KentuckyFC writes “Just when you thought it was safe to switch on the LHC (though it won’t be for a while yet), another nightmare scenario has emerged that some critics worry could cause the particle accelerator to explode. The culprit this time isn’t an Earth-swallowing black hole but a ‘Bose supernova’ in the accelerator’s superfluid helium bath. Physicists have been playing with Bose Einstein Condensate (BECs) for over 10 years now. But in 2001, one group discovered that placing them in a powerful magnetic field could cause the attractive forces between atoms to become repulsive. That caused their BEC to explode in a Bose supernova — which they called a ‘Bosenova,’ a name that fortunately didn’t catch on. This was tiny more than a curiosity when only a microscopic blob of cold matter was involved. But superfluid liquid helium is also BEC. And physicists have suddenly remembered that the LHC is swimming in 700,000 liters of the stuff while being zapped by some of the most powerful magnetic fields on the planet. So is the LHC a Bose supernova waiting to go off? Not according to the CERN theory division, which has published its calculations that show the LHC is safe (abstract). They also point out that no other superfluid helium handling facility has mysteriously blown itself to pieces.”

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Filed under: Lennar Corp’A’ (LEN), Toll Brothers (TOL), Economic data, Housing, Financial Crisis

Everywhere I go in the suburban wonderland where I live there seems to be a new housing development. When I visited my brother- and sister-in-law in a neighboring town, I must have passed seven of them. Apparently, word of the housing slowdown has not reached Burlington County, New Jersey.

This seems like madness. After all, the housing market is in the tank. Applications for mortgages fell 23% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended September 26, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association cited by Reuters. U.S. single-family home prices fell a record 16.3 percent in July from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes.

Consumer confidence is shaky — heck, I am not feeling so confident even though I purchased a automobile. Foreclosures are at record levels — still. Banks are tightening their credit standards, making it difficult for borrowers without sterling credit to get loans or refinance their existing ones. That’s what makes the rise in the home builder stocks even more baffling.

Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: HOV), Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) and Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN) all gained double-digit percentages in the third quarter. The reason? Investors are chomping at the bit to call a bottom in the housing market. But I sat that’s premature. S&P points out that many metropolitan areas are showing double-digit declines in home values. “There are signs of a slowdown in the rate of decline across the metro areas but no evidence of a bottom,” David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee, stated in a statement.

Continue reading Mortgage applications fall as home builders’ stocks rise. Huh?

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Filed under: Products and services, Rants and raves, General Electric (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT)

NYSE: WMT) announced this morning that it will be recalling over 210,000 standard kitchen toasters distributed by General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE).

Of course, GE doesn’t make many consumer products itself (it contracts out), so this is another reminder that brands must have some say in quality control of their outsourcing partners. Oh wait — that costs too much, and I doubt Jeff Immelt wants to explain to shareholders that profits were down due to safety recalls.

Moving right along, this recall was announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) last night. Apparently, the heating element inside the toaster can cause a short circuit, with sparks emanating from the toaster itself. Circuit breaker trips in consumer’s homes were mentioned in the recall notice as well. Wal-Mart heard from 140 consumers about this particular toaster, which carries the GE logo on the front of the box and toaster itself, with model numbers 169115 and 169116.

As usual, the offending products were made in China. They were sold at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. from September 2007 until July 2008. Even though no injuries have been reported, consumers can return these toaster models to Wal-Mart for a full refund or an exchange for another brand of toaster.

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Q&A: Keeping Your Money Safe Right Now - CNBC
Where did the confidence go? Even after the government stepped in and bailed out our largest insurer, the stock market still tanked as skittish investors failed to be soothed by the intervention. The action could give anyone whiplash – not just

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Selects Ogilvy Public - MSN MoneyCentral
The Washington, D.C. office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Ogilvy PR), an integrated global communications firm, announced this day that it has been awarded two six-year contracts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to

President Bush and other inept leaders are forgetting one little - New York Daily News
President Bush addresses the country’s economic crisis on Tuesday. All the elected and appointed officials who hold the life of the country in their hands parade in front of us and not only can’t explain how to get us out of this, they can’t even

GETTING PERSONAL: Entrepreneurs Face Financing Challenges - Wall Street Journal
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Business owners on Main Street are feeling the fallout from Wall Street. Entrepreneurs with sterling credit and established histories aren’t having trouble borrowing money yet, but signs indicate a rocky road ahead for small

Should You Share Your Credit Score With Your Partner? - CNBC
If money and relationships are an uncomfortable mix, then credit and romance are downright strange bedfellows. “You might state you know everything about a person, but you probably don’t know anything about his credit record,” says Adam Levin, founder of

Kennedy Wilson Multifamily & The Guardian Life Insurance Company of - MSN MoneyCentral
Avalon at Blossom Hill Bought for $84 Million SAN JOSE, Calif. , Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — Kennedy Wilson Multifamily Management Group (KW Multifamily) and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) today announced the acquisition of a

Moms Club of Wilsonville launches operation LIFE - Oregonian
The Moms Club of Wilsonville has always gone outside their group to also serve in our community. In years past one of their huge service projects was the “Holiday Basket of Hope” food basket program. However, this year the group in charge of that

Recession-Proof Your Life - NewsNet 5
CLEVELAND — The economy is definitely on a roller coaster lately, but there are five things you can do to stay protected during these tough economic times. Financial expert Darrin Farrow stated there are lots of critical steps to take to stay safe

Advice for NFL Retirees - US News and World Report
An NFL rookie made a minimum of $285,000 a year as of 2007, and while eight-figure deals make headlines, most players wind up with a lot less. In short, a stint in the pros doesn’t mean you’re set for life. Aaron Parthemer, 36, is a certified

Freaking out over economic fears - CNN
(CNN) — Another index to keep an eye on in these economically turbulent times is the “anxiety index” — it goes up when markets go down and people get upset and worried about their future. Overspending and not opening bills can be signs of financial

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pgn674 writes “While the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 failed to pass in the Home of Representatives, two other bills of interest to this community are currently moving through the US lawmaking process. One is the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which Communications Workers of America claims will help us towards bringing high-speed World wide web access to all Americans. It will have the FCC increase their granularity in reporting the World wide web accessibility of an area in the US, and redefine broadband measurements. It has passed through the Home and the Senate, and differences in the passed versions are currently being resolved. The other bill is the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. Pandora is excited for this one as it will give them time to negotiate with SoundExchange (i.e. the RIAA) for new, more affordable royalty rates. The bill is currently in the Senate, and is expected to pass with ease.”

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BuzzSkyline writes “New Scientist is reporting on a lab-scale experiment that might lead to a tsunami invisibility cloak, which could protect islands, open-ocean platforms and even coastlines from dangerous waves by effectively making them invisible to tsunamis. The technology is based on the same sorts of negative index of refraction ideas that some physicists are exploring as they try to make an optical invisibility cloak, except that it works with water instead of light.”

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Filed under: Products and services, Google (GOOG), Motorola (MOT)

Motorola Corp. (NYSE: MOT) is apparently planning on a rather big piece of its wireless business being wrapped around Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system. The wireless company already has 50 employees working on Android development and will be boosting that number to 350 before long. Since Motorola is one of the more massive members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), the open-source software movement meant to support all things Android, this comes as no surprise.

Perhaps Motorola wants some revenue from software development for the mobile space instead of selling profit-challenged hardware? The company has had a rough time of things recently, but after spinning off its handset division soon, Motorola wireless hardware and software might be on the path to re-inventing themselves.

But can Google’s vaunted wireless platform challenge the entrenched iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian space? Together, those three platforms control a large swath of the smartphone market. Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), which now owns all of Symbian, has the lion’s share of smartphone software sales globally. The newer iPhone 3G has launched in dozens of countries and continues to sell very well. Let’s not count out Windows Mobile. Even Google may find it hard to take big pieces of market share away from these players. But at least Motorola is only placing a small bet here on Android’s success. Three hundred fifty employees isn’t too many, is it?

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Filed under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL)

After getting overloaded with economic bailout reading over the weekend, something techie floated to the top of the pile that caught my attention. It seems that Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is rejecting quite a few submissions to its App Store, where aspiring iPhone application developers send their programs so that iPhone customers can purchase them.

The only problem is that Apple isn’t telling rejected (and dejected) application developers why their programs are not being approved. Also, the non-disclosure agreement the company is sending out prevents these developers from speaking about their rejected iPhone app situations. Is this Apple being its usual self: controlling, closed and mum? The company really (really) knows how to design something the consumer wants and markets its sleek goods in a way other companies just can’t figure out. But in addition to that, it retains a tight control on the entire ecosystem in which its products exist.

Perhaps it’s the best form of quality control — but it’s not freedom. And developers want freedom, or, at the least, communication. Apple seems to be extremely tight-lipped, which is odd but not surprising.

On another Apple-control-freak note, Apple is now restricting reviews of iPhone Apps to people who have paid for them. It seems that the Wisdom of Crowds argument, which states that putting people in control leads to wisdom, isn’t working here. Of course, there is also the vocal minority which can’t be pleased by anything and trashes everything that doesn’t fit a preconceived notion. Apple is turning on the quiet switch in this situation as well. So here’s my proposal for a new motto: Apple: Think Different (but don’t communicate it).

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Filed under: Housing, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis

Newt Gingrich has gone on the record with a solution to the crisis that’s the ideal I’ve seen so far. Rather than pass a $700 billion bailout, suspend the record-keeping rules that are causing the liquidity crisis to start with.

In the past few years, accounting rules changed and these changes are in part causing the current crisis. Specifically, the problem is mark-to-market record-keeping where all assets are required to be valued at current market prices. If the market is temporarily depressed, it can cause an artificial crisis.

Let me give a silly but simple illustration. If you have 20 one dollar bills in your wallet, we would all agree you’ve a net worth of $20. Thirsty Bob also has one dollar bill in his wallet and walks into the break room and wants to buy a Coke. Soda in the machine costs 50 cents, but it only takes quarters. Thirsty Bob asks if anyone has change and they all state no. Sam says he has only two quarters and will trade Thirsty Bob — who is really thirsty — two quarters for a dollar. Thirsty Bob swiftly concurs to take Sam up one his offer in order to get the Coke now. Bob knows that two quarters for a dollar is a bad deal, but he is takes the deal anyway.

Continue reading Would suspending mark-to-market rule solve the financial crisis?

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