As many New York suburbs find themselves with an increasingly older population, communities must adapt to serve changing needs.

Suburbs See a Challenge as Residents Grow Older

The Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra pushes the frontiers of computer music using iPhones as instruments.

From Pocket to Stage, Music in the Key of iPhone

Dragon Age: Origins, a medieval epic, includes a same-sex romantic scene that has prompted a range of responses about the depiction of gay sex in mass entertainment.

New Video Game: Dungeons, Dragons and Now Gay Sex

Crowds are smaller at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, which runs through Sunday, and parties more intimate. The art, however, is big.

Miami Fair: Big Pieces, Smaller Prices and Relief

New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick’s philosophies will be sprinkled across the field on Saturday when the No. 1 Gators play the No. 2 Crimson Tide.

Influence of Belichick Extends to SEC Sidelines

On Monday, Amazon will begin selling stories, for $3.99 each, that were selected and edited by the staff at The Atlantic and are only available for the Kindle.

The Atlantic Will Sell Short Stories on Kindle

The actress Sharon Washington has vivid memories of a childhood — part fairy tale, part drama — spent living in Manhattan libraries where her father was a custodian.

Stoking the Furnace, and a Love for Books

Numerologists in India offer advice that uses mathematical formulas, and market themselves through infomercials, or writing newspaper columns or with Web sites.

Indian Soothsayers Offer Tips Using Numbers and Names

American soldiers’ role in urban areas has changed, meaning they now must let local forces handle security, even if imperfectly.

G.I.’s Learning to Stand Down as Iraqis Step In

Experts question the value of the expensive lymphoma drug Folotyn, which shrinks tumors but has not been shown to prolong lives.

Questioning a $30,000-a-Month Cancer Drug

After opposition from building owners, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has dropped the most far-reaching initiative of his plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Bloomberg Drops an Effort to Cut Building Energy Use

The Nets won for the first time this season, ending the worst start in N.B.A. history at 18 losses by beating the Charlotte Bobcats Friday night.

Fans Rejoice as Nets Earn First Victory

When the history of the Obama presidency is written, the day he decided on a troop surge may prove to be a turning point, a high-stakes gamble to turn around a losing war.

How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan

Four former governors who have grown old enough since leaving office to qualify for senior citizen discounts want their old jobs back.

4 Ex-Governors Craving Jobs of Yore

A video that simulates Tiger Woods’s accident has drawn attention to a new world of pseudo-journalism in Taiwan.

In Animated Videos, News and Guesswork Mix

As the Apple App Store evolves, it is changing the goals of developers, bolstering sales of iPhones and causing competitors to overhaul their product lines.

Apple’s Game Changer, Downloading Now

Hundreds, probably thousands, of Mexicans come to the United States to trade their plasma for dollars.

Is Money Tainting the Plasma Supply?

The Treasury’s mortgage-modification program relies on interest-rate reductions rather than principal cuts, which could cause a problem.

Why Treasury Needs a Plan B for Mortgages

Many Pakistanis have a bitter view of America. Conspiracy theories are rife. The bloody partition from India left scars that are difficult for foreigners to understand.

The Demons That Haunt the Pakistanis

It’s not about Afghanistan. It’s about a people straddling a border. They will likely make or break the American surge.

The War in Pashtunistan

Experts are endorsing a program in Malawi that gives money to poor extended families who take in orphans.

Aid Gives Alternative to African Orphanages

The Joyce Theater Foundation has leased the former home of the defunct New Dance Group, signaling a significant expansion at a time when many dance institutions are struggling to hold their ground. Choreographers, always desperate for affordable, suitable space, will now have access to 11 studios at 305 West 38th Street in Manhattan for rehearsals, auditions, classes and workshops. The newly christened DANY Studios (the letters stand for Dance Art New York), which feature storage and lounge areas, pianos and audio-video systems, will be available for rental daily, from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., with some hourly fees as low as $5. The lease runs through November 2016. The Joyce received grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Bloomberg L.P. and has applied for Department of Cultural Affairs funds, but expects the space to pay for itself within the next few years, primarily through subsidized rentals. DANY Studios is an addition to the two rental studios at Joyce SoHo; the Joyce hopes to expand its Joyce SoHo residency program as a result of this acquisition.

Joyce Theater Expands Studio Space

Over the next five years 18 artists around the country will receive $50,000 unrestricted grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of an arts fellowship, the foundation announced. They will be financed through a $1 million grant to United States Artists, a national grant-making and advocacy organization. The awards, known as USA Knight Fellowships, will be presented to artists across a range of disciplines who live and work in the 26 cities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers, including Akron, Ohio; Boulder, Colo.; Long Beach, Calif.; and Miami. The fellows are still being selected, and the first two will be announced on Dec. 14. Each will receive an additional $5,000 to engage his or her city’s residents through workshops, discussions or other events.

Knight Fellowships to Be Awarded to 18

The director Roman Polanski, right, was released from custody on Friday on $4.5 million bail and transferred to house arrest in the upscale ski resort of Gstaad, Switzerland.

Polanski Begins House Arrest

The little typewriter that clacked out about five million fairly renowned words over 50 years — with the able assistance of the novelist Cormac McCarthy — ended up being worth a lot more than anyone expected. The heavily weathered, light blue Lettera 32 Olivetti manual machine, below, that Mr. McCarthy said he bought in 1963 for $50 and used to type all his novels, including those that won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, sold on Friday at Christie’s to an unidentified American collector for $254,500, more than 10 times its high estimate of $20,000. (The price includes Christie’s commission.) The proceeds will be donated to the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research organization. Glenn Horowitz, a rare-book dealer who handled the auction for Mr. McCarthy, told The New York Times earlier this week: “When I grasped that some of the most complex, almost otherworldly fiction of the postwar era was composed on such a simple, functional, frail-looking machine, it conferred a sort of talismanic quality to Cormac’s typewriter. It’s as if Mount Rushmore was carved with a Swiss Army knife.” Mr. McCarthy will not be using the opportunity to go digital after all these years. A friend of his recently bought him a replacement typewriter — the same Olivetti model — for less than $20.

McCarthy’s Typewriter Sells for $254,500

William Julius Lederer, Jr. was an American author and naval officer.

December 5, 2009

Headlines from December 5, 2009

Suburbs See a Challenge as Residents Grow Older

From Pocket to Stage, Music in the Key of iPhone

New Video Game: Dungeons, Dragons and Now Gay Sex

Miami Fair: Big Pieces, Smaller Prices and Relief

Influence of Belichick Extends to SEC Sidelines

Billboard 200

Battle Studies

My Christmas

The Fall

Until The Whole World Hears

Before I Self-Destruct

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for December 5, 2009