Mint Offers New Dollar Coins

I wonder if people are going to actually use these things in any large number? I know I didn't like the other dollar coin alternatives because they were just too big to carry around. I guess they could aim them at the collectors market but I'm still skeptical. Here is a picture of the coin:

Newt Running for President, Kinda

Well this is what he is planning on doing anyway:

"I'm going to tell you something, and whether or not it's plausible
given the world you come out of is your problem," he tells Fortune. "I am not
'running' for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by
offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I
have to be president, it will happen." So he's running, only without yet
formally saying so.

At least he is going to offer compelling solutions and not alot of hot air like the Dems have been doing when they were in the minority. I don't think Newt has a snowballs chance though but whatever.

Man Robbed Another Beaten for PS3

Now this is getting out of hand. Just wait a little while and you will get all the PS3s you would ever want.

Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new
PlayStation 3 game system to go on sale in Putnam early Friday and shot one man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

About 30 miles away, another shopper was beaten and robbed of his new
PlayStation 3 just minutes after he bought it at a store in Manchester, police
said.

These Statements Show Dems naivete

All my fears about the Dems taking the foreign policy lead has been realized when Dems pop off like this:

On the Democratic side, Rep. Brad Sherman of California proposed that the
United States offer North Korea a nonaggression pact as part of a deal in which
the North Koreans permanently and verifiably give up their nuclear
weapons.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., accused the
administration of "dithering" and said the U.S. was placing too much reliance on
China to stop North Korea's programs. China played a leading diplomatic role in
persuading North Korea to end its boycott of negotiations.

So the North Koreas get a reward for developing the bomb and raising tension in the region? What prevents the North Koreans from signing the pact and then fooling us like they did during the Clinton administration. I mean they fooled investigators once. What keeps them from doing it again? Do the Dems really think that a nonaggression pact will keep the North Koreans from shrinking the bomb down far enough to mount it on a long range missile?

And this move would really show our allies that we have their back. If they shoot some more rockets over Japan then what are we supposed to do? Shrug our shoulders and say "well you are on your own now because we can't deal with them, sorry about that." If we did sell the Japanese down the river like this I would hope they would develop The Bomb. Then the Japanese will know that the Dems do not have their best interests in mind when it comes to North Korea.

And placing your hopes on China is not just practical but the only way anything will truly get done. China is the only country in the world that North Korea listens to. Kim respects/fears China and knows that if the Chinese cut off ties with the North his regime will crumble. Also if he pushes the Chinese too far they may go ape and simply regime change the North Koreans themselves. I still think it was Chinese agents that tried to eliminate Kim with that train bomb a few years back.

I was willing to give the Dems the benefit of the doubt about North Korea until I read stuff about nonaggression pacts and downplaying Chinese influence. I think someone needs to brief Mr. Sherman and Mr. Ackerman before its too late. We can't afford to have another Madeline Albright Style pact with the North Koreans while they build up their nuclear stockpile.

A Comprehensive Review of the Zune

This is a pretty good primer for anyone who is interested in buying a Zune. I think the idea is a pretty good one but I don't listen to music enough to warrant buying one of these things. A low end Ipod would be enough to safely store every MP3 that I own all in one place. I do like how the Zune has a really large screen though. It will make watching those tiny downloaded videos go from a room-spinning headache to simple eyestrain.

US Airways to Buy Out Delta?

It seems that we may get a little more consolidation in the airline space. This is the rub however:

Potential opposition from regulators, labor and Delta management all
have the potential to derail a transaction with strategic logic but heavy
political baggage.

It would make a lot of sense for there to be consolidation in the airline space especially with the companies that are coming out of bankruptcy. You add on new routes and get a bunch of extra planes added to your fleet for one merger price. I wonder who is going to be the next potential target for a buyout?

Rudy Might Run in 08

It looks like Rudy is throwing his hat in the ring for '08. I would certainly vote for him if he ran against Hillary but I would have to do some soul searching if a Dem like Lieberman ran instead.

The former mayor filed papers to create the Rudy Giuliani Presidential
Exploratory Committee, Inc., establishing a New York-based panel that would
allow him to raise money to explore a White House run and travel the
country.

11 Disruptive Ideas and some Comments

This is a great article on 11 innovations that will disrupt how we do business and even how we live our lives. Some of these ideas are revolutionary sounding while others may not be as big as one might think. Here are my comments on each item:

NETVIBES: (cutomizable web start pages)
I think this is a pretty good idea from the most part but I can see Yahoo, Google, or even Firefox adapting to do alot of the work that this article claims that this thing does. Perhaps it will really catch on with people that haven't already customized their browsers with lots of toolsbars and addons. Also I'm not sure if portals will allow this thing to post their content without a fight of some kind. I need to test the thing out to give a good opinion on it.

EESTOR: (super powerful ceramic power source for electric cars)
This thing sounds like one of those "cars that are powered by seawater" kind of things. If it is true (and I am kind of sceptical) it will change the way we drive. It will single handedly break the oil monopoly and make the Saudis, Iran, and Venezuela paupers. If this thing is as powerful as they claim I would be willing to lay even money that every oil power has a spy in that Cedar Park, Texas lab.

COGHEAD: (Easy to use tools to make Business Apps)
Sounds like an interesting idea but are users smart enough to create custom business apps that work without any problems? We have to see what apps are created from this thing to make any judgement calls on it. If it is as easy to use as they claim then we will see these custom apps pop up all over the net so companies can take a look at them.

NEXTMEDIUM: (Automated Product Placement big through an online exchange)
This sounds like something that could change the ad industry. You can't fast forward through product placement and if this company can measure its effectiveness then it will be a major player. This will probably lead to a world where we will see Jack Bauer holding up a can of Coke and then moving it to clearly show the label and other crap like that.

APPLIED LOCATION: (GPS system for toll collection, traffic congestion management etc.)
Now this is the dumbest idea on this list. The only way a person would install a GPS tracker onto their car is if it was mandated by the government. If carmakers were forced to put this into all cars then it will be one of the most heavily hacked items next to a computer. If you thought the wiretapping was bad wait until they get GPS data that shows every single place you drove during the year.

SALESFORCE.COM: (AppExchange 2.0 is shared programming for enterprise apps) This sounds like alot of hot air but it could be a great deal. It looks like they are using the Linix model of shared programming to help them build enterprise apps. The Linix model is proven to work so the chances of Salesforce.com pulling off a big win is definately possible.

BLUELITHIUM: (Highly Targeted Ads that spawn due to your Clickstreams)
This idea sounds almost like spyware.

Each of those ads drops a cookie on your browser, and when you show up on another site that serves BlueLithium ads or on one of its advertisers' websites, it adds that history of clicks to its database. Using this "clickstream" data, it determines within 10 milliseconds which ad to serve up the next time you come to any of the 1,000 handpicked sites where it buys ad inventory from.

So you go from Tacobell.com to Yahoo.com you will get a Taco Bell ad instead of some other banner. It seems that bluelithium is almost like tar that sticks to you whenever you go to another affiliated site. So now it seems that Taco Bell will follow me like a ghost and pop up in every affiliated banner space until I delete the bluelithium cookie. I like Taco Bell but I am going to set anti-spy to block that tracking cookie in a minute.

CLEARWIRE: (National Wi-Max Broadband)
Now this could be the big change once the modem becomes smaller then a paperback book. If you can just put a card into a laptop and you get Wi-Max connectivity speed you can kiss wired broadband goodbye. Plus it is available in Hawaii. I may be testing this innovation first hand before too long.

ZOPA: (Peer to Peer Lending)
This seems like a very interesting way to earn 7% on your money. The uncollectable debt rating is pretty low but it will rise as more and more borrowers get on this thing and default. I could see big companies getting into the act if this thing takes off. I know that some asian societies have lending clubs like this and they have been popular since ancient times. Too bad it looks like it is only in England right now.

JAJAH: (Free phone calls without all the crap you need for VOIP)
Now this could be a category killer. The only drawback is you do need some kind of network connection to get yourself to the Jajah.com site. So if your power is out like we had recently in Hawaii then this little service is worthless to you. It's hard to argue with free though.

NANOLIFE SCIENCES: (cancer treatments using a proton beam)
This sounds very Star Trek but it may be a good deal when comparing it to chemotherapy. This one is quite a few years off so it is still Future Tech. It would be great if it does come to pass.

The Dems and the Next Ethanol Bubble?

Hmm it seems that Ethanol stocks are going to pushed again in the new Congress. I wonder if the Dems are going to switch the subsidies for big oil to big Ethanol instead. I would certainly applaud them for that. The article has a list of some Ethanol stocks that are currently publicly traded. I kind of like VSE after it has sold off so much. I also like ADM for their size and high production capacity. They would be able to take advantage of any Dem pork going toward renewable energy.

December Delirium Would be Massive

I think Terry Bowden is projecting some of the best games of the year packed into the Christmas and New Years Holidays. These games would be outstanding any way you look at them. Here is a look at Bowdens Brackets:



That Ohio St./Texas Cotton Bowl game would be absolutely outstanding. I would actually a half day off work to see these two games back to back. The hype and the leadup would be otherworldly and would seriously make postseason college football a bigger deal then it already is. I would love to see that Michgan/Auburn Sugar Bowl game as well.

Bush is Being Conciliatory

Let's hope his bipartisan skills that he used to such good effect in Texas haven't left him yet. He could conceivably ratchet down the rhetoric and the Washington heat machine and come out of his term with a semi-decent approval rating. All he needs to do is pick his battles carefully.

Agree with anything that isn't worth fighting for. For instance agree on raising the Minimum Wage, attacks on Big Pharma and Big Oil, and clean energy. Only fight on socialized medicine, calls for all the troops out of Iraq by summer 2007, or anything spouted by the Far Left Fringe Elements. His goal now is to make himself an asset and not a liability to the GOP crop in 2008 .

I Agree with the Governator

I think Arnold is spot on with this assessment of the Dems win.

"I think it is good that there are new ideas and new blood because
Washington was stuck. They could not move forward, not much was accomplished; I think it was terrible," he told reporters on a trip to Mexico.

The GOP Congress was just a bunch of squabbling, scandal prone idiots that didn't get much done other then confirm some conservative judges. They did cut taxes but they were so inept that it will probably run out without becoming permanent. And all that immigration mess was just a sideshow that showed that they were willing to get rid of a potential source of votes/jobs/tax dollars/patriotic Americans in the name of xenophobism. I can say that the do-nothing Congress really fit them to a T. Lets see if the Dems do better.

Allen Macacaed Right Out of the Senate

Well it looks like he is the bigger man and conceeded rather then drag Virginia through months of litigation and bad feelings. Not like a certain wooden Global Warming Alarmist we all know. This loss was another self-inflicted injury that the GOP managed to pull off.

Allen was comfortably ahead in polls until August, when he mockingly
referred to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent as "Macaca," regarded by some as a racial slur. The incident, caught on videotape, became international
news. Some former football teammates from the University of Virginia also
charged that Allen had commonly used a slur for blacks — something he
denied.

Sometimes it is just better to keep your mouth shut about something rather then try to say an off the cuff remark. They almost always backfire a la John Kerry.

Bye Bye Rummy

It looks like he is going to be the first casualty of the Dem sweep.

The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld's nearly six-year tenure, and
unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers in Congress became critical of the war's management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.

It looks like Bush is tapping a veteran spook as the next Secretary of Defense:

Bush said Robert M. Gates, 63, who has served in a variety of national
security jobs under six previous presidents, would be nominated to replace
Rumsfeld. Gates, currently the president of Texas A&M University, is a Bush
family friend and a member of an independent group studying the way ahead in
Iraq.

This guy had a long history in the CIA and may be able to plug all the leaks coming out of the Pentagon in recent years. I wonder howthe defenseee community is going to accept this guy coming out of the CIA and all. Maybe Bush should have gone with an ex-general. Whatever the case Gates is going to have a tough road ahead of him trying to prevent a full scale civil war in Iraq with the Dems pounding on him the whole time to "get the troops out faster."

K-Fed and Britney Split

This was two years in the making but it has finally come to pass.

In the divorce papers, Spears asks for custody of the couple's two
children, with visitation rights for Federline. The filing lists as separate
property, and thereby off-limits to Federline, "miscellaneous jewelry and other
personal affects," earnings and other assets to be determined later.

I guess the easiest gravy train in America has finally come into the station.

The Dems and the Iraqi Death Spiral

After the Dems win the House their first order of business will be to create a referenda on Iraq and try to ram some sort of "redeployment timetable" through. They will probably try to shift some of the troops into Afghanistan but end up sending the majority home.

This timetable will be exactly what the Jihaddis have been waiting for. As the time table nears its end the Jihaddis will ratchet up the violence and turn things into a full scale civil war. This will put pressure on the Dems to try to pull the troops out as fast as possible. A 100 dead in a month will look like small potatoes compared to a poorly thought out withdrawal under heavy fighting. It will then look to the whole world that the US can be beaten if you just wait them out. This will embolden all rogue powers that threaten their neighbors and give them the freeist hand that they will probably ever get.

Iraq will certainly fall into a civil war as soon as we pull out. I have a feeling that the Shiite majority will totally annihilate the Sunnis without Iranian intervention. The Shiites will probably increase the Death Squads by 100 times and Sadr City will be cleaned out to the man. When all eyes are off of Iraq then you will see the real slaughter begin. That blood will certainly be on the Dems hands for getting out or Iraq without any thought about whether the Iraqis are ready to perform the security tasks and keep their nation from falling into civil war.

In any case I think Iran will be the biggest winner when the Dems get into power. They will finally be able to create nukes and be the leader of the region. They will certainly dominate post-America Iraq and might mold it into a client state. Or they can simply annex the southern half of the nation to "protect their fellow Sunnis" with only a "condemnation in the strongest possible terms" by Pelosi and her ilk.

The Dems will never use force no matter what Iran does. I think they could conceivably go to war with Iraq to "stop the Shiite Death Squads" but mostly just seize Iraqi oil wealth. When the only force standing in your way doesn't have the stomach to fight, is tired of hearing about the area, and won't give you any payback then the sky is truly the limit. If I were the Mullahs I would send Nancy Pelosi and her ilk a gift basket with a card saying "Job well done. You got our only obstacle to Middle Eastern dominance out of our way. You should be highly commended"

2006 Election Predictions

Here is my fearless predictions for this 2006 midterm election:

The Dems will get 26 seats in the House to give them a majority and win only 2 Senate seats.

That prediction is based on gut feeling and nothing more. I think the voters are pissed off enough about Iraq and the do-nothing Congress to change the House but not enough to change the Senate too.

Now if the Dems do win and they *don't* go after Bush on some trumped up impeachment charge then I will give them all the credit in the world. They know that they can't go after a sitting President in a time of war and not get burned by it. I think the Repub. Congress that went after Clinton damaged our national security. The White House and the Senate were going over what the meaning of "Is" is and debating stained dresses while Osama was putting the 9/11 pieces in place.

If the Dems go after Bush I would be willing to lay even money that a major terrorist attack will get through while people are preparing depositions and other stupid stuff. It will probably happen on the next president's watch but it will still be devastating to the people involved.

Chinese Gamers Protest Japanese Flag in Game

Now this is a weird sort of deal that actually affected Netease's (NTES) top line this quarter.

In addition, our revenues from online games were affected by increased
competition, particularly from free-to-play games offered by some of our
competitors, and in-game protests by certain users of our Fantasy Westward
Journey game who mistakenly identified an image in this game as being a Japanese flag.

Wow and this accidental flag adding even led to some conspiracy theories that led some Chinese gamers to think that NTES was actually taken over by a Japanese company.

Netease (Nasdaq: NTES) gamers are protesting an in-game image on the
wall of a building that resembles a Japanese rising sun flag, reports Beijing
Evening News. The offending image appears in Netease's bread and butter game
Fantasy Westward Journey. The image touched-off deep-seated anti-Japanese
sentiments in many gamers, and on July 7 almost 10,000 gamers have gathered at the location to express their disapproval. According to the report, some
protestors have even speculated that the image was added as a result of some
change in the shareholder structure of Netease.

I guess some gamers will believe anything.

Nintendo Wii to Offer 62 games by December

Wow they are really going to launch this thing in a big way. Now this item mentioned in the article, along with the $250 selling price, is really making this system look good.

In addition to the new selections Nintendo will offer, it will also
sell 30 classic games for the Wii Virtual Console on or shortly after the
systemÂ’s launch, including games from the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx16
console. Gamers will be able to purchase “Wii Points” via Nintendo’s
website or at participating retailers at $20 for 2,000 points, according to the
release. The points can then be exchanged for games to be downloaded and
played on the Wii Virtual Console. NES games will sell for as little as
500 Wii Points, Super NES and Sega Genesis games will start at 800 points,
Nintendo 64 games at 1,000 points and TurboGrafx16 games will start 600 Wii
Points, according to the release.

That means I can finally play Kid Icarus, Legend of Zelda, Megaman, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Contra, Golden Axe, Final Fight etc. in a non-emulated form. To think I was just bashing this thing in April. I still think the name is a colossal mistake but I guess people have gotten used to it more or less. But $250 for the Wii vs $499 for the 20GB or $599 for the 60GB version of the PS3 makes the choice much easier.

Kerry Bashes Troops but Says it is a Joke

Well it looks like Kerry is showing his true Far Left colors in this statement.

Kerry, D-Mass., said he meant no offense to troops when he told a college audience Monday that young people might get "stuck in Iraq" if they don't study hard and do their homework.

This is the same far left liberal view that anyone serving in the military is an idiot that doesn't know any better or has been duped by someone. The Far Left have a long history of holding the military in contempt that goes back to the Vietnam war and Kerry has let it loose again. He says his statement was a joke and he actually meant to say this line instead:

Kerry said he mangled the delivery of a line aimed at Bush. According to aides, the language was originally written to say that "if you're intellectually lazy, you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq — just ask President Bush."

What is he talking about? The first statement was about if you don't do your homework and study then they send you off to Iraq. I guess he said this to scare the kids or to say that the troops fighting over there are too stupid to have gotten out of it. I guess he still thinks there is a draft on or something. He should that these men and women signed up for the military knowing what they were getting into. I guess they just didn't study hard enough in Kerryworld.