Daily Links

Obama's Wheels: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/06/driving.obama/?iref=mpstoryview

Mario no longer #1???? http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/wii-sports-is-best-selling-game-ever/1276855

Oddball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyyDOYJ3GY

Steve Jobs

From CNBC:

"Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs stunned shareholders and the tech world last night by announcing that he was taking a leave of absence until the end of June due to health reasons."

Speculation about Steve Jobs' health has been persistent for many years and it has always stirred the debate between what is personal and what the public has a right to know. In many respects, a CEO from a major public company is on the same level of most politicians and celebrities. Personal privacy is somewhat of a misnomer.

Most in the business community put Steve Jobs #2 on the hypothetical list of CEO's most vital to their companies success and public image. Number one on the list is Warren Buffet. I wish him all the best in his recovery.

Below I have linked to the video of Steve Job's commencement speech at Standford in 2005. It is quite the moving speech and well worth the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Bush's Farewell Speech

Thursday night at 8pm will be President Bush's last speech to the nation.

According to the White House press secretary, the President is expected to reflect on his 8 years in office and how the country has changed during that time. He will defend his record but will also share his thoughts on the greatest problems facing the nation and what it takes to meet them.

CNN asked its viewers to post their thoughts to the obvious questions:

"What would you like President Bush to say in his farewell address to the nation Thursday night?"

Here are some of the best responses thus far...

-“I’m leaving five days early.”

-That he had to cancel the speech for lack of interest

-“Wow, I really had no business being here. My bad.”

-I would like the Bush farewell speech to be completely drowned out by the sound of a hundred million Americans singing “Nah nah nah nah…. nah nah nah nah…. hey hey hey…. goodbye.”

-"It’s been fun, It’s been real, but it hasn’t been real fun."

-I’d like to hear a prison door slam behind him.

-I’d enjoy hearing him sing “So Long, Farewell” from the ‘Sound Of Music’.

-"It should have been Gore."

-"Oops"

-"I am not smarter than a 5th grader."



So what would you like to hear him say?

Amazing Animals

18 Dalmatian Litter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhrvgchQSjI

Pet Deer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYCGPCQQ-48

Salsa Dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDWTjkHb9nY

Skateboarding Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0

Violence at Chuck E. Cheese

From the Wall Street Journal...

"In Brookfield, Wis., no restaurant has triggered more calls to the police department since last year than Chuck E. Cheese's."

"Officers have been called to break up 12 fights, some of them physical, at the child-oriented pizza parlor since January 2007. The biggest melee broke out in April, when an uninvited adult disrupted a child's birthday party. Seven officers arrived and found as many as 40 people knocking over chairs and yelling in front of the restaurant's music stage, where a robotic singing chicken and the chain's namesake mouse perform."

"In Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Township police are searching for suspects involved in a Nov. 9 altercation at a Chuck E. Cheese's outside Harrisburg. The police department gets called to respond to disputes at the restaurant as many as 15 times a year, Police Chief Robert Martin says."

"To appeal to adults, about 70% of the chain's locations serve wine and beer. Some city officials have pinpointed that as the main cause of the fighting. Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski called for the removal of Chuck E. Cheese's beer-and-wine license in 2006 after he received police notification and complaints from constituents about fighting there. The company stationed armed security guards inside the restaurant in an effort to make it safer."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122878081364889613.html

Cut the Cord

Between cell phones, cameras, and iPods, there are a plethera of items that require power charges leaving you in a drowning in cords. Well the future has the potential to be a little less tangled...

Powermat, a start-up company from Israeli, has a product that allows you to charge a device simply by laying it on a mat. The principle at work is electromagnetic induction and it truly is amazing.

Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal's article on Powermat:

"Just plop a gadget on a charging surface, and power starts flowing without plugging anything in. And its charging pads can send just the right amount of juice to different kinds of gadgets, the company says. Powermat says its devices can save on energy, and eliminating wires should ultimately save money once the technology is a built-in feature on portable devices."

A Review of Wall Street

October 1999: James Glassman, author of Dow 36,000
“What is dangerous is for Americans not to be in the market. We’re going to reach a point where stocks are correctly priced, and we think that’s 36,000 … It’s not a bubble. Far from it. The stock market is undervalued.”
---A year later the Dow had fallen from 10,500 to 8,840 a decline of 16% .


December 1999: Larry Wachtel, Prudential Investments
“Most of these stocks are reasonably priced. There’s no reason for them to correct violently in the year 2000.”
---The Nasdaq fell 50% in 2000.


August 2001: Lou Dobbs, CNN
“Let me make it very clear. I’m a bull, on the market, on the economy. And let me repeat, I am a bull.”
---The market lost a third of its value following this call.


April 2001: Abby Joseph Cohen, Goldman Sachs
“The time to be nervous was a year ago. The S&P then was overvalued, it’s now undervalued.”
---2 Years later the market was 20% lower.

Coming Soon...

Netflix Built into your TV: http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/05/technology/netflix_lg_electronics/index.htm?postversion=2009010509

Internet Usage Caps: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/FindDealsOnline/using-the-web-might-get-a-lot-pricier.aspx

Watch your home DVR on your iPhone: http://www.cnet.com/8301-19515_1-10131943-234.html

Amazing Stories

Cheering for the Other Side: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

Last Lotto Ticket: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_re_us/lottery_legacy

Animal of the Year: http://www.goodnewsdaily.com/show_story.php?ID=9095

2009 At A Glance

2009 is the year of the Ox in the Chinese calender years.

The Ox years of the past were: 1901, 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, the next one will be in 2021.

The basic characteristic of an Ox in Chinese culture is methodical and calm, hardworking, dependable and patient, materialistic and an ambitious character.


Top 9 New Year's Resolutions '09:
1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends
2. Go to the Gym
3. Lose Weight
4. Quit Smoking
5. Get Out of Debt
6. Learn Something New
7. Help Others
8. Get Organized
9. Enjoy Life More


The most anticipated movie releases of '09:
-Angels & Demons
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
-Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
-Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
-Jurassic Park IV: Extinction
-Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel
-The A-Team
-Star Trek
-Sherlock Holmes