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Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine” those groups.

As head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein is in charge of “overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs,” according to the White House Web site.

Sunstein’s article, published in the Journal of Political Philosphy in 2008 and recently uncovered by blogger Marc Estrin, states that “our primary claim is that conspiracy theories typically stem not from irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a ‘crippled epistemology,’ in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources.”

In an e-mail message to select clients, Thomas C. Mazarakis, the head of Goldman’s fundamental strategies group, acknowledged that his unit often provided investment ideas that the firm had already traded on. Sometimes Goldman has even taken the opposite approach, betting against particular instruments that the group has recommended.

“We may trade, and may have existing positions, based on trading ideas before we have discussed those trading ideas with you,” he wrote.

The statement comes as the firm faces growing criticism over its role in the financial crisis, and is a rare acknowledgment of Goldman’s conflicts with certain of its clients.

“The way that the business is evolving is that it is laden with conflicts of interest,” Anant K. Sundaram, a professor of finance at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, said.

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress began investigating how Goldman and other firms had created bundles of mortgages known as collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, that were sold to investors at the same time that the banks had privately bet against the instruments. Some of these C.D.O.’s later fell in value, creating losses for those clients who bought them — and profits for Goldman.

Goldman also prevailed upon ratings agencies to assign the C.D.O.’s high investment grades, even as it planned to short, or bet against, the securities.

The e-mail message is a blunt acknowledgment of what often appeared in the fine print of Goldman’s marketing materials. Lucas van Praag, a Goldman spokesman, said in a statement: “We have been providing this disclosure, which we think is best practice, for a number of years and there is nothing new in the disclosure you were sent.”

And after my 4-year-old niece received the very hot Zhou-Zhou pet hamster for Christmas, I pointed out that the toy was essentially a robot, with some basic obstacle avoidance skills. She replied matter-of-factly: “It’s not a robot. It’s a pet.”

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Children my daughter’s age are also more likely to have some relaxed notions about privacy. The idea of a phone or any other device that is persistently aware of its location and screams out its geographic coordinates, even if only to friends, might seem spooky to older age groups.

But the newest batch of Internet users and cellphone owners will find these geo-intelligent tools to be entirely second nature, and may even come to expect all software and hardware to operate in this way.

Here is where corporations can start licking their chops. My daughter and her peers will never be “off the grid.” And they may come to expect that stores will emanate discounts as they walk by them, and that friends can be tracked down anywhere.

By early evening, emergency officials had contained the spill of PETN, or the powerful explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, according to Karen Fox, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina State Ports Authority.

The port was scheduled to open for business at 8 a.m. on Wednesay and the voluntary evacuation was canceled.

“The incident has been resolved in a safe manner,” she said on Tuesday evening.

The accident occurred about 4:40 a.m., when a forklift operator punctured a container, putting holes in nine 110-pound drums containing PETN, according to Scott Hembrook, a Coast Guard Sector North spokesman. Local officials assured the public that there were no injuries at the port or damage to the environment, according to Ms. Fox.

“They have been able to mitigate a large amount of the explosive hazard, and it’s getting to a manageable point,” Mayor Jerry Jones said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon. “They have reduced the potential blast zone to one mile, down from two miles.”

Mr. Jones added: “There have been questions such as do we think it’s terrorism? I can say, ‘absolutely not.’ This was an accident.”While Ms. Fox said that explosive materials are handled routinely at this port, she added: “This is about the first time in two years that cargo like this has come into the port.”

She said that the cargo was shipped by a Spanish-based company, Maxam. According to the company’s North American Web site, the company manufactures and distributes explosives for blasting purposes in “mining, quarrying and construction industries.”

Messages left for the North American headquarters of Maxam, and with the port’s operating company, SSA Marine, were not immediately returned.

Investigators found evidence of the explosive PETN in the underwear of the Nigerian man who was accused of attempting to blow up a jetliner on Christmas Day. It was also the substance that Richard Reid concealed in his shoes during his attempt to blow up a jetliner in 2001.

More than 75 officials with the local fire and police departments, the Cherry Point Marine Corps’ Explosive Ordnance Disposal, and the Coast Guard contained the spill. By noon, nearly all the businesses in the port had closed. A two-mile portion of the waterway was closed to marine traffic, and sections of Interstate 70 were also closed.

In May, the SEC approved a request by AIG to keep secret an exhibit to a year-old regulatory filing that includes some of the details on the most controversial aspect of the AIG bailout: the funneling of tens of billions of dollars to big banks like Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Merrill Lynch.

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, in granting AIG’s request for confidential treatment, said the “excluded information” will not be made public until Nov. 25, 2018, according to a copy of the agency’s May 22 order.

The SEC said the insurer had demonstrated the information in the exhibit, called Schedule A, “qualifies as confidential commercial or financial information.”

The expiration date for the SEC order falls on the 10th anniversary of Federal Reserve of New York’s decision to provide emergency financing to an entity set up to specifically acquire some $60 billion in collateralized debt obligations from 16 banks in the United States and Europe.

All the banks that got money from the Fed-sponsored entity — Maiden Lane III — had purchased insurance contracts, or credit default swaps, on those mortgage-related securities from AIG.

The SEC’s decision to approve AIG’s request for confidential treatment got scant attention at the time. But it could spark controversy now following the release last week of 14-month-old emails that reveal that some at the New York Fed had discussions with AIG officials about how much information should be disclosed to the public about the Maiden Lane III transaction.

The New York Fed, then led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, plays a critical role in the world of finance given its close dealings with all the major Wall Street banks, many of which were counterparties of AIG.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan will decide whether the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In August, a federal judge ordered that the information be released, responding to a request by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

“This case is about the identity of the borrower,” said Matthew Collette, a lawyer for the government, in oral arguments today. “This is the equivalent of saying ‘I want all the loan applications that were submitted.’”

During an interview on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program that aired on Sunday, Shulman said he uses a tax preparer for his own returns.

“I’ve used one for years. I find it convenient. I find the tax code complex so I use a preparer,” Shulman said.