UPDATED 07/13/2014 at 09:00 AM EDT • Originally published 07/11/2014 at 01:40 PM EDT

Jason Samenow of the Capital Weather Gang stands in front of a map of the cold front

Ah, summer – the time when we can all relax, kick back and thank the heavens that

is but a fading memory. Goodbye, polar vortex!

Happy summer! The polar vortex is coming back to the U.S. because winter never ended http://t.co/5utQTXrIgg via @capitalweather

Poor man's polar vortex to make shocking summer return next week http://t.co/VkdUtUwvrr @capitalweather pic.twitter.com/pzBHSotUDP

Polar vortex arrives for mid-July... http://t.co/Ol0xM6eKaq

Er, hello again, polar vortex!

, "a deep pool of cold air from the Gulf of Alaska will plunge into the Great Lakes early this week and then ooze towards the East Coast."

The result should be unseasonably cool weather across much of the United States. The massive snowstorms and stinging winds of January won't make an appearance, but the resulting weather might feel more like early autumn than the middle of summer. In the Midwest, morning temperatures may get down to the 40s.

However, a number of weather experts are taking issue with the use of the term "polar vortex" in this context. It's a catchy term, they say, but those words actually have a specific meaning beyond "unexpected cold snap."

PLEASE...I an begging....colleagues, please do not misuse Polar Vortex with US cool snap coming up #StopPolarVortexAbuse, it is always there

that cool weather that will hit parts of the US next week? Yeah, it's not the "polar vortex." http://t.co/ap7lJGMDjj via @GregPostel

Shut up, Internet. There is no polar vortex coming. http://t.co/GBxGiCL0mz

The polar vortex is a mass of cold arctic air that sometimes breaks off the poles and heads south, as happened this winter. Because it's not truly coming from the arctic, this coming weather event,

, "[fails] to meet the standard for calling an upper low a vortex."

If all this is too technical for you, be thankful there's another geographical phenomenon coming later this month that everyone's in agreement on the correct name for:

, the sequel of which premieres on Syfy July 30.

Summary: Weather experts caution that this is not a "real" polar vortex, but it will still be unseasonably cold


Pending home sales dropped in June, retreating after three consecutive months of solid growth and the latest sign the U.S. housing sector has suffered a setback as tight credit conditions and flat wages deter many potential home buyers.

The National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, slipped 1.1% in June from the prior month and was 7.3% below last year’s level. The month-to-month decline was below expectations, as observers had predicted a 0.3% increase according to a poll conducted by Bloomberg. Pending home sales fell in the Northeast and the South but grew in the Midwest and West.

“Activity is notably higher than earlier this year as prices have moderated and inventory levels have improved,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.

But Yun said supply shortages still exist in parts of the U.S., and other factors — including tight credit conditions — have prevented some potential buyers from taking advantage of lower interest rates.

Key housing reports have indicated conditions remain choppy in the housing sector. Last week, the Commerce Department reported sales of new homes dropped a steeper-than-expected 8.1% in June from the prior month. But existing-home sales for June were at the strongest sales pace in eight months, according to a report by the NAR.

Some trends in the marketplace suggest the housing sector could perform better down the road. Inventory has been improving and price appreciation, which leapt last year, has moderated lately. And with rents ticking higher, more potential buyers could be lured to finalize a purchase. Yun on Monday said he expects “a slight uptick in sales during the second half of the year.”

Summary: Recent housing data have indicated conditions remain choppy in the housing sector.


FORTUNE — It used to be the iPod that got Americans started down the road to dependency. Now, according to a new NPD survey, their first Apple AAPL product is more likely to be an iPhone or, increasingly, an iPad.

To quote the NPD press release:

“While over 70 percent of long-standing Apple owners began their relationship with the brand by way of the iPod, this number declines to just 57 percent among those entering the Apple franchise in the past two years. Newcomers to the brand increasingly turn to the iPhone or iPad as their first Apple device, which combined account for one-third of first-time Apple purchases since 2010.”

That makes sense. iPod sales slowed to 7.7 million units last quarter. In the same period, Apple sold 35 million iPhones and nearly 12 million iPads, up over 150% year over year.

“iPad sales are growing much faster than any other Apple product has this soon after launch,” says the NPD’s Ben Arnold. ”In fact, one-in-five Apple owner households has one— nearly equivalent to the number that own an Apple computer.”

According to NPD, 33% of U.S. homes, (37 million households) own Apple products.

You can think of the iPad as the new Apple gateway drug, although the company prefers to talk about its “halo effect.”

Summary: One in four U.S. iPad owners tell NPD it's their first Apple product


During the second half, attendees were treated to brown bag lunches and a look at UK mortgages, Eastern Europe, and securities held for investment. The stock fell steadily amid a larger market rout, though investor sentiment had kept it buoyant in the morning. During the Q&A the stock went into negative territory, and ended the day down about 1.8%.

As things start up with UK mortgages and consumer finance, I’ll share some feedback: Reading through the GE Presentation. A former employee writes that he’s not whether all the emphasis on “lease-to-hold” is a product of strategy or necessity due to the fact that after Oct 2008 the third party debt markets dried up. If you’re enterprising, maybe it’s time to start looking at whether GECC’s capital markets team syndicated its equipment portfolio to third party investors. If anyone out there has thoughts on this, let me know!

Looking at US consumer finance, the company says that in 2007, when it saw the US consumer weaken, it tightened up exposures to the market. If you go to your Bloomberg terminal and pull up some of the master trust documents inked on credit card backed securities issued by GECC, you can dig deeper on this issue. They may have seen problems, but cards were still being issued in 2007 to customers at stores like Wal-Mart, the Gap, and Sam’s Club in locations like Florida and California. Sanford Bernstein analyst Steve Winoker, in an earlier research note, had asked for details here. Am interested to see this deep dive into where accounts are and with which retailers. They also did white label credit cards for JC Penney and Mervyn’s, along with dozens of other big retailers.

This is their case for why white label credit cards are a better business than bank cards, as well as underwriting actions taken when they saw the market deteriorate.

They have taken actions to account for higher unemployment, though it seems up 9% (here’s a delinquency-to-unemployment correlation table) and are driving yields to offset losses.

The piece of the portfolio under stress, the say, could be a problem because once a consumer gets into trouble in this environment it’s so hard for them to come out. They’ve added 1,000 collectors. And then they put up their anticipated stress case for consumers, global, rather than US only. Analysts have said that they are concerned specifically about the US consumer, so let’s hope we get a more granular slide. There is a slide for the sales finance stress case. I had to take a call, so if you have the US consumer slide or a comment, please let me know.

Mortgages. UK is the worry and they say in the UK they have solid underwriting and aggressive collections all over the world.

While some seem pleased by the “how we do it” tone of the presentation, some seem not impressed by the emphasis on management skill (we have great standards) and would like to see stress case scenarios that look at what happens if unemployment goes above the 10% mark.

12:45 Stock update. GE shares have given back about half of their earlier gains, but are still up more than 3%.

They’re shrinking the mortgage business everywhere and as of 2008 the mortgage portfolio composition shows that UK mortgages made up 51% of the total.

Here’s the UK mortgage detail. About 23% of the UK home lending book is a second mortgage. Once again, emphasize originate to hold. They also say the UK mortgage market and consumer was significantly different from the US. Any UK pros out there care to comment? Here is their UK economic environment forecast or 2009 and the way GECC has layered risk and losses.

12:56 With about an hour left in the meeting, it’s almost q&a time; and while a lot of data has been presented we’ll see what the audience thinks has been left out.

An interesting aside from a listener… the mortgage team is very proud of the fact that it has mortgage insurance on a lot of the portfolio. AIG, their main insurance provider, is in trouble.

Here is their UK mortgage stress scenario.

They’re talking Eastern Europe, thanks largely to questions first raised by Peter Eavis over at the Wall Street Journal about the durability of the portfolio.

They do think they’ll see slower growth in the area. They reduced origination in 2008 and increased collections. (Increasing collection capacity is a theme running through the presentation).

They are saying that this is still an attractive business despite near term volatility. They’re working with the No. 5 bank in Poland, the No. 4 bank in the Czech Republic, and the No. 8 bank in Hungary. Let us hope that these top tier banks in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary had better underwriting standards and risk controls than, say, US counterparts like Wachovia and Citigroup.

The stock is now down on the day by about 1%. GE was strong in the morning up 6%, gave back half its gains around noon, and then continued to fall during the UK mortgage and Eastern European bank portion of the presentation. BUT, it’s important to mention that the markets were being dragged down by financial stocks in the morning and that GE may have succumbed to the trend. The stock could pop back into positive territory.

1:29 GE’s been in Eastern Europe for 15 years, which is good. Since 1994, when the company entered the area, there was tons of turmoil and backtracking as different countries opened to capitalism and stabilized. But as for how they’ll handle a severe, never-before-seen downturn, that is still an open question. GE has a stress test for this area. But I wonder, was there an adequate stress test, say, in the beginning of 2007, for what was to happen to US homeowners and banks?

Just noticed there are comments to this blog… will start getting them up as the company goes through their summary.

1:42 See $2 billion to $2.5 billion in earnings for GECC. S&P sees little to none in earnings.

The company sees a worse case scenario of $18.4 billion in impairments and credit costs for GECC.

Overall, executives are striking a pretty positive tone and the stock is up again. Heading into the Q&A I’m getting a little bit of feedback.

One analyst thought that the earnings stress cases met expectations, and that expectations were for them to be pretty bad. But the equity downside might have been more limited than expected, which is good for sentiment.

Of course, there are always a some bears about. Another listener says he thinks GECC still needs to be more aggressive about assumptions re: unemployment and GDP, as well as consumer credit card defaults. And Eavis that WSJ still thinks the big question is whether they’ll need to raise more capital.

GECC took the average of the top 3 banks and compared coverage ratios. GECC has 6.3% of reserve coverage against its US credit card portfolio v. 7.8% for the banks. GECC has 5.46% reserve for sales financing v. 3.1% for the banks.

For the investment securities book (i.e. bonds that the company holds), about half the book is in corporate debt. Most of their subprime mortgage backed bonds are wrapped by monoline insurers including FSA, MBIA, Ambac, and FGIC.

They also provided a list of all the foreign banks in which the company has a stake.

Mike is wrapping it up “five hours, 20 minutes, one fire alarm, and 160 pages later.” The good thing is that this move to be more transparent has worked for GE and soothed nerves. It seems like the problem for the stock wasn’t necessarily weakness in the book, but a lack of transparency and company assurances that everything would be fine, that they wouldn’t lose the AAA, and that they wouldn’t have to cut the dividend to save cash.

The company today came out with loss projections and lowered its earnings estimate by quite a bit, and the stock is still up 1%. Maybe investors just needed to know they weren’t dealing with a black box?

Here is their view on Q1.

I’m hearing that bond desks are still feeling cautious about the company’s default assumptions and full year outlook, but not acting. The next big catalyst will be when we finally see earnings strength or weakness.

It’s late. Here are a couple of highlights from the Q&A:

On GECC earnings: GECC said it should generate between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in net income in 2009 if unemployment averages 8.4% this year and the U.S. economy shrinks by 2% (check out the full WSJ story here). But in a more extreme recession, where unemployment averages 8.9% for the year and the economy shrinks 3.3%, GE said the finance unit would break even. Someone in the audience mentions that most of the $2 billion to $2.5 billion in earnings comes from a tax benefit, rather than actual earnings. He wants to know whether the company has taken all the costs out in these calculations or if there is a new target.

Management says cost take outs are ongoing.

Interesting. As pointed out by this question and others, management has left room for the possibility that GECC will, as predicted by S&P, earn nothing in the quarter.

Also, a Barclay’s analyst asked about the tax assumptions. People don’t seem comfortable with so much of earnings riding on a tax benefit.

Someone asks if the company has a benchmark for impairments and losses this time around compared with during other recessions.

GECC says it’s tough to compare this book and this market to get a benchmark.

Someone wants to know how the company can run a match funded book if it is borrowing so much in advance.

GECC says this is not a change in match funding, but it is inefficient from a return-on-investment standpoint. But from a liquidity perspective, it’s worth it.

Scott David at Morgan Stanley wants to know about GECC’s cost of capital.

According to management, it’s little changed from December 2, 2008, when they had the first GECC meeting. It’s at about 4.6%.

In response to a layoff question, GECC says they can’t give a headcount expectation for 2009. But the company does disclose that it laid off between 20,000 and 25,000 people worldwide last year.

The Goldman analyst wants to know about the leveraged loan book, which he says the company is carrying in the 90s whereas the market is pricing similar securities near the 70s.

GECC says it regularly goes in to value the portfolio, but doesn’t take write offs unless there is impairment.

Near the end, someone wants to know why the company didn’t just suspend the dividend altogether. Sure, you might end up overcapitalized, but in a world where he sees unemployment going to 10% (above GE’s assumption for their stress tests) he thinks this would be fine. Plus, he adds, the company is heavily reliant on government backing to roll and issue debt, and those programs could end. That’s a lot of uncertainty.

GECC said they didn’t cut because after looking at their capital position and the additional ways they can wring cash out of the company, they decided they didn’t need to slash the dividend altogether.

Summary: During the second half, attendees were treated to brown bag lunches and a look at UK mortgages, Eastern Europe, and securities held for investment. The stock fell steadily amid a larger market rout, though investor sentiment had kept it buoyant in the morning. During the Q&A the stock went into negative territory, and ended the…


If you wanted to cast someone in the role of chief executive of a 21st century global biopharmaceutical company, you’d probably choose Christopher A. Viehbacher.

Viehbacher, who has dual citizenship in Germany and Canada, runs France’s second-largest company, Sanofi SA. He travels the world constantly, banters about hockey, soccer, and baseball, and can charm customers and argue with regulators in multiple languages.

But on Tuesday, representatives of Sanofi raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic when they confirmed that Viehbacher, 54, is moving from Paris to the Boston area, home to biotechnology giant Genzyme, which Sanofi bought for $20.1 billion in 2011.

“This was for personal family reasons,” said Jack Cox, a spokesman at the drug maker’s headquarters in Paris. “It will have no impact on the operations of Sanofi.”

Viehbacher was unavailable Tuesday to discuss the trans-Atlantic move. Le Monde, the French newspaper that first disclosed the executive’s planned move, reported that one of Viehbacher’s children is attending Northeastern University.

A veteran drug industry executive, Viehbacher was named Sanofi’s CEO in 2008. Since then, he has traveled frequently between Paris, the company’s US headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., and its many outposts, including those in developing countries where it is one of the largest suppliers of medicine. He has also been a high-profile speaker at industry gatherings.

Under his leadership, Sanofi has been aggressively expanding through acquisitions and partnerships. Viehbacher’s unsolicited bid for Cambridge-based Genzyme, which turned from hostile to friendly during months of negotiations with former Genzyme chief executive Henri A. Termeer, put Sanofi into the fast-growing market for rare disease therapies. It also gave the company a huge presence in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, a major life sciences hub.

Viehbacher has made no secret of his admiration for the Boston region’s cluster of academic research labs and biotech startups. “The Cambridge, Mass., area is a hotbed of research activity,” he said in a 2009 interview with the Globe, even before launching Sanofi’s bid for Genzyme. “So for me, it’s important to start becoming networked into this area.”

Since the Genzyme deal, Viehbacher has expanded Sanofi’s research footprint in Massachusetts even as such programs have shrunk in New Jersey. Sanofi, which now employs about 5,000 in Massachusetts, also agreed in January to pay $700 million to buy a chunk of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., another Cambridge biotech, and tap into its rare-disease drug pipeline.

The company has clashed with French authorities and labor unions over its plans to scale back on drug research and development in that country, though there was no indication that was a factor in Viehbacher’s decision to get a Boston address.

Summary: French drug maker Sanofi AG raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic when it confirmed that its chief executive, Christopher A. Viehbacher, is moving his residence from Paris to the Boston area, home to biotechnology giant Genzyme, which Sanofi purchased for $20.1 billion in 2011.


FORTUNE — Until last year, Jared Young was a rather anonymous credit card executive in the Wilmington, Del., office of Britain’s Barclays BCS bank. But that was before he developed his alter ego. Today, the senior director for consumer markets at Barclaycard US is better known to thousands of the bank’s customers as “JaredY,” the hip face of Barclaycard in its two crowdsourced credit card communities.

If that alliterative phrase gives you pause — crowdsourced what? — you are not alone. Banks have not traditionally sought the counsel of online communities when setting the terms of their credit cards. In the past, it was more common that customers would have to scour the fine print to figure out exactly how much their interest rates had been jacked up. Input? If you can handle being on hold for 20 minutes, you can always call customer service and wait to offer your thoughts to an employee with no power to change anything.

That’s what makes JaredY such a radical guy. Because with the Ring credit card community, which launched in 2012, and more recently with Barclaycard Travel Community, which went live in November, Barclaycard is defying conventional credit card wisdom.

Log on to the Ring community, for example, and you’ll find JaredY explaining the card’s revenues and expenses, along with Barclaycard’s formula for sharing profits with cardholders: Once the bank clears a 3% annual return on the card, it shares 70% of any amount above that with Ring customers. You’ll also see Young’s smiling avatar responding to customers’ queries in the comments section and asking them to vote on terms such as Ring’s late-fee policy.

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By inviting customers to discuss and influence the product, Barclaycard’s goal is nothing short of upending an industry. “We really want Ring to change the way credit card banking is done in the United States,” says Young, who crafted the idea with Paul Wilmore, managing director for consumer markets, before Wilmore pitched it to CEO Amer Sajed in 2011. “We believe that there is a better dialogue, that you can be very customer-centric, and that customers will reward you with their business. It’s a different paradigm.”

Initially, Young and Wilmore thought that designing a super-simple credit card, and explaining about how it worked, could help with banking’s tarnished-image problem, post-financial crisis. At the same time, the 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act pushed financial services companies to eliminate hidden fees and make products easier for consumers to understand. “The core idea was: make the simplest credit card possible, be very transparent with customers, and give them a say,” says Young.

The best way to create that kind of dialogue, they eventually realized, was to form a community. So Barclaycard turned to Lithium Technologies, an enterprise software outfit that shares a board member, Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital, with Twitter TWTR and powers what it calls “social customer experience” for more than 300 brands. Lithium’s platforms — which companies including BestBuy BBY , AT&T T , and Sephora embed into their own websites — draw 75 million monthly unique visitors.

Developing an online community for a bank, however, was a first. “To me this is a big, disruptive innovation for financial services,” says Lithium CEO Rob Tarkoff, who previously led Adobe Systems’ $1 billion digital enterprise solutions unit. “They’re actually enlisting the customer base in the process of building the offering,” he adds.

MORE: Yahoo is selling stock (so it can buy it back)

Take the late-fee policy, for example. After Young blogged about the different ways the bank could structure the policy, Ring customers actually voted for an option that earned the bank 15% more in fees, not less. Young views it as a sign that the profit-sharing component, called “Giveback,” is working. “The feeling was, it will create more profit for Barclaycard Ring, some of which will be shared back with them,” he says.

Barclaycard has also asked for its customers’ opinion on Ring’s foreign country fee and cash-advance fee, as well as for input on the next iteration of the card’s plastic design. Its current form, a splash of bright orange on a white background, has proven somewhat divisive. “There’s a lot of people who like the look of the card, a lot of people who think it doesn’t look austere enough,” says Young, although community members have expressed “overwhelming interest in translucent plastics.”

Ring has an 8% APR, which is slightly more than half the industry average. By the end of year one, it had approximately 10,000 account holders, according to an annual report Young posted for the community in June. He says it will have about 35,000 card members by year-end. Some 6,000 Ring customers have physically engaged with the site to date, whether they’ve awarded “kudos” to content they like or participated in discussion threads about topics like credit-line increases.

That high level of participation helped make the case to try crowdsourcing another product. But whereas Ring discussions take place behind a firewall (customers access it by logging on to their credit card account), for its second product, says Young, Barclaycard wanted to develop a conversation that was more “mainstream.”

Hence, Barclaycard Travel is open to the public and encourages anyone to join the community and post travel stories. And Barclaycard is willing to pay community members for that content — even if they don’t own the bank’s credit card, Arrival. While Arrival accountholders can swap their participation miles for credit card miles, non-cardholders can redeem them for Amazon AMZN gift certificates.

Whether customers use the platforms to ask questions about credit-line increases, or, say, when Arrival cards will incorporate EMV payment technology (a popular thread, recently), Young says the communities are capturing feedback that falls outside the industry’s traditional channels. These are the types of questions that probably wouldn’t compel someone to call up customer service. “We see so many comments that we wonder, ‘How would we have known that if we didn’t have this community?’” Young says. As his customers know, JaredY is listening.

Summary: In a radical experiment, Barclays is allowing customers to have input on everything from their card's look to its interest rate to the late-fee policy. And they get a cut of the profits, too.


The numbers for women in tech are dismal: only 26% are female, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. However, for the women who are there, support and advice from other successful women can be essential reminders that it’s possible to climb the ladder even in what is a boys club.

Last night at the Airbnb headquarters in San Francisco, Niniane Wang CEO of start-up Evertoon, and Varsha Rao, head of global operations at Airbnb, talked about what it takes to be successful.

Wang brought in years of experience in the tech industry. Highlights of her career before she started Evertoon include graduating from Caltech at the age of 18 with a B.S. in computer science, and helping to create Google Desktop.

Meanwhile Rao’s credentials include Wharton, and an MBA at Harvard business school, where she was classmates with Sheryl Sandberg. (They were in the same book group afterwards, and Rao lists her as a mentor.) Before coming to Airbnb she worked at McKinsey, and led her own start-up Eve.com, which sold cosmetics online.

It takes one to three years to see the rewards for your work. You have to take a blind leap of faith that you will be rewarded for work. When I first started at Google, I felt like I wasn’t getting any accolades. I made a commitment to work as hard as possible for six months with no reward. During the six months, nothing much happened. At the end, I got recognition and rewards. But part of that blind faith is enjoying what you’re doing. It’s like going to the gym. It takes time to see results and if you don’t like you aren’t going to keep going.

What you wear, how you speak, how you stand…wearing a skirt, or saying I think in front of sentences, doesn’t matter. What matters is your skill and your leverage. What matters is your power to make a difference.

3. You can have it all.

You have to be flexible. Be passionate about your job. It will be tough, there are days when you feel like you aren’t doing anything well. Passion gets you through that. Trust others, let go. You can’t do it alone. If your kids are in good hands, trust those people.

Get the job you want before you have kids. It’s a myth that kids need you when they are younger. They just need someone who really cares about them. But when they are older, that’s when they really start to need you.

4. Talk to your friends.

Everyone has the same sets of problems. Having friends to confide in is important. It lets you know that you aren’t alone.

5. Let negativity self-select out.

Anything you do can turn into vitriol. Be yourself more strongly so haters will self-select out.

I had a brilliant friend, think educated at Harvard/MIT, who loves to run marathons and put down in her online dating profile that she loved to bake in her pajamas because she was afraid of scaring away men. What she got were men who wanted someone who wanted to bake in her pajamas.

Don’t worry about fitting in with the boys club or dressing to fit in with them. Wear what you want because you will stand out when you blow someone’s mind. When you do gain leverage to make change, you’ll stand out and be more memorable: you will be legend.

Summary: Five pieces of advice from Airbnb's Varsha Rao and Evertoon's Niniane Wang about succeeding in a boys club.


Supermodel Janice Dickinson has claimed in a TV interview that she was raped by comedian Bill Cosby.

Dickinson, 59, is the latest in a string of women to come forward with rape claims against the sitcom star.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Dickinson said Cosby, 77, invited her to Lake Tahoe on the pretense of discussing her professional future.

Janice Dickinson during a photo shoot in the Hamptons, New York, October 1978. (Getty)

While they were in their hotel room, Dickinson claims she remembers being given a pill and some red wine before blacking out and being raped.

"The next morning I woke up, and I wasn’t wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man,” Dickinson said.

"Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me."

"I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do, and it happened to me, and this is the true story," she added.

Cosby was first accused of rape by Andrea Constand in 2005. Since then, several other women have spoken publicly claiming sexual abuse by the star.

Cosby has refused to address the allegations with his lawyer, Bill, issuing a statement on his client's website stating that the comedian "does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."

Do you have any news photos or videos?

Summary: Supermodel Janice Dickinson has come forward claiming she too was raped by comedian Bill Cosby.


The first art blockbuster of 2015 will see Peter Paul Rubens riding into the Royal Academy, probably in a golden chariot pulled by four leopards with the muse of Painting at his side, a bevy of plump nymphs hailing his triumph and the gods declaring his apotheosis from fire-fringed clouds.

The art of this Flemish painter who decorated palaces and banqueting halls, went on diplomatic and spying missions, owned a landed estate and somehow found time to fill the Old Master galleries of the world with colossal canvases of boar and lion hunts, characterful portraits, epic history paintings and visceral sea monsters in the not so copious 63 years he lived from 1577 to 1640, is a world in itself. Rubens satisfied the horror vacui of an entire generation of absolutist monarchs.

From his cycle of 24 enormous paintings that celebrate the life of Marie de’ Medici in the Louvre to his ceiling of the Banqueting House in London with its portrayal of James I being welcomed into heaven, Rubens is such a stupendous flatterer that you forget the overt cynicism of the propaganda and just wallow in his scintillating light, swirling space, and swagging clouds.

But is Rubens, for all his inexhaustible brilliance, really the artist among artists the RA takes him to be? He used to be called “The Prince of Painters”, its publicity reminds us. This old term of praise is, today, more like a warning light. Rubens moved in high society, a courtier as much as an artist. He is, ultimately, a supreme decorator who never touches profundity.

However many massed cherubs blowing trumpets of praise the RA puts on tube and rail posters in the New Year, he will never be a Rembrandt, Caravaggio or Velazquez. These three geniuses all lived in the same age that Rubens dominated. But where he created seductive confections, they tell a more serious truth.

I love Rubens’ portrait of his sister-in-law Susanna Lunden in the National Gallery, for instance. She’s a sweet girl, the painting is gallant. But go and see Rembrandt’s portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels in the same museum and you are in a different world: not gallantry but deep human reality. And that is quite a mild comparison between Rubens and Rembrandt. What painting by Rubens can be set alongside Rembrandt’s late self-portraits? If Rubens looked at himself that hard, his hat might have fallen off.

The very energy of Rubens has something brittle about it. He cannot stop for fear of looking into the dark. He seems terrified of Caravaggio’s shadows, Rembrandt’s eyes, Velazquez’s mirror. His art endlessly moves on, through a bewildering range of genres. It also assimilates a staggering variety of influences.

Centuries before post-modernism, Rubens was sampling artists. In his 1632-35 painting The Judgment of Paris, the goddess Athene has left her shield propped against a tree. It has the face of the monstrous snake haired gorgon Medusa on it. Rubens has artfully made this shield a quotation – it is a copy of Caravaggio’s painting of Medusa’s severed head.

Borrowing from Caravaggio is no crime - but if only Rubens had taken that example more seriously. For him, the face of Medusa is just part of a rich panoply of flesh and myth. For Caravaggio it is a terrifying mask of self-recognition.

This sense that Rubens is avoiding something gets stronger the more of his paintings you see. And there are so many. His Antwerp workshop employed assistants galore. Many became major painters themselves. Van Dyck is his most brilliant protege. Many paintings by Rubens have details added in by specialists - Frans Snyders did the fruit and game.

Rubens had his own reasons to be scared of artistic darkness. His parents fled Antwerp to get away from its savage religious wars between protestantism and Spanish catholicism. Two years before he was born, the city was savagely sacked. So it is not true that Rubens was an aristocrat with no sense of suffering or the power of human evil. Horror was part of his birthright.

Look a bit harder at his paintings and they are full of images of cruelty and violence. The face of the war god Mars contemplates a group of children playing, and his eyes tell you he just wants to kill them. A youth is killed by a monstrous bull that crashes out of the sea in a broth of foam.

Rubens sees psychological darkness but insists it can be defeated by civilisation. His art is optimistic. That was why so many kings and queens paid through the nose for it. Sweeping us up in its impulsive brushwork, leading us on roller coaster rides of painterly prowess, this is a Baroque entertainment of the highest order. The faces of war and chaos, death and poverty can be seen in the vortex, yet their shock is deliberately muted under spurts of colour, overwhelmed by a festival of artistic joy.

In the age when Rubens was most revered, from his lifetime to the 19th century, his balance of good and evil, chaos and order, was admired as a triumph of sanity. Today, Rubens seems too sane to be one of the very greatest artists. He portrayed his first wife, Isabella Brant, many times, always with the same sweet smile on her face. She died from plague at the age of 34, yet in his final portrait she is still smiling. For Rubens the show must go on.

Summary: Jonathan Jones: Rubens used to be called ‘The Prince of Painters’ – this old term of praise is, today, more like a warning light


Jane was out for a stroll one weekend and, as ever, had her camera with her. 'It was a beautiful, crisp, early autumn day,' she recalls. 'The light was of a lovely quality.' The two Chelsea Pensioners had also been walking through the grounds and had paused for a rest and to chat. Some 300 Pensioners live in the Christopher Wren-designed building that acts as a retirement home for the British armed forces. Wren's design is said to have been based on the Hôpital des Invalides in Paris. Charles II authorised the warrant for the building in 1681 and founder's day is commemorated each year on his birthday, 29 May. The football pitches in the background - notoriously muddy and stony - are situated in the south grounds of the hospital, the area that has been given over to the annual Chelsea Flower Show since 1913.

• Further information at observer.co.uk/janebown

Summary: Our weekly series showcases the work of the acclaimed Observer photographer Jane Bown, who has worked for the newspaper since 1949


FORTUNE — Next year the Danish shipping giant Maersk will launch the largest container ship in the world, the 1,312-foot EEE class. Though only a few feet longer than today’s biggest ships, it is designed to hold 18,000 containers, some 2,500 more than the largest vessels today can hold. As ships have gotten bigger, economies of scale have improved, and the cost of shipping has dropped dramatically over the past few decades. It costs only $1.50 to move a DVD player from China to the U.S. Oil, grain, and iron ore are more expensive because ships make the return trip empty. The route counts too. Carriers charge for the risk incurred by passing through piracy hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen. Transport costs for Africa are the highest in the world, while costs in developed nations are the lowest, thanks to automated ports (soon to feature robotic stevedores) that cut labor costs and increase efficiency.

For more on the future of shipping, click on the links below

Intro What it costs A booming network A bigger, better box Ports go high-tech

This story is from the May 21, 2012 issue of Fortune.

Summary: Thanks to automation and economies of scale, global goods are getting cheaper to ship.


Martha Stewart, Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg

03/05/2015 AT 06:05 PM EST

There's no shortage of stars ready to

Comedy Central announced it's all-star list of celebs who will join host

and Shaquille O'Neal, Ludacris will take a turn on the stage along with comedians Hannibal Buress, Chris D'Elia, Natasha Leggero and Jeffrey Ross.

While the cast is sure to come out hard with all kinds of

, the singer has been behind his own roast since day one.

"Justin has been asking us for a few years to roast him," Kent Alterman, Comedy Central's President of Content Development and Original Programming said in a statement. "We just kept telling him to go create more source material first. We're thrilled he listened."

, roasters will have plenty of options to choose from when it comes to calling out the pop star.

"I'm going to kill him," said

. "I'm going to give him a couple rim shots he's not expecting."

Summary: Kevin Hart will host the Comedy Central roast of the pop singer on March 30


After a healthy rally Monday, many stocks fell Tuesday as the Federal Reserve’s forthcoming interest rate decision seemed to weigh heavy on investors. Nine of 10 sectors of the S&P 500 dropped, and the index itself fell 6.9 points, or 0.3 percent. The Dow also was down, but the Nasdaq rose slightly by 7.93 points. Energy stocks dipped as the price of oil sank for the sixth day in a row. Stocks on the move included Apple, which rose after The Wall Street Journal reported it was in talks to create an online television service. American Airlines jumped almost 7 percent on news it would join the S&P 500 later this week.

Summary: After a rally Monday to a six-week high, stocks fell Tuesday as the Federal Reserve’s forthcoming interest rate decision seemed to weigh heavy on investors.


A 14-year-old boy found his parents dead in their Pennsylvania home Tuesday afternoon

04/02/2015 AT 01:15 PM EDT

The deaths of a recently divorced Pennsylvania couple found mutilated by a chainsaw have been ruled a murder-suicide.

The bodies of Nicole Peppelman, 43, and her ex-husband Chris Peppelman, 48, were discovered by their

Tuesday afternoon. Police said both had suffered "lacerations from a chainsaw."

Dr. Walter I. Hofman of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office said Wednesday that Chris killed his ex-wife in the basement of their home before turning the chainsaw on himself, according to

Nicole died from a gaping wound to the abdomen inflicted by the chainsaw. She was also stabbed in the neck and choked, according to the

. Chris also used the chainsaw on his right thigh and abdomen. His death was labeled a suicide.

The former couple, who had three sons together, had been having relationship troubles for years. "I knew they had some complications with their marriage," family friend Eric Shallcross said. "But a lot of marriages do. Most marriages do, I'm sure."

Nicole first filed for divorce in 2010, but the split was only finalized this January, the

"This is horribly tragic for the whole family, especially the boys," attorney Cheryl Young, who represented Nicole in the divorce, told the paper.

Added friend Lamar Goodenough: "They were together for the kids ... I know they loved the boys so much and wanted to do everything that they could for the boys."

The 14-year-old found his parents' bodies inside their home with the chainsaw lying next to them. The other children were not home at the time.

The three boys are being cared for by family members, the

Summary: The pair's bodies were discovered by their 14-year-old son Tuesday afternoon


NEW YORK — Coca-Cola is working with fitness and nutrition experts who suggest its soda as a treat at a time when the world’s biggest beverage maker is being blamed for helping to fuel obesity rates.

In February, several of the experts wrote online posts for American Heart Month, with each including a mini-can of Coke or soda as a snack idea. The pieces — which appeared on nutrition blogs and other sites including those of major newspapers — offer a window into the many ways food companies work behind the scenes to cast their products in a positive light, often with the help of third parties who are seen as trusted authorities.

Ben Sheidler, a Coca-Cola spokesman, compared the February posts to product placement deals a company might have with TV shows.

‘‘We have a network of dietitians we work with,’’ said Sheidler, who declined to say how much the company pays experts. ‘‘Every big brand works with bloggers or has paid talent.’’

Other companies including Kellogg and General Mills have used strategies like providing continuing education classes for dietitians, funding studies that burnish the nutritional images of their products and offering newsletters for health experts. PepsiCo Inc. has also worked with dietitians who suggest its Frito-Lay and Tostito chips in local TV segments on healthy eating. Others use nutrition experts in sponsored content; the American Pistachio Growers has quoted a dietitian for the New England Patriots in a piece on healthy snacks and recipes and Nestle has quoted its own executive in a post about infant nutrition.

For Coca-Cola Co., the public relations strategy with health experts in February focused on the theme of ‘‘Heart Health & Black History Month.’’ The effort yielded a radio segment and multiple online pieces.

One post refers to a ‘‘refreshing beverage option such as a mini can of Coca-Cola.’’ Another suggests ‘‘portion-controlled versions of your favorites, like Coca-Cola mini cans, packs of almonds or pre-portioned desserts for a meal.’’

The focus on the smaller cans isn’t surprising. Sugary drinks have come under fire for fueling obesity rates and related ills, and the last time Coke’s annual US soda volume increased was in 2002, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest. More recently, the company is pushing its mini-cans as a guilt-free way to enjoy cola. The cans also fetch higher prices on a per ounce basis, so even if people are drinking less soda, Coke says it can grow sales.

In a statement, Coca-Cola said it wants to ‘‘help people make decisions that are right for them’’ and that like others in the industry, it works with health experts ‘‘to help bring context to the latest facts and science around our products and ingredients.’’ It said any communications by the experts it works with contain the appropriate disclosures.

Most of the pieces suggesting mini-Cokes say in the bios that the author is a ‘‘consultant’’ for food companies, including Coca-Cola. Some add that the ideas expressed are their own. One column is marked at the bottom as a ‘‘sponsored article,’’ which is an ad designed to look like a regular story. It ran on more than 1,000 sites, including those of major news outlets around the country. The other posts were not marked as sponsored content, but follow a similar format.

Kelly McBride, who teaches media ethics at The Poynter Institute, said the phrasing of the disclosure that the author is a ‘‘consultant’’ for food companies, including Coca-Cola, doesn’t make it clear the author was specifically paid by Coke for the column.

‘‘This is an example of opaque sponsored content,’’ McBride said.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a professional group for dietitians, says in its code of ethics that practitioners promote and endorse products ‘‘only in a manner that is not false and misleading.’’ A spokesman for the academy, Ryan O’Malley, said he couldn’t say whether the posts on mini-Cokes meet those guidelines because there is a formal process for submitting and reviewing such cases.

Meanwhile, a group called Dietitians for Professional Integrity has called for sharper lines to be drawn between dietitians and companies. Andy Bellatti, one of its founders, said companies court dietitians because they help validate corporate messages.

The message that Coke can be a healthy snack is debatable. A mini-Coke is 7.5 ounces and has 90 calories, all of it from high-fructose corn syrup. That’s compared with 140 calories in a regular 12-ounce can.

Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University and a member of the nutrition committee at the American Heart Association, said a smaller can of soda might be a ‘‘move in the right direction’’ for someone who regularly drinks soda. Still, she wouldn’t recommend soda as a snack.

The health experts who wrote the pieces mentioning Coke stand by their recommendations.

Robyn Flipse, the dietitian who wrote the sponsored article for Coke, said she would suggest mini-cans of Coke even if she wasn’t being paid. Although she doesn’t drink soda herself, she said the smaller cans are a way for people who like soda to enjoy it sensibly.

‘‘I absolutely think that I provided valuable information,’’ she said.

Flipse said the idea to mention mini-cans of Coke in the post was hers and came about after a public relations agency for Coke suggested a piece on heart health and asked what she might ‘‘work in.’’

Flipse has worked with Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association for years; her roles have included sending out messages on social media refuting the idea that sugary drinks are to blame for obesity and making herself available as an expert for news outlets. If a story says something negative about artificial sweeteners, Flipse said she might contact the PR agency and ask, ‘‘Do you want me to do something about that?’’

Sylvia Melendez-Klinger, a dietitian who wrote another piece mentioning mini- cans of soda, said it’s important that health professionals share their expertise with companies and that her work reflects her own views.

She said she could not recall if she was paid for her article mentioning mini-sodas.

Summary: If a column in honor of heart health suggests a can of Coke as a snack, you might want to read the fine print.


There are Peter Paul Rubens drawings of Marie de' Medici, the queen of France, in the collections of the British Museum, the V&A, the Louvre and, it emerged Tuesday, to some astonishment, the University of Reading.

Reading's picture of Marie de' Medici, the second wife of Henry IV of France, was almost certainly done "on the spot, from life", and probably drawn in 1622. For decades it had been stored at the university in a locked cupboard.

"It was very exciting indeed," said Anna Gruetzner Robins, a professor at the university. "A Rubens in the cupboard! It is not what you expect to find."

The drawing was bought in the 1950s by Reading's professor of fine art who had a modest budget to buy drawings to use for teaching purposes.

"It was bought as a so-called Rubens, attributed to Rubens," said Robins. "But we didn't take it seriously."

The professor was spending sums of about £5 and £10. "Even in those days you didn't really buy Rubens drawings for £5 so we always assumed that it was a copy or by someone in his circle."

The drawing's true identity was revealed when a benefactor recently agreed to pay for its conservation, revealing a hidden collector's stamp of some importance; it showed that the work was owned in the 18th century by Jonathan Richardson, one of the first collectors of Rubens drawings in the UK.

Further investigation showed that the drawing was then owned by the Oxford collector Henry Wellesly, an illegitimate son of the Duke of Wellington.

Robins said of the picture: "It has a very nice immediate quality about it that makes it rather special."

The work, said to be worth about £75,000, is a welcome addition to the four known Rubens drawings of Marie in existence and held in large collections. All of those are studies made for the 21 life-size portraits of Marie, depicting her from childhood to old age, which hang in the Louvre.

Summary: Collector's stamp reveals picture assumed to be copy is Rubens' 1622 depiction of Marie de' Medici, queen of France


In the packed Community Hall behind the fire station on a quiet residential street in Stamford, Conn., Samuel Laitman listened attentively as his wife, Lyn, the Democratic candidate for Mayor, addressed the crowd.

From his seat on the center aisle, he scanned the rows of faces, seeking some sense of the meeting he could report back to his wife. Later, he would take charge of their two sleepy daughters, driving them home so his wife could stay late to chat with potential supporters.

According to the Women's Campaign Fund, a Washington-based nonpartisan organization that offers financial and technical assistance to women running for elective office, the number of women holding major municipal offices went from 4 percent in 1975 to 13 percent in 1980. Similarly, the number of female state legislators rose from 4 percent in 1969 to 12 percent last year.

And a good number of these women, like Mrs. Laitman, are wives. ''It's easier for a married woman to run for local office because it does not require a geographic move,'' said Ranny Cooper of the Women's Campaign Fund.

But the husbands of these women reject the role of the traditional political wife. Conversations with more than a dozen husbands of women running for office in Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut found they were providing far more than just a handsome face, a winsome smile and an extra hand to shake. What they cannot give in time because of their own careers, they are making up in expertise, serving as campaign strategists, accountants, publicists, financial experts, legal counsel, contact men, fund-raisers, publicity experts and negotiators. A Wealthy Husband Helps

Many also provide the financial underpinnings of their wives' campaigns. Just as it is considered advantageous for those with political ambitions to come from a rich family, it now seems to help to have a wealthy husband.

''He's the financial mainstay of the whole operation,'' Carolyn Whittle, the Democratic candidate for Mayor of White Plains, said of her husband, Reed, who has his own international management consulting firm. ''Because of him I am able to afford a housekeeper, a bookkeeper and a secretary.''

For many of the men, the experience has been disturbing yet broadening. They talk of a new sense of understanding of what political wives suffered for so many years when confronted with a group of people who cared nothing for their views, only for those of their husbands.

They seem surprised at the pride they feel for their wives - a pride that takes much of the edge off the upheaval in family life. Yet they contend that, unlike a regular job, the decision for a wife and mother to go into politics must be approved by the whole family because politics is still so much a family affair.

''It was a difficult decision,'' said Mrs. Laitman, the Stamford candidate. ''We had to make it together. There was no way if the family was not willing to help that it would have worked. You can't fight an opponent and your family at the same time.''

And the disruptions in family life won't necessarily end with the election. The husbands realize that if their wives are successful they will be required to attend an endless round of social and political functions - the aspect of being a political husband they seem to find the most trying. They are far more enthusiastic about the intellectual challenge of the issues involved.

''I accompany my wife when I can but frankly it is just physically impossible to do everything,'' said Isidore Komanoff, a Wall Street stockbroker, whose wife, Hannah, has been endorsed by both major parties for supervisor of Long Beach, L.I. 'The Councilwoman's Husband'

The husbands are also finding considerable role reversal. Arnold Blumberg, an internist at Long Island Jewish Hospital whose wife, a Democrat, is running for re-election to the Town Council of North Hempstead, said: ''Barbara was always the doctor's wife. Now I am the councilwoman's husband. I've become such an unknown that people are even apt to say 'Mr.' Blumberg.''

And William Breed, a New York investment counselor whose wife, Rebecca, is running as a Republican candidate for First Selectman of Greenwich, said, ''I have been called everything from 'Mr. Thatcher' to the 'First Man.' ''

The political wife is generally recognized as such. Not so the political husband. ''There are always questions on their faces,'' said Nathan Epstein, whose wife, Barbara, is running as Democratic candidate for Supervisor of the Town of Hempstead. ''They're embarrassed to ask. So I have to say, 'I am Barbara's husband.' ''

Many people are also uneasy about how to treat the husbands. ''People look at you a little funny,'' Mr. Epstein said. ''They even seem surprised to find that a husband exists. When Barbara was the only woman in a roomful of male candidates a few weeks ago and nobody was sure where I belonged, I went over to the wives' table. But then I found I had to make everyone else feel comfortable with a lot of small talk.''

As these conversations can wear as thin as the soles on the shoes of a staunch campaigner, he says he now prefers to take along a book to read, ''so they won't be uncomfortable about what to do with me.''

But with change comes enlightenment. Martin Oppenheimer, a labor relations lawyer in Manhattan whose wife, Suzie, is the Democratic Mayor of Mamaroneck in Westchester said: ''I used to be outspoken and talkative wherever we went. Everyone would listen to me. Now when they are talking about something I know all about I find nobody cares about my opinion. They're only interested in what my wife thinks. You have to fight a feeling of being less significant and I believe I have begun to really know what women went through all those years.''

The men insist they do not feel threatened, if only because most are already successful in their own right. Perhaps as a result of an essentially humbling experience, they work harder to help their wives effectively. How the Husbands Help

Mrs. Whittle, the White Plains candidate, says her husband has helped her campaign enormously by analyzing what he maintains are management blunders in the present city administration.

Jerry Shapiro, a graphic designer and furniture dealer whose wife, Joan, is the Republican Mayor of Newburgh, N.Y., sketches all her campaign materials. Mr. Epstein, a union organizer and social studies teacher in Great Neck, L.I., uses his professional experience in coaching his wife.

Mr. Breed has been acting as his wife's deputy campaign treasurer, devoting at least an hour each evening to preparing financial reports and soliciting funds. Mr. Laitman, an attorney and a certified public accountant, is also the financial linchpin of his wife's campaign.

Despite the obvious strain of the moment on the couple and the household, the husbands are convinced that whether their wives are successful or not the experience will strengthen the family. ''Our children became very involved in the primary because they were so excited with the prospect of their mother being mayor,'' Mr. Breed recalled.

At the Epstein house the other evening, the two boys and their father chatted together for several hours while preparing campaign material for mailing. Their mother's new renown, the boys said, provided them with a special feeling of family pride.

The husbands also believe they gain a new respect for their wives' abilities. ''What my wife has undertaken is really remarkable,'' said Mr. Breed. ''If someone had asked me five years ago if this could have happened, I would have never envisioned it. I am so very, very proud.''

Illustrations: photo of Rebecca Breed with husband William photo of Barbara Blumburg with husband Arnold


JERUSALEM, April 6— The Jerusalem International Book Fair opened today with the presentation of a prize in literature to Graham Greene, the British author. The award, known as the Jerusalem Prize, is given every other year for writing on the theme of the freedom of the individual in society.

The fair, attracting 350 publishers from 46 countries, is showing a wide variety of scientific books, novels, children's literature and other works from around the world, many on Jewish and Middle Eastern subjects. It runs through Friday.

At the award presentation tonight, by invitation only, Conor Cruse O'Brien, editor in chief of The Observer of London, told a select audience of publishers, writers and government officials, that he had questions about how Mr. Greene fit the prescription for the prize. The Voice of Dissent

''I must confess,'' said Mr. O'Brien, ''that it would not have occurred to me, unaided, that the freedom of the individual in society is what the writing of Graham Greene is about. If he is expressing it, he is expressing it in a dark, complex, paradoxical way of his own.''

Mr. O'Brien criticized what he called Mr. Greene's heavily Catholic period, from the novels ''Brighton Rock'' through ''The End of an Affair.'' He said the explicit religion of a convert, as Mr. Greene is, did not appeal to a born-and-baptized Catholic like himself, and he found the latter work more palatable. ''Religion is there still,'' he said, ''But ambiguously, behind a veil now.''

Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem, who presented the prize, said, ''We knew beforehand that it would create an argument, but nothing that is worthwhile doing doesn't create an argument.''

Mr. Greene replied with a tribute to the Mayor: ''Surely if anyone deserves this prize for the defense of the individual in society it is Teddy Kollek. He has defended the individual irrespective of race.'' Denounces Political Dogma

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Greene denounced political dogma and religious dogma as transitory. ''The ideas of Marx wear out,'' he said. ''Papal pronouncements are subtly modified. Even the international terrorist movement has its dissidents.'' And he hailed heresy as free expression.

''What strikes me more than anything about this honor,'' Mr. Greene continued, ''is the generosity of spirit it shows in the judges. The tortuous history of English relations with Israel during the period of the mandate is not one of which an Englishman can be proud. Nor is the history of the Roman Catholic Church's relations with Jewry one of which a Roman Catholic can be proud.''

This is the 10th Jerusalem Prize. The first was awarded in 1963 to Bertrand Russell, subsequent recipients have been Max Frisch, Andre Schwarz-Bart, Ignazio Silone, Jorge Luis Borges, Eugene Ionesco, Simone de Beauvoir, Octavio Paz and Sir Isaiah Berlin. Anti-Semitism Question

The selection of Mr. Greene by a three-member panel of prominent Israelis caused a minor controversy when a few objections were raised that some of the author's early work contained strains of anti-Semitism.

Harold Frisch, a professor of literature, wrote to The Jerusalem Post that ''there are few parallels in modern literature to the portraits of Sir Marcus, the Jew-devil, who, through murder and conspiracy, manipulates the fate of nations in 'A Gun for Sale,' or of Colleoni with his 'old Semitic face' in 'Brighton Rock' who 'owns the whole world - the cash registers, and policemen and prostitutes' - to mention only two examples of the still-active power of the medieval archetypes in his writings.''

Israeli publishers are heavily represented with works they hope to sell to foreign houses for translation and publication. In addition, some Israeli publishers have put out books in English -often elaborate picture books of Israel, the Sinai, Jerusalem and the like - for sale abroad.


Some theater scholars contend that Heinrich von Kleist's ''The Broken Pitcher'' is one of the finest comedies of the German stage. In the 10 years before his suicide in 1811, at the age of 34, he began a career in which he produced several plays. Von Kleist is a frequently performed playwright in German-speaking countries, but difficulties in translation have limited the performance of his works in English. ''The Broken Pitcher'' has not been seen in New York in 20 years.

Jon Swan, a poet, has recently translated the work, and the comedy, which has been described as a battle of wits between an immoral judge and an honest peasant populace, will open tonight at the reactivated Martinique Theater, 49 West 32d Street, near the Avenue of the Americas.

Carl Weber directed the cast, which includes Richard M. Davidson, George Ede, Marta Heflin, Gary Kingsolver, Larry Pine and Sylvia Short. The production is being sponsored by Goethe House, the German cultural center, as part of a program called ''Germany in the 19th Century - Cultural Aspects of an Age.''

Goethe House at 1014 Fifth Avenue is screening films about the playwright. The first, ''The Marquise of O,'' by Eric Rohmer, will be shown Saturday; three have English subtitles. For information, call: 744-8310.

The play will be presented at 8 P.M., Tuesdays through Saturdays and at 3 on Saturdays and Sundays, through Nov. 1. Admission is $12 and $15. For information and reservations, call 564-7989. OLD SOUNDS

Calliope is a Renaissance Band whose members play the weird old instruments - vielle, rebec, kemence, krummhorns, shawm, gemshorn, sackbut, strawfiddle and the pipe-and-tabor, as well as those we are more accustomed to, such as the viol, recorders, hurdy-gurdy and cornetti. The works performed by the group are pre-Baroque, from which came Monteverdi, Purcell and J.S. Bach.

Calliope is the band in residence at Christ Church United Methodist, at 520 Park Avenue, near East 60th Street. Today, the band begins a season of free noontime concerts, which take place the first and third Wednesdays of the months from October through May.

Today's concert, devoted to works by Praetorious, Susato and Isaac introduces early music and period instruments. For information, call 838-3036 or the church at 864-4518. RECENT SOUNDS

A collection of films made during the last 20 years devoted to rock and its practitioners opens today at the Thalia, West 95th Street between West End Avenue and Broadway. Titled, ''Thalia Rocks,'' the festival runs through next Tuesday with a new bill every day except Sunday.

The openers are ''Popcorn,'' a 1969 concert with the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Traffic, the Bee Gees and Joe Cocker, and ''Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones,'' a documentary of the group's 1973 United States tour.

Tomorrow: ''Pink Floyd,'' a 1975 film that includes the concert at the base of Mount Vesuvius, and ''Yessongs,'' from the same year. Call 222-3370. HALLELUJAH CHORUS

Toyce Anderson's 14 collages and oils in his latest exhibition, ''The Gospel Choir,'' artistically explore an enduring facet of black life - organized religion. The church scenes portray choirs and congregants, mostly female, as it usually is on Sunday mornings, and in ''Thank You,'' one of the display's most expressive works, a large-armed woman with arms raised and outstretched manifests her total faith.

The exhibition is on view at Gallery 62, 500 East 62d Street, at York Avenue, from 9 A .M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Fridays. Admissionis free. For information, call 310-9000.

For Sports Today, see page B18. C. Gerald Fraser

Summary: OLD WORDS   Some theater scholars contend that Heinrich von Kleist's ''The Broken Pitcher'' is one of the finest comedies of the German stage.  In the 10 years before his suicide in 1811, at the age of 34, he began a career in which he produced several plays. Von Kleist is a frequently performed playwright in German-speaking countries, but difficulties in translation have limited the performance of his works in English. ''The Broken Pitcher'' has not been seen in New York in 20 years.


WASHINGTON, June 18— Negotiators for the United Mine Workers and the coal industry reached tentative agreement tonight on a new 40-month contract for mine construction workers.

If ratified by the rank and file, the agreement would permit the first full-scale resumption of coal production in the Eastern and Middle Western states since late March.

The agreement was announced at a downtown Washington hotel by Elmo Hurst, president of the Association of Bituminuous Contractors, an industry group, and Willard Esselstyn, secretary-treasurer of the mine workers' union.

Neither Mr. Hurst nor Mr. Esselstyn would reveal details of the pact, but union sources said that it would provide some 11,500 construction workers with a 38 percent increase in wages and benefits over the length of the contract. Pickets to Be Removed

The agreement came after a three-hour bargaining session between labor and management, the first since talks collapsed here Sunday night.

Mr. Esselstyn said that picket lines set up by construction workers, which had kept as many as 60,000 union miners off the job, would be removed.

''We got an agreement,'' he said. ''I don't see any benefit to our picket lines at this time.'' The construction workers, who are members of the United Mine Workers union, walked off the job March 27, when a three-year contract expired. The U.M.W.'s 160,000 rank-and-file miners, who struck the same day, settled on a new 40-month contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association on June 6. Production Stalled in Some Areas

The tentative agreement would increase the average wages of a mine construction worker to about $10.75, from $7.85, over the contract. The miners' contract provided an increase of about 36 percent in wages and benefits over the contract, raising their average hourly wages to about $14, from $10.40.

Despite the miners' accord, coal production has been stalled by the continuing strike by the construction workers, who have been off the job for 82 days. At one point last week, picketing by the construction workers had shut down mines in seven Eastern and Middle Western states.

Before talks resumed, the union's 39-member bargaining council had met here to assess its position. ''We just wanted to bring them up to date on what was happening,'' a union spokesman, Eldon Callen, said of the bargaining council, which had been summoned to Washington over the weekend by union leaders when it appeared that an agreement was close at hand.

William Howe, one of the negotiators for the industry group, would not confirm whether the industry group had walked out of the talks Sunday, as Mr. Esselstyn maintained in a statement issued yesterday.

''We're not going to characterize anything for the press, to be quite frank with you,'' Mr. Howe said. In yesterday's statement, Mr. Esselstyn, the U.M.W.'s chief bargainer on the mine construction contract, also said that the two sides had been arguing over work jurisdiction, pension and health benefits and a policy on sick leave and personal leave.

Mr. Callen said that the bargaining council, which must approve any tentative contract settlement before it can be submitted to the mine construction workers, was scheduled to meet here Wednesday.


PARIS, May 21— Francois Mitterrand, the Socialist leader, was inaugurated today as the 21st President of France. But there was no ceremonial precedent, and public wonderment at each invention of the day added to the sense that something quite new was happening.

The last time a French President completed his term and handed over to a duly elected successor was in 1953, when Vincent Auriol turned over his office to Rene Coty. But since then the Fourth Republic has been converted to the Fifth, indirect election has been changed to a direct public mandate, and most important, the presidency has acquired vast new powers.

So is it going to be a really fresh start and a new France? The answer, like most things French, is contradictory. The stress by the newcomers was put on continuity and by those going out on the break with the past, itself a reversal of usage. One of ex-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's close aides confided: ''It's not just a change of government. It's a little revolution.'' Mr. Giscard's friend Michel Poniatowski, a rarity of public loyalty in the distasteful scramble off the sinking ship, predicted national bankruptcy and said France would ''regret'' rejecting Mr. Giscard within 18 months. The ex-President himself made clear that he doesn't expect to relish retirement and is holding himself ''available for the Republic'' as a ''refuge.''

But in his brief inauguration speech, Mr. Mitterrand called for reconciliation and pledged himself to ''pluralism'' as ''President of all the French.'' ''Hope was the only victor in the election,'' he said, and he wished it to become ''the thing best shared in France.''

Of course, the two tones have practical as well as emotional significance. The kind of government Mr. Mitterrand will run and his chance for success will depend on June's legislative elections. Pierre Mauroy, the new Prime Minister, will have the first allimportant task of leading the campaign.

Mr. Mauroy was clearly chosen for that purpose. By personal background and as Mayor of the depression-hit industrial city of Lille, he is identified with the workers and with aspirations for social justice. He is also reassuring to the middle class in a way that less political and more ideological figures would not be.

He has always been a moderate and a reformer. He backed Michel Rocard, who was candidate of the social democratic right wing, for their party's nomination until Mr. Mitterrand finally said he wanted to run again and Mr. Rocard withdrew.

The main themes of the Assembly campaign will be the same as in the last vote, with the subtraction of Mr. Giscard's personality, which came to rasp much of the public as harshly as Jimmy Carter's last year. That is, they will center on the fears Mr. Poniatowski mentioned and the danger of Communists coming into government versus appeals to support Mr. Mitterrand and give the Socialists enough seats to push the Communists to the fringe.

There has already been a sharp switch in Communist tactics as the party seeks to stanch or even reverse heavy losses it took in April. The fierce attacks on Mr. Mitterrand and the Socialists have been silenced, and the approach now is to save as much as possible by showing brand-new restraint.

But at this point, the outlook is for even greater Communist setbacks from the momentum achieved by the Socialists. New opinion polls show it, but the most impressive straw in the wind was union elections last week at the big Renault automobile plant outside Paris. The Communist-led union lost 5 percent of its support to pro-Socialist and centrist unions, a crucial sign.

One way or another, the first Cabinet will be broadened and changed at the end of June. If present prospects are confirmed, the second government is likely to have a few Communists but in minor, nonsensitive posts, and a certain number of people to the right of the Socialists but dissociated from both Mr. Giscard and Jacques Chirac, the hard-hitting neo-Gaullist who has emerged as leader of the opposition.

The biggest change for France then would be the paradoxical reduction of the Communists to marginal status while they may actually enter the Government, and no one can foresee how long they would stay. It certainly wouldn't change France's side on the global issues, though there will probably be more friction with the U.S. on third-world problems.

The key question after all is the economy. French bourgeois nerves are so jittery that the stock market has dropped 20 percent since Mr. Mitterrand's election, and the Bank of France has already had to spend $4 billion to prop up the franc. That will be the ultimate restraint on Socialist ideologues, and Mr. Mitterrand certainly is not one of them.

Style of government, though, will surely be different, more decentralized and probably more disputatious. As I said, the answer to how much France is about to change is contradictory. On balance it's likely to be familiar and not particularly unsettling to those with long memories, agreeable in several ways.


Mobil, U.S. Steel Argue Over Marathon

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 27 (AP) - The Mobil Corporation, attempting to overturn an acquisition agreement between the United States Steel Corporation and the Marathon Oil Company, charged in the Federal court here today that U.S. Steel and Marathon had conspired to block Mobil from buying the smaller oil concern.

In Pittsburgh, meanwhile, U.S. Steel criticized the terms of Mobil's offer for Marathon, saying that several conditions attached to Mobil's bid placed a ''substantial cloud'' over it. It was the steelmaker's first public comment on the Mobil offer since the oil company increased its bid Tuesday for up to 40 million shares, or two-thirds, of Marathon, in a deal valued at $6.5 billion.

U.S. Steel also announced that it had received commitments from a group of 33 United States and foreign banks to make $2 billion in unsecured loans, adding to the steelmaker's current $3 billion line of bank credit.

On Nov. 19, nearly three weeks after Mobil made its first bid of $5.1 billion, or $85 a share, for Marathon, U.S. Steel disclosed that it had agreed to acquire a 51 percent stake in the No. 17-ranked oil company for $125 a share in a total deal worth $6.3 billion in cash and notes.

Marathon, which has bitterly resisted Mobil's offer, had sought the competing bid from U.S. Steel. Hearing to Continue

At Mobil's request, Federal District Judge Joseph P. Kinneary in Columbus issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday against U.S. Steel's agreement with Marathon. A hearing on whether the injunction should continue began today and was scheduled to continue tomorrow.

Mobil opened the hearing by accusing U.S. Steel and Marathon of engaging in a ''blatant conspiracy'' to block Mobil's takeover effort.

John Elam, one of Mobil's lawyers, told Judge Joseph Kinneary that U.S. Steel and Marathon had entered into a ''sweetheart deal'' to make it impossible for Mobil or any other company to acquire Marathon stock and make a profit.

Mr. Elam cited Marathon's agreement to give U.S. Steel an option to buy Marathon's rich Yates oilfield in Texas for $2.8 billion in the event a third party gained control of Marathon. Mobil has said the field is worth more than that. Underestimation Charged

Under questioning by Mr. Elam, Marathon's president, Harold D. Hoopman, said the company's investment bankers, the First Boston Corporation, had placed the value of the Yates field at $3.7 billion. First Boston also said Marathon had underestimated the crude reserves in that field by 100,000 barrels, Mr. Elam said. Marathon owns a 49.6 percent interest in the Yates field and is the sole operator.

In explaining the discrepancy between Marathon's and First Boston's estimates of the field's worth, Mr. Hoopman said, ''It all depends on the factors involved, the assumptions'' in estimating how much oil can be recovered.

Mr. Elam also criticized U.S. Steel's unconditional option to buy an additional 10 million Marathon shares not yet issued for $90 apiece. He said that price was substantially less than the true worth of the stock.

''This was done to the detriment of Marathon stockholders, who had a right to know the results of giving 10 million shares to U.S. Steel for paper,'' Mr. Elam said.

In reaction to Mr. Elam's criticisms, Marathon's attorney, Patrick McCartan, told the court that Marathon was not required to spell out in disclosure statements what he called ''speculation'' about the potential effects of a merger.

In Pittsburgh, U.S. Steel issued a statement calling Mobil's revised offer ''unattractive,'' citing the several conditions Mobil attached to its bid. In addition to Marathon's antitrust challenge, the Federal Trade Commission is studying Mobil's offer and has until Dec. 5 to take action.

''All of these conditions and contingencies place a substantial cloud over the Mobil offer,'' U.S. Steel said. The major condition set out by Mobil was that its offer for a twothirds stake in Marathon was contingent on 30 million shares, or about 51 percent, being tendered. If it obtained the 51 percent, it said it would acquire the remainder by issuing 30-year debentures.

Judge Kinneary extended the withdrawal dates for Marathon offers to five business days after the date of a ruling on Mobil's request for an injunction against the U.S. Steel bid. ---- U.S. Steel Defends Bid

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 27 (AP) -David M. Roderick, chairman of U.S. Steel, defending the attempt to take over Marathon, said the company was not sacrificing its steel business to expand into other areas.

''The Marathon acquisition is being undertaken without threat to our steel or other business segments,'' Mr. Roderick said in a letter to employees released today.

''Let me stress that steel is our largest business, and we have every intention of maintaining that leadership position in the future as long as it holds prospects for a competitive return.''

Mr. Roderick also said that the company intended to go ahead with antidumping and countervailing duty suits against foreign steel imports because they were illegal and because trade abuses must be ended to restore vitality in the steel industry.

And he disputed allegations that profits from steel were being reinvested elsewhere in the corporation. ''We spent $2.67 billion for steel facilities in the five-year period 1976-80, although the operating income for the steel segment in the same period was only $66.4 million,'' he said.


MANILA— When President Ferdinand E. Marcos returned in late March from a six-day visit to Saudi Arabia, he found the National Assembly in heated debate over what would happen in the event of his death.

The debate involved a memorandum signed by Mr. Marcos informing Prime Minister Cesar E. Virata, his Cabinet and the members of the National Assembly that the chief of staff of the armed forces, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, had a directive concerning the operation of the Government should the President not return. The directive, it said, dealt with ''certain instructions, appointments and removals from office in the Government which will be released if anything untoward happens to our party.''

The memorandum, dated March 18, began circulating March 23, or two days before the President's return. The implication, opposition assemblymen said, was that the Prime Minister was not in charge, and that the military had been entrusted with the the operation of the Government.

''Does this mean civilian rule will be subordinated to military rule after Marcos?'' asked Salvador H. Laurel, an opposition member of the Assembly. The secret instructions, Mr. Laurel said, raised frightening questions about the Philippine Constitution and its provisions for a peaceful transition. President Responds

Moments after his arrival at the Manila airport, Mr. Marcos addressed the nation by television from a platform that had been erected on the runway.

''I understand,'' he said, ''that there was some kind of brouhaha about the instructions I left. Neither the opposition nor the majority should be worried. The instructions I left were simple.''

He said he had merely been trying to circumvent potential problems. For example, he said, if it should develop that there would be no quorum in the executive committee that would take over until a new President could be elected, General Ver had instructions on filling the vacancies and seeing to it that elections were called within the prescribed time of 45 to 60 days.

''Now what is wrong with that?'' the President asked. He said the instructions were explained in a videotape that he had left in his office. Authorizations Withdrawn

''But that's neither here nor there now,'' he said, ''because, thanks to the Almighty, I am here and I withdraw all authorizations.''

Mr. Marcos then called a Cabinet meeting to discuss the new financial and technical agreements made between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. On his trip, he was accompanied by 14 Cabinet ministers, his wife, Imelda, who is also Minister of Human Settlements, and his 26-year-old daughter, Imee, who appears to be in training for government service.

In his address to the nation, the President reported that his mission to Saudi Arabia had gone well for the Philippines, which, he said, will get the oil it needs. He said the overseas workers' program, which provides employment for 150,000 Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, would continue to grow. There will be direct air links between the two countries, he went on, and investment opportunities for the Saudis in the Philippines.

In addition, the Philippines and the Saudi Government apparently came to an understanding about the sensitive question of Moslem autonomy in the southern Philippines. Government Battling Guerrillas

For nine years, the Philippine Government has been fighting Moslem guerrillas in the hills of the island of Mindanao. Mr. Marcos's mission, though primarily economic, was also intended to demonstrate to the Saudis that the nearly 40 million Philippine Roman Catholics intended to live in peace with the 5 million Moslems in the south.

Mr. Marcos said he had outlined a program of development and good will for the Philippines' Moslems. That program, which provides for roads and energy projects, also includes a mosque in Manila and legislative council elections in the autonomous regions.

''We shall be studying the appointment of more Moslems to highranking positions in government,'' Mr. Marcos said in the televised speech.


The United States Steel Corporation, the nation's largest steel producer, reported yesterday that its first-quarter earnings plunged 70.5 percent, to $79.9 million, with most of the profit coming from the Marathon Oil Company, which U.S. Steel acquired after a long takeover battle.

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the No.2 producer, also reporting first-quarter results yesterday, said it lost $66.7 million, in contrast to a profit of $25.9 million in the first quarter of 1981. The LTV Corporation, a Dallas-based steel producer, said its earnings fell 57.1 percent, to $20.3 million, from $47.3 million. All three companies said steel orders had declined.

United States Steel's earnings fell to 88 cents a share, from $270.9 million, or $3.06 a share, for the first quarter of 1981, but sales grew to $5 billion, from $3.4 billion a year earlier, when Marathon was not included in the company.

U.S. Steel said Marathon's revenue and earnings were consolidated from Jan. 1 with a deduction for minority interests to reflect the company's 51 percent ownership in January, February and early March.

After stockholder approval of the $6 billion acquisition on March 7, the oil company's entire revenue and earnings were included in U.S. Steel's results for the last three and a half weeks of the quarter. U.S. Steel did not break out Marathon's contribution to the steel company's quarterly results.

''Marathon has been profitable on a historical basis,'' said Albert E. Ferrara, an official in the steel company's controller's office. ''Its earnings at present are roughly comparable to what they were a year ago.''

Joseph Wyman, an analyst with Shearson Loeb Rhoades, estimated that Marathon probably contributed around $1.7 billion in sales for the quarter. If Marathon was as profitable as it was last year at this time, he said, it may have contributed as much as $60 million of the $79 million U.S. Steel earned for the quarter.

''That means two things,'' Mr. Wyman said. ''First, that most of its profit for the quarter probably stems from Marathon, and second, that it only had a fairly minor loss on its steel-producing properties.''

David M. Roderick, U.S. Steel's chairman, said: ''Despite the impact of a business recession that has been far more severe than anticipated, steel incurred only a modest loss. All other operatiions either broke even or were profitable.'' He added that steel shipments, which dropped to 3.2 million tons in the quarter from 4.2 million in the year-earlier period, were at the lowest nonstrike levels in 40 years and that ''our asset redeployment program continues on target.'' Bethlehem Steel

Bethlehem Steel Corporation's loss of $66.7 million during the first three months of 1982 compared with earnings of $25.9 million, or 59 cents a share, in last year's first quarter. Revenues were down almost $300 million, to $1.56 billion, from last year's firstquarter total of $1.86 billion.

Donald H. Trautlein, Bethlehem's chairman, said at the annual meeting that steel orders for the quarter, at 2.4 million tons, were the lowest in 10 years.

''There's nothing esoteric about it,'' said Peter L. Ancor, an analyst with the First Boston Corporation. ''Bethlehem has suffered because of low volume and substantial price discounting.''

Analysts said that Bethlehem was the ''purest'' of the steel companies reporting earnings yesterday. That is, its production is not so diversified as U.S. Steel, which has Marathon properties, or LTV, which has holdings in energy production, aerospace and ocean shipping. LTV Corporation

LTV, the parent of Jones & Laughlin Industries, the nation's thirdranked steel company, said its earnings fell to $20.3 million, or 39 cents a share, from $47.3 million, or $1.30 a share, for the period last year. Revenues fell by 3 percent, to $1.69 billion, from $1.75 billion in the first quarter of 1981.

LTV said the earnings from the company's energy-related activities in oil and gas exploration did increase during the quarter, but that such increases were more than offset by the decline in steel orders. Steel accounted for 59 percent of LTV's sales, and 54 percent of its profits last year.


Constance Lelia Rogers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Allen Rogers of New York, was married yesterday to John Havemeyer Tilton Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Tilton of Sugar Hill, N.H. The Rev. Ernest E. Hunt 3d performed the ceremony in the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany.

Mary Ann Tilton, sister of the bridegroom, was maid of honor.

Frederick Seidler Tilton was best man for his brother. The bride, an art consultant in New York, graduated from the Brearley School and magna cum laude from Radcliffe College and received a master's degree in art history from Columbia University. She attended the New York Junior Assemblies in 1970. Her father is a publishing consultant in New York.

Mr. Tilton, director of the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, graduated from the Tilton School and Babson College and attended the University of New Hampshire Graduate School of Business. His father, who is an artist, is a former New Hampshire State Representative.

The bridegroom is a grandson of the late Dr. Victor Seidler of Montclair, N.J., a surgeon, and the late George Havemeyer Tilton, a Broadway playwright.


05/27/2015 AT 05:00 PM EDT

has filed court papers to throw out the wrongful death suit filed by the stepchildren of the woman killed in

in February on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California.

left one driver, Kimberly Howe, 69, dead and five others injured.

In early May, Howe's two stepchildren, William Howe, 57, and Dana Redmond, 60, filed the lawsuit alleging that the impact of Jenner's SUV "propelled" her into the other lane.

Jenner, 65, responded to the familyâs suit stating they lack standing to assert a wrongful death claim because they were "not financially dependent upon the decedent for the necessities of life." Jenner claims their family connection to the victim does not give them the right to sue for wrongful death, according to court papers obtained by PEOPLE.

Right after the accident, Jenner released a

calling the accident, "a devastating tragedy."

"I cannot pretend to imagine what this family is going through at this time," he said.

Summary: The accident left one driver, Kimberly Howe, 69, dead and five others injured


FORTUNE — When CEO Carlos Ghosn hired Johan de Nysschen a year ago to rebuild Nissan’s Infiniti franchise, he was recruiting someone who had learned a top luxury franchise’s playbook backwards and forwards.

De Nysschen cut his teeth at Audi, leading Volkswagen’s luxury brand in the U.S. to a status with consumers not reached before, higher in regard than General Motors’ GM Cadillac and Ford’s F Lincoln and, more impressively, a legitimate alternative to BMW, Mercedes and Toyota’s TM Lexus. The first car to be sold under the South African-born auto executive’s tenure as Infiniti’s leader is the Q50, a sedan that reflects de Nysschen’s decision to change nomenclature. By the time he arrived, it was too late to tweak the car’s technical or design features.

Previously the Q50 would have been one of Infiniti’s G series midsize sedans. Under de Nysschen’s edict, all Infiniti cars revert to Q, plus a numerical multiple of ten that indicates the car’s size. All crossovers will be identified with a QX, plus a number indicating size. (But Infiniti announced an exception this week: the G37, with a smaller engine, will continue to be sold as such before being discontinued in 2015.)

MORE: Luxury automakers’ 12 most deluxe cars

Joe DeMatio, deputy editor of Automobile magazine, said Infiniti has failed to establish itself as a first-tier luxury brand over the two decades of existence largely because its models have been inconsistent. “De Nysschen seems as well qualified as anyone to steer this ship,” said De Matio. “It all comes down to whether mothership Nissan is willing to spend the money to create great product.” DeMatio applauded Infiniti’s two-year-old venture into F1 racing, a move designed to create awareness, especially in Europe and Asia, where the brand is weak.

The nomenclature change, returning to Q, might seem small, though for de Nysschen even the tiniest details mean a lot. A Nissan NSANY executive said his ability to spot nits is already becoming legendary: Upon receiving his first Infiniti company car, he noticed that the plastic cap on the A/C accessory outlet was askew, pointed out the flaw and had it straightened it. Customers for luxury cars are extremely — some might say obnoxiously — demanding about perfection, and not just in the obvious categories in which a luxury vehicle must excel: ride, handling, comfort, safety, and power.

De Nysschen has made his presence felt in other ways as well. He reportedly vetoed Nissan’s plan to create a luxurious Infiniti version of the battery-powered Nissan Leaf, preferring to divert capital toward development of what are rumored to be a high-end sedan, another small luxury car, and an ultra-high-end sporty coupe. (For a hint at the coupe Infiniti might be conjuring, recall that Audi created the stunning, $200,000 mid-engine R8 to burnish the entire brand.) Infiniti competes only in 60% of the car and truck segments that are considered luxury, he wants the brand to compete in 90% of them.

MORE: How business just won in Detroit

Another De Nysschen initiative was moving Infiniti headquarters away from Nissan and out of Japan, to Hong Kong. Again, one wonders if the model is the location of Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, deliberately distant from its parent VW in Wolfsburg. For Infiniti to realize its economic potential, the brand must become a global symbol of luxury to Chinese, European, and South American consumers — not just to more Americans.

The process could take a decade and cost multiple billions, with no assurance of success. If he’s like his former German compatriots at Audi, De Nysschen doesn’t regard failure as an option.

Summary: Johan de Nysschen built Audi into a powerhouse. Can he do it again for Nissan?


It’s one of many disappointing buildings from the controversial “urban renewal” era, 1,000 feet of red brick and thick concrete window casements that look onto the widely despised bloc of Brutalist architecture known as Boston City Hall and its empty plaza.

Even the architect in charge of renovating Center Plaza, Haril Pandya, acknowledges the crescent-shaped building suffers from a “long relentless façade” and exists largely as “something to get through and not go to.”

But Pandya’s client, Shorenstein Properties, says it will spend about $20 million to renovate the nine-story office-and-retail building, the result of which will be . . . 1,000 feet of red brick and thick concrete window casements.

Stuck with a challenging façade that would be prohibitively expensive to remove or to change substantially, Shorenstein is concentrating on fixing other problematic aspects of Center Plaza, namely its cavernous street-level arcade, a dark and dank space that feels more like a parking garage than an open-air pedestrian walkway.

“The whole experience is tired and dated,” said Kevin Kuzemchak, senior vice president at Shorenstein.

The building’s open-air arcade is “something to get through and not to go to,” said Haril Pandya, the architect tasked with renovating the 1,000-foot office-and-retail complex.

Residents and activists say the planned skyscraper could spawn other large developments that would block the waterfront.

To turn the street-level portion of Center Plaza into a “true destination,” Kuzemchak said, the company plans to install new pavers, benches, lighting, and greenery to make it “more like an outdoor veranda.”

The retail mix will also change, with more locally owned restaurants, higher-end shops, and maybe even venues with live music.

“We’re absolutely convinced it has a lot of potential,” Kuzemchak said.

Center Plaza was built by the Leventhal family in stages in the late 1960s, when the urban renewal movement was replacing whole neighborhoods of the older, small-scale wood-frame buildings that characterized Boston with brawny boxes of brick, concrete, and stone. Back then, the new office complex — it includes One, Two, and Three Center Plaza, all interconnected — was well-received, though Walter Muir Whitehill, former director of the Boston Anthenaeum and a writer, once described it as a “skyscraper mercifully laid on its side.”

The architecture from that period has been much criticized, but it still has fans.

“A lot of buildings from that era get a bad rap,” said Tim Love, president of the Boston Society of Architects and a principal at the architecture firm Utile. “You can take these much-maligned buildings and make it turn out quite well. They just need a little tender, loving care.”

Renderings by CBT Architects of Boston

After millions in renovations, the plaza will feature new locally owned restaurants, highend shops, and possibly music venues, as well as new pavers, benches, lighting, and greenery.

Maria Bellalta, the dean of landscape architecture at Boston Architectural College, said Shorenstein has an opportunity to turn Center Plaza into a more sightly complex.

“It has a sort of nice shape, but it’s still very bland,” she said.

Shorenstein, which bought Center Plaza from Blackstone Group for $307 million in 2013, is focusing its redevelopment effort on the top and bottom of the building.

The most visible change would be at the roofline. Center Plaza has top-floor offices toward the back that can’t readily be seen from the street; the front of the roofline, along Cambridge Street, is empty. Here, Pandya proposes adding about 20,000 square feet of glass boxes that would be “really amazing office spaces.”

The top of the building would be dotted with open roof gardens that he said would provide a “majestic view” of downtown, the North End, and beyond.

The façade, though, isn’t going anywhere.

Pandya, a principal at CBT Architects, said he was also retained by Blackstone when it owned Center Plaza, and he drew up a proposed redesign in 2007. Pandya said he toyed with having glass or metal panels on the exterior, rather than brick, and possibly making the windows larger. But the striking curved front could not be eliminated without a near-total demolition of the entire complex, and Pandya said that Blackstone concluded it was just too expensive and not worth the effort.

“At the end of the day, we said it’s not really the façade that needs to be better. It’s the whole experience that needs to be better,’” Pandya said.

Summary: Shorenstein Properties says it will spend about $20 million to renovate the crescent-shaped office-and-retail building.


"Silicon Allee" may not have the same ring as Silicon Valley, but California's success in turning out technology giants like Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Google has spawned other would-be "Silicons" across Europe.

Aspirants include the well-established Tech City in London, as well as newer hot spots like the small Baltic countries.

Factors that can make or break a "Silicon wannabe" include a strong education system, solid political, economic and legal systems, technical infrastructure, engineering talent and funding opportunities.

Read on to find out which European "Silicons" may have what it takes.

View more: Fierce competition in Silicon Valley

—By CNBC's Katy Barnato. Contribution from Arjun Kharpal.

Summary: “Silicon Allee” may not have the same ring as Silicon Valley, but California’s success has spawned would-be “Silicons” across Europe.