| Brazilian stock and future exchanges begin merger talks
Bovespa Holding SA, the company that owns and manages the Brazilian Stock Exchange, and BM&F SA, the country's commodities and futures exchange, issued a joint statement on the talks issued Tuesday night. It said the discussions between the two are aimed at "integrating their activities," but added there was no guarantee of an agreement. Results of the talks would be announced in 60 days. Both Bovespa and BM&F recently went public. Bovespa Holding raised 6.6 billion Brazilian reals (US$3.8 billion; €2.59 billion) in October with its initial public offer, which was Brazil's largest ever in terms of financial volume. .
2007: worst year for the environment
That snow is darker than the fresh snow and lies ready and waiting to warm up quickly when next year's sunlight melt off the winter's powder. The result: many scientists believe the Arctic Ocean has reached a "tipping point" in which nothing but deep and sustained global cooling could reverse the rapid trend toward diminishing summer ice. "Everything is working in consort toward a bluer or totally blue Arctic Ocean ," said Josefino Comiso, senior research scientist for polar oceanography at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. .
Mkt Watch : Investors’ playground, traders’ graveyard
The market is displaying all the classic signs of a post sell-off syndrome. A v-shaped relief rally, spikes in volatility, retest of lower levels, low trading volumes and aversion to mid- and small-caps. This is exactly what you would have expected to see. These patterns call for a different tactical approach on part of investors. In a market that has clearly not stabilised yet, traders should either refrain from trading or cut down their trade sizes drastically. Equally, if they have to trade they should be extremely nimble and book small gains whenever they get them. This is not the time to be greedy. Compulsive traders should avoid positional trades and trade with narrow stop losses so that they can minimise losses if the market turns against them, which is quite likely. This market could indeed be a trader's graveyard with the Nifty gyrating wildly between a big band of, say, 4,500-5,400.
Conspiracy theories and cut InterTube cables
Truth is stranger than fiction, reality is weirder than any drug induced Hunter S. Thompson fairy tale, and sometimes obvious facts are so bad that the mind chooses to ignore what the eyes see right front and center. In 1985, FBI agent Robert Hanssen began spying for the USSR, just 6 years before its collapse. One of the secrets he sold to them was the fact that a special ops submarine managed to tap the most important USSR military undersea cable in existence. The sub did this not once, but repeatedly, coming back to pick up the recorded tapes, and to replace, even upgrade the tapping equipment. The exact dates of tapping and the results of that spying are murky, but by the few, reliable accounts that discussed that op, it was incredibly successful. In 2001, after the attack by Saudi, Yemeni and other extremists, Iran initiated contact with the US, attempting to coordinate and deal once and for all with the Taliban and the hated Al Qaida.
Gender Equity or Finances?
Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, and others would never have been household words to many young girls (and boys). But the emancipation of women’s sport comes at a cost, one which people have not spoken of because it seems politically uncorrect. But James Madison did what others have done and more will do the future as budgetary pressures continue to plague our four-year institutions. After 33 years, it’s time to at least have a conversation about how we "do" Title IX in a much different era of higher education. Watson Scott Swail, President at Educational Policy Institute, at 8:30 am EDT on October 3, 2006 .
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