By LAURA M. HOLSON
THERE is a scene in the movie “He’s Just Not That Into You” in which Mary, played by Drew Barrymore, laments the numerous technological ways she is being rebuffed by a potential beau. E-mail. Text messages. MySpace. “It’s exhausting,” she complains.
Well, Mary, it’s even worse after the relationship.
Ask Kashmir Hill, who was stung one day when she logged into a former boyfriend’s e-mail account — they had agreed to share passwords — and read a note he sent his mother explaining why he was no longer in love. The couple shared an online bank account and, for months after the breakup, Ms. Hill pored over the balance as it dwindled to $10. She cried when she finally closed the account.
“It’s enough to get rejected in real life,” said Ms. Hill, 28, who blogs about legal issues and lives in New York. “But does it have to happen so often in my online world too? It makes me want to keep my digital life separate in future relationships, whomever they are with.”
A new dating order has emerged in the era of social media. Couples who used to see each other’s friends only at parties now enjoy 24-hour access to their beloved’s confidants thanks to Facebook. Sharing passwords to e-mail accounts, bank accounts and photo-sharing sites is the new currency of intimacy. And courtship — however brief or intense — is wantonly scrutinized by the whole world on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
As a result, the idea of what it means to break up is also being redefined. Where once a spurned lover could use scissors (literally) to cut an ex out of the picture, digital images of the smiling couple in happier days abound on the Web and are difficult to delete. Status updates and tweets have a way of wending their way back to scorned exes, thanks to the interconnectedness of social media. And breakups, awkward and drawn-out in person, are even more so online as details are parsed by the curious, their faces pressed against the digital glass.
“When you make a decision to be with a person in cyberspace you are making a commitment to their network of friends and acquaintances,” said Liz Perle, a co-founder of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit watchdog group that studies families and media. “People have so many online strings that bind them that cutting one does not sever the relationship. There are always more.”
One byproduct of the digital revolution is that trust is being assigned new meaning. According to the Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center, one in five teenagers polled shares online passwords as a way to build trust and foster romance. Grown-ups, explained Lee Rainie, the project’s director, are exhibiting similar behavior. And it is not just women affected by changing rules of digital etiquette, but men too. (Several men contacted for this article declined to discuss their breakups publicly.)
Some family law practitioners say they are grappling with the complexities of online entanglements in real-world divorce.
Randall Kessler, a lawyer in Atlanta, said he advises divorcing clients to change their passwords, stop posting on social networking sites, acquire a new e-mail address, and secure or make copies of whatever is posted about them online. Users, of course, control what they post on private accounts. Where it gets tricky, though, is when photos, videos and comments have been forwarded, retweeted or reposted to friends’ accounts or on public Web sites.
“There are whole new rules of digital etiquette we are going to have to figure out,” Mr. Rainie said. “Right now, we don’t have the tools. That makes it very confusing for most people.”
Sam Altman, the chief executive of Loopt, a mobile tracking service that allows users to monitor friends’ locations using the G.P.S. software on their cellphones, said he was seeing social mores shift firsthand. About 20 percent of Loopt’s users are couples who buy the service to keep track of each other’s whereabouts. But in the past six months, there has been an increase in the number of customers who use fake locations as a decoy so a person doesn’t know where they are, Mr. Altman said, a service that Loopt offers.
He explained that some of those customers have broken up and now want privacy. At the same time, they don’t want to offend an ex by overtly letting them know they have been blocked. “People who break up always want to change their location immediately,” Mr. Altman said. At the same time, “unless it was nasty, they don’t want rush to tell everyone they’ve split up either,” he said. “Better to be cautious than hasty.”
The reason is simple: some hope the romance will be rekindled. Similarly, closing a joint bank account or switching to “single” status on your Facebook page suggests a permanent break.
Debora Spencer, a Seattle photographer, split up this summer with a longtime boyfriend with whom she lived for four years. Like many exes, she grappled with whether to remain Facebook friends. “At first I could not defriend him,” she said. “It seemed so high school. I mean, I’m 50 years old.”
Early in the relationship, Ms. Spencer’s partner had friended many of her Facebook pals so their networks overlapped. After the breakup, she still received his status updates and read comments he posted on her friends’ walls. That made her realize that he knew everything she was doing, too.
So she defriended him, hoping it would stop the flow of news.
It didn’t. One friend continued to forward her ex’s status reports and comments. Another called Ms. Spencer after seeing a photograph of her former boyfriend with another woman. “It’s not like I wanted to know this,” Ms. Spencer said. Finally, she decided to block her ex completely and asked friends to stop sending updates.
“You learn things so quickly, within minutes,” she said. “Even if we had lived together in a small town, I don’t think I would have learned half of what I did as quickly as I did on Facebook.”
Still, with any failed romance, there is always the temptation to follow up with an ex. And social networks, by design, sate hungry curiosity. Sally Che, a 25-year-old medical student at George Washington University, ended a possible romance three years ago after the man started dating a former girlfriend. (Ms. Che learned about the affair in a status update on his Facebook page.)
She hasn’t spoken to him in years and has no desire to restart their relationship. Despite that, the two remain Facebook friends. And, every now and then, and against her better judgment, she said, she trolls his page seeking fresh news. “The temptation is to look and find out what someone is up to even if it hurts,” Ms. Che said. “People who you would never talk to again are only a click away. You see where they are traveling. You check out the picture of the new girlfriend to see if he downgraded. There is this fine line between being that crazy girl who de-tags photos and gets rid of every little thing and the one who willingly continues the charade of friendship.”
“It’s hard to figure out the middle ground,” Ms. Che said. “The thing is you never really get out of the relationship.” Ms. Perle of Common Sense Media told the story of a friend, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who broke up recently. Her dilemma was different from Ms. Spencer’s: She wanted to sever ties with the man but not with his children. So she defriended him while remaining friends on Facebook with his children.
Still, photographs of the couple during happier days abound online. “These pictures travel,” said Ms. Perle, as she recently clicked through a Web slideshow of the couple. “You have no control once they are integrated into other people’s pages.”
In other words, she added, “you cannot de-boyfriend yourself.”
Showing posts with label International News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International News. Show all posts
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Study Raises Cost Estimate for Electric Cars
DETROIT — As General Motors began assembling batteries for the coming Chevrolet Volt on Thursday, a new study cast doubt on the likelihood that electric cars will be widely popular in the near future.
The study, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, said battery costs were not expected to fall as much as automakers have projected, making electric vehicles too expensive for most consumers even 10 years from now.
The firm predicted that electric cars would account for just 6 percent of the global market in 2020, or about three million of an estimated 54.5 million vehicles sold over all.
The findings contrast with the publicity that G.M., Ford Motor, Nissan and other manufacturers have been building for coming battery-powered models. On Thursday, G.M.'s chairman and chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., called electric cars like the Volt, which has a small range-extending gasoline engine, "the way of the future" and said such technology "will quickly become a very big part of General Motors."
The Volt, Mr. Whitacre said, is "a sign of good things to come, not only for this company but for the U.S. auto industry and the car-buying public."
Mr. Whitacre was speaking at a ceremony to note the production of G.M.'s first 400-pound battery pack at a new plant outside Detroit. The event took place exactly three years after G.M. introduced the Volt — then a sporty concept car theoretically powered by technology that company officials acknowledged did not exist yet — to great fanfare at the 2007 Detroit auto show.
The Volt is scheduled to go on sale by November.
Electric vehicles will be a large part of this year's Detroit show, which begins Monday with two days of media previews. The energy secretary, Steven Chu, who joined Mr. Whitacre at the event on Thursday, said the vehicles were critical to helping Detroit's automakers become successful again.
"We urgently need to change how we power our cars and trucks," Mr. Chu said. "America has fallen behind in the race to build cars of the future."
The Boston Consulting Group study, however, forecasts that most gasoline-powered cars will remain most popular for many years. It forecasts that they will represent 62 percent of sales in the United States and 58 percent of sales worldwide in 2020.
The main factor, the study says, is price. It predicts that the cost of a battery pack about the size of the Volt's will fall by $10,000, or 64 percent, from 2009 to 2020. But even then it would take about 15 years for the cost of owning an electric vehicle to equal that of a gas-powered car.
Most consumers would buy an electric vehicle only if they could break even on ownership costs within three years, said Xavier Mosquet, who leads the consulting firm's automotive practice in Detroit. He said a three-year time frame would require significant government incentives or a drastic change in one or more factors, like oil prices of about $375 a barrel, more than quadruple today's price.
Mr. Mosquet said about 9 percent of Americans surveyed said they would buy an electric car regardless of price.
"A small fraction will buy one either because they think it is fun or it is the right thing to do," he told reporters after a speech to the Automotive Press Association. "If you want to go beyond a niche market, you need to make it financially attractive."
But G.M. and government officials celebrating the start of battery production on Thursday said they were confident that the automaker, after many years of trailing its competition and making poor decisions, would lead the industry forward.
"We're going to show those foreigners how you make cars, and we're going to have success," Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, said.
The study, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, said battery costs were not expected to fall as much as automakers have projected, making electric vehicles too expensive for most consumers even 10 years from now.
The firm predicted that electric cars would account for just 6 percent of the global market in 2020, or about three million of an estimated 54.5 million vehicles sold over all.
The findings contrast with the publicity that G.M., Ford Motor, Nissan and other manufacturers have been building for coming battery-powered models. On Thursday, G.M.'s chairman and chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., called electric cars like the Volt, which has a small range-extending gasoline engine, "the way of the future" and said such technology "will quickly become a very big part of General Motors."
The Volt, Mr. Whitacre said, is "a sign of good things to come, not only for this company but for the U.S. auto industry and the car-buying public."
Mr. Whitacre was speaking at a ceremony to note the production of G.M.'s first 400-pound battery pack at a new plant outside Detroit. The event took place exactly three years after G.M. introduced the Volt — then a sporty concept car theoretically powered by technology that company officials acknowledged did not exist yet — to great fanfare at the 2007 Detroit auto show.
The Volt is scheduled to go on sale by November.
Electric vehicles will be a large part of this year's Detroit show, which begins Monday with two days of media previews. The energy secretary, Steven Chu, who joined Mr. Whitacre at the event on Thursday, said the vehicles were critical to helping Detroit's automakers become successful again.
"We urgently need to change how we power our cars and trucks," Mr. Chu said. "America has fallen behind in the race to build cars of the future."
The Boston Consulting Group study, however, forecasts that most gasoline-powered cars will remain most popular for many years. It forecasts that they will represent 62 percent of sales in the United States and 58 percent of sales worldwide in 2020.
The main factor, the study says, is price. It predicts that the cost of a battery pack about the size of the Volt's will fall by $10,000, or 64 percent, from 2009 to 2020. But even then it would take about 15 years for the cost of owning an electric vehicle to equal that of a gas-powered car.
Most consumers would buy an electric vehicle only if they could break even on ownership costs within three years, said Xavier Mosquet, who leads the consulting firm's automotive practice in Detroit. He said a three-year time frame would require significant government incentives or a drastic change in one or more factors, like oil prices of about $375 a barrel, more than quadruple today's price.
Mr. Mosquet said about 9 percent of Americans surveyed said they would buy an electric car regardless of price.
"A small fraction will buy one either because they think it is fun or it is the right thing to do," he told reporters after a speech to the Automotive Press Association. "If you want to go beyond a niche market, you need to make it financially attractive."
But G.M. and government officials celebrating the start of battery production on Thursday said they were confident that the automaker, after many years of trailing its competition and making poor decisions, would lead the industry forward.
"We're going to show those foreigners how you make cars, and we're going to have success," Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, said.
Cheap Mobile Calls, Even Overseas
Recently, my parents returned from Italy with a few bottles of Chianti and $750 in AT&T calling charges. Buon giorno!
Racking up exorbitant mobile charges is easy to do if you are not careful about using your cellphone internationally. AT&T charges 99 cents a minute to use your phone in Italy (rates vary by country), and that is if you pay for the carrier's international calling plan. If you do not, the charge goes up to $1.29 a minute.
What my parents did not realize was that they could have nearly eliminated those charges if they had set up their (in this case) iPhone and BlackBerry to take advantage of mobile Internet calling services: That $1.29-a-minute charge would have gone down to a much more reasonable 2.4 cents a minute (or nothing at all if they were on a Wi-Fi network).
The Internet has been used to make calls for some time. One of the largest providers of the service, Skype, was founded in 2003 and has more than half a billion user accounts. And while many people gather around the PC to talk to far-flung friends and family, new apps and services can replicate that experience (and that savings) on cellphones.
To transform your mobile phone into a device capable of making cheap international calls, you need to consider a few things. Ideally, you have a smartphone that can access Wi-Fi, like an iPhone or a Droid. Wi-Fi ensures the best call quality, since it's carried over a high-speed Internet connection rather than through third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks.
But if you don't have a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, you are not out of luck. There are calling services that use local phone numbers rather than wireless data connections to place calls, making them compatible with a wide range of devices. Applications can dial a local access number as if you were placing a regular call; and your call is routed over the Internet at similarly discounted rates.
There are also free calling mobile applications, each with its own layout, feature list and call quality. In my tests of more than six different applications by calling friends in Europe and Africa, these stood out:
SKYPE FOR MOBILE Like the program for Mac and PCs, Skype Mobile lets you make free calls and send instant messages to fellow Skype users. You can also call non-Skype landlines and cellphones using Skype Credit, a fee-based service that charges pennies per minute for international calls.
Skype offers several mobile versions, including Skype for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Skype Lite for Java and Android phones, and Skype for Windows phones.
The application for the iPhone and iPod Touch most closely resembles Skype's familiar desktop program. Though I could send text-based chat messages to my Skype-using friend in Belgrade over AT&T's 3G network, I needed to connect the phone to a Wi-Fi network to make a call. (You currently cannot make Skype or other Internet-based calls on the iPhone via AT&T's 3G network, though that could change soon.) After a simple tap of the call button, I could clearly hear his familiar accent without any noticeable lag or choppiness.
Similarly, a call I made to a friend's cellphone in Senegal using Skype Credit was crystal clear in sound and connected in only 15 seconds. We chatted for 10 minutes, which cost me only $2.40. That same call on AT&T, even if I signed on to its international calling plan (which costs $4 a month), would have cost $8.80. Without the international calling plan, the fee would have climbed to $27.80.
For those without iPhones or Windows Mobile devices, Skype provides its Skype Lite application. Skype Lite cannot make calls over Wi-Fi or 3G networks, but instead routes calls through a local cellphone number.
It isn't as complicated as it sounds: when using a MyTouch 3G phone, I selected a Skype contact in London. The application started the phone's dialer and automatically routed the call to a local number. My British pal came through clear and static-free.
One thing to remember is that while calls made with Skype Lite are local and your carrier won't exact a long-distance fee, you are technically making a call. So those calls will count against the minutes in your calling plan.
FRING Picking up where Skype Mobile leaves off, Fring provides an even richer experience on more phones. It supports calling over Wi-Fi and 3G on Android and Nokia devices; iPhone 3G calling is on the way. In addition to free calling to Fring members anywhere in the world, the service connects to Skype, Google Talk and MSN Messenger contacts.
After installing the Fring application from the Android Marketplace on Sprint's HTC Hero, I tapped into my Skype account to call my Belgrade friend over Sprint's network. Since I didn't need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot, I made the call while walking down a noisy New York street.
Unfortunately, because 3G data networks weren't built for packets of data as fast-moving as a cellphone call, the connection was weak and kept fading in and out. When I was standing still, the call was slightly clearer but like a dialogue between in-studio anchors and on-the-ground news correspondents, there was a noticeable lag in the conversation.
That all disappeared when I connected the Hero to a Wi-Fi network; we talked for five minutes with no interruptions or delay.
If you are a fan of Skype's desktop video-calling service, you may be wondering when it will be appearing on its mobile app. Fring's already beaten Skype to the punch on this feature. The company recently updated its iPhone application with one-way video calling. "One-way," because the iPhone doesn't have a front-facing camera — so you can see your caller but your caller can't see you.
TRUPHONE Truphone, which works a bit differently from Skype and Fring, is available for a number of devices including the iPhone, the iPod Touch and Android, Nokia and BlackBerry handsets.
Truphone doesn't have a 3G calling option, but offers calling over Wi-Fi for Android, Nokia and iPhone handsets. The company offers Truphone Anywhere, a service similar to Skype's Lite application that routes long-distance calls first over a local number and then via the Internet for lower rates.
Though Truphone permits you to sign into your Skype account and call Skype users, you can also make free calls to other Truphone users. When I called a Truphone friend in London on his cell using a Wi-Fi network, call quality was decent and there was no background hissing.
Blending the functionality of both Fring and Skype, I discovered the true beauty of Truphone when I ventured outside of Wi-Fi territory and was able to automatically call Truphone users and international numbers by using my phone's own dialing capabilities. Although I needed to buy Truphone credit, the call was routed over a local number and then to Truphone's network.
What's the benefit of that, rather than it switching to 3G like Fring? Much better call quality. Just as with Skype Lite, when I dialed my friend in Israel, Truphone called a local New York City number, and connected me to her cell. Her voice was as clear as if she was sitting right next to me.
Clearly, making a choice about which service to use to reduce the cost of international calling will depend heavily on what cellphone you have and whether you have easy access to a Wi-Fi network.
But no matter which option you select, you will definitely save some money. AT&T may have heavily charged my parents one time for their globetrotting calling habits, but with so many new and cheaper options, that won't happen again.
Racking up exorbitant mobile charges is easy to do if you are not careful about using your cellphone internationally. AT&T charges 99 cents a minute to use your phone in Italy (rates vary by country), and that is if you pay for the carrier's international calling plan. If you do not, the charge goes up to $1.29 a minute.
What my parents did not realize was that they could have nearly eliminated those charges if they had set up their (in this case) iPhone and BlackBerry to take advantage of mobile Internet calling services: That $1.29-a-minute charge would have gone down to a much more reasonable 2.4 cents a minute (or nothing at all if they were on a Wi-Fi network).
The Internet has been used to make calls for some time. One of the largest providers of the service, Skype, was founded in 2003 and has more than half a billion user accounts. And while many people gather around the PC to talk to far-flung friends and family, new apps and services can replicate that experience (and that savings) on cellphones.
To transform your mobile phone into a device capable of making cheap international calls, you need to consider a few things. Ideally, you have a smartphone that can access Wi-Fi, like an iPhone or a Droid. Wi-Fi ensures the best call quality, since it's carried over a high-speed Internet connection rather than through third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks.
But if you don't have a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, you are not out of luck. There are calling services that use local phone numbers rather than wireless data connections to place calls, making them compatible with a wide range of devices. Applications can dial a local access number as if you were placing a regular call; and your call is routed over the Internet at similarly discounted rates.
There are also free calling mobile applications, each with its own layout, feature list and call quality. In my tests of more than six different applications by calling friends in Europe and Africa, these stood out:
SKYPE FOR MOBILE Like the program for Mac and PCs, Skype Mobile lets you make free calls and send instant messages to fellow Skype users. You can also call non-Skype landlines and cellphones using Skype Credit, a fee-based service that charges pennies per minute for international calls.
Skype offers several mobile versions, including Skype for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Skype Lite for Java and Android phones, and Skype for Windows phones.
The application for the iPhone and iPod Touch most closely resembles Skype's familiar desktop program. Though I could send text-based chat messages to my Skype-using friend in Belgrade over AT&T's 3G network, I needed to connect the phone to a Wi-Fi network to make a call. (You currently cannot make Skype or other Internet-based calls on the iPhone via AT&T's 3G network, though that could change soon.) After a simple tap of the call button, I could clearly hear his familiar accent without any noticeable lag or choppiness.
Similarly, a call I made to a friend's cellphone in Senegal using Skype Credit was crystal clear in sound and connected in only 15 seconds. We chatted for 10 minutes, which cost me only $2.40. That same call on AT&T, even if I signed on to its international calling plan (which costs $4 a month), would have cost $8.80. Without the international calling plan, the fee would have climbed to $27.80.
For those without iPhones or Windows Mobile devices, Skype provides its Skype Lite application. Skype Lite cannot make calls over Wi-Fi or 3G networks, but instead routes calls through a local cellphone number.
It isn't as complicated as it sounds: when using a MyTouch 3G phone, I selected a Skype contact in London. The application started the phone's dialer and automatically routed the call to a local number. My British pal came through clear and static-free.
One thing to remember is that while calls made with Skype Lite are local and your carrier won't exact a long-distance fee, you are technically making a call. So those calls will count against the minutes in your calling plan.
FRING Picking up where Skype Mobile leaves off, Fring provides an even richer experience on more phones. It supports calling over Wi-Fi and 3G on Android and Nokia devices; iPhone 3G calling is on the way. In addition to free calling to Fring members anywhere in the world, the service connects to Skype, Google Talk and MSN Messenger contacts.
After installing the Fring application from the Android Marketplace on Sprint's HTC Hero, I tapped into my Skype account to call my Belgrade friend over Sprint's network. Since I didn't need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot, I made the call while walking down a noisy New York street.
Unfortunately, because 3G data networks weren't built for packets of data as fast-moving as a cellphone call, the connection was weak and kept fading in and out. When I was standing still, the call was slightly clearer but like a dialogue between in-studio anchors and on-the-ground news correspondents, there was a noticeable lag in the conversation.
That all disappeared when I connected the Hero to a Wi-Fi network; we talked for five minutes with no interruptions or delay.
If you are a fan of Skype's desktop video-calling service, you may be wondering when it will be appearing on its mobile app. Fring's already beaten Skype to the punch on this feature. The company recently updated its iPhone application with one-way video calling. "One-way," because the iPhone doesn't have a front-facing camera — so you can see your caller but your caller can't see you.
TRUPHONE Truphone, which works a bit differently from Skype and Fring, is available for a number of devices including the iPhone, the iPod Touch and Android, Nokia and BlackBerry handsets.
Truphone doesn't have a 3G calling option, but offers calling over Wi-Fi for Android, Nokia and iPhone handsets. The company offers Truphone Anywhere, a service similar to Skype's Lite application that routes long-distance calls first over a local number and then via the Internet for lower rates.
Though Truphone permits you to sign into your Skype account and call Skype users, you can also make free calls to other Truphone users. When I called a Truphone friend in London on his cell using a Wi-Fi network, call quality was decent and there was no background hissing.
Blending the functionality of both Fring and Skype, I discovered the true beauty of Truphone when I ventured outside of Wi-Fi territory and was able to automatically call Truphone users and international numbers by using my phone's own dialing capabilities. Although I needed to buy Truphone credit, the call was routed over a local number and then to Truphone's network.
What's the benefit of that, rather than it switching to 3G like Fring? Much better call quality. Just as with Skype Lite, when I dialed my friend in Israel, Truphone called a local New York City number, and connected me to her cell. Her voice was as clear as if she was sitting right next to me.
Clearly, making a choice about which service to use to reduce the cost of international calling will depend heavily on what cellphone you have and whether you have easy access to a Wi-Fi network.
But no matter which option you select, you will definitely save some money. AT&T may have heavily charged my parents one time for their globetrotting calling habits, but with so many new and cheaper options, that won't happen again.
10 Ways to Cut Your Travel Costs This Year
LAST year was arguably the year of the travel deal, with resorts and airlines practically begging for bookings, and many travelers finding bargain airfares and hotel rooms as a result. But airlines have cut back capacity, meaning there will be fewer seats going unsold, and resorts may not be as quick to cut rates to attract guests, now that the economy looks as if it might be on a slight rebound. So now is the perfect time to review your booking strategy. Here are 10 simple steps you can take to help cut your travel costs in 2010.
1. Sign Up for a Twitter Account
An increasing number of travel companies are using Twitter to market their brands, often by tweeting exclusive deals to followers. JetBlue calls out last-minute discounts at JetBlueCheeps on Tuesday mornings. A recent example: "$89 BOS to LAS this Sat. LAS to BOS this Mon. or Tues. 25 seats avail or til 6 pm ET." Fairmont Hotels offers its Twitter followers special discounts before anyone else. Farecompare's "flyfrom" Twitter feed offers location-specific fare sales when you plug in your home airport's three-letter code, as in flyfromNYC.
All you need to do is sign up for a free account at Twitter.com and start following the companies you like or travel experts who do the work for you. (You can find me at MichelleHiggins.)
2. Find the Cheapest Dates to Fly
ITASoftware.com, which provides the technological backbone for many airfare shopping sites, allows users to scan an entire month's fares for the least expensive rate. (Log in as a "guest" and click on "month-long search." ) In January, the 28th and 30th were the cheapest dates to fly nonstop to London from New York ($536) for a week's vacation, according to a recent search. The next best was Saturday, Jan. 23, at $640. To book the ticket, users must go to another site. Kayak.com has a flexible-dates option (registration is required) and a calendar that shows the best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours. Bing Travel, the Microsoft search engine, offers a similar option, found under "plan trips," about halfway down the page.
3. Consider Nearby Airports
A recent Web search showed nonstop flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Miami International from $299 round trip on American in early January. But flying into Fort Lauderdale, roughly 30 miles north of Miami, was $219 on Virgin America, an $80 saving.
4. Go Against the Grain
If possible, avoid popular travel dates like holidays and spring break because airlines have begun to charge anywhere from $10 to $30 extra at those times. Farecompare.com offers a handy breakdown of the new fees by date, airline and amount. Early-morning and late-night flights may also be cheaper depending on the route.
5. Track Price Even After Buying
Airlines have long offered to refund the difference in their fares (minus a change fee) in the form of a voucher to customers who ask. Using your confirmation number, Yapta.com will automatically track the price of your ticket, taking the airline's fees into consideration, and send you, without charge, an e-mail message or Twitter alert notifying you of the lower price. You can then call the airline to claim the credit.
Similarly, Travelocity.com promises to refund the difference in price for prepaid hotel reservations if you find the same room for a cheaper rate online before check-in.
6. Take the Bus
Cheap express buses with names like BoltBus, Megabus and Washington Deluxe have become increasingly popular along the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere, with seats for $25 or less, depending on when you reserve. With amenities like more legroom, power plugs at every seat and free Wi-Fi, the bus ride, though longer, can often be more tolerable than a flight that costs 10 times as much. Search for seats at GotoBus.com or BusJunction.com.
7. Roll the Dice
Sites like Priceline.com, Hotwire.com and Lastminutetravel.com offer deep discounts to travelers willing to pay before learning the names of the hotels, airlines or car rental agencies they're committing to. To help you find the best rate, Biddingfortravel.com and Betterbidding.com provide strategic advice and offer tips from other travelers on how to navigate the system.
Getaroom.com offers a new twist to this gamble that may be more agreeable for risk-averse travelers. Unlike these other discounters, Getaroom tells customers the name of the hotel and price before booking. But it offers an even lower rate through its call center — typically 10 to 25 percent off — to travelers willing to pay for the room before finding out just how much of a discount they're getting.
8. Go Rental
Tourists in most European cities can easily pay $200 a night for basic hotel rooms. By contrast, an apartment or villa can be rented for as little as $1,100 a week in Paris or Rome. Homeaway.com, Zonder.com and Rentalo.com are just a few of the many rental Web sites available. Some specialize in specific regions like Rentvillas.com for Europe or Wimco.com for the Caribbean.
9. Make Yourself at Home
For a 6 to 12 percent booking fee, AirBnB.com connects budget travelers with locals who are offering a place to bed down. The Times's Frugal Traveler, Matt Gross, described it as "a cross between CouchSurfing.com and the vacation rentals section of Craigslist." There were more than 2,000 listings in a recent search for New York including a futon in a one-bedroom near Gramercy Park ($65) and a bedroom with private bath and separate entrance in Hell's Kitchen ($150).
10. Study the Fine Print
Play close attention to which airline you are actually flying, particularly on international flights. With code sharing, you may book a flight to Paris on Delta, for instance, and end up traveling with Air France, a code share partner with Delta.
But while the flight may be the same, the price often is not. Sometimes the difference can be negligible — say, $609 on SAS on a January nonstop flight from Newark Airport to Stockholm versus $627 for that same flight when booked through United. Or $817 for an American flight from New York to Lima versus the $693 that same flight would cost when booked through American's code share partner, LAN.
There are times though when the difference can be substantial, particularly when the code share partner may be a foreign carrier not well known to American travelers.
Here are some examples, based on a search on Kayak.com for flights in late January, where the round-trip fares vary greatly depending on which code share partner you book through. (Click on "details" for a breakdown of the flight's particulars.) New York to Singapore: $1,319 on Cathay Pacific; $1,817 on American. New York to Marrakesh: $1,098 on Royal Air Maroc; $3,257 on Delta. New York to Cairo: $908 on Egypt Air; a stunning $4,650 on United.
1. Sign Up for a Twitter Account
An increasing number of travel companies are using Twitter to market their brands, often by tweeting exclusive deals to followers. JetBlue calls out last-minute discounts at JetBlueCheeps on Tuesday mornings. A recent example: "$89 BOS to LAS this Sat. LAS to BOS this Mon. or Tues. 25 seats avail or til 6 pm ET." Fairmont Hotels offers its Twitter followers special discounts before anyone else. Farecompare's "flyfrom" Twitter feed offers location-specific fare sales when you plug in your home airport's three-letter code, as in flyfromNYC.
All you need to do is sign up for a free account at Twitter.com and start following the companies you like or travel experts who do the work for you. (You can find me at MichelleHiggins.)
2. Find the Cheapest Dates to Fly
ITASoftware.com, which provides the technological backbone for many airfare shopping sites, allows users to scan an entire month's fares for the least expensive rate. (Log in as a "guest" and click on "month-long search." ) In January, the 28th and 30th were the cheapest dates to fly nonstop to London from New York ($536) for a week's vacation, according to a recent search. The next best was Saturday, Jan. 23, at $640. To book the ticket, users must go to another site. Kayak.com has a flexible-dates option (registration is required) and a calendar that shows the best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours. Bing Travel, the Microsoft search engine, offers a similar option, found under "plan trips," about halfway down the page.
3. Consider Nearby Airports
A recent Web search showed nonstop flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Miami International from $299 round trip on American in early January. But flying into Fort Lauderdale, roughly 30 miles north of Miami, was $219 on Virgin America, an $80 saving.
4. Go Against the Grain
If possible, avoid popular travel dates like holidays and spring break because airlines have begun to charge anywhere from $10 to $30 extra at those times. Farecompare.com offers a handy breakdown of the new fees by date, airline and amount. Early-morning and late-night flights may also be cheaper depending on the route.
5. Track Price Even After Buying
Airlines have long offered to refund the difference in their fares (minus a change fee) in the form of a voucher to customers who ask. Using your confirmation number, Yapta.com will automatically track the price of your ticket, taking the airline's fees into consideration, and send you, without charge, an e-mail message or Twitter alert notifying you of the lower price. You can then call the airline to claim the credit.
Similarly, Travelocity.com promises to refund the difference in price for prepaid hotel reservations if you find the same room for a cheaper rate online before check-in.
6. Take the Bus
Cheap express buses with names like BoltBus, Megabus and Washington Deluxe have become increasingly popular along the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere, with seats for $25 or less, depending on when you reserve. With amenities like more legroom, power plugs at every seat and free Wi-Fi, the bus ride, though longer, can often be more tolerable than a flight that costs 10 times as much. Search for seats at GotoBus.com or BusJunction.com.
7. Roll the Dice
Sites like Priceline.com, Hotwire.com and Lastminutetravel.com offer deep discounts to travelers willing to pay before learning the names of the hotels, airlines or car rental agencies they're committing to. To help you find the best rate, Biddingfortravel.com and Betterbidding.com provide strategic advice and offer tips from other travelers on how to navigate the system.
Getaroom.com offers a new twist to this gamble that may be more agreeable for risk-averse travelers. Unlike these other discounters, Getaroom tells customers the name of the hotel and price before booking. But it offers an even lower rate through its call center — typically 10 to 25 percent off — to travelers willing to pay for the room before finding out just how much of a discount they're getting.
8. Go Rental
Tourists in most European cities can easily pay $200 a night for basic hotel rooms. By contrast, an apartment or villa can be rented for as little as $1,100 a week in Paris or Rome. Homeaway.com, Zonder.com and Rentalo.com are just a few of the many rental Web sites available. Some specialize in specific regions like Rentvillas.com for Europe or Wimco.com for the Caribbean.
9. Make Yourself at Home
For a 6 to 12 percent booking fee, AirBnB.com connects budget travelers with locals who are offering a place to bed down. The Times's Frugal Traveler, Matt Gross, described it as "a cross between CouchSurfing.com and the vacation rentals section of Craigslist." There were more than 2,000 listings in a recent search for New York including a futon in a one-bedroom near Gramercy Park ($65) and a bedroom with private bath and separate entrance in Hell's Kitchen ($150).
10. Study the Fine Print
Play close attention to which airline you are actually flying, particularly on international flights. With code sharing, you may book a flight to Paris on Delta, for instance, and end up traveling with Air France, a code share partner with Delta.
But while the flight may be the same, the price often is not. Sometimes the difference can be negligible — say, $609 on SAS on a January nonstop flight from Newark Airport to Stockholm versus $627 for that same flight when booked through United. Or $817 for an American flight from New York to Lima versus the $693 that same flight would cost when booked through American's code share partner, LAN.
There are times though when the difference can be substantial, particularly when the code share partner may be a foreign carrier not well known to American travelers.
Here are some examples, based on a search on Kayak.com for flights in late January, where the round-trip fares vary greatly depending on which code share partner you book through. (Click on "details" for a breakdown of the flight's particulars.) New York to Singapore: $1,319 on Cathay Pacific; $1,817 on American. New York to Marrakesh: $1,098 on Royal Air Maroc; $3,257 on Delta. New York to Cairo: $908 on Egypt Air; a stunning $4,650 on United.
Home Tool
I had a revelation recently: a woman's place is not in the home; it's from the home! The good old home, with its dishes and dust, is, history has shown, not quite satisfying in itself. But maybe it's a headquarters! In fact, turn your attention away from the kitchen and the bedrooms to the laptops, the cable, the e-readers, the smartphones, the high-speed triple-play tangle. Tricked out with telecommunications that could have serviced all of I.B.M. in 1950, the bourgeois home has become a woman's base of operations. Try it: "Hi, boss. Today I'm staying home. Staying from home. I'm working from home."
That phrase! Timothy Ferriss, in "The 4-Hour Workweek," the best-selling manual of truancy and shirking, argues that the first step to living the dream is persuading your boss that face time is pointless. No matter what the open-plan evangelists say, no shareholder value has ever been generated by colleague collisions at the copier or the CPR poster. The way to bring glory to yourself and your company, as we all know, is to put your head down and do your work — at home, ideally.
Telecommuting is a familiar story, but I must sing its praises again — this time in a feminist key. For a century and a half, Mary Wollstonecraft types have tried to empower women to leave the home to work, shop, teach, learn, lead. Instead, without even marking the moment, we superempowered the home. Now if a woman stays home she's not unambitious or antifeminist; she is — in the acronym of mothering message boards — a WAHM, a work-at-home mom, the most treasured of all the mom options (stay at home = bored; work outside the home = exhausted). This is good news. With technology that allows the WAHM to be simultaneously inside and outside, at home and at work, public and private, she no longer has to forfeit the manly rewards of grasping careerism.
For real. The dishwasher, the washing machine and the pill were supposed to liberate us from something, but the superduper Internet, alone among the great 20th-century technologies, has really nailed it. A woman of any ideological disposition or domestic arrangement must answer her e-mail. Therefore, a strategically arranged notebook computer, positioned like a dad's broadsheet in the Eisenhower era, has become a force field against domestic distractions. While you beetle-brow it through your "work" — searching for your airline-rewards password, finding out who Justin Bieber is, obsessing about freckles on my-skincheck.com — you become, by magic, uninterruptable.
And then there's what you're missing by skipping the office: the trafficky commute, the petroleum-based slacks by Theory or Banana Republic, the noli-me-tangere demeanor that women were supposed to cultivate to ensure boardroom authority. All of these duties vanish when workplace and homeplace become one.
And who doesn't like being at home? Taking uncontested showers at noon. Creating sardine-driven lunches forbidden in cubicle zones. Making nice with clients where no one can overhear your fakeness. And all the while — thanks to the untraceable nature of cellphones and e-mail — you get to pretend that you're anywhere but on your mangy floor wearing "yoga" pants with "Judge Judy" on mute.
Thanks to the Internet, women who prefer never, ever to leave the house to enter the unpredictable world of vice presidents and printer hubs get to pursue fame and fortune as greedily as anyone. (The phrase, for your records, is "work independently.") Our vaunted verbal skills come through just fine in instant messaging, and we get to skip the stuff that requires broad shoulders, a baritone and understanding of wolf packs: the dread face-to-face interactions. Sure, all those deals that were supposed to go down on the golf course or at the urinal — they probably still happen there. But now, if we so choose, we have the means to text-pester the golfers all the livelong day. Show them which colleague will not be ignored!
I submit, in all seriousness, that women have benefitted more (even) than men by telecommuting technology. Downloading school forms, pumping breast milk, tending to a sick kid, loading up the crockpot, straightening the kitchen — all this can be done with a BlackBerry in hand. None of this can be done — done well, anyway — at the office.
Women, of course, have the same complaints about wired culture that men do: anxiety, insomnia, no escape. But working from home does mean avoiding the "second shift," that '90s horror, in which the workday was said to be followed by a day of housework and child care, somehow all in 24 hours. With the Internet, work and life have become one long shift. But isn't that what middle-class life is meant to be?
Points of Entry: This Week's Recommendations
EXCLAIM Sandra Tsing Loh first laid down the gauntlet for exclamation-point-heavy WAHM storytelling in "Mother on Fire," her ingenious 2008 memoir of Los Angeles motherhood. Available for the Kindle.
VINDICATE Another Kindle-ready page-turner about women is one of the first: Mary Wollstonecraft's great "Vindication of the Rights of Woman," from 1792. "Women cannot," Wollstonecraft argued, "be confined to domestic concerns."
DECLINE Timothy Ferriss's blog features Edmund Wilson's masterpiece "decline letter," a list of the many things he wouldn't do for free or at all. Submit your own decline letter and start working less at fourhourworkweek.com/blog.
That phrase! Timothy Ferriss, in "The 4-Hour Workweek," the best-selling manual of truancy and shirking, argues that the first step to living the dream is persuading your boss that face time is pointless. No matter what the open-plan evangelists say, no shareholder value has ever been generated by colleague collisions at the copier or the CPR poster. The way to bring glory to yourself and your company, as we all know, is to put your head down and do your work — at home, ideally.
Telecommuting is a familiar story, but I must sing its praises again — this time in a feminist key. For a century and a half, Mary Wollstonecraft types have tried to empower women to leave the home to work, shop, teach, learn, lead. Instead, without even marking the moment, we superempowered the home. Now if a woman stays home she's not unambitious or antifeminist; she is — in the acronym of mothering message boards — a WAHM, a work-at-home mom, the most treasured of all the mom options (stay at home = bored; work outside the home = exhausted). This is good news. With technology that allows the WAHM to be simultaneously inside and outside, at home and at work, public and private, she no longer has to forfeit the manly rewards of grasping careerism.
For real. The dishwasher, the washing machine and the pill were supposed to liberate us from something, but the superduper Internet, alone among the great 20th-century technologies, has really nailed it. A woman of any ideological disposition or domestic arrangement must answer her e-mail. Therefore, a strategically arranged notebook computer, positioned like a dad's broadsheet in the Eisenhower era, has become a force field against domestic distractions. While you beetle-brow it through your "work" — searching for your airline-rewards password, finding out who Justin Bieber is, obsessing about freckles on my-skincheck.com — you become, by magic, uninterruptable.
And then there's what you're missing by skipping the office: the trafficky commute, the petroleum-based slacks by Theory or Banana Republic, the noli-me-tangere demeanor that women were supposed to cultivate to ensure boardroom authority. All of these duties vanish when workplace and homeplace become one.
And who doesn't like being at home? Taking uncontested showers at noon. Creating sardine-driven lunches forbidden in cubicle zones. Making nice with clients where no one can overhear your fakeness. And all the while — thanks to the untraceable nature of cellphones and e-mail — you get to pretend that you're anywhere but on your mangy floor wearing "yoga" pants with "Judge Judy" on mute.
Thanks to the Internet, women who prefer never, ever to leave the house to enter the unpredictable world of vice presidents and printer hubs get to pursue fame and fortune as greedily as anyone. (The phrase, for your records, is "work independently.") Our vaunted verbal skills come through just fine in instant messaging, and we get to skip the stuff that requires broad shoulders, a baritone and understanding of wolf packs: the dread face-to-face interactions. Sure, all those deals that were supposed to go down on the golf course or at the urinal — they probably still happen there. But now, if we so choose, we have the means to text-pester the golfers all the livelong day. Show them which colleague will not be ignored!
I submit, in all seriousness, that women have benefitted more (even) than men by telecommuting technology. Downloading school forms, pumping breast milk, tending to a sick kid, loading up the crockpot, straightening the kitchen — all this can be done with a BlackBerry in hand. None of this can be done — done well, anyway — at the office.
Women, of course, have the same complaints about wired culture that men do: anxiety, insomnia, no escape. But working from home does mean avoiding the "second shift," that '90s horror, in which the workday was said to be followed by a day of housework and child care, somehow all in 24 hours. With the Internet, work and life have become one long shift. But isn't that what middle-class life is meant to be?
Points of Entry: This Week's Recommendations
EXCLAIM Sandra Tsing Loh first laid down the gauntlet for exclamation-point-heavy WAHM storytelling in "Mother on Fire," her ingenious 2008 memoir of Los Angeles motherhood. Available for the Kindle.
VINDICATE Another Kindle-ready page-turner about women is one of the first: Mary Wollstonecraft's great "Vindication of the Rights of Woman," from 1792. "Women cannot," Wollstonecraft argued, "be confined to domestic concerns."
DECLINE Timothy Ferriss's blog features Edmund Wilson's masterpiece "decline letter," a list of the many things he wouldn't do for free or at all. Submit your own decline letter and start working less at fourhourworkweek.com/blog.
Executive’s New Studio Teams Up With Yahoo
The former NBC entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman has lined up his first distributor, Yahoo, for his new studio, which he says will specialize in creating shows in concert with advertisers.
The studio, Electus, is expected to announce the deal on Friday.
Electus was founded last year by Mr. Silverman in partnership with Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. At the new company, Mr. Silverman is putting into practice what he so often talked about at NBC: exceptionally close connections between content creators and corporate sponsors.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Silverman was not specific about the types of programs he would create for Yahoo, but said he saw "opportunities for episodic storytelling" that included "more direct relationships" with advertisers. The move by Electus and Yahoo, which has dabbled in original programming for years with varying degrees of success, is in part a response to advertiser demands for more online video inventory.
"We are always getting requests from advertisers for exclusive opportunities" for integrations into Web programs, said Joanne Bradford, the senior vice president for North America revenue and market development at Yahoo. "We really feel like Ben has proven that he can come up with great content."
Before coming to NBC in 2007, Mr. Silverman was the founder of Reveille, the producer of programs like "The Biggest Loser" and "The Office." He left NBC last July and announced the deal with Mr. Diller the same day.
Asked whether he thought his brand had been tarnished by his time at NBC, where the network's ratings slipped during his tenure, Mr. Silverman said, "I quit NBC because they were obviously building themselves to sell." General Electric is selling a majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast.
In addition to the Yahoo partnership, Mr. Silverman said that he had also signed a contract with Ryan Seacrest, the TV and radio host and budding entrepreneur, and that Electus was doing "multiple projects" with him.
Mr. Silverman is also working with the actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, America Ferrera and others. "We're tapping into the A-list storytelling engine," he said.
Yahoo said that the programs would begin to make their debuts in several months.
The studio, Electus, is expected to announce the deal on Friday.
Electus was founded last year by Mr. Silverman in partnership with Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. At the new company, Mr. Silverman is putting into practice what he so often talked about at NBC: exceptionally close connections between content creators and corporate sponsors.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Silverman was not specific about the types of programs he would create for Yahoo, but said he saw "opportunities for episodic storytelling" that included "more direct relationships" with advertisers. The move by Electus and Yahoo, which has dabbled in original programming for years with varying degrees of success, is in part a response to advertiser demands for more online video inventory.
"We are always getting requests from advertisers for exclusive opportunities" for integrations into Web programs, said Joanne Bradford, the senior vice president for North America revenue and market development at Yahoo. "We really feel like Ben has proven that he can come up with great content."
Before coming to NBC in 2007, Mr. Silverman was the founder of Reveille, the producer of programs like "The Biggest Loser" and "The Office." He left NBC last July and announced the deal with Mr. Diller the same day.
Asked whether he thought his brand had been tarnished by his time at NBC, where the network's ratings slipped during his tenure, Mr. Silverman said, "I quit NBC because they were obviously building themselves to sell." General Electric is selling a majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast.
In addition to the Yahoo partnership, Mr. Silverman said that he had also signed a contract with Ryan Seacrest, the TV and radio host and budding entrepreneur, and that Electus was doing "multiple projects" with him.
Mr. Silverman is also working with the actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, America Ferrera and others. "We're tapping into the A-list storytelling engine," he said.
Yahoo said that the programs would begin to make their debuts in several months.
Apple Patent Application Could Presage Thinner Devices
By NICK BILTON
The application, which was unearthed by Patently Apple, describes a way of integrating a touch-sensitive panel into a display, rather than layering it on top, potentially allowing for thinner and less expensive touch screens.
The application comes from a group run by Steve Hotelling, senior manager for touch hardware at Apple.
In an interview, a former Apple engineer who worked in Mr. Hotelling's group explained why this approach was different from the current Apple technology that is built into the iPhone. "Traditionally when you make a touch-screen display you place the touch-screen elements on top of an LCD screen," he said. "This patent tries to integrate the two."
By eliminating the sandwiching of a display and a touch screen, Apple would be able to build a much thinner device with a slimmer screen, the former Apple engineer said. "You would not have to buy an LCD and a touch panel for a new touch-screen device. Instead you just create one unit."
This could also reduce costs significantly, but the engineer cautioned: "This is not something Apple could do alone. They would have work with a major LCD partner to make this successful and cost-effective, or it becomes extremely expensive."
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hotelling leads a team of 25 engineers at Apple. His group is responsible for developing the multitouch technology in the current iPhone. As Mr. Hotelling's résumé states, his team also developed the famous circular click-wheel for iPods, and the world's first multitouch mouse trackpad with a two-finger scroll.
United States Patent and Trademark Office via Patently Apple An Apple patent application illustrating a new form of multitouch screen.
An Apple patent application surfaced on Thursday that points to a new type of multitouch screen technology.The application, which was unearthed by Patently Apple, describes a way of integrating a touch-sensitive panel into a display, rather than layering it on top, potentially allowing for thinner and less expensive touch screens.
The application comes from a group run by Steve Hotelling, senior manager for touch hardware at Apple.
In an interview, a former Apple engineer who worked in Mr. Hotelling's group explained why this approach was different from the current Apple technology that is built into the iPhone. "Traditionally when you make a touch-screen display you place the touch-screen elements on top of an LCD screen," he said. "This patent tries to integrate the two."
By eliminating the sandwiching of a display and a touch screen, Apple would be able to build a much thinner device with a slimmer screen, the former Apple engineer said. "You would not have to buy an LCD and a touch panel for a new touch-screen device. Instead you just create one unit."
This could also reduce costs significantly, but the engineer cautioned: "This is not something Apple could do alone. They would have work with a major LCD partner to make this successful and cost-effective, or it becomes extremely expensive."
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hotelling leads a team of 25 engineers at Apple. His group is responsible for developing the multitouch technology in the current iPhone. As Mr. Hotelling's résumé states, his team also developed the famous circular click-wheel for iPods, and the world's first multitouch mouse trackpad with a two-finger scroll.
United States Patent and Trademark Office via Patently Apple The touch screen technology in the application involves a technique called in-plane switching.
Google Applies to Become Power Marketer
By MIGUEL HELFT
Google is stepping up its forays into the energy world.
The Internet search company, which consumes vast amounts of electricity to run the computers in its data centers, created a subsidiary last month called Google Energy. It then applied for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be allowed to buy and sell power much like utilities do.
Google said it did not have specific plans to become an energy trader and that its primary goal was to gain flexibility for buying more renewable energy for its power-hungry data centers.
"We want to have the ability to procure renewable energy to offset power usage of our operations," said Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman. Ms. Fenwick said that having access to more renewable energy could help the company fulfill its goal to become "carbon neutral."
This is hardly Google's first foray into the energy world. Over the years, Google has invested in renewable energy projects through its philanthropic and venture capital units. It has also embarked on a number of engineering projects and partnerships to, for example, advance plug-in hybrids and offer tools to measure home electricity usage. And it has an ambitious goal to help develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal. Bill Weihl, Google's green energy czar, discussed many of those initiatives and goals in a lengthy interview with The New York Times published on Thursday.
If Google's application is granted, the company would be able to sell any surplus power that results from these or other initiatives.
The Internet search company, which consumes vast amounts of electricity to run the computers in its data centers, created a subsidiary last month called Google Energy. It then applied for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be allowed to buy and sell power much like utilities do.
Google said it did not have specific plans to become an energy trader and that its primary goal was to gain flexibility for buying more renewable energy for its power-hungry data centers.
"We want to have the ability to procure renewable energy to offset power usage of our operations," said Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman. Ms. Fenwick said that having access to more renewable energy could help the company fulfill its goal to become "carbon neutral."
This is hardly Google's first foray into the energy world. Over the years, Google has invested in renewable energy projects through its philanthropic and venture capital units. It has also embarked on a number of engineering projects and partnerships to, for example, advance plug-in hybrids and offer tools to measure home electricity usage. And it has an ambitious goal to help develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal. Bill Weihl, Google's green energy czar, discussed many of those initiatives and goals in a lengthy interview with The New York Times published on Thursday.
If Google's application is granted, the company would be able to sell any surplus power that results from these or other initiatives.
Behind the Warner Bros. and Netflix Accord
By BRAD STONE
Earlier this week, Netflix cut a deal with Warner Bros. that will delay the availability of new Warner movies to Netflix subscribers by almost a month but expand the number of older Warner films available for digital streaming.
Whether or not this is good for Netflix subscribers depends entirely on how they use the service.
The deal was a compromise by both sides, according to interviews with Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, and Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive. Warner, according to Mr. Tsujihara, didn't want the availability of its films on Netflix to prevent people from paying full price to buy DVDs at retail.
"We wanted to create as much headway as we could for that higher-margin business," he said.
Warner was willing to give Netflix a lower per-unit price on its discs if the company agreed to delay giving out new releases to subscribers.
Mr. Hastings said that Hollywood studios looked fondly on their businesses in Europe, which has no first-sale doctrine, a provision of American copyright law that allows a disc purchaser (like Netflix) to sell or give away a lawfully purchased copy without permission. As a result, in Europe, the studios can sell DVDs first while they make rental and subscription services wait a few weeks.
He said that Netflix was willing to compromise on the issue because "our number one objective now is expanding the digital catalog." Netflix's streaming service won't receive any newer movies from Warner – "it's not that much of a breakthrough," Mr. Hastings said – but it will get a larger piece of the Warner back catalog.
And because Netflix is getting a better price on discs and can therefore buy more, subscribers will soon encounter no wait times when they want to receive the most popular Warner new releases, particularly for high-definition Blu-ray discs.
As for whether or not other major Hollywood studios will follow suit, Mr. Hastings said they were likely to be watching the result of the deal closely.
Whether or not this is good for Netflix subscribers depends entirely on how they use the service.
The deal was a compromise by both sides, according to interviews with Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, and Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive. Warner, according to Mr. Tsujihara, didn't want the availability of its films on Netflix to prevent people from paying full price to buy DVDs at retail.
"We wanted to create as much headway as we could for that higher-margin business," he said.
Warner was willing to give Netflix a lower per-unit price on its discs if the company agreed to delay giving out new releases to subscribers.
Mr. Hastings said that Hollywood studios looked fondly on their businesses in Europe, which has no first-sale doctrine, a provision of American copyright law that allows a disc purchaser (like Netflix) to sell or give away a lawfully purchased copy without permission. As a result, in Europe, the studios can sell DVDs first while they make rental and subscription services wait a few weeks.
He said that Netflix was willing to compromise on the issue because "our number one objective now is expanding the digital catalog." Netflix's streaming service won't receive any newer movies from Warner – "it's not that much of a breakthrough," Mr. Hastings said – but it will get a larger piece of the Warner back catalog.
And because Netflix is getting a better price on discs and can therefore buy more, subscribers will soon encounter no wait times when they want to receive the most popular Warner new releases, particularly for high-definition Blu-ray discs.
As for whether or not other major Hollywood studios will follow suit, Mr. Hastings said they were likely to be watching the result of the deal closely.
H.P. Working on ‘Half-Pint’ Android Tablet
By NICK BILTON
Update | 7:33 p.m. Includes Hewlett-Packard's response.
Hewlett Packard is working on numerous tablet devices that will come in a variety of sizes, shapes and operating systems, including Windows 7, Google's Android, and possibly the open-source operating system Linux.
The company has so many different tablet-related projects in the works that a variety of coming publishing partners were surprised to see a Windows 7 version of the Hewlett-Packard slate announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.
A senior editor of a major magazine publishing empire working on an internal corporate project, and speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a nondisclosure agreement, told me of an array of H.P. tablets. He said, "I've seen a much smaller version of H.P.'s tablet that works exclusively with Android. It's smaller than the Windows 7 version, almost like a half-pint size, or about twice as large as the iPhone." But this may be one of many projects in development. He added, "I've also heard mention of a Linux version in the works, but I haven't seen the hardware for this device."
Erick Schonfeld, a TechCrunch writer, also reported on Thursday about H.P'.s involvement in an Android slate.
The magazine company employee added that H.P. was working diligently to create unique content for these devices, but he cautioned that partners worry about H.P.'s understanding of the media landscape. He said, "H.P. is a great hardware company, they make excellent hardware experiences, but I worry about their ability to introduce and work with media."
H.P. is also working with software developers including Microsoft and Adobe to create magazine content for these devices.
Marlene Somsak, an H.P. media relations Director, responded to questions about a possible smaller Android tablet. Mrs. Somsak said, "I'm certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us. There are also tons of HP Labs activities looking at a numerous different areas. As of now we are not announcing a new Android-based slate."
According to numerous sources at Adobe and Wired, H.P. is also talking with countless publishers including Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, Wired, and a number of other Condé Nast publications.
Collectively, they are testing a new form of magazine on these slate-like devices that will include color images, a variety of typography and full-motion video.
Hewlett Packard is working on numerous tablet devices that will come in a variety of sizes, shapes and operating systems, including Windows 7, Google's Android, and possibly the open-source operating system Linux.
The company has so many different tablet-related projects in the works that a variety of coming publishing partners were surprised to see a Windows 7 version of the Hewlett-Packard slate announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.
A senior editor of a major magazine publishing empire working on an internal corporate project, and speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a nondisclosure agreement, told me of an array of H.P. tablets. He said, "I've seen a much smaller version of H.P.'s tablet that works exclusively with Android. It's smaller than the Windows 7 version, almost like a half-pint size, or about twice as large as the iPhone." But this may be one of many projects in development. He added, "I've also heard mention of a Linux version in the works, but I haven't seen the hardware for this device."
Erick Schonfeld, a TechCrunch writer, also reported on Thursday about H.P'.s involvement in an Android slate.
The magazine company employee added that H.P. was working diligently to create unique content for these devices, but he cautioned that partners worry about H.P.'s understanding of the media landscape. He said, "H.P. is a great hardware company, they make excellent hardware experiences, but I worry about their ability to introduce and work with media."
H.P. is also working with software developers including Microsoft and Adobe to create magazine content for these devices.
Marlene Somsak, an H.P. media relations Director, responded to questions about a possible smaller Android tablet. Mrs. Somsak said, "I'm certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us. There are also tons of HP Labs activities looking at a numerous different areas. As of now we are not announcing a new Android-based slate."
According to numerous sources at Adobe and Wired, H.P. is also talking with countless publishers including Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, Wired, and a number of other Condé Nast publications.
Collectively, they are testing a new form of magazine on these slate-like devices that will include color images, a variety of typography and full-motion video.
A Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing
LAS VEGAS — You've heard of Amazon.com's Kindle. And you probably know that Apple is likely to introduce a tablet computer this year. Soon you may also be hearing about the Alex, the Que proReader and the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid.
Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
Some of these gadgets allow people to read for long periods of time without eye strain and without killing the batteries. Others focus on allowing their owners to surf the Web, watch video and play casual games without being tethered to a bulky laptop and its traditional keyboard.
"There are a billion and a half Internet users on the planet today, and a lot of them are primarily using it for entertainment and social networking," said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, a chip company hoping to power the new tablets. "The PC does a good job on a lot of things, but it's just not the ideal device for surfing the Internet or reading."
Tablets, of course, have been around for years. In 2001, Bill Gates erroneously predicted at an industry trade show that they would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.
Now advances in technology and manufacturing are belatedly making good on the early promise of this idea. So-called ARM processors — the low-power, low-cost chips found in many cellphones — are finally robust enough to take on some of the tasks, like Web surfing, that were previously the domain of full-fledged computers. As a result, companies have been able to build a wider range of devices, including thinner products with longer battery life.
At the same time, the big Asian manufacturers like Foxconn of Taiwan have been adding capacity and are now capable of churning out these devices at an ever-decreasing cost.
Recently, anticipation for new tablet computers has been almost absurdly focused on the magical product that people expect to emanate from the mind of Apple's chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.
Analysts who have spoken to Asian component suppliers now think that an Apple tablet will ship by the end of March, and that Apple will hold an event to introduce a new product by the end of this month.
But Apple's tablet may not end up dominating the emerging market for tablets, as some seem to expect. One reason is price. Analysts think the Apple tablet could cost anywhere from $700 to $1,000. In contrast, the tablet design unveiled by Freescale this week will cost around $130 to manufacture and could sell for as little as $200.
Conversations with several former Apple engineers who worked on the long-gestating tablet also suggest that Apple may be asking users to learn a somewhat complex new vocabulary of finger gestures to control it, making use of technology it acquired in the 2007 purchase of a company called FingerWorks.
"The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean 'open an application,' " said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.
Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had "spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork," Apple's answer to Microsoft's Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies. That could help justify a higher price. Apple has declined to discuss any plans for a tablet.
Many high-tech giants are not necessarily waiting around for Apple to make a splash. At his keynote address at the electronics show on Wednesday, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, showed off a new Hewlett-Packard tablet running Windows 7 with a full-color touch screen displaying videos and books.
H.P. is working on an array of tablets, including one about twice the size of the iPhone that will run Google's Android operating system, according to a senior editor at a major magazine publisher who said he had seen the device. The company is working with publishers to provide content for the tablets. An H.P. spokeswoman, Marlene Somsak, said the company would introduce more tablets but would not discuss them now.
In the private demonstration room of Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer, executives showed a flashy product called the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It appears to be a regular laptop, until the screen pops out of its shell like a snake shedding its skin and it becomes a slender, glossy touch-screen tablet running a Linux-based operating system.
"We don't know exactly what Apple is coming out with, if indeed it is doing anything substantial in this area," said Michael Littler, an Lenovo spokesman. "We are just focused like a lot of companies on delivering products that are easy to use and offer good performance, and sometimes a little sprinkle of innovation and coolness."
Other companies are aiming their products at the more focused market for reading devices, where Amazon commands a 60 percent share. They believe dedicated e-readers, with their black-and-white screens that mimic paper, will survive an onslaught of versatile color tablets from Apple and others. Many analysts agree, citing the benefits of long battery life and reduced strain on the eyes.
"I think the black-and-white readers still survive in the niche market as reading devices," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "I'm not expecting the Apple device to be as good as the Kindle or Sony Reader for reading."
E-readers at the electronics show came in many shapes and sizes. Plastic Logic, a 10-year-old British company, unveiled its Que proReader, an impossibly thin 10.7-inch display with a rather high starting price of $649.
But the device is aimed at deep-pocketed professionals and is meant to be a replacement for a bulky briefcase full of paper. "In a crowded field and emerging market, the key is really to understand your target customer and stay laser-focused on them," said Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic.
Other players in this field are trying to distinguish themselves with devices that have more than one screen. EnTourage Systems, based in McLean, Va., demonstrated a 9.7-inch touch-screen color display, married with a rotating hinge to a similarly sized black-and-white screen. The device, called the eDGe, will cost $490.
Spring Design, a Taiwanese start-up, showed off a dual-screen e-book device, the Alex, that has a 3.5-inch iPhone-like color display and a 6-inch Kindle-like black-and-white display. The device, which is expected to be out in February and cost $349, could display book-video hybrids and "open up a whole new sector for publishing," said Priscilla Lu, the company's chief executive.
Many of these companies and their products may sink when exposed to a competitive marketplace that could be dominated by efforts from the tech giants.
At the very least, the smaller companies will have to stay nimble and keep on top of rapidly evolving technology.
Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
Some of these gadgets allow people to read for long periods of time without eye strain and without killing the batteries. Others focus on allowing their owners to surf the Web, watch video and play casual games without being tethered to a bulky laptop and its traditional keyboard.
"There are a billion and a half Internet users on the planet today, and a lot of them are primarily using it for entertainment and social networking," said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, a chip company hoping to power the new tablets. "The PC does a good job on a lot of things, but it's just not the ideal device for surfing the Internet or reading."
Tablets, of course, have been around for years. In 2001, Bill Gates erroneously predicted at an industry trade show that they would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.
Now advances in technology and manufacturing are belatedly making good on the early promise of this idea. So-called ARM processors — the low-power, low-cost chips found in many cellphones — are finally robust enough to take on some of the tasks, like Web surfing, that were previously the domain of full-fledged computers. As a result, companies have been able to build a wider range of devices, including thinner products with longer battery life.
At the same time, the big Asian manufacturers like Foxconn of Taiwan have been adding capacity and are now capable of churning out these devices at an ever-decreasing cost.
Recently, anticipation for new tablet computers has been almost absurdly focused on the magical product that people expect to emanate from the mind of Apple's chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.
Analysts who have spoken to Asian component suppliers now think that an Apple tablet will ship by the end of March, and that Apple will hold an event to introduce a new product by the end of this month.
But Apple's tablet may not end up dominating the emerging market for tablets, as some seem to expect. One reason is price. Analysts think the Apple tablet could cost anywhere from $700 to $1,000. In contrast, the tablet design unveiled by Freescale this week will cost around $130 to manufacture and could sell for as little as $200.
Conversations with several former Apple engineers who worked on the long-gestating tablet also suggest that Apple may be asking users to learn a somewhat complex new vocabulary of finger gestures to control it, making use of technology it acquired in the 2007 purchase of a company called FingerWorks.
"The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean 'open an application,' " said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.
Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had "spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork," Apple's answer to Microsoft's Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies. That could help justify a higher price. Apple has declined to discuss any plans for a tablet.
Many high-tech giants are not necessarily waiting around for Apple to make a splash. At his keynote address at the electronics show on Wednesday, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, showed off a new Hewlett-Packard tablet running Windows 7 with a full-color touch screen displaying videos and books.
H.P. is working on an array of tablets, including one about twice the size of the iPhone that will run Google's Android operating system, according to a senior editor at a major magazine publisher who said he had seen the device. The company is working with publishers to provide content for the tablets. An H.P. spokeswoman, Marlene Somsak, said the company would introduce more tablets but would not discuss them now.
In the private demonstration room of Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer, executives showed a flashy product called the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It appears to be a regular laptop, until the screen pops out of its shell like a snake shedding its skin and it becomes a slender, glossy touch-screen tablet running a Linux-based operating system.
"We don't know exactly what Apple is coming out with, if indeed it is doing anything substantial in this area," said Michael Littler, an Lenovo spokesman. "We are just focused like a lot of companies on delivering products that are easy to use and offer good performance, and sometimes a little sprinkle of innovation and coolness."
Other companies are aiming their products at the more focused market for reading devices, where Amazon commands a 60 percent share. They believe dedicated e-readers, with their black-and-white screens that mimic paper, will survive an onslaught of versatile color tablets from Apple and others. Many analysts agree, citing the benefits of long battery life and reduced strain on the eyes.
"I think the black-and-white readers still survive in the niche market as reading devices," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "I'm not expecting the Apple device to be as good as the Kindle or Sony Reader for reading."
E-readers at the electronics show came in many shapes and sizes. Plastic Logic, a 10-year-old British company, unveiled its Que proReader, an impossibly thin 10.7-inch display with a rather high starting price of $649.
But the device is aimed at deep-pocketed professionals and is meant to be a replacement for a bulky briefcase full of paper. "In a crowded field and emerging market, the key is really to understand your target customer and stay laser-focused on them," said Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic.
Other players in this field are trying to distinguish themselves with devices that have more than one screen. EnTourage Systems, based in McLean, Va., demonstrated a 9.7-inch touch-screen color display, married with a rotating hinge to a similarly sized black-and-white screen. The device, called the eDGe, will cost $490.
Spring Design, a Taiwanese start-up, showed off a dual-screen e-book device, the Alex, that has a 3.5-inch iPhone-like color display and a 6-inch Kindle-like black-and-white display. The device, which is expected to be out in February and cost $349, could display book-video hybrids and "open up a whole new sector for publishing," said Priscilla Lu, the company's chief executive.
Many of these companies and their products may sink when exposed to a competitive marketplace that could be dominated by efforts from the tech giants.
At the very least, the smaller companies will have to stay nimble and keep on top of rapidly evolving technology.
For Immigrants, New Travel Concerns
Eating spiced lamb at a bustling Yemeni restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn, Mahib Alkrizy said that since Sept. 11, 2001, his wife, a religious Muslim who covers her hair, has come to expect being patted down and stared at when she travels by plane.
Around the corner at Abu Yasser Travel Agency, employees waved a reporter away — they were tired of even talking about the Obama administration's recent decision to impose tougher airline screening measures for people flying from 14 countries, including Yemen.
"People who travel a lot, they're getting used to it," said Abdul Alzundani, a clerk at the office of Yemenia, the national airline, nearby.
It was a different story at Odyssey African Market in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Evident there, along with the smoked fish and kola nuts that loaded the narrow aisles, was much of the anguish that radiated from Arab-Americans in the days after 9/11.
For Nigerian immigrants, the news that their country was on the list, after a Nigerian citizen was charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, was a new experience, bringing insult and a creeping fear that they were entering a new era of stigma and scrutiny.
"There is nothing like that in our record!" exclaimed Raymond Owolewa, 73, a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker who brought his children to the United States from Nigeria more than three decades ago and was incensed that Nigeria was lumped in with nations the United States lists as state sponsors of terrorism, like Syria and Iran.
"Every country has radical people," he added. "But we are not specializing in that."
Five days after President Obama announced the new rules, it is too early to tell how they will ultimately affect people from Nigeria and the other listed countries, or New York's Nigerian diaspora, which numbers more than 15,000, according to the Census Bureau. The immediate impact, Nigerians and Yemenis said, is simply inconvenience and fear of stigmatization; travel agents said no one was canceling trips.
But these immigrant communities are uncertain whether there could be, over time, a chilling effect on family visits or business travel. And Nigerians, for whom the problem is freshest, wonder if it is a precursor to more serious challenges like the ones Middle Easterners face, such as increased difficulty getting visas to study and work in America.
Nigeria and Yemen were bound together by the Dec. 25 bombing attempt, when, officials say, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 19, a Nigerian Muslim working with a Qaeda cell in Yemen, tried to detonate explosives on a plane about to land in Detroit.
Besides Nigeria and Yemen, the rules affect Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Anyone flying from those countries, and citizens of those countries flying from anywhere in the world, must undergo a pat-down and a check of their carry-on luggage before boarding. Critics say the rules will simply encourage plotters to recruit bombers in nonlisted countries.
Complicating reaction among Nigerians is the country's tension between the mostly Christian south and the largely Muslim north. Many Nigerians in the United States are Christians, and their chagrin at the blow to Nigeria's image was mixed with anger at growing Islamic extremism in the north of their country and concern that ill-informed Americans might now associate such views with all Nigerians.
Many blamed the Nigerian government for making their oil-rich country famous for corruption, e-mail get-rich-quick schemes, and, some argue, fertile ground for Qaeda recruiters.
Oliver Mbamara, of the New York-based Nigerian Lawyers Association, wrote in African Events magazine that Nigeria's leaders were "turning a blind eye to elements that breed the type of circumstance and environment where the likes of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab thrive."
Olujimi Gureje, who named his dog Umaru as a dig at Nigeria's president, Umaru Yar'Adua, welcomed the rules and said Nigerians should not be quick to claim discrimination. "You are not Abdul-whatever-his-name-is," he said, surrounded by African-influenced avant-garde clothing he designs at his boutique in Prospect Heights. "Take responsibility for yourself."
He said Nigeria had received a wake-up call, and that Mr. Abdulmutallab, from a wealthy family, typified the aimlessness of the country's young elite.
But more Nigerian-Americans saw the story as every parent's nightmare. They praised Mr. Abdulmutallab's father for alerting American authorities to his son's growing extremism, insisted that Nigeria's 150 million people were being penalized for a plot that had nothing to do with them, and opined — like many Yemenis — that the rules should apply to all countries.
"It goes to show the relations between powerful nations and weak nations," said Eman Orji, 50, a paralegal who was buying kola nuts at Odyssey. The United Kingdom, he noted, was not placed on a "no-fly" list after a Briton, Richard C. Reid, tried to blow up a Miami-bound plane in December 2001: "It shows this air of superiority, that we can subject Nigeria to this kind of international humiliation."
Sheri Adenekan, 39, a home health aide who stopped in for plantains, said, "Because of one person, a lot of people will suffer."
The Yemeni airline office, despite its inviting pictures of Yemen's dunes and ornate traditional houses, was deserted Wednesday but for the clerk, Mr. Alzundani. He grew up in New York but sent his wife and family back to Yemen so the children to study Arabic and Islam. Now he worries the new rules will have a very personal effect: loneliness.
His modest, traditional wife, he said, might refuse to visit him if it meant a pat-down or a walk through a machine that let guards see through her clothes.
Around the corner at Abu Yasser Travel Agency, employees waved a reporter away — they were tired of even talking about the Obama administration's recent decision to impose tougher airline screening measures for people flying from 14 countries, including Yemen.
"People who travel a lot, they're getting used to it," said Abdul Alzundani, a clerk at the office of Yemenia, the national airline, nearby.
It was a different story at Odyssey African Market in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Evident there, along with the smoked fish and kola nuts that loaded the narrow aisles, was much of the anguish that radiated from Arab-Americans in the days after 9/11.
For Nigerian immigrants, the news that their country was on the list, after a Nigerian citizen was charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, was a new experience, bringing insult and a creeping fear that they were entering a new era of stigma and scrutiny.
"There is nothing like that in our record!" exclaimed Raymond Owolewa, 73, a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker who brought his children to the United States from Nigeria more than three decades ago and was incensed that Nigeria was lumped in with nations the United States lists as state sponsors of terrorism, like Syria and Iran.
"Every country has radical people," he added. "But we are not specializing in that."
Five days after President Obama announced the new rules, it is too early to tell how they will ultimately affect people from Nigeria and the other listed countries, or New York's Nigerian diaspora, which numbers more than 15,000, according to the Census Bureau. The immediate impact, Nigerians and Yemenis said, is simply inconvenience and fear of stigmatization; travel agents said no one was canceling trips.
But these immigrant communities are uncertain whether there could be, over time, a chilling effect on family visits or business travel. And Nigerians, for whom the problem is freshest, wonder if it is a precursor to more serious challenges like the ones Middle Easterners face, such as increased difficulty getting visas to study and work in America.
Nigeria and Yemen were bound together by the Dec. 25 bombing attempt, when, officials say, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 19, a Nigerian Muslim working with a Qaeda cell in Yemen, tried to detonate explosives on a plane about to land in Detroit.
Besides Nigeria and Yemen, the rules affect Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Anyone flying from those countries, and citizens of those countries flying from anywhere in the world, must undergo a pat-down and a check of their carry-on luggage before boarding. Critics say the rules will simply encourage plotters to recruit bombers in nonlisted countries.
Complicating reaction among Nigerians is the country's tension between the mostly Christian south and the largely Muslim north. Many Nigerians in the United States are Christians, and their chagrin at the blow to Nigeria's image was mixed with anger at growing Islamic extremism in the north of their country and concern that ill-informed Americans might now associate such views with all Nigerians.
Many blamed the Nigerian government for making their oil-rich country famous for corruption, e-mail get-rich-quick schemes, and, some argue, fertile ground for Qaeda recruiters.
Oliver Mbamara, of the New York-based Nigerian Lawyers Association, wrote in African Events magazine that Nigeria's leaders were "turning a blind eye to elements that breed the type of circumstance and environment where the likes of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab thrive."
Olujimi Gureje, who named his dog Umaru as a dig at Nigeria's president, Umaru Yar'Adua, welcomed the rules and said Nigerians should not be quick to claim discrimination. "You are not Abdul-whatever-his-name-is," he said, surrounded by African-influenced avant-garde clothing he designs at his boutique in Prospect Heights. "Take responsibility for yourself."
He said Nigeria had received a wake-up call, and that Mr. Abdulmutallab, from a wealthy family, typified the aimlessness of the country's young elite.
But more Nigerian-Americans saw the story as every parent's nightmare. They praised Mr. Abdulmutallab's father for alerting American authorities to his son's growing extremism, insisted that Nigeria's 150 million people were being penalized for a plot that had nothing to do with them, and opined — like many Yemenis — that the rules should apply to all countries.
"It goes to show the relations between powerful nations and weak nations," said Eman Orji, 50, a paralegal who was buying kola nuts at Odyssey. The United Kingdom, he noted, was not placed on a "no-fly" list after a Briton, Richard C. Reid, tried to blow up a Miami-bound plane in December 2001: "It shows this air of superiority, that we can subject Nigeria to this kind of international humiliation."
Sheri Adenekan, 39, a home health aide who stopped in for plantains, said, "Because of one person, a lot of people will suffer."
The Yemeni airline office, despite its inviting pictures of Yemen's dunes and ornate traditional houses, was deserted Wednesday but for the clerk, Mr. Alzundani. He grew up in New York but sent his wife and family back to Yemen so the children to study Arabic and Islam. Now he worries the new rules will have a very personal effect: loneliness.
His modest, traditional wife, he said, might refuse to visit him if it meant a pat-down or a walk through a machine that let guards see through her clothes.
Nigerian Arraigned in Bomb Attempt
DETROIT — The Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb a Northwest flight to Detroit on Christmas Day was arraigned Friday here in a quiet hearing that lasted barely four minutes yet attracted a throng of reporters, protesters and curious observers.
Wearing a white shirt and metal shackles on his feet, with his head shaved, the defendant, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was silent when his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Abdulmutallab on six charges, including attempted murder on an airplane, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and related offenses. He is accused of concealing explosives in his underwear and of trying to detonate them with a syringe of chemicals as Northwest Flight 253, which carried 289 passengers and crew members from Amsterdam, was descending for landing in Detroit. He managed to start a small fire but was overpowered by other passengers and flight attendants, and the plane landed safely.
At Friday's arraignment, Magistrate Judge Mark A. Randon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan asked Mr. Abdulmutallab a series of perfunctory questions about his background and whether he understood the charges. He said, softly, "Yes, sir."
Asked whether he was taking medication, Mr. Abdulmutallab responded: "In the last 24 hours? Some painkillers."
Mr. Abdulmutallab occasionally conferred with his lawyers, led by Miriam L. Siefer. He appeared subdued and did not show any visible signs of the third-degree burns he sustained on the plane.
His lawyers waived a detention hearing and consented to having Mr. Abdulmutallab continue to be held in the federal prison in Milan, near Ann Arbor.
Hebba Aref, 27, who said her seat was six rows in front of Mr. Abdulmutallab's on the flight, watched the hearing from the front row in the courtroom, with members of her family. Ms. Aref, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a Detroit suburb, works as a lawyer in Kuwait and said she would be flying there on Friday night.
"This person has changed my life, and the way things are done in the United States," she said. "I just wanted to see who this person was again."
When Ms. Aref saw Mr. Abdulmutallab, she said, "I felt something in the pit of my stomach." Asked what resolution she wanted in the case, she hesitated before responding, "Whatever the maximum penalty is."
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that Mr. Abdulmutallab could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Mr. Holder has also said that the government has obtained significant information from Mr. Abdulmutallab about the Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda that is suspected of planning the attack.
Mr. Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a respected Nigerian banker, alerted both Nigerian and American authorities in the fall that his son, a Muslim, had become radicalized and had moved to Yemen. Two Nigerian lawyers — Maryam Uwais and Mahmud Kazaure — attended Friday's hearing to observe for the family.
Dozens of Muslims from nearby Dearborn gathered outside the courthouse carrying large American flags and colorful signs that read "NOT in the name of Islam" and "Islam is against terrorism."
"Abdulmutallab is not Muslim," said Mohssen Sadeq, 40, who said he came to the United States from Yemen in 2000. "I need peace and freedom everywhere. I don't want terrorists anywhere. This is my country. I love America."
Nearby, Rasaq Ibrahim, 39, a Nigerian immigrant who said he came to the United States 12 years ago, held a sign that read, "The action of one Nigerian does not reflect all Nigerians."
"His actions are totally against our morals and our ideals," Mr. Ibrahim said. "We feel disgraced and betrayed."
Wearing a white shirt and metal shackles on his feet, with his head shaved, the defendant, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was silent when his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Abdulmutallab on six charges, including attempted murder on an airplane, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and related offenses. He is accused of concealing explosives in his underwear and of trying to detonate them with a syringe of chemicals as Northwest Flight 253, which carried 289 passengers and crew members from Amsterdam, was descending for landing in Detroit. He managed to start a small fire but was overpowered by other passengers and flight attendants, and the plane landed safely.
At Friday's arraignment, Magistrate Judge Mark A. Randon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan asked Mr. Abdulmutallab a series of perfunctory questions about his background and whether he understood the charges. He said, softly, "Yes, sir."
Asked whether he was taking medication, Mr. Abdulmutallab responded: "In the last 24 hours? Some painkillers."
Mr. Abdulmutallab occasionally conferred with his lawyers, led by Miriam L. Siefer. He appeared subdued and did not show any visible signs of the third-degree burns he sustained on the plane.
His lawyers waived a detention hearing and consented to having Mr. Abdulmutallab continue to be held in the federal prison in Milan, near Ann Arbor.
Hebba Aref, 27, who said her seat was six rows in front of Mr. Abdulmutallab's on the flight, watched the hearing from the front row in the courtroom, with members of her family. Ms. Aref, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a Detroit suburb, works as a lawyer in Kuwait and said she would be flying there on Friday night.
"This person has changed my life, and the way things are done in the United States," she said. "I just wanted to see who this person was again."
When Ms. Aref saw Mr. Abdulmutallab, she said, "I felt something in the pit of my stomach." Asked what resolution she wanted in the case, she hesitated before responding, "Whatever the maximum penalty is."
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that Mr. Abdulmutallab could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Mr. Holder has also said that the government has obtained significant information from Mr. Abdulmutallab about the Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda that is suspected of planning the attack.
Mr. Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a respected Nigerian banker, alerted both Nigerian and American authorities in the fall that his son, a Muslim, had become radicalized and had moved to Yemen. Two Nigerian lawyers — Maryam Uwais and Mahmud Kazaure — attended Friday's hearing to observe for the family.
Dozens of Muslims from nearby Dearborn gathered outside the courthouse carrying large American flags and colorful signs that read "NOT in the name of Islam" and "Islam is against terrorism."
"Abdulmutallab is not Muslim," said Mohssen Sadeq, 40, who said he came to the United States from Yemen in 2000. "I need peace and freedom everywhere. I don't want terrorists anywhere. This is my country. I love America."
Nearby, Rasaq Ibrahim, 39, a Nigerian immigrant who said he came to the United States 12 years ago, held a sign that read, "The action of one Nigerian does not reflect all Nigerians."
"His actions are totally against our morals and our ideals," Mr. Ibrahim said. "We feel disgraced and betrayed."
A Muckraking Blogger Focuses on Jews
ST. PAUL
Decades ago on a characteristically arctic day here, a boy named Scott Rosenberg waited with his neighborhood pals as a certain Chevy Impala glided into view. It contained the city's archbishop, and the boys, all of them Roman Catholic except for Scott, pelted the car with snowballs.
The archbishop braked and emerged to chastise his assailants. To Scott, whom he correctly identified as Jewish, the prelate said simply, "You call your rabbi."
Consider this a parable or a metaphor or just a piquant coincidence. Consider it revealing that Shmarya Rosenberg, as Scott is now known, recalled the incident in a recent interview as one of his most enduring memories. Because, lo, these years later, Mr. Rosenberg has made his name and earned equal measures of admiration and opprobrium for lobbing the digital version of snowballs at a great many rabbis.
Blogging on the site FailedMessiah.com, Mr. Rosenberg, 51, has transmuted a combination of muckraking reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.
Operating thousands of miles from the centers of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, waking at 3:30 a.m. and working a dozen hours at a stretch in an apartment cluttered with books, Mr. Rosenberg has had his scoops cited by The Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, PR Week and Gawker. The national Jewish newspaper The Forward listed him among the 50 most influential American Jews, and the hip, cheeky magazine Heeb put him in its top 100.
And somewhat regularly, Mr. Rosenberg's in-box brims with missives like this recent one: "what happened to you when you were young that you are so anti 'haredi' were you abused or molested, you are as false and krum as they come, you are not helping anybody with your negative bent. You wanna bring out sad occurrences in the community, im not sure that its your business to do that, there is such a thing called tznius. And to belittle gedolim whole sale just proves that you are insane."
If you need a Hebrew and Yiddish glossary to fully fathom the diss — "krum" means "crooked," "haredi" means "fervently Orthodox," "tznius" is "modesty" and the "gedolim" are the great rabbis — then you have some sense of the almost claustrophobically inward community that Mr. Rosenberg chronicles.
It is also, not coincidentally to his fervor, the one he used to inhabit. The son of Conservative Jewish parents who ran a beauty supply company, Mr. Rosenberg grew attracted in his late teens to the Chabad movement of the Lubavitch Hasidim for what he described as "the perfect combination of social service and religious mystery."
Mr. Rosenberg found his compelling cause in the plight of Ethiopian Jews seeking to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. His failure to enlist Chabad's support for those efforts in the mid-1980s began a sustained process of estrangement. Still, he continued to worship with a Chabad congregation, study under Chabad rabbis and work in the kosher-meat industry in the Twin Cities.
Only in 2004 did Mr. Rosenberg take the decisive step of learning how to set up a blog. He titled it FailedMessiah — a swipe at what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who had died in 1994, and what he perceived as a messianic strain within the Hasidic sect. The first item Mr. Rosenberg posted was a 1984 letter from the rebbe saying there were more pressing needs in the Jewish community than the Ethiopians.
Thus provoked, the Lubavitchers excommunicated Mr. Rosenberg. (The group denies that it has such a formal procedure.)
"I thought I didn't have any future," Mr. Rosenberg recalled. "I was in shock for a long time. I didn't have any friends now. I had no business. I had no synagogue. I was going to be a rabbi. Now that was all gone, too."
Yet, journalistically speaking, Mr. Rosenberg was also liberated. And his indignation with Chabad coincided with a big story later in 2004, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released video of the slaughtering practices inside Agriprocessors, a vast kosher-meat plant in Iowa owned and operated by a Lubavitcher family, the Rubashkins.
Mr. Rosenberg posted a link to the video and went on both to report his own investigative pieces and to spread those of other journalists, particularly Nathaniel Popper of The Forward. When a public-relations company, 5WPR, fabricated online postings by a rabbi who was pushing for ethical reform in kosher foods, it was Mr. Rosenberg who uncovered the "sock puppet" scam.
A recent post, replete with supporting photographs and documents, showed how even after Agriprocessors had been disgraced and its chief executive convicted of financial crimes, members of the Rubashkin family continued to sell meat through a Web site.
In his righteous wrath, though, Mr. Rosenberg has also overstepped. He disparaged the journalistic integrity of Sue Fishkoff, the author of an acclaimed book about the Chabad movement, by referring to her as a "kadesha" — a term from Genesis that means a temple prostitute. After she objected, he posted an apology.
Chabad leaders declined to speak on the record about Mr. Rosenberg, but in general, they say that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. But they acknowledge that he has gotten some embarrassing things right.
"Shmarya often reminds me of journalism in the old days — when editors would sometimes go at one another physically in the street," Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian of American Jewry at Brandeis University with expertise in Jewish journalism, wrote in an e-mail message. "I know that he is fiercely hated in some Orthodox circles, but he has had many a scoop, and is certainly THE destination for those who want dirt about Orthodoxy exposed to the world."
Decades ago on a characteristically arctic day here, a boy named Scott Rosenberg waited with his neighborhood pals as a certain Chevy Impala glided into view. It contained the city's archbishop, and the boys, all of them Roman Catholic except for Scott, pelted the car with snowballs.
The archbishop braked and emerged to chastise his assailants. To Scott, whom he correctly identified as Jewish, the prelate said simply, "You call your rabbi."
Consider this a parable or a metaphor or just a piquant coincidence. Consider it revealing that Shmarya Rosenberg, as Scott is now known, recalled the incident in a recent interview as one of his most enduring memories. Because, lo, these years later, Mr. Rosenberg has made his name and earned equal measures of admiration and opprobrium for lobbing the digital version of snowballs at a great many rabbis.
Blogging on the site FailedMessiah.com, Mr. Rosenberg, 51, has transmuted a combination of muckraking reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.
Operating thousands of miles from the centers of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, waking at 3:30 a.m. and working a dozen hours at a stretch in an apartment cluttered with books, Mr. Rosenberg has had his scoops cited by The Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, PR Week and Gawker. The national Jewish newspaper The Forward listed him among the 50 most influential American Jews, and the hip, cheeky magazine Heeb put him in its top 100.
And somewhat regularly, Mr. Rosenberg's in-box brims with missives like this recent one: "what happened to you when you were young that you are so anti 'haredi' were you abused or molested, you are as false and krum as they come, you are not helping anybody with your negative bent. You wanna bring out sad occurrences in the community, im not sure that its your business to do that, there is such a thing called tznius. And to belittle gedolim whole sale just proves that you are insane."
If you need a Hebrew and Yiddish glossary to fully fathom the diss — "krum" means "crooked," "haredi" means "fervently Orthodox," "tznius" is "modesty" and the "gedolim" are the great rabbis — then you have some sense of the almost claustrophobically inward community that Mr. Rosenberg chronicles.
It is also, not coincidentally to his fervor, the one he used to inhabit. The son of Conservative Jewish parents who ran a beauty supply company, Mr. Rosenberg grew attracted in his late teens to the Chabad movement of the Lubavitch Hasidim for what he described as "the perfect combination of social service and religious mystery."
Mr. Rosenberg found his compelling cause in the plight of Ethiopian Jews seeking to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. His failure to enlist Chabad's support for those efforts in the mid-1980s began a sustained process of estrangement. Still, he continued to worship with a Chabad congregation, study under Chabad rabbis and work in the kosher-meat industry in the Twin Cities.
Only in 2004 did Mr. Rosenberg take the decisive step of learning how to set up a blog. He titled it FailedMessiah — a swipe at what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who had died in 1994, and what he perceived as a messianic strain within the Hasidic sect. The first item Mr. Rosenberg posted was a 1984 letter from the rebbe saying there were more pressing needs in the Jewish community than the Ethiopians.
Thus provoked, the Lubavitchers excommunicated Mr. Rosenberg. (The group denies that it has such a formal procedure.)
"I thought I didn't have any future," Mr. Rosenberg recalled. "I was in shock for a long time. I didn't have any friends now. I had no business. I had no synagogue. I was going to be a rabbi. Now that was all gone, too."
Yet, journalistically speaking, Mr. Rosenberg was also liberated. And his indignation with Chabad coincided with a big story later in 2004, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released video of the slaughtering practices inside Agriprocessors, a vast kosher-meat plant in Iowa owned and operated by a Lubavitcher family, the Rubashkins.
Mr. Rosenberg posted a link to the video and went on both to report his own investigative pieces and to spread those of other journalists, particularly Nathaniel Popper of The Forward. When a public-relations company, 5WPR, fabricated online postings by a rabbi who was pushing for ethical reform in kosher foods, it was Mr. Rosenberg who uncovered the "sock puppet" scam.
A recent post, replete with supporting photographs and documents, showed how even after Agriprocessors had been disgraced and its chief executive convicted of financial crimes, members of the Rubashkin family continued to sell meat through a Web site.
In his righteous wrath, though, Mr. Rosenberg has also overstepped. He disparaged the journalistic integrity of Sue Fishkoff, the author of an acclaimed book about the Chabad movement, by referring to her as a "kadesha" — a term from Genesis that means a temple prostitute. After she objected, he posted an apology.
Chabad leaders declined to speak on the record about Mr. Rosenberg, but in general, they say that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. But they acknowledge that he has gotten some embarrassing things right.
"Shmarya often reminds me of journalism in the old days — when editors would sometimes go at one another physically in the street," Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian of American Jewry at Brandeis University with expertise in Jewish journalism, wrote in an e-mail message. "I know that he is fiercely hated in some Orthodox circles, but he has had many a scoop, and is certainly THE destination for those who want dirt about Orthodoxy exposed to the world."
Heavy Rains End Drought for Texas
HOUSTON — The worst drought to strike Texas in the last 50 years has broken, ending a year-and-a-half dry spell in which farmers and ranchers suffered devastating losses, climatologists and agronomists said this week.
Heavy rains since September have replenished reservoirs, filled stock tanks and quenched huge expanses of parched earth across Central and South Texas, where state officials estimate that farmers and ranchers suffered losses of around $4 billion.
John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist, said that while some pockets along the Gulf Coast and in the Panhandle remained drier than usual, most of the state had recovered.
"The back of the drought is broken," Mr. Nielsen-Gammon said. "It's still lingering in a few areas, but there aren't any places right now feeling acute drought."
The rains came too late for many ranchers in South Texas, who were forced to send to market most of their cattle, including breeding stock. Cotton farmers suffered, too. In Kleberg County, the entire cotton crop failed for the first time since 1904. The yields in two other nearby counties were barely 5 percent of normal.
"Nothing grew, zero," said Jon Whatley, who grows cotton and sorghum in Odem. Mr. Whatley said the drought seemed worse than an infamous dry spell in the 1950s that his father had lived through.
"In the 1950s, they were always able to get the crop up and growing — the yields weren't good — whereas in '09, we couldn't get it growing at all," he said.
State officials say the period from September 2008 to September 2009 was the driest on record in the state.
Mr. Nielson-Gammon said the drought owed much to the two winters in which surface water temperatures along the equator in the Pacific Ocean were above normal, a phenomenon known as El Niño. In addition, the tropical storms that raked the Texas coast in 2008 dropped almost no rain inland.
But this winter the Pacific cooled off, producing the pattern known as La Niña, which generally brings wet weather to Texas, he said. The central region around Austin and San Antonio received 8 to 12 inches more rain than normal from August to October. Farther south, around Corpus Christi, a wave of storms in November and December dropped up to 10 inches more rain than usual, he said.
Austin Brown II, a third-generation rancher in Beeville, said he was so elated to see the rainfall this autumn that he sent out a Christmas card with a picture of his family standing in front of a full farm pond that had been desiccated the summer before.
But Mr. Brown said he and other ranchers were still in dire straits. He was forced to cull 75 percent of his cattle and, with beef prices remaining low because of the national recession, he was unsure when or if he would be able to rebuild.
"It was very devastating, and one that we may not ever get over because beef prices are terribly low right now," he said. "I'm not anxious to rebuild. By the summer we should know if we are really out of the drought."
Matt Huie, another Beeville farmer and rancher, planted 1,000 acres of cotton last spring, but the seeds failed to sprout. Now, Mr. Huie said, the ground is moist enough to engender hope of a good crop this year.
"It's rained more in the last 90 days than it did in all of 2008 combined," he said. "After two lousy years in a row — one really, really bad — this year had better be a home run, or there are going to be a lot of people out of business here in the ag industry."
Heavy rains since September have replenished reservoirs, filled stock tanks and quenched huge expanses of parched earth across Central and South Texas, where state officials estimate that farmers and ranchers suffered losses of around $4 billion.
John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist, said that while some pockets along the Gulf Coast and in the Panhandle remained drier than usual, most of the state had recovered.
"The back of the drought is broken," Mr. Nielsen-Gammon said. "It's still lingering in a few areas, but there aren't any places right now feeling acute drought."
The rains came too late for many ranchers in South Texas, who were forced to send to market most of their cattle, including breeding stock. Cotton farmers suffered, too. In Kleberg County, the entire cotton crop failed for the first time since 1904. The yields in two other nearby counties were barely 5 percent of normal.
"Nothing grew, zero," said Jon Whatley, who grows cotton and sorghum in Odem. Mr. Whatley said the drought seemed worse than an infamous dry spell in the 1950s that his father had lived through.
"In the 1950s, they were always able to get the crop up and growing — the yields weren't good — whereas in '09, we couldn't get it growing at all," he said.
State officials say the period from September 2008 to September 2009 was the driest on record in the state.
Mr. Nielson-Gammon said the drought owed much to the two winters in which surface water temperatures along the equator in the Pacific Ocean were above normal, a phenomenon known as El Niño. In addition, the tropical storms that raked the Texas coast in 2008 dropped almost no rain inland.
But this winter the Pacific cooled off, producing the pattern known as La Niña, which generally brings wet weather to Texas, he said. The central region around Austin and San Antonio received 8 to 12 inches more rain than normal from August to October. Farther south, around Corpus Christi, a wave of storms in November and December dropped up to 10 inches more rain than usual, he said.
Austin Brown II, a third-generation rancher in Beeville, said he was so elated to see the rainfall this autumn that he sent out a Christmas card with a picture of his family standing in front of a full farm pond that had been desiccated the summer before.
But Mr. Brown said he and other ranchers were still in dire straits. He was forced to cull 75 percent of his cattle and, with beef prices remaining low because of the national recession, he was unsure when or if he would be able to rebuild.
"It was very devastating, and one that we may not ever get over because beef prices are terribly low right now," he said. "I'm not anxious to rebuild. By the summer we should know if we are really out of the drought."
Matt Huie, another Beeville farmer and rancher, planted 1,000 acres of cotton last spring, but the seeds failed to sprout. Now, Mr. Huie said, the ground is moist enough to engender hope of a good crop this year.
"It's rained more in the last 90 days than it did in all of 2008 combined," he said. "After two lousy years in a row — one really, really bad — this year had better be a home run, or there are going to be a lot of people out of business here in the ag industry."
Obama Takes New Route to Opposing Parts of Laws
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is lowering the volume in a long-running argument between Congress and the executive branch over when, if ever, a president has the power to bypass federal statutes he has signed into law.
Legal scholars said the administration's new approach, which avoids repeating claims of executive power that the White House has previously voiced, could avoid setting off fights with lawmakers. But the approach will make it harder to keep track of which statutes the White House believes it can disregard, or to compare the number of laws challenged by President Obama with former President George W. Bush's record.
In Mr. Obama's first months in office last year, he followed recent precedent and frequently issued statements, when signing bills into law, that the executive branch could disregard provisions that he considered unconstitutional restraints on executive power.
But Mr. Obama has not issued a signing statement since last summer, when one claim set off a bipartisan uproar in Congress. And the administration has decided that Mr. Obama will sometimes sign bills containing provisions it deems problematic without issuing a signing statement that challenges those sections.
Still, the administration will consider itself free to disregard new laws it considers unconstitutional, especially in cases where it has previously voiced objections elsewhere, officials said.
The White House disclosed its shift when asked why it had not put out a signing statement last month, when Mr. Obama signed a $447 billion spending bill for 2010. It contained several provisions that restricted executive power in ways that the administration had previously asserted were unconstitutional — including in signing statements attached to similar bills and in policy statements it issued about the spending bill as lawmakers drew it up.
"The administration's views about certain provisions in the omnibus spending bill had previously been publicly communicated," said Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman, "so it wasn't necessary to duplicate them in a signing statement."
Since the 19th century, presidents have occasionally used signing statements to declare that parts of a bill were unconstitutional and need not be enforced or obeyed as written. But the tactic was rare until the second term of President Ronald Reagan, whose legal team developed a strategy of issuing the statements more frequently to increase presidential power.
Reagan's successors continued that approach. And the practice escalated again under Mr. Bush, who used it to advance expansive theories of executive power. He challenged about 1,200 sections of bills — more than all predecessors combined — including a ban on torture and oversight provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Mr. Bush's assertive use of the tactic set off a national debate over its propriety. The American Bar Association declared that signing statements "undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers," and argued that the Constitution gave presidents only two choices: veto a bill, or sign it and obey all of it.
But other scholars said the tactic was appropriate if a president cited only mainstream legal theories. Mr. Obama, whose advisers sided with the latter camp, has characterized Mr. Bush's use of signing statements as an abuse and pledged greater restraint.
Mr. Obama nevertheless challenged dozens of provisions early last year. The last time was in June, when his claim that he could disobey a new law requiring officials to push the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to adopt certain policies angered Congress. The White House sought to reassure lawmakers that it intended to take those negotiating positions anyway and was merely noting its view that Congress cannot control foreign negotiations. Many lawmakers rejected that theory, and the House quickly voted 429 to 2 to bar officials from disobeying the restrictions.
Although the recent spending bill received no signing statement, it contained a similar provision about World Trade Organization negotiations, as well as several other types the administration had previously challenged. The White House issued several "statements of administration policy" warning that those provisions raised constitutional concerns while the legislation was pending, but Congress did not change them.
Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who led last summer's backlash, said the White House risked losing Congressional support for international economic organizations. Mr. Frank also said it was "outrageous" to contend that if Congress disagreed with the administration's opinion that a provision would be unconstitutional, the president could sign the bill and disobey it.
"They have a legitimate right to tell us their constitutional concerns — that's different from having a signing statement," Mr. Frank said. "Anyone who makes the argument that 'once we have told you we have constitutional concerns and then you pass it anyway, that justifies us in ignoring it' — that is a constitutional violation. Those play very different roles and you can't bootstrap one into the other."
But Peter M. Shane, an Ohio State University law professor, praised the approach as a step toward a return to the "normalcy" of how presidents used signing statements through Reagan's first term. Mr. Shane has previously criticized the administration over its frequent early use of the device.
Still, Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in 2003-04, argued that an approach of issuing fewer signing statements would "not be terribly consequential" in practice because the executive branch could still override a provision that its legal team later pronounces unconstitutional.
Last year the Obama administration disregarded a statute that forbid State Department officials to attend United Nations meetings led by nations deemed state sponsors of terrorism. Congress has included that restriction in several recent bills.
When Mr. Bush signed one such bill, he issued a signing statement instructing officials to view the law as merely advisory, and they attended at least one such meeting on his watch. By contrast, when Mr. Obama signed another bill with an identical provision, he did not specifically single it out for challenge. But his administration later obtained an Office of Legal Counsel opinion pronouncing it unconstitutional, and officials continued to attend such meetings.
Unlike signing statements, opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel are often secret. Mr. Goldsmith said the administration's approach of issuing fewer signing statements would mean "somewhat less accountability."
"I think it's a bad development if they are not going to highlight for the nation in all these new statutes where they think there are problems," he said.
The White House, however, said it had given clear public notice about its views.
"Each piece of legislation," Mr. LaBolt said, "is considered on an individual basis to determine whether a signing statement is necessary, and communications regarding the administration's views on legislation such as Statements of Administration Policy will continue to be publicly available for Congress and all Americans to evaluate."
Legal scholars said the administration's new approach, which avoids repeating claims of executive power that the White House has previously voiced, could avoid setting off fights with lawmakers. But the approach will make it harder to keep track of which statutes the White House believes it can disregard, or to compare the number of laws challenged by President Obama with former President George W. Bush's record.
In Mr. Obama's first months in office last year, he followed recent precedent and frequently issued statements, when signing bills into law, that the executive branch could disregard provisions that he considered unconstitutional restraints on executive power.
But Mr. Obama has not issued a signing statement since last summer, when one claim set off a bipartisan uproar in Congress. And the administration has decided that Mr. Obama will sometimes sign bills containing provisions it deems problematic without issuing a signing statement that challenges those sections.
Still, the administration will consider itself free to disregard new laws it considers unconstitutional, especially in cases where it has previously voiced objections elsewhere, officials said.
The White House disclosed its shift when asked why it had not put out a signing statement last month, when Mr. Obama signed a $447 billion spending bill for 2010. It contained several provisions that restricted executive power in ways that the administration had previously asserted were unconstitutional — including in signing statements attached to similar bills and in policy statements it issued about the spending bill as lawmakers drew it up.
"The administration's views about certain provisions in the omnibus spending bill had previously been publicly communicated," said Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman, "so it wasn't necessary to duplicate them in a signing statement."
Since the 19th century, presidents have occasionally used signing statements to declare that parts of a bill were unconstitutional and need not be enforced or obeyed as written. But the tactic was rare until the second term of President Ronald Reagan, whose legal team developed a strategy of issuing the statements more frequently to increase presidential power.
Reagan's successors continued that approach. And the practice escalated again under Mr. Bush, who used it to advance expansive theories of executive power. He challenged about 1,200 sections of bills — more than all predecessors combined — including a ban on torture and oversight provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Mr. Bush's assertive use of the tactic set off a national debate over its propriety. The American Bar Association declared that signing statements "undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers," and argued that the Constitution gave presidents only two choices: veto a bill, or sign it and obey all of it.
But other scholars said the tactic was appropriate if a president cited only mainstream legal theories. Mr. Obama, whose advisers sided with the latter camp, has characterized Mr. Bush's use of signing statements as an abuse and pledged greater restraint.
Mr. Obama nevertheless challenged dozens of provisions early last year. The last time was in June, when his claim that he could disobey a new law requiring officials to push the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to adopt certain policies angered Congress. The White House sought to reassure lawmakers that it intended to take those negotiating positions anyway and was merely noting its view that Congress cannot control foreign negotiations. Many lawmakers rejected that theory, and the House quickly voted 429 to 2 to bar officials from disobeying the restrictions.
Although the recent spending bill received no signing statement, it contained a similar provision about World Trade Organization negotiations, as well as several other types the administration had previously challenged. The White House issued several "statements of administration policy" warning that those provisions raised constitutional concerns while the legislation was pending, but Congress did not change them.
Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who led last summer's backlash, said the White House risked losing Congressional support for international economic organizations. Mr. Frank also said it was "outrageous" to contend that if Congress disagreed with the administration's opinion that a provision would be unconstitutional, the president could sign the bill and disobey it.
"They have a legitimate right to tell us their constitutional concerns — that's different from having a signing statement," Mr. Frank said. "Anyone who makes the argument that 'once we have told you we have constitutional concerns and then you pass it anyway, that justifies us in ignoring it' — that is a constitutional violation. Those play very different roles and you can't bootstrap one into the other."
But Peter M. Shane, an Ohio State University law professor, praised the approach as a step toward a return to the "normalcy" of how presidents used signing statements through Reagan's first term. Mr. Shane has previously criticized the administration over its frequent early use of the device.
Still, Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in 2003-04, argued that an approach of issuing fewer signing statements would "not be terribly consequential" in practice because the executive branch could still override a provision that its legal team later pronounces unconstitutional.
Last year the Obama administration disregarded a statute that forbid State Department officials to attend United Nations meetings led by nations deemed state sponsors of terrorism. Congress has included that restriction in several recent bills.
When Mr. Bush signed one such bill, he issued a signing statement instructing officials to view the law as merely advisory, and they attended at least one such meeting on his watch. By contrast, when Mr. Obama signed another bill with an identical provision, he did not specifically single it out for challenge. But his administration later obtained an Office of Legal Counsel opinion pronouncing it unconstitutional, and officials continued to attend such meetings.
Unlike signing statements, opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel are often secret. Mr. Goldsmith said the administration's approach of issuing fewer signing statements would mean "somewhat less accountability."
"I think it's a bad development if they are not going to highlight for the nation in all these new statutes where they think there are problems," he said.
The White House, however, said it had given clear public notice about its views.
"Each piece of legislation," Mr. LaBolt said, "is considered on an individual basis to determine whether a signing statement is necessary, and communications regarding the administration's views on legislation such as Statements of Administration Policy will continue to be publicly available for Congress and all Americans to evaluate."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
