Well: Ask Well: The Nutrients in Fruits and Veggies

The colorful skin of an apple, grape or tomato is certainly chockfull of nutrients. But by no means are the outer layers of most fruits and vegetables the prime source of their nutrition.

Part of what makes some fruits and vegetables so rich with color – wax and pesticides notwithstanding – are pigments in the skin that have healthful antioxidant properties. Resveratrol, for example, is found in the skin of red grapes and other fruits. But lycopene, one of the pigments that gives tomatoes and bell peppers their deep red color, is distributed throughout.

Indeed, many vitamins and nutrients are found in the skin as well as the flesh. Take apples. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a large red apple with its skin intact contains about 5 grams of fiber, 13 milligrams of calcium, 239 milligrams of potassium, and 10 milligrams of vitamin C. But remove the skin, and it still contains about 3 grams of fiber, 11 milligrams of calcium, 194 milligrams of potassium, and plenty of its vitamin C and other nutrients.

Another example is the sweet potato. The U.S.D.A. says that a 100-gram serving of sweet potato cooked with its skin contains 2 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, and 20 milligrams of vitamin C. But the same sized serving of sweet potato without skin that has been boiled — a process that further leaches away some of its nutrients — still boasts 1.4 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fiber, and 13 milligrams of vitamin C.

You can lose the skin, in other words, without losing all the benefits.

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Room for Debate: Should Companies Tell Us When They Get Hacked?

A National Priority and a Business Priority

Lauren Gelman, BlurryEdge Strategies

Like pollution, an insecure infrastructure is bad for everyone. Disclosing security breaches reintroduces the public's collective interest.

Disclosure Plays Into Hackers’ Hands

Alexander Tabb, partner, research and consulting firm

By requiring companies to disclose security breaches, we would be requiring them to telegraph their weaknesses to the world.

Investors Need to Know

Jacob Olcott, Good Harbor Security Risk Management

It’s not that the events aren’t happening. It’s that you're not being told about them -- despite the S.E.C.'s instructions.

We Need Better Notification Laws

Lee Tien, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Existing laws focus mainly on whether a breach exposed information, not why it happened. Yet the reason can be critical.

More Disclosure Is Not Always Better

Baruch Fischhoff, decision sciences, Carnegie Mellon

People may exaggerate the risk of hacking if they suddenly start hearing about a lot of it. Or they may get used to frequent reports and underestimate the risks.

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Police Replace Pistorius Detective in Embarrassing Setback

PRETORIA, South Africa — The South Africa police replaced the lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius homicide case on Thursday after embarrassing revelations that he was under investigation himself for seven criminal charges of attempted murder.

The decision by the national police commissioner to remove the investigator, Hilton Botha, was the latest in a series of abrupt twists and setbacks in the prosecution of Mr. Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of killing his girlfriend. It caused a further delay in the defendant’s hearing on his request to go free on bail in the case that has riveted South Africa and much of the world.

The commissioner, Riah Phiyega, said Mr. Botha would be relieved by Lt. Gen Vinesh Moonoo, whom Ms. Phiyega described as the country’s “top detective,” The Associated Press reported.

The attempted-murder accusations hanging over Mr. Botha only compounded questions about his work on the Pistorius case. Under cross-examination on Wednesday, Mr. Botha was forced to acknowledge sloppy police work and to concede that he could not rule out Mr. Pistorius’s version of events in the shooting death of his girlfriend based on the existing evidence.

“The poor quality of evidence presented by chief investigating officer Botha exposed the disastrous shortcomings in the state’s case,” Mr. Pistorius’s defense lawyer, Barry Roux, said on Thursday.

The courtroom itself became part of the drama on Thursday when the magistrate hearing the case ordered an abrupt and brief suspension because of an unexplained “threat to the court.” The case was later adjourned until Friday.

While the prosecution has accused Mr. Pistorius, 26, of premeditated murder in the killing, Mr. Pistorius has said he opened fire through a locked bathroom door thinking there was an intruder in his home in a gated community and had no intention of killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29, a model and law-school graduate.

When the bail hearing resumed on Thursday — Mr. Pistorius’s fourth court appearance since the shooting on Feb. 14 — the chief prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, began by acknowledging the attempted murder charges against Mr. Botha, but said prosecutors did not realize that the case had been reinstated when Mr. Botha testified against Mr. Pistorius on Wednesday.

Mr. Nel went on to assail Mr. Pistorius’s defense of his actions in the early hours of Thursday one week ago, when, the athlete has said, he did not realize Ms. Steenkamp was no longer in bed as he rose to investigate the supposed intruder, shouting to her to call the police.

“You want to protect her, but you don’t even look at her. You don’t even ask: Reeva, are you all right?” Mr. Nel said. “His version is so improbable.”

Earlier, the hearing dwelt for some time on the absence of urine from Ms. Steenkamp’s bladder when she died, consistent, the defense said, with the suggestion that she simply went to the toilet rather than fled from Mr. Pistorius after an argument as the prosecution asserts.

Mr. Roux, the defense lawyer, said she may have locked the toilet door after hearing Mr. Pistorius call out that an intruder was in the house.

The case has continued to take a toll on Mr. Pistorius’s global reputation as an emblem of athletic prowess and of triumph over adversity. On Thursday, Nike became the latest corporate sponsor to suspend ties with him. “We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the company said in a statement on its Web site.

Here in Pretoria, in a development that seemed as bewildering as it was sensational on Thursday, a police brigadier, Neville Malila, said earlier that Detective Botha was set to appear in court in May facing attempted murder charges relating to an episode in October 2011, when Mr. Botha and two other police officers were accused of firing at a minivan carrying seven people.

“Botha and two other policemen allegedly tried to stop a minibus taxi with seven people. They fired shots,” Brigadier Malila said.

South African news reports said the 2011 shooting happened when the officers were pursuing a man accused of killing and dismembering a woman.

Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said “the decision to reinstate was taken on Feb. 4, way before the issue of Pistorius” or the shooting death of Ms. Steenkamp “came to light.”

“It’s completely unrelated to this trial,” the spokesman said.

Mr. Botha was quoted in South African news reports as denying claims that he was drunk during the episode in question. He said he and other officers had aimed at the wheels of the minivan without causing injuries and he was convinced that the case had been withdrawn.

The Pistorius case has riveted South Africa and fascinated a wider audience, reflecting Mr. Pistorius’s status as one of the world’s most renowned athletes, whose distinctive carbon-fiber running blades inspired the nickname Blade Runner.

He was born without fibula bones in both legs and underwent amputation before he was one year old. Yet he went on to become a global Paralympic champion and the first Paralympic sprinter to compete against able-bodied runners in the 2012 London Olympics.

The questions surrounding Detective Botha surfaced on Wednesday after he explained how preliminary ballistic evidence supported the prosecution’s assertion that Mr. Pistorius had been wearing prosthetic legs when he shot at a locked bathroom door early on Feb. 14. Ms. Steenkamp wasbehind it at the time.

Mr. Pistorius said in an affidavit read to the court on Tuesday that he had hobbled over from bed on his stumps and had felt extremely vulnerable to a possible intruder as a result.

Lydia Polgreen reported from Pretoria, South Africa, and Alan Cowell from London.

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Prosecutors: Pistorius top cop should be dropped

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Prosecutors reinstated attempted murder charges against a policeman leading the murder investigation into Oscar Pistorius, in the latest twist in a case that has captivated South Africa and threatens to bring down a national idol.

The announcement that detective Hilton Botha faces reinstated charges in connection with a 2011 shooting incident came a day after he testified for the prosecution in Pistorius' bail hearing, and by all accounts bungled his appearance. He acknowledged Wednesday that nothing in the world-famous athlete's account of the fatal Valentine's Day shooting of his girlfriend contradicted what police had discovered.

The spokeswoman for the nation's prosecutors urged that Botha be removed from the Pistorius case.

Pistorius, an Olympic runner whose lower legs were amputated when he was less than a year old, claims he mistook girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot her through a locked door in a bathroom in his home. Police said Pistorius fired four shots, hitting Steenkamp three times.

Bulewa Makeke, spokeswoman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority, acknowledged Thursday that the timing of the attempted murder charges against the detective was "totally weird" but said Botha should be dropped from the case against the athlete. However, Makeke said the charges against Botha were reinstated on Feb. 4, before his testimony Wednesday and even before Steenkamp was killed. Police said they were notified Wednesday of the reinstated charges which stem from a 2011 shooting incident in which Botha and two other officers allegedly fired at a minibus.

Makeke indicated the charges were reinstated because more evidence had been gathered. She said the charge against Botha was initially dropped "because there was not enough evidence at the time. But then, obviously the investigation continued up to the fourth (of) February and the senior public prosecutor was in a position to make a decision to reinstate the case."

She emphasized that it is a decision for police and not prosecutors whether to take Botha off the Pistorius case, one that has riveted the world's attention and is bringing scrutiny on South Africa's justice system.

"Is he going to be dropped from the case? I don't know. I think the right thing would be for him to be dropped," Makeke said outside Pretoria Magistrate's Court shortly before Pistorius' bail hearing went into a third day. "Obviously there will be consultations between the two (police and prosecutors) to determine what is the best course of action."

Pistorius' main sponsor Nike, meanwhile, suspended its contract with the multiple Paralympic champion, following eyewear manufacturer Oakley's decision to suspend its sponsorship. Nike said in a brief statement on its website: "We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situation closely."

Botha was summoned unexpectedly by the magistrate at the start of Thursday's proceedings and was questioned for around 15 minutes before being excused — but only after it took him around 40 minutes to get to the courtroom.

Pistorius' bail hearing began on Tuesday and is already running behind schedule, with it expected to have been completed on Wednesday.

Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair asked the defense of Pistorius' bail application: "Do you think there will be some level of shock if the accused is released?"

Defense lawyer Barry Roux responded: "I think there will be a level of shock in this country if he is not released."

Opposing bail for Pistorius, prosecutor Gerrie Nel painted a picture of a man "willing and ready to fire and kill," and said signs of remorse from Pistorius did not mean that the athlete didn't intend to kill his girlfriend.

"Even if you plan a murder, you plan a murder and shoot. If you fire the shot, you have remorse. Remorse might kick in immediately," Nel said.

As Nel summed up the prosecution's case opposing bail, Pistorius began to weep, leading his brother, Carl Pistorius, to reach out and touch his back.

"He (Pistorius) wants to continue with his life like this never happened," Nel went on, prompting Pistorius, who was crying soflty, to shake his head. "The reason you fire four shots is to kill," Nel persisted.

Earlier Thursday, Nair questioned Botha over delays in processing records from phones found in Pistorius' house following the killing of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and budding reality TV contestant.

"It seems to me like there was a lack of urgency," Nair said as the efficiency of the police investigation was again questioned after Botha conceded to a string of blunders on the second day of the hearing.

They did not discuss anything relating to the attempted murder charges against Botha and if he should continue on the case. Police say that Botha and two other police officers fired at a minibus they were trying to stop, and will appear in court in May to face seven counts of attempted murder.

Pistorius, in the same gray suit, blue shirt and gray tie combination he has worn throughout the bail hearing, had stood ramrod straight in the dock as the magistrate arrived Thursday and then sat calmly looking at his hands as Roux picked apart the prosecution's argument. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the athlete was slumped over and sobbing uncontrollably at times as detail was read out of how Steenkamp died in his house.

Roux continued to cast doubt on the state's case and the investigation, following up after lead investigator Botha conceded Wednesday that police had left a 9 mm slug in the toilet where Steenkamp died, had lost track of illegal ammunition found in the home and that Botha himself had walked through the scene without protective shoe covers, possibly contaminating the area.

"The poor quality of the evidence offered by investigative officer Botha exposed the disastrous shortcomings of the state's case," Roux said Thursday. "We cannot sit back and take comfort that he is telling the truth."

Roux also raised issue of intent, saying the killing was not "pre-planned" and referred to a "loving relationship" between the two.

He said an autopsy showed that Steenkamp's bladder was empty, suggesting she had gone to use the toilet as Pistorius had claimed. Prosecutors claim Steenkamp had fled to the toilet to avoid an enraged Pistorius.

"The known forensics is consistent" with Pistorius' statement, Roux said. The lawyer said the evidence does not even show Pistorius committed a murder. In summing up the defense argument in the bail hearing, Roux asked that bail restrictions be eased for Pistorius.

Nel presented the prosecution's case before proceedings ended for the day, and said that Pistorius hadn't given guarantees to the court that he wouldn't leave the country if he was facing a life sentence. Nel also stressed that Pistorius shouldn't be given special treatment.

"I am Oscar Pistorius. I am a world-renowned athlete. Is that a special circumstance? No." Nel said. "His (Pistorius') version (of the killing) is improbable."

Nel said the court should focus on the "murder of the defenseless woman."

Botha also testified earlier Thursday — and after he was surprisingly recalled — that he had investigated a 2009 complaint against Pistorius by a woman who claimed the athlete had assaulted her. He said that Pistorius had not hurt her and that the woman had actually injured herself when she kicked a door at Pistorius' home.

Botha was only questioned briefly before he was excused by Nair, but South Africa's prosecuting authority and the police still had to make a decision over whether the 24-year police veteran would be removed from the investigation because of the charges against him.

The hearing was to continue Friday morning, with the possibility of magistrate Nair ruling then if Pistorius can be freed on bail before trial.

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AP Sports Writer Gerald Imray in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

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Well: The Benefits of Exercising Outdoors

While the allure of the gym — climate-controlled, convenient and predictable — is obvious, especially in winter, emerging science suggests there are benefits to exercising outdoors that can’t be replicated on a treadmill, a recumbent bicycle or a track.

You stride differently when running outdoors, for one thing. Generally, studies find, people flex their ankles more when they run outside. They also, at least occasionally, run downhill, a movement that isn’t easily done on a treadmill and that stresses muscles differently than running on flat or uphill terrain. Outdoor exercise tends, too, to be more strenuous than the indoor version. In studies comparing the exertion of running on a treadmill and the exertion of running outside, treadmill runners expended less energy to cover the same distance as those striding across the ground outside, primarily because indoor exercisers face no wind resistance or changes in terrain, no matter how subtle.

The same dynamic has been shown to apply to cycling, where wind drag can result in much greater energy demands during 25 miles of outdoor cycling than the same distance on a stationary bike. That means if you have limited time and want to burn as many calories as possible, you should hit the road instead of the gym.

But there seem to be other, more ineffable advantages to getting outside to work out. In a number of recent studies, volunteers have been asked to go for two walks for the same time or distance — one inside, usually on a treadmill or around a track, the other outdoors. In virtually all of the studies, the volunteers reported enjoying the outside activity more and, on subsequent psychological tests, scored significantly higher on measures of vitality, enthusiasm, pleasure and self-esteem and lower on tension, depression and fatigue after they walked outside.

Of course, those studies were small-scale, short-term — only two walks — and squishy in their scientific parameters, relying heavily on subjective responses. But a study last year of older adults found, objectively, that those who exercised outside exercised longer and more often than those working out indoors. Specifically, the researchers asked men and women 66 or older about their exercise habits and then fitted them all with electronic gadgets that measured their activity levels for a week. The gadgets and the survey showed that the volunteers who exercised outside, usually by walking, were significantly more physically active than those who exercised indoors, completing, on average, about 30 minutes more exercise each week than those who walked or otherwise exercised indoors.

Studies haven’t yet established why, physiologically, exercising outside might improve dispositions or inspire greater commitment to an exercise program. A few small studies have found that people have lower blood levels of cortisol, a hormone related to stress, after exerting themselves outside as compared with inside. There’s speculation, too, that exposure to direct sunlight, known to affect mood, plays a role.

But the take-away seems to be that moving their routines outside could help reluctant or inconsistent exercisers. “If outdoor activity encourages more activity, then it is a good thing,” says Jacqueline Kerr, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who led the study of older adults. After all, “despite the fitness industry boom,” she continues, “we are not seeing changes in national physical activity levels, so gyms are not the answer.”

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Euro Watch: Manufacturers Survey Points to New Downturn in Euro Zone

LONDON — Hopes the euro zone might emerge from recession soon were dealt a blow on Thursday, as surveys showed the downturn in the region’s businesses worsened unexpectedly this month — especially in France.

The data came a day before the European Commission is due to announce interim economic forecasts for the 27-nation bloc, including which countries did not meet E.U. budget deficit targets.

European stock indexes were lower, following sharp declines in Asian benchmarks, and the euro slipped against the dollar. Analysts attributed the declines to nervousness about economic growth, especially following indications Wednesday that the U.S. Federal Reserve is divided on maintaining stimulus measures.

Economists had expected that the Markit Flash Eurozone Services PMI, a business survey and one of the earliest monthly indicators of economic activity, would add to tentative signs that a recovery is in the offing.

But the indicator fell in February to 47.3 from 48.6, marking a year below the 50 threshold for growth and confounding expectations for a rise to 49.0 from more than 30 analysts polled by Reuters, none of whom forecast such a poor reading.

Markit said the schism between Germany and France — the two biggest economies in the euro zone — was now at its widest since the survey started in 1998.

While companies in Germany sustained a healthy rate of growth, French services companies are in the midst of their worst slump since early 2009, when the financial crisis and subsequent recession were doing their worst.

“If it wasn’t for Germany, these would be really dire readings,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. “At least the German economy is still helping to keep the euro zone afloat in some respects.”

He said the latest survey pointed to the euro zone economy shrinking 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent in the first quarter, following an estimated 0.4 percent contraction at the end of last year.

A Reuters poll of economists last week suggested the economy would merely stagnate this quarter.

By far the most worrying aspect of the data released Thursday was the dismal performance of French companies.

Mr. Williamson said the data for France were more befitting a struggling “peripheral” euro zone economy like Spain or Italy, rather than the “core” status that France traditionally shares with Germany.

By contrast, Germany has enjoyed a good start to the year. German investor morale soared to its highest level in nearly three years this month, according to the ZEW research institute, while the federal statistics office said on Tuesday that employment hit its highest level in the fourth quarter since reunification.

Still, there are limits to what German prosperity can do for the rest of the region, blighted by harsh budget austerity and rising joblessness.

The latest Markit survey suggests that the “positive contagion” noted by the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, in January may be more in hope than expectation.

New orders at euro zone service sector companies — which include banks, information technology companies, hotels and restaurants — declined at a faster rate this month, with the index sinking sharply to 46.0 from 48.4 in January.

The survey also dashed optimism that the slump in euro zone factories would ease further in February, as the manufacturing index barely moved, to 47.8 from 47.9 in January.

Output fell at a faster rate, although new export orders brought at least a glimmer of hope, as the index rose to 51.7 in February from 49.5 - its first above-50 reading since June 2006.

The composite index, which combines both the services and manufacturing surveys, fell to 47.3 in February from 48.6 in January.

Companies cut more jobs, although not as quickly as in January, when layoffs rose at the fastest pace in more than three years.

In afternoon trading in Europe the Euro Stoxx 50, a barometer of euro zone blue chips, was down 1.75 percent. National benchmarks were down by more than 1 percent, with the MIB in Milan down 2.42 percent.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225-stock index closed down 1.39 percent, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 1.72 percent.

The euro was at $1.3207, down from $1.3340 late Wednesday in New York.

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IHT Rendezvous: True or False? The Tussle Over Ping Fu's Memoir

Did Ping Fu, a prominent Chinese-American businesswoman and author of a recent memoir, “Bend, not Break,” make up her horrible experiences during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution in order to gain United States citizenship? Did they help her become an American by claiming political asylum?

That’s what her critics, many of them fellow Chinese-Americans, say. It’s an accusation that can stick. As a recent New York Times investigation showed, claiming persecution has spawned an immigration industry involving lawyers prepping clients to make false asylum claims.

As I write in my Letter from China this week, Ms. Fu is being accused of making up a lot of things in her memoir. She’s also a successful entrepreneur: the U.S. government honored Ms. Fu, the founder of the software company Geomagic (in the process of being sold to 3D Systems), with a “2012 Outstanding American by Choice” award.

Ms. Fu is on the board of the White House’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and is a member of the National Council on Women in Technology, according to the Web site of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Ms. Fu, who says in her memoir she was “quietly deported” to the U.S. in 1984 for writing about female infanticide while still a college student, denies the accusations. But until now she hadn’t explained in public how she became an American.

In an interview with the International Herald Tribune, she said, apparently for the first time, the reason she kept quiet was she was trying to protect her first husband, an American, whom she does not mention in her memoir. The marriage took place while she was living in California, she said.

“I had a first marriage and that’s how I got my green card,” she said by telephone. She married on Sept. 1, 1986 and divorced three years later. Until now she had kept silent because of a “smear” campaign against her online, mostly by fellow Chinese who accuse her of lying, which extended to real-life harassment, she said: “They smear my name, they try to get my daughter’s name on the Internet, they sent people to Shanghai to surround my family and to Nanjing to harass my neighbors.” She said the accusers, who are “angry” for reasons she doesn’t really understand, contacted U.S. immigration authorities to challenge her award and her citizenship, as well as shareholders of 3D Systems to warn them she was a “liar,” and not to buy Geomagic. Her second husband, Herbert Edelsbrunner, whom she has since divorced, received many “hate e-mails,” she said. “I just don’t want to hurt innocent people.”

If a first, unpublicized marriage might lay to rest one contentious issue, there are others. Some were the result of exaggeration or unclear communication with her ghostwriter, MeiMei Fox of Los Angeles, she said.

In the interview, she volunteered an example of an error: a widely criticized account of the ‘‘period police,’’ the authorities who checked a woman’s menstrual cycle to ensure she wasn’t pregnant in the early days of the one-child policy. To stop women substituting others’ sanitary pads for inspection, they were sometimes required to use their own finger to show blood. Through a misunderstanding with Ms. Fox, Ms. Fu said this was portrayed as the use of other people’s fingers — an invasion of the woman’s body.

Ms. Fox “wrote it wrong,’’ she said. ‘‘I corrected it three times but it didn’t get corrected.’’ Women used their own finger to show blood, she said, but the mistake went into print anyway.

In general, Ms. Fox may have ‘‘just made some searches on the Internet that maybe weren’t correct,’’ Ms. Fu said.

Chiefly the errors involved use of the words ‘‘all, never, any,’’ that generalized unacceptably, Ms. Fu said. And, ‘‘She doesn’t know China’s geography,’’ she said.

At the beginning of her memoir, Ms. Fu writes of being kidnapped by a Vietnamese-American on arrival in the U.S. state of New Mexico and locked in his apartment to care for his very young children, whose mother had left, in a bizarre incident. A spokeswoman at the Albuquerque Police Department’s Records Office, where the alleged kidnapping took place, said she could not locate such an incident in their records. Asked about it, Ms. Fu repeated that she did not press charges as, fresh from China, she was terrified of all police, “So I don’t know how they keep records, if there is no criminal charges or record.”

And in an e-mail to me, she admitted she made mistakes about a magazine she said she helped edit, called Wugou, or “No Hook,” produced in 1979 by students at her college, then called the Jiangsu Teacher’s College (later it changed its name to Suzhou University, she said.) It was not that magazine but another one, This Generation, that was taken to a meeting in Beijing of student magazine writers from around the country, she wrote in the e-mail. “A good case that shows everyone’s memory can be wrong,” she wrote.

But bigger questions about the scale of the online vitriol from parts of the Chinese and Chinese-American community remain. “I really haven’t known China for 20-something years, and it didn’t occur to me that what I wrote would generate so much anger,” she said. In the last years, “as China got stronger, nationalistic views got stronger,” she said, making a “civil conversation” about disagreements apparently harder.

Additional reporting by Cindy Hao in Seattle.

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Armstrong facing Wednesday deadline with USADA

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lance Armstrong is facing a Wednesday deadline to decide whether he will meet with U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials and talk with them under oath about what he knows about performance-enhancing drug use in cycling.

The agency has said Armstrong's cooperation in its cleanup effort is the only path open to Armstrong if his lifetime ban from sports is to be reduced.

Armstrong has given mixed signals about whether he plans to talk with USADA officials. Armstrong attorney Tim Herman previously suggested Armstrong would not meet with USADA before the agency's original Feb. 6 deadline. The two sides then agreed to give Armstrong another two weeks to work out an interview with investigators.

Armstrong previously denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but in January admitted doping to win seven Tour de France titles.

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Ask an Expert: Questions About Hearing Loss? A Help Desk

This week’s Ask the Expert features Neil J. DiSarno, who will answer questions about hearing loss. Dr. DiSarno is the chief staff officer for audiology at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. From 1998 to 2012 he was chairman of the department of communication sciences and disorders at Missouri State University. Following are the types of questions that Dr. DiSarno is prepared to answer.

Neil J. DiSarno of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

¶My wife has told me she believes I’m not hearing as well as I used to. What sort of specialist should I see and what can I expect?

¶I’ve been told that I should consider using hearing aids. If I decide to, how much better am I likely to hear?

¶I’ve noticed that my 2-year-old granddaughter’s speech is not developing properly. Neither her mother or the pediatrician seem to be concerned, but I suspect there is a problem. What do you suggest?

¶I use hearing aids, but still have great difficulty hearing conversation in restaurants and in large group settings. Is this common and is there something more that I can do to improve my ability to function in those settings?

Please leave your questions in the comments section. Answers will be posted on Wednesday, Feb. 27. (Unfortunately, not all questions may be answered.)

Booming: Living Through the Middle Ages offers news and commentary about baby boomers, anchored by Michael Winerip. You can connect with Michael Winerip on Facebook here. You can follow Booming via RSS here or visit nytimes.com/booming and reach us by e-mail at booming@nytimes.com.

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DealBook: Office Depot and OfficeMax Announce Plans to Merge, After Erroneous Release

10:21 a.m. | Updated

Office Depot and OfficeMax announced plans to merge on Wednesday, just hours after an erroneous news release about the deal surfaced briefly.

Under the terms of the deal, Office Depot said it would issue 2.69 new shares of common stock for each share of OfficeMax. At that level, the transaction would value OfficeMax at $13.50, or roughly $1.19 billion, a premium of more than 25 percent to the company’s closing price last week.

The deal has been anticipated, as the companies face an increasingly difficult competitive environment. Both companies, which are burdened with big real estate footprints, have struggled against lower-priced rivals like Amazon.com and Costco. By uniting, the two companies should be able to reduce costs and better negotiate prices.

“In the past decade, with the growth of the Internet, our industry has changed dramatically,” Neil R. Austrian, chairman and chief executive of Office Depot, said in a statement. “Combining our two companies will enhance our ability to serve customers around the world, offer new opportunities for our employees, make us a more attractive partner to our vendors and increase stockholder value.”

While the deal has been years in the making, it was initially announced prematurely. A news release announcing the merger of the companies was posted on Office Depot’s Web site early on Wednesday morning, but it quickly disappeared.

Several news organizations reported the terms disclosed in the errant news release for Office Depot’s earnings. The details were buried on page four of the release, under the header “Other Matters.”

As the details filtered through the market, shares of the companies jumped. In premarket trading, Office Depot’s stock rose more than 7 percent, while OfficeMax shares were up more than 8 percent.

The episode is reminiscent of other times that companies’ earnings releases were published prematurely. Last fall, Google’s third-quarter earnings were published three hours early, which the technology giant blamed on a mistake by R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the company’s printer.

Representatives for Office Depot and OfficeMax were not immediately available for comment on the erroneous release.

Strategically, the deal makes sense, as the companies face a changing competitive environment.

Combined, the companies reported about $4.4 billion in revenue for their third quarter of 2012; in comparison, Staples disclosed $6.4 billion in revenue for the same period.

Office Depot has also been under pressure from an activist hedge fund, Starboard Value, which sent a letter to the retailer’s board last fall. In it, Starboard called for more cost cuts and a greater focus on higher-margin businesses like copy and print services. With a 14.8 percent stake, Starboard is the company’s biggest investor.

In announcing the deal, the two companies emphasized their new financial heft.

With the merger, the retailers expect to generate $400 million to $600 million in annual cost savings. The combined entity would also have $1 billion in cash, providing additional firepower to invest in the business.

“We are excited to bring together two companies intent on accelerating innovation for our customers and better differentiating us for success in a dynamic and highly competitive global industry,” Ravi K. Saligram, chief executive of OfficeMax, said in a statement. “We are confident that there will be exciting new opportunities for employees as part of a truly global business.”

Each company will have an equal number of directors on the board of the combined retailer. Before the deal closes, OfficeMax will pay a special dividend of $1.50 a share to its shareholders.

OfficeMax was advised by JPMorgan Chase and the law firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Dechert. Office Depot was counseled by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, while its board was advised by the Peter J. Solomon Company, Morgan Stanley and Kirkland & Ellis. Perella Weinberg Partners provided financial advice to the board’s transaction committee.

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