After investing billions during the financial crisis, Warren Buffett’s company is now buying fewer stocks.

Closely Watched Buffett Recalculating His Bets

When the American Academy of Actuaries removed its leader, it set off a storm of criticism and legal wrangling.

Removal of Leader Stirs Anger Over Dealings of Actuary Group

Many authors, artists and publishers fear Google’s proposal to digitize works that are out of print but still have copyright protection.

Google Tackles Fears on Rights in Book Deal

The United States appears to be in no better position today to manage the failure of a large financial institution than it was a year ago.

A Breakdown on Handling Big Failures

Kraft Foods’ hostile bid for Cadbury was only the latest potential blockbuster deal in recent days. But activity is much lower than the last few years.

Signs of an Upswing in Merger Activity

Highly credentialed, unemployed professionals looking for purpose are volunteering for New York City campaigns.

Without a Job, but Working the Campaign Trail

Steadfast allegiance to the Democratic Party, Norman Podhoretz insists, flies in the face of Jewish interests.

Because They Believe

Ushering in a new generation of Broadway power brokers, Jordan Roth, a 33-year-old producer, finalized a deal to buy a stake in and to lead Jujamcyn Theaters.

A New Force on Broadway

“Shooting Stars” is a measured, modest book about four kids from Akron, Ohio, LeBron James among them, who became best friends off the court and a mighty force on it.

An N.B.A. Giant and How He Grew

Sebastian Barry’s new play is a lovingly acted, fiercely sentimental elegy for a marriage.

Looking Back, in Wistfulness and in Stereo

They might seem like kids’ stuff, but a sense of fun — and built-in portion control — have helped make the Japanese lunches called bento boxes increasingly popular with adults in the United States.

Bento Boxes Win Lunch Fans

Dozens of specimens from Disney films that have long been kept under lock and key will headline an unusual exhibition of memorabilia.

Blowing the Pixie Dust Off Disney’s Archives

Much of the American system of higher education is failing in its core mission of getting students to graduate, with only Italy ranking lower among rich countries.

Colleges Are Failing in Graduation Rates

“Crude,” a thorough and impassioned documentary of environmentalist advocacy, focuses its gaze on production rather than consumption.

Big Oil’s Stain in the Amazon

Gary Vaynerchuk, who has developed a rabid following through his online video series, Wine Library TV, has broken through class barriers in a way that no other wine critic has been able to.

Pop Goes the Critic

The Dogfish Head brewery has tried to recreate the Latin American beer chicha, traditionally made with purple corn that has been chewed by the brewers.

Chew It Up, Spit It Out, Then Brew. Cheers!

Differences of opinion about distractions behind the wheel are creating disputes among family members and friends.

Driver Texting Now an Issue in the Back Seat

BP will complete the survey amid controversy that oil and trade considerations could have played a role in the early release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Ali al-Megrahi.

BP Conducts Seismic Survey Off the Coast of Libya

Singapore’s state-controlled Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing sold for $1.8 billion.

Abu Dhabi to Purchase Chartered Semiconductor

The the company’s stock has risen in the last month, the government’s investment has merely been reshuffled.

Is the A.I.G. Rally a Little Early?

An article last Tuesday about a ticketing partnership between Lufthansa and JetBlue misstated some routes of Swiss International Air Lines, a Lufthansa subsidiary that will be included in the pact. The airline has daily direct flights from Zurich to Boston, as the article stated, but it has no direct flights from Geneva to Boston.

Corrections

An article on Friday about criticism of President Obama’s plan to address schoolchildren on Tuesday referred incorrectly to remarks by Mark Steyn, a Canadian author and political commentator, on the Rush Limbaugh show. (The Media Equation column in Business Day on Monday also included the incorrect reference.) Mr. Steyn made extensive reference to Saddam Hussein’s cult of personality in Iraqi schools, and said an attempt to create a “cult of personality at grade-school level” should have no place in the United States, but said he was not accusing the president of a “cult of personality on the kind of Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein scale." He did not explicitly compare the president to Saddam or the North Korean leader or say that Mr. Obama’s efforts were “analagous” to theirs. 

An article in some editions on Wednesday about the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the city by Debbie Almontaser, the founding principal of an Arabic-language school, misstated the circumstances of her departure from that position and referred imprecisely to comments she made in a newspaper interview. Ms. Almontaser resigned under pressure in 2007; she was not fired. In the interview, about an organization of Arab women that was selling T-shirts with the phrase “Intifada NYC” on them, Ms. Almontaser gave the roots of the word during the interview and generally defended the group, with which she was unaffiliated. But she did not specifically defend the use of “intifada” on the T-shirts. The same imprecision appeared in several other articles in 2007 about the controversy.

An obituary last Tuesday about the jazz vocalist Chris Connor included several errors. She joined the Stan Kenton Band in 1953, as the obituary indicated at one point, not 1952, and she spent less than 5 months singing with the band, not 10 months. The singer whom Ms. Connor replaced in the Kenton band was Kay Brown, not June Christy. And Ms. Christy was not “planning to leave Kenton” when she recommended that he hire Ms. Connor in 1953; she had already left the band, in late 1951. 

Aage Niels Bohr was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Roy Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". His father was Niels Bohr.

Aage Bohr, Danish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1922)

Aage_Bohr

Michael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno was an American Italian television presenter. After a few experiences in the U.S., he started working on RAI in the 1950s and was considered to be the most popular host in Italy. He was also known by the nickname il Re del Quiz, and the peculiarity of starting all his shows with his trademark greeting: Allegria!.

September 8, 2009

Headlines from September 8, 2009

Closely Watched Buffett Recalculating His Bets

Removal of Leader Stirs Anger Over Dealings of Actuary Group

Google Tackles Fears on Rights in Book Deal

A Breakdown on Handling Big Failures

Signs of an Upswing in Merger Activity

Billboard 200

Keep On Loving You

Twang

Ursa Major

Only By The Night

The E.N.D.

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for September 8, 2009