Pictures of the Day: Egypt and Elsewhere

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Photos from Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon and India.

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Five Minutes That Split Lifetimes

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Christopher Capozziello was born five minutes before his fraternal twin brother, Nick. While other twins might jokingly pull rank on each other, in the Capozziellos’ case those five minutes altered the courses of their lives.

Nick wasn’t breathing when he was born and developed cerebral palsy. While Christopher, who goes by Chris, hit all of his developmental milestones on time, Nick lagged. By the age of three, their differences were clear.

“Everything is slow for Nick,” Chris said. “It’s like somebody took time and just turned this wheel that made everything sort of slower for him. Slower in speech, slower in comprehension, slower in movement. He understands enough about the world to know what he’s missing.”

Christopher Capozziello Nick Capozziello’s “brain pacemaker” is visible in his chest as he suffers a cramp.

Chris doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t aware of the differences between them, but as a child, he didn’t find it strange or all that difficult. It was the only world he knew. After all, they shared so much (including a bedroom for 26 years â€" Chris got the top bunk).

But as Chris got older, he started to notice that his family was different from others. When the twins were outside playing ball with friends, Nick would cramp up and become rigid like a statue. Chris and his friends would have to carry him into the house. Someone would grab Nick’s arms while Chris took his legs, and they would haul him upstairs and put him in bed.

Christopher Capozziello Nick in bed with a bad cramp.

Nick’s seizures became worse as he got older. Sometimes they lasted for minutes. Sometimes the cramps lingered for days.

Chris, a freelance photographer who often works for The New York Times, has been documenting his brother for 13 years. He has compiled these photos â€" along with raw, honest diary entries â€" into a book, “The Distance Between Us,” that is scheduled to be published this fall by Edition Lammerhuber. To pay for the printing costs, he is raising money through Kickstarter.

The book is a loving but unromantic look at Nick’s life and the way his struggles have affected Chris; their sister, Deana; and their parents, Ron and Karen. It portrays Nick as a person who has a disability that affects how he lives, but doesn’t define who he is.

Rick Gershon Chris and Nick in the Badlands on a road trip.

Chris sees his brother as friendly, outgoing, questioning and very funny.

“I could bring him with me anywhere, anywhere, and he would talk to people and get people to open up, probably in different ways than I can,” he said. “He is somebody who has a beautiful sense of humor, and people react to that. Nick is someone who is actually happy, which is something that I struggle with. But he’s happy.”

Last week at the dinner table, Nick told Chris and their parents that, despite the challenges, he doesn’t wish he had grown up without cerebral palsy. He realizes that without the condition, he would be a different person.

But if you asked Nick on the wrong day, Chris said, you might get a different answer.

“He might say, ‘I know I might be a different person, but I want things to be different. I want to have a job, I want to be married, I want to have a girlfriend. I want to have children someday.’ ”

Christopher Capozziello Nick has a cigarette at home.

Chris worries whether Nick will be O.K. if those things don’t happen. Yet, at 33, Chris is unattached and doesn’t have children. When he was in relationships in the past, he sometimes felt guilty.

Guilt is a recurring theme for Chris. He wonders why he wasn’t the one born disabled. And he admits that, even if there were an answer, he’s not sure either of them could handle it.

“I feel this guilt that this isn’t fair for Nick,” he said. “I don’t know what that’s supposed to even mean, but it makes sense in my head, because he’s the one who doesn’t get to have these things and I get to more easily experience them.”

Still, it’s clear Chris loves Nick’s company, and they hang out often. Last year they drove across the United States. The book includes photographs and written accounts of that adventure by each of them.

It also features photos of a series of surgeries, and a difficult recovery, that Nick underwent to alleviate his cramps.

Chris says he wishes that he could take the burden from Nick, do “an eternal swap” and let Nick live the rest of his life free of it.

But he can’t.

While Chris wonders who Nick would be without his disabilities, he is equally curious about what kind of person he would be if Nick had been born differently. He pondered that at one point during their road trip.

“I look over at him, reclined in the passenger seat, having slept off a cramp,” Chris wrote. “He looks peaceful, strong even. It’s like he’s some different version of me, I think. Then I wonder if my brother’s suffering, in the end, has taught me how to live.”

Christopher Capozziello Chris, right, in Las Vegas with Nick.

Follow @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.

Five Minutes That Split Lifetimes

In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here.

#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}

Christopher Capozziello was born five minutes before his fraternal twin brother, Nick. While other twins might jokingly pull rank on each other, in the Capozziellos’ case those five minutes altered the courses of their lives.

Nick wasn’t breathing when he was born and developed cerebral palsy. While Christopher, who goes by Chris, hit all of his developmental milestones on time, Nick lagged. By the age of three, their differences were clear.

“Everything is slow for Nick,” Chris said. “It’s like somebody took time and just turned this wheel that made everything sort of slower for him. Slower in speech, slower in comprehension, slower in movement. He understands enough about the world to know what he’s missing.”

Christopher Capozziello Nick Capozziello’s “brain pacemaker” is visible in his chest as he suffers a cramp.

Chris doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t aware of the differences between them, but as a child, he didn’t find it strange or all that difficult. It was the only world he knew. After all, they shared so much (including a bedroom for 26 years â€" Chris got the top bunk).

But as Chris got older, he started to notice that his family was different from others. When the twins were outside playing ball with friends, Nick would cramp up and become rigid like a statue. Chris and his friends would have to carry him into the house. Someone would grab Nick’s arms while Chris took his legs, and they would haul him upstairs and put him in bed.

Christopher Capozziello Nick in bed with a bad cramp.

Nick’s seizures became worse as he got older. Sometimes they lasted for minutes. Sometimes the cramps lingered for days.

Chris, a freelance photographer who often works for The New York Times, has been documenting his brother for 13 years. He has compiled these photos â€" along with raw, honest diary entries â€" into a book, “The Distance Between Us,” that is scheduled to be published this fall by Edition Lammerhuber. To pay for the printing costs, he is raising money through Kickstarter.

The book is a loving but unromantic look at Nick’s life and the way his struggles have affected Chris; their sister, Deana; and their parents, Ron and Karen. It portrays Nick as a person who has a disability that affects how he lives, but doesn’t define who he is.

Rick Gershon Chris and Nick in the Badlands on a road trip.

Chris sees his brother as friendly, outgoing, questioning and very funny.

“I could bring him with me anywhere, anywhere, and he would talk to people and get people to open up, probably in different ways than I can,” he said. “He is somebody who has a beautiful sense of humor, and people react to that. Nick is someone who is actually happy, which is something that I struggle with. But he’s happy.”

Last week at the dinner table, Nick told Chris and their parents that, despite the challenges, he doesn’t wish he had grown up without cerebral palsy. He realizes that without the condition, he would be a different person.

But if you asked Nick on the wrong day, Chris said, you might get a different answer.

“He might say, ‘I know I might be a different person, but I want things to be different. I want to have a job, I want to be married, I want to have a girlfriend. I want to have children someday.’ ”

Christopher Capozziello Nick has a cigarette at home.

Chris worries whether Nick will be O.K. if those things don’t happen. Yet, at 33, Chris is unattached and doesn’t have children. When he was in relationships in the past, he sometimes felt guilty.

Guilt is a recurring theme for Chris. He wonders why he wasn’t the one born disabled. And he admits that, even if there were an answer, he’s not sure either of them could handle it.

“I feel this guilt that this isn’t fair for Nick,” he said. “I don’t know what that’s supposed to even mean, but it makes sense in my head, because he’s the one who doesn’t get to have these things and I get to more easily experience them.”

Still, it’s clear Chris loves Nick’s company, and they hang out often. Last year they drove across the United States. The book includes photographs and written accounts of that adventure by each of them.

It also features photos of a series of surgeries, and a difficult recovery, that Nick underwent to alleviate his cramps.

Chris says he wishes that he could take the burden from Nick, do “an eternal swap” and let Nick live the rest of his life free of it.

But he can’t.

While Chris wonders who Nick would be without his disabilities, he is equally curious about what kind of person he would be if Nick had been born differently. He pondered that at one point during their road trip.

“I look over at him, reclined in the passenger seat, having slept off a cramp,” Chris wrote. “He looks peaceful, strong even. It’s like he’s some different version of me, I think. Then I wonder if my brother’s suffering, in the end, has taught me how to live.”

Christopher Capozziello Chris, right, in Las Vegas with Nick.

Follow @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.

A Roundup of What Happened While the Public Editor Was Away

Back from an intentionally unplugged vacation â€" where I got my news mostly through the print editions of newspapers and an occasional glance at the Twitter feed on my phone â€" I'm catching up with some of the issues that crossed the public editor's desk in the past week.

Normally, each one might have made its own column or blog post. But for now, I'll just mention each, with the possibility of returning to some of them later:

1. Jodi Rudoren's front-page article on Palestinian young people who throw rocks caused a great many complaints. As is not unusual with articles in this part of the world, it made absolutely no one happy; readers on all sides of the conflict wrote to complain about bias and unfairness. The Times's associate managing editor for standards, Philip B. Corbett, has responded to the complaints, disagreeing with those who believed the article was biased or that it glamorized the stone-throwers. “We described both the destructive impact on the teenagers themselves and the sometimes deadly consequences for others,” he said, also noting that the article was just one piece of continuing coverage of the region. “It was not meant to address every related issue,” he continued. “But I think it provided a thoughtful, memorable and detailed look that many rea ders found enlightening.”

2. The Times got some criticism for its decision to withhold, at the government's request, the names of some leaders of Al Qaeda in a story about the decision to close embassies. Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post wrote about it, focusing on the decision by McClatchy, another news organization, to use the information when The Times and CNN did not; the McClatchy newspaper chain said its reporting was based on information from Yemen and it received no administration request to withhold it, but almost certainly would not have done so anyway. I've written previously on this topic, questioning The Times's decisions not to publish information at the government's request. It's a delicate balance, no doubt, and every case is different. Still, it was heartening to read the words of the McClatchy chief of correspondents Mark Seibel. In an e-mail to the journalist Dan Froomkin he wrote: “We wouldn't be disposed to honor such a request” from the administration, even if they'd had one.

3. Some readers were puzzled â€" or worse â€" about the timing of a profile of Katharine Weymouth, the publisher of The Washington Post, which appeared in The Times's Styles section a day before The Post announced that it had been bought by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com. One reader, Ed Kosner (the journalist who was top editor of Newsweek under Katharine Graham), wanted to know “how The Times managed to publish a bouquet to Katharine Weymouth on Sunday without a hint that the paper she was so heroically trying to save would be sold to Jeff Bezos the next day.” Ms. Weymouth later defended the Times repo rter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, saying under no circumstances would she have hinted to The Times about the sale since The Post itself hadn't reported it. The story's timing was unfortunate, to say the least - especially since Ms. Weymouth has been publisher for more than five years.

4. A few months ago, an article in The Times Magazine â€" a personal recollection of a man who was aboard a plane that had trouble in the sky â€" caused many complaints from aviation experts including Patrick “Ask the Pilot” Smith and James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic. Eventually, an editor's note was appended to the article, linking to a blog post that took up and admitted some problems in how it was written and edited. I wrote about the subject twice. Now, a Frequent Flier interview in Business Day has Mr. Fallows, and others, once again questioning an aviation-related piece's veracity and calling for more thorough fact-checking and sourcing on flying articles.

5. Finally, a reader, Stephen Barrett, wrote to complain about an article in Real Estate, with the print-edition headline “The ‘Leave Me Alone' Zone,” which described how some New Yorkers are buying property they don't intend to live in. He wrote: “I'd love to buy a studio or one-bedroom someday and now learn that I would have to compete with buyers looking for non-living space. Still, must The Times always devote its resources to articles about people who have so much that they need even more? Please, please assign a reporter to the poverty beat, or the just-getting-by beat, who looks at the struggles of more than young college graduates. New York City's cost of living, and whether it is strangling the city's vibrancy, should be the biggest issue in the mayoral race. Buying a co-op to dabble as a writer or for storage? Try looking at that critically.” I've wr itten previously about the need for more poverty coverage at The Times, and I liked Mr. Barrett's “just-getting-by” idea, too. I have no objection to the specific article he mentions but his broader point is worth some attention.

Children\'s Rights and Animal Cruelty Are Cited by Times Readers

Two recent photographs and a video have raised questions from readers that are worth considering about The Times's standards and practices for its visual journalism.

Felicia Nimue Ackerman, a Brown University philosophy professor, objected to the use of photographs of two autistic children who have a tumor-causing gene. The images were with the story, “Autism's Unexpected Link,” in The Times on Tuesday.

She wrote:

The children are 9 and 10 â€" far too young to give informed consent to such exposure. It is unethical for their parents to consent by proxy. The article is online as well as in the print edition. Online is forever. When these children become adults, will they resent having their medical problems on public display? I would.

I talked with Michele McNally, The Times's editor in charge of photography, about the use of the children's photos and names. She said she saw this as a straightforward case in which the parents got to make the decision.

“The first consideration is whether the parents are totally supportive,” she said. “If they agree, it is their right.”

She noted that at least one of the sets of parents has a blog about the same subject and that “they want the research examined, and they want readers to know about it.”

To look for the consent of children, she said, is probably not possible. “Some of these children are severely disabled and may never be able to consent,” Ms. McNally said.

Is there an ethical consideration about the children's rights, separate from the parents' decision-making power?

“Not in this case,” Ms. McNally said. Quite simply, while she believes The Times must show sensitivity â€" and does â€" it is the parents' call.

The issue of children in photographs came up in March in the case of Coy Mathis, a transgender child who was the subject of a Times article about her schooling in Colorado. At that time, I interviewed the author Andrew Solomon, whose acclaimed book, “Far From the Tree,” examines the complicated relationships between parents and children with special needs or abilities. His view â€" which considers the children's rights, the possibility of a greater good coming from the use of named and photographed children in an article, and the overall attitude of the parents â€" is a nuanced one and worth revisiting here.

Separately, a Times video on a very different subject â€" the use of condors and bulls in a Peruvian ritual â€" brought a complaint from the animal rights organization, PETA.

The video, intended to explain an important cultural practice in Peru, amounts to depicting animal abuse, wrote Amanda Schinke, a PETA spokeswoman.

Although we appreciate that the story touched briefly on conservationists' opposition to this practice, we were surprised that it did not address the cruelty inherent in strapping a wild bird to a terrified bull and instead presented this cruel practice as a venerable tradition. It creates the impression that The Times endorses cruelty or insensitivity to animals. Would you please add a disclaimer that the story â€" especially the photo and video elements â€" depicts graphic cruelty to animals?

The Times, which is rapidly increasing its production of videos, brings the same standards to those videos that it does to its other journalism.

Does this video meet those standards? And is a disclaimer necessary here?

I asked Richard L. Berke, a senior editor who is directing video development, to respond.

“We do want to be sensitive to taste and possible offensiveness,” he said, “and in this case we were careful to edit out anything graphic.”

He noted that The Times often does use a disclaimer to alert viewers to disturbing or graphic content. Images of war and disaster, as in this video, which does include a disclaimer, are the most common examples.

In this case, however, “the video didn't merit a disclaimer,” Mr. Berke said.

I'll offer my take on both situations: I found the photos of the autistic children acceptable, though I do appreciate the ethical issues here. I can imagine situations in which The Times might better choose not to make children's images public â€" for example, in the case of parents whose motives seem exploitative or where real harm could come in later years.

On the video, I don't see the necessity of a pre-roll warning here, and I didn't find the footage graphic. But I would have liked to have seen more attention given within the video â€" something beyond a mention with no interview backing it up â€" to those who find the practice objectionable.