TGIF
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
PXC at .005 shows a scared market and a pending consolidation (10:1) to be agreed upon at next AGM.
ITF or Freegold Ventures is another perfect example of a company that had it all to succeed and yet has come down to .16, very close to 52 week low.
GGN at all time low .. this company had tons of money and properties and so many bought in over a dollar .. and then overestimated resources and the financial crisis has brought it down to its knees.
Thanks very much! I did download this yesterday, but for some reason it didn't help.
I downloaded it again, and somehow after
some persistence it worked finally.
Thanks again Bruce!
Ou
I found that and downloaded the Catalyst Control Center (CCC), but it still doesn't work. In fact it doesn't even recognize my DVD drive anymore.
I am probably one step away but not knowledgeable enough to know what to do next. Is the drive inside that CCC and I need to install it?
Thanks
Hi!
I am having a problem playing videos on my desktop
Worked well fora few years, but since cleaning the drive it gives an error message about codec or driver for video card.
The video card is an ATI rad9800 SE.
Can you help'?
Any further details needs?
Thanks all
"Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or
two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod."
--Aristophanes (BC 448-380, Greek Comic Poet, Satirist)
YouTube to post full-length MGM films
NEW YORK (Reuters) - YouTube, the largest video-sharing website, will show full-length television shows and films from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's archives in its latest step to boost advertising revenue by adding professional programing, the company told Reuters on Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The site, owned by Google Inc, plans to make the announcement about the new partnership on Monday.
MGM Studios will kick off the partnership by posting episodes of its decade-old "American Gladiators" program to YouTube on one channel.
On another channel, MGM will post full-length action films like "Bulletproof Monk" and "The Magnificent Seven" and clips from popular movies like "Legally Blonde." These will be free to watch, with ads running alongside the video.
YouTube in October forged a similar partnership with CBS Corp to run full-length archived shows, including "Star Trek," "Young and the Restless" and "Beverly Hills 90210."
Many TV networks already run short clips on YouTube, which also offers millions of home videos uploaded by users.
But until now, YouTube videos were predominantly short clips of ten minutes or less. The company has been experimenting with full-length shows for some months with Time Warner Inc's HBO and CBS's Showtime cable networks.
The new partnerships put YouTube in more direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp and General Electric's NBC Universal.
Hulu features up-to-date full-length shows from News Corp's Fox networks, NBC and CBS. It also has a YouTube channel which features short-clip versions of its shows.
(Reporting by Jui Chakravorty Das and Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Ben Tan)
A great podcast site
http://www.podguide.tv/archives/arts_entertainment/index.html
Indiana Jones was ok but a bit long and nothing new or original. I am so blase ... (sigh)
Picked up The Happening on a reco ... I hope it is better!
IRON MAN the movie on DVD was a big disappointment. I hardly rent anything lately and this was not very good!
sorry to hear that ... your holiday will come too
not much bro, just getting ready for a long weekend!!!
"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win
once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them
right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."
--Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) American Football Coach
NT continues to be a basket case!!
Brain slows at 40, starts body decline, new research from Los Angeles suggests
Provided by: The Canadian Press
Written by: Lauran Neergaard, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nov. 3, 2008
WASHINGTON - Think achy joints are the main reason we slow down as we get older? Blame the brain, too: The part in charge of motion may start a gradual downhill slide at age 40.
How fast you can throw a ball or run or swerve a steering wheel depends on how speedily brain cells fire off commands to muscles. Fast firing depends on good insulation for your brain's wiring.
Now new research suggests that in middle age, even healthy people begin to lose some of that insulation in a motor-control part of the brain - at the same rate that their speed subtly slows.
That helps explain why "it's hard to be a world-class athlete after 40," concludes Dr. George Bartzokis, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the work.
And while that may sound depressing, keep reading. The research points to yet another reason to stay physically and mentally active: An exercised brain may spot fraying insulation quicker and signal for repair cells to get to work.
To Bartzokis, the brain is like the Internet. Speedy movement depends on bandwidth, which in the brain is myelin, a special sheet of fat that coats nerve fibres.
Healthy myelin - good thick insulation wound tightly around those nerve fibres - allows prompt conduction of the electrical signals the brain uses to send commands. Higher-frequency electrical discharges, known as "actional potentials," speed movement - any movement, from a basketball rebound to a finger tap.
Consider someone like Michael Jordan. "The circuitry that made him a great basketball player was probably myelinated better than most other mortals," Bartzokis notes.
But while myelin builds up during adolescence, when does production slow enough that we fall behind in the race to repair fraying, older insulation?
Enter the new research. First, Bartzokis recruited 72 healthy men, ages 23 to 80, to perform a simple test: How fast they tapped an index finger. Anyone can do this; it doesn't depend on strength or fitness.
Researchers counted how many taps the men made in 10 seconds, recording the two fastest of 10 attempts. Then, brain scans checked for myelin in need of repair in the region that orders a finger to tap.
Strikingly, tapping speed and myelin health both peaked at age 39. Then both gradually declined with increasing age, the researchers reported last month in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
That doesn't mean the rest of the brain is equally affected. Bartzokis has some evidence that myelin starts to fray a decade or so later in brain regions responsible for cognitive functions - higher-level thinking - than in motor-control areas.
So back to his example of Jordan, who last played professionally at age 40: "Even he started getting older. That circuitry started breaking down a little," contends Bartzokis. "He can become Michael Jordan the big-shot businessman ... but not be Michael Jordan the super-duper basketball player anymore."
Bartzokis isn't looking to build a better athlete. His ultimate goal is to fight Alzheimer's disease. The connection: Building memories requires high-frequency electrical bursts, too, and Bartzokis' earlier research suggests an Alzheimer's-linked gene may thwart myelin repair.
But the new research has broader implications because it sheds light on normal aging, says Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis, a neurologist at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center.
"We knew at some age you peak and there's a sense it would disintegrate as you grow older. But we didn't have a sense of where that age would be," says Arvanitakis, who next wants to see if myelin and cognitive functions show a similar trajectory.
Bartzokis' research supports a recent report from German scientists, that with age comes a weakening of the system that's supposed to repair broken myelin, adds Dr. Bradley Wise of the National Institute on Aging.
"Any disruption in these neural circuits and networks will have problems for functioning," says Wise, who says the two reports are spurring increased interest into myelin's role in aging. Until recently, most myelin research has focused on multiple sclerosis, where myelin doesn't gradually degrade but disappears.
While much more research is needed, Bartzokis has some practical advice:
-Keeping active and treating high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes already are deemed important for good brain health. But physical and mental activity also may stimulate myelin repair, while unused neural pathways wouldn't send out a "help" signal, he says.
"Remember, these are average people I tested," Bartzokis says. "Someone that's really practising could make it (myelin) last longer because you're sending the signals to repair, repair, repair."
-Stress hormones, however, may hurt myelin.
-He's also testing whether consumption of omega-3 fatty acids - the oils, found in fatty fish, already recommended for cardiovascular health - might help maintain myelin.
The contents of this site are for informational purposes only and are meant to be discussed with your physician or other qualified health care professional before being acted on. Never disregard any advice given to you by your doctor or other qualified health care professional. Always seek the advice of a physician or other licensed health care professional regarding any questions you have about your medical condition(s) and treatment(s). This site is not a substitute for medical advice.
© 1996 - 2008 MediResource Inc. - MediResource reaches millions of Canadians each year.
pretty good big bear ... balmy 75 degrees up here for a couple of days ....
gm guys and gals!
Enablence Technologies wins major bid from ZTE
2008-11-03 12:31 ET - News Release
Mr. Arvind Chhatbar reports
ENABLENCE SELECTED BY ZTE FOR MAJORITY OF ITS ROADM REQUIREMENTS
Enablence Technologies Inc. has won a major bid from China's ZTE Corp., one of the first and now largest telecommunications enterprises in China. Under this arrangement, Enablence will be supplying its industry-leading Planar Lightwave circuit-based (PLC), reconfigurable, optical, add-drop multiplexers (ROADM) and its PLC-based Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWG) products.
Enablence's iROADTM provides a flexible, integrated solution for multichannel ROADM, with power monitoring and automatic channel balancing at low-cost, small-size and low-power dissipation. It allows carriers to switch traffic and dynamically reconfigure networks to match the changing bandwidth needs of different customers. Enablence's ROADM makes this traffic switch automatically and remotely, thus reducing operating expenses for carriers. ZTE has chosen Enablence iROADTM solutions due to its high performance. This product will allow telecommunication service providers to quickly increase services to their customers and will therefore result in significant revenue generation.
The Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWG) is commonly used in optical networks to combine a large number of wavelengths into a single optical fibre. Enablence's AWG come in colourless and polarization maintaining options, and can combine as many as 80 wavelengths into a single fibre.
"Enablence has been a leading supplier for Arrayed Waveguide Gratings for the European and North American markets for many years. This win from a major Chinese equipment manufacturer is very significant for us, as it is a further indication of our strong customer focus and competitive position in the global marketplace," said Arvind Chhatbar, chief executive officer of Enablence.
ok, thanks!
Is this a 1993 STS Cadillac?
Pretty sure this was it in black!
Pretty sure this was it in black!
This is what I saw but in four doors! Was the STS rear end similar to ETC in 1993?
I read that many employers now do a Google and look for all Internet traces you may have left behind including pics and blogs that are sometimes compromising and/or do not meet the corporate fit of the company hiring.
Thanks creekjumper!
Virgin Atlantic sacks 13 staff after Facebook criticism
Module body
Fri Oct 31, 7:47 PM
11
* What's this
LONDON (AFP) - Virgin Atlantic said Friday it has sacked 13 of its cabin staff after they criticised the airline and some of its passengers on social networking website Facebook.
ADVERTISEMENT
The airline, controlled by Richard Branson's Virgin group, said the staff's behaviour was "totally inappropriate" and "brought the company into disrepute".
The action follows an investigation into the remarks posted on Facebook, which concerned planes flying from London's Gatwick airport and insulted passengers, as well as reportedly saying the planes were full of cockroaches.
"Virgin Atlantic can confirm that 13 members of its cabin crew will be leaving the company after breaking staff policies due to totally inappropriate behaviour," the airline said in a statement.
"Following a thorough investigation, it was found that all 13 staff participated in a discussion on the networking site Facebook, which brought the company into disrepute and insulted some of our passengers."
It said cabin staff who held such views could not uphold the expected standard of customer service.
"There is a time and a place for Facebook. But there is no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticise the very passengers who ultimately pay their salaries," a spokesman said.
Facebook allows users to share photographs, videos and personal information through online individual profiles and groups. It claims to have 110 million users worldwide.
Thanks for the pic. The one I saw had like full length vertical tail lights and the rear end was much flatter and bigger ...
ok thanks Ren!
On the weekend I saw a beautiful black Cadillac STS with a flat box like rear end. I wanted to ask what year it was but the owner was gone before I had the courage to go bother him while he was gassing up.
I googled it with my best guess on the year -- definitely pre-2005, but unable to get a picture that confirmed the model I saw...
If anybody can help, I would appreciate your feedback.
Cheers!
ou
Anybody know the best way to clean an iPOD Touch faceplate?
tia
ou
Quebec comedy duo talks porn and politics with oblivious Sarah Palin
By Jessica Murphy, The Canadian Press
ADVERTISEMENT
MONTREAL - In an over-the-top accent, one half of a notorious Quebec comedy duo claims to be the president of France as he describes sex with his famous wife, the joy of killing animals and Hustler magazine's latest Sarah Palin porno spoof.
At the other end of the line? An oblivious Sarah Palin.
The Masked Avengers, a radio pairing notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state, notched its latest victory Saturday when it released a recording of a six-minute call with Palin, who thought she was talking with Nicolas Sarkozy.
Throughout the call, which was making the rounds in U.S. political circles by day's end Saturday, Palin and the pranksters discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of going hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.
"We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you," Palin gushes, evidently unaware she's speaking to an infamous Quebec comedian named Marc-Antoine Audette.
At one point, Palin even comes close to confirming her intention to one day run for president, when Audette slyly remarks he can see her taking over the big desk in the Oval office.
"Maybe in eight years," she replies with a nervous chuckle.
Over the course of the interview, Palin doesn't seem to realize she's being tricked until Audette comes clean near the end of the call.
"Ohhhh . . . have we been pranked?" she says, in her inimitable style. Seconds later, Palin's aide can be heard taking the phone before the line goes dead.
Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something's amiss.
He identifies French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the U.S., singer Stef Carse as Canada's prime minister and Quebec comedian and radio host Richard Z. Sirois as the provincial premier.
"We should go hunting together," Palin offers when Audette professes a love of hunting - or, more precisely, killing animals. "We can have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone."
Audette then jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.
"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin, who praises Sarkozy throughout the call.
"I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally - and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness," she says.
"You've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours."
Audette then tells her his wife, Carla Bruni, a singer and former model, was jealous to hear Sarkozy would be speaking to Palin. "Give her a big hug for me," Palin responds.
Audette goes on to describe Bruni as "hot in bed" and claims she's written a song for Palin, the French title of which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig." In English, Audette says the song is about Joe the Plumber.
Finally, he mentions a notorious Hustler video titled "Nailin' Paylin," describing it as "the documentary they made on your life."
"Oh, good, thank you, yes," Palin replies.
"That was really edgy," Audette says.
"Well, good."
In an interview Saturday, Audette told The Canadian Press it wasn't easy setting up the interview with Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, and described the accomplishment as the pair's biggest triumph to date.
"It really took a lot of work," he said.
"We had to go through the Secret Service, the people in her entourage. It's the biggest coup so far. We're proud to add (this prank) to our top hits."
It took the pair, known for securing surreptitious interviews with celebrities, politicians and heads of state, five days to set up the call, Audette said. The secret to getting powerful people on the line? Time and persistence.
"I wanted to see how (Palin) was on an intellectual level," Audette said, comparing the latest prank to the duo's crank call with pop idol Britney Spears.
"You can see that she's, well, not really brilliant."
In a statement Saturday, Palin's team said the vice-presidential nominee was "mildly amused" to learn she was the victim of a prank.
"Gov. Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.
"C'est la vie."
Audette, too, was contrite afterward.
"I hope we won't have a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay."
The well-known radio prankster duo of Audette and Sebastien Trudel have most recently tricked Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. Other celebrity victims include Spears and Bill Gates.
In 2007, they conned Sarkozy himself by impersonating Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And their 2006 call to former French president Jacques Chirac was rated by the BBC as one of the top 30 all-time best moments in radio history.
Known as the "Masked Avengers," they've been popular on the Quebec comedy scene for a decade.
The Avengers, who have a regular show on Montreal radio station CKOI, will air the full interview on the eve of the U.S. elections. It can also be heard in full on their website www.justiciers.tv .
Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits.
Boy shot, killed trick-or-treating; two injured
Sat Nov 1, 1:55 AM
By The Associated Press
SUMTER, S.C. - A 12-year-old boy trick-or-treating with his family was shot from inside a home Friday and killed, and his father and brother were wounded by the gunfire, authorities said.
A suspect was in custody and police called the shooting an isolated incident. The family was headed home from a city-sponsored event downtown when they decided to stop at a few homes, Sumter Police Chief Patty Patterson said. The father and his four children approached a home with a porch light on about 8:30 p.m. while their mother waited nearby in a vehicle.
As the family was at the door, they thought they heard fireworks. The 12-year-old boy, his father and brother were all hit by the gunfire. The boy died at a hospital, Coroner Verna Moore said. The other two children were not hurt.
The boy's father and brother were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Patterson has not released the man's name or the identities of the family.
She also would not release any more details about the shooting.
The police said there were other people inside the home at the time of the shooting, but she didn't expect any of them to be charged.
A neighbor said he heard a loud noise about the time of the shooting and thought it was simply Halloween mischief.
"I thought, trick-or-treat night - pranks go down. Anything goes," said Lenwood Dixon, 49. "I heard a noise like maybe gunfire, then my daughter saw a bunch of lights flashing and saw some cops."
"I'm surprised. Since I was here, I'd never heard of anything like that happening. It's a quiet neighborhood," he said. "You don't see many children in the neighbourhood. It's more elderly."
Copyright © 2008 Canadian Press
"Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute
rejection of authority."
--Thomas Henry Huxley
American Express to cut 7,000 jobs in tough economic times
Module body
Thu Oct 30, 11:37 AM
1
What's this
By The Associated Press
ADVERTISEMENT
NEW YORK - In a stark acknowledgment of the tough times ahead in the credit card industry, American Express Co. (NYSE:AMX) said Thursday that it plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or about 10 per cent of its worldwide work force, in an effort to slash costs by US$1.8 billion in 2009.
The New York-based credit card issuer said it is also suspending management level salary increases next year and instituting a hiring freeze.
The job cuts will be across various business units, but will primarily focus on management positions, the company said.
Additionally, American Express said it plans to scale back investments in technology and marketing and business development, and streamline costs associated with some rewards programs. The company also expects to cut expenses for consulting and other professional services, travel and entertainment and general overhead.
As a result, American Express plans to take a restructuring charge of between $240 million and $290 million in the fourth quarter.
The company has been gearing up for a big restructuring for some time, first announcing in July that it planned to reduce overall costs and staffing levels, and take a related charge during the second half of the year.
"We've been engaged for the past few months in an intensive, companywide review of priorities and staffing levels," said Kenneth Chenault, chairman and chief executive, in a statement.
"The re-engineering program we announced today will help us to manage through one of the most challenging economic environments we've seen in many decades. It will also put us in position to ramp up investment spending as economic conditions improve so that we can take advantage of the substantial opportunities that will be available to us over the medium to long term."
Last week, American Express reported a better-than-expected 24 per cent decline in third-quarter profit. But the report echoed recent results from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp. showing that the credit card environment is worsening as cardholders have trouble paying off debt and pull back their spending.
Even a company like American Express, which prides itself on catering to a more well-heeled clientele, is not immune.
The company's customers tend to be more affluent than those of other card companies, but they are more heavily concentrated in California and Florida, where the slumping housing market is taking a toll. American Express also has a higher percentage of small-business customers, and small businesses tend to miss payments more than individuals, executives have said.
"Cardmember spending is likely to remain soft," Chenault said in a statement last week. "Loan growth will be restrained, in part because of the steps we are taking to reduce credit risks, and credit indicators are likely to reflect the continued downturn in the economy and throughout the housing sector."
American Express has been able to finance its operations amid the tight credit markets, but the efforts have been tougher and more costly.
Shares rose $1.52, or six per cent, to $26.74 in morning trading. Shares have traded between $20.50 and $61.55 in the past 12 months.
BMO buying ENA
"Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means
pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty."
--Henri Frederic Amiel, "The Private Journal of Henri Frederic Amiel"
GM, Chrysler request $10 billion in aid: sources
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
By Jui Chakravorty Das and Kevin Krolicki
NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for roughly $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to support a merger between GM and Chrysler LLC, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday.
The government funding would include roughly $3 billion in exchange for preferred stock in the merged automaker, according to one of the sources, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The U.S. Treasury Department is considering a request for direct aid to facilitate the merger and a decision could come this week, sources familiar with the still-developing government response said earlier on Monday.
An injection of $3 billion in equity to support a GM acquisition of Chrysler would be roughly equivalent to the current, depressed value of the top U.S. automaker.
It would also give U.S. taxpayers a large stake in the turnaround of a struggling auto industry that employs over 350,000 American workers and is credited with supporting employment for another 4.5 million in related fields.
Analysts see GM, Chrysler and rival Ford Motor Co having been driven to the brink of failure by a combination of management missteps, slowing global growth and problems in credit markets.
In addition to its equity stake, the U.S. government is also being asked to provide support for the GM-Chrysler merger by taking over some $3 billion in pension obligations under the terms of a proposal now before the government for review, the first source said.
The final component of the proposed support package would be a credit line that could include U.S. government purchases of commercial paper issued by GM to relieve short-term pressure on liquidity, the person said.
A combined GM-Chrysler would control roughly a third of the U.S. auto market by sales and would face immediate pressure to cut costs stemming from excess capacity in almost every facet of its business. Those would include a stable of 11 brands, roughly 10,000 dealers and some 97,000 union-represented factory workers, analysts have said.
But one of the conditions of the merger would be that GM-Chrysler would spare as many jobs as possible in order to win broad political support for the government funding needed to complete the deal, people familiar with the merger discussions said.
GM could not be immediately reached for comment. Cerberus and Chrysler had no comment.
The roughly $10 billion to support the GM merger with Chrysler would be in addition to whatever funds would be allocated to the automaker under an already approved $25 billion program to provide low-interest loans to the industry for retooling to make more fuel-efficient cars.
(Additional reporting by David Bailey)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright 2008 © Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.