Take these steps to improve finances in 2012

New York?? Every January, it's the same drill. This is the year you will cut your debt, save money and spend more wisely.

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And you, like millions of others, will fail again for no good reason.

Want to break the cycle of broken New Year's resolutions? The professionals say you've got to get automated, get educated, and get over the fear of making changes.

But first things first.

Get rid of those hazy promises to yourself about your fiscal behavior. Sit down and make a list about exactly what you want to achieve, advises Scott Halliwell, a USAA financial planner. Designate actionable items for each month, starting with spending January to get your budget and savings plan on track.

There's a difference, for example, between "I want to increase my savings," and "I want to have $1,000 more in the bank by April 1."

How do you get from here to there? Here's how you start:

Automate as much as possible
One key way to stay on track is to make things as easy as possible. "If you don't automate it, oftentimes things won't get done," Halliwell said. "Life will get in the way."

Setting up automatic savings is easy on most bank websites. Doing so makes you much more likely to keep that resolution to save more. Add auto bill pay, and you will take a big step toward avoiding late charges that run up costs unnecessarily. Making payments on time is also the single most important thing you can do to maintain a healthy credit score.

Automation doesn't mean you can avoid periodically checking on your progress, however. At least once a month, designate a day to go over your performance during the prior few weeks, and make any adjustments that are necessary.

Check your credit reports
Everyone is entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three major agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

The data in these reports is what's used to determine your credit score, which in turn is what banks and credit card companies use to decide if they'll lend to you and at what interest rate. You'll get a good picture of what problems exist that can drive down your credit score, like late payments or a forgotten bill that went to collections. And you may find mistakes that could be hurting your score as well.

A low credit score can cost you big. The difference between a 4 percent interest rate and a 5 percent rate on a 30-year, $200,000 mortgage, for instance, is nearly $42,000 over the life of the loan.

By spacing the free reports out to one every four months, you can also monitor your records for unexpected activity that may indicate you're a victim of identity theft. To learn more and start the process of obtaining your free reports, visit www.annualcreditreport.com.

To take things a step further, you can visit www.myfico.com, which is offering a free credit score to those who sign up for a 10-day free trial of its credit monitoring service. After the 10 days, the service is $14.95 per month.

Take advantage of all your job benefits.
You may be up to speed on how much your co-payments cost, but are you aware of all the benefits offered through your health insurance? Log in to your insurance company website to find out if you're eligible for reimbursement or discounts on health club memberships or programs to help you with weight loss or quitting smoking. You may even be able to check a few other resolutions off your list at the same time you save a few dollars.

Likewise, many companies and unions offer extra benefits that are often overlooked, from discounts on cell phone plans and computer purchases, to reduced price travel and entertainment, pet insurance, college test preparation programs and even legal advice. Ask your human resources department or visit UnionPlus.org to learn how you can shave dollars off spending you'll likely be doing anyway.

Rebalance your investments
Rebalancing involves adjusting the mix of stocks, bonds and other assets you hold to keep them appropriate for your stage of life and the amount of risk you're willing to take. In general, most advisors say the older you are, the less risk you want to take, which means a higher portion of bonds than stocks.

The first step of the process is setting the targets for what sort of mix you should have. "For all of us, those targets change as time goes by," said Christine Benz, director of personal finance at Morningstar Inc. "What's right for you when you're 25 is not necessarily right for you when you're 40."

Even if all you have is a 401(k) plan through work, it's important to make sure the funds you picked when you first enrolled are the best choices for you now. If you own additional mutual funds or have an IRA, those items should be considered as well, to create as complete a picture as possible.

The market volatility of the past few years adds to the importance of taking a periodic look at your holdings, but may make it more difficult to decide the best steps to take. Rebalancing often seems counterintuitive, Benz noted, because it can involve selling holdings that are doing well and shifting that money to investments that have underperformed recently.

So especially if you haven't made any adjustments in the last few years, it may be worth spending a few dollars to enlist the help of a financial advisor. An advisor can be an even bigger help if the thought of dealing with investments battered by the economy leaves you full of fear.

"The hardest part for rebalancing for most people comes down to the practical application for doing it," said USAA's Halliwell. "One of the things that getting outside help can do for you is help remove some of the emotion."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45798242/ns/today-money/

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Man in Afghan army uniform kills 2 NATO troops

By The Associated Press

1:53 a.m., Dec. 29, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan ? NATO says a man wearing an Afghan army uniform has killed two service members in eastern Afghanistan.

The alliance says the two NATO troops were killed on Thursday when the man turned his weapon against them.

NATO released no further details and did not disclose the nationalities of the slain service members. There was no word on what happened to the attacker.

The shooting appeared to be the latest in a series of attacks by members of the Afghan security forces against their coalition partners. Such attacks have raised fears of increased Taliban infiltration of the Afghan police and army as NATO speeds up the training of the security forces.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan officials say a roadside bombing has killed 10 police officers and wounded one other in southwestern Helmand province.

A spokesman for the provincial governor, Daud Ahmadi, and police chief Haji Abdul Marjan said that Thursday's explosion destroyed a police pickup truck as it drove through Zarghun Kalay village in Helmand's Nad Ali district.

Both officials said the officers had left a training center and were headed home when their vehicle struck the bomb.

Marjan says they drove along the same road every day. Ahmadi says eight of those killed were new recruits.

The Associated Press

Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/29/man-in-afghan-army-uniform-kills-2-nato-troops/

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Computerworld: RT @pgralla: Three reasons Microsoft's Bing will gain ground against Google in 2012 http://t.co/gAB9fHLY

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RT @pgralla: Three reasons Microsoft's Bing will gain ground against Google in 2012 bit.ly/uG5H4K Il y a environ 2 heures via TweetDeck Retweeted by 2 people

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Japan, India shares gain in holiday-thin Asia, U.S. hopes help

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO | Mon Dec 26, 2011 11:46am EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese and Indian stocks outperformed the rest of Asia in thin trade Monday, with sentiment partly lifted by signs of U.S. economic recovery, although trading was subdued with many markets closed for Christmas holidays.

Tokyo's Nikkei stock average .N225 ended up 1 percent, above its 25-day moving average of 8,459, while India's main 30-share BSE index .BSESN rose 1.14 percent, as investors sought holiday-season bargains.

But MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS slipped from a two-week high touched earlier in the day to trade down 0.1 percent.

U.S., European and some Asian markets including Hong Kong and Singapore were closed Monday.

Wall Street stocks rose Friday, with the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX breaking through its 200-day moving average after a four-day rally lifted stocks to bring the index up 0.6 percent for the year at last week's close.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose to its highest in five months Friday.

"The Nikkei is moving with New York. The gains in the U.S. and Europe gave some sense of relief to markets," said Hajime Nakajima, a wholesale trader at Cosmo Securities in Osaka, Japan.

In a sign the markets may be stabilizing for the time being, the CBOE Volatility index VIX .VIX fell to 20.73 on Friday, near a five-month low, reflecting receding investor desire for protection in stock index options against future losses.

The VIX -- a measure of expected volatility in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days -- fell to its lowest since the global financial crisis of October 2008 at 14.3 earlier this year, before picking up to a year high of 48 in August. It has been slipping since hitting a high above 30 earlier this month.

CONCERN ON CHINA EARNINGS

The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC fell 0.5 percent on concerns over corporate earnings outlook, pushing below the psychologically important 2,200 level in light trading.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index .KS11 slid 0.6 percent on doubts over the euro zone debt crisis getting resolved.

"Program selling was the main drag on the index today, and despite the optimistic U.S. data, foreign investors aren't ready to re-enter the market in force as long as the (European Central Bank) isn't taking more concrete measures," said Lee Kyung-soo, a market analyst at Shinyoung Securities.

Investors will be looking for clues over the strength of the U.S. economy from data due this week, including the S&P Case-Shiller house price index for October and consumer confidence for December.

U.S. consumer spending growth was tepid and a gauge of business investment fell for a second month in November, data showed Friday, but recent labor and manufacturing figures implied a more-lasting and fundamental strengthening of the recovery.

The U.S. Congress Friday approved a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut that will preserve income for most Americans, supporting their purchases of goods and services and helping sentiment.

The euro was up 0.13 percent to $1.3060, well above its 11-month trough of $1.2945 hit earlier this month.

The latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed investors reduced their short euro positions slightly, potentially giving support to the single currency.

"Given a lack of factors to trade and low liquidity, activity is expected to be lackluster this week, but sluggish results of French and Italian government debt sales scheduled this week could pressure the euro amid an absence of progress in bolstering euro zone safety net," Barclays Capital said in a research note.

The 10-year Italian government debt yield stayed near 7 percent, above which many say is unsustainable for managing public finances and the economy, while 10-year Spanish government bond yield also stood at an elevated 5.40 percent.

Wariness about European banks' health and risks of another global credit crunch made banks reluctant to borrow to each other, pushing the London interbank offered rate for three-month dollars up further Friday to 0.57575 percent, its highest since early July 2009.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau and Mari Saito in Tokyo, and Joonhee Yu in Seoul; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/26/us-markets-global-idUSTRE7BB02E20111226?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

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shanselman: @Patricialicious cool. Looks like you might be using Skype for iPhone on the iPad? Might try the iPad version for higher resolution!

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@Patricialicious cool. Looks like you might be using Skype for iPhone on the iPad? Might try the iPad version for higher resolution! Il y a environ 3 heures via Tweetlogix en r?ponse ? Patricialicious

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Source: http://twitter.com/shanselman/statuses/151013402469347329

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Sunlight and bunker oil a fatal combination for Pacific herring

Public release date: 26-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gary Cherr, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory
gncherr@ucdavis.edu
707-799-9947
University of California - Davis

The 2007 Cosco Busan disaster, which spilled 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, had an unexpectedly lethal impact on embryonic fish, devastating a commercially and ecologically important species for nearly two years, reports a new study by the University of California, Davis, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The study, to be published the week of Dec. 26 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that even small oil spills can have a large impact on marine life, and that common chemical analyses of oil spills may be inadequate.

"Our research represents a change in the paradigm for oil spill research and detecting oil spill effects in an urbanized estuary," said Gary Cherr, director of the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and a study co-author.

On the foggy morning of Nov. 7, 2007, when the container ship collided with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, bunker oil contaminated spawning habitats for the largest U.S. coastal population of Pacific herringa month before spawning season.

The new study, which analyzed Pacific herring embryos following the spill, highlights the effects of bunker oil on fish embryos in shallow water, the potential significance of sunlight interacting with oil compounds, and the extreme vulnerability of fish in early life stages to spilled oil.

Specifically, the study found that components of Cosco Busan bunker oil accumulated in naturally spawned herring embryos, then interacted with sunlight during low tides to kill the embryos. Laboratory fertilized eggs, caged in deeper waters, were protected from the lethal combination of sunlight and oil, but still showed less severe abnormalities associated with oil exposure.

Crude oil is naturally occurring, liquid petroleum. Bunker oil is a thick fuel oil distilled from crude oil and burned on ships to fuel their engines. It is contaminated with various, sometimes unknown, substances.

The study builds on research following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which released up to 32 million gallons of crude oil into the comparatively pristine environment of Prince William Sound, Alaska. That research established a new paradigm for understanding the effects of oil toxicity on fish at early life stages.

The new study suggests that this old paradigm is inadequate to explain the dramatic, lethal effects of very low levels of oil on fish embryos, even in an urban estuary with preexisting background pollution.

"Based on our previous understanding of the effects of oil on embryonic fish, we didn't think there was enough oil from the Cosco Busan spill to cause this much damage," Cherr said. "And we didn't expect that the ultraviolet light would dramatically increase toxicity in the actual environment, as we might observe in controlled laboratory experiments."

Researchers began the new study in February 2008. They analyzed the levels of oil-based compounds in caged herring embryos at four oiled and two non-oiled subtidal sites, all of which were at least 1 meter below the water's surface. Naturally spawned embryos from shallower sites were also analyzed.

Three months after the spill, caged embryos at oiled sites showed nonlethal heart defects typical of oil exposure.

But embryos from the shallower, intertidal zone not only exhibited the nonlethal heart defects, they also showed surprisingly high rates of dead tissue and mortality unrelated to heart defects.

"These embryos were literally falling apart with high rates of mortality," said Cherr.

In 2008, almost no live larvae hatched from the natural spawn collected from oiled sites.

The high death rates did not seem to be caused by natural or manmade causes unrelated to the spill, the researchers report. No toxicity was observed in embryos from unoiled sites, even those near major highways.

Embryos sampled two years later from oiled sites showed modest heart defects but no increased death rates.

Pacific herring is a commercially and ecologically important species. The fish travel in large schools, typically from the San Francisco Bay north to the Bering Sea, and serve as a forage fish for humpback whales, other mammals, birds and salmon. After two years at sea, they spawn in shallow areas of bays and estuaries.

"In San Francisco, herring is one of the last urban fisheries, and herring is an indicator for the health of the Bay," said Cherr.

###

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has more than 32,000 students, more than 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, an annual research budget that exceeds $684 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Media contact(s):

Gary Cherr, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, (707) 875-2051, gncherr@ucdavis.edu Cell: (707) 799-9947

Kat Kerlin, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-7704, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu, Cell: (530) 750-9195. Contact her for high-resolution images of researchers collecting herring embryos.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 26-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gary Cherr, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory
gncherr@ucdavis.edu
707-799-9947
University of California - Davis

The 2007 Cosco Busan disaster, which spilled 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, had an unexpectedly lethal impact on embryonic fish, devastating a commercially and ecologically important species for nearly two years, reports a new study by the University of California, Davis, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The study, to be published the week of Dec. 26 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that even small oil spills can have a large impact on marine life, and that common chemical analyses of oil spills may be inadequate.

"Our research represents a change in the paradigm for oil spill research and detecting oil spill effects in an urbanized estuary," said Gary Cherr, director of the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and a study co-author.

On the foggy morning of Nov. 7, 2007, when the container ship collided with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, bunker oil contaminated spawning habitats for the largest U.S. coastal population of Pacific herringa month before spawning season.

The new study, which analyzed Pacific herring embryos following the spill, highlights the effects of bunker oil on fish embryos in shallow water, the potential significance of sunlight interacting with oil compounds, and the extreme vulnerability of fish in early life stages to spilled oil.

Specifically, the study found that components of Cosco Busan bunker oil accumulated in naturally spawned herring embryos, then interacted with sunlight during low tides to kill the embryos. Laboratory fertilized eggs, caged in deeper waters, were protected from the lethal combination of sunlight and oil, but still showed less severe abnormalities associated with oil exposure.

Crude oil is naturally occurring, liquid petroleum. Bunker oil is a thick fuel oil distilled from crude oil and burned on ships to fuel their engines. It is contaminated with various, sometimes unknown, substances.

The study builds on research following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which released up to 32 million gallons of crude oil into the comparatively pristine environment of Prince William Sound, Alaska. That research established a new paradigm for understanding the effects of oil toxicity on fish at early life stages.

The new study suggests that this old paradigm is inadequate to explain the dramatic, lethal effects of very low levels of oil on fish embryos, even in an urban estuary with preexisting background pollution.

"Based on our previous understanding of the effects of oil on embryonic fish, we didn't think there was enough oil from the Cosco Busan spill to cause this much damage," Cherr said. "And we didn't expect that the ultraviolet light would dramatically increase toxicity in the actual environment, as we might observe in controlled laboratory experiments."

Researchers began the new study in February 2008. They analyzed the levels of oil-based compounds in caged herring embryos at four oiled and two non-oiled subtidal sites, all of which were at least 1 meter below the water's surface. Naturally spawned embryos from shallower sites were also analyzed.

Three months after the spill, caged embryos at oiled sites showed nonlethal heart defects typical of oil exposure.

But embryos from the shallower, intertidal zone not only exhibited the nonlethal heart defects, they also showed surprisingly high rates of dead tissue and mortality unrelated to heart defects.

"These embryos were literally falling apart with high rates of mortality," said Cherr.

In 2008, almost no live larvae hatched from the natural spawn collected from oiled sites.

The high death rates did not seem to be caused by natural or manmade causes unrelated to the spill, the researchers report. No toxicity was observed in embryos from unoiled sites, even those near major highways.

Embryos sampled two years later from oiled sites showed modest heart defects but no increased death rates.

Pacific herring is a commercially and ecologically important species. The fish travel in large schools, typically from the San Francisco Bay north to the Bering Sea, and serve as a forage fish for humpback whales, other mammals, birds and salmon. After two years at sea, they spawn in shallow areas of bays and estuaries.

"In San Francisco, herring is one of the last urban fisheries, and herring is an indicator for the health of the Bay," said Cherr.

###

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has more than 32,000 students, more than 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, an annual research budget that exceeds $684 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Media contact(s):

Gary Cherr, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, (707) 875-2051, gncherr@ucdavis.edu Cell: (707) 799-9947

Kat Kerlin, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-7704, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu, Cell: (530) 750-9195. Contact her for high-resolution images of researchers collecting herring embryos.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uoc--sab122211.php

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BeeMe: I think sickness is trying to claim me, just in time for the holidays. I'm not about to let that happen. Oil of oregano obtained.

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I think sickness is trying to claim me, just in time for the holidays. I'm not about to let that happen. Oil of oregano obtained. Il y a environ 7 heures via UberSocial for BlackBerry

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Source: http://twitter.com/BeeMe/statuses/150730236676411392

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Hackers! Embellishment! The Inside Story of the Facebook Movie

create a forum where everyone can share their own personal stories, then have the government connect the dots to implicate us all-for being so honest.- Make us feel safe, with homeland security- then turn the whole place into a wall to wall prison camp. America needs martyrs Uncle Sam wants YOU!

I actually watched this movie last week and its great to see how viral something can go. It brought up lots of ideas for me, he should be really proud of what he achieved!! I guess everyone wants to bein his live if you really live your dreams, like me and my spouse who started a website called

But guys, I prefer to do that in front of a whiteboard or a coffee machine? Informal discussions with *real* people does blast the twitter/facebook buzz

I know this is suposto make me sympathize with Mark Zuckerburg, but honestly how many people feel ?bad? for him. I sure as s*** don?t. That is why I hate stories/celebrities who play the sympathy card about how ?hard? its is bulls*** you made your bed of lavish luxery, and should be proud as hell. Instead your complaining because you want a change of sheets. I will totally sympathize with you Mark once you throw 10mil my way so I can start my own damn company.

I know the name zuckerberg, but I have no clue what he looks like cause, who cares? Facebook is famous, but I don?t know if this guy is going to get Gates famous for a website.

??Mark Zuckerberg will become the first tech nerd to be granted Hollywood celebrity?? No shit. He?s Jewish and Hollywood?s run by Jews. BTW, he?s not the first nerd to get the hollywood treatment. Remember ?Pirates of Silicon Valley? about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? Also Jews? Hollywood Jewish propaganda at work!

First tech nerd to be granted Hollywood celebrity? If granting celebrity means ?making a movie about you?, as opposed to ?letting you into the parties?, there was

If this was a TNT movie I?d watch it without reservation. But in the theater? Watching this movie at a theater is gonna be like watching porn: We do it, but we don?t mention it the next day.

Wow, comparing Zuckerberg and Facebook to Hearst and his newspapers. I guess since neither Citizen Kane nor The Social Network are close to reality, the historical comparisons shouldn?t be either.

?When the movie based on his college exploits and Silicon Valley conquests hits screens this fall, he?ll become the first tech nerd to be granted Hollywood celebrity.?

Wow, talk about a sperm bank of useless metaphor and pointless references to miscellaneous topics and irrelevant persons, not too dissimilar from Peter Griffin and his whopper of a tale of complete stupidity and moronic behavior as only could be followed by the nefarious minds who now regurgitate garbage onto a computer screen while wholly ignoring the aspects of journalism and review.

I never cared much for Facebook, but I?m going to have to see this just because of the director and the epic soundtrack.

?so, apart from the now-established monetary means required to persuade justin timberlake to return to his nsync hairstyle, is there anything else this film achieves other than showcase the success of a clone website of myspace??

Why do you keep saying he will be the first tech nerd in film? Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have already beat him 20 years ago.

This movie could be great. However, being a creep isn?t synonymous to being a genius or really ?special?. I do believe it?s the biggest misconception going around teens today. Actually, being a creep has dual sided benefits, its either you end up going really astray and be a loner. Or, you try to do something really worth it for the people around you.

Source: http://guidewhois.com/2011/12/hackers-embellishment-the-inside-story-of-the-facebook-movie/

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Stocks close higher; S&P turns positive for 2011 (AP)

Stocks closed higher Friday after a quiet, pre-holiday session that turned the S&P 500 index positive for the year.

Traders were relieved by news that Congress extended a payroll tax holiday for workers and emergency unemployment benefits. Both programs were set to expire at the end of the year. Letting that happen would have reduced economic growth by about 1 percent, analysts said.

The final business day before Christmas also was the slowest full day of trading so far this year. Traders exchanged just 2.22 billion shares, about half of the recent average. The market will be closed on Monday because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.

Stocks have risen steadily since Tuesday on hopeful signs about the pace of economic growth in the fourth quarter, which ends next week. New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since April 2008, long before anyone realized the nation was in a recession.

A series of mixed economic reports Friday did little to derail that optimism. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 11.33 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,265.33. It started the year at 1,257.64.

Stocks might surge into the new year if the S&P 500 passes a couple of key technical thresholds, said Todd Salamone, research director at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Fund managers currently hold relatively few stocks, Salamone noted, and many of their funds have underperformed the market and are negative for the year. If the index rises farther above its break-even point for the year or its average over the past several months, fund managers might flood into the market in a last-ditch attempt to improve their annual returns, he said.

"The worst thing that can happen for a fund manager is to underperform and be in the red when your benchmark, the S&P index, is in the green" for the year, Salamone said.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 124.35 points, or 1 percent, to 12,294. Bank of America Corp. was the Dow's biggest gainer, adding 2.4 percent. All but two of the 30 Dow stocks rose, Alcoa Inc. and Boeing Co.

The Dow has risen 527.74 points, or 4.5 percent in the past four days. It was the first four-day winning streak for the Dow since mid-September.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 19.19 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,618.64.

Earlier Friday, the government said that consumer spending and incomes barely grew in November. The weak gains suggest that consumers may have trouble sustaining their spending into 2012.

In another worrying sign, a measure of business investment decreased for the second straight month. Business investment has been a pocket of strong demand and spending amid a sluggish recovery. A tax break that encouraged companies to invest in new equipment and facilities expires at the end of the year.

Yet hopes for the economy remained high after this week's encouraging news about the job market and strong holiday sales for retailers.

Among the companies making big moves:

? Rambus Inc. jumped 12.2 percent after the technology licensing company said it reached a patent license deal with Broadcom Corp. and settled a lawsuit with the chip maker.

? TripAdvisor Inc. rose 6.1 percent, the most in the S&P 500, as traders reassessed the value of the newly-spun off travel review website. The stock had fallen sharply since it officially started trading on Wednesday. It recovered some losses on Friday as analysts weighed its rapidly growing revenue and market share.

? Eastman Kodak Co. rose 9.5 percent after the struggling photography company said its general counsel, Laura Quatela, would become co-president on Jan. 1.

____

Follow Daniel Wagner at http://www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Astronauts arrive at space station for the holidays

Three astronauts arrived Thursday at the International Space Station just in time for a zero gravity holiday party to begin a five-month stay in orbit.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency docked at the orbiting laboratory at 10:19 a.m. ET as the two spacecraft sailed 240 miles over southern Russia. They arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which launched Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.?

"The Soyuz crew arrives down the chimney of the space station with an early Christmas present for the station's crew," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during the televised space rendezvous.

Waiting aboard the space station were their crewmates, commander Daniel Burbank of NASA and flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia. With the new crew members' arrival, the space station is fully staffed.

All three newly arrived astronauts are space veterans and have visited the station before. The new crew was greeted with warm hugs by the three men aboard the space station.

"I feel like I'm back home," Pettit told his wife Micki and 11-year-old twin boys Evan and Garrett via a video call from the station. "I promise to write often."

"We wish you good luck on your flight and merry Christmas," Evan said.

In between their busy work conducting science experiments in microgravity and maintaining the space station, the six spacemen will celebrate the holidays in orbital style. Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin have already decked the station's halls with festive decorations, and were just waiting for the new trio to stage a holiday feast. [Holidays in Space: An Astronaut Photo Album]

"With their arrival, ISS will be back at full strength, but we'll also have three good friends to join us," Burbank said in a holiday greeting video he sent from space. "We'll also have them just in time for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. We'll celebrate the holidays in great fashion after they get here."

Commercial spaceship arrival
Early in the new year, the station crew will begin preparing for a milestone event: the first arrival of a commercial spaceship at the space station.

The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., will make a cargo delivery to the station in early February. Dragon has already flown on one test flight to orbit, but this mission will be the vehicle's first trip to the space station.

1. More space news from msnbc.com

   1. Holiday goodies from deep space

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Space scientists have dropped off some last-minute presents for Christmas: stunning pictures from deep space, many of which have a holiday theme.

   2. Astronaut captures 'amazing' view of comet
   3. Rare galaxy from 'dawn of time' photographed
   4. Holiday calendar: Circle of power

SpaceX is developing Dragon under a NASA program to stimulate the growth of commercial spacecraft to take over the duties of the retired space shuttle fleet. Dragon will begin by carrying supplies, and if all goes well, the vehicle will eventually carry astronauts to the space station as well.

For this test mission, Dragon will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and autonomously rendezvous with the space station. Once within reach, the station crew will grab onto the capsule with the space station's robotic arm and berth it to the outpost.

"I think that it's really a great idea to engage more companies participating in the space program, that contribute to the manned space program in particular," Kononenko told Space.com in a preflight interview. "The only thing that I would like to emphasize is that I would like these commercial vehicles to be absolutely safe."

Greetings, Earthlings
While in space, the astronauts plan to stay in touch with friends and family, and even the public, through technology. In addition to regular calls and emails home, the spacefliers will use social media to share their experiences.

"I'm planning to use Twitter," Pettit said in a press conference before the launch. "I have a hard time saying anything in less than 140 characters. I'm still groping with how can I use that kind of medium." He also plans to blog, he added.

The crew's Expedition 30 mission aboard the space station will be particularly followed by people in the Netherlands. Kuipers is only the third Dutch astronaut to travel to space, and the first to do so twice.

"A bit to my surprise, there's a lot of attention again," Kuipers said. "This is my second flight. To small countries, of course, the flight of a national astronaut is a big thing."

You can follow Space.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

? 2011 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45776918/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Places Blame on American Households (ContributorNetwork)

American households got blasted by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission because they borrowed too much and saved too little. American households had created an environment of taking on too much risk by over-extending themselves. They did this by placing record debt on themselves and by overstating their income on mortgage applications.

"When the housing and mortgage markets cratered, the lack of transparency, the extraordinary debt loads, the short-term loans, and the risky assets all came home to roost. What resulted was panic," the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded. "We had reaped what we had sown."

High-risk loans were taking place with people all over the country; everyone had a stake in ensuring that the steady flow of mortgages would continue; and when they stopped, the markets simply collapsed. American households thought that they would just take on no interest loans. Then, after a few years, when their houses increased in value, they would be able to borrow from their home or refinance to an even lower interest rate. Financial institutions can be blamed some because they did indeed act in a manner that can be termed reckless.

As the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission says, "Compensation systems--designed in an environment of cheap money, intense competition, and light regulation--too often rewarded the quick deal, the short-term gain--without proper consideration of long-term consequences."

We have been taught since the earliest years in school that the American Dream is homeownership, that the path to that is difficult, yet rewarding because it shows a status of what we have achieved. We have believed that the more money we have, the more we can spend it. In some small way, buying things and having things is not only the American way, but the American right.

Home owners are at fault for the money they borrowed to buy homes they couldn't afford, they are at fault for their spending and believing for every second of the day that the value of their house would just keep going up. The homeowner never believed for a moment that the party would end, never thought for a moment that when the money dried up and the bills came due what they would do. Everything that seemed like the American dream was wrong. Cheap money only made people spend even more money they didn't have, and the high prices of homes were just a mad disease that needed to be cured through a total and complete collapse.

The American household has been put at the center of the recession through television, articles and even our own personal experiences. We have seen homes foreclosed on, we have met the people who have lost everything. We have seen what the recession with the housing collapse has done to the country as a whole through high unemployment, state budget shortfalls and lost hope in our government. The American household pursuit of home ownership ended in disaster, and while rebuilding a better tomorrow for some might take a little longer, it remains to be seen if the lessons we learned from the recession will remain much longer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111222/bs_ac/7723602_financial_crisis_inquiry_commission_places_blame_on_american_households

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Stocks, euro gain but debt concerns linger (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Financial stocks led European share markets higher on Thursday in thin trade, while the euro rose, on hopes the nearly half a trillion euros in three-year funds that banks have borrowed from the region's central bank will ease current funding strains.

The European Central Bank, in its first-ever three year tender, lent 523 banks a record 489 billion euros ($638 billion) on Wednesday, well above the 310 billion euro take-up forecast.

Despite the scale of the funding operation, analysts said it did not represent a fundamental fix for the debt problems facing the euro zone and any gains are likely to be limited.

"In the longer-term the liquidity provided yesterday is not going to solve the debt crisis, it is not going to help southern European countries with their problems in getting control of their public debt," said Niels Christensen, FX strategist at Nordea.

The euro rose 0.5 percent to a session high of $1.3120, holding above an 11-month low of $1.2945 hit last week with traders seeing major support around $1.30, the December 14 low. The euro briefly touched a one-week high near $1.32 on Wednesday.

"We are seeing a little bit of short-covering and equity markets are in positive territory opening up. There is a little bit of risk appetite this morning," Christensen said.

European shares started higher with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares gaining around 0.7 percent in early trade while the broader Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which ended down 0.7 percent on Wednesday, was up 1.15 percent.

"This is a low volume rally, said Manoj Ladwa, a senior trader at ETX Capital.

Global stocks, as measured by MSCI world equity index (.MIWD00000PUS) were edged up 0.2 percent though still on track for a fall of about 12 percent in 2011.

Investors are winding down for year-end and trading volumes are set to dwindle but the threat of mass credit ratings downgrades for the euro zone countries is still hanging over the market.

ITALIAN CONFIDENCE VOTE

In debt markets attention was focused on Italy where a vote of confidence is due in the upper house on Prime Minister Mario Monti's government to seal approval of a 33-billion euro ($43 billion) austerity package.

The package passed in the lower house last week and is expected to succeed just as easily in the upper house. Were Monti to lose the vote, his government would collapse.

Italian 10-year bond yields were 4.5 basis points lower at 6.77 percent after the ECB was forced to step back into the secondary market on Wednesday as yields jumped higher in the wake of the ECB's three-year tender.

Equivalent Spanish paper was yielding 5.32 percent, little changed on the day.

The euro zone debt markets are expected to come under fresh pressure with some 230 billion euros of bank bonds, up to 300 billion in government bonds, and more than 200 billion euros in collateralized debt all maturing in the first quarter of 2012.

Commodities markets were muted in thinning pre-holiday trade, with London Metal Exchange copper up slightly at $7,478.25 a metric ton and Brent crude oil little changed at around $107.70 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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razorianfly: This Week ? Will OnLive Make It Through Apple?s Approval Process? ? http://t.co/rfsPADbj

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Jobless rates drop in almost all states in November (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Unemployment rates in almost all states dropped in November, and 45 states had jobless rates lower than the year before, Labor Department data showed on Tuesday.

States followed the national trend -- the U.S. unemployment rate fell to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6 percent in November -- with 43 states and the District of Columbia recording decreases from October.

"We've struggled for far too long but things are beginning to get back on track," said Governor John Kasich of Ohio, where the rate fell to 8.5 percent from 9 percent, the lowest in three years.

The drop was also Ohio's largest in nearly 30 years as the number of unemployed workers fell to 496,000 from 526,000 in October, according to the governor's office.

"Ohio employers have added more than 45,000 jobs so far this year, but too many Ohioans are still out of work and we have a lot of progress yet to make," Kasich added in a statement.

Nevada once again notched the highest jobless rate in the country at 13 percent, but that was a decline from October's 13.4 percent and last November's 14.9 percent.

California again was second to Nevada. Its rate of 11.3 percent was the lowest since May 2009, though, and was well below the previous month's 11.7 percent.

Some of the improvement in the U.S. unemployment rate was due to 315,00 people leaving the work force, the Labor Department reported earlier this month, but a poll of households also showed the country has created a total of 1.28 million jobs over the last four months.

The U.S. Congress is locked in a battle over extending long-term unemployment benefits that expire in less than two weeks. In order to qualify for benefits, recipients have to show they are actively looking for work, and that can have an impact on the labor force participation rates.

North Carolina netted 3,800 jobs in November, helping push its jobless rate down to 10 percent from 10.4 percent. The public sector dragged on improvements in the private sector, as the state lost 800 government jobs over the month and 11,200 since November 2011. Meanwhile, North Carolina's private sector added 4,600 jobs over the month and 30,800 over the year.

"The drop in the unemployment rate was significant," Dale Carroll, the state's Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary, said in a statement. "However, the focus must remain on growing jobs in our state. The private sector has experienced moderate growth over the past year."

The Labor Department said altogether 25 states had jobless rates significantly lower than the U.S. rate. Still, 15 states and Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia had rates of 9 percent or more in November.

Like Ohio, Michigan was hobbled by a downturn in manufacturing and the bursting housing bubble. But in November, Michigan registered the biggest monthly drop in its unemployment rate -- 0.8 percentage points to 9.8 percent. Four other states -- Alabama, Minnesota, South Carolina and Utah --had drops of 0.6 percentage points.

The jobless rate dropped to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent in North Dakota, which has steadily held the lowest rate in the nation since the recession began four years ago. Nebraska was the second lowest at 4.1 percent, followed by South Dakota, 4.3 percent.

Commodity-rich North Dakota primarily benefited from a "very mild fall that has allowed outside projects to continue," Michael Ziesch, state labor market information manager, said in a statement.

Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia in November, shrunk in 19 states and was unchanged in two states, the federal data showed.

The largest gain was in New York, with 29,500 jobs, followed by Texas, with 20,800.

The largest decreases were in Wisconsin, which lost 14,600 jobs and Minnesota, 13,700.

Over the year nonfarm employment increased in 45 states and the District of Columbia and dropped in five states.

(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani in Washington, Karen Pierog in Chicago, and Michael Connor in Miami; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/us_nm/us_usa_states_employment

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TripAdvisor Spins Off From Expedia, Takes Flight On The NASDAQ As A Public Company

In April, Expedia announced its intentions to spin off trip reviews site TripAdvisor as a public company. And this morning, TripAdvisor debuted on the NASDAQ under the symbol 'TRIP' trading at. This morning, TripAdvisor is trading at $29. Expedia is trading at $27.72, down 50 percent. TripAdvisor, which was founded in 2000, was originally bought by IAC in for $212 million in 2004. IAC spun off Expedia, which included TripAdvisor, in 2005. With 50 million unique monthly visitors and 20 million members, TripAdvisor is the giant in the travel reviews space. The site publishes 25 new contributions every minute and also features over eight million candid traveler photos. The reviews site operates in 30 different countries, including in China under the site Daodao. IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller will serve as the TripAdvisor's chairman.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gl4QMKWqjOc/

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Czechs, world leaders mourn Vaclav Havel

People gather under a Czech national flag as thousands mark the passing of former Czech president Vaclav Havel at the Venceslaw's square in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

People gather under a Czech national flag as thousands mark the passing of former Czech president Vaclav Havel at the Venceslaw's square in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

People light candles as thousands gather to commemorate the passing of former Czech president Vaclav Havel at Venceslaw's square in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

People light candles as thousands gather to commemorate the passing of former Czech president Vaclav Havel at Venceslaw's square in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

People gather under a Czech national flag as thousands mark the passing of former Czech president Vaclav Havel at the Venceslaw's square in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

People gather under a Czech national flag as thousands mark the passing of former Czech president Vaclav Havel at the Venceslaw's square in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

PRAGUE (AP) ? Thousands of Czechs paid tribute to Vaclav Havel on Sunday, braving cold and snow at the spot where the leader of the peaceful anti-communist revolution rallied protesters.

Mourners, some of them too young to remember 1989's "Velvet Revolution," met at downtown Wenceslas Square, where Havel once spoke before hundreds of thousands of people expressing their outrage at the repressive communist regime.

They jangled their keys to make noise as anti-communist demonstrators did, sang the national anthem and observed a minute of silence for the playwright-turned politician, who died Sunday.

"His legacy will be that 'truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred,'" Havel's former adviser Tomas Sedlacek told the crowd, quoting Havel's revolutionary motto.

Barbora Rubova, born two years after the end of the repressive communist regime, said it was important to show her respect to the man who helped kick off the fall of the Iron Curtain and served as president of Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic.

"He laid foundations of democracy for us all," she said.

A black flag flew over Prague Castle, the presidential seat, while many Czechs stood in line to have a chance to light candles to remember Havel. "Mr. President, thank you for democracy," read a note placed at the monument to the revolution in downtown Prague.

Others visited his villa to lay flowers and light candles. Josef Klik, a 67-year-old, was among the mourners.

"He is an unforgettable person who contributed to the fall of communism," Klik said. "And after that, he remained a moral authority for ordinary people."

Bells tolled from cathedrals and churches across the country at 6 p.m. Prague archbishop Dominik Duka, who spent some time with Havel in a communist prison, said Havel "knew what it meant to lose freedom, be denied dignity, what is repression and imprisonment."

"I am convinced that we all, no matter what our political or religious views are, should pay respect to him and thank him," Duka said.

The Czech government meets Monday to declare a period of official mourning. Havel's body will go on display at the Prague Crossroads, a former church that Havel turned into a space for conferences and artistic events, on Monday and Tuesday and then at Prague Castle on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said.

Czech public television announced it would broadcast Havel's film version of his last play, "Leaving," his directorial debut. Czech public radio said it would play some of the favorite music of the noted rock music fan.

Vaclav Klaus, Havel's political archrival who replaced him as president in 2003, said condolence books will be available for people to sign at the Prague castle the same day.

Klaus called Havel "the symbol of the new era of the Czech state," and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg added that Havel "returned dignity to the Czech nation."

Tributes poured in from around the world. The founder of the Polish anti-communist Solidarity movement and former president Lech Walesa called Havel "a great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy."

President Barack Obama praised Havel for his "peaceful resistance (that) shook the foundations of an empire, exposed the emptiness of a repressive ideology, and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon."

Havel's funeral may take place on Friday, the local CTK news agency reported. Details are being worked out by the government in coordination with Havel's family.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-18-EU-Czech-Havel-Remembered/id-e7212f336d70468bad427bfa0697f7cb

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What Exactly Will an iPad 3 Look Like? (NewsFactor)

Even while iPad 2s are flying off store shelves this holiday shopping season, rumors are swirling around what the iPad 3 will look like -- and when it will be released.

As usual, mum is the word at Apple on both fronts. But that's not keeping analysts from speculating. The rumors suggest everything from a full feature retina display to 4G LTE connectivity to better cameras to the addition of the Siri virtual assistant and beyond.

Has anyone confirmed Apple was even going to launch a new iPad in the spring? No. But the first two iPads were unveiled in March 2010 and again in March 2011. And Apple normally likes to update in yearly cycles.

"It's important to note that given Apple's sales so far, Apple does not need an iPad 3," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. "When Apple came out with the iPhone 4S the entire blogging world went nuts because it did not appear to be a radical improvement. But the iPhone 4S has sold millions of units the first day it was available and has posted extremely strong sales ever since."

An iPad 3 Wish List

Greengart's point: Apple is competing in an environment in which the currency is apps, cloud services and an intuitive user interface -- and Apple is leading in two out of those three areas. (Apple cedes the cloud services throne to Amazon, but is still strong in that area.) With this in mind, Apple has no imperative to broker radical change with the iPad.

Despite Apple's dominance, however, Greengart does have a wish list for the iPad 3. For starters, he -- and many others -- would like to see a higher density display that would offer higher resolutions. When compared with the iPhone 4, the iPad's text looks fuzzy.

Then there's the camera. Although most iPad users aren't using the tablet as a primary camera, those who even play with the camera quickly discover that the resolution doesn't match the screen. "You end up with ragged-looking images. While this is no great loss in terms of real-world use cases, it doesn't look right," Greengart said. "Everything else on the iPad looks right. That would be another obvious area of improvement."

Like almost all Apple products, Greengart expects future versions of the iPad to be thinner and lighter. But again, Apple is not under massive pressure to innovate in this area. When comparing the iPad 2 with its tablet competition, the device remains one of the thinner and lighter tablets on the market.

iPad Price Cuts?

One of the larger questions surrounding an iPad 3 launch is how it will affect pricing on the iPad 2. Will the iPad 2 stay in the line-up as a lower-end product with a starting price closer to $399? It's possible.

"Apple has certainly made moves like that in the past with some of its other product lines. But there is no burning need to do so. Apple is not being dramatically undercut on price in most of the nine- and 10-inch competition," Greengart said.

"Apple will see more competition from the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which are offering smaller tablets with less capabilities but significantly lower prices. So it is possible that Apple will respond to that by having an entry model at a lower price point."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111215/bs_nf/81396

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US to adopt strict new limits on chimp research

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1961 file photo, Ham, the first higher primate launched into outer space, is comforted by an unidentified man on the deck of a rescue ship after the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Chimpanzees should hardly ever be used for medical research, a prestigious scientific group told the government Thursday _ advice that means days in the laboratory may be numbered for humans' closest relatives. The Institute of Medicine stopped short of recommending the outright ban that animal rights activists had pushed. Instead, it urged strict limits that would make invasive experiments with chimps essentially a last resort, saying today's more advanced research tools mean the primates' use only rarely will be necessary enough to outweigh the moral costs. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1961 file photo, Ham, the first higher primate launched into outer space, is comforted by an unidentified man on the deck of a rescue ship after the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Chimpanzees should hardly ever be used for medical research, a prestigious scientific group told the government Thursday _ advice that means days in the laboratory may be numbered for humans' closest relatives. The Institute of Medicine stopped short of recommending the outright ban that animal rights activists had pushed. Instead, it urged strict limits that would make invasive experiments with chimps essentially a last resort, saying today's more advanced research tools mean the primates' use only rarely will be necessary enough to outweigh the moral costs. (AP Photo, File)

This undated photo provided by the Wildlife Way Station shows Booie the chimpanzee. Booie who kicked a smoking habit and used sign language to beg for candy has died at a California animal refuge. Martine Colette of the Wildlife WayStation says Booie, was being treated for a heart condition when he died Saturday, Dec. 11, 2011, at 44. The chimp had been living at the animal sanctuary near Los Angeles since 1995, after he retired from a research lab. Colette says she turned Booie into a non-smoker but couldn't fix his sweet tooth. (AP Photo/Wildlife Way Station, Dave Welling)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Days in the laboratory are numbered for chimpanzees, humans' closest relative.

Chimps paved astronauts' way into space and were vital in creating some important medicines. But the U.S. government said Thursday that science has advanced enough that from now on, chimpanzees essentially should be a last resort in medical research ? a move that puts the United States more in line with the rest of the world.

Chimps' similarity with people "demands special consideration and respect," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

His move came after the prestigious Institute of Medicine declared that most use of chimpanzees for invasive medical research no longer can be justified ? and that strict new limits should determine which experiments are important enough to outweigh the moral cost of involving this species that is so like us.

"The bar is very high," said bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn of Johns Hopkins University, who led the institute panel.

The group stopped short of recommending an outright ban, saying a handful of research projects today might still require chimps ? but more importantly, that the animals might be required in the future as new diseases evolve and emerge.

Animal welfare groups welcomed the change but continue to push for Congress to pass legislation that would go a step further and phase out all invasive chimp research.

"Chimpanzees have provided limited value in research settings, and now alternative methods have been developed that will make their use all but obsolete," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.

But some scientists say it's not that big a change because chimp studies already were dwindling fast as researchers turned to less costly and ethically charged alternatives.

"The use of a chimpanzee in biomedical research is the rare exception," said Dr. Thomas Rowell, who directs Louisiana's New Iberia Research Center, one of five research centers that houses chimps and other primate species used in both government- and privately financed studies.

It is not clear exactly how many of the nation's 937 research chimps ? 612 of them owned by the NIH ? are in the midst of experiments that would be affected by the new standards and could be moved into retirement instead. Most of the chimps are fairly old, as the nation has had a moratorium on breeding since 1995.

But Collins temporarily barred new government-funded studies involving chimps as his agency began implementing the recommended restrictions. Also, a working group will decide whether to phase out about 37 ongoing projects, about half of which Collins said probably don't meet the new standards.

These apes' genetic closeness to humans ? the genome is about 99 percent identical to ours ? has long caused a quandary, making the animals valuable to medical researchers for nearly a century but also sparking ethical and emotional questions about how they are housed and used.

"They are highly intelligent. They live in complex social settings, and they live for a very long time," said evolutionary anthropologist Anne Pusey of Duke University, who once worked with chimp expert Jane Goodall in Tanzania and manages an archive of Goodall's field data on the animals.

"When you enclose a chimp in a very small cage for 50 years, it really is cruel and unusual, even regardless of whether you're doing invasive things to them," she added.

The U.S. is one of only two countries known to still conduct medical research with chimpanzees; the other is Gabon, in Africa. The European Union essentially banned such research last year.

Thursday's decision was triggered by an uproar last year over the fate of 186 semi-retired research chimps that the NIH, to save money, planned to move from a New Mexico facility to an active research lab in Texas. They are staying put for now.

The Institute of Medicine's investigation found over the past 10 years, the NIH has paid for just 110 projects of any type that involved chimps. Most involved hepatitis C, a liver virus that infects only humans and chimps. Some involved HIV, a disease that scientists now know is better to study in rhesus monkeys. Still others involved comparing the genetics of chimps and humans, or behavioral research examining such things as development and mental health.

The institute recommended two different sets of restrictions. Biomedical research ? testing new drugs or giving chimps a disease ? should allow using the apes only if studies could not be done on other animals or people themselves, and if foregoing the work would hinder progress against life-threatening or debilitating conditions. The panel said behavioral and genetic research, while less controversial, nonetheless should be limited to studies that provide insights otherwise unattainable, using techniques that minimize any pain or distress.

The institute combed research files to see what types of projects would fit those strict criteria ? and could come up with only a handful, such as a possible need to test vaccines against hepatitis C in the animals. But the panel concluded chimps aren't needed to study cancer or a host of other diseases or even to test most drugs.

The standards would not automatically apply to privately funded pharmaceutical research, although the industry, too, is shifting away from use of chimps. One drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, adopted an official policy ending its use of great apes, including chimpanzees, in research.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-12-15-Chimp%20Research/id-9e718aef1a464af39c3b32997682ce03

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