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Sure, we’ve explained the apparent insanity of Target’s prices, but the crazy just keeps on coming. Here are a few examples from our stuffed-full Target is Crazy mailbag.

Floyd found this instructive example of why it’s always better to buy in bulk… but not for the reason you’d think. Yes, that’s one pound for $1.74, and three pounds for $1.69.

Tracey found these cans of shaving cream that offer the opposite of bulk discounts.

We now know the reason for wacky “instant substitutes” at Target, but it’s still funny to imagine swapping your chair cushion for a bug zapper.

Finally, Dane wants to know what makes the 8-ounce bottle of French’s yellow mustard so special.

He writes:

I can’t see the difference between the smaller (8oz/1.17) and larger
(14oz/1.12) besides the chance to win $25,000 and a 5 cent discount
for buying more? Target’s lost it again…

Yes. Yes, they have.

Nature has an extensive article on the ‘deception detection training’ that’s been widely rolled out for airport security staff and anti-terrorism police despite that fact that is has barely been publicly tested.

As we reported in 2007, a great deal of this training seems to be based on psychologist Paul Ekman’s various methods for focusing on facial expressions as a way of improving the ability to detect lies.

However, there is no convincing evidence that has been published in peer-reviewed journals to suggest it can actually improve the ability to pick up deception.

The actual technique, at least as used by the United States, is called Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques or SPOT, and was apparently created ‘in consultation’ with Ekman.

The Nature piece also discusses another technology Future Attribute Screening Technology or FAST, which essentially just looks to see if someone is stressed, with the idea that it can pick out potential terrorists, again with no public data available on its effectiveness.

Now, it could be that there is a great deal of classified test results that show how accurate these systems are, but if not, I suspect that physiological threat detection has barely moved on for 50 years and entirely relies on whether someone ‘looks shifty’ and is demonstrably stressed, probably back up with a bit of statistical modelling to sort through passenger characteristics.

However, the Nature article does a fantastic job of questioning the basis of the current technologies and asking to what extent they are high-tech snake oil.

Link to Nature ‘Airport security: Intent to deceive?’.

It’s not rocket science – the HTC EVO 4G is huge for Sprint.  Really huge.  And in fairness, the device really is awesome.  So it makes sense that in the latest edition of the Sprint Playbook, most of the pages are dedicated to the Android-powered behemoth.

It’s exactly what you would expect in a sales-centric handbook – pages of comparisons between Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile with…you guessed it…Sprint coming out on top.  The handbook also discusses potential objections to the $10 mandatory “premium data” fee, and additional information on the $29.99 mobile hotspot feature.  Frequently Asked Questions are also included, with topics like “Do customers have to pay $10 if they’re not in a 4G market?” and “Is the EVO available in 3G-only markets?” covered in-depth.

Needless to say, a device like the EVO 4G is going to chew through its 1500 mAh battery (particularly with 4G, video chatting, and other data-intensive tasks enabled), and the company wants customers to be prepared for it.  They’re recommending that data-intense features like 4G, Wi-Fi, and the Mobile Hotspot feature remain off unless they’re being used, and to keep a close eye on running widgets and programs.

Have a look and familiarize yourself with what’s required, because after all, we’re only eight days away from launch.  Who’s getting excited?

Thanks, Edna!

Portia Kwartema Botchway thought her high school days were behind her when she set her sights on Harvard back in 2006. Little did she know she would spend much of the next several years in that realm, first as a mentor for the Crimson Summer Academy (CSA), then as a Boston schoolteacher.

A native of Clemson, S.C., Botchway, who graduates from Harvard today (May 27), said she spent her first weeks on campus feeling a bit out of sorts. The New England culture was new. Like many incoming college students, being away from home was lonely, and Harvard at the outset was intimidating. Then, while dining one night in Annenberg Hall, she noticed a flier that said CSA was looking for undergraduates to mentor underprivileged high school students.

“I just thought about how lucky I’d been,” she said. “I had parents who really emphasized college. I had good teachers. To be able to give someone else that kind of environment was really attractive to me. These kids are very smart. They just haven’t had the same kinds of opportunities and prepping that I did.”

Founded in 2004 as part of an initiative to improve access to college for talented, economically disadvantaged students in the Boston and Cambridge areas, CSA brings students to campus for three consecutive summers in a rigorous academic program. Students live on campus and attend classes for five to seven weeks, and receive financial support in the form of laptop computers, stipends to replace lost summer earnings, year-round mentoring, and $3,000 scholarships to the colleges of their choice on completion.

One of the cornerstones of CSA’s success is the close relationships that the children develop with Harvard students, such as Botchway, who serve as CSA mentors. Made up of Harvard undergrads as well as graduates of the program, Harvard mentors serve as teaching assistants, role models, and tutors, helping students with everything from course work to navigating relationships with their roommates.

While Botchway thought she would be the one providing guidance, she was surprised to find that mentoring proved a two-way street. She gave her mentees help with homework or advice on the college selection process, and they helped her acclimate to her new home, guiding her through various neighborhoods, teaching her to navigate public transportation, and introducing her to Red Sox Nation.

“They gave me as much as I gave them,” she said. “CSA became an integral part of my experience at Harvard. No matter what else was going on, it was the one thing that was unceasingly amazing.”

Botchway enjoyed her role so much that she spent each undergraduate summer working for CSA, and will return this season. And as CSA has grown, she has been a key part of expanding the mentoring, which now includes tutoring for Crimson Scholars throughout the year.

Mentoring came naturally to Botchway. While some struggle with the challenges of overseeing students just a few years younger than they are, Botchway was able to balance being supportive of her students with the responsibilities of a role model.

“She exemplifies the kind of mentor that CSA strives to provide its scholars,” said Maxine Rodburg, who directs the program. “She’s always understood, admired, and supported the goal of CSA to help students reach their full potential. She has a deep sense of commitment and incredible passion for helping young people.”

An organismic and evolutionary biology student and member of Dunster House, Botchway originally planned to go to medical school. But her time with CSA inspired her to continue working with Boston students. This fall, she’ll start teaching at the Academy of the Pacific Rim, a charter school in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

“My father emphasized from a young age that when you’re given something, you have to give back,” she said. “It’s not about how much you have. It’s about how much you give away.”

Cloris Leachman — perhaps best known these days for stinkin’ up the ballroom during a disastrous turn on Dancing With Z-Listers a few seasons ago — is the latest celeb urging safe sex for your family pets as part of People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ spay-and-neuter campaign.

Matias Duarte, Palm’s VP of Human Interface and User Experience, has left the company according to a digital daily report this morning. Originally hired in Sept ’07, Mr. Duarte was one of the leads on the webOS project and was responsible for much of the overall design and user interface. Readers may remember him from the initial unveiling of webOS at CES in Jan 2009.

Reports have now been confirmed that Duarte will be taking a new spot at Tyrell Corp. Google, where he will become the new User Experience Director for Android.

How many times have you read a news article or seen segment about a view that the stock market, or some part of the economy, will improve based on an argument made by an investor? Some journalists love talking to fund managers about their investment strategies. Sure, they may have done some research that suggests some future expectation. But they also have an unabashed bias — since their view is driving their investment strategy. Why are they so easily trusted?

There are countless examples of news articles that take the form just described. Today, Bloomberg has one. Its headline is, “Barton Biggs Says Stock Market Set to ‘Pop’ in Days.” Biggs is a hedge fund manager. He apparently did quite well last year — his return was three times the industry average. Here are a few excerpts of the article:

“I think they’re going to stabilize in this general area, and then we’re going to have a significant move to the upside.”

Biggs recommended buying U.S. stocks last year when benchmark indexes sank to the lowest levels since the 1990s. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied 23 percent in 2009 as governments worldwide mounted stimulus programs to counter a recession.

But now comes the kicker!

On March 22 this year, Biggs told Bloomberg TV U.S. stocks had the potential to rally a further 10 percent. The S&P 500 has since declined 8.4 percent.

Whoops. And yet Bloomberg goes back to the same trough to feed. It then provides some further insight from Biggs:

“The market is very, very oversold, and I think we’re going to have a big pop to the upside some time in the next couple of days,” said Biggs. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see us go to a new recovery high, just to make everybody squirm.”

Or he could be wrong again, and we could get a drop — instead of a pop — leading to a new recovery low.

To its credit, Bloomberg doesn’t take Biggs’ word as gospel. It follows by presenting a contrasting view by another hedge fund manager who is bearish. He is better against stocks.

But both of these accounts suffer from the same problem: they’re hopelessly biased. If suddenly, one of these fund managers’ research analyst whispered in his ear that a big mistake was discovered in their analysis and their current market position is completely wrong, do you think they’d change their story on-air? Not before correcting their portfolio accordingly.

This problem could be corrected if the interviewer asks just one question: why? It’s fine to report that an investor thinks the market will improve or worsen. But on what is that opinion based? Provide some analysis, instead of just giving readers opinions contaminated by investors’ incentive to have their portfolios do well. Learning where fund managers stand in relation to the stock market without worrying about why may make for good entertainment, but it makes for poor journalism. 

For better or for worse, investors will likely remain popular sources for business news. Reporters don’t like to stick to interviewing only academics, and readers will tire of their theory and hunger for opinions of those in the trenches. The hope, then, is that readers always take the opinions of investors with great skepticism, unless compelling analysis is also provided.

Hedge fund – Standard & Poor – Bloomberg Television – Investing – Business

Posted by Ray Long, Monique Garcia and Rick Pearson at 12:52 p.m.; updated at 1:43 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — Senate President John Cullerton acknowledged that there aren’t enough votes to approve a $4 billion pension borrowing plan today, meaning lawmakers could end up coming back next week to finish the state spending plan.

The Senate needs a three-fifths majority — 36 votes — to approve the borrowing, a key part of the budget. There are 37 Democrats in the Senate, but at least one of them isn’t at the Capitol and a handful of
others are balking at the idea of borrowing more money to keep the
state afloat for another year.

"We don’t have enough votes yet. In the House, some Republicans
supported it. So far, we have no Republican support for the pension
borrowing," Cullerton said. "The problem is that we have a few Democrats who do not want to vote for it and have not voted for it in the past."

Cullerton also acknowledged the Senate may have to come back next week to approve the borrowing, when the absent Democratic senators could be rounded up.

“It requires three-fifths vote. It’s passed the House already," Cullerton said. "So at some point in time, we’ll come back if we can’t pass it today.”

Cullerton’s comments took on an added dimension as Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, adjourned the House at 12:24 p.m., saying he would call lawmakers back to his chamber if needed “in the next few days or over the next several months.” Madigan said the Senate plans to adjourn later today.



Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, said she will be voting against borrowing to make the pension payment because it’s not a comprehensive budget solution.



"I don’t think we can afford to punt it down the road and keeping avoiding the problem even longer," Steans said. Steans said she may be able to support a smaller borrowing effort if it was part of a budget package that also included more spending cuts and a way to raise revenue, such as an income tax increase.



Steans also expressed concerns about a plan to give Gov. Pat Quinn broad budget powers that would allow him to dole out money to state agencies as he sees fit. Historically lawmakers were in charge of setting spending levels for agencies, and Steans said giving Quinn that power two years in a row would erode the "checks and balance" the legislature is supposed to provide.

Sen. Susan Garrett says she is also a no on pension borrowing, saying
it’s part of a "scatter shot" budget plan that does not begin to
address the state’s money woes.





Like Steans, she is open to some borrowing if it also comes with cuts
and a way to raise revenue.

Just in time for the launch of the EVO 4G (and its front-facing camera) next week, Fring has tossed 2-way video calling support into their free Android app. It’ll work on Android devices regardless of whether or not they have a front-facing camera — if yours doesn’t, you’ll be doing a lot of flipping back and forth if you want anyone to be able to see that sweet, sweet face.

Australian label Rittenhouse’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection delivers an array of tees, tops, slacks, and even light jackets. What stands out the most are the varying designs of tees ranging from polka dot prints, to abstract art, to stripes. The range is simple, yet colorful enough to bring light in your attire for those sunny summer days. Move into the breezy summer nights, and you can get versatile with a suit, jackets, or sweaters.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: This Heart’s on Fire

Day five of a manhunt for Jamaica’s public enemy #1, Christopher Coke, aka “Short Man,” aka “President,” aka “Dudas.”

Short man I get, he’s just over five feet tall. President I get, he heads an international drug consortium that supplies cocaine and marijuana to the U.S. but “Dudas” is what everybody calls him here. Supporters even hung a sign on a street dog that said they would fight to the death for “Dudas.”

Some details about Dudas have been coming out in the local media – father of four, vegetarian, never gives interviews.

“He is an ed-u-cat-ed man,” one Kingston resident told me, “and when you have education, and money, you can manipulate the system.”

Most of Kingston is back up and running – cars on the street, stores open. One section in the West – Tivoli Gardens – is still trouble, with a heavy presence of soldiers and police. Some civilians have have been trapped between the two sides there. Emergency packs of food and water have been sent in.

There are rumors Dudas has left the city or left the country, and rumors that he will accept extradition to the US to avoid being taken to Jamaican prison. Maybe he hopes to avoid the fate of his father, another one-time leader of the Shower Posse gang who died under unexplained circumstances in a Jamaican jail.

The quote that got my attention was from an unnamed U.S. State Department officer who spoke of fears of Jamaica “turning into a Narco-state.”

The two main political parties here have been relying on gang leaders to help get out votes since the 1970s. Elections in the 1980s turned into violent battles between rival gangs. What has changed today is the amount of money, power and influence the gangs have now due to drug sales. The current Prime Minister fought against Dudas’ extradition to the U.S. for 9 months. Now in trying and failing to catch one man his forces have killed fifty, a “mess,” one Jamaican told me, which may cost the Prime Minister his job.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has a bold headline US Money Supply Plunges at 1930s Pace that is sure to provide much referential action for the UK Telegraph.

I like to read AEP, but have to admit that he is given to sensationalism on occasion. That is because it sells papers, and also draws blog clicks, as posters on the web are wont to emulate that style as well. Fear sells.

But there were some disturbing elements to this particular piece in addition to its florid headline.

The US stopped publishing M3 several years ago. At the time I was not happy about this, and complained quite a bit.

Several enterprising fellows, including my friend Bart over at Now and Futures, as well as John Williams at Shadowstats.com, have been attempting to extrapolate the M3 figures, and doing a fine job given what they have to work with.

I cannot tell what source for M3 that AEP is using since he does not cite the source of his alarming, screaming headline information.

Here is a quick review of the components of the Monetary Supply figures including M3 for your review. You may also wish to refresh your knowledge here: Money Supply a Primer.

The chief component that is ‘missing’ these days which must be estimated is “eurodollars,” which as you may recall are US dollars being held overseas. You know, those dollars that Bernanke has been sending over to Europe en masse lately through the swaplines.

The fellows can estimate this, but the reporting of eurodollars lags by a quarter or more, the only reliable source of information being the forex commercial banking reports from BIS.

I would very much like to have M3 back, but in particular I would like the Fed to be releasing a more accurate and contemporary measure of Eurodollars, the dollar overhang overseas, particularly in light of the huge swings in the DX index, and its almost undeniable relationship to the recent dollar short squeezes on the European banks.

But alas, we do not have this, so we can only estimate M3, particularly the eurodollar component.

But the good news is that we still have both M2 and MZM.

Here are the most recent figures for MZM and M2 from the St. Louis Fed, expressed as a percent of change YoY, not adjusted for seasonality. For good measure I have added GDP and PPI Finished Consumer Goods in the mix.

MZM is the broadest measure of liquidity, and is very much a creature of the Adjusted Monetary Base. As one can see from the chart, the Fed, using their various policy tools, jams the short term money supply higher in response to a lagging economy, and the broader measures like M2 tend to follow with a lag.

The Fed then backs off, and waits to see the effect of their actions, as well as any accompanying fiscal programs, on the real economy as measured by GDP, with an eye on inflation. In this case I am using PPI, but I do greatly prefer John Williams’ unadulterated CPI measure. Unfortunately I do not have it handy in the right format for this study. But PPI will suffice.

Now, looking at this chart, it appears that the Fed is following their usual gameplan. The excess reserves that the banks are holding, at least indirectly in response to the balance sheet expansion and interest rate payments on their own deposits by the Fed, are enormous and unprecedented. If the Fed were to start pulling some levers to motivate those reserves into the real economy through loans, the impact could be dramatic. The Fed will do this if their fear of inflation begins to be overcome by their fear of deflation.

Right now it appears to me that they are overly preoccupied with the status of the biggest of the banks and their asset quality problems an under stimulating the real economy. I think this will be regarded as a policy error as were the actions of the Federal Reserve in 1932 wherein the Fed overreacted to a spike in CPI and tightened prematurely.

I am not saying what MUST or WILL happen. I am not arguing from theory. I am just attempting to demonstrate what is happening now based on the data. And right now Ben is indeed printing money, and figuratively dropping it from helicopters. The problem is that the helicopters are hovering over Wall and Broad Streets, and not Main Street.

If you want to know the theory, in a perfectly fiat system (no external standard constraint) deflation and inflation are always the outcome of policy decisions amongst a number of variables and competing interests. Period. Anyone who does not understand this does not understand money.

Once the US relaxed its adherence to the gold standard by devaluing the dollar, deflation became a moot point. What was not handled well was the continuing lack of aggregate demand because of the resistance of the Republicans in Congress to jobs creation, and the overturning of most of the New Deal initiatives by the US Supreme Court.

I am not saying what the ‘right thing’ to do is. But what I am attempting to get across is that one way or the other, excess financial sector debt is going to be liquidated, either through default, or through inflation, or through a mixture of higher taxes and sluggish growth with a disparity of income that increasingly resembles 19th century serfdom.

At some point this dynamic is going to become less ‘economic’ and more political and the equilibrium will be reached. A good leading example of this is in Iceland.

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CT Blue, aka Democratic activist John Wirzbicki of Noank, observes that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon has deftly avoided ideological categorization, despite some national media types who have her pegged as a Tea Partier.

“My read, and I think this is widely shared around here, is that she has, so far, avoided committing herself to any agenda, right wing or otherwise,” Wirzbicki writes. 

“She has no particular loyalty to the Republican party, that’s clear. She’s a little like Bloomberg in that respect-the party is just a vehicle to get her where she wants to go. Had there been a vulnerable Republican in the seat, she’d be a Democrat right now.”

 

Obama faced repeated questions implying and literally asking if the Deepwater Oil Spill was his Katrina.

He defended the administration’s response: “This has been our highest priority since day one.”

But here’s the catch. For him to make that claim, Obama is forced to claim authority over the BP response from the start — saying he could have stepped in at any time.  That means defending everything BP has done.

Obama says: “BP is not running around doing whatever it wants with nobody minding the store.”

Those kind of lines will not go over well with a furious nation. In fact, Obama now finds himself going against Democrats in Congress who have pummeled BP.

Obama even defends BP’s lowball leak estimate: “It is legitimate to question whether it’s in BP’s interest to minimize the extent of the damage… But I’m not contradicting my prior point that people were working as hard as they could…On the flow estimates, being high or low didn’t matter to the effort to stop the spill, so the initial 5,000 gallon estimate wasn’t a problem.

“With respect to the metaphor that was used,” Obama adds regarding Salazar’s foot-on-the-neck imagery, “I would say we don’t need to use language like that.”

Don’t Miss: Nausea-Inducing Photos Of Oil Entering The Marsh

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[YouTube link]

The folks at Fring are screaming from the rooftops today about their latest update, which brings video calling to the popular VOIP-chat (and now video) service. Using the new Evo 4G (you might have seen us write about it a little lately) and its front-facing camera, you can call your friends, and each have video of the other. Of course, if your friends are anything like ours, you might just want to stick to voice. Full presser after the break.

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

High end speaker manufacturers DW Collection has something for both car lovers and audio fiends. Inspired by the Italian automotive company, the Art.Engine boasts a streamlined designed mirroring that of those Ferrari machines. The 47″ tall dual speakers feature 18 drivers, four 200 watt digital amps, wireless signal input, twin NACA ducts for air intake, auto style paint job, and for the wow factor, an “engine start button.”

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Source: Unpluggd

Sony Ericsson W350i—the phone of choice for British paedophiles, turns out. A massive UK child pornography ring with 70 members was discovered after a man left his phone on the bus, whose driver found indecent images of children. More »










Child pornography – Crime – Sex Offenses – Pornography – Legal Information

If you’re looking for information on what is an absolute Gulf of Mexico ecological disaster from BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well, hit this link for very thorough coverage from a news source with something of a dog in this fight — the Houston Chronicle.

From her starring role on the TV Land sitcom Hot In Cleveland to her side-splitting appearance on Saturday Night Live, there’s never a dull moment when entertainment icon/animal rights activist Betty White is in the atmosphere. But have you heard about her current project? The octogenarian is teaming up with national campaign that aims to teach young people the importance of bedtime stories and getting a good night’s sleep.

At the ripe old age of 88-years-young, Betty has joined the Bedtime Stories Project to promote healthy sleep for children. The beloved comedienne has partnered with SleepBetter.org and the Carpenter Company to raise awareness of how bedtime stories can help children sleep better at night. Betty even read a few stories to schoolchildren in an event at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

“Great sleep habits and routines are taught right from the crib and then ruined over the next seventy years by late-night television…”

As we described in our story on Monday about the launch of the first Healthymagination Annual Report, innovation is at the heart of the initiative, which was launched last May. One of the ways it can be seen in action is in what GE calls “Reverse Innovation,” which is our approach to developing technologies in emerging markets, for emerging markets — and then finding new outlets for these less expensive, often-miniaturized technologies in developed economies. How the strategy is being played out in India is the subject of a detailed report this week, “‘Reverse Innovation’: GE Makes India a Lab for Global Markets,” published in The Wharton School’s highly regarded online business journal.

Hey, baby: A technician at our Global Research Center in Bangalore is seen here working with GE’s Lullaby Infant Warmer technology. The giant GE Healthcare lab at the research center in India, which houses all of GE’s Healthcare products, is “not a sales and marketing demo room,” GE’s Ashish Shah, general manager of global technology, tells the journal. “It is an engineering lab for our engineers to work hands-on.”

As John Dineen, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, told Wharton about one of the imaging systems being made in India: “It is about creating new markets. Over time, this product will morph and get more specialized for the unique needs and characteristics of this market. The innovations from here could lead to an entirely new line of products which in turn could create whole new market opportunities for us.”

Despite GE’s long presence in India, Wharton notes that GE wasn’t meeting its potential when it came to the immense size of the country’s market. As V. Raja, president and CEO of GE Healthcare-South Asia, told the journal: “We realized that the biggest impediment was that we were selling what we were making [rather than] making what the customers here needed. It was clear that if we had to grow here we had to shift gears and align our products to the needs of the customers.”

Wharton goes on to cite Vijay Govindarajan, a professor of international business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, who is familiar to GE Reports readers from our stories on Reverse Innovation. VG, as he is known, told the editors: “Historically, innovations have always happened in rich countries. But in the future, innovations will have to take place in countries like India and China, because this is where the bulk of the customers are. The needs are more pressing here and the sheer volumes will justify the investments that will be required for developing the appropriate products.”

GE’s Ashish Shah cited the example of GE Healthcare’s new portable electrocardiograms, which are lightweight and easy to use, but “incorporate the analysis program that is standard in GE’s more high-end ECG devices,” as a way in which innovations are born, but without sacrificing quality, the journal notes. “Other products that GE Healthcare has developed over the last few years for the Indian market,” the editors observe, “include baby warmers and X-ray and ultrasound systems.” As Dr. Devi Shetty, a Bangalore-based cardiac surgeon who is also on the Healthymagination Board of Directors, told the editors, products that come from Reverse Innovation “can definitely change the rules of the game.”

* Read The Wharton School’s full story
* Read more healthymagination stories on GE Reports

Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
“Innovation engine: Inside healthymagination’s report”
“Reverse Innovation hits Harvard’s most influential list”
“Reverse innovation: Building GE’s local growth model”
“Reverse innovation: How GE is disrupting itself”