mrogers writes “British police want to collect DNA samples from children as young as five who ‘exhibit behavior indicating they might become criminals in later life’. A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers argued that since some schools already take pupils’ fingerprints, the collection and permanent storage of DNA samples was the logical next step. And of course, if anyone argues that branding naughty five-year-olds as lifelong criminals will stigmatize them, the proposed solution will be to take samples from all children.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Share This

Share This

Screaming Cactus writes “Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the site. ‘Chinese leaders encourage Internet use for education and business but use on the internet filters to block access to material considered subversive or pornographic. Foreign Web sites run by news organizations and human rights groups are regularly blocked if they carry sensitive information. Operators of China-based on the web bulletin boards are required to monitor their content and enforce censorship.’ The blocking added to the communist government’s efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Share This

Share This

Boiled Frog from a Nation of Suspects writes “The Oyster card, an RFID single-swipe card (which was recently cracked), was introduced to London’s public transport users purportedly to make their lives easier. Now, British Intelligence services want some of the benefits by trawling through the travel data amassed by the card to spy on the 17 million Britons who use it. The article notes, “Currently the security services can demand the Oyster records of specific individuals under investigation to establish where they have been, but can’t trawl the whole database. But supporters of calls for more sharing of data argue that apparently trivial snippets — like the journeys an individual makes around the capital — could become important pieces of the jigsaw when fitted into a pattern of other publicly held information on an individual’s movements, habits, education and other personal details. That could lead, they argue, to the unmasking of otherwise undetected suspects.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Competitive strategy, Sears Holdings (SHLD), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN)

While the sagging dollar and swooning stock market has made me more likely to shop at Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) than at Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), I am considering the 10 Things to Add a Glamorous, Global Twist to my looks.

Instead of stories about basketball players dropping $10k for a pair of shoes, Bloomberg is running a story on some short selling going on at Nordstrom.

The upscale retailer has embarked on an aggressive store expansion. The company will add 1.11 million square feet in 2008, more than twice that which was added in 2007. With that expansion in square footage has come an commensurate increase in short sales volume (those sold with the intention of betting on the stock price decreasing in JWN).

Analysts are fearing that while Nordstrom might have it going on in terms of hitting the fashion bulls-eye, such aggressive expansion may negatively affect the company. The same Bloomberg story quotes a Wall Street analyst who said that “slowdown in square-footage growth” would make her more positive on the Nordstrom story.

Much as an astute investor in the stock market would use price pullbacks to add to positions he or she likes, Nordstrom is leveraging cut-backs in store expansions at competitors to land what it feels are prime locations for new stores.

With fears that the U.S. consumer will suffer more than he’s presently, investors are nervous that store expansion might leave Nordstrom with a lot to sell and not a whole lot of buying going on.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

Share This

Share This

Finance
Finance Theory. Finance theory has a surprisingly short history in economics. Economists have long been aware of the basic economic function of credit markets but they were not

Finance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Finance studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses , and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the dangers

California Department of Finance: Home
Provides information about the state budget, demographics, monthly financial bulletins, and related links.

Countrywide Financial - Home Loans - Equity Loan Mortgages
Provides residential mortgages, insurance and banking services nationwide. Features company profile, services, stock information.

Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance
With information about the Budget, the economy, and the debt-reduction program.

Finance And Budget
Finance And Budget: 807 NE Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55413 |  Phone: 612-668-0412  |  Fax: 612-668-0385

Ministry of Finance
Contains a CV of the minister, with many other pages under construction.

Yahoo! Finance
Personal finance, investing tips and news.

Business Finance
On the web companion to the monthly record-keeping and finance magazine targeted to CFOs and corporate controllers includes a comprehensive article archives, newsletters, and survey

Google Finance
Google Finance offers a broad range of information about stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies. In addition, Google Finance offers interactive charts, news and

Business Finance Vendors | Financial Services | Business.com
Providers of business financial services including banking, Forex, credit card, and venture capital services. Vendors offering merchant account systems and providers of business

Share This

Share This

modemac writes “Four major Japanese telecom organizations, which represent ‘about 1,000 major and smaller’ domestic ISPs, have concurred to forcibly cut the World wide web connection of filesharers. They’re specifically targeting users of the ‘Winny’ program, trading copied gaming software and music. The article says that a new set of ISP guidelines will be drawn up on how to cut off users who ‘leak illegally copied material onto the Net.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Share This

Share This

arbitraryaardvark writes “The Seattle Times reports that spammer Robert Soloway has pled guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion, in exchange for the state dropping multiple counts of identify theft. ‘The electronic-mail fraud charge is punishable by up to five years in prison. The tax charge is a misdemeanor and carries a maximum one-year sentence. The law also grants for fines against Soloway and his business of up to $625,000 on all charges. Both sides agreed to let U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman determine not just the amount of prison time Soloway, 28, might serve but also the number of his victims, the size of any fine and the amount of restitution he might be ordered to pay.’ We’ve previously discussed his arrest and mention in the New Yorker. The wire fraud felony count is based on selling $500 packages to wannabe spammers.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Share This

Share This