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Indices:

• DJIA: Down 24 points to 10,994.
• NASDAQ: Down 23 points to 2457.
• S&P 500: Down 5 points to 1186.

Today’s biggest gainers on the S&P 500:

• Laboratory Corp of America Holdings (LH): $80.62 / +4.73%
• Citigroup Inc (C): $4.78 / +4.71%
• Coventry Health Care Inc (CVH): $24.54 / +3.50%

Today’s biggest losers on the S&P 500:

• MEMC Electronic Materials Inc (WFR): $15.17 / -6.65%
• AK Steel Holding Corp (AKS): $20.54 / -4.91%
• Huntington Bancshares Inc (HBAN): $5.31 / -4.50%

Commodities:

• Oil: Down 2.2% or $1.89 to $81.35 a barrel.
• Gold: Down 0.2% or $2.40 to $1134.50 an ounce.
• Silver: Flat at  $17.68 an ounce.

Futures:

• Blasts of red with equities and energy showing big declines.
• Sugar, pork bellies, and lumber showing strong gains.
• Corn down over 3% to 352.50.

Now here are the stories you need to know:

• It has emerged that the SEC was not unanimous in its decision to press charges against Goldman Sachs. The split vote brings some doubts into the organization’s decision to press fraud charges against the firm.

• The ash crisis is starting to effect the Greek bailout effort with CDS on the country’s government debt rising because talks have been delayed. UK airspace is set to reopen on Tuesday.

• European airlines are seeking aid from their national governments and the European Union for the losses they have incurred due to the ash crisis. Many airlines are saying the impact of this crisis may be worse than that of September 11 on the industry.

• Citigroup’s earnings surprised this morning, with trading revenues so large that they offset loan losses, and the bank earned $4.4 billion.

• Oil is down to $81 due to the combined crunch brought on demand from the ash crisis and market uncertainty over Goldman Sachs. Jet fuel prices are also down as a result.

All prices as of 11:55 AM EST.

Join the conversation about this story »

Pensem comigo, qual foi o taxi mais veloz da vida real que vocês já viram? Normalmente não existem taxis velozes, ainda mais aqui no Brasil, onde existem muitos Astras, Corsas e outros sedans e cupês espalhados nas ruas para fazer o serviço. São carros populares em geral. Agora, e se você pegasse um taxi “diferente”, como um Porsche Panamera Turbo?

Claro que o serviço de taxi no Brasil já é caro, um dos mais caros do mundo, e se houvesse um Porsche taxi por aqui, eu… eu não consigo nem mesmo imaginar um carro desse porte em nossas ruas, com a segurança que temos. Um Porsche recebendo pessoas estranhas durante o dia todo, e a noite? Até me esqueci dos custos, realmente é algo impossível.

Mas na Alemanha isso aconteceu, e uma pessoa decidiu investir um pouco mais e fazer de seu Porsche um carro para transporte de estranhos. Até mesmo seus colegas taxistas ficam impressionados ao entrar no carrão, e devem pensar a mesma coisa que eu: “Esse ai quis se mostrar, só pode!” Mas parece que tudo está bem por lá, não parece que alguém tentaria roubar o taxi tão facilmente.

Via | Top Speed

Look for Puzzle Chronicles and Afterburner Climax for 800 points each on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday.

Dear Grizzlies,

In writing about the economy or the stock market, the goal is to help investors make money and to avoid major risks. This demands a full understanding of the cause/effect relationship; an objective examination of the important relevant data; and conclude rationally therefrom. Analysis is not just simple commentary. It is not finding arguments to support one’s own biases. It’s not about ego massaging. It’s not propaganda. It’s not salesmanship or showmanship.

In the 2002-2007 bull market (as indicated by the N.Y.S.E. Advance-Decline Line), the broad market commenced its bull market in November 2000). You insisted that the rally was nothing more than “a bull market within a secular bear.” You didn’t stop singing that songuntil mid 2005 when you finally realized that it was a good old-fashioned bull market.

Since March 2009, you have been singing the same song again.It’s a most clever forecast for if the market goes up, you are right and if the market goes down, you are also right. From March 2009 to date, the S&P 500 Index has gained nearly 79%, but that doesn’t tell the whole story as many, many stocks are up several hundred percent to over 1000%.

You obviously haven’t got a clue about what makes the market tick. Clearly, you are more interested in nomenclature, salesmanship, and gum-flapping than helping investors profit from the market. Despite evidence to the contrary, your stance reveals your ignorance.

Many of the world markets from Argentina to Turkey, have been posting record highs. One can add the Colombo Stock Exchanage in Sri Lanka and the Jakarta Composite Index in Indonesia to the list. Record highs for the Bovespa is a dead certainty. Strange behavior for a “secular bear market” is it not?

In a secular bear market, markets are supposed to trace out lower lows and lower highs over time, and not post record highs.

Also, your ignorance is further shown by saying that the market bottomed in March 2009. That was only true for the major market averages. You never make note of the fact that the financials are heavyweights on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index.

Because of the burst of the financial bubble, the clobbering of the financial issues exaggerated the decline inthe DJIA and the S&P, and caused them to breach their 2002 lows. The broad market, in fact, performed far better than the major market indices.

Note that the N.Y.S.E. Advance-Decline Line was nowhere near its 2002 low. Also, take a gander at stocks such as A, AAPL, AMZN, ATML, BIDU, IBM, ORCL, QLGC, and many of the consumers and retailers. These stocks have been posting bull market highs or record highs.They resemble nothing like the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500 Index.

Moreover, you have the silly notion that all stocks top, decline, bottom, and rise altogher at the same time. That’s balderdash! Unless the economic cycle is repealed, the bell never rings. You were totally unaware that led by the airlines, a “rolling bottom” commenced in July 2008.

On October 10, 2008, an “internal” bottom was established as that month, over 60% of the U.S. stocks, the Asian markets, the Latin American markets, along with Portugal and South Africa, bottomed. Many others made their lows in the November 2008 – February 2009 period. Financials, real estate and the deep cyclicals were the last to bottom and made their final lows in March 2009. Even if you had the prescience to pick the exact low and the exact minute of that low, you would have missed 90% of the market rally.

Furthermore, take a gander at the N.Y.S.E. Advance-Decline Line and the Value Line Arithmetic Index (which is an unweighted index of over 1,600 stocks).Both have been posting record highs. My understanding of a “secular bear market” is that the market averages trace out lower lows and lower highs. They don’t post record highs after record high.
You argued that the N.Y.S.E. Advance-Decline Line is not indicative of the market as it comprises many convertible preferreds, interest-sensistive issues and ETFs. Why didn’t you apply the same argument for the 2007-2009 bear market or the 2000-2002 bear market?

Also, how do you explain the record high in the “Operating-Companies-Only” Advance-Decline Line (which excludes convertible preferreds)? In a bear market, over time, more stocks decline than advance and in a bull market, more stocks advance than decline over time. Should it not? What’s the beef? Clearly, it’s ignorance and denial.

You find the “V”-shape recovery surprising? Clearly, you don’t know which end is up. When you were panicking in the final quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, you were forecasting a depression, too busy scaring investors. You didn’t pay attention to what the Fed and other central bankers were doing.

Had you bothered, you would have noticed that the whole world pumped an unprecedented amount of liquidity into the system. Were they trying to create a depression? You don’t need a doctoral degree in economics from Wharton to know that the central banks were trying to arrest the economic death spiral.

True, it was a near-death experience, but once again, they succeeded. Also, have you noticed that every piece of economic data reported to date shows a “V”-shape recovery? Little wonder the world markets have been skyrocketting.
You continue to complain that the current market level is not supported by fundamentals. Do you not know that the stock market is a leading economic indicator and the economy doesn’t lead the stock market?

For many months, you have been of the view that because of the collapse in the housing market, the high unemployment rate and low savings, consumers are cooked. Without the consumers, the recession will deepened and prolonged.
How do you explain the spectacular performance of the Consumer Discretionary issues? From its March, 2009 low, the XLY rose over 120% and outperformed the S&P 500 Index by a wide margin. Also, how do you explain the record highs in stocks such as Apple, Amazon, Dollar Tree, Estee Lauder, Skechers, etc.?

Others such as Big Lots stands at a 12-year high; Norstrom is up nearly 700% from its bear market low and stands at a new bull market high. Gap, Inc. stands at an 8-year high; and Saks is up more than 600% and also stands at a new bull market high. Where are consumers finding money to spend? Are the buyers of these stocks insane?

Does the housing market still worry you? No doubt you are still worried about more foreclosures and commercial loan defaults. You put forth endless reasons how the housing sector will drag the economy into a black hole. Are you aware, however, that the real estate (IYR) and homebuilders (XHB) climaxed in March 2009 and in recent months both have been posting new bull market highs?

If the prospect for this sector is so bleak, why are they acting so superbly? It is interesting to note that their lows were made in March 2009, right at the trough of the recession. As you know, the recession ended at the end of the second quarter of 2009 and the economy has been rebounding sharply.

Is their performance so surprising? As you know, the market is a leading economic indicator. Why do you persist in fighting the last war?

Corrections are normal in a bull market as rallies are normal in a bear market. To be sure, given the market’s overbought condition and deterioration in short-term sentiment reading, a correction can begin any time. But a correction is not a bear market. The 2007-2009 “bear market” was nothing more than a cyclical bear market within a secular bull and the secular bull market has long resumed.

Listen up Grizzlies, the market’s long-term trend, bull or bear, is determined by the monetary, economic, valuation, sentiment, and supply/demand factors. Short-term moves are driven by technical and sentiment factors.  Short-term corrections notwithstanding, until the major market factors give bearish readings, one has to maintain a bullish stance for the long-term. Go back to the drawing board and do your homework.

To err is human, but to argue with the market is an exercise in masochism.

Leon Tuey

Mr. Tuey is a veteran technical analyst

Digitimes, with their close industry contacts, has one again leaked some tasty info.

On this occasion they claim, pretty confidently, that Compal will be producing two tablet PC’s for Toshiba, one a standard Android one and the other powered by Windows CE 7.

Toshiba has announced last week that they will be producing the same tablets, but at the time they were labelled as simply an Android and Windows one, making it appear that the Microsoft version actually ran Windows 7 on an Intel chip, like the HP Slate.

According to Digitimes however the tablets will run on Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor, and the Windows CE 7 version will feature dual screens.

Apparently Compal Electronics will ship the tablets at the end of 2010 or early 2011, a time scale which slots in pretty well with that recent New York Times Microsoft Courier leak.

Toshiba has traditionally had a close relationship with Microsoft, being one of the first to make a Plays for Sure PMP and then being the first OEM of the Zune device before Microsoft took manufacturing internal.

Could this rumour be all about the Courier? Let us know your thoughts below.

Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber and Toronto rap sensation Drake joined forces for a live performance of Bieber’s hit single “Baby” at Sunday night’s 2010 Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy Awards.

Sometimes convention is just inertia. Something’s done a certain way just because that’s the way everyone else is doing it. And that’s an opportunity for a business willing to go against the grain.

Example: TBS’ use of “stacks” of programs (mentioned in this article). Running blocks of the same show helps the network stand out among the hundreds of cable channels out there.

On Mondays, for example, TBS fills the three-hour prime-time block from 8 to 11 p.m. with six reruns of “Family Guy.” On Tuesdays, it repeats the pattern with “The Office.” Wednesday is Tyler Perry night, with three hours of original comedies from that producer, who has a large following among black viewers.

“We kind of fly against the convention of traditional television,” Mr. Koonin said. “We don’t program horizontally, looking for shows that flow into one another. We program vertical stacks of programs.”

Clever. Anyone who’s sat down with a DVD of Family Guy, Mad Men, or Lost knows that watching multiple episodes in a row leads to a different type of viewing experience. We’ve all got that one friend who disappears for an entire weekend when a new season of 24 comes out on DVD.

So while every other networks assumes there’s just one “right” way to program, TBS has ignored convention and reached out to a different kind of viewer. Great example of zagging when everyone else is zigging. It’s working too: TBS is the No. 1 cable channel among viewers ages 18 to 34.

Might We Suggest…

• New Motoblur Handset or Really Good Photoshop Job?
  

  Droiddog.com is reporting that the handset pictured to the left may be a new Motoblur prototype from …

This morning, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that President Obama will give a speech on financial regulatory reform from New York City on Thursday:

Almost two years after the crisis hit and almost one year after the Administration first laid out a detailed plan for holding Wall Street accountable and protecting consumers, he will call for swift Senate action. The crisis has already wiped out trillions of dollars in family wealth and cost over 8 million jobs. The President will also remind Americans what is at stake if we do not move forward with changing the rules of the road as a part of a strong Wall Street reform package.

Two years ago, during the presidential campaign, Obama spoke about the need for financial reform from Cooper Union — where he will deliver his remarks on Thursday. And he will need to deliver them well. The administration’s efforts to reform Wall Street have been hampered not just by Republican intransigence, but by messaging problems. Despite the popularity of reforming the banks, the administration has faltered in explaining just what it plans to do and why that is the best way to do it — in part because rather than using blunt regulatory instruments, such as a tax on financial transactions, the bill is a patchwork quilt of tripwires, oversight changes and complex rules. For more on the complexity of Wall Street reform, see Ryan Avent’s smart comments here.

By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Along with Earth Day, EPA celebrates its 40th anniversary this month.

Although the environment has not been a priority for every administration, the EPA has brought about many positive accomplishments in its four decades (which the agency has charted on a timeline.)

The Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act of 1970 (which has been amended several times) was the first national action to set standards for air pollution in an effort to keep Americans healthy; it provided for enforceable regulations on industry and vehicles to reduce air pollution.

In its first 20 years, the EPA estimates that the Clean Air Act prevented:

• 205,000 premature death;
• 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis;
• 21,000 cases of heart disease;
• 843,000 asthma attacks;
• 189,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations;
• 10.4 million lost IQ points in children (from lead reductions);
• 18 million child respiratory illnesses.

During the next 20 years, amendments to the Clean Air Act have been estimated to have prevented:

• 23,000 premature deaths;
• 20,000 caes of chronic bronchitis;
• 7,200 cases of chronic asthma;
• 4,800 children’s ER visits for asthma;
• 64,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations;
• 4.1 million lost work days;
• 12 million restricted activity days due to poor air quality.

Water Quality

The 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, setting up similar standards for controlling the pollution of surface waters in the U.S. In terms of water quality,  that I

Progress has been made. In 2008, 92 percent of the population served by community water systems received water that met all health-based standards, up from 79 percent in 1993, said EPA spokeswoman Latisha Petteway.

From 1950 to 2005, the U.S. population doubled while the demand place on our public water supply more than tripled, prompting a new approach by the EPA to foster water conservation.

WaterSense, a water-efficiency program launched by EPA in 2006, has given Americans the information they need to make smart choices by helping them save 9.3 billion gallons of water and 1 billion kWh annually through the use of WaterSense-labeled products, Petteway said. In 2008, she says, the program helped consumers save more than $55 million on their water and sewer bills.

Superfund Sites

The EPA sees the clean up of toxic waste sites as another of its major accomplishments.  By 2009, 1,080 of the more than 1,500 waste sites identified on the Superfund National Priority List — areas that had known or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants — had been cleaned up. In addition, 409 of the sites on the National Priority List have long term protections in place for anticipated reuse.

EPA has been joined by states in protecting the country’s groundwater from leaking underground storage tanks. Petteway says that even a small amount of petroleum released from an underground storage tank can contaminate groundwater – which is the drinking water source for almost half of the population. As of September 2009, she says, EPA and its partners have closed more than 1.7 million substandard USTs, cleaned up more than 388,000 releases and decreased the annual number of UST releases from 67,000 in 1990 to a little over 7,100 in 2009.

Natural Resources and Recycling

In regard to the country’s natural resources, the U.S. has increased its forestland and reduced its soil erosion rates. Petteway says that the U.S. averaged an annual gain in net forest area of 159,000 hectares per year between 2000 and 2005. The agency estimates that soil erosion rates have decreased by 43 percent between 1982 and 2003.

While much of the credit should go to the individual communities, the EPA reports that families and business have increased recycling rates from less than 10 percent in 1980 to more than 33 percent in 2008. Landfill disposals have decreased from 89 percent in 1980 to 54 percent in 2008, according to the EPA, which has supported and promoted these efforts.

Petteway says that as a country, Americans have recycled and composted 83 million tons of household trash and municipal solid waste resulting in a savings of 182 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. This is comparable to reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 33 million cars and trucks.

Similarly, EPA’s achievements with brownfields – properties whose reuse, expansion or redevelopment is complicated by the presence of hazardous substances – can be partly attributed to the communities where the brownfields are located. But the EPA provided the training and created jobs to support brownfield redevelopment.

The EPA’s Brownfields Job Training Program trained more than 5,200 people from 1998-2009, helping them land fulltime work in the environmental field with average wages of $14.26, Petteway said.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

Financial reform advocates were practically shaking with excitement to utter their I-told-you-so’s over the weekend after the SEC filed a lawsuit (.pdf – brief synopsis here) against Goldman Sachs for fraud. One example of a reformer with a triumphant tone came this morning as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) said that the case helps reinforce the need for more regulation of financial markets. Should it?

Political Perfection

To be sure, having a major investment bank sued by the SEC strengthens anti-Wall Street rhetoric. In that way, it will enhance public support for measures to crack down on banks and discourage politicians from looking the other way — and the timing couldn’t have been better. So politically, the event is extremely helpful. But that’s different from saying that the content of the SEC complaint assists regulation proponents in defending the more controversial reform proposals.

If the SEC Wins

An SEC win might seem like it would strengthen the case for reform. It shouldn’t. If the SEC succeeds in showing that Goldman committed fraud, then that means current law already forbid Goldman’s alleged bad behavior. In other words, no further regulation would be necessary to right the wrongs committed by the investment bank in this case.

If the SEC Loses

A Goldman win, however, should help reform’s appeal. If it’s widely perceived that the deal at the center of the SEC case was sleazy but Goldman gets away with it, then reforms everywhere will be vindicated in their view of the necessity of changes to the system.

Yet the corrections needed to fix the system according to the Goldman example are relatively benign. The SEC says that Goldman misled investors by not providing all of the relevant information for a security it sold. This is merely a call for greater disclosure. Virtually no one — whether Republican, Democrat, banker, or consumer — has much trouble with additional disclosure requirements. All of the more controversial measures, like the non-bank resolution authority, the consumer financial protection agency and putting derivatives on an exchange, wouldn’t be necessary to have prevented the fraud the SEC believes occurred. Investors would have just needed a little more disclosure.

What Reforms Should Argue

However, this could provide some additional ammo for reformers’ war if they highlight the uniqueness of this case. After a historic financial crisis, this marks the first — and potentially last — legal action related to wrongdoing against a major Wall Street bank the SEC has managed to take. That revelation shows how little regulators could have done to lessen the severity of the crisis in the current framework. Good reform should help to create an environment where investors don’t as easily buy securities that will one day be toxic.

(Nav Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Adam DeGraff is back with AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. His rendition of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” was quite the hit with over 90,000 views on YouTube. For more, check out The Dueling Fiddlers.

The Other Guys is an upcoming action-comedy film directed and co-written by Adam McKay and distributed by Sony’s Columbia Pictures. The film stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, and co-stars Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Anne Heche and Derek Jeter. The film is expected to be released August 6, 2010.

Set in New York City, The Other Guys follows Detective Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell), a forensic accountant who’s more interested in paperwork than hitting the streets, and Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), a tough guy who has been stuck with Allen as his partner ever since an unfortunate run—in with Derek Jeter. Allen and Terry idolize the city’s top cops, Danson and Highsmith (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson), but when an opportunity arises for the Other Guys to step up, things don’t quite go as planned.

Tras la última polémica protagonizada por el piloto inglés Lewis Hamilton en el reciente GP de China en donde realizó una maniobra demasiado arriesgada en el pit-lane junto a Sebastian Vettel, muchos pilotos y jefes de equipo se han quejado por su forma de conducir antireglamentaria. Aun asi, lo más interesante y polémico esta por llegar, Bernie Ecclestone ha hecho unas declaraciones en las que apoya directamente al piloto de McLaren.

En cuestión, estas han sido las palabras del dueño de la Fórmula 1:

“¿De qué hablan? ¿No van las carreras sobre la competición máxima?. Pilotó realmente bien y los demás deberían dejar de quejarse y seguir compitiendo”.

Apesar de todo esto, cabe destacar que Hamilton es un gran piloto y las últimas remontadas que ha realizado en las pasadas carreras lo acreditan. Lástima que su imagen se vea empañada por estas acciones que no tienen ni pie ni cabeza.

Related posts:

1. Bernie Ecclestone desea que se celebren 20 carreras la próxima temporada
2. Lewis Hamilton consigue la pole en el GP de Italia
3. Lewis Hamilton se hace con la pole en el GP de Singapur

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

On Friday night, I bought an iPad nearly three months after giving 12 reasons why I wouldn’t. An unexpected reason came up: My wife’s MacBook Pro died. I reckoned she could temporarily use the tablet (which cost way less than any new Mac laptop) and give me a chance to better test the device (than using the Apple Store display models). I’m not among Apple’s inner circle of reviewers, nor on any of its other reviewers’ lists. I’d have to buy an iPad to test one and pay the restocking fee should I decide not to keep it. The MacBook Pro failure presented reason to join the iPad Generation.

Before getting to those 10 questions to ask, first it’s the story of the failed MacBook Pro. I bought the computer used — somewhat scratched and nicked but in excellent operating condition — in summer 2009. Early last week, the laptop started acting strangely, with scrolling display or pixelated frozen screen that required reboot. Thursday, the computer rebooted to kernel panic — Apple’s version of the Windows blue screen of death — every other reboot before freezing up again. So I hauled the ailing laptop into the local Apple Store, expecting prognosis that the graphics chip had failed; I’d already read on the InterWeb that generation of nVidia graphics chip was defective.

At the Apple Store, the Genius confirmed what I expected but said something I didn’t. The graphics chip is the only part “covered out of warranty,” which in Genius Bar lingo meant free repair. Apple would replace the logic board. After handing over my wife’s vintage 2008 MacBook Pro, I took another look at iPad, which I really wasn’t interesting in buying (Hey, I gave 12 reasons why not, remember?). But I often swap computers, operating systems, cell phones and other gadgets to break up my routine, to minimize falling into habits. The finger-licking-good user interface certainly would disrupt how I normally interact with a computer. So I decided to buy an iPad. What’s 700 bucks between frienemies? But there were none in stock. No problem. An Apple Store employee took my name to reserve one for whenever more shipped in.

Next day, I got email that my iPad was waiting. Whoa, that was fast. I bought the 64GB WiFi model hours later, using money from my meager tax refund. My wife and I both used the tablet over the weekend, but she less time than either of us expected. About 6:15 Sunday evening, someone from the Apple Store called to say that my wife’s laptop was ready for pick up. Whoa, that was pretty good service. Turnaround was less than 72 hours after I had been told the repair would take five-to-seven days.

Based on my early iPad usage, I’ve formed some questions potential buyers should ask when considering the big purchase. I’m not ready to review or even recommend iPad, and I may yet return the device. It’s an expensive toy for my budget, fun as iPad may be to use. Now for those questions:

1. Can you rub your tummy, wave your hand, chew bubblegum and blink your eyes at the same time? If so, iPad isn’t for you. The device is a multitasking-free zone. OK, some Apple applications kind of work at the same time — on par with rubbing your tummy and chewing gum together. But iPad is, for now, mainly a one-thing-at-a-time device, which is one of several reasons why in early March I singled out the 55-and-older set as a viable market segment.

2. Do you watch videos at places other than YouTube? If so, forget iPad. For me, the device generated scathes of frustration because the browser doesn’t support Adobe Flash. Just try watching videos at MTV.com, Engadget or any (other) WordPress.com site using the built-in video streaming service. They’re Flash-based, baby, so they poop out using iPad’s mobile Safari.

Apple has gone on the offensive against Flash, and Macheads have joined in, justifying the attack. What a load of crap. For all the BS about Apple protecting the user experience, Flash is all over the Web. The Flash flap is like Apple releasing a digital-only TV four years ago and arguing that analog is inferior and has a monopoly on broadcasting standards. Digital is better, so Apple won’t support analog. This is exactly the kind of argument applied to Flash, ignoring it is the major means by which video is delivered over the Web.

3. Do you like to eat with your fingers? Then iPad is for you. The Apple demos don’t lie. The tablet is pure finger food. Are you ambidextrous or would you like to be? Apple is a two-handed device, if rightly used. Think “Minority Report” for the kind of sweeping movements that make iPad fun to use and a remarkably more productive tool than mouse and keyboard.

4. Do you have trouble managing your inbox? I sure as hell do. The mail just piles up for months before I finally get around to deleting and filing. On Saturday night, I cleaned up about six months of @me.com email, using iPad. It was unfraking believable. Using my fingers, I blew through the work in about one-third the time of using keyboard and mouse. Bee-Jesus!

5. Did you rebuy music or movies you already purchased to get the content in a new format? You know, moving from vinyl to CDs or VHS to DVD or DVD to Blu-ray (or, gasp, defunct HD DVD). If so, you’ll be primed to rebuy many iPod/iPhone touch apps as iPad versions, which typically cost more in the larger formatted size. Not only will you pay twice, but higher price, too. Welcome to the iPad economy!

6. Do you like to read while sitting on the toilet? Wonderful, iPad is the ideal bathroom reader. You can choose from e-books, magazine apps or the Web —  even watch a TV show or (gasp!) movie if you need that long in there.

7. Is your music library bigger than a cereal box? Mine is 78GB of music, and video content consumes a little more. The iPad offers storage capacity of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB, which is underwhelming for big content consumers. Since there are no USB ports, digital content stored on portable drives isn’t a real solution either. Streaming music could be an option while you work, but — whoops — Apple prohibits third-party apps like Pandora from doing so.

8. Have you pined for an Apple laptop but couldn’t justify, or afford, $999 for the white MacBook? Well, well, for half that price iPad could be yours. It’s the cheapest Mac you can buy. The tablet easily provides more than 90 percent of everyday portable PC functionality — better than a Windows netbook, in my testing. But there is the puny storage (16GB) for $499, Flashless browser, no peripheral ports (OK, Apple sells extra-cost camera and VGA adaptors) and singletasking to consider. But if you can live with these compromises, iPad has plenty of appeal. The screen is so beautiful, you will want to lick it (and your fingers, too).

9. Do you enjoy reading bulky magazines, like Brides or the old Computer Shopper? Then you’ll love iPad for its heft, on the order of a later series Harry Potter book, but, of course, nowhere as thick. The iPad measures 24.28 cm by 18.97 cm by 1.34 cm (9.56 inches by 7.47 inches by .5 inches). The WiFi model is .68 kg (1.5 pounds) and the 3G model .73 kg (1.6 pounds).

For my tastes, iPad is too large, about as long as a hardcover book and much wider, by about 3 cm. The black border surrounding the viewable part of the screen is about 2 cm around. By removing the border, iPad’s length and width would be about the same as a hardcover book. The iPad doesn’t compare well to ultra-thin, electronic paper screens, making it not nearly as “revolutionary” as advertised. In two or perhaps three years, Apple will unveil an iPad nano that is super thin with smaller dimensions.

10. Do you travel often by air and find annoying and time wasting the security process of removing your laptop from its bag? Like me, perhaps you worry about notebook theft while going through the security line. If the answer is yes, iPad could save you time and troubles. In the United States, the TSA has deemed iPad as security check-in friendly. You can leave it in your bag. Yesterday, Altimeter Group analyst Michael Gartenberg tweeted: “Going through security with iPad was a breeze. Easiest pass through since 9/11. Nice to lose five pounds that quickly.” That could be you!

Wrapping up, do you have any questions to ask about iPad or perhaps others you think potential buyers should ask? Please offer them in comments. As for my iPad, I’m still weighing options. If you live in the San Diego area and would settle for a slightly-used Apple tablet, make me a reasonable offer.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

The specs for the upcoming T-mobile exclusive, lower-end Android device — the myTouch 3G Slide — have been revealed by a source with the device in their possession.
No spec sheets accompany the device, but the source was able to confirm the following:

• A 600 MHz ARM processor,
• 512MB RAM,
• 512MB on-board storage,
• A 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash.
• An 8GB MicroSD card included in the box,
• Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI and multi-touch support, and

Live wallpapers, as seen on the Nexus One, Droid Incredible, and other Android 2.1 phones, will not make an appearance on this device due to the lower-spec CPU.

Interestingly, the phone will come pre-installed with Swype as the default keyboard, but — as with all Android devices — this can be changed if desired. The popular (and really quite fun) Android game, Abduction, will also come installed, along with a heap of T-mobile apps, including a music streaming service similar to Pandora.

The device is expected to launch in May.

[via Electronista]

The corporate world may be even more superficial than you thought. In a paper entitled A Corporate Beauty Contest, three professors at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University tell what happened when they showed photographs of CEOs and non-CEOs to 2,000 people. The professors asked the viewers to rate the faces in the photos on qualities such as how competent they appeared. People consistently rated the faces of CEOs as being more competent looking than non-CEO faces.

Could it be that CEOs are selected for their looks? Maybe so. Their elevated positions don’t seem to be entirely the result of superior performance. The Duke professors—John Graham, Campbell Harvey and Manju Puri—found no statistical evidence that the most competent looking CEOs perform any better than less competent looking leaders. “Essentially the ‘look’ of competence says very little about effective competence,” the authors say.

It does see, though, that competent looking CEOs enjoy far better career opportunities. The Duke professors found that competent looking CEOs earn more than their less competent looking counterparts and that CEOs of large companies look more competent than CEOs of small companies.

The lesson here? If you want to reach the top of the corporate pyramid, your face may matter just as much as your performance.

Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post

(This is a guest post from Forex Playbook.)

With the next chapter of the Greek debt crisis soon to unfold in Athens, Greece, investor confidence in the eurozone is far from restored. Ahead of Friday’s revelation of SEC charges in the Goldman Sachs’ scandal, the euro was headed toward further declines while Greek bonds had been trading lower for the fourth consecutive day. While an easy target, identifying Greece as the culprit for these ongoing declines fails to consider the broader, systemic issues that plague the eurozone. That is to say that the eurozone’s troubles do not end with Greece, but rather they begin in Athens.

The handling of the Greek debt crisis on the part of the European Union exposes a fundamental weakness of the trading bloc. In order for the EU to function as a cohesive unit, central interests must act as the guiding force behind all policy decisions. However, member states will necessarily act in a manner that is consistent with their own self-interests. The inherent contradiction between those two interests has thus produced the inharmonious face that the EU has projected during its ongoing wranglings over Greece.

Striking, however, is the shared, though incorrect, view among EU member states – Germany being the notable exception – that a Greek bailout is in the EU’s central interest. The significance of the Athens meeting, then, greatly exceeds the relatively trivial issue of Greek debt. Should the EU accomplish its stated objective in Athens – resolving conclusively the terms of an EU-led Greek bailout – it will have accomplished far more than the mere provision of temporary relief to Greece. In effect, the EU will be setting the precedent for a bailout culture, which will greatly undermine both its shared currency and financial stability going forward.

The subordination of stringent financial standards to concessions that accommodate fiscally irresponsible management has already commenced in the EU. At this point, the Stability and Growth Pact, which prescribes limits on deficit- and debt-to-GDP ratios, may as well be torn asunder. Indeed, the European Commission had to go so far as to admonish member states for using Enron-like standards of accounting to meet the prescribed limits.

Among the more egregious departures from fiscal responsibility is that of Portugal, which will see its debt-to-GDP ratio balloon to 86 percent this year. Facing stagnant growth in the years ahead, it is but a matter of time before market financing for Portuguese debt runs dry. An urgent meeting to be convened in Lisbon will inevitably follow in order to discuss EU-led financing measures for Portugal.

Indeed, what began as a Greek bailout will ultimately result in a domino effect of aid requests across the eurozone. Market financing will quickly run dry for one EU member state after another, leading to the subsequent bailouts of Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain (among others) in rapid succession.

Surprising, then, is the ire that Germany’s hard-line stance on bailouts has drawn from many of its counterparts in the EU. There is no doubt that the future of the eurozone will be determined in Athens on Monday. A Greek bailout, while perhaps a short-term remedy, will only poison the trading bloc in the months ahead. There is but one solution to the ongoing troubles facing the EU that supports its survival and that of the euro itself: Ailing members must be immediately expelled before they infect the community as a whole. Otherwise, the dissolution of the eurozone is just a matter of time.

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Before its recent ouster, the government in Krygyzstan began to crack down on pro-opposition media. In one case, Kyrgyz financial police raided Stan TV, an independent TV channel and shut it down by seizing all of its computers, it claimed, on the authority of Microsoft (via Boing Boing), because they were supposedly running pirated software. It should be stressed that Microsoft had nothing to do with this, it was solely an action of a repressive regime. But we’ve reached a point where a government seizing computers on behalf of private companies because of piracy is a believable excuse used to justify repression. Also, don’t think it’s something that can only happen under some repressive regime in a small country on the other side of the world. The FBI’s done the bidding of the entertainment industry here in the US — a role several entertainment industry groups would love to see grow.

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