The technology reporters and editors of The New York Times scour the Web for important and peculiar items. For Wednesday, selections include efforts in Congress to make unlocking cellphones legal, a review of Ray Kurzweil's latest book and Google talking about secret requests by the F.B.I. for information.
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Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Latest Updates on Gun Violence Debate
The Lede is following the debate on gun violence in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown, Conn., that killed 27 people, including 20 children. Share your suggestions by leaving a comment below, or send a message to Jennifer Preston via Twitter or e-mail.
Updatig…
Global Slavery, by the Numbers
Here are some chilling statistics: The lifetime profit on a brickmaking slave in Brazil is $8,700, and $2,000 in India. Sexual slavery brings the slave’s owner $18,000 over the slave’s working life in Thailand, and $49,000 in Los Angeles.
These are some of the numbers recently published by a foundation financed by a New York company that analyzes data for business intelligence, which deployed the same techniques to look at the worldwide trade in human trafficking.
While slavery is illegal across the globe, the SumAll Foundation noted, there are 27 million slaves worldwide, more than in 1860, when there were 25 million. Most are held in bonded servitude, particularly after taking loans they could not repay. Slaves cost slightly more now, with a median price of $140, compared with $134 per human then. Debt slaves cost on average $60; trafficked sex slaves cost $1,910.
“The big shocker for us was the implicit value of human life compared with diffeent commodities,†said Dane Atkinson, chief executive of SumAll, the company that financed the foundation with 10 percent of company equity, or $500,000. “Life is cheaper than some bottles of wine.â€
On average today, a person is a slave for six years, after which the person usually escapes, repays the debts holding them, or dies. Most of the world’s slaves are in South Asia.
The foundation obtained the data from a number of sources, including United Nations and World Bank reports, but also criminal filings and reports from human rights organizations and third-party accounts.
“Another big shocker for us was how poor the data quality is,†said Mr. Atkinson. “We come from a corporate world, where reliability is within about 2 percent. There are lots of donations to fight slavery, but very little is done to make the cost clear to people.
Fishing appears to be the most common occupation of child slaves â€" practiced this way in Cambodia, Ghana, Uganda, Indonesia, the ! Philippines and Peru. In Madagascar, children are enslaved to gather stones.
Seeking to shock people to gain attention, the SumAll Foundation put its data into a snappy-looking graphic that wouldn’t at a superficial glance be out of place in a mail order catalog.
“Looking for an extra pair of hands to get you through the winter months†the copy reads. “You’ll find a slave that is right for you at an eye-popping price.â€
While this may open the group to charges of sensationalism, Mr. Atkinson said it was an effort to make clear that the developed world is also a consumer of slave labor. “There is a lot of first-world spending geared toward slavery,†he said.
As to whether he’d bring up any connection with slavery to his own corporate customers, he said, “we’re not brave enough to do that yet, but it’s something we’d like to surface. We’re talking to more sources so we can elevate some ugly numbers about how many consumer goods in the U.S. in some way touch lavery.â€
Microsoft Is Talking About the Future, A Lot
REDMOND, Wash. â€" There are technology companies that won’t say anything about the futuristic inventions they’re tinkering with in their labs â€" Apple, for instance.
Then there are the companies that won’t stop talking about them. Think Google and its driverless cars and Google Glass.
Microsoft is firmly in the latter camp. The company says it has the largest research organization of its kind and is a prolific publisher of academic-style papers, which it shares openly. For years it has operated a home of the future in a building on its campus where it invites visitors for a glimpse of how technology could reshape kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms years from now.
Earlier this week, it held an annual event for a small group of journalists inside its home of the future, recently remodeled to include more examples of what workplaces of the future might look like. One technology Microsoft returned to again and again in its demonstrations was jumbo-size touchscreens, which are based on designs by Perceptive Pixel, a company Microsoft acquired last year. Perceptive Pixel’s screens, which look like the offspring of an iPad and a television set,! are most familiar to people who have watched election night coverage on networks like CNN, where on-air commentators have for years manipulated electoral maps using the technology.
Microsoft believes the technology will have a big impact on offices, where they will replace whiteboards, allow for more immersive video conferences and transform the way presentations are delivered. Microsoft showed one research project that used the displays in which a presenter could revamp charts and bar graphs on the fly with different data by using a stylus to sketch little codes on the screen.
“It changes the way meetings work,†said Rick Rashid, Microsoft’s chief research officer.
The company is using the technology widely in-house now, a process known in the tech industry as “dogfooding.†Its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, has a giant touch-screen in his office, as do a number of other senior executives. Some meeting spaces at Microsoft are being redesigned to be more open so they can accommodate the giant screens, which can be bigger than 80 inches.
“It won’t be unreasonable to think of all walls being touch-enabled,†said Kurt Delbene, president of the Office division at Microsoft, who said Microsoft would bring the cost of the devices down “substantially†from the tens of thousands of dollars that bigger ones cost today.
Microsoft talks a lot more than Apple does about projects like giant touchscreens partly because it thinks it can spark wider interest and investment in categories that will come back to benefit the company, as a major provider of software and services for computers. Apple, in contrast, says almost nothing about the technologies it is working on until shortly before they can be purchased as products i! n a store! , the better to maximize sales.
It’s also worth mentioning that Microsoft far outspends Apple on research and development, devoting nearly $10 billion, or close to 13 percent of revenue, in its most recent fiscal year. Last year Apple spent $3.4 billion, or 2 percent of its revenue, on research and development.
Apple appears to have gotten a lot more out of a far smaller investment than Microsoft has. But whatever their research investments, it’s tough to overstate how Apple has out-executed Microsoft over the past five years in creating compelling mobile products like tablets and smartphones. Microsoft was in both categories long before its rival, but fumbled its leads there.
Mr. Rashid said Microsoft’s hefty investments in research, especially basic echnology research that may not yield products for years or ever, are essential for its future. He said the technology industry was littered with companies that didn’t invest enough in long-term research, only to run into trouble when technology trends shifted.
“It gives you the ability to survive if things go wrong,†he said.
Video of Syrians With Seized U.N. Vehicle in Golan Heights
Video posted on YouTube on Wednesday by a Syrian rebel group calling itself the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade, which claims to have abducted 20 United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.
As my colleagues Rick Gladstone and Alan Cowell report, 30 armed rebel fighters kidnapped a group of 20 United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on Wednesday and gave a 24-hour deadline before they would treat the peacekeepers “as prisoners of war.â€
The abduction was announced in a video message posted online that showed two young-looking rebels, one carrying a rifle, standing in front of a captured United Nations vehcle. The video, which has since been removed from YouTube, did not clearly show any of the abducted United Nations personnel, although two figures seated in the cab of one of the captured vehicles may have been peacekeepers.
The rebel group called itself the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade, and in the video, one young man does all the talking.
We are holding the forces of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force until the withdrawal of Bashar al-Assad’s forces from the village of al-Jamla and its outskirts to their positions. We ask America, the United Nations and the Security Council that Assad’s forces withdraw to obtain their release. We won’t release them until after the withdrawal of the forces of the regime of Bashar al-Assad from the outskirts of the village of al-Jamla, which is on the border with Israel. We ask them for the complete withdrawal of the forces back to their positions. If the withdrawal does not take place within 24 hours, we will treat them as p! risoners of war, and praise be to God almighty.
A second video posted to YouTube does appear to show the abducted peacekeepers, although they are not the focus of the video. Several people in the signature light blue helmets and vests of the United Nations are visible sitting inside the captured vehicles while their kidnappers energetically talk about the treachery of both the United Nations and the Syrian government.
Speaking about the United Nations, one rebel shouts, “They are agents of Israel, and the Syrian regime and the United Nations and all the European countries, and the Assad regime, they are all agents of Israel!â€
He also calls Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, “an agent of Zionism and America†before the sound of gunfire is heard. “One of the tyrant’s snipers is shooting at us,†he said, before the video ended.
The abduction poses perhaps the most serious threat to the safety of United Nations persnnel since the start of the two-year-old Syrian conflict. The European media director of Human Rights Watch posted an update on Twitter that said his organization was investigating the rebel brigade for its role in the execution of prisoners.
The United Nations has demanded the immediate return of its personnel. But an update posted to Twitter to that effect also exposed resentment bubbling among some Syrians who feel the outside world has done little but stand by and watch their country descend into violence and chaos.
There is more than one place in Syria called Yarmouk, and it was not immediately clear whether the rebel group that claimed responsibility for the abduction was named in honor of those who died in Yarmouk Camp, a large Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, or in Wadi Yarmouk, a valley on the border with Jordan in Daaa where refugees have fled in the past.
There are Facebook pages dedicated to a rebel group from Yarmouk Valley as well as one memorializing those killed in Yarmouk Camp, but as of Wednesday evening neither page posted an update claiming an affiliation with the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade.
In December, government jets attacked Yarmouk Camp for the first time, killing at least eight people and driving hundreds more to flee to Lebanon.
Yarmouk has traditionally housed the most Palestinian refugees of any camp in Syria. It is a densely packed urban quarter housing more than 148,000 registered Palestinian refugees, ac! cording t! o the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is assigned to care for Palestinian refugees since they were displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948.
In a video posted to YouTube in January, two Syrian activists, standing in a meadow full of bleating sheep “just 10 meters from Jordan†in Yarmouk Valley, discuss government harassment and attacks of refugees who were once there.
Two Syrian activists discuss past government attacks on refugees in Yarmouk Valley in Daraa Province.
Another video, posted to YouTube on Monday, shows a large number of refugees, primarily wmen and children, in the valley. Some are seeking shelter inside a large tunnel while others are climbing into the back of pickup trucks to travel elsewhere. The video is narrated by a fighter from the Ahfad Ibn al-Walid Brigade.
Refugees in Yarmouk Valley sought shelter in a large tunnel and climbed into pickup trucks to travel elsewhere.
The Golan Heights has long been a trip wire for regional conflict. Israel occupied the area during the Six-Day War in 1967 and effectively annexed it in 1981. That action was not internationally recognized, and Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war for decades. United Nations peacekeepers have been stationed there since 1974.
Syria and Israel have never resumed hostilities, but opposition to Israel has long ! been a pi! llar of the Assad government’s self-styled image as an anti-imperial stalwart and “the beating heart of Arabism.†That is especially true when it comes to the Golan Heights.
As Anthony Shadid pointed out in May 2011, critics of the Syrian government have long said that its anti-Israel and anti-imperialist rhetoric was meant to distract from the brutality it meted out to its own people as well as its meddling in neighboring Lebanon. A popular joke about the Assad regime has turned the surname, which means “lion†in Arabic, into a sarcastic barb: “A lion in Lebanon but a rabbit in the Golan.â€
Video of Syrians With Seized U.N. Vehicle in Golan Heights
Video posted on YouTube on Wednesday by a Syrian rebel group calling itself the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade, which claims to have abducted 20 United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.
As my colleagues Rick Gladstone and Alan Cowell report, 30 armed rebel fighters kidnapped a group of 20 United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on Wednesday and gave a 24-hour deadline before they would treat the peacekeepers “as prisoners of war.â€
The abduction was announced in a video message posted online that showed two young-looking rebels, one carrying a rifle, standing in front of a captured United Nations vehcle. The video, which has since been removed from YouTube, did not clearly show any of the abducted United Nations personnel, although two figures seated in the cab of one of the captured vehicles may have been peacekeepers.
The rebel group called itself the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade, and in the video, one young man does all the talking.
We are holding the forces of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force until the withdrawal of Bashar al-Assad’s forces from the village of al-Jamla and its outskirts to their positions. We ask America, the United Nations and the Security Council that Assad’s forces withdraw to obtain their release. We won’t release them until after the withdrawal of the forces of the regime of Bashar al-Assad from the outskirts of the village of al-Jamla, which is on the border with Israel. We ask them for the complete withdrawal of the forces back to their positions. If the withdrawal does not take place within 24 hours, we will treat them as p! risoners of war, and praise be to God almighty.
A second video posted to YouTube does appear to show the abducted peacekeepers, although they are not the focus of the video. Several people in the signature light blue helmets and vests of the United Nations are visible sitting inside the captured vehicles while their kidnappers energetically talk about the treachery of both the United Nations and the Syrian government.
Speaking about the United Nations, one rebel shouts, “They are agents of Israel, and the Syrian regime and the United Nations and all the European countries, and the Assad regime, they are all agents of Israel!â€
He also calls Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, “an agent of Zionism and America†before the sound of gunfire is heard. “One of the tyrant’s snipers is shooting at us,†he said, before the video ended.
The abduction poses perhaps the most serious threat to the safety of United Nations persnnel since the start of the two-year-old Syrian conflict. The European media director of Human Rights Watch posted an update on Twitter that said his organization was investigating the rebel brigade for its role in the execution of prisoners.
The United Nations has demanded the immediate return of its personnel. But an update posted to Twitter to that effect also exposed resentment bubbling among some Syrians who feel the outside world has done little but stand by and watch their country descend into violence and chaos.
There is more than one place in Syria called Yarmouk, and it was not immediately clear whether the rebel group that claimed responsibility for the abduction was named in honor of those who died in Yarmouk Camp, a large Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, or in Wadi Yarmouk, a valley on the border with Jordan in Daaa where refugees have fled in the past.
There are Facebook pages dedicated to a rebel group from Yarmouk Valley as well as one memorializing those killed in Yarmouk Camp, but as of Wednesday evening neither page posted an update claiming an affiliation with the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade.
In December, government jets attacked Yarmouk Camp for the first time, killing at least eight people and driving hundreds more to flee to Lebanon.
Yarmouk has traditionally housed the most Palestinian refugees of any camp in Syria. It is a densely packed urban quarter housing more than 148,000 registered Palestinian refugees, ac! cording t! o the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is assigned to care for Palestinian refugees since they were displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948.
In a video posted to YouTube in January, two Syrian activists, standing in a meadow full of bleating sheep “just 10 meters from Jordan†in Yarmouk Valley, discuss government harassment and attacks of refugees who were once there.
Two Syrian activists discuss past government attacks on refugees in Yarmouk Valley in Daraa Province.
Another video, posted to YouTube on Monday, shows a large number of refugees, primarily wmen and children, in the valley. Some are seeking shelter inside a large tunnel while others are climbing into the back of pickup trucks to travel elsewhere. The video is narrated by a fighter from the Ahfad Ibn al-Walid Brigade.
Refugees in Yarmouk Valley sought shelter in a large tunnel and climbed into pickup trucks to travel elsewhere.
The Golan Heights has long been a trip wire for regional conflict. Israel occupied the area during the Six-Day War in 1967 and effectively annexed it in 1981. That action was not internationally recognized, and Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war for decades. United Nations peacekeepers have been stationed there since 1974.
Syria and Israel have never resumed hostilities, but opposition to Israel has long ! been a pi! llar of the Assad government’s self-styled image as an anti-imperial stalwart and “the beating heart of Arabism.†That is especially true when it comes to the Golan Heights.
As Anthony Shadid pointed out in May 2011, critics of the Syrian government have long said that its anti-Israel and anti-imperialist rhetoric was meant to distract from the brutality it meted out to its own people as well as its meddling in neighboring Lebanon. A popular joke about the Assad regime has turned the surname, which means “lion†in Arabic, into a sarcastic barb: “A lion in Lebanon but a rabbit in the Golan.â€
Engineering Serendipity
Why do some parties, companies and cities work, while others don’t It takes some social engineering to foster serendipity and creativity.
“You want to get all these creative people in a statistically small space,†says Tony Hsieh, who built an effective company culture at Zappos.com, an online vendor of shoes and apparel.
If that is the goal, it is another argument for Yahoo’s decision to ban people from working from home. “We allow some people at Zappos to work from home, but we don’t want them to,†Mr. Hsieh says. “We want them to come in to work.†Part of his job, he says, is creating an environment where they would rather be.
Mr. Hsieh sold Zappos to Amazon.com for $1.2 billion in 2009. He continues to run it. He is also testing the lessons he learned in building Zappos in an effort to revive downtown Las Vegas, which is near Zappos’s headquarters.
Both company building and community construction, he says, are like good prties. “I was always interested in flow, and how to get people not stuck into always talking with the same people,†he says. This might involve changing the entertainment, moving the bar over the course of the evening or designing the room so people move through different-size spaces.
The overall idea is to make people encounter strangers in a way that creates a sense of connection, something he instilled at Zappos. “I wanted managers to spend 10 to 20 percent of their time outside of the office, leading the team,†he says. Dinners, hiking and other encounters with colleagues increased productivity by a range of 20 percent to 100 percent. “There was more trust, better communications, more use of shorthand in e-mails, because people weren’t afraid of miscommunication,†Mr. Hsieh says.
Likewise, offices were kept dense so people would bump into each other more. “When someone moves twice as far away, it’s exponentially less conflict,†he says. “The parking lot was behin! d the building, and we made people walk around from the front.â€
Staying physically close may be part of Marissa Mayer’s plan to end working from home at Yahoo. Google, the company she comes from, is known for tight offices, frequently with three people in what normally would be space for one. This used to be ascribed to cheapness, or morale building, but it may be an effort to bolster productivity.
Mr. Hsieh’s effort to make these principles work for a decaying city is called the Downtown Project. In addition to financing start-up companies in the same buildings, he has opened an office where people will have to walk two blocks to their cars, so they are on the street with other people. The Downtown Project staff is moving into the Las Vegas City Hall, which is dismantling its air-cooled sky bridge so people meet other workes and townspeople in an outdoor plaza.
The apartment building he lives in, near downtown Las Vegas (historically a more tawdry and luckless place than the glitzy strip), has lots of other people from Zappos, start-ups and the Downtown Project. The building also has a number of extra places for potential investors and hires to stay a few days. Hanging around, he says, is its own recruiting tool.
Mr. Hsieh was speaking to entrepreneurs and investors at a Montgomery & Company conference in Santa Monica, Calif., hoping to attract interest in downtown Las Vegas or in similar projects elsewhere.
“The idea is to create collisions, co-learning and community,†he says. “It’s something repeatable that any city can do. You don’t have to have a sports team or a big university like Harvard or Stanford.â€
Book Review: Lessons From the Stratosphere, and How to Get There
Lessons From the Stratosphere, and How to Get There
Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ Offers Lessons
Fifty years after “The Feminine Mystique†identified the depression and stir-craziness of suburban housewives, another rallying cry for women has come along. It was written by Sheryl Sandberg, a mother of two who works outside the home. Ms. Sandberg addresses 21st-century issues that never entered Betty Friedan’s wildest dreams, and she is a walking advertisement for women’s empowerment. As a former vice president of Google who is now chief operating officer of Facebook, she writes about how women can best rise to the top the corporate world.
LEAN IN
Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
By Sheryl Sandberg
228 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $24.95.
Sheryl Sandberg
“Lean In†is a terrible title for her book. It’s as weakly euphemistic as “reach out,†the touchy-feely synonym for “ask†that sounds urgent only when belted out by the Four Tops. “Lean In†also signals an effort at branding from a woman whose proselytizing is ready for a campaign trail. And it’s too dainty to convey what Ms. Sandberg really means: Stand up. Step forward. Speak out. Be smart and strong, and don’t torpedo your own efforts in the workplace. That’s the assertiveness for which “Lean In†is a landmark manifesto.
Writing this book was gutsy, especially for someone who was prophetic about how it would be received. “Everyone loves a fight â€" and they really love a catfight,†she writes. “The media will report endlessly about women attacking other women, which distracts from the real issues. When arguments turn into ‘she said/she said,’ we all lose.†The pre-publication flap over “Lean In†fits exactly those specifications.
Should some of Ms. Sandberg’s most outraged critics care to know what her book actually says, it’s an expansion on some of her public statements. She has used a TED talk, a Barnard College commencement speech and a 2011 appearance at Harvard Business School to sound an alarm. At Harvard she bluntly told the audience, “If current trends continue, 15 years from today about one-third of the women in this audience will be working full time, and almost all of you will be working for the guy you are sitting next to.â€
“Lean In†offers many examples of how women undercut their career potential. In a book that is sometimes personal but should have been much more so, Ms. Sandberg describes her own way of handling that Facebook job offer: She was willing to accept whatever terms its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, proposed, until her brother-in-law told her that no man would ever take the first deal.
Ms. Sandberg has led such a charmed professional life that Mr. Zuckerberg did not allow her to refuse him; he made a better offer. And her extremely accommodating husband, Dave Goldberg, gave up his job in Los Angeles so that his wife could further her career in Menlo Park, Calif. He then became a chief executive in Portland, Ore., before moving the company headquarters to the Bay Area to be close to Ms. Sandberg and fully to share parental responsibility for their children.
How applicable is Ms. Sandberg’s life in the stratosphere to those of working women on earth More so than her book’s naysayers expected. She identifies a passivity in women that, for instance, makes them reluctant to boast about their own achievements but happy to praise one another’s. She advises against waiting for a mentor, “the professional equivalent of waiting for Prince Charming,†and excoriates the way mentoring is misunderstood. “We need to stop telling them, ‘Get a mentor and you will excel,’ †she says of less experienced women. “Instead we need to tell them, ‘Excel and you will get a mentor.’ †Like a lot of what “Lean In†says, this thought is common-sensical but too infrequently heard.
It would be easier to benefit from Ms. Sandberg’s advice if she made herself fully known to her readers. But at the personal level “Lean In†is a mass of contradictions. She describes herself as fearful and tearful, “the kid who got picked last in gym†and the one who had her “most likely to succeed†title yanked out of her yearbook, thinking it would make her unpopular. She describes moments of knee-rattling self-doubt. She cites data indicating that men ascribe their success to drive and ability, while women are apt to mention luck, hard work and help. In a book that has its share of specious research citations she also notes that men are more apt than women to drown.
But there is a Sheryl Sandberg who isn’t so meek. And that Sheryl is seen here only fleetingly. Yes, she admits, as a kid she used to make her younger siblings listen to her speeches and then scream, “Right!†in conclusion. There’s a Sheryl who wields great authority over large numbers of employees, who risks being overbearing at meetings (“In order for me to speak the right amount in a meeting, I have to feel as if I am saying very littleâ€), who has “a tendency to get impatient about unresolved situations†and who runs a tight ship. But what exactly does this C.O.O. do She says little about her Facebook role and makes only a glancing, barbed reference to Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the Google founders.
But “Lean In†will be an influential book. It will open the eyes of women who grew up thinking that feminism was ancient history, who recoil at the word but walk heedlessly through the doors it opened. And it will encourage those women to persevere in their professional lives, even if Ms. Sandberg’s own domestic and career balance sounds like something out of a fairy tale.
“I am fully aware that most women are not focused on changing social norms for the next generation but simply trying to get through each day,†she writes. No, most women do not have Ms. Sandberg’s choices. But the most important choice she made with “Lean In†was deciding to write it. Although its author lives a life of great privilege, “Lean In†treats speaking out as the greatest luxury of all.
A version of this review appeared in print on March 7, 2013, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Lessons From the Stratosphere, and How to Get There.
Sheryl Sandberg Takes Her Message to Wall Street
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, is heading to Wall Street with her message about women in the workplace.
Ms. Sandberg, whose book “Lean In†is scheduled to be published on Monday, is visiting three big banks and a consulting firm this week for private events with women to discuss the ideas in her book. The events in New York, which are closed to the general public, will kick off Ms. Sandberg’s book tour on the East Coast.
On Thursday, Ms. Sandberg will visit Goldman Sachs for an afternoon conference, according to three people with knowledge of the event who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. All of the women in Goldman’s offices are invited. The same day, Ms. Sandberg also has a meeting about her book at Morgan Stanley, according to two people familiar with the matter.
On Friday morning, Ms. Sandberg is headed to JPMorgan Chase for an event with women at the bank and JPMorgan clients, according to Jennifer Zuccarelli, a JPMorgan spokeswoman. That event is hosted by Mary Callahan Erdoes, head of the asset management division; James B. Lee Jr., vice chairman of the bank; and Jamie Dimon, the chief executive.
Also on Friday, Ms. Sandberg has a meeting! at Accenture, the consulting firm, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Friday happens to be International Women’s Day.)
As it happens, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were the lead banks handling Facebook’s initial public offering last May, a deal that was widely criticized as the social network’s stock fell in the following months. While investors lately have been warming up to Facebook, the stock is still trading well below its initial offering price.
The events come as Ms. Sandberg prepares to spread her message to a broader audience. The Web site for her book, leanin.org, went live on Wednesday.
Through groups known as “Lean In Circles,†Ms. Sandberg hopes to start a national discussion about gender and encourage women o try certain strategies for professional success, The New York Times’s Jodi Kantor reported.
Wall Street, of course, is notorious for being a male-dominated culture. While women have made some progress in recent decades, they still make up a small percentage of the top positions.
“By talking openly about the challenges that we all face in the workplace and at home, we can work towards solutions together,†Ms. Sandberg says in a post on the book’s Web site.
After the private meetings this week, Ms. Sandberg has some public events on her calendar.
On Tuesday, she’s visiting the Barnes & Noble at Union Square in Manhattan for an e! vent with! Chelsea Clinton. On March 14, she heads to the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington.
Ms. Sandberg is also speaking at Harvard Business School on April 5 for an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of women being admitted to the M.B.A. program. Later that day, she is expected scheduled to speak at Colgate University‘s entrepreneur weekend.
Ahmadinejad Says Chávez Will Rise Again
A report on the death of Hugo Chávez from Press TV, Iran’s English-language satellite channel, suggested that the United States was responsible for the late leader’s fatal illness.
In a letter of condolence to the people of Venezuela, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, struck a note of interfaith harmony on Wednesday, expressing confidence that the late Hugo Chávez would eventually be resurrected, along with Jesus and the Hidden Imam, a messianic figure in Shiite Islam.
According to the Persian-language text of the letter posted on the Iranian president’s official Web site, Mr. Ahmadinejad wrote: “I have no doubt he will come again along with all the rigteous people and the Prophet Jesus and the only successor of the righteous generation, the perfect human,†a formulation used by Shiite Muslims to refer to the Hidden Imam, who disappeared in the ninth century but is expected to emerge from more than a millennium in hiding to redeem mankind.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s note, sent as Iran declared a day of national mourning for “the Latin American anti-imperialist figure,†also said that Mr. Chávez had died of a “suspicious illness.†As Iran’s state-owned Press TV reported, hours before the Venezuelan president’s death was announced on Tuesday, his vice president, Nicolás Maduro, hinted darkly that foreign powers were responsible for causing the illnesses that killed both the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and Mr. Chávez.
Mr. Ahmadinejad also wrote, “Chávez is a name known to all nations, that reminds us of purity, kindness, courage, heroism, love, dedication to the people and tireless efforts to serve the people, especially the poor and those scarred by colonialism and imperialism.â€
The references to Jesus and the Hidden Imam were omitted from a translation of the letter into Spanish posted on the Iranian president’s Web site.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s stated belief that the return of the messiah, also known as Imam Mahdi, is imminent has been a source of controversy throughout his presidency. When he took office in 2005, he declared that he would work to “hasten the emergence†of the messiah. Then in 2008, he angered Iran’s ruling clerics when he claimed that the Hidden Imam was involved in the day-to-day workings of his government and helped guide his foreign policy.
Reporting was contributed by Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran.
Ahmadinejad Says Chávez Will Rise Again
A report on the death of Hugo Chávez from Press TV, Iran’s English-language satellite channel, suggested that the United States was responsible for the late leader’s fatal illness.
In a letter of condolence to the people of Venezuela, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, struck a note of interfaith harmony on Wednesday, expressing confidence that the late Hugo Chávez would eventually be resurrected, along with Jesus and the Hidden Imam, a messianic figure in Shiite Islam.
According to the Persian-language text of the letter posted on the Iranian president’s official Web site, Mr. Ahmadinejad wrote: “I have no doubt he will come again along with all the rigteous people and the Prophet Jesus and the only successor of the righteous generation, the perfect human,†a formulation used by Shiite Muslims to refer to the Hidden Imam, who disappeared in the ninth century but is expected to emerge from more than a millennium in hiding to redeem mankind.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s note, sent as Iran declared a day of national mourning for “the Latin American anti-imperialist figure,†also said that Mr. Chávez had died of a “suspicious illness.†As Iran’s state-owned Press TV reported, hours before the Venezuelan president’s death was announced on Tuesday, his vice president, Nicolás Maduro, hinted darkly that foreign powers were responsible for causing the illnesses that killed both the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and Mr. Chávez.
Mr. Ahmadinejad also wrote, “Chávez is a name known to all nations, that reminds us of purity, kindness, courage, heroism, love, dedication to the people and tireless efforts to serve the people, especially the poor and those scarred by colonialism and imperialism.â€
The references to Jesus and the Hidden Imam were omitted from a translation of the letter into Spanish posted on the Iranian president’s Web site.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s stated belief that the return of the messiah, also known as Imam Mahdi, is imminent has been a source of controversy throughout his presidency. When he took office in 2005, he declared that he would work to “hasten the emergence†of the messiah. Then in 2008, he angered Iran’s ruling clerics when he claimed that the Hidden Imam was involved in the day-to-day workings of his government and helped guide his foreign policy.
Reporting was contributed by Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran.
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