Fisher Capital Management Scam Reviews | DHS: Imported Gadgets Possibly Include Malicious Software

A Homeland Security official confirmed last week that tech components imported from overseas, many of which end up in some of the most popular American gadgets, are often infected with malicious software.

“This is one of the most complicated and difficult challenges that we have,” Greg Schaffer, acting deputy undersecretary at DHS’ National Protection and Programs Directorate, said during a Thursday hearing.

Schaffer was responding to questions from Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations.

“Clearly, supply chain risk management is an issue that the administration is focused on,” Schaffer said when asked how the U.S. was battling this problem. When pressed for details, Schaffer was reluctant to expand except to say, “I am aware that there have been instances where that has happened.”

“The range of issues goes to the fact that there are foreign components in many U.S. manufactured devices,” Schaffer continued. “There is a task force that DHS and DOD co-chair to look at these issues with goals to identify short-term mitigation strategies and to also make sure that we have capability for maintaining U.S. manufacturing capability over the long term.”

Chaffetz expressed concern that the private sector was not in the loop with what the government was doing on this issue, but Schaffer insisted that DHS does indeed consult its private-sector partners.

This is not the first time this issue has been raised. In a 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review, the White House said “a broad, holistic approach to risk management is required rather than a wholesale condemnation of foreign products and services. The challenge with supply chain attacks is that a sophisticated adversary might narrowly focus on particular systems and make manipulation virtually impossible to discover.”

Of course, while “foreign manufacturing does present easier opportunities for nation-state adversaries to subvert products; however, the same goals could be achieved through the recruitment of key insiders or other espionage activities,” the White House said.

“The best defense may be to ensure U.S. market leadership through continued innovation that enhances U.S. market leadership and the application of best practices in maintaining diverse, resilient supply chains and infrastructures,” the administration concluded.

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Microsoft kicks off $250,000 security contest

For Storms, that sounded like Microsoft was looking for a technology or technique to mitigate so-called “return-oriented programming,” or ROP vulnerabilities.

ROP is a focus of researchers right now, said Storms, because it can be used by attackers to sidestep current Windows security technologies like ASLR, or address space layout randomization. ASLR is an anti-exploit technology used in Windows to make it more difficult for hackers to predict available blocks of memory that are available to execute their malicious code.

Storms described ROP as piecing together function calls in ways that are not intended, and can be used for some advantage to the attacker in order to load code into memory.

“There’s always going to be some bit of memory that could be useful for ROP,” said Storms. “If Microsoft is able to do away with the ROP method of execution, that’s a big win.”

BlueHat Prize winners will retain the intellectual rights to their invention, but must license it to Microsoft on a royalty-free basis, said Moussouris. Eligible entries must provide a prototype that runs on Windows and be developed using the Windows SDK (software developer kit), according to the contest rules.

A panel of Microsoft employees from the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the Windows group and Microsoft’s research arm will judge the entries.

“Microsoft knows there will always be bugs in its code, but a defensive technology to add to ASLR and DEP [data execution prevention, another anti-exploit safeguard in Windows] will prevent those bugs from being actionable,” said Storms.

But the contest’s payback could be years down the road.

“I think [the technology] could show up in Windows 9, or maybe in a version of IE, like IE 11 or IE 12,” said Storms. “Windows 8 is already over the hump in their production cycle.”

It’s possible Microsoft would be able to integrate the winning technology in a service pack for Windows 8, which is expected to debut next year, perhaps as early as April or as late as next fall, Storms added.

“It’s one thing for someone to come up with the idea and prototype, it’s another for Microsoft to actually implement it in Windows,” Storms said.

Microsoft hasn’t committed to rerunning the contest next year, but said today that it would evaluate this first run, then determine how or if the competition changes in the future.

Fisher Capital Management Investment: Stark warning as turmoil adds to recruitment fears

RECRUITMENT giant Michael Page international has cast another shadow over the banking sector with a warning that the recent financial turmoil is adding to a recruitment slowdown.

Shares in the group have already dropped by nearly 25% in the past month as investors reacted to a report from fellow recruiter Hays of a weak UK market being held back by the financial services sector.

The shares opened 12% down yesterday as Michael Page said: “In the first six months our banking business grew strongly.

However, following the recently announced hiring freezes in the past few weeks, gross profit growth in this sector, which accounts for approximately 10% of group gross profit, has slowed.”

Major European banks including Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and UBS have announced job cuts and hiring freezes over the past two months, as the industry grapples with tougher regulation and the impact of the eurozone debt crisis on investment banking operations.

On top of that, recent sharp falls in world stock markets on global growth fears, have prompted banks to hold off any hiring decisions.

Steve Ingham, chief executive, said: “Since this turmoil has arisen in the last few weeks these announcements have meant a lot of our banking clients have just held their breath and slowed down on recruitment, and therefore our growth has slowed a little.”

Michael Page was reporting a 38% rise in first-half pre-tax profit of £45.5m, which however fell short of analysts’ consensus forecast of £51m.

Robert Morton at Investec said he would be reducing full-year forecasts, adding that “the recent turmoil in world financial markets will have some impact on global growth rates”.

Lloyds Banking Group declined to comment on its current recruitment, while RBS would say only that it was recruiting “where we have vacancies in specific areas where we need to recruit staff”.

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Moody’s: Recent Increase in Asbestos Claims a Warning for U.S. Insurers

Recent disclosures by three insurance companies regarding increased asbestos claims are a “warning flag” for those companies and the U.S. property and casualty industry as a whole, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

In its Weekly Credit Outlook, Moody’s notes that The Hartford, MetLife and American Financial Group have all said asbestos claims increased over the last two weeks. The Hartford reports a pre-tax charge of $290 million due to increased asbestos reserves, and American Financial reports a pre-tax charge of $28 million. MetLife did not disclose the impact on its reserve estimates, Moody’s says, but the company did say that new asbestos claims increased by around 14 percent during the 2011 first half relative to the same time period in 2010.

“Increases in both the frequency and severity of mesothelioma and other cancer claims, increased legal costs, and an expansion of defendants to smaller, more peripheral insureds were cited as the primary drivers of the increase in expected losses,” Moody’s explains.

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: SEC CHARGES CALIF. COMPANY WITH $10 MILLION BOILER ROOM SCHEME

http://fishercapitalmanagement-corporatenews.com/2011/04/fisher-capital-management-corporate-news-sec-charges-calif-company-with-10-million-boiler-room-scheme/

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged a Santa Ana, Calif.-based e-mail marketing company, along with a father and twin sons who are the company’s executives, with defrauding investors in a $10 million boiler room scheme.

The SEC alleges that mUrgent Corporation, chief financial officer Vladislav Walter Bugarski, and his sons Vladimir Boris Bugarski (chief executive officer) and Aleksander Negovan Bugarski (chief operating officer) operated a boiler room to sell mUrgent stock.

Boiler room employees cold-called investors, used high-pressure sales tactics, and misrepresented to investors that mUrgent had a prospering business and would imminently conduct an initial public offering.  The SEC also alleges that mUrgent and the Bugarskis falsely told investors that stock sale proceeds would not be used to pay cash salaries to the Bugarskis.

“mUrgent falsely portrayed itself to investors as a successful company with imminent plans to go public,” said Rosalind R. Tyson, Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. “Instead, the Bugarskis used the company as their personal piggybank.”

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles, mUrgent and the Bugarskis conducted two unregistered securities offerings beginning in 2008 that raised nearly $10 million from at least 130 investors nationwide.

The Bugarskis misused investor money to fund more than $1.3 million in cash salary and bonuses for themselves. They also established a separate “slush fund” of more than $500,000, and used investor funds to pay for luxury cars and other personal expenses.

The SEC seeks permanent injunctions against mUrgent and the Bugarskis for violations of the antifraud, offering registration, and broker registration provisions of the federal securities laws, disgorgement, financial penalties, and an order prohibiting the Bugarskis from serving as officers or directors of any public company.

Triad Boiler Room Systems Launched New Commercial Boilers

Fisher Capital on Boiler Room Equipment, Inc: Triad Boiler Systems manufactures uniquely rugged small-footprint hot water boilers, steam boilers, and radiant heating systems. All our boilers use 12 gauge firetubes in compact vessels that fit through very small doorways! Inputs range up to 2,000,000 BTU's. Create a highly efficient system with millions of BTU's by sequencing a string of these modular vessels.
TRIAD's commercial boilers and industrial grade Hot Water Heating, Domestic Hot Water, and Steam boilers are used in a wide variety of applications. Our commercial boilers are used at schools, universities, apartments, hospitals, office buildings, retirement communities, and churches. Industrial uses have included bakeries, smelting operations, food processing, quenching systems, and various heating applications for manufacturing. Triads’ modular boilers and radiant heating systems can be natural gas fired, oil fired, or dual fuel fired. For simplicity of operation and maintenance, all controls on our boilers are well known, off-the-shelf products. There area no proprietary parts on these boilers! This simplicity of operation is part of our philosophy, and an important reason why our customers return to us again and again.

TRIAD has been manufacturing high-quality boilers since 1926, and developed the modular boiler concept with primary/secondary piping, receiving a patent for it in 1967. We put this experience, knowledge, and expertise into every boiler.

We believe in quality - it is the overriding characteristic driving our company. This is why we manufacture extremely rugged, well-designed hot water and steam boilers that can provide decades of dependable service. We welcome your inquiries.

Benefits of Modularity
TRIAD's elegantly simple design maintains consistent water volume where heat is required.

• Boilers are activated sequentially, drawing water from the main loop into the next hot water boiler until the heating need is meet.
• firing boilers remaining isolated, so no heated water circulates through cold boilers.
• During most of the year the unfired boilers provide additional backup.
• Outdoor temperatures and loop water temperatures are constantly monitored.

Fisher Capital on Boiler Room Equipment, Inc: The efficiency of this design is most apparent during warmer months, when a conventional hydronic heating or steam boiler could still be operating at full capacity.

Primary-Secondary Piping
TRIAD integrates modularity with a single pipe primary-secondary system. TRIAD was the first company to employ a Primary-Secondary concept. It operates with two loops, (i) the primary loop, or building main loop, and (ii) smaller secondary loops off of each hot water boiler, which supply heated water to the primary loop.

Upon a call for heat, the boiler pump begins pushing the return water into the boiler and out through the secondary loop, supplying this hot water up into the primary loop (the main header), where it mixes with the cooler return water from the main loop of the building.

• Supply and return water are blended, avoiding the need for expensive and unreliable mixing valves commonly used in two pipe systems.
• The secondary loop isolates each hot water boiler, resulting in a very efficient system that minimizes thermal shock.

Control Panel
TRIAD Boilers can be sequenced by the use of our control panel that provides many attractive features:

• Temperature set-back when less heat is required, such as nights and weekends.
• Adjustments for latent heat, to take advantage of hot boiler water that retains heat after the burner shuts down.
• Outdoor reset based on atmospheric temperatures.
• Monitoring of return water temperatures to maintain accurate heating output.

It is also very easy to sequence our boilers using the panel of any other major manufacturer.

Packaged ProductFisher Capital on Boiler Room Equipment, Inc: All TRIAD hot water boilers and steam boilers are fully assembled, packaged products, which offer several advantages over boilers that must be assembled at the jobsite

• Onsite labor costs are minimized.
• Quality control is higher at the factory than at the jobsite
• The ease of installation of a packaged boiler allows for quicker start up.

Benefits of Steel Boilers

Easy to Clean
To maintain boiler efficiency, heating surfaces must be kept clean and free of combustion by-products. All TRIAD heating surfaces, especially the firetubes, are easy to access. It is impossible to clean all the heating surfaces of a cast iron boiler, and what can be reached is difficult to clean.

TRIAD also makes it easy to maintain clean water surfaces. The cleaning of the interior of a cast iron boiler is a major undertaking, and even then only the vertical surfaces can be cleaned. The inability to clean the horizontal surfaces can have a significant impact on operating efficiency.

Easy to Repair
Because of their steel construction, TRIAD hot water and steam boilers can be repaired in the field with minimal disruption. A leak can be permanently welded or the tubes re-rolled with little difficulty. It is impossible to permanently weld a cracked cast iron boiler section or a leaking copper fin-tube boiler. The firetubes are easily accessed through the top and through the firedoor.

Fast Water Circulation
Poor circulation of water within the typical cast iron boiler is very common due to their design limits, while TRIAD's steel hot water boilers provide for faster circulation.

Fisher Capital Management | Boiler Room

"Boiler Room" tells the story of a 19-year-old named Seth who makes a nice income running an illegal casino in his apartment. His dad, a judge, finds out about it and raises holy hell. So the kid gets a daytime job as a broker with a Long Island, N.Y., bucket shop that sells worthless or dubious stock with high-pressure telephone tactics. When he was running his casino, Seth muses, at least he was providing a product that his customers wanted.

The movie is the writing and directing debut of Ben Younger, a 29-year-old who says he interviewed a lot of brokers while writing the screenplay. I believe him. The movie hums with authenticity, and knows a lot about the cultlike power of a company that promises to turn its trainees into millionaires, and certainly turns them into efficient phone salesmen.

No experience is necessary at J.T. Marlin: "We don't hire brokers here--we train new ones," snarls Jim (Ben Affleck), already a millionaire, who gives new recruits a hard-edged introductory lecture crammed with obscenities and challenges to their manhood. "Did you see `Glengarry Glen Ross'?" he asks them. He certainly has. Mamet's portrait of high-pressure real estate salesmen is like a bible in this culture, and a guy like Jim doesn't see the message, only the style. (Younger himself observes that Jim, giving his savage pep talks, not only learned his style from Alec Baldwin's scenes in "Glengarry" but wants to be Baldwin.) The film's narrator is Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), an unprepossessing young man with a bad suit who learns in a short time to separate suckers from their money with telephone fantasies about hot stocks and IPOs. Everybody wants to be a millionaire right now, he observes. Ironically, the dream of wealth he's selling with his cold calls is the same one J.T. Marlin is selling him.

In the phone war room with Seth are several other brokers, including the successful Chris (Vin Diesel) and Greg (Nicky Katt), who exchange anti-Jewish and Italian slurs almost as if it's expected of them. At night the guys go out, get drunk and sometimes get in fights with brokers from other houses. The kids gambling in Seth's apartment were better behaved. We observe that both gamblers and stockbrokers bet their money on a future outcome, but as a gambler you pay the house nut, while as a broker you collect the house nut. Professional gamblers claim they do not depend on luck but on an understanding of the odds and prudent money management. Investors believe much the same thing. Of course, nobody ever claims luck has nothing to do with it unless luck has something to do with it.

The movie has the high-octane feel of real life, closely observed. It's made more interesting because Seth isn't a slickster like Michael Douglas or Charlie Sheen in "Wall Street" (a movie these guys know by heart), but an uncertain, untested young man who stands in the shadow of his father the judge (Ron Rifkin) who, he thinks, is always judging him.

The tension between Seth and the judge is one of the best things in the film--especially in Rifkin's quiet, clear power in scenes where he lays down the law. When Seth refers to their relationship, his dad says: "Relationship? What relationship? I'm not your girlfriend. Relationships are your mother's shtick. I'm your father." A relationship does grow in the film, however, between Seth and Abby (Nia Long), the receptionist, and although it eventually has a lot to do with the plot, what I admired was the way Younger writes their scenes so that they actually share hopes, dreams, backgrounds and insecurities instead of falling into automatic movie passion. When she touches his hand, it is at the end of a scene during which she empathizes with him.

Because of the routine racism at the firm, Seth observes it must not be a comfortable place for a black woman to work. Abby points out she makes $80,000 a year and is supporting a sick mother. Case closed, with no long anguished dramaturgy over interracial dating; they like each other and have evolved beyond racial walls. Younger's handling of their scenes shames movies where the woman exists only to be the other person in the sex scene.

The acting is good all around. A few days ago I saw Vin Diesel as a vicious prisoner in the space opera "Pitch Black," and now here he is, still tough, still with the shaved head, but now the only guy at the brokerage that Seth really likes, and trusts enough to appeal to. Diesel is interesting. Something will come of him.

"Boiler Room" isn't perfect. The film's ending is a little too busy; it's too contrived the way Abby doesn't tell Seth something he needs to know; there's a scene where a man calls her by name and Seth leaps to a conclusion when in fact that man would have every reason to know her name; and I am still not sure exactly what kind of a deal Seth was trying to talk his father into in their crucial evening meeting. But those are all thoughts I had afterward. During the movie I was wound up with tension and involvement, all the more so because the characters are all complex and guilty, the good as well as the bad, and we can understand why everyone in the movie does what they do. Would we? Depends.

Fisher Capital Management: Boiler Room - Live Music, Asheville NC

BOILER ROOM features a host of live music, and performance artists brought to you by Asheville locals and out-of town entertainers.

Located in the GROVE HOUSE Entertainment Complex
11 Grove Street, Downtown Asheville, NC
(828) 505-1612 www.thegrovehouse.com

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Apple’s iPad Supremacy Challenged by Google, Microsoft

Google Inc and Microsoft Corp will challenge the supremacy of Apple’s iPad as new tablet models are announced in Taipe’s Computex trade show this week. Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s new Windows platform will be observed by investors and analyze if they are any match to Apple’s iPad. KGI Securities Co’s analyst Angela Hsiang said investors will want to know which tablet is better in performance and price and when the non-iPad camp will get going. She said, previously, people couldn’t actually see the products but at Computex, they can touch and use the products.

Microsoft will be revealing a new platform which will be carefully analyzed by investors to see if it can stand up against Apple.

In 2007-2008 Computex, Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc stirred the market with their low-cost netbooks. This week, they will showcase features of Google’s Android. Executives from Google and Microsoft will be at the event to give updates. Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp, users of chips and chip designs from Intel Corp and ARM Holdings Plc will also have their products compete. In a May 26 report, analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, said by 2015 tablets shipments worldwide will reach 215 million units. PC sales will be reduced by 15% by tablets and annual sales between 2010 and 2015 will be less 2%. According to iSuppli Corp, new competitors will cut Apple’s market share by 50% in 2012.

A sample of Microsoft’s tablet OS based on ARM chips will be featured, said 3 insiders. Microsoft’s current platform, Windows 7, uses Samsung and Motorola tablets which are not ARM chip compatible. This month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said machines based on a new Microsoft OS, dubbed Windows 8, are due for release next year but retracted the “misstatement” later. Hsiang said future’s big development is ARM plus Microsoft, and if that’s a success then it’ll be big for the market. Windows 8 will also impact the market because many people can’t get used to Android while they’re familiar with Windows, added Hsiang.

ARM president Tudor Brown said ARM technology which supports the iPad and iPhone, looks at getting 50% of tablets, notebooks and netbook chips market share by 2015. They expect a climb of 15% by the end of 2011. The strong early lead in tablets and the smartphone market of Google supported its applications store expansion. That success, said IDC analyst Helen Chiang, balances Google’s software development immaturity. She said most vendors still worry about quality and stability and choose Google because its cost is lower as the operating system is free, while Windows adds to the price.

Fisher Capital Management Investment Solutions: Euro Climbs to Highest in Three Weeks on Optimism for Greek Aid; Yen Drops

The euro rose to a three-week high against the dollar on speculation European officials will approve additional aid to Greece next month, dimming prospects for a sovereign-debt restructuring.
The shared currency pared its first monthly loss since November after Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the region’s leaders will decide on a new aid package by the end of June and have ruled out a “total restructuring” of Greece’s debt. Currencies of commodity-exporting countries climbed as investors sought higher-yielding assets.
“Euro strength is back on further Greece solutions,” said Fabian Eliasson, head of U.S. currency sales at Mizuho Financial Group Inc. in New York. “For now, markets are reacting positively on it, because it solves the issue for today.”
The euro rose 0.8 percent to $1.4396 at 5 p.m. in New York, after earlier reaching $1.4424, the strongest since May 9. The euro dropped 2.8 percent this month versus the greenback. It gained 1.5 percent to 117.37 yen, trimming its first monthly loss this year to 2.4 percent. Japan’s currency weakened 0.7 percent to 81.52 per dollar.
The yen pared earlier losses versus the dollar as a report showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in May to a six-month low and the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. purchasing-manager index dropped more than forecast.
‘Disappointing’ Data
“The Chicago PMI and the consumer confidence were both disappointing and probably continue the recent run of the U.S. figures, which have generally been a little bit softer in tone,” said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. “It is adding a little bit of caution to the markets.”
The euro stayed higher after a report showed German retail sales rose in April as unemployment fell below 3 million for the first time in almost 19 years, fueling bets the European Central Bank will signal next week that it may raise interest rates for a second time this year.
Sales, adjusted for inflation and seasonal swings, increased 0.6 percent from March, the Federal Statistics Office said today. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast a 1.8 percent gain.
A separate European Union report showed euro-region inflation slowed in May to 2.7 percent from April’s 2.8 percent, the fastest pace since October 2008.
Progress Review
Inspectors from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the ECB are set to conclude a review of Greece’s progress in meeting the terms of last year’s 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout in coming days. The EU will then formulate its plan for additional aid.
Germany may stop demanding an early rescheduling of bonds for Greece so that it can get a new package of loans, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people it didn’t identify.
South Africa’s rand rose versus all of its 16 most-traded peers. It gained 1.9 percent to 6.8021 per dollar. New Zealand’s dollar jumped 0.9 percent to 82.39 U.S. cents and touched 82.64 cents, the highest since it was freely floated in 1985.
The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of raw materials rose 1.1 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 1.1 percent.
The yen extended losses versus the euro after Moody’s put Japan’s Aa2 local and foreign-currency bond ratings on review for a downgrade, citing weakening growth. The company put Japan’s Aa2 sovereign-debt grade on negative outlook in February. Review for a downgrade means a decision is due within three months, according to Moody’s.
Fitch Ratings last week lowered its outlook to negative on Japan’s AA rating. S&P cut the outlook on its AA-grade in April after lowering the rating in January. The current grade from Moody’s is one step higher than S&P and Fitch.
‘Under Pressure’
“With the threat of the current global slowdown now well priced in and peripheral risks lower, funding currencies are under pressure, and the yen more so than the dollar,” said Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at Societe Generale SA in London. A funding currency is one that investors borrow to fund bets on higher-yielding assets.
Canada’s currency gained the most this year versus the U.S. dollar after the Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate at 1 percent and commodities rose. Raw materials account for half the nation’s export revenue.
The Canadian dollar appreciated as much as 1.2 percent, the biggest intraday jump since Dec. 2, to 96.55 cents per U.S. dollar before trading at 96.85, up 0.9 percent.
U.S. Data
The Conference Board’s index of U.S. consumer confidence fell to 60.8 from a revised 66 reading in April, compared with a Bloomberg survey forecast for a rise to 66.6. The Chicago purchasing-manager gauge dropped to 56.6 in May, from 67.6 in April, compared with a Bloomberg survey’s forecast for 62.
Investors may be unwilling to react to signs of slowing growth by buying the dollar and selling riskier assets, concerned the Federal Reserve could be prompted to increase asset purchases, according to UBS AG.
“There is some anticipation that if problems escalate, central banks’ liquidity hoses will be ready to put out even the smallest flames, just to keep growth expectations intact,” Geoffrey Yu, a currency strategist in London, wrote today in an e-mailed note. “Foreign-exchange markets and dollar bulls should never underestimate the proclivity of the ‘risk chasers’ to price back in quantitative easing.”
The Fed said in November it would buy $600 billion in Treasuries through June in a second round of so-called quantitative easing to stabilize the U.S. economy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Catarina Saraiva in New York at asaraiva5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Arnold Schwarzenegger the new Tiger Woods

If this is a play on his political career or attempting to do a really explosive movie comeback, Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeded beyond measure.

The former governor sure raised a lot of media attention for his nice public confession of I-fathered-a-kid-without-my-wife’s-knowledge. (It just sounds too fishy for me. Why would he admit to something not brought up in a decade? And just when he’s going to be relaunched, too. I dont think he’s trying to botch up his career here.) 

Just days after the announcement of his affair with a former household staff, the identity of the mother was revealed: Mildred Baena.

Now the former governor is being dubbed as the new ‘Tiger Woods’ for having an extramarital affair. And with another woman coming out to claim she also had an affair with Schwarzenegger, the ‘Tiger Woods’ label seems to be sticking for long.

What’s more, it is also rumored that Prince William himself (yep, the other half in the William-and-Kate royal wedding the world pored over recently) cancelled an appointed meeting with Schwarzenegger (for fear of tarnishing their royal image by associating with an infidel perhaps).

Too bad for their 14-year old child as he ended up in the middle of this scandal. He might find himself constantly being hounded by the media as he grow up just because his father is not his mom’s husband.

So much for the terminator.

Port Townsend Boiler Room: Weekly Schedule

All Boiler Room events are free! We welcome all ages to participate. Our only request is that you equip yourself with a positive and open minded attitude! The Boiler Room's "Out-of-Sight" outdoor excursion program often takes place once a month during regular and/or holiday extended weekends. Call us for more information 360.379.8247

MONDAYS:

• 4:15 - 4:45 pm Intern Meeting (weekly updates, reports, and training)
• 5:00 - 6:00 pm Staff Meeting (weekly updates, reports, and training)
• Sorry for the inconvenience; We are not open to the public on Mondays

TUESDAYS:

• 7:30 - 9:30 pm,  Game Night!!

WEDNESDAYS:

• 7:00-9:30pm, Movie Night!!

THURSDAYS:

• 7:00 - Close, Open Mic (freedom of expression, sometimes an open jam)

FRIDAYS  &  SATURDAYS: MUSIC SHOWS

• 2:00-6:00 pm, Free Food Fridays
• 2:30-4:00 pm Food Not Bombs (Saturday)

SUNDAYS:

• 3:00 to 4:30 pm, Free Sunday Soup (great time to relax with your friends and family!)

Come in every Sunday at 3 pm for a free bowl or two of delicious, hot soup!

Movie Review - Boiler Room - FILM REVIEW; Sell Enough Dicey Stocks to Hinterland Rubes, and You Can Buy Ferraris - NYTimes.com

About a third of the way into ''Boiler Room,'' Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), a young stockbroker-in-training at a fly-by-night company called J. T. Marlin, drops by a co-worker's house for an evening of pizza and beer.

The house, a huge, expensive stucco affair somewhere on Long Island, is completely unfurnished except for a tanning machine, a leather couch and a big-screen television set, around which the power players of hard-sell stock trading, all men in their early to mid-20's, are gathered. They are watching a tape of ''Wall Street,'' and it's clearly a movie they've seen many times before, since they all seem to have the whole script committed to memory.

''Boiler Room,'' written and directed by the 29-year-old Ben Younger, is both an homage to Oliver Stone's 1987 fable of innocence corrupted by avarice and a critique of it. The baby sharks of J. T. Marlin like to play Gordon Gekko karaoke, bloviating along with Michael Douglas's mephistophelean arbitrageur and mocking his windy grandiosity. Compared to them, though, the reptilian Gekko is a great intellectual and a devoted humanitarian. His mantra, ''greed is good,'' strikes a sententious, faintly absurd note in the amoral world of ''Boiler Room,'' in which greed is simply axiomatic. When Gekko thundered ''I own!'' he meant he controlled large and consequential pieces of the world: companies, factories, the lives of thousands of workers. But Jim Young (Ben Affleck) -- Marlin's designated drill sergeant and, at 27, one of its wise old heads -- prefers to boast about his Ferrari, his mansion and his toys.

Like Gekko, Jim and his confreres, who rake in millions peddling dicey stocks over the phone to suckers in the hinterlands, represent the seductive power of unadulterated capitalism. Not that anyone needs much seducing these days. Seth's voice-over at the start of the film conjures instant Microsoft millionaires and lottery winners, and he cites Notorious B.I.G., the avatar of hip-hop in its high-living, money-loving ''playa'' mode, on the allure of easy money. Seth, a college dropout who runs an illegal 24-hour casino in his Queens apartment, knows all the specs on the new Ferrari, even though he's still driving his mother's Volvo wagon.

Like ''Wall Street,'' ''Boiler Room'' tells the story of an ambitious young man's rise, fall and redemption. And like Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox, Seth carries some heavy Oedipal baggage -- a troubled relationship with his demanding, disapproving father (Ron Rifkin) -- onto the trading floor. But at its best, which is awfully good, ''Boiler Room'' avoids the thumping moralism that has made Oliver Stone the least misunderstood director in Hollywood. It's less about selling your soul than about feeling your oats.

In its close attention to the hard-sell ethos of buying and selling, lying and cheating, ''Boiler Room'' calls to mind another movie its characters occasionally quote, James Foley's 1992 adaptation of David Mamet's play ''Glengarry Glen Ross.'' (At times it hews a bit too close for comfort. Mr. Affleck's role -- to say nothing of his suit, his hair and his handsome hint of jowliness -- seems to have been traced over the outline of Alec Baldwin in that earlier movie.) Mr. Younger is, like Mr. Mamet, a passionate anthropologist, and he possesses an ear for the idioms and speech patterns of his chosen subculture that Mr. Mamet might envy.

J. T. Marlin, despite the phony blue-blood name, is miles from Wall Street, somewhere off Exit 53 of the Long Island Expressway, to be precise. It is populated not by well-connected M.B.A.'s but by outer-borough strivers, sons of the white ethnic middle class weaned on movies -- ''Goodfellas'' as much as ''Wall Street'' -- and on rap music. ''Boiler Room'' registers how completely the styles and attitudes of several generations of hip-hop stars, from Slick Rick to Puff Daddy, have permeated white youth culture. Mr. Younger's filmmaking style, with its fast, fluid cutting and its layered, improvisatory rhythm, is the perfect visual correlative to the movie's soundtrack, which boasts a canny mix of old and new school flavors.

For Seth, selling stocks is ''the white-boy way of slinging crack rock,'' and he and his crew clearly believe that trading bogus shares in iffy companies gives them the sexual potency and outlaw chic of the pimps and drug dealers who are their favorite archetypes of rap mythology. ''These guys were mackin' it hard,'' Seth marvels when he first sees the rows of expensive cars in the Marlin parking lot.

He might be talking about the cast of ''Boiler Room.'' Mr. Ribisi uses everything he has -- his creaky voice, his oddly shaped face, his pallid skin -- to deliver a perfectly balanced, beautifully nuanced performance. He captures Seth's man-child suavity as well as his childish sensitivity, and the sweetness underneath his cynicism.

Nearly every other performance in the movie is as good as Mr. Ribisi's. Nicky Katt, who played a scarily articulate hit man in ''The Limey,'' is almost unrecognizable here as Greg, a moody, sarcastic broker who fancies himself Seth's mentor. His performance is complemented by the work of Vin Diesel, who may be the sexiest ugly man in movies since Anthony Quinn, and by Scott Caan (son of James), who plays Sonny Corleone with a broker's license. Nia Long brings wit and patience to the underwritten role of Marlin's receptionist and Seth's love interest, a black woman surrounded by white guys trying to act like homeboys.

''Boiler Room'' reflects the sensibility of the generation it holds up to critical scrutiny, and it's a cunningly ambiguous act of self-portraiture. Mr. Younger presents a world ruled by a gang of lawless, soulless children, like the island of lost boys in ''Peter Pan.'' But his film also shows us a group of actors, and a filmmaker, with soul to spare and talent to burn. 

''Boiler Room'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes a steady stream of obscenities and shocking displays of naked greed.

BOILER ROOM

Written and directed by Ben Younger; director of photography, Enrique Chediak; edited by Chris Peppe; music by the Angel; production designer, Anne Stuhler; produced by Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd; released by New Line Cinema. Running time: 110 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Giovanni Ribisi (Seth), Vin Diesel (Chris), Nia Long (Abby), Nicky Katt (Greg), Scott Caan (Richie), Ron Rifkin (Seth's Father), Jamie Kennedy (Adam), Taylor Nichols (Harry Reynard), Bill Sage (Agent Drew), Tom Everett Scott (Michael) and Ben Affleck (Jim Young). 

Port Townsend Boiler Room: Explore

A 501(c)(3) non-profit all-ages venue for music and art, poetry and theater, a youth-run business/social experiment, a free soup kitchen, The Boiler Room fosters a culture of volunteers and celebrates community, growth, learning and empowerment of youth and the young-at-heart. We are located in the heart of a small Victorian seaport town (Port Townsend, Washington State) in the Pacific Northwest.

“The Boiler Room has been many things to many people. A coffeehouse, an art gallery, a private business, a nonprofit teen center, a cause, a scapegoat. But to me it has been a salvation – a place to be, and belong. Home. I’ve worked with some of the finest human beings I’ve met to preserve a common goal of home for ourselves and anyone else who needed it, to resolve the question of where do I belong. So many people ask it, and we can never afford to let ignorance settle such questions.”- Jake Kelly, former BR Manager