Author: Serkadis

Ladies and Gents, Presenting The Jackson 3! Late pop legend Michael Jackson’s children may perform at the 52nd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles this Sunday. The Thriller star, who won 13 Grammys, will get a posthumous lifetime achievement award at the ceremony.

E! News is reporting that award show producers want the children to be part of a tribute to their late dad — they may even sing. Sources tell the site Grammy producers are making a last-minute effort to incorporate MJ’s kids — Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7 — into Sunday night’s tribute to the The King of Pop.

The tribute will include the premiere of the “Earth Song” mini movie.

With the AIG, Goldman, counterparties hearing currently going down, investors are worried that revelations will have a negative impact on the firm.

Obama’s battle against prop trading at banks isn’t helping things either.

Right now, GS is down $2.19 or 1.35%.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• LIVE COVERAGE: Tim Geithner Gets Grilled
• Trade Prop Trading’s Death
• Geithner: It Was "Absolutely" The Right Decision To Pay Out AIG Obligations At 100 Cents On The Dollar

Next wave of clinical volunteers prepare to depart on Jan. 29

The first clinicians from Northwestern departed for Haiti Monday, Jan. 25 as part of a Chicago medical response team partially coordinated by Robert Murphy, MD, director of the Northwestern Center for Global Health at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University are supplying medical supplies and equipment for the victims.

Informally known as the “Chicago Response Team,” three other Chicago-based academic medical centers are part of this effort.

Additional Northwestern healthcare professionals leave for Haiti this weekend and early next week, on Jan. 29, Feb. 1 and Feb. 3.

Each group will be on two-week tours. Northwestern Memorial Emergency Room physicians Martin Lucenti, MD and Rahul Khare, MD are among those who volunteered for deployment.

Lucenti was among those who left Jan. 25 and Khare leaves Feb. 3.

“I knew in my heart that going to Haiti was simply the right thing to do,” says Khare.

“Emergency physicians are trained at wilderness medicine, which is currently the state of Haiti. We can use common appliances to bandage, splint, and reduce overall injury. A disaster, such as the earthquake in Haiti, is what we’re trained for.”

Khare explained that the vast majority of the injuries include crush injuries, severe dehydration, shock due to blood loss, and infected wounds.

As he explains, many of these injuries can be addressed with basic treatments such as cleaning out the wound, intravenous fluids, stabilization of the fracture with a handmade splint, and antibiotics.

However due to the severe deficit of clean water and healthcare workers, simple wounds have compounded into severe medical conditions.

Additionally, because most hospitals and clinics have been destroyed, leaving survivors nowhere to go, clinics will need to be made to assist with on-going care for the general population.

As such, as physicians start landing in Haiti, they will setup a healthcare infrastructure in Port-au-Prince, as well as the countryside.

Khare estimates that volunteer physicians and nurses will be needed for months, if not years to help stabilize the healthcare infrastructure following such catastrophe.

But he is hopeful about worldwide response, “I believe it is being done properly and will save hundreds of thousands of lives,” Khare added.

In its fundraising efforts, hospital employees raised a total of $20,000 for Haiti relief assistance that will be administered by the Northwestern Memorial Foundation. A total of 40 Northwestern clinicians signed up to volunteer their time and personal finances to be a part of the team.

This group includes orthopedic surgeons, emergency medicine, anesthesiologists, internal medicine physicians and nurses. Twenty of them speak French, three speak Creole, and 16 have international experience in developing countries.

The Chicago Medical Response team is partnering with International Medical Corps (IMC; imcworldwide.org) who will be coordinating the physicians’ schedules and logistics while on the ground in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

IM is currently operating an urgent care health facility in Port-au- Prince and needs physicians and nurses.

The Chicago Medical Response team includes: Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the University of Chicago Medical Center, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine; and Rush University College of Medicine.

If you would like to make a gift to support this trip, please visit http://foundation.nmh.org/HaitianRelief.

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To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• Securities firm Keefe, Bruyette has identified 393 banks with Texas ratios greater than 100%.  If we assume that 75% of them will fail (our number, not Keefe’s), that would represent $141 billion in assets, and assuming a 25% loss ratio (our number, not theirs), this would cost the FDIC $35 billion.

• In the greater scheme of things, do you really care who appears on late night TV? Still, wouldn’t you like to get fired like Conan O’Brien and get a $40 million severance package?
  

• On this day in history, January 27, 1870, the first college sorority was formed as Kappa Alpha Theta at DePauw University .  And remember how Legally Blond made fun of sororities and caused a generation of girls to swear they’d never join one?  The TV show Greek now makes sororities look cool, and a lot of those girls are changing their mind.
• If you’re worried that you’ll be required to own 5% of every loan you sell, find something else to worry about. Congress is not going to allow something that would kill the housing recovery….. and housing itself.  Even if it did get passed, we guarantee you that some Wall Street firm would figure out how to securitize the 5% pieces.  Private funds would buy them, and even if they got bought at a discount, that would just be factored into what the borrower pays.  Of all the things people could be worrying about, this should be very low on the list.

• One of the clichés of business is that if you want to be highly successful, you should only hire people from highly successful companies. When we do searches, the first thing we do is ask the client which companies they admire most.  And assuming they’re not a client, that‘s where we do our initial nosing around.  Again, you build a successful company by filling it with people who’ve worked at and learned from successful companies.  We see too many companies who hire people they’re really impressed with, but where that person never worked at a successful company.    
• It’s easy for lenders to complain that mortgage insurers aren’t paying claims, but while the MI companies look at each claim carefully, they’re still paying out tons of dollars on claims.  For the recent two quarters, MGIC wrote checks for over $930 million dollars. We call that honoring your commitments.

• Last week’s failed banks had 70.2% of their deposits in CDs as compared to the industry average of 50.2%. An over-dependence on time deposits and too few transactional ones (i.e. checking accounts) is often correlated with banks in deep trouble.

• Business Week did an analysis of how the stock market did in the first year of a President’s administration.  Here are the top six and the bottom six.

+96.5%  Franklin Roosevelt	–  1.8%  Teddy Roosevelt
+30.9%  Harry Truman	– 7.7%   George Bush (son)
+29.5%  Barack Obama	-12.7%  Ronald Reagan
+21.6%   Lyndon Johnson	-15.6%  Herbert Hoover
+19.6%   George Bush (dad)	-17.0%  Richard Nixon
+19.3%   Bill Clinton	-19.6%  Jimmy Carter

Whether this means anything is for you to decide.

• If you’re highly dependent on refinances, do you have an exit strategy? What are your plans for what you’ll do when rates go up 100-200 bps and refinances drop by 80%?  We’ve seen too many companies hang in there month after month, losing huge amounts of money because they’re waiting for the market to get better.  We like to see companies define in advance what their criteria are for shutting down the business.  (a) One would be to define what your volume must drop to for a 2-3 month period before closing shop.  (b) Another one we like is to decide how much you’re willing to lose, as in:  “I’ve built up $8 million of net worth in the company, and I‘m willing to lose $1.5 million if the market gets bad.  But the moment it hits $1.5 million, I’ll shut the place down the very next day.”   
• Two more e-mails from clients about doing things the right way:  “My wife’s brother works at the IRS as an Inspector General, and he told us that if 99.9% is good enough, 2 million docs would be lost every year by the IRS.”  Another one was “I read your article (?) about settling for less than total accuracy and my wife works in a delivery room, and she told me that if hospitals made even 1% error rate, 120 babies a day would be given to the wrong parents.”
• We wrote about prison guards in California making $100-150,000 a year, and we got this from a friend in secondary marketing:  “Why does it cost $48,000 per year to house a prisoner in California ? We have all heard of outsourcing, right? Why not outsource the prison duties to a Chinese company, ship the guys there on a container-type ship and get it done for only $2,000 per year? No visits by family members? Oh well, book a flight to a remote part in China and see your loser relative. We outsource jobs to foreign countries and we even outsource service jobs to India , so what’s wrong with outsourcing something like this?”

• We mentioned last issue that SoCal bank CVB Financial has a cost of funds of only 53 bps and that you could make good money just doing the lowest risk loans if you have cheap deposits. We looked up some Treasury yields, and while we don’t like investing short term money into long term instruments, we see that 30 year Treasuries are yielding 4.58%.  So how about a nice 4.05% net interest spread of 4.05% (4.58% – 0.53% = 4.05%) with no credit risk? Don’t want to take on any interest rate risk?  Then buy ten year TIPS at 3.92% and earn a net yield of 3.39% with no interest rate risk and no credit risk.
• We heard that one of the mortgage companies just cut off by FHA was charging $20,000 in fees on a $200,000 loan and targeting low credit borrowers, many who just walked away from their mortgages within months of closing.  Lots of complaints of bait and switch, and when the loan was closed, a $200,000 mortgage would be “Rate/Term” refinanced with a new principal balance of $220,000 with all the fees, etc. They supposedly owned the title company that handled the transactions and they charged 2 to 3 times the going rate of other title companies. This is what someone told us, but we’re not naming names because it’s just someone yapping away at this point.
• When the Berlin Wall fell, the Berlin Symphony gathered and played Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. We find it very emotional, the combination of the politics and the music:   Interestingly, this piece is now the national anthem for the European Union.  And here’s a short video from when Bulgaria was admitted to the EU.  If clicking on these doesn’t work, just cut and paste ‘em.
• · We were sorry to see that Philadelphia ’s symphony will probably file for bankruptcy.
              To be taken seriously, a city needs a decent newspaper, a major league baseball team, and a good symphony orchestra. And good Chinese restaurants.
                                                           *     *    *
  We’ve written a lot lately about leakage, and we’re going to keep writing about it till everyone gets serious and starts tracking it.
  We were brought in for a FOCIS-plus by a New England company which made less than 30 bps in 2009. We looked at over 70 parts of the company, tore it apart and put it back together again.  The conclusion was staring us in the face.  They built in a very nice margin, but they just weren’t realizing it.  They had recently started using Secondary Interactive (SI), a hedging advisory service we think highly of.  In fact, the most profitable company we’ve been in all year – pretax earnings of over 120 bps – uses them for hedging.  So we flew back East and had SI’s Don Brown meet us there at the client’s offices.

The meeting took less than four hours.  We had isolated the earnings problem to leakage, and SI pointed out precisely what they needed to stop doing, and what they needed to start doing.  If this company changes absolutely nothing else about their operations, if they do just what SI told them to do, they’ll be enjoying good earnings within a month.
The patient came to see us as the General Practice doctor because they didn’t feel well.  We found out what the problem was and brought in a specialist.  We’re 95% certain these guys will be doing just fine by the end of February, and if so, this is precisely what we love most about what we do.
We got somewhat criticized for writing see you next Tuesday, so we’ll just say that we’ll see you sometime soon.

Today’s Bonus:  Private Equity Tombstone

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• Corky Watts     (408-395-5504)
• Mike McAuley   (281-250-2536)

Conforme pasa el tiempo, la fecha de llegada al mercado del Audi R8 Spyder es más inminente y eso se nota en la promoción de este modelo. Audi acaba de presentar un nuevo vídeo promocional en el que nos muestra a su nuevo vehículo en plena acción.

Por otra parte, os recordamos que el R8 Spyder hace uso de un motor V10 FSI de 5.2 litros con el que desarrolla una potencia de 525 CV y consigue una velocidad máxima de 313 km/h.

A continuación os dejo con el vídeo, que lo disfruteis:

Related posts:

1. Audi R8 Spyder, vídeo oficial
2. Vídeo del nuevo Audi TT RS
3. Vídeo del Audi A5 Sportback

Are you a serious go-getter who lives in the Washington, DC area? Do you have a fascination for finding and telling the untold story? Do you flourish under pressure and have the ability to meet deadlines? Would you like to become a part of history? If so Michelle Obama Watch is looking for you.

2010 is the dawn of a new decade and we here at Michelle Obama Watch have big things brewing and we are looking to expand our team. Michelle Obama Watch is now hiring Washington, DC Correspondents. If you have a flexible schedule and experience writing and creating vlogs we would like to hear from you. Please send all queries to the Managing Editor at [email protected]. Please be advised that you will be required to submit a writing and video sample.

Katy Perry appeared as a guest judge during American Idol’s Los Angeles auditions — and it was clear almost immediately that the quirky songstress would have a tough time getting along with resident judge Kara DioGuardi!

Kara and Katy exchanged several verbal jabs at each other from behind the judges’ table on Tuesday’s episode of Idol. The girls disagreed over several of the contestants during the L.A. auditions, but things really got ugly when Kara began mocking Katy’s breakout hit “I Kissed A Girl.”

“Please stop before I throw my Coke in your face,” an unamused Katy told Kara curtly.

Shots fired!!

“We used to be friends!” Kara pleaded. “What happened to girl power?!”

An off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy got into a fistfight in Highland Park that turned into a melee, leaving her with stab wounds and another combatant with gunshot wounds, authorities said today.

The deputy, who was on medical leave from the sheriff’s department, was in stable condition at a hospital following the fight that broke out about 1:20 a.m. Tuesday, a sheriff’s department spokesman said.

The fight between the woman, identified by the sheriff’s department as an off-duty deputy, and another woman broke out outside the Cave bar at 60th and Figueroa streets.

"Two people got in a fistfight, but it turned into a huge melee, where one person got shot and one person got stabbed," said LAPD Officer Bruce Borihanh. The other woman also was in stable condition, he said.

Investigators did not know who fired the gunshots or wielded the knife, he said. At least two people were arrested in connection with the melee, Borihanh said.

He said police learned of the altercation when one of the injured sought assistance at a nearby L.A. city fire station.
Sources familiar with the investigation said the stabbing and shooting were related to a party in the area.

Authorities did not release the deputy’s name.

— Richard Winton

Do you remember fashion designer Daniel Franco, who appeared on Seasons 1 & 2 of Project Runway? The guy was sent packing in the first episode of the fashion design drama, but made a comeback in the second season. Well, the multi-talented 38-year-old was seen getting a crack out of the judges during American Idol 9 auditions in Los Angeles.

“If Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle had sex, which is pretty far fetched, I’d be it, pretty much.”

Amnesty International has urged the Uzbekistani government to allow its people freedom of expression after one of the country’s most prominent photographers was charged with "defamation of the Uzbekistani people".

Umida Akhmedova’s photographs, showing scenes of men, women and children carrying out everyday activities, were published in a book entitled Men and Women – From Dawn to Dusk in 2007.  

She was charged by the Uzbekistani authorities on Saturday with slandering and insulting the Uzbekistani people and their traditions.

She is also facing charges for making a documentary film called The Burden of Virginity, which focuses on the traditional obligation on women to prove that they are virgins on their wedding night.

A court hearing is due to take place in the next two weeks. If found guilty of these charges Umida Akhmedova faces up to three years in jail.

"The life that she recorded is not the image of Uzbekistan that the government wants to be seen," said Maisy Weicherding, Amnesty International’s researcher on Uzbekistan.

"This is the first time that someone in Uzbekistan has been charged because their artistic expression has been interpreted as dissent."

Amnesty International said it fears that the photographer has been targeted for exercising her right to freedom of expression, and that she will not receive a fair trial. Should she be jailed, she also risks cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Umida Akhmedova told Aljazeera English in an interview on Tuesday that she could not understand why several years after the initial publication of the images a criminal case had been brought against her.

Her statement was not intended to be political, and in her opinion her images were full of love and positivity, she said.
 
People expressing their dissenting opinion continue to be harassed, beaten and detained in Uzbekistan even though the authorities repeatedly deny this.

At least four human rights activists and independent journalists were sentenced to long prison sentences in 2009 and others have faced short-term detentions, beatings and accusations of harming the reputation of the country.

One of the big issues facing our economy is whether foreign governments will continue to purchase our debt.

Over the past six months, China has sold off over $100 billion worth of U.S.-related debt, hoping to trim down its holdings of Treasuries.

And purchasing is not picking up any time soon. Well, T-Bonds are still doing fine.

Here’s a resent presentaiton from RBS on the changing pace of Chinese asset purchases.

Check out the presentation ->

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China: Here’s 10 Ways We’re Kicking The World’s Ass Right Now
• Uh-Oh: Now Jim Rogers Is Warning About The Chinese Property Bubble
• A Record $118 Billion In US Debt To Be Auction Off In Final Week Of The Year

An error by a San Diego air traffic controller allowed a small regional plane to fly too close to a Boeing 767 as both entered Los Angeles International Airport airspace, aviation officials said today.

The American Eagle Embraer E135, which typically has less than 50 seats, was trailing the LAN Chile Boeing 767 by only 2.89 miles on Jan. 19 as both planes flew north. The Federal Aviation Administration requires five miles of tail-to-nose separation between large and small planes to protect the smaller planes from the wake turbulence.

The pilot of the Embraer had the 767 in sight at all times and remained 100 feet above the larger plane to avoid getting caught in the turbulence, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. The smaller plane was in no imminent danger, he said.

The Embraer pilot could not slow down without air traffic control instruction because it could have created a conflict with an aircraft behind him, Gregor said.
As the planes neared LAX, another air traffic controller restored the five-mile distance between the planes.

— Raja Abdulrahim

More breaking news in L.A Now:

Supporters turn out for Santa Clarita councilman who called himself ‘proud racist’

2 water main breaks in L.A. flood homes, apartment building

Marine, Navy corpsman from Camp Pendleton killed in Afghanistan

Covina father arrested in fatal stabbing of 2-year-old son

Off-duty L.A. County sheriff’s deputy stabbed in Highland Park fight that erupts into melee

Big-box retailer Target has already won accolades from greens for being out front in stocking sustainable fashion and phasing out toxic PVC plastics from products. Now, the Minnesota-based company has announced that it has eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen, and smoked seafood offerings in its stores nationwide.

This announcement includes Target-owned brands — Archer Farms and Market Pantry — as well as national brands. According to a press release, all salmon sold under Target-owned brands will now be wild-caught Alaskan salmon. Sushi featuring farm-raised salmon will be wild-caught salmon by the end of 2010. “In consultation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Target is taking this important step to ensure that its salmon offerings are sourced in a sustainable way that helps to preserve abundance, species health and doesn’t harm local habitats,” according to the release.

When we heard this news here at TDG, our response was, “Target sells sushi?” Even though I grew up in the Midwest and shopped at Targets many times, I didn’t recall seeing fish for sale there; those stores that did stock food items seemed to mostly hawk packaged and canned goods like sodas, chips, cookies, and canned soup.

But clearly many people do get groceries at Targets these days. In fact, when we asked a PR rep about this she replied, “The majority of stores (about 1,500) carry at least the Market Pantry Frozen Keta Salmon Fillets, an item that includes wild-caught salmon.” So this could have a sizable impact.

Why is this important? Many salmon farms have earned criticism for damaging fragile coastal areas, polluting waterways with waste and antibiotics and spreading parasites to native fish. Penned salmon also frequently escape, where they breed with wild populations and dilute their genes. The fish meal fed to farmed salmon has been shown to be contaminated with toxic chemicals like PCBs, which can lead to unsafe levels in the meat, and producing the feed can result in overfishing.

Wild salmon is leaner and has more nutrients like heart-healthy Omega 3s, plus it does not have to be artificially dyed, since unlike farmed salmon the flesh naturally attains that attractive pink color.

Wild-caught Alaska salmon is largely considered a sustainable fishery, and helps support small coastal communities. The fish is considered a “Best Choice” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and is certified as sustainable to the standard of the Marine Stewardship Council.

Just please don’t call it “Tarjay.”

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More from The Daily Green

• The Problem With Farmed Atlantic Salmon
• Eight Delicious Wild Salmon Recipes
• Seven Superfoods You Should Be Eating
• Top 10 Vitamin E Superfoods: The Healthy Antioxidant
• The Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods to Buy Organic

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Pontiac, Toyota

Toyota has quite the PR nightmare on its hands. The boiling cauldron of complaints surrounding unintended acceleration issues bubbled over this month with two separate but giant recalls. The latest involves eight Toyota models that contain defective accelerator pedal mechanisms that could stick over time due to wear.

There is no fix available for the pedal mechanisms yet and dealers have continued to sell new models affected by the recall, so Toyota announced yesterday that it’s suspending the sale and production of these eight models for the week of February 1. It was a bold move that made headlines, as Toyota stands to lose a lot of money. On the other hand, the Japanese automaker got some pats on the back for doing the right thing.

Turns out, the decision to stop producing these vehicles wasn’t made by Toyota alone. The Detroit News reports that Toyota is required by law to stop selling the vehicles since there is no fix available yet. David Strickland, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that Toyota consulted with his agency, which informed the automaker of its obligations and it complied. That still doesn’t answer why these recalled vehicles were being sold five days after the recall was announced.

Nevertheless, Toyota spokesman Mike Michels is reported saying that the company’s decision to stop selling the recalled vehicles was voluntary, but that they also had a legal requirement to do so. How do you voluntary do something that you’re obligated to do?

In related news, General Motors has confirmed to Autoblog’s sister site, AOL Autos, that it is putting a hold on all remaining Pontiac Vibe sales, as the model is under recall for the same throttle issue that afflicts its mechanical twin, the Toyota Matrix. Fortunately for GM, there are apparently only six Vibe units left in stock nationwide as the brand’s shutdown continues.

[Sources: The Detroit News, AOL Autos | Image: David McNew/Getty]

Report: Toyota was legally required to stop selling recalled models originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi acaba de presentar una nueva edición especial de su Audi A3. Esta versión recibe el nombre de Audi A3 Genuine Edition y estará disponible con carrocería de tres puertas.

Esta edición especial ha sido diseñada bajo la influencia del acabado Attraction, al que se le añade diferentes elementos como puede ser unas llantas de aleación de 16 pulgadas, neumáticos 205/55, un equipo de sonido con la radio Concert, volante multifunción y un ordenador de a bordo.

En cuanto a la motorización, esta disponible con los motores de acceso a la gama A3 y aparte añade un motor 1.4 TFSI Genuine Edition con 125 CV a un precio apróximado de 20.900€.

Related posts:

1. Dodge Journey Route 66, edición especial
2. Mazda presenta una edición especial del MX-5
3. Alfa Romeo 147 SS Moving, edición especial

In one fell swoop, CNET’s Ina Fried has apparently put an end to all the rumors regarding Windows Mobile 7 and those Project Pink phones. According to Fried, Mobile World Congress 2010 may herald a new beginning for Microsoft as it attempts to win back the smartphone market with the unveiling of Windows Mobile 7. Shortly after Windows Mobile 7’s official debut, Microsoft is expected to provide developers who attend the at the Mix10 Conference in March with information necessary to begin development for Windows Mobile 7. Though an official launch date has not been determined, Microsoft is aiming to finalize the code for Windows Mobile 7 by Summer 2010 with the intent of launching devices in the latter half of the year. As a side project separate from Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft will leverage the technology and talent of Microsoft-owned Danger by developing a new line of consumer phones that will form the foundation for the next generation Sidekick. These new “Sidekicks” will be powered by Windows Mobile and will integrate with Zune and other Microsoft services. They have already been pictured and will most likely not be a mobile phone version of the Zune HD that everyone was gossiping about last year. These Project Pink devices are expected to debut later this year ahead of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 offerings. So it might make sense T-Mobile is looking to can the existing device line…

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It’s easy to review a game, but sometimes a title comes along that just begs you to sit down and experience it. We’re not going to give you a “buy” or “rent” verdict on these games, but rather say that you need to go out and give them a try. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom—a game with a name that begs for a quick glance on the cover art to make sure it was spelled correctly—is one of these titles. What makes it so special?

Well, we have a few thoughts on the matter.

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The durability of the Mars rovers has been nothing short of staggering. Kids who weren’t even born when they were launched have now started Kindergarten. When they landed in 2004, Ars didn’t even have a dedicated science section—and wouldn’t for over another year. NASA’s cautious estimate was that the rovers would be able to travel a kilometer; they’re now so confident, that they’ve started Opportunity on trip that will take several years and cover nearly 20km. Still, all good things must come to an end, and Opportunity’s twin, the Spirit rover, has now reached the end of its traveling.

Spirit has been operating with only five of its six wheels for years, but about ten months ago, the remaining wheels wound up stuck in some soft, sandy material; another wheel died recently. After several attempts to free it, NASA has now decided that it’s best to simply orient it to soak up as much sun as it can during the Martian winter. The cold and reduced sunlight mean that it’ll be much harder to keep Spirit active over the winter, which may send it into a hibernation mode for many months. Winter temperatures will be close to the design limits of the rover’s electronics, so there’s a chance it won’t revive when spring returns to its hemisphere on Mars.

Assuming the rover survives, NASA plans on using it for two experiments: long-term monitoring of changes in nearby soils, with the possibility of detecting some sort of water cycle, and providing fine-grained positional information that will allow researchers to detect wobbles in Mars’ rotation, which can be used to infer details of the planet’s interior. Neither of these was possible when six functional wheels gave its handlers “the imperative to drive it,” as one of the team leaders put it.

That imperative is still very much in effect when it comes to Opportunity, which is on its way to the Endeavor crater, about 19km away from the previous crater that it had explored. On its way, it seems to have found an unusual rock, which is going by the name of “Marquette Island.” This rock appears to be a basalt, formed by the slow cooling of molten rock within the crust and then blasted to its current location by an impact. It’s the first of its sort to have been observed, and researchers are excited about the data obtained after Opportunity drilled into its interior.

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Remember Jack Skellington from the movie ‘Tim Burton’s The Night before Christmas’? Well for some reason that movie became a big cult and now Adata for some reason has turned the main character into a USB Flash Drive. Made of rubber and comes in capacities 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB it is also resists to spill water and external shock. Its USB connector is hidden inside the Jack and can be accessed by removing his head.  It also comes with an extra USB cable in case you can’t easily stick him into a USB port on your computer. Jack may just scare your other funny looking USB shaped flash drives.