2006 Savings Rate Negative

Hmm it seems that Americans are spending all of their disposable income plus 1%.

The savings rate is computed by taking the amount of personal income
left after taxes are paid, an amount known as disposable income, and subtracting
the amount of spending. Since the figure has dipped into negative territory, it
means consumers are spending all of disposable income and then some.

For December, the savings rate edged down to a negative 1.2
percent, compared to a negative 1 percent in November. The savings rate has been in negative territory for 21 consecutive months.

I wonder if this savings rate calculation takes into account that some Americans are having their IRAs automatically withdrawn from their paychecks? This automatic withdrawal might not come up in these numbers so boomers won't be left destitute when they retire.

Could the IRS Tax Virtual Gold?

Well it seems that the Republicans are blocking the push though.

The antitax position isn't surprising coming from a solid Republican
like Saxton, but there's more to it than that. His chief economist, Dan Miller,
is a veteran gamer, with hours of World of Warcraft under his belt and the level
41 night-elf priest character to prove it. "We're not approaching this as a
partisan issue," says Miller. "But if there's a new issue, you want to set the
terms of the debate...to make sure that we're talking about this in a sensible
manner, not waiting until it's too late. I don't think it's a good idea to wait
until the IRS has already started writing rules."

When your economist is a Night Elf Priest then you know Saxton knows what he is talking about when it comes to taxing virtual Gold.

Wii does great in Japan

It looks like the Nintendo Wii like a great success at least in the Japanese console wars.

The company sold 3.2 million Wii consoles in November and December,
together with 17.5 million pieces of software, it said today. The console
launched first in the U.S. on November 19 and sales totaled 1.25
million units by the end of the year. In Japan, where it debuted on December 2,
sales were 1.1 million units and in Australia and Europe, where it was on sale
within a week of the Japan launch, sales reached 800,000 units before the year
ended.

Arab's Speak out Against Glenn Beck

I have started listening to this radio commentator about a year ago and it seems he has riled up the Muslim groups. It looks like if you give an opinion contrary to these groups then you need to lose your job. Why don't these groups just boycott Good Morning America?

The groups said that Beck _ who's drawing strong ratings with his
evening show on CNN Headline News _ has stated on his show that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism. During an interview in November with Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, Beck asked him to "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."

8th Century Ship Found

Now this is quite an interesting find in the Mediterranean.

The wreck [image] was found almost a decade ago but only today were details released after a prolonged series of excavations. Using carbon dating techniques, the wreck was dated to the early 8th century, some 1,300 years ago.

It was carrying some pretty interesting trade goods as well. I wonder if this ship was Roman or was it from the people that lived in this area during that time?

Kahanov said it is a rare find given the amount of wood that's been
preserved in the hull. Also found were 30 vessels of pottery of different sizes
and designs containing fish bones, ropes, mats, a bone needle, a wooden spoon,
wood carvings and food remains, mainly carobs and olives.

Motorola Cuts 3500 Jobs

It looks like Motorola is feeling the pain in the high end phone market and they are cutting expenses to compensate

Facing stiffer competition from its rivals' new products, Motorola
aggressively cut prices of its phones during the quarter, especially in emerging
markets, to gain market share but at the expense of profit margins. Executives
also acknowledged misjudging some markets and, as Zander put it, making wrong assumptions about how many products would sell at what price.

I think they just need a solid followup to the RAZR to compete in the high end phone market again. I mean they should still have the same design pros that came up with the RAZR on staff so they could probably do the trick. I think there is much more innovation and elegant design at Motorola then in their competitors. I think this will translate into higher margins in the long run. Of all the people that could create something to compete with the IPhone in the high end market MOT would be the one to do it.

LG Comes Out with Touch Phone

It seems that the big cell phone companies aren't waiting around to go after the IPhone.

The new phone has no traditional keypad but instead sports what LG
terms "the world's first advanced touch interface". This is said to make he
overall user experience a highly tactile one. It's a new design, said to be the
result of fashion legend Miuccia Prada, in charge of the
eponymous luxury goods producer, and LG.

The PRADA (KG850) looks like a black, Lucite covered, brick though. And this has to be one of the dorkiest looking displays I have ever seen on a consumer electronics product. It looks like something that should retail for $20 in the toy section and not something that can compete with the Iphone's elegant design. I think LG needs to hire some design gurus from Japan or something to make their products look less generic.

McDonalds Opens First Drive Through in China

This should be a nice growth driver for McDonalds Chinese operations.

The Beijing drive-through is the first in McDonald's venture with China
Petroleum and Chemical Corp., which McDonald's China CEO Jeffrey Schwartz said would open 25 to 30 more in the next 12 to 18 months. Both gas stations and
drive-throughs are booming as car purchases by newly affluent drivers speed
China's change from a bicycle culture to a car culture

I think there is some Jay Leno joke waiting to happen with them teaming up with Sinopec to do this. Something about them needing an oil company so they can get enough oil to fry their McNuggets.

Netflix Rolls Out Video on Demand Service

It seems that Netflix is starting the long migration to digital downloads.

The Los Gatos-based company plans to unveil the new "Watch Now" feature
Tuesday, but only a small number of its more than 6 million subscribers will get
immediate access to the service, which is being offered at no additional
charge.

It seems like this would bode well for the stock but not so fast. They have gone from a 2 horse race between them and Blockbuster to a very crowded field:

Online movie delivery already is available through services like CinemaNow,
MovieFlix, Movielink, Vongo and Amazon.com Inc.'s recently launched Unbox. Apple Inc. also is emerging as major player, with hundreds of movies and TV shows on sale at its iTunes store and a new device that promises to transport media from a computer to a TV screen.

Unless Netflix can rise above the others and become the king of digital downloads they will probably go the way of the dodo. I would still rather get a DVD from the mail and put it into my DVD player at the present time. It is much better then waiting forever to download the thing and then having to move it to my TV through the purchase of some other $300 piece of hardware. I guess that attitude may be old fashioned in a few short years.

Great Article on Using RSI to pick Stocks

Now this is a very good article on Tradingmarkets.com about using a 2 period RSI (Relative Strength Index ) to pick stocks. And this is quite a sample size that they are using as well:

We looked at over seven million trades from 1/1/95 to 6/30/06. The
table below shows the average percentage gain/loss for all stocks during our
test period over a 1-day, 2-day, and 1-week (5-days) period. These numbers
represent the benchmark which we use for comparisons.

I certainly like when the 2 period RSI is 1 or less. A 1 day return is (+0.27,) 2 days (+0.62%,) and 1-week later (+1.05%) I am going to add this to my list of things to check on for a stock. It will certainly help time an entry point. They even have some trading strategies based around this aspect of the 2 period RSI as well:

This research we're presenting here is just the tip of the iceberg
using the 2-period RSI. For example, greater results can be found by looking for
multiple day readings under 10, 5 or 2. And, even greater results can be
achieved by combining the readings with other factors such as buying a low level
RSI stock if it trades 1-3% lower intraday. As time passes we'll share some of
these research findings, along with handful of trading strategies with
you.

The IPhone Suppliers: another way to play the gadget

Well it looks like the periphery companies that might be making IPhone parts are seeing a little lift in these past few trading days.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Craig Berger in a client note said
Broadcom Corp. is rumored to supply the touch screen controller chip for the
iPhone, which could add 2 cents to 7 cents per share to 2007 earnings. The
company could also be providing the AlphaMosaic video processor for the new
gadget, as it does for current iPods, but is not probably not providing the
item's Bluetooth enabler, added Berger.

However, Broadcom has sold off 2.8% today after it went up 4% yesterday. Maybe the big boys are running the stock down in order to buy back heavy. Or it could just be some profit taking now that analysts have run the numbers and aren't flying blind. I found this interesting though:

The analyst noted many people believe Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
is supplying the iPhone Wi-Fi chip. Sales related to the device could boost
Marvell's 2007 earnings by 2 cents per share, or $36 million in sales, he
added. Marvell shares added $1.05, or 5.3 percent, to $20.78 on the
Nasdaq.

I wonder if that Wi-Fi chip will let the IPhone share music and files through a short range ad hoc type network? It would be kind of like the Zune's Share-through-the-air feature but with a phone attached. The IPhone could actually be that true digital convergence device combining all of a persons multi-media apps in one easy to access place.

It certainly would be a whole new way of selling lots of videos, music, ringtones, games, etc. through that Ipod store at a buck a toss. If this is the case then Apple at $110+ a share might be in order.

Cisco Sues Apple over IPhone

Hmm it seems that Cisco had the IPhone name already trademarked and were in negotiations that Apple had backed out of.

Cisco said Apple had approached the
company a number of times over the past few years about a licensing agreement to use the name, and that the talks heated up in the past few weeks.

However, Cisco said communication between the companies ceased Monday, and even while Jobs was holding court at the Macworld Conference and Expo, Apple
lawyers had not signed and returned the final contract.

I wonder if this lawsuit will get as heated as the ones that went after Microsoft a while back? War of the Tech Titans is just the kind of thing that the business media eats up.

Scorpions on a Plane!

Now this is an interesting story. How did this scorpion get onto the plane? Maybe they are storing these planes in the desert or something when they are not in use or in maintenence.

"It felt like a shock, a tingly thing. Someone screamed, 'It's a
scorpion,'" Sullivan recalled. Another passenger stepped on the two-inch
arachnid, and someone suggested Sullivan seek medical help.

He scooped up the scorpion and headed to the hospital in
Burlington. His wife stopped at the United counter and was told the plane they
were on had flown from Houston to Chicago. The Sullivans surmised the scorpion
boarded in Texas.

The bad part is that this isn't even the first time it has happened:

Such incidents are not unheard of. An American Airlines flight was
delayed for an hour in Toronto on Sunday after a passenger was stung by a
scorpion that had made its way on board. Paramedics treated the man when the
flight from Miami landed. The delay came when officials searched the aircraft to
ensure no other critters had stowed away.

O'Reilly to be on Colbert Report

Now this is going to be a fun show! The show is going to take place on January 18th. Now this is a classic Colbert line:

"I look forward to the evening," Colbert said. "It is an honor to speak
face-to-face with a broadcasting legend, and I feel the same way about Mr.
O'Reilly."

Apple Unvails IPhone

It seems like an interesting new direction for the what will be now known as Apple Inc. and not Apple Computers. I wonder if they are going to change the equasion when it comes to seasoned competition like Motorola, Nokia, and RIMMs Blackberry? It certainly is expensive though:

The iPhone, which starts at $499, is controlled by touch, plays music,
surfs the Internet and runs the Macintosh computer operating system. Jobs said
it will "reinvent" the telecommunications sector and "leapfrog" past the current
generation of hard-to-use smart phones

It does look cool to me. It is nice and thin and has a pretty big screen. It looks very high tech and elegant like you would expect from Apple. However I wouldn't buy the thing when it costs the same as a low end PC. I'll wait until the early adopters get their hands on it before I'll make any final judgement calls. Also you would have to switch to Cingular if you want a crack at it in the first place.

Somali Escalation

It looks like we are widening the war on terror a bit. I wonder if the Dems are going to jump all over him for this action?

Witnesses said 31 civilians, including two newlyweds, died in the
assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in an area of forested hills
close to the Kenyan border 220 miles southwest of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
The report could not be independently verified.

A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as
American, but the local witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make
out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no
comment.

College Coaching is Far Better Then Pros

At least according to this columnist. This is the statement that I agree with the most.

We have written this before: Fans should remember that a very good
college job tends to be a better overall job than most NFL positions.

I agree with this 100%. Now that Bama is giving someone like Saban the big money to coach in college, there is no real reason to be a pro coach anymore. First of all they have to work 20 hour days to out think their opponent. Then they don't get much of an off season because they have to go to the Combine, NFL draft, etc. He has to constantly think about salary cap issues or which player is in jail this week. He is pretty much a slave to football and winning for the majority of the year. In times past these were the reasons why Pro coaches made the big bucks. Now that Alabama is dishing out the big checks what incentive do pro coaches have to deal with all the aggravation, stress, and the destruction of family life that comes with coaching in the pros?

This push to either make the playoffs (and do better if you are already a playoff team) or get fired is why I keep thinking many coaches are better off coaching in college. When I see a talented coach like Jim Mora pretty much get the axe because he was forced to stick with Michael Vick even though he isn't a passer (and will never be a passer) it makes me ill. Teams just loaded up and made Vick beat them with his arm instead of his feet. How can you win if you are forced into a corner like that?

Then you have an owner like Blank breathing down your neck and hanging around on the sidelines. I mean what does Blank care? He can't lose money on the team no matter what he does because the NFL has profit sharing. I think Mora is much better off coaching the Washington Huskies. He has all the time in the world to build that school back into a national power again. In fact he may even get the chance to stay there for 30 years if he wants to. He has the opportunity to become a legend.

That is why good coaches like Pete Carroll should stay in college and get the money, the recognition, and the fame without having to please some insane owner. I mean even winning a Super Bowl isn't enough for some owners. It looks like they are going to force out Cowher just a year after winning the big game. This is also after a decade of faithful service. You don't see people trying to force out the Longhorns' Mack Brown after Texas loses a few games and misses the BCS. I mean Cowher was forced to stick with an idiot QB that injured himself in a motorcycle accident, who threw a ton of picks, and was generally ineffective. He still was almost able to take the Steelers to the playoffs. Thanks for winning a Super Bowl coach, here's your pink slip.

That "win now or your fired" attitude is what I hate about the Pros. You can never have a coaching legend like Bear Bryant in the Pros because he would go 8-8 after winning 2 national championships back to back and then get fired. There is no sense of loyalty when you can't even stick with a guy that was able to win it all for you just a year after he does it. Oh well, the Pros loss is colleges gain.

UFO Spotted Over O'Hare Airport

Now this is pretty strange to be national news. This is usually relegated to the Fortean Times type of magazines but this is an actual AP news item.

Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather
phenomenon, but a group of United Airline employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport last fall.

The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn't have lights
and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds,
according to a report in Monday's Chicago Tribune.

December Madness at What If Sports is Awesome!

Now this would be some awesome games with a 16 team playoff instead of an 8 team field. Some of the first round games they have may be different if the games were actually played. I agree with Ohio State smashing Troy State but I can see Florida losing a close one to Central Michigan. They might be looking ahead to that Oklahoma game and get shocked by the Bulls.

That elite 8 they pick though would be one football feast! We have Ohio State/Auburn, LSU/USC, Michigan/Louisville, and Oklahoma/Florida. Every one of those games will be a barn burner and no sports picker will be safe. I would pay good money to watch Michigan's insane defence verses Louisvilles massive offence.

I think the top teams would like Bowden's 8 team playoff system a little better. If they follow that format they could dodge the potential for a Central Michigan to shock the world. However what red-blooded football fan in America would not be rooting for the 16 seed to knock off Ohio State and throw the whole mess in the hopper?

I think it is just a matter of time before the NCAA wises up and goes to a playoff system. They get to keep the Bowls but now they would make 15 of them actually count toward the national championship. Also Ohio State would have to knock off Troy State, Auburn, LSU, and Michigan for the 2nd time to win it all. If they do all that, then they will truely deserve to be called National Champion.

More on Ford's Athletic Skills

Ford was quite a football player at Michigan:

Ford, who has died at age 93, played center on the University of Michigan football team, where he was a three-year letter winner. His teams enjoyed consecutive undefeated, national championship seasons in 1932 and 1933. He was the Wolverines' most valuable player in 1934 and, on Jan. 1, 1935, he played in a college all-star game known today as the East West Shrine Game.

I didn't know he could have gone pro and could have played for either Detroit or Green Bay but decided to go to Yale law school instead. He also played both ways at Michigan at both Center and Linebacker.

Speaking of IPod Sales

They seem pretty robust at least at Amazon.

Top sellers in Consumer Electronics include Apple iPods (various),
Canon Powershot Digital Elph Cameras and Garmin GPS Systems.

It is interesting to note that Amazon also sold 1000 Xbox 360s in 29 seconds as well. Notice that this doesn't say PS3 or Wii here. I wonder if this shortage is going to affect them in installed base. I know that if I had a so-called "shittin kid" that wanted a PS3 for Christmas I would buy them a XBox 360 because it is basically the same thing. I mean almost all of the games are cross platform anyway.

I just want the PS3 for the Blu-Ray player installed in it. I will probably use it to watch Blu-Ray DVDs more then play games on it anyway. The fact is I can wait until they are everywhere before I go out and spend the bucks on it.

Apple falls on "Falsifying Data" Claim

As long as the CEO isn't indicted or something this may be a good buying opportunity for APPL shares.

Apple shares fell $3.37, or 4.2 percent, to $78.14, in morning trade on Nasdaq. It was the biggest one-day drop
since July. Earlier they traded as low as $76.77.

"Any time you get the stock options probe mentioned, especially
with rumors of falsifying documents, the hot money tends to shoot first and ask
questions later," said Tim Biggam, options strategist at Man
Securities, an options brokerage firm in Chicago.

I hope there is more bad news that comes out of this options probe so it will drive the shares down even lower. One of my biggest winners came from buying Citigroup after they were plagued by a scandal. As long as the company doesn't go bankrupt due to fighting the SEC then scandal time is the best time to buy a stock. However, if IPod sales are light this holiday this stock will really get pounded. Either way it may be a good Straddle Opportunity.

Russians Make Wild Claim on Litvinenko murder

How is an oil tycoon living in Israel supposed to get Polonium 210? I guess he whipped it up in a homemade nuclear generator in his basement or something. I still think the KGB should have just killed him in a random "mugging gone bad" or or just sent Red Grant with a garrote to kill him when he was alone in his house. Instead they had to get all fancy. Oh well I guess they are going to tap dance this thing forever until Putin is out of office.

"A version is being looked at that those who ordered these crimes could be
the same people who are on an international wanted list for serious and very
serious crimes, one of whom is ... Leonid Nevzlin," the prosecutor-general's
office said in a statement.

Gerald Ford Dies.

It looks like Gerald Ford has finally passed away after a long illness. He seemed to be one of the funnier presidents who seems to have taken one too many hits to the head in the leather helmet era of football. I hope the Michigan Wolverines do something nice for him like put his number on their helmets or something. He was even immortalized on the Simpsons for liking Nachos and Beer. He seemed like a pretty good guy who just happened to be President.

Dem Machine Goes after Obama Already?

And there is still 2 years to go before the election. Hillary plays for keeps, and I think Obama stands in her way, so he is going to get squashed by any means necessary. This is just the first salvo in this long war. And they say Rove is a ruthless bastard.

Rezko has pleaded not guilty to charges he plotted to squeeze millions
of dollars in kickbacks out of investment firms seeking state business. He also
has pleaded not guilty to obtaining a $10.5 million loan from GE Capital through
fraud and swindling a group of investors.

Rezko's wife bought a vacant lot next door to Obama on the same day
last year that Obama and his wife, Michelle, closed on their home, according to
published reports last fall. In January, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for part of
the lot to balance the space between his house and the fence.

Letters From Iwo Jima doing well in Japan

It seems like this movie is really affecting people in Japan.

About halfway through a showing of "Letters From Iwo Jima" - Clint
Eastwood's epic about Japan's futile stand during the World War II battle - a
30-something Japanese salaryman takes off his glasses to wipe
away the tears from his eyes. He does this several times during the movie, the
first time after a young American soldier dies.

It is odd that Clint Eastwood, a non-Japanese guy, is putting humanity into the portrayal of Japanese soldiers. I would think that Japanese filmmakers would be doing this for years but not according to this article. In fact the last Japanese movie about Iwo Jima was made in 1972. I guess all that emphasis on ignoring what happened in WW2 is why there are not so many war movies made in Japan.

In the US WW2 is about as popular as ever before with hundreds of video games, series, and movies being made about it. I guess Abe (with some help from Dirty Harry) is out to change that by making it cool to be patriotic again.

Turkmenbashi is Dead Long Live the Next Guy!

Saparmurat Niyazov the nutty leader of Turkmenistan is finally dead after 21 years of rule. this is quite significant because that country contains the third largest amount of natural gas in the world and is pretty much unexplored. These are some of this guys weird acts:

A massive golden statue of a leader known as Turkmenbashi rotates to
face the sun in the capital Ashgabat, just one of many ostentatious gestures
towards his own self-regard. All children must learn a book he wrote, weaving
medieval fantasy tales with his philosophy of life.

In perhaps his most notorious gesture, the book was blasted into
space in a Russian rocket and then burned up on re-entry over the Earth, so that
the Turkmen people could look up at the skies and think of their leader's
writings for inspiration, rather than the stars.

Yup they paid money to blast a book into space and have it burn up so he can have their eyes on him instead of the stars. In other words he was trying to outdo the stars. He sounds like Dr. Doom.

Red Wine May Prevent Obesity

Hmm this seems like just the thing for all those winos out there.

The researchers further discovered that resveratrol activates a Sirtuin
protein located in the mitochondrion organelle, which is responsible for energy
production, Nutraingredients.com reported. This activated protein in turn
stimulates the activity of another protein involved in mitochondrial
functions.

The enhanced mitochondrial activity led to increased
energy production, which may result in a reduction of weight gain, the
researchers were cited as surmising by Nutraingredients.com.

Bush to Outflank on Minimum Wage Hike

It seems like Bush is pretty good at taking the fight to the opposing team. It seems like the Dems winning winning the Congress was just the smelling salts this Admin. needed.

Bush said he supports a $2.10 raise for minimum-wage earners, but over
a two-year period instead of three, and added that "we should do it in a way
that does not punish" small businesses.

"I support pairing it with targeted tax and regulatory relief, to
help these small businesses stay competitive and to help keep our economy
growing," he said.

This is a great piece of outflanking since he puts the Dems on the defence again. He says you get what you want and at a faster pace but you have to accept this round of tax cuts for small businesses. So if the Dems nix the thing then they look bad because the Repubs. can portray them as anti-small business as well as not taking "yes" for an answer. Very shrewd move.

It Costs $12 Billion to Run Santas Workshop?

Now this is a neat breakdown of Santas expenses. This line I though was pretty interesting:

Elves, the backbone of the entire enterprise, make about $14.50 an
hour. Benefits at the nonprofit operation match the average at about 40% of
payroll, bringing total elf compensation to $4,228,432.

Workshop operations also required temporary help from Kelly
Services, whose elves-for-hire pitch in during the last two months when
telephone hotlines start buzzing and the mailroom overflows with children's
letters. The extra elfpower comes to $116,970, including data-entry clerks hired
at $14.65 an hour and mailroom clerks hired at $13.20 an hour.

I think these elves are going to unionize after they find out that seasonal temp staff makes more then them. I mean these elves are supposedly highly trained manufacturing workers that in years past have built the toys from scratch. They also have to work in arctic conditions at the North Pole and probably can't leave the area or they freeze to death.

Maybe their low pay reflects globalization since the majority of toys are probably made in China. The days when an elf can make a toy train out of wood or something have gone the way of the buggy whip. Now that same train is made from injection molded plastic in a Chinese manufacturing plant and then shipped to the North Pole. The elves now simply unload the pallets and then take the toys and load up Santa's Sleigh for Dec 24.

Perhaps if the elves unionized they would make the same as dock workers in the US which is $19.94 per hour and increases by $1 per hour after accumulating 1,000 hours. I wonder if Santa would be a cruel union breaker and keep his elves from making that extra $5.44 per hour by any means necessary.

I guess the elves are lucky since Santa could go to a Japanese automaker model where he has the toys made in the target country (or shipped there) and then warehouse them for that Dec. 24th delivery. That way he would only need tech guys and data entry clerks to update his Naughty/Nice Database and sleigh and reindeer maintenance engineers in his Arctic Lair. Santa could then cut his entire elf staff and reduce delivery time and cost.

"You" Media Goes to the Next Level

It seems a British Magazine is going to fill its entire issue from MySpace.

Reports from the United Kingdom find Marmalade magazine sending out an
open call for content to flesh out its March issue, cover to cover. The monthly
read, with an estimated 30,000 subscribers, is accepting submissions through its
MySpace page and scouring through the site to recruit talent.

It doesn't say anything about paying for that talent though. It would seem that most of the stuff you would get off of MySpace would probably be pretty crappy. There might be some gems. However judging from most MySpace pages I have seen it will probably be lots of shots of guys and girls holding up liquor.

Gifts that Give Back

Here is a list of gifts that help people other then the person that gets the gift. I thought these two gifts were kind of funny:

Adopt an animal from the World Wildlife Fund and help your friends save their favorite animals. Plus, they get a card, stuffed animal, or other gifts as acknowledgement.

I'm pretty sure noone is going to adopt one of those weird, ugly creatures. There will be alot of adopting of baby seals or kittens but not too many razorbacked boars or Praying Mantis adoptions.

No child could possibly resist a horse tire swing, and you'll feel good
knowing it's made of recycled tires. That's just one clever find from Joe
Lazarus of the Yahoo! Shopping team

I could resist getting poked by the steel belted pieces that lie inside some tires. I remember swinging on those things when I was a kid and getting poked all the time by those little bits of wire. I guess they need to donate gently used tires and not those that are falling apart.

Funny Bush Photo

Hmm this Baby must be a Blue Stater. By the way Reuters has all sorts of funny pictures here.

Retail Sales up Big for November

This seems pretty good for a person that is overweight retailers right now.

Retail sales surged in the important holiday shopping month of November
as shoppers flocked to malls in search of juicy deals on toys, electronics and
other popular gift items.

The Commerce Department said retail sales jumped a much stronger
than expected 1 percent last month, compared with a revised 0.1 percent decline
in October. The government had originally reported a 0.4 percent decline for
October.

It seems that gas prices dipped at exactly the right time to get everyone into the malls. I wonder what January sales will be like so we can see how many gift cards are being redeemed. This year I vow to use every gift card I have been given and not let them sit and gather dust.

More on "Tommy Hilfiger is a Racist"

This is a pretty good rundown debunking the rumor that Tommy Hilfiger said that his clothes aren't for poor blacks. Oprah even had to come on her show and deny the rumor in person. This is a really interesting example of an internet rumor that blows up and becomes an urban legend.

Virgin Mobile USA and American Eagle Outfitters Helps Homeless Kids

This seems like a pretty good program that helps homeless teens.

Virgin Mobile has introduced "Txt2Clothe," allowing anyone to donate
clothing to homeless teens via his or her cell phone, regardless of carrier.
Specifically, anyone who texts the word "KARMA" to mobile number 68405 will
trigger Virgin Mobile to have one piece of clothing given to a homeless teen.
American Eagle Outfitters is the first apparel company to step up and partner
with Virgin Mobile by making a specific contribution of clothing to this
program.

You notice Abercrombie & Fitch isn't following suit on this program. Maybe they think that their clothes don't belong on homeless teens but only on affluent ones. Perhaps they think it will "cheapen the brand" or something like that. Kind of like how Tommy Hilfiger was thought to have said that his clothes aren't for black people. Or it was just the case of noone asking ANF if they wanted to get in on this pretty easy to do tax writeoff.

Ahmadinejad Pops Off About Israel Again

I think he just wants to get his country nuked saying stuff like this:

"Thanks to people's wishes and God's will the trend for the existence
of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what
all nations want," he said.

"Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist,
so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out," he added.

Um, all nations don't want an end to the Zionist Regime Ah"MAD"inejad. Maybe just your little cabal of Holocaust deniers and Mullah crackpots. And they want to be responsible wielders of nuclear weapons?

Olmert Spills the Nuclear Beans

Now this is a real slip up but probably designed as a direct threat to Iran.

In a German television interview broadcast on Monday as he began his
first official visit to Berlin, Olmert said: "Iran, openly, explicitly and
publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same
level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France,
Israel, Russia?"

I think this is a little nod to Israel having an arsenal and willing to use it to smack down any Middle Eastern power that is willing to challenge them. Especially if that power wants to wipe them off of the map. If the UN fails on this one I would be willing to bet there will be mushroom clouds rising up all over Iran.

What Me Worry?

Bush sure has a knack for looking like a doof:

Merry Christmas Is Back

It looks like another big win for the anti-Happy Holidays crowd.

The majority of Americans surveyed - 95 percent - said they were not
offended by a "Merry Christmas" greeting in stores, according to a poll by Zogby
International.

However, 32 percent of respondents said they took offense at "Happy
Holidays," the religiously neutral alternative promoted over the last few years
as inclusive and inoffensive.

Not only are people not offended by Merry Christmas but they actually took offense at the term Happy Holidays. I think these far left secularists who keep pushing their atheist agenda are way off base. They need to know that this holiday rose out of Judeo-Christian beliefs and separating the holiday from its roots is just not going to work. These people need to know that they are the fringe group and the vast majority of Americans are not listening to them and are offended by what they are trying to do.

First Litvinenko now Kovtun?

It looks like the Russians might be knocking their critics off one by one.

Dmitry Kovtun, a contact of dead Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, is in
critical condition in hospital from radiation poisoning, Interfax news agency
quoted an unnamed source as saying on Thursday.

It also doesn't pay to talk to investigators into Litvinenko as well.

Interfax also reported that Kovtun fell into a coma after British and
Russian investigators working on the Litvinenko case had finished questioning
him in a Moscow hospital. However, it gave no source for the information on a
coma.

I keep getting a picture in my head of Rosa Klebb firing a hidden polonium 210 bullet into Litvinenko from her shoe while doing the bidding of SMERSH.

Wii has Faulty Strap

It seems that the strap on the Nintendo Wii breaks off sometimes when you swing it around.

"We are investigating," Iwata said of reports about the Wii's strap
coming off as players swung around the controller, at times causing the remote
to fly out of their hands.

Players use the Wii remote like a tennis racket, sword and other
devices to play games.

"Some people are getting a lot more excited than we'd expected,"
Iwata said. "We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a
new form of entertainment."

That would be just my luck. One vigourous swing of the controller and it slips out of my hand and breaks my TV.

Blockbuster Desperate

Now Blockbuster is really getting desperate with their tactics.

From Dec. 5 through Dec. 21, folks bearing the Netflix tear-off sheets can
go into Blockbuster and get a free movie rental. They will have to sign up for a
free Blockbuster membership. And of course, what does the customer care if he or
she is signing up for a free account? Increasing membership this way doesn't
necessarily translate into revenues for Blockbuster.

I'm waiting for Blockbuster to offer some kind of free DVDs or coupons or something to switch over. They need to make it worth my while to go through all the trouble of cancelling my Netflix and switching over to Blockbuster Total Access. I still hate driving over to the video store so they have to make it better then walking to the mailbox to get my movies.

Russell Simmons Gives Back to Africans

Now this is a good deal from a Hip-Hop Mogul.

The 49-year-old entrepreneur announced his "Green Initiative" jewelry,
which is manufactured and designed by Simmons Jewelry Co. Twenty-five
percent of proceeds from sales will go toward the Diamond Empowerment Fund,
which will support institutions, like schools and colleges, in South Africa and
Botswana and help boost economic development.

I feel Africans really need the money and concern much more then blacks in the US. I mean many Africans live in some of the worst conditions in the world and the black community in the US doesn't seem to care. There are more activists speaking out about Kramer shouting racial slurs in a comedy club then about blacks being murdered every day in Darfur. Maybe fighting a racist Kramer here at home is more important to them then fighting Umar Hassan al-Bashir (the Sudanesse head of state) on some other continent.

Wii vs. PS3: Motley Fools Take Off Base

I think this article by Motley Fool is off the mark from what I see. This is the passage that I take issue with:

This market clearly represents a huge opportunity for Nintendo, but it also
poses a dilemma for Sony. As Christensen accurately explained in his first book,
The Innovator's Dilemma, Sony must now figure out how to create products for
this new "nonconsumption" market of first-time gamers.

I agree that this "nonconsumption market" will be big for Nintendo but only at the very beginning. Mark my words it is going to wane before too long. Nongamers don't become gamers for the most part. What I mean by gamer is one that buys multiple games per year (or sometimes per month.) A nongamer will buy a few games at first but eventually forget about the system once they get tired of it. They might go out and buy a new game later on based on word of mouth or media reports but they can't sustain the system for a number of years. More then likely the nongamers' Wiis will be collecting dust by this time next year. It might be possible to turn these nongamers into gamers but the numbers will be too small to sustain the console throughout its life. So Sony could safely ignore this fickle market and focus on the true cash cows of the industry, the gamer.

Nintendo however could keep up with the PS3 if they serve up enough exclusive fare that will make the gamer crowd stick with them instead of Sony. That means they need to crank out the Metroids, Zeldas, Mega Mans, Mario games and make them compelling for both crowds. It would be a tough balancing act because a Metroid made for the nongamer crowd will make for a lot of angry gamers. Or they need to crank out enough nongamer titles and make them compelling enough for the these people to dust off their Wiis several times a year. If Nintendo can manufacture a Sims type of game (big seller with sustainable sequels/addons) that is exclusive to their console then they will move into the top console spot.

Lindsay Lohan in AA

At least she is admitting that she has a problem. I have to give her a load of respect for at least knowing that partying to much isn't the right thing for her even though she is still young. This is the kind of thing that would make me angry if I had to read it as well:

A sad Lohan wrote the rambling letter "on the fly" on her Blackberry,
Sloane said.

The letter, in which Lohan signs off with "BE ADEQUITE," has been
criticized by a number of media observers for its grammatical errors and
misspellings, among other things — including exploiting Altman's death for her
own publicity purposes.

Patt Morrison, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, derided it on
The Huffington Post Web site as "alarmingly incoherent" and said Altman might
find it "comedic."

So pretty much everything that she does is scrutinized in the media. Even when she writes a sad message about a legendary director's passing she is ripped apart by the press. She really can't do anything right in their eyes. I saw an interview with her on Leno and she was really prickly about how thetabloidss and press see her. I see that things like this are the reasons why.

Casino Royal Movie Review

My review of Casino Royal is up on my Personal Blog.

Neolithic Tsunami had 130 Foot Waves

Now this thing sounds almost like something out of a movie.

Their recreation suggests the tsunami's waves reached heights of up to 130 feet and maximum speeds of up to 450 mph, making it more powerful than the Indonesian tsunami that killed more than 180,000 people in 2004.

It was caused by 6 cubic miles of rock falling into the sea from Mt. Etna.

Funny PS3 Listing

Even thought this article from Motley Fool is kind of old it is still pretty funny. Here are the Top 10 PS3 Complaints:

Top 10 complaints from PlayStation 3 shoppers

10. "Where are all the chicks?"

9. Didn't grasp the irony of having to sell the television to afford the PS3.

8. Awesome Tekken fighting skills not applicable to beating back crowds.

7. "Dude, put on some deodorant!"

6. Two days in line destroyed the pasty white pallor so carefully cultivated by two years of basement gaming.

5. Uber-nerd Anders Bylund humiliated lesser nerds with his extensive knowledge of PS3 components.

4. "Once in the store I said I had to 'wee,' and they gave me the Nintendo Wii."

3. "I can't wait to go home, plug it in, and see it blow up in flames like some of the other fine Sony products lately."

2. Those darned eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) listing fees.

1. "Actual girlfriend" accessory is not available at launch.

November Good Month for Specialty Retailers

It seems that Wal-Mart's pain might be American Eagle/Limited Brands/Coach's gains.

UBS Investment Research also forecast strong sales from American Eagle
and Limited Brands.

"We are expecting robust (same-store sales) from American
Eagle due to trend-right merchandise, lifestyle branding, new holiday floor set,
and Black Friday offers on fleece and dorm wear," UBS analyst Meredith Love Kent wrote in a client note.

"Also possible upside from Limited, as there were compelling gifts
with purchases at Victoria's Secret, and Bath & Body Works offered a variety
of Black Friday promotions" such as discounted gift items and hand soaps, Kent
wrote.

Real World: University Edition?

It sure would be interesting if MTV would stop making Real Worlds set in some debauched world of heavy drinking, partying, and serial hooking up and class things up a notch. They can make it "5 strangers picked to live in a dorm and have their lives taped etc." They can have all of the people be A-personality college students full of world beating attitudes and showing some actual smarts.

It would be cool to set it in different colleges and show how college life is like in each place. They can have one season set in an Ivy League college, while another is set in Michigan or Ohio, while still another is set at South Carolina, or Alabama. They follow the kids as they are away from home for the first time and get homesick etc. I would also put people of different cultures, political backgrounds, religions in that dorm together. They can all question each others beliefs and get in each others faces to make the drama come out.

MTV did try this with a show about Sororities but make this one with the full Real World treatment. Make sure they follow the kids on spring break also so we can get the usual helping of T&A that MTV seems to pride themselves on.

Maybe it would be a bad idea knowing how much people tried to mess up previous Real World tapings. Seattle went all out to ruin the show as best they could. Plus, I remember there were all kinds of fights and arrests in the Boston show. I think some college kids would go crazy trying to pick fights with the Real World people and mess up the show.

Oh well, I would just like to see some go-getters who are smart and together on the Real World and not a bunch of drunks that the show usually focuses on.

Real World: Denver Sounds Pretty Nuts

Now this is a pretty thorough review of Real World: Denver.

here's how to summarize it in a nutshell: like Vegas, except less
cerebral. Yes, it was an action-filled premiere, or at least, the last ten
minutes were.

And this is what happened in the last 10 minutes:

It was all going swimmingly until Jenn suddenly had a crisis of
conscience. She realized she was having sex! With the guy that Colie liked! And
if she continued, Colie would get hurt! She liked Colie too much to do that to
her. But then again, she also like Alex too. What would Jenn do???

Remember this all happened in the first show in what looks like a few hours/days of meeting one another. This season sounds like a real winner in the making. I guess if viewers keep watching this drek MTV will keep shoveling it. I wonder what sad-assed service project they will fail miserably at doing this season?

Litvinenko Fingers Putin as his Killer

Wow this thing is quickly heating up. It seems the Putin critic was poisoned with polonium-210 and not Thallium as some people believed. This is what Litvinenko had to say about Putin:

He accused Putin of having "no respect for life, liberty or any
civilized value."

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price.
You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile
critics have claimed," the statement said.

"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from
around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your
life."

Speaking of Scarlett Johansson

It's her Birthday today according to this. She is 22 now so that means she is a *little* closer to my age. :P Here is a really nice pic of her that I found on the internet. She doesn't even look like a starlet here at all. She looks just like any cute girl you might see on the street.

Rosie Outs Clay Aiken

Clays gay and ugly according to Rosie O'Donnell of the View. As if this was news to anyone though. I have to kind of agree with her in principal though. If it was Hugh Jackman or someone like that I don't think Ripa would have pulled his hand away like that. Hell, I would let Scarlett Johansson cover my mouth any day of the week. However I wouldn't let Rosie within a 100 foot radius of my person for any reason at all. The cute factor is a bigger deal then one may think.

O'Donnell said Tuesday on "The View": "If that was a straight man, if
that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn't question his sexuality,
she would have said a different thing."
Ripa said O'Donnell misunderstood her
remark.

"He's shaking hands with everybody in the audience. I mean, it's
cold and flu season. That's what I meant," she said. "And to imply that it's
anything homophobic is outrageous, Rosie, and you know better."

"I understand cold and flu season," O'Donnell replied. "I'm just
saying from where I sit as a gay person in the world, I have to tell you, that's
how it came off to me."

Aiken has been the target of speculation about his sexuality.
Tabloid reports earlier this year suggested he had a gay affair. Aiken has never
directly addressed the rumors.

Moscow Crackdown

It shows how little I pay attention to some things that are going on in England when this little tidbit struck me as real news.

But the two exiles expected the worst this year when the Russian parliament
adopted a new law in July allowing the FSB, the successor to the Soviet KGB, to
track down and eliminate enemies of the state wherever they might be hiding
around the world.

Now that seems almost like an Israeli style anti-terrorist law that forgets about extradition treaties and that kind of stuff. That means they can go into any state and off "enemies" whenever they feel like it. And it looks like they have just put this new law into affect:

All that changed this month when Alexander Litvinenko became the first
Russian immigrant to be targeted by an assassin, in a poison attack that he and
his colleagues have blamed on the Kremlin.

It seems they poisoned him with Thallium which was an old school KGB poisoning agent. This is what it looks like:

Some Thoughts on Yahoo's "Peanut Butter Manifesto"

Now these are some very interesting thoughts from a senior member of Yahoo's executive team.

Dubbed the "Peanut Butter Manifesto" for its description of Yahoo's
strategy as "spreading peanut butter across [a] myriad [of] opportunities" that
results in "a thin layer of investment spread across everything" and a "focus on
nothing in particular," the memo calls for a major shake-up at the struggling
Internet giant. Garlinghouse's suggestions include a reduction in workforce by
15-20% and the elimination of duplicative functions between Yahoo's various
business units.

I think they should seriously concentrate on search and try to get the title of best search on the internet back. Yahoo's search engine is a massive joke that rarely finds anything that is worth searching for. Google is just head and shoulders better and they are using their success in search to bring in advertising dollars. The Yahoo experience can be summed up by having a great Toolbar full of useful stuff but then having to use the Google Toolbar to actually search for things. That means their content is great but some other company gets the money that could be going to them.

This peanut butter analogy is almost spot on. They have a ton of services but none of them are the best in category. They have a Personals that gets smashed by Match.com. They have Search Engine that gets smashed by Google. They have a Map function that is blasted by Google Earth/Mapquest. They have a Yahoo Communities that gets smashed by MySpace. Now they even have a Yahoo Videos section that sucks compared to YouTube.

I think they need to go item by item and strive to make each one the best in category. Or just simply concentrate on things that have the strongest revenue streams and forget the rest until those strong items are the best. I think that would be the only way Yahoo will keep themselves from being valued at 1/4 that of Google even though their revenue is only 1/3 less.

Kramer (Michael Richards) a Racist?

So Mel is an Anti-Semite and now Kramer is a racist? It sure seems like it when he was heckled by a couple of black guys.

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him
that he wasn't funny. A videotape of the incident was posted on
TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside
down with a f------ fork up your a--."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting
his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother------. Throw
his a-- out. He's a n-----!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet
over and over again.

Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience: "It
shocks you. It shocks you" and refers to "what lays buried."

Newscorp Pulls Simpson TV Show and Book

It looks like Rupert Murdoch slammed the door on this despicable sweeps stunt.

I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an
ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown
Simpson."

At least OJ won't make any more money off of the murdered corpses of his wife and Ron Goldman. It would be nice to never hear OJs name again for the rest of his life.

Mint Offers New Dollar Coins

I wonder if people are going to actually use these things in any large number? I know I didn't like the other dollar coin alternatives because they were just too big to carry around. I guess they could aim them at the collectors market but I'm still skeptical. Here is a picture of the coin:

Newt Running for President, Kinda

Well this is what he is planning on doing anyway:

"I'm going to tell you something, and whether or not it's plausible
given the world you come out of is your problem," he tells Fortune. "I am not
'running' for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by
offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I
have to be president, it will happen." So he's running, only without yet
formally saying so.

At least he is going to offer compelling solutions and not alot of hot air like the Dems have been doing when they were in the minority. I don't think Newt has a snowballs chance though but whatever.

Man Robbed Another Beaten for PS3

Now this is getting out of hand. Just wait a little while and you will get all the PS3s you would ever want.

Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new
PlayStation 3 game system to go on sale in Putnam early Friday and shot one man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

About 30 miles away, another shopper was beaten and robbed of his new
PlayStation 3 just minutes after he bought it at a store in Manchester, police
said.

These Statements Show Dems naivete

All my fears about the Dems taking the foreign policy lead has been realized when Dems pop off like this:

On the Democratic side, Rep. Brad Sherman of California proposed that the
United States offer North Korea a nonaggression pact as part of a deal in which
the North Koreans permanently and verifiably give up their nuclear
weapons.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., accused the
administration of "dithering" and said the U.S. was placing too much reliance on
China to stop North Korea's programs. China played a leading diplomatic role in
persuading North Korea to end its boycott of negotiations.

So the North Koreas get a reward for developing the bomb and raising tension in the region? What prevents the North Koreans from signing the pact and then fooling us like they did during the Clinton administration. I mean they fooled investigators once. What keeps them from doing it again? Do the Dems really think that a nonaggression pact will keep the North Koreans from shrinking the bomb down far enough to mount it on a long range missile?

And this move would really show our allies that we have their back. If they shoot some more rockets over Japan then what are we supposed to do? Shrug our shoulders and say "well you are on your own now because we can't deal with them, sorry about that." If we did sell the Japanese down the river like this I would hope they would develop The Bomb. Then the Japanese will know that the Dems do not have their best interests in mind when it comes to North Korea.

And placing your hopes on China is not just practical but the only way anything will truly get done. China is the only country in the world that North Korea listens to. Kim respects/fears China and knows that if the Chinese cut off ties with the North his regime will crumble. Also if he pushes the Chinese too far they may go ape and simply regime change the North Koreans themselves. I still think it was Chinese agents that tried to eliminate Kim with that train bomb a few years back.

I was willing to give the Dems the benefit of the doubt about North Korea until I read stuff about nonaggression pacts and downplaying Chinese influence. I think someone needs to brief Mr. Sherman and Mr. Ackerman before its too late. We can't afford to have another Madeline Albright Style pact with the North Koreans while they build up their nuclear stockpile.

A Comprehensive Review of the Zune

This is a pretty good primer for anyone who is interested in buying a Zune. I think the idea is a pretty good one but I don't listen to music enough to warrant buying one of these things. A low end Ipod would be enough to safely store every MP3 that I own all in one place. I do like how the Zune has a really large screen though. It will make watching those tiny downloaded videos go from a room-spinning headache to simple eyestrain.

US Airways to Buy Out Delta?

It seems that we may get a little more consolidation in the airline space. This is the rub however:

Potential opposition from regulators, labor and Delta management all
have the potential to derail a transaction with strategic logic but heavy
political baggage.

It would make a lot of sense for there to be consolidation in the airline space especially with the companies that are coming out of bankruptcy. You add on new routes and get a bunch of extra planes added to your fleet for one merger price. I wonder who is going to be the next potential target for a buyout?

Rudy Might Run in 08

It looks like Rudy is throwing his hat in the ring for '08. I would certainly vote for him if he ran against Hillary but I would have to do some soul searching if a Dem like Lieberman ran instead.

The former mayor filed papers to create the Rudy Giuliani Presidential
Exploratory Committee, Inc., establishing a New York-based panel that would
allow him to raise money to explore a White House run and travel the
country.

11 Disruptive Ideas and some Comments

This is a great article on 11 innovations that will disrupt how we do business and even how we live our lives. Some of these ideas are revolutionary sounding while others may not be as big as one might think. Here are my comments on each item:

NETVIBES: (cutomizable web start pages)
I think this is a pretty good idea from the most part but I can see Yahoo, Google, or even Firefox adapting to do alot of the work that this article claims that this thing does. Perhaps it will really catch on with people that haven't already customized their browsers with lots of toolsbars and addons. Also I'm not sure if portals will allow this thing to post their content without a fight of some kind. I need to test the thing out to give a good opinion on it.

EESTOR: (super powerful ceramic power source for electric cars)
This thing sounds like one of those "cars that are powered by seawater" kind of things. If it is true (and I am kind of sceptical) it will change the way we drive. It will single handedly break the oil monopoly and make the Saudis, Iran, and Venezuela paupers. If this thing is as powerful as they claim I would be willing to lay even money that every oil power has a spy in that Cedar Park, Texas lab.

COGHEAD: (Easy to use tools to make Business Apps)
Sounds like an interesting idea but are users smart enough to create custom business apps that work without any problems? We have to see what apps are created from this thing to make any judgement calls on it. If it is as easy to use as they claim then we will see these custom apps pop up all over the net so companies can take a look at them.

NEXTMEDIUM: (Automated Product Placement big through an online exchange)
This sounds like something that could change the ad industry. You can't fast forward through product placement and if this company can measure its effectiveness then it will be a major player. This will probably lead to a world where we will see Jack Bauer holding up a can of Coke and then moving it to clearly show the label and other crap like that.

APPLIED LOCATION: (GPS system for toll collection, traffic congestion management etc.)
Now this is the dumbest idea on this list. The only way a person would install a GPS tracker onto their car is if it was mandated by the government. If carmakers were forced to put this into all cars then it will be one of the most heavily hacked items next to a computer. If you thought the wiretapping was bad wait until they get GPS data that shows every single place you drove during the year.

SALESFORCE.COM: (AppExchange 2.0 is shared programming for enterprise apps) This sounds like alot of hot air but it could be a great deal. It looks like they are using the Linix model of shared programming to help them build enterprise apps. The Linix model is proven to work so the chances of Salesforce.com pulling off a big win is definately possible.

BLUELITHIUM: (Highly Targeted Ads that spawn due to your Clickstreams)
This idea sounds almost like spyware.

Each of those ads drops a cookie on your browser, and when you show up on another site that serves BlueLithium ads or on one of its advertisers' websites, it adds that history of clicks to its database. Using this "clickstream" data, it determines within 10 milliseconds which ad to serve up the next time you come to any of the 1,000 handpicked sites where it buys ad inventory from.

So you go from Tacobell.com to Yahoo.com you will get a Taco Bell ad instead of some other banner. It seems that bluelithium is almost like tar that sticks to you whenever you go to another affiliated site. So now it seems that Taco Bell will follow me like a ghost and pop up in every affiliated banner space until I delete the bluelithium cookie. I like Taco Bell but I am going to set anti-spy to block that tracking cookie in a minute.

CLEARWIRE: (National Wi-Max Broadband)
Now this could be the big change once the modem becomes smaller then a paperback book. If you can just put a card into a laptop and you get Wi-Max connectivity speed you can kiss wired broadband goodbye. Plus it is available in Hawaii. I may be testing this innovation first hand before too long.

ZOPA: (Peer to Peer Lending)
This seems like a very interesting way to earn 7% on your money. The uncollectable debt rating is pretty low but it will rise as more and more borrowers get on this thing and default. I could see big companies getting into the act if this thing takes off. I know that some asian societies have lending clubs like this and they have been popular since ancient times. Too bad it looks like it is only in England right now.

JAJAH: (Free phone calls without all the crap you need for VOIP)
Now this could be a category killer. The only drawback is you do need some kind of network connection to get yourself to the Jajah.com site. So if your power is out like we had recently in Hawaii then this little service is worthless to you. It's hard to argue with free though.

NANOLIFE SCIENCES: (cancer treatments using a proton beam)
This sounds very Star Trek but it may be a good deal when comparing it to chemotherapy. This one is quite a few years off so it is still Future Tech. It would be great if it does come to pass.

The Dems and the Next Ethanol Bubble?

Hmm it seems that Ethanol stocks are going to pushed again in the new Congress. I wonder if the Dems are going to switch the subsidies for big oil to big Ethanol instead. I would certainly applaud them for that. The article has a list of some Ethanol stocks that are currently publicly traded. I kind of like VSE after it has sold off so much. I also like ADM for their size and high production capacity. They would be able to take advantage of any Dem pork going toward renewable energy.

December Delirium Would be Massive

I think Terry Bowden is projecting some of the best games of the year packed into the Christmas and New Years Holidays. These games would be outstanding any way you look at them. Here is a look at Bowdens Brackets:



That Ohio St./Texas Cotton Bowl game would be absolutely outstanding. I would actually a half day off work to see these two games back to back. The hype and the leadup would be otherworldly and would seriously make postseason college football a bigger deal then it already is. I would love to see that Michgan/Auburn Sugar Bowl game as well.

Bush is Being Conciliatory

Let's hope his bipartisan skills that he used to such good effect in Texas haven't left him yet. He could conceivably ratchet down the rhetoric and the Washington heat machine and come out of his term with a semi-decent approval rating. All he needs to do is pick his battles carefully.

Agree with anything that isn't worth fighting for. For instance agree on raising the Minimum Wage, attacks on Big Pharma and Big Oil, and clean energy. Only fight on socialized medicine, calls for all the troops out of Iraq by summer 2007, or anything spouted by the Far Left Fringe Elements. His goal now is to make himself an asset and not a liability to the GOP crop in 2008 .

I Agree with the Governator

I think Arnold is spot on with this assessment of the Dems win.

"I think it is good that there are new ideas and new blood because
Washington was stuck. They could not move forward, not much was accomplished; I think it was terrible," he told reporters on a trip to Mexico.

The GOP Congress was just a bunch of squabbling, scandal prone idiots that didn't get much done other then confirm some conservative judges. They did cut taxes but they were so inept that it will probably run out without becoming permanent. And all that immigration mess was just a sideshow that showed that they were willing to get rid of a potential source of votes/jobs/tax dollars/patriotic Americans in the name of xenophobism. I can say that the do-nothing Congress really fit them to a T. Lets see if the Dems do better.

Allen Macacaed Right Out of the Senate

Well it looks like he is the bigger man and conceeded rather then drag Virginia through months of litigation and bad feelings. Not like a certain wooden Global Warming Alarmist we all know. This loss was another self-inflicted injury that the GOP managed to pull off.

Allen was comfortably ahead in polls until August, when he mockingly
referred to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent as "Macaca," regarded by some as a racial slur. The incident, caught on videotape, became international
news. Some former football teammates from the University of Virginia also
charged that Allen had commonly used a slur for blacks — something he
denied.

Sometimes it is just better to keep your mouth shut about something rather then try to say an off the cuff remark. They almost always backfire a la John Kerry.

Bye Bye Rummy

It looks like he is going to be the first casualty of the Dem sweep.

The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld's nearly six-year tenure, and
unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers in Congress became critical of the war's management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.

It looks like Bush is tapping a veteran spook as the next Secretary of Defense:

Bush said Robert M. Gates, 63, who has served in a variety of national
security jobs under six previous presidents, would be nominated to replace
Rumsfeld. Gates, currently the president of Texas A&M University, is a Bush
family friend and a member of an independent group studying the way ahead in
Iraq.

This guy had a long history in the CIA and may be able to plug all the leaks coming out of the Pentagon in recent years. I wonder howthe defenseee community is going to accept this guy coming out of the CIA and all. Maybe Bush should have gone with an ex-general. Whatever the case Gates is going to have a tough road ahead of him trying to prevent a full scale civil war in Iraq with the Dems pounding on him the whole time to "get the troops out faster."

K-Fed and Britney Split

This was two years in the making but it has finally come to pass.

In the divorce papers, Spears asks for custody of the couple's two
children, with visitation rights for Federline. The filing lists as separate
property, and thereby off-limits to Federline, "miscellaneous jewelry and other
personal affects," earnings and other assets to be determined later.

I guess the easiest gravy train in America has finally come into the station.

The Dems and the Iraqi Death Spiral

After the Dems win the House their first order of business will be to create a referenda on Iraq and try to ram some sort of "redeployment timetable" through. They will probably try to shift some of the troops into Afghanistan but end up sending the majority home.

This timetable will be exactly what the Jihaddis have been waiting for. As the time table nears its end the Jihaddis will ratchet up the violence and turn things into a full scale civil war. This will put pressure on the Dems to try to pull the troops out as fast as possible. A 100 dead in a month will look like small potatoes compared to a poorly thought out withdrawal under heavy fighting. It will then look to the whole world that the US can be beaten if you just wait them out. This will embolden all rogue powers that threaten their neighbors and give them the freeist hand that they will probably ever get.

Iraq will certainly fall into a civil war as soon as we pull out. I have a feeling that the Shiite majority will totally annihilate the Sunnis without Iranian intervention. The Shiites will probably increase the Death Squads by 100 times and Sadr City will be cleaned out to the man. When all eyes are off of Iraq then you will see the real slaughter begin. That blood will certainly be on the Dems hands for getting out or Iraq without any thought about whether the Iraqis are ready to perform the security tasks and keep their nation from falling into civil war.

In any case I think Iran will be the biggest winner when the Dems get into power. They will finally be able to create nukes and be the leader of the region. They will certainly dominate post-America Iraq and might mold it into a client state. Or they can simply annex the southern half of the nation to "protect their fellow Sunnis" with only a "condemnation in the strongest possible terms" by Pelosi and her ilk.

The Dems will never use force no matter what Iran does. I think they could conceivably go to war with Iraq to "stop the Shiite Death Squads" but mostly just seize Iraqi oil wealth. When the only force standing in your way doesn't have the stomach to fight, is tired of hearing about the area, and won't give you any payback then the sky is truly the limit. If I were the Mullahs I would send Nancy Pelosi and her ilk a gift basket with a card saying "Job well done. You got our only obstacle to Middle Eastern dominance out of our way. You should be highly commended"

2006 Election Predictions

Here is my fearless predictions for this 2006 midterm election:

The Dems will get 26 seats in the House to give them a majority and win only 2 Senate seats.

That prediction is based on gut feeling and nothing more. I think the voters are pissed off enough about Iraq and the do-nothing Congress to change the House but not enough to change the Senate too.

Now if the Dems do win and they *don't* go after Bush on some trumped up impeachment charge then I will give them all the credit in the world. They know that they can't go after a sitting President in a time of war and not get burned by it. I think the Repub. Congress that went after Clinton damaged our national security. The White House and the Senate were going over what the meaning of "Is" is and debating stained dresses while Osama was putting the 9/11 pieces in place.

If the Dems go after Bush I would be willing to lay even money that a major terrorist attack will get through while people are preparing depositions and other stupid stuff. It will probably happen on the next president's watch but it will still be devastating to the people involved.

Chinese Gamers Protest Japanese Flag in Game

Now this is a weird sort of deal that actually affected Netease's (NTES) top line this quarter.

In addition, our revenues from online games were affected by increased
competition, particularly from free-to-play games offered by some of our
competitors, and in-game protests by certain users of our Fantasy Westward
Journey game who mistakenly identified an image in this game as being a Japanese flag.

Wow and this accidental flag adding even led to some conspiracy theories that led some Chinese gamers to think that NTES was actually taken over by a Japanese company.

Netease (Nasdaq: NTES) gamers are protesting an in-game image on the
wall of a building that resembles a Japanese rising sun flag, reports Beijing
Evening News. The offending image appears in Netease's bread and butter game
Fantasy Westward Journey. The image touched-off deep-seated anti-Japanese
sentiments in many gamers, and on July 7 almost 10,000 gamers have gathered at the location to express their disapproval. According to the report, some
protestors have even speculated that the image was added as a result of some
change in the shareholder structure of Netease.

I guess some gamers will believe anything.

Nintendo Wii to Offer 62 games by December

Wow they are really going to launch this thing in a big way. Now this item mentioned in the article, along with the $250 selling price, is really making this system look good.

In addition to the new selections Nintendo will offer, it will also
sell 30 classic games for the Wii Virtual Console on or shortly after the
systemÂ’s launch, including games from the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx16
console. Gamers will be able to purchase “Wii Points” via Nintendo’s
website or at participating retailers at $20 for 2,000 points, according to the
release. The points can then be exchanged for games to be downloaded and
played on the Wii Virtual Console. NES games will sell for as little as
500 Wii Points, Super NES and Sega Genesis games will start at 800 points,
Nintendo 64 games at 1,000 points and TurboGrafx16 games will start 600 Wii
Points, according to the release.

That means I can finally play Kid Icarus, Legend of Zelda, Megaman, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Contra, Golden Axe, Final Fight etc. in a non-emulated form. To think I was just bashing this thing in April. I still think the name is a colossal mistake but I guess people have gotten used to it more or less. But $250 for the Wii vs $499 for the 20GB or $599 for the 60GB version of the PS3 makes the choice much easier.

Kerry Bashes Troops but Says it is a Joke

Well it looks like Kerry is showing his true Far Left colors in this statement.

Kerry, D-Mass., said he meant no offense to troops when he told a college audience Monday that young people might get "stuck in Iraq" if they don't study hard and do their homework.

This is the same far left liberal view that anyone serving in the military is an idiot that doesn't know any better or has been duped by someone. The Far Left have a long history of holding the military in contempt that goes back to the Vietnam war and Kerry has let it loose again. He says his statement was a joke and he actually meant to say this line instead:

Kerry said he mangled the delivery of a line aimed at Bush. According to aides, the language was originally written to say that "if you're intellectually lazy, you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq — just ask President Bush."

What is he talking about? The first statement was about if you don't do your homework and study then they send you off to Iraq. I guess he said this to scare the kids or to say that the troops fighting over there are too stupid to have gotten out of it. I guess he still thinks there is a draft on or something. He should that these men and women signed up for the military knowing what they were getting into. I guess they just didn't study hard enough in Kerryworld.