The official start of summer arrived in a trading week shortened by the U.S. and Canadian national holidays.

Falcon Oil and Gas (TSX: V.FO) occupied the top Bullboard spot in this week’s Top Five (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19920 ).

After this week’s takeover offer for copper producer Aur Resources (T
SX: T.AUR), Buzz on the BullBoards reporter Sean Mason recorded the discussion on the HudBay Minerals (TSX: T.HBM) board, and found takeover talk (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19927 ) dominated the discussion.

For the inside scoop (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19925 ) about company meetings and conferences, look to the Horse’s Mouth, this week’s Best of the Blogs.

New columnist Matthew McCall profiled a China-based private education company (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19912 ) that he said was a growth story with big untapped middle class expansion prospects.

For investors who want to get through summer school quickly, the Investor U column by the Investor Education Fund had a cheat sheet for SEDAR (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19909 ), the Canadian investment document repository.

The Resource Report noted that a much-delayed feasibility study was the first step to production at a copper and cobalt project (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19906 ) operated by Baja Mining (TSX: T.BAJ).

While Danny Deadlock conceded in his Micro-cap Monday column that times have been tough for small-cap companies, and he chose to highlight the security technology company (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19910 ) Bioscrypt (TSX: T.BYT), because the share price has recently moved to the highs of the year.

As a follow-on to last week’s interview with Simtrol (OTC: BB: SMTRL), CEO Rick Egan, Institutional Research Partners presented a more detailed profile (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19913 ) of the company.

This week’s Wizard, Mike Paulenoff of MPTrader.com, said that the drop in the value of the greenback (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19914 ) was helping Japanese stocks and propping up gold prices.

Inexperienced traders often get burned when they misread a gap up (or down). In his Trading Discipline column, Don Rodgers argued that the successful trader allows the longer trend (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19916 ) to serve as a guide.

In the realm of economics, Steven Saville argued that people who profess their belief in free markets cannot logically support the idea of a central bank (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19918).

Merck’s (NYSE: MRK) troubles with its pain medication Vioxx (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19919 ) are the subject of numerous lawsuits. The Bio Checkauthors forecast that a new study would both show the risks were higherfor patients taking the drug, and that its long-term effects werenegligible.

A comparison of the small-cap S&P600 index against the most widely held consumer staples exchange tradedfund showed markets are set to move higher (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19921 ) in 2007, according to Technical Speculator author Donald Dony.

Resourcex Dispatches looked at a deal that created the latest mid-size Canadian diamond producer (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19924), and noted that Winfield Resources (TSX: V.WWF) had lined up debt financing for its proposed Libyan refineries (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/article.asp?edtID=19926 ).

After the launch of the iPhone (http://www.stockhouse.ca/shfn/editorial.asp?edtID=19930 ) this week, the Totally Technology columnists are even more enthusiastic about the prospects for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).