At this years CMA’s the much talked about incident wasn’t a wardrobe malfunction or someone going off on a political tirade, but a loser’s reaction. For the female singer of the year award, the contestants are all awaiting the outcome and when it is announced that Carrie Underwood wins, Faith Hill doesn’t believe it. She turns and makes an angered face and yells WHAT?! Now, I know that this is probably what most people think, but normally you keep it inside. For someone like her that is professional this kind of stunt is very uncalled for. I am pressuming she did it to attract attention maybe to sell more albums and get her name publicized. She was successful but now in a very bad light. Then afterwards, she is now saying it was meant to be a joke. Well joke off camera then, that is disrespectful.
Monthly Archives: November 2006
SIRIUS 3rd Quarter Loss Narrows
SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ : SIRI) announced their 3rd quarter earnings report on Wednesday. In the report it showed that their net loss had decreased and their revenue more than doubled. Revenue doubled on strong subscriber growth during the quarter. During the 3rd quarter their net increase in subscribers was 441,000 to bring their total to 5.1 million. They maintained that their yearend forecast is 6.3 million subscribers. This is an excellent growth rate but the losses continued due to spending on new technology, and entertainment. Deals with Howard Stern, and the NFL are likely to bring in a lot of subscribers but they are also costly. During the morning trading the stock was up 2.44% to 4.19 and seemed to be rising.
Fedex Cancels Airbus A380 Order
Airbus SAS parent EADS NV (EPA : EAD) regretted to announce on Tuesday that Fedex (NYSE: FDX) had cancelled its 10-plane Airbus A380 order. This news hit the stock hard after Tuesday’s close but the stock seemed to rebound back to its weekly average by Wednesday morning over in Europe. It looked particularily bad at one point when the stock was down to 20.42 per share. As of now, the stock is trading around 21.24 and up on the day. After the cancellation, Airbus still has orders for 15 more cargo versions of the A380.  With this delay there has been some concern that more cancellations will follow.
The cancellation was brought on by “significant” delays, being blamed on persistent manufacuring problems. In order to fulfill their aircraft demands, Fedex has decided to go with Airbus rival manufacuter’s Boeing (NYSE : BA) 777 Freighter plane. They put in an order for 15 planes with an option for another 15. This is big news for Boeing who seems to continue to gain orders as people leave Airbus’s Superjumbo behind.
BIDU Rising
Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) stock has been rising quite a bit today. So far this morning, the stock has risen up to 93.24 or 5.18%. Baidu.com is the number one search engine in China. There has been some speculation recently that either Google or Yahoo is interested in purchasing the company to gain a stonger foothold in the Chinese market. I am wondering whether this speculation is what is fuelling the stock increase. It seems kind of a delayed reaction if the reason for the increase is the third quarter earnings report where they increased profit ten fold. Their third quarter earnings was announced October 31. This is one company that people should watch for in the future as a possible acquistion target to gain market share in China.
While I was in China, I saw first hand that the search market was practically split between people searching with Google and others searching with Baidu. Another thing I noticed was people seemed to use Baidu to search for MP3s. When people were asked why they searched with one or the other they didn’t have a solid answer other than it was the one they always used. Then when asked if they would ever switch to another search engine most seemed alright with the idea as long as the searches brought them useful results. Overall though, there remained some patriotism about using a Chinese search engine.
Ricky Williams to stay in Canada?
“They must have some good weed in Canada for Ricky to be considering staying up there! Not that there’s anything wrong with Canada, but it’s not his home.” –bcope16
I have to say that if Ricky Williams is considering staying in the CFL for another season it proves how strong a league the CFL actually is. If one of the best running backs in the NFL is satisfied with playing in a league that pays him less, I wonder why more players aren’t making this type of transition over. This season Williams hasn’t really been an allstar in the league like everyone thought but that hasn’t changed the way he played the game. By putting in an effort game after game, Ricky is showing that he does in fact care more about playing football and not the money. The CFL is a great league and shouldn’t be looked at like its the minor leagues for the NFL.
Four Season Hotel Going Private
Four Seasons Hotel Inc. is going private after a huge deal with Bill Gates and Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal becoming the major shareholders. The Toronto based hotel was created in the red light district of Toronto in 1961 by Isadore Sharp. Over its 45 year history the company has evolved and grown to now include over 70 properties in 31 countries around the world. The deal by the pair to purchase the shares is worth $3.7-billion USD. Isadore Sharp will remain as CEO and hold on to 10% of the companies shares while Gates and the Prince will each split the remaining 90% in half. Mr. Sharp reiterated that the purchase will not affect the direction or vision of the hotel and business should proceed as usual.
University meeting dissolves into drunken chaos at Lake Louise
Drunken and drug-fueled debauchery at the Chateau Lake Louise this past weekend forced RCMP and government inspectors to crash a party involving students from six universities across Western Canada.
I would really like to hear some of the students side of things. This sounds like a very strange situation that kind of got out of control. It’s good to see that Regina is represented but hopefully we weren’t the ones instigating everything. The Western Business Games sure sounds like an event with some good history now. I wonder if for next year there will be an increased demand in Admin students to attend?
To summarize the events, it sounds like a lot of the events for the Games involved drinking. When you have that many people and a lot of drinking bad stuff is bound to happen. The only reported injury was a 32 year old apparently jumping two floors off a railing. His condition is currently unknown. The police also found drugs in 4 of the guests rooms and brought out police dogs to sniff around the hotel. Reports also indicate that students were walking in bathing suits and g-strings around the hotel with open alcohol.
Overall, I’d say its a rather normal weekend for most of these people. Its university and these kids just want to have a good time.
**Update 4:20pm** The Calgary Herald has revised their article to state that the University of Regina was not involved despite a group of students claiming to be from the Univeristy of Regina. Funny, why would students claim to be from a univeristy and not actually go there. I believe the University of Regina is just trying to make sure their name is not tarnished by the actions of a group of students.
Kinross Down – Bema Up after Acquisition News
Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC, K.TO) announced Monday that they will aquire Bema Gold Corportation (BGO) for an all-stock $3.1 billion deal. Following this announcement Kinross stock was seen trading down 8.07% to 13.78 while Bema stock was up 11.11% to 6.00. Upon completition of the deal 61% of Kinross will be held by exisiting shareholders while the remaining 39% will be held by Bema shareholders. The deal was unanimously approved by both companies board of directors. The deal is still subject to all regulatory approvals, and a vote by Bema shareholders in mid-January before it will become official.
Sirius Jumps Above $4
SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) stock has surged above the $4 mark in Monday morning trading up 7.45% to $4.04. This rise comes before Wednesday’s third quarter earning’s report. The rise is a quick reversal of previous alltime lows in the $3.60 – $3.70 region. In related news, XM Satellite Radio announced their third quarter earning’s report today. Their 3Q loss narrowed and their revenue increased 57%. The overall loss is $84 million or 32 cents per share. This is promising news for the satellite radio market, who have been in troubled times recently with lower than expected subscriptions. XM’s stock was up 16% so far today. Everyone should be expecting further movement after Wednesday’s announcement by SIRIUS.
Windows 3.11 is still alive, and ready to beat vista at anything!
from youtube: “One night i had this idea to install dos 6.22+windows 3.11. I’ve put some patches to windows 3.11, make 32bit tcp/ip working, install some new drivers for network, video card etc. and… it works. 16 bit windows 3.11 system can really work in 32/64 bits world. Check this video and say: we don’t need vista ;-)”
I haven’t used Windows 3.11 in such a long time. When I see a video of people still using such old software in today’s environment it really shows the longevity of well put together software. This should be something that developers should really focus on, not the fact people will use your software in the short term, but also, people using your software in the long term. By creating software that is stable, efficient, and adaptable; future systems should be able to maintain the functionality of the software and allow for a usable environment.