Previous Columns
8:30 AM Thursday, June 30, 2005: Looking CEOs in the eye is good. I had breakfast yesterday with Mark Ahn, president and CEO, and Russell Skibsted, CFO, of Hana Biosciences, a small biotech company in new oncology drugs. I own the stock. Everything I heard confirms my like for Hana. I don't have the time this morning to discuss everything I learned. I will tomorrow. Suffice, small biotechs I own -- Hana Biosciences, Manhattan Pharmaceuticals, Novadel Pharma and Point Therapeutics are three-year lockaway stocks. Each have multiple drug gambles. One or several will hit big..

Cramer's picks the oil engineering and construction companies. Cramer and I agree: the high price of oil is here to stay. The high price is not because of speculation -- there is some of that. But it's because worldwide consumption remains high and growing; And oil supply remains tight. Cramer says "Don't buy Exxon." I agree with him. He says buy the engineering and construction companies. He makes considerable sense. These guys will benefit from the higher drilling and upgrading of oil exploration and oil production facilities worldwide. When Exxon spends, the engineering and construction companies will benefit. Companies include: Haliburton (HAL), Fluor (FLR), the Shaw Group (SGR), Jacobs Engineering (JEG) and McDermott International (MDR).

The Fortune 40 does O.K.: Every year, Fortune Magazine publishes a portfolio of 40 stocks it recommends for the upcoming year. The magazine does OK -- not brilliantly, but OK. From June 18, 2004, through June 17, 2005, last year’s FORTUNE 40 (39 stocks and one bond fund) returned 9.7%, vs.9.2% for the S&P 500. Out of 39 stocks, 26 gained, with an average return of 22%. The top performer was Swift Energy (SFY), which returned 67%. The worst performer was Cephalon (CEPH), which lost 25%. I figure you should read how Fortune picked the stocks (it makes sense) -- Click here. Then you should weed out some of stocks you don't like, or feel are way overpriced. Here's Fortune's list. (The blue underlined links don't work. I couldn't figure how to download the charts in text. Instead, I clipped them as images.) You'll find everything on Fortune's web site -- click here.

Research in Motion's Profit Surges: Profit and subscribers are up. Last night I had the opportunity to play with the Blackberry 7000t, which T-Mobile is selling. I loved it. It's a phone. It's a PDA. Its a browser. You can actually browse the Internet -- not fast, but fast enough to get simple information when you're away from your PC. The "big" innovation with the 7000t is the brilliant SureType text-input system -- something known as "predictive texting." The 7000t has a QWERTY keyboard, with only two letters per key. You don't have to tap once to choose the first letter on a key and twice to choose the second letter; Most of the time you only have to tap once. SureType figures what you're after from its 35,000-entry dictionary and from what you've typed before. The guesses change as you hit letters and the list of possible words narrows. The more you type, the more likely the software will figure out what you want. The 7000t has a great trackwheel and escape button on the right side of the device. It's a quad-band GSM handset. With T-Mobile, you can use it around the world. Verizon, of course, doesn't have it. This morning I applied for the job of VP Marketing at Verizon. God, do they need some help.

The Blackberry 7100t.

Refurbished equipment is good. A big company buys 1,000 laptops and returns ten to the manufacturer. The machine is no longer "new." Often the manufacturer will check it out and replace anything that looks iffy. That makes refurbished machines often a better machine. The Newton household owns two refurbished Dyson vacuum cleaners, both bought at a 25% savings. They work like a charm. We have lots of other frefurbished gadgets, but I can't list them all. Or my wife will think I'm "cheap," which I am.

Manufacturers are starting to sell refurbished stuff on the web. They used to sell the stuff through their dealers. The New York Times has a piece this morning buying refurbished. click here.

Wimbledon today is semi-finals: Who can work when there's great tennis to watch and play? And maybe it will stop raining. Here's the TV schedule:

Wimbledon Tennis TV Schedule -- all times are Eastern
Date	Channel	Time	Round
Thurs - 6-30
	ESPN2	5 AM - 5:30 AM (Highlights)
	ESPN2	5:30 AM - 7 AM (Highlights)
	ESPN2	7 AM - 8 AM (LIVE)	Semi Final
	ESPN2	8 AM - 12 PM (LIVE)	Semi Final
	NBC	12 PM - 5 PM (Delayed)	Semi Final
	ESPN2	8 PM - 8:30 PM (Delayed)	Semi Final
	ESPN2	8:30 PM - 10 PM (Delayed)	Semi Final
	NBC	11:35 PM - 11:50 (Delayed)	Semi Final
Fri - 7-1
	ESPN2	3 AM - 3:30 AM (Highlights)
	ESPN2	3:30 AM - 5 AM (Highlights)
	ESPN2	7 AM - 8 AM (LIVE)	Semi Final
	ESPN2	8 AM - 12 PM (LIVE)	Semi Final
	NBC	12 PM - 5 PM (Delayed)	Semi Final
	ESPN2	8 PM - 8:30 PM (Delayed)	Semi Final
	ESPN2	8:30 PM - 10 PM (Delayed)	Semi Final
	NBC	11:35 PM - 12:05 AM (Delayed)	Semi Final
Sat - 7-2
	ESPN2	3 AM - 3:30 AM (Highlights)
	ESPN2	3:30 AM - 5 AM (Highlights)
	NBC	9 AM - 2 PM (LIVE)	Women's Final
	ESPN2	2 PM - 3 PM (LIVE)
Sun - 7-3
	NBC	9 AM - 3 PM (LIVE)	Men's Final
	ESPN2	3 PM - 4 PM (LIVE)

Smart Son
A father, passing by his son's bedroom, was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow.

It was addressed, "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:

Dear Dad,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so nice. I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, her tight Motorcycle clothes and because she is so much older than I am.

But it's not only the passion, Dad. She's pregnant. Joan said we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the Woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Joan has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for us and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want.

In the meantime, we will be praying that science finds a cure for AIDS so Joan can get better; she sure deserves it!

Don't worry, Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I'm sure we'll be back to visit you so you can get to know your grandchildren. Your son, Chad.

P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my center desk drawer.! I love you. Call when it is safe to come home.

Harry Newton

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look mighty interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. That money will help pay Claire's law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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