Category: News

Senate moves toward combined bill on derivatives oversight
OVERSIGHT Senate aides inched closer Friday to combining separate bills that would establish oversight of the vast market for derivatives, an effort central to the ongoing push to revamp the nation’s financial regulations.

Undercover persuasion by tech industry lobbyists
Why pay for a golf trip, dinner or full-page ad when you can tweet for free?

Call to freeze congressional salaries may be tied to midterms
Is it a smart political move or mere election-year populism when members of Congress offer to cut their own pay?

Deficit commission has a name, a phone number and a few dates
President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform may not have a Web site or any other obvious point of access for the public, but as its first meeting draws close, some information about the panel assigned to balance the federal budget is finally beginning to trickle out.

Federal Eye: SEC porn investigation nets dozens
Dozens of Securities and Exchange Commission staffers used government computers to access and download explicit images and many of the incidents have occurred since the global financial meltdown began, according to a new watchdog investigation.

Don’t Cry for Wall Street
Paul Krugman, New York Times
On Thursday, President Obama went to Manhattan, where he urged an audience drawn largely from Wall Street to back financial reform. “I believe,” he declared, “that these reforms are, in the end, not only in the best interest of our country, but in the best interest of the financial sector.”Well, I wish he hadn’t said that — and not just because he really needs, as a political matter, to take a populist stance, to put some public distance between himself and the bankers. The fact is that Mr. Obama should be trying to do…

Who’s Afraid of a Hung Parliament?
Peter Riddell, Times of London
Hung parliaments can be made to work. Just ask the Scots and the Swedes, but not the Belgians, whose Government collapsed, yet again, yesterday.We have become so used to the winner-takes-all politics of the first-past-the-post system that anything else is regarded as inferior and dangerous. This week, the Tories stepped up their warnings about an inconclusive result to alarm voters, claiming it could threaten the economy. But, like it or not, we may have to live with it.

Immigration Bill Holds High Price

I kept running into different versions of that student, people who were convinced that, largely in the name of science, we had tres-passed on nature’s ground. The issues varied, but not the under-lying philosophy. Society had somehow forgotten what was authentic and there was only one effective antidote: embrace a simpler, more “natural” way of life. No phenomenon has illustrated those goals more clearly than persistent opposition to genetically engineered food. “This whole world view that genetically modified food is there so we have no choice but to use it is absolutely terrifying and it is wrong,” Lord Peter Melchett, a former British Labour minister, told me when I met him a few years ago.

Today, Lord Melchett, whose great-grandfather founded one of the world’s largest chemical companies, is policy director of the British Soil Association, the organic food and farming organiza-tion. The first time we spoke, however, he served as executive di-rector of Greenpeace, where he was in the midst of leading a furious campaign against Monsanto (which he referred to as “Monsatan”) to rid the world of genetically engineered foods. “There is a fundamental question here,” he said. “Is progress really just about marching forward? We say no. We say it is time to stop assuming that discoveries only move us forward. The war against nature has to end. And we are going to stop it.”
I felt then—as I do now—that he had gotten it exactly wrong; scientists weren’t waging a war at all, he was—against science itself. Still, I saw Lord Melchett as a quaint aristocrat who found an interesting way to shrug off his family’s industrial heritage. His words were hard to forget, though, and I eventually came to realize why: by speaking about a “war against nature,” he had adopted a system of belief that can only be called denialism. Denialists like Lord Melchett replace the rigorous and open-minded skepticism of science with the inflexible certainty of ideological commitment.
We have all been in denial at some point in our lives; faced with truths too painful to accept, rejection often seems the only way to cope. Under those circumstances, facts, no matter how detailed or irrefutable, rarely make a difference. Denialism is denial writ large—when an entire segment of society, often struggling with the trauma of change, turns away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie.
Denialism comes in many forms, and they often overlap. Denialists draw direct relationships where none exist—between childhood vaccinations, for example, and the rising incidence of diseases like diabetes, asthma, and autism. They conflate similar but distinct issues and treat them as one—blending the results of different medical studies on the same topic, or confusing a general lack of trust in pharmaceutical companies with opposition to the drugs they manufacture and even to the very idea of science.
Unless data fits neatly into an already formed theory, a denialist doesn’t really see it as data at all. That enables him to dismiss even the most compelling evidence as just another point of view. In-stead, denialists invoke logical fallacies to buttress unshakable beliefs, which is why, for example, crops created through the use of biotechnology are “frankenfoods” and therefore unlike anything in nature. “Frankenfoods” is an evocative term, and so is “genetically modified food,” but the distinctions they seek to draw are meaningless. All the food we eat, every grain of rice and ear of corn, has been manipulated by man; there is no such thing as food that hasn’t been genetically modified.

From: Denialism, How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives.

Michael Specter, The Penguin Press, 2009

Pundits Thoughts.

Another great book to go on the bookshelf next to Stewart Brand’s The Whole Earth Discipline, and Tomorrow’s Table in the Turq library

My next installment as a Point of Inquiry host just went up–you can download here and stream here. Here’s a description of the show:
For many of us, chemistry is something we remember with groans from high school. Periodic Table of the Elements—what a pain to memorize, and what was the point, anyway? So how do you take a subject like chemistry and make it exciting, intriguing, and compelling? With her new book The Poisoner’s Handbook, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Deb Blum has done just that. Blum takes a page from the “CSI” franchise, and moves that familiar narrative of crime, intrigue, and high tech bad-guy catching back into the early days of the 20th century. There, in jazz age New York, she chronicles the birth of forensic chemistry at the hands of two scientific and public health pioneers—the city’s chief medical examiner Charles Norris, and his chemistry whiz side-kick Alexander Gettler. And while chronicling their poison-sleuthing careers, Blum also teaches quite a bit of science. Her book is a case study in science popularization, and one we should all be paying close attention to. Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer and has been a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison …

Due to the nature of the site, YouTube has always had to struggle to reach a balance between protecting copyright and enabling users to let loose their creativity. The site is facing a $1 billion lawsuit with Viacom and with 24 hours worth of video uploaded every minute, it can’t possibly review each video that en… (read more)

After each quarter-end I review my asset allocation and year-to-date total returns by category. The attached PDF contains my actual asset allocation as of 2010-Q1. Below is a high-level summary of the information contained in the PDF:

Asset Allocation		Actual	Target	Diff.
Cash/Fixed Income		27.6%	28.0%	-0.4%
Equities-Domestic		38.7%	38.0%	0.7%
Equities-Internl		23.5%	24.0%	-0.5%
Employer Equity		10.2%	10.0%	0.2%
	Total	100.0%	100.0%
Cash/Fixed Income		27.6%	28.0%	-0.4%
Large Cap.		46.4%	48.0%	-1.6%
Small/Mid Cap.		15.8%	14.0%	1.8%
Employer Equity		10.2%	10.0%	0.2%
	Total	100.0%	100.0%

Asset Allocation

In the first quarter my asset allocation was reasonably close to my target. Currently the largest variances are between small cap stocks (over allocated 1.8%) and large cap stocks under allocated (under allocated 1.6%). These variances are well below my 2.5% tolerance, so I will adjusted them with future purchases.

2010-Q1 Performance

In the first quarter, the market continued to be kind to my portfolio. After trailing the S&P in 2009, my income stocks portfolio out-performed the S&P in the first quarter. Below are the YTD performances of various categories along with my S&P 500 benchmark (VFINX):

Portfolio	Wtd. Avg.	2010 YTD	2009	2008
Income Stocks	2.5%	8.3%	23.9%	-20.4%
Pocket Change (9/08)	16.2%	28.0%	21.1%	-7.3%
Income ETFs	-3.4%	7.9%	17.6%	-27.3%
Asset Allocation	1.7%	5.2%	31.0%	-28.4%
Mutual Funds	-4.8%	3.6%	26.4%	-38.0%
S&P 500 (VFINX)	-3.7%	5.8%	26.5%	-36.3%
BRK.B	-9.5%	33.7%	2.2%	-32.1%
Income Stocks vs S&P	6.2%	2.5%	-2.6%	15.9%
Income Stocks vs BRK	12.0%	-25.4%	21.7%	11.7%

When weighted with 2009 and 2008, all but my mutual funds out-performed the S&P. As I have previously stated, it is my desire to beat the S&P over the long-run, so I don’t pay a lot of attention to short-term performance either positive or negative.

Passive Income

For Q1/2010 my passive income averaged $812/month, down slightly from the $920/month in Q4. The decrease resulted from lower interest rates on cash holdings. The above amounts include all sources of passive income in my taxable accounts, primarily interest and dividends. It excludes my Roth IRA, 401(k) and blog income (which is not passive).

The next update will be in mid-July. As always, thanks for reading!

(Photo: sanja gjenero)

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The Hubble Space Telescope is turning 20 today, a venerable age for such an important piece of hardware for modern astronomy. Over the years, it has provided some of the most spectacular and famous images of our galaxy and beyond. Google is one of the geekiest companies out there, so it wouldn’t miss out on an occasio… (read more)

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A lot of disgruntled fans weren’t too happy with the Final Fight: Double Impact DRM, which requires players to be signed into the PlayStation Network to be able to play even in single player games. In

The Sony systems continue to show strength in Japan as the PSP and PS3 finish the week at #1 and #2 respectively. What about the others?

Twitter has been more active on the acquisition front lately, no doubt spurred by the huge amounts of cash it got from its investors. Another trend has been moving back to its SMS roots by signing more agreements with carriers. Put these together and you end up with Twitter’s latest acquisition, a startup called Cloudhopper, whi… (read more)

Modern technology has made life much easier with various portable systems that can easily be carried around. Although the market is clogged with various devices that are foldable, the personal mobility section has largely remained untouched by such innovations. Since bicycles are being anticipated to make personal transportation green in the future, as it did in the past as well, several designers are looking towards folding bikes that take up limited space and can easily be carried in the boot of your car. Here is a list of some of the finest folding bicycles that might transform personal transportation for ever.

(more…)

With FW 3.30, the PS3 is now ready to handle 3D gaming. But what about the games? The Digital Foundry reports that in order to support the 3D output, the first few games to support the feature

Jazztel anunció el lanzamiento de su línea VDSL2 con hasta 30 megas de descarga y 1,5 megas de velocidad de subida mientras que Ono aumenta la cobertura de su oferta de 50 megas de descarga. Todo esto mientras se enciende el debate por parte de las telecos de que si no cobran a las empresas de internet acabarán subiendo los precios y de sucesivos informes sobre lo cara y lenta que es la banda ancha en internet. Lanzamientos como este del VDSL2 de Jazztel y los 50 megas de Ono vienen a reafirmar que a poco que haya actores capaces de desplegar su propia red, tendremos un mercado mas dinámico y competitivo.

Disclaimer: Jazztel es cliente de Weblogssl, empresa de la que soy socio. Asimismo, otras telecos son anunciantes en nuestras publicaciones.

Más información: Banda Ancha.

Relacionado: La velocidad de subida del ADSL y el AnexoM de Jazztel, ADSL con internet móvil de regalo frente a las redes Wi-Fi

Heritage Key (Owen Jarus)

Heritage Key reported recently that mummified baboons in the British Museum could reveal the location of the land of Punt – a place to which pharaohs organized trading expeditions. To the Egyptians, Punt was a place of fragrances, giraffes, electrum and other exotic goods. It was sometimes referred to as Ta-netjer – ‘God’s land’ – a huge compliment given that the Ancient Egyptians tended to view outside cultures with disdain.

Although Egyptians record voyaging to it until the end of the New Kingdom, 3,000 years ago, scholars do not know where Punt was. Ancient texts offer only vague allusions to its location and no ‘Puntite’ civilization has yet been discovered. Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen and even Mozambique have all been offered as possible locations.

Thanks to some cutting edge science, the search for Punt appears to be coming to an end. New research, to be presented at an Egyptology conference today, provides proof that it was located in Eritrea/East Ethiopia.

See the above page for the full story.

Found under: BlackBerry, Symbian, Google, Reader, ,

Just a few days ago I showed you this simple and very efficient Symbian application called RssNews which helps you follow your favorite feeds on your Nokia smartphone. Today I found a similar application for your BlackBerry smartphone called Unread.Unread is basically a Google Reader client which will help you integrate your favorite reader with your favorite BlackBerry smartphone and stay atop of the news. All you have to do is get the app login and start reading away just as you wo

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Found under: Sprint, Contest, HTC, EVO 4G, ,

Sprint has already started advertising its first and only for that matter WiMAX Android smartphone. I am talking about the HTC EVO 4G of course a remarkable device which will hit stores at some point in June. In the mean time Sprint Premier customers are given the opportunity of winning 10 HTC EVO 4G devices well ahead the smartphone hit the streets. The contest is open to Sprint Premier customers only and they will be able to submit their entry by 9 May 2010. The lucky 10 win

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Read more in mobile format