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Carl Icahn will be the first bidder for the unfinished Fontainebleau Casino in Las Vegas.

Contractors stopped building the hotel after claiming $600 million in unpaid bills.

The famed raider out-bid Penn National Gaming’s initial offer of $105 million, bidding over $145 million and winning the right to first bid when the bankruptcy auction begins in January.

If he wins, Icahn will have to spend roughly $1 billion to finish the casino. Building it has already cost $2 billion so far, the Miami Herald reports.

Icahn has made made a small habit of buying bankrupt casinos and turning them for big profits after switching around management. He made $700 million (before taxes) turning American Casino & Entertainment Properties in 2007.

He is also currently bidding on Atlantic City’s Tropicana Casino and Resort, hoping to buy it for $200 million.

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See Also:

• CHART OF THE DAY: The Las Vegas Strip Is Making A Huge Comeback
• Surprise: October Home Prices Are Even Up In Las Vegas!
• Las Vegas Is A Total Wreck (BYI, IGT, LVS, MGM)

Two new scenarios, a souped-up new Mercenaries, additional costumes, extra figures for the Library – that’s what’s coming for Resident Evil 5: Alterna…

Either Germans care a whole lot about their privacy or they really have it in for Google. Most likely it’s the first, but it doesn’t discount from the fact that Google is getting in trouble again in the country, after the whole Street View affair, this time for Google Analytics. Several government officials in the country are threatening websites which use the service with fines if they don’t stop using it without explicit consent from their visitors.

The government officials claim that services like Google Analytics which retrieve detailed usage data from the visitors of a website are illegal in the country and are now considering imposing fines of up to €50,000 for websites which use the Google service. The officials take issue with the fact that the websites don’t make it clear to the users that their visit is being tracked and believe that the users would have to express their approval of the practice before the websites would be allowed to get the information.

According to the Zeit Online some 13 percent of German websites, over 1.8 million in total, use Google Analytics to measure traffic and visits including some big companies, political parties, and so on. The officials claim that all this information could be used by Google to create a complete profile of the users from the data … (read more)

Natural gas shortages (as much as 40 percent) are expected to continue in China, as an unexpectedly harsh winter arrived early and shows no signs of leaving anytime soon. In an effort to conserve natural gas, industrial facilities, office buildings, and hotels have closed in cities in both the north and south.

Chron.com: The shortages began nearly two weeks ago. On November 13, PetroChina which produces 70 percent of domestic gas in China, issued an emergency announcement to its gas distributors saying that it would limit supplies. Sinopec also started to apply similar gas supply restrictions on the same day.

Today, China Petroleum Daily, a publication of CNPC, the parent of PetroChina, predicted that the gas shortages will continue through December and January, with shortages reaching about 300 million cubic feet per day in the north, and about 200 MMcf/d in the south.

“Ostensibly this natural gas supply crisis is caused by the weather. In fact, the crisis is caused by a lack of gas supply,” said Dong Xiuchen, a professor at China Petroleum University. The root of the problem “is the natural gas price control by the government. To oil and gas industries, if there is no profit for their businesses, they then don’t have the resources and motivation to explore for more oil and gas reservoirs. 

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• Russia And Ukraine Avert A Natural Gas Crisis (UNG)
• T. Boone Pickens Is The Newest Natural Gas Bull (SD, HESS, CHK, DVN, UNG)
• Better Ways To Invest In Natural Gas (UNG)

I just came across an interesting article in Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper, about censorship in the Emirates and the role the governments are or are not playing in improving professionalism and transparency.

Davidson discusses the obstacles to transparency and liberalization as well as the free flow of information posed by the Ministry of Information and Culture, which deals with all sorts of publishing and media distribution. And he points out that although there is a new media law that prevents journalists from being put in jail, the fines are prohibitive and enforces the self-censorship many journalists there were brought up with in the Middle East.

He also notes the inherent contradiction of having the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority monitor and likely spy on internet usage in addition to blocking unknown numbers of sites even as the crown prince is going on and on about the need for transparency.

He offers as examples the anecdote about the failure of the UAE-based media failed to cover the royal family torture video (a 45-minute video in which Sheikh Issa, brother of the ruler, tortures a man by shoving sand in his mouth, beats him with a nail and board, held down by men in uniform etc). Several governments in the region blocked access to the video on YouTube as they did to the site UAE Torture.

In case you missed it, here’s ABC’s report on the torture video. Obviously I couldn’t write about this while I was in Dubai until the official media did, and even when WAM finally wrote about Issa’s detention and I wrote an article for Al Arabiya, I could only use the word abuse, not torture.

Filed under: Sedan, Infiniti, Electric

After spending a product cycle honing its image, Infiniti doesn’t want to to compromise it’s standing in the luxury automobile set — not even for its electric vehicles. That is why the “compact, high-performance, four-seat luxury Infiniti with zero emissions” that Carlos Ghosn announced at the Tokyo Auto Show will not alter what people have come to expect from Nissan’s upmarket brand. If a VP in Infiniti’s Business Unit, Ben Poore, is to be believed, it will enhance it.

“The model will fit perfectly with the performance standards that we’ve set for the brand,” Poore said. We don’t imagine it will be too difficult for Infiniti to simply electrify one of their vehicles and make it worthy — we’d hop in an electric G37 in a second. The real challenge will be livability and longevity. Those challenges could be what Infiniti has in mind in not giving its electric car a release date, because they’ll want to get it right… and maybe they want that time to perfect a four-door, electric Essence. Let the dreaming begin in three, two…

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

REPORT: Electric Infiniti will stay true to brand’s performance roots? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sun Catalytix has just received $1 million in venture capitol funding and is also expecting to receive an additional $4.1 million in funding to develop a catalyst that will help solar energy in homes split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen will then be used in two different ways. First, it will be run through a fuel cell to power the home and second it will be used to fuel a hydrogen car. One of the unique aspects of the Sun Catalytix catalyst is that it does not require purified water in order to work properly.

According to Bob Metcalfe, a member of the board of directors, “This new catalyst will take dirty water, salt water. We’ve made hydrogen from the Boston Harbor.” The new hydrogen production system simulates photosynthesis by having small organisms self-repair and self-replicate around the electrodes of the electrolysis device.

According to MIT professor Daniel Nocera and his collaborators, “The utilization of solar energy on a large scale requires efficient storage. Solar-to-fuels has the capacity to meet large scale storage needs as demonstrated by natural photosynthesis. This process uses sunlight to rearrange the bonds of water to furnish O2 and an H2-equivalent. We present a tutorial review of our efforts to develop an amorphous cobalt–phosphate catalyst that oxidizes water to O2. The use of earth-abundant materials, operation in water at neutral pH, and the formation of the catalyst in situ captures functional elements of the oxygen evolving complex of Photosystem II.”

This page from the Sun Catalytix lists the peer reviewed articles of the science behind the new catalyst. Suffice it to say, home hydrogen production would be a large boost to building an infrastructure to support the upcoming hydrogen transportation system.

Though sales of existing homes are ticking up in Florida, the state remains home to counties with some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

Even worse, analysts predict that more are on the way and that the foreclosure problem won’t peter out until 2011:

Sun Sentinel: Although the percentage price declines narrowed in each county, foreclosures loom large in the months ahead, some housing analysts say. Broward is second in the nation with 10.2 percent of first mortgages in default, according to Moody’s Economy.com. These are delinquent loans on which lenders have yet to start foreclosure proceedings.

“There are still a lot of foreclosures that are going to happen, and when they do, it’s going to knock down home prices,” said Chris Lafakis, an economist for Economy.com. “The number one driver of home prices nationally has been foreclosures.”

The West Chester, Pa., research firm expects South Florida home prices to keep declining through 2010 before hitting bottom in early 2011.

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See Also:

• Florida AG Bashes Mortgage Lenders
• 272 Foreclosures Filed Per Day In South Florida
• Luxury South Florida Developer Files For Chapter 11

BOSTON, MA: On National Philanthropy Day, November 12, 2009, the Carolina Center for Public Service was honored for “Innovation in Philanthropy” by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Triangle Chapter. While the award acknowledged their great work over the years through the Public Service Scholars Program, it specifically recognized their innovative work through the Promoting Change Through the Nonprofit Sector course.

The course—which provides opportunities for students to give both volunteer time and financial resources—was sponsored by a $15,000 grant from Students4Giving, a joint program of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and Campus Compact. UNC was one of five colleges and universities nationally to receive the award.

Campus Compact President Maureen Curley explains, “Through our Students4Giving initiative and our partnership with Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, we provide support for colleges and universities to give students real-world experience in managing donor funds while learning about philanthropy. We’re delighted to see courses like the one just honored at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill win such praise and we look forward to hearing about the impact that these fund are making in communities.”

As a class, the students oversee a Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Giving Account, disseminating a request for proposals and awarding $10,000 in grants. They considered factors such as the organizations’ scope, impact, and geographic location to select recipients. The students will continue to monitor the organizations in the coming year to see, first-hand, how their efforts helped various communities through North Carolina.

About Campus Compact

Campus Compact is a coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents — representing some 6 million students — who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life. Through the organization’s national office and 35 state offices, Campus Compact provides training, research, resources, and advocacy to help colleges and universities educate a new generation of responsible leaders. For questions, contact Sue Kelman at skelman {at} compact(.)org or call 617/357-1881 x207.

In her new book, “Going Rogue,” Sarah Palin says she doesn’t like vegetarians. Palin says all vegetarians should go back to Vegetaria, where they came from.

Unlike Conan O’Brien, from whom that line came from, many investor bulletins are not concise. And I may have seen more releases from top investors of greater length, but I really don’t remember when. If you’re not interested, skip ahead. Alphabetically:

Affiliated, a lender (including correspondent division) out of South Dakota, is no longer accepting FHA 2008 products.

CitiMortgage told clients that their FHA fixed rate loans are now eligible to be originated as Higher Priced Mortgage Loans (as set forth in Regulation Z), provided all applicable FHA and Citi overlay guidelines and lending parameters are met. FHA ARMs, Hybrid ARMs and Streamlined Refinances are not permitted, nor are debt ratio exceptions. Also, after the 17^th HUD “has issued a clarification to Mortgagee Letter #2009-32 regarding the use of TOTAL Scorecard on FHA Streamline loans with case numbers: “NO Credit Qualifying Streamline Refinance: Loan should not be run through TOTAL. However, if the loan is run through TOTAL the file must be underwritten and closed as a regular (non-streamline) rate and term (no cash out) refinance. And for “Credit Qualifying Streamline Refinance: Loan should be run through TOTAL via DU or LP.”

lots more news on Citi, Flagstar, GMAC Bank Correspondent, US Bank Wholesale, Wachovia Freddie Relief, Wells Correspondent, Hiring Binge, the markets, and joke of the day  <<< CLICK HERE

Consumer Confidence increased slightly for November, up 0.8% from 48.7% in October.

Here’s the breakdown:

Press Release: The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had declined in October, increased slightly in November. The Index now stands at 49.5 (1985=100), up from 48.7 in October. The Present Situation Index was virtually unchanged at 21.0 versus 21.1 last month. The Expectations Index increased to 68.5 from 67.0 in October.

The Consumer Confidence Survey® is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS. TNS is the world’s largest custom research company. The cutoff date for November’s preliminary results was November 17th.

Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “Consumer Confidence posted a slight gain in November. The Present Situation Index, however, was virtually unchanged and remains at levels not seen in 26 years (Index 17.5, Feb. 1983). The moderate improvement in the short-term outlook was the result of a decrease in the percent of consumers expecting business and labor market conditions to worsen, as opposed to an increase in the percent of consumers expecting conditions to improve. Income expectations remain very pessimistic and consumers are entering the holiday season in a very frugal mood.”

Consumers’ appraisal of present-day conditions was virtually unchanged in November. Those claiming business conditions are “bad” decreased to 45.7 percent from 46.7 percent, while those claiming conditions are “good” increased to 8.1 percent from 7.8 percent. Consumers’ assessment of the labor market deteriorated moderately. Those claiming jobs are “hard to get” increased to 49.8 percent from 49.4 percent, while those claiming jobs are “plentiful” decreased to 3.2 percent from 3.5 percent.

Consumers’ short-term outlook improved slightly in November. The percentage of consumers expecting an improvement in business conditions over the next six months decreased slightly to 20.0 percent from 20.8 percent, but those expecting conditions to worsen decreased to 15.1 percent from 18.2 percent.

The labor market outlook was also slightly less pessimistic. Those anticipating more jobs in the months ahead declined to 15.2 percent from 16.8 percent, but those expecting fewer jobs decreased to 23.1 percent from 26.1 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting an increase in their incomes decreased to 10.0 percent from 10.7 percent.

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See Also:

• October Retail Sales Beat Expectations, But All Growth Was Just Autos
• BJ’s Comparable Sales Fall, But They Aren’t Bothered At All (BJ)
• Asia Doing Fine Without The U.S. Consumer

When it comes to the two newest gaming portables, it seems that Nintendo walked a better path than Sony. Sure, the target market may be different in…

Filed under: Sedan, Porsche

The first Porsche Panameras are on their way to dealers as we speak, but the trek from Germany to the US is taking longer than expected due to a reported problem with the key software which is bring fixed at the ports. That leaves 195 expectant Panamera owners without their new German sports sedan for a little while longer, and Porsche thinks it has come up with a nice way to make up for its gaffe.

Autoweek reports that Porsche will give each of the 195 waiting Panamera owners a set of custom luggage for their troubles. And not just any luggage, either. The price tag for this custom Porsche-branded luggage set is reportedly $3,580, or more than many of us paid for our first car. And while we’re sure the wait has been painful, it appears the agony will soon subside. A Porsche spokesman reportedly told AW that 72 Panameras have finally reached the dealer and the other 123 will arrive by November 30. Not exactly in time to show off the new Porsche at Thanksgiving, but if you’re flying out of town for Christmas the Porsche luggage should come in handy.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Panamera Buyers, Start Packing: Porsche reportedly giving free luggage for late cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See Also:

• Third Quarter GDP Growth Revised Down To 2.8%
• Don’t Be Snookered By That +3.5% GDP Report
• Tell Us Why The GDP Number Is Totally A Head Fake

Prisons and prisoners are often invisible to the general public, and governments do everything they can to keep it that way. We usually won’t raise a stink over something — or somebody — we can’t see.

For years, Nick Szuberla and his colleagues at Thousand Kites have worked tirelessly to bring prisoners’ stories to light through their radio shows and film projects. Now, they’re calling on all of us to help build a crowdsourced database of prison imagery — shining a light on the thousands of hidden, sprawling prisons and jails across our country.

Thousand Kites’ Incarceration Nation project asks the community of criminal justice reformers to post images of prisons — exteriors, interiors and aerial images — to create a image bank for bloggers, researchers, activists and interested members of the public to draw upon. It aims to use technology such as Google Earth to pinpoint prisons and remind us what these human warehouses look like. If you have an image to contribute, please visit the Thousand Kites sites and post it — this project will only be a success if we participate.

I discussed the project with Szuberla this week, and he told me that Incarceration Nation grew to fill a need for images of invisible spaces:

After several years of being chased of by corrections officials for filming exteriors, at one point we rented a helicopter to get images, we decided to begin using available technologies, Google Earth, to explore the criminal justice stories.

There are often strict regulations around film outside and certainly inside prisons.  We believe that sunlight is the best sanitizer for human rights violations, and it is often not in a state’s interest to provide access.  In Virginia, where we are based, they literally moved the prison gate back, from where you could film, as media scrutiny increased.  Prisons are often in rural, hard to reach places. One reason for this is to support faltering rural economies, but the other is an out of sight, out of mind mentality.

(more…)

Goldman Sachs has identified the perfect gift for our poor, cold times. (via Deal Journal)

 “For years, the gift-giving excitement focused on consumer electronics innovation; this year, we could see more sweaters under the tree, given (1) healthy pent-up demand after three years of weak apparel sales, (2) sharper price pointing makes for a compelling gift alternative, and (3) a more muted consumer electronics product cycle providing less crowding out [of apparel.]“

(Picture via Flickr user mamamusings)

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See Also:

• Black Friday Will Be Insanely Scary And Busy This Year
• Retail Sales Already HOT In November
• Retail Is So Hot, People Are Even Buying Under Armour Again (DKS)

With its hands in every cookie jar in the kitchen, there doesn’t seem to be anything that Google isn’t doing or planning to do. It’s gotten to the point where even the slightest hint or rumor that Google is planning to enter a new market is making established players worry. But do utility companies have any reason to fear Google? As far fetched as it may seem, the truth is that, in a way, they very well may have, though the search giant is eager to dispel any worries.

Google was represented by Ed Lu, the company’s program manager for advanced products at the GreenBeat 2009 conference, focused green technology. There’s a very good reason for Google to be present at such a conference, aside from building operating systems and selling ads, it also has a big focus on alternative energy and manages several “green” projects through its philanthropic arm Google.org.

Google also offers PowerMeter, an power-usage monitoring software designed to work with so-called “smart meters” giving users an easy way of keeping track of their energy usage. It’s this tool and the partnerships which Google has with several device manufacturers that lead to the inevitable question of whether Google was trying to squeeze its way as a middle man of sorts between utility companies and the consumers.

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Once again, we’re left wondering how Hulu can survive, given that its ownership has too much interest in restricting what its customers want to do. Following braindead efforts to block specialized browsers, even though they access Hulu content just like regular browsers, combined with blocking anonymous proxies, even those used for perfectly legitimate reasons, Hulu is apparently now cracking down on sites that embed a lot of its videos — yes, despite having embed functionality specifically allowed.

You may recall that one of the key reasons why YouTube became so popular in the first place was a little javascript hack that made it incredibly easy to embed the video directly into any other website (while still hosting the content on YouTube). Suddenly, rather than having to link to the video, it was easy to have video on any other website. Hulu of course recognized the value of that and included embed code functionality as well, but quickly found itself unsure how to deal with the fact that people actually used it. Back when Hulu was still in private beta, requiring invites to access the sites, some other sites quickly decided to just embed all the videos on their own sites, pulling in the traffic that Hulu could have generated for itself. Many sites apparently are still embedding lots of Hulu shows, and Hulu has simply decided to tell those sites to stop. As NewTeeVee notes in the link above, nothing good will come from this policy. It comes across as being rather against how the web works and how people expect the web to work. In the end it just appears like yet another “but we can stop people from doing what they want to do” move that all too often comes from those in legacy industries.

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