Bankruptcy blog

MagCom was a manufacturer of cellular GSM handsets, located in Oslo, Norway.

The company’s single product was the tri-band MagCom cellular phone, on sale from April 2001, until the company declared bankruptcy on August 10, 2001.

In the months before the phone became available for purchase, most of the major IT-related media were ecstatic about the new phone, extensively hyping it. Some publications even claiming it would revolutionize the industry.
When the phone finally became available for sale, it had already been delayed 12 months. Due to this, expectations had grown even higher, and much was expected in terms of functionality and technology. The phone rapidly proved a great disappointment, as it had a price of approximately NOK 8000 (around $1200 USD), but came without support for GPRS, HSCSD or Bluetooth. It also had several serious software bugs, including one in the WAPreader which preventing users from reading WAP pages. In addition, the design was attractive, but regarded as clumsy by many users due to the need for a large antenna in a time when most cellular phones used an internal antenna.

Although several software updates were released, sales remained low, resulting in financial problems for the company. Even releasing information about an upcoming new and improved model failed to help the company secure additional financial support. This resulted in the production being stopped early in August 2001, and the company declaring bankruptcy just a week later. MagCom was later bought by the Norwegian company Q-Free.

In bankruptcy the debtor, by way of a Motion to Avoid Lien, can avoid certain liens that attached to the debtor’s exempt property prior to the filing of the bankruptcy petition. This action is often used to clear title to land from a judgment lien arising out of pre-petition activity in a state court.

Robert S. (Steve) Miller;
Was hired as Delphi chairman by General Motors and Delphi Corp. to file bankruptcy. Miller was hired to slash costs and close unprofitable operations. Miller - a restructuring expert who was hired in July 2005 filed Saturday, October 8 2005. It was the largest auto industry bankruptcy filing to date. It was filed with Judge Arthur Gonzalez of New York. Delphi Corp. has 50,000 employees in the US and 185,000 worldwide.

A bankruptcy risk score is a number that indicates the likelihood of an individual filing for bankruptcy. Although it has been used for over twenty years to assess risk in lending, few consumers know of it. It is related to the better-known credit score, but unlike credit scores, bankruptcy risk scores are not sold to consumers by any of the credit bureaus. Consequentially, individuals have little or no way of knowing what their bankruptcy risk scores are or how to adjust them downward.

This is also referred to as debt analysis which allows lenders the ability to assess a customers’ risk in taking out a loan. One can improve their score by paying bills on time, keeping balances low, and having few revolving accounts.

References

Equifax, a US credit bureau, offers a bankruptcy risk score called Bankruptcy Navigator Index to its commercial clients.

Chapter 12 refers to Chapter 12 of Title 11 of the United States Code, a chapter of the Bankruptcy Code. This chapter of the Bankruptcy Code is available only to family farmers and fishermen in certain situations. It is similar to Chapter 13 in some ways, but in other ways benefits farmers and fishermen in ways other than that which is available to ordinary U.S. wage earners.

As recently as mid-2004, Chapter 12 was scheduled to expire, but in late 2004 it was renewed and made permanent.

Criticism exists due to the fact that Chapter 12’s relatively advantageous provisions are only available to a limited number of filers.

2003 Statistics

Bankruptcy filings by individuals:

• Chapter 7 filings: 1,156,284
• Chapter 11 filings: 959
• Chapter 13 filings: 468,562

Bankruptcy filings by businesses:

• Chapter 7 filings: 21,008
• Chapter 11 filings: 9,185
• Chapter 12 filings: 698
• Chapter 13 filings: 5,201

The total number of bankruptcies rose 7.4 percent over the previous twelve months. These totals were for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2003.

Source: November 14 2003 News Release, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (External link to PDF file: [1])

2004 Statistics

TOTAL bankruptcies:

• Chapter 7 filings: 1,153,865
• Chapter 11 filings: 10,368
• Chapter 12 filings: 238
• Chapter 13 filings: 454,412

Bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts fell 2.6 percent in fiscal year 2004 according to the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. During the 12-month period ending September 30, 2004, 1,618,987 bankruptcies were filed, down from the 1,661,996 bankruptcy cases filed in fiscal year 2003.

Source: November 14 2003 News Release, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (External link to PDF file: [2])

Jongro Seojuk, or less known as Jongro Book Center, was the mecca of book shopping in Seoul, Korea for many book fanatics over the decades. It opened its door in 1907, with a 95 year old history, it was the place for university students, highschool students, anyone, looking for an opening of the mind came to Jongro Seojuk for solace. Jongro Seojuk became a famous rendezvous place for many people, where by the term “meet in front of Jongro Seojuk” became as commonplace as “meet in front of Seoul Station” It became the center of the literate and intellectually minded young people. It was even a famous meeting point among the non-literate.

History

It was started by the Church of the Message of Christ, in 1907, who bought a timber-built tile-roof house, first started off by selling books relating to Christianity, over the years it changed its name from Kyomoon Seogwan, Jongro Seogwan and in 1963, by adopting the name “Jongro Seojuk Center”, it became the leading bookstore of Seoul. Slowly over the 90s, the 300 strong employee base dwindled to a meager 50, and finally in 2002, not being able to reverse its $11.5 million deficit, it declared bankruptcy. It apparently looked for a third party buyer, but no one came to their rescue.

It declared bankruptcy in 2002, June, right in the middle of the Soccer World Cup 2002. The reasons for its bankruptcy were rumored being for its lack of parking space, introduction of internet book stores (this has little credence as other major book stores like Kyobo or Youngpoong has grown bigger every year), and general lack of customer service, the fact that one had climb through five different floors to look for a book, and its inadequate size. There was also voices criticising its flippant position of being so sure of its future, relying on old customers, being ran by people who believed that Jongro Seojuk would survive. It cared nothing for the growing expansion of the new Kyobo Moongo which opened its doors in 1981, it did not try to improve or change its image or store to match changing times. In essence, marketing failed, and customer-company relationship had become literally non-existent by the 1990s. It still managed to rake in a few loyal customers till the mid 90s, but after 2000, Jongro Seojuk was overshadowed by the new, and more modern book stores in Jongro.

Centenary Loss

The bankruptcy was quietly forgotten by many because of the World Cup, but millions of people remember the only book store that did not fail them if they looked for a book. After its bankruptcy, numerous people regretted the loss of the only cultural literary tradition in Korea that would’ve neared its centenary celebrations.

See also

• List of bookstore chains

Michael Otto (born April 12, 1943, in Kulm (Chełmno)) is the head of Otto Group, the world’s largest mail order company, with $24 billion in sales in fiscal year 2003. Thanks to a 30% rise in Internet sales last year, Otto also maintains its position as the Web’s second-biggest retailer, behind Amazon.com.

They were the former owners of Spiegel, Inc., (the parent company of Eddie Bauer and former owners of Spiegel catalog), which filed for bankruptcy on March 17, 2003. On May 25, 2005, Spiegel, Inc., emerged from bankruptcy renamed Eddie Bauer Holdings and is now owned primarily by Commerzbank. The Otto Group no long has any stake in the company.

Otto and his family own extensive real estate in Canada and in the United States, shopping centers in Germany and part of home-furnishings chain Crate & Barrel. Known as a committed environmentalist, his company has long touted environmentally safe products.

External links

• Forbes World’s Richest People
• Otto Group

Indian Springs State Bank was an American Savings and Loan in Kansas City, Kansas. It was notable as the bank of choice for a number of mobsters. After extending hundreds of thousands of dollars in unsecured loans and tie-in arrangements (to, among other things, Global International Airways), Indian Springs filed for bankruptcy in 1984.

John Frederick “Jack” Rowley (October 7, 1920 – June 28, 1998) was an English football player. His younger brother Arthur still holds the record for the most number of goals scored in the Football League during a career with 434.

Rowley was purchased from Bournemouth & Boscombe by Manchester United for £3,000. He was a deadly striker, his nickname was The Gunner, in the 1940s and early 1950s. His first game for the club came in 1937 against Sheffield Wednesday. He helped United to the 1948 FA Cup and their 1952 championship. He retired in 1955 with 422 appearances for the club and 208 goals.
He later went on to manage Oldham Athletic, gaining promotion to the Third Division in 1963. From here, he went on to manage AFC Ajax for the 1963-64 season.

References

• England profile

The psychology of learning is a theoretical science which seeks understanding of learning.

Learning is a process that depends on experience and leads to longterm changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential designates the possible behavior of an individual, not actual behavior. The main assumption behind all learning psychology is that the effects of the environment, conditioning, reinforcement, etc. provide psychologists with the best information from which to understand human behavior.

As opposed to short term changes in behavior potential (caused e.g. by fatigue) learning implies long term changes. As opposed to long term changes caused by aging and development, learning implies changes related directly to experience.

Learning theories try to better understand how the learning process works. Major research traditions are behaviorism, Cognitivism (psychology) and self-regulated learning. Neurosciences have provided important insights into learning, too, even when using much simpler organisms than humans (aplysia).

See also

• Learning
• Latent learning
• Learning theory (education)

Readings

• Zentall, T.R. (2006). Imitation: Definitions, evidence, and mechanisms. Animal Cognition, 9, 335-353. (A thorough review of different types of social learning) Full text

The term means test refers to an investigative process undertaken to determine whether or not an individual or family is eligible to receive certain types of benefits from the government. The “test” can consist of quantifying the party’s income, or assets, or a combination of both.

During the Great Depression, the test was used to screen applicants for such programs as Home Relief in the United States, and starting in the 1960s, for benefits such as those provided by the Food Stamp Program.

In 1992, third-party Presidential candidate Ross Perot proposed that future Social Security benefits be subjected to a means test; though this was hailed by some as a potential solution to an impending crisis in funding the program, few other political candidates since Perot have publicly made the same suggestion, which would require costly investigations and might associate accepting those benefits with social stigma.

In 2005, the United States substantially changed its bankruptcy laws, adding a means test to prevent wealthy debtors from filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The bankruptcy means test is rather complex but quite generous and most debtors have no trouble meeting its requirements. Consumers can use a means test calculator to determine their eligibility.

Examples of means testing in the healthcare sector include Medicaid (USA), Medifund (Singapore) and Medical Cards (Ireland) Means Testing for Medical Subsidies.

External links

• U.S. Bankruptcy Courts information on means testing
• Free means test calculator (USA Only)

References

Jackass Flats is located at coordinates latitude 36.66 & longitude -116.00 in the US state of Nevada. It is located in Nye County. The town’s historical significance involves it as the test site of Project Pluto, administered by the U.S. Air Force and Project Orion, administered by General Atomic in the late 1950s.

Personal bankruptcy is a procedure which, in certain jurisdictions, allows an individual to declare bankruptcy. In other jurisdictions, bankruptcies are reserved for corporations.

Personal bankruptcy (Canada)

The concept behind bankruptcy in Canada is that an individual assigns (surrender) everything they own to a trustee in bankruptcy in exchange for the elimination of their unsecured debts.

Exemptions

The rules for filing personal bankruptcy in each province and territory differ slightly. In some areas of Canada individuals may be permitted to keep (exempt) certain property. Common items for exemption include clothing, furniture, appliances, motor vehicles, medical and dental aids, a home, family heirlooms, and some insurance. In basic terms, any property the debtor might require to survive can be exempt. Personal Bankruptcy will eliminate most, if not all, of an individual’s debt, but it also impacts their future ability to obtain credit.

Costs

The cost of personal bankruptcy in Canada depends on the individual’s monthly family income, the size of the family, and their assets (such as RRSPs). An alternative to personal bankruptcy (in Canada) is a Consumer Proposal.

MIOSHA is an abbreviation for the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

MIOSHA History

The Michigan Legislature created the modern Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act, Public Act 154 of 1974, in order to better prevent workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities in Michigan by: setting and enforcing occupational safety and health standards; promoting safety and health training and education; and working with partners to develop innovative programs to prevent workplace hazards. P.A. 154 went into effect for private sector employers on January 1, 1975 and for public sector employers on July 1, 1975.

The MIOSHA Act established the General Industry Safety Standards Commission, the Construction Safety Standards Commission, and the Occupational Health Commission. The commissions are responsible for developing standards in consultation with advisory committees whose members represent the major interests affected by the proposed standard. The standards are intended to protect the health and safety of Michigan’s employees.

MIOSHA was administered by the Michigan Department of Public Health, Occupational Health Division and the Michigan Department of Labor, Bureau of Safety and Regulation until 1996 when Governor John Engler issued Executive Order 1996-1 which transferred occupational health responsibilities to the Bureau of Safety and Regulation.

In September 2003, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed Executive Order 2003-14 creating the Department of Labor and Economic Growth (DLEG). The department was created by renaming the Department of Consumer and Industry Services (CIS) and merging many Department of Career Development functions into the new department along with several other key programs from other departments.

Current Organization

Effective December 8, 2003, the MIOSHA program reorganized its operational structure by creating the Management & Technical Services Division and combining enforcement divisions. The General Industry Safety Division, Construction Safety Division and the Occupational Health Division became the General Industry Safety & Health Division (GISHD) and the Construction Safety and Health Division (CSHD). The MIOSHA Information Division became the Management Information Systems Section and the MIOSHA Standards Division became the MIOSHA Standards Section. Both are administered by MTSD. The Employee Discrimination Division became the Employee Discrimination Section and is administered by GISHD. The Asbestos program is administered by CSHD. In addition, the program name changed from the Bureau of Safety and Regulation to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA).

See also

• OSHA
• Occupational safety and health

External links

• MIOSHA website
• MIOSHA Training Institute at Macomb
• Free MIOSHA Publications

Section 1110 (of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, ) - Generally provides a secured party with an interest in an aircraft the ability to take possession of the equipment within 60 days after a bankruptcy filing unless the airline cures all defaults. More specifically, the right of the lender to take possession of the secured equipment is not hampered by the automatic stay provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. is the company founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert Atkins to promote the Atkins Diet.

Following the death of its founder and a reduction in demand for Atkins products, Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. filed for bankruptcy. The company emerged from bankruptcy on January 10, 2006 with a softened marketing emphasis on the low-carbohydrate aspect of its products and an attempt to emphasize the overall nutritional value of its line of foods. It now has in place a business strategy concentrating on sales of prepared nutrition bars and shakes.

External links

• Atkins Nutritionals web page

North Pennsylvania Railroad (NPR) was railroad company formed in 1855 in the state of Pennsylvania, United States. The construction of the line started in 1852 but was not operational until 3 years later in 1855.

In 1856 the company suffered its first accidient in the The Great Train Wreck of 1856.

In 1857 an extension was built to Doylestown, Pennsylvania and during the 1860’s another extension was built to Sellersville, Pennsylvania, running parallel to Bethlehem Pike.

The Reading Company leased North Pennsylvania Railroad on May 14, 1879 which later led to the eventual demise of NPR due to the bankruptcy of the Reading Company and subsequent merger into Conrail.

See also

• List of railroads transferred to Conrail

A money note is a vocal moment in a piece of music which causes a person to take notice. This usually corresponds to a show of extremely impressive vocal talents. Money notes can often have the effect of making a listener’s hair stand up on their arms. Sometimes the note itself will be inconsequential, it may be a large interval jump that takes attention of the listener. Money notes are likely named so because 1) these are the distinctive notes that ’sell’ a song for a listener, and also because 2) singers capable of them make themselves, their managers and recording labels a considerable income.

Examples

Whitney Houston’s version of the Dolly Parton song “I Will Always Love You” at the beginning of the third rendition of the chorus: pause, drum beat, and then “I will always love you.”

The Céline Dion song from Titanic “My Heart Will Go On”: the key change that begins the third verse — “You’re here / There’s nothing I fear.”

References

• New Yorker
• The science behind the “money note”
• Money note as a word used in the Recording industry
• Reference to tenors hitting money notes
• Suggested connection between hitting high notes and being paid a lot for them

Many sub-national governments have a Department of Natural Resources or similarly-named organization:

Australia

• Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines

Canada

• Natural Resources Canada
• New Brunswick
  • New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources
• Nova Scotia
  • Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources

United States

• Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
• Alaska Department of Natural Resources
• Colorado Department of Natural Resources
• Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
• Georgia Department of Natural Resources
• Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources
• Illinois Department of Natural Resources
• Indiana Department of Natural Resources
• Iowa Department of Natural Resources
• Kentucky Department for Natural Resources
• Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
• Maryland Department of Natural Resources
• Michigan Department of Natural Resources
• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
  
• Missouri Department of Natural Resources
• Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation
• Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
• North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
• Ohio Department of Natural Resources
• Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
• South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
• South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources
• Utah Department of Natural Resources
• West Virginia Division of Natural Resources
• Washington Department of Natural Resources
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Caliban upon Setebos is an 1864 poem written by the British poet Robert Browning. It deals with Caliban, a character from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and his reflections on Setebos, the brutal god he believes in. Some scholars see Browning as being of the belief that God is in the eye of the beholder, and this is emphasized by a barbaric character believing in a barbaric god. Others feel that he was satirizing theologians of his time, who attempted to understand God as a reflection of themselves; this theory is supported by the epigraph, Psalm 50:21, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.” This could be taken as God mocking Caliban (and Browning’s contemporaries) for their methods of attempting to understand Him (see note at the bottom of [1].)

The poem is referred to in Dan Simmons’ science fiction books Ilium and Olympos, in which Caliban and Setebos are villains.

External links

• Sparknote’s study guide of the poem

Growth capital is a very flexible type of financing. The money borrowed under a growth capital line of credit can be used for any corporate purposes. There are no requirements to provide invoices or other backup material when borrowing under this type of facility, so administration is simplified as well.

Growth capital can be a beneficial way to extend a company’s runway between rounds of financing. The extra time can be used to complete additional milestones that will raise the company’s valuation, or as insurance to ensure that all intended milestones are successfully accomplished.

References

• “What is Growth Capital?”, Industry Canada
• “The growth capital market in the US”, Alliance
• “Herb Greenberg” for The Street

See also

• Hybrid security
• Convertible bond
• Preferred stock
• mezzanine loan
• Private equity
• Mezzanine debt
• Senior debt
• Debtor-in-Possession Financing

Several United States laws have been called the Civil Rights Act:

• Civil Rights Act of 1866[1] aimed to buttress Civil Rights Laws to protect freedmen and to grant full citizenship to those born on U.S. soil except Indians. While President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, the veto was overridden by U.S. Congress.
• Civil Rights Act of 1871[2] was also known at the time as the “Ku Klux Klan Act” because one of main reasons for its passage was to protect southern blacks from the KKK by providing a civil remedy for abuses then being committed in the south.
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed blacks the same treatment as whites in certain public places. This bill was ruled unconstitutional by the Civil Rights Cases. Subsequently legislation has used the interstate commerce clause as the basis for legislation.
• Civil Rights Act of 1957 established a Civil Rights Commission (CRC) to protect individuals rights to equal protection and permitted courts to grant injunctions in support of the CRC.
• Civil Rights Act of 1960 established federal inspection of local voter registration rolls
• Civil Rights Act of 1964[3] was a landmark law prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
• Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
• Civil Rights Act of 1991[4] provided for the right to trial by jury on discrimination claims and introduced the possibility of emotional distress damages, while limiting the amount that a jury could award.

DiscoverRx develops, commercializes and manufactures reagents and assay kits for the drug discovery market. Their focus is on lucrative protein target classes, such as G-protein-coupled receptors and kinases.

The company is built around a proprietary technology called enzyme fragment complementation or EFC which forms the basis of the assays that they design and market. In EFC, two β-galactosidase fragments are employed which are themselves inactive. One fragment (EA) has an inactivating deletion while the second fragment (ED) has a complementing fragment; in solution where both EA and ED are present, the fragments combine and active β-gal tetramers form spontaneously.

Marshall v. Marshall, 04-1544 (2006),Supreme Court Case is a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that a federal district court had equal jurisdiction with state probate (will) courts over tort claims under state law. The case drew an unusual amount of interest because the petitioner was former Playboy Playmate and controversial celebrity Anna Nicole Smith (legal name Vickie Lynn Marshall).

Smith lost in her attempt to claim part of the estate in a Texas probate court against Marshall’s son, E. Pierce Marshall. However, a bankruptcy judge in California, brought into the case in 1996 when Smith filed for bankruptcy under federal law in that state, awarded Smith $474 million. A Federal District court reduced Smith’s award to $88 million. The 9th Circuit appellate court threw out the District Court decision, declaring that only Texas’s courts have jurisdiction.

The Bush administration, which wanted to limit exceptions to federal jurisdiction in state probate related matters, instructed the United States Solicitor General to submit a brief on the side of the petitioner.

On February 28, 2006, oral arguments were heard in the case. The United States Supreme Court unanimously decided the case in favor of the petitioner, Anna Nicole Smith, regarding the question of federal jurisdiction on May 1 2006. The case has been remanded to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to decide the remaining appellate issues.

In light of the deaths of Respondent E. Pierce Marshall on June 20 2006 and Petitioner Anna Nicole Smith on February 8 2007, the case will likely be handled by estate representatives.

References

External links

GRAN is an abbreviation of GSM radio access network. It consists of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and Base Station Controllers (BSC), which are together referred to as a BSS. Its purpose is to manage the radio link between mobile phones and a telecommunication core network. This access network provides access to both Circuit switched (CS) and Packet switched (PS) core networks.