BEST WAY TO INVEST MONEY

The first thing that a successful investor needs is a plan. You have to have a good idea of your goals. There are so many ways to invest money and they differ so greatly in risk and return. If your investment goal is to provide retirement income, this suggests one type of investment. If your investment goal is to make a large profit on some extra cash that you have managed to accumulate, this would suggest a completely different investment.

One of the ways to classify investments is by looking at their risk. It is said that all investments carry risk, but it is obvious that the risk of Certificates of Deposit at your local bank are very low. The risk of the stock market is quite a bit more of a concern and using your funds as venture capital is even more risky. The rule seems to be that the more risk involved in an investment, the more chance for a good return.

A safe, cut and dry method of saving money is the bank. Banks offer you a set interest for the amount of money you deposit with them per month. The interest rate can be anything from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. Bank accounts are known to be the safest and most flexible, if not the best way to invest money.

Individual Savings Account otherwise known as Isas is a good way to invest your money. You can put your money in either a cash Indiviual Savings Account, basically a savings account, or into an Individual Savings Fund, that will invest your money into shares, property or bonds, depending on the type of fund. You can also choose to put of money in each.

Another type of investments that banks offer are bonds. Some private institutions like companies also offer bonds. There is little difference between bonds and certificate of deposits. A bond also pays out around seven percent as interest for the period of four years. Bonds should be invested in only when there is no immediate need of the money for a set period of time.

Though the returns on such returns are less, they are preferred more because depending on the bank or company you deal with, the returns are guaranteed and also depended upon.

The best way to learn how to invest in stock comes down to one basic idea and in the beginning, the stock investor should ask them selves this one question. Is the company making enough right now and are they going to earn in the future? Every good investor knows that earnings are profits.

The most popular tools of fundamental analysis will focus on earnings, growth, and the value of a stock in the overall market. For convenience, analysts will often break these elements down into separate reports. Each report will then discuss related ratios for each fundamental analysis. Typical analysis concepts might include things like earnings per share or projected earning growth. Other fundamentals include price to share and dividend ratios.

By learning the basics of stock investing you can save money on broker commissions and make a much higher profit in your life. Learning the best ways to invest in stocks can enable you to retire early and live a better lifestyle in the days to come.
If you invest in a stock, and it suffers a drop in price, you need to consider holding on to it and giving it a chance to recover rather than selling in panic and taking a loss. The best investment strategy is a long term one.

With college tuition rising faster than inflation, stocks are the best investment to help your education-savings portfolio (for your children) keep pace long-term.

But the biggest mistake investors make is to invest directly in the stock market. They buy individual stocks of which they have very little or no knowledge. Investors who do not have the knowledge to buy stock, leave it to the experts and invest in the market via a mutual fund.

If you've money to spare, you can save and/or invest it. With saving you put your money aside without risk, usually with the chance to earn interest. With investing, there's potential for your money to grow more, but the returns aren't guaranteed. Investing is generally more suitable for the longer term.

2008 MERCEDES - BENZ CL65 AMG - AUTO SHOWS

Two special events make 2007 a particularly significant year for Mercedes-AMG: the arrival of a new top model – the CL65 AMG high-performance coupe with its 450 kW /612 hp V12 engine – which rounds off the unique AMG range and which also, in "40th Anniversary" limited edition guise, marks a special anniversary: the high-performance brand of the Mercedes Car Group (MCG) celebrates its 40th birthday in 2007.

Is it just us, or has the styling of the big Mercedes-Benz coupes taken a slightly sinister bent? Wheel arches and mild cladding that might be amusing on a Hyundai Tiburon look downright intimidating on Mercedes models such as, well, this stunning CL65 AMG, revealed in Amsterdam on March 29 and shown at the New York show a week later. Compared with the previous CL65, which showed up here as a 2005 model, this one is positively sobering.

The 2008 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG is powered by a 6.0 liter V12 biturbo engine that produces 612 horsepower. The car has a five-speed automatic transmission with a S/C/M mode button that allows the driver to choose between Sport, Comfort and Manual driving modes.

Standard features on the 2008 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG include AMG body styling, 20-inch AMG forged wheels, AMG sports suspension, based on the Active Body Control system and the anticipatory occupant protection system Pre-Safe. On the front of the CL65 AMG, the 8.5-inch-wide wheels are fitted with 255/35 ZR 20 tires, while 275/35 ZR 20 tires equip the 9.5-inch-wide wheels at the rear.

To celebrate 40 years since AMG began, Mercedes will distinguish 40 CL65 AMGs as 40th Anniversary cars. Each one gets custom paint and interior materials. Mercedes says the new paint process uses what it calls nanoparticle technology. This puts microscopic (or nano-) particles—tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair—into the clear coat of the paint. The particles form a strong bond for better resistance to carwashes and the like. The paint reflects light more intensively, and its luster is enhanced.The automaker hasn't released prices for the standard or anniversary editions, but expect them to start somewhere near last year's $180,000 CL65.

VISUALIZATIONS OF MARS

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is commonly referred to as the Red Planet. The rocks, soil and sky have a red or pink hue. The distinct red color was observed by stargazers throughout history. It was given its name by the Romans in honor of their god of war. Other civilizations have had similar names. The ancient Egyptians named the planet Her Descher meaning the red one.

The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965. Several others followed including Mars 2, the first spacecraft to land on Mars and the two Viking landers in 1976. Ending a long 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on 1997 July 4.

These artist renderings are based on real spacecraft data :

PIC 1 : MARS IN THE NOACHIAN PERIOD
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Mars is shown above as a young planet with lakes and erupting volcanoes in the Noachian period, about 4 billion years ago. The Northern hemisphere shows the Vastitas Bolearis filled with water and some ice around the North Pole. The large lake at the bottom right is the Meridian where the Opportunity found evidence of such a lake/inner sea. At the left large lava fields glow in the dark. Some meteors lighten the thin atmosphere.


PIC 2 : MARS EVPORATING WATER IN THE ARAM CHAOS
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Mars has still some water, but it's evaporating and leaving deposits on the shores of its disappearing lakes. A possible view of Mars some billion years ago.


PIC 3 ; HELLAS PLANITIA
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Shown above is the Hellas Planitia northern ridge. Sun streaks in the dusty atmosphere. The lower terrain is the depression which goes to about 6km depth. View from west to east.


PIC 4 ; NORTHPOLE AND VASTITAS BOREALIS
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Shown above is an overhead view of the Northpole (left) and the the Vastitas Borealis. The large crater at the top is the Korolev Crater. This crater is about 85 km (53 mi) in diameter.
(Checkout www.space.com for more pictures of Mars)

To get ready for this momentous skywatching event, now would be a fine time to reacquaint yourself with the Red Planet [maps/charts]. All during the summer of 2002 Mars was pretty much out of view because of its proximity to the Sun. But during the latter part of September it began to emerge back into view in the morning sky and is in full view, though for now it appears rather small in the sky and low on the horizon.

However, this is only the beginning of what will turn out to be the most dramatic and spectacular Mars apparition you or any of your ancestors has ever had a chance to see.

The Red Planet is getting progressively closer to Earth with each passing night, and consequently it will slowly appear to grow larger and brighter.

Mars will come into its Opposition on December 24, 2007 in constellation Gemini. Six days earlier, on December 18, 2007, the planet will have come to its closes distance to Earth during this apparation: 88.42 million km (55 million miles, or 0.58935 AU).

An international group of space enthusiasts announced Monday a microphone will be sent to Mars in 2007 aboard a French spacecraft, easing the disappointment of a previous U.S. attempt that ended in failure.

The Planetary Society said the microphone will be included in the French space agency's NetLander mission, which will land four small spacecraft on Mars. The nonprofit group had funded a similar attempt once before, but it ended in failure when the microphone and the NASA spacecraft carrying it were lost.

If successful this time, the group said the member-sponsored microphone would be the first device to return the sounds of another planet to Earth.

"We have seen other worlds and even touched them via robotic senses, but the Mars Microphone will offer humanity the first opportunity to listen to the sounds on the surface of an alien world," said Louis Friedman, executive director of the 100,000-member space exploration advocacy group.

NASA - THE BRIGHTEST SUPERNOVA EVER

SUPERNOVA
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A supernova (plural: supernovae or supernovas) is a stellar explosion that creates an extremely luminous object that is initially made of plasma—an ionized form of matter.

Burning its fuel, a star which has lived undisturbed, evolving peacefully for several million years, will eventually turn off its nuclear process, so that it can no longer support its own weight. The core of the star collapses and the star disappears in less than a second. The death of the star is the birth of the supernova. A supernova is an incredibly vast explosion disrupting completely the progenitor star, which is blown up into the interstellar medium. This explosion is one of the most wonderful and spectacular astrophysical events. For this reason astrophysicists wait in excited anticipation for the next visible supernova.

May 7, 2007
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The brightest stellar explosion ever recorded may be a long-sought new type of supernova, according to observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes. This discovery indicates that violent explosions of extremely massive stars were relatively common in the early universe, and that a similar explosion may be ready to go off in our own galaxy.

"This was a truly monstrous explosion, a hundred times more energetic than a typical supernova," said Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, who led a team of astronomers from California and the University of Texas in Austin. "That means the star that exploded might have been as massive as a star can get, about 150 times that of our sun. We've never seen that before."



PIC 1: An artist's illustration of supernova SN 2006gy.

Astronomers think many of the first stars in the Universe were this massive, and this new supernova may thus provide a rare glimpse of how those first generation stars died. It is unprecedented, however, to find such a massive star and witness its death. The discovery of the supernova, known as SN 2006gy, provides evidence that the death of such massive stars is fundamentally different from theoretical predictions.

"Of all exploding stars ever observed, this was the king," said Alex Filippenko, leader of the ground-based observations at the Lick Observatory at Mt. Hamilton, Calif., and the Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. "We were astonished to see how bright it got, and how long it lasted."

The Chandra observation allowed the team to rule out the most likely alternative explanation for the supernova: that a white dwarf star with a mass only slightly higher than the sun exploded into a dense, hydrogen-rich environment. In that event, SN 2006gy should have been 1,000 times brighter in X-rays than what Chandra detected.



PIC 1: Optical (left) and X-ray (right) images of SN 2006gy.

The dimmer source at lower-left is the nucleus of the host galaxy. The brighter source at upper-right is the stellar explosion. The supernova was as bright as the entire core of a galaxy! [More]

"This provides strong evidence that SN 2006gy was, in fact, the death of an extremely massive star," said Dave Pooley of the University of California at Berkeley, who led the Chandra observations.

The star that produced SN 2006gy apparently expelled a large amount of mass prior to exploding. This large mass loss is similar to that seen from Eta Carinae, a massive star in our galaxy, raising suspicion that Eta Carinae may be poised to explode as a supernova. Although SN 2006gy is intrinsically the brightest supernova ever, it is in the galaxy NGC 1260, some 240 million light years away. However, Eta Carinae is only about 7,500 light years away in our own Milky Way galaxy.

"We don't know for sure if Eta Carinae will explode soon, but we had better keep a close eye on it just in case," said Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who was not involved in the research. "Eta Carinae's explosion could be the best star-show in the history of modern civilization."

PIC 2: eta Carinae--a supernova waiting to happen in our own galaxy?

The giant star is highlighted by diffraction spikes in this astrophoto taken by Brad Moore.

Supernovas usually occur when massive stars exhaust their fuel and collapse under their own gravity. In the case of SN 2006gy, however, astronomers think that a very different effect may have triggered the explosion. Under some conditions, the core of a massive star produces so much gamma ray radiation that some of the energy from the radiation converts into particle and anti-particle pairs. The resulting drop in energy causes the star to collapse under its own huge gravity.

After this violent collapse, runaway thermonuclear reactions ensue and the star explodes, spewing the remains into space. The SN 2006gy data suggest that spectacular supernovas from the first stars that spew their remains - rather than completely collapsing to a black hole as theorized - may be more common than previously believed.

"In terms of the effect on the early universe, there's a huge difference between these two possibilities," said Smith. "One [sprinkles] the galaxy with large quantities of newly made elements and the other locks them up forever in a black hole."

THE NEW U.S. CURRENCY

About the New $10 Notes

The new $10 note, which is the third denomination to be redesigned in the series, includes subtle shades of orange, yellow and red along with images of the Statue of Liberty's torch and the words "We the People" from the United States Constitution. The new $10 note was introduced on March 2, 2006.

SECURITY FEATURES
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The redesigned $10 note also retains three of the most important security features that were first introduced in the 1990s and are easy to check: color-shifting ink, watermark and security thread.

Color-Shifting Ink: Tilt your ten to check that the numeral "10" in the lower right-hand corner on the face of the note changes color from copper to green. The color shift is more dramatic on the redesigned notes, making it even easier for people to check their money.

Watermark: Hold your ten up to the light to see if a faint image of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton appears to the right of his large portrait. It can be seen from both sides of the note. On the redesigned $10 note, a blank oval has been incorporated into the design to highlight the watermark's location.

Security Thread: Hold your ten up to the light and make sure there's a small strip embedded in the paper. The words "USA TEN" and a small flag are visible in tiny print. It runs vertically to the right of the portrait and can be seen from both sides of the note. This thread glows orange when held under ultraviolet light.

To protect our economy and your hard-earned money, the U.S. government expects to redesign its currency every seven to ten years.

Design Features

Symbols of Freedom: New symbols of freedom representing icons of Americana are part of the new design series. Two images of the torch carried by the Statue of Liberty are printed in red on the face of the new $10 note. A large image of the torch is printed in the background to the left of the portrait of Secretary Hamilton, while a second, smaller metallic red image of the torch can be found on the lower right side of the portrait. The symbols of freedom differ for each denomination.

Color: The most noticeable difference in the newly designed $10 note is the addition of subtle background colors of orange, yellow and red. The words "We the People" from the U.S. Constitution have been printed in red in the background to the right of the portrait. Also, small yellow 10s have been printed in the background to the left of the portrait on the face of the note and to the right of the vignette on the back of the note. The background colors differ with each denomination to help distinguish them.

Updated Portrait and Vignette: The oval borders and fine lines surrounding the portrait of Secretary Hamilton on the face, and the United States Treasury Building vignette on the back, have been removed. The portrait has been moved up and shoulders have been extended into the border. Additional engraving details have been added to the vignette background.

In addition, the new $10 note also retains a number of other existing design features.

Microprinting: Because they are so small, microprinted words are hard to replicate. The redesigned $10 note features microprinting on the face of the note in two areas: the word "USA" and the numeral "10" can be found repeated beneath the large printed torch and the words "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" and "TEN DOLLARS" can be found below the portrait, as well as vertically inside the left and right borders of the note.

Low-Vision Feature: The large numeral "10" in the lower right corner on the back of the note is easy to read.

Federal Reserve Indicators: A universal seal to the left of the portrait represents the entire Federal Reserve System. A letter and number beneath the left serial number identifies the issuing Federal Reserve Bank.

Serial Numbers: The unique combination of eleven numbers and letters appears twice on the face of the note. On the new $10 note, the left serial number has shifted slightly to the right, compared with previous designs.

MONEY MARKET

MONEY MARKET FUNDS
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A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that is required by law to invest in low-risk securities. These funds have relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates. Unlike a "money market deposit account" at a bank, money market funds are not federally insured.

Money market funds typically invest in government securities, certificates of deposits, commercial paper of companies, and other highly liquid and low-risk securities. They attempt to keep their net asset value (NAV) at a constant $1.00 per share—only the yield goes up and down. But a money market’s per share NAV may fall below $1.00 if the investments perform poorly. While investor losses in money market funds have been rare, they are possible.

Before investing in a money market fund, you should carefully read all of the fund’s available information, including its prospectus, or profile if the fund has one, and its most recent shareholder report.

Money market funds are regulated primarily under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules adopted under that
Act, particularly Rule 2a-7 under the Act.

When you invest in a money market, you are investing in a unique type of mutual fund. Money market mutual funds are designed to yield modest returns while preserving principal. These funds focus on maintaining net asset values (NAVs) of $1.00. Essentially, money market mutual funds are considered, by some, to be along the same lines as high-yield bank accounts. Unlike bank accounts, however, they are not insured against loss. Typical restrictions are that a fairly high minimum balance must be maintained in order to avoid fees.

Since the account is not considered a transaction account, it is subject to the regulations on savings accounts: only six withdrawal transactions to third parties are permitted per month, only three of which may be paid by check. Banks are required to discourage customers from exceeding these limits, either by imposing high fees on customers who do so, or by closing their accounts. Banks are free to impose additional restrictions (for instance: some banks limit their customers to six total transactions). ATM transactions may or may not be counted.

In theory these restrictions allow the bank to invest the money with more discretion, allowing a higher return. The return is often competitive with money market mutual funds, hence the name on the account, although nothing requires a bank to invest MMDA deposits in the money market (most likely they will be invested the same as the bank's other deposits, e.g. in mortgage).

If you want to compare money market fund yields, there is no need to convert these yields to an APY for comparison. Where some type of an adjustment is necessary is when you compare the yields on a money market fund to a money market account or a certificate of deposit. In those cases Bankrate's certificate of deposit calculator will calculate an APY you can use to compare the investments.

ADVANTAGES;
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The main advantages of money market deposit accounts include:

- Your money is not locked into a specific investment term, as is the case with a fixed or notice deposit. You can deposit your money into a money market account today and withdraw it tomorrow without having to give the bank notice. Obviously, the longer your money remains in the account, the more interest you will earn.


- Your capital in a money market account is guaranteed.


- The interest rates are more stable than with money market unit trusts. Although the rates may vary, they rarely move unless the prime lending rate changes.


DISADVANTAGES
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Your investment becomes part of the bank's assets. Although the bank is obliged to repay your capital investment and the promised returns, if the bank collapses - as occurred with Saambou - you stand to lose all or some of your money, depending on the extent to which the failed bank's liabilities exceed its assets.


So, money market funds may make sense for investors who think the stock market won't match the modest returns these funds offer over a certain time period, although trying to time the market isn't necessarily the best strategy. These funds are a natural fit for investors who just want to make sure they can preserve their nest egg, while returning modest gains.

LARGE DENOMINATION US DOLLAR BILLS - FOR COLLECTORS

Currency notes of denominations above $100 are not available from the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. On July 14, 1969, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System announced that currency notes in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 would be discontinued immediately due to lack of use. Although they were issued until 1969, they were last printed in 1945.

These notes are legal tender and may be found in circulation today; however, most notes still in circulation are probably in the hands of private numismatic dealers and collectors. If you are interested in purchasing these larger denominations, it is suggested that you contact private dealers or collectors who are usually listed in the classified section of the telephone directory under the headings of “Coins” and “Hobbies.”