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Arimathea

Saint Nicholas of Myra

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Acknowledgments

Tenebrae Exteriores

Commerce

Here are recommended businesses that are worth your consideration, if not your money.

Household Goods

Domestic accessories

Friday, February 4, A.D. 2011

A Hoth Winter’s Night

My friend and fellow connoisseur de la culture geek Andrew alerted me to the following product from Lucas’ commercial empire—a Tauntaun sleeping bag. ThinkGeek evidently featured the product as an April Fools’ Day joke and consequently experienced Corellian corvettes full of interested fans who wanted to buy it. It developed the product, lobbied Lucasfilm for their licensing blessings, and made Adam Smith proud. Now, you can sleep in your very own dead Tauntaun carcass to stay warm during frigid nights, which Star Wars fans often experience.

You may read the story on ThinkGeek. They also feature scores of company and customer photographs, which remind you that their commercial community does, in fact, think geek. They even made a video. The world is a wonderful place.

Posted by Joseph

on Friday, February 4, Anno Domini 2011
Household Goods • (0) Comments • Permalink

Tuesday, December 21, A.D. 2010

Clinton Wares

If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift for someone who likes politics and has a taste for ribaldry, then consider the Clinton dinner party set from Eagleview, USA. The set includes the “Hillary Nutcracker”

and “Corkscrew Bill.”

The web site features other pictures of their products, including this one.

Rather fitting.

Posted by Joseph

on Tuesday, December 21, Anno Domini 2010
Household Goods • (0) Comments • Permalink

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The Economist

Liberalism in Print

JPMorgan Chase: Dimon in the rough

A BIG but digestible mistake by a financial institution with abundant profits and capital should normally be viewed as the market equivalent of an electric shock, a jolt that leads to smarter behaviour. The response to JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion (and rising) loss on a position taken by its chief investment office could not have been more highly charged.The loss has reinforced the political appeal of bashing banks, no matter what the facts. Barack Obama went on a TV chat show on May 14th and responded to questions about the loss by implying it would have been blocked under the Volcker rule banning proprietary trading. Given the proposed wording of the rule and the apparent nature of the trade, which seems to have started out as an attempt to hedge risk, that assertion is at best a stretch.Elizabeth Warren, a senatorial candidate in Massachusetts, also jumped on the bandwagon. “Wall Street isn’t going to change its ways until Washington gets serious about strong oversight and real accountability,” ran a campaign ad. Yet JPM is already among the most heavily regulated institutions in America, if not the world. Supervisors have employees climbing all over the bank; they routinely review its credit and business practices. Perhaps to pre-empt criticisms of inept oversight, a string of regulators has nonetheless announced investigations into the trade.Competing financial firms...
Short-selling litigation: An enlightening mistake

A RARE slip-up by lawyers has helped shed some light on a high-profile legal battle, the details of which some of the largest Wall Street firms have been fighting to keep under wraps. The case concerns allegations of illegal “naked” short selling, where the rules have been tightened several times over the past seven years.In 2007 Overstock sued 11 brokers, alleging that they had caused its share price to fall by helping their clients to naked-short the Utah-based retailer. In a normal short sale, shares are borrowed (or at least “located”) with a broker’s help before being sold. In the naked version, there is no attempt to borrow or locate the stock. This can create “fails to deliver”, where the trade is not settled when it should be, and messes with the laws of supply and demand, allowing shorting to take place beyond the natural limits set by the number of borrowable shares.As the pre-trial discovery period proceeded, Overstock narrowed its focus to two firms, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America. Before the case was set to go to trial in California, however, the judge dismissed it on jurisdictional grounds, ruling that not enough of the alleged wrongdoing had taken place in the state. Overstock appealed and pushed for all of the evidence to be unsealed. The defendants objected. Four media groups, including The Economist,...
Free exchange: Surf’s up

IN 1900 America had around 500 carmakers; by 1908 it had 200. In 1960 Britain had 16 banks; ten years later it had just six. In both cases, this rapid consolidation came about because of a flurry of mergers. From soft drinks to steelworks, plenty of other industries have seen similar patterns. Mergers happen in waves, so the number of firms collapses suddenly rather than dwindling over time. And the next one may soon crest.

The first merger wave in America peaked in 1899. During that wave, which lasted for five years, 700 mining and milling companies disappeared, along with 500 food retailers. The next four waves in America occurred in the 1920s and 1960s and again in the late 1980s and 1990s (see left-hand chart). Other countries have experienced the same phenomenon.Research suggests that shocks start merger waves. Some firms are quicker than others to respond to the disruption, or suffer less damage. This divergence allows the strong to mop up the weak. As far back as 1937 Ronald Coase, an economist, proposed that technological shifts like the telephone and the telegraph would lead to fewer, larger firms...
Accounting in China: Internal controls

THE big global accounting firms are not having an easy time of it in China. They have been caught up in the accounting scandals that have engulfed many Chinese firms that listed on America’s stock exchanges: on May 9th, for example, America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took legal action against Deloitte’s Shanghai arm in a case involving an unnamed Chinese client. The next day Chinese officials unveiled details of a plan that will force foreign partners to hand control of the “Big Four” firms—Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC—to Chinese colleagues by the end of 2017.At first blush, the SEC seems to be overreaching by pursuing auditors based in China which are already regulated by local authorities. And the localisation scheme appears to be yet another example of the pitch being queered for foreign firms by an overweening Chinese state. But the snap judgments are misleading.The American regulatory mandate abroad arises because many Chinese firms choose to list on America’s exchanges while still using auditors based in China. One such example is Longtop, a Chinese business-software firm that...
Japanese banks in Asia: Lending a hand

THERE are two, potentially overlapping, ways in which Asia’s export-driven economies could suffer from the euro crisis. One is from the slowdown in trade to Europe. The other is the drying up of finance, from trade credit to syndicated loans, extended by euro-zone banks. On neither score is Asia as vulnerable as it was after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, argued Iwan Azis of the Asian Development Bank, at The Economist’s Bellwether conference in Tokyo on May 16th. One of the reasons is that Japan’s mega-banks have lumbered off their home territory to pick up some of the slack left by the departing Europeans (see chart).This is good news not just for Asia’s exporters. It also shows a rare stroke of boldness by Japan’s big three, Mitsubishi UFJ Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho. After pulling back from lending to Asia following the 1998 financial crisis, and then suffering more than a decade of deleveraging by their deflation-sapped customers at home, they can almost smell the predicament of their European peers. Ken Takamiya of Nomura Securities says that in Australia, for...

Forbes

The Capitalist Tool

'Elder Scrolls Online' Meets Skepticism Amidst Fierce Competition
Following the massive success of Skyrim, the fifth installment of their Elder Scrolls franchise, Bethesda Studios recently announced the launch of a new contender in the MMORPG arena: The Elder Scrolls Online. But with a well established competition and a plethora of fresh-faced game developers leaving university or online programs producing free-to-play games, the move ...
The Beastie Boys' Sampling and Copyright Law
TufAmerica, on behalf of Trouble Funk, recently filed a lawsuit against The Beastie Boys accusing them of copyright infringement for incorporating samples of two Trouble??Funk recordings on four Beastie Boys recordings. The case presents some complex issues of copyright law that I will try to clarify. Statute of Limitations The Beastie Boys first released the ...
Land Shares of MCP 26.0% Cheaper Than the CEO Did
There?s an old saying on Wall Street about insider buying: there are many possible reasons to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy. Back on December 15, Molycorp Inc. ?s CEO, Mark A. Smith, invested $139,750.00 into 5,000 shares of MCP, for a cost per share of $27.95. Bargain hunters tend to pay ...
Land This Bargain 11.3% Yield Dividend Stock Even Cheaper Than Director Stark Did
There?s an old saying on Wall Street about insider buying: there are many possible reasons to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy. Back on May 15, Prospect Capital Corporation?s Director, Eugene S. Stark, invested $5,425.00 into 500 shares of PSEC, for a cost per share of $10.85. Bargain hunters tend to pay ...
Who Are The Top Ten Influencers In Social, Mobile, Cloud?
As content marketing takes a hold you need to know who has influence in your business area. Who is influencing your clients??? How does your own content might measure up to what the established content producers are putting out? These are important questions. Traackr, who I wrote about here, have come up with a fascinating ...
Toyota Pushes Past GM (Again) To Become The World's No. 1 Carmaker
The seesaw battle between and Toyota for global sales leadership just tipped in Toyota?s direction again. Figures from the company show Toyota sold 2.49 million vehicles in the first quarter, putting it ahead of GM with 2.28 million, according to Agence France Presse. Germany?s ranks third, with 2.16 million. Toyota had grabbed the top-selling title ...
San Francisco Freaks Out Over 'Creepy' Facial Detection Cameras In Bars That Are Not Actually At All Creepy
You'd think a city that loves data as much as San Francisco would have a serious happy hour over an app that provides big data about the city's bars, but instead the Frisco freaked out.
EMC Acquires Syncplicity
EMC has acquired Syncplicity, a Menlo Park,??California-based provider of cloud-based file management software. ?Syncplicity provides native cloud-based sync and share capabilities required by enterprise customers,? EMC said in a statement. ?Enterprise sync and share solutions are increasingly required by companies in response to the proliferation of mobile, social and cloud computing.? Terms were not disclosed. ...
Sequoia Capital's, And Ex-PayPal CFO, Roelof Botha Is Bullish On Facebook
One of Sequoia Capital's heavy hitters, Roelof Botha, praised Facebook, noting it had created an amazing platform with many businesses being built from it. He asked investors and entrepreneurs not to focus on the short-term and not to expect to sell their company for millions overnight.
Facebook Redesigning Timeline
It may be a tense time for as its stock price continues to slide off of a rocky IPO, but that doesn't mean that business as usual I stalled for the social media giant. Timeline has never been Facebook's most popular update. People were initially terrified that the new feature would unearth a whole lot ...
Will Lundbeck's New Antidepressant Be a Major New Drug?
There are a variety of medications available to treat depression, the most popular being selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.?? While effective, these and other antidepressants are not ideal.?? In general, the success rate for these drugs is on the order of 50%.?? In addition, weeks of treatment are needed ...
'Too Hot' To Sell Lingerie?! The Appearance-Based Female Workplace Dress Code
Twenty-nine-year-old Lauren Odes was fired from her job at a lingerie store for being "too hot." Meaning: having a not-so-average bosom. Her female supervisor asked Odes to "tape down her breasts" and "wear a bathrobe" to cover up her voluptuous body. Not too long after, she was fired. Fired for having noticeable boobs. Fired from ...
Wanted: New CEO To Steer Best Buy Through Troubled Water, Must Have Turnaround Experience
is elbow-deep in muck. The Minneapolis-based merchant of electronics is in the midst of an aggressive turnaround while dealing with fallout from a sex scandal in the C-suite and the abrupt departure of its founder and chairman. The earnings report doesn't look so hot either. Profits are down 40% and net income slid to $161 ...
F5 Integrates Google's Speedier Delivery Protocol To Make Web Faster
With a growing enterprise need to support all of its end users from a device standpoint, mobile application delivery support is the next logical step for many application delivery controller vendors.
3.74M Job Openings, 12.5M Unemployed: Can Talent Management Bridge The Gap?
Naturally, for SaaS talent management to completely work, CEOs need to reinstate tuition reimbursement programs cut during the Great Recession. Moreover, they need to drop the prevailing canards that finding the "right employee" is just a matter of fine-tuning some resume-reading algorithm or endlessly searching for employees with the precise skill sets they require. Instead of going on CNBC bemoaning the lack of "qualified job candidates," CEOs and their managers need to take a closer look at the ready and eager candidates before them, and then invest in those hires over the long-term. Retention rates will go up, hiring costs will go down, and, finally, we might make a serious dent in the unemployment rate, regardless of what happens in Washington, DC.
A More Personalized Search Engine Helps eBay Reach $48
Any significant improvement in search quality would directly impact the listings-to-sales conversion rate, resulting in an increase in its revenue from Marketplaces.
'Office Manager' Does HR, Marketing, Still Paid Below Poverty Line
By Malena Amusa WeNews correspondent Tuesday, May 22, 2012 As an office manager in a technology company, Shawntay Nicole?s work duties have steadily increased without any increase in pay or title. To let off steam, she turns her real-life frustrations into laughs at a stand-up comedy club. ? ST. LOUIS (WOMENSENEWS) ? Shawntay Nicole keeps ...
Doublefine's Tim Schaefer on How to Fund Your Game Through Kickstarter
Back in March, Tim Schaefer and Doublefine games changed video game financing forever by raising 3.3 million on Kickstarter to??finance??a new adventure game. Since then, the games kick-economy has exploded, and it?s looking like crowd-sourced??funding might become a permanent addition to the games landscape. We sat down with Schaefer to talk about Doublefine?s success and ...
Facebook Wedding Photographer: "It Was A Surprise For Me Too!"
The wedding of Mark Zuckerberg to Priscilla Chan may have been a secret affair, but one thing's for sure: wedding photographer Allyson Magda's business stands to benefit from being "friended" by Facebook.
You Want To Open A Restaurant; But Do You Have The Stomach For It?
In 1989, a chic little Basque-inspired eatery opened up in downtown . With plush, azure-blue banquettes lining the walls, candle lit tables for two, and soft, seductive jazz, Alison on Dominick Street soon earned the moniker 's most romantic restaurant, and a highly coveted spot in Gourmet magazine's Top Twenty Restaurants in feature. seemed in ...