A Shockingly Mediocre Backpack and Battery Combo

The North Face has been making mountaineering and hiking gear for years, so you’d think its product designers would know their way around a backpack, right? Well, they do — provided the backpack in question is aimed at folks headed into the wilderness.

But The North Face’s new Surge II Charged Daypack is meant for carrying a laptop instead of a pair of crampons; it can simultaneously protect and charge USB-powered hardware, thanks to a built-in battery pack. Unfortunately, if the time I spent with the Surge II is any indication, the company’s approach to the charge-while-you-schlep concept could use some tinkering.

It can hold 41 liters’ worth of stuff, more than enough space for overnight trip. Or, if you were headed into work, you could fit your lunch, attaché, gym clothes and your laptop and tablet. Its wide, well-padded straps mitigate weight well. No matter what I stuffed into the Surge II Charged Daypack over the week that I tested it, I never felt like the straps were digging into my shoulders.

On the outside of the bag, you’ll find a couple of horizontal stash pockets, a water bottle pocket and a zippered pocket that’s about the right size for a sunglasses case. For the safety-first set, there’s a reinforced loop near the base for a rear bike light, and the chest strap buckle doubles as a rescue whistle.

The Surge II Charged Daypack’s roomy interior is subdivided into three main sections: a laptop/tablet compartment, a central carry-all area, and an compartment full of a gazillion small pockets that also contains the aforementioned removable battery pack (more on that in a bit).

The bag’s laptop compartment can accommodate computers up to 17 inches. In the front of the laptop compartment, there’s an extra smaller sleeve which I found could hold a Nexus 10 tablet snugly. Sounds good right? Well, it would be, if there were adequate padding to protect your hardware from getting knocked around on your commute, or dinged by the rest of the crap in your bag.

The section of bag next the laptop compartment? It’s roomy, and I could fit a change of clothes and a dopp kit into it. But a lack of padding between the interior compartments means any hard or heavy gear you jam into it could wind up damaging your laptop or tablet.

The final large, zippered compartment is taken up by a ton of small pockets sized to accommodate smartphones, cables and the like. I get what The North Face was trying to do here, but unfortunately these pockets are too small to allow for much customization. So if you want to stash anything larger than an iPhone 5 or a small external drive, you’re hosed.

One of these frustratingly small pockets is designed to hold the backpack’s Joey T1 battery: a 5.5-ounce, 5-volt 13Wh lithium polymer battery pack that the company claims can charge a smartphone battery twice, or give a life-extending boost to your tablet or digital camera. (This is the same battery pack Timbuk2 and other bag-makers are using in their charging packs.)

While it was able to power my tablet as advertised, it only managed to charge my iPhone 5′s battery 1.25 times. Not cool. Also, while there’s plenty of cable management for your devices’ charging cables, the Joey T1 battery pack has its own long USB cable for charging it up, and there’s nothing to hold it in place. Opening the pack from the top, I found the cable often got in the way of taking my stuff out of the bag.

I wanted to like the Surge II Charged Daypack, but The North Face made that impossible. Conceptually, it’s a time-tested pack design from a reputable company. But the lackluster aftermarket battery pack seems to have been added as an afterthought, and the interior appears to have been arranged with very little thought at all. Anyone looking for a new bag and battery to carry and power their gear would be better off buying them separately.

WIRED Comfortable, even when carrying heavier loads. 41 liters is more space than most people will ever need on their daily commute or an overnight trip.

TIRED Minimal padding to protect laptops and tablets. Small interior pockets make the pack less versatile than it could be. Battery implementation feels tacked on, because it is.

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Rhythm & Hues filing for bankruptcy after deal with Prime Focus collapses

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Oscar-winning visual effects company Rhythm & Hues Studios will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation.

A deal for Indian-based Prime Focus to buy the Oscar-winning visual effects studio collapsed, forcing the company to file, the individual said.

The news comes as Rhythm & Hues is being honored for its artistry. The company is nominated for two Oscars for its effects work on “Snow White & The Huntsman” and “Life of Pi,” and won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award last weekend for its contributions to the latter film.

Representatives for Rhythm & Hues and Prime Focus did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

There are still several suitors interested in buying Rhythm & Hues after it emerges from bankruptcy, the individual said.

Rhythm & Hues had hoped to avoid bankruptcy and had secured a $ 20 million bridge loan from three studios to keep it afloat until its sale to Prime Focus could be completed. The money would have been used to keep Rhythm & Hues running through April so it could finish its work on several major projects, including “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “R.I.P.D.” and “Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters.” It is not certain how the loan will be affected.

Under that pact, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. planned to step in to float cash to the company, according to a different individual with knowledge of the deal. Though the studios were poised to lend the money, at least one of the them believed that it would be wiser for Rhythm & Hues to go through the bankruptcy process, the individual said.

Rhythm & Hues boasts more than 1,400 employees and has branches in India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Canada. It is headquartered in Los Angeles.

VFX Soldier, an effects industry blog that broke the news of the filing, reported that Rhythm & Hues has told employees that payroll is delayed.

Rhythm & Hues’ difficulties became grave after a major project canceled work with the company last year. The visual effects industry is a low-margin one, insiders tell TheWrap. It is also a business that has been hard-hit by runaway productions that have been lured away by lucrative film tax incentives offered by foreign and state governments.

Several effects shops have succumbed to financial difficulties in recent years, including Digital Domain, which filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Galloping Horse America and Reliance Mediaworks last September.

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DealBook: S.E.C. Nominee Mary Jo White Discloses Law Firm Wealth

It is no secret that the partners at the white-shoe law firms Debevoise & Plimpton and Cravath, Swaine & Moore earn a decent living. The financial disclosure form of Mary Jo White, the Obama administration’s pick to become the next chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, reveals just how decent.

Ms. White and her husband, John White, have amassed at least $16 million, according to the filing. Ms. White, 65, heads the litigation department at Debevoise; Mr. White, 65, is co-chairman of the corporate governance practice at Cravath.

As part of her disclosures, Ms. White also explained how she would deal with potential conflicts of interest. In a surprise move, she wrote that her husband would convert his partnership at Cravath from equity to nonequity status.

While many large corporate law firms have nonequity partners, meaning they hold the title of partner but have no ownership stake, each of Cravath’s 87 partners has equity in the firm. As a nonequity partner, Mr. White will receive a fixed salary and an annual performance bonus, according to the filing.

Ms. White also said that, for the time she serves as the S.E.C.’s chairwoman, Mr. White would not communicate with the commission on behalf of Cravath or any client in connection with rules proposed by the S.E.C. Such a restriction is not immaterial for Cravath, as Mr. White has vast experience in securities law and deep connections to the S.E.C., having served as the director of the commission’s corporation finance unit from 2006 to 2008.

The disclosure form contained a number of other revelations. Mr. White has investments in three hedge funds, including a vehicle managed by Och-Ziff, a large publicly traded investment firm started by a former Goldman Sachs partner. He will divest his interest in all three funds upon her confirmation, according to the filing.

The couple also owns 40 acres of farmland and unsold crops in Pocahontas County, Iowa, that are valued at $100,000 to $250,000.

As for Ms. White, a former United States attorney in Manhattan, she received more than $2.4 million as a Debevoise partner last year, according to the filing. And she said that she planned to retire as a Debevoise partner upon becoming S.E.C. chairwoman, at which point she would enjoy the benefits of the firm’s lucrative retirement plan. The disclosure says that Ms. White will receive a monthly lifetime retirement payment of $42,500, amounting to $510,000 annually.

However, instead of making a monthly retirement payment for the next four years while she runs the commission, Debevoise will make a lump-sum payment within 60 days of her appointment, the filing disclosed.

The Whites’ net worth is most likely far greater than $16 million, which represents the low number in a range of possible amounts. Government officials are required to disclose their net worth only within broad ranges.

For instance, the Whites own seven different investments — including a Vanguard high yield bond fund and a Vanguard emerging markets fund — worth $1 million to $5 million. At the low end, those seven funds would be worth $7 million; but at the high end, they would be valued at $35 million.

Ms. White also said that she would avoid some matters for a period of time that involve her former clients, a list that includes JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft and UBS.

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Grammys 2013: Fun., Mumford, Gotye lead a newer generation

Grammy Awards voters gave their top honor to British roots music band Mumford & Sons for their album "Babel" on Sunday at the 55th awards ceremony. Other top honors were distributed to a broad array of younger acts, including indie trio Fun., electronic pop artist Gotye, rapper-R&B singer Frank Ocean and rock group the Black Keys.

"We figured we weren't going to win because the Black Keys have been sweeping up all day — and deservedly so," Mumford & Sons front man Marcus Mumford said after he and his band members strode to the stage at Staples Center in Los Angeles to collect the award from last year's winner, R&B-soul singer Adele.

Pop culture historians may look back at 2013, however, as the year the Grammy Awards gave up its long fight against new forms of music dissemination, embracing songs and videos that consumers soaked up by way of YouTube and other Internet outlets as opposed to purchasing them.

PHOTOS: 2013 Grammy Award winners

"Somebody That I Used to Know," the wildly popular collaboration between Gotye and New Zealand pop singer Kimbra, took the top award presented for a single recording upon being named record of the year, which recognizes performance and record production.

"Somebody…" not only was one of the biggest-selling singles of 2012 but also has notched nearly 400 million views on YouTube, powerfully demonstrating the increasingly vital role of the "broadcast yourself" video Internet phenomenon. Different YouTube posts of Ocean's "Thinking About You" single have totaled nearly 60 million views.

New York indie rock trio Fun. was named best new artist, an acknowledgment of the good-time music the group brought to listeners and viewers last summer largely through its runaway hit single "We Are Young," which has racked up nearly 200 million YouTube views. It also was named song of the year, bringing awards for the group's songwriters, Jack Antonoff, Andrew Dost and Nate Ruess, and collaborator Jeff Bhasker.

GRAMMYS 2013: Full coverage | Pre-show winners | Winners | Ballot

"Everyone can see our faces, and we are not very young — we've been doing this for 12 years," Ruess said as they collected the award.

The song's title could also serve as a theme for the evening, which was dominated by other relatively young acts in the most prestigious Grammy categories.

Singer, rapper and songwriter Ocean emerged the victor in the one category that pitted him directly against real-life rival Chris Brown, as his critically acclaimed solo debut album, "Channel Orange," won the urban contemporary album award. A few minutes later Ocean got a second Grammy with Kanye West, Jay-Z and the Dream in the rap-sung collaboration category for their single "No Church in the Wild."

GRAMMYS 2013: Winners list | Best & Worst |  Red carpet | Timeline | Fashion | Highlights

Ocean's tuxedo covered all but his hands, but it appeared as he picked up the urban album award that his left arm remained in a wrist brace he'd exhibited Thursday at rehearsals for this year's broadcast, a remnant of his scuffle last month with Brown over a parking space at a recording studio. Los Angeles Police Department investigators said Ocean informed them that he would not press charges against Brown.

It was the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach who quickly built up steam as the front-runner to dominate this year's awards, taking several statuettes barely an hour into the show, including producer of the year for himself and three with his group including rock performance, rock song and rock album for "El Camino."

The Black Keys homed in on the fundamentals of rock 'n' roll — big guitar riffs, lustful lyrics and a bevy of musical hooks on "El Camino," one of the best reviewed albums of the group's career.

FULL COVERAGE: Grammy Awards 2013

Auerbach picked up another award as producer of the blues album winner, Dr. John's "Locked Down."

Carrie Underwood grabbed the country solo performance Grammy for the title track from her album "Blown Away," which also won the country song award for writers Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins earlier during the pre-telecast ceremony at Nokia Theatre, across the street from Staples Center.

The Zac Brown Band added to its growing place as a new-generation country powerhouse with a win of the country album trophy for its "Uncaged," built on muscular Southern rock guitar riffs, elaborate multipart vocal harmonies and jam-band instrumental excursions.

Last year's big winner, Adele, collected the first statuette of the night for her single "Set Fire to the Rain" in the pop solo performance category.

The show got off to an eye-popping start with a Cirque du Soleil-inspired performance by Taylor Swift of her nominated single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

The preponderance of youthful acts not broadly known to mainstream TV audiences heightened the use of cross-generational pairings. Rising songwriter and singer Ed Sheeran shared the stage early with veteran Grammy darling Elton John, while Bruno Mars teamed with Sting and Rihanna in a Bob Marley tribute later in the show. Several members of Americana acts, including Alabama Shakes and Mumford & Sons, sang alongside veterans John, Mavis Staples and T Bone Burnett in a salute to drummer Levon Helm of the Band.

But it was the young guns to whom the evening — and perhaps the future — of the Grammy Awards belonged.

The Grammys are determined by about 13,000 voting members of the Recording Academy. The eligibility period for nominated recordings was Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. The show aired on CBS live except on the West Coast, which gets a tape delay.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

Twitter: @RandyLewis2

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Mouse Maker Scurries Away From PCs Toward iPad Future

The struggles of personal computer giants like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Intel to adapt to a world driven by smartphones and tablets can be viewed clearly through slumping sales and falling share prices. But if you go out one orbit, to a company like Logitech, which makes the add-ons for PCs – the mice, keyboards and speakers – the rapid decline of the personal computer ecosystem is especially stark.

In the past two years the California and Switzerland-based company has seen its stock slide 62 percent in value. Sales in the most recent quarter, which ended December 31, were down 14 percent as Logitech posted an operating loss of $180 million. “Continued weakness in the global PC market was the primary factor in our disappointing Q3 results,” is how newly installed CEO Bracken Darrell summed it up.

Not exactly the way you want to kick off your first earnings call as the boss of the $2.3 billion company. But even as Darrell, the former head of Whirlpool’s business in Europe, has been busy paring down business lines, he’s surprisingly upbeat about what he plainly describes as a Logitech turnaround. And in what he’s dropping and what he’s kept, you can see where Darrell believes Logitech and consumer tech is headed.

First, what is gone. Darrell plans to wind down Logitech’s Harmony remote control, digital video security gear, speaker docks and console gaming peripherals by the end of this year. He doesn’t think consoles are going away, but he is more enamored of the premium prices that gamers pay for high-end gaming mice and other gadgets. Clearly Darrell believes speaker docks have been supplanted by Bluetooth speakers, and Logitech is pushing hard there with its UE (Ultimate Ear) boom box offerings.

As to remote controls and video security gear, both its Harmony business and security business never reached a size that could make a dent in Logitech’s bottom line. More importantly, Darrell says, neither remotes nor video security plugged easily into the distribution and scale advantages Logitech has in the PC world – and as grim as the news from PC-land is, Logitech is staying in the game.

Darrell argues that while consumers are flocking to tablets and smartphones for all kinds of computing tasks, at work you are still going to need either a desktop or notebook PC. “The PC industry will always be important to us,” Darrell says. “It’s not going to be something for us to brag about, but it’s going to be a profitable thing for us to do.”

The things Darrell does want to brag about he pulls from a canvas bag. There is a mobile-friendly version of the UE Bluetooth boom box, a metal and rubber-clad competitor to Jawbone’s Jambox.

Next, there is an ultrathin keyboard cum cover that clips magnetically to an iPad mini. Its standard iPad-sized counterpart has been a hit, and Darrell expects the same from the smaller version.

Clad in aluminum, the mini version has a fit and finish that pairs well with Apple’s sleek hardware. Design has to be a differentiator for Logitech going forward, Darrell says, but so does speed – especially when you are operating in Apple’s world. Logitech’s first ultrathin keyboard for the standard iPad took 13 months to develop and get to store shelves. The mini version took three months, Darrell says. Certainly Logitech learned a fair bit from the first iteration that it could apply to the second, but Darrell has also made changes, moving a core team of designers and engineers closer to manufacturing in Asia, for example, to speed things up.

The team anticipates the dimensions of follow-up Apple products, following rumors and its own gut to guess at thinness, width and length. As much as it can, it preps a product for manufacture, and then waits on Apple. “I don’t know about other companies, but Apple doesn’t share anything with us in advance,” Darrell says. “We have to have these workarounds, and just be ready to hit the start button as fast as we can. I think we can get down to a three-week turnaround with our current approach.”

When asked whether some manufacturing for Logitech could move to the United States, as Apple’s Tim Cook has suggested Apple will be looking to do more of, Darrell pauses. At Whirlpool, and before that Procter & Gamble, Darrell has spent a career shifting manufacturing to the lowest cost parts of the globe. “But then General Electric put water heater manufacturing back in Kentucky,” Darrell says. “I put G.E. into that business years ago, and I never would have guessed it was coming back to the United States, but it did. I honestly don’t know what to think about where manufacturing is headed next.”

Darrell does know where he’s taking Logitech next, deep into a design-driven world that revolves around smartphones and tablets. And while he’s not boastful, he’s confident in Logitech’s chances. “We are in the biggest revolution in computing since (Steve) Jobs and (Bill) Gates,” Darrell says. “Ultrabooks, notebooks, tablets, they are all going to blend together. But at the end of the day, all those devices are going to need some kind of keyboard, and that starts to look like a world we know.”

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Three dead in helicopter crash on TV reality shoot

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Three men working on a reality TV show were killed in a helicopter crash early on Sunday in Acton, California, according to county firefighters.

They told City News Service that all three occupants of the helicopter were pronounced dead at the scene. The crash happened at around 3:40 a.m. on a ranch with two airstrips that is often used as a location for movies, TV shows and commercials.

The Los Angeles Film Commission told local media outlets that a company called Bongo Productions had a permit to shoot in the area, and a reality show was being filmed.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Getting the Right Addiction Treatment

“Treatment is not a prerequisite to surviving addiction.” This bold statement opens the treatment chapter in a helpful new book, “Now What? An Insider’s Guide to Addiction and Recovery,” by William Cope Moyers, a man who nonetheless needed “four intense treatment experiences over five years” before he broke free of alcohol and drugs.

As the son of Judith and Bill Moyers, successful parents who watched helplessly during a 15-year pursuit of oblivion through alcohol and drugs, William Moyers said his near-fatal battle with addiction demonstrates that this “illness of the mind, body and spirit” has no respect for status or opportunity.

“My parents raised me to become anything I wanted, but when it came to this chronic incurable illness, I couldn’t get on top of it by myself,” he said in an interview.

He finally emerged from his drug-induced nadir when he gave up “trying to do it my way” and instead listened to professional therapists and assumed responsibility for his behavior. For the last “18 years and four months, one day at a time,” he said, he has lived drug-free.

“Treatment is not the end, it’s the beginning,” he said. “My problem was not drinking or drugs. My problem was learning how to live life without drinking or drugs.”

Mr. Moyers acknowledges that treatment is not a magic bullet. Even after a monthlong stay at a highly reputable treatment center like Hazelden in Center City, Minn., where Mr. Moyers is a vice president of public affairs and community relations, the probability of remaining sober and clean a year later is only about 55 percent.

“Be wary of any program that claims a 100 percent success rate,” Mr. Moyers warned. “There is no such thing.”

“Treatment works to make recovery possible. But recovery is also possible without treatment,” Mr. Moyers said. “There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. What I needed and what worked for me isn’t necessarily what you or your loved one require.”

As with many smokers who must make multiple attempts to quit before finally overcoming an addiction to nicotine, people hooked on alcohol or drugs often must try and try again.

Nor does treatment have as good a chance at succeeding if it is forced upon a person who is not ready to recover. “Treatment does work, but only if the person wants it to,” Mr. Moyers said.

Routes to Success

For those who need a structured program, Mr. Moyers described what to consider to maximize the chances of overcoming addiction to alcohol or drugs.

Most important is to get a thorough assessment before deciding where to go for help. Do you or your loved one meet the criteria for substance dependence? Are there “co-occurring mental illnesses, traumatic or physical disabilities, socioeconomic influences, cultural issues, or family dynamics” that may be complicating the addiction and that can sabotage treatment success?

While most reputable treatment centers do a full assessment before admitting someone, it is important to know if the center or clinic provides the services of professionals who can address any underlying issues revealed by the assessment. For example, if needed, is a psychiatrist or other medical doctor available who could provide therapy and prescribe medication?

Is there a social worker on staff to address challenging family, occupational or other living problems? If a recovering addict goes home to the same problems that precipitated the dependence on alcohol or drugs, the chances of remaining sober or drug-free are greatly reduced.

Is there a program for family members who can participate with the addict in learning the essentials of recovery and how to prepare for the return home once treatment ends?

Finally, does the program offer aftercare and follow-up services? Addiction is now recognized to be a chronic illness that lurks indefinitely within an addict in recovery. As with other chronic ailments, like diabetes or hypertension, lasting control requires hard work and diligence. One slip need not result in a return to abuse, and a good program will help addicts who have completed treatment cope effectively with future challenges to their recovery.

How Families Can Help

“Addiction is a family illness,” Mr. Moyers wrote. Families suffer when someone they love descends into the purgatory of addiction. But contrary to the belief that families should cut off contact with addicts and allow them to reach “rock-bottom” before they can begin recovery, Mr. Moyers said that the bottom is sometimes death.

“It is a dangerous, though popular, misconception that a sick addict can only quit using and start to get well when he ‘hits bottom,’ that is, reaches a point at which he is desperate enough to willingly accept help,” Mr. Moyers wrote.

Rather, he urged families to remain engaged, to keep open the lines of communication and regularly remind the addict of their love and willingness to help if and when help is wanted. But, he added, families must also set firm boundaries — no money, no car, nothing that can be quickly converted into the substance of abuse.

Whether or not the addict ever gets well, Mr. Moyers said, “families have to take care of themselves. They can’t let the addict walk over their lives.”

Sometimes families or friends of an addict decide to do an intervention, confronting the addict with what they see happening and urging the person to seek help, often providing possible therapeutic contacts.

“An intervention can be the key that interrupts the process and enables the addict to recognize the extent of their illness and the need to take responsibility for their behavior,”Mr. Moyers said.

But for an intervention to work, Mr. Moyers said, “the sick person should not be belittled or demeaned.” He also cautioned families to “avoid threats.” He noted that the mind of “the desperate, fearful addict” is subsumed by drugs and alcohol that strip it of logic, empathy and understanding. It “can’t process your threat any better than it can a tearful, emotional plea.”

Resource Network

Mr. Moyer’s book lists nearly two dozen sources of help for addicts and their families. Among them:

Alcoholics Anonymous World Services www.aa.org;

Narcotics Anonymous World Services www.na.org;

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration treatment finder www.samhsa.gov/treatment/;

Al-Anon Family Groups www.Al-anon.alateen.org;

Nar-Anon Family Groups www.nar-anon.org;

Co-Dependents Anonymous World Fellowship www.coda.org.

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This is the second of two articles on addiction treatment. The first can be found here.

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Media Decoder Blog: NPR Campaign Seeks the Quirky Listener

Are you a sky diving algebra teacher? A Sudoku-playing barista? NPR has a new ad campaign aimed at you.

The pilot campaign, in four cities, is intended to bring new listeners to local public radio stations, and in turn NPR’s national programs, by matching a show to even the quirkiest interests.

The three-month campaign, financed with a $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation and developed by Baltimore agency Planit, includes billboards, as well as television spots, social media outreach and rail, print and digital ads aimed at adults 25 to 54, with at least some college education. Ads point to a Web site, interestingradio.com, where visitors can take a poll, discover shows and click through to a live stream from a local station.

The ads will run in the Dallas/Fort Worth, San Diego, Indianapolis and Orlando, Fla., markets, chosen because they offer geographic diversity, as well as stations that are strong and growing, said Emma Carrasco, who joined NPR two months ago as chief marketing officer, a new position.

The campaign comes as listenership for “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” — NPR’s two top programs and the radio news programs that reach the most people nationwide each week — declined from spring 2011 to spring 2012, the last period for which national ratings are available.

Year-to-year, the cumulative weekday audience for “Morning Edition” declined 5 percent to 12.3 million listeners a week, from 13 million, NPR officials said, citing Arbitron ratings figures, while “All Things Considered” was off 4 percent, to 11.8 million weekly listeners, compared with 12.3 million in spring 2011.

Preliminary fall 2012 estimates showed year-to-year audience increases for those two shows, NPR said, but the figures were for major markets only.

Local public radio stations have undertaken similar efforts in recent years. WQXR’s modest 2011 “Obeythoven” campaign used TV spots to get audiences thinking about New York City classical music radio in a new way. Chicago’s WBEZ this month began a cheeky campaign called “2032 Membership Drive” encouraging audiences to procreate and raise a new generation of listeners.

If NPR’s new ads are deemed successful, NPR will seek additional funds to expand them to more markets, Ms. Carrasco said.

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Cardinal Mahony used cemetery money to pay sex abuse settlement

Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.

Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.

The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88% of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.

Mahony and other church officials also did not mention the cemetery fund in numerous public statements about how the archdiocese planned to cover the $660-million abuse settlement. In detailed presentations to parish groups, the cardinal and his aides said they had cashed in substantial investments to pay the settlement, but they did not disclose that the main asset liquidated was cemetery money.

In response to questions from The Times, the archdiocese acknowledged using the maintenance account to help settle abuse claims. It said in a statement that the appropriation had "no effect" on cemetery upkeep and enabled the archdiocese "to protect the assets of our parishes, schools and essential ministries."

Under cemetery contracts, 15% of burial bills are paid into an account the archdiocese is required to maintain for what church financial records describe as "the general care and maintenance of cemetery properties in perpetuity."

Day-to-day upkeep at the archdiocese's 11 cemeteries and its cathedral mausoleum is financed by cemetery sales revenue separate from the 15% deposited into the fund, spokeswoman Carolina Guevara said. Based on actuarial predictions, it would be at least 187 years before cemeteries are fully occupied and the church started to draw on the maintenance account, she said.

"We estimate that Perpetual Care funds will not be needed until after the year 2200," Guevara wrote in an email.

The church's use of fund money appears to be legal. State law prohibits private cemeteries from touching the principal of their perpetual care funds and bars them from using the interest on those funds for anything other than maintenance. Those laws, however, do not apply to cemeteries run by religious organizations.

Mary Dispenza, who received a 2006 settlement from the archdiocese over claims of molestation by her parish priest in the 1940s, said her great-uncle and great-aunt are buried in Calvary Cemetery in East L.A.

"I think it's very deceptive," she said of the way the appropriation was handled. "And I think in a way they took it from people who had no voice: the dead. They can't react, they can't respond."

The fund dates to the tenure of Bishop Francis Mora, who opened Calvary in 1896. An official archdiocese history published in 2006 recounts how the faithful of Mora's era were assured their money was "in the custody of an organization of unquestionable integrity and endurance" — the Catholic Church.

Over the next century, the archdiocese built more cemeteries, and each person laid to rest meant a new deposit into the maintenance account. By the time of the sex abuse settlement, there were cemeteries from Pomona to Santa Barbara and $130 million in the fund. Church officials removed $114.9 million in October 2007.

"Management plans to repay these appropriated funds from future cemetery sales ... after all liabilities associated with the lawsuits ... are paid off," a December 2012 church financial report stated.

It's unclear when that will happen. The archdiocese is still repaying a $175-million loan it took to help cover the settlement. Archbishop Jose Gomez, who took over from Mahony two years ago, is mulling over a $200-million fundraising campaign. Cemeteries have been a reliable source of income for the church, and the use of the upkeep-fund money is one of several ways the archdiocese is depending on them to erase its abuse debts.

When Mahony agreed to the settlement six years ago, he did so knowing his archdiocese couldn't afford it. But he had little choice. If cases brought by more than 500 victims went to trial, the archdiocese feared it could be facing jury awards and legal bills in excess of $1 billion.

The deal reached after lengthy negotiations paid an average of $1.3 million per victim. Even with contributions from its insurance companies, religious orders and others, the archdiocese was on the hook for more than $300 million, vastly more cash than it had on hand.

Bishops in other cities had closed parishes and schools or filed for bankruptcy, moves that angered the faithful and that Mahony wanted to avoid. He went to Rome at least twice to consult with Vatican officials, who must approve the transfer of archdiocese property worth more than $10 million. He later told the National Catholic Reporter he got permission to "alienate" — the Vatican's term for sale or transfer — $200 million in church assets. Asked whether the Vatican had signed off on the use of cemetery funds, archdiocese Chief Financial Officer Randolph E. Steiner said in a statement, "All approvals under the Church's Code of Canon Law were obtained."

After the settlement, Mahony and others from the archdiocese said publicly that the money would come from administrative cuts, liquidation of investments, a bank loan and sales of real estate not directly related to their religious mission. Such real estate included the archdiocese's Wilshire Boulevard headquarters, which eventually sold for $31 million.

Three months later, with no announcement, the archdiocese reached into the cemetery account. Steiner said that during an internal review of church assets, the money "was determined to be excess funding and was made available to the 2007 settlement."

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Wired Science Space Photo of the Day: Wings of the Seagull Nebula

This image shows the intricate structure of part of the Seagull Nebula, known more formally as IC 2177. These wisps of gas and dust are known as Sharpless 2-296 (officially Sh 2-296) and form part of the “wings” of the celestial bird. This region of the sky is a fascinating muddle of intriguing astronomical objects — a mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving amongst bright stars. This new view was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Image: ESO [high-resolution]

Caption: ESO

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