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I have opened GEI for New Members - who can now sign on themselves

*** WELCOME to PAGE 100 ! *** I used to wonder if any thread here would hit the century mark

You are welcome here, CrushTheRents. But I would suggest you change your signature.

Welcome to A-Core's Networking area. "Both for the Awakened, and the Financially sophisticated... We need both (talking to each other, working together)" > The Link to here--- : http://tinyurl.com/Acore-Forum > How to Join Acore > http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=20399 : See the WARNING (below) A-Core Forum and Networking Newcomers can learn about the A-Core section on this thread. A-Core website : Link coming HOW TO JOIN GEI : and gain ACCESS to Posting in this section I have set-up : A Link to here: http://tinyurl.com/Acore-Forum Link, website : http://tinyurl.com/Acore-site =========== WARNING (for New Visitors here): Readers and new Members that have done little or no research into the matters discussed in this section are advised not to participate in discussion until you have done some serious research. We accept that many of the threads may contain postings that appear unbelievable and ridiculous at first. Those who are open minded and feel compelled to learn more are very welcome to read and ask questions, if puzzled by posts here. We would recommend the following materials to those with little or no previous knowledge. Videos........ Books......... > see thread on Great Teachers: http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=20094

((Posted elsewhere/ see thread/ and also here, for more visibility)) KISSES on a Postcard, Chances for Investors A MEMORY came alive on the BAFTA stage last night. Renowned playwright Terence Frisby introduced excerpts from his new musical "Kisses on a Postcard" to an enthusiastic crowd of over 100 potential investors. The audience saw snippets of the playwright's real life as a "vacky", when at the age of seven he and his brother, aged eleven, were evacuated to the relative safety of the Cornish countryside. This is a story that wants telling. During the dark days of World War Two, over 3 million children were put on trains leaving London and other English cities by stoic parents, helping their frightened children to escape the harsh reality of constant air bombing. The youngsters found themselves in unfamiliar landscapes, fostered by strangers who soon became their surrogate parents. Brought to life in Frisby's classic radio play, now being turned into a West End musical, the life of a Vacky was not all tears and hardship. Growing up in a new place can be full of memories, adventure, and even music. Shepherded into a sort of human cattle bin, the two brothers were lucky enough to be picked by a kindly couple from Wales, who were also "foreigners" in their new home, a traditional Cornish village. We saw how the couple won over their new charges, and comforted them. Their parents were not forgotten. As the boys agreed with their mother at departure, a secret message would be sent back to the worried parents. One kiss on a postcard would have been a cry for help. Two kisses, a reluctant acceptance of the new home. Three communicated some happiness about the new situation. The younger boy in the story, who was also the young writer in real life, found a way to bring stronger reassurance, a ring of kisses around the edge of the postcard. Fascinated by this device of the postcard, the audience gets drawn it, taking a real interest in the drama brought to life in the musical, and shown in the preview by some excerpts from the musical. I liked the scene where the slightly awkward young boy was confronted by the village vamp, intent on teasing him about his emerging sexuality. I couldn't help thinking that many watching would have had similar memories. In the audience were a handful of children of a similar age, who had be brought along to see this compelling story, and hear the catchy musical songs. Undoubtedly, some parents hoped that their children might successfully audition when the musical opens for casting, perhaps as soon as late spring. With less parental pressure, the rest of us watched with pure amusement as the storyline developed, and the village life was enlivened by the arrival of a troop of US GI's. Not the expected poster yanks, the new visitors turned out to be black soldiers. For those accustomed to the risks of volatile junior mining shares, investing in theatre provides an interesting challenge. Some productions can be like classic drillhole successes. For example, Frisby's most famous play, "There's a Girl in my Soup", returned £60 for every £1 invested, and was eventually turned into a film featuring Peter Sellars and Goldie Hawn. But like 10 and 20-baggers in mining, such successes are very rare, and when they do happen, they take a long time. "Girl in my Soup" ran nearly 7 years. Obviously, flops happen too, and with some regularity. In the theatre world, some productions return none of their original capital back to investors. Clearly, this tends to be a business for true "Angels" who have passion for the culture they are bringing forward, and are willing to accept the risks that are inherent in a very risky business. Some may invest, without expecting much, if anything, in return. But for those capable of buying more than one or two units, the investment merits of this particular musical require closer scrutiny. "Kisses" has many of the elements that point to success. Like Frisby, the other members of the team are experienced , and have good track records. Je Harmston has numerous West End credits to his name and is Peter Hall's associate director. While Jeremy James Taylor, the founder and artistic director of the National Youth Music Theatre, has unrivalled experience and expertise working with children in theatre. And the cast of this new production will have a lot of children- as many as twenty in total. To keep kids from being distracted from important things, like school, homework, and a good night's sleep, each child's part is cast three times. This way the casting is rotated, and there is not undue strain on the time and studies of any individual child. The complexity of managing such a large cast needs an experienced hand, and so does the critical job of helping new talent to blossom in an unfamiliar environment. What we saw at the preview was: some good acting performances, and some beautiful singing coming from fresh, young and talented newcomers. Stars of the future about to be discovered maybe? In last night's presentation, potential investors were reminded that musicals are back and succeeding once again on London stages. Apart from the usual run of Lloyd Webber successes, we have: The Sound Of Music Cabaret Mamma Mia Dirty Dancing The Producers The Lion King Spamalot Avenue Q Mary Poppins Guys and Dolls Wicked We Will Rock You What Kisses may lack in brand recognition it makes up for in subject matter. The subject of World War Two and, in particular, evacuation, touches so many people in so many different ways. This is demonstrated by the unprecedented (in BBC Radio drama history) audience response Frisby received for the radio play. And there is a healthy tradition of musicals involving kids going on to be great successes: Oliver, Annie, Bugsy Malone, Billy Elliott. And many more. In Sound Of Music, which has just opened, it is the kids, not Connie, despite all her television exposure as the winning Maria, who have received all the critical attention and praise. Many successful musicals in the West End means competition for the theatre-goer's ticket-spending, but it also means an expanding market, as visitors to London, and those that live in the city are constantly reminded of the joys of stage shows. "Kisses" has the potential to claim two special audience niches: Those who were evacuees themselves, or those interested to learn more about the wartime experiences of their parents, grandparents or other relatives. In addition, KOAPC will be a fine "first musical" for parents to take children that they are trying to introduce to the joys of theatre-going. Finally, the black American GI's and a background of jazz music also have the potential to pull-in visiting North Americans, always an important component of the audience for any long-running musical. The budget for the musical to achieve a first class West End production is £2 million, this being raised by way of units priced at £ 5,000 each, which is 400 units in total, once fully subscribed. After costs are covered, profits will be split 60/40, with investors taking the larger share, and the producing team, 40%. The plan is to book a theatre of 900-1200 seats offering tickets at a top price of $55. This suggests that, after VAT, the show might realise an average of £40 for every full-priced ticket sold. The typical London musical has eight shows a week (two matinees and six evenings). That means a potential weekly revenue, if 1,000 seats are sold, of £320000, in comparison with weekly running costs of approximately £100,000. Breakeven in the initial budget is therefore about 31%. Once this level is reached, the show can make a contribution to its start-up production costs, which need to be spent before the show opens. The "Kisses" team believes it will cost just over £1.2 million and a minimum of 6 to 8 months to get the show up on its feet and read to start its run. An important £20-30,000, which has been committed, will allow the workshop to start. In this initial stage, Terrence Frisby will be working with the new musical director, John Altman, to polish the music and lyrics, and get the show's creative book ready to open. Altman is well-experienced, with various TV and film work to his credit, including a James Bond film. He will be working with the original music, provided by Gordon Clyde, who unfortunately has fallen ill. Within a few months, once the workshop is completed, and a substantial portion of the funds are raised, the company will be ready to start casting and rehearsing. That involves a much larger number of people, and that is when the costs begin to get heavy. Almost £250,000 will get spent on auditions, rehearsal expenses, and salaries and other people expenses during the pre-production period. Advertising and publicity, which must swing into high gear weeks or months before the curtain opens, might cost roughly a similar amount. And then there's an even heavier expense (almost $500,000) of getting the theatre, the costumes, and the show ready for the physical opening. And a smaller, but still important amount of money goes into general and adminstrative cost of putting the show on. Assuming an ongoing sale of 80% of seats at full price, then the show might generate revenues of £256,000 weekly, leaving maybe £150,000 after running expenses. This means the budgetted start up costs, could be covered in a run of as little as nine weeks. But there are bound to be surprises, so the show is looking to raise enough extra to cover contingencies, delays, and extra marketing. Terence Frisby has decades of experience with successful shows, and he is highly confident that those who get into the theatre and see the show will walk out thrilled with the experience, and happy to tell their friends about it. He expects the show to have a powerful word-of-mouth effect. But he needs to get people interested and into the theatre. Various creative approaches may be tried, including some possible use of television at auditions and rehearsals, a formula which worked brilliantly for the Sound of Music. So successful was the BBC television series, "The Problem of Maria", the new version of the musical and had enough advance ticket sales, that it was a guaranteed financial success the first day the curtain opened. In terms of its ongoing running costs, a new musical like "Kisses" may not yet be a brand name, like "Oliver" or "Sound of Music", but it does have an advantage in not needing to pay the usual royalty of 10-16% of net revenues, after VAT, to past producers. Another handy advantage, is that future shows (tours, repertory, amateur, abroad and schools), and spin-offs like CD's and film rights, if any, can generate additional revenues for the early stage investors in KOAPC. The royalties associated with these revenue streams, assuming they arise, will be divided according to the same 60:40 split between investor and producer. The trick is getting a long run, and selling a substantial number of the available seats. In reality, very popular shows tend to sellout for weeks, as the tickets get snapped up by tours, and ticket touts. The quietest time of year tends to be January, after the holiday spending depletes people's wallets, and again in May-June, when warmer weather draws people away from the theatres, and before the onslaught of tourists brings the crowds back in. The quiet times will be avoided or worked around in the opening. A good sized budget, and the experince of the production team should give it a good push, whenever it opens. This is a show that will appeal to people of all ages, and it's likely to be doubly busy during school holidays. My own experience in watch the presentation, previewing some highlights from the show, was that the crowd loved it. The storyline was gripping, the characters seemed real and were based directly on wartime reality. The music was catchy, and even memorable. Personally, I walked out with the warm feeling that anyone has from a good show. The smiles I saw, and the comments I hear all around suggest that feeling was shared. We may have seen the birth of a wonderous musical, which will be a starmaker, as the children in the cast are discovered, and become the musical and acting stars of tomorrow. (REVIEW of Investor Preview : 28. Nov. 2006 ) -- DB, with some help from DF = = =

NOT EVERYONE IS BULLISH... The tax expert who may have helped spur the government to crack down on income trusts by predicting that conversions to the structure would cost more than $1-billion in lost revenue believes that income funds are now destined to become an endangered species. Jack Mintz, the University of Toronto professor who crunched those numbers, will join lawyer James Scarlett of Torys LLP and Sandy McIntyre, one of the country's largest trust investors, in Toronto to look at “The Future of Income Trusts — To Be or Not To Be.” The general consensus at the moment — and Mr. Mintz's view — is that the likely outcome for most trusts is not to be. A poll last week by the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche found that trust executives and advisers to the sector expect trusts to start disappearing before the end of the government's four-year tax holiday. The big reason it hasn't started yet is because Ottawa hasn't laid out the rules for conversions back to corporations, trust executives and advisers say. “A lot of trusts in the end are going to move back to the corporate world to have more flexibility,” Mr. Mintz said. He said his call for a refundable dividend tax credit, which would make dividend-paying stocks more attractive, as well as for the ability of investors to exchange units for shares without triggering a capital gains tax hit would create even more incentive to convert to corporate status. The other likely outcome for many trusts is being swallowed in a takeover, as private equity firms from the United States and abroad are drawing up lists of target companies and await only a further drop in prices before they strike. The interest from private-equity firms is “huge,” and “there's going to be a lot of U.S. money coming in,” said Mr. Scarlett, who focuses on mergers and acquisitions in addition to trusts. In a survey of 360 trust-sector managers, trustees, advisers, investors and lenders, Deloitte found that 87 per cent said the number of trusts will fall to 100 or fewer within four years from the current 256, and 52 per cent predicted no more than 50 trusts will be left by 2011. “It's going to happen quite quickly,” said Deloitte vice-chairman James Goodfellow. For companies that need to raise capital to grow or replace declining assets “the issue is just give me the rules so I can understand the tax consequences of rolling back, for example, and as soon as I understand that, let's get on with it,” he added. Income trust investors hoping for a bounce in valuation between now and the end of the tax holiday may also be disappointed, according to the survey's finding that 58 per cent of respondents believe the income trust index will fall further in the next four years. Many trust investors blame Mr. Mintz in some way for the drops in their trust investments because of the massive publicity generated by his conclusion that, with the planned conversions of telecommunication giants BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. into trusts, the federal government stood to lose $1.1-billion in tax revenue because of the trust phenomenon. Mr. Mintz's calculations have sparked a heated debate about what, if any, is the real number for lost tax revenue, and supporters of trusts have vigorously disputed his findings. For example, Economist Yves Fortin, working on behalf of the Canadian Association of Income Funds, this month concluded in a paper that “it might well be that no tax leakage would be found if such a study was done properly.” The current government, for its part, hasn't released the numbers it has come up with. One problem is that all such models rely on so many assumptions that a small change in one of the underlying assumptions (how much trusts pay out, for example) can vastly change the conclusions. “That's unfortunately the land of policy setting and macroeconomics — you build these big macro models and you tweak something and it's ‘Holy cow,'” Mr. Goodfellow said.

INTERVIEWS ... Marco den Ouden Income trusts meet Mr. Flaherty ............................. : October 31 Feds lose Voter's Trust and money on Income Trusts : November 7 @: http://www.howestreet.com/

plenty of natural resources in Iran... and jobs in that sector- i reckon

Coal miners? if the get knocked down too, by falling oil Royalty trusts, but wait for more tax-selling maybe? And here are some advfn threads: OIL : http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=9832422 GAS: http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=1456608 The Wall Street mob is still bidding Wall St. higher. Will that last, if oil rises?

BE CAREFUL... these trusts are going to get hit by tax-oriented selling. best time to buy, might be just before Christmas = = = SEE CHARTS on Advfn :: BubblePr's thread : EnergyI's thread

One unnamed solar enthusiast (with tens of millions of dollars from a family trust at his disposal) still has not invested in any solar stocks. Why? “My cost for installing solar panels was $2.70 per watt in 2002; now, its $4.00 per watt,” he said. “The cost of money has risen as has the cost of solar panels, insurance, labor, gasoline for service vehicles, etc. In short, the days of fat margins have vanished.” . . “PV is the most popular and promising of the renewable technologies because it can be applied and used anywhere in the world without an infrastructure,” states Solar Outlook, a Navigant Consulting study released in June 2006. This aspect is both appealing and alarming. “With PV, private ownership of the means of electricity production is possible, and this represents an unsettling revolution to the current electricity structure and to the politicians,” notes Navigant. Recent growth in solar PV remains largely driven by subsidies. Grid-connected systems accounted for 85% of total sales demand in 2005. Navigant sees slow growth in solar through mid-2008. Thin-film solar (which use less silicon) is ramping up in capacity, but cannot yet fill the gap. Between 2000 and 2005, thin film technologies grew at a compound annual growth rate of 27% (compared to 42% for the dominant crystalline technology), states Navigant. According to the federal Energy Information Administration domestic solar PV shipments reached a record high of 134.5 Megawatts (MW) in 2005, a 72% increase over 2004 shipment figures. And a report released this past October by the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development of Cambridge, Massachusetts (and entitled Polysilicon: Supply, Demand & Implications for the PV Industry) claims that the silicon supply bottleneck should ease by 2008." The report forecast sufficient supplies of silicon – currently the feedstock for 95% of the world’s solar PV panels – to allow the solar PV industry to grow to 8,000 MW by 2010. The authors of this silicon supply report – Hilary Flynn and Travis Bradford – go so far as to say that along with seven major polysilicon producers, nearly 20 emerging new producers are entering the fray, and there is even the possibility of a silicon glut before the end of the decade. ...more: http://www.altenergyinvestor.org/2006/11/s...ecast.html#more

i think you can only buy uk-listed, and even then, not aim stocks

(Some Intriguing thoughts / from GaveKal Research): ==Demography & Savings== Q1: Who, in the Western World, has the worst savings rate? the US. Q2: Who has the highest savings’ rate? Japan, Italy and Germany… Q3: Who has the best demographic trends? the US. Q4: Who has the worst demographic trends? Japan, Italy, Germany… Putting it all together, we then pondered whether the fact that the highest savers in the world also have the worst demographics is a pure co-incidence? We concluded that it wasn’t, for the following reasons: Kids... cost money. So if nothing else, we should expect people that do not have kids to save more than people who do. Secondly, at different ages, people offer very different consumption patterns. Young people (and societies) tend to consume a lot of goods (TVs, cars, ovens…). Meanwhile older people tend to consume services (opera tickets, cruises, hip replacements…). Now in countries such as Japan, Germany, etc… the “expensive services” (namely healthcare) are delivered by a government monopoly. So what can old people do with their money except save it? Your average septuagenarian is not buying a flat screen or an ipod… Thirdly, and staying with the above idea, in most Western economies the social benefits (pensions, healthcare…) on which old people rely are typically dependent upon a growing population. Today’s young pay for today’s old in an intragenerational show of solidarity. But what happens when the young people start to disappear? Who then pays for the old people? This is not a moot point: in Japan, Germany and Italy, the populations have started to shrink. So one might think that people in these countries are right to save; for if they plan to rely on the payments’ from young people to see them through their old age, they will be mightily disappointed. In other words, given a) how most of our welfare states have been organized and the rapidly deteriorating demographic situation, people in the countries with ageing and shrinking populations need to save if they want to ensure a decent standard of living that the state will simply not provide. Finally, and just as importantly, having kids has historically always been a guarantee for one’s old age. Indeed, even though Victor Hugo once said: “a father can feed eight kids, but eight kids cannot feed one father”, people have often had kids to ensure that when they grow old, they will be taken care of (this, at least, has been Charles’ strategy and, so far, it seems to be working…). In other words, when you have kids, you don’t need to save as much since you have a “moral claim” on a small part of your children’s future earnings… = = (Methinks that is very dangerous thinking. What if the children do not honor that "moral claim"??)

...adding to the Mission, a notion of Spiritual Economics: What is that? In my own words: We need to "keep score" by counting more than money. If we are get rich, and cannot breath our air and or drink the water, we are truly impoverished. If we have all the luxuries in life, but everywhere we look we see poverty, we will lock ourselves into a gilded prison, surrounded by jealousy, resentment- and unpredictable danger. We need a wider vision of the purpose of economics, whiuch encompases the health and future of our planet, and the wellbeing of the people, animals, and other life forms that share this place with us. The Law of karma works in a very real way in this world, and it becomes more apparent every day. Our waste may be carted away, out of our sight. But all to often it comes back to us in unexpected ways. What we simply throw away, and stop counting, does not disappear or become "some else's problem". It remains part of a large equation. And what we borrow, to spend and waste rather than invest, is something that we must be prepared to repay, along with the interest or other consequences that go with it. - GEI webmaster

(From Stockhouse, an interesting comment... about why Oil, Gas , and Coal stocks are under such pressure. We saw it in May also... for Gold and Gold shares): SUBJECT: Massive hedge-fund debacle the culprit imho Posted By: BOOMTIME Post Time: 9/20/2006 18:47 Trust me,those losers should be out-lawed.....period......they over-shot the markets on the upside and now they are likely mostly responsible for massive losses in share prices of a good many commodity related companies like Fording,all imho,margin-calls left right and center to boot.......the company is also responsible for being over-exuberant with the distributions and then insider-selling shortly afterwards,of only omce insiders sold all their shares....lol......bums.... .........honey suckered indeed...... Imo,a distribution cut is almost in the cards i'll bet,hope not,frig,that'll hurt if that happens now at this low share price,make take the stock down even further possibly.....a good many natural gas income trusts have been dessimated also,,,,,not just old Fording here......later....bt The debacle at Amaranth and problems at other hedge funds has spread across to other commodity markets,'' said Antoine Halff, an energy analyst with Fimat USA in New York. ``They've been liquidating positions because of margin calls. We're also seeing a lot of the index-based funds leave the market.'' @: http://www.stockhouse.com/bullboards/viewm...0&TableID=0

i havent traded them yet. but i reckon they are possible. however, USO in the US may be more liquid, with lower transaction costs = = = Front Street Energy and Power Hedge Fund: +.5% August Return 4.6% YTD Return AUM for Fund: $335,000,000 U.S. Front Street Energy and Power continued to provide a positive return, despite the troubles within the oil and natural gas market. The fund continued its bearish stance on oil companies which led to an increasing short position within this segment. The short position allowed the fund to remain flat on its exploration and production investments. The fund continues to load up on natural gas orientated companies which are at lows. The believe is that with winter coming inventory levels should be reduced bringing the gas market more into balance. From an equity risk perspective, we see the risk downside as minimal, based on the lows of where gas equities are currently priced.

Coal terminal to get capacity boost. Posted: 20-SEP-06 // excerpt JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb.com) --Richards Bay Coal Terminal, the world's largest coal export port facility, will soon begin a R1.1 billion ($150 million) expansion project that will increase its annual capacity to 91 million tons from the current level of 72 million tons. When the terminal began operating 30 years ago, it had capacity for handling just 12 million tons a year. The private terminal is owned by Anglo Coal, Xstrata Coal, Eyesizwe, Ingwe, Kangra Coal, Sasol and Total Coal South Africa. @: http://www.mineweb.net/energy/190958.htm

Living viruses create flexible battery film In an MIT lab, polyelectrolyte coated with anode nanowires eyes next-generation energy By R. Colin Johnson Portland, Ore. -- Battery technology has historically lagged far behind semiconductor technology. While chips double their capacity every 18 months or so, batteries are lucky to double capacities in a decade. But now, say materials scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bioengineering has broken the bottleneck. Almost half the materials in today's batteries do not contribute to electricity storage, whereas MIT's bioengineered batteries aim to put more than 90 percent of their materials to work storing energy. To do that, the scientists--professors Angela Belcher, Paula Hammond and Yet-Ming Chiang--employ genetically engineered living viruses to assemble thin-film nanowires as the anodes and cathodes of a flexible "battery wrap." At 100 nanometers thick, the next-generation battery wrap can conform to any shape, they said. "We are using biology to template electrode materials and have them self-assemble into structures for batteries," said Belcher. "These batteries are like Saran wrap--they are thin, flexible and can be bent into any shape, making them good for lightweight conformable applications." Genetic engineering The battery wrap invented at MIT is based on a genetically engineered derivative of the M13 bacteriophage--a virus parasite that infects a bacterium and reproduces inside it. By altering the genetic dispositions of this well-understood laboratory virus, which cannot infect humans, the materials scientists have been able to persuade the virus to extract cobalt-oxide and gold ions from solution and assemble them into a monolayer of nanowires functioning as a battery anode atop a polyelectrolyte substrate. "M13 is a virus that has very specific host bacteria," said Belcher. "But our lab has had quite a few years' experience genetically altering this organism to grow many different types of materials. . . . What's next? So far, the scientists have demonstrated the ability to stack sheets of batteries atop each other in a comb structure that can be wired in parallel to increase current-carrying capabilities. In addition, they are wiring groups of combs in series to raise the voltage output and to recharge. Currently, their highest voltage battery is a 3-V version. "Our next step will be to experiment with growing different electrode materials plus self-assemble an entire battery, including both the cobalt anode and the lithium cathode," said Belcher. ...MORE: http://www.powermanagementdesignline.com/s...cleID=185303552

Wow! Some of those stocks really moved today

Very Good idea. We will add one such a section eventually. Please post suggested links on this thread