Katrina could hurt GDP growth?

Hmm seems like Action Economics thinks so. This part of the article is especially worrisome:

About a third of the petroleum produced in the U.S. (which meets 45% of U.S. demand), is from the Gulf of Mexico, and 90% of that moves through Louisiana, according to Biz New Orleans, which reports on business and financial information. Also, New Orleans is a major port for importing oil, via offshore facilities for unloading supertankers that send oil to the mainland. The oil travels through underwater pipes via New Orleans.

Lets hope that refinery and deep water port in New Orleans isn't really badly damaged. Or there will be lingering effects of this hurricane that last long after the people have moved back and the houses are rebuilt.

Bush is Tapping the Reserve

Looks like Bush is pulling the trigger on the reserve. I'm not sure about this statement though:

"This will help take some pressure off the gas price," Bush said as gasoline prices soared toward $3 a gallon in many parts of the country, surpassing that level in some places.

He isn't releasing the refinery reserve (if there was such a thing) at all. That means he isn't opening some special government owned refinery or something like that. He is merely replacing the oil that would normally be pumped by those shut down rigs out there in the Gulf of Mexico. This move seems like it wouldn't touch prices at all. This however *may* drive prices down a bit hopefully:

While on the plane, Bush took a call from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. "The king offered Saudi Arabia's support," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. The world's biggest crude oil producer, Saudi Arabia has pledged to boost output by 1.5 million barrels a day -- to 11 million -- to replace shortfalls.

Meanwhile, European nations began considering the release of their own government-controlled stockpiles of gasoline and heating oil to help stabilize markets, said officials at the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

This sounds like a good deal for tanker stocks. That released oil has the get to the US somehow and the tanker fleet is the only way.

Polysilicon Shortage?

Hmm seems like this stuff is pretty hard to come by recently. And it may cut into the bottom line of companies that need silicon materials ie the semiconductor companies. it will be especially hard on companies like Cypress Semiconductor (CY) who make photo cells for solor power. The article says:

Polysilicon contract prices are up to $45 a kilogram from the mid-$30s one year ago, with bidding expected to reach $60 a kilogram next year as shortages become more dire.

Hmm, shortages like this should be good for the bottom lines of companies that make this stuff. There seem to be only 5 companies that make it. The companies are ASiMI, Hemlock, MEMC, Mitsubishi Materials and Wacker. Of these companies MEMC is publically traded. ASiMI seems to have been bought out by Renewable Energy Corp. AS of Norway. Hemlock is a joint venture of Dow Corning , Shin-Etsu Handotai Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. Wacker doesn't seem to have an ADRs. They are putting on capacity as fast as possible but it doesn't appear to be fast enough. This is an interesting thing about MEMC as well:

Another silicon wafer maker, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (St. Peters, Mo.), also "produces polysilicon and is 90 percent self sufficient; not all silicon wafer producers are entirely shelf sufficient," Leming of Princeton Tech Research said.

I think he means self sufficient but that will put them a leg up on some companies out there. They seem to use the Polysilicon for their own wafers so they may not be able to sell the excess when prices go up.

DC Comics Titles for Aug 31

» BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #68
» BATMAN: JEKYLL AND HYDE #5 (OF 6)
» CATWOMAN #46
» DOOM PATROL #15
» ELFQUEST: THE GRAND QUEST VOL. 10
» THE FLASH #225
» GREEN LANTERN #4
» JLA: CLASSIFIED #11
» ROBIN #141
» SEVEN SOLDIERS: SHINING KNIGHT #4 (OF 4)
» SOLO #6
» TEEN TITANS GO! #22
» WONDER WOMAN #220
» THE WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER-HEROES

This looks like another short week to me. I'm only getting Flash #225 this week. I will also be picking up Amazing Spiderman #523 as well.

Camera Phones won't replace Digital Cameras

It looks like digital cameras have nothing to fear from camera phones at all. In fact a camera phone is getting people to buy more digital cameras:

This "myth" is unlikely to occur since resolutions in camera phones have remain somewhat constant, while prices for digital cameras have continued to decline, according to International Data Corp. In the United States, camera phones are becoming more of a "gateway product," which creates more digital camera users.

One reason is because the resolution on camera phones is really pretty crappy. Also it seems like it is easier to get images off of a digital camera then a camera phone. I had lots of trouble finding a USB cable for my phone so I ended up getting a miniSD card and card reader. I will not pay even 1 cent to Verizon to get pictures off of my phone so services like PixPlace are garbage to me. My digital camera came with a USB cable so it is a snap to get pictures off of the phone.

Katrina Hits Retailers

It seems that some retailers are really smarting from Katrinas wrath going ahead. It looks like it is pretty temporary and none of the stores seem to be closed due to heavy damage.

I am more worried about people spending less because of the high gas prices due to the refinery and oil rig closures. That would really torpedo the retailers if Americans stopped buying discretionary goods. We are already seeing that $70 oil that people have been fearing.

Ford Laying off 400 white collar workers

Looks like Ford is going to the axe to reduce their fixed costs. They may even cut more if they can't keep their expenses in line. I have a feeling that some of these people will find a nice home at Fords competitors. This is certainly good news for the auto company as well:

Furthermore, CEO Bill Ford told reporters in Detroit that a comprehensive restructuring plan would be unveiled some time before October aimed at bolstering Ford's ailing North American auto business.

I think they really need some restructuring because they are ailing badly in this market when compared to their Japanese and even American competitors.

Cracks appear in the TomKat Wedding plans?

Looks like TommyBoy is a real controlling sort. This is some real cultish behavior if it is true. (It is Star Magazine after all.)

Tom seemingly insists that Katie restrict herself to his inner circle, most of whom are Scientologists. "Tom wants Katie to spend most of her free time by his side" says the source.

Yup, so they can keep her in the bubble of insanity. That way they can indoctrinate her into the inner workings of the religion. They want her to become a true believer. It would be interesting to hear what went into this Catholicism slam as well:

"Martin questioned Tom on his beliefs about psychiatry," says another source. "Tom apparently got excited while explaining Scientology and questioning Catholicism, even pointing out the failure of psychiatry. Naturally, this would upset the Holmeses."

Maybe Catholics, who like Matt Laurer, are just too glib for Tommy Boy. After all Tommy knows knows the *real* history of Catholicism and you don't.

More on the Taylor-Compton Story

Hmm it looks like she was staying in a park for 2 weeks prior to when she was found. The boy that she was staying with was actually a family that took her in that was concerned for her welfare.

"One of the teachers at Granite Hills High School contacted Officer (Cesar) Molina and told him that a boy was bragging in class that a girl movie star was living in his house," Apple Valley School Police dispatcher Vickie Crawford said.

So she was gone for 2 weeks and it seemed that if that kid didn't brag she would have been gone for much longer. I think her parents need to be investigated to see what the extent of these "family problems" are:

Taylor-Compton, who had no belongings with her other than a purse, told police she had run away from home because of family problems and had been mostly sleeping on playground equipment in a local park, Crawford said.

So she ran for it with the clothes on her back and her purse. It sounds like something an abused spouse would do.

Carl Edwards comes in 24th at Bristol

At least he moved into the 8th spot in the Chase. It kind of sucked though that he hit Kyle Petty near the end of the race and dropped down from a top 20. I think he was 14th or so before he hit Petty. It looked to me like Petty checked up on him and Carl just couldn't get out of his way with that damaged shock. I didn't even know about that damaged shock though because TNTs coverage was such a joke.

Fox's coverage is head and shoulders better then TNT/NBCs half-assed coverage. It seems like the Fox analysts make the races more exciting while the TNT guys just drone on and on in a very boring manner. Maybe it is high energy commentary by Darrell Waltrip but the play by play guy, Mike Joy is a great announcer and seems very knowledgeable about the sport. It says that he is a 30 year motorsports veteran so I guess he does know his stuff.

That aside all Carl needs to do is drive decently at the next two races and he is in the Chase. He probably won't win it because he isn't as experienced as the other drivers but let's hope he does well. Here is a link to an unofficial fan site of his.

Amanda Meyer fights for Grissom Suit

She seems like quite a busy high schooler and has a future in politics here. She is trying to get Gus Grissom's space suit moved back to his museum in Mitchell, Indiana. That seems to be as good a place as any to have his space suit. After some Googling here is a link to her site.

It shouldn't be hidden in the Smithsonian with a bunch of other guys suits but have some sort of place of honor at his museum. It seems that NASA doesn't like the Grissom family very much according to the article:

Relations between Grissom's wife, Betty, and NASA have been uneasy since he and two other Apollo 1 astronauts died in a 1967 command module fire during a training exercise. The space agency, she feels, ignored her family after the tragedy, even as it honored the crews of Challenger and Columbia.

Maybe that is why they seem to be dragging their feet on this thing and is going to make a ruling four months from now. After the media heat dies down of course. It seems like the Smithsonian is kind of hostile to this thing too:

"Amanda Meyer is a nice young lady, and as well meaning as she is, she's a third party in this," said Roger Launius, chairman of space history at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

So she should just forget about all this grownup stuff and go back to playing with her little dolls? Maybe the article took his words out of context but he sure sounds like he is saying that Amanda should just butt out of this whole thing. Hey Grissom is her hero so it is only right that she is fighting to get his space suit placed at his museum. I think Mr. Launius should not condescend to people interested in the thing that he is a historian of.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea

Hmm, looks like they may tap the oil reserve here. This won't drop gas prices because it is the refiners that are getting squeezed here. They can't convert the oil into gas fast enough. It may be a good gesture just to show that something is being done at least.

Also it will probably drop crude prices because it seems like one of those jawbone style measures. Tap a few million barrels and talk about tapping more to let some air out of crude prices. And this certainly won't be a reason to tap the reserve:

"Skyrocketing gas prices have tipped consumers upside down this summer and to protect our economy, the president should act immediately to tap the SPR," Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said.

Um, we tap the thing for an emergency. Having to pay $3 a gallon really isn't an emergency it is a temporary inconvenience. What Schumer should be calling for is a federal subsidy of some kind to companies that build new gas refineries. Or maybe relaxing the environmental requirements to get new refineries built. Or maybe even providing some sort of incentive to build new refineries in Mexico.

Oprah backpeddles on the Snub

It looks like Oprah is doing some back sliding on snubbing the funeral of Ebony and Jet magazines founder John H. Johnson. Hmm it seems the guy died on Aug 8 and Oprah was here in Hawaii at the time. His funeral was on Aug 15 though. Plenty of time to hop a flight back to Chicago and attend the funeral and then jet back here. I mean she is a billionaire after all.

Now she is trying to make amends for this snub:

She said she sent notes to both Johnson's widow, Eunice, and his daughter, Linda Johnson Rice — even offering to provide Martin copies of the notes and a receipt of the flowers she sent to Johnson's downtown publishing company, according to the newspaper.

Yup, she is willing to show proof that she had dictated some note and bought some flowers for a supposed pioneer in black enterprise. I mean anyone could have had their assistant do that kind of thing. I guess John H. Johnson doesn't rate.

She also told Martin she plans to pay tribute to Johnson when she returns from her summer hiatus with a TV show dedicated to the man who built a media empire and became one of the nation's wealthiest black businessmen.

I have a feeling that the idea for this show happened after Chicago Defender Executive Editor Roland Martin called her on the snub. She will admit up and down that she thought of the idea Aug. 8th and not after that copy of Chicago Defender came out. In case her Hawaiian vacation is more important then John H. Johnson ever was.

They found Scout Taylor-Compton

And she wasn't wearing a toe tag when they did. And I hit the nail directly on the head when I was thinking about this case earlier:

Details are scant on Taylor-Compton's whereabouts for the past two weeks or why she disappeared, but a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said that a schoolteacher overheard classmates talking about the AWOL Taylor-Compton and alerted the Apple Valley Police Department. Deputies in turn tracked her down at the home of a boy and returned her to her family

Yup, she was staying at her boyfriends house it seems. I have a feeling that this boy is her first real relationship and maybe the parents don't like him. So she runs away and stays at his place when his parents are out of town. Green and Fontana of Law and Order would have wrapped this thing up in a few hours I think.

Piper Jaffray thinks Byetta could have 30% more sales

This is an interesting conclusion? I guess they talked to the people who were in the various studies for Byetta and came out with these findings.

We have received feedback from the field that patients are receiving multiple Byetta [injection] pens per prescription," Piper Jaffray said. "These comments led us to analyze the number of pens/Byetta prescription. Contrary to current thinking that 1 prescription = 1 pen, our analysis of IMS data indicates 1 prescription = 1.3 pens (i.e., 30% more dollars)."

I hope it's not because Byetta isn't as effective as the regular insulin drugs. Maybe it is because the people in the study are buying an extra one to keep at home and one to take with them when they travel or go to work. If that were the case it would be similar to an asthma inhaler. Should be a nice drug once it gets to market. This analysts agrees:

Piper Jaffray continues to believe that Byetta "could be the next biotech blockbuster."

GM extends employee Discount

It looks like they are extending the discount until Sept. 30 now. And they are extending the discount to their high margin truck line:

The world's largest automaker said Thursday the plan now includes select 2006 full-size trucks and sport utility vehicles, including Chevrolet's Avalanche and Tahoe, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.

Hmm I guess it would be a good time to buy a massive gas-guzzler now. Buy when the discounts flow and reap the rewards as gas prices go down. If they go down at all that is.

Don't Take your Rare Coins to the US Mint

It looks like they seized these Double Eagle Gold Coins without a good reason when they were taken in for verification.

David Lebryk, acting director of the Mint, had announced in a news release that the rare coins, which were never put in circulation, had been taken from the Mint "in an unlawful manner" in the mid-1930's and now were "recovered."

What evidence do they have that they were taken from the Mint in an unlawful manner? Do they have witnesses or finger print evidence or something? I guess a friend at the mint may had given or perhaps sold this guy the coins. Whatever the case the Mint is going to be the last place to take super expensive coins for verification. They might take them.

Frank Robinson is 100% right

I think baseball should listen to Frank Robinson. If a player is caught using steroids wipe everything out no matter if they were using steroids in that season or not.

Make it so they had never played the game at all. It would be like they never even picked up a bat or put on a glove. No asterisks, notations, or just wiping out the one season that they cheated. Wipe it all clean. This would really make people think twice about using steroids because all of their hard earned records will go up in smoke.

This would even stretch to people who unknowingly use steroids like Bonds. I mean if you don't know about the speed limit you are still at fault for ignoring it. Ignorance of the law is no defense. Its time for baseball to get tough about cutting out this cheating.

Robertson shouldn't apologize for what he thinks

I guess it looks bad for a Christian show to want to put out hits on world leaders though. I think if it was on Conservative talk radio then it would be no big deal.

But if he feels this way he should just say that his views do not reflect how the State Department or the US government thinks. He could even distance himself from the 700 Club by saying this is his own opinion and noone else shares it.

Don't back down from cretins like Chavez. If you want him struck down by God's mighty hand then just say it. Guys like Chavez loves to see fear and backsliding from any American that would want to give him an Apache helicopter sendoff. Hmm maybe Robertson should challenge Chavez to a duel a la Zell Miller.

What happened to Scout Taylor-Compton?

Hmm this is a strange disappearance. I wonder what happened to her. The police say:

A spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Sheriff said the young actress was likely a runaway.

Hmm I wonder how they would determine this. I guess she was depressed or something before she disappeared. Her career seemed to be going full tilt so that couldn't be a problem. I wonder if she had a history of running away? The police are probably checking out her acquaintances as well. Maybe she fled with her boyfriend.

Asprin a Deadly Killer?

Now this is an interesting Spanish study for all those people who are taking asprin for health reasons. This seems like a pretty high percentage to me:

The authors report that the proportion of complications and deaths attributed to NSAID and aspirin use was 36.3 percent. They also note that nearly 90 percent of deaths occurred in patients older than 60 years of age.

I guess older people can't hack the intestinal bleeded as well as younger people. US doctors seem concerned as well:

Dr. Byron Cryer, from the Dallas VA Medical Center, agrees with this conclusion. He writes in a related editorial: "Although clinically significant gastrointestinal events with NSAIDs are uncommon, as a result of the vast numbers of patients who take these medications, when assessed by percentages these complications remain a significant public health concern."

Hmm, seems like fertile ground for a lawsuit.

DC comics coming out for the Week of Aug 24

» ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #643
» BATMAN #644
» CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #12
» CATWOMAN: WILD RIDE
» DAY OF VENGEANCE #5 (OF 6)
» JACK CROSS #1
» THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #9
» THE OMAC PROJECT #5 (OF 6)
» ROBIN ARCHIVES
» TEEN TITANS #27

Wow a very short week for me. I'm only picking up OMAC project #5 this week.

Byetta pops Amylin Pharmaceuticals

Looks some good info came out of Phase II trials on Byetta. Analysts seemed pro and con:

Byetta LAR is "a game changer with a multi-billion potential," says Mark Schoenebaum, of Bear Stearns, who raised his rating for Amylin on Tuesday to outperform from peer perform.

"The primary criticism of the data will be the small sample size and lack of longer-term follow-up," he says in a research report. Despite the small sample, the results are "highly compelling."

It was also interesting how some people lost weight with the drug:

The drug group had an average weight loss of 9 pounds vs. the placebo group. The nausea rate for the drug group was 20% vs. 7% for the placebo group.

Hmm, this would be a good deal for the Type 2 diabetes people who are overweight. They lower their blood sugar levels and lose some weight so they won't be at risk of other obesity related illnesses.

I agree with Frum's Assessment on the Gaza Pullout

This seems like a very good reason why Sharon chose to pull out of Gaza:

It was my National Review colleague David Frum who came up with the clearest assessment to date of the Israeli strategy: “Could it be that Sharon is calling the bluff of Western governments and the Arab states? By creating the very Palestinian state that those governments and those states pretend to want but actually dread Sharon is forcing them to end their pretense and acknowledge the truth.”

Yup, he is trying to see if all the European Israel haters are actually going to push the Palestinians into creating a state or not. They want to know if they will put their money where their mouths are. Or was it all just talk (and anti-semitism) coming from the Palestinian lovers in Europe and in U.S. Academia? Maybe they didn't want to see a Palestinian state at all but want to see Israel either humbled or broken up piece by piece. The pullout of Gaza could really make liars out them.

What ever the case Sharon could start saying that Israel tried everything they could and still the Palestinians want to kill them. They don't want a state they just want to kill Jews. Then they can build their wall higher and totally disengage from the Palestinians with firm reasoning under their feet.

Scarlett Gets into an Accident due to Paparazzi

Looks like another young star got into an accident because of over-aggressive shutterbugs. It is funny how they are covering their asses though:

"Our photographers were about a block [behind her] when the collision occurred," Cousart told the Los Angeles Times. "She was basically by herself...There wasn't any car behind her closer than 40 yards."

Sounds reasonable until you read this:

Arnold Cousart, one of the owners of JFX Direct photo agency, confirmed that two of his employees had been following Johansson for four days, along with photographers from a rival service. But he refutes Pariseau's contention that it was the shutterbugs who caused the accident.

Four Days?!? They have been following her for four whole days? No wonder the actress was freaking out and smashing into cars. If anyone got followed by groups of SUVs for four days they would probably have fought back in some way. These paparazzi are lucky she didn't swing her car around and ram them.

Pro-Troop Activists Against Sheehan?

Looks like a counter-protest is starting to form against Sheehan. I like how the AP calls these people pro-Bush when they are actually pro-troop. They didn't mention a single thing about how they support Bush or his plans in Iraq. They are supporting the troops and like Debra Johns, head of the Northern California Marine Moms says:

"It's time to lay down the anger. We need to continue to uphold those people over there, to uphold those men and women with their boots on the ground,"

I think the liberals need to get the idea that you can be pro-troop and pro-Iraqi at the same time. Bringing them home willy-nilly just shows that the insurgents can beat us if they are given enough time.

If the insurgents win then the Iraqi people will lose and all the deaths are for nothing. It seems like the liberals never think about the Iraqi people unless it is some statistic on how many of them we killed in the invasion and how this number will hurt Bush. They need to look less like they are out to "get-Bush" and more on what they are going to do to win the war on terror.

Carl Edwards comes in 4th at Michigan

He did a great job even leading at one point in the race. He had to stop for gas though and ended up coming in 4th. It was cool to see him trade some paint with Matt Kenseth there with about 3 laps to go. It was nice to see him in a race where he wasn't stuck at 20th or so. It seemed that way week after week for a bit there.

This looks great for his Chase chances also because it put him into 9th place in the standing. It looked touch and go there for a bit with him barely staying in 10th. He just needs to finish strong on these last few races and it will give me a reason to watch the Chase instead of football.

I agree that it was absurd how much trash was on the track and how it affected the performance of certain cars out there. They need to wrap the hotdogs in some other kind of material or maybe just put them in little boxes or something. Also they may need to use some kind of napkin that will tear up instead of fly around and stick in some drivers grill.

One final thing they could try is make the spectators eat their food in some sort of food court type area and not be able to take them back to their seats. It seemed for a time there that every car had some wrapper or something slowing them down.

Ansel Adams picture time found

It sure is something that scientists can get the time and placement of the picture to such an exacting degree. They said:

Using lunar tables, topographic maps, weather records and astronomical software, backed by a scouting trip to Glacier Point itself, the researchers believe that Adams pressed the shutter on September 15, 1948 at 7:03 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

They could even discern the location where he took the picture:

By comparing the colour version with the black-and-white one, Olson was able to determine that Adams set up his tripod just off the Yosemite Park trail, below a geology hut. They believe their calculations are accurate to within 10 feet (three metres).

This would be an interesting thing to do with other famous photos as well.

It's nice that KV Mechelen let them score once

Wow now this is a real drubbing. The first goal was scored 4 seconds into the game? And the backup goalkeeper places the blame squarely on the starting goalie:

"Our keeper went to Pukkel Pop. That's why," substitute goalkeeper Charlotte Jacobs told Het Laatste Nieuws daily on Monday.

I guess Pukkel Pop is some sort of rock band. The substitute goalkeeper and their defenders seemed to be at the game and not at the concert. It is sad that the substitute blames the starter when it was her allowing the goals to fly past her. And where was the 10 goal mercy rule when you need it?

They are polling on Sheehan?

Well this is some 15 mintues of fame when they do a poll on how people feel about her. It looks like any partisan poll as well. With views split right down the middle between Democrats and Republicans that are for and against cutting and running. This is an interesting statistic:

Among those with family members who have served in the military, Sheehan is viewed favorably by 31% and unfavorably by 48%.

I guess they think she is exploiting her tragedy for public noteriety. It sure seems like a publicity stunt to get cameras out there. If she comes out with a book deal then you know what her deal is. I still think Bush needs to go meet with her because that seems like something a caring President would do.

Looks like Cindy Sheehan is bringing the Dems to the dark side

Hmm looks like the Repubs are getting some converts out of this Sheehan thing. Randolph is coming to the realization that the "cut and run" crowd would be abandoning an entire nation to its own devices and dishonoring the soldiers that have died already.

Only if Iraq can pull out of this mess and become one of the great nations in the Middle East will our sacrifice be worth it. If the nation falls into civil war then we would have truly betrayed the people (both ours and theirs) that died over there.

Yeah there was faulty intelligence and all that but we are in it and we need to see it through to the end. If we sneak out of the there Spanish style then 1800 Americans died for nothing. Any calls of "bring them home now" is a rank betrayal as bad as if the Palestinians stabbed Israel in the back after the Gaza pullout.

Tip of the Iceberg for Merck?

Looks like it is going to cost Merck $253.4 million to make up for their Vioxx screw up. It may cost them even more:

If the first wave of verdicts go against Merck, experts predict it will open the floodgates for more lawsuits and could force the drug company to settle cases. Analysts have speculated Merck's liability could reach $18 billion.

That would seriously hurt their bottom line and create quite a bit on uncertainty for this stock. It may be a decent short candidate in the coming months.

Gaza Pullout: I'm hoping for scenario number one

But I have a feeling what will really happen after the Gaza pullout is close to scenario number 2. The Palestinians are on the verge of winning true concessions from Israel here. The door to a good future is wide open but it can slam shut in an instant.

One bomb belt and the cycle of violence will continue for decades to come. This time the Israelis will not be giving any quarter because Sharon will be thrown out on his ass. The hardliners will have a free hand against Palestine because the Israeli people will feel betrayed (and rightly so.) The Israelis will have caused all sorts of pain to their own people and got nothing but the same from the ungrateful Palestinians. There will probably never be such a thing as "land for peace" ever again.

On the other hand, if the Palestinian Authority can restrain the militants then the sky is the limit for their people. Their nation will be welcomed to the college of nations with open arms by the Frances of the world. Lots of ready money will pour in (and not just from Muslim nations) to help them rebuild and improve their lives. Maybe the Israelis will pull out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem too if given enough incentive to do so. You never know until the Palestinians will accept "yes" for an answer.

Archie vs the Veronicas

Looks like the Veronicas should have opened up the checkbook and paid for the Intellectual Property for Archie Comics. I guess this is good pre-publicity just as their album drops but they will have to change their name eventually. I think they should have gone with "The Bettys" and claimed that that was their friend/dog/aunt's name and not the Archie character's name. Or they should have come out and said that their name is from that Elvis Costello song Veronica. The song touched their hearts and such.

Darwin Award Nominee?

Looks like some hapless people drown while swimming to an underwater cave. It seems like they didn't have any lights or equipment and decided to do the swim as a lark. Maybe you should plan out a swimming trip to some underwater cave and not just jump into a 5 foot hole and go for broke. And I have a feeling that these four aren't the only lives this cave will claim:

Word of the location of the cave seems to have been spreading recently by word of mouth, said Provo resident Brian Lamprey, 29, who said he went into the cavern about three weeks ago.

"You hear about it, and it's sort of fascinating — almost like a movie type thing, an underwater expedition kind of fascinating," he said outside the cave.

I have a feeling that you may be seeing this article before too long. "Provo Resident Brian Lamprey Found Dead In Underwater Cave."

Competing Microcap ETFs look good

It seems that Ishares and Powershares have just came out with two competing micro-cap ETFs. One follows an index (IWC) while the other is actively managed to pick the best micro-caps out there (PZI) They seem like an interesting tool to diversify your portfolio.

I like the idea of the actively managed one myself because they pick out the stocks that look like they are going to make a decent return. A good manager can do very well by picking the right micro-caps to invest in. I don't like how they are benchmarking against some Zacks proprietary index though. It makes it so it is too easy to move the bar on the shareholders.

Intel is Amazingly Candid on their rushed dual-core chip

It sure looks like Intel is playing follow the leader when it comes to AMD. They are admitting it in a real show of humility without any corporate bluster. They rushed the chip out the door in 9 months with shows that their people can really work fast. Too bad it looks like the chip was flawed and inefficient. There wasn't too much corporate double speak in this statement by Jonathan Douglas, a principal engineer in Intel's Digital Enterprise Group:

One reason for Intel's aggressive schedule for developing Smithfield was the company's need to respond to AMD's actions, Douglas said, without mentioning AMD by name. "We needed a competitive response. We were behind," he said.

Despite the rush, Smithfield was good enough to get Intel into the dual-core era, Krewell said. "It's not an optimal solution, but it's a viable solution. It works, and it works reasonably well," he said.

CNN needs to scold their IT team

Looks like CNN got hit by the Zotob bot worm. It seems that their IT folks don't patch regularly and haven't migrated to Windows XP as well. So it looks like they went to somewhere that had an infected network and bing they had the virus everywhere. And this guy needs to buy a clue as well:

"I cannot believe this is happening," said Mike Murray, the director of research at vulnerability management vendor nCircle. "It just blows my mind. Microsoft's idea of an operating system lifecycle is just crazy. Patching and security matter on the old legacy stuff as much as on the new stuff."

Um they did patch the vulnerability early last week. I have updated my home and work machines already with no problems. Microsoft can only do so much before the admin needs to take things from there. MSFT should have publicized it more or something but who knew this thing would move so fast.

DC Comics Coming Out 8/17

» BATGIRL #67
» THE BATMAN STRIKES! #12
» BATMAN: JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #1 (OF 12)
» BIRDS OF PREY #85
» DETECTIVE COMICS #810
» GREEN LANTERN #3
» THE HUMAN RACE #6 (OF 7)
» JSA: LOST
» LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL #5 (OF 5)
» MANHUNTER #13
» THE POWERPUFF GIRLS #65
» SEVEN SOLDIERS: KLARION THE WITCH BOY #3 (OF 4)
» SUPERMAN: FOR TOMORROW VOL. 2

Looks it will be a short week for me. I'm probably only going to get Birds of Prey #85 and maybe the JSA graphic novel this week.

Divorcing the Peace Mom?

Looks like Sheehan's husband is divorcing her. This article says:

The couple's eldest child, Casey, 24, was an Army soldier killed in April 2004. Cindy Sheehan has said the stress of the death led to the separation of the couple, who were high school sweethearts.

Hmm, maybe hanging out in front of W's ranch and not being home patching up their marriage by going to counseling. If she was a true anti-war activist she shouldn't take some half measure of wanting to "talk to Bush."

She needs to go on a hunger strike until W sees her. Or maybe douse herself in gasoline and threaten to light a match unless the President sees her. Just camping looks like a publicity stunt so she can get on the cover of magazines and such.

Planes are Crashing in Three's now?

This is a worrying trend if it is true. One urban legend is that celebrities die in threes usually. Now with this West Caribbean Airways crash we have had 3 crashes in a few weeks.

How's this for a tin hat conspiracy theory. Muslim extremists are infiltrating airplane maintenance shops and secretly botching the work. They are just testing their prey at first by messing up a few jets at foreign airports every couple of weeks so they won't be detected.

They don't sabotage the plane in a very detectable way so they do the work and the plane flies okay for a while and then crashes later on. They mess with the AC on one plane in Cyprus and then mess with the engines a little in Venezuala. They are slowly working their way into US airports where they will have a day of catastrophes where 25 or 30 planes crash all in one day. Sounds like an interesting movie script for Die Hard 5.

Helios Airways offices raided

I wonder why the authorities raided their offices on Cyprus? Was the plane crash due to some kind of negligence? Now that would certainly be a bad deal I would think. It is even worse for Libra Holidays group that brought the company in 2004. You certainly don't want to book a holiday trip to Athens that starts with being trapped in an icy tomb about halfway there.

Israelis Leave Gaza

Looks like the Israelis are offering an olive branch to the Palestinians by pulling out of Gaza. Now it is up to the Palestinians to take "yes" for an answer and not perpetrate any terror as the Israelis are pulling out.

The Israelis are never forced out of a place under fire and they certainly won't do so now. The the PLO can restrain the Death Cult now they will have showed that they truly want to have peace with the Israelis.

However if they fire at the Israelis trying to leave Gaza then you know they don't want peace and only want to kill people for the sake of killing. They will have effectively taken that olive branch that Sharon is giving them and snapping it in half. If they do that then they really don't deserve peace and should get what is coming to them.

Christopher Walken for Pres in 2008?

Seems to be the real deal. It looks like he will run as an Independent or maybe a Democrat. It doesn't say much on the site about it. This is just what Hillary doesn't need though. A popular actor running against her would make the Democratic primaries into a circus. He would probably win the nomination too because he would probably draw in quite a few independents and would be thought depending on who the Repubs put up there.

Intel going to mostly Dual Cores by 2006?

This should be an interesting development that is slated for late 2006. They seem to be joining AMD in the dual core chip market.

Earlier this year, Otellini announced that Merom, Conroe, and Woodcrest were the code names for Intel's next generation of multicore processors slated for late 2006, but he declined to discuss them in detail.

That means that these new chips would have to use double the amount of cores. Thus Intel will need to increase spending on the different items that go into the manufacturing process. So the need for those machines will bring up the bottom lines on the Applied Materials (AMAT) and KLA Tencors (KLAC) of the world. I'm putting the iShares Goldman Sachs Semiconductor ETF (IGW) on my watch list.

Microsoft vs. Google

This is a very good article on how Google can avoid Netscapes fate when it comes to competition with MSFT. Some of the things would be very worrying to me if I owned Google stock. They are the leader now but the 4 year 'Brain drain" where people leave when their options vest. And the idea of people taking their pet projects out on their own is the potential to be a problem down the road. But this is MSFTs hammer though:

Stanford's Mendelson, too, says integrating search into the next version of the Windows OS, Windows Vista, will be a key way Microsoft plans to win against Google, a fact that he's sure is not lost on the search engine company. Windows Vista is expected to ship toward the end of 2006.

"Microsoft has the advantage of integration... it's one they can build on," Mendelson says. "Desktop search will be a component of the next OS and it will be extended to the Internet. They're going to find a way that is legal to integrate it into the [OS], and it's a powerful advantage they have that Google will not have by virtue of their business model."

Yup when you can search using MSN.com via your desktop you avoid connecting to Google all together. All MSN.com needs to do is to make their search results nearly as good as Google and people may end up passing up the site (and even their IE browser) all together.

Thus advertising revenue will be worth more on MSN.com then on Google because they will reach the eyeballs of everyone that has Vista installed. This will crimp Google's revenue (the amount is subject on how good MSN search results are) and certainly hurt their growth. This move probably won't put Google out of business or anything but it will certainly tank that massive stock price though.

Don't bad mouth your company on your blog

This is pretty much common sense I should think. I mean this information goes out to everyone in cyberspace including your employer if they bother to check. You wouldn't take down you company in front of your boss and you shouldn't do it out here. These people were pretty dumb:

Last month, the Automobile Club of Southern California, an affiliate of the AAA, fired 27 employees after a co-worker complained about “harassing” and insulting comments the employees made in postings on the social- networking Web site MySpace.com.

During the automobile club’s investigation into the matter, the company also discovered that some of the employees, including administrative and roadside assistance workers, had discussed on the site plans to disrupt emergency road service to club members.

Um couldn't these people just stuck with Yahoo Chat, the telephone, or simply went to their local Olive Garden and discussed this sort of thing. They were just too lazy to do that and posted it on a public forum which left a paper trail to their behavior. I guess they never watched a gangster movie where they talk business on the golf course or at the local pub.

9/11 Transcripts released

It looks like the City of NY is releasing a bunch of transcripts of conversations that took place on 9/11. It shows that some firefighters seemed to have ignored orders in order to save more people. This is the kind of thing that really adds to the history of what happened on that day.

Eventually we will be getting sober, academic looks at what went on where we can view the events in the course of history. Now it is all messed up in political sentiment, the war in Iraq, and the war on terror. I think in 20 years the history books on this would be a very interesting read. And these records should help historians see things from the rescuers perspective.

Now this calls for a Malpractice Suit

Workers at Durham Regional Hospital and Duke Health Raleigh Hospital washed surgical instruments in hydraulic fluid? Now this is a real screw up:

The hydraulic fluid came from a hospital parking garage where workers had drained it into empty soap containers while working on an elevator, then packaged it on a pallet. The containers were sent back to the distributor and then reshipped to the hospitals when soap was ordered.

You figure hydraulic fluid would smell and look different then soap but I guess the doctors where in a rush to clean the instruments. In any case this just made a swarm of lawyers roll up into a massive ball like the squiddies in the Matrix and descend on North Carolina

Soprano's Finally Coming Back

This is very good news for fans of Tony and the Crew. They are even extending the season which starts in March to 10 more episodes. This part sounds interesting though:

It was unclear whether the extended-season plan would trigger new contract negotiations for Gandolfini, who was embroiled in litigation with HBO in early 2003 when he sought to renegotiate his pact before starting work on the fifth season.

That would certainly suck if he walked off the set or something.

Harry Belafonte needs to Read a History Book

He has really sunk to a new low. He said that Jews served high up in the Third Reich. The funny thing is he didn't apologize to anyone for these blatant anti-Semitic remarks.

"I do regret the sentence was not structured more accurately," Belafonte told the 'Post' in a telephone interview from the United States. "I, too, agree that Jews weren't 'high up'."

He regrets that the sentence wasn't structured more accurately? What kind of lawyeristic crap is that? He should have said that he hopes his words didn't offend people and he will learn more about the history of Nazi Germany or something like that. He then gets in a little dig against Israel:

But, he said, "I can understand why Jewish leaders would be prone to protect the image of George Bush and his administration."

He continued that the administration fully supports Israel "even when there are questions of the humanitarian, the moral, and the political [motivation] of things that are done to Palestinians."

Yup that big bad bully Israel. Then he goes on to say that he knows some Jews and supports the rights of the Israelis to exist at all:

He stressed, "I've always been supportive of the right of Israel as a state and I've always fought against anti-Semitism, even in my own community."

He pointed out that his wife is Russian-Jewish - they didn't meet in a synagogue or a church, he laughed, but the theater - which by Jewish law makes his four children Jewish.

The classic racist fall back maneuver. I'm married to a Jew (is she practicing?) and like I know some Jews I can't be an anti-semite. Also I'm glad he isn't in the drive "Israel into the Sea" camp because it is hard to tell from what he is saying.

This is exactly the kinds of things that paint liberals as insane and ignorant. No one wants to hear that America is becoming Nazi Germany and Bush is Hitler. They know that it is a simplistic notion that has no basis in fact. And it's a point they can't even support. That stuff only plays in the echo chamber of the loony liberals. This is the reason why they will continue to lose elections even though Bush makes one mistake after another. They need to come out and condemn Belafontes remarks and distance themselves from him ASAP.

Bloggers and Readers a coveted demographic

This is kind of a no-brainer but Madison Avenue is finally waking up to this fact. The breakdown of the various blog readers are pretty interesting though:

Politics/News sites account for 43 percent of blog readers, ComScore reported, followed by "Hipster" (17%), Tech (15%),Women (8%), Media (8%), Personal (6%), and Business (3%).

It seems that blogs are still a political commentary sort of medium. I figured personal blogs would be higher but I guess people run out of things to say about their lives and the blog stagnates. I'm not sure what "hipster" blogs are because I don't read that type of blog.

I agree that this is a very coveted demographic for almost any advertiser. Young and with money, with high speed internet connections? They also love to shop online? I have a feeling that those blog ads are going to go from some Conservative/Liberal book or webpage to Morgan Stanley, and bluenile.com. Could be a cheap way to get targeted eyeballs looking at your products.

Texas becomes 50% minority

This looks like a good trend for the Republicans in the future. The more Hispanics that start popping up in these states the better. The Dems seem to have written off the Hispanics in the last election and sure enough they lost quite a bit of their vote. It seemed like the Dems just took their vote for granted and got burned.

Many Hispanics are God-fearing folk that attend church regularly and thus fit directly into the Repubs base. They also seem to be very proud, work-hard, and actually believe in the American dream. It also seems like they don't want the governments help and in the case of the illegal immigrant cannot seek its help.

I also think that the 5 year work visa plan that Bush was touting is a great one. Illegals who become citizens are going to be replacing a whole lot of retiring baby Boomers in the workforce. I think it makes economic sense to welcome them in and make sure they are paying their taxes, buying things, and building families. They will also be one of the most important groups that will end up supporting Social Security and Medicare as the Boomers age.

Plastics used to make Steel?

This sounds like a really neat process that should help out the steel industry. Using recycled plastics instead of coal may be an interesting way to help out the environment and cut production costs to make steel.

Currently the industry seems to be tied to the price of the coke (and scrap metal.) If they use less coke it seems there will be a cost savings depending on how much those plastic pellets are. Some governments may even provide a subsidy to use the pellets instead of coking coal. Cleaner steel mills seem like a really nice one two punch for the environment. You get rid of landfill clogging plastics and you reduce the amount of coal burned.

Iran Going for the Nuclear Guns

Looks like Iran is getting serious about making some nukes. It is funny how the of the so-called EU3 is trying to put pressure on Iran to clean up their act. The Iranians know that France and Germany won't do anything to them. Their toothlessness on Iraq is all the incentive Iran needs to push the EU3 around. These people respect strength just like the Soviets did. Some weak draft proposal is not a show of strength.

Britain could conceivably act but I don't they will go the extra step and use force to shut down that Isfahan nuclear plant. If Iran isn't careful though the Israelis certainly will shut that plant down with a few bomber sorties. Now that would get the fireworks going in the Middle East. Plus, is will guarantee some $80-100 oil in the near future.

DC Comics Coming Out this Week

» ACTION COMICS #830
» ADAM STRANGE: PLANET HEIST
» BATMAN #643
» BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #194
» BREACH #8
» GREEN ARROW #53
» HAWKMAN #43
» JLA #117
» JSA CLASSIFIED #2
» LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL #5 (OF 5)
» NIGHTWING #111
» OUTSIDERS #27
» THE RANN/THANAGAR WAR #4 (OF 6)
» SCOOBY-DOO #99
» SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #3 (OF 4)
» SUPERGIRL #0
» SUPERGIRL #1
» VILLAINS UNITED #4 (OF 6)
» WORLD'S FINEST ARCHIVES

It's going to be a big week for me. I'm getting JLA #117, JSA Classified #2, Rann/Thanagar War #4, Villains United #4, and maybe Supergirl #0 and #1.

This is Why Conservatives are Called Bigots

Now some idiotic "family" group is lining up against Judge Roberts nomination. They call themselves Public Advocate of the United States and they seem like some small bigoted group. They sure are giving the conservatives a bad name though. They are opposing:

The Colorado gay rights case involved Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1992 that would have barred laws, ordinances or regulations protecting gays from discrimination by landlords, employers or public agencies such as school districts.

Gay rights groups sued, and the measure was declared unconstitutional in a 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court in 1996.

Roberts' role in the case included helping develop a strategy and firing tough questions during a mock court session at Jean Dubofsky, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice who argued the case on behalf of the gay rights plaintiffs.

So he helped out the Colorado Supreme Court justice. That is a good thing for someone to do. He is such a good Christian that he is even helping his enemy. I guess this so called bigots rights group doesn't view it that way:

Arguments that Roberts' work on the case doesn't equal support for gay rights doesn't wash with Delgaudio. "Nobody's forced to help your opponents," he said. "I can't believe that a senior attorney would voluntarily help somebody he doesn't agree with. I don't believe it. It's not credible."

Um, love thine enemies and all that? I'm pretty sure there is something about that in the Bible but I guess this group doesn't read that book at all. I really think this kind of thing makes Conservatives look bad. Just because this judge was a good Christian and loved his enemies he is getting all support cut off from him. I hope this group gets ostracized from any Republican functions over this betrayal.

Korean Killed by 50 hour game marathon

Wow, 50 hours strait of computer simulated wargames? Now that is some crazy stuff. I have played games for 8 hours strait before but 50 hours is crazy. He even quit his job to play the game full time? Now that is going beyond the pale. I guess he should have took off at the 49th hour and he would have been able to play again the day after. Instead he was literally killed by the game.

Fed Raises Rates

Hmm I hope they are near the end of this cycle here. The economy is growing like mad still despite these rate raises and even the high oil prices. In fact:

"The economy remains very solid and it appears likely to expand at a pace of 4-1/2 percent to 5 percent in the second half of the year," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Banc of America Capital Management in Boston.

Let's hope the consumer keeps spending that cash though. The economy is fit squarely on their shoulders now.

Nokia to be Taken over by Cisco?

Now this is a pretty strange rumor that seems to be circulating. It looks like Nokia may get bought out by Cisco. Now that would be an interesting fit I think. The person in the article is right about there being no synergies between the two companies. But these buyouts don't seem to be only about synergies though.

Cisco's routers, and even wireless broadband, are becoming more staid and less high growth businesses. Adding a cellular arm may be a way to get a shot of growth into their arm. Mobile phones are still growing at a decent clip as people change to the phones that can do more broadband related activites (watch TV, play games etc.) A mobile phone arm will certainly drive the sales of more routers as phone companies ramp up their networks for the new features of the phones that Nokia is developing.

It would be a means for Cisco to control the distribution of as well as the reciever of the content at the same time. Kind of like a company that makes the projectors owning a bunch of theaters. In any case they would probably keep Nokia as a wholly owned subsidery and just have Nokia pump up the revenue figures and growth metrics. They probably won't fold Nokia into Cisco. If the rumors are true Cisco will end up better known as a communication conglomerate and less as a networking equipment manufacturer.

Looks like Jackson is actually guilty

Seems some of the jurors were not really sure of Jackson being innocent. Too bad they didn't have the courage to go against the crowd and convict that monster. Now he walks around as a free man because these people couldn't vote their hearts. Or they changed their minds to make the book a better read. Either way it is a sad state of affairs.

Red Delicious down for the count

I didn't know that this type of apple has been falling in popularity for so long. I haven't eaten one since the lunch they served at high school but I figured someone must have been eating them. The Fuji apple is the only kind that I eat currently. The Red Delicious has skin that is usually hard and has a funny taste and they are normally pretty mealy. This guy sums up my thoughts on the Red delicious:

That view is borne out at the Brookville Super Market in Chevy Chase, where manager Sidney Hersh offers Red Delicious at 20 cents a pound cheaper than Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji and Gala varieties but sees the others outselling it by as much as 2 to 1.

"People want something better," he said. "I would say in the past couple of years, something
has changed."

Uncut Magazine's things that changed the world

Looks like the Dylan song like a Rolling Stone changed the world the most when musicians, actors, and such were polled. It would be very interesting to see a list of "changed the world" things voted on by regular people. I wonder if the list would be quite a bit different or just the same things in different order? It would be a neat experiment to see how much the musicians etc. tastes vary from that of the common man.

The Disney Deathtrap

The Happiest Place on Earth seems to be turning into the Deadliest Place on Earth here. I wonder how this girl died in the wavepool? She was lying down on a ledge and then passed out after she tried to stand up. Hmm, could be a heart arrithmia or something. This part is kind of scary though:

Three other people have died this year at Disney World, out of the millions who visit the park each year. Two of the victims were adults in poor health, while one — a 4-year-old Pennsylvania boy who died while riding Epcot's "Mission: Space" in June — remains under investigation.

In addition, a 16-year-old British girl suffered cardiac arrest last month after exiting "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" ride at the Disney-MGM Studios. She was still in critical condition Friday, but her family has blocked release of further details of her illness.

Wife of Daimlers new CEO throws wild party

Sounds like things are really going to get interesting at Daimler Chrysler. It looks like the new CEOs wife threw a big house party for some young people. This has got to be embarassing:

According to The Associated Press, the police report said that Frau Zetsche claimed she merely bought beer for the 19th birthday party of a young man who was living with the family for the summer. But the bulls said they found some 100 people at the party; many ran away, but officers stopped about 30 of them and found ten more hiding in closets.In total, 20underage drinkers were ticketed.

"It's a Raid! Let's hide in the closet." Let's hope she throws the next company picnic.

A Really Strange Death

I wonder why Terry Martin Carr and his daughter, Arieka were found dead in their Jeep? It seems that he dumped all of his old mementos in some pasture and there is no sign of why they died. Also how he left his wife in the restroom was pretty weird as well. I wonder if it was murder/suicide or what. It's a strange case and I agree with the feeling that it is "totally bizarre."

Laser used to kill cancer?

This would be a great development if it pans out. It would seem like you would need a lot of these nano-tubes to kill all of the cancer cells though. It sure sounds like a painstaking process to implant a nanotube in each on of the cancer cells. I guess they would use the laser with a wide beam to cook all the cells at once. Or maybe they would have to shoot each cancer cell one after the other. It sounds like it would take weeks and weeks to get it done. It sounds better then chemo I should think.

Zawahri Threatens us again

Yawn! This is getting pretty old from these Al-Quida scumbags. Yeah threaten all you want Americans and Brits have faced more fearsome enemies from this Papa Smurf looking idiot. Bush seems to agree:

In Crawford, Texas, President Bush dismissed the threat, saying, "We will stay on the offense against these people. They're terrorists and they're killers and they will kill innocent people ... so they can impose their dark vision on the world."

At least he isn't calling them a group of folks though. He should use fanatics or perhaps madmen instead though. I like how Zawahiri is giving us a way out of this Jihad BS:

"Hasn't Sheik Osama bin Laden told you that you will not dream of security before there is security in Palestine and before all the infidel armies withdraw from the land of Muhammad?" al-Zawahri said.

Hmm, I wonder what he means my Land of Muhammad? The entire middle east or just the parts that he hung out in? Or is it some bigger undefined area that Al-Quida is going to tell us later? So I guess Afganistan is cool because Muhammad didn't travel there at all.

"Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers," al-Zawahri said.

I would bet you any money that the Saudi Royal family is in the corrupt ruler camp. So we have to cut and run from our friends so these fools can seize half the world's oil. Also I wonder if they count Baby Assad and the Mad Mullahs in this group? Probably not. The sooner we can measure these guys for a toe tag the better.

Murderer Buried at Arlington

Looks like they are letting people into Arlington now without checking up on anything. All the official had to say was:

When told by the (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail that Wagner had been convicted of killing two people, Calvillo said, "That would usually prevent you, to tell you the truth," from having a service at Arlington.

Hmm, maybe you should have read his file before they interred the guy.

Yahoo and MSN ramping up against Google

Hmm, this seems like Yahoo and MSN are going after the ad dollars lead that Google has. It seems like a pretty good strategy. The easier it is for Madison Avenue to create and manage ads the faster the more ad dollars they should bring in. Lots of stories on how the advertising industry is changing because of broadband.

Adidas to Buy Reebok

Now I didn't see this one coming. I guess competeing with Nike in the US calls for more drastic measures. The Adidas brand is already strong overseas and now this gives them clout in the US. Could be an interesting ADR to watch.

They all Survived the Crash

These are some lucky folk. My hope seemed to have worked out. Everyone survived that Toronto Airbus Crash. They should be thanking their lucky stars because that plane was pretty messed up looking.

Air France Plane Crashes in Toronto

Looks like it missed the runway and skidded into a field beyond. This report says that all the people were safe so that is good to hear.

AM 680 also said some passengers could be seen climbing from the plane and that emergency workers said most of 252 people on board were safe.

The plane looks pretty messed up though. I guess the people paid attention to the speech that the flight attendants gave them at the beginning of the flight.

DC Comics for August 3

» AQUAMAN #33
» BLOOD OF THE DEMON #6
» THE COMPLETE BALLAD OF HALO JONES
» DC SPECIAL: THE RETURN OF DONNA TROY #3 (OF 4)
» DC'S GREATEST IMAGINARY STORIES
» DETECTIVE COMICS #809
» FIRESTORM #16
» GOTHAM CENTRAL #34
» JSA #76
» JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #12
» LOONEY TUNES #129
» SON OF VULCAN #3 (OF 6)
» SUPERMAN #220
» SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 4

This is going to be a slow week because I'm probably only going to buy JSA #76 and maybe the Return of Donna Troy #3. I may pick up Detective Comics #809 because a new arc is starting up. I didn't buy it before because I didn't want to start up at the tail end of the last arc.

Bo Bice Breaks his Foot

Now that is a real singer. He is so nuts on stage that he breaks his own foot while singing a song. He needs to calm his performances down a bit. Maybe he's taking a page out of Iggy Pops book.

Jen still has a Torch for Brad

Looks like it will be a good copy of Vanity Fair coming out. This one is from the jilted lovers point of view in the Brad Jen split. It is sad that she still carries a torch for Brad though:

"I love Brad; I really love him. I will love him for the rest of my life," says Aniston. "I don't regret any of it, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it."

She needs to get over it and move on with her life. And it is good that Jen took the high road as well by not trashing Brad or Angelina. It shows she is a real class act all the way around.

Bolton snuck in through the back door

W is sticking with Bolton by doing an end-around the Senate. This is the kind of thing that is going to get him an even worse reputation for flaunting the rules. It looks like he doesn't care what the Senate thinks. Also he didn't wait until the public views the Senate Democrats as blocking Bolton for partisan reasons. He had the opportunity to make the Dems looks like they are harming national security by standing in the way of UN reform. W simply needed to put in another guy that would be easier to push through the Senate. If the Dems blocked this guy then he can truely claim that their partisan blocking is hurting national security.

Looks like King Fahd died

Looks like there is no real change over though. The guy running the country for the last 10 years will continue to run the country. It did blast oil prices to a new record high. It will probably be temporary because there won't be any sort of crisis in the change of power. Nice and orderly is what the market needs.

Bacall Doesn't like Cruise

Wow strong words from Lauren Bacall about Tommyboy's insanity. I agree that using ones private life to promote a movie is kind of a joke. Jolie and Pitt used it to promote Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Brad could have waited until after the movie opened to break it off with Jennifer Anniston. But curiously he did it right before the movie. Tommyboy was the worst though so much so that he kind of overshadowed the movie with his antics. He may have even damaged his career.