MATHEW INGRAM
Globe and Mail Update Published on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2004 6:12PM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Apr. 08, 2009 11:50PM EDT
Mathew Ingram's "blog" is a collection of brief items - from the interesting to the unusual, and occasionally the outright laughable. Feel free to e-mail your suggestions and/or comments.
Check - or maybe checkmate: Offering official refuge to a known criminal, particularly one who is well known for his anti-U.S. and anti-Semitic views, seems like not such a great idea - especially for a tiny little country like Iceland. But what if that fugitive crank is chess genius Bobby Fischer? Iceland has extended its hand to the reclusive chess master, offering him official residency, even though he is currently in detention in Japan for travelling on an invalid passport. Mr. Fischer put Iceland on the map in 1972 with his historic chess match against the legendary Boris Spassky. After winning, Mr. Fischer didn't play again for 20 years, when he won a match in the former Yugoslavia - a bout which ran afoul of U.S. laws against dealing with the former corrupt regime. Iceland says it just wants to recognize a former hero, but others wonder about the wisdom of angering the U.S., not to mention giving shelter to someone with Mr. Fischer's extreme views (he has written favourably about the terrorist attacks of September 11).
Will Emperor Norton get a bridge?: You probably didn't learn about him in history class, but Emperor Norton I may be about to have a bridge in San Francisco named after him, if a motion by city council is approved. The idea got a push from a local comic strip and a city councillor took up the torch. And who was Emperor Norton I? He was a businessman who came to San Francisco in 1849 and later lost his fortune - and his mental stability, according to local historians. He declared himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, walked the streets with a plume in his hat and a sword in his hand, and for the next two decades issued various proclamations and even issued his own currency. In 1872, he ordered that "a bridge be built from Oakland Point to Goat Island and thence to Telegraph Hill." Now that there is such a bridge (the Bay Bridge), some supporters figure Emperor Norton should get his due.
Taking nostalgia a little too far: I know 1980s nostalgia is all the rage now, what with Duran Duran back on the charts and even Donald Trump making a comeback, but does that mean we have to revive our misguided 1980s industrial policy as well? Apparently. Industry Minister David Emerson seems to think that it's a good idea to hand out a billion or two to the aerospace industry (for that, read "Bombardier") in hopes that this will encourage all kinds of job creation in various regions of the country. In fact, Ottawa said it would give Bombardier a $300-million line of credit before the company even asked for any money. Now that's a Christmas bonus. Here's a tip for Mr. Emerson, who I'm sure means well: Take a look at how that whole Liberal policy worked in the late 1970s and '80s. In a nutshell, it didn't - unless turning Bombardier into a perennial cap-in-hand, government-cash addict was what the government had in mind. Remember, Dave: Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.
Update: A reader named Dino Morson writes to say that he did his undergraduate thesis on the aerospace industry in 1982 and came to the conclusion that had the government not stepped in, de Havilland and Canadair would have been closed and "effectively removed Canada's aerospace industry from the face of the earth." Thanks, Dino. The only question, of course, is whether Canada needs an aerospace industry so badly that one has to be subsidized.
Reader Willy Spat asks how the subsidies for Bombardier are any different from the tax breaks and other subsidies that the film industry or the auto industry get, and he quotes French politician Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) as saying: "The State is the great fictitious entity by which everyone expects to live at the expense of everyone else." A fair point, Willy. But as my mother used to say: "Two wrongs don't make a right." Reader Kevin Maloney says Bombardier shouldn't get any government money until they get rid of their multiple-voting share structure. "If the Beaudoin family want to control the company they should purchase the majority of shares just like anyone else," he says. Good idea, Kevin.
You lose some, and you...: When news came down Tuesday afternoon of a ruling in a U.S. company's patent infringement case against Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion, the handheld company's stock jumped by more than 10 per cent, as investors cheered what they saw as a partial victory for RIM. After all, the court sent the case back to a lower court to reconsider, right? RIM fans: Party on! Just one problem, though -- the court of appeal also upheld virtually all of the U.S. company's patent infringement claims against the Canadian company. RIM fans: Bummer! However, the court also vacated the original judgement that awarded the U.S. company (NTP) $53-million in damages. RIM fans: Yeah, baby! Then, after trading was halted for a company statement, the stock proceeded to sink by about 5 per cent on heavy volume. RIM fans: I'm confused!
Another month, another $1-billion: Either video games appeal to a lot more than just the acne-ridden, basement-dwelling, anti-social teens who are usually identified (in the media at least) as game aficionados, or there are a heck of a lot more young sociopaths with money than most people think. Between you and me, I'll take what's behind door number one - although there still aren't enough out there for some people. According to a report from industry consulting firm NPD, close to $900-million (U.S.) worth of video games were sold in November. However, two titles - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from Rockstar Games and Halo 2 from Microsoft - accounted for about 30 per cent of that amount, or almost $300-million. Wihout those two, sales would have been just $630-million, down by about 20 per cent over last year.
Update: Thoughtful reader Martin McEwen says it's a little unfair to remove the top two games and then compare sales to last year. "If you deduct the two top-selling games for the same period last year, how much of a drop would we see in 2005?" he asks. "That's like an economist quoting US GDP numbers but saying that IF California had been sunk by an earthquake in 2004, US GDP would have been off by 13%." A fair point. Thanks, Martin.
Hairspray makes a great accelerant: The hairdressing industry doesn't get much respect most of the time, perhaps in part because people assume it is filled with nothing but limp-wristed Judy Garland fans (despite Warren Beatty's evidence to the contrary in Shampoo). Maybe Gabriel Zakhem wanted to give the industry a bit of a macho makeover - or maybe he had just watched a few too many episodes of The Sopranos. According to a court case in Australia, Mr. Zakhem decided that he wanted to increase his market share in the hairdressing supplies business, so he hired a couple of thugs to fire-bomb several of his competitors - and even fire-bombed his own warehouse to deflect suspicion. He also allegedly fire-bombed a business he had invested in to try and get an insurance payout. At least we know he probably looked great in his police mug shot.
Thanks for the tip, Effer: In case you're getting all excited about the growing frenzy for Apple's iPod and similar music players, Edgar Bronfman Jr. says he thinks MP3 players will eventually be overtaken by... wait for it... cellphones. Mr. Bronfman - known as "Effer" to his family, founders of the former Seagram liquor empire - is the chairman and CEO of Warner Music, which is busy trying to license its library of songs for use as ringtones on cellphones and for downloading through on-line services such as Apple's iTunes. He says phones with lots of memory will take over the market eventually. Of course, a skeptical observer might take Mr. Bronfman's prediction with a few grains of salt, given that he also thought it was a good idea to merge his family's empire with French conglomerate Vivendi, a venture that reduced the Bronfman fortune by billions of dollars. In any case, Edgar, keep coming with the ideas - one of them is bound to work out eventually.
Update: Reader Sybran Hettingga from the Netherlands says Edgar Jr.'s idea is "not that far-fetched at all. All over Europe, MP3-playing phones already start to rule the roost. The Nokia 6230 alone outsells the iPod at least 20 to 1, while being similarly priced. As North America tends to lag Europe and Japan 2-4 years in mobile trends, I would definitely think twice about holding on to those Apple shares." Thanks, Sybran.
Forget patriotism -- shop at the .com: Eagle-eyed on-line shoppers who have been looking for DVDs or books for Christmas may have noticed something peculiar: In some cases, the same item seems to cost less at Amazon.com than it does at the Canadian version of the website, Amazon.ca. Of course it does, you say -- but that difference disappears when you convert the U.S. price into Canadian dollars, right? Not always. For example, if you buy the Shrek 2 DVD and the third Harry Potter movie together at Amazon.com, it will cost you $43.93 U.S., or $52.76 in Canadian dollars, and that includes shipping costs. The same bundle at Amazon.ca - with free shipping - costs $68.98. The major difference? Tax. The Amazon.com price doesn't include PST or GST. But isn't it your duty as a patriotic Canadian to pay those taxes? Sure it is - and you go right ahead. I'll be shopping at Amazon.com.
Update: A number of readers have mentioned that if you buy at Amazon.com you will have to pay GST, PST and customs duties or handling charges, which will be billed to you by Canada Post. With many on-line retailers that is the case, because they calculate the value of the product and add the charges for tax and duties to the bill. Amazon.com doesn't appear to do this - at least not for DVDs and books. Could it just not be adjusting for the recent strength of the loonie?
To those readers who have taken me to task for encouraging tax evasion, I would just like to point out that I pay plenty of taxes already, and I hardly think that my not paying GST on a few DVDs is going to result in the collapse of Canadian civilization as we know it. In other related news, helpful reader Richard O'Mara notes that on-line electronics retailer TigerDirect.ca ships from the U.S. with no duties or customs-handling charges, although it does add PST and GST.
Musicians download -- and upload: The conventional picture of music downloading - at least the one being pushed by the record industry - is of music "pirates" stealing money from starving musicians. According to a recent survey of artists and musicians by the Pew Research Center's Internet arm, however, the reality is a little more complicated. The center surveyed more than 800 artists by phone and more than 2,000 musicians by on-line survey and found that not only did 35 per cent believe that file-sharing should be legal, but more than half believed that the current copyright system benefits record companies more than artists, two-thirds said they didn't seen file-sharing as a threat to their livelihood, and more than 80 per cent had uploaded their own music to the Internet. About 22 per cent said they regularly downloaded music, about the same proportion as the general population.
Here's some money, now get lost:American Airlines, which has lost more than $6-billion (U.S.) in the past three years, figures it needs to lose some more before it can start making some (theoretically), so it's offering employees incentives to take a hike. Those with at least five years seniority will be able to leave and get one of three deals: 1) keep free travel benefits for five or 10 years but get no severance; 2) get some severance and up to two years of extra travel benefits; or 3) take both severance and free travel and retire after the benefits end. Kind of makes you want to work there so you could quit, doesn't it? Here's the best part though - pilots aren't eligible for the offer because they get that kind of deal already. In fact, pilots who expect to be laid off can leave and get another job without losing their seniority at American, just in case they get rehired.
Did the Terminator pull the trigger?: Sean Harrigan, the activist president of the California Public Employees Retirement System - the largest pension fund in the U.S. with more than $178-billion in assets - was fired Wednesday, as he himself had predicted he would be. Appointed by former Democratic governor Gray Davis, the Calpers boss had been under fire from the board that oversees the fund, which is now dominated by Republicans. And who named the new board member that tipped the scales? Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That has led to some speculation that the Terminator might have had a hand in terminating Mr. Harrigan's presidency. Why? Because he and Calpers led the charge against some notable corporate ne'er-do-wells, including former Disney chairman Michael Eisner - a prominent California businessmen - and former New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso. Coincidence? Perhaps.
Can Bill Miller squeak through again?: Everywhere across North America, little children are waiting with bated breath to see if the jolly fat man will do it again - come with presents on Christmas morning, that is. And all across Wall Street, fund managers are waiting to see whether Bill Miller will do it again - beat the Standard & Poor's 500 index, that is, for the 14th year in a row. He may not be as jolly (although he's reportedly quite a nice guy) and he's more stocky than fat, but his record is almost as good as the man in red. The Legg Mason Value Fund manager has beaten the S&P for a record 13 years straight (the previous record was held by Peter Lynch, manager of Fidelity's Magellan Fund). But Bill isn't so sure he can pull it off again this year. And that's despite the performance of Google, which he bought a ton of in the initial public offering. You can do it, Bill. We believe in you.
A battle that's not so sweet: It's not easy being a fake sugar maker these days. The company that makes the artificial sweetener Equal (Merisant Co.) has accused the makers of competing sweetener Splenda (Johnson & Johnson) of false advertising, for saying that their product "is made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar." Equal points out that Splenda's sweetness comes from a synthetic chemical, and therefore the company is lying. Some of this bitterness probably stems from the fact that Equal has fallen behind in the fake sugar race, and Splenda has taken first place even though it was only released four years ago. Splenda says the sweet part of its product starts out as cane sugar and then is chemically modified to remove calories. Equal wants the company to change its ads to say that Splenda is made from "dextrose, maltodextrin and 4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha, D-Galactopyranosyl-1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-beta, D-fructofuranoside." Sure, like that's going to happen.
Help for drunken diallers: A helpful blog reader named Steve pointed out that Virgin Mobile, the cellphone company run by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, is offering a unique service in Australia this holiday season. Anyone who has been guilty of CWI or "calling while intoxicated" - i.e., having a few too many refreshments and then calling an ex-girlfriend, former boss, etc. and telling them what they really think of them - can give Virgin a phone number (or numbers). The mobile phone company will then block them from calling those numbers for a certain time period... in other words, until they sober up. Way to go, Sir Richard.
Michael O'Leary gives the salute: The founder and CEO of plucky Irish discount airline Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, says his company is putting $240-million (U.S.) dollars into an airport in Shannon, and says that this investment allows Ryanair to "stick two fingers up to the nay-sayers and doom-mongers who said that Shannon would not work." Anyone not familiar with slang in the United Kingdom might wonder what that phrase "two fingers up" refers to - it certainly doesn't sound complimentary. And it isn't. Like a reverse peace sign, holding up your hand with just the first two fingers extended and the palm facing you is a vulgar gesture in most of the UK, in the same way holding up the middle finger is in North America. Why? Who knows. There are elaborate theories about soldiers in the Middle Ages and the two fingers used to draw a bow, but most anthropologists say that is a load of, well... bollocks.
Update: Loyal reader Zac Wrixon says this gesture is known colloquially as "the forks," but he's not sure why. Thanks, Zac.
Barnum gets the last laugh: It must be tough wandering around Hollywood having everyone ridicule you mercilessly for your boring name, next to all the movie-star offspring with their bizarre monikers (River, Leaf, Rumur, Tallulah, etc.). Rather than have her child go through that kind of hell, Julia Roberts decided to name one of her twins Phinnaeus. This has the added benefit of not just being unusual - famous sideshow barker Phineas T. Barnum is one of the few well-known figures with this name - but also uses an archaic spelling that was probably commonplace in ancient Rome but looks even more out of place now. For the record, when you search on Google, one of the first hits for that spelling is Phinnaeus P. Gage, who entered medical history by having his head pierced by a four-foot steel rod in 1848 (he was fine -- although friends said his personality changed dramatically).
E-mail Mathew Ingram at mingram@globeandmail.ca
Posted Monday, November 29 at 512:48 p.m.
Sometimes it pays to be shameless: Marketing, particularly the guerilla kind, isn't the kind of endeavour where you get ahead by being sensitive or shy, and no one is better proof of that than the marketing geniuses down at GoldenPalace.com, the Canadian-run, Antigua-based on-line casino. At this point, whenever something stupid occurs - such as a clown in a tutu jumping into the pool at the Olympics or someone paying $28,000 (U.S.) for a cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary on it - you can bet that GoldenPalace.com is involved. Their logo has shown up on streakers at the U.S. Open, the British Open and the Royal Ascot, been tattoed on professional boxers, and Golden Palace paid $36,000 for the ball that David Beckham kicked over the goal in the World Cup. Is it good business? They're not saying. But just about everyone has seen or heard the name by now, and that's gotta be worth something.
E-mail Mathew Ingram at mingram@globeandmail.ca
Posted Thursday, November 25 at 5:00 p.m.
A monument to the animals: Just in case you thought there weren't enough war monuments already in Britain, a new one was unveiled Wednesday by Princess Anne - paying tribute to the animals that died in the two world wars. The memorial is dedicated to the dogs, horses, carrier pigeons and other assorted critters that helped the war effort in their small (or not so small) way. And it wasn't just the big and cuddly animals that got the nod from the Princess Royal either: the monument is also a salute to worms - specifically, the glow-worms (actually a species of beetle) that First World War soldiers used so they could read battle maps and letters in their trenches in the dark. Way to go, worms.
A stock from outer space: Sirius Satellite Radio has gotten a lot of attention lately, thanks in part to signing a contract with "shock jock" radio host Howard Stern - for the bargain price of $500-million U.S. over five years - and to bringing in radio veteran Mel Karmazin as CEO. That has paid off in terms of stock-market response, to say the least. Sirius jumped by more than 12 per cent Tuesday on heavy volume; in fact, Sirius traded more than 400 million shares, or more than the next 15 largest volume traders on the Nasdaq market (including Intel, Microsoft and Cisco) put together. And all that because Sirius says it may close the year with a million subscribers. Meanwhile, competitor XM Satellite Radio will end the year with three times as many. And neither company is an investor's dream: Sirius is trading at a mind-boggling 160 times revenue, and has a market cap of $8-billion with sales of just $46-million. In the past 12 months it has lost almost $600-million. Sign me up!
Update: Sirius shares slid on Wednesday by 10 per cent; apparently, some investors sobered up overnight. Still heavy volume too -- which might be explained in part by the more than 1.2 billion shares the company has outstanding, a result of an earlier restructuring that saw creditors receive hundreds of millions of shares in return for their debts.
Hasta la vista, baby: It's hard to imagine that a technology can go from groundbreaking and revolutionary to dead as a doornail so quickly, but the famous British electronics chain Dixon's has sounded the death knell for the VCR by removing them from its shelves. The retail outlet says the common VCR is simply too cheap and useless to be of interest to anyone in an age of DVDs and TiVos. The VCR - once the subject of a gigantic industry-changing fight between Sony's Betamax format and the winning VHS standard - has been around for more than 25 years, but didn't start making its way into the average household until the mid-1980s. Now no one wants them. Burglars are apparently even declining to steal them because they simply aren't worth anything any more.
Update: Reader Ann from Portugal writes: "To think those of us nearing retirement are just learning to use ours and now they are obsolete!"
How about a 32,000-per-cent return?: Sure, it would be nice to be one of those Google investors who picked up stock in the company's initial public offering, considering the shares have gone from $85 (U.S.) to about $170. That's a nice 100-per-cent return, which is better than most people do with an investment. But think for a moment - if you like to torture yourself, that is - about a venture capital fund like Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley firm that has been behind many of the most successful Internet plays, including Yahoo and Netscape. Kleiner's partners invested in Google when the stock was worth about 49 cents a share, buying several million shares for $12.5-million, and they just said they plan to sell part of that stake. Its value now? About $4-billion or so. That's a return of about 32,000 per cent.
Doughnuts but no dough: Not that long ago, everyone wanted a piece of American doughnut (or donut) maker Krispy Kreme -- either they wanted a piece of the company's trademark gooey sugar pills, or they were desperate for some of the chain's stock. As recently as March, the shares were still on fire, trading at more than $40 (U.S.) each. Then things started to get stale -- Krispy Kreme's same-store sales began to slide, costs began to rise as it continued to expand, and investors started to get that sinking feeling in their stomachs that comes from bingeing on something sweet. Now, Krispy Kreme has said its profit for the latest quarter fell by 80 per cent, and the stock has been taken out into the alley, falling below $10. In the past six months or so, more than $1.8-billion in market value has been erased. But someone has been making money at least: the percentage of Krispy Kreme's shares that are sold "short" (that is, sold in the hopes they will go down) is about 45 per cent of the total float. Now that's tasty.
Pass the hankie for Bill Gates: It seems sort of fitting in a way -- according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, the software behemoth's co-founder and chairman Bill Gates is possibly the most "spammed" person in the world. In other words, he gets more junk mail than just about anyone - about 4 million per day or so. Are you feeling sorry for him yet? Of course, with Bill's net worth of about $30-billion (U.S.) he can afford to hire an army of assistants to go through all those e-mails for him. Maybe that's why Microsoft is working with other software companies on anti-spam technology. Now if he would only do something about all those viruses...
Update: Another Bill, reader Bill Bursztyn, says he'd be willing to pay 1 cent per e-mail in the hopes that such a charge would end the incentive behind spam. But would it, Bill? Spammers can make millions from gullible readers -- see the item below about the "Nigerian" e-mail spammer that made almost a million dollars a year. Reader Kevin Amery says a recent CNN article on a convicted spammer said he made up to $750,000 a month, but only by sending as many as 10 million messages a day. Add a one-cent charge and that's $3-million a month - more than enough to make the business unappealing.
Not ready for the revolution: Does anyone remember back in 2001 when there was a huge buzz about a revolutionary new gizmo - code-named Ginger - that was about to hit the market? Steve Jobs said the device from inventor Dean Kamen would change the nature of human society forever. When it came out, the Segway Human Transporter - a two-wheeled, self-balancing scooter - was a bit of an anti-climax, but still kind of cool. But would anyone use them, let alone buy and use enough of them to revolutionize society? Apparently not. The company had to recall some about a year ago due to a defect, at which point it emerged that only about 6,000 had been sold. Now the president of the company has resigned with no replacement named. Got any other revolutions up your sleeve, Dean?
Bad, but not bad enough for severance: Sure, being a top Hollywood studio boss - like Michael Ovitz used to be at Disney - can be a great thing, what with all the adulation and millions of dollars in salary. But then you have your every weakness dragged through court after you get dismissed by the board, as Ovitz was. On the bright side, of course, you get $140-million payment for being let go, which has to ease the pain somewhat. Shareholders were less than impressed with the bonanza, however, and they sued Mr. Ovitz, Disney chairman Michael Eisner and the board for that $140-million, saying Mr. Ovitz should have been fired without severance. Mr. Eisner is effectively trying to argue that Mr. Ovitz wasn't fired for any specific shortcoming or malfeasance, but simply because he was an insufferable, arrogant egomaniac. Nice work if you can get it.
Update: Speaking of egomaniacs, reader Wayne Hendry writes to ask about the pot calling the kettle black. After all, he says, "Is Mr. Eisner not a insufferable, arrogant egomaniac who has received millions in options and salary for doing a bad job?" Touché, Wayne.
Good thing Neil has the music: After losing a court case that found the company had used diagrams stolen from a competitor, 104-year-old toy (sorry..., "model") train maker Lionel LLC has filed for bankruptcy - for the second time. One of those who might show up in court is legendary Canadian-born folk/rock singer Neil Young, who owns 20 per cent of the company - a stake he bought in 1991, when Lionel went bankrupt for the first time. According to his biography, Mr. Young has always been fascinated with model trains, and spends a lot of time tinkering with a massive set he had constructed in a 2,800-foot barn on his California ranch. He has even gone on tour with a gigantic model train set as part of his backdrop. The "godfather of grunge" has also come up with dozens of modifications for Lionel's trains over the years - many of which were originally designed to let Mr. Young's severely handicapped son Ben (who has cerebral palsy) interact with the trains.
But will it be worth it?: Not that long ago, computer giant Sun Microsystems ruled over large parts of the corporate networking business - and most of the Internet - with an iron fist. Its proprietary servers were used by just about everyone, along with its proprietary software, Solaris (a version of Unix). As computers have become cheaper and faster, however, and a free version of Unix called Linux has become more and more popular, companies have been moving to non-proprietary solutions. What does that mean for Sun? Let's put it this way: It ain't good. The company's sales and profit margins have been falling (along with the stock price) and now Sun has taken a step most people would never have imagined: It is giving away the latest version of its Solaris operating system, and hoping to make money on service and support. Coincidentally enough, that's exactly the model companies such as Red Hat - and IBM, for that matter - have been using to eat Sun's lunch for the past few years. Could the Sun finally be setting?
Come on Nortel - you can do it: Maybe we just haven't been encouraging enough when it comes to Nortel - maybe that's it. Maybe if we were all just a little more eager for the company's restated results, if we made it clear how much we care, then maybe Nortel would come out with what it has promised and then denied investors at least three times now: an accounting of what it sold and how much it made over the past few years. It's not that we think it's easy - oh no. Far from it. We know it's hard to keep track of your profits and losses when you're a multibillion-dollar company, and who among us hasn't gotten them confused from time to time? So maybe if we were just a little bit nicer, Nortel could find it in its heart to come up with the numbers, maybe even before December 15th when it risks being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange. Come on, say it with me, everybody: You can do it, Nortel.
Update: A number of readers have written in with inspirational messages for Nortel - filled with words of praise and in many cases a lot of exclamation marks - which suggests that these readers may have missed the sarcasm in my original posting. To be clear, I don't think Nortel is suffering from any lack of self-esteem. They just can't seem to get their numbers together, and in fact the numbers they do have seem to be getting worse by the day. That is not something morale-boosting can cure. Jim Wevers writes to say Nortel should change its name to "Never-tel."
If only Private Ryan didn't swear: If you live in certain parts of the U.S. and were hoping to catch the Veteran's Day special broadcast of the movie Saving Private Ryan on the ABC network, you might be out of luck. Some affiliates are refusing to broadcast the movie because it contains obscenities, and they are afraid that the Federal Communications Commission will fine them the way it fined the network after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." Some affiliates might prefer to bleep the offending words, but director Steven Spielberg's deal with ABC specifies that the movie must run uncut and unedited.
Polar Express to nightmare-land?: Depending on whom you choose to believe, Polar Express - the new animated movie from Robert Zemeckis, which uses "motion caputure" technology to create realistic-looking characters - is either a tour-de-force that reawakens the spirit of Christmas or a creepy, nightmare-inducing zombie-fest. The Globe's Rick Groen loved it, calling it The train that saved Xmas. Roger Ebert also liked it, as did other reviewers at major newspapers. Newsday, however, said it "derails in zombie land," and that the attempt to create realistic-looking characters was "creepy." CNN also calls it "a creepy ride," and the Detroit News says "Unnerving effects derail Polar Express." It seems the Polar Express is polar-izing indeed (sorry).
Stop, in the name of chocolate: You may not know much about Ivory Coast - or Cote d'Ivoire, as it used to be known when it was a French protectorate - but if you like chocolate then you might be interested in knowing that this tiny West African nation supplies more than 40 per cent of the world's cocoa beans. You might also want to know that this supply has come to a crashing halt as a result of an outbreak of violence in the country, which is controlled by President Laurent Gbagbo. Ivory Coast forces have been attacking - and been attacked by - French forces, and both the country's main ports are closed. This is a crucial time for the chocolate industry because Ivory Coast produces about 80 per cent of its cocoa between October and January.
Welcome to Stelco, comrades: Whatever else you might think about the takeover offer that Russian steel giant Severstal has made for insolvent Canadian steel-maker Stelco, you have to admit it could be interesting the first time billionaire Severstal CEO Alexei Mordashov gets together with the boss of Stelco's union. Rolf Gerstenberger, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1005, is an avowed Marxist-Leninist who has run for more than one local election under the banner of the Canadian communist party, while Mr. Mordashov is one of the new breed of Russian "oligarchs" who became filthy rich by acquiring former Soviet assets (such as Severstal's steel mills) at rock-bottom prices after the Soviet Union fell. The two men should have plenty to talk about.
I'm not Nigerian, but: Everyone moans about e-mail spam - the hundreds or even thousands of fake pleas for money that clog up one's in-box - but no one will admit that all that spam exists for a simple reason: because people fall for it. Not only do thousands of people send money away for "herbal Viagra" and other scams, but plenty of people sent cash to one Nick Marinellis -- more than $3.8-million (U.S.) over five years, in fact, in response to letters promising them millions of dollars from Nigerian bank accounts in return for an "administration fee." The investigation leading to his arrest turned up a network of scammers with an office complex in Nottingham, a million-dollar house in Sydney, seven other properties in the New South Wales area, five cars and several bank accounts.The New Zealand-based spam scammer was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for 10 counts of fraud.
Fun with Nortel's new slogan: You would think everybody would be up to their ears in work over at Nortel Networks, the disgraced networking-equipment giant - what with trying to get a verifiable set of financial results together for regulators, a challenge Nortel has failed to meet several times now. And that's not to mention the raft of class-action lawsuits from investors who saw their stake in the company evaporate, only to find out that Nortel had claimed a profit where one never existed, and that certain former executives had received bonuses based on those alleged profits. But apparently Nortel had plenty of time to come up with a new TV marketing campaign featuring the slogan: "This is the Way. This is Nortel." Catchy, isn't it? Just for fun, see if you can come up with your own phrases to complete the sentence "This is the Way..." How about: "This is the Way... we massage the numbers." Or maybe: "This is the Way... we move the goalposts." Hours of fun for the whole family.
U.S. rules in bubbles too: The U.S. continues to assert its international dominance - in chewing gum. Kelsey Lea of tiny Conway, Arkansas kicked some British bubble-blowing butt by taking the world title for a 16-inch bubble. The 12-year-old won the U.S. national title in New York in July, in a contest broadcast live on the Today show. Her British conquest - using her trademark three pieces of Double Bubble - was broadcast on the BBC. And 16 inches isn't even the largest bubble Kelsey has blown: she qualified for the U.S. championships with a 20-incher. Must not be a lot to do in Conway, Ark.
He's only mostly dead: When is someone really dead? Most of the time that's a philosophical question at best, but when it comes to Yasser Arafat's condition it is a pressing political issue. For most of Thursday and Friday, the world's news media tried to sort out whether the (former?) Palestinian leader was actually deceased. The President of Luxembourg, of all people - who must be a little sensitive, considering his country is about the size of Niagara Falls - declared Mr. Arafat dead, only to be contradicted by French medical officials, who said he was still alive. Then they said his condition had become "more complex." Some reported that he was in a coma, others that he was brain dead. Israel said he was medically dead, the PLO said not. Does any of this remind you of Monty Python's "parrot" sketch? Let's put it this way: he's not well.
Update: Helpful reader Alin Vargatu points out that Luxembourg has a prime minister, not a president (the country's supreme leader is a duke, Grand Duke Henri). And Kevin Carriere, who works with the critically ill, says it's possible that Mr. Arafat has been given a lot of painkillers to help his body fight off whatever is making him sick, and that he is in what amounts to a medically-induced coma.
Brent Walsh notes that Muslim law requires believers such as Mr. Arafat to be buried within two days of their death, and since there is a storm of controversy over where Mr. Arafat should be buried (Palestinians want him to be interred at the holy al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which the Israelis revere as the Temple Mount) there might be a tendency to "postpone" his death, as it were. Thanks go out to Alin, Kevin and Brent.
And to those who have written to say that I am being insensitive, I would point out that poking fun at the uncertainty over Mr. Arafat's death is not the same as taking pleasure in his death.
Final Update: News flash: Mr. Arafat is now actually dead - no more debate.
Get me some oil-free CDs: By now, everyone is probably pretty familiar with the impact of high crude oil prices on gasoline costs, home heating costs, even the price of bread and other goods that have to be trucked long distances using expensive diesel fuel. But compact discs? Yes indeedy. Cinram, the Toronto-based company that is the world's largest manufacturer of CDs and DVDs, said on Wednesday that its profit will likely be crimped next year by the rise in the price of oil. Why? Because CDs and DVDs are made from polycarbonate and polystyrene, both of which are petroleum byproducts. Investors didn't take too kindly to the news that profits were going to be smaller than expected - the stock sank by more than 20 per cent on heavy volume Thursday.
GM, Ford can't give them away: Here's about all you need to know about the auto figures for October: with the possible exception of DaimlerChrysler, the Big Three automakers continue to try and bribe consumers to buy their cars and trucks - and consumers, in growing numbers, are saying: "No thanks." General Motors, the world's largest automaker, saw its sales fall by 5 per cent in October, and Ford's sales dropped by a similar amount - the fifth month in a row that Ford has seen its sales slide year-over-year. The Chrysler side of DaimlerChrysler saw sales rise by a relatively puny 2 per cent, which coincidentally was about the same as the industry average. And what about Toyota, Nissan and Honda? They had their best October ever, despite the fact that their incentives are substantially smaller than the ones offered by Detroit's finest. Enough said.
Update: Reader Don McCullough says: "The way car manufacturers "massage" the numbers is a joke. Talk about being gullible; they (auto makers, salesmen) ask us first how we intend to pay (cash or over time) and [then] adjust the selling price accordingly or trade allowance. If you think you are getting "thousands" in incentives then I have some wonderful "Snake Oil" that will cure your every ill." Thanks for that, Don. We feel your pain. And Trev Jones says that GM "uses lottery type rebates and other tricky incentives, instead of just making a good reliable car at a fair price," but that "people are getting wise" to this strategy. Trev says he bought a Honda.
Orchid thief gets fine, probation: Anyone who has read the book The Orchid Thief, or seen the bizarre spinoff of the book that was the movie Adaptation - in which actor Chris Cooper played a toothless orchid hunter/philosopher - knows that orchids can compel otherwise normal people to do strange things. Just ask notorious orchid smuggler Michael Kovach. Mr. Kovach came upon a never-before-seen example of the "lady slipper" orchid - a breed some called the most spectacular find in a century - in the mountains of Peru, smuggled it into the U.S. in 2002 and with the assistance of a Florida nursery had it introduced into the official orchid world and named after himself (phragmipedium kovachii). He was sentenced this week to two years probation and fined $1,000. As for the rare orchid that bears his name, there are reports that all but a few flowers from the original location in Peru have been dug up and sold on the black market.
Playboy makes a comeback: Remember all those stories about how magazines like Playboy and Penthouse were being killed by the Internet and soft-core consumer mags like Maxim and FHM? Well, it seems Hef and the gang at the mansion still have some kick left in them after all. Playboy reported a healthy profit and a rise in revenue for the latest quarter, making $1.9-million on sales of $80.2-million. Chief executive officer Christie Hefner, daughter of you-know-who, says the company has high hopes for some of its new ventures, including a Playboy-themed nightclub and casino in Las Vegas and a Playboy: The Mansion simulation-style video game due out next year.
Get your exercise tips from Rocky: It looks as though the vicious, expensive, drawn-out war between Rosie O'Donnell and the publishers of her self-titled magazine hasn't stopped anyone in the industry from considering new celebrity-based mags. Now American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, is set to launch Sylvester Stallone's exercise and fitness magazine, entitled Sly. Coincidentally enough, its launch will coincide with the start of the diminutive, muscle-bound actor's new TV show, The Contender. Spokespeople said Mr. Stallone would be "very hands-on" when it came to the editorial content and direction of the magazine. Editorial assistants and managing editors should consider themselves warned.
It's like deja vu all over again: Everyone's been getting nostalgic for the 1980s, but this might be carrying things a little too far: in a flashback to the tale of little Jessica McClure in 1987, a toddler in Alabama was rescued by firefighters after being trapped in a well for more than 13 hours. Da'jour McMillian, 22 months old, fell into the abandoned well while playing in a field in Frisco City, near Mobile. Jessica McClure was 18 months old when she fell into a well near Midland, Texas and became trapped. She was rescued by firefighters two-and-a-half days later. Jessica graduated from Greenwood High School this year.
Kuwaitis get oil bonus: While you're grumbling about how high crude oil prices are pushing up the cost of gasoline, Albertans are watching their province's bottom line get fatter and fatter - and citizens of oil-rich Kuwait are getting something even better: cash. Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, the ruler of this tiny Middle Eastern country (smaller in size than West Virginia), has decided he can afford to give every Kuwaiti 200 dinar, which works out to be almost $700 (U.S.). Almost a million residents will get the payment, but they make up less than 50 per cent of the population - the rest of Kuwait's 2.4 million people are foreign workers. The country was expecting to run a deficit this year, but the climb in oil prices means it will likely have a surplus of as much as $8-billion.
Note: A reader points out that Alaskans also get paid cash from oil revenues. This year, every resident - more than 600,000 - gets $919.84 from the state oil fund, which holds about $27-billion. Thanks go out to astute reader John-Olga Alvarez Mesa.PDA market so hot it's shrinking: Personal digital assistants - PDAs - are about the hottest thing around, aren't they? With the frenzy of demand for Palm handhelds and RIM's BlackBerry and other similar devices, the PDA market must be growing like crazy. Or not. In fact, according to the latest survey by market researcher IDC, PDA sales fell in the third quarter by almost 9 per cent compared with the same period last year. And it's not just a one-quarter phenomenon, either - the IDC says the latest period makes three quarters in a row where sales have been lower year-over-year. One reason for the drop is that Sony has pulled out of the market, killing its Palm-based Clie in the U.S. And the other reason is that many phones - including the latest Palm Treos and the more recent BlackBerrys - can now handle all the same functions as a PDA. Long live the smartphone
If Grand Theft Auto was a movie: Although they are still thought of as eye candy for teens, or mind-numbing violence aimed at mouth-breathers and miscreants, video games have long since become a major money-making business, one that rivals the movie industry for size. Nothing proves that better than the biggest-selling video-game franchise to date, Grand Theft Auto, from Take-Two Interactive - which came out Tuesday with the latest title in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas . The previous title, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, sold more than 12 million copies, racking up sales of almost $800-million, and the sequel is expected to sell at least as many. By way of comparison, Men in Black took in about the same amount at the box office.
Want a little spice with your pop?: Maybe all the competition with Coca-Cola is driving the folks at Pepsi-Cola a little nuts, but the purveyor of flavoured sugar water has just announced another "limited-time" soft drink for the holidays. The first, Mountain Dew Pitch Black - which came out in time for Halloween - doesn't sound all that odd. It's the regular bubbly pop with a "blast of black grape flavor." But the second seems a little off the wall: Pepsi Holiday Spice is described as Pepsi-Cola with a "spicy finish of ginger and cinnamon." Maybe after a few eggnogs that might seem like a good idea, but not right now. Sounds like the folks at Pepsi-Cola got a brain wave from Jones Soda, which came out with a special flavour last year on Thanksgiving: Turkey and Gravy. Sure, it tasted horrible, but they sold thousands of cases anyway.
Cat market expected to boom: "I'd love to have a cat," your significant other tells you - "but I'm really allergic." No problem, you reply. I just bought one of the new allergy-free cats from Allerca Inc. The company says it is now taking orders for cats that have been genetically modified so they don't produce the irritating substance, which comes out in their saliva and through their skin. Of course, some of the early experiments produced a breed of carnivorous super-cat with a taste for human flesh, but now that they've got the bugs worked out everything should be fine.
Ted sells phones, and some other things: If you were wondering why Ted Rogers is shelling out $1.4-billion or so for Microcell (which sells the Fido brand of cell phones), a peek inside the latest quarterly results from Rogers Communications provides a clue: it's because cell phones are about the only thing that Ted makes money at. In the most recent period, Rogers boosted its operating profit by $56-million or 14 per cent - and the wireless unit accounted for almost 85 per cent of that amount. The minuscule operating profit generated by the cable division and the media division was more than wiped out by a $9-million operating loss at the Blue Jays unit. And the overall profit margin at Rogers dropped in the quarter because shrinking margins at both cable and media more than outweighed the expansion of margins at the wireless unit. So keep racking up those cell phone minutes - Ted needs them.
Terry makes as much as Yahoo: In its latest quarter, on-line portal company Yahoo Inc. made a profit of $253-million (U.S.) - although, of course, about half of that was a special one-time windfall from a stake in rival Google. In any case, shareholders and other investors might be interested to know that Yahoo chief executive officer Terry Semel made substantially more than that - about $290-million - by selling Yahoo shares over the past six months. The latest chunk was 2.45 million shares Mr. Semel sold on October 21, a result of the exercise of stock options. That sale (the largest single stock sale ever by a Yahoo executive) netted him $86.4-million. In the past six months, the Yahoo CEO has sold about 8.4 million shares. But don't feel too bad - Mr. Semel still owns about one million shares of the company and has 9.7 million options.
Spam King must step down: This might make you feel a little better the next time you have to close dozens of pop-up windows or spend an hour removing "spyware" or "mal-ware" from your computer: A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Stanford Wallace, a man known as the "Spam King," which will force him to disable most of his software. Mr. Wallace's case is the first action launched by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in its crackdown on ad-ware and spam. He has also allegedly been selling software called "Spy Wiper" and "Spy Deleter" that the FTC says doesn't work.
The New York kid rides again: Not content with having pressured Wall Street brokers into signing a $1.4-billion (U.S.) settlement for conflict of interest, putting the fear of God into mutual funds over late trading and sending the stock price of several large insurance companies into the tank because of a probe into broker commissions, New York Marshal... er, Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer is going after the music industry. He seems to think that the money record companies like EMI and Warner Music pay to "independent" agents to get their music on the radio sounds suspiciously like the commissions that mutual funds and insurance companies pay "independent" agents to push their products. Can you say "payola?"
I'm not a terrorist - Google says: As all-powerful as Google might be, it's just a search engine, right? Sure, it makes it easier to find that specialty store with the chocolate you like, or to prove to a friend that 1940s movie legend Hedy Lamarr helped invent the cellphone, but how important could it possibly be? Well, it probably saved the life of Australian journalist John Martinkus, who was kidnapped in Baghdad as a suspected U.S. spy. After his captors looked him up using Google, however, they became convinced that he was just a journalist and he was released unharmed. Maybe blogs are worth something after all :-).
Your camera is in mourning: You might not have heard of Lewis Urry, who was born in tiny Pontypool, Ontario (just north of Toronto) in 1927, but if you have ever used a digital camera, music player, laptop or cell phone then you owe him a debt of gratitude. He invented the batteries that make most of your favourite portable gadgets work, while employed at Union Carbide Co. in Ohio in the 1950s (which later became Energizer). He had more than 51 patents on various kinds of batteries, and an estimated 80 per cent of the world's dry-cell batteries are based on his research. He died after a short illness.
Help! My TV is in distress: Picture this scene: Chris van Rossman is sitting in his apartment in tiny Corvallis, Oregon minding his own business, watching one of the four channels he gets on his big-screen TV, when suddenly a horde of Air Force guardsmen, police officers and search and rescue teams are banging on his door to see what's the matter. Why? Because Mr. van Rossman's fancy Toshiba TV was sending out an international distress signal, that's why. The code is used by sailors and pilots to alert searchers to their whereabouts after an accident. Did the Air Force and police wonder about their mission as they followed the signal to Mr. van Rossman's apartment rather than out to sea or towards a plane-crash site? That's not clear. What is clear is that Toshiba's TV was desperate to find someone who could make use of all its features, and decided to call for help.
The other anti-trust battle: By now, everyone's pretty familiar with the struggle Microsoft has been having with the European Union over allegations of anti-competitive practices by EU competition cop Mario Monti, but less well-known is the case involving another gigantic, globe-spanning corporation: Coca-Cola. The purveyor of flavoured sugar-water has just settled a longstanding battle with the EU over its restrictive practices, by agreeing to change its behaviour in exchange for the case being dropped. Coke has said it will stop signing restaurants and stores to exclusive sales agreements, and will also allow other brands of soft drink to be sold in Coke-branded coolers. Vive la pop libre!
Honest, we're not dinosaurs: The music industry - at least some parts of it - seem to be doing their best to evolve a little to fit their market, instead of just suing everybody and their aunt for downloading. According to a recent report, the band U2 has done a deal with Apple to sell a special edition iPod music player that comes pre-loaded with the group's next album and some of their older songs as well. Along the same lines, EMI says it will release Robbie Williams's next album on a memory card that can be used in a digital music player, PDA or even a cell phone.
Hey - this is serious stuff: Professor Bill Tsutsui, who teaches history at the University of Kansas, is a serious and scholarly man. He has asked a number of other serious scholars from Harvard, Vanderbilt and other prestigious universities to come to Kansas and talk about the historical and sociological ramifications of... wait for it... Godzilla. Yes, the evil (but sometimes good) lizard who crushed tiny replica cities and sent townsfolk fleeing for their lives in dozens of cheesy monster movies like Godzilla vs. Mothra (my personal favourite) is now the subject of a scholarly conference. Someone might want to tell Professor Tsutsui that his quest to have Godzilla "taken more seriously," as he puts it, might be easier to pull off if he didn't have a 28-foot high inflatable lizard set up in the lobby of the University of Kansas library building.
More like Lukewarm Wheels: If you're of a certain age (as I am) you probably remember hours of fun and enjoyment in your friend's basement, playing with either Barbies or Hot Wheel racing cars. In my case, of course, we played with both -- strapping Barbie and Skipper onto Hot Wheels cars and sending them over what we called the "fiery jump of death" (too much exposure to Evel Knievel). But I digress. It seems that both Barbie and the Hot Wheels are getting a little long in the tooth these days, since Mattel just announced moribund financial results for the latest quarter and its two flagship brands were largely to blame. Sales of Barbie tanked by 13 per cent and Hot Wheels were down 9 per cent. And what rose? Sales of board games and puzzles. Anyone want to play Monopoly?
Looking for work? Think coal: All we hear about from south of the border is how stubbornly unresponsive the U.S. job market is, and how layoffs are increasing and not enough people can find work. Maybe they haven't noticed the planes flying low over the beaches and the football games - the ones towing banners offering high pay and benefits for entry-level jobs. Just one problem: The jobs are entry-level coal-mining jobs. Coal companies are desperately trying to attract new workers to replace the thousands that have quit the industry and the thousands more that are due to retire in the next few years. They are raiding each other for staff and renting billboards, just like tech companies were a few years ago. Over the last 15 years the number of miners has fallen by about 35 per cent and more than half the miners working now are over 50.
GM still paying you to buy GM: Remember last year, when General Motors was getting all kinds of kudos for turning around its business and gaining market share through the clever use of "incentives" - otherwise known as bribes - designed to get buyers into its showrooms? Well, GM continues to pay the price for that little strategy, which reminds me of the legendary Change Bank: "Yes, that's all we do - we make change. And how do we make money? One word: volume." GM continues to sell more and more cars, and makes less and less on every one, because it has to keep cranking up the level of bribes... er, incentives, along with the other car makers. Now GM says it is laying off 12,000 staff in Europe and that it lost $130-million on its automotive business in the latest quarter. Remember the car business? That's what GM used to do, before it became a bank.
Can pudding convince the NFL?: Although they don't like to admit it, sometimes public campaigns and boycotts can have an effect on companies and institutions. But can a disgruntled lawyer living in the U.S. Virgin Islands have an effect on the National Football League by eating nothing but pudding? That's the question Clay Travis is trying to answer, by going on a pudding-only diet for the past month (that's about 219 puddings). Clay, who was born in Nashville and is married to a former Tennessee Titans cheerleader, is incensed that NFL weekend games are not available in the Virgin Islands, something he claims is "essentially a fundamental right of Americans." He is trying to pressure the NFL and/or satellite provider DirecTV to give the Virgin Islands access to NFL broadcasts.
They'd like another option: One of the longest-running accounting fights in the U.S. just got pushed into extra innings. The Financial Accounting Standards Board or FASB, which sets rules for public companies, has been trying for almost a decade to bring in a new standard requiring companies to expense the cost of issuing stock options. But it keeps caving in to pressure from technology companies such as Intel, who argue that expensing options would cost them money and make it harder to attract staff. In 1996 the FASB got close to enacting the rule, but changed its mind at the last minute. In the latest go-round, the board planned to start requiring option expensing in January, but has now said it will postpone the issue until June - giving the anti-expense lobby time to push Congress even harder for some kind of exemption.
Too many Yahooligans: Investors who don't pay attention are often to blame for spikes in a particular stock, but headline writers deserve some blame too. On Tuesday, when Yahoo reported its latest quarter, several wire service reports and news stories screamed that the on-line company's profit had "almost quadrupled" due to a stronger advertising environment, and revenue also soared. Not surprisingly, the stock price jumped. Not mentioned until lower down was the fact that more than half of the profit increase came from a one-time windfall - the sale of a stake in Google. Also left out of many stories was the fact that Yahoo's revenue actually declined, if you exclude the money it has to pay to its ad-search partners, which falls under the heading of "subscriber acquisition costs."
Flu and the economy: Everyone knows the kind of impact high oil prices have on the economy, but what about the flu? Some experts say they're concerned about the impact the flu could have on the U.S. economy, now that Chiron - one of the world's largest makers of flu inoculations - can't supply any because of problems at its Liverpool lab. That will leave the U.S. with only half the supply it usually has. "What if you had 20 or 30 per cent of your population not able to go to work or to school? It would affect the economy," said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. The problem is that there are only two large producers, and no one else is interested in getting into the game. Not only are there all the regulatory costs, but anything you don't use during flu season - sometimes millions of doses - has to be destroyed. Sounds like a great business, doesn't it? On the other hand, you could be like Meds-Stat, the other big flu vaccine distributor: It's being sued by the state of Kansas for allegedly boosting the price of its vaccine this week by 1,000 per cent.
Sir Short-Attention-Span: Sir Richard Branson always seems to be the happiest guy in the room - and why shouldn't he be? Not only is the Virgin Group founder and chairman a billionaire, but he's rakishly handsome to boot. He has also never met a market he didn't want to enter, it seems. Virgin is already an airline (Virgin Blue), a phone company, an operator of high-speed trains, a wedding retailer and has plans to offer consumers trips into outer space - and Sir Richard even has his own Apprentice-style TV show. On Tuesday, Virgin said it will compete with Apple in the MP3 player game, with a newly-announced 5-gigabyte music device that also has a built-in FM radio - and two earphone jacks (so you can share with a friend).
Oracle speaks in riddles: Aren't you supposed to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth when you take the stand? It's hard to believe that Oracle Corp. executives are doing that when they say the price of their company's takeover bid for competitor PeopleSoft may be lowered rather than raised. Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison hinted at the possibility last week during a hearing into the long-running takeover offer, and on Tuesday co-president Safra Catz also said the bid may drop, due to unspecified "liabilities" at PeopleSoft. Are there real issues at Oracle's takeover target? Perhaps. Or the recent pronouncements may be a clever way of trying to push the company's share price down so Larry doesn't have to pay as much. But Oracle wouldn't do that, would they? Of course they wouldn't.
Don't bet on this pony: The racetrack just doesn't seem to be the hand-over-fist kind of money-maker it used to be in the good old days, when businessmen could be relied upon to blow every last dime chasing some nag they heard about at the local pub. Churchill Downs, operator of the legendary Kentucky Derby horse race, said it will post a substantial loss instead of the profit it was expected to make for the latest quarter. It seems the good, old-fashioned ponies are being replaced too quickly by slot machines and on-line gambling, and Churchill is taking it in the neck as a result. The biggest factor in the latest loss? The cost of spending on lobbying efforts in various states in an attempt to turn the company's tracks into what the gambling cognoscenti call "racinos." So far, Churchill is throwing snake eyes.
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