10 Ways to Decrease Carbon Emissions

Some make economic sense while others could be problematic for some.

1. Buy locally grown food.
-This one is very easy to do and most locally grown food is tastier and fresher then what you can buy at Safeway. Or you could grow your own food and cut out the middle man.

2. Take a different vacation.
-These sustainable vacation places sounds like an interesting idea as long as you don't have to pay extra for them. Some people won't mind a "green charge" but I'm sure others will raise hell if they are on a budget.

3. Work right.
-This is pretty much up to your employer. If your company doesn't require allot of paper documentation then it would be a good deal. However some companies are stuck in the dark ages and have to print tons of stuff for whatever reason.

4. Get a home-energy audit.
-This seems like a good idea so you can identify drafts and see why your heating bill is so much higher. However this sounds like an interesting racket for companies that sell insulation and such. I bet they will probably want you to fail every time you get an audit so they can hook you up with stuff you might not need.

5. Go higher-tech.
-This is a good idea but a laptop will always cost more then a desktop. Also a CRT monitor is sometimes much cheaper then a flat-panel one. As always if you have the bucks you can go that much greener.

6. Unplug.
-This would be a good idea but too bad there isn't an energy saving power strip that would shut itself off after a certain amount of time. Perhaps there is but it just isn't very well publicized.

7. Take a different ride.
-This is sometimes the least feasible thing for some people. If they have kids then it is sometimes hard to get them around in a Prius or tiny car. Also green=more expensive applies here. Finally, all the talk of biking or walking to work doesn't factor in traveling through rain, snow, and heat to get there. Sure you can bike everyday if you are willing to change your clothes twice a day. Also there is the fear of being run down by motorists that you have to contend with.

8. Buy alternative energy.
-This varies on what programs are available in what state. The only thing available in Hawaii is some kind of crap to build solar panels for schools. It just looks like an afterthought that HECO tacked on to make them look "responsible."

9. Avoid the excess.
-This makes the most economic sense. Why throw away a perfectly clean plastic bag when you can save it for later use? Also I save spare napkins from fast food places so I don't have to buy napkins at the store. Everything you can reuse is an item you don't have to buy new.

10. Use less water.
-This one is a no brainer since it will reduce your water bill. Using less water=automatic savings.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/16/07

+$595.00 +1.30%

Could Geron be up 32% by June?

It looks like it may be the case according to this story.

Geron will follow through on a promise made months ago to establish the
exercise price on 4.125 million warrants for its stock. The warrants, issued in
December and February, will be priced based on the stock's value during a narrow trading window ending June 12. Holders can cash in those warrants, beginning
June 13, by paying 120% of the average stock price during the previous five
sessions, with an upper limit set at $12.14 a share.

The stock is currently selling at $8.18 so if these things price at the top of that range then that would make a tidy little profit. And at least a few money managers are buying like there is no tomorrow:

Lawton, for one, has never seen a company arrange to price warrants
during a specific period months after their grant date. When questioned by
TheStreet.com, Geron itself declined to explain the arrangement or identify who
the warrant holders might be. Meanwhile, partly because of this odd scenario,
Lawton's firm has invested heavily in Geron -- a biotechnology company that it
likes anyway -- in anticipation of a quick return.

While this fund got into the thing so heavily that they became the 2nd largest shareholder and completely filled their portfolio to the brim with shares. (I guess they are a Hedge Fund because I can't find much information on them:)

Meanwhile, however, some investors have decided to pounce on the stock
already. During the fourth quarter, when Geron issued a big block of warrants,
Rock Hill Investment Management bought so much stock in Geron that it emerged as the company's second-largest shareholder. Indeed, a Nasdaq filing indicates, Rock Hill owns far more common stock in Geron than it does in all other companies combined.

Whatever the case this stock could see a runup in the near term and some of their pipeline drugs seem pretty interesting. It could be the next Amgen if you are willing on taking the bumpy ride.

"GRN163L may have the potential to cure (multiple myeloma) by targeting
the cancer stem cells," Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ren Benjamin explained
earlier this month. Thus, "encouraged by the potential of eliminating cancer
stem cells, the company plans to initiate two GRN163L phase II trials in
2Q/3Q07" to expand tests on myeloma and treat a common type of lung
cancer.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/15/07

-$541.00 -1.17%

Nokia Conjecture

Nokia seems to be winning the cell phone wars with Motorola on the ropes so much so that Carl Icahn is stepping in.

Last month, the company posted its first quarterly loss since 2004 and
Motorola has lost about one-third of its market value since October.
The company said last month that its dismal sales likely would continue to vex
profits at least through the second quarter.

And Nokia is not wasting a moment to jump in and get some market share gains.

Cell phone maker Nokia Corp. said Monday its share of the global
handset market will grow during the second quarter to more than 36 percent.
The company had previously said it expected its market share to hold steady
with the 36 percent share reached in the first quarter.

That is all well and good but this little tidbit from an article on how cell phone companies lock their phones so they can't have as many features and how consumers are fed up with it had me thinking about Nokia's long term plans.

Nokia, for one, is looking for a way out of this vise. The cell phone
maker has begun opening "flagship stores," where it sells unlocked mobile
devices ranging from full-featured business smartphones to consumer cell phones.
The first two, in Chicago and New York, opened last year, and Nokia plans to
open additional stores around the world.

I was thinking about what Nokia could do to break this stranglehold on their phone business. One way they could do it is to buy out one of the main European carriers like Deutsche Telekom and then proceed to turn T-Mobile into a force in the US market.

They could compete by providing a better service then the other mobile players in the US. What they would do is make the American cellular experience more like the European/Asian one. The features on a Japanese phone are 100x better then an American phone and the US carriers dominance is part of the reason.

The whole idea behind crippling features in a phone is a bad for the consumer since it slows technological advancement. Maybe Nokia with its massive cash hoard could go the vertical integration route and provide the phone and the service all in one seamless package.

The big drawback to this is that the other US phone carriers will probably try to freeze Nokia out of their own stores. So it will probably be a bad idea for the most part since they might lose a bundle of market share in the short term and one slip-up and it will be a disaster. However, it would certainly be a cool thing to have a company come out with a top of the line phone that doesn't have everything locked down on it. Also I would love a carrier that doesn't charge you for every feature and nickle and dime you to death. Finally it would be nice of a carrier to compete on how they aren't as crappy as the others (ie Cingular with its "not as many dropped calls as the other guys" crap.) In any case Nokia is now the proven leader in the space until Motorola can get its act together. And that is no conjecture.

Kyoto Accord May Sink European Economy

Hmm this should give some pause to all those people investing in Europe. Also Kyoto might be especially hard on the German economy:

Germany is extremely vulnerable to imposed energy caps. It is strongly
opposed to plans for replacing its coal-fired power plants with gas-fired
facilities, as such a move would only increase its already precarious dependency
on Russian gas imports. Furthermore, successive governments have agreed to shut down all nuclear power plants, which account for a third of Germany's
electricity generation. The Greens' anti-nuclear achievement has thus turned
ideological triumph into an energy nightmare.

Thus it might be a bad idea to start investing in the iShares MSCI Germany ETF. I think some energy based inflation may start to creep into the European economy no matter how fast they raise their interest rates. However that part about shuttering the nuclear plants may get reversed if they are on the hook for billions in fines. That means more uranium demand and thus higher then $130/lb uranium.

Yahoo ETF Center is still Broken

Now this is some bush league stuff from Yahoo Finance. I use them to look at various ETFs and it has been down this whole weekend. Below is the error that I get. The main thing is that this error keeps popping up and it has been a few days already. I can see this happening from some tiny webpage but not from a company that has a $39 billion market cap.

ITunes Video has no Future

It looks like the ITunes like pay $1.00 for a show service is going to be a short lived deal according to this study.

Confusion over different video file formats, difficulties watching
downloaded videos on television screens and other technical problems have kept
average users from paying for shows online.

I agree with this because it is just too much trouble to have to connect your computer to your TV and run cable between them both. Sure you can use something like AppleTV but most households would rather just buy or rent the DVD and pop it into their player. Also Video-on -Demand is 100x easier and quicker then anything downloaded from a computer and then passed through to your TV.

I would much rather put my money on the Kazaa guys' Joost. Now that sounds like a game changer if they can get the content for it.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/14/07

-$1,499.00 -3.13%

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/11/07

+$1,362.00 +2.93%

House to Starve out the Troops

It looks like the House is determined to win the siege on out troops in Iraq by trying to again cut off funding by July. I wonder what goes through the minds of these guys? This shows how out of touch they are:

"The president refuses to listen to the American people who want this
war to end," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Yes we want the war to end but we want to leave behind something decent and not unrestrained bloodshed and chaos. The Dems plan just seems to be pulling the troops out at all costs no matter what happens after that.

I think the Dems need to create a comprehensive plan for Iraqi security that doesn't involve starving our troops out by July. If the plan is better then the White House plan of surging and getting out then people will be all for it. I think their uncomfortableness with military matters or seeming too hawkish is what is stopping them from coming up with a better plan then the White House. I mean they have intelligent guys on their side that can come up with a Democratic "How to win in Iraq" plan. Whatever the case "How to Win in Iraq" doesn't involve running away and ignoring the resulting chaos.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/10/07

-$2,117.10 -4.36%

Bonds Poll Seperated by Race

It seems that a poll conducted by ESPN/ABC says that whites don't want Bonds to break Aarons record as much as blacks do.

What is new is that the latest poll suggests that black baseball fans
are far more inclined to root for Bonds than white fans. While just 28 percent
of whites say they want Bonds to break Aaron's record, three out of four black
fans are rooting for him to do it.

So it looks like the media is trying to make this a race issue when none exists. Bonds is going after the record of another black guy and not Babe Ruth. Nobody much cared when Bonds passed Babe Ruth while Aaron received death threats. Aaron had to face some of the greatest pitchers of all time while enduring segregated conditions and racism almost his entire career. The whole time Aaron was gracious and likable and wore his hero mantle well.

On the other hand Bonds seems to have just used the Cream and the Clear while being a general ass to almost everyone on his chase for the record. That is the reason why is seems Bonds passing Aaron is getting the same big yawn as when he got the home run title. People just don't like Bonds no matter what skin color he has.

I would be willing to lay even money that when A-Rod or Big Papi pass Bonds there will be allot of hoopla surrounding it. I will certainly be following it more then the big yawn I am getting with Bonds passing Aaron.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/9/07

+$3,707.99 +8.26%

Uranium Futures Trading

The NYMEX introduced Uranium Futures Contracts yesterday and already the price seems to have been pushed up. The spot price was in the $130 range a few weeks ago but now the current futures price is $143. This seems like it would be bad for all those nuclear power plant owners out there. Here are the names of some prominent nuclear power plant owners that might be affected by high prices.

Exelon (EXC)
Entergy (ETR)
FPL Group (FPL)
Dominion Resources (D)

Possibly some short positions or some long dated puts might be good idea since these companies are hovering near they 52 week highs.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/8/07

-$629.99 -1.38%

Added 3 new Stocks to the Index

I will be adding 3 new Uranium stocks to my Index. Here they are:

Fronteer Development Group (FRG) Another Canadian company that also mines gold and copper as well as uranium.

USEC (USU) This is a US company that extracts enriched uranium from nuclear warheads and provides services for 2 nuclear plants in the US. They also operate the only gaseous diffusion plant in the US which is located in Paducah, Kentucky. They also provide storage and transport of spent nuclear fuel.

Cardero Resource (CDY) This is a small cap that mostly explores for gold, silver, copper, and iron ore. They are currently seeking a partner to develop their Peruvian uranium deposits.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/7/07

+$988.01 +2.43%

Yhoo+MSFT is a no-go

Now this is bad news for all those people running YHOO up today.

There's too much overlap between Microsoft and Yahoo, and to try to merge the company cultures of two large companies like that in general is hard," Hallerman said.

Hallerman said Microsoft would be better off buying an ad network to beef up its own operations, the same way Time Warner Inc.'s AOL has seen its advertising revenue grow following the acquisition of Advertising.com's technology and sales force.
I agree with him 100%. I agree that buying out 24/7 Real Media (TFSM) for $575 million and then trying to compete is a better idea then just plunking down $50 billion to get rid of one of your competitors. You do get YHOOs 27.5% of the advertising pie added to your 11%. You would still be down from Google's 48% though. Now Google buying out Yahoo would be interesting though. Anti-trust stuff would kibosh that deal though.

Paris Hilton Going to the Big House

I guess you could say it is all parties and boozing until you have to go to jail.

Hilton, who parlayed her name and relentless partying into worldwide
notoriety, must go to jail on June 5 and she will not be allowed any work
release, furloughs, use of an alternative jail or any electronic monitoring in
lieu of jail, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled after a
hearing.

However it looks like they are going to put her into minimum security slap-you-on-the-wrist prison.

She was then ordered to report to a women's jail in suburban Lynwood on
the set date or face 90 days behind bars.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/4/07

+$1,173.99 + 2.98%

Introducing the J.Michels Uranium Index

I am now actively tracking Uranium Stocks so I might as well post what I have on my blog. So far I have 7 stocks in my index and will add more as they become available. The other players in the industry are either on the pink sheets or only trade in Canada or Australia. Since I have no access to buying those names. I'll just post the stuff I have that trade in the US. Here are the stocks I have in my Index:

CCJ Cameco
RTP Rio Tinto
BHP BHP Billiton
DNN DENISON MINES
URRE URANIUM RESOURCES
EMU ENERGY METALS
URZ Uranerz Energy

I just weighted the index equally because I don't have time to adjust crap to make things fit together. It would be cool to weight these companies by how many tons of Uranium they mine in a year or how much proven reserves they have or something. I don't have time for that because I'm just doing this for fun.

So what I did was just put 100 shares of each stock into my Yahoo Portfolio and I'll post the results. So far this thing is up 5.81% with most of the gain coming from CCJ.

445 is the Greenhouse Number to Beat

It looks like all the Gore Scare Tactics in the world isn't making the quickly growing countries slow down on this issue. Of course the Europeans are 100% behind it because the slower Brazil, China, and the US grow the easier it is for them.

European delegates accused China of trying to strip the 445 figure from
a report being negotiated this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. They also hinted that other countries were backing Beijing.

Here is a prime example of the Scare Tactics that they are using to slow down global growth:

Going beyond 450 parts per million means "there's a good chance that we
would be committed to the melt of the Greenland ice sheets. While it might take
centuries, that would give us five to six (yards) of sea level rise," Mann said.
He said that would mean island nations would be lost and much of the U.S. East
Coast, one-third of Florida and all of New Orleans "would be
submerged."

Of course we have 30 years before this 445 figure becomes a problem and then a 100 more years until these ice sheets melt. So we pretty much have 130 years for us all to be driving hydrogen vehicles and get our power from safer nuke plants. That sounds *very* doable to me. They may even have greenhouse gas scrubbers invented by then. I think the Al Gore lobby needs to focus on security in their global warming talks. If we use less Greenhouse Emitting oil then we can marginalize Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. Forget this "climate change in 130 years" crap but focus on the fact that the countries that hate us will no longer have leverage over us if we go green. Go Green=Peace in our Time.

Now Chickens Contaminated with Melamine

It looks like pet food isn't the only thing that is affected by Melamine.

Hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount
of contaminated poultry in recent months, they added, painting a picture of much
broader consumption of contaminated feed and food than had previously been
acknowledged in the widening pet food scandal.

We might soon feel the pain at your KFC or a price hike on a Chicken Sandwich.

Band of Bloggers to Air Uncensored Iraq Footage

It seems like the History Channel is going to add to its online trove of non-Hitler footage.

The History Channel promises that soldiers with handheld video cameras
will provide the site with "uncensored news" and a "perspective on war never
before seen in history." An expanding pool of military bloggers will deliver
content from the battlefield via cell phones and the Internet, according to a
news release from History.com.

Now this is the equivalent to "as it is happening" war diaries that would be invaluable to historians who will be writing about the Iraq war in years to come. It should be interesting to check out from a amateur historians point of view.

Sony Apologizes for Gory Goat stunt

And someone needs to get fired over this mess.

Among the games to test bravery was reaching into the guts of the
freshly slaughtered goat, with its head dangling from threads of tissue, and
eating what looked like animal intestines, but were actually Greek food. "They
did a Fear Factor challenge to make people think they were eating the insides of
the goat, but in fact it was a traditional Greek soup," said Dave Karraker,
spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in the United States.

And for that kind of idiodic stunt I am going to boycott all Sony games until someone gets fired over this event and steps are taken to not let it happen again. Torturing animals to sell a violent computer game is obscene and Sony should know better.

Uranium Futures Set to Trade on May 6

This should be good for the Uranium Producers mentioned in this article.

And Nymex has "correctly identified that the nuclear power industry is
undergoing a renaissance with tremendous growth ahead, as the world struggles to deal with strong emerging market and Asian growth, while facing the reality of
peak oil and an energy-constrained world," he said.

He is right because the Chinese are building reactors like crazy to reduce the amount of oil they need to run their industry.

Physicists and engineers at Beijing's Tsinghua University have made the
first great leap forward in a quarter century, building a new nuclear power
facility that promises to be a better way to harness the atom: a pebble-bed
reactor. A reactor small enough to be assembled from mass-produced parts and
cheap enough for customers without billion-dollar bank accounts. A reactor whose safety is a matter of physics, not operator skill or reinforced concrete.

I think the US needs to seriously look into what China is doing with their reactors. If we can copy them cheaply we may get out the global warming disaster zone that Gore keeps hitting us with. In any case these futures contracts will be a good deal for the companies mentioned in the article. Here are the companies:

Cameco (CCJ)
Denison (DNN)
Uranium Resources (URRE)
Uranium One (CA:SXR)
Energy Metals (EMU)
Uranerz Energy (URZ)
Strathmore Minerals (CA:STM)

These seem like the pure plays. (I have only researched Cameco myself) These companies are the bigger integrated mining companies that also mine uranium as well as gold, iron, etc. They are:

Rio Tinto (RTP)
BHP Billiton (BHP)

This article explains how a SXR Uranium One (CA:SXR) might become the 2nd biggest uranium producer by merging with UrAsia Energy. The combined company will end up hauling in 19 million pounds of uranium by 2012. In any case I'm going to fimiliarize myself with this industry in the same way as I did with the Tanker Industry last year. You can't beat a metal that has gone from $20 a pound in 2002 to $113 a pound today.

Magneto Movie Greenlit

This should be an interesting movie for the most part.

Per the trades, the film will be an origin story, showing the powerful
mutant in his early days when he was still friends with a young Charles Xavier,
played in the films by Patrick Stewart. The movie will reportedly show Magneto coming to grips with his metallic-attracting powers while living in Auschwitz with his parents, and his subsequent quest for vengeance against both his Nazi captors and anti-mutant factions.

So we will get a little WW2 movie mixed with the early life of the X-men bad guy. This would be a perfect spring board for a Captain America movie if Marvel didn't kill him off. I would have had Captain America in WW2 garb as one of the unit that liberated Auschwitz. Or maybe just a mention in the WW2 part of the movie would suffice.

PS3 Claims first Victim at Sony

Ken Kutaragi is out as chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. It looks like the PS3s missteps and the Wii taking the lead in the head to head console fight for Japan is the reason why.

The company's latest console, the PlayStation 3, hit shelves in Japan
on Nov. 11 and those in North America shortly afterwards. However, component
shortages meant the European launch was delayed until March. The launch hasn't
gone as well as Sony had hoped, in part because of the success of Nintendo Co.
Ltd., which has managed to outsell Sony to-date with its Wii console.

The Wii is just too cheap and fun for the PS3 to catch up with. Also there is no must have category killer type game for the PS3 yet. The Wii has Zelda and a few others that seem to be selling pretty well. I think there will be more PS3s sold when Grand Theft Auto 4 comes out in Oct 16 of this year.

Amazon On the Comeback

The best part about this story is there margins are finally going up a bit after tightening for years:

One of the most watch Amazon metric its margins, which is a measure of
how much it profits from the sale of an item.

According to Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney, Amazon's operating
margin for the quarter was 5.9%, which is "materially higher" that what Wall
Street expected and the result of a more positive contribution from Amazon.com's
international sales.

"This marked the first quarter of year-on-year margin expansion
since the second quarter of 2004," Mahaney said, in a note to clients. He rates
Amazon as a sell.

It is also interesting to see how much of there sales ($1.4 billion for overseas and $1.62 billion from US) is now coming from overseas. A weak dollar might be able to boost Amazon's bottom line going forward.

Possible Water World Found 20 Light Years Away

It looks like they found a pretty good candidate for life in a nearby solar system.

Computer models predict Gliese 581 C is either a rocky planet like
Earth or a waterworld covered entirely by oceans.

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth
lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius [32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit], and water
would thus be liquid," Udry said.

We need to send a probe out to take a look at this planet. Too bad it will take at least a generation or two to get back any data from the thing.

Marker-pointing Gets Professor Canned

Now this is sensitivities run amok.

The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two
days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a
discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the
public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas
Winset.

During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students.
Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the
gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been
armed.

So he pretended to kill students with a marker and it got him fired? I think Emmanuel college should review the 1st Amendment of the Constitution again. Or maybe Emmanuel College would rather no one discusses this thing at all. Ah, censorship in the Ivory Tower.

Iraqi Blood Will be On Reids Hands

I think the Bush Admin. needs to press this point home as much as they can.

Reid is in denial about the vicious nature of the enemy and about the
U.S.-led plan to provide more security in Iraq, said deputy press secretary Dana
Perino. "He's also in denial that a surrender date — he thinks it is a good
idea. It is not a good idea. It is defeat. It is a death sentence for the
millions of Iraqis who voted for a constitution, who voted for a government, who
voted for a free and Democratic society."

What is even worse Reid says this kind of thing:

In a question and answer session after his speech, Reid was asked what
the U.S. should do if U.S. troops leave and Iraq collapses into
chaos.

"We know this is an intractable civil war going on now," he
responded.

What sort of idiotic answer is that? Yes, a civil war is going on right now and our troops stand in the way of it becoming far worse. Isn't that a good thing? We are keeping possibly millions of people from dying by us being in the country. Once the security situation gets better maybe then we can pull back. Perino is right that early withdrawl from Iraq would be a death sentence for millions of Iraqis carried out by the Democratic Congress.

Bye Bye Limbo, Slaadi Outraged

It looks like the Catholic Church finally got rid of the idea of Limbo.

In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological
Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of
salvation."

I don't think the Slaad and the Githzerai are going to like that though.

Google Beat the Street Again

They sure seem to be hitting on all cylinders now. I think this may be one of the more important metrics that you should be looking out for:

Figures released last week by another Internet metrics company,
Hitwise, showed Google gaining search market share and its competitors
declining. According to numbers provided by Hitwise, Google accounted for 64
percent of all U.S. in March 2007, up from 58% in March 2006. Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask accounted for 22% (-1 percentage point), 9% (-4 percentage points) and 3% (-0.5 percentage points) respectively.

That gain in market share is huge because it looks like Yahoo stumbled badly missing their numbers and it might be getting worse in the future. One thing I have been noticing is that Yahoo seems to be back to a point when they have to self advertise again. Before they released Panama almost every ad on their site was a Yahoo ad. Then when Panama was first released you started to notice car companies and other stuff taking the place of the Yahoo ads. Now it seems to be back to the pre-Panama days with tons of Yahoo ads again.

Couple this with the fact that you are now paying 38 times earnings for just 7% revenue growth and -11% income growth. Compare this with Google where you are paying 48 times earnings for 66% revenue growth and 69% income growth. There just isn't any comparison in the search space. Google is the winner and with that Doubleclick merger they will be crowned the "Internet Adking."

Iraqi Insurgents Battling Al-Quida

Just when the Dems want us to quit it looks like the Sunni's are starting to kill off the Al-Qaida elements in Iraq.

U.S. officers say a growing number of Sunni tribes are turning against
al-Qaida, repelled by the terror group's sheer brutality and austere religious
extremism. The tribes are competing with al-Qaida for influence and control over
diminishing territory in the face of U.S. assaults, the officers say. The influx
of Sunni fighters to areas outside the capital in advance of the security
crackdown in Baghdad may have further unsettled the region.

It looks like the "surge" may at least get the insurgents out of Baghdad so we can battle them a little better. Oh well, it looks like the country will be sacrificed by June if the Dems get their way and attack the supply lines of the US forces.

Reid Admits Defeat in Iraq

Well it is official. American troops in Iraq are fighting for a lost cause according to the Dems.

"I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and
— you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," said Reid, D-Nev.

We might as well bring the troops home and let the country fall into civil war because the Dems are hell-bent on letting that happen. They even plan to starve our troops out according to Reid.

Reid has left that possibility open. The majority leader supports
separate legislation that would cut off funding for combat missions after March
2008.

Yup no more body armor or bullets by March of next year. It is almost as if Reid is working hand and hand with Moktada Al-Sadr or Al-Quida in Iraq or something. He is certainly going to do something that the insurgents could only dream of doing. He is going to hang a defeat on the US. I wonder what the "Air America Chopper leaving the US Embassy moment" will be this time?

I used Yelp and it is Pretty Good

Yelp may be the next big Web 2.0 thing. I have used it for the past day or so and it is very good. Again the content is only as good as the reviewers on the site but many of them are very informative. Now I just need to find some reviewers on there that match my tastes. In fact I may even start putting reviews up own reviews to exercise my "Inner Ebert & Roper. "

NBC Criticized over Killer's video

It looks like people are speaking back against NBC showing this sickening video by a psychopathic mass murderer. Gee, I wonder why?

Family members of victims canceled plans to appear on NBC's "Today"
show Thursday because they "were very upset" with the network for showing the
pictures, "Today" host Meredith Vieira said.

And it looks like they are using the "if everyone jumped off a cliff then we would too" defence:

"The decision to run this video was reached by virtually every news
organization in the world, as evidenced by coverage on television, on Web sites
and in newspapers," NBC said in a statement. "We have covered this story — and
our unique role in it — with extreme sensitivity, underscored by our devoted
efforts to remember and honor the victims and heroes of this tragic
incident."

Yeah they covered it all right by making the killer into the just the kind of celebrity that he apparently wanted to be. At least Cho offed himself so after this wall-to-wall news cycle is over we don't have to hear about this scum for years to come. Well at least not until the next spree killer wants the NBC star machine to air his rants from beyond the grave.

Bullying Caused Cho to Kill?

It seems like it was one of the many things that turned this kid into a psychopath according to this article.

Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and
when it was Cho's turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled.
Finally, after the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho
started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in
his mouth," Davids said.

"As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing
and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,'" Davids said.

This was similar to what happened with the Columbine Killers as well. I think schools need to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying in any grade. If they treated Bullying with the same seriousness as bringing a gun to school, or sexual harassment then maybe we can prevent the next mass killing. I think educators should really be on the lookout for this stuff and make more of an effort to get these kids into some kind on counselling.

Cho Seung-Hui Trying to Ignite Class War?

It looks like the motivation behind the killings may be revealed because the maniac sent a manifesto to NBC.

The package included digital images of him holding weapons and a
manifesto that "rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even,"
according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the
case.

MSNBC said that the package included a CD-ROM on which Cho read his
manifesto.

"NBC Nightly News" planned to show some of the material Wednesday
night, MSNBC reported.

And what is even more sick is NBC Nightly News is going to air this crap. In other words NBC is really going to keep with the maxim "If it Bleeds it Leads." NBC news is giving this killer the publicity that he obviously wanted.

One thing that is interesting is that Hui wanted to kill "rich people" and he rambled on about the promiscuous women that he was stalking. I wonder if the anything-goes, bling-bling culture that is going on today will breed any more Hui's?

I mean it seems he wanted to get even against the rich and promiscuous people. If I was Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan I would take on a few extra armed bodyguards. You never know how many more Hui's are waiting out there to "get even." Plus as an added bonus, NBC will play your star making reality show audition tape. Now I see why people watch only the Daily Show for their injection of news.

Bubble 2.0?

Well it seems like it according to John Dvorak.

The event itself was characterized by sessions that did nothing more
than discuss "exit strategies." Hey boys and girls, how about making a good
product before getting into exit strategies? Is that asking too much?

I don't recall seeing something about customer satisfaction, but
plenty about customer acquisition.

It sure sounds like Web 2.0 could become Bubble 2.0 in a hurry. I remember the days when stock would trade at triple digit P/Es because capturing eyeballs was more important then getting those eyeballs to party with their money. It seems everyone is chasing the YouTube megabucks with this talk of "exit strategies" just like people were chasing "buying groceries online" with crap like Peapod.com.

One gripe I have about YouTube is that it is vastly inferior to regular TV. I have played around with YouTube off and on but a video of some fake college girl talking about her life or a dog on a surfboard cannot match stuff like the Sopranos or Rome. I would rather watch Spiderman 3 100x before I watch some crap like Ask a Ninja.

However I think user created content can take off if it is better than professionally created content. For instance the edited version of Phantom Menace (aka the Phantom Edit) is a far better movie then the crap that Lucas put out.

Also user created content shines when it fulfills a need that professional content cannot. You see this in the blog community because the Main Stream Media is always slanted one way but pretends they are not. The Blogosphere lets you read the news slanted exactly how you like it. If you are a leftist you can read DailyKos if you are to the right you can read InstaPundit. They don't make any pretensions to being fair arbiters of news content.

So until someone can churn out the Hobbit on a Mac that could rival anything that Peter Jackson (or now Sam Raimi?) can film then I will be convinced that the YouTube era has actually arrived. Until then I'll take a pass on the Mentos Guys, LonleyGirl15, or the Boy from Brooklyn.

Jack Thompson blames Shooting on Games

Well according to this article mentioned in this Digg he does. I have to admit that the first time I heard the shooter used a 9mm Glock I thought of Counterstrike. I wonder if this madman was hearing things like "Headshot" and "Wicked Sick" when he was killing those people.

I really hope the searching of his laptop doesn't come up with any gaming content. From what I heard from an interview with his roommates he wasn't much of a gamer. He mostly was writing stuff on his laptop from what they said. He does kind of fit the young anti-social video gamer stereotype though. They are usually portrayed as Asian, don't talk to you when you say hi, and are really quiet. This describes like 80% of the people at the game cafe across the street from my office.

The Next Big Thing for Web 2.0

It looks like we may get the next YouTube out of these 6 hot new Web 2.0 properties. I have only got a chance to check out Yelp but so far it looks pretty good. I love reading reviews from non-pros because they usually give an honest opinion. Also there seems to be lots of Hawaii content on the site.


Yelp users post recommendations and reviews on everything from restaurants to dentists.

Visiting StumbleUpon lets you channel-surf Web sites.

Veoh is a video upload site similar to YouTube.

WeeWorld lets users create visual identities that they can then use to represent themselves online and on their mobile phones.

Imeem is a playlist and content sharing site for artists.

Photo sharing site Piczo touts itself as a safe place for you and your friends.

What does Ismail Ax mean?

Now this is an important side note to find out what made this maniac Cho Seung Hui go on a rampage like he did. The things in the article seem like a big stretch however:

In Islam, Ibrahim is known as the father of the prophets and, upset
that people in his hometown still worshiped idols and not Allah, he smashed all
but one statue in a local temple with an ax. Ibrahim's son is Ismail, who also
became a prophet. Ibrahim is Arabic for Abraham, who plays a significant role in
Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Ibrahim smashed the idols with the ax and not Ismail so this wouldn't make much sense. Now this one I would give some credence to:

Other theories speculate that Ismail Ax could be a reference to Cho's
nickname on a video gaming site...

I checked some World of Warcraft sites but only came up with one 3rd level Tauren Warrior named Ismail. It might be a Counterstrike nickname since one of the pistols that he used was a 9mm Glock like the Terrorists start with.

ESPN needs to fire Colin Cowherd

I didn't even know about this guy until I started listening to this ESPN radio show called "Up All Night" with some guy who is a big Jets fan that I forgot the name of. On that show they usually run ads about "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd.

Well this Colin character has advocated a DDOS attack against a sports blog called The Big Lead for pissing him off somehow. These attacks are already illegal in the UK and will soon be so in Sweden and punishable for up to 5 years in prison. These DDOS attacks make it hard to go to web sites and sometimes cost companies millions of dollars. Cybercrime is not a joke.

So this idiot pretty much advocated for someone to commit a crime just because he is pissed at a blog. After this stunt, this Colin character shouldn't be working for ESPN radio. Asking people to commit crimes in your name is far worse then anything Don Imus has said. ESPN needs to do the right thing and fire this guy.

1 Terabyte Drive Introduced

Hitachi just came out with a 1 Terabyte internal drive for $500. Now we can start looking forward to these types of drives once this tech hits the 50T barrier.

Incidentally, for planning purposes, the next level is the petabyte (a
quadrillion bytes); and then the exabyte (one quintillion bytes); and then
the zettabyte (one sextillion bytes); and then the yottabyte (one septillion
bytes.)

I can't wait to say "fark, my 1 zettabyte drive crashed and I lost every HD-DVD ever created in the history of mankind. Luckily I have a 10 yottabyte external NAS that I stored a backup copy on." I'm betting on 30 years until I can say that.

Cocoa Reduces Blood Pressure more then Tea

Or so says this German researchers:

The fall in blood pressure credited to cocoa could be expected to
reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks by 10-20 percent, the report
said.

Both cocoa and tea contain polyphenols, a class of chemicals known
to help prevent cardiovascular disease that are present in most fruits and
vegetables. But cocoa has a different type than tea -- procyanids -- that appear
to be more active.

So now whenever you eat some chocolate you can say I am trying to work on my blood pressure.

Diamler offered an Out from Chrysler Merger

It looks like Kirk Kerkorian is finally tired of changing things at GM and decided to just run his own car company.

Tracinda Corp., the investment vehicle owned by billionaire Kirk
Kerkorian, said on Thursday it has sent a letter to DaimlerChrysler (DCXGn.DE)
offering to acquire the money-losing Chrysler unit for $4.5 billion.

In a letter to DaimlerChrysler's supervisory board, Tracinda said that
it is willing to post a $100 million deposit as a sign of good faith.

$100 million is quite a good faith deposit. I think Daimler without Chrysler would be a pretty good buy as well. And it looks like quite a few people are agreeing with me too bidding the stock price up by 4.4% in 4 times the average volume.

Cool Tomb found in Greece

Now this is a cool Roman era discovery:

Archaeologists on a Greek island have discovered a large Roman-era tomb
containing gold jewelry, pottery and bronze offerings, officials said Wednesday.
The building, near the village of Fiscardo on Kefalonia, contained five burials
including a large vaulted grave and a stone coffin, a Culture Ministry
announcement said.

And it seemed to be from around the time that they portrayed in the HBO TV series Rome:

Previous excavations in the area have uncovered remains of houses, a
baths complex and a cemetery, all dating to Roman times — between 146 B.C. and
330 A.D.

Stupid Couple want to Name Child Metallica

Now these are some dumb Swedes.

Michael and Karolina Tomaro are locked in a court battle with Swedish
authorities, which rejected their application to name their six-month-old child
after the legendary rock band.

"It suits her," Karolina Tomaro, 27, said Tuesday of the name.
"She's decisive and she knows what she wants."

I wonder if they rejected The Who Tomaro, AC/DC Tomaro, and Guns N' Roses Tomaro before they settled on Metallica? I think the Swedes would approve Queen Tomaro though.

Make Sure You Bring Cough Drops on the Plane

Now this was a draconian airline pilot. I guess he thought she had tuberculosis or something.

The flight attendants gave her water, and a doctor on the flight said
she would be OK to make the 10-hour flight. But the captain returned the
aircraft to the gate to drop off the girl and one of her teachers.

Rachel said she started crying when the captain told her to leave.
She and the teacher finally made it home the next day.

Iran's British Kidnapping a Canny Move

It looks like the Iranians are pulling the same trick as Hezbollah by kidnapping those British sailors. They are testing the West just like how Hezbollah tested Israel. It seemed that Israel was embarrassed by attacking Lebanon with a half-measure and then getting all kinds of condemnation from the rest of the world. Now the Iranians are trying the same tactic to gauge how committed the US and Britain are to checking their hegemony of the Middle East.

It seems like a perfect plan because the Brits can't go to the military option because they slashed their navy to the bone. The US will look like they are expanding a war that they can barely run now. Our War Weariness score is through the roof already so Iran knows that they can dictate the tempo on this. They can withhold the troops and make the Brits go through all kinds of hoops to get them back. They make the Brits look foolish while the US looks on and will dare not do a thing.

The last bonus they get is as long as this standoff lasts oil prices will continue to climb. I bet they feel pretty good when their principal export can be manipulated so easily. All they have to do is kidnap some sailors, ratchet up the pressure, and then release the hostages when prices reach a certain level. That is why I keep saying we need an energy policy that totally frees us from needing Iranian oil ever again. They wouldn't dream of manipulating us so easily when we don't need anything from them. I think a sensible energy policy and a national security policy are one and the same.

Low Carb Diets better then Low Fat Diets

It looks like the hard evidence is finally in.

After 12 weeks on the low-carb plan, study participants had lost an
average of 4.9 kilograms (10.8 pounds), compared to 2.5 kg (5.5 pounds) for
their peers on the low-fat diet.

It is no longer considered pseudo-science and all of the scare tactics from the bread industry seems to have all been for naught. I have kept off about 20 lbs from switching to a low carb diet whenever I get above a certain weight limit. There is no way I could do a portion control diet because you end up wasting food. So a low-carb diet is proven to get results and now the science back this up. I agree with this though:

The researchers say more research is needed to clarify the mechanisms
responsible for the greater initial losses of body weight and fat associated
with the RGL diet, to evaluate the persistence of these losses over longer
treatment periods, and to obtain greater insight into strategies that would
improve long-term weight-loss maintenance."

Hillary/Obama to ride Wave of Iraqi Corpses into the White House

It looks like we are going to sneak out of Iraq by Sept 2008 if the House gets their way. So lets see who they are going to mess up by doing this. First they are ignoring the Iraqi Vice President. He of course warns that chaos will reign if we pull out too early. I guess listening to a man whose life literally hangs in the balance when we pull out isn't what the Left like to do.

They are also tying the hands of the generals in charge over there. If there is a firm time table then he has maybe a few months to stabilize the country before he has to plan on pulling troops out. So about the only thing he could do is be as brutal as he can. He has to use as much force as possible to neutralize as many insurgents as he can before his forces are weakened by the Dems. I guess some extra collateral damage is fine for the Left.

All the insurgents have to do is go to ground until we have maybe 30,000 troops or so in country and then go crazy. We however look like a paper tiger that abandons its allies at the worst possible time. So it will tell every enemy of the US all they have to do is wait until the Left get into power over here and they will win every war. North Korea and Iran you now have a friend in Congress.

The worst part about this whole thing is how politically motivated it is. Why did they pick the month before the elections to have every troop out of Iraq? I think this is timed to make it so the chaos will get as bad as it can be right before the election. Then the Dems can look like we are pulling our troops out of Iraq right in the nick of time before the blood closes over the heads of the Iraqis. In other words Hillary/Obama gets to ride a wave of Iraqi corpses right into the White House. Some "progressives" we have here in this country.

Iran Siezes British Sailors

It looks like Iran is going to test the West now to see how we respond.

Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards had radioed a British warship explaining that no harm had
come to the 15 Britons and that they were seized because they were in Iranian
waters. The British Defense Ministry said the Iranians took custody of the
sailors and marines in Iraqi waters.

Tech Error Wipes out Billions

Now this is one dumb-assed technician.

Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke
accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive
containing information for an account worth $38 billion.

That's what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive
at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the
technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account
— one of Alaska residents' biggest perks — and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.

There was still hope, until the department discovered its third
line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable.

Now I don't understand why the backup tapes were unreadable. Were they corrupt or did they have a bad tape reader or something? They should have brought in techs from Maxtor or whoever made that tape drive and got the information that way. Instead they decided to rescan 800,000 images by hand at the cost of $200k in 9 days. I guess that worked out but I would have tried to get the information off of the tape by any means necessary.

Subprime Mortgages Drop Markets

It seems like all those No-Interest, Reverse Mortgages are finally started to come due much to the chagrin of the sector. Now we might see some more sub-prime bankruptcies coming down the pike.

The San Diego, California-based Accredited said it needed to raise
money after paying $190 million demanded by its own creditors, and said it was
cutting an unspecified number of jobs and was exploring "strategic options,"
including raising new capital.

Trading in New Century stock was suspended by the New York Stock
Exchange prior to delisting. The Irvine, California-based company also
said it had received a notice from the U.S. attorney for the Central District of
California that it was the subject of a criminal probe of trading in its
securities.

Good thing I have been in cash for the last couple of weeks.

Hillary Dons the Tinfoil Hat

Well it looks like Hillary is still on about that Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Clinton asserted on Tuesday that the conspiracy is alive and well, and
cited as proof the Election Day 2002 case of phone jamming in New Hampshire, a
case in which two Republican operatives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and
a third was convicted.

I think it was Rove wearing his black hooded robe sending out mindwaves to his hideous minions to block those phone calls. And they did so using Deep Republican Magic tomes culled from the Lost Library of Barry Goldwater! And this woman wants to be our President? At least Obama is mentally stable.

Dems to Cut and Run by 2008

It looks like the terrorists can finally circle a date on the calendar in which they can drive us out of the country if this Dem bill passes.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have tentatively
settled on a timetable and conditions for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq
which they hope to attach to a $100 billion Iraq war spending bill, senior
lawmakers said on Wednesday.

What makes it even better is that they are trying to attach the thing to a spending bill as well. In other words Dems want us out of there by 2008 even if they have to take away the troops bullets and body armor to do it. Well, at least they have a plan now. They plan to lose Iraq to Iran/chaos/terrorists/Islamic terror. At least it will be another battle won for them in their long "Get Bush" war.

Sniper Kills Captain America!

It looks like Marvel is finally trying to get rid of one of its first heroes. Maybe he is just too Red, White and Blue for the commies at Marvel.

Captain America is dead!

Assassinated, in fact, as he walks into a federal courthouse in New
York, under arrest and in handcuffs, headed to his arraignment for refusing to
sign the government's Superhero Registration Act and forcibly revealing his true
identity.

Dollar Coins Struck without In God We Trust

It looks like these coins are about to be worth somewhat more then a dollar:

Bailey said it was unknown how many coins didn't have the inscriptions.
Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world's
largest coin authentication companies, said he believes that at least 50,000
error coins were put in circulation.

"The first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they
actually were," he said. "They're going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and
they'll probably settle in the $50 range."

I wouldn't mind finding one of these coins and turning $1 into $50 in an instant.

Anti-Greenhouse Bulbs

That new USAToday opinions section is the gift that keeps on giving. This is another great article about compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and whether the government should ban regular incandescent bulbs. I didn't know that this fact was true:

More important, the potential greenhouse-gas reductions are
stunning: The U.S. government estimates that if every American household
replaced just one bulb with a CFL, it would have an impact equal to taking a
million cars off the
road.

I would be in favor of a ban on the sale of regular bulbs. If these CFLs are such an energy saver then we should embrace them for the sole purpose that it will reduce our need for "Terrorist Oil." Anything that prevents more money from going into the pockets of the Mullahs or Chavez is a good thing. If it takes buying a whole bunch of weird looking light bulbs to prevent the building of one more bomb belt or Hezbollah rocket then I am all for it.

If Al Gore sold Inconvenient Truth as a way to break the Mullah's grip on power and less as a scare story of 60 feet of water drowning the coasts in 100 years then he would get more conservatives in his camp. Conservatives care a lot about security and the best way to get that security is to stop making our enemies rich.

Iraq War Defeatism

I was reading an article on how USA Todays new site design had a 92% negative reaction (I kind of like it so I am in the 8% camp) and I came across a very interesting opinion blog.

There's a deep irony to the Democratic Party's dilemma over Iraq. For
30 years, the party's left-wing base has reflexively proclaimed every foreign
policy challenge "another Vietnam." These voices rise and fall with America's
fortunes. In 1991, again in 2003 and ever since, they've insisted Iraq is Arabic
for Vietnam. They also claimed that Afghanistan was Pashtun for Vietnam. There
were even some who insisted Kosovo was Serbo-Croatian for Vietnam and, of
course, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Grenada were each feared to be Spanish for
Vietnam. Like the old saw about Eskimos having a hundred words for snow, it
seemed that anyplace the United States sends troops creates a new word for
Vietnam.

The funny thing is that Dems were the original "war-mongers" when it came to Vietnam. It was Kennedy and later LBJ that got us into that war in the first place. It was then up to Nixon to escalate the war in order to try for a decent peace. When that wasn't possible the US was forced to cut and run and sacrificed Vietnam to the commies.

Now we have the exact opposite situation in Iraq. The Repubs started the thing and now the Dems want us to end it in defeat. Now lets say we listen to Obama and pull everyone out in 6 months. Then when the humanitarian disaster breaks out do we go back in? In Vietnam the Repubs didn't go back into Vietnam when the North attacked at the end of the war. And I would be willing to lay even money that the Dems will go hammer and tongs against sending troops back in when the death squads go wild. So I would agree that there are parallels to Vietnam because it looks like we are again going to save American lives at the expense of foreign lives. I wonder how many dead Iraqis is equal to one dead American to a Dem?

US. Attorneys Intimidated By Hangups!

Now these are some wimpy attorneys:

A fired federal prosecutor told a Senate committee Tuesday that he felt
"leaned on" and sickened as Republican Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting
record) hung up on him in disgust last fall when told that
indictments in a corruption case against Democrats would not be issued before
the fall elections.

And this is why he was leaned on and sickened:

"He said, 'Are these going to be filed before November?'" former
federal prosecutor David Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys summarily fired
in recent months, told the panel. "I said I didn't think so. And to which he
replied, 'I'm very sorry to hear that.' And then the line went dead."

So Domenici didn't say goodbye and apparently this guy felt leaned on and sickened? Then he recieved another "pressuring" phone call from Rep. Heather Wilson:

Iglesias told the panel he received a call from Wilson about two weeks
earlier, in which she asked him about sealed indictments — a topic prosecutors
cannot discuss. Wilson's question "raised red flags in my head," Iglesias said.

"I was evasive and nonresponsive to her question," Iglesias told
the panel, saying he talked generally about why some indictments are sealed.
"She was not happy with that answer. And she said, 'Well I guess I'll have to
take your word for it." The call ended almost immediately, Iglesias said.

Asked by Schumer if he felt pressured by that call, Iglesias
replied: "Yes sir, I did."

Pressue to do their job? That is unheard of! I think these guys were fired because they didn't do their jobs in a timely manner. So now they know how it is to work in a regular job.

What is the Yen Carry Trade?

This article explains everything you need to know about one of the factors that made the market decline this week.

A carry trade occurs when a speculator borrows in one currency and
trades in another. Few markets have been riper for carry traders than Japan,
because of a depressed yen and near-zero borrowing costs. This condition has
been in place for years, a result of nearly two decades of recession in Japan.
To spur economic growth, the Japanese central bank has kept its prime lending
rate at essentially zero.

Oscar Curse?

I wonder if Jennifer Hudson is going to succumb to this so-called Oscar curse? Or maybe she will break the curse the same way as Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Renée Zellweger did. I unfortunately have my money on Marisa Tomeiisville for her but I could be wrong.

Lou Dobbs is Off Base

I just read this article that Lou Dobbs wrote on Feb. 21 and I have to refute some of his points.

The Democratic Leadership Council is obviously frightened that my brand
of independent populism is a threat. The council claims that I, and those who
agree with me, "are simply, factually, decisively wrong about the strength of
the U.S. manufacturing economy itself," and that the more than three million
jobs lost in manufacturing are a testament to corporate America's
technology-based efficiency, not outsourcing and offshoring to cheap foreign
labor markets. Then why are foreign-produced imports rising so dramatically and taking an ever-larger share of many of the most important sectors of our
economy?

I think Dobbs discounts the lower prices that Americans pay for these foreign produced imports and how that savings contributes to the middle class. If you save money on a TV that is manufactured cheaper in China then that money goes to buy other things and pay bills. This free trade dividend is almost always forgotten when people talk about foreign made goods. Dobbs just looks at the bad things behind cheap manufacturing but never looks at the good things for both the US and the Chinese. We get cheap goods and they get a better standard of living. I thought Progressives like Dobbs want people to do better in other parts of the world?

Also I think Dobbs also doesn't understand that the people that held these 3 million lost manufacturing jobs didn't just disappear off the face of the earth. Quite a few of these Americans found jobs in other sectors of the economy. That means the unemployment rate has actually been dropping in the last few years. It went from 5.7 in 2002 to 4.6 in 2006. So it seems that quite a few of these people aren't making stereos in a factory but are doing construction, working in front of a computer, or are working for some big corporation. In other words doing knowledge based jobs instead of manufacturing.

About one-third of the families in this country bring in less than
$35,000 of income each year, according to the Census Bureau, a figure that's
nowhere close to ensuring the quality of life and standard of living to which
many Americans have grown accustomed. I fear the American Dream may finally
become the American Pipe Dream.

I don't know what world Dobbs lives in but making $35,000 a year is a decent amount of money and is more then enough to live on for many Americans. Sure they can't afford to drive around in a new car every year and then go home to their McMansion but they should be able to get by pretty well. If the American dream is to own your own home then more and more Americans are actually getting achieving it. Maybe the quality of life and standard of living that Lou Dobbs is accustomed to is different then that of most regular, working Americans. Or maybe the American Dream is different in Dobbs view.

Iran In Violation of Nuke Accord

UN to do pretty much nothing I would bet.

The IAEA detailed recent activities showing Tehran expanding its
enrichment efforts — setting up hundreds of uranium-spinning centrifuges in an
underground hall and bringing nearly 9 tons of the gaseous feedstock into the
facility in preparation for enrichment. It added that Iranian officials had
informed the agency that they would expand their centrifuge installations to
have thousands of them ready by May.

This will pretty much raise oil prices in the near term. Maybe Iran is stoking tensions so they can make out like a bandit on oil sales. It might be time to dip your toe into some United States Oil ETF (USO) if these tensions keep up.

Hillary Okay with Racism but Husband called "Reckless" not okay?

Now this is some interesting attacks between the two Democratic front runners. This is what the Hillary camp want Obama to apologize for:

The Clinton campaign demanded that Obama denounce comments made by the
DreamWorks movie studio founder, who told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in Wednesday's edition that Sen. Clinton was ambitious and polarizing and her husband "reckless."

Sounds like the truth to me. While it seems that Hillary is okay with the support of a racist like Robert Ford:

"It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and
is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina state Sen. Robert
Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because 'he's black,'" Gibbs' statement said.

It sure is interesting to see Dems sniping at one another like this. I thought Geffen was a good Democratic soldier/check writer. But if he is on Obama's team then it is time to throw him under a bus. Good job Hillary.

AmeriCone Dream! It's Truthilecious!

Steven Colbert comes out with a new Ben and Jerry Ice Cream flavor called AmeriCone Dream! Liberals quake in fear!

Billed as "the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth," Americone Dream
is vanilla ice cream packed with fudge-covered pieces of waffle cone and a
caramel—or is that a conservative?—swirl.

"I'm not afraid to say it. Dessert has a well-known liberal
agenda," Colbert said in a statement. "What I hope to do with this ice cream is
bring some balance back to the freezer case."

Americans must buy it by the case! To not do that is a betrayal of all of our essential freedoms! To not buy it lets the terrorists win!

Is Gold a good buy?

It looks like that may be the case because the Chinese and the Saudis have lots of liquidity and people are forecasting dollar weakness. This article is pro-gold but it seems that every article you read is also pro-gold as well.

Meanwhile, crude is back to $58 a barrel, leaving the Saudis with lots
of petrodollars to sock away. China's in the same greenback-heavy boat, having
kicked off 2007 with another huge monthly trade surplus. And the standoff over
Iran's nuclear program doesn't appear especially likely to end well.

Well some of the risk premium might come off now that North Korea is out of the mix. That Iran thing is still front burner though. I wonder what is keeping the Saudis and Chinese to plow that excess money into US or European debt instruments instead of gold? It always seems that every time I hear about gold they have the price going to $1300 an ounce or some crazy thing like that. You never see that kind of pie in the sky talk from Growth mutual funds or something similar. Oh well it seems gold-bugs are always chasing that big gain even though $1300 an ounce gold will mean that the economy is in the toilet.

TRL Circles the Drain

It just seems like the show is not relevant anymore to the tastes of its viewers. So it looks like Viacom is going to put the thing on the chopping block:

Speculation inside MTV and at the major music labels has been mounting
that TRL, a daily afternoon show that has been experiencing declining ratings,
will soon be canceled or scaled back to two days a week. The newest fuel for the
rumor mill: the fact that much of the staff at TRL's studio at New York City's
Times Square was laid off late Tuesday, including members of the wardrobe,
makeup and technical staff.

Bumpkin Restaurant Offers Free Food to Skinny Models

Well at least someone is thinking about fattening up those wafer thin models. This restaurant sounds like they have good food (at least to me) as well:

"If I could recommend a dish to a size zero model, it would be a
charter pie containing leeks, chicken and bacon; it's enough to keep you warm
and energised all day," Bumpkin general manager Dariush Nejad said in a
statement on Monday.

Too bad there isn't a place like that in Hawaii. I would love to eat a meat pie that had leeks, chicken and bacon in it. I wonder if it would be too salty though? Oh well, another thing to look forward to when I finally get around to travelling to England.

Mystery Ailment Killing Bees

Now this is a real mystery to be solved. What is killing all those bees?

Reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states.
Some affected commercial beekeepers — who often keep thousands of colonies —
have reported losing more than 50 percent of their bees. A colony can have
roughly 20,000 bees in the winter, and up to 60,000 in the summer.

And here are the clues that they have assembled so far:

• Although the bodies of dead bees often are littered around a hive, sometimes carried out of the hive by worker bees, no bee remains are typically found around colonies struck by the mystery ailment. Scientists assume these bees have flown away from the hive before dying.

• From the outside, a stricken colony may appear normal, with bees leaving and entering. But when beekeepers look inside the hive box, they find few mature bees taking care of the younger, developing bees.

• Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive's honey. That's not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for at least two weeks, said Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State entomology professor investigating the problem.

NYC Cabbies are Honest; Dallas Jewelers are Cheap

Now this is a story of an American immigrant being a better person then some rich-bitch jeweler from Dallas.

Never mind diamonds- a New York cabbie was a Texas
girl's best friend. The driver returned 31 diamond rings he found in his cab
after dropping off the passenger, who had left him with a 30-cent tip on a
$10.70 fare.

Then to add insult to injury for returning maybe a few hundred thousand dollars in diamond rings she does this:

The woman, who said she was a jeweler, got back the gems on Monday when
she arrived at the alliance office around midnight — incredulous at her luck.
She offered Chowdhury a reward — a check for
$100.

I hope this guy goes on Jay Leno and gets his 15 minutes of fame from him being so honest. Also I hope this woman is made fun of from the Daily Show/Leno/Letterman for a few weeks. A $0.30 tip is an outrage and should be hung on her like a shaming board.

India Growth in 2007 Seen as Massive

It looks like India might be one of the fastest growing countries this year according to this.

On Wednesday, India's Central Statistical Office changed its gross domestic
product estimate for fiscal year 2007, which ends in March, to 9.2%.
The government recently revised its GDP estimate for fiscal year 2006 to 9% from 8.4%.

This seems to be one of the reasons given by the government and India watchers:

The so-called National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme guarantees
that one member of each of India's 60 million rural households will work for 100
days every year or receive unemployment benefits if there's no work.

Now that is a pretty weird sort of name. They put the word scheme right in the name to make it seem kind of like a crazy experiment that might not work. They should have just given it a more American name like No Rural Worker Left Behind or something like that.

Root Servers Attacked

It seems that this article is engaging in a little scare tactics to get people to read it. It says that a D0S attack "cripples" Internet root servers however this is what the article says:

Three of the servers were nearly overloaded by the attack, but they did
not go down, says Petro, who adds that they were in a slowed down brown out
stage.

A slowed down brown out stage is not "crippled." If they actually went down then I would say that they had be crippled. They should have put the word "nearly" in there to show what actually happened. In any case this is what would worry me about this story:

Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute and
chief technology officer for the Internet Storm Center, says more investigation
will have to be done before analysts can figure out where the attacks were
coming from. The Internet Storm Center is a cooperative cyber threat monitoring
and alert system.

If the attack was a little stronger it might have crashed the Internet and then all hell would have broken loose. What is worse is they would not even know where the attack came from. I think they need to develop stronger tracking tools to catch these DoSers before they cause billions of dollars in damages.

Biden Takes Back Racist Remark

It sure is funny to see a liberal run for cover trying to make himself seem less racist. This is what Biden said:

In an interview published Wednesday in the New York Observer, the same
day he officially entered the presidential race, Biden described Obama as "the
first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a
nice-looking guy."

So the other mainstream African-American guys didn't meet one of these criteria I guess. So the other guys were either crooked, dumb, ugly, or little bit of everything according to Biden. It is also funny that Biden went right for the Michael Richards defence after his verbal blunder:

Let me tell you something I spoke to Barack today," Biden told
Stewart.

"I bet you did," Stewart quipped.

"I also spoke to Jesse (Jackson) and Al Sharpton" Biden
said.

Yup when in doubt meet with those black leaders so you don't look as racist as you might seem to everyone else. I wonder if they are going to send Biden to the black rehab camp like they sent Isaiah Washington to the gay rehab camp?

Sony Loses More then Expected on PS3

It looks like Sony is screwing up again.

Facing strong competition from Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people )’s Wii, Sony blundered strategically by cutting the price of PlayStation3 by 20% before the consoles went on sale in November last year. Yuhara admitted Sony had underestimated the startup costs of it.

"In the PS3 business, production was very tight, but we knew the market wouldn't wait," Yuhara said. He added that the price cut was aimed at getting the machine a strong debut.

I mean why did they cut the price on the thing right out of the gate like that? I guess they were worried that people would go for the Wii in large numbers since it was quite a bit cheaper then the PS3. This is a very interesting fact though:

Nonetheless, at the end of December, Sony only sold 687,300 units of PS3 in US since its launch while Nintendo shipped 1.1 million sets of Wii and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) sold 4.5 million units of Xbox 360 in the States, according to research house NPD.

This low amount of of PS3s sold would trouble me if I were Sony. It looks like both the Wii and the Xbox360 trounced them in this crucial holiday season. You could chalk this up to just having more Wiis and Xbox360s around for consumers to buy. I know lots of people that went with the Xbox360 instead of the PS3 since they didn't want to wait in some long line or get robbed or beaten for it.

In any case, it seems that the Wii was the big winner this holiday season. They sold 1.1 million in the US and 3.2 million in Japan. That is quite an installed base right out of the blocks. Now they need a Super Mario Bros. style category killer and they could have the potential to bury their competition.