Speaking of bad bills, if ever there were a candidate for a quiet killing, it's Senate Bill 1172. It legalizes the manufacture of silencers for firearms. Yup, silencers — those suppressors that screw into the barrel of a weapon to muffle the noise of the gunshot. They're good for business. Or at least they would be good for business if they were legal. Under current Missouri law, it's not legal to import, make, repair or sell silencers. But that would change if state Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, gets his way.

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Architects and businesspeople often seem to speak different languages. Architects love to talk about space, light, and "transcending morphology." Businesspeople use phrases like "return on investment" and "risk management." The goal of the BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards is to create a dialogue between these two worlds and honor examples of architects and their clients working together to further each other's goals. Two years ago we brought the awards to China on a biannual basis, believing the message "good design is good business" would find fertile ground here.

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New data on Iraq oil revenues suggests that country's government will reap an even larger than expected windfall this year -- as much as $70 billion -- according to the special U.S. auditor for Iraq. The previously undisclosed information is likely to strengthen the hand of U.S. lawmakers complaining that Iraqis aren't footing enough of the bill for rebuilding their nation -- particularly in light of rising oil production and world prices. Oil prices Wednesday hovered near $120 a barrel.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates met privately Tuesday night with Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman Carl Levin.

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If you ever want to learn how to motivate people, take on a charity fundraiser. You will be faced with the challenge of your life and your business be stronger for the experience. When you work on anything for charity, you’re likely to be working on your own or with a small contingent of cheerful volunteers. You’ve got to recruit help from outside the organization and/or make the most of the talent you have. Either way, you learn to be an amazing administrator, a remarkable reminder, and an endearing encourager. Lead by Inspiration
By taking on a major fundraiser, you get a big committee, complete with a potpourri of personality types and commitment levels.

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Samsung Electronics Co. trimmed its sales forecast for this year on global economic woes, but said profit will increase, helped by earnings growth in key areas such as memory chips, flat-panel displays and mobile handsets. "Global economic uncertainty will continue this year, affecting our management conditions," Chief Executive Yun Jong-yong said Friday at the annual shareholders' meeting. "We expect competition to become fiercer globally amid higher oil prices and the dollar's weakness." Samsung aims to raise its 2008 sales by 10 percent on year, Yun said, without providing specific figures. The forecast is lower than the 15 percent on-year increase it projected in January.

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Readers of this space know that my investment bias is toward large-cap companies with demonstrated business models and a competitive advantage in established markets, preferably with a favorable global trend as a support. With the above in mind, U.S. Steel is worth a review. U.S. Steel Group (NYSE: X) is the fifth largest steel producer in the world. Analysts expect U.S. Steel's 2008 revenue to increase 13-17%, primarily stemming from acquisitions. Further, distributor inventory levels reached unsustainably low levels in 2007, in the interpretation of many analysts, and the replenishing in 2008 should benefit X.

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A California aerospace company plans to enter the space tourism industry with a two-seat rocket ship capable of suborbital flights to altitudes more than 37 miles above the Earth. The Lynx, about the size of a small private plane, is expected to begin flying in 2010, according to developer Xcor Aerospace, which planned to release details of the design at a news conference today. The company also said that, pending the outcome of negotiations, the Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded it a research contract to develop and test features of the Lynx. No details were released.

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Samsung's hopes the channel will help get ultra-mobile PCs into the hands of customers. Samsung launched a new version of its P3 partner program just over a year ago, and so far the company has been able leverage it to set itself apart from the competition with its established product lines like displays and up-and-coming sectors like its cutting-edge ultra-mobile PCs. After eight months of research and finding out what its resellers were looking for in a partner program by talking to them and to industry experts, Samsung launched the program in January 2007.

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The Justice Department on Monday approved Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s proposed $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., saying the deal was unlikely to lessen competition or harm consumers. The transaction was approved without conditions, despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry. The combination still requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited a merger when it first granted satellite radio operating licenses in 1997.

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Open Door Mission has announced plans to offer classes to the general public to prepare students to pass the GED Tests, or General Educational Development Tests. When passed, the test certifies that the student has attained high-school level academic skills. The test is widely accepted by colleges, corporations, and other institutions. Open Door Mission will offer the classes completely free of charge to students who are otherwise unable to pay a fee for the classes. In addition, the classes will be “Open,” meaning that a student can join the classes at any time, making it much more convenient for the students.

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In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, U.S. officials scrambled to secure other national landmarks that might become future targets. Chief among them: California's Golden Gate Bridge. Might terrorists try to destroy the passageway between San Francisco and Marin County, and if so, how widespread would the fallout be? To answer those questions, the Homeland Security Dept. turned to a small company called Inrix, which was recently spun out of Microsoft (MSFT) and uses GPS-enabled mobile phones and tracking devices installed on commercial vehicles to monitor traffic conditions.

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South Korea's food protection agency said Thursday it will send a fact-finding team to a Chinese factory that produced a popular snack food found to contain a suspected rat's head. The Korea Food and Drug Administration will send investigators to the factory in Qingdao in eastern China, which performs initial production steps for shrimp crackers sold by South Korea's leading processed food company Nongshim, said Choi Jong-dong, a KFDA official. An agency official has been negotiating with Chinese authorities to schedule the probe, Choi said.

via chron.com

TWENTY-two games. Forty-eight days. No apologies. Nothing that happened Tuesday night changes anything. The Rockets ran into an opponent with more talent, resolve and energy. They had no answer for Boston's depth or defense. They had no heroes and were beaten badly 94-74. They'd known this day was coming. They'd known there'd be a night when the shots didn't fall, the defense was slow and the passes were lazy. No answers this time
Stuff happens.

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When Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) became the biggest cheerleader for the new SSD (solid state drive) laptop PC, many other companies were waiting to see if the new product would be a success. SSDs are hard drives without moving parts and use computer memory chips to store data instead of a spinning hard drive. One problem is that laptops with the SSD feature cost about $900 more than standard laptop PCs. You can buy an entire extra laptop for that. Even worse, it seems that the first crop of these PCs is not living up to the hype.

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Some scandals wreck public figures on Wall Street, while others act as mere speed bumps. It looks like the latter is true for Frank Quattrone, one of the most influential investment bankers in the 1990's who was also the head of the Credits Suisse (NYSE: CS) technology banking group.
Frank Quattrone has just announced that he and some former colleagues are launching a new financial services venture called Qatalyst Group. Qatalyst will be a technology-focused merchant banking boutique headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

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February is the time of the year for us to spread the love. For others, it's opportune time to send mushy and corny text messages.

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Las Vegas is rapidly becoming a multi-cultural city with influences from the Far East quickly becoming the predominant force.

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I am still sleepy from last night's New Year's celebration. But I just wanted to come back here quickly to greet you all a very happy new year. You are probably already partying right now...so, have a blast!!

Happy 2008 everyone!

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It is New Year's Eve. You know how parties on this special end of the year celebration goes. Drinking, eating, smoking, dancing all night.Read the rest of this entry »

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The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley is starting an innovative new fund. Combining education with environmental consciousness, the school is launching a $250,000 student-managed investment fund with an emphasis on social responsibility.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed (subscription required) Kellie McElhaney, the head of the university's Center For Responsible Business about the fund, which will be managed by M.B.A. students.

According to McElhaney, "There will be about five M.B.A.s initially.....

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A woman whose three young daughters were seriously burned was arrested, and neighbors said the mother told a fire investigator she had doused the children with gasoline and set them on fire.

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