October 31, 2013.

As New Jersey's Christie Campaigns, a 2016 Strategy Emerges

"It's nothing. My arm. It'll be all right in a second."

As he crisscrosses New Jersey in a final campaign push, Republican Gov. Chris Christie has made clear to donors, top supporters and the national GOP that he wants to do more than just notch a big re-election win next Tuesday.

She spoke as though her heart were fluttering. She had certainly turned very pale.

He sees his campaign----and particularly his aggressive outreach to nontraditional GOP voters----as a national model for his party.

"You haven't broken anything?"

Racking up big margins among women and even winning outright among Hispanics, as polls suggest he may, would position him well in a 2016 Republican presidential field as the party continues to struggle elsewhere to widen its appeal.

October 30, 2013.

Report Warns of Kids Returning to Sports Too Soon After Concussions

They were perhaps four metres apart when the girl stumbled and fell almost flat on her face. A sharp cry of pain was wrung out of her. She must have fallen right on the injured arm. Winston stopped short. The girl had risen to her knees. Her face had turned a milky yellow colour against which her mouth stood out redder than ever. Her eyes were fixed on his, with an appealing expression that looked more like fear than pain.

WASHINGTON----Despite increased knowledge about concussions in student athletes and state laws governing return to play after a brain injury, there's still a "culture of resistance" when it comes to reporting concussions and complying with treatment plans, an influential panel of experts found.

A curious emotion stirred in Winston's heart. In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him: in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone. Already he had instinctively started forward to help her. In the moment when he had seen her fall on the bandaged arm, it had been as though he felt the pain in his own body.

A long-awaited report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council said there is a paucity of data on sports-related concussions in kids including specific information on what happens to the brain following a concussion, but it warned that students who return to play before their brains are fully healed run the risk of a second brain injury with potentially "more severe consequences."

"You're hurt?" he said.

The report was written by a committee of academic medical experts, which examined concussion-related research and held public meetings. The report looked at concussions in several youth sports with athletes aged 5 to 21 years old.

October 29, 2013.

Google Nears Smartwatch Launch

WAR IS PEACE.

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

********


TWO

TAIPEI----Google Inc. GOOG -0.02%  's smartwatch is in late-stage development and the company is in talks with Asian suppliers to begin mass production of the device, people familiar with the matter said.

IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE MORNING, AND WINSTON HAD left the cubicle to go to the lavatory.

The new device, which will run on Android, will be integrated with Google Now, the company's intelligent personal assistant that can answer questions, make recommendations and predict what information users need based on what they are doing, a person familiar with the situation said. Google has also been working to reduce power consumption on the smartwatch so it won't require frequent battery charges, the person said.

A solitary figure was coming towards him from the other end of the long, brightly-lit corridor. It was the girl with dark hair. Four days had gone past since the evening when he had run into her outside the junk-shop. As she came nearer he saw that her right arm was in a sling, not noticeable at a distance because it was of the same colour as her overalls. Probably she had crushed her hand while swinging round one of the big kaleidoscopes on which the plots of novels were 'roughed in'. It was a common accident in the Fiction Department.

The smartwatch will be able to communicate with other devices such as a smartphone, and draw information such as travel schedules from a user's email through Google Now, the person said. The device could be ready for mass production within months, the person said.

October 28, 2013.

Obama Unaware as U.S. Spied on World Leaders: Officials

He opened the diary. It was important to write something down. The woman on the telescreen had started a new song. Her voice seemed to stick into his brain like jagged splinters of glass. He tried to think of O'Brien, for whom, or to whom, the diary was written, but instead he began thinking of the things that would happen to him after the Thought Police took him away. It would not matter if they killed you at once. To be killed was what you expected. But before death (nobody spoke of such things, yet everybody knew of them) there was the routine of confession that had to be gone through: the grovelling on the floor and screaming for mercy, the crack of broken bones, the smashed teeth, and bloody clots of hair.

WASHINGTON----The National Security Agency ended a program used to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other world leaders after an internal Obama administration review started this summer revealed to the White House the existence of the operation, U.S. officials said.

Why did you have to endure it, since the end was always the same? Why was it not possible to cut a few days or weeks out of your life? Nobody ever escaped detection, and nobody ever failed to confess. When once you had succumbed to thoughtcrime it was certain that by a given date you would be dead. Why then did that horror, which altered nothing, have to lie embedded in future time?

Officials said the internal review turned up NSA monitoring of some 35 world leaders, in the U.S. government's first public acknowledgment that it tapped the phones of world leaders. European leaders have joined international outrage over revelations of U.S. surveillance of Ms. Merkel's phone and of NSA's monitoring of telephone call data in France.

He tried with a little more success than before to summon up the image of O'Brien. "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness," O'Brien had said to him. He knew what it meant, or thought he knew. The place where there is no darkness was the imagined future, which one would never see, but which, by foreknowledge, one could mystically share in. But with the voice from the telescreen nagging at his ears he could not follow the train of thought further. He put a cigarette in his mouth. Half the tobacco promptly fell out on to his tongue, a bitter dust which was difficult to spit out again. The face of Big Brother swam into his mind, displacing that of O'Brien. Just as he had done a few days earlier, he slid a coin out of his pocket and looked at it. The face gazed up at him, heavy, calm, protecting: but what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache? Like a leaden knell the words came back at him:

The White House cut off some monitoring programs after learning of them, including the one tracking Ms. Merkel and some other world leaders, a senior U.S. official said. Other programs have been slated for termination but haven't been phased out completely yet, officials said.

October 27, 2013.

U.S. Cities Grapple With Finances

The street was a blind alley. Winston halted, stood for several seconds wondering vaguely what to do, then turned round and began to retrace his steps. As he turned it occurred to him that the girl had only passed him three minutes ago and that by running he could probably catch up with her. He could keep on her track till they were in some quiet place, and then smash her skull in with a cobblestone. The piece of glass in his pocket would be heavy enough for the job. But he abandoned the idea immediately, because even the thought of making any physical effort was unbearable. He could not run, he could not strike a blow. Besides, she was young and lusty and would defend herself. He thought also of hurrying to the Community Centre and staying there till the place closed, so as to establish a partial alibi for the evening. But that too was impossible. A deadly lassitude had taken hold of him. All he wanted was to get home quickly and then sit down and be quiet.

American cities' fiscal health is lagging behind other sectors of the economy as the recovery slowly takes hold.

It was after twenty-two hours when he got back to the flat. The lights would be switched off at the main at twenty-three thirty. He went into the kitchen and swallowed nearly a teacupful of Victory Gin. Then he went to the table in the alcove, sat down, and took the diary out of the drawer. But he did not open it at once. From the telescreen a brassy female voice was squalling a patriotic song. He sat staring at the marbled cover of the book, trying without success to shut the voice out of his consciousness.

Buffeted by steep drops in state aid, rising pension and health-care costs and sluggish property-tax revenue, many urban centers are struggling even several years after the financial crisis.

It was at night that they came for you, always at night. The proper thing was to kill yourself before they got you. Undoubtedly some people did so. Many of the disappearances were actually suicides. But it needed desperate courage to kill yourself in a world where firearms, or any quick and certain poison, were completely unprocurable. He thought with a kind of astonishment of the biological uselessness of pain and fear, the treachery of the human body which always freezes into inertia at exactly the moment when a special effort is needed. He might have silenced the dark-haired girl if only he had acted quickly enough: but precisely because of the extremity of his danger he had lost the power to act. It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one's own body. Even now, in spite of the gin, the dull ache in his belly made consecutive thought impossible. And it is the same, he perceived, in all seemingly heroic or tragic situations. On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues that you are fighting for are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralysed by fright or screaming with pain, life is a moment-to-moment struggle against hunger or cold or sleeplessness, against a sour stomach or an aching tooth.

"We think we saw the bottom, knock on wood," said Robert Chisel, director of finance and administration for Reno, Nev. But, he said, "We're not going back to the old days. We all know that."

October 26, 2013.

China State TV Shows Reporter Confessing to Taking Bribes

Suddenly his heart seemed to turn to ice and his bowels to water. A figure in blue overalls was coming down the pavement, not ten metres away. It was the girl from the Fiction Department, the girl with dark hair. The light was failing, but there was no difficulty in recognizing her. She looked him straight in the face, then walked quickly on as though she had not seen him.

BEIJING----Three days after a Chinese newspaper made a rare front-page appeal for police to release one of its reporters, the man was shown on state television Saturday confessing to have taken bribes to publish defamatory articles about a Chinese company.

For a few seconds Winston was too paralysed to move. Then he turned to the right and walked heavily away, not noticing for the moment that he was going in the wrong direction. At any rate, one question was settled. There was no doubting any longer that the girl was spying on him. She must have followed him here, because it was not credible that by pure chance she should have happened to be walking on the same evening up the same obscure backstreet, kilometres distant from any quarter where Party members lived. It was too great a coincidence. Whether she was really an agent of the Thought Police, or simply an amateur spy actuated by officiousness, hardly mattered. It was enough that she was watching him. Probably she had seen him go into the pub as well.

China Central Television showed a handcuffed Chen Yongzhou admitting to have published fabricated reports under his name about Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co. 000157.SZ +1.11%  , one of the country's biggest construction equipment makers.

It was an effort to walk. The lump of glass in his pocket banged against his thigh at each step, and he was half minded to take it out and throw it away. The worst thing was the pain in his belly. For a couple of minutes he had the feeling that he would die if he did not reach a lavatory soon. But there would be no public lavatories in a quarter like this. Then the spasm passed, leaving a dull ache behind.

Mr. Chen was shown saying he hadn't written any of the stories----which alleged that Zoomlion had falsified its accounts----but had been given the text for them by a third party, which he didn't identify.

October 25, 2013.

Energy Boom Puts Wells in America's Backyards

He got away from Mr Charrington and went down the stairs alone, so as not to let the old man see him reconnoitring the street before stepping out of the door. He had already made up his mind that after a suitable interval----a month, say----he would take the risk of visiting the shop again. It was perhaps not more dangerous than shirking an evening at the Centre. The serious piece of folly had been to come back here in the first place, after buying the diary and without knowing whether the proprietor of the shop could be trusted. However----!

Over the summer, something sprang up in the view from Dorsey Johnson's back deck north of Denver, where she watches sunsets over Colorado's front range.

Yes, he thought again, he would come back. He would buy further scraps of beautiful rubbish. He would buy the engraving of St Clement Danes, take it out of its frame, and carry it home concealed under the jacket of his overalls. He would drag the rest of that poem out of Mr Charrington's memory. Even the lunatic project of renting the room upstairs flashed momentarily through his mind again. For perhaps five seconds exaltation made him careless, and he stepped out on to the pavement without so much as a preliminary glance through the window. He had even started humming to an improvised tune----

 It was a noisy, towering rig, drilling a new oil well.

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's,
You owe me three farthings, say the----

"There was clanking. There were trucks going by,'' she says. All she wanted was for the rig to go away.

October 24, 2013.

Home Builders Target Higher End

Winston knew the place well. It was a museum used for propaganda displays of various kinds -- scale models of rocket bombs and Floating Fortresses, wax-work tableaux illustrating enemy atrocities, and the like.

Newly built homes in the U.S. are getting pricier as better-heeled buyers have rebounded more quickly from the recession than entry-level buyers, spurring home builders to go upscale to match the shift.

"St Martin's-in-the-Fields it used to be called," supplemented the old man, "though I don't recollect any fields anywhere in those parts."

Texas real-estate agent Lynne Kitchens can attest to the situation as an industry insider and as a recent home buyer. In housing searches for herself and those she does for clients, Ms. Kitchens has noticed an abundance of choices in new homes priced at $350,000 to $600,000, a range typically out of reach of entry-level buyers.

Winston did not buy the picture. It would have been an even more incongruous possession than the glass paperweight, and impossible to carry home, unless it were taken out of its frame. But he lingered for some minutes more, talking to the old man, whose name, he discovered, was not Weeks----as one might have gathered from the inscription over the shop-front----but Charrington. Mr Charrington, it seemed, was a widower aged sixty-three and had inhabited this shop for thirty years. Throughout that time he had been intending to alter the name over the window, but had never quite got to the point of doing it. All the while that they were talking the half-remembered rhyme kept running through Winston's head. Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clement's, You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St Martin's! It was curious, but when you said it to yourself you had the illusion of actually hearing bells, the bells of a lost London that still existed somewhere or other, disguised and forgotten. From one ghostly steeple after another he seemed to hear them pealing forth. Yet so far as he could remember he had never in real life heard church bells ringing.

After recently selling their home of 25 years, Ms. Kitchens and her husband looked at more than 20 existing homes and several new-home plans before making their choice: a three-bedroom home near Dallas for $525,000. Construction of the 3,600-square-foot home is to be completed by year-end by a division of D.R. Horton Inc., DHI +2.05%  which specializes in entry-level homes but recently branched more into upscale houses.

October 23, 2013.

Some GOP Donors Step Up Immigration Push

"There's a lot of them left, really," said the old man, "though they've been put to other uses. Now, how did that rhyme go? Ah! I've got it!

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's,

You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St Martin's----

there, now, that's as far as I can get. A farthing, that was a small copper coin, looked something like a cent."

WASHINGTON----Some big-money Republican donors, frustrated by their party's handling of the standoff over the debt ceiling and government shutdown, are stepping up their warnings to GOP leaders that they risk long-term damage to the party if they fail to pass immigration legislation.

"Where was St Martin's?" said Winston.

Some donors say they are withholding political contributions from members of Congress who don't support action on immigration, and many are calling top House leaders. Their hope is that the party can gain ground with Hispanic voters, make needed changes in immigration policy and offset some of the damage that polls show it is taking for the shutdown.

"St Martin's? That's still standing. It's in Victory Square, alongside the picture gallery. A building with a kind of a triangular porch and pillars in front, and a big flight of steps."

"I'm concerned as an American, first of all. I'm certainly concerned as a Republican," said Fred Zeidman, a Texas oil executive and fundraiser. "For my party to fight the inevitable, I think, is so incredibly shortsighted."

October 22, 2013.

Apple Unveils New iPads

"Oh----Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's. That was a rhyme we had when I was a little boy. How it goes on I don't remember, but I do know it ended up, "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head." It was a kind of a dance. They held out their arms for you to pass under, and when they came to "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head" they brought their arms down and caught you. It was just names of churches. All the London churches were in it -- all the principal ones, that is."

SAN FRANCISCO----Apple Inc.'s AAPL -0.29% answer to the increasingly cutthroat tablet-computer market: more product choices and free software.

Winston wondered vaguely to what century the church belonged. It was always difficult to determine the age of a London building. Anything large and impressive, if it was reasonably new in appearance, was automatically claimed as having been built since the Revolution, while anything that was obviously of earlier date was ascribed to some dim period called the Middle Ages. The centuries of capitalism were held to have produced nothing of any value. One could not learn history from architecture any more than one could learn it from books. Statues, inscriptions, memorial stones, the names of streets----anything that might throw light upon the past had been systematically altered.

At an event here Tuesday, Apple showed off a new full-size tablet----now called iPad Air----that is thinner and slimmed down to one pound. It also revealed an updated iPad Mini with a faster processor and a sharper display.

"I never knew it had been a church," he said.

Just as important, Apple's new holiday lineup lowers the entry price for the cheapest iPads to below $300 for the first time. Apple said it will sell a range of tablets starting with last year's iPad Mini for $299, up to the new iPad Air, which starts at $499. That brings Apple closer in line with competitors like Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +1.87% who have pushed tablet prices down as far as $229.

October 21, 2013.

Cheaper Sugar Sends Candy Makers Abroad

"I know that building," said Winston finally. "It's a ruin now. It's in the middle of the street outside the Palace of Justice."

Despite a prolonged slide in domestic sugar prices, U.S. candy makers are expanding production in other countries as federal price supports and a global glut of the sweet stuff give an ever-greater advantage to foreign rivals.

"That's right. Outside the Law Courts. It was bombed in----oh, many years ago. It was a church at one time, St Clement Danes, its name was." He smiled apologetically, as though conscious of saying something slightly ridiculous, and added: "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's!"

A 50% drop in U.S. sugar prices in the last two years hasn't been enough to eliminate problems from a longtime price gap between domestic and foreign sugar.

"What's that?" said Winston.

On Friday, the U.S. sugar contract in the futures market settled at 22.28 cents a pound, or 14% higher than the benchmark global price.

October 20, 2013.

More Businesses Want Workers With Math or Science Degrees

"Now, if you happen to be interested in old prints at all----" he began delicately.

MALTA, N.Y.----New York state got an influx of high-tech jobs five years ago when its offer of more than $1 billion of incentives, including cash and tax breaks, persuaded Globalfoundries Inc. to set up a semiconductor plant near Saratoga Lake in this town 25 miles north of Albany.

Winston came across to examine the picture. It was a steel engraving of an oval building with rectangular windows, and a small tower in front. There was a railing running round the building, and at the rear end there was what appeared to be a statue. Winston gazed at it for some moments. It seemed vaguely familiar, though he did not remember the statue.

There has been one hitch: Because it is hard to find enough people with the right technical skills around here, about half of the 2,200 jobs at the plant were filled by people brought in from outside New York, and 11% are foreigners.

"The frame's fixed to the wall," said the old man, "but I could unscrew it for you, I dare say."

In terms of basic math and science skills, "we're really floundering here in the U.S.," Mike Russo, Globalfoundries' director of government relations, said in an interview.

October 19, 2013.

A 'Grand' Moment for Google: Mobile Push Spurs Milestone

"There's no telescreen!" he could not help murmuring.

The mobile Internet appears to be helping, rather than hurting, Google Inc. GOOG +13.80%  's lucrative advertising machine, easing investor worries and propelling its shares past a major milestone.

"Ah," said the old man, "I never had one of those things. Too expensive. And I never seemed to feel the need of it, somehow. Now that's a nice gateleg table in the corner there. Though of course you'd have to put new hinges on it if you wanted to use the flaps."

The Internet giant's stock leapt 14% Friday to close above $1,000, a rarity among public companies that underscores Google's relentless progress since its August 2004 IPO at $85 a share.

There was a small bookcase in the other corner, and Winston had already gravitated towards it. It contained nothing but rubbish. The hunting-down and destruction of books had been done with the same thoroughness in the prole quarters as everywhere else. It was very unlikely that there existed anywhere in Oceania a copy of a book printed earlier than 1960. The old man, still carrying the lamp, was standing in front of a picture in a rosewood frame which hung on the other side of the fireplace, opposite the bed.

The spurt made Google the third most-valuable U.S. company by market capitalization, with a value of $338 billion, behind only Apple Inc. AAPL +0.87%  and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM +0.08%  A $1,000 investment in the IPO would now be worth $11,899.

October 18, 2013.

Nuclear Talks Divide Hard-Liners in Iran

He lit another lamp, and, with bowed back, led the way slowly up the steep and worn stairs and along a tiny passage, into a room which did not give on the street but looked out on a cobbled yard and a forest of chimney pots. Winston noticed that the furniture was still arranged as though the room were meant to be lived in. There was a strip of carpet on the floor, a picture or two on the walls, and a deep, slatternly arm-chair drawn up to the fireplace. An old-fashioned glass clock with a twelve-hour face was ticking away on the mantelpiece. Under the window, and occupying nearly a quarter of the room, was an enormous bed with the mattress still on it.

BEIRUT----The revival of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers has carved a new divide among Tehran's hard-line leaders over whether to bend to Western demands in exchange for relief from the sanctions that have crippled their economy.

"We lived here till my wife died," said the old man half apologetically. "I'm selling the furniture off by little and little. Now that's a beautiful mahogany bed, or at least it would be if you could get the bugs out of it. But I dare say you'd find it a little bit cumbersome."

As Iran's new president and his foreign minister have shown a willingness to end their country's nuclear stalemate and improve relations with the West, high-ranking conservatives have both praised and condemned these initiatives.

He was holding the lamp high up, so as to illuminate the whole room, and in the warm dim light the place looked curiously inviting. The thought flitted through Winston's mind that it would probably be quite easy to rent the room for a few dollars a week, if he dared to take the risk. It was a wild, impossible notion, to be abandoned as soon as thought of; but the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory. It seemed to him that he knew exactly what it felt like to sit in a room like this, in an arm-chair beside an open fire with your feet in the fender and a kettle on the hob; utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no sound except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock.

On one side is the familiar rhetoric aired by the senior cleric leading the Friday prayer service in Tehran, who said the West was using nuclear negotiations to wage war against Islam.

October 17, 2013.

Obama Lauds Budget Accord

"But there's not many that'd say so nowadays." He coughed. "Now, if it so happened that you wanted to buy it, that'd cost you four dollars. I can remember when a thing like that would have fetched eight pounds, and eight pounds was----well, I can't work it out, but it was a lot of money. But who cares about genuine antiques nowadays even the few that's left?"

President Barack Obama praised Democrats and some Republicans for reaching an 11th hour deal that ended a tense budget stalemate but blasted lawmakers he blamed for repeated crises in Washington that have hurt American workers.

Winston immediately paid over the four dollars and slid the coveted thing into his pocket. What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different from the present one. The soft, rainwatery glass was not like any glass that he had ever seen. The thing was doubly attractive because of its apparent uselessness, though he could guess that it must once have been intended as a paperweight. It was very heavy in his pocket, but fortunately it did not make much of a bulge. It was a queer thing, even a compromising thing, for a Party member to have in his possession. Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect. The old man had grown noticeably more cheerful after receiving the four dollars. Winston realized that he would have accepted three or even two.

"Let's be clear. There are no winners here," Mr. Obama said in remarks from the White House. "These last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy."

"There's another room upstairs that you might care to take a look at," he said. "There's not much in it. Just a few pieces. We'll do with a light if we're going upstairs."

Just hours after Congress approved a budget deal, the president called for a new approach to governing in Washington, asking elected officials to stop listening to lobbyists, bloggers and professional activists who he said profit from conflict. He urged a cooperative approach to make government work, adding that he would look for willing partners wherever he could find them.

October 16, 2013.

Senate Passes Deal to Break Impasse

"That's coral, that is," said the old man. "It must have come from the Indian Ocean. They used to kind of embed it in the glass. That wasn't made less than a hundred years ago. More, by the look of it."

WASHINGTON----The U.S. Senate on Wednesday put in motion the final steps of a bipartisan solution to the weeks-long budget drama, voting 81-18 to raise the nation's borrowing limit and fully reopen the federal government.

"It's a beautiful thing," said Winston.

The 11th-hour agreement, approved on a solid bipartisan vote, diminishes the threat of a U.S. debt default by allowing the government to continue borrowing money through Feb. 7, 2014. It also reopens the partially closed government through Jan. 15, ending a shutdown that began 16 days ago because of a bitter political impasse over spending and the 2010 health-care law.

"It is a beautiful thing," said the other appreciatively.

The plan was approved with the help of 27 Republican, who joined all 54 members of the Democratic caucus to support the bill. All the no votes were Republicans. Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), who is recovering from surgery, was the only senator who didn't vote.

October 15, 2013.

Apple Hires Burberry CEO as Retail Chief

The tiny interior of the shop was in fact uncomfortably full, but there was almost nothing in it of the slightest value. The floorspace was very restricted, because all round the walls were stacked innumerable dusty picture frames. In the window there were trays of nuts and bolts, worn out chisels, penknives with broken blades, tarnished watches that did not even pretend to be in going order, and other miscellaneous rubbish. Only on a small table in the corner was there a litter of odds and ends----lacquered snuffboxes, agate brooches, and the like----which looked as though they might include something interesting. As Winston wandered towards the table his eye was caught by a round, smooth thing that gleamed softly in the lamplight, and he picked it up.

LONDON----Apple Inc. AAPL +0.66%  tapped Angela Ahrendts, currently chief executive of British luxury retailer Burberry Group BRBY.LN -5.24%  PLC, to head up its retail efforts----recruiting a seasoned industry executive credited with turning around the Burberry brand, while filling a big gap in the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant's retail operations.

It was a heavy lump of glass, curved on one side, flat on the other, making almost a hemisphere. There was a peculiar softness, as of rainwater, in both the colour and the texture of the glass. At the heart of it, magnified by the curved surface, there was a strange, pink, convoluted object that recalled a rose or a sea anemone.

Apple said Ms. Ahrendts, 53 years old, would join Apple next year in the newly created position of senior vice president of retail and online stores. She will become a member of the executive team and report directly to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook.

"What is it?" said Winston, fascinated.

Ms. Ahrendts will oversee the "strategic direction, expansion and operation" of both Apple retail and online stores, Apple said. The appointment fills a big gap in Apple's retail operations, stemming from the 2011 departure of Ron Johnson, who vacated the role of senior vice president for retail to join JC Penney Co. JCP -1.63%  Inc. His replacement, John Browett, left the company last year.

October 14, 2013.

Uneasy Investors Sell Billions in Treasurys

"I recognized you on the pavement," he said immediately. "You're the gentleman that bought the young lady's keepsake album. That was a beautiful bit of paper, that was. Cream-laid, it used to be called. There's been no paper like that made for----oh, I dare say fifty years." He peered at Winston over the top of his spectacles. "Is there anything special I can do for you? Or did you just want to look round?"

While leaders in Washington have been chasing a deal to avert a U.S. default, investors and banks have dumped billions of dollars in government debt.

"I was passing," said Winston vaguely. "I just looked in. I don't want anything in particular."

In the past two weeks, investors have sold mountains of short-term debt issued by the government. Banks have also reduced their holdings, trimming such debt by more than 50% over that period, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Amid anxiety about near-term finances, yields on U.S. debt that comes due in one month have risen to levels higher than for similar securities that don't mature for six months. Typically, issuers pay more to borrow for longer periods of time.

"It's just as well," said the other, "because I don't suppose I could have satisfied you." He made an apologetic gesture with his soft palmed hand. "You see how it is; an empty shop, you might say. Between you and me, the antique trade's just about finished. No demand any longer, and no stock either. Furniture, china, glass it's all been broken up by degrees. And of course the metal stuff's mostly been melted down. I haven't seen a brass candlestick in years."

Some large institutions have taken steps to prevent clients from using short-term U.S. debt in certain transactions, to avoid being stuck with the debt in the event of a U.S. default. Citigroup Inc. C +0.77% has started telling some clients it would rather not take Treasurys maturing Oct. 24 or Oct. 31 as collateral, sounding out clients about whether they could instead use Treasurys that mature later, according to people familiar with the matter.

October 13, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

Top Senate Leaders Trying to Reach a Deal

At this moment his train of thought stopped abruptly. He halted and looked up. He was in a narrow street, with a few dark little shops, interspersed among dwelling houses. Immediately above his head there hung three discoloured metal balls which looked as if they had once been gilded. He seemed to know the place. Of course! He was standing outside the junk-shop where he had bought the diary.

The Senate's two top leaders worked Sunday to overcome differences to avoid a U.S. debt crisis and reopen the federal government as the U.S. Treasury was running out ways to stay under the nation's borrowing limit.

A twinge of fear went through him. It had been a sufficiently rash act to buy the book in the beginning, and he had sworn never to come near the place again. And yet the instant that he allowed his thoughts to wander, his feet had brought him back here of their own accord. It was precisely against suicidal impulses of this kind that he had hoped to guard himself by opening the diary. At the same time he noticed that although it was nearly twenty-one hours the shop was still open. With the feeling that he would be less conspicuous inside than hanging about on the pavement, he stepped through the doorway. If questioned, he could plausibly say that he was trying to buy razor blades.

As the Senate opened its unusual Sunday session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) struck an optimistic note about his talks with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.), but gave no indication that either side had budged 13 days into a partial government shutdown.

The proprietor had just lighted a hanging oil lamp which gave off an unclean but friendly smell. He was a man of perhaps sixty, frail and bowed, with a long, benevolent nose, and mild eyes distorted by thick spectacles. His hair was almost white, but his eyebrows were bushy and still black. His spectacles, his gentle, fussy movements, and the fact that he was wearing an aged jacket of black velvet, gave him a vague air of intellectuality, as though he had been some kind of literary man, or perhaps a musician. His voice was soft, as though faded, and his accent less debased than that of the majority of proles.

"I met yesterday with Sen. McConnell. We're in conversation today,'' Mr. Reid said. "I'm confident Republicans will allow the government to open and extend the ability of this country to pay its bills."

October 12, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

Reid, McConnell Meet in Bid to End Impasse

The old man looked meditatively at the darts board. He finished up his beer, more slowly than before. When he spoke it was with a tolerant philosophical air, as though the beer had mellowed him.

WASHINGTON----The Senate's top Democrat and Republican opened negotiations on Saturday aimed at avoiding a U.S. debt crisis and reopening the government, marking a new chapter and new urgency in efforts to resolve the political stalemate in Congress.

"I know what you expect me to say," he said. "You expect me to say as I'd sooner be young again. Most people'd say they'd sooner be young, if you arst' 'em. You got your 'ealth and strength when you're young. When you get to my time of life you ain't never well. I suffer something wicked from my feet, and my bladder's jest terrible. Six and seven times a night it 'as me out of bed. On the other 'and, there's great advantages in being a old man. You ain't got the same worries. No truck with women, and that's a great thing. I ain't 'ad a woman for near on thirty year, if you'd credit it. Nor wanted to, what's more."

The talks between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) were their first face-to-face negotiations since the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, and showed a changed dynamic in the Capitol. House Republicans, a dominant force in budget battles, have been sidelined after withdrawing many of their policy demands, only to see President Barack Obama reject their proposal for ending the impasse.

Winston sat back against the window sill. It was no use going on. He was about to buy some more beer when the old man suddenly got up and shuffled rapidly into the stinking urinal at the side of the room. The extra half-litre was already working on him. Winston sat for a minute or two gazing at his empty glass, and hardly noticed when his feet carried him out into the street again. Within twenty years at the most, he reflected, the huge and simple question, "Was life better before the Revolution than it is now?" would have ceased once and for all to be answerable. But in effect it was unanswerable even now, since the few scattered survivors from the ancient world were incapable of comparing one age with another. They remembered a million useless things, a quarrel with a workmate, a hunt for a lost bicycle pump, the expression on a long dead sister's face, the swirls of dust on a windy morning seventy years ago: but all the relevant facts were outside the range of their vision. They were like the ant, which can see small objects but not large ones. And when memory failed and written records were falsified----when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.

Instead, the focus has turned to the Senate, where members of both parties had started talks in recent days on a compromise proposal, before discussions were elevated to Messrs. Reid and McConnell on Saturday.

October 11, 2013.

Chemical Weapons Watchdog Wins Nobel Peace Prize

"One of 'em pushed me once," said the old man. "I recollect it as if it was yesterday. It was Boat Race night -- terribly rowdy they used to get on Boat Race night----and I bumps into a young bloke on Shaftesbury Avenue. Quite a gent, 'e was -- dress shirt, top 'at, black overcoat. 'E was kind of zig-zagging across the pavement, and I bumps into 'im accidental-like. 'E says, "Why can't you look where you're going?" 'e says. I say, "Ju think you've bought the bleeding pavement?" 'E says, "I'll twist your bloody 'ead off if you get fresh with me." I says, "You're drunk. I'll give you in charge in 'alf a minute," I says. An' if you'll believe me, 'e puts 'is 'and on my chest and gives me a shove as pretty near sent me under the wheels of a bus. Well, I was young in them days, and I was going to 'ave fetched 'im one, only----"'

OSLO----The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the group overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, as the award committee's chairman emphasized the importance of disarmament in the pursuit of world peace.

A sense of helplessness took hold of Winston. The old man's memory was nothing but a rubbish heap of details. One could question him all day without getting any real information. The party histories might still be true, after a fashion; they might even be completely true. He made a last attempt.

The award, given Friday in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, comes as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons embarks on the highest-profile task in its 16-year existence: overseeing the destruction of Syria's arsenal amid a bloody civil war and calls for a cease fire so disarmament work can be done.

"Perhaps I have not made myself clear," he said. "What I'm trying to say is this. You have been alive a very long time; you lived half your life before the Revolution. In 1925, for instance, you were already grown up. Would you say from what you can remember, that life in 1925 was better than it is now, or worse? If you could choose, would you prefer to live then or now?"

The Netherlands-based watchdog was launched in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention arms-control treaty took effect. The OPCW's mission is seen as being directly aligned with the will of Alfred Nobel, an advocate of disarmament who set aside millions to fund the Peace award and other Nobel Prizes shortly before he died in 1896.

October 10, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

Turkey's Spymaster Plots Own Course on Syria

The old man appeared to think deeply. He drank off about a quarter of his beer before answering.

On a rainy May day, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan led two of his closest advisers into the Oval Office for what both sides knew would be a difficult meeting.

"Yes," he said. "They liked you to touch your cap to 'em. It showed respect, like. I didn't agree with it, myself, but I done it often enough. Had to, as you might say."

It was the first face-to-face between Mr. Erdogan and President Barack Obama in almost a year. Mr. Obama delivered what U.S. officials describe as an unusually blunt message: The U.S. believed Turkey was letting arms and fighters flow into Syria indiscriminately and sometimes to the wrong rebels, including anti-Western jihadists.

"And was it usual---- I'm only quoting what I've read in history books----was it usual for these people and their servants to push you off the pavement into the gutter?"

Seated at Mr. Erdogan's side was the man at the center of what caused the U.S.'s unease, Hakan Fidan, Turkey's powerful spymaster and a driving force behind its efforts to supply the rebels and topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

October 9, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

Shutdown Standoff Shows Signs of a Thaw

"What I really wanted to know was this," he said. "Do you feel that you have more freedom now than you had in those days? Are you treated more like a human being? In the old days, the rich people, the people at the top----"

WASHINGTON----The partisan logjam that has paralyzed the capital showed signs of easing Wednesday, as conservative Republicans warmed to the idea of a short-term increase in the country's borrowing limit and House GOP leaders prepared for their first meeting with President Barack Obama since the government shutdown began.

"The 'Ouse of Lords," put in the old man reminiscently.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, outlined a plan Wednesday to fellow conservatives to extend the nation's borrowing limit for four to six weeks, paired with a framework for broader deficit-reduction talks, according to lawmakers briefed on the proposal. The greater the spending reduction the talks produced, the longer the next extension of the debt ceiling would be under Mr. Ryan's plan.

"The House of Lords, if you like. What I am asking is, were these people able to treat you as an inferior, simply because they were rich and you were poor? Is it a fact, for instance, that you had to call them "Sir" and take off your cap when you passed them?"

Top House Republicans prepared to head to the White House Thursday to discuss the issues underlying the standoff that has resulted in the nine-day partial government shutdown and that now threatens the country's ability to borrow.

October 8, 2013.

Obama Looks to Pressure GOP on Budget

The old man brightened again.

WASHINGTON----President Barack Obama said his administration would accept a short-term increase in the nation's borrowing limit, along with a re-opened federal government, while wide-ranging budget talks proposed by House Republicans take place.

"Lackeys!" he said. "Now there's a word I ain't 'eard since ever so long. Lackeys! That reg'lar takes me back, that does. I recollect oh, donkey's years ago----I used to sometimes go to 'Yde Park of a Sunday afternoon to 'ear the blokes making speeches. Salvation Army, Roman Catholics, Jews, Indians----all sorts there was. And there was one bloke----well, I couldn't give you 'is name, but a real powerful speaker 'e was. 'E didn't 'alf give it 'em! "Lackeys!" 'e says, "lackeys of the bourgeoisie! Flunkies of the ruling class!" Parasites----that was another of them. And 'yenas----'e definitely called 'em 'yenas. Of course 'e was referring to the Labour Party, you understand."

Speaking from the White House at an hourlong media briefing Tuesday, Mr. Obama sought to raise pressure on Congress to end a week-old partial government shutdown as the House and Senate headed down separate legislative tracks to break a stalemate on government spending and the nation's borrowing limit.

Winston had the feeling that they were talking at cross purposes.

"If they can't do it for a long time, do it for the period of time in which these negotiations are taking place," Mr. Obama said, referring to increasing the nation's $16.7 trillion debt limit.

October 7, 2013.

Software, Design Defects Cripple Health-Care Website

The old man brightened suddenly.

Six days into the launch of insurance marketplaces created by the new health-care law, the federal government acknowledged for the first time Sunday it needed to fix design and software problems that have kept customers from applying online for coverage.

"Top 'ats!" he said. "Funny you should mention 'em. The same thing come into my 'ead only yesterday, I donno why. I was jest thinking, I ain't seen a top 'at in years. Gorn right out, they 'ave. The last time I wore one was at my sister-in-law's funeral. And that was----well, I couldn't give you the date, but it must'a been fifty years ago. Of course it was only 'ired for the occasion, you understand."

The Obama administration said last week that an unanticipated surge of Web traffic caused most of the problems and was a sign of high demand by people seeking to buy coverage under the new law.

"It isn't very important about the top hats," said Winston patiently. "The point is, these capitalists----they and a few lawyers and priests and so forth who lived on them----were the lords of the earth. Everything existed for their benefit. You -- the ordinary people, the workers----were their slaves. They could do what they liked with you. They could ship you off to Canada like cattle. They could sleep with your daughters if they chose. They could order you to be flogged with something called a cat-o'-nine tails. You had to take your cap off when you passed them. Every capitalist went about with a gang of lackeys who----"

But federal officials said Sunday the online marketplace needed design changes, as well as more server capacity to improve efficiency on the federally run exchange that serves 36 states.

October 6, 2013.

Boehner Ties Deal to Talks on Debt

"It's all wars," said the old man vaguely. He took up his glass, and his shoulders straightened again. "'Ere's wishing you the very best of 'ealth!"

WASHINGTON----The government shutdown enters its second week with the two parties still bitterly divided and Republicans increasingly tying the fight to a fast-approaching deadline to avoid a default on U.S. debt.

In his lean throat the sharp-pointed Adam's apple made a surprisingly rapid up-and-down movement, and the beer vanished. Winston went to the bar and came back with two more half-liters. The old man appeared to have forgotten his prejudice against drinking a full liter.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Sunday he wouldn't bring up bills to fully reopen the government or increase the country's borrowing limit unless Democrats agree to broader talks aimed at trimming the deficit. The speaker insisted he couldn't muster enough votes to pass either one without the concessions.

"You are very much older than I am," said Winston. "You must have been a grown man before I was born. You can remember what it was like in the old days, before the Revolution. People of my age don't really know anything about those times. We can only read about them in books, and what it says in the books may not be true. I should like your opinion on that. The history books say that life before the Revolution was completely different from what it is now. There was the most terrible oppression, injustice, poverty worse than anything we can imagine. Here in London, the great mass of the people never had enough to eat from birth to death. Half of them hadn't even boots on their feet. They worked twelve hours a day, they left school at nine, they slept ten in a room. And at the same time there were a very few people, only a few thousands----the capitalists, they were called----who were rich and powerful. They owned everything that there was to own. They lived in great gorgeous houses with thirty servants, they rode about in motor-cars and four-horse carriages, they drank champagne, they wore top hats----"

"The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit, and the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us," Mr. Boehner told ABC in his first interview since the shutdown began. "I'm not going to raise the debt limit without a serious conversation about dealing with problems that are driving the debt up."

October 5, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

Bargain Hydropower Plants Have Small Investors Chasing Waterfalls

The old man's pale blue eyes moved from the darts board to the bar, and from the bar to the door of the Gents, as though it were in the barroom that he expected the changes to have occurred.

PACKWOOD, Wash.----Few energy sources are as pristine as the icy water tumbling into Burton Creek here, which falls 550 feet from a ridge that offers a breathtaking view of nearby Mount Rainier National Park.

"The beer was better," he said finally. "And cheaper! When I was a young man, mild beer----wallop we used to call it----was fourpence a pint. That was before the war, of course."

Investor Sam Perry is making a bet that Burton Creek will provide a breathtaking revenue stream, too.


"Which war was that?" said Winston.

The Colorado investor acquired a derelict power plant when he bought the property last December for $150,000. Starting with this month's rains, and through next spring's runoff, he calculates Burton Creek will send 5,000 gallons of water per minute into a turbine at the base of the falls. That will generate kilowatts that Mr. Perry plans to sell for as much as $12,000 per month for as long as the river runs.

October 4, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

GOP Begins Search for Broad Deal on Budget

The barman swished two half-litres of dark-brown beer into thick glasses which he had rinsed in a bucket under the counter. Beer was the only drink you could get in prole pubs. The proles were supposed not to drink gin, though in practice they could get hold of it easily enough. The game of darts was in full swing again, and the knot of men at the bar had begun talking about lottery tickets. Winston's presence was forgotten for a moment. There was a deal table under the window where he and the old man could talk without fear of being overheard. It was horribly dangerous, but at any rate there was no telescreen in the room, a point he had made sure of as soon as he came in.

WASHINGTON----Senior Republicans in Congress, frustrated over their inability to strike a deal to reopen the government, began shifting from their drive to undercut the 2010 health-care law, which has been the central element of the dispute, toward a broader budget deal.

"E could 'a drawed me off a pint," grumbled the old man as he settled down behind a glass. "A 'alf litre ain't enough. It don't satisfy. And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price."

The new focus comes as Congress is beginning to confront the need to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which the Treasury said must be done this month in order to pay the nation's obligations. With federal agencies largely shuttered for a third day, some GOP lawmakers were exploring whether the political stalemate over funding the government could best be resolved by crafting a broader fiscal package that would include an increase in the debt ceiling.

"You must have seen great changes since you were a young man," said Winston tentatively.

House Speaker John Boehner, (R., Ohio), on Thursday signaled he would follow that course. He told a group of his closest allies over lunch that he doesn't want to broker a deal to fund federal agencies and reopen the government only to face an immediate negotiation over raising the debt ceiling, participants said. The speaker expressed optimism at the lunch that he might be able to combine the two issues to embark on broader budget negotiations with the White House and Senate Democrats.

October 3, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

One Big Doubt Hanging Over Twitter's IPO: Fake Accounts

There was a shout of laughter, and the uneasiness caused by Winston's entry seemed to disappear. The old man's whitestubbled face had flushed pink. He turned away, muttering to himself, and bumped into Winston. Winston caught him gently by the arm.

At 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, the Twitter account for Mashable----one of the earliest movers into the now endless world of social media news sites----sent out its 60th tweet for the day.

"May I offer you a drink?" he said.

The tweet itself wasn't particularly interesting, But what happened next was a small window into one of the biggest challenges Twitter will face as it seeks to convince investors that its more than 215 million users are one of the web's most lucrative----and undeveloped----advertising audiences.

"You're a gent," said the other, straightening his shoulders again. He appeared not to have noticed Winston's blue overalls. "Pint!" he added aggressively to the barman. "Pint of wallop."

Within minutes, hundreds of other Twitter accounts reposted the Mashable tweet word for word----more than 400 of them within the first 15 minutes. Scrolling through the never-ending list of those copycats is like a deep dive into the Twitter netherworld, one that regular users would seldom find themselves in.

October 2, 2013.

Letta Wins Confidence Vote After Berlusconi Support

"Never heard of 'em," said the barman shortly. "Litre and half litre----that's all we serve. There's the glasses on the shelf in front of you."

ROME----The government of Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta won a Senate confidence vote Wednesday afternoon, after former leader Silvio Berlusconi, in a bombshell development, said he would support the coalition government.

"I likes a pint," persisted the old man. "You could 'a drawed me off a pint easy enough. We didn't 'ave these bleeding litres when I was a young man."

Mr. Letta's coalition government won 235 of 305 votes cast.

"When you were a young man we were all living in the treetops," said the barman, with a glance at the other customers.

In a surprise development, Mr. Berlusconi earlier told the Italian Senate that he would support the vote, capping days of political chaos sparked on Saturday when he ordered five ministers representing his People of Freedom party in the Letta government to resign. He then demanded that Italian President Giorgio Napolitano dissolve parliament and send Italy back to elections, just seven months after the last vote.

October 1, 2013.

In Government Shutdown, Few Parallels With Most Recent One

"I arst you civil enough, didn't I?" said the old man, straightening his shoulders pugnaciously. "You telling me you ain't got a pint mug in the 'ole bleeding boozer?"

The country's most recent government shutdown, 17 years ago, offers at best a rudimentary road map for what may happen in the current standoff.

"And what in hell's name is a pint?" said the barman, leaning forward with the tips of his fingers on the counter.

The pivotal moment ending the 1995-96 impasse----which encompassed two separate shutdowns----came in a way that jarred many at the time, and would be even more surprising now. A centrist Republican, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, broke ranks with the GOP House and declared, on the Senate floor, "Enough is enough."

"Ark at 'im! Calls 'isself a barman and don't know what a pint is! Why, a pint's the 'alf of a quart, and there's four quarts to the gallon. 'Ave to teach you the A, B, C next."

That intervention, 18 days into the second partial showdown, paved the way for a stopgap measure that reopened government and gave Republicans and President Bill Clinton time to hash out a more lasting deal.