It seems Texas A&M could possibly leave the Big 12, leaving behind Texas and Texas Tech.  Should Texas A&M depart the Big 12, likely they will spend next year in the Big 12 as Nebraska did when joining the Big 10.  However, the ball may get rolling a lot sooner than expected as SEC presidents are allegedly poised to vote for Texas A&M acceptance into the SEC as early as tomorrow, Saturday.

The Texas A&M Board of Regents have the final say on whether they decide to depart for the SEC or not despite any acceptance by the combined backing of the SEC presidents.  The A&M Board of Regents are slated to vote on August, 23rd, should the SEC presidents choose to accept A&M with open arms.

All of this stirs up “conference realignment” once again as it caught collegiate-level sports by storm over this past year.  NCAA football is big money, popularity is continuously growing, too.  Athletic directors and school presidents alike have much attention on what other schools are doing, in what conference, when and where.  It’s about the money, and being on the greener side of the pasture where more dollar bills can be plucked for their own causes.

Should Texas A&M leave the Big 12 it immediately causes scheduling problems for the remaining Big 12 programs.

Last year the Big East looked to be on the brink of destruction due to the potential poaching of teams from an already low-member list of participating football schools.  Back then, not many sports analysts thought that the Big 12 could be in trouble.

It’s a welcome sight to 401k holders, pensions, and persons with portfolio’s which have undoubtedly felt the heat from the nose-dive over the past couple weeks.  There is light at the end of the tunnel according to some technical analysts of markets.  Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above consolidation.  Likewise, the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ-100 did the same as well.

Bearish momentum stalled yesterday as we previously reported.  Whether or not the market, overall, would break above or below Tuesday’s range was an entire other question.  Today, as aforementioned, investors and traders alike saw a rebound and the first time that gold has traded to the downside since Thursday of last week (even then, gold made a new 52-week high).

The market trended to the downside yesterday as investors caught word that the S&P could be looking to downgrade France’s debt, something which S&P representatives were quick to dismiss.  Nonetheless, the market proceeded to drop partly due to the general idea of Europe taking a hit which has been struggling with euro-denominated issues (courtesy of Iceland, Green) themselves for well over a year now to begin with.

Notable companies which propelled U.S. indexes today were led by Exxon, GE, Apple and Caterpillar.  Financial sectors across the board ended in positive territory.  Notable is the financial sector, however, as much grief-struck Bank of America (being sued by AIG as of a couple days ago) remains in massive consolidation for three consecutive days of trading.  Still, even finance firms ended in positive territory as JPMorgan and Wells Fargo trended higher for higher gains.

Investors would like to see more of the same (exception to gold futures traders) for the final day of trading this week, tomorrow, on Friday.

It was announced by WHO yesterday amid a regional conference in Sri Lanka regarding nutrition.

The eLibrary is WHO’s bid for preventing malnutrition around the world, and the organization also hopes that having information readily available found on their eLibrary will enable governments and persons in general who are already willing to help, but do not have the information to do so, the necessary means to help extinguish malnutrition.

The scope of the information available on the eLibrary website targets multiple forms of malnutrition.  Some of these forms include vitamin and mineral deficiencies, overweight and obesity-prevention information are readily available, too.

“Several billion people are affected by one or more types of malnutrition,” says Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Assistant Director-General of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. “Countries need access to the science and evidence-informed guidance to reduce the needless death and suffering associated with malnutrition. eLENA can greatly improve how countries cope with the terrible health threats posed by malnutrition.”

According to WHO, being underweight is the leading cause of concern in countries with large populations of poor persons.  What wealthy countries take for granted, even the poor in those countries, are nutrient-loaded foods at low cost.  Some of the deficiencies that normal every-day people suffer in developing countries are lack of vitamin A, iron, and zinc according to the WHO which also raises concern.

Furthermore, WHO says that iodine is one leading concern in developing countries, too.  While many Americans and persons of other affluent countries take iodine for granted as it is readily available in some salt products that are ingested on a regular basis, that is not the case around the globe.

The eLibrary website can be reached at this following link:  http://www.who.int/elena/en/index.html/.

West Rim of Endeavour Crater

After many years of slowly riding along, Opportunity, NASA’s robot which is well-beyond its estimated life span, has finally reached a crater on Mars called Endeavour.  It’s triumphant enough that Opportunity remains operational as it has been in continued operation for seven years.  That it has reached Endeavour is even that much more satisfying for scientists.

Opportunity arrives on the scene at Endeavour after trucking along the Martian landscape for 12 miles after spending some quality time within the Victoria crater.

NASA is quick to point out that the Endeavour crater is more significant than the Victoria crater for a number of reasons.  Firstly, the sheer size of Endeavour is 25 times the size of Victoria and its diameter is 14 miles, too.  Secondly, Opportunity provides NASA a chance of getting to examine older rocks within Endeavour than what was seen at Victoria.

“We’re soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the rovers haven’t seen yet,” said Matthew Golombek, Mars Exploration Rover science team member, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “Clay minerals form in wet conditions so we may learn about a potentially habitable environment that appears to have been very different from those responsible for the rocks comprising the plains.”

The design team which built Opportunity has to be proud of themselves, their roving robot continues to complete multiple missions beyond the scope of its original parameters.  Opportunity’s sister rover, named Spirit, ceased communicating with home base on March, 2010.

“Our arrival at this destination is a reminder that these rovers have continued far beyond the original three-month mission,” said John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at JPL.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

However, some analysts suggest that France is proactive in tackling debt-related problems, and even some S&P representatives will state as such.  But nonetheless, the United States market is globally tied around the world as investors funnel cash from one exchange to another.  Global markets on the downturn, austerity fears still surround some European nations, all cause global detriment.

Investors and traders alike are wondering what is the underlying cause of the recent slip in value of U.S. indexes and the stocks that they contain.  It is no secret that news affects stocks, and coupled with sustained volume of bad news which comes hot of the heels of the United States nearly defaulting for the first time ever, it takes a lot to overcome across the board.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ-100 all closed within bounds of Tuesday’s trading range which means that bearish momentum has finally halted as consolidation takes hold.  Whether there is finally light at the end of the tunnel for investors who have outstanding long-positions is unknown at this time as consolidation currently exists.

But there is one bright note among current market trending characteristics, while today was a down day, at least price action did not dip beneath price levels which were observed yesterday.  It’s a start.

Bloom is very accredited among automotive industry peers and some business analysts consider him as the man who saved Chrysler from the brink of destruction when hard times fell upon the market in general, not only the automotive sector, in 2008.

“Ron Bloom’s leadership within the President’s Auto Task Force helped America’s auto industry steer toward the road to recovery,” said Bob Ferguson, General Motors vice president of Global Public Policy.  “As a result, the prospects look bright for auto manufacturing to contribute toward jobs and a stronger economy for years to come.”

Bloom is known as an elite deal-maker who focuses on compromise for the singular goal of all parties combined.  This makes him difficult to dislike as he tries his best to put on a non-biased face when entering negotiations between parties.  Overall, he is well-respected, which is further evident by the paragraph below.

“We are extremely appreciative of Ron Bloom’s leadership and service as Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy. During his tenure, Ron sought the ideas and input of steel industry leaders, making time to meet with our Board of Directors on two separate occasions and maintaining an open line of communication,” said Thomas J. Gibson, President and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Bloom himself had this to say as he plans his departure, “We’ve faced many tough choices and dealt with numerous challenges over the past two and a half years from restructuring the American auto industry to developing historic fuel efficiency standards,” said Bloom as he went over some of the memorable moments of his time spent working on manufacturing policy for the White House.  “I am confident in this Administration’s ability to build on these accomplishments and continue our efforts to revitalize the manufacturing sector.”

Certainly it was impressive as American domestic companies try to convince consumers that American automobiles are reliable.  Notable, though, is sales of Ford V6 engines, including the EcoBoost, are outstripping competitor sales according to J.D. Power & Associates.

Put side-by-side with other competitors using V6′s in trucks the Ford F-150 EcoBoost-equipped engine models outsold all other competing trucks that are equipped with a V6 in July.

Ford’s 3.7-liter V6 engine-equipped trucks are similarly selling well by outselling Chevrolet, GMC, Dodge and Toyota in July, again.

Regarding sales statistics, both of Ford’s V6 engines found in full-size trucks account for 79.5% of sales in July.  Those are the sorts of numbers which shareholders like to see.

“Both of our new V6 powerplants are changing the way customers think about truck engines,” said Doug Scott, Ford’s truck group marketing manager.

Scott may be correct, Ford sold 49,104 F-Series trucks in July.  Lastly, it is notable is that the EcoBoost is the leading sales-driver with the fuel-efficient engine appearing in 40% of F-150 sales and July was the third consecutive month in which Ford’s V6 engines outsold their own V8 engine plants.

The Dow was not alone in its late day rally, either.  The S&P 500 Index was an all-out roller coaster ride which made its most volatile moves within the last hour and half of trading.  A range of nearly eight points are what investors and traders alike witnessed, marking it as one of the more volatile up days of the S&P.

The NASDAQ-100 performed similarly to that of the Dow and the S&P, too.  Within the final hour and a half of trading the NASDAQ-100 covered a remarkable amount of ground by hitting a low point of 2034 points before racing north and closing at 2160 points.  Within a single market day, that is truly something to behold.

Many prominent companies rebounded today which helped propel indexes.  GM close for a positive gain, so did Apple and Caterpillar.  Even BAC which has sustained heavy losses and seems permanently stuck in a detriment-filled streak over the past few years recovered most of yesterday’s heavy losses partly provided by AIG suing for billions of dollars.

Still, the past couple positive days have been followed by a massive sell-off the following day.  Negative reports seemingly transpire on an every-other-day basis over the past week which instills even more uncertainty among traders and investors.

Notable regarding gold futures are that even with today’s late rally it continued to set new highs.  Silver, however, remains languished within a sideways consolidation channel with little definitive direction.

Wednesday trading, tomorrow, will show whether two positive days of overall gain for stocks can be sustained, or not.

Kivalina's Orange Stuff. Click to Enlarge.

The ‘orange stuff’ that began appearing in Kivalina, Alaska, recently has turned out to be eggs.  That’s right, microscopic eggs, in fact.

Villagers in the remote and sparsely populated town of Kivalina first noticed the orange stuff being swept onto shore banks.  Other residents noted that it was even appearing in buckets left outside which had water resting in them.

Something was going on, and they were not sure if it was a chemical reaction be it from a petroleum product or otherwise causing the orange stuff to appear.

But now there are answers.  According to testing at NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Auke Bay Laboratories it is shown at the composition of the orange stuff is indeed, eggs.

“We now think these are some sort of small crustacean egg or embryo, with a lipid oil droplet in the middle causing the orange color,” said Jeep Rice, a lead NOAA scientist at the Juneau lab. “So this is natural. It is not chemical pollution; it is not a man-made substance.”

However, scientists are unsure of what species these eggs are from.  Initially, the scientists were charged with the task of seeing what the orange stuff came from.  Some of the goals were to see if it was based from some sort of plant, animal, or mineral if it were not man-made.

“It was easy to see cellular structure surrounding the lipid droplet, and to identify this as ‘animal’,” said Rice. “We have determined these are small invertebrate eggs, although we cannot tell which species.”

Rice did say in the NOAA statement, that while the eggs are indeed animal-based, it does not necessarily mean they are not toxic, either.  Further testing will be required to make that conclusion.

For now, it would be best to leave the orange stuff alone if you happen to be visiting Kivalina, however, it surely would make for some memorable photography.

Image Source: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

Nonetheless, AmigaOne X1000 is Amiga’s latest product that returns to Amiga’s roots that will undoubtedly bring considerable enthusiasm among the user-ranks.

Gone are the days of blitters and support chips which allowed the Amiga to do things many years ahead of x86 solution rivals.

But Amiga has another thing in store which provides software developers who like to keep as close to the hardware as possible a legitimate freak-out moment.  The AmigaOne X1000 will have a Xena 500MHz XMOS XS1-L2 124 processor which is able to do a lot of cool tricks that the main CPU doesn’t have to worry about.  The beauty of the Xena processor is that it can act as a DSP, has the efficiency of a RISC processor, and is event-driven and is able to run multiple threads simultaneously.

As far as operating system support of the Xena, it doesn’t even need an operating system.  Developers can hit the hardware directly and make embedded solutions to problems.

And the Xena processor is not just for fancy graphics as the AmigaOne X1000 is already equipped with a Radeon graphics chip.  The Xena can be programmed for just about any intensive mathematics you can wrap your mind around to code for.

Of course, there is a central processor unit, made by Apple-owned PA Semi.  The processor itself is a 1.8 GHz PA6T-1682M which will be booting operating systems and its applications, and in this case, AmigaOS.

The AmigaOne X1000 is slated for a late 2011 release and the mainboard / motherboard is being shipped to beta testers which is nice to see as it means the computer may truly arrive within its ETA window after-all.  As far as how much this beautiful piece of gadgetry is going to cost, that is unknown.