Behind Your Business

AP - How far the Dow Jones industrial average has fallen or advanced each trading day since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15. Since Lehman's fall, which touched off a paralysis of the credit markets and deepened the recession, the stock market has gone through an extended period of volatility that subsided during December but that has returned in 2009. The numbers are the closing levels for the Dow:

AP - A suspicious surge in trading of Schering-Plough Corp. shares just before news of its merger deal with fellow drugmaker Merck & Co. is being investigated by federal regulators, according to a published report.

Two years ago, Pure Digital revolutionized the capture and redistribution of digital video with the release of its Flip Ultra camcorder. The small, simple video cameras were designed to do just one thing: Take good-quality digital video that users could then post to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

The Flip Ultra quickly became the leading camcorder sold on Amazon and currently holds a 13 percent market share. Now the company is touting the release of the second generation, called the Flip UltraHD. The original Flip Ultra has been updated as the UltraSD. Both have bigger screens.

"The original Flip Ultra changed the way the world captures and shares video by making it easy, accessible and, most of all, fun," said Jonathan Kaplan, chairperson and CEO of Pure Digital. "Our new Flip UltraHD takes this to the next level by making it incredibly simple and affordable for anyone to capture and share hours of video in" high definition.

New Features

Pure Digital already has an HD camcorder, the Flip MinoHD, a slimmer and more expensive model. At a cost of $199, the Flip UltraHD falls squarely in between the UltraSD at $149 and the MinoHD at $229. Although its form factor is slightly clunkier than the Mino, the Flip UltraHD matches and in some cases exceeds the older HD model.

The most significant improvement is in recording capability. The Flip UltraHD uses MPEG-4/H.264 compression technology, which records up to nine Mbps. That translates into a full two hours of HD video capture, which Pure Digital made possible by doubling the device's battery life from one to two hours.

However, the rechargeable battery takes a startling seven hours to fully charge. The workaround for impatient videographers is to grab a package of AA batteries and run the Flip UltraHD with those.

One new feature that video enthusiasts will appreciate...

Reuters - U.S. securities regulator charged a former Citigroup investment banker for allegedly tipping his brother about upcoming merger deals in an insider trading scheme that involved six other friends and family members, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

With the Fed pulling out all stops to fight the financial crisis, the "spectre of inflation" is driving the financial markets currently, says Todd Harrison CEO of Minyanville.com.The Fed is