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Hollywood’s happy, even without a record year
Gentlemen, Stop Your Engines
A NASCAR fan makes the case to euthanize stock-car racing.
By Robert Weintraub
Dec. 15, 2008
But NASCAR’s biggest problem isn’t fixable with a couple of sexy drivers or a breathless season finale in Miami. The sport can’t escape the fact that the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels are technologies on a steep downslope. With hybrids and electrics on the way in, it’s hard to see where gas-guzzling, emission-belching stock cars fit in. Unlike the Indy Racing League and Formula 1 (open-wheel racing circuits famous for the Indy 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix, respectively), NASCAR has yet to implement alternative-fuel programs—hell, it only switched to unleaded gasoline last season! Open-wheel racing isn’t immune from the economic turmoil (Honda recently announced it was dropping out of F1), but it stands a better chance at survival. Formula 1 and the Indy crowd run machines that are less cars than science experiments, highly engineered equipment that can and will adapt easily to new technologies. Stock cars are just tricked-out Dodges and Chevys—you know, the ones that nobody’s buying anymore.
Indian navy captures 23 pirates
U.S. Navy: Land attack on pirates unwise
U.S. Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters that striking pirate camps presents problems because it is difficult to identify them and the potential for killing innocent civilians “cannot be overestimated.”
“They’re irregulars — they don’t wear uniforms,” said Gortney, who oversees a coalition of navies fighting piracy off Somalia.
In a wide-ranging interview at his 5th Fleet headquarters, Gortney said such strikes are an effort to go for an easy military solution to a problem. He says the better solutions are to improve the security, stability and government in Somalia, and to clear up legal hurdles so that militaries that capture pirates can detain them and bring them to trial.
Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe Even in Your Computer
Security researchers concede that their efforts are largely an exercise in a game of whack-a-mole because botnets that distribute malware like worms, the programs that can move from computer to computer, are still relatively invisible to commercial antivirus software. A research report last month by Stuart Staniford, chief scientist of FireEye, a Silicon Valley computer security firm, indicated that in tests of 36 commercial antivirus products, fewer than half of the newest malicious software programs were identified.
Some of you may recognize this name. I’m glad he is finally doing something useful.
I’ve had some problems with malware recently on my own computers. I commonly deal with the problem on my clients computers. One thing I never do is pay for commercial anti-virus software. But the fixes and solutions are there. I’m putting together a checklist/report for how to deal with this stuff and hopefully I’ll get some feedback from the other computer “gurus” here.
The severity of the situation was driven home not long ago for Ed Amaroso, AT&T’s chief security official. “I was at home with my mother’s computer recently and I showed her it was attacking China,” he said. “ ‘Can you just make it run a little faster?’ she asked, and I told her ‘Ma, we have to reimage your hard disk.’ ”
Aren’t Moms great? Ma! I said,”your computer is attacking China!“
I think we should make AT&T’s chief security official the next Defense Secretary. This guy really knows what’s important.
Thanks to increasing worldwide sales and economies of scale, a wide range of large-screen HDTVs are now available for three-figure prices. At Wal-Mart, for example, 42- to 50-inch plasma and LCD sets can be found for $600 to $925. Some lesser-known brands in a 32-inch screen size are around $400.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m starting to dream in Blu-Ray HD. Last night I had this one where I was being chased by this bully from high-school. To escape I fled down these stairs leading into the clear waters around a coral reef. The colors and clarity were absolutely amazing. Once you’ve experienced 1020p in real-life, dreams will never be the same. Just make sure your brother-in-law gets it first, so you can spend hours laughing at him while he tries to set it up (and not taking advice from everybody else in the room who actually know something about technology) – well worth it.
What’s Going On in Greece?
Do riots in Athens portend demonstrations in Paris and Cincinnati?
Greek Police Teargas Youths In 2nd Week Of Protests - Dec 15th
Greece Teeters Between Chaos and Calm
The coming days will prove whether calm will prevail over unrest, or whether the government will have to change its policy of not intervening in protests it considers healthy for democracy.
On Wednesday, the government, which has been weakened by political scandal, defended its response to the protests, saying it had chosen not to crack down to avoid further bloodshed.
Greece has frequent protests, but those in the last several days here and in other cities have been the worst in decades. The Athens Trade Association estimated damages of about $1.3 billion.
Has anybody noticed the news is always more fucked up than any movies they make these days? I demand Hollywood get its shit together and start producing some entertainment.
Bolivia acknowledges some illegal coca use
I can’t believe the media prints this type of nonsense. There is no cocaine in Bolivia because there are no drugs in South America. This is a conspiracy drummed up by the Bush Administration. Everyone knows cocaine comes from Al Pacino. Duh. And for the record, this article got another thing wrong – Columbia and Peru are not in South America. They are suburbs of Paris. Like who doesn’t know that?
Rambling Bullshit 101: Or, A Picture is worth No Words
(I really am trying to write more, don’t take my word for it, look at the evidence)
It was kind of nice to see somebody actually read The Black Swan (at least through page 89) and comment on it in such great depth for over a thousand words. I consider it a present of sorts.
This Christmas I got Dexter Filkins’ ‘The Forever War’ and Winston Churchill’s ‘The River War.’ Valkyrie was the post-dinner Christmas Day movie this year for the family (which this year included only one sister – Note to her husband:get with the program, Pal) . Aside from that, nobody died, and the power stayed on. Nice work if you can get it, I guess. The Israelis attacked two days later. Close enough. Can’t really ask for anything more. World asleep. 700 words to go.
My WordPress dashboard provides a list of the search terms that lead people to this blog. In today’s installment there is one “taleb is an asshole.” Hahaha. I’m glad we can be of service.
“The Soviet Union was the most closed society imaginable. Its propagandists and admirers could say anything they wanted without fear of contradiction.”
– John Mosier, Cross of Iron, p166
In this regard I would like to think this website/blog is different from TOD. I still can’t for the life of me understand what Doom sees in “memmel.” The man has never been right about anything. He simply makes up his own economic theory as he goes. I’d listen to Asoka before I listened to memmel. They could be brothers. They certainly both feel gasoline will be $4.00 by the end of the year (most likely caused by an Israeli/US attack on Iran). Last time I checked they were still sticking to their guns. And I thought I was crazy. Four days to go, fellas, you still have time to change your minds. Fucking idiots. But tune in next year for some more of their brilliance.
“Restrospectives on intelligence generally overlook the fact that the correct information is embedded in packets of worthless and contradictory data.”
-John Mosier, p172
Yarra wrote about 1200 words addressing one point of Taleb’s. You could say that point was about a page long, or 400 words, giving a counterpoint-to-point ratio of 3 to 1. Or you could say the original point was three words. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before (with Taleb). So I salute Yarra. There’s a lot of points in that book. Get busy. 400 words to go.
For reasons still unknown, CFN remains effectively shut down, with no new comments displaying in the current thread. Was looking forward to more exchanges with Ryan. In honor of Ryan and his obsession with hopes for this, that, and the other thing (including the dieoff-with-dignity wish) I can’t help but do something like the title of this post.
Hope is a wonderful thing to have, and probably a necessary thing to have too if you’re otherwise convinced we’re about to swirl around the big porcelain bowl o’ life. Where this hope is put (invested) is otherwise a very good question. Hope is not entirely dissimilar to investment funds in certain regards. Much is said about hope these days on the blogs and on the internets. ‘Hope’ has been a magical word in this past election cycle.
Some have pinned much hope on the Prince of Change, shortly due to be installed in Washingtoon, DC, thus putting an end to Bush’s long reign of error.
Some have invested their hope on a revitalized product lineup by GM, even as GM falls apart from the sheer weight of its own compounded & layered stupidity. Why, GM has had to cut back so much that they’ve ceased the construction of the whole new plant that was supposed to build those tiny gasoline engines for the Volt. No doubt the millions needed to keep that project alive were better spent on executive compensation & bonuses last year for Rick Wagoner and whatever other smarmy golf buddies of his there pull down those million-dollar-plus packages. (and why the F is a whole new facility needed to make another component? am sure they could contract out with Honda or Toyota for that part.)
Yes the world is changing fast, and as giants of industry and finance crumple and fall, what companies are emerging as the most influential? That’s a question Businessweek wanted to address when it pulled together a committee of 14 experts.
I’m not going to provide the list of top 25 most influential companies, nor will I summarize the article. You can see for yourself, here:
The Worlds Most Influential Companies
Businessweek declared Walmart the #1 most influential company going forward. Why?
Here’s why. “Wal-Mart is determined now to use its sway for good, especially to better the environment.”
Why is this important? “It’s forcing Chinese manufacturers to clean up their ways.”
Money quote: “Only Wal-Mart is big enough to daunt China’s worst practices.”
Holy cow. Talk about an epiphany. Only Wall Mart is big enough to clean up their own Chinese supply chain. Now THAT is a green revolution for America ladies and gentlemen! Einstein was wrong, the problems we face today CAN be solved by the minds that created them. With strict compliance by others!
But wait. No… no no no. Don’t get me wrong. Don’t be mad at Walmart. Look, they are a big company and they do some things. That’s not what I’m here to talk about.
What I’m talking about is committees of experts. And journalism. Unnamed experts – unassailable. But uhh (to use a Nudge term), its not journalism exactly. If it were, the “journalist” (or at least his posse of experts) would have easily been able to take a peak at some media coverage from earlier this year, on this very topic, in the pages of the WSJ, plain as day, I saw it, Holmes probably saw it.
Speaking at a CEO conference in California this past March,… “the president and CEO [Lee Scott, Jr.] of the retail giant took some attendees aback by flatly declaring: ‘We are not green.’”
“In fact, Mr. Scott said, ‘I haven’t a clue,’ when asked when he expected the company to meet his stated goal of having zero waste and 100% renewable energy over time.”
Hmm. Businessweek’s #1 most infuential company (for green reasons mind you!) sure doesn’t seem too enthused about leading the green team.
So why would Businessweek say, I’ll quote it again… “Wal-Mart is determined now to use its sway for good, especially to better the environment.”
Hell if I know, I’m no Einstein. That’s OK, turns out Einstein wasn’t an Einstein either.
Whatever
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