And you should not watch the tape. Not good for your peace of mind.<\/p>\n
Meantime, I missed Facebook, but my Google is doing well\u00a0 (after today’s deal with Lenovo). And I did nail Blackstone:<\/p>\n
Blackstone’s fourth-quarter earnings more than double<\/strong><\/p>\n NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP <BX.N>, the world’s largest publicly listed alternative asset manager, reported a 130-percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, showing particularly strong gains in its real estate business.<\/p>\n Blackstone, whose investments include The Weather Channel, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc <HLT.N> and SeaWorld Entertainment Inc <SEAS.N>, said economic net income – a metric of its profitability that takes into account the mark-to- market valuation of its portfolio – was $1.54 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with $670 million a year ago.<\/p>\n Distributable earnings, which show actual cash that is available to pay dividends, jumped 46 percent in the first quarter to $820.6 million.<\/p>\n Total assets under management were $265.8 billion as of the end of December, up 26 percent year-on-year. Fee-earning assets under management rose 18 percent to $198 billion.<\/p>\n Blackstone declared a quarterly dividend of 58 cents per common unit.<\/p>\n Qualcomm will bounce today after its fiscal first-quarter earnings exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n My Shopping List<\/strong> includes (some new and some more of)<\/p>\n ADSK, AMZN, BA, DTV, MA, NLY, T (yield is now 5.5%), WFM and perhaps some Delta and American Airlines.<\/p>\n In search of the perfect hearing aid (continued). <\/strong>The perfect hearing aid is a headphone or earbuds wired or wirelessly attached to a sound source — like a TV. I won’t watch TV without my Sennheiser headphones. The perfect hearing aid at a theater is the infrared one they lend you for free. I won’t go the theater without getting one of these for the performance. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After those recommendations, it’s pretty well downhill. The hearing aids you get from an audiologist are pricey ($5,000 to $6,000 a pair), sound tinny and are annoying. They amplify everything — from paper rustling to the sound your shoes make on the pavement. None of them discriminate between what you want to hear — your dinner companions\u00a0 — and what you don’t want to hear — the restaurant’s ambient noise. None of them. Trust me. This is despite what their marketing literature says.<\/p>\n Enter a bunch of entrepreneurs who make things called “personal sound amplifiers,:” which they sell on online for a fraction of what “real” hearing aids cost and typically\u00a0 offer a 30-day full money-back guarantee if you don’t like them.<\/p>\n I’ve tried a bunch of them. The best is the CS-10 from a company called Sound World Solutions. It’s a big clunky thing, deliberately designed to look like Bluetooth\/cell phone answering and speaking device (which it also does). Leave it running and you have a functioning hearing aid.<\/p>\n The quality of what I hear with the CS-10 (catchy name?) is not the sound I get from Sennheiser headphones. But the CS-10 works. It does amplify sounds and, I can use it to watch TV or wear out to a restaurant.<\/p>\n The big news is that it costs $299, though you can probably get a 10% discount if you call them. I did.<\/p>\n The CS-10 doesn’t use throwaway batteries like the pricey high-end hearing aids. The teardrop behind the ear is a rechargeable battery, which you can recharge with a USB connection or using the equipment they supply. They supply two batteries, which is thoughtful.<\/p>\n My hearing is not shot. I can hear most things. The CS-10 is designed to help in difficult-to-hear places and it does that admirably. It has a remarkable number of settings for volume and frequency response, you can “customize” it the noise of the place you’re in. I only bought one (for my left ear), which works fine for me. I’ll probably keep it. It’s worth the money.<\/p>\n To see more, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Homs, Syria’s. third largest city. <\/strong><\/span>This is what they’ve done with large parts of it. I can’t believe what Assad is doing to his own people.<\/p>\n For a bigger image of the mind-blowing devastation, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n On retirement.<\/strong><\/span> I do like his expression. A real reason to beg.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n How to get technical help. The Personnel Manager said, ‘Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except one.<\/p>\n It is a simple test of your English language skills. Unless you pass it, you cannot qualify for this job.’<\/p>\n Mujibar ‘I am ready.’<\/p>\n ‘You must make a sentence using the words Yellow, Pink, and Green.’<\/p>\n Mujibar thought and said, ‘Mister manager, I am ready.’<\/p>\n ‘Go ahead.’<\/p>\n Mujibar said, ‘The telephone goes green, green. I pink it up, and say, yellow, this is Mujibar.’<\/p>\n Mujibar now works at a call center for a major tech company. You have spoken to him. Have you noticed that no one listens any longer?<\/p>\n![\"CS10HearingAid\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/CS10HearingAid.jpg\")
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\n<\/strong><\/span>Mujibar was trying to get a job in India.<\/p>\n
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\nHarry Newton who has recovered from his cold. His energy has returned with a bang. I’ll go kill on the tennis court this afternoon.<\/p>\n