At Disney Parks, a Bracelet Meant to Build Loyalty (and Sales)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Imagine Walt Disney World with no entry turnstiles. Cash? Passé: Visitors would wear rubber bracelets encoded with credit card information, snapping up corn dogs and Mickey Mouse ears with a tap of the wrist. Smartphone alerts would signal when it is time to ride Space Mountain without standing in line. Fantasyland? Hardly. It happens starting this spring. Disney in...

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Recipes for Health: Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesEvery once in a while I revisit the cuisine of a particular part of the world (usually it is located somewhere in the Mediterranean). This week I landed in Sicily. I was nosing around my cookbooks for some cauliflower recipes and opened my friend and colleague Clifford A. Wright’s very first cookbook, “Cucina Pariso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily.” The cuisine of...

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Recipes for Health: Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesEvery once in a while I revisit the cuisine of a particular part of the world (usually it is located somewhere in the Mediterranean). This week I landed in Sicily. I was nosing around my cookbooks for some cauliflower recipes and opened my friend and colleague Clifford A. Wright’s very first cookbook, “Cucina Pariso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily.” The cuisine of...

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Google’s Rivals Say F.T.C. Antitrust Ruling Missed the Point

WASHINGTON — One of the more surprising conclusions drawn by the Federal Trade Commission when it dropped its nearly two-year antitrust investigation into Google last week was that Google, far from harming consumers, had actually helped them. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesJon Leibowitz, right, the Federal Trade Commission chairman, speaking last week after the decision was announced. ...

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Court in Bahrain Confirms Jail Terms for 13 Dissidents

CAIRO — A court in Bahrain on Monday upheld prison sentences for 13 of the country’s most prominent dissidents, in a decision that government opponents offered as evidence that the monarchy was ignoring calls to negotiate a political solution that could quiet a nearly two-year-old uprising. The decision ends all appeals for the dissidents, who were sentenced to between five years and life...

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Despite New Health Law, Some See Sharp Rise in Premiums

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles TimesDave Jones, the California insurance commissioner, said some insurance companies...

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Despite New Health Law, Some See Sharp Rise in Premiums

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles TimesDave Jones, the California insurance commissioner, said some insurance companies...

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Despite New Health Law, Some See Sharp Rise in Premiums

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles TimesDave Jones, the California insurance commissioner, said some insurance companies...

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Michael Cronan, Who Gave TiVo and Kindle Their Names, Dies at 61

Michael Cronan, a San Francisco-based graphic designer and marketing executive who placed his stamp on popular culture when he created the brand names TiVo and Kindle, died on Tuesday in Berkeley, Calif. He was 61. The cause was colon cancer, said his wife, Karin Hibma, with whom he founded the marketing firm Cronan in the early 1980s. Mr. Cronan, who studied art in college, had many...

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IHT Rendezvous: French Screen Diva Threatens to Join Russia Exodus

LONDON — Brigitte Bardot, the fifties-to-sixties movie icon, is the latest celebrity to announce plans to flee to Russia to escape her native France.“I’m serious. I’ve had it up to here! I can’t stand this country any longer,” the retired screen goddess told the daily Nice Matin in its Saturday edition.Ms. Bardot has been a prominent cheerleader for Gérard Depardieu, her fellow superstar, in his decision...

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