BIS "The derivatives market shrank"

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The derivatives market shrank for the first time in the second half of 2008 as the global financial crisis curbed trading, the Bank for International Settlements said in a report.

The amount of outstanding contracts linked to bonds, currencies, commodities, stocks and interest rates fell 13.4 percent to $592 trillion, the Basel, Switzerland-based bank said yesterday. That’s the first decline in 10 years of compiling the data. The amount of credit-default swaps protecting investors against losses on bonds and loans fell 27 percent to cover a notional $41.9 trillion of debt.

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Travel Deals website

New York Times has this interesting article about how companies are mining through travel data to find travel deal. Sifting Data to Uncover Travel Deals sites the following website. Farecast.com airfarewatchdog.com ( to find deals that include companies that don't share data) Flightstats.com (if you wanted to see which flightsare most prone to problems/delays) milemaven.com (best mileage programs) pointmaven.com (earn the most hotel points) update 4/22 read more about at consumerist . Cheaptickets.com sidestep.com

Text-to-speech application on the web

2010 update on text-to-speech read more here There aren't may text-to-speech application available online. It would be great if it could read you the complete webpage. NPR does it by allowing your to stream content of each page one after another (but then they are a radio station). So why not have website that will read you all the article in the page without having to buy any software. Bluegrind and new web 2.0 website in beta stage (serious beta stage!) will read you a news article, blog and they claim its like having a personal news anchor reading the news to you every day. It doesn't just stop at your computer, you can take it with you wherever you go. What are the other Text-to-Speech (TTS) web application out there? Not many but we have found some cool research sites that let you read text. The best of them all AT&T research website . Yes AT&T. This application will read in 15 voices/language, there is a 300 character limit to ...

NYC new Congestion Pricing or Fees or Tax depending on which side of the fence you are on <<< Global Warming

Read on PhysOrg.com The most controversial idea in the plan ( NYC Plan 2030 ), from the mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability , is a proposal to charge motorists for driving into Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Trucks would be charged $21 a day and cars would be charged $8, on top of the city's already expensive parking. It is similar to a system that London (Congestion Charge) has used since 2003, and officials there say it has significantly reduced congestion. The scheme applauded by environmentalists and alternative transportation groups , but is politically tricky for New York City because it would have to be enacted by the state Legislature , and many lawmakers from outer boroughs and the suburbs may not support it. Read Full speech hear -- Click here

Space in the city

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