Online Dating – tell fakes from real profiles

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

Online dating has really boomed in ten years. There are hundreds of dating sites, some free and some which require a membership. With all these sites there are thousands, millions of profiles of people looking for a relationship. However some of these profiles may not be quite what they seem at first sight. Many people create fake profiles to see what’s out there. People also exaggerate or / to make themselves look better than they actually are. So how can you tell a whether a profile is fake or realistic.

If the profile seems to good to be true then it properly is. Always make sure you know that the person is real.

Another way is via dating background checks. These are checks you can purchase that show some details about the person. They show limited data but collate publicly available information such as bankruptcies, tax problems and run ins with the police. A check can show up some things you may not have known about the person and offer a chance to see if the person you are getting to know is legit or whether they are a fake.

So there are a few ways to check if an online dating profile is legitimate or not. An important thing to note is never go alone or keep it a secret that you are meeting up with someone you met online. It’s best to be safe than sorry.

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Mortgage Calculators – which one to use?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by admin

A mortgage is one of the most important things in many adults lives. It is also the bane of many adults lives, however in order to protector your livelihood you should understand exactly what your mortgage entails and what repayments are needed. There are hundreds and thousands of mortgage calculators out there but which ones are the best?

The BBC one is quite useful for calculating monthly repayments. You enter the amount of the mortgage, the repayment period and the interest rate. It then shows you the monthly repayment and the amount of that that is interest. It doesn’t however show how much you end up repaying over the time period you have provided.

Another mortgage calculator is the one of Halifax, it is quite detailed and asks 7 questions including ‘What would you like your mortgage for?’ and ‘What method of repayment would you like’. The calculator gives a good representation however it only shows Halifax mortgages, a pain for those who don’t wan to go with Halifax.

Money Supermarket also offer a mortgage calculator. There’s is quite detailed and compares mortgages from all providers including those of slightly less well know banks such as Leeds Building Society and Yorkshire Building Society. The calculator gives good information, however sometimes these sites have slightly more expensive rates as they earn a commission. It’s best to find a deal through Money Supermarket and then go through the bank or building society themselves.

So always remember to use a mortgage calculator plugin to check the details of your mortgage before committing. This way you won’t realise any problems 5-10 years down the line.

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BP sale of Argentinian assets collapses

Posted on November 6, 2011 by admin

The deal by BP to sell off its Argentinian assets has fallen through after the partner withdrew from the deal.

BP wanted to sell it’s stake in Pan American Energy (PAE) to their partner Bridas Energy Holdings in Argentina. BP currently hold a 60% stake in PAE.

Bridas are 50% owned by the Chinese offshore oil producer CNOOC, they are China’s largest oil producer offshore. CNOOC said on Sunday that they are terminating the deal which was signed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

BP was oping the sale would cover some of their costs from the spill. The deal was said to be worth an estimated £4.4bn ($7bn) and the largest of the assets sales agreed by BP following the disaster.

The termination means that BP will have to repay the $3.5bn deposit paid by CNOOC. The deal was dependent on regulatory approval. A BP spokesman said:

“The transaction was subject to conditions precedent – namely Argentine anti-trust and Chinese governmental approvals.”

“Bridas had not yet been able to satisfy these conditions precedent but the approval processes were ongoing and, for reasons known only to them, Bridas has chosen to terminate the transaction.”

The majority of PAE operations are in Argentina and they mainly focus on exploration and production of gas and oil.

BP shares may drop a little tomorrow but they are back to making profit. Their third quarter profits were £3.2bn ($5.14bn). That is almost three times the amount in the same quarter last year.

BP also announced that they want to increase their sale of assets to $45bn. So far the firm have managed to sell $19bn worth of assets, excluding the PAE deal.

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Italy sells debt at record high

Posted on October 30, 2011 by admin

The cost of borrowing for Italy has reached a record high, despite the recent positive meetings for the eurozone crisis.

At auction on Friday Italy paid 6.06% for ten years. This is the highest rate since the euro was brought into play in 1999. The rate jumped from a previous record high of 5.86%, which was auctioned just last month.

Stock markets didn’t manage to increase in value after Thrusday’s global rally. shares in many large European banks actually fell on Friday, after what was a positive day for the banks on Thursday.

Many economists regard an interest rate of 6% or higher to be quite unsustainable. As well as this record high rate, the Italian Treasury failed to meet their target for borrowing.  They had wanted to sell about €8.5bn (£7.5bn) worth of bonds. The Treasury only managed to sell €7.9bn.

Italy, one of the PIIGS, currently has the highest debt in the eurozone. This is at a time of little economic growth. However, unlike Greece, who are also laden with huge debt, Italy’s debt is owed to it’s own people. This could give them a bit of lee-weigh when it comes to repayments, as the Italians would be more willing to help their own economy compared to external investors.

Once the auction results had been announced by the Italian treasury the value of the Italian stock market fell.

Euro leaders have been working hard to try find a solution to the eurozone debt crisis. It has resulted in some banks taking a 50% hit on Greek debt. Euro leaders also want banks to raise more capital to protect them from defaulting in the future. This would mean governments don’t have to bail the banks out like they had to in 2008.

Bank stocks had been on the rise at the start of Friday, however, by the end of the day they had fallen all over Europe by as much as 5.2%.

 

 

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Samsung profits down 23% in 2011 Q3

Posted on October 28, 2011 by admin

Samsung, the large technology company, has seen its profits fall 23%, despite good sales of it’s smartphones and strong growth of the mobile phone business. However, Samsung do not just sell phones and their memory chip side of the business didn’t perform well from July to September.

The world’s largest chip maker and second largest mobile phone maker reported a net profit of 3.44 trillion won ($3.1bn) in the third quater of 2011, July to September.

On the other hand the profits from mobile phone handsets was impressive. Profits had doubled to 2.52tn won ($2.28bn) on strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy smartphone range.

Profits in the chip division of Samsung halved to 1.59tn won ($1.44bn). There has been a global decrease in computer memory chips recently and this has heavily affected Samsung.  Analysts have said that Samsung’s chip business will probably struggle in the short term.

Park Hyun from Ton Yan Securities said ‘I see some signs that chip prices have hit bottom as inventories are running out. However, we don’t yet know when the industry is going to pick up since macroeconomic uncertainties overshadow the demand outlook’

I have seen the price of RAM drop quite considerably over the lat year. Last year 4Gb PC3-8500 used to sell for almost £100 a module, it now sells for about £25 a module. However, if inventories are running out surely the price will rise due to a lack of supply?

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Largest gold coin unveiled in Australia

Posted on October 27, 2011 by admin

The largest ever gold coin has been unveiled in Perth, Australia. The coin weighs an incredible 1000kg!

The coin was produced by the Perth Mint, in time for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Perth for a Commonwealth heads of governments meeting.

The coin features the Queen’s head on one side and a kangaroo on the other. The coin is 12cm thick and almost 80cm in diameter.

The CEo of Perth Mint, Ed Harbuz, said the coin was ‘an incredible challenge, one which few other mints would even consider’.

The previous world’s largest gold coin is only a fifth of the mass of the Australian one. The previous one was made by the Royal Canadian Mint.

Harbuz added ‘We thought well, we’d better make it so much bigger that it’ll stay the biggest coin in the world for a long time.’

Fair point, if your going to make a coin to be the worlds largest then you may as well do it so it stays the record holder for a long time.

The coin is 99.99% pure gold, guaranteed by the West Australian Government. It has nominal value of 1 million Australian Dollars. However, the gold is currently worth more than 50 million Australian Dollars!

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IT Crowd set to end after 4 series

Posted on October 22, 2011 by admin

The IT Crowd, a popular channel 4 sitcom, is set to finish after its fourth series. The creator, Graham Linehan revealed the news on Reddit during a question and answer session, saying ‘I’ll say right off the bat… the bad news is no IT Crowd series five.’ He then went on to say ‘I just wasn’t looking forward to it the way I used to’.

The IT Crowd is about three employees who run the IT support department. They are all socially awkward which is the highlight of the show. There will be a special extended episode next year before finishing for good.

The fourth series, aired in 2010, attracted an average audience of 2.5 million. This figure is quite a lot higher than the other Channel 4 programmes shown during that slot.

The show starts Chris O’Dowd as Roy Trenneman, Richard Ayoade as Maurice Moss and Katherine Parkinson as their boss, Jen Barber. The show mixes tech geek jokes with old-fashioned farce.

The cast have recently been venturing into other sectors. Chris O’Dowd has starred in Hollywood films Bridesmaids and Gulliver’s Travels, amongst others. Richard Ayoade recently directed the British film Submarine which received great critical acclaim.

Talking about the announcement to end the show Lineman said ‘I felt that the last series was a nice strong point to go out on, and anything further might just be running on the spot.’

He also said he ‘felt a sense of achievement’ with the IT Crowd because it got to the fourth series, compared to three of Father Ted, one of Black Books and one of Big Train.

Lineman, however, did say that there was possibility of an IT Crowd film. It would depend on him coming up with a good idea that the cast would like, he added.

So watch this space, the IT Crowd may well have a film coming out!

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The Simpsons extended another 2 series

Posted on October 9, 2011 by admin

The Simpsons, the long running comedy animation show, has been extended for another two series.

Fox announced that a contract dispute between themselves and the cast had been settled and the cast were going to make another two series. The deal struck has not been revealed but according to The Hollywood Reporter the cast agreed to a 30% pay cut. The Simpsons producers had previously said that the current financial model was not sustainable and would have resulted in the show finishing.

In a response the cast had asked for a cut of the merchandising profits. It is know known whether they got this small share but they were willing to accept a pay cut to receive a share of the massive profits from merchandising.

The voice actors currently earn £5.2m ($8m) each per series. This is quite extraordinary and shows the sheer magnitude of the animation. It is one of the biggest television programs all over the world.

Harry Shearer, one of the show’s cast’ said he was told that there were  “simply no circumstances under which the network would consider allowing me or any of the actors to share in the show’s success”

Shearer did admit however that the salaries of the cast “were ridiculous by any normal standard”. He also added that he found it hard to believe that this was Fox’s last say on the subject of profit sharing.

Producers had said that a 45% pay cut would be needed in order to keep the program going. They haven’t commented in response to Shearer’s comments, though.

The Simpsons is currently the longest-running comedy series and has is currently in its 23rd series. The show has been broadcast in over 100 countries and it has also been translated into over 50 languages.

Ratings for the latest series have been lower than previous years. 7.1m has been the average in the US, down 14% on the series last year.

US network, Fox, want to increase the revenue from The Simpsons. They have been thinking of running a Simpsons channel devoted to The Simpsons with shows running 24/7.

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Bill Gates still tops Forbes American Rich List

Posted on September 28, 2011 by admin

Bill Gates, the found of computer software firm Microsoft, has remained top of the Forbes list of rich Americans. Gates is now $20bn richer than Warren Buffet who is second on the list.

Bil Gates’ fortune grew by $3bn in the last year to $59bn. This has largely been due to the increase in value of Microsoft stocks.

Warren Buffet, second on the list, hasn’t fare so well in the last year with a loss of $11bn. Buffet’s wealth is down to $39bn mainly due to the decline in value of his firm, Berkshire Hathaway.

George Soros another investor joined the top 10 at seventh place. His hedge funds have built him a wealth of $22bn.

Both investors support left wing economic ideas and have strong views on ways to try fix the global and US economies.

Soros, who is Hungarian, has donated a lot of money to the Democrats. he also supports the ‘Open Society Foundations’ who actively promote liberal democracy and human rights.

Buffet has given his backing to higher taxes for high earners in the US and a rise in capital gains tax. President Obama listened to Buffet’s ideas and has since implemented the proposal the ‘Buffet Rule’, much to the anger of the Republicans who aren’t a fan of tax.

Charles and David Koch, who are worth $25bn each and both placed at 4th in the Forbes list support more right wing ideas and the Republicans. They have both backed the Republican Tea Part movement.

New York mayor Michale Bloomberg, a strong republican donator, has dropped out of the top 10 in the list.

The wealthiest family in the US, the Waltons, who own Wal-Mart, make up three members of the top 10 and four members of the top 20 with a combined wealth of $87bn!

View the full list at Forbes American Rich List

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GDP growth in India slows to 7.7%

Posted on August 30, 2011 by admin

The Indian economy grew 7.7% in Q2 (April to June) of 2011, compared to the same time period last year.

The figure was better than many analyst had predicted but was India’s weakest growth in six quarters.

The GDP growth rate, published by the Indian Finance Ministry, for the first three months of 2011, Q1, was 7.8%. This slowdown is expected to get even slower as the Indian Central Bank reduces interest rates in an attempt to reduce inflation.

An economist at IIFL, Mumbai Ashutosh Datar said ‘the latest growth number reinforces the view that although growth is slowing down, it is not collapsing as feared by some’.

Pranab Mukherjee, India’s Finance Minister, announced that the figure was slightly below what he was expecting but given the stunted growth in the West the figure was ‘not that much disappointing’.

Interest rates have been increased eleven times since March 2010. Economists are expecting the interest rates to rise again to 8.25% at the next meeting on the 16th September.

The Reserve Bank of India, also know as the RBI, have set a target of 4% to 4.5% inflation rate. India’s inflation rate in July was 9.22%, more than double the target.

The construction industry has seen a big hit with the rising interest rates. with higher interest rates, businesses are likely t get a lower return on their investments. Therefore people have been less reluctant to invest in construction and buildings. This has been seen with construction growth at 1.2% in Q2 2011 compared to 8.2% in the previous quarter.

The RBI is expecting GDP growth for 2011 to be 8% overall. Currently it is looking more like 7%, similar to what many economists have predicted. 7% is a ridiculously high rate of growth compared to countries in Europe and the US. However, India depends on this economic growth to build it’s country and reduce poverty in a country with over 1 billion people.

It will be interesting to see where India goes in the next year and whether it will reach it’s 8% growth rate as well as reducing inflation.

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