Author: Serkadis

The bears put together a little win streak last week, but it looks set to come crashing down, as they obviously failed to deliver any kind of real blow.

Asia had a big night:

WSJ: Chinese banks in Hong Kong jumped after a researcher under China’s State Council reportedly said the Chinese economy was likely to expand more than 10% in the fourth quarter. Gains in Reliance Industries boosted Indian shares after the market heavyweight announced a bid for Dutch firm LyondellBasell Industries.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.4% to 22771.39 for its first advance in five sessions, while China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.9% to 3338.66. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7%, Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.1%, South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.1%, New Zealand’s NZX 50 ended flat and the Philippines’ main index fell 0.7%. Singapore’s Straits Times Index ended up 1.3% and in afternoon trading, India’s Sensex rose 0.8%.

Europe was up too, and US futures are pointing solidly higher.

Gold, meanwhile, is above $1165, a brand-new record.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Gold Starts The Week With An Instant Blast Higher (GLD)
• Goldman Super Bullish On China
• Saturday Night Live Rips Obama Over China Trip, Spending, And The Deficit

Bloomberg offers up an interesting historical parallel to our current situation, in which stocks are soaring, but government debt yields practically nil.

For the first time in seven decades, Treasury bills are paying no interest while stocks continue to appreciate — a divergence in U.S. financial markets that might be perilous if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke didn’t know all about 1938.

That’s when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 25 percent even as bill rates tumbled to 0.05 percent from 0.45 percent. As 1939 began, stocks began a three-year, 34 percent decline after the Fed increased borrowing costs prematurely to stymie inflation that never materialized.

The apparent contradiction between stocks and Treasuries has been debated hotly, but the smart money see it as a liquidity issue:

“The question is what are you going to do with all the money that has been created?” said James Hamilton, a former visiting scholar at the Fed who teaches at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s not a contradiction at all to see very low short-term yields and at the same time have people trying to buy stocks. They are both reflecting that same force.”

The currency argument is bolstered by the fact that not only are both Treasuries and stocks rallying, but they’re rallying in a symmetrical manner. This chart came from David P. Goldman, who has long argued that everything is being driven by currency expansion right now.

Anyway, the premise of the above article is that in light of the similarities with 1938, there’s no way Bernanke willl raise rates. So, uh, party on!

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Proof That Everyone Is Obsessed With The Dollar Carry Trade
• A Radical Solution: Obama Should Peg The Dollar To The Yuan
• Brazil Is Reeling From Weakness In The Dollar (EWZ)

Google is getting ready for a big push with a full voice communications service in the works, but in the mean time it has to do a little housekeeping. Google Voice, one of Google’s hottest products on the mobile front at the moment, came to be after the company acquired GrandCentral, a startup offering pretty much what Voice is offering today. This was back in 2007 and now that Google Voice is getting ready for its big public debut, the GrandCentral website and service is living its final days.

Google sent an email to GrandCentral users, informing them that the service is shutting down and to move completely to Google Voice if they haven’t done so already. “We’re writing to let you know that we will be closing down the GrandCentral website as of December 31, 2009,” the email read.

All GrandCentral accounts were upgraded to Google Voice earlier this year, but since that time, you’ve still been able to log-in to your GrandCentral account and listen to old messages there. You will no longer be able to log-in to your GrandCentral account after December 31. Because of this, we strongly suggest downloading any messages or contacts that you want to keep in the next 43 days,” Google also wrote.

This isn’t much of a hassle for GrandCentral users, they… (read more)

The winner of the cat portrait pendant from The Illustrated Cat is Fran (comment #191)! Fran will get to choose one of Johnnie’s six beautiful cat portraits for her new stylish accessory.

DISCOUNT CODE!

Don’t worry, if you still want to get a cat art pendant for you or for a friend (excluding custom pendants), The Illustrated Cat is offering a special discount just for Moderncat readers. Enter coupon code moderncat09 at checkout and receive 15% off now through the end of December. Let the holiday shopping begin!

PopeHilarius writes in to alert us to an unfortunate situation. Apparently the private school Adelphi in Bay Ridge, New York, couldn’t handle the fact that there was a Bay Ridge messageboard that had a critical thread about the school, including links to some news articles that were highly critical of the school.

Rather than respond to those claims, the school sent the messageboard owner a cease and desist letter, demanding the entire thread be removed. Tragically, the message board owner apparently was unfamiliar with Section 230 of the CDA and the rights of a service provider to resist such efforts, and just took down the whole thread. This is unfortunate, though, commenters on the thread appear to be reposting the same articles (and explaining section 230 to the board operator).

But, really, this is why lawyers still send bogus cease-and-desist letters: all too often they work. Having been on the receiving end of a few such letters, it’s pretty damn scary to know you might get sued, and even if you know you’re right, the whole concept of having to fight it can be scary (and expensive) unless you can find a good lawyer to represent you pro bono — which isn’t easy for many to do. It’s legal bullying at its finest, but it works way too often. This is one reason, by the way, that we really could use a strong, federal, anti-SLAPP law, that would help sites understand that they can’t be silenced just because someone doesn’t like what they say, and gives those sites an easy, clear and inexpensive way to get any such cases dismissed quickly.

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Social media has gotten people in trouble more than once, sometimes even in serious trouble with the law. Every time it had something to do with the way they used social media, like revealing incriminatory information. Now a new barrier has been broken, someone got arrested for not using social media. James Roppo, a senior exec at Island Def Jam Records was arrested by the New York police though the reason for his arrest isn’t exactly clear at this point.

YouTube sensation turned R&B singer Justin Bieber was supposed to make an appearance at the Roosevelt Field mall in Long Island, New York promoting his new album. Unfortunately, it looks like the people organizing the event and the authorities handling it were unprepared for the huge number of teenagers that showed up and waited in line for hours for a chance to meet their idol.

Things got out of hand and the police asked the label exec to tweet to the fans that the show is canceled and to go home. This is where things get murky. Some reports claim that he was detained for failing to tweet these messages when asked by the police. “We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message,” Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith told Newsday. “By not cooperating with us we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk.”read more)

Last year I blogged about several free enterprise search solutions, and it looks Coveo is now bringing coffee to the free beer party I described back then. A couple of weeks ago the vendor announced "Expresso," "your free entry to enterprise search."

As always, "free" sounds too good to be true, as anyone who has reached the 25,000 document limit of the free version of Ultraseek (now owned by Autonomy) can attest ("Reached your 25K document limit? Call Sales at 1-888-3287-EEK!"). In the case of Expresso, the limits are much more hip to the times: 50 users, 1 million emails and attachments, and 100,000 documents. The product won’t suddenly stop functioning at those limits, just nag you about it, and what’s more, the licenses for more users or documents are in the thousands of dollars (not tens or hundreds of thousands, as with Ultraseek.)

Of course, I had to try this out. Coveo claims you can get Expresso up and running in under 45 minutes; and I must admit that the hardest part was to get a new Windows Server VM running on my Mac. The actual install, and a first index run of some documents on my own server was completed in about 15 minutes. Just enough time for me to brew a Moka. And after that, it performs exactly as I’m used to with Coveo: a straightforward search interface, which immediately, out-of-the-box, facets on document metadata (like document type, date, author).

Still too good to be true? Well, yes. If there’s one qualm I have with Expresso, it’s that it’s relatively limited. It’s easy to get going, sure, but so is the full Coveo solution. If you want a trial run before comitting to the full CES, you’re better off requesting a download for that, instead of trying to extrapolate from Expresso. (Actually, I find the full Coveo product is easier to use than Expresso — CES already is one of the most straightforward solutions to implement of all that we evaluate in our Search & Information Access Report, and if you need to, you can dig into all the detailed controls — Expresso has hidden all that.)

Expresso really is Coveo Enterprise Search — light. If this really were coffee, it’d be black, no sugar, hold the milk. It’s good espresso, no doubt — it indexes file shares, Exchange, and SharePoint, and even offers a mobile interface. So if you’re a small-to-medium business that runs all things Microsoft, you should certainly give Expresso a go. However, it doesn’t, currently, index websites or other mailservers (let alone other sources). If your intranet isn’t on SharePoint, and your email isn’t on Exchange, you’re not going to get a lot of value out of the software. Free or not.

dataMorphose [christianekeller.de] is a series of amazingly beautiful and sophisticated physical data sculptures which represent information by the shape and motion of sail-like tensile structures.

Each triangular canvas represents a separate data object. Its data values are conveyed by the tension of the canvas, which in turn determines its size, movement and position in space. One vertex of each canvas is attached to the ground floor of a transparent cube, so that each canvas can receive its meaning through the projection of words and numbers onto that area. In all, this means the user is required to learn the visual language in order to understand the visualization, which is claimed to be intuitive to learn.

One sculpture visualizes the current time. The hours, minutes and seconds are assigned to one sail respectively. To represent the hours, the central canvas changes its position in space. The other two sails visualize the values from 0 – 59 by changing their shape: one vertex moves along the vertical edge of the cube: the downward movement shows the values from 0 – 29, the upward movement the values from 30 – 59. The second sculpture conveys web traffic data through the motion of 4 sails: the faster a canvas moves the higher the activity of the website or the search term. The last sculpture shows statistical information by a succession of 5 sails.

Technically, nylon threads are attached on the vertices of the canvas, which lead down into the base and are moved by servo motors according to the data values. You can watch them move in the documentation video below.

Reminded me of Level Green and Pulsating Emotion Visualization Organism.

AOL is going through some rather painful changes, but changes that it has to make if it wants to survive. The biggest change, of course, will be spinning off from Time Warner to become a separate, publicly traded company, something that will happen in a couple of weeks or so. At the same time, it’s trying to re-emerge as a nimbler, smaller company focused on content. So, what better way to mark all of these changes than with a rebranding starting with its iconic, for Americans at least, logo.

“Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and AOL is centered on creative and talented people – employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the AOL brand as we take the company into the next decade,” says Tim Armstrong, the man who is leading AOL in this brave new world of less dial-up and more Engadget.

So, what’s the big change that the giant Internet company undoubtedly paid Wolff Olins, “a global brand and innovation consultancy,” a handsome sum to come up with? Well, if you don’t look closely enough you might just miss it. Where there was once “AOL” there is now “Aol.” – period incl… (read more)

Goldman’s latest weekly update highlights the firm’s still-bullish view on Chinese markets. Their base case forecast for Shanghai’s CSI 300 provides for 18.4% upside.

They also tempt investors with a ‘Liquidity Overshoot’ scenario that forecasts a potential 46% upside. This essentially gives institutional investors intellectual cover for a further China punt.

Still, note that a CSI300 rally in July/August came collapsing down, and this recent second rally has thus far failed to break the last rally’s early-August high. These liquidity-driven ‘investment’ arguments might be starting to wear thin.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Major Goldman Shareholders Set To Screw Mom & Pop
• 300 Goldman Sachs Employees Will Volunteer As Trash Haulers (GS)
• Come On, Is There Really A Devry Grad At Goldman Sachs? (DV, GS)

Christmas is a time for children and all children love presents. So to help you beat the queues and avoid missing out on what your child must must must must must MUST have this Christmas, here are the toys that are likely to make your kid go absolutely blooming mental on Christmas morning.

Bakugan Battle Pack

Boys are going mad for Bakugan right now. Based on an animated series, the strategy card game comes complete with action figures which pop out of magnetic marbles when thrown. Fight!

Bakugan Battle Pack – $25.00

Battle Strikers Starter Pack

First there were spinning tops, then there were battling tops, now there are Battle Strikers spinning top type things. And they’re spinning out of stores fast! Power-up your top with a Turbo Launcher or a handheld spinning stick which looks very much like what I used to accelerate scalextric cars with, let it go and attack attack attack your opponent by remote control.

Battle Strikers Starter Pack – $15

Bendaroos

Perhaps more for the female market, although I certainly don’t want to start stereotyping, these colourful Bendaroos are great for art, jewellery and creating accessories for dolls. Best of all there’s no need for any glue.

Bendaroos – $20

Ben 10 Alien Force Kevin’s DX Action Cruiser

I have to confess I haven’t got a clue who Ben or Kevin are but apparently a lot of kids love them. It’s all to do with television, early mornings and aliens, three of my top three least favourite things in the world. The car flips open into battle mode, shoots DNA alien capsules filled with planetary powder and comes complete with Kevin. Which all sound like quite good things. The car does look pretty cool.

Ben 10 Alien Force Kevin’s DX Action Cruiser – $40

Go Go Pets Hamsters

Without doubt the best toy on the list. All my friends are getting one. Go Go Hamsters are the new iPod. They come in different colours, you can carry them in a little bag, and if you watch the advert you’ll see they even drive cars and talk. Go Go Hamsters are very funny and about 94% more fun than a real hamster.

Go Go Pets Hamsters – prices vary a lot so be careful!

Kidizoom Multimedia Digital Camera

Kids grow up fast. They get born. They get teeth. They walk. They talk. They eat food. Now they’re all speaking on mobile phones and taking photos. When did all this happen? The Kidizoom camera is a real digital camera. That’s right. A real digital camera. I don’t even have a real digital camera. It’s quite expensive as a toy but then, in case I didn’t mention this enough, it is a real digital camera. For a kid. What is the point of that?!

Kidizoom Multimedia Digital Camera – $60

Lego Games Minotaurus

Christmas is a great time for family games which makes Lego the perfect present. Nothing electronic just a lot of different coloured bricks. The strategy is simple – do a Theseus, avoid the Minotaur and get to the temple. The game will keep two to four people happy for at least 30 minutes. Which leaves about twelve and a half hours to come up with something else!

Lego Minotaurus – $35

Monopoly City

It seems the world’s love affair with Monopoly goes on, which, for someone who has never finished and rarely started a game of Monopoly, is a rather confusing phenomenon. Now the old board game has rebranded itself as Monopoly City (although surely Monopoly, as a game based on the streets of London, was always Monopoly City) and allows players to build up a 3D landscape. Didn’t it always do that as well? Actually the new features are to do with schools, skyscrapers, industrial estates and football stadiums. And presumably empty banks and boarded up shops. How very modern and exciting.

Monopoly City – $25

Princess Peppa’s Palace

Peppa is a pig who lives in a palace, much like the Queen of England. Peppa’s palace folds out to reveal a banqueting hall and seven regal rooms including bedrooms, bathroom, a kitchen with a cauldron oven, thrones and two guardsmen.  And you won’t find thousands of tourists stalking the grounds with cameras.

Princess Peppa’s Palace – $40

Sylvanian Families Caravan

The Sylvanian Families are a quiet little bunch of rabbits who like nothing better than to travel together on their holidays in a caravan. The set comes with beds, seating, tables, toilet, shower, sink and ironing board. It’s really all quite adorable.

Sylvanian Families Caravan – $45

Tightrope Terror

Madness. Absolute madness. Not only do these racing cars zip round a track at electrifying speeds, they now scale over a tightrope that can extend to a staggering 10 feet. GO GO GO!

Tightrope Terror – $25

Transformers Revenge of The Fallen Voyager

When I was young there was an amazing TV show where robots turned into trucks and trucks turned into robots and good and bad robots had big fights for twenty minutes until good won and children could have their breakfast. There were films, toys, lunch boxes. You wouldn’t get that now. Except you would. And actually it’s probably even better.

Transformers Revenge Figures – Prices vary

Google has spread its interests so wide that it’s hard to keep track of all of them. It’s also looks like the company may be jumping from one big project to the other while lacking a very focused goal. At the same time though, several services have always been central to the company. Gmail gets most of the credit and it fully deserves it, Docs has also seen a lot of attention lately, but there’s an app which has been around for longer and is just as important though it’s often overlooked, Google Calendar. It may not look like it, but it’s evolving along with the rest of the apps and has recently introduced a new feature which should make it easier to plan an event that doesn’t clash with someone else’s plans.

It’s called “Sneak Preview” and it allows users to see if the people they’re adding to an event have other plans at that time. Google is apparently just testing the feature, so not too many get access to it for the moment. These tests are a regular occurrence at Google and, unless something goes horribly wrong, the feature should be rolled out to everyone soon enough, more or less in its current form.

If you get included in the test, you will have to activate the new feature, it’s not enabled by default. Sneak Preview is a pretty big overhaul of the event creation menu, mostly i… (read more)

Here is another brief look at the Snapdragon-powered C-Motech Mangrove Windows Mobile 6.5.1 MID with its 7 inch WVGA screen. 

The device is set to reach the market on the next few months and will likely be subsidized by carriers.

“The Cost of Getting Sick” [ge.com] is a a new data visualization tool developed in collaboration with Ben Fry, Director of Seed Visualization. It enables the exploration of some the 6 million patient records currently stored in GE’s proprietary electronic medical records database.

The online interactive tool allows users to slide a bar to select one’s age and then select parts of the pie chart in order to investigate a more complete picture of the actual costs associated with a wide range of chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, depression, and hypertension.

A short, slick interview with Ben Fry regarding GE’s two recent data visualizations can be watched below.

See also Visualizing the Major Health Issues Facing Americans Today and On the Origin of Species.

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Coupe, Performance, Cadillac, Luxury

Today the wraps were officially removed from the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe. The coupe is the latest model to join the burgeoning CTS lineup, which also includes the sedan that started it all, the 556-hp CTS-V super sedan and the more recent CTS Sport Wagon. The coupe, however, is by far the most visually distinct CTS, sharing only its instrument panel, console, headlamps, front fenders and grille with the sedan. Though its wheelbase is the same as the four-door’s, the coupe sits two inches lower and stretches two inches less from tip to tail. The best touches are the hidden B-pillar, flush door handles, center-mounted dual exhaust, and a windshield and back glass that are raked at impossibly steep angles.

While the exterior screams excitement, the coupe’s mechanicals are what we’ve come to expect from the CTS, which ain’t a bad thing. The standard engine at launch will be General Motors’ direct inject 3.6-liter V6 producing 304 hp and 273 pound-feet of torque. Expect 17 mpg city/26 mpg highway when paired with GM’s optional Hydra-Matic 6L50 six-speed automatic and 17/25 with the standard Aisin six-speed manual. Both rear- and all-wheel-drive are available, as are two handling packages: a Performance package with 18-inch wheels and a Summer Tire Performance package with 19-inch wheels, summer tires and larger brakes. Cadillac also confirmed that a V-Series variant will be sold sometime 2010.

The 2010 CTS Coupe is being referred to by GM as the focal point of Cadillac going forward, and it certainly anchors an incredibly strong and varied CTS lineup. There are plenty of competitors out there, however, just waiting for the CTS Coupe to throw its first punch, including the incredibly competent BMW 3-Series coupe and Audi A5. From this first look at things, they should brace themselves.

[Source: Cadillac]

Continue reading Officially Official: 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe debuts

Officially Official: 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe debuts originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: SUV, Lexus, Luxury, Off-Road

Two steps forward and one step back seems to be the rally cry of the new 2010 Lexus GX460. This second-generation, three-row, mid-size, body-on-frame SUV from Lexus replaces the GX470, which, as its name implies, had a slightly larger engine. That 4.7-liter V8 engine, however, couldn’t touch the combination of power and efficiency found in this new 4.6-liter V8. The new engine manages to pump out 301 hp and 329 lb.ft. of torque while returning 13 percent better fuel economy, now ringing in at 15/20 mpg. It also uses a second-generation frame and an all-new body with some class-leading features.

There’s a lengthy press release after the jump with all the specifications and features of this new GX, but here are some of the highlights (take a deep breath): New standard power-folding third row, flip-forward second row slider for better third row access, rear swing gate with new pop-up glass for quick access, optional Pre-Collision System (PCS) with Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Driver Attention Monitor and Lane Departure Alert (LDA), full-time four-wheel drive, off- and on-road balancing Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS) with available Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS), 6,500-pound towing capacity, 18-inch alloy wheels, Crawl Control and Downhill Assist Control (DAC), ten standard airbags, Bluetooth, nine-speaker audio system with integrated iPod control and XM Radio receiver, rear back-up camera, optional Lexus Enform with Safety Connect, XM NavTraffic, XM NavWeather and XM Sports and Stocks by subscription. Got all that?

The 2010 Lexus GX460 will come in two different trim levels, base and Premium, identifiable by chrome strips surrounding the greenhouse and along the lower door contours. In addition to the features listed above, GX buyers can opt for a Convenience Package and a Comfort Plus Package. The Convenience Package adds power-retracting outside mirrors and Intuitive Parking Assist. The Comfort Plus Package includes semi-aniline leather, heated second-row outer seats, wood-trimmed steering wheel and shift knob, and a three-zone automatic climate control system. Major standalone options include the next-gen hard disc drive (HDD) nav system, a Mark Levinson Premium Audio system, a Rear Seat Entertainment (RSE) system with two LCD screens, a three-zone automatic climate control system, and the Wide-view Front and Side Monitor, which debuted on the 2009 LX 570.

We recently had a chance to sample this new GX460 and we’ll have a lot more to say about it in our upcoming First Drive, but for now, here are the full details and a massive gallery of pics for you to enjoy.

[Source: Lexus]

Continue reading Lexus introduces second-generation 2010 GX460

Lexus introduces second-generation 2010 GX460 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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	Aptera Update: Backstory uglier than we knew? Unanswered questions run deep, by the looks of it.		POLL: Is the Tesla IPO for you? Money maker or bad idea?
	Long-Term Thinking: “Cost to Own” mindset grabs hold More ways to think about cost now that we have options to gasoline.	Other news: STUDY: Air cars not worth it Toyota starts discussions on who will get PHEV Priuses Journo experiences Volt’s electric-to-hybrid transition, says it needs improvement

AutoblogGreen for 11.23.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TOMORROW I WILL BE MAKING A RE-DO OF MY DIET/SUPPLEMENTATION VIDEO I POSTED PRIOR. I WILL INCLUDE THE SUPPLEMENTS I TAKE, ALONG WITH THE FOOD. SOME TIPS AND A LIST OF UPCOMING VIDEOS. THESE VIDEOS WILL ALSO INCLUDE A GOOD FRIEND AND TRAINING PARTNER ERIC CHARPENTIER – CHARPENTIER83 ON MY BODYSPACE – LOOK HIM UP.

I HAVE BEEN GETTING ALOT OF SAMPLES FROM COMPANIES WITH NEW PRODUCTS WHICH ILL ALSO BE PLACING NOTES ON!

MORE PROGRESS PICS COMING AS WELL. KEEP IN MIND THIS IS BULKING TIME!! POSSIBLE TEAM BUILD AS WELL. MANY THINGS TO COME! WILL KEEP YOU ALL UPDATED! 

ALONG WITH MAINTAINING MY BLOGS AS WELL!! ANYTHING YOU WANT ME TO WRITE ON LEAVE HERE!

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE LEAVE ME A MESSAGE OR COMMENT