May 2009
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With High-Speed Camera, Glimpsing Worlds Too Fast... →
If you have any interest in high-speed photography, I recommend watching one episode of this show, Time Warp, on Discovery HD.
On television, videos are broadcast at 30 frames per second, a comfortable range for the human eye, which splices together the still images to make a moving picture. Most TV programs and home movies are recorded at the same speed. But the high-speed cameras on the set...
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“There’s a player out there who’s going to do something at the French Open that...”
– Marv Salter on Friday in “History says odds will catch up to Nadal.” Great call. Nadal just lost to Robin Soderling 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6.
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What One Stimulus Buck Could Do →
Sounds like a fantasy, but Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria has done the math, and his “14x” plan, which he calculates will generate $14 in private spending for every stimulus buck spent, is creating major buzz in city halls and statehouses across the country.
Mazria was in Washington, D.C., last week pitching his plan to senators, administration officials, and perhaps more...
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“It can be assumed that Iranian personnel were present in North Korea during...”
– Caroline Glick
On a related note, Gattaca is a fantastic movie.
Why you should be pissed off if the government...
mandalay:
A further response to the post below:
1. Your DNA says a lot about you, i.e., general health, ethnic background, genetic predispostions, etc. Think about how badly that could go wrong if someone knew that you carried cancer genes, or were predisposed to violence or mental disorder. Fetuses with so-called deformities are aborted quite regularly, so it’s not like it isn’t in the...
“We play for blood,” says Ruth Cummins, 92, before taking a sip of Red Bull at a...”
– At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age
Best sentence ever? (via asprettyasasong)
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“Gold was not selected arbitrarily by governments to be the monetary standard....”
– Murray N. Rothbard
“People have a deep desire to communicate with animals, as is evident from the...”
– Human Language Gene Changes How Mice Squeak - NYTimes.com (via mikehudack)
Sounds like the most shocking part of the experiment is how well the human gene sequence substitutes for the mouse gene sequence. And with that, we are one step closer to Jurassic Park.
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“General Motors Corp., which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, plans to...”
– Bloomberg
About time.
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“The AP reports that nuclear weapons have been detonated 2,054 times since 1945....”
– Bruce Falconer
I have never understood the argument that the US should be allowed to have and test nuclear weapons but others should not.
Supreme Court: Suspects Can Be Interrogated... →
mandalay:
Guys, this is kind of a big deal. I know everyone was distracted today with the new justice, California, and North Korea, but pay attention! This is serious shit.
The high court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned the 1986 Michigan v. Jackson ruling, which said police may not initiate questioning of a defendant who has a lawyer or has asked for one unless the attorney is present. The...
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New bill wants fiber conduit built into every road... →
The big cost of laying new fiber is digging up and repaving the roads—so why don’t we just lay fiber conduit in the ground every time a road is rebuilt? That’s the idea behind Rep. Anna Eshoo’s new Broadband Conduit Deployment Act.
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Do You Know Where Your $2 Trillion Has Gone? →
Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has loaned trillions of dollars in bailout money but refuses to tell Congress where it went. Legislative action is needed.
The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would give the GAO the authority to audit the Federal Reserve and report its findings to Congress. The bill was written by Rep. Ron Paul and has 165 cosponsors, mostly Republicans. Democratic Congressman...
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What the New Credit Card Law Means For You →
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“The Fighting Irish have remained a member of college football’s...”
– Even Obama Gets It, Notre Dame a Joke
Agreed.
“The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City,...”
– 4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues
“Politicians like to talk about incentives — for businesses to relocate,...”
– Tom Golisano
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“Buffett’s single-minded pursuit of money seems to have left him with...”
– Michael Lewis in his review of the new Buffett biography
“In a look at the impressive growth of Ancestry.com, a genealogy Web site that...”
– Barack Obama and Brad Pitt Cousins? It’s True, says Forbes
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“This trait of Geithner’s is important going forward, and it also may explain why...”
– Tim Carney
Interesting, short article on Tim Geithner’s consistent rule bending.
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@pkedrosky:
wsj: the parade of 20-something lemmings to portland and unemployment online.wsj.com/article…
Good read.
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“It’s surprising to learn he thinks the recession is over, because he is one of...”
– Acclaimed Economist Says Recession Is Over
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“When I was a journalist, I could get rewarded in 100 ways, including being on...”
– Neil Barsky, quoted in Joe Nocera’s article A Hedge Fund Manager’s Farewell I have consistently enjoyed Nocera’s reporting over the last year and this is no exception.
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“The US Treasury’s effort to stabilise the banking system through the TARP...”
– Telegraph
Mark Patterson, charman of MatlinPatterson Advisers:
It’s a sham. The banks are insolvent. The US government is trying to sedate the public because they are down to the last $100bn (£66bn) of the $700bn TARP funds. They think they’re doing this for the greater good of society…. The...
Wolfram|Alpha →
amandalynferri:
samreich:
This is something close to the future of the internet. (via adamgotterer)
this is really awesome. you should take 12 minutes out of your day and watch this.
Incredible.
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Want to Fix New York Air Congestion? Shut Down... →
The problem, as he explained it, is that the airspace for each of the three airports extends cylindrically into the sky above its ground position. Because of their relative proximity, the three airspace cylinders affect one another significantly, which creates congestion not just because of volume but because pilots have to thread the needle and fly needlessly intricate approach routes in order...
“I kid you not, the query ‘Super Bowl scores’ yielded the response...”
– AP: Flaws in Web’s much-touted WolframAlpha This Associated Press review of WolframAlpha has two references to The Big Lebowski and they both work perfectly. Despite the flaws, I’m really looking forward to this launch tomorrow.
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“Instruct regulators to look for the newest fad in the industry and examine it...”
– William Seidman, top economic adviser to President Ford, former head of the FDIC and chair of the RTC, quote from 1993. RIP.
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Obama's Indefinite Detention
josephweisenthal:
Remember all the hootin’ and hollerin’ when Obama said he’d close Gitmo and actually followed through with it on almost his first day in office?
Can we at least agree now that that was PURELY cosmetic, since it doesn’t change the status of the detainees one bit?
Same as it always was. Sad.
“The ESPN of indie cook-offs is Ms. Erway’s blog, Not Eating Out in New York.”
– NYTimes
“The California Association of Realtors’ housing forecast now calls for a 28.4%...”
– Realtors see ballooning Calif. house-price drops - Lansner on Real Estate - OCRegister.com
This is notable both because even the CAR is foreceasting a big drop FROM HERE, but also because as an organization whose financial existence is tied to a rising housing market, their predictions are...
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Legislation Coming This Week To Guarantee All Muni... →
This isn’t surprising but then oil at $200 per barrel by 2012 won’t be either. At least the “we believe in a strong dollar policy” rhetoric is gone… for now. I’m kind of excited to see if China responds to this.
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Stress Testing Obama’s Facts →
Could the American public handle the facts about the Treasury’s stress tests for the nation’s top 19 banks?
Stress test “adverse” scenario for 2009 GDP growth: -3.3%
Actual annualized 2009 GDP growth year-to-date: -6.1%
Stress test “adverse” scenario average unemployment rate for 2009: 8.9%
Actual 2009 average unemployment rate year-to-date: 8.3%, with a rate of 8.9% in April
Stress test...
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WSJ Report: Banks Negotiated Concessions on Stress... →
The Federal Reserve at the last minute significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation’s biggest banks, following days of intense bargaining over the stringency of the stress tests.
…
When the Fed last month informed banks of its preliminary stress-test findings, executives at banks including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo...
