Archive for January, 2008
Paulson Trying to Prevent “Market Failure”
January 10th, 2008Via: Smart Money: U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday the administration is working to ensure that the subprime mortgage crisis doesn’t lead to a “market failure,” while urging Congress to pass bills to help troubled homeowners refinance their loans. In prepared remarks for a speech to the New York Society of Security Analysts, Paulson […]
Citibank Refusing to Process Firearms Related Credit Card Transactions
January 10th, 2008Via: NSSF: Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp. are refusing to process any credit card transactions between federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers — a move which will severely limit available inventory of firearms and ammunition to military, law enforcement and law-abiding Americans. The first company to be affected by this decision appears […]
What Happened to Polls in New Hampshire?
January 10th, 2008Via: Rasmussen Reports: Hillary Clinton’s victory in New Hampshire was a shock to anyone who followed the pre-election polls. At Rasmussen Reports, our final numbers suggested a 7-point victory for Barack Obama. In the end, Clinton won by three. Other polls also foreshadowed a solid victory for Obama, some projecting a double digit margin. The […]
Out of 19 Industrialized Countries, U.S. Is Dead Last in Healthcare
January 9th, 2008I had to go with the Agence France Presse piece for this news. Via: AFP: France is tops, and the United States dead last, in providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens, according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries. The study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the […]
Nanoantennas Could Collect 80% Solar Energy, Continue to Work at Night
January 9th, 2008Immediately after reading this story, I emailed the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to find out how much money had been allocated to this research. The helpful INL media relations person wrote back: The INL has spent about $4 million to date on the energy management aspects of this project… The INL team […]
Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half
January 9th, 2008Via: Popular Mechanics: Solar energy technology is enjoying its day in the sun with the advent of innovations from flexible photovoltaic (PV) materials to thermal power plants that concentrate the sun’s heat to drive turbines. But even the best system converts only about 30 percent of received solar energy into electricity—making solar more expensive than […]
Housing Outlook Takes a Grim Turn
January 9th, 2008Via: AP: Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, sank to an all-time low Tuesday as a major homebuilder offered a grim outlook for the industry and the Bush administration signaled it is growing more concerned about rising mortgage defaults. KB Home reported a mammoth loss for the fourth quarter and said […]
ACLU Rips Plan to Track Students with RFID
January 9th, 2008Via: Guardian/AP: A tech company with ties to a school district plans to test a tracking system by putting computer chips on grade-schoolers’ backpacks, an experiment the ACLU ripped Monday as invasive and unnecessary. The pilot program set to start next week in the Middletown school district would have about 80 children put tags containing […]
Put Options Lotto on Apple: Request for Technical Analysis Opinions
January 9th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. When Apple (AAPL) was up around $200 recently, I scoffed, chortled and thought, “How f*!@#$% ridiculous that this thing is $200.” I brought up the chart and laughed some more. Almost in disbelief that anyone would be buying AAPL at $200, […]
GOLD $875 FRESH ALL TIME HIGH
January 8th, 2008Too much confetti, not enough exits. Via: Forbes: LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Gold hit a fresh all-time high above 875 usd in early London trade as a rebound in oil prices and further dollar weakness sparked a fresh round of buying. ‘Currencies and oil are the main drivers behind this at the moment,’ said Commerzbank […]
