Congratulations to our new President, and good riddance to Shrubbo.
Author: Nate
What the frak?
Saw the first episode of BSG Season 4.5. Raised more questions than it answered. Quite a downer. Gah.
Yet another blogmeme quiz
I don’t think I’m enough of a music geek to get this, but it’s an amusing quiz:
Your result for What’s your key signature?…
C# Minor
C Sharp. C sharp run. You’d only know I was reusing this joke from C# Major’s headline if you cheated.
Good housing crisis article.
via Flyertalk: A housing crusade that went awry
Today, administration officials say it is fair to ask whether Bush’s ownership push backfired. Paulson said the administration, like others before it, “over-incented housing.”
Keith B. Hennessey, Bush’s current chief economics adviser, put it this way: “I would not say too much emphasis on expanding homeownership. I would say not enough early focus on easy lending practices.”
Also, another good site to look at is the Doctor Housing Bubble/ blog.
Discovery of the day.
McDonalds’ Bacon Ranch Salad, which I’m occasionally eaten over the last couple of years, is just as good without dressing – the bacon and cheese basically work as dressing.
In fact, the amount of bacon and cheese on it may be a bit much without being masked by dressing, but it’s easy to pick around them when they get to be a bit much.
The Spirit of the Season
Sadly, e-sheep is gone, but Saturnalia lives on thanks to the Internet Archive.
(Above link not safe for work.)
The Zimbabwe hyperinflation, in pictures
No quote: the linked-to site is billed as “humor”, and the lead-in and text are minimal, but it’s fascinating to put some pictures to the facts.
Latest news seems to be on $200M notes.
For the record.
I do not now, and I have never owned an iPod or Zune.
I’ve owned three MP3 players:
* the first was a POS $200+ hard disk based one I bought 4-5 years ago, of which the less is said the better.
* The favorite of my current pair is an off-brand (Truly, maybe?) player-in-a-memory stick which cost under $20. It takes an AAA battery and just plays MP3s in file name order without any fuss or bother.
* My less favored, but more frequently-used one, is a little Creative has (~$90 for 4gb a bit over a year ago, cheaper now)… it has a 2.5″ screen for video, FM radio and a rechargeable battery which are big pluses… but it is much more trouble to put music onto or to play anything in a desired order. It’s also got a non-replaceable battery, which pisses me off.
I keep hoping that battery life on my PDA/phones will improve to the point where it will not be necessary to have a separate MP3 player. Sadly, I see little improvement there, and my present phone (a new HTC Touch Pro) is something of a step backwards for music player use as they went from a semi-proprietary small headset plug to an entirely proprietary USB+sound+etc plug.
(Lest the basic reference not make sense)
Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup
via AmericaBlog:
Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup
November 20 (Bloomberg) — The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.
The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said.
“You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything,” said Ali.
The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS’s are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody’s and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS’s.
Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said: “We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster.”
Shandu added, “We don’t call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will just allow us to guard our coasts better.”
Continue reading “Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup”
President Obama
Congratulations to the new President Elect.
I hope that we’ll be able to heal the divide in this country, but at the same time it’s time to start holding the Democratic party’s feet to the fire on progressive issues – if Bush could claim a mandate after the squeaker in 2004, this is a landslide, and we should take advantage of it.
My two surprises so far on the results.
1) PA called early, had figured Obama would probably get it but to have it close instantly was a huge surprise.
2) VA not called early. I figured it was the bellwether for Obama, and at this rate he may make it to 270 without VA called yet.
8:02pm Pacific time – MSNBC called the national election for Obama after CA, HI, OR, and WA closed. A little skeptical of how early the PA and OH polls closed earlier, but too many outstanding he could still win.
It’s a proud day to be an American.
8:19pm – McCain’s concession speech, showing quite a bit of class so far.
An interesting tidbit off of NPR (Kqed)
San Mateo county is expecting 82% turnout, half of which (thus 41% total) is vote by mail.
As for the results, VA is still too close to call. My bet is that it’s the bellweather this year.