“Shaolin” and “Shaolin Temple” are registered trademarks of the Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Ltd. Co. This happened in 1998 when a Chinese food-processing company started selling “Shaolin ham” across the country. They were able then to sue the company for defamation.

Chinese newspapers have been critical of this business acumen, accusing the monks of turning to commercialism.
But Huang Kun, 32, a legal adviser at the temple, disagrees.
“The Shaolin Temple is only trying to protect its tradition and spread its culture,” he says.
“It doesn’t intend to earn money.”

Read more in this interesting article.

The Japan Shogi Federation has ordered its masters not to play unauthorized games against computers in public. Mostly because they are afraid to lose.

Federation officials fear that a professional shogi master losing to a computer would be beneath their dignity and have ordered male and female masters to seek permission before they play against a computer in public.

I guess a software program came very close to defeating a pro, which caused a sense of crisis within the organization. But they are going to have to deal with it, as computers will be able to easily beat every human player very soon.
I am sure that a lot of this has to do with money, also.

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

Click here for charts.

* CCI is making a bullish crossover 100
** Stocks that have closed at new closing highs - adjusted for dividends and splits - data should, but may not always be correct - please verify with other sources
Nasdaq and AMEX stocks mostly

Masahiro Fukuyama, who was born on the exact same day of the exact same year as me, makes some interesting suits “inspired by the ancient culture of the Samurai and contemporary game-culture. His creations are made with moulded plastics, finished with leather, fur, precious stones and precious metals. In addition to the presenting these suits as objects, Fukyama wears his creations during performances.”

via boingboing

Glenn Reynolds has an interesting article on TCS about the DARPA Challenge and its significance in regards to the Singularity.

Likewise, just as chess-playing machines that could beat human grandmasters were once the very definition of artificial intelligence, now they’re just trivial accomplishments: toys, really. And, I suppose, within a few years self-driving cars won’t count as “real” robotics either — just helpful gadgets. Yet as the signposts flash by, we get closer to the destination, whether we notice it or not.

Shogi (Japanese chess) is going through a boom in popularity because of a new busty 24-year-old Shodan.

“You’d be surprised by some of the things people say about you. I got one letter telling me how beautiful I looked as I put my eye drops in. Another letter complained that I had worn the same outfit to two different events. It’s amazing to find out what people are looking at,” she says. “Are they also looking at my boobs? I kinda get the feeling they may be.”

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

Click here for charts.

* CCI is making a bullish crossover 100
** Stocks that have closed at new closing highs - adjusted for dividends and splits - data should, but may not always be correct - please verify with other sources
Nasdaq and AMEX stocks mostly

uglychart.com is getting a constant stream of comment spam, so I have changed the settings so that I need to approve comments before they are posted to the website. So, if you notice a delay in your comments, that is the reason.

Good morning, my name is Ugly, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious financial damage to my account.

Dear Diary,
FXI is getting knocked around pretty hard - like most everything else. There is some pretty heavy selling out there. We seem to be right at some long term uptrend lines. Will it break with the selling, or will the buying hold it up?

The once super-hot ICF is taking a nose dive, under its 200dma.
Same goes for the smallcaps.
Everything’s getting rubbed out.
I wouldn’t buy anything now, but SSY had a nice breakout and is one to watch if the market starts to pick up.

Tonight is the last night on the floor and I have begun the 25-hour fasting part of my penance. I woke up in the middle of the night last night in my bed without any memory of crawling up there. For the charity part of my penance, I will be donating $70 to Vipassana Meditation.

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