5,000 People Wait in Hotlanta Heat for Job Fair

Thousands of unemployed waited overnight, camping out in their business suits and office heels and braving the tormenting heat in Atlanta to stand in line for a job fair Thursday. Authorities treated 20 people for heat exhaustion as they struggled to keep the line moving and get people moved inside.
The incredible turnout at the job fair comes on the heels of the state labor commissioner’s announcement that Georgia’s jobless rate rose.
The state unemployment rate increased to 10.1 percent in July from the 9.9 percent in June. The unemployment rate for African-Americans stands at 15.9 percent, far above the national rate of 9.1 percent.
July marks the 48th consecutive month that Georgia has exceeded the national unemployment rate.

FULL STORY HERE

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(Reuters) – Technology company Apple is now worth as much as the 32 biggest euro zone banks.
That’s the stark result from a steep fall in the share price of banks including Spain’s Santander, France’s BNP Paribas, Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Italy’s Unicredit, compared to a steady rise in Apple’s valuation, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Earlier on Friday the DJ STOXX euro zone banks index fell 4 percent, valuing its 32 members at $340 billion. That’s based on the market capitalization of their free-float shares, which for some French banks in particular is less than 100 percent.
The index has crashed by a third since the start of July, hammered by fears banks will lose billions from their holdings of euro zone government bonds and a failure of policymakers to stop a euro zone debt crisis from spreading.
The euro zone banks have lost three-quarters of their value since peaking in May 2007.
In contrast, Apple’s market capitalization has soared to $340 billion on the back of the success of innovative technology products like iPods, iPhones and iPads.
(Reporting by Steve Slater; Data analysis by Scott Barber; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)

Chinese Scientists Also Plan to Redirect, Bully Apophis Asteroid

However in Contact 475 from 26th of November 2008, 2:16 PM, Billy (Meier) asks Ptaah about this exact effort the Chinese have in mind; but Ptaah questions the effectiveness of such solar sail principles.

“Billy: To my knowledge certain models exist for this purpose, but the scientists cannot come to a mutual agreement with each other. You are saying that the fellow shall be pushed from its orbit, and I gather from it that blowing it up is out of the question.

Therefore, only a reaction principle could be applied, like e.g. an extremely strong nuclear reaction unit, solar sail principles, or atomic explosions near the meteor.

Ptaah:
156. Whereby atomic explosions near the meteor should be especially considered, because they are very efficient and produce a strong drifting effect.

157. However, the explosions may not occur too close to the meteor in order to avoid breaking it up, from which an even greater danger would result.

158. Such a project must be executed early and not at that time when the real danger is starting to threaten, because otherwise it would be too late for a success.

159. Working towards it must be started today.

Billy: And what about big reaction units and solar sail principles?

Ptaah:
160. Those are possibilities, but they are much more difficult to carry out, and the necessary effectiveness is questionable; besides, with regard to their efficiency they are not to be recommended because meteors are unstable with regard to a regular self-position, which makes the application of any effective reaction units and sun sails etc. nearly impossible.

Billy: Those things have to be profoundly thought about by the scientists.

Ptaah:
161. That’s really so, but time presses.”

No. Ticker % Change Market Cap
1 INTU 9.98 12,250,000,000
2 MRVL 7.85 7,320,000,000
3 RIMM 6.87 13,420,000,000
4 SLW 6.52 13,000,000,000
5 VRTX 5.43 9,420,000,000
6 CEA 5.27 5,100,000,000
7 AN 5.24 5,010,000,000
8 GOLD 5.04 9,500,000,000
9 ERTS 4.61 6,230,000,000
10 BVN 4.02 10,920,000,000
11 PCP 3.98 20,270,000,000
12 SBUX 3.97 25,930,000,000
13 DELL 3.78 25,970,000,000
14 NEM 3.77 28,870,000,000
15 CF 3.70 11,780,000,000
16 IAG 3.68 7,030,000,000
17 ARMH 3.66 31,640,000,000
18 BIIB 3.54 21,460,000,000
19 AEM 3.37 10,750,000,000
20 GPS 3.29 8,540,000,000
21 ABV 3.11 100,730,000,000
22 RUK 3.09 9,140,000,000
23 EGO 2.98 10,500,000,000
24 MCD 2.94 88,330,000,000
25 CTSH 2.88 16,540,000,000
26 NOK 2.87 21,300,000,000
27 ENL 2.75 8,030,000,000
28 BAK 2.70 8,580,000,000
29 CHL 2.70 191,830,000,000
30 GR 2.69 10,140,000,000
31 YUM 2.68 22,720,000,000
32 GG 2.61 40,300,000,000
33 ZNH 2.58 6,190,000,000
34 AUY 2.55 11,400,000,000
35 GFI 2.55 11,900,000,000
36 GGB 2.43 13,320,000,000
37 NXY 2.42 10,460,000,000
38 STO 2.41 71,290,000,000
39 CERN 2.40 9,360,000,000
40 CHTR 2.33 5,060,000,000
41 HFC 2.30 6,970,000,000
42 NGD 2.27 5,560,000,000
43 GMCR 2.27 13,420,000,000
44 LNKD 2.25 7,590,000,000
45 TSU 2.16 13,510,000,000
46 EOG 2.16 23,540,000,000
47 KGC 2.07 18,670,000,000
48 PSO 2.06 13,580,000,000
49 ALXN 2.05 9,280,000,000
50 MFG 2.05 31,810,000,000

NASA says Aliens may attack us because we are destroying our home world

The brainstorming NASA brain trust speculates “that extraterrestrial environmentalists could be so appalled by our planet-polluting ways that they view us as a threat to the intergalactic ecosystem and decide to destroy us.

Extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) “could attack and kill us, enslave us, or potentially even eat us. ETI could attack us out of selfishness or out of a more altruistic desire to protect the galaxy from us. We might be a threat to the galaxy just as we are a threat to our home planet,” it warns.

It speculates that aliens, worried we might inflict the damage done to our own planet on others, might “seek to preemptively destroy our civilization in order to protect other civilizations from us.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates rose in July in more than half the states for the second straight month, evidence that job growth remains weak nationwide.

The Labor Department says unemployment increased in 28 states, fell in nine and remained unchanged in 13. Those are nearly the same figures as in June, when unemployment rose in 28 states, fell in eight and was unchanged in 14.

Nationwide, hiring picked up slightly in July. The economy added 117,000 jobs, roughly double the number in each of the previous two months. The unemployment rate fell to 9.1 percent.

Still, hiring has slowed sharply this year — from an average of 215,000 net jobs a month from February through April to an average of 72,000 in May through July.

Think about your kids….typical village idiot

Bunge continues to expand operations, looking now to dominate the sugar industry (and subsequently the government subsidized ethanol industry) in Brazil.

Bunge Ltd. (BG), the world’s second- largest sugar trader, said it plans to spend $2.5 billion to boost sugar and ethanol production in Brazil over the next five years and may sell bonds to help finance the investments.

“We are very positive on the sugar and ethanol outlook,” Chief Executive Officer Alberto Weisser said at a press conference in Sao Paulo. “Our investments come at the right moment, as the world is yearning for food and clean energy.”

Bunge plans to invest the cash between next year and 2016 to boost capacity at eight mills in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar producer and exporter. The plan will boost sugar-cane crushing capacity to 30 million metric tons a year from 21 million tons, according to the White Plains, New York-based company. Sugar and ethanol capacity will grow by almost half.

Sugar prices jumped 50 percent in the past year after a drought and freezing temperatures in Brazil’s Center South cut output of sugar-cane, which is turned into sugar and ethanol, for the first time in a decade. Ethanol prices rose 11 percent.

The sugar and so-called bioenergy business are a “priority” for the company, said Weisser, who is targeting sales growth of 8 percent to 10 percent a year over the next five years, the fastest among all the four areas where Bunge is active. The others are fertilizer, food & ingredients and agribusiness, according to a July 28 company presentation.

+4.3% to $37.38.

Pick your winners folks

Radian 6 was a good acquisition for CRM

BUY, BUY, BUY

CLWR trading @ $3.09 up $0.78

Good luck to Doug. I do not doubt it can happen, but I will wait for $4 on BAC; if that happens the sector should be ripe for picking.

Full article

Contracts in expiring in March are seeing nice activity

Currently up 4.21% @ $37.32

Interlude

Does not surprise me one bit…. Here is a short version

“Monetary policy is notoriously ineffective during a balance sheet recession.  Perhaps when we finally remove Bernanke from the Fed we will be out of the balance sheet recession and we can resurrect the Put under the name of a new Fed chief?  That will be exciting.”

This is typical S&P garbagio…should have manned up years ago.