ZAP INFO

By RONI CARYN RABIN Published: January 8, 2009 More than one third of mothers who chose to undergo a repeat Caesarean section had their babies earlier than medical guidelines recommend, and the earlier the babies were born, the more likely they were to experience a medical complication like respiratory distress, a large study has found. Although babies born by Caesarean section after just 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered full-term, the study found they were twice as likely to suffer complications as those born by Caesarean after 39 weeks. Infants born by Caesarean at 38 weeks were 50 percent more likely to have a medical problem than those born at 39 weeks. The complications included respiratory distress, infections, hypoglycemia, being admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, or being hospitalized for five or more days. The study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, was published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. It is bei...

By ReutersJanuary 8, 2009 12:25 PM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A small, private memorial service was held on Thursday for John Travolta's son Jett as the actor called the outpouring of love around the world "a beautiful reminder of the inherent goodness in the human spirit." The service in Florida, where Travolta and his actress wife Kelly Preston have their main home, took place six days after Jett, 16, died of a seizure while on vacation in the Bahamas. Jett had a history of seizures, according to the family. Travolta and Preston have said only that Jett suffered from the little-known Kawasaki syndrome when he was a toddler. But friends said he had developmental disabilities that meant he was not heard speaking. "I observed that (Jett) was significantly mentally handicapped," actress Anne Archer, a friend of Travolta was quoted as telling People magazine in its Friday edition. "But it was very apparent with the two of them that they treated him as if he w...

By 'Duk Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:50 pm EST The strange story goes like this: Last summer, Bernice Gallego pulled an old baseball card from a box of antiques. She figured it might be worth something to someone, so she listed it on eBay. The starting bid was $10. But after getting a flurry of inquiries about whether the card was authentic or not, Gallego started to suspect she was holding something a little more valuable and immediately ended the auction. Turns out her hunch was correct. She did have something more valuable. The card she found was made in 1869 and featured the "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the sport's first professional team. It's considered one of the first baseball cards ever produced and its actual value could be worth more than $100,000 when she puts it back on eBay (with a higher starting price, of course). Of course, the news that she had found a rare piece of early baseball history came as a shock to the 72-year-old Fresno, Calif., resid...

Tuesday, December 30, 2008 Provided by: Bankrate.com For most people, wealth does not come in a windfall but instead gathers gradually as a result of years of hard work and diligence. Bankrate readers offer their tips for growing wealth. You'll find no winning lottery numbers or surefire stock recommendations among them, but all are sensible suggestions for savings. 1. Grow Your Own Food I have a plot in our local community garden that I share with two of my friends. It is a fun, inexpensive hobby for us -- plus it keeps us active and teaches our children important life skills. We keep our 20- by 30-foot parcel planted year-round, and it provides our three families with fresh, organic produce. 2. Set Limits and Stick to Them I try to save at least three to four part-time paychecks so that I can elect to make a hefty payment on a credit card account and buy myself a little something I waited to get. Also, I have inventoried my home and gathered up all half-full or almost empty bottl...

Posted on Mon Jan 5, 2009 3:11AM EST SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled what it says is the world's slimmest LCD (liquid crystal display) TV. The new product, measuring only 6.5 millimetres (0.26 inch) thick, is thinner than any other existing TV set, and even slimmer than most mobile handsets, Samsung said in a statement. Its thickness is one seventh of Samsung's "Bordeaux 850" LCD TVs, which is currently the thinnest on the market, the company said. The new product, which adopts an LED (light emitting diode) backlighting system, will be on display at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11, Samsung added.

Mon Jan 05, 2009, 1:38 am EST LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It was a photo finish, but North American movie-ticket sales hit the wire in a furious gallop to post an annual gain of almost 2%, with a record haul of $9.78 billion in estimated grosses. Avid holiday moviegoing helped the industry rewrite the history books in the home stretch, though substantial ticket-price boosts helped pad the tally. Industry estimates put average U.S. ticket prices at about $7.20, or almost 4.7% higher than in 2007. About 1.36 billion tickets were sold in the U.S. and Canada in 2008. That compares with a total 1.40 billion admissions in the previous year. "There were a lot of predictions this would be a really, really hard year for movie theaters , but this year in big ways and small ways turned out to be a really strong year," said Patrick Corcoran, media and research director for the National Association of Theater Owners. "We had ' Dark Knight ' in the summer, which was hug...

Brian Faler and Ryan J. Donmoyer Brian Faler And Ryan J. Donmoyer – Mon Jan 5, 7:01 am ET Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package will include hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tax breaks for individuals and businesses, according to a transition official and Democratic aides. Obama is asking that tax cuts make up 40 percent of a stimulus package, the people say. The measure may be worth as much as $775 billion, a Democratic aide says, meaning tax cuts may constitute more than $300 billion of the legislation. The dollar today rose to the highest level in almost three weeks against the euro and also surged against the yen on speculation that the Obama plan would help the U.S. economy recover from recession. Making tax cuts such a large part of the stimulus may help win support from congressional Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said his party would support an immediate middle-class tax cut as part ...

Jacqueline Detwiler, 01.05.09, 12:01 AM EST These 20 towns boast the greatest concentration of residents with advanced degrees. For decades, most people's idea of the American small town likely resembled something out of Little House on the Prairie: crumbling farmhouses and one-room schools. By November's election, with all the talk of Main Street, it was easy to forgive anyone for associating the American small town with rural locales, modest incomes and Joe Six-Packs. Whether or not that's true, the best-educated small towns contain just the opposite. Almost all are suburbs near major universities or research centers, and the jobs--from IT in Silicon Valley to government work in McLean, Va.--are anything but blue collar. In Depth: America's Most Educated Small Towns Take the most-educated small town on our list, Bethesda, Md. The city hosts the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as the corporate h...

by Yahoo! HotJobs The Recruiter Roundtable is a monthly feature that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts throughout the United States. The question we put before our panel this month is: In light of the troubling economic climate and tightening job market, what is the one thing that job-seekers must do in order to be successful in landing a good job in 2009? Exhaust All Options Tell everyone you know about the type of position you are looking for, network online and at industry events, go on informational interviews, work with a recruiting firm, take on temporary assignments, and be flexible when meeting with prospective employers. When developing your cover letter and resume, quantify the value of your contributions to previous employers, including how you helped cut costs, reduce inefficiencies or improve profitability. There are opportunities available, but job seekers will have to work harder to find them and cannot afford to leave even one sto...

By Mike Krumboltz January 5, 2009 01:22:31 PM 2008 was an interesting year. Few could have predicted that the stock market would tank, Barack Obama would win the presidency, and, most shockingly, Guns 'N Roses would (finally!) release Chinese Democracy. In fact, most of the predictions from 2008 were amazingly wrong. The Buzz is full of articles recapping the worst (i.e., least accurate) predictions from last year. Read 'em and weep... AIG's stock is poised to soar (and other unfortunate predictions). Business Week hosts an article on some of the worst financial predictions from 2008. We know that hindsight is 20/20, but still these are pretty bad. Among the many gems... • The National Association of Realtors declared that "Existing-Home Sales to Trend Up in 2008." Perhaps their graph was upside down? • In July, President Bush said he believed the economy was growing. The opposite turned out to be true, as a recession was already well underway. • A Wall Street ana...

By James Vicini James Vicini – Mon Jan 5, 5:15 pm ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wanted by the FBI: agents, language specialists, computer experts, intelligence analysts and finance experts. The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies. The agency, which seeks to protect the United States from terrorist attack, fight crime and catch spies, among other duties, said it currently has more than 12,800 agents and about 18,400 other employees. Since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI has been criticized for not having enough employees fluent in foreign languages and for not moving fast enough to upgrade its computer system. FBI Assistant Director John Raucci of the Human Resources division said the federal law enforcement agency is seeking to bring more people on board with skills in critical areas, especially language fluency and ...

By Zoe Ruderman Photo: Tamara Schlesinger 1. Quit your job and wait for a dream career opportunity to present itself. Recession shmecession. Reality check: Suck it up and hang on to your gig for now. Appease yourself by taking a class or picking up a hobby that will make your résumé stand out, like learning a foreign language or starting a blog. 2. Lose five pounds. Reality check: Hot chicks like Jessica Biel, Beyoncé, and ScarJo are proof that toned and curvy is the new skinny. 3. Finally win back your ex-boyfriend. Reality check: Move on. We give you permission to engage in some rebound relationship therapy. 4. Buy into all the latest trends. Reality check: It’s okay to be a slave to fashion...just be a slave to cheap fashion, rather than dropping serious bank on each and every look. Kick yourself later for wearing it, but don’t kick yourself for blowing your paycheck on it. 5. Change your man. Reality check: While some relationship tweaking is to be expected (hey, few guys are natur...