Four-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais has signed on to replace Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, The Associated Press has learned.
Three people familiar with the signing said Wednesday that Bourdais signed a two-year contract with KVSH Racing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because principals Kevin Kalkhoven, Jimmy Vasser and James "Sulli" Sullivan had not announced the signing.
Kanaan won the Indianapolis 500 in May with KVSH, but decided to leave for Chip Ganassi Racing next year. KVSH acted fast in offering the same deal it offered Kanaan to three-race winner James Hinchcliffe, but the team gave Hinchcliffe a short deadline to accept the contract that did not require the driver to bring any sponsorship.
When Hinchcliffe decided KVSH's timeline was too fast, the team moved on to Bourdais, winner of four consecutive Champ Car titles from 2004 through 2007.
The Frenchman has 31 victories, tied with Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy for eighth on the all-time wins list.
Bourdais left American open-wheel racing for Formula One following his fourth Champ Car title, joining Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2008 season. He was replaced nine races into the 2009 season.
Bourdais joined Team Peugeot after his release and finished second in the LMP1 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009, dabbling in a variety of different series before returning to IndyCar in 2011 for nine races with Dale Coyne Racing.
Bourdais landed a full-time ride in 2012 with Dragon Racing, where he was hampered for the first part of the season with a Lotus engine. After a switch to Chevrolet before the Indianapolis 500, Bourdais had to share his car with teammate Katherine Legge for the remainder of the season. He finished 25th in the final standings with a season-best finish of fourth at Mid-Ohio.
This year has seen a far better showing from Bourdais as Dragon has put forth a more stable effort. Bourdais has three podium finishes, including a runner-up finish to Scott Dixon in Toronto.
Now he joins a team that clearly can compete on ovals — all three of Kanaan's podiums this season are on ovals — but isn't sure what it can do on road and street courses because that's not Kanaan's strength. But because Simona de Silvestro finished second at Houston two weeks ago in KVSH's second car, the team believes Bourdais will give them a well-rounded driver capable of challenging on every circuit.
Of Bourdais' 31 victories, 15 are on road courses and 12 are on street courses. He's also won on three ovals — twice at Las Vegas, and once at Milwaukee.
KVSH has not decided who will drive its second car yet. Its alliance with de Silvestro and her management team was only a one-year deal, and replacing Kanaan was the first priority.
It's not clear if Jay Penske will need a replacement for Bourdais at Dragon because it's not known if Dragon will return to the IndyCar grid next season. He's already announced he'll field entries in the FIA Formula E championship next season, and Penske has not indicated if he'll compete in IndyCar, as well.
Hinchcliffe, meanwhile, seemed close to locking down a deal before Saturday night's season finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
Intent on not rushing into a decision and making his next contract the best for his long-term future, Hinchcliffe's decision could be to return to Andretti Autosport. The team appears to have locked down the sponsorship needed to resign Hinchcliffe as current sponsor GoDaddy is likely headed out of IndyCar.
Andretti also could be poised to announce his 2014 manufacturer alliance this weekend, with all signs pointing to a switch to Honda.
The team owner was coy Wednesday on all fronts while announcing ABC Supply Co. as title sponsor of the Milwaukee IndyFest for the next two years.
"We're getting close. We've got a few things to button up. I'm hoping we can make a few announcements this weekend," Andretti said. When asked if Hinchcliffe would be on hand for those announcements, Andretti said: "I hope so. We'll see. We're working on it. We don't have anything done yet, but we're getting close on some things. That's the goal, so we'll see if we reach our goal or not."
Hinchcliffe had also been in preliminary talks with Ganassi on a deal that would have allowed him to compete across all of Ganassi's platforms, including sports cars and possibly even NASCAR's Nationwide Series as a replacement to Kyle Larson in events Larson could not get to once he moves up to the Sprint Cup Series.
But with negotiations finally heating up with Andretti, staying put, especially if a potential move to Honda could pair the Canadian with Honda Canada, could be Hinchcliffe's best bet.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the Senate floor after agreeing to the framework of a deal to avoid default and reopen the government on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/ Carolyn Kaster)
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the Senate floor after agreeing to the framework of a deal to avoid default and reopen the government on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/ Carolyn Kaster)
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to reporters waiting outside a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans as news emerged that leaders reached a last-minute agreement to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Cruz said he would not try to block the agreement. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. Chaos among Republicans in the House of Representatives has left it to bipartisan leaders in the Senate to craft a last-minute deal to fend off a looming U.S. default and to reopen the federal government as a partial shutdown entered its 16th day. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks to his office after arriving on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. Aides to Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the leaders resumed talks Tuesday night and voiced optimism about striking an agreement Wednesday that could pass both houses of Congress and reach President Barack Obama's desk before Thursday, when the U.S. Treasury says it will begin running out of cash. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is followed by reporters as he walks to a Senate GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders announced last-minute agreement Wednesday to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. Congress raced to pass the measure by day's end.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared on the news that the threat of default was fading, flirting with a 200-point gain in morning trading.
"This is a time for reconciliation," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the agreement he had forged with the GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
McConnell said that with the accord, Republicans had sealed a deal to have spending in one area of the budget decline for two years in a row, adding, "we're not going back."
One prominent tea party lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he would oppose the plan, but not seek to delay its passage.
That was a key concession that signaled a strong possibility that both houses could act by day's end. That, in turn, would allow President Barack Obama to sign the bill into law ahead of the Thursday deadline that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had set for action to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
Officials said the proposal called for the Treasury to have authority to continue borrowing through Feb. 7, and the government would reopen through Jan. 15.
There was no official comment from the White House, although congressional officials said administration aides had been kept fully informed of the negotiations.
In political terms, the final agreement was almost entirely along lines Obama had set when the impasse began last month. Tea party conservatives had initially demanded the defunding of the health care law as the price for providing essential federal funding.
Under a strategy set by Obama and Reid, Democrats said they would not negotiate with Republicans in exchange for performing what the White House called basic functions of keeping the government in operation and preventing Treasury from defaulting on its obligations.
A long line of polls charted a steep decline in public approval for Republicans in the course of what Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pronounced a "shameful episode" in the nation's history.
While the emerging deal could well meet resistance from conservatives in the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, has signaled she will support the plan and her rank and file is expected to vote for it in overwhelming numbers.
That raised the possibility that more Democrats than Republicans would back it, potentially causing additional problems for House Speaker John Boehner as he struggles to manage his tea party-heavy majority.
Boehner and the House Republican leadership met in a different part of the Capitol to plan their next move. A spokesman, Michael Steel, said afterward that no decision had been made "about how or when a potential Senate agreement could be voted on in the House."
The developments came one day before the deadline Lew had set for Congress to raise the current $16.7 trillion debt limit. Without action by lawmakers, he said, Treasury could not be certain it had the ability to pay bills as they come due.
In addition to raising the debt limit, the proposal would give lawmakers a vote to disapprove the increase. Obama would have the right to veto their opposition, ensuring he would prevail.
House and Senate negotiators would be appointed to seek a deficit-reduction deal. At the last minute, Reid and McConnell jettisoned a plan to give federal agencies increased flexibility in coping with the effects of across-the-board cuts. Officials said that would be a topic for the negotiations expected to begin shortly.
Despite initial Republican demands for the defunding of the health care law often derided as "Obamacare," the pending agreement makes only one modest change in the program. It requires individuals and families seeking subsidies to purchase coverage to verify their incomes before qualifying.
There were some dire warnings from the financial world a day after the Fitch credit rating agency said Tuesday it was reviewing its AAA rating on U.S. government debt for possible downgrade.
John Chambers, chairman of Standard & Poor's Sovereign Debt Committee, told "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday that a U.S. government default on its debts would be "much worse than Lehman Brothers," the investment firm whose 2008 collapse led to the global financial crisis.
Aides to Reid and McConnell said the two men had resumed talks, including a Tuesday night conversation, and were hopeful about striking an agreement that could pass both houses.
It was expected to mirror a deal the leaders had neared Monday. That agreement was described as extending the debt limit through Feb. 7, immediately reopening the government fully and keeping agencies running until Jan. 15 — leaving lawmakers clashing over the same disputes in the near future.
It also set a mid-December deadline for bipartisan budget negotiators to report on efforts to reach compromise on longer-term issues like spending cuts. And it likely would require the Obama administration to certify that it can verify the income of people who qualify for federal subsidies for medical insurance under the 2010 health care law.
But that emerging Senate pact was put on hold Tuesday, an extraordinary day that highlighted how unruly rank-and-file House Republicans can be, even when the stakes are high. Facing solid Democratic opposition, Boehner tried in vain to write legislation that would satisfy GOP lawmakers, especially conservatives.
Boehner crafted two versions of the bill, but neither made it to a House vote because both faced certain defeat. Working against him was word during the day from the influential group Heritage Action for America that his legislation was not conservative enough — a worrisome threat for many GOP lawmakers whose biggest electoral fears are of primary challenges from the right.
The last of Boehner's two bills had the same dates as the emerging Senate plan on the debt limit and shutdown.
But it also blocked federal payments for the president, members of Congress and other officials to help pay for their health care coverage. And it prevented the Obama administration from shifting funds among different accounts — as past Treasury secretaries have done — to let the government keep paying bills briefly after the federal debt limit is reached.
Boehner's inability to produce a bill that could pass his own chamber likely means he will have to let the House vote on a Senate compromise, even if that means it would pass with strong Democratic and weak GOP support. House Republican leaders have tried to avoid that scenario for fear that it would threaten their leadership, and some Republicans worried openly about that.
___
Associated Press writers David Espo, Andrew Taylor, Charles Babington, Stephen Ohlemacher, Henry C. Jackson and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Extinct 'mega claw' creature had spider-like brain
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Daniel Stolte stolte@email.arizona.edu 520-626-4402 University of Arizona
Researchers have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.
Research led by University of Arizona Regents' Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum's Greg Edgecombe has revealed that the ancestors of chelicerates (spiders, scorpions and their kin) branched off from the family tree of other arthropods including insects, crustaceans and millipedes more than half a billion years ago.
The team discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.
Described in the current issue of the journal Nature, the find belongs to an extinct group of marine arthropods known as megacheirans (Greek for "large claws") and solves the long-standing mystery of where this group fits in the tree of life.
"We now know that the megacheirans had central nervous systems very similar to today's horseshoe crabs and scorpions," said the senior author of the study, Nicholas Strausfeld, a Regents' Professor in the University of Arizona's department of neuroscience. "This means the ancestors of spiders and their kin lived side by side with the ancestors of crustaceans in the Lower Cambrian."
The scientists identified the 3-centimeter-long creature (a little over an inch) unearthed from the famous Chengjiang formation near Kunming in southwest China, as a representative of the extinct genus Alalcomenaeus. Animals in this group had an elongated, segmented body equipped with about a dozen pairs of body appendages enabling the animal to swim or crawl or both. All featured a pair of long, scissor-like appendages attached to the head, most likely for grasping or sensory purposes, which gave them their collective name, megacheirans.
Co-author Greg Edgecombe said that some paleontologists had used the external appearance of the so-called great appendage to infer that the megacheirans were related to chelicerates, based on the fact that the great appendage and the fangs of a spider or scorpion both have an "elbow joint" between their basal part and their pincer-like tip.
"However, this wasn't rock solid because others lined up the great appendage either a segment in front of spider fangs or one segment behind them," Edgecombe said. "We have now managed to add direct evidence from which segment the brain sends nerves into the great appendage. It's the second one, the same as in the fangs, or chelicerae. For the first time we can analyze how the segments of these fossil arthropods line up with each other the same way as we do with living species using their nervous systems".
The team analyzed the fossil by applying different imaging and image processing techniques, taking advantage of iron deposits that had selectively accumulated in the nervous system during fossilization.
To make the neural structures visible, the researchers used computed tomography (CT), a technique that reconstructs 3-D features within in the specimen. However, "the CT scan didn't show the outline of the nervous systems unambiguously enough," Strausfeld said, "while a scanning laser technique mapping the distribution of chemical elements showed iron deposits outlining the nervous system almost as convincingly but with minor differences."
Next, the group applied advanced imaging techniques to the scans, first overlaying the magenta color of the iron deposit scan with the green color of the CT scan, then subtracting the two.
"We discarded any image data that were not present in both scans," Strausfeld explained. "Where the two overlapped, the magenta and the green added to each other, revealing the preserved nervous system as a white structure, which we then inverted."
This resulted in what resembled a negative X-ray photograph of the fossil.
"The white structures now showed up as black," Strausfeld said, "and out popped this beautiful nervous system in startling detail."
Comparing the outline of the fossil nervous system to nervous systems of horseshoe crabs and scorpions left no doubt that 520-million yearold Alalcomenaeus was a member of the chelicerates.
Specifically, the fossil shows the typical hallmarks of the brains found in scorpions and spiders: Three clusters of nerve cells known as ganglia fused together as a brain also fused with some of the animal's body ganglia. This differs from crustaceans where ganglia are further apart and connected by long nerves, like the rungs of a rope ladder.
Other diagnostic features include the forward position of the gut opening in the brain and the arrangement of optic centers outside and inside the brain supplied by two pairs of eyes, just like in horseshoe crabs.
To make the analysis more robust, the researchers then added these features to an existing catalog of about 150 characteristics used in constructing evolutionary relationships among arthropods based on neuroanatomical features.
"Greg plugged these characteristics into a computer-based cladistic analysis to ask, 'where does this fossil appear in a relational tree?'" Strausfeld said. "Our fossil of Alalcomenaeus came out with the modern chelicerates."
But according to Strausfeld, the story doesn't end there.
"The prominent appendages that gave the megacheirans their name were clearly used for grasping and holding and probably for sensory inputs. The parts of the brain that provide the wiring for where these large appendages arise are very large in this fossil. Based on their location, we can now say that the biting mouthparts in spiders and their relatives evolved from these appendages."
Less than a year ago, the same research team published the discovery of a fossilized brain in the 520 million year-old fossil Fuxianhuia protensa, showing unexpected similarity to the complex brain of a modern crustacean.
"Our new find is exciting because it shows that mandibulates (to which crustaceans belong) and chelicerates were already present as two distinct evolutionary trajectories 520 million years ago, which means their common ancestor must have existed much deeper in time," Strausfeld said. "We expect to find fossils of animals that have persisted from more ancient times, and I'm hopeful we will one day find the ancestral type of both the mandibulate and chelicerate nervous system ground patterns. They had to come from somewhere. Now the search is on."
For this research project, Strausfeld teamed up with Gengo Tanaka of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Yokosuka, Japan; Xianguang Hou, director of the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Paleobiology at Yunnan University in Kunming, China, and his colleague Xiaoya Ma who is presently working with Gregory Edgecombe in the paleontology department of the Natural History Museum, London.
###
This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 40730211), Research in Education and Science from the Government of Japan (no. 21740370), a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (F/00 696/T), by the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona, and a grant from the AFRL (FA86511010001) to Nick Strausfeld.
[
| 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.
Extinct 'mega claw' creature had spider-like brain
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Daniel Stolte stolte@email.arizona.edu 520-626-4402 University of Arizona
Researchers have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.
Research led by University of Arizona Regents' Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum's Greg Edgecombe has revealed that the ancestors of chelicerates (spiders, scorpions and their kin) branched off from the family tree of other arthropods including insects, crustaceans and millipedes more than half a billion years ago.
The team discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.
Described in the current issue of the journal Nature, the find belongs to an extinct group of marine arthropods known as megacheirans (Greek for "large claws") and solves the long-standing mystery of where this group fits in the tree of life.
"We now know that the megacheirans had central nervous systems very similar to today's horseshoe crabs and scorpions," said the senior author of the study, Nicholas Strausfeld, a Regents' Professor in the University of Arizona's department of neuroscience. "This means the ancestors of spiders and their kin lived side by side with the ancestors of crustaceans in the Lower Cambrian."
The scientists identified the 3-centimeter-long creature (a little over an inch) unearthed from the famous Chengjiang formation near Kunming in southwest China, as a representative of the extinct genus Alalcomenaeus. Animals in this group had an elongated, segmented body equipped with about a dozen pairs of body appendages enabling the animal to swim or crawl or both. All featured a pair of long, scissor-like appendages attached to the head, most likely for grasping or sensory purposes, which gave them their collective name, megacheirans.
Co-author Greg Edgecombe said that some paleontologists had used the external appearance of the so-called great appendage to infer that the megacheirans were related to chelicerates, based on the fact that the great appendage and the fangs of a spider or scorpion both have an "elbow joint" between their basal part and their pincer-like tip.
"However, this wasn't rock solid because others lined up the great appendage either a segment in front of spider fangs or one segment behind them," Edgecombe said. "We have now managed to add direct evidence from which segment the brain sends nerves into the great appendage. It's the second one, the same as in the fangs, or chelicerae. For the first time we can analyze how the segments of these fossil arthropods line up with each other the same way as we do with living species using their nervous systems".
The team analyzed the fossil by applying different imaging and image processing techniques, taking advantage of iron deposits that had selectively accumulated in the nervous system during fossilization.
To make the neural structures visible, the researchers used computed tomography (CT), a technique that reconstructs 3-D features within in the specimen. However, "the CT scan didn't show the outline of the nervous systems unambiguously enough," Strausfeld said, "while a scanning laser technique mapping the distribution of chemical elements showed iron deposits outlining the nervous system almost as convincingly but with minor differences."
Next, the group applied advanced imaging techniques to the scans, first overlaying the magenta color of the iron deposit scan with the green color of the CT scan, then subtracting the two.
"We discarded any image data that were not present in both scans," Strausfeld explained. "Where the two overlapped, the magenta and the green added to each other, revealing the preserved nervous system as a white structure, which we then inverted."
This resulted in what resembled a negative X-ray photograph of the fossil.
"The white structures now showed up as black," Strausfeld said, "and out popped this beautiful nervous system in startling detail."
Comparing the outline of the fossil nervous system to nervous systems of horseshoe crabs and scorpions left no doubt that 520-million yearold Alalcomenaeus was a member of the chelicerates.
Specifically, the fossil shows the typical hallmarks of the brains found in scorpions and spiders: Three clusters of nerve cells known as ganglia fused together as a brain also fused with some of the animal's body ganglia. This differs from crustaceans where ganglia are further apart and connected by long nerves, like the rungs of a rope ladder.
Other diagnostic features include the forward position of the gut opening in the brain and the arrangement of optic centers outside and inside the brain supplied by two pairs of eyes, just like in horseshoe crabs.
To make the analysis more robust, the researchers then added these features to an existing catalog of about 150 characteristics used in constructing evolutionary relationships among arthropods based on neuroanatomical features.
"Greg plugged these characteristics into a computer-based cladistic analysis to ask, 'where does this fossil appear in a relational tree?'" Strausfeld said. "Our fossil of Alalcomenaeus came out with the modern chelicerates."
But according to Strausfeld, the story doesn't end there.
"The prominent appendages that gave the megacheirans their name were clearly used for grasping and holding and probably for sensory inputs. The parts of the brain that provide the wiring for where these large appendages arise are very large in this fossil. Based on their location, we can now say that the biting mouthparts in spiders and their relatives evolved from these appendages."
Less than a year ago, the same research team published the discovery of a fossilized brain in the 520 million year-old fossil Fuxianhuia protensa, showing unexpected similarity to the complex brain of a modern crustacean.
"Our new find is exciting because it shows that mandibulates (to which crustaceans belong) and chelicerates were already present as two distinct evolutionary trajectories 520 million years ago, which means their common ancestor must have existed much deeper in time," Strausfeld said. "We expect to find fossils of animals that have persisted from more ancient times, and I'm hopeful we will one day find the ancestral type of both the mandibulate and chelicerate nervous system ground patterns. They had to come from somewhere. Now the search is on."
For this research project, Strausfeld teamed up with Gengo Tanaka of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Yokosuka, Japan; Xianguang Hou, director of the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Paleobiology at Yunnan University in Kunming, China, and his colleague Xiaoya Ma who is presently working with Gregory Edgecombe in the paleontology department of the Natural History Museum, London.
###
This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 40730211), Research in Education and Science from the Government of Japan (no. 21740370), a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (F/00 696/T), by the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona, and a grant from the AFRL (FA86511010001) to Nick Strausfeld.
[
| 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.
NEW YORK (AP) — Intel said Tuesday that its third-quarter net income was unchanged, stymied by a continued slump in global PC demand.
The chipmaker earned $2.95 billion, or 58 cents per share, compared with $2.97 billion, or 58 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2012.
Revenue also was unchanged at about $13.5 billion.
The drop in PC-related sales came amid another decline in PC shipments. Intel supplies chips for about four out of every five PCs. The rest come from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which reports financial results on Thursday.
IDC said last week that worldwide PC shipments fell nearly 8 percent during the third quarter, to 81.6 million, while fellow market research firm Gartner Inc. put the decline at almost 9 percent, to 80.3 million. The two firms define PCs slightly differently. The drop marked the sixth-straight quarter of decline for the industry, as computer makers, and the companies that supply them, try to reshape themselves amid the continued shift toward tablets and smartphones.
Intel's results for the quarter, which ended Sept. 28, beat Wall Street predictions. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of 53 cents per share on revenue of $13.4 billion.
Revenue at the company's personal-computer business fell 3.5 percent to $8.4 billion because of a drop in the number of chips sold, while data center revenue increased 12 percent to $2.9 billion, helped by both higher prices and higher volumes.
For the fourth-quarter, Intel projected revenue of $13.2 billion to $14.2 billion. Analysts were looking for $14.0 billion.
Shares of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp. fell 9 cents to $23.30 in extended trading after the release of results.
Can Klaus and Rebekah work together on The Originals?
The often warring siblings will be forced to put aside their differences -- at least temporarily -- as they embark on a mission to rescue their brother, held captive in Marcel and Davina's hideout. But with years and years of history between Rebekah and Klaus' former protege complicating matters, things may prove a tad more difficult (not to mention his unborn baby).
"I feel like if he could make [the Rebekah/Marcel relationship] serve him, then he's maybe more in favor of it," Joseph Morgan tells The Hollywood Reporter of Klaus' mindset. "But at the moment it gets him nothing."
In the Oct. 15 episode of The Vampire Diaries spinoff, Klaus discovers key intel about a major player within Marcel's inner circle, putting his plan to unravel Marcel's empire from the inside into motion. Morgan talks to THR about Klaus and Marcel's history, getting Elijah back and teaming up with Rebekah.
We learned quite a bit about Klaus' history with Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), particularly how they first met. What aspects of their backstory most surprised you?
A few things. The way that they met maybe didn't surprise me, just pleased me. I thought that was one of the most wonderful bits of flashbacks we've ever done, including The Vampire Diaries. Finding him as a young boy and then him living with us. I thought that was a really wonderful piece of story, the way I rescued him. I suppose the thing that surprised me the most was after that romantic connection between [Marcel] and Rebekah (Claire Holt) when I gave him the choice, he chose not to undagger [Rebekah] so he could become a vampire. That scene by the way, when Rebekah asked, "What day is it?" after I undagger her, and I say it's been 50 years, Klaus is so devilish in that moment.
Marcel's choice to become a vampire and not undagger Rebekah shined a light on who he was at that time ...
It really humanized him well, I thought. The human Marcel was much less guarded, much more open than we've seen vampire Marcel I think.
Why is Klaus so against the Marcel/Rebekah pairing and do you think he'll ever come around?
First of all Klaus is incredibly possessive over his siblings' love. And you'll see in the future, if either of them spend too much time or affection on someone else, he doesn't like it. He wants to be the center of their world and it really comes from the feeling of not enough affirmation or love as a child -- especially from his parents, his father particularly. He really, really loves Rebekah and no one's ever good enough for her. And for Marcel, that's his friend and the person he brought in as a son. Now that they're starting something special, Klaus feels left out. He's really insecure about that.
I don't know. I feel like if he could make it serve him, then he's maybe more in favor of it. But at the moment it gets him nothing -- other than less attention from his sister and Marcel so he doesn't like it.
Now, Rebekah and Klaus are teaming up against Marcel in their attempt to save Elijah (Daniel Gillies). How does that affect their bond?
We saw at the end of the second episode Klaus admitting he gave Elijah to Marcel and that that was a mistake. That was sort of an apology or as close to an apology that we're going to get from him. In this moment where we left them last, they're united and that's a really lovely place for them to be in. That's the unity of family right there. They both want to get their other brother back. I'm not sure how pleased Elijah's going to be with Klaus when he does come back, but that's another story.
Klaus said in the last episode that he always has a plan, so how does he go about getting his brother back?
In episode three you're going to really see Klaus put a plan into effect. The whole episode we're going to see the mechanics of that being put together. We're also going to learn a bit more history about Marcel's relationship with his Nightwalkers, a little information about his one of them in particular. We're going to learn a bit more history about how he became a Nightwalker, how he teamed up with Marcel and what kind of loyalty their relationship has.
While Klaus and Rebekah are trying to save Elijah, Marcel and Davina (Danielle Campbell) are figuring out how to kill Originals, but they don't know that Klaus is sired to Marcel. How close do they get to figuring out a way?
One thing we learned from Vampire Diaries that Marcel isn't aware of yet is what happens when you do kill an Original vampire. [Marcel]'s going to be disappointed when he finds out every vampire that Klaus turned dies also. So they're going to have to find a way around that. You'll have to watch to see how close they come to it or whether they manage to do that, but it's certainly an interesting dynamic between her and Marcel. It'll be interesting to see how much power she has and why she has all that power.
Should we expect to see Klaus interacting with Davina anytime soon?
We're going to share the screen in episode four. That's when our characters meet.
If Klaus were to take back the throne from Marcel, what would be his first order of business?
I'm not sure. It's interesting isn't it? What happens after that? The thing about Klaus is he's always going to have enemies because he has this way of making them. So I think he would use that [power] to protect himself. And then his focus, I hope, will move more toward the baby and protecting and raising his child. If he was to take Marcel's place, I'm not sure how loyal those vampires would be to Klaus. Or perhaps he could just redecorate the compound. Change it up a little bit, possibly put in more mirrors knowing Klaus.
The image that accompanied Apple’s October 22 media event invite.
Apple sent out invites to its next product-filled media event this morning, which will be held on October 22 in San Francisco. The invite teases us with “We still have a lot to cover,” written below a colorful, fall inspired Apple graphic. We’re expecting Apple to announce a number of new additions to its lineup Tuesday, including highly-anticipated iPad updates.
Signs point to a redesigned fifth generation iPad that is styled like a larger version of the iPhone 5/5s rather than previous iPads. The iPad mini is also expected to get a major upgrade with the addition of a high-resolution Retina display.
What else could we see next week? We should get a closer look at OS X Mavericks, the next big update to Apple’s desktop operating system. Along with that, the MacBook Pro should get an upgrade for 2013. We could also get a better look at the Mac Pro, which we got a sneak peek of at WWDC this summer. As with last month’s event, we don’t think Apple is going to spend any stage time on the iPod line.
Apple already updated its iMac line for this year with faster processors and 802.11ac WiFi.
We’ll be there October 22 at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to share everything Apple unveils. Stay tuned!
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tJTlN0EooAJaK1ZW4K7F1nuzFCaQbAp446ZSRE_Pk9u38DTE2WCNaHP1h9_hdFC0nelgDaGflmEgCqfaezL_KehENYqzz0LxP0xBvJG0A=s0-d){kind=small}
Share