Football: Real Madrid break 500m-euro mark to top money list

LONDON: Real Madrid have become the first club in any sport to generate more than 500 million euros in revenue in a single year, according to the business advisory firm Deloitte.

The company's Football Money League, published for the 16th time on Thursday, sees Spanish champions Madrid retain their hold on first place ahead of perennial rivals Barcelona.

In an unchanged top six, Manchester United remain third, Bayern Munich fourth, European champions Chelsea fifth and Arsenal sixth, but English champions Manchester City soar five places to seventh.

AC Milan fall one place to eighth, with Liverpool remaining ninth and Italian champions Juventus rising three places to complete the top 10.

Madrid's revenue rose by seven percent to 512.6 million euros in the 2011-2012 season, equivalent to £414.7 million or $644.7 million at June 2012 exchange rates.

It enabled the nine-time European champions to hold onto top spot in the ranking for an eighth successive year, matching United's record from 1996-1997 to 2003-2004.

"It is an impressive achievement for Real Madrid to have surpassed 500 million euros in revenue in a single year," said Dan Jones from Deloitte's Sports Business Group.

"Real have led the way in the phenomenal rate of revenue growth achieved by the game's top clubs, with the double-digit (10-percent) increase by the top 20 clubs representing continued strong performance in these tough economic times.

"The combined revenues of the top 20 clubs have quadrupled since we began our analysis in 1996-1997."

Madrid triumphed in the Spanish Liga in 2011-2012, ending three years of dominance by arch-rivals Barcelona, but lost out in the Champions League after being beaten by Bayern in the semi-finals.

Overall, the combined revenue of the world's 20 highest-earning football clubs grew by 10 percent on the previous year to reach 4.8 billion euros.

City's climb of five places was matched by German champions Borussia Dortmund, who rose to 11th, and Italian side Napoli (15th).

"Manchester City's Premier League title-winning season, combined with participation in the UEFA Champions League, helped drive 51-percent revenue growth to 285.6 million euros, the largest absolute and relative growth of any Money League club," said Deloitte's Austin Houlihan.

"The club's progress to the top of the English and European game means that they are set to remain a top 10 Money League club for the foreseeable future."

The only new entry in the list was English side Newcastle United, who moved into the top 20 at the expense of Spanish club Valencia after a surprise fifth-place finish in the Premier League last season.

The English top flight remains the most well-represented league in the ranking, with seven of the 20 clubs hailing from the Premier League.

The Deloitte Football Money League 2013 (position, previous year's position, club, country, revenue in 2011-2012):

1. (1) Real Madrid (ESP) 512.6 million euros (£414.7 million)

2. (2) Barcelona (ESP) 483 million (390.8 million)

3. (3) Manchester United (ENG) 395.9 million (230.3 million)

4. (4) Bayern Munich (GER) 368.4 million (298.1 million)

5. (5) Chelsea (ENG) 322.6 million (261 million)

6. (6) Arsenal (ENG) 290.3 million (234.9 million)

7. (12) Manchester City (ENG) 285.6 million (231.1 million)

8. (7) AC Milan (ITA) 256.9 million (207.9 million)

9. (9) Liverpool (ENG) 233.2 million (188.7 million)

10. (13) Juventus (ITA) 195.4 million (158.1 million)

11. (16) Borussia Dortmund (GER) 189.1 million (153 million)

12. (8) Inter Milan (ITA) 185.9 million (150.4 million)

13. (11) Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) 178.2 million (144.2 million)

14. (10) Schalke 04 (GER) 174.5 million (141.2 million)

15. (20) Napoli (ITA) 148.4 million (120.1 million)

16. (14) Marseille (FRA) 135.7 million (109.8 million)

17. (17) Lyon (FRA) 131.9 million (106.7 million)

18. (18) Hamburg (GER) 121.1 million (98 million)

19. (15) Roma (ITA) 115.9 million (93.8 million)

20. (new) Newcastle United (ENG) 115.3 million (93.3 million)

- AFP/al

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'jOBS' biopic starring Ashton Kutcher to hit theaters April 19

Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

(Credit:
Sundance )

The Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher will open in theaters on April 19, the movie's distributor announced today.

The indie film, which is set to debut Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Firday, covers Jobs' life during the years 1971 through 2000 -- a time frame that includes the founding of Apple, as well as his ouster, the forming of NeXT and Pixar, and then his return to the company when Apple acquired NeXT.

The movie should not to be confused with a separate production penned by "The Social Network" and "The West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin. That movie is said to be based on Walter Isaacson's biography, while "jOBS" is based on widely available information.

Principal photography on "jOBS" began at Jobs' childhood home in Los Altos, Calif., in June. Photos from the production have since leaked out, showing Kutcher and others in costume.

Along with Kutcher, the movie also stars Matthew Modine as former Apple CEO John Sculley, Josh Gad as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and "The Help" star Ahna O'Reilly playing Chris-Ann Brennan, Jobs' girlfriend, and the mother of his daughter Lisa. Other additions include J.K. Simmons and Kevin Dunn, who will play venture capitalist Arthur Rock and former Apple CEO Gil Amelio respectively.

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The researchers observed the group in the ocean surrounding the Azores (map)—about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal—for eight days as the dolphin traveled, foraged, and played with both the adult whales and their calves. When the dolphin rubbed its body against the whales, they would sometimes return the gesture.

Among terrestrial animals, cross-species interactions are not uncommon. These mostly temporary alliances are forged for foraging benefits and protection against predators, said Wilson.

They could also be satisfying a desire for the company of other animals, added marine biologist John Francis, vice president for research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society (the Society owns National Geographic news).

Photographs of dogs nursing tiger cubs, stories of a signing gorilla adopting a pet cat, and videos of a leopard caring for a baby baboon have long circulated the web and caught national attention.

A Rare Alliance

And although dolphins are known for being sociable animals, Wilson called the alliance between sperm whale and bottlenose dolphin rare, as it has never, to his knowledge, been witnessed before.

This association may have started with something called bow riding, a common behavior among dolphins during which they ride the pressure waves generated by the bow of a ship or, in this case, whales, suggested Francis.

"Hanging around slower creatures to catch a ride might have been the first advantage [of such behavior]," he said, adding that this may have also started out as simply a playful encounter.

Wilson suggested that the dolphin's peculiar spinal shape made it more likely to initiate an interaction with the large and slow-moving whales. "Perhaps it could not keep up with or was picked on by other members of its dolphin group," he said in an email.

Default

But the "million-dollar question," as Wilson puts it, is why the whales accepted the lone dolphin. Among several theories presented in an upcoming paper in Aquatic Mammals describing the scientists' observations, they propose that the dolphin may have been regarded as nonthreatening and that it was accepted by default because of the way adult sperm whales "babysit" their calves.

Sperm whales alternate their dives between group members, always leaving one adult near the surface to watch the juveniles. "What is likely is that the presence of the calves—which cannot dive very deep or for very long—allowed the dolphin to maintain contact with the group," Wilson said.

Wilson doesn't believe the dolphin approached the sperm whales for help in protecting itself from predators, since there aren't many dolphin predators in the waters surrounding the Azores.

But Francis was not so quick to discount the idea. "I don't buy that there is no predator in the lifelong experience of the whales and dolphins frequenting the Azores," he said.

He suggested that it could be just as possible that the sperm whales accepted the dolphin for added protection against their own predators, like the killer whale (Orcinus orca), while traveling. "They see killer whales off the Azores, and while they may not be around regularly, it does not take a lot of encounters to make [other] whales defensive," he said.

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Pentagon to Allow Women in Combat

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a longstanding ban on women serving in combat, according to senior defense officials.

The services have until this May to come up with a plan to implement the change, according to a Defense Department official.

That means the changes could come into effect as early as May, though the services will have until January 2016 to complete the implementation of the changes.

"We certainly want to see this executed responsibly but in a reasonable time frame, so I would hope that this doesn't get dragged out," said former Marine Capt. Zoe Bedell, who joined a recent lawsuit aimed at getting women on the battlefield.

The military services also will have until January 2016 to seek waivers for certain jobs -- but those waivers will require a personal approval from the secretary of defense and will have to be based on rationales other than the direct combat exclusion rule.

The move to allow women in combat, first reported by the Associated Press, was not expected this week, although there has been a concerted effort by the Obama administration to further open up the armed forces to women.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously recommended in January to Secretary Panetta that the direct combat exclusion rule should be lifted.

"I can confirm media reports that the secretary and the chairman are expected to announce the lifting of the direct combat exclusion rule for women in the military," said a senior Defense Department official. "This policy change will initiate a process whereby the services will develop plans to implement this decision, which was made by the secretary of defense upon the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey sent Panetta a memo earlier this month entitled, "Women in Service Implementation Plan."

Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images

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"The time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service," the memo read.

"To implement these initiatives successfully and without sacrificing our warfighting capability or the trust of the American people, we will need time to get it right," he said in the memo, referring to the 2016 horizon.

Women have been officially prohibited from serving in combat since a 1994 rule that barred them from serving in ground combat units. That does not mean they have been immune from danger or from combat.

As Martha Raddatz reported in 2009, women have served in support positions on and off the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, where war is waged on street corners and in markets, putting them at equal risk. Hundreds of thousands of women deployed with the military to those two war zones over the past decade. Hundreds have died.

READ MORE: Female Warriors Engage in Combat in Iraq, Afghanistan

"The reality of the battlefield has changed really since the Vietnam era to where it is today," said Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a former military helicopter pilot who lost both her legs in combat. "Those distinctions on what is combat and what is not really are falling aside. So I think that after having seen women, men, folks who -- cooks, clerks, truck drivers -- serve in combat conditions, the reality is women are already in combat."

Woman have been able to fly combat sorties since 1993. In 2010, the Navy allowed them on submarines. But lifting restrictions on service in frontline ground combat units will break a key barrier in the military.

READ MORE: Smooth Sailing for First Women to Serve on Navy Submarines

READ MORE: Female Fighter Pilot Breaks Gender Barriers

Panetta's decision will set a January 2016 deadline for the military service branches to argue that there are military roles that should remain closed to women.

In February 2012 the Defense Department opened up 14,500 positions to women that had previously been limited to men and lifted a rule that prohibited women from living with combat units.

Panetta also directed the services to examine ways to open more combat roles to women.

However, the ban on direct combat positions has remained in place.

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MIT website hacked in tribute to Aaron Swartz

Hal Hodson, technology reporter

A tribute to internet activist Aaron Swartz replaced the homepage for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today, in an apparent act of protest over the university's role in the legal case that led up to Swartz's suicide on 11 Jan.

For a short time, visitors to the MIT.edu home page found a message that read: "R.I.P. Aaron Swartz. Hacked by grand wizard of Lulzsec, Sabu. God Bless America. Down With Anonymous." The background was watermarked with words from a blog post, written by Swartz, titled "Immoral".

Attributing the defacement to "grand wizard of Lulzsec, Sabu" lent the page a sarcastic air, as it's widely known that the former Lulzsec leader was outed as an FBI informant last year.

The attack on MIT's website came amid widespread criticism of how the university handled the case against Swartz, including an article in The New York Times that quoted Swartz's father as saying: "We don't believe [MIT] acted in a neutral way. My belief is they put their institutional concerns first."

According to MIT's service status page, network service was restored within the university as of 1:30 pm EST. The university had not yet returned New Scientist's request for comment when this story was published.

This is the second time since Swartz' death that the MIT site has been the target of attacks. Previously, an MIT sub-domain was replaced with a manifesto for reform of computer and copyright laws. The authors claimed to be operating as a part of the online activist group, Anonymous.

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Japan researchers grow kidney tissue from stem cells

TOKYO: Researchers in Japan said Wednesday they have succeeded in growing human kidney tissue from stem cells for the first time in a potential breakthrough for millions with damaged organs who are dependent on dialysis.

Kidneys have a complex structure that is not easily repaired once damaged, but the latest findings put scientists on the road to helping a diseased or distressed organ fix itself.

Kenji Osafune of Kyoto University said his team had managed to take stem cells -- the "blank slates" capable of being programmed to become any kind of cell in the body -- and nudge them specifically in the direction of kidney tissue.

"It was a very significant step," he told AFP.

Osafune said they had succeeded in generating intermediate mesoderm tissue from the stem cells, a middle point between the blank slate and the finished kidney tissue.

"There are about 200 types of cells in the human body, but this tissue grows into only three types of cells," namely adrenal cells, reproductive gland cells and kidney cells, he said, adding that as much as 90 percent of cultures in their research developed into viable mesoderm tissue.

This embryonic intermediary can be grown either in test tubes or in a living host into specific kidney cells.

Osafune and his team created part of a urinary tubule, a small tube in the kidney that is used in the production of urine.

While the research is not aimed at growing an entire working kidney, he said the method his team had developed would help scientists learn more about intermediate mesoderm development and may provide a source of cells for regenerative therapy.

"I would say that we have arrived at the preliminary step on the road to the clinical level," he said.

Osafune's research is published in online science journal Nature Communications.

-AFP/fl

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Steve Jobs threatened Palm with patents over no-poaching deal, says court filing

Steve Jobs threatened Palm with a patent lawsuit if the company didn't agree to a deal with Apple whereby neither company would poach the other's workers, according to a legal filing made public today that quotes former Palm CEO Edward Colligan.

The filing, a civil lawsuit brought by five tech workers against Apple, Google, and others that alleges the companies plotted to drive down wages, includes the following sworn statement from Colligan:

---

"In 2007, I received a call from Steve Jobs, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple. In the months before the call, several employees had moved between the two companies. On the call, Mr. Jobs expressed concern about employees being hired away from Apple by Palm. As a solution, Mr. Jobs proposed an arrangement between Palm and Apple by which neither company would hire the other's employees, including high tech employees. Mr. Jobs also suggested that if Palm did not agree to such an arrangement, Palm could face lawsuits alleging infringements of Apple's many patents."

---

Colligan's response to Jobs -- that such an arrangement was "not only wrong" but "likely illegal" -- was reported, along with mention of Apple's patents, back in 2009 by Bloomberg, which cited communications it had reviewed. But a sworn statement from Colligan became part of the public record today -- along with e-mails he says passed between him and Jobs -- after Judge Lucy Koh denied a request by the companies facing the civil suit to keep a number of sensitive documents sealed. Koh said last week that the e-mails between the two executives were key evidence for the plaintiffs in the case, according to Reuters.

In his e-mail response to Jobs, Colligan says that if Apple decides to pursue patent-related legal action, Palm can respond with patent action of its own. Jobs replies by pooh-poohing Palm's patents and saying "We are not concerned about them at all. My advice to you is to take a look at our patent portfolio before you make a decision."

Koh is considering whether the civil lawsuit can proceed as a class-action suit, Reuters reported, which could make for a larger settlement. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say damages could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but according to the news agency, Koh said the plaintiffs' economic analysis had "holes."

We've contacted Apple and Palm parent company HP for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

Tuesday's filing also spells out how Google put together no-hire agreements, Reuters reports, and it says that then-CEO Eric Schmidt advised the company's HR director not to put anything in writing when sharing agreements with rivals. A Google representative told the news agency that Google has "always actively and aggressively recruited top talent."

Here's Colligan's sworn statement, as posted by Apple Insider:

Colligan Affidavit

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The Promise and Perils of Mining Asteroids

Encouraged by new space technologies, a growing fleet of commercial rockets and the vast potential to generate riches, a group of entrepreneurs announced Tuesday that they planned to mine the thousands of near-Earth asteroids in the coming decades.

The new company, Deep Space Industries (DSI), is not the first in the field, nor is it the most well-financed. But with their ambition to become the first asteroid prospectors, and ultimately miners and manufacturers, they are aggressively going after what Mark Sonter, a member of DSI's board of directors, called "the main resource opportunity of the 21st century." (Related: "Asteroid Hunter to Be First Private Deep-Space Mission?")

Prospecting using miniaturized "cubesat" probes the size of a laptop will begin by 2015, company executives announced. They plan to return collections of asteroid samples to Earth not long after.

"Using low cost technologies, and combining the legacy of [the United States'] space program with the innovation of today's young high tech geniuses, we will do things that would have been impossible just a few years ago," said Rick Tumlinson, company chairman and a longtime visionary and organizer in the world of commercial space [not sure what commercial space means].

"We sit in a sea of resources so infinite they're impossible to describe," Tumlinson said.

Added Value

There are some 9,000 asteroids described as "near-Earth," and they contain several classes of resources that entrepreneurs are now eyeing as economically valuable.

Elements such as gold and platinum can be found on some asteroids. But water, silicon, nickel, and iron are the elements expected to become central to a space "economy" should it ever develop.

Water can be "mined" for its hydrogen (a fuel) and oxygen (needed for humans in space), while silicon can be used for solar power systems, and the ubiquitous nickel and iron for potential space manufacturing. (See an interactive on asteroid mining.)

Sonter, an Australian mining consultant and asteroid specialist, said that 700 to 800 near-Earth asteroids are easier to reach and land on than the moon.

DSI's prospecting spacecraft will be called "FireFlies," a reference to the popular science fiction television series of the same name. The FireFlies will hitchhike on rockets carrying up communication satellites or scientific instruments, but they will be designed so that they also have their own propulsion systems. The larger mining spacecraft to follow have been named "DragonFlies."

Efficiencies

It all sounds like science fiction, but CEO David Gump said that the technology is evolving so quickly that a space economy can soon become a reality. Providing resources from beyond Earth to power spacecraft and keep space travelers alive is the logical way to go.

That's because the most expensive and resource-intensive aspect of space travel is pushing through the Earth's atmosphere. Some 90 percent of the weight lifted by a rocket sending a capsule to Mars is fuel. Speaking during a press conference at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California, Gump said that Mars exploration would be much cheaper, and more efficient, if some of the fuel could be picked up en route. (Related: "7 Ways You Could Blast Off by 2023.")

Although there is little competition in the asteroid mining field so far, DSI has some large hurdles ahead of it. The first company to announce plans for asteroid mining was Planetary Resources, Inc. in spring 2012—the group is backed by big-name investors such as Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron, and early Google investor Ram Shriram. DSI is still looking for funding.

Owning Asteroids

While these potential space entrepreneurs are confident they can physically lay claim to resources beyond Earth, there remain untested legal issues.

The United Nations Space Treaty of 1967 expressly forbids ownership of other celestial bodies by governments on Earth. But American administrations have long argued that the same is not true of private companies and potential mining rights.

While an American court has ruled that an individual cannot own an asteroid—as in the case of Gregory Nemitz, who laid claim to 433 Eros as a NASA spacecraft was approaching it in 2001—the question of extraction rights has not been tested.

Moon rocks brought back to Earth during the Apollo program are considered to belong to the United States, and the Russian space agency has sold some moon samples it has returned to Earth-sales seen by some as setting a precedent.

Despite the potential for future legal issues, DSI's Gump said his group recently met with top NASA officials to discuss issues regarding technology and capital, and came away optimistic. "There's a great hunger for the idea of getting space missions done with smaller, cheaper 'cubesat' technology and for increased private sector involvement."

Everyone involved acknowledged the vast challenges and risks ahead, but they see an equally vast potential—both financial and societal.

"Over the decades, we believe these efforts will help expand the civilization of Earth into the cosmos, and change what it means to be a citizen of this planet," Tumlinson said.

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Al Qaeda Commander Killed for the 3rd Time

The second in command of al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate was reportedly killed in an airstrike in Yemen in December, according to a news report by Arabic television network Al Arabiya, the third time the former Guantanamo detainee has been reported dead since 2010.

According to the report, Said al-Shihri died last month after sustaining severe injuries from a joint U.S.-Yemeni airstrike that targeted a convoy in which he was riding. The al Arabiya account, based on information from "family sources," said that the airstrike left al-Shihri in a coma. He allegedly died soon after and was buried in Yemen.

On Tuesday afternoon, hours after the initial report, a Yemeni government official denied having any information regarding the death of al-Shihri, according to Arabic news site al-Bawaba.

No photos of a body have yet surfaced and no mention of his death has appeared on jihadi forums.
This is the third time al-Shihri, the second in command of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has been reported killed since 2009. In 2010, the Yemeni government claimed it had captured him. In September 2012, Yemeni news sites reported he was killed in an American drone strike.

PHOTOS: Terrorists Who Came Back from the Grave

READ: Gitmo Detainee turned terror commander killed: Reports

Al-Shihri, a "veteran jihadist," traveled to Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to fight coalition troops, only to be captured weeks later, according to West Point's Combating Terrorism Center. He was sent to the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he stayed for six years before being released to Saudi Arabia. There, he entered a so-called "jihadi rehab" program that attempted to turn terrorists into art students by getting them to get "negative energy out on paper," as the program's director told ABC News in 2009.

READ: Trading Bombs for Crayons: Terrorists Get 'Art Therapy'

But just months after he supposedly entered the fingerpainting camp, al-Shihri reappeared in Yemen where he was suspected to have been behind a deadly bombing at the U.S. embassy there.

At the time, critics of the "jihadi rehab" program used al-Shihri as evidence that extremists would just go through the motions in order to be freed.

Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.

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Today at New Scientist: 21 January 2013

Twitter reveals how Higgs gossip reached fever pitch

Anyone who fondly remembers the heady days of excitement preceding the Higgs boson announcement last year can now relive the experience

Vibrating navigator shows cyclists the way

A buzzing GPS-fuelled belt that tells cyclists when to turn might help them keep their eyes on the road and save lives

Call off the pregnancy police - women want the truth

Pregnant women can do without being made to feel guilty and burdened by wrong or contradictory advice. Just give them the facts, says Linda Geddes

Supernova-powered bow shock creates cosmic spectacle

The infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows how a massive speeding star is electrifying its surroundings

First video of squid sex reveals deep-sea Kama Sutra

Watch a pair of squid caught in the act for the first time in an unexpected sexual position

Let's be clear on health risks from radiation

Should Californians have had iodine after Fukushima? In Radiation Robert Peter Gale and Eric Lax clear up the confusion over radiation and health

Wind power delivers too much to ignore

Although aesthetic concerns need to be heard, qualms about wind's reliability are wide of the mark, argues an energy policy researcher

Quadruple DNA helix discovered in human cells

The classic double helix has been joined by a four-stranded version that may play a role in cancer

Turn up the bass to scare birds away from planes

Subwoofers that blast out sounds too low to be heard by humans can keep birds out of busy air space, and prevent them colliding with planes

Earth may be crashing through dark matter walls

If the universe is a patchwork quilt of exotic force fields, we should be able to detect dark matter whenever we cross between patches

Blinded by sun? Let your steering wheel guide you

A steering wheel that buzzes when drivers are dazzled by bright lights and drift from their lane could help curb accidents

NASA planet-hunter is injured and resting

The Kepler space telescope has put its search for alien Earths on hold while it recovers from a stressed reaction wheel

High-tech Dreamliner's wings clipped by battery trouble

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is replete with cutting-edge technology. But problems with its complex systems now have the planes grounded around the world

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