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Big Asteroid To Pass Close to Earth November 8th
Emilio Figueroa Businessman With Humanitarian Vision
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Island’s Largest Carrier Horizon Lines Bankruptcy Risk
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April 14 - 20, 2011
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Big Ateroid to Pass Close to Earth in November
Enjoy our Executive Lunch Menu Monday to Friday from 12:00m to 3:00 pm
(15% Closer Than Moon)
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ark your calendars for an impressive and upcoming flyby of an asteroid that’s one of the larger potentially perilous space rocks in the heavens – in terms of smacking the Earth in the future. The 1,300 feet Asteroid will pass 213,500 miles from Earth, 15% closer than the moon. The near-Earth asteroid named 2005 YU55 — on the list of potentially dangerous asteroids — was observed with the Arecibo Telescope’s planetary radar on April 19, 2010 when it was about 1.5 million miles from the Earth, which is about 6 times the distance to the moon (as previously reported in the San Juan Weekly). It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances. Due to the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned. En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet “The close Earth approach of 2005 YU55 on Nov. 8, is unusual since it is close and big. On average, one wouldn’t expect an object this big to pass this close but every 30 years,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. With new radar capabilities at the Arecibo Observatory — part of
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NASA’s Deep Space Network — there is a good chance of obtaining radar imaging of 2005 YU55 down to the 5-meter resolution level. Doing so would mean obtaining higher spatial resolution of the object than that attained by recent spacecraft flyby missions. “So we like to think of this opportunity as a close flyby mission with Earth as the spacecraft,” Yeomans told SPACE.com. “When combined with ground-based optical and nearinfrared observations, the radar data should provide a fairly complete picture of one of the larger potentially hazardous asteroids,” he said. Asteroid 2005 YU55 is a slow rotator. Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the Minor Planet Center, has designated the space rock as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.” “We’re already preparing for the 2005 YU55 flyby,” said Lance Benner, a research scientist at JPL and a specialist on radar imaging of near-Earth objects. He said part of the plan is to observe the asteroid with radar using both the huge Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico and equipment at Goldstone Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
“The asteroid will approach from the south, so Goldstone has the first chance to observe it due to its declination coverage,” Benner told SPACE. com. To help coordinate the observing campaigns, “Radar Observations Planning” websites have been set up for this unusual occasion, Benner said. “This flyby will be the closest by any near-Earth asteroid with an absolute magnitude this bright since 1976 and until 2028,” Benner added. “Having said that, nobody saw 2010 XC15 during its close flyby within 0.5 lunar distance in 1976,” he said, noting that this asteroid wasn’t discovered until late in 2010 by the Arecibo Observatory. “Thus, the flyby by 2005 YU55 will be the closest actually observed by something this large, so it represents a unique opportunity,” Benner said. “In a real sense, this will provide imaging resolution comparable to or even better than a spacecraft mission flyby.” Benner said that because the asteroid is zooming by Earth so very close, radar echoes will be extremely strong. One facility will be used to transmit and “radar paint” the object…another dish is on tap to snag the reflected echo of radar data.
What can radar do? Information collected by this technique, for example, can be transformed into 3-D shapes, with surface features and spin rates identified. The asteroid’s roughness and density can also be assessed. Furthermore, radar can improve the whereabouts of the object. By greatly shrinking uncertainties for newly discovered meandering NEOs, that in turn enables motion prediction for decades to centuries. As for seeing the asteroid with small telescopes, start getting your gear ready. Initially, the object will be too close to the sun and too faint for optical observers. But late in the day (Universal Time) on Nov. 8, the solar elongation will grow sufficiently to see it. Early on Nov. 9, the asteroid could reach about 11th magnitude for several hours before it fades as its distance rapidly increases, Benner explained.
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Losses, Price Fixing Fallout Could Sink Horizon Lines
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orizon Lines, charged with price fixing in an antitrust investigation by the Justice Department, reported a $52.7 million loss for the fourth quarter 2010, raising fears about the ocean carriers’ viability. Since releasing fourth quarter results on March 3, Horizon’s stock price fell 58%, closing at $1.75 on April 8. The company is expected to be in default of $330 million of bonds as well as in default of its senior credit facility. Horizon said that it could be forced to seek reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws and its auditor said there is substantial doubt about Puerto Rico largest carrier Horizon’s ability to remain a going concern. Horizon’s fourth quarter loss includes a $30 million charge to cover part of the criminal fine of $45 million related to a guilty plea to a felony antitrust charge by the Justice Department of price fixing in the Puerto Rico marine market. In October, 2008, three former Horizon Lines executives plead guilty to price fixing and were sentenced to prison terms ranging up to 34 months. The Horizon Lines criminal fine was well below what it would have been if the federal guideline range amounts had been used. In a sentencing memorandum filed with the U.S. District Court in San Juan, the Department of Justice said federal sentencing guidelines called for a fine of from $336 million to $672 million for colluding to fix prices on container shipments in the Puerto Rico market between 2002 and 2008. The Justice Department agreed to the lower penalty after a forensic accountant it retained determined that was “the most Horizon could afford to pay” even with the use of a five year payment schedule with the large majority of the fine paid in the later years. The Department of Justice said Horizon “was in tenuous financial condition and has presented evidence of its need to resolve its criminal liability expeditiously in order to be able to refinance its existing debt.” On March 21, the court entered judgment accepting the $45 million plea agreement and placing Horizon Lines on probation for five years. Horizon Lines expects to be in default on $330 million of bonds as a result of the judgment and has until May 21 to cure the default. The company said that it has been unsuccessful to date in its attempt to obtain a waiver and it does not presently have remedies to cure the default. A bond default would also result in a default on Horizon’s senior credit facility. In addition, Horizon Lines expects to be in covenant default under the senior credit facility during the third quarter of 2011. If waivers or other relief are not obtained, Horizon said in a filing with the Secu-
rities Exchange Commission that it could be forced to seek reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws. The total debt amount owed by Horizon Lines at the time of the filing was $577 million. As a result of the uncertainty that Horizon Lines will remain in compliance with its debt agreements, its independent auditors Ernst & Young, said “These conditions and their impact on the Company’s liquidity raise substantial doubt about Horizon Lines Inc.’s ability to continue as a going concern”. Following its filing, Standard & Poor’s cut Horizon’s credit rating three notches deeper into junk status to CCC. Moody’s Investor Services downgraded its credit rating two notches to Caa3. Both rating agencies said that Horizon Line’s ratings remain on credit watch for further possible downgrade. Before the Justice Department investigation, Horizon’s stock traded for a high of $36.55 in mid-2007. The current stock price of $1.75 is down 95% from that high for a total market value of approximately $54 million. Compared to the $36.55 price the stock traded for in mid-2007, the stock price is down 95%, a reduction in market value of over $1 billion over the period. Horizon Lines is the largest ocean carrier serving Puerto Rico. It also operates to Alaska and Hawaii but it moves more containers in the Puerto Rico market. Horizon is the only company so far charged in the longstanding antitrust investigation by the Justice Department. In addition to the three former Horizon Lines executives, two former Sea Star Line executives plead guilty to price fixing and were sentenced to prison terms ranging up to 48 months. In a civil class action lawsuit by Puerto Rico shippers related to the Justice Department investigation, three carriers have agreed to pay $52.25 million to settle claims by the class members. Horizon Lines contributed $20 million to the civil settlement, with Sea Star Line contributing $18.5 million and Crowley Liner Services contributing $13.75 million. Some of the class members have elected to opt out of the settlement and may pursue their own civil antitrust cases. Horizon Lines has said it has until April 29 to decide whether to proceed with that settlement. The three carriers have also entered into an agreement to pay $5.3 million to settle three additional antitrust related lawsuits, one by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and two by indirect purchasers of transportation services. In a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, Horizon Lines said that each carrier would pay one-third, or approximately $1.77 million, related to those lawsuits.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Businessman With Humanitarian Vision By: Daniel Morales Pomales
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milio Figueroa is a successful entrepreneur and contemporary expert in gastronomica and nightly entertain-
ment. Father of two daughters and husband of a lady who has been his companion, confidant and even conspiratorial in all feats that have been released without knowing how they would be but in the end have been very successful. He also owns six restaurants and a store, including: Parrot Club, Dragonfly, Aguaviva, Toro Salao, Koko, Piña Colada Dinner at the Hilton, and Pina Colada Store in La Concha, are evidence of the empire he has built. This gentle man met with The San Juan Weekly for an interview in one of his restaurants early in the morning where no one would perceive he is the owner. Beyond being a successful businessman, a friendly leader and a prominent host, he is one more of the employees. And who knows, if even he has personally attended one of his tables without notice. Emilio Figueroa’s heart was shaken in January 2010 when Haiti was devastat-
ed by the earthquake that destroyed most of the country. Emilio heeded the call of his personal friend, the priest Father Luis “Ricky” Gerena, who wanted to take some food and medical aid to the neighboring village of Levon from Baraona, but faced difficulty in the process because the Haitian government wanted taxes paid for the entry of food and supplies. This unexpected reluctance delayed efforts to collect the food. They stayed there until some time Emilio joined the initiative and permissions managed by the Haitian embassy, who provided the paperwork and avoided paying taxes. Two days later, 92 tons of food and medicines collected in a radiothon in Washington were taken in trucks to Haiti. “It was awesome! We came, we saw the devastation there. We brought all the aid to the orphans and were very happy to do so. What we have served them for their survival-to eat, bathe and heal” he recalled. As part of outreach efforts, Emilio created a foundation called “One in a million”, whose primary objectives is to raise the moral of children affected by the earthquake.
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“These children get a little food and some medicine. They also get soccer balls for recreation, Sports help you have a mind and a healthy spirit. The symbol of the foundation is a medal at the back of a maze in a circle of life. When you are an orphan and someone gives you a medal that says: You’re one in a million, I think that message makes you think that you are different, just so you know that you are different when you lost your mother and father while, you feel a little lost. In life you find a being that inspires you and you tell that person that you recognize that they did something for you. That means the search maze. Who are themselves inspiring to others. “ Emilio says he created the foundation a month before going on the trip. And even among professionals that help as a psychologist or social worker, for him, his best motivator was Father Luis “Ricky”, a being so inspiring. “Although the Haitian culture has little faith has Catholicism are very respectful to all religions, and beyond its Creole dialect, their love and support transcended languages and borders, when children in their own way communicated with looks of gratitude. The energy transcends language. I created an immediate connection with them so strong that despite the distance and timed I will not forget those days. For the children who he presented some of these medals, they loved it, children who did not obtain it asked to send to them on my return, and I will do so”. He stressed that his goal is to raise funds for these orphans around the world. Not just in Haiti where it is very necessary right now, but also in Chile and Japan and why not?, Here in Puerto Rico. “Anything we can do to help, because they know they are different, do not have parents, may not have a home. The interesting thing is that some of these chil-
dren in their spirit do not focus on the lost arm or leg, they just keep being kids, and if you believe in yourself that you’re one in a million, no matter what they physically lack. I did this for love. Even with the danger and fear I felt when I went there, that fear dissolved. No film or photographs prepare you to see what you see, the mass destruction there, I feel that I am a better person and it was one of the most exciting weeks I’ve had in my life. It is interesting that people if they saw the children’s smiles have a kind of balance in life. They are survivors. Many people right there to help and progress made roads between themselves. “ And not just in other places where Emilio has a plan to provide and contribute to the broad needs of human beings, our island is also on his agenda. “Here in Puerto Rico I am working on a project very quickly to generate a fund that can create support for children, some orphans, foster the arts and sport to come out of the streets and encourage their spirit. You can feed and heal the wounds but if you ease the spirit through small yet great things there will be a cure in their self-esteem. That’s what you are looking for ‘One in a million’. The Haitian government currently protects properties but does little to protect their people, “he lamented. There is a lesson in all this. We need to be more productive and more grateful for what we have. We can contribute more and notice how blessed we are. Emilio, is truly a simple man who has projected into the future with vision and is very focused. The father of two girls, one 4 years old and one 6 and he told us “when you have children, each parent has a coloring book he wants to publish I have mine done. For now I focus on my work and all I have, my daughters, my marriage and seek aid to continue contributing to the improvement of our brothers “.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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Mainland 8
April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
Generational Divide Colors Debate Over Medicare’s Future By DAVID LEONHARDT
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he Republican budget released on Tuesday is a daring one in many ways. Above all, it would replace the current Medicare with a system of private health insurance plans subsidized by the government. Whether you like or loathe that idea, it would undeniably reduce Medicare’s longterm funding gap — which is by far the biggest source of looming federal deficits. Yet there is at least one big way in which the plan isn’t daring at all. It asks for a whole lot of sacrifice from everyone under the age of 55 and little from everyone 55 and over. Representative Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who wrote the plan, calls the budget deficit an “existential threat” to the United States. Then he absolves more than one-third of all adults from responsibility in dealing with that threat. This decision doesn’t make him unique in Washington. There is nearly a bipartisan consensus that any cuts to Medicare and Social Security should spare the baby boomers and the elderly. And, certainly, retirees or people on the verge of retirement shouldn’t have their benefits changed radically. But the consensus, like Mr. Ryan’s plan, goes too far. The reason is partly political. Older people vote in larger numbers than younger adults. Children can’t vote at all. Beyond politics, Washington’s age bias depends on a misunderstanding, that older people have already paid for their Medicare benefits. They haven’t. For most Americans, Medicare resembles a welfare program. They receive more in government benefits than they ever pay in taxes and premiums. The gap for a typical household runs to several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Ryan plan would let anyone who turns 65 before 2022 continue to be part of this welfare program. In fact, Mr. Ryan would scrap the common-sense attempts to slow costs in last year’s health bill, like the baby steps to base Medicare coverage decisions more on medical evidence. If you’re 55 or older, you get the same old Medicare, with its soaring budget. If you’re under 55, you are excluded. You will receive a government subsidy to buy private insurance, will probably not keep pace with future increases in costs. Beside violating basic notions of fairness, the grandfather clause has the potential to slow economic growth. Many of today’s 55- and 60-year-olds are going to be on Medicare for a long time. If the program doesn’t change, they will run up trillions of dollars in medical bills. That money won’t be available for education, early child care, scientific research or high-tech infrastructure — all of which can lift growth. The United States already has a “particularly strong age bias” in its government spending, Julia B. Isaacs of the Brookings Institution noted in a recent analysis of affluent countries’ budgets. In the years ahead, spending on the elderly has the po-
over time, they have historically paid higher taxes — to cover the costs of a strong military, good schools, comfortable retirements and other luxuries that the free market doesn’t provide. Affluent Americans, in particular, can afford higher taxes. They have received far larger raises in recent decades than any other income group, and their tax rates have fallen far more. Yet Mr. Ryan would reduce them further. The Republican budget written by Some health economists believe that a Representative Paul Ryan asks for a combination of higher taxes and more Mediwhole lot of sacrifice from everyone care cost controls can solve the problem. Mr. under the age of 55 and little from Ryan does not. And his skepticism is healthy. everyone 55 and over. To him, the only way to reduce tential to rise higher still and to crowd out spending on the young. Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury official in both Democratic and Republican administrations, says simply, “We have a budget for a declining nation.” Mr. Steuerle — along with his Urban Institute colleague Stephanie Rennane — has done some of the most careful work comparing Medicare taxes and benefits. They added up all the taxes people at different points on the income spectrum would pay over their working lives and then translated these amounts into a single sum, expressed in today’s dollars. Mr. Steuerle and Ms. Rennane likewise added up the value of Medicare benefits (net of premiums) that men and women could expect to receive. Their results show that no cohort of Americans, with the possible exception of the very affluent, pays enough Medicare taxes and premiums to cover their costs. The gap is growing over time, too. Two married 66-year-olds with roughly average earnings over their lives will end up paying about $110,000 in dedicated Medicare taxes through the payroll tax. They receive about $340,000 in benefits. Two averageearning 56-year-olds will pay about $140,000 and get back $430,000 in benefits. By law, Medicare taxes cover mainly hospital bills, not doctors’ bills or the cost of drugs. These costs instead must be covered by the general government revenue, but there isn’t enough of that revenue. Instead, the government is running deficits, it’s borrowing money from individuals and foreign governments and promising that future taxpayers will pay it back. Who are these taxpayers who will cover Medicare’s shortfall? The same ones who, under the Ryan plan, won’t have Medicare. A fairer, more conservative plan would not postpone dealing with Medicare. It would leave the cost control measures in the health reform bill and go further to reward the quality of care rather than the volume. These steps would run some risk of restricting good treatments. Remember, we’re facing “an existential threat.” We can’t limit ourselves to solutions without risks. Next, the federal government would raise taxes. As countries have grown richer
Medicare’s cost growth is to stop shielding people from the consequences of their decisions. If they want almost limitless medical treatments, they won’t be able to foist the bill on taxpayers, as they do now. They will instead have to buy a generous insurance plan, partly with their own money. The resulting market forces, Mr. Ryan argues, will eventually bring down costs and leave most people better off. He may well be right that a solution along these lines is ultimately where health care needs to go. But it would be a lot easier to trust in the merits of his plan if he weren’t so busy promising 75 million Americans that they will never have to be a part of it.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Numbers of Children of Whites Falling Fast By SABRINA TAVERNISE
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merica’s population of white children, a majority now, will be in the minority during this decade, sooner than previously expected, according to a new report. The Census Bureau had originally forecast that 2023 would be the tipping point for the minority population under the age of 18. But rapid growth among Latinos, Asians and people of more than one race has pushed it earlier, to 2019, according to William Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution who wrote the report about the shift, which has far-reaching political and policy implications. The single largest increase was among Hispanics, whose birthrates are far above those of non-Hispanic whites, largely because the white population is aging and proportionally has fewer women in their child-bearing years. The median age of whites is 41, compared with 27 for Hispanics, the report said. As a result, America’s future will
include a far more diverse young population, and a largely white older generation. The contrast raises important policy questions. Will the older generation pay for educating a younger generation that looks less like itself? And while the young population is a potential engine of growth for the economy, will it be a burden if it does not have access to adequate education? The population of white children fell by 4.3 million, or about 10 percent, in the last decade, while the population of Hispanic and Asian children grew by 5.5 million, or about 38 percent, according to the report, which was based on 2010 Census numbers. The number of African-American children also fell, down by 2 percent. Over all, minorities now make up 46.5 percent of the under-18 population. Whites are now the minority of child populations in 10 states, double the number from the previous decade, according to the report, and in 35 cities, including Atlanta, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. Vermont had the largest drop
in its child population of any state. The changes also have political implications. Though whites are still 63 percent of the population as a whole, that is down from 75.6 percent in 1990, and minorities, particularly Hispanics, who now outnumber blacks, are becoming an increasingly important part of
the electorate. Mr. Frey estimates that whites will slip into the minority by about 2041. The number of whites grew by just 1.2 percent in the population as a whole in the last decade, a fraction of the 43 percent growth among Latinos.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
11 Mainland
G.O.P. Blueprint Would Remake Health Policy By ROBERT PEAR
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he proposal to be unveiled by House Republicans on Tuesday to rein in the long-term costs of Medicaid and Medicare represents a fundamental rethinking of how the two programs work, an ambitious effort by conservatives to address the nation’s fiscal challenges, and a huge political risk. House Republican aides said the budget blueprint to be issued by the chairman of the Budget Committee, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, would slice more than $5 trillion from projected federal spending in the coming decade. Health care accounts for much of the savings. But while saving large sums for the federal government, the proposals on Medicaid and Medicare could shift some costs to beneficiaries and to the states. Under the proposal, Medicaid would be transformed into a block grant, with a lump sum of federal money given to the states to care for low-income people. States would be given more discretion over use of the money than they have under the current federal-state partnership. For future Medicare beneficiaries — people now under 55 — Mr. Ryan’s proposal calls for the federal government to contribute a specified amount of money toward the premium for private health coverage. Under the traditional Medicare program, the government reimburses doctors and hospitals directly. Although many House Republicans see a need to revamp Social Security, too, they are not expected to press this week for comprehensive or specific changes in that program. Democrats signaled that they would fight the health proposals, and the clash could well become a defining issue for both parties in the 2012 elections. Republicans say the health care proposals would help the federal government predict and control its costs under Medicaid
and Medicare, which insure more than 100 million people and account for more than one-fifth of the federal budget. But if, as many economists predict, health costs continue to rise at a rapid clip, beneficiaries of these programs would be at risk for more of the costs. Mr. Ryan said his Medicare proposal was similar to one he advanced in November with Alice M. Rivlin, a budget director in the Clinton administration. Analyzing that plan, the Congressional Budget Office said, “Federal payments would tend to grow more slowly under the proposal than projected costs per enrollee under current law.” As a result, the budget office said, “enrollees’ spending for health care — and the uncertainty surrounding that spending — would increase.” Medicaid and Medicare are now openended entitlements. Anyone who meets the eligibility criteria is entitled to benefits defined in detail by federal law. The federal government and the states must pay the additional cost if more people become eligible for Medicaid, as happened in the recent recession. Likewise, Medicare bears the cost if doctors perform more numerous, more complex and expensive tests and procedures. Some of those additional costs are passed on to beneficiaries in the form of higher premiums. Republicans say they are taking the initiative on Medicaid and Medicare because President Obama has done nothing to put the programs on a solid fiscal footing. In his 2012 budget, Mr. Obama did not propose significant savings in Medicaid or Medicare, even though he and many fiscal experts say the programs are unsustainable in their current form. Mr. Ryan and fellow House Republicans are wading into tricky waters, where many other politicians have run aground. But with the nation’s fiscal problems looming larger, Republicans say the politics of the issue have shifted. They expect to
receive credit from the public for trying to hold down the deficit and the debt. “We have a moral obligation to the country to do this,” Mr. Ryan said in an interview last week. Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat and a former executive director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens, said she was incensed by such claims. “Mr. Ryan and the Republicans are declaring war on entitlements — and war on the elderly and the poor,” Ms. Schakowsky said. “Beneficiaries will end up paying more.” About half of Medicaid recipients are children. Nearly two-thirds of the money spent on Medicaid benefits is for low-income people who are 65 and older or disabled. The government shutdown in 1995-96 stemmed, in part, from a conflict between President Bill Clinton and Congressional Republicans over what he described as “devastating cuts” in Medicaid and Medicare. In his veto message in December 1995, Mr. Clinton listed 82 “objectionable provisions” of the Republicans’ budget bill. He complained that it “converts Medicaid into a block grant with drastically less spending.” The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that a Medicaid block grant, of the type proposed by Mr. Ryan and Ms. Rivlin, could save $180 billion over 10 years. House Republicans could save an additional $434 billion by eliminating the expansion in Medicaid eligibility scheduled to take place in 2014 under the new health care law. Mr. Ryan said he was not cutting Medicaid and Medicare, but rather slowing their growth rate. In addition, he insists he is not trying
to convert Medicare to a voucher program because the money would be paid to insurance companies and health plans, not directly to beneficiaries. If health costs for a group of patients exceeded the federal payment in a given year, the insurer would have to absorb the cost. Finally, Mr. Ryan says his proposal is equitable because Medicare would pay less on behalf of higher-income beneficiaries, and they would pay more of the cost of their health coverage. But high-income Medicare beneficiaries already pay higher premiums, with an annual surcharge of more than $3,800 in premiums for some of the most affluent ones this year. What Mr. Ryan and his committee plan to do this week is to approve a budget resolution, setting goals for spending and revenues. If approved by the House and the Senate in the same form, such a resolution would bind Congress in its deliberations, but it would not be presented to the president and would not become law. There is almost no chance the Democratic-controlled Senate would adopt a resolution along the lines Mr. Ryan is proposing, although his counterpart in the Senate, Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is working on a bipartisan plan to address entitlement spending as part of a broader package to reduce the budget deficit. The budget resolution typically assumes changes in federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare. But those assumptions do not bind the House committees with power over those programs, which could choose to save the same amounts in other ways.
Senate Passes Change to Health Law C
ongress sent the White House its first rollback of the new health care law, a bipartisan repeal of a tax reporting requirement that was widely unpopular with businesses. The Senate voted 87 to 12 to repeal a requirement that would have forced businesses to file tax forms for every vendor selling them more than $600 in goods each year, starting in 2012. The requirement was unrelated to health care, but it would have been used to generate revenue to pay for part of the law. President Obama supports the change, which was approved by the House in early March.
Republicans hope the bill is the first of many measures that will ultimately result in the dismantling of the entire health care law. Democrats say it is part of inevitable revisions needed to improve the measure. The filing requirement was projected to raise nearly $25 billion over a decade by ensuring that vendors paid their taxes. Under the new bill, the money will be made up by changing repayment requirements under another part of the law that, starting in 2014, will provide tax credits to low- and middle-income families to help pay premiums.
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Forget the Treadmill. Get a Dog. By TARA PARKER-POPE
I
f you’re looking for the latest in home exercise equipment, you may want to consider something with four legs and a wagging tail. Several studies now show that dogs can be powerful motivators to get people moving. Not only are dog owners more likely to take regular walks, but new research shows that dog walkers are more active over all than people who don’t have dogs. One study even found that older people are more likely to take regular walks if the walking companion is canine rather than human. “You need to walk, and so does your dog,” said Rebecca A. Johnson, director of the human-animal interaction research center at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. “It’s good for both ends of the leash.” Just last week, researchers from Michigan State University reported that among dog owners who took their pets for regular walks, 60 percent met federal criteria for regular moderate or vigorous exercise. Nearly half of dog walkers exercised an average of 30 minutes a day at least five days a week. By comparison, only about a third of those without dogs got that much regular exercise. The researchers tracked the exercise habits of 5,900 people in Michigan, including 2,170 who owned dogs. They found that about two-thirds of dog owners took their pets for regular walks, defined as lasting at least 10 minutes. Unlike other studies of dog ownership and walking, this one also tracked other forms of exercise, seeking to answer what the lead author, Mathew Reeves, called an obvious question: whether dog walking “adds significantly to the amount of exercise you do, or is it simply that it replaces exercise you would have done otherwise?” The answers were encouraging, said Dr. Reeves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Michigan State. The dog walkers had higher overall levels of both moderate and vigorous physical activity than the other subjects, and they were more likely to take part in other
leisure-time physical activities like sports and gardening. On average, they exercised about 30 minutes a week more than people who didn’t have dogs. Dr. Reeves, who owns two Labrador mixes named Cadbury and Bella, said he was not surprised. “There is exercise that gets done in this household that wouldn’t get done otherwise,” he said. “Our dogs demand that you take them out at 10 o’clock at night, when it’s the last thing you feel like doing. They’re not going to leave you alone until they get their walk in.” But owning a dog didn’t guarantee physical activity. Some owners in the study did not walk their dogs, and they posted far less overall exercise than dog walkers or people who didn’t have a dog. Dog walking was highest among the young and educated, with 18-to-24-year-old owners twice as likely to walk the dog as those over 65, and college graduates more than twice as likely as those with less education. Younger dogs were more likely to be walked than older dogs; and larger dogs (45 pounds or more) were taken for longer walks than smaller dogs. The researchers asked owners who didn’t walk their pets to explain why. About 40 percent said their dogs ran free in a yard, so they didn’t need walks; 11 percent hired dog walkers. Nine percent said they didn’t have time to walk their dogs, while another 9 percent said their dogs were too ill behaved to take on a walk. Age of the dog or dog owner also had an effect: 9 percent said the dog was too old to go for walks, while 8 percent said the owner was too old. “There is still a lot more dog walking that could be done among dog owners,” Dr. Reeves said. And the question remains whether owning a dog encourages regular activity or whether active, healthy people are simply more likely to acquire dogs as walking companions. A 2008 study in Western Australia addressed the question when it followed 773 adults who didn’t have
dogs. After a year, 92 people, or 12 percent of the group, had acquired a dog. Getting a dog increased average walking by about 30 minutes a week, compared with those who didn’t own dogs. But on closer analysis, the new dog owners had been laggards before getting a dog, walking about 24 percent less than other people without dogs. The researchers found that one of the motivations for getting a dog was a desire to get more exercise. Before getting a dog, the new dog owners had clocked about 89 minutes of weekly walking, but dog ownership boosted that number to 130 minutes a week. A study of 41,500 California residents also looked at walking among dog and cat owners as well as those who didn’t have pets. Dog owners were about 60 percent more likely to walk for leisure than people who owned a cat or no pet at all. That translated to an extra 19 minutes a week of walking compared with people without dogs. A study last year from the University of Missouri showed that for getting exercise, dogs are better walking companions than humans. In a 12-week study of 54 older adults at an assisted-living home, some people selected a friend or spouse as a walking companion, while others took a bus daily to a local animal shelter, where they were assigned a dog to walk. To the surprise of the researchers, the dog walkers showed a much greater improvement in fitness. Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just 4 percent among the human walkers. Dr. Johnson, the study’s lead author, said that human walkers often complained about the heat and talked each other out of exercise, but that people who were paired with dogs didn’t make those excuses. “They help themselves by helping the dog,” said Dr. Johnson, co-author of the new book “Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound,” to be published in May by Purdue University Press. “If we’re committed to a dog, it enables us to commit to physical activity ourselves.”
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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Wine
Wine Divorced From Food? Let’s Be Adults About It By ERIC ASIMOV
W
INE and food belong together. That’s always been one of my cardinal beliefs. I have little use for fussy, fetishistic wine pairings in which you need a PowerPoint display and a degree in biochemistry to decide which bottle to open. No. I simply believe that the pleasure of food and wine, enjoyed in harmony, is exponentially greater than the uncombined parts. At home, I think of wine primarily as a grocery item, perhaps an overly expensive one with an outsized meaning, but ultimately part of the ensemble of a meal. This, of course, is not everybody’s understanding of wine. In fact, a significant percentage of wine in the United States, perhaps more than anybody might have guessed, is not drunk during a meal, according to a new consumer survey by Wine Opinions, a wine industry market-research company. First, the basics: The survey questioned around 800 members of the Wine Opinions consumer panel, including residents of all states except North Dakota and Montana. The panelists drink wine frequently, which the survey defines as at least several times a week. That describes only 38 percent of all American wine drinkers, said John Gillespie, the chief executive of Wine Opinions. But significantly, those frequent drinkers account for more than 85 percent of the wine consumed in the United States. The online survey, conducted in December, has a margin of sampling error of two to three percentage points. This was the first time the Wine Opinions survey had looked at whether wine and food were consumed together. Of all the wine the respondents drink in a given week, the survey found, only 41 percent was consumed while sitting down to a meal. Nineteen percent was
consumed with chips, nuts, crackers and other light snacks, and 14 percent while preparing food. A full 26 percent of wine was consumed without food at all. “My guess is most people in the industry would have guessed more than 50 percent with meals,” Mr. Gillespie said in a telephone interview. “Very few people would have guessed that fully one-quarter of the amount of wine people drink would have been without food.” I’ve become used to the notion that not everybody assumes wine is meant to go with food. But I find the idea of divorcing the two unsettling to say the least. Personally speaking, I love a glass of wine when I’m cooking, as an aperitif. The idea of not finishing a glass after pushing back from the table? Perish the thought! But I can conceive of very few social situations not involving food where I would want to drink wine. It’s not that I’m antisocial; I’m just pro foodand-wine. Yet perhaps the popularity of wine in what Mr. Gillespie calls “cocktail situations” helps account for the evolution of wine styles. Some wines that are perfectly enjoyable with food might seem austere, tannic and uninviting on their own, while wines that might seem too soft, plush or unstructured with food might
offer more pleasure without it. Certainly, that was a lesson for Joe Campanale, the beverage director and an owner of L’Artusi and dell’anima, restaurants in the West Village. Last year, when he opened Anfora, a wine bar near the restaurants, he expected most people to drink wine while noshing on salumi or crostini. Instead, he has found that many people don’t order food at all. “It’s affected the styles of wine I put on the list there,” he said. “I tend to like very structured wines with very high acidity and sometimes prominent tannins, but those don’t always go well if you’re knocking wine back without food. I still look for crisp acidity, but tend not to look for tannic wines.” For instance, he’s found that Spanish wines like well-aged Riojas from López de Heredia or Bierzos from Alvaro Palacios are more approachable without food than full-bodied but tannic reds like a traditional aglianico from Campania. Far from being alarmed, Mr. Gillespie interprets the findings as great news for the American wine industry. Placing wine firmly on the table is a habit derived from European traditions. Now, he suggested, Americans are embracing wine as a part of their everyday lives and culture. “We don’t have four-hour dinners the way they do in Spain,” he said. “But when people are sitting down on a weeknight, and they’re watching ‘American Idol,’ and they pour a
glass of wine rather than crack open a beer, that’s a measure of acculturation. People’s comfort level with wine is beyond what we imagined in the industry.” The survey also showed a significant generational difference in how people consume wine. Those 65 or older drank the largest proportion of wine with food — 50 percent — while those identified as millennials drank the highest proportion of wine without food, 31 percent. To Joe Roberts, whose blog, 1 Wine Dude, is popular with younger wine drinkers, this seemed to make perfect sense. “Food comes up very seldom, actually,” Mr. Roberts said when I asked whether his readers thought much about wine and food together. “We’re talking about a group that may not have families, that may not have traditional meal settings. Wine’s pretty social, and not every social interaction is over dinner.” Mr. Gillespie suggested such behavior might indicate that millennials are in fact quite discerning about wine. He’s participated in focus groups with young wine drinkers, he said, where they describe the process of “pre-gaming,” having a glass or two of wine at home before heading out for a night on the town. “They drink beer there because they know clubs or bars will have lousy wines,” he said. Well, that’s reassuring. Maybe I need to get out more, and not only to restaurants.
ART
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April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
An Artist Takes Roleof China’s Conscience By HOLLAND COTTER
T
he Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who disappeared into police custody in Beijing after he was arrested on Sunday while trying to board a flight for Hong Kong, is a fully 21st-century figure, globalminded, media-savvy, widely networked. He is also the embodiment of a cultural type, largely unfamiliar to the West, that dates far back into China’s ancient past. In a 30-year career, often at calculated personal risk, aspects of his persona to create a role as an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, delivering his most stinging rebukes from within China itself. In light of his arrest and detainment, however, his ability to sustain this role, in China at least, would seem to be in serious doubt. From a Western perspective, Mr. Ai’s career fits a familiar profile. We tend to like our contemporary Chinese artists to come across as aesthetic tradition-busters. (This is one reason that Pop-style Mao paintings by the likes of Wang Guangyi remain bigselling auction items.) In this regard Mr. Ai has not disappointed. In the 1990s he painted Coca-Cola logos on ancient Chinese pots, broke up classical Chinese furniture and photographed himself making a rude gesture in front of the White House, the Eiffel Tower and Tiananmen Square. Gradually Duchampian moves have given way to large-scale, critical projects. For a conceptual piece called “Fairytale” at the 2007 Documenta in Kassel, Germany, he placed 1,001 antique Chinese chairs throughout the exhibition. He built an outdoor structure from 1,001 doors salvaged from Ming and Qing houses that had been eliminated by rampant development in Chinese cities. Through the Internet he recruited 1,001 Chinese citizen-volunteers to come to Kassel for the duration of the show. He brought a sense of China at once inviting, puzzling and pathetic. The chairs were nice to sit in. It was hard to know what to make of the mini-army of temporary residents, who seemed equally uncertain of why they were there. The structure built from old doors finally collapsed. “Fairytale” was not a winning picture of his homeland. Politically, he was to the Chinese authorities a loose cannon with a suspect history: a late-1970s free-speech agitator, later a member of renegade art movements, and a full-time resident of New York from 1981 to 1993. But as an international celebrity he was still a feather in China’s cap at a time when the country was making an all-out effort to become a major cultural presence prior to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. With this in mind the Chinese government asked Mr. Ai to collaborate with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron on the design for the Olympic stadium, known the Bird’s Nest. He did so. The result was a triumph. Something startling happened: He denounced the Olympics as a feel-good
touch wit a nascent democracy movement. When the ideological climate grew icy again, he left for the United States. He had no American career to speak of — New York wasn’t looking at contemporary Chinese art in the 1980s — but he circulated widely in the downtown art world and learned a lot. He took this knowledge with him when he returned to China, after his father fell ill in 1993. In Beijing he helped spearhead new, radical, often conceptually based underground movements. And with his big-picture view of international art and his fluent English, he was a primary spokesman for new Chinese art and a link between Chinese artists and a developing audience of Western collectors, curators and critics. His own work, which came to include sculpture, photography, performance and architecture, fit no definable mode. It was his personal presence as impresario, entrepreneur and social commentator that gave it unity. Increasingly it was the critical commentary that stood out, became a form of performance art, carefully choreographed in all its moves. Those moves were toward ever greater risk. His attacks on political authority grew sharper, more persistent, more amplified. The noble Confucian model of the morally grounded intellectual speaking truth to power in a single dramatic confrontation was called on so often as to become, seemingly by intention, an unnoble and relentless insistence. And as a result, whatever immunity from reprisal he might once have enjoyed was soon gone. In 2009 he was beaten by the police and underwent surgery for cerebral hemorrhage. The same year, his blog was shut down, presumably by the government. Selections from it have just been published by MIT Press as a book, “Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants (2006-2009),” edited and translated by Lee Ambrozy. In 2010 he was put under house arrest in Beijing while a newly built studio in Shanghai was razed by city authorities on the pretext of having been built without proper permits. Even though, like many other inte-
llectuals and activists, he was forbidden to leave China as of December, he announced plans to establish a studio in Berlin. But recently, after popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that began in February, the Chinese authorities have initiated a virulent crackdown. Mr. Ai is far from alone in feeling the force of it, but it is hard to think of many others who have gone so far out of their way to attract it. And he will continue to, even — or perhaps especially — if he remains in detention. This May an outdoor sculptural piece by Mr. Ai, called “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads,” will be installed at the Pulitzer Fountain outside the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. To most New Yorkers the dozen large cast-bronze animal heads, corresponding to the signs Chinese zodiac, will be simply winsome, or maybe a little freaky. To anyone knowing the historical reference behind these images, they’ll be explosive. They are based on a set of similar sculptures that once adorned a fountain at the 18th-century imperial Summer Palace called Yuanming Yuan near Beijing. In 1860 French and British soldiers occupying China torched the palace and carried off the zodiac heads, an act which to this day evokes popular outrage in China as an example of colonialist humiliation and of everything hateful about the West. Getting all the heads back — only some have been returned — has become an impassioned nationalist mission. When two were offered for sale at Christie’s in 2009 as part of the Yves Saint Laurent estate, there were protest demonstrations — never allowed in any other context — across China. What can the Chinese feel about Mr. Ai symbolically plunking the whole set down in New York — and, later this year, in London and Los Angeles? He has symbolically reconstituted an iconic piece of China’s patrimony; but he has done so, perversely, on enemy turf. Yet in the end only one political reality matters: If China prevents Mr. Ai from appearing as scheduled at the sculpture’s debut on May 2, much of the rest of the world will be united in demanding to know why.
whitewash on China’s repressive, markethungry government. After the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, which killed thousands of children who were crushed when their shoddily built schools collapsed, he became an intrepid antiestablishment activist. As China’s news channels broadcast upbeat videos of rescue operations, Mr. Ai was in Sichuan making his own films of the destruction, talking with distraught parents of dead or missing children and using his widely read daily blog to accuse the Sichuan officials of financial corruption that resulted in structurally faulty schools. His accusations of a cover-up extended to the highest levels in Beijing. To anyone familiar with China’s hardball politics, Mr. Ai’s aggressive words sounded suicidally aggressive and the silence from the government was perplexing. In Chinese culture, going back to Confucius, there has been a tradition of individual scholars and intellectuals denouncing rulers for wrongdoing that was bringing disharmony to society, and particularly if that wrongdoing was injurious to innocence. Examples of face-offs recur in traditional literature and painting. Often, but not always, the self-sacrificing honesty of “The Chinese government asked Mr. Ai to collaborate with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron the accuser rendered him immune to retaon the design for the Olympic stadium, known the Bird’s Nest. He did so. The result was a triumph.” liation. In his most antic mode, Mr. Ai has assumed the artist’s natural position as public intellectual. It was a position he inherited. He is the son of one of China’s outstanding modern poets and thinkers, one who, like many intellectuals in the 1950s, was labeled “an enemy of the people” and banished, along with his family, to the remote regions and years of menial labor. Mr. Ai, born in 1957, remembers that time and its hardships. He also remembers his father’s unshattered utopian ideals. His own political coming of age coincided with the family’s return to Beijing in 1976, at a period of relative liberalism, putting him in
San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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FASHION & BEAUTY
Hot Pants
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he red trouser has been one of those under-the-radar microtrends riding alongside obsessions like camel-colored everything. This spring however, it’s reached critical mass. Maybe it all started with the sleek cigarette style by the Row or a cherry-legged and leather-jacketed Agyness Deyn. Either way, tucked between blue jeans at Mother, Genetic Denim and Uniqlo are ruby red shades that can’t be resisted any longer — like these cayennecolored stiletto Current/Elliott jeans. It’s time to go shopping.
The New ‘It’ Sneaker Is, for Once, Actually New
A
sneaker’s style quotient is usually a function of its retro charm, and an inverse of its underlying technology. Hip dressers love vintage Nike Dunks, Adidas Superstars and Converse Chucks. A cutting-edge Nike Shox, with its bulging springlike heel? Not so much. So it’s surprising that the “it” shoe suddenly gracing the feet of the fashion set is the Nike Free, a high-performance running shoe. As Nike’s answer to the barefoot-running movement, the Free aims to biomechanically mimic an unencumbered stride. The resulting design is stripped down, innovation mostly restricted to the sole’s highly flexible grip and the upper’s foot-anchoring webbing. Unlike “barefoot” models, Nike hits an aesthetic sweet spot. According to Free’s inventor, Tobie Tatfield, getting people to wear it off the track — let alone to a chic restaurant — requires “a balance of simple and high-tech. You don’t want the thing to look like a foot.”
FASHION & BEAUTY
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April 14 - 20, 2011
San Juan Weekly Riccardo Tisci has a similar problem at Givenchy, though at least he gives you things to think about, and his collections are generally well filled out. This season, he, too, has embellished sweatshirts, as well as mohair sweaters with wreaths of flowers or pinups on the front and some terrific black fur jackets. But it’s hard to relate to his fashion personally, and maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the skill or the patience to focus on fundamental things, like shapes or how to make fabrics work on the body. He prefers themes; this season his muse was Amanda Lear, the disco queen, who appeared on the cover of “For Your Pleasure” by Roxy Music. Hence the panther prints and black vinyl pencil skirts with tight, sheer hems. But whatever the theme, Mr. Tisci remains on the surface, forcing ideas but not really changing your eye about clothes. Ms. McCartney may not persuade her customers to wear her wide suit jackets (think Talking Heads) or savor the roominess of gold felted wool tops or a rounded tunic. But, coming from a woman, some of these sculptural, free-moving shapes are perhaps easier to relate to than another high-low riff on black vinyl.
It’s Hard to Be Sexy By CATHY HORYN
S
tella McCartney might not have meant to capture a persistent duality in the female psyche, but she did. The figure-denying suits and cocoon dresses, the almost slovenly knits and custard pants, seemed to say, tauntingly, “Don’t judge me for my looks.” Or: “Leave
me alone, I’m feeling fat.” At the other extreme, though — and Ms. McCartney worked both sides — were the figure-hugging, explicitly sexual evening dresses ventilated at the sides with sheer panels, while the solid bits were covered in bubbly circles. You didn’t need to ponder their message. Of course, all this is a big fat cliché; women, including Ms. McCartney, are much more complex than that. But it was interesting for Ms. McCartney, who isn’t known for straying far from her brand comfort zone, to take these sexual identities to such extremes. And she would probably insist that both views are a valid reflection of women’s attitudes about their bodies, as well as their love-hate relationship with fashion. But if I had to choose a winner in her show on Monday, I would pick the skillful-looking vamp. In offering that style, Ms. McCartney came out of herself a little. As a trying three-week run of shows winds down, you realize how difficult it is for designers to make new statements with sexy clothes, even at houses where there is a history. The problem for Giles Deacon at Ungaro is painfully obvious. He doesn’t have a female body or personality in mind when he’s designing. Instead, he has abstract notions of Parisian mistresses and decadence. It would be so much easier, and better for the future of Ungaro, if Mr. Deacon restrained himself from uttering nonsense about “the city of lust” and instead actually built a collection around a woman — her body, her way of walking and teasing. Mr. Deacon creates a cardboard provocativeness, not much better than a London sex shop, with leather pants that zip down the rear, see-through lace with dog collars, and black minisweatshirts that in no way justify the expense of putting a Lesage-embroidered animal of prey on them. There is just not a guiding vision here.
Besides, you wonder how many young women want that much complexity from fashion. Before the Hermès show, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the company’s artistic director, said it was important for Hermès to relate to people in their 20s and 30s, because “the dominant values are changing.” People are interested in ethical behavior and qualitative time, rather than speed and quantity, he said. These ideas weren’t entirely reflected in Christophe Lemaire’s first show for Hermès, but it was a start. Wrap coats with a Japanese influence, suede tunics and knits with scarf prints were the strongest elements. Perhaps the collection suffered from too-muchness, a heaviness, and the bottom half of outfits seemed to impart no sense of style or direction. But the younger generation at Hermès has already demonstrated versatility with other products and with its Web site. With some pruning, it could make a difference with its women’s fashion.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
17
Liberator Simón Bolívar
Dreamed of Puerto Rican Independence
S
imon Bolivar is known in Latin America as the Great Liberator, having fought for the independence of the Spanish colonies in the Americas as well as for an end to the institution of slavery. In addition to his successes there remains an unfinished promise to liberate Puerto Rico from Spain. In August 1816 he came to Vieques to meet with Puerto Rican leaders. A bust of Simon Bolivar stands in the Public Square in Isabel Segunda Sector in Vieques. General Antonio Valero de Bernabe, known as the Liberator of Puerto Rico against the spaniards, was at Simón Bolivar’s side in his Latin American battles. Brigadier General Antonio Valero de Bernabé (October 26, 1790 – June 7, 1863), was a military leader who fought for the independence of South America together with Simon Bolívar and who wanted the inde-
Simón Bolívar Bust in Vieques
pendence of Puerto Rico. He was an advocate of the formation of a confederation of Latin American nations. Valero de Bernabé was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, his father, Cayetano Valero de Bernabé, was an officer in the Spanish Army and his mother, Rosa Pacheco de Onormandía, came from a rich Puerto Rican family. When he was quite young, his father died and Bernabe was sent by his family to Spain, to study military science - there he graduated as a junior officer in 1807. Valero de Bernabé was a recent graduate of the military instutution when Napoleon Bonaparte convinced King Charles IV of Spain to permit him to pass through Spain to attack Portugal. When Napoleon later refused to leave Spanish soil, the Spanish government declared war. Valero de Bernabé joined the Spanish Army and helped defeat Napoleon’s army at the Siege of Saragossa (1808). After this action, Valero de Bernabé was awarded many decorations and promoted to the rank of colonel. When Ferdinand VII assumed the throne of Spain in 1813, Valero de Bernabé became critical of the new king’s policies towards the Spanish colonies in Latin America and developed a keen hatred of the monarchy, resigned his commission in the army, and in 1821, emigrated to Mexico. Upon learning of Bolívar’s dream of liberating and creating a unified Latin America, which inclu-
ded Puerto Rico and Cuba, Valero de Bernabé decided to join him and stopped in St. Thomas where he es-
tablished contacts with the Puerto Rican independence movement. He travelled to Venezuela were he was met by General Carlos Soublette. Soublette then introduces him to General Francisco de Paula Santander, Vice-President of the Republic of Colombia. Impressed with Valero de Bernabé, Santander named him Brigadier General of the Colombian Army. Valero de Bernabé and his men together with the men of General Antonio José de Sucre were victorious in the battle of Ayacucho which gave Peru its independence. He subsequently is introduced to Bolívar and gained Bolivar’s confidence. In 1826, Valero de Bernabé was named Military Chief of the Department of Panama and successfully defended Panama from a Spanish invasion whose intention was to recapture the territory lost.
Continueson page 18
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Antonio Valero de Bernabé
Comes from page 17 Bolívar called for a constitutional convention at Ocaña during April 1828. He had seen his dream of eventually engendering an American Revolution-style federation between all the newly independent republics, with a government ideally set-up solely to recognize and uphold individual rights, succumb to the pressures of particular interests throughout the region, which rejected that model and had little or no allegiance to liberal principles, thus Valero de Bernabé’s dream that Puerto Rico and Cuba would be liberated from Spanish rule and join the Great Colombia (known as the United Provinces of New Granada) as an independent state called Borinquen were not realized. There were many disagreements and rivalries between the delegates. For example General’s José Antonio Páez of Venezuela and Francisco de Paula Santander of Colombia differed in ideas and became bitter enemies. However, in regard to fighting for Puerto Rico’s and Cuba’s independence, the most influential factor against such actions, were protests presented by the Governments of the United States, France, England and Mexico who claimed to have commercial interests in both islands and therefore were against the idea. Valero de Bernabé founded the Liberal Party of Venezuela. Among the many positions which he held
were: “Military Chief of the Department of Panama”, “Governor of Puerto Cabello”, “Chief of Staff of Colombia”, “Minister of War and Maritime of Venezuela” Throughout his career he was always loyal to Bolívar with whom he became firm friends. He was later falsely accused of plotting against the Liberator and was sent into exile in St. Thomas with his wife, María Madrid, whom
he had married in Spain, and his children. When Bolívar died in 1830, Valero de Bernabé was permitted by the government of Venezuela to serve as an honour guard at his funeral. In 1853 Venezuela honoured Valero de Bernabé by presenting him with “The Bust of the Liberator of Venezuela”. Antonio Valero de Bernabé con-
tinued to be politically active until the day that he died June 7, 1863, in Bogotá, Colombia, where he was buried. In 1874, the Venezuelan government built a National Pantheon of the Founding Fathers where the remains of their heroes were to be placed. Valero de Bernabé’s name is inscribed on the monument but his remains, which were never located, were not placed at the site.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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New York Times Editorials Religion Does Its Worst By ROGER COHEN
S
o Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who organized a Koran burning on March 20, wanted “to stir the pot.” Mission accomplished. Perhaps he’d care to explain himself to the family of Joakim Dungel, a 33-year-old Swede slaughtered at the U.N. mission in Mazar-i-Sharif by Afghans whipped into frenzy through Jones’s folly. On reflection, no, there’s nothing Jones can explain to Dungel’s family, or the other U.N. staffers murdered. Jones is not in the explanation business. He’s a zealot. How else to describe a Christian who interprets his faith not as grounded in love and compassion but as a mission to incite hatred toward Islam? There’s no discussion with a bigot like this: You can’t be argued out of something you haven’t been argued into in the first place. Jones is not alone in this Islamophobic campaign in the United States, which is what is most disturbing. But before I get to that, let’s talk about the murderous Afghan mob and its enablers. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, was one such enabler. He was a fool to allude to Jones’s stunt, performed before a few dozen acolytes. Why elevate this vile little
deed and so foster mayhem? Karzai is a man who will stop at nothing to disguise his weakness. His benefactors and underwriters — the West — are those he must scorn to survive. The foolishness did not stop with Karzai: The imams of Mazar chose to use Friday prayers to stir up the crowd. As for the killing itself — whether by infiltrated Taliban insurgents or not — it was a heinous crime against innocent people and should be denounced throughout the Islamic world, in mosques and beyond. I’m still waiting. Staffan de Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, did not honor the dead by failing to denounce the perpetrators of the crime in a statement. He was right to call Jones’s Koran burning “insane and totally despicable;” he should have used the same words about the slaughter of his men. Not to do so was craven, a glaring omission. All this madness began at the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, home to Jones’s mini-church. As my colleague Lizette Alvarez chronicled, an unrepentant Jones believes Islam and the Koran only serve “violence, death and terrorism.” That’s as dumb as equating Christianity with Psalm 137 that says the “little ones” of the enemy should be dashed against stones. But such incendiary views about a
Moment of Truth By DAVID BROOKS
I
t was a season of fiscal perestroika. Last fall, the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission released a bold report on how to avoid an economic catastrophe. For a few weeks, the think tanks and government offices were alive with proposals to reduce debt and reform entitlements, the tax code and just about every other government program. The mood did not last. The polls suggested that voters were still unwilling to accept tax increases or benefit cuts. Smart Washington insiders like Mitch McConnell and President Obama decided that any party that actually tried to implement these ideas would be committing political suicide. The president walked away from the Simpson-Bowles package. Far from addressing the fiscal problems, the president’s budget would double the nation’s debt over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the forces of reform have not been entirely silenced. Over the past few weeks, a number of groups, including the ex-chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers and 64 prominent budget experts, have issued letters arguing that the debt situation is so dire that doing nothing
is not a survivable option. What they lacked was courageous political leadership — a powerful elected official willing to issue a proposal, willing to take a stand, willing to face the political perils. The country lacked that leadership until today. Today, Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, is scheduled to release the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes. Ryan is expected to leap into the vacuum left by the president’s passivity. The Ryan budget will not be enacted this year, but it will immediately reframe the domestic policy debate. His proposal will set the standard of seriousness for anybody who wants to play in this discussion. It will become the 2012 Republican platform, no matter who is the nominee. Any candidate hoping to win that nomination will have to be able to talk about government programs with this degree of specificity, so it will improve the G.O.P. primary race. The Ryan proposal will help settle the fight over the government shutdown and the 2011 budget because it will remind everybody that the real argument is not about cutting a few billion here or there. It is about the underlying architecture of do-
world religion now find wide expression in the United States where “stealth jihad” has become a recurrent Republican theme. Several Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Peter King, have found it politically opportune to target “creeping Shariah in the United States” at a time when the middle name of the president is Hussein. (A Newsweek poll last year found that 52 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement that “Barack Obama sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world.”) I spent time last year with Paul Blair, a pastor in small-town Oklahoma, a state where Islamophobia is rampant. He told me Muslims were “not here to coexist but to take over.” He told me there are only two possibilities in Islam — “the house of Islam or the house of war.” That sort of message is going out in a lot of U.S. churches. It’s dangerous. Already, Muslims are victims in 14 percent of religious discrimination cases when they make up 1 percent of the population. In Europe, too, rightist politicians peddle divisive anti-Muslim bigotry, with some success. Muslims have work to do. They should have the courage to denounce unequivocally the Mazar murder. Jihadists have too often
deformed a great religion with insufficient rebuke. From Egypt to Pakistan, it must be understood that Islam cannot at once be a political force and above criticism. Once you enter the democratic political arena on a religious platform, your beliefs are no longer a private matter but up for legitimate attack. Pakistan’s violence-inducing blasphemy laws are an affront to this principle. Jones, by contrast, lives in a nation where the law defends even his folly. I’m a free-speech absolutist and so I support that. But he must examine his conscience: How is it consistent with religious faith to stir hatred and killing? And how can the Islamophobes, spreading poison, justify their grotesque caricature of Islam in the thinly veiled pursuit of political gain? This column is full of anger, I know. It has no heroes. I’m full of disgust, writing after a weekend when religious violence returned to Northern Ireland with the murder of a 25-year-old Catholic policeman, Ronan Kerr, by dissident republican terrorists. Religion has much to answer for, in Gainesville and Mazar and Omagh. I see why lots of people turn to religion — fear of death, ordering principle in a mysterious universe, refuge from pain, even revelation. But surely it’s meaningless without mercy and forgiveness, and surely its very antithesis must be hatred and murder. At least that’s how it appears to a nonbeliever.
mestic programs in 2012 and beyond. The Ryan budget will put all future arguments in the proper context: The current welfare state is simply unsustainable and anybody who is serious, on left or right, has to have a new vision of the social contract. The initial coverage will talk about Ryan’s top number — the cuts of more than $4 trillion over the next decade. But the important thing is the way Ryan would reform programs. He would reform the tax code along the Simpson-Bowles lines, but without the tax increases. (It’s amazing that a budget chairman could include tax policy in his proposal, since it’s normally under the purview of the Ways and Means Committee.) The Ryan budget doesn’t touch Medicare for anybody over 55, but for younger people it turns it into a defined contribution plan. Instead of assuming open-ended future costs, the government will give you a sum of money (starting at an amount equal to what the government now spends) and a regulated menu of insurance options from which to choose. The Ryan budget will please governors of both parties by turning Medicaid into a block grant — giving states more flexibility. It tackles agriculture subsidies and other corporate welfare. It consolidates the job-training programs into a single adult
scholarship. It reforms housing assistance and food stamps. It dodges Social Security. The Republicans still have no alternative to the Democratic health care reform, but this budget tackles just about every politically risky issue with brio and guts. Ryan was a protégé of Jack Kemp, and Kemp’s uplifting spirit pervades the document. It’s not sour, taking an austere meat ax approach. It emphasizes social support, social mobility and personal choice. I don’t agree with all of it that I’ve seen, but it is a serious effort to create a sustainable welfare state — to prevent the sort of disruptive change we’re going to face if national bankruptcy comes. It also creates the pivotal moment of truth for President Obama. Will he come up with his own counterproposal, or will he simply demagogue the issue by railing against “savage” Republican cuts and ignoring the long-term fiscal realities? Does he have a sustainable vision for government, or will he just try to rise above the fray while Nancy Pelosi and others attack Ryan? And what about the Senate Republicans? Where do they stand? Or the voters? Are they willing to face reality or will they continue to demand more government than they are willing to pay for? Paul Ryan has grasped reality with both hands. He’s forcing everybody else to do the same. W
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The San Juan Weeekly
LETTERS The Future of Nuclear Reactors The EPA has just come up with new standards for nuclear plants. Not enough. How about 1. Not allowing plants within 50 miles of geologic faults or shoreline. 2. Better cooling system, such as a liquid nitrogen “sister” plant next door. 3. Better back up for electrical supply, such as lines from distant power plants. 4. Deep water GPS devices set along known borders of tectonic plates to allow early warning as soon as shifts in these plates are recorded. Ed Martinez, San Juan
Persona Non Grata To Dean Ana Guadalupe: It should be more than plain to you by now, you’re not welcome on campus. And with good reason. Why don’t you just resign? Do you have kids of your own? College age? Did you have to pay the $800 yourself? $1,600? $2,400? Plus the tuition. And the costly textbooks. And the myriad fees. And the greasy overpriced meals at the privatized student center. Yes, resign. Please. Carrutha Harris, Puerta de Tierra
Cosmetic Democracy Like the old Union of Soviet Socialist States, the Constitution of Puerto Rico and governance here are antagonistic, Commonwealth democracy and civil rights are a sham: EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS • How much of a VIP you are determines here the penalty upon whoever messes with you. A Joaquín Serrano wrote the nespapers last year about how he was assaulted and beaten by a deranged tough, as a skinny cop and a police girl watched on and walkie-talkied in the big cops, by which time Joaquín had been beaten badly by this burly total stranger for no apparent reason, who then pleaded out for a $100 fine. When the victim begged the prosecutor to do a psychiatric referral, the attacker was obviously psychotic, eventually he’d likely murder somebody, she responded, and I quote from Joaquín’s letter, “that no judge would order such commitment for a misdeameanor battery, that [Joaquín] had a right to [his] opinion, but such speculation is hardly the job of the courts.” When a citizen threw an egg at the Governor, and was so nervous he missed even, he got
two months in the slammer for his trouble. Mind you his target was never, unlike Joaquín, in any danger, it was a political statement, obviously. And the charge was assault, not interfering with the machinery of government or anything like that. • Last April the police beat students and journalists and a mother and daughter with those lead-core nightsticks and pulled a gun on students to murder them---what else do you do with a gun when you unholster it?--and blasted pepper spray point blank into the eyes of Capitolio attendiees who were seated and despite being videoed riot squaders with their nightsticks broke the windshield of a car whose occupants were calling them criminals as they strutted by. And in December strangled passively-resisting students strewn on the road, in a manner known to kill and squeezed both a girl’s breasts aboard a police vehicle. It has all been taken by the Commonwealth Government “under advisement,” euphemism for forget it. A few kids scared and shoved Dean Ana Guadalupe and pulled her hair and the suspects have felt the full weight of the law upon them within 48 hours.
Coconut oil, Laurins and Alzheimer’s Not mentioned in Melissa Clark’s otherwise excellent article on the virtues of coconut oil is the recent recognition it is receiving as a possible “cure” for Alzheimer’s Disease. Anyone interested turn to http://www.healthy-oil-planet.com/cure-for-alzheimers.html Ed Martinez, San Juan
Bad Guy & Good Guy
RIGHT TO REHABILITATION (in PR Constitution, not in US Constitution) • The Commonwealth in fact insures that once a felon you’ll never, ever be anything but a criminal by dint of your police record. Realize that not even the government will hire you. So much for the “war on crime.”
To PR Res. Com. Pierluisi: Arrogance. On WOSO Radio Speak Out you wanted to be addressed as “Congressman.” Yet you don’t even have the right to speak in Congress, a lawmaker must ask permission for you and you’re not allowed even to ask yourself. You’re little more than a tourist there. And you got no chance to refute–except through the media–when knight-in-shiningarmor US Rep. Luis Gutiérrez stood up for the people of Puerto Rico. Against the byzantine New Progressive Party fiends, who are robbing the gift of liberty from us. Even then, you wouldn’t–couldn’t–address the issues. You instead slithered around Rep. Gutiérrez collaterally. That he badmouthed and humiliated Puerto Rico. Like when Gaddafi ranted that the Western powers are “animals,” who really just want to wreck Lybia. A clique of corrupt tyrant wannabes are hardly Puerto Rico. Again like Gaddafi, that the great Puerto Rican democracy we must all be proud of is under attack by leftist subversion, like on the UPR campus, at the UPR Board of Trustees before Fortuño packed it with partisan lickspittles, at the PR Supreme Court before Fortuño packed it with partisan lickspittles, at the Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica Board of Trustees that Fortuño is now packing with partisan lickspittles, amid the seated journalists pepper-sprayed point blank into the eyes at Capitolio, within labor unions, in essence, everywhere penepeísta dictum is questioned. Only Figueroa Sancha’s Police Dept. is above reproach. Yes, the most corrupt ever under the American flag, if you believe the US Dept. Of Justice, and possibly to go into receivership for violating human rights on an outrageous scale. Yet what’s most revealing is your rage. Over the radio, you were audibly dying to tell a caller he was stupid, though you had the sense to settle for ascribing him “ulterior motives.” Throughout history, this has been the demeanor of tyranny when challenged. It hurts to hear what you are, that you’re scarcely the messianic incarnations you fancy yourselves to be.
Danilo Alvarez, Hato Rey
Nina Fotze, San Juan
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT • Because of desperate dog poisonings by neighbors and that privatized exterminator company that threw a whole canine pack over a bridge and the ensuing tantrum by dog-owning ladies at Capitolio, mistreatment of animals is more punishable than homicide except when it’s felony murder. So the fellow who dragged the horse got 12 years in the slammer and the few killers of people who actually get caught have lately been sentenced to less, according to the tube. RIGHT TO PRIVACY (in PR Constitution, not in US Constitution) • To hit on the homos, anal sex has always been a felony here, even when you do it in your bedroom with your opposite-sex spouse. But you only get charged, you guessed it, if your a pato. Every time the Penal Code is revised the gays demonstrate, but Rev. Rashke is even louder at it and that’s what counts. REASONABLE-DOUBT THRESHOLD • Unlike the United States, juries in Puerto Rico need not be unanimous to convict. A 9-out-of-12 majority suffices. Don’t you think that if 3 jurors out of 12 refuse a finding of guilt, that’s reasonable doubt?
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April 14 - 20, 2011
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LETTERS Only Hitting Back To UPR Dean Ana Guadalupe: A 6-foot-tall burly student threw you on the floor and then kneeled on your belly, pressing all his weight on your stomach. Then another such animal tortured you with electricity a while. Then a student leader appeared and kicked you into the groin---or whatever---repeatedly and then another of those beasts grabbed and squeezed your left breast, then your right breast. And yet another tried to strangle you in a way that could’ve killed you. All of the above didn’t happen, did it? So don’t whine, you got off lightly. Samaria Salcedo, Caparra Hts.
La Terreur Up to last Wednesday UPR strikers handled themselves exemplarily and police behaved like cruel thugs. As of last Wednesday UPR student strikers are behaving like cruel thugs and the police have shown exemplary restraint. Courtesy of Luis Gutiérrez and Fidel Castro. Which begs the question. Why have campus activists not made the most of their moment of breakthrough and have instead sacrificed everything at the altar of self-indulgent rage? For the answer I have to look into myself. As I watched on the screen what the students did to Ana Guadalupe, my heart was filled with joy, even while I knew it was wrong and stupid. To see her forever arrogant grin replaced by humiliation and fear. It was worth the world. We’re not machines. At a point we no longer do what’s prudent or expedient, but what our gut dishes out. Whenever you plan anything, anything political in particular, you must reckon with this. The French Revolution, that milestone triumph of democracy in Europe, had its Robespierre and its guillotine. La Terreur [italics please]. Did you know George Washington had 5,000 Americans hanged during the American Revolution? They were Tories, Ana Guadalupes. Agustín Manzano, Santurce
Consequences The XXth century was the stage of a showdown between the ultimate ideologies. They were sensical and appealing, people didn’t fight and die for them for nothing. Don’t believe what you see on TV. Read Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto. Democracy eventually did in dictatorship, and that was good. But exploitation capitalism won over social justice, inhumanity over humanity, and that was bad. Islamism is anything but rational, one is even hardpressed to qualify its adherents as sane.
The Caliphate made sense in the Xth century, when government was rudimentary and science was primitive. It furnished a framework of authority and imparted folksy wisdom. But it wouldn’t have a place in today’s minds if we were all living under democratic socialist institutions. You harvest what you sow.
PRESENTATIVE. Then you’re told an attendant will be with you and that calls are taken in the order they’re received and that a supervisor might listen in. Only then you’re treated to the intitial speech followed by a stream of idiotic announcements and commeracials till kingdom come--and I promise you, you’ll be the one hanging up now.
Bob Harris, Condado Bob Harris, Condado
Viewpoint I am one of apparently very few who still wonder why a pipeline across the island is a subject of more than humorous comment. A presumption that amortizing a pipeline and pumping gas 90 miles from the farthest point through it to the major power plants along the opposite coast would be competitive with direct delivery there from the sea, where petroleum has been entering for decades, is ludicrous on the face of it. Government blessing and permits in the absence of economic justification just make it more bizarre. Frank H. Wadsworth, Caguas
Calle Me Cassandra There’s no $ for the UPR, but plenty for pointless status plebiscites. If commonwealth is excluded, Congess won’t be as stupid as to not see through the chickanery. And of it isn’t, it’ll win. Again. Because statehooders just want to mooch--Fortuño in particular, whose brazen dismantling of democracy here belies his American-patriot protestation in Spain---once they’ve had their fill, it’s independence they’ll be clamoring for, and burning US flags in the State of Puerto Rico. Save this letter and take another look at it in a generation. Ana Badillo, Hato Rey
“I Am Not Stupid!” Some years back a news item caught my fancy. A computer in Japan had been programmed to react angrily when called stupid. To shout back I AM NOT STUPID! twice. Why would anybody insult a machine? I chuckled at the time. Now I understand. Bureaucracy phones are lately answered by computers. And yes, they’re very stupid. And stubborn. The mechanism opens with a long bilingual speech on how “automated services” can now virtually attend to your every eventuality, followed by either a never-ending loop telling you everything except what you want to know or “I’m afraid I don’t understand. Please try again,” three times---never two, never four--- after which you get hung up on. And if you say I’m exaggerating, just key (800) 555-1212 or one of the Postal Service’s numbers. The only word such set-ups react to is RE-
To the Editor House Speaker Jennifer Gonzales is at it again. She seems to be bought lock, stock and barrel by lobbyists. The latest two examples are the fast food industry and the gun lobby. The fast food industry bought her off with not just whoppers and fries (and plenty of that), but with campaign contributions; thus, she was able to push through a bill that permits poor homeless, elderly and disabled food stamp recipients to use their benefits to purchase greasy food at the nearest McDonald’s or Burger King. Now, with historic levels of murders, most by the use of guns, she is sponsoring a bill that would expand the purchase of guns, including machine guns, and the open wearing of weapons in public places. Yes, I understand that Puerto Rico has thousands of acres of open land where hunters can go and shoot wild beasts to feed their families, thus the need for such weapons. Yes, I understand that the striking students at the University of Puerto Rico need to be armed in order to protect themselves against wild beasts that occupy the campus, also known as police. Yes, I understand that with a culture of domestic violence in Puerto Rico, its women should have high caliber weapons they can use to slay the male beasts who attack them frequently. Wait a second. Why am I fighting this bill? I now understand how the gun lobbyists sold their wonderful bill to the Speaker. Go ahead, Madam Speaker, as soon as you finish your Big Mac, push through this weapons bill. Puerto Rico needs such enlightened legislation. J. D. Aragon, Old San Juan
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modern love
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April 14 - 20, 2011
San Juan Weekly
A Little Lint and Suddenly You’re Bridezilla By KATHRYN KEFAUVER GOLDBERG
A
S the daughter of divorced parents, I wasn’t sentimental about weddings or marriage. I had no visions of myself wearing a white dress. My thoughts on the subject instead tended toward pre-nups, counseling and custody. Yet when I fell in love and decided to marry at 35, rather than elope I allowed my fiancé, Ken, to talk me into a small ceremony in our hometown. We agreed to keep it simple: local park, vegetarian buffet, 70 guests. There would be no bridesmaids forced into garish prom gear, no Scud-missile bouquet launched on single friends. I would wear a simple green velvet frock, for which I had budgeted $500 — more than I’d ever paid for anything I couldn’t drive or reboot. Six months and thousands of dollars later, I had bought not one but two white wedding gowns, the owner of a bridal boutique where I had shopped had gone on AM radio to call me “Bridezilla,” and before long I would be summoned to small claims court over the matter. How did this happen? Unable to find a green dress I liked, I’d gone with a friend to a bridal boutique that sold samples. There I shimmied into dress after dress until I finally found a full-skirted white gown with a lacy bodice: a Cinderella costume, the kind I’d always mocked. Yet the silk whispered to me. The lace shimmered. I did not want to take it off. The gown was 10 sizes too big, but the owner assured me it could be fitted and cleaned. “It’s almost magical, how perfect they will make it,” she said. The dress gave me sudden hope. By shedding the child-of-divorce green dress and embracing the white wedding tradition, perhaps I, too, would be magically altered, just like the gown. I smacked down a credit card to make the $1,000 purchase. Six weeks later, the ow-
ner took the expensively altered dress to her “special” cleaners, as we’d agreed. Relieved and excited, I began to focus on writing vows, tasting cupcakes and plotting to keep my parents separated. They had barely spoken in 20 years. Every wedding has its shadow side, the dark element that must be contained, and for me that was managing a divided family. Weeks later I returned to the boutique to find the dress a mangy shade of gray. Thousands of eyelash-long black fibers matted the lace, as if the gown had mopped a kennel. The dry cleaner, I learned, had accidentally washed it with a black wool coat. “Just run tape over it,” the boutique owner chirped. After an awkward silence she reluctantly offered to have it cleaned again. Despite two subsequent cleanings, a visible pall of lint remained wedged into the bodice, giving the bust a grimy shadow. “There’s lint still lodged beneath the lace,” I pointed out. “It looks like someone with oily hands groped the bride.” “You’re being too picky. It’s a sample gown.” “But it’s worse than when I bought it,” I said meekly. “The dress is a minor part of your wedding. In 10 years, you won’t even remember it.” “What do you think should be done?” I still thought we would compromise. She shrugged. “I’m not afraid of small claims court.” That afternoon, in tears, I called my mother. “You are not afraid of small claims court, either,” she told me, erroneously. I called my father. “Try your credit card company,” he suggested. I called. An agent listened to my tale. “That’s hideous,” he said. “Your wedding dress?” At his instruction, I went back to the boutique with a camera. Two friends came with me, one a Buddhist, the other a former football player. I hadn’t planned to drag in-
nocent bystanders into my wedding preparations, yet here I was, asking friends to take off work to examine lint. I felt embarrassed, angry with myself, as if I’d brought this on by flirting with the silly wedding fantasy. We should have just eloped. Later that week, my credit card company refunded my money, and with only a month left before the wedding, I paid to have a similar gown built from scratch by another boutique at more than twice the cost. I would just heave money at the problem. I was on the Bay Bridge when Ken called, all worked up. His brother, a lawyer, had just heard my bridal woes hit the airwaves. “That boutique owner called in to a radio show that gives legal advice, asking about your dress.” At home, Ken found the podcast and we listened, bewildered, as she claimed that I had simply changed my mind about the dress. “Now she won’t pick it up,” she added. “She’s a total Bridezilla.” After recovering from my shock at us having stumbled upon this woman trashing me in public, I cringed at the insult. Bridezilla? She’s calling me a Bridezilla? People had warned me that wedding planning would be stressful, but I had always viewed that variety of suffering as a glut of privilege, like a high tax bracket. Now I felt my anxiety deepen. Although my dress and name had been sullied, Ken still shone. He listened with endless sympathy. “I’ll marry you in a sack,” he said. “I don’t mind my love a little linty.” “Am I Bridezilla?” I whispered. “A few bridal tears aren’t really that bad,” he said. “Godzilla stomped out of the sea and destroyed cities.” I decided to move past the whole thing. My second dress was finished a day before my wedding, and the wedding itself turned out just like the cliché: one of the best days of my life. Ken and I danced until the very end. I even failed to keep my parents apart, and was glad that I had. They acted like old friends. After the wedding, as it’s said of childbirth, I forgot the pain that came before. So it came as a shock to find myself six months later seated in a fluorescent-lighted windowless room, in the defendant’s chair of Small Claims Courtroom P. The bailiff, in a dun-colored uniform complete with bad-
ge and billy club, gently lifted the once linty wedding gown with his beefy forearms. The dress still made me shudder. The stale air of the courtroom, the smell of thick tension and petty despair: all of it again evoked my parents’ divorce, the way something wonderful can become a pile of paperwork, a battle over money, and two people who won’t look at each other. This time, though, one of those people was me. The bailiff whisked the gown toward the judge, a man with thick gray hair, wire glasses and a booming voice that suggested he didn’t mind hearing himself speak. “Emotions run high in a case like this,” he said. “I think I know how this will turn out.” He did? That surprised me since we hadn’t uttered a word. The dress had finally somehow been cleaned, many months after it mattered. The boutique owner’s husband testified that it had simply hung in the closet. Confronted with close-up photos of the densely lint-laden bodice, he said maybe the embedded black fibers had simply fallen off. “With gravity,” he speculated, “since it was vertical so long.” I had brought my own husband, and my former linebacker witness, who said the dress had indeed looked like the photos. Invoking the Bridezilla offense, the owner said, “People get so emotional they want something perfect.” She spoke with a soft smile, this same woman who had sent a leather-clad man with a neck tattoo to pound on my door and serve papers. The judge said he’d need time to study the photographs and written statements. The ruling would come by mail. Peering down at us, he said: “Bailiff, please escort these ladies out. Make sure it’s civil.” Outside the courtroom, the owner’s husband approached us. “We’ll split the difference for $500,” he offered. “And you can keep the dress.” I stood silent, my husband and my witness beside me. I felt a strange affection for the owner’s husband. Like my husband, he’d come to support his wife and ended up spending part of this crisp fall day in a windowless courtroom. “I don’t really need it now,” I said, taking Ken’s hand. Afterward we all spilled outside, where the owner and her husband promptly vanished. As we made our way across the parking lot, Ken pointed to a big white S.U.V. with a bizarrely apropos license plate, a four-letter word: LINT. “That must be their car!” he said, though they’d gone the other way. I laughed. Ken took a picture of me standing next to it, smiling with my box of court documents and supporting photos. I felt celebratory, though I had no idea I’d eventually win. In my mind I’d already won. My parents, in-laws and friends had stood by me. I had married a man I loved. I had family, and I knew it. It felt like a miracle, to be altered in that way.
April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
Ribs
pot in the oven. “The low slow heat keeps the alternating layers of fat and meat visible and intact,” he said. “The ribs become really tender, but still firm enough to eat with a knife and fork.” Tim Cushman, the chef and an ow-
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ner of the sophisticated Japanese restaurant O Ya in Boston, uses a 48-hour process to cook his tea-brined baby back ribs.
Continues on page 24
Without Smoke By STEVEN RAICHLEN
C
ONVENTIONAL wisdom holds that pork ribs taste best when cooked outdoors on a grill or smoker. Conventional wisdom hasn’t experienced the sweet-sour balsamic-glazed St. Louiscut spare ribs at Animal in Los Angeles. The restaurant’s chefs, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, prepare them in a way that most barbecue purists would never order, much less eat: baked in the oven. “I’m a firm believer that you can’t have barbecue without fire,” Mr. Shook said. “But in California, the health department is a giant pain, and a smokescrubbing ventilation system that complies with environmental regulations would have cost more than $1 million.” (For the record, he and Mr. Dotolo spent less than half that sum to open Animal.) “If we can’t do it right, we don’t want it.” The two men have been obsessed with ribs from the moment they met at the North Miami, Fla., campus of Johnson & Wales University. Longtime devotees of Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Q in Fort Lauderdale, they took their obsession with them to Los Angeles. They began experimenting with an alternative technique to true barbecue: seasoning the ribs with herbs and grapeseed oil, wrapping them in foil and roasting them low and slow in the oven. The process made the meat supernaturally tender but not quite soft, with the deep, sonorous flavors a Southern pit master would achieve with a half-day’s cooking in a wood-burning pit. For most people, ribs aren’t complete without barbecue sauce. At Animal, this takes the form of a bracingly acidic slather designed to play the sharpness of balsamic vinegar, grainy mustard and Tabasco sauce against the sugar rush of honey, brown sugar and ketchup. The chefs sizzle the sauce into the meat under the broiler, which gives the ribs a spicy crust. “Some bites even get a little charred, as they would on a grill,” Mr. Shook said. Animal’s owners are among the growing number of chefs who work wonders with pork ribs by braising. Michael Mina has made bourbon-braised Kurobuta pork short ribs a signature dish at the restaurant in San Francisco that bears his name. “We brine the ribs in cider vinegar and carrot juice, then cook them sous vide at 160 degrees for a day and a half,” Mr. Mina said. The final step is to braise the ribs with a bourbon peppercorn mixture in a copper
Sweet-Sour Balsamic-Glazed Ribs Adapted from Animal, Los Angeles Time: About 21/2 hours
For the ribs: 2 spare-rib racks, the smallest you can find (5 to 6 pounds total) 2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil Kosher salt 4 large flat-leaf parsley sprigs 4 garlic cloves, peeled and gently crushed 4 thyme sprigs For the barbecue sauce: 1 cup balsamic vinegar, or to taste 1 cup ketchup 6 ounces ( 1/2 can) your favorite beer 1/4 cup honey 3 tablespoons grainy mustard 1 tablespoon molasses 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, or to taste 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, or to taste 1/2 red onion, diced 1 large clove garlic, minced Salt. 1. To prepare the ribs, heat the
oven to 350 degrees. If the butcher has not removed the membrane on the back of each rack, gently pry it up by sliding a sharp implement (like the tip of an instant-read thermometer) under it, then lifting gently. Grab the membrane with a paper towel and peel it off. 2. Spread a 24-inch sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side up, on a work surface. Place one rack on top, rub it all over with oil, and generously season both sides with salt. Place 2 parsley sprigs and 2 garlic cloves under the concave side of the rack and 2 thyme sprigs on top. Wrap the ribs in the foil, pleating the edges to seal well. Repeat with the second rack. Place the rib packets in a large roasting pan. 3. Roast the ribs for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 250 degrees. Cook 1 1/2 to 2 hours more, until the meat has shrunk back from the ends of the bones by 1/4 to 1/2 inch and the ribs are tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. 4. Meanwhile, prepare the barbe-
cue sauce. Place the balsamic vinegar in a large nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until reduced by a third. Add the remaining barbecue sauce ingredients with 1/4 cup water, bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until thick, 30 to 40 minutes. If the sauce starts to thicken too much, add a little water. The sauce should be highly seasoned; adjust to taste by adding vinegar, brown sugar or salt. 5. Remove the ribs from the oven and let cool briefly, then open the foil, being careful of the escaping steam. Transfer the ribs to a baking sheet. Turn on the broiler or raise the oven to 450 degrees. 6. Slather the ribs on both sides with the barbecue sauce. Broil the ribs until the sauce sizzles and browns, 2 to 4 minutes on each side. Alternatively, bake in the oven 8 to 12 minutes. Baste with the barbecue sauce and serve at once with any remaining sauce on the side. Yield: 4 servings
Kitchen
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April 14 - 20, 2011
Comes from page 23 The meat is marinated in yuzu juice, light and dark brown sugar and black tea before it is braised for three to four hours in an enameled cast iron pot on the stove. “Our oven space is limited, so early on, we figured out that we could achieve a steady temperature of 190 degrees by placing the pot over the pilot light on the stove,” Mr. Cushman said. “It’s just like setting the dial of a smoker for 200 degrees.” The ginger-mirin-sake-soy sauce braising liquid imbues the ribs with rich umami flavors analogous to the taste wood smoke imparts to traditional barbecue, he said.
The most surprising example of braised ribs may well come from Extra Virgin in Kansas City, Mo. “I respect the local barbecue tradition so much, I would never want to compete with it,” said Michael Smith, the chef and an owner. Instead, he sears baby backs on the restaurant’s wood-burning grill for a few minutes to lay on a light smoke flavor before gently braising them in the oven for three to four hours in a Peruvian-inspired glaze made with guava marmalade, citrus juice, coffee beans and fiery aji amarillo chilies. “In this part of the world, people like their ribs sweet and sticky,” he said. Until recently, barbecue connoisseurs in places like Kansas City would have considered ribs cooked in the oven
Fatty ’Cue Spareribs By SAM SIFTON 2 cups fish sauce (preferably Three Crabs brand; see note) 6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed 1 medium shallot, peeled and sliced 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup sugar 2 racks pork spareribs 2 tablespoons toasted and ground Indonesian long pepper, or to taste (see note) 6 ounces palm sugar (see note) White toast for serving. 1. Combine 1 1/2 cups fish sauce with the garlic, shallot, black pepper and sugar in a large pot. Add at least a gallon of water, then cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, place in a nonreactive container and chill. Place the ribs in the brine for at least 6 hours and no longer than 12. 2. Remove the ribs from the brine and dust lightly with ground Indone-
sian long pepper. 3. In a grill with a cover, build a small fire to one side, making sure all the wood or charcoal becomes engulfed in flame. When the flames begin to die down, leaving flickering coals, place the ribs on the grill on the side without fire. Do not let the flames touch the meat at any time. 4. Cover the grill, vent slightly and cook, checking the fire every 30 minutes or so and adding a bit more fuel as necessary, for about 5 hours at around 220 degrees, until the meat recedes from the bone and its internal temperature is at least 170 degrees but no more than 180. 5. Meanwhile, make a glaze. Combine the palm sugar and 3/4 cup water in a small pot over a medium flame, and heat until the sugar melts. Combine that simple syrup with the remaining 1/2 cup fish sauce. 6. When the ribs are ready, glaze heavily and serve, with white toast on the side. Serves 4 to 6. Adapted from Robbie Richter and Zakary Pelaccio.
The San Juan Weekly
Milk and Honey Ribs Adapted from Cesare Giaccone Time: About 21/2 hours, plus 6 to 12 hours’ marinating 2 baby back rib racks (4 to 5 pounds total) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3/4 cup chopped rosemary leaves 3/4 cup chopped sage leaves 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped Coarse sea salt and pepper 1/2 Vidalia or other sweet onion, thinly sliced 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1/2 cup honey 2 cups whole milk 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 pound fresh porcini or cremini mushrooms (optional). 1. If the butcher has not removed the membrane on the back of each rib rack, gently pry it up by sliding a sharp implement (like the tip of an instantread thermometer) under it, then lifting gently. Grab the membrane with a paper towel and peel it off. Place the ribs in a baking dish and rub them on both sides with 2 tablespoons of the oil. Sprinkle both sides with the rosemary, sage, garlic and generous amounts of salt and pepper. Arrange the onion under and over the ribs, top each rack with a bay leaf, and drizzle with the vinegar. Refrigerate, covered, 6 to 12 hours. 2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the remaining oil into a roasting pan large enough to hold the ribs side by side. Put the pan in the oven for 5 minutes. Add the ribs, rounded side up, along with the seasonings, onions and garlic. Roast for 30 minutes. Drilittle short of blasphemy. In barbecue country and elsewhere, the technique had a miserable reputation that, in truth, was often deserved. Some restaurants baked ribs with overly sweet commercial barbecue sauce. Others, to avoid drying them out, would cook ribs in boiling water. As with braising, the idea behind boiling ribs is to tenderize them before tossing them on the grill or under the broiler to caramelize and crisp the exterior. The problem with boiling is that it’s a flavor-removing, not flavor-enhancing, cooking method. (When you make stock,
zzle with the honey and roast 10 more minutes. Turn the ribs over and pour the milk and cream over them. Roast for 1 more hour. 3. At this point, if using the mushrooms, wipe with a damp paper towel and trim off the stem ends. Cut into 1/4-inch slices. Turn the ribs over, rounded side up again. Arrange the mushrooms on top. Spoon any pan juices over the top and continue roasting, basting occasionally, 30 minutes to 1 hour more. If the meat starts to brown too much, press a sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil on top. 4. When the ribs are cooked, the meat will have shrunk back from the ends of the bones by 1/4 to 1/2 inch and the ribs should be tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. Cut the ribs into 1- or 2-bone sections and serve at once with the optional roasted mushrooms. Yield: 4 servings you boil bones with the express purpose of transferring the flavor from the meat to the water.) By contrast, braising in the oven adds flavor, because you’re cooking the ribs in a small quantity of flavorful liquid in a sealed environment. Many restaurants made matters worse when they slathered boiled or baked ribs with barbecue sauces pumped up with artificial smoke to compensate for lackluster flavor. The result? Ersatz barbecue and a lost generation of rib eaters, especially in traditionally non-barbecue regions like the Frost Belt and the
April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly Northeast, which came to confuse liquidsmoke-flavored oven-cooked ribs for true pit barbecue. The chefs who are now rescuing oven ribs from their lowly reputation take a profoundly different approach. “We’re not trying to fake true barbecue,” said Mr. Shook of Animal. Instead, he and some of his colleagues around the country are deploying the braising technique, which he said builds layers of flavor utterly different from those that can be achieved in a smoker. To further explore the premise, I went back to one of my notebooks chronicling a remarkable meal of milk and honey spare ribs at the Osteria dei Cacciatori in Albaretto della Torre, a hamlet perched among steep Barolo vineyards in the Piedmont region. My visit was eight years ago, when Cesare Giaccone still ran the osteria that’s been in his family for more than 120 years. (Today, his son Filippo mans the stove.) In those days, his guest book read like a “Who’s Who” of marquee chefs, with Ferran Adrià and Charlie Trotter visiting the month I was
there. I can still taste those ribs in a vivid rush of flavor. Marinated the previous night with rosemary, sage and garlic, they were roasted with acacia honey, porcini mushrooms and milk, an ingredient that was unprecedented in my experience of rib dishes. Mr. Giaccone claims to have gotten the idea for the latter from a local priest, who in turn claimed it would render the ribs more tender. (It does.) This dish could be made year-round, but as Mr. Giaccone explained in a recent email, “the pig is eaten more gladly in the winter.” I tried to replicate his milk and honey ribs on a charcoal grill back home in the United States, tossing a handful of soaked hickory chips on the coals. (Old habits die hard.) The smoke overpowered the delicacy of the meat, milk and honey, and the ribs fell short of what I remembered having in Italy. To understand some of the physics involved with cooking ribs in the oven, I caught up with Nathan Myhrvold. Dr. Myhrvold is a scientist, an inventor and
now the author of the five-volume culinary manifesto, “Modernist Cuisine.” He also has abiding passion for barbecue. In 1991, Dr. Myhrvold was a guest member on one of the most decorated barbecue teams in American history, steering the team to victory in the meatless “Anything But” category, for smoked fettuccine noodles paired with cream sauce flavored with Vidalia onions and barbecue rub. According to Dr. Myhrvold, three things happen when you cook meat with hot air, as you would on a grill or in a smoker. First and most obvious, you transfer heat from the hot air to the meat. Second, the hot air evaporates liquid from the surface of the meat, which fosters flavorful browning, but also has a tendency to dry out the meat. Paradoxically, this evaporation causes the temperature of the meat to drop during part of the cooking process, a phenomenon that veteran pit masters call “the stall.” The most important thing that happens is that the heat breaks down a tough connective tissue in the meat known as collagen into softer, more easily dissolved gelatin. This process works best at lower temperatures in a moist environment. This is why barbecue is so well-suited to tough, inexpensive cuts like brisket and ribs. Low-temperature oven braising works on ribs for the same reason, and it offers a few advantages of its own. By cooking baby back ribs wrapped in foil in the oven, as do the chefs at Animal, you reduce the evaporation and the tendency of the meat to dry out. (To compensate
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for the loss of the cooling effect of evaporation, the chefs cook their ribs at an unusually cool 250 degrees.) As for Mr. Giaccone’s milk and honey spare ribs, Dr. Myhrvold calls the process “open pan braising.” The cooking starts around 180 degrees, he said, and as the milk evaporates, the temperature rises, browning the meat, lactose and milk proteins. It is also adding color, flavor and sweetness. “It’s a little like making sweetened condensed milk,” he said. And Dr. Myhrvold’s preferred method of cooking ribs? It’s a four-step process that involves smoking the ribs for four hours, then cooking them sous vide, in a sealed plastic pouch, at 140 degrees for 48 hours, followed by a bath in liquid nitrogen for 45 seconds to flash chill them. The final step is a plunge into a deep fat fryer to crisp the exterior. Thanks, but when I hunger for heresy, I’ll simply cook ribs in the oven.
Braised and Grilled or Broiled Pork Ribs Time: About 2 hours 3 to 4 pounds spare ribs Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 10 allspice berries 2 or 3 3-inch cinnamon sticks 10 nickel-sized slices unpeeled fresh ginger or 1 tablespoon ground ginger 5 dried red chilies or a teaspoon of cayenne 5 cloves garlic, lightly swmashed 1 bottle dark beer, like Guinness or any porter. 1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cut meat into two racks if necessary; season with salt and pepper. Put oil in a large, deep ovenproof skillet or casserole that can later be covered. Turn heat to medium-high
and, when oil shimmers, sear meat on both sides until nicely browned, turning as necessary. 2. Add allspice, cinnamon, ginger, chilies and garlic and stir; add beer. Bring to a boil; cover pan and adjust heat so mixture simmers steadily. Put in oven and cook until meat is tender, 1 hour or more. (You can prepare meat up to a day or two ahead; if you are not going to grill or broil immediately, put whole pan in refrigerator after it cools a bit.) 3. Light a charcoal or gas grill or heat broiler; rack should be about 4 inches away from heat source. Drain meat and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Grill or broil on both sides until brown and crisp, just a few minutes. Meanwhile, skim cooking liquid of fat, bring to a boil, and use as sauce. Yield: 4 to 8 servings.
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April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
Photos Found in Libya Show Abuses Under Qaddafi
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and C. J. CHIVERS
I
n the second-floor office of a burned-out police station here, the photographs strewn across the floor spun out the stories of the unlucky prisoners who fell into the custody of the brutal government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Some depicted corpses bearing the marks of torture. One showed scars down the back of a man dressed only in his underwear, another a naked man face down under a sheet with his hands bound. The faces of the dead bore expressions of horror. Other pictures showed puddles of blood, a table of jars, bottles and powders and, in one, a long saw. In a labyrinthine basement, workers were clearing out burned books and files. One room contained a twoliter bottle of gin. Gesturing into another room that was kept dark, a worker mimicked a gun with his hands and murmured “Qaddafi,” suggesting it was an execution chamber. A spokesman in Tripoli for the Qaddafi government said Wednesday that the photographs depicted crime victims or crime scenes, not scenes of torture. But the marks and bindings on some of the bodies appeared to depict captives, and the origin of the photographs could not be verified. Journalists discovered the photographs and records on an official trip to this devastated city, where Qaddafi forces battled rebels for nearly a week to retake control. They were the latest reminder of the long record of arbitrary violence against civilians that now overshadows the government’s efforts to broker an end to the international airstrikes and domestic rebellion threatening Colonel Qaddafi’s four decades in power. As Colonel Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, promised in a television interview to usher in a new era of constitutional democracy in which his father would be a mere figurehead “like the queen of England,” the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court escalated international pressure on the government by declaring that it had deliberately ordered the killing of civilians in a bid to hold back the democratic revolution sweeping the region. “We have evidence that after the Tunisia and Egypt conflicts, people in the regime were planning how to control demonstrations in Libya,” the prosecutor, Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, told Reuters. “The shootings of civilians was a predetermined plan.” In the rebel-held city of Misrata in western Libya and on the eastern front with the rebels around the oil town of Brega, Qaddafi forces continued to hammer rebels with rockets, artillery and mortars, as rebel leaders expressed exasperation at the limits of NATO’s support. In Brussels, Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm of NATO said Tuesday that Western airstrikes had destroyed about 30 percent of Colonel Qaddafi’s military power. But Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, the head of the rebel army, lashed out at his Western allies during a news conference in Benghazi, accusing NATO of tardiness and indecision. “What is NATO doing?” he asked. “Civilians are dying every day. They use the excuse of collateral damage.” He charged that NATO was enforcing the United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone too equally, barring the rebels from providing cover for their troops with the few warplanes he said they had repaired. “They said, ‘No, don’t use your planes,’ ” he said. General Younes also charged that Qaddafi forces had attacked oil installations in southeastern Libya, “to deprive the Libyan people from their right of selling the oil.” He said the damage was “not significant.” Nor was there was any sign Tuesday of the air power that two weeks ago sent the loyalist forces reeling toward the Qaddafi stronghold of Surt. Instead, they hammered rebels once again along the coastal road around the strategic oil town of Brega, more than 100 miles to the east. On Tuesday the Qaddafi forces reversed some minor rebel gains with rocket attacks and pushed vehicle patrols northeast from their positions. They forced the rebels to withdraw nearly to Ajdabiya, to be safely out of the superior range of the loyalist forces’ weapons. Resting on dunes and knolls, soldiers peered down the road toward Brega nervously. They said that it appeared that the Qaddafi forces, less pressured now by airstrikes, had managed to resupply their forward troops, and were emboldened and dangerous. The rebels had pulled back so quickly under fire that their casualties on Tuesday were light, said Dr. Habib Multadi, who was organizing the evacuation of wounded from the front. But as cargo trucks moved more ammunition forward at dusk, their force seemed stuck.
In the rebel capital, Benghazi, a military spokesman said he was not ashamed to admit that the rebel forces needed help. “To your people I would like to say, ‘Don’t leave us,’ ” the spokesman, Col. Ahmed Omar Bani, said in an interview. “We need support. We need your support.” In Misrata, the last major rebel-held city in western Libya, rebels said they were losing ground to a constricting siege by Qaddafi forces. “The Qaddafi forces are expanding their territorial gains every day,” said Mohamed, a rebel spokesman whose name was withheld to protect his family. The Qaddafi forces had shelled the port so heavily, he said, that the local authorities closed and evacuated it, sending a ship from Benghazi back into deeper waters. Rebels said the Qaddafi forces appeared to adopt new tactics in response to the Western airstrikes, using mortars far more than tanks, either to present smaller targets or because the tanks were wiped out. “They are changing the technique and they are shelling by mortar now everywhere so instead of no-fly zone we have no safe zone,” said Aiman, a doctor whose last name was withheld for similar reasons, in an Internet message. Writing from the hospital, he said three people were killed Tuesday — including a 10-year-old child and a member of the hospital staff — and a total of seven by the end of the day on Monday. In an interview with the BBC that was broadcast on Tuesday, Colonel Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam dismissed the rebels as a relatively small number of people — “escaped criminals” and “terrorists” — who had somehow dominated or tricked the millions living in eastern Libya. He argued that the West could never succeed in forcing his father from power, because of his father’s resistance and because “the Libyan people will never allow it.” He said his father had nothing to fear from the International Criminal Court. “My father didn’t kill anybody,” he said. “He didn’t say, ‘Go and kill civilians.’ “ He insisted that the only critics of his father were a few politicians in foreign capitals. In Libya, he said, “Nobody is talking about my father.” And, apparently elaborating on his reported proposals to end the conflict, Mr. Qaddafi suggested that if foreign interference ended, he and his father were ready to move the country toward democratic elections of a new government and prime minister under a new constitution, with his father in a figurehead role. “We talked about it 10 years ago,” he said. Asked why Libya had not taken any steps toward constitutional democracy yet, Mr. Qaddafi insisted: “It will happen. We are very serious about that.”
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
27
Opposition Forces Move on Ivory Coast Strongman By ADAM NOSSITER and ALAN COWELL
O
pposition in Ivory Coast had begun an assault to dislodge strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, from a bunker under his residence after he refused French and United Nations demands to leave. A resident who lives nearby said the battle -- fierce fighting that sounded “like hell,” he said -- stopped around noon before starting up again later in the day. Mr. Gbagbo has been in his bunker for two days, and a cadre of loyal fighters have staked out a last defense to protect him. In an interview with French television, Mr. Gbagbo remained defiant even though opposing forces said they were advancing. News reports, quoting Mr. Gbagbo’s representatives, said French forces had joined the assault, opening fire from helicopters and a nearby rooftop. The United Nations and France had attacked targets at his residence, his offices and two of his military bases, in what they called an effort to destroy his heavy weapons and protect the civilians who had been targeted by them. Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to leave prompted increasing frustration among those who had been trying to negotiate his surrender. Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, told Parliament “negotiations, which lasted for hours yesterday between Mr. Gbagbo’s entourage and Ivory Coast au-
thorities, have failed because of Gbagbo’s intransigence. Mr. Juppé added that France and the United Nations were not involved in the latest attacks. Adm. Édouard Guillaud, the chief of staff of the French armed forces, said that he expected Mr. Gbagbo to surrender within hours. “He has no other choice,” Admiral Guillaud said. The advancing forces dismissed Mr. Gbagbo’s desire for a cease-fire as stalling tactic, contending that he was “reorganizing himself to better organize his defense,” said Patrick Achi, a Ouattara spokesman. He added that instructions have been given to capture Mr. Gbagbo alive, but that he was being protected by “the ones that are ready to die for him, and they are the ones that are there, the most loyal.” Mr. Gbagbo’s departure would end a four-month standoff that has underscored both the strengths and limits of international diplomacy. For months, Mr. Gbagbo has angrily defied global condemnation and hard-hitting sanctions as his nation spiraled back into the kind of conflict that the elections were intended to heal. In the end, though, it has come down to force. The international stance, taken by African and Western countries alike, greatly weakened Mr. Gbagbo’s ability to govern. But his willingness even to discuss the terms of his exit came only after opposition
forces swept across the country and France and the United Nations entered the fight, striking his redoubts and two of his bases. On Tuesday, a day after the international attacks, Mr. Juppé told a Parliament hearing that French negotiators were helping to broker Mr. Gbagbo’s surrender, demanding that he sign a document formally recognizing Mr. Ouattara as the country’s legitimate president. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, had backed the French terms, Mr. Juppé said. “What is going on are negotiations with Laurent Gbagbo and his family, to finalize the conditions of his departure,” he said at the time. Diplomats said that Mr. Gbagbo appeared to believe that he still had a bargaining position, though his government and armed forces had collapsed around him. “It’s over but he’s still trying to play games,” a senior Western diplomat in Abidjan said Tuesday night, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations were still under way. “The exact substance of what he’s trying to negotiate is foggy.” The United Nations said Tuesday that Mr. Gbagbo’s top three generals had called “to say an order to stop fighting was being given,” and their troops were told to hand in their weapons to United Nations forces. Even if Mr. Gbagbo agreed to step down, officials for Mr. Ouattara said they would insist on his being prosecuted — ei-
ther at home or abroad — for the extended campaign of armed repression he waged against opponents after the election. Mr. Ouattara’s forces have also been accused of extrajudicial killings, and last week hundreds of bodies were found in a town they controlled. The United Nations said fighters allied with Mr. Ouattara were responsible for hundreds of the deaths, a claim Mr. Ouattara denied. If their involvement is demonstrated, it could undermine Mr. Ouattara’s overseas, where he has largely been viewed as holding the higher moral ground in the standoff with Mr. Gbagbo. While President Obama said Tuesday that he strongly supported the United Nations and French strikes against Mr. Gbagbo’s military positions were part of a “mandate to protect civilians,” many Ivorians will see them as part of a Western plot to undermine the nation’s sovereignty, a theme Mr. Gbagbo has exploited. International officials have warned both sides not to attack civilians, and prosecutors have threatened to bring criminal charges. United Nations officials have threatened to run roadblocks and use robust force to protect civilians, but military strikes stood out as a notable departure from their peacekeeping efforts. Alain Le Roy, head of peacekeeping operations at the United Nations, described the use of airstrikes on Mr. Gbagbo’s forces as a necessity. “It was a heavy decision.”
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
The Larger Game in the Middle East: Iran demonstrations took root there. Perhaps that explains why there was barely a peep from the White House when the Saudis rolled troops into neighboring Bahrain to help put down the Shiite-majority protests there. Much as Mr. Obama wants to see the aspirations of democracy protesters fulfilled, and urged steps toward reform in Bahrain, he has no desire to see the toppling of the government that hosts the Fifth Fleet, right across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
By DAVID E. SANGER
O
n a Tuesday afternoon in midMarch in the White House Situation Room, as President Obama heard the arguments of his security advisers about the pros and cons of using military force in Libya, the conversation soon veered into the impact in a far more strategically vital place: Iran. The mullahs in Tehran, noted Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, were watching Mr. Obama’s every move in the Arab world. They would interpret a failure to back up his declaration that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had “lost the legitimacy to lead” as a sign of weakness — and perhaps as a signal that Mr. Obama was equally unwilling to back up his vow never to allow Iran to gain the ability to build a nuclear weapon. “It shouldn’t be overstated that this was the deciding factor, or even a principal factor” in the decision to intervene in Libya, Benjamin J. Rhodes, a senior aide who joined in the meeting, said last week. But, he added, the effect on Iran was always included in the discussion. In this case, he said, “the ability to apply this kind of force in the region this quickly — even as we deal with other military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan — combined with the nature of this broad coalition sends a very strong message to Iran about our capabilities, militarily and diplomatically.” That afternoon in the Situation Room vividly demonstrates a rarely stated fact about the administration’s responses to the uprisings sweeping the region: The Obama team holds no illusions about Colonel Qaddafi’s long-term importance. Libya is a sideshow. Containing Iran’s power remains their central goal in the Middle East. Every decision — from Libya to Yemen to Bahrain to Syria — is being examined under the prism of how it will affect what was, until mid-January, the dominating calculus in the Obama administration’s regional strategy: how to slow Iran’s nuclear progress, and speed the arrival of opportunities for a successful uprising there. In fact, the Iran debate makes every such chess move in the region more complicated. At the end of this era of upheaval, which the White House considers as sweeping as the changes that transformed Europe after the Berlin Wall fell, success or failure may well be judged by the question of whether Iran realizes its ambitions to become the region’s most powerful force. Last week, the decisions being made at the White House were about how firmly to back the protesters being shot in
THE SYRIAN PUZZLE
the streets in Syria and Yemen, or being beaten in Bahrain. For each of those, White House aides were performing a mostly silent calculation about whether the Iranians would benefit, or at least feel more breathing room. Only two and a half months ago, things seemed very different. In January, American officials were fairly confident that they had cornered Iran: new sanctions were biting, the Russians were cutting off sophisticated weaponry that Iran wanted to ward off any Israeli or American attack, and a deviously complex computer worm, called Stuxnet, was wreaking havoc with the Iranian effort to enrich uranium. But that changed with the arrival of the Arab Spring. Suddenly the Arab authoritarians who had spent the last two years plotting with Washington to squeeze the Iranians — “Cut off the head of the snake,” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was famously quoted as advising in the WikiLeaks cables — became more worried about their own streets than the Iranian centrifuges spinning out nuclear fuel at Natanz. And American and European citizens became distracted, even as oil at $108 a barrel undercut many of the sanctions that the White House had hoped would convince Iranian citizens that the nuclear program was not worth its rising cost. So when the White House sees the region through a Persian lens, what does it look like?
THE LIBYA LESSON Mr. Obama argued, in his speech on Monday night, that Libya presented a special case — an urgent moral responsibility to protect Libyans being hunted down by the Qaddafi forces and a moment of opportunity to make a difference with what the president called “unique” American capabilities. (Translation: a multitude of technologies, like Tomahawk missiles, reconnaissance and
electronic jamming.) Those are the same capabilities that would be critical in any attack on Iranian nuclear sites. The administration’s top officials knew that a demonstration of that ability would not be lost on Iran. But it is anyone’s guess how Iran would react. “You could argue it either way,” said one official who was involved in the Libya debate and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Maybe it would encourage them to do what they have failed to do for years: come to the negotiating table. But you could also argue that it would play to the hard-liners, who say the only real protection against America and Israel is getting a bomb, and getting it fast.” But at least in public, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates told members of Congress not to expect that Iran’s nuclear program would accelerate much because of the attack on Libya — or that Iran’s security forces would crack down even more vigorously on the protest movements they have all but strangled. “My view is that, in terms of what they want to try and achieve in their nuclear program, they’re going about as fast as they can,” he said on Thursday. “And it’s hard for me to imagine that regime being much harder than it already is.”
THE ARAB ALLY CARD The problem gets more complex when dealing with Arab allies who have little compunction about shooting protesters in the streets, even as they seek to undermine Iran. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are the prime examples. The Saudis see Iran as the biggest threat to their own regional ambitions, and have cooperated in many American-led efforts to hem in Tehran. Yet relations between Washington and Riyadh have rarely been as strained: To King Abdullah, President Obama’s decision to abandon President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was a sign of weakness, and a warning that he might throw the Saudi leadership under the bus if democracy
For years the United States has tried in vain to peel Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, away from Iran and to reconcile with Israel. It fears that if his government collapses, chaos will reign, making Syria unpredictable as well as dangerous. It’s a reasonable fear. But in recent weeks the White House has concluded that it has much less to lose than the Iranians do if Mr. Assad is swept away. And, as some in Mr. Obama’s war council have noted, if protesters succeed in Syria, Iran could be next.
ISRAEL’S OPTIONS All the Arab turmoil has left many Israelis convinced that America and its Arab allies are too distracted to credibly threaten that they will stop the Iranian nuclear ambitions at all costs, even though Mr. Donilon has pledged that “we will not take our eye off the ball.” Inside Israel, a debate has resumed about how long the Israelis can afford to put off dealing with the problem themselves, fed by fears that Iran’s reaction to the region’s turmoil might be a race for the bomb. That could lead to the worst outcome for Mr. Obama — a war between Iran and Israel — and that consideration alone makes the case for the administration to see little room for error in handling the main act.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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Regular Fasting May Boost Heart Health By TARA PARKER-POPE
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egular fasting may be good for your heart. That’s the finding of a new study from doctors in Utah who looked at the relationship between periodic fasting and cardiovascular disease. The researchers interviewed 200 patients who were undergoing a diagnostic test called angiography, an X-ray exam of the blood vessels and heart chambers that can determine if a person has coronary heart disease. The patients were asked if they engaged in regular fasting, and the researchers compared the answers to whether they eventually received a diagnosis of heart disease. Because about 90 percent of the patients were Mormons, a faith that encourages its members to fast for one day a month, the doctors expected to find a relatively high rate of regular fasting among the study participants. The researchers found that people who fasted regularly had a 58 percent lower risk of coronary
disease compared with those who said they didn’t fast, according to the report presented at the American College of Cardiology conference in New Orleans this week. The study showed only an association between fasting and better heart health, which means it’s possible that fasting may not have a direct effect but might just be more common among people who are healthier to begin with. Devout Mormons, for instance, abstain from alcohol, smoking and caffeine, which are all factors that could affect heart health. But the researchers say the findings are important because they affirm the results of an earlier, larger study, published in 2008 in The American Journal of Cardiology, that found a similar association between fasting and heart disease among 448 patients. “The first study we did was not a chance finding,’’ said Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology for Intermountain Healthcare, a health ser-
vices and managed care firm in Salt Lake City. “We were able to replicate the findings and show that people who fast routinely have a lower prevalence of coronary disease.’’ The downside of the study is that it didn’t ask for specific details on the type and duration of fasting among the patients. However, preliminary interviews suggest that the most common form of fasting involved a monthly ritual of abstaining from all food and drinking only water for 24 hours. A second, smaller study conducted by the same research team suggests that the effects of fasting aren’t just about having an overall healthy lifestyle, but that abstaining from food on a regular basis leads to metabolic changes that are good for the heart. For that research, also presented at the New Orleans conference, 30 patients were asked to fast for 24 hours with water only. The scientists used blood tests before and after the fasting period to look at a number of
different metabolic markers. Among other changes, they found that levels of human growth hormone, or HGH, surged after fasting — increasing 20 times in men and 13 times in women. The hormone is released by the body in times of starvation to protect lean muscle mass and trigger the body to start burning fat stores. “There is a lot more to be done to fill in the research on the biological mechanism,’’ Dr. Horne said. “But what it does suggest is that fasting is not a marker for other healthy lifestyle behaviors. It appears to be that fasting is causing some major stress, and the body responds to that by some protective mechanisms that potentially have a beneficial long-term effect on risk of chronic disease.” Dr. Horne noted that patients shouldn’t take up fasting without discussing it first with their doctor. Any fast should include water because dehydration can raise risk for stroke. He said the group was planning additional research into the potential health effects of regular fasting.
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The San Juan Weekly
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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The Truth About Sex and Exercise L By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
et’s be clear about this at the start. Vigorous sex will not inevitably cause your heart to stop, and neither will jogging. But you could be excused for believing that both activities are lethal if you relied on some of the coverage of an important new article published last month in The Journal of the American Medical Association. One gleefully unrestrained British tabloid reported that the study showed that “dirty weekends” would ruin your heart, while another newspaper headlined an article “Adulterers Beware!” “There were a lot of misconceptions,” said Dr. Issa J. Dahabreh, a research associate at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts University and lead author of the report. For the review, scientists at Tufts amassed and analyzed almost 20 years’ worth of studies about why people suffer heart attacks. In particular, they were looking for studies that examined whether physical and sexual activity trigger cardiac “events.” It’s well established that, looked at over the long haul, certain activities and events do increase someone’s risk of experiencing a heart attack. Christmas, for instance, has been identified as a heart attack trigger, as have overeating, waking in the early morning, Mondays, job strain, air pollution, using cocaine and living through an earthquake. Physical and sexual activity belong on that list as well, but the role that such exertions play in heart health and heart attacks is layered and complicated. In study after study, the Tufts researchers found, regular physical activity significantly decreased an individual’s overall risk of suffering a heart attack. But at the
same time, any single bout of activity, including sexual activity, could for a brief period — during and afterward — increase someone’s risk. In other words, a distance runner is less likely to suffer a cardiac event at any time in his life than someone who is inactive. But if, for whatever reason, that runner should be stricken, he is slightly more likely to experience the attack in the hours after a run than on days when he gets no exercise (unless, perhaps, that day is Christmas). Or, as the review soberly concluded, “Acute cardiac events were significantly associated with episodic physical and sexual activity; this association was attenuated among persons with high levels of habitual physical activity.” Specifically, the authors found that in the studies they analyzed, a single bout of moderate activity could triple a person’s risk of experiencing a heart attack afterward, compared with not engaging in activity. But if that same person was regularly active, his overall risk of an attack fell by about 45 percent, and his risk of dying, should he be afflicted, fell by 30 percent. The studies mainly involved middle-aged men, and the physical exertion in question was generally equivalent to jogging. Some studies found that sex could trigger a cardiac event, although, for the most part, sex is not considered strenuous. A recent study by researchers in Brazil, unrelated to the Tufts review, reported that the energy demands of sex “resemble a relaxed walk for a few blocks, interspersed by ascending one or two flights of stairs at moderate” pace, with, as the researchers pointed out, individual variations. Why activity, of whatever kind, can temporarily increase a person’s risk of
a heart attack was not addressed by the Tufts authors, but obviously that is relevant. “When you exercise, your levels of adrenaline go up,” said Dr. Gary Balady, the director of preventive cardiology at Boston University and co-author of a 2007 scientific statement by the American Heart Association on the subject of exercise and coronary events. The adrenaline surge can, together with other physiological effects, cause an irregular heartbeat in susceptible people and a subsequent heart attack, he said. Regular exercise “allows the heart to adapt” to such surges. The Tufts findings, he said, “make perfect physiological sense.” But some people did manage to twist their meaning. The findings “did not suggest that people should avoid exercise” in hopes of preventing an attack, said Jessica Paulus, an assistant professor of medicine at Tufts and a study co-author.
Nor did they prove, despite some reporters’ obvious hopes, that engaging in lots of sex now would prevent a heart attack during sex later. There is no data about the protective effects — if any — of sex, she said. “Sex is not a proxy” for more strenuous activity, she said, although “some people seem to want it to be.” “What we can say,” Dr. Dahabreh concluded, “is that for a brief period of time” after you exercise, you have a “transiently increased risk” of something going wrong with your heart. But the risk is smaller if you work out regularly. “Put in the right perspective, this study is quite encouraging,” said Dr. Balady, who was not involved with the research. “It shows that each of us is empowered to reduce our risk of an adverse event.” All you need to do, he said, is exercise. Dirty weekends, spent mountain biking or gardening, easily qualify.
Diabetes Increases Risk of Cancer Death D By TARA PARKER-POPE
iabetes has long been associated with a host of serious health problems, including increased risk of vision loss, kidney problems, heart attack and stroke. Now a growing body of research shows that diabetes also increases risk for deadly cancers. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute collected diet, lifestyle and health data from 500,000 people ages 50 to 71 and followed the patients for 11 years. They found that having diabetes was associated with an 11 percent increased risk of dying from cancer among women and a 17 percent increased risk of cancer death among men.
Having diabetes not only increased risk for dying from cancer, but people with diabetes were, over all, more likely to be given a cancer diagnosis as well. “It’s well known that there are a lot of benefits from avoiding diabetes,’’ said Dr. Neal D. Freedman, investigator in the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute. “Our study, along with others, suggests that there may be additional benefit in terms of reduced morbidity and mortality from cancer.” The researchers found diabetes was associated with a higher overall risk for colon, rectal and liver cancers among both men and women. In women, dia-
betes was most strongly associated with a higher risk of stomach, anal and endometrial cancers. In men, diabetes was most likely to raise risk for pancreatic and bladder cancers, according to the report, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Fla. Over all, women with diabetes were 8 percent more likely to develop cancer. The findings were more complicated for men. Men with diabetes were 4 percent less likely to get a cancer diagnosis, but that number was skewed by the finding that diabetes lessened the risk of prostate cancer. Research has suggested men with diabetes are less likely to develop prosta-
te cancer as a result of having lower testosterone levels. However, most prostate cancers aren’t fatal, so the negatives of having diabetes far outweigh any protective effect the disease might have on prostate cancer. When prostate cancer was excluded from the data, the research showed that for men, having diabetes was associated with a 9 percent increased risk of a cancer diagnosis. Although earlier research has also suggested that diabetes increases cancer risk, the new study is important because of its large size and years of follow-up. The study did not distinguish between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, so it’s not clear if the heightened cancer risk is the same for the different forms of diabetes.
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The San Juan Weekly
For Patients With Dementia, Hands-On Comfort
By PAULA SPAN
Y
ou can see the logic. Old people with dementia can become frightened and restless, angry or agitated. Reiki, a Japanese healing practice that supposedly channels a universal energy, is said to be soothing and deeply relaxing. So why not offer reiki to elderly dementia patients? Home Care Partners, a nonprofit home care agency in Washington, won a two-year grant from the federal Administration on Aging to give it a try and has just finished training 36 aides in reiki. Next year, the agency will offer reiki training to family caregivers and to workers at adult day programs. “It relieves stress, it reduces anxiety and it can help diminish pain,” said Marie Muller, the agency’s education manager and a trained reiki master. “We hope that our clients with dementia who become agitated and stressed will find reiki calming” — and thus will be less disturbed when aides help them bathe or dress or eat. Even at this early point, Ms. Muller said, aides are beginning to see benefits. One reported that reiki, which involves gently placing hands on a patient’s clothed body (or just above it) in prescribed positions, was helping a client with painful arthritis. “She could feel the warmth, and her knees hurt her less,” Ms. Muller said. “The aide
studies — the gold standard in Western medicine — was Dr. Assefi’s own, involving 100 middle-aged fibromyalgia patients in Seattle. Whether they were randomly assigned to standard hands-on treatment by a reiki master, to “distant” reiki in which the master focused “healing intention” from two feet away, or to fake reiki from an untrained actor who mimicked the positions, the results were the same: no significant improvement of symptoms after eight weeks of twice-weekly treatments. Yet Dr. Assefi — who has trained in reiki and acupuncture, among other alternative therapies — said that her own patients love reiki. One could debate whether it makes sense to promote an Eastern therapy when Western research mecould observe her walking better.” thods fail to document its value. Scores of hospitals are also “What do you do when the science believers. At Portsmouth General isn’t really there?” Dr. Assefi mused. Hospital in New Hampshire, for “Should it be covered by insurance? instance, two staff practitioners and a half dozen volunteers offer free reiki to all patients, family members and staff, last year providing more than 2,100 sessions. “People say they just feel comforted,” said Christina Niles, the hospital’s reiki director, citing patient surveys. “I personally believe reiki is healing. Not everyone at the By RONI CARYN RABIN hospital agrees, but everyone thinks that people feel better afterward.” hen assessing a patient’s The fly in this particular oirisk for heart disease, ntment: scant credible evidence of doctors take into account effectiveness. “There hasn’t been such factors as age, cholesterol and adequate research done to draw any smoking status. A new study sugkind of conclusion about whether gests an additional measure: long reiki works or not — or even, from a working hours. scientific standpoint, what reiki is,” People who worked 11 hours said Dr. Nassim Assefi, an internist or more per day were far more in Seattle who researches alternatilikely to develop heart trouble ve medicine. over a 12-year period, compared Most studies of reiki have obwith similar subjects who worvious flaws: the numbers of patients ked seven to eight hours a day, the are too low, or the experiment isn’t new study found. It was publisrandomized or blinded — meaning hed Monday in Annals of Internal that patients seek reiki out (and thus Medicine. are more likely to believe it’s beneIn the early 1990s, British reficial) and know what they’re getsearchers examined 7,095 adults ting. The aides at Home Care Partaged 39 to 62, including 2,109 woners will fill out surveys reporting men, and used the information to changes they observe in their clients score each subject’s risk for cororeceiving reiki, but without controls nary heart disease. About 10 perthat, too, is a subjective measure. cent reported long workdays. One of the few rigorous, conOver 12.3 years of follow-up trolled, randomized and blinded
Should we spend money on it?” The grant to Home Care Partners, for instance, comes to $250,000 over two years. But it’s also true, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (part of the National Institutes of Health) that the practice appears safe, with no serious side effects reported. If reiki can calm people suffering from dementia, regardless of whether the effect is measurable, maybe it’s a good addition to a caregiver’s toolbox. If you’ve tried reiki, or an elder friend or relative has, I’d like to hear about your experience. Meanwhile, Ms. Muller, who has used reiki to reduce cancer patients’ nausea and fatigue and whose own 90-year-old mother appreciates it, is anticipating happy results. “Each person will respond in a different way,” she said. “But we’re really hopeful that we’ll see some positive effects.”
Long Hours May Add to Heart Trouble
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on average, 29 participants died of heart disease and 163 suffered nonfatal heart attacks. Those who had reported working 10 or more hours a day were not at significantly greater risk than those who had worked less. But those subjects who had been working 11 or more hours a day were 66 percent more likely to have a heart attack or to die of one, the researchers found. Mika Kivimaki, the paper’s lead author and a professor of social epidemiology at University College London, said it was not clear whether long working days were causing the increased risk or were simply a marker that could be used to predict risk. But it is possible, he said, “the chronic experience of stress often associated with working long hours adversely affects metabolic processes,” or leads to depression and sleep problems.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Nydia Caro By: Daniel Morales Pomales ydia Caro is a an American & Puerto Rican actress and singer. Born in New York City to parents from Rincón, Puerto Rico. She initiated her career in the arts at a very young age while living in New York. After completing high school she enrolled in the New York School of Performing Arts in singing, dancing, and acting classes. Caro made her debut in show business acting at an NBC television show. In 1967, shortly after her father died, she moved to Puerto Rico and released her first album titled Dímelo Tu.She has released 20 internationally acclaimed albums and CDs ever since. Caro enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in literature to enhance her Spanish skills. Nevertheless, she was hired immediately to co-host a popular teen show by channel 2 (“Show Coca-Cola”). The decade of the 1970s was very successful for Nydia Caro. In 1970, she won the “Festival de la Canción” in Ibagué Colombia, with the songs “Hermano tengo frío”, composed by Karmen Mercado, the niece of famed actor and astrologer Walter Mercado, and “Pongo el Mundo en las Manos de un Niño” composed by the late Raoul Gonzalez. In 1972, she went to Tokyo, Japan, where she sang La Borinqueña before the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship fight between George Foreman and José Román. Ring En Español remarked that her singing of the Puerto Rican national anthem probably lasted longer than the fight itself.
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In 1973, she won one of the first awards in the prestigious “Festival de Benidorm” in Valencia, Spain, with the song “Véte Ya”, composed by Julio Iglesias for her. In 1974, she won the equally prestigious Festival OTI in Mexico, with the song “Hoy canto por cantar”. The song, composed by Caro and Riccardo Cerratto, caused some controversy in Puerto Rico for being the “anti-protest” song in that decade. Despite that, the song helped Caro further extend her popularity built on prior hit songs such as “Cuéntale”, “Duerme”, “Charlie”, “Copos de nieve” and “No Pudo Ser”. Caro married spanish producer Gabriel Suau and they had two children, Christian (currently a film director) and Gabriela. The couple divorced after a few years of marriage, but remain on good terms. During her marriage, she continued her professional singing career. She also hosted her own television program, El Show de Nydia Caro on Puerto Rican television. Moreover, her reputation was helped by strong concert performances in prestigious venues; such as, Club Caribe and Club Tropicoro in San Juan, Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center in New York and many others around the world in countries throughout South America, Spain, Australia, Mexico, and Japan. Besides Puerto Rico, Caro’s relevance as a cultural icon is strongest in Chile, a country in which she has performed regularly since her 1974 appearance at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival. She has appeared in Chilean soap operas and has spent regular seasons living in the country. In 1998, Caro released her album “De amores luminosos” to critical acclaim. The album was produced by the renowned Chilean producer Joakin Bello. It features musical themes such as the song “Buscando Mis Amores”, from the poems of Santa Teresa de Jesus, Fray Luis de León and San Juan de la Cruz. It blends musical instruments native to distant countries; such as, Tibet and India, together with instruments from Puerto Rico and South America. The effort sets her apart from other artists in Puerto Rico, as the first exponent of “alternative” or “new age” music,
and was named as one of the 20 best recordings in 1999 by Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular in Puerto Rico. She has a reputation for her lasting beauty, her complexion has very few expression lines and gives the general public the impression of her not aging with time (Caro became a grandmother in 2004). She claims she has had no plastic surgery and affirms her lasting youthful appearance is a result of minimizing exposure to sun as much as possible. At one time she was the spokesperson for Oil of Olay products in Puerto Rico. Caro also has a reputation for being “classy”, or elegantly sophisticated. She parodied this image by appearing in an advertisement campaign run by Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, where she reportedly sells her house to Puerto Rican rapper Tego Calderón, the contrast in their public images played upon for comic effect. In 2000, she made her Hollywood debut, playing “Isabelle” in Under Suspicion, starring Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. In 2010 she presented a show with singer colleague Chucho Avellanet “Dos Corazones” which toured Puero Rico with various presentations beginig this year she went to Chile to do some shows, and television.
Discography:
The San Juan Weekly * Bienvenidos (2003)* Las noches de Nydia (2003)* De amores luminosos (1998)* Para valientes nada mas (1991)* Hija de la Luna (1988) * Soledad (1985) * Papá de domingo (1984) * Prepárate (1983) * Intimidades (1982) * A quien vas a seducir (1979) * Isadora/Keep On Movin’ (1978) * Arlequin (1978) * Oye guitarra mía (1977) * El amor entre tú y yo (1977) * Palabras de amor (1976) * Contigo fui mujer (1975) * Hoy canto por cantar (1974) * Volumen Dos (1974) * Cuéntale (1973) * Vólumen Uno (1973) * Hermano tengo frio (1970) * Los durisimos y yo (1968) * Dímelo tu (1967) * Ask me What I Want for Christmas (1966). Alternate discography: * Ocho puertas (2003) * Al compás de un sentimiento, Así canta Puerto Rico (1991) * Somos el projimo/Aristada puertorriqueña (1985) * Cantaré, cantarás/Hermanos del Tercer Mundo (1985) Nydia Caro is returning to stage on a short tour a musical history with an unforgettable evening at Mayagüez and San Juan to celebrate Mother’s Day. The singer will be presenting a concert Sunday May 8 at 6:00 pm at the San Juan Hotel & Casino Ballroom in Isla Verde. The show entitled “El amor entre tú y yo“ in which ‘La mujer de los ojos brujos’ will tour through the most important successes of her musical history. The singer and actress has shared the stage with the most prominent figures of Puerto Rican music, and arrives at Mayagüez and San Juan with a select group of Puerto Rican musicians under the direction of Martin Nieves. Recognizing the greatness of being a mother, the audience will enjoy an evening of celebration to share successes as “Tú Como estás”, “Cuéntale, “ “El amor entre tú y yo”and “Hoy canto por cantar” Tickets for this show are on sale at Ticket Center 787-792-5000 or through the website www.tcpr.com.
JesusChrist Super Star, Super Show By Max González
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uccini, Verdi, no opora composer ever intended to have Jesus as a subject. That untouchable theme had to be handed down to Tim Rice and Lloyd Webber to give us this rock-opera masterpiece. Via Waldo González and Dramadanza, it was presented at the Tapia recently with uproar and success. No one can handle a musical production the way it has been done by this producer. He sure has the magical touch to get the rich talent for the right part. The rock-opera “per se”, deals with the last few days of Jesus in the short lived apostolate; whereas some elements do not follow the quotes from the Bible. The first scene that opens the first act, introduces Judas very much concerned about the reiterated intentions expressed by Jesus; proclaiming himself as King and his divine origin. Judas
actually considers him a human being. “Heaven on Their Minds”, is the motivation for Judas very much concerned about the reiterated intentions expressed by Jesus; proclaiming himself as King and his divine origin. Judas is played by Billy Frank with great panache and understanding of the role. From the star an enhancing factor in the presence of the chorus, integrated by the disciples and the mob.. The impact of this certainly adds one more asset to the whole play. “Everything is All Right” and “What The Buzz”, demonstrating the vital quality imposed by the chorus. Pontious Pilate is an outstanding scene played by Eduardo MaCormack. “Pilates Dream” is supported as another highlight of the first act. Together with the intervention of Mary Magdalene. Tenderly, she sings her song “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”. Vivian García appeals to the audience in her touching approach to Jesus. The first act has a very dramatic slant at the end, involving Caiphas, (Alejandro Márquez) Annas, (Rafael Rosado), and the mob. Two level scenery, with a platform surmounted by a wide video screen, provided the setting and illusory theatrical depth. Wisely designed by Wendel Agosto. “The Last Supper” opens up the second act. Jesus played by Koldo Bika is despondent and weary. The prospect doom coming by treason. The appointment for Judas who tries to approach Jesus by all means, claiming his loyalty. Dejected and tormented, “Pilate and Christ” are superbly portrayed as the turning point. Pilate has been haunted by a dream. He has been accused of being responsible for Jesus’s fate.
“King Herods Song” is the ultimate contrast. He is being lavishly treated by his harem. The choreography by Waldo González done in a Rockette chorus line danced by the sexy entourage around Herod, brought the house down. Angel Rodríguez, as Herod is remarkable and witty. He belongs to Broadway, hunting for a job there. “Superstar” is the leit-motiv melody in the whole opera. It brings the dancing, singing and acting to the level of a highly accomplished production. The Crucifixion and descending from the cross brings the play to an end with mother and son as a reflexion of “la Pieta”. The music score followed the right commanding instructions of Veronica Pellegrini. Congratulations Danzadrama for bringing us closer and closer to Broadway.
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April 14 - 20, 2011
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“Caja de Muertos” Island I
sla de Caja de Muertos (English: Caja de Muertos Island), or Caja de Muertos for short, is an uninhabited island off the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The island is protected by the Reserva Natural Caja de Muertos natural reserve, because of its native turtle traffic. Hikers and beachgoers are often seen in the is-
land, which can be reached by ferry from the La Guancha Boardwalk sector of Ponce Playa.
Location Caja de Muertos is located 8.4 km south of the Puerto Rican mainland and is part of the Playa barrio of Ponce, Puerto Rico, municipality.
Geography and climate The island measures 2.75 km long northeast-southwest, and up to 860 meters wide (560 meters on the average). It has an area of 1.54 km². Close by are Morrillito Key (180 m off the southwest point, 0.04 km²) and Berbería Key (6.2 km to the northeast, 0.30 km²), both part of the Caja de Muertos Natural Reserve. Berbería Key belongs to Rio Canas Abajo barrio of Juana Diaz municipality. The climate is dry and the island supports dry forest. A still-functioning lighthouse, Caja de Muertos Light, established in 1887 and automated in 1945, sits atop the highest hill on the island.
Name Though there is no consensus on how the island got its name, one story given by Kurt Pitzer and Tara Stevens is that of a Portuguese pirate,
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36 April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
Comes from page 35 Jose Almeida. A former merchant sailor, Almeida fell in love with a Basque lady in Curaçao, married her in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and took her pirating with him around the Caribbean. On the first raid, however she was killed by a stray bullet. Distraught, Almeida had her embalmed and placed in a glass box inside a copper coffin. He buried her in a cave in a deserted island near Ponce. He would come every month to gaze over her preserved body and leave half of his treasure in her grave. Almeida, however, was caught in the Puerto Rico mainland, tried, and executed in El Morro in 1832. Many years later, a Spanish engineer discovered the glass and copper coffin, and identifying the cay on a map gave it
its present name. The treasure found, if any, was kept secret. Another possibility is that the island got its name because it resem-
bles someone lying down when seen from the main island. Caja de Muertos can be translated into English as “Coffin” or “Dead Man’s Chest”. Other than the aforementioned meaning of the name, it has also been suggested by A. W. Van Buren of Yale University that the island’s
name may be related to the sea shanty “Dead man’s chest”, probably first written by Robert Louis Stevenson for his novel Treasure Island. The official version of the origin of the name, as given by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources, and under whose care the island is currently entrusted, is as follows: “Its name is attributed to the 18th century French writer Jean Baptist Labat who called it Coffre A’morr (Caja de Muertos), making reference to the fact that when the island is seen from certain places in southern Puerto Rico, it gives the impression of seeing a dead person laying on a plateau.”
Natural reserve The island was designated as a nature reserve in 1980 after a meeting was held in Puerto Rico by the Puerto Rico Planning Board wherein they considered the recommendation set forth by the Coastal Management Zone Program to turn the island into a protected wilderness area. The island has remained a protected area ever since. The protection is mainly due to its heavy turtle traffic which is an endangered species.
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April 14 - 20, 2011
37
36 Hours in Marrakesh, Morocco plendently renovated La Mamounia (Avenue Bab Jdid; 212-524-388-600; mamounia.com), is a perfect spot for rubbing shoulders with the well-heeled set. Named for its most famous patron, Le Bar Churchill escaped the hotel’s face-lift largely unscathed, and still drips in supple black leather, leopard skin and polished chrome. If you’re seeking belly dancers, Le Comptoir Darna (Avenue Echouhada; 212-524-437-702; comptoirdarna. com), a French-Moroccan brasserie in the up-and-coming Hivernage quarter, offers one of the city’s best floor shows, a hip-shaking affair that spills down the central staircase and into the dining room.
Saturday 10 a.m. 4) SOUK CHEF
By CHARLY WILDER
I
N 1939, George Orwell wrote of Westerners flocking to Marrakesh in search of “camels, castles, palmtrees, Foreign Legionnaires, brass trays and bandits.” Ever since, the city has been ravishing visitors with its teeming souks, ornate palaces and sybaritic night life. In recent years, a succession of high-end openings and restorations — most notably, the lavish reopening of the hotel La Mamounia — has transformed the city into an obligatory stop for jet-setters. Yet despite Marrakesh’s new cachet, the true treasures of the enigmatic city still hide down dusty side streets and behind sagging storefronts.
Friday 5 p.m. 1) MEDINA, REFINED For sheer energy and intrigue, few places rival the labyrinthine souks of Marrakesh’s fortified old city. Skullcapped artisans sweat over ancient lathes while overdressed French tourists haggle over inlaid cedar boxes and silver lamps. In recent years, up-and-coming designers have opened fashionable boutiques in the Souk Cherifia that put a contemporary twist on Arab-Andalusian motifs. Lalla (Souk Cherifia, First Floor, Sidi Abdelaziz; 212-661-477-228; lalla.fr) opened in 2008 and carries slouchy Mauritanian leather handbags that are carried in stylish London
stores like Paul & Joe and Coco Ribbon. The designer Marion Theard recently opened La Maison Bahira (Souk Cherifia, First Floor, Sidi Abdelaziz; 212-524-386-365; maisonbahira.com), which sells her signature handwoven textiles, hammam towels and embroidered pillows. For a break from the haggling, stop by Le Jardin (32 Sidi Abdelaziz, Souk Jeld; 212-524-378-295), a cafe that opened its doors last month and is owned by Kamal Laftimi, a young Moroccan also behind the popular Café des Épices and Terrace des Épices.
7 p.m. 2) SQUARE PLATES Djemaa el Fna, the main square of the Medina, is a motley tapestry of life, where shoppers wade through a chaos of fortune tellers, snake charmers and pushy henna painters. But it’s also one of the best places to get
acquainted with the rich flavors and textures of Moroccan cuisine. Go at sundown to the square’s myriad food stalls, when hundreds of gas lanterns light up billows of steam. Ignore the men trying to divert traffic to their particular stall, and grab yourself a seat where there are plenty of locals. A good starter is a bowl of snails in saffron broth, from one of the snail stands on the eastern end of the square (10 dirhams, about $1.23 at 8.2 dirhams to the dollar). Follow that with a lamb couscous doused in harissa at one of the stalls on the north end (30 dirhams). Adventurous eaters should try one of the mutton stalls near the square’s center, where everything from sheep’s brain to skewered heart is sold.
9 p.m. 3) BOOZING à LA CHURCHILL Le Bar Churchill, in the res-
Can’t get enough tagine? Learn to make it yourself at Souk Cuisine (Zniquat Rahba, Derb Tahtah 5; 212-673-804-955; soukcuisine.com), one of several Moroccan cooking workshops that have cropped up in recent years. Run by Gemma van de Burgt, a Dutch expatriate, the halfday workshop (10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) starts with a visit to the Rahba Kedima market to forage for quince, argan oil and other Moroccan ingredients. Classes convene in the courtyard of an old riad, where budding chefs learn how to make dishes like lamb tagine and raisin couscous, culminating in a four-course lunch on the terrace, served with mint tea and wine (40 euros).
3 p.m. 5) MANICURED JUNGLE French colonialism still informs facets of the city, and the melding of French and Moroccan sensibilities is perhaps most beautifully ex
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38 Comes from page 37 pressed in the Majorelle Gardens (212-524-313-047; JardinMajorelle. com), a 12-acre botanical garden in the French district of Gueliz. The cobaltblue gardens were designed in the 1920s by the painter Jacques Majorelle and are filled with palms, yucca, lily ponds and a huge variety of tropical flowers and cactuses. They later became the backyard of Yves Saint Laurent, whose deep love for Marrakesh is evident in his personal collection of Moroccan crafts and textiles on display in the adjoining Islamic Art Museum.
5 p.m. 6) A FOCUS ON BERBERS After being marginalized for centuries, Berber culture is now a cause célèbre for Moroccan gallerists and historians. The Maison de la Photographie (46 Ahal Fès; 212-524-385-721; maison-delaphotographie.com) opened last year in a restored fondouk, or traditional inn, and is devoted to documenting Berber life in the Medina. A 4,500-photograph collection includes rare glimpses of Jewish Berbers and a fascinating assemblage of glass plates dating from 1862. The museum is crowned with a roof cafe, which offers stellar views of the Medina. The 40-dirham ticket also gets you into Ecomusée Berbere de l’Ourika (Vilage de Tafza, Route de l’Ourika, Km. 37; 212-524-385-721; ecomuseeberbere. com), a new museum 23 miles outside the city that captures life in a traditional Berber village.
8 p.m. 7) FROM BEIRUT, WITH LOVE If the city’s hotels have gone upscale, the dining scene has gone through the roof. Marcel Chiche, a restaurateur and local night-life titan, recently opened Azar (Rue de Yougoslavie, near
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April 14 - 20, 2011
Boulevard Hassan II; 212-524-430-920; azarmarrakech.com), a splashy Lebanese restaurant that draws a party-ready crowd. The shimmering design of the dining room is the work of Younes Duret, a rising French-Moroccan designer. The modern Lebanese dishes include eggplant caviar with sesame crème (40 dirhams) and a rotisserie chicken (140). After dinner, take the Astroturfcarpeted elevator to the downstairs bar, where the city’s beautiful people dance to live Arabic pop music.
11 p.m. 8) NORTH AFRICAN NIGHTS Though Gueliz still buzzes with bars and clubs, the newer action is clustered in the industrial Hivernage district. One of the most fashionable spots is Lotus Club (Rue Ahmed Chawki; 212-524-431-537; riadslotus. com), a laid-back restaurant and nightclub styled as an urban retreat. On the weekends, 20- and 30-somethings mingle under floral-kitsch white lamps as D.J.’s mix electronic beats with Bollywood pop. Sunday
10 a.m. 9) SWEAT ROYALLY In the land of a thousand hammams, mega-spas seem to get larger by the day. It doesn’t get more lavish than the Royal Mansour (Rue Abou Abbas el Sebti; 212-529-808-080; royalmansour.com), a fortressed pleasure palace consisting of 53 riads connected by tunnels that is owned by King Mohammed VI. Women in elaborately embroidered caftans lead visitors through a palatial foyer into private chambers where treatments include an aromatic massage with argan oil, from 1,200 dirhams.
Noon 10) BOUTIQUE SHOPPING Tired of haggling? Head to the
fashionable boutiques that have opened recently along Rue de la Liberté in Gueliz. Moor (7 Rue des Anciens Marrakchis; 212-524-458-274; akbardelights.com) sells leather floor pillows and stylish tunics under a ceiling covered in giant white lanterns. Though the name of this children’s shop is unwieldy even for French-speakers, La Manufacture de Vêtements Pour Enfants Sages (44 Rue des Anciens Marrakchis; 212-524-446-704) carries everything from handmade Moroccan pajamas to colorful stuffed camels. A common complaint among Marrakesh art collectors is that all the good young artists decamp to Europe. But new galleries like David Bloch Gallery (8 bis Rue des Vieux Marrakchis; 212-524-457-595; davidblochgallery. com), which specializes in street art, have become a platform for up-andcoming French and Moroccan artists. The gallery, housed in a stark concrete block covered with colorful graffiti, creates yet another level of contrast in the ever-evolving city.
IF YOU GO
The boho-chic Peacock Pavilions (Kilometer 13, Route de Ourzazate; peacockpavilions.com), opened this year, sits on an 8.5-acre grove just outside the city. It’s made up of two stunning pavilions. The smaller, 1,300-square-foot double-room pavilion costs 350 euros a night, $460 at $1.31 to the euro; one of the rooms can also be rented for 150 euros. After a three-year renovation by the Parisian architect Jacques Garcia, La Mamounia (Avenue Bab Jdid; 212-524-388-600; mamounia.com), originally opened in 1923, has never been grander. It now has indoor and outdoor pools and Michelin-starred chefs, not to mention helicopter rides over the Atlas Mountains. Rooms from 665 euros. In a renovated traditional riad well-situated within the Medina, the welcoming and affordable Riad Dar Khmissa (166 Derb Jamaa; Arset Moussa Lakbira; 212-524-443-707; dar-khmissamarrakech.com) offers seven comfortable rooms and a lovely roof terrace. From 50 euros, including a delicious home-cooked Moroccan breakfast.
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April 14 - 20, 2011
39 SCIENCE / TECH
Paths of Discovery, Lighted by a Bug Man’s Insights By NATALIE ANGIER
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bout three months ago, Thomas Eisner of Cornell University, a towering figure in the fields of biology, ecology and evolution, and a promoter of the class Insecta and related arthropod throngs so thermodynamically persuasive you kept expecting a pair of antennae to sprout from his forehead, sent my 14-year-old daughter, Katherine, a wonderful, miserable gift. Inside were Dr. Eisner’s old burlap field bag, with his name written on the flap, collecting jars, precision tweezers, toothpicks, dissecting tools; and several of his prized entomology books, including the first one he ever owned, a butterfly guide that his parents gave him for his 12th birthday, back in 1942. Katherine was thrilled by the acknowledgement that Dr. Eisner considered her a protégée, somebody who spent more time than Yogi Berra crouched in the dirt, hunting for bugs, and who was graced with the Eisnerian power of what May Berenbaum, a professor of entomology at the University of Illinois, called “nature vision,” which is like Superman’s X-ray vision, but for the details of nature that most people miss. Yes, what a wonderful gift. Except his personal field bag? His first insect book? People who divest themselves of their closest possessions are people who are ready to die. And though we knew he’d been suffering from Parkinson’s for more than a decade, neither we nor his battalions of friends, colleagues and former students around the world, nor the scientific community as a whole, were ready to see him go. Return to sender! What a miserable gift. Dr. Eisner died from complications of his disease on March 25, at the age of 81. He had a notoriously mordant sense of humor: “I may not believe in God,” he once said, “but I don’t ring doorbells saying I’m a Seventh-Day Atheist,” and when asked his opinion of assisted suici-
de he said he hadn’t decided yet because he was “still working on assisted homicide.” So I like to think that, in some invitingly spider-webbed corner of his mind he died in Gary Larson-Grand Guignol style: on his back, with all appendages curled up in the air. Author of more than 500 scientific papers and nine books, recipient of many high-gloss professional honors like the National Medal of Science and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and a favorite subject among nature documentarians, Dr. Eisner is best known for his in-depth studies of how insects and other small arthropods defend themselves against the ambient medley of alimentary canals. He and his colleagues famously worked out the multistage weaponry of the bombardier beetle, which sequesters internal reservoirs of hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone, and will mix the ingredients together with the proper enzymes as needed in a reaction chamber, to generate a boiling blast of defensive spray that can be aimed at an attacker through a swiveling nozzle in its anus. To Dr. Eisner’s exasperated amusement, the beetle’s spectacular equipment became fodder for the creationists, who claimed that it couldn’t possibly have evolved in stepwise fashion without blowing up the proto-bombardier en route. A Darwinist down to his very ribosomes, Dr. Eisner refuted the need for any divine beetle builder by citing cousins to the bombardier that were, in fact, the equivalent of intermediate forms, with comparatively less explosive armaments at their disposal. Dr. Eisner’s interests extended beyond insect defense, to include the entire chemical spaghetti-scape of nature. He often emphasized that, while humans may be partial to audiovisual information, a vast majority of species get their news chemically, using chemical signals to attack, attract, instruct, suggest, play the big Kahuna or disguise a real lacuna. He was a pioneer in the field of chemical ecology, which Dr. Berenbaum describes as “the study of how chemicals, natural products, influence the distribution and abundance of organisms in the envi-
ronment and affect their interactions.” Often collaborating with Jerrold Meinwald, a professor of chemistry at Cornell, and Maria Eisner, his wife of 58 years, Dr. Eisner identified in moths and butterflies the first known examples of male pheromones, compounds that males release to entice females to mate with them. The researchers showed how a male would seek out plants generally considered distasteful, extract from the leaves or stalk a measure of defensive alkaloids, and then use a metabolite of those toxins during courtship, teasing the female with little alkaloid-infused brushes extruded from his abdomen. Should the female accept the offer, the male gives up the rest, and she transfers the compound to her eggs, the better to protect her offspring from predation. “It’s a very sophisticated and beautiful system,” said Dr. Meinwald, “and very appealing to work on from a chemical point of view.” Eisner researchers have studied puddling moths with a mania for salt, kamikaze ants, femme fatale fireflies, the zigzag architecture of spider webs, and lacewing larvae that feast freely on woolly aphids normally protected by aggressive ants, outwitting the ant shepherds by covering themselves in tufts of fluff plucked from the aphids’ backs — a reallife case of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Trying to choose a favorite Eisner paper is like trying to choose dessert at a Parisian patisserie. “One of my favorites was a paper he somehow got into Science, about mongooses that crack open millipedes by flinging them backwards, through their legs,” and against a rock, said Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a friend of Dr. Eisner’s for more than 50 years. “We were all jealous of the talent he had for getting his papers into Science. I think he bribed them.” Ian Baldwin, a professor of molecular ecology at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany, who studied with Dr. Eisner in the 1980s, said of his mentor: “He articulated the value of natural history discovery in a time of natural history myopia. We train biologists today who can’t identify more than four species, who only know how to do digital biology, but the world of analog
biology is the world we live in. Tom was a visionary for nonmodel systems. He created narratives around everything he did.” In today’s “shiny polished science world, he was proof that there is no experience that can substitute for being out in nature,” said Dr. Berenbaum. “It’s classy, not low-rent, to stay grounded in biological reality.” Dr. Eisner’s personal story also had narrative thrust. His family fled the Nazis in Germany, migrating through France and Spain before settling in Uruguay, from which Dr. Eisner headed northward as a teenager — an odyssey that left him fluent in German, French, Spanish and English. He studied at Harvard, roomed with Edward O. Wilson, believed that scientists had an ethical obligation to be conservationists, and when he first played Joan Baez records for his friend Dr. Ehrlich, he almost persuaded him that the voice was his wife’s. His lectures at Cornell were standing room only. He disliked flying and rarely went anywhere he couldn’t reach by car, train or, if need be, boat. He was a superb photographer and classical pianist, and he said he had trouble trusting scientists who weren’t musicians. His old friend Roger Payne, the whale researcher and a cellist, understands the sentiment. “Unless you look at the world through a different set of glasses than you normally do,” he said, “you haven’t seen it from any but one view.” Dr. Eisner’s nature vision was the ultimate pansensory superpower: visual, aural, tactile, chemical, and almost too big to hold.
SCIENCE / TECH 40 April 14 -20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
At Particle Lab, a Tantalizing Glimpse Has Physicists Holding Their Breaths By DENNIS OVERBYE
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hysicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are planning to announce Wednesday that they have found a suspicious bump in their data that could be evidence of a new elementary particle or even, some say, a new force of nature. The results, if they hold up, could be a spectacular last hurrah for Fermilab’s Tevatron, once the world’s most powerful particle accelerator and now slated to go dark forever in September or earlier, whenever Fermilab runs out of money to operate it. “Nobody knows what this is,” said Christopher Hill, a theorist at Fermilab who was not part of the team. “If it is real, it would be the most significant discovery in physics in half a century.” One possible explanation for this mysterious bump, scientists say, is that it is evidence of a new and unexpected version of the longsought Higgs boson. This is a hypothetical elementary particle that, according to the reigning theory known as the Standard Model, is responsible for endowing other elementary particles with mass. Another explanation might be that it is evidence of a new force of nature — in addition to gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces we already know and are baffled by — that would manifest itself only at very short distances like those that rule inside the atomic nucleus. Either could shake what has passed for conventional wisdom in physics for the last few decades. Or it could be there is something they do not understand about so-called regular physics. Giovanni Punzi, the Fermilab physicist who is spokesman for the international team that did the work, said by e-mail that he and his colleagues were “strongly thrilled at the possibility, and cautious at the same time, because this would be so important that almost scares us — so we think of all possible alternative explanations.”
Physicists outside the Fermilab circle said they regarded the results, which have been widely discussed in physics circles for several months, with a mixture of awe and skepticism. “If it holds up, it’s very big,” said Neal Weiner, a theoretical physicist at New York University. Lisa Randall, a theorist at Harvard, said the same thing: “It is definitely interesting, if real.” But Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., said he did not find the bump convincing, saying it could be an artifact of how the data was sliced and diced. The important thing, he said, was that if this and other anomalies recently reported at the Tevatron are real, then the Large Hadron Collider, a rival machine run by CERN, “will see dramatic evidence in not too long — that’s certainly what I’m waiting for.” The key phrase, everyone agrees, is “if it holds up.” The experimenters estimate that there is a less than a quarter of 1 percent chance their bump is a statistical fluctuation, making it what physicists call a three-sigma result, enough to attract attention but not enough to claim an actual discovery. Three-sigma bumps, as every physicist knows, can come and go. The Tevatron has been colliding beams of protons and their opposites, antiprotons, that have been accelerated to energies of one trillion electron volts, for more than two decades looking for new forces and particles. The bump showed up in an analysis of some 10,000 of those collisions collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab, one of two mammoth detectors at the facility, which is outside Chicago. They found that in about 250 more cases than they expected, what came out of the collision were two jets of lightweight particles, like electrons, and a heavy-force-carrying particle called the W boson were produced. The team found that in about 250 times more cases than expected, the total energy of the jets clustered around a value of about 144 billion
electron volts, as if they were the decay products of a hitherto unsuspected particle with that mass-energy. For comparison, a proton weighs about one billion electron volts. This could not be the Standard Model Higgs, Dr. Punzi and his colleagues concluded, because the Higgs is predicted to decay into much heavier particles, namely quarks. Moreover, the rate at which these mystery particles were being produced was 300 times greater than Higgs bosons would be produced.
If real, it was something totally new, Dr. Punzi said. The result had recently been strengthened, he said, by new calculations of interactions between quarks, which are notoriously difficult to compute. “It is so new, so astonishing, we ourselves can barely believe it,” he said. “We decided we had to let the whole world know.” Dr. Punzi and his colleagues have submitted a paper that was to be posted on a physics Web site Tuesday night and has been submitted to Physical Review Letters. Joe Lykken, a Fermilab particle theorist, said Dr. Punzi’s group would have four times as much data in an analysis later this year. “This would be enough to claim a definitive major discovery,” he wrote in an e-mail, “just as the Tevatron — and perhaps Fermilab itself — is being shut down for budget savings.”
Extending Worms’ Lives, and Maybe Ours By KENNETH CHANG
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cientists have found a fountain of youth, at least for the tiny C. elegans worm. Extending the lives of worms is hardly a breakthrough, but what is intriguing is that one of the life-extending chemicals the scientists fed to the worms, thioflavin T, has already been used in people in studies of Alzheimer’s disease. Another compound that was successful in tests was curcumin, a bright yellow compound found in the spice turmeric. Thioflavin T is used to detect clumps of misfolded amyloid proteins found in the brains of people who have suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Because the dye, like curcumin, binds to the amyloid proteins, the researchers believe it had a beneficial effect on the worms by slowing the buildup of misfolded proteins. C. elegans worms typically live 18 to 20 days. Treated with the compounds, they lived 30 to 70 percent longer. And as the worms entered middle age, around 10 days, the treated worms remained more active and looked more healthy than
the untreated ones. However, the chemicals reduced the worms’ fertility, and at high doses the compounds were, like many chemicals, toxic. “It’s hard to say these compounds would be effective in, say, mammals,” said Gordon J. Lithgow, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, Calif., and senior author of a paper describing the research in the current issue of the journal Nature. But they could lead to ones that might work. “It at least says that’s a good place to look,” Dr. Lithgow said. Since many age-related diseases are associated with the accumulation of damaged proteins, the research could also lead to treatments.
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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Collecting Money From Slow-Paying Customers By HANNAH SELIGSON
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mall-business owners know cash flow or die. The recession officially ended in June 2009. Credit can be hard to come by, and profits have not bounced back. Customers are taking longer to pay their bills. Cisco Systems announced it would wait a full 60 days to pay its small-business suppliers because it had found that was what other big companies were doing. So how does a small business get paid in a tough economy without hiring a collections agency or alienating its clients? DO DUE DILIGENCE It used to be credit reports were expensive and only for big companies with large budgets. Not anymore. Ron Phelps, commercial credit manager at Boulevard Tire Center, a tire distributor with 26 locations in Florida, pays $99 a month for Pulse, a service offered through Cortera, , an online business credit reporting system, that keeps tabs on his clients. Last December, Cortera’s monitoring system noted that there was a large federal tax lien on one of Mr. Phelps’s clients, a small trucking company. He cut off the company’s credit line. Cortera offers a free service that collects and analyzes payment histories on
more than 20 million businesses. Think of it as Yelp for business credit its community gives feedback on how promptly a company pays. Diane Nicosia manages construction projects. “I’m in charge of the budget and have to make sure vendors, architects and engineers get paid”. “I’ve learned you have to negotiate.” On a project involving 45,000 square feet of office space a company said it would back out of the deal after it found it would take 90 days to get paid by Ms. Nicosia’s client, a Fortune 100 financial services and manufacturing firm. Ms. Nicosia met with her client’s senior management and found the payment timetable was not set in stone; there was room to broker a schedule that could keep the company from walking. Ms. Nicosia learned through this negotiation process, which was very amicable, wa there are often options: “All they have to do is push a little button that says pay in 10, 30 or 60 days, and gets your invoice in a queue, so I got my vendor paid faster by working with the right people in the company.” Is your invoice perfect? Did you fill out all the forms (even the ones you may not know about)? Companies do not need an excuse, to delay your invoice. So make sure not one piece of information is missing.
Do you know whether the invoice needs a purchase order number? Not having this number can leave invoices lingering in accounts-payable purgatory, and it is unlikely accounts payable will call. Is invoice formatted correctly? Some companies accept invoices only in PDF. If you are a new vendor, did you fill out a new vendor form? Many companies require these to process a first-time payment. If customers fall behind, when do you cut them off? What do you do if it is a customer you think you cannot afford to lose? At Boulevard Tire, delinquent accounts are placed in one of two buckets — 30 days overdue and 60 days overdue. “Is this someone I want to immediately put on credit hold? Or is there something salvageable here? Are they a first-time offender?” If we have a customer who is in dire straits, and they appear to be making an effort to pay, we might continue working with them.” To avoid the accounting department tell you “the check is in the mail,” push for direct deposit or electronic transfer. You can get paid exactly on the 45th or 60th day. There are also services available from banks allow checks to be faxed and scanned, with the money deposited into your account the
same day. Consider accepting credit cards or PayPal. There is a fee, depending on card or service you use, but cash comes instantly. “Some credit card pay their merchants the following day,” in a climate where cash is so tight, that’s often worth the fee.” LET THEM KNOW IT’S IMPORTANT Rachel Lawrence. Was trying to collect from a management firm that was 30 days late on a $25,000 invoice. “They kept giving me this excuse that they had changed accounting systems, so I offered to physically pick up the check.” Ms. Lawrence gave the management company dates and times she would be available to make the 30-minute trip to its office. The firm agreed to have the check ready. OFFER A DISCOUNT Mr. Phelps said he does not like to reward clients for not paying, but that in certain cases extending a discount on the condition that the debt be paid immediately in cash or a cashier’s check can make the money appear. “We probably wouldn’t enter into a credit relationship with that company in the future.” Do not be afraid to give a 10 percent discount “For 1 or 2 percent, it’s not worth it to the person who owes the money, if they are short on cash.”
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The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Black-Market Trinkets From Space
The Gebel Kamil crater in Egypt has been scoured for fragments prized by collectors and researchers. By WILLIAM J. BROAD
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bay and other Web sites pulse with hundreds of sales pitches. “The pieces below have an exceptional patina,” a site called Star-bits.com said of 10 pictured fragments. The ads are for chunks of meteorites, bits of asteroids that have fallen from the sky and are as prized by scientists as they are by collectors. As more meteorites have been discovered in recent years, interest in them has flourished and an illegal sales market has boomed — much to the dismay of the people who want to study them and the countries that consider them national treasures. “It’s a black market,” said Ralph P. Harvey, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University who directs the federal search for meteorites in Antarctica. “It’s as organized as any drug trade and just as illegal.” The discovery of a rich and historically significant meteorite crater in southern Egypt, just north of the Sudanese border, has shown the voracious appetite for new fragments. Just as scientists appeared to be on the cusp of decrypting the evidence to solve an ancient puzzle, looters plundered the desolate site, and the political chaos in Egypt seems to ensure that the scientists will not be going back anytime soon. The mystery began thousands of years ago with Egyptian hieroglyphs, which refer to the “iron of heaven.” Archaeologists have long debated whether the Egyptians made artifacts from iron meteorites that fell to Earth in fiery upheavals. The main evidence came from ancient knife blades of iron that had high concentrations of nickel — a rare element in the Earth’s crust that was considered a signature of extraterrestrial origin. But doubts grew as investigators found terrestrial sites rich in nickel that ancient peoples could have mined. And
scientists in Egypt never found an impact crater and a nearby lode of meteorites. Then in June 2008, Vincenzo de Michele, an Italian mineralogist and former curator at the Natural History Museum of Milan who had explored the Egyptian desert for nearly two decades, was scanning the area on Google Earth when he saw something unusual. He told Mario Di Martino of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Turin, and together they formed an expedition that surveyed the site in February 2009. To their delight, the desolate area bristled with iron meteorites — more than 5,000 of them — and they named the crater Gebel Kamil, after a nearby mountain. The team members signed a note of discovery and put it in a bottle at the crater’s bottom. The find was a first. It was the only meteorite crater ever discovered in Egypt — its mouth 15o feet wide — and the team vowed to keep it confidential as long as possible. But a return expedition in February 2010, found that the bottle had disappeared. The secret was out. A few months later, in June, meteorites from the crater were for sale at a show in Ensisheim, France. In a review, the International Meteorite Collectors Association called them arguably the world’s “most fascinating new iron find.” The Egyptian rocks, it added, “received a lot of attention.” Popular or not, the meteorites were taboo. In Egypt and elsewhere, scientists say, it is illegal without a permit to remove meteorites from a country. Yet scavengers have disseminated them widely: on Star-bits.com, one of many sites that sell a variety of meteorites, the 10 fragments with rich patinas are said to be from Gebel Kamil. The costliest of the 10 — a two-pound rock, just large enough to cover the fingers of a man’s hand — is priced at $1,600.
Eric Olson of Star-bits defended the marketing as legitimate and beyond Egyptian law. “I didn’t buy them from the Egyptians,” he said in an interview. “I bought them second- and thirdhand.” The scientists say they have relatively few samples compared with the booming illicit sales. “We have at our disposal a very limited number of specimens to study and exhibit,” said Dr. Di Martino. He and other members of the Gebel Kamil crater discovery team, he added, don’t have the money to buy them on the flourishing black market. Dr. Harvey of Case Western Reserve said the quandary applied to the scientific community as a whole. The rampant looting of meteorite sites and skyrocketing prices for the fragments, he said, “dramatically reduce who can get samples to do the research.” The black market has exploded in size mainly because of a rush of new meteorites arriving from North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Starting in the late 1980s and 1990s, explorers and nomads discovered that dark-colored meteorites stood out against flat, featureless areas covered by sand and small pebbles. And dry desert air helped preserve the rocks from space. The pace of collecting began to soar after explorers scrutinizing the sands of Libya discovered a number of meteorites from the Moon and Mars. These rare types formed during cosmic smashups, eventually fell to Earth and fetched high prices. The collectors association, founded in 2004 in Nevada, now has hundreds of members around the globe. And while some traders deal in legitimate exports, many do not. One buyer expressed remorse after reading about scientific angst over the thriving market. “I’m very ashamed,” the buyer wrote on a blog. “I’m surely a part of the problem.” Still, many collectors defend the hobby as advantageous for scientists, saying the market is producing many A 60-gram fragment of the Gebel Kamil meteorite.
discoveries and creating many opportunities. Amateurs often turn to experts for analysis and authentication and, in return, share the extraterrestrial haul. “The scientists do not have time to go hunt for their own meteorites, so somebody has to do it for them,” said Anne M. Black, president of the collectors association. “It’s common sense.” Even some scientists applaud the new market. “I see it as a good thing on balance,” said Carl B. Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. “It’s beneficial mainly because of the huge diversity of meteorites not previously known about and not accessible.” At stake for science in the rush for meteorites are secrets of the cosmic bombardment, the development of the solar system and possible clues to the existence of extraterrestrial life. Last month, scientists hotly debated whether a new meteorite study produced convincing evidence of microscopic aliens. As for the Gebel Kamil crater, Dr. Di Martino said it was futile to try to save its otherworldly riches from the looters. “Considering the social, political and geographic situation there,” he said of the remote corner of southwestern Egypt, “it will be completely useless to protect the area” — unless the authorities put in “a permanent garrison of marines and/or a minefield.” He and the team of scientific explorers are still eager to revisit the site, mainly to better date the crater. But they worry that the political chaos in Egypt may further endanger their find. The turmoil has already resulted in the delay and possible cancellation of a new expedition to the Kamil crater and raised doubts about the security of a collection of the meteorites in Cairo. With the secret out, the scientific team announced its discovery in July 2010 and detailed its findings in the February issue of Geology. There, the team hailed the discovery as a potential link to the “iron of heaven” and estimated the impact site as less than 5,000 years old. Luigi Folco, the expedition leader and meteorite curator at the University of Siena, said in an interview that if the age estimate is correct, “ancient Egyptians living along the Nile could have seen this major event.” The craggy rock from space is said to have exploded with the blinding flash of an enormous bomb. Dr. Di Martino said the allure for amateurs was not the advance of history but the pleasure of owning the latest find. Since it’s a new meteorite, he said, “the collectors like to have a piece of it.”
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
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Sports
Woods’s Tantalizing Surge Comes Up Short on the Back Nine By BILL PENNINGTON
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iger Woods’s second shot to the par-5 15th green landed soft and rolled 4 feet past the hole. It was not long after the third-round leader Rory McIlroy’s implosion at the 10th hole, a triple-bogey that altered the course of the 2011 Masters. Passing a massive scoreboard that overlooks the 15th green, Woods peeked at the upheaval taking place on the leader board. Before his second shot on the 15th, five golfers were ahead of Woods. Now if he made the eagle putt he was about to line up, he would be in the lead by himself. But the putt slid to his right, almost entirely missing the hole. Woods went to 10 under par, but that just brought him in line with a number of golfers chasing after the championship. Woods walked to the side of the green and stamped his right foot. He stood there for a full minute muttering to himself. On the next hole, he missed another makable birdie putt. A few hours earlier, he had teed off
trailing McIlroy by seven strokes. He was something of an afterthought — until he startled the field with an opening nine of five-under-par 31. It was nine holes stolen, it seemed, from Woods’s past, with four exhilarating birdies, a stirring eagle and one lone bogey. At that juncture, with his putts rolling true and his drives and irons zeroing in on every target, the tournament almost seemed his to lose. But just as he did Saturday, Woods stopped capitalizing on important opportunities. At the 12th hole, he fired successfully at the middle of the green, as one must on a Masters Sunday, then three-putted for bogey. On the par-5 13th hole, he missed the green long with his second shot and had a dicey but predictable chip to the hole cut on the front of the green. Woods misread or mis-hit his chip, playing it well out to the left, where it stayed. That cost him what should have been a makable birdie chance. Instead, he missed the attempt from 18 feet. The 15th hole then became his last gasp. In the end, he finished tied for fourth,
just as he did a year ago. “I got off to a great start,” Woods said after his round but before Charl Schwartzel had played the final holes to win the tournament. “I felt like things were really going as I wanted them to. It’s what I needed to do to get in the mix.” Asked what went wrong on the back nine, Woods did not hesitate. “Didn’t putt well,” he said. He described the missed short putts on the 12th and 15th as two different mistakes, each equally disappointing. “A pull and a push,” he said, smiling. “Neither goes in.” Woods would not call the 2011 Masters a turning point in what is now a more-
than-yearlong comeback. But he saw positives. “I hit the ball really well all week,” he said. “I think it’s obvious I’m making some progress there. It felt good to be able to define a target and then hit it there. And I putted well at times. So we’ll see.” Woods also had some sympathy for McIlroy, who finished tied for 15th after a final-round 80. “This golf course on the final day of the tournament will do that to you,” he said. “It doesn’t take much. If you try to be overly aggressive and don’t stay patient, then you have taken the bait. “And bad things can happen. It’s happened more than a few times here.”
The Course Is the Star of a Celebrity’s Game By SETH SCHIESEL
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s a multiracial American who likes golf, I once revered Tiger Woods from afar. Then, after meeting him and learning that he could talk about video games the way a normal dude does, I thought I actually liked him as a person. So when he humiliated his wife and family (not to mention himself) in front of the entire planet with his spectacular sexual self-immolation, I was as disgusted and disillusioned as any fan could be. Heading into this week’s Masters tournament, I am not rooting against him. But for whatever trouble he is having getting his game and his life back together, I, like millions of others, have zero sympathy. Neither do many of the sponsors who helped make Mr. Woods the very definition of marketing ubiquity. But one company that has continued to release major, massmarket consumer products under the Tiger Woods brand is Electronic Arts, the game giant. Even within his own video game franchise, however, Mr. Woods now finds himself taking a back seat to inanimate terrain. And that is because the real star of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, released recently by Electronic Arts for the Xbox 360,
Wii and PlayStation 3, is not Mr. Woods but the hallowed ground of Augusta National Golf Club, the tournament’s home in Georgia. Putting aside the fact that Mr. Woods’s face does not even appear on most retail versions of the product, it is perhaps inevitable that the inclusion of Augusta would overshadow any individual player. Along with Pebble Beach in California and the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, Augusta is among the world’s most famous golf courses. While St. Andrews and Pebble have been rendered electronically over the decades I have been playing golf video games, this is the first time most people will have a
chance to “play” Augusta National in their living rooms. (A version of the course was included in an obscure game released only in Japan in the 1990s, though that is hardly relevant for most players.) Thankfully, Electronic Arts has produced a superb game worthy of the Masters moniker. It probably comes as little surprise that I have not actually played the course in real life — and sadly, I have never even attended the Masters — so I can’t tell you how accurate this digital reproduction is. But just as players don’t really need to have driven Ferraris and Lamborghinis to appreciate a racing game, I need not have played the real course to tell you that my knees were literally shaking when I set up for my first tee shot at the renowned par-3 12th hole (known as Golden Bell). They were shaking because I was standing up with my fingers interlaced around the motion-sensitive Move controller for the PlayStation 3, which is similar to Nintendo’s Wii controller. But unlike the Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox 360 deliver Augusta and the other courses in the game with almost photorealistic high-definition rendering. With the Move and Wii controllers, you have to swing properly while the system analyzes the plane of the swing and
the angle of your wrists as the ball flies off on its trajectory. I played mostly on the PS3, and while the motion-sensing system wasn’t perfect, it provided a new level of immersion. Try standing up and playing 36 holes with the PS3 Move, and then tell me your hips and shoulders aren’t a little sore. One frustration could be that if you want to be effective, you have to keep your head down through impact, so you can’t see where the ball is going until after you hit it. But that’s the way real golf is, too. You can also play in more traditional couch-potato modes, pressing buttons or twiddling thumbsticks (your only options on the Xbox 360). No matter which system you use, it is faithful to reality in emphasizing golf’s short game as the key to scoring. Hitting huge drives down the fairway is no problem, but a tricky half-wedge from 50 yards out will test you every time, as it should. And while putting is difficult and precise, that is also as it should be. Last weekend, in the game’s Live Tournament mode, players were able to compete with the actual live leaderboard from the Masters. Now No. 7 in the world golf rankings, Mr. Woods lost. Either way, at least the latest video game with his name on it is a winner.
Sports
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April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
Schwartzel Charges to Victory at Masters By LARRY DORMAN
F
ifty years to the day after Gary Player, the godfather of South African golf, became the first international player to win the Masters, his countryman Charl Schwartzel won the 75th Masters on Sunday, breaking though a chaotic afternoon shootout by birdieing the final four holes at Augusta National Golf Club. As roars exploded like cannon fire through the pines, saluting eagles and birdies by the seven other players who either held or shared the lead, Schwartzel, 26, a thin man with a muscular game, came from four strokes off the pace with the day’s low round of 66 for 14-underpar 274. Schwartzel joined his countryman and friend Louis Oosthuizen, the reigning British Open champion, in giving the PGA European Tour all four major championship trophies. He brushed off challenges from the Australians Jason
Day (68) and Adam Scott (67), who finished two strokes back; and from Tiger Woods, who charged with a 67, Geoff Ogilvy (67) of Australia and Luke Donald (69) of England, who tied for fourth at 10 under. Coolly maneuvering his way through the chaos, Schwartzel hit 16 greens and putted like a machine. Although Woods started all the fireworks, shooting 31 on Charl Schwartzel after his Masters-sealing birdie on the 18th hole. the front nine to move from seven strokes back to a tie for the lead in eight holes, it was Schwartzel, the unheralded son of a years of the Masters has a champion bir- fast greens, and precision iron play and South African farmer, who charged to the died the last four holes in a final round, the best pressure putting over the course though Jack Nicklaus did play them in of the tournament. He took 28 putts, but championship. Starting with a chip-in birdie at No. four under with an eagle, two birdies and the four he pumped in down the stretch 1, Schwartzel seized a share of the lead at a par in his stirring 1986 win. And if the were as nerveless as those from his coun11 under at No. 3 when he holed a sand eight golfers who held or shared the lead tryman Ernie Els in his prime. After he made the 15-footer that at some point during the raucous afterwedge for eagle from 114 yards. gave him the green jacket, Schwartzel hunoon did not set a record, they could not “So many roars and so much atgged his wife of seven months, Rosalind; have been far off. mosphere out there,” the soft-spoken his manager, Chubby Chandler; and his Angel Cabrera, who fi nished sevenSchwartzel said after becoming the third caddie, Greg Hearmon, and thanked th after a 71, and Bo Van Pelt, who cloSouth African to win the Masters, and the first since Trevor Immelman three years sed with a 70 and tied for eighth with K. everyone from Els to Nicklaus and Player J. Choi at 280, rounded out the group of to Oosthuizen. ago. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “This year, Nick Price gave me a reaNo one had. Never before in the 75 challengers who briefly shared the lead. Rory McIlroy never made it that far. lly good tip, so did David Frost,” SchwartA 21-year-old star from Northern Ireland, zel said. “Nick said when he came over, McIlroy bogeyed the first hole and added he used to find the fastest putt on every another bogey at the fifth before making green and practice that, and that’s what I his first — and only — birdie at the se- did for the last three weeks. Every tournaventh hole. He shot a front-nine 37, then ment I went to, I just practiced the fastest putt I could find, even though they were dissolved on the 10th hole. He badly pull-hooked his drive only five feet, to learn to hit the putts that between two of the cabins left of the tee, softly. It really paid off. I felt so good on then pitched across the fairway. He pull- these greens this week.” Player, whose 1961 Masters title inshooked his third shot into the trees near the scoreboard left of the green, hit ano- pired all the South African contingent of ther tree with a wedge shot, pitched on in major championship winners who came after him, immediately sent a message to five and two-putted for a triple bogey. “I thought I even hung in the front Schwartzel. cond in the 11 school tournament. nine pretty well,” said McIlroy, who went “I am absolutely delighted for Charl Karina Solarás and Paola Díaz of on to shoot 80 and finished tied for 15th. “I and South Africa,” Player said. “CongraAmerican Military Academy each was leading the tournament going into the tulations and very well done to him, his scored 2 goals. back nine. Just hit a poor tee shot on 10 and family and his entire team. That is how American has won the event sort of unraveled from there. Sort of lost it you finish like a champion.” at St. John’s in each of the last 2 at 10, 11 and 12, and couldn’t get it back. It is the second win of the year for “You know, I’ll have plenty more Schwartzel, who won the Joburg Open. It years. chances. I know that it’s very disappo- gives him all the perks that come with a Propelled by 5 goals by Gerarinting what happened today. Hopefully, major — a five-year exemption into the do Sánchez the San Ignacio de Loit’ll build a little bit of character in me as United States Open, the British Open and yola boys team beat the St. John’s well.” the P.G.A. Championship and into all the Lions 6 to 0 to win the tournament. It was not so much a character issue World Golf Championship events. He is St. John’s came in a respectaas a loss of rhythm in his swing that cost the 10th European Tour member to win ble second among the 12 schools McIlroy his fi rst major championship. the Masters, and the first in 12 years. competing. And what won it for Schwartzel? A com“It’s obviously the highlight in my All participating schools are bination of things, from a session with golfing career by a long way,” Schwartmembers of the Puerto Rico High Nicklaus last year during which he gave zel said. “You know, I always thought if School Athletic Alliance (PRSchwartzel his mental blueprint for all 18 there was one that I would win, it would HSAA) holes, a tip from Nick Price on playing be this one.”
American Military Academy & San Ignacio Triumph at St. John’s Soccer Tournament G uaynabo’s American Military Academy and San Ignacio de Loyola from Río Piedras were the victors in the most recent soccer Championship Tournament held at St. John’s School in Condado. The Tournament held the weekend of April 8 to 9 in the modern facilities of the school located on Ashford Avenue, had 11 schools participate in the women’s events and 12 schools in the boys’ events. The girls of American Military Academy dominated the match against Perpetuo Socorro Academy winning 7 to 2. Perpetuo Socorro showing a respectable se-
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Games
45
Sudoku How to Play: Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9 Click the “check sudoku” button to check your sudoku inputs Click the “new sudoku” button and select difficulty to play a new game
Sudoku Rules: Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
Crossword
Wordsearch
Answers on page 46
46 April 14 -20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly
HOROSCOPE Aries
(Mar 21-April 20)
Libra
(Sep 24-Oct 23)
Trust the transition between two ways of being. There are certainly some magical surprises in store. A high profile serves you well. Come out of your shell a little and prepare to network to full effect. Embrace life and enjoy fulsome opportunities. You deserve a bit of a break. There is no rush and you would do well to chill.
Leave an awkward scenario to one side and avoid someone contentious like the plague! Ditch pressing concerns for the time being and adopt a different perspective as to what really matters. Concentrate on positive connections and access your best bits! A rethink serves you well and a novel tactic will pay off big time. Take it easy.
Taurus
Scorpio
(April 21-May 21)
(Oct 24-Nov 22)
Never mind the work load. Pace yourself and be systematic about what you can do and in what time frame. Use your power wisely, for you are able to manoeuvre people and situations in grand style if you so choose. Try to let things unfold naturally if possible. Step in only if you can justify such interference. Be aware of consequences!
Do not be too critical of loved ones either. It is no doubt a case of least said, soonest mended! Differences of opinion must be forgotten, or at least left aside. Ditch recent introspection. Rise above the challenges and you can begin to have the best time ever. Put your feet up whenever possible, even whilst you meet work commitments.
Gemini
Sagittarius
(May 22-June 21)
Make your mind up and you might actually be able to stick to what you decide, which always helps! Exercise detachment, especially if you find loved ones are taking advantage of your good nature. It is important to keep your personal protection in place. Enjoy private moments and reflective relationships. But stay away from toxic people.
Cancer
(June 22-July 23)
Allow social events to run themselves and do not fret about the details. Maybe it is time to give up trying quite so hard. The more laid back you can be, the better things will run, on the work front especially. Go out and about where the fun can find you. Never mind routine and all things predictable. Now is the time to pull out the stops.
Leo
(July 24-Aug 23)
You should probably do your own things if at all possible. No it does not mean you disappoint everyone in the process. But it does mean you keep things lively and interesting for you. Perhaps it is timely to have a darned good time? Family fun, frolics and good vibes, should ensure you many blessings. Lap up the warmth and joy.
Virgo
(Aug 24-Sep 23)
Your humour will serve you well as always; use it to full effect. Be aware that your ready smile can open minds, hearts and doors that were preciously closed. Try again to follow through a treasured hearts desire. But do not go anywhere near a difference of opinion. Now is the time to keep things straightforward and up-tempo.
(Nov 23-Dec 21)
Get things the right way round and in the right order and all will be well. There is more than enough to be getting on with. But part of your discipline must be to take precious time to yourself. A mellow time will restore your energies; an overly hectic, stressful one will not. Get the balance right: it is important! Time will tell.
Capricorn
(Dec 22-Jan 20)
Place the emphasis on quality family connections. Make the most of an opportunity to bury the hatchet and put the past behind you. Push the boat out and decide to leave difficulties behind once and for all. You can consciously control outcomes at the moment. Be wise and remain mindful that life is too short for a load of old nonsense.
Aquarius
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
You find yourself in deep water, but remember you can talk yourself out of most things. Use your charm and wiles to get results and do not feel guilty about it. Your expectations will not be disappointed, but be realistic about how quickly things can happen. Patience is a virtue, it is crucial that you unwind and give yourself some time.
Pisces
(Feb 20-Mar 20)
Steer clear of too much over indulgence; do not be that good to yourself. Prepare for a wonderful time though and leave pressing concerns shut firmly in a cupboard marked closed. When pushed do not be afraid to bend work rules just a little. You will be pleasantly surprised at the change of perspective if you can finally ditch your troubles.
Answers to the Zudoku and Crossword on page 45
The San Juan Weekly
April 14 - 20, 2011
Herman
Speed Bump
Frank & Ernest
BC
Scary Gary
Wizard of Id
Two Cows And A Chicken
Cartoons
47
Ziggi
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April 14 - 20, 2011
The San Juan Weekly