Shoppers disappoint retailers this holiday season

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. shoppers spent cautiously this holiday season, a disappointment for retailers who slashed prices to lure people into stores and now must hope for a post-Christmas burst of spending.

Sales of electronics, clothing, jewelry and home goods in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent compared with last year, according to the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report.

That was below the healthy 3 to 4 percent growth that analysts had expected ? and it was the worst year-over-year performance since 2008, when spending shrank sharply during the Great Recession. In 2011, retail sales climbed 4 to 5 percent during November and December, according to ShopperTrak.

This year's shopping season was marred by bad weather and rising uncertainty about the economy in the face of possible tax hikes and spending cuts early next year. Some analysts say the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., earlier this month may also have chipped away at shoppers' enthusiasm.

Retailers still have time to make up lost ground. The final week of December accounts for about 15 percent of the month's sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.

Still, this season's weak sales could have repercussions for 2013, McNamara said. Retailers will make fewer orders to restock their shelves, and discounts will hurt their profitability. Wholesalers will buy fewer goods and orders to factories will likely drop in the coming months.

Steep discounts weren't enough to get people into stores, said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at the market research firm NPD Inc.

"A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend," Cohen said, referring to the traditional retail rush the day after Thanksgiving. "We had one reason after another for consumers to say, 'I'm going to stick to my list and not go beyond it.'"

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy's strength. November and December account for up to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. If those sales don't materialize, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts. That's a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores' profits.

Spending by consumers accounts for 70 percent of overall economic activity, so the eight-week period encompassed by the SpendingPulse data is seen as a critical time not just for retailers but for manufacturers, wholesalers and companies at every other point along the supply chain.

The SpendingPulse data released Tuesday, which captures sales from Oct. 28 through Dec. 24 across all payment methods, is the first major snapshot of holiday retail sales. A clearer picture will emerge next week as retailers like Macy's and Target report revenue from stores open for at least a year. That sales measure is widely watched in the retail industry because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed, which can be volatile.

In the run-up to Christmas, analysts blamed bad weather for putting a damper on shopping. In late October, Superstorm Sandy battered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, which account for 24 percent of U.S. retail sales.

Shopping picked up in the second half of November, but then the threat of the country falling off a "fiscal cliff" gained strength, throwing consumers off track once again.

Lawmakers have yet to reach a deal that would prevent tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. If the cuts and tax hikes kick in and stay in place for months, the Congressional Budget Office says the nation could fall back into recession.

Shopping over the past two months was weakest in areas affected by Sandy and a more recent winter storm in the Midwest. Sales declined by 3.9 percent in the mid-Atlantic and 1.4 percent in the Northeast compared with last year. They rose 0.9 percent in the north central part of the country.

The West and South posted gains of between 2 percent and 3 percent, still weaker than the 3 percent to 4 percent increases expected by many retail analysts.

Online sales, typically a bright spot, grew only 8.4 percent from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to SpendingPulse. That's a dramatic slowdown from the online sales growth of 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service.

Online sales did enjoy a modest boost after the recent snowstorm that hit the Midwest, McNamara said. Online sales make up about 10 percent of total holiday business.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shoppers-disappoint-retailers-holiday-season-070057590--finance.html

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Cold-weather birds flock to Florida - but why? | StAugustine.com

Razorbills, cold-weather birds with penguin-like features, have been unlikely visitors to South Florida over the past few weeks, attracting bird watchers to the coast of Palm Beach County and creating speculation about why they?re here.

?This is a historic ornithological event,? said Carl Edwards, an avid bird-watcher from West Palm Beach who took three boat trips out of the Boynton Inlet recently to observe the Northeastern, ocean-going birds, which have also been spotted off Miami Beach and the Florida Keys.

Edwards estimates he saw 900 razorbills during two trips out of the inlet on Dec. 14. Almost all of the birds were headed south, he said, most likely in search of food.

Black with white undersides, razorbills weigh about 1.6 pounds, measure about 17 inches in length and have a wingspan of about 26 inches, according to the National Audubon Society.

Razorbills can dive several hundred feet below the ocean?s surface to find food, and can walk upright, like penguins, on land. Their diet consists of small, cold-water fish of the northern Atlantic, including juvenile cod, sand lance and capelin.

Their predators include Arctic foxes and polar bears.

Razorbills have been spotted 14 times in Florida in the past, but only single or a few birds were reported in previous sightings, said Marshall Iliff, a bird expert with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and lead author of a recent article about the Florida razorbill invasion on the website eBird.org.

Recent razorbill sightings off the South Florida coast have included flocks of more than 20, Iliff said.

Why they are here is open to debate.

Andy Kratter, an ornithologist with the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, said beach erosion and other disturbances brought by Hurricane Sandy to the coasts of New York and New Jersey probably prompted the razorbills to fly south.

However, Iliff of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said he believes above-average sea-surface temperatures in the Northeast are responsible.

Iliff said the reason for the rise in sea-surface temperature is unclear, but he noted on eBird that it could be related to cycles of ocean warming and cooling or long-term climate change.

The first razorbills documented off the coast of Palm Beach County were spotted Dec. 9 from the north jetty at the Boynton Inlet, said Linda Humphries of the Audubon Society of the Everglades.

?I?m really excited that they?re here,? Humphries said. ?People have been coming from all over Florida to see them.?

After razorbills were seen off Miami Beach and the Keys, bird-watchers tracked them as they continued their journey north along Gulf Coast toward the Florida Panhandle.

Although the unprecedented migration has been exciting for bird-watchers, it has been tough on some of the birds, several of which have washed up dead on Florida beaches.

The Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, which operates a wildlife hospital in Jupiter, took in another type of Northeastern sea bird called a dovekie last weekend that apparently was too weak to feed and had washed ashore.

Malnourished sea birds tend to bob around on the ocean and eventually wash ashore, said David Hitzig, executive director of the wildlife sanctuary, which helps them regain strength before releasing them back into the wild.

But Hitzig said the birds? prognosis generally is not good.

?Once they wash up on shore, you?re looking at the tail end of their story,? Hitzig said.

Source: http://staugustine.com/state/2012-12-25/cold-weather-birds-flock-florida-why

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Q & A: Should Older Adults Be Vaccinated Against Chickenpox?

[unable to retrieve full-text content]In someone who has never had chickenpox, the vaccine would protect against a disease that is far more serious in adults than in children, experts say.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/science/should-older-adults-be-vaccinated-against-chickenpox.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Pilgrims mark Christmas in Bethlehem

At midnight mass in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the message was of peace, love and goodwill to all mankind. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

By The Associated Press

Pilgrims and locals celebrated Christmas Day on Tuesday in the ancient Bethlehem church where tradition holds Jesus was born, candles illuminating the sacred site and the joyous sound of prayer filling its overflowing halls.

Overcast skies and a cold wind didn't dampen the spirits of worshippers who came dressed in holiday finery and the traditional attire of foreign lands to mark the holy day in this biblical West Bank town. Bells pealed and long lines formed inside the fourth-century Church of the Nativity complex as Christian faithful waited eagerly to see the grotto that is Jesus' traditional birthplace.

Duncan Hardock, 24, a writer from MacLean, Va., traveled to Bethlehem from the republic of Georgia, where he had been teaching English. After passing through the separation barrier Israel built to ward off West Bank attackers, he walked to Bethlehem's Manger Square where the church stands.

"I feel we got to see both sides of Bethlehem in a really short period of time," Hardock said. "On our walk from the wall, we got to see the lonesome, closed side of Bethlehem ... But the moment we got into town, we're suddenly in the middle of the party."

Bethlehem lies 6 miles south of Jerusalem. Entry to the city is controlled by Israel, which occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Hardock's girlfriend, 22-year-old Jennifer Gemmell of Longmont, Colorado, compared the festive spirit in Manger Square on Christmas Eve, saying "it's like being at Times Square at New Year's."

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The cavernous church was unable to hold all the worshippers who had hoped to celebrate Christmas Day Mass inside. A loudspeaker outside the church broadcast the service to the hundreds in the square who could not pack inside.

Paul J. Richards / AFP - Getty Images

In churches and bus stations, on water skis and bicycles, people from the Middle East to middle America celebrate Christmas.

Pope's prayer for peace
Tourists in the square posed for pictures as vendors hawked olive wood rosaries, nativity scenes, corn on the cob, roasted nuts, tea and coffee.

An official from the Palestinian tourism ministry predicted 10,000 foreigners would visit Bethlehem on Christmas Day and said 15,000 visited on Christmas Eve ? up 20 percent from a year earlier. The official, Rula Maia'a, attributed the rise in part to the Church of the Nativity's classification earlier this year as a U.N. World Heritage Site.

Christians from Israel ? Arab citizens and others ? also boosted the number of visitors.

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On Christmas Eve, thousands of Christians from all over the world packed the square, which was awash in light, resplendent with decorations and adorned by a lavishly decorated, 55-foot fir tree. Their Palestinian hosts, who welcome this holiday as the high point of their city's year, were especially joyous this season, proud of the United Nations' recognition of an independent state of Palestine just last month.

On Monday evening, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and freedom, and asked the faithful to pray for strife-torn Syria as well as Lebanon and Iraq.

He urged people to reflect upon what they find time for in their busy, technology-driven lives.

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"The great moral question of our attitude toward the homeless, toward refugees and migrants takes on a deeper dimension: Do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him?" the pope said.

"The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent," Benedict lamented.

Later Tuesday, the world's Christmas focus will shift to Vatican City, where the pope will deliver his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" speech ? Latin for "to the city and the world" ? from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered in the piazza below.

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? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/25/16141352-like-times-square-at-new-years-pilgrims-mark-christmas-in-bethlehem?lite

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Miranda Kerr Sexy Santa Pic: Naughty or Nice?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/miranda-kerr-sexy-santa-pic-naughty-or-nice/

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This Lucky Kid Has The Coolest Spaceship Bed Ever

If you thought racecar beds were cool, well, you're still right. But they aren't the coolest. That trophy's been taken by this righteous homemade spaceship bed, complete with totally awesome control panel. That is one lucky kid. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/HDgVphSoXrw/

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Three new genetic links to colorectal cancer

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators have identified three new genetic "hotspots" linked to colorectal cancer. These variants, reported Dec. 23 in an Advanced Online Publication in Nature Genetics, provide new insight into the biology of colorectal cancer ? and could represent new therapeutic targets for the disease.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide ? and rates are particularly high in the United States and other developed countries. Genetics plays an important role in both sporadic and familial (inherited) forms of the disease. However, only about 6 percent of colorectal cancer cases are explained by the rare genetic variants known to confer high risk of colorectal cancer (as seen in familial forms of the disease).

Previous studies on the genetic basis of colorectal cancer have pinpointed several additional variants, but most of the studies were conducted in European/Caucasian populations.

"Looking at different ethnic groups is important because the genetic structures can be different enough that variants identified in one population do not explain risk in other populations," said Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and senior author on the study. "Because of the difference in genetic structures and underlying environment exposures, it might be easier to discover some risk variants in studies conducted in non-European populations."

In 2009, Zheng and colleagues in several Asian countries established the "Asia Colorectal Cancer Consortium" to search for novel genetic risk factors for the disease. The consortium included populations in China, Korea and Japan.

Using an approach known as a "genome-wide association study" (or GWAS), Zheng and colleagues began searching for common variants linked to disease risk.

From genomic data obtained from 2,098 colorectal cancer cases and 5,749 controls, the researchers identified 64 variants, or "single nucleotide polymorphisms" (SNPs), that were associated with colorectal cancer.

The investigators then replicated these findings in another set of samples, narrowing down the number of disease-associated variants to four. Three of those four variants were also associated with colorectal cancer risk in a larger European sample.

"The findings from this study are relevant to both Asian and European populations," said Zheng. "Interestingly, these three susceptibility loci were not discovered in previous studies conducted in European-ancestry populations."

This study highlights the importance of conducting genetic studies in non-European populations to fully uncover the genetic basis for common diseases, including colorectal cancer, Zheng noted.

While the specific functions of these newly identified susceptibility loci are not clear yet, several important genes are located in the regions near the risk variants discovered in this study. For example, one risk variant is located near CCND2, the gene encoding cyclin D2, a member of the cyclin family of proteins that regulate the cell cycle. Cyclins have been linked to cancer, but research on the CCND2 gene has been limited. Therefore, the current findings suggest the need for further research on the role of other cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases in carcinogenesis.

"These new discoveries are very exciting," Zheng said. "They will certainly lead to future studies regarding the biology of these regions and the translational potential of these findings in cancer prevention and treatment."

Journal reference: Nature Genetics

Provided by Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Source: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-genetic-links-colorectal-cancer.html

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