NVIDIA’s ‘Project SHIELD’ Console Faces Three Challenges

Despite being announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD isn’t the first game-console-in-a-controller to be announced this year. That honor goes to the GameStick, an indie project being funded on Kickstarter. As relative newcomers to the gaming scene, GameStick‘s creators face an uphill battle for acceptance, from both potential buyers and game developers.

But despite NVIDIA‘s established position as a gaming hardware company, it may have a struggle ahead of it, too. Here are three problems which may hinder Project SHIELD‘s adoption.

The size

Unlike GameStick, which is sort of like a classic NES gamepad with a detachable memory stick that plugs into the TV, Project SHIELD is a completely self-contained console. It’s thick and bulky, enormous compared to any of today’s controllers, or even Nintendo’s 3DS XL game console. The closest thing it compares to is an original Xbox controller, before the redesign, but with a flip-up multitouch screen that’s five inches across and has 720p resolution.

You’re not going to be able to just toss Project SHIELD in your pocket, like a smartphone or iPod or very small tablet. It’ll be portable in roughly the same sense that an iPad or netbook is portable, in that you’ll need a handbag or carrying case to put it in. This puts it in a separate size category from most of its competitors, and makes it less convenient to carry around.

The cost

Project SHIELD’s Tegra 4 processor will let it play Tegra-enhanced HD Android games straight from the Google Play store, as well as stream PC games from gaming PCs running Steam and equipped with certain types of NVIDIA graphics cards. Besides that, it’s a full-fledged Android device running Jelly Bean.

But at what cost? Google’s $ 199 Nexus 7 tablet lacks a built-in game controller, doesn’t have a much bigger screen, and uses a less powerful Tegra 3 processor. Dedicated game consoles like the 3DS XL and PlayStation Vita are priced in the same ballpark as the Nexus 7. NVIDIA has yet to announce how much Project SHIELD will cost, or even when it will be on store shelves.

The Tegra-enhanced HD graphics

For many, this will be a plus. There are a lot of Tegra HD (or “THD”) games on the Google Play store right now which boast improved graphics over the versions that run on other graphics processors.

It complicates things for game developers, though, who have to write a separate version just for Tegra processors. Unlike normal ARM processors and Android itself, Tegra is owned solely by NVIDIA, which means there are a lot of tablets and smartphones out there which can’t run those versions of these games. It also means gamers may have to repurchase certain games for Project SHIELD, in order to get the enhanced versions.

Looking towards the future

Things aren’t all gloomy. So far, NVIDIA’s managed to keep developer interest in the Tegra platform, and has gotten a lot of people excited about Project SHIELD. Its partnership with Valve also puts it in position to take advantage of the excitement surrounding Big Picture mode, and the upcoming gaming PCs (like Piston) designed to work with it and connect to a television.

Finally, a wireless game controller can cost upward of $ 50 by itself, so seen in that light Project SHIELD may not turn out to be so expensive — assuming gamers buy Tegra HD titles and NVIDIA graphics cards to use it with.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Fox hires Dennis Kucinich as analyst

NEW YORK (AP) — Days before President Barack Obama‘s inauguration for a second term in office, Fox News Channel has signed Dennis Kucinich, one of his former opponents, to be a regular contributor.

Kucinich, a presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008 who ended 16 years in Congress two weeks ago, will make his debut as a Fox contributor on Thursday’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” the network said Wednesday.

“I’ve always been impressed with Rep. Kucinich’s fearlessness and thoughtfulness about important issues,” Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said. “His willingness to take a stand from his point of view makes him a valuable voice in our country’s debate.”

Fox is the nation’s top-ranked cable news network, particularly popular with Republicans. Its big-name Republican contributors include Karl Rove, Sarah Palin and John Bolton. Democrats in the Fox stable include Evan Bayh, Joe Trippi and Bob Beckel.

Kucinich was elected to the Cleveland city council at age 23 and, at 31, became one of the nation’s youngest mayors. He’s also been an Ohio state senator and run his own communications and marketing firm.

“Fox News has always provided me with an opportunity to share my perspective with its enormous viewership,” he said.

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Study Confirms Benefits of Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Women

While everyone is being urged to get the flu vaccine as soon as possible, some pregnant women avoid it in the belief that it may harm their babies. A large new study confirms that they should be much more afraid of the flu than the vaccine.

Norwegian researchers studied fetal death among 113,331 women pregnant during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009-2010. Some 54,065 women were unvaccinated, 31,912 were vaccinated during pregnancy, and 27,354 were vaccinated after delivery. The scientists then reviewed hospitalizations and doctor visits for the flu among the women.

The results were published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The flu vaccine was not associated with an increased risk for fetal death, the researchers found, and getting the shot during pregnancy reduced the risk of the mother getting the flu by about 70 percent. That was important, because fetuses whose mothers got the flu were much more likely to die.

Unvaccinated women had a 25 percent higher risk of fetal death during the pandemic than those who had had the shot. Among pregnant women with a clinical diagnosis of influenza, the risk of fetal death was nearly doubled. In all, there were 16 fetal deaths among the 2,278 women who were diagnosed with influenza during pregnancy.

Dr. Marian Knight, a professor at the perinatal epidemiology unit of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the research, called it “a high-quality national study” that shows “there is no evidence of an increased risk of fetal death in women who have been immunized. Clinicians and women can be reassured about the safety of the vaccine in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.”

The Norwegian health system records vaccinations of individuals and maintains linked registries to track effects and side effects. The lead author, Dr. Camilla Stoltenberg, director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said that there are few countries with such complete records.

“This is a great study,” said Dr. Denise J. Jamieson, an obstetrician and a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was not involved in the work. “It’s nicely done, with good data, and it’s additional information about the importance of the flu vaccine for pregnant women. It shows that it’s effective and might reduce the risk for fetal death.”

In Norway, the vaccine is recommended only in the second and third trimesters, so the study includes little data on vaccination in the first trimester. The C.D.C. recommends the vaccine for all pregnant women, regardless of trimester.

“We knew from other studies that the vaccine protects the woman and the newborn,” Dr. Stoltenberg said. “This study clearly indicates that it protects fetuses as well. I seriously suggest that pregnant women get vaccinated during every flu season.”

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F.A.A. Orders Grounding of U.S.-Operated Boeing 787s

Kyodo News, via Reuters

An All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner made an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan on Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it was temporarily grounding all Boeing 787s operated by United States carriers after several incidents in recent weeks, including a battery fire, and after an All Nippon Airways flight in Japan was forced to make an emergency landing on Wednesday.

The F.A.A.'s emergency airworthiness directive only applies directly to United Airlines, currently the sole American carrier using the new plane, with six 787s. But the agency said it would alert other aviation regulators to take similar action, and it seems likely that international carriers will comply with the directive.

Eight airlines now fly the plane, known as the Dreamliner. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines in Japan own 24 of the 49 delivered by Boeing since November 2011. The other operators are Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, LAN Airlines of Chile, LOT of Poland and Qatar Airways. Orders for about 800 additional 787s are in the pipeline.

“The F.A.A. will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible,” the F.A.A. said in a statement.

Thanks to its extensive use of lighter composite materials and more efficient engines, the 787 is expected to usher a new era of more fuel-efficient travel, particularly over long distances.

But so far, the aircraft’s problems have been linked to a feature that had garnered much less attention until now: the 787’s extensive use of electric systems. Unlike modern passenger jets built in the past decades, which use mechanical and pneumatic systems to power hydraulic pumps, the 787 makes extensive use of electrical systems instead.

The emergency landing of the All Nippon plane on Wednesday followed a string of problems in the past month with the 787, including a battery fire, fuel leaks and a cracked cockpit window. All Nippon said the problems Wednesday involved the same lithium-ion batteries that caught fire last week in Boston on a Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines.

In the episode early Wednesday, the 137 passengers and crew members aboard a flight from Yamaguchi Ube Airport, in western Japan, to Tokyo used emergency slides to leave the aircraft early after battery trouble and an “unusual smell” in the cockpit prompted its pilots to land instead at Takamatsu airport, according to All Nippon. The jet’s main battery in the front of the plane was later found to have become discolored and to be seeping electrolyte fluid, All Nippon said.

Ryosei Nomura, a spokesman for All Nippon, said Wednesday that the airline was temporarily grounding all 17 of its Dreamliners for inspections, leading to the cancellation of 38 domestic and international flights. Japan Airlines also said it would ground the five Dreamliners it was operating; two other aircraft were already undergoing safety checks.

Last week, the F.A.A. ordered a comprehensive review of the Dreamliner’s manufacturing and design, with a focus on the plane’s electrical systems. During a news conference last Thursday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made no mention of grounding Dreamliners.

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Bettina Wassener from Hong Kong.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 16, 2013

An earlier version of this article published online misstated the number of Boeing 787s already delivered worldwide. It is 49, not 50.

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San Diego Zoo, Audubon pair up to help save animals

SAN DIEGO — Two organizations known for their work in saving imperiled species agreed Tuesday to build a breeding center that will bring some of the world's most exotic and endangered birds and hoofed mammals to a 1,000-acre site near the Mississippi River.

The new facility will include open-air enclosures for animals of more than two dozen species, including whooping cranes, okapis, bongos (a type of antelope), storks, flamingos, Masai giraffes, oryx and other creatures, under the agreement signed by the San Diego Zoo Global and New Orleans-based Audubon Nature Institute.

"They have the land and we have the majority of the species that need assistance," said Robert Wiese, chief life sciences officer for San Diego Zoo Global, which manages field programs in 35 countries.

The partnership is based on the realization that animals breed better when they have room to roam. Even at the San Diego Zoo's ample Safari Park, space has become pinched.

The new facility, south of New Orleans, is to be named the Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife.

Many of the species are imperiled by loss of habitat in their native Africa, officials said.

For example, the okapi, an unusual animal that looks a zebra but is related to the giraffe, is threatened by the volatile politics of Central Africa and the continued loss of dense rain forest habitat. The brightly colored bongo, among the largest of the African antelope species, is threatened by poaching and habitat loss in Central and West Africa.

"We want to retain a large population in case the worst happens in Africa," Wiese said.

Jim Maddy, president and chief executive of the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums, said the partnership "demonstrates the creativity and resourcefulness of these two great organizations."

The Audubon Nature Institute, which operates museums and parks in the New Orleans area, owns the property, which already includes a research facility and a breeding center for cranes.

Construction at the center is set to begin this fall; the breeding program is expected to get underway next year. The San Diego Zoo will transfer some of its animals to the site. There are no plans in the first years to permit public access.

Douglas Myers, president of San Diego Zoo Global, said the two organizations hope the alliance "will be a model for collaborative efforts in the future."

The 1,000-acre site has sufficient elevation and drainage to withstand flooding from storms that sweep in from the Gulf of Mexico, officials said. The site, once owned by the Coast Guard, suffered only slight damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Still, "there is no totally safe, risk-free place," Wiese said.

tony.perry@latimes.com

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Why the Atlantic removed the Scientology advertorial

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The Atlantic apologized on Tuesday for posting a sponsored advertorial from the Church of Scientology, celebrating its leader David Miscavige.

The sponsored post, which went live Monday at 9:25 a.m. PT, touted 2012 as “milestone year” for the secretive church, which has been steeped in controversy throughout the years.

It was taken down about 8:30 p.m. and replaced by a message saying the magazine had “temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.”

“We screwed up,” Natalie Raabe, an Atlantic spokeswoman told TheWrap after the firestorm of criticism and mockery the advertisement generated on the web. “It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism – but it has – to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes.”

The Atlantic issued the following statement:

We screwed up. It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism – but it has – to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way. It’s safe to say that we are thinking a lot more about these policies after running this ad than we did beforehand. In the meantime, we have decided to withdraw the ad until we figure all of this out. We remain committed to and enthusiastic about innovation in digital advertising, but acknowledge – sheepishly – that we got ahead of ourselves. We are sorry, and we’re working very hard to put things right.

The timing of the ad was no surprise. New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright’s book-length exposé on Scientology – based on his 2011 profile of former Scientologist Paul Haggis – is due out Thursday.

Sponsored content, otherwise known as native ads or advertorials, have become a popular source of revenue for online publications, including Forbes and Business Insider.

But, normally, advertisers do not want comment threads under their paid-for content, and while this has never been a problem for previous Atlantic clients, the heated feelings surrounding Scientology erupted in the comment section below the article.

The Atlantic’s marketing team was moderating the comments – about 20 in all before the post was pulled – as they were posted, Raabe said.

“In this case, where a mistake was made, where we are taking a hard look at these things, is there were comments allowed on this post,” an Atlantic official with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. “For a subject like this where people very strong feelings, we realized there’s not a clear policy in place for things like commenting.”

The Church of Scientology told TheWrap no one was available to speak on the controversy, and its media relations team did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

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Singer Jessica Simpson to star in TV comedy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop singer Jessica Simpson is set to star in a television pilot in development for NBC that is loosely based on her life, executive producer Ben Silverman said on Tuesday.

The comedy could be Simpson‘s first step back into a major acting role in more than five years.

The former teen pop star is best known for her reality TV shows, including MTV’s “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” which followed Simpson and her first husband and fellow pop singer Nick Lachey. She also served as a mentor on NBC’s “Fashion Star.”

Simpson, 32, will play a celebrity who must balance life as a mother and a public figure, Silverman told Reuters.

The singer gave birth to her first child in May 2012 and said last month that she was pregnant with her second.

“The show is inspired by her life as she’s going through a new phase in her life becoming a mom,” said Silverman, who is the creator of NBC’s reality show “The Biggest Loser.”

“It’s a combination of ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’” he added, referring to the classic 1950s Lucille Ball comedy series and the HBO series by “Seinfeld” creator Larry David.

Simpson will also serve as an executive producer.

In 2004, Simpson taped a pilot for the ABC network about a pop star who becomes a TV news anchor, but it never became a series.

Simpson’s film credits include 2005′s “The Dukes of Hazzard” and 2006′s “Employee of the Month.”

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)

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Well: How to Go Vegan

When I first heard former President Bill Clinton talk about his vegan diet, I was inspired to make the switch myself. After all, if a man with a penchant for fast-food burgers and Southern cooking could go vegan, surely I could too.

At the grocery store, I stocked up on vegan foods, including almond milk (that was the presidential recommendation), and faux turkey and cheese to replicate my daughter’s favorite sandwich. But despite my good intentions, my cold-turkey attempt to give up, well, turkey (as well as other meats, dairy and eggs) didn’t go well. My daughter and I couldn’t stand the taste of almond milk, and the fake meat and cheese were unappealing.

Since then, I’ve spoken with numerous vegan chefs and diners who say it can be a challenge to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight. They offer the following advice for stocking your vegan pantry and finding replacements for key foods like cheese and other dairy products.

NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. My daughter and I both prefer the taste of soy milk and use it in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.

NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there’s no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.

THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of “Chloe’s Kitchen,” has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn’t have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta. My daughter and I have discovered we actually prefer the rich flavor of butternut squash ravioli, which can be found frozen and fresh in supermarkets, to cheese-filled ravioli.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST The name is unappetizing, but many vegan chefs swear by it: it’s a natural food with a roasted, nutty, cheeselike flavor. Ms. Coscarelli uses nutritional yeast flakes in her “best ever” baked macaroni and cheese (found in her cookbook). “I’ve served this to die-hard cheese lovers,” she told me, “and everyone agrees it is comparable, if not better.”

Susan Voisin’s Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it’s a fungus (think mushrooms!) that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.

BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.

EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.

Finally, don’t try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.

“Trying to recapture something and find an exact substitute is really hard,” she said. “A lot of people will try a vegetarian meatloaf right after they become vegetarian, and they hate it. But after you get away from eating meat for a while, you’ll find you start to develop other tastes, and the flavor of a lentil loaf with seasonings will taste great to you. It won’t taste like meat loaf, but you’ll appreciate it for itself.”

Ms. Voisin notes that she became a vegetarian and then vegan while living in a small town in South Carolina; she now lives in Jackson, Miss.

“If I can be a vegan in these not-quite-vegan-centric places, you can do it anywhere,” she said. “I think people who try to do it all at once overnight are more apt to fail. It’s a learning process.”

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What are your tips for vegan cooking and eating? Share your suggestions on ingredients, recipes and strategies by posting a comment below or tweeting with the hashtag #vegantips.

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Economic Scene: When Privatization Works, and Why It Doesn’t Always

William Philpott/Agence France Presse — Getty Images

The remnants of a BP refinery in Texas City after a 2005  explosion. BP had a string of accidents following its privatization. 

Few corporate sagas capture the virtues and vices of state-owned companies and private enterprise better than the drama of BP’s roller-coaster ride between failure and success.

Ten years ago, BP was the darling of the energy world — the unprofitable duckling transformed by privatization under the government of Margaret Thatcher into a highly profitable swan.

The London civil servants of the 1960s and ’70s who all but ignored profitability as they issued directives across British Petroleum’s bloated corporate network were replaced by highly motivated managers who were rewarded for cutting costs, reducing risk and making money. The company’s more incongruous businesses — food production and uranium mines, for instance — were sold. Payroll was cut by more than half. Oil reserves jumped. The time it took to drill a deepwater well plummeted. Profits soared.

But then, in 2005, a BP refinery in Texas City blew up, killing 15 and injuring around 170. In 2006, a leak in a BP pipeline spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. And in 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 and resulted in the biggest offshore oil spill in the history of the United States. These days, BP’s stock trades about 25 percent below where it was before the disaster off the coast of Louisiana, about the same place it was a decade ago.

BP’s bumpy ride is recorded in “The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office,” a compelling new book by Ray Fisman, a professor at Columbia Business School, and Tim Sullivan, the editorial director of Harvard Business Review Press. “The Org” aims to explain why organizations — be they private companies or government agencies — work the way they do.

The book offers telling insight on a topic that has ebbed and flowed across the world over the last 30 years, as governments of all stripes have set out to privatize state-owned enterprises and outsource services — what does the private sector do better than government, and what does it do worse? Long dormant in the United States, the debate has acquired new urgency as governments from Washington to state houses and city halls around the country consider privatizing everything from Medicare to the management of state parks as a possible solution to their budget woes. One the authors’ chief insights is that every organization faces trade-offs — inherent conflicts between competing objectives. The challenge is to manage them. This is way more difficult than it sounds.

While in government hands, British Petroleum paid too little attention to profitability, constrained by its need to please elected officials who often cared more about keeping energy cheap and employment high. But in private hands, it may have cared about profits far too much, at the expense of other objectives. “BP veered from being a company that made sure nothing blew up to one focusing on cost-cutting at all costs,” Professor Fisman said.

The success or failure of an organization often depends on whether it can clearly identify its goals and align the interests of managers and employees to serve them. Yet whatever reward structure an organization picks can skew incentives in an undesirable way.

“The Org” tells us of the sociologist Peter Moskos, who joined the Baltimore police force to study police behavior. The police hierarchy demanded arrests, so police officers arrested people: 20,000 in one year in the Eastern District alone, out of a local population of 45,000. One officer set a record by locking up people for violating bicycle regulations. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Baltimore’s murder rate continued to climb.

“The more we reward those things that we can measure, and not reward the things we care about but don’t measure, the more we will distort behavior,” observed Burton Weisbrod, a professor of economics at Northwestern University who was a pioneer in research on the comparative behavior of nonprofit institutions, corporations and government organizations. As Professor Fisman and Mr. Sullivan put it: “If what gets measured is what gets managed, then what gets managed is what gets done.”

Rewarding teachers for how well their students perform on standard math and reading tests will encourage lots of teaching of reading and math, at the expense of other things an education might provide. Private prison operators who bid for government contracts by offering the lowest cost per inmate will most likely focus on cutting costs rather than tightening security. Unsupervised apple pickers who are paid by the apple will probably pick them off the ground.

This insight is important to the debate over the competence of public and private organizations because it underscores a significant difference in how they meet their goals. Profit is one of the most potent incentives known to man — a powerful tool to align managers’ interests with corporate goals. But it also has drawbacks. With earnings as the overriding, nonnegotiable priority, private enterprise often has little wiggle room to handle the tension between conflicting objectives.

There are instances in which privatization can help achieve broad social goals. After Argentina privatized many of its municipal water supply systems in the 1990s, investment soared, the network expanded into previously underserved poor areas and the number of children dying of infectious and parasitic diseases tumbled. (Most water companies were nonetheless renationalized by a later government.)

Still, our recent memory of mortgage banks blindly offering risky mortgages to shaky borrowers and bundling them into complex bonds to sell to unwary investors should dispel the notion that the profit motive inevitably aligns incentives in a socially desirable way.

The pursuit of financial rewards, by private companies or even nonprofit organizations, can directly undermine public policy goals. A recent study found that private universities and colleges collect higher fees from poor students who receive Pell Grants, absorbing over half the value of federal aid. Public colleges, by contrast, do not discriminate against those who get aid.

This suggests a good rule of thumb to determine when a private company will outperform the public sector: if the task is clear-cut and it’s possible to define concrete goals and reward those who meet them, the private sector will probably do better. “If I can write a perfect contract in which I pay for a concrete observable outcome, can rule out cream-skimming and can ensure the measure is not gamed, there is no reason that the private sector can’t do it better,” Professor Fisman said.

But if the objectives are complex and diffuse — making it difficult to align profit with goals without undermining some other desirable outcome — the profit motive could well make conflicts more difficult to manage. In these cases, privatization is probably not the best solution. In their rush to save money by outsourcing services, governments might forget that.

E-mail: eporter@nytimes.com;

Twitter: @portereduardo

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Finding a taste of home — and memories— east of the 710

The waiter brings out dessert, steaming porridge laced with a pungent sweetness, and I'm suddenly back in my parents' kitchen more than 3,000 miles away.

"What is this again?" my friend asks, taking a sniff of the viscous mixture of fermented rice and black mochi swirled into an egg drop soup. A recent East Coast transplant, he had unknowingly picked an apartment in Monterey Park, finding himself in a suburban Chinese immigrant enclave and Asian food mecca rather than the Hollywood version of L.A. he was expecting.

Give this place a chance, I had told him. After all, I keep coming back.

I want to tell him not to think of the porridge's yeast-like smell as funky; it's the fragrance of years of birthdays and Christmas treats. It's an odor usually hidden within my mother's dishwasher, where she safely stores homemade kimchi and other "stinky" ingredients instead of clean dishes. The first time I found lao zao on a greasy laminated menu in the San Gabriel Valley, I ordered two for myself.

"There's no English name for this dish because the translation doesn't do it justice," I say instead, rattling off the ingredients. "It's my favorite."

Huh, he says, still staring at his bowl. "Sounds appetizing."

Sitting in this mom-and-pop shop squeezed into a street lined with massage parlors and dumpling shops, I'm at home in a region that I've never even lived in. Here, what's served on the table trumps the need for any service or ambience. Loud chatter replaces background music, and charm consists of fluorescent lighting and bare white walls. If the chairs don't creak, something's not right.

I'm still finding ways to explain this — to friends, to co-workers and to my roommate who grew up in Manhattan Beach. East of the 710 Freeway, in pockets of the San Gabriel Valley, I keep stumbling on fragments of my childhood in cramped restaurants and herbal shops and standing-only boba joints.

There are the red banners taped onto almost every front door like the one my grandma insists on hanging for good luck. Circular dining tables are the norm and hot tea tastes best in chipped white ceramic cups that add nothing to the decor. If you ask for the neighborhood hangout, many point to Savoy Kitchen, a corner joint known for its chrysanthemum tea and Hainan chicken. Yelp reviews: 1,651 and counting. Cash only. No alcohol.

On my own out here, I often fill in my parents on weekend discoveries. But calls home about LACMA, Amoeba Music, and Umami Burger barely get a reaction. Anything in the San Gabriel Valley, on the other hand, is a conversation starter. There's always something to discuss. Even the comfort food of my father's ancient hometown, in a province in central China whose natives favor noodles over rice, has made its way onto local menus.

"I found a place that actually makes yang rou pao mo," I tell my dad, describing a particular lamb stew we eat when we visit my grandma in Xi'an, China, who still greets us with the same four traditional meals — pao mo, liang pi, he zi, and dumplings — even as the city outside her cramped apartment changes. A Starbucks recently opened across the street.

"That's impossible," he grunts in Chinese. "There's no way they can get the texture right."

Seconds later, he interrupts me. "Take me there next time," he says.

I tell baba about the fresh soy milk I can get for breakfast, ground just the way he does it with our souped-up blender. I leave out other details, like the cloudy plastic cups of water and how the owner might be shelling peas at the table next to you as you eat. Who cares if the fork is placed on the right side of the plate? There's always a pile of chopsticks up for grabs in the middle of the table.

My first Chinese New Year alone, the one time each year I find myself wearing red in respect for my elders and reaching out to as many relatives as possible, I drive 32 miles in the rain from my Mid-City home to Hacienda Heights to join thousands of attendees at Hsi Lai Temple, a massive Buddhist temple like no other in this country. Surrounded by strangers who understand why I came, we welcome the downpour that symbolizes prosperity in the new year. Across time zones, I know my family is doing the same.

Growing up in a small town outside of Boston, where all Chinese American families were best friends by default and could fit into one house for Thanksgiving potlucks, I never thought I was missing out. But meeting so many others who grew up in Southern California's immigrant enclaves, I'm struck by their confidence to inhabit both Chinese and American cultures without comprising either.

Like a memory game, each fragment of childhood I find here revives the traditions my parents preserved. It's like a test to see how much I actually know my own heritage.

Or what it means to me. In the end, I come to these immigrant establishments as an outsider, a New Englander of Chinese descent living in Los Angeles, still trying to fit all those pieces together.

At a new bar in Monterey Park, bingeing on Japanese craft brews and fried lotus root, I joke about tiger moms and tai chi with other Asian Americans. The place is young, but I can picture my father here. He'd feel right at home with the pastel image of a protective spirit hanging on the wall, just like any ordinary living room. He'd try to take a photo of the San Gabriel Mountains you can see from the roof and wonder what Calpico would taste like in a cocktail.

Drinking doesn't fit into any fond memory of growing up with my Chinese parents, but who said nostalgia can't be formed?

"You know, I don't think I've had a beer on draft since the first year I came to America," my dad says over the phone.

No way, that's like 30 years ago, I say. "You have to come see this place then... I'll buy you your first drink."

He chuckles over the phone.

He ba, he says. "I'll drink to that."

rosanna.xia@latimes.com

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