johkir writes “As early as 1965, when Al Gore was a freshman in college, a panel of distinguished environmental scientists warned President Lyndon B. Johnson that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels might cause ‘marked changes in climate’ that ‘could be deleterious.’ Yet the scientists did not so much as mention the possibility of reducing emissions. Instead they considered one idea: ’spreading very small reflective particles’ over about five million square miles of ocean, so as to bounce about 1 percent more sunlight back to space — ‘a wacky geoengineering solution.’ In the decades since, geoengineering ideas never died, but they did get pushed to the fringe — they were widely perceived by scientists and environmentalists alike as silly and even immoral attempts to avoid addressing the root of the problem of global warming. Three current developments have brought them back into the mainstream.” We’ve discussed some pretty strange ideas in the geoengineering line over the last few years.

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Pittsburgh police: McCain volunteer from Texas lied about ATM attack 2 - Dallas Morning News
PITTSBURGH – A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter “B” scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack, police said Friday. Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from

$1bn a day wiped from superannuation - News.com.au
AUSTRALIA’S superannuation funds have seen almost $1 billion a day wiped off retirement savings in the past four months as stock markets plunge. Super funds are facing their worse performance in more than 20 years, new analysis shows, with total

Regulator warns pension trustees - BBC News
“The main issues faced by pension schemes are likely to be firstly the more general fall in asset values, and secondly the emerging pressures on company covenants and ultimately solvency,” stated the regulator. “While a few individual pension schemes

How to save money on energy this winter - Dallas Morning News
But penny-pinching starts in the home. Here are some tips for saving money during the colder months. 1. Dry your clothes outside on a clothesline and use the dryer only to “fluff” the stiff ones. 2. Lower your thermostat at night and stay warm with

Fed Money Coming To Repair 2007 NH Flood Damage - WLBZ 2
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Washington is sending New Hampshire more than $3 million to help pay for fixes to federal highways damaged in the statewide flooding of April 2007. The state can use the federal Transportation Department money to pay for work

Outlook roundup: Olin, Varian Medical - MSN MoneyCentral
Ingersoll-Rand Co Ltd ( IR ) Stock Quote , Chart , News , Add to Watchlist (AP) - Among the earnings projection stories for Friday, Oct. 24, from AP Financial News: CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Specialty-chemical maker Olin Corp. on Friday issued a fourth

Police: McCain volunteer made up robbery story - San Diego Union-Tribune
PITTSBURGH – A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter “B” scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack, police said Friday. Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from

Why you’ll pay for federal spending cuts - CNN Money
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Slashing government spending is certainly a phrase that plays well on the campaign trail. But real spending cuts won’t mean fewer school administrators or less environmental red tape. Real cuts mean that you’ll have to live

IRS owes $4.9 million to about 7,500 Michigan residents - Detroit Free Press
It’s worth checking out through the database below. The Internal Revenue Service said it has money for more than 7,500 people in Michigan who are owed more than $4.9 million in economic stimulus payments and federal income tax refund checks. This is

AIG Tapped $90.3 Billion From Government Credit Line (Update3) - Bloomberg
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc. has used $90.3 billion of a U.S. government credit line since it was bailed out last month, an amount exceeding the size of the original loan meant to save the insurer. AIG may need more than

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising, Viacom (VIA), Ideal Purchase (BBY), Verizon Communications (VZ)

Billboard reported Tuesday that AC/DC’s new album Black Ice, sold exclusively at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), is “flying off the shelves” at both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club retail outlets. It is estimated that the album sold 193,000 copies in its first day of release (Monday), and is expected to sell almost 800,000 by the end of the charting week. Black Ice is AC/DC’s first album of new material in eight years and has spurred the release of a special “track pack” for Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA)’s Rock Band video game.

Despite the positive sales of the new album, Wal-Mart shares have lost over 5% since Monday, the day the album was released. The apparent non-effect of the album on Wal-Mart shares could be due to its own exclusivity, meaning some shoppers might be entering stores only to buy the album. It could have nothing to do with the appearance of the album as well, which is a more likely scenario considering trading and the market this week.

Still, the success an exclusive album in the market right now indicates the positive and negative aspects of exclusivity with the music industry to market physical albums in a system focused on digital sales. AC/DC isn’t aligned with the major digital stores either, meaning that the move could be akin to the band’s agreement to offer songs, albums, and other content with Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ).

Wal-Mart has taken the lead in selling albums exclusively, although most albums are live recordings or collections. The new album from the Eagles last year was the first time a new album of studio material was released exclusively to big success. Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) will follow the trend soon with the exclusive release of the long-awaited new Guns ‘n’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy. Investors interested in the music industry and retail outlets would be wise to take into account these decisions since they’re indicators of big success, even if that success is short-lived and does not make physical formats more viable in the current digitally-focused market.

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Filed under: Bad news, Consumer experience, Market matters, Money and Finance This day, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis

Some more bad news regarding the real estate market today, as we get the numbers for foreclosures in the third quarter, and see that the foreclosure rate actually jumped by a large 71% during the quarter.

During the period of July through September, the number of households that received at least one foreclosure notice was 766,000. This marks a huge increase of 71% when compared to the same period last year. This data came available this day from the foreclosure listing agency RealtyTrac Inc.

Just how bad has the situation gotten? Well, according to RealtyTrac Inc., before the end of this year, almost one-third of all the houses listed for sale in the country will be foreclosures, which they are now estimating will reach the one million mark. Pretty scary figures.

Even if you’re not one of the unlucky homeowners facing foreclosure, these figures should still cause you great concern, mainly in terms of your own personal property values. The more foreclosures that hit the market, the lower you home values will shrink since these properties are being offered up at steep discounts, and driving the whole market lower and lower.

Despite the lower values of homes hitting the market, we have still not reached a point yet where potential buyers have decided to jump back into the market. As we saw yesterday, mortgage application rates, as of last week, are running at eight year lows, a clear sign that people are just not willing to take the plunge and risk buying a new house in this uncertain market.

As for any light at the end of the tunnel, there doesn’t really seem to be too much optimism of that at this time either. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the housing market is going to continue to remain weak at least through the middle of next year, as consumers continue to try to come to grips with an overall economic recession, falling home prices, and tightened mortgage lending.

At some point, consumers who have the cash available, or are able to secure new mortgage loans will begin to jump back into the market and begin to purchase up some of the heavily discounted properties out there, but until that happens, the future still remains pretty bleak for the troubled real estate market.

Will we start to see things turn around next year? I definitely hope so, but at this point it’s anyone’s guess as to when the market will turn the corner and start to attract new home buyers.

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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An anonymous reader points us to Gizmodo for a fascinating video of NASA’s Sky Crane. “When I read that the UFO-looking Mars Science Laboratory’s aeroshell would use a floating crane — called Sky Crane by NASA — to softly land the rover on Mars, I couldn’t believe it. Now, watching this hyper-realistic NASA simulation, I still can’t believe how the whole thing works. I don’t know about you, but the whole operation mesmerizes me to no end.”

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