Filed under: International markets, Deals, Good news, Middle East, Next big thing, Entrepreneurs, Headline news, Israel

A story yesterday in Business Week, A Mideast Valley of Peace discussed how the development of a $3 billion canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea is gaining some traction. There’s both Arab and Israeli support for the idea which would bring industry, tourism, and most importantly water through desalination plants to a very thirsty location.

According to the report the ambitious project is being energized by 60-year-old billionaire Itzhak Tshuva, who was born into a poor family of 11 who crammed into a single room after immigrating to Israel from Libya in the 1940s. He went on to build a global real estate empire that includes New York’s Plaza Hotel, as well as a recently announced $8 billion luxury hotel, retail, residential, and casino complex on the Las Vegas Strip.

Equally important, the project is getting a warm reception in parts of the Arab world. This so-called Valley of Peace is part of a 520-kilometer (323-mile) corridor being proposed by Israeli President Shimon Peres for regional economic development. Peres says he has received letters of support from both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. And according to Israeli press reports, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal — known for his investments in Western icons such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) — recently told Tshuva that he’ll support the project through Jordan.

Nothing is mentioned about Hamas in the story, but the scope and scale of the project would offer economic opportunity and even prosperity to those that have found it hard to come by, so promoters while not naive, are hopeful.

Among the Israeli industrialists who support the project is Stef Wertheimer, founder of Iscar Metalworking, which sold 80% of its shares to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A).

Since a major purpose of the project involves water and power I could imagine companies like General Electric (NYSE: GE) and privately held Bechtel becoming involved.

It is envisioned that the project would be “green” and in that vein, environmental studies are under way to determine the repercussions of mixing water from the two sources and other issues. Currently the potash industry, which generates billions of dollars of revenue for Israel and Jordan at the Dead Sea, is also a factor receiving attention.

Nothing seems to move very fast when so many celebrations are involved. However, Perez said that the project could be built in as tiny as two years once it was concurred to do it.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of BRK.B.

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Filed under: Deals, Top deals, Rumors, Financials and analyticals, Private equity industry, Public or private?

BCE, Inc. (NYSE: BCE) is one of the large multi-billion dollar pending mergers that is on hold and is caught in the middle of a fight. Its merger has been on the books for nearly a year and its ultimate fate is not know.

But because of all the speculation in this with a defined legal fight currently underway, and combined with the post Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU) merger terms having changed, this one is uncertain. But….

We’ve seen a leveraged trading in the stock options activity today that threw up a big giant red flag. There were more than 20,000 options contracts that have traded today that looks like a straddle play in the June options.

You can read the full story at Volume Spike (VSinvestor.com) to see in-depth options analysis, where we think this stock has to go, and more detailed data on the BCE, Inc. legal fight.

Jon C. Ogg

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Technology

Microsoft is beginning to build buzz in long term preparation for yet another version of Windows, at the moment known as Windows 7. Speculation has the company putting this on the market late next year or early 2010.

I began using computers in the 1960’s, and would have laughed in your face if you had told me that forty years later they would still be so complex and unharmonized that even a relatively savvy user would have to spend hours each week just nudging commands to get it to work. Therefore, excuse me if I seethe a bit about having yet another OS shoved down my throat.

I’ve been using Vista lately because I’ve to; XP won’t be supported forever. I’ve a license for MS Office 2003, which does everything I need these programs to do, just fine. Under Vista, though, these formerly dependable programs crap out regularly. Do I suspect Microsoft is OK with this, as it provides incentive for me to buy newer versions of the programs? Of course I do.

I don’t want a new Windows. I want a personal that runs the software I use without reverting to the blue screen of death each day. I want a computer in which I don’t need to know how to access the msconfig file or configure my wireless network or reboot in safe mode and check my error log.

If Microsoft sold cars, do you suppose I’d need to cease and reboot my ignition system daily? Would I’ve to know how to set a timing sequence? Would I need to know which controls to press, in which order, to get the windows to roll down?

I think Microsoft has made enough money that it should spend some to make computers work better, rather than worse. They seem to be the software equivalent to the windshield replacement company owner who goes out at night with his BB gun to shoot out windows. Anything to keep suckers coming back, over and over again.

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Filed under: Extracurriculars, Food, Ripoffs and Scams, Fraud

Have you heard this joke:

Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!
Don’t worry sir, the spider on the breadroll will get him!

How about this one:

Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!
Force of habit, sir. Our chef used to be a tailor.

Or maybe this one:

Waiter, why is there a bee in my soup?
Sorry, sir. It’s the fly’s day off.

When I was a kid, I used to be a massive fan of cheesy jokes (I grew out of the tendency sometime last week, even though I acknowledge that a relapse is possible). I collected all sorts of bad puns, double-entendres, and borsht-belt groaners. I knew dozens of knock-knocks, Tom Swifties, and, yes, fly jokes. Yet, for all the jokes I remember, here’s one that I never heard:

Judge, judge, there are two flies in my bottled water!
Yes sir, now here’s your $343,000.

You don’t think it’s funny? Neither did Canada’s Supreme Court, which recently overturned the ruling of a lower court in the case of Waddah Mustapha versus Culligan of Canada. Apparently, Mr. Mustapha found two flies in a bottle of Culligan water, which, he claims, caused a large bout of vomiting, followed by a massive phobia involving water. Mr. Mustapha further claimed that he was no longer able to shower or have sex, and was plagued by visions of flies swirling around piles of feces.

How does that work out to $343,000? Did the jury pick the number based on $171,500 per fly? Maybe they went with $28,583.33 per leg or $85,750 per wing. Or maybe it’s lost wages, even though one wonders how Mr. Mustapha’s capability to shower and have sex would affect his work performance. Clearly, this would be a real problem if he was a plumber or a gigolo.

Now, I’ve had enough post-traumatic stress disorder to recognize that it’s a real phenomenon. That having been stated, if the sight of two flies is enough to completely undermine your entire life, then maybe the problem isn’t the flies. As one site noted, Canada assumes a “reasonable fortitude and robustness of its citizens and won’t impose liability for the exceptional frailty of certain individuals.” This stands in stark contrast to the American model, in which extensive pretrial discovery would probably have determined that Mustapha was, indeed, nuts. He would undoubtedly have ended up with a large award, had Culligan not simply decided to settle out of court. The court costs would, of course, have gotten added into the price of all of Culligan’s products.

Sometimes Canada starts to look really, really good.

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He wonders if there is a legal way of saying “Man up and stop whining.” Maybe reversing a $343,000 ruling does it.

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