Zannino, and he increasingly was seen inside Dow Jones as the likely successor to Mr. Kann. Her rise had concerned some insiders who felt that it created a conflict for the chairman's wife to hold such a senior post. The appointment of Mr. Zannino, who joined Dow Jones in 2001 as chief financial officer and is the first nonjournalist to run the company in modern times, was welcomed on Wall Street, where the company's shares rose sharply after the announcement. Along with the personnel changes, the company said its fourth-quarter earnings would be better than expected. Dow Jones shares rose $3.65 to close at $39.14. The appointment could presage other major changes at Dow Jones and at The Journal, its flagship paper. The newspaper industry has lost readers and advertisers to the Internet. But the last several years, since the dot-com bubble burst, have been particularly difficult for The Journal, which is more dependent than most papers on technology and financial advertising. As reporters, Mr. Kann and Ms. House both won Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting at The Journal, and they rose quickly up the corporate ladder. Ms. House's promotion to publisher came in 2002, during Mr. Kann's tenure, after she ran the Journal's international operations in the 1990's. Mr. Kann was named publisher of The Journal in 1989 and chief executive of Dow Jones in 1991. While they did not hobnob with social elites, the two exercised enormous influence within one of the nation's most influential publishing empires. In a company known for its paternalistic management style, Ms. House was considered a tough-minded and demanding executive who did not shy from cutting costs and forcing out subordinates who did not perform to her liking. Even after she became an executive, Ms. House occasionally interviewed world leaders with Journal reporters and wrote articles with them. Dow Jones did not name a successor to Ms. House, 58, as publisher. L. Gordon Crovitz, senior vice president for electronic publishing, is expected to assume that role as well, according to a person who is aware of Mr. Zannino's plans, indicating that the company intends to integrate its print and electronic news operations more closely. With her job likely to be subsumed by Mr. Crovitz, who had been a dark-horse candidate for the chief executive's job, Ms. House was left little choice but to leave. "If that job isn't going to exist," she told The Wall Street Journal Online, "then I didn't want to be here just to be here." Ms. House, who could not be reached for comment, attended the meeting where the changes were announced and, according to another person who attended, made a brief tribute to the company. Mr. Zannino, who was also elected a director, will take over Mr. Kann's duties on Feb. 1. Mr. Kann, who has been at Dow Jones for more than 40 years, is expected to continue as chairman until the annual meeting in April 2007. But with the board's decision not to select his wife as his successor, he could conceivably leave earlier, although he said in an interview that he intended to stay. Mr. Zannino was not named to Mr. Kann's post as chairman, and it is not clear that he will be. Another decision facing the company is the replacement of Paul Steiger, the managing editor of The Journal, who next year turns 65, the mandatory retirement age. The board had been considering a successor to Mr. Kann, who is 63, for more than a year with a special search committee. It interviewed internal and external candidates, including some from outside the media business, according to a person with direct knowledge of the board's activities. The board agreed in mid-November that Mr. Zannino was the best candidate. It initially considered delaying the announcement until later this year before deciding it needed to signal to Wall Street that a plan was in place, this person said. The board formally voted on the matter yesterday morning during a telephone conference call, unanimously backing Mr. Zannino. Company executives said that once the board decided upon Mr. Zannino, it was clear to both him and Ms. House that she could not stay. In a news release, the company said that Ms. House, who has been at The Journal for 32 years, would leave "by mutual agreement" after what it called "a couple of transition months." Mr. Zannino said in an interview that his discussions with Ms. House were "very straightforward." He said that once he was given the nod in November, he began to think about restructuring the company, and in some of those situations, "the role of a stand-alone print publisher might not exist and therefore I owed Karen a conversation about that." Once they met, he said, "we mutually agreed that if that was going to be the case, Karen would retire." Mr. Kann said that he had not advanced Ms. House's candidacy and that it would not have been appropriate for him to do so. Nor did he express a preference to the board, he said. "Karen is a longtime colleague," he said. "I think she has been a very good publisher of The Journal, which is the job she had aspired to. She also happens to be my wife, but none of those factors would lead me to push her in any sense as my successor as C.E.O. and I did not do so." While the selection of Mr. Zannino was not a complete surprise, the timing was unexpected. The Bancroft family, which owns Dow Jones, was concerned about the future of the industry and wanted a clear plan of succession, according to people with knowledge of the company, prompting an announcement yesterday as opposed to later this year. Most analysts responded positively to Mr. Zannino. "We like Rich Zannino," wrote Peter Appert, a newspaper industry analyst with Goldman Sachs. "He brings cost discipline and strategic vision that D.J. will require to rebuild profitability over the next several years. His appointment (and Karen House's departure) eliminate lingering uncertainty as to D.J.'s succession plan." Industry analysts and others said that the move would put to rest, at least for now, any suggestion that the Bancroft family would be interested in selling the company. "There is no suggestion that the company is for sale or that the Bancroft family is considering a sale," Mr. Zannino said. "Our job is to increase shareholder value to the level where any sale is a moot point." Douglas M. Arthur, an industry analyst with Morgan Stanley, said: "I don't think the Bancrofts are close to selling. They will want to see how the Weekend edition goes, they like Zannino and they will give him time to prove himself." The fact that Mr. Zannino did not have a background in journalism had given the board slight pause about elevating him to the top post, according to Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., the retired president and chief executive of Hallmark Cards and an influential member of the Dow Jones board. "We wanted to be sure we had thought through and understood Rich's thinking on how to structure the company when Rich became C.E.O. in a way that didn't diminish the value of the journalistic side of the business to the overall brand and institution," Mr. Hockaday said. Mr. Zannino came to Dow Jones in 2001 after more than three years at the clothing retailer Liz Claiborne. Mr. Appert of Goldman Sachs said that because the industry was facing such difficult financial challenges, "and because Dow Jones's results have been so disappointing," the board had become more likely to consider a nonjournalist. Mr. Zannino said he was acutely aware of "the singular importance" of journalism to Dow Jones. "I get it," he said. "I understand what happens if quality and the indispensable appeal of The Journal wane. It means the game is over if that happens." The Journal has largely escaped the newsroom cuts that have swept the industry recently, partly because it hired more people to produce its new Saturday issue. But The Journal has cut its staff overseas and reduced its European and Asian editions to tabloid size. It is planning to shrink the size of the domestic Journal by 2007. Still, Mr. Zannino said he did not expect job cuts in the near term. Mr. Kann and Ms. House do not have employment contracts, but according to a 2004 Dow Jones "separation plan" for senior managers, they are eligible to receive their salaries and bonuses for two years so long as they do not work for a competitor in that time. Mr. Kann took home about $1.8 million in salary and bonus in 2004; Ms. House got just under $700,000, according to securities filings. Ms. House will receive severance based on the terms of the plan; compensation issues involving Mr. Kann have not yet been fully decided by the board, the company said.

WALL STREET JOURNAL
DOW JONES & CO INC
KANN PETER R
NEWS AND NEWS MEDIA


U.N. Wants Sexual Abuse Reported Immediately

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — Stung by a scandal at the United Nations over its failure to promptly protect child victims of sexual abuse by peacekeepers, the organization’s top human rights official said Tuesday that he had ordered subordinates to inform him immediately when allegations of such abuse first arise. The official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for Human Rights, said his order applied to everyone down to the lowest-ranking field officers in his branch of the United Nations. It obliges them to jump the customary chain of command and communicate directly with him concerning instances of possible sexual abuse, even before all the facts are known. “They write straight to me,” Mr. Hussein said at the United Nations headquarters in New York. “Then the business of substantiating it, investigating it further, that can come, and I’m not going to interfere, but the thing is, I need to know right away.” Mr. Hussein said he did “not want to be in a situation where I read somewhere in the press, or I hear from another part of the U.N., that a human rights officer has begun to look into an allegation and I don’t know about it.” He spoke in an interview five days after an independent panel appointed this year by his boss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, issued a scathing report over how the office for the high commissioner for human rights, along with other United Nations agencies, had failed to protect children after allegations of sexual abuse by French soldiers in the Central African Republic. Instead, the panel found that United Nations officials appeared more concerned with questioning the conduct of a senior staff member in the high commissioner’s Geneva office who had leaked a confidential report about the allegations to the French government in July 2014. That senior staff member, Anders Kompass, director of field operations, was suspended later by Mr. Hussein, who said Mr. Kompass had violated protocols because the confidential report included the names of victims. The episode gained widespread attention in April when details were leaked to The Guardian and the French authorities confirmed they were investigating the allegations. Mr. Kompass was restored to his post. The independent panel exonerated Mr. Kompass of improper behavior. Mr. Hussein, a Jordanian prince who was chosen for the top human rights job last year, has acknowledged shortcomings in the organization’s accountability system that were pointed out by the panel’s 111-page report. “It’s quite clear that the report entrusts much of the fixing of this problem to the O.H.C.H.R.,” he said in the interview, referring to his office’s initials. But he also said he did not intend to resign over the scandal. He also said he had “no animus” toward Mr. Kompass, who remains a close working colleague. Efforts to reach Mr. Kompass for comment were not immediately successful. “I felt at the time that he did the right thing wrongly, in effect,” Mr. Hussein said.

Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al Hussein,Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein


City to Publicly Shame Harassing Landlords

Abstract: New York City officials will publicly post the names of landlords found to have harassed tenants, hoping the public shaming will be a deterrent. The mayor signed a bill on Tuesday that will require the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to post on its website the names of landlords found in housing court to have harassed tenants. A 2008 city law prohibits tactics, such as interrupting utilities, that are intended to force tenants to vacate an apartment or waive tenancy rights. Such efforts have been on the rise in gentrifying neighborhoods of the city where market-rate rents have soared and some landlords try to engineer vacancies to make room for higher-paying tenants. Starting next year, landlords who run afoul of the anti-harassment law will face public exposure. “There are good landlords out there, but the ones who don’t do the right thing need to feel consequences,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who as the city’s public advocate ran a Worst Landlords Watchlist to highlight landlords with numerous open building violations. But tenant groups say many cases of withheld repairs, baseless eviction proceedings and other harassments go unreported because such cases are hard to prove and because tenants, if they lose, may be ordered to pay the landlord’s legal fees. Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who co-sponsored the bill, said the publicity would work with landlords who may be willing to risk civil penalties, but not their reputations. “A lot of them have investors, and the investors would have to ask, ‘Is this a good guy?’ ” she said. “This is to get it on the record who the bad actors are.” Housing officials said harassment complaints rose to 748 last year from 541 in 2012, but only a fraction of cases that reach housing court result in a finding of harassment. Of more than 3,600 cases filed since 2008, most have been dismissed, 810 led to settlements and 45 had a finding of harassment. Mitchell Posilkin, general counsel for the Rent Stabilization Association, the trade group for the city’s landlords, said the figures showed how unnecessary the law was. He said it would do little more than taint and “vilify” property owners and “curry favor with the tenant movement.” “It creates an impression that harassment is somehow a systemic problem,” he said. “Should a tenant have their name published for failing to pay rent?” A spokesman for the housing agency said the public would be able to find offenders by the landlord’s name and by building address. The department already lists building violations and litigation against landlords online, but this is the first time that cases of harassment will be added. The information must be placed on the website within 30 days of a finding of harassment. The new law also raises civil penalties for landlords who harass to a maximum of $10,000 per residential unit, from $5,000.

Real Estate
Housing
Landlord
Rent
Bill de Blasio
NYC


Bloggers Open an Internet Window on Shanghai

Abstract: PARIS — Within two weeks of starting his personal blog in 2002, Wang Jianshuo noticed something peculiar. A post he had written about shuttle services to and from the Pudong airport in Shanghai was getting a lot of traffic. In fact, it was getting so much traffic that Google ranked it first when searching for the words “Pudong airport.” The explanation turned out to be simple: Mr. Wang’s post was almost the only information available online in English about an international airport then serving 11 million travelers a year — now almost 32 million. Since his first post, Mr. Wang has devoted about half an hour a day to updating his entries. He said he liked to focus on “useful things,” like tips about transportation or places to visit in Shanghai. In the process, the blogger, who in his day job is the chief executive of Baixing, eBay’s online classifieds Web site in China, has offered the English-speaking world a window into the daily life of a “new China” citizen. Mining the hundreds of posts he has written over the past eight years, readers can follow Mr. Wang through his apartment moves, on visits to various countries — when he worked for Microsoft he made several trips to the United States — and even watch his son, Yifan, grow from a mere idea to a chubby-cheeked 3-year-old playing with Legos with his dad. Mr. Wang talks about how to dodge the Chinese government’s efforts to control the Internet by using tunneling software to gain access to Facebook and Twitter, and he shares his anxiety about which school Yifan should attend to prepare him best to compete with his peers 20 years from now. Aficionados of Mr. Wang’s blog, which according to him gets about a million page views a month, say that it is still one of the richest sources about contemporary Shanghai available in English. But his is no longer a lone voice. Want to find the best find hot pot in Shanghai? Or pizza? Or Irish pub? Check out the Shanghaiist , part of the Gothamist network of city-centric blogs founded in New York in 2003. Want to know what people in mainland China think about the one-child policy? Or what teenagers are saying about the gaokao, the national university entrance exam? Go to the blog ChinaSMACK. Need three dozen cupcakes for a 7-year-old’s birthday party? There’s a blog for that, too. Get in touch with Emily Lopez, of Emily’s Adventures in Shanghai and Emily’s Cupcakes. John Pasden, a 31-year-old native of Florida, is the man behind the blog Sinosplice . He planted himself in China, first in Hangzhou, then Shanghai, 10 years ago, starting his blog as a way to tell the “folks back home” about his life in a place that was then little known to most Americans. Thanks to Sinosplice, he has become a go-to person for all things related to life in Shanghai and learning Chinese. Other first-wave mainland China bloggers include Kaiser Kuo , a Chinese-American rock star, writer and media expert, and Brendan O’Kane of bokane.org , an Irish-American who speaks flawless Mandarin and is reputedly one of the best Chinese-English translators around. Those early bloggers were “focused on the idea of ‘telling it like it is,”’ Mr. Pasden said. “Back then hardly any other Westerners were blogging from China, but we knew that our friends and family back home had no clue what modern China was like.” The blogs filled a void in information about the country, he added. “We knew the media wasn’t educating them either. China to the average American, at least, was still some murky outdated vision of Mao’s China.” Mr. Pasden, like some of the other early bloggers, has made the transition from personal blogging to a professional online job — his blog started his career as senior product manager at ChinesePod, an online Chinese language school. This pattern is in keeping with an overall trend, said Marjorie Dryburgh, a lecturer in modern Chinese studies at the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield in England. In the past five years, blogs from China have “moved some way beyond the quieter, personal type of work that you might associate with the blog-as-online-diary,” she said. Now, there are more blogs about self-help and stock market advice and more official blogs, she said. According to the China Internet Network Information Center, a state-run nonprofit group, there were 182 million personal blogs and “personal spaces” in China as of June 2009, of which a third were being updated at least once every six months. Fauna, the online alias of the blogger behind ChinaSMACK, shines a spotlight on “the real China,” at least as it appears online. The Shanghai native, with a small team of contributors, translates Chinese blog posts and comments from popular online forums about juicy, gossipy and very Chinese topics that the average mainland city dweller might discuss around the dinner table. Through these translations, English speakers can get a perspective on what people think about Chinese men who buy brides in Vietnam; Chinese university students in Australia who tote Louis Vuitton bags and drive BMWs; and a new trend in which teenage girls sport slashed wrists (though it is unclear whether the wounds are real or faked). According to Fauna, ChinaSMACK received more than 500,000 visitors last month, of whom a quarter logged on from the United States, while more than 10 percent were local. The topic of censorship is a popular one for those dealing with the media in China, but none of the bloggers interviewed said they had ever been shut down. Access is a greater issue, resolved with the use of virtual-private networks, or VPNs, to get around online fire walls created by the Chinese government. Many bloggers, however, said that they self-censored by choosing nonpolitical topics. Because of the nature of what she covers, Fauna, in an interview conducted by e-mail, said she never revealed anything about her identity, beyond her gender. Professional journalists are also blogging. James Fallows , a correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, blogged while he was stationed in Shanghai, and Adam Minter, an American freelance journalist, runs a frequently referenced blog, Shanghai Scrap . He says he gets 22,000 to 77,000 hits a month on his site, depending on who is counting. Mr. Minter, a business specialist, said he chose to make Shanghai his home because of the entrepreneurial vibe that pulses through the city and because of a long-standing interest in the city's migrant history. Though he makes no money from his blog, Mr. Minter said he maintained it to force himself to write regularly and as a place to put story ideas he found that were too small or too obscure to sell to publications elsewhere. It also gives him additional exposure to the public. “I’ve received tips, leaks and invitations purely on the basis of information published on the blog,” he said. “That’s an unexpected boon.” This set-up-shop spirit has drawn, according to the Chinese government, 4.7 million migrant workers into this city of 18 million to walk along the same streets as 120,000 foreigners looking for their piece of the pie. Ms. Lopez, a San Francisco native, is among them, writing a blog and making cupcakes for something to do, but also for profit. In China, “anything is possible, but everything is difficult,” she said. Starting her business required little more than the idea, a health license and a business license. For her, Shanghai gives people “a chance to be creative and do something that would take more money or wouldn’t be as easy to get started in your home country.” She knows other women entrepreneurs making everything from jewelry to specialty paper goods. Mr. Pasden said the English-language Shanghai blogosphere was dominated by foreigners, an imbalance that made the work of bloggers like Mr. Wang and ChinaSMACK specially valuable. Mr. Minter said that voices from Shanghai’s huge migrant population were particularly lacking. “The Chinese migrant experience to Shanghai is going to be as important to the future Chinese self-image as the New York immigrant experience was to the American self-image,” he said. But whatever its gaps and the limits, Mr. Wang said, the broad rise of blogging has meant a welcome increase in available information; and more information means a better idea of what is really happening in the city. “Everything in this world is just like the elephant in the blind men and the elephant story,” he said, referring to the tale of blind men confronting a strange beast, trying to identify it by touching different parts and each giving a different answer. “As a blogger, I’m just one of the blind men to feel this elephant. I am very sure that I write everything that I know and I never write anything that I know is not true, but this does not mean that my article is the whole Shanghai. “Blogging provides a way for all the blind men to sit down together and share whatever they see,” he added, “and when more and more people blog, we can understand this world better from many different perspectives.”

Shanghai (China)
Blogs and Blogging (Internet)