The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

So while we at the Five Dumbest Things Research Lab are tempted to vacation on a sunny boat somewhere off the coast of Florida, we thought it best to conduct a literature review first. Sure, anecdotal accounts indicate people have been getting sick on ships operated by Royal Caribbean, P&O Princess Cruises (POC Quote), Carnival (CCL Quote) and Disney (DIS Quote). But how many people? A little bit -- but not too much -- of intellectual rigor is in order.

To be sure, recent stem-to-stern boat cleansings seem to have turned the tide on the outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Diarrhea outbreaks on cruise ships have been declining for years," was the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's sunny summary of a recent CDC study.

But we at the lab note that cruise companies may have underestimated the business-related risks it faces from the Norwalk virus and its cousins. Carnival, for example, acknowledges in its latest 10-K that it can be hurt by adverse economic conditions, armed conflicts, political instability, accidents and "other incidents involving cruise ships." For passengers who spent their Caribbean vacation clutching a toilet, that "other incidents" phrase doesn't exactly capture, perhaps, the Fascination and Magic of their seaborne journey.

Sea Sick Number of people reported sick aboard Caribbean cruises in late 2002

Source: Press reports

3. Please Liberate Me, Let Me Go

Speaking of company documents that miss the real story, we had a fun time reading the press release Liberate Technologies (LBRTE Quote) issued last Friday night at 6:35 -- a day and time that Liberate selected, no doubt, to ensure maximum readership.

The big news -- summarized in the attention-grabbing headline "Liberate Updates Form 10-K/A and Form 10-Q Filing Status" -- apparently was that the interactive TV software company is still working on the audit it announced two months earlier. As Liberate said in mid-October, it won't file its financials for the fiscal year ended May 31 and the fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 30 until it completes an audit into its finances. That audit came, by the way, after the "appropriateness and timing of revenue recognition" of $1.84 million in license fees had been called into question. Though the company said a month ago that it expected to make the filings by December's end, Liberate is now backing away from setting any deadline.