IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Jan. 15

NEWS Despite intensive airstrikes by French warplanes, Islamist fighters overran a strategic village and military post in central Mali on Monday, indicating that the war against extremists who have carved out a jihadist state in the nation’s north could be a long and difficult one. Steven Erlanger, Alan Cowell and Adam Nossiter report.

President Barack Obama and Republican Congressional leaders dug in Monday on their conflicting positions over raising the U.S. debt limit, indicating that the president’s second term will open with a potentially perilous budget showdown. Jackie Calmes and Jonathan Weisman report from Washington.

The chief human rights official at the United Nations, Navi Pillay, called on Monday for an international inquiry into human rights offenses committed by the North Korean government over many decades. Nick Cumming-Bruce reports from Geneva.

The Chinese state news media on Monday published aggressive reports on what they described as the dangerous air pollution in Beijing and other parts of northern China, indicating that popular anger over air quality had reached a level where propaganda officials felt they had to let the officially sanctioned press address the issue. Edward Wong reports from Beijing.

Unidentified gunmen on Monday sprayed bullets into the headquarters of Greece’s governing New Democracy party in Athens, adding to a wave of politically motivated violence. Liz Alderman reports from Athens.

ARTS When “Kung Fu Panda 3” kicks its way into China’s theaters in 2016, the country’s vigilant film censors will find no nasty surprises — after all, they have already dropped in to monitor the movie at the DreamWorks Animation campus in Los Angeles. The lure of access to China’s fast-growing film market is entangling studios and moviemakers with the state censors of a country in which American notions of free expression simply do not apply. Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes report from Los Angeles.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Quebec-born music director, is what the orchestra world is desperate for: a young, charismatic maestro who can win the respect of grizzled orchestra veterans, the enthusiasm of audiences and the praise of critics. Daniel J. Wakin reports from Montreal.

FASHION Something in the dank winter air or the chily economy is bringing out the tough side of the alpha male. Boots elevated on rubber soles and leather jackets padded with nylon and neoprene make men’s wear for winter 2013 look like it is designed to handle a hurricane. Suzy Menkes writes from Milan.

SPORTS Caroline Wozniacki, long No. 1 in women’s tennis, is now No. 10. Her plan for 2013 is to minimize the pain and the confusion; to restore clarity to her game and stability to her off-court structure. Christopher Clarey reports from Melbourne.

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AP source: Armstrong tells Oprah Winfrey he doped

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — 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. An attorney familiar with Armstrong's legal problems told the AP that the Justice Department is highly likely to join the lawsuit. The False Claims Act lawsuit could result in Armstrong paying a substantial amount of money to the U.S. government. The deadline for the department to join the case is Thursday, though the department could seek an extension if necessary.

According to the attorney, who works outside the government, the lawsuit alleges that Armstrong defrauded the U.S. government based on his years of denying use of performance-enhancing drugs. The attorney spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the matter.

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.

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Jim Litke reported from Chicago. Pete Yost in Washington also contributed to this report.

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Well: Turning to the Web for a Medical Diagnosis

Thirty-five percent of American adults said they have used the Internet to diagnose a medical condition for themselves or someone else, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Women are more likely than men to turn to the Internet for diagnoses. Other groups more likely to do so are younger people, white adults, people with college degrees and those who live in households with income above $75,000.

The study, released by Pew’s Internet and American Life Project on Tuesday, points out that Americans have always tried to answer their health questions at home, but that the Internet has expanded the options for research. Previous surveys have asked questions about online diagnoses, but the Pew study was the first to focus on the topic with a nationally representative sample, said Susannah Fox, an associate director at Pew Internet. Surveyors interviewed 3,014 American adults by telephone, from August to September 2012.

Of the one in three Americans who used the Internet for a diagnosis, about a third said they did not go to a doctor to get a professional medical opinion, while 41 percent said a doctor confirmed their diagnosis. Eighteen percent said a doctor did not agree with their diagnosis. As far as where people start when researching health conditions online, 77 percent said they started at a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo, while 13 percent said they began at a site that specializes in health information.

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California to Give Web Courses a Big Trial

A plan to offer an array of online college classes at a California state university could, if the students are successful, open the door to teaching hundreds of thousands of California students at a lower cost via the Internet.

Udacity, a Silicon Valley start-up that creates online college classes, will announce a deal on Tuesday with San Jose State University for a series of remedial and introductory courses.

Because the courses are intended to involve the classroom instructor, it could also help to blunt professors’ unease with the online classes. 

The state university’s deal with Udacity is also the first time that professors at a university have collaborated with a provider of a MOOC — massive open online course — to create for-credit courses with students watching videos and taking interactive quizzes, and receiving support from online mentors.

Eventually, such courses could be offered to hundreds of thousands of students in the state.

California Gov. Jerry Brown, who has been pushing state universities to move more aggressively into online education, approached the company to come up with a technological solution for what has become a vexing challenge for the state.

Ellen N. Junn, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the university in San Jose, said the California State University System faces a crisis because more than 50 percent of entering students cannot meet basic requirements.

“They graduate from high school, but they cannot pass our elementary math and English placement tests,” she said.

The Udacity pilot program will include a remedial algebra course, a college-level algebra course and introductory statistics.

For the pilot project starting this month, however, the courses will be limited to 300 students — half from San Jose State University, and half from local community colleges and high schools — who will pay lower than usual tuition. The cost of each three-unit course will be $150, significantly less than regular San Jose State tuition. Sebastian Thrun, one of the founders of Udacity, would not disclose how much the company would be paid for its participation.

San Jose State will receive funds from the National Science Foundation to study the effectiveness of the new online classroom design.

Open online courses exploded in American higher education in 2011 after Mr. Thrun, a nationally known artificial-intelligence researcher at Stanford, and Peter Norvig, Google’s director of research, offered to teach an introductory artificial-intelligence course online. More than 160,000 students initially registered for the class.

After two other Stanford courses each attracted more than 100,000 students, Dr. Thrun started his venture. Two other Stanford computer scientists, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, also established a competing private company, Coursera, to develop technologies necessary to change the reach and effectiveness of online education.

The courses have rapidly moved from the periphery to the center of higher education policy as a growing number of schools have begun experimenting with ways to offer the courses for credit toward a degree.

EdX, a university collaboration initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard last year, this month will begin offering some of its courses at two Massachusetts community colleges, in a blended format.

Recently edX completed a pilot offering of its difficult circuits and electronics course at San Jose State to stunning results: while 40 percent of the students in the traditional version of the class got a grade of C or lower, only 9 percent in the blended edX class got such a low grade.

Last fall, for the first time, Udacity’s courses were tried on a small group of struggling high school students, at the Winfree Academy Charter School system, a cluster of schools near Dallas-Fort Worth created to help struggling students and reclaim dropouts.

“I was a little scared to put our kids, who are struggling and at risk of dropping out, into a class written by a Stanford professor,” said Melody Chalkley, Winfree’s founder. “But of the 23 students who used Udacity, one withdrew from the school, and the other 22 all finished successfully. And two young women got through the whole physics course in just two weeks.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 15, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a California university faculty group. It is the California Faculty Association, not the California Teachers Association. The article also misstated the nature of the courses that San Jose State University will offer with Udacity. The courses will involve students watching videos and taking interactive quizzes; they will not be blended courses with students first watching videos on their own, and then coming to class to work on assignments with a professor.

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India Ink: Government Quells Maoist Rebellion in West Bengal

KOLKATA —Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has often called the conflict against the Communist Party of India (Maoist) the greatest internal security threat that India faces. With some 6,000 dead in India’s heartland since 2005 alone, it has certainly been one of the most violent.

Mr. Singh’s lingering inability to quell the bloodshed through a “two-pronged strategy” of economic development and armed counterinsurgency has led to repeated howls of protest; from the left for human rights abuses committed by ill-trained troops, and from the right for not employing a heavier hand to crush the rebellion. Traditionally protected by tribal populations, which have struggled to take part in India’s booming economic growth, the mobile Maoists evaded disjointed state-by-state responses while traversing India’s heavily forested central states. Recently the conflict took a particularly gruesome turn, when the body of a constable was discovered in Jharkhand, with a bomb sewn into the abdomen.

But a surprising thing happened at the start of this decade. After years of feeling one step behind the insurgents, the conflict’s momentum has suddenly shifted to the government’s favor. This was nowhere more evident than in the state of West Bengal. In 2010, more than 400 people died here as the state became the epicenter of the long-running insurgency. However, according to newly released figures collected by the Institute for Conflict Management, a research organization based in New Delhi, there were a mere four Maoist-related deaths in West Bengal in 2012 – a 99 percent drop in two years. While Maoist violence across India has fallen by more than 65 percent during the period, in West Bengal it has been all but eliminated.

How did the state turn things around so dramatically – and so quickly? Inspector General Vivek Sahay, who leads the Central Reserve Police Force in West Bengal, is in charge of the state’s anti-Maoist operations. Mr. Sahay believes that a greater number of officers available to combat the insurgency was essential to the turnaround. However, he said renewed attention to developing the building blocks of governance was just as important in causing the turning point as any military or strategic gains.

By weakening the insurgency in West Bengal, the government has been able to re-establish a constructive presence in rural areas, something Mr. Sahay sees as crucial. “Our success can’t be judged merely by kills or arrests,” he said. “It should be judged by the ability of other (government) departments to spend, to ensure that there is no fresh escalation of violence.”

Mr. Sahay is speaking about the second leg of the government’s strategy, highlighting the Central Reserve Police Force’s mandate to create an environment secure enough for rural development programs like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and other service-minded efforts to operate. By directly engaging with citizens, the government hopes that programs like these are the key weapon in the battle to win rural hearts and minds. Meanwhile, members of Mr. Singh’s government are daring to project confidence for the first time, lauding the “two-pronged strategy” as central to its success.

Still, backroom dealings may have also played a role. The Trinamool Congress, West Bengal’s current ruling party, has been repeatedly accused of aligning with the Maoists to gain rural support before the 2011 elections that brought it to power. The Trinamool Congress’s electoral rival, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), alleged that the chief minster of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, orchestrated a cease-fire deal with the Maoists before elections in exchange for rural support. Ms.Banerjee denies the deal, but her colleague, Kabir Suman , recently gave the claims renewed validity, claiming that they would have lost several key rural constituencies (and perhaps even the election) without the Maoists’ help.

Yet this alleged alliance may actually have served as the inadvertent breaking point of the insurgency. After the Maoists broke a cease-fire by assassinating several Trinamool Congress politicians, members of the Central Reserve Police Force used information gathered from pre-election mingling to kill the then-operational head of the Maoists, Kishenji.

A combination of secret surrender packages and promises to other former Maoist leaders of government jobs – mainly spying on their former comrades – have decimated Maoist ranks, leaving few capable enough to lead guerilla battles. Ms.Banerjee has cashed in on these victories, and in presiding over a populist government that has actively tried to extend development to its rural base, has made more concrete attempts to weaken the appeal of the Maoists than any West Bengal chief minister in a generation.

Will this combination of military successes and new promises of rural development finally mark the end of the 45-year old Maoist movement? Strategic successes by state and federal forces and a supportive political climate in West Bengal have quelled much of the worst violence, but few see permanent victory as being just around the corner. Even so, most recognize the once-in-a-generation opportunity to win back rural populations who feel that their government has repeatedly failed them. As Mr. Sahay warns, “it would be a colossal blunder if we let it slip.”

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Almacenamiento en nubes crecerá y permanecerá por años

(Paquete Tecnológico)

México, 13 Ene. (Notimex).- Ante el crecimiento de la industria de almacenamiento en nubes híbridas abiertas y ampliables, se prevé que esta tendencia se mantenga por muchos años más, anticipó Red-Hat.

Lo anterior debido al crecimiento de este sector en los últimos años, como consecuencia de la demanda en la aparición de datos no estructurados e implementaciones de nubes híbridas abiertas.

Durante 2013 el panorama de la industria informática no sólo cambiará, sino que la innovación en estos espacios surgirá al ritmo que los clientes necesiten y no al paso que imponen los proveedores, estimó la compañía de soluciones de código abierto (open source).

Para ello, prevé el surgimiento de soluciones de almacenamiento que ofrezcan un enfoque unificado para la obtención, el aprovisionamiento y la gestión de los datos de las empresas.

Explicó que estas deberán ser independientes de la clase de datos, tales como de archivos, objetos, bloques y datos semi-estructurados o no estructurados.

Al implementar estas soluciones, las empresas obtendrán grandes beneficios que se traducirán en menores gastos y en mayores niveles de servicio para sus usuarios finales, expuso la firma tecnológica.

Asimismo, consideró que el uso de software de almacenamiento de código abierto por parte de las empresas en lugar de software de almacenamiento propietario gravitará hacia el enfoque de código abierto para resolver los desafíos de almacenamiento de dicho sector.

Destacó que el rol del administrador de almacenamiento cambiará radicalmente con las implementaciones de nubes híbridas abiertas y se enfocarán en asegurar que el almacenamiento en el centro de datos funcione de manera óptima.

NTX/ILC/MDT

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Title games feature Ravens-Pats, 49ers-Falcons

One game is a rematch. The other might feel like one — at least to one of the teams.

For the second straight year in the AFC, the New England Patriots will host the Baltimore Ravens with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

In the NFC, it will be San Francisco traveling to Atlanta, with the Falcons defense trying to stop a versatile, running quarterback for the second straight week.

"Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick are mobile quarterbacks who throw the ball at extremely accurate levels," Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud said. "We can use this game as a cheat sheet to prepare for next week."

On Sunday, the Falcons barely got past Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks, who overcame a 20-point deficit to take a one-point lead, but gave it up after Matt Ryan drove Atlanta into field goal range and Matt Bryant made a 49-yard kick with 8 seconds left.

Atlanta is the only team not making a repeat appearance in the NFL's final four. Last year, it was the Giants playing, and beating, the 49ers for the NFC title.

On Saturday, Kaepernick passed for 263 yards and rushed for 181 — a playoff record for a quarterback — to defeat Green Bay 45-31.

"We're one step closer to where we want to be," said Kaepernick. San Francisco hasn't been to the Super Bowl since 1995, when Steve Young led the 49ers to their fifth Lombardi Trophy.

Though the Niners must travel cross country for the game, they opened as 3-point favorites in a meeting of teams that played twice a year until 2003, when Atlanta was moved from the NFC West to the NFC South. Their only previous playoff meeting was a 20-18 win for the Falcons in the 1998 divisional playoffs. Atlanta won at Minnesota the next week to make its only Super Bowl.

San Francisco's 20-17 overtime loss last year to the Giants was part of a tense day of football that began with New England's 23-20 victory over the Ravens in the AFC title game.

In that game, Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that would have tied the game with 11 seconds left.

This season, Justin Tucker beat out Cundiff for the kicker's job. Tucker hit a 47-yarder against Denver on Saturday to lift the Ravens to a 38-35 win in double overtime, extending Ray Lewis' career for at least one more week and putting the 17-year veteran one win away from his second Super Bowl.

"We fought hard to get back to this point and we're definitely proud of being here," Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said. "We feel like it's going to take a lot for somebody to come and kick us off that field come the AFC championship game."

Lewis and the Ravens will have to stop the NFL's most potent offense. The Patriots put up 457 yards in a 41-28 victory over Houston, which left them one win away from their sixth Super Bowl in the 2000s.

"I think the two best teams are in the final," Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said. "Baltimore certainly deserve to be here and so do we."

The Patriots were made early 9½-point favorites against the Ravens.

These teams met in the regular season and that game was also decided by a kick — Tucker's 27-yard field goal that sneaked through the right upright for a 31-30 victory. Or did it?

While the Ravens were celebrating, Pats coach Bill Belichick ran to midfield and grabbed a replacement official's arm as he tried to exit the field. The NFL fined Belichick $50,000 for the gesture.

New England is the even-money favorite in Vegas to win the Super Bowl. San Francisco is next at 2-1, followed by Atlanta (5-1) and Baltimore (8-1).

Among the possible Super Bowl story lines:

—The Harbaugh Bowl. Jim Harbaugh coaches the 49ers and John Harbaugh coaches the Ravens.

—A rematch of San Francisco's 41-34 win at New England on Dec. 16 — one of the most entertaining games of the regular season.

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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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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Wheels Blog: The Seventh-Generation Corvette Is Unveiled in Detroit

DETROIT — The Stingray is back, in name and in spirit.

At an invitation-only gathering hours before the North American International Auto Show was scheduled to open for press previews, General Motors introduced the 2014 Corvette, the seventh generation of Chevrolet’s hallmark sports car.

Underscoring the importance of this vehicle was Chevrolet’s revival of the long-dormant Stingray badge, a name it first used on a 1959 racecar built by G.M.’s design chief, Bill Mitchell. The hope for that original Stingray racecar was to beat Europe’s best, and G.M. still seems to be thinking along those lines.

According to G.M.’s president for North America, Mark Reuss, the latest Stingray is a potential worldbeater.

“Like the ’63 Sting Ray, the best Corvettes embodied performance leadership, delivering cutting-edge technologies, breathtaking design and awe-inspiring driving experiences,” Mr. Reuss said. “The all-new Corvette goes farther than ever, thanks to today’s advancements in design technology and engineering.”

The release of a new Corvette is always highly anticipated by auto enthusiasts; speculation about “C7″ — shorthand for the seventh generation — has run high. Would it get a twin-cam turbocharged powertrain? Would Chevy switch to an exotic midengine chassis?

In actuality, the 2014 model will again have a pushrod V-8 engine in its nose, driving the rear wheels. That conservative approach might be seen as a timid compromise from a company that has just begun to get back on solid financial footing. But the front-engine, rear-drive layout has long defined the Corvette, and this car, like its C6 predecessor, may well show its taillights to cars with specs that more closely conform to what is considered state of the art.

While automakers are quick to toss around the words “all new” to describe their latest offerings, however warmed over they might be, in this case the term is justified — the 2014 Corvette shares only two parts with its predecessor.

The C7 Corvette’s styling is in keeping with the brand’s persona, yet it projects a more aggressive image than previous generations. The clean front fascia is devoid of parking lights, and is energized by a sharp edge where it meets the hood, which is itself defined by a prominent bulge and more hard edges. The curve of the front fenders peaks at yet another edge that blends seamlessly into the body side at the A-pillar. The body’s flanks are defined by character lines that race back from vents behind the front wheel, not unlike those of previous Corvettes, but here those lines are more sharply drawn, with the upper line sweeping up and back to define the shape of the rear quarter panel. The lower character line projects from the body, forming a wing of sorts that flows out of the front fender and terminates at the rear of the door. The coupe’s roofline arcs smoothly to meet the rear spoiler, rather than terminating at the rear window, as in the C6. The individual rear taillights that have long been a part of Corvette design are now paired in a deep recess on each side. Four large exhaust pipes exit center-stage, rear.

The sheet-molded fiberglass body, with carbon-fiber hood and roof panels and carbon-nano composite underbody panels, is 37 pounds lighter than the C6’s body. It rides on a new aluminum frame that is 57 percent stiffer and 99 pounds lighter than the current model’s. The wheelbase is about one inch longer than that of the C6, and the track is almost an inch wider — changes said to provide a more stable feel at high speed.

Inside the cockpit, considerable effort was lavished on upgrading what has generally been considered a blighted zone. Optional carbon fiber trim and real aluminum combine with plastic in a wraparound configuration. The steering wheel, with a 14.1 inch diameter, is smaller than that of the previous model, and two seat choices are offered, with the competition sport version providing more side bolstering to hold occupants in place in spirited maneuvers. Indicative of the car’s purpose is the inclusion of a console-mounted steel grab bar for the passenger.

Under the hood, Chevrolet’s 6.2-liter small block V-8 — now in its fifth-generation design — produces an estimated 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque. At low speed, torque output exceeds that of the previous 6.2-liter engine by 50 pound-feet. The engine shares few parts with prior Corvette V-8s and is fitted with direct fuel injection that, in combination with other refinements, enables a high compression ratio of 11.5:1. Active Fuel Management, G.M.’s system for deactivating cylinders when they are not needed, lets the car cruise on four cylinders in some driving modes. Final fuel-economy numbers are not yet available.

Two transaxles will be offered: a 6-speed automatic with paddle-shift mode or a 7-speed manual with rev-matching capability — an electronic version of the heel-and-toe shifting techniques that competition drivers employ to enable smooth gear changes when negotiating twisty bits.

The Corvette driver will be able to select from among five driving modes: weather, Eco, Tour, Sport and Track; the default setting will be Tour. Changing modes alters 12 vehicle attributes, including throttle response, shift points, engagement of the limited-slip differential engagement, shock damping and more. Four-piston Brembo brakes provide stopping power, and electric power steering sets the course.

An optional Z51 performance package adds an electronic limited-slip differential that can continuously vary torque split between the rear wheels, dry-sump oiling, upgraded shock absorbers, a revised version of the automaker’s Magnetic Ride Control suspension-regulating system, close-ratio gears for the manual transmission, larger brake rotors and aerodynamic refinements that incorporate air-flow management for cooling of heat-stressed components.

Like its predecessor, the 2014 Corvette Stingray will be built at a G.M. plant in Bowling Green, Ky. The car is expected to arrive at dealerships in the third quarter of this year.

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IHT Rendezvous: Breathing in Beijing: Coping With China's Smog

BEIJING — With Beijing’s air pollution soaring to seemingly new, awful records this weekend, the classic parenting dilemma of “What shall we do with the kids?” had a grimly obvious answer: Slap on the antipollution face masks and go shopping for another air purifier.

That’s what we did on Saturday, as the Air Quality Index run by the United States Embassy in Beijing, which uses standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, hit a “jaw-dropping” 755 at 8 p.m., as my colleague Edward Wong wrote. “All of Beijing looked like an airport smokers’ lounge,” Ed wrote.

According to the index, anything above 300 is “Hazardous” and above 500 is “Beyond Index.” This weekend, the readings were Beyond Index for 16 straight hours.

Even the Chinese government’s monitors, which recently have grown more accurate but still tend to measure the pollution as lower than the embassy’s, were recording scary levels of around 500.

Furious, Chinese netizens wrote on their microblog accounts that the pollution had “exploded the index,” or “baobiao.”

They reached for strong adjectives: “postapocalyptic,” “terrifying” and “beyond belief,” Ed wrote.

So it was ironic that on Sunday there was a sense of relief as the index dropped to 319 (still “Hazardous”) then down to 286: a measly “Very Unhealthy.” By Sunday afternoon, it was “Hazardous” again though, at 373.

Ordinary Chinese are appalled. And increasingly, they can say so in public, as the state appears to be relaxing its censorship of reporting on the pollution that everyone can see and smell.

Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported on Jan. 1 that the environmental authorities were now releasing real-time air quality data from 74 cities in China, at www.cnemc.cn.

On its Weibo, or microblog, feed, CCTV, the state broadcaster, warned early Sunday that “the main air quality monitoring stations in eight city districts will be around 500, which is grade six, heavy pollution, with PM 2.5 and PM 10 the main pollutants,” referring to fine particulates and bigger particulates.

Of course, the problem wasn’t limited to Beijing. As this photograph from NASA appeared to show, pollution was severe across much of eastern China (Beijing is within the blue circle).

And on state media’s lists of the most polluted cities in China on Saturday, Beijing wasn’t even in the top 10. That honor went to Shijiazhuang and other places.

The People’s Daily online was frank, asking in a full-page spread, “What is Going on with our Air?” (Handily cached here by Sinocism, the Beijing-based newsletter.)

The scale of the problem is, quite frankly, overwhelming. A very revealing chart by Edgar, the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research, from the European Commission, estimates that in 2011 China produced 9.7 million kilotons of carbon dioxide, nearly double United States’ 5.42 million kilotons.

Indeed, were the Chinese cement industry a country, it would be the sixth biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, producing 820,000 kilotons in 2011, slightly ahead of Germany’s total carbon dioxide emissions that year of 810,000 kilotons, according to Edgar. Germany was the sixth most polluting nation in the world, with the United States the second and China the first, according to the chart.

But something else stands out here: China’s population of more than 1.3 billion is about 4.5 times that of the United States’ approximately 300 million. So though it leads the world in carbon dioxide emissions, it is still, per capita, far less polluting than the United States.

Unfortunately, that may change. China’s economy may overtake the U.S. economy sometime within the next decade or two, meaning that we may be facing a truly astonishing problem. As Ma Jun, the director of the Chinese Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post: “It is no secret that our way of development is not sustainable and the total pollution emissions in the region have far exceeded the maximum ecological capacity.”

How does a family justify living in this? For most people in China’s cities there is no practical alternative to life in the smog, though the appalling environment is a reason cited by most who emigrate (in a recent post I noted how emigration numbers were rising all the time).

To control the risk, we have family rules: above 100, and the air purifiers – all four of them – go on. Above 200, we wear face masks outdoors. Above 300 and no one exercises or plays outside, even with a face mask on. Above 500 and we try not to go out at all. That’s hard, especially for the children.

So this weekend, we breathed at home. Watched a movie. Read. And talked. Told the kids how their generation is going to have to clean up the environmental mess caused by all the previous generations. And watched the incredulity grow on their faces as they contemplated the stupidity of adults.

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