Trumping on a Pipe Dream

[BullNBear52]

I know this is off your beaten path so to speak but I think the Europeans are just PO'd Citigroup pulled a fast one on them. What's your take? I might have told them too frigging bad. No harm, no foul.

Bond Trades Far Too Agile Cost Citigroup $25 Million
By HEATHER TIMMONS

Published: June 29, 2005
LONDON, June 28 - A British regulator fined Citigroup more than $25 million on Tuesday for its rapid trades of billions of dollars of Eurobonds last summer, which caused prices to plummet and stirred the anger of other trading houses.

The regulator, the Financial Services Authority, ordered Citigroup to pay a £4 million ($7.3 million) penalty and to return the £9.96 million ($18.1 million) in profit it made on a trading strategy that became known in the bank as Dr. Evil.

On Aug. 2, Citigroup sold 11.3 billion euros (currently $13.63 billion) in bonds, the equivalent of an average day's trading volume on the MTS electronic trading platform, in 18 seconds - swamping the market and causing prices to buckle. It also sold 1.5 billion euros on domestic cash markets. Less than an hour later, it bought back 3.8 billion euros ($4.6 billion) of bonds at a far cheaper price, gaining a swift profit.

Earlier in the day, Citigroup had bought Eurobond futures contracts, but it was unclear how large those purchases were.

Though the trades were not illegal, they angered the other bond houses, which said the bank violated an unspoken agreement not to flood the market to drive down prices.

Thomas G. Maheras, Citigroup's chief executive for global capital markets, acknowledged in a memo to employees six weeks later that the bank "failed to fully consider its impact on our clients, other market participants and our regulators."

On Tuesday, the Financial Services Authority cited Citigroup for breaches of principles that require a company to "conduct its business with skill, care and diligence" and to "take reasonable care to organize and control its affairs responsibly and effectively."

It stopped short of charging Citigroup with market manipulation. The six traders who executed the deals were not individually fined, and will be reinstated in their jobs. No one has been fired over the trades.

Executives from the bank said they were pleased with the result.

Charles O. Prince, the chief executive, said in a statement, "Citigroup and its employees have made a number of changes in how we do things as a result of this case, and we continue to focus on our shared responsibilities to our clients, to each other and to the Citigroup franchise."

The bank has increased its controls and employee training, and strengthened the compliance staff on its trading floor.

A month before the trades, Citigroup encouraged its European bond traders to increase profits through the development of new strategies, the Financial Services Authority said. The Dr. Evil strategy essentially amounted to "sell and buy back" dealings on a very large scale, based on discrepancies in prices.

MTS, the Rome-based electronic debt trading platform where the trades were executed, requires all parties to respond when one trader makes an offer at the current market price in order to increase liquidity. Given those rules, Citigroup's trades left rivals irate.

European governments, whose bond prices fell sharply, have since been withholding business from Citigroup. The bank now ranks No. 26 in managing debt for European governments, down from 12th last year, according to Bloomberg data.

The Citigroup fine was the second largest the Financial Services Authority has levied, after the £17 million (now $30.9 million) it ordered the Royal Dutch/Shell Group to pay for overstating its oil and gas reserves.

Citigroup still faces inquiries in Italy, Belgium and Portugal, but has been cleared of wrongdoing in Germany. Spanish regulators halted their investigation.

Over the last two years, the bank has paid nearly $5 billion in fines to settle suits and investigations related to its business with WorldCom and Enron, and conduct by other units, including its Japanese private bank.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/business/worldbusiness/29place.html

[BullNBear52]

Nice deal! The net effect is the deal is being financed by us! Or at least the interest on the loan, since they continue buying our debt.


The parent company, China National Offshore Oil Corp., will give CNOOC a 30-year loan of $4.5 billion at a rate of 3.5 percent, Chief Financial Officer Yang Hua said. The parent also provided a $2.5 billion, no-interest bridge loan, Yang said. The yield on a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond is 4.2 percent.

[BullNBear52]

CNOOC Gets Below-Market Rates on Loans for Unocal Bid (Update3)
June 28 (Bloomberg) -- CNOOC Ltd., China's third-biggest oil company, will borrow $7 billion from its state-owned parent at below-market interest rates to finance an $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp. that topped an offer by Chevron Corp.

The parent company, China National Offshore Oil Corp., will give CNOOC a 30-year loan of $4.5 billion at a rate of 3.5 percent, Chief Financial Officer Yang Hua said. The parent also provided a $2.5 billion, no-interest bridge loan, Yang said. The yield on a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond is 4.2 percent.

CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu, 54, would more than double his company's production by completing China's biggest overseas acquisition, helping meet fuel demand in the world's fastest- growing major economy. U.S. lawmakers want a probe to examine Chinese government financing of any purchase and national security implications, according to a letter sent yesterday to U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow.

``It's like the government giving it a subsidy,'' said Michael Cuggino, the president of Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC in San Francisco, who helps manage $360 million in investments. ``Because it's oil, it's politically charged.''

Fu yesterday sent a letter to the U.S. congress saying he welcomes a government review of his company's bid for El Segundo, California-based Unocal, the eighth-biggest U.S. oil company. He denied China's government is subsidizing the purchase.

``I don't agree that the bid is a government-backed pursuit,'' Yang said in a telephone interview today. ``We got great support from the parent company financially and the deal is also in line with its interests.''

Support

Shares of CNOOC rose as much as 6.4 percent in Hong Kong today. The stock, up 8.4 percent this year compared with a 0.16 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, traded up 4.6 percent at HK$4.50 at 2:41 p.m. in Hong Kong.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, on April 4 made a stock-and-cash offer for Unocal, worth $16.3 billion based on San Ramon, California-based Chevron's June 24 closing price.

To trump that bid CNOOC will also borrow $3 billion from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., advisers on its offer, and $6 billion from Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the nation's biggest state-owned lender, according to a company filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. CNOOC's Yang said they are ``commercial loans,'' declining to give interest rates.

Encouraging Exploration

China, which relies on coal and oil for 90 percent of its fuel, wants gas to account for 8 percent of the country's energy supply by 2010 from about 3 percent now, to meet demand while curbing pollution. CNOOC's Fu said on April 23 that he expects the nation's liquefied natural gas demand will nearly quadruple to 250 billion cubic meters by 2020.

The world's seventh-largest economy became a net importer of oil for the first time in 1993. Last year, China bought about 2.5 million barrels a day or 39 percent of its consumption, from overseas. Demand has doubled in the past decade as the economy averaged 8.7 percent growth.

``China has been encouraging its companies to go overseas for long-term oil reserves,'' said Jacky Choi, who helps manage $2.5 billion at Value Partners Ltd. in Hong Kong. ``This is a state policy. Chevron has a competent rival of equal strength.''

Lower Rate

CNOOC may pay less for its loan than rival China Petrochemical Corp. does when borrowing from the government.

State-owned China Petrochemical, the owner of Asia's biggest oil refiner, is seeking to pay an all-in fee, including interest margin and fees, of about 0.35 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate for a $1 billion five-year loan to fund oil and gas exploration, bankers involved in the transaction said on June 15. Sinopec, as the group is known, is rated BBB by Standard & Poor's.

Three-month Libor, an average of rates set daily by 16 banks and used as a borrowing benchmark, is currently 3.48 percent.

Foster's Group Ltd., Australia's biggest beer and winemaker, is paying 0.575 percentage points for five years, the longest maturity of three loans it is seeking in a 525 million-pound ($960 million) financing this month. Foster's, rated BBB-, is funding the acquisition of Southcorp Ltd.

The letter from 41 congressmen, written by Democratic Representative William Jefferson and Republican Bobby Jindal both of Louisiana, said the probe should include the role of government financing and whether ``investments by CNOOC are market-based and free of subsidies.''

Foreign Reserves

China was the world's second-largest holder of foreign reserves with $691 billion of assets at the end of May, second only to Japan. The government has tapped those reserves to bail out the banking industry, which is burdened with $205 billion of bad debt after five decades of state-directed lending.

Industrial Bank said 19.1 percent of its total loans were non-performing at the end of December, more that five times the level at state-owned rivals Bank of China and China Construction Bank. It received a $15 billion government bailout on April 22.

CNOOC's cash and bank deposits totaled 14.1 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) at the end of last year, according to its 2004 annual report. In December, the company raised $1 billion selling five-year, zero-coupon bonds convertible into the company's shares, in China's biggest such sale to overseas investors.

Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services last week said they may cut their BBB+ long-term credit rating on CNOOC because the bid may weaken its finances.

Credit Suisse First Boston estimated in a June 24 report that CNOOC's net debt to equity would rise to 210 percent from a net cash position of $1 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aJQX3P4HaPFQ&refer=asia

[BullNBear52]

Unocal's Chinese Suitor Wants U.S. Review
By JAD MOUAWAD
June 28, 2005

The chief executive of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which last week made an unsolicited $18.5 billion offer for Unocal, tried yesterday to defuse opposition to the bid, saying that he welcomed a national security review from the United States government.

In an effort to gain political acceptance for the largest acquisition of an American corporation by a Chinese-government-owned company, the chief executive, Fu Chengyu, endorsed the review, which has been requested by 41 members of Congress.

"We know this bid is historic for both companies and will be closely scrutinized by everyone involved," Mr. Fu told American lawmakers in a letter. "I want you to know we encourage that review and welcome the opportunity to participate."

The bid came two months after Unocal agreed to be sold to Chevron for $16.4 billion. It threatens to create tensions between the governments at a time of concerns over energy security, and could also ignite a bidding war over Unocal, an independent oil company, which is based in El Segundo, Calif.

Mr. Fu's comments came as the Bush administration said it was following the issue closely and expected an appropriate national and economic security review if the company, known as Cnooc, won the bid for Unocal, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said.

"There are procedures in place, and if a bid goes through then we would expect the appropriate procedures to be followed," Mr. McClellan said.

Foreign acquisitions are typically reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, which looks at whether transactions pose a risk to national or economic security.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28unocal.html

[BullNBear52]

China's Costly Quest for Energy Control
By JOSEPH KAHN
BEIJING, June 24 - From the dusty plains of East Africa to the shores of the Caspian Sea, China is seeking to loosen the grip of the United States on world energy resources and secure the fuel it needs to keep its economy in overdrive.

Its energy deal-making has cost tens of billions of dollars and has dominated China's foreign policymaking for the past two years. At times it has put China in direct competition with American policy goals, especially in Iran and Sudan, whose leaderships are among the least favored by the United States government.

Now Washington has the chance to shape China's frenetic quest. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation, known as CNOOC, has offered $18.5 billion for the American oil company Unocal. If its bid is successful, Beijing will have a greater stake in the global oil markets, in the same way that Japanese and European oil companies work closely with major American companies around the world.

If the bid were rejected by the United States on national security grounds, as some members of Congress have publicly advocated, China could be motivated to build more ties to rogue states and step up its courtship of major oil producers in Africa and Latin America that in the past have looked mainly to the United States market.

"Like other big countries, China naturally wants to share proven oil reserves," said He Jun, an energy consultant in Beijing who advises Chinese oil companies. "But if the West treats China as a threat, it will inevitably have to find its own path to meet its energy needs."

The energy issue touches all of the hot buttons in China's realm, from its need to modernize its economy to its tensions with Japan, Taiwan and the West.

Already, Beijing is leaving few holes untapped. Since becoming China's top leader in late 2002, President Hu Jintao has traveled to Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa on missions focused largely on securing energy supplies that will not pass through American or European companies before reaching China.

Later this month, he will make his third trip to Russia as president to continue a lobbying campaign for a pipeline to ferry Siberian crude to Daqing, China's northeastern oil hub. China hopes the pipeline will reduce its reliance on American-dominated markets for Middle East oil.

As was the case with Japan in the 1930's, China's relations with the outside world are being transformed by energy needs, generating fears that it will compete with the United States for resources. Chinese analysts say the United States should approve the Unocal deal and work with China to make energy a common cause, before it becomes a source of tension.

"Relations between China and the United States are mostly stable, but the energy problem is the most serious threat," said Chen Fengying, a senior strategist at the government-backed China Contemporary International Relations Institute in Beijing.

"We talk about terrorism and Taiwan," Ms. Chen said, "but there is nowhere near enough attention to energy."

Just a decade ago China exported more oil than it imported, but last year it passed Japan to become the world's second-largest importer, after the United States. Its booming but grossly inefficient economy consumes three times as much energy per dollar of output than the world average, and oil use has surged along with the country's auto industry, sprawling cities and new network of superhighways built on the American model.

Unlike Japan and European nations, which are also big oil importers, China does not have a strategic alliance with the United States. Beijing has grown increasingly wary of depending heavily on imports when its companies do not control major reserves abroad and its navy does not patrol the sea lanes through which those supplies must pass to reach Chinese ports.

Some foreign economists have criticized China for paying a hefty premium to control energy reserves abroad when it could pay market prices and have oil delivered to its door. But China's leaders are wary of entrusting their economic growth, and perhaps the longevity of the Communist Party, to American oil companies and the Pentagon.

"A popular saying abroad is that oil is just a commodity that anyone who has money can buy," Mr. He said. "But this saying is most popular in the countries that already control the supplies."

Shortages of imported oil could threaten China in the event of a conflict with Taiwan. The United States, which has said it would defend Taiwan if the Chinese were to attack it, could potentially block shipping in the East China Sea, crippling Chinese trade.

Partly for that reason, China has scrambled to diversify its oil and gas imports and transport routes, pursuing oil deals with Russia and Central Asian nations and signing a preliminary, $70 billion commitment to buy Iranian oil and natural gas. All of these supplies could be delivered overland if expensive pipelines that Beijing favors are built.

More generally, China has sent CNOOC and its two bigger state-controlled oil companies, Sinopec and PetroChina, on a worldwide shopping spree to secure rights to proven reserves.

This effort has already created diplomatic complications for Washington. For example, China opposed moves to punish its oil partner Sudan for atrocities in Darfur and blocked efforts to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear weapons program before the United Nations Security Council.

Determined to improve ties with Russia, China recently settled a long-festering border dispute on terms widely seen as favorable to Moscow. Russia, in turn, has promised to greatly increase oil shipments to China by rail and has revived discussion of a pipeline to Daqing after earlier arguing that the project made little economic sense.

Oil is one factor that has plagued relations between China and Japan, which have jostled for control of natural gas deposits in disputed waters of the East China Sea. Talks about the issue have stalled, and a Chinese submarine incursion in that area contributed to a downward spiral in diplomatic ties this spring.

In public, Chinese officials portray their country as a relatively minor player in global energy markets that seeks cooperative ventures with any country or major company on commercial terms.

But privately, Chinese officials and analysts say oil is treated as a strategic crisis. They have sounded the alarm about Western and particularly American domination of oil supplies and influence over the major oil-exporting nations, including Saudi Arabia and now Iraq, which has made China dependent on what many here refer to as American economic and military hegemony.

Beijing this year began construction of a American-style strategic oil reserve on the coast of Zhejiang province. The first phase includes 52 tanks that can each hold 25 million gallons of gasoline. Ultimately, officials aim to create a reserve large enough to allow China's economy and military to function for at least three months without imported oil.

It has also imposed tough new fuel-economy standards on cars, put some industries on notice that they will have to become less wasteful users of energy, and backed an aggressive search for new coal, oil and gas supplies on Chinese territory to slow the growth in imports.

Ma Kai, China's top economic and energy planner, told officials in a closed conference recently that the United States was better positioned to withstand the current rise in oil prices because its major oil companies make enormous profits to offset the losses to the American economy. Importing countries with a smaller stake in global energy trading, like China, have nothing to soften the blow of the huge losses they suffer when prices rise, Mr. Ma said, according to a Chinese energy expert who attended the session and asked to remain anonymous.

This expert said Chinese leaders were well aware that they are paying inflated prices for foreign assets. Proposed pipelines connecting China to Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia and a Chinese-backed pipeline project in Brazil will cost the country dearly, pushing the price of oil from those sources to double or triple spot-market prices.

CNOOC's bid for Unocal, which would be financed primarily by loans from state-run banks and the company's state-owned parent, offers a substantial premium for the company's assets. But the extra cost is worth it for the sake of political security, many Chinese argue.

In that sense, the CNOOC offer might be seen in a different light than some other high-profile overseas acquisitions by leading Chinese companies. TCL's purchase of Thompson's television unit, Lenovo's takeover of I.B.M.'s laptop computer line and Haier's proposed purchase of Maytag are all driven primarily by commercial concerns.

Whether Chinese companies paid a good price for those assets has been debated, but the motivations for purchasing consumer product lines stem mainly from a desire for global brand names and marketing skills, rather than politics, local analysts said. That may be less true of CNOOC's bid.

"The CNOOC arrangement has both commercial and political factors involved," said Mr. He, the energy consultant. "Some of the commercial terms, frankly speaking, are questionable. But the political factors are very clear and straightforward."

Wenran Jiang, an expert in Chinese foreign policy at the University of Alberta, said many in the West viewed the Unocal offer as part of China's coordinated assault on foreign markets, a sign of economic vigor. In China, he said, the energy quest is seen as a belated, disorganized, even desperate rush to meet basic security needs.

"They feel threatened, with their back in a corner, forced to pay high prices to Western companies," Mr. Jiang said. "For them, this is a matter of the survival of the regime."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/worldbusiness/27energy.html

[Phil(Hot Rod Chevy)]

That is ridiculous.

The federal govt. should be restricted to buying from companies that manufacture the products here.

IMO

I agree that some of the govt. regulations and specifications were way too restrictive at one time like when they paid exorbitant prices for hammers and toilet seats just because they were the only ones that met the specs, but again, this is ridiculous.

Phil

[BOREALIS]

Blind U.S. Clockmakers Face China Threat


Factory Employs the Blind to Make Institutional Clocks,
But the Chinese Can Do It for Less

ABCNEWS
CHICAGO, June 26, 2005 —

The wall clocks made at the Chicago Lighthouse are a familiar sight to most people in schools and government offices.

But not to the people who make them: Nearly everyone who works at the factory is blind.

That's no problem for Rita McCabe, who can turn out a clock every 50 seconds. She has worked here for 25 years, doing everything by feel.

"The dial face has a tab that I can tell where the 12:00 is at," she said.

Lately, though, she feels very vulnerable. The factory once employed 100 visually-impaired workers. Now there are only 30 because of competition from cheaper products made overseas.

"I thank God everyday for my job," McCabe said. "I don't know what I'd be doing [without it]. I'd probably be sitting at home. And I don't want to do that."


Cheaper Chinese Clocks

The price difference between domestic and foreign clocks can be significant. One clock made at the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind retails for about $23, but a similar model made in China can sell for half as much.

That is why sales to the federal government, the Chicago Lighthouse's biggest customer, have dropped 30 percent in recent years.

"It is a more severe threat," said Jim Kesteloot, executive director for the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind, "because it's going to cost a person who is blind their job."

Nearly 70 percent of blind people in the United States are already unemployed, according to the American Council of the Blind.

"Lots of people don't want to hire the handicapped," said Leon Taylor, a legally blind employee at the Chicago Lighthouse. "And there's no jobs out there."

"No matter how skillful you are, it's difficult to find employment if you don't drive and can't get to a job," said Oswaldo Barbosa, a supervisor who is visually impaired.

To compete, managers at this nonprofit organization have stepped up marketing efforts — attending trade shows and aggressively pursuing partnerships with companies like Office Max.

Managers claim that the Chicago Lighthouse clocks last longer than cheaper products made overseas. They also have expanded their ability to customize clock faces with company and military logos.

It may be an effort to buy more time for a product with a value that far exceeds its price.

ABC News' Barbara Pinto originally reported this story for "World News Tonight" on June 18, 2005.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Technology/story?id=874431

[BullNBear52]

Chinese Unocal bid faces hurdles By Wendy Lim
Fri Jun 24, 4:40 AM ET

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd.'s bonds suffered but its stock gained on Friday, after opponents of the firm's $18.5 billion bid to buy Unocal Corp. sought to erect political barriers that might turn Unocal shareholders against a deal.

Investors lifted CNOOC's shares 0.59 percent to HK$4.25, outperforming the 0.28 percent rise in the Hong Kong market. But the debt that CNOOC must incur to pay for the deal led global ratings agencies to put its credit ratings on review for possible downgrade.

A possible bidding war would make Unocal even more expensive.

Spreads on CNOOC's 2013 dollar bonds were quoted at 115/105 basis points (bps) over comparable U.S. Treasuries, about 10 bps wider than in Asia on Thursday.

Rating agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings placed CNOOC on review, saying a successful bid could strain the state-run company's financial resources.

CNOOC, now in a net cash position, said it would need long-term financing of $16 billion, including $3 billion in bonds and $2.5 billion in equity, to help pay for Unocal.

In Washington, some lawmakers and lobbyists expressed concern that China could gain control of energy resources considered to be American at a time of both record oil prices and rising tension over China's growing trade surplus with the United States. That increased pressure on the U.S. government to investigate and possibly block the CNOOC proposal.

Still, CNOOC is moving quickly to secure its bid, which trumps an earlier $16.5 billion offer from U.S. giant Chevron Corp. and would be by far the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company.

On Friday, hours after Unocal said it had received a waiver from Chevron that will allow it to negotiate with CNOOC, the Chinese firm said it was ready to start talks immediately.

In the meantime, Unocal has said its recommendation to shareholders supporting Chevron's offer remains in effect.

CNOOC reiterated its openness to U.S. regulatory review.

"We have proactively made assurances to Unocal to address concerns relating to energy security and ownership of Unocal assets located in the United States," CNOOC's Chairman and Chief Executive Fu Chengyu said in a statement on Friday.

Some on Wall Street warned that a significant delay would thwart CNOOC's bid as Unocal shareholders may decide that the greater certainty of Chevron's lower offer is a better bet.

Chevron has sped up the timetable for closing its deal to as early as August, while one analyst said CNOOC's deal could take more than a year to win approval.

"Ultimately, Unocal has the motivation to prefer a Chevron bid, both in terms of timing and political pressures," said Duane Grubert, an analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners. "The Unocal bias right now should be to close the deal with certainty."

OPPOSITION TRIGGERED

Some in Washington are lining up against CNOOC's bid.

"This should be analyzed fully by CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States) and we believe the correct decision by CFIUS would be to reject the deal," said Richard D'Amato, chairman of the U.S.-China Commission, a body that advises Congress on trade and security.

"From the point of view of technology, they (Unocal) have a kind of technology they use for deep drilling that we would not at all want to be transferred to the Chinese," D'Amato said.

But China, which is interested in deepwater operations, could obtain the necessary technology from elsewhere. China has held talks with Brazil's Petrobras over deepwater cooperation.

Also on Thursday, Treasury Secretary John Snow told the Senate Finance Committee he expected the Chinese company to voluntarily ask for a U.S. government review of whether the deal threatens national security.

House of Representatives Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo is also asking the administration to get the Committee on Foreign Investments to investigate the matter.

"The U.S. should be shoring up our reserves, not divesting them to global competitors seeking to fuel their own tremendous economic growth," Pombo, a California Republican, said in a statement.

But some prominent executives have warned against political meddling in a commercial deal. Exxon Chief Executive Lee Raymond said it would be a "big mistake" for Congress to interfere with a bid by CNOOC and could backfire on U.S. companies seeking to do business abroad.

Deutsche Bank analyst David Hurd, who rates CNOOC a "buy," said regulatory and political hurdles are not insurmountable.

"If they want it, they can win it," Hurd said in Hong Kong. "I don't think the U.S. can block the deal."

But the time and effort needed to complete CNOOC's bid may prove daunting -- even if the Chinese firm can ultimately prevail, some watchers said.

"People are going to worry about the Chinese state-controlled oil company getting control of energy assets, with oil at an all-time high. People are nervous," said Phil Davidson, fund manager at American Century Investments, which owned about 2.3 million shares in Unocal as of March 31.

"I would like to see Chevron win it -- obviously if Chevron matched (CNOOC) then it would be easier."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=2&u=/nm/20050624/bs_nm/energy_unocal_cno...

[BullNBear52]

I don't see this deal flying. Congress just might step in and say no.

[SkeBallLarry]

Pushing $60 bbl right now .... !!!!

[BullNBear52]

Chinese Oil Giant in Takeover Bid for U.S. Corporation
By DAVID BARBOZA
and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
SHANGHAI, Thursday, June 23 - One of China's largest state-controlled oil companies made a $18.5 billion unsolicited bid Thursday for Unocal, signaling the first big takeover battle by a Chinese company for an American corporation.

The bold bid, by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation ( CNOOC), may be a watershed in Chinese corporate behavior, and it demonstrates the increasing influence on Asia of Wall Street's bare-knuckled takeover tactics.

The offer is also the latest symbol of China's growing economic power and of the soaring ambitions of its corporate giants, particularly when it comes to the energy resources it needs desperately to continue feeding its rapid growth.

CNOOC's bid, which comes two months after Unocal agreed to be sold to Chevron, the American energy giant, for $16.4 billion, is expected to incite a potentially costly bidding war over the California-based Unocal, a large independent oil company. CNOOC said its offer represents a premium of about $1.5 billion over the value of Unocal's deal with Chevron after a $500 million breakup fee.

Moreover, the effort is likely to provoke a fierce debate in Washington about the nation's trade policies with China and the role of the two governments in the growing trend of deal making between companies in the countries.

This week, a consortium of investors led by the Haier Group, one of China's biggest companies, moved to acquire the Maytag Corporation, the American appliance maker, for about $1.3 billion, surpassing a bid from a group of American investors.

Last month, Lenovo, China's largest computer maker, completed its $1.75 billion deal for I.B.M.'s personal computer business, creating the world's third-largest computer maker after Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

After years of attracting billions in foreign investment and virtually turning itself into the world's largest factory floor, China appears to be nurturing the growth of its own corporate giants into beacons of capitalism. China wants to be a player on the world stage, and it is eager to have its own energy resources, its own multinational corporations and its own dazzling corporate names.

And some of China's biggest companies are now on the hunt, trying to snap up global treasures.

"If there's an asset up for sale anywhere in the world, people are looking to China, particularly if there's a manufacturing element involved," said Colin Banfield, who runs the mergers and acquisitions practice at Credit Suisse First Boston in Asia. "And if these two deals go through this year, no one is going to doubt the credibility of the Chinese corporates when it comes to M & A."

The deal making and bidding wars are all the more remarkable because they involve Chinese companies taking on American multinationals in a series of transactions certain to be a boon for Western lawyers and investment bankers, many of whom have been betting hundreds of millions of dollars on China's rise.

Indeed, CNOOC is being advised by an army of bankers from Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan Chase and N M Rothschild & Sons of Britain.

In a response, Unocal said in a statement that its board would evaluate the offer, but that its recommendation of the deal with Chevron "remains in effect."

CNOOC's bid faces an uphill battle, with hurdles that probably rise above those usually confronting a corporate bidder. Already, lawmakers in Washington are questioning whether the Bush administration should intervene to block the bid for Unocal, which was founded in 1890 as the Union Oil Company of California.

Two Republican representatives from California, Richard W. Pombo and Duncan Hunter, wrote a letter last week to President Bush, after speculation concerning the deal arose, urging that the transaction be scrutinized on the grounds of national security.

They wrote: "As the world energy landscape shifts, we believe that it is critical to understand the implications for American interests and most especially, the threat posed by China's governmental pursuit of world energy resources. The United States increasingly needs to view meeting its energy requirements within the context of our foreign policy, national security and economic security agenda."

Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said at a meeting of the National Petroleum Council late Wednesday that the government's review of the deal would be "truly a complex matter," according to Reuters.

In Beijing, Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Tuesday that "this is a corporate issue," according to Bloomberg News. "I can't comment on this individual case," Mr. Liu said, "but I can say we encourage the U.S. to allow normal trade relations to take place without political interference."

TCL, a Chinese company that began by making cassette tapes in 1981, is suddenly the world's biggest television set maker, after its acquisition last July of the television business of Thomson of France, which owned the old RCA brand.

Chinese companies still have a long way to go to become global giants that can compete head-to-head with Toyota, Siemens or General Electric. Most of the China deals are small in value - about $1 billion to $2 billion - when compared with big American or European deals.

Whether CNOOC's bid will succeed on it merits is unclear. It is interested in Unocal, once known for its 76 brand, less for its exploration and production in North America than for its huge reserves in Asia. Twenty-seven percent of Unocal's proven oil reserves and 73 percent of its proven natural gas reserves are in Asia, according to Merrill Lynch.

To succeed, CNOOC will have to persuade Unocal's shareholders to vote against their deal with Chevron. The new deal would then face a shareholder vote.

Even though CNOOC's offer is worth $1.5 billion more than Chevron's, some shareholders could still decide that the regulatory review process and the time required to complete a deal with CNOOC would pose too great a risk, given the size of the offer.

Chevron, which could raise its bid to counter CNOOC, is racing to complete its deal and submit it to a shareholder vote as early as August.

CNOOC's all-cash offer values Unocal at $67 a share. Chevron's cash and stock offer values Unocal at $61.26 a share, based on Chevron's closing price on Wednesday of $58.27 a share. Shares of Unocal jumped 2.2 percent, to $64.85, as investors anticipated CNOOC's higher bid.

In CNOOC's letter to Unocal, it went to great lengths to say that its bid was friendly, despite being unsolicited. "This friendly, all-cash proposal is a superior offer for Unocal shareholders," wrote CNOOC's chairman and chief executive, Fu Chengyu.

Trying to assuage concerns of some in Washington, CNOOC pledged to continue Unocal's practice of selling all of the oil and gas produced in the United States back to customers in the United States. The company also said it would retain substantially all of Unocal's employees in the United States.

David Barboza contributed reporting from Shanghai for this article and Andrew Ross Sorkin from New York.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/business/worldbusiness/23unocal.html

[az2820]

Maybe where your at but
around here no I don't think so.

[The Original dpb5!]

What we are truthfully witnessing here is something FAR WORSE than the INTERNET BUBBLE.

The REAL ESTATE BUBBLE is far worse and further reaching than the Internet Bubble ever hoped to be.

Once THIS bubble breaks, there is no turning back. MILLIONS will be homeless, and in debt up to their eyebrows!


Houses will become available for 50 cents on the dollar, or LESS!

This post alone could start the trend of PANIC SELLING!

Stranger things have happened.

[BullNBear52]

The Trillion-Dollar Bet
By DAVID LEONHARDT and MOTOKO RICH
June 16, 2005

American homeowners have made a trillion-dollar bet that mortgage rates will remain near record lows for at least a few more years. But with some interest rates already rising, economists worry that the bet could turn bad.

The problem is that new types of mortgages that hold down monthly payments for families - helping many buy homes that they would not otherwise be able to afford - also require potentially far higher payments in future years.

The bill will soon start to come due in a serious way, as the initial period of fixed payments, typically set at artificially low rates, expires for millions of homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages.

This year, only about $80 billion, or 1 percent, of mortgage debt will switch to an adjustable rate based largely on prevailing interest rates, according to an analysis by Deutsche Bank in New York. Next year, some $300 billion of mortgage debt will be similarly adjusted.

But in 2007, the portion will soar, with $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of it - switching to adjustable payments, according to the analysis.

The 2007 adjustments will almost certainly be the largest such turnover that has ever occurred.

The impact is not likely to derail the economy on its own, economists predict, but it will probably slow growth. For individual families, the problems could be significant.

"I'm not sure that people are being counseled on really how big of a risk they are taking," said Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, the mortgage company.

Consider a typical $300,000 interest-only mortgage with fixed payments for the first five years.

The homeowner would start by paying about $1,250 a month. If interest rates rise modestly over the next few years, as many forecasters expect, the payment will jump to almost $2,100 in 2010, according to Stephen Barrett, the owner of Redmond Financial, a mortgage business near Seattle.

With the help of new computer models, lenders have brought out newer and riskier mortgages to attract borrowers and increase their buying power during the long housing boom. The traditional 30-year mortgage with guaranteed payments is increasingly a loan of the past.

The hot loan of 2004 - the interest-only mortgage - allowed home buyers to pay no principal for the first few years of the loan, substantially lowering their initial payments.

It has remained popular this year, accounting for at least 40 percent of purchase loans over $360,000 in areas with fast-rising home prices, like San Diego, Washington, Seattle, Reno, Atlanta and much of Northern California, according to LoanPerformance, a mortgage data firm.

This year's fashionable model, known as an "option ARM," allows borrowers to make payments with monthly rates starting as low as 1.25 percent for the first five years of the loan; the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan is about 5.6 percent.

During the first quarter of 2005, 40 percent of mortgages over $360,000 issued to people with good credit were option ARM's, said David Liu, a mortgage strategy analyst with UBS in New York. Very few borrowers used option ARM's before 2003.

Many borrowers stand to benefit from these creative loans. On option ARM's, buyers with variable incomes, like the self-employed, can also make smaller or larger payments depending on their take-home pay in a particular month, without incurring penalties. With the average homeowner moving every six years, any loan with lower initial payments can substantially reduce housing costs.

"As a rule, I would prefer the 30-year fixed mortgage," said Alejandro Brown, 31, a technical trainer for Nissan, the automaker, who refinanced the mortgage on his 1,700-square-foot house in Auburn, Wash., with an adjustable-rate loan last year, reducing his monthly payments. But, he said, "I knew I wasn't going to be in my house more than three years; I was very confident."

All of these loans come with the risk of a spike in payments sometime in the future. In particular, borrowers who have taken out an interest-only loan will see a jump in payments simply because they will start to owe principal after the interest-only period lapses. If rates rise, the payments will go even higher.

Borrowers whose incomes have not risen enough or who have not planned for the higher payments could find themselves shocked.

"The apparent froth in housing markets may have spilled over into mortgage markets," Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, said while testifying to Congress last week. "The dramatic increase in the prevalence of interest-only loans, as well as the introduction of other relatively exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages, are developments of particular concern."

The lure of such loans is obvious. Because of the lower initial payments, buyers can purchase bigger and more expensive houses.

With her daughter leaving for college this summer, Linda Thompson decided to sell her four-bedroom house in the Seattle suburbs and move to a town house in the city's Lake Union neighborhood. But prices were so high that she had to go beyond her "level of comfort," she said, and spend $619,000.

She signed an interest-only mortgage that cut her monthly payments by about $500 compared with a conventional mortgage. Seven years from now, the bill will rise as she starts paying principal, and the size of the increase will be determined by interest rates at the time. But she may have moved by then, she said. And because the house is in an up-and-coming neighborhood, she expects the value to rise.

"The risk factor - of course it's always there," Ms. Thompson, 49, who runs a small marketing company, said as she was preparing to watch her daughter graduate from high school yesterday. "But to me, real estate is a better investment than the stock market."

"Just sitting there," she said of her new house, "it's appreciating right now."

Still, even some mortgage brokers are concerned by how much their clients are stretching their spending power using creative mortgages.

One possible warning sign is that a growing share of those taking out the aggressive loans is made up of lower-income families living in expensive areas, according to Economy.com, a research company. Another is that variable-rate mortgages have stayed popular even as long-term, fixed rates have gone down and rates on adjustable mortgages have risen.

"There are people who are buying homes that they shouldn't buy," said Eric Appelbaum, president of the Apple Mortgage Corporation in Manhattan. "People are saying, I can afford it on interest-only but I can't afford it" with a traditional mortgage, Mr. Appelbaum said. "It doesn't make any sense."

Since borrowers with interest-only mortgages are not yet paying down their debt, they are hoping to build up equity through an increase in home values. If house prices fall, as they did during the early 90's in some cities, borrowers will be forced to bring money to the table when they sell.

Even if home prices rise a little, borrowers who have taken out option ARM's and made only minimum payments for five years could find themselves in a hole. Such loans, which are typically based on rates that adjust monthly, give homeowners four payment options each month. In the first quarter of 2005, 70 percent of option ARM borrowers made the minimum payment, according to UBS.

In doing so, those borrowers effectively added more debt to the back of their loans.

On a $400,000 loan, for example, a buyer who made only minimum payments over the first five years would add more than $27,000 to the end of the loan, assuming short-term rates increase by one percentage point over the course of the loan, said Robert Binette, a mortgage broker with Hamilton Mortgage in Ridgefield, Conn. The monthly payment would jump from $1,718 in the final month of the fifth year to $2,580 after the loan was reset, a difference of more than 50 percent.

Borrowers who expect to cover the larger debt by refinancing could be in trouble if rates have increased. Thirty-year fixed-mortgage rates are near their lowest level in a generation.

Nationwide, the increase in monthly payments as more mortgage rates start to float will cost families about an extra $40 billion over the next two years, according to estimates by Credit Suisse First Boston. That is the rough equivalent of a 40-cent increase in gas prices over the same span, which would pinch incomes but would not be likely to create a recession.

The biggest concern, many economists say, is that the new mortgages have come onto the market at a time when low interest rates and rapidly rising home prices are the only reality many people can imagine. Families might be making decisions assuming that combination will last forever.

In a speech to bankers in New York, Donald L. Kohn, a Federal Reserve governor, said yesterday that he expected a strong economy over the next few years.

"My message this morning, however, is that this is not a time for complacency," he said.

There is "significant uncertainty," he added, because some recent financial innovations "have not yet been rigorously stress-tested."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/realestate/16arm.html

[BOREALIS]

Builders Keep the Home Runs Coming
While S&P's William Mack sees the current cycle in its seventh inning,
he says Lennar, M.D.C., and others are still at the top of their games

Insight from Standard & Poors
INDUSTRY IN FOCUS
By Stacy Trombino
JUNE 22, 2005

While S&P's William Mack sees the current cycle in its seventh inning, he says Lennar, M.D.C., and others are still at the top of their games


Despite talk of a housing bubble, demand for homebuilding has remained strong into the second quarter of 2005. Quarterly profits in this industry group came in ahead of Standard & Poor's expectations. And while U.S. housing-starts data for May, released June 16, were a little weaker than expected, the pace remains robust. "The data suggest that the housing market remains on solid ground," says David Wyss, Standard & Poor's chief economist.

Companies that build new homes have made some impressive gains. Year-to-date through June 17, the S&P 1500 Homebuilding Index rose 27%, vs. a 0.8% rise in the S&P 1500, following a spectacular 36% rise in 2004.

FUELING DEMAND. William Mack, the S&P equity analyst who follows homebuilders, maintains a positive investment outlook for the group. He says low mortgage rates have continued to encourage homebuying demand, and average price gains accelerated in the first quarter, resulting in margin growth across the industry.

While Mack believes the current homebuilding cycle is closer to the top than the bottom -- "It looks as though we are in the sixth or seventh inning" -- he thinks strong demand for homes continues. More importantly, low long-term interest rates are underpinning demand (see BW Online, 6/22/05, "Housing Bubble -- or Bunk?").

Even if there were a large move to a higher yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which he believes is unlikely in the near term, homebuilders would still trade at "comfortable" historical averages, in Mack's view.

BENEFICIAL RATES. Recent interest-rate friendly economic data should limit any short-term increase in mortgage rates, says Mack. He expects the benefits of these favorable borrowing rates will accrue to almost every homebuilder, pushing the group's average earnings multiple to about 9.5 times 2005 estimates by yearend.

Mack believes the typical homebuilder's fundamentals remain quite strong, and that the growth he forecasts for the S&P 1500 Homebuilders Index will be met with higher overall valuations.

Mack expects the group's fundamentals will continue to improve but at a more moderate rate after 2005, largely due to mortgage rates' likely upward trend from current levels. And what of earnings multiples in the longer term? Mack thinks they will "gently gravitate" upward.

SENSITIVE INVESTORS. The analyst anticipates most of the stock-price appreciation in this group will be driven by fundamentals rather than multiple expansion. Mack projects the average homebuilder's valuation will remain in the high single-digits until peak earnings are achieved -- not earlier than 2006.

As for profit growth, Mack sees an average earnings increase for the builders within his coverage universe of at least 30% in 2005 and 15% in 2006. However, because Mack thinks any widening in overall valuations will be kept relatively in check, as he believes investors are becoming increasingly sensitive to a potential cyclical turn, he says only some of the stocks in the group appear to be significantly undervalued.

Which homebuilders does S&P favor? Mack has a 5 STARS (strong buy) opinion on Lennar (LEN ; recent price, $62), Standard Pacific (SPF ; $87), M.D.C. Holdings (MDC ; $81), and Beazer Homes (BZH ; $57).

WIDE MARGIN. Stocks ranked 5 STARS are expected to post a total return outperforming the total return of the S&P 500 stock index by a wide margin over the coming 12 months, with shares rising in price on an absolute basis.

S&P carries a 4 STARS (buy) opinion on the shares of Hovnanian Enterprise (HOV ; $66) and D.R. Horton (DHI ; $37). Centex Corp. (CTX ; $69), Pulte Homes (PHM ; $83), Toll Brothers (TOL ; $101), and KB Homes (KBH ; $75) are each ranked 3 STARS (hold).

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jun2005/pi20050622_2625_pi041.htm

[BOREALIS]

Housing Bubble -- or Bunk?
Are home prices soaring unsustainably and due for plunge?
A group of experts takes a look -- and come to very different conclusions

BusinessWeek online
Wednesday, June 22, 2005


Average national home prices haven't dropped since the Great Depression. But with the recent frenzy in the real estate market, investors are wondering whether the market can keep up this pace. Residential property investors have seen bubbles rise and pop on local geographic levels in past years, but the debate continues over whether a nationwide bubble has materialized.

A countrywide meltdown in housing prices could have a profound affect on the economy, as more Americans invested in real estate than in stock. According to the Federal Reserve, homes' appraised value made up 145% of nominal gross domestic product in March, while stocks and mutual funds were worth 82% of GDP.

The bubble question isn't an easy one, even for economists. BusinessWeek Online's June Kim spoke with several economists for their thoughts on whether a housing bubble exists. The following are edited excerpts of their comments:

Frank Nothaft, chief economist, Freddie Mac:

I don't foresee any national decline in home price values. Freddie Mac's analysis of single-family houses over the last half century hasn't shown a single year when the national average housing price has gone down. The last consistent drop was during the Great Depression, when the unemployment rate got up to 25%, or five times the level we're at now.

Housing is local, local, local by nature, and it's the local economy driving valuation of a home. The large markets people think about -- New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. -- where we've seen double-digit home-value gains in the last three or four years, are driven by economic growth and rising family income, coupled with a 40-year low in mortgage rates.

I would worry about local markets that have weak economies, where the unemployment rate has gone up over the last couple years, or where we have begun to see a bit more of a speculative fervor (by that I mean: A lot of investor vs. owner-occupant purchases).

WHO'S BUYING? An owner occupant lives in a home an average of 14 years. The average stock owner owns a share of stock for three months. You'll see much more volatility with common stock prices than in home prices.

Investor activity remains a small percentage of home purchases, representing at most 15% of purchases nationwide, vs. 85% of homes purchased by owner occupants.

If you see that investors are accounting for a third or a half of purchases in a local community, then I would be more concerned about speculative fervor. And I would expect stagnation in home-value trends in markets where unemployment is higher than 7%.

Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research:

We've never seen this sort of run-up in home prices in U.S. history. In the past, home prices have always moved pretty much at the same rate with inflation's overall rate. But in the last seven years, they've outpaced the rate of inflation by 60 percentage points. This kind of run-up becomes unsustainable (see BW Online, 6/22/05, "Builders Keep the Home Runs Coming").
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jun2005/pi20050622_2625_pi041.htm

Right now, the market is caught up in the psychology of a bubble. You see the fastest increases just before the collapse. If you look at the past, the Nasdaq crossed 4,000 around the new year in 2000, and then two months later, it had already crossed 5,000. Suddenly in mid-March, the Nasdaq plunged 15%, and it was downhill from there.

I don't think the housing market will follow exactly the same pattern, but in the case of the Nasdaq bubble, in February of 2000, people were having this same conversation, but were more focused on the fact that prices were rising more rapidly than ever.

HOUSING'S HUGE IMPACT. [Fed Chairman] Alan Greenspan recognized the stock bubble and was concerned about it, but he decided the best thing to do was not to attack the bubble, simply to let itself work it out and deal with the consequences. Given he had that attitude about stocks, I would assume he has the same attitude about housing.

Of course, houses don't risk dropping to zero value like the nonsense companies in the stock market did. But on the other hand, their value also has a lot of volatility.

A lot of economists, including Greenspan, say homes aren't like stocks and their prices aren't volatile. But what's odd is that ordinarily economists say the exact opposite. The housing market is thin, meaning that the number of potential buyers is relatively small compared to the number of potential sellers. A thin market usually means it's more volatile because fluctuations could be even bigger. While there's a current buying euphoria in the housing market, if a lot of people really take a beating, they may develop a phobia about becoming homeowners.

A decline in housing prices would have a very serious effect on the economy. Housing has been supporting the economy ever since the recession. Roughly 5% of the GDP is associated with homebuilding and construction. On top of that, we've had this huge consumption boom based on people taking out second mortgages and refinancing their homes spurring on the economy.

My estimates of bubble wealth -- the rate of growth of house prices exceeding the rate of growth of inflation -- come to around $5 trillion. Roughly 4% to 6% of that is $200 billion to $300 billion a year in housing-bubble-driven consumption. That's a lot to replace.

James F. Smith, chief economist at the Society of Industrial & Office Realtors:

There's no national bubble. You have to have a huge deflationary scenario to make a national bubble make any sense. The Fed isn't going to lose control of the money supply and take us back into a very significant deflation and cause a collapse in housing prices.

There are several reasons why a national housing bubble is relatively silly. According to census data, current home-ownership rates are at 69.3% of all households, a record. If you look at home ownership by age group, the highest rate -- above 83% -- are among owners aged 70 to 74. Only marginally below that is owners aged 65 to 69.

Nobody seems to look at how home ownership rises with age. The older we get, the higher the probability that we're going to own a house. If you look at the baby boomer generation, you get a picture of increasing demand that won't end for another 40 years.

DEMAND ON THE MARCH. Second, home-ownership rates are extremely high for white Americans, pretty high for Asian-Americans, have just gotten over 50% for African-Americans, and are slightly lower for Hispanics. But we have lots of programs to help minorities improve home ownership, so they're all increasing.

Thirdly, if you look at immigrant households with the same family size and income levels as households in which the parents were born in the U.S., immigrants buy houses 15 years later than natives. About one-seventh of the population is foreign-born, and [that group] has been growing rapidly the last 20 years. That gives you another 15 years of increased demand.

On top of that, mortgage rates are pretty darn low. The only way rates are going to rise is if inflation rises and the fear of inflation drives the 10-year Treasury up to 7% or 8%. Mortgages would go back to 9% or 10%, temporarily killing the housing market, but only temporarily.

It doesn't mean there aren't a few local bubbles in areas like Washington D.C., Los Angeles, suburban Boston, or suburban New York. But we've had many of those in the last 20 years or so. Texas collapsed in 1986, Southern California collapsed in 1989, and Massachusetts and Connecticut collapsed in 1991.

Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics, global bond and currency consulting firm:

It's not clear that the recent price gains in the housing market are a bubble. It's bubble behavior. There are many assets whose prices move quickly, but that doesn't mean it's a bubble.

In a global context, the rise in U.S. housing prices doesn't really stand out. The global economy, led by the U.S. and China, has posted a stellar growth rate. Last year was possibly the fastest pace of growth in post-World-War-II years. And much of the new economy features a synergistic global trade pattern between the U.S. and other countries. New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco benefit from a new axis of global investors, and home prices there are being driven higher in the context of huge wealth and economic gains.

We're unlikely to see a price correction this year, since we're already well into the second-quarter period, a high-volume period for housing, and there's a clear price movement upward. It isn't until first or second quarter of next year that we're likely to see any correction.

With the Fed adding a quarter point [rate hike] per meeting, interest rates will trend from current low levels to average historic low levels next year. The question of whether that will pop the housing market is unclear. High-price housing markets may see a decline, but we seldom see price declines at the national level.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/index.html#top

[BOREALIS]

New Nano-Brushes Keep the Tiny Tidy


Researchers have developed brushes with bristles so minuscule that they can be used on the nano-scale, measured in terms of billionths of a meter.
Researchers will use them for such diminutive chores as sweeping miniature computer chips and cleaning microscopic motors.
The new brushes are made with bristles more than a thousand times smaller than a human hair.
Photograph courtesy of Pulickel Ajayan

John Roach
for National Geographic News


June 17, 2005
Even at the nano-scale—where machines and materials can be the size of atoms and molecules—there are messes to sweep, walls to paint, tubes to unclog, and electronics to power. And now there's a way to make the tiniest of brushes to do these chores.

Made with bristles more than a thousand times smaller than a human hair, they are the tiniest brushes in the world. Yet they are durable and flexible enough to perform any brushing chore.


Conventional brush bristles, made of animal hairs, synthetic polymer fibers, and metal wires, are flimsy and prone to breaking down at the nano-scale, researchers say.

To work at the nano-scale, researchers realized that a different kind of material was needed.

"It dawned on us that [carbon] nanotubes would make excellent bristle material," Pulickel Ajayan, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, said in an e-mail to National Geographic News.

Ajayan has worked with carbon nanotubes—or cylinders of carbon molecules—for more than a decade. Their small size, strength, elasticity, and ability to conduct electricity make them ideal bristle material at the nano-scale, he says.

Together with colleagues at RPI and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Ajayan has made brushes with nanotube bristles in a variety of shapes and sizes. The researchers used them to perform tasks such as sweeping up nanoparticles in a narrow trench, coating the inside of a tube, and serving as electrical contacts in a nano-motor.

The researchers explain how they made the new brushes in the July issue of the academic journal Nature Materials.

Eric Grulke, a professor of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, said in an e-mail that the research was "quite innovative with respect to potential applications."

Nano-Brush Market

According to Ajayan, as materials and machines get smaller and smaller, the potential market for nano-sized brushes will blossom. Even the smallest amount of dirt can render machines at the nano-scale useless.

Interest in cleaning up nanoparticles has intensified lately due to growing health concerns over their release in the environment.

With the brushes, researchers will be able to sweep trenches in miniature computer chips or clean mirrors used in nano-motors. When coated in absorbent material, the brushes could also soak up particles in contaminated waters.

"Certainly I believe that the brushes would have commercial uses, particularly when micro-technologies become [the] norm in the future," Ajayan said.


Making Brushes

In previous research, Ajayan grew carbon nanotubes using a technique known as chemical vapor deposition. He and his colleagues applied the technique to make the brushes.

The researchers grew the bristles onto a thin brush handle by sticking the handle into a furnace of carbon-rich vapors.

To control the shape of the brushes, the researchers wrapped the fibers in gold, except where they wanted the bristles to attach to the brush. When the brush handle was placed in the furnace, the fibers grew only on the unmasked areas.

In this case, the nanotubes were grown onto handles of silicon carbide fibers, though other materials can be used, Ajayan said.

Using this process, "we could fabricate these miniature brushes in pretty much any morphology you want," Ajayan said. Some of the brushes look like mini-toothbrushes, others like mini-paintbrushes, others like mini-fans.

Each nanotube bristle is tiny, about 30 nanometers in diameter. The handles, however, could be made relatively thick—about the diameter of a human hair—allowing the brushes to be manipulated either manually or with robotic motors.

Ajayan said the bristles might break off used in a particularly abrasive task, such as stirring a highly viscous substance. But in the demonstrations conducted by the researchers, the brushes held up under a variety of sweeping, painting, cleaning, and electric current-carrying tasks.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0617_050617_nanobrush_2.html

[cintrix]

It was probably just that one ad, but Firefox is acting up with the ads - might be the built in pop-up killer causing it.

[99Dan]

I see now that the ad keeps changing. The one I just tried now worked. I refreshed many times now but I don't see the same one I clicked on earlier. I don't remember exactly what it was but I would know it if I saw it.

Maybe just that one ad was bad.

[99Dan]

No. Using IE

[cintrix]

Are you using Firefox?

[99Dan]

FYI regarding the ad at the top of the news page. When I click it I get a blank page with this URL:

http://z1.adserver.com/w/cp.x;rid=13;tid=17;ev=2;dt=3;ac=17;c=172;

[BullNBear52]

I think they are getting some hints from OCS' News board.

http://news.ocsecurities.com/index.shtml

I had this article posted this morning. Check out the picture with it that Rager posted. Funny stuff.

Fed Watches to See If Wal-Mart Will Accept Higher Priced Huggies Diapers
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The makers of Huggies diapers want to raise prices; Alan Greenspan will be watching the Wal-Mart checkout counter to see if they succeed.

Kimberly-Clark Corp., along with other consumer-products makers such as Clorox Co. and Procter & Gamble Co., have announced the first widespread price boosts in a decade, in an effort to recoup higher raw-material costs. Discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. are pushing back. ``The very last thing they want to do is to increase prices for the consumers,'' says Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation, the industry's Washington trade group.

The conflict highlights an important force in the economy that is helping to keep prices stable: the influence of ``big- box'' retailers such as Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and Minneapolis-based Target, the No. 2 U.S. discounter. Wal-Mart alone accounts for close to one-third of North American sales for major U.S. household goods companies; the resistance of it and fellow retailers to price increases helps make Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan and other policy makers more confident that inflation is being contained.

``Over the past few years, the pricing power in the marketplace has shifted away from the manufacturer to the distributor-retailer like Wal-Mart,'' says Barry Bosworth, a senior economist at the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington. ``These chains are so big, they have the upper hand in setting prices. If products don't sell, they eliminate them from the shelves.''

Pricing Power

Pricing power, the ability of corporations to raise prices easily, is one of the key indicators the Federal Reserve monitors continually in its deliberations over how far to keep raising interest rates, Fed Governor Donald Kohn said June 14.

Greenspan, during congressional testimony June 9, said that ``at the moment, we are finding little evidence of inflationary pressures on the product side.'' While he cited ``some evidence'' that pricing power has been increasing, he said overall inflation remains ``modest.''

That's why the household-goods increases may be closely watched, despite the fact that they affect a small part of the overall economy. On tap for the next two months are announced plans for a 9 percent boost in prices of Clorox liquid bleach; 5 percent increases in diapers from Cincinnati-based P&G's Pampers line and Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark's Huggies; and 6 percent to 7 percent increases in prices of batteries from Boston-based Gillette Co. and St. Louis-based Energizer Holdings Inc.

Raw Materials

Manufacturers say the planned price increases, the first in a decade, are needed to cover the soaring cost of raw materials. ``We have not taken enough pricing to recover margins,'' Gerald Johnston, chief executive of Oakland, California-based Clorox, told investors May 11.

The Reuters/Commodities Research Bureau index of 16 major commodities, from platinum to soybeans, rose 8.5 percent from February through mid-March. It then dropped 6.6 percent through mid-May and rose 5 percent over the past month.

Prices of pulp, used in paper and packaging, surged in 2004 to a four-year high of $590 a metric ton. Raw coffee prices hit a five-year high in March this year. PET resin, used in plastic bottles, rose 22 percent in 2004 and is expected to jump 39 percent this year, according to estimates from Goldman, Sachs & Co.

A Collective Feeling

Bob Goldsborough, an industry analyst at Ariel Capital Management Inc. in Chicago, which owns Clorox shares among the $21 billion in assets that it manages, says that until recently, competition made producers of household products leery about raising prices for fear it would cost them market share. ``There's now, in the case of managements, a collective feeling that they have to take price increases and help make them stick,'' he says.

Retailers, meanwhile, are maintaining a skeptical posture. ``When suppliers bring price increases to us, we don't just accept it,'' says Karen Burk, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. ``We ask them to show us that raw materials costs have actually gone up and that's the reason for the increase.''

Even then, ``if suppliers' costs are going up it doesn't necessarily mean it'll be reflected in our stores,'' she says. ``If there's any way we can not pass the price increase on, we try not to.''

Richard T. Curtin, director of the University of Michigan's Survey for Consumers, whose monthly report on consumer sentiment is closely watched by financial markets, doubts that most of the price increases planned for household goods will stick.

Hands to the Fire

Companies ``have a slight degree more pricing power than they did'' a year ago, ``but not as much as they think they do,'' Curtin says. ``Consumers have been holding manufacturers' hands to the discount fire, and I don't think they're going to give up.''

Curtin predicts that many consumers will shift ``from the name-brand product to the store-brand'' -- particularly in supermarkets. That's likely to be the strategy of Carla McDonald, a 47-year-old Madison, Wisconsin, mother of two. ``What do they want to do, drive us all to the store brands?'' she says. ``Good luck, Colgate!''

New York-based Colgate-Palmolive Co. plans price increases on its dishwasher detergent. Other price boosts announced since January involve Clorox's Glad trash bags and containers, Irvington, New York-based Prestige Brands Holdings Inc.'s Comet cleanser and P&G's stomach remedy Pepto-Bismol.

One-Time Events

While Amy Chasen, an analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York, sees ``an improving pricing environment,'' Robert Brusca, a former Federal Reserve economist who is now president of Fact & Opinion Economics in New York, says that ``I don't see any evidence'' that pricing power is up sharply. He thinks many of the increases that have stuck are likely to be one-time events that don't indicate a broader trend.

For the companies confronted by pushback from the big retailers and consumers, ``it's the perfect storm,'' says Jason Gere, a New York-based analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. who covers household goods companies such as P&G. ``Manufacturers are being hit by higher commodity costs and have to increase prices somehow or their margins will get squeezed. But they can't afford to raise prices too much if they want to remain competitive on the shelf.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/economy/fedwatch.html

[PegnVA]

Interesting, especially in light of a downslide in newspaper circulation.

[BullNBear52]

Wall Street Journal Plans Softer Edition for Saturdays
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
June 20, 2005


For decades, readers have turned to The Wall Street Journal to learn how business and politics are played out in the boardrooms, and the backrooms, of the nation.

Will those same readers turn to The Journal to learn how to make the perfect soufflé?

Starting Sept. 17, The Journal will add a Saturday issue named Weekend Edition, with a new emphasis on softer features - entertainment, travel, sports, arts, books, real estate and, yes, recipes. The goal is to attract a more diverse base of advertising to pull The Journal out of its prolonged slump.

The Saturday paper, which will be delivered at no extra charge - at least initially - to subscribers, will have a more airy, more casual feel than its daily counterpart, but will still be instantly recognizable as The Wall Street Journal.

It will come in three sections: news, Money & Investing, and a third called Pursuits, devoted to leisure activities. It is this section, which will feature articles about the "business of life," with more white space and more color, on which The Journal's hopes rest.

"The idea is to allow people to relax with The Wall Street Journal," said Karen Elliott House, publisher of The Journal and senior vice president of Dow Jones & Company, which owns The Journal.

The Saturday issue, which was developed under the code name "Project Propel," inside The Journal's offices in Lower Manhattan, represents one of the biggest gambles in the paper's 116-year history. The Journal is betting that it can fluff up its editorial mix, capture the attention of its well-heeled readers and their families and attract consumer advertisers - all without cannibalizing its weekday editions and, more important, without diluting one of the most recognized and sharply defined franchises in all of journalism.

Many people within Dow Jones, particularly on the business side, argued that the paper had little choice. Since the dot-com bubble burst, The Journal, more dependent than most papers on technology and financial advertising, has watched its ad linage decline in each of the last four years. In the first quarter of this year, financial ads in The Journal dropped 24 percent from the first quarter a year ago, and technology ads dropped 23 percent, according to the company's quarterly report.

As a result, profit at Dow Jones was down 54 percent in the first quarter and the print publications division, which includes all editions of The Journal and Barron's, lost just over $7 million. Dow Jones's stock price has dropped from a high of $76.75 a share in 2000 to a close on Friday of $35.39 a share, below where it was before the market crashed in 1987.

"What I wonder is if the decision to pursue the Saturday edition isn't a tacit acknowledgement that their core franchise is challenged, that the base business is less attractive than it used to be," said Peter Appert, a media analyst at Goldman Sachs (where the client roster includes both Dow Jones and The New York Times Company).

Weekend Edition is the second big move Dow Jones has made in recent months. In January, the company acquired MarketWatch, which provides business news online, for $538 million, hoping to tap into the growing demand for online advertising. The company also owns Barron's, Dow Jones Newswires and a chain of smaller newspapers.

But The Journal still accounts for more than half of Dow Jones's revenue and a good part of its prestige. The paper's conservative editorial page is a must-read among the nation's power elites, and its writers have earned 12 Pulitzer Prizes since 1999.

John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst, said he thought the Saturday paper was "a good idea because it plugs the Friday hole in their coverage." But, he said, the question was whether advertisers would spend new money on Saturday or stretch their five-day budgets out over six days and whether, with the stock price so low, the market would have the patience to wait while Weekend Edition built its advertising base.

Editors began working on a prototype for Weekend Edition in 2003 and, as advertising remained weak, internal support for the project grew. Over the last two years, The Journal has conducted dozens of focus groups across the country and fine-tuning plans for the Saturday paper.

The company estimates that its net operating loss for rolling out the Saturday edition will be $12.5 million this year, taking into account printing, the hiring of an additional 150 employees, and the added expense of a sixth day of distribution (including rerouting about half a million papers to weekend addresses from the offices where they are now sent).

To save money elsewhere, The Journal has scaled back its overseas operations, shrinking its European and Asian editions to tabloid size, cutting its reporting staffs and even recalling to the United States some senior correspondents whom it is not replacing. These moves have troubled some in the newsroom, who regard the Saturday edition as something like an unknown relative to whom they may be asked to donate body parts.

"We're not questioning the strategic decision of The Journal to start a Saturday paper," said Theo Francis, a Journal reporter based in Florida, who represents the newsroom in the paper's union, the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees Local 1096 of the Newspaper Guild. "What everybody is worried about is whether they're doing it on the cheap and whether they will hire enough additional people to put out the same quality paper."

Virgil Hollender, the union local's president, said that while management had said it was hiring an additional 150 employees, he had not yet seen them. "If they are hiring 150 people, we don't know where," he said.

A company spokeswoman said that hiring had begun in the news, marketing and sales departments but was not yet complete. And Ms. House suggested that having the Saturday paper would actually be easier on the staff rather than burdensome.

"People won't be working six days a week," she said, then added, "But any of the real stars of The Journal work a six-day week now."

While the paper still has the second-highest weekday print circulation in the country after USA Today, its daily print circulation for the six-month period ending in March slipped to 1,750,400, down 2.3 percent from the year before. (And more than 320,000 people subscribe to The Journal online, giving it a total circulation of 2,070,500.)

"Yes, we've had some slippage in circulation, like everyone else in print," said Paul E. Steiger, managing editor of The Journal. "But it's an enormous circulation and an exquisite circulation. It's people who can move the world."

The question is whether enough of those people want to read a paper on Saturday. In big markets, Saturday circulation is generally lower than weekday circulation because fewer commuters are riding trains. The New York Times's Saturday circulation of 1,047,500, for example, is about 8 percent lower than its average weekday circulation.

Mike Neiss, a senior vice president and managing director of Universal McCann, the advertising and marketing firm in New York, said that advertisers were generally leery of Saturday papers and he expected The Journal to offer special packages, at least initially, to lure them in.

"They'll be playing to an empty theater," he said of The Journal. "They might trap a few advertisers who want exposure regardless, but this is an experiment in recycling."

Part of the point in calling the new paper "Weekend Edition" - even though the paper already calls its Friday paper Weekend Journal - is to get away from any negativity associated with Saturday papers.

Frederick W. Searby, an advertising and publishing analyst with J. P. Morgan, said that there were advertising dollars on weekends that The Journal could capture.

"Weekends are a huge profitability center for newspapers," he said, citing the example of The Times, one of The Journal's chief competitors, especially in the New York region. "The New York Times has the hegemonic position in advertising on the weekend, and this is a way for The Journal to go after those dollars. They've got to shake that tree."

Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said that the announcement of a Saturday Journal spurred The Times to overhaul its business news section faster than it had planned.

"The prospect of new Saturday competition from a business newspaper focused our minds and accelerated our timetable," he said. Still, he added, "I don't worry that many readers of the Sunday New York Times are going to be hungry for another weekend newspaper."

When asked during an interview where new advertising money for Weekend Edition might come from, Mr. Steiger grinned broadly.

"I don't think The New York Times should be afraid of a thing," he said. "We can hope that advertisers take it out of their vast television budgets."

Journal editors said they were confident that the Saturday paper would be a success, in part because Weekend Journal on Friday had proved successful, even as business publications in general have struggled.

A sampling of Journal readers found them curious, but noncommittal, about the Saturday edition.

Jude Shearer, 61, a retired county government official who lives in Rogersville, Tenn., said she loved The Journal and was eager to see what would be in Weekend Edition. "I'm going to have to make time to read it on Saturday, but if it's worth reading, I'll be more than happy to do that," she said.

But she also voiced some skepticism. "I'm not really quite sure what exactly they can do in a Saturday Journal that they don't do on a Friday with Weekend Journal," she said.

John Osterweis, 62, an investment manager in San Francisco, said he would read the Saturday paper "if it's got something worth reading." But, he added, "it's not a product I thought I needed." He also said he would be the only reader in his household. "My wife is an artist," he said. "She's not going to sit there and read The Wall Street Journal."

She might be surprised if she did, since the editors have devoted much of the last year to coming up with ideas to appeal to nonbusiness readers.

"It will have more editor's picks, lists, things that help a reader quickly decide and take action on books to buy, movies to see, meals to cook," Ms. House said.

Mr. Searby of J. P. Morgan said that despite the risks, he applauded Dow Jones executives for taking such a bold step, even if it had been forced upon them.

"Everybody is experimenting because the industry is in a funk," he said. "All newspaper groups are trying to maintain their relevance and find some way to jump-start the business."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/business/media/20journal.html

[IRISHBULL]

Hey, just found this on the SEC website.. GVRP

http://sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mr-noaction/nasd061605.pdf

[BullNBear52]

Guilty Plea in Big Financial Scandal in Japan
By TODD ZAUN
TOKYO, June 16 - Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the Japanese tycoon, pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of insider trading and filing false financial statements, completing a humiliating downfall for a man once listed as the world's richest.

Mr. Tsutsumi, whose companies run luxury hotels, train lines and golf and ski resorts, entered the guilty plea on the first day of his trial in Tokyo District Court, a court official said.

NHK television of Japan reported that Mr. Tsutsumi apologized for what he had done and acknowledged that he had hurt shareholders.

"There is no mistake" to the charges, he was quoted by the network as saying.

The charges against Mr. Tsutsumi, 71, stemmed from an investigation into financial fraud at Seibu Railway and Kokudo, the core companies in the business group he once controlled.

Prosecutors accused Mr. Tsutsumi of falsifying financial reports to hide the extent of his ownership in Seibu Railway and then quickly selling shares before the discrepancies were widely known. Shares of Seibu Railway fell sharply as disclosures about the ownership structure emerged.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange delisted the stock in December after the company corrected its financial statements to show that Mr. Tsutsumi and Kokudo, a privately held company that he controlled, owned most of Seibu. An earlier financial report stated that Mr. Tsutsumi and his company had a minority stake.

The maximum penalty for falsifying financial statements is five years in prison and a fine up to 5 million yen ($45,888), while the toughest penalty for insider trading is three years and a fine up to 3 million yen.

Mr. Tsutsumi inherited the foundations of the Seibu group from his father, Yasujiro, an entrepreneur who spent a lifetime developing pristine wilderness into vacation resorts.

The younger Mr. Tsutsumi expanded the holdings, adding dozens of hotels to the company's Prince Hotel chain. The company also owns commuter train lines and a professional baseball team, the Seibu Lions.

Mr. Tsutsumi was chairman of both Seibu Railway and its holding company, Kokudo, when details of the scandal came to light last year. He resigned his posts in October. An associate committed suicide after the investigation began.

Last month, Seibu shareholders appointed a management team charged with repairing the damage caused by the scandal. The company reported a net loss of 13 billion yen ($119 million) for the year that ended March 31, the second consecutive year it finished with a loss.

Mr. Tsutsumi was listed as the richest man in the world by Forbes magazine in 1990, before the collapse of the real estate market erased much of that wealth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/business/worldbusiness/17railway.html

[BOREALIS]

Ford document: Millions of vehicles have fire risk part

Thursday, June 16, 2005 Posted: 6:18 PM EDT (2218 GMT)

Programming Note: CNN's Drew Griffin investigates fires in Ford vehicles.
Prime time, Thursday on CNN.


KISSIMMEE, Florida (CNN) -- Early this year, Laura Hernandez nudged her husband, Nestor Oyola, as he slept in their Kissimmee home and asked him to put the Ford Expedition he had bought her the day before into the garage.

She did not want to risk leaving it on the street, where it might be vandalized.

"That was my dream, to have a Ford Expedition," she recalled to CNN about the $22,000 Eddie Bauer 2001 model SUV -- green with gold trim and leather seats.

Oyola moved the Expedition and they went to sleep.

After years of sharing a single car, the couple -- who moved five years ago to the United States from Puerto Rico -- were finally living the American dream: They owned two vehicles and their home.

At 5 the next morning, half an hour after her husband had driven his SUV to work, Hernandez was awakened by barking from Chakuil, their Chihuahua mix.

"He saved our lives," said Hernandez, who smelled smoke and roused her 15-year-old daughter, Rotsenmary.

They had time to grab only the dog and their pet birds before flames spread from the garage and engulfed the house.

Rotsenmary suffered a second-degree burn to her left leg; the charred remains of their 6-month-old cat -- Beethoven -- were found in a corner; the vehicle, the house and its contents were a total loss.

A fire investigator, hired by their auto insurance company, said the blaze was caused by a cruise-control deactivation switch in the SUV -- a type of switch that Ford installed in millions of its vehicles from 1992 until 2003.

An Iowa family is suing Ford over the switch, claiming it was the likely cause of a fire in the family's 1996 F-150 parked in an attached garage that spread to their house. A 74-year-old woman died in the fire and the house was destroyed. Ford, however, says the fire did not originate in the F-150. (Full story)

Several fire investigators hired by major insurance companies and auto engineers consulted by CNN say the switch is causing some Ford vehicles to ignite.

Expanded investigation
The $20.57 switch shuts off the cruise control when the driver firmly steps on the brakes. The switch is located under the hood of the vehicle and is attached to the brake master cylinder on one end and wired to the cruise control on the other.

On most of its models, Ford designed the switch to be powered -- or "hot" -- at all times, even when the vehicle is off and the key is removed from the ignition.

Inside the switch, a thin film barrier separates brake fluid from the switch's electrical components. Investigators say fires can occur when the film cracks and brake fluid from the master cylinder seeps into the electrical side of the switch.

Ford has already recalled more than 1 million vehicles in two separate recalls to replace the switch.

The first recall was in May 1999, affecting 279,000 Crown Victorias, Grand Marquises and Town Cars for model years 1992 and 1993. The second, issued in January 2005, affected 792,000 vehicles, including model year 2001 F-Series SuperCrews and 2000 Expeditions, Navigators and F-150 pickups.


But a Ford document obtained by CNN shows the same or similar switch was installed in a total of 16 million vehicles, far beyond what was recalled. Those vehicles include:

Mark VII/VIII from 1994-1998

Taurus/Sable and Taurus SHO 2.3 L 1993-1995

Econoline 1992-2003

F-Series 1993-2003

Windstar 1994-2003

Explorer without IVD 1995-2003

Explorer Sport/Sport Trac 2002-2003

Expedition 1997-2003

Ranger 1995-2003


In March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an expanded investigation into more than 3.7 million of the vehicles.

NHTSA says it has received 559 complaints of spontaneous fires, 253 of them in unrecalled models, and its latest investigation includes the 1995 model years of the F-150, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles.

Ford says it has initiated its own investigation and is cooperating with the NHTSA probe.

"We have identified specific populations of vehicles in which the speed-control deactivation switches have had increasing rates of failures and fires," said Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley in a written response to questions submitted by CNN.

"When we have seen the fire reports increasing, we have recalled those vehicles and replaced those switches. Ford has used the basic switch design in a large number of vehicles and the risk of fire related to the switch is much different in those certain populations that we have recalled."

She added, "It is important to understand that all speed control systems are not identical in Ford vehicles. ... In those populations with an increasing fire report rate, we stopped using the switch through the recall process. ... The switch has performed well in many models for many years."

In another statement to CNN, Kinley said "we have been asked why we have not expanded the recall. The last thing we want to do is make an important safety decision on incorrect or incomplete information."

Kinley also said, "We have not determined at this time that there is a defect with the switch, but for reasons we still do not understand the switch is failing ... and we are trying to understand why."

Ford no longer uses switch
But, in a recall notice to owners of 2000 F-150s, Expeditions, Navigators and 2001 F-150 SuperCrews, the company seemed less equivocal about the switch. The "switch may overheat, smoke or burn which could result in an underhood fire," it said. "This condition may occur either when the vehicle is parked or when it is being operated, even if the speed control is not in use."

The company stopped using the switch altogether as of the 2004 year model, and is now using a new design.

Meanwhile, the Oyola-Hernandez family has hired a lawyer to reach a financial settlement with Ford but have not filed a lawsuit against the company.

The company says it has not yet investigated their auto insurance claim, but notes that the insurance industry reports about 100,000 noncollision fires per year involving nearly all makes and models sold.

"Simply because we have allegations of fire doesn't mean they are necessarily linked to the speed-control deactivation switch," Kinley said.

The charred remains of their house were recently demolished. But, the family has not been able to rebuild.

After the fire, they moved in with Hernandez's mother, who lives nearby. Since then, after reinstating their home insurance, they have moved into a rented house. Their insurance company sent them $120,000 but rebuilding their home is estimated to cost $185,000. They are hoping Ford will reimburse them for the difference.

They are, once again, a one-car family. This one also is a Ford -- a 1997 Explorer -- and it, too, contains the suspect switch, which has not been recalled. The family parks it on the street instead of the garage.

CNN Investigative Producer Pia Malbran contributed to this story

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/16/ford.vehicles/index.html

[Churak]

GOOGLE popup blocker doesn't stop them...lol

[Rager]

WOW...great Matt..thanks

[Mattu]

OCS News big enough now that it got an ad deal with Tribal Fusion. Good job, guys.

[wccawa]

Actually, there WAS a warning issued by the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center shortly after the quake. It was in effect for California, Oregon, Washington and most of Vancouver Island, and it remained in effect for almost a full hour.

Only after an hour had passed did they post that message.

I know of at least three communities in Washington that were evacuated, and I believe Crescent City was partially evacuated, as well. Those evacuations due to the WC&ATWC warning. All the local TV stations were posting the warning, too.

Obviously, nothing happened, but I still think they did the right thing... IMHO

[az2820]

We will never see them again.

[BOREALIS]

And a new car probably sold for about $4,000 then.

The good old days!!

[az2820]

yeah it was about 38 cents a gal then

[BOREALIS]

OIL CHART ~~ Oil (Inflation-adjusted) 1970 to current date.

[BullNBear52]

I got you now. Interesting piece from the link I supplied. I never was aware of that happening until I read the article. I imagine that yesterday's earthquake caused people to panic a little.

The only tsunami on record that has caused deaths on the West Coast struck Crescent City with 20 feet of water and leveled 29 city blocks on March 28, 1964.

That tsunami, caused by the Good Friday quake in Alaska, also was blamed for more than 100 deaths in Alaska — and the quake itself killed several other people there — and four people in Oregon. The wave also caused damage in San Francisco Bay and at the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.

[Chrisau]

My comments at the top were directed at the local media and officials that didn't read the page. NOAA was right.

[BullNBear52]

China mulls $15B stock market bailout

Officials fear fallout of market's drop to 8-year lows-report

By MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:34 AM ET June 15, 2005

TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- The Chinese government is considering creating a $15 billion fund to help bail out the nation's ailing stock market, according to a published report Wednesday.
The New York Times reported in its Web site that it is not clear whether China's leadership will ultimately approve the bailout proposal, according to a senior government official and people told of the proposal.

But expectations that the government is about to act to support shares, which have wallowed around eight-year lows in recent weeks on liquidity fears, helped lift share prices last week.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, where about 1,400 state-owned companies are listed, are each down 40% to 50% from the highs they reached in 2001, the newspaper said. In recent months, struggling brokerage houses and large investors have been aggressively lobbying for a government bailout fund, the report said.

Analysts say the government is considering the huge bailout proposal because the market has fallen so sharply in the last year that some government officials fear a bigger drop could seriously impede the long term development of China's financial markets, the Times said.

It said some Chinese officials say they are motivated in part from fears that huge and mounting investor losses could also create social discontent among the millions of people who began buying shares in the early to mid-1990's, when stock prices were climbing.

If the $15 billion investment fund were created, the size of the fund would represent about one-tenth of the current value of the stock market's floating, tradeable shares. But some analysts say that turning to a bailout fund could make the situation worse by encouraging investors to sell more of their stocks, saddling the government with huge additional losses.

Last week, the Shanghai exchange index dipped below 1,000 points for the first time since 1997. Then, last Wednesday, the stock exchange suddenly jumped 8.2 percent on talk the government would take action to prop up shares.

The Shanghai Composite closed down 1.9% Wednesday, or 20.63 points, at 1,072.84.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B7CCF5266-9A41-4689-87BA-25566E2F28C8%7D&siteid...

[BullNBear52]

I don't know how they work but this may explain the confusion....

"It appears from the mechanism of the earthquake that this was a strike-slip event so the motion was horizontal, not the vertical displacement that typically leads to a tsunami," said Ved Lekic, a seismologist at the University of California Seismographic Station in Berkeley.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/california_quake;_ylt=ApPCKJdqEVRmJsohlFgl5MynZiEB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mB...

[Chrisau]

This is from the NOAA page. More BS! They can't even get this stuff right. The bold is mine.

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0259Z 15 JUN 2005

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THERE IS NO TSUNAMI WARNING
OR WATCH IN EFFECT.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0251Z 15 JUN 2005
COORDINATES - 41.3 NORTH 125.7 WEST
LOCATION - OFF COAST OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAGNITUDE - 7.4

EVALUATION

NO DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.

HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL
TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN
A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES
IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE BULLETINS
FOR ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

[occams_razor]

I think whoever came up with the product description nanopants needs a marketing refresher course.

[BOREALIS]

When Nanopants Attack

---- ALL AIN'T GOOD IN THE NANOTECH WORLD ----


Activists do a show-and-tell for passersby at the Eddie Bauer store in Chicago's main shopping district May 7, where they stripped and shouted anti-nanotech slogans. Eddie Bauer security ordered the group out of the store after a few minutes, but the activists continued to attract attention on the sidewalk out front.
Photo: Courtesy of THONG

Wired.com
By Howard Lovy
02:00 AM Jun. 10, 2005 PT


On a chilly Chicago afternoon in early May, environmental activists sauntered into the Eddie Bauer store on Michigan Avenue, headed to the broad storefront windows opening out on the Magnificent Mile and proceeded to take off their clothes.

The strip show aimed to expose more than skin: Activists hoped to lay bare growing allegations of the toxic dangers of nanotechnology. The demonstrators bore the message in slogans painted on their bodies, proclaiming "Eddie Bauer hazard" and "Expose the truth about nanotech," among other things, in light of the clothing company's embrace of nanotech in its recent line of stain-resistant "nanopants."

The Eddie Bauer protest highlights a growing movement aimed at probing the potential health risks of nanotechnology, which is finding its way into commercial products despite scant research into its long-term effects. While still nascent, the backlash recalls other environmental challenges to new technologies, notably genetically modified foods, which have spawned grass-roots opposition movements amid fierce denials from companies that their products are harmful.

Nanotechnology broadly refers to engineering at microscopic scales. By manipulating materials at the molecular level, scientists can enhance them with new properties that go beyond those available in ordinary substances.

Examples of nanomaterials already on the market include nanoscale titanium dioxide used in some cosmetics and sunscreens, nanoscale silica being used as dental fillers, and nanowhiskers used in stain-resistant fabrics like Eddie Bauer's nanopants. Plus, nanoclays and coatings are being used in a range of products from tennis balls to bikes to cars to improve bounce, strengthen high-impact parts or render material scratch-proof. Nanotechnology could one day give rise to microscopic machines, some theorize.

Fears of nanotech date back at least to 1986, with the publication of Eric Drexler's cautionary classic, Engines of Creation, and its talk of a potential "gray goo" catastrophe brought on by millions of uncontrolled, destructive microscopic machines that chew through the environment.

That apocalyptic vision is a world away from nanopants. Asked about the potential dangers of its technology, Eddie Bauer offered a product backgrounder from Emeryville, California-based Nano-Tex, which provides the coating used in its stain-resistant pants. The backgrounder asserts that Nano-Tex's products are independently tested for safety and meet all environmental, health and safety standards mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

In an e-mail, Nano-Tex challenged negative claims made in the Eddie Bauer protest regarding its products, and reiterated the claims in its backgrounder. But it declined to make a representative available to answer questions for this article, and did not answer specific questions sent in an e-mail.

According to the backgrounder, Nano-Tex's proprietary technology was developed for commercial use in 2000. Its technology allows coatings to adhere to fabrics at the sub-micron level, reducing the amount of chemicals required to treat materials, and transferring properties such as stain resistance onto each individual fiber. Nano-Tex said more than 80 textile mills around the world use its technology in products sold under dozens of major clothing and some furniture brands, including Eddie Bauer, The Gap, Old Navy, Lee, Nike, Nordstrom, Brooks Brothers, Champion, Levi, Simmons and Serta.

Although Nano-Tex asserts its products meet government standards, experts note that little research has yet been conducted into the effects of nanotech materials on humans, leaving lots of questions and few answers. Governments and institutions around the world are only now rolling up their sleeves and conducting the experiments necessary to separate fact from fear, experts said.

The National Nanotechnology Initiative, a federal R&D program that's coordinating nanotech research from 23 separate U.S. government agencies, has earmarked $39 million in 2006 to study health and environmental effects of nanotechnology, according to a notice on its website. But that's just the tip of the iceberg of total research dollars earmarked for nanotoxics research.

"Needless to say, it is only a small fraction of the total government funding of nanotech as a whole," said Nigel Walker, lead scientist for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "I foresee over the next few years there will be considerably more being spent."

Despite flow of money for research, results are coming only slowly, according to scientists in the field.

"Right now, people are always asking what preventative measures we can take and I think we just have to do more research before we can make any of those decisions," says Nancy A. Monteiro-Riviere, a researcher at North Carolina State University who is among the first to take a look at the effects of nanomaterials in the workplace.

Monteiro-Riviere's first study on the topic, published March 15 in Toxicology Letters, shows evidence that high doses of carbon nanotubes can penetrate human skin cells and cause irritation. But she said the research is still in the early stages, making it difficult to draw conclusions.

She is now branching out into other types of nanomaterials, such as quantum dots used as biomarkers and fullerenes (also known as "buckyballs") being developed as drug-delivery devices and MRI contrast agents. She's trying to determine whether these particles will take up residence inside the cells they penetrate. "Will they reside within these cells? Will they just grow and pop? No one really knows," she says.

That said, at least one study so far has shown potential harmful effects from a material created using nanotechnology, although unrelated to Eddie Bauer.

Mark Banaszak Holl, a researcher at the University of Michigan, discovered that dendrimers, man-made molecules with tendrils that are being tested as drug-delivery devices, can punch holes in membranes. "This is really bad if what you're trying to do is targeted drug delivery because it's not very selective. It makes all the cells permeable," Holl said.

Holl said there are other materials similar to dendrimers already doing drug-delivery duty, raising fears that this "hole-punching" effect might have gone undetected elsewhere. Polylysine, for example, is a commercially available polymer that is being considered for use in drug-delivery and gene-therapy devices.

Walker describes current nanotoxicology research as a "multi-decade program" that is only in its embryonic stages. He warned that it's important for the general public to understand that no single study, at this stage, is going to be definitive.

Walker is involving increasingly outspoken environmental organizations and labor groups in his discussions over nanomaterials research priorities.

The Eddie Bauer protest group, which calls itself Topless Humans Organized for Natural Genetics, or Thong, had previously disrupted a Chicago nanotech conference with a quick strip-tease and a clever "Plenty of room at this bottom" inked on their hind quarters. The phrase is an homage to "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," a famous 1959 Richard Feynman lecture that inspired the nanorevolution.

Walker said groups like Thong have succeeded in raising awareness of nanotechnology. And, as it was in the case of the backlash against genetically modified organisms, if the government does not become engaged early on and address concerns, there will be problems with public acceptance after a significant number of products are already on the market. "At the end of the day," Walker says, "we serve the taxpayer."

Meanwhile, just a few of those taxpayers are planning their next strip-in. Thong won't say when or where, but only revealed this in an e-mail: "It's best just to say that our next action will hit the industry from yet another angle."

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,67626,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

[BOREALIS]

Review - Nanotech Conference held May 22-23, 2005

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Business Communications Company (BCC)
Conference Nanotech 2005:

 
 Related Publications:  
  · Reports  
    · Advanced Materials - http://www.bccresearch.com/advmat/ 
    · Nanotechnology - http://www.bccresearch.com/nano/ 
  · Newsletters  
    · Nanoparticle News - http://www.bccresearch.com/letters/fptnpromo/fptnpromo.html 
  · Past Proceedings  
    · Nanotechnology Conferences - http://www.bccresearch.com/conference_pages/nano_conferences.html 
 

Print Copy - $295.00.
CD-ROM version (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) - $339.25

http://www.bccresearch.com/nano2005proceed.html

PREFACE
As scientists and engineers exploit the tools of nanotechnology to design closer to the molecular level, nanoscale materials engineering will have an increasingly important impact on a number of sectors, including biotechnology, electronics, energy, and industrial products.

NanoBusiness 2005, the world's largest conference dedicated to the business of nanotechnology, and Business Communications Company (BCC, Inc.), the leader in technology and market research, joined to produce an expanded Nano Science and Technology Program at NanoBusiness 2005 Program to highlight trends in nanotechnology and commercialization.

The BCC conference, Nanotech 2005, emphasized emerging technologies, materials and markets and featured cutting edge research in nanotechnology and commercialization from some of the world's leading nanoscientists and technologists. This year marked the eighth since BCC began organizing an annual nanotechnology conference. The following topics were covered at the conference:

Nanomaterials Technology and Application Trends
Emerging Nanotechnology Segments
Nanotech Enabled Therapies
Nanoscale Diagnostics and Imaging
The program provided attendees an unmatched look at the state-of-the-art in emerging nanotechnology. With nearly 50 in attendance from 8 different countries, BCC's Nanotechnology 2005 conference was a tremendous success. Held May 22-23, 2005 at the Marriott Financial Center in New York City, the conference featured 11 invited oral presentations and a special pre-conference tutorial workshop,

All of the papers presented at the conference are compiled in this proceedings volume. The roster of invited speakers included technology and industry experts from major international corporations as well as smaller emerging businesses, universities and research institutions. The volume is segmented according to the conference sessions, as enumerated in the Table of Contents......

Business Communications Company, Inc.
25 Van Zant Street, Suite 13, Norwalk, Connecticut 06855-1781.
Telephone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

[BOREALIS]

THIS WEEK IN NANOTECH ~~ 06.07.05 - 06.14.05

NanoScience and NanoBusiness News from NanoApex

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Research Scientist Monsanto Middleton, WI 05-27-2005

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Wafer Level Packaging Engineer microfabrica Burbank, CA 05-25-2005


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NANOSCIENCE NEWS


Nanotech Method Detects Respiratory Syncytial Virus
In what may be one of the first medical uses of nanotechnology, a chemist and a doctor who specializes in infectious childhood diseases have joined forces to create an early detection method for a respiratory virus that is the most common cause of hospitalization among children under five.
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5669

When Nanopants Attack
On a chilly Chicago afternoon in early May, environmental activists sauntered into the Eddie Bauer store on Michigan Avenue, headed to the broad storefront windows opening out on the Magnificent Mile and proceeded to take off their clothes. The strip show aimed to expose more than skin: Activists hoped to lay bare growing allegations of the toxic dangers of nanotechnology. The demonstrators bore the message in slogans painted on their bodies, proclaiming "Eddie Bauer hazard" and "Expose the truth about nanotech," among other things, in light of the clothing company's embrace of nanotech in its recent line of stain-resistant "nanopants."
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5668

First Nano-technology moot in Pak on Monday
A two day Conference on “Nano-Science and Technology in Pakistan” will begin here on Monday. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Ch. Nouraiz Shakoor Khan, the Chief Guest for the occasion will inaugurate the Conference. Nanotechnology is a fast emerging high technology, with fast influencing applications of great economic, strategic and industrial importance.
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5667

China tops the world in nano-papers
News from the 2005 China International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology (China Nano 2005) held on June 9 says that by December 2004 China has had more than 800 companies engaged in trade in nano-technology and about a hundred nano-technology research institutes. More than ten projects such as for making Li cells, solar cells, textiles and environment-friendly interior paints have been commercialized.
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5664

Pitt researchers see electron waves in motion for first time
New imaging technique—a trillion times faster than conventional techniques—advances field of plasmonics, could lead to better semiconductors
Both the ancient art of stained glass and the cutting-edge field of plasmonics rely on the oscillation of electrons in nanosized metal particles. When light shines on such particles, it excites the electromagnetic fields on the metal's surface, known as "surface plasmons," and causes its electrons to oscillate in waves--producing the rich hues of stained glass.
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5663

_____________________________________
NANOBUSINESS NEWS

HP Reveals Groundbreaking Design for Future Nano-electronic Circuits
New approach could enable low-cost, high-yield fabrication
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 9, 2005
HP [profile] today announced that its researchers have created a new way to design future nano-electronic circuits using coding theory, an approach currently being used in certain math, cryptography and telecommunications applications. The result could be nearly perfect manufacturing yields with equipment a thousand times less expensive than what might be required using future versions of current technologies.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4371

Nanobac Life Sciences Announces Research Collaboration with UCSF and NASA's Johnson Space Center to Study Kidney Stones
TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2005--Nanobac Life Sciences, Inc. [profile] (OTCBB: NNBP) ("Nanobac" or "the Company") announced today a multi-center collaboration involving researchers from Nanobac Life Sciences, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) [profile], and NASA[profile]'s Johnson Space Center, to study kidney stone formation. The multi-disciplinary team will apply the same type of instrumentation used to analyze moon rocks and particles collected from space to analyze mineralized particles and stones collected from kidney stone patients.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4370

China, US establish Nano-tech institute
A Sino-American institute specialized in nanometer-related technology will be set up in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, delegates from both sides announced Monday.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4369

SD Pharmaceuticals Launches Licensing Program for Its Novel Formulations of Docetaxel, Paclitaxel, Vinorelbine and Clarithromycin
CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2005--SD Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SDP) [profile] today announced that it launched an out-licensing effort on its proprietary nano-emulsion formulations for a variety of intravenous drugs to treat cancer and infectious disease. The formulations are specifically designed to improve the safety profile and remove black box warnings on four currently marketed therapeutically important drugs, which suffer from formulation related adverse effects. The Company is actively seeking marketing partners to complete the clinical development of these products and market them. The Company intends to engage in three territory-based licenses for each drug candidate, which will include North America, Europe and Japan.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4368

Nanogen Concludes Annual Meeting and Announces Changes to Its Board of Directors
SAN DIEGO, June 9, 2005 -- Nanogen, Inc. [profile] today announced that William G. Gerber, M.D. and Frank H. Jellinek, Jr. have joined its board of directors following their election at the annual meeting of shareholders. It also announced that Val Buonaiuto has retired following over five years as a Nanogen director. All shareholder proposals were approved today at the 2005 annual meeting held in San Diego.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4367

Steel Unit Of Hyundai Motors Co., Ini Steel, To Meet With Nansulate Asia, Exclusive Asian Distributor For Industrial Nanotech
Industrial Nanotech Inc., [profile], an emerging nanotechnology-based solutions provider, announces that the Company's South Korean distributor, Nansulate Asia, is in discussions with INI Steel, the second largest steel manufacturer in South Korea, regarding OEM applications for Nansulate Translucent.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4366

MFIC To Present At Deutsche Borse-Sponsored Nanotech Conference in Frankfurt
MFIC Corporation to Present at the First NanoEquity Europe Conference
Tuesday June 7, 6:47 pm ET
NEWTON, Mass.--June 7, 2005--MFIC Corporation (MFIC or the Company) [profile] announced today that it has accepted an invitation to present at NanoEquity Europe 2005. The event, sponsored by the Deutsche Borse, will be held in Frankfurt, Germany on June 13 and 14.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4365

Malvern’s Zetasizer Nano is used to optimize topical skin care formulation
Researchers at Particle Sciences, Inc. (Bethlehem, PA, USA), a company that develops and markets ingredients for personal care formulations, are using the Malvern [profile] Zetasizer Nano particle characterization system to investigate formulations of their recently developed, encapsulated form of retinol (Vitamin A). Retinol has been shown to have beneficial effects on photo-damaged skin, but is unstable in many formulation processes. This new encapsulated form is designed for the controlled release of the active following topical application.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4364

NanoHorizons™ Patents Cost and Efficiency Breakthrough for Solar Cells and Organic LEDs
Inexpensive photovoltaics made possible; available via new technology licensing program
STATE COLLEGE, PA – June 7, 2005 –NanoHorizons, Inc. [profile], an emerging leader in applied nanoscale materials and solutions, announced today that it has received a notice of allowance from the US Patent Office for its innovative nanoscale photovoltaic cell design. NanoHorizons’ design enables dramatic improvements in solar cell efficiency and breakthrough reductions in fabrication costs. Brighter, more efficient Organic LEDs (OLEDs) are also made possible. The new technology will be available via NanoHorizons’ new Technology Licensing Program.
http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4363

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EVENTS






June 15, 2005 - June 17, 2005
NanoForum Canada 05
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_Calendar&file=index&type=view&am....

June 20, 2005 - June 22, 2005
Nanotec Forum, Xpo & Conference in Stockholm
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_Calendar&file=index&type=view&am....

June 20, 2005 - June 21, 2005
Nano4Food 2005
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_Calendar&file=index&type=view&am....

June 29, 2005 - June 30, 2005
Nanotechnology in BioDiagnostics and Analytics (NBDA)
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_Calendar&file=index&type=view&am....

June 30, 2005 - July 3, 2005
First ECHEMS Meeting—Electrochemistry in Nanosciences
http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_Calendar&file=index&type=view&am....

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[Churak]

major SPAM on that POS this AM...

[Rager]

LOL...I missed the fun but at least get to see the results >



thats got to hurt.

Matt what size shoes you where?

lol

[Churak]

yeah...that'll learn him...lol

[occams_razor]

yup. just a matter of time. You could threaten to buy it, that would scare him off.

[Churak]

even more of a reason to nail him...