Archive for November 20th, 2008tpheiska writes “NASA press release states that ‘At approx. 3:33 p.m. EST, Piper reported that one of the Braycote lubrication guns had released grease into her toolbag. As she was cleaning the bag and wiping the tools and equipment inside, the bag floated away. Another bag carrying identical equipment is now being shared by Piper and Bowen.’ Luckily they’d a spare.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Sprint Nextel will keep the Nextel iDEN network, despite lossesPosted by: in Products and ServicesFiled under: Products and services, Sprint Nextel Corp (S)
With Sprint already having written off $30 billion of the $35 billion acquisition cost, it makes sense to just keep that network. Even though the Nextel customer base has shrunk considerably, at some point it will most likely stop losing customers and will retain the core group that just love its service. In other words, it probably makes more financial sense for Sprint Nextel to keep that customer base revenue stream coming in than to sell the entire national network (that nobody wants to purchase anyway) for pennies on the dollar. OK, maybe a dime or two on the dollar. Sprint will continue operating on the 800MHz frequency, which it shares with public safety services, until it can vacate that radio spectrum, something the FCC is allowing the company to do over time. Still, the Nextel brand still confuses quite a few people who are shopping Sprint for wireless service. Perhaps Sprint should market it solely as a business wireless network? Sprint Nextel will keep the Nextel iDEN network, despite losses originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Homebuilders’ confidence wanes - Washington Business JournalPosted by: admin in Today NewsHomebuilders’ confidence wanes - Washington Business Journal Highland Park touts new housing project - Highland Park News Albany among bright spots in 3Q housing - Albany Business Journal Consumer prices plunge by largest amount in 61 years - Baltimore Sun A startled Europe asks, ‘Could Obama happen here?’ Answer: No - Globe and Mail Housing slump digs in its heels - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Baltimore-area housing prices steadier than Washington’s - Baltimore Business Journal Homeownership Incentives Won’t Stimulate Economy, But May Lay Seeds - MSN MoneyCentral Bank Of Canada To Cut Interest Rates Again - All Headline News Housing ‘boom’ gone after price drop - Herald Tribune
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2008
Physicist Admits Sending Space-Related Military Secrets To ChinaPosted by: in Life and Sciencepiemcfly writes “Chinese-born physicist Shu Quan-Sheng Monday pleaded guilty before a US court to violating the Arms Export Control Act by illegally exporting American military space know-how to China. The 68-year-old naturalized US citizen, pictured here on his company profile, admitted handing over the design of fueling systems between 2003 and 2007. Also, in 2003 he illegally exported a document with the impossibly long name of ‘Commercial Information, Technical Proposal and Budgetary Officer — Design, Supply, Engineering, Fabrication, Testing & Commissioning of 100m3 Liquid Hydrogen Tank and Various Special Cryogenic Pumps, Valves, Filters and Instruments.’ This contained the design of liquid hydrogen tanks for space launch cars. He also admitted to a third charge of bribing Chinese officials to the tune of some 189,300 dollars for a French space technology firm.” Here’s the FBI press release regarding Shu’s plea. Read more of this story at Slashdot. Filed under: Money and Finance This day, Economic data, Housing, Financial Crisis
The only way we’re going to even get near the bottom of the housing price drop is for the backlog of available homes to be sold. We’ll only see prices begin to climb back up when demand is higher than the available supply. We’re still a long way off from that scenario, but if builders stop building, we’ll get there a lot faster. Based on the new numbers released this day by the Commerce Department, the pace of new construction will put the U.S. on track to build the fewest new homes and apartments since the end of World War II. Commerce reported that construction of new homes and apartments dropped to 791,000 on an annual basis. Prior to today’s report the slowest pace since World War II was in January 1991. This was the fourth straight monthly drop and I doubt it’s the last one. There are still too many homes waiting to be sold. The declines were led by a 31% drop in the Northeast and 13.7% drop in the Midwest. There were modest increases in the South (1.5%) and the West (7.5%). Given that the South and the West were the hardest hit at the beginning of the housing bubble burst, this could be good news that these hard hit areas are nearing their bottom. Continue reading Home construction hits record low - could be good news Home construction hits record low - could be good news originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Filed under: Other issues, Deals, Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Washington Mutual (WM), Entrepreneurs, Housing
All this was supported by a simple minded president, corrupt Congress and an over-confident, short sighted investment community maneuvering in and around a sleeping Securities and Exchange Commission. Having invested in a broad range of real estate assets (as well as stocks), I am feeling the pain like most everyone else. Reduced values, tighter liquidity, and uncertainty rule the market place. What has me steamed currently is that I think there’s more capital in the marketplace than courage! The lack of courage along with a shortage of leadership and wisdom continues to exacerbate a bad situation. I’m probably superior off than many people having been able to shut two loans in the past month. It was not easy. However, after dealing with many financial institutions that are now doing a better job in the review process, I see that they’ve swung too far to the conservative side. Continue reading Banking stupidity, then and now Banking stupidity, then and now originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Filed under: Products and services, Dell (DELL)
Ed Boyd, the newer design lab head who was hired in 2007 to try and transform the boring commodity boxes Dell has cranked out by the millions into something that is really a competitive advantage among a sea of PC designs. I doubt that’s what Dell execs were anticipating, but within just over a week, Dell will release these new designs with abstract paint jobs and funky colors — not just different laptop lid colors — to the market. Customers will pay an extra $75 for the newer designs. That’s in addition to the current $699 starting price for Dell’s entry-level consumer laptop systems. So far, this is just another attempt to spice up the rather boring Personal computer by adding a literal splash of color. Next year, Boyd plans on all kinds of artsy combinations by letting customers design their own Computer art. That will be an effort to watch, as it will be a first from a mainstream Personal computer maker. It’s be hard to see customers flocking to Dell Computers from the competition just to be able and design their own color scheme, but consumers are fickle and unpredictable — so who knows. Dell’s new laptop designs; lipstick on a pig? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Moreno Valley finance director predicts $5 million shortfall - Press-EnterprisePosted by: admin in Today NewsMoreno Valley finance director predicts $5 million shortfall - Press-Enterprise
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When you read the stories this day about 
Eighteen months ago, banks were throwing money around with very tiny discretion. Now we find that they made a lot of bad loans, took extreme risk and jeopardized the global economy and the well being of hundreds of millions of people.
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