Facebook introduces new search tool

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook Inc. has begun rolling out a new search feature that will eventually let 1 billion-plus users around the world unearth and sift through vast amounts of information that they and their friends have shared on the social network.

The new tool, dubbed Graph Search, takes aim at major rivals such as Google Inc. and promises to open up a whole new way of searching online. With the tool, users can find a single guy in San Francisco to date, a friend of a friend who knows of a job or friends who live in a 10-mile radius and are fans of "Game of Thrones."

"It's going to cause people to do all kinds of searches they have never done before because you couldn't do these searches before," said Danny Sullivan, founding editor of SearchEngineLand.com.

But the feature — Facebook's first major product launch since its rocky initial public stock offering in May — is already raising privacy concerns. It also did not immediately allay deep anxiety among investors over Facebook's moneymaking prospects.

Still, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called it "one of the coolest things we've done in a while."

"Graph Search is a completely new way for people to get information on Facebook," Zuckerberg said.

For now, Facebook plans to roll it out slowly and said it could take more than a year for the search tool to reach all of its users around the globe. It plans to tweak the service to match how people use it.

If it proves popular, Facebook users may begin to spend more time on Facebook and less time elsewhere.

And that potentially threatens competitors — not just Internet search giant Google, which can't index the personal information on Facebook, but also other major players in Silicon Valley such as professional networking service LinkedIn Corp. and business review service Yelp Inc.

They aren't the only ones who may feel uneasy — at least at first. Facebook users will probably be wary of the new feature too. All of a sudden, Facebook pals will be able to easily uncover heaps of personal details about the user that already existed on Facebook but weren't quite so visible.

During an hourlong news conference at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, Zuckerberg took pains to emphasize that the search feature was designed to give users control over the information people can search.

"We take this really seriously," he said.

Facebook is introducing the feature very slowly rather than flipping the switch overnight the way it did with News Feed to calm those fears, said Woodrow Hartzog, assistant law professor at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Graph Search will be available at first to only hundreds, or possibly thousands, of users, with more being gradually added over the coming weeks and months.

Hartzog said he expects Facebook users will eventually find the feature to be useful but would first have to overcome qualms over "a loss of obscurity."

"People who interact socially online respond much better when they have a little time to remove or make more obscure information that is going to become more obvious with a particular technology," Hartzog said.

But privacy watchdog Marc Rotenberg said Facebook is giving users whiplash by "constantly changing the rules for access to user data."

"And Facebook telling users that it's on them to check their privacy setting is not right," said Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Zuckerberg said the initial rollout marks the beginning of Facebook's years-long investment in Graph Search that will eventually be available on mobile and in more languages.

The feature has been in the works for years. Current rudimentary search capability on Facebook has been clunky and mostly useless.

The effort kicked into high gear in spring 2011, when Zuckerberg recruited Lars Rasmussen from Google to join Facebook's search team. Rasmussen's challenge: to make it easier for Facebook users to discover information about the people they care about and connect with people with similar interests. Rasmussen was soon joined by another former Google employee, Tom Stocky.

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Saving this dinosaur took a skeleton crew

The urgent message went well beyond Robert Painter's usual areas of legal expertise — personal injury, commercial disputes, medical malpractice.

In less than 48 hours, the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a fierce cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, would be up for auction.

"Sorry for the late notice," the email said. "Is there anything we can do to legally stop this?"

The president of Mongolia, whom Painter had met 10 years before at a public policy conference, was now asking the Houston lawyer to block the sale of a fossil that scientists believed had been looted from the Gobi Desert. The auction catalog described the specimen:

"The quality of the preservation is superb, with wonderful bone texture and delightfully mottled grayish bone color. In striking contrast are those deadly teeth, long and frightfully robust, in a warm woody brown color, the fearsome, bristling mouth and monstrous jaws leaving one in no doubt as to how the creature came to rule its food chain."

The sheer size and condition of the fossil seemed guaranteed to fetch a seven-figure price. When Painter read the email May 18, it was already 6:30 p.m. on a Friday. The auction was Sunday.

In the days that followed, Painter, a New York auctioneer, a Texas judge, federal prosecutors, the Mongolian president and a self-described "commercial paleontologist" would come together somewhat like the skeleton they were fighting for, disparate parts brought together through dogged effort and mysterious circumstances.

The fight would play out in federal courts in a case known as United States of America vs. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton.

***

Since 1924, the Mongolian constitution has classified dinosaur fossils as "culturally significant," meaning they cannot be taken from the country without government permission. Over the years, the punishment for illegally keeping or smuggling dinosaur bones has varied from up to seven years in prison to 500 hours of forced labor or paying up to 500,000 tugriks, the Mongolian currency. (That's about $356.50.)

Cultural heritage is a sensitive subject for a people who, their history of Genghis Khan's empire-building notwithstanding, saw powerful, aggressive neighbors invade their lands repeatedly.

After advertising for the auction caught the attention of paleontologists worldwide, Mongolian officials and journalists quickly learned of the fossil with the "delightfully mottled grayish bone color."

"The dinosaur has the color of the Gobi sand," said Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, an advisor to Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj. "Such color is very particular and familiar to us and belongs to this country."

On May 18, as Tsedevdamba was preparing to leave her home in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, for a meeting, her husband, a science enthusiast, pointed out a news report he'd found online: A Tyrannosaurus bataar was going to be auctioned in New York.

Auctioned fossils are usually too expensive for universities to buy, and private sellers typically don't provide enough details on how or where they got them. That leaves many of the bones in the hands of wealthy fossil buffs, or museums that look the other way.

"Technically, public institutions are neither ethically allowed to own poached specimens, nor are scientists supposed to publish on poached specimens," said Philip Currie, a University of Alberta paleontologist who studied the Gobi Desert region for 15 years. "In other words, they become scientifically useless."

The Tyrannosaurus bataar was 24 feet long, stood 8 feet high and weighed two tons. Still, the beast was only two-thirds grown when it died 70 million years ago.

Though it never grew into a 34-foot adult, the Tyrannosaurus thrived on the abundant prey attracted to the Nemegt Basin, then a lush river plain that straddled what is today the Gobi Desert on the Mongolia-China border. The carnivore's main competitors were its own kind.

The creature's jaw still carries bite marks, apparently inflicted by another Tyrannosaurus bataar.

These predators were "scrappy," Currie said. "They weren't overly playful."

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AP source: Armstrong tells Oprah Winfrey he doped

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After a decade of denial, Lance Armstrong has finally come clean: He used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.

The disgraced cyclist made the confession to Oprah Winfrey during an interview taped Monday, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday on Winfrey's network.

The admission Monday came hours after an emotional apology by Armstrong to the Livestrong charity that he founded and took global on the strength of his celebrity as a cancer survivor who came back to win one of sport's most grueling events.

The confession was a stunning reversal, after years of public statements, interviews and court battles in which he denied doping and zealously protected his reputation.

Winfrey tweeted afterward, "Just wrapped with (at)lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours. He came READY!" She was scheduled to appear on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday to discuss the interview.

Even before the taping session with Winfrey began around 2 p.m., EST, Armstrong's apology suggested he would carry through on promises over the weekend to answer her questions "directly, honestly and candidly."

The cyclist was stripped of his Tour de France titles, lost most of his endorsements and was forced to leave the foundation last year after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a damning, 1,000-page report that accused him of masterminding a long-running doping scheme.

About 100 staff members of the charity Armstrong founded in 1997 gathered in a conference room as Armstrong arrived with a simple message: "I'm sorry." He choked up during a 20-minute talk, expressing regret for the long-running controversy tied to performance-enhancers had caused, but stopped short of admitting he used them.

Before he was done, several members were in tears when he urged them to continue the charity's mission, helping cancer patients and their families.

"Heartfelt and sincere," is how Livestrong spokesman Katherine McLane described his speech.

Armstrong later huddled with almost a dozen people before stepping into a room set up at a downtown Austin hotel for the interview.

The group included close friends and advisers, two of his lawyers and Bill Stapleton, his agent, manager and business partner. They exchanged handshakes and smiles, but declined comment when approached by a reporter. Most members of that group left the hotel through the front entrance around 5 p.m., although Armstrong was not with them.

No further details about the interview were available immediately because of confidentiality agreements signed by both camps. But Winfrey promoted it as a "no-holds barred" session, and after the voluminous USADA report — which included testimony from 11 former teammates — she had plenty of material for questions. USADA chief executive Travis Tygart, a longtime critic of Armstrong's, called the drug regimen practiced while Armstrong led the U.S. Postal Service team, "The most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

Armstrong also went after his critics ruthlessly during his reign as cycling champion. He scolded some in public and didn't hesitate to punish outspoken riders during the race itself. He waged legal battles against still others in court.

Betsy Andreu, the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, was one of the first to publicly accuse Armstrong of using performance-enhancing drugs. She called news of Armstrong's confession "very emotional and very sad," and got choked up as well when asked to comment.

"He used to be one of my husband's best friends and because he wouldn't go along with the doping, he got kicked to the side. Lance could have a positive impact if he tells the truth on everything. He's got to be completely honest," she said.

At least one of his opponents, the London-based Sunday Times, has already filed a lawsuit to recover about $500,000 it paid him to settle a libel case, and Dallas-based SCA Promotions, which tried to deny Armstrong a promised bonus for a Tour de France win, has threatened to bring yet another lawsuit seeking to recover more than $7.5 million an arbitration panel awarded the cyclist in that dispute.

In addition, former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, has filed a federal whistle-blower lawsuit that accused Armstrong of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service. The Justice Department has yet to decide whether it will join the suit as a plaintiff.

The lawsuit most likely to be influenced by a confession might be the Sunday Times case. Potential perjury charges stemming from Armstrong's sworn testimony in the 2005 arbitration fight would not apply because of the statute of limitations. Armstrong was not deposed during the federal investigation that was closed last year.

Armstrong is said to be worth around $100 million. But most sponsors dropped him after USADA's scathing report — at the cost of tens of millions of dollars — and soon after, he left the board of Livestrong.

After the USADA findings, he was also barred from competing in the elite triathlon or running events he participated in after his cycling career. World Anti-Doping Code rules state his lifetime ban cannot be reduced to less than eight years. WADA and U.S. Anti-Doping officials could agree to reduce the ban further depending on what information Armstrong provides and his level of cooperation.

Whether his confession would begin to heal those ruptures and restore that reputation remains to be seen.

Diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 1996, the disease soon spread to his lungs and brains. Armstrong's doctors gave him a 40 percent chance of survival at the time and never expected he'd compete at anything more strenuous than gin rummy. Winning the demanding race less than three years later made Armstrong a hero.

___

Jim Litke reported from Chicago.

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Personal Best: Training Insights From Star Athletes

Of course elite athletes are naturally gifted. And of course they train hard and may have a phalanx of support staff — coaches, nutritionists, psychologists.

But they often have something else that gives them an edge: an insight, or even an epiphany, that vaults them from the middle of the pack to the podium.

I asked several star athletes about the single realization that made the difference for them. While every athlete’s tale is intensely personal, it turns out there are some common themes.

Stay Focused

Like many distance swimmers who spend endless hours in the pool, Natalie Coughlin, 30, used to daydream as she swam laps. She’d been a competitive swimmer for almost her entire life, and this was the way she — and many others — managed the boredom of practice.

But when she was in college, she realized that daydreaming was only a way to get in the miles; it was not allowing her to reach her potential. So she started to concentrate every moment of practice on what she was doing, staying focused and thinking about her technique.

“That’s when I really started improving,” she said. “The more I did it, the more success I had.”

In addition to her many victories, Ms. Coughlin won five medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke.

Manage Your ‘Energy Pie’

In 1988, Steve Spence, then a 25-year-old self-coached distance runner, was admitted into the United States Long Distance Runner Olympic Development Program. It meant visiting David Martin, a physiologist at Georgia State University, several times a year for a battery of tests to measure Mr. Spence’s progress and to assess his diet.

During dinner at Dr. Martin’s favorite Chinese restaurant, he gave Mr. Spence some advice.

“There are always going to be runners who are faster than you,” he said. “There will always be runners more talented than you and runners who seem to be training harder than you. The key to beating them is to train harder and to learn how to most efficiently manage your energy pie.”

Energy pie? All the things that take time and energy — a job, hobbies, family, friends, and of course athletic training. “There is only so much room in the pie,” said Mr. Spence.

Dr. Martin’s advice was “a lecture on limiting distractions,” he added. “If I wanted to get to the next level, to be competitive on the world scene, I had to make running a priority.” So he quit graduate school and made running his profession. “I realized this is what I am doing for my job.”

It paid off. He came in third in the 1991 marathon world championships in Tokyo. He made the 1992 Olympic marathon team, coming in 12th in the race. Now he is head cross-country coach and assistant track coach at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. And he tells his teams to manage their energy pies.

Structure Your Training

Meredith Kessler was a natural athlete. In high school, she played field hockey and lacrosse. She was on the track team and the swimming team. She went to Syracuse University on a field hockey scholarship.

Then she began racing in Ironman triathlons, which require athletes to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and then run a marathon (26.2 miles). Ms. Kessler loved it, but she was not winning any races. The former sports star was now in the middle of the pack.

But she also was working 60 hours a week at a San Francisco investment bank and trying to spend time with her husband and friends. Finally, six years ago, she asked Matt Dixon, a coach, if he could make her a better triathlete.

One thing that turned out to be crucial was to understand the principles of training. When she was coaching herself, Ms. Kessler did whatever she felt like, with no particular plan in mind. Mr. Dixon taught her that every workout has a purpose. One might focus on endurance, another on speed. And others, just as important, are for recovery.

“I had not won an Ironman until he put me on that structure,” said Ms. Kessler, 34. “That’s when I started winning.”

Another crucial change was to quit her job so she could devote herself to training. It took several years — she left banking only in April 2011 — but it made a huge difference. Now a professional athlete, with sponsors, she has won four Ironman championships and three 70.3 kilometer championships.

Ms. Kessler’s parents were mystified when she quit her job. She reminded them that they had always told her that it did not matter if she won. What mattered was that she did her best. She left the bank, she said, “to do my best.”

Take Risks

Helen Goodroad began competing as a figure skater when she was in fourth grade. Her dream was to be in the Olympics. She was athletic and graceful, but she did not really look like a figure skater. Ms. Goodroad grew to be 5 feet 11 inches.

“I was probably twice the size of any competitor,” she said. “I had to have custom-made skates starting when I was 10 years old.”

One day, when Helen was 17, a coach asked her to try a workout on an ergometer, a rowing machine. She was a natural — her power was phenomenal.

“He told me, ‘You could get a rowing scholarship to any school. You could go to the Olympics,’ ” said Ms. Goodroad. But that would mean giving up her dream, abandoning the sport she had devoted her life to and plunging into the unknown.

She decided to take the chance.

It was hard and she was terrified, but she got a rowing scholarship to Brown. In 1993, Ms. Goodroad was invited to train with the junior national team. Three years later, she made the under-23 national team, which won a world championship. (She rowed under her maiden name, Betancourt.)

It is so easy to stay in your comfort zone, Ms. Goodroad said. “But then you can get stale. You don’t go anywhere.” Leaving skating, leaving what she knew and loved, “helped me see that, ‘Wow, I could do a whole lot more than I ever thought I could.’ ”

Until this academic year, when she had a baby, Ms. Goodroad, who is 37, was a rowing coach at Princeton. She still runs to stay fit and plans to return to coaching.

The Other Guy Is Hurting Too

In 2006, when Brian Sell was racing in the United States Half Marathon Championships in Houston, he had a realization.

“I was neck-and-neck with two or three other guys with two miles to go,” he said. He started to doubt himself. What was he doing, struggling to keep up with men whose race times were better than his?

Suddenly, it came to him: Those other guys must be hurting as much as he was, or else they would not be staying with him — they would be pulling away.

“I made up my mind then to hang on, no matter what happened or how I was feeling,” said Mr. Sell. “Sure enough, in about half a mile, one guy dropped out and then another. I went on to win by 15 seconds or so, and every race since then, if a withering surge was thrown in, I made every effort to hang on to the guy surging.”

Mr. Sell made the 2008 Olympic marathon team and competed in the Beijing Olympics, where he came in 22nd. Now 33 years old, he is working as a scientist at Lancaster Laboratories in Pennsylvania.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 15, 2013

An earlier version of this post misstated the year in which Steve Spence competed in the Olympic marathon, finishing 12th. It was 1992, not 2004. It also misidentified the institution at which he is a coach. It is Shippensburg University, not Shippensburg College.

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CalPERS gains more than 13% in investment returns in 2012

By Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times

January 15, 2013

California's massive public employee pension system gained more than 13% in investment returns last year, most of it from stocks and real estate, the agency said.

It was the best year for the California Public Employees' Retirement System since 2006, when the fund gained 15.7%. CalPERS investments were up 1.1% in 2011 as it struggled to regain its footing after the Great Recession.

With more than $250 billion in assets, CalPERS is the largest public employee pension fund in the U.S. The agency administers retirement benefits for more than 1.6 million current and retired state, school and local government employees and their families.

Though it released returns for the calendar year, CalPERS reports on a fiscal year ending June 30. And its returns in the first six months of its current fiscal year were 7.1%, slightly below the 7.5% it had assumed it would gain for the full fiscal year.

"We're definitely pleased," said Joe DeAnda, a CalPERS spokesman. "Our hopes are that the performance will continue along these lines."

Investment returns are significant because they help dictate the amount of money that government agencies have to contribute to provide retirement benefits for employees. The importance of the fund's investments was magnified in 2008, when it lost 28% amid the global economic crisis and recession.

Rob Feckner, president of the CalPERS board, said he remains optimistic about the fund's future.

"As we emerge from this recession, I am positive we will continue on the path of improved transparency, accountability and ethics," he said.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com

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'Les Miz,' 'Argo' win big at Golden Globes, but Jodie Foster is talk of show

Who needs an Oscar nomination anyway? Ben Affleck reigned over the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night as “Argo” won for best dramatic film and for director.

It was a bit of vindication, perhaps, for Affleck being overlooked for an Oscar directing nomination for the film about a CIA plot to rescue Americans trapped in Iran in 1979-80.

Since he was snubbed by the movie academy last week, he has won the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for best director for the film as well.

PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2013 red carpet

The musical “Les Miserables” was the big film winner at the 70th annual awards, winning the marquee categories of best musical or comedy, lead actor for Hugh Jackman and supporting actress for Anne Hathaway.

Jackman’s win for playing Jean Valjean in the epic musical based on Victor Hugo's novel was seen as something as an upset, because Bradley Cooper was seen as a favorite for his role as a bipolar young man in the quirky romantic comedy “Silver Linings Playbook.” 

Daniel Day-Lewis won lead actor for playing the nation’s 16th president in “Lincoln.” Steven Spielberg’s historical epic went into the ceremony leading with seven nominations. Until Day-Lewis, the historical epic has been shut out.

PHOTOS: Nominees & winners | Red carpet

Jessica Chastain won for her role as a CIA operative who helps track down Osama bin Laden in “Zero Dark Thirty.” Earlier in the evening, Ben Affleck won a standing ovation, and a Golden Globe, for directing “Argo” — a bit of vindication, perhaps, for being overlooked for an Oscar nomination for the film about a CIA plot to rescue Americans trapped in Iran in 1980.

Since he was snubbed by the movie academy last week, he has won the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for best director for the film as well.

Affleck followed Jodie Foster, who took to the stage to give a ... retirement speech? A coming-out speech? It was hard to tell. She was receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement when she ramped up to confess that she was single ...  and seemed to sidestep directly addressing any questions about her sexual orientation.

Her acceptance speech at the 70th annual awards was also a rant in favor of privacy that brought many people to its feet. Foster noted that she has lived virtually her entire life in the public eye yet wanted to keep some things private. “I have given everything up there from the time I was 3 years old,” she said. “That is reality enough.” (Memo to Foster: Nothing will destroy an attempt at privacy like telling the world you want to keep your life private.)

PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2013 red carpet

She did thank her ex-partner and co-parent, Cydney Bernard, and suggested that she was embarking on Act 2 of her career. In some ways in sounded like a retirement speech. She seemed to say that from now on, she will only take projects that tap into her creativity.

Earlier in the evening, maverick filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was a surprise screenplay winner for “Django Unchained,” his controversial spaghetti Western set during the slavery era, beating out such favorites as the writers of “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Lincoln,” “Argo,” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting this,” said an effusive Tarantino. “I'm happy to be surprised.”

Tarantino’s win meant one more loss for Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” which had gone into the ceremony leading with seven nominations. So far, the historical epic has been shut out.

Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway sang her way to a Golden Globe for supporting actress in a movie as the tragic Fantine in the musical “Les Miserables.”

With her pixie haircut and tasteful white gown, Hathaway was reminiscent of a young Audrey Hepburn, charming viewers as she thanked her co-stars, family and friends — and had a special thanks for Sally Field, nominated in the same category for “Lincoln.” She noted that Field forged a career that resisted typecasting — something Hathaway has struggled with as well. Field had played the Flying Nun on TV but went on to play Norma Rae and, more recently, Mary Todd Lincoln.

PHOTOS: Moments from the show

"Thank you for this lovely blunt object," Hathaway told the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.  “I'll forever use it as a weapon against self-doubt.”

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Iowa man, sister reunite thanks to Facebook, boy

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been reunited with his sister 65 years after the siblings were separated in foster care thanks to a 7-year-old friend who searched Facebook.

Clifford Boyson of Davenport met his sister, Betty Billadeau, in person on Saturday. Billadeau drove up from her home in Florissant, Mo., with her daughter and granddaughter for the reunion at a hotel in Davenport.

Boyson, 66, and Billadeau, 70, both tried to find each other for years without success. They were placed in different foster homes in Chicago when they were children.

Then 7-year-old Eddie Hanzelin, who is the son of Boyson‘s landlord, got involved.

Eddie managed to find Billadeau by searching his mom’s Facebook account with Billadeau’s maiden name. He recognized the family resemblance when he saw her picture.

“Oh, my God,” Boyson said when he saw and hugged Billadeau.

“You do have a sister,” Billadeau said.

“You’re about the same height Mom was,” Boyson said.

Billadeau’s daughter, Sarah Billadeau, 42, and granddaughter, Megan Billadeau, 27, both wiped away tears and smiled during the reunion.

“He didn’t have any women in his life,” Sarah said. “We’re going to get that straightened out real fast.”

Boyson said he’s looking forward to visiting Billadeau near St. Louis and meeting more family.

“I’m hoping I can go and spend a week or two,” he said. “I want to meet the whole congregation. I never knew I had a big family.”

Eddie, who enjoys messing around with his family’s iPad, said he’s glad he was able to assist in making the reunion happen and that he learned about helping others at school.

“Clifford did not have any family, and family’s important,” the boy said.

Near the end of their tearful reunion Boyson and Billadeau presented Eddie with a $ 125 check in appreciation of his detective work.

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'Argo,' 'Les Miserables' win best-pic Globes

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — "Argo" is in big with the Golden Globes, but not so much with the Academy Awards. "Lincoln" is sitting pretty with the Oscars but was mostly left out in the cold at the Globes.

Sunday's Globes left the Feb. 24 Academy Awards picture still muddled, with the Iran hostage thriller "Argo" winning for best drama and director for Ben Affleck, a prize he already knows he can't win at the Oscars, where he wasn't even nominated.

The night left "Argo" taking home the top prize at the Globes but standing as a longshot for best picture at the Oscars, where films almost never win if their directors are not nominated.

In a breathless, rapid-fire speech, Affleck gushed over the names of other nominees presenter Halle Berry had read off: Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln," Ang Lee for "Life of Pi," Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Quentin Tarantino for "Django Unchained."

"Look, I don't care what the award is. When they put your name next to the names she just read off, it's an extraordinary thing in your life," Affleck said.

Meantime, Spielberg's "Lincoln" came in leading the Globes with seven nominations but won only one award, best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. "Lincoln" also leads the Oscars with 12 nominations, with Spielberg, Day-Lewis and co-star Sally Field all in the running for possible third Oscars.

"If I had this on a timeshare basis with my wonderful gifted colleagues, I might just hope to keep it for one day of the year, and I'd be happy with that," Day-Lewis said.

The night featured former President Bill Clinton getting a standing ovation after introducing "Lincoln" and Jodie Foster coming out without really coming out as this year's winner of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. Foster joked that celebrities are now expected to reveal they're gay "with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show." She declined: "My reality show is so boring."

"Les Miserables" was named best musical or comedy and won acting honors for Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

Besides the three wins for "Les Miserables" and two for "Argo," the show was a mixed bag, with awards spreads around a number of films.

"Zero Dark Thirty" star Jessica Chastain won the Globe for dramatic actress as a CIA agent obsessively pursuing Bin Laden.

Other acting prizes went to Jennifer Lawrence as best musical or comedy actress for the oddball romance "Silver Linings Playbook" and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for the slave-revenge tale "Django Unchained."

"Les Miserables," the musical based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, earned Jackman the Globe for musical or comedy actor as tragic hero Jean Valjean. Hathaway won supporting actress as a single mom forced into prostitution.

"Thank you for this lovely blunt object that I will forevermore use as a weapon against self-doubt," Hathaway said, cradling her trophy.

Jackman was a bit hoarse from the flu, but his Globe win seemed to be the right antidote.

"I was kicking myself for not getting the flu shot, but it appears that you don't need one. I feel great," Jackman said.

But when it comes to Hollywood's highest honors, "Les Miserables" has the same obstacle as "Argo," also failing to earn a best-director slot for filmmaker Tom Hooper at the Oscars.

Last Thursday's Oscar nominations held other shockers, including the omission of fellow Globe directing nominee Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty."

Clinton upstaged Hollywood's elite with a surprise appearance to introduce Spielberg's "Lincoln," which was up for best drama. The film chronicles Abraham Lincoln's final months as he tries to end the war and find common ground in a divided Congress to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

Lincoln's effort was "forged in a cauldron of both principle and compromise," Clinton said. "This brilliant film shows us how he did it and gives us hope that we can do it again."

Amy Poehler, co-host of the Globes with Tina Fey, gushed afterward, "Wow, what an exciting special guest! That was Hillary Clinton's husband!"

Lawrence won as best actress in a musical or comedy for her role as a troubled widow in a shaky new relationship. The Globe winners in musical or comedy categories often aren't factors at the Oscars, which tend to favor heavier dramatic roles.

But "Silver Linings Playbook" is a crowd-pleasing comic drama with deeper themes than the usual comedy. And Lawrence — a 2010 Oscar nominee for her breakout film "Winter's Bone" who shot to superstardom with "The Hunger Games" — delivers a nice mix of humor and melancholy.

"What does this say? I beat Meryl," Lawrence joked as she looked at her award, referring to fellow nominee and multiple Globe winner Meryl Streep. Lawrence went on to thank her mother for believing in her and her father for making her maintain a sense of humor.

Waltz won supporting actor for his role as a genteel bounty hunter who takes on an ex-slave as apprentice.

The win was Waltz's second supporting-actor prize at the Globes, both of them coming in Tarantino films; he previously won for "Inglourious Basterds."

"Let me gasp," said Waltz, whose competition included "Django" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. "Quentin, you know that my indebtedness to you and my gratitude knows no words."

Tarantino won the screenplay prize for "Django Unchained." He thanked his cast and also the group of friends to whom he reads work-in-progress for reaction.

"You guys don't know how important you are to my process. I don't want input. I don't want you to tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. Heavens forbid," Tarantino said. "When I read it to you, I hear it through your ears, and it lets me know I'm on the right track."

The Scottish tale "Brave" won for best animated film. It was the sixth win for Disney's Pixar Animation unit in the seven years since the Globes added the category.

Austrian director Michael Haneke's old-age love story "Amour," a surprise best-picture nominee for the Oscars, won the Globe for foreign-language film. The top prize winner at last May's Cannes Film Festival, "Amour" is a grim yet moving portrait of an elderly woman tended by her husband as she is incapacitated by age.

Pop star Adele and co-writer Paul Epworth won for best song for their theme tune to the James Bond adventure "Skyfall."

"Oh, my God!" Adele gushed repeatedly, before offering gratitude to the group that presents the Globes. "I'd like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press. I never thought I'd say that."

The prize for musical score went to Mychael Danna for the lost-at-sea tale "Life of Pi."

Show hosts Fey and Poehler, who co-starred in the 2008 big-screen comedy "Baby Mama," had a friendly rivalry at the Globes. Both were nominated for best actress in a TV comedy series, Fey for "30 Rock" and Poehler for "Parks and Recreation."

"Tina, I just want to say that I very much hope that I win," Poehler told Fey at the start of the show.

"Thank you. You're my nemesis. Thank you," Fey replied.

Neither won. Lena Dunham claimed the comedy series Globe for "Girls."

After that, Fey and Poehler showed up on stage with cocktail glasses, Fey joking that it was time to start drinking.

"Everyone's getting a little loose now that we're all losers," Poehler said.

Among other TV winners, Julianne Moore won a best-actress Globe for her role as Sarah Palin in "Game Change," which also was picked as best TV miniseries or movie and earned Ed Harris a supporting-actor prize. Best actor in a miniseries or movie went to Kevin Costner for "Hatfields & McCoys." ''Homeland" was named best TV drama series, and its stars Claire Danes and Damian Lewis received the dramatic acting awards. Maggie Smith won as supporting actress for "Downton Abbey."

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AP Entertainment Writers Anthony McCartney and Beth Harris contributed to this report.

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Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Psychologist Who Studied Depression in Women, Dies at 53

Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a psychologist and writer whose work helped explain why women are twice as prone to depression as men and why such low moods can be so hard to shake, died on Jan. 2 in New Haven. She was 53.

Andrew Sacks

Susan Nolen-Hoeksema at the University of Michigan in 2003. Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema's research showed that women were more prone to ruminate, or dwell on the sources of problems rather than solutions, more than men.

Her death followed heart surgery to correct a congenitally weak valve, said her husband, Richard Nolen-Hoeksema.

Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema, a professor at Yale University, began studying depression in the 1980s, a time of great excitement in psychiatry and psychology. New drugs like Prozac were entering the market; novel talking therapies were proving effective, too, particularly cognitive behavior therapy, in which people learn to defuse upsetting thoughts by questioning their basis.

Her studies, first in children and later in adults, exposed one of the most deceptively upsetting of these patterns: rumination, the natural instinct to dwell on the sources of problems rather than their possible solutions. Women were more prone to ruminate than men, the studies found, and in a landmark 1987 paper she argued that this difference accounted for the two-to-one ratio of depressed women to depressed men.

She later linked rumination to a variety of mood and behavior problems, including anxiety, eating disorders and substance abuse.

“The way I think she’d put it is that, when bad things happen, women brood — they’re cerebral, which can feed into the depression,” said Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who oversaw her doctoral work. “Men are more inclined to act, to do something, plan, beat someone up, play basketball.”

Dr. Seligman added, “She was the leading figure in sex differences in depression of her generation.”

Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema wrote several books about her research for general readers, including “Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life.” These books described why rumination could be so corrosive — it is deeply distracting; it tends to highlight negative memories — and how such thoughts could be alleviated.

Susan Kay Nolen was born on May 22, 1959, in Springfield, Ill., to John and Catherine Nolen. Her father ran a construction business, where her mother was the office manager; Susan was the eldest of three children.

She entered Illinois State University before transferring to Yale. She graduated summa cum laude in 1982 with a degree in psychology.

After earning a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, she joined the faculty at Stanford. She later moved to the University of Michigan, before returning to Yale in 2004.

Along the way she published scores of studies and a popular textbook. In 2003 she became the editor of the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, an influential journal.

Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema moved smoothly between academic work and articles and books for the general reader.

“I think part of what allowed her to move so easily between those two worlds was that she was an extremely clear thinker, and an extremely clear writer,” said Marcia K. Johnson, a psychology professor and colleague at Yale.

Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema lived in Bethany, Conn. In addition to her husband, a science writer, she is survived by a son, Michael; her brothers, Jeff and Steve; and her father, John.

“Over the past four decades women have experienced unprecedented growth in independence and opportunities,” Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema wrote in 2003, adding, “We have many reasons to be happy and confident.”

“Yet when there is any pause in our daily activities,” she continued, “many of us are flooded with worries, thoughts and emotions that swirl out of control, sucking our emotions and energy down, down, down. We are suffering from an epidemic of overthinking.”

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GM unveils 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

DETROIT — General Motors Co. on Sunday unleashed the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, the seventh generation of the classic American sports car and the first new version since 2005.

The Stingray boasts an estimated 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, making it the most powerful standard Corvette in history, GM said. The highly anticipated unveiling came on the eve of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit during a special preview at the city's Russell Industrial Center.

"For 60 years, the Corvette has represented the state of the art in performance cars," said Mark Reuss, GM North American president, as he stood on stage next to a fire-alarm red Stingray, its tarp just pulled off. "Since 1953, through the good times and the bad times for this company, there was always Corvette, demonstrating what it means to win — to be the best."

PHOTOS: Seven generations of Corvettes

The Stingray, a storied name first used in 1963, represents an important launch for General Motors as it tries to rebound from bankruptcy and shore up declining and historically low U.S. market share. The company will also use the Detroit auto show to formally debut its new Silverado and GMC trucks and its Cadillac ELR — a plug-in hybrid based on the Chevy Volt that's aimed at the California market.

Corvette production in recent years has plummeted — from more than 40,000 in 2007 to less than 12,000 in 2012 — but that can be at least partly attributed to an economy that hampered luxury purchases. Historically, Corvette redesigns, which have averaged once every nine years, have boosted production by 50% or more.

The new Stingray's exterior is a study in sharp edges and angles, continuing an evolution started with the 2005 redesign of its more-rounded predecessor. If there's a controversial styling element, it's the rather busy rear end, which replaces the 'Vette's signature round taillights with squarish lights that lean away from center.

"Of all the reveals at this week's NAIAS, the Corvette is bound to be the most polarizing," said Jesse Toprak, a senior analyst at auto price information company TrueCar Inc. "So many enthusiasts feel bound to the Corvette's swoopy heritage and may find the seventh-generation design to be too angular."

Bill Visnic, an analyst at auto information company Edmunds.com, said he was "on the fence" about the design.

"There is a need to make them distinctive, but in the case of the Corvette, there is still a need to pay homage to the tradition, and that gives you a mash-up of ideas," he said. "I think it is effective but expected."

If the styling departs somewhat from tradition, Chevy draws on the car's heritage with the return of the Stingray name.

"We knew we couldn't use the Stingray name unless the new car truly lived up to the legacy," said Ed Welburn, GM vice president of global design. "The result is a new Corvette Stingray that breaks from tradition, while remaining instantly recognizable as a Corvette the world over."

The new Stingray will rip through zero to 60 mph in less than four seconds and achieve more than one times the force of gravity in cornering grip, according to Chevrolet. The car will also be the most fuel-efficient Corvette to date, exceeding the EPA-estimated 26 mpg of the current model.

The all-new 6.2-liter LT1 V-8 engine features three new technologies: direct injection, variable valve timing and an active fuel management system that enables the engine to throttle down to a four-cylinder configuration in certain situations, such as highway cruising.

Putting power to the ground will be a new seven-speed manual transmission. The automatic transmission option is a six-speed with steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

A Z51 performance package will include an electronic limited-slip differential, dry-sump oiling system, integral brake, differential and transmission cooling, and an aerodynamics package that Chevrolet says improves high-speed stability.

The car's interior, a point of criticism in past Corvettes, will include carbon fiber, aluminum and hand-wrapped leather trim pieces, and two 8-inch configurable infotainment screens. There will be two seat choices: one for all-around comfort and a "Competition Sport" option with aggressive side bolstering to hold the driver in place during hard cornering.

The cockpit also features five settings the driver can select to optimize the car for varying driving conditions: Weather, Eco, Tour, Sport and Track.

GM has not revealed pricing for the new Stingray but said it will be in the range of the current car, which starts at about $50,000 and climbs into six figures in some variations.

GM executives hope the Corvette, which will go on sale in the third quarter, will build excitement for the entire Chevrolet brand.

"As we continue to bolster Chevrolet's best lineup ever, here comes the best Corvette ever," Reuss said as he unveiled the car in Detroit.

Toprak, of TrueCar, said the Corvette could generate street-level buzz for the company.

"In a year where GM's sales are expected to be stagnant," he said, "the new Corvette will bring the much-needed showroom traffic to Chevrolet dealers."

PHOTOS: Seven generations of Corvettes

jerry.hirsch@latimes.com

brian.thevenot@latimes.com

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