Google made a big splash with the announcement of the real-time search features it’s rolling out over the course of a few days. Apart from the feature itself, there’s another announcement that warrants some attention, Google has signed a deal with Facebook to integrate data from the world’s biggest social network in the real-time search results. Considering that the two companies are shaping up to be the two major players online over the coming years, it’s understandable that a partnership, even a limited one, is somewhat surprising.

Nevertheless, Facebook is the world’s largest source for real-time information, even though Twitter gets most of the attention, and Google is the world’s largest search engine, so some sort of deal should have been expected. However, Facebook won’t be providing the bulk of its data, arguably the most important one as well, but only updates from Facebook Pages which are always public.

The Pages are used by companies, artists, organizations and so on to establish a presence on Facebook mostly for promotional purposes, which makes them less than ideal as a real-time information source. Facebook updates from regular users, even the public entries, won’t be included in the Google real-time search results for now, though they may be in the future.

Facebook … (read more)

Two decades of stimulus and cheap money haven’t worked in Japan, but hey, why not give it another shot? Maybe it will work this time.

NYT: In the package announced Tuesday, which comes to about 1.5 percent of Japanese gross domestic product, the government will spend $39 billion to prop up regional economies and pay for public works projects.

Environmental programs like incentives to purchase energy-efficient gadgets will receive $9 billion, and measures to increase employment will get $6.8 billion.

The government will also offer loan guarantees for small companies to ease the credit crunch, the cabinet said in a statement.

All very familiar sounding, no. Only the part about gadgets seems particularly Japanese. The rest could be announced here on any day.

Of course, this move is being undertaken by newly-eledted, but unpopular prime minister Yukio Hatoyama, who will again face the voters soon, showing that, in the end, all politicians running for office are Keynesians.

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See Also:

• Fears Mount Over Japan’s $100 Billion Treasury Sell Off
• Japan Fights Deflation With Keynesian Kamikaze
• Japan Preparing To Launch Quantitative Easing; What Are Three Lost Decades Among Hyperdeflationary Friends?

Sick of ridiculously low yields on cash these days?

American dividend yields not quite enough either.

Well here some of top Asian dividend stocks we picked from a Citi Investment Research list.

They're interesting because they provide high yields, but also allow you to tap into established Asian cash cow businesses in telecom, real estate, and infrastructure.

They are also essentially bets on stronger Asian currencies and growing domestic demand in Asia. Thus long-term trends are very much in their favor

Cash In On Asian Cash Cows >>>

Everyone should due their own due diligence, but this is at least a starting point. Note that we provide links to each company's website, just click on the ticker we show for each slide.

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See Also:

• Citi: Cost Cutting Is Over, Now Leverage Will Drive Earnings
• Former Citi Chairman Says Geithner Looks Uptight And Needs To Relax
• Citi: The Market Is Back In Panic Mode

According to a former part-time tutor at Cardiff University, January 24th is the most depressing day of the year.  Dr Cliff Arnalls took a number of factors into consideration including the weather, debt, money due to be paid in the month of January, time since Christmas, motivation levels and more.  

The formula Dr Arnalls used a somewhat complicated looking equation to establish this downer of a day.  Following the publishing of this date, an insurance company spoke up to say that drivers seem to lose their tempers more often and speed more in January.  There’s even a name for this: Winter driver’s disorder.

Included in the equation is ‘Q’ which represents the failure to quit a bad habit and ‘NA’, the need to take action and do something.  Dr Arnalls’ research led him to believe that one month after Christmas festivities have ended is the most dire day because holiday energy has worn off by then and many have abandoned their New Year Resolutions by this point.  These factors all combine to create a sense of failure that knocks the confidence for a loop by the 24th.

(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

I’m generally not a big fan of picking a few recessions out of a hat in order to compare them to the current recession (particularly considering the de-levering nature of this recession), but these charts are interesting nonetheless.  Although bubble bursts rarely repeat themselves the price action does tend to rhyme.  On the back of a massive market implosion and the subsequent rally you have to wonder if Goldman Sachs isn’t right when they say that 2010 might just rhyme with the ultra boring investment year of 2004.  As you can see in the following chart, the last 4 major market crashes were all followed by major downside or sideways movement at this point in the rally:

 

Read more market commentary at The Pragmatic Capitalist >>

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See Also:

• Goldman: It’s 2004 All Over Again
• Morgan Stanley: Here Comes A Brutal 2010
• Watch The Market Go Gaga For Ben Bernanke

Eco Factor: Solar array to generate 193,000KWh of renewable energy annually.

Home field for the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, the Hanshin Koshien Stadium, is trying to green the sporting arena with the installation of a solar array on the roof above its infield stands. The solar installation will make the Hanshin Koshien Stadium the first to introduce a solar power system.

(more…)

If there was any doubt that real-time was becoming one of the biggest things in search they’ve been dispelled now that Google has entered the ring all guns blazing. The company held a “Search Event” to make several announcements, though it was scarce with the details beforehand, and it certainly delivered with the biggest move being the new real-time features integrated in the search engine at a level that no one else offers at the moment. Entries from Twitter, blogs, Facebook and other sources will show up and be updated in real time for relevant queries.

“[I]mmediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page,” Amit Singhal, Google Fellow (his actual title) wrote.

Google has had a form of ‘real-time envy’ for at least half a year now when the company acknowledged that it was behind in the field and that places like Twitter were doing a much better job at bringing up the freshest information. In the mean time, countless sites and services have popped up or added some sort of real-time component. … (read more)

Moody’s loves to warn that maybe, possibly, someday the US or the UK might not alwaays be AAA-rated. They always hedge their comments a lot — and always make it sound like a downgrade would be a very var-off possibility — but the fact that they keep making noises about it is still important.

Bloomberg: Moody’s Investors Service said its top debt ratings on the U.S. and the U.K. could “test the AAA boundaries” because their public finances were worsening in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The U.K. and U.S. had “resilient” AAA ratings, as opposed to the “resistant” top ratings on Canada, Germany and France, Moody’s said in a report today. None of the top-rated countries were “vulnerable,” or had public finances that were “stretched beyond the point of ‘no return’ to the AAA category,” according to the report.

It’s the pound that’s really getting shellacked following the report:

The British pound fell against all of its 16 most-traded counterparts, dropping as much as 0.4 percent to $1.6381 versus the dollar. Public finances in “resilient” AAA-rated countries are “deteriorating considerably and may therefore test the AAA boundaries,” Moody’s said.

Read the whole thing >>

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See Also:

• Moody’s Warns US To Slash Debt Or Risk AAA Rating
• The Pound Tanks After Fitch Warns About UK’s AAA-Rating
• BoE Adds 25 Billion Pounds To Quantitative Easing

A teaser website for SouthPeak Games and Renegade Kid’s Dementium II has been launched to give you a peek into more horrible thrills and screams for your DS. And it’s just about time too, considering that the

Although Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 (PS3 (http://ps3.qj.net/category/Assassin-s-Creed-2/cid/5596) and Xbox 360 (http://xbox360.qj.net/category/Assassin-s-Creed-2/cid/5597)) has more or less gotten the approving nod of critics all over,

Guest post by Peter J. Wolf

While it’s easy to get caught up in all the luxuries regularly featured on Moderncat, we can’t forget about the many cats that, all too often, lack even the basic necessities. Feral—or community—cats rarely know the comforts of a bottomless bowl of food and a warm bed (though many of these cats are actually stray or have been abandoned, and therefore do know something of the good life).

Thankfully, there are a number of individuals and rescue organizations dedicated to caring for community cats, typically through their Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs. TNR involves humanely trapping cats that are thought to be feral, having them spayed or neutered (often receiving vaccinations at the same time), and then returning them to the location where they were trapped.

But, as the Urban Cat League notes on its website, TNR is a substantial commitment, one that must be taken seriously by everybody involved. “TNR stands for Trap-Neuter-Return, not Trap, Neuter, and Run. Maintaining the life-long welfare of the colony after neutering is an equally important link in the chain of compassion.” During winter months, of course, caring for outdoor cats requires additional effort.

General Tips
Whether you’re an “official” colony caretaker, looking after the neighborhood cats, or simply concerned for the welfare of your community cats, you’ll want to check out Alley Cat Allies’ “winter weather tips”.

One of their tips—keeping ethylene glycol antifreeze away from all animals—is actually good year-round advice for everybody. The sweet taste of this automotive engine coolant is very tempting, and even a small amount can be fatal. (Propylene glycol-based antifreeze is, according to the EPA, “less toxic to humans and pets.”)

As temperatures drop, cats seeking warmth will sometimes huddle under cars and trucks, or sneak up into their engine compartments. Be sure to check under your car and tap on the hood before starting the engine.

To delay or prevent drinking water from freezing:

• Use bowls that are deep, rather than wide and shallow. If possible, place them in a sunny location.
• When refilling the bowls, use hot or warm water.
• Add a pinch of sugar to the water, which keeps it from freezing as quickly (and also provides an energy boost for the cats).
• If an electrical outlet is nearby, use heated bowls.
• Maintain a regular feeding schedule for your cats. Once they’re used to regular mealtimes, they’ll be waiting for you—which means the food and water will spend less time in the cold before it’s consumed.

Shelter from the Weather
Although outdoor cats are pretty good at keeping warm on their own, you can help by providing some shelter. It doesn’t need to be fancy, but there are some important considerations to keep in mind—such as the materials. Blankets might seem like a good idea, but they absorb moisture. “Straw is the best choice for insulation and bedding in a shelter,” according to Alley Cat Allies. “It resists moisture and keeps the shelter warm.”

Other important considerations include:

• Raise the shelter off the ground, and locate it in a quiet, unobtrusive, low-traffic area.
• Make sure the shelter provides enough room for three to five cats (they’ll often bunch together for warmth).
• Restrict the size of door openings to no more than six-to-eight inches wide, which will help keep out other wildlife and larger predators.
• Install a flap on the door to keep out snow, rain, and wind.

Sources and Instructions for Shelters and Feeding Stations
There are several online sources for shelters and feeding stations designed for outdoor cats, many of which include photos of the products in use. And for the do-it-yourselfer, there are lots of plans and kits available as well. (Guys, this could be your big chance to score that pricey table saw on your Christmas list!)

• Alley Cat Allies
• Feral Cat Caretakers’ Coalition
• Neighborhood Cats
• Urban Cat League

Novels and newspapers especially have been moving briskly from paper to pixels, with textbooks having yet to find the perfect electronic home. They are readable on laptops and smartphones, but the displays can be seriously eye-taxing due to the nature of textbooks. Even dedicated e-readers with their crisp printlike displays have trouble handling textbook staples like color illustrations or videos and Web-linked supplements that publishers are increasingly supplying.

But there is now a new approach that may adapt well to textbook pages: two-screen e-book readers with a traditional e-paper display on one screen and a liquid-crystal display on the other side, in order to render graphics like science animations in color. These dual screens are linked by a central processor so that, for example, a link on the e-paper display can proceed to open on the color screen.

The best example is a two-screen device called the eDGe, which will be released by enTourage Systems in February for $490, said Doug Atkinson, vice president of marketing and business development for the company, based in McLean, Va.

Electronic textbooks could one day offer a more convenient way to study, literally lightening student’s loads. This has already happened at Catholic University of America in Washington. There, Robert A. Destro, a professor of law and his students are testing a version of the eDGe. Professor Destro has 13 textbooks on his device. Courtesy of nytimes.com

In case you missed it, Brazilian iron ore exports fell in November, down 15% from the average monthly rate for the preceding three months, according to Goldman Sachs. Yet the commodities markets seem to have shrugged it off... or haven't yet digested its potential implications.

Goldman Sachs: Taken in conjunction with the recent slowdown in vessel bookings from Australia, this could indicate a slow start to 2010 for Chinese imports of iron ore. However, the market is clearly not pricing in a slowdown.

As the table below shows, the current [ore] spot price of $102.50/t CFR implies a 40% rise in Australian contract prices for JFY 2010/11 on a FOB netback basis while the forward price for 2Q10 implies a 34% rise - both well above our base case assumption of +20% for Australian fines.

Thing is, a 2010 Chinese iron ore slow-down would have negative implications for more than just steel prices. It would probably be indicative of a greater slow-down of commodity-consuming Chinese economic activity, such as construction. Thus a slow-down in Brazilian iron ore imports reflects a slow-down in Chinese demand. Given that China is such a massive proportion of commodities demand these days, thus could also be a red flag for generalized commodity-price weakness ahead. One month's data doesn't make a trend, but this Brazilian blip is surely something to stay aware of.

Goldman shows how iron ore prices haven't weakened at all lately:

(Via Goldman Sachs, Iron Ore Price Snapshot, Malcolm Southwood, 7 December 2009)

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See Also:

• Steel Giant Arcelore Mittal In Line For A £1 Billion Windfall Thanks To Cap & Trade
• China Has More Idle Steel Capacity Than Japanese And Korean Production Combined
• Efforts To Cool Down China's Steel Industry Completely Failed

One of my favorite cat rescues, Shadow Cats in Round Rock, Texas, is holding their annual fundraiser next weekend. Even if you’re not in Texas you can help support this wonderful organization and enter to win some great prizes including a 42 inch flat panel TV or one of 10 gift cards valued at $50 each from businesses like Barnes & Noble, Chili’s, The Container Store, Lowe’s, Olive Garden, Petsmart, Starbucks, Target, and Whole Foods Market. Tickets are just $2 each and can be purchased via the Shadow Cat website.

Established in 1997, Shadow Cats is a non-profit organization in central Texas dedicated to improving the lives of feral (or, as they like to call them, “scarel”), stray, and abandoned cats — especially those deemed “unadoptable.” Founders Sheila Smith and her husband Roy (a veterinarian) — along with a crew of about 40 volunteers — are also involved in TNR efforts in the area. The Shadow Cats sanctuary has a room dedicated to cats with Feline Leukemia, equipped with its own kitty cam so you can keep an eye on everyone while you work. It’s very fun to watch! You’ll get to know all these special cats on the kitty cam.

We’ve covered how the Olympics has time and time again abused intellectual property law to try to silence all sorts of reasonable activity, and the upcoming Vancouver Olympics have been no exception. In the latest move, sent in by drewmo (though he forgot the link, and made us go searching…) is that a Vancouver-based musician, Carey Mercer, is pointing out that the Vancouver Olympic Committee is pushing contracts on musicians that include a gag order against saying anything bad at all about the Olympics.

The Olympics always has a “cultural component,” a cultural Olympiad, and this year, to quote their puke-in-my-mouth inducing website, they have made a back-patting hullabaloo about including “cutting edge indie rock.” And each and every “cutting edge” performer that has agreed to play has signed a contract that includes the above clause. A clause that states, in case you skimmed over it, that these artists must never say anything negative about an entity that will spend 900 million dollars on “security.” An entity that has already infuriated anti-poverty and anti-homeless groups who accuse VANOC of not living up to its promise of providing affordable housing.

Most participating artists claim to be unaware of this clause.

Part of Mercer’s complaint is that no one seems to be able to determine if the Olympics is a public or private entity, since censorship by a government entity would seem like a big no-no:

No one, including our courts, can figure out if it is a public or private entity. It seems to be public when it needs tax dollars (6 billion), but private whenever it is challenged…

And, sure, you can understand why the Vancouver Olympics might not want musicians it hires to say anything bad about them, but putting a contractual gag clause in there seems to suggest that the organization simply can’t take any criticism. Mercer is also concerned about what this does for the musicians who signed these gag orders, often without realizing it:

When artists are not allowed to critique their government, or the governing agency that endows them with grants and funding, then what they are asking for is nothing more than propaganda.

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Eco Factor: Chandelier made from recycled materials.

With billions of plastic water bottles finding their way to the landfills each year, environmentalists are trying hard to persuade people to change their opinion about tap water. However, the alarming rate at which plastic water bottles are being trashed has tempted some designers to bring trash back into your house in some functional form.

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Eco Factor: Construction ship to be used to build offshore wind farms.

RWE Innogy has awarded Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd (DSME) a contract to build a special construction ship that will be used in the construction of offshore wind farms. Valued around $148 million, the first ship should be completed in 2011.

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Not too many people are fans of the ratings board in Australia. And for good reason. They’ve been known to censor games, which would have otherwise been fine for other territories as a Mature game, or even

Eco Factor: Tidal energy generator to provide a continuous supply of renewable energy.

Neptune Renewable Energy (NREL) has announced the development of a breakthrough tidal power generator, which will undergo sea trial at Hull early next year. Dubbed the Proteus, the £1 million, 150-ton generator is being claimed to be 30% more efficient than conventional hydro dam designs and can provide a continuous supply of renewable energy.

(more…)

Homebrew coder maRk2512 has released a new version of his highly addictive homebrew puzzler QuirkDS and renamed it PuzzleBoy. If you’re not familiar with the game, QuirkDS is a remake of the old school Gameboy title, Kwirk.
 
Download: