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Today I read the news about Gold reaching an all time high of $1,000 per ounce. It comes to show that when currency value (see $US) keeps falling, people turn to well tested alternatives with age old demand in human history. Gold!

Since the turn of the year, the price of gold has increased 20%, can any investment be that good? Other than oil perhaps.

And since everyone is heading back to the good old gold rush days, you may have to reconsider on how real the gold you have in stock is. Especially if you ever traded in Ethiopia, since this shocking article reveals the National Bank of Ethiopia has payed millions of dollars to buy what turned out to be… gold plated steel… ouch!

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News of Microsoft’s unsolicited offer to buy Internet legend Yahoo at $44.6bn, caught me by surprise. I never though of Yahoo as something you can “buy”. Yes, it is a company, so certainly there must be someone out there with the cash to buy it.

If Yahoo is bought though - at whatever astronomical price, it will come to prove that EVERYTHING on this world is FOR SALE.

Is that a bad thing? Yes, and no. Ah, I love blog topics when there is no obvious conclusion.

Money where made to circulate. And this is a free economy (more or less), so if you can buy something and want to, you might as well go ahead.

Microsoft obviously wants Yahoo. In plain terms, Microsoft is not in a position to compete with Google on the Internet. So, why go out and build quality services which will attract devoted users, when you can buy a ready made company like Yahoo?

However, there are rules in competition. Microsoft has already been fined for it’s practices by the European Union - so I don’t see how a Microsoft - Yahoo merger would be seen favorably in Europe when it will almost definitely conflict with anti-monopoly regulations.

I practically grew up with Yahoo. I remember it as far back as 1996-7, before even Google came into the picture. So I may be a bit sentimental about seeing it diminished or absorbed into Microsoft. Never mind that, this is a “money talks” society, so the way Yahoo has been cornered, I doubt it will manage to continue as is.

I also doubt that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would be able to better rival Google. In fact, I think the one who will most benefit will be none other than Google itself. For so many reasons. Primarily because Microsoft would again mess up and fail to drive Yahoo to success.

Stories are out already, about a possible counter-proposal to Yahoo from Google. I cannot imagine how people over at Yahoo feel right now, it seems like one of these situations where you would have to choose over the lesser evil. “Which competitor do I surrender to?”, questions must have already been posed.

Oh well. What do you think about it? Would you rather see Yahoo bought by Microsoft, Google, or continue on its own?

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I’m back from quite a hiatus, so best wishes for the new year everyone! May 2008 be fun and prosperous to all!

I was passing the time on a virtual walk around San Francisco on Google Maps “Street View” earlier today, and came upon a peculiar image.

A man is apparently hanging from an iron gate, supposedly trying to get into a house. If you don’t believe me, click here, or look at the image below.

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Of course he could just be trying to look inside, or be on his way out. We’ll never know for sure.

Funny how Google’s camera can capture precious moments like that.

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Social Bookmarking sites, enable users to share links to their favorite websites with friends and the world. And you never have to worry of losing your bookmarks when you switch computers, since you can have everything stored online. There are several Social Bookmarking solutions available today, but the web eye-candy which has my attention is Ma.gnolia.com.

Magnolia lets you add more information about every new link you add to your collection, making it easier to find later. Also, it stores a copy of the text on the page you bookmark, so you can still access the content if it moves or shuts down.

Privacy controls allow you to set just how much of your favorites you’d like to share or not. Community features allow for contacts and user groups, making link sharing all the more fun and easy to do. Check it out here.

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Well, I cannot say these news came as a surprise… Besides, the planet’s past has already revealed some amazing sea monsters among other things. I wonder if whatever life form prevails a million years from now will look back on people fossils and say “this terrible creature almost destroyed the planet”, - insert evil laughter and grin here -

Anyway, here’s the thing, scientists in Europe discovered the fossilized claw of a sea scorpion. From that, they managed to estimate the monster’s size at about 8 feet. That is one big pest if you ask me. I sure hope they truly are extinct… Although that isn’t something I ever expected I’d say. But really, the way the ecosystem and life on earth is nowadays, a giant sea scorpion simply would not compute.

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