Vittorio Hernandez

Australians who are considering buying stocks of oil and gas companies on the basis of the reported $20 trillion worth of potential oil reserves at the Arckaringa Basin in South Australia: beware.

Consistency has been the by word the the Australian share market this week. The gains have been modest in scale, although the volumes on from time have been surprisingly strong given the holiday period. Today was such a case, with $4.3 billion shares changing hands. From a technical point of view this is quite positive. It highlights the willingness of participants to accept higher prices.

News reports that South Australia could be sitting on a vast oilfield worth more than $20 trillion sparked global interest in the oil and gas sector amid rising price of the energy source. It was not just the resource sector that was livened up by Linc Energy's two reports but the cyber world as well.

The Australian market is improving for the seventh straight session; the longest winning streak in around three months. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.1 per cent or 2.9 pts to 4815. The miners are holding the market back today while the financials are helping to keep the situation a little positive.

The Android OS has become the world's most popular mobile system platform that it is available to almost any devices and to almost every brand in the market. There are expensive phones which costs a lot offering state-of-the-art technology while other phones are just a quarter of the cost of the expensive unit while providing the Android experience.

The most popular mobile OS platform in the world has too many good reasons why it is better than iOS.

Another device is rumored to be on the works and believed to be the next generation of its kind. Google Nexus 10 was released in November 2012 and the next gen is believed to be under development.

There's no doubt about it, eight-division boxing title holder Manny Pacquiao is one of the most successful rags-to-riches story in recent times. The Filipino boxing hero, from once being a construction worker paid the minimum wage, has parlayed his ring skills into an upper-class lifestyle worthy of being feature in the popular TV programme, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Name it, the Pacquiaos now have it - whether its palatial homes in the U.S. or the Philippines's commercial busines...

BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) seems to be following the footsteps of competitor Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) in terms of write-downs, firing and commodity production. A week after Rio fired Chief Executive Tom Albanese mainly over the write-down of aluminium assets, BHP said on Thursday that it will likely write off $4 billion of its Australian aluminium and nickel assets by February 2013.

Bob, the American software programmer who outsourced his tasks to Chinese developers and instead spent time watching feline videos, would surely disagree with a proposal by Gareth Morgan, a New Zealand economist. And so would other cat lovers too because Mr Morgan, in his Web site (http://garethsworld.com/catstogo/), suggested the gradual extinction of the country's cat population because of the threat the animals cause to native bird species.

The famous line of Mark Antony in the William Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears," must have been the inspiration of an 80-year-old retired Australian priest who appeared on Wednesday at the Perth Magistrates Court.

Another financial turbulence has hit the losing Australian flag carrier, Qantas, which reported on Wednesday the end of its multi-million contract with Air New Zealand. As a result, Qantas is sharpening its job-cutting axe.

Midweek has come and gone for the Australian sharemarket and consolidation remains the dominant theme for local investors. At face value the small improvement for the index appears unimpressive, although the increaseD volume points to investor willingness to support the market at higher levels.

The Australian sharemarket is higher for the sixth straight session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.3 per cent or 14.1 pts to 4817.00. This makes it the longest winning streak for local shares in over a month.

Toward the end of 2012, at the peak of speculations if there would be an apocalypse because of the Mayan Calendar prediction, there was global attention on volcanic eruptions. However, instead of fearing these end-of-the-world portents, amid more reports of increased volcanic activities in different parts of the world, crafty tour operators are benefiting from these potential volcanic blasts by promoting volcano tourism.

The South Korean company, LG, confirmed that their flagship smartphone Optimus G will be sold in Australia exclusively by Telstra. But the device is not yet available until March, and its launch has been delayed due to required network testing.

Temple Run's success led to the release of its sequel, Temple Run 2, in the Apple App Store. The game has been downloaded more than 20 million times since its initial release. It became the number 1 Free App within six hours and third-highest grossing app.

Although the final results are not yet out, Tuesday's Parliamentary election in Israel indicate that current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to win another term. Exit polls showed that his party, Likud-Beitenu, got 31 out of the 120 Knesset seats.

Mozilla Foundation has taken the fight to the next level as it previewed two smartphones operating Firefox OS. The company has invited developers for its new open-source mobile operating system that will challenge both Android and iOS.

Fifteen minutes of fame awaits an adventurous woman willing to lend her womb for scientific purposes. George Church, a genetics professor at Harvard School of Medicine, is seeking for that woman to create the first Neanderthal baby from DNA extracted from ancient fossils.

Two recent reports, released separately, forecast higher demand for coal in the next five years and its impact in terms of additional carbon dioxide releases.

The market inertia that dominated the start of the week continued for regional markets on Tuesday. The close of trade for the ASX 200 saw only modest gains on similarly modest volume. The atmosphere of inertia in itself is a test for the overall market. Since November last year, the index has rallied in the order of 10%. The end of 2012 has seen investors become less risk averse with hurdles being navigated successfully. It will be worth examining the behaviour of markets in general in the event...

The Australian sharemarket continues to improve and is up for the fifth consecutive session. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.2 per cent or 11.7 pts to 4813.9. Shares have improved by around 3 per cent so far in 2013, which is not quite as strong as this time last year. Over the first 3 weeks of 2012, the local market had gained 4.5 per cent.

Like his first term inauguration rite in 2009, the Monday public oath of office swearing ceremony by U.S. President Barack Obama attracted hundreds of thousands of Americans. The timing and location of the second-term inaugural rite was not lost on meme makers.

Lifestyle, which varies from person to person, was introduced as a term in the 1950s which defines the way a person lives. A specific lifestyle reflects an individual's attitudes, values, or world view and it means the forging of a sense of self and creation of personal identity.

A report from the Centre for Internet Safety of the University of Canberra said that Australians are among the world's heaviest Internet users, which makes them the most vulnerable to virtual stalkers.

The year 2012 was an unforgettable one for eight-division boxing title holder Manny Pacquiao because two events further fueled talks of his imminent retirement from professional boxing.

Australia and Europe are poles apart not only geography but also insofar as discrimination towards gays and lesbians are concerned. Australia's federal government is proposing anti-discrimination laws that would leave intersex people vulnerable to discrimination, while the European Court of Human Rights ruled last week that religion is not a justification for anti-gay discrimination.

Samsung seems to be full of surprises packed with many new devices this 2013. Before, the question was "Is it a phone, a tablet?" but this time it is "What is it that is sort of a phone and sort of a tablet?" Well, the answer would be Fonblet.