Friday, October 26, 2007
Rant of the day
Paul Krugman:
But the greater tragedy is the one facing borrowers who were offered what they were told were good deals, only to find themselves in a debt trap.
In his final paper, Mr. Gramlich stressed the extent to which unregulated lending is prone to the “abusive lending practices” he mentioned in his 2004 warning. The fact is that many borrowers are ill-equipped to make judgments about “exotic” loans, like subprime loans that offer a low initial “teaser” rate that suddenly jumps after two years, and that include prepayment penalties preventing the borrowers from undoing their mistakes.
Yet such loans were primarily offered to those least able to evaluate them. “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?” Mr. Gramlich asked. “The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.” And “the predictable result was carnage.”
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Rant of the day
Today's (half) rant courtesy of Kung Fu Monkey:
(italics and bold are from the original)
... This is only half-rant. The honest question is, what in the
American character keeps us returning to this completely false
self-image? Seriously, how did we get to a point where this
report may as well have started: "Hi there, Carol, we're about
to talk to people twenty years older than the average American
living a lifestyle less than one in five average Americans live
... to find out what the average American thinks" and somehow nobody blinks an eye?
There are four times as many Americans living in urban than rural
areas. There are four times as many people sucking back coffee
in New York city alone than make a living farming. According to the Burea of Labor, there are just as many people employed in Architecture and Engineering as farming, hell, 3 million people working in Computer and Mathematical jobs. But when one of
these "What does America think about culture" pieces comes on,
do I ever see a mid-30's software engineer onscreen bitching about having to download BitTorrents of "The IT Crowd"? Fuck and no.Four million people in the US play World of Warcraft. And yet, do I ever hear:
ANDERSON: We stopped by the gates of Ogrimmar in Durotar, on the east coast of Kalimdor, where one local told us Hollywood just can't relate to the level-grinding life.
UNIDENTIFIED ORC: They've never been back here, questing Razormane or Drygulch Ravine, y'know ... or farming for Peacebloom and Silverleaf. They're out of touch.
No. No I do not.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The Number One Issue
Red Sox fan in NYC
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tough Call at NASA
This is a great article. You get a good feel for the history behind the current situation, and the different influences and pressures at play.
Although the launch advisory board is sticking to it's guns and recommending against the launch, I think even they are acknowledging that there are persuasive arguments on the other side. Everyone is being very civil about this (and that will last until something bad happens).
Monday, October 22, 2007
Concert-palooza, part Three of Three
Last night we caught Steven Wright at the Majestic in Dallas. The Dallas Majestic is a beautifully restored 1920's-vintage theater, similar to the Paramount in Austin. It's nice, but not nearly as awe-inspiring as the Majestic in San Antonio.
We got these tickets for Tom's birthday present. I hadn't heard much about Wright since he was on TV a lot in the '80's, so we didn't know what to expect. Not to worry, he was just as weird and hilarious as I remembered.
In a 100-minute show, there was no way to remember all the great jokes, but these one-liners stuck with me:
I'm addicted to placebos. I want to quit, but it wouldn't make any difference.Mrs. Joesblog didn't join us for this one, but she had a good excuse. The Red Sox had the bad timing to play game 7 of the ALCS at show time. Even though this was his birthday present, Tom wasn't offended. (He said if it had been one of his teams, he'd have skipped out too.)
My friend has a trophy wife, but apparently it wasn't for first place.
Wright is from Boston; I wouldn't be surprised if he had a TV backstage for score updates.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
"...Mrs. Roberts' underage companion..."
For us fundy-haters this is just awesome. I couldn't stop reading till the end. I would give you some excerpts, but you have to skim it yourself to get the real flavor.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Bonus Annie!
While we're anxiously awaiting part three of Concert-palooza, here's a bonus Annie clip, taken from the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. She was an inspired choice to sing Freddie's part on Under Pressure with the remaining members of Queen and, of course, the Thin White Duke. A classic.
Concert-palooza, Part Two of Three
...Next up was Annie Lennox last Sunday at McFarlin Auditorium at SMU, what they call an "intimate venue". She was outstanding. I'd seen her once before with Eurythmics in Austin back at the beginning of time. I was hoping she'd sing a few songs from her incredible first solo album, Diva. Not to worry, Diva made up about half the show.
The show was well worth it even though, counting the encore, it was only about 1:15 long (Lyle played about double that counting encores). But I can't complain because she sang everything I really wanted to hear.
She finished the show with my favorite from Diva, and possibly her best song:
...Wait, maybe this was my favorite...
...But the real showstopper was Annie on solo piano for my favorite Eurythmics song:
Concert-palooza, Part One of Three
This was a busy week for concerts. First up last Thursday, we caught Lyle Lovett and his Large Band at the beautiful Bass Hall in Fort Worth. This makes about the sixth time or so we've seen Lyle since moving to Dallas (all at Bass Hall except one time at the magnificent Majestic Theater in San Antonio with the McReynolds-Hollon clan).
Lyle played a lot from his new CD, plus a few old faves. Outstanding as usual. Here's a clip of a new song that looks a lot like the show we saw. Unfortunately the recording quality is shaky, but I like the clip anyway because it reminds me of the show.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Bruuuuuce!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Here's another one...
... although this one's probably not officially band-approved:
And that reminds me of this:
Update: Seriously, the actual lyrics aren't a whole lot better.
Monday, August 06, 2007
"Oh So Good!"
Playing around with YouTube imbeds; let's get into the Wayback Machine:
While not conclusive, this clip does nothing to dispel the notion that the little guy with the star on his knee might be God...
Monday, July 16, 2007
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction, continuing...
Small story in Saturday's NYT, a humongous new telescope opens for business, Noteworthy only to astronomy nerds like me, if not for this:
Among those in La Palma for the opening was Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen, the pop group. He did part of his doctoral studies in astrophysics at the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute.
[...]
Mr. May, who recently published “Bang! The Complete History of the Universe” with two astronomers, Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, said that he was adding the finishing touches to a musical score for the telescope’s inauguration next year.
Very impressive. All he needs to master now is Nascar and neurosurgery to be like this guy.
Of course, a Texas telescope is still bigger:
The Great Canary Telescope [34-foot mirror] is among the world’s largest telescopes. [...] The Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which has a 36-foot mirror, is located at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Retirement Hobby Idea
Cheap, interesting, exciting:
Bend gas station owner Kent Couch spent last weekend as many do in Central Oregon - gazing at massive mountains, allowing nature to offer solitude and pretty much taking it easy.
It’s just that Couch decided to spend his free time in a flying lawn chair dangling at more than 11,000 feet off the ground.
Supported by balloons, yes balloons, Couch carried a global positioning system device, a two-way radio, a digital camcorder and a cell phone on his mission. He also had an altimeter, speed gauge and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as a balancing system. Essentially, Couch’s aircraft was a homemade hot-air balloon.
His destination was Idaho, but after nine hours of flight time, he came up just short. He ended up landing about 193 miles from Central Oregon, in a farmer’s field near Union, having crossed much of the state at 11,000 feet and higher, the Associated Press reported.
This was Couch’s second flight. In September, he got to 15,000 feet on a 6-hour trip, the AP reported.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Men lose their minds faster
I suppose it's not because we use ours more?
Thank goodness I'm still young and don't have to worry about this.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Who sez the NYT doesn't cover sports?
They do, and quite well, as long as you're not particular about which ones:
- A new sport I could get into if I can ever learn to ski.
- The latest yacht racing news.
- A devastating blow to a stellar career for one of my favorite bike racers.
Bonus: A NYT crossword where Bill Clinton came up with the clues.
