Why Does Britian Grow Terrorists and America Doesn't?

This is a very interesting article on why the English Muslim is more likely to become a terrorist while the American Muslim seems less likely.

Bob Ayers , a security and terrorism expert with London's Chatham House
, a foreign-policy research center, thinks that immigrants to the U.S. actually
become Americans, giving the United States a huge advantage in avoiding
homegrown al Qaida terrorists. Europeans encourage immigrants to retain their
native cultures, causing them to be ostracized more readily.

"The Islamic population in the United States is better assimilated
into the general population, whereas here, in Germany , in France , they're very
much on the outside looking in," he said. "When people get disaffected, sadly,
there's not much loyalty to country in that sort of situation."

Yup, that is a big advantage to keeping home grown Al-Quida from spreading. It seems we are much more accepting of foreign religions then Europe. We can relate to people that believe in One God with a Prophet since Americans are much more religious then Europeans. Basically Americans don't belittle their beliefs or try to marginalize Muslims.

In fact the US Muslim has freedoms that many in the Muslim world don't even enjoy. We don't require anyone to wear a Berka or cover their hair unless they want to. We let Muslims worship how they want without putting any restrictions on their conduct or way of life. About the only thing that the US cracks down on is polygamy. If you are a Muslim and aren't radical enough to strap on a bomb belt then the US is the place for you.

We might bother you if you start to pray in a group before going on an airplane in front of people. But that is basically because we are ignorant when it comes to foreign cultures. If Muslims just understand that Americans fear what they don't know and jump to conclusions we can all work things out.

Target and Macy's on the Buyout Block?

It might be because of its extensive real estate portfolio. That was one of the catalysts on the Hilton Hotels buyout earlier this week. They get to use that real estate portfolio as leverage to help in the buyout. Here is what that article says about Macys and Target:

Big retailers Macy's Inc. and Target Corp. -- whose shares
were each up about 5 percent late on Friday -- may be attractive buyout targets
due to the embedded value of their real estate. Such deals would be similar to
the 2005 buyout of Toys 'R' Us, which leveraged off its properties for
financing.

It would be interesting to see how much Target's real estate portfolio is actually worth. It says their property plant and equipment is valued at $21 billion. However it is hard to tell what properties they actually own though. In any case that number could make that $57 billion purchase price go down a little easier for the private equity buyer.

There might be something up though because call volume is almost double put volume from the 62.50 to the 75.00 strikes. It is kind of similar to what was happening before the Hilton Hotels deal. However the Hilton deal had some straddle action though because there were quite a few puts bought as well. Maybe people weren't so sure of the Hilton deals numbers (because they were on vacation or getting ready to go because of that short trading day.)

Some people are also talking insider trading on that Hilton deal as well. Maybe some of the same things are in the air on a potential Taget deal as well.

J. Michels Uranium Index 7/6/07

+$93.99 +0.18%

Italian Tomb Raiders

This is a very interesting story on how Italian Tomb raiding has gone down in recent years. One thing the Italians could do is to employ some of these guys to help their archeology departments:

He soon developed a keen eye for promising sites — sometimes using a
friend's glider to spot them from above, but more often by paying attention to
details on the ground.

"When I dig I often know beforehand what I will find, because I
have learned to read the land," he said. "For example if you see brambles
growing tall and yellowish you know the roots are leaning on buried walls."

But since this guy didn't have a PhD and such (or any formal education at all) he would be iced out of any legitimate archeology work. He instead used his skills to steal stuff out of the sites with a bulldozer.

I wonder if he were given the chance to pursue archeology without having to endure decades of schooling he would have chosen to be a tomb raider like this? He might have been pretty skilled at excavating these sites without having to be tenured, published, credentialed, or any of that other stuff. Too bad his schooling only gave him enough potential to either carry the dirt on a legitimate project or bulldoze for treasure on an illegal one.

J. Michels Uranium Index 7/5/07

+$872.02 +1.72%

Apple sold 700,000 IPhones

Now this is good news for all those APPL shareholders.

After speculation earlier in the week that Apple had sold between 400-500,000 iPhones, the actual new sales figures for the iPhone are even wilder than earlier figures: Apple and AT&T moved 700,000 iPhones to the close of business Sunday.

According to MacNN, Apple is said to have sold out of iPhones in 95 of 164
stores and AT&T has nearly depleted its entire stock. The report quotes
American Technology Research predicting that the iPhone would likely be
AT&T’s fastest ever selling product and that the iPhone could rank among the
fastest selling consumer electronics devices of all time.

More IPhone Suppliers

We can add National Semiconductor to this list now.

Infineon Technologies found its way into the iPhone with its digital
baseband, radio-frequency transceiver and power-management technologies, and National Semiconductor Corp. supplies the chip that connects the iPhone's
display to its graphics controller.

ISuppli said the touch-screen, considered to be one of the iPhone's
top selling points, is supplied by Epson, Sharp and Toshiba Matsushita, while
the display module is provided by German company Balda and its Chinese partner, TPK Holdings.

Balda is traded on the XetraDAX and TPK Holdings is 50% owned by Balda. It seems that Balda was pretty much a plastics injection modeling company from what I read. They seem to be branching out into a very technical field using this TPK Holdings expertise. I haven't read too many complaints about the touchscreen yet so this may be an interesting stock as well.

IPhones Fat Profit Margin

I guess only Apple can get away with a 55% profit margin on a tech device.

On Tuesday, iSuppli reported that a teardown analysis of the iPhone
showed its bill of materials and manufacturing costs totaled $265.83. That means
Apple would generate a margin of more than 55 percent for every 8 gigabyte
iPhone it sold for the $599 retail price, iSuppli said in a report.

Eric Pratt, iSuppli's senior director of teardown, said iSuppli is
still fine-tuning its report and it now thinks that the product's margin is over
50 percent, when accounting for factors like royalties and software costs. He
wasn't surprised by the margin, he said, because the company's earlier
research-based modeling called for a basic iPhone cost of $264.85.

J. Michels Uranium Index 7/3/07

-$232.99 -0.46%

What Companies make the guts of the IPhone?

This is a great article on taking apart an IPhone to see what is inside of it. However this is the most important part to investors.

The chip on the bottom center that looks blank in our image actually has this text: MARVELL, W8686B13, 702AUUP. This is Marvell's 802.11b/g 18.4mm2 chip.

The chip in the upper right is a Skyworks GSM/Edge Power amplifier (SKY77340)

The silver chip to the left of the Skyworks chip reads CSR 41814 3A06U K715FB. This is a CSR BlueCore4-ROM WLCSP single chip radio and baseband IC for Bluetooth 2+EDR.

The chip covered by the white sticker in the photo has the part numbers 338S0289 and 8G60710 on it. EETimes claims this is an Infineon M1817A11.

The chip with the blue dot on it is rumored to be an Intel Wireless Flash 32 MB chip. Part numbers 1030W0YTQ2, 5716A673, and Z717074A. EE Times adds the part #PF38F1030W0YTQ2.

The chip in the lower right reads 338S 0297 G0719. Some claim this is an Apple-branded chip, but it's purpose is currently unknown.

The chip in the lower left is an Infineon PMB8876 S-Gold 2 multimedia engine. Part numbers: 337S3235, 60708, and EL629058S03.
So the companies we have on this list are Intel, Marvell, Skyworks, Infineon, (CSR isn't traded in the US) and a chip who's purpose is unknown. This may be a Broadcom chip according to this article. But your guess is as good as mine.

UBS' Gauna believes Broadcom's supplying the chips controlling the
device's touch screen, perhaps its most unique feature. As a result,
Broadcom could see up to a 7 percent boost in sales in 2008 should Apple hit
its iPhone sales goal, he estimates.

In any case it seems that Skyworks may be an interesting play judging from how much Call interest has gone into the stock. The Jul 07 alone is trading 10 to 1 Calls to Puts and there seems to be heavy short interest at 13%. Too bad the company is negative in EPS and revenue growth. Maybe that IPhone money pouring in will turn those numbers around. In fact it is already sold out at AT&T stores.

In a sign of strong initial demand, AT&T said it had sold almost
all its phones within hours of the device going on sale at its 1,800 stores. The
company did not say how many units it had sold.

J. Michels Uranium Index 7/2/07

+$1,353.99 +2.74%

Meredith Vieira is an IPhone Doof

I was watching the Today show this morning and I think the IPhone had its first major gaff. This article had the rundown of Meredith Vieira failing to use the IPhone on national television.

Apple's media blitz didn't escape first-day glitches. On NBC's "Today"
show, co-host Meredith Vieira first met with problems simply getting the iPhone
to work to show off its features, laughing that "this is why gadgets drive me
crazy."

Later, with a team of Apple representatives hovering off-screen,
Vieira was supposed to receive a call from co-host Matt Lauer in London. The
iPhone — billed by Apple as the most user-friendly smart phone ever — displayed
the incoming call, but she couldn't answer it.

She was furiously trying to get the thing to pick up and couldn't do it correctly. I wonder if other clueless folks out there are having trouble with their IPhones as well? It that is true then Research In Motion (RIMM) with today's massive numbers will probably be the big winner. Maybe I'll look carefully at RIMM stock when they have their 3 for 1 stock split on August 17th.

J. Michels Uranium Index 6/29/07

+$419.99 +0.86%

Info on the Uranium Market

This is a great article on the ins and outs of the Uranium Market.

The physics start with the little-understood but widely recognized
formula E=MC². Einstein's formula reveals the energy in nuclear reactions that
convert matter into pure energy--something physically impossible with chemical
reactions. A large nuclear reactor that powers some 700,000 homes invisibly
destroys just five pounds of uranium (roughly a 2-inch cube of pure uranium)
each day. The same amount of energy from a combustion power plant is produced daily by combining 20 million pounds of coal with 200 million pounds of air, not
incidentally yielding an equal weight in ashes and gases.

This is real reason why nuclear power is such a good idea. You can either destroy 5 pounds of something or 20 million pounds of another thing. Add this to the amount of green house gasses that is pumped out by coal plants and there is no comparison. I think all environmentalists should be pro-nuke if they are serious about avoiding global warming.

J. Michels Uranium Index 6/28/07

+$554.01 +1.14%

Cytori has an Interesting New Product

I was recently researching Stem Cell stocks and came across Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) This article really went into detail on a new product that they will take to market later this year.

Cytori has invented a device that can withdraw stem cells from patient
fat for re-use elsewhere in the body. The entire process takes around an hour
and, at $2,500 to $10,000 per treatment, looks downright cheap for stem
cell-based therapy.

Unlike fat itself, once used with limited success for breast
reconstruction surgery, Cytori says that fat-derived stem cells bring needed
blood supply to reconstructed breasts. Thus, the company says that breast
reconstruction surgery patients should finally have an option that will work and
actually last.

This market might bring in $85 million and they can also leverage it into the breast augmentation market as well. If they can get that process approved it would be a $100 to $300 million opportunity.

In fact since these cells come from a persons own body they would be far preferable to silicone or saline implants. There will be no risk of rejection and there will be no foreign objects leaking into a woman's body and possibly giving her cancer down the line. If it is easier to pull off and results in less scarring or complications this process might be able to dominate the industry.

They are also working on this as well:

Still, Cytori expects to pursue an even bigger opportunity down the
road. Right now, the company is enrolling patients in a study designed to test
its stem cell treatment for cardiac ischemia, a common ailment characterized by
poor blood flow. That therapy, unlike current drugs on the market, aims to
regenerate heart tissue rather than simply slow its deterioration.

"It depends on how good the data is," he admits. "But if we can get 3%
to 4% of the market share (for cardiac ischemia), that would be $1.5 billion in
revenue even at our price point ... That's an enormous market."

This is far down to road so and actual therapy will not come about for years. In the future it would be an interesting stock driver as it moves through the FDA.

J. Michels Uranium Index 6/27/07

+$762.20 +1.60%

Tom Cruise Barred from Filming in Germany

I guess the Germans don't like those weird cultists filming movies in their cities.

Defense Ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer said Monday that the
production "will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count
Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a
member of the Scientology cult."

Even Count Stauffenberg's son is against Cruise doing his dad wrong.

Stauffenberg's oldest son, 72-year-old Berthold von Stauffenberg, told
a German newspaper Saturday that Cruise "should keep his hands off my
father."

"I hoped for a while that it was all just a publicity stunt by Mr.
Cruise," the younger Stauffenberg told Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"It is sure to be crap. Of course, I could be wrong—I would like to
be."

He called Cruise's involvement with Scientology "off-putting," and
referred to the church as a "business."

J. Michels Uranium Index 6/25/07

-$772.00 -1.55%

"Pants Suit" Pearson Loses Case

It looks like common sense and decency has prevailed in the "Pants Suit" case.

The owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city's consumer
protection law by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson's expectations of the
"Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign once displayed in the store window, District of
Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled.

"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction
Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's
unreasonable demands" or to agree to demands that the merchant would have
reasonable grounds for disputing, the judge wrote.
Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.

I think the Chungs should sue him for emotional distress as well as attorneys fees. There should also be some sort of frivolous lawsuit fine that he should pay as well. In any case this guy should never be allowed onto the bench again for pulling this stunt. If he gets his administrative law judge job back then someone needs to resign.