micheas writes “Larry Lessig has decided that running for U.S. Congress himself in a special election would be too risky to his Change Congress movement and has decided not to run. ‘With lots of mixed feelings, I have decided a run for Congress wouldn’t help the Change Congress movement. I explain the thinking in this 5 minute video (a new record for me!). First question: What happens to the contributions to Lessig08? As explained on the ActBlue page, all will go to (the yet to be established) Change Congress organization.’”

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Ferante125 writes “An interesting article about on the internet pranks by students and teachers’ responses to them. There are some interesting stats that sounded a little hard to believe. My immature side finds it funny and my more mature side is interested in the legal aspects.” For the most part it seems like this article thinks pranks are basically just name calling and flaming on websites.

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “We all know that false or misleading science headlines are all too common these days and that misleading media combined with an apathetic and undereducated public lead to widespread ignorance. But the real question is, how can this trend be reversed? At a session at the current AAAS meeting, a studies was discussed indicating that what matters most is how the information is portrayed. While people are willing to defer to experts on matters of low concern, for things that affect them directly, such as breast cancer or childhood diseases, expertise only counts for as much as giving off a ’sense of honesty and openness,’ and that it matters far less than creating a sense of empathy in deciding who people will listen to. In other words, it’s not enough to merely report on it as an expert. You need to make sure your report exudes a sense of honesty, openness, empathy, and maybe even a hint of humor.”

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Ponca City, We Love You writes “Researchers at Monash University, in Australia, have found a process to coat natural fibers such as wool, silk, and hemp that will automatically remove food, grime, and even red-wine stains by coating their fibers with titanium dioxide nanocrystals, which break down food and dirt in sunlight. Titanium dioxide is a strong photocatalyst and in the presence of ultraviolet light and water vapor, it forms hydroxyl radicals, which oxidize, or decompose, organic matter. “These nanocrystals can’t decompose wool and are harmless to skin,” states organic chemist and nanomaterials researcher Walid Daoud. Titanium dioxide can also destroy pathogens such as bacteria in the presence of sunlight by breaking down the cell walls of the microorganisms making self-cleaning fabrics especially useful in hospitals and other medical settings.”

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rtknox00 writes “For astronauts spending months in space, the smallest touch of home can make a big difference. So when South Korea’s first astronaut Ko San boards the International Space Station this April he’ll be bringing along a hefty supply of kimchi, the national dish of his native country. While bringing a cherished food on a long journey might seem like a simple act, taking kimchi into space required millions of dollars in research and years of work.” Science might never get Thorramatur in orbit.

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Filed under: Products and services, Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT), Procter and Gamble (PG)

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) are in this one together, and we’re not speaking a battle for retail supremacy here. The two mega discount retailers face an ongoing patent lawsuit over their use of RFID technology to keep track of warehouse and retail inventory levels and automated ordering and processing.

It’s hard to envision a commodity technology being used in so many ways by retailers the world over being patented, but that’s just what Houston, Tx. citizen Ronald Bormaster is claiming. Bormaster’s RFID patent covers RFID in a way that ensures pallets and units of merchandise don’t “collide” when being handled in an automated fashion, and he assigned the patent to a Houston company called “RFID World” — which isn’t even using the system on a commercial basis to today.

Wal-Mart and Target both have asked the patent lawsuit to be thrown out, arguing that it has no merit and that Bormaster’s patent isn’t a patent in the first place. The retailers state, based on a 2005 University of Arkansas study, that RFID allows in-store merchandise to be replenished three times more swiftly when RFID is involved as opposed to manually-scanned bar code systems. Would customers see visible inconveniences in stores if this patent lawsuit was won by Bormaster and RFID was no longer granted to be used by the two retailers? They state yes. Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG)’s Gillette brand is also involved with this dispute since it’s a huge proponent of using RFID in its mass production facilities with its partners. All three companies want the case to be thrown out in its entirety.

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Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Stocks to Buy, Technology, Raytheon Company (RTN)

This morning Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) is reporting in more detail the role it played in last week’s interception of a satellite 153 miles over the Pacific Ocean. Raytheon is one of my stock picks for the year and I’ve been arguing for a long time that the defense sector is one of the ‘bulletproof places’ to be in a shaky economy. I have also been arguing that RTN is a tech stock of the highest order.

Raytheon makes missile guidance systems among other things. Can you get more high-tech than that? Yes, you can. Why Raytheon itself also designed and built the Sea-Based X-band radar that tracked the satellite prior to the missile engagement and performed the hit assessment afterward. The radar performs the critical functions of cuing, tracking and discriminating a target.

If you want great management, you will find that RTN’s is top notch too. If you’re looking for a huge moat, consider this: most of the software you use in your personal or business life is pretty well entrenched, but which would you’ve more angst about changing, your spreadsheet software or your software for missiles? Bingo! I’m sure you got that one right.

My last review details: Chasing Value: Raytheon (RTN) up on earnings & 2008 outlook and I do not see any downside here. The government can’t get enough of Raytheon as I noted in Sunday Funnies: Using up our missiles. So add it to your watch list. While I don’t see the stock going down based on its own fundamentals, it is possible an opportunity will arise in sympathy with a down market some time in the next few months.

This year Raytheon is up about 7% while the overall market has been down about the same. That’s a 14% spread so far.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not own shares of RTN.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertising

Last week I wrote a couple pieces on the current seller strike over at e-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). The strike was supposed to last until today, but now it has been extended another week. Initial data is showing that the current eBay strike has lowered the items listed for sale on the site by an impressive 13%, so you can be sure that eBay is paying attention.

As most of you are already aware, the current strike is the result of frustrations by eBay users over a couple new changes that the site has introduced. While the site lowered its initial listing fees for items, it raised its completion fees. This has been seen by power sellers as a direct attack on the more successful eBay sellers. In addition, eBay has decided to keep sellers from leaving negative feedback on buyers, a move that has infuriated sellers who claim that feedback is their best defense in avoiding dead-beat bidders. The final straw came in the decision to hold certain PayPal payments for up to 21 days.

The strike, which started last week, has had a couple of impacts on the e-commerce world. One result that I analyzed last week, was the increase in traffic and users to some smaller e-commerce sites that historically have had a hard time breaking into some of eBay coveted traffic. Now we’re starting to see just how hard the strike has been hitting eBay itself. According to reports, the site has seen a 13% drop in its auction listings.

Data that has been compiled by medved.net and dealscart.com indicate that there are now “only” 13 million items available on the site. eBay users have started to smell the blood in the water apparently and have decided to extend the current strike in hopes eBay will begin to give in to some of their demands. After what they considered to be an effective first week, sellers are now extending the strike by one more week, stretching it out until March 3.

We’d some great reader feedback on our posts last week over the current strike, and it seems like most of our BloggingStocks readers agree that the current changes eBay is imposing are unfair. Several of our readers are avid eBay users, and let us know that they had indeed joined in the sellers strike and were looking for new alternatives for their on the internet auction business. I’m curious to hear if these eBay users will continue to boycott the site for another week, or slowly return to business as usual on the site. Let us know your intentions, and what alternatives to eBay you’ve found (if any).

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: International markets, Bad news, Rumors, Products and services, Consumer experience, Middle East, Politics, Oil

Oil prices are off to a strong start this week, as traders are pushing prices higher in reaction to multiple concerns stemming out of the Middle East.

The first factor that is weighing on traders mind’s is the Turkish invasion to Iraq. Tension between Turkey and the Kurds in Northern Iraq is nothing new to the area (and violence between the two goes all the way back to 1984), but the current activity is the first confirmed operation by Turkey since the United Says began its Iraqi campaign in 2003.

Over the weekend, Turkey announced that one of its helicopters had gone down in Northern Iraq, killing 8 Turkish soldiers. In reaction to that news, Turkey stepped up its force by firing in excess of 40 salvos of artillery into the territory.

In all, there have been at least 112 confirmed Kurdish rebel deaths since just last Thursday, and it seems as though things are not going to be coming to an end anytime soon. As violence continues, traders will continue to worry about any supply disruptions that may result from the action.

Iraq is a massive supplier of oil to Europe, and Turkey serves as a crucial oil and gasoline hub into the region. Hopefully, the two sides will reach some sort of peace soon, but for now the action only seems to be escalating. The Iraqi government has made its plea to Turkey to pull out, but so far those pleas are falling on deaf ears.

So where is America in all of this? America has been aiding Turkey on this one. Turkey is its NATO ally, and the U.S. has been providing Turkey with real time intelligence on the area. As you can envision, the Kurds are rather disappointed that the U.S. is helping Turkey. This may also undermine any progress that America has been making in the northern territory of the country.

There are also more concerns coming out of Iran. The U.S. and Iran have been in constant debate for the past several years over Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. insists that the country is trying to build nuclear weapons, while Iran insists that it is only pursuing nuclear energy. Believe what you’ll, but the tensions have continued to build, and led to numerous sanctions against the massive oil producer country.

Over this past weekend, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made it clear that he was not happy with all of the sanctions that were being imposed on his country, and said that his country would take unspecified “decisive reciprocal measures” against nations that decided to imposed any additional sanctions against Iran.

Is this just more talk and posturing by Iran, or has the country finally stated enough is enough? Who really knows, but one thing is for sure, trouble out of Iran could definitely lead to supply disruptions, so traders will continue to push prices higher just based on the possibility that things could take a turn for the worse in the country.

At the present time, the country is under two different sets of U.N. sanctions, and it is thought that a third set of sanctions could be put in place shortly, despite a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Bureau (IAEA), which said that it has found no evidence in Iran of a weapons program and that U.S. allegations to the contrary are unsubstantiated.

So, definitely a couple of pretty huge things going on over in the never boring Middle East. As I find out more information on these events, I will keep you posted.

What are your thoughts on Iran? Do you trust the IAEA and Iranian government that the country’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, or are you skeptical and agree with the idea that the country is probably pursuing weapons of mass destruction?

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Bad news, Lowe’s Cos (LOW), Housing

Shares of home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. (NYSE: LOW) were trading slightly higher in early trading, despite posting a decline of 33.4% in its fourth-quarter profit.

The nation’s second biggest home improvement retailer reported that its quarterly profit slipped 33% to $408 million, or 28 cents a share, hurt by the weak U.S. housing market. These numbers were down $613 million or 40 cents per share reported in the same period a year ago. Despite the 33% decline, the company was still able to beat analyst estimates of 25 cents a share in the quarter.

The company showed a drop in its fourth-quarter revenue to $10.38 billion, down from $10.41 billion a year earlier. Analysts forecast revenue of $10.85 billion in the quarter, according to Thomson Financial. The drop in revenue came as the retailer had to face a difficult consumer environment brought by the U.S. housing market slowdown and credit crisis.

Continued consumers’ worries over a possible recession put a curb on their spending on home renovations as manifested by the 7.6% decline in the company’s same-store sales.

Looking ahead, Lowe’s expects a challenging environment for several more quarters. This will put pressure on same-store sale, which are expected to lose at least 5% in the current quarter and for the year. However, according to Robert A. Niblock, the company’s CEO, Lowe’s further strategy will “remain focused on what we have the ability to control.”

Based on current consumer spending and falling home prices, the company’s outlook for further gains isn’t too encouraging. Lowe’s announced it anticipates first-quarter earnings between 38 cents and 42 cents a share, and full-year profit in a range between $1.50 and $1.58 per share. This comes below analysts’ predictions for first-quarter earnings of 44 cents per share and full-year earnings of $1.74.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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