| Should dolphins be employed to help the military?
A big deal has been made about the United States Navy's plans to use dolphins as a swimming tool of defense. A Yahoo! News story dated March 28 chronicles the criticism of this practice. The dolphins in question are being used to guard the West Coast Trident Submarine Base at Hood Canal in Bangor, Wash.
These cetaceans are trained to detect intruders in the water around the base. When an intruder is sensed, the beasts alert their handlers, who affix strobe lights to their noses. The dolphins then swim back into the depths and bump the intruder, turning the light on and giving Navy security a sign showing them where to search for the intruder.
The argument against this tactic is that the waters being guarded are too cold for the poor little dolphins. Susan Scheirman, dolphin enthusiast from Bainbridge Island, Wash., mentioned in the article that the working conditions at Hood Canal were like a blizzard.
Fitch Rates Farmer Mac Guaranteed Notes Trust 2007-1 'AAA'
The rating of the guaranteed notes reflects the likelihood that investors will receive timely interest payments through the redemption date as well as the stated principal balance of the notes. The guaranteed notes are secured by a Funding Agreement provided by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife). Through this Funding Agreement, MetLife will pay timely interest and principal payments to the note holders. The payments by MetLife to the guaranteed notes are secured by the liens on eligible agricultural mortgage loans made by MetLife ('Qualified Collateral'). Qualified Collateral will have a maximum loan size of $24.35 million, not be more than 30 days delinquent, and have initial loan-to-value less than or equal to 80%, among other requirements. The portfolio of Qualified Collateral must be maintained at a greater than or equal to 103% overcollateralization level as well.
North Shore Music Theatre Presents “Crazy For You”
The award winning North Shore Music Theatre is proud to kick off its 2007 Musical Season with an all new production of CRAZY FOR YOU, a dazzling tap musical in the style of NSMT's hit production of Singin' in the Rain. Playing from April 24 – May 13, 2007, with Press Night scheduled for April 26 at 7:30 pm. .
Retirement Library
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Americans are, if nothing else, a confident and optimistic lot. Trouble is they have no basis for that confidence and optimism, or at least they don't when it comes to retirement. In fact, when it comes to retirement, even Tocqueville -- if he was around today -- might regard Americans as a delusional lot.
Workers note pension-plan cuts, but few ramp up their savings
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Workers now understand their retirement outlook is more dire as employers increasingly move away from traditional pensions, but a good portion of those workers aren't doing much to improve their retirement security, according to the 17th annual Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Five things to consider when choosing a place to retire
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Retiring soon? Now's your chance to reinvent yourself -- or at least where you live.
Interview with CEO of the Year Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab -- who was named the Chron 200's CEO of the Year for 2006 -- sat down for an interview with San Francisco Chronicle business reporter Ilana DeBare on March 15, 2007. Here is the transcript of that interview. Chronicle: When you returned from semi-retirement to be CEO in mid-2004, what did you see as the company's problems? Charles Schwab: When I came back -- not that I'd completely left, I was still chairman of the board -- it was time for me to make some really bold decisions. Only a founding father could really do these things, because they were pretty scary for anyone else to do because they were potentially risky. What we had to do was dramatically reduce our cost, but the benefit of the reduced cost was going to be a dramatic reduction in our prices.
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