LOS ANGELES ? It was admiration at first sight when Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson met up on the red carpet at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Tyson approaching Davis from behind as she was being interviewed.
"I said, `That's my Viola.' I could tell her from the back," Tyson said after "The Help" co-stars embraced and posed for photos together.
Tyson said she was pleasantly surprised by the reaction she got to her small role in "The Help."
"I did not expect this reaction my character would have that put it, for me, on a whole other level," the 78-year-old former Oscar nominee said. "Oprah (Winfrey) said to me, `You blew me away.'"
Davis, an Oscar nominee for her role in the movie, described herself as "a little brown-skinned girl in an Afro who had a big dream."
She was living the dream Sunday, working the carpet with her husband, Julius Tennon.
"It's her show. I'm just here to support her and make her feel comfortable," Tennon said.
"I'm shy," Davis added.
___
Armie Hammer, nominated as supporting actor for his role in "J. Edgar," stopped on the SAG Awards red carpet long enough to make light of being on the wrong side of the law in West Texas after a drug-sniffing dog discovered marijuana in his car.
"Be more aware of your surroundings next time you're traveling with contraband," quipped Hammer, who played FBI director Hoover's friend and fellow lawman, Clyde Tolson, in the film.
The 25-year-old actor spent about a day in jail before paying a $1,000 bond after his Nov. 20 arrest in Sierra Blanca, Texas.
___
Christopher Plummer, the winner of this year's supporting actor SAG award, gave much of the credit for his win, not to mention his long life, to his "long-suffering wife Elaine who 43 years ago came to my rescue."
Plummer had a well-known fondness for drinking when he met Elaine Taylor, who eventually became his third wife.
"She said, `Listen, if you're serious about getting together in life, you've got to stop drinking,'" Plummer said backstage. "She was dead right and she was quite vicious about it. She did save my life because I was really going downhill."
Plummer won for his role in "Beginners," portraying an elderly dad who comes out as gay after his wife's death. If he repeats that triumph at this year's Academy Awards he would become the oldest actor to win an Oscar at age 82.
"I can't talk about that because it's miles down the road," he said.
Asked if he would like to win, Plummer said jokingly, "No, I think it's frightfully boring.
"We don't go into this business preoccupied by awards. If we did, we wouldn't last five minutes."
FILE - This April 21, 2010 file photo, shows the logo of Amgen Inc. offices, in Fremont, Calif. Amgen Inc. reports quarterly earnings Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
FILE - This April 21, 2010 file photo, shows the logo of Amgen Inc. offices, in Fremont, Calif. Amgen Inc. reports quarterly earnings Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
THOUSAND OAKS, California (AP) ? Amgen Inc. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 8.5 percent as its expenses for taxes and producing and selling drugs rose faster than its revenue.
The world's largest biotech company said its net income was $934 million, or $1.08 per share, down from $1.02 billion, also $1.08 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, it said it earned $1.04 billion, or $1.21 per share, down 6 percent from $1.1 billion, or $1.17 per share.
Revenue was $3.97 billion, up 3 percent from $3.84 billion in 2010's fourth quarter.
Analysts on average expected earnings per share of $1.22 and sales of $3.92 billion, according to FactSet.
"We exited 2011 with good momentum, and the outlook for 2012 is even stronger," CEO Kevin Sharer, who is stepping down in May, said in a prepared statement.
Amgen said this expects to earn $5.90 to $6.15 per share for 2012, excluding one-time items, and take in revenue of about $16.3 billion. Analysts were expecting $5.97 per share in adjusted earnings and $16.06 billion in revenue for the year.
Earlier Thursday, the maker of biologic drugs for cancer and blood disorders said it plans to buy cancer therapy developer Micromet Inc. for $1.16 billion in cash to boost its oncology pipeline. Founded in Germany and based in Rockville, Maryland, Micromet is developing an experimental antibody-based drug, blinatumomab. It's currently in mid-stage testing to treat leukemia and in clinical development for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The purchase is Amgen's largest since it bought BioVex Group last year in a deal worth up to $1 billion, including milestone payments.
For the full year, Amgen reported net income of $3.68 billion, or $4.04 per share, down 20 percent from $4.63 billion, or $4.79 per share in 2010. Adjusted income was $4.86 billion, or $5.33 per share, down 3 percent from $5.02 billion, or $5.21 per share. Revenue was up 3 percent to $15.58 billion, from $15.05 billion.
Analysts were expecting adjusted income of $5.33 per share on average and revenue of $15.51 billion.
Amgen shares were unchanged following the after-hours report. They ended regular trading Thursday down $1.13, or 1.6 percent, at $68.08.
'Touch' star Kiefer Sutherland says playing a father persevering against impossible odds appealed to him right away. A Q&A with Kiefer Sutherland.
Giving credence to the old idiom that you can?t keep a good man down, Kiefer Sutherland returned to television Wednesday night in Tim Kring?s 'Touch.' Cooler still, much like his most famous small screen ego that saw him defeat evildoers twenty-four-hours at a time, the artist formerly known as Jack Bauer will once be asked to save the world. Except this time, as widower Martin Bohm, he?ll be doing so through a [misdiagnosed] "autistic" son [David Mazouz] whose obsession with numbers may turns out to be a ... lot more than meets the eye.
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When an actor has had the type of success you had with such a groundbreaking series like 24, they rarely come back to television so quickly. What was it about 'Touch' that enticed you to return so soon?
Kiefer Sutherland: It was a combination of things. I had an unbelievable experience on 24, we shot 198 episodes and I was as excited about shooting the 198th as I was the first. And so that combined with this script, it wasn?t even really a choice anymore. It was something that I knew I had to do. I remember thinking about it really strongly when I was crossing the street in New York and the person who I work with Susan, I remember saying to her if we don?t do this, how are we going to feel in September watching it knowing all of its potential and how great we both think it can be. And that answered my question for me. I didn?t want to be sitting there watching this fantastic show in September if I had had the opportunity to be a part of it.
In terms of the script, at what point did you connect with this new character of Martin Bohm?
I identified with him out of the gate. There was something interesting because obviously this is very different than 24. Yet there is a real similar through line in the kind of character of the man. Jack Bauer would be faced with unbelievable circumstances in the course of a day and he would never win completely and this guy is never going to win either. He?s never going to have the quintessential relationship of a father and a son. Yet he perseveres and that?s a great kind of character statement and so I identified with him greatly on that and I think as a parent as well just the sense of responsibility combined with not knowing what to do all the time. Even though this is again a heightened experience, I think every parent feels that.
For audience members out there who are so used to associating you with Jack Bauer on 24, how do you convince them that this is going to be just as entertaining, just as interesting and intriguing as that series was?
I don?t know if there is convincing. I think that ultimately almost in the way that 24 started, people that are initially interested, whether they?re a fan of Tim Kring or a fan of mine or like the trailer, they?ll watch it and then if they feel strongly about it, they?ll tell friends and we have to rely on that. For me personally I feel that there is a great deal of suspense within the context of the show, even in the not knowing what the numbers are and the narrative where the audience actually knows more than the lead character. So I think that even though we?re not blowing things up, I think that there is enough excitement around the drama of this show, that people will not be that thrown by it who enjoyed 24. And we really do rely on you guys telling people about it and hopefully it will be something that grows.
Keystone Automotive, the leading distributor and marketer of specialty automotive equipment and accessories, will continue as the NMRA?s series sponsor for the 2012 event season. ?Keystone?s ?support your local speed shop? campaign is near and dear to the NMRA as many of their speed & performance accounts participate with the series. ?Expect to see Keystone speed & performance customers on display as a part of NMRA?s huge manufacturers midway at most events. ?Keystone has been the NMRA?s series sponsor since 2007 and their dealer locator program, 1-800-AUTOPARTS, will continue as the official performance parts supplier of the NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals.
Keystone Automotive sells and distributes specialty automotive products, such as light truck/SUV accessories, car accessories and trim items, specialty wheels, tires and suspension parts, and high performance products to approximately 23,000?wholesale customers in the U.S. and Canada. ?For more information on Keystone Automotive log on to www.keystoneautomotive.com.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) ? Europe's top soccer clubs collectively lost more than $2 billion in 2010 and their debt keeps rising ahead of plans to sanction clubs for overspending, according to UEFA research published Wednesday.
Financial accounts from about 665 clubs revealed 56 percent lost money in the 2010 financial year, and their total debt was $10.9 billion.
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said it was "a last wake-up call" with clubs subject to UEFA's financial fair play monitoring since July 2011. Clubs that overspend in an initial two-year monitoring period can be excluded from UEFA competitions starting in the 2014-15 season.
We must end this negative spiral and gamble for success," Infantino said at the briefing.
UEFA's top lawyer said it invested "huge" political capital with European institutions to create the fair-play scheme, and that the governing body would not hesitate to enforce the plan's toughest penalty of barring noncompliant clubs from the lucrative Champions League.
"The system is not going to have much credibility if a club ... in serious breach of rules is not sanctioned in an effective way," legal director Alasdair Bell said.
Amid a debt crisis in European economies, Bell said it was "part of the zeitgeist" to promote financial stability.
UEFA's study showed clubs' combined annual loss rose 36 percent, around $520 million, on 2009 figures.
This was despite rising revenues totaling $16.6 billion for top-tier European clubs, an increased income of 6.6 percent. UEFA's research showed that richer and more successful clubs were more likely to spend and lose money.
Of more than 200 clubs playing in UEFA's Champions League and Europa League competitions two years ago, 65 percent spent more than they earned.
Three out of every four clubs earning more than $65 million annually also recorded a loss.
"Clubs tend to spend more in order to obtain a competitive advantage," said Andrea Traverso, the head of UEFA's financial fair play project.
The losses can be blamed largely on overspending on salaries, staff costs and transfers, as the overall revenue for European top-tier clubs has soared by 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.
Germany's Bundesliga announced Wednesday that 36 clubs in two divisions shared record turnover of $2.89 billion last season.
The 18 top-tier clubs earned a combined $68 million in profits, after agreeing to cost-cutting measures in August 2010, which have reduced overall debt to $769 million, the league's chief executive Christian Seifert said.
UEFA's research showed that the top five leagues ? England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain ? has two-thirds of the wealth.
Financial fair play (FFP) rules allow clubs to make a total loss of $6.5 million in the first assessment period, or up to $58 million if a wealthy owner makes a one-off donation to wipe out losses. UEFA will phase in tighter monitoring rules in future years.
UEFA acknowledged that 13 clubs, including several from England, would have failed its break-even tests on their 2010 accounts. The clubs were not identified.
UEFA said 31 clubs, including four this season, have been refused entry to its two main club competitions since financial licensing was introduced in 2004.
However, clubs barred this season were from the small-market leagues of Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Romania.
Skepticism has grown over UEFA's willingness to take on big-spending clubs such as Premier League leader Manchester City, whose owners from Abu Dhabi funded a then $318 million loss for 2010-11, the final season before FFP took effect.
"I expect that, at the last moment, (big clubs) will respect the rules," Inter Milan chief executive Ernesto Paolillo said. "I can't imagine they would not."
French league leader Paris Saint-Germain spent $107 million on players last offseason after being bought by Qatari owners.
UEFA's project was backed by Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of Lyon whose standing in France is threatened by PSG's revival.
Aulas described a "dichotomy" between clubs spending "easy money and money for investment."
"Tomorrow's paradigm (for clubs) must be built on building stadiums and building youth academies ? tangible assets that can benefit football in general," Aulas said.
Prostate cancer screening and treatment decisions must act on evidence, not beliefsPublic release date: 25-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jerry Berger jberger@bidmc.harvard.edu 617-667-7308 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Current screening system may cause more harm than good
BOSTON Physicians advising men whether to be screened for prostate cancer with a PSA test must rely more on available evidence when recommending screening, biopsies and treatments rather than long held beliefs that PSA-based testing is beneficial for all, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center prostate expert Marc B. Garnick, MD, says.
Writing in the February edition of Scientific American, Garnick states the current system that relies on prostate-specific antigens levels in the blood is "deeply flawed," and physicians must take into account the fact "the PSA test does not tell you if a man has cancer, just that he might have it."
The recent US Preventative Services Task Force's assessment of studies published in 2009 shows more harm than good results from PSA testing, and that evidence favors moving away from aggressive early treatment for all and toward a more cautious, individualized approach an approach currently underway at BIDMC.
"Most people outside the medical community do not realize how flimsy evidence has been in favor of the PSA screening data," says Garnick, who is also an editor-in-chief of Harvard Medical School's Annual Report on Prostate Diseases and associated website.
"In a perfect world, a screening test would identify only cancers that would prove lethal if untreated. Then, men who had small, curable cancers would be treated, and their lives would be saved. Ideally, the treatments would not only be effective, they would have no serious side effects. Such a scenario would justify massive screening and treatment of everyone with a positive test."
However, doctors currently do not have a reliable way to determine which of these small cancers, caught by biopsy, are potentially dangerous and which would not cause harm throughout a man's lifetime. Moreover, all of the current treatments carry significant risks and long term side effects.
Despite successfully preventing a single death from prostate cancer, the number of men who would have to be treated and potentially suffer the consequences of treatment to achieve this prompted the Task Force to recommend against wide spread PSA testing for all men without symptoms of prostate cancer. according to Garnick.
In two studies from 2009, one conducted in Europe and the other in the US, healthy men in their 50s and 60s were randomly divided into two groups; one was periodically screened for prostate cancer using PSA testing or a digital rectal exam, or both. The other group was not offered routine testing, but received standard medical care as needed.
The European study showed that only the men who were tested and treated for prostate cancer had a 20 percent likelihood of dying from the disease, while neither study showed if the men who were tested and treated lived any longer than those who were not offered routine testing. Such a decrease in prostate cancer mortality was not found in the U.S. study.
In the European study, researchers then determined that in order to save one life from prostate cancer, approximately 1,400 men would have to undergo screening, which would result in 48 having to undergo treatment. The remaining 47 could suffer serious side effects, such as incontinence and impotence, as a result of radiation or surgery.
"The overall death rate from all causes was not statistically different in both the screened and unscreened groups," says Garnick. "Unfortunately, the mortality data collected over the past 25 years shows that the natural history of prostate cancer is not as straightforward as my colleagues and I once believed. Many cancers will never cause problems during the patient's lifetime, and hence do not need to be treated, at least immediately."
Results from a long-term Canadian study indicate that the death rate from the disease for men who elect active surveillance, or choosing to delay treatment after a PSA test led to the diagnosis of cancer is 1 percent over 10 years, compared with a 0.5 percent risk of dying from complications in the first month after prostate cancer surgery.
"The point is that the initial decision to forgo treatment is not necessarily the final one. Surgery, radiation and other therapies are still available later on, and most current data indicate that the outcome will not be negatively affected by the delay. Such an approach is improving our ability to tailor treatments for individuals rather than always treating everyone the same," says Garnick.
The outcomes of this decision indicate that doctors and patients need to be clear about their knowledge, and lack of knowledge, from a scientific point of view especially as we discuss these issues with our patients. "We need to have the courage to act on the evidence and not just our beliefs," says Garnick.
###
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and currently ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org .
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Prostate cancer screening and treatment decisions must act on evidence, not beliefsPublic release date: 25-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jerry Berger jberger@bidmc.harvard.edu 617-667-7308 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Current screening system may cause more harm than good
BOSTON Physicians advising men whether to be screened for prostate cancer with a PSA test must rely more on available evidence when recommending screening, biopsies and treatments rather than long held beliefs that PSA-based testing is beneficial for all, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center prostate expert Marc B. Garnick, MD, says.
Writing in the February edition of Scientific American, Garnick states the current system that relies on prostate-specific antigens levels in the blood is "deeply flawed," and physicians must take into account the fact "the PSA test does not tell you if a man has cancer, just that he might have it."
The recent US Preventative Services Task Force's assessment of studies published in 2009 shows more harm than good results from PSA testing, and that evidence favors moving away from aggressive early treatment for all and toward a more cautious, individualized approach an approach currently underway at BIDMC.
"Most people outside the medical community do not realize how flimsy evidence has been in favor of the PSA screening data," says Garnick, who is also an editor-in-chief of Harvard Medical School's Annual Report on Prostate Diseases and associated website.
"In a perfect world, a screening test would identify only cancers that would prove lethal if untreated. Then, men who had small, curable cancers would be treated, and their lives would be saved. Ideally, the treatments would not only be effective, they would have no serious side effects. Such a scenario would justify massive screening and treatment of everyone with a positive test."
However, doctors currently do not have a reliable way to determine which of these small cancers, caught by biopsy, are potentially dangerous and which would not cause harm throughout a man's lifetime. Moreover, all of the current treatments carry significant risks and long term side effects.
Despite successfully preventing a single death from prostate cancer, the number of men who would have to be treated and potentially suffer the consequences of treatment to achieve this prompted the Task Force to recommend against wide spread PSA testing for all men without symptoms of prostate cancer. according to Garnick.
In two studies from 2009, one conducted in Europe and the other in the US, healthy men in their 50s and 60s were randomly divided into two groups; one was periodically screened for prostate cancer using PSA testing or a digital rectal exam, or both. The other group was not offered routine testing, but received standard medical care as needed.
The European study showed that only the men who were tested and treated for prostate cancer had a 20 percent likelihood of dying from the disease, while neither study showed if the men who were tested and treated lived any longer than those who were not offered routine testing. Such a decrease in prostate cancer mortality was not found in the U.S. study.
In the European study, researchers then determined that in order to save one life from prostate cancer, approximately 1,400 men would have to undergo screening, which would result in 48 having to undergo treatment. The remaining 47 could suffer serious side effects, such as incontinence and impotence, as a result of radiation or surgery.
"The overall death rate from all causes was not statistically different in both the screened and unscreened groups," says Garnick. "Unfortunately, the mortality data collected over the past 25 years shows that the natural history of prostate cancer is not as straightforward as my colleagues and I once believed. Many cancers will never cause problems during the patient's lifetime, and hence do not need to be treated, at least immediately."
Results from a long-term Canadian study indicate that the death rate from the disease for men who elect active surveillance, or choosing to delay treatment after a PSA test led to the diagnosis of cancer is 1 percent over 10 years, compared with a 0.5 percent risk of dying from complications in the first month after prostate cancer surgery.
"The point is that the initial decision to forgo treatment is not necessarily the final one. Surgery, radiation and other therapies are still available later on, and most current data indicate that the outcome will not be negatively affected by the delay. Such an approach is improving our ability to tailor treatments for individuals rather than always treating everyone the same," says Garnick.
The outcomes of this decision indicate that doctors and patients need to be clear about their knowledge, and lack of knowledge, from a scientific point of view especially as we discuss these issues with our patients. "We need to have the courage to act on the evidence and not just our beliefs," says Garnick.
###
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and currently ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org .
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) ? Environmentalists say the Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild within the next three decades unless steps are taken to slow the breakneck pace of deforestation.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently listed the animals as "critically endangered," after their numbers dropped to between 2,400 and 2,800 from an estimated 5,000 in 1985.
The decline is largely because of destruction of their habitat, with forests all across the Indonesian island of Sumatra clear-cut for timber, palm oil or agricultural plantations.
Carlos Drews of the environmental group WWF says if urgent action is not taken to reverse this trend, "these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct" in less than 30 years.
'I would be really grateful if it did [get nominated], but if it doesn't, I got the Super Bowl,' she tells MTV News at 'W.E.' NYC premiere. By Jocelyn Vena
Madonna Photo: MTV News
NEW YORK — With Madonna's "W.E." taking home a Golden Globe just over a week ago (her "Masterpiece" won Best Original Song), much of the buzz at the film's NYC premiere Monday night (January 23) was about the upcoming Oscar nominations.
"Well, the Oscars, the nominations are coming out tomorrow, and fingers crossed, I hope my movie gets nominated for something," Madonna told MTV News on the red carpet. "I would be really grateful if it did, but if it doesn't, I got the Super Bowl — keep on going," she added, looking forward to her halftime performance at the February 5 game.
"Masterpiece" is on the short list for the Oscars, along with Elton John and Lady Gaga's "Gnomeo & Juliet" soundtrack tune "Hello Hello" and songs from will.i.am, Mary J. Blige and Zooey Deschanel.
When "Masterpiece" won the Globe, Madge thanked a number of her cohorts, including manager Guy Oseary, who was at the "W.E." premiere Monday; the song's producer, William Orbit; and the producer of "W.E.," Harvey Weinstein. "This is a surprise," she told the room, clutching her prize. "Thank you so much to the Hollywood Foreign Press for this acknowledgement. I need to thank my co-writers, Jimmy Harry and Julie Frost, my co-producer William Orbit, who's not here, whom I adore."
When Madonna takes the Super Bowl stage next month, her performance will reportedly be "imagined" by Cirque du Soleil and Madonna's longtime choreographer/ creative director Jamie King. The event may also feature appearances from her "Gimme All Your Luvin" collaborators, including Nicki Minaj. According to reports, the set list for the Super Bowl show will include "Luvin" as well as Madonna classics like "Ray of Light," Vogue" and "Music."
Newt Gingrich upped his attacks on Mitt Romney's authenticity Sunday morning on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"You end up with a guy who is a very good salesman, who very much wants to sell, but has a very weak product," Gingrich said. "I think he's been dancing on eggs, trying ... to find a version of Romney that would work."
Read more here.
-- Luke Johnson
Following a third-place finish in South Carolina, Rick Santorum denied that he felt any pressure to leave the race to allow GOP voters to coalesce around Newt Gingrich.
"Absolutely no pressure at all," he said on CNN. "I think people realize that Mitt Romney is now no longer the inevitable."
Read more here.
-- Luke Johnson
Here is one indication as to how Saturday night's win by Newt Gingrich in South Carolina has changed the calculus for the Romney campaign.
Romney stated during CNN's debate on Thursday night:
This is not the time to be doubting people's words, or questioning their integrity.
Mike Allen of Politico's Playbook quoted a "top Romney source" on Sunday morning:
We are moving to insider vs. outsider. To pol/lobbyist vs. businessman. And character is going to be an issue, not a subtext.
The Romney campaign never actually thought that matters of integrity or character were off-limits -- certainly not as they pertained to Gingrich. But it also wasn't jumping to advertise that they would be part of its strategy prior to this past week's developments.
Following a third-place finish in South Carolina, Rick Santorum attacked Newt Gingrich on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. He called Gingrich a "high-risk candidate," citing his past positions on immigration, global warming and health care.
He also seemed to marginalize Ron Paul -- who finished fourth last night -- as a candidate, saying twice that there were "three serious candidates" left and that it was a "three-person race."
-- Luke Johnson
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will release his tax returns for 2010 and an estimate for 2011 on Tuesday. Rival contender Newt Gingrich called the news "a very good thing" and said, "I commend him for it."
HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:
Florida is a complicated state for any one candidate to traverse. And in the wake of Saturday night's results, it appeared each was going to try his hand.
There is the traditionally southern political culture up north and the more northern-like political culture down south. There are cities and suburbs, the business communities, the computer technology community, and the space industry communities. There are numerous media markets and the influential I-4 corridor. And while it will be a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans can vote in it, there is a wide swath of minorities who will be involved.
Whereas in South Carolina, the Jewish vote accounted for zero percent of Republican primary voters, according to exit poll data, that number will be considerably higher in Florida. And while the issue of immigration was cited by just three percent of South Carolinians as the one they viewed as most important, Floridians will view the matter differently. The Florida primary will be the first to take place in a state with a significant percentage of Hispanic voters.
The vote will occur a week from Tuesday, but the fireworks should start immediately. On Monday night all four candidates are confirmed to appear at a debate sponsored by NBC, National Journal and the Tampa Bay Times.
Click here to read more.
HuffPost's Jon Ward reports:
Newt Gingrich, whose candidacy was left for dead in June and then again earlier this month, scored a stunning victory over Mitt Romney here that has reshaped the Republican presidential primary and called into question Romney's ability to win the nomination.
As soon as the polls closed in South Carolina at 7 p.m., the major TV networks called the race for Gingrich. With 100 percent of the vote counted, Gingrich was at 40.4 percent to Romney's 27.9 percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) at 17 percent and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) at 13 percent, the Associated Press reported.
"Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida," Gingrich tweeted soon after the race was called, directing people to where they could give money to his campaign.
Later Gingrich used his 23-minute victory speech to build on the themes that drove his popularity through the roof in this Southern state: deep resentment among conservatives of the influence of liberals in the press and other cultural institutions.
"The American people feel that they have elites who have been trying for a half century to force us to quit being American," Gingrich said.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? European Union governments gave their preliminary approval to a ban on Iranian crude oil imports on Monday, aiming to choke off Tehran's chief source of income and pressure it to hold back its disputed nuclear activities.
But to protect Europe's economy, struggling with a two-year-old debt crisis, they agreed to delay full implementation of the oil embargo until July 1, an EU diplomat said.
The embargo still has to be formally approved by foreign ministers of the EU's 27 member states, who meet in Brussels on Monday. The ministers are also expected to approve sanctions against the central bank of Iran, although they may provide a list of specific exemptions to the restrictions.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she hoped financial sanctions would persuade Tehran to return to negotiations with Western powers, which she represents in talks with Iran. Tehran denies its nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, saying it is for peaceful purposes.
"I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations," she told reporters before the ministers' meeting.
"I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table ... last year ... or to come forward with its own ideas," she said.
Tehran says its nuclear program aims to meet its rising energy needs, but the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said last year it had evidence that suggested Iran had worked on designing a nuclear weapon.
EU sanctions follow fresh financial measures signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve and mainly targeting the oil sector, which accounts for some 90 percent of Iranian exports to the EU. The European Union is Iran's second-largest oil customer, after China.
For financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic, ministers are expected to agree to exemptions that will allow trade in other products, allowed under EU rules, to continue.
"The United Kingdom is looking for an unprecedented package of sanctions," said its foreign minister, William Hague, "including a phased oil embargo, including measures on the central bank of Iran, other financial measures, new measures on the use of dual-use technology that may be included in the nuclear program."
MEASURED STEPS
Diplomats said EU governments plan to return to the issue of oil sanctions in May to review the impact of the ban and its economic impact on their economies.
The review could potentially affect the date when the full ban takes effect, diplomats said. Under the current plan, EU governments will no longer be able to extend new contracts to buy Iranian crude when the ban takes effect in the coming days. But they will be able to fulfill existing contracts until July.
This measured approach aims to address concerns by southern European states, primarily Greece, which rely heavily on Iranian oil to meet their import needs.
Greece, which depends on financial help from the EU and the International Monetary Fund to stay afloat, sources nearly a quarter of its oil imports from Iran, thanks to favorable financing terms from Tehran. It has argued that it needs time to find alternative sources of oil.
"The financial situation of Greece at the moment is not the brightest one, and rightly they are asking us to help them find a solution," a senior EU official told reporters on Friday.
With a significant part of EU purchases of Iranian oil covered by long-term contracts, the grace period will be an important factor in the effectiveness of the EU measures.
The unprecedented effort to take Iran's 2.6 million barrels of oil per day off international markets has kept global prices high, pushed down Iran's rial currency and caused a surge in the cost of basic goods for Iranians.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in London and Sebastian Moffett in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ? A missing 9-year-old girl escaped an apparent kidnapper and called 911 herself from a convenience store in Colorado Springs on Friday, police said.
The Pueblo girl was reported missing Thursday night after she failed to return home from school.
The car of the man accused of kidnapping the girl broke down Friday morning in Colorado Springs, and a passerby gave them a ride to a Circle K, police said.
The girl ran into the store and asked to use the phone to call her uncle but instead called 911, which prompted the man to take off, authorities said.
Police identified the suspect as Jose Garcia, 29, but haven't said how they connected him to the kidnapping. Colorado Springs police spokeswoman Barbara Miller said he was in custody Friday afternoon.
Pueblo County court records said Garcia was wanted on suspicion of kidnapping and sex assault on a child. Pueblo police did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the potential charges.
Efren Vialpando told The Gazette ( http://bit.ly/Ao9LgD) he saw the girl come in the Circle K with two black eyes and a bruise on her lip and face. She had refused to leave the store with the man, saying, "I ain't going nowhere. I'm waiting for my momma." He said the suspect fled after that.
A Circle K employee declined to comment, citing store policy.
The girl was taken to a hospital Friday morning. Police spokeswoman Barbara Miller said details of the girl's condition won't be released because of her age.
The FBI helped with the investigation.
___
Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com
Designing an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it's restricted from tight spaces. It might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines. Existing robots can do many of these things, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animal.
"By using their scales to control frictional properties, snakes are able to move large distances while exerting very little energy," said Hamid Marvi, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech.
While studying and videotaping the movements of 20 different species at Zoo Atlanta, Marvi developed Scalybot 2, a robot that replicates rectilinear locomotion of snakes. He unveiled the robot this month at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) annual meeting in Charleston, S.C.
"During rectilinear locomotion, a snake doesn't have to bend its body laterally to move," explained Marvi. "Snakes lift their ventral scales and pull themselves forward by sending a muscular traveling wave from head to tail. Rectilinear locomotion is very efficient and is especially useful for crawling within crevices, an invaluable benefit for search-and-rescue robots."
Scalybot 2 can automatically change the angle of its scales when it encounters different terrains and slopes. This adjustment allows the robot to either fight or generate friction. The two-link robot is controlled by a remote-controlled joystick and can move forward and backward using four motors.
"Snakes are highly maligned creatures," said Joe Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta. "I really like that Hamid's research is showing the public that snakes can help people."
Marvi's advisor is David Hu, an assistant professor in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biology. Hu and his research team are primarily focused on animal locomotion. They've studied how dogs and other animals shake water off their bodies and how mosquitos fly through rainstorms.
This isn't the first time Hu's lab has looked at snake locomotion. Last summer the team developed Scalybot 1, a two-link climbing robot that replicates concertina locomotion. The push-and-pull, accordion-style movement features alternating scale activity.
###
Georgia Institute of Technology: http://www.gatech.edu
Thanks to Georgia Institute of Technology for this article.
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AKRON, OHIO (Reuters) ? Ohio prosecutors unveiled a 28-count indictment against Richard James Beasley on Friday for the murders of three men who answered a phony Craigslist job ad.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh made the announcement during a news conference. The prosecutor's office has previously said it would pursue the death penalty against Beasley, 52, for the killings.
Beasley, of Akron, Ohio, is charged with the murders of Ralph Geiger, David Pauley and Timothy Kern, and for the attempted murder of Scott Davis.
(Reporting By Kim Palmer; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Paul Thomasch)
The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2012, an annual "must buy" for all baseball fans, is now shipping. Read this article to learn more about it.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
A baseball card mystery: Thurman Munson and who?
Posted by Bruce Markusen Jorge Posada?s impending retirement has me thinking about great Yankee catchers. I?m not old enough to have seen Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra or Elston Howard in live action, but I?ve been fortunate to see both Posada and Thurman Munson up close and personal.
Posada will be an interesting case for Hall of Fame discussion. His late start, coupled with his defensive shortcomings, will hurt his chances, though perhaps not irrevocably.
Munson?s case for the Hall of Fame is a tougher sell. Due the ravaged state of his knees, he was already in decline by the time of the horrific plane crash and fire that took his life in 1979.
His three phenomenal seasons of 1975 to 1977 constitute an impressive peak?he was arguably a better player than Carlton Fisk during that stretch?but three straight Hall of Fame seasons are not enough, at least not by themselves, to gain entrance to Cooperstown.
With his squatty body and distinctive red chest protector, it?s always easy to pick Munson out on other player?s cards, like Terry Crowley?s 1973 Topps card and Carl Yastrzemski?s 1972 ?In Action? card.
Munson received his own action card in the 1972 set; he was one of 72 players to merit an action photo, complete with red banners all the way around. Technically speaking, we don?t really see Munson in action here, but rather in conference with one of his pitchers.
Those conferences on the mound could become rather heated, with Munson loudly imploring his pitchers to pick up the pace, knock a hitter off the plate or simply throw some damn strikes.
That brings us to this week?s baseball card mystery. It?s a two-parter, involving both location and identity.
First off, the Yankees are clearly wearing their road grays, so we know that this photo was not taken at the old Yankee Stadium. Given the absence of the ?Green Monster,? I think it?s safe to say that it?s not Fenway Park, either.
That leaves us with 10 other choices, including old RFK Stadium in Washington, home of the Senators.
Second, I?m left wondering which Yankee pitcher is standing on the mound next to Munson. His face is bathed in shadow, making an indentification difficult. His glove is not evident on his left-hand, so it is likely a southpaw.
It could be Fritz Peterson, but I?m not certain. Other possibilities on the 1971 Yankees are Mike Kekich (whom I remember as being thinner than the pitcher on this card) and four relatively obscure relievers: Alan Closter, Rob Gardner, Gary Jones and Terry Ley.
So who is it? And where is it?
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley?s Swingin? A?s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
19 January 2012Last updated at 12:27 ETBy Rebecca MorelleScience reporter, BBC News
A decision on whether to abolish the leap second - the occasional, extra second added to the world's time - has been deferred.
Experts at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) were unable to reach a consensus, so moved the matter to a meeting in 2015.
The US argued at the meeting that leap seconds were causing problems for communication and navigation systems.
But the UK said that the long-term consequences of losing it were great.
An ITU spokesman said that Canada, Japan, Italy, Mexico and France all supported the United States' stance on losing the leap second, while Germany, like the UK, wanted the extra second to stay.
More countries though, including Nigeria, Russia and Turkey, wanted further study.
As a result, the ITU decided that more research was needed to consider the broader social implications of losing the leap second before a decision could be taken.
The ITU suggested that a study group should investigate the issue, before presenting any proposals at the next World Radio Conference in 2015.
It means that for now, the world's time will continue to be linked to the Earth's rotation.
The next leap second is due to be added on 30 June 2012.
Out of time
The leap second was introduced in 1972.
It was added to keep our modern timekeepers - atomic clocks, which rely on the vibrations in atoms to provide a very accurate measurement of time - in line with our slightly less reliable timekeeper, the Earth.
Because our planet wobbles a little on its axis as it spins, it means some days end up being a few milliseconds longer or shorter than others.
This means that over time, the time based on atomic clocks, and the time based on the Earth's rotation drift further and further apart.
When this difference is deemed by the International Earth Rotation Service, which monitors the Earth's activity, to be approximately 0.9 seconds, a leap second is added to pull the two back into sync.
Sometimes a leap second can be added every year, sometimes not for several, with six-months' notice provided before action needs to be taken.
What is a leap second? The BBC's Rebecca Morelle went to Greenwich's Royal Observatory to find out
Those who wanted to lose the leap second said that the one-second increments were becoming increasingly problematic for a vast range of modern navigational and communication systems, such as sat-nav, financial services, air traffic control and the internet.
These all rely on having a continuous and stable timescale, so adding a somewhat unpredictable, one-second increment can be disruptive.
The UK, though, says any problems are exaggerated - and that losing the leap second could cause long-term problems, as the time based on the atomic clocks and the time based on the Earth's rotation would move ever further apart.
Over decades, this would amount to a minute's difference, but over 500 years this could be an hour, and over thousands of years, the Sun could be setting when atomic clocks claim it is morning.
Peter Whibberley, senior research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, UK, who is leading the UK's delegation, said: "This result achieves the UK's aims of securing much broader debate and understanding of the consequences of ending the link between UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and solar time before a final decision is taken."
From the purveyor of mystery series that keep audiences scratching their heads ? Alias and Rambaldi, Lost and the island, Felicity and her hair ? J.J. Abrams has debuted another mystifying series, Alcatraz.
The new show focuses on the notorious San Francisco prison. It's 1963, and more than 300 guards and prisoners vanish into thin air. In each episode, one of these hardened criminals, called "the '63s," will reappear in 2012 without having aged. San Francisco cop Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones), Diego Soto (Lost alum Jorge Garcia) ? an academic who's an expert on The Rock ? federal Agent Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) and his mysterious associate Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra) team up to find them before they can enact their anachronistic justice.
Alcatraz's J.J. Abrams: New Fox drama is on an island, but it's not Lost
Along the way, Alcatraz will raise questions. Namely, where did they disappear to, and who's pulling the strings behind their reappearance? To keep track of the questions and attempt to find insight into what could be the answers, we've compiled a list of the big mysteries Alcatraz introduced in the two-hour series premiere.
Where did the '63s go when they disappeared? Some 302 criminals and guards mysteriously disappeared on March 21, 1963, forcing Alcatraz to close its doors as a maximum-security prison and U.S. government (in Alcatraz's fictional world) to create a huge cover-up by falsifying transfer papers, and eventually death certificates, for each of the missing people. Now, after nearly 50 years, they're seemingly returning to the present with a mission.
Who is behind their disappearance and what is their ultimate goal? Upon their return, the criminals ? at least the first one, Jack Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce) ? were given the tools needed to assimilate to the real world. Not only did Jack seek his own form of revenge by murdering E.B. Tiller (Jason Butler Harner) ? the long-ago deputy warden of Alcatraz who kept him from seeing his wife on visitor's day, which lead to their divorce ? but, under their orders, he tracked down a peculiar key, which looked similar to the key that unlocked the prison to the yard in the second hour.
Why don't the '63s remember where they were for a half century? In the premiere's second hour, Banerjee questions Sylvane on his whereabouts during those missing years. He says he doesn't know. It seems like he's telling the truth ? not just because the lie-detector machine says so, but because we come to discover that Lucy is also one of the '63s and even she seems to be unaware of where they had been.
Exclusive: Eric Johnson, Michael Eklund head to Alcatraz
How did Dr. Lucy Banerjee come to work with Emerson Hauser? Once a psychiatrist on Alcatraz, Lucy now helps Hauser track down the reappearing criminals, one of which shot her in the second hour and left her in a coma. Did Lucy know Hauser when they worked on the island? Or did they meet after she reappeared? The pair shared a moment before her shooting that may indicate a former relationship ? he was especially distressed when she was shot.
Why are the '63s after Lucy? Before the two-hour series premiere ended, she was already in a coma, shot by Ernest Cobb (Joe Egender), a '63 who was a former sniper. Is her compliance with Hauser the reason she's a target? Or is she withholding information about the 63s that we'll come to learn later? Or did Cobb just want to kill her because he was forced to be treated by her in the '60s?
How did Emerson Hauser know that the '63s would return? While the obvious answer could be that when Lucy returned she told Hauser the rest of the '63s would eventually reappear, Alcatraz doesn't seem like a series that would be predictable. Plus, Hauser is so insistent on keeping pertinent information from Madsen and Soto that could help them in their quest to track down the '63s, so he's obviously hiding something.?
Why were the Alcatraz doctors stockpiling the prisoners' blood, and how did Madsen's grandfather know there was something terrible going to happen on the island? After the prison's doctor drained several pints of blood from Jack, a mysterious prisoner, known then as Inmate 2002, mentioned that things are much worse "downstairs." It turns out, the man who foresaw their fate is actually Detective Madsen's grandfather, Thomas Madsen (David Hoflin), whom she had unknowingly chased earlier in the premiere, leading to her partner's death.
Get scoop on all the midseason shows
Where are the guards who also disappeared in 1963? So far, we've only seen prisoners. Are they keeping the guards from returning to the present? Or did they already kill them off because the guards were unlikely to help in their mission?
Why does Hauser have a duplicate Alcatraz prison in the middle of the forest to hold the '63s? Obviously, they can't let these prisoners assimilate into present-day prisons, but it seems as though Hauser is getting his own form of revenge by locking them up together. Is Hauser just angry over losing his co-workers or did the '63s do something else to him?
What burning questions do you have about Alcatraz? And will you be tuning in to find out the answers?
LONDON ? British scientists have found scores of fossils the great evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and his peers collected but that had been lost for more than 150 years.
Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Tuesday that he stumbled upon the glass slides containing the fossils in an old wooden cabinet that had been shoved in a "gloomy corner" of the massive, drafty British Geological Survey.
Using a flashlight to peer into the drawers and hold up a slide, Falcon-Lang saw one of the first specimens he had picked up was labeled 'C. Darwin Esq."
"It took me a while just to convince myself that it was Darwin's signature on the slide," the paleontologist said, adding he soon realized it was a "quite important and overlooked" specimen.
He described the feeling of seeing that famous signature as "a heart in your mouth situation," saying he wondering "Goodness, what have I discovered!"
Falcon-Lang's find was a collection of 314 slides of specimens collected by Darwin and other members of his inner circle, including John Hooker ? a botanist and dear friend of Darwin ? and the Rev. John Henslow, Darwin's mentor at Cambridge, whose daughter later married Hooker.
The first slide pulled out of the dusty corner at the British Geological Survey turned out to be one of the specimens collected by Darwin during his famous expedition on the HMS Beagle, which changed the young Cambridge graduate's career and laid the foundation for his subsequent work on evolution.
Falcon-Lang said the unearthed fossils ? lost for 165 years ? show there is more to learn from a period of history scientists thought they knew well.
"To find a treasure trove of lost Darwin specimens from the Beagle voyage is just extraordinary," Falcon-Lang added. "We can see there's more to learn. There are a lot of very, very significant fossils in there that we didn't know existed."
He said one of the most "bizarre" slides came from Hooker's collection ? a specimen of prototaxites, a 400 million-year-old tree-sized fungi.
Hooker had assembled the collection of slides while briefly working for the British Geological Survey in 1846, according to Royal Holloway, University of London.
The slides ? "stunning works of art," according to Falcon-Lang ? contain bits of fossil wood and plants ground into thin sheets and affixed to glass in order to be studied under microscopes. Some of the slides are half a foot long (15 centimeters), "great big chunks of glass," Falcon-Lang said.
"How these things got overlooked for so long is a bit of a mystery itself," he mused, speculating that perhaps it was because Darwin was not widely known in 1846 so the collection might not have been given "the proper curatorial care."
Royal Holloway, University of London said the fossils were 'lost' because Hooker failed to number them in the formal "specimen register" before setting out on an expedition to the Himalayas. In 1851, the "unregistered" fossils were moved to the Museum of Practical Geology in Piccadilly before being transferred to the South Kensington's Geological Museum in 1935 and then to the British Geological Survey's headquarters near Nottingham 50 years later, the university said.
The discovery was made in April, but it has taken "a long time" to figure out the provenance of the slides and photograph all of them, Falcon-Lang said. The slides have now been photographed and will be made available to the public through a new online museum exhibit opening Tuesday.
Falcon-Lang expects great scientific papers to emerge from the discovery.
"There are some real gems in this collection that are going to contribute to ongoing science."
Dr. John Ludden, executive director of the Geological Survey, called the find a "remarkable" discovery.
"It really makes one wonder what else might be hiding in our collections," he said.
__________
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
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Public release date: 25-Jan-2012
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