September 25th Investment Club Minutes

September 25th Investment Club Minutes
Meeting at Danita's Compound

Present: Shelia, Susan But, Susan Burr, Danita, Tina, Karen, Carol Frihart, Helen, Lisa H, Hiliary

Absent: Carol Fran, Lisa A, Julia

These are dramatic times….. Lisa H

Consumer Group ( Carol Frihart, Karen) gave their power point presentation on their stock selections. Their selections were influenced by the current state of the economy. They decided to focus on things that people still needed to spend money on – food, clothing, and shelter -- for after you pass away J ). Actually they looked at end of life services ( funerals, cremation etc). The decision to look at End of Life services was influenced by the number of aging baby boomers and the fact that it was a necessary “evil” (service) J

Difficult to identify stocks that were A rated that were in our price range.

Campbell’s – food products – carries a number of popular food brands that are either #1 or #2 in various food categories. Rated a B++ .

Aeropostale – clothing store – 10% increase in same store sales. However, may have topped out and may be difficult to sustain sales in light of economy and kids having less disposable income.

Service Corporation International – End of Life services. A leader in the industry. Shares were very inexpensive at less the $9.00 a share. People were not as enthusiastic about this stock.

Karen also informally presented Gamestop – (sells new and used video games) as another option. A leader in the industry ( Electronic stores) with a strong recommendation to buy from the analyst,

Hiliary then presented updates on
Unum – insurance industry. – recently ranked #5 on the 2008InformationWeek 500 for its product and service platform – Simply Unum, which was launched nationwide in 2008. Stock price has increased from $21.41 in July to $25.69 in September. People were impressed with its gain despite the economy and stock market. Shelia had commented that she had already purchased some shares after Hiliary had presented in July.
Amsurg - Operates ambulatory surgery centers. It was listed as one of the Top 5 Volume Stocks for Sept 19. July’s price $26.75 / Sept’s price $26.97.

Motion made by Susan But to purchase 20 shares of Campbells and Unum. All members present voted in favor of the purchase. Susan Burr shared that we had not purchased stock since February and we had a substantial amount of cash in our account.

Susan Burrthen asked for feedback about the Blog ( bucksforbabes19) and asked if people were getting their email notifications when updates were available. Susan asked everyone to take responsibility for a stock and send her updates to be posted to the blog. People signed up or were assigned the following:

Applied Materials – Lisa
Chesapeake – Tina
GE – Susan But
Immuncor – Susan Burr
Merck – Helen
Lifeway, Unum – Hiliary
Walt Disney – Carol Fri
Oracle – Danita
Synovis – Lisa A
Cisco – Carol Fran
Aon – Shelia
Campbell’s - Karen

Send your updates to Susan Burr who is serving as “gatekeeper” for the Blog. This is to ensure that outsiders cannot post anything to our blog.

Next meeting is October 30th. Danita had a speaker lineup to speak on Trusts, but unfortunately that person changed jobs and can no longer speak. She and Shelia will try to find another speaker for October. If they can’t, they will give a presentation on “How to run a Meeting” based on the presentation they heard at the last rotary club meeting.

Purchase of Stock

We purchased:
20 shares of CPB: Campbells Soup at $38.23 Total $764.78
20 shares of UNM: Unum at $26.619 Total $532.38

STOCK ASSIGNMENTS

Applied Materials: Lisa H
AON: Sheila
Immucor: Susan Burr
Chesapeake: Tina
Cisco: Carol Frank
GE: Susan But
Walt Disney: Carol Fri
Lifeway: Hilary
Merck: Helen
Oracle: Danita
Synovis: Lisa A
Campbells: Karen
Unum: Hilary

Oracle to sell computer hardware for first time

Oracle to sell computer hardware for first time
SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle is expanding into the computer hardware business in an effort to make its database software run more efficiently.

CEO Larry Ellison unveiled his company's plans to sell a "database machine" in a Wednesday presentation at an Oracle customer conference that attracted nearly 43,000 people. It marks the first time in Oracle's 31-year history that the company has added hardware to its product line.
The machine, which is being manufactured and maintained by Hewlett-Packard Co., is designed to enable large companies to fetch information stored on databases more quickly. Oracle is the world's largest seller of database software.

Immucor Schedules First Quarter Earnings Release and Conference

Press Release
Source: Immucor, Inc.
Immucor Schedules First Quarter Earnings Release and Conference CallWednesday September 24, 4:01 pm ET
NORCROSS, Ga., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Immucor, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLUD - News), a global leader in providing automated instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry, today announced that it expects to release its first quarter earnings on Wednesday, October 1, 2008, after the close of regular trading hours, and then host a conference call on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 8:30 AM (EDT) to review the results. Investors are invited to participate in this conference call, with Dr. Gioacchino De Chirico, President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard A. Flynt, Chief Financial Officer, and Edward L. Gallup, consultant. The call will focus on the results for the first quarter and general business trends. The earnings release will be posted on Immucor's website, as well as any material financial information that may be discussed by Dr. De Chirico, Mr. Flynt, or Mr. Gallup during this call that is not contained in the earnings release. Both the earnings release and the additional financial information, if any, will be posted as soon as practicable after the call on the investor news section of Immucor's website. To access this information once posted, go to Immucor's website at www.immucor.com and click on "About Us - Press Releases."
To participate in the telephone conference call, dial 1-888-324-7567 and passcode BLUD. Replays of the conference call will be available for one week beginning at 12:00 noon on October 2nd by calling 1-800-337-5610. Beginning October 9, 2008, audio of the conference call or a transcript of the audio will be available on the "About Us - Press Releases" page of the Immucor website.
For more information on Immucor, please visit our website at www.immucor.com.
Founded in 1982, Immucor manufactures and sells a complete line of reagents and systems used by hospitals, reference laboratories and donor centers to detect and identify certain properties of the cell and serum components of blood prior to transfusion. Immucor markets a complete family of automated instrumentation for all of its market segments.

Chesapeake Energy Deploys Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Meet Growth ChallengesTuesday

Chesapeake Energy Deploys Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Meet Growth Challenges
Tuesday September 23, 9:00 am ET

Solution provides enhanced collaboration and productivity, smarter decision-making and improved data analysis.

DENVER, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Helping one of the nation's leading energy companies meet the challenges of rapid growth while boosting worker productivity, workflow and collaboration, Microsoft Corp. today announced that Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. has deployed an extensible and scalable enterprise solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 across its entire enterprise. The new solution integrates the company's intranet, extranet and Internet presence and, through its extensibility, streamlines collaboration across project teams -- including teams with remote employees -- creating a foundation for business intelligence applications, stronger content management and consistent communications with external stakeholders.

Chesapeake is the largest producer of natural gas in the United States. It is also the most active driller, with a daily production volume of 2.3 billion cubic feet. Between 2005 and 2008, the company experienced rapid growth, adding up to 100 new employees per month. Keeping up with such growth requires IT flexibility, and the company's legacy intranet was proving to be cumbersome to maintain, update and extend. This led to delays in updating the site and users became less invested in the content.
Because Chesapeake already relied extensively on Microsoft technologies, executives felt that Office SharePoint Server would interoperate smoothly into its existing IT infrastructure. Working closely with the Microsoft account team and Microsoft Services, Chesapeake developed and deployed the SharePoint Server-based solution across the enterprise in less than three months. Since its implementation, the solution continues to deliver solid benefits to Chesapeake in areas ranging from enterprise search to collaboration and from business intelligence to enterprise content management.

According to Lori Garcia, manager of IT business systems at Chesapeake, one reason for the hearty welcome that users have given the new solution is its ease of adoption.
"Managers say it has been easy to instruct users on how to find information through the new solution," Garcia said. "As a result, training usually takes no longer than a single afternoon."
The solution runs on a server farm consisting of two front-end Web servers, an index server, a search server and a database server running a 64-bit version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database software along with Office SharePoint Server 2007. By using the Microsoft .NET Framework for custom development, the Chesapeake IT team has found it easy to deploy custom code and integrate the intranet with other Microsoft applications and technologies.
One application deployed on SharePoint Server specifically helps with collaboration across project teams. Another implementation uses SharePoint sites to provide workspaces that give employees a more efficient collaboration environment than having to depend on file shares and e-mail. And with the document version control in Office SharePoint Server 2007, employees can collaborate on document development without having to send dozens of e-mail messages or worry about versioning problems. This benefit is especially valuable to Chesapeake because so many of its employees are situated at remote wells and work sites with limited connectivity.
"Comprehensive information access is essential in the oil-and-gas production environment, which is awash in information from diverse sources and reliant on employees often working in very remote locations such as field offices and rig sites," said Wade Brawley, vice president of land administration at Chesapeake. "Now, through SharePoint sites, field-based employees can access the same information, with the same ease, as employees working at corporate headquarters. This is a real productivity booster."
Employees seeking new content also find their task easier. Instead of having to filter an entire page to determine which content is new and which is not, they can use views and alerts to be notified when new information is published. What's more, because content is so easy to post and update in a security-enhanced, centralized location, employees have more confidence in the reliability of information: that it is there, that it is fresh, that it is consistent and that it is accessible to people with the appropriate permissions by role. For example, sensitive human resources information is available only to people with the appropriate credentials. In contrast, the previous intranet made it exceedingly difficult to restrict confidential documents from nonsenior audiences.
"Oil and gas companies are continuing to embrace new technologies as they struggle with fractured ecosystems, processes and workflows that often hinder or delay company collaboration and productivity," said Craig Hodges, U.S. energy industry solutions director at Microsoft. "SharePoint Server is the right solution to improve multiparty collaboration for Chesapeake and can make business processes work more seamlessly across the entire oil and gas supply chain. This enables the company to stay competitive and manage continued growth."
The Chesapeake intranet solution based on SharePoint Server will be showcased in Microsoft's exhibit booth (No. 755) at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) 2008, Sept. 21-24, 2008. More information about Microsoft in Oil and Gas is available at http://www.microsoft.com/oilandgas.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Should G.E. Spin Off Its Financing Arm?

Should G.E. Spin Off Its Financing Arm?
September 23, 2008, 7:55 am

As The New York Times noted Monday, General Electric is as much a bank as a blue-chip industrial company and that dichotomy last week landed smack in the middle of the market turmoil surrounding financial companies.

Half of G.E.’s profits come from GE Capital and in last week’s crisis, G.E. found itself treated by fearful investors as another financial company potentially in peril, until news of a planned federal bailout brought a rebound in the markets late Thursday and Friday.

The way Breakingviews sees it, GE Capital is holding the rest of the group’s top-notch businesses hostage, Breakingviews argues. That doesn’t just hurt the stock’s value, says the publication — GE Capital’s financing needs could put the whole company at risk.

One solution to keeping its other businesses untainted by future problems with its financing arm, Breakingviews argues, would be to spin off GE Capital to shareholders, perhaps even as a bank holding company — the corporate structure Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are now embracing.

The publication admits this would be a complicated move. But, Breakingviews argues, if there’s a lesson to be drawn from the travails at Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, the American International Group and elsewhere, it is that corporate executives and the boards that oversee them should be a little more imaginative in their planning meetings.

Chesapeake Energy Cuts Capital Budget, Production Outlook

Chesapeake Energy Cuts Capital Budget, Production Outlook
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Chesapeake Energy Corp. said late Monday it is reducing its drilling capital expenditure budget for the remainder of 2008 until the end of 2010 by $3.2 billion, or by 17%, because of falling natural gas prices. Chesapeake said the cut is in response to a 50% fall in natural gas prices since June 30, and "concerns about the possibility of an emerging U.S. natural gas surplus in advance of increased demand from the U.S. transportation sector." Also, the company reduced its full-year 2008 production growth estimate to 18% from 21%, and its anticipated annual production growth forecasts in 2009 and 2010 to 16% from 19%.

Oracle unveils new units, products at OpenWorld

Oracle unveils new units, products at OpenWorld
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Oracle Corp. President Charles Phillips revealed two new business units as well as several new products and product upgrades Monday at OpenWorld,




One of the new units will provide specialized software for insurance companies - billing, claims analysis, policy administration and so on - and was assembled using software from at least four acquisitions, including Siebel and PeopleSoft. The other new business unit will sell software for health care companies.

New products from Oracle include Beehive, a secure online workplace inspired by Lotus Notes that enables customers to share e-mails and calendars and other social networking tools; a portal for online support that lets Oracle recommend software patches and upgrades for customers; and technologies that let customers run some Oracle software from Amazon's data centers - "in the cloud" - rather than inside their own buildings.
All this software "is the transformation of Oracle," said Albert Pang, an analyst at IDC, a market research firm. "They used to be so database- and middleware-centric, but with BEA (the largest of this year's acquisitions) in particular, there are a huge number of customers they can bring in."
The announcements are part of Oracle's plan to retain the confidence of its customers as it continues to gobble up software companies, analysts said.
In the past 44 months, according to Phillips, Oracle has acquired 50 companies. The number of employees at Oracle has more than doubled to 85,000, up from 40,000 five years ago.

"The person who wins in software is the person with a lot of scale," Phillips told an audience of several thousand people in Moscone Center. "Being a leader is a cultural thing for us - we want to win in every market."
Oracle started as a database company, but it has expanded in recent years into middleware, which connects its database to applications, and the applications themselves, making its chief competitor SAP, the German software giant.

Oracle is also working to integrate all of its applications with each other and with software on customers' premises and invests $3 billion per year in research and development, Phillips said.

In each industry where it has software, the company has teams of people who analyze how that industry works and build products to fit. Oracle also offers lifetime support for customers for all the software it owns.
Oracle's challenge will be to persuade customers to keep spending money on software applications as the economy contracts, without raising prices too high, analysts said.

Last week, Oracle reported an 18 percent revenue increase for its first quarter and earnings per share of 29 cents - 2 cents more than analysts expected. But the company also said growth in the sale of new software licenses would slow in the second quarter compared with last year.
Also appearing onstage with Phillips was swimmer Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the Summer Olympics in China. Phillips introduced Phelps as another example of excellence, just like Oracle.
Phelps said all he did was eat, train and sleep but that the hardest thing was getting out of a warm bed in the morning and into a cold pool. "I've never been in front of this many people unless you count TV," he told Phillips.

Merck to contract out some sales jobs -- after cuts

Merck to contract out some sales jobs -- after cuts
Monday September 22, 5:22 pm ET
Merck retains inVentiv Health to handle some drug sales work -- after cutting its sales force
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Merck & Co. is about to contract out some of its sales work to deal with short-term vacancies in the U.S. sales force, just months after it eliminated about 15 percent of that staff.
The drugmaker has retained inVentiv Health "to give us flexible alternatives that have successfully been used by other major pharmaceutical companies," Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said Monday.
"We are taking this approach as we prepare for a reconfiguration of our field sales force," set for early 2009, she said.
Merck eliminated about 1,200 salespeople early this summer as revenue was hurt by questions about the effectiveness and price of Vytorin and Zetia, cholesterol drugs it jointly sells with partner Schering-Plough. In addition, an experimental cholesterol treatment they were hoping to launch was rejected by the Food and Drug Administration.
InVentiv provides sales, communications, market analysis, clinical trial management and other support to all top 20 global pharmaceutical manufacturers and dozens of other drugmakers and biotech companies.
Merck chose to contract with the company to handle sales needs in particular territories or for particular products rather than recruiting, hiring and retaining new full-time employees, Rose said.
InVentiv is based in Somerset, N.J., not far from Merck's headquarters in Whitehouse Station, N.J.

General Electric Wins $100 Million Order for Gas Transmission Project in China,

Press Release
Source: Industrial Info Resources

General Electric Wins $100 Million Order for Gas Transmission Project in China,
an Industrial Info News Alert
Monday September 22, 6:30 am ET

BEIJING--(MARKET WIRE)--Sep 22, 2008 -- Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- GE Oil and Gas (Florence, Italy), a division of General Electric Company (GE - News) (Fairfield, Connecticut), has won a bid to supply pipeline compression equipment to China's west-to-east gas-transmission project. The total value of this contract exceeds $100 million. GE Oil and Gas will provide seven compressor units driven

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=139204, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services. For information send inquiries to oilandgastransmissiongroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us at www.industrialinfo.com.

STOCKS TO STUDY

Hi all,

Well, in light of recent stock market events it has been difficult to find a stock(s) to present. One thought we had was what are the only things in today's economy that are sure things. We decided that people will eat and people will die. So in light of that thought please take a look at the following stocks so we can discuss them on Thursday:

Campbells Soup CPB
Sysco SYY
Service Corp. International SCI Funeral Home chain (you can laugh now)

Campbells--no Value Line current price is $38.60
Sysco is an A+ in Value Line current price in the $33.43
Service Corp. SCI Value Line C++ $9.38

I know we've never really looked at a C++ company but hey maybe we should consider a risk in this crazy market.

See everyone Thursday
Carol, Julia, Karen

S&P MAINTAINS STRONG BUY RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF ORACLE CORP.

S&P MAINTAINS STRONG BUY RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF ORACLE CORP. (ORCL; 18.75):
August-quarter operating EPS of $0.28, vs. $0.21, is $0.02 above our estimate. Sales rose 18% to $5.42 billion, below our $5.45 billion view. New licenses rose 14% to $1.24 billion, $8 million below our outlook. Application licenses fell 12%, on tough comps, while database and middleware licenses rose 27%, helped by $84 million contribution from BEA. Operating margins widened notably, and we think ORCL performed well in a seasonally slow quarter. We continue to expect ORCL to grow faster than peers. We raise our fiscal year 2009 (May) EPS estimate $0.02 to $1.49 and initiate our fiscal year 2010 view at $1.71. We maintain our $25 target price. -Z. Bokhari

GE says it's 'not Lehman,' but stock still takes hitsPublished

GE says it's 'not Lehman,' but stock still takes hits
Published: September 19. 2008 12:01AM
OAS_AD('Middle');

VideoAd by Mixpo The anxiety over the U.S. financial system has spread far beyond Wall Street to infect any company that's involved in loans, finance and credit, even dragging down the value of huge conglomerate General Electric Co.Its shares have been battered over the past few days, even though slightly more than half of GE's business is making light bulbs, jet engines, locomotives, water treatment plants and other major manufacturing goods."It's trading as a financial stock this year," said analyst Matt Collins at Edward Jones in St. Louis. "Right now, the credit crisis has gone well beyond just the Wall Street institutions."GE Capital is the conglomerate's financial business that provides consumer finance in car loans, mortgages outside the United States, credit cards and other products. Its commercial side finances real estate, corporate lending and leasing.

And GE also finances energy projects and airline leasing.In the last 10 days, the share price has tumbled nearly 20 percent as Wall Street grapples with chaos in the financial markets. Since April, when GE widely missed its first-quarter earnings target, almost $83 billion in GE's market capitalization has been wiped out, a loss of 25 percent."No one is immune in this market and no one has been spared and they certainly are in that basket," said Eric Boyce, portfolio manager at Hester Capital Management in Texas.However, GE originates its own loans, avoiding the loan packaging and selling that have sunk many other lenders, he said.GE spokesman Russell Wilkerson emphasized what the company is not."We're not AIG. We're not Lehman. It's not our business model. We're not a bank," he said.-- wire report

Applied Materials says new solar power system will replace about 10 percent of the electricity it now buys.

ENERGY
Largest corporate solar array installed in California
Applied Materials says new solar power system will replace about 10 percent of the electricity it now buys.

By Bob KeefeWEST COAST BUREAU Saturday, September 20, 2008
Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials Inc. has flipped the switch on what it says is the largest solar power array at any U.S. corporation.

The 2.1-megawatt system that covers parking lots and the tops of two buildings at Applied's Sunnyvale, Calif., campus bests a 1.6-megawatt array a few miles away at the headquarters of Google Inc., that previously was the nation's biggest corporate solar power array.

One megawatt is enough energy to supply power to about 1,000 average-sized houses. According to Applied, its new solar power system will replace about 10 percent of the electricity it buys for its corporate headquarters.
The system also is expected to eliminate 2,700 tons of carbon emissions annually — the equivalent of taking about 450 passenger cars off the road.
"We've converted our parking lots to power plants," Applied chief executive Mike Splinter said in a statement.

Last year, Applied installed a 24.6-kilowatt solar array at its corporate campus in Austin. Although much smaller than the California installation, the Texas array was the biggest in Austin.

Applied spokesman Dave Miller said the company is planning an expansion of its Austin system but hasn't set a timetable yet.
It's no coincidence that Applied is a big fan of solar. The company, the world's biggest maker of equipment for the semiconductor industry, expanded into the solar fabrication equipment business nearly four years ago and now gets about 10 percent of its revenue from equipment it sells to the solar panel industry.

Applied recently introduced its SunFab line of machines that are designed to make giant solar panels that are nearly 19 square feet in size.
Ironically, the new array at Applied's headquarters doesn't contain SunFab panels. That's because Applied customers just recently began using the first SunFab machines and are only now bringing the first panels made with them to market, Miller said.
"We just don't have them yet," Miller said. "We'll be adding them in the future."
That doesn't mean Applied didn't have an inside track on a good deal for its new solar power system, however.

The equipment is made by SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. Cypress is a big customer of Applied's.
SunPower also uses equipment and technology developed by Baccini SpA, an Italian company that Applied purchased in November 2007.

Bend and Stretch...Xynomix to Emphasise Flexibility of Oracle Support

Bend and Stretch...Xynomix to Emphasise Flexibility of Oracle Support
Oracle database management specialists Xynomix are set to highlight the flexibility of their Oracle Database Support offering as part of a new lead marketing campaign.

Nottingham, United Kingdom, September 05, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Xynomix deliver Support, Managed Services and Consultancy to Oracle users, and have selected Oracle Database Support as a primary area of focus in a bid to bolster the number of clients benefitting from the service. The company projects a 20% increase in the value of their client support base by this time next year.Says Xynomix Marketing Executive, Jules Pedersen: "As every database support solution requirement is different, we have decided to re-emphasise the bespoke nature of our solutions. We want clients to envisage Xynomix support as putty...clients can mould it around their systems, or push it into any cracks in their database environment."Re-addressing the perception of support for Oracle database is set to be the first of many changes to the way in which Xynomix delivers its services. There are a number of new technologies in the pipeline that, according to Managing Director, Andy Elcock, are set to "improve the quality of support and revolutionise the way in which that support is administered."Xynomix Information: Xynomix, an Oracle Certified Partner, specialise in the design of bespoke monitoring and management solutions for Oracle databases and Operating Systems. Founded in 2002, Xynomix has experienced consistent growth and can now lay claim to a client base that varies from Oracle estates with a few Database users to corporate environments with multiple databases and thousands of worldwide users.###
Contact Information
XynomixJules Pedersen0845 222 9600julietp@xynomix.comwww.xynomix.com

Cervical Cancer

CENTER OF GRAVITY By Rony V. Diaz Cervical cancer
THE New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published on August 21, two articles and an editorial that were critical of the vaccines against the human papilloma­virus (HPV) that Merck and GlaxoSmithKline had put on the market.
HPV is sexually transmitted. It has no symptoms in the early stages but genital warts may appear in time. It does not trigger the immune system. When it becomes chronic—which is relatively rare—it may cause cervical cancer.
Gardasil and Cervarix are the brand names of, respectively, Merck’s and GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines. According to the articles in the NEJM, the evidence that they are effective is not “sufficient.” It’s also not clear, NEJM continued, that immunity would last a lifetime. The vaccines are expensive; 3 shots cost from US$400 to $1000.
The last point is important because almost 80 percent of cervical cancer occurs in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It’s the second most common cancer, after breast cancer, in women all over the world.
I did not find any official statistics on the number of cervical cancer cases in the Philippines. By extrapolating from WHO’s numbers—500,000 new cases each year; 274,000 mortality in 2006, nearly 95 percent in developing countries and so forth—my guess would be between 50 and 100 cases every year. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute in the US estimates the risk at less than 1 woman in 1000 younger than 50 of dying in the next decade from cervical cancer. It would be interesting also to find out the rate of HPV infection but because the Department of Health (DOH) has no Pap screening program, one might have to fall back on the Population Commission’s (Popcom) estimate of sexual activity among young persons between the ages of 18 and 40.
Charlotte Haug, the editor of The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association and the author of the editorial in the NEJM, wrote: “Despite great expectations and promising results of clinical trials, we still lack sufficient evidence of an effective vaccine against cervical cancer… With so many essential questions still unanswered, there is good reason to be cautious.”
She also thought that six-and-a-half years of clinical trials were not enough for the vaccines to have been approved in 2006 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for general use.
Among the unanswered questions were those that relate to whether eliminating the 2 strains of the HPV that cause genital warts and cervical cancer would affect the ability of the immune system to respond to the other strains of the HPV.
Her most telling point was since cervical cancer develops only after years of chronic HPV infection, there was no clear proof that protection against 2 of its strains would also reduce the rates of cervical cancer.
In answer, Richard Haupt, the medical director of Merck, told The New York Times (August 21, 2008): “You can only study a vaccine for so long before you license and use it in a population… This is a remarkable vaccine that will have a huge impact on women.”
He added that Haug’s points were “very theoretical”; continuing research indicates that immunity is “long lasting” and that the vaccine “would not lead to problems with other strains.”
Unless the government pays for or subsidizes them, these vaccines are not affordable by poor people.
In rich countries, the cost of mandatory vaccination is charged to public health budgets.
Health economists estimate that depending on how the vaccines are used, the cost to society could be between $30,000 and $70,000, “for each year of life they save.”
Dr. Abby Lippman, the policy director of the Canadian Women’s Health Network, was quoted by The New York Times, as saying, “This kind of money could be better used to solve so many other problems in women’s health. I’m not against vaccines, but in Canada and in the US, women are not dying in the streets of cervical cancer.”
It’s only a matter of time before these pharmaceutical giants will start to market these vaccines in middle-income countries like the Philippines.
Cancer prevention and women’s health are powerful marketing messages. The DOH is well-advised to begin thinking of a policy response.
The choice is between mandatory vaccination and a Pap smear program. Until the medical benefits of mandatory vaccination are clearly established, a policy of Pap screening is the better option. The WHO said that in countries where Pap smear programs are available, few women died of cervical cancer.

Cisco to buy instant-messaging software company Jabber for undisclosed sum

APCisco to buy messaging provider JabberFriday September 19, 3:39 pm ET
Cisco to buy instant-messaging software company Jabber for undisclosed sum
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Cisco Systems Inc. Friday said it would buy Jabber Inc., a maker of instant-messaging software for corporations.
Denver-based Jabber is privately held, and the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco will incorporate Jabber into multiple platforms, including WebEx Connect teleconferencing and Cisco Unified Communications.
"With the acquisition of Jabber, we will be able to extend the reach of our current instant messaging service and expand the capabilities of our collaboration platform," said Doug Dennerline, senior vice president of Cisco's Collaboration Software Group.
Shares of Cisco added $1.25, or 5.5 percent, to $24.05 in afternoon trading. The stock earlier hit a year low of $17.25. It has ranged between $20.56 and $34.24 over the past year.

CISCO

Cisco is buying instant message client Jabber for an undisclosed amount.

Cisco Is Jabbering Its Way Into Office Cubicles

September 19, 2008, 2:01 pm — Updated: 3:20 pm -->
Cisco Is Jabbering Its Way Into Office Cubicles
By Ashlee Vance
The switching gear made by Cisco Systems tends to lurk in the deepest, darkest parts of data centers. It pushes information between servers and storage systems and funnels data out to the myriad networks that combine to form the Internet. When everything functions well, Cisco’s hardware lives in relative anonymity.
Over the last couple of years, however, Cisco has worked to get itself more directly onto workers’ desks. The company sells voice-over-Internet-protocol phones along with video conferencing systems. It also acquired WebEx for $3.2 billion in March 2007, adding an online meeting and collaboration software element to its arsenal, and purchased the e-mail and calendar software provider PostPath last month for $215 million.
On Friday, Cisco rounded out that online play with the acquisition of Jabber, a privately held messaging specialist.
Denver-based Jabber bills itself as a seller of “commercial messaging solutions.” Putting the jargon aside, Jabber offers instant-messaging software that has a more corporate shine than applications like AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. Jabber’s software provides additional security and message archiving functions that make it possible for financial, government and other large customers that must adhere to regulatory measures to use instant messaging within their organizations.
Cisco will use the Jabber technology to complement the WebEx platform, said Charles Carmel, vice president of corporate development for Cisco.
With its increasingly comprehensive array of collaboration products, Cisco now competes head-to-head against the likes of Microsoft, I.B.M., Yahoo and Google, which are all courting the same market.
Given the amount of business Cisco does with these companies, it maintains a certain level of decorum when characterizing its broader software plans.
“Both Microsoft and I.B.M. are important partners to Cisco in many parts of our business,” Mr. Carmel said. “I think the collaboration part is an area where there is overlap, and our objective is to make that as seamless as possible.”
More broadly, Cisco’s maneuvering represents an attempt to capitalize on the shift to “cloud computing” services where users tap into software running in a data center rather than bothering with applications locked to individual computers. Cisco could benefit from this shift in at least two ways.
Software like WebEx can drive more interest in Internet-based software, which in turn produces more network traffic and demand for Cisco’s switches. “That is always a good thing,” Mr. Carmel said.
In addition, Cisco can crack into new software markets with a collection of fresh products and not worry about supporting older communications systems and revenue streams, as is the case for companies such as Microsoft and I.B.M.
Jabber’s current instant-messaging software can work with Google Talk, AIM, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. This gives Cisco something it’s billing as an “open” play for corporate messaging.
Cisco declined to discuss financial terms for the acquisition but said that it was expected to close in the first half of the company’s fiscal 2009. Most of the 54 Jabber employees will join Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group, Mr. Carmel said.

10 Ways to Protect Your Money Now

10 ways to protect your money now
As the country's financial system teeters on the brink of disaster, you need a game plan to minimize the damage.
Here are 10 things you can do amid the current financial panic:

1. Check that your bank accounts are federally insured.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) guarantees deposits up to $100,000 per person. If you have to hold more than that, spread it across multiple banks. As a taxpayer, you are paying for this insurance, so use it.

2. Make sure your brokerage accounts are federally insured, too.
The Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC) guarantees you at places like Lehman Bros. (LEH, news, msgs), Merrill Lynch (MER, news, msgs) and E-Trade Financial (ETFC, news, msgs) up to $500,000, including $100,000 in cash. The same rules apply: If you have more to invest, spread it across multiple firms. Note that the SIPC only makes sure you get your shares and bonds back if a brokerage fails. It does not, obviously, guarantee those investments' value.
Readers talk: Worried about your bank?

3. Put money in thy purse.
If this market and this economy get any tougher, cash isn't going to be just king anymore. It's going to be king, queen, emperor, lord high chamberlain and the whole court. The easiest way to make or find a buck is to save it. So take an ax to those family budgets -- the restaurant meals, the Superduper Everything Cable package, the rip-off checking account with the high fees and low interest. It's all costing you.

4. Set up a home-equity line of credit while you still can.
Normally it would not be advisable to take on more debt, but if access to ready cash might be a lifesaver, it's best to line it up now. That's true especially if you are worried about your job. Credit is already tight, and it may get a lot tighter.

5. Refinance your mortgage.
The panic on Wall Street just caused a collapse in the interest rate on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, as lots of investors rushed there for safety. And that usually leads to a fall in long-term mortgage rates.

6. Don't wait for your worst investments to "recover."
If you ever saw John Cleese and Michael Palin perform their famous skit about the dead parrot, you know exactly what I mean. No, your Fannie Mae (FNM, news, msgs) shares aren't "resting." They're lying at the bottom of the cage with their feet in the air. What more do you need to know? Stop waiting for them to "recover" before you sort out your portfolio.

7. Don't panic.
Journalists, like markets, tend to move in herds. And by the nature of their jobs, they write about the plane that crashes instead of the thousands that land safely. Remember, too, that pundits want to seem really wise by putting on serious expressions and saying things like "We don't know how this thing is going to play out" and "The situation could get a lot worse." Bah.
Guess what. We never know how things are going to play out. And the situation could get a lot better, too.

8. When it comes to your short-term money needs, nothing has changed.
Any money you might need within the next year or two should be held in cash or equivalents. That was true two years ago, and it is true now. The stock market is no home for money you may need urgently. It could fall 30% or jump 30%. Nobody knows. You can get a one-year CD paying 5% right now, and it's federally guaranteed.

9. If you are investing for five years or more, buy some stock.
The investment outlook is much, much better today than it has been for several years, because shares are much cheaper. World markets overall have fallen 27% from last year's peak. They're not a steal at current levels, but they are not particularly expensive either. Invest globally. Vanguard Total World Stock (VTWSX) gives you the whole world and low fees.
If you are looking for a value, Morningstar analyst Bridget Hughes likes Oakmark Global (OAKGX). Another good one is Tweedy, Browne's new Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value (TBHDX).
This list is not comprehensive. Remember: I am not trying to call the bottom of the market. Things could fall quite a bit further. No one knows. So invest little, often and broadly.

10. If you want to worry about anything, worry about your taxes.
The worse this crisis gets, the more the feds will end up putting taxpayers on the hook to prevent a meltdown. Taxes will go up sooner or later anyway, no matter who wins the election, because of our gigantic federal deficit. If you think Lehman Bros. was bad, you should look at Uncle Sam. You can forget about any talk of tax breaks. Oh, and if you want a break from worrying about taxes, worry about Treasury bonds. Deficits won't do anything good for them.