tech-for-the-rest-of-us

A lot was said this past week in regard to the SEC attack on rumor mongering and willful misrepresentation of facts for the benefit of naked short sellers. One point that I'd like to make perfectly clear is this: The SEC's indicated desire to quash the spreading of false negative information by, and for the benefit of, manipulative short sellers, is nothing even remotely akin to a First Amendment issue. The First Amendment does not give protection to slanderers, liars, and sabotage artists. I'd also like to make clear my opinion that honest short selling is a positive, healthy, and necessary practice. I believe it helps to define and benchmark real value within the markets.

The Los Angels Times reported that SEC Chairman Christopher Cox may have his hands full in the wake of a measure that protects nearly two dozen large financial firms from naked short selling. The measure requires "anyone effecting a short sale in these securities (to) arrange beforehand to borrow the securities and deliver them at settlement." It's a rule that is long over due for enforcement and that shall most probably, at least temporarily, lay to rest some serious market abuses.

Park Falls Wisconsin is just like any of the hundreds of other bustling small towns across America. At least, it was until Monday July 14, 2008. That was the day when it was announced that the Department of Energy had awarded a $30 million grant for the construction and operation of a bio-refinery at the existing Flambeau River Papers, pulp and paper mill. The project shall be a show piece, and the first of it's kind.

The Park Falls Herald reported that, when in full operation, the bio-refinery is expected to produce a minimum of six million gallons of sulfur-free diesel fuel annually from nonfood-based, timber and agricultural waste materials. Additionally, the bio-refinery is expected to generate at least one trillion BTUs of process heat annually, which will be sold directly to the paper mill. That exchange is expected to make Flambeau River Papers the first integrated pulp and paper mill in North America essentially free of fossil fuel usage.

The project is expected to reach operational status by 2010, and is also expected to garner the close attention of alternative energy investors and governments world wide. The project is, in part, a response to the current presidential administration's nationwide call for increased energy independence without additional pressure being placed upon the food supply. It is widely hoped that these types of refinery operations shall soon be considered for development in other suitable locations across the country.

Eleme Medical plans to take its laser and light energy cellulite zapping technology into commercial application after receiving $18 million of investment capital and the backing of a couple big names. Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management has joined forces with L Capital Partners in backing Eleme in its efforts to smooth the thighs and buttocks of the world.

The new system is called the SmoothShapes cellulite treatment, and the FDA has given it aapproval. The company's website however, sheds little light on how the device actually works. It would seem that the SmoothShapes laser and light energy system, in combination with suction and kneading of the tissue, causes restoration of certain skin cells which are important in the restructuring and maintenance of a smooth butt.

If you ask me, the whole thing sounds like a 3 a.m. Thigh Master commercial tucked in between episodes of Murder She Wrote. But if venture capitalists choose to place their bets on the possibility that there really is a new and effective method for enhancing the appearance of cellulite, who am I to question it? If the device has true potential, the venture partners might think about getting a celebrity to use it and endorse it. Then, all that will be needed is for Eleme to convince the insurance industry that cellulite maintenance treatments are a necessary medical procedure. Oh yes, one can just hear the cash registers ringing at the thought.

Gary Sattler is a freelance blogger. He does not knowingly have financial interest in the companies mentioned in this blog post.

In keeping with its typical marketing flavor, Harley Davidson Inc., (NYSE: HOG) wants its newly opened Harley Davidson museum to be more about the rider's experience than just the ride. The company wants its museum to be a lifestyle exploration adventure, rather than a commercial presentation. While the new attraction indeeds feature hundreds of motorcycles, reams of vintage Harley Davidson advertising and other Harley memorabilia, in an article published by Business Week, museum director, Stacey Schiesl is quoted as stating: "It's not just about what's inside."

It's always been that way with Harley Davidson. In strong years and lean years, the company had always taken the experience of its enthusiasts very seriously. That is why the museum was designed and constructed to be enjoyed in a manner that stimulates what Harley owners like most about their bikes. It's a feeling of camaraderie. It's a sharing of an experience. It's good will and good times on a piece of open road. Architects designed the site to reflect and embody a feeling of Main Street Americana, with accommodations for up to 15,000 bikes at any given time.

The Harley Davidson Museum is a testimonial to 105 years of American made motorcycle greatness. Even in the face of tough times, with the company forecasting slowed earnings and reduced production, it's good to see that it has maintained its successful focus: to create both a visual and a tangible motorcycling lifestyle experience for all motorcycle enthusiasts to enjoy.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY)'s growth decline started nearly two years ago. Now, as reported by The New York Times, the final spike has been driven into the very heart of what eBay once was. In a Johnny-come-lately effort to revive a growth curve which eBay's top brass blindly shackled ten years before its due, the company is shifting its focus from the tried and true, mom-n-pop auction strategy to a business model of "stock the shelves with all the discount crap that you can, and don't charge for the benefit."

It's okay though, anyone who can achieve eBay's new "diamond power-sellers status" will be qualified for the same discount perks that eBay has negotiated with Buy.com. It's just too bad that the eBay stuffed shirts never figured out that eBay's sellers were its buyers also.

The discount store concept might have worked for eBay, if it had been tried as a parallel effort, while leaving the original working eBay alone. But of course, they had to tinker with the formula. I tried to warn you. Honestly.

If you got out in time, I applaud you.

Gary Sattler is a freelance blogger. He holds no position in eBay. His wife does still operate an active eBay store.

If you're hearing whispers that the dollar might be creeping up in value and that this might put downward pressure on commodities, then let me tell you: Don't you believe it. Although some upward adjustment might occur for the dollar, it's my opinion that this won't, by itself, reduce commodity prices. To think so is just too limited an economic scope.

First, we can believe that the platform of oil prices is going to hold solid. I do think that the price of oil will eventually recede, but it's not going to be soon and it's not going to be much. It'll be a couple years before we see any real decline, if we ever do. That reality gives us a good launching point for some speculation. Alternative fueling for motor vehicles will keep upward pressure on oils other than petroleum. Consider commodity soybeans, soybean oil, and palm oil as possible hedges. There's also potential in propane, and to me, natural gas is still artificially under valued. You might not think there's a relationship between these commodities and petroleum. Believe me though, there is. Also, like the high volume traded commodities, other vegetable oils, such as sunflower oil and cottonseed oil, are worth looking into.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Oshkosh B'Gosh, the well-known children's clothing manufacturer, was founded in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1895. As are most of the cities in Wisconsin's Fox River Valley, Oshkosh was incubated first on the fur trade in the early 1800s, then was built upon the railroads and the lumber industry, and finally, it rests on light and medium manufacturing and the pursuit of higher education and culture. Currently, Oshkosh has a population in the neighborhood of 65,000, and it covers more than 24 square miles.

Oshkosh B'Gosh is probably the best-known namesake of its home city. Though the company's manufacturing operations have been moved away, it still maintains its corporate headquarters there. The company began as a manufacturer of sturdy clothes for working people, most especially its trademark overalls. It wasn't until the mail-order company Miles Kimball featured Oshkosh B'Gosh overalls in one of its catalogs that the company moved its products into retail stores. At that time, Oshkosh B'Gosh expanded its children's clothing line, which would eventually become the company's mainstay.

Two other companies have carried the name Oshkosh to great heights in the business world. One is Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK), formerly called Oshkosh Truck, and the other was Chief Oshkosh Beer. However, perhaps the most renowned feature of Oshkosh is the yearly Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure air show (EAA). During that annual event, Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, becomes the busiest airport in the world.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

How long does it take to manufacture 100 billion crayons? Well, if you're the developer and foremost manufacturer of the colorful little cylindrical beauties, it takes exactly 93 years, as evidenced by the successful history of Crayola Crayons.

Easton Pennsylvania, sitting at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, has served as the backdrop for the entire glorious history of Crayola Crayons. A small town, covering just under five square miles, and home to fewer than 30,000 inhabitants, what Easton might lack in girth, it certainly makes up for with history. The partnership of cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, creators of the Crayola Crayon, probably were located in Easton to take advantage of the town's former status as a railroad hub, its access to raw materials, and its proximity to both Philadelphia and New York City.

While the partnership of Binney & Smith has grown and flourished, the city of Easton Pennsylvania has had its difficulties. While the Crayola empire has continually sought to enhance its offering and involvement in the creative arts by expanding, experimenting and inviting innovation, Easton has sought to remain true to, and thoughtful of its heritage. However, renewed stimulation of Easton's economy over the past decade has been focused on making the city an attractive getaway destination for visitors. This effort involves a deeply thoughtful utilization of the city's cultural, historical, and natural resources, which are being blended and deployed with strategic local focus.

Spurred by a near epidemic occurrence of brain-degenerating conditions as we age, people of all ages and backgrounds are stepping up their personal efforts to improve and maintain their brain health. According to a story in USA Today, sales of brain fitness software reached nearly $230 million in 2007. USA Today stated, "SharpBrains, (a market research firm) estimates the brain fitness software market will reach $2 billion in 2015 in the United States."

Prudent investment strategy might include a speculative foray into this popular and growing field. In light of this, you may wish to pay heed to blogger Steven Mallas, and read his take on Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI).

First on the list for brain maintenance is physical activity, which probably accounts for the outstanding sales of Nintendo's Wii Fit. from Nintendo Ltd. (OTC: NTDOY). Active lives promote healthy blood circulation, which helps to feed steady amounts of oxygen to the hungry brain. Good hard work, cardiovascular exercise and even regular sexual activity can all help to keep your heart pumping adequate levels of oxygen into your brain.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

"It is a place where simple things, done well, will never be out of style." Those are the words of Walter Kohler, Sr., as he envisioned the creation of one of the first planned communities to be built in this country. In 1913, Kohler Company initiated its plan to move its manufacturing operations from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, onto a tract of countryside farmland it purchased for its new industrial complex.

The village of Kohler slowly took shape around the company's industrial complex. It featured all the necessities for fulfilling community life. Single and two family homes were constructed, utilizing lumber from the Paine Lumber Company in Oshkosh. The village included a proper school, a village hall and dormitory housing for unmarried workers. During this time, Kohler Company established itself as a world leading supplier of plumbing products.

When Walter Kohler, Sr., was shaping the vision for his company town, he visited garden cities across the globe and incorporated the desire for natural beauty into his plans. Working with the Olmsted Brothers, designers of New York's Central Park, Kohler made a 50-year plan to provide gardens and green spaces within the new company village. Kohler's second 50-year plan for green space was then established under the guidance of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The result of this careful oversight has been the creation of a village with deep respect for its natural surroundings and which is laced with gardens of beauty.

This post opens our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered. Watch for more Big Company, Small Town posts coming soon.

All across this great country of ours, small cities, towns, and villages have been built in the shadows of major companies that supply work for their local populations. It can be a wonderful situation that cultivates a special kind of community and a deep-seated local pride. However, it can also be a recipe for civic disaster, if the major supplier of a wage base in a locality goes out of business or leaves town. Such was the near disastrous fate of Park Falls, Wisconsin, not so long ago.

The city of Park Falls, which is Wisconsin's most geographically isolated city, was built around its paper mill. At its height, the mill helped to bring the population of the city to nearly 4,000 inhabitants. However, in 2006 the paper mill, which was operating at reduced capacity under ownership from out of state, was shut down almost without any prior notice. The result was immediate and deeply wrenching turmoil. Not only had the paper mill workers lost an excellent source of income, but the collateral damage was jarringly significant also. Loggers had no local market for their pulp wood. Dozens of family-feeding log trucks were idled. Private contractors who did various types of work for the mill were left with thousands of dollars worth of unpaid invoices. Local vendors, retailers, and support businesses almost immediately went slack.

The Internal Revenue Service is reporting that it still has about 5.2 million tax rebate checks which it cannot send out because the people who should get them have not filed a 2007 tax return. According to a report in USA Today, these citizens only need to fill in a few lines on IRS form 1040A, in order to get their money. The IRS says that veterans and retirees, those who could use the money the most, make up the major portion of the population that has not yet received it's rebates. The IRS expects to issue 124 million rebate payments by year's end. So far, about 76.5 million of those payments have gone out.

An interesting post written by Joseph Lazzaro on Tuesday indicated that many economists think that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as the BRIC economies, will supplant the United States and European nations in terms of world power and economic strength. While this may be true to a degree, I have a message for those emerging economic powerhouses: they had better be careful.

Dear Brazil, you have resources you can't yet even contemplate. However, you have been whacking through your opportunities at a very rapid pace. You have no idea about what political powers you should align yourself with. Can you reign in your pirates, your poachers, your drug lords? Can you effectively protect even just one of your trees?

Dear Russia, you scare me. The world knows more of your organized crime than it knows of your present government. You move more capital through your black markets than through your own ports. You turn your backs on true enterprise in exchange for quick profit.

As if this country doesn't have enough to worry about, now Donald Trump says that oil companies such as BP (NYSE: BP), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) are ripping us off. According to a story from CNBC, Trump is calling for punitive sanctions against oil companies, citing their historic profit levels.

While calling himself a "great capitalist" and stating that it is against his nature to seek punitive sanctions against companies that are reaping big profits, Donald Trump indicated that it is his opinion that oil companies have been ripping off the world for quite some time. In a statement aired by CNBC, Trump said, "I can see doing something against the oil companies."

Associated Press has made it quite clear that the organization intends to put the hammer down on bloggers who quote that news service. As one who routinely quotes and links to Associated Press content, all I can say is, "Yeah, good luck with that."

At first, AP took a hard-line stance, demanding that one particular blog should remove seven pieces of content which featured quotes from AP articles and stating that bloggers across the internet should curtail the use of AP content. However, when faced with a swift backlash from a cross section of well-known and heavily-read bloggers, the news service took a big step back. The New York Times reported that Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., stated in an interview that the agency was "heavy-handed" and that A.P. would "rethink its policies toward bloggers."