Piano maker Steinway takes down “for sale” sign

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Steinway Musical Instruments Inc, the famous manufacturer of pianos, saxophones and trumpets, said on Wednesday it had decided not to sell itself following a 17-month-long exploration of strategic alternatives.

An American icon synonymous with handmade grand pianos, Steinway has struggled to keep its production margins competitive amid stagnant sales, and has seen its shares plunge 10 percent year-to-date. Still, its third-quarter earnings last month offered signs that cost-cutting was paying off.

In a statement on Wednesday, Steinway said it had received several non-binding indications of interest in buying the company, following talks with other companies in the sector as well as private equity, yet these did not offer more value than its own strategic plan.

“We will continue to focus management’s efforts on execution of that plan and we look forward to a prosperous 2013,” Steinway CEO Michael Sweeney said in the statement.

An in-principle agreement to sell its band instrument division to an investor group led by two of its board members, Dana Messina and John Stoner, was also scrapped in light of the current operating performance of the band division, Steinway said.

In July 2011, Messina, Stoner and other members of management made an offer for Steinway’s band instrument and online music divisions, prompting the company to set up a special committee in order to assess it.

Later that month, Steinway asked investment bank Allen & Company LLC to a assist the special committee on exploring strategic alternatives that could also include selling the whole company outright to other interested parties.

By October 2011, Messina had stepped down as CEO of the company after 15 years at the helm to pursue his bid, yet he remained a board member. He was replaced by Sweeney, a chairman of the board of Star Tribune Media Holdings and a former president of Starbucks Coffee Company (UK) Ltd.

Steinway said on Wednesday that it was continuing a separate process to sell its leasehold interest in New York’s Steinway Hall building, situated on Manhattan’s 57th Street, and was in talks with several parties.

According to its website, Steinway & Sons, the company’s piano unit, opened the first Steinway Hall on 14th Street in Manhattan in 1866.

With a main auditorium of 2,000 seats, it became New York City’s artistic and cultural center, housing the New York Philharmonic until Carnegie Hall opened in 1891. These days, Steinway Hall is a showroom for the company’s instruments.

The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company’s pianos have been used by legendary artists such as Cole Porter and Sergei Rachmaninoff and by contemporary ones like Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by M.D. Golan)

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Well: Spinach Recipes for Health

Spinach goes well with all kinds of foods. It’s also a green that is easy to find year-round. As Martha Rose Shulman writes in this week’s Recipes for Health:

Spinach has remained a part of my holiday ritual. I love the convenience of bagged spinach, but I prefer the richness of the lush bunches I get at the farmers’ market. I don’t mind stemming and washing it, but if you are pressed for time the bagged spinach is a godsend, especially if you live in a cold climate and don’t have access to farmers’ market spinach in December.

Below are five new ways to add spinach to your meal. And for more spinach recipes, see “Making Spinach the Star of the Meal.”

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Spinach and Millet Timbale With Tomato Sauce
A timbale is a molded custard, somewhat similar to a quiche without a crust.

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Garlic Soup With Spinach
A quick and easy soup that is a great way to use any leftover turkey stock from Thanksgiving.

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Penne With Mushroom Ragout and Spinach
This is a delicious meal no matter what variety of mushrooms you have on hand.

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Spinach Gnocchi
A considerably lighter version of the classic gnocchi made with spinach and ricotta.

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Spinach, Sardine and Rice Gratin
This classic Provençal gratin is a good way to work fish that is high in omega-3s into your diet.

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E.P.A. Administrator Jackson announces resignation

The Obama administration's chief environmental watchdog, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, is stepping down after a nearly four-year tenure marked by high-profile brawls over global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline, new controls on coal-fired plants and several other hot-button issues that affect the nation's economy and people's health.

Jackson, the agency's first black administrator, constantly found herself caught between administration pledges to solve controversial environmental problems and steady resistance from Republicans and industrial groups who complained that the agency's rules destroyed jobs and made it harder for American companies to compete internationally.

The GOP chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Fred Upton, said last year that Jackson would need her own parking spot at the Capitol because he planned to bring her in so frequently for questioning. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for her firing, a stance that had little downside during the GOP primary.

Jackson, 50, a chemical engineer by training, did not point to any particular reason for her departure. Historically, Cabinet members looking to move on will leave at the beginning of a president's second term.

"I will leave the EPA confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference," she said in a statement. Jackson gave no exact date for her departure, but will leave after Obama's State of the Union address in late January.

In a separate statement, Obama said Jackson has been "an important part of my team." He thanked her for serving and praised her "unwavering commitment" to the public's health.

"Under her leadership, the EPA has taken sensible and important steps to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, including implementing the first national standard for harmful mercury pollution, taking important action to combat climate change under the Clean Air Act and playing a key role in establishing historic fuel economy standards that will save the average American family thousands of dollars at the pump, while also slashing carbon pollution."

Environmental groups had high expectations for the Obama administration after eight years of President George W. Bush, a Texas oilman who rebuffed the agency's scientists and refused to take action on climate change. Jackson came into office promising a more active EPA.

But she soon learned that changes would not occur as quickly as she had hoped. Jackson watched as a Democratic-led effort to reduce global warming emissions passed the House in 2009 but was abandoned by the Senate as economic concerns became the priority. The concept behind the bill, referred to as cap-and-trade, would have set up a system in which power companies bought and sold pollution rights.

"That's a revolutionary message for our country," Jackson said at a Paris conference a few months after taking the job.

Jackson experienced another big setback last year when the administration scrubbed a clean-air regulation aimed at reducing health-threatening smog. Republican lawmakers had been hammering the president over the proposed rule, accusing his administration of making it harder for companies to create jobs.

She also vowed to better control toxic coal ash after a massive spill in Tennessee, but that regulation has yet to be finalized more than four years after the spill.

Jackson had some victories, too. During her tenure, the administration finalized a new rule doubling fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. The requirements will be phased in over 13 years and eventually require all new vehicles to average 54.5 mpg, up from 28.6 mpg at the end of last year.

She shepherded another rule that forces power plants to control mercury and other toxic pollutants for the first time. Previously, the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants had been allowed to run without addressing their full environmental and public health costs.

Jackson also helped persuade the administration to table the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought carbon-heavy tar sands oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.

House Republicans dedicated much of their time this past election year trying to rein in the EPA. They passed a bill seeking to thwart regulation of the coal industry and quash the stricter fuel efficiency standards. In the end, though, the bill made no headway in the Senate. It served mostly as election-year fodder that appeared to have little impact on the presidential election.

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App Guide: Puzzle Games

Crosswords work great on touchscreens. But sometimes, to really kill the time, you need something more colorful and animated.

Orbital

Orbital is like a cosmic snooker match. You aim a cannon that fires colorful glowing orbs onto a grid. Each sphere is destroyed when it taps another one three times. You have to ensure that they ricochet around and collide the necessary times yet don’t rebound so far that they risk hitting your cannon at the bottom of the screen.

WIRED Lovely particle-heavy graphics. Can play music from your library.

TIRED You’ll need your own music; the included soundtrack is a dud.

$2.99 iOS | $3 Android | $2.99 WP | Orbital

Scribblenauts Remix

There’s a star on top of a tree. Type in something that your character might use to get it down and that thing will appear onscreen. Type “ladder” or “ax” and voilà—there it is. The game presents scores of challenges, and the fun is in thinking of the most roundabout ways to achieve the goal—try to claim your prize with a helicopter or a lumberjack or a flamethrower or …

WIRED The game’s remarkably large vocabulary lets you go nuts.

TIRED Movement controls lack precision.

$0.99 iOS | Scribblenauts Remix

World Of Goo

Finally, a game that lets you control a puddle of disgusting gelatinous nodules! Tug at the goo balls with your finger to build them up into a tower that reaches the exit pipe at the top of the level. Your viscous architecture needs to be structurally sound or the realistic physics will pull it down.

WIRED One of the most challenging and creative teasers out there. Level design gets increasingly inspired.

TIRED Controls are a bit too imprecise for phone screens (though fine on a tablet).

$2.99 iOS | $4.99 Android | World Of Goo

Drop7

Think of this as Tetris with a touch of math. Random digits appear at the top of the screen, and you have to drop them onto a grid; instead of creating shapes, you make sudoku-like chains and sequences. Few things in mobile gaming compare to the satisfaction of clearing a Drop7 screen with a brutally effective numerical combo.

WIRED Easy to learn but well-nigh impossible to master, especially on the hardcore difficulty level.

TIRED Minimalist electronica score gets annoying.

$2.99 iOS | $2.99 Android | Drop7

Amazing Alex

Help a juvenile genius build elaborate Rube Goldberg devices out of household objects. Bonus points for rigging your contraptions so they collect all three gold stars on the way to reaching their goal. Each level is a unique physics puzzle—position benches to guide the descent of a soccer ball, or arrange shelves to direct a floating balloon.

WIRED Engaging brain teasers from the folks who brought you Angry Birds.

TIRED Lacks the oh-God-have-I-really-been-playing-for-an-hour addictiveness of Angry Birds.

$0.99 iOS | $0.99 Android | Amazing Alex

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British actress Kate Winslet marries for third time

LONDON (Reuters) – British Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet has married for the third time, her publicist confirmed on Thursday.

The 37-year-old, best known for her starring role in the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic”, married Ned RocknRoll, a nephew of music and aviation tycoon Richard Branson.

The private ceremony was attended by Winslet’s two children from previous marriages and “a very few friends and family”, according to the publicist, and took place in New York earlier this month.

“The couple had been engaged since the summer,” Winslet’s spokeswoman said in a statement.

Winslet has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won once for her lead role in “The Reader”.

Her other notable performances include Iris Murdoch in “Iris”, Clementine Kruczynski in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and April in “Revolutionary Road“.

That film was directed by Sam Mendes, whom Winslet wed in 2003 and divorced seven years later. Her first marriage was to Jim Threapleton, which lasted from 1998 to 2001.

According to online reports, RocknRoll had his name changed by deed poll from Ned Abel Smith and is an executive for Branson’s space flight venture Virgin Galactic.

The Sun newspaper said the New York wedding was so secret that even the couple’s parents did not know about it.

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who co-starred with Winslet in Titanic and Revolutionary Road, gave her away, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; editing by Steve Addison)

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Creating the Ultimate Housework Workout

Robert Wright for The New York Times

Chris Ely, an English butler, and Carol Johnson, a fitness instructor at Crunch NYC, perfecting a houseworkout.

CAN housework help you live longer? A New York Times blog post by Gretchen Reynolds last month cited research linking vigorous activity, including housework, and longevity. The study, which tracked the death rates of British civil servants, was the latest in a flurry of scientific reports crediting domestic chores with health benefits like a lowered risk for breast and colon cancers. In one piquant study published in 2009, researchers found that couples who spent more hours on housework had sex more frequently (with each other) though presumably not while vacuuming. (The report did not specify.)

Intrigued by science that merged the efforts of a Martha with the results of an Arnold (a buffer buffer?), this reporter challenged a household expert and a fitness authority to create the ultimate housework workout — a houseworkout — in her East Village apartment. Perhaps she could add a few years to her own life while learning some fancy new moves for her Swiffer. Christopher Ely, once a footman at Buckingham Palace, and Brooke Astor’s longtime butler, was appointed cleaner-in-chief. Mr. Ely is a man who approaches what the professionals call household management with the range and depth of an Oxford don. Although he is working on his memoirs (he described his book as a room-by-room primer with anecdotes from his years in service), he was happy enough to put his writing aside for an afternoon. His collaborator was Carol Johnson, a dancer and fitness instructor who develops classes at Crunch NYC, including those based on Broadway musicals like “Legally Blonde” and “Rock of Ages.”

Mr. Ely arrived first, beautifully dressed in dark gray wool pants, a black suit coat and a crisp white shirt with silver cuff links. He cleans house in a white shirt? “I know how to clean it,” he countered, meaning the shirt. When Ms. Johnson appeared (in black spandex and a ruffly white chiffon blouse, which she switched out for a Crunch T-shirt), theory, method and materials were discussed.

“If you’re dreading the laundry,” Ms. Johnson said, “why not create a space where it’s actually fun to do by putting on some music?” If fitness is defined by cardio health, she added, it will be a challenge to create housework that leaves you slightly out of breath. “I’m thinking interval training,” she said. As it happens, one trend in exercise has been workouts that are inspired by real-world chores, or what Rob Morea, a high-end Manhattan trainer, described the other day as “mimicking hard labor activities.” In his NoHo studio, Mr. Morea has clients simulate the actions of construction workers hefting cement bags over their shoulders (Mr. Morea uses sand bags) or pushing a wheelbarrow or chopping wood.

Mr. Ely averred that service — extreme housekeeping — is physically demanding, with sore feet and bad knees the least of its debilitating byproducts. Mr. Ely still suffers from an injury he incurred while carrying a poodle to its mistress over icy front steps in Washington When the inevitable occurred, and Mr. Ely wiped out, he threw the dog to his employer before falling hard on his backside. And the right equipment matters: After two weeks’ employ in an Upper East Side penthouse, he was handed a pair of Reeboks by his new boss, the better to withstand the apartment’s wall-to-wall granite floors. (For cleaning, Mr. Ely wears slippers, deck shoes or socks.)

Mr. Ely, whose talents and expertise are wide-ranging (he can stock a wine cellar, do the flowers, set a silver service, iron like a maestro and clean gutters, as he did once or twice at Holly Hill, Mrs. Astor’s Westchester estate), is a minimalist when it comes to materials. He favors any simple dish detergent as a multipurpose cleaner, along with a little vinegar, for glass, and not much else. “Dish detergent is designed for cutting grease; there’s nothing better,” he said. He’s anti-ammonia, anti-bleach. He said bleach destroys fabric, particularly anything with elastic in it. “Knickers and bleach are a terrible combination,” he said. “I had a boss who thought he had skin cancer. His entire trunk had turned red and itchy.” It seems his underpants were being washed in bleach. (Collective wince.) “It’s horrible stuff.”

As for tools, he likes a cobweb cleaner — this reporter had bought Oxo’s extendable duster, which has a fluffy orange cotton duster that snaps onto a sort of wand, but Mr. Ely prefers the kind that looks like a round chimney brush. (If you live in a house, he also suggests leaving the cobwebs by the front and back doors, so the spiders can eat any mosquitoes coming or going.) Choose a mop with microfiber fronds (he suggested the O Cedar brand) because it dries quickly and doesn’t smell. And a sturdy vacuum. Also, stacks of microfiber cloths or a terry cloth towel ripped up.

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DealBook: Hedge Fund Seeks Ouster of SandRidge Energy's Board

A New York hedge fund filed papers with federal securities regulators on Wednesday seeking to oust the board at SandRidge Energy, the latest salvo in its continuing campaign against the struggling Oklahoma City oil and gas company.

The hedge fund, TPG-Axon Capital Management, which owns nearly 7 percent of SandRidge’s shares, submitted so-called consent solicitation documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, offering up its own slate of directors to replace the current board.

SandRidge has come under pressure by TPG-Axon and another large hedge fund, Mount Kellett Capital Management, which have attacked the company over what they called an onerous debt load, reckless spending and incoherent business strategy.

TPG-Axon’s securities filing came two days after it sent a blistering letter to SandRidge’s board, demanding that it investigate whether Tom L. Ward, SandRidge’s chief executive, and his son had engaged in self-dealing and had directly competed with the company.

“It is our understanding that Mr. Ward and his son, Trent Ward, actively compete with the company, and in addition, have also engaged in repeated transactions in which they ‘front-run’ the company,” Dinakar Singh, chief executive of TPG-Axon, wrote in the letter. “It is astonishing that the C.E.O. of a company would engage in behavior that directly competes with his shareholders’ interests for his own personal benefit.”

The letter accuses the Wards of acquiring mineral rights and then leasing those rights to SandRidge for a profit. In securities filings this year, SandRidge said it had bought interests in mineral rights from an entity owned by Ward family trusts.

A spokesman for SandRidge, Greg Dewey, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

SandRidge’s shares are down more than 75 percent since its 2007 initial public offering and more than 90 percent since its peak in June 2008. The stock was flat in Wednesday’s session, closing at $6.26.

TPG-Axon’s S.E.C. filing was made in conjunction with a lawsuit filed on Monday in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The lawsuit challenges a move by SandRidge to shorten the time that shareholders have to vote on changing the company’s bylaws and replacing the board with TPG-Axon’s slate.

“Sadly, we are not surprised that Tom Ward and the board of directors have resorted to shameful tricks to try and confuse shareholders and shorten the period of time in which they have to vote,” Mr. Singh said in a statement. “The actions Tom and the board have taken over the past several weeks reek of desperation and clearly illustrate their complete disregard for shareholder interests and transparency.”

The solicitation by TPG-Axon will be sent in early January to SandRidge shareholders, who would then have up to 60 days to consent to the fund’s proposal to elect a new board, which would include Mr. Singh.

Much of TPG-Axon’s criticism has been aimed at Mr. Ward. Mr. Ward started SandRidge in 2006 after leaving Chesapeake Energy, a much larger Oklahoma oil-and-gas concern that he co-founded and has had its own share of corporate governance issues in recent years. He is a part-owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder professional basketball franchise along with Aubrey McClendon, a co-founder of Chesapeake and its chief executive.

Mr. Ward’s total compensation in 2011 was $25 million, representing about half of the company’s earnings that year. SandRidge bestows numerous perks upon Mr. Ward, including the unlimited use of the company’s four corporate jets.

A version of this article appeared in print on 12/27/2012, on page B3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: In Escalation of Attack, Hedge Fund Seeks Ouster of SandRidge Energy’s Board.

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Contested UTLA panel elections signal internal fissures

The young staff at the Alexander Science Center has been hard hit by seniority-based layoffs, the main factor behind a turnover of at least 28 teachers in the last five years — this in a school with a faculty of about 28.

Teachers say that the students at the USC-adjacent campus have suffered from the lack of stability and that the faculty has felt frustrated and voiceless.

But now, three instructors from the Alexander science school are among the freshman class of delegates to the House of Representatives for United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union in the L.A. Unified School District.

The House is the union's official decision-making body: It selects candidates to endorse in elections and has the final say on policy — taking precedence over the president and the board of directors.

The recent elections, concluded this month, were the most contested in years, by far.

Of 32 election districts, 22 featured contested bids for seats that typically could be had for the asking through a self-nomination process. In all, 396 candidates vied for 209 positions, with 100 won by teachers not in the current House.

The ideology of the new delegates is varied, and still evolving. They are concerned about job security, teacher turnover, performance evaluations and funding levels. But they are also worried about what some see as a combative but ineffectual and sometimes wrongheaded union and a demanding, ossified district bureaucracy.

The level of interest in the House elections surprised union leaders and veteran teachers alike — some of whom greeted the nouveau activism with concern. They note that outside groups encouraged teachers to run and worry that such groups will try to influence union policy.

Two outside groups are local arms of national organizations, Educators 4 Excellence and Teach Plus. A third group, Teachers for a New Unionism, is headed by Mike Stryer, a Fairfax High teacher on leave who lost a bid for the school board four years ago. His team reached teachers through home mailings, urging them to run.

All the groups are funded by major nonprofits, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has huge investments in education research and sometimes controversial policy positions. And all assert their desire for a union that better serves the interests of teachers as well as students.

Some in UTLA perceive an unholy alliance among these groups, their sponsoring foundations and L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy, a former Gates official.

"Taking over our House of Reps is clearly their strategy to destroy us," wrote teacher Anne Zerrien-Lee in an email posted to an online teachers forum.

"We have enough enemies outside of UTLA that we shouldn't have to deal with school district and Gates puppets within," said regional union leader Scott Mandel in an interview.

Without question, the outside groups see things differently than the leadership of UTLA.

Notably, the union has wanted to limit, as much as possible, the effect of test scores on a teacher's performance evaluation. The outside groups or their funders have backed the use of standardized test scores — or formulas based on them — as one key measure of a teacher's effectiveness.

Secondly, the outside groups want layoffs based on teacher effectiveness rather than seniority; the unions defend the seniority system as the most equitable approach.

Still, Teach Plus wasn't trying to recruit candidates who passed a litmus test, said Executive Director John Lee.

"Our desire wasn't to have a Teach Plus caucus but to connect teachers with leadership opportunities," Lee said.

The new delegates emphasize their loyalty to their profession and to their mission.

"I love teaching," said 35-year-old Antoinette Pippin, a fourth-grade teacher at Alexander Science Center. "I love my students, but I'm seeing a lot of things right now that are bad for my students and bad for teachers."

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10 More Mind-Blowing, Skill-Building Raspberry Pi Projects

Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized, $35 Linux computer, has been on the market for under a year, but excited hackers are using the platform for dozens of new, cool projects and accessory products every month.

Since our last Raspberry Pi roundup we've found 10 more amazing projects that show how versatile this diminutive PCB is. From voice-activated coffeemakers to wall-hanging plotters, the Raspberry Pi is proving to be a fruitful addition to the maker's toolbox.

Above: Black Stripes V-Plotter

A design drone with a Raspberry Pi brain, developed to turn full-color photographs into huge black-and-white murals. It's an evolution of the popular "V-Plotter" style artbot; the on-board RPi turns bitmap data into vectors that can be drawn with a robotically controlled marker. While the frame and plotter have a distinct Home Depot vibe, the output of the Black Stripes drawing robot is gallery worthy.

The code for the project is closed source, but the team does accept commissions for murals starting at 149 euros (~$200).

Photos: Black Stripes

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Britain’s royal family attends Christmas services

LONDON (AP) — Britain‘s royal family is attending Christmas Day church services — with a few notable absences.

Wearing a turquoise coat and matching hat, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at St. Mary Magdelene Church on her sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk. She was accompanied in a Bentley by granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie.

Her husband, Prince Philip, walked from the house to the church with other members of the royal family.

Three familiar faces were missing from the family outing. Prince William is spending the holiday with his pregnant wife Kate and his in-laws in the southern England village of Bucklebury. Prince Harry is serving with British troops in Afghanistan.

Later Tuesday, the queen will deliver her traditional, pre-recorded Christmas message, which for the first time will be broadcast in 3D.

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