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By James Brightman
EA desperately wants to take back the shooter crown, and standing in its way is the blockbuster Call of Duty franchise, which will attempt to up the ante once again this holiday with Modern Warfare 3 and the new Elite social service. EA has an impressive candidate in Battlefield 3 as well, but both companies have gotten aggressive lately in media interviews. The latest comes from EA boss John Riccitiello, who commented that Activision knows it's "threatened."
Riccitiello was responding to comments from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who cast doubt on Battlefield 3 as a console title. "I can’t objectively tell you what I think of other products until I see them. Battlefield I’ve only seen on a PC and nobody’s seen it on a console yet. Most of our consumers play games on a console. Until I see it on a console, I wouldn’t be objective on commenting on it," Kotick said to CNBC.
Riccitiello called this misinformation, and hit back with: “It’s the beginning of the war and (Kotick) recognizes they’re going to be threatened. We’re going to have a clash of the titans this fall. The very fact that he’s trying to cast doubt on our game is a perfect example of how we got his goat. In terms of where this goes, we think our PS3 game is better than their Xbox game and our PC game is better than their PC game. If that’s all he’s got to say, it’s obviously going to evaporate as we launch all three. If you went to our press conference, you saw the PS3 footage and the Xbox footage. If Bobby thinks that is PC footage, he’s in real trouble.”
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Tickets! Get your cheap baseball tickets! The secondary market -- polite-speak for scalping sites -- has created more ways to score low-priced seats for Major League Baseball. The economic climate is also playing in your favor. Baseball needs you: Attendance is down. A few of its big-market teams, the Dodgers and the Mets, are in a financial pickle. And the league wants to showcase itself as the harmonious big-time sport -- the one not tied up in season-threatening labor issues like the NFL and NBA.Here is a primer on where to snag some of the steals. Just remember the cheer of fans and shoppers alike: Never pay retail.
The online scalping giant has become as much a part of the game as chewing tobacco and oblique strains. The trick is to find tickets that are discounted enough to offset the 10% service charge ($5 minimum) plus $4.95 email or $11.95 FedEx delivery. If you're still getting a deal after computing that, click away. Even the popular teams offer deals on the site.
On June 8, I found $10 same-day tickets available for baseball's best rivalry -- Yankees vs. Red Sox -- at Yankee Stadium, and $4 tickets for the Central Division-leading Indians visiting the Yanks on June 13. On the other coast, tickets for the defending champion San Francisco Giants were as low as $2 when they play the visiting Minnesota Twins June 21-23. Prices climb for the weekends -- but remain under the budget-conscious cap.
Resale venues like MLB-partnering StubHub offer teams a reality check. "It gives owners a sense of the market clearing price for a ticket," sports economist Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College told DailyFinance. "Otherwise they're shooting arrows into the dark. Scalpers and the secondary market tell owners what fans are willing to pay." (Full disclosure: I have tickets listed on the site and I'm itching for those suckers to move.)
Baseball began teaming up with the travel-deal publisher four years ago. Makes sense: After all, what's a game but a mini-vacation, right? The discounts often surpass 60%. In a recent flash issue, the Oakland A's were offering $24 tickets for $2. On occasion, teams want to give the peanut gallery a taste of the other side, offering luxury-box seats for $99. Travelzoo sales go through the teams and their ticket-selling engines, so you won't be able to avoid the add-on fees.
If a recent check is any indication, you are less likely to get deals for the bigger-market teams on the auction site (which also owns StubHub). The Chicago Cubs had nearly 10 times more tickets on eBay than the next team. The Cubs' cozy Wrigley Field and loyal fan base create high demand for tickets. Scalpers wait on deck to capitalize. For struggling small-market clubs, it's another matter. Two front-row tickets for a total of $29 is almost unheard of in any sport, but you could get them for the Kansas City Royals.
Teams recognize that you haven't been coming to the ballpark as much as you used to, and they want you back. Always check their official MLB websites. I clicked on one big-city outfit low in the standings, the Houston Astros, and found a heck of a deal: Two kids 14 and under get in free with one paying adult in the upper-level seats all summer. That means a family of four can attend for $14. Smuggle in the goodies, and you have a day at the ballpark for what it costs to watch it on TV with a pizza. Some teams also pour on the promotions with soda companies in watch-and-eat ticket combos. The Arizona Diamondbacks, for example, sell a bleacher ticket, hot dog, 24-ounce Pepsi and coupon for another Pepsi (burp) for $19.
? Scalpers at the Ballpark
This seems so quaint now, doesn't it? But buying in person is the best way to avoid pesky surcharges. As a baseball lover who has gained entry to games both with a press pass and via the subway ticket pimp, I can tell you that the best thing to remember is that the law of supply and demand applies. It's no different in the stadium parking lot than on the Internet. That's why you should have a good idea of what will be available for how much before you get there. Study the market conditions -- the home team's standing, the popularity of the opponent, the weather, the starting pitchers, etc. You will find the occasional season ticket holder who wants to unload tickets for a nominal fee or nothing, but don't count on it. (And don't forget to check the local scalping laws). Waiting out a scalper to get the lowest price comes with risk. If you bring your kids and strike out, you'll find out that there is indeed crying in baseball.
Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/11/how-to-play-the-field-and-score-cheap-baseball-tickets/
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Everyone has their reasons bank stocks have been getting hammered lately: Regulations are piling up, law enforcement won't quit dogging them over past activities, the economy is mediocre, etc.
But as David Goldman argues, it really comes down to this: The market value of subprime/mortgage related assets is plunging.
These three charts deserve a lot of attention.
Here's AAA-rated subprime...

And securitized commercial mortgage backed securities

And the super-ugly AA-rated stuff.

Thus the plunge in bank stocks -- which remain highly exposed to all this stuff (although as Goldman points out, less so, thanks to Treasury buying) have fallen accordingly).
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/dN-QRaE6bJE/subprime-indices-falling-2011-6
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As if the fact that the International Monetary Fund was hacked in a "very major breach" isn't terrifying enough, Bloomberg now speculates that the hackers were from a foreign government.
Someone familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the IMF was "attacked by hackers believed to be connected to a foreign government."
Now to help with the investigation, "the FBI is working this with IMF," the spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel April Cunningham of the Air Force told Reuters.
What they took: e-mails and other documents, according to the same someone familiar with the matter.
When they took it: Before Dominique Strauss-Khan, the former IMF chief, was arrested for rape.
How it happened: The IMF is not releasing any details nor are they commenting on the extent of the attack other than to say that the fund is fully functional. However, reading into a memo sent to employees after the attack, we suspect that it might have happened via "phishing" (hackers trying to get access to your password and username) or after an employee clicked on a link or video sent to their email.
The IMF's Chief Information Officer Jonathan Palmer sent an email to employees with the subject, "Important Notice: Virus Attacks," on June 8th.
Bloomberg got the memo and says it says: Be on [your] guard. [A] computer at the fund was “compromised."
"Last week we detected some suspicious file transfers, and the subsequent investigation established that a Fund desktop computer had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems...At this point, we have no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes.”
“Staff are strongly requested NOT TO OPEN emails and video links without authenticating the source..."
In an email sent on June 9th, Palmer warned employees about "increased phishing activity."
Also important: Anonymous, the most well-known hacker group, tweeted on June 1st (which is after DSK was arrested for alleged rape):
#OperationGreece: Target: http://www.imf.org | More info :: http://tl.gd/aqqhhm #Anonymous
Huffpo has some background:
The IMF, currently in negotiations to help stabilize Greece's suffering economy, recently approved a $40 billion dollar loan as a part of a $140 billion bailout package.
Anonymous released a missive on May 25 condemning the Greek Government and the IMF for accepting the loan without letting citizens vote on the agreement, and for subjecting the people of the country to "prolonged poverty and a dramatic decrease in their standards of living."
"The people of Greece have been left with no other option than to take to the streets in a peaceful revolution against the economic tyrants that are the IMF," Anonymous wrote.
AND NOW Anonymous is calling for Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to step down -->
Click here to see the fabulous life of Dominique Strauss-Khan (before he was arrested) >
Click here to see what the maid claims DSK did to her >
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