Kligat writes “Back in January, it was reported that the youngest planet ever to be discovered, about ten times the mass of Jupiter, was orbiting the eight- to ten-million-year-old star TW Hydrae. Now a Spanish research team has concluded that TW Hydrae b doesn’t exist, and that cold spots on the star’s surface actually produced the dip in brightness instead of a transiting planet. Not as cool as if a planet had actually been there, but refutations are science, too, right?”

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calmond writes with this excellent snippet from CNET News: “QinetiQ Group PLC claimed Sunday that its propeller-driven aircraft called Zephyr flew for 83 hours and 37 minutes non stop, more than doubling the official world record set by Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk in 2001. The Zephyr is much different from the Global Hawk, which is about the size of a fighter and requires runway for taking off and landing. Zephyr, on the other hand, is an ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber aircraft that weighs less than 70lbs and is designed to launch by hand. The little aircraft flies on solar power generated by amorphous silicon arrays covering the aircraft’s paper-thin wings. It is powered day and night by rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries that are recharged during the day using solar power.”

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Reader LM741N, pointing to a report released this month by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, writes “Gallium Arsenide has now been listed as a carcinogen. Given the increasing usage of gallium arsenide, the main constituent in LEDs, and their current championing as more efficient light sources in current news stories and Slashdot, there may be significant environmental concerns as related to their disposal. Morover, workers in industries using the substance may be at risk of cancer as well.”

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photonic writes “After three years of study, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finally released its report on the collapse of World Trade Center building 7. The main conclusion is that the building came down due to fire, not due to debris damage or some conspiracy demolition team. The fire started pretty small after the collapse of WTC 1, but was left to burn several floors out absolutely. The important finding is that the collapse was triggered by thermal expansion of beams, which could detach asymmetrically loaded girders from the main columns. Some limited pancaking of floors then caused a lack of lateral support and buckling of a single column. This triggered the failure of the entire core of the building, which finally fell down as a single piece. Crackpot theories can be discussed elsewhere; please limit the discussion to the science here. All documents can be found at NIST’s WTC page, which read like a porn magazine for finite element junkies. Simulation movies are also available. And yes, they used Beowulf clusters to do the simulations, some of which lasted for several months.”

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MAD MONEY FEATURES - CNBC
Watch the Lightning Round whenever and wherever you want. [ NDSN   Loading       ( )   ] , a stock that fell 17 points in one day after reporting a quarter and issuing guidance that disappointed the Street.  We said the company’s management

Fannie Mae announces management shakeup - Washington Post
Resize WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mortgage-finance company Fannie Mae (FNM.N) on Wednesday announced a management shake-up in an effort to come to grips with mounting credit losses and a shrinking capital base. The company’s chief financial officer

Audit shows China government mismanaged 3.7 bln pounds - MSN UK News
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese central government departments misused or mismanaged more than 46 billion yuan (3.7 billion pounds) last year, including using disaster relief money to build government offices and diverting funds to speculate in stocks

Senior Housing Properties purchases health centers - MSN MoneyCentral
NEWTON, Mass. (AP) - Real estate investment trust Senior Housing Properties Trust stated Monday it bought four health and wellness centers operated by Life Time Fitness Inc. for $100 million. It also entered into a long-term lease arrangement with Life

Property: Buy homes under repo threat, Lib Dems tell government - Guardian Unlimited
The government should intervene to save families under threat of repossession by offering to purchase their homes, the Liberal Democrats stated yesterday. A scheme allowing struggling homeowners to sell their property and rent it back should be part of a

Bob Pisani reports on the trading day from the NYSE - CNBC
Market Rebound & Housing Bo More clues about the health of housing and the impact on the markets, with CNBC’s Diana Olick, Bob Pisani & Michelle Automobile Note that there are no outsiders being brought in. They need to show that they’re serious

Sales at Taylor Wimpey sites slump to half a house a week - Times Online
Taylor Wimpey is selling less than half a home a week on each of its sites despite offering incentives with its new homes, it emerged yesterday. The embattled housebuilder, which is in crunch talks with its bankers, is having to pay home buyers

Starbucks top brass to receive no raise next year - International Herald Tribune
NEW YORK : Top executives at Starbucks Corp including Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz will not be getting raises anytime soon, after the coffee chain’s first-ever quarterly loss as a public company. U.S. workers at the vice president

S&P: Home prices tumble by record amount - Seattle Post Intelligencer
NEW YORK — A widely watched housing index shows home prices dropping by the sharpest rate ever in the second quarter. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index tumbled a record 15.4 percent during the quarter. The monthly

Bank of America redeems $43m in securities - MSN MoneyCentral
BOSTON (AP) - The say states Bank of America has agreed to redeem $43 million in auction rate securities held by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and one of the state’s housing agencies. A spokesman for Secretary of Say William Galvin’s office

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Filed under: Products and services, Ford Motor (F)

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) will refit an existing truck plant in Michigan to manufacture smaller cars. Cost: $75 million. This comes on the heels of one of the worst years ever for large American automakers, which still can’t cope with rapidly changing consumer desires for fuel-efficient transportation instead of gas guzzling SUVs and huge trucks.

As Georges indicated recently, Ford will need massive plant retooling to get its bottom line back in shape as it produces the product mix consumers are looking for. This is a good step for Ford, although it will be costly. The $75 million price is minor considering the cost of doing nothing.

Ford states the production of newer, fuel-efficient automobiles at the Michigan plant will start in a few months, with completion sometime in 2010. It’s also moving 1,000 of the employees from that plant to another one in Wayne, Michigan to increase production of the 4-cylinder Ford Focus sedan. Since Ford spent $300 million just three years ago to build the plant to be flexible, this should speed the conversion, according to the automaker.

It’s just too bad that Ford can’t unveil more small automobile production in November instead of just starting to convert a plant for a few years down the road.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Google (GOOG)

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) unveiled its Ad Manager advertising management platform this week after a beta release in June. This platform allows website operators to manage advertising inventory, tracking and ROI. And the price is right — there is none — which fits into Google’s history of giving away some key products for free.

Google’s Ad Manager public release is significant because it will allow almost anyone to set up and use both direct and network-based advertising to help eliminate costs and pump up revenue — even if the ads aren’t from Google’s massively popular AdSense or AdWords program.

However, Google is making it super easy for website publishers to integrate its AdSense platform directly into its Ad Manager product. This was pretty obvious from day one as Google continues to recruit more ad customers into its universe to grow its own ad revenue. Ad revenue, still, is the biggest single component of Google’s income.

Google needs to establish its ad platform as the de facto standard on the majority of websites where ad inventory is available. If it’s successful, it could have quite a bit of growth in front of it. The problem is that Google doesn’t have the best track record in marketing its products. This one needs to be everywhere a potential advertising partner may see it. Google certainly has the cash pile to spend on selling this platform.

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Filed under: Products and services, Newsletters, Stocks to Buy, Housing, Recession

“Home prices are becoming inexpensive again, so the decline in prices is likely more than half over,” state Dr. Marvin Appel and Gerald Appel of Systems & Forecasts.

Meanwhile, the technical experts believe that long-term investors can now look to get back into the real estate investment market and recommend two ETFs that are based on rental REITs.

“Many analysts do not expect the financial markets to improve significantly until home prices stop falling. The pace of existing home sales remains low, and available inventory relatively high, both indicating that buyers are not yet able to step into the market at current prices.

“However, that could change within a year. Home prices are becoming inexpensive again, so the decline in prices is likely more than half over.

“The median home price is now more inexpensive to the median household than at any time since the start of 2004. My analysis recommends that housing prices will have to fall a bit more, but the housing market isn’t far from being reasonably valued for the first time in five years.

“Meanwhile, rental costs have remained stable, and apparently haven’t had any effect on housing prices independent of household income. Historically, there have been wide swings in the capability of the median household to afford an average home.

“In contrast, the cost of renting a primary residence has tracked the growth in median household income very closely. There have been good times and bad times to purchase a house, but it has not mattered that much when you decide to rent. Apartment REIT prices and home prices have followed the same long-term trend since 1994.

“The price appreciation in a hypothetical REIT portfolio has followed the same long-term trajectory as home prices have during the past fourteen years — although REITs have been far more volatile from month-to-month and have had corrections (1997-1999 and 2002) that housing prices did not experience.

“Apartment REITs are actually positive for 2008. That’s consistent with the notion that housing prices are near their lows.

“The implication of this is that real estate investors should look to get back in for long-term holdings. You can be patient about waiting for good prices, however, since REITs have recently exhibited a high degree of short term volatility. As with any long-term equity investment, downdraft risk is significant — at least 10% to 20%.

“Recommended REIT exchange traded funds to purchase on market dips include the iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors ETF (NYSE: ICF), which yields 4.5% at $73 a share or below; and the iShares FTSE Nareit Residential REIT Index ETF (NYSE: REZ) which yields 4.7% and which can be bought at $388 a share or below.”

Steven Halpern’s TheStockAdvisors.com offers a daily look at the latest market commentary and favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation’s leading financial newsletter advisors.

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A couple of days ago we discussed a CNet article on the tech voting record of Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s running mate. Philip Zimmermann, who was mentioned in that piece, sends the following note to set the record straight. “In his 23 August thought piece in CNet, Declan McCullagh wrote on Joe Biden’s suitability as the Democratic VP nominee, Declan quotes me, creating the impression I criticized Biden for some legislation that Biden introduced in 1991. Declan’s quote from me is out of context because it does not make it clear that I never mentioned Biden in my original quote at all when I wrote about Senate Bill 266. Second, Declan’s quote is drawn from remarks I wrote in 1999. Declan seems to be trying to draft me in his opposition to Biden, and, by extension, makes it seem as if I am against the Democratic ticket. I take issue with this.” Read below for the rest of Phil’s comments.

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bucketoftruth writes “If you browse to the Democratic Convention website and attempt to check out any of their upcoming streams, you bump into the following limitation: ‘We’re sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn’t compatible with your operating system and/or browser. Please try again on a computer with the following Compatible operating systems: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or a Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5). Compatible browsers: World wide web Explorer (version 6 or later), Firefox (version 2), or, if you are on a Mac, Safari (version 3.1) also works.’”

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