Feb. 27, 2013 ? Sports-related head injuries are a growing concern, and new research suggests that even less forceful actions like 'heading' a soccer ball may cause changes in performance on certain cognitive tasks, according to a paper published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anne Sereno and colleagues from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
The researchers tested the effects of non-injurious head-to-ball impacts on cognitive function using a tablet-based app. They found that high school female soccer players were significantly slower than non-players on a task that required pointing away from a target on the screen, but showed no difference in performance when pointing to the on-screen visual target.
According to the study, tasks that involve pointing away from a target require specific voluntary responses, whereas moving toward a target is a more reflexive response. Based on their observations, the authors conclude that sub-concussive blows to the head may cause changes specifically linked to certain cognitive functions.
The authors say that the app used in their research may be a quick and effective way to screen for and track cognitive changes in athletes. They add that a tablet-based application for such quick screens may also have broader applications in the clinic or the field.
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Journal Reference:
Marsha R. Zhang, Stuart D. Red, Angela H. Lin, Saumil S. Patel, Anne B. Sereno. Evidence of Cognitive Dysfunction after Soccer Playing with Ball Heading Using a Novel Tablet-Based Approach. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e57364 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057364
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Scientists have unearthed a stunningly preserved arthropod, called a fuxhianhuiid, in a flipped position that reveals its feeding limbs and nervous system.
By Tia Ghose LiveScience
Scientists have unearthed extraordinarily preserved fossils of a 520-million-year-old sea creature, one of the earliest animal fossils ever found, according to a new study.
The fossilized animal, an arthropod?called a fuxhianhuiid, has primitive limbs under its head, as well as the earliest example of a nervous system that extended past the head. The primitive creature may have used the limbs to push food into its mouth as it crept across the seafloor. The limbs may shed light on the evolutionary history of arthropods, which include crustaceans and insects.
"Since biologists rely heavily on organization of head appendages to classify arthropod groups, such as insects and spiders, our study provides a crucial reference point for reconstructing the evolutionary history and relationships of the most diverse and abundant animals on Earth," said study co-author Javier Ortega-Hern?ndez, an earth scientist at the University of Cambridge, in a statement. "This is as early as we can currently see into arthropod limb development."
The findings were published Wednesday?in the journal Nature.
Primordial animal The fuxhianhuiid lived nearly 50 million years before animals first emerged from the sea onto land, during the early part of the Cambrian explosion, when simple multicellular organisms rapidly evolved into complex sea life. [See Images of the Wacky Cambrian Creatures?]
While paleontologists have unearthed previous examples of a fuxhianhuiid before, the fossils were all found in the head-down position, with their delicate internal organs obscured by a large carapace or shell.
However, when Ortega-Hern?ndez and his colleagues began excavating in a fossil-rich region of southwest China around Kunming called Xiaoshiba, they unearthed several specimens of fuxhianhuiid where the bodies had been flipped before fossilization. All told, the team unearthed an amazingly preserved arthropod, as well as eight additional specimens.
These primeval creatures probably spent most of their days crawling across the seabed trawling for food and may have also been able to swim short distances. The sea creatures, some of the earliest arthropods or jointed animals, probably evolved from worms with legs.
The discovery sheds light on how some of the earliest ancestors of today's animals may have evolved.
"These fossils are our best window to see the most primitive state of animals as we know them ? including us," Ortega-Hern?ndez said in a statement. "Before that there is no clear indication in the fossil record of whether something was an animal or a plant ? but we are still filling in the details, of which this is an important one."
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.?
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo University of Iowa professor Jeff Murray talks about his genetic profile during his honors seminar on personal genetics in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)
In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo University of Iowa professor Jeff Murray talks about his genetic profile during his honors seminar on personal genetics in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)
In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo professor Jeff Murray talks to University of Iowa students in his personal genetics class in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)
In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo professor Jeff Murray teaches a personal genetics class at the University of Iowa in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) ? Bakir Hajdarevic didn't have to study for the most important test in a class last fall. He just had to spit ? a lot.
The 19-year-old freshman at the University of Iowa took an honors seminar on personal genetics in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The results would tell them how likely they were to get some forms of cancer, whether they were carriers for genetic diseases, where their ancestors came from, and a trove of other information.
The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. The classes are forcing students to decide whether it is better to be ignorant or informed about possible health problems ? a decision more Americans will confront as the price of genetic testing plummets and it becomes more popular.
Hajdarevic said he was eager to "find out about all the little mysteries" lurking in his DNA. Sure he was nervous that he might get bad news about cancer risks. But he said the curiosity to learn about himself ? and whether he needed to take steps to improve his health ? outweighed those concerns.
And so, one day last fall, he found himself in his dorm room struggling to spit into a test tube that he would mail to 23andMe, the Mountain View, Calif., testing company.
"It was like 10 minutes of spitting, literally," he recalled, laughing. "I ran out of spit really quickly. I was spitting for like 15 seconds and then I'd run out of juice."
Such episodes have become more common as similar classes have popped up on college campuses over the past three years with backing from 23andMe, which tests for about one million genetic variants possibly linked to tens of thousands of conditions and traits. The company announced in December it had raised $50 million from investors, and was cutting its price for its personal genotype testing from $299 to $99.
23andMe has offered universities discounts on the testing for the classes, along with course materials, and has partnered with dozens of universities and high schools. Stanford University, University of Illinois, the University of Texas and Duke University are some of the schools featuring courses on personal genetics this year, according to its website.
Some of the classes are geared toward medical, nursing and pharmacy students whose careers could be shaped by genetics, while others are for undergraduates hoping to learn more about a field often noted in popular culture. Most of the courses are electives, and students can opt out of the testing if they're uncomfortable. For students whose DNA is tested, the knowledge they glean is intensely personal and wide-ranging, from whether they are a carrier for cystic fibrosis to whether they are likely to be good sprinters.
This is a generation that grew up sharing details of their lives on Facebook, and these students said they were eager to know more about themselves.
"I thought the coolest thing about the whole class was that you would be able to test your own genetics to find out things about yourself. That's what drew me in," said University of Iowa freshman Morgan Weis, who plans a career in nursing. When her results came back, "I told my friends, 'Come look at this, it's so cool'. I was pretty excited about it."
This semester, Stanford professor Stuart Kim is teaching a class for medical students and graduate students in genetics and computer science for a fourth time. He says his students will never forget the class when they learn whether they are sensitive to the blood-thinner Warfarin; that knowledge could be critical if they ever suffer a stroke, because too large or small a dose could kill them. But he dreads the day when testing informs a student: That man who raised you? He's not your biological father.
"That will happen one of these days," he said.
He said 90 percent of the students have opted to test their own DNA rather than a random person's, and a class survey found that students who did so retained more information.
University of Iowa professor Jeff Murray has been teaching human genetics for 25 years, and developed last fall's class after reading about similar ones elsewhere. He talked through the pros and cons of testing with students, and spent two class periods examining 23andMe's consent form. Murray encouraged students to consult with their parents, through their consent was not required ? students were all 18 or older. Only a few opted out of the testing after they or their parents raised concerns.
"Some people just didn't want to know if they are going to get breast cancer or Alzheimer's," said one of Murray's students, Alexis Boothe, 18. "Personally, I wanted to know."
She said she was not surprised when she learned she's seven times more likely than the average person to develop Crohn's disease, a bowel disorder, since it runs in her family. But now she said she can make sure not to smoke and watch her stress, two triggers. Boothe said she was amused when she learned that she shares northern European ancestors with the singer Jimmy Buffett, and when a third cousin she doesn't know sent her a message through the company.
For Hajdarevic, one surprising result was that he may be lactose intolerant. Although he's eaten dairy without issue his whole life, he can now monitor for symptoms that could develop later. He also learned he's a carrier for the mild form of a rare genetic disease, Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.
But overall, he says, he was relieved.
"I was kind of scared going in, like, 'Oh my God, I might have a high risk factor for some kind of cancer'," he said. "But knock on wood, according to the test, I don't really have much to worry about."
ZURICH (AP) - FIFA has banned 74 more officials and players from world soccer for helping fix matches, this time in Italy and South Korea.
FIFA says it imposed sanctions on 70 people, including 11 who were banned for life, after a series of cases prosecuted by Italian soccer authorities.
FIFA says the charges involved "match-fixing (direct involvement or omission to report match-fixing), illegal betting or corrupt organization (association to commit illicit acts)."
Prosecutors in Cremona, Bari and Napoli have pieced together a conspiracy they believe was organized from Singapore to bet on rigged Italian soccer games.
Last week, Italian authorities detained suspect Admir Suljic, a Slovenian national, when he landed in Milan on a flight from Singapore. Suljic, alleged to be an associate of Singaporean businessman Tan Seet Eng, faces charges of criminal association and sports fraud.
Tan, also known as Dan Tan, is accused of heading a crime syndicate that has made millions of dollars gambling on fixed matches around the world.
Singapore police said last week that Tan was assisting its investigation into alleged match-fixing.
FIFA said the four new South Korean cases follow worldwide sanctions imposed on 10 people last year and a further 41 last month.
The latest global sanctions were announced two days after FIFA extended bans to 58 people found guilty of match-fixing offenses in China. Of those, FIFA expelled 33 from soccer for life, including 2002 World Cup referee Lu Jun.
FIFA can apply worldwide sanctions after national associations complete their own investigations and impose bans.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) ? Ethiopia's long-ruling leader died half a year ago, but it seems Meles Zenawi still holds on to power. In the capital, his face looks down from hundreds of posters plastered on walls, and government representatives vow to implement the late Meles' vision without alteration.
Meles, who held tight control of the country since 1991, died Aug. 20 at the age of 57. A major U.S. counter-terrorism ally, Meles was credited with uplifting the country's poor, but he was condemned for human rights abuses and crushing the opposition.
Since his sudden death, Meles' pictures and past statements have become commonplace throughout Addis Ababa, the capital, and smaller cities and towns.
"Our great leader ... we will never forget you!" reads one gigantic billboard erected in the capital's main street.
An upcoming meeting of the congress is billed as an opportunity to achieve goals, speed up development and build democracy "based on the vision of Meles." That vision can be boiled down to two things: economic advancement, and a tight hold on political power.
While Meles has many fans in Addis Ababa, some residents feel the six-month lionization has gone on too long.
"During the news of his death and funeral, all the pictures and tributes were understandable and also fitting as a lot of people wanted to celebrate a man's life who had left a clear mark in the nation's history," said resident Adey Derbew.
"But now ... when you see such a sustained campaign spearheaded by the government, you wonder what it is really about. I think it actually hurts the people's confidence in the government as the current leaders are saying that their best one is gone," she said.
State-run media still carry headlines of officials vowing to follow the late leader's visions in all sectors, ranging from pastoralist area development projects to efforts to modernize the country's military.
Meles long insisted he wanted to create a developmental state with his ruling party dictating the country's fate. Meles said the opposition would undermine the country's constitution if they get the chance. An untold number of opposition leaders were jailed during his rule.
"You are allowed, as they say, until you become a 'clear and present danger' to public institutions," Meles said to the lone opposition member of parliament.
A number of projects and activities, including the country's national soccer tournament, have been named after Meles in recent months.
On Jan. 17 the parliament issued legislation to establish The Meles Foundation. The upcoming foundation will include a mausoleum where the body of the late premier will rest and be visited by the public. Officials say the foundation premises will also showcase the late leader's writings and documentary videos done on his life, while promoting research on developing states and green economies.
Ethiopia's new leader, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, also continues to praise Meles in all of his major speeches both at home and abroad.
Following Meles' death, the country saw its first ever peaceful power transfer. Though the power transition went smoothly, Hailemariam has three deputies, each from the other three parties of the ruling coalition. That was not the case for Meles, who was a founding chair of the ruling party and accompanied by a low-profile deputy. Meles was re-elected to the position and premiership several times, always unchallenged.
Hailemariam's leadership is unlikely to be challenged anytime soon. Next month when some 2,500 ruling party elites and supporters meet for a congress in a regional town, Bahir Dar, he is expected to be re-elected as party chairman. Senior officials back in September, however, announced that Hailemariam can serve only two terms as prime minister.
The memory of Meles will also cast its weight on the decision. The head of the secretariat of the ruling party, Redwan Hussein, told journalists on Thursday that the congress will serve "to renew commitment, to achieve the goals, to speed up development and build democracy based on the vision of Meles."
Some observers of Ethiopian politics are concerned that Meles' policies are sticking around too long, such as suppression of the free press.
The country's largest weekly, Feteh, and the opposition paper Finote Netsanet were forced off the market last year after the state-owned Berhanena Selam printing company refused to continue printing them. Charges against the editor of Feteh, Temesgen Desalegn, were dropped during Meles' funeral, but those charges were revived last month.
"Hailemariam has thus far perpetuated the policies of late Meles Zenawi in limiting the growth of independent media in Ethiopia," said Mohamed Keita, Africa Advocacy Coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "But he still has an opportunity to show strong leadership. He holds the power to remove Ethiopia from the list of nations in Africa with journalists in prison."
Tired of the lack of opportunity to gain political traction, leading opposition parties have decided to boycott local elections due in April.
"Thirty-three opposition parties have demanded the election be carried out properly and for the electoral board to be neutral and independent. We wanted to talk about this . they said no," said Girma Seifu, the lone opposition member of parliament. "So we said in that there is no point of contesting, as these people are determined to have themselves elected by any means. There is no competition; it is only the ruling party's candidates that are contesting the seats, so there is no real election."
Dell?s Latitude 10 Windows 8 tablet was already aimed at business users. But now the company is offering a premium option with extra security features including a fingerprint reader, SmartCard reader and TPM module.
It?s called the Dell Latitude 10 with Enhanced Security, and while the company blog says it will have a starting price of $749, the cheapest price at the Dell web store right now is $779.
The Dell Latitude 10 with Enhanced Security features an Intel Atom Z2760 Clover Trail processor, 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and Windows 8 software.
It has a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel IPS display with a capacitive touch panel and Corning Gorilla Glass. There?s also an option to use a Wacom digital pen with the tablet.
The tablet weighs just under 1.5 pounds, features a built-in 30Whr battery for up to 10?hours?of run time, and a USB 2.0 port, microUSB port, and micro HDMI port.
Dell offers an optional 60Whr battery for up to 20 hours of battery life ? this is one of the only Windows 8 tablets to feature swappable batteries.
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LUXOR, Egypt (AP) -- A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 19 foreign tourists in one of the world's deadliest ballooning accidents and handing a new blow to Egypt's ailing tourism industry.
The casualties included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad told reporters. Three survivors ? two British tourists and the Egyptian pilots ? were taken to a local hospital, but one of the Britons later died of injuries.
Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, suspended hot air balloon flights and flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the crash.
The balloon, which was carrying 20 tourists and a pilot, was landing after a flight over the southern town, when a landing cable got caught around a helium tube and a fire erupted, according to an investigator with the state prosecutor's office.
The balloon then shot up in the air, the investigator said. The fire set off an explosion of a gas canister and the balloon plunged some 300 meters (1,000 feet) to the ground, according to an Egyptian security official. It crashed in a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 510 kilometers (320 miles) south of Cairo, the official said.
The official and the investigator spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Bodies of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away. The security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered.
Hot air ballooning is a popular pastime for tourists in Luxor, usually at sunrise to give a dramatic view over the pharaonic temples of Karnak and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, a desert valley where many pharaoh, notably King Tutenkhamun, were buried.
Luxor has seen crashes in the past. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.
The toll puts the crash among the deadliest involving a recreation hot air balloon. In 1989, 13 people were killed when their hot air balloon collided with another over the Australian outback near the town of Alice Springs.
Among the dead Tuesday was a Japanese couple in their 60s, among four Japanese who were killed, according to the head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda.
In Hong Kong, a travel agency said nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the semiautonomous Chinese city. There was a "very big chance that all nine have perished," said Raymond Ng, a spokesman for the agency. The nine, he said, included five women and four men from three families.
They were traveling with six other Hong Kong residents on a 10-day tour of Egypt.
Ng said an escort of the nine tourists watched the balloon from the ground catching fire around 7 a.m. and plunging to the ground two minutes later.
In Britain, tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed that two British tourists were killed in the crash, and a third later died in the hospital. Another British survivor and the Egyptian pilot, who state media said had severe burns, were being treated in the hospital.
"What happened in Luxor this morning is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of everyone in Thomas Cook are with our guests, their family and friends," said Peter Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook UK & Continental Europe. He said the firm is providing "full support" to the victims' families.
In Paris, a diplomatic official said French tourists were among those involved in the accident, but would give no details on how many, or whether French citizens were among those killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be publicly named according to government policy. French media reports said two French tourists were among the dead but the official wouldn't confirm that.
Egypt's tourism industry has been decimated since the 2011 uprising and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day. Luxor's hotels are currently about 25 percent full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.
Scared off by the turmoil and tenuous security following the uprising, the number of tourists coming to Egypt fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.
Magda Fawzi, whose company operates four luxury Nile River cruise boats to Luxor, said she expects the accident will lead to tourist cancellations. Tour guide Hadi Salama said he expects Tuesday's accident to hurt the eight hot air balloon companies operating in Luxor, but that it may not directly affect tourism to the Nile Valley city.
Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor, which is highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankhamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.
In August, Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi flew to Luxor to encourage tourism there, about a month after he took office and vowed that Egypt was safe for tourists.
"Egypt is safer than before, and is open for all," he said in remarks carried by the official MENA news agency at the time. He was referring to the security situation following the 2011 ouster of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.
Deadly accidents caused by poor management and a decrepit infrastructure have taken place since Morsi took office. In January, 19 Egyptian conscripts died when their rickety train jumped the track. In November, 49 kindergarteners were killed when their school bus crashed into a speeding train because the railway guard failed to close the crossing.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political force and Morsi's base of support, blames accidents on a culture of negligence fostered by Mubarak.
___
Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong, Jill Lawless in London and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
Study finds maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years agoPublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy O'Shea media@fieldmuseum.org 312-665-7103 Field Museum
For decades, archaeologists have struggled with understanding the emergence of a distinct South American civilization during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 B.C.) in Peru. One of the persistent questions has been the role of agriculture and particularly corn (maize) in the evolution of complex, centralized societies. Up until now, the prevailing theory was that marine resources, not agriculture and corn, provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru.
Now, breakthrough research led by Field Museum curator Dr. Jonathan Haas is providing new resolution to the issue by looking at microscopic evidence found in soil, on stone tools, and in coprolites from ancient sites and dated with over 200 Carbon-14 dates.
After years of study, Haas and his colleagues have concluded that during the Late Archaic, maize (Zea mays, or corn) was indeed a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru, an area of remarkable cultural florescence in 3rd millennium B.C. Their research is the subject of a paper that appears in the online Early Edition issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of February 25, 2013..
"This new body of evidence demonstrates quite clearly that the very earliest emergence of civilization in South America was indeed based on agriculture as in the other great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China," said Haas.
Haas and his team focused on sites in the desert valleys of Pativilca and Fortaleza north of Lima where broad botanical evidence pointed to the extensive production, processing and consumption of maize between 3000 and 1800 B.C. They studied a total of 13 sites. The two most extensively studied sites were Caballete, about six miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and consisting of six large platform mounds arranged in a "U" shape, and the site of Huaricanga, about 14 miles inland and consisting one very large mound and several much smaller mounds on either side.
The scientists targeted several areas at the sites including residences, trash pits, ceremonial rooms, and campsites. A total of 212 radiocarbon dates were obtained in the course of all the excavations.
Macroscopic remains of maize (kernels, leaves, stalks, and cobs) were rare.
However, the team looked deeper and found an abundance of microscopic evidence of maize in various forms in the excavations. One of the clearest markers was the abundance of maize pollen in the prehistoric soil samples. While maize is grown in the area today, they were able to rule out modern day contamination because modern maize pollen grains are larger and turn dark red when stain is applied. Also, modern soil samples consistently contain pollen from the Australian Pine (Casuarinaceae Casuarina), a plant which is an invasive species from Australia never found in prehistoric samples.
A majority of the soil samples analyzed came from trash pits associated with residential architecture. Other samples were taken from places such as room floors and construction debris. Of the 126 soil samples (not counting stone tools and coprolites) analyzed, 61 contained Z. mays pollen. (In fact, Z. mays was the second most common pollen found in the total of all samples, behind only pollen from cattails which have wind-pollinated flowers.) This is consistent with the percentage of maize pollen found in pollen analyses from sites in other parts of the world where maize is a major crop and constitutes the primary source of calories in the diet.
Haas and his colleagues also analyzed residues on stone tools used for cutting, scraping, pounding, and grinding. The tools were examined for evidence of plant residues, particularly starch grains and phytoliths (plant silica bodies). Of the 14 stone tools analyzed, 11 had maize starch grains on the working surfaces and two had maize phytoliths.
Coprolites (preserved fecal material) provide the best direct evidence of prehistoric diet. Among 62 coprolites analyzed of all types 34 human, 16 domesticated dog, and others from various animals 43 (or 69 percent) contained maize starch grains, phytoliths, or other remains. Of the 34 human coprolites, 23 (or 68 percent) contained evidence of maize. (The second most common grain in humans came from sweet potatoes.) Coprolites also showed that fish, mostly anchovies, did provide the primary protein in the diet, but not the calories.
The researchers concluded that the prevalence of maize in multiple contexts and in multiple sites indicates this domesticated food crop was grown widely in the area and constituted a major portion of the local diet, and it was not used just on ceremonial occasions. The research ultimately confirms the importance of agriculture in providing a strong economic base for the rise of complex, centralized societies in the emergence of the world's civilizations.
###
All of the botanical work conducted on this project was carried out at the new Laboratorio de Palinologa y Paleobotnica at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, under the direction of Luis Huamn. Analysis of the botanical remains was a collaboration among Huaman, David Goldstein, National Park Service, Karl Reinhard, University of Nebraska, Cindy Vergel, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. The Project was co-directed by Haas and Winifred Creamer, Northern Illinois University, with funding from the National Science Foundation.
Photos available upon request. Please contact Field Museum public relations through e-mail or at 312-665-7100.
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Study finds maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years agoPublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy O'Shea media@fieldmuseum.org 312-665-7103 Field Museum
For decades, archaeologists have struggled with understanding the emergence of a distinct South American civilization during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 B.C.) in Peru. One of the persistent questions has been the role of agriculture and particularly corn (maize) in the evolution of complex, centralized societies. Up until now, the prevailing theory was that marine resources, not agriculture and corn, provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru.
Now, breakthrough research led by Field Museum curator Dr. Jonathan Haas is providing new resolution to the issue by looking at microscopic evidence found in soil, on stone tools, and in coprolites from ancient sites and dated with over 200 Carbon-14 dates.
After years of study, Haas and his colleagues have concluded that during the Late Archaic, maize (Zea mays, or corn) was indeed a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru, an area of remarkable cultural florescence in 3rd millennium B.C. Their research is the subject of a paper that appears in the online Early Edition issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of February 25, 2013..
"This new body of evidence demonstrates quite clearly that the very earliest emergence of civilization in South America was indeed based on agriculture as in the other great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China," said Haas.
Haas and his team focused on sites in the desert valleys of Pativilca and Fortaleza north of Lima where broad botanical evidence pointed to the extensive production, processing and consumption of maize between 3000 and 1800 B.C. They studied a total of 13 sites. The two most extensively studied sites were Caballete, about six miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and consisting of six large platform mounds arranged in a "U" shape, and the site of Huaricanga, about 14 miles inland and consisting one very large mound and several much smaller mounds on either side.
The scientists targeted several areas at the sites including residences, trash pits, ceremonial rooms, and campsites. A total of 212 radiocarbon dates were obtained in the course of all the excavations.
Macroscopic remains of maize (kernels, leaves, stalks, and cobs) were rare.
However, the team looked deeper and found an abundance of microscopic evidence of maize in various forms in the excavations. One of the clearest markers was the abundance of maize pollen in the prehistoric soil samples. While maize is grown in the area today, they were able to rule out modern day contamination because modern maize pollen grains are larger and turn dark red when stain is applied. Also, modern soil samples consistently contain pollen from the Australian Pine (Casuarinaceae Casuarina), a plant which is an invasive species from Australia never found in prehistoric samples.
A majority of the soil samples analyzed came from trash pits associated with residential architecture. Other samples were taken from places such as room floors and construction debris. Of the 126 soil samples (not counting stone tools and coprolites) analyzed, 61 contained Z. mays pollen. (In fact, Z. mays was the second most common pollen found in the total of all samples, behind only pollen from cattails which have wind-pollinated flowers.) This is consistent with the percentage of maize pollen found in pollen analyses from sites in other parts of the world where maize is a major crop and constitutes the primary source of calories in the diet.
Haas and his colleagues also analyzed residues on stone tools used for cutting, scraping, pounding, and grinding. The tools were examined for evidence of plant residues, particularly starch grains and phytoliths (plant silica bodies). Of the 14 stone tools analyzed, 11 had maize starch grains on the working surfaces and two had maize phytoliths.
Coprolites (preserved fecal material) provide the best direct evidence of prehistoric diet. Among 62 coprolites analyzed of all types 34 human, 16 domesticated dog, and others from various animals 43 (or 69 percent) contained maize starch grains, phytoliths, or other remains. Of the 34 human coprolites, 23 (or 68 percent) contained evidence of maize. (The second most common grain in humans came from sweet potatoes.) Coprolites also showed that fish, mostly anchovies, did provide the primary protein in the diet, but not the calories.
The researchers concluded that the prevalence of maize in multiple contexts and in multiple sites indicates this domesticated food crop was grown widely in the area and constituted a major portion of the local diet, and it was not used just on ceremonial occasions. The research ultimately confirms the importance of agriculture in providing a strong economic base for the rise of complex, centralized societies in the emergence of the world's civilizations.
###
All of the botanical work conducted on this project was carried out at the new Laboratorio de Palinologa y Paleobotnica at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, under the direction of Luis Huamn. Analysis of the botanical remains was a collaboration among Huaman, David Goldstein, National Park Service, Karl Reinhard, University of Nebraska, Cindy Vergel, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. The Project was co-directed by Haas and Winifred Creamer, Northern Illinois University, with funding from the National Science Foundation.
Photos available upon request. Please contact Field Museum public relations through e-mail or at 312-665-7100.
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Sat waiting in the packed out room at the Manhattan Centre in New York,?a mix of emotions washed over us. On the one hand, we were sat in anticipation waiting for the first console announcement of the new generation. After Sunday's Bungie and Destiny "unveiling," Sony had been handed a lifeline, a lifeline that said, "whatever you do, it'll be better than Bungie's unveiling." It was.?
It's wasn't without its own pressures?though, as being first out the blocks with the next generation announcement means Sony is effectively setting the benchmark.?
The other emotion was excitement. Having only come into the console media market this generation, this was officially our first experience of this whole next generation phenomenon. Boy, we've come a long way as a network in 7 years and that hit home pretty hard.
Fast forward two hours and those emotions were replaced by relief. Relief that the console had finally been unveiled, offering a glimpse of the new Sony. A Sony that 5 years ago wouldn?t have been able to put on such a show. We had admiration. Admiration that Sony, with the pressure on and backs to the wall, delivered for the most part.
Okay, so first things first, the best news, no matter how inevitable it was, it's called the PS4 and it has trophies. We have that domain so that means we'll be with you for another generation... not that we wouldn't have been anyway, but this makes things easier in terms of redirects and what not
Now onto the meat of it. Just how well did Sony perform? Well, if there was a prize for delaying the inevitable, and that's formally announcing the PlayStation 4, then they would have won, with it taking them 7 minutes by my reckoning to mention the two words in succession.
Sure, the first 10-15 minutes might have been full of marketing spiel and hyperbole, but did you expect any less? When the push came to the shove though, they started to shine.
Mark Cerny, Lead System Architect on the PS4, lead the charge, throwing spec after spec to the onlookers in the theatre. The X86 CPU, 8 GB unified memory, and detailed information on the graphics card might well have baffled any non tech savvy person in the audience or at home, but the short and narrow of it is that the PlayStation 4 is one hell of a powerful machine.
One of the key messages that Sony conveyed perfectly through its presentation was that the PlayStation is no longer a bitch to develop for, calling it a console created by developers, for developers. This is something that Microsoft has had over Sony for the entirety of this current generation and Sony referring to the PS4 as a "supercharged PC" must come across as a delight for developers.?
Then came the controller, effectively confirming every rumour that spilled out on to the internet last week, from the touch screen and the headphone jack to the ?Share? button. Those rumours failed to convey the extent to which Sony had put on social networking with the PS4 though. You know, the fact that you can not only share gameplay and watch someone else play on their console, but that you can remotely control their game should they wish you to.
David Perry, CEO of Gaikai, was next on the stage talking about the new evolution of the PS Store and such, with highlights that included instant try-before-you-buy, a partnership with Facebook, and more impressively, the integration of Ustream, and of course, remote play via the Vita. The bombshell that the PS4 wouldn't be backwards compatible is likely to sting Sony fans, but Sony said they are looking to get around that via the cloud. Damage control, yes. Will you likely have to play for titles again to play them on your PS4, you can bet your bottom dollar you will! It?s the price that gamers have to pay for the new architecture of the PS4.
The PlayStation 4 is about instant access and the announcement that the PS4 will have instant play for digital downloads, and have instant suspend and resume with the power button will come as a delight for a generation of gamers who want content quicker.
Sony can talk about the core tenets as much as they like (you know, the whole Simple, Immediate, Personalisation, Integrated, Social thing... or as I like to call it, I PISS), but a console is judged on its games and so Sony had to put its money where its mouth is.
Leading the way was surely Killzone: Shadow Fall, whose live demo wowed onlookers. If this is the future of visuals, then fuck me sideways! That explosion! The morphing weapons! The textures, lighting, particle effects, animations, visual fidelity, it was all rather mind blowing... even on a 100" projector screen (that's a guess at its size, by the way).?
Game announcements included Sucker Punch's latest inFAMOUS title, Cerny's Knack, which was clearly used as a tech demo of sorts as it wasn?t incredibly mind-blowing, Evolution's Driveclub and an announcement likely to anger entitled PC fans, that Diablo 3 was coming to the PS3 and PS4.?
The photo realistic was balanced out with Jonathan Blow's The Witness, although that was an interesting choice for Sony as it hardly packed a punch; the playful and mind-boggling tech demo from Media Molecule ? basically to remind us that Move was still a big part of Sony?s long-term plans ? was balanced out with the hyper realistic tech demo from Quantic Dreams? David Cage... that face... wow. Just, wow.?
Everything seemed to be paced excellently ? as long as you weren?t expecting too much from the console?s announcement ? and Sony covered both ends of the spectrum throughout. Guest appearances from Capcom ? with their new IP, Deep Down (working title) ? and Square, both showing off their new engines, was another win for Sony and its system, as was showing off more of the wave-making Watch Dogs. That Final Fantasy ?announcement? though? yeah, we don?t know what that was about. The one true disappointment of the unveiling.
How much of it was cinematics as opposed to in-game footage remains to be seen, so forgive us for being slightly sceptical at this stage - it's in our nature, especially after the Killzone 2 incident from the PS3 era. The fact that Guerrilla uploaded a gameplay video direct to Facebook from the in-game menu though keeps our hopes high.
In all though, Sony don't really have the greatest track record when it comes to conferences,?but one thing is for sure after last night, they picked a perfect time to bring their A game. Their PS4 unveiling had swagger, showed the world the system's innovations, wowed people with its visual prowess and they even silenced the critics by revealing the system specs. Sure, we didn't get to see a the unit itself and some of the games were hardly innovative or original, but now we know what's under the hood and what it's capable of, and that?s a good start.
Honestly, I'm not sure anyone was expecting that much of an in-depth look with a solid stable of games and tech demos to back it up, one not bogged down with pointless stats and bumph either, so the platform holder has delivered. More importantly, Sony have laid impressive foundations with their unveiling, and now they have the next 8 months to kick on, drive it home and really impress us.
Your move, Microsoft, the bar has been set... and it's pretty damn high too!
You can read all of our news coverage from the PlayStation 4 announcement here, and check out all of the screens and vids here. We were also snapping pics from the event itself, all of which you can see here.
Ford Cars: Wallpaper gallery of one of the most iconic car makers in the world. Whether you are a fan of American or European Ford you will love this app.
Install this app and find out why Ford cars are appreciated and recognized across the whole planet as one of the best automotive brands Their ultimate sport feel and speed made them respected for generations.
Simply chose one picture from gallery and just press: Set as wallpaper, picture will be set on your phone screen and resized according to your screen resolution.
Enjoy and have fun.
Keywords: Mustang, Ford Mustang, Boss 302, Thunderbird, Focus, Detroit, Henry Ford, GT, GT 40, Ford T
We've arrived in Catalonia's capital city, where snow, apparently, has marked the start of this year's Mobile World Congress. That's right, the hills surrounding this typically warm Mediterranean metropolis have been blanketed in a thin layer of flurries, but we're nonetheless optimistic about this week's smartphone show in Barcelona. As MWC 2013's massive new venue begins to take shape, we're preparing to deliver the hottest hands-ons, directly from Fira Gran Via. Some manufacturers, such as HTC and LG, have already demoed their latest handsets, and other devices have made an early debut, but there's plenty of excitement still to come, as you'll discover in our show preview. We'll be sharing our liveblog lineup in a few hours -- for now, it's time to bookmark our event page, and check back often throughout the next week.
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Checkout my Favorites.. I'll keep changing my collections of favorite blogs..depending on my mood.
Our planet's recent close call with one asteroid, and direct visit from another has definitely made it seem important to consider how to avoid the pesky things in the future. One solution is to direct the Sun's power into pulverizing lasers, but another option just involves covering incoming rocks with spray paint. Simple as that. More »
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When it comes to raising money to help overcome educational budget cuts, there are the old, reliable methods, like the silent auction or a fancy gala, and then there?s the racy route.
In Montserrat, Spain, 10 mothers are showing some serious skin in a sexy calendar being sold to raise money in the face of Spain's austerity measures. The proceeds are being used to restore a reduction in bus service for 600 elementary school students.
Some of the women are topless, some almost bottomless in the calendar that so far, has raised enough money to cover the $4,100 monthly tab for the bus, the driver and a monitor through the end of the school year in June, according to an Associated Press report.
The moms hope to sell all 3,000 of the calendars by the end of the month, and then start anew for next year.
What would you do (or take off) to raise money for your child?s school?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders are hoping for a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee vote next week on the confirmation of John Brennan to become Central Intelligence Agency director, although the White House and committee are still feuding over the disclosure of politically sensitive documents.
Under pressure from Senate Republicans, the White House in recent days has reluctantly agreed to allow Congress access to documents and emails related to the attacks by militants last September 11 on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, congressional officials said.
Among the materials senators and some aides will be allowed to examine are dozens of emails that chronicle the evolution of "talking points" used by Obama administration representatives in media appearances, which officials later acknowledged mischaracterized the origin of the attacks.
This latest attempt to appease lawmakers, who last week stalled a committee vote on Brennan's nomination, comes after the White House earlier this month agreed to give senators tightly restricted access to four classified legal opinions on drone strikes.
However, senators want more documents.
Congressional officials said the White House was still refusing to allow senators access to what Congress believes are at least seven highly classified documents, produced by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, that lay out legal justifications and operational guidelines for "targeted killings," a euphemism mainly used for drone strikes, including attacks on U.S. citizens.
A White House spokesman had no immediate comment.
The congressional officials said it appears the White House may be dragging its feet on the drone documents on the theory that most or all Democrats on the intelligence committee and in the full Senate will vote to confirm Brennan despite unresolved disclosure disputes.
The officials said that a Senate Intelligence Committee vote could be scheduled as early as next Tuesday, though it could be further delayed. A floor vote on Brennan's confirmation would not be likely until the following week at the earliest.
The conflict over Brennan's nomination has been compounded by Republican senators' opposition to the nomination of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary.
The Senate's Democratic leadership had hoped to hold a floor vote to confirm Hagel last week, before Congress took a week-long recess. But the vote was postponed after Democrats failed to muster enough Republican votes to shut down a filibuster by Hagel's critics.
It now looks like a full Senate vote on Hagel could come Tuesday or Wednesday.
'DELIBERATIVE PROCESS'
Few, if any, senators of either party have publicly indicated an intention to vote against or filibuster Brennan's nomination, although both Republicans and Democrats asked pointed questions at Brennan's hearing earlier this month, particularly about why as a CIA official he did not try to stop waterboarding, an interrogation technique that some consider torture.
The nomination became a vehicle for a fight over documents between Congress and the White House.
Democrats, including intelligence committee Chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein, have pressed the administration to give them access to 11 Justice Department memos on targeted killings. But as of Friday they had only been granted access to four.
The administration has asserted that the seven documents it is refusing to disclose are the product of a "deliberative process" and exempt from disclosure to Congress. It is unclear whether any intelligence committee members, most notably Democrats, would be sufficiently angered by the administration's recalcitrance to vote against Brennan.
The administration does appear to have backed down from its refusal to give lawmakers access to Benghazi-related documents.
This week the administration agreed to allow senators and a limited number of aides to read and take notes on the Benghazi material, though the administration refused to allow Congress to make copies of it, congressional officials said.
The access comes after the administration had asserted for months that the email record charting the evolution of the Benghazi talking points was exempt from disclosure to Congress on "deliberative process" grounds, as it has recently been asserting for the undisclosed drone documents.
Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was lambasted by Republicans for claiming in TV talk show appearances that the Benghazi attacks grew out of a protest against an anti-Islamic film. Administration officials now admit the protest never happened.
Sources familiar with the email traffic said it shows that the talking points, as originally drafted by a CIA analyst, said the September 11 attacks were carried out by extremists "with links to al-Qaeda." But the al-Qaeda reference was deleted before a final version was delivered to administration spokespeople, including Rice.
Wal-Mart's fourth-quarter earnings announcement was just released.
In the announcement, the company addressed the emails circulated among executives that leaked on Friday, describing February sales figures as a "total disaster," and citing the effects of the payroll tax hike as the main culprit.
However, a few analysts and economists pointed out that it could be due to a delay in tax refunds this year that were pushed back because of changes to laws that were part of the fiscal cliff.
The implication was that consumers were waiting to get their tax refunds before buying that new flat-screen TV, so Wal-Mart's sales started slower than expected this month.
In the release, Wal-Mart admitted that delayed tax refunds seem to be the primary driver, contrary to what was said in the leaked emails (emphasis added):
"We are confident that our low prices will continue to resonate, as families adjust to a reduced paycheck and increased gas prices," Simon said. "We see the underlying health of the?Walmart?U.S. business is sound, and sales trends are similar to what we've demonstrated in the last few quarters.
However, February sales started slower than planned, due in large part, to the delay in income tax refunds. We began seeing increased tax refund check activity late last week in our stores, resulting in a more normalized weekly sales pattern for this time of the year.
Due to the slower sales rate in the first few weeks of this year's first quarter, we are forecasting comp sales for the 13-week period from Jan. 26 to Apr. 26, 2013 to be around flat. We continue to monitor economic conditions that can impact our sales, such as rising fuel prices, changes in inflation and the payroll tax increase.
In the category for Best Score at the Oscars this year, there are nothing but worthy contenders. Thomas Newman?s dark, smoky score for Skyfall?along with Roger Deakins? stunning cinematography, also nominated?was largely responsible for making that perfectly serviceable action film feel like more than just the latest product from the 007 factory. John Williams? simple yet soaring music for Lincoln, with its echoes of Aaron Copland, nearly reached the standard of the great Spielberg/Williams collaborations of yore?even if Spielberg laid it on a little thick with his use of the score at moments when Tony Kushner?s script was doing just fine on its own. Mychael Danna?s delicate, Indian-inflected music for Life of Pi and Dario Marianelli?s sprightly dances for Anna Karenina both provided elegant sonic backdrops for what were, in my view, otherwise flawed films.* But the composer I?m most hoping to see ascend the podium?and not just because he?s a lanky French dreamboat who?ll look great in evening wear?is Alexandre Desplat, who created the score for Argo.
Though it has some beautiful passages (especially those involving the haunting voice of the Iranian-born singer Sussan Deyhim), the conventionally suspenseful Argo score might not have been my choice for Desplat?s most interesting work this year, let alone over the course of a nearly 30-year career. In 2012 alone the astonishingly prolific Parisian also scored Zero Dark Thirty, Moonrise Kingdom, Rise of the Guardians, Rust and Bone, and several more films not released in the United States. Desplat may be my favorite composer working in mainstream movies today?when I see his name connected to a project, I know there?ll be at least one interesting thing about it.
One of Desplat?s chief strengths as a composer (though one, ironically, that may put him at a disadvantage in awards season?he?s been nominated five times and never won) is that he has no recognizable signature style. Directors don?t hire him to provide a known quantity, an ?Alexandre Desplat sound.? He?s an infinitely malleable shape-shifter, capable of creating taut suspense scores (Argo, The Ghost Writer) or yearning romantic ones (Twilight: New Moon; Lust, Caution; Moonrise Kingdom). When he?s working with the right director, Desplat can write music that?s inextricable from the viewer?s memory of the film itself. I can?t think of Fantastic Mr. Fox?the only Wes Anderson movie since Rushmore that I?ve unreservedly loved?without immediately hearing Desplat?s music, a marvel of playfulness and wit with an inventive orchestration perfectly suited to Anderson?s bricoleur sensibility. Banjo, mouth harp, celeste, and glockenspiel combine to create a sound that?s equal parts hoedown and windup music box, with the odd nod to Ennio Morricone. (Desplat himself provides the whistled leitmotif associated with the film?s fox-hunting farmer villains.) And you have to watch Zero Dark Thirty a second time to fully realize the degree to which the music?all low, moody brass and muffled percussion, with very few discernible melody lines?provides an unsettling substrate for the shifting moral alliances of the story.
A classically trained flutist and longtime cinephile who always knew he wanted to compose for films, the 51-year-old Desplat grew up frequenting Parisian moviehouses in the days before home video, immersing himself in the work of great European and American composers: Among the influences he?s cited are Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Georges Delerue, Maurice Jarre, Nino Rota, and Franz Waxman. But his knowledge of non-Western, non-film-related musicianship is also wide-ranging: Desplat played bossa nova and Brazilian pop with a band in his teens and is also versed in Greek and Afro-Caribbean music and jazz.
That musical sophistication and richness of reference is evident in everything he does, especially when it comes to orchestration, an aspect of film composing Desplat is especially passionate about. (?If I was rich enough,? he told one interviewer, ?I?d buy the London Symphony Orchestra.?) You wouldn?t think the sound of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute, would be at home in the very British universe of Hogwarts School, but Desplat uses the instrument to enchanting effect in the scores he wrote for parts one and two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And in his jangly, Herrmannesque score for Roman Polanski?s The Ghost Writerhe had the inspiration of using ?singing flute??a style of playing in which flutists vocalize directly into their instruments, ? la Jethro Tull?for the film?s oneiric main theme. To my ear, it?s among Desplat?s best work:
The charming musical suite that accompanies the final credits of Moonrise Kingdom pays tribute to the composer?s love for stacking one unexpected sound atop another, as a young boy?s voice names each instrument as it joins the mix (an homage to Benjamin Britten?s Young Person?s Guide to the Orchestra, which the movie?s 12-year-old hero listens to on his portable record player throughout the film).
Desplat has said in interviews that he?s not interested in using music simply as mood-appropriate underscoring: ?I always think the score should bring out the invisible, because what?s on screen is on screen. Why double it?? True to his word, Desplat?s scores often function in counterpoint to the on-screen action or explore the film?s themes on a structural level that might not be immediately apparent to listeners, even if the music still affects them viscerally. For example, in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?the story of a man who ages backward through time so that he?s born as an old man and dies as a baby?Desplat wrote a subtle ?palindrome hook,? a simple piano theme that sounds the same played forward as backward. (He talks about its construction here while demonstrating on the piano.)
There?s one more reason to hope Alexandre Desplat wins on Sunday: I bet he?d give a killer speech. He comes across in interviews as a beautifully spoken, unfailingly modest, insatiably curious guy?a self-described synesthete who strongly associates music with color. (His score for The Tree of Life was composed in C major because, he says, ?to me C sounds white and pure,? while the Harry Potter scores appear to him as ?grey-bluish.?) Asked by an interviewer whether his idea for the palindrome theme in Benjamin Button made him pause for a second to pat himself on the back, Desplat laughed off the notion: ?You never say to yourself, ?It?s brilliant.? You always keep in mind that you?re a worm and that you have to do something better each time.? That?s the attitude I like to see in my Oscar winners. Vas-y, Alexandre!
Correction, Feb. 22, 2013: This article originally misspelled Dario Marianelli's last name. (Return to the corrected sentence.)
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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Alexandre Desplat