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Young Tech Sees Itself in Microsoft’s Ballmer

Written By Unknown on Senin, 26 Agustus 2013 | 12.07

James Best Jr./The New York Times

Tech companies rarely manage to thrive from one generation of technology to the next. Only a few of the big ones — I.B.M., Intel and Apple — have done it.

SAN FRANCISCO — As a young executive at Microsoft, Steven A. Ballmer helped topple older, slower-moving technology giants like the Digital Equipment Corporation, Wang and Novell.

These days, it is Microsoft's turn to fend off the upstarts as it struggles to compete in a computing world that is increasingly mobile and based in a "cloud" of Internet-connected computers to which many customers gain access at the same time. It's all part of the inevitable life cycle for technology companies.

"Getting disrupted is the defining characteristic of this industry," said Aaron Levie, the chief executive of Box, an online data storage company. "You can even have a near monopoly like Microsoft did, and then everything gets redefined."

Mr. Ballmer will not have to take Microsoft into the future; last Friday, he announced that he would retire within a year. But young executives like Mr. Levie are not gloating over Mr. Ballmer's exit. They know well that one day — if they are lucky to be as successful as Mr. Ballmer — they could face the same problem.

"It just feeds my already-healthy sense of paranoia," Mr. Levie said.

The rare tech company manages to thrive from one generation of technology to the next. Only a few of the big ones — I.B.M., Intel and Apple — have done it. And it is not yet clear if Microsoft has a clear path to joining that list of multigeneration kingpins.

Mr. Ballmer was closely identified with the personal computer revolution, and later with corporate software running on computer servers. Those innovations brought Microsoft the cash and talent to adapt to the early Internet with the Explorer browser, and diversify into online gaming.

What it could not buy Mr. Ballmer, the younger generation in tech says, was a clear vision of the future. Apple and Google have led development of smartphones and a long list of companies like Amazon.com have led the development of cloud computing. Microsoft, meanwhile, has often had to play catch-up.

"All technology aspires to be legacy," said Scott Dietzen, chief executive of Pure Storage, a data storage start-up. "It's that or obsolescence."

"The most powerful factor," he added, "is that the very best talent is drawn to doing something disruptive to the legacy, something new and fresh. And in this business the best are so much more productive than anyone else."

During Mr. Ballmer's tenure as chief executive at Microsoft, the company had considerable growth. Mr. Ballmer led the creation of the Windows Phone operating system, which received good reviews but has struggled to gain traction in the market, and Microsoft's efforts in cloud computing. Also under his leadership, the company acquired Skype, an Internet communications service, for $8.5 billion, and paid $1.2 billion for Yammer, a social network for business.

But the breakthroughs, whether they were in Internet search, smartphones or Internet-based software, have usually happened somewhere other than Microsoft.

Mr. Levie, 28, grew up near Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Several of his schoolmates' parents worked for Microsoft. Few of his generation, he said, followed their parents there. Among those who did, he said, few stayed.

"I think about being 40 or 50 and being disrupted," said Mr. Levie, whose company was founded in 2005. "You can be a visionary, and have a great business model, but no tech company can avoid it. There is no quick way to transition into the next thing."

The closest to a safeguard, he said, is to be "like Amazon: race to the bottom on prices ahead of your competition, keep profit margins low and make things tough for them."

Mr. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980, and its breakthrough software, Windows 3.0, was released in 1990. Its stock peaked in December 1999, shortly before Mr. Ballmer replaced Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and his close friend, as chief executive. Since then, Microsoft's shares have fallen about 33 percent.


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As Egyptians Ignore Curfew, Talk of a U.S.-Brotherhood Conspiracy

CAIRO — The sounds made lately by curfew violators here are mostly not shouts or gunshots, but the clacking of dice on wooden backgammon boards, the clicking of dominoes on cafe tables crowded with hookahs and grumbling fueled by years of upheaval.

When the conversation turns to politics, the predominant topic is a surprise to American ears: the conspiracy between the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy Egypt.

However crackpot that view may sound, it is widespread among supporters of the military, which ousted the Muslim Brotherhood's elected president, Mohamed Morsi, last month.

For journalists who ventured out Saturday night in violation of the curfew, the biggest danger was not from police officers and soldiers at checkpoints, but from angry men with a chip on their shoulders and a grudge against Al Jazeera, the Western press and America.

The "people's committees," which sprung up in Egyptian neighborhoods as a counterweight to the Muslim Brotherhood, in theory were disbanded last week. But that did not stop self-appointed guardians in the Zaki Street market of the Maadi neighborhood from repeatedly demanding identity documents, letters of permission and, especially, proof of not being affiliated with Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network, which is reviled because it is owned by Qatar, a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

As patrons of the Red Apple Cafe ignored the new 9 p.m. curfew, the presence of an American elicited bountiful conspiracy theories, all of them involving America's plan to destroy Egypt through its paid Brotherhood confederates. Even innocuous questions about the curfew, which on Saturday was shortened two hours, became ideologically fraught. "What are you doing, why are you asking about curfew?" yelled one man. "It is something internal." A group of other men surrounding an interpreter, their faces only inches from his, introduced themselves by saying, "We are not thugs," before proceeding to threaten and berate their interlocutors.

Egyptians have always shrugged off curfews. Cairo's night life continues pretty much as normal in places like Maadi and especially in poor and working-class areas, where street life provides some relief to people who live in hot apartments.

On Zaki Street, the cafes were full of smokers of shisha, the flavored tobacco burned in water pipes, and of backgammon players. Outside, the driver of a horse-drawn cart full of canisters of cooking gas clanged his cans to announce his presence, and Farouq, a middle-aged man making deliveries to supermarkets with a motorcycle-drawn cart, stopped to talk.

"Americans are with the Muslim Brotherhood," Farouq stated in a tone suggesting that it was common knowledge. "O.K., you did something good when you killed Osama bin Laden, but now you are with Al Qaeda. You support the terrorists."

A strong anti-American undercurrent has always existed in Egypt, but such views are more normally associated with radicals and Islamists, and in reaction to American support for Israel.

But now anti-American sentiment is being stoked by an outpouring of dubious pronouncements from both state and private news media. Anti-Americanism has even been given the ultimate imprimatur of state tolerance: billboards. One next door to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for instance, shows President Obama with a beard like those worn by the Brotherhood, alongside a more flattering picture of the clean-shaven military leader, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi.

Youm 7, which claims to be the Arab world's biggest news Web site, recently invited reader reactions to a forum titled "America and Al Qaeda: One Hand Against Egypt." Hundreds responded.

"Maybe it's insane," allowed Khaled Salah, Youm 7's editor in chief, "but we are in a time when crazy things are happening." Egypt's leaders have carefully avoided anti-American rhetoric, Mr. Salah said. "After a time, rationality will return."

The origin of the idea of a terrorist-friendly America is opaque. Many cite money given to the Brotherhood, but what they are referring to is the $1.5 billion in American aid to the government of Egypt, which flowed to Mr. Morsi's government as it did to the government before it, and as it continues to do since the military takeover. Most of that, $1.2 billion, goes to the Egyptian military, and none of it goes to the Brotherhood.

In fact, Mr. Obama has taken a great deal of criticism for not cutting off aid to Egypt after the military crackdown killed more than 1,100 people, most of them Brotherhood protesters.

"We've been blamed by supporters of Morsi; we've been blamed by the other side as if we are supporters of Morsi," Mr. Obama said on Aug. 15 when he announced the only real American sanction so far in response to the violence, the cancellation of a joint military exercise. "That kind of approach will do nothing to help Egyptians achieve the future that they deserve."

Many Egyptians refer to YouTube clips played repeatedly by the pro-military news media, quoting Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, who recently equated giving $1.5 billion in aid to the Morsi government with support for terrorists.

Back in the Maadi neighborhood, supporters of the military offered similar theories. "The American and Muslim Brotherhood project is to separate Egypt into different parts," shouted Yahyeh, a builder, his face contorted with hatred. Ahmed, an engineer who said he had worked 22 years for Xerox in Cairo, was only slightly less hostile. "Egyptians have always liked America, but now they don't understand how it has changed," he said.

But a few contrary voices could be heard on Saturday night.

"Show me any evidence that America supports the Brotherhood," said Ahmed Abdullah Wahed, a driver, after listening to others in the crowd. "General Sisi was even trained in America. Where is the evidence?"

Another man had some advice for how his questioners should handle curfew checkpoints. "Whatever you do, don't tell them you're American journalists," he said. "Just say you're tourists."


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A Blazing Giant Stirs California to High Alert

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Inmate firefighters hiked amid glowing forest on Highway 120 on Sunday as the Rim Fire burned along the northwest edge of Yosemite National Park.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — A wildfire near Yosemite National Park — already one of the biggest in California's history — continued to grow on Sunday, prompting mandatory evacuation orders for some residents and raising anxiety among officials because of the potential threat to a major source of San Francisco's water and power supplies.

The so-called Rim Fire had burned about 134,000 acres as of late Sunday — about 9,000 acres more than it had the previous day — making it the 14th largest fire since California began keeping records on wildfires in 1932 and the second largest in Tuolumne County.

Officials said that firefighters had contained about 7 percent of the fire, which began just over a week ago, and that it had caused no loss of life or significant property damage. And although the fire has burned some acreage in Yosemite, the most visited area of the park, the Yosemite Valley, is not threatened so far, officials said.

Despite its size, the fire has not threatened population centers or heavily trafficked parts of Yosemite, but it was more the potential of the fire than the actual damage so far that spurred officials into action. Officials said that the fire tripled in size from Wednesday to Thursday and then doubled again from Thursday to Friday.

Even though the spread of the fire had slowed by Sunday, officials said that it was still growing, and that they worried that strong winds could whip the blaze into unpredictable directions and further endanger firefighters.

"We've had success to the west," said Jerry Snyder, a spokesman for the federal Forest Service, "but the north is still expanding."

Nearly 3,000 firefighters are involved, some brought in from as far away as Florida, officials said, and the Forest Service has deployed nine helicopters.

State and local officials prepared for the possibility of home evacuations and disruptions to public utilities. The weekend began with a declaration by Gov. Jerry Brown of a state of emergency for San Francisco County.

Many eyes were on the status of public utilities in the Bay Area, about 140 miles west of Yosemite. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission said on Sunday that the fire had not affected the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which supplies water to 2.6 million customers. That reservoir accounts for 85 percent of San Francisco's water supply, but the commission emphasized in a statement that it also had "a large supply" of water stored in local reservoirs.

"We are monitoring water quality every minute of each day to ensure its quality and safety," the utility said.

Tuolumne County officials announced that all schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday, mere days after the school year began. Most schools in the county opened on Wednesday.

"We felt it's the safest for the kids to close the schools," said Joseph A. Silva Jr., the Tuolumne County schools superintendent, citing both the air quality and the amount of equipment, like fire trucks and bulldozers, around the schools closest to the fire. He said the decision was made in conjunction with the multiagency incident command for the Rim Fire, a public health officer and the county's Air Pollution Control District.

The fire has also caused economic concerns in Tuolumne County, which stretches from about 30 miles west of Yosemite almost to the eastern edge of the park. Because a majority of the county's land area is inside the park, its economy is heavily reliant on tourism.

One store owner, Dan Vaughn of Pinecrest General Store, told The Sacramento Bee that sales had dropped by 95 percent since the fire began.

Residents in Pine Mountain Lake, on the southwestern side of the fire, were being allowed to return to their homes on Sunday afternoon after a mandatory evacuation order. As that was happening, four or five homes in a sparsely populated area to the southeast of the fire were put under a mandatory evacuation order, Mr. Snyder said, and residents of Tuolumne City and Ponderosa Hills to the northwest were under an evacuation advisory as the fire continued to spread in that direction.

As of Sunday afternoon, the fire had destroyed 23 structures, including at least 4 homes, officials said. But there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The largest wildfire in California's history was the 273,246-acre Cedar Fire in October 2003, which killed 15 people. The largest in Tuolumne County was the Stanislaus Complex Fire in August 1987, which burned 145,980 acres and killed one person.

The fear is that the current fire may eclipse the county's record before being knocked down.

"You can look for the size to change upward," said Mr. Snyder of the Forest Service.

Max Whittaker reported from Yosemite National Park, and Maggie Astor from New York.


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Shock and Memories on Long Island Footbridge Where Teenager’s Body Was Found

But on Sunday, some had come to the park not to relax but to mourn. The footbridge that arches over a busy road, connecting a soccer field to a strip mall, drew a trickle of those who had known Lauren Daverin, the 18-year-old whose body was found there on Thursday night.

Tied to the green fencing of the footbridge was a poster covered in messages of love and remembrance, some from Ms. Daverin's large, close-knit family, including one from her husband of 10 months, Kashawn Gresham, a member of the military who was stationed in the South.

"You will always be loved," he wrote. "You made me the luckiest man in the world."

Below the sign stood candles and flowers; farther down, the bridge was coated with a layer of shattered bottles, flattened cigarette packs and graffiti, left behind by the young people who gather here on many nights, above the cars and away from parental or police supervision.

The Nassau County police said they arrested Maxwell Sherman, 18, of Long Beach, on Saturday. He was held without bail on Sunday on charges of second-degree murder.

Residents of this middle-class suburb were at a loss to explain how the park — where children sled in winter, the middle school's soccer team practices and flocks of geese wander — became the site of a killing, even at a spot known for attracting under-age drinking.

"Summer weekends, it's a place to drink and not get in trouble, or caught," said Charlie Cunningham, 23, who said he had known Ms. Daverin since they were children. "People live here, people cross here. That's what's scary."

After dark, dozens of teenagers and older friends would often come to sit in the soccer field below the footbridge, drinking beer and smoking, several of Ms. Daverin's friends said. Eventually, they would migrate to the bridge, wandering down to the local pizzeria or the King Kullen supermarket for snacks when they got hungry.

Ms. Daverin, who was from the neighboring community of Lynbrook, was one of a crowd of young people who formed loose connections through parties and casual encounters. Though many nights were spent at house parties, friends said, those who were under age, and many who were not, were drawn to the bridge as a cheap and secluded place to gather.

Few seemed to know much about Ms. Daverin's past or future. They remembered her as bubbly and spontaneous, able to make friends in minutes.

"Always the person," said Kathleen Glass, 23, "that when you were upset, she'd be the one to make you laugh."

Ms. Daverin had been married since October. One of her friends, Nadirah Watkins, 20, said Ms. Daverin told her that the marriage was on shaky ground. But if she was upset, she did not show it, appearing lively and happy at Fourth of July parties around town, leaping to greet friends with hugs. She and some of her friends had been relaxing on the bridge Thursday evening when a few of them broke off to find food.

The others decided to go home, said Michael Reichelson, 16, a friend of Ms. Daverin's younger siblings, leaving her alone to wait for her other friends.

The police have not released the cause of death, saying only that she was pronounced dead at the scene, shortly after 10 p.m. on Thursday. She was naked except for her boots. Mr. Sherman's lawyer could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

Looking toward where the body was found, Ms. Watkins said she often came to the bridge. "I don't think I'll come back," she said. "It was hard enough walking up here today."


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Weiner Involved in Car Accident

"This morning, on the F.D.R. Drive, there was a chain reaction car accident," the spokeswoman, Barbara Morgan, said on Saturday.

Mr. Weiner was a passenger in the car. He then went to Washington, where he took part in ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

"All are O.K.," Ms. Morgan said in a statement. "Anthony is appreciative to the F.D.N.Y. and E.M.S. for their quick and expert response."

Mr. Weiner, a former congressman and city councilman, led the crowded Democratic mayoral primary field in polls soon after entering the race in May, but his numbers dropped significantly after he acknowledged, late last month, having continued to send explicit messages and photographs to women after resigning from the House of Representatives in 2011.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the accident involved three cars, but provided no other details.


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The Lede: Scenes From the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 25 Agustus 2013 | 12.07

Last Updated | 9:24 p.m. As my colleagues reported, tens of thousands of people from across the country streamed onto the National Mall on Saturday for a daylong commemoration of the approaching 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

It was on Aug. 28, 1963, that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his renowned "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The speech and the march helped bring about passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Representative John Lewis, 73, Democrat from Georgia and the youngest speaker at the rally 50 years ago, urged the crowd on Saturday to fight for voting rights and immigration reform.

He recalled how he and other demonstrators were beaten by the police during a 1965 protest. "I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Ala., for the right to vote," he said. "I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us."

"You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down," he said. "You got to stand up. Speak up. Speak out, and get in the way. Make some noise!"

Other speakers included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader; the Rev. Al Sharpton; and Martin Luther King III, who said he could hear his father humming, "People get ready, there's a train a-coming."

"This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration," said Mr. King, the civil rights leader's oldest son. "Nor is this the time for self-congratulatory celebration. The task is not done. The journey is not complete. We can and we must do more."

Saturday's march is one of several events planned this month, including a speech by President Obama at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday, where he will be joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Busloads of people began to arrive earlier this week with many buses rolling in to R.F.K. Stadium just after dawn. Arriving on an overnight bus from New York, Joyce Renee Hill, 54, a retired nurse from the Bronx, told my colleague Ashley Southall that she hardly slept because she was so excited to get to Washington.

Ms. Hill, who has three children and five grandchildren, was accompanied to the rally by her daughter, Meagan, 34. "I want her to tell the children, so that it can go from generation to generation," she said. "I've seen it, been in it, lived it."

By 10 a.m., my colleague, Sarah Wheaton reported, the crowds stretched east from the Lincoln Memorial, lining both sides of the Reflecting Pool, as more filled the grassy areas to the side in a constant stream.

And throughout the day, people shared video and images from Washington, D.C., on Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms.

@HowardU makes it to the national mall for the 50th anniversary of the '63 March on Washington. we're here! http://t.co/2DBksFunhk

— Greg Carr (@AfricanaCarr) 24 Aug 13

RT @AFTunion: Cleveland Teachers Union members join March on Washington to reclaim promise of public #edu. #reclaimit http://t.co/i7PgKyD9zB

— Tarsi Dunlop (@TarsiDunlop) 24 Aug 13

Best Civil Rights Protest songs from the Maryland delegation at the 50th Anniversary March on Washington! #… https://t.co/BQGTMdmi2F

— K. Travis Ballie (@KTravisBallie) 24 Aug 13

My view of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. #ihaveadream #mlk #jobsandfreedom http://t.co/fduSYLMGZd

— Cyprian Bowlding (@cypavs) 24 Aug 13

New York Times readers offered their recollections of attending the march 50 years ago.

Some people returned to the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, including Rudolph Tobin and Edwina Love.

Rudolph Tobin marched in the March on Washington in 1963. 50 years later he's marching again! #mow50 #mow2013 http://t.co/0UTOiIfICX

— Erica Hilton (@ericahltn) 24 Aug 13

Ms. Love, 77, who lives just outside Washington, said that she was proud to participate in the march 50 years ago and return on Saturday. A student in Greensboro, N.C., during the lunch counter sit-ins, she said much has changed, noting that she can now eat where she wants "without being disturbed" because of her color. But she said she believes that "overt racism is still prevalent."

She hopes the march will galvanize younger generations to be more active. "I'm going to talk to my granddaughter," Ms. Love said.

Willie Brown, 64, told my colleague Jada F. Smith that he came by himself from Dover, Del. "I missed it in '63, I wasn't able to be here in '88" — for the 25th anniversary — "I had to be here today," he said, walking with a cane.

But the agenda hasn't changed much since those marches, he said.

"We've got to have more and better jobs. That's the way in which we all improve ourselves," Mr. Brown said. "If I make more money, when I go to the store I buy a better car, a better refrigerator, I move into a better house. Someone had to build that house, someone had to build that refrigerator. It trickles down. The person that signs the loan applications all the way down to the last guy on the food chain. Instead of eating at McDonald's every day I can go to a sit-down restaurant. It improves everyone's lives."

For #Trayvon #MOW50 http://t.co/dh4qVnNCi8

— organizerx (@organizerx) 24 Aug 13

Many of the young people interviewed at the march said they were inspired to attend because of their outrage over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. A jury acquitted Mr. Zimmerman of murder charges last month.

Sybrina Fulton, Mr. Martin's mother, spoke at the rally, urging people to fight against "stand your ground" gun laws and racial profiling.

Mazi Oyo, 27, of Brooklyn, told my colleague Ms. Wheaton that the Martin case "helped motivate a few extra people to come out."

He said the verdict prompted him for the first time to consider how he is perceived as a black man. "I have to be conscious of how another race sees me," he said. In his diverse, upper-middle-class neighborhood of Park Slope, "when I go to the store late at night, I have to dress a certain way."

His friend Jazmine Raveneau, 27, said she traveled from the Bronx to be a part of a "resurgence of activism" in her generation, something she thinks has dropped off between the first march and today.

Etiah Brookins, 36, of Queens, said she had long been active in civil rights, joining the Million Man March and other efforts over the years. She said her grandparents attended the March on Washington 50 years ago. Wearing a black T-shirt with a photo of Mr. Martin, she said she hoped people who came to the march because of his death would develop a new connection to the history of the civil rights movement and earlier black leaders.

For those unable to go to Washington, A Million Hoodies, an organization founded after the shooting death of Mr. Martin, led a virtual march online.

Although I physically can't be there, I support @MillionHoodies with the march of awareness and call to end #racialprofiling

— Victoria Katherine (@womyninblack) 24 Aug 13

Dana Miller, 20, a student at La Salle University, managed to participate in the march with a broken ankle. She traveled to Washington with a group from St. Paul's Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

On her Instagram account, alongside a photo of herself at the Martin Luther King Memorial, her foot in a cast, she wrote, "I know Dr. King is probably looking down and proud of everyone who came."

Sarah Wheaton, Ashley Southall, Jada F. Smith and Trip Gabriel contributed to this report.


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Tigers 3, Mets 0: Harvey Isn’t on His Game; With Scherzer Pitching, Neither Are the Mets

Jim Mcisaac/Getty Images

Matt Harvey's record fell to 9-5 as his E.R.A. crept up to 2.27.

The indicators were plain: sliders that spun but did not swerve, fastballs that whizzed but failed to explode, changeups that floated along capricious paths.

Even Matt Harvey, it turns out, is susceptible to fatigue.

Harvey, the Mets' ace, gave up 13 hits Saturday afternoon — the most any pitcher on the team has allowed this season — as his team fell, 3-0, to the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field. Despite the hits total, it was a fine start: he allowed only two runs over six and two-thirds innings. But Harvey was markedly unhappy after the game, acknowledging he was tired but blaming himself for being unable to discover a workaround.

"I'm getting pretty tired, but so is everybody," said Harvey, who is trying to finish his first full major league season. "You have to work through it and have to deal with it. It's a long season, and you need to figure out how to get things done. My performance the last couple starts has been pretty terrible."

Terrible would be an overstatement. Harvey threw his first complete-game shutout earlier this month.

Since then, though, he has lost his untouchable aura. He gave up four runs and eight hits during an Aug. 13 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. And he threw only 86 pitches during a scrappy outing Aug. 18 against the San Diego Padres.

The entire game Saturday seemed a struggle, too, as the hits piled up and the runners packed the bases.

Harvey gave up a run-scoring double in the second inning to Max Scherzer, the opposing starter, whose last hit came during the 2009 season. Austin Jackson's infield single later that inning sent home the only other run Harvey allowed. The Tigers added a run on a ninth-inning sacrifice fly.

The Mets' hitters went silent against Scherzer, who notched 11 strikeouts while improving his record to 19-1.

"As we've seen the last couple nights, we're taking strikes and swinging at balls," Mets Manager Terry Collins said. "That's not the approach you want."

Collins praised Harvey's resilience. On paper and on the scoreboard, he gave his team a chance to win.

But Collins said it was obvious from the early innings that Harvey was not at full strength.

Earlier this season, Harvey's slider — 93 miles per hour and sharp — seemed almost unfair to hitters. In his last few starts, though, it has not had the same bite.

"What we saw today is a guy who's working as hard as he can, but you're seeing the effect of his first full season up here," Collins said.

"It's a grind, and he's doing the best he can."

Collins has long emphasized the club's desire to have Harvey and Zack Wheeler, the Mets' other young pitching star, make it through a complete season. It is important, the Mets reason, that the two understand simply what it feels like, what a physical test it can be, to pitch this long.

Harvey pitched 1691/3 innings last year between Class AAA and the major leagues. With Saturday's start included, he is at 1781/3 innings this season. The next month, then, will be uncharted territory, a chance for him to ascertain his bodily limitations and explore ways to succeed beyond pure physicality.

"Everything's a learning process," Harvey said. "I've never been through this before, so obviously paying attention to it and figuring out ways to move past it is all part of learning and growing as a ballplayer."

INSIDE PITCH

Third baseman David Wright completed some basic running drills at Citi Field as he continued to rehabilitate a strained right hamstring, which has kept him on the disabled list since Aug. 3.


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Jets 24, Giants 21 (ot): Jets and Giants Provide Few Answers in Sloppy Game

Ben Solomon for The New York Times

The Giants' Prince Amukamara forcing an interception during the first half against the Jets, who won, 24-21, in overtime.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The preseason game between the Jets and the Giants on Saturday night was meant to answer some questions for each team's coaching staff. Most notably, could the Jets rookie Geno Smith play well enough to win the starting quarterback job over Mark Sanchez, the incumbent?

A less imperative question, but one that needs answering, is this: Can the Giants' offense score some touchdowns?

In a tedious game that ended with a 24-21 Jets victory in overtime, neither team got what it wanted. There was little competent offensive play by either team, and the ceaseless Jets drama under Coach Rex Ryan advanced to a new level of bizarre.

Looking overmatched, Smith threw three interceptions and carelessly stepped out of the back of the end zone for a safety. And yet, by the end of the game, he may have won the starting job by default. In the fourth quarter, Sanchez took a hard hit on his upper right arm and shoulder and left the game. His arm and shoulder were X-rayed, and he left MetLife Stadium without changing clothes or speaking to reporters.

Ryan said he did not know the severity of the injury. "I'm happy to get the win," he said.

The Giants' Eli Manning, a 10-year veteran, was poised and mistake-free but not especially productive. The Giants scored a touchdown on their first play from scrimmage — an 84-yard scamper by David Wilson — but they never crossed the goal line again. Worse, the Giants' starters converted one of eight third-down tries.

A 32-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff won the game for the Jets with 8 minutes 4 seconds remaining in overtime. But the game will not bolster the confidence of either team, and the coaching staffs are likely to think they still have many questions left unanswered.

Giants Coach Tom Coughlin shook his head when asked about the errors of his offense.

"Some of the things we did out there are ridiculous," Coughlin said. "Whatever is going on with the offense, we've got to solve it and solve it fast."

The troubles for the Giants' first-string offense closely resembled the problems they had in their last preseason game, when they failed to score three times despite being inside the opponent's 10.

The Giants' attempts to score from the Jets' 2 late in the first half were representative of their struggles throughout the preseason.

On third down, the Giants first tried running back Andre Brown up the middle. No gain. Then Manning tried to connect with Hakeem Nicks in the corner of the end zone. The pass was batted out of Nicks's hands.

"I can't explain it," Coughlin said. "I don't think there's any reason for us floundering like that."

As for the Jets, the quarterback who looked the best was the third-stringer, Matt Simms. He threw a 22-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter that helped get the game to overtime.

Sanchez was sacked on his first play from scrimmage and later fumbled a shotgun snap that was recovered by the Giants.

Scrambling on another pass, Sanchez threw on the run and was immediately hit by Marvin Austin, the Giants' 312-pound defensive end. After lying on the field for about 90 seconds, Sanchez walked off the field, gingerly flexing his right arm as he made his way to the bench.

Smith completed 16 of 30 passes for 199 yards with one touchdown. He also threw interceptions of several varieties.

In the first quarter, he threw a pass behind receiver Ryan Spadola that hit Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara in the chest. Amukamara held on for the interception.

Late in the quarter, Smith was under pressure when he threw a reckless pass deep over the middle. It went right to Giants free safety Stevie Brown, who made an easy interception.

In the second quarter, Smith tried to connect with tight end Jeff Cumberland on a quick slant, but Smith did not see Giants defensive end Justin Tuck dropping back into coverage.

The ball came directly at Tuck, who caught the ball for a third interception.

In the third quarter, going against the Giants' second-team defense, Smith led the Jets on a seven-play, 57-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Bilal Powell.

EXTRA POINTS

Stevie Brown, who had a breakout season in 2012 for the Giants, sprained his left knee returning an interception late in the first quarter Saturday. Tom Coughlin did not know the extent of Brown's injury, but he did not sound optimistic. "I feel bad for Stevie Brown," Coughlin said. "He planted his foot the wrong way." ... Terrell Thomas, who had not played since the 2011 preseason because of two serious knee injuries, was the Giants' nickel cornerback in the first half.


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Julie Harris, Celebrated Actress of Range and Intensity, Dies at 87

Warner Bros., via Photofest

Julie Harris, Richard Davalos and James Dean in the 1955 film "East of Eden," an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about a family in conflict.

Julie Harris, the unprepossessing anti-diva who, in the guises of Joan of Arc, Mary Todd Lincoln, Emily Dickinson and many other characters both fictional and real, became the most decorated performer in the history of Broadway, died on Saturday at her home in Chatham, Mass.

She was 87. The cause was not immediately known, said Francesca James, a longtime friend who was with her when she died.

Ms. Harris had a lengthy, overstuffed résumé as an actress, with dozens of movie and television credits, including the 1955 film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel of brotherly rivalry, "East of Eden," in which she played the girl who falls for the tormented younger sibling played by James Dean, and nearly eight years in the 1980s as an eccentric country singer on the prime time soap opera "Knots Landing." But perhaps more than any other performer of her era and her elevated stature, she owed her stardom and reputation to the stage.

Sometimes called the first lady of the American theater, she made her first Broadway appearance while she was still in college, and over the next half century-plus earned 10 Tony nominations, more than any other performer. The last was in 1997 for a revival of "The Gin Game," D. L. Coburn's mordant comedy about the contentious friendship between two isolated denizens of an old age home that emerges over a card table. She didn't win, though she'd been there and done that five times, the first performer to be so honored so often. Angela Lansbury and Audra McDonald have since matched this total, but in 2002, Ms. Harris won for the sixth time, a special Tony for lifetime achievement, putting her in a class by herself.

She was, if such a thing is possible, born to act. As a girl she declared to a high school drama teacher, "Acting is my life," and she was once described by the director and critic Harold Clurman as "totally designed to be a good instrument on the stage." Slim, red-haired, physically graceful though not especially athletic, she had the aura of delicacy but was not a mesmerizing beauty; nor was she a distinctive, public personality. In interviews, she was unremittingly humble, dwelling on what she deemed her failures far more than her successes and speaking of acting as an imperfectible craft for which the effort at rendering a character, not the finished result or the applause, is not only the challenge but the reward.

"Acting is always an adventure, and a struggle, and a quest to find the truth," she said. On another occasion, more than 30 years after her career began, she allowed that the work of an actor still had the capacity to frighten her.

"It's wanting to do it right, that's where the fear comes in, but who can say what's right?" she said, adding: "We're very delicate creatures, aren't we?"

Celebrated as she was, she was more artist than star, rarely associated with a long-running hit; only 6 of her more than 30 Broadway shows ran as long as six months. Renowned for her wide range and her dedication to each performance, even — or maybe especially — in plays that critics and audiences found wanting, she became a compelling figure by stepping into a role, the proverbial vessel filled by whatever character she had undertaken to play. The playwright John van Druten, who adapted Christopher Isherwood's novel "Goodbye to Berlin" into the play "I Am a Camera," the show that made Ms. Harris a star in 1952 (and later became the source material for the musical "Cabaret"), referred to her in a 1955 interview with The New York Times Magazine, as a glass pitcher.

"You pour in red wine, the pitcher looks red; pour in crème de menthe, it is green," van Druten said. "When she's by herself, Julie's almost transparent, almost nonexistent."

Ms. Harris made herself known in 1950 as a 24-year-old playing a 12-year-old, the loquacious, motherless, fiercely self-tormenting Frankie Addams, in Carson McCullers's adaptation of her own novel, "The Member of the Wedding." With her hair cut tomboy short, she spent virtually all of the play onstage, dreaming aloud, remonstrating with the sage family cook Berenice (played by Ethel Waters), hectoring her young cousin John Henry (Brandon De Wilde) and berating herself with the incessant needy bleat of loneliness. It required a huge effort, and Ms. Harris received the kind of notices that can — and in this case did — propel a career.


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Film on J. D. Salinger Claims More Books Coming

Weinstein Company

A new documentary on J. D. Salinger, who died in 2010, claims he left instructions to publish at least five more works.

LOS ANGELES — J. D. Salinger may not be done publishing after all, according to claims in a new film and book set for release next week.

Story Factory, via Associated Press

This 1953 photo of J.D. Salinger in Cornish, N.H., with Emily Maxwell, the wife of his close friend William Maxwell, is part of a new documentary and book to be released soon.

Mr. Salinger, who died in 2010 at the age of 91, has been known for a distinguished but scant literary oeuvre that was capped by the enormous success of his 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye."

But a forthcoming documentary and related book, both titled "Salinger," include detailed assertions that Mr. Salinger instructed his estate to publish at least five additional books — some of them entirely new, some extending past work — in a sequence that he intended to begin as early as 2015.

The new books and stories were largely written before Mr. Salinger assigned his output to a trust in 2008, and would greatly expand the Salinger legacy.

One collection, to be called "The Family Glass," would add five new stories to an assembly of previously published stories about the fictional Glass family, which figured in Mr. Salinger's "Franny and Zooey" and elsewhere, according to the claims, which surfaced in interviews and previews of the documentary and book last week.

Another would include a retooled version of a publicly known but unpublished tale, "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans," which is to be collected with new stories and existing work about the fictional Caulfields, including "Catcher in the Rye." The new works are said to include a story-filled "manual" of the Vedanta religious philosophy, with which Mr. Salinger was deeply involved; a novel set during World War II and based on his first marriage; and a novella modeled on his own war experiences.

For decades, those in touch with Mr. Salinger have said that he had continued to write assiduously, though he stopped publishing after a long story, "Hapworth 16, 1924," appeared in The New Yorker. But no one had made so detailed a public claim that Mr. Salinger had left extensive posthumous publishing plans.

Matthew Salinger, who is Mr. Salinger's son, and shares responsibility for the Salinger estate with Colleen O'Neill, the author's widow, declined to discuss plans or the book and film. He said Ms. O'Neill, who did not respond directly to a separate query, would also decline to comment.

In an interview earlier this year, Matthew Salinger said he was skeptical that the planned book and documentary would deepen public understanding of his father, who, he said, for decades had confined his intimate dealings to a small circle of seven or eight people.

The documentary is directed by Shane Salerno, a filmmaker who spent nine years researching and filming the movie that is set for release by the Weinstein Company on Sept. 6, and will air later on PBS in the American Masters series. The companion book, co-written by David Shields, is to be published by Simon & Schuster on Sept. 3.

Speaking in his Los Angeles office on Saturday, Mr. Salerno pointed to tables and shelves filled with previously unpublished photographs, hundreds of letters and even a handwritten World War II diary that belonged to one of Mr. Salinger's lifelong friends, a now-deceased fellow soldier named Paul Fitzgerald.

"If that's not the inner circle, I don't know what is the inner circle," Mr. Salerno said.

His understanding of the publishing plans, Mr. Salerno said, took shape "fairly late" in his research.

The book and film attribute the detailed account of the plans to two anonymous sources, both of whom are described in the book as being "independent and separate." Mr. Salerno declined to elaborate, other than to describe them as people who had not spoken to each other, but knew of the plans.

"The credibility of the last chapter," Mr. Salerno said of a final summary of publishing prospects, entitled "Secrets," "is in the 571 pages that preceded it." Mr. Salerno noted that he initially had some cooperation from members of the Salinger family, but they later withdrew support.

The book and film have been marketed with the promise of revelations about Mr. Salinger, whose penchant for privacy became a hallmark. Last week, Weinstein and Simon & Schuster began a promotional campaign that includes a poster image of Mr. Salinger with a finger to his lips, beneath an admonition: "Uncover the Mystery but Don't Spoil the Secrets!" The book, a 698-page companion to the film, is written in an oral history style with snippets of text from dozens of people who were interviewed for the project.

Jonathan Karp, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in an interview on Saturday that the book was "a major journalistic feat."


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