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Obama Loosens Secret $6 Billion Rules on Cuba Bailout for P3

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January 20 - 26, 2011

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The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

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Obama Loosens Rules on Cuba

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resident Obama has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security to take a series of steps to continue efforts to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future.

The President has directed that changes be made to regulations and policies governing: (1) purposeful travel; (2) nonfamily remittances; and (3) U.S. airports supporting licensed charter flights to and from Cuba. These measures will increase people-to-people contact; support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people; and help promote their independence from Cuban authorities.

The President believes these actions, combined with the continuation of the embargo, are important steps in reaching the widely shared goal of a Cuba that respects the basic rights of all its citizens. These steps build upon the President’s April 2009 actions to help reunite divided Cuban families; to facilitate greater telecommunications with the Cuban people; and to increase humanitarian flows to Cuba.

The directed changes described below will be enacted through modifications to existing Cuban Assets Control and Customs and Border Protection regulations and policies and will take effect upon publication of modified regulations in the Federal Register within 2 weeks.

Purposeful Travel. To enhance contact with the Cuban people and support civil society through purposeful travel, including religious, cultural, and educational travel, the President has directed that regulations and policies governing purposeful travel be modified to: • Allow religious organizations to sponsor religious travel to Cuba under a general license.

• Facilitate educational exchanges by: allowing accredited institutions of higher education to sponsor travel to Cuba for course work for academic credit under a general license; allowing students to participate through academic institutions other than their own; and facilitating instructor support to include support from adjunct and part-time staff.

• Restore specific licensing of educational exchanges not involving academic study pursuant to a degree program under the auspices of an organization that sponsors and organizes people-to-people programs.

• Modify requirements for licensing academic exchanges to require that the proposed course of study be accepted for academic credit toward their undergraduate or graduate degree (rather than regulating the length of the academic exchange in Cuba).

• Allow specifically licensed academic institutions to sponsor or cosponsor

academic seminars, conferences, and workshops related to Cuba and allow faculty, staff, and students to attend.

• Allow specific licensing to organize or conduct non-academic clinics and workshops in Cuba for the Cuban people.

• Allow specific licensing for a greater scope of journalistic activities.

Remittances. To help expand the economic independence of the Cuban people and to support a more vibrant Cuban civil society, the President has directed the regulations governing non-family remittances be modified to: • Restore a general license category for any U.S. person to send remittances (up to $500 per quarter) to non-family members in Cuba to support private economic activity, among other purposes, subject to the limitation that they cannot be provided to senior Cuban government officials or senior members of the Cuban Communist Party.

• Create a general license for re-

mittances to religious institutions in Cuba in support of religious activities.

No change will be made to the general license for family remittances.

U.S. Airports. To better serve those who seek to visit family in Cuba and engage in other licensed purposeful travel, the President has directed that regulations governing the eligibility of U.S. airports to serve as points of embarkation and return for licensed flights to Cuba be modified to: • Allow all U.S. international airports to apply to provide services to licensed charters, provided such airports have adequate customs and immigration capabilities and a licensed travel service provider has expressed an interest in providing service to and from Cuba from that airport.

The modifications will not change the designation of airports in Cuba that are eligible to send or receive licensed charter flights to and from the United States.

Mixed Reactions to Obama’s New Cuba Rules T he White House announced it would further ease travel and other restrictions regarding Cuba.

President Obama directed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to: - ease travel to Cuba for religious groups and students; - allows more remittances – up to $2,000 a year -to flow to non-Communists in Cuba; and - allow all US international airports to offer charter flights.

Currently only airports in Los Angeles, New York, and Miami offer such charter flights.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, said in a statement that the “changes undermine U.S. foreign policy and security objectives and will bring economic benefits to the Cuban regime.”

Said Ros-Lehtinen, “Loosening these regulations will not help foster a pro-democracy environment in Cuba. These changes will not aid in ushering in respect for human rights. And they certainly will not help the Cuban people free themselves from the tyranny that engulfs them.”

Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also voiced opposition to the changes, saying they “weaken U.S. policy towards Cuba.”

Rubio, born in Miami to Cuban-born parents who fled for the US following Fidel Castro’s takeover, said

what needs to change are “the Cuban regime’s repressive policies towards the independent press and labor unions, its imprisonment of political prisoners and constant harassment of citizens with dissenting views, and its refusal to allow free multi-party elections. It is unthinkable that the administration would enable the enrichment of a Cuban regime that routinely violates the basic human rights and dignity of its people.”

But Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez, President of Cuban American National Foundation, applauded the move, saying the changes “will help to break the chains of dependency that the Castro regime has traditionally used to oppress those inside Cuba….These measures do not represent a concession to the Castro regime, but rather form part of a continuing series of unilateral measures that the US is taking which demonstrate a concern for the well-being of ordinary folks.”

Hernandez suggested that increased travel will “foster fraternal bonds among ordinary people that those in power in Cuba’s totalitarian system will have difficulty in controlling.” Change in Cuba will come because of “these same ordinary people inside the island.

The more we can do to promote their self-reliance, their knowledge of the realities of the outside world, and their independence from the Castro regime, the better are their prospects for democratic change.”

President Obama began easing restrictions regarding Cuba in April 2009, reversing the course set by President George W. Bush.

4 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Secret $6 Billion Puerto Rico Bailout T

he Obama administration is eying a secretive tax deal critics charge is an indirect bailout for Puerto Rico to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars.

The U.S. territory, desperate for revenues in the midst of the recession, surprised industry with a $6 billion tax on foreign firms – including a significant bloc of U.S. pharmaceutical firms – late October in a rare weekend legislative session without any public debate in advance.

But now U.S. taxpayers, not the firms, could end up footing at least a significant chunk of the bill.

Gov. Luis Fortuño signed the new tax into law Oct. 25. That day, the Washington, D.C.-based whiteshoe law firm Steptoe & Johnson issued him a legal brief arguing U.S. firms should receive money from the U.S. government to offset the Puerto Rico tax increase, which Fortuño sent to the Internal Revenue Service, where a decision is pending.

The international tax law in question is complicated, but experts agree the tax, and the request, are an unusual use of portions of the tax code intended to avoid double taxation on U.S. firms in countries that have reciprocity treaties with the U.S. “We would call it creative,” said James Hines, an expert on international tax issues and the L. Hart Wright Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. “It’s an unusual tax for sure.”

It’s an “indirect bailout,” said Dan Mitchell, an international tax expert and senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Factions within the IRS are fighting over the decision.

“The IRS is very careful about gi-

ving away U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Roberto Monserrate, assistant executive vice president for the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association. “This is big money we’re talking about.”

Fortuño promised worried businesses the matter would be decided by Dec. 24 but the IRS had not made up its mind late Monday.

The IRS could deny the request by deeming the tax increase a “soak up” tax designed to prey only on firms that could offset the increase with tax credits from the U.S. government.

Hines explained the credits are different from how state tax increases are treated, though Puerto Rico is an American territory and receives federal funding.

“It’s a difference, but it’s only a difference of degree,” he said. Taxes paid

by U.S. firms to U.S. states can be subtracted from the income level by which those firms are taxed by the federal government. For instance, a firm with $1 million in income that paid $100,000 in state taxes would be taxed by the federal government for $900,000 worth of income.

In this case, some firms could receive a dollar-for-dollar credit for the increase in Puerto Rico taxes. For instance, a firm with $1 million in income that paid $100,000 in the new Puerto Rican tax would have its U.S. tax burden reduced by $100,000.

Monserrate said his organization estimated that if international firms with subsidiaries in Puerto Rico did not change their business structure to additionally benefit from the credit they could offset $3.5 billion of the $6 billion tax.

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Saint Sebastian Festival Rooted in Patron of Athletes

S

ebastian was born at Narbonne, Gaul. He became a soldier in the Roman army at Rome in about 283, and encouraged Marcellian and Marcus, under sentence of death, to remain firm in their faith. Sebastian made numerous converts: among them were the master of the rolls, Nicostratus, who was in charge of prisoners and his wife, Zoe, a deaf mute whom he cured; the jailer Claudius; Chromatius, Prefect of Rome, whom he cured of gout; and Chromatius’ son, Tiburtius. Chromatius set the prisoners free, freed his slaves, and resigned as prefect.

Sebastian was named captain in the praetorian guards by Emperor Diocletian, as did Emperor Maximian when Diocletian went to the East. Neither knew that Sebastian was a Christian. When it was discovered during Maximian’s persecution of the Christians that Sebastian was indeed a Christian, he was ordered executed. He was shot with arrows and left for dead, but when the widow of St. Castulus went to recover his body, she found he was still alive and nursed him back to health. Soon after, Sebastian intercepted the Emperor, denounced him for his cruelty to Christians, and was beaten to death on the Emperor’s orders.

Saint Sebastian was venerated at Milan as early as the time of St. Ambrose and was buried on the Appian Way. He is patron of archers, athletes, and soldiers, and is appealed to for protection against plagues.

He is patron saint of athletes because of his physical endurance and his energetic way of spreading and defending the Faith. Sebastian is also patron to all soldiers. He entered the Roman army under Emperor Carinus in 283 in order to defend the confessors and martyrs of his day without drawing attention to himself. His efforts kept the Faith of Marcus and Marcellian firm during their persecutions, right up to the time of their martyrdom. He was declared patron of plague sufferers of his reported cures of those afflicted with many diseases.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

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6 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Puerto Rico: Tax Hikes Risk Another Recession RISKS SUMMARY

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uerto Rico’s vital manufacturing sector is being threatened by new, higher taxes that will be levied on offshore manufacturing firms as of January 201 I. If a significant number of foreign firms choose to relocate, the economy - which has begun to show tentative signs of recovery - could be plunged back into a deeper recession.

In his drive to tackle a US$3.3bn fiscal deficit, Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno introduced a tax reform bill in October that will levy significantly higher taxes on offshore manufacturing firms from January 2011. The temporary measure began in 2011 with a rate of 4% and gradually decline to 1% in 2016 before being phased out completely, with the government hop-ins it will raise a total of US$5.8bn to cover a considerable proportion of the huge government shortfall.

Pharmaceutical Industry Most At Risk However, we believe that the tax hike will in fact have a detrimental effect on the Puerto Rican economy as manufacturing firms seriously consider relocating. Pharmaceutical firms have long been attracted to the island due to its

skilled workforce and proximity to the US market but, in our view, the deciding factor in locating new plants in Puerto Rico over recent years has been the tax and financial incentives offered. If the higher rates remain in place, we expect Puerto Rico to become less attractive as a manufacturing hub and lose investment to higher-growth, lower-cost Latin American economies.

Offshore pharmaceuticals manufacturing has been the stalwart of the Puerto Rican economy for many years, representing around 30% of GNP and providing up to 95,000 highly paid jobs. Given the huge significance of the pharmaceuticals industry, we caution that the higher levy poses a serious threat to the economy’s growth trajectory, and there is very real potential for the island to slip further back into recession if they are not rever-

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Paradoxically, the tax reforms, which were devised as a way to tackle Puerto Rico’s huge deficit, may in fact worsen the situation ifpharmaceuticals companies the decision to abandon their Puerto operations, as sales, export and income tax revenues are likely to fall off sharply, in with huge job losses. In this way, in one fell swoop the government may have wiped out any progress it has recently made a more sustainable fiscal situation, Puerto Rico even more dependent on fers from the US federal government.

Thus, in our view, both economic recovery and the fiscal picture have been put significantly at risk by the government’s decision to raise taxes levied on offshore manufacturing firms. We also believe future foreign direct investment will be hampered by a higher level of investor caution in response to the quick and secretive process by which Fortune’s administration increased taxes, posing further downside risk to our already-bearish outlook for the economy.

DATA & FORECASTS

LAY-AWAY N

sed. In our view, perhaps more damaging to Puerto Rico’s business environment than the hikes themselves is the manner in which they have been introduced. The legislation was rushed through congress in three days in the middle of the financial year, with no warning or industry consultation. We believe Fortune’s actions have increased both the cost and the risk of doing business in Puerto Rico and will likely hamper investment going forward.

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In September, the government’s revenue from both sales and use tax, as well as personal income tax, increased by 3.1 % and 9.3% y-o-y respectively. Although these figures are coming from an extremely low base in 2009, they are still promising indicators that Puerto Rico is finally coming out of a four-year recession, in our view. Significantly, the increases bode well for the government’s precarious fiscal situation over the short term; although we expect the government to need an extra US$2bn annually in order to fulfil its pledge of running a balanced budget by 2013.

POLITICAL RISK

Crackdown On Drugs Trade Puerto Rican and US officials are continuing their crack ‘ “n on the narcotics trade, arresting 12 people on November 22 with links to Caribbean drugs kingpin Figueroa Agosto. Agosto, now ser ; a previously imposed 209-year sentence after being on the run for over 10 years, is alleged to have led the Caribbean’s largest cocaine trafficking ring. Puerto Rico has long been a major transshipment point for illicit drugs being transported from South to North America and we expect violence linked to the drugs trade to continue over the medium term.

ECONOMIC RISK Unemployment Remains High Unemployment in Puerto Rico came down slightly in August to 15.4% from 15.7% in July but remains high, as it has done since the recession hit in 2008. An 8.1% y-oy decline in government employment and a huge 25.6% y-o-y fall in employment in the mining and construction industries were countered by gains in the private sector payroll, particularly in financial services. We e iemp!oymentto remain high for the foreseeable future as Puerto Rico struggles to come out of recession and implements painful fiscal austerity plans, and we antici-pate a rate of 14.0% for 2011

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Infrastructure Investment The government of Puerto Rico is in negotiations with airlines to approve the transfer of Luis Munoz Mann International Airport’s management rights to a private operator. With discussions progressing well, the government anticipates the concession will be awarded in 201 I, making this the first large-scale publicprivate partnership arrangement in Puerto Rico. In our view, given the government’s precarious fiscal situation, it will be unable to spend the huge amounts needed to improve the country’s poor infrastructure, meaning much more private sector investment will be necessary over the coming years.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

7

Dominican Republic: Economic Boom Forces Monetary Tightening M onetary tightening in the Dominican Republic is set to continue as inflationary pressures and rapid economic growth persist well into 201 I. The central bank’s determination to preempt higher inflation expectations means we now expect the policy rate to reach 5.50% by end-2010 and 6.25% by end-2011.

We believe a 75-basis point (bps) hike in the policy rate in September, followed by a 25bps increase in October, mark the beginning of a cycle of monetary tightening in the Dominican Republic (DomRep), after interests rates were held at 4.00% for 11 consecutive months.

Although inflation remains below the Banco Central de Repub-lica Dominica (BCRD)’s objective band of 6-7%, expectations of rapid growth going into 2011 have encouraged the bank to take a more hawkish stance regarding monetary policy. We are pencilling in a further 50bps of hikes before end-2010, taking the policy rate to 5.50%, and anticipate rates to head to6.25%byend-2011.

Recently released inflation data for September indicate a month-on-month (m-o-m) increase of 0.77% in inflation, bringing the y-o-y rate to 5:7%. Although this is a significant increase from a 0.22%

oming imports is of particular concern to the central bank and we believe this will encourage more cooling measures to be implemented in the next 12 months. We are expecting 75bps of hikes through 2011 as DomRep’s domestic demand-driven boom continues.

DomRep’s vulnerability to imported inflation through higher food and oil prices poses an upside risk to our forecast for gradual tightening. Fuel makes up over 30% of all imports, so a sudden leg-up in global oil prices — though not our core scenario - may require a more aggressive stance by the BCRD.

DATA & FORECASTS m-o-m increase in August, over 40% of September’s inflation is linked to seasonal increases in education prices, and inflation remains comfortably below the central bank’s objective range of 6-7% y-o-y. Price pressures are thus relatively subdued, which suggests to us that the BCRD will pause its tightening cycle in its November monetary policy meeting and hold rates at 5.00%.

However, a closer examination of the central bank’s rhetoric reveals a focus

RISKS SUMMARY POLITICAL RISK Ruling Coalition Split A rift in the Dominican Republic’s ruling coalition, Bloque Progresista, has emerged following rumours that President Leonel Fernandez wilt run again in 2012 to seek a fourth term in office. This is despite Fernandez himself having introduced wide-ranging constitutional changes earlier in his term that prevent the president from serving more than three terms. If the allegations are true, we expect divisions between Fernandez’s Partida de Liberacion Dominicana and the minority parties making up the rest of the ruling bloc to deepen.

ECONOMIC RISK Inflation On The Up Consumer price inflation (CPI) increased by 0.67% m-o-m in October, taking y-o-y growth in prices to 6.17%. This rate is consistent with an end-2010 rate within the central bank’s objective range of 6-7% and may lead us to revise down our end-year forecast for inflation of 8.3% y-o-y. Food and fuel costs make up the bulk of Dominican Republic’s CPI basket and inflationary pressures in October came mainly from increases in fuel prices: gasoline prices rose 2.7% m-o-m and the cost of public transport was 2.92% higher than in September. We expect inflation to moderate in the coming months and maintain our end-201 I forecast of 4.2% y-o-y.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Road Improvements Ongoing The government’s programme to upgrade major highways around Santo Domingo is continuing apace. The Duarte Corridor project is a series of new tunnels and overpasses that wili eventually connect all 15 highways surrounding the capital which, in our view, will significantly improve DomRep’s traditionally poor transport infrastructure. Successful completion of the project could encourage us to revise up the ‘transport infrastructure’ subcomponent of our business environment ratings.

on preventing future inflation rather than countering current inflationary pressures, which is leading it to pursue a frontloaded rate-hiking cycle. The economic boom in DomRep is being driven primarily by soaring fixed investment and strong domestic consumption - both of which are likely, in our view, to put significant upward pressure on prices.

The rapid uptick in domestic demand -evidenced by a 17.9% y-o-y increase in private credit in HI 10 - and bo-

DomRep’s imports remain on their upward trajectory as domestic demand strengthens and the reconstruction in neighbouring Haiti continues apace. Imports of consumer goods were up 24.7%yo-y in June 2010 and capital goods imports also increased over the same time period by a huge 69.0% y-o-y. The strength of imports reinforces our bullish outlook for DomRep’s economy over the coming years and we are forecasting real GDP growth of 6.9% y-o-y in 2011 and 6.4% yo-y in 2012.

8 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Global Importance of Arecibo Radar Station A

radar image of asteroid 2010 JL33, generated from data taken by Solar System Radar on Dec. 11 and 12, 2010

Radar imaging, revealed defining characteristics of recently discovered asteroid 2010 JL33. The images have been made into a short movie that shows the celestial object’s rotation and shape. A team led by Marina Brozovic, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory made the discovery.

Data from the radar reveal 2010 JL33 to be an irregular, elongated object roughly 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) wide that rotates once every nine hours. The asteroid’s most conspicuous feature is a large concavity that may be an impact crater. The images in the movie span about 90 percent of one rotation.

At the time it was imaged, the asteroid was about 22 times the distance between Earth and the moon (8.5 million kilometers, or 5.3 million miles). At that distance, the radio signals from the Goldstone radar dish used to make the images took 56 seconds to make the roundtrip from Earth to the asteroid and back to Earth again.

The National Science Foundation’s 1,000-foot-diameter (305 meters) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is only one of two facilities capable of imaging asteroids with radar. The 70-meter (230-foot) Deep Space network is the other one. The capabilities of the two instruments are complementary. The Arecibo radar is about 20 times more sensitive, can see about one-third of the sky, and can detect asteroids about twice as far away. Goldstone is fully steerable, can see about 80 percent of the sky, can track objects several times longer per day, and can image asteroids at finer spatial resolution. To date, Goldstone and Arecibo have observed 272 near-Earth asteroids and 14 comets with radar. JPL manages the Goldstone Solar System Radar and the Deep Space Network for NASA. In this and other case examples this combined network has succesfully captured 100% of recorded asteroids passing relatively near earth.

Puerto Rico Protects Newly Discovered Reefs A s the ocean floor plunges off southwestern Puerto Rico, it reveals coral reefs dotted with bright-blue sea squirts and a multitude of other organisms whose existence has given hope to scientists who strive to save the island’s threatened ecosystems.

The organisms are an integral part of a group of reefs discovered to be thriving near an area where most shallow coral reefs and the fish that depend on them are in poor health overall.

The reefs - at a depth of up to 500 feet (152 meters) in an area 12 miles (19 kilometers) across - were recently discovered as part of a federally funded mission to conduct research on deep-water corals, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We stumbled across this area,” Richard Appeldoorn, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez who was involved in the mission.

Divers enrolled in a one-year training course to depths of up to 100 feet (31 meters) noticed the thriving reefs and large predators lurking nearby, said Appeldoorn, who oversees the university’s fisheries, biology and coral reef studies program.

The deep underwater landscape they encountered was populated by lettuce coral, the lace-like star coral and several species of sponges, as well as groupers, snappers and reef sharks, said Appledoorn, who is calling for the protection of the reefs and nearby shallower areas where fish spawn and later retreat to dee-

per waters.

“Any large fish is always neat to see, not having seen them on top of the (ocean) platform for decades, or not at all,” he said.

The reef’s existence means that struggling, shallow ecosystems in the U.S. Caribbean territory may have a better-than-believed chance at survival, because fish species thriving at a deeper level can help replenish stocks in more shallow reefs, said Appeldoorn and Ernesto Diaz, director of Puerto Rico’s Coastal Zone Management Program.

“It’s a pleasant surprise to know that species you thought you wouldn’t see again exist,” Diaz said.

The discovery comes as officials in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands seek to create the Caribbean Regional Ocean Partnership, an endeavor that aims to better coordinate the use of coastal waters and the implementation of conservation programs.

The two islands recently submitted a proposal for the partnership to NOAA, which also financed the mission that led to the discovery of the new reefs.

Among the partnership’s proposed goals is the creation of a zoning map for waters surrounding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The map would designate certain areas for conservation, recreation or commercial purposes, Diaz said.

The project also would allow researchers to explore how the ocean could be harnessed for energy or for the development of fish farms or the installation of

underwater fiber-optic cables, Diaz said.

Officials decided to launch the project shortly after the administration of President Barack Obama approved a recent new policy that strengthens the way the U.S. manages its oceans and coasts.

“About 22 percent of Puerto Rico’s waters are protected,” Diaz said. “The other 78 percent, what potential do they have?”

Diaz said the partnership would eventually extend to the nearby Dominican Republic and the British Virgin Islands.

As Diaz awaits approval from NOAA, scientists including Appeldoorn are beginning to explore reefs off the nearby island of Mona, which is just west of Puerto Rico and is sometimes the unintended final destination of migrants from Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

9 Mainland

Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle

By MARC LACEY

O

f the 50 or so women bused to this border town on a recent morning to be deported back to Mexico, Inez Vasquez stood out. Eight months pregnant, she had tried to waddle north, even carrying scissors with her in case she gave birth in the desert and had to cut the umbilical cord.

“All I want is a better life,” she said after the Border Patrol discovered her hiding in the bushes on the Arizona side of the border with her husband, her young son and her very pronounced abdomen.

The next big immigration battle looming on the horizon centers on illegal immigrants’ offspring, who are granted automatic citizenship if born on American soil.

Arguing for an end to the policy, long rooted in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, immigration hard-liners describe a wave of migrants like Ms. Vasquez stepping across the border in the advanced stages of pregnancy to drop what are dismissively called “anchor babies.”

The reality at this stretch of the border is more complex, with hospitals reporting some immigrants arriving to give birth in America but many of them with valid visas who have crossed the border legally to take advantage of better medical care. Some are even attracted by an electronic billboard on the Mexican side that advertises the services of an American doctor and says bluntly: “Do you want to have your baby in the U.S.?”

As for women like Ms. Vasquez, who was preparing for a desert delivery, they are rare.

Still, Arizona — whose tough law granting the police the power to detain illegal immigrants is tied up in the courts — may again take the lead in what is essentially an attempt to redefine what it means to be an American. This time, though, Arizona lawmakers intend to join with legislators from several other states to force the issue before the Supreme Court.

This coalition of lawmakers will unveil its exact plans on Wednesday in Washington, but people involved in drafting the legislation say they have decided

against the painstaking process of amending the Constitution and may instead unilaterally restrict the issuing of birth certificates to illegal immigrants’ children in their states. They know a flurry of lawsuits will follow and hope that the resulting legal conflict will be resolved in their favor.

“This is not a far-out, extremist position,” said John Kavanagh, one of the Arizona legislators who is leading an effort that has been called just that. “Only a handful of countries in the world grant citizenship based on the G.P.S. location of the birth.”

Most Constitutional scholars consider the states’ effort to restrict birth certificates patently unconstitutional. “This is political theater, not a serious effort to create a legal test,” said Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona whose grandfather immigrated to the United States from China at a time when ethnic Chinese were excluded from the country. “It strikes me as unwise, un-American and unconstitutional.”

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, was a repudiation of the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, that people of African descent could never be American citizens.

The amendment said citizenship applied to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

In 1889 the Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, interpreted the citizenship provision as applying to a child born in the United States to a Chinese im-

migrant couple.

Still, some conservatives contend that the issue is unsettled.

Kris Kobach, the incoming secretary of state in Kansas and a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who has helped draft many of the tough immigration regulations across the country, argued that the approach the states were planning would hold up to scrutiny. “I can’t really say much more without showing my hand,” he said in an e-mail. “But yes, I am confident that the law will stand up in court.”

Despite being called “anchor babies,” the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States cannot actually prevent their parents from being deported. It is not until they reach the age of 21 that the children are able to file paperwork to sponsor their parents for citizenship. The parents remain vulnerable until that point.

Maria Ledezma knows as much. Just off a bus that deported her from Phoenix to the Mexico border town of Nogales, she was sobbing as she explained the series of events that led her to be separated from her three daughters, ages 4, 7 and 9, all American citizens.

“I never imagined being here,” said Ms. Ledezma, 25, who was brought to Phoenix from Mexico as a toddler. “I’ll bet right now that my girls are asking, ‘Where’s mom?’ ” Blended families like hers are a reality across the United States.

A studyreleased in August by the Pew Hispanic Center found that about 340,000 children were born to illegal immigrants in the United States in 2008 and became instant

citizens.

In April, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, one of those pushing for Congressional action on the citizenship issue, stirred controversy when he suggested that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants should be deported with their parents until the birthright citizenship policy is changed. “And we’re not being mean,” he told a Tea Party rally in Southern California. “We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.”

Immigrant advocates say intolerance is driving the measure.

“They call themselves patriots, but they pick and choose which parts of the Constitution they support,” said Lydia Guzman, a Latino activist in Phoenix. “They’re fear-mongerers. They’re clowns.”

Like many states, Arizona is suffering a severe budget crisis, prompting even some lawmakers who have supported immigration restrictions in the past to question whether it is the right time for another divisive immigration bill.

They say the state’s fiscal issues need to be resolved before Arizona jumps back into a controversial immigration debate.

“I was born and raised in New York,” responded Mr. Kavanagh, a Queens native who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the Arizona House.

“I can ride a subway, drink coffee, read the newspaper and make sure my pockets are not picked all at the same time.”

Scholars who have studied migration over the years say it is the desire for better-paying jobs, not a passport for their children, that is the primary motivator for people to leave their homes for the United States. Even Ms. Vasquez, who was preparing for a desert delivery, agrees with that.

All things being equal, she would have preferred that her child be born in the United States, she said, but it was the prospect of a better economic future, with or without papers, that prompted her and her family to cross.

“I’ll try again — but once the baby’s born,” she said.

Mainland 10 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Gates Warns of North Korea Missile Threat to U.S.

By ELISABETH BUMILLER and DAVID E. SANGER

D

efense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned Tuesday that North Korea was within five years of being able to strike the continental United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile, and said that, combined with its expanding nuclear program, the country “is becoming a direct threat to the United States.”

Mr. Gates is a former director of the C.I.A., and his statement, officials said, reflected both a new assessment by American intelligence officials and his own concern that Washington had consistently underestimated the pace at which the North was developing nuclear and missile technologies.

It is unclear how recent the new assessment may be, but Mr. Gates’ remarks, made just an hour after he met with Hu Jintao, China’s president, may have been partly intended to convince China that the Obama administration no longer regards the North as a concern only in the region.

The administration has increasingly put pressure on China to try to persuade North Korea, a longtime China ally, to give up its nuclear weapons program.

“The Chinese are always talking about their ‘core interests’ and threats they may have to respond to,” said one American official deeply involved in North Korea strategy. “They needed to hear that we have a few, too.”

In comments to reporters during a visit to Beijing, Mr. Gates said he was worried that within a relatively short time frame North Korea would simultaneously

continue to develop nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. That combination, he said, had increased the need for pressure on North Korea, particularly if there is another provocation on South Korea by the North like the deadly shelling of a South Korean island in November.

“We consider this a situation of real concern, and we think there is some urgency in proceeding down the track of negotiations,” Mr. Gates said.

Mr. Gates said he nonetheless expected North Korea’s ability to be limited. “I don’t think it’s an immediate threat,” he said.

But his remarks were the first to put a time frame on when the North, which has conducted two nuclear tests, including one that fizzled, might be able to launch a nuclear-capable missile that could cross the Pacific. That has been a much-debated point for more than a decade, and the subject of a lengthy study on missile threats conducted

by Donald H. Rumsfeld before he became President George W. Bush’s first defense secretary.

Mr. Gates made his comments to reporters on the same day that China, in a show of force for the United States, apparently conducted the first test flight of its new stealth fighter jet. The 15-minute flight occurred just hours before Mr. Gates met with President Hu to talk about improving relations between the Chinese and American militaries and ways to reduce tensions during a nascent arms buildup between the two countries.

Mr. Gates’s new assessment on North Korea is a significant shift for the Obama administration, which until now has

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met with President Hu Jintao of China in Beijing . viewed the North first and foremost as a proliferation threat, fearing that it might sell its existing missiles and nuclear devices to other countries, like Iran. North Korea has a long history of missile trade with Iran, Syria and Pakistan, among other nations, and is believed to have provided the technology for Syria to build a reactor. The reactor was destroyed in a 2007 air raid by Israel.

But Mr. Gates changed that emphasis, by focusing on the North’s capability to aim its small arsenal at the United States.

Already there is an antimissile unit based at Fort Greely, Alaska, armed with interceptor missiles designed to stop a small attack, presumably by North Korea, before it hits the United States.

Implicit in Mr. Gates’s five-year assessment was the possibility the North could solve one of its biggest technological hurdles: manufacturing a warhead small enough to fit atop a missile. Exploding a nu-

clear device underground, which North Korea did in 2006 and again in 2009, is simple.

Manufacturing a warhead that is light, small and reliable is a far more complex art.

Nuclear inspectors who were inside North Korea periodically until 2009 have never publicly reported seeing work done on a warhead. But it is unlikely that they would be shown such efforts, even though the North quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty eight years ago.

It is unclear whether the North obtained designs for a warhead from another desperately poor country — possibly Pakistan, which sold uranium enrichment equipment to the North. Designing such a warhead from scratch is difficult, as Iran has learned.

Predicting missile capabilities is difficult. Documents last year revealed sharp disagreements between American and Russian experts on Iran’s technology.

Biden Assures Karzai of Aid From U.S. Beyond 2014

By RAY RIVERA

V

ice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with President Hamid Karzai here on Tuesday and promised a lasting American commitment to the country well beyond 2014, when NATO forces are scheduled to turn over security of the nation to Afghan forces.

“The United States, if the Afghan people want it, are prepared and we are not leaving in 2014,” the vice president said during an unannounced visit to Kabul, in which he offered aid and military training beyond the planned transition deadline of 2014. “Hopefully, we will have totally turned over to the Afghan security forces the ability to maintain the security of the coun-

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during a meeting in Kabul

try, but we are not leaving if you don’t want us to leave.”

Mr. Biden’s news conference at the presidential palace followed what Mr. Karzai described as a working lunch with him, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top coalition commander, and Karl W. Eikenberry, the United States ambassador to Afghanistan.

After lunch, Mr. Biden and Mr. Karzai met for more than an hour in a one-on-one meeting.

Mr. Karzai said the discussion focused on several issues, including the strategic partnership agreement between the nations, security in Afghanistan and the region as well as the process of turning over security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

“We had in-depth discussions, and I’m pleased with the results,” Mr. Karzai said.

Mr. Biden said Mr. Karzai and his United States-led NATO allies are “finally all on the same page.”

He also tried to reassure the Afghan people that it was not the United States’ intention to “govern or to nation-build.”

“As Mr. Karzai points out, this is the responsibility of the Afghan people, and

they are fully capable of it,” Mr. Biden said.

The news conference, which was packed with foreign and Afghan news media, lasted about 15 minutes and was short on specifics. Neither man took questions, citing Mr. Biden’s schedule.

In their brief public appearance, Mr. Karzai and Mr. Biden projected cordial feelings toward each other, in contrast to their sometimes frosty history.

In a visit in 2008, as the two discussed corruption in the Karzai government over a meal of lamb and rice, Mr. Biden, then a senator, infamously tossed his napkin down and announced “this dinner is over,” after Mr. Karzai reportedly said corruption, if there was any, was not his fault.

This time, Mr. Biden praised Mr. Karzai for his leadership and courage, especially in the early days after the fall of the Taliban.

They reminisced about Mr. Biden’s first visit, nine years ago. The Taliban had recently been run out of Kabul and Karzai, the interim leader, hosted Mr. Biden in a freezing room in the palace with no paid staff as the electricity flickered on and off.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

11

Mainland 12 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

F.C.C. Is Set to Regulate Net Access

By BRIAN STELTER

T

he Federal Communications Commission appears poised to pass a controversial set of rules that broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net. The proposed rules of the online road would prevent fixed-line broadband providers like Comcast and Qwest from blocking access to sites and applications. The rules, however, would allow wireless companies more latitude in putting limits on access to services and applications.

Before a vote, two Democratic commissioners said that they would back the rules proposed by the F.C.C. chairman, Julius Genachowski, which try to satisfy both sides in the protracted debate over so-called network neutrality.

Net neutrality, broadly speaking, is an effort to ensure equal access to Web sites and cutting-edge online services. Mr. Genachowski said these proposed rules aimed to both encourage Internet innovation and protect consumers from abuses.

“These rules fulfill a promise to the future — to companies that don’t yet exist, and the entrepreneurs that haven’t yet started work in their dorm rooms or garages,” Mr. Genachowski said in remarks prepared for the commission’s meeting in Washington.

At present, there are no enforceable rules “to protect basic Internet values.”

Many Internet providers, developers and venture capitalists have indicated they accept the proposal ”is by definition a com-

The chairman of the F.C.C., Julius Genachowski, introduced his net neutrality proposal at the beginning of the month. promise.”

The companies have said the rules would provide some regulatory certainty.

If approved, they “will give some assurances to the companies that are building Web applications — companies like Netflix, Skype and Google — that they will get even treatment on broadband networks.”

Public interest groups have lambasted the proposal as “fake net neutrality” and said it was rife with loopholes. Public Knowledge, said instead of providing clear protections, the F.C.C. “created a vague and shifting landscape open to interpretation. ” Notably, the rules are watered down for wireless Net providers like AT&T and Verizon, which would be prohibited from blocking Web sites, but not from blocking applications or services unless those applications directly compete with providers’ voice and video products, like Skype.

F.C.C. officials said there were technological reasons for the wireless distinctions, and that they would continue to closely monitor the medium.

Citing the wireless proposal, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, said over the weekend that the F.C.C. was effectively allowing discrimination on the mobile Net, a fast-growing sector.

“Maybe you like Google Maps. Well, tough,” Mr. Franken said on Saturday on the Senate floor. “If the F.C.C. passes this weak rule, Verizon will be able to cut off access to the Google Maps app on your phone and force you to use their own mapping program, Verizon Navigator, even if it is not as good. And even if they charge money, when Google Maps is free.”

He added, “If corporations are allowed to prioritize content on the Internet, or they are allowed to block applications you access on your iPhone, there is nothing to prevent those same corporations from censoring political speech.”

Mr. Franken and other critics say the rules come with major caveats; for instance, they would allow for “reasonable network management” by broadband providers. And they would discourage but not expressly forbid something called “paid prioritization,” which would allow a media or technology company to pay the provider for faster transmission of data, potentially creating an uneven playing field.

The F.C.C. officials also said that the order would require transparency about those network management practices. “That

sunshine will help deter bad behavior,” one of the officials said. They spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the F.C.C. order has not been made public.

President Obama has repeatedly indicated his support for net neutrality principles, and his chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, said on Dec. 1 that the F.C.C. proposal was an “important step in preventing abuses and continuing to advance the Internet as an engine of productivity growth and innovation.”

The two Democratic commissioners, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, acknowledged on Monday that the order was not as strong as they would have liked. But they said it had been improved this month in discussions with Mr. Genachowski, and they said they would not oppose it.

Their votes along with Mr. Genachowski’s would be enough to approve the order at the F.C.C. meeting on Tuesday.

Two Republican commissioners, Meredith Baker and Robert McDowell, are expected to oppose it. Republicans have suggested that the net neutrality rules are an example of government overreach; in an opinion piece on Monday in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. McDowell asserted that “nothing is broken that needs fixing.”

In a statement, Mr. Copps strongly disagreed. He said he wanted to ensure the Internet “doesn’t travel down the same road of special interest consolidation and gate-keeper control that other media and telecommunications industries — radio, television, film and cable — have traveled.”

Tougher Rules Urged for Offshore Drilling

By JOHN M. BRODER

T

he presidential panel investigating the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico recommended Congress approve substantial new spending and sweeping new regulations for offshore oil operations at a time when the appetite for both is low.

Releasing its final report, the commission found that the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill arose from a preventable series of corporate and regulatory failures. It warned that unless industry practices and government regulation improved, another such accident was inevitable.

The president said he was working to adopt many of their recommendations but noted any actions requiring new financing and regulations would be a hard sell in the current Congress.

Mr. Reilly and Mr. Graham said they intended to urge the drilling industry to support a regulatory overhaul because it would make their business safer and government oversight more predictable.

The oil industry reacted warily to the report, saying that companies with good safety records should not be subjected to

costly new rules and warning that a major new set of regulations would slow production and drive up prices. Drillers also objected to a recommendation that the current $75 million cap on liability for accidents be raised by an unspecified amount.

Republicans in Congress have blocked any new rules for offshore drilling and new spending for regulation and have not acted on proposals to raise the liability cap.

There is little sign that these will be high priorities when lawmakers reconvene.

Graham said the horror of the accident and its aftermath would prove a powerful incentive to act this year.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said they would introduce legislation incorporating many of the commission’s recommendations, including raising the ceiling on damages. Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, said the Environment and Public Works Committee that she leads would begin to develop oil spill legislation that she hoped could win bipartisan support.

Doc Hastings, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, and Fred Upton, chairman of the Energy and Commerce

Committee, told the panel they would study its report and propose legislation.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said in a statement, “In keeping with the series of recommendations included in the commission report, our administration has already taken important steps to implement aggressive new reforms for the offshore oil and gas industry.”

Oversights by industry as well as government must not be repeated,” he said.

The 380-page report provides the most detailed official accounting yet of what went wrong aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the years of neglect of safety and environmental protection that preceded the April 20 blowout, which left 11 men dead and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the gulf. The report is scathing in its indictment of the industry as failing to prepare adequate plans to respond to a major spill and of the government for decades of lax regulation of an industry that essentially operated without any meaningful federal oversight.

The report lays most of the blame for the accident on the three companies responsible for drilling the well: BP, Transocean and Halliburton. But the commissioners

found what they described as “systemic” problems across the industry.

They recommended the creation of an industry-financed safety board and an independent monitoring office within the Department of Interior whose director is not answerable to the secretary.

The panel undertook its study without benefit of subpoena powers, under a tight deadline and without access to a number of critical components, like the well’s failed blowout preventer. Because of those flaws, the report leaves a number of mysteries, including why workers on the rig made the decisions they made before the explosion.

Questions unanswered in the report include why the blowout preventer failed and why workers on the rig failed to react to signs of rising gas in the well bore. Nor did the report address the potential culpability of executives of the three companies.

Other inquiries are continuing, including a Justice Department criminal and civil investigation. The companies face extensive private litigation by the families of the dead and injured and by hundreds of Gulf Coast business owners affected by the spill.

The San Juan Weekly

13 Mainland

January 20 - 26, 2011

Federal Report Highlights Racial Disparities in Health is increasing. In a switch from the norm for health problems, it is more common among the better-educated and more affluent, including college students.

But poor people, and especially American Indians, drink much more heavily when on binges.

Teenage pregnancy is holding steady or falling for all ethnic groups, but is still three times as common among Hispanic girls as among white girls, and more than twice as common among black girls as among whites.

Dr. Frieden said the purpose of

the report was not to nudge the White House or Congress to take any particular action. But said that two relatively new laws had greatly improved the nation’s health and narrowed the racial gaps.

One was the 1994 Vaccines for Children program, which pays for poor children’s immunizations. The second was the earned-income tax credit, which motivates poor people to find jobs. It was first passed by Congress in 1975 but was strengthened several times, and some states and cities have created their own.

®

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

W

hites in the United States die of drug overdoses more often than other ethnic groups.

Blacks are hit proportionately harder

by AIDS, strokes and heart disease.

And American Indians tend to die in car crashes.

To shed more light on the ills of America’s poor — and occasionally its rich — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released its first report detailing racial disparities in a broad array of health problems.

While some are well known, others have had little attention; there were also a few surprises.

The agency did not delve into why suffering is so disproportionate, other than to note the obvious: that the poor, the uninsured and the less educated tend to live shorter, sicker lives.

(Some illnesses were also broken down by income level, by region, by age or by sex, but the main focus was on racial differences.)

“Some of the figures, like the suicide rate for young American Indians, are just heartbreaking,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director, who ordered the report compiled.

He ordered it, he said, after promising at his agency’s African American History Month celebration last February that he would do so.

“We wanted to shine a spotlight on the problem and some potential solutions,” he said.

Many of the differences are large and striking: Babies born to black women are up to three times as likely to die in infancy as those born to women of other races.

American Indians and Alaska Natives are twice as likely to die in car

crashes as any other group.

More than 80 percent of all suicides are committed by whites, but young American Indian adults have the highest suicide rates by far — 25 per 100,000 population at age 21, compared with 14 for whites, 10 for blacks and 8 for Asians and Hispanics.

Overdoses of prescription drugs now kill more Americans than overdoses of illegal drugs, the opposite of the pattern 20 years ago. Overdose death rates are now higher among whites than blacks; that trend switched in 2002, after doctors began prescribing more powerful painkillers, antidepressants and antipsychotics — more easily obtained by people with health insurance.

Blacks die of heart disease much more often than whites, and die younger, despite the availability of cheap prevention measures like weight loss, exercise, blood-pressure and cholesterol drugs, and aspirin. The same is true for strokes.

High blood pressure is twice as common among blacks as whites, but the group with the least success in controlling it is Mexican-Americans.

Compared with whites, blacks have double the rate of “preventable hospitalizations,” which cost about $7 billion a year.

People in Utah, Connecticut and North Dakota report the most “healthy days” per month — about 22. People in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee report the fewest, about 17.

Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, whether gay or straight, all have higher rates of new infection with the AIDS virus than whites, and the situation is getting worse for blacks and Indians. Asians have the lowest rate.

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Mainland 14 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Cuban Exile Lied to U.S., Prosecutor Tells Texas Jury

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

A

prosecutor told jurors Wednesday than an elderly Cuban exile lied repeatedly under oath about how he entered the United States and about his role in terrorist attacks in Havana.

The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, 82, is a veteran of the cold war struggles against Fidel Castro who once worked for the C.I.A. and is a suspect in several bombings. He is charged with perjury, obstruction of federal proceedings and making false statements during a naturalization hearing.

Cuba and Venezuela have charged that Mr. Posada was the mastermind behind the downing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 in which 73 people were killed. Both governments also claim that he orchestrated a series of bombings in Havana in 1997, killing a tourist.

Timothy J. Reardon, the lead prosecutor, told the jury in his opening argument that Mr. Posada was not on trial for his opposition to the Cuban government. But he said he would show that Mr. Posada lied during a deportation hearing in 2005 when he said he had not recruited the bombers who carried out the attacks in Cuba.

A key piece of evidence, he said, will be tapes of a lengthy interview Mr. Posada gave to The New York Times in 1998, in which he freely admitted organizing the campaign of explosions at hotels and a restaurant to scare off tourists.

The prosecutor also said the government had evidence that Mr. Posada entered the country on a converted shrimp boat that docked in Miami in March 2005, even though he later claimed under oath that he had crossed through Mexico and had sneaked into Texas

near Brownsville.

“This is a case, at bottom, in its essence, about lying, about lying to gain a benefit, a benefit with which all are very sensitive to, and that’s the benefit of naturalization, of the great privilege of being a U.S. citizen,” Mr. Reardon said. “No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, you must play by the rules and tell the truth to become a citizen.”

But Mr. Posada’s lawyer, Arturo V. Hernandez, said the prosecution’s case rested on unreliable witnesses. He also raised questions about the reliability of the tapes of the Times interview, saying there were at least 16 places where the tape had been erased.

His voice rising in passion, Mr. Hernandez claimed Mr. Posada had told the truth when he said that he had come into the country in Texas. He said the paid government informer who told the F.B.I. that the exile had arrived on a shrimp boat was lying and had a history of mental illness and fraud. He also accused the informer, Gilberto Abascal, another Cuban exile, of spying for the Castro government.

Mr. Hernandez also said Mr. Posada did not take responsibility for the bombings in Cuba in his interview with The Times. He said that a close reading of the interview showed that Mr. Posada said several times that the bombings “were a product of internal dissent.”

“He makes it abundantly clear that the bombings were an inside operation,” Mr. Hernandez told the jurors, a number of them Hispanic. “He never admitted to being involved. That was not his role. What we will prove is that his role was to bring publicity to the acts of sabotage.”

A federal judge in New Jersey ordered The Times to turn over tapes of the interview as part of a 2007 in-

Luis Posada Carriles, 82, right, a onetime C.I.A. operative, leaving court in El Paso on Monday. vestigation into accusations that Mr. Posada raised money from Cuban exiles there for terrorist attacks; that investigation did not lead to an indictment. The Times objected to the subpoena but the judge ruled against it; the paper then complied.

Mr. Posada, gray-haired and stooped, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on 10 counts in the indictment, and 10 years on the last count. He worked for the C.I.A. from 1965 to 1967, spying on exile groups in Miami, then became a high-ranking official in the Venezuelan intelligence service, which he left in 1974.

Declassified F.B.I. documents place him at two meetings during which the bombing of a Cubana airliner was planned in 1976. He was held in a Venezuelan prison for nine years as a suspect in that case, but never convicted.

In 2000, he was convicted in Panama in connection with a plot to kill Castro at a summit meeting.

Justices Look Again at How Police May Search Homes

By ADAM LIPTAK

M

ore than 60 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the police were not entitled to enter a residence without a warrant merely because they smelled burning opium.

On Wednesday, at the argument of a case about what the police were entitled to do on smelling marijuana outside a Kentucky apartment, two justices voiced concerns that the court may be poised to eviscerate the older ruling.

“Aren’t we just simply saying they can just walk in whenever they smell marijuana, whenever they think there’s drugs on the other side?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, considering what a decision against the defendant would signal to the police. “Why do we even bother giving them a warrant?”

The old ruling, Johnson v. United States in 1948, involved the search of a hotel room in Seattle. The smell of drugs could provide probable cause for a warrant, Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote for the majority, but it did not entitle the police to enter without one.

“No suspect was fleeing or likely to take flight,” Justice Jackson wrote. “The

search was of permanent premises, not of a movable vehicle. No evidence or contraband was threatened with removal or destruction.”

In the new case, police officers in Kentucky were looking for a suspect who had sold cocaine to an informant. They smelled burning marijuana coming from an apartment, knocked loudly and announced themselves.

Then they heard sounds from inside the apartment that they said made them fear evidence was being destroyed. They kicked the door in and found marijuana and cocaine but not the original suspect, who was in a different apartment.

The Kentucky Supreme Court suppressed the evidence, saying that any risk of drugs’ being destroyed was the result of the decision by the police to knock and announce themselves rather than to obtain a warrant.

Lawyers for Kentucky and the federal government told the justices on Wednesday that the lower court had erred.

There had been no violation of the Fourth Amendment, which forbids unreasonable searches, they said, because the police had acted lawfully every step of the way.

Justice Elena Kagan expressed do-

ubts about that approach.

A standard that looks only at the lawfulness of police behavior, Justice Kagan said, “is going to enable the police to penetrate the home, to search the home, without a warrant, without going to see a magistrate, in a very wide variety of cases.”

All the police need say, she said, is that they smelled marijuana and then heard a noise. “Or,” she continued, “we think there was some criminal activity going on for whatever reason and we heard noise.”

“How do you prevent,” Justice Kagan asked Joshua D. Farley, a Kentucky assistant attorney general, “your test from essentially eviscerating the warrant requirement in the context of the one place that the Fourth Amendment was most concerned about?”

Mr. Farley said that nothing the police had done in this case had violated the Fourth Amendment.

Justice Sotomayor was even more direct.

“Aren’t we just doing away with ‘Johnson’?” she asked.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked why the police could not simply roam the

hallways of apartment buildings, sniffing; knock whenever they smell marijuana; then break in if they hear something suspicious.

Mr. Farley said, “That would be perfectly fine.”

Other justices appeared untroubled by the standard the government lawyers proposed.

“There are a lot of constraints on law enforcement,” Justice Antonin Scalia said, “and the one thing that it has going for it is that criminals are stupid.”

He said a sensible criminal would answer the door but decline to let the police enter without a warrant.

In a blog post, Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University and an authority on the Fourth Amendment, said the case, Kentucky v. King, No. 09-1272, presented a tricky question based on murky facts.

But he said the police should not be allowed to take advantage of at least some of the circumstances their own conduct creates. Among those circumstances, he said, are the reactions of people who are made to believe that the police are about to conduct a forcible search of their homes.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

15

Wine

A Cult Winemaker Tinkers With Success

By ERIC ASIMOV

O

UT here in Sonoma County south of the Russian River, where a rolling ocean of vineyards surrounds a few surviving Gravenstein apple orchards, the growing season is typically long and warm. Grapes customarily bask in the ripening sun until they practically burst with sweetness.

The challenge is to prevent the grapes from ripening too much.

Last year was different. Until the heat spiked at the last minute, 2010 had been one of the coolest seasons on record. Nobody knew if the grapes would mature enough.

That meant trouble. Or maybe a lucky break.

“Everybody was worried about getting things ripe,” said Jason Kesner, the assistant winemaker at Kistler Vineyards. “We had the acid, we had the color, we had the flavor, but we didn’t have the typical California sugar to match up with it. We had the tremendous opportunity to make wines at lower alcohol levels.

It was the holy grail we’d all been asking for.”

Really? For more than 30 years, restraint was not a quality remotely associated with Kistler. In the 1980s and ’90s, as Americans developed

a ravenous thirst for chardonnay, Kistler set a standard of quality with its powerful, oaky, voluptuous wines. Using grapes from small lots in prime vineyards in Sonoma and the Carneros, it was among a handful of California wineries that pioneered the use of Burgundian techniques, like fermenting in small oak barrels.

American critics raved about the wines, placing them at the pinnacle of California chardonnay.

More quietly, Kistler was also lauded for its pinot noirs.

As Kistler’s lush, exuberant style was widely emulated, it became one of the first modern California cult wineries, its wines available only in restaurants or to long-term customers. It was a model for today’s mailing-list avatars of the full-blown California chardonnay style, like Aubert and Peter Michael. Indeed, some producers began making even more powerful wines so overflowing with flavor they made Kistler’s look almost sedate.

But with little fanfare, the Kistler style has changed in the last few years. Following the evolving tastes of Steve Kistler, one of its proprietors, rather than the pressure of economic necessity, Kistler has ste-

pped back, striving for finesse and energy rather than power.

Kistler’s departure from its extraordinarily successful style is a shock, and perhaps even risky business. And yet the California wine industry has seen a stylistic evolution in the last decade, especially with chardonnays. More and more wines seek elegance and vivacity rather than sumptuous force.

Partly, this is a retreat from the overuse of oak, with many more producers marketing their wines as “unoaked” or “steel fermented.”

Similarly, more producers now tout their chardonnays as “Chablis-like,” evoking the leaner, more minerally style of that region rather than the richer, more opulent chardonnays of the Côte de Beaune, the home of Meursault and Montrachet.

Even many chardonnay producers who continue to pursue the Côte de Beaune ideal, like Littorai, Peay, Rivers-Marie and Failla, are aiming more for grace than for power. As a result, the spectrum of California styles seems wider and less monochromatic today, with room for chardonnays in the leanest to the most luxuriant styles.

Kistler’s wines are still ample — certainly not on the Chablis end of the spectrum — but they now seem

fresher, more focused and finely etched.

“Was there a time when we erred on the side of uniformity, of over-fine tuning, of picking later, only when every last cluster was ripe?” asked Mr. Kistler, who owns the company with his business partner, Mark Bixler. “Maybe so, but we’ve evolved, as I think others have, too.”

While some customers say they miss the wines that made Kistler famous, he says the evolution has mostly been well received.

“We don’t worry if the pinot noir isn’t dark enough,” he said.

“Some people do ask us to return to the overblown, blowzy style of chardonnay, but no.”

Indeed, the Kistler business has been affected more by the economy than by the stylistic change, but even the economy hasn’t put a serious crimp into sales. The entire production, about 20,000 cases of chardonnay and 5,000 cases of pinot noir, used to be available only in restaurants or by the mailing list, where the single-vineyard chardonnays sell for around $75 and the pinot noirs range from $75 to $90. But now you can find the Kistler Noisetiers chardonnay, the lowest echelon, a blend of several vineyards but representative of the style, for around $60 in retail shops.

Mr. Kistler, 62, attributes the change inside the bottle to his own developing preferences. “My tastes now run toward more structured, lively wines that go with food, that have power and finesse at the same time,” he said as we spoke outside his winery, looking out over the adjacent Vine Hill Vineyard, the source of some of his best chardonnays.

Even there, change is visible. He and Mr. Kesner are replanting part of the vineyard, reorienting and tweaking the vines so the grapes can be picked earlier, when, as Mr. Kesner puts it, “the fruit is at a peak level of energy.”

Even before the changes, Kistler chardonnays were pure and deep. Yet I’d had mixed experiences with them. Some I had found to be wonderfully ripe and laden with mineral flavors, rich yet tense. Others seemed flaccid, hot and

Continues on page 16

Wine 16

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January 20 - 26, 2011

Comes from page 15 oaky, without much staying power. The pinot noirs were commanding expressions of fruit, but somewhat chunky rather than elegant.

The move to harvest earlier began, almost serendipitously, with the 2006 vintage, when Mr. Kistler had to pick certain lots of chardonnay grapes earlier than usual to beat bad weather. In the resulting wines, which were not released until 2008, he found wonderful and surprising characteristics.

“That was a definite eye-opener,” Mr. Kesner said.

It was a decisive element in a continuing effort, particularly with the pinot noirs, to make wines that were intense but not heavy, fresh rather than brawny.

In their quest, they’ve committed themselves to indigenous rather than cultured yeasts, to using fewer new barrels and, over all, to letting go of overt control in the vineyard and cellar. Describing their approach, Mr. Kesner quoted the jazz great Charlie Parker: “Don’t play the saxophone, let the saxophone play you,” he said.

Mr. Kistler said, simply, “We’ve really worked hard on them the last 10 years, and we’re making much better wines.”

Tasting the wines, I can’t help but agree with Mr. Kistler. The 2008 McCrea Vineyard chardonnay from Sonoma Mountain is lovely, light-bodied and energetic, with creamy mineral flavors. The ’08 Vine Hill is more austere and tightly coiled than the McCrea, while the ’08 Hudson is richer in texture, with an almost briny flavor, and the ’08 Stone Flat is tangy, with a waxy, lanolin texture and beautiful mineral flavors.

What has not changed at Kistler is an underlying philosophy of meticulous attention to detail with an aim to express subtle differences in terroir. As it always has, Kistler tries to reduce variables so that vineyard characteristics will stand out. It uses only one clone of chardonnay, for example, a California heritage selection rather than something developed in France to meet Burgundian needs.

That clone, in turn, mutates over time within each vineyard, becoming part of the terroir.

“We were unusual 30 years ago in that we planted vineyards and chose techniques to make wines of a certain style,” Mr. Kistler said. “We never were interested in fruit-driven chardonnays. Our goal was wonderful mineral wines with a soil-driven character.”

For the pinot noirs, Kistler has narrowed its focus to western Sonoma County and coastal sites east of Bodega Bay. The ’08 Kistler Vineyard pinot noir, from a few miles south of the Vine Hill Vineyard, is surprisingly delicate and

harmonious, with lingering floral, fruit and mineral flavors. The ’08 Cuvée Natalie from the nearby Silver Belt Vineyard is more intense, not quite as well-knit, perhaps still a work in progress. By contrast, a barrel sample of a 2009 pinot noir from one of the coastal vineyards stands out for its freshness and energy.

“That’s what makes us as excited as we were 30 years ago,” Mr. Kistler said.

Changes have come not only to the wines, but also to the business. Since its founding in 1978, Kistler has largely been a twoman operation. Mr. Kistler oversaw vineyard and winemaking operations, while Mr. Bixler took charge of laboratory work and the business. In an era of uninhibited marketing in which winemakers have been propelled to superstar status, Mr. Kistler has shunned publicity and overt salesmanship.

“We’ve always been more comfortable letting the wines speak for themselves,” said Mr. Kistler, a lean, private man with a quiet, almost hesitant manner.

In 2008, though, he expanded the roster, adding Mr. Kesner, who, as manager of Hudson Vineyards in Carneros, a prime source for Kistler chardonnays, had es-

tablished a comfortable working relationship with Mr. Kistler.

“For all those years we got by without assistance,” Mr. Kistler said. “But in order to take everything to the next level, there was only so much I could do.”

The next level meant more than refining the vineyard and cellar work. It also meant thinking of the future. As with many family-run operations, generational succession is an issue. Just a few years ago, Warren Winiarski sold Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, the historic Napa estate, after it became clear that his daughter was not committed to carrying it on. Mr. Kistler has two daughters, but neither so far has become involved in the wine business. Instead of selling, Mr. Kistler hired Mr. Kesner, 42, who says he views his job as an Old World apprenticeship.

Mr. Kesner says he shares Mr. Kistler’s inclination for privacy. But he also said he believes Mr. Kistler deserves more recognition, both for his wines and his dedicated approach, and prodded him to speak publicly.

“I feel very much like Charlie Bucket, and I’ve found the golden ticket,” Mr. Kesner said. “I want everyone to know how wondrous it is inside the chocolate factory.”

Steve Kistler (left) and his assistant, Jason Kesner, at Kistler Vineyards in Sebastopol, Calif.

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January 20 - 26, 2011

17

ART

El Greco’s ‘Toledo’ on View in Madrid

By VALERIE GLADSTONE

F

or El Greco, Toledo, Spain, had an almost mystical significance. After the artist left his native Crete in the early 1570s and passed through Italy, the town provided him with a home, a place where his astoundingly original manner of painting was appreciated and an environment where his intellectual ambitions could be realized. The artist expressed his relationship with the town in his “View and Plan of Toledo,” a magnificent late work that normally calls the El Greco Museum in Toledo home. The piece is now on display, through Feb. 27, 2011 at the Prado Museum in Madrid.

“Toledo was the imperial capital of Spain,” said Gabriele Finaldi, associate director of

curatorship at the Prado (Calle Ruiz de Alarcón; 34-91-330-2800; museodelprado.es/en), “but El Greco was fascinated with its mythical Greek origins, since it was meant to have been founded by warriors escaping from Continues on page 18

El Greco Museum “View and Plan of Toledo,” by El Greco.

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January 20 - 26, 2011

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Comes from page 17 the ancient Trojan War. In his paintings, Toledo is the setting for all kinds of religious scenes, a place where the real and the divine mix naturally together.”

In contrast to the partial views of the city that appear in his other works, “View and Plan of Toledo” shows a full and spectacular panorama, with a ghostly image of the Virgin Mary in the sky, imposing a vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist on

St. Ildefonso, patron saint of the city.

The painting marked one of the first times an artist used the image of a map in reference to a specific location. And El Greco’s

dramatic portraits of St. Sebastian, St. Andrew and St. Francis, which include scenes of Toledo’s streets, are installed in the same room as the city plan, so viewers can see how he incorporated the town into his work.

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January 20 - 26, 2011

19

New York Times Editorial Playing With the Band

By DIANA ZUCKERMAN

A

S millions of us try to lose the weight we gained over the holidays, the Food and Drug Administration is due to make a decision with implications for those tipping the scales into obesity: whether to approve gastric lap bands for people who are just slightly obese. These devices are now approved only for dangerously obese adults, with a body mass index of at least 35.

Like gastric bypass surgery, a lap band reduces the size of the stomach so that eating a large meal is impossible. As a result, patients sometimes lose 100 pounds or more within a year, and that weight often stays off at least another year.

The surgery is more effective for people than diet, exercise or pills. Lap bands are less invasive, expensive and risky than gastric bypass, it is reasonable to ask whether the F.D.A. should approve the product for people seeking less drastic weight loss.

Science rather than sympathy will reject the recommendation there is no research proving a lap band provides slightly obese patients benefits greater than its risks.

Bariatric surgeons say benefits are obvious even if research is skimpy. Most have financial ties to the lap-band industry on their side: weight loss during the first year after the procedure is often impressive.

Whether a band is more effective than diet and exercise for years after surgery we don’t know.

Under change, bands would be approved, for a 5-foot-6-inch woman weighing 186 pounds (mass index 30) who does not have diabetes or heart disease but joint pain might be relieved by weight loss. Under current rules, this woman could get a band only if she was willing to pay $12,000 to $30,000 for the 30-minute surgery.

Theoretically, lap bands could save lives and billions of health care dollars that would otherwise be spent to treat diabetes or heart disease, replace hip or knee joints or pay for often-ineffective weight loss strategies. Potential benefits are not the same as proven ones. We don’t know how safe and effective lap-band surgery is for people, whether they are 30 or 300 pounds overweight.

F.D.A. approved Inamed’s Lap-Band for the dangerously obese 10 years ago. It

did so based on the company’s study of fewer than 200 very obese patients who had lap bands for three years. As a condition of approval, the agency required a follow-up study, but in 2006 Inamed was bought by Allergan, and the study was not completed.

When Allergan asked the F.D.A. to expand approval to the not-so-obese (essentially doubling the patient pool), the request was based on a clinical trial of only 149 patients who had lap bands for one to two years.

In this study, operations by carefully selected surgeons on relatively healthy patients, all under the age of 55 — which gave the study its best chance of producing favorable results. Even so, there were adverse reactions. Common were vomiting, difficulty swallowing, pain and gastroesophageal reflux. Five percent of subjects required additional surgery one to nine months after getting their lap bands, and in most cases this meant permanent removal.

One of the devices removed had already eroded — raising concern how long lap bands last. Unlike initial surgery, often an outpatient procedure, the revisions and removals meant hospitalizations lasting up to a week.

The men in the Allergan study had worse outcomes than the women; 20 percent had their devices removed in the first year.Men were almost three times as likely as women to die from bariatric surgery. But the poor outcome for men needs further investigation, because the Allergan trial included only 14 men.

What’s more, there were only two Asians, 14 African-Americans and 16 Hispanics among all the men and women in the study. Clearly, more research is needed on more people of both sexes and all ages and races.

Most important, we need studies of people who have had lap bands for longer than a few years to learn if the weight loss is lasting, if patients will tolerate the devices in the long run and what risks may accrue from living with one inside the body. The earlier three-year study of very obese patients found that one in four had their lap bands removed and not replaced.

Obesity can kill, but when people are not at immediate risk of fatal illness, the F.D.A. does them no favors by giving its approval to an implanted medical device before it has been adequately tested.

Fear vs. Reason in the Arms Control Debate

By ROBERT WRIGHT

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here are six living secretaries of state from Republican administrations, and every one of them — from Henry Kissinger through Condoleezza Rice — endorses the New Start arms control treaty with Russia. Yet, as of this writing, the treaty is far from assured of support from even the one in four Republican senators needed for ratification.

Why divergence between Republican Party’s foreign policy brain trust and legislators? Hoping to find out, I spent the past weekend watching the impassioned utterances of Jon Kyl of Arizona, the leading treaty opponent.

Kyl was complaining that the treaty

deals only with strategic nuclear weapons (on long-range bombers, submarines or intercontinental missiles) and not with tactical nukes (the typically lower-yield, shorterrange warheads used to aid conventional forces in battle). According to Kyl, Russia is trigger-happy; America views nukes as a deterrent “to the Russians, tactical nuclear weapons are a battlefield weapon, just like artillery.”

If Russia really did see tactical nuclear weapons “just like artillery,” then sometime during the 1980s Afghanistan would have become a 250,000-square-mile expanse of warm glass. One difference between Kyl and Kissinger: Kissinger stayed calm and rational assessing an adversary.

Kyl proceeded to say our strategic nu-

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clear arsenal deters Russia’s tactical nukes.

“Clearly to our detriment we reduce our strategic offensive weapons to the point these tactical nuclear weapons could create an imbalance of power.”

Under New Start, America, like Russia, could deploy 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads. The way deterrence works is if Russia fears a few of these warheads could find their targets — vaporizing, say, Moscow, St. Petersburg and a couple of lesser cities — then it won’t initiate the use of nuclear weapons. Kyl’s apparent fear that Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal could somehow neutralize our entire deterrent force is ludicrous — another triumph of fear over reason.

Fundamentally, this treaty isn’t about the threat posed by Russia’s military.

Here are some of the treaty’s key virtues: It would increase our confidence Russian nukes aren’t going stray and winding up in terrorists’ hands (by re-establishing inspections that lapsed with the expiration of the first Start treaty); it would strengthen a partnership with Russia that could help keep Iran nuke-free and help contain the North Korean threat; it would show nonnuclear nations the great powers are making a good faith effort to reduce their stockpiles, thus rendering these nations more amenable to a much-needed tightening of the world’s nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Maybe it would be an oversimplification to say that, decades after the Berlin

Wall fell, Kyl is mired in a cold war mindset. Not all of his fears are about Russia. On Saturday his big concern was that the treaty might somehow keep us from building a missile defense system that could bat down projectiles coming from Iran or North Korea.

Yet even here, while evincing a postBerlin-Wall perspective, he seems stuck in pre-9/11 mode, unaware that the most pressing threats to America aren’t from nationstates.

Even if you think that a North Korea or Iran might someday, in the distant future, possess both the capacity and the craziness to launch a suicidal attack on us, there is a much more immediate threat: that North Korea, desperate for cash, would sell nukes to terrorists who could sneak them into the United States and detonate them; or that some Russian general might cut such a deal with a terrorist. Both of these prospects will loom less large if New Start is ratified.

By the way, the idea that the treaty itself prevents us from building a missile defense system is so groundless that even Kyl isn’t quite embracing it. His real fear, he says, is that a vague reference to missile defense in the (non-binding) preamble will be seized on, however wrongly, by the Russians, who will use it to cause trouble down the road. And why deal with threats that actually exist when you can spend your time obsessing over things Russia might do down the road?

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The San Juan Weeekly

LETTERS Equal Time for Creationism?

There has been an outcry in recent years, by spokesmen of the radical right, demanding that something they call creationsim be taught in tax-supported public schools. they want this interpretation presented on an equal basis with the concept of evolution as an explanation of the origin of the universe, of life, of human beings.

It seems fair. Why shouldn’t both sides have the same chance? Why should the evolutionists oppose the teaching of creationism?

Yet equal time for both views is not fair. It is pernicious. The concepts of evolution and creationism are not equal. The evolutionary view has been built up painstakingly over a period of two centuries on the basis of scientific study, and it has behind it an enormous body of evidence and reasoning. All biologists, of any reputation at all, accept the evidence that present-day species developed slowly from simpler forms; that the unit of life, the cell, has developed from precellular scraps of life; and that these, in turn, have arisen from nonliving materials by changes that are in accord with the laws of nature over a vast stretch of several billions of years.

Creationists, on the other hand, present no evidence in favor of their views. They argue entirely from the negative. They maintain that if the concept of evolution is found wanting, then that alone is sufficient to force acceptance of creationism. They then insist that the concept of evolution is indeed found wanting. They point out insufficiencies, contradictions, and uncertainties in the evolutionary arguments and thus purport the triumph of creationism.

And yet, firstly, the insufficiencies they present are often advanced in distorted, simplistic and downright erroneous ways. Secondly, some of those insufficiencies are matters over which biologists are indeed undecided, but which affect merely the details of mechanism and not the concept of evolution itself.

Thirdly, even if the concept of evolution were indeed insufficient, that would not of itself prove the validity of the concept of an independent production of each species by a Creator. Other alternatives may exist, and the choice among them would have to rest on affirmative evidence. Thus, if a close investigation were to show that our notions of reproductive physiology are not entirely right, that would not of itself prove that babies are brought by the stork. They might , indeed, have been found under cabbage leaves or been delivered in the doctor’s little black bag.

In order to establish creationism as a rational concept, the creationists must advance scientifically valid evidence for their beliefs and not merely try to poke holes in other views. They cannot simply question whether the universe is

really 15 billion years old by casting doubt on current scientific figures on tha expansion of the cosmos. They must present reasonable evidence that the universae is, in fact, 6,000 years old, or whatever. Needless to say, this they have never done.

For these reasons, creationism has never established itself in the one place that really counts--in the marketplace of scientific ideas.

Science is a self-correcting process, and scientists do change their views, but they do so only on the basis of new evidence or a new and convincing presentation of a line of reasoning.

Scientists refused to accept the notion of drifting continents on the basis of evidence advanced in 1913 and a revised and improved version of the concept was then accepted with surprising speed.

It is possible that the day will come when evolution will indeed turn out to be insufficient and when new evidence in favor of creationism will force a change of view, but that day had not yet come. Nothing the creationists say bears promise that it will ever come. and since this is so, it is impossible scientifically, to ask that creationism be taught today as a reasonable alternative to evolution.

Tha fact that some people earnestly believe in creationism is insufficient. The existence of that belief is a legitimate matter of interest in courses of history, sociology and psychology, and in those courses creationsim may be discussed in detail, but it doesn’t belong in science.

But suppose we were to teach creationism.

What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Is that it? Nothing more? No details?

American creationists seem to accept the biblical tale of creation, but is that the only genesis possible? Millions of people the world over, who worship a divine Creator of sort, do not accept the Bible as a holy book.

In fact, many who read the Bible disagree on the manner of interpretation of its account of the creation. They may accept the account as poetry, as allegory, as symbolism; they may see in it deep ethical and moral meanings---but they don’t accept it as a literal description of how the universe began.

What then do we teach if we teach creationism? Which of the views do we accept? Do we try to choose among them on the basis of scientific evidence? Do we just teach them all on an equal basis? If creationists simply want the literal words of the Bible taught, then that is manifestly unfair to all the competing creationist notions.

It might be possible to argue that if creationism is so empty of content and so transparently unscientific, there is certainly no harm is offering it as an alternative. Surely, no one would accept it. Some people even argue that if scientists object to equal time, they must not really have a good cause.

Ah, but it is not equal time the creationists want. That little slogan is merely the smile of the crocodile.

School is not the only place where the origins of life and the universe are dealt with. There are also those churches that have creationist views, where only the creationist view is presented. There is no question of equal time there, wherre children are exposed to only the creationist views, and in their homes, for many years before they hear of evolution at school. And they are threatened with hellfire if they doubt. Where is equal time?

The teaching of evolution in public schools is a very recent thing. It was not many decades ago that it was forbidden in the strongholds of creationism. That was what the Scopes monkey trial was all about. He’d mentioned evolution in class, and that was a crime. Where was equal time.

Even now, the teaching of evolution in public schools can be a risky affair. In many areas of the nation, people of creationist views heckle school boards, school pricipals, and schoolteachers to the point where, if evolution is mentioned at all, it is done in an apologetic whisper, The creationists attempt to ride herd on the libraries too, and do their best to pull out every book that doesn’t suit them.

And they want equal time? Don’t kid yourself. They want all the time. One can see why too.

Their case is so weak, nonexistent in fact, that the only way they can feel sure of maintaining it is to make sure their captives never hear of anything else.

Yet none of what I have so far said reaches the real deadliness of the situation. Because creationism has been firmly rejected in the marketplace of scientific ideas, the creationists have turned to government to help them. They browbeat legislators and executives and insist on laws defining what is scientifically valid and dictating what is to be taught.

What a dangerous precedent this is! If the Supreme Court can be bullied into declaring such things Constitutional, it would go a long way toward putting an end to pluralism is this country and to free thought. We would be on the road to an established church and an official orthodoxy.

All history shows that the ability to censor and to enforce conformity is a dictatorial delight that knows no limit. Today equal time, tomorrow the world. Today it is your views on science, tomorrow the way you dress and speak and behave.

So it is not merely creationism we must fight.

Behind its advocates stand the old enemies, bigotry and ignorance, eager to plunge us all back into the Dark Ages. But the price of liberty, said Jefferson, is eternal vigilance.

Javier Acevedo, Ocean Park

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21

LETTERS “Obamacare” Yes! It’s about time predatory medicine be brought to a demise. I don’t know the nittygritty of the President’s brainchild not do I need to. We can’t stay where we are now.

Does community have a mission to look after its contituents? Certainly. If the Republicans fancy living under the Law of the Jungle, they’d best move there. And take the penepeístas with them. Not even Darwin believed in social Darwinism.

Agustín Manzano, San Juan

Reverse Robin Hood With fanfare the Governor announced $800,000,000 in tax credits for the moneyed.

Though he won’t budge on the $800 from the students. He doesn’t deserve to dwell in Sherwood Forest nor to bed Maid Marian.

Samaria Salced, Caparra Hts.

PENDING LEGISLATION THAT WOULD EXTEND FEDERAL INCOME TAX TO PUERTO RICO. I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: “BEGGARS CAN’T BE CHOOSERS.” Ed Martinez, San Juan

You gotta be there Librarians at UPR Natural Sciences are hysterical. They say the students set fire to the library. And they’ve closed the facility for the semester. Lazy as they are, they’ll still be drawing their paychecks, yet more waste. Don’t believe the media, you see, I asked around, it was cherry bombs.

Rina Rinaldi, San Juan

Commonality of Species

Campaign contributions are largely bribes from the wealthy for legislation they want or for special favors. The latter include “special laws,” excempting specific individuals or companies from Commonwealth statutes and agency regulations and are actually more abundant than any other type of legislation and all laws passed are listed in the Diario de sesiones del Senado/Cámara de Puerto Rico, if you don’t believe me.

Anita Roig, Santurce

If Perseus Could Do It...

Do you tell a politician of ours from a rattlesnake? Right. Sure, just give it some thought.

Well? Surely you can come up with something.

No? Then I guess that’s it. I can’t either.

Pay to vote PUERTO RICO’S DEPENDENCY ON FEDERAL FUNDS HAS GROWN TO SHAMEFUL PROPORTIONS, AT THE EXPENSE OF THE U.S. TAXPAYERS AND TO THE ADVANTAGE OF CORPORATE AMERICA. GRANTING US THE RIGHT TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT WOULD ADD INSULT TO INJURY. IN THE FIRST PLACE, THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT MINORITY WHO FEAR THAT THIS WOULD PROVE TO BE THE FINAL NAIL ON THE COFFIN THAT HOLDS THEIR IDEALS. THAT THEY HAVE SURVIVED AT ALL IS A MIRACLE, CONSIDERING THE INSIDIOUS NATURE OF ASSIMILATION. UNLIKE CITIZENSHIP, WHICH WAS IMPOSED ON US, THE PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO SHOULD HAVE A SAY ON THIS MATTER. IT IS ONLY FAIR. AS FOR MYSELF, ONCE WE APPROVE IT I WOULD VOTE FOR IT, BUT ONLY IF THE RICH WOULD AGREE TO PAY FEDERAL INCOME TAXES. IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO GET BARGAINING CREDIT FOR THE LIVES LOST IN PAST WARS. AFTER ALL, WHILE MANY OF THE CHILDREN OF THE RICH WERE GETTING DEFERRED FROM MILITARY SERVICE BECAUSE THEY WERE GOING TO COLLEGE, CHANCES ARE THAT THESE CASUALTIES WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY FROM LOWER INCOME FAMILIES. NOW IS THE TIME FOR THOSE WHO THINK THEY KNOW WHAT AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS ALL ABOUT TO DIGNIFY THEIR STAND BY REQUESTING AN AMENDMENT TO THE

Equal Protection of the Laws?

Eleuterio Serpieri, Santurce

What Are We? It doesn’t make sense for us to be citizens of a nation we’re not part of.

Short-sightedness that happened because Uncle Sam needed cannon fodder for World War I and Congress legislated the inhabitants of this war-booty real estate into extraterritorial Americans.

Now I’m not saying we must be a state.

But citizenship without collective acceptance thereof is the epitome of grotesque. How about a sensical plebiscite for a change? But bear in mind that U.S. citizenship tendered and taken means--must mean--nationhood for Puerto Rico abjured forever.

To J.D. Aragón: You might be truthful. You say, “the students have essentially shut down UPR, classes are not being taught, students are not hearing their professors.”

The police are keeping the campuses open, haven’t you heard? But to the embarrassment of our shallow Governor, everybody supports -and is honoring- the strike.

A word of advice to the UPR youngsters facing the Medusa of the Commonwealth Government.

A politician-nutured bureaucrat will castrate you by drawing you into its maze of rules and procedures and organigrams and flow charts and rates and percentages and every imaginable gestaltic aberration infested with beasts and curses. Once the bureaucrat’s gotten you into its labyrinth, you’ll waste eternity lunging back and forth in the dark like the minotaur and never, ever make it back into the light of day.

What you do is you look at the bureaucrat’s reflection on the shield of your values and principles. Don’t look at the obfuscation, the face of the bureaucrat, or you’ll turn to stone. Then unsheath your sword and cut the bureaucrat’s head off.

Paula Benedict, Atlantic View

Frágola Serpieri , Santuce

Eleuterio Serpieri, Santuce

Not So!

Kitchen 22

January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Farro and Vegetable Soup

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

T

his thick, hearty meal is inspired by a traditional Provençal harvest soup.

Farro (spelt) and the softer emmer wheat are grains that were once peasant staples in the mountainous areas of Provence, though they are less common now. Traditionally, the grain is simmered with a mutton, prosciutto or ham bone. I use Parmesan rinds to enrich the flavor of this version.

1 1/2 cups farro (spelt), rinsed 1 ounce (about 1 cup) dried porcini mushrooms 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 onion, chopped 1/2 pound carrots, chopped 2 celery stalks with leaves, chopped 1/2 pound cabbage, shredded or finely chopped 2 to 4 large garlic cloves, to taste, minced A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme and parsley, and a couple of Parmesan rinds, all tied in a cheesecloth 2 tablespoons tomato paste 2 1/2 quarts water, chicken stock or vegetable stock Salt and freshly ground pepper 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 2 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (1/2 cup) (Parmesan may be substituted) 1. Soak the farro just covered in water for one hour or longer. Drain.

2. Meanwhile, place the dried mushrooms in a bowl or Pyrex measuring cup, and pour on two cups boiling water. Let them sit for 15 to 30 minutes until softened. Place a strainer lined with cheesecloth or paper towels above a bowl, and drain the mushrooms. Squeeze over the strainer, then rinse in several changes of water to get rid of any sand. Chop coarsely and set aside.

3. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the onion. Cook, stirring, for three to five minutes until it begins to soften. Add the

chopped carrots, celery and cabbage, and cover. Turn the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring often, for five to 10 minutes until the mixture is tender and fragrant.

Add the garlic, and cook, stirring, for a minute until fragrant. Add the soaked mushrooms and their liquid, the farro, bouquet garni, tomato paste and the water or stock.

Bring to a boil, add salt, reduce the heat, cover and simmer one hour until the farro is tender and the soup fragrant. If it seems too thick, thin out with more water or stock. Add pepper, and adjust salt. Remove the bouquet garni, and stir in the parsley.

Serve, passing the cheese for sprinkling.

Yield: Serves six to eight.

Advance preparation: The soup can be made a day or two ahead, but don’t add the parsley. If it thickens too much overnight, add a little water and reheat. Adjust seasonings. Add parsley just before serving.

Nutritional information per serving (six servings): 287 calories; 6 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 10 milligrams cholesterol; 45 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 135 milligrams sodium (does not include salt added during preparation); 13 grams protein Nutritional information per serving (eight servings): 215 calories; 4 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 8 milligrams cholesterol; 34 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 101 milligrams sodium (does not include salt added during preparation); 10 grams protein

January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

23

Kitchen

The Adobo Experiment

By SAM SIFTON

T

here are more than 7,100 islands in the Philippines, a nation slightly larger than the state of Arizona, and if you could devote your life to traveling through them asking questions about food, you would discover a different recipe for adobo on each one.

It is the national dish, many Filipinos say: protein braised in vinegar until pungent and rich, sweet and sour and salty at once, sometimes crisped at the edges in high heat, always served with the remaining sauce. Its excellence derives from the balance of its flavors, in the alchemy of the process. Cooking softens the acidity of the vinegar, which then combines with the flavor of the meat to enhance it. Whether consumed in Manila’s heat or on the edge of a New York winter, adobo holds the power to change moods and alter dining habits.

It is a difficult dish to cook just once. For the adobo neophyte, there are always adjustments to be made to increase a diner’s pleasure in one direction or another — a touch more salt or sour, sweet or fire.

Until there is not. Then the recipe — your recipe — becomes set in stone.

As a result, there is great fun to be had in asking Filipinos how to make adobo, particularly when they are in groups.

Filipino cooking is an evolutionary masterpiece, a cuisine that includes Chinese, Spanish, American and indigenous island influences, all rolled into one. But where for one Filipino the most impor-

tant aspect of the dish is Spanish, for another it is Chinese, or both, or neither.

(The journalist and food historian Raymond Sokolov has made the point that the ingredients for adobo were present in the Philippines before Magellan — only the name, which comes from a Spanish word for sauce, came later. “Lexical imperialism,” he called this process.)

Husbands argue with wives about adobo. Friends shoot each other dirty looks about the necessity of including coconut milk or soy sauce in the recipe.

There are disputations over the kind of vinegar to use, over the use of sugar, over the inclusion of garlic and how much of it. Some use chicken exclusively in the dish, others pork, some a combination of the two.

Some serve the dish as a stew. There are those who call for broiling the meat at the end, to caramelize it and provide a crisp texture alongside the sauce. Others advocate pan-frying. Some demand deep-frying. Or grilling.

“No two people in the same house will cook adobo the same way,” said Amy Besa, who runs, with her husband, Romy Dorotan, the excellent Purple Yam restaurant in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. At Purple Yam, she said, Dorotan makes chicken adobo with a sauce that combines vinegar and coconut milk with soy sauce, garlic and fiery little Thai chilies.

Left to her own devices, Besa added, she and other purists would not use the soy sauce. In Manila, she said, you would find people turning up their noses at the coconut milk. “You can make

adobos in many, many ways,” she said.

“But the dish must be based in vinegar.

You cannot make adobo without it.”

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Filipino journalist who writes about technology and digital culture for The Huffington Post, said his adobo recipe combines chicken and pork, which he marinates overnight in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. “Sometimes I even add brown sugar,” he said, “depending on who I’m cooking it for.”

(Not Besa: “I rail against sugar,” she said. “If it becomes too dominant, then the dish becomes a Chinese sweet and sour.”)

This week’s recipe is derived from the adobo served at Purple Yam. It is a dish Dorotan developed at Cendrillon, a restaurant he and Besa owned and ran together in SoHo until 2009. (A version of it appeared in their 2006 cookbook, “Memories of Philippine Kitchens.”) There is soy sauce in it, and the coconut milk that is common to the southern part of Luzon, the island from which Dorotan hails.

As the mixture cooks, the rice vinegar turns mellow, and the sauce thickens in the heat. There are notes of garlic and

reactive bowl or resealable plastic freezer bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

2. Place chicken and marinade in a large lidded pot or Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.

3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.

4. Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and place under broiler for 5 to 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce.

Chicken Adobo

By SAM SIFTON 1 cup coconut milk ¼ cup soy sauce 1½ cup rice vinegar 12 garlic cloves, peeled 3 whole bird’s-eye chilies or other fiery chili 3 bay leaves 1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 3 to 4 pounds chicken thighs.

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, non-

bay, of chicken fat and chili fire, coconut sweetness and the nutty saltiness of soy.

The combination is ridiculous: a dark and creamy flavor that covers the chicken in silk.

Care should be taken in the assembly of the ingredients. If you can manage to secure Filipino coconut sap vinegar, that would be best, though good-quality rice vinegar from the supermarket will yield excellent results as well, and white wine or even cider vinegar will do in a pinch. (Coconut sap vinegar is available in specialty markets and, as always, online.) A fresh bottle of soy sauce on the lighter end of the taste spectrum would also not be in error, rather than something from that dusty bottle in the back of the larder.

Combine these with your chicken thighs (best-quality again, please), a ton of garlic and chilies, bay leaves and pepper. Allow the marinade to do its work.

Then place the mixture in a heavy pot, bring to a simmer, and cook for around a half-hour, until the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken and allow the sauce to reduce. (Really, that’s it.)

At Purple Yam, Dorotan finishes the process by tossing the chicken into a deep-fryer, to crisp and to caramelize it at once. Then he returns the pieces to a reduced version of the sauce and serves the dish in a small clay pot, where it bubbles and steams enticingly. For the home cook, however, some time under the broiler will achieve much the same effect.

Serve with white rice and some steamed or sautéed greens.

Now taste what you have. Next time you may wish to increase the amount of vinegar or soy sauce in the marinade, or reduce it a little or a lot. You may wish to add more chilies or even Vargas’s crazy brown sugar. You may wish to have less coconut milk, or none at all. You may wish to have more.

This is adobo. Every man an island.

Kitchen 24

January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Pasta in the Rough

By MARK BITTMAN

F

EW people make fresh pasta at home, and it’s not difficult to see why. Who wouldn’t be put off by demonstrations that include piles of flour on cutting boards, or pasta-rolling machines spitting out six-foot ribbons of gorgeous dough?

Fortunately, there is an easy way. A food processor makes quick work of the dough, and a rolling pin, which predates the pasta machine, still works (though a little practice with the machine can make life easier in the long run). And as for fancy shapes: why bother? The handkerchief (fazzoletti) shape — a rectangle or square, as you like — is as traditional as anything else, and as delicious.

The dough, in this case, is of the lovely color and deliciously rich. You can classic Emilia-Romagna style, loaded form a well in the middle of a pile of flour, with eggs and therefore easy to handle, a crack eggs into it and use a fork to slowly and painstakingly incorporate the flour into the eggs — but the food processor is faster.

Now, however, you must wait, bede the sardines; sprinkle with salt cause if you don’t let the dough rest befoand pepper. When the pan is hot, re rolling, it will resist your efforts. After remove it from the oven and pour a half-hour or so at room temperature (or in half of the olive oil, then put longer in your refrigerator), it’ll be more the sardines in the pan and drizzle pliable. You can then use a rolling pin (or with the remaining oil. Broil for 4 to 5 minutes, then check the sardines; they’re ready when they’re opaque, the tip of a knife flakes the thickest part easily, and the outside is nicely Time: At least 1 hour browned.

3. To serve, carefully remove 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as the sardines with a spatula, sprinkle needed with more herbs if you like, and 1 teaspoon salt, plus more as needed pour the pan juices over all. Serve 2 whole eggs with lemon wedges.

3 egg yolks Yield: 4 servings 2 cups loosely packed basil leaves, rinsed and dried 1/2 clove garlic, peeled, or more to taste 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, or more as desired 1/4 cup pine nuts 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish Pepper.

Broiled Sardines With Lemon and Thyme Time: 20 minutes 1 lemon, thinly sliced, plus lemon wedges for serving 12 or more fresh thyme sprigs, plus chopped fresh thyme for garnish 1 1/2 pounds sardines (8 to 12 large), gutted, with heads on Salt and black pepper 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

1. Heat the broiler until hot.

Move the oven rack as close to the heat source as possible (four to two inches away). Heat a sturdy pan for about 5 minutes.

2. Wrap a lemon slice around each thyme sprig and stuff insi-

a wine bottle) to roll the dough out until it is thin. Don’t worry about ragged edges.

You cut the dough into squares — or rectangles or triangles or whatever — that are boiled until just tender.

You can serve fazzoletti with nothing more than butter and Parmesan, or a drizzle of garlic-infused olive oil.

Here, I use a super-rustic pesto, with crunchy bits of pine nuts in a sauce that’s rough, flavorful and lovable, just like the pasta.

Fazzoletti (Pasta Handkerchiefs) With Chunky Pesto

1. Pulse flour and salt in a food processor once or twice. Add the eggs and yolks, and turn the machine on. Process just until a ball begins to form, about 30 seconds. Add a few drops of water if the dough is dry and grainy; add a tablespoon of flour if the dough sticks to the side of the bowl. Turn the dough out of the food processor, sprinkle it with a little flour, cover it with plastic or a cloth, and let it rest for about 30 minutes. (At this point, you may refrigerate the dough, wrapped

in plastic, until you’re ready to roll it out, for up to 24 hours.)

2. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine the basil with a pinch of salt, the garlic and about half the oil. Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary, and adding the rest of the oil gradually. Add the nuts and cheese, and pulse a few times. The pesto should be well combined but still chunky.

3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Divide the dough in half. Turn one half of the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a large rectangle no thicker than 1/4 inch and ideally closer to 1/8 inch, adding additional flour sparingly as necessary. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

4. Cut into squares no larger than 4 inches across. Drop the squares into the water and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, reserving a little of the cooking water. Toss the handkerchiefs with the pesto, some salt and pepper, and a spoonful of cooking water, if necessary, to thin the pesto. Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan.

Yield: 4 servings

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

25

The Cosquer Cave T

he Cosquer cave is located in the Ardeche department, on the Mediterranean coast, close to the mouth of the Rhone river, some miles from Marseilles. In 1985 a professional diver Henri Cosquer discovered a narrow passage some 36 meters under the level of the sea, which led, slightly rising, in the thick layer of the coast sedimentary

rocks. He visited the passage several times, but every time he went back, not reaching its end, until in September 1985, he emerged finally into the main chamber about 160 meters from the entrance, full of the calcite draperies, crystals of aragonite and submerged stalagmites.

He did not notice any paintings at first and kept his secret to himself,

until in summer 1991 he returned to the close exploration of his cave. In July 1991 he saw the first paintingit was a hand stenciled in red on the dry wall of the large chamber. The entire French and European press was interspersed with sensation news.

The answer to the first question (how did the entrance in the cave submerge deep in the water?) is rather simple. The last ice age had ended about 10-9 millenia and melting of the huge glacier began. The level of the World Ocean rose 120

Continues on page 26

26 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly by a prominent specialist in Paleolithic art, General Conservator of the National Heritage, Jean Clottes. Jean Clottes (at left) and Jean Courtin wrote and published the book “La grotte Cosquer” and its english version “The Cave Beneath the Sea” with a great number of marvelous photos by Antoine Chene.

Comes from page 25 meters high, if compared with the ice age. When the cave was visited by ancient people the entrance in the inclined passage was not under the water but, on the contrary, 80 meters above the sea level and 11 kms from the coast up the mountainside.

The second question (how old are the paintings?) was answered soon after their discovery. Counting of the atom number of the radioactive carbon in the painting scrapes showed that the earliest depictions (hand stenciles made with black pigment on the base of charcoal) are almost 28000 years

old, and the latest ones - almost 18000 years old (depictions of horses, ibex, seals and, probably, penguins, which lived there in the Ice Age).

The Cosquer cave paintings will be studied for a long time. It is impossible to get into the cave without special equipment or being unexperienced in deep-sea swimming. In summer 1992 three divers perished there. After that dramatic incident the entrance in the underwater cave was closed and the passage was fitted with a lifeline.

Only some specialists have visited the cave.The French Ministry of Culture set up a special commission to study the Cosquer cave, headed

January 20 - 26, 2011

San Juan Weekly

27

modern love

Adultery in the Marital Bed

By JOYCE WADLER

T

HE woman who came to see Ken Altshuler, a divorce lawyer, had reason to be enraged: her husband was not only having an affair, he was also having an extravagant, money’sno-concern, fabled-and-faraway-beaches affair. He had taken his girlfriend to Tahiti, he was sending flowers to her.

But what infuriated his wife the most was where he had often made love to his girlfriend: their marriage bed.

“She was totally fixated on that,” said Mr. Altshuler, who practices in Portland, Me., and is president-elect of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “ ‘You had sex with that woman in our bed’ — that was overriding everything else. For a year in the divorce, every time an issue came up, that was part of it. We’d need to talk about placing the house up for sale, she’d say, ‘You mean that house where he brought that so-and-so to our bed?’ Or, when we talked about personal division of property, ‘He can take the bed and shove it’ or ‘He can use it with his next whore.’ ” How did Mr. Altshuler’s client find out her husband was using their bed?

“He admitted it when he got caught,” Mr. Altshuler said, in the tone of one who has spent two and a half decades observing the stupidities of humankind and still retains a touching ability to be amazed. “I think she found some of the charges on the credit card, so he fessed up. And she said, ‘Where did you have sex with her?’ And he goes, ‘In our bed, where else?’ Then it’s, ‘Oops, did I say that?’ ” Conventions change. A woman no longer earns a scarlet letter for having a child out of wedlock; divorce is not synonymous with scandal; and it is no surprise to find, when a marriage comes apart, that a third person was involved.

But even in a sexually liberal culture, the home is still usually off-limits, as if protected by an invisible force field.

And the marriage bed — a phrase that in itself seems quaintly out of date — remains a sacred object.

All but one of 18 marriage counselors and divorce lawyers interviewed for this article said they saw at-home adultery rarely, if ever, although the divorce lawyers saw it more often than the therapists. When it does happen, however, the consequences are usually dire: affairs are painful in a marriage, but affairs that take place in the marriage bed can be lethal.

In an informal, unscientific survey conducted at the request of The New York Times by the Web site CafeMom.

com, which draws young married women, more than half of approximately 500 respondents said their marriages would “definitely not” survive if their partner made love to another person in the marriage bed. By contrast, less than a third of approximately 700 respondents to another question said that their marriages would “definitely not” survive an affair outside the home.

“It would hurt no matter where it happened,” one anonymous respondent wrote. But “if he did it in my own home,” she added, “it would feel more like a slap in the face.”

Few marriages survive such an affair — and even fewer marriage beds.

Richard Roane, 52, a divorce lawyer in Grand Rapids, Mich., said he had seen a dozen such cases in the estimated 2,200 divorces he has handled.

He jokes that he always tells clients that at a minimum, they’ll have to get a new bed.

Mr. Roane recalled one betrayed spouse telling him to burn the bed, and another putting the bed on which her husband had cheated in the driveway of their house, which was in an upscale suburban neighborhood.

Mr. Roane said he also had a case in which the wife never found out that her husband, who was his client, had been cheating on the living room sofa — something Mr. Roane himself learned during a property settlement negotiation.

“The husband whispered in my ear: ‘She can have the sofa. I don’t want it,’ ” Mr. Roane said. “He was taking some pleasure in giving the sofa where he made love to his girlfriend to his wife.

The wife didn’t know it, but he did. We see a lot of bad behavior in divorce.”

Randall M. Kessler, an Atlanta divorce lawyer who is the chairman elect of the Section of Family Law of the American Bar Association, has seen his share of rage around the marriage bed.

He remembered an incident involving a

local lawyer — not, he hastened to add, at his firm.

“They were dividing the marital furniture,” Mr. Kessler said. The husband “was having an affair, and he got the bed. When he and his girlfriend go to use the bed for the first time, they see his wife has carved the girlfriend’s name in the headboard: “S-L-U-T.”

The Legal Aspect Mr. Kessler, who notes that all 50 states now have no-fault divorce, said that whether or not someone had an affair was irrelevant in terms of his or her entitlement to a divorce. But he said divorce laws vary from state to state, and adultery can affect financial and child custody issues.

“In Georgia, a person who has an affair that causes the divorce is not entitled to alimony,” he said. “Adultery in some states is relevant with respect to the division of property. But in the most simple terms, family law cases are determined by human beings, and when you are asking a human being to decide in your favor, you want that human being to like you and dislike the other side.

The fact that the other side had sex with someone other than the spouse in the marital bedroom might make the judge dislike them is Common Sense 101.”

And yes, lawyers say, they have seen married people who had affairs in their homes punished.

“In my experience, the affair that takes place in the marital home shocks the conscience of everyone involved — and the judge,” said Mr. Roane, the divorce lawyer in Grand Rapids. “I have represented the wandering spouse, and that’s where I strongly encourage my client to get this thing settled and give slightly more than 50 percent of the assets to keep it out of court.”

He added: “Home is where your children are. When you find your spouse is stepping out, and it occurred in the most personal space in your home

and your bed, it’s a breach of trust. It’s about as mean-spirited and insensitive as it can be.”

Remember That Time 40 Years Ago? Ask lawyers and therapists why someone might cheat in his own home and you will get a range of answers: hostility to the partner; a desire to be found out; it’s more discreet than a hotel; it’s convenient; it’s a decision made in a perfect storm of impulsivity, impunity and availability; home is where the nanny is.

All agree on one thing: Once it is discovered, it is not something the person who has been betrayed is likely to forget.

Don-David Lusterman, a psychologist in Baldwin, N.Y., and an author of books on marital and family therapy for the American Psychological Association, once saw a couple who had been married for 30 years. At their first meeting, Dr. Lusterman said, the husband’s eyes were popping out of his head to such a degree that he asked if the man had been examined for a physical problem.

It turned out that the husband was simply extremely agitated. He had told his wife that he intended to have an affair and that she would have to accept it. His wife demanded that they go to marriage counseling in hopes of discovering why her husband was making a demand so alien to his professed beliefs.

“We worked and worked, and one day she said, ‘Do you think this has anything to do with the thing that happened the first year of our marriage?’ ” Dr. Lusterman said. “He said, ‘I don’t think so.’ I asked, ‘What happened?’ Dead silence. Then she says one day he was ill and came home to find her in the marital bed with some guy, I think it was the painter. He says to the fellow, ‘Get out of my house and never return,’ and turns to her and says, ‘I never want to hear a word about this again,’ and very obediently, they never talk about it again.”

The husband’s anger about the affair, Dr. Lusterman continued, never went away. Recently, he had met a woman he was attracted to, which distressed him because having an affair would have violated his ethics. But once he had expressed his rage to his wife, he found that he did not need to have an affair.

The marriage survived.

A Matter of Convenience Susan Bender, of the New York

Continues on page 28

modern love 28

Comes from page 27 firm Bender, Rosenthal, Isaacs & Richter, has been a divorce lawyer for 31 years. She estimates that 10 percent of her firm’s clients or their spouses have engaged in infidelity in the home. She cites a number of reasons, including an obvious, pragmatic one: in New York, hotels are expensive.

Sometimes there is also less risk of being discovered at home than at a hotel, she added. That was the case with two married women with children in Westchester County, who had an affair for years. At least until one of the husbands came home unexpectedly and found the two together in bed.

“They weren’t having sex, but they were naked,” Ms. Bender said.

“They denied they were having an affair. I represented the husband, and I looked at the attorney and I said, ‘Don’t even bother, don’t waste your time on a denial.’ In matrimonial, you get private investigators. We had the goods on them.”

Ms. Bender also noted that making love in the marital bed and being discovered was one way to force a reluctant spouse to agree to a divorce in New York before no-fault divorce was adopted by the state last fall. “I had a woman come in to see me who goes home earlier than expected and hears a lot of noise in the bedroom,” Ms. Bender said. “Her husband walked out in

January 20 - 26, 2011

his bathrobe, and who is in the bed but her first cousin? The sad part is, my client was trying to have children, and he would not have sex during the time she could conceive.”

The husband was extremely arrogant, Ms. Bender continued. “He had lots of extramarital affairs and she would not leave him, so he could not get a divorce under the old law, because you needed grounds and he had no grounds for divorce,” she said. “He humiliated her so much, she had no choice but to crawl into my office. The husband eventually married another woman who was not the cousin, but he continued having relations with the cousin.”

Another client, who learned what Ms. Bender called “the classic thing — her husband was having sex with the nanny,” did not make the visit to the divorce lawyer her first course of action.

“She goes to bed with her husband that night, doesn’t complete the sex act, took a match and she threw it on the bed,” Ms. Bender said. “Of course, he flips out. The story ends with her walking out of the bedroom naked and him trying to put out the fire.”

Did she explain why?

“She was angry,” Ms. Bender said.

“The problem with litigation is that it takes a long time. You’ve got that need for instant gratification, that need to

San Juan Weekly get you back. Some people need that, they need to get you back right now.”

But tossing a lighted match onto a bed with your husband in it, especially with children in the house, would seem to work against you in court.

“No, I don’t remember that,” Ms. Bender said. “The judges are probably jaded. They’ve heard it all. Like most of my cases, it was probably settled.

Remember, people don’t want this in the papers, they don’t want this to go to court, they don’t want it out there.”

It’s Not Just About the Bed Dwight Grisham, a psychologist who runs the Couples in Conflict Clinic in San Francisco, said he had seen only one case of infidelity in the marriage bed in 23 years in practice. In this case, it was the wife who had had the affair.

“I don’t think it had gone on very long, only a month or two,” Dr. Grisham said. “I’m remembering that he wasn’t so focused on the bed, he was focused on the whole apartment. The apartment became the traumatic trigger. He argued for and got an agreement to move out as quickly as they could. I think they even abandoned the last few months of their lease.”

It’s All About the Bed Esther Perel, the author of “Mating in Captivity,” is a marriage and family therapist who has been in practice for 27 years. Like Dr. Grisham, she said that in all her years of practice, she had seen just one instance of adultery in the marital bed. But even in cases of affairs that take place outside the home, she said, couples who stay together often redo their bedrooms.

“It gives them a sense of reclaiming the relationship,” she said.

Sometimes, It May Be About the Bed A South Dakota divorce lawyer, Linda Lea Viken, who helped draft her state’s no-fault divorce law as a member of the Legislature, said she had a theory about what becomes the focus of outrage. “Women feel it about the bed, the guy feels it about their home: ‘You have invaded my territory.’ Women are more people-oriented, involved in those kinds of details: ‘This is the very bed in which we make love’ — that is more of an injury to her. For the guy, it is ‘This guy is in my house with my wife, with my property.’ ” The Pool Table Also Counts “We had a case where we represented the wife years ago,” said Mr. Kessler, the Atlanta divorce lawyer.

“She caught her husband having an affair on their pool table. In court, she asked the judge for the pool table. She was asked why, since she did not play pool. She said it was the principle: he should not have the table that caused the divorce. She was awarded it, then

told us she didn’t want it and we could have it or sell it. We had it delivered to a charitable organization.”

We May Have Seen This on an Episode of ‘The Sopranos’ “Some years ago, I was representing a family of gangsters. Make that, ‘They allegedly had ties to organized crime,’ ” said the New York divorce lawyer Raoul Felder. “The boy who I was representing is explaining he had this affair: when his wife was away, he brought this woman to his home in Bay Ridge. And his father stood up and slapped the boy’s face and said, ‘Certain things you don’t do.’ So even amongst lowlifes there is some kind of code.”

The 25-Year Secret And there are the cases of infidelity in the marriage bed that therapists and divorce lawyers — and partners — never find out about. “I did that,” one woman in her late 70s said when she heard about this article. “I don’t think I ever told my therapist. I’m saying ‘I don’t think,’ but I know I never told her.”

The woman was married for more than 50 years, and halfway through the marriage she had an affair. Her husband was jealous and possessive; the woman, who had married and had children when she was very young, wanted freedom and a career.

She told her husband about the affair, and she and her husband went into therapy and resolved their problems. But she did not tell her husband everything about the affair: She didn’t tell him that once, when he was out of town on business, she had made love to the other man in their bed.

How did it happen?

“I had a cold,” she said. “He-whoshall-be-nameless came by to check on my health, and that’s where the one moment took place. I feel, looking back on this, where was my moral value measure? I had a twinge, but there I was, I did it.”

She does not recall, she said, “being overwhelmed with my lack of integrity,” but she does think that she must have had feelings about her husband that were “monumental.”

“It is the ultimate giving the third finger to your partner, if you would do it in the bed, under the roof,” she said.

“When I talk about this, I am appalled and horrified and don’t quite connect to the feeling of outrage in myself.”

She did not get rid of the bed after the incident. “That’s emblematic of how out of touch I was with what I had done,” she said. Her husband died without ever finding out. No one — until she blurted it out to this reporter — had ever heard about it.

Really, she said, she does not know why she has spoken of it now.

January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

29

PEOPLE

Elusive Forger, Giving but Never Stealing ninger, the director of museum services at the Cincinnati Art Museum, who first met Mr. Landis in 2007 when Mr. Leininger was the registrar at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and Mr. Landis offered to donate several works under his own name.

In the years since, Mr. Leininger has appointed himself as a kind of Javert to Mr. Landis’s Valjean. He maintains a database of all known contacts with Mr. Landis, sightings of him and works he has copied. (He tends to favor lesser-known artists but occasionally

A painting Mark A. Landis donated to Hilliard University Art Museum as a Charles Courtney Curran.

By RANDY KENNEDY

H

is real name is Mark A. Landis, and he is a lifelong painter and former gallery owner. But when he paid a visit to the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, La., last September, he seemed more like a character sprung from a Southern Gothic novel.

He arrived in a big red Cadillac and introduced himself as Father Arthur Scott. Mark Tullos Jr., the museum’s director, remembers that he was dressed “in black slacks, a black jacket, a black shirt with the clerical collar and he was wearing a Jesuit pin on his lapel.” Partly because he was a man of the cloth and partly because he was bearing a generous gift — a small painting by the American Impressionist Charles Courtney Curran, which he said he wanted to donate in memory of his mother, a Lafayette native — it was difficult not to take him at his word, Mr. Tullos said.

The painting, unframed and wrapped in cellophane, looked like the real thing, with a faded label on the verso from a long-defunct gallery in Manhattan. Father Scott offered to pay for a good frame and hinted that more paintings and perhaps some money might come the museum’s way from his family. But when the Hilliard’s director of development chatted with Father Scott about the church and his acquaintances in deeply Roman Catholic southern Louisiana, the man grew nervous. “He said, ‘Well, I travel a lot,’ ” Mr. Tullos recalled. “ ‘I go and solve problems for the church.’ ” Mr. Landis — often under his own name, though more recently as Father Scott or as a collector named Steven Gardiner — has indeed done a

lot of traveling over the past two decades, but not for the church. He has been one of the most prolific forgers American museums have encountered in years, writing, calling and presenting himself at their doors, where he tells well-concocted stories about his family’s collection and donates small, expertly faked works, sometimes in honor of nonexistent relatives.

Unlike most forgers, he does not seem to be in it for the money, but for a kind of satisfaction at seeing his works accepted as authentic. He takes nothing more in return for them than an occasional lunch or a few tchotchkes from the gift shop. He turns down tax write-off forms, and it’s unclear whether he has broken any laws. But his activities have nonetheless cost museums, which have had to pay for analysis of the works, for research to figure out if more of his fakes are hiding in their collections and for legal advice. (The Hilliard said it discovered the forgery within hours, using a microscope to find a printed template beneath the paint.)

In the weeks since an article in The Art Newspaper first revealed the scope of the forgeries, museums and their lawyers have been trying to locate Mr. Landis, who was never easy to find in the first place because he often provided bogus addresses and phone numbers. But now he seems to have disappeared altogether. His last known attempt to pass off a forgery occurred in mid-November, when he presented himself, again as Father Arthur Scott, at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, bearing a French Academic drawing.

“It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever come across,” said Matthew Lei-

Mr. Landis tries his hand at a Picasso, a Watteau or a Daumier.) Mr. Leininger circulates by e-mail a picture taken of Mr. Landis in 2008 by the Louisiana State University Museum of Art, and he uses a dry-erase marker to update a laminated map in his office.

The first donation Mr. Leininger has been able to find was to the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1987. He has charted Mr. Landis’s travels to 19 states and his contacts, either in person or by phone or letter, with more than 40 museums since then, including large institutions like the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Not all of the museums have accepted Mr. Landis’s donations, but many have, and some have displayed them as authentic works. While some examine donations as a matter of course, others did so only after growing suspicious of Mr. Landis. The St. Louis University Museum of Art still lists his donations on its Web site but describes them as in the “manner of” Stanislas Lepine and Paul Signac, not as works by the artists.

George Bassi, the director of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Lau-

rel, Miss., where Mr. Landis, 55, has lived off and on for years, said he first encountered him eight years ago, after Mr. Landis moved back to the South from San Francisco, where he is believed to have owned a small art gallery.

Mr. Bassi knew Mr. Landis’s mother, Jonita Joyce Brantley, who was born and raised in Laurel and was a member of the museum. (She died last April.) When Mr. Landis contacted the museum and said he wanted to donate artworks in his father’s memory, Mr. Bassi said his story seemed to add up at first.

“He had a connection to Laurel and he knew of the museum,” he said, “and you just assume good intentions.”

“But then you could never contact him. None of his numbers worked.

You had to rely on him stopping by the museum, without an appointment.

And you could go six months without seeing him.” The museum’s suspicions aroused, it examined the works and determined they were forgeries.

On the advice of lawyers, it did not explicitly warn other museums about its discoveries, Mr. Bassi said, but it tried to let them know to be wary of donations from a Mark Landis.

“I don’t think his mother had even a clue that this was going on,” he added. “And she was such a sweet lady, and that made it that much harder for us to talk to people about this and tell them what we thought he was doing.”

Numerous attempts to contact Mr. Landis at phone numbers listed for him in public records and at numbers he provided to museums were unsuccessful. Robert K. Wittman, a former F.B.I. agent who ran the agency’s artcrime team, said that he has been working informally on behalf of several museums Mr. Landis visited to gather more information about his actions, with the aim of determining whether a legal case could be built against him for theft of goods and services. But Mr. Wittman has been unable to find him.

Mr. Tullos of the Hilliard said his museum “would like to find a way to stop him” in case Mr. Landis decided to adopt another identity and keep up his campaign. “He’s very well read and knows a lot about art history, and so he can be very convincing,” he said.

“He’s a pistol.”

“But I really doubt that there’s going to be any will or funding to pursue action against him, which is kind of sad,” he added. “That’s just the reality. So our job now is to make sure that every museum out there knows what he looks like and what he’s up to.”

PEOPLE

30 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Top 10 Composers: Which 20th-Century Masters Will Make the Cut?

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

T

he 19th century will pose the toughest calls in our whimsical attempt to identify the Top 10 classical composers of all time. Think of Chopin, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky. And what about Verdi and Wagner?

So let me deal with the 20th century first, see how many slots might still be left, and work backward.

Though Debussy was born in 1862 and died in 1918, this path-breaker has to be considered a 20th-century giant. After some 300 years of pulsating Germanic music, for Debussy to come along and write such hauntingly restrained, ethereal, time-stands-still works was a shock to the system.

His thick yet transparent block chords; his harmonies tinged with ancient modal elements; his preference for whole-tone scales that loosened music’s moorings to traditional tonality; his mastery of delicate orchestral colorings and new ways of writing for the piano: all this and more made him the father of modern music. Composers from Stravinsky to Boulez would have been impossible without Debussy’s example.

For the subject of his only complete opera he chose Maeterlinck’s “Pelléas et Mélisande,” a groundbreaking work of symbolist theater from 1893. Debussy’s Impressionist music, full of veiled harmonies, blurry textures and emotional ambiguity, hauntingly taps the subliminal stirrings of this mysterious story of a sullen royal family in a timeless, placeless kingdom. In the Metropolitan Opera’s recent production Simon Rattle, in his Met debut, conducted a stunning account of this unorthodox opera, first performed in

1902. What other 20th-century work continues to sound as radical?

Stravinsky, by the way, though I am still formulating this list, will surely make the cut. One fascinating element of his achievement is that among a very select roster of great composers in history, Stravinsky is the only one to have made his reputation by writing ballet scores, with the possible exception of Tchaikovsky.

Everyone acknowledges the impact of Stravinsky’s Paris ballets, especially that all-time stunner “The Rite of Spring” from 1913. His later work with the choreographer George Balanchine was one of the most important collaborations in the history of the arts. Stravinsky was inspired to write astonishing scores for

Balanchine, like “Orpheus” and “Apollo.” But Balanchine found Stravinsky’s music so choreographic that he seized even on pieces like the Violin Concerto and the late, 12-tone Movements for Piano and Orchestra and conscripted them for duty in ballet.

Stravinsky’s works during his lengthy period of Neo-Classicism are still underappreciated. I love that these pieces are, essentially, music about other music.

“The Rake’s Progress” is an ingenious, amusing and profound opera on its own terms. It is also Stravinsky’s savvy, admiring musical commentary on Mozart opera. When he finally started writing 12-tone works (adapting the technique to his own ends), even those scores were Neo-Classical in a sense. The 12-tone thing had been around for a while, and the movement was losing steam. So Stravinsky’s 12-tone pieces were like commentaries on the 12-tone phenomenon.

Theorists and composers are still trying to figure out exactly how the elusive harmonic language in Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical scores (like the Symphony in Three Movements and the overlooked Piano Sonata) actually works. His pieces do not give up their secrets easily. The “Symphony of Psalms” for chorus and unconventional orchestra (with no violins and violas but two pianos) is the most gravely beautiful and profound sacred work of the 20th century.

Leonard Bernstein once said that the opening chords of the third movement alone, in which the chorus sings a bittersweet, almost resigned setting of the word “Alleluia,” would have ensured Stravinsky’s place in history. That was Bernstein in his exuberant mode, but he had a point.

What’s more, including the Russianborn Stravinsky in my list brings some geographical diversity to the Top 10.

The composer I yearn to include is Benjamin Britten. In many ways, Britten is thriving. At least a half-dozen of his operas have become staples, and his symphonic and chamber works turn up all the time on programs. If there are finer 20th-century works for voice and orchestra than “Les Illuminations” and the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. I don’t know what they are. Still, I am probably in a minority in rating him quite this high.

I predict that his stock will rise steadily

over the next 50 years. Still, Top 10? Am I going to push out Haydn for Britten?

Among other 20th-century giants, however, I am leaning toward making a place for Bartok. It’s not just that Bartok was a visionary composer with an arresting and original voice. He could write works in a popular vein, like the Concerto for Orchestra, that are still rich with subtle complexities and ingenious strokes and his characteristic propulsive rhythms. Yet he also wrote uncompromisingly modern and experimental pieces, like the six string quartets, pieces he assumed would never catch on with the public. He would be amazed that today his quartets are as essential to the repertory as Beethoven’s.

Bartok’s other pivotal contribution came from his field research into folk music and indigenous musical traditions of Eastern Europe. He was an early ethnomusicologist. The music he encountered fundamentally altered his perceptions as a composer. Sometimes he more or less transcribed the folk music into suitable pieces for the concert hall. But in subtler ways he folded unconventional elements of the indigenous songs, dances and dirges into his own mature style. Even when he is not explicitly borrowing some folk tune, Bartok’s music is run through with the earthy strangeness of Eastern European folk music. His example inspired countless composers, from Lou Harrison to Osvaldo Golijov, to explore folk music and classical traditions from Asia, South America or wherever their backgrounds and interests took them.

Also — and maybe this is where my own concerns come into play — Bartok’s role in forging new pathways for music in the early decades of the 20th century was pivotal. Schoenberg’s analysis that the system of tonality was in crisis was spot on. Yet the solution he proposed, 12-tone music, while an audacious and exhilarating leap, appeared as inevitable — that is, the next step in the evolution — only to Schoenberg and his acolytes.

Bartok showed another way. His arresting harmonic language was an amalgam of tonality, unorthodox scales, atonal wanderings and more. Theorists still haven’t broken down Bartok’s language. But concertgoers, who don’t have such concerns, continue to be swept away by the originality and mystery of his music. A work like the Third String Quartet seems as stunningly modern today as it was in 1927. Yet it is a mainstay of the string quartet repertory.

San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

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FASHION & BEAUTY

Nina Ricci Pre-fall Collection S

ultry yet still demurely covered up, the navy knit gown with a plunging black lace back is an award winner in our book. Since taking over the reins at the romantic French label in 2009, Copping has had the most success with dresses, and there were lots of lovely options at his intimate show this morning. In addition to that red-carpet stunner, he showed a polka-dot chiffon that fell in tiers to the floor and a bustier hourglass number in tweed, both of which were worn over clingy knit sweaters for a played down, casual look. A black dress in pleats and lace, meanwhile, was layered over a polka-dot bra that matched the bows on the model’s patent pumps. “I call it the new twinset,” Copping laughed.

He was joking, of course, but that sort of charming detail is becoming one of his hallmarks. You saw it in the unusual Japanesemade lace embroidered with paillettes and jewels that he used for a 1950’s-ish cocktail dress and in the drawstring-gathered neck of a jade green sweater paired with a cerise pink knit pencil skirt. A bold way with color is another signature Copping is developing, and he hinted that it would be an important direction for his upcoming Fall show.

FASHION & BEAUTY 32

January 20 - 26, 2011

Giorgio Armani Pre-Fall Collection G

iorgio Armani was aiming for stringency with his prefall Emporio Armani collection. Clothes that are “extremely clean,” read the brief. “Conced[ing] nothing to frivolity.” It didn’t quite match up to the assortment presented, which was distinguished instead by its raffishness. As with many Armani collections, there was a strong debt to menswear in the fabrics and the shapes shown here, but these weren’t elegant, fluid suits—they were nubby, softtextured knits and coats, piled one on the other. There was a ragazzo feel to the knee-length breeches and bloomers, the scratchy-soft angora overcoats that looked like menswear tweeds, militaristic leather jackets, the little motorist’s caps.

The feminine touch came from snug-shouldered jackets and the occasional floral print. Here and there, a Scottish terrier asserted itself, appearing on tops. Why? Better to ask why not, and happily concede at least that much to frivolity.

San Juan Weekly

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

33

Chayanne “My character is a rogue with a good heart” The Puerto Rican singer lent his voice to the villain Flynn Rider in “Tangled.”

E

lmer Figueroa Arce has an old affair with Disney. When he started his career at the age of 10 as part of Los Chicos, the group sang in the theme parks in small shows. And in 2001, he fulfilled the dream of creating music for the film “Atlantis” with the theme “Where is your dream?” In Dance with Me, with Vanessa Williams, he spent hours practicing his choreography and it was very demanding both physically as well as mentally.

What type of thief did he give his voice to? A mischievous man who is always on the defensive, but hides a big heart”. And he shows his romantic side as well: “The big message behind the story is that there is always a great love. You may have grown up alone, but you must give life a chance, try to find happiness as you walk. With love comes a kinder side”.

Chayanne knows that being part of 50 Disney films is not just a detail. “It is a fact that immortalizes you, a film that will be seen by your grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he boasts. And dreams of projects like “El Zorro”, “The Black Corsair,” “The Three Musketeers.”

What do you think of the theories that point to Disney as

a world that is too white and harmful, or that reproduces only an American ideology of power?

“No, Disney for me is a magical place. Behind this great illusion is a huge company that does a tremendous job…an admirable undertaking”.

In the film, the voice of Chayanne interacts with the Mexican Danna Paola (Rapunzel), who is 27 years his junior. The actress also starred in her country in the Aztec version of the children’s movie “Ugly Duckling”, which they later renamed“Dare to dream.”

At the age of 42, with 25 million albums sold and three decades of performing on stages, Chayanne has become a sex symbol whose performance exceeds his choreographies and his performing as a singer, and knowing that bringing his

image to this type of product will expand his audience, with the majority being women.

“I think of my own children and all children that have always enjoyed the Disney magic and this makes the project extremely special,” he said.

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The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

Chayanne Returns to Puerto Rico in Concert “No Impossible” C hayanne will be presented on 11, 12 and 13 February 2011, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot.

Return to the Island after a successful tour of Spain called “No Impossible “, culminating in a grand concert at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid.

Express returning to the island in February, the month of lovers and announced that prepares something special for the land of his birth.

During the 14 performances in Spain, the singer proved that he left “No Impossible. “ Chayanne once again captivated the Spanish

Ballet Brio Takes Virulento to Ponce

V

“

who enjoyed the best of his songs and choreography. Puerto Rican, once again won over the audience, composed mostly of females, with its romantic lyrics and sensual movements.

“Puerto Rico is my land and my concerts are always something special. Singing in Puerto Rico is to sing for my family are all there, and is a great responsibility. Singing in Puerto Rico gives me energy, “he said.

“My audience is multigenerational, come to see parents, children, grandparents, it’s nice to feel loved by so many people and so much diversity, “ he said.

irulento” is the title of the ballet that “Ballet Brio” took to Ponce recently and presented to a full house at the historical “La Perla” theater. “Virulento” comes or is derived from the term “virus” according to Larousse dictionary. Why the coreographer selected that name to give it to his ballet? He explains that the overwhelming impact exploding through the T.V., the violence in the movies and the press moved him so deeply in motivation. This bloody message is being the daily menu to the upbringing of children even from the babyhood; most parents don’t seem to be aware of this. That gloomy atmosphere is the background to his work. It is based in a recent event that shook the local press and headlines. The ballet revives the shooting of the gold medalist José Vega. As an athlete he had accomplished the feat of three gold medals. He was brutally assassinated by mistake when the police was chasing a suspect of assault.

His vital organs previously donated were transplanted to patients mortally ill. This moving story is depicted vividly in the ballet.

The mega concept and envisioned mutiff, has a way of exceedingly expressive touching coreography. by dividing the tragic events in three sordid scenes the audience is deeply impressed. “El Arte de Morir”, (the artistic way of dying) is the climax to the somber tragically woven story. The nine members

of the group enacted with passion and compulsion. José Rivera as the dead corpse, is sourranded by grieve and lamenting, bringing the ballet up to a master piece of Greek classic tragedy. It is a milestone that mark the entire panorama of the author’s prolific career as a coreographer. Rodney Rivera, as the artistic director of the company, enhances this dynamic group, with the headquarters in the municipality of Bayamón. The founder of the company, Elizabeth Calero,, herself a recipient of a kidney, had the humanistic approach to

invite both mothers to be present in the audience, and the nine year old boy recipient of a kidney donated by the heroe gold medalist.

“El Encanto”, followed. in an opposite venue, these local color vignettes depicted the native popular hits all representative of Puerto Rican ways of manifesting body and soul in the “bolero” mood. “Perdón” si es que te he faltado, done by Dafne Velázquez and José Rivera really begged for that pardon. Romantically involved, Judith Lugo, Etienne Hernández and Emmanuele Rodríguez

in the “pasde-trois” , Señora Bonita.

Andrea Vega partnered by José Rivera had no inhibitions rendering “Nosotros”. Nanya Sierra supported

by Carlos Madera, dramatically gave “Tiembla” with invigorating accent.

Manzanero’s, “Esta Tarde Vi LLover”, was a big riot message by Dafne and Eduardo Ortíz. The whole group brought the house down with the so celebrated “A Mi Manera”. Rodney Rivera did it again; emphasis going to Bayamón ballet Brío.

By Max González

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

35

Lifting a Veil of Fear to See a Few Benefits of Fever

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

F

ever is common, but fever is complicated. It brings up science and emotion, comfort and calculation.

As a pediatrician, I know fever is a signal that the immune system is working well. And as a parent, I know there is something primal and frightening about a feverish child in the night.

So those middle-of-the-night calls from worried parents, so frequent in every pediatric practice, can be less than straightforward.

A recent paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association pointed out one reason, and a longstanding discussion about parental perceptions reminds us of the emotional context.

The JAMA study looked at over-the-counter medications for children, including those marketed for treating pain and fever: how they are labeled, and whether the droppers and cups and marked spoons in the packages properly reflect the doses recommended on the labels.

The article concluded that many medications are not labeled clearly, that some provide no dosing instrument, and that the instruments, if included, are not marked consistently. (A dosing chart might recommend 1.5 milliliters, but the dropper has no “1.5 ml” mark.)

“Basically, the main message of the paper is that the instructions on the boxes and bottles of over-the-counter medications are really confusing,” said the lead author, Dr. H. Shonna Yin of New York University Medical Center, who is a colleague of mine and an assistant professor of pediatrics.

Too small a dose of an antipyretic (fever medicine) may be ineffective; too much can be toxic. But the dose depends on the child’s weight, which of course changes over time, and on the concentration of the medicine, which depends on whether it is acetaminophen or ibuprofen, children’s liquid or infant drops.

“We always make them get the bottle,” said Kathleen Martinez, a pediatric nurse practitioner who is clinical coordinator of the

After Hours Telephone Care Program at the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colo. “What do you have at home? Is it the ibuprofen infant drops or the children’s? Have the bottle in hand and verify the concentration.

“And then we have to verify the instrument, and then we give the right dose based on weight.

It’s time-consuming, and then of course it changes with the weight, so the poor parents have to call back.”

Concerns about fever — how worried should I be, and how much medicine should I give? — account for many of the calls that parents make at night to their children’s doctors. For me, these tricky measurement questions evoke memories of many conversations, often from a crowded, noisy place (my own child’s Little League game, the supermarket), trying to answer a question about a small child with fever.

One recent night, I talked to the mother of a toddler with fever and abdominal pain. I was more worried about the pain, and about whether he was drinking enough to stay hydrated; she was more worried about the fever, and no matter what I asked she kept coming back to that number on the thermometer.

Finally, I got so worried the child was dehydrated that I told her to go to the emergency room.

And when she got there, she told them she was scared because the child had a high fever.

Fever can indeed be scary, and any fever in an infant younger than 3 months is cause for major concern because of the risk of serious bacterial infections. But in general, in older children who do not look very distressed, fever is positive evidence of an active immune system, revved up and helping an array of immunological processes work more effectively.

Of course, that may not be reassuring to a parent whose child’s temperature is spiking at midnight. (Fevers tend to go up in the late afternoon and evening, as do normal body temperatures.)

In 1980, Dr. Barton D. Schmitt, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of

Medicine, published a now classic article about what he termed “fever phobia.” Many parents, he wrote, believed that untreated fevers might rise to critical levels and that even moderate and lowgrade fevers could have serious neurological effects (that is, as parents we tend to suspect that our children’s brains may melt).

A group at Johns Hopkins revisited Dr. Schmitt’s work in 2001, publishing a paper in the journal Pediatrics, “Fever Phobia Revisited: Have Parental Misconceptions About Fever Changed in 20 Years?” Their conclusion was that the fears and misconceptions persisted.

In fact, fever does not harm the brain or the body, though it does increase the need for fluids.

And even untreated, fevers rarely rise higher than 104 or 105 degrees.

As many as 5 percent of children are at risk for seizures with fever. These seizures can be terrifying to watch but generally are not harmful and do not cause epilepsy. Still, a child who has a first febrile seizure should be checked by a physician. (These seizures tend to run in families, and children who have had one may well have another.)

“Parents are telling us that

they’re worried that fever can cause brain damage or even death in their children,” said Dr. Michael Crocetti, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and lead author of the 2001 study.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and it seems to me that even though I do a tremendous amount of education about fever, its role in illness, its benefit in illness, it doesn’t seem to be something they keep hold of from visit to visit.”

Dr. Janet Serwint, another author of the study and a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, agreed. “I personally think there should be much more education about this at well visits,” she told me, adding that parents need to understand “the helpfulness of fever — how fever actually is a well-orchestrated healthy response of our body.”

Other studies have looked at attitudes among medical personnel, who can be just as worried about fever as parents.

“Doctors are part of the problem,” Dr. Schmitt said. Some of the phobia “comes from doctors and nurses,” he added — “doctors and nurses who weren’t taught about fever and all the wondrous things fever does in the animal kingdom.”

36 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Have a Food Allergy? It’s Time to Recheck

By JANE E. BRODY

F

ood allergies have generated a great deal of anxiety in recent years, with some schools going so far as to ban popular staples — especially peanut butter — after appeals from worried parents.

Some airlines have quit serving peanut snacks, and more and more restaurants are offering dishes for diners concerned about gluten or dairy allergies.

There is no question that some foods, especially peanuts and shellfish, can provoke severe reactions in a small fraction of the population. But a new analysis of the best available evidence finds that many children and adults who think they have food allergies are mistaken.

According to a definitive report compiled for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases by a 25-member panel of experts, a big part of the problem is misdiagnosis, from overreliance on two tests — a skin-prick test and a blood test for antibodies — that can produce misleading results.

The mere presence of antibodies to a particular substance in food does not mean that someone would have an allergic reaction after eating that food. in And a skin-prick test can remain positive long after an allergy is gone.

Sometimes a diagnosis is based on no test at all, solely on a patient’s or parent’s report of a bad reaction after a particular food was eaten. People often mistake food intolerance, like difficulty digesting the lactose in milk, for an allergy. (Allergies involve the immune system; lactose intolerance results from deficiency of an enzyme.)

Facts and Fallacies The only test that can definitively establish a food allergy is a so-called oral challenge, in which the patient ingests the suspect food and waits for a reaction. This can be safely done only by an experienced health professional with emergency treatment at hand in case of a severe reaction.

Understandably, doctors are often reluctant to try an oral challenge. But in challenges where a suspect food is compared with a placebo and neither doctor nor patient knows which food is which, only about a third of the foods have been found to cause allergies, the panel reported.

Nonetheless, genuine food allergies seem to have risen during the last decade or two, for reasons no one knows, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the allergy institute. The institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, sponsored the panel’s two-year effort to establish national guidelines for the definition, diagnosis and treatment of food allergies.

According to the panel’s detailed and welldocumented report, about one child in 20 and one adult in 25 have a food allergy, nowhere near popular estimates that up to 30 percent of Americans are afflicted.

The panel also reported that most children outgrow allergies to milk, egg, soy and wheat, but until they are properly tested they may not know it is now safe to eat the food — or, perhaps more important, to receive a vaccine prepared in eggs.

Allergies to peanuts and tree nuts are relatively rare (about half of 1 percent of the population in each case, according to the panel). But they tend to be lifelong and life-threatening, and can require extreme vigilance.

Some food allergies start in adulthood, and tend to last indefinitely as well. In particular, shellfish allergies, which can be life-threatening, occur in only 0.5 percent of children but 2.5 percent of adults.

It is not possible to predict the severity of a food allergy reaction based on past reactions. In the case of nut allergy, for example, subsequent exposures can be much worse than what a child first experienced.

There are no treatments for food allergy except to avoid the culprit food, which may require careful reading of labels and potentially embarrassing inquiries when eating away from home. Although immunotherapy has been proposed as a means of curbing an established food allergy, the panel did not recommend this outside of “highly controlled clinical settings.”

Many packaged food labels now warn not only that a particular allergen is present, but also that the product was prepared where allergens like nuts, wheat or soy are present. But Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan did a study of parents’ label reading and found that they were surprisingly poor at identifying foods to which their children were allergic.

Symptoms of food allergies are often confusing and can be mistaken for other problems. They can affect the skin (for example, as eczema or hives), eyes, upper or lower respiratory tract, any part of the digestive tract, and the cardiovascular system.

But unless a food allergy is proved, the panel does not recommend avoiding foods to control allergic dermatitis, asthma or inflammation of the esophagus.

As for vaccines, the panel said that even children with an egg allergy could safely be immunized for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox), but the flu vaccine should not be given.

When and When Not to Worry

The experts found little evidence that restricting a woman’s diet during pregnancy and lactation was effective in preventing food allergies in her offspring. Nor did they find strong evidence that exclusive breast-feeding for four to six months can prevent allergic disease. The panel said substituting soy for cow’s milk infant formula did not prevent food allergies in infants thought to be at risk because of a family history of allergy.

Moreover, there is danger in restricting children’s diets for fear of allergies, even real ones: They can develop nutrient deficiencies that result in retarded growth and development. Thus, the panel recommended “nutritional counseling and regular growth monitoring for all children with food allergies.”

The panel devoted the last section of its lengthy report to food-induced anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal disorder that is often recognized too late for adequate treatment. The most common food causes of anaphylaxis, the panel said, are peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish and crustacean shellfish, and a lifethreatening reaction can occur even the first time a person is exposed.

Symptoms that occur within minutes to several hours after exposure may involve lesions of the skin and mouth; difficulty breathing; a precipitous drop in blood pressure, dizziness or rapid heart rate; abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhea; and anxiety, mental confusion, lethargy or seizures.

Anyone with a life-threatening food allergy must always have readily available two doses of self-injectable epinephrine (commonly known by the brand EpiPen), to be injected into the thigh muscle. Treatment with an antihistamine is not an effective substitute, the panel warned.

Fatalities result when the use of epinephrine is delayed or the dose given is inadequate. When in doubt, treat, the panel said; then call 911. The EpiPen is a stopgap measure to buy time until life-saving care can be administered.

Parents, baby sitters, school nurses and camp counselors must have two epinephrine pens handy and know how to use them for each child at risk of anaphylaxis. The pens must be stored at 59 to 89 degrees Fahrenheit, and must be replaced annually.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

37

Exhausted by Illness, and Doubts

By DAVID TULLER

C

hronic fatigue syndrome causes a host of debilitating symptoms: profound exhaustion, disordered sleep, muscle and joint pain and severe cognitive problems, among others. But what causes the syndrome itself?

Since the first cases in the United States were identified in the 1980s, scientists have been divided over that question. Some have suspected that one or more viral infections are likely to play a central role.

But many other researchers — not to mention relatives, friends, employers, doctors and insurers of the million or more Americans estimated to suffer from the illness — have dismissed it as stress-related, psychosomatic or simply imaginary.

Now recent back-to-back announcements have highlighted both the volatility of the issue and the ambiguity of the science, and have alternately heartened and dismayed patients.

On Dec. 14, an advisory panel suggested that the Food and Drug Administration ban blood donations by people with a history of C.F.S., as the illness is often called. The goal was to prevent the possible spread of viruses that two high-profile studies had linked to the condition.

But then, on Dec. 20, the journal Retrovirology published four papers suggesting that key findings in those studies could have resulted from laboratory contamination.

The F.D.A. is not required to accept the opinion of its advisory panel. Yet patients still hailed the recommendation as a sign that their illness was being taken seriously.

“When an F.D.A. panel suggests that patients with C.F.S. not donate blood, that’s going to impact the way doctors think about it,” said Mary Schweitzer, a former history professor at Villanova, who has frequently written about living with the illness. Dr. Schweitzer said she has been unable to work for 16 years because of the syndrome, which was diagnosed after she suffered from a series of flulike illnesses.

The studies that concerned the F.D.A. had reported that people with the syndrome, which is also called myalgic encephalomyelitis or myalgic encephalopathy in Europe, showed higher rates of infection with the virus XMRV or others from the same category, known as MLV-related viruses. (These viruses are

all relatives of mouse leukemia viruses, some of which can infect species other than mice; their role in human disease, if any, remains poorly understood.)

But several other research teams in the last year have found no connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and these viruses, although none tried to replicate the exact methods used by researchers who reported an association.

The new papers in Retrovirology reported that contamination of tissue samples or other laboratory items with mouse DNA or viral genetic material could lead to false positive results for XMRV, and by extension other MLVrelated viruses, specifically when using polymerase chain reaction technology.

The technique rapidly produces millions of copies of genetic segments, so even minute traces of genetic contamination can skew results.

“Our conclusion is quite simple: XMRV is not the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome,” said the senior author of one of the studies, Greg Towers, a professor of virology at University College London, in a statement released by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the British research center that co-sponsored it.

Other scientists and advocates for patients have sharply criticized such certainty as unwarranted, noting that the Retrovirology papers themselves expressed their findings in more cautious terms. The critics agree that contamination can be a serious issue when using polymerase chain reaction technology.

But the new papers, said Eric Gordon, a doctor in Santa Rosa, Calif., who treats many patients with the illness, do not evaluate other strategies besides P.C.R., as the technique is known, for detecting

the MLV-related viruses, like testing for an immune response and culturing the viruses in cell lines.

“The articles make the point that P.C.R. doesn’t work that well for these viruses, and then they act like that disproves the whole idea,” said Dr. Gordon.

XMRV was first identified in 2006 and has been detected in prostate cancer patients in some studies. It was linked to chronic fatigue syndrome in October 2009 in a paper in the journal Science by researchers from the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease at the University of Nevada, Reno, the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic.

The researchers relied on P.C.R. technology to show that about two-thirds of patients but less than 4 percent of control subjects harbored XMRV. Using other technologies, however, they also documented an antibody response in some chronic fatigue syndrome patients, and reported that XMRV in human blood could infect other human cell lines.

In a statement responding to the new papers in Retrovirology, Judy A. Mikovits, director of research at Whittemore Peterson and the senior author of the Science study, said her team took extensive steps to rule out P.C.R. contamination and also focused on other approaches to finding XMRV. “Nothing that has been published to date refutes our data,” she said.

Even some specialists stumbled over the meaning of the new findings.

Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology at Columbia not involved in the research, apologized on his Virology

Blog for having stated that it was likely to spell “the beginning of the end” for the proposed connection between the viruses and chronic fatigue syndrome.

After reviewing the issue more thoroughly, he wrote, he realized that the new studies “show that identification of XMRV can be fraught with contamination problems, but they do not imply that previously published studies are compromised.” He added, “If I had difficulties interpreting these papers, how would nonscientists fare?”

Federal agencies have come down on different sides of the issue. In a paper published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the F.D.A. found a link between the fatigue syndrome and MLV-related viruses (although not specifically XMRV). In contrast, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was among those not reporting a link.

Federal health officials have organized two research efforts to resolve the inconsistencies, determine whether XMRV and MLV-related viruses are possible human pathogens, and identify reliable ways to detect them. Patients hope the increased attention will quickly lead to research on treatments, including clinical trials of H.I.V. drugs, some of which have been shown in lab studies to inhibit the replication of XMRV. The unsettled situation has created a quandary for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and the doctors who treat them. Some patients are seeking to be treated with H.I.V. drugs, which doctors can legally prescribe even though the F.D.A. has not approved them for that purpose.

Many doctors and researchers say it is too early to prescribe the drugs for chronic fatigue because of possible side effects, like bone marrow suppression, gastrointestinal problems and liver or kidney dysfunction, among others. But Michael Allen, a writer and a former psychologist in San Francisco who has been disabled for more than 15 years, said he wouldn’t hesitate to try the medications if he found out he was positive for an MLV-related virus.

“It feels patronizing when the medical establishment says the side effects are too risky and we should keep waiting,” he said. “What that says to me is they have no idea whatsoever how sick people like me have been with this disease.”

SCIENCE / TECH 38 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

You Might Already Know This

By BENEDICT CAREY

T

hey should have seen it coming.

In recent weeks, editors at a respected psychology journal have been taking heat from fellow scientists for deciding to accept a research report that claims to show the existence of extrasensory perception.

The report, to be published this year in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is not likely to change many minds. And the scientific critiques of the research methods and data analysis of its author, Daryl J. Bem (and the peer reviewers who urged that his paper be accepted), are not winning over many hearts.

Yet the episode has inflamed one of the longest-running debates in science. For decades, some statisticians have argued that the standard technique used to analyze data in much of social science and medicine overstates many study findings — often by a lot. As a result, these experts say, the literature is littered with positive findings that do not pan out: “effective” therapies that are no better than a placebo; slight biases that do not affect behavior; brain-imaging correlations that are meaningless.

By incorporating statistical techniques that are now widely used in other sciences — genetics, economic modeling, even wildlife monitoring — social scientists can correct for such problems, saving themselves (and, ahem, science reporters) time, effort and embarrassment.

“I was delighted that this ESP paper was accepted in a mainstream science journal, because it brought this whole subject up again,” said James Berger, a statistician at Duke University. “I was on a mini-crusade about this 20 years ago and realized that I could devote my entire life to it and never make a dent in the problem.”

The statistical approach that has dominated the social sciences for almost a century is called significance testing. The

idea is straightforward. A finding from any well-designed study — say, a correlation between a personality trait and the risk of depression — is considered “significant” if its probability of occurring by chance is less than 5 percent.

This arbitrary cutoff makes sense when the effect being studied is a large one — for example, when measuring the so-called Stroop effect. This effect predicts that naming the color of a word is faster and more accurate when the word and color match (“red” in red letters) than when they do not (“red” in blue letters), and is very strong in almost everyone.

“But if the true effect of what you are measuring is small,” said Andrew Gelman, a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University, “then by necessity anything you discover is going to be an overestimate” of that effect.

Consider the following experiment.

Suppose there was reason to believe that a coin was slightly weighted toward heads.

In a test, the coin comes up heads 527 times out of 1,000.

Is this significant evidence that the coin is weighted?

Classical analysis says yes. With a fair coin, the chances of getting 527 or more heads in 1,000 flips is less than 1 in 20, or 5 percent, the conventional cutoff. To put it another way: the experiment finds evidence of a weighted coin “with 95 percent confidence.”

Yet many statisticians do not buy it. One in 20 is the probability of getting any number of heads above 526 in 1,000 throws. That is, it is the sum of the probability of flipping 527, the probability of flipping 528, 529 and so on.

But the experiment did not find all of the numbers in that range; it found just one — 527. It is thus more accurate, these experts say, to calculate the probability of getting that one number — 527 — if the coin is weighted, and compare it with the

probability of getting the same number if the coin is fair.

Statisticians can show that this ratio cannot be higher than about 4 to 1, according to Paul Speckman, a statistician, who, with Jeff Rouder, a psychologist, provided the example. Both are at the University of Missouri and said that the simple experiment represented a rough demonstration of how classical analysis differs from an alternative approach, which emphasizes the importance of comparing the odds of a study finding to something that is known.

The point here, said Dr. Rouder, is that 4-to-1 odds “just aren’t that convincing; it’s not strong evidence.”

And yet classical significance testing “has been saying for at least 80 years that this is strong evidence,” Dr. Speckman said in an e-mail.

The critics have been crying foul for half that time. In the 1960s, a team of statisticians led by Leonard Savage at the University of Michigan showed that the classical approach could overstate the significance of the finding by a factor of 10 or more. By that time, a growing number of statisticians were developing methods based on the ideas of the 18th-century English mathematician Thomas Bayes.

Bayes devised a way to update the probability for a hypothesis as new evidence comes in.

So in evaluating the strength of a given finding, Bayesian (pronounced BAYZ-ee-un) analysis incorporates known probabilities, if available, from outside the study.

It might be called the “Yeah, right” effect. If a study finds that kumquats reduce the risk of heart disease by 90 percent, that a treatment cures alcohol addiction in a week, that sensitive parents are twice as likely to give birth to a girl as to a boy, the Bayesian response matches that of the native skeptic: Yeah, right. The study findings are weighed against what is observable out

in the world.

In at least one area of medicine — diagnostic screening tests — researchers already use known probabilities to evaluate new findings. For instance, a new liedetection test may be 90 percent accurate, correctly flagging 9 out of 10 liars. But if it is given to a population of 100 people already known to include 10 liars, the test is a lot less impressive.

It correctly identifies 9 of the 10 liars and misses one; but it incorrectly identifies 9 of the other 90 as lying. Dividing the socalled true positives (9) by the total number of people the test flagged (18) gives an accuracy rate of 50 percent. The “false positives” and “false negatives” depend on the known rates in the population.

In the same way, experts argue, statistical analysis must find ways to expose and counterbalance all the many factors that can lead to falsely positive results — among them human nature, in its ambitious hope to discover something, and the effects of industry money, which biases researchers to report positive findings for products.

And, of course, the unwritten rule that failed studies — the ones that find no effects — are far less likely to be published than positive ones. What are the odds, for instance, that the journal would have published Dr. Bem’s study if it had come to the ho-hum conclusion that ESP still does not exist?

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

39 SCIENCE / TECH

Depth of the Kindness Hormone Appears to Know Some Bounds

By NICHOLAS WADE

O

xytocin has been described as the hormone of love.

This tiny chemical, released from the hypothalamus region of the brain, gives rat mothers the urge to nurse their pups, keeps male prairie voles monogamous and, even more remarkable, makes people trust each other more.

Yes, you knew there had to be a catch. As oxytocin comes into sharper focus, its social radius of action turns out to have definite limits. The love and trust it promotes are not toward the world in general, just toward a person’s in-group. Oxytocin turns out to be the hormone of the clan, not of universal brotherhood. Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism.

A principal author of the new take on oxytocin is Carsten K. W. De Dreu, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam. Reading the growing literature on the warm and cuddly effects of oxytocin, he decided on evolutionary principles that no one who placed unbounded trust in others could survive. Thus there must be limits on oxytocin’s ability to induce trust, he assumed, and he set out to define them.

In a report published last year in Science, based on experiments in which subjects distributed money, he and colleagues showed that doses of oxytocin made people more likely to favor the in-group at the expense of an out-group. With a new set of experiments in Tuesday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he has extended his study to ethnic attitudes, using Muslims and Germans as the out-groups for his subjects, Dutch college students.

These nationalities were chosen because of a 2005 poll that showed that 51 percent of Dutch citizens held unfavorable opinions about Muslims, and other surveys that Germans, although seen by the Dutch as less threatening, were nevertheless regarded as “aggressive, arrogant and cold.”

Well-socialized Dutch students might be unlikely to say anything derogatory about other groups. So one set of Dr. De Dreu’s experiments tapped into the unconscious mind by asking subjects simply to press a key when shown a pair of words. One word had either positive or negative connotations. The other was either a common Dutch first name like Peter, or an out-group name, like Markus or Helmut for the Germans, and Ahmad or Youssef for the Muslims.

What is measured is the length of time a subject takes to press a key. If both words have the same emotional value, the subject will press the key more quickly than if the emotional overtones conflict and the mind takes longer to reach a decision. Subjects who had sniffed a dose of oxytocin 40 minutes earlier were significantly more likely to favor the in-group, Dr. De Dreu reported.

In another set of experiments the Dutch students were given standard moral dilemmas in which a choice must be made about whether to help a person onto an overloaded lifeboat, thereby drowning the five already there, or saving five people in the path of a train by throwing a bystander onto the tracks.

In Dr. De Dreu’s experiments, the five people who might be saved were nameless, but the sacrificial victim had either a Dutch or a Muslim name. Subjects who had taken oxytocin were far more likely to sacrifice the Muhammads than the Maartens.

Despite the limitation on oxytocin’s social reach, its effect seems to be achieved more through inducing feelings of loyalty to the in-group than by fomenting hatred of the out-group. The Dutch researchers found some evidence that it enhances negative feelings, but this was not conclusive. “Oxytocin creates intergroup bias primarily because it motivates in-group favoritism and because it motivates out-group derogation,” they write.

Dr. De Dreu plans to investigate whether oxytocin mediates

other social behaviors that evolutionary psychologists think evolved in early human groups. Besides loyalty to one’s own group, there would also have been survival advantages in rewarding cooperation and punishing deviants.

Oxytocin, if it underlies these behaviors too, would perhaps have helped ancient populations set norms of behavior.

Early religions were also involved in establishing group cohesion and penalizing offenders.

Could oxytocin be involved in the social aspects of the religious experience? Dr. De Dreu sees oxytocin’s effects as being very general, and no more likely to be associated with the religious experience than with soccer hooliganism. “When people get together with others who share their values, that drives up the level of oxytocin,” he said.

For military commanders, nothing is more important than the group cohesion of their soldiers, for which oxytocin might now seem the ideal prescription. But this assumption is a bridge too far, Dr. De Dreu said, given that his findings are based only on lab experiments.

What does it mean that a chemical basis for ethnocentrism is embedded in the human brain? “In the ancestral environment it was

very important for people to detect in others whether they had a longterm commitment to the group,” Dr. De Dreu said. “Ethnocentrism is a very basic part of humans, and it’s not something we can change by education. That doesn’t mean that the negative aspects of it should be taken for granted.”

Bruno B. Averbeck, an expert on the brain’s emotional processes at the National Institute of Mental Health, said that the effects of oxytocin described in Dr. De Dreu’s report were interesting but not necessarily dominant. The brain weighs emotional attitudes like those prompted by oxytocin against information available to the conscious mind. If there is no cognitive information in a situation in which a decision has to be made, like whether to trust a stranger about whom nothing is known, the brain will go with the emotional advice from its oxytocin system, but otherwise rational data will be weighed against the influence from oxytocin and may well override it, Dr. Averbeck said.

Dr. Averbeck said he was amazed that a substance like oxytocin can affect such a high-level human behavior. “It’s really surprising to me that this neurotransmitter can so specifically affect these social behaviors,” he said.

SCIENCE / TECH 40 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Cave Drops Hints to Earliest Glass of Wine

By PAM BELLUCK

S

cientists have reported finding the oldest known winemaking operation, about 6,100 years old, complete with a vat for fermenting, a press, storage jars, a clay bowl and a drinking cup made from an animal horn. Grape seeds, dried pressed grapes, stems, shriveled grapevines and residue were also found, and chemical analyses indicate red wine was produced there.

The discovery, published online Tuesday in The Journal of Archaeological Science, occurred in a cave in Armenia where the team of American, Armenian and Irish archaeologists recently found the oldest known leather shoe. The shoe, a laced cowhide moccasin possibly worn by a woman with a size-7 foot, is about 5,500 years old.

These discoveries and other artifacts found in the cave provide a window into the Copper Age, or Late Chalcolithic period, when humans are believed to have invented the wheel and domesticated horses, among other innovations.

Relatively few objects have been found, but the cave, designated Areni-1 and discovered in 1997, is proving a perfect time capsule because prehistoric artifacts have been preserved under layers of sheep dung and a white crust on the cave’s karst limestone walls.

“We keep finding more interesting things,” said Gregory Areshian, assistant director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the co-director of the excavation, which is financed by the National Geographic Society and other institutions. “Because of the conditions of the cave, things are wonderfully preserved.”

Experts called the find a watershed.

“I see it as the earliest winemaking facility that’s ever been found,” said Patrick E. McGovern, an archaeological chemist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, which is not involved in the project. “It shows a fairly largescale operation, and it fits very well with the evidence that we already have about the tradition of making wine.”

Some of that evidence was identified by Dr. McGovern and colleagues, who determined that residue in jars found at a northwestern Iran site called Hajji Firuz suggested that wine was being made as early as 7,400 years ago.

But “that’s just a number of wine jars that we identified,” said Dr. McGovern, author of “Uncorking the Past.”

“Just how elaborate this one is suggests that there was earlier production” of a more sophisticated nature.

Stefan K. Estreicher, a professor at Texas Tech University and author of “Wine: From Neolithic Times to the 21st Century,” said the Armenian discovery shows “how important it was to them” to make wine because “they spent a lot of time and effort to build a facility to use only once a year” when grapes were harvested.

The wine was probably used for ritual purposes, as burial sites were seen nearby in the cave. Dr. Areshian said at least eight bodies had been found so far, including a child, a woman, bones of elderly men and, in ceramic vessels, skulls of three adolescents (one still containing brain tissue).

Wine may have been drunk to honor or appease the dead, and was “maybe also sprinkled on these burials,” he said.

The cave, with several chambers, appeared to be used for rituals by high-status people, although some people, possibly caretakers, lived up front, where the shoe was found. Researchers have also found two “dark holes, essentially jars filled with dried fruit, including dried grapes, prunes, walnuts and probably the oldest evidence of cultivating almonds,” Dr. Areshian said.

And there is evidence of a 6,000-year-old “metallurgical operation,” including smelted copper

and a mold to cast copper ingots, he said.

Mitchell S. Rothman, an anthropologist and Chalcolithic expert at Widener University not involved in the expedition, said these discoveries show “the industry and technology developing,” and “the very inklings of some kind of social differentiation.”

It is “the sort of thing where ritual becomes not only part of the desire to appreciate the gods, but a way in which the people involved in that become somehow special,” added Dr. Rothman, who has visited the cave.

The winemaking discovery began when graduate students found grape seeds in the cave’s central chamber in 2007, and culminated last fall. A shallow, thick-rimmed, 3-by-3 1/2-foot clay basin appears to be a wine press where people stomped grapes with their feet. The basin is positioned so juice would tip into a two-foot-deep vat.

Scientists verified the age and function with radiocarbon dating, botanical analysis to confirm the grapes were cultivated, and analysis of residue for malvidin, which gives red wine its color.

Dr. Areshian said scientists are undertaking “a very extensive DNA analysis of the grape seeds” from the cave and “our botanists want to plant some of the seeds.”

Satelite Finds Exoplanet, Rocky, Small and Very Hot

By DENNIS OVERBYE

I

n a down payment on riches to come, scientists from NASA’s Kepler satellite announced Monday that they had discovered the smallest planet yet found outside our solar system and the first that was unquestionably rocky, like the Earth.

The planet, known as Kepler 10b, is only 40 percent larger than the Earth and about 4.6 times as massive, making it about as dense as Mercury. It is lethally hot, orbiting its star in 20 hours at a distance only one-twentieth of that of Mercury from the Sun. “She’s a scorched world,” said Natalie Batalha of San Jose State

University, the member of the Kepler team who directed the study of the planet. She reported her findings at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society here and in a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.

Five hundred exoplanets, as planets around other stars are called, have been detected over the last 15 years. A vast majority of them are Jupiter-size giants, but as techniques have improved, astronomers have been able to detect smaller and smaller planets.

Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, a veteran exoplanet hunter and a member of the Kepler team, called the new planet a “planetary missing

link” between those hot giants and the Earth-size habitable planets that astronomers hope Kepler and other space projects will uncover.

Today’s announcement, he said, “I believe will be marked as among the most profound in human history.”

Kepler, launched in 2009, searches for exoplanets by staring at 150,000 stars in a patch of sky between Cygnus and Lyra constellations, looking for dips in brightness caused by the passage of a planet in front of its home star. The goal is to find Earth-size planets in habitable orbits, meaning that liquid water can exist on their surfaces.

The Kepler 10b planet showed up early in the commissioning of

the satellite after its launching. The Kepler astronomers could measure the planet’s radius by the silhouette it cut in the star’s light, and its mass by painstaking spectroscopic measurements made with the mighty Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii that showed by how much the planet’s gravity was tugging its star back and forth.

Kepler 10b’s star is 560 lightyears away and about eight billion years old. Dr. Batalha noted that when the light received by Kepler left that star, Europeans were beginning to embark on the great ocean voyages of discovery, “looking for new horizons.” We are doing the same thing, she went on: “Our crow’s nest is a spacecraft called Kepler.”

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

41 SCIENCE / TECH

The War of the Worlds

By KENNETH CHANG

S

ix years ago this month, Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy spotted an object in the sky that was so bright and so far away he was sure it was bigger than Pluto.

In November, that object, now known as the dwarf planet Eris, passed in front of a dim, distant star. Astronomers led by Bruno Sicardy of the Paris Observatory measured how long the star disappeared behind Eris and, from that, calculated the width of Eris.

“It’s clearly smaller,” said Alain Maury, who observed the brief disappearance, or occultation, of the star at the San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations Observatory in Chile.

For now, Drs. Maury and Sicardy decline to say exactly how small Eris is, because they first want to publish the results in the journal Nature. But they say that even accounting for the uncertainties in the observations, the largest possible Eris is smaller than the smallest possible Pluto.

The news raises the question of what might have happened if Eris’ true size had been known from the beginning. Dr. Brown’s discovery of Eris — and the presumption that it was bigger than Pluto — was the falling domino that pushed the International Astronomical Union to come up with a new definition of “planet” that excluded Pluto.

Pluto and Eris were downsized to “dwarf planets” — roundish objects that do not gravitationally dominate their orbits.

If astronomers had believed Pluto to be larger than Eris — even slightly — might they have kept the solar system at nine planets and sidestepped the ensuing kerfuffle?

“Maybe,” Dr. Brown said, although as he tells in his unapologetically titled book “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming,” he thinks the International Astronomical Union got it right.

The occultation measurement — which means Eris is not just smaller than expected but also incredibly shiny — is the latest surprise of the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy debris beyond Neptune. That belt turns out to be even stranger than astronomers thought a few years ago.

Not everyone is convinced Eris is smaller than Pluto. The occultation measurement seems to demonstrate convincingly that Eris’ diameter is less than 2,360 kilometers, or 1,466 miles. That is smaller than earlier estimates of 3,000 kilometers, based on infrared light from Eris, and 2,400 kilometers observations with the Hubble Space Telescope.

More than 80 years after Clyde Tombaugh spotted Pluto, astronomers still have not pinned down how big, or small, it is.

For decades, Pluto was the magically shrinking planet. First thought to be as large as Earth nearly 8,000 miles wide subsequent measurements had it smaller and smaller.

In 1980, Alexander Dessler and

Christopher Russell published a graph of the mass estimates through the years and jokingly predicted that Pluto would disappear entirely in 1984. “Those of you observing Pluto should hurry,” they wrote.

Between 1985 and 1990, the orbit of Pluto’s moon, Charon, was edge-on, as seen from Earth, and eclipses enabled astronomers to measure the diameters of Pluto and Charon. Pluto has also passed in front of a few stars, just as Eris did in November.

Pluto can reach minus 360 degrees Fahrenheit, warm enough for methane and nitrogen ices to evaporate and create an atmosphere, and the atmosphere bends light.

“Pluto’s atmosphere is like a crummy convergent lens,” said Eliot Young, an astronomer, who was an author of the 2006 paper. “Each ray is bent toward the center of Pluto.”

Thus, the true diameter of Pluto remains uncertain.

Dr. Young reanalyzed the stellar occultation data and found Pluto to be bigger, with the data compatible with a diameter as large as 2,400 kilometers.

Eris is about three times as far from the Sun as Pluto, colder and devoid of any atmosphere to distort an occultation. So astronomers now know Eris’ size more accurately than Pluto’s.

Possible Pluto sizes overlap possible Eris sizes. “If you looked at the two of them right next to each other sitting in space, they would look to be exactly the same size,” Dr. Brown said. “You couldn’t tell by eye until you took out your, really big ruler.”

Drs. Maury and Sicardy point to another estimate that finds a larger Pluto, based on the absorption of light by methane in Pluto’s atmosphere.

That analysis, by Emmanuel Lellouch of the Paris Observatory, and his collaborators, said to explain the patterns they saw, Pluto had to be at least 2,360 kilometers wide.

Dr. Young, while lauding methane measurements, said much was not known about the structure of Pluto’s atmosphere to make confident a conclusion about its size.

A precise, direct measurement of Pluto will finally come in 2015 when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is to fly past.

The smaller size of Eris would actually make it more interesting, Dr. Brown said.

With less surface area, it would have to reflect almost all the light that hits it to explain how bright it is. And to explain the shininess, it must have a thin layer of methane and nitrogen frost — the remnants of a thin atmosphere that froze as Eris moved along its elliptical orbit away from the Sun. Eris is almost nine billion miles from the Sun, but its elliptical, 557-year orbit takes it as close as 3.5 billion miles. Pluto’s distance from the Sun varies between 2.7 billion and 4.6 billion miles.

Even if Eris is slightly smaller than Pluto, it is still the heavyweight of the Kuiper Belt — 27 percent more massive than

Pluto. The orbital period of Charon put a precise figure on Pluto’s mass, and Eris’ mass is similarly well measured because it too has a moon, named Dysnomia. Eris must have a much larger rocky core than Pluto, perhaps indicating Pluto and Eris did not form in quite the same way.

Other Kuiper Belt objects discovered in the past decade have shown the outer system to be more curious and violent. One of those is Haumea, a dwarf planet that is highly elongated and spins very fast, once every four hours.

“The only thing we could think that would cause it is if it got smacked, really hard, by something else early in the history of the solar system,” Dr. Brown said, “and everyone kind shook their head and said, well, no, that makes no sense, the probability of that happening is nearly zero.”

Then Dr. Brown and his collaborators discovered two moons orbiting Haumea that looked like shards knocked off by an impact. Still, the skeptics doubted.

Later, they found a dozen more pieces of Haumea, orbiting not around Haumea but around the Sun. “At this point, there is no question this thing suffered a giant impact,” Dr. Brown said. “I think we should have called it Humpty Dumpty instead of Haumea.”

Other large Kuiper Belt objects have tiny fragment moons, suggesting giant impacts were not uncommon. Many of them are also rockier than expected; impacts could have knocked away outer layers of ice. Indeed, a giant, high-speed impact in Eris’ past could be the reason it has less ice and more rock than Pluto.

Recent measurements indicate the other large Kuiper Belt objects are, like Eris, smaller and shinier Makemake appears to be 1,200 kilometers in diameter, not 1,500.

Quaoar, might be only 900 kilometers wide, compared with earlier estimates of 1,200 kilometers.

That leaves a sizable gap between Pluto and Eris and the next largest ones. “It’s a really strange distribution of sizes.”

The biggest surprise since the discovery of Eris is there has not been another Eris.

Dr. Brown’s sweep of the Kuiper Belt turned up a series of larger and larger objects — up to Eris. After Eris, the search

found nothing else of note. There was a possibility of another large Kuiper Belt object lurking in the Southern Hemisphere sky, out of view of the telescope.

Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution just completed a survey of the remaining sky, and he, too, found nothing large.

“It is highly unlikely there are other Pluto-size objects” in the Kuiper Belt, Dr. Sheppard said.

Beyond the Kuiper Belt, more mysteries await.

Astronomers want to find more objects like Sedna. Sedna is currently about three times as far from the Sun as Neptune, which is outside of the Kuiper Belt. But at the other end of its 11,800-year elliptical orbit, Sedna will be 32 times as far out as Neptune.

Beyond Sedna is the Oort cloud, an even more distant collection of bodies astronomers have not yet found, but which they are absolutely certain exist. (Some of the comets that pass by the Sun originated in the Oort cloud but were gravitationally nudged to dive toward the inner solar system.)

And one of those more distant objects could turn out to be larger than one or more of the remaining eight planets, which could reignite the debate over what should be called a planet.

Dr. Brown originally wanted to name Eris after his daughter, Lilah, who was born three weeks before the discovery was announced.

Dr. Brown eventually settled on Eris, the Greek goddess of strife. Dysnomia, the moon, is a demon of lawlessness and the daughter of Eris. Dr. Brown also chose that name because the first syllable is pronounced like the first syllable of Diane.

Lilah, in kindergarten, is one of the people upset with her father over Pluto.

“Killing is bad, and she knows I killed Pluto and therefore I’m a bad person.”

Dr. Brown explained to Lilah why Pluto was no longer a planet. “And she’s fine with that,” he said. “She has a solution, which is an interestingly creative solution.”

Lilah told him, “Why don’t you find another planet and name it Pluto?”

“That’s why I keep looking,” Dr. Brown said.

Lilah still does not know she almost had a planet named after her.

42 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Snake Owners See Furry Bias in Invasive Species Proposal

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

U

ntil recently, Jeremy Stone lived happily in Lindon, Utah, with his wife and four children, and an annex full of baby ball pythons and boa constrictors.

The Stone family shares a passion for slithering pets. Mr. Stone’s son Zach got his first boa, a specially bred variety that glows yellowish orange, as a reward for doing his summer chores at age 6.

But like many snake lovers, Mr. Stone has been seething at the American government since early last year, when it sought to ban the importation and interstate transportation of nine species of foreign snakes.

The federal Fish and Wildlife Service said the animals, if freed, posed a serious risk to native ecosystems across the southern United States.

“It is a joke,” Mr. Stone said of the science behind the government’s decision.

Mr. Stone makes his living breeding snakes with genetic mutations, like albinism, that make them attractive to buyers.

His animals, raised in captivity, pose no threat, he said. They would be picked off in an instant in the wild and would have no idea how to fend for themselves. And if they escaped from their warm annex in Lindon, he added, they would die from the cold.

When the Fish and Wildlife Service moved to ban trade in the snakes, which include boas and species of anacondas and pythons, it argued that they met the legal criteria for being both injurious and invasive. Invasive species — from Asian carp, which threaten the Great Lakes, to zebra mussels, which spread exponentially — are a serious environmental concern, one that is often not dealt with until a species has become firmly established. The Fish and Wildlife Service argues that in the case of the snakes, they are trying to get ahead of the problem.

But it is the first time the government has tried to list animals so widely held as pets. Roughly one million Americans are believed to own snakes of the types listed by the Interior Department, according to the United States Association of Reptile Keepers, and 31,000 were imported in 2008, the most recent year for which the government has data. Trade in these species is big business: more than $100 million annually. Those with rare colors can fetch upward of $75,000.

The move to ban the snakes has set off a swell of anger among aggrieved snake owners and breeders, who have the most to lose financially, as well as a smattering of academic herpetologists, zookeepers and representatives of international conservation groups. When the regulations

came up for public review, they flooded the government with objections.

At the heart of their arguments is a critique of the emerging science of invasive species risk assessment. And their response has highlighted the challenges that the government faces as it increasingly moves to protect native flora and fauna not just from current invasive species but also from future threats.

The reptile keepers group, which claims 12,000 professional breeders and sellers as members, has filed formal objections with the Interior Department and is threatening a lawsuit based on what it says is the government’s poor scientific evidence.

Andrew Wyatt, the president of the association, argues that the government is now promoting a native-species-only agenda favored by environmental groups.

Albino boa constrictor.

“This has implications for every animal interest out there, right down to family pets,” he said, adding that by such standards, “all amphibians are injurious and cats and hogs can’t be far behind.”

The battle goes back to 2006, when the South Florida Water Management District petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the snakes under the Lacey Act, which would make it a crime to transport them into the United States or across state borders.

Burmese pythons — some thought to be dumped by pet owners and some that escaped — were establishing themselves across the Everglades, where they were swallowing up everything from endangered Key Largo wood rats to alligators. The population has been expanding northward at roughly three and a half to six miles a year — Indy 500 speeds in reptilian terms.

In recent years, Florida officials had taken significant steps to limit ownership of invasive snakes within the state but still wanted more to be done. What was to protect the Everglades from a snake bought in Georgia and carried across state lines?

To ban the snakes under federal law, the government would have to show that they posed a threat to native plants, crops or animals. With very little science available about how reptiles that come from

distant places like subtropical Asia and Africa might fare in America, the United States Geological Survey was asked to assess the risk.

The agency looked at many factors, including the damage in the Everglades. It also turned to a computer model to determine what parts of the country might have a hospitable climate for the species. The scientists looked at variables including mean monthly temperatures and rainfall at a wide range of elevations in the native habitats of the animals and matched them to patterns in the United States.

They estimated that suitable climates for the Burmese python in particular might include the 11 southernmost states from California to North Carolina. If global warming continued apace, the geological survey added, the snakes might even be at home in New York City by 2100. The national news media gave gleeful attention to the prospect of a snake invasion.

But soon after, biologists at the City University of New York did their own modeling, using more factors and different ones like precipitation during the wettest periods of the year, and came up with only Florida and South Texas as possible habitats for the snakes. Independent studies of snakes captured in the Everglades and taken north to Gainesville, Fla., and South Carolina found that most of the animals died when left outside in winter in those regions.

These findings were further bolstered when an unusual cold snap in the Everglades last January left a large number of Burmese pythons dead on canal banks and levees.

The studies have fired up the snake

industry, which sees them as proof that the government is pursuing a hostile and unwarranted agenda. Mr. Stone, the breeder, said that the government regulations, which do not prevent breeding and owning but do prevent transportation across state lines, would ruin his business and thousands like it.

“The reptile industry would suffer a crushing blow, over something that does not make sense,” he said.

Dr. Elliott Jacobson, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Florida and a specialist in reptiles, also sees the government’s science as skewed.

He loves snakes so much that he keeps 140 as pets and houses them in a guest cottage and in the bedrooms once occupied by his sons, now grown. But he said he suspected that the government was less sympathetic to his pets than to more cuddly creatures.

“The impact of feral cats, for example, on wildlife is much greater than what the Burmese pythons can do,” he said, noting that a cat eats much more than a snake of the same size.

But Thomas Strickland, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, said that the government was not going to back down and that it would approve the regulations by next summer. The science is solid, Mr. Strickland said, and the United States Geological Survey will soon publish a peer-reviewed answer to its critics.

Like other invasive species, snakes are a real and growing problem, he said.

“You are not dealing with hamsters here,” he said. “I was down in the Everglades, and it took four people to hold a 19-foot Burmese python. These things wreak havoc.”

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

43

A Light in India W

hen we hear the word innovation, we often think of new technologies or silver bullet solutions — like hydrogen fuel cells or a cure for cancer.

To be sure, breakthroughs are vital: antibiotics and vaccines, for example, transformed global health. But as we’ve argued in Fixes, some of the greatest advances come from taking old ideas or technologies and making them accessible to millions of people who are underserved.

One area where this is desperately needed is access to electricity. In the age of the iPad, it’s easy to forget that roughly a quarter of the world’s population — about a billion and a half people — still lack electricity. This isn’t just an inconvenience; it takes a severe toll on economic life, education and health. It’s estimated that two million people die prematurely each year as a result of pulmonary diseases caused by the indoor burning of fuels for cooking and light. Close to half are children who die of pneumonia.

In vast stretches of the developing world, after the sun sets, everything goes dark. In subSaharan Africa, about 70 percent of the population lack electricity.

However, no country has more citizens living without power than India, where more than 400 million people, the vast majority of them villagers, have no electricity. The place that remains most in darkness is Bihar, India’s poorest state, which has more than 80 million people, 85 percent of whom live in households with no grid connection. Because Bihar has nowhere near the capacity to meet its current power demands, even those few with connections receive electricity sporadically and often at odd hours, like between 3:00 a.m and 6:00 a.m., when it is of little use.

This is why I’m writing today about a small but fast-growing offgrid electricity company based in Bihar called Husk Power Systems.

It has created a system to turn rice husks into electricity that is reliable, eco-friendly and affordable for families that can spend only $2 a month for power. The company has 65 power units that serve a total of

30,000 households and is currently installing new systems at the rate of two to three per week.

What’s most interesting about Husk Power is how it has combined many incremental improvements that add up to something qualitatively new — with the potential for dramatic scale. The company expects to have 200 systems by the end of 2011, each serving a village or a small village cluster. Its plan is to ramp that up significantly, with the goal of having 2,014 units serving millions of clients by the end of 2014.

Husk Power was founded by four friends: Gyanesh Pandey, Manoj Sinha, Ratnesh Yadav and Charles W. Ransler, who met attending different schools in India and the United States. Pandey, the company’s chief executive, grew up in a village in Bihar without electricity. “I felt low because of that,” he told me when we met recently in New Delhi. He decided to study electrical engineering. At college in India, he experienced the Indian prejudice against Biharis — some students refused to sit at the same table with him — which contributed to his desire to emigrate to the U.S.. He found his way to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y., where he completed a master’s degree before landing a position with the semiconductor manufacturer International Recti-

fier in Los Angeles. His job was to figure out how to get the best performance from integrated circuits at the lowest possible cost. This helped him develop a problem-solving aptitude that would prove useful for Husk Power.

He was soon earning a six-figure income. He bought his family a diesel-powered electric generator.

As a single man living in Los Angeles, he enjoyed traveling, dining out and going to clubs. “I was basically cruising through life,” he recalled.

“But along with that pleasure and smoothness was a dark zone in my head.” He began meditating — and he realized that he felt compelled to return home and use his knowledge to bring light to Bihar.

Back in India, he and his friend Yadav, an entrepreneur, spent the next few years experimenting. They explored the possibility of producing organic solar cells. They tried growing a plant called jatropha,

whose seeds can be used for biodiesel. Both proved impractical as businesses. They tested out solar lamps, but found their application limited. “In the back of my mind, I always thought there would be some high tech solution that would solve the problem,” said Pandey.

One day he ran into a salesman who sold gasifiers — machines that burn organic materials in an oxygen restricted environment to produce biogas which can be used to power an engine. There was nothing new about gasifiers; they had been around for decades. People sometimes burned rice husks in them to supplement diesel fuel, which was expensive. “But nobody had thought to use rice husks to run a whole power system,” explained Pandey.

In Bihar, poverty is extreme.

Pretty much everything that can be used will be used — recycled or burned or fed to animals. Rice husks are the big exception. When rice is milled, the outside kernel, or husk, is discarded. Because the husk contains a lot of silica, it doesn’t burn well for cooking. A recent Greenpeace study (pdf) reports that Bihar alone produces 1.8 billion kilograms of rice husk per year. Most of it ends up rotting in landfills and emitting methane, a greenhouse gas.

Courtesy of Husk Power SystemsThe mini-power plant during the day.

Pandey and Yadav began bringing pieces together for an electric distribution system powered by the husks. They got a gasifier, a generator set, filtering, cleaning and cooling systems, piping and insu

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44 January 20 - 26, 2011

Comes from page 43 lated wiring. They went through countless iterations to get the system working: adjusting valves and pressures, the gas-to-air ratios, the combustion temperature, the starting mechanism. In they end, they came up with a system that could burn 50 kilograms of rice husk per hour and produce 32 kilowatts of power, sufficient for about 500 village households.

They reached out to people in a village called Tamkuha, in Bihar, offering them a deal: for 80 rupees a month — roughly $1.75 — a household could get daily power for one 30-watt or two 15-watt compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs and unlimited cell phone charging between 5:00 p.m and 11:00 p.m. For many families, the price was less than half their monthly kerosene costs, and the light would be much brighter. It would also be less smoky, less of a fire hazard, and better for the environment. Customers could pay for more power if they needed it — for radios, TVs, ceiling fans or water pumps. But many had no appliances and lived in huts so small, one bulb was enough. The system went live on August 15, 2007, the anniversary of India’s independence.

It worked. Back in the United States, their colleagues Sinha and Ransler, who were pursuing M.B.A.s at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, put together a business plan and set out to raise money. They came first in two student competitions, garnering prizes of $10,000 and $50,000. The company received a grant from the Shell Foundation and set up three more systems in 2008. It has since raised

$1.75 million in investment financing. In 2009, they had 19 systems in operation; in 2010, they more than tripled that number.

Technically, most of the problems were solved by 2008. But to make the business viable has required an ongoing process of what has been called “frugal innovation” — radically simplifying things to serve the needs of poor customers who would otherwise be excluded from basic market services due to their limited ability to pay. © Harikrishna Katragadda/ GreenpeaceShops in the Sariswa Village market use power generated

by Husk Power Systems.

In order to bring down costs, for example, the company stripped down the gasifiers and engines, removing everything non-essential that added to manufacturing or maintenance expenses, like turbocharging. They replaced an automated water-aided process for the removal of rice husk char (burned husks) from gasifiers with one that uses 80 percent less water and can be operated with a hand crank. They kept labor costs down by recruiting locals, often from very poor families with modest education levels (who would be considered unemployable by many companies) and training them to operate and load machines, and work as fee collectors and auditors, going door-todoor ensuring that villagers aren’t using more electricity than they pay for. (Electricity theft is a national problem in India, resulting in losses to power companies estimated at 30 percent. Husk Power says it has managed to keep such losses down to five percent.)

When the company noticed that customers were purchasing poor-quality CFL bulbs, which waste energy, they partnered with Havells India, a large manufacturer, to purchase thousands of high quality bulbs at discount rates, which their collectors now sell to clients. They also saw that collectors could become discount suppliers of other products — like soap, biscuits and oil — so they added a product fulfillment business into the mix.

And they found ways to extract value from the rice husk char — the waste product of a waste product — by setting up another side business turning the char into incense sticks.

This business now operates in five locations and provides supplemental income to 500 women. The company also receives government

The San Juan Weekly subsidies for renewable energy and is seeking Clean Development Mechanism benefits.

With growth, human audits have proven inadequate to control electricity theft or inadvertent overuse. So the company developed a stripped-down pre-payment smart-card reader for home installation. The going rate for smart-card readers is between $50 and $90.

Husk Power is near completion of one that Pandey says will cost under $7.

Alone, none of these steps would have been significant. Taken together, however, they make it possible for power units to deliver tiny volumes of electricity while enjoying a 30 percent profit margin.

The side businesses add another 20 percent to the bottom line. Pandey says new power units become profitable within 2 to 3 months of installation. He expects the company to be financially self-sustaining by June 2011.

From a social standpoint, there are many benefits to this business model. In addition to the fact that electricity allows shop keepers to stay open later and farmers to irrigate more land, and lighting increases children’s studying time and reduces burglaries and snakebites, the company also channels most of its wages and payments for services directly back into the villages it serves.

For decades, countries have operated on the assumption that power from large electricity plants will eventually trickle down to villagers. In many parts of the world, this has proven to be elusive. Husk

Power has identified at least 25,000 villages across Bihar and neighboring states in India’s rice belt as appropriate for its model. Ramapati Kumar, an advisor on Climate and Energy for Greenpeace India, who has studied Husk Power, explained that the company’s model could “go a long way in bringing light to 125,000 unelectrified villages in India,” while reducing “the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.”

It’s too soon to say whether Husk Power will prove to be successful in the long run. As with any young company, there are many unknowns. To achieve its goals, it will need to recruit and train thousands of employees over the next four years, raise additional financing, and institute sound management practices. Many companies destroy themselves in the process of trying to expand aggressively.

But the lessons here go beyond the fortunes of Husk Power. What the company illustrates is a different way to think about innovation — one that is suitable for global problems that stem from poor people’s lack of access to energy, water, housing and education. In many cases, success in these challenges hinges less on big new ideas than on collections of small old ideas well integrated and executed. “What’s replicable isn’t the distribution of electricity,” says Pandey. “It’s the whole process of how to take an old technology and apply it to local constraints. How to create a system out of the materials and labor that are readily available.”

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

45

Former Haitian Dictator Taken Away by Police

By GINGER THOMPSON

H

aitian police officers took away Jean-Claude Duvalier, the former dictator who abruptly returned to this country nearly 25 years after being forced from power, leading him out of the highend hotel where he has been huddled since his arrival.

Surrounded by heavily armed police officers, Mr. Duvalier emerged from his room at noon in a blue suit and walked down three flights of stairs, never letting go of his girlfriend’s hand as he waved to supporters chanting his name and calling him “president.”

“We are with you,” some supporters shouted as police officers led Mr. Duvalier out of the back of the hotel. With United Nations peacekeepers standing by, police officers put him and several of his associates into a waiting vehicle and drove off. Small clusters of his supporters outside the hotel cried “revolution.”

Hunks of concrete were thrown into the convoy’s path.

It remained unclear whether Mr. Duvalier would be arrested or simply questioned. He has faced threats of

prosecution in the past for the many human rights abuses committed during his rule, and for the hundreds of millions of dollars government officials have said he looted from the country.

But one of Mr. Duvalier’s lawyers at the hotel said that Mr. Duvalier was merely being brought to a meeting with prosecutors for questioning. A Haitian official said separately that Mr. Duvalier could be released by the end of the day.

Still, in a country with a long history of impunity, where leaders rarely face prosecution, it was a striking scene, underscoring the political volatility that has gripped Haiti since a contested presidential election late last year.

One year after the nation was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, the country has been grappling to absorb the potentially destabilizing blow of Mr. Duvalier’s surprise return this week, which drew condemnations from around the world and ignited new fears of conflict.

At a courthouse where Mr. Duvalier was taken on Tuesday, his companion, Veronique Roy, denied that

Mr. Duvalier had been arrested. “Absolutely not,” she told The Associated Press by phone. “We are very relaxed, drinking coffee and water,” she added.

“They said they are making photocopies. We don’t know why.”

Mr. Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, returned to Haiti 24 years and 11 months after he was forced to flee the country by a tide of social upheaval driven by severe poverty and his regime’s brutal political repression. In a brief radio interview, Mr. Duvalier said he had returned only to help his country, not to get involved in politics.

He spent the rest of his first day back in Haiti out of the public eye, huddled with his advisers and relatives at a high-end hotel in the mountains overlooking Port-au-Prince, the capital.

His silence left Haitians and the rest of the world to wonder what Mr. Duvalier was really up to.

Neither France, which had granted Mr. Duvalier asylum, nor the United States, Haiti’s largest benefactor, said they had anything to do with his return. In fact, both governments said they had been unaware that Mr. Duvalier had left Paris until his flight was close to landing in Port-au-Prince.

The Haitian government — in

disarray since the earthquake — seemed to respond in fits and starts, initially dismissing Mr. Duvalier’s arrival as well within his rights as a Haitian citizen, and later suggesting that the Justice Ministry had begun an investigation into his return.

Angry reactions poured in from around the world, with human rights groups demanding that the Haitian government charge Mr. Duvalier with crimes against humanity — including the kidnapping, torture and murder of thousands of his opponents — and with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the nation, the poorest in the hemisphere.

“Duvalier’s return to Haiti should be for one purpose only: to face justice,” José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, said in a statement.

On the streets here, however, there were signs that Mr. Duvalier’s arrival had started a new cycle of the polarization that has crippled this country for decades. Some decried Mr. Duvalier as a vestige of one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history, while others waxed nostalgic

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46 January 20 - 26, 2011 Comes from page 45 about him as the only hope for change in Haiti.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Bobby Duval, a former soccer star, said he had been starved and tortured for 17 months while being held without charges under Mr. Duvalier’s government.

Calling Mr. Duvalier a “murderous thief,” Mr. Duval said, “A country that has no memory will repeat its same mistakes.”

But there were different opinions in some of the tent camps that have become home to one million people displaced by the earthquake, where many have become so desperate that they are willing to pin their hopes on just about anyone.

“Haiti has never had the perfect lea der,” said Bernadette Brudet.

“Many of them were corrupt. Many of them have blood on their hands. But with Duvalier, we were safe, and our stomachs were full.”

History records things a bit differently. The country to which Mr. Duvalier returned on Sunday seems woefully similar to the one he fled in 1986 — a place plagued by violent crime and corrupt politicians, where people

live in crushing poverty and die from preventable diseases.

Mr. Duvalier ruled Haiti beginning in 1971, when he was just 19, following the death of his father, François Duvalier, known as Papa Doc. In all, the Duvalier dynasty lasted about three decades and was marked by the family’s brutal repression of its opponents, with the help of a special police unit called the Tontons Macoute.

Following the younger Mr. Duvalier’s ouster, the country turned on his security forces, slaughtering them by the dozens and even desecrating François Duvalier’s mausoleum.

The devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, stretched this nation to its limits once again, making Mr. Duvalier’s stunning return a potential breaking point.

So far, however, people in Portau-Prince have remained calm. After landing in the capital on Sunday, Mr. Duvalier was treated by some like a visiting dignitary, according to the Web site of the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

“I came to put myself at the service of my country,” he was quoted as saying as he left the plane.

Crowds lined his route from the airport and, referring to the nation’s

The San Juan Weekly

Former Hatian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as “Baby Doc,” gestured to supporters as police took him from his hotel in Port-au-Prince. dismal conditions, chanted, “If JeanClaude had been here, we would never be like this,” the newspaper reported.

Mr. Duvalier and his companion, Véronique Roy, were driven to the Karibe Hotel in a four-wheel-drive vehicle that was escorted by members of the Haitian national police and followed by a “procession,” the newspaper said.

Reporters camped outside the Karibe all day on Monday, while a steady stream of friends and relatives dropped in to visit.

A Duvalier aide, Henry Robert

Sterlin, said he did not know how long Mr. Duvalier planned to stay in Haiti, or if he planned to meet with Haiti’s president, René Préval. A friend of the former dictator, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because he was not an official representative, said that Mr. Duvalier would stay for three or four days, but that he would like eventually to resettle in Haiti.

Desir Gérard, an elderly cousin, who was one of the visitors at the hotel, told reporters that Mr. Duvalier “is happy to be here,” adding, “He was homesick.”

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

47

Guilarte Forest Reserve T

he Guilarte Forest Reserve is located in the Cordillera Central region. It is one of the most beautiful reserves in Puerto Rico and features dense tropical forests and a spectacular range of tree species. In fact, the-

re are approximately 100 different species of trees in this small area. The Cordillera Central is a large range of mountains that dominates the skies in the Guilarte State Forest Reserve, Carite Forest, Susua State Forest, Mari-

cao Forest, Lago Lucchetti Wildlife Refuge and the Toro Negro Forest. From these mountains visitors are often able to see San Juan and Ponce. They are also rewarded with panoramic views of the Guilarte Forest Reserve.

The seven sections of the

Guilarte State Forest Reserve fall within the municipal areas of Yauco, Adjuntas, Penuelas and Guayanilla and therefore visitors will be able to gain access to the reserve easily from different places. The breathtaking Monte Guilarte is one of the three largest mountains on the island and stands at 3 953 feet. The water that is found high on the mountain is crystal clear and is safe for visitors to drink. The varied topography of the area sees to it that the weather remains a comfortable temperature at approximately 73 degrees Fahrenheit. However it can get extremely chilly at night.

The Guilarte Forest Reserve is one of the reserves in Puerto Rico that does not allow camping but does have cabins available to visitors. The cabins have running water, beds and barbeque facilities but there is no electricity. It is advised that visitors make reservations in advance and that they inquire as to what sort of things they need to pack in for a night Continues on page 48

48 January 20 - 26, 2011

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Comes from page 47

definitely worth the stay. Visitors will be able to choose from a in the Guilarte State Forest Re- number of hiking trails that wind serve. The cabins, which can ac- through the park and some more commodate a maximum of thirty challenging than others. Hiking people a night, are situated in the is a wonderful way to enjoy the most beautiful and picturesque forest, mountain and the many part of the eucalyptus forest and bird species that live in the reser-

ve. Avid birdwatchers can enjoy searching for the twenty-six bird species that have been recorded in the reserve. The picnic facilities are peaceful and spectacular, and nature lovers will find their experience at the Guilarte Forest Reserve very rewarding and tranquil.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

49

Barcelona’s Other Architect, Domènech

By ANDREW FERREN

I

T’S sometimes hard to have a conversation about Barcelona that does not include the name Gaudí in it. The world is so gaga for Antoní Gaudí — the genius of Catalan modernisme (the Spanish version of Art Nouveau) whose early 20th-century buildings are virtual emblems of the city — that most of his modernista contemporaries go little noticed by tourists.

But if you’re like me, and don’t much like the structural theatrics and unbridled mannerism of Gaudí’s buildings, check out those of Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1849-1923), an under-sung hero of the movement. A journey to the three places in Catalonia where his buildings made a splash a century ago — including Barcelona — is made easier by following the Barcelona Modernisme Route, which was created in 2005. A guidebook and map of the route can be bought for 18 euros, or $23.50 at $1.31 to the euro, at several kiosks around the city, and can be viewed online at rutadelmodernisme. com.

Domènech is often hailed as the most modern of the modernistas, notably for his mastery of lightweight steel construction. Unesco, at least, doesn’t give him short shrift, having designated his most important buildings in Barcelona a World Heritage Site (just as it did with the works of Gaudí). Multifaceted and astonishingly productive, Domènech wore many hats. Besides being an architect and professor (Gaudí was his student at Barcelona’s School of Architecture), he was also a prominent politician and Catalan nationalist and a preeminent scholar of heraldry.

For architects, Barcelona at the turn

of the 20th century was the right place at the right time. Nineteenth-century industrialization brought tremendous wealth, and between the Universal Exposition of 1888 (for which Domènech created two of the most noteworthy buildings) and the construction of the Eixample — the vast grid of streets laid out in 1859 to decongest the old city — there was a heady mix of civic pride and social ascension in the air. The rising middle class was eager to make its mark on the rapidly growing city, and the new modernista style seemed perfectly suited to this task, rife as

it was with neo-Gothic motifs that linked the newly minted mercantile titans to Barcelona’s rich medieval history.

Robert Lubar, an associate professor at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, points out that, much more so than Gaudí, Domènech was influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement of

Ruskin and Morris. “He believed that ‘the complete interior’ served some kind of ethical purpose,” Professor Lubar said.

Domènech’s most “complete interior” is the 1908 Palau de la Música Catalana, a stunning concert hall miraculously shoehorned into a small lot at the junction of the old city and the new. Often likened to a conductor, Domènech knew how to get the best performance from the sculptors, ceramicists and woodworkers who executed his designs. Indeed, nearly every surface inside the auditorium has been adorned with color, texture and relief and, because the walls and ceiling are made almost entirely of stained glass, colored light.

Atop the balcony’s mosaic-clad columns, bronze chandeliers tilt like sunflowers toward the stained-glass sun that seems to float in midair from the ceiling’s inverted dome. The astonishing expanses of glass were achieved with the use of structural steel — invisible beneath so much decoration.

The other pillar of Domènech’s World Heritage status is the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul), set on 40 park-like acres at the northern edge of the Eixample. Heeding the latest theories of hygiene, Domènech envisioned a complex of 20 pavilions to ensure ventilation and access to sunshine. He ingeniously sunk the corridors and service areas of the hospital underground so that patients and visitors in the pavilions and gardens above would feel as if they were in a village — a fantastical one with myriad domes, spires, finials, sculptures and mosaics. Currently, the 12 pavilions Domènech built (his architect son completed the last eight) are being restored; some will become a museum of Modernisme and others offices for humanitarian organiza

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sed with a typical men’s club, the delicate-looking leaded glass windows were reinforced with iron to keep patients in.

Upstairs, the rooms contain many of their original furnishings, including clever armoires with basins (and running water) built into them. There were also suites with office spaces (and secretaries) for those patients who still had empires to run.

About 50 miles northeast of Barce-

tions like Unesco. Until its scheduled opening in 2016, hard-hat tours are offered daily.

With the Modernisme Route’s map and guidebook in hand, you can lead yourself around Domènech’s residential structures in Barcelona, most of which are clustered between the Passeig de Gracia and Carrer Girona. You can stay in one of the grandest of his palatial homes, Casa Fuster, now a five-star hotel, at the top of Passeig de Gracia. In the street-level Café Vienes, you can sip Champagne and admire a vaulted ceiling and a forest of marble columns.

Near the port is the Hotel España, which, though not built by Domènech, had its restaurant, La Fonda España, renovated by him a century ago. It’s just been spruced up and shines anew with Domènech’s strappy wood and ceramic wainscoting, murals by Ramon Casas and a sculptural fireplace by Eusebi Arnau.

Want to see more? Eighty miles south, in the town of Reus, is Casa Navàs, another “complete interior,” which surrounds you the minute you step into the stair hall — a tiny indoor garden of flowers and vines wrought in mosaic, stained glass and carved stone. Througmother was from the hout the house, the capital of each coregion and he also lumn features a different floral motif. had a home here, Most of the rooms contain their original, which is now a muexuberant furnishings by master craftsseum that displays men like Gaspar Homar. his drawings and On the outskirts of Reus, the Pere original furnishings.

Mata Institute, a mental health hospital Across the street is begun by Domènech in 1898, was meant the Ateneu Caneto counter the tradition of keeping the tenc, once a cultural mentally ill out of sight. Today you can and political club visit one of the six pavilions, the one that and now a library. housed “rich and illustrious men,” as the Perhaps the guide explains on the 90-minute tours. most satisfying stop The sumptuously decorated men’s pavi- lona in the coastal town of Canet de Mar, in Canet is Casa Roura, a little fortress lion has a billiard room, grand salon and one can see three charming structures in of a house that is now a restaurant. The formal dining room. But lest it be confu- the space of about 100 yards. Domènech’s facade’s bravura brickwork creates a lively play of light and is further animated by turrets, parapets and gleaming roof tiles glazed in cobalt blue and canary yellow. The old double-height salon with its baronial fireplace is now the main dining room. On par with the rich architectural surroundings is the amazing lunch menu (13.50 euros) — especially the seafood fideua (like paella, but made with pasta instead of rice).

The tour ends where Domènech’s love of medieval architecture may have begun: at his mother’s house. (One of them anyway — the Castell Santa Florentina in the hills above Canet has been in the Montaner family for centuries.)

Around 1909, Domènech expanded the original fortified stone house, deftly mixing his neo-Gothic riffs with authen-

tic Gothic architectural elements like columns, portals and arcades “harvested” from a defunct monastery into a modernista masterpiece, one that quite literally spans the ages.

IF YOU GO IN BARCELONA For 18 euros, or $23.50 at $1.31 to the euro, a Modernisme Route pack of two guidebooks with maps and discounts for many sites can be purchased at special Modernisme tourist offices in Plaça de Catalunya, Hospital de Sant Pau and Pavellons Güell. Information: www.rutadelmodernisme.com.

Palau de la Música Catalana, Palau de la Música 4-6, (34-90) 247-5485; www. palaumusica.cat. A tour is 12 euros.

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, San Antoní Maria Claret 167, (34-93) 291-9000; www.santpau.es.

Hotel Casa Fuster, Passeig de Gracia 132, (34-93) 255-3000; www.hotelescenter.es.

Hotel España, Sant Pau 9-11, (34-93) 318-1758; www.hotelespanya.com IN REUS Tours of both the Pere Mata Institute and Casa Navàs can be arranged on specific days through the Reus tourism office.

Reus Turisme, Plaça del Mercadal 3, (34-97) 701-0670; turisme.reus.cat IN CANET DE MAR Casa Museu Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Xamfra Rieres Buscarons i Gavarra, (34-93) 795-4615; www.canetdemar.cat. Entrance fee: 2 euros.

Casa Roura, Riera Sant Domènec 1, (34-93) 794-0375; www.casaroura.com.

Castell Santa Florentina is a private home but tours can be booked some Saturdays and by appointment. Riera del Pinar s/n, (34-609) 813-339; www.santaflorentina.com.

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51

Advertising

Traffic Bait Doesn’t Bring Ad Clicks something in which readers have a personal interest.

A mortgage broker can advertise its ure, articles about Lindsay Lohan’s repeat trips to rehabilitation and loans on an article about mortgage rates, Brett Favre’s purported sexual pec- and readers were more likely to click on cadilloes generate loads of reader traffic, an accompanying ad. The same applies but do they actually make decent money for an immigration lawyer who bought space on a piece about immigration pofor the Web sites that publish them?

Reed Saxon/Associated Press A sign licy.

“I think that this runs counter to a about the egg recall this summer. Articles on the recall were good for news sites. lot of the conventional wisdom in the industry, and it was a bit of a surprise,” According to a new analysis, no.

Perfect Market, a company that said Tim Ruder, Perfect Market’s chief rehelps newspapers make their Web sites venue officer.

Perfect Market measured revenue more profitable, examined the advertising revenue generated from more than per page view and found that articles 15 million articles from 21 news sites over about Social Security were the most vaa three-month period this summer. luable, generating an average of $129 for Using data from newspapers inclu- 1,000 page views. Articles about mortgading The Chicago Tribune, The Los An- ge rates made $93 for every 1,000 page geles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle views. On other topics, values for every and The Orlando Sentinel, Perfect Mar- 1,000 page views were $28 for items ket found that the most profitable articles about unemployment, $33 for articles on were the ones readers were most enga- jobs, $20 for articles on the egg recall and ged with. Topics like unemployment, the $26 for pieces on immigration reform.

By contrast, articles on Lindsay egg recall and mortgage rates topped the Lohan generated $2.50 for every 1,000 list.

The reason, Perfect Market analysts page views.

“There are not a lot of contextual ads explained, was that advertising is more effective when it is paired with news on Lindsay Lohan stories,” said Robertcontent that is relevant to the product, es- son Barrett, the chief strategy officer at pecially when the subject of the news is Perfect Market.

By JEREMY W. PETERS

S

A sign about the egg recall this summer. Articles on the recall were good for news sites.

Colbert Enlists Bands In ‘Sell Out’ To Madison Avenue

By STUART ELLIOTT

T

he discussion of whether bands and music acts are co-opted by Madison Avenue when they allow their songs to be used in commercials has evolved over the years.

Once, the practice was loudly decried as “selling out.” More recently, it has been explained — even accepted, in some circles — as a way for musicians to gain attention, and make money, as the recording industry undergoes profound changes.

The debate came to life in a lively, humorous fashion on Tuesday night in a segment of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy

Central.

Stephen Colbert, who won a Grammy last year for best comedy album, pretended he was having trouble filling out a Grammy ballot in his “favorite category” of best alternative music album.

“I do love being a kingmaker,” he said, and to help himself decide between two of the acts in the category, the Black Keys and Vampire Weekend, he called band members on stage for a “sell-out-off.”

“The only way to determine which alternative band has the most edgy, non-commercial appeal,” Mr. Colbert said, “is which one got their songs in more

commercials.”

Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend faced off with Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys. In a “battle of the bands” format, they went back and forth, proudly presenting clips from commercials that use their songs.

The Black Keys narrated clips from commercials for Zales, Victoria’s Secret and Sony Ericsson.

Mr. Koenig countered with clips from spots for Honda, Tommy Hilfiger and HewlettPackard that all used songs by Vampire Weekend.

Mr. Colbert declared that both bands “have equally whored out your music,” and they

thanked him. But the mock battle then turned physical as the Black Keys and Mr. Koenig pulled out weapons like bats and chains to settle the matter.

Mr. Colbert, nonplussed, pulled out a crowbar and shouted, “Leave some for daddy.” The segment ended with an appearance by an executive of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which administers the Grammys, who pretended to join in the mayhem with a broken bottle.

Alas, the “sell-out-off” was undecided. Perhaps a rematch can be staged, including acts with considerable exposure in commercials like Train.

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Battle Is Set as Verizon Adds iPhone

By JENNA WORTHAM

E

nding months of speculation, Verizon announced that it would begin selling Apple’s iPhone 4 early next month.

But for those who have been clamoring to use the phone on Verizon’s popular network, there were a few caveats.

For starters, the Verizon model will not be the same iPhone 4 that is sold by AT&T, which until now has had the exclusive right to sell the iPhone in the United States.

They are nearly identical on the outside, apart from some small changes to the metal antenna around the edge, but their innards are quite different. Apple had to create a new version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon because its network uses a different technology.

“This is a whole new device,” said Daniel S. Mead, chief executive of Verizon Wireless.

Networks like Verizon’s that use the CDMA technology cannot transmit voice and data simultaneously, so Verizon iPhone users will not be able to look up directions or check e-mail while on a call, for example, as they can with AT&T.

Timothy D. Cook, chief operating officer for Apple, said at a news conference in Manhattan that he did not think most consumers would mind. “I think people place emphasis on different things,” he said.

The Verizon phone will also not work in nearly as many countries as AT&T’s version, which uses GSM technology. But in other respects, they will function much the same.

Mr. Cook took the stage at the event with Lowell McAdam, president and chief operating officer of Verizon, to announce the new partnership.

“Today, two industry innovators are coming together to deliver something consumers have been hungry for years,” Mr. McAdam said. “We are bringing to market the fruit of our strategic partnership with a giant in the market, and that is Apple.”

Existing Verizon customers will be able to preorder the phone on Feb. 3, and others can preorder beginning Feb. 10. Verizon executives said the iPhone with 16 gigabytes of storage would cost $199 with a two-year contract, while the 32-gigabyte version would cost $299 — the same as AT&T. Verizon said pricing for data plans had not yet been determined.

One big question is whether the pho-

ne will put the same kind of strain on Verizon that it has on AT&T, which has suffered from millions of data-guzzling iPhone owners weighing on its wireless network, and has struggled to address customer complaints.

If it can handle the load, Verizon stands to gain millions of new wireless subscribers and the resulting revenue from device sales and data services. If not, the company could suffer a colossal blow to its reputation as a reliable carrier.

“Verizon has had the advantage of seeing the challenges and problems AT&T has faced,” said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research. “If they haven’t tested and prepared for this in an adequate fashion to deliver on that promise, they will have damaged something they have invested hundreds of millions in.”

That brand perception, Mr. Golvin said, will matter more in the coming months as AT&T and Verizon battle it out for the dominant portion of carrier market share and try to lure subscribers away from one another.

An AT&T spokeswoman said, “For iPhone users who want the fastest speeds, the ability to talk and use apps at the same time, and unsurpassed global coverage, the only choice is AT&T.” Verizon executives seemed highly confident. They said they had spent a year testing CDMA technology with the iPhone 4, and monitored the data habits of the millions of smartphones already running on their network to accurately predict the volume of traffic that a wave of new iPhones would generate. Mr. Mead said Verizon had added enough capacity to serve the needs of subscribers eager to begin using the iPhone as soon as possible.

“We were very diligent in making sure that our network would work from the ground up,” he said, adding that the company had had “thousands of iPhones run-

ning on our network for some time.”

Perhaps as a sign of its confidence, Verizon is offering something that AT&T does not provide: the ability to supply a Wi-Fi connection to as many as five laptops and other devices by piggybacking on the iPhone’s cellular data connection. Verizon said this would cost an additional, unspecified monthly amount.

Verizon’s iPhone will operate on the company’s 3G or third-generation wireless network, rather than the new, faster 4G LTE network that it is introducing. Making the iPhone run on the new network with current chip technology would have “forced design changes we wouldn’t make,” said Mr. Cook of Apple. Rather than tweak the phone and potentially delay its arrival further, he said, the company forged ahead with a 3G version.

Company executives would not say when a version of the iPhone that could run on the LTE network might appear. That means the iPhone 4 will be in direct competition with the handful of sleek new LTE smartphones Verizon introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Analysts say the Apple and Verizon partnership could seriously hinder the rise of smartphones running Google’s Android software in the United States. Although Android phones have moved past the iPhone recently in terms of market share, that may not last. In countries where the iPhone has been available on multiple networks, it has tended to take most of the market.

Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said the iPhone’s move to Verizon was an “opportunity to see the iPhone compete with Android on a level playing field.”

Apple could sell as many as nine million iPhones for Verizon’s network this year; it sold 15 million for AT&T’s network last year.

Does a Bad Job Market Lead to More Discrimination?

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

D

iscrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped last year, reaching a record high of 99,922.

As you can see, there was also a bump in discrimination claims after the 2001 recession.

That increase and the increase last year could largely be explained by cyclical factors: many of the people who once might have been reluctant to accuse a company of prejudice because they feared retaliation have now been laid off and therefore have less to lose from filing a claim. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, many people may be claiming discrimination precisely because they are out of a job — that is, they may believe they were improperly targeted for layoff based on their age, sex, race, etc.

Certainly I have found in my own conversations with unemployed people over the last few years that suspicions

of discrimination in the hiring and firing process abound.

Most jobless people I’ve spoken with have said the reason they don’t have a job is that they’re being discriminated against. If they’re young, they think employers want someone older and more experienced. If they’re old, they think employers want someone young. If they’re white, they think affirmative-action-obsessed employers want minorities. If they’re minorities, they think employers are biased toward white hires.

I have heard this again and again and again.

Many of the perceived prejudices are of course mutually exclusive (at least from the very same employer), but maybe to some extent a glut of idle workers does make discrimination more salient. After all, employers can afford to be extraordinarily picky about whom they hire, and it is not always predicated on merit.

But my hunch is that there just aren’t enough jobs, period.

The primary problem isn’t that employers are sys-

tematically excluding particular demographic groups; the problem is that they’re systematically excluding everyone.

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53

The Real Problem With China

By DAVID LEONHARDT

W

hen China’s president, Hu Jintao, visits here next week, the exchange rate between Chinese and American currency will inevitably become a big topic of conversation.

China has been holding down the value of its currency, the renminbi, for years, making Chinese exports to the United States cheaper and American exports to China more expensive. The renminbi’s recent rise has been too modest to change the situation, and Mr. Hu’s state visit is sure to highlight the real tensions between the countries.

Yet the focus on the currency has nonetheless become excessive. The truth is that the exchange rate is not the main problem for American companies hoping to sell more products in China and, in the process, create more jobs in this country.

The exchange rate does not need to be the focus of next week’s meetings.

For the United States, the No. 1 problem with China’s economy is probably intellectual property theft. Technology companies, for example, continue to notice Chinese government agencies downloading software updates for programs they have never bought, at least not legally.

No wonder China has become the world’s second-largest market for computer hardware sales — but is only the eighth-largest for software sales.

Next on the list, say people who work in China or do business there, is the myriad protectionist barriers China has put up. These barriers make this country’s recent efforts at “buy American” protectionism look minor league. In some cases, Beijing has insisted that products sold in China must not only be made there but be conceived and designed there. The policy goes by the name “indigenous innovation.”

The renminbi certainly matters, too. It affects the price of every American product sold there and every Chinese product sold here. But discussion of the renminbi typically ends up exaggerating the problem somewhat by relying on an imperfect measure.

The most relevant comparison of two currencies is one that is adjusted for inflation in the two countries. When inflation is higher in one country, as in China today, it means that country’s products are becoming more expensive — and im-

ports into the country become relatively cheaper. In effect, the real price of Chinese-made goods is rising faster than the exchange rate suggests.

Without taking inflation into account, the renminbi has risen 3 percent against the dollar since last summer, when China began letting it rise. Once inflation is accounted for, the real increase has been about 5 percent. At that pace, the renminbi could erase its artificial undervaluation — as some economists estimate it — in less than two years.

Of course, one reason for the rise is the political pressure from the United States and other countries. As much as China’s Communist Party leaders may claim otherwise, they really do respond to international lobbying sometimes.

The obvious question now is how the Obama administration can apply similar pressure on intellectual property theft and trade barriers. Arthur Kroeber, a Beijing-based consultant and editor of the China Economic Quarterly, goes so far as to call the currency discussion a distraction. “What exactly there is to be gained by quibbling over a point or two in the annual appreciation rate,” Mr. Kroeber says, “is beyond me.”

The best hope for getting another country’s leaders to do anything is to persuade them that it’s in their interest. That task is not so easy with trade barriers, because every time an American company is kept from making a sale in China, a Chinese company presumably benefits. It makes the sale instead or, in the case of piracy, it saves money that it would have spent on the authentic product.

Still, China’s leaders have reason to be nervous about all the barriers they have built. China’s elite, in government and business, are deeply concerned that their companies remain unable to create truly innovative products. The obsession with the fact that no Chinese citizen has won a scientific Nobel Prize stems partly from this worry.

Opening up your economy to more competition may bring some short-term pain, but it also forces companies to become stronger and more creative — or to wither. Competition breeds innovation.

This self-interest argument is the one that Mr. Obama and his advisers are most comfortable making. They worry that outright pressure on China will put it on the defensive and ultimately backfire. Sometimes, they may worry too much.

Chinese-made products at a wholesale market in Yiwu in Zhejiang Province. China has major barriers to foreign goods.

Pressure clearly can work, as the last few months have demonstrated.

The United States should be able to round up some allies on these issues, just as it has with recent military matters relating to China. BASF and Siemens, two big German companies, have already complained about Chinese protectionism, as have some European leaders. Other countries also have reason to be frustrated with the exchange rate: relative to many currencies other than the dollar, the renminbi has actually lost value in recent months.

But even by itself, the United States is big enough — and important enough to Chinese companies — to exert some pressure. That is why the recent “buy American” provisions in a couple of bills, small as they may be, are useful. The same goes for continued discussion of Congressional bills that would penalize China.

If anything, the Republican takeover of the House offers a new chance to hold

hearings on those bills. Representative Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who will become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has been a vocal critic of China’s protectionism.

Finally, both Republicans and Democrats can use Mr. Hu’s coming visit to emphasize — to him and to the many Chinese citizens who will be following — just how frustrated many Americans are with the economy’s woes. As the scholar Zhang Guoqing wrote in a Chinese newspaper recently, “A high unemployment rate and the trouble in stimulating the economy” are helping to create “enormous hidden dangers” in the United States.

One of those dangers is the possibility that American politicians will eventually decide that tough talk isn’t enough to satisfy voters’ anger. If that day comes, the United States and China could end up in a trade war that only worsens the situation for both countries.

Fed Survey Notes Signs of an Improving Economy

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

T

he United States economy ended last year on an encouraging note, with all parts of the country showing improvements, according to the latest Federal Reserve survey.

Factories produced more, shoppers spent more and companies hired more, all of which point to a stronger economy in 2011, the Fed reported in its survey of nationwide economic conditions that was released Wednesday.

The Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke has been optimistic that the economy will strengthen this year, but warned last week that it will take up to five years for unemployment, now at 9.4 percent, to drop to a historically normal level of around 6 percent.

Still, risks loom. Declining home prices and millions of foreclosures are depressing housing markets around the country, the survey says. Rising gasoline prices also could drag on the economy, Bernanke says.

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Flex Time Flourishes in Accounting Industry

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

A

s the peak season for the nation’s accounting firms begins, David Leeds’s team at Ernst & Young is once again bracing for two months of 60-hour weeks auditing the books of a major bank in Atlanta.

In years past, those grueling weeks often fueled nasty marital spats about missed dinners and children’s tantrums over forgotten basketball games.

Not any more. At Ernst & Young, as at the nation’s other major accounting firms, workplace flexibility has been built into the culture — even during crunch time.

Every Monday morning, the 15 people on Mr. Leeds’s team meet and lay out the personal commitments that might interfere with work — basketball games, teacher conferences, Pilates classes, weddings. They arrange to cover for each other, helping make the busy season tolerable for everyone. Despite the auditing team’s six-day weeks, one Auburn University graduate, for example, is taking next Monday and Tuesday off to see the school’s football team play in the national championship bowl in Arizona. And Mr. Leeds plans to escape to New Orleans for three days to see his daughter run a marathon.

“We face very tight deadlines from our clients, but at the same time we try to make sure that team members have the flexibility they need,” said Mr. Leeds, a partner at the firm.

Indeed, when it comes to respecting the work-life balance of employees, the accounting industry far outshines the rest of corporate America, workplace experts say.

Some firms allow employees to take off the entire summer to devote to their children; some let employees work just three days a week during nonpeak months. The big accounting firms generally give 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, with fathers often receiving six weeks — and that is on top of the 12 weeks of unpaid leave provided to parents under federal law.

Several firms grant sabbaticals of three or six months at 40 percent pay and full health benefits, so employees can chase life dreams like climbing mountains or building schoolhouses in Africa.

And since these are bean counters we’re talking about, they’ve done the math: flexibility enhances the bottom line.

“The nation’s accounting firms excel at this for a boring, accounting reason — they’ve looked at the numbers, and they see it helps,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute.

Brooke Sikes, an Ernst & Young partner, took six months of maternity leave when her first child was born and then spent four years working a 35-hour week.

Jennifer Allyn, managing director in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ office of diversity, said stepped-up flexibility policies had helped cut turnover to 15 percent a year, from 24 percent. Firms estimate that the cost of hiring and training a new employee can be 1.5 times a departing worker’s salary, so reducing turnover by 200 employees could mean $30 million in savings. Sharon Allen, Deloitte’s chairwoman, said her firm’s flexibility policies saved more than $45 million a year by reducing turnover.

Working mothers, especially, are drawn to employers that offer flexibility, although all employees want some control over their work hours.

“Flexibility is the No. 1 issue for women, but it’s also the No. 2 or 3 issue for men,” said Cathy Benko, a vice chairwoman at Deloitte. She created its much-praised “mass career customization” program in which all employees work with management to factor their individual goals and needs — like raising three children — into their career plans.

“The issue is, How do you scale, how do you systematize a more tailored, customized model?” Ms. Benko said.

“You can’t do it by exception. You can’t do it by accommodation. You have to put everybody in the model.”

Michelle Hickox, an accountant with McGladrey, the nation’s fifth-largest accounting firm, based in Bloomington, Minn., said her firm’s Flexyear policy had helped keep her from quitting. For the last nine years, she has worked full time September through June, while ta-

king off July and August to spend time with her two school-age daughters. She opted to do this even though she feared it would damage her chances of making partner.

But things took a surprising turn.

“One day, my partner-in-charge came into my office and was adamant that being in this program shouldn’t make a difference in my goal of becoming a partner,” Ms. Hickox said. “It felt awesome.”

Soon after, she was promoted to partner.

In the Full Circle program at PricewaterhouseCoopers, new mothers take off several years with the expectation that they will return to the firm when their child enters kindergarten.

The firm helps ensure that these women keep current on continuing education and licensing requirements so they are up to speed upon returning to work.

At times, the big four accounting firms — Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers — sound like preening basketball stars as they all boast that they are No. 1 in providing flexibility. One reason the industry leads the nation on flexibility is that the big firms are constantly trying to keep up with each other, if not outdo each other.

“We listen to our people and they tell us very consistently that flexibility is incredibly important to them and to their family,” said James S. Turley, Ernst & Young’s chairman. “Every night, our assets walk out the door and go home. And we need to be the kind of place that they want to come back to the next day.”

The accounting industry has improved its flexibility policies in three waves.

Deloitte led the way in the early 1990s, adopting more generous maternity policies and more flexible scheduling. At the time, many accountants worked 60 hours a week, sometimes more, during peak months. The firms saw that many young women were entering the profession, but quitting at a far faster rate than men, largely because they viewed the grueling, inflexible schedule as incompatible with raising a family.

In the second wave, shortly after 2000, many employees complained that the new flexibility policies were geared only to mothers and were not systematic.

So several firms broadened their policies, making them available to everyone.

In recent years, with the demise of Arthur Andersen and the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, which greatly increased auditing requirements, accountants felt more swamped than ever with work. As a result, many firms took yet more steps to ensure flexibility — for instance, Ernst & Young adopted fourday weekends for Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day. Workplace experts stress that employees must not fear they will be penalized for participating in flexibility programs.

Among Ernst & Young’s 23,500 United States employees, 1,700 women and 300 men are on flexible arrangements.

Women are so confident that adopting such a schedule will not hurt their chances of promotion that 25 percent of the firm’s female senior managers — the step before partner — are on flexible arrangements.

Brooke Sikes, an Ernst & Young partner in Dallas, took six months of maternity leave when her first child was born and then spent four years working a 35-hour-a-week schedule, down from her typical 45- or 50-hour weeks. The firm promoted her to partner even though she was working less than full time.

“The firm very much rewards you for your performance,” she said. “It’s not about punching a clock. It’s not about face time.”

Kathleen E. Christensen, director of workplace flexibility programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, said accounting firms should serve as a model for all of corporate America.

“They have really thought through the way they do their work and how their people can control the hours they work,” Ms. Christensen said. “Some businesses treat flexibility as just a set of policies — if we put policies on the books, that’s all we need. But what you really need is to have those policies embedded in the way work is done, and that’s what a lot of accounting firms have done.”

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

55

Volt Is First in a Line of Plug-In Hybrids, G.M. Says

By NICK BUNKLEY

G

eneral Motors plans to introduce two more plug-in hybrid vehicles in the United States based on the Chevrolet Volt in the next few years, its chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson.

Mr. Akerson, speaking at an industry conference near the Detroit auto show, also said G.M. could build at least 25,000 Volts this year, more than double its initial goal of 10,000.

The Volt, which went on sale in December and was named the North American Car of the Year during the show’s media preview, could become profitable in three years, after it moves to the second-generation design that is under development, he said.

By then, Mr. Akerson said, G.M. expected to be selling a hatchback and a crossover-type vehicle that use the same plug-in technology as the

Volt, which is a four-door sedan that seats four.

He said G.M. would “likely” sell a plug-in version of its Cadillac SRX crossover, but it was unclear whether that was the crossover to which he was referring or whether there would be a fourth Volt-based model. G.M. executives said they could not elaborate on Mr. Akerson’s comments.

“The Volt is not the ultimate solution,” Mr. Akerson said at the Automotive News World Congress.

“It’s a glimpse at what is possible.”

He said the hatchback and crossover could go on sale in 2012 or 2013.

G.M. previously confirmed that it planned to sell a plug-in hatchback, the Opel Ampera, in Europe, and it showed a plug-in crossover concept vehicle, called the Volt MPV5, at last year’s Beijing auto show.

He said the goal was for each of G.M.’s four brands — Chevrolet, Ca-

dillac, Buick and GMC — to have at least one electric or hybrid model.

Within 10 to 15 years, Mr. Akerson, who became G.M.’s chief executive in September and chairman on Jan. 1, said he hoped electric vehicles would account for at least 10 percent of G.M.’s sales.

G.M. sold 326 Volts in Decem-

ber, when it started shipping them from the Detroit plant where they are assembled to dealers in select markets. The car, which travels 25 to 50 miles on a fully charged battery before turning on a gasoline engine that generates additional power, will be available nationwide in 2012, when 60,000 are expected to be built.

Unlike Rivals, Toyota Saw Its Sales Fall in December

By NICK BUNKLEY

M

ost automakers finished 2010 on a high note, as newvehicle sales in the United States surged in December despite a lack of big discounts.

But Toyota’s struggles continued in December, as the carmaker dealt with the fallout from the recall of millions of vehicles in the last year or so. Toyota said its sales were down 0.4 percent in 2010 and 5.5 percent in December

That contrasted sharply with its rivals. General Motors on Tuesday said its sales rose 7.5 percent in December and 6.3 percent for all of 2010, a year in which it shed four of its eight brands and completed the largest public stock offering in history. For its remaining brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC — sales were up 15.5 percent in December and 21.3 percent on the year.

“Our sales this year reflect the impact of G.M.’s new business model,” Don Johnson, G.M.’s vice presi-

dent of United States sales operations, said in a statement. “The consistency of results that we achieved demonstrates the focus on our brands, dealers and customers, and how we compete aggressively for every sale, every day.”

The Ford Motor Company said its sales were up 7 percent in December and 19 percent on the year, the largest increase for any full-line automaker.

Ford’s market share increased for the second consecutive year, an achievement that had not happened since 1993.

“With our balanced line of highquality, fuel-efficient products, we have a solid foundation to deliver more sales and improved results in 2011,” Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president for United States marketing, sales and service, said in a statement.

“Consideration for Ford is increasing beyond our traditional areas of strength — signaling that the seeds of growth already have taken hold.”

The industry expects to build on its momentum in 2011, with G.M. and Ford predicting that sales would rise to as high as 13.5 million, from about 11.8 million in 2010.

Chrysler sales were up 16 percent in December and 17 percent for the year.

Both G.M. and Ford repor-

ted big increases in sales of pickup trucks and crossover vehicles. Trucks rebounded in 2010, a positive signal for the economy, after demand for them plunged at the height of the recession.

Ford sold 528,349 of its F-series truck during the year, the nation’s best-selling vehicle, 27.7 percent more than in 2009. Sales of G.M.’s full-size pickups were up 16.7 percent, to 499,929.

G.M. sold 326 of its newly introduced plug-in hybrid car, the Chevrolet Volt, in December.

Analysts expected the seasonally adjusted selling rate for new vehicles, a closely watched measure of the industry’s health, to be about 12.5 million in December. That is slightly higher than the previous few months and a considerable improvement from the average for the year.

Automakers were projected to sell about 11.8 million vehicles in 2010, compared to 10.3 million in 2009.

“The consumer is coming back to the showrooms, particularly in the more affluent and higher quality credit segments,” Brian Johnson, an analyst with Barclays Capital, wrote in a recent note to clients.

ARCHITECTURE & HOME DECOR

56 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

South Africa’s Art of CulturalCombination D

eep in the Avenues of Oranjezicht, on the slopes of World famous Table Mountain lies the most eclectic, enchanting and exquisite home ever to be released in the City Bowl. Asian, Deco and a hint of Gothic all embrace synthesize and meet in perfect harmony. The World becomes One in an absoute rapture. Marrying imagery from cultures, breaking expectations, letting loose the tidal wave of fresh energy, all encompass the individual, who experiences, this three level home. Artist and craftsman have all come together to enhance the free spirit which envelopes the space. Each room is like viewing a gallery, but also a gathering point.

A dialogue with serendipity. Design and balance in the surround create a harmonious flow of energy. One can look forward to going back to nature in seclusion, tranquility and

The San Juan Weekly privacy but with absolute City sophistication. Exuberance, mystique and fantastic views surround this home.

Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 1 Half Bathrooms: 4 Interior: 9,009 Sq Ft. / 837 m2 Style: Multi Level Property Type: Single Family Home

January 20 - 26, 2011

Unique Amenities 3+ Fireplaces Security System Gardens Staff Quarters Granite Countertops Terrace/Outdoor Space Hardwood Flooring Water View Mountain View

57

ARCHITECTURE & HOME DECOR

58 January 20 - 26, 2011

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

Two Cows And A Chicken

Cartoons

The San Juan Weekly

Ziggi

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

59

Games

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 60

60 January 20 - 26, 2011

HOROSCOPE Aries

(Mar 21-April 20)

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Remember that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. It is definitely important to give yourself more priority. Use the full force of your intellect in a legal matter and trust the system. A family move is indicated after a time of delay. You may proceed with confidence.

Your instincts are on good form so capitalise on the inside information that seems to be dropping from the skies. Spend quality time with family and keep your feet on the ground. Perhaps it is time to look at your fitness regime and take on physical activity to counteract ‘couch potato’ syndrome. Accept an exciting, romantic offer.

Taurus

Scorpio

(April 21-May 21)

Be happy that things are falling naturally into place, but do not force issues. Wait for the ideal moment and do not be impetuous.

Everything will download at the perfect time.

Any uncertainty and conflict in your working life will be sorted out. Do not dabble in game playing or politics. Keep your integrity.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Follow your heart and do not make a hasty negative judgement. Many people will be affected by your decisions in the future, so be both responsible and true to yourself. A time of stress and worry is drawing to a close: phew! Your financial security is assured in the years ahead. Try not to panic so much.

Keep the faith.

Trust that the multiple choices you are presented with will work out just fine. Take your time and do not rush decisions. There are no mistakes and you are not about to miss out on some huge destiny moment or go down the wrong road. Follow your nose and your instincts and you will not go far wrong. Sniff out the way ahead.

Sagittarius

Cancer

Capricorn

(June 22-July 23)

Be patient and be assured that any frustration or disillusionment will dissolve and you will fully come to appreciate the turn of events. An independent spirit will serve you well. Make sure that you go with the flow of events. Do not question what is happening. Be careful not to manipulate those around you. There is no need.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

There is only so much you can control after all. Things happen as they happen and there is not much you can do about it. Be wary of jealous people as your career moves up to another level of success. Do not be so free with your time and be cautious. Keep your treasured secrets under wraps.

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

If you are hurt and disappointed by the end of a relationship do not lose heart. This change in your life is profound and will lead to greater things. Destiny has exciting plans for you, if you can just sit back and relax. There is no need to panic, even though people around you may be tense and paranoid. Keep your serenity.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

Stay as chilled as possible and pay attention The more freedom you grant others, the more return they will freely give you. Do not stress if a particular relationship is causing you grief.

Outcomes be damned! It is the ‘here and now’ that really matters. Concentrate on what you have, not on what you wish to have. If you make the best of things, you will be vindicated.

Take a leap of faith with a financial offer.

The union of bodies, hearts and minds keeps things interesting. There will be more than enough to be getting on with. Just do not miss out on the sexy fun. Patience is needed in order to keep things sweet. Life is not always romantic and at the moment it is definitely not easy. Stay calm.

Virgo

Pisces

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Keep that optimistic spirit intact. Guard your financial and legal concerns carefully. Do not be too free with confidential matters. By all means take colleagues at face value, but be aware of their agendas also. Keep your own head held high and your dignity intact. It does not really matter what everyone else is up to.

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Forewarned is forearmed. Do not issue ultimatums and watch expectations. Go easy and stay relaxed. You will not be short of words. Do not let family or friends pull at your heart strings.

Make time for each other and especially be on your guard against those who seek to mess up your happiness. Steer clear of gossip and do not believe it.

The San Juan Weekly

Answers to the Zudoku and Crossword on page 59

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

61

Sports

A Rising Young Striker Finds New Opportunities

By JACK BELL

I

t was last October in the tunnel leading to the field at Red Bull Arena when Teal Bunbury found himself standing next to his boyhood idol as the Kansas City Wizards prepared to play the Red Bulls.

“Arsenal is my favorite team and growing up Thierry Henry was always my favorite player,” Bunbury, 20, said in a telephone interview from California, where he is training with the United States national team. “And there I was standing next to him. At first, it was weird. I was in awe. But I had to snap out of it and play the game. We talked briefly and he sent me one of his Red Bulls jerseys autographed.”

One can forgive Bunbury his sense of wonder. From a stellar career at the University of Akron to Major League Soccer, Bunbury, a promising 6-foot-2 striker, has moved up the soccer ladder quickly. After a recent trip to Spain with a collection of young M.L.S. players, Bunbury was invited to train with Stoke City of the English Premier League. Quickly the chatter turned from a training spell to a possible transfer.

“I was there for 10 days and they gave me an opportunity to train and build relations,” Bunbury said. “Guys like Gudjohnsen and Fuller helped me out and gave me advice on how to take things to the next level.” He was referring to striker EiDUR Gudjohnsen of Iceland and the Jamaican striker Ricardo Fuller.

But a transfer to the Premier League?

“That’s most people’s initial reaction, but they don’t know what’s really going on,” Bunbury said. “It’s just good to go out and train and play against some of the best. No, I’m not going to sign with them.”

No yet, at least.

Bunbury is among a cadre of mostly young players training with the United States national team ahead of the international friendly against Chile at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on Jan. 22. Among the two dozen

in camp are mostly players from out-of-season M.L.S teams and Americans playing in European leagues that are on their winter break, half of whom have never played for the senior national team. Bunbury made his debut for the United States late last year in an international friendly at South Africa.

He is also one of a handful of young players who, faced with a choice, have pledged their allegiance to the United States national team program.

Last week, Coach Bob Bradley added a Europe-based player to his roster. Eugene Starikov, 22, a striker for Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia who is playing on loan with Tom Tomsk, chose the United States over Ukraine. He was born in Odessa but grew up in Florida and played at Stetson University.

Then central midfielder Fabian Hürzeler, 17, of Bayern Munich, who was born in Texas but grew up in Germany, decided to play for the United States under-20 national team, which is preparing for this year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia.

The United States currently has in camp midfielder Mikkel Diskerud, who was born and plays in Norway, but whose mother is an American from Arizona.

Their choice to play for the United States mildly assuages the disappointment at losing players like striker Giuseppe Rossi (born in New Jersey) to his father’s native Italy and defender Neven Subotic (born in Serbia, grew up in the United States) to his homeland.

For Bunbury (whose father, Alex, played 65 times for Canada from 1986 to 1997) and others, it is mostly about opportunity (Canada has not played in the World Cup since 1986) and pride.

“It’s just where I felt my heart was,” said Bunbury, who grew up in suburban Minneapolis. “You can’t please everybody and you have to do what’s right for yourself.”

Bradley, 52, who was given a four-year contract extension after last summer’s World Cup in South Africa,

said he might also take on the role as coach of the Olympic team, should it qualify for the 2012 London Games. He had a number of players in the senior national team camp — Bunbury, Juan Agudelo, Brek Shea, Anthony Wallace and Diskerud — who also are eligible to play in the under-23 Olympic tournament.

Notes Major League Soccer will hold its annual college and amateur player draft, reduced this year to three rounds from four, on Thursday in Baltimore (noon Eastern, first round live on ESPN2; subsequent rounds streamed at MLSsoccer.com).

Freddy Adu, 21, is on trial with the German seconddivision club Ingolstadt. Adu, who is under contract to Benfica of Portugal until 2012 after signing with the club in 2007, has played on loan to clubs in France, Portugal and Greece. Ingolstadt is in 17th place in the 18-team division.

Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry, 33, is back with Arsenal in North London, training with the Gunners only weeks before the Red Bulls of M.L.S. are scheduled to begin their preseason training. The Red Bulls open the 2011 season at home against Seattle on March 19.

Camby Knows Just What the Knicks Are Missing

By JONATHAN ABRAMS

M

arcus Camby made the transition long ago from being the mere pogo-stick leaper he was as a Knick.

As his points and blocks have dipped, his basketball knowledge has increased and his rebounding remains on par with the N.B.A.’s best.

Camby, 36, is aware of the Knicks’ resurgence and of what type of player they are in the market for, should they be permanently diverted from their pursuit of Carmelo Anthony.

“I’m sure they would like to have a center so Amar’e can go back to his position at 4.”

He answered with a smile, knowing he could be that center who would allow Amar’e Stoudemire to be more comfortable on the court. The murmurs of Camby’s return to the Knicks, nearly a decade after they traded him, come up biannually, whenever Camby faces them. This happens to be a time when such a trade is least likely to happen.

The Knicks are in the market for a

starting center, one who can offer more minutes than Ronny Turiaf and more experience than Timofey Mozgov, and who could allow Wilson Chandler to return to the bench, where he would headline a better second unit. Figuring out such a goal is

much easier than solving it, and quality centers are a rarity in the N.B.A. Nearly every team is in the market for a starting center; Portland’s — Greg Oden — is sidelined another year. The Trail Blazers would most likely not accept a deal simply for the year’s worth of salary relief that Camby would create, and despite their injuries, the Trail Blazers are still seeking a playoff appearance.

Camby, a link from the last Knicks team to reach the N.B.A. finals, in 1999, is also predominantly a jump shooter. Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni would prefer to have a center who finished at the basket.

Plenty of teams have inquired about Camby, but Richard Cho, Portland’s general manager, is not inclined to trade him.

“Marcus is having a good year,” Cho said. “Teams are always looking for centers.”

Last season, Camby tantalized the imaginations of reporters when he left a Trail Blazers game in New York with a Knicks bag and jerseys.

Before the Knicks were given a chance to recruit Camby, he signed a two-year,

$21 million contract extension to remain in Portland. The next time the Knicks saw Camby, he helped sour this season’s home opener by stripping and knocking the ball off Stoudemire, denying his opportunity to tie the game with 6.5 seconds left.

“There’s always been talks about them wanting to bring me back and stuff like that,” Camby said. “But nothing ever materialized.”

The 2002 trade ignited the vacuum for a skilled frontcourt player that lasted years.

Antonio McDyess, the main player acquired for Camby, was injured, and players like Eddy Curry and Jerome James proved to be contractual disasters and disappointing performers. Stoudemire is a willing center but a natural power forward who has nonetheless finally pushed the Knicks back into respectability.

“I still feel like I have a couple years left,” he said. “I still haven’t won a title. The last time I was in the finals, I was back in New York in ’99. That’s always going to be my driving force.”

He added: “I like it here out in Portland.

Hopefully, I can finish my career here.”

Sports

62 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly

Where All School Days Are Snow Days

Victor Gilmeneau preparing to load his ski gear onto a bus heading to the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, a public school with instruction similar to private ski academies.

By BILL PENNINGTON

O

ff a remote road, the school in this tiny mountain town looks like any other small-town public school. Inside, high school and middle school students pass rows of lockers in the hallways, study in classrooms and conduct experiments in science laboratories.

But at this public school, one student was a Winter Olympian last February, and two others are on the United States ski team.

Several were Junior Olympic champions, and a few earned titles at junior world snow sport championships. Many have relocated from all over Colorado to attend the school, and others arrived from New Jersey, Michigan and Virginia.

They have come here to the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy because it is considered to be the only public winter sports school in the United States.

The academy, in existence since 2007, replicates the European sport-specific school model that has for decades produced numerous Olympic ski champions. The taxfinanced Vail academy is required to meet state academic guidelines, but in the winter normal school schedules are turned upsidedown — on-snow training all morning, then classes from 1 to 5 p.m.

Some students are not in the school at all for weeks because they travel the world to compete. Academic workloads are more rigorous in the fall and spring to keep the class work lighter in winter.

“In the old public school system, these kids missed 30 or 40 days of school to pursue their winter sport,” said Geoff Grimmer, the academic director at the academy, which has 90 students in grades 6 to 12. “We had one of the highest absence rates in the nation. So the kids were forced to either compromise their academic growth or surrender their athletic dreams. Now at our school, they do neither, and that’s a victory for public education.”

Michael Gass, the Eagle County school district’s executive director of student servi-

ces, called the academy an example of “No child left behind on the slopes.”

The district’s partner in the venture is the nonprofit Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, which provides the coaching for the athletes for an annual fee — paid by the students — of about $7,500. But if students live in the local school district from August to June, there is no academy tuition, which can save ski racers and snowboarders nearly half the cost to attend a private ski academy, or as much as $25,000 a year. Although, private ski academies do offer financial aid to minimize expenses.

The Vail academy, which has an application process to weigh academic qualifications, accepts students who want to participate in one of five sports: Alpine skiing (the significant majority), snowboarding, freestyle skiing, free-riding and Nordic sports.

“I thank my mom every day for moving to Vail,” said Skylar Chaney, 13, an eighth grader whose family of six sold their Virginia house last year. “I liked my old school, but my teachers didn’t really understand all the missed school days to race in Maine or wherever. I don’t have to explain anything here; instead they make sure I’ve learned everything, or have everything I need to learn, before I leave.”

In the past, top snow sports athletes either attended one of about 20 private ski academies, where academic schedules are customized much as they are at the Vail academy, or the athletes enrolled in public schools and tried to juggle studies and sports.

Shannon Moller, whose son, Grifen, is a seventh grader in the academy’s free-ride program, tried home schooling.

“But that’s not necessarily the answer,” said Moller, who moved to Eagle County from Michigan and helps her husband, Mike, run an electrical contracting business. “And we wouldn’t have been able to afford the private East Coast academies. The public school academy was meant for people like us.”

To Aldo Radamus, executive director of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, offering elite snow sports training to a wider socio-eco-

nomic group was part of the reason he met with Eagle County school leaders in 2004.

“Vail has an image as a rich town,” he said. “But a high percentage of the yearround residents are in the service industry.

We wanted their kids to pursue their sports passions, too.”

In two years of meetings, Radamus, a former United States ski team coach, helped devise a schedule that included conditioning in the spring and fall and a winter schedule that had the athletes training on Vail Mountain from 7:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday to Friday. They would attend class afterward. Nearly all of the students train all day Saturday and Sunday.

It helped that at about the same time Radamus and executives for Vail’s parent company, Vail Resorts, were negotiating to create a state-of-the-art competition arena behind the club’s headquarters at the east end of the Vail Mountain trail system. The club raised $3 million toward the arena and Vail Resorts provided its snowmaking and grooming expertise. Now, more than ever, academy students had the room to train in every discipline, including moguls and aerials.

Recent advances in quality, affordable educational technologies made the academy more viable as well. Online instruction tools like Blackboard and other programs make it easier for traveling students and teachers to communicate as if they were in the same classroom. Each academy student has a laptop, the classrooms are equipped with exceptionally fast wireless networks and computers, and Grimmer has made sure every faculty member has an iPad. “Much of what we do wouldn’t have been possible 15 years ago,” Grimmer said.

Although the academy also employs a college counselor and a sports psychologist, district officials said the school was not a tax burden because the state reimburses the district on a per-student basis. The academy, they said, has helped keep more students enrolled in the district, so existing facilities are more fully used.

The school has a few inflexible academic requirements. Grades are e-mailed to students and parents weekly, and if a student falls below a 70 average in any subject for two successive weeks, the student spends the next week in study hall instead of training.

Sports specialty schools are not new to the United States, especially in golf and tennis. Those schools have many success stories but in recent years have often been criticized for professionalizing childhood and emphasizing sports over education.

Vail academy officials have been asked if their model is not more of the same.

“My answer is that if anything, we are letting their value and perception of themselves be defined more broadly than just athletics,” Grimmer said. “The structure is there to make sure they feel part of an educational community as well.”

Several students agreed.

“We do some unusual things to make time for our sport, but the curriculum is still very demanding and the teachers hold us to it,” said Anne Strong, a senior. “We take a bunch of Advanced Placement courses and afterward we have to take the same standardized A.P. exams as the kids in regular high schools.”

Strong, who will attend Dartmouth next fall, and her twin, Liz, who is going to Harvard, are among about 18 students expected to graduate in the spring. Faye Gulini, who finished 12th in the Vancouver Olympics in snowboard cross, is also part of that class. Nearly every graduate attends a fouryear college, and nearly all compete intercollegiately.

The academy’s graduation rate in the first three years has been 89 percent, which is several percentage points above the districtwide average. In 2009, the average PSAT score for students was 51 in both critical reading and math. The national PSAT averages for 11th graders was 47 in critical reading and 48 in math.

Radamus is convinced that the Vail model will be copied by school districts elsewhere. He mentioned Aspen, Colo.; Lake Tahoe, Calif.; Stowe, Vt.; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Park City, Utah, as possible sites for a public winter sports academy.

Meanwhile, on a Monday late last year, each boy inside the Vail academy building wore a tie; the girls were also dressed a little more formally. It’s a tradition — no training on Monday, so everyone dresses up.

“I like the tie days,” Grifen Moller said.

“It makes you feel a little different, but at the same time it makes all of us feel like we’re doing something special together. Because we are.”

Heidi Kloser, a student at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, back flips off Golden Peak.

The San Juan Weekly

January 20 - 26, 2011

63

Sports

Running, Jumping and Hardly Aging on the Track

By MIKE TIERNEY

P

hilippa Raschker, the most enduring female athlete you’ve never heard of, is flying solo, dashing down a track that rings a high school football field.

With no discus or shot or javelin or hurdles handy, no pole vault or high jump or long jump pit on the premises, the day’s casual workout — conducted alone, as usual — is limited to sprints, her specialty.

Trim in two-piece running garb, she is economy in motion, reddish-brown hair like a jet’s contrails, painted fingernails glistening in the sun. Why wouldn’t a publication that annually celebrates the contours of athletes’ physiques and appearances, causing double takes, consider her for its pages?

Except one thing.

“Wait a minute,” Raschker had told the caller from ESPN the Magazine who invited her to pose while loping naked in its issue called The Body. “Do you know I’m 63 years old?”

Assured the magazine did, she eagerly accepted, then spent a full day in upstate New York, running and logjumping into an icy swimming hole at a photographer’s behest.

For Raschker — widely known as Phil, except when others on the World Masters Athletics circuit that she has lorded over for nearly three decades lovingly address her as Grandmother — disrobing on the run was a welcome out-of-bodyand-clothes experience.

“I feel very good about my body,” she said, attributing her lack of prudishness to her European roots and comfort at topless beaches. “I take care of it. I hope they’ll have me back when I’m 70.”

Surely she will be competing then, at something. The hunger to lock horns athletically is as acute as it was 50 years ago, when Raschker aged out of daycare in her native West Germany and enlisted with a track club.

At age 20, she moved to the United States, began dabbling in track and quit a new job when the manager denied her a day off for a meet, according to a book about older competitors, “Second Wind: The Rise of the Ageless Athlete.”

Scurrying to as many as 36 competitions a year, Raschker became a regular at the United States nationals. She was a women’s pole-vault pioneer. An adventurous sort, she has vaulted against men and even engaged them in the decathlon, in which only men normally compete.

At one meet, she entered an alien event, the triple jump, against men after two of them took her by the arms and showed her the technique. At another, she

Philippa Raschker, 63, has set more than 200 masters track and field records and still holds 63 United States records and 18 world marks. was roped at the last second into the steeplechase, which she had never practiced, to help fill out a small field.

It is the global masters program, in which nobody ever ages out, that Raschker has turned into her domain.

In its world indoor and outdoor championships combined, for women 35 and older, Raschker has won 71 gold medals, 19 silver and 7 bronze.

She has set more than 200 records and still holds 63 United States and 18 world marks. The numbers are made possible by the masters format of dividing participants into five-year age increments (i.e., 60 to 64), allowing for rebirth every five years.

Its world meet — in Sacramento this summer — will draw up to 12,000 athletes.

While most entrants choose a few events, à la carte, Raschker treats such gatherings as a buffet. Typically, she enters all three sprints, both hurdles and every jump, along with the seven-discipline heptathlon. The weights, her least liked endeavors, are no picnic for a 110-pounder — “I get dizzy” — but she has sampled them all.

Raschker has no coach, so she learns by trial and error. She resembled a hopping frog as a beginning long jumper. She remains slow out of the blocks in her best event, the 200 meters, forcing her to “see everybody’s butt” before she runs them down.

She was coached, sort of, by a former boyfriend, Phil Mulkey, an Olympic decathlete 14 years her senior. They were an item for two decades despite Mulkey’s hit-and-miss efforts to instruct her during workouts.

“He will probably tell you I am uncoachable,” Raschker said.

“She is uncoachable,” Mulkey began, unprompted, by phone from Birmingham, Ala. “And I consider myself a pretty good coach.”

Problem was, training bores Raschker, who operates on adrenaline rushes.

Mulkey turned their practices into minimeets, one-on-one, which kept her interest from flagging.

“She has her own way about doing things,” said Mulkey, who remains Raschker’s friend and an ardent booster.

Her way includes a responsible, but not harsh, diet, opening daily with oatmeal and fruit and leading to meaty salads.

Raschker’s home here, which includes an office for her independent tax accountant duties, is heavily furnished with fitness equipment. There is a treadmill in the utility room, on which she spends 20 minutes before boredom sets in, and a multistation weight machine. There is a recumbent bike in the den, an elliptical machine alongside her bed.

To save for meets, Raschker lives frugally, swearing off movies and dining out once a month at most. Two sponsors that provided modest funding have come and gone. Travel expenses, which once eclipsed $10,000 annually, have dropped nearly in half, but medical bills rose to $5,000, the tab from chronically ailing knees and a troublesome Achilles’ tendon.

Raschker, childless after a 10-year marriage, maximizes the time flexibility to train (reluctantly) and attend meets.

She displays some of her track and field awards, but most are tossed into shoe boxes, each labeled by year.

“Once you’ve done it, once you’ve won it, it’s on to the next meet,” she said.

What brought Raschker somewhat out of sports anonymity was being a two-

time finalist for the Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union to the nation’s best unpaid athlete. No other masters performer in any sport has scratched the list of the five finalists.

She did not win in 2003, up against a stellar cast, all young enough to be her grandchildren: the swimmer Michael Phelps, the speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno, the basketball player Diana Taurasi (in the buff on the latest cover of The Body) and the high schooler LeBron James. Two years ago, Tim Tebow was the winner.

“Phil is such a phenomenal athlete,” Brenda Matthews of Anaheim, Calif., who defeated her in the 60 meters at an international event last year, wrote in an e-mail.

“When the race was over, I had to admire Phil once again. She was very gracious to me and told me to enjoy my victory, that I had earned it.”

Through the years, not everyone has been so courteous.

Rumblings have portrayed her as a product of the East German sports machine, even though she was from West Germany. As a consumer of performance-boosting drugs. As having had a sex change.

Ken Stone, who maintains records and a Web site devoted to masters track and field, recalled a transgender athlete telling him, “Phil Raschker has to be a former man.”

Stone said he sought and obtained documentation proving otherwise. “I’m embarrassed that I bought that lady’s story,” he said. “She is special. She’s accomplished more than any masters athlete in the universe.”

The suspicions, Raschker said, “used to bother me.”

“Now I don’t give it a second thought,” she added. “I run away from negativity as fast as I can.”

Stone is one of many who have urged Raschker to eliminate some events, which sometimes require up to two dozen races at a given meet. Doing so, the argument goes, would result in Raschker’s setting almost untouchable age-group records.

She has pored over the list, looking for candidates to drop. “Which one would I choose?” she said.

The naked truth is, as much pain as she withstands to compete, hanging up the spikes would be acutely painful, now that she is aware of her inspirational role.

That would not mean abandoning competitive athletics altogether.

A client suggested she switch to rowing. “It’s something I’ve considered if my legs can’t carry me anymore,” she said.

Ever rowed before?

“No.”

64 January 20 - 26, 2011

The San Juan Weekly