Year-end obits

This week's deaths: Eartha Kitt (awesome, unique songstress and actress with a multitude of talents) died December 25 2008 at 81; Freddie Hubbard (virtuoso, jazz trumpeter extraordinaire) died Decmber 29 2008 at 70.
Sad...

Crime and punishment

Mr. Bernard L. Madoff of New York (sole source of income, about 50 billion dollars of the money he stole, see below...)
Crime - stole between 50 and 100 billion dollars from investors in his pyramid scheme.
Punishment - home arrest from 7 PM to 9 AM in his 7 million dollar Park Avenue (NY, NY) apartment. Represented in court by 35 lawyers.

Mr. Cecil Pitts of New York (sole source of income, a $450 Social Security check.).
Crime - fed pigeons.
Punishment - fined close to $500 for "causing a nuisance because his daily feedings caused excessive waste." Represented himself in court.

Deep Throat

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Paradox

OPEC cuts production - oil falls to below $40/barrel.

Bettie Page

...the queen of pinups in the 1950s and the nemesis of Senator Estes Kefauver died yesterday, December 11, 2008 in Los Angeles. She was 85.

Odetta

Died on December 2, 2008.  She was 77 years old.
Great, original singer - often called "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement" in the United States. Regrettably, she didn't get to perform at Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009...

Hurricanes, storms and tropical depressions

2008 hurricane season, which officially ended yesterday, in a nutshell (after Associated Press.) No death count but some areas have been hit really hard.

An average season has 11 named storms, six of which become hurricanes. This year there were eight hurricanes, of which five (Bertha, Gustav, Ike, Omar and Paloma) became major hurricanes. 2008 tied for the fourth most named storms (16.) The 2005 season had 28 tropical storms and hurricanes. According to the insurance industry, insured losses were at least $10.6 billion ($8.1 billion from Hurricane Ike, the seventh largest payout in U.S. history.)

Some records:
· Hurricane Fay hit the same state (Florida) four times
· Three major hurricanes hit Cuba (Gustav, Ike and Paloma.)
· Six consecutive storms (Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike) hit the U.S. mainland.
· A major hurricane (winds 111 mph or higher) formed in five consecutive months, July through November.
· Hurricane Bertha lasted 17 days (the longest July storm.)

Stock...

The US stock market has had the best week since 1974...
That only shows that if you put gazillion of dollars of someone else's money into something, at least one person shall be able to get a dollar or two out of it.

From the land of the truly stupid...

Florida Teen Commits Suicide in Front of Webcam
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 21, 2008
Filed at 4:33 p.m. ET
MIAMI (AP) -- A South Florida college student killed himself by overdosing on drugs in front of a live online audience as some computer users egged him on, some debated his method, and others tried to talk him out of it. (...)

OK - I'm not going to debate the suicide thing here, but...how sick do you have to be to watch it...

Dow zoooooooooooooom!

Markets at close.
S.&P. 500 closed at 800.03, 47.59 (6.32%) up
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,046.42, 494.13 (6.54% ) up
Nasdaq closed at 1,384.35, 68.23 (5.18%) up

But the week was rather bad for the Dow...

ketchup n' taters

Heinz 2nd-Quarter Profit Jumps 22 Percent
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 21, 2008
Filed at 10:34 a.m. ET
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Foodmaker H.J. Heinz Co. said Friday that strong sales of products such as Ore-Ida frozen potatoes and frozen meals boosted fiscal second-quarter profit by 22 percent as cash-strapped consumers cooked more meals at home. (...)

Really??? Shouldn't one buy raw ingredients and cook from scratch if one is really cash-strapped instead of buying frozen meals and processed potatoes and then (apparently) drenching the whole concoction with ketchup? (No, ketchup ain't no vegetable...)

Ketchup sales grew 12 percent, helped by new packaging formats in Europe and higher prices. (...)

Sales grew due to higher prices...Right...

Axl "Guns N' Roses" Rose

Unbelievable!
Incredible!
Mind-boggling!
Stupendous!
Astounding!
Shocking!
Surprising!
Beyond belief!
Startling!
Unanticipated!
Unexpected!

(No, not the music – which seems to be listenable albeit pompous and overblown rock-something of the bygone era – but the fact that it’s out at all!)

Markets and my new ABC

Markets at close.
S.&P. 500 closed at 752.44, 54.14 (6.71%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,552.29, 444.99 (5.56%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,316.12, 70.30 (5.07%) down

Read to me mommy...
Inflation (erosion of purchasing power)
Recession (significant, persistent economic decline)
Stagflation (inflation + recession)
Deflation (persistent low, really low, prices + declining output and employment)

Crude oil price

$53 a barrel. Or less.

Correction @ 9:30 AM EST
$50 a barrel. Or less.
Crude oil in New York trading fell $3.71, to $49.91 a barrel. (Reuters)

Rumor has it that the big oil companies are about to ask the taxpayers to bail them out: the president of Exxon/Mobil just can't make the ends meet on his measly $5,701,515 yearly salary.

Elevator goin' down...

Markets at close.
S.&P. 500 closed at 806.58, 52.54 (6.12%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,997.28, 427.47 (5.07%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,386.42, 96.85 (6.53%) down

Consumer Price Index dropped by 1% in October - the biggest drop in its 61-year history! Deflation, anyone?

Field & Stream and common sense

The Field & Stream magazine (December 2008) named its "heroes and villians" for 2008.
Hero - Sarah Palin ("For the first time in a century we had a candidate for executive office who understood real hunting and fishing.") Actor Kevin Costner, golfer Boo Weekley, and the country singer Miranda Lambert were noted too...
Villian - the Governor of "Caleefornia," Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a good company of Pamela Anderson, Paul McCartney and Vladimir Putin. Too bad the Governator is neither fisherman nor hunter...

Dow goes up (a bit...)

At close 11/18/2008
S.&P. 500 closed at 859.12, 8.37 (0.98%) up
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,424.75, 151.17 (1.83%) up
Nasdaq 1,483.27, 1.22 (0.08%) up

Highlights and lowlights...

• The "big three" Detroit automakers beg for federal aid (so they can continue making gas guzzlers shoddily put together by grossly overpaid members of the UAW...)
• Clinton ("Hill" for some...) for the Secretary of State..?
• The Somali pirates have hijacked a big boat with approximately half of the Saudi's daily crude oil output... Hey guys, this is 21st century, the three-letter agencies can read the washing instructions tag inside your underwear from space and we still have pirates able to seize a really fucking big boat?!
• Henry M. Paulson (the Treasury Secretary) has been trying hard to explain why he's abandoned the original "bailout" plan, why he doesn't want to help the individual homeowners and the automakers. Lots of questions - zero answers...

Dow and the pirates

Markets at close today:
S.&P. 500 closed at 850.75, 22.54 (2.58%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,273.58, 223.73 (2.63%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,482.05, 34.80 (2.29%) down

Somali pirates have overtaken a Saudi Aramco-owned super tanker Sirius Star with 2 million barrels of oil off the coast of Kenya, which triggered a brief $3/barrel spike in oil prices...

Yo yo Dow

Markets at close today:
S.&P. 500 closed at 873.29, 38.00 (4.17%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,497.31, 337.94 (3.82%)down
Nasdaq closed at 1,516.85, 79.85 (5.00%) down

Retail sales (what retails sales..?) October sales were down 2.8 percent from September 2008, and 4.1 percent from October 2007. Ouch! That will hurt our consumption/debt-fueled economy.

Up, up up, up..!

Pretty wild, ain't it?

Markets at close 11/13/2008
S.&P. 500 closed at 911.29, 58.99 (6.92%) up
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,835.25, 552.59 (6.67%) up
Nasdaq closed at 1,596.70, 97.49 (6.50%) up

Meanwhile back on the farm, the hedge fund managers testifying before a House committee said they would support some regulations of their "industry." Yeah, probably as strong as the yesterday's "stranded air passengers bill of rights..."

Mitch Mitchell dies at 61

Bad news never stops...
Mitch Mitchell, the drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead in his Oregon hotel room yesterday (Wednesday, November 12 2008.)

The strong arm of the government strikes again

Yesterday some unnamed federal task force in charge of being stuck on a runway, showed a very, very large middle finger to the airline passengers, by approving voluntary guidelines for airlines and airports dealing with passengers kept hostage in airplanes stranded for hours on the tarmacs and runways of the United States. In other words, the airlines and airports can do whatever they please in such situations, which probably means nothing at all except threatening “unruly passengers" (i.e. anyone who objects to such inhumane treatment) with TSA, FBI, CIA, NSA and eternal damnation.

Here are the recommendations in a nutshell (as reported by the New York Times.) Laugh if you must, I fly way too often to find it amusing…

· Airlines update passengers delayed on tarmacs every 15 minutes even if there is nothing new to report.
· A secure room be provided for passengers from diverted overseas flights so they can avoid having to go through security checks when re-boarding an aircraft to their final destination.
· When practical, refreshments and entertainment should be made available to passengers confined aboard aircraft awaiting takeoff.
· Airlines should make reasonable efforts to keep airplane restrooms usable.

Predictably, the Air Transport Association, the trade association for the airline industry, has lauded this entire BS as success…

Down we go (and go, and go...) again

So...the markets closed way down today...

S.&P. 500 closed at 852.30, 46.65 (5.19%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,282.66, 411.30 (4.73%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,499.21, 81.69 (5.17%) down

After the bloodbath last week all indices have been continuing their slide toward zero while the US Treasury does hundred-and-eighty and abandons “the plan” (remember the bailout plan..?) to buy toxic mortgage debt but instead intends to pump cold, hard cash directly into some US banks and credit card companies, probably to follow in the footsteps of the resounding success of propping up Bear Stearns. Think about it: the same people who laboriously guided the US economy into the current financial calamity are now busily fixing it, by giving out cold cash (not theirs, by the way) to the, hmm, “needy.”

So chances are that your friendly neighborhood “payday loan” company (APR 89%, plus another 50% of principal in fees) will be a recipient of your money, dear taxpayer…

An as an aside: “Early Look at the Market - Bear Stearns Morning View” was a super-accurate and perceptive market-analysis publication so it’s hard to believe that the good people of Bear Stearns didn’t know where the market was heading. Or was it all BS..?

Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba, South African singer died yesterday in Italy at 76. She collapsed after the concert and died of cardiac arrest. If you never heard her sing live you've missed a truly amazing performance. Great, great singer and a true civil rights hero!

Paloma and snow...

Hurricane Paloma (Cat.3, the 16th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurrican season) threatens Cayman Islands tonight or tomorrow. After that it is predicted to weaken to a T.S. after hitting Cuba.


Oh, BTW, the Dakotas are (largely) covered with snow...

And now...

Obama!!!

Today...

vote!

set the clock, set the clock, set...

If you are in the US, set your clocks back by one hour before going to bed tonight. And if you work with computers, make sure that all your software knows about this change. Sadly, still some software behaves as if the Energy Policy Act of 2005 didn't exist.

BTW: in 2009, daylight saving time begins on March 8 and ends on November 1.

Boo!

Maverick... as seen in Nederland, Colorado about two weeks ago.

Classic French Flannel Shirt from Neiman Marcus, Minneapolis MN. $580 + tax

Buffalo Bill and the Masons

I did not know that...

(Lookout Mountain, Golden, Colorado.)

Down we go (again...)

S.&P. 500 closed at 876.77, 31.34 (3.45%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,378.95, 312.30 (3.59%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,552.03, 51.88 (3.23%) down

The Dow index has actually finished higher than the early trading indicated, the fact stressed by many "TV stock analysts", so "minus three hundred" seems to be the new "plus one hundred..."
But, for the week, the DJIA is 5.4 percent down, Nasdaq 9.3% and the S&P 500 6.8% down.

More cheerful news:

• Chrysler will have fired 25% of white collar employees by Christmas.
• World markets tumble.
• The highest paid staffer on the McCain campaign? The Mrs. Palin stylist (boy, the Republicans do surely learn from the Katherine Harris' eyelashes...)

Up (a bit...) we go...

Markets today...
S.&P. 500 closed at 908.11, 11.33 (1.26%) up
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,691.25, 172.04 (2.02%) up
Nasdaq closed at 1,603.91, 11.84 (0.73%) down

Alan Greenspan, one of the main proponents of a very (very...) free market, has admitted today before Congress that he “made a mistake” believing that markets can regulate themselves.

Two comments:
1 - Duh!
2 - Mr. (ex) Chairman: peddling "securities" that bet on the condition of the soybeans market in 2009 based on the outcome of the 1936 Preakness race is not trading...

Mrs. Palin's wardrobe

Apparently Mrs. Sarah Palin has spent $150,000 of the NRC (National Republican Committee) geld on clothes, hair, makeup and little shiny things since being pulled out from the crowd to run with Mr. McCain. You may want to read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/22/AR2008102202187.html?hpid=artslot. Damn, $75,000 at Neiman Marcus and nearly $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue...

Meanwhile, AP reports that Mrs. Palin has also charged her kids' travel expenses to the state of Alaska to the tune of over 21,000 dollars.

To put things in perspective, Mrs. Palin's annual salary is $125,000 ...

Oh, Mrs. Palin is running as a "change" candidate... (Change of clothes..?)

Down we go...

Markets today. This ain't funny anymore...
S.&P. 500 closed at 896.78, 58.27 (6.10%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,519.21, 514.45 (5.69%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,615.75, 80.93 (4.77%)

Wachovia has lost 23.9 billion dollars in the third quarter, most of it "paper loss" on write-offs, but still - ouch!

Guns N' Roses N' Geritol

Guns N' Roses' (well, Axl Rose's, really...) new album is up for release in the US on November 23 2008 after 17 years in the making and reportedly $13 million dollars in expenses!

Oh My Sweet Fuckin' Child O' Mine: 1 Axl Rose, 13 million dollars, 14 songs, 17 years...

More here.

Down we go...

S.&P. 500 closed at 955.05, 30.35 (3.08%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 9,033.66, 231.77 (2.50%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,696.68, 73.35 (4.14%)

Does the stock market reflects the economy? The AP story points out that athough the stocks may soon rebound, the US economy has a long way to go and and painful suffering lies ahead despite the recent quieting of the stock market. Source: ALL BUSINESS: Stock Market Doesn't Reflect Economy By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 21, 2008 Filed at 3:42 p.m. ET

Up we go...

S.&P. 500 closed at 985.40, 44.85 (4.77%) up
Dow (DJIA) closed at 9,265.43, 413.21 (4.67%) up
Nasdaq closed at 1,770.03, 58.74 (3.43%) up

In a startling flip-flop (just a week ago it was a major NO!), "W", the Fed and the Treasury are again asking the American public to (pleeeeeease..!) accept another stimulus check.

Down (a bit) we go...

S.&P. 500 closed at 940.55, 5.88 (0.62%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,852.22, 127.04 (1.41%) down
Nasdaq closed 1,711.29, 6.42 (0.37%) down

The market has inched up a bit for the week, but that magnitude of swings..!

Ssssssssssssssave with Wachovia...

As seen last week in Golden, Colorado.

Indeed...

 Photo © 2008 Michael Liczbanski

Can you hear me now, Mr. Senator?

Verizon broke all land speed records in placing a new cellular tower in a crappy cellular reception area that just happens to include John McCain's cabin in New Mexico. Even though the words "technology" and "McCain" don't go together very well, watch the McCain's display of senatorial gratitude, provided, of course, he can stomach staying in the Senate after being "not voted in."

Swinging Wall Street

You can call it a positive misery, but the markets have gone up today.
S.&P. 500 closed at 946.43, 38.59 (4.25%) up.
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,979.26, 401.35 (4.68%) up.
Nasdaq closed at 1,717.71, 89.38 (5.49%) up

Oh, and oil is dirt cheap, cheapest in 16 months, below $70/barrel! And what's even more surprising, the pump prices follow: according to AAA, the average is $3.08/gallon for regular unleaded and I've even seen $2.98...

Tropical storms

Unnamed as of Monday morning disturbance near Nicaragua with a potential of becoming a T.S. and perhaps a hurricane. Stay tuned. Tuesday - become Depression Sixteen. Projected to pass over Honduras and Guatemala as a tropical storm. Wednesday: still a depression but dumping a lot of rain on Honduras and Guatemala. Thursday (Oct 16) depression no more, just a big area of low pressure, but generating strong winds and dumping lots of rain on Honduras, El Salvador, Belize and Guatemala while moving sort of west-ish.

Also Monday (Oct 13) Depression Fifteen, projected to hit Puerto Rico as a strong TS, then become a hurricane and go nuts in high seas. Tuesday - T.S. Omar (15th named storm of the season.) Wednesday: Hurricane Omar: the 7th hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Thursday (Oct 16) - a Cat. 3 hurricane in high seas.

There was also T.S. Nana (14th named storm, briefly, become a depression rather quickly in mid-Atlantic) and is gone poof as of Tuesday morning.

Market, market, market, market (stock, that is...)

After a history-making Monday and a tepid Tuesday, we've had a truly epic fall today (Wednesday, October 15 2008)
S.&P. 500 closed at 907.84, 90.17 (9.03%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,577.91, 733.08 (7.87%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,628.33, 150.68 (8.47%) down

Oh, the word from Washington is that we are not in recession, of course.

And so it goes...

A lot of action during the last weekend, including a de facto nationalization of banking systems in the UK and many other countries, including a lot of government involvement (for lack of a better term…) in this US of A, resulted in dramatic gains on paper:
S.&P. 500 closed at 1,003.35, 104.13 (11.58%) up
Dow (DJIA) closed at 9,387.61, 936.42 (11.08%) up - the most points gained ever!
Nasdaq closed at 1,844.25, 194.74 (11.81%) up

As an aside, today would be a good day to purchase the entire country of Iceland and a lot of Russia: Iceland is practically bankrupt and the medieval financial system of the Putin's Russia seems unable to deal with a common cold, let alone a financial near-death pneumonia.

Also, Paul Krugman, a Professor at Princeton University, is awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. Krugman has been a rather outspoken chap (see op-ed pages in The New York Times) and a real MPITA for the current US administration…

How deep is that hole...

...and why can't we do something (something, really, really bad...) to the people who supplied the shovels and promoted deep hole digging as a way of life...

S.&P. 500 closed at 909.92, 75.02 7.62%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 8,579.19, 678.91 (7.33%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,645.12, 95.21 (5.47%) down.

The Wall Street Story

Bigger and swifter finger from the markets...
S.&P. 500 closed at 996.23, 60.66 (–5.74%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 9,447.11, 508.39 (–5.11%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,754.88, 108.08 (–5.80%) down.

Sweet tidbits from today’s congressional hearings according to the story in The New York Times: a week after the Fed pumped 85 billion dollars into A.I.G., the good, compassionate managers of that outfit spent $442,000 on a weeklong retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, including $23,000 in spa charges (!), and the former executive Joseph J. Cassano, who seems to be largely responsible for driving A.I.G. into the ground, continues to receive $1 million a month (he received over $280 million in various “compensations” in eight years.)

Marco

Tropical Storm Marco, the 13th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, has formed today (Monday, October 6, 2008) in the Gulf of Mexico. It is predicted to hit the central Mexican coast just below the hurricane strength.

The Wall Street

DOW (DJIA) highlights for today:

· A 500 point dive in the first hour of trading
· At times was down over 770 points and dipped below 9600(!)
· Closed at 9950, 369 (3.58%) down - another resounding vote of no confidence to the “rescue” package.
· Closed below 10,000 for the first time since 2004.

A year ago, on October 9 2007, DOW closed at the all-time high, 14,164.53.

Also lower: the FTSE 100 index in London; the Frankfurt DAX and the CAC-40 in Paris; the Nikkei 225 stock average in Tokyo; the Kospi index in Seoul; the Standard & Poor’s/ASX 200 index in Sydney; the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong, et cetera.

As an aside, as reported by The New York Times, the Lehman Brothers executives gave themselves millions of dollars in bonuses while begging the Fed for the taxpayers’ money…

Typo-no-typo

Seen on the NY Times web site around noon today (Monday, October 6 2008.)
A typo, but also oh so true: after the cost of bureaucracy and lawyers, 900 bucks is all what is likely to be actually distributed from the "rescue" package...

Fed Will Provide as Much as $900 in Loans to Banks

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 6, 2008
Filed at 11:44 a.m. ET

Two points of view...

Chicago Tribune
Cubs swept away in L.A.
It's going to take some time for the Cubs second straight playoff disaster to really sink in, but the mood in the clubhouse after Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Division Series was a mixture of sadness and disbelief.

Los Angeles Times
Dodgers party like it's 1988
The screaming fans, horns in the parking lot and dancing in the field signal something special: After a 20-year drought, L.A. has won a playoff series.

Who's afraid of Steve Jobs?

First "cancer" now this: a false story on the CNN iReport posted this morning (Friday October 3 2008) claimed that Steve Jobs had suffered a severe heart attack. Apple stock tanks, drops to the year-low $94.65 (it does recover a bit later in the day.)

We are rescued!

The "rescue" bill gets a thumb up at the House and is immediately signed into law. Wall Street shows a finger (albeit mildly...)
S.&P. 500 closed at 1,099.23, minus 15.05 (–1.35%)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 10,325.38, minus 157.47 (–1.50%)
Nasdaq closed at 1,947.39, minus 29.33 (–1.48%)

Excellent, dude!

Three new Microsoft research centers, or as the CEO Steve Ballmer calls them “centers of excellence” are slated to open in Europe, in France, the UK and Germany. Stated goal? The annihilation of Google, of course… Mr. Ballmer did not mention any firm locations, but Lourdes in France, Avebury in England and the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria are considered likely.

Cohen in Poland

Leonard Cohen, the Canadian poet-singer and a true frigging-super-mega-star in Poland, gave a (three hour!) concert yesterday (October 1 2008) at the Warsaw’s prominent hockey rink. You know, stuff like “Dance Me to the End of Love” (or my own painful death, whichever comes first.) His raspy-sultry voice of a ram with a heavy case of laryngitis reverberated in that cavernous place long after the concert ended, and his spirit will dwell there forever. Hallelujah! (No, he was not wearing a “Famous Blue Raincoat” but did sport a Fedora.) Tix prices? Equivalent of $200 US for good seats (average monthly pay in Poland – equivalent of around $1500 US.)

B-L-A-H D-E-B-A-T-E

Sarah P. vs. Joe B. veep debate as seen in the on-line editions of some newspapers during or immediately following the debate:


LA Times: Palin, Biden hold their own in debate
Arizona Republic: Palin, Biden spar on economic crisis, Iraq
Miami Herald: Palin stands her ground in VP debate with Biden
Chicago Tribune: Biden, Palin debate economy, Iraq and energy
Washington Post: Biden and Palin Take Center Stage
NY Times: Palin and Biden Stake Claims on Change
Boston Globe: Biden, Palin battle over change

Meet me in St. Louis!

See

Deer-caught-in headlights!

Man with a foot in his mouth!

Tonite only!
Sarah P. and Joe B.
Fun filled evening of verbal puns, interesting insights, random thoughts and unbeatable Alaskan lore!

Going down....

Here is a vote of confidence from the US stock markets before the debate on the Charity Bill in the House:

S.&P. 500 closed at 1,114.28
minus 46.78 (–4.03%)

Dow (DJIA) closed at 10,482.85
minus 348.22 (–3.22%)

Nasdaq closed at 1,976.72
minus 92.68 (–4.48%)

I call it charity...

Newspeak in Washington, D.C.: RESCUE not BAILOUT. And the government is not SPENDING but INVESTING the $700 billion. Yeah, investing in a rescue...

In any event, the Senate passed 74:25 (Sen Kennedy to ill to attend) a changed version of the government charity bill with many new tax breaks and other distractions tacked on (oh, 200 billion dollars more...you know, hundred billion here, hundred billion there, and soon we are talking serious money...) The House is voting on Friday morning and the passage is not certain.

Yo-Yo Dow

DOW (DJIA) closes 485 points (4.68%) up at 10850. NASDAQ and S&P close 4.97% and 5.27% up.

Chilean lemons...

Photo: Michael Liczbanski

Do we really need Chilean lemons in the United States? Chile is so far away, dear Safeway, and Florida is so close...And so are California and Mexico...

What happens if we contract some incurable Chilean Evil, eh?

Laura

Subtropical storm Laura has formed today in the Atlantic; it is projected to wander a bit in the North Atlantic then hit Ireland/UK at the end of the week.

Subtropical, eh? I wonder if it's going to count as the 12th named storm of the 2008 hurricane season in the Atlantic...

Bailout fiasco

DOW falls (a lot) and closes at 10365, that's 777 (6.98%) down: the largest single-day point drop in history! S&P down by over 8.8% and NASDAQ by over 9.1%. Still, in terms of percentages not exactly a "black Monday" but pretty darn close...

Now, can we modify this failed strategy and (finally!) help the real victims, i.e. the individuals..? We don't need to prop up the very people (greedy crooks, AKA "bankers", most of them MBAs) who got us into this mess by betting (yep, that's the word "betting") that the value of homes will climb indefinitely. Geez, is there a chance that the Whartons, Sloans, Cornells and Yales of this world have produced a bunch of idiots who have finally succeeded in destroying our economy..? And isn't "a 10 000 MBAs at the bottom of the ocean" a good beginning..?

Quotes and headlines:

The Times of London: US bank bailout in chaos after shock vote

Washington Post: Lawmakers Scramble to Figure Out Next Move in Financial Crisis In 228-205 vote, lawmakers block bill that would have allowed the government to buy up debt held by cash-starved Wall Street firms.House Rejects Bailout; Markets Plunge

Paul Newman

Died late Friday (September 26 2008) of cancer at 83.
Great actor and an exceptional human being: his Newman's Own brand of condiments gave over $250 000 000 to charities!

Kyle again

Kyle has become the 6th hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. New England/Martimes will get a rare taste of tropical weather early Monday...

"The economy is fundamentally sound" (said you-know-who)

Yesterday, the US government made the largest bank seizure in the history of this United States: Washington Mutual got seized by the regulators and immedaitely sold (in pieces) to JPMorgan Chase.

Kyle

T.S. Kyle (the 11th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season) that has formed in the Caribbean, today (September 25 2008) in the afternoon, is projected to hit New England/Canada as an entry-level hurricane early next week.

Deal or no deal...

On-line reactions to the meeting if the troika en La Casa Blanca (Thursday, September 25 2008 6 PM Eastern.)

Los Angeles Times
White House meeting on bailout ends
Lawmakers had seemed close to a deal, but none is reached

Denver Post
Congressional leaders agreed today on a tentative bailout plan for Wall Street. President Bush brought the two men fighting to succeed him to a historic White House huddle on how to sell a deal to lawmakers.

Miami Herald
ECONOMIC BAILOUT PLAN
Tentative meltdown deal: Bush, McCain, Obama meet

Washington Post
Bush Hopes for Quick Deal but House GOP Resists
President Stresses Urgency at High-Level White House Meeting

Washington Post at 6:27 PM
White House Meeting Fails to Yield Bailout Deal
Republicans Resist Agreement Made by House, Senate Negotiators

New York Times
Lawmakers Agree on Outline of Bailout

New York Post
Meeting of the Minds: McCain, Obama join Bush at White House

Boston Globe
Bush urges bailout unity

The Times (UK)
Wall St bailout - the deal is done

My take? Why throw good money ( that we don't have and need to borrow first, mainly from China and at what cost(!) ) after bad money, that we are not likely to recover..?

Bailout

I guess it is final...several trillion dollars (including the interest we'll pay to the Chinese) out the window to prop up, well, I'm not exactly sure whom or what. But, heck, a week ago the economy was "fundamentally sound." What the hell went wrong last week..?

Bailout

The "bailout" has been accepted with such exuberance that the price of crude oil ended up at $120/barrel...(That's $20 or 20% up...)

Hail! Hail! Heineken

Crypto Advertising Awards (also known as “Emmy Awards”) were given out yesterday (September 21 2008) in Los Angeles. Heineken won.

If you don’t know that yet, Heineken has been paying bazillions of dollars to have its products "integrated" into the TV show Mad Men on AMC. And since the show is on (paid) cable, the big business has finally succeeded in having the customers pay and pay and pay… Not only to purchase the stuff, but also to watch commercials for their products.

(Solution: watch less TV, be selective and discriminating. Can you..?)

Apparently mo’ (and mo’ and mo’ and mo’) money…

$700 billion, one trillion, two trillion…Not a soul really knows how much will the “bailout” cost but one thing is certain: the managers of the bailout will make $3,000,000/year, most brokers in excess of $500,000 and average investors will be paid 2 cents on every dollar invested. Oh, and the tab will be paid by my grandchildren’s grandchildren. So...the evil of socialized health service and the bliss of socialized banking... Irony, anyone..?

The dream of every capitalist financier has finally been fulfilled: leave the profits private but nationalize losses. Both Karls - Marx and Rove - are VERY happy dudes..!

No mo’ money

“Financial turmoil” headlines as seen in the on-line editions on Thursday, September 18, 2008 (AM.)

Los Angeles Times
Financial crisis deepens amid fear of continued stock dive

The Denver Post
Stocks head for higher open

Miami Herald
Next shoe to drop could be WaMu sale
(WaMu = Washington Mutual)

The Washington Post (three stories on the front page.)
Central Banks Move to Restore Confidence
Lawmakers Left on the Sidelines
Figuring Out How to Clean Up

New York Times
Central Banks Pump Cash Into Market . Coordinated Moves Meant to Head Off Credit Crunch

New York Post
More grief on the street of $creams

The Boston Globe
Money market funds battered

The Times (London, UK)
Central banks in $180bn emergency action

The Guardian (London, UK)
Central banks pump $180bn into money markets

Raising...

The price of crude oil is below $100/barrel (lowest in 6 months) yet, the price of gas has gone up – practically overnight – quite considerably: from ten or so cents on a gallon to more than $5/gallon is some places (the latter is obvious price gauging, hint, hint...) Of course, the increases are blamed on the hurricane that hit the Texas coast.

Now, here is a simple question: why it takes weeks, if not months, for the pump prices to dip after the price of crude oil decreases, but only a few nanoseconds to raise the pump prices considerably after practically EVRY event, even if it does not affect oil at all…

And why ALL gas vendors and retailers do it at the same time and by the same amount? Collusion anyone? Will it ever be investigated..? (We all know the answer to that question…a resounding NO! Oil industry, oil industry über alles!)

Early september cyclones (sans Gustav and Hanna)

If this blog is starting to look like a demented "hurricane hunter" pet project - my apologies... Unfortunately, the tropical storms of 2008 hit the poorest areas of the world (Haiti, Cuba, Dominicana...) inflicting unspeakable damage and suffering. I feel compelled to document just a bit of their history. Besides, there isn't much going on in the US... If you are after the US election coverage, read The Huff if you are a democrat (or change your party affiliation if you are any of the "others"...you'll be a much happier person...guaranteed..!)

Please help the hurricane victims everywhere, especially in Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba!


Hurricane/TS Ike/Tropical Depression Nine Formed September 1 2008 (Labor Day in the US.) Upgraded to a tropical storm, Ike, the 9th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season that afternoon. Initial bearing - the Bahamas (as a hurricane) on Sunday. September 3 (afternoon) - upgraded to Category 1 hurricane. Rapidly intensified and become Category 3 in the evening. September 4 (morning) become a Category 4 hurricane forecast to roughly follow the Hanna's path (Bahamas, then south-eastern US coast.) September 5 (morning) downgraded to Category 3. May hit Miami straight-up as a major hurricane next Tuesday or Wednesday. September 5 (evening) looks like it is going to squeeze between Cuba and Florida, hit the Keys and cross over into the Gulf heading straight for ..? September 6 (morning) sadly, it looks like Ike will be heading straight for New Orleans. September 6 (noon) downgraded to Category 2 due to hit Turks & Caicos, the Bahamas and Cuba later tonight and tomorrow September 6 (afternoon) intensified, upgraded to Category 4 heading straight for Cuba. September 7 (morning) category 4 hurricane heading for Guantanamo, Cuba and on to La Habana. According to the Turks and Caicos premier Michael Misick, Ike damaged more than 80 percent of the homes on Grand Turk and South Caicos islands. Lots of damage and deaths in Haiti (town of Cabaret seems to take the brunt of the Ike's force with tragic results - at least 22 deaths.) September 7 (afternoon) downgraded to Category 3. The outer bands of Ike have practically closed the city of Gonaïves in Haiti, already flooded by the previous storm, Gustav. September 7 (evening) landed on Cuba (near Punto de Sama) as a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds. September 8 (morning) over Cuba, downgraded to Category 2. Haiti reports at least 500 deaths. Massive devastation in Cuba. September 8 (evening) downgraded to Category 1. Just off the south coast of Cuba. September 9 (morning) still Category1, battering Cuba. Thanx to hurricane preparedness in Cuba there is rarely any loss of life despite frequent storms and hurricanes. The new forecast calls for Ike to head for the central Texas Gulf coast. September 9 (evening) finally off the northern coast of Cuba. Sadly, at least 4 Ike-related deaths reported in Cuba. Still Category 1 and heading for the Texas coast.

Destruction in Pinar del Rio (Cuba.)


September 10 (afternoon) upgraded to Category 2.
September 11 (afternoon) still Category 2, but take a look at its size!


Image source: NOAA/NHC

September 12 (morning/noon) - still Category 2, heading for Galveston and Huston as a huge, destructive storm with "COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF UP TO 20 FEET...WITH A FEW SPOTS TONEAR 25 FEET...ABOVE NORMAL TIDE ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES..." (Source: NHC.) September 12 (evening) still Category 2 (borderline Category 3) September 13 - landed in Galveston, TX at 2:10 AM (CDT) as a Category 2 hurricane. Widespread damage from water, wind and fire in Galveston, Houston and outlying areas. September 13 (noonish) downgraded to TS.
----------------------------------------------

Image source: NOAA/NHC

TS Josephine/Tropical Depression Ten has formed near the Cape Verde Islands today, Tuesday, September 2 2008. Likely to be upgraded later today to the tenth named tropical storm of the season. Yep, and so it is - Josephine. So, on September 2, 2008 we had four named storms in the Atlantic (see picture.) The yearly average is 11 named storms in the Atlantic so we are almost certain to eclipse that number this year... Expected to peter out this Saturday or Sunday as a tropical depression in high seas without affecting any landmasses. September 5 - still a tropical storm in high seas. September 6 - downgraded to a tropical depression in the middle of Atlantic. September 7 - tropical cyclone no more, a mere disturbance with low potential for redevelopment, but it might strengthen and re-emerge as a tropical cyclone. September 9 - well it didn't redevelop and, poof! it's gone for good!

IC

50 years ago today (September 12, 1958) Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrated that the Earth is flat and can be shrunk considerably... Oh, well, not realy, but he did show that at least 5 earthly components could be put on a really small piece of silicone to form an "integrated circuit" called later a "microchip." It looked like this:



Kilby and the co-founder of Fairchild Industries Robert Noyce are considered co-inventors of IC.

(Picture source unknown - it is floating out there in the electronic wilderness...)

Paralympics Beijing 2008

September 6-17 2008.

The "other" Olympic games - in a sense more important than the "regular" Olympics: this year's Paralympics are held in China, country not exactly known for treating disabled people in equitable and compassionate way. Maybe something will rub off on them...

More Information on the official site of the Paralympic Games 2008.

Falling...

Crude oil at $102/barrel... My oh my...

The chairman of Exxon-Mobil was seen crying in public when told that the 3rd quarter profit will fall by thirty-nine dollars and seventeen cents to just $10,987,234,751.34

United Airlines and false rumors...

United Airlines shares fell down to one cent in late morning today (Monday, September 8 2009) on NYSE. (That's down 99.92 percent, or $12.29 from the pre-fall value of $12.30) on a false report about the airline's bankruptcy filing posted on the web. (The news item was from 2002...)

Trading in United shares was halted at 11:08 a.m.and resumed at 12:30 p.m. and by early afternoon its shares had nearly recovered, down only 70 cents, to $11.60. (All times Eastern.)

No "Rent" no more

The Musical ''Rent'' closed last night (Sunday, September 7 2008) after 12 years and 5,124 performances off and on Broadway. Poor rentheads ...

"Live long and prosper"

42 years ago today, September 8 1966, the USS Enterprise flew for the first time (if only on TV...)

Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner),
First Officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy),
Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley),
Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan),
Communications Officer Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols),
Helmsman Hikaru Sulu (George Takei).
And the late arrival (season 2) Ruski navigator Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig),

I'm not a Trekkie but still...

Hanna

1 depression, 2 hurricanes, 3 disturbances in the tropics in the morning hours of September 1, 2008. Image source: NOAA/NHC.

Hanna formed as a TS and meandered near the Bahamas for a number of days then become the fourth huricane of the Atlantic Season (Category 1) on Monday September 1 2008 (Labor Day) hitting the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos and then heading for the US Atlantic coast possibly as Category 3 hurricane by the end of the week. Nearly stationary today (Labor Day.)

September 2 (AM) downgraded to a - nearly stationary - tropical storm. Sadly, 14 or so deaths in the islands, the majority in Haiti.
September 3 - still a TS near/at Bahamas. Likely to land on the N. Carolina coast on Saturday and continue on inland via D.C. to NYC and beyond. We'll see...
September 4 - still a TS with roughly the same predicted track
September 5 (morning)- it's gonna land in South Carolina and hit south of the D.C. area tomorrow as a tropical storm.
Septemebr 5 (afternoon) looks like it is going to land right on the South/Norht Carolina border and head for New England and beyond...
September 6 (morning) lands in South Carolina and is racing along the Atlantic coast as a tropical storm.
Septemebr 7 still a tropical storm just off the north-eastern coast of the US/Canada, predicted to head for the open northern Atlantic.
Southern Maryland got a solid soaking but no wind damage to speak of.

Please help the hurricane victims in Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba!

Old and new (or new and old...)

Old(er) names of some contemporary companies. Presented here for fun, and sometimes as a bad memory...lest we don't forget...

Dole
Used to be Hawaiian Pineapple Company and Standard Fruit Company

Chiquita
Used to be United Fruit Company. (Yeah THAT United Fruit Company...) and was later known as United Brand Company

Altria
Used to be Philip Morris Companies Inc. (They are still a cigarette maker...don't be fooled by "Altria"...)

Starbucks Corporation
Used to be Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice and Il Giornale Coffee Company

ValueJet
Used to be Airtran

LG
Used to be Lucky Goldstar

Nissan
Used to be Datsun

Pepsi Cola
Used to be Brad's Drink

International Business Machines (IBM)
Used to be Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation

Nintendo
Used to be Marafuku Company
Before that it was known as Nintendo Playing Card Company

Google
Used to be BackRub (no, seriously...)

Yahoo (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle)
Used to be Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web

United Airlines and forced dieting...

United Airlines has abandoned its plan to charge the steerage passengers for meals on its transatlantic flights (first and business customers would still get meals for “free.”) Lemme see…8-9 hour flights (even longer on the way back) with no meals or some marginal chow for mucho dolares… What a splendid idea! They were supposed to run test on flights leaving Dulles first (thank God they did not!)

I don’t even know how to comment it: the word “stupidity” seems way too mild and I don’t wanna lace this blog with expletives…

Falling...

Crude oil is at the lowest level in 5 months, at $109/barrel. Hurricane Gustav was weaker than expected and didn't damage oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf.
Pump prices holding steady...

Gustav

Image source: NOAA/NHC.

Chronology of hurricane Gustav
Briefly become a hurricane on August 26.

Hits Haiti and the Dominican Republic - many deaths.
August 28 downgraded to a tropical storm. Impacted Jamaica.
August 29 upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane heading for SW Cuba.

August 30 upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane and then to Category four. Heading for Isla de Juventud and La Habana in Cuba. Sadly, there were over 90 deaths in the Carribean.

August 31, after hitting Cuba, downgraded to Category 3. Mandatory evacuation in New Orleans

September 1 (Labor Day) Downgraded to Category 2. Lands in Louisiana, approx. 80 miles west of New Orleans in the morning. Downgraded to Category 1 in the afternoon and to tropical storm in the evening. Some damage (not nearly approaching the aftermath of Katrina et al), 8 deaths and millions of people without electricity. As of tonight - the levees held...

News item: Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter pregnant...

A sampling of headlines as seen in on-line editions around 3 PM on Labor Day.

Los Angeles Times
Palin's daughter, 17, is pregnant
It is unclear how the news will affect the campaign, but it could further endear Palin to the GOP.

Miami Herald
GOP delegates stunned by VP's daughter's pregnancy

New York Times
Palin’s Teen Daughter Is Pregnant; New G.O.P. Tumult

Washington Post
Palin: Daughter, 17, Pregnant Republican vice presidential candidate makes announcement to knock down rumors by bloggers.

Boston Globe
Palin says her teenage daughter is pregnant.
Sarah Palin disclosed today that her 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant and that she plans to marry the father.

Cars: us and them

Barack Obama - Ford Escape hybrid (30 mpg)
Joe Biden - takes train (Amtrak) from D.C. to his home in Delaware.

John McCain - Cadillac CTS sedan (19 mpg).
Sarah Palin - Chevrolet Suburban (16 mpg), private plane, assorted snowmobiles, rocket-powered sno cats and such.

Headlines

“News analysis items” and reactions to the VP choice made by the presumed Republican presidential candidate, as seen in on-line editions on Saturday, August 30 2008 around 8 AM Eastern:

Washington Post
With Pick, McCain Reclaims His Maverick Image

New York Times
Choice of Palin Is Bold Move by McCain, With Risks

Los Angeles Times
McCain's choice of Palin is a risk

Denver Post
McCain picks Alaska governor as running mateMcCain courts women and surprises his party with his VP selection.
On his 72nd birthday, Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, rattling the dynamics of the presidential race

Miami Herald
McCain VP choice has Florida rewards, risks

Chicago Tribune
McCain's pick: Sarah Palin
John McCain has chosen a tough-talking social conservative with credentials

The Boston Globe
McCain surprises with VP pick.
Selection is a bold, but risky, political gamble.

The New York Post
Alaskan lass is Mac’s wild card. Veep pick a bid to woo Hillary fans.

The Arizona Republic
Selection of Palin as VP stirs up race.
With the final piece of the presidential puzzle in place, the picture now seems even less clear.

International Herald Tribune
McCain picks Alaska governor as running mate.
Sarah Palin, a Christian conservative and a foe of abortion, is a surprise choice for second spot on Republican ticket.

The Guardian (UK)
McCain shocks party with VP choice McCain moves to steal Obama's thunder by choosing woman running mate

Gazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw, Poland)
Najseksowniejsza polska olimpijka wybrana! (Sexiest Polish Olympian selected!)

Rising and steady...

Crude oil is up, but the pump prices are still lower than a few weks ago. All grades (sans diesel) were below $4/gallon at the Shell in Waldorf, Maryland on Saturday, August 23 2008

Evil trio

Two most "not wanted" democratic (or so they say...) politicos at the DNC? John Edwards (cheating on a gravely ill wife...) and Joe Lieberman (turncoat poster boy.) The Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is running close third... (Allegations of marital infidelity, conspiracy, perjury, and murder. The only sitting mayor of a major city in the history of this United States to be charged with a felony!)

Most welcome person, other than Mr. Obama himself? Well, the "Obama girl" (Amber Lee Ettinger) of course!

Gustav again...And Hanna...

Since passing over Haiti yesterday (sadly claiming at least 22 lives) hurricane Gustav has been downgraded to a tropical storm. Today it appers to be strengthening again heading for Jamaica and the western tip of Cuba, and then straight for the "third coast."

3 years ago (August 29 2005) hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans: another direct hit would be catastrophic for The Big Easy...

Tropical storm Hanna - the 8th named storm of the season - has formed today north of the northeren Leeward Islands and is likely to develop into a hurricane later this week. Seems like the "Atlantic conveyor belt" has started serving one storm after another...

Obscurantism vulgaris

Memo to the big honchos at The Washington Post:

Yeah, I know, the content ain’t free, running a website costs real money and selling ads is a good way of earning some moola, so I don't mind tasteful, well-placed, attractive ads on web pages, but the things that scroll, pop, slide, drip, follow the cursor, obscure large patches of text, talk or play tunes to me without my express permission are another matter altogether... Oh, boy, I despise those with vengeance!

No, I'm not going to buy a Dell or anything at Radio Shack because of these “advertising messages”– au contraire, I'm going to deliberately avoid these places because their sliding ads that open unexpectedly and obliterate everything on the page piss me off!

Yes, everybody wants to make a buck but if the drive to make one literally obscures your main goal (i.e. providing information/content) then what's the point..? Show me tasteful ads in a way that doesn't insult my intelligence and doesn't tax my patience.

Please, Washington Post: leave the scrolling/dripping ads to the yellow press and 14-year old morons!

Hurricane Gustav

The 7th named storm - Gustav, which formed yesterday after a rather rapid developement, has today become the third hurricane of the Atlantic season. Due to its rapid development and predicted track (bypassing major landmasses) it may become a major hurricane very rapidly.

O tempora..!

Amtrak train No. 592 from Los Angeles to San Diego ran out of fuel late Sunday night (August 24, 2008) and proceeded to sit in Sorrento Valley (just north of San Diego) for about two hours waiting for another engine to push it to its final destination.

Fay revisited

Fay has never become a hurricane, but...
It has dumped as much as 20 inches of rain in many places and gave a good soaking to many other. Unfortunately there have been as many as 12 Fay-related deaths in the US. Fay has gone over Cuba, Florida Keys, South Florida, Daytona Beach, a few days just off shore over the Atlantic, back across Florida to the Gulf, over the Panhandle, then Alabama Louisiana, Mississippi and who knows where next. What a pest of a storm!

Final medal count

First eleven:
1. USA 110 (36/38/36)
2. China 100 (51/21/28)
3. Russia 72 (23/21/28)
4. Great Britain 47 (19/13/15)
5. Australia 46 (14/15/17)
6. Germany 41 (16/10/15)
7. France 40 (7/16/17)
8. South Korea 31 (13/10/8)
9. Italy 28 (8/10/10)
10.Ukraine 27 (7/5/15)
11. Japan 25 (9/6/10)
... and some of the rest
Cuba 22 (2/9/11)
Jamaica 11 (6/3/2)
Poland 10 (3/6/1)

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Saturday, August 23 2008)

Shocker of the day - South Korea wins the gold medal in baseball beating the Cubans 3:2!!!

Medal count - first eleven (with apologies to Spinal Tap):
1. USA 107 (34/37/36)
2. China 96 (49/19/28)
3. Russia 69 (21/21/27)
4. Great Britain 47 (19/13/15)
5. Australia 46 (14/15/17)
6. Germany 41 (16/10/15)
7. France 38 (6/15/17)
8. South Korea 31 (13/10/8)
9. Italy 27 (7/10/10)
Ukraine 27 (7/5/15)
10. Japan 25 (9/6/10)
11. Cuba 22 (2/9/11)
... and some of the rest
Jamaica 11 (6/3/2)
Poland 10 (3/6/1)
silver - cycling, mountain bike, women's cross country; silver- canoe/kayak flatwater, women's double kayak (K2) 500 m

No baton left behind

That's the name of the new US Government program instituted after both men's and women's Olympic 4x100m relays dropped the baton and were eliminated. Even a single baton left behind is not acceptable!

Rising...And falling...

Yesterday:
Oil has jumped by over $5/barrel - the aftermath of the invasion of Georgia by the Russian military (Georgia, the country; if any Russians were to invide the state of Georgia it would be the Russian mafia...) Pump prices remain lower than a few weeks ago.
Today:
Back to $115/barrel. Apparently the importance of the "Russian affair" pales in comparison to slowing demand...

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Friday, August 22 2008)
Shocker of the day - IOC will investigate the allegations that some Chinese gymnasts are underage (i.e. younger, sometimes way younger, than 16...) Wow! I admire the speed of your reaction, IOC dudes!!! You'd be the fastest correspondence chess players in the history...

Medal count - first 10 countries:
USA 102 (31/36/35)
China 89 (47/17/25)
Russia 57 (17/18/22)
Great Britain 44 (18/13/13)
Australia 42 (12/14/16)
Germany 36 (14/9/13)
France 34 (5/13/16)
South Korea 28 (11/10/7)
Italy 25 (7/8/9)
Japan 25 (9/6/10)
Ukraine 21 (5/4/12)
...
Poland 8 (3/4/1)
...
Jamaica 10 (6/3/1)
Third world record and third gold medal for Mr. Bolt (in 4x100m relay, he ran the third leg.) Beyond awesome!!!

iDiocy

Apparently some cell phone companies in Poland (Orange..?) have hired actors to form (fake...) lines to their stores and generate a (fake...) feeding frenzy the day before the release of iPhone in Poland...

Wojciech Jabczyński of Orange Poland admitted in an interview with Zycie Warszawy (A Warsaw, Poland daily) that fake clientes were supposed to advise real clients and were part of a marketing ploy. Phooooey! You see, Steve Jobs is not the biggest snake oil salesman in the world (he is very, very close, tho...)

Medal count (and other tidbits)

End of day in Beijing (Thursday, August 21 2008)

Shocker of the day - USA ladies softball tem loses to Japan...

Non-shocker of the day - apparently Beijing is full of official Chinese hit squads, that constantly roam (pardon me, "patrol") the city, rip out or paint over any “unwelcome” graffiti or signs (including the logos of companies who are not olympic sponsors), squash all visible (and many invisible...) forms of dissent and protest within nanoseconds by snatching and detaining the protesters, journalists and bystanders… All that after forcing a few million “undesirables” to leave the city for the Olympics… Long live Chinese democracy!

China 83 (46/15/22)
USA 93 (28/34/31)
Great Britain 40 (17/12/11)
Russia 50 (16/16/19)
Australia 38 (11/13/14)
Germany 31 (11/8/12)
South Korea 26 (10/10/6)
Japan 24 (9/6/9)
Italy 21 (6/7/8)
Netherlands 15 (6/5/4)
...
France 30 (4/12/14)
...
Poland 8 (3/4/1)
Sad note, a Polish sports official (rowing) Andrzej Baczewski died in Beijing on Tuesday of apparent heart attack while entering the Olympic Stadium.
Not so sad note from the land of the truly stupid, another Polish sports official Jerzy Sudoł got kicked out from the Olympic Village for (what else..!) public drunkenness. What a moron!!!

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Wednesday, August 20 2008)
Shocker of the day - 200 m men's sprint, world record by the Jamaican Bolt.  Awesome!!!

China 79 (45/14/20)
USA 82 (26/28/28)
Great Britain 37 (16/10/11)
Russia 45 (13/14/18)
Australia 36 (11/12/13)
Germany 28 (11/8/9)
South Korea 25 (9/10/6)
...
Poland 8 (3/4/1)

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Tuesday, August 19, 2008.)
Shocker of the day: Argentina 3, Brazil 0 and Nigeria 4, Belgium 1 in men’s soccer semifinal (!)

China 76 (43/14/19)
USA 79 (26/26/27)
Great Britain 33 (16/9/8)
Australia 35 (11/12/12)
Germany 28 (11/8/9)
Russia 42 (10/14/18)
South Korea 24 (8/10/6)
...
Poland 8 (3/4/1)
silver - men's discus throw

Fay

The 6th named tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season hit South Florida today as a strong, slow moving tropical storm, not a hurricane. Lots of flooding and wind damage, deaths in Dominicana and Haiti (at least 30 after an overloaded bus tried to cross a storm-swollen river), small tornadoes in Florida.

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Monday, August 18, 2008.)
China 67 (39/14/14)
USA 72 (22/24/26)
Great Britain 27 (12/7/8)
Australia 33 (11/10/12)
Germany 23 (9/7/7)
Russia 36 (8/13/15)
South Korea 23 (8/9/6)
...
Poland 7 (3/3/1)
gold - artistic gymnastics, men's vault.

Blue sky

Yep, blue sky over Beijing!!! For the first time in over two weeks one could seee a clear blue sky, no smog, no fog, no haze, no smoke, just blue sky. Wow!!!

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Sunday, August 17, 2008.)
China 61 (35/13/13)
USA 65 (19/21/25)
Great Britain 25 (11/6/8)
Germany 21 (9/6/6)
Australia 29 (8/10/11)
South Korea 22 (8/9/5)
...
Poland 6 (2/3/1)
gold - men's rowing (quadruple sculls); silver-men's weightlifting (94kg); silver-men's rowing (lightweight four); bronze-women's freestyle wrestling (72 kg)
...
Jamaica 4 (2/2/0)
gold medal in men's 100 dash yesterday and gold and two silver medals (Jamaican sweep!) in women's 100m dash today. Jamaica has never won the gold in 100m dash. Outstanding!!!

Falling...

Amazing - the price of crude oil hovers around $110-113 and even pump prices are slowly inching down in the US. Even super unleaded is at three dollars ninety-nine and 9/10 cents (Annapolis, Maryland.) I never thought I'd see all 3 grades of gas for less than $4/gallon before the Labor Day weekend. And diesel is practically in nosedive: $4.40, down from $4.85 a month ago!

All these decreases are of course relative: a year ago gallon of unleaded sold for $2.70 and diesel was selling for $2.86...Not to mention that on August 17, 2004 (measly four years ago!) the barrel of crude oild cost $46...

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Saturday, August 16, 2008.)
China 47 (27/13/7)
USA 54 (16/16/22)
Germany 18 (8/5/5)
South Korea 20 (7/9/4)
Australia 25 (7/8/10)
...
Poland 2 (1/1/0)

Airborne $30 000 000 lighter

Airborne, over the counter nutritional supplement (read on...) pushed as a miracle preparation to boost your immune system and thus cure and shorten the duration of colds, and make you less susceptible to catch one, turned out to be less than the sum of its parts (i.e. no workee as advertised) and the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) has fined the company 30 million dollars for making unsubstantiated claims. That number includes refunds to the purchasers, so if you got swindled into buying Airborne, apply early and apply often, as they say in Chicago…

Boys and girls, there is no conclusive scientific evidence whatsoever that the preparation can indeed prevent or cure colds. Besides, remember that if anybody pushes a miracle cure for cold, flu, Japanese encephalitis or a certain stubborn antibiotic-resistant strain of syphilis you are likely to catch only in a few places in Harbin, it is most likely fraud and snake oil. If this stuff really worked, the big boys of the pharmaceutical industry would be all over it for gads sake!!!

By the way, Airborne is considered a nutritional supplement, not a medication and thus is not regulated by the FDA (but the FDA can still go after the makers for fraudulent claims.)

There is more “good” news - the formula of Airborne may even be hazardous: two tablets of Airborne contain 10,000 IU of vitamin A, considered the maximum safe daily level, and the company dose instructions advise not exceeding three tablets a day.

So, IMO if you feel a flu or cold coming, save your pennies: if you have a balanced diet substituting a spoonful of dirt for two pills of Airborne may be as effective, perhaps even safer, not to mention much tastier...

Think and don’t be naïve!!!

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Friday, August 15, 2008.)
China 41 (26/9/6)
USA 46 (14/13/19)
Germany 14 (8/2/4)
South Korea 18 (6/9/3)
...
Poland 2 (1/1/0) Silver in men's team epee; Gold in men's shot put!

No brains between the ears

Deaths on motorcycles…a very sad statistics released by NTSB.

1997 2,116 deaths. (5% of all motor vehicle crash fatalities – all time low.)
2007 5154 deaths. (13% of all motor vehicle crash fatalities.) That's a 128 percent increase comparing to 1997!

Consider this:
· There are only 75% more motorcycles registered today than in 1997.
· That's 10 straight year of the number of motorcycle-related deaths climbing.
· Overall number of motor-vehicle fatalities fell by 2.9% between 2006 and 2007.

The victims of motorcycle crashes are 3 times more likely than all other fatalities in motor vehicle related accidents not to have the proper license and 2.6 times more likely to be DUI/DWI in the time of accident. And - of course – many victims are helmetless riders.

I'm lifting my hand in the middle finger salute to all thirty states which allow helmetless riding: you are idiots!!!

Medal count

End of day in Beijing (Thursday, August 14, 2008.)
China 35 (22/8/5)
USA 34 (10/9/15)
Germany 12 (7/2/3)
South Korea 16 (6/7/3)
...
Poland 0

I'm following the official Chinese website and the good Chinese people count gold medals first and the total medals second (you know, "one gold medal is worth 1000 silver medals...")

Medal count

As of end of Wednesday August 13 (Beijing time.)
China 27 (17/5/5)
USA 29 (10/8/11)
South Korea 13 (6/6/1)
Poland 0

Falling...

Oil at $113/barrel. Not much drop at the pump, though.

(The rumors that the CEO of Exxon/Mobil was seen panhandling in Kabul are not true: he was lobbying in Washington, D.C. for more tax breaks.)

Medal count

End of day (Tuesday, August 12 2008) in Peking:
China 20 (13/3/4)
USA 22 (7/7/8)
South Korea 12 (5/6/1)
...
Togo 1 (first Olympic medal ever!!!) (0/0/1)
Poland 0

Nuke your cookies, Luke…

According to a story in the Washington Post (Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent, August 12, 2008) several internet service and broadband providers have admitted using very precise tracking of users’ on-line activities, including so called “deep-packet inspection” (reading your email and other info send/received over the ‘net to gather information about you) without informing the users. That data is of course used to bombard the users (including underage children) with all kinds of ads, and sold to other companies for cold cash who in turn assail the users with enlarge your penis/breasts/abs/pecs with a herbal remedy spam messages, viruses, Trojans and other niceties. Of course, no company (or a single Republican in Congress) wants any regulation other than "self-policing" (surprise, surprise…)

Kudos to the House Energy and Commerce Committee member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) for trying to do something about it.

Medal count

As of the end of Monday (August 11, 2008) Beijing time for selected (by me...) countries:
China 14 (9/3/2)
South Korea 8 (4/4/0)
USA 12 (3/4/5)
Russia 6 (0/4/2)
Cuba 2 (0/1/1)
Colombia 1 (0/1/0)
Poland 0

The irony of Mamona

Newest trend at the Beijing Olympics? Sunglasses with no glass. Apparently glass fogs up in the humidity of Beijing but some sponsorship agreements (padded with lots of $$$) call for glasses being worn in competition so beach volleyball players don glassless frames with the sponsor’s logo prominently visible…

Apparently swimming with no trunks on (trunks' manufacturer’s label glued to the swimmer’s ass) ain’t catching on, but who knows.

Gold, Silver, Bronze, Nada...

Medal count (as of evening EDT Sunday, August 10 2008 )
China 10 (8/2/0)
USA 10 (2/2/4)
Russia 4 (0/3/1)
Poland 0 (0/0/0)

Sir Isaac Hayes

Soul singer Isaac Hayes, who rapped before there was rap and boogied before there was disco, died yesterday (August 10, 2008) in Memphis, Tennessee. His "Theme From Shaft" won both the Oscar and a Grammy. He was 65.

9 million missing bicycles

Where did all the bicycles, so common in Beijing, go? In a word – banned. Some bicyclists were simply deported from the city and the others "actively discouraged…" Ah, there is also an “exclusion zone” around the Olympic venues where nothing (a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing!) can take place without the explicit permission of the Chinese government. There are no bicycles allowed in that zone (of course! bicycles are so passé and low class, only the poor ride bicycles…) and the cops asked where have all the bicyclists gone answer either “what bicyclists?” or “look, there are everywhere!” (thus creating make-believe bicyclists in a make-believe democracy…Or maybe the smog was just too thick to see the bicyclists...)

Wall Arch collapse

Wall Arch located on the Devils Garden Trail in Arches National Park in Utah collapsed sometime on August 4 or 5 2008. It wasn't the largest stone arch ( 33 feet tall and 71 feet across) in the park, but one of the most photographed. There are over 2000 stone arches in Arches National Park.

Wind between the ears...

In the eternal struggle between bad and worse, six members of Set Free Soldiers, a Christian motorcycle gang who describe themselves as "a group of men who love Jesus and love to ride hard" have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder after stabbing two members of another (rival, perhaps..?) motorcycle gang, the Hells Angels, during a brawl at the Newport Beach bar Blackie's by the Sea on July 27.

The police also arrested three Hells Angels who "allegedly struck one of the Set Free Soldiers in the head with a pool ball" and committed other forms of assault, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Somehow I think that this is not the end of the Set Free Soldiers versus the Hells Angels saga ...

Pork and how to make a gerund out of it

Mr. John Edwards (yeah, THAT Edwards, former US Senator and one-time presidential candidate who just loves $200 haircuts) was apparently porking his personal female videographer while Mrs. Edwards, his legally-married wife, was (and still is) battling cancer. Don’t know whether this is as bad as, or worse than, Newt Gingrich (a Republican hypocrite extraordinaire and a famous serial wife-dumper) serving his wife Jackie with divorce papers in a hospital, where she was also battling cancer but, hey, who am I to judge such distinguished figures!

Too bad that Mr. Edwards wasn’t caught with a hooker - we could call him John-John and the world would be so much funnier (even funnier than the fact that Mr. Edwards’ affair was first revealed by the National Enquirer, the paragon of American journalism…)

JetBlue and common sense

JetBlue Airlines started charging $7 for a blanket/pillow combo on their flights. The blankie is yours to keep, by the way.

The same JetBlue has asked 1000 volunteers (“frequent fliers”, whatever that means…) to come and test their check-in, baggage handling and security process at their new terminal at JFK on August 23. So, you can trek to JFK from the City; stand in multiple lines to embark on an imaginary flight to nowhere; get free parking, lunch and (unspecified) “giveaways” (a blankie..?)

Free Tibet!

Memo to the Chinese: you have broken your promise of unconditionally respecting human rights made when the world gave you the privilege of organizing the 2008 Olympics. Shame on you!

Falling...

Crude oil at $116/barrel today! Pump prices fell another 1/10 of a cent. Alleluia!

The Chinese torture

Apparently the Chinese want to use the 2008 Olympic Games in Peking to establish supremacy over the sport world in general and the US sport in particular. The Games will be successful in the eyes of the Chinese only if the Chinese win the most medals AND beat the US in the number of gold medals. One gold [medal] equals one thousand silver [medals] is the mantra repeated everyday by the Chinese officials including the Minister of Sport Liu Peng. So, badminton, table tennis, gymnastics and diving are the main battlegrounds but rumor has it that they also count on the disciplines requiring more brawn than brains so let's see if the Chinese can really win in women's weightlifting or man’s heavyweight boxing…

I can sense a striking similarity with the German approach: Hitler just couldn't stand that his "racially superior Aryans" were beaten by one Jesse Owens, and the DDR government had exactly the same mantra… win…win…here’s steroids…win…here’s hormones…win…at all costs..win…or…

I wonder what the “or” part will be for the Chinese who lose…

Pea soup air

AQI 95 in Beijing today. In the US it would fall into the "unhealthy for everyone" category, but in Beijing anything below 101 is a clear day...

Here's what International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge had to say on the subject: The fog you see is based on the basis of humidity and heat. It does not mean to say that this fog is the same as pollution. It can be pollution, but the fog doesn’t mean necessarily that it is pollution. Of course, we prefer clean skies, but the most important thing is the health of the athletes being protected.

I would like to praise the IOC for employing handicapped people: obviously Mr. Rogge is legally blind.

Here is a picture of a clear day in Beijing:

Photo Greg Baker/AP

Note: If AP has a problem with using of the photo here, please let me know and I'll remove it. For now I consider it "fair use" (this is a non-commercial blog.)

Scotty, Where The Hell Are You???

Falcon 1, a privately-funded space rocket, with some, ahem, “interesting” cargo aboard, blew up over South Pacific just 2 minutes after launch from the Marshall Islands late last Saturday (August 2, 2008) local time. The flight, dubbed the “Explorer's Flight” (read on…) carried 3 satellites and the remains, ashes, of 208 people, among them Gordon Cooper (US Mercury astronaut) and actor James Doohan (Scotty of the “Beam Me Up” fame on the original Star Trek TV series.) Apparently a “space burial” company called “Celestis, Inc.”, a subsidiary of another outfit - Space Services Incorporated, does a brisk business putting the remains of your loved ones in outer space (at least that's the plan…) Unfortunately, judging from their after-launch statement, Celestis, Inc. appears also to be full of it: "the Explorer's Flight mission appears not to have reached orbit tonight." Yeah, right, Einsteins!

Apparently neither Gordon Cooper nor “Scotty” can quite make it to the outer space: their remains were already blasted by the same outfit once before, on April 28 2007, on a suborbital flight and later recovered.

The Celestis, Inc. absurdity aside, the Falcon 1 disaster seems to be a norm for the rocket company (Space X) – they have not had a successful launch yet.

Pininfarina

Andrea Pininfarina, 51, of the Pininfarina SpA (the designers of Ferraris among other cars) died Thursday (August 7, 2008) morning near the Italian city of Turin in an accident while riding his Vespa scooter. He was the grandson of the founder of Pininfarina SpA, Battista "Pinin" Farina.

Made in U.S.A redux

The upside of high fuel prices? High transportation costs which may lead to some jobs returning back to the good ol’ USA… It just may be cheaper to make a T-shirt - or a computer - in the US than to shuffle raw materials and the finished product back and forth between continents.

It may be the kiss of death to over-globalization and the “Wal-Mart model of world domination.” For that, I’ll gladly pay $4/gallon…

More (with a slightly different angle) in the New York Times (Sunday, August 3, 2008, Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization) and on NPR (Monday, August 4 2008.)

Bulgaria buys General Motors

Well, after posting a 15 billion (yep, that's billion with the "b") quarterly loss, the prospect of GM going away (or being bought out by Bulgarrenault, a now-defunct Bulgarian car manufacturer) is not that remote.

Falling... (Really..?)

Crude oil at $118/barrel this morning (20% less than the recent peak.)

Regular unleaded $3.88/gallon, national average (5% less than the recent high...)

Delta Airlines starts charging the exorbitant fee for checked luggage today because of rising fuel prices.

US Air started charging $2 for water in economy on domestic flights today because of rising fuel prices.

All the above companies (and, of course, Exxon/Mobil) will tell ya that it takes time (like months or years...) for the retail to follow any decrease in crude oil prices because of the "future" nature of oil contracts. Takes time..? Really??? The pump prices rise almost instantly after crude oil moves up even by a cent on a barrel! I wonder why...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Famously imprisoned in the vast soviet empire of “gulags” – forced labor and penal camps, then kicked out of his own country for anti-communist writings, settled in the US where for years lingered as a more and more eccentric figure, a strange mix of a strong anti-Soviet stance and a fully-fledged hatred for the capitalist system. For him, we here were not up to his standards in terms of education, religion, “morals” and consumption. We were cowards who “hastily capitulated” in Vietnam, mired in “vulgar materialism” and “spiritual weakness.” And even the free press (yep, he apparently considered unfettered press dangerous, especially – it seems - when it criticized Mr. Solzhenitsyn…) wasn’t up to snuff for him.

After moving back to Russia, Solzhenitsyn started turning into a truly bizarre individual, detesting the Russian reformers (Gorbachev) but friends with his former oppressors (Putin, a KGB man…)

A great and brave writer, but at the end, after stripping him of the “anti” veneer, he appears to be just another Russian imperialist at heart, frustrated with the passing of the Great Russian Empire and grateful to those who are trying to resurect it. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died on Sunday (August 3, 2008.) He was 89.

Turtle No. 72, Where Are You?

According to The Washington Post (Slow and Steady Gets the Bust As Turtle's Trail Leads to Drugs, 8/1/2008) some Eastern box turtles in Rock Creek Park (spanning the D.C. and Maryland border) are fitted with tiny radio transmitters so their movements can be monitored by the National Park Service scientists. Said scientists sometimes rendezvous with their charges and apparently one such tête-à-tête took place in the middle of a tiny, well-cultivated marijuana plot deep in the woods of the Park. (Well, whatdoyawant? The turtle apparently went where the grass was - turtles have needs, too, you anti-turtle bigot!!!)
The end of the story is predictable: police stake-out, arrest and charges of possession with intent for the enterprising gardener.

Now, if only the combined police forces of D.C. and Maryland were equally swift catching murderers, rapists, thieves and drunk drivers…

Exxon Mobil buys Bulgaria

Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation. Ever!!! Hey, the goons of Wall Street are disappointed because they expected even larger profits..!

The CEO of Exxon/Mobil has been complaining bitterly about the huge after-tax charge for the Exxon Valdez polluting a big chunk of Alaska. Yeah, champion, that 290 million dollars is indeed a huge sum when you are on the way to a $40 billion yearly profit. $40 billion is a GDP of Bulgaria to put things into perspective...

Wal-Mart: red, white, but not blue (not a friggin' chance!)

It seems that in addition to peddling lots of cheesy crap of dubious origin to the American public, Wal-Mart has also become a peddler of dubious political causes... Read this Reuters wire, quoted here in extenso:


Wal - Mart Mobilizes Against Democrats: Report
By REUTERS
Published: August 1, 2008
Filed at 7:17 a.m. ET

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is mobilizing U.S. store managers to lobby against Democrats in November's presidential election, fearing they will make it easier for workers to unionize, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if store workers unionize, the paper said.

About a dozen employees who attended meetings in seven states said executives stressed employees would have to pay hefty union dues and get nothing in return, and might have to go on strike without compensation, and warned that unionization could force the company to cut jobs as labor costs rise, the Journal reported.

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who have run the meetings didn't tell those attending how to vote in the November elections, but made it clear that voting for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, would be tantamount to inviting unions in, the Journals said.

Wal-Mart could not be reached immediately for a comment.

Points of view...

Front page headlines - July 31, 2008 from the on-line editions around 1 PM Eastern

Washington Post
U.S. Economy Grows at Solid Pace in 2nd Quarter
New York Times
G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus
Los Angeles Times
Economy posts small growth in 2nd quarter
International Herald Tribune
U.S. growth less than expected despite stimulus
The Times (London)
US GDP misses second-quarter forecasts at 1.9%
Gazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw, Poland)
Fatalne dane z USA (Awful Data From The US)

Miami Herald
Fidel Castro still a factor

Delta Airlines and common sense

You'll need a million frequent travel miles to buy a domestic "reward" ticket on Delta. Seriously, the value of frequent flier miles miles has diminished to the point of "why bother at all..." Details here http://www.delta.com/skymiles. I'm almost positive that many other carriers will follow - hello Southwest, I'm all yours!!!

Delta Airlines and common sense

Wanna check a second bag on Delta? 50 bucks, s'il vous plaît... Surfboard? 175 big ones.

Wanna cookie? It'll be forty-seven fifty... (And that's for a day-old cookie.)

Hello (and go away) Dolly!

Yesterday a second hurricane of this year's Atlantic season - Dolly - hit Texas near the Mexican border as a category 2 storm. Lots of flooding and damage, a few injuries but no loss of life.

Still falling...

Wow! $124 crude oil!
CEO of Exxon/Mobil was seen buying rope...

Falling...

Oil closed at $134. Wow, over $10 drop in a week or so! Don't rejoice, though, it is still 80% more than a year ago...

Bertha

1st out of "6 to 9" this season's Atlantic hurricanes
http://verbatizm.blogspot.com/2008/05/2008-hurricane-season-predictions.html
aptly named Bertha has barely missed Bermuda. Was it major? Methinks yes, it did reach category 3 for a while (and lasted an eternity..!)

Gay. Homosexual. Gay. Homosexual. Gay.

Some time ago, the Associated Press wrote that World champion Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100 meters of all-time to win the American Olympic trials on Sunday, a wind-assisted 9.68 seconds.

A web site http://www.onenewsnow.com/ (a division of American Family News Network, run by a fanatically anti-gay organization American Family Association of Tupelo, MS) linked that wire story but if you happen to read it there, you’ll see that it was “Tyson Homosexual” who ran the race… Apparently the good (?) people of the American Family Association set their filtering software to replace every instance of the word “gay” with the word “homosexual.” Oh Lord, where are you when we really need you!

And next time you see something (anything!) named “American Family Association” remember that the organ of the Soviet Communist Party was titled Pravda (“Truth.”)

iPocalypse..?

iPhone (AKA JesusPhone ‘cuz it does everything, walks on water, too) gets several different bibles thanks to the suddenly open application platform! Other religions are royally screwed but, hey, it is the JesusPhone after all!

As an aside: it even gets the long-missing cut-and-paste functionality thanks to some obscure outfit working days and nights (24 minutes total of real work, 2 weeks of pizza and beer breaks…) in some dump and messy garage. That has to count for more Brownie points than the bible!

Oil

$147 oil yesterday (it closed a bit lower but still...)

Exxon/Mobil pledges to invest four dollars and fifteen cents in environmental protection and another $15.5 million in their government lobbying efforts.

Boneheaded propagandists unite!

Well, after the "zebra incident", "OJ dark or darker" debacle and countless other alterations of news and "documentary" photos (both in digital and "traditional" domain) this just had to happen... Propaganda pictures from the launch of ballistic missiles by Iran show a fourth missile (which apparently did not fire) happily (?) reaching for the sky!

As an aside, rumor has it that the Iranis have ordered 25 000 metric tons of green paint to paint the grass in Teheran "to make a good impression."

See also this entry for something totally opposite yet strikingly similar: http://verbatizm.blogspot.com/2008/06/same-old-same-old.html

The picture as obtained by Associated Press:

And as published by many news outlets around the world, obtained by AFP via Sepah:

Both pictures: (c) The New York Times/Agence France-Presse/Associated Press

Note: If either AP, NYT or AFP have a problem with using these photos here, please let me know and I'll remove both. For now I consider it "fair use" (this is a non-commercial blog.) The Sepah people can get stuffed!

Fly American!

Various blogs (Gothamist, Consumerist) report that after American Airlines flight 1908 from Miami to NY LaGuardia on July 8 was delayed because the crew didn’t arrive on time, the waiting passengers greeted the crew with loud boos when they finally showed up. Apparently, after some members of the crew refused to fly with “hostile passengers”, the flight was cancelled, the passengers put up in a hotel (allegedly “a nice place but with barbed wire all around it” as described by one passenger) and sent on their way to LaGuardia the next day. Their luggage “accidentally” ended up at JFK…
All sources cite Fox News as “the” source so take it with a grain of salt.

(Thanks, Tim!)

Linguistic evil (pardon me, good...)

Fanboys rejoice! Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary say that the word fanboy is now part of the English language! Still, fangirl exists only in popular speech. C’mon Señor Webster…

Fanboy
Pronunciation: \ˈfan-ˌboi\
Function: noun
Date: 1919 ([really? ML])
: a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies)

Usage example (a suggestion) throngs of Apple fanboys camp for a week on front of Apple stores to purchase Apple iPhone seven minutes before the sane part of the human race can do it without waiting.

Padre, may I see your ID..?

According to the Sunday’s Osservatore Romano (the official organ of the Holy Sea) “some time ago” a fake priest was discovered in the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome while attempting to take his place in a confessional. While apparently dressed in clerical garb and carrying proper identification, his behavior was deemed “strange” by the Basilica’s security, which in turn - after a close review of his documents - led to his arrest and a subsequent trial. A Vatican Judge Gianluigi Marrone said that “It was a case of usurping an ecclesiastical title, and thus he was tried by our tribunal.”

What hath God wrought…

Oh, say can you see...

US gas prices (average, regular unleaded) based on the AAA data:
July 4 2007: $2.95
July 4 2008: $4.05

I throws therefore...

From the AP wire:
On July 1, 2008 in Deland, FL, a 46-year-old man allegedly hit his mother in the head with a three-pound package of polish sausage. The perpetrator has been arrested and charged with battery.

Apart from the distastefulness of the entire incident (mother hit on the head with a really awfully tasting meat(?) product), the incident gives a totally new meaning to the Polish phrase "rzucać mięsem" (colloquially: to use four-letter words.)