Sex, love, surrogacy and 'Sessions'

BERKELEY, Calif. — Cheryl Cohen Greene likes to spend weekends close to home with her husband, Bob, a former postal worker. Often, they go hiking in the Berkeley Hills that surround their neighborhood, or watch movies in the living room of their modest duplex.

At 68, Greene is trim for her age and says she'd lose 10 pounds if she didn't love food so much. She's a devoted grandmother who frequently visits with her two children and grandchildren.

No one would guess that more than 900 people have paid to have sex with her.

Greene has worked as a surrogate partner therapist for 40 years. During one-on-one sessions at her home, which doubles as an office, she uses sensual touch to guide those who struggle with sex and intimacy issues. She almost always removes her clothes. And — yes — she sleeps with her patients. In the bed, by the way, that she shares with her spouse.

VIDEO | The Envelope Screening Series: 'The Sessions'

"For a long time, I didn't bring it up at cocktail parties," says Greene, who keeps hand-carved wooden statues of genitalia in the nooks and crannies of her home. A close look at her bookshelves reveals "The Guide to Getting It On" and hundreds of other sex-related titles, along with "Calorie Counting" and "The Big Book of Jewish Humor." A big Tupperware container labeled "Cheryl's Vitamins" rests on a coffee table.

"If people have an attitude about my job," she says, "I just feel sorry for them for not understanding that there's a difference between me and a prostitute."

Greene's career choice is getting newfound attention from "The Sessions," a movie based on the true story of Mark O'Brien, a journalist and poet paralyzed from the neck down. Greene, played in the film by Helen Hunt, was hired by the late O'Brien when he wanted to lose his virginity at age 38.

Not all of the attention is positive. Although some in the country's small community of sex surrogates are hopeful that "The Sessions" might inspire more people to join the profession, others say the movie does not accurately depict the career path and its therapeutic worth.

PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times

"I would never get naked in my first session with someone like Cheryl's character does in the movie," says Shai Rotem, a 43-year-old male surrogate, who began his career in his native Israel and now practices in Los Angeles. "We have to get to know one another first and develop a safe rapport."

Greene is one of fewer than 40 practicing partner therapists in the U.S. certified by the International Professional Surrogates Assn., a governing body for the industry.

Two decades ago, there were hundreds of surrogates working in the U.S. after sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson popularized the idea in their 1970 book "Human Sexual Inadequacy." With the rise of AIDS in the mid-1980s, many spouses of surrogates insisted their partners quit the profession.

"There's no law against it because the intent is not to exchange sex for money," says IPSA president Vena Blanchard. "These clients are paying tons of money to sit and talk and do breathing exercises and learn about their body. So much of the work has nothing to do with intercourse or arousal."

Greene, who speaks with a thick Boston accent, was born in Salem, Mass., grew up Catholic and converted to Judaism after marrying her first husband, Michael Cohen. She and Cohen had an open marriage, which in the 1970s wasn't unusual among their Bay Area peers. She also worked as a nude art model and walked around her home naked, even with her children in the room.

THE ENVELOPE: Coverage of the awards season

She first considered becoming a surrogate after a friend handed her a copy of the pseudonymous "Surrogate Wife: The Story of a Masters & Johnson Sexual Therapist and the Nine Cases She Treated." The friend told her, "I think you would be good at this work."

She learned to practice conjoint therapy — where two or more people work through issues together — from two therapists who trained with Masters and Johnson. Soon, she began answering calls for the San Francisco Sex Information hotline, and discovered how much she liked helping people with their sex-related questions.

"I wasn't even thinking about the fact that I'd be sleeping with strangers," she says of her decision to become a surrogate. "I just liked the idea of guiding people to be more relaxed about their sexuality."

Greene sits in her bedroom as she talks, and through the window's plantation shutters, her son's home is visible. He and his family live behind Greene's residence.

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Facebook not so fun with a click from boss or mum

LONDON (Reuters) – Posting pictures of yourself plastered at a party and talking trash online with your Facebook friends may be more stress than it’s worth now that your boss and mum want to see it all.

A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.

“Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,” said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.

“But now with your Mum, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.”

On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.

More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.

Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.

“I’m not worried at all because all the really messy pics – me, drunken or worse – I detag straight away,” said Chris from London, aged 30.

People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.

(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Bieber booed in native Canada by football fans

TORONTO (AP) — Justin Bieber faced a hostile homecoming during his halftime performance at Canada's football Grey Cup, facing boos and jeers.

The Toronto crowd booed Sunday when the 18-year-old pop star's face popped up on the JumboTron screen. They booed when a host spoke his name. And they booed as he took the stage and throughout his medley of the chart-topper "Boyfriend" and the disco-inflected "Beauty and a Beat."

If Bieber was bothered, it didn't show.

"Thank you so much Canada," Bieber said. "I love you."

Earlier in the week, Bieber was presented with a Diamond Jubilee Medal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and caused a scene by wearing overalls, unbuttoned on one shoulder, over a white T-shirt, with a backwards baseball cap.

There was sufficient uproar that Harper even weighed in on Twitter.

"In fairness to (Bieber)," Harper tweeted Sunday, "I told him I would be wearing my overalls too."

The Canadian Football League may have been hoping to court Bieber's army of tween followers on Sunday. But recent Grey Cup halftime performers have skewed toward the comparatively heavy likes of Nickelback and Lenny Kravitz.

"J-Biebs doesn't scream football, you know? Neither does Carly Rae Jepsen," said Calgary's Ryan Prisque, 22.

The 27-year-old Jepsen also received a mixed reaction at first Sunday but won the crowd over during an enthusiastic medley of her latest single, "This Kiss," and her infectious hit "Call Me Maybe."

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The New Old Age Blog: Turning a Home Into a Hospital

At age 96, my mother moved to New York City to live with me and my family in our two-bedroom Manhattan apartment after becoming increasingly isolated while living alone in Florida. She moved into my sons’ bedroom surrounded by all manner of adolescent paraphernalia, including every style of trendy sneakers, a giant papier-mâché statue of Michael Jordan and a poster of Bob Marley.

Three years later, at age 99, she was hospitalized and diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Because of her advanced age, there was little to do to except make the last months of her life more comfortable. Her doctor arranged for home hospice care through Calvary. But part of me wanted to place her in a nursing home.

The idea of hospice care in my home overwhelmed me. I did not want my apartment to become a nursing facility, and the idea of personally taking care of my mother was frightening. I was preoccupied with thoughts and fears of losing her, and I was very afraid of witnessing her physical deterioration and her death.

As a psychotherapist in private practice, I treat people with emotional problems like anxiety and depression. I am introspective enough to know that I am comfortable with treating the mind, but squeamish about medical problems, especially serious medical issues.

Now my mother was dying, and I had to live with the uncertainty of what was going to happen. When would she no longer be able to bathe herself? Was she going to be bedridden? Incontinent?

Step by step, I overcame my fears, accepting the reality of our new situation. Looking back, the choice was inevitable — and I am grateful I took the steps of that life-changing journey.

My husband encouraged me to take on the challenge of caring for my mother in our home. He thought it would be cruel to put her in a nursing home. Easy for him to say, I thought, since my mother’s physical care would fall predominately on me.

Upset over my dilemma, I was crying. My mother, in her hospital bed, asked, “Why?”

“I don’t know how I can continue taking care of you in our home,” I told her. But I asked her what she wanted to do.

“I want to go home,” she said. “We will manage.”

So she left the hospital to again live with us.

The Calvary hospice nurse walked me through all the steps of home hospice care. After the first home visit, the nurse ordered an oxygen tank and told me there could be no smoking in the home or even in the hallway outside my apartment door, because the oxygen was flammable.

That made me uneasy. Although I was instructed how to use the tank, I was anxious that I would forget how to use it when the moment arrived that my mother had difficulty breathing. In my panic, I called the medical home care supply company to take the tank back. When my mother’s doctor told me that it was critical to have the oxygen available in case of an emergency, I relented. I was terrified that she might suffer.

My mother at that point had her full faculties and was able to get around. She could even walk, albeit very slowly, to the senior citizen’s center on our block and to the Jewish Community Center across the street, where she played mah-jongg and canasta. That stopped soon, however, and I had to order a wheelchair for her to use when she went out.

Calvary provided me with a home health aide for five hours a day and a social worker. That was helpful but stressful. Because of my work as a therapist, coordinating schedules was a challenge.

As she grew more ill, my mother became too weak to shower, dress or go to bathroom by herself. I had to hire an additional home health aide for the afternoon and for full days on weekends. Eventually, I needed to get an overnight aide.

I was surrounded by an army of hospital-like caretakers who used hand sanitizer immediately upon entering the apartment, ate in our kitchen, showered in the bathroom and slept with my mother in one of our two bedrooms. I felt the loss of control and a sense of chaos, which was made worse when my youngest son returned home after graduating from college and underwent emergency surgery for a torn A.C.L. He generously gave up his bedroom to my mother (and to the aide who slept there at night) and camped out in the living room.

My house had truly been turned upside down. But what kept me sane was knowing that the chaos was temporary, and that we were providing my mother with the care she needed, in the setting that had been her choice.

I had to learn to trust that the aides would act in my mother’s best interest. In fact, most of them were generous and devoted to my mother’s care to the end.

Her last days were not without a touch of humor. One night, the aide called me into the room telling me that my mother, still with her full faculties, was “seeing smoke.” I thought, “Is she hallucinating?”

I sat down on the bed. My mother pointed to the Bob Marley poster. She asked, “Is that famous man smoking?” She had looked at that poster for three years and never asked until then.

But another night, around 1 a.m., my son overheard my mother yelling, “Don’t touch me.” He found the nighttime aide pushing my mother back into bed. The aide wanted to sleep through the night and did not want to be bothered taking my mother to the bathroom. I fired the aide the next day.

Gradually, I surrendered to the reality that my apartment had been turned into a nursing home. My mother now had an oxygen tank, a walker, a wheelchair, a shower chair, a commode, Depends and bed pads.

Still, I had said from the beginning that I did not want a hospital bed in my home. Its name alone symbolized the transformation of my home into a hospital. But two days before my mother’s death, I relented. My mother could not get up from the bed that she had been using. She needed the adjustable bed to lift and transfer her.

With the arrival of that bed, I finally accepted the new reality: my home was indeed transformed into a nursing home, despite all my initial fears about living with my dying mother in that environment.

At 99, just 8 months short of a century, my mother died in my home surrounded by family and the Bob Marley poster. It was a peaceful passage. She died with grace and dignity.

As I reflect on the experience, I am glad that I was able to be with my mother through the end of her journey. It was tough to watch this once strong, vital woman become thin and fragile. And as my last living parent, she was the buffer between myself and the reality of my mortality.

Still, the experience was emotionally rich and liberating. And, in the end, we were both at peace.

Linda G. Beeler is a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan.

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White House issues new warning on 'fiscal cliff'

By Don Lee

November 26, 2012, 6:49 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- On the heels of record sales over the Black Friday weekend, the White House warned that automatic federal tax increases set for next year could hurt the rest of the holiday shopping season and would likely crimp consumer spending by about $200 billion in 2013.

The report released Monday projects that if Congress fails to act and middle-income taxes rise, consumer spending growth could be sliced by 1.7 percentage points and economic growth overall would probably be cut by 1.4 percentage points in 2013. Those are not small numbers given that consumer spending drives about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and that the American economy has been growing by just a little more than 2% since the recovery began in mid-2009.

The report from the White House Council of Economic Advisors looked only at the impending income tax hikes for taxpayers, including a higher alternative minimum tax. These tax increases are part of the so-called fiscal cliff -- a combination of mandated fiscal spending cuts and higher taxes that are slated to kick in next year and that on the whole would hit the economy by more than $500 billion and likely send the country back into recession into 2013.

The report is broadly consistent with forecasts by the Congressional Budget Office and leading private economists, and it comes after retailers amassed a record $59.1 billion in sales from Thanksgiving day through Sunday, up from $52.4 billion a year earlier, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation.

The encouraging start of the holiday shopping season reflects the recent strengthening of consumer confidence, which is at a five-year high. Consumers lately have been feeling better as housing prices have begun to rise and job growth has picked up slightly.

But the White House report warned that "the hard-earned rise in consumer confidence will be at risk if the middle-class tax cuts are not soon extended with a minimum of political drama."

A loss of $200 billion in consumer spending is roughly the amount American families spent on all the new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. in the last year, the report said. And the pain would be felt by producers of goods and services across the board, with $36 billion less spent next year for housing and utilities, for example, and $32 billion less healthcare and $26 billion less for groceries and at restaurants.

ALSO:

Black Friday weekend sales hit record

Black Friday shoppers smash door at Urban Outfitters

Consumer confidence holds at five-year high, but barely

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Attack on Pakistani Shia Muslims kills five, injures 70

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A bomb blast in northwest Pakistan killed five people and injured 70 others Sunday, provincial and local authorities said, the latest in a wave of attacks that have struck the country’s minority Shia Muslim community despite a host of stringent security measures, including wide-scale cellphone service bans and prohibitions on motorcycle riding in several cities.

The attack in Dera Ismail Khan was the second to strike the city of 119,000 this weekend and the fourth in five days directed at Shia Muslims as they commemorate the anniversary of the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad. A remote-controlled bomb planted in a shop exploded as a procession of Shia Muslims passed by, police said.  

On Saturday in Dera Ismail Khan, seven people were killed and 26 others injured by a remote-controlled bomb buried under a pile of garbage that exploded while a Shia Muslim procession moved past. Shia Muslims commemorate Imam Hussein’s death with large processions that wend their way through cramped neighborhoods in dozens of Pakistani cities, creating a formidable challenge for police assigned to provide security for the mourners.

No one had claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, though suspicion immediately focused on the Pakistani Taliban, the country’s homegrown insurgency. The group had previously said it was behind the wave of violence against Shia Muslims earlier in the week. The Shia Muslim community remains a prime target for the Pakistani Taliban and other Sunni militant groups, which regard Shia Muslims as heretics.

In one of the earlier attacks this week, a suicide bomber slipped into a procession of more than 150 Shia Muslims late Wednesday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and detonated his explosives-filled vest, killing 23 people and injuring 62 others, according to Rawalpindi police. Earlier on Wednesday, militants detonated two bombs outside a Shia mosque in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, killing two people and injuring 12 others.

Anticipating a spike in attacks, Pakistani officials late last week announced a series of restrictions aimed at curbing violence against Shia Muslims.

Cellphone service was suspended in dozens of Pakistani cities over the weekend, a measure aimed at preventing the use of cellphones as remote-control detonators. Because assailants often use motorcycles to carry out attacks, motorcycle riding was banned in Islamabad, the capital, and the southern cities of Hyderabad and Quetta. The Pakistani newspaper Express-Tribune reported that the northwest town of Haripur imposed a 15-day ban on the wearing of shawls and coats to prevent would-be attackers from hiding explosives and other weapons.

ALSO:

Suicide bomber kills 3, wounds 90, in Afghanistan attack

Middle East shifts may weaken Iran's influence with Palestinians

Clashes erupt, offices ablaze after Egypt president expands power

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Saudi telco regulator suspends Mobily prepaid sim sales

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia‘s No.2 telecom operator Etihad Etisalat Co (Mobily) has been suspended from selling pre-paid sim cards by the industry regulator, the firm said in a statement to the kingdom’s bourse on Sunday.

Mobily’s sales of pre-paid, or pay-as-you-go, sim cards will remain halted until the company “fully meets the prepaid service provisioning requirements,” the telco said in the statement.

These requirements include a September order from regulator, Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC). This states all pre-paid sim users must enter a personal identification number when recharging their accounts and that this number must be the same as the one registered with their mobile operator when the sim card was bought, according to a statement on the CITC website.

This measure is designed to ensure customer account details are kept up to date, the CITC said.

Mobily said the financial impact of the CITC’s decision would be “insignificant”, claiming data, corporate and postpaid revenues would meet its main growth drivers.

The firm, which competes with Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Zain Saudi, reported a 23 percent rise in third-quarter profit in October, beating forecasts.

Prepaid mobile subscriptions are typically more popular among middle and lower income groups, with telecom operators pushing customers to shift to monthly contracts that include a data allowance.

Customers on monthly, or postpaid, contracts are also less likely to switch provider, but the bulk of customers remain on pre-paid accounts.

Mobily shares were trading down 1.4 percent at 0820 GMT on the Saudi bourse.

(Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Dinesh Nair)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Hobbits, superheroes put magic in NZ film industry

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A crate full of sushi arrives. Workers wearing wetsuit shirts or in bare feet bustle past with slim laptops. With days to go, a buzzing intensity fills the once-dilapidated warehouses where Peter Jackson's visual-effects studio is rushing to finish the opening film in "The Hobbit" trilogy.

The fevered pace at the Weta Digital studio near Wellington will last nearly until the actors walk the red carpet Nov. 28 for the world premiere. But after "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" hits theaters, there's more work to be done.

Weta Digital is the centerpiece of a filmmaking empire that Jackson and close collaborators have built in his New Zealand hometown, realizing his dream of bringing a slice of Hollywood to Wellington. It's a one-stop shop for making major movies — not only his own, but other blockbusters like "Avatar" and "The Avengers" and hoped-for blockbusters like next year's "Man of Steel."

Along the way, Jackson has become revered here, even receiving a knighthood. His humble demeanor and crumpled appearance appeal to distinctly New Zealand values, yet his modesty belies his influence. He's also attracted criticism along the way.

The special-effects workforce of 150 on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy a decade ago now numbers 1,100. Only five of Weta Digital's workers are actual employees, however, while the rest are contractors. Many accept the situation because movie work often comes irregularly but pays well. Union leaders, though, say the workers lack labor protections existing in almost any other industry.

Like many colleagues, Weta Digital's director, Joe Letteri, came to New Zealand in 2001 to work on the "Rings" trilogy for two years. The work kept coming, so he bought a house in Wellington and stayed.

"People come here because they know it's their chance to do something really great and to get it up on the screen," he said in a recent interview.

Jackson, who declined to be interviewed for this story, launched Weta in 1993 with fellow filmmakers Jamie Selkirk and Richard Taylor. Named after an oversized New Zealand insect, the company later was split into its digital arm and Weta Workshop, which makes props and costumes.

Loving homages to the craft are present in Weta Digital's seven buildings around the green-hilled suburb of Miramar. There are old-time movie posters, prop skulls of dinosaurs and apes, and a wall of latex face impressions of actors from Chris O'Donnell to Tom Cruise.

Its huge data center, with the computing power of 30,000 laptops, resembles a milk-processing plant because only the dairy industry in New Zealand knew how to build cooling systems on such a grand scale.

Little of Weta's current work was visible. Visitors must sign confidentiality agreements, and the working areas of the facilities are off-limits. The company is secretive about any unannounced projects, beyond saying Weta will be working solidly for the next two years, when the two later "Hobbit" films are scheduled to be released.

The workforce has changed from majority American to about 60 percent New Zealanders. The only skill that's needed, Letteri says, is the ability to use a computer as a tool.

Beyond having creativity as a filmmaker, Jackson has proved a savvy businessman, Letteri says.

"The film business in general is volatile, and visual effects has to be sitting right on the crest of that wave," Letteri says. "We don't get asked to do something that somebody has seen before."

The government calculates that feature films contribute $560 million each year to New Zealand's economy. Like many countries, New Zealand offers incentives and rebates to film companies and will contribute about $100 million toward the $500 million production costs of "The Hobbit" trilogy. Almost every big budget film goes through Jackson's companies.

"New Zealand has a good reputation for delivering films on time and under budget, and Jackson has been superb at that," says John Yeabsley, a senior fellow at New Zealand's Institute of Economic Research. "Nobody has the same record or the magic ability to bring home the bacon as Sir Peter."

"You cannot overestimate the fact that Peter is a brand," says Graeme Mason, chief executive of the New Zealand Film Commission. "He's built this incredible reputational position, which has a snowball effect."

Back in 2010, however, a labor dispute erupted before filming began on "The Hobbit." Unions said they would boycott the movie if the actors didn't get to collectively negotiate. Jackson and others warned that New Zealand could lose the films to Europe. Warner Bros. executives flew to New Zealand and held a high-stakes meeting with Prime Minister John Key, whose government changed labor laws overnight to clarify that movie workers were exempt from being treated as regular employees.

Helen Kelly, president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, says a compromise could easily have been reached. She says the law changes amounted to unnecessary union-busting and a "gross breach" of employment laws.

"I was very disappointed at Peter Jackson for lobbying for that," she says, "and I was furious at the government for doing it."

Weta Digital's general manager Tom Greally compared it to the construction industry, where multiple contractors and mobile workers do specific projects and then move on.

Animal rights activists said last week they plan to picket the premiere of "The Hobbit" after wranglers alleged that three horses and up to two dozen other animals died in unsafe conditions at a farm where animals were boarded for the movies. Jackson's spokesman Matt Dravitzki acknowledged two horses died preventable deaths at the farm but said the production company worked quickly to improve animal housing and safety. He rejected claims any animals were mistreated or abused.

Jackson's team pointed out that 55 percent of animal images in "The Hobbit" were computer generated at Weta. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have asked Jackson in the future to create all his animals in the studio.

Controversies aside, the rise of Weta and the expat American community in and around Miramar is visible in everything from a Mexican restaurant to yoga classes. On Halloween, which in the past was not much celebrated in New Zealand, hundreds of costumed children roamed about collecting candy. Americans gave the tradition a boost here, but the locals have embraced it.

The National Business Review newspaper estimates Jackson's personal fortune to be about $400 million, which could rise considerably if "The Hobbit" franchise succeeds. Public records show Jackson has partial ownership stakes in 21 private companies, most connected with his film empire. He's spent some of his money on philanthropy, helping save a historic church and a performance theater.

For all his influence, Jackson maintains a hobbit-like existence himself, preferring a quiet home life outside of work. In the end, many say, he seems to be driven by what has interested him from the start: telling great stories on the big screen.

___

Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry

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L.A. Auto Show to serve as stage for vehicles, technologies

On any Saturday afternoon, the unlikely mix of exotic coupes, vintage woodies and electric cars sharing Pacific Coast Highway makes clear why Southern California is the center of U.S. car culture.

A similarly diverse array of machinery has made the Los Angeles Auto Show the premier stage for both cutting-edge green cars and sportier offerings designed to carve up that famous coastal road.

This year's show, the first North American showcase of the model year, starts Wednesday for the media and opens to the public Friday at the downtown convention center. It will feature two dozen world debuts, including Porsche's redesigned 2014 Cayman sports car, a hardtop counterpart to the Boxster convertible; and Toyota Motor Corp.'s latest RAV-4, a leading small sport utility vehicle.

Acura will unveil an all-new flagship sedan, powered by a 3.5-liter V-6 engine making 310 horsepower. Hyundai Motor Co. will show off a special concept car it says was designed with California car culture front of mind.

On the electric front, Chevrolet will reveal its Spark EV, which will have more power, torque and speed than the gas-powered version of the same car. General Motors Co. says the car will jump from a start to 60 mph in less than 8 seconds, which will make it one of the fastest EVs on the market (though still slow compared with the pricier, made-in-California Tesla Model S). Likewise, Fiat will show off an electric version of its 500 mini-car.

If you go to the show, or just want to track the latest in the auto industry, here are five new technologies to watch.

Three-cylinder engines

They have been tried before in America with little success. But a new generation of small, powerful engines will soon make inroads in cars that have traditionally needed at least a four-banger.

Ford Motor Co. will show off its small Fiesta with a new turbocharged three-cylinder engine that produces 123 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque — more powerful than the car's current base four-cylinder. The car may also achieve fuel economy north of 40 mpg.

Shrinking the engine size and weight without losing power is a key goal of automotive engineering, said Andrew Fraser, one of the Ford engineers who developed the power plant.

"It's a virtuous circle," Fraser said. "As you reduce the weight of the engine, everything else on the vehicle can be lighter, and you get better weight distribution and it drives better. Resistance to turning the car is largely determined by the weight in the front of it."

That's why many high-end sports cars have a mid-engine, he said, and why 50-50 weight distribution is seen as the holy grail of car design, creating nimble handling.

Other manufacturers — including BMW and Volkswagen — are working with three-cylinder engines that they may introduce in the U.S. market in coming years. The three-cylinder Ford Fiesta goes on sale in the U.S. in the second half of next year.

Phone navigation

Automakers typically embed features such as navigation and voice recognition in dashboards so they can charge as much as $2,000 for the options. Chevrolet is taking a different approach with its smallest and least expensive cars, the Spark and the Sonic.

These vehicles come with a 7-inch color touch screen and GM's MyLink, which allows drivers to purchase a $50 BringGo smartphone app to display a navigation program and traffic updates. This has virtually all of the information drivers would find in an embedded navigation system, including emergency information for police and the nearest hospital, points of interest, maps and turn-by-turn directions.

The MyLink system enables car owners to bring other apps to the vehicle such as Pandora and Stitcher radio services.

"This makes the car an extension of your smartphone," said Sara LeBlanc, global program manager for Chevrolet and General Motors infotainment. "It is an incredible deal when compared to the cost of an aftermarket Garmin or embedded navigation system."

So why don't automakers do this with all of their cars?

Not everyone has an Android or Apple smartphone, LeBlanc said. GM can take this approach because Spark demographics skew so young, and 90% of the target market has a smartphone, she said. But only about half of Chevrolet Malibu buyers have the phones, and GM can't afford to alienate the buyers who don't by not offering a navigation and voice recognition option.

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Boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho dies days after being shot in head

Hector “Macho” Camacho, a former three-division boxing champion who had 88 professional fights against a who’s who of legendary opponents stretching from Ray Mancini (whom he defeated in 1989) to Oscar De La Hoya (who beat him by decision in 1997), has died. He was 50.

Camacho was pronounced dead today, after being shot in the head four days earlier  while seated in a car outside a bar in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.   Camacho’s condition deteriorated before his family opted to take him off life support.

Another man in the car, who had nine bags of cocaine in his possession, was also shot and immediately declared dead, according to the Associated Press.

PHOTOS: Hector “Macho” Camacho

Camacho, known for wearing outlandish trunks ranging from a leopard loin cloth to others adorned with lights or tassels, well understood the importance of selling a fight and employing some mental warfare.

Before fighting Mancini, he said, “I never did nothing to the character. How can he dislike a good-looking guy like me? It's jealousy. He can't even be in the same room with me because he knows he can't beat me mouth-to-mouth.”

The late Times columnist Jim Murray assessed the crowd-pleasing disparity between De La Hoya and Camacho like this:

“Oscar was winning a gold medal for his country, Macho was stealing one for himself. Oscar plays golf, Macho plays craps. He was a hyperactive child, and he's a hyperactive adult.

“He has a positive flair for rubbing people the wrong way, doing exactly what nobody wants. For instance, in his last fight, he committed the unpardonable sin of beating up Sugar Ray Leonard, no less. That's about as endearing to the public as burning the flag.”

Camacho’s theatrics were combined with an admirable desire to take on the best opponents possible. He faced the likes of Freddie Roach, Cornelius Boza Edwards, Rafael “Bazooka” Limon, Felix Trinidad, Roberto Duran and Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. His overall record was 79-6-3.

Camacho was born in Bayamon on May 24, 1962, and moved to New York City with his family. His career launched after he admitted to stealing cars in Spanish Harlem as a youth, with one transgression forcing him to jail in Rikers Island, N.Y. There, he boxed other inmates and was so good, one asked a question that stuck with him: “What are you doing here?”

“When he was young, you couldn’t hit him, that’s why he won his first 50 fights,” veteran boxing publicist Bill Caplan said.

The success emboldened his flair for flamboyance, as former Times boxing writer Richard Hoffer captured in a 1985 story:

“His style of dress … is outlandish enough to make Liberace look reserved. He wears enough jewelry to make Mr. T look like a man who only dabbles in accessories. It must be great fun to watch Camacho walk through a metal detector.”

When Camacho suffered his first loss in a 1991 World Boxing Organization lightweight title bout against Greg Haugen at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, his personable nature shined.

“You’d think the guy would be devastated, but 15 minutes after the loss, he was back in press row for the second fight of the HBO doubleheader, shaking everyone’s hands,” Caplan said. “Just a happy-go-lucky guy who loved people.”

The flash wasn’t a mask to toughness. He was never knocked out.

Camacho’s grit was unmistakable to anyone who observed his 1992 beating in front of a sold-out Las Vegas fight crowd at the hands of Chavez Sr., Mexico’s greatest fighter who was at his peak when he pummeled Camacho with body shots en route to a unanimous decision.

De La Hoya knew the importance of beating up and knocking down Camacho in their 1997 bout:

“Listen, Chavez … and Felix Trinidad couldn't knock him out or drop him,” De La Hoya said afterward. “At least I dropped him.”

Camacho’s love of the sport was evident both in his desire to entertain beyond fisticuffs and instances such as his 1995 fight in the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.

There, promoter Don Chargin recalled main-event fighter Camacho showing up with his hands wrapped, in a robe and colorful trunks to sit alongside off-night fighters and managers in complimentary complementary seats to watch preliminary matches 90 minutes before his own bout against Tony Rodriguez.

“He just wanted to be with people,” Caplan said.

Camacho’s son, Hector Camacho Jr., is a middleweight boxer with a 54-5-1 record who most recently fought in July.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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