The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not Employment Report, Research in Motion or Rate Cut Skepticism

Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• Earnings from Research in Motion (RIMM)...the maker of the popular BlackBerry smart phone posted in-line earnings but a better-than-expected forcast...
• The monthly employment report which came in at expectations...nonfarm payrolls increased 110,000 and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.7%...stock futures popped on the news - the S&Ps are 10 points above fair value...
• Reports that say "The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn is investigating the collapse of two mortgage-related Bear Stearns [BSC] hedge funds"...
• Building skepticism "about the need for further interest-rate cuts" by the Fed...
• A cover story about the woes in housing...
• A look into whether the economy can weather $80 oil...
• A look into the current "momentum based" environment where it is said "If we see certain sectors breaking out, you're going to see the hedge funds, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, as they buy and push themselves higher"...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is, without a doubt, this - Hamsters on Viagra take center stage at spoof Nobel awards...that's right, the Ig Nobel awards are here!!!

If you aren't familiar with this event, the Igs "are chosen by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine to highlight scientific achievements that...'first make people laugh and then make them think'". A few of the achievements highlighted include:

• "Viagra helps hamsters overcome jet lag"
• "extracted vanilla flavoring from cow dung"
• "the first known case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck"
• "census of the mites, insects, spiders and other creatures with which humans share their bed"
• "a US Air Force laboratory for researching what the committee dubbed the 'gay bomb' -- a chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other"
• "extracting vanilla flavor from cow dung"