Some interesting trivia:

The Frost Bank Tower was the first skyscraper constructed in the USA after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

It’s been the tallest building in Austin since then, but it’s about to lose that title to a couple of buildings.

It was voted best new building by Austin Chronicle readers in 2004.

There are conspiracy theories put forth about the tower being somehow connected to the Bohemian Grove and Molech.

One of the most significant online shopping days of the year is Cyber Monday, which, like Black Friday, follows Thanksgiving and unofficially marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. But new data that Yahoo! has released suggests that Black Friday is itself increasingly becoming a popular day for online shoppers.

Last year, while overall click-through rates were down for both days, conversions shot up 147% for Black Friday while they “only” increased 73% on Cyber Monday.

Let’s face it, search marketers. You gotta play both days.

Anecdotally, I can testify to being online with my computer at midnight on Thanksgiving/Black Friday, soaking up a sweet deal on some scooters for my kids. I did it all from the comfort of my rental condo atop of a peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, which I can assure you is far preferable to the (unfortunately lethal) stomping grounds of big box stores across the land. [...]

Probably the main political impact of the news that the Nobel Committee has pronounced Barack Obama “the one” is that it will enhance his international standing, giving a major boost to his foreign policy agenda, so opponents of that agenda are already hard at work to de-legitimize the Nobel win.

Domestically, it will force a debate over what, precisely, Obama has accomplished. Indeed, the early line from conservatives and other critics on the news, which will have major international reverberations today, is that it proves once again that he’s a showboat who continues to float along on words, not accomplishments, with some calling on him to turn it down. Here’s a quick roundup of early opinion: [...]

The website of First Commonwealth Bank fcbanking was not available for the customers for a little while this morning and just now the service was restored. At this point its not known what has caused the Fcbanking.com outage.

Our search online for further information could not result in finding any information as to what may have happend to the website of the First Commonwealth bank. Few things were happening though with the bank itself recently.

First, there was a resignation. Then there was an analyst upgrade. Now the Fcbanking is down.

On August 19 we read in PR-USA that Edward J. Lipkus, III, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has resigned from the company effective immediately and will pursue other opportunities. No reason was given, except that he will pursue other opportunities.

Then there came the analyst upgrade. A Janney Montgomery Scott analyst upgraded First Commonwealth Financial Corp. to “Neutral” from “Sell” Wednesday after a recent drop in its stock price, reports Washingtonexaminer.com. According to that article the shares of the First Commonwealth bank had dropped 12 percent in July. I am wondering if the resignation may have something to do with it. However, the article continues that “First Commonwealth also has plenty of capital, and slashing its dividend 75 percent, to 3 cents a share, was a smart cash-saving move, he said.”

Fcbanking.com is up now, but no information yet as to what has caused the First Commonwealth Bank’s brief outage.

First Commonwealth Financial Corporation is a $6.4 billion financial holding company headquartered in Indiana, Pennsylvania. It operates 115 retail branch offices in 15 counties in western and central Pennsylvania through First Commonwealth Bank, a Pennsylvania chartered bank and trust company. Financial services and insurance products are also provided through First Commonwealth Insurance Agency and First Commonwealth Financial Advisors, Inc.

Indonesia’s gross domestic product grew by 4% in the second quarter compared to the same period a year ago, Statistics Indonesia reported on Monday on its Web site. This was the slowest pace since 2003, but was slightly better than consensus estimates, said analysts at RBC Capital Markets.

“Indonesia is less exposed to the global downturn that most other Asian economies and domestic demand appears to have held up well, with consumption and government spending recording solid year-on-year growth,” the analysts wrote in a note to clients. “Growth is likely to pick up in coming quarters, suggesting last week’s policy rate cut by the central bank represents the end to its easing cycle.” Jakarta’s JSX Composite stock index rose 1.7% on Monday. The index has rallied 76% this year