Here’s a clip of TrimTabs chief Charles Biderman on with Maria Bartiromo yesterday talking mutual fund flows (always an exciting subject). The bottom line: retail investors still love bonds, bonds, bonds. So much so, in fact, that it’s “scary”.
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It’s not just a vague March window anymore for BioShock 2’s Sinclair Solutions Test Pack. 2K Games has set a more specific release date for the game’s first DLC pack.
Here’s an opportunity to hear a firsthand account of what life was like for Paul McCartney and the rest of the Fab Four.
Barry Miles, a close friend of the 68-year-old Beatle, will discuss the Swinging London scene of the 1960s and its cultural impact at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11, at Harper College in Palatine.
Miles penned McCartney’s authorized biography “Many Years from Now” based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews over five years. He’s also written books about Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.
Miles will also discuss Indica, the counterculture art gallery and bookstore he owned with Peter Asher, the brother of McCartney’s former girlfriend, Jane Asher.
Tickets to the talk are $10 for general admission, with discounts for Harper students, faculty and staff, other students and seniors. For more details, call (847) 925-6100 or go to harpercollege.edu.
By Zukiswa Zimela JOHANNESBURG, Mar 5 (IPS) Twenty-two-year-old Sara Allen* uses prescription medication to get high.
"Prescriptions are great," she said. "I recommend Codeine." Codeine is a mild narcotic used to treat mild to moderate pain. One of the warnings on the medication is that it should not be taken with alcohol because of the risk of death. Despite this, Allen takes it when going out or hanging out with her friends.
"I usually get them from someone who gets prescribed them, otherwise one of my friend’s mother has a drawer full of rad Codeine pills."
According to Allen, prescriptions are harder to get than illegal drugs. However, when they are available she uses them. Allen also takes illegal drugs but she finds that the prescriptions offer a different high.
Allen is just one of an increasing number of people who are becoming hooked on prescription drugs. According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) annual report, globally there is an increase in the abuse of prescription medication.
While no information is available for Africa, other countries show an alarming rise in the use of prescription medication. The study found that in the United States 6.2 million people were abusing prescriptions and in several European countries like France, Italy and Lithuania between 10 to 18 percent of students use sedatives or tranquilisers without a prescription.
The report states that although most countries recognise the abuse of prescription drugs, countries do not systematically collect information of prescription drug abuse. However, the report stated prescription drug abuse is not limited only to first world countries; the same trend is being seen in developing countries like South Africa.
The reason for the increase in prescription drug abuse can be attributed to the fact that these particular drugs are not themselves illegal, said Dr. David Bayever – the deputy chairperson the Central Drug Authority (CDA).
He explained that because the drugs were legal medication, when a person is caught with them they cannot be arrested. Bayever called this a "disturbing development".
According to the INCB report, the abuse of pharmaceuticals can be partially attributed to fact that medication, which is banned in other countries, can be obtained without prescription or at unregulated markets in most countries in Africa
Paul Kruger the executive director of Narconon, an addiction treatment and rehabilitation programme in Johannesburg, says that there has been an increase of about 25 percent in the last year in the number of patients addicted to prescription medication at the clinic.
According to Kruger, the medications are obtained one of two ways: patient’s either get their prescriptions filled out by their doctor; or they get the medication from the black market. He explained the most common method of acquiring the drugs is through prescription scripts.
IPS spoke to pharmacies around Johannesburg and many said they discovered only a few cases of forged prescriptions. Eugine Jonker, an assistant pharmacist from Clicks Pharmacy in Boksburg said that while they have seen forgeries of prescriptions, particularly schedule 6 prescription medications, they had not discovered many forgeries. In the event of a suspected forgery the pharmacist has to call the doctor to confirm the prescription. The pharmacy is also required to keep a record of this in compliance with the requirements set out by the South African Pharmacy Council.
Amos Masango, chief executive officer of the South African Pharmacy Council also says that they are not aware of an increase of the misuse of pharmaceuticals. "Nothing has officially been reported to us, the council does inspections in all pharmacies to look at compliance with the standards set out by the council."
With the FIFA 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa in less than three months, the CDA is worried that illegal drugs will flood into the country. The CDA has also discovered websites which advertise the availability of drugs in the country to foreign tourists.
Although the country has been preparing years in advance for the 2010 World Cup and there will be an increased border post policing, and airports will be more vigilant in screening people entering the country, the CDA is concerned this will not be sufficient.
"I fear whatever we do will not be enough," said Bayever. "People will see this as a picking field and will take advantage of the event. In spite of all the measures taken one must remember that these are well-organised groups who know where the loopholes are."
"The drug problem in South Africa is twice the world norm," he said. "One out of every four Rands in circulation in the South African economy can be linked to the substance abuse problem."
A CDA report presented by Bayever showed drugs can be linked to several other social problems including poverty, crime, sexual abuse and HIV/Aids.
"Unfortunately when we talk of substance abuse of any nature it knows no boundaries and happens on all levels" said Bayever.
*Not her real name
Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:
Basecamp
New in Basecamp: Stylized email notifications
We created new email designs for milestones (and 48-hour milestone reminders), file uploads, messages, to-dos, and comments.
New in Basecamp: Post a message via email
You can now email a message directly to a project. This means you can post messages without even being logged in. Just send a message via email from your desktop, web-based email client, or mobile phone, and it’ll post right to Basecamp as a message.
“Sams Teach Yourself Basecamp in 10 Minutes” is a comprehensive guide to Basecamp
Sams Teach Yourself Basecamp in 10 Minutes by Patrice-Anne Rutledge is a new book that’s the most comprehensive guide to Basecamp we’ve ever seen. If you want to know everything there is to know about Basecamp, this is the book for you.
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Click for larger versions
Engadget is on a roll today, not only bringing us exclusive pictures of the Microsoft Courier, but now also new (less blurry) pictures of the Pure and Turtle.
According to their extremely reliable source, the teen-targeted device could hit streets as soon as the 20th April, and will not only be on Verizon but also their partner and co-owner Vodafone.
What do our readers think of Microsoft’s mobile strategy? Let us know below.
Read more at Engadget here.
It’s amazing how some people seem to think that basic criticism is defamatory. We recently wrote about how the editor of a journal that published a review of a legal book is now facing a defamation lawsuit in France, even though the book review was just a typical book review (and only slightly negative). Now, Robert Ring points us to the news of a “horror” blogger who wrote a somewhat critical “open letter” to the horror magazine Gorezone, complaining about the apparent grammar and spelling problems in the magazine combined with what the blogger felt was rather sexist content. Frankly, the open letter isn’t even that critical. It’s one blogger’s opinion with some constructive criticism.
In response, however, after the blogger’s comments were flooded with angry responses (allegedly a bunch all came from the same IP address, which is connected with Gorezone), Gorezone threatened legal action for both defamation and copyright infringement. Apparently, this would be in the UK, where (as we know all too well) defamation laws are pretty ridiculous. Even so, it’s difficult to see how anything in the original post is libelous. As for the copyright infringement, the blogger had used (but has since taken down) an image of a recent cover of Gorezone to prove his point. It’s difficult to see how this would be considered infringement as well, as the blog post was clearly commenting on the image, and certainly wasn’t competing with Gorezone. Of course, again, this is UK law, but there is the concept of fair use/fair dealing in the UK, and it’s difficult to see how this wouldn’t be covered.
As the link above suggests, this sounds like a SLAPP situation, where the magazine doesn’t like the criticism it’s received, and its response is to threaten the blogger to try to bully him into taking down the content. We see this all too often, and it’s why the world needs more anti-SLAPP protections and laws.
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Earlier this week we drew your attention to the fact that Palladium was in big-time rally mode, and that the auto-linked commodity was close to reaching its Jan 19th highs. It initially got whacked hard on Toyota, but obviously it was brushing that off.
Well look at it now!
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Going green isn’t just for grown-ups. This summer, Harper College will launch a new kids-only certificate program focused on all aspects of green living, from recycling and composting to alternative energy sources and organic gardening.
The program, part of the 2010 InZone kids’ enrichment camp, allows students to visit green farms, grow and taste-test their own green foods, try their hand at green yoga and examine green products they can use at home. The classes culminate in a “Green Warrior” certificate.
“Being green actually is easy, and it’s just as important for children as it is for the rest of us,” Youth Program coordinator Kevin Hahn says. “Our Green Warrior certificates will represent children who are dedicated to learning new techniques designed to help make a difference in the world, one community at a time.”
The Green Warrior program is open to kids ages 11-14; registration begins Friday, March 5.
Harper’s Summer 2010 InZone also includes other sophisticated offerings, including in-depth courses in graphic design and sculpting that mimic college classes. A new Film Academy also is on the menu, giving students a chance to explore acting and make a professional movie with help from a film company at the course’s end.
InZone annually features about 250 courses to pique kids’ interest; classes cover sports, fishing, music, fashion, dance, cooking, reading, science and more. The camp is open to kids ages 8-14.
“InZone is designed to help children experience brand-new activities and further develop existing skills in a variety of real-life areas,” Hahn says. Courses run Monday through Thursday; the Green Warrior certificate program, like the other class offerings, begins June 14 and runs through mid-August. Before- and after-camp care is available. To register for Green Warrior courses or other InZone programs, or for more details, including a complete schedule, call (847) 925.6300 or visit harpercollege.edu/youth.
Tras la confirmación por parte de Mercedes-Benz de que veriamos en el Salón de Ginebra el nuevo concept llamado Mercedes-Benz F800 Style. Este nuevo modelo será la antelasa de la nueva generación del CLS.
En cuanto a las dimensiones de este modelo, tiene 4.75 metros de largo y 2.9 metros de ancho. Además, Michael Schumacher estubo durante la presentación del modelo en Ginebra.
A continuación os dejo con la galería de imágenes:
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Article Tags: BBC, Headline Story, Met Office
Click source to read about the Met Office throwing in the towel on seasonal forecasting.
We thought the Met Office could predict the climate in 50 years or so, who is kidding who? Piers Corbyn can forecast seasonal changes so why can’t they?
Answer the Met Office don’t use the SUN in their variables for long range forecasts, and it’s the SUN that changes climate NOT MAN.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
After a whole lot of teasing and subsequent investigating by the fan community, Valve has finally announced a sequel for Portal.
design features increase reliability of food and beverage processing automation
Baldor Electric has launched a new Dodge-brand mounted ball bearing incorporating sealing and lubrication innovations that can substantially extend equipment lifetimes in harsh, washdown-duty operating environments such as food and beverage processing.
Dodge ULTRA KLEEN ball bearings employ a 100% stainless steel bearing insert and feature a patented new sealing system and a ball retainer that retain lubrication and prevent washout in wet operating environments.
The new sealing system, QuadGuard, consists of two patented features: a triple lip seal and a rubberised flinger. The triple lip seal offers three points of contact, keeping the lubricant in and contaminants out. This unique design maximises sealing with a minimal amount of drag. The rubberised flinger, the industry’s first and only patented design, is a moulded nitrile rubber component that is bonded to the flinger surface and provides an additional barrier to contaminants. The rubber baffled design on the external surface of the flinger enhances the removal of liquid as it rotates, while grease chambers on the internal surface of the flinger prevent lubricant from exiting the bearing.
A new two-piece ball retaining cage, Maxlife, creates a grease compartment around each of the rolling elements. The compartments provide constant contact between ball and grease so an oil film always exists to prevent wear, and minimise friction and heat. The compartmental construction holds in the grease and prevents it from being washed out. This exclusive design extends the life of the bearing and requires less frequent relubrication than standard designs.
A 65-degree spacing of the setscrews provides excellent locking force without compromising the strength of the inner ring, while a stainless anti-rotation pin prevents the insert from rotating in the housing. The stainless housing is made with 300 grade steel. Polymer housed versions have an added antimicrobial agent that retards bacteria and fungus growth. Both housing styles contain all-stainless hardware and fittings, as well as stainless steel inserts. All versions additionally feature a solid, flat base that has no cavities or areas that can provide a site for bacterial growth.
For additional protection, the housings are machined with a groove to accept a snap-on polymer end cover to cover exposed, rotating shafts and create safer working conditions. These covers incorporate a drain hole to prevent moisture build-up.
The combination of all of these innovative features makes the new Dodge ULTRA KLEEN ball bearing the highest quality mounted ball bearing in the industry.
Dodge ULTRA KLEEN bearings are offered in a wide variety of stainless steel and polymer housings. The range is available in a broad range of imperial sizes plus metric sizes from 20 to 50 mm.
Filed under: Videos, Koenigsegg
There aren’t many humans on this planet who have ever seen a Koenigsegg CCX on public roads due to the exotic supercar’s ridiculously limited production volume. That likely won’t change for the new Agera, either, so we’ll have to settle for the great-looking shots we captured while in Geneva. And the automaker’s official images. And the post-jump video of the 910 horsepower, 811 pound-feet Swedish superstar.
The video shows the Agera on the track and in the studio, and it all looks good to us. Keep in mind, though, that the video is 2:15 in its entirety, with the first 50 or so seconds dedicated to the Agera’s trip to the track (the moving footage almost looks CGI) and the studio shots are available after a short dip to black. Hit the jump to watch the video, because chances are you’ll never be afforded the opportunity to drive (or even see) the 250 mile per hour Agera in your lifetime.
Gallery: Geneva 2010: Koenigsegg Agera
Gallery: Koenigsegg Agera
[Source: Koenigsegg]
Continue reading Video: All the nooks and crannies of the Koenigsegg Agera
Video: All the nooks and crannies of the Koenigsegg Agera originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Article Tags: Andrew Neil, BBC, James Delingpole, Video Link
Climate change guru George Monbiot takes on sceptic James Delingpole who writes for the Daily Telegraph.
This is a bit of a let down as George had the last word but is still worth a look, well done to James who kept his cool and got a few good points, bring on Lord Monckton v Al Gore!
Click source link to see Video from the BBC
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Some interesting observations on price movements and labor costs from Gluskin-Sheff’s David Rosenerg:
As per the revised Q4 data, we now see that unit labour costs slid at a 5.9 %
annual rate, the third decline in the past four quarters. On a year-over-year
basis, unit labour costs plunged 4.7%, which is unprecedented (the pre-revised
YoY trend was -2.8%). As Chart 1 illustrates, there is a tight 82% correlation
between unit labour costs and the trend in headline inflation, which we can only
assume is going to fall sharply in coming months and quarters.
By way of comparison, commodity prices only have a 33% correlation to the
inflation rate — in no small part because 60% of the CPI is in services and there
is a whole host of cyclical services ranging from hotels, to recreation, to rents
that are deflating, and deflating fast.
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Article Tags: Richard North
The news of the shipping trapped by ice in the Baltic could not have come at a worse time for the warmists.
They are desperately trying to mount a counter-attack, with Peter Stott of the Met Office Hadley Centre asserting that there is an “increasingly remote possibility” that human activity is not the main cause of climate change.
Needless to say, Stott brings nothing new to the table by way of research, relying merely on a review of 100 or so previous studies that purport to track changes in the earth’s climatic system. The recycled material, however, is dressed up in new clothes, labelled “optimal detection”, which we are told shows “clear fingerprints of human-induced global warming.”
Unfortunately for Stott, he relies on the usual poster children, highlighting not least Arctic sea ice cover, his bleatings having to compete with reports of ice-bound ferries and cargo ships.
Sceptics can, of course, make hay with these reports – as indeed the warmists have exploited any number of transient weather phenomena – but it is germane to note that the Baltic incident is partly the result of gale-force winds which are compacting the ice and making it difficult to navigate.
Click source to read more from Richard North
Source: eureferendum.blogspot.com
You may or may not remember, many years ago, that one of the “tricks” used by adware was to hijack affiliate fees. Basically, the way it would work is that the adware would watch where you were clicking, and if the URL was for an online store that had an affiliate program or affiliate link, the adware would swap in its own adware account info, allowing the adware company to collect the affiliate fees rather than the company/individual who actually earned it. Sneaky.
However, now there are some claims that popular blog/community site LiveJournal is doing the same thing itself. Shawn Tutt points us to a story claiming that LiveJournal is redirecting outbound links from users such that they appear to strip any affiliate codes and add LiveJournal’s own affiliate codes to a long list of popular e-commerce sites. It’s hard to think of a better way to piss off a bunch of your own users than to replace their own affiliate codes with your own. Once people started complaining about this, it looks like LiveJournal stripped out the code. Still, it does raise some really big trust questions about LiveJournal, if it thought this was a good idea in the first place.
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By Mantoe Phakathi MBABANE, Mar 5 (IPS) A recent court ruling has finally given Swazi women the right to own and administer property in their own names.
Many Swazi women married in community of property have been left in the cold by their husbands, who chase them out of their matrimonial homes or sell property without their knowledge. In some cases, the wives will have paid for the property but leave with nothing because it is registered in their husband’s name.
Dolly Ndlovu* found herself in this situation after moving out of her matrimonial home last year. She is still paying the bond on the house where her estranged husband now lives with his mistress.
Back in 1995 when she applied for the loan Ndlovu was not aware of what she was getting herself into. It was only 10 years later, when she tried to use the property as collateral on a car loan application, that she realised the house was not actually hers.
"I was shocked when the bank told me that, although I was the sole payer of the bond, my husband was the sole owner of the property," said Ndlovu, a primary school principal and women’s rights activist.
The bank refused to stop deducting the loan installments from her salary when she moved out of the four bedroomed house because the bond is in her name.
Due to the brave efforts of women’s rights activist Doo Aphane, who challenged the Deeds Registry Act on the basis of the equality clause of the Constitution, other Swazi women will no longer have to experience what Ndlovu has gone through.
Last year Aphane took government to court where she argued that the provisions of Section 16(3) of the Deeds Registry Act not only undermines her dignity but is also discriminating of her and other women married in community of property in the kingdom.
Section 16(3) of the Deeds Registry Act prevented women married in community of property from registering immovable property in their names. This piece of legislation further allowed the husband to be the sole administrator of the property.
Aphane further asserted that this piece of legislation is against the provision of Section 20 of the Constitution, which states that everyone is equal before the law while Section 28 awards women equal rights to men in political, economic and social activities.
Justice Qinisile Mabuza last week gave women married in community of property the right to register property in their names and have equal partnership with their husbands in its administration.
She further ordered parliament to put into motion the law reform process so that offending statutory provisions such as Section 16(3) of the Deeds Registry Act are removed from the country’s statutes.
Mabuza observed that the legislature has had enough time since the adoption of the Constitution in 2005 "to embark on aggressive law reforms, especially those relating to women who have been marginalised over the years in many areas of the law."
Despite being signatory to various international instruments aimed at empowering women, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, the Swazi government has done little to amend laws that subjected women to perpetual minority status.
The women's movement sees the judgment on property registration as an important milestone towards law reform in the country and an opportunity for women’s economic advancement.
"Now women can use their 50 percent of the property they own jointly with their husbands as collateral to get loans to start businesses," said Aphane.
Although title deed land accounts for only 30 percent of the land in the Kingdom, Aphane said a lot of economic activity takes place in urban areas, which is why this judgment will uplift the Swazi economy.
Lungile Mzizi, project manager at the Business Women’s Forum of Swaziland could not agree more with Aphane. She said women in the country are now in a position to venture into big businesses such as construction and property development because it is clear who owns what between husband and wife.
The Swaziland Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) has also welcomed the judgment. Member of Parliament and women’s rights activist Nonhlanhla Dlamini, told IPS that it was brave of Aphane to take the tedious legal route because many other women in her position were afraid.
"As the WPC we’re very excited about this judgment and we’ll take it upon ourselves to ensure that laws aimed at protecting women are passed in Parliament," said Dlamini. Dlamini told IPS the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill would be a priority for Parliamentary debate when the legislature starts sitting this month.
Because this judgment does not apply in reverse, it will not affect Ndlovu's situation. But she told IPS she is consoled by the fact that her child will not go through the same experience as she did. *Not her real name
TrimTabs is the research firm that ALWAYS comes out and slams the BLS reports for being too rosy in their assumptions.
Well, maybe they realize that they have to throw some curveballs from time to time just to keep us guessing, because today they actually are singing a different tune.
Even they say it’s unusual.
Here’s the announcement:
—–
In an unusual occurrence, TrimTabs February employment estimate, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, was nearly equal to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimate. While TrimTabs estimated the U.S. economy shed 30,000 jobs in February, the BLS reported the U.S. economy lost 36,000 jobs.
February’s job losses demonstrate that while the labor market is still weak, monthly job losses are steadily declining. In fact, we believe the U.S. economy will add jobs in March as the U.S. government begins to hire an estimated 1.2 million temporary census workers in the next three months.
A comparison of TrimTabs’ real-time withholding tax based employment results versus the BLS’ preliminary and revised results from January 2009 through February 2010 are summarized in the following table:
Source: TrimTabs Investment Research – www.trimtabs.com and Bureau of Labor Statistics – www.bls.com
Over the past twelve months, TrimTabs results show that the economy shed 3.9 million jobs while the BLS revised estimates show that the economy shed 3.3 million jobs, a difference of 600,000. A discussion of the reasons for the difference will be presented in next week’s TrimTabs Weekly Macro Analysis.
Several other employment related statistics support Trimtabs’ conclusion that the labor market is slowly improving:
· Real-Time tax withholding data shows that February wages and salaries grew an adjusted 0.7% y-o-y, the first positive gain since November 2008. We believe wages and salaries increased due to Wall Street bonuses and an increase in hourly wages.
· The Monster Employment Index gained 10 points in February, the largest monthly gain since January 2004.
· The TrimTabs Online Jobs Index gained 4.8% in February.
· Advanced Data Processing reported a job loss of 20,000.
· Weekly unemployment claims declined to 469,000 from 498,000 in the previous week.
· In February, a whopping 11.4 million people were collecting some form of unemployment insurance, up 25.9%, from 9.0 million in November.
For a complete analysis of the current employment situation and economic conditions, refer to TrimTabs Weekly Macro Analysis published this coming Tuesday, March 9, 2010.
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