SAT results

Students must be logging in to their collegeboard account as I type this to access their October 2009 SAT scores. Considering the importance of this little test called SAT, I sincerely wish them best of luck. May your SAT score exceed your expectations.Amen

Colgate-Palmolive 3Q profit rises 18 percent

Consumer products maker Colgate-Palmolive Co.'s third-quarter profit rose 18 percent as new products took market share and shoppers continued to pay higher prices for its products.

The maker of toothpaste, dish soap and Ajax cleanser said Thursday that it earned $590 million, or $1.12 per share, in the quarter that ended in September. A year ago, Colgate earned $500 million, or 94 cents per share.Revenue rose to $4 billion from $3.99 billion, helped by a 5 percent rise in prices worldwide. Colgate has raised prices to keep up with higher ingredient costs.Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $1.11 per share and lower revenue of $3.94 billion.The amount of products sold rose 1.5 percent as consumers appeared willing to spend more for their products. Many shoppers have been trading down to cheaper items to save money. Personally I use colgate and I can understand

Shell Q3 profit falls 62 pct, to cut 5,000 jobs

Just when you feel assured the worst of recession is over, there comes some news which reminds me of the Q1 and Q2 of this year where many reported severe losses.Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, reported Thursday a 62 percent fall in profit for the third quarter due to lower oil prices, and said it plans to cut 5,000 jobs to cope with continuing weakness in the global economy.
In Europe there are few if any signs of demand recovering...in the United States if anything there's some bottoming, improvment in one or two subsectors but not yet firm enough to call a recovery," he said.Shell said net profit was $3.25 billion (euro2.21 billion), down from $8.45 billion in the same period a year ago. Sales fell 43 percent to $75.0 billion.Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said the company is not expecting a swift economic recovery and will this year cut around 5 percent of its work force, some 5,000 jobs, primarily in middle managment.

Motorola posts 3Q profit, names permanent CFO

Now I have to admit it, this is a surprise for me.Motorola Inc. reported an unexpected quarterly profit Thursday as operating losses in its struggling mobile phone division narrowed. The company also forecast stronger-than-anticipated earnings for the current period.Motorola shares jumped 64 cents, or 8 percent, to $8.60 in premarket trading.The results marked Motorola's second straight quarter in positive territory after months of heavy losses and shrinking market share in the cell phone business.Sales continued to fall, but the company is pinning its turnaround effort on a new slate of phones powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Two of the phones, including a new device called the Droid introduced by Verizon Wireless on Wednesday, will be available as the holiday season arrives.Motorola seems to me way behind market trends to produce only-covering-basics touchscreen phones which the recession-stricken but touchscreen-hungry consumers seem to love.They surely need to take more out of the books of LG and Samsung which have come out this quarter with buckets full of cash.

The company also said it has named Edward Fitzpatrick, the Motorola's acting chief financial officer, as permanent CFO

TURKEY JOINING EU

Vehemently opposed by French and the Germans while wholeheartedly supported by most other Europen nations, the accession of Turkey to EU is highly controversial. A membership of EU has some pretty obvious advantages: being a european, having access to all european markets without barriers, having common trading policies, having simplified financial procedures and what not, and to get it the Turks have left no stone upturned: whether it be promoting secularism by not allowing scarfs by legislation and wholeheartedly supporting homosexuals or reducing the trade barriers it has opposed, but these acts of passion have done little to warm the hearts of the European powers, some of whom remain adamant about not allowing Turkey to join.

The argument about trade is valid but what about an important benefit to be gained from the accession i-e Turkey serving as a gateway to Islamic world. While Turkey may not fit the stereotype most westerners have of a muslim coubtry, only a few have realized the role of Turkey as a mediator in dialogues with the muslim world. Afterall, Turkey is 99% muslim and one only has to go to the arteries of Istanbul (the supposedly most westernised city of Turkey) to note the Islamic and mid-eastern influences.Therefore, I believe Turkey's accession will strengthen the bond between the West and the Muslim world. Perhaps Mr. Obama should consider this point while he embarks his

http://http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529697CRIMSONITE ECONOMISTS PUSH SAFE INVESTING STRATEGIES

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529697

Here is an article about how the crimsonites (if there is that word because I just made it up! Okay lets keep it simple "The Havard") economists make sure their money is not wasted. Good to see they all have their own strategies to keep it safe and they are sometimes pretty disimilar to each other. You know what they say about the economists, "They can never agree on anything". Well, basically the article is a pretty interesting read, so enjoy.

Children have more DVDs and computer games than books, survey finds

According to a survey, Scottish children have more DVDs and computer games than books. The study, commissioned for BookTime, a branch of the independent charity Booktrust, which delivers free books to toddlers and children, found that one in every 20 households in Scotland owns just ten books or fewer.One in every 10 adults surveyed said their child "rarely or never" read the books they had.
A third of parents and carers (32%) said their children's shelves had more DVDs and computer games than books.
More than half of parents and carers (54%) said their child spent more time in front of a television or computer screen than reading.
A total of 622 parents and 205 children from across Scotland were questioned about children's reading habits.

I am one of the lucky few who has more books than DVDs and computer games combined. Call me pedantic, bookworm or whatever but I think studying books are imperative not only for our language development but also for our character development. And that is not to say that I do not enjoy music or games, because I enjoy both. However, I find that bookreading is increasingly becoming a thwarted habit and this survey

KSE takes a downward plunge

The KSE has plummeted by about 350 points.Bears once again dominate Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), plummeting the benchmark KSE-100 Index by 321 points to 9,247. The share market opened in the negative zone and remained under selling pressure throughout the session.Selling by foreign investors in energy stocks was seen as the main cause behind today’s bearish activity.The trade volume stood at 200 million shares today. Arif Habib Securities emerged as today’s volume leader which increased by paisas 54 to close at Rs51.91.KSE-30 Index finished the 336 points low to peg at 10,770.

UPDATE: The KSE sure looks gloomy these days. It has not even been able to keep up to 9000 points

O & A LEVELS PAPERS CANCELLED

As I had been pretty busy with the exams myself, I have scarcely visited my blog, but the news is that O and A levels papers which were were scheduled to take place from 21 to 25 October have been cancelled due to security reasons . The papers scheduled for next Monday will take place as usual. The cancelled papers will most probably be held towards the end of the examining session. According to a British council informant, "University of Cambridge has adequate measures in place to ensure that candidates who, by a genuine reason, are unable to take the exam are not disadvantaged in any way". While the final decision regarding the cancelled/postponed papers will be sent to the concerned schools, speculations are abound about the final status of the missed papers. Some are convinced that the examination will take place, while others assert that the expected grades sent to UCLES will be used to deduce the final grade. As we anxiously wait for the final decision about the cancelled papers, we also pray to God that the

GERMAN'S INITIATIVE

The elite and the wealthy of the germans have filed a petition in court which practically imposes a higher tax on them. Why would any sane man in the world do such thing, you ask? Well, the answer aint that difficult, the germans are a true patriotic nation and the wealthy have decided that they would increase the tax percantage to 5% so that they can help to relieve germany out of the economic crisis. They are of the opinion that they can not bear having mounds of wealth while the rest of germany faces financial crisis. The self imposed tax would generate a revenue of 100 billion euros and according to the elite group would have 'minimal effect on us'. This example stands in stark contrast to the example set by the Pakistani elite who, when we had the liquidity crisis, serrepititously smuggled all their amassed wealth in forein accounts:thus, worsening the situation. This act of the germans shows their quintessentialchauvinism for their country, which I for one salute.