Category: News

The Dollar Index (DXY) is in the green at 86.45, near a 52-week high, as the dollar seems to be gaining from the market riot.

The ten-year treasury has rallied and yields just 3.2%. Interestingly, the spread between inflation protected bonds (TIPS) and plain-vanilla ones is now just 1.93%, which shows timid inflation expectations. Gold is falling, down to $1,183.

The market continues to expose its bluff against the USD. At least with the USD you know who ultimately is backing it, unlike the euro.

Most importantly, it’s going to be hard for your boss to blame you for being in this ‘safe haven’. If you get killed in here, everyone will be.

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The CEOs of Google, Sony, Adobe, Intel, Logitech, Best Buy, Dish stand (or rather, sit) together. More »

Probably not, but her jewelry may be. Miley Cyrus’s entire line of necklaces and bracelets has been pulled from the shelves of Wal-mart after tests determined that they contain high levels of the toxic metal cadmium. This is an awful scandal for both Cyrus and Wal-mart.

First, how did this oversight occur? According to the Associated Press, which broke the story, the jewelry was imported from China. The article explains that Wal-mart began a policy last month to require suppliers to prove their products contain little or no cadmium, but this jewelry must have slipped through the cracks.

According to Wal-mart, the jewelry is probably not a threat. Cadmium is only known to be toxic of ingested. But the retail giant tells AP that the jewelry was not intended for children. That claim, however, borders on preposterous, considering that virtually all of the teen star’s fans are kids. But Wal-mart probably means that very young children, who are more likely to bite or suck on a product, wouldn’t generally wear the jewelry.

Still, the damage is done. Events like these can cause some customers to lose trust in large retailers like Wal-mart. Product safety is generally something of a base-motivation for consumer purchases. Just ask Toyota. Even if no lawsuits come from of this incident, it could result in a pretty bad tarnish on the firm’s reputation — especially given parents’ likely reaction since the product has a hugely popular child star’s name attached.

This incident should also serve as a lesson for entertainers turned retailers. What’s a great way to anger your fans? Sell them harmful products. You shouldn’t put your name on a product without doing significant due diligence first. In the case of Cyrus, it’s hard to imagine that at 17-years-old, she should have been expected to ask her distributor if the products contained cadmium. But celebrities need to keep in mind these kinds of concerns when pedaling products bearing their name. In the case of Cyrus, she should be concerned about losing the trust of parents, in particular. They, after all, are the ones who pay for her movies, music, and now retail products that are making her rich.

EUR/USD (short term):  The pair has fail to break resistance. Sell under 1.2445. TP 1.2260 and 1.2150. Key levels:  1.2100, 1.2150, 1.2260, 1.2310, 1.2445, 1.2520, 1.2605

GBP/USD (short term):  The pair is under pressure. Sell under 1.4355. TP 1.4235 and 1.4175. Key levels:  1.4090, 1.4175, 1.4235, 1.4258, 1.4355, 1.4440, 1.4510

EUR/JPY (short term): The pair is capped by medium-term bearish channel. Sell under 112.00. TP 109.50 and 108.20. Key levels:  106.50, 108.20 ,109.50, 110.13, 112.00, 113.50, 114.80

GBP/JPY (short term): Support has been broken. Sell under 129.00. TP 126.00 and 124.50. Key levels:  123.00, 124.50, 126.00, 127.00, 129.00, 130.00, 131.50

Click for Economic Calendar

Source: Forexyard

Related posts:

1. Technical Analysis /11:35 GMT/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) 20.05.2010.
2. Technical Analysis /16:15 GMT/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) 22.04.2010.
3. Technical Analysis /17:20 GMT/ (EUR/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, USD/JPY) 21.04.2010.

Google announced a lot of goodies in the second day of Google I/O 2010 with Android 2.2 officially launched, Google TV and all 5,000 attendees will receive an HTC Evo 4G for Sprint in addition to the Android phone received the day prior!

So jealous… but we are awaiting on details of non-Sprint customers who received it. If you are there and plan to sell it, we’re buyers to hit us up on the Contact form!

The iTunes movie store just got a lot more usable thanks to a small but significant update that went live today. As of now, the iTunes movie store features Top Critics’ reviews and the Tomatometer rating score from Rotten Tomatoes prominently displayed above customer reviews on every movie page. It’s the only review source I really trust when deciding whether or not to see something, and now I don’t even have to leave iTunes to check it.

As an example of why this is such a handy thing to have, take Valentine’s Day, a movie well recognized as one of the great stinkers of the year so far. But if you check it out in iTunes, at least here in the Canadian store, the average rating is four stars. iTunes alone would’ve steered you wrong. The Tomatometer rates it 18 percent rotten, and the Top Critics all pan it. Saved from a bad purchase.

The Rotten Tomatoes features will also let you know when a movie is exceptionally good. The screenshot that accompanies this article shows the Rotten Tomatoes box for Office Space, a modern classic by Mike Judge that you really should see if you haven’t already, especially if you’ve spent any time working in a cookie cutter cubicle-farm type office. Note the “Certified Fresh” award icon next to the Tomatometer rating. This is an honor bestowed upon especially awesome films.

You can also click through to see the actual Rotten Tomatoes page for any movie (so long as it’s actually been rated on RT, of course), which will give you access to full-length reviews from users and critics, more information, and the ability to buy it in physical form or add it to your Netflix queue.

Kudos to Apple for introducing a small, simple change that has a significant positive effect on overall user experience. But will it encourage you to buy movies on iTunes?

Related TechUniversity Screencasts: iTunes 101 and Smart Playlists (subscription required)

A fire that damaged the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society caused a dozen of cats; however, a woman, who lives above the animal shelter, thanks her pit bull boxer mix dog who woke her up which saved her life. Assistant Fire Chief Sabina Imrie said that a dryer that was running almost at midnight had caused the fire at 2700 Ninth Street in west Berkeley. The blaze killed twelve cats who were not yet adopted. The estimated damage costs up to $500,000. When word came out that there was fire, 10 shelter volunteers went to the scene and together with the firefighters, they were able to save about 10 cats and 14 dogs at the facility. Imrie added, “It was an immediate response by the volunteers, who worked side by side with fire and evacuated animals.”

Johanna White, who lived in the apartment above the shelter, was sleeping when her dog began barking after the fire broke out. The woman had been sick and was unable to hear the smoke detectors in her home. Her dog, Baby, a pit bull  boxer mix started whimpering and jumping on her. White said, “I’m just so grateful that my dog woke me up. I’m just so lucky that I have a good dog. I was not a dog fan, either. She’s my husband’s and my daughter’s dog. I might have to re-evaluate my stance.”

Fire Department Fire Chief Donna McCraken said, “I had to make the determination we could not risk ourselves to save the animals. We assessed where they were in the building and attempted a shelter in place. Most of them fared very well. But it was a hard decision to make.” “It started in an unattended dryer. We don’t know what ignited the fire. We don’t know if there was lint inside or some kind of electrical failure,” she added.

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Cinemax After Dark almost killed Bret Michaels.

The rockin’ Celebrity Apprentice finalist — who made a miraculous recovery after suffering a brain aneurysm last month — remembers the exact moment he knew something had gone terribly wrong underneath his trademark bandana, because his hemorrhaging brain rudely interrupted his evening with cable porn!

“I was going back and forth from SportsCenter to Busty Cops 3,” the Poison star, 47, admits. “Maybe that’s what did it!”

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

This just out: The Washington Post is reporting that EPA has given BP 24 hours to identify and locate a supply of a less toxic dispersant to be applied to the Gulf oil spill, and to begin using it within an additional 72 hours.

As noted in my last post, EPA has identified numerous alternative dispersants that are both less toxic and more effective than those on which BP has been relying to date — more than 600,000 gallons of which have already been released into Gulf waters. The Post also notes that some forms of the initial dispersants, sold by Nalco under the trade name Corexit®, were banned by the British government more than a decade ago.

You think 3D TV is impressive? Japan wants to broadcast 3D holograms to stadiums all over the world for the 2022 World Cup. Yes, 3D holograms. More »

With the Poetry Foundation’s POETRY iPhone app, you can now take hundreds of poems by classic and contemporary poets with you wherever you go.

Read more.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson today presented the 2009 President’s Environmental Youth Awards to students from around the country for their outstanding contributions in helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality and protect America’s waters. The awards were presented during a ceremony in Washington D.C.

Here is the list of winners from the EPA:

EPA Region 1

Project T.G.I.F.: Turn Grease Into Fuel
Westerly Innovations Network/Westerly Middle School
Westerly, Rhode Island

This group of middle school students, who are passionate about community service, decided to do their part in tackling global warming by creating a sustainable project to collect the town’s waste cooking oil, refine it into biofuel, and then distribute it.

The students presented their project to the local town council and convinced them to place a grease receptacle at the town’s transfer station to collect waste cooking oil from residents. The group also convinced 64 local restaurants to donate their waste cooking oil, which is a by-product of fried food. To collect the waste oil from restaurants and the transfer station, the students collaborated with a local company to collect the waste oil and bring it to a biodiesel refinery where waste cooking oil is recycled into biofuel. Funds received from the refinery for the recycling of the waste oil were used to purchase Bioheat^®, a biofuel, from a local distributor to give to local charities.

This project has been, and continues to be, a success for the environment and local families in need of heating assistance. To date, this project has collected over 36,000 gallons of waste oil and produced 30,000 gallons of biofuel a year, which eliminated 600,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. The students have donated 4,000 gallons of Bioheat^® to local charities and helped 40 families with emergency heating assistance.

Another important part of the project is educating school children and local residents about energy alternatives. The students have made numerous presentations to the local elementary school and local residents to encourage them to participate in the T.G.I.F. project and to teach them about alternative energy sources, the town’s recycling program, and global warming.

Christos Kortzidi is the stud mayor of Elliniko who went on a hunger strike in 2007 to protect free access to local beaches.

His new strike to protest Greek austerity measures started on April 29 — and by all reports it’s still going.

Greek newspaper HAYGH (translated) profiled the mayor on Saturday in the 17th day of his hunger strike. Chances are he’s still going today — on the 22nd day — as in his last strike Kortzidi made it to 24 days, before claiming victory.

Elliniko City Council President Bill Vassio may also be taking part in the strike, based on this translation of the city council website.

It’s easy to lose track of exactly what the Greeks are protesting. While the crowds on the street today are protesting pension cuts, Kortzidi and others want to block a plan to re-draw municipal boundaries known as Kallikratis:

Kathimerini:

Protests by local authority officials against Kallikratis, an ambitious government plan to redraw administrative boundaries and overhaul local government, continued yesterday with the resignation of the entire council of a municipality in the Peloponnese. Meanwhile, residents of the small town of Siatista, near Kozani in northern Greece, blocked the Egnatia Highway for the fourth day in a row, complaining that their town has not been made the capital of Voios municipality.

The leader of the main opposition conservative New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, appeared to take advantage of the mood, calling on local government officials affiliated to ND to encourage residents in their areas to oppose the bill, due to be submitted in Parliament soon. “If the government persists with this choice, it will incur a heavy cost,” Samaras said.

Ultimately, every protest in Greece and around Europe is about raising money for the government on the back of the people.

Have we seen the worst?

Check Out: Craziest Photos Yet — War On The Streets Of Athens

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Who knows how much time and money you spent on all those collectibles and costumes in the first LittleBigPlanet? Fear not, when LittleBigPlanet 2 comes along, you’ll still be able to make use of them in the

Smallville has reached the end road. The long-running Superman drama will enter its 10th and final season this fall, network chiefs confirmed during The CW Upfronts in Beverly Hills Thursday.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

At Google I/O this morning, the topic of discussion was mobile; specifically, the Android mobile platform. As of this morning, there are more than 60 consumer devices running on Android, more than 100,000 new activations per day, 50,000 apps in the Android marketplace, and 180,000 registered developers working on apps. Not too shabby.

As the platform continues its rapid growth, Google has announced a number of very significant improvements will be coming to the next version, numbered 2.2 but nicknamed “FroYo,” which address key issues Android has dealt with in the past.

1) Improved Speed — Just as it was rumored, the next version of Android will have a JIT compiler, responsible for a significant (2x-5x) speed boost.

2) Better Enterprise Support — The platform has lagged behind Windows Mobile and BlackBerry in terms of enterprise functionality, but FroYo will include over 20 new enterprise features. These include better Exchange support, with auto-discovery, improved security, and GAL lookup, and new device admin APIs.

3) Cloud-to-Device API — Google services, Chrome extensions, and soon-to-be released Chrome apps will be able to sync with your Android device. If you need directions from Google Maps, it can be sent directly.

4) Tethering — This was also a rumored feature for a few weeks. The feature will be in the “settings” menu, and clicking “portable wi-fi hotspot.”

5) New Browser — The Javascript interpreter in Chrome will be used in FroYo’s native browser, offering a 2x-3x Javascript performance boost. Google’s Vic Gundotra said it will be the fastest mobile browser available.

6) Install apps on SD memory — One of the main problems people had with Android was that you could not install apps on your removable memory card, you were limited to the device’s physical memory, which in some cases was quite limited. In FroYo, apps can be moved to, and launched from, the phone’s SD card.

7) Flash 10.1 and AIR support — This one is not a surprise, as Adobe and Google have both said this would be coming.

8) Web-based Android Market — Without a doubt one of the weakest aspects of consuming apps on the Android Platform was that you were limited to only seeing what was shown on your mobile device’s screen, which in most cases is not very appealing.

9) App auto-updating — When an app you downloaded gets updated, you would get a notification that there was an update available in the Market. You’d have to navigate to the market and click OK three or four times per update just to get it installed. In FroYo, there will be an “Update All” icon, and the ability to check “allow automatic updating” when you download a new app. Apps can be purchased on the Web-based store and synced down to your Android device.

10) Music Sync — Even though it’s got a decent media player, Android devices have never had the music power that iPhone has with its built-in iPod functionality. With FroYo, however, users will be able to sync their local music collection with their Android device and stream wirelessly.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

H2 Technologies Group out of Reno, Nevada is betting on a hydrogen fueled lawnmower engine it is developing and which is due out this summer.

According to NNBW, “Small engines powered by hydrogen would produce no emissions. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency says one gas-powered lawnmower produces as much pollution as 11 cars. If their technology works – and that’s where the lawnmower engine test comes in – H2 Technologies Group’s founders think they can make a compelling case to small engine manufacturers who face strict emissions standards. Over the next couple of years, emissions from lawn mowers and similar equipment will need to be cut by about 35 percent.”

Now, I’ve talked about hydrogen lawnmowers in the past, but this statement above has gotten me to think about hydrogen fueled engines in general, both the internal combustion types and fuel cells. It looks like the market for hydrogen vehicles is developing all around hydrogen cars, starting from the periphery and moving inwards with H2 cars at the center.

The market will implode before it explodes with hydrogen cars, so to speak. As hydrogen forklifts, UAVs, lawnmowers, boats, motor scooters, bicycles, motorcycles, robots, military bionic enhanced legs, golf carts, wheelchairs, shuttle buses, submarines, mining vehicles, military all terrain vehicles and other such technology take off in the market, public acceptance will grow and the reasons to stall on hydrogen car infrastructure will decrease.

Proof of concept will already be there with the commercialization of other hydrogen vehicles outside of the car market. Buses, car fleets, trains, trucks at shipping ports are other examples that will be circling the wagons, so to speak, around mass marketed consumer oriented hydrogen cars.

Telecommunications power backups, residential power backups, corporate power backups, hotel power backups, utility companies using wind, solar and other renewable with hydrogen storage, home hydrogen CHP stations, manufacturing plants such as beer and candy production facilities, data centers, waste water treatment plants, police and fire stations, high schools, universities, airport baggage carts all will most likely develop ahead of a hydrogen car fueling infrastructure. And, this is Okay.

Normalizing hydrogen vehicles in everyday use will serve to mainstream this technology, which will lead to public acceptance. Just as this generation of kids has grown up with PC’s, the Internet, cell phones and Xbox’s, the next generation will grow up with hydrogen vehicles and stationary hydrogen fuel cells.

Even though I’m impatient for hydrogen cars now, I also see the signs that commercialization outside of the H2 car market is happening at a rapid pace. And this commercialization is breaking ground for thousands if not millions of hydrogen cars to follow.