LittleBigPlanet’s upcoming “Leerdammer” patch will finally free players from having to stick to offline level creation. Yep, they’ve finally slapped o…

Check out the Moderncat picks in the Martha Stewart Gift Guide! There’s something for every moderncat on your list!

The iPhone is set to arrive soon in South Korea, where it will debut on KT, a smaller carrier, after failing to convince the industry incumbent SK Telecom to carry the device.

Despite this its arrival is still expected to bring competitive pressure to bear on the cell phone market there, where smartphones have been traditionally sold without contract and at pretty high prices.

KT will be offering the 32 GB iPhone 3GS for $317 for buyers signing up for a $38 per month contract, and free for buyers on a $113 per month contract.

SK Telecom is responding with both better advertising and by reducing the price of their flagship device, the Samsung T-Omnia, which previously sold for around $796 for the 4 GB model and $833 for the 8 GB one. The two devices have now seen a drop to $758 and $768 respectively.

SK Telecom is also set to double its handset subsidies and offer discounts to entice users into buying data plans, and even offering the phone for free to buyers who sign up for a $80 per month contract.

LG Electronics, who will be launching the SU210 Windows Mobile smartphone, is also set to introduce the device at the unprecedented low price of $516.  Other companies like HTC and Sony Ericsson are likely to follow suite too.

“Mobile operators are now increasing their spending on handset subsidies on smart phones. Although the increasing costs are a concern, there is a reason to think that consumers will benefit,” said an official from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC)’s policy bureau.

While lower prices are in general good news for consumers and smartphone adoption, Apple has been able to achieve this largely at the expense of larger carrier subsidies, while other smartphone companies have been forced instead to reduce their margins, resulting in lower revenue and less ability to produce competitive products.

Read more at KoreanTimes here.

Filed under: Convertible, Buick, Chevrolet

Chevrolet Camaro Convertible Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery

Ever look for something high and low only to find it hiding in plain sight? That’s how we’d sum up the latest announcement from General Motors. The company has announced that the new Buick Regal – based on 2009’s European Car of the Year, the Opel Insignia – will enter production at the beginning of 2011 at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. There it will join the existing assembly line for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers and the Chevy Camaro.

The kicker? General Motors subtly slipped in the announcement that the Camaro Convertible will begin production there as well around the same time. The drop-top pony car was first mooted with the concept unveiled at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, and GM has been hemming and hawing about its production prospects ever since. Well, apparently they’ve made up their minds, and told all of us about it in the most understated way they could think of. Follow the jump to read the official press release.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading GM confims Chevy Camaro Convertible for Oshawa production alongside 2011 Buick Regal

GM confims Chevy Camaro Convertible for Oshawa production alongside 2011 Buick Regal originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Dow instantly opened over 200 points downward, which is it where it sits about 10 minutes into the trading day.

The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are both down a steep 2.3%.

Oil is getting clobbered, down around 5% to $74/barrel.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• After Dubai, Is Greece Next?
• Mobius: Even If We’re In A Bull Market, Dubai Could Spark A 20% Correction
• Dubai Now Planning A Universe Of Man-Made Islands

Public speaking, spiders and heights are some of our most common fears. They can be embarrassing, occasionally make us squeal like a little girl in public, and potentially give your friends something to tease you about for years to come.

Phobias though, are a completely different matter. A phobia is a fear so strong and compelling that no matter how illogical, it transforms its victim into a fearful and anxious bundle of nerves; willing to do anything they can to avoid the source of their terror.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

The Number 666

^{If you flip the picture its “999”. There, problem solved.}

There are several phobias involving numbers, but this one takes the cake both for being impossible to pronounce and being straight up strange. It is the fear of the number 666, in Christian believes this is the “Number of the Beast” and has satanic connotations. Those who suffer from this phobia will go to great lengths to avoid any situation where a 6 appears three times out of fear that any exposure will bring terrible consequences.

Barophobia

Gravity

Gravity is everywhere, affecting everything. It’s a constant force that works to keep your feet on the ground, the moon in its orbit and skydivers hurtling at a consistent speed towards the earth’s surface. It is as inescapable as death, taxes and a mother’s nagging.

For some though, gravity is a thing to be feared, a terrifying force that could change at any moment and crush them to death. Often this terror is made worse when barophobes are riding escalators, elevators or midway rides like Ferris wheels and roller coasters, anything that alters g-forces by even the slightest amount can trigger a feeling of panic and dread

Eisoptrophobia

Your Own Reflection

Mirrors are everywhere, bouncing our reflections off buildings, bathroom walls and change rooms. We use them to fix our hair, straighten our ties and find out who is the fairest of them all.

For eisoptrophobics every mirror is a threat, and faced with their own reflection they spiral into panic. For some it is a belief that looking at their reflection will drag them into a supernatural world that exists on the other side of the glass, for others it is a deep horror that stemmed from low self-esteem and a desire to avoid seeing themselves that grew into a crippling fear.

Caligynephobia

Beautiful Women

^{Silicone, make-up applied with a trowel & teeth so white they’re blinding. No wonder people fear them}

Fashion and film rely heavily on the iconic beauty of their stars, stunningly beautiful women whose features are touted as a physical ideal.

What most would consider a dream, some phobia suffers consider a nightmare, their deepest terrors triggered by the appearance of a beautiful woman. For some this pervading dread of a femme fatale haunts their every waking moment, for others it is only when they are exposed to a bombshell of a babe that the anxiety and fears kick in.  Either way, I’m betting there are not many caligynephobics living in Hollywood.

Chrometophobia

Money

^{And its covered with germs too}

Money is the lifeblood of the modern world, earning it, spending it, diving into vaults of sparkly gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, we are all in its thrall to some extent.

For the Chrometophobe though, money is a plague of fears and worries that never stop. This phobia takes on different flavours; for some it is a deep terror they will mismanage money and wind up destitute. For others it is a voice that whispers that money is the root of all evil, convincing them that it will destroy them utterly.

Anthophobia

Flowers

^{Anthophobics’ idea if hell has a pollen count}

The expression “Say it with flowers” takes on a whole new meaning for those who suffer from this phobia. Anthophobics are afflicted with a deep and irrational fear of all things budding and beautiful.  Despite their awareness that this is illogical, sufferers of this aliment can be terrorized by a posey, its petals or stem.  

Macrophobia

Long Waits

Doctor’s office or check out line, no one really likes to wait. We all have places we’d rather be, doing things far more fun than perusing ancient magazines or standing in long lineups scanning the tabloid headlines.

When you are afflicted with macrophobia though, a long wait is much more than an inconvenience, it is a trigger to anxiety attacks and all out terror. One of the more mysterious phobias, the reasons for its development is often not known, but the fear and anxiety any sort of wait causes are very real.

Alektorophobia

Chickens

If Colonel Saunders had suffered from this phobia we’d have never known the tasty joy of his 11 herbs and spices.

Alektorophobia is the medical term for being chicken about chickens. Sufferers of this condition constantly worry that these peaceful poultry may become aggressive, swooping down to startle and peck them, spreading their avian diseases and threatening the victim’s well being. With the discovery of avian flu, I can only imagine many sufferers of this ailment screamed “I knew it all along.”

Geliophobia

Laughter

Laughter isn’t always the best medicine; in fact if you have geliophobia it is about the worst thing in the world.

People suffering from this aliment often live in terror that they will laugh or smile at the wrong moment, or find the sound of laughter to be gutbustingly horrifying. Comedians and class clowns are these people’s worst enemies, and for them a sitcom laugh-track is more like the soundtrack of Hell.

Arachibutyrophobia

Peanut Butter Sticking to the Roof of your Mouth

^{On theck, I haff somving sthuck to the roof of my mouff}

Whether you like it crunchy, smooth or as part of a Fluffernutter sandwich, most people enjoy this sticky treat from time to time and never suffer a single qualm.

For others though, the thought of eating peanut butter can send them into a paroxysm of panic. Arachibutyrophobes cannot cope with the idea of getting this goo stuck inside their mouth, and this fear can build until not only are they afraid of peanut butter, but any and all peanut products and even glass jars.

Somniphobia

Sleep

There is nothing so welcome as a soft pillow and warm quilt at the end of a long day; most of us look forward to burrowing under the covers and letting the world slip away for a few blissful hours of sleep.

Unless you suffer from this phobia, in which case sleep is not welcome at all. Stemming from a fear of losing control, Somniphobics are convinced that if they sleep they will not be able to wake up again, not even if they world around them was being shredded like protons in the Large Haldron Collider.  Another common fear is that while they sleep they are vunerable, and could be attacked or even killed while they visit the land of dreams.

Ombrophobia

Being Rained On

The only ones who really like wet weather are ducks and other waterproof critters, but most of us can cope with a rainy day with an umbrella and a pair of rubber boots.

Ombrophobics need more than an umbrella though, as their deep fear of precipitation means they will never be caught singing in the rain. This phobia of getting rained on can get so bad that just hearing the soothing pitter patter of rain on a rooftop can bring up feelings of dread and anxiety.

Ablutophobia

Bathing

A hot shower is part of morning rituals all around the world, as needed as that first cup of coffee. If you offer a hot bubble bath to an overworked Mom and she’ll be in the suds before you can say “spa.” But not everyone feels that way about getting clean.

Ablutophobia is the fear of bathing, and those afflicted with this disorder can suffer paralyzing levels of fear just thinking about washing up.  It is most commonly seen in children, women and anyone named “Pigpen.”

^{World’s most adorable ablutophobe}

The victim cannot bear the idea of cleaning themselves, reacting to the idea like they’d just witnessed the shower scene from Hitchcock’s movie Psycho.

The battle against “illegal file-sharing” is heating up, especially in Europe where it looks like the media lobbyists are well worth their fees. Several countries are planning or debating whether to introduce a ‘three-strikes’ system for file sharers, and recently, the UK has been the hotbed of activity. With talks of making the system mandatory by law, some ISPs are making some compromises in the hopes it will deter lawmakers. Virgin Media, one of the biggest ISPs in the country, has announced it will test a system to monitor file-sharing on its network. The trial will affect some 40 percent of its subscribers and will use technology from Detica, a technology company which builds specialized networking solutions.

“Understanding how consumer behaviour is changing will be an important requirement of Virgin Media’s upcoming music offering and, should they become law, the Government’s legislative proposals will also require measurement of the level of copyright infringement on ISPs’ networks. Detica’s CView technology potentially offers a non-intrusive solution which enhances our understanding of aggregate customer behaviour without identifying or storing individual customers’ data,” Jon James, executive director of Broadband at Virgin Media, said.

The company claims t… (read more)

Here’s more grist for oil bears who argue that regardless of the long-term situation, for now the world is awash with oil, at a time when end-demand is ho-hum.

———-

Platts Analysis: U.S. crude oil production in 2009 poised to show biggest jump in 40 years

New York – November 27, 2009

United States crude oil production for 2009 is on target to have its biggest one-year jump since 1970, according to a Platts analysis of industry data.

With U.S. oil production averaging 5.268 barrels per day (b/d) through October, the gain in U.S. output will be the most since the country produced 9.637-million b/d in 1970, which turned out to be the peak year of U.S. crude output, according to Platts’ analysis of data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). If that 5.268 million b/d figure holds through December, this year would show a 6.4% boost from the 4.95 million b/d average of 2008 and rank as the best U.S. oil production year since 2004, when output averaged 5.419 million b/d.

For comparison, in the 40 years since U.S. oil production peaked annual output has jumped only eight times. Seven of those increases were minimal; only in 1978 was there a jump of significant magnitude, an increase of 5.6%, to 8.7 million b/d.

Last year’s hurricane curtailments distorted the production numbers somewhat for the 2008 comparison, given that 183,000 b/d of Gulf of Mexico output was still offline at the end of that year. However, 2009 is still expected to post increases of 3% and 4% from the relatively storm-free years of 2006 and 2007, respectively.

Projections from the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) indicate that the primary driver for this year’s U.S. oil production resurgence is actually just getting started. That driver is the Gulf of Mexico, where operators have begun launching a group of new fields, fulfilling what has been a decade-long focus on unlocking the promise of deepwater exploration there.

In its reporting, Platts concluded that with the jump in the Gulf of Mexico, combined with the emergence of two other new oil-production trends, it appears the U.S. has a chance of at least maintaining oil output in the range of five million to six million b/d for some years to come. “We see it above five million barrels per day for the next 10 years or so,” Platts quoted Peter Jackson, senior director for IHS CERA, as saying. “There is still a tremendous amount of exploration potential in the U.S. and that plateau could be sustained.”

The Gulf posted its biggest oil production year in 2002 with 1.556 million b/d, but only 61% of that total came from deepwater. In contrast, this year the MMS projects oil output of 1.213 million b/d with 76% from deepwater as the Gulf ramps toward an expected new oil production record of 1.635 million b/d by 2011

Besides growth in the Gulf, those other trends involve further development of the Bakken Shale oil play in North Dakota and success by a group of operators now training their onshore exploration sights toward new oil targets at the expense of natural gas.

The development of the Bakken into a robust, new oil province is well under way, according to data from EIA. Bakken oil output has already elevated North Dakota into fifth place among U.S. states for oil production with average daily output of 202,000 b/d at the end of 2008. But that number already appears to be old, even though is was 50% more than 2007 figures. For example, in June of this year, production in North Dakota had climbed to 215,000 b/d.

As for companies shifting their strategies, that group includes large Houston independent and Bakken pioneer EOG Resources, which has set a goal of shifting from a 70% gas production share to a 50:50 oil and gas mix by 2011 with a comprehensive review of additional potential North American shale oil targets.

This rise in output has helped the U.S. reduce its net imports — defined as imports less exports, both crude and petroleum products — by a substantial amount. While there are many factors that go into the United States’ net import figure, the decline has been striking, according to EIA data.

For the final three months of 2008, net imports – reported weekly by EIA — were never less than 10.5 million b/d, and were as high as 12.68 million b/d. This year, the EIA is reporting that net imports in the first week of October were 10.1 million b/d, have not been higher since, and have been as low as 8.84 million b/d..

And while the drop in U.S. consumption can be seen as accounting for much of that decline, the U.S. also has put more than 140 million barrels of crude oil and products into inventory since the beginning of October 2008, something made possible in part by the rise in crude oil output.

For more information on crude oil, visit the Platts website.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Is China About To Make A Monster $7.5 BILLION Oil Acquisition In The Gulf Of Mexico? (DVN)
• Now China’s Buying Oil In The Gulf Of Mexico
• No, The Baltic Dry Index Doesn’t Forecast Oil Prices

Filed under: Aftermarket, Sedan, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Misc. Auto Shows

2010 Brabus B63 S – Click above for a high-res image gallery

Don’t have enough money for Brabus to swap out the V8 in your E63 AMG for a V12? Not to worry. Today at the Essen Motor Show, the German tuner officially launched its B63 S performance package for 6.2-liter V8 in the four-door Benz. The upgrade consists of dual “sport” air filters, high-flow catalytic converters, and revised program for the engine and results in a 30 horsepower increase.

Brabus is also offering other modifications for the E63 AMG as well, including a carbon fiber aero kit, wheels in 18 to 20-inch sizes, and various interior trim pieces like stainless-steel scuff plates, a new 225 mph speedometer, and wood or carbon fiber inlays. For the most part ,we’d skip the visual bits and stick with the engine upgrades. Hit the jump for full details in press release, or check out the high-res gallery below courtesy of Brabus.

[Source: Brabus]

Continue reading Essen 2009: Brabus tweaks the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG

Essen 2009: Brabus tweaks the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Japan, Technology, Nissan

A while back, Nissan scientists helped to develop a paint clearcoat called Scratch Shield that can self-repair light scratches overnight or over the course of a week.

Now the Japanese automaker is spreading the love, licensing the technology to Japan’s largest wireless company, NTT DoCoMo. The clearcoat uses a special top layer of highly elastic resin that gives the coating a ‘flexibility’ that reportedly means that it can prevent or “heal” 80% of surface marks. The coating itself is also tougher, so it is less susceptible to marks in the first place. Official press release after the jump.

[Source: Nissan]

Continue reading Nissan’s self-healing Scratch Shield paint to be applied to mobile phones

Nissan’s self-healing Scratch Shield paint to be applied to mobile phones originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone knows that Twitter has been reluctant in seeking revenue streams too aggressively and has just recently moved in this direction, signing deals with partners like Microsoft and Google and announcing some sort for Twitter ads come next year. What most people don’t know is that the Japanese version of the service not only has ads, and for quite a while now, but it’s also close to launching a form of premium accounts, perhaps as early as January 2010. But, they’re not the premium accounts we’ve been hearing of for the better part of this year, rather they offer the users an option to get paid for their tweets by charging subscriptions for their streams.

DG Mobile, a subsidiary of the local company which partnered with Twitter to offer the service in Japan, Digital Garage, has announced that it will roll out subscription services for Twitter users. Those running services like breaking news or which post mostly original content on the microblogging platform can now monetize by charging for their tweets.

There will be several options for the subscribers, they can pay a monthly fee to get full access or they can buy a prepaid ticket which they can use how they see fit. The can also pay for access on a tweet-by-tweet basis. The pricing will vary depending on what the content provider deems fair, but is ex… (read more)

Capacitive screens are not very precise, and if your software is not designed to take this into account you can get pretty funny results.

This video by YouHTC.ru shows the effect on the TouchFlo3D tabs on the HTC HD2, where the device does not quite know which tab it should come to rest on, despite the finger being still .

According to YouHTC HTC intends to modify their software to fix this issue, hopefully not with the result of making the interface less responsive.

Read more at YouHTC here.

After you’ve gotten your Dubai fill, take a break and check out the situation in Greece.

Here’s the Telegraph from earlier this week:

When the European Central Bank’s Jean-Claude Trichet said last week that certain sinners on the edges of the eurozone were “very close to losing their credibility”, everybody knew he meant Greece.

The interest spread between 10-year Greek bonds and German bunds has jumped to 178 basis points. Greek debt has decoupled from Italian debt. Athens can no longer hide behind others in EMU’s soft South.

“As far as the bond vigilantes are concerned, the Bat-Signal is up for Greece,” said Francesco Garzarelli in a Goldman Sachs client note, Tremors at the EMU Periphery.

The newly-elected Hellenic Socialists (PASOK) of George Papandreou confess that the budget deficit will be more than 12pc of GDP this year, four times the original claim of the last lot. After campaigning on extra spending, it will have to do the exact opposite. “We need to save the country from bankruptcy,” he said.

Good luck. Communist-led shipyard workers have already clashed violently with police. Some 200 anarchists were arrested in Athens last week after they torched streets of cars in a tear gas battle.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Mobius: Even If We’re In A Bull Market, Dubai Could Spark A 20% Correction
• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai
• Potential Dubai Default Rocks Financial Markets, While Dollar Soars On Panic Buying

Templeton’s Mark Mobius, who runs $25 billion in emerging market investments, remains a long-term bull.

Yet he thinks that the Dubai debacle could easily trigger a 20% global market correction, given that it’s about time for the bull market to take a breather.

“How serious will the fall out be?”

“…I think it will be pretty serious. If Dubai were to default, it would cause a wave of defaults in other areas.”

“How should investors be looking at emerging markets?”

“…There’s no question about an ongoing bull market, that’s certain. But we will certainly see corrections and this may very be the trigger for the markets to pull back.”

“…A 20% correction is not unusual in such bull markets, that’s quite possible. So we should be ready for that kind of correction.”

See Bloomberg’s video interview with Mark Mobius here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Marc Mobius: Here Comes Another 40% Surge For The BRICs
• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai
• Black Friday: Asian Markets Walloped After Dubai World

Look what the amazing flood of dollars all around the world is doing to poor real estate brokers north of the border in Toronto.

Toronto Star: Competing lines of real estate agents waiting to buy new luxury condos turned ugly on Bloor St. this morning with jabbing, shouts, threats and accusations of queue-jumping

Some of the agents, who lined both sides of Bloor at Bedford Ave., had been waiting for more than a week to buy units in the X2 development at Jarvis and Charles Sts. Others arrived last night.

By this morning, there were three separate lines of potential buyers, each claiming the right to have first crack at the condos.

Curbed, which spotted, the article couldn’t believe this line:

“It’s our job with a hot market nowadays,” broker Amir Geran said before dawn as he stood in the north-side lineup, the one that ended up getting priority. “You have to line up for condos like this.”

Mortimer, we’re back!

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Foreign-Currency Buyers Making Huge, Bulk Purchases Of Distressed Florida Condos
• Spend Your Bonus Money On Brooklyn’s Most Expensive Condo
• Miami Condo Glut Starts To Ease

David Rosenberg hasn’t wavered a bit on his view that the economy’s still in horrendous shape and the 70% market boom of the past eight months has been a violent bear-market rally.

But even Dave is now having to admit that the jobs picture is getting better, albeit slowly. 

The current rate of initial claims, Dave says, is consistent with modest job growth.  So we could see payrolls growth as early as December.

[This week’s initial jobless] claims number cannot be dismissed out of hand despite the help from some aggressive seasonal factors. 

For the week ending October 24, they were at 532,000; on October 31, they were 514,000; on November 7, they were 505,000; on November 14, they were 501,000; and as of November 21, they
had declined to 466,000.  So the trend is clearly down — falling now for four weeks in a row.  This is the lowest level on claims since the week of September 13, 2008 and this figure has not been below 500,000 since the opening week of 2009; and as an exclamation mark, the four-week moving average also dipped to 496,500 from 513,000 — first time below the 500,000 mark in a year. 

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey data did show yesterday that in November people were having a tougher time finding a new job than at any other time in the past 26 years, so keep in mind that the claims numbers reflect firings, not hirings.   The firings have now abated, but it remains to be seen how the job market evolves with a record 9.3 million Americans working part-time who would rather have a full- time job (double the norm) and with the workweek at a record low of 33 hours.  All companies have to do is take the workweek back up to where it was when the
recession began and right there it would create the equivalent of two million new jobs (but without actually adding headcount); or take the number of people that were furloughed into part-time back onto full-time, which would also be equivalent to de facto job creation of two million jobs.   

The firings have now abated, but it will be interesting how the job market evolves with a record 9.3 million Americans working part- time and the workweek at a record low of 33 hours.

If we see confirmation of this 466,000 number in next week’s data, it would be a pretty safe bet to say that claims have finally gravitated into a 450,000- 475,000 range, which in the past was consistent with very modest job growth, but growth nonetheless. 

Economists have had trouble this cycle because of the nature of the recession being a credit contraction and asset deflation phase as opposed to a garden-variety inflation/excess inventory downturn, so relying on the past has been tricky and faulty.  Be that as it may, look for upward revisions now for the December 4th release of Street estimates for nonfarm payrolls (the consensus is currently at -120,000, which that could now come down to -100,000 or lower) and talk will soon grow of a positive-print as early as the December or January Nonfarm payroll reports. 

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Jim Rogers: Tim Geithner Has Been Wrong About Everything His Entire Career
• Gold Tumbles, As Nervous Investors Want Greenbacks Instead
• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai

With Black Friday around the corner, we all want to know beforehand what kind of deals retailers have readied for us and here is a piece of juicy info for those of you who live nearby Sony Outlet Stores. Also watch out for Sony Outlet Online deals and check out their Twitter page. For now though, see if any of these offerings will attract your wallet:

DoorBuster Deals

TVs:

KDL-32L5000 $309.99 (First 25)

KDL-40S504 $564.99 (First 25)

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• We always like it when governments sell off those things that can be better operated by the private sector, so we were pleased to read that Connecticut has sold off its 23 freeway rest stops.  Private equity firm The Carlyle Group paid the State $178 million for the right to re-build and operate them.  Most rest stop bathrooms are pretty gross, so maybe they’ll do something about them.  They also plan to put a Dunkin’ Donuts at each rest stop.

• Remember how Apple’s share of the PC market dropped to a low of 4.4% a few years back?  Well, they win the Comeback Player Award with a 9.2% market share now.

• Here’s an interesting office building.  It’s the corporate offices of an Ohio company that makes baskets.
  
• Way too many companies we visit let the doc-draw person send docs to escrow without a second set of eyes taking a look at them.  We were in a shop 5-6 years ago where this was the case, and here’s what happened: They were doing a lot of 2-1 arms with a 4.5% rate for the first two years and 2% & 5% caps thereafter.  The doc-draw person assumed that a 5% life cap meant the loan could never go above 5%, which does sound pretty logical, so as a result of no one checking her work, she sent to title a ton of loans which were 4.5% for two years and then 5% for the next 28 years.  Rates were quite a bit higher back then, and these loans had to ultimately be sold at 88.5 for an 11.5 point loss.  If you don’t have a second signature before docs go out, you should probably start doing so.
• Lenders who’ve gone totally paperless tell us that their loans get purchased a minimum of one day faster!  It was weird walking through San Francisco-based Bay Equity the other day and seeing literarily no loans files.
• To go paperless, we like what DataTrac has and we also like DocVelocity. Most of the companies we’ve seen successfully make this transition have used the DataTrac piece, but there are other vendors we just haven’t run across yet.
• Venezuelan Idiot-in-Chief Hugo Chavez is showing his true colors.  He recently praised Carlos the Jackal, the terrorist who murdered innocent people for years throughout Europe, then praised Zimbabwe ’s Robert Mugabe and Iran ’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  To show the world that he’s completely psycho, he then said that Uganda ’s Idi Amin was a good guy who was simply misunderstood.
• Take a look at the attached Ten Keys to Survival in Tough Times. Are there any specific ones you should pay attention to?  We wrote this in 2007 when the mortgage world was falling apart, but we think it applies just as much today. Number two is critical (Maintain maximum liquidity) as is #7 (Commit to better financial reporting).  When we look at it, though, they all still apply.
• Congratulations to MVP winners Joe Mauer and Albert Pujols.  To those who nostalgically look back on previous decades as the good old days of baseball, today’s kids will someday look back on the current era as their good old days.  Watching Pujols has to be just as exciting as having watched Ted William s, Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig 60-70 years ago.
• We just read a 1954 book about lawyers, and it made us wonder what corporate attorneys charged back then. Maybe $25 an hour, maybe $50?   And now $400 is totally normal, and some New York firms can charge up to $800-900.  What’s the most you’ve seen?
• We used to think highly of Frontier Bank up in the Seattle area, but we just noticed that their Texas Ratio is 335%.  Once you go over 100%, it’s quite possible you’ll fail, and at 150% it’s highly probable you will.   A very simplified explanation of the Texas Ratio is that 100% means that your capital + your loans loss reserves is exactly equal to your bad loans. There’s more to it than that, but that’s enough to help you understand that for every $100 of capital & reserves at Frontier, they have $335 of “bad” loans.
• If you’re on the Board of a bank that’s in trouble, you need to be very careful.  The FDIC is going after Directors of failed banks by sending “claim letters” informing them of the intent to sue.  And don’t assume that your D&O insurance policy will protect you.  Many of these policies have exclusions that don’t pay on suits brought by regulatory agencies.  We get asked occasionally to join various bank Boards, and this is a pretty big part of why we decline such invitations.
• Someone wrote us about the whereabouts of Rod P. of Capitol Commerce infamy, telling us that he lives in the multimillion dollar house that Capital Commerce “built”. is wearing a Mohawk haircut, probably looks like an idiot, races cars, and is apparently living the good life. Question:  Why isn’t this bank robber in jail?
• Including mortgages in foreclosure, total FHA non-performing loans increased to 17.7% from 17.4%. Subprime delinquency rates increased to 26.4%.  None of this is good news.
• Have you noticed that the stock of Hormel Foods is up 52% in the past year?  Hormel makes the world’s greatest breakfast food, Spam, and generates over $6 billion in revenue a year.  Bacon and eggs is nice, but Spam and eggs is heaven.  In Hawaii they serve Spam sushi.

We used to think that we would end up someday with only three national papers, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the New York Times.  We can probably exclude the Washington Post now, as they just closed their remaining bureaus around the country.  This symbolic retreat from being a truly national newspaper was evidenced by their statement that they need to “… concentrate our journalistic firepower on our central mission of covering Washington … and the region.”

We were in Columbus, Ohio again last week, and we really like it!  A clean, vibrant downtown, nice neighborhoods and friendly people.  Next stop, two days in Seattle where we seem to go at least twice a month. If you have a company or bank in New Hampshire , Vermont , Hawaii or the Virgin Islands , call us and maybe we can give you a special deal. These are all beautiful places we’d like to visit.

Garrett, Watts & Co.

Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

Corky Watts  ([email protected])

Joe Garrett ([email protected])

Mike McAuley  ([email protected])

Facebook is taking a harder stance on what third-party app developers can do to make money, more specifically, what ad-networks they can and can’t use, with emphasis on the latter. In light of all the recent scandals and controversy over some practices developers employed to monetize their apps, especially the so called ‘offer-ads’, it’s no surprise that the social network, which was also criticized for its lax approach in enforcing its own policies, has finally taken a clearer stance. Facebook has issued a list of “monetization providers” which are banned from the site and says that any app doing business with them is liable to be banned as well.

“In an effort to keep you informed on the best ways to adhere to our policies and principles, while continuing to grow your business on Facebook Platform, we’ve created a list of monetization providers that are no longer permitted to operate on Facebook Platform or Facebook.com. These providers have violated our policies and/or principles,” Nick Gianos, from Facebook’s Platform team, wrote.

Facebook says that the list can change at any time, so the developers should regularly check to see if their ad network hasn’t been added to it to avoid any problems. At the moment, four providers have been singled out, Gambit, Social Hour, Social… (read more)