Syrian airline cancels flight to Aleppo

FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2012 file photo, a man runs between debris after a mortar shell hit a street killing several people in the Bustan Al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syria. 2012 was a year of storms, of raging winds and rising waters, but also broader turbulence that strained our moorings. Old enmities and grievances resurfaced in the Middle East, clouding the legacy of the 2011 Arab spring. And the number of dead in the Syrian civil war passed 40,000. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2012 file photo, a man runs between debris after a mortar shell hit a street killing several people in the Bustan Al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syria. 2012 was a year of storms, of raging winds and rising waters, but also broader turbulence that strained our moorings. Old enmities and grievances resurfaced in the Middle East, clouding the legacy of the 2011 Arab spring. And the number of dead in the Syrian civil war passed 40,000. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Egyptian airport officials say Syria's national airline has cancelled a flight to Aleppo because of fighting near the city's airport.

The officials said the Saturday flight was supposed to stop in Aleppo before continuing to Damascus but flew straight to Damascus "because of the deteriorated security situation" near the Aleppo airport.

It was the first time a flight to Aleppo had been canceled, they said.

The Syrian government and its airline did not comment.

Rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad have launched a campaign to seize government airports as a way to cut the regime's supply lines and strike a blow against its airpower, the biggest threat faced by rebel forces.

While the rebels have yet to seize a major airport, they have disrupted traffic at some with heavy machine-gun fire, and flights to Damascus have been canceled due to fighting near its airport.

Syrian airlines is the only carrier still flying to Damascus, running one flight per day, though some officials still consider the trip too risky.

Last week, Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. envoy to Syria, flew into Beirut and drove to Damascus overland to avoid the airport.

On Saturday, Lebanese security officials said Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad did the same while returning from Moscow.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Saturday's was the first reported cancellation of a flight to the Aleppo airport, reflecting the spreading violence in Syria's largest city.

Aleppo's international airport is just southeast of the city and still controlled by the government. It sits next to the Nerab military airport. The base of the army's 80th Brigade is nearby.

Rebels have been clashing with government troops near the airport for days, and videos posted online show them firing homemade rockets and shooting at targets inside through holes punched in the airport's walls.

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other reporting by The Associated Press.

An Aleppo activist said the area's rebels see the airport's capture as a clear way to weaken regime forces fighting in the city since it is used to bring in supplies.

"Since the rebels have targeted all the supply roads, the airport is the main way for forces in the city to get supplies, so if they can take it over it will be a big blow to the regime," the activist said via Skype, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

He and other activists reported a large explosion inside the airport on Friday, though it was unclear what caused it.

Rebels also clashed Friday with soldiers inside the Mannagh helicopter base near the Turkish border.

Anti-regime activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria's crisis in March 2011.

___

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef contributed reporting from Cairo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-29-Syria/id-dbcb39760114453a9fbcae2649393fb2

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Agriculture panel leaders reach deal for extending farm bill, maintaining milk prices (Star Tribune)

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Deal Would Do Little To Shrink Deficit (WSJ)

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iPad dominates tablet Web traffic among tablets

4 hrs.

Brian Chacos , LAPTOP

Those spunky?Android tablets may have made big gains on Apple's flagship slate in recent months in terms of sales, but competitors still have a long way to go when it comes to actual usage. So says Chitika Insights, an ad and analytics firm that claims the iPad still accounts for a full 87 percent of all tablet Web traffic.

For every 100 iPad impressions Chitika receives, it only receives 14.75 impressions from all other tablets combined, VentureBeat reports.

As you can see in the chart below, the Kindle Fire family is far and away the second most popular tablet on Chitika's ad network, and it generates more than 20 times less traffic than the iPad, accounting for just 4.88 percent of all impressions. The vaunted Google Nexus tablets? Just 1.22 percent.

Early reports peg Microsoft's Surface tablet as the most-used Windows 8/RT device, but it only accounts for 0.22 percent of all tablet traffic by Chitika's count???just 0.04 points ahead of the defunct HP TouchPad's share. No wonder Microsoft has broadened the Surface's distribution.

Android tablets, on the other hand, have been on a hot streak of late. Google-powered tablets managed to knock the iPad's market share down to "just" 50.4 percent in the third quarter, which was the Apple tablet's smallest chunk since its launch.

One strong quarter is just the start of an uphill battle for Android, however. As Chitika's numbers show, years of utter dominance by the iPad have given it a substantial lead when it comes to actual usage. It will be interesting to see if the release of the iPad mini and fourth-gen iPad chew into Android's gains when the fourth-quarter sales numbers are released.

Copyright 2012 LAPTOP, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/ipad-dominates-tablet-web-traffic-kindle-fire-distant-second-1C7753000

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Jessica Simpson Confirms Second Pregnancy

So we all knew it was true, she was hiding her bump and not denying the rumors. But now Jessica has officially announced that she is once again expecting a little (actually, it will probably be big) bundle of joy. Jessica had her beautiful little girl, Maxwell Drew, help her announce the news. She sat her down in the sand and wrote “Big Sis” underneath her and then sent the pic out via twitter. She also confirmed the news in her Weight Watchers commercial. “This year is all about new beginnings for me. I lost over 50 pounds on Weight Watchers and did not have to be perfect to do it. Being healthy has become a part of who I am, which is great timing because I?m having another baby. I feel like I?m on top of the world.” And WW said in a statement: “[She] will not be following the program during the pregnancy while her weight and well-being is monitored by her obstetrician, as is recommended for any woman during pregnancy. After she gives birth, Simpson and her doctor will decide when she should resume following the Weight Watchers program.” I am so excited for Jessica, she seems [...]

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Video: Nelson Mandela released from hospital

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Book Review : The Real Story of Risk: Adventures in a Hazardous World by Glenn Croston

By Glenn Croston

Web edition: December 27, 2012
Print edition: January 12, 2013; Vol.183 #1 (p. 30)

A biologist explores why humans are poor at judging risk ? fearing rare shark attacks, for example, more than common heart attacks.

Prometheus, 2012, 276 p., $19

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347269/title/Book_Review__The_Real_Story_of_Risk_Adventures_in_a_Hazardous_World_by_Glenn_Croston

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Wis. couple says pet chicken alerted them to blaze

ALMA CENTER, Wis. (AP) ? A Wisconsin couple says fire clucks, not fire trucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.

Alma Center Fire Chief Jeff Gaede (GAY'-dee) says the couple's pet chicken woke them at about 6:15 a.m. Thursday. He says the smoke alarms didn't go off when the fire started in the attic of their attached garage.

He says the chicken and a cat also escaped, but another cat died.

Neighbor Brad Krueger told WEAU-TV (http://bit.ly/ZGk90z ) that he raised the chicken on his farm until dogs chased it away. The couple then started caring for it.

Gaede says he's heard of dogs and cats alerting people to fires but he was amazed to hear about the chicken.

The fire destroyed the house. The cause is still being investigated.

___

Information from: WEAU-TV, http://www.weau.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-12-28-Chicken%20Alert/id-756c9ad2e5a2440ead320594a71935a3

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Insulation Innovation | Commercial Property Executive

December 26, 2012

New Alternatives Promise Increased Thermal Performance in Less Space

By Brad Berton, Contributing Writer

As building science innovators continue devising energy-saving products and methods in the ultimate pursuit of net-zero structures, commercial property executives and their advisors have to select from myriad alternatives for each new development and retrofit venture. And in a large, geologically diverse country like the United States featuring climates from cold and dry to hot and wet, thermal insulation technologies rank among the most logical sources of potential savings.

Indeed, as 2013 approaches, decision-makers considering insulation alternatives are adding some intriguing new-wave products and systems to their lists?including those based on micro-encapsulation of tiny particles boasting remarkable thermal protection properties. These technologies promise to boost thermal performance dramatically while reducing space devoted to insulation materials.

However, with going-in costs of innovative technologies predictably higher than those of traditional insulation materials, pioneering real estate entrepreneurs and their vendors are aiming to demonstrate longer-term viability of advanced technologies such as vacuum insulation panels (VIPs), silica aerogels and phase-change materials (PCMs). Their expectation is that these alternatives can cost-effectively cut energy consumption, especially at peak hours, in turn allowing for downsized HVAC systems. They are also seeking to provide other benefits, such as durability of performance; flexibility to accommodate various construction configurations and materials; adaptability to energy retrofits as well as new construction?not to mention product availability.

As is often the case as innovators transfer technologies to the commercial building sector, many of the new-wave insulation suppliers have initially targeted European markets for their products?and in some cases they have been used effectively in combination with one another as well as separately. If historic patterns hold, costs should continue downward with further product development, supplier consolidation and construction code adoption, making them more attractive to U.S. landlords, predicted Aditya Ranade, senior analyst with Lux Research.

Ranade, who heads Lux?s Sustainable Building Materials service, believes insightful applications of VIP technologies can offer particularly compelling economics to U.S. developers in the relatively short term. PCMs are already demonstrating effectiveness in properties subject to exceptional daytime heat followed by cool nights. While aerogel-based insulation products hold great long-term promise, however, costs will need to fall further before they see widespread adoption domestically.

Vacuum Insulation Panels:
Exceptional Performance

While VIPs at the prevailing development stage cannot boast quite the structural flexibility of aerogel-embedded insulation products, they can offer exceptional thermal performance at a more attractive cost. The latest products often offer R-40 (per inch of thickness) or better thermal protection, compared to just R-4 with many traditional mineral fiber insulation alternatives. As for the physical composition, modern building insulation VIPs? core glass microfiber matrix materials?most often fumed silica?are encapsulated within a vacuum-sealed enclosure envelope with metal (mostly aluminum or aluminized) skins.

Even though aerogels in certain applications boast superior thermal efficiency, Ranade sees VIPs filled with materials other than silica aerogels?such as polystyrene and polyurethane foam?as probably more promising in the near term in the U.S. commercial building sector.

Indeed, several VIP filler materials can now provide outstanding thermal performance improvements at costs factoring to the relatively short payback periods America?s commercial property executives prefer.
And as a VIP layer can be less than an inch thick, they help keep fa?ade and wall assemblies relatively thin. Not only does this characteristic minimize any intrusion on usable floor space, it also makes VIP use in many energy retrofits viable?even with wood-frame structures, under the right circumstances.

Primary suppliers here in the United States include Dow Corning, ThermoCor and Panasonic.
Some domestically available VIP products remain limited to relatively small panels that are attached individually to wall assemblies with adhesives. One issue is that under typical construction methods, larger panels risk puncture from nails affixing wallboard sheets, seriously degrading thermal performance at the panel edges.

But illustrating progress expected to migrate across the Atlantic, Ranade noted that some European innovators are providing prefabricated cavity-wall assemblies complete with VIP layers. While this alternative cannot match the flexibility of the latest thin aerogel insulation blankets, the far lower costs should make them more economically viable for the time being, Ranade observed.

Installed costs for the most expensive of these pre-assembled VIPs are in the range of roughly $5 to $7 per square foot?certainly not cheap, but with a generally manageable payback period of four years or less.

Durability is an area where VIPs are likely to improve, as it is logically preferable to maintain the initial high performance for decades longer than the 20 to 40 years associated with some of today?s offerings.

Another issue engineers have been striving to resolve is that VIPs can be vulnerable to puncture, deflating the vacuum. But even if the panel gets punctured and the vacuum is lost, Dow Corning estimates (though it does not yet offer a warranty) that its VIPs will typically still offer R-7 protection.

Aerogels? Long-Term Promise
It is no surprise Ranade and other experts foresee considerable longer-term promise for aerogels, which are billed as the lightest and best insulating solid on Earth and have been used to encase equipment on Mars Explorers. While the new insulating products are flexible, the actual encapsulated aerogel materials are solids composed of particles (derived from gels; hence the name) that are 90 to 99 percent air. These materials, dubbed ?frozen smoke,? almost entirely nullify the primary methods of heat transfer: convection, conduction and radiation.

As some of the latest products from key suppliers are sold in insulation blankets rather than stiff panels, aerogels can offer flexibility advantages. And in many cases they are thinner than VIPs, allowing for practical commercial property retrofits through additional layers applied to wall exteriors or interiors.

However, prevailing economics generally make thicker walls insulated with less-expensive material more viable than the thinner aerogel-equipped alternative that can run to $10 per square foot, Ranade said. In fact, he thinks American developers may find aerogels more financially feasible with glazing applications rather than opaque building elements.
Aspen Aerogels and Cabot Corp., both based in Massachusetts, have been the most active developers of aerogel products for domestic building applications.

Phase-Change Materials: Storing Energy

PCMs, which have proven dramatically effective in European office demonstrations, are more of an energy storage technology than a purely thermal barrier material. As CPE detailed last year, the trick behind PCMs is that their encapsulated solutions absorb heat as they liquefy at the desired daytime temperature, then release it when they solidify as temperatures cool at night.

The effect is that room temperatures remain relatively constant until all the PCM melts; only then does the A/C have to engage. As Ranade acknowledged, the financial impact is particularly beneficial where energy costs are higher during peak daytime use periods.

The Lux team feels PCMs today are best suited for climates seeing dramatic changes in temperatures over the course of each day?particularly areas experiencing hot days and cold nights, such as the U.S. Southwest. The math can certainly work in owners? and occupants? favor in these markets if peak loads can be reduced 40 or 45 percent, and nighttime heating costs by 60 or 70 percent, Ranade related.

Micronal PCM has also been embedded into plaster, ceiling tiles and aerated concrete. While wallboard and ceiling-tile applications seem the most logical, product developers are embedding PCM capsules into floor tiles, certain roofing materials, attic blankets, moulding?even carpet and paints.

Several American companies are active in developing PCM products targeting the commercial building sector. DuPont?s Energain line uses the PureTemp PCM product from Minnesota-based Entropy Solutions, as does active developer Phase Change Energy Solutions in its Bio-CPM line of insulation products. Fabral Architectural Systems in turn uses Bio-PCM in some of its wall and roof systems. And PCM Innovations, developer of the esBITS product line, continues demonstrating new applications within and beyond the building disciplines.

But PCM costs remain an issue generally, as does fire retardancy for the many products still made with paraffin wax, Ranade noted. Nor have traditional R-value measurement methods incorporated into construction codes kept pace with such variable-state technologies.

But he is confident that sharp American architects and their clients will adopt products that offer considerable energy savings. And that organizations like ASHRAE will remain on top of things in making recommendations for better incorporating such technologies into building codes, he said.

Source: http://www.cpexecutive.com/in-print/insulation-innovation/

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Retailers face ho-hum holiday sales

(Reuters) - The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, forcing many to offer massive post-Christmas discounts in hopes of shedding excess inventory.

While chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Gap Inc are thought to have done well, analysts expect much less from the likes of book seller Barnes & Noble Inc and department store chain J. C. Penney Co.

Growth was always expected to slow this season, though an improving employment picture and rising home values had helped mitigate the worst fears. But then Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast in late October, mild weather blunted sales of winter clothing and rising concern about the "fiscal cliff" became more of a reality, dragging down already pessimistic forecasts.

"The broad brush was Christmas wasn't all that merry for retailers, and you have to ask what those margins look like if the top line didn't meet their expectations," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

The latest sign of trouble came from MasterCard Advisors Spending Pulse, which reported holiday-related sales rose 0.7 percent from October 28 through December 24, compared with a 2 percent increase last year.

The preliminary estimate from SpendingPulse was in line with other estimates showing weak growth during the holiday season, when retailers can book about 30 percent of annual sales -- and in many cases, half of their profits.

"It has been a very uneven industry performance, probably at least for the last year, and that certainly continued into the holiday season," said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, in an interview with Reuters Insider.

The latest holiday season could end up the weakest since 2008, during the last recession, when sales actually declined. The National Retail Federation had previously predicted 4.l percent sales growth this year, versus a 5.6 percent increase a year earlier.

Markets reacted sharply to the gloomy outlook.

The S&P retail index fell 1.8 percent in midday trading Wednesday, and 16 of the top 20 decliners in the broader S&P 500 were retailers or consumer brands.

INVENTORY CRUSH

To be sure, the actual percentage change in holiday sales can differ substantially, depending on which group is composing the figure. SpendingPulse and the National Retail Federation, for example, look at different categories, which can cause some variation in their forecasts.

Regardless of how bad the figure is, one concern for retailers is that soft sales will mean an excess of inventory that will force some to slash prices.

Among other brands, Barnes & Noble offered 50 percent discounts in stores via email promotions on Wednesday, while Ann Inc had half-off at its Loft stores, and Bloomingdale's promoted discounts of up to 75 percent in some cases.

Even in a good year, retailers would have offered discounts to lure customers, but some suggest a weak year has now forced their hands.

"Retailers are no longer chasing sales, they are chasing inventory management. That means the discounts that they would have liked to be at 50-60 (percent) off have climbed to 75 to even 80 (percent) off," said Marshall Cohen, chief industry analyst at The NPD Group.

Erica Ayala, 31, a mother of four who lives in New York's Harlem neighborhood, waited until the day after Christmas to shop for that very reason, saving more than $150 on kids' clothes alone at Gap's Old Navy chain.

"You can't go wrong with that," she said.

SANDY AND CLIFF

A variety of factors were thought to be at fault for the weak season, starting with Superstorm Sandy, which depressed sales in the Northeast in late October and early November.

Sales recovered in the second part of November, with early hours and promotions helping drive traffic during the "Black Friday" weekend after Thanksgiving, analysts said.

But there was a deep lull in early December as a winter storm in parts of the United States may have limited sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard SpendingPulse.

On top of that, there were fears that taxes will rise in the new year if Washington cannot negotiate a solution to the end-of-year "fiscal cliff" dilemma.

A recent Ipsos poll for Reuters found that only 17 percent of shoppers were spending less due to cliff fears, though analysts said the damage was still done.

"The government usually does not have a role in holidays but this year they did. They got right in the midst of it, the timing couldn't have been any worse," NPD's Cohen said.

BRIGHT SPOTS

One bright spot has been online sales, which continue to grow at a faster pace.

On Christmas Day, online sales jumped 22.4 percent, outpacing the 16.4 percent increase in 2011, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks more than 1 million e-commerce transactions a day from 500 U.S. retailers.

Whether online or off, some of the winning retailers were expected to be Wal-Mart, which attracted shoppers with early deals on the night of Thanksgiving and kept its focus on value, and apparel chains like Gap Inc, whose bright sweaters were successful, according to analysts.

Toys sold well, and hot items that were harder to find later in the season included certain Mattel Inc Barbie dolls and LeapFrog Enterprises Inc's LeapPad2 tablet computer, according to B. Riley Caris analyst Linda Bolton Weiser.

For retailers who have struggled, analysts said all hope was not lost. Many have fiscal quarters that end in January, so they still have time to benefit from a post-Christmas rebound. Because Christmas fell on a Tuesday, some said they could even see a boost this week from people who have extra time off.

"There's still a little bit more time to go until the holiday season is officially over," Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom said.

(Reporting by Brad Dorfman, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Wohl in Chicago, Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/retail-sales-creep-higher-weak-holiday-season-early-143749277--finance.html

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Demi Lovato Dedicates Song to Newtown Shooting Victims

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/demi-lovato-dedicates-song-to-newtown-shooting-victims/

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Video: Siegel's Bull Case For Stocks

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Supreme Court rejects appeal on airport scanners

MEDINAH, Illinois (Reuters) - The Ryder Cup has seen many great partnerships but never one quite like Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, who have turned a May-September bromance into golf's dynamic duo. Bradley, a fiery rookie and Mickelson, the most experienced member of the American brigade making his ninth appearance at the biennial competition, have developed the type of chemistry rarely seen on a U.S. Ryder Cup team. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-airport-scanners-135043877.html

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Netflix 'Just for Kids' now available on iPad

One of the most requested features for Netflix for iPhone and iPad is the "Just for Kids" section that's available on most other platforms -- and now it's finally here on the iPad! Even better, you don't have to do anything to get it. Netflix pushed a backend update and now you should see a "Just for Kids" button at the top left of the screen next to the Browse button. Unfortunately, Just for Kids is only available on the new iPad and the iPad 2, although Netflix has promised that the first generation iPad should receive support soon. No word yet on Netflix for iPhone.

The Just for Kids section of Netflix is filled with movies and TV shows suitable for children ages 12 and under. It's great for parents because it gives the peace of mind that your child won't accidentally stumble across something inappropriate, and it's great for kids because it's easy for them to find something they like. Keep in mind, however, that there isn't a way to lock your kids into Just for Kids, so adult supervision may still be required.

How many parents out there are excited about Just for Kids for Netflix on the iPad?

Free - Download Now

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Mom and pop investors miss out on stock market gains - GMA Network

NEW YORK - Stocks have more than doubled since the financial crisis and are closing in on a five-year high, but many Main Street investors have been absent from the party - especially those with the least saved.

?

Those who missed much of the rally did so because they reduced equity exposure after the benchmark S&P 500 index plummeted 57 percent between late 2007 and March 2009, according to an analysis by Reuters of mutual fund flows and changes in assets held in retirement accounts. Investors with the smallest savings typically saw the lowest percentage recovery in returns.

?

And while some have returned to the stock market during the subsequent rally, plenty of small investors remain on the sidelines.

?

"This is the most uncelebrated bull market in history," said Tony Ferreira, managing director at Cogent Research, which provides research and consulting for large fund managers. "In the old days, people would be jumping on the bandwagon, but nobody's chasing equity performance this time. Many people are still scared to wade back into the water."

?

If the equity upswing continues, some economists fear it could leave middle class Americans financially unprepared for retirement and widen the growing income disparities between rich and poor, which the U.S. Census Bureau said grew sharply in 2011.

?

It could also complicate President Barack Obama's chances for re-election, with some voters not having enjoyed much of a wealth effect from the stock market's 3-1/2-year rally.

?

To be sure, plenty of Americans have seen the balances of their 401(k) retirement accounts bounce back since the financial crisis as inertia kept many from abandoning stocks when the market crashed.

?

But things are hardly like they were during the bull market in the 1990s, which turned many retail investors into addicts for the latest Internet stock offering.

?

According to figures from Cerulli Associates that are based on analysis of Federal Reserve data, those with less than $100,000 in investable assets on average had $17,975 at the end of 2011, down 9 percent from $19,732 at the end of 2007.

?

In contrast, those with $500,000 to $2 million saw a 7 percent uptick to $966,948 from $903,219.

?

The vast majority of U.S. households - 87 million of the almost 119 million in 2011 - have less than $100,000 in assets, according to the data.

?

ROLLER COASTER

?

Investment advisers say stock market plunges in 2000-2002 and 2008-2009, the housing bust, a weak economy and a steady stream of Wall Street scandals have helped sour people on stocks and push them toward the perceived safety of bonds and cash.

?

Typically when the market doubles after hitting bottom investors return, said Jeffrey Mortimer, director of Investment Strategy at BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Boston.

?

But not this time. "They're still not back, and they'll unfortunately miss a rally," he said.

?

Investors didn't dump all their stocks during the crisis, but fewer households now hold equities than a decade ago, according to the Investment Company Institute, a U.S. mutual fund trade organization.

?

"The vast majority of people have some equity holdings in their 401(k) plans," said Brian Reid, chief economist at the ICI, but fewer are willing to take above-average or substantial risk than they were in 2008, before the market plummeted.

?

After climbing to 53 percent in 2001, equity ownership in individual stocks, mutual funds, ETFs and variable annuities fell to 48.2 percent in 2008 and 46.4 percent in 2011.

?

In another sign of how many investors have missed out on the recovery, they have pulled $235 billion out of U.S.-domiciled equity mutual funds, considered a proxy for retail investors, since 2007, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service shows.

?

Of that amount, some $53 billion has come out since last October, the bottom of a two-month selloff sparked by crisis in Europe and the loss of the United States' top credit rating. During that stretch, the benchmark Standard & Poor's has gained 28 percent, the Dow industrials 24 percent.

?

For the broad investing public, "it's been five solid years of steady outflows from equities and inflows into bonds," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co, which oversees $1.6 trillion in client assets. "Even 3-1/2 years into this bull market and the gains we've seen since June, it has not turned that psychology around."

?

KEEPING AHEAD OF INFLATION

?

Investors who left the market at the end of 2008 or early 2009, paid a high price.

?

Fidelity Investments found that individuals who had been investing for at least 12 consecutive years in their 401(k) plans but pulled out of equities in late 2008 or early 2009 had an average balance at the end of June 2012 of $167,000, compared with a $212,000 balance for those who didn't.

?

"The average investor tends to chase returns when things are going well and bolt when things are going poorly," says Drew Kanaly, CEO of Kanaly Trust Co in Houston.

?

To be fair, even advisers for the very wealthy - people with a few million dollars in assets - have lately been doing "a lot of hand-holding and education" for clients who were scarred by the 2008 crash, said Lori Heinel, head of investment services and chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer Funds.

?

"But some of these investors may just want to preserve capital. They don't necessarily have to see it grow," she said. "I'm more concerned about the average investor with a 401(K) balance that's less than $100,000."

?

Indeed, if average investors don't recover some appetite for risk, it could leave more Americans financially under prepared for retirement.

?

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the median balance was $58,000 for workers 55-64 with a 401(k) retirement plan at the end of 2010. The median for all 401(k) participants that year was $17,686.

?

About 60 percent of workers and or their spouses had less than $25,000 in savings and investments excluding their homes and pensions, according to EBRI's 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey, which was released in May.

?

And it's not just baby boomers that are at risk.

?

A recent Cogent Research report found that risk aversion among all age groups has been on the rise since 2006, including Generation X and Y, who have lived through a number of market collapses.

?

But while bonds have provided solid returns in recent years, thanks to low inflation and the Federal Reserve efforts to hold down interest rates, advisers say a long-term strategy based on bonds and cash may be riskier than stocks.

?

Bank accounts and money market funds currently pay next to nothing and a 10-year bond is yielding little more than 1.6 percent.

?

"If you have a 401(K) or an IRA, you have to be invested in risk assets in order not to outlive your money," said Barry Ritholtz, director of equity research at Fusion IQ. "There's simply no way to get to retirement without some sort of participation in the market. Unless you have $10 million, and maybe even if you do, you have to outpace inflation."

?

Investors, though, seem to be in no hurry to climb the so-called wall of worry. Now, many fear gridlock in Congress after the election could trigger massive automatic spending cuts and tax increases, bringing on another recession in 2013.

?

The American Association of Individual Investors reported on Thursday that bullish sentiment - based on whether investors expect stock prices to rise over the next six months - declined in its latest weekly survey to 36.1 percent.

?

It has now been below the historical average of 39 percent for 25 out of the past 26 weeks, and many of those responding expressed frustration about the political uncertainty. ? Reuters

Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/276244/economy/finance/mom-and-pop-investors-miss-out-on-stock-market-gains

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NYC diner adding horse meat to the menu

By amol on September 28, 2012

Read?more: Local, News, Horse Meat, M Wells Diner, Queens, Dave Nellhaus, Long Island City, Horse Slaughter, Long Island, Horse on the Menu, Moma P.S. 1 Museum, Moma, P.S. 1

Horse Meat
nbsp/nbspCourtesy NBC News

NEW YORK ? Horse meat is not something New Yorkers are accustomed to eating, but it will soon be added to the menu at the M. Wells Diner in Queens.

?It doesn?t sound appetizing to me, but that?s their prerogative,? remarked neighbor Dave Nellhaus.
?
M. Wells opens Thursday inside the MoMA P.S. 1 Museum in Long Island City, an iteration of its former eatery, which shuttered in August 2011 amid a rent dispute with the landlord.
?
Last year, Congress lifted a ban on the slaughter of horses in the U.S., although there is no real market for human consumption of horse meat in the states.

Many Americans consider horses to be pets, but in some

Article source: http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=806679

Posted in Wires | Tagged wires |

Source: http://www.licnyc.com/2012/09/28/nyc-diner-adding-horse-meat-to-the-menu-2/

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6 teens arrested in taped beating of Pa. woman

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) ? Six teenagers were in custody Friday on charges they brutally beat a neighbor on her stoop "just for fun" and then posted cellphone video of the attack on Facebook, authorities said.

Four 16- and 17-year-old girls were charged as adults in the attack on the 48-year-old woman, a crime that has shaken this struggling city of about 30,000 residents just outside Philadelphia. The girls were charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, burglary and harassment. Another teen girl and a 19-year-old woman were also arrested later Friday afternoon.

The woman, whom police described as "mentally challenged," was punched, kicked and hit with a shoe and chair, and suffered cuts and bruises but no broken bones, authorities said. Her name was not released.

The attack occurred Tuesday at a two-story stucco house, where the woman lived, down the block from a small grocery. No one answered the door at the building Friday.

"It appears just for fun," Chester police Detective James Nolan said. "There hasn't been a discernible explanation as to why."

Police Commissioner Joseph M. Bail Jr. said the victim was doing better Friday and being treated for lacerations and abrasions at a crisis unit.

The Delaware County Daily Times first obtained video footage from police on Thursday.

It showed a group of girls walking down a sidewalk then suddenly attacking a woman sitting on her stoop. The teens follow the woman into her home as she tries to escape, taking turns punching and beating her. They quickly flee.

In the neighborhood where the woman lives, cashier Crystal Pate said she knows two of the girls ? one babysits her daughter ? and said they were not bad kids.

"I can't comprehend it. I trust her with my daughter's life," the 29-year-old Pate said. "Obviously, they were showing off. That's not something you do for fun."

Pate said the woman regularly sits on her front stoop and sometimes curses people or asks for cigarettes.

Chester has long battled high rates of crime and poverty. Mayor John Linder said youth should understand that attacking people will not be tolerated.

"This is an egregious attack," Linder said. "It's unbearable."

Janet Purnell, 55, whose elderly mother lives down the street from the attack, said it is hard for her to understand why a group of girls would want to attack a woman like that.

"It really doesn't make any sense," Purnell said. "It's ignorant."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/6-teens-arrested-taped-beating-pa-woman-211911720.html

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Ryan: Explaining tax plan math too time-consuming

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Paul Ryan says it would take too long to explain the numbers behind the tax plan that he and Mitt Romney are proposing.

The Republican vice presidential nominee says he and Romney want a 20 percent cut in all income tax rates. He says they would pay for those cuts by closing loopholes and deductions.

President Barack Obama and Democrats have hammered Romney and Ryan for refusing to say until after the election which tax loopholes they would close.

Ryan told "Fox News Sunday" that "it would take me too long to go through all the math."

Ryan said he and Romney would start by closing loopholes for higher-income Americans.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-30-Ryan-Taxes/id-ce92717572464311805407d300498b4e

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Russian Tortoise Lover for Android

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What every Russian Tortoise lover needs to know. With this app, you can read facts about your favorite pet and get tips on how to care for your Russian tortoise.

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Source: http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/lifestyle/russian-tortoise-lover_cwoey.html?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Free++Applications+for+Android

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Apple apologizes for Maps flaws, recommends rivals

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook apologized Friday to customers frustrated with glaring errors in its new Maps service, and, in an unusual move for the consumer giant, directed them to rival services instead, such as Google Inc's Maps.

The rare apology follows Apple's launch of its own mapping service earlier this month, when it began selling the iPhone 5 and rolled out iOS 6, the highly anticipated update to its mobile software platform.

Users complained that the new Maps service - based on Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker TomTom NV's's data - contained geographical errors and gaps in information, and that it lacked features that made Google Maps so popular, including public transit directions, comprehensive traffic data or street view pictures.

"We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better," Cook said in a letter to customers released on its website, adding that the company "fell short" of its commitment to deliver "the best experience possible to our customers."

Unusually, he suggested that customers download rival mapping services available in Apple's App Store, while the company improves the product.

"While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," he said in the letter.

"It is a bit unusual but at the same time, Tim is keeping Apple's commitment to provide the best user experience for customers," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said. "A key reason for Apple's success is keeping customers happy so we think this is a good move."

"People forget that Google Maps started out inferior to Mapquest and Yahoo Maps," he added.

Apple is typically loathe to tout rival services and the contrite apology by Cook is an indication of how Apple is changing under the chief executive who took over last year from co-founder Steve Jobs just before his death.

Shares of Apple were down 1.8 percent in late morning trading at $669.22.

NEW APPLE

The last time Apple faced such widespread criticism was in 2010, when users complained of signal reception issues on the then-new iPhone 4 model.

A defiant Jobs at the time rejected any suggestion the iPhone 4's design was flawed, but offered consumers free phone cases at a rare, 90-minute press conference called to address those complaints.

While Apple fixed the issue, Jobs had apologized to users only after he was specifically asked if he was sorry. He also said the issue was shared by all the major manufacturers, naming rivals Research in Motion, Samsung Electronics and HTC Corp specifically.

Cook's suggestion that Apple users download other map apps, particularly Google Maps, represents an about-turn for Apple, which had introduced its service as a direct challenge to the popular service offered by ally-turned-rival Google.

Apple Maps replaced the Google Maps app, which is no longer available on iOS 6. Users now have to access Google Maps through the browser.

Cook said that more that more than 100 million iOS devices are using the new Apple Maps and that the more people use Maps, the better it will get. He also offered some hints on why the company decided to remove Google Maps.

Apple launched the Google-powered Maps "initially with the first version of iOS" and the company created a home-grown version of the service as it wanted to provide more features, Cook said.

"As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps," he said in the letter.

Google provides turn-by-turn navigation on Android-based devices but the popular feature was not available for Apple devices.

Google and Apple were close partners with the original iPhone in 2007 and its inclusion of YouTube and Google Maps. But ties between the two companies have been strained by the rise of Google's Android mobile operating system, now the world's leading platform for smartphones.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said earlier this week that it has not submitted a new Google Maps app to Apple, but added the search giant talks to the Cupertino-based company "every day."

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apples-cook-sorry-maps-errors-suggests-rival-services-131626369--finance.html

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Real Estate Week: Homes Prices a Hot Topic; Zillow Under Fire; Tight

Here?s a look at news this week of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious:

STOP THE PRESSES! JULY PRICE REPORT!

The data is old and the conclusions obvious, but business journalists gave top billing this week to the latest S&P Case-Shiller Home Price report, which declared that home prices rose modestly in July in the nation?s 20 largest metro areas.

Never mind that other researchers have already released data for August (a modest uptick in prices nationwide), and September results will be announced next week (same as August, according to forecasts). But, for the record: July home prices were up 1.2 percent, year over year, in the top 20 markets.

Pardon our sarcasm, but the monthly Case-Shiller reports offers scant help where it matters most ? in local real estate markets where actual prices can vary wildly from national averages. For example, we reported last week that Bay Area home prices posted solid gains in August: from 2.3 percent in Marin County to 15.2 percent in Contra Costa County, for an average increase of 10.8 percent. Take that, Case-Shiller!

BIG JUMP IN NEW-HOME PRICES

More news on home prices: The median price of new, single-family homes sold spiked 11.2 percent in August from July, a new record, according to a U.S. Commerce Department report. Annually, prices rose 17 percent, a welcome sign that homebuilders are busy and buyers are eager.

WHY ARE PRICES RISING?

The Wall Street Journal?s real estate blog answers five questions central to any discussion of the recent rise in?home prices. It?s brief, smart, and worth a look.

A CAUTIONARY REPORT ON HOME PRICES

Here?s the final word on homes prices this week, with?a caveat that the Bay Area real estate scene is markedly different from what?s described here. That said, CNNMoney posted data from the research firm Fiserv suggesting U.S. home prices, on average,?won?t return to their 2007 peak for another 11 years ? add another three years to that?for California homes (2026!).

Fiserv based its report on many assumptions that may not prove true. It assumes prices will rise 3.7 percent a year, or 4.4 percent in California, and its broad averages don?t allow for local variations. We noted above that home prices in the Bay Area rose an average 10.8 percent in August, year over year, and even that average varied widely from county to county.

It?s true that it may take several years before many Bay Area?communities see 2007 prices again, but our real estate professionals in San Francisco, for example, tell us that prices today are very nearly there. Our advice: Pay attention to local experts, not statisticians.

ZILLOW STOCK?S WILD RIDE

Shares of the online real estate search service Zillow took a wild ride this week after a stock analyst issued a scathing report on the company?s business model. The report from Citron Research declared that Zillow is dramatically overvalued compared with other online real-estate sites and pointed to a steady stream of insider sales.

Zillow shares dropped nearly 7 percent on Tuesday before mostly recovering Wednesday after the company forcefully denied the report?s conclusions.

PENDING HOME SALES REPORT

The California Association of Realtors said pending home sales rose 2.7 percent from July to August, but year-over-year sales were down 2 percent because of the continued?shortage of housing inventory across the state. The lack of supply sent the share of equity sales to its highest level in four years, the C.A.R. said.

(The image above is courtesy Woodleywonderworks, via Flickr.)

Source: http://blog.pacunion.com/real-estate-week-homes-prices-zillow/

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Dior goes mini, in Raf Simons' debut ready-to-wear

PARIS (AP) ? Freedom was at the heart of Belgian designer Raf Simons' debut ready-to-wear outing for Christian Dior ? a confident show that twinned the essence of the 1950's "New Look," with the liberated hemlines of the 1960s.

Simons, a minimalist, is in many ways the stark opposite of Christian Dior, the exuberant house founder who favored longer ankle-length silhouettes.

But Friday's free, liberating display shows that in spirit ? if not perhaps in silhouette ? they meet eye to eye.

Simons took the "New Look" bar jacket, in black, gray and white and sent it down the catwalk often bare-legged, with the hemlines of the sexual revolution.

It was the same rebellious mood with which Christian Dior founded the house in 1947: His long-length "New Look" shocked the fashion world in its indulgent use of material ? a backlash against wartime fabric rationing.

"The foundation of the house is a reaction to restrictions," said Simons. "I wanted to do that too."

Do it, he did ? not forgetting to have fun on the way.

The strongest of the 53 looks were the highly wearable plays on the "bar."

Cheekily, Simons turned it and other jackets into mini dresses ? twinned with black uber-short shorts.

Straight H-lines and ball gowns were truncated, as were flared A-lines, often curved with deceptively complex mixes of pleats and godets a dash of Simons' own signature architecture.

Simons' has been swatting up.

Where Christian Dior loved garden flowers ? here, Raf Simons delved even further into the bushes, bringing back in his jam-jar six sumptuous insect-inspired looks in silk and tulle.

One pink and blue loose A-line used tulle and embroidery to create the translucent veins of an insect wing.

Another beautiful, subtle touch was an orange embroidered organza dress with the delicate patterning of a butterfly wing.

It was details like this that made this collection fly so freely and so high.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http:/ /Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dior-goes-mini-raf-simons-debut-ready-wear-180011711.html

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Genetic sleuthing uncovers deadly new virus in Africa

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) ? An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.

Described this week in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived.

It was discovered by an international research consortium that included the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Davis (UCD), Global Viral, the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon, the Institut National de Recherche Biom?dicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Metabiota and others.

"Known viruses, such as Ebola, HIV and influenza, represent just the tip of the microbial iceberg," said Joseph Fair, PhD, a co-author and vice president of Metabiota. "Identifying deadly unknown viruses, such as Bas-Congo virus, gives us a leg up in controlling future outbreaks."

"These are the only three cases known to have occurred, although there could be additional outbreaks from this virus in the future," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, who spearheaded the UCSF effort to identify the virus. Chiu and his team continue to work on new diagnostics to detect the virus so that health officials in Congo and elsewhere can quickly identify it should it emerge again.

One odd characteristic of the Bas-Congo virus, Chiu said, is that while a number of other viruses in Africa also cause deadly outbreaks of acute hemorrhagic fever -- Ebola virus, Lassa virus and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus to name a few -- the new virus is unlike any of them.

Genetically it is more closely related to the types of viruses that cause rabies, which are known to infect people with a very different sort of disease -- a neurological illness that is uniformly fatal if untreated but may take months to develop.

An antibody test developed in this study was applied to the one patient who survived and to others who had come into contact with him. It suggested that the disease may be spread from person to person but likely originated from some other source, such as an insect or rodent.

The identity of this animal "reservoir" and the precise mode of transmission for the virus remain unclear and are currently being investigated by Metabiota and the central African members of the consortium through the PREDICT Project of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats Program. (http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ohi/predict/index.cfm)

How the New Virus Emerged

In the summer of 2009, a 15-year old boy in a small rural community called Mangala village suddenly fell ill and developed a bleeding nose, bleeding gums and bloody vomit. He rapidly worsened, dying within three days of the first signs of illness.

A week later, a 13-year old girl who attended the same school and lived in the same neighborhood as the boy came down with a similar, serious illness. She declined just as rapidly and also died within three days. One week after that, the male nurse who cared for this girl began showing the same symptoms, and he was transferred to a hospital in Boma, a nearby port city that sits along the Congo River upstream from Africa's Atlantic coast.

Members of the consortium, who had initiated a project to diagnose unusual cases of severe hemorrhagic fever, obtained blood samples collected from the nurse by the Congolese doctors and sent them to the laboratory of Eric Leroy, PhD, doctor of veterinary medicine at the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon. There the samples were tested for traces of any known virus, but nothing was found. The Metabiota scientists then solicited the expertise of Chiu at UCSF and Eric Delwart at the Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco to aid in the diagnosis.

The researchers ultimately identified a completely new virus as the cause of the mysterious illness through a powerful strategy for identifying novel pathogens known as "deep sequencing," in which millions of DNA sequences are generated from a clinical sample and then pieced together using computer algorithms combined with human analysis.

Distinct Attributes of Bas-Congo

The Bas-Congo virus belongs to a family of viruses known as the rhabdoviruses, a large family of viruses that infect plants, insects and mammals, including humans. The most famous member of this family is the virus that causes rabies. But even among the rhabdoviruses, Bas-Congo is something of an outlier, being very genetically distinct from other members of the family.

What's most unusual about this virus, though, said Chiu, is what it does to people.

No other rhabdoviruses are known to cause the acute, rapid and deadly hemorrhagic fever seen in the three cases in the Congo. Rabies, for instance, can be a deadly disease if untreated, but the course of rabies in humans is nothing like the rapid and deadly onset seen with the Bas-Congo virus. There is some precedent, however, for hemorrhagic disease from rhabdoviruses in the animal kingdom: fish rhabdoviruses are known to cause hemorrhagic septicemia -- acute bleeding and death -- in affected fish.

The third patient had enormous amounts of BASV in his bloodstream just two days after he fell ill -- more than a million copies in every milliliter of blood.

The BASV sequence was also used to design an antibody test for the virus, an effort led by Graham Simmons at the BSRI, another member of the consortium. Antibodies are blood immune proteins produced in response to an infection. The antibody test allowed the researchers to screen both the third patient with acute hemorrhagic fever and other people who had come into contact with the third patient, including the nurse who cared for him in the Boma hospital. High levels of BASV-specific antibodies were found in the third patient, establishing that he indeed had been infected with Bas-Congo virus. The same antibodies were also found in the second nurse, even though he never actually became sick.

"What this suggests is that the disease may be transmissible from person to person -- though it's most likely to have originated from some other source," said Nathan Wolfe, PhD, founder and chairman of Global Viral, and a co-author on the paper. "The fact that it belongs to a family of viruses known to infect a wide variety of mammals, insects and other animals means that it may perpetually exist in insect or other 'host' species and was accidentally passed to humans through insect bites or some other means."

The research consortium includes San Francisco-based Global Viral, Metabiota, UCSF, BSRI, as well as researchers with the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon; the Institut de Recherche pour le D?veloppement in Montpellier, France; the Institut National de Recherche Biom?dicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX; the University of California, Davis; the University of California, Los Angeles; Stanford University; and the Howard Hughes Medical Center.

This work was funded by support from Google.org, the Skoll Foundation, the government of Gabon, Total-Fina-Elf Gabon, and the Minist?re des Affaires Etrang?res et Europ?ennes de la France, the U.S. Department of Defense Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, Division of Global Emerging Infections, Surveillance Operations (AFHSC GEIS) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (DTRA-CBEP), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats Program, PREDICT project. Additional funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health provided via grant numbers R01-HL083254, R01-HL105770, R56-AI089532, and R01-HL105704 and by an Abbott Viral Discovery Award.

* Global Viral was previously known as Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.

**Metabiota was previously known as Global Viral Forecasting Inc.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Gilda Grard, Joseph N. Fair, Deanna Lee, Elizabeth Slikas, Imke Steffen, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Taylor Sittler, Narayanan Veeraraghavan, J. Graham Ruby, Chunlin Wang, Maria Makuwa, Prime Mulembakani, Robert B. Tesh, Jonna Mazet, Anne W. Rimoin, Travis Taylor, Bradley S. Schneider, Graham Simmons, Eric Delwart, Nathan D. Wolfe, Charles Y. Chiu, Eric M. Leroy. A Novel Rhabdovirus Associated with Acute Hemorrhagic Fever in Central Africa. PLOS Pathogens, 2012; 8 (9): e1002924 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002924

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/P7jIxRM8jWc/120927174336.htm

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