As reported several different places, billionaire Mark Cuban was charged with insider trading today for selling 600,000 shares of Mamma.com more than four years ago.  Understandably, Cuban is contesting the charges (click the links above for details). 

The SEC is stating that the sale allowed Cuban to avoid around $750,000 in losses.  I find it rather amusing that they no doubt feel the avoided loss will strengthen their case.  Since the amount is by no means substantial to Cuban, I can't help but wonder if stating this will actually weaken it.  To me, it's pretty obvious that the sale was not strictly based on trying to save a few hundred thousand dollars.

I wish Mark all the best, but I suspect everything will turn out alright for him.  The SEC is notorious for doing a consistently terrible job, and besides, Mark appears far too innocent for this to go anywhere.  I've seen shows on CNBC actually bring up charts detailing insider trading almost in real time, but the SEC rarely does anything.  One host even poked fun at the SEC, stating that it was so easy for him to spot but, mysteriously, so difficult for them.  Hopefully, this will all blow over soon so they can focus their limited resources elsewhere.

There's a great article on YourHome.ca that reminded me how broadband connections are not as popular as we all sometimes believe.  As if the higher cost of gas, along with the real estate crisis, wasn't hurting rural area housing enough, it turns out people are also moving away because they can't get broadband!

If you're reading my blog, you're most likely already more tech savvy than usual, and therefore more likely to have a broadband connection, but I'm still surprised that people would be willing to move for what we take for granted.  Perhaps I forget the sting of 56kps.  It has been nine years or so.

The end of the article gets to me a little bit though.  Why would anyone move back to a house that they moved away from over broadband?  While I guess you could question the intelligence of the original move (couldn't they get a satellite connection before?), to me, moving back is a pretty expensive way to own a mistake.  On the other hand, I've had broadband the whole time, so maybe I just don't understand.

Volkswagen shares jumped nearly 90 percent today, on a day that saw a Dow jump of almost 900 points as well.  However, Volkswagen AG was also up 150 percent the previous day.  How?  Porsche announced on Sunday that they had upped their stake in the company to 42.6 percent, and had plans to increase it's holdings to 75% in 2009, but that's not the whole story.

Rumor has it (aka, I heard on CNBC...) that the gigantic run was due in part to hedge funds being short squeezed.  At one point, Volkswagen became not just the most valuable automaker, but the most valuable company on the planet (momentarily besting Exxon Mobil).  The Financial Ninja has covered this story in depth if you're looking for more details.

Here are a few interesting articles that I've collected over the past week.  If you've written about or covered something interesting and entertaining over the past seven days that you think should be included in the next "Weekend Edition" post, feel free to contact me using the form on the Contact page of this website.

Canadian Capitalist manages to find some humor in the credit crunch, my favorite piece being this comic strip.

AutoBlog covers NASA's new lunar rover.

Though posted back in July, Toxel.com lists 20 brilliant advertisements.

While this isn't the first time Tesla has axed employees, workers in the Detroit branch were recently laid off via a blog post.  The company finally decided to notify them via other means, but got around to it two days after the people were actually let go.  I can't imagine this will be good for Tesla's image, and it definitely flies in the face of how a company like Ferrari treats their employees.

Here are a few interesting articles that I've collected over the past week.  If you've written about or covered something interesting and entertaining over the past seven days that you think should be included in the next "Weekend Edition" post, feel free to contact me using the form on the Contact page of this website.

MSN Finance lists 10 products Canadians love, but have to go to the US to actually buy.

NASA will be launching another rover in the fall of 2009.  You can visit the Mars Science Laboratory website for more information, and also view a demo video on LikeCool.com.

Forbes covers the "Cost of Living Extremely Well" (seriously!) in various world class cities.

The final Mercedes McLaren SLR Roadster to be sold in the USA will be going up for auction.  Since it will obviously be sold for a premium, all funds raised over the $529,500 MSRP will be donated to St Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Differentiating this particular SLR Roadster from others is the Sienna Pearl Super Metallic paint, with metallic flakes three times their usual size, the Tabacoo Brown interior, and gold brake calipers.

While this may be the last regular SLR Roadster, the SLR Roadster 772 S will be out January 1st, 2009.

Here are a few interesting articles that I've collected over the past week.  If you've written about or covered something interesting and entertaining over the past seven days that you think should be included in the next "Weekend Edition" post, feel free to contact me using the form on the Contact page of this website.

Miguel Caballero has developed a bulletproof polo shirt!

CounterNotions covers a unique type of art called reverse graffiti.  Is it vandalism or actually helpful?

TechCrunch discusses political cereal.  Seriously.

Autoblog just revealed that Ruf has created an electric prototype based on the Porsche 911 (it's pronounced "roof").  Engadget, a technology blog I read every now and then, also covered the story.  If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll understand why this excites me so much:  more competition for Tesla!  As a bonus, the car is not based on the smaller Cayman as rumored earlier, which coincides with my belief that we need more truly premium electric cars on the market.  It's been said that Ruf's electric 911 will also be a competitor for Fisker's Karma (covered here), and while that's true, I think Ruf is a more established company who will end up drawing in a different type of customer.  That is, assuming it gets built.  Now all they need is a distribution network that beats Tesla's uninspiring showroom.

Finding a blogging topic today sure was easy!  TechCrunch is being sued by Earthcomber, a patent owner who's really suing Loopt, but decided TechCrunch was worth adding in an amended complaint.  Basically, they don't really want to go through with this, they just want to sue Loopt.  However, they couldn't get Michael Arrington on the phone, so they thought a lawsuit might get his attention.  It did.  I highly recommend reading the full story.  This is going to be pretty fun to watch.