Filed under: Office, Productivity

FlashcardExchange is a flashcard-sharing site that lets you create and study digital forms of everyone’s favorite 3×5 cards. The directory already has a big list of subjects, from elementary math to high-level pharmacology.

The flashcards are available to study for free via the website, and if you shell out $19.95 (one-time fee) for the full membership, you can print the flashcards and export them to Word or Excel. With a free account you can create your own flashcards by typing or text/Excel import. You can share your flashcard sets, which are maintained via the “My Flashcards” feature, and play a memory game with them.

FlashcardExchange can be helpful for test preparation, certification exam review, and language learning.

[Via MusicBizGuy]

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Filed under: PepsiCo (PEP), Marketing and advertising, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), McDonald’s (MCD)

The New York Times reports that despite a fortune ranging from $50 million to $125 million, the battle for mentally unstable Britney Spears’s money is raging. She’s a shrewd business person — generating cash from royalties, concerts, clothing, perfume, corporate promotions and real estate.

But she’s also spending a lot of that money. She takes in $720,000 a month but mainly from royalties, but earns “only” $13,000 a month from investments. Her spending includes $102,000 a month for entertainment, gifts and vacation and $16,000 for clothes. Yet court documents reveal that members of Britney’s household have been paying for her medicine, food, and other day-to-day needs.

While Britney makes some money from her albums — she received a $4 million advance on her latest Blackout — the real money is in concerts and the clothing and other items sold there. Her five major tours have sold some $140 million in tickets but her take — after deducting costs for arena rentals, equipment, crew and all those backup dancers — is much smaller. The real money is made from the sale of T-shirts, key chains, dolls and other Britney-branded goods.

And if Britney can’t revive her career, there are some huge public companies that’ll feel some of that burn. That’s because she’s been promoting products from companies around the world. For example Britney made $12 million for endorsing companies like Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), Nabisco, Kirin beer, Sketchers, Clairol and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD); $9 million was from PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) alone.

And she still gets at least $2 million to $3 million a year from a perfume deal she signed with Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN) in 2004. Elizabeth Arden continues to build on what it has made worldwide from three Britney perfume lines. There is particularly strong demand for them in Dubai.

But wait, there’s more. she made over $4 million in profit from selling real estate. She sold a home in Malibu last summer for $10 million after paying $6.9 million for it in 2004, and she unloaded her Lower Manhattan condominium for $4 million in 2006, after buying it for $3 million in 2002. And she owns a house in a gated hilltop community near Mulholland Drive but listed it for sale a year ago at an asking price of $7.5 million — a bit more than the $7.2 million she paid for it.

With all that money, I don’t know why her family is paying for her day-to-day needs. But I’d say she’s in pretty good financial shape. As for her mental say, I’ve no idea.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the companies mentioned.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertising

Last week I wrote a couple pieces on the current seller strike over at e-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). The strike was supposed to last until today, but now it has been extended another week. Initial data is showing that the current eBay strike has lowered the items listed for sale on the site by an impressive 13%, so you can be sure that eBay is paying attention.

As most of you’re already aware, the current strike is the result of frustrations by eBay users over a couple new changes that the site has introduced. While the site lowered its initial listing fees for items, it raised its completion fees. This has been seen by power sellers as a direct attack on the more successful eBay sellers. In addition, eBay has decided to keep sellers from leaving negative feedback on buyers, a move that has infuriated sellers who claim that feedback is their ideal defense in avoiding dead-beat bidders. The final straw came in the decision to hold certain PayPal payments for up to 21 days.

The strike, which started last week, has had a couple of impacts on the e-commerce world. One result that I analyzed last week, was the increase in traffic and users to some smaller e-commerce sites that historically have had a hard time breaking into some of eBay coveted traffic. Now we’re starting to see just how hard the strike has been hitting eBay itself. According to reports, the site has seen a 13% drop in its auction listings.

Data that has been compiled by medved.net and dealscart.com indicate that there are now “only” 13 million items available on the site. eBay users have started to smell the blood in the water apparently and have decided to extend the current strike in hopes eBay will begin to give in to some of their demands. After what they considered to be an effective first week, sellers are now extending the strike by one more week, stretching it out until March 3.

We had some great reader feedback on our posts last week over the current strike, and it seems like most of our BloggingStocks readers agree that the current changes eBay is imposing are unfair. Several of our readers are avid eBay users, and let us know that they had indeed joined in the sellers strike and were looking for new alternatives for their online auction business. I’m curious to hear if these eBay users will continue to boycott the site for another week, or slowly return to business as usual on the site. Let us know your intentions, and what alternatives to eBay you’ve found (if any).

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Bush Plays Politics With Intel
Washington Post - Using the authorities provided in the Protect America Act, we’ve obtained information about efforts of an individual to become a suicide operative, efforts by terrorists to obtain guns and ammunition, and terrorists transferring money.

PolyMet Presents at BMO Capital Markets 2008 Global Metals and Mining
MSN MoneyCentral - PolyMet Mining Corp. (TSX: POM)(AMEX: PLM) (”PolyMet” or the “Company”) reported today that Chief Financial Officer Douglas Newby is presenting at the BMO Capital Markets 2008 Global Metals and Mining Conference being held in Hollywood, Florida, at 5

Avastin approval lifts Genentech shares
CNN Money - NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Genentech Inc. jumped Monday following Friday’s announcement that the company’s best-selling drug, Avastin, received Food and Drug Administration approval as a breast cancer treatment. The stock gained $6.90, or 9.6%, at

Endowments to miss their target by a mile
Daily Telegraph - Mortgage endowments are on the slide again, as recent volatile markets take their toll on returns from with-profits policies. Many companies that have declared payouts so far this year, such as Norwich Union, Friends Provident, Scottish Widows and

Community Financial Shares, Inc. to Initiate Stock Repurchase Program
MSN MoneyCentral - Community Financial Shares, Inc. CFIS (the “Company”), the holding company for Community Bank of Wheaton/Glen Ellyn (the “Bank”), announced today that the Company’s Board of Directors has approved the repurchase of up to 15,000 shares of the Company

Consumers tune out FDA warnings
CNN Money - NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A flood of drug safety warnings from the Food and Drug Administration may have doctors and patients suffocating from information saturation. Experts say there are too many red flags for them to pay attention. “It seems

The No-Fun Presidency
US News and World Report - That would bring in only $50 billion—and that money would be needed to “pay” for reforming the alternative minimum tax. (Obama has committed to following congressional budget rules.

Watchdogs warn about EU central Europe projects
Reuters - If the money drives reckless developments and environmental destruction, its potential to deliver benefits is being wasted,” stated Martin Konecny, coordinator for EU funds at Friends of the Earth Europe.

Fitch Mulls Mortgage Insurance Downgrade
CNN Money - NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Fitch Ratings is considering slashing its rating on some of the biggest mortgage insurers in the country, saying Monday a spike in unpaid home loans is triggering more claims. Fitch is considering downgrading PMI Group

Sector Snap: most handset stocks fall
MSN MoneyCentral - Motorola Inc ( MOT ) Stock Quote , Chart , News , Add to Watchlist NEW YORK (AP) - Handset stocks mostly declined Monday, with Motorola Inc. falling after an Oppenheimer & Co. analyst lowered the stock to “Perform,” saying checks show “very weak

Fannie, Freddie Downgraded by Goldman
CNN Money - NEW YORK (Associated Press) - A major Wall Street bank reduced its outlook on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just days before the government-sponsored mortgage-finance companies release their fourth-quarter earnings. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. downgraded

Buzztime Announces Partnership With Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
MSN MoneyCentral - Buzztime’s interactive trivia contest sends winners to compete on CBC’s Test the Nation CARLSBAD, Calif., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — NTN Buzztime, Inc. NTN , a multi-point social interactive entertainment company, announces today a partnership

Titanium Metals Declares Dividend
CNN Money - NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Titanium Metals Corp. stated its board declared a regular quarterly dividend of 7.5 cents per share. The titanium metals producer said the dividend is payable March 25 to shareholders of record March 11

Wasteful spending at NJ colleges?
MSN MoneyCentral - TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A top say investigator on Monday stated wasteful spending is rampant at New Jersey public colleges and universities and urged lawmakers to impose stricter oversight. Cary Edwards, chairman of the State Commission of Investigation

Global Payments to Present at Goldman Sachs ‘Technology Investment
MSN MoneyCentral - (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010221/ATW031LOGO ) Global Payments Inc. GPN is a leading provider of electronic transaction processing services for consumers, merchants, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), financial institutions

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Productivity, Web services, Google, web 2.0

There’s a new feature in town for Gmail Chat, but it’s actually not all that new. It’s been possible for some time now to go into “invisible” mode via AIM and other chat protocols, but Gmail Chat is finally joining the invisible party.

Going invisible through chat software enables IMers to log into their IM accounts without showing that they’ve logged on. It’s still possible for others to IM you, though it’s unlikely since you wouldn’t be listed as “online”, and you can also IM others.

Invisible mode in Gmail Chat doesn’t yet work with Google Talk, the gadget and desktop app. Currently, it’s only supported via the on the internet Gmail interface, but we’re sure that’ll change soon.

[via Google Operating System]

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Fertilizer prices boost Israel Chemicals: Analysts at Clal Finance … - Trading Markets (press release)

Fertilizer prices boost Israel Chemicals: Analysts at Clal Finance … Trading Markets (press release), Share This Share This No Comments »

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