Hurricane Sandy Threatens to Disrupt Voting on Election Day

Some New Jersey voters may find their hurricane-damaged polling sites replaced by military trucks, with — in the words of the state’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno — “a well-situated national guardsman and a big sign saying, ‘Vote Here.’ ” Half of the polling sites in Nassau County on Long Island still lacked power on Friday. And New York City was planning to build temporary polling sites...

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Songs offer messages of hope at Sandy benefit show

NEW YORK (AP) — From "Livin' on a Prayer" to "The Living Proof," every song Friday at NBC's benefit concert for superstorm Sandy victims became a message song.New Jersey's Jon Bon Jovi gave extra meaning to "Who Says You Can't Go Home." Billy Joel worked in a reference to Staten Island, the decimated New York City borough. The hourlong event, hosted by Matt Lauer, was heavy on stars and lyrics identified...

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Second Illness Infects Meningitis Sufferers

Just when they might have thought they were in the clear, people recovering from meningitis in an outbreak caused by a contaminated steroid drug have been struck by a second illness. The new problem, called an epidural abscess, is an infection near the spine at the site where the drug — contaminated by a fungus — was injected to treat back or neck pain. The abscesses are a localized infection,...

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Live Coverage: Some Progress, and New Struggles, After Storm

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Apple rolls out iPad mini in Asia to shorter lines

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple fans lined up in several Asian cities to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company's previous global rollouts. Apple Inc's global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. But a proliferation...

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Blake Shelton pulls off surprise win at CMAs

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Winning the Country Music Association Awards' entertainer of the year is a top honor and always counted as a career high point. But for Blake Shelton it wasn't even the most memorable moment of an amazing Thursday night."The Voice" star took home three trophies, including his third straight male vocalist victory, but nothing compared to sharing song of the year with wife Miranda...

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The New Old Age Blog: How to Bypass the Revolving Door

Last week, I wrote about older people in nursing homes who are transferred to hospitals when their health takes a turn for the worse, even if they don’t want aggressive medical interventions. And you responded with dozens of stories about relatives who had had these experiences.In fact, researchers who have studied the revolving door between nursing homes and hospitals think that as many as 45 percent...

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Live Coverage: In Storm’s Path, Recovery Efforts Inch Forward

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Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Wall Street

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's new go-to management team of mostly familiar faces failed to drum up much excitement on Wall Street, driving its shares to a three-month low on Wednesday. The world's most valuable technology company, which had faced questions about a visionary-leadership vacuum following the death of Steve Jobs, on Monday stunned investors by announcing...

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New faces at CMAs mark change in country music

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — There's a sea change going on in Music City — and the Country Music Association Awards are in the middle of it.When country music's biggest stars take the stage Thursday night in Nashville, you'll see many of your favorites from the last decade. But new faces are dominating the genre as country's fan base shifts to a younger-skewing audience.From Taylor Swift's army of empowered...

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Live Updates

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In hurricane, Twitter proves a lifeline despite pranksters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As Hurricane Sandy pounded the U.S. Atlantic coast on Monday night, knocking out electricity and Internet connections, millions of residents turned to Twitter as a part-newswire, part-911 hotline that hummed through the night even as some websites failed and swathes of Manhattan fell dark. But the social network also became a fertile ground for pranksters who...

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Swift's 'Red' sells 1.2 million copies in debut

NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift's new album is called "Red," but its true color is a brilliant platinum. The 22-year-old sold 1.2 million copies of her latest album in its first week — the largest sales week for any album in a decade.Nielsen SoundScan confirmed the blockbuster sales on Tuesday night. "Red" marks Swift's second straight album to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week; "Speak...

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Recipes for Health: Roasted Beet and Winter Squash Salad With Walnuts

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesThe colors of the vegetables were the inspiration behind this beautiful salad. You may be fooled into thinking the orange vegetables next to the dark beets are sliced golden beets, but they are slices of roasted kabocha squash. 2 pounds kabocha or butternut squash 1 bunch beets, with greens 2 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar ...

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After Hurricane Sandy, Businesses Try to Restore Service

Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesBill Fuchs, a vice president at Legrand, a maker of electrical equipment, prepared a warehouse for reopening on Tuesday. For John Selldorff, the best news of the day was that his employees were safe and the power was back on at his company’s factory in Fairfield, N.J. But all around the plant, electricity and phone service were still out — and the manager responsible...

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Hurricane Sandy Barrels Region, Leaving Battered Path

As Hurricane Sandy churned inland as a downgraded storm, residents up and down the battered mid-Atlantic region woke on Tuesday to lingering waters, darkened homes and the daunting task of cleaning up from once-in-a-generation storm surges and their devastating effects. Power remained out for roughly six million people, including a large swath of Manhattan. Early risers stepped out into debris-littered...

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Nokia says shipping new Lumia smartphones this week

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Daniel Day-Lewis gives poet dad's work to Oxford

LONDON (AP) — Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is donating papers belonging to his father, the poet Cecil Day-Lewis, to Oxford University.

The archive, which fills 54 boxes, includes early drafts of the poet's work, as well as letters from actor John Gielgud and famous literary figures such as W.H. Auden, Robert Graves and Philip Larkin.

Daniel Day-Lewis stars this year in the much-anticipated film "Lincoln," about the assassinated U.S. president. He and his sister, Tamasin, said Tuesday they are thrilled that their father's papers will be housed at Oxford's Bodleian Libraries and become accessible to students and researchers.

Cecil Day-Lewis, who studied classics and became poetry professor at Oxford, was appointed the U.K. poet laureate in 1968. He also wrote mystery novels and stories under the name of Nicholas Blake. He died in 1972.

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My Story: Running for the Music (on My Playlist)

I have always hated running.

A steep hill does not entice me. My labored breathing makes me sound the way I feel: miserable. To keep up with my life, I’m always in a flailing hurry, so why would I want my exercise to mimic that?

I have no idea. Nonetheless, the other chilly morning when I went out for a run, I wore a long-sleeved race T-shirt: Seven Mile Run, Central Park, Feb. 1, 1987.

I’ve been running at least since then — with years lost to knee and bunion surgeries, physical therapy for running-induced lower back pain as well as flings with treadmills and exercycles.

That’s a long time to be doing something you hate as aggressively as I do.

But I do not run to run. I run to listen — which real runners consider not only dangerous but apostasy.

I can run only with music in my head, and heart. For decades I’ve fussed over playlists, a nod to my years as a college D.J., when free-form FM radio was in ascent. The music lifts my spirits, eases up on my knees, pushes me to one more song.

From the 30-minute Walkman cassettes I made with a turntable and a tape recorder to the hour-plus playlists on my iPod, the lists reflect changes in my taste, my life, my runs. They have been my personalized soundtrack.

The tumult of a single woman in New York (“Love Stinks!” J. Geils Band). Rent struggles (“Pressure Drop,” the Maytals). New boyfriend (“Kiss,” Prince and the Revolution).

Years later, a salute to my first daughter: “My Girl.” Then she turned 4 (“She Drives Me Crazy,” Fine Young Cannibals). Next, her sister, my brown-eyed girl, whom Katy Perry now conjures with “Firework.”

The author’s “Tumultuous Life of Single Woman in the City” playlist, circa 1989. (You’ll need to download Spotify to listen.)

Oh, right, my husband. Serious runner. He would never listen to music while charging up hills. But I include nods to his taste: Santana’s “Smooth.”

Radio was always my musical lifeline. In high school, I interned at a local station. D.J.'s there critiqued one another’s sets. (“Carrie Anne,” the Hollies, followed by “Carry On,” Crosby Stills Nash and Young? Cheap. Trick.)

When I went on air at my college station, I realized that although I couldn’t personally make music, I could make music personal. On Sunday mornings, I would play hangover-recovery music from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (“Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” Taj Mahal). For the 2 a.m. to 6 a.m shift, I would play term-paper-due, all-nighter music (“Midnight Rider,” the Allman Brothers Band).

After I graduated, jobs for this niche talent were few and unsalaried. To stay in the music conversation by proxy, I wrote about the radio industry, and reviewed and interviewed musicians.

But eventually journalism moved me to covering domestic violence and murder trials. My relationship with music and an audience — listeners or readers — disappeared.

I’d heard that joining the New York Road Runners Club was a good way to meet guys. So, with skepticism, I started running.

Blisters! Worse still, it bored me silly.

But at the path around the Central Park reservoir, I spotted runners with headphones. Music? I could be a D.J. again, programming sets for a devoted listenership of one.

Ever since, my playlists have followed a few rules. Joy is essential, a great hook critical, tempo crucial. Because I’m too lazy to stretch, the first songs are warm-ups, an invitation to do this thing. I heartily recommend “Sexual Healing” (Marvin Gaye).

The lists are intuitively shaped to my pace. Some are more knee-forgiving than others. Within 10 minutes, the backbeat picks up. I select songs long enough to build running momentum, but not so long that I quickly flag. The urgent patterns of one drummer lead into the smack-smash response of the next (“I Wanna Be Sedated,” the Ramones; “Middle of the Road,” the Pretenders).

Do you have a favorite playlist for workouts? Please share it in the comments section.

You can follow Booming via RSS here or visit nytimes.com/booming.

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Bits: In Shake-Up, Apple's Mobile Software and Retail Chiefs to Depart

8:24 p.m. | Updated Apple fired the executives in charge of the company’s mobile software efforts and retail stores, in a management shake-up aimed at making the company’s divisions work more harmoniously together.

The biggest of the changes involved the departure of Scott Forstall, an Apple veteran who for several years ran software development for Apple’s iPad and iPhone products. Mr. Forstall was an important executive at the company and the one who, in many respects, seemed to most closely embody the technology vision of Steven P. Jobs, the former chief executive of Apple who died a year ago.

But Mr. Forstall was also known as ambitious and divisive, qualities that generated more friction within Apple after the death of Mr. Jobs, who had kept the dueling egos of his senior executives largely in check. Mr. Forstall’s responsibilities will be divided among a few other Apple executives.

While tensions between Mr. Forstall and other executives had been mounting for some time, a recent incident appeared to play a major role in his dismissal. After an outcry among iPhone customers about bugs in the company’s new mobile maps service, Mr. Forstall refused to sign a public apology over the matter, dismissing the problems as exaggerated, according to people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be named discussing confidential matters.

Instead, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in September signed the apology letter to Apple customers over maps.

Apple said in a news release on Monday that the management changes would “encourage even more collaboration” at the company. But people briefed on Apple’s moves, who declined to be identified talking about confidential decisions at the company, said Mr. Forstall and John Browett were fired.

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said neither executive was available for an interview. Mr. Forstall did not respond to interview requests over e-mail and Facebook.

Mr. Browett, who took over as head of the company’s retail operations in April, will also leave the company after a number of missteps. Apple said that a search for a new head of retail was under way and that the retail team would report directly to Mr. Cook in the meantime.

Mr. Forstall will leave Apple next year and serve as an adviser to Mr. Cook until then.

Eddy Cue, who oversees Apple’s Internet services, will take over development of Apple maps and Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant in the iPhone. Both technologies have been widely criticized by some who say they fall short of the usual polish of Apple products.

Jonathan Ive, the influential head of industrial design at Apple, will take on more software responsibilities at the company by providing more “leadership and direction for Human Interface,” Apple said. Craig Federighi, who was previously in charge of Apple’s Mac software development, will also lead development of iOS, the software for iPads and iPhones.

Apple said Bob Mansfield, an executive who previously ran hardware engineering and was planning to retire from Apple, will lead a new group, Technologies. That group will combine Apple’s wireless and semiconductor teams. Apple in a statement said the semiconductor teams had “ambitious plans for the future.”

Recently, Mr. Mansfield had been working on his own projects at the company, operating without anyone reporting to him directly. One of the areas of interest Mr. Mansfield had been exploring is health-related accessories and applications for Apple’s mobile products, said an Apple partner who declined to be named discussing unannounced products.

Mr. Forstall was a staunch believer in a type of user interface, skeuomorphic design, which tries to imitate artifacts and textures in real life. Most of Apple’s built-in applications for iOS use skeuomorphic design, including imitating thread of a leather binder in the Game Center application and a wooden bookshelf feel in the newsstand application.

Mr. Jobs was also a proponent of skeuomorphic design; he had a leather texture added to apps that mimicked the seats on his private jet. Yet most other executives, specifically Mr. Ive, have always believed that these artifacts looked outdated and that user interface design on the computer had reached a point where skeuomorph was no longer necessary.

Mr. Forstall, who trained as an actor at a young age, also shared with Mr. Jobs a commanding stage presence at events introducing Apple products, often delivering his speeches with a pensive style that echoed that of Mr. Jobs.

According to two people who have worked with Apple to develop new third-party products for the iPhone, the relationship between Mr. Forstall and Mr. Ive had soured to a point that the two executives would not sit in the same meeting room together.

A senior Apple employee who asked not to be named said Mr. Forstall had also incurred the ire of other executives after inserting himself into product development that went beyond his role at the company. One person in touch with Apple executives said the mood of people at the company was largely positive about Mr. Forstall’s departure.

“This was better than the Giants winning the World Series,” he said. “People are really excited.”

The departure of Mr. Browett was less surprising to outsiders. In August, the company took the unusual step of publicly apologizing for a plan by Mr. Browett to cut back on staffing at its stores. Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company, said he was never convinced that Mr. Browett was a good choice to join Apple because he had previously run Dixons, a British retailer that is viewed as being more downmarket than Apple’s retail operations.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 29, 2012

A caption with an earlier version of this post misspelled the surname of Apple's departing retail director. He is John Browett, not Browlett.

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