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Old Fox's KM blotter

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

P Stock Play of the Week


link
Industry: Computers Closing Price: 68.33 P/E: 15.4 Avg. Vol.: 18,033K

Company Profile: Research In Motion Limited (RIM) designs, manufactures, and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. The Company provides platforms and solutions for access to email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet, and Intranet-based applications.

Chart Setup: Buy Setup

Trading Strategy: We'll look to buy RIMM if it trades above 68.33 Place a stop under 67.24 Target 1: $71.50

Monday, December 28, 2009

This Week's Trade


Transocean (RIG)

Place a limit order to buy the Transocean January 2010 90 put (RIGMR) at a maximum entry price of $6.50. Just after the close on Thursday, Dec. 24, this option was offered at $6.20. RIG closed at $84.31 on Thursday, Dec. 24.

If you are unable to enter this position before the close on Monday, cancel your limit order and wait for the next trade. Do not attempt to get into this trade after the trading day's close.

Since there will be no follow-up instructions, you can use the following guidelines to manage the position. Exit the position if the option is at a 50% gain from your entry price any time from now until Jan. 8, 2010. Also, if after Jan. 8 the option were to rise to a 100% gain, close your position. If the option has not reached its target profit or a 25% stop-loss by 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 15, 2010, close the position.

Transocean (RIG), a provider of offshore contract drilling service

Free FOREX signals


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From dozens of providers all over the world. Test and experiment for the best ones.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Team Trading - Stock Pick of the Week - December 21st 2009 - oldfox@gmail.com - Gmail

V Trade


Team Trading - Stock Pick of the Week - December 21st 2009 - oldfox@gmail.com - Gmail:
"Today's play is a possible long swing trade, from the daily charts, on VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. (VZ).

Sector: Technology – Telecom Services - Domestic

Next Earnings Date: January 26th

The Technical Setup: VCM buy setup (VBS). VZ set a bottom in late October (1) and quickly changed the trend to an uptrend, on a mid November breakout. Since the change of trend, VZ has been in what we refer to as a “Powertrend”. The price has held a strong uptrend that hasn’t returned to the 20 period moving average, until now. Powertrends are great, but often are hard to get entries, because of the constant aggressive buying. Since the high last week, (3), VZ is now offering the first daily VBS since the new uptrend began. Two days ago VZ formed a bottoming tail at the 20ma and in the area of minor support.

The Play: Traders can buy VZ as a swing trade over 33.12, with a protective stop under 32.28. We will look for targets of 34.94 and 39.44."


OTT B 100 vz fill @ $33.10 s/l 32.28 t1 34.94 t2 39.44

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Trade of the Week


Week Two
Morgan Stanley (MS)

Place a limit order to buy the Morgan Stanley January 2010 26 call (MSAI) at a maximum entry price of $3.80. Just after the close on Friday, Dec. 18, this option was offered at $3.80. MS closed at $29.21 on Friday, Dec. 18.

If you are unable to enter this position before the close on Monday, cancel your limit order and wait for the next trade. Do not attempt to get into this trade after the trading day's close.

Since there will be no follow-up instructions, you can use the following guidelines to manage the position. Exit the position if the option is at a 50% gain from your entry price any time from now until Dec. 31, 2009. Also, if after Dec. 31 the option were to rise to a 100% gain, close your position. If the option has not reached a target profit or a 25% stop-loss by 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 8, 2010, close the position.
OTT Order: B 2 .msai @3.80 limit s/l $3.05 t1 $5.7

Monday, December 07, 2009

First Week's Trade


Week One
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Place a limit order to buy the Caterpillar Inc. December 52.50 call (CATLX) at a maximum entry price of $5.40. Just after the close on Friday, Dec. 11, this option was offered at $5.15. CAT closed at $57.51 on Friday, Dec. 11.

If you are unable to enter this position before the close on Monday, cancel your limit order and wait for the next trade. Do not attempt to get into this trade after the trading day's close.

Since there will be no follow-up instructions, you can use the following guidelines to manage the position. Exit the entire position if the option is at a 25% loss from your entry price. If the option were to rise to a 50% gain any time between Monday and Wednesday, Dec. 16, we would recommend closing your position. Otherwise, if the option were to rise to a 100% gain, we would recommend closing your position. If the option has not reached its target profit or stop-loss by 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 18, 2009, we would recommend closing the entire position.

The trade did not reach it's target or it's stop loss. Sold out at market on expiration Friday 12/18/2009 @$4.26. Loss $1.14!

KYLIE LIVE IN NEW YORK - Kylie Minogue's MySpace Blog |

KYLIE LIVE IN NEW YORK - Kylie Minogue's MySpace Blog |

KYLIE LIVE IN NEW YORK



And that's not all, we're extremely excited to announce that fans will be able to listen to the first half of the New York concert pre-release, exclusively on YouTube from Midnight December 12 at http://www.youtube.com/kylieminogue!

You can listen to the Speakerphone Studio Remix now exclusively at http://links.emi.com/speakerphone

The full track listing for the album is:

1. Overture (Somewhere Over The Rainbow / The Sound of Music)
2. Light Years
3. Speakerphone
4. Come Into My World
5. In Your Eyes
6. Everything Taboo Medley (Shocked / What Do I Have To Do / Spinning Around / What Kind Of Fool / Do You Dare / It's No Secret / Keep On Pumpin' it Up / I'm Over Dreaming Over You / Ride on Time / Such A Good Feeling / Finally / The Real Slim Shady / Buffalo Girls)
7. Like A Drug
8. Boombox / Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head
9. Slow
10. 2 Hearts
11. Red Blooded Woman / Where The Wild Roses Grow
12. Heartbeat Rock
13. Wow
14. White Diamond Theme
15. White Diamond
16. Confide In Me
17. I Believe In You
18. Burning Up / Vogue
19. The Locomotion
20. Kids
21. In My Arms
22. Better The Devil You Know
23. The One
24. I Should Be So Lucky
25. Love At First Sight

iTunes customers will also receive 3 bonus tracks:

Light Years (Steve Anderson studio version)
Speakerphone (Steve Anderson studio version)
Come Into My World (Steve Anderson studio version)

Friday, November 27, 2009

Week minus One Trade



Office Depot, Inc. (ODP)

Place a limit order to buy the Office Depot, Inc. (ODP) December 5 call (ODP LA) at a maximum entry price of $1.55. Just after the close on Friday, Nov. 27, this option was offered at $1.35. ODP closed at $6.28 on Friday, Nov. 27.

If you are unable to enter this position before the close on Monday, cancel your limit order and wait for the next trade. Do not attempt to get into this trade after the trading day's close.

Since there will be no follow-up instructions, you can use the following guidelines to manage the position. Exit the entire position if the option is at a 25% loss from your entry price. If the option were to rise to a 100% gain at any time, we would recommend closing your position. If the option has not reached its target profit or stop-loss by 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 11, we would recommend closing the entire position.

Backtest

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Week -Three Trade


link
Weekend Trader Advantage
Place a limit order to buy the Whiting Petroleum (WLL) December 50 call (WLL LJ) at a maximum entry price of $11.00. Just after the close on Friday, Nov. 20, this option was offered at $10.60. WLL closed at $59.99 on Friday, Nov. 20.

If you are unable to enter this position before the close on Monday, cancel your limit order and wait for the next trade. Do not attempt to get into this trade after the trading day's close.

Since there will be no follow-up instructions, you can use the following guidelines to manage the position. Exit the entire position if the option is at a 25% loss from your entry price. If the option were to rise to a 100% gain at any time, we would recommend closing your position. If the option has not reached its target profit or stop-loss by 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 4, we would recommend closing the entire position.

Backtest:

Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West


link
Dore Gold
About the Program
Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, talks about the threat posed by a future nuclear Iran. Mr. Gold, who argues that the West should take strong actions to stop Iran from getting the bomb, spoke at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.

About the Author
Dore Gold
Dore Gold, who was Israel's ambassador to the UN from 1997 to 1999, is currently president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (jcpa.org). His books include "Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism" and "Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City."

Why Are Jews Liberals?


Norman Podhoretz
About the Program
Editor-in-chief of Commentary magazine attempts to answer the question he says he's been asked more often than any other during four decades in journalism: why are jews liberals? The event is at the Harvard Club.

About the Author
Norman Podhoretz

Norman Podhoretz is a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute where he studies, writes and speaks on social, cultural and international issues. Mr. Pohoretz also serves as editor-at-large of Commentary. He is the author of several books, including "My Love Affair with America: The Cautionary Tale of a Cheerful Conservative," and "Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir."

Click here.

Spiritual Carnality


The Picnic
A Jewish Rabbi and a Catholic Priest met at the town's annual 4th of July picnic.
Old friends, they began their usual banter.
"This baked ham is really delicious," the priest teased the rabbi. "You really ought to try it. I know it's against your religion, but I can't understand why such a wonderful food should be forbidden! You don't
know what you're missing. You just haven't lived until you've tried Mrs. Hall's prized Virginia Baked Ham. Tell me, Rabbi, when are you going to break down and try it?"
The rabbi looked at the priest with a big grin, and said, "At your wedding."


The Usher
An elderly woman walked into the local country church. The friendly usher greeted her at the door and helped her up the flight of steps, "Where would you like to sit?" he asked politely.
"The front row please," she answered.
"You really don't want to do that," the usher said "The pastor is really boring."
"Do you happen to know who I am?" the woman inquired.
"No." he said.
"I'm the pastor's mother," she replied indignantly.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked.
"No." she said.
"Good," he answered.


Show and Tell
A kindergarten teacher gave her class a "show and tell" assignment. Each student was instructed to bring in an object to share with the class that represented their religion.
The first student got up in front of the class and said, "My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is a Star of David."
The second student got up in front of the class and said, "My name is Mary. I'm a Catholic and this is a Rosary."
The third student got in up front of the class and said, "My name is Tommy. I am Baptist, and this is a casserole."


The Best Way To Pray
A priest, a minister and a guru sat discussing the best positions for prayer, while a telephone repairman worked nearby.
"Kneeling is definitely the best way to pray," the priest said.
"No," said the minister. "I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven."
"You're both wrong," the guru said. "The most effective prayer position is lying down on the floor."
The repairman could contain himself no longer.
"Hey, fellas," he interrupted. "The best prayin' I ever did was when I was hangin' upside down from a telephone pole."


The Twenty and the One
A well-worn one-dollar bill and a similarly distressed twenty-dollar bill arrived at a Federal Reserve Bank to be retired. As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned, they struck up a conversation...

The twenty-dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the country. "I've had a pretty good life," the twenty proclaimed. "Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City , the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean "

"Wow!" said the one-dollar bill. "You've really had an exciting life!"

"So tell me," says the twenty, "where have you been throughout your lifetime?"

The one dollar bill replies, "Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church , the Baptist Church , the Lutheran Church ."

The twenty-dollar bill interrupts, "What's a church?"

Goat for Dinner
The young couple invited their elderly pastor for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son what they were having.
"Goat," the little boy replied.
"Goat?" replied the startled man of the cloth, "Are you sure about that?"
"Yep," said the youngster
"I heard Dad say to Mom, 'Today is just as good as any to have that old goat for dinner."

Lord, keep Your arm around my shoulder and Your hand over my mouth.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Beatles



Click on any title and see the video of the original song, in addition to the lyrics.
 �
The Beatles!
 �
Videos organized by the Beatles; all original songs!
A Day in the Life
A Hard Day’s Night
A Taste of Honey
Across The Universe
Act Naturally
All I’ve got to Do
All My Loving
All Together Now
All You Need Is Love
And I Love Her
And Your Bird Can Sing
Anna (Go To Him)
Another Girl
Any Time At All
Ask Me Why
Baby It’s You
Baby You’re A Rich Man
Bad Boy
Because
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Birthday
Blackbird
Blue Jay Way
Boys
Can’t Buy Me Love
Carry That Weight
Chains
Come Together
Cry Baby Cry
Day Tripper
Dear Prudence
Devil In Her Heart
Dig A Pony
Dig It
Dizzy Miss Lizzie
Do You Want to Know a Secret
Doctor Robert
Don’t Bother Me
Don’t Let Me Down
Don’t Pass Me By
Drive My Car
Eight Days a Week
Eleanor Rigby
Every Little Thing
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey
Everybody’s Trying to be My Baby
Fixing a Hole
Flying (instrumental)
For No One
For You Blue
Free As A Bird
From Me To You
Get Back
Getting Better
Girl
Glass Onion
Golden Slumbers
Good Day Sunshine
Good Morning, Good Morning
Good Night
Got To Get You Into My Life
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Hello, Goodbye
Help
Helter Skelter
Her Majesty
Here Comes The Sun
Here, There And Everywhere
Hey Bulldog
Hey Jude
Hold Me Tight
Honey Don’t
Honey Pie
I Am the Walrus
I Call Your Name
I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party
I Feel Fine
I Me Mine
I Need You
I Saw Her Standing There
I Should Have Known Better
I Wanna Be Your Man
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Want To Tell You
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
I Will
I’ll Be Back
I’ll Cry Instead
I’ll Follow the Sun
I’ll Get You
I’m a Loser
I’m Down
I’m Just Happy to Dance with You
I’m Looking Through You
I’m Only Sleeping
I’m so tired
I’ve Got A Feeling
I’ve Just Seen a Face
If I Fell
If I Needed Someone
In My Life
It Won’t Be Long
It’s All Too Much
It’s Only Love
Julia
Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand
Lady Madonna
Let it Be
Little Child
Long Tall Sally
Long, Long, Long
Love Me Do
Love You To
Lovely Rita
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Maggie Mae
Magical Mystery Tour
Martha My Dear
Matchbox
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
Mean Mr. Mustard
Michelle
Misery
Money (That’s What I Want)
Mother Nature’s Son
Mr. Moonlight
No Reply
Norwegian Wood
Not a Second Time
Nowhere Man
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Octopus’s Garden
Oh! Darling
Old Brown Shoe
One After 909
Only A Northern Song
P.S.. I Love You
Paperback Writer
Penny Lane
Piggies
Please Mister Postman
Please Please Me
Polythene Pam
Rain
Real Love
Revolution 1
Revolution 9
Rock and Roll Music
Rocky Raccoon
Roll Over Beethoven
Run For Your Life
Savoy Truffle
Sexy Sadie
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
She Loves You
She Said, She Said
She’s A Woman
She’s Leaving Home
Sie Liebt Dich
Slow Down
Something
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sun King
Taxman
Tell Me What You See
Tell Me Why
Thank You Girl
The Ballad of John And Yoko
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
The End
The Fool On The Hill
The Inner Light
The Long And Winding Road
The Night Before
The Word
There’s A Place
Things We Said Today
Think For Yourself
This Boy
Ticket to Ride
Till There was You
Tomorrow Never Knows
Twist and Shout
Two of Us
Wait
We Can Work It Out
What Goes On
What You’re Doing
When I Get Home
When I’m Sixty-Four
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Why don’t we do it in the road
Wild Honey Pie
With a Little Help From My Friends
Within You Without You
Words of Love
Yellow Submarine
Yer Blues
Yes It Is
Yesterday
You Can’t Do That
You Know My Name
You Like Me Too Much
You Never Give Me Your Money
You Really Got a Hold on Me
You Won’t See Me
You’re Going to Lose That Girl
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
Your Mother Should Know
 

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Contraband light bulbs...

AddThis - Sharing http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=...

Shared via AddThis

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter

Puppy love



Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Kylie's car, driver, and street in London


link

Saturday, August 29, 2009

NRA Commentary

By Wayne LaPierre
link
Challenge 25
You know the saying, "If you make something idiot-proof, someone will just build a better idiot"? I have a feeling some of those "better idiots" are now in charge of the War on Knives in England.

Of course these are some of the same people that brought us England's "War on Guns," which led to the banning of semi-automatic firearms and a complete ban on handguns more than a decade ago. Since then, England's crime rate has continued to spiral out of control, and illegal gun use has increased as well. Since guns are already banned, however, the Brits needed to ban a new item. They came up with pizza cutters.

Okay, they came up with a war on knives, but since pizza cutters have a blade, they're covered under the tough anti-knife laws in place. That's why when 28-year-old Jenny Palmer recently tried to buy a pizza cutter from the department store Marks and Spencer, she was asked for ID. A spokesman for Marks and Spencer told the Telegraph newspaper, "Our policy is not to sell knives or bladed articles to persons under 18, and a pizza wheel fits into to that category. We are a responsible retailer, and our customers expect us to be vigilant in providing blades if people appear to be underage."

Meanwhile, a government report indicates that homicides involving blades actually increased in the ten cities targeted for a crackdown on knife crime. It looks like the War on Knives has been as successful as the War on Guns. No wonder the Guardian newspaper calls the new report a "severe embarrassment." I'm guessing Jenny Palmer would agree.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Fun with kitty...


video

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Hey! I'm walking here.


Friday, August 14, 2009

testing 1, 2, 3 ...



Labels:

Monday, August 03, 2009

Mad About Options: Keep Taking Bites Out of This Apple! DELL, IBM, MSFT, HPQ, AAPL - TheStreet TV

Mad About Options: Keep Taking Bites Out of This Apple! DELL, IBM, MSFT, HPQ, AAPL - TheStreet TV

Shared via AddThis

Monday, July 06, 2009

Gary Kaltbaum on Trading Gaps

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gary k on trading gaps

Labels:

Make The Girl Dance "Baby Baby Baby" ( official video )

Make The Girl Dance "Baby Baby Baby" ( official video )
Video sent by placeblancherec

EN VENTE SUR WWW.BEATPORT.COM et ITUNES
www.myspace.com/makethegirldance
Voix sur le morceau: www.myspace.com/musubi_paris

Monday, March 30, 2009

FOREX Chart





Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

FADER TV: Gerlan Jeans At NY Fashion Week 2009

FADER TV: Gerlan Jeans At NY Fashion Week 2009
Video sent by thefader

nice girl. cute work. future star?

Obama Girl plays Wii Fit and Wii Sports

Obama Girl plays Wii Fit and Wii Sports
Video sent by BarelyPolitical

What happens when politics and Obama Girl collide? "W" and Hillary featured.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Automated Intraday FOREX Program


link
Well, we're finally ready to officially release the Gomega
Trader FX Autotrader. In the last 11 days, we've turned a
$3,671 account into $12,230

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Fair Use or Unfair Use?


UPDATE: Google, Book Publishers Reach Settlement

By David B. Wilkerson

CHICAGO (Dow Jones) -- Google Inc. and five major book publishers have reached an agreement that will allow the search-engine titan to make millions of in- copyright books and other written materials available online.

The publishers -- Simon & Schuster (CBS), McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP), Pearson Education Inc. and Penguin Group (PSO) and John Wiley & Sons Inc. (JWA)(JWB) -- had sued Google in 2005 to stop the company from scanning millions of library books. They contended that Google (GOOG) was violating copyright law.

Under the settlement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees.

The funds will also go toward the establishment of an independent, not-for- profit entity called the Book Rights Registry, which will locate rights-holders, collect and maintain accurate information about them, and allow them to participate or opt out of Google's scanning project.

The settlement, which is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, will allow U.S. readers to search through millions of written works and preview them online.

It will also greatly expand the electronic market for copyrighted books and provide greater library access to the entire texts of books that had not been previously available online.


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-28-081115ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Message on Short Sales


link
The SEC using its powers under 12(k)(2) of the Exchange Act has prohibited any person from effecting any short sale, as defined by Rule 200 of Regulation SHO, in the publicly traded securities of the financial institutions specified in the Order ("Included Financial Firm"). The Included Financial Firms are a significantly larger group than those included in the initial July 15, 2008 Emergency Order found at Exchange Act Release 58166 and subsequently amended and extended by subsequent Orders. (See Exchange Act Releases 58190 and 58572).

There are limited exceptions from the prohibition provided for bona fide market makers and block positioners in the securities as well as short sales that occur as a result of automatic exercise or assignment of an equity option held prior to the effectiveness of the Order due to expiration of the option. Option Market Makers are exempted from the prohibition completely until 11:59 PM September 19, 2008 in order to accommodate the expirations of options on September 20, 2008.

The Order is effective as of 12:01 EDT September 19, 2008 and extends to October 2, 2008 unless extended by the Commission. A copy of the Order with the list of Included Financial Firms is attached.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free


link
September 15, 2008
By NOAM COHEN
SQUINT hard, and textbook publishers can look a lot like drug makers. They both make money from doing obvious good — healing, educating — and they both have customers who may be willing to sacrifice their last pennies to buy what these companies are selling.

It is that fact that can suddenly turn the good guys into bad guys, especially when the prices they charge are compared with generic drugs or ordinary books. A final similarity, in the words of R. Preston McAfee, an economics professor at Cal Tech, is that both textbook publishers and drug makers benefit from the problem of “moral hazards” — that is, the doctor who prescribes medication and the professor who requires a textbook don’t have to bear the cost and thus usually don’t think twice about it.

“The person who pays for the book, the parent or the student, doesn’t choose it,” he said. “There is this sort of creep. It’s always O.K. to add $5.”

In protest of what he says are textbooks’ intolerably high prices — and the dumbing down of their content to appeal to the widest possible market — Professor McAfee has put his introductory economics textbook online free. He says he most likely could have earned a $100,000 advance on the book had he gone the traditional publishing route, and it would have had a list price approaching $200.

“This market is not working very well — except for the shareholders in the textbook publishers,” he said. “We have lots of knowledge, but we are not getting it out.”



While still on the periphery of the academic world, his volume, “Introduction to Economic Analysis,” is being used at some colleges, including Harvard and Claremont-McKenna, a private liberal arts college in Claremont, Calif..

And that, in a nutshell, is a big difference between textbook publishers and the drug makers. Sure, there have been scientists with Professor McAfee’s attitude — Jonas Salk was asked who owned the patent to the polio vaccine and scoffed: “Could you patent the sun?”

For the textbook makers, however, it is a different story. Professor McAfee allows anyone to download a Word file or PDF of his book, while also taking advantage of the growing marketplace for print on demand.

In true economist fashion, he has allowed two companies, Lulu and Flat World Knowledge, to sell print versions of his textbook, with Lulu charging $11 and Flat World anywhere from $19.95 to $59.95. As he said on his Web site, he is keeping the multiple options to “further constrain their ability to engage in monopoly pricing.”

A broader effort to publish free textbooks is called Connexions, which was the brainchild of Richard G. Baraniuk, an engineering professor at Rice University, which has received $6 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In addition to being a repository for textbooks covering a wide range of subjects and educational levels, its ethic is taken from the digital music world, he said — rip, burn and mash.

Unlike other projects that share course materials, notably OpenCourseWare at M.I.T., Connexions uses broader Creative Commons license allowing students and teachers to rewrite and edit material as long as the originator is credited. Teachers put up material, called “modules,” and then mix and match their work with others’ to create a collection of material for students. “We are changing textbook publishing from a pipeline to an ecosystem,” he said.

Like Professor McAfee, Professor Baraniuk says he decided to share his material while writing a textbook.

“If I had finished my own book, I would have finished a couple years ago,” he said. “It would have taken five years. It would have spent five years in print and sold 2,000 copies.” Instead, he said, he posted it on the Web site and there have been 2.8 million page views of his textbook, “Signals and Systems,” including a translation into Spanish.

Connexions is strongest in statistics and electrical engineering — areas with technologically advanced students and a greater need to update material than, say, works on medieval history. He said there were 850,000 unique users a month, with more than 50 percent of the traffic originating from outside the United States.

“It’s anyone’s guess as to when we will break through,” he said.

One of the most popular Connexions contributors is Sunil Kumar Singh, a production engineer from New Delhi who works for the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India. He explains physics for precollege students, using the feedback from readers who e-mail from all over the world.

“It is a two-way process,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “I, for one, have experienced difficulty during my formal study years with the best of textbooks around.” He said the new system “gives me opportunity to respond to the editing needs all the time.”



While these open-source projects slowly grow, the textbook publishers have entered the online publishing field with CourseSmart, a service owned by five publishers. In service for only a year, CourseSmart allows students to subscribe to a textbook and read it online, with the option of highlighting and printing out portions of it at a time.

The price is generally half of what a print book costs, a sum that can still appear staggering — an introductory economics textbook costs around $90 online. (This semester, a student has the option of downloading a book as well — but it is an either-or choice: read online or download to a computer.)

Frank Lyman, executive vice president at CourseSmart, said that the company was created in response to changing times. “There wasn’t a lot of content and it was in a bunch of formats,” he said of past efforts by publishers. “There never was any momentum.”

There are 4,000 textbooks currently available — about a third of the market — but the goal is to cover “50 percent of the backpack.” Without being specific, he said that tens of thousands of textbooks have been read online and that 1,240 separate institutions have a student who has made at least one e-textbook purchase.

While conceding that open-source textbooks would take hold in a few subject areas, Mr. Lyman stressed that the current system would still prevail and that collaborative works online would have a hard time winning an audience.

“Of all the things that are changing, one thing is consistent — the authorship model,” he said.

“What doesn’t worry me is that leading experts will say I will write my own damn book and people will read it.”

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Infallible News Media


Google News Alert for: kylie minogue
Kylie Minogue’s 1m show
NZ City - New Zealand
‘2 Hearts’ singer Kylie Minogue is to be paid £1 million for a private performance at a hotel launch in Dubai. Kylie Minogue is to be paid £1 million for a ...

The Wiggles and Kylie Minogue Top Aussie Rich List
Undercover Music News - Australia
Kylie Minogue added another $40 million to her vast fortune. BRW has announced the top 10 rich list for Australian entertainers and there were a few ...

KYLIE MINOGUE - MINOGUE SET FOR $1 MILLION DUBAI GIG
Contactmusic.com - Ilkley,England,UK
Pop star KYLIE MINOGUE will reportedly pick up $1 million (GBP540,540) to play a one-off concert in Dubai. The Australian singer is set to be the star ...

Kylie Minogue To Earn £2 Million By Performing At A Private Party
AngryApe - Manchester,UK
Kylie Minogue is to be paid a whopping £2 million for just one concert at a private party, say new reports. The Aussie star will scoop the huge wage if she ...

Kylie Minogue paid $4.4 milion to sing at Dubai hotel's opening
NEWS.com.au - Australia
KYLIE Minogue, who is estimated to have earned $40 million in the past year, will be paid a staggering $73000 a minute to perform at a private party in the ...

Kylie Minogue Set For $1 Million Dubai Gig
Post Chronicle - USA
by Staff Pop star Kylie Minogue will reportedly pick up $1 million (£540540) to play a one-off concert in Dubai. The Australian singer is set to be the ...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Worth Considering


From the Pocket MBA at PLI

Term of the Week: Option ARM

Mortgage that permits the borrower to choose from among several types of repayment arrangements.
Read More


Option ARM In The Real World:

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. That was the tagline from advertisements for the sequel to the movie Jaws in the way-back time. But it could just as easily apply to the current credit/mortgage situation/crisis. Every time someone gets on television to say that the housing market has bottomed, the eerie Jaws theme music seems to start playing in Pocket MBA's ear. Da Dum...Da Dum...Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum...Aaaaarghhhhhhhh, my arm! And the shark bites again. The newsletter has previously covered subprime mortgages (Jaws) and Alt-A (Jaws 2); we seem to have weathered the threat of the first, and the second may not be as bad as originally thought, although who knows? And now comes Jaws 3-D, the ticking bomb that some say is represented by the resets in option ARM rates scheduled for next spring. Some finance people believe that to the extent the economy has avoided full-on recession this year, the option ARM problem could sink it next. That's because option ARMs represent a larger percentage of mortgages than subprime and Alt-A, and the homebuyers that took out option ARMs tended to be solid denizens of the middle class, including people who refinanced out of standard 30-year fixed mortgages. If they start to go bust, well you do the math. Da Dum...

So what is an option ARM, and how can it be the straw that breaks the camel's back, or the dangling leg (arm?) that tempts the Great White? You can Google the subject and get in-depth explanations with calculations and all that, but, simply put, an option ARM is an adjustable rate mortgage that gives the borrower up to four choices as to how much he will pay each month--that is, it gives payment options. Each of those options impacts the amount which the borrower will repay every month.

The most straightforward options are that a borrower can choose to pay the mortgage as if it were a standard 15- or 30-year mortgage. Pocket MBA imagines those who have chosen either of these two routes are probably doing just fine. After all, those are the options standard borrowers decide between when taking out a mortgage. It's the remaining two options that are problematic, although they didn't start out that way. So first, a little history.

Options ARMS are a creature of the 1980s, and as implied above, they were originally marketed to relatively high-end borrowers, many of whom had incomes that were stacked toward the end of the year, either via bonuses or self-employment arrangements. The options that attracted these borrowers were the ability to pay less than a standard fixed mortgage in certain months of the year, and then at the end of the year, when the borrowers had more income, they would make, in essence, a balloon payment to make up the difference and get back on the track they would be on with a standard mortgage. As option ARMs began being offered to those with less income, or standard earners (15th and 30th of the month, etc.), the option part of the payback started to become problematic. Dum-Dum.

The first of the non-standard options in an option ARM is to pay the mortgage as if it were an interest-only loan. Thus the borrower pays only the monthly interest on the loan (which can be fixed, but is often adjustable on a monthly basis), and the principal on the loan remains steady for whatever term the interest-only part of the loan occupies. At the end of that period, the borrower has to play catch-up. Again, this can work for a higher-end borrower who can invest the amount saved on the monthly payments and make up more than what he would have paid on the mortgage. Of course, if your investments don't work out, you're left holding the bag of a mortgage that must be paid off by the end of the mortgage term, and now you have interest and principal to pay in that amount of time. Da-Dum. Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum...

The second of the non-standard options for option ARM borrowers is the "minimum payment" or negative amortization option. This is the real killer, and again, it made sense for borrowers who had a certain threshold financial wherewithal. Under this option, the borrower pays an amount "X," that is predetermined and is less than even the accruing interest. An amount equal to the difference between X and the monthly interest owed on the loan gets tacked on to the principal balance. Thus, with the minimum payment option, the borrower owes more every month, and owns nothing, that is, his equity doesn't grow. This goes on for a year, at which point the interest rate is usually readjusted upward, but usually the monthly minimum is still relatively low. But, after a certain number of years (five or ten) or when the balance grows to a certain percentage above the original balance (say 115% or 120%), the loan gets "recast," so that it is fully amortizing. Then, no matter how much a person owes on a monthly basis to make up the negative amortization during the remainder of the loan term, that amount becomes the monthly payment, and the sky is the limit. For a slew of option ARMS on which borrowers have been paying the minimum option (and there are reports that the number of these is as high as 80% of all option ARMs), that date of reckoning is sometime next year. Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum...

So how did a loan that was meant for relatively well-off earners end up being marketed to everyday borrowers? Of course, it's the story of the credit/mortgage crisis writ large: falling interest rates create housing boom; more and more people enter the market; housing prices soar, thereby excluding the same people from the market unless banks come up with creative ways to enable affordability. Bing bang boom, you end up with a mismatch between lending product and borrower, and a potential foreclosure problem.

The funny thing is these minimum payment arrangements haven't hurt the lenders, at least until now. First, under GAAP, the banks are allowed to record as revenue the amount that would have been paid had the borrower chosen to pay at the fully amortized 30-year option. Thus the banks' bottom line looks great...at least until the borrower defaults. Then all those revenues have to be discounted. Also, as with subprime, many of these loans have been sold to investors via the securitizations that were the subject of this newsletter earlier in the year. The question is whether that will start a new round of financial institution stress. Tune in next spring to find out. Until then, it's definitely not safe to go back into the water.


Watch out below!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Famous Last Words


link
"The judge can drop dead in his black robes," Quill shouted just before he was taken away. "We will not call off the strike. We'll defy the injunction and go to jail. I don't care if I rot in jail."

Two hours after his arrest, Quill collapsed in prison and was taken to Bellvue Hospital.


"Michael Quill, Transit Union Chief, Is Dead." St. Petersburg Times, v. 82, n. 189, January 29, 1966. 1-2.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Five Years, 30,000 Lawsuits, and Counting


link

A moment of MP3 silence, please, as we observe the fifth anniversary of the Recording Industry Association of America's massive litigation campaign against peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted songs. It was five years ago today that the RIAA filed its first round of lawsuits against 261 defendants, observes David Kravets of Wired's Threat Level blog. Today, the number of lawsuits has soared to 30,000 and shows no sign of abating. "We're just barely scratching the surface of the legal issues," Ray Beckerman, the New York lawyer who defends -- and blogs about -- RIAA cases, tells Kravets. "They're extorting people -- and for what purpose?"

Because many of the people the RIAA sues cannot afford to hire a lawyer and defend themselves, many of the cases settle for a few thousand dollars. So common are these settlements that the RIAA has set up a Web site to accept and process settlement payments, much in the same way one would pay a phone or credit card bill. But Kravets' post raises the question of whether the RIAA's campaign has accomplished anything or "shaped up as an utter failure." The RIAA's only jury-trial win, the case against Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas, is expected to be declared a mistrial any day now due to the judge's second thoughts on whether copyright law requires proof of an actual transfer of files, as opposed to simply making them available. In two other cases, the RIAA has lost on the "making available" issue, although it won damages in one of those cases due to the defendant's tampering with his hard drive.

Litigation outcomes aside, the RIAA says the campaign has been successful as a public relations effort, having spawned a "general sense of awareness" that file sharing of copyright music is illegal. But critics condemn the RIAA for both the way it litigates these cases and the way it investigates them. Washington state lawyer Lory Lybeck is leading a prospective class action against RIAA over its "sham" litigation tactics. She tells Kravets that RIAA is setting the price of settlement at a point where defendants can't afford to fight. And Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Fred von Lohmann questions whether the campaign has led to any reduction in file sharing. "If the goal is to reduce file sharing," he said, "it's a failure." Failure or not, the RIAA litigation has yet to download its swan song.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Exercise


See if this link works for JAMA video
link
STUDY FINDS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY MAY HELP IMPROVE COGNITIVE FUNCTION

INTRO:
With so many people living longer these days, it is estimated that the number of older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease worldwide will increase from about twenty-six million today to about one hundred and six million by the year 2050. Researchers are looking for ways to help delay the onset of dementia. A new study finds increasing physical activity may make a difference. Jennifer Mitchell explains in this week's JAMA Report.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Ms Dewey is Pretty Cool


link

Fewer or Less



Tesco to ditch 'ten items or less' sign after good grammar campaign
By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 01/09/2008

From now on, signs in new stores are to say "up to 10 items" after a long running argument with those who have objected to the use of the word "less" in that context.

Many have argued that the signs ought to read "ten items or fewer" instead of "ten items or less".

Their argument is that the word 'fewer' should be used when it refers to quantities that can be counted.

'Less', they say, should refer to quantities that cannot be counted. The new form of words comes from a suggestion by the Plain English Campaign.

"There is a debate about whether the word should be 'less' or 'fewer'," a campaign spokesman said.

"Saying 'up to ten items' is easy to understand and avoids any debate."

Guidance from Oxford University Press says: "Less means 'not as much'. Fewer means 'not as many'. This can be tricky when referring to quantities. For example, we say less than six weeks, not fewer than six weeks, because we are not referring to six individual weeks, but to a single period of time lasting six weeks."

Hopes that changing the wording would provide a satisfactory solution to the knotty problem appear premature with some critics claiming that the new signs are themselves ambiguous.

Some would argue that "up to ten items" could mean "ten items and no more" or "nine items or fewer".

A Tesco spokesman said: "The debate about what is right has been going on for years now, and I still don't think we know if 'less' or 'fewer' is correct.

"The new signs will be in the rolling out of new stores. We are not going to see any new ones in existing shops so shoppers in those will not see the change."

West Headnote of the Day


110k406(6) k. Admissions as to Commission of or Participation in Commission of Crime.

Defendant's statement to codefendant that "this was stupidest robbery they'd ever done" was admissible in robbery prosecution as admission of guilt.
People v. Oquendo, 232 A.D.2d 881 (1996)

Friday, August 29, 2008

Subjects or Citizens


link
Householders face £70 fines for putting wrong waste in green bins

By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 29/08/2008

The fines, which are more severe than those imposed on many shoplifters, drug users and dangerous drivers, were criticised by campaigners who said they would criminalise ordinary people and be used as an excuse to raise more money from families on the bread line.

Exeter City Council has become the first local authority to start fining, but others are expected to follow suit.

Anyone putting inappropriate waste into a green bin will be sent a fixed-penalty notice to compensate the council for cleaning it.

Those who refuse to pay will be taken to court and prosecuted for non-payment. . . .

West Headnote of the Day


237 Libel and Slander
237I Words and Acts Actionable, and Liability Therefor
237k9 Words Tending to Injure in Profession or Business
237k9(3) k. Attorneys at Law

It is slanderous per se to call a lawyer a knave.
McMillan v. Birch, 1806 WL 1003 (1806)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Can you Make this stuff up?


link
Should Law Students Pay Law Firms for Training?

"If associates get all the benefits of training at my law firm in the first three years, and can't really add much value anyway, why don't they pay us?"

That's the question that Dan Hull asks in this provocative post at What About Clients?.

So, here's the strategy that Hull envisions. Rather than pay new hires those stratospheric salaries that have given law firms buyer's remorse, Hull suggests that associates work for minimal salaries in exchange for the benefit of receiving valuable legal training:

A "trainee": (1) would be paid either very minimal or at most starting paralegal-level salaries--don't laugh, paralegals are often remarkably more valuable and cost-efficient than first-year associates--and perhaps some other benefits; or (2) actually pay the law firm a nominal stipend--a "tuition", in effect--in a flexible apprenticeship arrangement which could be revisited eventually. At a minimum, making the associate bear the risk of the investment . . .

Friday, August 22, 2008

fleecing 'soft' Britain


link
Polish immigrants' guide to fleecing 'soft' Britain
By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Last Updated: 9:45am BST 21/08/2008


It shows how to avoid electricity bills and tax, rent flats for free and con insurance companies.

The scams, published in Polish magazine Przeglad, are revealed by Polish workers already living in Britain.

One man, quoted as a Polish criminal expert, said that cheating the system had became a way of life under decades of Communist rule.

"Once you've cheated the Communist government and the Iron Curtain and the Soviet states, running rings around British Gas is child's play," he explained.

A worker called Tomek suggested opening electricity and gas accounts with bogus personal details.

He said: "How can I pay bills that aren't addressed to me? The accounting system in England is based on trust, that's why you can phone and give them data plucked out of thin air."

Another man recommends renting a house in a made-up name, then immediately stopping rent payments because tenancy laws mean it will be months before they are evicted.

In the meantime the property is sublet to dozens of others.

Expensive mobile phones are insured and then reported "stolen".

Once the insurers pay out, the cheats pocket the cash and sell the "stolen" phone back home in Poland for a £100 profit.

Another man tells how he never pays for a television licence, electricity or gas bills - but boasts that he has never been cut off.

"In Poland it would be unheard of - they would have cut everything off long ago," he said. "And you'd have to be an idiot to register the TV."



Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Liars are exposed by blinking


link

By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 20/08/2008


The best way to spot a liar is to look them in the eyes, according to scientists who say the number of times a person blinks will show if they are speaking the truth.

Liars blink less frequently than normal during the lie, and then speed up to around eight times faster than usual afterwards.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Non-verbal Behaviour, means that blink rates could soon be used by professionals, such as the police and security forces, to tell when someone is being duplicitous.

Dr Sharon Leal, co-author of the study at Portsmouth University, said: "It is striking what different patterns in eye blinks emerged for liars and truth tellers.

"Such striking differences in behaviour between liars and truth tellers are rarely seen in deception research."

Researchers studied a group of volunteers as they went about their normal business for ten minutes. A second group were asked to steal an exam paper from an office, then to deny having taken it.

The groups were then asked each to recall exactly what they had been doing.

During the interview their blink rates, which had all been the same at the start, were monitored with electrodes placed above and below and at the sides of the eyes to monitor all movements.

Results show that when the questions were being asked and the answers given, the blink rate in the liars went down. In contrast the truthful group's rate went up, though this could have been down to test anxiety.

Afterwards, the blink rate of the liars increased rapidly, while that of the truth tellers remained the same.

Researchers believe the increased effort involved in telling fibs could be the reason why liars do not blink during the act of lying.

Dr Leal said: "Liars must need to make up their stories and must monitor their fabrication so that they are plausible and adhere to everything the observer knows or might find out.

"In addition, liars must remember their earlier statements, so that they appear consistent when re-telling their story, and know what they told to whom. Liars will be more inclined than truth tellers to monitor and control their demeanour so they will appear honest.

"The reasons why there is a flurry of blinks after the lie is not really clear. It may be that this flurry is a kind of safety valve, like a release of energy after the tension of lying."



Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright


Well this study was done among "normal" students. I doubt if the results could be so clear with "professional" members of the criminal class, lawyers, and sociopaths. --Ed

Should You Invest in the Long Tail?


link

Anita Elberse.
Anita Elberse (aelberse@hbs.edu) is an associate professor of business administration in the marketing unit at Harvard Business School. Her article "How Markets Help Marketers" appeared in the September 2005 issue of HBR.

-- HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW , July 2008 - August 2008

In a typical year, Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) goes to market with 275 to 300 book titles spread across two catalogs, its fall and winter lists. For each list the company identifies the handful of books it believes have the greatest sales potential and gives them the full benefit of its marketing capabilities. Of those, it spotlights just two "make" books, one fiction and one nonfiction, for which the company's publisher is willing, in her words, to "pull out all the stops." In the fall of 2007 those books were David Baldacci's Stone Cold and Stephen Colbert's I Am America (and So Can You!). The effects of this strategy show up in sales figures and profits. Whereas the 61 hardcover titles Grand Central put on its 2006 front list, on average, incurred costs of $650,000 and earned gross profits of just under $100,000, a wide range of numbers contributed to those averages. Grand Central's most heavily marketed title incurred costs of $7 million and achieved net sales of just under $12 million, for a gross profit of nearly $5 million, 50 times the average.

Grand Central is pursuing what is known as a blockbuster strategy, a time-honored approach, particularly in the media and entertainment sector. With limited space on store shelves and in traditional distribution channels, and with retailers and distributors seeking to maximize their returns, producers have tended to focus their marketing resources on a small number of likely best sellers. Although such an approach involves substantial risk, they expect that the occasional hit's huge pay-off will cover the losses of many misses, and that a few big sellers will bring in the lion's share of revenues and profits. In 2006 just 20% of Grand Central's titles accounted for roughly 80% of its sales and an even larger share of its profits.

Much has changed in commerce, however, in the decades since the blockbuster strategy first took hold. Today we live in a world of ubiquitous information and communication technology, where retailers have virtually infinite shelf space and consumers can search through innumerable options. When books, movies, and music are digitized and therefore cheap to replicate, the question arises: Is a blockbuster strategy still effective?

One school of thought says yes. Well represented by the economists Robert Frank and Philip Cook, in their 1995 book The Winner-Take-All Society, that school argues that broad, fast communication and easy replication create dynamics whereby popular products become disproportionately profitable for suppliers, and customers become even likelier to converge in their tastes and buying habits. The . . .


"This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."
--W. Churchill. In Ernest Gowers Plain Words (1948) 'Troubles with Prepositions.'

OED Online

Ecclesiastes 12.12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.


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