What are your views on what happens to your genomic information?

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Don Powell
press.office@sanger.ac.uk
44-122-349-6928
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Survey aims to be the largest to capture public attitudes to sharing genomic results

Would you want to know about your genetic risk for hundreds of conditions all in one go, ranging from whether you have a higher than average risk from Alzheimer's disease or diabetes or whether you are sensitive to certain antibiotics or statins? How do you feel about researchers generating this information but not sharing it with you?

An ethics team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute today launches an online survey to capture the views of as many people as possible: they hope it will be the largest collection of opinions gathered to date.

It has been standard practice for many years to conduct genetic research anonymously and not share such findings with the research participants who provided the samples. However, there is now increasing pressure to change this approach.

"We need to understand what people want from whole genome testing," says Dr Anna Middleton, Ethics Researcher from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Policy is being written worldwide on what researchers should share from genome studies and yet much of this is based on anecdote and intuition. We aim to address this by conducting an international study that asks members of the public, health professionals and researchers for their views."

Genetic analysis of a saliva or blood sample can now reveal elements of a person's past, present and future medical health.In whole genome studies, researchers can examine all 20,000 human genes in only a matter weeks to understand the genetic basis of disease.

An ethics team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK use film in an innovative online questionnaire to explore the ethical implications of whole genome research.

Participants in the survey need have no prior knowledge about genetics and anyone can participate (see www.genomethics.org). The study aims to be the largest of its kind in the world and will be used to guide policy on how genome research studies should be conducted. This survey is part of the proactive process of engaging with the public, before whole genome studies become part of health service practice.

"I have completed the ethics questionnaire as I am currently taking part in a whole genome study and I wanted my views to be heard" says Katrina Mcardle, mother of a child with developmental delay who is participating in a whole genome study.

"I am very keen to get a diagnosis for my son and the genome research may offer this, but I'm not sure I want to know lots of additional information about his future health that is unrelated to his diagnosis. Everyone should think about these issues and fill in this questionnaire."

"It is soon going to be cheaper and easier to look at all of a person's 20,000 genes in one go rather than searching for an individual gene, as currently happens," says Professor Anneke Lucassen, Consultant in Clinical Genetics, University of Southampton.

"This raises all sorts of ethical issues about what genetic results you share with people. Very soon this technology will be used in the NHS and we urgently need research that tells us what people want to know."

"This is a really exciting project using an innovative questionnaire and the integrated films really bring it to life," says Professor Mike Parker, Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at University of Oxford. "The questionnaire asks for feedback on some difficult ethical issues and I will be encouraging everyone I know to participate."

###

Notes to Editors

Websites
The survey can be found at http://www.genomethics.org/

Funding
This programme is funded by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
http://www.hicfund.org.uk/

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally.

Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.

http://www.sanger.ac.uk

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

---

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?

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

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Don Powell
press.office@sanger.ac.uk
44-122-349-6928
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Survey aims to be the largest to capture public attitudes to sharing genomic results

Would you want to know about your genetic risk for hundreds of conditions all in one go, ranging from whether you have a higher than average risk from Alzheimer's disease or diabetes or whether you are sensitive to certain antibiotics or statins? How do you feel about researchers generating this information but not sharing it with you?

An ethics team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute today launches an online survey to capture the views of as many people as possible: they hope it will be the largest collection of opinions gathered to date.

It has been standard practice for many years to conduct genetic research anonymously and not share such findings with the research participants who provided the samples. However, there is now increasing pressure to change this approach.

"We need to understand what people want from whole genome testing," says Dr Anna Middleton, Ethics Researcher from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Policy is being written worldwide on what researchers should share from genome studies and yet much of this is based on anecdote and intuition. We aim to address this by conducting an international study that asks members of the public, health professionals and researchers for their views."

Genetic analysis of a saliva or blood sample can now reveal elements of a person's past, present and future medical health.In whole genome studies, researchers can examine all 20,000 human genes in only a matter weeks to understand the genetic basis of disease.

An ethics team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK use film in an innovative online questionnaire to explore the ethical implications of whole genome research.

Participants in the survey need have no prior knowledge about genetics and anyone can participate (see www.genomethics.org). The study aims to be the largest of its kind in the world and will be used to guide policy on how genome research studies should be conducted. This survey is part of the proactive process of engaging with the public, before whole genome studies become part of health service practice.

"I have completed the ethics questionnaire as I am currently taking part in a whole genome study and I wanted my views to be heard" says Katrina Mcardle, mother of a child with developmental delay who is participating in a whole genome study.

"I am very keen to get a diagnosis for my son and the genome research may offer this, but I'm not sure I want to know lots of additional information about his future health that is unrelated to his diagnosis. Everyone should think about these issues and fill in this questionnaire."

"It is soon going to be cheaper and easier to look at all of a person's 20,000 genes in one go rather than searching for an individual gene, as currently happens," says Professor Anneke Lucassen, Consultant in Clinical Genetics, University of Southampton.

"This raises all sorts of ethical issues about what genetic results you share with people. Very soon this technology will be used in the NHS and we urgently need research that tells us what people want to know."

"This is a really exciting project using an innovative questionnaire and the integrated films really bring it to life," says Professor Mike Parker, Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at University of Oxford. "The questionnaire asks for feedback on some difficult ethical issues and I will be encouraging everyone I know to participate."

###

Notes to Editors

Websites
The survey can be found at http://www.genomethics.org/

Funding
This programme is funded by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
http://www.hicfund.org.uk/

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally.

Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.

http://www.sanger.ac.uk

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/wtsi-way012712.php

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92% Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas is a beautiful and fun Christmas movie that is sure to be a holiday classic. The story follows Arthur who is the son of Santa Clause, his brother Steve is a smart but at times inconsiderate role model who is second in command to Santa, and when a little girl has a gift that did not get sent Arthur does everything he can to make sure this girl has a Merry Christmas. The plot of the movie is funny and a great lesson to be told about Christmas and children, and what i learned from this movie if anything is that every child needs to believe in Santa, because there is nothing better than believeing that there is somebody who loves you that whill bring you a present on Christmas day, and the characters of the film were good but i found the characters to be a little selfish at times besides Arthur who was a incredibly kind and good charcater and he saved the film in a way from being just a bunch of selfish men wanting to be a star. The voice cast was great, James McAvoy was perfect for the character, Hugh Laurie was also was a well done choice as Steve, Jim Broadbent was good as the voice as Santa, and Bill Nighy was also a great choice for his role, what else can I say for voice actors other than I liked them. The animation was incredible, I could really tell they worked hard to make a beautiful Christmas film and it really payed off big time, I loved the beauty in this film. Arthur Christmas had some few problems that kept it from being a perfect Christmas film, but those were minor compared to the things that they got right that made it a great Christmas film and that will make it remembered for years to come.

December 30, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arthur_christmas/

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Philips CEO warns H1 2012 "won't be easy" (Reuters)

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) ? Dutch Electronics giant Philips will book further, unspecified, restructuring charges in the first half of 2012, Chief Executive Officer Frans van Houten said on Monday.

"The first half of 2012 will see the impact of these charges and overall we are cautious about the development of the first half of the year. It is not going to be an easy first half," said Van Houten.

Earlier on Monday, Philips reported a 45 percent fall in fourth-quarter core profit due to losses at both its health and lighting divisions, and said it was cautious about 2012 given uncertainty in the global economy, particularly in Europe.

Van Houten also said the firm is committed to achieving its 2013 financial targets.

(Reporting By Roberta B. Cowan, Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_philips

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The Business Finance Store Discusses the Small Business Finance ...

The Business Finance Store discusses the Small Business Finance Institute?s upcoming conference and how small businesses can benefit.

Santa Ana, CA (PRWEB) January 29, 2012

The Small Business Finance Institute announced a featured session to be held on February 29, 2012 in Atlanta. The second ?Stepping Up To Business? conference will be called ?Thinking Outside the Bank? and is expected to help small business owners learn strategies to manage finances and find capital resources. Conferences such as the one mentioned can help small business owners and entrepreneurs gain a better understanding of the financing options available for their business. In the recent blog post ?1-Day Event to Help Small Businesses,? the Business Finance Store discusses the Small Business Finance Institute?s upcoming conference and how small businesses can benefit.

Conferences often present a variety of different types of information. For example, the upcoming Thinking Outside the Bank Conference with feature courses and discussions on: managing business cash flow, writing a successful business plan, writing a successful financing proposal, SBA Loan Programs, Micro Loans, profitability and much more. Read more about upcoming conferences for small businesses and how entrepreneurs can benefit at the Business Finance Store blog.

The Business Finance Store is a business financing and consulting firm that offers customized Business Financial Solutions. Seasoned professionals offer assistance in a variety of financial solutions to help small businesses succeed such as: Business Financial Solutions, Legal Solutions, and Accounting Solutions.

The staff at The Business Finance Store understands that starting and growing a business is an exciting time. They keep it exciting by taking care of some of the most difficult aspects, by providing legal advice, helping with vital responsibilities like accounting & bookkeeping, and by obtaining business finance. They can quickly and easily guide entrepreneurs through many different complicated processes, and put them on the path to success.

For 10 years The Business Finance Store has been helping startups and other small businesses legally structure their companies, find the right franchises, get the funding they need, and to achieve the American Dream of owning their own successful business. Since expanding nationwide in 2007 they have helped thousands of companies and have funded over $60 Million in business credit lines, not including SBA loans. The Business Finance Store sees limitless potential in the current climate, and looks forward to many strong years of growth to come. Take some time to review their services, and give them a call.

For more information, or a free, no-obligation analysis of your business needs, visit The Business Finance Store website: http://www.businessfinancestore.com. A member of their professional staff will contact you to discuss your business? short and long-term goals. Whatever you need, The Business Finance Store is there.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/1/prweb9146071.htm

Source: http://pressreleases.bloginteract.com/2012/01/29/the-business-finance-store-discusses-the-small-business-finance-institutes-upcoming-conference/

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Newt Goes After Romney World (TIME)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192936094?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Book Review : A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest by William DeBuys

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Registered readers are invited to post a comment. To encourage fruitful discussion, please keep your comments relevant, brief and courteous. Offensive, irrelevant, nonsensical and commercial posts will not be published. (All links will be removed from comments.)

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Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337959/title/Book_Review__A_Great_Aridness_Climate_Change_and_the_Future_of_the_American_Southwest_by_William_DeBuys

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Fab Sale Round-Up: Gilt Groupe, Rue La La and More!

Check out our round-up of this week's best baby and mommy deals.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/ylYrjSvt2CI/

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Prison dilemma: surging numbers of older inmates

FILE - In this Wednesday, April 9, 2008 file photo, Debbie Coluter, a certified nursing assistant, holds the hand of an elderly inmate with Alzheimer's disease, as she helps him to his cell at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

FILE - In this Wednesday, April 9, 2008 file photo, Debbie Coluter, a certified nursing assistant, holds the hand of an elderly inmate with Alzheimer's disease, as she helps him to his cell at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

NEW YORK (AP) ? In corrections systems nationwide, officials are grappling with decisions about geriatric units, hospices and medical parole as elderly inmates ? with their high rates of illness and infirmity ? make up an ever increasing share of the prison population.

At a time of tight state budgets, it's a trend posing difficult dilemmas for policymakers. They must address soaring medical costs for these older inmates and ponder whether some can be safely released before their sentences expire.

The latest available figures from 2010 show that 8 percent of the prison population ? 124,400 inmates ? was 55 or older, compared to 3 percent in 1995, according to a report being released Friday by Human Rights Watch. This oldest segment grew at six times the rate of the overall prison population between 1995 and 2010, the report says.

"Prisons were never designed to be geriatric facilities," said Jamie Fellner, a Human Rights Watch special adviser who wrote the report. "Yet U.S. corrections officials now operate old age homes behind bars."

The main reasons for the trend, Fellner said, are the long sentences, including life without parole, that have become more common in recent decades, boosting the percentage of inmates unlikely to leave prison before reaching old age, if they leave at all. About one in 10 state inmates is serving a life sentence; an additional 11 percent have sentences longer than 20 years.

The report also notes an increase in the number of offenders entering prison for crimes committed when they were over 50. In Ohio, for example, the number of new prisoners in that age group jumped from 743 in 2000 to 1,815 in 2010, according to the report.

Fellner cited the case of Leonard Hudson, who entered a New York prison at age 68 in 2002 on a murder conviction and will be eligible for parole when he's 88. He's housed in a special unit for men with dementia and other cognitive impairments, Fellner said.

A.T. Wall, director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and president of the Association of State Correctional Administrators, said he and his colleagues regularly exchange ideas on how to cope with the surging numbers of older prisoners.

"We are accustomed to managing large numbers of inmates, and it's a challenge to identify particular practices that need to be put into place for a subset," he said. "There are no easy solutions."

Wall said prison officials confront such questions as whether to retrofit some cells with grab bars and handicap toilets, how to accommodate inmates' wheelchairs, and how to deal with inmates who no longer understand instructions.

"Dementia can set in, and an inmate who was formerly easy to manage becomes very difficult to manage," he said.

States are trying to meet the needs. Some examples:

?Washington state opened an assisted living facility at its Coyote Ridge prison complex in 2010, with a capacity of 74 inmates. It's reserved for inmates with a disability who are deemed to pose little security risk.

?The Louisiana State Penitentiary has had a hospice program for more than a decade, staffed by fellow prisoners who provide dying inmates with care ranging from changing diapers to saying prayers.

?In Massachusetts, a new corrections master plan proposes one or more new facilities to house aging inmates who need significant help with daily living. Some critics object, saying inmates shouldn't get specialized care that might not be available or affordable for members of the public.

?Montana's corrections department is seeking bids for a 120-bed prison that would include assisted-living facilities for some elderly inmates and others who need special care.

In Texas, legislators have been considering several options for addressing the needs of infirm, elderly inmates. State Rep. Jerry Madden, chairman of the House Corrections Committee, said no decisions have been made as the experts try to balance cost factors and public safety.

"You can't just generalize about these prisoners," he said. "Some are still extremely dangerous, some may not be.... Some you wouldn't want in the same assisted living facility with your parents or grandparents."

Fellner, who visited nine states and 20 prisons during her research, said corrections officials often were constrained by tight budgets, lack of support from elected officials, and prison architecture not designed to accommodate the elderly.

She noted that prison policies traditionally were geared to treat all inmates on an equal basis. So it may not be easy for prison officials to consider special accommodations for aging inmates, whether it be extra blankets, shortcuts to reduce walking distance, or sparing them from assignments to upper bunks.

The report said the number of aging prisoners will continue to grow unless there are changes to tough-on-crime policies such as long mandatory sentences and reduced opportunities for parole.

"How are justice and public safety served by the continued incarceration of men and women whose bodies and minds have been whittled away by age?" Fellner asked.

One of the problems facing prisons is that many of their health care staff lack expertise in caring for the elderly, according to Linda Redford, director of the geriatric education center at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

"It's a big struggle for them to keep up," said Redford, who has helped train prison staff and inmates in geriatric care.

"They're used to having to deal with issues of younger prisoners, such as HIV and substance abuse," she said.

Under a Supreme Court ruling, inmates are guaranteed decent medical care, but they lack their own insurance and states must pay the full cost. In Georgia, according to Fellner's report, inmates 65 and older had an average yearly medical cost of $8,565, compared with $961 for those under 65.

Redford said the challenges are compounded because inmates' health tends to decline more rapidly than that of other Americans of the same age due to long-term problems with drug use and poor health care.

"In the general population, 65 doesn't seem that old," Redford said. "In prison, there are 55-year-olds looking like they're 75."

Many states have adopted early release programs targeted at older inmates who are judged to pose little threat to public safety. However, a 2010 study by the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City found the laws were used infrequently, in part because of political considerations and complex review procedures.

Redford said a common problem is finding nursing homes or other assisted-living facilities that will accept released inmates who have family to live with.

"Nursing homes don't want former felons," she said. "Some states are looking at starting long-term care facilities outside prison for that could take care of parolees."

For inmates who are terminally ill and have no close family on the outside, it's probably more humane to let them die in prison if there's a hospice program available, Redford said.

"The inmates who are volunteering are at those guys' sides when they die ? they're really committed to making the last days as comfortable as possible," Redford said. "They're not going to get that on the outside."

___

Online:

Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/

Association of State Correctional Administrators: http://www.asca.net/

___

David Crary can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-27-Aging%20America-Aging%20Inmates/id-edb1d2972c7649748f0202c02890c4a2

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Green energy isn't always good energy

Wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal seem mostly benign -- in part because they are still a small part of the energy equation. But when green gets big, it can be controversial.

Solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal are widely considered benign energy sources. For the most part, they are. They harness nature without producing noxious emissions or significant waste streams. They don?t require strip mining, punching a hole in the seabed, fracturing bedrock, or splitting atoms. From sailboats to south-facing gardens, hot springs to millstreams, green energy?s friendly reputation predates hydrocarbon and fission by centuries.

Skip to next paragraph

But in their modern application, even these ancient energy sources have downsides. Most photovoltaic cells, for instance, contain nitrogen trifluoride, which the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says is a potent greenhouse gas when it escapes into the air. Solar cells also block sunlight from grass and flowers that otherwise would bask in it. When you dam a river, you constrict fish migrations and deprive alluvial plains of nutrients. Geothermal often means power plants atop scenic areas. And wind, the subject of this week?s cover story, needs enormous wind turbines. Birds and bats fly into them. Noise and visual pollution can be annoying.

Wait. I know what you are thinking: Green energy drawbacks are tiny compared with Chernobyl, Fukushima, the Exxon Valdez, the BP oil spill, and global warming. Absolutely right. But part of the reason the drawbacks are minor is that green energy is still a fraction of overall energy production. A few windmills on the Zuider Zee are as charming as tulips and wooden shoes. But when you erect acres of wind turbines, you?ve got a scale problem.

Consider the world before the internal combustion engine. Today, most people consider the automobile a Faustian bargain, a huge convenience that is nevertheless blamed for altering our landscape and atmosphere. In its first years, however, the horseless carriage was not just a technological marvel but an answer to a significant crisis. As the urban population of people exploded in the 19th century, so did the urban horse population. The effect on the environment, public safety, and public health was awful and heading for catastrophic, writes Eric Morris in an excellent 2007 article (you can read it here) in the University of California?s Transportation Center?s Access magazine: ?One New York prognosticator of the 1890s concluded that by 1930 the horse droppings would rise to Manhattan?s third-story windows. A public health and sanitation crisis of almost unimaginable dimensions loomed.? And horses, which could rear up or bolt for no apparent reason, were even more dangerous per thousand people than automobiles. They were also exploited mercilessly in the grim economics of 19th-century cities.?

Black Beauty is a magnificent creature with an insignificant waste stream. Ten thousand are an environmental nightmare. Henry Ford helped solve that problem. But now we burn through so many hydrocarbons that we have a new environmental crisis.

Green energy is good energy. But it is not perfect. Think about wind turbines. Over the Christmas holidays, a 26-story-tall one popped up by the highway I take to work. It?s big ? ?War of the Worlds? big. That single turbine is a novelty. An army of them can become a huge controversy, as has happened off the picturesque south coast of Cape Cod, where a massive wind farm on Nantucket Sound is inching forward amid intense local opposition.

Now wind energy is exploding across the globe. In areas such as Mexico?s Isthmus of Tehuantapec, questions of exploitative development have accompanied the boom. That is likely to be the case in many parts of the developing world, which has all too frequently been despoiled to feed the energy and raw-materials needs of industrial nations. NIMBY issues and indigenous resistance are bound to multiply as fast as windmills, solar farms, and other green energy installations as the world races to diversify away from hydrocarbons to protect the climate and at the same time accommodate both the 7 billion people now on the planet and the 3 billion more that are likely to arrive by 2070.

We solved the horse problem with horsepower. Now we have a horsepower problem. Solving it presents a new set of problems. There?s always a job out there for a new problem solver.

John Yemma is the editor of The Christian Science Monitor.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/8_PyLRc1lwI/Green-energy-isn-t-always-good-energy

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Groups sue over Navy sonar use, effect on whales

FILE - A beached pilot whale is seen in this Jan. 15, 2005 file photo taken near Oregon Inlet on North Carolina's Outer Banks by the U.S. Coast Guard. In a lawsuit being filed Thursday Jan. 26, 2012 by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups claim the National Marine Fisheries Service was wrong to approve the Navy?s plan for the expanded training in the Pacific Northwest. Regulators determined that while sonar use by navies has been associated with the deaths of whales around the world _ including the beachings of 37 whales on North Carolina?s Outer Banks in 2005 _ there was little chance of that happening in the Northwest. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, File)

FILE - A beached pilot whale is seen in this Jan. 15, 2005 file photo taken near Oregon Inlet on North Carolina's Outer Banks by the U.S. Coast Guard. In a lawsuit being filed Thursday Jan. 26, 2012 by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups claim the National Marine Fisheries Service was wrong to approve the Navy?s plan for the expanded training in the Pacific Northwest. Regulators determined that while sonar use by navies has been associated with the deaths of whales around the world _ including the beachings of 37 whales on North Carolina?s Outer Banks in 2005 _ there was little chance of that happening in the Northwest. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, File)

SEATTLE (AP) ? A group of conservationists and American Indian tribes is suing over the U.S. Navy's expanded use of sonar in training exercises off the country's west coast, saying the noise can harass and kill whales and other marine life.

In a lawsuit being filed Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and other groups claim the National Marine Fisheries Service was wrong to approve the Navy's plan for the expanded training. They say the regulators should have considered the effects repeated sonar use can have on species over many years.

They want certain restrictions on where and when the Navy can conduct sonar and other loud activities to protect orcas, humpbacks and other marine mammals.

The Navy is only required to look around and see if whales are present before they conduct the training.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-01-26-Navy-Whales/id-10d04de30bf54e2e905b422f04046558

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Australia premier flees Aboriginal rights protest

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is rushed to a car by security after some 200 rowdy protesters surrounded a restaurant where she was speaking in Canberra, Australia. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

CANBERRA -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was dragged away by security guards Thursday after she was trapped in a restaurant by rowdy protesters demonstrating for indigenous rights following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day.

Some 200 supporters of Aboriginal rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged on its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.

---

The protesters were marching at the nearby Aboriginal Tent Embassy to mark 40 years since its establishment and rushed the restaurant in response to comments by Abbott earlier in the day, The Australian newspaper reported.

"Look, I can understand why the Tent Embassy was established all those years ago. I think a lot has changed for the better since then," Abbott said earlier Thursday.

"I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian and yes, I think a lot has changed since then and I think it probably is time to move on from that," he said.

Lukas Coch / EPA

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is escorted by police and bodyguards out of a restaurant after aboriginal Tent Embassy protesters tried to get into the building in Canberra, Australia, on Thursday.

The newspaper reported that according to protesters, his remarks were interpreted as a call to take down the Tent Embassy, a ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters in the national capital that is a center point of protests against Australia Day.

Invasion Day
Australia Day marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with traditional owners.

Around 50 police escorted the political leaders from a side door to a car. Gillard stumbled, losing a shoe. Her personal security guard wrapped his arms around her and supported her to the waiting car, shielding her from the angry crowd.

Darkinjung Aboriginal Land Council Leader Sean?Gordon?told The Sydney Morning Herald that Abbott's comments had been read out to the crowd, which had been rallying peacefully until then.

"It was like waving a red flag at a bull," he said.

David Crosling / AP, file

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, set up in 1972, sits on the lawn of the Old Parliament House building in Canberra.

Protesters chanted "shame" and "racist" outside the restaurant.

One of the Tent Embassy's founders, Michael Anderson, said after the incident that Abbott's remarks were "madness," the Herald reported.

"What he said amounts to inciting racial riots," he said.

Gillard was unharmed and hosted another Australia Day function at her official residence in Canberra later Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10239774-australias-gillard-dragged-away-from-aboriginal-protest

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Marine spared from jail time in Iraq killings (Reuters)

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif (Reuters) ? A U.S. Marine accused of leading a 2005 massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha was spared jail time when he was sentenced on Tuesday for his role in killings that brought international condemnation on U.S. troops.

The harshest penalty Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, now faces for his guilty plea on Monday to a single count of dereliction of duty is a demotion to the rank of private, the lowest rank in the service, as recommended by a military judge.

More serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault were dismissed as part of a plea deal that cut short Wuterich's court-martial.

The outcome appeared certain to stoke outrage among Iraqis, adding to anger over other abuses by U.S. soldiers or private security contractors, including the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal, during the more than eight years troops spent in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Even before it became clear that Wuterich would be spared from serving time in jail, relatives of the victims decried the results of his court-martial as a disgrace.

The head of the Iraqi parliament's human rights committee, Saleem al-Jubouri, said terms of the plea deal were "a violation of Iraqis' dignity" and vowed to convene his panel on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

Wuterich, whose guilty plea had carried a maximum possible penalty of three months in jail, showed no emotion as a military judge pronounced his sentence.

But in a pre-sentencing statement he read in court earlier in the day, Wuterich expressed remorse for the slayings and said he realized his name would always be associated with "being a cold-blooded baby-killer, an out of control monster."

As part of his guilty plea, Wuterich accepted responsibility for giving negligent verbal instructions to the Marines under his command when he told them to "shoot first and ask questions later," orders that resulted in the deaths of civilians.

In his court statement on Tuesday, Wuterich added that when he gave that order, "the intent wasn't that they should shoot civilians. It was that they would not hesitate in the face of the enemy."

He said that he and his fellow Marines behaved honorably under extreme circumstances, and that he "never fired my weapon at any women or children that day."

A final decision on a demotion of rank for Wuterich is up to the commander of the Marine Corps Forces Central Command, Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser, who had ruled out any confinement as part of the punishment.

Any discharge process faced by Wuterich, a father of three girls, will be separate from his sentencing.

OUTRAGE IN IRAQ

Wuterich was accused of being the ringleader in a series of shootings and grenade attacks on November 19, 2005, that left two dozen civilians dead in Haditha, a city west of Baghdad that was then an insurgent hotspot.

The killings were portrayed by Iraqi witnesses and military prosecutors as a massacre of unarmed civilians -- men, women and children -- carried out by Marines in anger after a member of their unit was killed by a roadside bomb.

Defense lawyers argued the deaths resulted from a chaotic, fast-moving combat situation in which the Marines believed they were under enemy fire.

Jeffrey Dinsmore, an intelligence officer with Wuterich's battalion, testified on Tuesday that insurgent forces "had complete control over the city (of Haditha) at the time" and the unit had received word that an ambush was likely.

He said insurgents were known to commandeer homes as places to launch attacks and to use civilians as human shields.

Six of the seven other Marines originally accused in the case had previously had their charges dismissed by military judges, while another was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Even before sentencing, word of a plea deal that carried a jail term of no more than 90 days for Wuterich sparked indignation in Iraq, where Ali Badr, a Haditha resident and relative of one of the victims, called it "solid proof that the Americans don't respect human rights."

"This is not a traffic felony," said Khalid Salman, a lawyer for the Haditha victims' relatives and a cousin of one of those killed, expressing his shock at the plea ahead of sentencing.

Wuterich, in his statement on Tuesday, directed an apology to family members of those killed in Iraq, but said civilians were not singled out for attack.

"Words cannot express my sorrow for the loss of your loved ones," he said. "The truth is, I don't believe anyone in my squad ... behaved in any way that was dishonorable or contrary to the highest ideals that we all live by as Marines."

"But even with the best intentions, sometimes combat actions can cause tragic results," he added, reading calmly and deliberately.

In his own remarks to the judge before sentencing, Wuterich's civilian defense lawyer, Neal Puckett, said his client had unfaltering integrity and was "not evil," but knew that his Marine career was at its end.

After the proceedings, his lawyers said Wuterich planned to pursue a post-military career in information technology.

Wuterich enlisted in the Marines after his 1998 graduation from high school, where he was an athletic honor-roll student and played with the marching band. He was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq when the Haditha incident occurred.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/us_nm/us_marine_haditha

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Sony Ericsson details GLONASS support in Xperia phones

Sony (Ericsson) has taken to its mobile Developer World blog to confirm thats 2011 Xperia smartphones, as well as the recently-announced Xperia S and Xperia Ion, fully support the Russian GLONASS positioning service in addition to GPS. GLONASS is run by the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, and performs similar tasks to GPS, but operates independently of it. By using information from both systems, it's possible to get a more accurate fix of your location in built-up areas where GPS alone may struggle.

Sony says that all its devices equipped with Snadragon S2 and S2 chips fully support both GLONASS and GPS for improved location-tracking accuracy. That means if you have a 2011 Xperia phone, or you're planning on picking up an Xperia S or Ion, you may have an edge over devices which only support GPS. For more technical info, head over to SE's blog post in the source link.

Source: SE Developer World

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/8W0RC1vLbVQ/story01.htm

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Environment that nurtures blood-forming stem cells' growth identified

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Scientists with the new Children's Research Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified the environment in which blood-forming stem cells survive and thrive within the body, an important step toward increasing the safety and effectiveness of bone-marrow transplantation.

Institute investigators led by Dr. Sean Morrison asked which cells are responsible for the microenvironment that nurtures haematopoietic stem cells, which produce billions of new blood cells every day. The answer: endothelial and perivascular cells, which line blood vessels.

"Although scientists have searched for decades to identify the stem cell home, this is the first study to reveal the cells that are functionally responsible for the maintenance of blood-forming stem cells in the body," said Dr. Morrison, director of the new institute and senior author of the study available Jan. 26 in Nature. "This discovery will lead to the identification of the mechanisms by which cells promote stem cell maintenance and expansion."

Scientists already have determined how to make large quantities of stem cells and how to change these cells into those of the nervous system, skin and other tissues. But they have been stymied by similar efforts to make blood-forming stem cells. A key obstacle has been the lack of understanding about the microenvironment, or niche, in which blood-forming stem cells reside in the body.

In the first breakthrough from the Children's Research Institute, Dr. Morrison's laboratory addressed this issue by systematically determining which cells are the sources of stem cell factor, a protein required for the maintenance of blood-forming stem cells. His team swapped out the mouse gene responsible for stem cell factor with a gene from jellyfish that encodes green fluorescent protein. The cells that glowed green were endothelial and perivascular cells, revealing them as the creators of the niche that nurtures healthy blood-forming stem cells.

Additional lab work showed that blood-forming stem cells become depleted if stem cell factor is eliminated from either endothelial or perivascular cells. Loss of stem cell factor from both of these sources caused stem cells to virtually disappear.

The research has implications for bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants, Dr. Morrison said. If scientists can identify the remaining signals by which perivascular cells promote the expansion of blood-forming stem cells, then they may be able to replicate these signals in the laboratory. Doing so will make it possible to expand blood-forming stem cells prior to transplantation into patients, thereby increasing the safety and effectiveness of this widely used clinical procedure.

Dr. Morrison's paper is the first to emerge from the Children's Research Institute at UT Southwestern, a pioneering venture that combines the medical center's research prowess with the world-class clinical expertise of Children's Medical Center Dallas. Under Dr. Morrison's leadership, the institute is focusing on research at the interface of stem cell biology, cancer, and metabolism that has the potential to reveal new strategies for treating disease.

The institute currently has more than 30 scientists and will eventually include 150 scientists in 15 laboratories led by UT Southwestern faculty members. Dr. Morrison's lab focuses on adult stem cell biology and cancers of the blood, nervous system and skin.

The Nature paper's first author is Dr. Lei Ding, postdoctoral research fellow at the Children's Research Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Scientists from the University of Michigan and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory also contributed to the study, which was supported by the HHMI and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by UT Southwestern Medical Center, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Lei Ding, Thomas L. Saunders, Grigori Enikolopov, Sean J. Morrison. Endothelial and perivascular cells maintain haematopoietic stem cells. Nature, 2012; 481 (7382): 457 DOI: 10.1038/nature10783

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120125131033.htm

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Apps & Accessories Live premieres tonight, 9pm ET!

iPad Live has merged Transformers-style with iPhone Live and our newer, better, badasser all news, all how-tos iPhone and iPad Live combined podcast can now be found on Wednesday nights at 9pm ET. But what to do with our traditional Sunday slot then? Why an all-new, all awesome podcast devoted to the latest and greatest apps and accessories! So join us tonight for the debut episode of Apps & Accessories Live! (And yes, ZEN and TECH will still be following on at 10pm!)

Time: 9pm ET, 6pm PT, 2am GMT.

Place: http://www.imore.com/live

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/wF-W3Wx_YuY/story01.htm

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Analysis: Megaupload shutdown unlikely to deter piracy (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? The crackdown on file-sharing site Megaupload is expected to do little to reduce overall piracy of music, software and Hollywood movies, while potentially stifling emerging means of distributing content online.

In the wake of last week's surprising indictment of the digital storage company and seven executives, other companies have begun changing their policies even as Megaupload officers maintained their innocence in a first court appearance in New Zealand.

Filesonic.com stopped allowing people to download files that they had not uploaded themselves, while Uploaded.to blocked access from Internet locations in the United States.

However, just 3 percent of U.S. Internet users relied on digital lockers like Megaupload in the third quarter, according to NPD market research, compared with 9 percent who used peer-to-peer networks, which allow sharing of files among consumers' computers with little or no central organization.

Peer-to-peer systems, including BitTorrent and PirateBay, might gain more activity after the Megaupload charges, analysts said, while users may be afraid to upload content to lockers for fear they will lose access in a similar shutdown.

"I don't think you'll see more file sharers per se, but the amount downloaded over the torrents might rise," said NPD's Russ Crupnick.

But the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America said at least some users would balk at the higher complexity of peer-to-peer sites.

Lockers are "more user friendly. I doubt there will be a wholesale shift" to torrents, said MPAA Senior Vice President Kevin Suh.

PirateBay appeared to ignore the demise of Megaupload in its communications with users on Monday. In its blog, writers posted about how PirateBay saw the future of copying - evolving beyond digital format to physical objects it dubbed "physibles" - and

about what artists it might promote in coming months.

In a press release issued last week about proposed anti-piracy legislation in the U.S., PirateBay compared its role to the founding fathers of the U.S. and took the position that it fights for freedom of speech and the equality of all people.

SKIP HOLLYWOOD MIDDLEMEN

Though Megaupload has been around since 2005, lockers have only gone mainstream in the past year. Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Google Inc all adopted some version of the technology that permits digital content to be uploaded for the purpose of backing up user data or making content available to multiple devices or outsiders.

For some content producers, the new avenues are a way to skip the middlemen in Hollywood and reach their fans directly.

Last month, the comedian Louis C.K., complaining of a lack of royalties from conventional DVD sales, offered downloads of a one-man show for $5 from his own website and sold more than $1 million worth.

Megaupload supporters in the past have included major recording artists, such as Macy Gray and Sean "Diddy" Combs, who lent their voices to a popular video touting Megaupload by name.

Rapper Busta Rhymes signaled his support on Twitter even after the arrests last week, tweeting that Megaupload "could create the most powerful way 4 artist 2 get 90% off of every dollar despite the music being downloaded 4 free."

Until the middle of last year, Megaupload offered "rewards" for those who uploaded the most popular content. The indictment said this induced piracy, because the most popular content was likely to infringe copyrights.

But Jennifer Granick, a longtime Internet attorney who is now general counsel for a site devoted to hip-hop, said the idea that only infringing material would be popular was "ridiculous".

"This is a way for artists of all kinds to get out of these record-label deals that can be really limited. These can be a really important way to try to make money and get their stuff out there."

Julie Samuels, an attorney for the civil liberties nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said it was unusual for the Justice Department to bring a criminal case for an alleged conspiracy over copyright violations, which are usually handled in civil court.

The EFF filed an amicus brief defending another locker service, MP3Tunes, against a record label that sued over a related issue, the "de-duplicating" that saves resources by preserving only one copy of a file that is uploaded by many.

The court ruled that MP3Tunes was in the clear as long as it abided by Digital Millennium Copyright Act requirements for responding to takedown requests, blocking repeat infringers and the like.

Samuels said she was not surprised that other file-storage services were dropping reward programs and in some cases limiting downloads to users' own files.

But she said that was bad for innovation and bad for users.

"The worst part here is that if the lockers are legally unstable then users will be hesitant," she said. "What's really been troubling is that the third parties who are using Megaupload for legitimate reasons no longer have access to their own content. In this case it's the government, but often it's traditional industries that are squelching innovation in what may be an expansion of ways for artists to get paid."

(Reporting by Joseph Menn and Sara McBride in San Francisco, Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington and Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Bernard Orr)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/digitalmusic/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/tc_nm/us_megaupload_impact

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FedEx opens real-time tracking to aerospace, finance, arts industries ...

FedEx first announced its SenseAware service ? which provides corporate customers with near real-time tracking for shipments ? in 2009 for the healthcare and life science industries.

Now the company is opening the service to all comers, including the aerospace, finance and arts industries.

The point of the service is that it gives companies more visibility and monitoring capability into shipments. At the heart of the product is a multi-sensor device that travels with the package, sending data to the cloud, from which a company representative can monitor it using a web-based application.

The device itself is pretty neat, and goes far beyond simple GPS coordinates (although if you ever ?received? a package that never materialized, this in and of itself is a godsend): it takes readings for temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure, can tell if and when the shipment was opened and, for film buffs out there, if the contents have been exposed to light.

Since the customers in question tend to ship highly sensitive or large packages (think pallets, not pouches), the device can also handle major shipments. And it doesn?t require a major infrastructure overhaul: drop in the device, and let the sensors do the rest.

It?s the future of shipping, really. Because with all of the connected technology at work around us, why should we resort to being left in the dark for shipments ? medicine, prototypes, encrypted hard drives ? that are critical?

Related on SmartPlanet:

Source: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/fedex-opens-real-time-tracking-to-aerospace-finance-arts-industries/21839

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New Google Accounts Require Gmail And G+ Accounts

Google appears to have made some changes to its account creation process. Whereas before, all it took was an email address of any kind and some basic demographic data, now you are required to create both a Gmail account and a presence on Google+. This doesn't strike me as a user-friendly change.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/AYrnl7db-go/

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RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10

After months upon months of investor backlash, RIM's making some significant changes. And by "significant," we mean the co-chief executives (and founders) are out. As of tomorrow, both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will be stepping away from the top posts, enabling "a little-known company insider" to take over, according to The Wall Street Journal. Purportedly, this is all part of "a board and management shuffle," with COO Thorsten Heins (seen above) to step into what many expect to be an impossible role to thrive in. The Globe and Mail asserts that he'll be immediately seeking a Chief Marketing Officer to polish up the company's severely damaged brand, and he "will not rule out licensing RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system to other handset manufacturers." In an interview with the outlet, he stated that he'll be executing "flawlessly" and with vigor -- not unexpected, but still, bold words.

Startlingly, Heins also asserted that he's "confident" in the existing lineup of BlackBerry handsets and the software update recently made available for the PlayBook; call us crazy, but he'd be wise to just spout out reality and make clear that RIM's existing lineup is nowhere near competitive in the grand scheme of things. As for Mike and Jim? The former will become "vice-chair of the board with special duties to examine innovation," with the latter becoming a traditional director. In an interesting move, outgoing co-CEO Lazaridis stated the following: "I think it's that unwillingness to sacrifice our long-term value for short-term gain. That's why we didn't choose Android. That's why we decided to build the future on QNX." So wait, RIM had the chance to choose Android... and didn't? No time like the present to reach back and shake things up, Mr. Heins.

Update: Catch an introduction video to the new CEO just after the break!

Continue reading RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10

RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Peter Rojas (Twitter)  |  The Wall Street Journal (1), (2), The Globe and Mail, RIM  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/rim-ceo-quits/

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Daily Deal: 50% off Belkin ProFit for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4

For today only, the iMore Store has the Belkin ProFit for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $19.95!. Get them before they’re gone! Get the Belkin ProFit for

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/dTFW9WDljAI/story01.htm

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Former trailblazer Kodak files for Chapter 11 (AP)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. ? Kodak's moment has come and gone.

The glory days, when Eastman Kodak Co. ruled the world of film photography, lasted for over a century. Then came a stunning reversal of fortune: cutthroat competition from Japanese firms in the 1980s and a seismic shift to the digital technology it pioneered but couldn't capitalize on. Now comes a wistful worry that this American business icon is edging toward extinction.

Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, raising the specter that the 132-year-old trailblazer could become the most storied casualty of a digital age.

Already a shadow of its former self, cash-poor Kodak will reorganize in bankruptcy court, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company hopes to peddle a trove of photo patents and morph into a new-look powerhouse built around printers and ink. Even if it succeeds, it seems unlikely to ever resemble what its red-on-yellow K logo long stood for ? a brand synonymous in every corner of the planet with capturing, collecting and sharing images.

"Kodak played a role in pretty much everyone's life in the 20th century because it was the company we entrusted our most treasured possession to ? our memories," said Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Its yellow boxes of film, point-and-shoot Brownie and Instamatic cameras, and those hand-sized prints that made it possible for countless millions to freeze-frame their world "were the products used to remember ? and really define ? what that entire century looked like," Burley said.

"One of the interesting parts of this bankruptcy story is everyone's saddened by it," he continued. "There's a kind of emotional connection to Kodak for many people. You could find that name inside every American household and, in the last five years, it's disappeared."

Kodak has notched just one profitable year since 2004. At the end of a four-year digital makeover during which it dynamited aged factories, chopped and changed businesses and eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, it closed 2007 on a high note with net income of $676 million.

It soon ran smack into the recession ? and its momentum reversed.

Years of investor worries over whether Kodak might seek protection from its creditors intensified in September when it hired major restructuring law firm Jones Day as an adviser. Its stock, which topped $94 in 1997, slid below $1 a share for the first time and, by Jan. 6, hit an all-time closing low of 37 cents.

Three board members recently resigned, and last week, the company announced that it realigned and simplified its business structure in an effort to cut costs, create shareholder value and accelerate its long-drawn-out digital transformation.

The human toll reaches back to the 1980s, when Tokyo-based Fuji, an emerging archrival, began to eat into Kodak's fat profits with novel offerings like single-use film cameras. Beset by excessive caution and strategic stumbles, Kodak was finally forced to cut costs. Its long slide had begun.

Mass layoffs came every few years, unraveling a cozy relationship of company and community that was perhaps unequaled in the annals of American business. Kodak has sliced its global payroll to 18,800 from a peak of 145,300 in 1988, and its hometown rolls to 7,100 from 60,400 in 1982.

Veteran employees who dodged the well-worn ax are not alone in fearing what comes next. Some 25,000 Kodak retirees in this medium-sized city on Lake Ontario's southern shore worry that their diminished health coverage could be clawed back further, if not disappear, in bankruptcy court.

It's a far cry from George Eastman's paternalistic heyday.

Founded by Eastman in 1880, Kodak marketed the world's first flexible roll film in 1888 and turned photography into an overnight craze with a $1 Brownie camera in 1900. Innovation and mass production were about to put the world into cars and airplanes, the American Century was unfolding, and Kodak was ready to record it.

"It's one of the few companies that wiggled its way into the fabric of American life and the American family," said Bob Volpe, 69, a 32-year employee who retired in 1998. "As someone at Kodak once said, `We put chemicals in one end so our customers can get memories out the other.'"

Intent on keeping his work force happy ? they never organized a union ? Eastman helped pioneer profit-sharing and, in 1912, began dispensing a generous wage dividend. Going to work for Kodak ? "taking the life sentence," as it was called ? became a bountiful rite of passage for generations.

"Most of the people who worked at Kodak had a middle-class life without a college education," Volpe said. "Those jobs paid so well, they could buy a boat, two cars, a summer place, and send their kids to college."

Propelled by Eastman's marketing genius, the "Great Yellow Father" held a virtual monopoly of the U.S. photographic industry by 1927. But long after Eastman was stricken with a degenerative spinal disorder and took his own life in 1932, Kodak retained its mighty perch with a succession of innovations.

Foremost was Kodachrome, a slide and motion-picture film extolled for 74 years until its demise in 2009 for its sharpness, archival durability and vibrant hues. In the 1960s, easy-load Instamatic 126 became one of the most popular cameras ever, practically replacing old box cameras.

In 1975, using a new type of electronic sensor invented six years earlier at Bell Labs, engineer Steven Sasson created the first digital camera, a toaster-size prototype capturing black-and-white images at a resolution of 0.1 megapixels.

Through the 1990s, Kodak splurged $4 billion on developing the photo technology inside most of today's cellphones and digital devices. But a reluctance to ease its heavy reliance on film allowed rivals like Canon Inc. and Sony Corp. to rush largely unhindered into the fast-emerging digital arena. The immensely lucrative analog business Kodak worried about undermining too soon was virtually erased in a decade by the filmless photography it invented.

"If you're not willing to cannibalize yourself, others will do it for you," said Mark Zupan, dean of the University of Rochester's business school. "Technology is changing ever more rapidly, the world's becoming more globalized, so to stay at the top of your game is getting increasingly harder."

In November, Kodak warned it could run out of cash in a year if it didn't sell 1,100 digital-imaging patents it's been shopping around since July. Analysts estimate they could fetch at least $2 billion.

In the meantime, Kodak has focused its future on new lines of inkjet printers that it says are on the verge of turning a profit. It expects printers, software and packaging to produce more than twice as much revenue by 2013 and account by then for 25 percent of the company's total revenue, or nearly $2 billion.

CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement Thursday that the bankruptcy filing is "a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak." The company has secured $950 million in financing from Citigroup Inc., and expects to be able to operate its business during bankruptcy reorganization and pay employees.

On its website, Kodak assured customers that the nearly $1 billion in debtor-in-possession financing would be sufficient to pay vendors, suppliers and other business partners in full for goods and services going forward. The bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York does not involve Kodak's international operations.

"To be able to hop from stone to stone across the stream takes great agility and foresight and passion for excellence, and Kodak is capable of that. They have some killer stuff in inkjet printing. It's becoming a profitable product line but what they need is the runway to allow it to take off," Zupan said. "As the saying goes, `the best way to anticipate the future is to invent it.'"

The company and its board are being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Dominic DiNapoli, vice chairman of FTI Consulting, will serve as chief restructuring officer. Kodak expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring during 2013.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_hi_te/us_kodak_s_legacy

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