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DreamHost has been having a rough couple weeks. The low-cost hosting provider and domain name registrar found some unauthorized activity in its databases back on January 20th, which they later admitted were a series of attacks that may have led to the theft of some of their customers' FTP passwords. The company required mandatory password resets for all their Shell/FTP accounts -- you can read our coverage here. DreamHost's bad dream continued today, as they've been reporting outage problems, as Web, SSH, and FTP services were down for many of the company's virtual private servers, shared, and dedicated machines. The outage was first reported at 4am PST on Sunday, and has continued throughout the course of the day, with the company offering updates on its blog.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bpsmzplbb-k/
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ORLANDO, Fla. ? Republican insiders are rising up to cut Newt Gingrich down to size, testament to the GOP establishment's fear that the mercurial candidate could lead the party to disaster this fall.
The gathering criticisms are bitingly sharp, as if edged by a touch of panic, a remarkable development considering the target once was speaker of the House and will go down in history as leader of the Republicans' 1994 return to power in Congress. The intended beneficiary is Mitt Romney, a once-moderate Massachusetts governor whom many rank-and-file Republicans view with suspicion.
"The Republican establishment might not be wild about Mitt Romney, but they're terrified by Newt Gingrich," said Dan Schnur, a former GOP campaign strategist who teaches politics at the University of Southern California.
The anti-Gingrich statements have come from conservative columnists, talk show hosts including Ann Coulter, former Reagan administration officials and others. One of the harshest was written by former Sen. Bob Dole, the party's 1996 presidential nominee.
"I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late," Dole wrote in the conservative magazine National Review. "If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices."
As speaker from 1995 through 1998, Gingrich "had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall," Dole wrote. He said he struggled against Democrats' TV attacks in his 1996 campaign, "and in every one of them, Newt was in the ad."
Gingrich has reacted unevenly to the accusations, sometimes denouncing them, other times wearing them like a badge of honor.
"The Republican establishment is just as much as an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us," he told a tea party rally Thursday in central Florida.
The crowd cheered. But lingering near the back was an example of how the Romney campaign is taking advantage of the whacks at Gingrich: GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah. Chaffetz is beloved by many conservatives, and he goes from one Gingrich event to another to tell reporters why he thinks Romney would be a stronger challenger against President Barack Obama in the fall.
Gingrich aide R.C. Hammond confronted Chaffetz on Friday at an event in Delray, Fla., noting that some Republican officials criticize such shadowing tactics. Chaffetz defended his presence, saying Gingrich has vowed to show up everywhere Obama campaigns this fall, if several hours later.
Romney has drawn other high-ranking surrogates, with mixed results. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley annoyed some of her tea party supporters when she campaigned throughout her state for Romney, who lost to Gingrich by 12 percentage points.
It's unclear whether the anti-Gingrich push is driving a new wedge between establishment Republicans and anti-establishment insurgents such as the tea partyers.
"We don't like the Republican establishment anyway," said Mark Meckler, a Californian and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. He said tea partyers are heavily focused on state and local races, and are wary of getting drawn into the presidential quarrels.
After all, Meckler said, "it's not as though Newt Gingrich hasn't been part of the Republican establishment."
Many other conservative activists also noted Gingrich's long history as a Washington insider, including 20 years in Congress and 13 as a well-paid consultant, writer and Fox News commentator. His history complicates his efforts to rally angry, working-class Republicans who feel that an "elite" cadre of officials, journalists and others look down on them.
"He's in one sense attacking the establishment he says he helped lead," said John Feehery, a former top House GOP aide who contends the tea party's influence is often overstated. The chief complaints about Gingrich focus more on his personality than his politics, which are hard to nail down, Feehery said.
The most damaging criticisms have come from former friends and colleagues who worked closely with him in Congress. It's Gingrich's egotistic behavior, more than ideology, that is driving the attacks, Feehery said.
Among those defending Gingrich are Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee who is admired by many tea partyers.
"Look at Newt Gingrich, what's going on with him via the establishment's attacks," Palin said this week on Fox Business Network. "They're trying to crucify this man and rewrite history and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years."
Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, who dropped out of the presidential race, are tea party favorites with minimal experience in Washington and in top GOP circles. Gingrich is trying to tap the sense of resentment among their followers. But his long and complicated Washington record and reputation for intra-party quarrels seem to leave some tea partyers unimpressed.
"It's truly a shame that this is where the Republican establishment has chosen to focus their energy," said Marianne Gasiecki, a tea party activist in Ohio. She added, however, that political activists should focus on congressional races. "If we have a conservative House and Senate," she said, "the power of the president is really insignificant."
As Gingrich's broadcast ads in Florida become more pointed, prominent Republicans are chiding him without endorsing Romney or any other candidates. Gingrich stopped running a radio ad that called Romney anti-immigrant after Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said it was unfair and damaging to the party.
So long as party insiders' complaints about Gingrich focus on his personality and quirks, the GOP can postpone a more wrenching debate about ideology, which may be in store if the once-moderate Romney is nominated. For now, conservative stalwarts seem determined to depict Gingrich as too erratic to be the party's standard bearer, let alone president.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer told Fox News: "Gingrich isn't after victory, he's after vengeance." He added: "This is Captain Ahab on the loose."
Some Republican voters are pushing back. "I want so badly to be for Gingrich, and I'm not going to be bullied out of my vote," said Barb Johnson, 52, who attended the tea party rally in Mount Dora, Fla., on Thursday. "I like his strong presence."
Florida's primary is Tuesday.
___
Associated Press writer Brian Bakst contributed to this report from Delray, Fla.
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The 2012 Farmers Insurance Open got off to a rocky start for Phil Mickelson, who fired a five-over 77 to finish 15 strokes off the lead shared by Spencer Levin and Kyle Stanley, who each shot 10-under 62 on the forgiving Torrey Pines North Course. But Mickelson will have his chance to play the more forgiving North Course on Friday in the second round, while Stanley and Levin will both head to the South Course.
Here are some of the most important tee times and pairings for Friday's second round. All times are Eastern, and you can catch TV coverage of the 2012 Farmers Insurance Open on The Golf Channel from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., or watch the event via the PGA Tour's free live online stream.
Torrey Pines (South Course) Tee #10
12:40 p.m.: Greg Chalmers, Gavin Coles, Spencer Levin
1:10 p.m.: Briny Baird, Tom Gillis, Kyle Stanley
Torrey Pines (South Course) Tee #1
12:50 p.m.: Dustin Johnson, Camilo Villegas, Gary Woodland
1:00 p.m.: Keegan Bradley, Bill Haas, Bubba Watson
Torrey Pines (North Course) Tee #10
12:00 p.m.: Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Nick Watney
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On Christmas Eve, a massive, Chinese-made maritime oil rig, the Scarabeo 9, arrived at Trinidad and Tobago for inspection. The Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, which keeps regional headquarters in Trinidad, ferried it to the Caribbean to perform deep-ocean drilling off Cuba -- whose communist government believes as much as 20 billion barrels of crude may lie near the island's northwest coast. But it wasn't Cuban authorities who came aboard the Scarabeo 9 to give it the once-over: officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and Interior Department did, even though the rig won't be operating in U.S. waters.
On any other occasion that might have raised the ire of the Cubans, who consider Washington their imperialista enemy. But the U.S. examination of the Scarabeo 9, which Repsol agreed to and Cuba abided, was part of an unusual choreography of cooperation between the two countries. Their otherwise bitter cold-war feud (they haven't had diplomatic relations since 1961) is best known for a 50-year-long trade embargo and history's scariest nuclear standoff. Now, Cuba's commitment to offshore oil exploration -- drilling may start this weekend -- raises a specter that haunts both nations: an oil spill in the Florida Straits like the BP calamity that tarred the nearby Gulf of Mexico two years ago and left $40 billion in U.S. damages.
The Straits, an equally vital body of water that's home to some of the world's most precious coral reefs, separates Havana and Key West, Florida, by a mere 90 miles. As a result, the U.S. has tacitly loosened its embargo against Cuba to give firms like Repsol easier access to the U.S. equipment they need to help avoid or contain possible spills. "Preventing drilling off Cuba better protects our interests than preparing for [a disaster] does," U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida tells TIME, noting the U.S. would prefer to stop the Cuban drilling -- but can't. "But the two are not mutually exclusive, and that's why we should aim to do both."
(MORE: Cuba Set to Begin Offshore Drilling: Is Florida In Eco-Straits?)
Cuba meanwhile has tacitly agreed to ensure that its safety measures meet U.S. standards (not that U.S. standards proved all that golden during the 2010 BP disaster) and is letting unofficial U.S. delegations in to discuss the precautions being taken by Havana and the international oil companies it is contracting. No Cuban official would discuss the matter, but Dan Whittle, senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund in New York, who was part of one recent delegation, says the Cubans "seem very motivated to do the right thing."
It's also the right business thing to do. Cuba's threadbare economy -- President Ra?l Castro currently has to lay off more than 500,000 state workers -- is acutely energy-dependent on allies like Venezuela, which ships the island 120,000 barrels of oil per day. So Havana is eager to drill for the major offshore reserves geologists discovered eight years ago (which the U.S. Geological Survey estimates at closer to 10 billion bbl.). Cuba has signed or is negotiating leases with Repsol and companies from eight other nations -- Norway, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Venezuela, Angola and China -- for 59 drilling blocks inside a 43,000-sq.-mile (112,000 sq km) zone. Eventually, the government hopes to extract half a million bpd or more.
A serious oil spill could scuttle those drilling operations -- especially since Cuba hasn't the technology, infrastructure or means, like a clean-up fund similar to the $1 billion the U.S. keeps on reserve, to confront such an emergency. And there is another big economic anxiety: Cuba's $2 billion tourism industry. "The dilemma for Cuba is that as much as they want the oil, they care as much if not more about their ocean resources," says Billy Causey, southeast regional director for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's marine sanctuary program. Cuba's pristine beaches and reefs attract sunbathers and scuba divers the world over, and a quarter of its coastal environment is set aside as protected.
So is much of coastal Florida, where tourism generates $60 billion annually -- which is why the state keeps oil rigs out of its waters. The Florida Keys lie as close as 50 miles from where Repsol is drilling; and they run roughly parallel to the 350-mile-long (560 km) Florida Reef Tract (FRT), the world's third largest barrier reef and one of its most valuable ocean eco-systems. The FRT is already under assault from global warming, ocean acidification and overfishing of symbiotic species like parrotfish that keep coral pruned of corrosive algae. If a spill were to damage the FRT, which draws $2 billion from tourism each year and supports 33,000 jobs, "it would be a catastrophic event," says David Vaughan, director of Florida's private Mote Marine Laboratory.
(MORE: Will BP Spill Lower Risk of Deepwater Drilling?)
Which means America has its own dilemma. As much as the U.S. would like to thwart Cuban petro-profits -- Cuban-American leaders like U.S. Representative and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami say the oil will throw a lifeline to the Castro dictatorship -- it needs to care as much if not more about its own environment. Because fewer than a tenth of the Scarabeo 9's components were made in America, Washington can't wield the embargo cudgel and fine Repsol, which has interests in the U.S., for doing business with Cuba. (Most of the other firms don't have U.S. interests.) Nor can it in good conscience use the embargo in this case to keep U.S. companies from offering spill prevention/containment hardware and services to Repsol and other drilling contractors.
One of those U.S. firms is Helix Energy Solutions in Houston. Amid the Gulf disaster, Helix engineered a "capping stack" to plug damaged blow-out preventers like the one that failed on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig. (It later contained the spill.) Having that technology at hand -- especially since the Cuba rigs will often operate in deeper waters than the Deepwater rig was mining -- will be critical if a spill occurs off Cuba.
Helix has applied to the Treasury Department for a special license to lease its equipment, and speedily deliver it, to Cuba's contractors when needed. The license is still pending, but Helix spokesman Cameron Wallace says the company is confident it will come through since Cuba won't benefit economically from the arrangement. "This is a reasonable approach," says Wallace. "We can't just say we'll figure out what to do if a spill happens. We need this kind of preparation." Eco-advocates like Whittle agree: "It's a no-brainer for the U.S."
(MORE: U.S. Fails to Respond to Cuba's Freeing of Dissidents)
Preparation includes something the U.S.-Cuba cold-war time warp rarely allows: dialogue. Nelson has introduced legislation that would require federal agencies to consult Congress on how to work with countries like Cuba on offshore drilling safety and spill response, but the Administration has already shown some flexibility. Last month U.S. officials and scientists had contact with Cuban counterparts at a regional forum on drilling hazards. That's important because they need to be in synch, for example, about how to attack a spill without exacerbating the damage to coral reefs. Scientists like Vaughan worry that chemical dispersants used to fight the spill in the Gulf, where coral wasn't as prevalent, could be lethal to reefs in the Straits. That would breed more marine catastrophe, since coral reefs, though they make up only 1% of the world's sea bottoms, account for up to 40% of natural fisheries. "They're our underwater oases," says Vaughan, whose tests so far with dispersants and FRT species like Elkhorn coral don't augur well.
A rigid U.S. reluctance to engage communist Cuba is of course only half the problem. Another is Havana's notorious, Soviet-style secrecy -- which some fear "could override the need to immediately pick up the phone," as one environmentalist confides, if and when a spill occurs. As a result, some are also petitioning Washington to fund AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) that marine biologists use to detect red tides, and which could also be used to sniff out oil spills in the Straits.
What experts on both sides of the Straits hope is that sea currents will carry any oil slick directly out into the Atlantic Ocean. But that's wishful thinking. So probably is the notion that U.S.-Cuba cooperation on offshore drilling can be duplicated on other fronts. Among them are the embargo, including the arguably unconstitutional ban on U.S. travel to Cuba, which has utterly failed to dislodge the Castro regime but which Washington keeps in place for fear of offending Cuban-American voters in swing-state Florida; and cases like that of Alan Gross, a U.S. aid worker imprisoned in Cuba since 2009 on what many call questionable spying charges.
U.S. inspectors this month gave the Scarabeo 9 the thumbs-up. Meanwhile, U.S. pols hope they can still dissuade foreign oil companies from operating off Cuba. Last month Nelson and Cuban-American Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey introduced a bill to hold firms financially responsible for spills that affect the U.S. even if they originate outside U.S. waters. (It would also lift a $75 million liability cap.) Others in Congress say Big Oil should be exempted from the embargo to let the U.S. benefit from the Cuba oil find too. Either way, the only thing likely to stop the drilling now would be the discovery that there's not as much crude there as anticipated. That, or a major spill.
PHOTOS: Fidel Castro Steps Down
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Friday, January 27, 2012
A new system for delivering a drug to organ transplant patients, which could avoid the risk of harmful side effects, is being developed by scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
The drug, cyclosporine (CsA), is widely used in transplant operations and helps prevent the patient's body rejecting the organ but it can cause adverse drug reactions, of which the most serious problems are kidney and liver damage, in the doses which are currently administered in the long term.
The gap between a safe, effective dose of the treatment and a toxic dose is extremely narrow but the Strathclyde scientists have found a way of capturing CsA in very small amounts. The new system, developed in laboratory tests, enables nanoparticles of the drug to be delivered orally so that the strength of the dose can be maintained, but at a level and in a form which spares kidneys from damage.
Professor Ravi Kumar, of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, led the research. He said: "CsA is very useful in transplants and treating conditions such as arthritis, lupus and some forms of diabetes, but we need to address the risks it can present to the kidney and liver, apart from various other toxicities such as convulsions and high blood pressure.
"The damage it can cause can be dealt with if it's caught at an early stage but can be irreversible if it continues unchecked. Furthermore, existing formulations of cyclosporine contain castor oil-based vehicle which is used owing to the drug's poor solubility in water but which can be toxic.
"By entrapping CsA in nanoparticles, we aimed to match the maximum concentration of the most potent formulation of the drug in market. In tests, we were able to strike a balance between strength, efficacy and safety and were able to make a marked increase in the drug's bioavailability- the level of the drug which becomes active in the system.
"We were also able to reduce the toxic effects on the kidneys by slow release of the nanoparticles, which brought the drug gradually to its maximum concentration.
"As well as its use in transplants, we hope to look into the effectiveness of this system with arthritis and address what is a hugely debilitating condition for many people."
The research paper has been published in the Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology.
Further current research is aimed at proving the therapeutic efficacy and long-term safety of cyclosporine, with a special focus on the safety of carriers- polymers used in the formulation- to fulfil regulatory requirements. The safety studies element of the research has been funded by the Cunningham Trust Scotland and will conclude early in 2013.
The research forms part of Health Technologies at Strathclyde- one of the principal themes of the University's Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC), a world-leading research and technology centre transforming the way universities, business and industry collaborate.
Through Health Technologies at Strathclyde, academics work with industry and the health sector to find technologies for earlier, more accurate disease detection and better treatments, as well as life-long disease prevention.
###
University of Strathclyde: http://www.strath.ac.uk
Thanks to University of Strathclyde for this article.
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![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
Share ] Contact: Ute Schoenfelder
presse@uni-jena.de
49-364-193-1030
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena
This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese.
Jena (Germany) Girls are not as good at playing football as boys, and they do not have a clue about cars. Instead they know better how to dance and do not get into mischief as often as boys. Prejudices like these are cultivated from early childhood onwards by everyone. "Approximately at the age of three to four years children start to prefer children of the same sex, and later the same ethnic group or nationality," Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) states. This is part of an entirely normal personality development, the director of the Institute for Psychology explains. "It only gets problematic when the more positive evaluation of the own social group, which is adopted automatically in the course of identity formation, at some point reverts into bias and discrimination against others," Beelmann continues.
To prevent this, the Jena psychologist and his team have been working on a prevention programme for children. It is designed to reduce prejudice and to encourage tolerance for others. But when is the right time to start? Jena psychologists Dr. Tobias Raabe and Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann systematically summarise scientific studies on that topic and published the results of their research in the science journal Child Development (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.).
According to this, the development of prejudice increases steadily at pre-school age and reaches its highest level between five and seven years of age. With increasing age this development is reversed and the prejudices decline. "This reflects normal cognitive development of children," Prof. Beelmann explains. "At first they adopt the social categories from their social environment, mainly the parents. Then they start to build up their own social identity according to social groups, before they finally learn to differentiate and individual evaluations of others will prevail over stereotypes." Therefore the psychologists reckon this age is the ideal time to start well-designed prevention programmes against prejudice. "Prevention starting at that age supports the normal course of development," Beelmann says. As the new study and the experience of the Jena psychologists with their prevention programme so far show, the prejudices are strongly diminished at primary school age, when children get in touch with members of so-called social out groups like, for instance children of a different nationality or skin colour. "This also works when they don't even get in touch with real people but learn it instead via books or told stories."
But at the same time the primary school age is a critical time for prejudices to consolidate. "If there is no or only a few contact to members of social out groups, there is no personal experience to be made and generalising negative evaluations stick longer." In this, scientists see an explanation for the particularly strong xenophobia in regions with a very low percentage of foreigners or migrants.
Moreover the Jena psychologists noticed that social ideas and prejudices are formed differently in children of social minorities. They do not have a negative attitude towards the majority to start with, more often it is even a positive one. The reason is the higher social status of the majority, which is being regarded as a role model. Only later, after having experienced discrimination, they develop prejudices, that then sticks with them much more persistently than with other children. "In this case prevention has to start earlier so it doesn't even get that far," Beelmann is convinced.
Generally, the psychologist of the Jena University stresses, the results of the new study don't imply that the children's and youths attitudes towards different social groups can't be changed at a later age. But this would then less depend on the individual development and very much more on the social environment like for instance changing social norms in our society. Tolerance on the other hand could be encouraged at any age. The psychologists' "prescription": As many diverse contacts to individuals belonging to different social groups as possible. "People who can identify with many groups will be less inclined to make sweeping generalisations in the evaluation of individuals belonging to different social groups or even to discriminate against them," Prof. Beelmann says.
###
Original Publication: Raabe T, Beelmann A.: Development of ethnic, racial, and national prejudice in childhood and adolescence: A multinational meta-analysis of age differences. Child Development. 2011; 82(6):1715-37. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann
Institute for Psychology
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Humboldtstrae 26, D-07743 Jena
Germany
Phone: ++49 3641 / 945901
Email: Andreas.Beelmann@uni-jena.de
[ | 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.
Public release date: 27-Jan-2012 Share ] Contact: Ute Schoenfelder
presse@uni-jena.de
49-364-193-1030
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena
This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese.
Jena (Germany) Girls are not as good at playing football as boys, and they do not have a clue about cars. Instead they know better how to dance and do not get into mischief as often as boys. Prejudices like these are cultivated from early childhood onwards by everyone. "Approximately at the age of three to four years children start to prefer children of the same sex, and later the same ethnic group or nationality," Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) states. This is part of an entirely normal personality development, the director of the Institute for Psychology explains. "It only gets problematic when the more positive evaluation of the own social group, which is adopted automatically in the course of identity formation, at some point reverts into bias and discrimination against others," Beelmann continues.
To prevent this, the Jena psychologist and his team have been working on a prevention programme for children. It is designed to reduce prejudice and to encourage tolerance for others. But when is the right time to start? Jena psychologists Dr. Tobias Raabe and Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann systematically summarise scientific studies on that topic and published the results of their research in the science journal Child Development (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.).
According to this, the development of prejudice increases steadily at pre-school age and reaches its highest level between five and seven years of age. With increasing age this development is reversed and the prejudices decline. "This reflects normal cognitive development of children," Prof. Beelmann explains. "At first they adopt the social categories from their social environment, mainly the parents. Then they start to build up their own social identity according to social groups, before they finally learn to differentiate and individual evaluations of others will prevail over stereotypes." Therefore the psychologists reckon this age is the ideal time to start well-designed prevention programmes against prejudice. "Prevention starting at that age supports the normal course of development," Beelmann says. As the new study and the experience of the Jena psychologists with their prevention programme so far show, the prejudices are strongly diminished at primary school age, when children get in touch with members of so-called social out groups like, for instance children of a different nationality or skin colour. "This also works when they don't even get in touch with real people but learn it instead via books or told stories."
But at the same time the primary school age is a critical time for prejudices to consolidate. "If there is no or only a few contact to members of social out groups, there is no personal experience to be made and generalising negative evaluations stick longer." In this, scientists see an explanation for the particularly strong xenophobia in regions with a very low percentage of foreigners or migrants.
Moreover the Jena psychologists noticed that social ideas and prejudices are formed differently in children of social minorities. They do not have a negative attitude towards the majority to start with, more often it is even a positive one. The reason is the higher social status of the majority, which is being regarded as a role model. Only later, after having experienced discrimination, they develop prejudices, that then sticks with them much more persistently than with other children. "In this case prevention has to start earlier so it doesn't even get that far," Beelmann is convinced.
Generally, the psychologist of the Jena University stresses, the results of the new study don't imply that the children's and youths attitudes towards different social groups can't be changed at a later age. But this would then less depend on the individual development and very much more on the social environment like for instance changing social norms in our society. Tolerance on the other hand could be encouraged at any age. The psychologists' "prescription": As many diverse contacts to individuals belonging to different social groups as possible. "People who can identify with many groups will be less inclined to make sweeping generalisations in the evaluation of individuals belonging to different social groups or even to discriminate against them," Prof. Beelmann says.
###
Original Publication: Raabe T, Beelmann A.: Development of ethnic, racial, and national prejudice in childhood and adolescence: A multinational meta-analysis of age differences. Child Development. 2011; 82(6):1715-37. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann
Institute for Psychology
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Humboldtstrae 26, D-07743 Jena
Germany
Phone: ++49 3641 / 945901
Email: Andreas.Beelmann@uni-jena.de
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/fj-pqn012712.php
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Kenny Chesney's steamy duet, "You and Tequila" with Grace Potter, continues to radiate heat.
The song helped Chesney to nine Academy of Country Music Awards nominations Thursday morning, including the top honor of entertainer of the year. Jason Aldean, next with six nominations, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and 2011 winner Taylor Swift round out the fan-voted category.
Lady Antebellum had five nominations, Paisley had four and several were deadlocked at three, including Swift.
Nominees were announced via social media with the help of stars like Reba McEntire and Lionel Richie. Fans were chosen to announce the entertainer of the year candidates. They'll have a chance to pick the winner in that category and new artist of the year for the 47th annual ACM Awards, which will air live April 1 from Las Vegas on CBS with McEntire and Shelton hosting.
Chesney is a four-time entertainer of the year winner and was the first victor under the academy's current fan-voted format. He's nominated for a 10th time in the male vocalist category and received double nominations as artist and producer for album of the year for "Hemingway's Whiskey" and single record of the year and vocal event of the year for "You and Tequila." He also receives a song of the year nomination as performer on "You and Tequila," written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter.
Potter, best known as an indie rock performer with her band The Nocturnals, received three nominations for the collaboration.
Aldean also is up for male vocalist, album of the year for "My Kinda Party," single record and vocal event of the year for the duet "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson, and video of the year for "Tattoos on This Town."
Lady Antebellum will compete for its third straight vocal group of the year win. The trio of Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley also is up for album of the year for "Own the Night" as artist and producer, and both song and video of the year for "Just a Kiss."
Along with his fifth straight entertainer nomination, Paisley will be going for another win in the male vocalist category. He's won it five times in a row. He also scored a double nomination in the vocal event category for "Old Alabama" with Alabama and "Remind Me" with Carrie Underwood.
Eric Church's "CHIEF" and Miranda Lambert's "Four the Record" round out the album of the year category. Lady A won last year for its breakthrough "Need You Now."
Nominees for the new artist of the year will be announced after the close of online voting Jan. 30. Fans are currently picking the nominees in that category from a list of eight semifinalists.
Fans can begin voting at the ACM website for entertainer and new artist nominees on March 19. The other award winners are picked by the academy's membership.
It's Shelton's first nomination for the academy's top award. The news comes the week after Shelton's father, Dick, passed away.
"The support I have felt this week is overwhelming," Shelton said in a statement. "Thank you everyone for this honor."
___
Online:
http://www.acmcountry.com
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Public release date: 26-Jan-2012 Share ] Contact: Lisa Lyons
elyons@cell.com
617-386-2121
Cell Press
The timing and pattern of the migration of early modern humans has been a source of much debate and research. Now, a new study uses genetic analysis to look for clues about the migration of the first modern humans who moved out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago. The research, published January 26 by Cell Press in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the official journal of the American Society of Human Genetics, provides intriguing insight into the earliest stages of human migration and suggests that modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.
"A major unanswered question regarding the dispersal of modern humans around the world concerns the geographical site of the first steps out of Africa," explains senior study author, Dr. Lusa Pereira from the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto in Portugal (IPATIMUP). "One popular model predicts that the early stages of the dispersal took place across the Red Sea to southern Arabia, but direct genetic evidence has been thin on the ground."
The work, led by Dr. Pereira at IPATMUP and Professor Martin Richards at the University of Leeds in the UK, in collaboration with colleagues from across Europe, Arabia, and North Africa, explored this question by analyzing three of the earliest non-African maternal lineages. These early branches are associated with the time period when modern humans first successfully moved out of Africa. The team compared complete mitochondrial DNA genomes from Arabia and the Near East with a database of hundreds more samples from Europe. Mitochondrial DNA traces the female line of descent and is useful for comparing the relatedness between different populations.
The researchers found evidence for an ancient ancestry within Arabia. Professor Richards, who is now Professor of Archaeogenetics at the University of Huddersfield, concludes: "Taken together, our results suggest that Arabia was indeed the first staging-post in the spread of modern humans around the world."
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Public release date: 26-Jan-2012 Share ] Contact: Lisa Lyons
elyons@cell.com
617-386-2121
Cell Press
The timing and pattern of the migration of early modern humans has been a source of much debate and research. Now, a new study uses genetic analysis to look for clues about the migration of the first modern humans who moved out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago. The research, published January 26 by Cell Press in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the official journal of the American Society of Human Genetics, provides intriguing insight into the earliest stages of human migration and suggests that modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.
"A major unanswered question regarding the dispersal of modern humans around the world concerns the geographical site of the first steps out of Africa," explains senior study author, Dr. Lusa Pereira from the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto in Portugal (IPATIMUP). "One popular model predicts that the early stages of the dispersal took place across the Red Sea to southern Arabia, but direct genetic evidence has been thin on the ground."
The work, led by Dr. Pereira at IPATMUP and Professor Martin Richards at the University of Leeds in the UK, in collaboration with colleagues from across Europe, Arabia, and North Africa, explored this question by analyzing three of the earliest non-African maternal lineages. These early branches are associated with the time period when modern humans first successfully moved out of Africa. The team compared complete mitochondrial DNA genomes from Arabia and the Near East with a database of hundreds more samples from Europe. Mitochondrial DNA traces the female line of descent and is useful for comparing the relatedness between different populations.
The researchers found evidence for an ancient ancestry within Arabia. Professor Richards, who is now Professor of Archaeogenetics at the University of Huddersfield, concludes: "Taken together, our results suggest that Arabia was indeed the first staging-post in the spread of modern humans around the world."
###
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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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/cp-ftf012012.php
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Oklahoma State guard Le'Bryan Nash celebrates with fans following a 27-point performance in Oklahoma State's 79-72 win over Missouri in an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)
Oklahoma State guard Le'Bryan Nash celebrates with fans following a 27-point performance in Oklahoma State's 79-72 win over Missouri in an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)
Oklahoma State state fans celebrate on Eddie Sutton Court after defeating Missouri 79-72 following an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)
Oklahoma State center Philip Jurick, right, shoots over Missouri forward Ricardo Ratliffe (10) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)
Oklahoma State guard Keiton Page, bottom, and Missouri guard Phil Pressey, top, struggle for a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)
Missouri forward Ricardo Ratliffe, left, blocks a shot from Oklahoma State guard Brian Williams, center, while Missouri guard Marcus Denmon (12) defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) ? Keiton Page tried to explain to his Oklahoma State teammates the sensation of fans rushing the Gallagher-Iba Arena court to celebrate a big upset.
With freshman swingman Le'Bryan Nash flashing the brilliance that made him a McDonald's All-American, they got to experience it for themselves.
Nash scored a career-high 27 points, Brian Williams added a career-best 22 and Oklahoma State knocked off No. 2 Missouri 79-72 on Wednesday night, handing the Tigers their second loss of the season.
"Le'Bryan played at a very high speed tonight, a very high gear. All of his moves were a little bit more explosive," Cowboys coach Travis Ford said.
Nash scored 13 points during a 17-4 burst that sent the Cowboys (10-10, 3-4 Big 12) into the lead in the final 4 minutes and the Tigers didn't have a response.
Nash hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to get it going, then nailed another 3 from the left side to give the Cowboys a 65-64 lead with 3:23 to play. He connected on another 29 seconds later and ran to the opposite end of the court when Missouri (18-2, 5-2) called timeout to encourage a student section that was already hopping up and down to bring it on.
When the clock hit zero, the students rushed the court and huddled around Oklahoma State's players at midcourt.
Earlier in the week, Page fielded questions from his younger teammates about his experiences from an upset of top-ranked Kansas two seasons ago, hoping for a similar result.
"A lot of them just wanted to know what it was like for the students to run on the floor," Page said. "My answer's a lot different for them. I'm 5-9. They can see, they can breathe when it happens."
Ricardo Ratliffe had 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead Missouri, which allowed the Cowboys to shoot a season-best 59 percent. They hadn't surpassed 49 percent against an NCAA opponent all season.
"I thought that our focus was not where it needed to be in order to win a game like this on the road," Tigers coach Frank Haith said.
Missouri got steals on three straight possessions to fuel a 10-2 run in the first 5 minutes of the second half, taking a 48-41 lead when Ratliffe waited out two defenders leaping prematurely to block his shot at the left block before scoring the basket.
Ratliffe's three-point play off a spinning bucket at the right block gave the Tigers their largest lead at 53-45 with 14:22 to play, but it didn't last.
"I expected it to be a hard-fought game," Haith said. "This is Big 12 basketball. There's good players.
"We didn't do what we needed to do to finish the game out once we got control of the game."
Nash had a bucket off a baseline inbounds pass and another off a post-up move against Kim English to get Oklahoma State within striking distance.
Markel Brown added another energizing play with a right-handed dunk off an alley-oop but got called for his second technical foul for getting in Matt Pressey's face and was ejected. Marcus Denmon hit the two free throws from the technical and Ratliffe added two more off a third-chance opportunity to push the lead back to 60-53, but the Cowboys didn't miss a beat.
After Nash's big spurt, Williams had a two-handed dunk in transition and a three-point play to help preserve the lead down the stretch.
Nash had scored 21 points four times this season but was coming off a rough performance when he had only four points and got himself into foul trouble.
"I was trying to get aggressive in the second half," Nash said. "I talked to my coaches and they were like, 'Don't try to let the ball come to you. Go get the ball.'
"Basically, that's what my teammates did. My teammates got me the ball in good situations and once it started rolling, the shots started falling."
Ford credited a renewed commitment from Nash, who stuck around for extra shots following shootaround instead of joining his teammates to eat.
"When he's shooting like that, give him the ball every single time. He was making big plays on the offensive end and the defensive end," Page said. "If (Nash) keeps playing like that and we keep playing as a team, we could be a dangerous team in the Big 12."
Denmon finished with 17 points but on 4-for-16 shooting. Phil Pressey, the Big 12's assists leader, matched his season low with two.
It continued a rough stretch for Top 25 Missouri teams in Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Tigers have lost six straight games while ranked in Stillwater, dating back to 1992, and may not be visiting again anytime soon with next season's move to the Southeastern Conference.
Four of those six losses have come at the hands of unranked Oklahoma State teams.
Brown provided a boost right from the start with a thunderous right-handed jam on Oklahoma State's first possession after winning the tip. He picked up a technical foul 90 seconds into the game that seemed inconsequential at the time but eventually led to his dismissal.
OSU made an uncharacteristic 57 percent of its shots while leading most of the first half. Page's step-back jumper from the left elbow provided the Cowboys a 37-36 lead at the break.
The first half marked the third-best shooting performance in a half this season for Oklahoma State, the Big 12's worst shooting team at 41 percent, only to be outdone by a 62 percent mark after halftime.
"It's a huge win for us. It's a big win," Page said. "It just shows us what we're capable of. It shows us we can play with anybody. We still have a long ways to go. ... This team's hungry. This team's hungry for wins."
Associated Pressdeath row naacp cheryl cole x factor freetown freetown nicole scherzinger modern family
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It's tough out there for a...
A cat who went missing for nine years. A beagle who went missing for five. An enormous, affable hog who survived a serious truck accident on the way to the sausage plant ? thereby avoiding the fate of being turned into sausage.
These and other amazing tails ? er, tales ? of survival are contained right here in this slideshow. Some feature reunions with long-lost family members thanks to the miracle of microchips. Others spotlight the acts of kind-hearted humans. All of them will make you smile.
A dog's four-year, 1,100-mile journey
Who knows exactly where Mickey the Boston terrier went, what he ate, how he traveled and who he met during his four long years away from home? Well, Mickey does ? but he's keeping his secrets to himself.The pup disappeared from his backyard in Kansas City, Mo. ? and about four years later in 2007, his owners were stunned to receive a phone call from an animal shelter 1,100 miles away in Billings, Mont., saying that Mickey had been found and identified with the help of a microchip. Mickey's family said their dog no longer knew his name when he came home, and his teeth bore signs of wear and tear ? but other than that, he was fine, and they were thrilled to have him back in their lives.
Oh Fudge!
Attention, pet owners: Here?s a cautionary tale about leaving washing machine and dryer doors open. Ashlea Boon of Somerset, England left her dryer open in August 2010 ? and Fudge, her tiny new kitten, hopped inside the machine and curled up on a soft duvet cover for a cat nap. Boon had no idea Fudge was in there when she switched the dryer on to give the bedding a refresher spin.Fudge spun with the blanket for a five-minute cycle. When Boon removed it from the dryer, she was horrified to see her tiny kitten collapse lifeless on the floor.
?She was limp and wasn?t moving,? Boon said, according to the British newspaper the Daily Mail. ?She was just dead when she came out. She was very limp and just lying on the floor. I was very shocked. It was horrible.?
Boon, a nurse, rubbed Fudge?s belly in an effort to revive her, and she started breathing again. She then rushed Fudge to the vet, who feared the kitten had brain and vision damage. But after being treated for 24 hours and given steroids, Fudge bounced back. She?s doing just fine today.
?It was really emotional and horrible,? Boon said. ?I would warn anyone else with pets to be aware when leaving the tumble dryer door open.?
Gone with the wind, saved by a psychic
Chihuahuas are tiny little dogs, and at 6 pounds, Tinker Bell the Chihuahua was especially small. So perhaps it won't come as a huge surprise to learn that a 70-mph gust of wind was able to sweep the little girl off her feet. That's precisely what happened to her in April while she was minding her own business at a Michigan flea market.
What may come as more of a surprise is that Tinker Bell flew completely out of the sight of her owners, Dorothy and Lavern Utley, who turned to a pet psychic for help. They said the psychic directed them to a wooded spot almost a mile away from the flea market ? and, what do you know? There was Tinker Bell! After two days on her own, she was hungry and dirty but otherwise fine. Dorothy Utley said the little dog "just went wild" when she saw Utley.
Should I call myself a cab, too?
Talk about planning ahead. The owners of an African grey parrot in Japan spent two years teaching the bird to recite his full name and address in case he ever got lost.And that's just what the parrot did in May 2008 when he escaped from his cage and had to be rescued from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. He spent a night at a police station, where he stayed quiet as a church mouse ? but after he got transferred over to a veterinary hospital, he started chatting it up. "I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird announced to the vet, and he also spelled out his address and sang songs to the delight of the hospital staff. Because the address the bird provided was flawless, he was easily reunited with his family.
Kitty rescued from PVC pipe
Myra Amado of Wareham, Mass., heard crying sounds in her backyard for several days in June 2009, but she just couldn't identify the source of the cries. She finally checked an out-of-the-way area near her shed, and ? gasp! What was that peeking at her out of a section of T-shaped PVC pipe? The head of a tiny orange tabby kitten!
The 6-week-old feline was wedged inside the pipe so tightly that Amado had to call firefighters for assistance. Two hours and a dollop of vegetable oil later, the kitty was free from the pipe and on her way to a nearby animal shelter, where she was treated for dehydration and a broken paw. The name given to her by her rescuers? Piper.
No swine before its time
Picture this: An enormous, 800-pound hog is riding in a truck in Arkansas along with about 90 other pigs, unaware that he's bound for the slaughterhouse ? (but maybe slightly suspicious). There's an accident on the journey, and the truck flips. About 60 of the pigs survive. This one escapes.Not only does he escape, but he survives on his own for an entire week before deciding to take a dip in LeAnn Baldy's swimming pool. Baldy was stunned when she happened to notice that her pool was overflowing in June 2009. She was even more surprised when she saw the immersed hog cooling off in the water and enjoying a drink.
This "ham on the lam" was spared a second journey to the sausage plant because slaughterhouse officials had no idea what he had been eating during his week on his own.
Reunited after Hurricane Katrina
This is one of those stories that can make your heart hurt, even though it involves a happy reunion between a man and his dog. The drama began when Jessie Pullins had to evacuate New Orleans with his family in August 2005 as Hurricane Katrina approached. He figured he'd be gone a day ? maybe two at most ? so he left his Labrador-shepherd mix J.J. with a generous helping of food and water.Of course, Pullins was not able to return right away. J.J. ultimately got rescued and adopted by two sisters in California who cared for him deeply and wanted to keep him. After legal wrangling, the sisters returned J.J. to Pullins in 2009. The saga is detailed in "Mine," a PBS documentary about pet-ownership disputes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
'Dead' pet cat returns... nine years later
Gilly Delaney of Birmingham, England never quite believed it when she was told in 1999 that her pet cat Dixie had been killed by an oncoming car. She always had a feeling the cat might return home ? so much so that she nixed a move to Malta that she and her husband had been considering.And sure enough, in 2008, animal shelter workers showed up at the Delaneys' home ? with Dixie! They had found the cat wandering less than half a mile away from the Delaneys' home, and they identified her because she had a microchip. The Delaneys were ecstatic. "Dixie's personality, behavior and little mannerisms have not changed at all," Gilly Delaney told the Daily Mail newspaper. "She is still a happy, contented cat who just wants to sit next to you on the sofa and have a fuss. She hasn't stopped purring since she came back through the door."
A 'flush' with death for tiny puppy
Kids do the darndest things. Especially 4-year-olds who are playing with itty-bitty puppies. Daniel Blair, 4, of Middlesex, England, decided to give his 1-week-old cocker spaniel puppy a bath in the toilet in June 2009 because the puppy was muddy. And then ? oops! ? Daniel flushed the toilet!Daniel's mother, Alison, told Britain's Daily Mirror that she was convinced the puppy had drowned. Not so, however. A drainage company used a special camera and found the wet, startled and very alive puppy about 20 yards from the house. Four hours later, the puppy was out and safe. "I'm so, so sorry, " Daniel told the Daily Mirror. "I won't do it again."
Video: Puppy survives trip down the toilet'Please Rocco, come home'
After the Villacis' beagle Rocco strayed from their yard in Queens, N.Y., in 2003, the whole family was devastated ? but no one took it harder than little Natalie. The 5-year-old cried for extended periods, and she never parted with the dog's favorite toy, a stuffed cat.And then in 2008, more than five years after he had disappeared, he turned up 850 miles away at an animal-control office in Georgia. He was reunited with his family because of his microchip. "When my mom told me they found Rocco, I cried hysterically ? just like I did when they told me he was lost," Natalie told the New York Post. "Every time I would see a dog on the street, I would say to my mom, 'Maybe Rocco will come back.' She would say that he probably isn't going to come back. I would say, 'I know, but maybe he will.'...At night, I would wish, 'Please Rocco, come home.' And now that wish came true."
Somebody help this poor doggie
This is the story of an impossibly small Chihuahua and an impossibly large barbecue fork, and it is not for the faint of heart.It happened at a barbecue in London, Ky. Somehow a huge barbecue fork broke in two and went soaring through the air ? and its 3-inch prongs lodged deep inside Smokey the dog's head. The 12-week-old puppy barked in pain, ran off and disappeared into a wooded area for two full days before his frantic owner, Hughie Wagers, managed to find him.
A trip to the vet, Dr. Keaton Smith, revealed that the fork had impaled the dog's brain. Smokey was operated on immediately. During a TODAY interview, Wagers told Matt Lauer that his pooch "did wake up weird" from the surgery, but Smith expects Smokey's brain to recover completely since he's still a pup.
Tossed turtle makes 670-mile journey
Ten-year-old Carley Helm thought it was OK to bring her new friend Neytiri, a coin-sized turtle, back with her on a flight from Atlanta to her home in Milwaukee. And so did AirTran Airways personnel ? at first, that is.But, after Carley and her reptile friend were on board, flight attendants ordered the turtle off the plane.?
The Helm kids set Neytiri in an airport trash bin, after calling their father William to come retrieve the animal. When he arrived, he wasn't able to find Neytiri. Turns out, another AirTran employee had already fished the turtle out of the trash, handed it off to a co-worker, who then took it home as a pet for their son.
Jennifer Forbes, a cruelty caseworker for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, learned of the case and ran interference for the family. Eventually, Neytiri was retrieved and made the 670-mile journey to be reunited with the Helms.
Video: Girl reunited with turtle tossed in airline flapDavid, Brooke and Jake ? together again
Whether you're rich or poor, famous or unknown, the heartbreak of losing a pet can be devastating ? and the thrill of being reunited with that pet can be the best feeling in the world.Just ask celebrity couple David Charvet of ABC's "The Superstars" and Brooke Burke, the Season 7 champion on "Dancing with the Stars." They were distraught when their chocolate Labrador retriever Jake went missing for nine long months ? until they got a shocker of a phone call informing them that Jake was fine and ready to be picked up.
"Someone found Jake in our town, had no idea who his owner was (Jake had no collar) and gave him to a neighbor who took him in and cared for him," Burke wrote in her blog on ModernMom.com. "The man took Jake to a vet for a random check-up and for blood work. After telling the vet the story of how Jake came into his life, the vet decided to scan Jake. David had an identity chip put in Jake as a puppy. ...
"Thank God for honest people who are selfless enough to do the right thing. I hope something wonderful happens to [Jake?s rescuer] ... for caring for Jake and letting him go."
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46135960/ns/today-good_news/
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Sony Pictures received 21 Oscar nominations on Tuesday, making it the most-nominated studio for 2012's Oscars, but the key winner may be Harvey Weinstein's company as it rolls out new movies to capitalize on Academy Award media hype.
Oscar nominations typically help boost the box office of movies still playing in theaters because awards publicity heightens awareness by moviegoers.
The studios supplement their marketing by leveraging the prestige that comes with a nod for the world's top film honors, and ultimately Oscars can help boost sales of DVDs and licensing fees for future television airings.
The privately-held Weinstein Co., run by Harvey and his brother Bob who once led Miramax Films with best picture winners like "The English Patient," had 16 nominations including 10 for "The Artist" -- the second most-nominated movie next to Paramount Pictures' "Hugo," which garnered 11 Oscar nods.
With roughly five weeks until the Academy Awards on February 26, Weinstein Co. will be promoting the nods for "The Artist" and its other movies including "The Iron Lady," which earned Meryl Streep a nomination for best actress playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The strategy of releasing movies to capitalize on Oscar nomination media coverage is nothing new, of course. Other companies such as Fox Searchlight with its award hopeful "The Descendants" follow the same marketing path.
Paramount with "Hugo" and Sony Pictures with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and a re-release of "Moneyball" similarly hope to lure audiences into theaters to see their films.
But Weinstein Co. is particularly good at the strategy. Last year, it received 12 nominations for "The King's Speech" and timed the release to nominations. The movie went on to win best picture and grossed $138 million at domestic box offices.
Similarly, "The Artist" and "The Iron Lady" screened in New York and Los Angeles late last year to qualify for Oscars before their wider release from January through March when Weinstein Co. hopes to ring up the box office register.
SONY WINS WITH NUMBERS
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp and parent for Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Releasing and Columbia Pictures, picked up six nods for numbers-crunching baseball drama "Moneyball" and five for thriller "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" among its 21 nominations.
"Dragon Tattoo" remains in theaters since its December launch and "Moneyball," which has grossed $75 million at domestic box offices since its initial released in September 2011, already has been re-issued and will look to boost sales of DVDs and hope to have a long life on TV.
"What was wonderful about this year is that we got to make a bunch of movies that are not usually the kind of movies that are a studios' bread and butter, and all of them paid off this year and that's really gratifying," said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
While Sony Pictures led studios, Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., scored the most nods of any single film with 11 for Scorsese's "Hugo."
The movie, which had a reported production budget estimated at $150 million, has amassed only $55 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices since its release in November 2011, and $27.3 million in overseas ticket sales.
But producer Graham King noted "Hugo" is still in theaters, has not played in many international markets, and the acclaim from Oscar nods should lead to its long life in libraries.
"The 11 nominations will help the international (box office). I'm hoping the nominations help people discover the film, and I hope it will have a long shelf life, and in 15 or 20 years people will still be talking about it," King told Reuters.
Paramount also said it will re-release this week "Rango," which earned a nomination for best animated film on Tuesday.
Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group received 13 nominations, led by Steven Spielberg's epic World War I tale, "War Horse" with six nods, while News Corp's Fox film divisions received 10 nominations, led by Fox Searchlight's family drama "The Descendants" with five nods. Both "War Horse" and "Descendants" are still playing in theaters.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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A chicken, a raven and a peacock greeted Lisa and Ron Cerda when they moved into their southeastern Tarzana neighborhood almost two decades ago. It was just the sort of bucolic reception the couple hoped for when they fled crowded West Los Angeles for one of the city's rare residential-agricultural zones, a district that permits farming and the keeping of livestock.
Today, the Cerdas say their rustic neighborhood is threatened with extinction. Schools, synagogues and commercial businesses have crept into the district, despite dogged opposition from dozens of residents. The latest battle involves a proposal to demolish five single-family dwellings and construct a 37,500-square-foot elder-care facility.
"I feel like we're under attack," said Lisa Cerda, who heads Tarzana Residents against Poor Property Development. The group has appealed more than two dozen proposals for development projects in recent years, arguing that they were unsuitable for their neighborhood. "Once a precedent has been set and you allow an elder-care in an RA zone, you cannot prevent it from happening again."
The battle to preserve the rural flavor of residential-agricultural neighborhoods is being fought in several areas of Los Angeles County. In recent years, Tarzana's Melody Acres has tried to stop developers from subdividing large lots. Last year, the rural Richland Farms enclave of Compton has campaigned against new parking restrictions and stricter rules against keeping livestock. And in the Walnut Acres neighborhood of Woodland Hills, residents are trying to halt construction of a two-story, 76-bed nursing home.
The city's Planning Commission has given preliminary approval to the Tarzana project, but opponents have appealed and are awaiting a response. They cite concerns about increased traffic, trash and noise, and they claim that city officials are doing little to preserve the agricultural districts.
The special zoning designations date mostly to the 1920s, when Los Angeles and the rest of the nation were experiencing a boom in one-acre home-based farms.
Alan Bell, deputy director of planning for the city of Los Angeles, said the city has some 34,000 agriculturally zoned lots. Of those, 32 are being used for agriculture, while most of the others are used as single family residences, Bell said.
He rejected accusations that the city was trying to eradicate residential agricultural areas. "It's simply a consequence of people's preferences in use of land," Bell said.
Also, development plans in residential-agricultural zones were subject to vigorous screening and approval procedures, he said.
"You have to balance the need for the facility in a city with neighborhood impact," Bell said. "It's not just something that can happen without community input."
The Tarzana elder-care project is proposed by local businessman Evan Levi and the Levi Family Partnership, which operates other senior board-and-care homes in the Valley. The facility would house up to 156 seniors at the corner of Calvert Street and Yolanda Avenue.
Los Angeles Councilman Dennis Zine, whose 3rd District includes Tarzana and Woodland Hills, said he was strongly opposed to the destruction of the rural character of residential agricultural areas and has spoken publicly against the project.
"It's too large, there's not enough parking. It just does not fit this type of neighborhood," Zine said. "I agree with the need to have senior facilities, but they have to be in the right location."
The Tarzana neighborhood is one of the Valley's first farming communities. Flowering trees shade wide streets, and many of the original 1920s homes occupy lots of at least 17,500 square feet. Feathery-legged bantam chickens can be seen pecking through the grass along the roadside. In one three-acre compound surrounded by a slate-rock wall, footpaths meander through lush gardens. Owner Donna Marie Baker said she and her late husband battled a planned condo building in the 1990s and that she plans to fight the elder-care proposal as well.
The proposal does have its supporters, however, including the Tarzana Neighborhood Council. Kathy Delle Donne, chairwoman of the council's land use committee, said the proposed location for the project was "ideal" for an area that had long since ceased to be rural and needed "enhancement."
Levi, who is on the neighborhood council's board, said he chose the venue for the elder-care facility because of its proximity to the Discovery School, a private preschool he owns. The location would allow the school to continue its long-standing intergenerational program, which brings students and seniors together to participate in various activities more efficiently, Levi said. Right now, students are intermittently bussed to an elder-care facility that Levi owns in Sherman Oaks.
Levi said his project would have ample parking and not be an eyesore.
"It will be set back from the street with much shrubbery," he said. "It will look like a house and not an institutional building. We think this will be a prize for the neighborhood."
That was also the view of roughly a dozen area residents who submitted letters during a recent hearing on the matter. One writer, Tyler Inglett, wrote that he owned seven properties in the area, including four on Calvert Street, and that the project would provide jobs and "enhance the looks and feel of the area."
But opponents of the project remain steadfast.
"We're not just fighting for this patch," Cerda said. "We're fighting for Greater L.A."
ann.simmons@latimes.com
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