* Nadal beats fellow Spaniard Almagro 6-4 6-3 * Wins eighth Barcelona title in nine years (Updates with details, quotes) April 28 (Reuters) - Rafa Nadal became the first player to win four titles this year when he defeated fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-4 6-3 to win the Barcelona Open for the eighth time in nine years on Sunday. Since returning from a seven-month absence with a left knee injury in February, the world number five has reached the final at all six events he has played, his Barcelona triumph adding to the victories in Sao Paulo, Acapulco and Indian Wells. "I'm very happy. ...
China sent a fleet of patrol ships today to the sea area it disputes with Japan, following a controversial visit by Japanese officials to a war shrine. The latest moves are seen as a setback for a diplomatic resolution.
By Ralph Jennings,?Correspondent / April 23, 2013
Chinese surveillance ships sail in formation in waters claimed by Japan near disputed islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China in the East China Sea Tuesday.
Kyodo News/AP
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Spats between Asia?s two most powerful nations, China and Japan, have grown uncomfortably routine since Tokyo nationalized a group of disputed islands in September. On Tuesday tensions reached a new and potentially worrisome high.
Skip to next paragraph Ralph Jennings
Taiwan Correspondent
Ralph Jennings has covered news in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia for the past 14 years. He lives in Taipei and holds a degree in mass communication from the University of California in Berkeley.?
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China sent eight surveillance vessels into Japanese territorial waters, apparently to track a flotilla of Japanese activists who had gone to look at the contested area. China?s presence ? an effort to exercise authority in the region ? is its largest since Japan nationalized the uninhabited islets, Kyodo News reported.
China?s use of ships in disputed waters isn?t expected to cause a war, but it raises the specter of a miscalculation at sea that could in turn create a new diplomatic row, set off more protests in Chinese cities, and strike another blow at Japanese business caught in the crossfire. Hopes of polite negotiations are also off the map for now.
"Only when Japan faces up to its aggressive past can it embrace the future and develop friendly relations with its Asian neighbors," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference on Monday.
As if the 80 pro-Tokyo activists weren?t enough to upset Beijing, that same day 168 Japanese lawmakers visited a Shinto shrine that?s reviled elsewhere in Asia for memorializing World War II heroes. Japan occupied parts of China from 1931 to 1945. Three cabinet ministers had already visited Yasukuni Shrine over the weekend, causing calculated reaction.
In protest, a high-level Chinese military official bailed on a trip this week to Japan as the Foreign Ministry lashed out.?
And China?s surveillance vessels probably weren?t loaded with olive branches. The Communist country has increasingly jousted?with Japan since around 2005 as it rose to become the world?s second largest economy.
?Such an intrusion [in the East China Sea] was certainly not undertaken spontaneously, but would have been planned and coordinated some time in advance for execution as soon as an opportunity presented itself,? says Scott Harold, associate political scientist with US-based think tank the RAND Corporation.
Japan controls the disputed islets, which it calls the Senkaku, despite 40 years of competing claims from China and a wave of destructive anti-Japanese street protests in Chinese cities last year. China criticizes the Shinto shrine visits because a memorial at the venue also honors 14 major war criminals.
The two sides are also disputing rights to an undersea natural gas field, while China periodically accuses Japan of not apologizing for the war of the 1940s. Japan says it has apologized.?
China and Japan, as the world?s No. 2 and No. 3 economies, also mean a lot to each other trade-wise. The number of Japanese subsidiaries in China has grown eight times since the 1990s, and they sold $147 billion worth of goods to the country in the 2011 fiscal year.
Will the two keep meeting, along with South Korea, to discuss a three-way trade agreement? After momentum last month, the latest events raise concern that this puts progress on ice.
?Both sides need to be more flexible,? suggests Ralph Cossa, president with US think tank Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies. ?Japan needs to acknowledge that the territory is in dispute, at least from a Chinese perspective, and the Chinese need to acknowledge that they are under Japan?s administrative control and that a military solution is unacceptable.?
The Social+Capital Founder, early Facebook employee and owner of the Golden State Warriors, Chamath Palihapitiya, joined us onstage at Disrupt NY?and gave some brutally honest answers to questions as to why we’re seeing a lull in innovation. I had a chance to talk to Palihapitiya?back stage and we dove deeper into the fact that the Valley should “be ashamed of itself” over the lack of new and big ideas. One of the reasons for this is because it’s easier to hack on things that have already been done. It’s safe. Palihapitiya?says it’s time to go back to the drawing board and go big.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Stephen Curry shook off a sore left ankle to score 22 of his 31 points in the third quarter, leading the Golden State Warriors past the Denver Nuggets 115-101 on Sunday night for a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Curry shot 10 of 16 from the floor and added seven assists in a dominant and dazzling display that rivaled his days in the NCAA tournament for tiny Davidson. His five 3-pointers in the third quarter lifted Golden State to a 20-point lead and its third straight victory in this frenetic and flashy series.
Jarrett Jack added 21 points and nine assists and Andrew Bogut broke out in the first half with 12 points and five rebounds for the sixth-seeded Warriors, who can close out the Nuggets in Game 5 on Tuesday night in Denver.
Ty Lawson scored 26 points and Andre Iguodala had 19 for the third-seeded Nuggets.
The Warriors lost All-Star forward David Lee to a season-ending hip injury in Game 1, and Curry sprained his left ankle late in Game 2. With Curry carrying the load anyway, none of it has seemed to matter.
The quick-shooting point guard hit 5 of 8 from beyond the arc in a spectacular third quarter, when nearly every gold-shirt wearing fan in the sellout crowd of 19,596 stood and cheered. Curry scored all 22 points in the final 6:22 of the quarter, showing the kind of range that helped him make 272 3-pointers in the regular season ? three more than Ray Allen's record set in 2005-06 with Seattle.
Curry capped his remarkable run with two of his most highlight-reel plays.
He stole the ball from Lawson, stopped in heavy traffic and dropped in a 27-footer before sprinting all the way to the bench high-fiving and chest-bumping teammates. Following a timeout, Curry sprung free near Denver's bench for a corner 3 that gave Golden State a 91-72 lead entering the fourth.
Curry's five 3s in the quarter were a Warriors record for a half.
Curry, wearing heavy tape around his nagging ankle, gave fans a scare when Corey Brewer poked Curry in the eye going for a rebound early in the fourth. Curry returned about 4? minutes later, receiving another standing ovation from the home fans.
While Curry scored only seven points in the first half, Bogut broke out in a big way to provide the one-two punch Golden State had long envisioned.
The 7-footer from Australia sliced down a wide open lane off a pick-and-roll with Curry in the first quarter, took one dribble and dunked over JaVale McGee with a thunderous right-handed slam. Bogut, who received a technical foul in Game 3 for daring Denver's big man to punch him on the chin during a face-to-face altercation, stared back at McGee while backpedalling down court.
In the second quarter, Bogut backed down Kosta Koufos before hammering home another dunk. He also soared high for a backdoor alley-oop from Curry to help the Warriors go ahead 45-37, and chants of "Bogut! Bogut!" echoed around the arena while the video board kept replaying his dunks.
Bogut sat out the final 4:37 of the first half with three fouls, and Andre Miller almost single-handily brought Denver back within a point. Then Curry hit his first 3-pointer of the game ? officially a 27-footer that seemed closer to the scorer's table than the arc ? as Golden State scored the last 11 points before the break to go ahead 56-44.
After falling behind by 15 early in the third quarter, the Nuggets started to rally behind their point guard.
Lawson, who scored a career-playoff high 35 points in the Game 3 loss, shook off a slow start to highlight a 14-4 run that sliced Golden State's lead to 62-58 midway through the third quarter. Just when it seemed they might crawl back, Curry countered with a devastating blow to Denver's playoff hopes.
NOTES: For the third straight game, Warriors coach Mark Jackson listed Carl Landry at power forward in his starting lineup submitted before the game, even though Harrison Barnes started at power forward and Landry came off the bench. Jackson said beforehand that he'd do it again because "it worked." Nuggets coach George Karl said it's not what coaches typically do but joked that Jackson is "consistent" and maybe "superstitious." ... Jackson's wife, Desiree Coleman Jackson, sang the national anthem.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? An intriguing peek into the daily scribbles and life of author F. Scott Fitzgerald is now available online, just weeks before the opening of the movie "The Great Gatsby."
Researchers from the University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library put a digital version of the famed author's handwritten financial ledger on their website last week, making it available for the first time for all readers, students and scholars.
"This is a record of everything Fitzgerald wrote, and what he did with it, in his own hand," said Elizabeth Sudduth, director of the Ernest F. Hollings Library and Rare Books Collection.
During a recent visit to the library's below-ground rare-book vault, Sudduth took the original 200-page book out of its clamshell protective cover. The ledger's yellowed pages ? with Fitzgerald's elegant, measured cursive strokes ? are a throwback to life before computer spreadsheets. The ledger shows Fitzgerald's tally of earnings from his works, the most famous of which is the novel "The Great Gatsby." The ledger lists his many short stories, books, and adaptations for stage and screen.
With the May 10 release of a new "Gatsby" movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sudduth says library officials expect an upswing in interest in its Fitzgerald collection. The ledger will be on display at the library for about a month starting May 6, Sudduth said.
The library's Fitzgerald collection is considered the world's most comprehensive, with more than 3,000 publications, manuscripts, letters, book editions, screenplays and memorabilia. It also includes Fitzgerald's walking stick, briefcase and an engraved silver flask his wife gave him in 1918.
Some parts of the collection already are online. With the ledger's move to the website and the timing of the movie, Sudduth said, officials hope to call more attention to the collection.
In the ledger, Fitzgerald lists in carefully laid out columns his various pieces of writing, the location they were printed, and the income they produced. Fitzgerald's comments are sprinkled throughout. One describes the year 1919 ? when his first novel was accepted for publication and Zelda Sayre agreed to marry him, as ? "The most important year of life. Every emotion and my life work decided. Miserable and ecstatic but a great success."
By the time Fitzgerald started the ledger, Sudduth said, "he probably knew what he was doing. He left a space for his remarks, and then the final disposition."
With a laugh, she noted: "We know he didn't spell very well. And his arithmetic wasn't much better,"
But the overall document, she said, "shows that he was far more on top of his affairs than people thought," given a reputation in later life as a heavy drinker.
"He was keeping a record of his work for the future," Suddeth said. "He kept it, he updated it."
For the past 30 years, researchers have had to rely on a limited print facsimile of the ledger, which didn't catch the varied inks and scripts in Fitzgerald's hand.
Park Bucker, a USC associate English professor, said he's excited to discuss the new ledger with his students.
"It may be a unique artifact among American authors," Bucker said. "This is going to be an amazing thing for students to pore over and dip into. He created his own database. We do it on computers now, but he did it for himself,"
Bucker also said students are fascinated by seeing something a well-known author penned in his own hand.
"Students always remark how much they love his handwriting," he said. "They think his handwriting is just beautiful, and handwriting isn't valued today."
Bucker pointed out that the ledger shows Fitzgerald made most of his income from short stories and that he was able to earn a living from his literary work. "It was the rarest of things, an author who made a living," Bucker said.
In 1925, the ledger shows Fitzgerald earned less than $2,000 for the "Gatsby" book ? the same amount he received for a single short story published in The Saturday Evening Post.
In later years, Fitzgerald added more earnings from "The Great Gatsby." He sold the foreign motion picture rights for $16,666, as noted in the ledger. In another section, he lists about $5,000 in earnings from "Gatsby" when it ran as a play in New York, Chicago and elsewhere.
USC Professor Matthew Bruccoli began to acquire items for the Fitzgerald collection in the 1950s. He received some, including the ledger, from the author's only child, daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald, also known as Scottie. Bruccoli wanted the collection to be used as a teaching and research tool, and he gave it to the university in 1994.
Bruccoli has since died, but the collection has continued to grow. It is now is valued at more than $4 million, Sudduth said.
The FCC isn't the only agency playing with devices we don't even know exist, and its Chinese equivalent has recently had some hands-on time with an unknown Huawei smartphone, codename P6-U06. Luckily, there are a few pics and specs to accompany the filing, which tell us it weighs 120g (4.2 ounces) and measures 132.6 x 65.5 x 6.18mm (5.2 x 2.6 x 0.2 inch), meaning it could be one of the super-slim P series handsets a Huawei exec hinted at CES. We didn't see any evidence of these at MWC, but the same exec promised more was to come in 2013, possibly starting with this P6-U06.
Those dimensions house a 4.7-inch TFT screen at 720p resolution, quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, an 8-megapixel camera on the back and an unusually large 5-megapixel sensor in the shooter up front. Unsurprisingly, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean is listed as the OS, while dual-SIM support and GSM / WCDMA radios suggest Asia as the target market (not to mention the Chinese certification). That's all we've got on the P6-U06 for now, but in lieu of official press shots, the handset strikes a couple more candid poses after the break.
LONDON (AP) ? Anti-war protesters are demonstrating outside a Royal Air Force base used to control drone flights over Afghanistan.
Until this week, British drones were operated only from a U.S. Air Force base in Nevada.
The Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that a new drone-operating squadron had begun operating from RAF Waddington in eastern England.
The ministry says the Reaper drones are used for "intelligence and surveillance missions," but also are equipped with missiles and bombs.
Opponents who are marching Saturday say drones make it too easy to launch deadly attacks from a distance and out of public sight.
The defense ministry says drone operators "adhere strictly to the same laws of armed conflict and are bound by the same clearly defined rules of engagement" as other RAF pilots.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva may stay out of American custody because the US and Russia do not have a bilateral extradition treaty, despite efforts by Moscow to negotiate one.
By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / April 28, 2013
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva at a news conference in Dagestan, Russia, on Thursday. Her sister Maryam, right, is with her.
Musa Sadulayev/AP
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The mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, has become a focus of interest after it emerged that her name had been added to a key terrorist watchlist in 2011 and fresh materials, including wiretaps, handed over to the US by the Russians showed her "vaguely discussing" jihad with her elder son two years ago.?
Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir
Correspondent
Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?
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Ms. Tsarnaeva, a naturalized US citizen who moved back to Russia a few years ago, has best been known until now as the most passionate defender of her two sons, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, up to the point of insisting that they were "framed" because they were Muslims. Now investigators may want to look into what role she may have played, if any, in the radicalization process that may have led her two sons to carry out the Boston Marathon bombing almost two weeks ago.
Tsarnaeva was reportedly added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE)?database in 2011 at the request of US intelligence agencies. That list, which held about 750,000 names at the time, is used to compile the consolidated Terrorist Watchlist?used as the main reference tool by airlines and law enforcement agencies. It is believed her name, and that of her son Tamerlan, were appended to the list after the Russian FSB security service appealed for more information about the pair to the FBI and the CIA and warned of their growing radicalization.?
In recent days the Russians have also turned over wiretaps of conversations between Tsarnaeva, who was by that time back living in her native Dagestan, and her son Tamerlan in Boston. In one they reportedly discuss "jihad" in a general way. In another, Tsarnaeva is recorded talking with someone who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case.
In his annual town hall meeting with the Russian public last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin called for stepped up security cooperation?between the US and Russia in the wake of the Boston tragedy. He downplayed any links between Russia and the Boston bombers, and added "to our great regret" Russian security forces lacked any "operative information" that they might have shared with US law enforcement in the run up to the attack.
Tsarnaeva is an ethnic Avar, one of the largest groups in Russia's multi-national, but solidly Muslim, mountain republic of Dagestan?which abuts the Caspian Sea. Dagestan has been wracked for over a decade by a growing Islamist insurgency that has made parts of the republic a no-go zone even for law enforcement.
ATLANTA (AP) ? A few years ago, Georgia was locked in a bidding war with North Carolina over the Disney movie, "The Last Song," starring Miley Cyrus.
Both states wanted the movie to film in their state, and North Carolina was close to sealing the deal with an attractive tax incentive package. But Georgia snapped up the production, largely because it had recently expanded its own tax credit for films.
The state hasn't looked back since. Not only are TV shows like "The Walking Dead" and films like "The Hunger Games" sequel filmed in Georgia, but tens of millions of dollars are being invested to build up critical infrastructure. No fewer than five major studio developments or expansions have been announced in recent months with the goal of luring big-budget blockbusters.
"It really is about the whole package," said Lee Thomas, director of the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office. "They can do everything here now."
Last fiscal year, productions filmed in Georgia generated an estimated $3.1 billion in economic activity, a 29 percent increase from the year before, according to state estimates. And Thomas said that will only increase with the studio projects in the works that will add large soundstages and back lots to lure big productions, such as "Iron Man 3," which Georgia wasn't able to accommodate. The state didn't have a studio that fit the requirements of the film's production company.
Of the studio projects in the works, one being planned in Fayette County, a short drive south of Atlanta, could be a game changer. British film studio Pinewood Shepperton PLC, home to the James Bond franchise, has reportedly been in talks with a group of investors to manage and operate the facility. It would be Pinewood's first production facility in the U.S. Recent films shot at Pinewood Studios, outside London, include the coming Angelina Jolie film, "Maleficent" and "Jack Ryan," directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh.
The project, once finalized, would underscore how much Georgia has become a film destination and be another sign that California continues to struggle with runaway production.
A survey last year found that California lost $3 billion in wages from 2004 to 2011 because of film and TV production moving to other states and countries, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. Half the wages went to states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Louisiana that offer tax incentives and rebates to the industry.
Representatives of Pinewood declined comment on the plan, and the head of Fayette County's development agency would say only that discussions continue between the company and a group of Georgia-based investors on the state-of-the-art studio complex, which would sit on 288 acres and include at least five soundstages.
"It takes the state to a whole new level," said Matt Forshee, president of the Fayette County Development Authority, who has been closely involved in the project. "When you look at the films that have filmed in Georgia, for the most part, they have been smaller budget films, in the range of $20-25 million. This allows us to open up to larger budget productions, which means more expenditures occurring within the state, which becomes a bigger return on the investment on the state level for the tax credits."
Georgia has come a long way since the 1939 Civil War epic "Gone With The Wind," arguably the most famous movie about the state, was filmed in California. Three decades later, the 1971 Burt Reynolds movie "Deliverance" helped put Georgia on the map as a shooting location. The state created a film commission, and Reynolds returned to the state to shoot hits such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Longest Yard."
Now, Atlanta truly has the feel of Hollywood South. In recent years, the state has been a shooting location for films such as Clint Eastwood's "Trouble With the Curve," the new Jackie Robinson biopic "42" with Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington's Oscar-nominated turn as an alcoholic pilot in "Flight," the Katherine Heigl rom-com "Life as We Know It," the current Reese Witherspoon project "The Good Lie," and comedies such as 2011's "Hall Pass" and the coming "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" starring Will Ferrell.
While studio developers building soundstages are not eligible for Georgia's tax credit program, the production companies making films are. Georgia provides a 20 percent tax credit for companies that spend $500,000 or more on production and post-production in the state, either in a single production or on multiple projects.
Georgia also grants an additional 10 percent tax credit if the finished project includes a state promotional logo. Further, if a company has little or no Georgia tax liability, it can transfer or sell its tax credits.
"The industry follows the dollar," Forshee said. "They are going to go where they can do the best product for the cheapest cost. This tax credit has made Georgia a viable and lucrative place to make films."
The economic benefits have been debated in Georgia, although the state has remained committed to the film incentives. Meanwhile, lawmakers in North Carolina are debating a plan that would place certain limitations on the state's program, with supporters of the effort saying there's no evidence the $30 million in tax breaks in 2011 matches the job growth cited by the industry. In comparison, Georgia handed out $140.6 million in tax credits in 2010.
Gov. Nathan Deal said it's the combination of the tax credits and Georgia's diverse landscape ? from the mountains to the coast ? that has made the state so attractive to filmmakers.
"It is an affirmation of several things, some of which is just the natural beauty of our state," Deal said in a recent interview. "You are seeing ample evidence that the tax credits for the movie and film industry are definitely paying the dividends that we anticipated."
There are a number of ripple effects. The films bring jobs, and the state already has an estimated 5,000 union and non-union professionals associated with the film industry along with more than 1,000 production suppliers and support companies. Major components of the proposed studio projects also include educational programs aimed at training the next generation of industry employees.
This week, Atlanta-based Jacoby Development announced plans to build an estimated $1 billion multiuse project north of downtown Atlanta that will include 12 soundstages as well as production offices and an arts and media school.
Jim Jacoby, chairman of The Jacoby Group, said he expected to have financing lined up quickly and was in Hollywood this week to pitch the project.
"The times are ripe because the demand is there right now. We feel like we have a facility that we can get to market quickly," Jacoby said.
The studio project will be located on 100 acres in Gwinnett County just north of the city, where with an existing 500,000-square-foot building can be remade into 12 soundstages. Plans call for construction to begin by the end of the year.
"The facility that Jacoby is building will be designed to Hollywood standards and will fill quickly," said Gary Bastien, whose architectural firm will be involved in the studio design. Bastien has designed various TV and movie projects for major studios in Southern California.
Other projects include a planned expansion of Tyler Perry's sprawling studio complex that already includes five soundstages, a $100 million project east of the city in Newton County and a $90 million studio planned in Effingham County near Savannah.
The one in Newton County is in the early stages, but Covington-based Triple Horse says it plans a 160-acre studio with multiple soundstages, post-production facilities and a back lot. The one in Effingham County is backed by Medient Studios, which began in India and has expanded with offices in Hollywood and London. Medient's project includes a $90 million studio and entertainment complex with the goal of also becoming a major tourist destination.
Thomas, who heads the state's entertainment office, said another side benefit has been Georgia's burgeoning film tourism industry, with fans planning vacations around visits to film locations. Much of that has centered on the town of Senoia, where AMC's "The Walking Dead" is filmed, with plans to promote Georgia locations in connection with the coming release of the "Hunger Games" sequel. The state also has launched a website, ComeTourGeorgia.com, that lists movie tours and travel tips, pitching an opportunity to "walk in the footsteps of your favorite actors and musicians."
Said Thomas: "We have all the pieces of the puzzle here."
___
Follow Christina Almeida Cassidy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Christina.
For ancient Maya, a hodgepodge of cultural exchangesPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Study shows that ancient Maya civilization interacted with more than just Olmecs
This release is available in Arabic, Japanese, French, Spanish and Chinese.
The ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica may have developed its unique culture and architecture via contact with many other groupsnot just exclusive contact with the Olmec people or on its own, without any outside influences, as researchers have debated. According to a new study, the formal plazas and pyramids at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, probably arose from broad cultural exchanges that took place across southern Mesoamerica from about 1,000 to 700 BCE.
Until now, two theories have dominated the debate concerning the origin of the Maya civilization: one suggesting that the Maya developed almost entirely on their own in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and another suggesting that the older Olmec civilization was the Maya's dominant cultural influence. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, a husband-and-wife team from the University of Arizona in Tucson, along with colleagues from the U.S. and Japan, however, found that neither of these theories could tell the full story of the Maya.
"In terms of the origins of lowland Maya civilization, their relationship [with the Olmec] is always a focus of debate," Inomata explained. "We're now saying that it probably wasn't just the Olmec, but a lot of other groupsfor example, those living in central Chiapas and those on the southern Pacific coastthat had a lot of important interactions with the lowland Maya."
The researchers' report appears in the 26 April issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the science society.
By the time sedentary communities began appearing in the Maya lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize during what's known as the early Middle Preclassic periodfrom about 1,000 to 700 BCEthe Gulf Coast Olmec were already well-established in nearby regions, researchers say. Given this timeline, many anthropologists have viewed the Olmec as a "mother culture," or one that provided cultural innovations, such as art styles and political structure, to other populations.
The coastal Olmec hub of La Venta, for example, hosted architectural styles that were likewise found at Ceibal. But, Inomata and the other researchers now provide radiocarbon dating measurements taken from some of the ceremonial structures at Ceibal, like plazas and platforms, which predate the growth of La Venta as a major center by as much as 200 years. These findings imply that La Venta could not have been the primary influence on Ceibal that researchers once thought it was. Instead, Inomata and his team suggest that both Ceibal and La Venta participated in a broader cultural shift that was taking place in Mesoamerica between about 1,150 and 800 BCE.
"The main complex at Ceibal is made up of a plaza area, a western platform or pyramid and an eastern mound," said Inomata. "This is generally known as an 'E-Group Assemblage,' and they can be found across southern Mesoamerica." Many researchers have resisted using the term to refer to the structures at La Venta, since it was originally coined to describe Mayan architecture. But, Inomata and his team argue that the ceremonial constructions at La Venta should also be classified as such E-Group Assemblages.
"Possibly, their uses were very similar," Inomata continued. "Ritual was very important to these civilizations, and there is a series of ritual deposits in the plaza at Ceibal Such rituals often included greenstone axes, made from jade or other imported, precious stones, which were deposited [in the plaza] as a kind of offering."
Such ritualistic offerings have been found elsewhere in southern Mesoamerica, including two contemporaneous sites in Chiapas, Mexico.
Inomata and his team suggest that E-Group Assemblages at Ceibal began as small structures, just two meters tall. But, with continuous renovation, the ceremonial constructions grew taller and taller, eventually becoming pyramids, which became very important to the later Maya people.
Taken together, the findings do not suggest that the Maya civilization was older than the Olmec culture, nor do they prove that the Maya developed independently. Instead, they show that the Maya actively participated in a major social shift that took place over a wide area.
"We are seeing this new form of architecture, which probably reflects a new form of society and social order," says Inomata. "This new form of social order emerged not from one center, such as the Gulf Coast Olmec, but through broad interactions among diverse groups, including the lowland Maya."
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The report by Inomata et al. was supported by the National Geographic Society; the National Science Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Alphawood Foundation.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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For ancient Maya, a hodgepodge of cultural exchangesPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Study shows that ancient Maya civilization interacted with more than just Olmecs
This release is available in Arabic, Japanese, French, Spanish and Chinese.
The ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica may have developed its unique culture and architecture via contact with many other groupsnot just exclusive contact with the Olmec people or on its own, without any outside influences, as researchers have debated. According to a new study, the formal plazas and pyramids at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, probably arose from broad cultural exchanges that took place across southern Mesoamerica from about 1,000 to 700 BCE.
Until now, two theories have dominated the debate concerning the origin of the Maya civilization: one suggesting that the Maya developed almost entirely on their own in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and another suggesting that the older Olmec civilization was the Maya's dominant cultural influence. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, a husband-and-wife team from the University of Arizona in Tucson, along with colleagues from the U.S. and Japan, however, found that neither of these theories could tell the full story of the Maya.
"In terms of the origins of lowland Maya civilization, their relationship [with the Olmec] is always a focus of debate," Inomata explained. "We're now saying that it probably wasn't just the Olmec, but a lot of other groupsfor example, those living in central Chiapas and those on the southern Pacific coastthat had a lot of important interactions with the lowland Maya."
The researchers' report appears in the 26 April issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the science society.
By the time sedentary communities began appearing in the Maya lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize during what's known as the early Middle Preclassic periodfrom about 1,000 to 700 BCEthe Gulf Coast Olmec were already well-established in nearby regions, researchers say. Given this timeline, many anthropologists have viewed the Olmec as a "mother culture," or one that provided cultural innovations, such as art styles and political structure, to other populations.
The coastal Olmec hub of La Venta, for example, hosted architectural styles that were likewise found at Ceibal. But, Inomata and the other researchers now provide radiocarbon dating measurements taken from some of the ceremonial structures at Ceibal, like plazas and platforms, which predate the growth of La Venta as a major center by as much as 200 years. These findings imply that La Venta could not have been the primary influence on Ceibal that researchers once thought it was. Instead, Inomata and his team suggest that both Ceibal and La Venta participated in a broader cultural shift that was taking place in Mesoamerica between about 1,150 and 800 BCE.
"The main complex at Ceibal is made up of a plaza area, a western platform or pyramid and an eastern mound," said Inomata. "This is generally known as an 'E-Group Assemblage,' and they can be found across southern Mesoamerica." Many researchers have resisted using the term to refer to the structures at La Venta, since it was originally coined to describe Mayan architecture. But, Inomata and his team argue that the ceremonial constructions at La Venta should also be classified as such E-Group Assemblages.
"Possibly, their uses were very similar," Inomata continued. "Ritual was very important to these civilizations, and there is a series of ritual deposits in the plaza at Ceibal Such rituals often included greenstone axes, made from jade or other imported, precious stones, which were deposited [in the plaza] as a kind of offering."
Such ritualistic offerings have been found elsewhere in southern Mesoamerica, including two contemporaneous sites in Chiapas, Mexico.
Inomata and his team suggest that E-Group Assemblages at Ceibal began as small structures, just two meters tall. But, with continuous renovation, the ceremonial constructions grew taller and taller, eventually becoming pyramids, which became very important to the later Maya people.
Taken together, the findings do not suggest that the Maya civilization was older than the Olmec culture, nor do they prove that the Maya developed independently. Instead, they show that the Maya actively participated in a major social shift that took place over a wide area.
"We are seeing this new form of architecture, which probably reflects a new form of society and social order," says Inomata. "This new form of social order emerged not from one center, such as the Gulf Coast Olmec, but through broad interactions among diverse groups, including the lowland Maya."
###
The report by Inomata et al. was supported by the National Geographic Society; the National Science Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Alphawood Foundation.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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LONDON (AP) ? A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.
Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding.
Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The oversized ovum, laid on the island of Madagascar, is believed to date back before the 17th century.
Flightless, fruit-gobbling elephant birds resembled giant ostriches and could grow to be 11 feet high (3.4 meters). Christie's says their eggs are 100 times the size of an average chicken's.
16GB models in both White Frost and Black Mist will be available for $199 for eligible customers
Folks looking to pick up a Samsung Galaxy S4 on U.S. Cellular can now start counting down with everyone else. The device will be available Friday April 26 for people purchasing online, and in stores on the shelves Tuesday, April 30. Both the White Frost and Black Mist version in 16GB will be available, and at the cash register, you'll need to part with $199 if you're eligible for an upgrade price.
U.S. Cellular tells us that phones preordered online will start shipping April 26 as well, and include the promotional S View flip cover as part of the preorder promotion.
The Galaxy S4 looks like an incredible phone (see our review) and will surely be a crowd pleaser. It's great that U.S. Cellular can offer their customers access to this one in the same time frame as the bigger carriers. If you're interested, the order page will go live tomorrow right here.
Cost of amputating a leg? At least $20,000. Cost of an artificial leg? More than $50,000 for the most high-tech models. Cost of an amputee's rehab? Often tens of thousands of dollars more.
These are just a fraction of the medical expenses victims of the Boston Marathon bombing will face.
The mammoth price tag is probably not what patients are focusing on as they begin the long healing process. But friends and strangers are already setting up fundraisers and online crowd-funding sites, and a huge Boston city fund has already collected more than $23 million in individual and corporate donations.
No one knows yet if those donations ? plus health insurance, hospital charity funds and other sources ? will be enough to cover the bills. Few will even hazard a guess as to what the total medical bill will be for a tragedy that killed three people and wounded more than 270. At least 15 people lost limbs, and other wounds include head injuries and tissue torn apart by shrapnel.
Health insurance, as practically anyone who has ever gotten hurt or sick knows, does not always cover all costs. In the case of artificial limbs, for example, some insurance companies pay for a basic model but not a computerized one with sophisticated, lifelike joints.
Rose Bissonnette, founder of the New England Amputee Association, said that the moment she heard about the bombings, she knew immediately that her organization's services would be needed. The advocacy group helps amputees navigate things such as insurance coverage for artificial limbs.
Bissonnette shared one group member's struggle to get coverage for artificial arms as an example of the red tape some bombing victims could face. The woman "got a call from the insurance company and the person on the other end said, 'How long are you going to need the prosthetic hands?'" Bissonnette recalled.
Bissonnette herself was in a horrific car crash 16 years ago that left her with injuries similar to those facing the Boston victims. Her mangled lower left leg had to be amputated and her right ankle was partially severed. Her five-month hospital stay cost more than $250,000. Health insurance covered all her treatment, rehab and her prosthesis.
Health economist Ted Miller noted that treating just one traumatic brain injury can cost millions of dollars, and at least one survivor has that kind of injury. He also pointed out that the medical costs will include treating anxiety and post-traumatic stress ? "an issue for a whole lot more people than just people who suffered physical injuries," he said.
Adding to the tragedy's toll will be lost wages for those unable to work, including two Massachusetts brothers who each lost a leg, Miller said. They had been roofers but may have to find a new line of work.
Many survivors will also need help with expenses beyond immediate health care, including things like modifying cars for those who lost limbs or remodeling homes to accommodate wheelchairs.
Many survivors live in Massachusetts, a state that requires residents to have health insurance, "which should cover most of their required treatment," said Amie Breton, spokeswoman for Massachusetts' consumer affairs office. "The total cost of that treatment is impossible to calculate at this early stage."
Amputees may face the steepest costs, and artificial legs are the costliest. They range from about $7,200 for a basic below-the-knee model to as much as $90,000 for a high-tech microprocessor-controlled full leg, said Dr. Terrence Sheehan, chief medical officer for Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital in Rockville, Md., and medical director of the Amputee Coalition, a national advocacy group.
Legs need to be replaced every few years, or more often for very active users or those who gain or lose weight. Limb sockets need to be replaced even more often and also cost thousands of dollars each, Sheehan said.
Massachusetts is among about 20 states that require health insurers to pay for prosthetic limbs, but many plans don't cover 100 percent of those costs, Sheehan said. "Most are skimpy beyond basic prosthetics and they have not caught up with current available technology," he said.
"The insurer will use terminology such as 'not medically necessary'" to deny computerized feet or knees that can often make the patient better able to function and more comfortable and safe, Sheehan said.
Some insurers may be willing to make exceptions for the Boston blast survivors.
"We will work to ensure that financial issues/hardship will not pose a barrier to the care that affected members' need," said Sharon Torgerson, spokeswoman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, one of the state's largest health insurers.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, another big insurer, is changing its policy and will pay for some of the more expensive bionic limbs when there is a demonstrated need, said Dr. Michael Sherman, chief medical officer. He said that 15 blast survivors admitted to hospitals are Harvard Pilgrim customers and that the insurance company is discussing "whether we might absorb some of the copays and deductibles."
"This is a terrorist act, and our only thought here is about providing support," he said.
The 26 hospitals that have treated bombing victims have charity funds that will cover some of the costs, said Tim Gens, executive vice president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association. Some injured residents may be eligible for Massachusetts' public health funds for the uninsured or underinsured. People with huge medical bills they can't afford are eligible, regardless of income.
Gens said hospitals are still focused on treating survivors, not on costs.
"It's an extraordinary shock to so many individuals. The hospitals are working very hard to make sure that each family gets the support they need. Billing is not an issue they're addressing right now," Gens said.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, where 31 victims have gotten treatment, chief financial officer Sally Mason Boemer said bills "create a lot of stress. Our assumption is there will be sources we can tap through fundraising." Boemer added: "Now is not the time to add additional stress to patients."
A big chunk of charity money for survivors will come from One Fund Boston, established by Boston's mayor and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
The fund has gotten more than $20 million in donations. Determining who gets what is still being worked out, but victims' insurance status and place of residence won't be a factor, said Kenneth Feinberg, the fund administrator. He oversaw the 9/11 compensation fund during its first three years, distributing more than $7 billion to 5,300 families and victims.
Grass-roots fundraising efforts include online funds set up by friends and relatives of the victims.
Those victims include Roseann Sdoia, a Boston woman who was near the marathon finish line when the blasts occurred. Sdoia was hit by shrapnel, fire and a tree that became a projectile and injured her left leg, the funding site says. Her right leg had to be amputated above the knee. After several operations, Sdoia has started rehab.
"She is a fighter and her attitude is phenomenal," said her friend and former sorority sister, Christine Hart, who set up the site. More than $270,000 has been raised for Sdoia so far, money that may help pay for an artificial leg, transportation to and from rehab, and modifications to her car or home, Hart said.
The donations will help make sure "that finances are not part of the burden" she has to bear, Hart said.
Other funds have been set up in communities like Stoneham, a Boston suburb that counts at least five current or former residents among the victims. A Stoneham Strong fundraising event is set for Friday evening, with participants asked to circle the high school track to show support for the marathon victims. Hundreds are expected, said organizer Shelly MacNeill.
"The outpouring has been unbelievable," she said.
___
AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson contributed to this report.
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BANGKOK (AP) ? Crude prices rose Wednesday as traders waded back into the oil market following a string of positive corporate earnings and an improved U.S. housing report.
Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 45 cents to $89.63 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 1 cent to close at $89.18 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
Strong earnings pushed all three major Wall Street indexes ? the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite ? higher Tuesday. Industry giants such as DuPont Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. reported results that were better than analysts expected. Additionally, housing data showed that sales of new homes increased 1.5 percent in March.
The rise in housing demand is also helping to boost prices, which tend to make homeowners feel wealthier and encourage more spending. That could drive up consumption of energy and prices of fuel.
Investors are now waiting for the latest data on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products. Data for the week ending April 19 is expected to show an increase of 1.4 million barrels in crude oil stocks, according to a survey of analysts by Platts.
Brent crude, which is used to price oil used by many U.S. refiners, rose 45 cents to $100.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:
? Gasoline rose 0 .9 cent to $2.72 per gallon.
? Heating oil rose 0.3 cent to $2.801 a gallon.
? Natural gas fell 1.7 cent to $4.221 per 1,000 cubic feet.
(Reuters) - Tim Cook wants investors to "think different" about Apple: less as a hyper-growth startup-like company and more as a mature but robust technology corporation with the world's biggest dividend.
If Wall Street follows Apple Inc's famous advertising slogan of old, it may relieve some of the pressure on Apple's chief executive, quiet investors' grumbling about its recent share price slide, and buy the company time to do what it says it does best: come up with and market new products.
On Tuesday, Apple said it would return $100 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015, in part by raising its dividend 15 percent and in part by increasing its share buyback program six-fold to $60 billion.
To some extent, the expanded capital return program helped mask its first quarterly profit decline in a decade, though analysts say the more important issue now is what Apple has in store on the gadget front.
Apple shares were up 0.2 percent to $406.96 in afternoon trading on Wednesday, reversing direction after falling about 1 percent in early trading. The stock has seen a 43 percent slide since mid-September.
With Apple planning to borrow money to reward shareholders - one way to circumvent repatriating its vast overseas cash for that purpose - it could go from having zero debt to a company that rivals major global banks such as Citigroup in issuing bonds.
The company received an AA+ rating from Standard & Poor's, missing the top rating due to earnings growth uncertainty.
Following the earnings, at least 17 brokerages lowered their price targets on the stock, including JPMorgan, which cut its target by 25 percent.
Apple's earnings growth trajectory has come to earth in the last year. After posting average annual earnings per share growth of 62 percent over the past five years, its profit is now forecast to grow at just 4.5 percent a year for the next decade. For this year, earnings per share are expected to fall 4.4 percent, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
ADMITTING A CHANGE
Cook is trying to reset heightened expectations around a company once universally feted for its ability to captivate both consumers and Wall Street.
In the years following the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010, the company established a pattern of consistently blowing past even the most bullish Wall Street earnings expectations, much to everyone's delight.
But on Tuesday, Cook made the rare admission to analysts on a conference call that Apple's growth has slowed and margins have decreased.
Apple is a mature company that's now trying to get everyone to see it as one, analysts say.
"They are modulating into a state where the highs are not as high and lows are not so low," Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said.
Apple shares moved 5 percent higher Tuesday on the back of the capital program, though the gains evaporated later.
Any gains would have come as little consolation to investors who have watched Apple shed more than $280 billion in market value in the last few months as investors adjusted to a new, slower-growth reality.
Roger Kay, president of researcher and consultant Endpoint Technologies Associates said the expanded share repurchase and dividend scheme would keep investors satisfied for a while.
In the longer term, Apple needs another blockbuster gadget to accelerate its momentum and win investors back for the longer term. Cook tried on Tuesday to drum up enthusiasm around the product pipeline by teasing that "some really great stuff," potentially in new product categories, was coming in the fall and in 2014.
"They need something that breaks into new verticals, whether it's TV or something that's wearable, that opens up a new revenue stream," Epps said.
RESETTING THE SCALE
That remains among the most pertinent concerns for Apple-watchers. Since Cook took over in 2011 from late co-founder Steve Jobs, some investors have questioned whether Apple can continue to up-end technology markets with new revolutionary products that appeal to consumers in the absence of the tech icon.
Cook has in the past year presided over three straight quarters of missed revenue expectations before the January-to-March period. The key product introduced during his tenure is the smaller iPad mini, a response to tablets such as Amazon.com Inc's Kindle that were making inroads on its home turf.
The public takes as a given that a new iPhone and new iPads will come this year, along with refreshed Mac computers and iPod music players. But the speculation is that Apple is also working on a watch, a television and a radio service, among other products in the pipeline.
Cook would not provide any more details on new products, no surprise given the company's penchant for secrecy.
Some investors remain confident the Apple magic remains.
"The bar has been reset in terms of expectations and guidance. They have done the right thing by issuing debt and doing a large buyback," said Jason Jones, who runs tech hedge fund firm HighStep Capital and confessed to being an Apple bull.
"The company will go through this quiet period for product release and then, starting in the summer and for the remainder of the year, product announcements will pick up and likely the stock will react favorably to that."
While Apple is still growing - no small achievement for a company with sales well over $100 billion - its pace of growth has slowed as high-end smartphone adoption approaches saturation and rivals flood the market with cheaper devices, which are popular in high-growth developing countries like China and India.
Cook on Tuesday acknowledged that Samsung, which has smartphones in all price categories, is its top competitor. Apple also said it does sacrifice margin in the short-term, as it did with the iPad mini, if executives believe a product has long-term potential.
"Apple is in the transition phase from growth to a value company," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management. "Growth companies tend to put every penny back in, but that is not the case with Apple here."
(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Edwin Chan and Ken Wills)
Callista Gingrich and Ellis the Elephant (John Moore/Getty Images)
As it turns out, there may be junk in that trunk.
A Republican presidential campaign worker who was charged this week with cyberstalking young women often bragged about about dressing up as "Ellis the Elephant," a character in Callista Gingrich's children's books who would appear during book signings with her husband, former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
The FBI on Tuesday accused Adam Savader, a former George Washington University student who worked for Gingrich's presidential campaign and interned for Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, of sending 15 young women anonymous text messages saying he had nude pictures of them and that he would forward them to their family and friends if they did not send him more pictures.
According to a sworn affidavit filed in Michigan last week, Savader allegedly obtained nude pictures of some of the women and posted them without their consent on photo-sharing websites. Savader used the Google Voice program to shield his phone number when contacting the women between September 2012 and April 1, 2013, according to the complaint.
While working for Gingrch, Savader volunteered to dress up in a furry elephant costume to appear alongside Newt and Callista Gingrich during events. Callista Gingrich is the author of two books for children, "Sweet Land of Liberty" and "Land of the Pilgrims' Pride," in which the character Ellis, a large friendly elephant, teaches kids about American history. Several Gingrich interns and staffers dressed up as the character during the campaign.
During the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., in March, Savader told Yahoo News that he was chosen to wear the Ellis costume for the Gingrich events, although he did not specify how many times he put on the costume.
Savader enjoyed having his picture taken with politicians and media figures, which he often posted online. His Facebook page is filled with photos of him with several prominent politicos and actors, including Ryan, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, Georgia Rep. Tom Price, Michelle Duggar from the TV show "19 Kids and Counting," tax lobbyist Grover Norquist, actor Allen Covert, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Savador is currently being held in federal custody, the FBI said.
The Social+Capital Founder, early Facebook employee and owner of the Golden State Warriors, Chamath Palihapitiya, joined us onstage at Disrupt NY?and gave some brutally honest answers to questions as to why we’re seeing a lull in innovation. I had a chance to talk to Palihapitiya?back stage and we dove deeper into the fact that the Valley should “be ashamed of itself” over the lack of new and big ideas. One of the reasons for this is because it’s easier to hack on things that have already been done. It’s safe. Palihapitiya?says it’s time to go back to the drawing board and go big.
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