Readers of Slashdot last valentines day will remember discussing US Plans to Shoot down a damaged spy satellite. An anonymous reader noted that the US is reporting success last night, thus saving us from hydrazine exposure. Of course this makes me wonder- if it’s this simple, wouldn’t an international super power war pretty much immediately mean the downing of every satellite in orbit?

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Ponca City, We Love You writes “Scientists at University College London have found the link between what we expect to see, and what our brain tells us we actually saw revealing that the context surrounding what we see is all important — sometimes overriding the evidence gathered by our eyes and even causing us to imagine things which aren’t really there. A vague background context is more influential and helps us to fill in more blanks than a bright, well-defined context. This may explain why we are prone to ’see’ imaginary shapes in the shadows when the light is poor. “Illusionists have been alive to this phenomenon for years,” stated Professor Zhaoping. “When you see them throw a ball into the air, followed by a second ball, and then a third ball which ‘magically’ disappears, you wonder how they did it. In truth, there’s often no third ball — it’s just our brain being deceived by the context, telling us that we really did see three balls launched into the air, one after the other.” The original research paper is available on PLOS, the open-access, peer-reviewed journal.”

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, AT and T (T), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Verizon Communications (VZ)

Tom Taulli wrote Tuesday about Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s unlimited wireless calling plan, and competitors AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile (part of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom) followed suit with unlimited wireless calling plans for U.S. customers. This is a first in the wireless industry for the major carriers, but it’s a welcome one for many consumers. Both AT&T and T-Mobile will offer unlimited calling starting by the end of this week — T-Mobile starting today and AT&T starting tomorrow.

Where is Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), you may ask? The carrier also announced unlimited calling plans two weeks ago, but just in a few choose markets — and starting at $119.99 per month. Even though the unlimited calling plans vary from carrier to carrier, generally, there is a $99.99 per month price of admission with all of them. T-Mobile offers the ideal value, with all call minutes and unlimited text messages included. Why did all the carriers — except Sprint — unveil unlimited calling within just a few days of each other?

Something has to keep growth churning along in the wireless industry. With 85% of Americans now owning a cellphone, wireless is heading for commodity status (it may already be there), where price wars will start erupting and “me too” marketing campaigns following shortly thereafter. The Computer industry knows all about this. But price wars only help the consumer — not the wireless carrier. Yes, many of us heavy wireless users might soon have lower bills, but the carriers may have lower bottom lines as well. What wireless company stocks do you have in your portfolio? Will this cause more customers to abandon landline telephones and switch to unlimited-minutes wireless only, pumping in growth into the wireless sector for the time being? Food for thought.

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Princeton Review to buy owner of its franchises
Reuters South Africa - Last: Feb 21 (Reuters) - Princeton Review Inc (REVU.O: Quote , Profile , Research ) stated it concurred to acquire the owner of 10 of its franchises Test Services Inc, a unit of Alta Colleges Inc, for about $38.4 million to consolidate its operations. The

Banking Drags Allianz 4Q Profits
Newsday - The comments reaffirmed an announcement by Allianz in November that Dresdner Kleinwort would think about a strategic change in structured finance.

Dubai’s Nakheel aims to raise $1.36 bln via REITs
Khaleej Times - DUBAI - Dubai developer Nakheel is looking to raise about 5 billion dirhams ($1.36 billion) of equity to finance housing and infrastructure projects via an initial public offering of two real estate investment trusts (REITs). Nakheel, owned by the

UPDATE 6-SocGen posts record Q4 loss,might take more writedowns
Forbes - However, Stratege Finance fund manager Valerie Cazaban said she would steer clear of SocGen shares for now. “Our feeling is that the stock is going to fall to new lows in the coming days,” she said.

Tiger overcomes Holmes in Match Play
Miami Herald - Business Monday | National | International | Personal Finance | Technology | Small Business | Friday Business Report Tiger Woods produced another extraordinary comeback in the desert Wednesday, playing the final five holes in 5-under par to

Ex-N.H. Candidate Maintains Innocence
San Francisco Gate - Prosecutors allege that Dodds was desperate for money after having spent nearly double the amount his wife had agreed to and taking out two mortgages on their home to finance his campaign.

UPDATE 1-LCA-Vision founder purchases 5 pct stake in TLC Vision
Reuters South Africa - Last: Feb 21 (Reuters) - Corrective eye surgery company LCA-Vision Inc’s (LCAV.O: Quote , Profile , Research ) founder Stephen Joffe stated he purchased a 5 percent stake in rival TLC Vision Corp (TLC.TO: Quote , Profile , Research ) (TLCV.O: Quote

Jim Rossman Joins Macquarie Capital to Establish U.S. Equity Capital
PR Inside - Macquarie’s global advisory business, Macquarie Capital Advisors, specializes in a range of corporate advisory services including mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, restructurings, project finance, structured finance and tailored

McCain: Reports on Lobbyist a ‘Smear’
Forbes - McCain has stated that episode helped spur his drive to change campaign finance laws in an attempt to reduce the influence of money in politics.

Mugabe could face second round of voting - Moyo
New Zimbabwe.com - Mugabe is seeking a sixth term and was widely tipped to be coasting for victory until Makoni, a former finance minister and member of the Zanu PF politburo, entered the ring as an independent on February 5.

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Filed under: Economic data, Housing, Federal Reserve

The U.S. Federal Reserve said that despite inflation concerns, “relatively low” interest rates might be needed “for some time,” the central bank announced Wednesday in the minutes from its most-recent meeting. At the same time, however, the Fed raised its inflation projections for 2008.

“Several participants noted that the dangers of a downturn in the economy were significant,” the Fed said in minutes of the January 9 and 21 conference calls and the January 29-30 policy meeting last month. “Many participants were concerned that the drop in equity prices, coupled with the ongoing decline in house prices, implied reductions in household wealth that would likely damp consumer spending.”

Last week, in Congressional testimony U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that the Fed will lower rates further if financial conditions and the availability of credit deteriorate.

Also in the minutes, the Fed termed the inflation statistics since the end of the year, “disappointing.” The Fed now expects 2008 core inflation of 2.0-2.2%, up from the previous 1.7-1.9% estimate.

Further, the Fed lowered its 2008 U.S. GDP outlook to 1.3-2.0% from the earlier 1.8-2.5%.

The Fed said that “conditions in short-term funding markets had improved considerably since the December meeting, reflecting the easing of pressures related to funding around the turn of the year as well as the implementation of the Term Auction Facility.” However, the Fed added, “broader financial conditions had tightened significantly, on balance, in the weeks leading up to the meeting, as evidence of further deterioration in housing markets and investors’ more pessimistic view of the economic outlook adversely affected a range of financial markets.”

The markets’ response to the Fed’s minutes was muted, as the Dow held on to gains to shut about 90 points higher to 12,247.26.

Fed two-step

Economist David H. Wang told BloggingStocks Wednesday, he sees “proportion and balance” in the Fed’s most current minutes.

“Clearly, the Fed is saying ‘we know we’re in the midst of a battle against contraction forces and we stand ready to act,’” Wang said. “But investors and traders should keep in mind that if for some reason inflation gets out of hand, they remain ready to re-raise rates. Unlike some who argue that the Fed is totally growth-oriented now, due to our housing and credit problems, the way I read the minutes is that the Fed has not forgotten about inflation.”

Wang said Fed Reserve Governor William Poole’s comments about ‘living to regret a monetary policy that focuses on only one concern, recession,’ talk to that attentiveness regarding inflation.

Still, Wang said the overall tone of the minutes provides enough evidence to recommend that the Fed will cut key, short-term interest rates by another 50 basis points when it meets next on March 18. Wang is predicting a 50-basis-point cut in the Fed Funds rate to 2.50% and the discount rate to 3.00%.

Biggest challenge: stimulate economy

Economist Steve Affinito agreed, arguing that the U.S. economy “is in the midst of trying to fight off one contraction force after another … mortgage defaults, mortgage-backed securities defaults, constrained credit conditions, bond insurer liquidity, and slowing consumer spending.”

“I’m a tiny more public policy-based than my good friend David Wang, so I’m going to argue for a 75 basis point cut in interest rates,” Affinito stated. “That’s out there, I know, but the way I read the data, we’ve got to stimulate the demand in two areas, business and housing, and we’ve got to reduce the number of mortgage defaults by about 20-30%, at minimum, and one way to do that is to create a better yield spread by lowering short-term interest rates.”

Inflation, Affinito added, will increase, “but mostly due to rising energy prices, not due to the Fed’s monetary policy easing.”

“The Fed can’t pump more oil out of the ground. That’s OPEC’s job. In the meantime, and I’ve said this before, we’re going to need all the stimulus we can get, monetary, fiscal, and otherwise, to keep this recession a short one, one that lasts only two quarters,” Affinito stated. “And at this juncture, if the Fed can limit the recession to two quarters, what an economic victory that would be.”

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Hugh Pickens writes “Contrary to previous beliefs, identical twins are not genetically identical. Researchers studied 19 pairs of monozygotic, or identical, twins and found differences in copy number variation in DNA which occurs when a set of coding letters in DNA are missing, or when extra duplicates of segments of DNA are produced. In most cases, variation in the number of duplicates likely has no impact on health or development but in others, it might be one factor in the likelihood of developing a disease (pdf). “Those differences may point the way to better understanding of genetic diseases when we study so-called discordant monozygotic twins….a pair of twins where one twin has a disorder and the other does not,” states Carl Bruder, Ph.D. “If twin A develops Parkinson’s and twin B does not, the region of their genome where they show differences is a target for further investigation to discover the basic genetic underpinnings of the disease.””

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coondoggie writes “The National Science Foundation announced this day 14 grand engineering challenges for the 21st century that, if met, would greatly improve how we live. The final choices fall into four themes that are essential for humanity to flourish — sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability, and joy of living. The committee did not attempt to include every important challenge, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting those selected. Rather than focusing on predictions or gee-whiz gadgets, the goal was to identify what needs to be done to help people and the planet thrive, the group said. A diverse committee of engineers and scientists — including Larry Page, Robert Langer, and Robert Socolow — came up with the list but did not rank the challenges. Rather, the National Academy of Engineering is offering the public an opportunity to vote on which one they think is most important.”

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Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience, World wide web, eBay (EBAY), Employees

I’m actually finding the cries of discomfort coming from eBay sellers a bit amusing these days. Yes, in my opinion they’re getting what they deserve over on eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY).

Why do I state that with a cold-hearted grin you might ask? It’s because I did my part so long ago. Yes, we had a seller’s strike once before, and it was a pretty damn good one. It didn’t work then either, or at least it didn’t change any eBay corporate minds in reference to anything that matters.

So now eBay has raised fees again. I don’t need to state I told you so, but I did. This time though there’s a significant additional angle to the rift. Due to pending changes to eBay’s feedback system, sellers could be left defenseless in the face of potential deadbeat buyers, four of which have struck my wife’s eBay selling account in the last week. It’s great service to eBay’s vision and it’s simple logic to grasp and accept if you have insight into eBay’s plans.

I told you in August of 2006 what I believe eBay has up its sleeve. If it can be pulled off it should work out nicely. I believe eBay management seeks to control the flow of goods. By that I mean I believe they want to decide who will sell successfully on eBay. Unfortunately, I think they’re going to end up shuttering the place before they reach their goal, but of course I haven’t seen the risk assessments they’ve surely placed their bets on.

Based upon what I see, here’s what I’m declaring is eBay’s plan: eBay is to become an on the internet retail outlet mall, home to about 1,200 high-volume retailers. eBay will become an auction marketplace in name only. eBay payroll will be slashed by two-thirds. eBay will play nanny to anyone who wishes to buy things, but small-time sellers with issues will be left in the cold. eBay will have no interest in the transactions which take place on its pages beyond fees for listing and fees for items sold. Once eBay has gotten its cut, you’ll be on your own, even when the deal “goes south.”

Once the pool of sellers has been decimated, new rules shall be employed for the protection of the remaining “elite” sellers and it’ll be back to business as usual. That’ll be business without all those mom-and-pop sellers taking up data flow and asking stupid questions. Even as I write this, eBay members are chatting about the potentially devastating effects of pending changes to eBay’s feedback system. The expected changes shall potentially leave sellers defenseless at the hands of whomever wishes to screw them. What better way is there to prune the marketplace than to turn the membership upon itself. It’s a brilliant ploy and it has worked for third world despots for centuries.

Hats off to John Donahoe, he has grasped the vision.

God bless eBay. Its going to need it.

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