UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, sold its stake in Bank of China Ltd. to raise cash as a three-year lockup period ended. Zurich-based UBS said in a statement that it sold 3.4 billion H-shares to professional investors. UBS earned a profit of approximately $400 million from the sale today, said a person familiar with the terms, who declined to be identified. The bank “remains committed to its business relationship with Bank of China and to its business in China as a whole,” it said in the statement. “It’s a normal action” by UBS after the lock-up period expired, said Wang Zhaowen, Bank of China’s Beijing-based spokesman. The sale “shouldn’t affect the bank’s share price since all its operations are doing well.” UBS, which was handed a $59.2 billion aid package by the Swiss government and central bank this year. It agreed to sell its agricultural and Canadian energy- commodities units to JPMorgan Chase & Co. this month.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJK9z9Tqx.Vw&refer=home

New on LLRX.com: Deep Web Research 2009
Deep Web Research 2009: Marcus P. Zillman's guide includes links to: articles, papers, forums, audios and videos, cross database articles, search services and search tools, peer to peer, file sharing, grid/matrix search engines, presentations, resources on deep web research, semantic web research, and hot research resources and sites.

Information technology research and advisory company Gartner says 2008 should be the last Christmas for retail CDs
News release: "The music industry must move away from the retail CD as its primary revenue generator before Christmas 2009, according to Gartner. Gartner said that reliance on revenue from the sale of prerecorded CDs is hindering the music industry from fully embracing online distribution opportunities...Enabling the transition away from retail music CDs toward online distribution is now in sight, given that 77 percent of U.S. households (a total of 96 million connections) will have broadband connections by 2012. Beyond these consumers, the alternative distribution afforded by Wi-Fi-enabled notebooks and rapidly improving media-enabled mobile phones pose opportunities that provide multiple paths for marketing, promotion and distribution outside the consumer’s home."

New on LLRX.com: Neurolaw and Criminal Justice
Neurolaw and Criminal Justice: Ken Strutin's article highlights selected recent publications, news sources and other online materials concerning the applications of cognitive research to criminal law as well as basic information on the science and technology involved.

NASA's Top Science, Exploration and Discovery Stories of 2008
NASA Year in Review 2008: "NASA landed on Mars, photographed distant worlds, added to the International Space Station, took part in a lunar science mission with India and made major progress toward returning astronauts to the moon as the agency celebrated its 50th birthday in 2008. Here on Earth, NASA researchers recorded the continued decline of Arctic sea ice, won awards for aviation breakthroughs, discovered the cause of storms that brighten the Northern Lights and helped create state-of-the-art swimsuits worn by Olympic gold medalists. Here are ten of the top accomplishments of America's space agency in its golden anniversary year."

Census Bureau Projects U.S. Population of 305.5 Million on New Year's Day
News release: "As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2009, total U.S. population will be 305,529,237—up 2,743,429, or 0.9 percent, from New Year’s Day 2008. In January 2009, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds. Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person every 36 seconds to the U.S. population in January 2009, resulting in an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 14 seconds."

The criminal justice system is reeling due to the Madoff scandal. Earlier this month, the JEHT Foundation a major financial supporter of the Innocence Project in Texas, among others announced it would shut its doors in January because its prime donors invested with Madoff. JEHT, according to this Business Week article, is a six-year-old New York City-based philanthropy focused on juvenile and criminal justice, human rights, and election reform.
JEHT provides $125,000 of the Innocence Project’s $200,000 annual budget, the project Chief Counsel Jeff Blackburn recently told the Austin American-Statesman. JEHT also was to provide a grant to help pay for DNA testing in hundreds of cases in Dallas County, where District Attorney Craig Watkins has announced an initiative to use science to find out if inmates have been wrongfully convicted. (See this WSJ profile on Watkins, whom the Dallas Morning News recently named 2008 Texan of the Year.) The Dallas County office got the bulk of that grant—about $400,000—before JEHT closed its doors, so most of the DNA testing can go forward. WSJ Law Blog December 30, 2008

The New York Times ran a front-page story about recession-hit retailers continuing to sweeten their discounts in an effort to off-load inventory. Clearly, these are tough times for shoppers and stores alike. Will certain sale tactics risk consumer lawsuits? One has. Two women, Jennifer Jones and Alicia Sgro, have sued Wal-Mart and others for alleged injuries—including punches to the face from an unknown assailant—that took place during the stampede that preceded Wal-Mart’s Black Friday ‘Blitz’ sale. (Black Friday is that day after Thanksgiving when the holiday shopping season officially kicks off.) Here’s the complaint, via Courthouse News. WSJ Law Blog December 29, 2008

Collective noun supplied by one of our New York readers: a blizzard of tourists
That is what has descended on NYC to take in the holiday sights and celebrate the New Year. One can hardly move down the sidewalk in midtown without tripping over someone who has stopped to take a photo!

In Mexico, people eat one grape with each of the 12 clock chimes at midnight on New Year’s Eve, and make a wish for the coming year. In Venezuela, they wear yellow underwear for a year of good luck. In Japan, people eat soba because long thin noodles symbolize longevity, and at midnight, temple bells ring 108 times, matching the 108 attachments in the mind that need to be purified before the New Year. At midnight in Greece, families cut a cake called a vasilopita, which has a coin baked inside; whoever gets the coin will have a lucky year. The Writer’s Almanac