By all metrics, Kingston's wireless Wi-Drive has been a successful product: the company is still selling it two years later, and has since refreshed it with beefier storage and Android compatibility. If there's one thing customers complained about, though, it was the lack of expandable memory -- a problem if you used all the space on the drive, or if you already had stuff stored on an SD card. With that in mind, the company's coming out with the MobileLite Wireless, which ditches internal storage in favor of an SD slot and USB 2.0 port. (It will also ship with a microSD adapter.) At the same time, it packs a modest five-hour battery you can use to recharge USB-powered gadgets; Kingston says there's enough juice in there to fully charge a phone, but probably not a tablet.
Technically speaking, you can access everything stored on the device by typing the MobileLite's IP address into a browser. But for all intents and purposes, this is currently an iOS exclusive, as that's the only platform for which you can download an app. As with the Wi-Drive, though, Kingston plans to add an Android app, as well as one for WP8. In the beginning, at least, it will be available through just a couple sellers (Amazon and Staples), with street prices expected to fall somewhere between $50 and $70. Any questions? We hope not: this thing's aimed squarely at mainstream users, so if Engadget readers don't get it, we're going to be seriously concerned about all the regular folk.
Remember how Google Fiber's recent announcement for planned service in Austin by 2014 spurred immediate competition from AT&T? It's safe to say telcos in other areas have taken note about the gigabit speeds, not to mention the $70 montly pricing. According to the Wall Street Journal, Vermont Telephone Company is now offering gigabit service to some of its customers for the crazy-low price of $35 bucks a month. To keep things in perspective, WSJ notes that roughly 600 folks are subscribed (out of VTel's total base of about 17.5K) and that the company is essentially going to be analyzing whether the current pricing will remain for the long-term. With Google Fiber to continuing to expand, it's certainly promising to see how superspeed internet is trickling across the US -- and how easy it's been looking on the wallet.
Reading wordless storybooks to toddlers may expose them to richer languagePublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nick Manning nmanning@uwaterloo.ca 519-888-4451 University of Waterloo
WATERLOO, Ont. (Monday, April 29, 2013) Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found that children hear more complex language from parents when they read a storybook with only pictures compared to a picture-vocabulary book. The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal First Language.
"Too often, parents dismiss picture storybooks, especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun," said the study's author, Professor Daniela O'Neill. "But these findings show that reading picture storybooks with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is really important for children to hear, especially as they transition to school."
The study, by Professor O'Neill of the Department of Psychology at Waterloo, and Angela Nyhout, a graduate student, recorded 25 mothers while they read to their toddlers both a wordless picture storybook and a vocabulary book with pictures.
"What we found was that moms in our study significantly more frequently used forms of complex talk when reading the picture storybook to their child than the picture vocabulary book," said Professor O'Neill.
The researchers were especially interested in looking at the language mothers use when reading both wordless picture storybooks and picture vocabulary books to see if parents provided extra information to children like relating the events of the story to the child's own experiences or asking their child to make predictions.
"So, when reading the picture story, we would hear moms say things such as 'where do you think the squirrel is going to go?' or 'we saw a squirrel this morning in the backyard.' But we didn't hear this kind of complex talk as often with vocabulary books, where mentioning just the name of the animal, for example, was more common, " said Professor O'Neill.
The results of the study are significant for both parents and educators because vocabulary books are often marketed as being more educational. "Books of all kinds can build children's language and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways," said Professor O'Neill. "It's exciting to find that even short wordless picture books provide children with exposure to the kinds of sophisticated language that they will encounter at school and that lay the foundation for later reading development."
A Research Development Initiative grant, which the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Professor O'Neill, supported this research.
###
Journal Reference:
Nyhout, A., & O'Neill, D. K. Mothers' complex talk when sharing books with their toddlers: book genre matters. First Language, 33(2), 115-131, 2013.
About the University of Waterloo
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's technology hub, has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities with 35,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit http://www.uwaterloo.ca
Media Contact:
Nick Manning
University of Waterloo
519.888.4451
226.929.7627
nmanning@uwaterloo.ca
http://www.uwaterloo.ca/news
Attention broadcasters: Waterloo has facilities to provide broadcast-quality audio and video feeds with a double-ender studio. Please contact Nick Manning on 226.929.7627 or Pamela Smyth on 519.888.4777 for more information.
[ | 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.
Reading wordless storybooks to toddlers may expose them to richer languagePublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nick Manning nmanning@uwaterloo.ca 519-888-4451 University of Waterloo
WATERLOO, Ont. (Monday, April 29, 2013) Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found that children hear more complex language from parents when they read a storybook with only pictures compared to a picture-vocabulary book. The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal First Language.
"Too often, parents dismiss picture storybooks, especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun," said the study's author, Professor Daniela O'Neill. "But these findings show that reading picture storybooks with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is really important for children to hear, especially as they transition to school."
The study, by Professor O'Neill of the Department of Psychology at Waterloo, and Angela Nyhout, a graduate student, recorded 25 mothers while they read to their toddlers both a wordless picture storybook and a vocabulary book with pictures.
"What we found was that moms in our study significantly more frequently used forms of complex talk when reading the picture storybook to their child than the picture vocabulary book," said Professor O'Neill.
The researchers were especially interested in looking at the language mothers use when reading both wordless picture storybooks and picture vocabulary books to see if parents provided extra information to children like relating the events of the story to the child's own experiences or asking their child to make predictions.
"So, when reading the picture story, we would hear moms say things such as 'where do you think the squirrel is going to go?' or 'we saw a squirrel this morning in the backyard.' But we didn't hear this kind of complex talk as often with vocabulary books, where mentioning just the name of the animal, for example, was more common, " said Professor O'Neill.
The results of the study are significant for both parents and educators because vocabulary books are often marketed as being more educational. "Books of all kinds can build children's language and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways," said Professor O'Neill. "It's exciting to find that even short wordless picture books provide children with exposure to the kinds of sophisticated language that they will encounter at school and that lay the foundation for later reading development."
A Research Development Initiative grant, which the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Professor O'Neill, supported this research.
###
Journal Reference:
Nyhout, A., & O'Neill, D. K. Mothers' complex talk when sharing books with their toddlers: book genre matters. First Language, 33(2), 115-131, 2013.
About the University of Waterloo
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's technology hub, has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities with 35,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit http://www.uwaterloo.ca
Media Contact:
Nick Manning
University of Waterloo
519.888.4451
226.929.7627
nmanning@uwaterloo.ca
http://www.uwaterloo.ca/news
Attention broadcasters: Waterloo has facilities to provide broadcast-quality audio and video feeds with a double-ender studio. Please contact Nick Manning on 226.929.7627 or Pamela Smyth on 519.888.4777 for more information.
[ | 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.
(Reuters) - Canada's largest listed drug maker, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, is in talks to buy generic drugmaker Actavis Inc for more than $13 billion, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday night.
It is not clear how advanced the discussions are and a deal could still fall through, said the source, who declined to be identified because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
A Valeant spokeswoman declined to comment and an Actavis spokesman could not be reached for comment outside of business hours.
Valeant said in February it was in talks to make more acquisitions, and it remains open to discuss a potential "merger of equals."
Shares of Actavis, which has a market capitalization of $12.9 billion, have risen about 12 percent in the past three months.
Actavis, the third-largest global generic drugmaker, changed its name in January from Watson after buying Actavis as part of its strategy to expand in international markets and offer more specialty drugs.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the talks between the two companies on Friday.
(Reporting by Soyoung Kim, writing by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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NEW YORK (AP) ? JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Sunday that one of its co-chief operating officers is leaving the company, marking the latest high-profile departure since the bank's massive trading loss last year.
Frank Bisignano will become CEO of payment processor First Data Corp. on Monday. Matt Zames, who was co-chief operating officer with Bisignano, will become the sole COO of JPMorgan Chase effective immediately.
First Data said Bisignano, 53, succeeds Ed Labry, who has been interim CEO and president of Retail and Alliance Services since Jan. 28. Labry will continue as president of Retail and Alliance Services.
Bisignano and Zames were named co-chief operating officers in a management reshuffle in July after JPMorgan Chase revealed a trading loss of about $6 billion. The massive loss became a focus of the risky bets taken at large banks and oversight of traders who make those bets. It also prompted congressional hearings, as well as investigations by international regulators.
Others called for the resignation of CEO Jamie Dimon, who initially called the trade a "tempest in a teapot." Dimon later backtracked and apologized several times for the mischaracterization after the scope of the loss was revealed.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Bisignano would be the ninth executive in the past year and a half to leave Dimon's operating committee of key decision makers.
Dimon and Bisignano have known each other since the 1980s, according to the Journal, and worked together at Citibank.
Before he was named co-chief operating officer this summer, Zames had taken over as chief investment officer for Ina Drew, who resigned in the days after the big trading loss was revealed.
JPMorgan also said Sunday that Paul Compton will become chief administrative officer. He is currently co-chief administrative officer of the Corporate & Investment Bank and deputy head of operations for JPMorgan Chase.
Louis Rauchenberger, who shares Compton's current role, will become sole chief administrative officer of the Corporate and Investment Bank.
The historically well-known city of Vadodara, in the state of Gujarat, is frequently visited by tourists from many parts of India and the world. The profuse history, tradition, culture and heritage of the city make it a very attractive and highly revered city in India. Along with retaining the age old traditions and customs, the city of Vadodara has maintained a really impressive equilibrium with the growing urbanization of the century. The commercial and education aspects of the city are also very significant.
There are a lot of hotels in the area but the best and most preferred hotel near airport Vadodara is a marvelous luxury hotel in the area. Most of the best hotels in the city are located in this part of the city. There are both budget as well as luxury hotels in this part. They are located very close to the airport and at the distance of merely a few minutes from the airport. The luxury hotels, adjacent to the airport, are full of useful features like smart space, safe zone, meeting rooms, gymnasiums etc. The rooms in these hotels are equipped with modern day amenities like LCD TVs, Mini fridges, self controlled A/C, Tea and Coffee makers, telephones etc. Most of these hotels offer a collection of suites which are extremely spacious and luxurious.
The best hotels in Vadodara, needless to say, are the luxury hotels in the city. Their exquisite and royal treatment always keeps the travelers content and thoroughly satisfied. These hotels are very ideal for both the business and leisure travelers in the city. Although there is no shortage of the best budget hotels in the city, they are not very easy to locate. But once found out, the tourists can be sure of a very pleasant and decent stay with these hotels.
It is not very hard to find a good business hotel near airport Vadodara. These airport hotels have luxurious accommodation facilities, business hotel quality and all the latest amenities at budget rates. They can boast of Wi-Fi connectivity, conference halls, 24-hours Room Service, Doctor on call, Xerox and email facility as well. They can be called ideal for both business and leisure tourists. Although they are budget hotels, they offer as luxurious accommodation facilities as any expensive hotel.
The economically best hotels in Vadodara i.e. the budget hotels in the city are scattered across the city. Their facilities include television sets, telephones, comfy beds, decent furniture, nice ambience, neat & clean bathrooms etc. The room services in these hotels are very friendly and impressive. The dining options in these hotels are limited but the foods they serve are very good and hygienic.
As sun-grazing comet ISON approaches the sun, it's getting progressively brighter ? and might even flare into a dazzling object bright enough to be visible in broad daylight.
By Joe Rao / April 25, 2013
Comet ISON was photographed by the Hubble telescope on April 10, 2013 when the comet was 386 million miles from the Sun (slightly closer than Jupiter's orbit). Around the time the 'comet of the century' makes its closest approach to the Sun, on November 28, it may briefly become brighter than the full Moon, say NASA researchers.
NASA Hubble telescope / Courtesy of NASA / Reuters
Enlarge
An exceptional comet flying ever closer to the sun may offer an amazing naked eye sight to Earth dwellers this fall as it gradually brightens.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
As comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) continues to approach the sun, it is slowly responding to the increasing warmth of the sun and getting progressively brighter. The comet is getting considerable scrutiny from both amateur and professional scientists because it's a rare sungrazing comet, destined to approach to within 730,000 miles (1.17 million kilometers) of the surface of the sun on Nov. 28. Because of this extremely close approach, comet ISON holds the "potential" to flare into a dazzling object ? possibly becoming bright enough to be briefly glimpsed in broad daylight.?
Still, at this early stage in the comet's development, we can't be sure if this will actually happen.
A Swift look
Although still quite far from the sun and very faint, the comet has been imaged by two orbiting observatories. Astronomers from the University of Maryland at College Park and Lowell Observatory used NASA's Swift satellite to check out the comet during January and February. Using images acquired from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, the team was able to make initial estimates of the comet's water and dust production and then used these values to determine the size of ISON's icy nucleus. ?These observations revealed that each minute ISON was shedding about 56 tons (51,000 kg) of dust, or about two-thirds the mass of an unfueled space shuttle. Jets powered by sublimating ice also release dust, which reflects sunlight and brightens the comet.
By contrast, however, the comet was producing only about 130 pounds (60 kg) of water every minute, or about four times the amount flowing out of a residential sprinkler system. At the time, however, the comet was nearly half a billion miles from the sun. Typically, a comet's water content remains frozen until it comes within about three times Earth's distance to the sun ? about 280 million miles (450 million km) away. ISON won't be this close to the sun until early July at which time the water production rate should markedly increase.
The water and dust production rates from Swift were used to estimate the size of ISON's icy body. Comparing the amount of gas needed for a normal comet to blow off dust at the rate observed for ISON, the scientists estimate that the nucleus is roughly 3 miles (5 km) across, a typical size for a comet. This assumes that only the fraction of the surface most directly exposed to the sun, about 10 percent of the total, is actively producing jets.
Hubble's turn
More recently, Planetary Science Institute research scientist Jian-Yang Li led a team that imaged comet ISON with the Hubble Space Telescope on April 10 using the Wide Field Camera 3. At this point, the comet was slightly closer than Jupiter at 386 million miles (621 million kilometers) from the sun and 394 million miles (634 million kilometers) from Earth.
Our fitness challenge wrapped up this week! I began this challenge beginning of this semester with my vegetarian transition, maybe a little too ambitiously. With a busy dental school schedule and marathon training, I spent a lot of time stressing out about what I should be doing. I had actually gained weight!
I chatted with Sharon right after my weigh-in. She set me off to deep thought about the way I think about health and fitness. An interview with her, our inaugural SHAPE challenge winner!!!, will be coming up soon- meanwhile, you can read her interview about her HPSP (military scholarship for dental school) here.
Being healthy isn?t just about weighing a certain number or looking a certain way. This is why I?m excited to start this ?Get happy series?. (I took this picture on my run crossing the bridge to New Jersey!- Philadelphia looked so beautiful with the sun setting in the background.)
I?ll be write about health, physical fitness, nutrition, dentist ergonomics and emotional health***: many things I should pay more attention to. To start off, here?s my baseline right now with a busy school schedule.
I sit on average 8 hours a day at school + 3-5 hours studying/working/writing.
I walk about 3000 steps on average on days I don?t run.
I snack throughout the day into the night out of fatigue-boredom-stress.
I want to focus more on the mental/emotional health on this dental school journey. Once school lightens up a bit I?m going to organize and structure this blog a bit, so look forward to new changes.
I?m heading to DC tomorrow morning bright and early to tackle 13.1 miles. Sleep tight, everyone! Please send me some badass running vibes!!!
LONDON (Reuters) - An artist who paints portraits of imaginary people joined a French-born filmmaker, a British-German performance artist and a British multimedia artist on the shortlist for modern art's most prestigious and controversial award on Thursday.
The portraits of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the first black woman to be named a finalist for the annual 25,000-pound ($38,200) Turner Prize, appear traditional but are of imaginary people with invented histories, the Tate Britain museum said.
Laure Prouvost's films employ quick cuts, montage and deliberate misuse of language to create "surprising and unpredictable work", said the Tate, which chairs the prize.
British-German Tino Sehgal's "intimate works" consist purely of live encounters between people, and David Shrigley's "macabre" multimedia works dwell on black humor, it said.
The Turner Prize rewards British artists aged under 50 for an "outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding". The three finalists who do not win will receive 5,000 pounds each.
Established in 1984, the prize has thrived on public debate about what constitutes art, with critics accusing past winners of creating works designed purely to shock.
Damien Hirst was presented with the prize in 1995 for a pickled cow, and in 2001 an empty room with a light that switched on and off clinched the prize for Martin Creed.
Critics were delighted last year when British video artist Elizabeth Price won the prize for her film "The Woolworths Choir of 1979" about a fatal fire in Manchester in that year, describing it variously as "terrifying" and "exhilarating".
This year's Turner exhibition will be held in Derry-Londonderry, 2013's UK City of Culture. The winner will be announced on December 2.
($1 = 0.6550 British pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
The NYPD is saying that a 5-foot long airplane part of a 9/11 plane has been found in an alley near the World Trade Center. The landing gear part, which came from one of the airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers, was found three blocks from Ground Zero. It's incredible given that it's been more than 11 years since the tragic event of September 11th. More »
For ancient Maya, a hodgepodge of cultural exchangesPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Study shows that ancient Maya civilization interacted with more than just Olmecs
This release is available in Arabic, Japanese, French, Spanish and Chinese.
The ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica may have developed its unique culture and architecture via contact with many other groupsnot just exclusive contact with the Olmec people or on its own, without any outside influences, as researchers have debated. According to a new study, the formal plazas and pyramids at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, probably arose from broad cultural exchanges that took place across southern Mesoamerica from about 1,000 to 700 BCE.
Until now, two theories have dominated the debate concerning the origin of the Maya civilization: one suggesting that the Maya developed almost entirely on their own in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and another suggesting that the older Olmec civilization was the Maya's dominant cultural influence. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, a husband-and-wife team from the University of Arizona in Tucson, along with colleagues from the U.S. and Japan, however, found that neither of these theories could tell the full story of the Maya.
"In terms of the origins of lowland Maya civilization, their relationship [with the Olmec] is always a focus of debate," Inomata explained. "We're now saying that it probably wasn't just the Olmec, but a lot of other groupsfor example, those living in central Chiapas and those on the southern Pacific coastthat had a lot of important interactions with the lowland Maya."
The researchers' report appears in the 26 April issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the science society.
By the time sedentary communities began appearing in the Maya lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize during what's known as the early Middle Preclassic periodfrom about 1,000 to 700 BCEthe Gulf Coast Olmec were already well-established in nearby regions, researchers say. Given this timeline, many anthropologists have viewed the Olmec as a "mother culture," or one that provided cultural innovations, such as art styles and political structure, to other populations.
The coastal Olmec hub of La Venta, for example, hosted architectural styles that were likewise found at Ceibal. But, Inomata and the other researchers now provide radiocarbon dating measurements taken from some of the ceremonial structures at Ceibal, like plazas and platforms, which predate the growth of La Venta as a major center by as much as 200 years. These findings imply that La Venta could not have been the primary influence on Ceibal that researchers once thought it was. Instead, Inomata and his team suggest that both Ceibal and La Venta participated in a broader cultural shift that was taking place in Mesoamerica between about 1,150 and 800 BCE.
"The main complex at Ceibal is made up of a plaza area, a western platform or pyramid and an eastern mound," said Inomata. "This is generally known as an 'E-Group Assemblage,' and they can be found across southern Mesoamerica." Many researchers have resisted using the term to refer to the structures at La Venta, since it was originally coined to describe Mayan architecture. But, Inomata and his team argue that the ceremonial constructions at La Venta should also be classified as such E-Group Assemblages.
"Possibly, their uses were very similar," Inomata continued. "Ritual was very important to these civilizations, and there is a series of ritual deposits in the plaza at Ceibal Such rituals often included greenstone axes, made from jade or other imported, precious stones, which were deposited [in the plaza] as a kind of offering."
Such ritualistic offerings have been found elsewhere in southern Mesoamerica, including two contemporaneous sites in Chiapas, Mexico.
Inomata and his team suggest that E-Group Assemblages at Ceibal began as small structures, just two meters tall. But, with continuous renovation, the ceremonial constructions grew taller and taller, eventually becoming pyramids, which became very important to the later Maya people.
Taken together, the findings do not suggest that the Maya civilization was older than the Olmec culture, nor do they prove that the Maya developed independently. Instead, they show that the Maya actively participated in a major social shift that took place over a wide area.
"We are seeing this new form of architecture, which probably reflects a new form of society and social order," says Inomata. "This new form of social order emerged not from one center, such as the Gulf Coast Olmec, but through broad interactions among diverse groups, including the lowland Maya."
###
The report by Inomata et al. was supported by the National Geographic Society; the National Science Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Alphawood Foundation.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
[ | 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.
For ancient Maya, a hodgepodge of cultural exchangesPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Study shows that ancient Maya civilization interacted with more than just Olmecs
This release is available in Arabic, Japanese, French, Spanish and Chinese.
The ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica may have developed its unique culture and architecture via contact with many other groupsnot just exclusive contact with the Olmec people or on its own, without any outside influences, as researchers have debated. According to a new study, the formal plazas and pyramids at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, probably arose from broad cultural exchanges that took place across southern Mesoamerica from about 1,000 to 700 BCE.
Until now, two theories have dominated the debate concerning the origin of the Maya civilization: one suggesting that the Maya developed almost entirely on their own in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and another suggesting that the older Olmec civilization was the Maya's dominant cultural influence. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, a husband-and-wife team from the University of Arizona in Tucson, along with colleagues from the U.S. and Japan, however, found that neither of these theories could tell the full story of the Maya.
"In terms of the origins of lowland Maya civilization, their relationship [with the Olmec] is always a focus of debate," Inomata explained. "We're now saying that it probably wasn't just the Olmec, but a lot of other groupsfor example, those living in central Chiapas and those on the southern Pacific coastthat had a lot of important interactions with the lowland Maya."
The researchers' report appears in the 26 April issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the science society.
By the time sedentary communities began appearing in the Maya lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize during what's known as the early Middle Preclassic periodfrom about 1,000 to 700 BCEthe Gulf Coast Olmec were already well-established in nearby regions, researchers say. Given this timeline, many anthropologists have viewed the Olmec as a "mother culture," or one that provided cultural innovations, such as art styles and political structure, to other populations.
The coastal Olmec hub of La Venta, for example, hosted architectural styles that were likewise found at Ceibal. But, Inomata and the other researchers now provide radiocarbon dating measurements taken from some of the ceremonial structures at Ceibal, like plazas and platforms, which predate the growth of La Venta as a major center by as much as 200 years. These findings imply that La Venta could not have been the primary influence on Ceibal that researchers once thought it was. Instead, Inomata and his team suggest that both Ceibal and La Venta participated in a broader cultural shift that was taking place in Mesoamerica between about 1,150 and 800 BCE.
"The main complex at Ceibal is made up of a plaza area, a western platform or pyramid and an eastern mound," said Inomata. "This is generally known as an 'E-Group Assemblage,' and they can be found across southern Mesoamerica." Many researchers have resisted using the term to refer to the structures at La Venta, since it was originally coined to describe Mayan architecture. But, Inomata and his team argue that the ceremonial constructions at La Venta should also be classified as such E-Group Assemblages.
"Possibly, their uses were very similar," Inomata continued. "Ritual was very important to these civilizations, and there is a series of ritual deposits in the plaza at Ceibal Such rituals often included greenstone axes, made from jade or other imported, precious stones, which were deposited [in the plaza] as a kind of offering."
Such ritualistic offerings have been found elsewhere in southern Mesoamerica, including two contemporaneous sites in Chiapas, Mexico.
Inomata and his team suggest that E-Group Assemblages at Ceibal began as small structures, just two meters tall. But, with continuous renovation, the ceremonial constructions grew taller and taller, eventually becoming pyramids, which became very important to the later Maya people.
Taken together, the findings do not suggest that the Maya civilization was older than the Olmec culture, nor do they prove that the Maya developed independently. Instead, they show that the Maya actively participated in a major social shift that took place over a wide area.
"We are seeing this new form of architecture, which probably reflects a new form of society and social order," says Inomata. "This new form of social order emerged not from one center, such as the Gulf Coast Olmec, but through broad interactions among diverse groups, including the lowland Maya."
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The report by Inomata et al. was supported by the National Geographic Society; the National Science Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Alphawood Foundation.
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DALLAS (AP) ? Consumers who kept spending after the holidays ended are helping to boost profit at UPS.
United Parcel Service Co. said Thursday that first-quarter profit rose 7 percent to $1.04 billion.
The company's adjusted profit was $1.04 per share, better than the $1 per share that analysts expected.
Daily package volume in the U.S. increased and company revenue rose 2 percent to $13.43 billion, although that was a bit less than Wall Street predicted.
Atlanta-based UPS is sticking with its forecast of 2013 adjusted earnings of $4.80 to $5.06 per share. Analysts expect $4.98 per share.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - World number two truck maker Volvo posted a surprise rise in orders intake on Thursday amid signs key markets were pulling out of a deep slump that pushed its earnings to a deeper-than-expected fall in the first quarter.
After a year of slumping demand for commercial vehicles, there are tentative signs that activity in the hardest-hit region, Europe, has bottomed out, though only Latin America among major truck markets is yet showing any solid growth.
Volvo, the dominant global player in the industry alongside Germany's Daimler , said order bookings of its trucks rose in several of its key markets to support a group-wide increase of 30 percent compared to the fourth quarter.
"That being said, the second quarter of 2013 will pose a challenge for us and our suppliers, with respect to the changeover to new products and the ramp-up of the industrial system to higher volumes," CEO Olof Persson said in a statement.
The Gothenburg-based company left unchanged its full-year outlook for roughly flat European and North American truck markets this year as well as its forecast for a 20 percent growth in Brazil driven by government subsidies.
The week had already seen cautious optimism spread across the truck industry after Volvo's domestic rival Scania rolled out a 28 percent rise in order intake and Daimler Trucks forecast a slight rise in 2013 sales.
Volvo, which unlike Scania sells into a currently sluggish U.S. market, said order bookings of its trucks rose 11 percent year-on-year in the first quarter compared to the 15 percent fall seen by analysts in a Reuters poll.
But while a recovery may be just over the horizon, for now the slack demand is weighing heavily on truck industry earnings. Volvo said its profit was hit as sales volumes slumped to their lowest level since the height of the 2008/2009 financial crisis.
Volvo, which makes heavy-duty trucks under the Renault, Mack, UD Trucks and Eicher brands as well as its own name, suffered a 92 percent fall in first-quarter operating earnings compared to the 2.02 billion seen in a Reuters poll of analysts.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Helena Soderpalm)
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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