Wednesday, April 30, 2014

April 30, 2014.

Report: Two-Thirds of Insurance Exchange Enrollees Paid Premiums

"You are afraid," said O’Brien, watching his face, "that in another moment something is going to break. Your especial fear is that it will be your backbone. You have a vivid mental picture of the vertebrae snapping apart and the spinal fluid dripping out of them. That is what you are thinking, is it not, Winston?"

Around two-thirds of people who had picked insurance plans through HealthCare.gov paid their first month's premium by April 15, according to a report released Wednesday by Republican lawmakers using data from insurers.

Winston did not answer. O’Brien drew back the lever on the dial. The wave of pain receded almost as quickly as it had come.

The GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee asked for payment data from 160 health plans selling policies in the Affordable Care Act's federal insurance exchange. The committee's leaders said that responses showed that across the 36 states served by the federal exchange, 67% of people who had finished the sign-up process had made the premium payment to insurers and had been enrolled in coverage as of April 15.

"That was forty," said O’Brien. "You can see that the numbers on this dial run up to a hundred. Will you please remember, throughout our conversation, that I have it in my power to inflict pain on you at any moment and to whatever degree I choose? If you tell me any lies, or attempt to prevaricate in any way, or even fall below your usual level of intelligence, you will cry out with pain, instantly. Do you understand that?"

The proportion is lower than the rates some large individual insurers have released, though some of the time frames for those estimates vary.

Monday, April 28, 2014

April 29, 2014.

Kerry Sees Ukraine Crisis as Uniquely Putin's

"I told you," said O’Brien, "that if we met again it would be here."

Secretary of State John Kerry has been thinking about, talking through and wrestling with the Ukraine crisis for weeks, but he still grasps for words to describe the motivations of the man at its center: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Yes," said Winston.

"You almost feel that he's creating his own reality, and his own sort of world, divorced from a lot of what's real on the ground for all those people, including people in his own country," Mr. Kerry said in an interview late Monday.

Without any warning except a slight movement of O’Brien’s hand, a wave of pain flooded his body. It was a frightening pain, because he could not see what was happening, and he had the feeling that some mortal injury was being done to him. He did not know whether the thing was really happening, or whether the effect was electrically produced; but his body was being wrenched out of shape, the joints were being slowly torn apart. Although the pain had brought the sweat out on his forehead, the worst of all was the fear that his backbone was about to snap. He set his teeth and breathed hard through his nose, trying to keep silent as long as possible.

Mr. Kerry spoke just hours after President Barack Obama's administration announced another round of economic sanctions on Russian individuals and companies, and just hours before Europeans were to announce full details of their own new sanctions, all taken in hopes of somehow stopping Mr. Putin's intimidation of neighboring Ukraine. But the secretary didn't sound as if he thinks his work on the sanctions front is done with this latest round, the fourth so far.

April 28, 2014.


Fledgling Iraqi Military Is Outmatched on Battlefield

He was rolling down a mighty corridor, a kilometre wide, full of glorious, golden light, roaring with laughter and shouting out confessions at the top of his voice. He was confessing everything, even the things he had succeeded in holding back under the torture. He was relating the entire history of his life to an audience who knew it already. With him were the guards, the other questioners, the men in white coats, O’Brien, Julia, Mr Charrington, all rolling down the corridor together and shouting with laughter. Some dreadful thing which had lain embedded in the future had somehow been skipped over and had not happened. Everything was all right, there was no more pain, the last detail of his life was laid bare, understood, forgiven.

QARA TEPE, Iraq----Even as an al Qaeda-linked militant group celebrated a major victory in Western Iraq last month, militants from the same jihadist group launched another operation clear across the country.

He was starting up from the plank bed in the half-certainty that he had heard O’Brien’s voice. All through his interrogation, although he had never seen him, he had had the feeling that O’Brien was at his elbow, just out of sight. It was O’Brien who was directing everything. It was he who set the guards on to Winston and who prevented them from killing him. It was he who decided when Winston should scream with pain, when he should have a respite, when he should be fed, when he should sleep, when the drugs should be pumped into his arm. It was he who asked the questions and suggested the answers. He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend. And once----Winston could not remember whether it was in drugged sleep, or in normal sleep, or even in a moment of wakefulness----a voice murmured in his ear: "Don’t worry, Winston; you are in my keeping. For seven years I have watched over you. Now the turning point has come. I shall save you, I shall make you perfect." He was not sure whether it was O’Brien’s voice; but it was the same voice that had said to him, ‘We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness,’ in that other dream, seven years ago.

In coordinated predawn attacks, gunmen blew up two bridges in a village outside the eastern town of Qara Tepe. They detonated a fuel tanker at a police base close to nearby Injana, shot 12 soldiers and incinerated their bodies. By afternoon, militants had attacked four other police and army checkpoints.

He did not remember any ending to his interrogation. There was a period of blackness and then the cell, or room, in which he now was had gradually materialized round him. He was almost flat on his back, and unable to move. His body was held down at every essential point. Even the back of his head was gripped in some manner. O’Brien was looking down at him gravely and rather sadly. His face, seen from below, looked coarse and worn, with pouches under the eyes and tired lines from nose to chin. He was older than Winston had thought him; he was perhaps forty-eight or fifty. Under his hand there was a dial with a lever on top and figures running round the face.

Instead of bolstering their ranks, some police and military checkpoints simply packed up and left. Lacking protection, hundreds of villagers fled their homes for larger towns.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

April 27, 2014.

Pope Francis Declares Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII as Saints

He was strapped into a chair surrounded by dials, under dazzling lights. A man in a white coat was reading the dials. There was a tramp of heavy boots outside. The door clanged open. The waxed-faced officer marched in, followed by two guards.

VATICAN CITY----Pope Francis on Sunday proclaimed as saints Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, considered two of the great popes of the 20th century, in an elaborate ceremony concelebrated by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims thronged St. Peter's Square.

"Room 101," said the officer.

The history-making rite saw two living popes come together to commemorate two of their predecessors: Pope John XXIII, an Italian born of modest means who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and convened the reforming Second Vatican Council, and Pope John Paul II, a Pole whose papacy was the third-longest in the Church history, from 1978 to 2005, and who became known as a globe-trotting evangelizer.

The man in the white coat did not turn round. He did not look at Winston either; he was looking only at the dials.

Pope Francis, who came to power last year when Pope Benedict became the first pope to resign in 600 years, proclaimed the pair saints, saying, "We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be saints and we enroll them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole church." Applause erupted when Pope Francis pronounced the pair saints.


Saturday, April 26, 2014

April 26, 2014.

The World's Resources Aren't Running Out

he beatings grew less frequent, and became mainly a threat, a horror to which he could be sent back at any moment when his answers were unsatisfactory. His questioners now were not ruffians in black uniforms but Party intellectuals, little rotund men with quick movements and flashing spectacles, who worked on him in relays over periods which lasted----he thought, he could not be sure----ten or twelve hours at a stretch. These other questioners saw to it that he was in constant slight pain, but it was not chiefly pain that they relied on. They slapped his face, wrung his ears, pulled his hair, made him stand on one leg, refused him leave to urinate, shone glaring lights in his face until his eyes ran with water; but the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning. Their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on, hour after hour, tripping him up, laying traps for him, twisting everything that he said, convicting him at every step of lies and self-contradiction until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue. Sometimes he would weep half a dozen times in a single session. Most of the time they screamed abuse at him and threatened at every hesitation to deliver him over to the guards again; but sometimes they would suddenly change their tune, call him comrade, appeal to him in the name of Ingsoc and Big Brother, and ask him sorrowfully whether even now he had not enough loyalty to the Party left to make him wish to undo the evil he had done. When his nerves were in rags after hours of questioning, even this appeal could reduce him to snivelling tears. In the end the nagging voices broke him down more completely than the boots and fists of the guards. He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed, whatever was demanded of him. His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew. He confessed to the assassination of eminent Party members, the distribution of seditious pamphlets, embezzlement of public funds, sale of military secrets, sabotage of every kind. He confessed that he had been a spy in the pay of the Eastasian government as far back as 1968. He confessed that he was a religious believer, an admirer of capitalism, and a sexual pervert. He confessed that he had murdered his wife, although he knew, and his questioners must have known, that his wife was still alive. He confessed that for years he had been in personal touch with Goldstein and had been a member of an underground organization which had included almost every human being he had ever known. It was easier to confess everything and implicate everybody. Besides, in a sense it was all true. It was true that he had been the enemy of the Party, and in the eyes of the Party there was no distinction between the thought and the deed.

How many times have you heard that we humans are "using up" the world's resources, "running out" of oil, "reaching the limits" of the atmosphere's capacity to cope with pollution or "approaching the carrying capacity" of the land's ability to support a greater population? The assumption behind all such statements is that there is a fixed amount of stuff----metals, oil, clean air, land----and that we risk exhausting it through our consumption.

There were also memories of another kind. They stood out in his mind disconnectedly, like pictures with blackness all round them.

"We are using 50% more resources than the Earth can sustainably produce, and unless we change course, that number will grow fast----by 2030, even two planets will not be enough," says Jim Leape, director general of the World Wide Fund for Nature International (formerly the World Wildlife Fund).

He was in a cell which might have been either dark or light, because he could see nothing except a pair of eyes. Near at hand some kind of instrument was ticking slowly and regularly. The eyes grew larger and more luminous. Suddenly he floated out of his seat, dived into the eyes, and was swallowed up.

But here's a peculiar feature of human history: We burst through such limits again and again. After all, as a Saudi oil minister once said, the Stone Age didn't end for lack of stone. Ecologists call this "niche construction"----that people (and indeed some other animals) can create new opportunities for themselves by making their habitats more productive in some way. Agriculture is the classic example of niche construction: We stopped relying on nature's bounty and substituted an artificial and much larger bounty.

Friday, April 25, 2014

April 25, 2014.

The Colosseum's Badly Needed Bath

He was lying on something that felt like a camp bed, except that it was higher off the ground and that he was fixed down in some way so that he could not move. Light that seemed stronger than usual was falling on his face. O’Brien was standing at his side, looking down at him intently. At the other side of him stood a man in a white coat, holding a hypodermic syringe.

Rome's Colosseum will soon look a little more like it did in the bad old days two millennia ago, when it first hosted gladiator fights, mock naval battles and public executions carried out by wild animals.

Even after his eyes were open he took in his surroundings only gradually. He had the impression of swimming up into this room from some quite different world, a sort of underwater world far beneath it. How long he had been down there he did not know. Since the moment when they arrested him he had not seen darkness or daylight. Besides, his memories were not continuous. There had been times when consciousness, even the sort of consciousness that one has in sleep, had stopped dead and started again after a blank interval. But whether the intervals were of days or weeks or only seconds, there was no way of knowing.

The $35 million project----the first full cleaning in the Colosseum's history----aims to return it to its former splendor, while also strengthening the overall structure. Earthquakes, the pillaging of pieces of its outer frame, heavy car traffic and Rome's nearby subway have damaged key parts. The scrubdown should also reveal secrets of how one of the world's most famous, and often neglected, monuments remained standing for 20 centuries.

With that first blow on the elbow the nightmare had started. Later he was to realize that all that then happened was merely a preliminary, a routine interrogation to which nearly all prisoners were subjected. There was a long range of crimes — espionage, sabotage, and the like — to which everyone had to confess as a matter of course. The confession was a formality, though the torture was real. How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued, he could not remember. Always there were five or six men in black uniforms at him simultaneously. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, sometimes it was boots. There were times when he rolled about the floor, as shameless as an animal, writhing his body this way and that in an endless, hopeless effort to dodge the kicks, and simply inviting more and yet more kicks, in his ribs, in his belly, on his elbows, on his shins, in his groin, in his testicles, on the bone at the base of his spine. There were times when it went on and on until the cruel, wicked, unforgivable thing seemed to him not that the guards continued to beat him but that he could not force himself into losing consciousness. There were times when his nerve so forsook him that he began shouting for mercy even before the beating began, when the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow was enough to make him pour forth a confession of real and imaginary crimes. There were other times when he started out with the resolve of confessing nothing, when every word had to be forced out of him between gasps of pain, and there were times when he feebly tried to compromise, when he said to himself: ‘I will confess, but not yet. I must hold out till the pain becomes unbearable. Three more kicks, two more kicks, and then I will tell them what they want.’ Sometimes he was beaten till he could hardly stand, then flung like a sack of potatoes on to the stone floor of a cell, left to recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and beaten again. There were also longer periods of recovery. He remembered them dimly, because they were spent chiefly in sleep or stupor. He remembered a cell with a plank bed, a sort of shelf sticking out from the wall, and a tin wash-basin, and meals of hot soup and bread and sometimes coffee. He remembered a surly barber arriving to scrape his chin and crop his hair, and businesslike, unsympathetic men in white coats feeling his pulse, tapping his reflexes, turning up his eyelids, running harsh fingers over him in search for broken bones, and shooting needles into his arm to make him sleep.

Some surprises have already emerged during the project's first six months. The restorers expect to uncover the first five arcades this summer. Visitors will find that the monument's Travertine limestone is once again a vibrant dark ivory-----what Rossella Rea, the Colosseum's director, calls "yellow ivory." Pollution had turned the stone a variety of colours from dirty cream to jet black.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

April 24, 2014.

Tech Companies Agree to Settle Wage Suit

"You know this, Winston," said O’Brien. "Don’t deceive yourself. You did know it----you have always known it."

Four big Silicon Valley technology companies agreed to settle a lawsuit in which 64,000 employees accused them of conspiring not to recruit each other's workers, depressing wages.

Yes, he saw now, he had always known it. But there was no time to think of that. All he had eyes for was the truncheon in the guard’s hand. It might fall anywhere; on the crown, on the tip of the ear, on the upper arm, on the elbow----

Terms of the settlement involving Apple Inc., AAPL +8.20%  Google Inc., Intel Corp. INTC 0.00%  and Adobe Systems Inc. ADBE -1.82%  weren't immediately released.

The elbow! He had slumped to his knees, almost paralysed, clasping the stricken elbow with his other hand. Everything had exploded into yellow light. Inconceivable, inconceivable that one blow could cause such pain! The light cleared and he could see the other two looking down at him. The guard was laughing at his contortions. One question at any rate was answered. Never, for any reason on earth, could you wish for an increase of pain. Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes, no heroes, he thought over and over as he writhed on the floor, clutching uselessly at his disabled left arm.

The settlement was confirmed by Kelly M. Dermody, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP. "This is an excellent resolution of the case that will benefit class members," Ms. Dermody said in a statement.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

April 23, 2014.

Car-Industry Insiders Ready to Retake Steering Wheel

Winston started to his feet. The shock of the sight had driven all caution out of him. For the first time in many years he forgot the presence of the telescreen.

Detroit car makers were rescued last decade by a group of outsiders with scant auto industry experience. Now the insiders are retaking the wheel.

"They’ve got you too!" he cried.

Later this year, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally will pass the keys to Mark Fields, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. auto maker and its affiliates. General Motors Co. GM +0.74%  this year named Mary Barra, who started at the company as a college intern, to replace private-equity executive Daniel Akerson.

"They got me a long time ago," said O’Brien with a mild, almost regretful irony. He stepped aside. From behind him there emerged a broad-chested guard with a long black truncheon in his hand.

Within a few years, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles F.MI -0.83%  NV CEO Sergio Marchionne, the Italian-Canadian accountant and lawyer who took over Fiat in 2004, is expected to step down and name a replacement most likely from within its existing ranks.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

April 22, 2014.

Inside Nike's Struggle to Balance Cost and Worker Safety in Bangladesh

The man was led out, walking unsteadily, with head sunken, nursing his crushed hand, all the fight had gone out of him.

DHAKA, Bangladesh----Hannah Jones, Nike Inc. NKE -0.18%'s head of sustainable business, had been lecturing colleagues for years about the dangers of manufacturing in Bangladesh. Yes, the country featured some of the cheapest factories in the world, she argued, but the athletic-gear maker could ill afford another public pasting over its labor practices.

A long time passed. If it had been midnight when the skull-faced man was taken away, it was morning: if morning, it was afternoon. Winston was alone, and had been alone for hours. The pain of sitting on the narrow bench was such that often he got up and walked about, unreproved by the telescreen. The piece of bread still lay where the chinless man had dropped it. At the beginning it needed a hard effort not to look at it, but presently hunger gave way to thirst. His mouth was sticky and evil-tasting. The humming sound and the unvarying white light induced a sort of faintness, an empty feeling inside his head. He would get up because the ache in his bones was no longer bearable, and then would sit down again almost at once because he was too dizzy to make sure of staying on his feet. Whenever his physical sensations were a little under control the terror returned. Sometimes with a fading hope he thought of O’Brien and the razor blade. It was thinkable that the razor blade might arrive concealed in his food, if he were ever fed. More dimly he thought of Julia. Somewhere or other she was suffering perhaps far worse than he. She might be screaming with pain at this moment. He thought: ‘If I could save Julia by doubling my own pain, would I do it? Yes, I would.’ But that was merely an intellectual decision, taken because he knew that he ought to take it. He did not feel it. In this place you could not feel anything, except pain and foreknowledge of pain. Besides, was it possible, when you were actually suffering it, to wish for any reason that your own pain should increase? But that question was not answerable yet.

Her counterparts in the production division, charged with squeezing costs, countered that they should all visit the place together and then decide. So one day last year, five of them slogged up a dirty staircase to the top floors of an eight-story building here that housed one of Nike's suppliers, Lyric Industries.

The boots were approaching again. The door opened. O’Brien came in.

Rolls of fabric were strewn across the production floor and some windows were bolted shut, Ms. Jones recalls, clear-cut hazards in the event of a fire. The building was filled with other businesses, and there was no telling how safe those were. After spending the morning speaking with Lyric managers, workers and people in the neighborhood, they flew home and decided to cut ties with the company.

Monday, April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014.

U.S.-Russia Relations Come Full Circle After Ukraine

"That’s the one you ought to be taking, not me!" he shouted. "You didn’t hear what he was saying after they bashed his face. Give me a chance and I’ll tell you every word of it. HE’S the one that’s against the Party, not me." The guards stepped forward. The man’s voice rose to a shriek. "You didn’t hear him!" he repeated. "Something went wrong with the telescreen. HE’S the one you want. Take him, not me!"

When then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was seeking to return as Russia's president in December 2011, he watched as Moscow's streets filled with the biggest anti-Kremlin rallies in years.

The two sturdy guards had stooped to take him by the arms. But just at this moment he flung himself across the floor of the cell and grabbed one of the iron legs that supported the bench. He had set up a wordless howling, like an animal. The guards took hold of him to wrench him loose, but he clung on with astonishing strength. For perhaps twenty seconds they were hauling at him. The prisoners sat quiet, their hands crossed on their knees, looking straight in front of them. The howling stopped; the man had no breath left for anything except hanging on. Then there was a different kind of cry. A kick from a guard’s boot had broken the fingers of one of his hands. They dragged him to his feet.

Mr. Putin played the anti-American card. He charged on state television that the U.S. treated its allies like "vassals," a line he would repeat as he reclaimed the presidency from Dmitry Medvedev, with widespread support.

"Room 101," said the officer.

The State Department tried to brush aside Mr. Putin's rhetoric, even suggesting the word "vassals" might have been mistranslated.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

April 20, 2014.

The Upside of 'Marrying Down'

"Comrade! Officer!" he cried. "You don’t have to take me to that place! Haven’t I told you everything already? What else is it you want to know? There’s nothing I wouldn’t confess, nothing! Just tell me what it is and I’ll confess straight off. Write it down and I’ll sign it----anything! Not room 101!"

Today, a successful single woman who falls for a man making less money than she does or not sharing her career ambition may face not-so-subtle disapproval from friends and family. One patient of mine reported being told, "I'm surprised you haven't found someone who is more your equal." Another felt insulted when a trusted friend asked, "Are you sure you wouldn't be happier with a man who is making more money than you?"

"Room 101," said the officer.

These women were in love with solid, supportive guys who shared their values----men who weren't driven by money. They dreaded the concerned whispers from friends or family who persisted in believing that they were "marrying down."

The man looked frantically round at the other prisoners, as though with some idea that he could put another victim in his own place. His eyes settled on the smashed face of the chinless man. He flung out a lean arm.

As a couples therapist, the notion of marrying down strikes me as impossibly antiquated. It's right out of the "Downton Abbey" era, when suitable marriages were entirely a matter of matching people according to social class and fortune----hence the panic when Lord Grantham's youngest daughter marries the family's Irish chauffeur.


Saturday, April 19, 2014

April 19, 2014.

Fusion Cuisine: Lincoln MKZ Isn't a Full Meal

The door opened. With a small gesture the officer indicated the skull-faced man.

YOU THINK IT'S EASY. You just wave your little magic wand and poof, Lincoln—Ford's empty storefront of a luxury division where once presided American car-building glory—is fixed. Oh no.

"Room 101," he said.

This week it became known that in December Lincoln, with little comment, relieved its chief designer, Max Wolff, and replaced him with David Woodhouse, a veteran Ford campaigner formerly of Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Land Rover. Mr. Wolff will stay on as Lincoln's head of exterior design, though I resent any reference to these men as deck chairs.

There was a gasp and a flurry at Winston’s side. The man had actually flung himself on his knees on the floor, with his hand clasped together.

Having no insight into the workings of Dearborn's design department, and having never met the man, I will only note the contrast between Mr. Wolff's demotion and the occasion of his promotion in 2010, when he was given rock-star coverage as the man who would revitalize the look, the brand, the lure of Lincoln. Fate apparently has answered a resounding no.

Friday, April 18, 2014

April 18, 2014.

Why You Shouldn't Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

The chinless man obeyed. His large pouchy cheeks were quivering uncontrollably. The door clanged open. As the young officer entered and stepped aside, there emerged from behind him a short stumpy guard with enormous arms and shoulders. He took his stand opposite the chinless man, and then, at a signal from the officer, let free a frightful blow, with all the weight of his body behind it, full in the chinless man’s mouth. The force of it seemed almost to knock him clear of the floor. His body was flung across the cell and fetched up against the base of the lavatory seat. For a moment he lay as though stunned, with dark blood oozing from his mouth and nose. A very faint whimpering or squeaking, which seemed unconscious, came out of him. Then he rolled over and raised himself unsteadily on hands and knees. Amid a stream of blood and saliva, the two halves of a dental plate fell out of his mouth.

Talk about dirty money: Scientists are discovering a surprising number of microbes living on cash.

The prisoners sat very still, their hands crossed on their knees. The chinless man climbed back into his place. Down one side of his face the flesh was darkening. His mouth had swollen into a shapeless cherry-coloured mass with a black hole in the middle of it.

In the first comprehensive study of the DNA on dollar bills, researchers at New York University's Dirty Money Project found that currency is a medium of exchange for hundreds of different kinds of bacteria as bank notes pass from hand to hand.

From time to time a little blood dripped on to the breast of his overalls. His grey eyes still flitted from face to face, more guiltily than ever, as though he were trying to discover how much the others despised him for his humiliation.

By analyzing genetic material on $1 bills, the NYU researchers identified 3,000 types of bacteria in all----many times more than in previous studies that examined samples under a microscope. Even so, they could identify only about 20% of the non-human DNA they found because so many microorganisms haven't yet been cataloged in genetic data banks.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

April 17, 2014.

Scientists Make First Embryo Clones From Adults

"Bumstead!" roared the voice. "2713 Bumstead J.! Let fall that piece of bread!"

Scientists for the first time have cloned cells from two adults to create early-stage embryos, and then derived tissue from those embryos that perfectly matched the DNA of the donors.

The chinless man dropped the piece of bread on the floor.

The experiment represents another advance in the quest to make tissue in the laboratory that could treat a range of maladies, from heart attacks to Alzheimer's. The study, involving a 35-year-old man and one age 75, was published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

"Remain standing where you are," said the voice. "Face the door. Make no movement."

The creation of the first early-stage human clones, using infant and fetal cells rather than those from adults, was reported last year. The new experiment, with a few tweaks, confirms that striking and controversial breakthrough and also shows the technique works on mature cells.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

April 16, 2014.

Housing Market Slow to Hit Its Spring Stride

The door opened, and another prisoner was brought in whose appearance sent a momentary chill through Winston. He was a commonplace, mean-looking man who might have been an engineer or technician of some kind. But what was startling was the emaciation of his face. It was like a skull. Because of its thinness the mouth and eyes looked disproportionately large, and the eyes seemed filled with a murderous, unappeasable hatred of somebody or something.

A flurry of recent housing data suggests that the market's spring selling season is getting off to a slow start, a worrisome sign after a winter of expectations that warmer weather would rekindle growth.

The man sat down on the bench at a little distance from Winston. Winston did not look at him again, but the tormented, skull-like face was as vivid in his mind as though it had been straight in front of his eyes. Suddenly he realized what was the matter. The man was dying of starvation. The same thought seemed to occur almost simultaneously to everyone in the cell. There was a very faint stirring all the way round the bench. The eyes of the chinless man kept flitting towards the skull-faced man, then turning guiltily away, then being dragged back by an irresistible attraction. Presently he began to fidget on his seat. At last he stood up, waddled clumsily across the cell, dug down into the pocket of his overalls, and, with an abashed air, held out a grimy piece of bread to the skull-faced man.

Reports from local real-estate agent groups in some of the markets that were the first to rebound, including Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego, show year-over-year declines in March home sales. February data for pending home sales nationally----a barometer of early-spring activity----show a decline of 11% from a year ago.

There was a furious, deafening roar from the telescreen. The chinless man jumped in his tracks. The skull-faced man had quickly thrust his hands behind his back, as though demonstrating to all the world that he refused the gift.

And in markets around the country, fewer people are showing up at open houses. An index of home-buyer traffic in 40 U.S. markets compiled by Credit Suisse was down a little more than a third from March of last year. In some parts of the country, cold weather has put a damper on traffic.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

April 15, 2014.

GE Rethinks the 20-Year CEO

"Smith!" yelled the voice from the telescreen. "6079 Smith W.! Uncover your face. No faces covered in the cells."

Jeff Immelt may give up leadership of General Electric Co. GE +1.10%  sooner than his expected 20-year tenure, as he and fellow directors re-evaluate the right term for its chief executive, people familiar with GE's thinking said.

Winston uncovered his face. Parsons used the lavatory, loudly and abundantly. It then turned out that the plug was defective and the cell stank abominably for hours afterwards.

The CEO, who has run the industrial conglomerate for nearly 13 years, has led several board discussions about shortening the expected tenure for GE's next chief executive to between 10 and 15 years, the people said.

Parsons was removed. More prisoners came and went, mysteriously. One, a woman, was consigned to "Room 101," and, Winston noticed, seemed to shrivel and turn a different colour when she heard the words. A time came when, if it had been morning when he was brought here, it would be afternoon; or if it had been afternoon, then it would be midnight. There were six prisoners in the cell, men and women. All sat very still. Opposite Winston there sat a man with a chinless, toothy face exactly like that of some large, harmless rodent. His fat, mottled cheeks were so pouched at the bottom that it was difficult not to believe that he had little stores of food tucked away there. His pale grey eyes flitted timorously from face to face and turned quickly away again when he caught anyone’s eye.

And while Mr. Immelt maintains strong support on the board, directors increasingly expect that he will step down before reaching the two-decade mark in 2021, the people said.

Monday, April 14, 2014

April 14, 2014.

Senate Republicans Seek Truce With Tea Party

He made a few more jerky movements up and down, several times, casting a longing glance at the lavatory pan. Then he suddenly ripped down his shorts.

A lot of stars seem to be aligning for Republicans in this year's midterm elections, and here's a crucial one that hasn't gotten sufficient attention: Party leaders have used quiet diplomacy to reduce the chances the party's tea-party wing will crown primary candidates who can be easily portrayed as odd or extremist.

"Excuse me, old man," he said. "I can’t help it. It’s the waiting."

This is no small thing in the pursuit of this year's grand prize, which is winning control of the Senate.

He plumped his large posterior into the lavatory pan. Winston covered his face with his hands.

Of course, that prize also seemed within Republicans' reach in the last two elections, in 2010 and 2012, and one big reason they failed to seize it was that tea-party operatives helped nominate candidates who proved to be general-election disasters.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

April 13, 2014.

U.N. Climate Change Report Says Worst Scenarios Can Still Be Avoided

‘“Down with Big Brother!” Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, I’m glad they got me before it went any further. Do you know what I’m going to say to them when I go up before the tribunal? “Thank you,” I’m going to say, “thank you for saving me before it was too late.”’

A United Nations report suggests that governments can still avert the more serious consequences of climate change provided they act quickly and aggressively to cut the accelerating pace of greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Who denounced you?" said Winston.

According to the report, global greenhouse-gas emissions have risen more rapidly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades. The global economic crisis of 2007 and 2008 temporarily reduced emissions but didn't change the trend, the report says.

"It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. "She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don’t bear her any grudge for it. In fact I’m proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway."

The report is of major interest to policy makers because it focuses on various scenarios for mitigating global warming. Presented on Sunday in Berlin, it is the third installment in a comprehensive four-part report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

April 12, 2014.

How Morcellators Simplified the Hysterectomy but Posed a Hidden Cancer Risk

"Are you guilty?" said Winston.

The women's health-care community got a shock to the system in December, when leading U.S. hospitals abruptly began acknowledging that a commonly used surgical tool risked killing some women.

"Of course I’m guilty!" cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. "You don’t think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?" His frog-like face grew calmer, and even took on a slightly sanctimonious expression. "Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,’ he said sententiously. ‘It’s insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it. Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that’s a fact. There I was, working away, trying to do my bit----never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep. Do you know what they heard me saying?"

The tool, used since the 1990s in many hysterectomies, can stir up aggressive cancers, they said. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Temple University Hospital and others quickly altered their procedures for the tool's use. The Food and Drug Administration has begun a probe of its risks.

He sank his voice, like someone who is obliged for medical reasons to utter an obscenity.

Yet there were hints of the tool's potentially fatal flaw going back to its early years. Doctors use the device, called a power morcellator, through tiny incisions to cut into, or "morcellate," the uterus and remove it. The procedure is popular because it allows speedier recovery than open surgery and is easier to perform than many alternatives.

Friday, April 11, 2014

April 11, 2014.

Tea-Party Favorite Rand Paul Aims to Woo GOP Stalwarts for 2016 Bid

Parsons gave Winston a glance in which there was neither interest nor surprise, but only misery. He began walking jerkily up and down, evidently unable to keep still. Each time he straightened his pudgy knees it was apparent that they were trembling. His eyes had a wide-open, staring look, as though he could not prevent himself from gazing at something in the middle distance.

When tea-party activists rallied last weekend in Kentucky, their home-state hero, Sen. Rand Paul, wasn't invited. The event featured the tea-party candidate running for the Senate, while Mr. Paul is backing the incumbent, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

"What are you in for?" said Winston.

But leaders of FreedomWorks, the conservative group that organized the rally, still view Mr. Paul as an ally. In February, he joined their lawsuit over government phone surveillance. "That makes clear his willingness to shake up the political establishment," said FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe.

"Thoughtcrime!" said Parsons, almost blubbering. The tone of his voice implied at once a complete admission of his guilt and a sort of incredulous horror that such a word could be applied to himself. He paused opposite Winston and began eagerly appealing to him: "You don’t think they’ll shoot me, do you, old chap? They don’t shoot you if you haven’t actually done anything — only thoughts, which you can’t help? I know they give you a fair hearing. Oh, I trust them for that! They’ll know my record, won’t they? YOU know what kind of chap I was. Not a bad chap in my way. Not brainy, of course, but keen. I tried to do my best for the Party, didn’t I? I’ll get off with five years, don’t you think? Or even ten years? A chap like me could make himself pretty useful in a labour-camp. They wouldn’t shoot me for going off the rails just once?"

That is just one example of the balancing act Mr. Paul is attempting as he prepares for a likely White House bid in 2016. Trying to leap from tea-party firebrand to GOP standard-bearer, the freshman senator is courting the party leaders and fundraisers crucial to a national campaign, while mostly keeping faith with the libertarian base that made him a Republican Party phenom.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

April 10, 2014.

Kathleen Sebelius to Resign Health Post

What seemed like a long time passed. The pain in Winston’s belly had revived. His mind sagged round and round on the same trick, like a ball falling again and again into the same series of slots. He had only six thoughts. The pain in his belly; a piece of bread; the blood and the screaming; O’Brien; Julia; the razor blade. There was another spasm in his entrails, the heavy boots were approaching. As the door opened, the wave of air that it created brought in a powerful smell of cold sweat. Parsons walked into the cell. He was wearing khaki shorts and a sports-shirt.

WASHINGTON----Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who presided over the government's troubled rollout of the 2010 health-care law, will step down from her post, her spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday, capping a rocky five years in the Obama cabinet.


This time Winston was startled into self-forgetfulness.

President Barack Obama was expected to announce on Friday that Ms. Sebelius, 65 years old, will be succeeded by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to a White House official.

"YOU here!" he said.

"As she closes this chapter, Secretary Sebelius is extremely thankful to President Obama and very proud of the historic accomplishments of this administration," said Dori Salcido, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, in a prepared statement.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

April 9, 2014.

Obama Shifts Subtly on Civil Rights

The door opened. The cold-faced young officer stepped into the cell. With a brief movement of the hand he indicated Ampleforth.

AUSTIN----One hundred days into his first term, President Barack Obama was asked whether the government should target aid to black communities hit hard by the recession. "My general approach is that if the economy is strong, that will lift all boats," he responded.

"Room 101," he said.

When Mr. Obama speaks Thursday at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he likely will show how his approach has subtly shifted during his second term.

Ampleforth marched clumsily out between the guards, his face vaguely perturbed, but uncomprehending.

Initially cautious on matters of race, Mr. Obama this year launched an initiative aimed at helping young minority men stay in school and train for jobs. He also has been talking more often about race in personal terms.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

April 8, 2014.

As Wage Debate Rages, Some Have Made the Shift

"Do you know what time of day it is?" he said.

SAN JOSE, Calif.----As lawmakers in the nation's capital are mired in debate over likely outcomes from raising the federal minimum wage, businesses hit with local wage increases across the U.S. already are grappling with the reality.

Ampleforth looked startled again. "I had hardly thought about it. They arrested me----it could be two days ago----perhaps three.’ His eyes flitted round the walls, as though he half expected to find a window somewhere. "There is no difference between night and day in this place. I do not see how one can calculate the time."

A Carl's Jr. franchisee in San Francisco offset the county's higher minimum wage----now $10.74----by using less shortening to make french fries. A White Castle in Illinois cut two jobs to match competitors' costs in nearby Indiana, where the mandated wage is lower. A California pretzel maker pays different wages at mall stores that straddle two cities.

They talked desultorily for some minutes, then, without apparent reason, a yell from the telescreen bade them be silent. Winston sat quietly, his hands crossed. Ampleforth, too large to sit in comfort on the narrow bench, fidgeted from side to side, clasping his lank hands first round one knee, then round the other. The telescreen barked at him to keep still. Time passed. Twenty minutes, an hour ----it was difficult to judge. Once more there was a sound of boots outside. Winston’s entrails contracted. Soon, very soon, perhaps in five minutes, perhaps now, the tramp of boots would mean that his own turn had come.

The consequences of a minimum-wage increase cut across everything from the number of hours employees are assigned, to menu prices to how often a drive-through lane is cleaned, according to interviews with more than a dozen businesses. The real-world impacts can vary: Some companies had no difficulties passing along labor-cost increases while other businesses said they might close marginal stores to pare losses.

Monday, April 7, 2014

April 7, 2014.

Legendary Actor Mickey Rooney Dead at 93

The expression on his face changed. The annoyance passed out of it and for a moment he looked almost pleased. A sort of intellectual warmth, the joy of the pedant who has found out some useless fact, shone through the dirt and scrubby hair.

A short actor with a long career, Mickey Rooney was the biggest box-office draw in Hollywood in 1939 and spent the next 70 years trying with varying success to make his way back to that pinnacle.

"Has it ever occurred to you," he said, "that the whole history of English poetry has been determined by the fact that the English language lacks rhymes?"

Los Angeles Police confirmed that Mr. Rooney died Sunday at 93 years old, the Associated Press reported. He appeared in more than 200 films and was nominated for four Oscars. He started in the silent era and appeared in every decade until the 2010s, a career of nearly unequaled length heightened by the fact that he started in show business as a toddler vaudevillian.

No, that particular thought had never occurred to Winston. Nor, in the circumstances, did it strike him as very important or interesting.

Mr. Rooney was popular in Mickey McGuire shorts where he starred as a street-wise Irish kid, starting when he was just 7. He shot to fame as Andy Hardy, a frenetic teenager who, the Academy Award committee said in his special juvenile Oscar citation, brought to the screen "the spirit and personification of youth."

Sunday, April 6, 2014

April 6, 2014.

The Unemployment Puzzle: Where Have All the Workers Gone?

"Apparently I have."

A big puzzle looms over the U.S. economy: Friday's jobs report tells us that the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7% from a peak of 10% at the height of the Great Recession. But at the same time, only 63.2% of Americans 16 or older are participating in the labor force, which, while up a bit in March, is down substantially since 2000. As recently as the late 1990s, the U.S. was a nation in which employment, job creation and labor force participation went hand in hand. That is no longer the case.

He put a hand to his forehead and pressed his temples for a moment, as though trying to remember something.

What's going on? Think of the labor market as a spring bash you've been throwing with great success for many years. You've sent out the invitations again, but this time the response is much less enthusiastic than at the same point in previous years.

"These things happen," he began vaguely. "I have been able to recall one instance----a possible instance. It was an indiscretion, undoubtedly. We were producing a definitive edition of the poems of Kipling. I allowed the word “God” to remain at the end of a line. I could not help it!" he added almost indignantly, raising his face to look at Winston. "It was impossible to change the line. The rhyme was “rod”. Do you realize that there are only twelve rhymes to “rod” in the entire language? For days I had racked my brains. There WAS no other rhyme."

One possibility is that you just need to beat the bushes more, using reminders of past fun as "stimulus" to get people's attention. Another possibility is that interest has shifted away from your big party to other activities.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

April 5, 2014.

How to Make Fracking Safer

"What are you in for?"

New York state has a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. So do Los Angeles, Quebec and France. Polls show rising opposition to this controversial oil field technique, which cracks open rocks to free oil and natural gas, and some critics want it banned unless it can be proven safe.

"To tell you the truth----" He sat down awkwardly on the bench opposite Winston. "There is only one offence, is there not?" he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. energy companies are drilling and fracking about 100 wells every day across much of the country. Whether you think that it is an economic godsend or fear that it is an environmental disaster, whether you spell it fracking or fraccing (as the energy industry prefers), that is a lot of holes in the ground.

"And have you committed it?"

Fracking is a fairly straightforward process. You drill a well straight down for a few thousand feet and gradually turn the shaft until it runs horizontally through the shale. Then you isolate a section of the rock and inject water, sand and chemicals under high pressure. This makes the rock fracture----hence the name. The sand stays behind to prop open the new network of fractures, and oil and gas flow out.

Friday, April 4, 2014

April 4, 2014.

3-D Printer Makers Get Reality Check

"Ampleforth," he said.

IRWIN, Pa.----One of the biggest jobs facing ExOne Co. XONE -3.04%  President David Burns and the heady 3-D printing industry is managing expectations, including his own.

There was no yell from the telescreen. Ampleforth paused, mildly startled. His eyes focused themselves slowly on Winston.

Last year, Mr. Burns predicted an 80% increase in sales for ExOne, which makes 3-D printers. Then in January, ExOne said sales growth, while strong, would be about half that amount due to deferred orders. ExOne's stock has fallen 46% since.

"Ah, Smith!" he said. "You too!"

"That was a mistake to have been that aggressive," said Mr. Burns, who remains optimistic.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

April 3, 2014.

Nike, Brooks Running Get Entangled in Track Controversy

There was a sound of marching boots outside. The steel door opened with a clang. A young officer, a trim black uniformed figure who seemed to glitter all over with polished leather, and whose pale, straight featured face was like a wax mask, stepped smartly through the doorway. He motioned to the guards outside to bring in the prisoner they were leading. The poet Ampleforth shambled into the cell. The door clanged shut again.

The sporting world got a jolt last week from the prospect that college football players might unionize. Now another surprise is afoot: U.S. track stars are considering a strike.

Ampleforth made one or two uncertain movements from side to side, as though having some idea that there was another door to go out of, and then began to wander up and down the cell. He had not yet noticed Winston’s presence. His troubled eyes were gazing at the wall about a metre above the level of Winston’s head. He was shoeless; large, dirty toes were sticking out of the holes in his socks. He was also several days away from a shave. A scrubby beard covered his face to the cheekbones, giving him an air of ruffianism that went oddly with his large weak frame and nervous movements.

Top professional track and field athletes are preparing for collective action against the sport's governing body that could lead some athletes to boycott the U.S. national track and field championships in June.

Winston roused himself a little from his lethargy. He must speak to Ampleforth, and risk the yell from the telescreen. It was even conceivable that Ampleforth was the bearer of the razor blade.

Discontent has been building among athletes over how USA Track & Field runs its meets and applies rules. Anger peaked after a pair of controversial decisions at the indoor national track and field championships in February, including the disqualification of a runner at the insistence of a coach with USATF principal sponsor Nike Inc. NKE -0.63%

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

April 2, 2014.

Southwest Airlines, Once a Brassy Upstart, Is Showing Its Age

No one else had spoken to him. To a surprising extent the ordinary criminals ignored the Party prisoners. ‘The polITS,’ they called them, with a sort of uninterested contempt. The Party prisoners seemed terrified of speaking to anybody, and above all of speaking to one another. Only once, when two Party members, both women, were pressed close together on the bench, he overheard amid the din of voices a few hurriedly whispered words; and in particular a reference to something called "room one-oh-one," which he did not understand.

CHICAGO----At Midway Airport here on Jan. 2, Southwest Airlines Co. LUV +1.40% canceled a third of its flights, lost 7,500 bags and, at one point, had 66 aircraft on the ground----about twice as many as the carrier has gates. Passengers were stuck on the tarmac late into the night.

It might be two or three hours ago that they had brought him here. The dull pain in his belly never went away, but sometimes it grew better and sometimes worse, and his thoughts expanded or contracted accordingly. When it grew worse he thought only of the pain itself, and of his desire for food. When it grew better, panic took hold of him. There were moments when he foresaw the things that would happen to him with such actuality that his heart galloped and his breath stopped. He felt the smash of truncheons on his elbows and iron-shod boots on his shins; he saw himself grovelling on the floor, screaming for mercy through broken teeth. He hardly thought of Julia. He could not fix his mind on her. He loved her and would not betray her; but that was only a fact, known as he knew the rules of arithmetic. He felt no love for her, and he hardly even wondered what was happening to her. He thought oftener of O’Brien, with a flickering hope. O’Brien might know that he had been arrested. The Brotherhood, he had said, never tried to save its members. But there was the razor blade; they would send the razor blade if they could. There would be perhaps five seconds before the guard could rush into the cell. The blade would bite into him with a sort of burning coldness, and even the fingers that held it would be cut to the bone. Everything came back to his sick body, which shrank trembling from the smallest pain. He was not certain that he would use the razor blade even if he got the chance. It was more natural to exist from moment to moment, accepting another ten minutes' life even with the certainty that there was torture at the end of it.

A severe snowstorm was the main culprit, but Southwest managers also blamed ramp workers, suggesting that nearly a third of them called in sick to protest slow contract talks. The spat boiled into a legal battle, with the workers suing Southwest for requiring they provide doctor's notes. They say they are chronically understaffed and are being blamed for executives' mismanagement of the storm.

Sometimes he tried to calculate the number of porcelain bricks in the walls of the cell. It should have been easy, but he always lost count at some point or another. More often he wondered where he was, and what time of day it was. At one moment he felt certain that it was broad daylight outside, and at the next equally certain that it was pitch darkness. In this place, he knew instinctively, the lights would never be turned out. It was the place with no darkness: he saw now why O’Brien had seemed to recognize the allusion. In the Ministry of Love there were no windows. His cell might be at the heart of the building or against its outer wall; it might be ten floors below ground, or thirty above it. He moved himself mentally from place to place, and tried to determine by the feeling of his body whether he was perched high in the air or buried deep underground.

Labor strife has long roiled the airline industry, but not Southwest. The carrier never has laid off workers or cut their pay, and has had only one strike in its history, a six-day mechanics' walkout in 1980.