Foreclosures Poised to Rise in 2011

(NEW YORK) — The bleakest year in the foreclosure crisis has only just begun.

Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and also loans that exceed the value of the homes they are living in.

"2011 is going to be the peak," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. The firm predicts 1.2 million homes will be repossessed this year.

The blistering pace of foreclosures this year will top 2010, when a record 1 million homes were lost, RealtyTrac said Thursday.

One in every 45 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last year, a record 2.9 million of them. That's up 1.67 percent from 2009.

On Thursday, Freddie Mac reported that fixed mortgage rates dipped this week for the second straight time, extending a sliver of hope for some home owners.

The average rate on the 30-year mortgage dropped to 4.71 percent from 4.77 percent the previous week. The rate on the 15-year loan, a popular refinance choice, slipped to 4.08 percent from 4.13 percent.

But both are a half-point higher than the lows they reached in November. The 30-year loan rate hit a 40-year low of 4.17 percent and the 15-year mortgage rate fell to 3.57 percent, the lowest level on records starting in 1991.

The dip has led more borrowers to apply for a refinance, but would-be buyers remain hesitant, according to Wednesday's mortgage indexes from the Mortgage Bankers Association. It will take more than low mortgage rates to jumpstart a housing market plagued by high unemployment, falling prices, tighter credit standards.

The glut of foreclosures has compounded the problem and while the pace moderated in the final months of 2010, that isn't expected to last.

Foreclosures are expected to remain elevated throughout the year, pushing home prices down another 5 percent nationally before finally bottoming out.

The number of homes that received at least one foreclosure-related filing in December was the lowest monthly total in 30 months. Total notices fell 1.8 percent from November and 26.3 percent from December 2009, RealtyTrac said.

Banks temporarily halted actions against borrowers severely behind on their payments after allegations of improper eviction surfaced in September.

However, most banks have since resumed foreclosures and the first quarter will likely bear that out, Sharga said.

The pain likely will be the most acute in states that have already suffered the worst. For the most part, it will be states that saw the biggest housing booms: Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California. They will be joined by states hit hardest by the economic downturn, including Michigan and Illinois.

And on Wednesday, Illinois lawmakers approved a 66 percent income-tax increase in a desperate bid to end the state's crippling budget crisis.

More than half of the country's foreclosure activity came out of five states in 2010: California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan. Together, these states recorded almost 1.5 million households receiving a filing, despite year-over-year decreases in California, Florida and Arizona.

Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in 2010 for the fourth straight year, despite a 5 percent decline in activity from the year before. One in every 11 households received a foreclosure filing last year in the state. In December, foreclosure activity increased 18 percent from November with a 71 percent spike in bank repossessions.

Arizona and California also showed sharp December increases in the number of homes that banks reclaimed, at 52 percent and 47 percent, respectively. Arizona, along with Florida, finished the year at No. 2 and No. 3 for the highest foreclosure rates.

One in every 17 Arizona households got a foreclosure filing last year, while one in 18 received a notice in Florida.

California, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rounded out the top ten states with the highest foreclosure rates.

RealtyTrac tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Source: Time Magazine
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2042515,00.html#ixzz1BMrtP6jx

A Re-Engineered Chicken and the War On Bird Flu

Got a fever, headache, sore throat and all the other lovely symptoms of influenza? You can blame it on the birds. The main reservoir for influenza viruses is wild birds, which can pass those microbes to domestic poultry, which can come into contact, and potentially infect, human beings. That is what has happened with the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus, which has killed at least 306 people during the past seven years, not to mention hundreds of millions of chickens and other birds. International heath authorities have increasingly focused on that viral intersection between birds and humans, reasoning that if H5N1 can be controlled in poultry, it won't be able to threaten people. That's a tall order, though: by one count there are as many as 70 billion chickens around the world, many of them in backyard shacks in the developing world, and the shifty flu virus often evades vaccination.

But what if there were a way to breed poultry that are genetically resistant to H5N1 or any other avian flu virus, thus severing a major link in the flu's evolutionary chain? That's what a team of scientists in Britain tried to do recently, and they were remarkably successful. The result, reported in a study in the Jan. 13 issue of Science, is genetically engineered chickens that, while they're still vulnerable to H5N1, don't seem to pass on the disease to other poultry. That's exciting news for chicken farmers who are trying to protect their flocks from a deadly virus, but it could also open the door to genetically engineering disease resistance into a host of other animals. "Genetic modification could be more effective than vaccination," says Helen Sang, a geneticist at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh and a co-author of the Science paper. "You wouldn't need to change the way you tackle each disease."

First the scientists had to figure out a gene that could interfere with the replication of the avian flu virus. Lawrence Tiley, a molecular virologist at Cambridge University and the lead author of the paper, indentified a gene that could make birds produce a piece of RNA that acts as a decoy to polymerase, an enzyme that is vital for viral replication. Rather than binding with the virus' genome, polymerase attaches itself to the decoy gene, preventing the virus from being able to replicate itself and spread.

Using Sang's transgenic techniques, the team was able to insert the decoy gene into chick embryos. When the GM chickens were exposed to the avian flu, they were still infected, getting sick and eventually dying, but they didn't pass on that virus to other chickens in close proximity, both transgenic birds and normal ones. Normally, once a few chickens have been infected with H5N1, the virus burns like wildfire through a flock, often with near 100% mortality. But the transgenic chickens effectively acted as firewalls for avian flu, stopping the spread cold. "The transgenic birds that are infected are shedding virus that seems to be defective in some ways," Tiley told Science.

While the ultimate goal would be to engineer poultry that are simply immune to the disease, the decoy target chosen by Tiley and his colleagues is a clever one. Flu viruses have eight gene segments, and polymerase has to bind to each of them during replication. To somehow evade the decoy, the flu virus would need to change parts of all eight gene segments. By comparison, a flu virus can evade a vaccine by changing just one gene, and since the flu mutates frequently, that's not hard to do. (Those genetic shifts in influenza are why we need a new vaccine every flu season.) Engineered correctly, a transgenic could be all but permanently protected from the flu, as would all their offspring, and they're otherwise normal. "You wouldn't be able to pick them out of a pen of chickens," says Sang.

Sang notes that this is just a small proof of principle study. "Commercial success is a long way off," she says. Transgenic chickens would also need to be approved by regulators and accepted by consumers, no guarantee, given the resistance to GM crops in much of the world. But regulators are already beginning to look at some GM animals, including a transgenic salmon that is able to grow faster in fish farms, and a GM pig that produces much less polluting waste. If we can protect ourselves from the next flu pandemic by tweaking our birds, the benefits might be worth the Frankenstein factor.

Source: Time Magazine
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2042381,00.html#ixzz1BJgkmWf0

10 Things You Shouldn't Do On Facebook

By Michelle Castillo

People often post offensive or insensitive things on their Facebook, and sometimes those updates and pictures can be downright criminal - literally.

Check out Techland's list of things you shouldn't do on Facebook, lest you want to face some sort of negative repercussions. Ranging from being convicted of a criminal offense to making yourself a target of a robbery to things that can help you lose your job, here's things that you can easily avoid doing. Try to exercise common sense when using the social network: It's all public knowledge after all.

source: Time Magazine
Read more: http://techland.time.com/2011/01/10/10-things-you-shouldnt-do-on-facebook/#ixzz1BJfVCUNm

The Royal Wedding Dress: Has Kate Middleton Chosen A Designer?

The Princess-to-be has reportedly finalized one of the most buzzed about details of her April 29 wedding to Prince William. (via People)

A source tells People magazine that Kate Middleton has chosen the fashion designer to create her wedding dress. But his or her identity will remain a secret, per the royal couple's request. Kate's mother Carole and sister Pippa fueled speculation that British designer Bruce Oldfield had been chosen for the job when they were spotted browsing his London shop recently.

(See pictures of Kate Middleton's style)

Oldfield, who was one of Princess Diana's most beloved designers, has long been the bookies' favorite to nab the royal honor. He has been creating couture dresses for more than 30 years and counts Britain's first lady Samantha Cameron, the Duchess of Cornwall and Queen Rania of Jordan as clients. But it looks like fans will have to wait until April to know whether Oldfield can add Kate Middleton's name to that prestigious list.

Source: Time Magazine
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/17/kate-middleton-wedding-dress/#ixzz1BJcersNn

MISS AMERICA 2011-TERESA SCANLAN

Teresa Scanlan was born on February 6, 1993. She was crowned Miss Nebraska 2010 on June 5, 2010, and subsequently crowned Miss America 2011 on January 15, 2011 in Las Vegas. Teresa is the youngest winner in the Miss America Pageant’s history.

TERESA SCANLAN, NEWLY CROWNED MISS AMERICA 2011

Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan

Scanlan’s platform is “Eating disorders: A generation at risk” and her competition talent is piano.[1] At 17 years of age, she is the youngest Miss Nebraska ever crowned. Scanlan was home-schooled until her junior year of high school, before attending Gering High School for half of her junior year. She graduated early from Scottsbluff High School in the spring of 2010 after taking a double load of classes throughout high school. After winning the title of Miss Nebraska, Scanlan announced that she was taking a year off from school to fulfill her duties as Miss Nebraska, and that she had deferred enrollment to Patrick Henry College until the fall of 2011.
TERESA SCANLAN PROFILE:
- Born February 6, 1993 (1993-02-06) (age 17)
- Hometown: Gering, Nebraska
- Education: Gering High School; Scottsbluff High School; Patrick Henry College
- Hair color: Blonde
- Eye color: Brown
- Title(s): Miss Nebraska 2010
Miss Southeast 2010
Miss America 2011
Major competition(s): Miss America 2011 (winner)

Source:http://worldshowbiz.info/beauty-contest/teresa-scanlan-miss-america-2011/

Golden Globes: The Stars Get Social with Their Stalkers

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globes — the least reputable and most avidly watched pre-Oscar awards show — validated critical opinion last night by handing out prizes to the perceived leaders in many Academy Award categories. The Social Network won for Best Picture (Drama), Director, Screenwriter and Original Score. Colin Firth was named Best Actor for The King's Speech and Natalie Portman Best Actress for Black Swan. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo took the supporting-actor statuettes for their performances in The Fighter. Pixar's Toy Story 3 was the preferred animated feature. All are expected to duplicate their awards during the Feb. 27 Oscar ceremony.

In categories that exist only to get more celebrities to go to their party, the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) chose Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) and Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version) as the best actors in a comedy or musical. The Kids Are All Right also won in that hybrid classification, although it's neither a musical nor, arguably, a comedy. The HFPA also gives citations in 11 TV categories, eight of them for actors, and there the big winner was Glee, with three wins.

Cannily programmed to honor twice as many film actors as the Oscars, while ignoring less sexy awards like those for cinematography and documentaries, the Globes is essentially an all-star TV fashion show — hosted for the past two years by the impish Brit comic Ricky Gervais — with take-home gifts for members of the renowned studio audience. It's like Oprah for the glitterati. And if the occasional citation goes to an outsider movie (say, the Danish In a Better World for foreign-language film) or a miniseries (Olivier Assayas' French TV production Carlos) ... well, the presenters are foreign. Also mysterious, and maybe shady.

The provenance of the HFPA is highly suspect: a few actual critics among a flotilla of hangers-on, some of whom may be actual journalists, but nearly all of whom make their living interviewing movie and TV stars for newspapers and magazines that have no U.S. cachet. Recently the HFPA was sued by its former publicist, who alleged that the group had taken lavish gifts from studios in exchange for nominations. Before short-listing the roundly panned Burlesque, the members were flown from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to catch Cher's show. And how to explain the nominations for the stars of the widely reviled The Tourist? Gervais had an answer for that one: "I'd like to quash this ridiculous rumor going round that the only reason it was nominated was so the Hollywood Foreign Press could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. That is rubbish. That is not the only reason. They also accepted bribes."

That may have been a joke. But the HFPA has a great quid pro quo to get all-year access to the stars. Once a year it nominates many of them for door prizes on a TV show that is aired on a once major network (NBC) and timed to occur in the center of awards season, midway between the December citations of real film critics and next month's Oscar show.

Now, there's little resemblance between the HFPA and a venerable organization of full-time professional reviewers like the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), to which I belong, except that for the past two years both groups' dinners have been hosted by acidulous comics — Gervais for the Golden Globes, Armond White for the NYFCC — whose stock-in-trade is insulting the honorees. According to one report, White's derogatory comments about The Kids Are All Right at last Monday's NYFCC awards dinner reduced Bening nearly to tears. Gervais lost much of his audience when he introduced recovering addict and current superstar Robert Downey Jr. by snarking that "The people in this room probably know him best from the Betty Ford clinic and Los Angeles County Jail." Downey was up to the challenge: "Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show has been pretty good so far, wouldn't you?" Cheers from the crowd.

Last night's prizes anointed the putative front-runners for the Oscars, but the Globes are not always an accurate predictor. As Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke noted, only once in the past six years (with Slumdog Millionaire) has a Golden Globe Best Picture winner also taken the Academy's Best Picture award. To this, Hollywood says, 'Who cares?' It's a night for them to dress up, meet other famous people and promote their wares. For whatever the shoddy rep of the HFPA, it's the most attention-getting movie show next to the Oscars. At the Academy Awards, the stars show up to be judged by their peers. For the Globes, to publicize their award-contending movies, they go to a party thrown by their stalkers.

This year's do had the standard mix of comedy from surprising quarters — Lifetime Achievement laureate Robert De Niro genially mocking the HFPA members as illegal immigrants — and poignancy. Laura Linney received a TV Best Actress award for her role as a cancer survivor in The Big C, the day after her father, playwright Romulus Linney, died of lung cancer at 80. And Michael Douglas, recuperating from throat cancer, responded to his warm Globes reception with the quip, "There must be an easier way to get a standing ovation."

Grace notes like these can ennoble any ceremony, no matter who the hosts are. But there must be a less sleazy venue for giving prizes to movie stars.

Source:Time Magazine
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2042796,00.html#ixzz1BJXwWkCz

Zuckerberg Named One of 10 Worst-Dressed Men

Time magazine coverboy and billionaire Facebook CEO MarkZuckerberg has been named one of the 10 worst-dressed guys of 2010 by Esquire magazine.

When Esquire was putting together its “2010 Celebrity Style Hall of Shame” list, it didn’t have to look far in the tech world to find plenty of candidates. Mark was easy prey to Esquire‘s critical eye, given his high profile and simple wardrobe.

What’s the matter with the way he dresses, anyway? We don’t mind that casual look, and if a billionaire CEO has a closet full of exactly the same shirt and pants (we’re looking at you, Steve Jobs), who are we to say he can’t wear them? It makes him comfortable, and after all, getting away with wearing a T-shirt to a black-tie event means you’re one powerful dude.

All this attention to Mark’s wardrobe made us want to look for visual evidence. So here’s a gallery of the various outfits he’s been spotted wearing. You might be surprised at the subtle variation in his attire, contrary to the belief that he always wears the same thing.

[Via Huffington Post]