Canadian Funding Corp Innovations

Canadian Funding Corp Innovations, Sept. 9, 2009 – Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) shares fell more than 4 percent on Wednesday, as investors reacted to the dilutive impact of a planned equity offering that could be worth as much as $4 billion.

Barrick, in a move that shows its faith that gold will continue to rise, announced an equity sale of at least $3 billion late on Tuesday, to be used to eliminate all of its fixed-price gold hedges and a portion of its floating hedges.

On Wednesday morning the world’s top gold miner boosted the offering amount to at least $3.5 billion, or as much as $4 billion if an overallotment is exercised, citing strong investor demand.

Buying back the hedges — which will result in a $5.6 billion charge to third-quarter earnings — should remove a major overhang on the company’s shares, as investors have long called for Barrick to completely exit its hedge book.

During times of weak prices, gold miners often sell a portion of their future production to protect, or hedge, against the possibility that prices will fall.

When prices rise, as they have done since 2001, the company suffers because value of the future production they’ve sold does not increase with the gold price.

Barrick will spend $1.9 billion to eliminate its entire fixed-price position of 3 million ounces — on which the company essentially loses money every time gold rises — and will pay $1 billion to buy back a portion of its floating-price position.

Jennings Research analyst Ron Coll called the move positive, both in terms of the company’s ability to fully benefit from rising gold prices and in terms of what it suggests about Barrick’s own expectations for the metal.

“It is a signal that the industry’s largest producer does not want to be caught out in what it views as a fundamentally and inflationary driven increasing gold price environment,” he said in a note.

He maintained a C$50 target on the shares, despite the dilutive impact of the offering, which could raise Barrick’s share count by as much as 12.5 percent.

Investors, however, put pressure on the stock following a delayed open on the Toronto Stock Exchange, selling it down C$1.75 to C$40.70. The price of gold XAU=, meanwhile, was hovering just below $1,000 an ounce, having risen about 5 percent so far this month.

Blackmont Capital’s Richard Gray cut his target on Barrick stock to C$48.50 from C$49.00, but said the move was a major positive for both the company and the entire gold market.

“From an overall market standpoint, the buyback of the 3 million ounces in the market should have a positive impact, but just as important is the monumental signal by the world’s largest gold company that it believes gold prices are poised to increase further,” he said in a note.

“We believe this move by Barrick will help to sustain gold prices above $1,000 an ounce over the next 6-12 months.”

Open Exchange: Spotlight – Barrick Gold Corp. – Bloomberg
Shaping the Post-Crisis World – Live! From World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: Interview with Barrick Gold Chairman Peter Munk

Canadian Funding Corp Innovations, September, 9, 2009 – A New York man is donating his 320th pint of blood this week, making him one of two people in the U.S. who has given 40 gallons.

Al Fischer of Massapequa planned to reach the milestone Tuesday, 58 years after he started giving blood.
According to a New York Blood Center official, only 83-year-old Maurice Wood has donated more blood than Fischer. Wood is a retired railroad inspector from St. Louis.

The human body contains approximately 6 quarts (or 5.6 liters) of blood.

* In one day, your blood travels nearly 12,000 miles.
* Your heart beats around 35 million times per year.
* Your heart pumps a million barrels of blood during the average lifetime — enough to fill three supertankers.

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body’s cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells.

In vertebrates, it is composed of blood cells suspended in a liquid called blood plasma. Plasma, which comprises 55% of blood fluid, is mostly water (90% by volume), and contains dissolved proteins, glucose, mineral ions, hormones, carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation), platelets and blood cells themselves. The blood cells present in blood are mainly red blood cells (also called RBCs or erythrocytes) and white blood cells, including leukocytes and platelets. The most abundant cells in vertebrate blood are red blood cells. These contain hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein, which facilitates transportation of oxygen by reversibly binding to this respiratory gas and greatly increasing its solubility in blood. In contrast, carbon dioxide is almost entirely transported extracellularly dissolved in plasma as bicarbonate ion.

Vertebrate blood is bright-red when its hemoglobin is oxygenated. Some animals, such as crustaceans and mollusks, use hemocyanin to carry oxygen, instead of hemoglobin. Insects and some molluscs use a fluid called hemolymph instead of blood, the difference being that hemolymph is not contained in a closed circulatory system. In most insects, this “blood” does not contain oxygen-carrying molecules such as hemoglobin because their bodies are small enough for their tracheal system to suffice for supplying oxygen.

Jawed vertebrates have an adaptive immune system, based largely on white blood cells. White blood cells help to resist infections and parasites. Platelets are important in the clotting of blood. Arthropods, using hemolymph, have hemocytes as part of their immune system.

Blood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the pumping action of the heart. In animals having lungs, arterial blood carries oxygen from inhaled air to the tissues of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism produced by cells, from the tissues to the lungs to be exhaled.

Medical terms related to blood often begin with hemo- or hemato- (also spelled haemo- and haemato-) from the Ancient Greek word αἷμα (haima) for “blood”. In terms of anatomy and histology, blood is considered a specialized form of connective tissue, given its origin in the bones and the presence of potential molecular fibers in the form of fibrinogen.

Teen cries blood video provided by Moishe Alexander, Canadian Funding Corp Innovations

Calvino Inman is a 15 year old who has baffled doctors by crying blood.

Ivy Bean, Britain’s oldest Facebook star is celebrating her 104th birthday. She is receiving web messages from friends all over the world.

Ivy Bean was born in 1905. She started using the internet at her Bradford care home just over two years ago. Within months she had thousands of online fans to chat to and became one of the most popular Britons on social networking sites.

While most centenarians receive no more than a telegram from the Queen on their birthday, Mrs Bean receives messages from all over the world. “I’m going to celebrate with a party this afternoon, all being well,” said Ms. Bean.

The 104-year-old said she did not know how long she would continue with her daily web updates. “We’ll have to wait and see – it’s a long time ahead.”

A retired mill worker and great-grandmother, she has collected nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter and nearly 5,000 Facebook friends, making her one of the most-popular Britons on social networking sites.

She shares details of her daily routine and her favourite television programmes, Emmerdale and Deal Or No Deal.

Pat Wright, the manager of 133 Hillside Manor care home in Bradford, said that older people are often written off and stereotyped. “They don’t come in here wanting to sit looking at four walls all day and they don’t all want to knit with a blanket on their knees,” she said.

“They have exercise classes, we have a lady who comes in to give them manicures and facials and some of them play on the Nintendo Wii.”

The great grandmother from Bradford enjoys trips to the seaside.