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Survivor and Pimp My Ride producer Bruce Beresford-Redman is a suspect in his wife’s death days after reporting her missing in the resort city of Cancun, Mexican officials said this week. The body of Brazilian-born restauranteur Monica Beresford-Redman was found Thursday in a sewer at the swanky Moon Palace resort where the family was on vacation.

Bruce, who allegedly confessed to having an affair, was overheard by hotel staff in the middle of a furious shouting match with his wife the day before she disappeared. Beresford-Redman has been released from custody in Mexico, but is not permitted to leave the country.

Although we usually think of sushi as a lunch or dinner meal or snack, this Flickr photo has us thinking otherwise. These beautiful rolls were handmade and packed with healthy fats, some veggies and a little protein. Can you guess what’s in them?

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Filed under: Hybrid, Earnings/Financials, Motorcycle, Electric

In traditional Yamaha fashion, the company announced a move that may finally allow it to stake a claim as the first big player in the breakout electric motorcycle category. By putting the For Sale Sign on 63.25 million corporate stock shares, the tuning fork company hopes to raise an impressive 812 million dollars that it will dedicate to a highly charged electric and hybrid engine development plan across both their two-wheeled (motorcycle and electric bicycle) as well as aquatic (boat and outboard motor) product lines. We have seen many concepts and indications of Yamaha’s intent, but very little follow through up to this point.

The plan seems to be part of a healing process following 2009 in which the company posted losses north of $2.3 billion. Yes folks, we said billion… ouch! Yamaha, a company that traditionally has been eager to carve its own path in the powersports segment, hopes new fuel efficient and electric designs will lead to increased popularity in developing markets that have an ever-growing importance to manufacturers industry wide. We are left holding our breaths as to when these developments will make their way into the U.S. That will, no doubt, be largely dependent upon our buying trends. In addition, the company has also pledged to make all of its offerings more competitive throughout its lineup.

Most importantly, this means we will see some much needed diversity in the development of electric motorcycles. This from the company that brought us the fist modern four-stroke motocross bikes, as well as snowmobiles. We will eagerly look forward to Yamaha’s new offerings, and the following jolt that it could mean for the company as a whole. Now, to figure out how to commute in the bicycle lane on our shiny new Yamaha electric motorcycle.

[Source: Reuters]

Writing on the Wall: Yamaha raising funds for alternative engine development originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WASHINGTON–First Lady Michelle Obama hits Mexico City on Tuesday for her first solo international trip. She will be spending a lot of time with Mexico’s First Lady, Margarita Zavala–like her a lawyer with young kids. The visit underscores the important U.S.-Mexico relationship. My story on Mrs. Obama’s visit to Mexico–coming amidst growing concern about drug use and violence related to drug trafficking–is here.

On Friday morning, the White House released Mrs. Obama’s schedule. Click below for the details. The East Wing added a Thursday stop in San Diego, Calif. for Mrs.Obama after she leaves Mexico City to make a West Coast swing to discuss the Obama White House anti-childhood obesity programs.

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA’S VISIT TO MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

In recognition of the deep ties between the United States and Mexico, First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Mexico City, Mexico, April 13-15, on her first solo official trip as First Lady. During this visit, Mrs. Obama will have the opportunity to engage the citizens of Mexico, particularly young people, and build on her recent conversation with Mexican First Lady Margarita Zavala around areas of interest to both first ladies.

The following is Mrs. Obama’s public schedule including pooled and open press events:

Tuesday, April 13 – First Lady Michelle Obama will arrive at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City. Mrs. Obama’s evening arrival will be open press, however space is limited.

Wednesday, April 14 – Mrs. Obama will start her day by traveling to Los Pinos – the residence of President Calderón and Mrs. Zavala – where she will meet privately with Mrs. Zavala. This event will be closed press.

Upon conclusion of her visit at Los Pinos, Mrs. Obama will accept Mrs. Zavala’s invitation to tour the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Museum of Anthropology). The museum is a centerpiece of Mexican culture and history housing the largest collection of ancient Mexican pieces in the world. This event attended by both first ladies will be covered by a pre-determined pool of American and Mexican press.

Then Mrs. Obama will visit with students and teachers at Escuela Siete de Enero, a public elementary school that serves local low-income students ages 6-12. The school also participates in a mentoring program with the American School Foundation (ASF), an academically rigorous, international, university preparatory school offering students from diverse backgrounds an American independent education, in Mexico City. Mrs. Obama’s event will be covered by a pre-determined pool of American and Mexican press.

Mrs. Obama will then travel to the Universidad Iberoamericana, a multidisciplinary institution serving over 11,000 students including 800 graduate students, to address invited university and high school students from in and around Mexico City. Mrs. Zavala will attend Mrs. Obama’s address as a guest of honor. This afternoon event is open press, however space is limited.

In the evening, Mrs. Obama will return to Los Pinos to attend a reception with women leaders organized by Mrs. Zavala. Following the reception, Mrs. Obama will have dinner hosted by Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Mrs. Zavala. This event is closed press.

Thursday, April 15 – Mrs. Obama will begin her day by thanking United States Embassy employees and their families. This event will be closed press.

Then Mrs. Obama will host a group of young leaders at La Hacienda de los Morales, an event center with a rich history dating back to the 16th century, for a breakfast roundtable discussion. Mrs. Obama will ask these men and women about their experiences and encourage them to continue their leadership in the community. Mrs. Obama’s event will be covered by a pre-determined pool of American and Mexican press.

Upon conclusion of the roundtable breakfast, Mrs. Obama will depart Mexico City.

Thursday, April 15 – On the return trip from Mexico, the First Lady will stop in San Diego, California, for a Let’s Move! event. Further details on this event will be circulated next week.

I’ve changed my mind. I don’t care if Sarah Palin isn’t 100% ideal for me. Maybe that’s our problem. Always looking for perfection. The Libs settle constantly.

The thought of a Palin/Bachmann 2012 ticket… Wow. It makes me understand how even Colin Powell and JC Watts got caught up in the promise of Obama. But this would be REAL change…not just another man in the Oval Office…but TWO women!

I’m so in.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that for the first time ever, we will be witnessing live televised election debates by political party leaders. Everyone’s talking about it and here’s your chance to get in on the action!

Sky News is hosting one of the debates and is taking questions online via their website. You can also follow the discussion on their Facebook page. So take this opportunity now to pose your question to the leaders. You may even be given the chance to ask the question live.

Need some inspiration? Why not Ask the Climate Question?

To get more involved with Oxfam’s campaigns during the election period, check out our dedicated election page: www.oxfam.org.uk/election.

KNOXVILLE – “Goodbye, School. Hello, Summer” is the theme of the final week of this semester’s Ready for the World Café.

The menu for April 12-16 includes citrus grilled chicken with fruit salsa; chili-lime marinated beef fajitas; salmon ceviche with pita chips; vegan baked ziti with roasted vegetables; corn and sweet potato pudding; pineapple herbed rice; and balsamic mushroom salad with candied walnuts.

The Ready for the World Café is open from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Monday through Thursday in the Hermitage Room on the third floor of the University Center.

Diners pay $11 for the all-you-can-eat buffet or $9 for a plate of food to carry out. Faculty and staff can use ARAMARK’s new UT Reward Card to receive a 15 percent discount at the café.

Students enrolled in Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) 445, the advanced food production and service management class, plan and operate the café. They take turns serving as the café manager. ARAMARK, UT’s provider of dining services, prepares the food.

Because this is the final week of the café this semester, the HRT 445 students will share café responsibilities. The “chef’s choice” menu was compiled by Ahkeeia Payne, teaching assistant for the class. Payne, of Memphis, is a senior in HRT and works as a caterer with ARAMARK. She plans on moving to the Washington, D.C., area in May and continue working in the food industry.

—

C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, [email protected])

Losses hurt more than the elation from similarly sized gains, so it’s no wonder that most of us drop into lessons-learned mode immediately after downdrafts. Shareholders demand to know what went wrong, why, and what their fund managers are changing–now!–to address the most recent cataclysm. Fair enough. That’s what happened at the end of 2008. But few of us do much soul-searching after a big rally like the one that started in March 2009.

“After the market meltdown of 2008, the most frequently asked question we received was, ‘What have you learned?’” wrote Mason Hawkins and Staley Cates of Longleaf Partners (LLPFX) in a recent shareholder letter. “Interestingly, we have not been asked about the ‘lessons of 2009.’ “

That’s too bad, because many of the same factors that lead to severe, near-term downturns, such as market overreactions to recent news, also power rebounds. Long-term investors shouldn’t upend their investment processes because of one year, good or bad. As Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital notes: “Investment performance in a single year should matter principally only to people who are going to liquidate their portfolios at the end of that year.”

The best investors may use vastly differing strategies, but they all share one trait: They regularly challenge their own assumptions and common doctrine. Great managers don’t completely overhaul their processes in an effort to win the previous battle. They stay true to their roots and make small, incremental adjustments that steadily enhance their processes. Some respected managers, such as bottom-up value managers John Rogers and Richard Pzena, are wary of predictions of a “new normal” and see parallels to past economic and market cycles, while others, such as hedge fund manager David Einhorn and more-thematic investors such as Janus Contrarian’s (JCNAX) David Decker, , contend that a degree of flexibility is warranted. “The range of possibilities for the next decade appears terribly wide,” Einhorn says.

Those who fail to learn from rallies as well as downdrafts risk being unprepared for whatever comes next.

Here’s 7 More Lessons We Learned From The Recent Rally >

New Normal = Old Rationalization

Rogers has kept his Ariel (ARGFX) fully invested and still sees opportunity even after a nearly 95% one-year gain through April 5, 2010. He thinks 2009’s lesson is the same as 2008’s: Don’t put too much credence on the recent past or try to predict the future. “To us, the concept of a ‘new normal’ is another take on the often-stated ‘this time is different’ rationalization.”

Think the Unthinkable

Einhorn of Greenlight Capital believes adaptability is crucial. “In reflecting on how much has changed this last decade, we have come to realize that many things that appear unthinkable can easily occur within a 10-year time frame.”

Early Innings

Richard Pzena of JHancock Classic Value (PZFVX) sees parallels now to every prior cycle in which value stocks fell ahead of the recession and then came out stronger. “While market pundits are counseling ‘de-risking’ as their advice du jour, equities in general and value spreads in particular remain attractive despite the sharp runup of the last seven months. History suggests we are still in the early innings of this value cycle…”

The Anomalous Decade

Samuel Stewart, founder and president of Wasatch Advisors, is leery of blanket assumptions based on fixed time periods. The “lost decade” was an anomaly resulting from the ’90s bull market and two major shocks this decade–the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis, he says. “We continue to believe that equities will be rewarding long-term investments.” Similarly, Wally Weitz of Weitz Partners Value (WPVLX) says, “Historically, every time we have seen this type of ‘lost decade’ for stocks, the subsequent 10-year period has produced very strong equity returns.”

Roll With the Changes

Janus Contrarian’s Decker views the world as constantly changing and tries to roll with it. “A year after witnessing a financial crisis so severe that it threatened to send the global economy spiraling into a severe recession (or possibly worse), we find ourselves facing a substantially improved and less chaotic situation. Last year the question was ‘How bad can this get?’ This year the question is ‘How long will the recovery take?’”

Uncertainty Can Be Your Friend

Harry Burn, John DeGulis, and T. Gibbs Kane Jr., the managers of Sound Shore (SSHFX), which finished both 2008 and 2009 ahead of its typical category peer and the S&P 500, recently commented that, “The markets of 2009 and 2008 reinforced our view on the futility of market-timing and top-down theme investing, and also re-proved to us that times of heightened uncertainty, properly used, can produce above-average returns.”

Don’t Change Your Stripes

Aston/Montag & Caldwell Growth (MCGFX) manager Ron Canakaris, who favors high-quality growth stocks, says 2009 showed that momentum-fueled, speculative markets can go much further and faster than you think, but it’s a mistake to chase what’s been working. “You don’t want your clients holding the bag (when momentum reverses),” he says.

Now read…

Join the conversation about this story »

Luke Timmerman wrote:

Cell Therapeutics suffered what I called a “humiliating public beatdown” last month in front of an FDA advisory committee, and now the FDA has made it official in writing. The Seattle-based biotech company said its application to market a new lymphoma drug in the U.S. has been formally turned down by the FDA.

The FDA apparently didn’t need to wait until its statutory deadline of April 23 to deliver the bad news in its “complete response” letter to the company. The agency said that if Cell Therapeutics wants clearance to start marketing pixantrone (Pixuvri) in the U.S. for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it will need to run another clinical trial to prove it is safe and effective. Cell Therapeutics said it has had some preliminary talks with the FDA about what such a trial would look like, and that it plans to pursue an “expanded access” program to make pixantrone more widely available to patients even without being able to sell it.

The FDA’s rejection is no surprise, given the harsh public comments made last month at a panel of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. The panel voted 9-0 against recommending approval of pixantrone. The FDA’s chief cancer drug reviewer, Richard Pazdur, slammed the application in his remarks, noting that Cell Therapeutics was seeking approval on the basis of a “single, incomplete trial.” The chair of the FDA panel, Gail Eckhardt of the University of Colorado at Denver, said the Cell Therapeutics application was “disturbing,” partly because it only enrolled 140 of the 320 patients needed to generate a statistically valid result the way the trial was originally designed.

Cell Therapeutics took the unusual step of quoting a cancer researcher in its press release who took a critical shot at the FDA.

“This is a sad outcome for our patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive NHL,” said Dr. Stanley Marks, chief medical officer for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Centers, in a Cell Therapeutics statement. “I was disappointed that an agency charged with providing treatment hope for patients with life threatening diseases like relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma would ignore clinically meaningful improvements in overall response rate and progression-free survival, let alone complete responses, something we all wish for our patients, but with existing treatments rarely achieve.”

Cell Therapeutics, as I noted in an analysis after the FDA panel, still says it hopes …Next Page »

Quelle surprise. Eli Lake reports today that regardless of Sen. Richard Lugar’s (R-Ind.) support for the New START nuclear-arms reduction treaty with Russia, the Republican leadership is signaling its dissatisfaction with the treaty:

“Republicans have made clear for months what needs to be done in order to move this process; there’s been no ambiguity in our position on a strong missile defense, nuclear triad and the need to verify any treaty,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.

Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, Arizona Republicans, said they are concerned about additional references beyond the opening paragraphs of the treaty on missile defenses.

“While we were initially advised that the only reference to missile defense was in the preamble to the treaty, we now find that there are other references to missile defense, some of which could limit U.S. actions,” they said in a statement.

This is quite a curious set of objections. The “unilateral” Russian references to missile defense don’t appear to be more than the Russians expressing dissatisfaction with missile defense, none of which bind the U.S. from deploying a missile shield. As for verification, for the first time in nuclear-arms treaties with the Russians, New START allows on-site inspections of Russian missile silos and nuclear storage areas — and the main reason for that is if the treaty relied on what’s called telemetry, or information about U.S. missile launches, that would potentially jeopardize missile defense by giving away too much information about the missiles that a missile-defense system relies upon. How’s that for a commitment to missile defense?

And what’s this stuff about the triad? (The “triad” is a shorthand for the three kinds of delivery systems for nuclear weapons: missiles, submarines and bombers.) Not only are all three aspects of the triad preserved in the treaty, the Nuclear Posture Review released this week explicitly preserves it. And, again, it commits the U.S. to deploying a missile defense system. All of this is public information available on the Internet.

The other objection cited in Eli’s piece is about modernization of the nuclear stockpile, something else that the Nuclear Posture Review explicitly pledges, and for which Defense Secretary Gates arranged a $5 billion transfer of funding to the national nuclear laboratories to ensure. To the extent the objection withstands scrutiny, either GOP Senators disbelieve Gates, or they’re trying to resurrect the Reliable Replacement Warhead — a system that experts consider a new nuclear weapon (which the Obama administration doesn’t want to develop) and which Congress killed during the Bush administration.

My understanding is that the Obama administration believes the Senate GOP leadership was always going to make noise about the treaty for political reasons, so the statements here probably don’t come as any surprise. But they do indicate, barometrically, that the leadership considers it more important to give Obama a bloody nose on a crucial aspect of his agenda this year than to cut the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles by 30 percent. On that central issue, the GOP is pretty silent. Doug Feith, the former Bush administration undersecretary of defense, even tells Eli, “There is no problem with a new START treaty in principle.”

So the objection is political, and that means that when hearings start in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the task of administration officials will be to cut off the GOP’s lines of objection, along with pointing out that nuclear-arms control treaties typically pass with huge margins of Senate support as the administration has been doing, from President Obama on down. But precedent isn’t binding on anyone. The key will be whether the GOP leadership decides to bring pressure on the caucus to vote against the treaty or allows senators to vote their own consciences. With Lugar’s support, Obama needs seven GOP senators and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) Tough road ahead for Brian McKeon.

La presentación del “coche conectado con el hogar” de Telefónica hoy ha sido interesante, sobre todo, por echar un vistazo a los servicios planteados alrededor del tema de internet en el coche. Algunos ya los teníamos en la agenda, como es el acceso a contenidos que tengamos en los ordenadores de casa (curioso que Telefónica haya hecho énfasis en esto en lugar de acceso a contenidos de un distribuidor) o información de seguridad en función de donde circulemos. Otros sí que pueden resultar algo más sorprendentes, con la monitorización de la conducción (dónde vamos, a qué velocidad por dónde, cómo conducimos) y su posible uso por compañías, entre ellas las de seguros de coche.

Este tipo de monitorizaciones son más completas todavía que las que se basaban en caja negra para montar seguros de coche bajo el modelo de paga según conduces. La idea que hay detrás es que si circulas menos kilómetros, o más lento o no haces viajes largos, o vas por vías con menos accidentes, el precio del seguro se recalcule. También puede servir a las empresas de alquiler de vehículos. Mapfre ya montó un piloto basado en GPS emisor y hay ya aseguradoras en el mundo que utilizan “cajas negras” de registros de la conducción, pero creo que con la llegada de internet al coche tienen más posibilidades de esquemas de este tipo. GPS y caja negra sólo sirven para monitorizar la conducción, internet puede entrar en el vehículo por muchos otros motivos y a partir de ahí, colocar “la golosina”: “si nos das esta información, puedes pagar menos”. Obviamente las alertas por privacidad saltan de inmediato, con las tecnologías para hacer anónimos estos datos bajo sospecha y la amenaza de que en el futuro nos enfentremos a una situación generalizada de que “o das información o pagas mucho más por el seguro del coche para mantener tu privacidad”

It’s lights, camera, action time. We’re calling on Oxfam supporters all around the world to make a short film and enter our film competition. There’s the chance to win some camera equipment, but more importantly you’ll get loads of kudos and your film will be shown around the world. If you care about challenging poverty and you’re a budding movie maker than now is your chance to use your talent and get noticed by taking part in this prestigious competition.

What’s it all about?

Well, this year is pretty important in the fight against poverty. There’s a massive UN Summit in Spetember where leaders will be discussing the Millennium Development Goals and it’s a great chance for us to remind them of the commitments that they’ve made to tackling poverty. As Spanish President, and current EU President, Zapatero said, “the objective of the international community must continue to be the eradication of hunger and poverty”.

So, Oxfam Intermon (that’s Oxfam Spain) have teamed up with ACTUA to invite contestants from arond the world to make a short film on the theme of poverty. In a world where nearly one billion people live on less than 1 dollar a day, and women make account for over three quarters of these people; we think that this is a massively important area that filmmakers need to address.

How does it work?

This competition is open to anyone. For more information about the rules have a look on the website. But the closing date is 31st April and it’s up to you to decide what your film is about. There will be a jury of people to deicide the winner, past jury members include José Antonio Bayona (filmmaker) Eduardo Noriega (actor), Eduardo Chapero Jackson (awarded the Golden Lion for Best European Short film in Venice 2007 for “Alumbramiento”) and loads of other film maker types.

There’s already been entries from Australia, Germany and Belgium, and with the winning films being screened across the world, from Madrid to Addis Abeba to Lima, it promises to be a truly global event. The films that reach the final will be screened simultaneously in nearly 30 cities throughout Spain, and audiences will have the chance to vote for the Audience Award, awarded at a ceremony in Madrid on June 12.

So, if you fancy yourself as a film maker and if you’ve got something to say about poverty then get your camera, get filming and good luck!

Find out more about the film festival.

Calling the provincial government’s proposed changes to the Ontario Drug Benefit program “anything but progressive,” Scotia Capital analyst Patrica Baker says they will likely destabilize Ontario’s pharmacy industry and seriously impact patient access to services and pharmacists.

“The reforms in aggregate were more harsh than expected and although much rhetoric in related speeches was addressed to large chains, it’s the little guy here who has been dealt the hardest blow,” she told clients.

After more than nine months of discussions, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government says it wants to reduce reimbursement rates for generic drugs from 50% to 25% of the branded drug cost. It also wants to eliminate professional allowances.

Ms. Baker says this will cripple independent pharmacies. “Where we are perplexed is in the government’s assertion that their priority in this process (beyond saving money) is to broaden access for patients. These changes as proposed, alas, will see anything but and as such they will have failed in their mandate, in our opinion.”

In the absence of available offsets, she expects profitability at Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. will be seriously curtailed. However, the analyst noted that reimbursement pressures – as demonstrated in the United States over two decades – favour large scale players, so Shoppers should prevail over time.

The company has been preparing for this situation for some time but has now indicated that it will review longer-term strategic priorities and initiatives. Ms. Baker expects this relates to any targeted plans for expansion in Ontario and any capital injection in that market.

Despite the extended period of uncertainty as these proposals are digested, she left her Sector Outperform rating and $54 one-year price target on the stock unchanged. The analyst sees downside support at $40 to $42 and says Shoppers should be able to make adjustments to protect returns within its robust operating model.

However, she did note that in the absense of any ability by the company to offset the margin impact, earnings per share in fiscal 2011 could be impacted by as much as 59¢.

Shoppers closed down 10% at $38.92 on Thursday.

Jonathan Ratner

With Nokia’s “Comes with music” service doing so gush darn well, RoverPC wants in on the game. The Russian phone maker will start producing and distributing devices that come with a free year of music service courtesy of Fidel.ru. Their devices will come with a host of other services that will make the device more attractive to more buyers.

-Viewing the tape with friends. Every post with friends can be viewed in full with pictures, links and the opportunity to leave a comment. Add a new friend in the tape or remove the old one.
-Work with your magazine. Create and view their drafts. Edit your previously written posts that are already on the server. In a new post you can insert photos directly from camera communicators, pictures, voting, lj-cut, and indicate where you are right now. This information is accessible to all our friends.
-Send private messages.
-Customize the program by themselves. Specify which data is sent to the server, send a picture of what quality, what precision to use for positioning and much more.

If you happen to live in Russian and would like to read more on this, and can understand and read Russian, read more over at Mobile-reviews

U.S. equity index futures are higher this morning. S&P 500 futures added 2 points. Index futures are responding to weakness in the U.S. Dollar. Commodities priced in U.S. Dollars including crude oil, gold, silver, copper and platinum are trading higher.

Canada added 17,900 jobs in March. Its unemployment rate remained at 8.2%. Consensus was a gain of 25,000. The Canadian Dollar weakened slightly following the report.

Alimentation Couche-Tard made an offer to acquire Casey’s General Stores (CASY) for $36.00 per share cash. The offer is valued at $1.9 billion.

Alcoa slipped 1% after JP Morgan downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral. Target price was reduced from $21.50 to $16.50. JP Morgan is one of several investment dealers that have downgraded the stock prior to release of first quarter earnings on Monday.

JC Penney gained 4% after Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the stock to a Conviction Buy.

Chevron gained 1% after offering positive guidance. The company noted that profit margins from refining operations have improved. ‘Tis the season for Chevron to move higher.

Canadian Natural Resources was downgraded by CIBC from Outperform to Sector Perform.

Silvercorp was downgraded by UBS from Buy to Neutral.

Taseko Mines was upgraded from Neutral to Buy at TD Newcrest.

Constellation Brands fell 5% after reporting lower than consensus fourth quarter earnings. 

Don Vialoux, chartered market technician, is the author of a free
daily report on equity markets, sectors, commodities, equities and
Exchange-Traded Funds. For more visit Don Vialoux's Web site 

Yes, the saga continues. The launch of the HTC Desire in the UK has been a huge mess so far. First it’s ready to go, and then there has been delay after delay. T-Mobile may come to the rescues soon with this large shipment of handsets.

T-Mobile is expecting 10,000 HTC Desires to arrive on Wednesday of next week. These additional handsets will be sent to users that are still waiting on their shipment to arrive. So, if you have been waiting on your order, you have a short week left before it is, hopefully in your hands.

A comment from a user at T-Mobile’s forum:

“I have just been informed by a T-Mo store manager (chippenham) that they’re expecting to get stock in store on Wednesday. 10,000 handsets are on their way from HTC as we speak and should get to the T-Mo central distribution/warehouse a few days before Wednesday, fulfilling phone and online orders before the remainder gets filtered down to the high street stores”

[via eurodroid]

The Digital Economy Bill, which is now expected to become law in the UK in a matter of days, is causing all manner of criticism and controversy. Thankfully for UK citizens, some are planning to stand up to what they perceive as faulty legislation. One of the biggest ISPs in the country, TalkTalk, is now vowing to not bow to requests fro… (read more)

For his visceral writing style and experience in the realm of sci-fi, Electronic Arts and Crytek both decided that award-winning author, Richard Morgan, is the best man to write the story for Crysis 2.
 
 
 
 

NASA planning a 62% boost in climate science funding by 2015, to make up for cuts made during the George W. Bush administration.

NASA has announced a dramatic climate science budget increase this month. Although, it is really just a correction for dramatic budget cuts made during the George W. Bush era.

NASA’s Earth Science Division will get an additional $2.4 billion in funding, a 62% increase, in the next five years. The budget for NASA’s other programs, in the meantime, will generally remain flat.

(more…)

If you found yourself getting all riled up by Spirit Airlines’ announcement on Tuesday that they are now charging for carry-on bags, you were not alone. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has taken aim the move, calling it “outrageous” and “ridiculous.”

In an interview over on travel writer Christopher Elliot’s blog, LaHood makes his feelings clear on the matter. He also references Ryanair’s decision to use pay toilets.

Take it Ray:

I think it’s a bit outrageous that an airline is going to charge someone to carry on a bag and put it in the overhead. And I’ve told our people to try and figure out a way to mitigate that. I think it’s ridiculous… I don’t think they care about their customers. That’s what I think. And I think when you charge somebody to use the bathroom, you don’t care about your customers. I mean, it’s pretty clear.

Secretary LaHood also took issue with Spirit’s other announcement — that some flights will only cost a penny… Well, that is until you pay up to $45/bag for your carry-on. He says the DOT is “gonna hold the airline’s feet to the fire” on the matter of disclosing accurate airfare.

Check out the entire interview over at Elliott.org