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Looking to boost the income from your portfolio? Morningstar recommends you take a close look at a new ETF that invests in closed-end funds.

These often ignored funds resemble ordinary mutual funds, but differ in that their number of shares is fixed. When you invest in an ordinary mutual fund, the fund simply creates more units to exchange for your dollars. But when you invest in a closed-end fund, you have to buy shares from an existing shareholder, just as you would if you were buying a piece of a company.

So why is that an attractive proposition? Depending on investor demand, the price of a share in a closed-end can be substantially higher or lower than the underlying assets it represents. If you buy a fund trading below its net asset value, you are presumably getting a discount on those assets. That can result in higher yields and better profits than you would otherwise receive.

The PowerShares Closed-End Fund Income Composite ETF holds 82 closed-end funds. It excludes funds with low trading volume, as well as ones that trade at more than a 20% premium to their net asset value.

Right now the PowerShares fund is yielding about 8.3%—an awfully attractive payout compared to bonds. But you should be aware of the downside. For one thing, the total fees come to about 1.8% a year, which is expensive. And there’s no guarantee that the underlying funds may not lose money.

Buying into closed-end funds make most sense during the early stages of a recession when discounts to net asset value usually widen. While this new ETF looks intriguing now, it could be an even better investment during the next downturn.
Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post.

It has been kind of entertaining (some would say frightening) watching the Australian government’s futile efforts to clean the Internet of its naughty bits. As part of their filtering plans, the government conducted trials with a handful of ISPs, many of whom have been very vocal in their beliefs that the filters won’t technically work. These ongoing trials had no quantifiable metric to determine whether the trials were a success or failure, so obviously, Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proudly announced that the trials proved the filters to be 100% effective. Political leaders in favor of the filters haven’t exactly been open to feedback on the dangers of filters, and the country learned nothing early on, when a teenage kid hacked their original filter system in all of half an hour.

Recently, U.S. politicians have been ramping up their criticism of Australia’s filtering efforts, with the State Department last month issuing a rather vague statement indicating "we have raised our concerns on this matter." This week, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich was willing to get a little more specific in a low-quality poetry sort of way, insisting that the Internet "needs to be free" in much the same way "the polar caps have to be free" (whatever that means). Bleich went out of his way to state that there are other methods to deal with extremism and child pornography, like addressing them at the source:

"We have been able to accomplish the goals that Australia has described, which is to capture and prosecute child pornographers and others who use the Internet for terrible purposes, without having to use Internet filters. We have other means and we are willing to share our efforts with them in order to allow them to at least look at a range of choices, as opposed to moving in one particular direction. It’s an ongoing conversation."

While Bleich insists it’s a conversation, all indications are Australia’s government isn’t listening. They’ve already spent a fortune on the idea, and have ignored critics every single step of the way. As is usually the case when talk of imposing filters fires up, the specter of child pornography and other societal menaces are used as the scary red herring. Given how susceptible U.S. citizens are to sales pitches involving "protecting the children," it seems like only a matter of time (and lobbyist effort) before the United States requires ISPs to impose copyright filters at the behest of the entertainment industry and Bono. We’ve already had a few close calls, like with the ACTA or with U.S. lawmakers trying to bury filtering plans into the broadband stimulus effort — so it sounds like Uncle Sam should heed his own advice.

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Article Tags: Headline Story, Piers Corbyn, Solar News

The flanks of a major Coronal Mass Ejection – a massive solar explosion which blasted a whole section of the solar corona into space – is heading this way to hit Earth in Weather Action’s predicted RED WEATHER WARNING & MAJOR Solar Weather Impact Period 18-19th April. There will be important weather effects.

First images* of the dramatic event by Astronomers of Castle Point Astronomy Club (near Southend, Essex) were viewed when Piers Corbyn astrophysicist of WeatherAction long-range forecasters spoke there on 14th April about Climate & Weather forecasting {*Images to be linked soon}

Piers Corbyn said on 14 April: “This is an important solar event and very significantly the flank of this CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) is predicted by the USA NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre to hit Earth on 18th April
– http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html
– VISIT for solar images and chart record such as above for X ray surges from the event 13th April :

Click source to read FULL report by Piers Corbyn

Source: Twitter Link

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Counter Culture: And now restaurant sales are doing awesome too.

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Paul Ghent, Palm’s vice president of European sales, has told the publication Total Telecom that the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus would debut on SFR France by the end of the month. Specifically the handsets will first become available online on April 27th, while SFR retail locations will have them by May 11th.

The Pixi Plus will carry a €49 up front price tag, while the Pre Plus will cost €149, or €99 including €50 mail-in rebate. […] Ghent said Palm is also currently working on growing its handset range in a bid to broaden its appeal.

“We recognise that different people like different form factors, we realise there are other [market] segments out there…[and] we are developing products that will broaden our range,” he said.

The simple, asymmetry of the limited edition Cannondale OnBike is not the only thing that makes it so striking. You won’t spot a chain or (much) external wiring. And the frame itself…is that…squared? More »

On Thursday, The LOGO Network announced the nominees for its third annual NewNowNext Awards — celebrating the next “big things” in TV, music, film, print — early Thursday and screen legend Betty White, Glee’s Lea Michele, singer Ke$sha, and Jersey Shore’s own Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi are among the stars up for prizes at this year’s ceremony honoring showbiz icons and young stars-on-the-rise.

Snooki will be competing against Keeping Up With The Kardashians’s Khloe Kardashian and Olympian Johnny Weir of Be Good Johnny Weir fame for LOGO’s Most Addictive Reality Star prize. Ke$ha and Jersey Shore are vying for the title of Best New Indulgence.

There’s even a category for Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber! Take a look:

Nominees For The 3rd Annual “NewNowNext Awards” 2010:

Brink of Fame: Actor

· Morena Baccarin (“V”, ABC)

· Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song)

· Mark Indelicato (“Ugly Betty”, ABC)

· Lea Michele (“Glee”, FOX)

· Alexander Skarsgård (“True Blood”, HBO)

· Paul Wesley (“The Vampire Diaries”, CW)

OMFG Internet Award:

· Chatroulette (chatroulette.com)

· Jessica & Hunter (http://bit.ly/dkzQ64)

· Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber (http://lesbianswholooklikejustinbieber.tumblr.com/)

· shitmydadsays on Twitter (twitter.com/shitmydadsays)

· Very Mary-Kate (verymarykate.com)

Best Show You’re Not Watching:

· “Archer” (FX)

· “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life” (A&E)

· “Let’s Talk About Pep” (VH1)

· “Nurse Jackie” (Showtime)

· “United States of Tara” (Showtime)

Best New Indulgence:

· “Hoarders” (A&E)

· “Jersey Shore” (MTV)

· Ke$ha

· “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” (Starz)

· The Split, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (Logo)

Most Addictive Reality Star:

· Jujubee, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (Logo)

· Khloé Kardashian, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (E!)

· Andrew Mukamal, “Kell on Earth” (Bravo)

· Snooki, “Jersey Shore” (MTV)

· Johnny Weir, “Be Good Johnny Weir” (Sundance)

Cause You’re Hot:

· Matthew Bomer (“White Collar”, USA)

· Scott Fujita (Linebacker, Cleveland Browns)

· Kellan Lutz (The Twilight Saga)

· Jesus Luz (Madonna’s boyfriend)

· Zoe Saldana (Avatar)

· Betty White (The Golden Girls)

Best Future Feature:

· Burlesque (Screen Gems)

· Eat, Pray, Love (Sony)

· Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Warner Brothers)

· The Kids Are All Right (Focus)

· Salt (Sony)

Brink of Fame: Music Artist

· Agnes

· La Roux

· Little Boots

· Passion Pit

· The xx

· VV Brown

Brink of Fame: Comic

· Aziz Ansari (“Parks and Recreation”)

· Michelle Collins (“Best Week Ever”)

· Liz Feldman

· Maulik Pancholy (“30 Rock”)

· Amy Phillips

Winners will be revealed Thursday, June 17th at 10/9C, on LOGO’s 2010 NewNowNext Awards show. The 90-minute special will be taped in front of a live audience of today’s hottest emerging and seasoned artists at the retro-glam Edison Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on June 8.

Visit NewNowNext.com to vote for your favorite stars!

DARPA, the Pentagon’s mad-scientist research agency, has unveiled new ambitious plans for a flying car called the Transformer (TX). DARPA has already started soliciting proposals from companies to develop a TX prototype and have it ready for testing by 2015.

The military’s plan for a flying car goes several steps beyond previous commercial designs like the Terrafugia Transition. That “roadable aircraft” was designed by a startup company as a lightweight plane that would fold up its wings on landing, and then zoom off on the roads. But DARPA’s proposed vehicle could overcome flaws that have hampered the Terrafugia–including its inability to navigate through bad weather. The agency wants to create a sturdier vehicle that would not just take off and land vertically, but could also carry four people and zip across 250 miles on a single tank of gas.

In its proposal, DARPA states the TX should be both a robust ground and air vehicle, enabling soldiers to avoid water, difficult terrain, and road obstructions–to say nothing of IEDs and ambush threats. It should be no bigger than 30 feet long by 8.5′ wide and 9′ high in ground configuration — on the order of two Hummers nose-to-tail — and should have wheels and suspension giving “road performance similar to an SUV” and “capable of handling light off-road travel” [The Register].

The vehicle’s capacity for vertical takeoff and landing would mean that it won’t need to taxi down a runway. DARPA wants the vehicle to be large enough to carry “four fully suited” soldiers, or a medic and a stretcher, which suggests that the vehicles could serve as flying ambulances. The agency expects the TX to attain an altitude of 10,000 feet and to cover 250 miles on a single tank of gas. That means less Humvee, more Prius: The agency suggests that proposals would be wise to include ideas like “hybrid electric drive, advanced batteries, adaptive wing structures, ducted-fan propulsion systems [and] advanced lightweight heavy fuel engines” [Wired.com]. However, despite all the sophisticated machinery, DARPA wants to keep flying/driving the vehicle pretty simple, saying that any soldier who can drive a Humvee should be able to fly a TX with its “automated takeoff and landing” options.

In one of its mission plans, DARPA suggests that a TX could lift off from a base in Afghanistan, fly 60 miles to skip over the IEDs and landmines littering the roadsides, and then set down to conduct a 100-mile patrol on the ground. Another mission plan calls for the vehicle lifting off from an aircraft carrier, flying to shore, and then driving the rest of the way to its destination. DARPA’s guidelines require that the TX be no louder than a helicopter in flight mode and as quiet as a conventional automobile in car mode, suggesting that soldiers wishing to avoid unwanted attention could bring the TX down to the ground to drive to covert ops spots.

While the flying car is still confined to the realm of a DARPA dream, technophiles raised on The Jetsons can’t resist pointing out that the TX would be awesome for civilian use, too. It would genuinely be able to lift off and set down in rooftops and streets, and quiet enough to do so without violating noise ordinances. It would be able to drive properly on the ground. Its robotic autopilot would remove the need for expensive, perishable piloting and instrument-rating skills which is such a burden for today’s private pilots [The Register].

Related Content:
80beats: A Chitty Chitty Bang Bang For Everyone! New Flying Car Takes to the Sky
80beats: Meet the “Puffin,” NASA’s One-Man Electric Plane
80beats: DARPA Wants a Biofuel Jet, While Germany Works on a Hydrogen Plane
Discoblog: Back to The Future: The First Green Flying Car Is Ready For Takeoff
DISCOVER: 6 Blue-Sky Ideas for Revolutionizing the Automobile (photo gallery)

Article Tags: Anthony Watts, Joe Daleo

Authors veteran meteorologists Joe D’Aleo and Anthony Watts analyzed temperature records from all around the world for a major SPPI paper, Surface Temperature Records – Policy-driven Deception?

The startling conclusion that we cannot tell whether there was any significant “global warming” at all in the 20th century is based on numerous astonishing examples of manipulation and exaggeration of the true level and rate of “global warming”.

That is to say, leading meteorological institutions in the USA and around the world have so systematically tampered with instrumental temperature data that it cannot be safely said that there has been any significant net “global warming” in the 20th century.

Click to download PDF file: Surface Temperature Records: Policy Driven Deception? UPDATED Wednesday, 14 April

Source: scienceandpublicpolicy.org

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Winners of Harvard Law School’s 57th annual Williston Competition, Harvard’s annual contract negotiation and drafting competition for first-year law students, were announced on Monday, April 5.

This year’s winners were:

Best Contract Overall: Russell Herman, David Roth, Kristi Jobson and Aaron Dalnoot

Best Representation of Save Our Square: Fentress Jamal Fulton and Betny Townsend

Best Representation of McMillin’s: Adam David Lander and Matthew Walsh

The Williston Competition presents participants with a complex business problem and charges them with representing a client in negotiations, trying to arrive at an agreement that they then reduce to writing.

This year’s problem involved a negotiation between a community group, Save Our Square, and an international fast-food chain, McMillin’s, which were trying to come to an agreement over the terms of the chain’s establishment of a franchise in the local community.

The competition presented participants with the opportunity to try out their contract negotiation and drafting skills.

“We were drafting right up to the deadline on the last day of the competition,” said Russell Herman, who represented McMillin’s. “It was difficult drafting the contract so that all four of us were satisfied with the language.”

It was not all work and no play for the competitors, though.

“The most fun part of the negotiation was brainstorming with the other side,” Herman added.  “Both sides brought really creative ideas about how to address each of the issues, and since we had a good working relationship, both sides felt comfortable sharing them.”

His counterpart representing Save Our Square, Kristi Jobson, agreed.

“The four of us worked so well together,” Jobson said, “and were similarly invested in finding an outcome that worked for both sides.”

The Williston Competition is run jointly by the Board of Student Advisers and Harvard Negotiators, under the supervision of Professor Robert Bordone, Director of Harvard’s Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program.

This year’s competition was judged by Sarah Jelsema (Class of 2011) Andrew Madsen (Class of 2011) and Jonathan Lackow (Associate, Ropes & Gray, HLS Class of 2007).

You’ve probably noticed we love Firefox mobile.  With good reason, the desktop client is clearly a great bit of software and everything we’ve seen makes us think the mobile version will be too.  Well it looks like the Maemo version of Firefox Mobile 1.1 (Fennec for us geeks) is about ready for a beta release. What’s uber-cool, and surely will be in the Android version is the ability for add-ons to hook into the app.  Yes, pretty much like they do in the desktop application.  The highlights here are easily the site identy information (above) and the save as pdf feature of readability.

At present there are over 90 add-ons for mobile FireFox, and I’m sure as Mozilla keeps advancing the project we will see more of them spring up.  Yes for Android too.  There’s a couple more screen shots after the break, well worth a look.
[Via madhava.com]

read more

Forget that boring Fortune 500 list, with its Walmarts, oil companies and lack of vampires. The better list was released this week by Forbes, the one that not only includes vampires, but puts a bloodsucker squarely on top of the list.

In its annual ranking of the wealthiest fictional characters, Forbes calculated that Carlisle Cullen — the father of the vampiric Cullen clan from the Twilight novels and movies — is the most well-heeled character in the world with an estimated fortune of over $34 billion.

Forbes… explain yourself:

Immortal vampire and small-town doctor has quietly amassed a fortune over the centuries. In 1670 received generous handout from Italian friends; put savings in bank, reaped billions in compound interest. Made shrewd long-term investments in steel, gold, oil, thanks to prescience of daughter turned financial advisor Alice; saw recessions coming, invested early in Wal-Mart. Earned doctor’s salary for 340 years without paying for groceries, health care expenses. Avoids sunshine and public displays of wealth but owns several valuable properties, including yacht, private island, collection of Renaissance art.

Everyone’s favorite feathered billionaire Scrooge McDuck’s $33.5 billion — mostly in gold coins — was enough to put him in the #2 slot, while Richie Rich continues to creep us out in the third position with $11.5 billion.

Tony “Iron Man” Stark is only at #4 with $8.8 billion, though that may change depending on how well his sequel does this summer. And good ol’ Jed Clampett keeps sipping that Texas Tea to the tune of $7.2 billion and the final spot in the top five.

Here is the entire Forbes Fictional 15:
1. Carlisle Cullen (Twilight): $34.1 billion
2. Scrooge McDuck: $33.5 billion
3. Richie Rich: $11.5 billion
4. Tony Stark (Iron Man): $8.8 billion
5. Jed Clampett (Beverly Hillbillies): $7.2 billion
6. Adrian “Ozymandias” Veidt (Watchmen): $7 billion
7. Bruce Wayne (Batman): $6.5 billion
8. The Tooth Fairy (she’s real): $3.9 billion
9. Thurston Howell, III (Gilligan’s Island): $2.1 billion
10. Sir Tophamm Hatt (Thomas the Tank Engine): $2 billion
11. Artemis Fowl II : $1.9 billion
12. C. Montgomery Burns (The Simpsons): $1.3 billion
13. Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl): $1.1 billion
14. Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby): $1 billion
15. Lucille Bluth (Arrested Development): $950 million

The Forbes Fictional 15 [Forbes]

Drivers who live in New York or Washington D.C. can breathe a sigh of relief: the average insurance cost in their state (or district) is a relative bargain when compared to Louisiana. The average premium for a resident of Louisiana is $2,510.87 per year, compared to $1,753.19 for a Washington D.C. resident and $1,463.21 for a New Yorker.

Why is insurance in Louisiana so expensive? It’s got nothing to do with accident rates, uninsured motorists or traffic violations; instead, it’s based on the amount of money insurance companies pay out to settle litigation. Louisiana law requires a jury for civil awards in excess of $50,000.00, which means that most cases settle at $49,000.00 to avoid the uncertainty of presenting a case before a jury. Louisiana also has more lawsuits and bodily injury claims per capita than most other states, factors that drive insurance costs through the roof. Surprisingly, claims from damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 did not influence insurance costs.

Rounding out the top five most expensive states are Michigan ($2,098.29), Oklahoma ($1,869.39), Montana ($1,857.96) and California ($1,774.41). On the flip side, the five cheapest states to insure a car are New Hampshire ($1,011.23), Wisconsin ($1,010.93), Ohio ($999.86), Vermont ($986.58) and Maine ($902.85). Choose your next residence accordingly.

Source: The most and least expensive states for car insurance in 2010

When HTC started using their code names as the real names of the devices (think HTC Legend, Hero and Incredible) their names started becoming a bit more important.

To that end they are soliciting suggestions on their Facebook page for a new mystery device.  The names up for vote suggests a pretty youthful device, but HTC has not revealed any information about the handset.

Add your vote at HTC’s Facebook page here.

Via Engadget.com

Filed under: Motorsports, Videos, Hyundai, Racing

The Millen family has quite a proud history at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, not quite up there with the Unsers, but certainly more than respectable. Rod Millen captured several class records at the Colorado mountain over the years, including an outright record of 10:04:06 set in a Toyota Celica in 1994 that stood for an astounding 13 years.

Last June, son Rhys took a Hyundai Genesis coupe to a class record in the two-wheel drive Time Attack class with a 12:09.397.

This June, Millen is headed back to the Peak with a new weapon that still wears a Hyundai badge and will still be slathered in Red Bull livery. There will be none of that production-based nonsense this time though. The younger Millen wants to take the overall record back from Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima. Millen is aiming to get the first ever sub-10 minute time at Pikes Peak and he and his team have built a new car dubbed the Genesis PM580. From the teaser video after the jump, we’re guessing that this unlimited class car will feature plenty of carbon fiber and plenty of power, presumably 5.8-liters worth of Hyundai V8 based on the nomenclature. The new car is set to be revealed on Monday, but for now you can watch the Millen family talk about the glory that is Pikes Peak. Check out the video after the jump.

[Source: Hyundai]

Continue reading Video: Rhys vows to bring Pikes Peak record back to Millen family

Video: Rhys vows to bring Pikes Peak record back to Millen family originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The introduction of two-player co-op in F.E.A.R. 3 was one of the main highlights from last week’s game announcement. Thanks to game Informer, we now know a bit more about what “divergent co-op” means.

Here is the question that plagues the magazine industry at the moment. Reader Danielle likes Real Simple magazine and is a subscriber. However, there are so many ads in it that it’s ruining the experience for her. To make matters worse, the entire magazine is on their website… with fewer ads. So why should she subscribe?

Danielle says:

I’ve been a subscriber of Real Simple magazine for awhile now, and they are currently harassing me to renew my subscription. I’m not going to, and here’s why: when I receive my hard copy of the magazine it takes me thumbing through ten full pages of advertisements before I get to the first section.

Ten pages!

Considering that the pages are double-sided, that’s twenty ads to get to the initial content, and then many many more pages of ads in between every small section. Meanwhile, I can hop online and get all of the content that’s in the magazine for free with less ads. I just can’t believe this. There is nothing in the magazine that isn’t on the website! Where’s the benefit in being a subscriber? It’s so frustrating! I like the magazine so I want to give them my money, but I just can’t see any benefit in doing so.

Let’s ask the internet: What should magazines do to get you to subscribe?