Parasite Eve or original RP?

The Parasite Eve RP would take place approximately 5 years after the events of the first game, before MIST was set up. The RP would take place in between the events of the first and second game and would investigate the resurgence of Mitochondrion creatures and attempt to exterminate them and learn about why even after Eve was destroyed, the creatures (and people) are continuing to awaken and why their Mitochondria is being liberated. We'd play either as those whose Mitochondria has begun to awaken, but are still in control of their bodies or regular old humans.

Here's my idea for the original RP about Golems (think along the lines of Frankenstein's Monster:)

The Machinist: The Heart of Mankind.
Inventors put their all into the creation of their devices. A part of their soul goes into every piece, every gear and every spool wound tightly around countless coils.

In 1700s Transylvania, a new scientific journal outlining a contest to create a perpetual motion device where in the winner would be awarded 50 million rubles. Scientists from all over the world gathered in Vienna to participate in the contest. These men, most of whom were withered by age and defeat, decided to play this one last trump card and create the most difficult to understand thing ever known ? the human.
The competition set forth to create what would become known as the Golems: a fully automated-human, with a beating heart and a mind. That was the inventors? creation goal.

They were supreme deities for these automatons, these robotic, cybernetic, fully synthetic and surprisingly energetic.

These perpetual motion humans would operate like living batteries, donating the electric charge their brains give off into a device that can interpret those signals and reintegrate them into a machine which will spin a wheel which will poke a hamster that will start running and spinning another wheel and energy is created within an infinite loop. At least until the hamster dies anyway. Then you need to get another hamster.
But for all intents and purposes, the scientists were aiming to create an android capable of perpetual energy generation.

In the shadows of their laboratories, the scientists worked into the night, mixing beakers and tinkering with cogs to understand how to craft their Golems. With competitive malice and greed in human hearts, they created something far worse.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/NKZyu-tmteg/viewtopic.php

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Long-lived people distinguished by their DNA

People who live to be 100 often credit particular dietary or lifestyle habits, religious faith or a generally positive outlook for their aging success. But scientists have long believed extreme longevity is at least partly in the genes.

Certainly long lives seem to run in families. People who have a centenarian sibling stand a better chance of also living to 100 than most people do, and twin studies suggest that genes are responsible for about 20 to 30 percent of a person?s ability to live to 85. Yet despite efforts to comb the genetic blueprints of the very, very old for versions of genes that might make a person into the next Methuselah, scientists have largely come up empty.

Now, a group of researchers has identified a set of 281 genetic variants that together distinguish people who live to be 110 or more from the rest of us with about 85 percent accuracy. ?

Further analysis revealed several different genetic signatures among centenarians, indicating that there could be lots of ways to live beyond 100, researchers led by Paola Sebastiani and Thomas Perls of Boston University report January 18 in the online journal PLoS ONE. While the findings are drawing some criticism, the results suggest that there is a genetic component to longevity, especially at the oldest ages.

Centenarians in the study have just as many disease-associated genetic variants as other people, so the researchers think that the inherited component probably includes versions of genes that protect against age-related diseases. As people get older and older, being born with the right genetic stuff becomes more and more important for continued survival, they conclude.

?What we have is a provocative set of findings that need to be replicated,? Sebastiani says.

Controversial is the adjective many other researchers use to describe the research. In an earlier version of the study that was published online in Science in 2010, the Boston University researchers claimed to have found a set of 150 genetic variants that could correctly predict who would be a centenarian 77 percent of the time. But the study soon came under fire for technical flaws. The researchers fixed the technical problem and engaged an independent lab at Yale University to analyze the data.

Despite those revisions, the study was retracted from Science last year because the journal said the results no longer met standards for publication. Science?s reasoning is disingenuous, says Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. ?The results, if anything, are stronger,? he says. ?The data are the data, and it?s very striking.?

But other geneticists have expressed vague unease with the findings.

?The obvious technical issues have been corrected,? says geneticist Greg Cooper of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala. ?It certainly is worth putting out there as observations to think about.? But longevity ?is a messy trait,? one that may be too complicated to explain with a small number of genetic variants. ?I?m not totally sold? that the study really explains centenarians? staying power, Cooper says.

Part of the discomfort stems from the method used to generate the genetic profiles. Most modern genetic studies are really exercises in statistics. Researchers compare large groups of people with a trait or disease to other large groups that don?t share that trait, looking for genetic variants that appear more often in the group that has the disease.

Another challenge: It?s hard to find a large group of centenarians. Only one in 5,000 Americans lives that long, and only one person in 7 million will become a supercentenarian ? someone who is 110 or older.

In the new study, the researchers combed the genetic blueprints of 801 centenarians and 914 healthy younger people for longevity-associated variants. The researchers also replicated the findings with two additional rounds of testing; first with a separate group of 253 people in their 90s and 100s and a control group of 341 younger people, then with a third set of 60 centenarians and 2,863 other people.

The researchers detected only one individual variant ? one linked to the APOE gene, which is associated with Alzheimer?s disease ? that meets statistical standards for separating supercentenarians from people with a more average life span. Many other variants also looked as if they might be tied to longevity, but none passed statistical muster.

So Sebastiani and her team began summing the effects of variants that didn?t quite rise to the statistical threshold to see if those individual differences added up to a genetic signature that could predict longevity. Although none of the variants alone could distinguish the extremely long-lived from those with average life spans, together the variants began to form an overall picture of the genetic makeup of a centenarian. As the researchers added in more and more variants, up to the 281 reported in the study, their power to predict centenarians increased.

Such grouping of genetic variants has been used to study characteristics such as height, body mass and intelligence. That type of analysis may help detect an underlying genetic component to a trait, but doesn?t indicate which biological processes are important, says Elizabeth Cirulli, a human geneticist at Duke University?s Center for Human Genome Variation.

?It?s not that it?s invalid, it?s just not helpful,? she says.

David Hinds, a statistical geneticist at the genetic testing company 23andMe, contends that the genetic profile may be an overly optimistic interpretation of the data and may be a result of strong genetic signatures from some ethnic groups. Hinds used the 281 variants to see if he could pick out the 58 centenarians in the 23andMe database from about 90,000 other people. He couldn?t.

His analysis also indicates that the 281 variants are really a signature that identifies people of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The demographic history of Jews might mean that fewer people of Ashkenazi ancestry have lived to become centenarians. ?It could be that the model predicts who will be a centenarian in the United States, but for the uninteresting reason that centenarians in the northeastern U.S. tend not to be Jewish,? he says.

Sebastiani says that the centenarians and control groups were carefully selected to eliminate any chance that the results would be skewed by ancestry. Hinds? failure to replicate the findings may be because the centenarians in his database aren?t really centenarians at all. ?There are a lot of false claims about old ages,? she says.

Found in: Genes & Cells

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338019/title/Long-lived_people_distinguished_by_their_DNA

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Suspect shown by Mexico cops says he beat Canadian (AP)

CULIACAN, Mexico ? A man charged with brutally beating a Canadian tourist at a luxury beach hotel told reporters Saturday that he tried to hold the woman in an elevator and punched her several times in the face when she cried for help.

Police presented Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero, 28, to local and foreign journalists in the Pacific port city of Mazatlan, where the attack on Sheila Nabb of Calgary, Alberta, occurred in the early hours of Jan. 20.

He was arrested Friday and charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors have said investigators were led to Acosta by a hotel security video that showed him leaving the elevator where Nabb was attacked.

Sinaloa State Prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez said Saturday that Acosta was drinking in local bars and had taken cocaine with a Canadian friend when they decided to go to one of the large tourist hotels where bars operate 24 hours. He said Acosta frequents those hotels and sometimes goes by the name "Ray."

Flanked by police, Acosta spoke in fluent English as he answered a few questions from foreign reporters. He said he entered the hotel from the back beach doorway and was taking an elevator up to the roof when the doors opened and Nabb got in. They talked and then he put his hand on the door, he said, to prevent her from leaving so they could keep talking.

"She got afraid when I didn't let her out and she started yelling, 'He won't let me out,'" Acosta said. "I got afraid also, because she's a North American and I'm Mexican and I wasn't supposed to be in the hotel."

He said he covered her mouth as she continued to yell for help.

"Then I hit her four or five times in the face with my fist and then I left," said Acosta, who swallowed nervously as he talked.

Nabb's husband was in their hotel room at the time of the attack and she was found lying in the elevator and bleeding heavily.

She was flown to Canada, and Canadian media have reported that she remains hospitalized with major injuries to her face and jaw.

"Yeah, I did it. I did, but it wasn't planned or anything like that," Acosta said in a soft voice. "I didn't try to abuse her, or I didn't try to kill her or anything or rob her."

Acosta said police had shown him a security camera video of him leaving the elevator, but he denied it showed him kicking Nabb. He said that possibly he was using his foot to move her hand out of the door so it would close.

Higuera has said Acosta had Nabb's blood on his shoes when he was arrested.

"I'm sorry and I hope that she recovers," Acosta said before being led away by police. "I've seen the papers. Her face was bad."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_canadian_attacked

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Keep the dishwasher and fridge apart; save a bundle on energy

Why would you put a device that gets hot next to a device that gets cold? They would both be using energy to fight the effects of the appliance next door.

Your dishwasher gets hot. Your dishwasher also gets moist, meaning it?s harder to cool down the air around it. Your refrigerator gets cold. So does your freezer.

Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm

The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

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Why would you put a device that gets hot next to a device that gets cold? No insulation is perfect, after all, so they would both be using energy to fight the effects of the appliance next door.

So many elements of frugality and personal finance come down to paying attention to the details. This is one of those little detail things that so many people will overlook, but over time it just continually costs you money.

When we moved into our current home, one of the things that annoyed me about it was the relatively small kitchen. It wasn?t much larger than the kitchen in our small apartment, having only a small counter that the other did not have.

Even worse, the refrigerator was installed next to the dishwasher, and the only way to fix it would involve an extensive reworking of our kitchen, as the cabinets are all formed around slots for the appliances.

There?s no doubt that energy is lost in this process. The dishwasher, while running a cycle, puts off a tremendous amount of heat, some of which you can feel on the side of the refrigerator. I often hear the refrigerator kicking on just a minute or two after starting a dishwasher load due to the rise in internal temperature of the refrigerator. It?s actively costing us money.

So, what can we do about this? At the moment, not much. Other than the side-by-side appliance issue, our kitchen is laid out fairly well for its size. Although we?ve looked at alternate arrangements, none of them have provided enough value to be worth the cost of rearranging things.

One short-term fix we?ve done is to insert a piece of thin insulation between the two appliances. There was just enough room for a small piece of insulation to fit between the two, so we purchased a piece of heat-resistant insulation. While this isn?t a perfect fix, it does reduce the heat directly transferred between the two devices.

We also try to make an effort to keep the refrigerator door closed while the dishwasher is running. Opening the refrigerator door while the dishwasher is running causes the cool and dry air to rush out and the warm, damp air to move in, making it that much harder for the refrigerator to do its job.

However, we do plan to build a new house in the future. When we do that, we?ll make sure to avoid having a ?hot? appliance next to a ?cold? one. In fact, in our latest design sketches (a fun project that Sarah and I work on sometimes in the evenings is doing sketches on the computer of what our dream house would be like), the refrigerator and dishwasher are pretty far apart, with a large counterspace between the refrigerator and the sink and the dishwasher on the other side of the sink.

Another thing to watch out for: avoid having your refrigerator or freezer next to an air vent, particularly if you live in northern climates. During the winter, your air vent will be blowing out hot air, which you don?t want blowing directly onto your refrigerator. This is something else to consider when designing or re-designing a kitchen, as it?s all about the energy efficiency.

Will this save you a lot of money or a little? It?s really hard to measure, as it depends on the modes you?re running in your refrigerator and dishwasher, the amount of insulation between the two, and countless other factors. However, I?d have to be oblivious to not hear our refrigerator kicking on and running almost contiunously when our dishwasher is running. If a simple kitchen design decision will make a real difference in how much your refrigerator is running, it?s well worth keeping in mind as a principle.

This post is part of a yearlong series called ?365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),? in which I?m revisiting the entries from my book ?365 Ways to Live Cheap,? which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.?

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/mhOTWZaL5s0/Keep-the-dishwasher-and-fridge-apart-save-a-bundle-on-energy

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Panetta cites key intelligence on bin Laden raid (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the U.S. in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden's compound last May.

Panetta told CBS's "60 Minutes," in a profile to be broadcast on Sunday, that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is "very concerned" for the doctor.

Panetta also told "60 Minutes" that he remains convinced that someone in the Pakistani government "must have had some sense" that a person of interest was in the compound. He added that he has no proof that Pakistan knew it was bin Laden.

The Pakistani government had hoped to resolve the Afridi matter quietly, once media attention died down, perhaps releasing him to U.S. custody, according to two Pakistani officials. They requested anonymity because the investigation into charges the doctor behaved treasonously was ongoing.

___

AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_panetta_pakistan

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Geithner presses Europe to increase crisis firewall (Reuters)

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed Europe on Friday to boost its bailout fund resources, citing the euro zone debt crisis and oil prices as the two main factors influencing the pace of the United States' economic upturn.

The U.S. economy is growing at an annual rate of around 2-3 percent, Geither told the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that it still faces big challenges to repair damage wrought by the financial crisis.

Earlier on Friday, euro zone finance officials voiced optimism at the Forum that key building International Monetary Fund could help support Europe through its debt crisis if the euro zone boosts its bailout funds, or "firewall," he said.

"Our view is that the only way Europe is going to be successful in holding this together is for them to bring a stronger firewall and that is going to demand a bigger commitment," Geithner told the Forum.

"If Europe is able and willing to do that we believe the IMF is ready to play a constructive role," he added. "I think you'll see the IMF (be) very supportive in those efforts but not as a substitute for blocks to resolve the sovereign debt crisis (that) are gradually fitting into place.

The health of U.S. business was better than expected, Geithner said, dismissing the suggestion that tighter regulations were hampering growth.

"Profitability across the US economy is very high," he added. "What is holding the US economy back still is the aftershocks of the financial crisis and the fiscal pressure on governments."

Turning to Iran, he said Washington's drive to cut Iran's oil exports was getting excellent support from Europe and that there were positive signs from China too.

"Even over the last 6 months you're seeing a substantial intensification in (cutting) dependence on Iranian oil and my sense is also that China wants to be part of that effort because it is in China's interests not to see Iran undo the delicate balance in the Gulf," he added.

On his own future, Geithner reaffirmed that he would not expect to be asked to continue as Treasury chief if President Barack Obama wins re-election.

"Generally anybody who takes these jobs serves at the pleasure of the president," he said.

"When he asked me to stay when I thought it was the right time to leave, I agreed to stay and I agreed I would stay to the balance of this term. He accepted that aspiration of mine, and that's where it's going to come out, I think."

Geithner declined to say what he would do next: "That feels like a long way away."

(Reporting by Paul Carrel and Janet McBride; editing by Patrick Graham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/bs_nm/us_davos_geithner

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Student receives free cocaine with Amazon textbook order

By Rosa Golijan

Fernando Ochoa / KSHB

Any university student who has ever purchased a used textbook knows that there are sometimes strange surprises hiding between those pages. Usually they come in the form of messy scribbles or perhaps even a forgotten piece of gum, but in one student's case the unexpected (and unwanted) gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine.

WPTV reports that?Sophia Stockton ??a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas?? recently ordered a textbook?from an independent retailer through the Amazon online storefront. The book was intended for a spring course on terrorism and is called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues."

When Stockton flipped through the textbook, she "discovered a bag of white powder had fallen to the ground."?According to WPTV, Stockton feared that the bag contained anthrax and took it to the local police department the next day:

"I told them white powder was in my terrorism textbook and so I put it on the table and they?re like, 'oh, okay,' And so he went back and tested it,? Stockton recalls. ? He comes back and says, ?you didn?t happen to order some cocaine with your textbook, did you?? And I was like, no!?

Gardner law enforcement officials speculate that there may have been up to $400 worth of cocaine in the bag.?

According to GardnerEdge, a Kansas area news site,?the Gardner Police Department?will destroy the cocaine at a later date, but?the officials have?not reported the incident to Amazon or any other agency.

We reached out to Amazon for more information about how such an incident could have occurred. While Stockton's textbook was purchased through the online retailer, it comes from Warehouse Deals. This Amazon storefront offers "deep discounts on open-box, like-new, refurbished, or used products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.com's rigorous standards as 'new.'"?

According to the Warehouse Deals' page?on Amazon, all items are inspected prior to being offered for sale:

Prior to offering an item for sale on Warehouse Deals, we verify its physical and functional condition.

Items purchased through independent sellers on the Amazon website are covered by the company's "A-to-z Guarantee," so Stockton could theoretically file?a claim on the grounds that the item she purchased was "not the item depicted in the seller's description." (We sincerely doubt that cocaine was mentioned in the product description, after all.)

At this time it remains a mystery how $400 worth of cocaine wound up in a used textbook.

But if anyone else finds a bag containing a questionable white powder in a mail-order, I would strongly suggest that he or she should not wait an entire day to alert authorities. After all, if the bag in Stockton's textbook did contain anthrax?? as she initially feared?? immediate and appropriate medical evaluation and treatment would've been essential. (For more information about anthrax, you can?consult the World Health Organization website.)

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10251568-student-receives-free-cocaine-with-amazon-textbook-order

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Connecticut killer sentenced to die for "unimaginable horror" (Reuters)

NEW HAVEN, Conn (Reuters) ? A judge formally sentenced Joshua Komisarjevsky to death for the murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in Connecticut, saying he committed a crime of "unimaginable horror."

Judge Jon Blue on Friday told Komisarjevsky, 31, that he alone was to blame for his new address on death row after the 2007 triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, and beating of husband and father Dr. William Petit Jr.

"This is a terrible sentence but one you have written for yourself," Blue told Komisarjevsky in New Haven Superior Court.

"Your crime was one of unimaginable horror and sadness," the judge said. "Your fate is now in the hands of others. May God have mercy on your soul."

He set an execution date of July 20, 2012, pending an appeal, which could drag out the matter for years.

Before the judge spoke, Komisarjevsky, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, denied he killed or raped anyone.

But he told the judge, "The clock is now ticking and I owe a debt I cannot repay."

Komisarjevsky now joins his accomplice, Steven Hayes, 48, who was sentenced to death last year for killings in which Hawke-Petit was strangled and the girls died of smoke inhalation after the home was set afire. Hawke-Petit was raped and Michaela Petit was sexually assaulted.

The killer's portrayal of innocence was in stark contrast to the "evil" described by the sole survivor of the attack, Dr. Petit, who told the court how Komisarjevsky's actions had destroyed his family.

"July 23, 2007 was my own personal holocaust," said Petit, who was beaten unconscious but escaped. "Evil does live among us."

He said he missed his late night chats with his wife and their partnership raising their daughters, who he will never walk down the wedding aisle and who will never bear the grandchildren he would have loved to have known.

Outside the courthouse, Petit's father spoke of the slow emotional recovery of his son, who is now engaged to be married.

"He's starting to come back a little bit now to what he was. He never will come all the way back," William Petit Sr. told reporters after the sentencing.

"To know Bill, the brilliant young doctor that he was, the happy young man, the good father, brother, cousin, uncle, all of those things, and son, and then to see him after this is just heartbreaking."

A jury convicted Komisarjevsky last fall, then sentenced him to death.

Komisarjevsky targeted Hawke-Petit and her younger daughter at a local grocery store and followed them home, he confessed during the investigation. He later returned with Hayes in the early morning, while the family was sleeping, and bashed Petit with a baseball bat and tied him to a pole in the basement.

After ransacking the home for valuables and finding little, they two men tied the girls to their beds and concocted a plan to take Hawke-Petit to the bank to withdraw $15,000.

Despite his last-minute denial at the sentencing, Komisarjevsky admitted to investigators that he molested Michaela while her mother was at the bank, according to police.

With the police circling the home, Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit and the two men doused the family room and the girls' beds with gasoline.

Dr. Petit escaped through bulkhead doors in the basement as the home went up in flames.

Police caught Komisarjevsky and Hayes as they tried to flee.

During the trial, prosecutors laid blame for the predatory nature of the crime and the escalating violence on Komisarjevsky.

Defense attorneys said Komisarjevsky never intended for anyone to die and suffered mental health problems stemming from his upbringing by rigidly religious parents as well as from suffering several concussions and years of childhood sexual assault at the hands of a foster child in the family home.

Komisarjevsky's sentencing brings to 11 the number of men on the Connecticut's death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Connecticut has executed only one person, in 2005, since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, the center said.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Barbara Goldberg and Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/us_nm/us_crime_homeinvasion

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Netflix customers return in 4Q; stock soars 15 pct (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Netflix has regained almost as many customers as it lost following an unpopular price increase, signaling that the video subscription service is healing from its self-inflected wounds.

Fourth-quarter figures released Wednesday show Netflix Inc. ended December with 24.4 million subscribers in the U.S., up from 23.8 million at the end of September. That gain of about 600,000 customers compares with the loss of 800,000 subscribers last summer after it raised its U.S. prices as much as 60 percent.

The uptick is a positive sign for Netflix after several months of upheaval battered its stock.

The fallout from the earlier customer defections contributed to a 14 percent decrease in Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings.

Netflix made $40.7 million, or 73 cents per share, in the final three months of last year. That compares with income of $47.1 million, or 87 cents per share, a year earlier.

Investors had been bracing for a bigger drop-off. The company's performance easily exceeded the average earnings estimate of 54 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 47 percent from the previous year to $876 million ? $19 million above analyst projections.

Netflix's stock soared $14.06, or nearly 15 percent, to $109.10 in extended trading. It had ended regular trading up $2.37, or 2.6 percent, at $95.04.

The stock still has a long way to go to return to its peak of nearly $305, which was reached in July, about the same time that Netflix announced the price increase that outraged customers.

"It's still too early to know how much success Netflix is going to have this year, but seeing those gains in customers makes investors feel safer," said Frost & Sullivan analyst Dan Rayburn.

Now that the backlash over the higher prices has eased, Netflix's biggest challenge may be fending off competitive challenges to its primary business of streaming video over high-speed Internet connections.

Amazon.com Inc. is rapidly expanding a streaming service it started last year while many analysts are expecting Verizon Communications to get into video streaming later this year, possibly in a partnership with Coinstar Inc.'s Redbox, whose kiosks already compete against Netflix in DVD rentals. Google Inc.'s YouTube also is supplementing the amateur video on its site with more content from movie and TV studios.

Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, Calif., also must navigate an international expansion that will saddle the company with a loss this year.

The fourth-quarter results should help bolster confidence in Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who was skewered in Internet forums and analyst notes for miscalculating how subscribers would react to higher prices.

A contrite Hastings had promised that Netflix would work to lure back customers, and it managed to do so better than he forecast.

Netflix expects its comeback to gather momentum in the current quarter.

The company forecast that it will add 1.7 million U.S. subscribers to its Internet video streaming service. That would be in line with how many streaming subscribers signed up in last year's first quarter.

Netflix ended 2011 with 21.7 million streaming subscribers in the U.S. and another 1.9 million in Canada and Latin America. This month, Netflix introduced streaming plans in the United Kingdom and Ireland, too.

Most of the streaming gains will be offset by cancellations of DVD-by-mail rental plans, which Netflix is gradually phasing out. Hastings believes discs are becoming increasingly antiquated as technology advances. Netflix predicted its DVD subscriptions will fall from 11.2 million in December to 9.7 million in March. The company lost 2.8 million DVD subscribers in the fourth quarter.

"We expect DVD subscribers to decline every quarter forever," Hastings told analysts during a Wednesday conference call.

About 8.4 million Netflix customers subscribe to both Internet streaming and DVD rentals.

While Netflix sees its emphasis on streaming as a smart long-term strategy, the DVD attrition will hurt the company's full-year performance because Netflix's recent price increases made delivering discs through the mail more profitable ? for now.

Netflix is paying higher fees for the streaming rights to exclusive programming, as well as video already available in other outlets and formats. At the end of December, its video licensing commitments totaled $3.9 billion.

Netflix expects to produce an annual loss this year, for the first time in a decade. The company gave the first inkling of how big the setback will be with its projection for a first-quarter loss of 16 cents to 49 cents per share.

Analysts on average expect a first-quarter loss of 29 cents per share.

Netflix projected first-quarter revenue of $842 million to $877 million, compared with a forecast for $849 million from analysts.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_hi_te/us_earns_netflix

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Romney more popular than Reagan (at least in the first-name sweepstakes) (Washington Post)

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Factbox: Reactions from leading Oscar nominees (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards on Tuesday. The winners will be named at the annual Oscars ceremony in Hollywood on February 26.

Following is a list of reactions from nominees, received by Reuters in statements via e-mail, except as noted below.

-- "It's an honor to be nominated a second time, it is a personal accomplishment and triumph for women and women of color. I'm so glad the film has been recognized, it was a labor of love from the moment it was conceived and it is rewarding to see the impact it is having." -- Viola Davis, best actress nominee for "The Help."

-- "I am thrilled and shocked." -- Gary Oldman, best actor nominee for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." (By phone to Reuters)

-- "I am honored to be in company with such beautiful artists, and touched deeply by my fellow actors for their generosity in giving me this acknowledgment." -- Meryl Streep, best actress nominee for "The Iron Lady."

-- "This is an extraordinary honor. I am dizzy with joy... and caffeine. Considering both films, Moneyball and The Tree of Life, nearly didn't make it to the screen, this is especially sweet. And I'd like to thank all the artisans and craftsmen who gave their best to each film. I am especially over the moon for Jonah (and the other Moneyballers acknowledged today), Terry Malick and the tribute this is to Billy Beane and the Oakland A's organization. My congratulations to all the nominees ... pancakes for everyone." -- Brad Pitt, best actor nominee for "Moneyball."

-- "I am so grateful to be acknowledged by the Academy for my work, which was made possible by the support of our director Simon Curtis and the camaraderie of a terrific ensemble of actors - a special congratulations to Kenneth Branagh - and the fearless Harvey Weinstein. This role has been the challenge and privilege of a lifetime. I would like to think that the recognition our film has received by the Academy is a testament to Marilyn's legacy." -- Michelle Williams, best actress in a lead role nominee for "My Week With Marilyn."

-- "I am thrilled for Janet, I am thrilled for our incomparable hair and makeup team. It might be my sixth (nomination) but it feels like my first. Bravo team Nobbs." -- Glenn Close, best actress nominee for "Albert Nobbs."

-- "I'm overjoyed and filled with happiness. I can't believe that a year ago I was learning how to tap dance and today I am nominated for an Academy Award. It was a thrill to work on a project as ambitious as 'The Artist' and I am happy to share this moment with our visionary director, Michel Hazanavicius and our talented team of actors." Berenice Bejo, best supporting actress nominee for "The Artist."

-- "It was a rare honour to play Sir Laurence Olivier. To be recognized by the Academy for doing so is overwhelming. I'm absolutely thrilled." -- Kenneth Branagh, best supporting actor nominee for "My Week With Marilyn."

-- "I am so humbled, appreciative and in shock about this incredible honor. I'd like to thank the Academy, Sony Pictures , the cast and crew of Moneyball, Brad Pitt, and, most of all, our brilliant director Bennett Miller." -- Jonah Hill, best supporting actor nominee for "Moneyball."

-- "My sincere thanks to my colleagues at the Academy. It is wonderful. I don?t know what to say ?I am dumbfounded." -- Max von Sydow, best supporting actor nominee for "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

-- "I am thrilled with our multiple nominations for "The Help" and "War Horse". It is the first time that I have experienced two Best Picture nominations in the same year. One is a high honor. Two is humbling but very exciting. It is a tribute to all those who joined with Stacey Snider and our DreamWorks Studios team to develop and make these two films with stories that we passionately felt we had to make." -- Steven Spielberg, multiple nominations for "The Help" and "War Horse."

-- "I am deeply honored to have been nominated by the Academy for my work on Hugo. Every picture is a challenge, and this one -- where I was working with 3D, HD and Sacha Baron Cohen for the first time -- was no exception. It's a wonderful feeling to know that you've been recognized by the people in your industry. I congratulate my fellow nominees. It's an impressive list, and I'm in excellent company." -- Martin Scorsese, best director nominee for "Hugo."

-- "I am so honored by this nomination. Filming 'The Artist' in Los Angeles was a dream come true, and to receive this recognition today is far beyond what any of us could have ever imagined. I could not have done this film without the incredible ensemble of actors and exceptional crew whose heart and souls were poured into this project." -- Michel Hazanavicius, best director nominee for "The Artist."

-- "I am very humbled by this morning's nominations. This must be how my father felt back in 1965 when he received his first Oscar nomination. 'The Artist' was a labor of love from writer/director Michel Hazanavicius to pay homage to Hollywood, and to see all the love that the Academy has given it this morning is overwhelming." -- Thomas Langmann (producer), best picture nominee for "The Artist."

-- "There's no denying that Oscar nominations for one's film are exciting, if only for the joy they give to everyone who worked so hard on the film. I'm particularly happy for the recognition of my long-time editor Kevin Tent. He really deserves it." -- Alexander Payne (writer/director/producer), best director, best adapted screenplay and best picture nominee for "The Descendants."

-- "I must say I am pleasantly shocked and incredibly grateful to the Academy for this honor. We are all so proud of The Tree of Life, but we knew too it was a very challenging film that pushed the envelope. The nominations this morning are thrilling endorsements of the film, Terry's vision, the incredible work of Chivo, and the great contributions of everyone involved. Many thanks to the Academy!" -- Bill Pohlad (producer), best picture nominee for "The Tree of Life."

-- "It is an incredible honor to be nominated this morning. We set out to do something different with RANGO, and this distinction is a testament to everyone who tirelessly dedicated themselves to creating our neurotic lizard. Rango was looking for an audience who shared his love of cinema and I'm humbled that he found one. It has been a remarkable journey, and one that I am grateful to share with our entire creative team, Paramount, and all of the virtuosos at Industrial, Light and Magic." -- Gore Verbinski (writer/director/producer), best animated feature film nominee for "Rango."

-- "I'm deeply honored that the Academy recognized Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close as well as Max von Sydow. The entire team behind our film felt the enormous responsibility in taking on this project, and it is deeply humbling to have the Academy recognize it in this way." -- Stephen Daldry, best picture nominee for "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

-- "We are thrilled for the nominations War Horse has received and most of all thankful to have been working under the leadership of Steven Spielberg whose moral clarity, vision and sensitive handling of the Great War might serve in some small way to raise awareness of war's pointlessness." -- Kathleen Kennedy (producer), best picture nominee for "War Horse."

-- "It's an honor to be recognized in the company of such terrific writers. Moneyball is a true testament to teamwork -- it's the commitment of the entire cast and crew that got us to the final game of the season." -- Aaron Sorkin, best adapted screenplay nominee (with Steve Zaillian and Stan Chervin) for 'Moneyball."

-- "This is cheerful news for me and for the family of cinema in Iran, especially the nomination for the best original screenplay. It seems that although people speak different languages around the world but there is one common universal language which everyone understands: The Language of Cinema." --Asghar Farhadi (writer/director/producer), best foreign language film nominee for "A Separation."

-- "It's been an incredible eight year journey from the first draft of the play until this moment. Working with George and Grant has been one of the most rewarding collaborations of my career, and I couldn't be more thrilled that our film is getting this kind of recognition." -- Beau Willimon (co-writer of screenplay with George Clooney and Grant Heslov, based on Beau's play Farragut North), nominee for best adapted screenplay for "Ides of March."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Romney's mountain of wealth could cause loud echo (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney's tax returns tell the tale: Yes, he's rich ? really rich.

His returns, spanning more than 500 pages and released under political pressure Tuesday, represent an extraordinary financial accounting of one of the wealthiest U.S. presidential candidates in generations, with his annual income topping $20 million.

It remains unclear how the details of Romney's fortune will play among American workers, who on average earn less in a lifetime than Romney paid in taxes in 2010 alone. Meanwhile, the typical taxpayer pays a similar share of his income to Uncle Sam as he does, roughly 15 percent.

Romney's returns ? which include a 2011 tax estimate ? spilled out new details of his scattered holdings, tax strategies and charitable donations. Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010, having earned more than seven times that from his investments.

The documents quickly became fodder for his opponents, with Democrats chiding the former Massachusetts governor for not disclosing more about his financial history. The White House also weighed in about tax fairness as President Barack Obama prepared for his State of the Union Address.

Romney is hardly the only wealthy American seeking the presidency, though he's on a level all his own.

Republican rival Newt Gingrich, who had publicly pressed him to release his tax information, released his own return for 2010 last week. It revealed that Gingrich earned more than $3.1 million, mostly from $2.5 million paid by his companies, partnerships and investments, and paid just under $1 million in federal tax, a rate of about 31 percent.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported income of $1.73 million last year, mostly from the books he's written, and paid $453,770 in federal taxes.

Romney's tax returns showed he continues to profit from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded but no longer runs; from a Swiss bank account closed just as he launched his campaign and from new listings of investment funds set up overseas.

Romney had long refused to disclose any federal tax returns, then hinted he would offer a single year's return in April. Yet mounting criticism from his rivals and a hard loss in last week's South Carolina primary forced his hand.

"Governor Romney has paid 100 percent of what he owes," said Benjamin Ginsberg, the campaign's legal counsel. Ginsberg and other advisers said Romney did not use any aggressive tax strategies to help reduce or defer his tax income.

For 2011, Romney will pay about $3.2 million with an effective tax rate of about 15.4 percent, the campaign said. Those returns haven't yet been filed yet with the Internal Revenue Service. In total, he would pay more than $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income over the past two years, his campaign said.

Romney had been cast by his GOP opponents as a wealthy businessman who earned lucrative payouts from his investments while Bain slashed jobs in the private sector. Romney concedes that some companies Bain invested in were unsuccessful but says others created large numbers of jobs.

As for his own tax payments, he said in Monday night's debate in Tampa, "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. ... I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."

He added, "You'll see my income, how much taxes I've paid, how much I've paid to charity."

Romney's 2010 return showed about $4.5 million in itemized deductions, including $1.5 million contributed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Romney's charitable giving is above average, even for someone at his income level, according to IRS data.

Romney's GOP rivals did not immediately comment on his tax disclosures. But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended him, telling reporters that Romney's tax rate is close to the 15 percent rate most Americans pay on long-term capital gains from the sale of investments.

Romney's advisers stressed that he met all his federal tax obligations, provided maximum transparency and did not take advantage of what they described as "aggressive" strategies often used by the ultra-rich. Still, for millions of taxpayers grappling with their own returns as tax season looms, Romney's multimillion dollar wealth provides a window into an unfamiliar world.

His 2010 return shows a number of foreign investments, including funds in Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. Most of Romney's vast fortune is held in a blind trust that he doesn't control. A portion is held in a retirement account.

Romney's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that Romney and his wife, Ann, had a bank account in Switzerland as part of her trust. The account was worth $3 million and was held in the United Bank of Switzerland, said R. Bradford Malt, a Boston lawyer who makes investments for the Romneys and oversees their blind trust, which was set up to avoid any conflicts of interest in investments during his run for the presidency.

In 2009, UBS admitted assisting U.S. citizens in evading taxes and agreed to pay a $780 million penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department.

The political discussion over releasing Romney's tax information highlighted an argument that Democrats are already starting to use against him ? that he is out of touch with normal Americans. And it may well have hurt him in the South Carolina primary, where he lost by 12 percentage points to Gingrich after spending several days resisting calls to release the returns.

Asked during a round of television interviews about Romney's relatively modest tax rate, Obama adviser David Plouffe said: "We need to change our tax system. We need to change our tax code so that everybody is doing their fair share." Obama planned to talk about economic fairness in his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night.

Other Democratic Party voices were less restrained. "He used every loophole in the book available to the wealthy and corporations to avoid paying his fair share," said Democratic National Committee Executive Director Patrick Gaspard.

On the other hand, Romney's wife, Ann, had told supporters at a Florida rally on Sunday: "I want to remind you where we know our riches are. Our riches are with our families."

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Alan Fram in Washington and Kasie Hunt in Tampa, contributed.

___

Follow Jack Gillum at http://twitter.com/jackgillum

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_taxes

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Mitt Romney to release tax returns Tuesday (reuters)

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Sean Penn shares film's dream of ducking stardom

Sean Penn, a cast member in "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Penn, a cast member in "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Penn, a cast member in "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Penn, a cast member in the film "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) ? Sean Penn's new movie casts him as a former rock star who turns his back on stardom and goes into exile overseas.

Penn can relate. He says he's thought often enough about ducking out of the limelight.

"This Must Be the Place" had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where Penn first came 27 years ago with "The Falcon and the Snowman."

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, "This Must Be the Place" stars Penn as Cheyenne, a raven-maned, mascara-caked former pop icon whose look was inspired by Robert Smith of the Cure.

After his father's death, lost soul Cheyenne embarks on a road trip to track down a former Nazi who brutalized his dad in a concentration camp.

The film opens in the U.S. in March.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-22-Film-Sundance-Sean%20Penn/id-4fe7102e875848c192c3bba59f7f6a38

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BC-Penn State Ties,1st Ld-Writethru

BC-Penn State Ties, 1st Ld-Writethru,745Paterno, Penn State helped unify PennsylvaniaAP Photo PAGP132, NY109, PAWIC103, PAWIC103, PAJL102, PAJL106, PAWIC107Eds: Adds details, quotes. With AP Photos.By KEVIN BEGOSAssociated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? For years, Penn State University game days meant long lines of cars and RVs bearing fans making pilgrimages from all corners of Pennsylvania to a school right in the middle of the state, and by extension, to coach Joe Paterno, the man long regarded as its center.

The school's flagship campus, established in 1855 in the small town of State College and conceived as a place for farmers to receive a scientific education, sits in the state's geographic center. But its physical presence is also woven throughout Pennsylvania, with two dozen campuses scattered across the state.

So Paterno's death from cancer on Sunday has created emotional ripples that have spread throughout the university's broad network of alumni, both within the state and far beyond.

In a state where professional sports loyalties are usually divided between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the Penn State Nittany Lions are a team embraced by all Pennsylvanians.

Many alumni credit Paterno not just with winning national college football titles, but for helping to transform a rural agricultural college into a 21st century scientific and engineering powerhouse.

"He, along with his wife Sue, helped transform a sleepy land grant institution in the center of a blue collar state into an academic giant. Penn State became an elite institution without becoming elitist in large part due to the leadership of this Ivy League-educated man from Brooklyn," said Anthony Lubrano of Glenmoore, Pa., who graduated in 1982 and is seeking a seat on the school's Board of Trustees. "His contributions to humanity far outweigh his notoriety on the gridiron."

Former Penn State receiver Kenny Jackson, who played on the 1982 national title team, recalled a coach who demanded at least as much from his players in the classroom as he did on the field.

"I just remember how important it was that we got educated. I know it sounds cliched, but I saw the man do it every day. That man made sure I got an education," Jackson said.

In a larger sense, Paterno continued a tradition that began when the school's founders challenged the assumptions of the mid-19th century.

"The goal was to apply scientific principles to farming, a radical departure from the traditional curriculum grounded in mathematics, rhetoric, and classical languages," Penn State's official history notes.

And though the last few months of Paterno's life were tarnished by the child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, some said that the time has come to judge him on the full circle of his career. Sandusky is accused of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year span, sometimes in the football building.

Thousands of people paid tribute to Paterno during a candlelight vigil outside Penn State's administration building Sunday night. Former players were among those who spoke, including Oakland Raiders offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski.

"When I think back on Joe Paterno's legacy, the events of the last two months won't even cross my mind," Wisniewski said.

Today Penn State has more than 557,000 living alumni and it's become one of the largest employers in the state. But Paterno and the school managed to hold on to some admirable small town qualities.

"At the end of the day he was just another dad, too," said Bob Branstetter, who grew up in State College and was on the high school hockey team with Paterno's son, Scott. "There was never an air around Joe Paterno. He was iconic, but he was just a normal guy."

Chris Wesling, 22, a college senior from Pittsburgh studying psychology, said the school has a strong sense of togetherness, despite its far flung physical nature.

"The branch campuses help," Wesling said, "and sports is a universal language."

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said it's true that Penn State alumni and fans are "everywhere" in the state, and that Paterno ran what became known as Pennsylvania's football team.

Paterno balanced football with academia "as well as anybody," Rendell said, but added that "he made a mistake" in the case of Sandusky, who has maintained his innocence.

"He should have inquired about why nothing was done" to Sandusky after the first reports of abuse, Rendell said, while adding that doesn't negate Paterno's good deeds, such as giving millions back to the school.

"He made a mistake, but I think Joe Paterno still lived an incredibly positive life. He goes down in my book as an incredible human being," Rendell said.

___

Associated Press reporter Mark Scolforo contributed to this story from State College.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-Penn%20State%20Ties/id-265991c6ba5b4ab4830aef090a09afd9

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US group granted Kyrgyz adoption services permit (AP)

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan ? The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan is allowing foreign adoptions to resume, issuing the first permit to a U.S.-based Christian organization.

The Social Development Ministry said Monday it chose Christian World Adoption after a rigorous selection process.

Christian World Adoption says the move would allow it to resume adoptions from Kyrgyzstan. International adoptions were suspended in Kyrgyzstan in 2009 as authorities sought to improve regulations and root out corruption in the process.

Almost one-third of the 216 Kyrgyz children adopted between 2005 and 2008 went to the United States.

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Neck-and-Neck Race 'Exciting' for Romney (ABC News)

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Video: Colbert takes S.C.

Eating out tonight? Choose these skinnier options

??For most people, eating out is a normal part of their weekend routine, and you don?t have to avoid restaurants just because you?re watching your weight. Click for more and to join Joy Bauer's 25,000 pound Weight-loss Challenge.

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Mortgage rates for the past 52 weeks, at a glance (AP)

Skip to navigation ? Skip to content ? By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Thu?Jan?19, 10:48?am?ET

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to a record low of 3.88 percent, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's just below the previous record of 3.89 percent reached one week ago. Here's a look at rates for fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages over the past 52 weeks.

Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low

30-year fixed 3.88 3.89 5.05 3.88

15-year fixed 3.17 3.16 4.29 3.16

5-year adjustable 2.82 2.82 3.92 2.82

1-year adjustable 2.74 2.76 3.40 2.74

All values are in percentage points.

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

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American couple on cruise still missing, family says

Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino has reportedly now told officials that he tripped and fell into a lifeboat shortly after the ship began taking on water near Giglio Island.

By msnbc.com and news services

Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET: The children of a Minnesota couple missing since last week's Costa Concordia disaster in Italy said Wednesday their parents are not among those passengers whose bodies were recently recovered.

Family members posted the information on their blog, and said they were praying that conditions at the stricken cruise ship would improve so authorities could resume search operations.

Jerry and Barbara Heil, of White Bear Lake, Minn., are the only Americans still unaccounted for. The Heils were among the passengers still listed as missing, according to an official tally released Wednesday by Italian authorities.

Family members, who had been waiting to hear the identities of five bodies recovered Tuesday, said on the blog that they received confirmation that their parents were not among them.

Italian rescue workers suspended operations early Wednesday after the ship shifted slightly on the rocks, creating concerns about the safety of divers and firefighters searching for the missing.

"We continue to pray and hope for advantageous conditions which will allow the search and rescue operations to continue," the Heil family said on the blog. "While it is certainly hard for us to see the recovery efforts stall due to the unstable conditions present at and around the Costa Concordia, we are also very concerned for the safety of the Italian Coast Guard as they continue to put forth a heroic effort in trying to find those who remain missing.

"We are grateful to all of those who are working so hard to find our parents," the statement said.?

Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET:?Francesco Schettino, captain of the doomed Costa Concordia that partially sunk on Friday, said he did not abandon ship, according to a transcript published by Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper and reported by the Associated Press.

"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board ... the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino reportedly said during a recorded telephone conversation with Capt. Gregorio De Falco of the Italian coast guard in Livorno.

The transcript also showed the coast guard official urgently commanding the captain to return to the cruise ship after he had abandoned it.

"You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?" the Coast Guard officer shouted as Schettino sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape the listing ship. "It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I am in charge."?

The officer confronted him with an expletive-laced order to get back on board, which has quickly entered the Italian lexicon. The four-word phrase has become a Twitter hashtag and Italian media have shown photos of T-shirts bearing the command.?

Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors shortly. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.

Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET:?A German woman listed as missing from the Costa Concordia was located alive in Germany.

Gertrud Goergens alerted police in Germany that she was alive and well, according to the Associated Press, citing the prefect's office in Grosetto, Italy.

Goergens was removed from the official list of missing late Wednesday. Twenty-three passengers are still unaccounted for:

Dayana Arlotti, Italy;?William M. Arlotti, Italy;?Elisabeth Bauer, Germany;?Michael M. Blemand, France;?Maria Dintrono, Italy;?Horst Galle, Germany;?Jeanne Gannard, France;?Christina Mathi Ganz, Germany;?Norbert Josef Ganz, Germany;?Pierre Gregoire, France;?Gabriele Grube, Germany;?Barbara Heil, United States;?Gerald Heil, United States;?Egon Hoer, Germany;?Mylene Litzler, France;?Margarethe Neth, Germany;?Inge Schall, Germany;?Siglinde Stumpf, Germany;?Brunhild Werp, Germany;?Josef Werp, Germany;?Margrit Schroeter, Germany;?Maria Grazia Trecarichi, Italy;?Luisa Antonia Virzi, Italy.

Three crew members are also missing:?Girolamo Giuseppe, Italy;?Russel Terence Rebello, India;?Erika Fani Soriamolina, Peru.?

Eleven bodies have been recovered, though only one has been publicly identified: Crew member Sandor Feher, 38, of Hungary.?

Hungarian ministry spokesman Jozsef Toth said Feher's body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother in the Italian city of Grosetto.

Jozsef Balog, a pianist who worked with Feher, a violinist, told the Budapest newspaper Blikk that Feher was wearing a lifejacket when he decided to return to his cabin to pack his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to a lifeboat. According to Balog, Feher helped put lifejackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.

Captain Francesco Schettino, the man accused of causing the deadly wreck of a cruise ship off the coast of Italy, is out of jail and under house arrest, as additional bodies were found aboard the capsized ship. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Separately, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Wednesday he will hold a hearing to review cruise ship safety. The exact date has not been determined, but Mica has requested Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) to aid in the investigation.

"The Costa Concordia tragedy is a wake-up call for the United States and international maritime organizations to carefully review and make certain we have in place all the appropriate standards to ensure passengers' safety on cruise ships," Mica said in a statement.

Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET:?

The Costa Concordia took a nearly identical route past Giglio Island in August to the one Friday that led to the sinking of the ship, NBC News has learned.

Adam Smallman, editor of shipping magazine Lloyd?s List, said the route taken in August, based on satellite tracking, was ?authorized by the company and the coast guard.?

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The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.

"Our assessment of the route this vessel took (in August) is it must?have come perilously close, and?I mean possibly within touching distance of the rock that it hit this time ... which the company is saying wholly unauthorized in terms of its proximity to the island," Smallman said.

The search for missing passengers aboard the Costa Concordia is on hold over fears that the ship is shifting, making rescue efforts more dangerous.

The captain in charge of the specialist divers searching the stricken Costa Concordia tells NBC News that they need to blow four more holes in it to gain access to the bottom of the cruise ship. Asked about the search for bodies -- some 23 people are unaccounted for according to Reuters -- the captain said there was visual evidence suggesting some bodies were at the bottom of the sea.

NBC News, citing officials involved in the rescue effort,?reported that on Wednesday the ship had sunk 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) at the front and 1 meter (3.2 feet) at the back, raising concerns that the vessel may break up in the middle.

The coast guard is monitoring shifts with sensors installed by divers at the start of the rescue mission, and that movement is its main concern as it could trap divers. By late afternoon, officials still did not have enough data to reassure them that the ship had stopped resettling.

"The visibility is awful. Yesterday I couldn't see my hand in front of my face," Giuseppe Minciotti, director of a school for cave divers in the northern city of Verona and part of the specialist team deployed on the wreck, told Reuters.

"I grabbed a piece of floating debris, and I couldn't see what it was until I had my head out of the water. It was a woman's shoe," he said.? "We're waiting today for new openings to be made, and we'll see if the visibility is any better in those points."

Jim Fee, a yacht skipper for three decades, discusses the potential ecological problems related to the Costa Concordia disaster. NBC's Harry Smith reports.

Coast guard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said work would focus on an evacuation assembly area on the partially submerged fourth deck, where most of the 11 bodies found so far have been located.

"It's where we have already found seven of the bodies and it's where the passengers and crew gathered to abandon ship," Nicastro said.

Fire services spokesman Luca Cari said the search was suspended at about 8 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) after a shift of a few inches, posing a potential threat to diving teams operating in the submerged spaces of the ship.

There was no word on when work might resume.?

The Costa Concordia had more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board when it slammed into a reef Friday off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio after Capt. Francesco Schettino made an unauthorized maneuver from the ship's programmed course ? allegedly to show off the luxury liner to the island's residents.

Rescue workers discovered five bodies on Tuesday, bringing the death toll of the Costa Concordia accident to 11.?

The adult bodies, believed to be passengers, were all wearing life jackets and were found in the rear of the ship near an emergency evacuation point, according to Nicastro.

Schettino, whose actions during the disaster have come under intense scrutiny as details of his role on the night of the disaster emerge, appeared before a judge in Grosseto, Tuscany,?where he was questioned for three hours. Schettino remains under house arrest.

During a heated conversation the Italian coast guard told the captain of the Costa Concordia to go back to the ship. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said urine and hair samples have been taken from Schettino, apparently to determine if he might have consumed alcohol or used drugs before the accident.

Leporatti also told a news conference in Grosetto that house arrest made sense given there was no evidence the captain intended to flee. He cited the fact that the captain coordinated the evacuation from the shore after leaving the ship.

"He never left the scene," Leporatti said. "There has never been a danger of flight."

Leporatti added the captain was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.

"He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life," the lawyer said.

Martino Pellegrino, a crew-member on Costa Concordia, described Schettino as "authoritarian," "stubborn" and "egocentric," in an?interview with Italian newspaper La Republica on Tuesday.

"Schettino likes to be in control of the ship's wheel," he told the newspaper.

Also on Tuesday, a transcript of a conversation between Schettino and Capt. Gregorio De Falco of the Italian coast guard in Livorno, showed the coast guard official urgently commanding the captain to return to the cruise ship after he had abandoned it.

"There are people trapped on board," De Falco said. "Now you go with your boat under the prow on the starboard side. There is a pilot ladder. You will climb that ladder and go on board. You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear? I'm recording this conversation, Cmdr. Schettino ..."

Passengers continued to make their way home, with consistent claims that crew members were ill-prepared to handle an emergency evacuation.

"The crew members had no specialized training ? the security man doubled as the cook and bartender, so obviously they did not know what to do," passenger Claudia Fehlandt told Chile's Channel 7 television after being embraced by relatives at Santiago's airport.

"In fact, the lifeboats, even the ones that did get lowered, they did not know how to lower them and they cut the ropes with axes," she said.

Msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/18/10179794-american-couple-aboard-costa-concordia-still-missing-family-says

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