Keith Shepard › Comments

Though the solar industry today predominately produces solar panels made from crystalline silicon, they remain relatively expensive to make. New players in the solar industry have instead been looking at panels that can harvest energy with CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenide) or CIGS-related materials. CIGS panels have a high efficiency potential, may be cheaper to produce and would use less raw materials than silicon solar panels. - Keith Shepard

Citizens across Mexico hope that the new Asshole Wall will stem the tide of assholes that visit from the US each year to aggressively drink, vomit. - Keith Shepard

Fast food giant Yum! Brands believes its new feedbags will make it even easier for Americans to constantly be eating. - Keith Shepard

Gold normally moves with the Euro, but the yellow metal has not been keeping up the last few weeks. Notice how the Euro ETF (FXE) bottomed on 15-June and moved higher the last 2-3 weeks. However, the Gold ETF (GLD) did not bottom until 22-June and has yet to break resistance (blue dotted line). - Keith Shepard

"I take the view, and always have, that if you cannot say what you are going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it." - Keith Shepard

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair." - Keith Shepard

East coast city plans on 21-billion-yen, 133-hectare park with 3D animation - Keith Shepard

Florida oncologist Douglas Jackson gave up his medical practice to pursue the crazy dream of creating a digital currency independent of any nation, and backed by gold and silver. Libertarians and computer criminals were thrilled, but the U.S. government was determined to stop him. And it did. - Keith Shepard

As the price relative below shows, the S&P 500 Growth ETF (IVW) is outperforming the S&P 500 Value ETF (IVE). - Keith Shepard

MYC & Associates appointed to liquidate bankrupt anime distributor's assets - Keith Shepard

The reclusive author called Christian Bale "the most badass version of John Connor yet" and described the film's postapocalyptic war with the machines setting as "totally mind-blowing." - Keith Shepard

Not a plant to be seen, the desert ground is too dry. But the air contains water, and research scientists have found a way of obtaining drinking water from air humidity. The system is based completely on renewable energy and is therefore autonomous. - Keith Shepard

As investigators seek to unravel the fate of Air France flight 447, there’s been speculation online about an unusual domain name registration made some two years prior to this week’s plane crash, flight447.com. - Keith Shepard

As the Stanley Cup Finals continue, Penguins and Red Wings fans alike are urging their teams to spare their beleaguered cities the expense of a championship victory. - Keith Shepard

Also: Xxxholic on TV.com, more episodes of other anime on YouTube - Keith Shepard

Mr. Araya, 38 years old, lost his job in 2007 as a crude oil trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange. After visiting dozens of headhunters with no luck, he applied in August 2008 to be a host at the Palm to support his wife, two young daughters and mortgage payments. His salary has plunged from $200,000 to $25,000. - Keith Shepard

Google's drive to create the library and bookstore of the future has critics complaining about privacy and information monopoly. Google's chief counsel defends a proposed class action lawsuit settlement, saying the search giant took a risk digitizing millions of books and its competitors can, too. - Keith Shepard

There is a new world out there—China, India, Indonesia, Brazil—in which economic growth continues to power ahead, in which governments are not buried under a mountain of debt and in which citizens remain remarkably optimistic about their future. This divergence, between the once rich and the once poor, might mark a turn in history. - Keith Shepard

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is backing the Recording Industry Association of America's party line when it comes to copyright infringement lawsuits. She supports hefty monetary awards to "deter future infringements." - Keith Shepard

2nd TV season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu to reportedly start in October - Keith Shepard

We've survived a financial meltdown, and we're working through a recession. But another phase -- when all the money printing melts down the dollar -- is just getting started. - Keith Shepard

Due to licensing restrictions, web designers are currently limited to using only six typefaces in their website designs. A startup plans to resolve the issues, which would free up designers to use whatever fonts they like. - Keith Shepard

Studios behind Haruka, Angelique, Corda D'Oro, Aria, Pretear, Kaleido, Tutu - Keith Shepard

When will this horrible recession be over? According to one surprising source, it’s over right now. - Keith Shepard

After nearly 68 years, a grown-up Archie Andrews will ask either Betty or Veronica for her hand in marriage. - Keith Shepard

Al Qaeda is so spooked by CIA drone attacks that Osama's crew is staging spectacular bombings in Pakistan, in an attempt to get America to call off its unmanned attack fleet, say former U.S. officials and counter-terrror advisers. And the CIA is apparently so spooked about the possibility of a withdrawal that it's spilling details about its supposedly secret drone strikes to The New York Times. - Keith Shepard

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-California, is defending her proposed legislation demanding up to two years imprisonment for hostile electronic speech. The Los Angeles congresswoman claims there is no intent of "censorship." - Keith Shepard

America's power grid today resembles the country's canal system of the 19th Century. A marvel of engineering for its time, the canal system eventually could not keep pace with the growing demands of transcontinental transportation. - Keith Shepard

In the first place, it’s hardly remarkable that a set of widely known, off-the-shelf vanilla indicators didn’t outperform in one of the strangest and most volatile markets in recent history. Neither did buy-and-hold, nor value “investing,” nor most long/short hedge funds, nor etc. And I’m actually inclined to cheer coverage like this, in spite of all its flaws, if it causes even one individual to scorn untestable and subjective forms of technical (or any other) analysis: verificationism may have failed as a standard for academic metaphysics, but it’s an absolute necessity for the analysis of any financial time series. A prediction that cannot be tested empirically is neither technical nor analytic: it is faith-based finance. - Keith Shepard

Starting today, Mininova will use a content recognition system that detects and removes torrent files linking to copyright infringing files. The system will also prevent the torrents from being re-uploaded to mininova later on. - Keith Shepard