I will leave it up as a kind of bulletin board for Miscellaneous comments that don’t have an apparent home.
I’ll clear it out every so often and move some comments to a post of their own.
The future to me is utterly unattractive.
-Churchill to his Mother (circa 1896)
-Churchill to his Mother (circa 1896)
Feature Attraction
HIP... simply fabulous.
Recent Comments
| EEofDC on H.R. 3962 | |
| Saint Bif on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| bunnbunn on H.R. 3962 | |
| EEofDC on H.R. 3962 | |
| EEofDC on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| dave on H.R. 3962 | |
| Autonomous Unit on H.R. 3962 |
The problem I see with throwing your shoes at people is you only get two shots.
-Saint Bif
-Saint Bif
It was an idea. I don't know. Who knows where they fucking come from. Isaac Newton invented gravity cause some asshole hit him in the head with an apple.
-Christopher Moltisanti
-Christopher Moltisanti
Archives
Or maybe he's just a fucking idiot. Historically, that's been the case.
-Tony Soprano
-Tony Soprano
AAA and Gasoline
Afghanistan / Iraq
Books
Current Affairs
Economics / Finance
Media
Movies
Reference
Sound
Support
Writing
All religions take care to silence or to execute those who question them (and I choose to regard this recurrent tendency as a sign of their weakness rather than their strength).
-Hitchens
Vote Early And Often
The only item in Putin's geopolitical agenda is high oil prices. That's how his regime survives in Russia. That's why he is always playing a game of keeping the tension high, especially in the Middle East.
- Gary Kasparov
“Mr Churchill, you are drunk”
“And you, madam, are ugly”
“Mr Churchill you are VERY drunk!”
“And you madam, are extremely ugly - but tomorrow I shall be sober”
“And you, madam, are ugly”
“Mr Churchill you are VERY drunk!”
“And you madam, are extremely ugly - but tomorrow I shall be sober”
744 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 16, 2008 at 9:37 pm
MOU
Hi St. Bif,
I am noticing your posts have much more bite than usual, both here and there. Is there more up than what appears on the surface? It ain’t my business, but sometimes someone else just noticing that you are feeling contentious and attitudinal can be validating. It ain’t all about 9/11 or us dumbassed southerners is what I am saying…
Or are we doing Fight Club tonite??? There is a jackass over at JHKs place who wants to fight if that is what you would like?
There is no mockery here. I do feel like you are more pissed than how you normally choose to share yourself with us. You okay?
June 17, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Saint Bif
Hi MOU, thanks! I’m good, no worries, just hard headed sometimes.
You need to keep an eye on Asoka though. Every once in a while, look out. I was at a Zappa concert with him a few years ago, up on Lake Geneva. I told him not to bring in his flare gun. He doesn’t listen to me though. We were drinking some of his homemade Ouzo that night, waiting for the Mothers to come on stage, and he gets up on some chick’s shoulders and starts chanting “McGovern! McGovern!” He’s such a nut. The rest is history. Smoke on the water. Fire in the sky.
June 20, 2008 at 1:46 am
Uncle Yarra
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9042
oh, go on, have a laugh on a Friday afternoon…
June 20, 2008 at 1:53 am
Dr.Doom
JR, if I ever even implied you were disorganized with this blog, well, please forgive my hasty jump to conclusions about you.
June 20, 2008 at 5:56 am
Uncle Yarra
JR,
You gonna watch the movie about chopper?
If so, check the cinematic effects when they take speed – quite realistic.
Unfortunately when he flops his cock out to his ex-girlfriend and the detective they had to use a dildo or strap-on or something ‘coz even though it was rated ‘R’ they couldn’t show a real penis – go figure. Anyway, that scene totally loses its meaning.
For the others reading this, you just have to watch it.
June 20, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Uncle Remus
“oh, go on, have a laugh on a Friday afternoon…”
Bartender, I’ll have whatever they are having.
June 20, 2008 at 7:01 pm
JR
Doom, this blog is totally disorganized. That’s one of the reasons I need to try to pull my life together. At the current rate, in 2 months this blog will have a higher Alexa rating than ASPO-USA. I need to get my shit together. The only thing I have going for me is friends who are critical. Keep it up. (in case that seemed cryptic, it was a compliment).
Fuck you guys. You expect me to read email? WTF?
June 20, 2008 at 7:30 pm
MOU
Johnny,
Okay, you want critical, here it is…so the fuck what if the blog was “totally disorganized.” The real problem is that somewhere you have stopped having fun. It is yours. Fuck being a people pleaser. I respect your head, dude, you have great insight, but if you force your mental process into the shape of someone else’s expectations (read that “your perception of someone else’s expectations”) you will block your own natural creativity. It becomes a performance. Fuck that. Your brain works the way it works. When you try to please others you interfere with “having fun” and you will feel pressure and then you will get writer’s block. Fuck organization. Just be you. If your numbers are going up somewhere then what you are doing is kinda working, isn’t it? Don’t need to look good. What would Tucker Max say about this?
“Johnny, you’re being a pussy. Snap the fuck out of it, bitch.”
How is that for critical?
June 20, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Uncle Remus
“this blog is totally disorganized.[...] At the current rate, in 2 months this blog will have a higher Alexa rating than ASPO-USA.”
D00d, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I second MOU @ 1930 hrs.
June 20, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Holmes, I presume
JR, I’m glad you enjoyed “City of Ghosts” (2002). I still remember the peculiar mood that this movie evoked.
[This is from an interview with the producer, Michael Cerenzie. I know… this is fucked up for me to be posting this… but it seems important. Bunn Bunn put me up to this.]
http://www.insidefilm.com/michaelcerenzie.html
“Pulling off the deal for City of Ghosts, which also starred James Caan and Gerard Depardieu, got Cerenzie voted one of Variety’s 50 Creatives To Watch. “The funny thing was I hadn’t even started shooting my first picture yet. I thought that it was joke. I thought they were calling me because my subscription was overdue.”
***
When the reporter from Variety met with Cerenzie for the interview he forgot to bring his business cards with him. “So now I think this is a joke. When he asked how I got into the business, I said, ‘Well, I started selling crack, then I moved over to heroin.’ He said, ‘Michael, this is a real interview.’ I actually called Variety and was told he was their special editions person. So finally I realized it was real.”
But Cerenzie felt it was totally undeserved. “It made me look at Hollywood in a different way. I thought, ‘Something’s wrong here. I know fifty men and women who have more talent than me that deserve this award.’ I’ve never really told that to anybody, but that was what was in the back of my mind. I said, ‘You know what? What I’m going to do is instead of saying I don’t feel I deserve this, I’m going to actually earn it.’ Sam Mendes had this. Spike Lee had this. So I thought I’d better raise the bar in the kind of film I was going to make.””
June 20, 2008 at 9:15 pm
FARfetched
Agree with the others. If you want to see disorganized, have a look at TFM (the blog or the IRL version). Now *that* is disorganized.
Do what you do because you want to do it. The minute you stop, you stop being true to yourself. Hey, if you need some time to regroup, take a break. Just say hello on Monday mornings to let us know you’re OK.
June 26, 2008 at 2:41 am
MOU
You, JR, can be a real shit. What I like about you is that you are smart and have the courage to tell your truth. It is deadly beautiful. I drink it up. Here, there, what ever, all of it is just a head trip, keep it up. None of it matters. All of it matters desperately.
Love is everywhere
Inside a wine bottle
In a Carlin routine
In a B-47
I even fell in love with Jimmy Carter tonight thanks to someone posting as Jim e on JHK’s blog.
Everywhere!
Dave basks in the spotlight of EEofDC’s attention.
Sweetness abounds!
Everywhere!
Love is the plan, the plan is death. As Carlin said, a Zero sum game. Attach, detach, whatever it takes. Take it all too hard or not.
Love is everywhere.
Hope you can hear me. I am just another node of consciousness speaking to you. Nothing special. And still… love is everywhere.
Not a romance novel
Not a chick flick
Not a hallmark card
In a romance novel
In a chick flick
In a hallmark card
Everywhere.
Slow down, you move too fast, ya got to make the feelings last…
Paul Simon
Experience is all we have.
Thanks again for the blog.
June 26, 2008 at 3:10 am
JR
Beautiful Post, Moveonup.
You tell me things about myself that I haven’t even considered. But from first look, well, I guess they are pretty accurate.
I just wish your first sentence had said something about Dave, You, and I being Gods. But I understand your need to tell the absolute truth.
“Can be” are the two key words in that one. :-)
Love you. JR
June 26, 2008 at 3:17 am
JR
watch out for “Jim e.” There’s a lot of people who are making a “comeback” now that they know I’m gone.
I’m not giving myself any credit, I’m jus sayin. You don’t know these people. But there’s not many posts (this week so far), and a high percentage is names that have been here (there) before.
Like PeakLife.
Trust in the Force. Trust people like Doom and Nudge and Holmes and Bif and Dave. Or Even you, Jesus, you’ve been around a while.
And (I hate to say it, and Nudge will Kill me, but one of the oldest members and most knowledgable is OEO).
And Asoka.
June 26, 2008 at 3:30 am
JR
Holmes, you realize that the end result is this movie making an extra 20 million in DVD rentals that it could never have received without your recommendation.
It was at my sisters house for two weeks while she was on vaca. When I finally got it (with Chopper) and watched them I told her they were great. I asked If I should send them back. She said, no, I want to watch them too. So the next day, I sent them back first thing.
Fuck that. I want the next shit on our queue. She ain’t never gonna remember. ( Trust me, between me and Sister #2, everything is cool). Plus she’ll catch it on cable sooner or later. Or I’ll rent it again. It’s that good.
It is. It is that good a movie. I will never forget that monkey. Or Depardieu. And I always wonder who’s leg that was in the bag.
And Chopper. Jesus. There’s another good one. Totally real and disturbing. I’m still having nightmares.
It’s always the same. I wake up in a bar talking to cops who are my friends. I’m high on speed and my huge cock is just hanging out of my fly. Then someone stabs me in the neck with a rusty screwdriver.
June 26, 2008 at 4:36 am
Dr.Doom
That’s how Jim Morrison wanted to die. He was close.
July 2, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Uncle Yarra
King George.
http://inlinethumb17.webshots.com/41232/2882480630101688296S600×600Q85.jpg
July 6, 2008 at 6:08 pm
EEofDC
Hey, Doom-
What’s the inside scoop on this? Are the pro-train folks just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Mayor and governor trade barbs over rail
Transit: Mayor takes on critics
STORY SUMMARY »
Mayor Mufi Hannemann implied yesterday that he is viewed unfairly whenever he assails critics, such as anti-rail leaders, because of his racial background as a Samoan leader.
Hannemann also called Gov. Linda Lingle “wishy-washy” yesterday, arguing that her support of an anti-rail movement contradicts her previous stance on the issue.
Lingle said this week that she likely will sign a petition to let voters decide whether to stop the city’s $4 billion rail transit system.
Lingle also criticized Hannemann yesterday for personally attacking rail opponents, saying that if he has a good argument for the project, he should calmly lay it out.
Full story:
http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/04/news/story04.html
July 7, 2008 at 5:42 am
Uncle Yarra
Watched a movie on telly the other night…
“You kill bugs good, Rico”
July 10, 2008 at 2:42 am
Dr.Doom
EE, sorry to take so long to respond, I just read your comment here. Mayor Muf is pushing rail hard, it’s the one topic he’s truly emotionally involved with. Our repub gov keeps trying to act like Bushco Light, Bushco with a brain. I’m biased for the rail, but would probably short its chances of ever getting completed. It may become like one of those large moi (tikis) that never got out of the quarry on Easter Island. We’ll see.
I’m going long on electric bikes and food.
July 10, 2008 at 6:22 am
MaryW
JR
I see that your Run Like Hell video disappeared and just when I was about to leave a comment.
Just wanted to say thanks and that is my favourite Pink Floyd song ever.
It’s the song I crank up so I’m full of piss and vinegar whenever I have to get myself in a kick-ass frame of mind.
Cheers
July 14, 2008 at 6:14 am
Driving Miss Daisy
I have no way of saying this politely, but the “butt cheek” kissing here is a little overwhelming. And some people really appear to be content with their own talents and intellects. It makes for interesting if not tired/predictable reading. You should try to keep the bigger picture in mind more often if you want to make this site important reading [and if it's just your own personal playground then treat it so].
But I am not here to slander what is being discussed – there is worthwhile discussion. Just think of it as constructive feedback.
With that I humbly say carry on (my wayward son).
Thanks,
DMD
July 14, 2008 at 10:10 am
Dr. Doom
“I have no way of saying this politely, but the “butt cheek” kissing here is a little overwhelming.” Note to regulars: please tone down butt kissing.
“And some people really appear to be content with their own talents and intellects.” Well, what do you propose? That we should hate ourselves for not being moron talented or smart? I don’t know how to remedy this one. I guess what you are trying to say is some of us are smug. Maybe, but then again, maybe it’s you, dear. [OK, some humility, please, everyone!]
” It makes for interesting if not tired/predictable reading.”
Thanks. Yes, after awhile, one can get a handle on other’s POV. We monkeys are smart that way.
July 14, 2008 at 7:20 pm
DMD
Smug is a good word, thanks.
Yes, love yourself for your less than moron talents, but never be content with your intellect – that’s what I tell all of my proteges anyway.
And ‘humility never hurt a monkey’.
July 14, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Dr.Doom
Wow, DMD, it occurred to me that if we just electrify all our transit, use biofuels for critical transport and food production, practice conservation, promote various solar, nuclear and gravity (e.g., tidal) power schemes, and close all nutrient pathways into recyclable loops, whilst limiting our population growth and greenhouse gas emissions, and avoiding all future, wasteful warfare, we just might have a chance of making it through this apparent bottleneck with oil and gas depletion, nutrient and soil loss, habitat destruction, and rapid climate change.
Then again, people are kinda slow to make changes.
July 14, 2008 at 8:45 pm
MOU
Dr. Doom, Nudge, Saint Biff,
If we could expend less fossil fuel per kill, perhaps the die off from the war would be an energy net gain? Cleaner, greener, warfare. We will need to get with Nudge on that. Or Gunslinger and his virtual warbots.
Habitat destruction to destroy the habitat destroyers. Will it scale?
July 14, 2008 at 8:46 pm
MOU
Was that smug?
July 14, 2008 at 8:48 pm
JR
Isn’t it spelled cornpone?
July 14, 2008 at 8:49 pm
MOU
I sortta saw it as irony and hopelessness, obfuscated by humor. I’m that kind of Monkey.
July 14, 2008 at 8:59 pm
MOU
KoRnpone
July 14, 2008 at 9:56 pm
DMD
“Wow, DMD, it occurred to me that if we just electrify all our transit, use biofuels for critical transport and food production, practice conservation, promote various solar, nuclear and gravity (e.g., tidal) power schemes, and close all nutrient pathways into recyclable loops, whilst limiting our population growth and greenhouse gas emissions, and avoiding all future, wasteful warfare, we just might have a chance of making it through this apparent bottleneck with oil and gas depletion, nutrient and soil loss, habitat destruction, and rapid climate change.
Then again, people are kinda slow to make changes.”
Changing transportation to electricity won’t solve the pollution riddle nor do I believe there is a “bottleneck” to get through towards the other side simply by using alternatives, but at least your epiphany is hopeful.
Korn: always choice music here in the cluster fuck nation.
July 14, 2008 at 10:07 pm
DMD
I understand though. If I was called out for being an ass-kisser I would probably feel a little defensive about it as well.
And I think smug is still inaccurate.
July 14, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Dr.Doom
DMD, if you are really JHK, then I promise to be less of an ass kisser, cut way back on the smug, and will try mightily to be less predictable in my commentary. It would be my way of showing you a modicum of the respect you, sir, deserve.
OTOH, if you’re another CFN regular in disguise, I’ll probably just slip back into my old bad habits soon enough, anyway.
July 14, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Dr.Doom
Maybe DMD is really “dave” hiding being some capitalization? I’m stumped.
July 14, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Dr.Doom
behind. Damn typos.
July 15, 2008 at 12:36 am
JR
Doom, I don’t know why I’m throwing this in here. Probably because it is the Open Thread and it seems to have become semi-popular. For soom reason while watching this I thought of you and all the Cold War stuff.
My cable provider decided to change around their numbering scheme and in the switch they usually either throw you some new channels or at least give them to you for a month to try to get you hooked before yanking them.
I noticed this morning that along with Fox Business, I now have The Pentagon Channel. I haven’t really seen their full lineup, but the curious thing was that they seemed to play a half hour piece called “Battlefield” every 4 hours. One just happened to be starting just as I was leaving for work, It was on Khe San. So I taped it..
It was made it looks like very near the time of the actual event. I figured it would be a cheezy coverage, but it is actually excellent. I forgot how good war coverage used to be. The footage is phenomenal.
Anyway, they were showing newspaper headlines which covered the battle at the time. As you know it went on for months and was followed closely by the country and Johnson personally. Kind of like a Guadalcanal.
This one headline stated ‘Wheeler (The head whatever at the time) Doesn’t Think Atom Weapons necessary at Khe San”
All I could think was, Jesus, this was like 15 years after MacArthur being fired in Korea. This was actually still a question.
Maybe we have progressed as a species.
July 15, 2008 at 1:54 am
Driving Miss Daisy
“DMD, if you are really JHK, then I promise to be less of an ass kisser, cut way back on the smug, and will try mightily to be less predictable in my commentary. It would be my way of showing you a modicum of the respect you, sir, deserve.
OTOH, if you’re another CFN regular in disguise, I’ll probably just slip back into my old bad habits soon enough, anyway.”
Either way, it doesn’t really matter does it? Kind of like how this site doesn’t matter. Then again I’m not just some crazy nihilist that raves about relativism and how words and actions don’t have real meaning because I was raised in the Cluster Fuck. They do, and I was. But that is immaterial.
God is genius. I am God. Lick my shoes. Woe to he who disagrees with my wrath. And so on.
July 15, 2008 at 2:32 am
Dr.Doom
Therefore you are wombatmissle back from the dead or his evil clone. Please don’t mess with our minds, wombo.
July 15, 2008 at 2:41 am
Driving Miss Daisy
And who are you, the threaded suit that came to life? I was just reading through the archives and there is a lot of personality speculation and drama to your little club. Please don’t associate me with those people – I would die if I knew that happened.
Thanks
July 15, 2008 at 2:43 am
JR
Doom’s suggestion that DMD is JHK should rate as a compliment. He/she knows who we are and is familiar with CFN.
Great, that’s what we want, right? Less bullshit and breaking of the ice.
Why not extend a warm welcome?
July 15, 2008 at 4:58 am
Uncle Yarra
What floats on water?
Daisy Duck!
Who are you sir, that knows so much of science!?
July 15, 2008 at 9:51 am
Driving Miss Daisy
No I don’t know who you are, nor do I get off on “messing with your minds” because I don’t generally stoop to hiding behind cowardly facades or presuming my attacks would be that deft or funny. I really am a Hollywood movie, filmed in 1989 — or I could be JHK, or OEO for the matter.
I’m not a science genius nor do I pretend to be. I can only barely spell my own name. When I need help editing my grammar I’ll be sure to contact the site administrator. I hear the customer support here is stupendous. This is on word from the online energy community.
July 15, 2008 at 7:32 pm
DMD
Hi group, looks like the Club is going private. Regardless of that minor detail as to how anyone should be able to read it that way I like this new trend. Soon all of the threads will be this way – or not, and then I’ll go back to reading Rense.com. There world is a mysterious place.
DMD
-I like international food as much as the next person
July 15, 2008 at 7:35 pm
DMD
Sorry, that’s “the”, approximately 64 chars back.
July 15, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Dr.Doom
Yes, WTF with the lock out on the thread, “OMFG, I just peed myself”? Was that intentional, JR?
My advice: keep it wide open here, and go email with personal-confidential stuff.
July 16, 2008 at 4:46 am
Driving Miss Daisy
Good thinking Dr Doom. Everyone else be sure and send me your email addresses. I want to be kept in the loop too. I know soon I will have posting privileges and will do the same for you as well.
Signing out,
DMD
July 16, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Nudge
Good day, gang. Do me a favor please and don’t freak out if I stop with the early AM time slot at CFN .. and thanks for all the emails the last time I disappeared from there. My work hours will be changing to earlier for the next few weeks. But I’ll try to do the gas price stuff by noontime or by evening at the latest.
Yikes, do we have JHK here among us? Too cool. :)
July 16, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Dr. Doom
Nudge, perhaps, time will tell.
DMD, you can get our email addresses by simply clicking on our CFN handles. At least that’s how mine works.
If you really are JHK, I have not doubt that you will soon have posting privileges here.
July 17, 2008 at 2:00 am
Driving Miss Daisy
Thank you, dear kind sir. I am very technically disinclined. Your services are much appreciated though.
I’m currently washing a load of bow ties and will probably return shortly.
July 17, 2008 at 8:55 am
MOU
John Hinkley Kennedy,
How is your load coming along?
July 17, 2008 at 9:22 am
JR
No, I’m just rearranging stuff. Sometimes I get stupid and post too many damn things all at once. So I hide them and bring them back gradually if they have comments. Sorry. I brought back two, I think there are three more I need to resurrect.
July 17, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
“John Hinkley Kennedy,
How is your load coming along?”
Is that supposed to be some kind of cut-down? Just curious.
July 17, 2008 at 3:38 pm
MOU
Thanks for asking. I thought of it as bait. Any one can type the initials JHK. You could be Jimmy Hendrix Kowalski. I am playing with you to see if I can tell.
You left a message that you are washing a load of bow ties. You could be mocking Kunstler, or yourself because you are Kunstler. So if you are not Kunstler but pretending to be Kunstler, you can interpret it as a cut down, as in “a load of crap.” Spelled out, that would be “How is your load of crap (impersonating Kunstler) coming along?” Trouble is, I could be very, very wrong and you could be JHK. In which case, you can tell us how the load of bow ties are doing! Do you starch them? Or discuss whatever it is you are working on. This is a great group here.
I tried to leave it open ended because I don’t know who is posting. Your response has already eliminated some possibilities. You asked before attacking. Thanks.
An interesting thing if you are JHK. I wonder if folks will act like themselves or act differently if they think he is here? If you are an impersonator, this is still a good thought experiment. If you are him, it is a huge compliment that this alternate site has been created by Johnny. If you are him, you may or may not like it, you may or may not like us, but first and foremost, before you come in and start telling everyone that there is too much ass kissing going on for your taste, or making other pronouncements and judgments, you might start by acknowledging the enormous honor this little den of iniquity represents. JHK, (if that is who you are) a community has formed around you and your ideas. I have benefited tremendously from your work AND interacting with this community. It may look like a bunch of goofing and posturing, but these are social bonds forming between folks. That is how it happens in face to face interaction too. These bonds are what will get us through the Long Emergency, if we get through it. You are free to have contempt for that, but acknowledge the compliment.
To summarize:
If you are a troll impersonating JHK- Fuck you.
If you are JHK- Welcome, big time, but please don’t roll up so heavy, at least at the outset.
I hate those blogs where everyone goes all sycophant and kisses the author’s ass, don’t you?
Peace, whoever you are…
July 17, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
MOU, if thats who you are: you are thinking too much trying to wrap your brain around this little mystery you and others have created, and not me. It is precious though and I am happy for your powerful online bonds you have created.
Sycophant is bad, of course
– almost as bad as those who can’t keep their attitudes in check. Since I am not impersonating anyone and merely posting here as I see fit under my own god-given name, I’ll assume your ‘fuck you’ was a meaningless jab and shake it off into the wind like so much settled dust in a stale room.
Thank you,
DMD
July 17, 2008 at 7:35 pm
MOU
“Since I am not impersonating anyone and merely posting here as I see fit under —–>my own god-given name”
“Driving Miss Daisy”
“Thank you,
DMD”
______________
Thinking too much, been accused of that before.
The “fuck you” was unnecessary. Folks everywhere on the web are free to post whatever names they see fit and should be able to do so without being abused for it. Sorry.
As for the mystery, I think we co-constructed it with you. No animosity is intended by this observation, but you have yet to post a name that I would call a “god-given name.”
Welcome DMD.
July 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Uncle Yarra
DMD, et al,
My CFN tag has a work e-mail address, so might bounce if you send through some attachments (I know no which). Send text first.
July 18, 2008 at 1:34 am
Dr. Doom
“As for the mystery, I think we co-constructed it with you.”
MOU, that’s correct. I started this with a wild speculation. If DMD is JHK and having some fun with us, fine, if it’s someone else playing along, that’s fine too.
July 18, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
MOU, your apology is accepted. As for this co-constructed notion: it’s patently silly, but I like to play along sometimes.
Thank you DD and UY.
July 18, 2008 at 4:53 pm
MOU
DMD,
Why is it silly?
July 18, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
Oh come now, I hate having to explain the obvious to people.
July 18, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Uncle Remus
“having to explain the obvious to people”
growth industry?
July 18, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
“growth industry?”
Now you’re really being silly.
July 18, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Uncle Remus
Well, it is Friday.
But seriously, there are an awful lot of bits flying around the interweb, lots of trees being slaughtered and ink being slung to explain, at least to some, the obvious.
July 18, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Anonymous Blowhard
>Now you’re really being silly.
I’ll see your silly and raise you a ludicrous… oh, wait. Crap. I lost the link. Spot me ’til Monday?
July 18, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Uncle Remus
“Crap. I lost the link”
Gawd I hate that….
July 18, 2008 at 7:28 pm
MOU
DMD,
You can’t explain. For some reason you don’t want to own your part in it. Something is co-constructed if we both participated in it. You set the ball in motion by posting as DMD. You have furthered it by posting JHK. We react. Co-constructed.
Maybe we are in a David Lynch film. As DMD morphs into MOU, MOU may press the submit comment button and become JR or Uncle Remus. Lets have a go at it. Press…
July 18, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
I can’t explain? Please. I did sign my name as DMD; at least you have that part right. You attributed my writing to be that of JHK’s, I later played along. It was silly of you and/or others, period. You most likely are just being difficult. If that is the case – “fuck you”. If not, then I apologize and will, in the future, be more careful not to contribute to the confusion which you find yourself facing in this pleasant little blog-o-sphere you call home.
July 18, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Uncle Remus
who r u
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l_FZVD5lsAw
July 18, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
“But seriously, there are an awful lot of bits flying around the interweb, lots of trees being slaughtered and ink being slung to explain, at least to some, the obvious.”
And sometimes you can’t explain even the obvious to people. They’re too busy stroking their false egos or sucking on a delusion here or there in the Clusterfuck and never owning it for themselves.
July 18, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
“who r u
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l_FZVD5lsAw”
Ah, there we go with more links. Perfect.
July 18, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
If that was a rhetorical question, I would reply for everyone as someone with too many stretch marks on my ass from keeping my head down in it.
July 18, 2008 at 10:02 pm
JR
Driving Miss Daisy,
Is there something I can help you with?
July 18, 2008 at 10:08 pm
MOU
DMD,
What do we need to own. Say it.
July 18, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Dr.Doom
My name is Gary Michael McMurtry, I am a professor of geological oceanography at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus, a tax-paying US citizen, and fellow human inhabitant of Planet Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy. Married, two kids, with a mortgage.
July 18, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Uncle Remus
Oh hey, it’s “To Tell The Truth”!
My name is Gary Michael McMurtry, I am a professor of geological oceanography at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus, a tax-paying US citizen, and fellow human inhabitant of Planet Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy. Married, two kids, with a mortgage.
July 19, 2008 at 12:36 am
Dr.Doom
UR, actually, most of this information is available on Google or by clicking on my CFN handle. Th email address is quite public, but we have mighty firewalls erected.
Now, will the real DMD please stand up!
July 19, 2008 at 12:49 am
Uncle Remus
Yeah, I know. Just having some fun.
July 19, 2008 at 12:50 am
Anonymous Blowhard
>My name is…
You look a lot different without the iron mask & green cape/hood.
July 19, 2008 at 12:55 am
MOU
A.B.
Don’t be fooled. He was hooded for his doctorate.
July 19, 2008 at 2:14 am
Driving Miss Daisy
“Driving Miss Daisy,
Is there something I can help you with?”
JR, if you are open to questions and positive feedback regarding your site, there is one thing that comes to mind right now while I am looking at it. The quotes you have placed on the left side of the page seem rather random and meaningless. You might consider removing them because they add no impact to the site, but rather tend to detract from it. The only other thing I can think of is an automatic spell-checker, but that is probably asking for way too much.
Regards,
DMD
July 19, 2008 at 2:22 am
Driving Miss Daisy
“I leave the “gamez” and “pwn3″-ning people to other, more mature and intelligent individuals who are capable and well versed of that past-time.”
Pardon me for saying, but it must be more than coincidence that a link to a site called the “fail blog” is connected to this one. I admit it did have me wondering.
July 19, 2008 at 5:22 am
Driving Miss Daisy
Good, you should delete more posts. Why not have a deleting frenzy? ;-)
This thread has devolved, admittedly. And I guess I should take part blame just for being around. If CFN is not the love blog, and ZK is not the love blog, then?
July 19, 2008 at 9:21 am
JR
“you should delete more posts”
I will eventually. It was my intention from the start on this particular thread. The comments I deleted were you spoofing the names of two other members here. It didn’t seem appropriate given the nature of the conversation. I hope you understand.
July 19, 2008 at 3:12 pm
EEofDC
JR-
Check out this blog (it’s how I linked to JHK’s website a few years ago) created by a buddy of mine:
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/
He has got a pretty good system on blogspot. He blogs for a certain period of time and then retires the post to the archives where he has everything indexed and linked by topics. He doesn’t close down the comments section, so you can go back to the beginning of his blog and always add commentary.
July 19, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Driving Miss Daisy
Now you’re being unfair, as usual. “Dr Doom”, I presume, posted a message using my name, so I did it back and now you post a whole thread chastising me about it. Tell me that isn’t the height of ridiculousness and hypocrisy, as I’ve seen it done several other times as well. But I guess in your little “fight club” rules only apply to others. Have fun kicking it with your fellow homies.
July 19, 2008 at 3:57 pm
JR
“so I did it back ”
Yes, and you did it before with someone else and previous to that nobody had ever done it here, so don’t pull this whiney, 6-year-old “he did it first” bullshit.
What hypocrisy? What do you want? Why do you come here?
Yes, the height of ridiculousness. It’s amazing anybody would want to read or post anything here. I’m completely fucking amazed by this everytime I log on. Seriously.
And again – Is there something I can help you with?
July 19, 2008 at 4:40 pm
MOU
DMD, Johnny,
Dr.Doom did not do it, I did. Things were getting really weird. I was making a point about trust. Sure backfired.
Johnny, if you need to be pissed at someone, it is me. If you need to ban someone…
Meanwhile, DMD, you missed my point and jumped to conclusions pretty quick. Glad I did not see what you posted as Doom.
July 19, 2008 at 4:46 pm
MOU
Meanwhile, lets not get too distracted. Inquiring minds want to know…like Johnny asked…
What do you want?
And I’d like to hear from you about what we won’t own for ourselves.
It seems that conversation could end up going somewhere productive.
July 19, 2008 at 7:54 pm
DMD
It does basically boil down to six-year-old bullshit, sad to say, and I won’t engage it further. I don’t really ask for a lot, except maybe please don’t come stalking me telling me you want to bash my brains in – that isn’t too much to ask for is it?
Thanks, have a good day, life, etc.
July 19, 2008 at 9:23 pm
FARfetched
Dude. Can’t you answer the friendly questions that JR and MOU posed? JR has asked you if there’s something he can help with with. MOU asked what you want. You’ve chosen to not respond to either of those, which pings my troll detector. But it’s an overly sensitive device, and I often won’t pay attention until the pings become a near-constant tone. But anyway.
If you’re looking to stir the $#!+, this can be a combative bunch who won’t back down from a scrap. But that’s the CFN side of things. At CFN, we (between bouts of in-chatter) try to educate other folks about the need to reduce one’s dependence on non-sustainable energy sources. This site is, as I understand it (correction if necessary JR, please), is where we educate *ourselves*. A little in-fighting is part of the deal — like I said, this is a scrappy bunch — but not the primary point.
July 19, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Dr. Doom
FYI, I post under three names:
Dr.Doom on CFN, ZK;
D3PO on TOD (also a name used by others in reference to me on CFN, ZK sites;
Gary McMurtry (my given and family names) on ASPO-USA.
I NEVER post as anyone else. I don’t do sockpuppets, period.
July 20, 2008 at 10:51 am
MOU
Johnny,
I think that DMD is not around. Are you willing to leave my post above, MOU, on July 20th, 2008 at 12:21 am, up one more day and then take it down?
I will be out of pixel world for a while to go sit on a mountain.
Thanks for all you do.
July 21, 2008 at 11:19 am
dave
wow, didn’t know that this stuff was here either.
July 22, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Saint Bif
Jim’s post is up. n00b free, adult swim. Have at it.
July 23, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Uncle Remus
American physicists warned not to debate global warming
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/21/monckton_aps/
July 23, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Dr.Doom
UR, why was the paper published without peer review? The responsible editorial staff should be reprimanded and/or removed.
BTW, nice spell checker, JR. I see you’ve been listening to DMD-JHK. Keep the fav quotes in the sidebar, though.
July 23, 2008 at 4:23 pm
EEofDC
“why was the paper published without peer review? ”
Doom-
Monckton claims that it had been reviewed.
Monckton has asked for an apology. In a letter to the APS President Arthur Bienenstock, he writes:
“If the Council has not scientifically evaluated or formally considered my paper, may I ask with what credible scientific justification, and on whose authority, the offending text asserts primo, that the paper had not been scientifically reviewed when it had;
July 23, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Dr.Doom
Well, it either was or was not peer reviewed. What does the responsible *editor* say in this matter? Monckton is apparently one of the co-authors. His/her word in this matter is not as compelling as the editor in charge.
July 27, 2008 at 6:59 am
Nudge
Alllrighty, where’s JR? I sent him another rant yesterday morning. I’m troubled by the slow lag time. Perhaps he fell out of the coffin again. Oh well, I have to go into Beantown later today, Maybe I’ll find him there by accident.
July 29, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Uncle Remus
new search engine
http://www.cuil.com/search?q=james%20howard%20kunstler&sl=long
July 29, 2008 at 8:57 pm
JR
I definitely like the format, but I’m a little unhappy with some results I get on certain searches. They seem very repetitive. But they’re new so I’ll give them a chance. I’ll boycott google for the next week.
July 29, 2008 at 9:21 pm
tipping point
JR-are we cool dude? Last we “spoke” I think you were sending a SWAT team to my house and I said I’d cut ya…. All in good fun, I hope.
July 29, 2008 at 9:31 pm
JR
Of course we’re cool. I have no idea what you are talking about. The first rule of alcohol (or drunk-blogging) is that if you don’t remember it, it didn’t happen.
I keep meaning to thank you for the articles you’ve posted here and one of these will get around to incorporating them where they belong – the ones on Bear Stearns in Vanity Fair and Lt G in the WaPo.
July 29, 2008 at 9:50 pm
tipping point
No thanks needed; I just thought that maybe you were weirded out or sumthin’ cause (eeew!) I’m a ‘girl’
July 29, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Holmes, I presume
tipping point,
Don’t feel bad, the new Drunk Blogging Czar formerly known as Johnny Rico called me a “douchebag” the other night. You shrug these things off. Of course, I probably deserved it for a reason which has yet to occur to me (because I’m a dumbass in that and other ways), but that’s beside the point.
Blogger skin becomes tough as rhinoceros hide, or Teflon-like, over time.
Then there’s always the strategy of counter-inoculating via plenty of drinking on your end, which studies indicate at least doubly increases the chances of no participant in the exchange remembering a thing.
Fuck yeah!!!
July 29, 2008 at 9:57 pm
JR
That’s not true. That never happened. I can prove I was with Senator Ted Stevens at the time of these alleged atrocities.
July 29, 2008 at 10:02 pm
tipping point
Holmes, if you’re a dumbass, you’re my favorite dumbass ever! If the He doesn’t call you a douchebag or threaten to kill you at least once, then you’re pretty much irrelevant.
July 29, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Holmes, I presume
Thanks goodness, now I can drive with a clear conscious.
I’m still laughing over EE’s video clip… I had no idea those Microsoft company retreats had such awesomely choreographed dance numbers!?!
July 29, 2008 at 10:40 pm
EEofDC
You know I aim to please, Holmes! It was my first (and only) Bollywood movie–”Bride and Prejudice.” No kissing allowed, which is kind of refreshing.
So how are you???? I was online when the temblor struck your area. Didn’t Bunn give you any signals?
July 30, 2008 at 12:35 am
Holmes, I presume
EE, some books managed to jump off the shelves but otherwise nothing worth mentioning from the 5.4 today. As the cliche goes, this level of seismic activity is just about perfect for stirring cream into your coffee.
No kissing… how about cobras biting infants on the forehead? Isn’t that a required part of Act II in every Bollywood movie?
July 30, 2008 at 12:47 pm
JR
Drunk tries to fill his car with jet fuel
August 22, 2008 at 9:37 am
Saint Bif
Doom, did you catch the press conference for the release of WTC7 investigation report yesterday? You can watch the whole thing on c-span.org. The Q&A gets hot when reporters push on demolition hypothesis.
They attribute collapse to thermal expansion brought on by the heat of burning building furnishings. They lay out a chain of events culminating with column failure in the building core. You aren’t going to buy this explanation.
The document is out for public review on NIST website. The public comment window is very short, and ends in Sept sometime.
August 22, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Dr. Doom
Thanks SB, I’ll check it out. Sounds like a cover-up, which many of us suspected would occur. Wonder how they explain the apparent squib charge pattern caught on video?
August 22, 2008 at 1:57 pm
theroachman
explain the apparent squib charge pattern caught on video
Dust bunnies, do to low quality illegal imagrants being bad janitors.
Saddly some people might think what i just wrote as not a joke.
August 22, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Dr. Doom
Comparison and Conclusion
If we compare these two explanations for the collapse of the towers it is immediately apparent that they are different in a particularly significant way: the fire based official explanation is a series of events, [21] like links in a chain, while the explosive based explanation is a parallel set of scientific studies of evidence. When challenged they behave in very different ways:
If an explanation is in the form of a chain it is only necessary to prove one link wrong to destroy the case. In contrast, with a parallel set of explanations it is only necessary to prove one explanation correct to establish the case. What do we find? It has already been pointed out that links 2 to 6 of the official explanation are incorrect and link 1, about the fireproofing, has been strongly disputed.[22]
In the case of the alternative explanation we have a list of 10 studies which show that certain observations can only be explained if explosives were involved. Just one of these is enough to make the case. There are now hundreds of scientists, including architects, engineers, demolition experts, physicists and other specialists, who are arguing that the case for explosive demolition has been more than adequately made and who are calling for a truly independent investigation.[23]
Given the devastation in the Middle East [24] which flowed from this tragedy, should we not all be calling for a new investigation? If we do not, does the evidence not suggest that we will be at risk of being called complicit in the development of a ruthless regime by future generations?
From: http://www.journalof911studies.com/volume/2008/911andProbabilityTheory17Legge.pdf
Link to video of Jone’s announcement of thermite residue find in WTC dust:
http://www.911blogger.com/node/13090?page=1
August 22, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Saint Bif
Everbody has a carbon toe print. That’s explains why everybody’s gone “green”, yet nothing seems to have changed.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/08/19/ghg-reporting-practices-of-most-industries-overlook-75-of-emissions/
August 22, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Saint Bif
[squinting]… Sorry about my spelling. Can’t find my glasses, can’t see.
August 22, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Dr. Doom
I’m still home sick with this damn flu, so I’ve been reading and sleeping. I found this letter (linked below) to be particularly well written on the subject of the WTC collapse, by Dr. Frank Legge. Here it is: http://www.journalof911studies.com/letters/f/LeggeLastTry4.pdf
JR, if you want to move or remove this 9-11 stuff, it’s OK with me. I’m just exploring this on-line journal at the moment, and attempting to share. My conclusion so far: we’d better try to fix this damn country or we should leave it asap and try to move as far away from it as possible.
August 22, 2008 at 5:55 pm
theroachman
My conclusion so far: we’d better try to fix this damn country or we should leave it asap and try to move as far away from it as possible.
So says the guy way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean :D
Hawaii and Alaska have the best chance of surviving in one piece the fall of the US. Assuming that Hawaii can deal with less oil and Alaska is not wipe off the planet in some stupid war like action.
August 22, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Saint Bif
Doom, sorry abouit your convalescent condition. The flu in August? Suckola.
Did you happen to see the Q&A from the NIST press conference? If so, was it spicy or what?
August 22, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Dr. Doom
Ah, roach, unfortunately, Pearl Harbor and associated military bases are still considered high-value targets, which places me about 20 miles from ground zero.
Yes, the flu sucks, and I think I poisoned myself breathing dried organic compost without a dust mask on. To make matters worse, I proudly made the stuff.
SB, do you have the link to the NIST Q&A?
August 22, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Dr.Doom
SB, I finally found the link to the short presentation by Dr. Sunder on the NIST WTC-7 report and the Q&A. It sounds like a unique series of events, including an issue of thermal expansion of the steel beams not previously recognized, contributed to the collapse of WTC-7. Not sure if that’s going to get them off the hook on the twin towers collapse or an easy explanation of steel spherules and thermite residues in the WTC dust. It will be interesting to hear a reply by Drs. Jones and Legge.
August 22, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Saint Bif
Doom, WTC7 press comference below:
http://cspanjunkie.org/?p=265
Full coverage.
August 27, 2008 at 2:46 am
Mary
I’ve seen another episode of the excellent BBC series ‘What a Waste’ and the program focused on cycling on Bogotá. During Enrique Penalosa’s administration (he’s an urban planner) great strides were made to pedestrianize the city.
Drivers were encouraged to ditch their cars and use public transport, walk and to cycle. The former mayor said that public transport made the city more democratic, socially equitable and was good for low income people and the environment.
Money saved by building cycle ways instead of roads was invested in schools, libraries and parks.
Here’s a link with some more details that were in the program:
http://spencertree.wordpress.com/2006/11/03/bogota-a-healthier-and-happier-city/
Constraints to further public transport development were:
There were too many people and not enough investment – each year Bogotá spends $350 million on public transport whereas Madrid a city of similar size spends $1.4 billion; and
Bogotá’s new mayor believes the solution is to build new roads.
Crazy beggar.
August 27, 2008 at 8:44 am
JR
What is the series “What a Waste” about? Has it been on for a while? I can’t remember ever seeing anything about it on local PBS. I’ll have to look it up.
August 27, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Mary
JR
Here’s the link from Google re screening times – don’t know if that helps.
http://www.bbcworldnews.com/Pages/Programme.aspx?id=194
There were some good articles under that link – I liked this one on enegry expended to get food
“Surely at some point, let’s say between $50 and $500 per barrel of oil, it no longer makes any sense to simultaneously export and import food high in embodied energy.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7553958.stm
September 3, 2008 at 12:42 am
Dr.Doom
JR, here is a comment recently made by this guy “Gary McMurtry” on this post: http://www.scitizen.com/stories/Future-Energies/2008/08/Oil-Prices-and-the-Mayflower-Problem/
Is this GM guy full of it or what? No response so far from the article’s author.
“Nice article. I wonder about the meaning of the “actual production” versus the “Hubbert trend” in the Reynolds piece that is illustrated here. They are both production over time curves. The Hubbert trend would assume the extraction technology at the date of estimation, and the “actual production” would in theory estimate with advanced extraction technology unknown to Hubbert or earlier researchers. However, the “actual production” over time in the plot is less than that estimated by Hubbert until it is near the peak. That would only be so if the producers gradually slowed production on purpose, which is unlikely based upon past experience, in general (there are some exceptions, in Saudi and OPEC, for example).
What is shown is the same overall reserve, just shifted forward in time. If there is indeed advanced production that extracts more oil or gas than would have otherwise been attainable, then the area under the curve grows, and the peak is shifted forward in time if the rate of extraction is held constant. If the rate of extraction increases, but not the efficiency of extraction, then the production curves are backwards, and the Hubbert trend becomes the actual trend.
Price is a trivial dependent variable of the resource (geology) and extraction (technology). It is just a manifestation of demand.”
Comment by Gary McMurtry – 3 Sep, 2008 03:56 am
September 3, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Mary
JR
Did you receive those links re Mae West? I can forward them again if you want – if not bothered let me know.
September 21, 2008 at 10:35 am
Mary
JR
I’m around but had a house and financial CF this week. I was doing some spring cleaning and discovered a faulty window sill had meant moisture had run down a wall onto my bed and carpet and ruined them through mould.
For about ten minutes I thought about banging my head on the concrete but came to and decided to go to plan B instead. Saw your When the Levee Breaks vid and that brought me up short – the people featured would kill for my small problem. Serendipitous or what?
The vitriol from Screaming Mute took me aback but I agree with MOU that maybe there’s more than meets the eye. If she needs kudos for being a female Rambo then so be it, but it’s the old chestnut that no man is an island. It’s great if she’s such a generalist and has a bit of nous but we need our specialists too – I want my doctor to be qualified not just some person who fancies the idea. Fuck it, if a male with more heft wants to help me change a tire then great, I can always shout him a drink. One-upmanship quickly palls – people need to get it together and help each other out.
Read an excellent article in the paper entitled ‘Gluttons table set by central banks’ which stated that (paraphrased):
The world’s central banks have tried to save the world whenever the going got tough for the past 20 years. An orgy of debt no matter what the risk has got many in the shit, both banks and individuals, but not to worry, the central banks would step in and absolve lenders of any responsibility.
Central banks, and the Fed in particular, have become so addicted to growth each year that they have sacrificed a tenet of sound central banking. It seems they no longer care whether lending is within prudential bounds and believe that you can have continual economic growth and low inflation.
The two final paragraphs read:
It had to happen – with so much debt being created, house prices setting records compared with incomes, a correction was going to occur. But the key question is whether this is the last big correction? The extent of their bailouts has got even more pathetic this time as the central banks try at all costs to avoid a recession – which they’ve failed to at last.
So when the dust settles, are we set to embark on an even more spectacular asset price bubble and an even larger cheque for taxpayers to fund when the inevitable bailouts occur again?
September 22, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Uncle Yarra
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4188
Check it, new system up & running!
October 22, 2008 at 7:07 am
Uncle Yarra
Shed looks heaps different now.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4188
October 22, 2008 at 11:04 am
Holmes, I presume
UY, I’m bookmarking your forum. It looks like you’re working on some serious and interesting aquaponics projects. Are you going to write a book or article about what you are doing/learning? Jusayin
(Having been ousted from my backstage perch, I roam aimlessly amongst the cabling, empty bottles of hooch and knickers tossed by audience plants. Yeah, as young et al. say, if I may paraphrase, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna do something, anything.)
October 22, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Uncle Yarra
HIP,
Compared to some of the other systems on the forum, anything over a thread would be egotistical…
October 22, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Dr.Doom
Holmes, are you quoting Neil Young et al.?
Start with a simple aquarium…
October 22, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Holmes, I presume
Angus Young et al.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o
Better luck next time!
As Biden sez, there will be a test at the end of this election.
October 22, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Dr.Doom
Holmes, according to this guy, there may not be an America waiting at the end of this election: http://www.contraryinvestorscafe.com/broadcast.php?media=141
October 23, 2008 at 2:57 am
Holmes, I presume
Doom, I’ve been reading Jim Willie’s Hat Trick Letter for a little over a year now. He’s been pushing Canadian mining stocks and silver for quite awhile, remaining convinced as he is that Masters of the Universe or something of the sort are conspiring to keep their prices down. Notwithstanding, I much prefer his commentary to Mogumbo Guru’s (sp?).
JW correctly called the Lehman collapse many months before it happened. (From what I understand, the guy lives in Costa Rica. Maybe he and dale hang out, watching elephants play in the jungle and such.) It looks like he’s expanding his franchise now with a weekly “Jim Willie’s Perspective”.
I just can’t believe, however, that the Chinese, Arabs, etc. are going to take pennies on the dollar and pursue a dangerous course of action that would bring about a default on U.S. Treasuries, rather than think more long term and instead demand more and more of a controlling interest. I mean all of these assholes calling the shots — especially if you believe in the international cabal of coordinated elites meme — are going to work together to try and prevent wars and preserve status quo, at least so long as there appears to be enough energy to go around. That said, I still think that JW’s assertion that a new form of money (based on a basket of currencies including Euros, Rubles, Yen and something from the middle east) is in the planning stages is more of a logicians fantasy than a likely reality. If creditor nations cut off the tab, they would practically be doing Obama a favor. Carter Doctrine, baby! Change we can believe in is, well… changing into a different kind of change in response to changed circumstances! Isn’t that was change is all about?
Anticipating a further drop tomorrow, think I’ll go set up a limit order for some oil futures option(s). In view of the vortex of outstanding uncertainties, I’d better go super long, as in 2011 or later.
October 23, 2008 at 4:00 am
Holmes, I presume
Isn’t that *what* change is all about?
EE, your propagation delays are most charming.
JR, we’re all too drunk or busy to take on a heavy-duty sounding job like producer. You need to repackage the pitch, something more along the lines of “guest host”.
You are the anti-Kunstler, constantly desiring to quit your own blog, rather than psychotically sustaining regular postings even when there might be better things to do.
Biden: the Anti-Cheney.
dave, will old Joe be able to learn the ropes?
October 23, 2008 at 4:51 am
Dr.Doom
Holmes, there is iron in your words, kimosabe. Yup, the Carter Doctrine, baby! I *just* can’t see the US military leaving the oil and gas rich ME-Central Asia, ignoring our nuclear capability, all our high-tech military hardware and quietly returning home to police unruly Americans. I don’t know how it will all shake out, but being flexible with “the power of change” will be important.
Here’s what I can guess:
sorry scott and dave, CTL ain’t even gonna come close to saving us. We are maxed out on coal right now. I’d be more bullish on ethanol.
A smart strategy would keep those oil lifelines open, and would focus on reigning in Chinese and Indian economic aspirations, with an eye on the compressing US economy, hopefully keeping it from imploding, if possible. “You foreigners got a problem with our currency? Go ahead, make our century!”
Gonna have to beef up the border with Mexico. Maybe play hardball with Hugo. Use the military for that stuff.
Yup, I think the market has a few more multiple hundred point drops waiting, plus a few more rallies. Pump and dump time.
October 23, 2008 at 7:41 am
dave
dave, will old Joe be able to learn the ropes?
not sure what you mean.
my guess is that joe biden(is that who you’re talking about?) has his moves figured out well in advance.
October 23, 2008 at 7:47 am
dave
sorry scott and dave, CTL ain’t even gonna come close to saving us. We are maxed out on coal right now. I’d be more bullish on ethanol.
eh, ethanol has had it’s day in the sun, imo. people will throw $ at something else next. CTL? , don’t know of course. but i think it’s a pretty good bet. the nazis liked it.
saviors? how about redemption for my fucking sins while we’re at it?
October 23, 2008 at 9:04 am
dave
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=2a2d0788c12154cccc2cb6b2a35ca588
i would have to bet that the EPA will say that the proposed rule changes do comply with the clean water act, &ct. 2:1.
October 23, 2008 at 9:09 am
dave
if they turn down bush, they’re sure to do it for obama.
October 23, 2008 at 9:14 am
dave
what will happen eventually is(circa 2020?) the locals, deprived of benefit and profit, will start to blow up coal trains and such. miners are trained in the use of, and have access to various explosives. of course they will really be terroists who hate freedom and such.
October 23, 2008 at 9:23 am
dave
in times of expanding energy availability, the locals would have been integrated into the larger economy. this is no longer possible. depending on the the available energy within the remaining coal deposites, they will either be wiped out, forced into an extended guerrilla type engagement, or large scale coal extraction efforts will be abandoned(circa 2050?).
at some point the locals will resume small scale extraction, and maybe even some “outside” trading, the new globalism is born.
October 23, 2008 at 9:25 am
dave
but then there are big nucular boombooms, so who knows?
pray for plague.
October 23, 2008 at 10:57 am
JR
learn to swim
October 23, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Dr. Doom
financial tsunami
October 23, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Dr. Doom
peak oil hurricane, population explosion, climate catastrophy
October 23, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Dr.Doom
dave, i’m trying to save you and scott some money. read the book Big Coal. the coal mining business is tapped out. it’s really a coal train business, at scale. the railroads are tapped out. CTL won’t scale. what you’ll get are some boutique demo plants, near the mines. moron than that, there’s no capital around for the infrastructure needed, unless it’s nationalized. and why not, everything’s going to be government owned soon, anyway. then maybe, if our foreign investors/owners will allow the expense. but then, they may just take their coal back to china and india, ME, etc.
October 23, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Uncle Yarra
I say use the coal as dust to make the water dirty.
Then catch haretail at the surface.
mmm, prehistoric-looking….
October 23, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Anonymous
I just got my most recent 401K statement. Looks like fodder for stand-up comedy. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so pissed off. It’d be one thing if I’d never offered an opinion over the past 18 months. Quite another that I have offered opinion after opinion over the past 18 months. The investment experts are locked in a self-reassurance consensus trance. Om. Jai guru deva. Om. Nothing’s gonna change my trance. Nothing’s gonna change my trance. It’s funny sorta.
October 23, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Anonymous
John McCain could win this if he could be coherent a sentence at a time.
October 23, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Anonymous
Hold your breath on that one.
October 23, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Dr.Doom
anonymous, is that you?
October 23, 2008 at 8:12 pm
thal
Greenspan, what can I say. Whatever could anyone be thinking when they were thinking in the context of experts: whatever were they thinking when they thought themselves as experts? Reminds me of a RAND study surveying Experts that came back 80% HOPING
October 23, 2008 at 8:13 pm
thal
that would not be exposed as frauds. Stick a microphone in front of a fraud, and all you get is ‘oink’?
October 23, 2008 at 8:17 pm
thal
I need to hear some new music. Who’s offering?
October 23, 2008 at 8:31 pm
tipping point
I’ve got nothing thal, but what do you like or what genre are you looking for?
October 23, 2008 at 8:46 pm
thal
delta blues. the real stuff.
October 23, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Holmes, I presume
Just officially released (hell must have finally frozen over)… crank it up!!!
Guns N Roses — Chinese Democracy
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQ5-8ctG4c
October 23, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Holmes, I presume
thal, you’ll like this better.
October 23, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Dr.Doom
thal, sounds like you need a drink, too. take it easy, my friend.
October 23, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Dr.Doom
did anyone get my joke about anonymous? just curious.
October 23, 2008 at 9:08 pm
tipping point
uh, no Doom, what did you mean by that, exactly?
Just kidding dude… I wonder who our anonymous caller is anyway.
October 23, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Uncle Yarra
4 people.
everybody, nobody, somebody and anyone.
October 23, 2008 at 9:16 pm
tipping point
okay thal- I am pulling out all the stops now. I have a compilation disc and a stevie ray vaughn disc for ya. Now what? Not much of a blues fan myself so I have no idea what’s good and what’s not- does this all need to be done via youtube?
October 23, 2008 at 9:21 pm
JR
@anonymous -
you come in here with that political bullshit one more time and I’ll ban you.
if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s fucking politics.
Go hang out at Huffington Post. We don’t need it here. If you don’t wanna discuss NASCAR, then fuck off.
October 23, 2008 at 9:24 pm
tipping point
JR- what’s with all the piss and vinegar? You love newbies- oh wait, duh. You know who it is, I don’t….
October 23, 2008 at 9:27 pm
JR
I have no idea. Seriously. I just got on the computer. It’s probably Doom.
October 23, 2008 at 9:31 pm
tipping point
Thal- I’ve got Eric Sardinias, Shannon Curfman, Walter Trout, Jake Andrews, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Stevens and Murder Blues- lots of artists to choose from but youtube doesn’t seem to have very good selections as far as I can see. ..
October 23, 2008 at 9:42 pm
JR
Holmes – I’m a huge fan of Guns ‘n’ Roses and was since before they were popular.
I can’t say I’ve really been following them since I saw them and Metallica circa 1992. But I do pay attention to this Chinese Democracy thing and I actually heard this single on the radio today.
I liked it. The first time.
But I have to be honest. It kinda shows that there are limits to what the electric guitar can do.
I’m 39 years old. I said to a co-worker the other day that I thought there was nothing happening in the music world. That everything that has been done has been done.
He agreed with me. He’s 30.
October 23, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Uncle Yarra
Done is not finished.
There will still be a million Les Pauls plugged into a million Marshalls for a while yet.
P.S> where you born in the year of a sexual position?
October 23, 2008 at 9:50 pm
JR
I was born in the year of a sexual position. You are correct.
Thank you for knocking some sense into me.
Done is not finished.
I don’t play any musical instruments, so I should probably just shut the fuck up.
I just listen.
October 23, 2008 at 9:55 pm
tipping point
JR- I’ve been meaning to thank you for giving me back the Greece header- I just love it. One day I’ll see it for myself I hope.
Did you ever end up reading World War Z or having breakfast at Sorella’s? I promise you won’t be disappointed with either one.
October 23, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Uncle Yarra
I always thought you were about my age – didn’t know it was that close.
P.S. no sensehammer intended.
October 23, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Holmes, I presume
From what I understand, Izzy Stradlin wrote most of the GNR songs. The new song kinda reminds me, structurally, of “You Could Be Mine”. I listened three times. Best enjoyed at maximum volume, to be sure. Not bad. Nice and crunchy. Fucking Buckethead (maybe) showing off.
Anyhoo… the music industry is definitely on the ropes. Honestly, I can’t think of any truly ground significant performers who have debuted in the rock n roll genre in the last ten years (probably longer). If I could travel back in time to relive any ten year interval, it would probably be 1964-1974, mostly for the music.
October 23, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Holmes, I presume
*truly significant new artists*
October 23, 2008 at 10:17 pm
JR
“breakfast at Sorella’s” ?
I’ll discuss the Greece Header shortly (it is being removed).
@Yarra – please don’t take offense. But you knew that. Duh.
October 23, 2008 at 10:20 pm
JR
1964-1974
You bring tears to my eyes
October 23, 2008 at 10:36 pm
tipping point
Sorella’s in Jamaica Plains- excellent breakfast joint.
October 24, 2008 at 12:38 am
Dr. Doom
Glad you like my generation’s music. After rock’s heyday, circa 1975, we got Disco, the Bee Gees, John (I’m gonna puke) Revolta dancing up a storm, (Disco sucks, BTW), then we got soft rock (as played by soft headed boys with even softer weenies) and fucking Rap “music”, which might as well be Gramps McCoy signing “Old Mule Rivers” in black face (sorry, if I offend here, I like all colors and cultures, Obama’s getting my vote).
Meanwhile, the great ones are either (a) dead or (b) washed up graying shells of themselves, like Keith Richards, for example, who’ll soon need oxygen on stage. So, I agree that rock’s pretty much over, and it does indeed reflect upon our changing culture, not necessarily changing for the better, in fact hitting brick walls everywhere we collectively turn.
Sorry if this sounds negative in any way.
October 24, 2008 at 10:00 am
Stu Sutcliffe
October 24, 2008 at 10:16 am
dave
dave, i’m trying to save you and scott some money. read the book Big Coal. the coal mining business is tapped out. it’s really a coal train business, at scale. the railroads are tapped out. CTL won’t scale. what you’ll get are some boutique demo plants, near the mines. moron than that, there’s no capital around for the infrastructure needed, unless it’s nationalized. and why not, everything’s going to be government owned soon, anyway. then maybe, if our foreign investors/owners will allow the expense. but then, they may just take their coal back to china and india, ME, etc.
doom,
none of this matters. all that matters is if someone, dosen’t even matter who, starts throwing $ at it. others will follow suit. think beani babies.
besides, i have a lot more of my assets in coal and oil proper, than in CTL. but if it hits, then so do i(think google). if not, that’s way the cookie crumbles.
October 24, 2008 at 10:18 am
dave
Then catch haretail at the surface.
?
October 24, 2008 at 10:32 am
dave
October 24, 2008 at 10:48 am
dave
jammin’. kinda like jerry g and bob w.
October 24, 2008 at 10:54 am
dave
you know i’m apolitik, even antipolitik, but i couldn’t resist this.
October 24, 2008 at 10:58 am
dave
acctually, after watching that, it makes a lot more sense as to why america wants to present something other than a white face to the world.
October 24, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Holmes, I presume
As best as I can tell, proper atonal music, in a perhaps oversimplified characterization, requires placing all of the wrong notes in all the right places, and catching yourself before inadvertently slipping into something funky or melodious. Anyone smart enough to play games with notes and competently adhere to the above or similar considerations can call themselves a composer, I guess. Sure, why not?
Do ya think tone loc uses a tone row matrix? (a purely rhetorical question)
October 24, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I, Pauper
http://exiledonline.com/tips-for-new-paupers/
October 24, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Autonomous Unit
My Looney bun is fine Benny Lava
the best Bollywood on Utube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA1NoOOoaNw
Almost 9 million views.
October 24, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Dr.Doom
AU, that was great. I’m forwarding the link to my Fijian friends!
October 24, 2008 at 11:22 pm
JR
AU That’s the new official ZK video. I saw that like two years ago on TV without the subtitles. I think I found Indian MTV or something by accident.
I was riveted. The Indians have to be the weirdest people in the world. (That’s a compliment). They think the 80s are cool. The matching outfits are just too much.
October 25, 2008 at 2:17 am
Holmes, I presume
Catchy tune.
“You need a Bunn to twirl the knife Benny Hanna.”
October 25, 2008 at 4:51 am
dave
ya pauper, i liked that article. lucky for me, i’ve had a lifetime of practice.
October 25, 2008 at 5:00 am
dave
i think that giving up the middle class is what most of america is frightened of. this is a legitimate fear in mind. no fun to be poor.
from the tenor of the story, i’d say that that guy’s biggest enemy was himself. he had a kind of all or nothing mindset. he needed the JOB and the PERCS and the associated STATUS to be OK. there’s lot’s and lot’s of ways to stay warm dry and fed on a low income low status job, or series thereof.
of course, at some point those are tough to come by also.
October 25, 2008 at 5:11 am
dave
some raga for the morning maniacs. i’ve always said that those hindu cocksuckers have coolest gods.
October 25, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Holmes, I presume
Dolan shoulda just told them he was doing research so they’d promptly kick his ass and take his cash — get it over with already. I can’t think of any even marginally credible sob story that these people would likely have any sympathy for. And why would ya want to tell one anyway. Maybe to stop your ass from getting kicked, or to get an extra serving of soup, or something. Maybe they just want to be entertained. You never know who your audience is. Whatever it takes is what some of us might learn in time.
October 25, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Mary
Pauper
That article was the best thing I’ve read all week.
The meltdown if nothing else will allow people to be real instead of keeping up appearances and all the stress that goes with it.
Recently a work mate couldn’t afford to take her kids away in the school holidays (2 week period) to the usual holiday haunt but couldn’t bring herself to tell them saying they had to catch up with house maintenance. It’s sad when people feel ashamed of the simple truth – there’s going to be many in the same boat so why fight it?
AU
Cool Indian clip – was George Michael moonlighting? The guy certainly had the posturing down pat.
October 25, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Dr.Doom
Ya’s gots ta think ahead…Palin-Hughley 2012!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/24/dl.hughley.elon.rally.cnn
This guy’s very lucky he didn’t get his ass kicked. Didn’t interview any skin heads, that’s why.
October 25, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Dr.Doom
dave, i totally agree on this “poor guy” Dolan. agree with MOU that it was an interesting article. Holmes, i bet he did get his ass kicked a few times.
he had some good advice, especially on cars being expensive. but, what a loser. we’re supposed to believe he lost a college job in an interview because of his appearance and smell, even the pitch of his voice. i bet he made that part up. he admits being in that system before, so he knows how the game is played. how much does deodorant cost? i also bet he made up the reason he lost the job–to the “insider”. BS.
in the end, he musta got his laptop back from the pawn shop, courtesy of his generous brother. lucky asshole. i think about those out there who don’t come back. their journey ends some very cold night in a cement culvert.
October 25, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Holmes, I presume
Doom, good points. I contend, knowing in the back of his mind (as Dolan did) that he ultimately had the safety net of his brother to fall into, he indeed was a tourist. Maybe his pride drove him into it. You might say his life was a complex system, or a microcosm of one. Eventually, once enough interdependencies were tangled up, he finally realized that it was going to take a lot more than a few hundred dollars to bail him and his wife out of this mess… so he further delayed asking for help (still holding onto shame, maybe). Then the creative person in him started to relax and take note of the things going on around him. “Eureka! That’s what this was all along! Research, dammit. I am a social scientist! I work, the genius that I am, in ways that even I don’t fully understand until I’m several months into the project. Okay. Now I’ll get on the horn to big brother and explain what went down.”
October 25, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Dr. Doom
Holmes, that’s about right. History at all levels is written by the winners.
Reminds me of this survival guy episode filmed someplace out in the SW for the Discovery Channel. He had his camcorder and was all alone (supposidly) except for his emergency cell phone. In the end, when it became apparent he wasn’t going to make his goal, i.e., he was going to die out there, he calls in an air strike, packs up and goes home. Made a nice hour program. The kids and I especially enjoyed watching him eat a cooked horny toad he trapped.
October 25, 2008 at 5:29 pm
MOU
Hi Holmes,
I need to email you. You and Doom make good points. As a sociologist, I see him as performing an identity, that all of them telling each other stories are performing identities. There are two fronts the identities must be performed on, with others, and with one’s “self.” Being homeless is a lot of stigma; sucks but it is true. That has to be Negotiated with the outside world to gain access to resources (both material resources and identity/status resources) and it must be Negotiated with oneself. We need stories of self that have continuity otherwise we become pretty fucked up and depressed or worse. The telling of the story becomes huge. We make identity claims on these sites all the time. Some of the biggest fights that erupt are over who has the right make identity claims and who has the right to claim identities for others.
I don’t feel sooo hung up on whether Pauper was the “real deal” or not. In participant observation (how I do my work) you can be anything from a total observer to a participant to going native/becoming the phenomenon. The argument that he was not the real deal is just as valid as the argument that he could have been telling himself he “had outs” and was “not the real deal” as forms of denial/survival. Ultimately, I must challenge that dichotomy as “not real” but a cultural artifact of being in the position. Minute to minute he is “really in the shit” and then “not like these people.” Just like jobless/homeless people do anyway. The idea of questioning if the experience is real for you or not would be a “real” part of the experience for many people on the way down. No us, no them, no real, no not real, only identities we try on for size, minute by minute, to get us through the day.
I believe he looked into the face of the abyss.
I have been homeless myself a great deal as a child, and a few short periods of time as a teenager on my own (once in my early twenties for a couple months), couch surfing, as an exotic dancer. No terror at all, it was just how it was. I could always dance, I always tried to avoid it. Exotic dancing, working construction, being a graduate assistant, and being a professor are the only jobs I was ever able to hold for very long. I got fired from or quit a whole lot of other stuff.
October 25, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Holmes, I presume
MOU, I knew these depth charges from dave, Mary, Doom and me would bring you to the surface!
I agree. A whole lot of self-image stuff seems to be key to Dolan’s narrative. A set of radically changed circumstances, on one hand, can be frightening. It can also be liberating to be free of the shackles of things that continually redirect you to seeing a particular image of yourself, or toward insisting in your own mind that you are inextricably a part of (or associated with) something. Yeah, he looked into the abyss (sort of) and probably gained familiarity with other versions of himself that he might not have known too well before.
FYI, if Dolan is the guy I think he is, he also wrote this book…
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasant-Hell-John-Dolan/dp/0975397044/ref=pd_sim_b_5
October 25, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Holmes, I presume
Does being on Prozac fatally dilute the Shamanic experience (for lack of a better term) of full emersion in an underworld of sorts, getting your body (life) torn apart, etc.? On second thought, maybe he didn’t learn a damn thing.
October 25, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I, Dinar
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/willie102308.html
October 25, 2008 at 7:55 pm
dave
ya, i always tell myself not to get stuck in my own story. that’s another story that i tell myself.
October 25, 2008 at 8:05 pm
dave
i’ll tell ya though, the equity and commodity drop off between say, midaugust and midsept. was kind of sureal to me. it was one of those things that, intellectually, i knew would happen. but when it did, wtf?
this past summer, when oil was at 150, i was absolutely sure that we would see $100, or even $90 oil again. but $60 oil? maybe $50 oil. no, i didn’t see that. i woulda said, no way.
you do get stuck in the stories that you tell yourself.
October 25, 2008 at 8:06 pm
dave
it’s an over reaction. that’s the story i’m telling myself lately.
October 25, 2008 at 8:20 pm
dave
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/78934
October 25, 2008 at 8:53 pm
tipping point
Holmes said: “A whole lot of self-image stuff seems to be key to Dolan’s narrative. A set of radically changed circumstances, on one hand, can be frightening. It can also be liberating to be free of the shackles of things that continually redirect you to seeing a particular image of yourself, or toward insisting in your own mind that you are inextricably a part of (or associated with) something.”
I understand what you’re saying but I think Dolan’s point, and maybe MOU’s ,would be that our self-image is fabricated based on our position in society. When your position in society is stripped, materially and psychologically, what do you have left? I think ‘radically changed circumstances’ may be a good thing for people unhappy in their current lifestyle- perhaps they will reevaluate things. However, freeing yourself of shackles does not usually entail the possibility of freezing to death overnight.
I am not particularly sympathetic to homeless people. I tend to think they made their own bed. That is probably true in most instances, but, despite our individual insistence that “it can’t happen to me” it’s scary that all of us in the middle class may be just a hair’s-breadth away from some catastrophe that would reveal to us to the more intimate and sordid details of homelessness.
October 25, 2008 at 8:59 pm
thal
I liked the article, tried to put myself in that place, stayed away from the Prozac, but understood the value of staying warm, added the value of staying cool in hot weather, and considered being hungry enough to eat a pregnant cockroach. What I’m not hearing here is commentary about the cops. The mentality of these guys often degenerate to kicking those already losing. A power trip. It’s pathological that way.
Consider the case of Paris Hilton. There’s a whole set of citizens that share the conviction that once arrested and confined, she deserved rape, humiliation, and torture no matter the insignificance of her “crime”. “Serves her right” they say.
Wimpy humans can get very violent when they sense they can kick someone without fear of getting kicked back, or they think they can talk someone else into doing it for them, or they have a badge, a taser, lynching rope, a pen and ticket pad, or a gun.
October 25, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Dr.Doom
I, pauper is the same as I, dinar. I, think.
He sure has some scary article links.
I, scared.
October 25, 2008 at 9:23 pm
thal
Stanley Milgram
http://www.cba.uri.edu/Faculty/dellabitta/mr415s98/EthicEtcLinks/Milgram.htm
October 25, 2008 at 9:26 pm
thal
I’m unsure whether we have more or less to fear from the incumbents or the innovators.
October 25, 2008 at 9:30 pm
MOU
TP,
Everyone in the homeless situation is different. When I was homeless with my parents, my mother was mentally retarded and my father was a, well, criminal is a word…he was a thief and a sex offender.
Thank God for the people that felt sorry for me. Or Kali. Or one of those other cool Hindi Gods. You get my point.
When I was a homeless teen, dancing and making money, and hating being pawed by men, and quitting and getting other jobs I was too immature to handle and being homeless and dancing… wonder what you’d think of me then? What of my background? Father had sex with me and my mother. Not going on in my teens, but it was still a logic structuring my inner show.
The short stint in my 20’s was a choice, pragmatics, waiting to get into my graduate program where I had an assistanceship waiting for me. By now, I don’t need sympathy, I am saving my money, those who care for me know it and are helping me out till I can get in to my program. I was to keep me out of dancing. All good. But I am homeless (mind you, as a homeless person, I keep your house immaculate, fix you meals, and try to disturb you as little as possible. I also kicked in money. In those situations, we always parted ways friends, to this day).
TP, I don’t mean to ream you. I honestly think if you met me as a little girl or a homeless teen you would have compassion for my situation. Don’t doubt that for a second. But the story “matters” does it not? And when you see a homeless person you do not always know the story.
I am supposed to be a dead hooker or drug addict. I am an example of the system actually working. There is nothing special about me. I got love from strangers (social workers and others) at the right time. So it is really hard for me to give up on anyone.
I have given up on George Bush. But even here, if he came out to the country, owned his errors, apologized, and started working the rest of his life to try to set it straight, well, I might even have hope for him!
October 25, 2008 at 9:33 pm
tipping point
oh yuck, I feel like I’m on the wrong end of everything tonight. Believe it or not, cops are people too! Ok, that’s lame, I know.
Police officers have quotas, despite the fact that it’s illegal. And, at least around here, you have to submit an activity report. So it makes sense that vagrants, teens and other people that might be breaking the law will be attended to by the police. How else would you ensure that they are doing their job? Most of the “bad” cops I know are only bad cause they’re lazy, sleeping on the job when they should be out on patrol.
Dolan didn’t say he hadn’t broken any laws, just that the law was enforced at inconvenient time in his life. Isn’t that usually the way? Of course there are officers that do terrible things and take advantage of their position of power. But most just want to get through their day and go home to their families; they are really not out to get you!
October 25, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Holmes, I presume
dave, I’d been telling myself for quite awhile that this collapse of the markets could/would/should happen, but I too got caught off guard a few weeks ago… maybe thinking that for some reason things wouldn’t unravel so rapidly, well at least not prior to the election. Guess I really went for the bait on that one. If I couldn’t afford to lose it, then I wouldn’t have invested it. (That’s the story I’m telling myself these days. What a lie.)
tipping, I’m hearing you. When the lower rungs on that hierarchy of needs ladder start snapping under your feet, concerns over abstract shit such as self-image often get the old heave ho.
thal, cops as agents of personal change. Enzymatic sentient forces that descend upon the freshly made vulnerable, to help pummel them into a less lofty version of their former selves. To protect and serve, indeed.
MOU, how can you tell yourself that you’re not special? Please forgive me for saying this, but that is absolutely insane. Seriously. You may never know how much you inspire us.
October 25, 2008 at 9:39 pm
MOU
Thal,
The cop thing sickened me too.
Counterpoint, I have had some really good cop interactions in my lifetime. My dad got busted for stealing gas, I cried, the cops let him go after feeding us, getting us gas, and driving all of us to the Canadian border. A cop used to pick me up hitchhiking when I was a teen and he would drive me to where I was going because he was always worried about me. It was him that looked into my father’s background and showed me a printout of just how bad my dad was. He never tried anything nor seemed like he even wanted to. Most men did.
Mind you, I have had bad cop interactions too. Really scary abusive stuff. I guess like my post to TP, and I know I am telling you what you already know, each story is different, not all people take advantage of the weak. I wouldn’t be here if that was the case.
Dave,
These are the stories I tell myself. And that is a story too.
All,
This is the identity I perform in response to your identity performances, this evening.
October 25, 2008 at 9:47 pm
thal
MOU, you have more regard for potential repentants than I could ever. The desert rose.
October 25, 2008 at 9:48 pm
tipping point
oh MOU- now you’re really gonna hate me after reading my next comment…
I feel that you seized upon my comment that “I am not particularly sympathetic to homeless people” but that was not my main point. I am not unsympathetic to all homeless (and I’m not backtracking here), but you have to admit that the majority of homeless are a result of alcohol and drug addiction. There are, unfortunately, a lot of mentally ill that are homeless but I think that is a result of our idiotic health care system.
In any case, I do not wish to give offense and I can certainly empathize with your difficult childhood/adolescence. Everyone has a story, yours is more horrific than mine but we have more in common than you would think.
October 25, 2008 at 9:53 pm
thal
damn, TP, you ARE making sense. If you’re thinking you’re on the wrong end of anything, well I’d say double down.
October 25, 2008 at 10:05 pm
thal
Yes, MOU, correct. The police, as individuals, are not all one way. I have good stories, as well. It supports my confusion when I attempt to extrapolate general human tendencies to specifics. Reductives to Inductives. Does reason really exist?
Call me a sap, but I think/feel/impugne that there are trustworthies and those that should be not. It’s not a matter of station, power, or whatever, but more basic. I trust that. I’ve loaned, I’ve saved, I’ve gone out on a limb. Most of the trustworthy I’ve ever known have been those without a certifiable credit score. ‘Most’ never equals ‘All.’ That’s all.
October 25, 2008 at 10:50 pm
MOU
TP,
Word.
No way I could hate you. If I focused on one thing too narrowly, I am sorry.
There is a question I have to ask, “Why are they addicts?” I have come to it that all addiction is about numbing out. My husband the shrink calls it “self medication.” I find that profound. An organism is trying with the resources at hand, to fix itself. May not be wise, but for me it transforms it into something that I can no longer be judgmental about.
That means there is something painful one is avoiding/treating. Now that does not mean that I don’t hold them responsible for the consequences of their choices, but they drink, dope, fuck, eat, nintendo, work, etc. to avoid/alleviate something else.
I think these kids addicted to video games are escaping. Too much hypocrisy in reality. At least in video games there is black and white, fair and unfair, justice, good guys and bad guys, something stable…
My son will go to play after we have had an argument. When we are connecting, talking, laughing, debating, it never crosses his mind he wants to play. I can almost gauge how well he is doing by his desire to engage with his DS.
Pain, little or big. The society itself is sick. Addiction is a symptom. Homelessness in those cases are a product of society. There is also the idea that some folks really don’t have access to the same resources as others.
Now, aggressive panhandlers, this is another matter. I have had some bad experiences where I hunted them down and got my revenge. I can be compassionate, but there must be boundaries.
Thal, Poet Friend,
I hear you on the instinct thing. And on the “All” stuff too.
Holmes,
About special… the problem is if one says I am special, then that gives folks permission to write off all the other little MOUs out there because this MOU was special and she was always going to make it anyway because of her special qualities. I really would not have made it. I needed the extra attention I got. So do all children.
So I am not special. I am white. I am female. I am not threatening. I was grateful. I was probably rewarding to work with because I did soak it up and improve. I was starved and desperate, a bit of trouble, but a people pleaser too. Anytime I tell my story, I make it a point to say I am not special. Or else everyone is.
October 25, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Holmes, I presume
Okay, I won’t call you “special”. I hate that word too. “Exceptional”, “atypical” or perhaps “statistically aberrant” might have been a better choice of words in descending order. We can agree to disagree.
But even if I did seek to malign you with a compliment suggestive of perhaps a commendable personal trait may have played a role in the ongoing panorama of your life, that does not in any way imply or suggest that help, attention, etc. should not be given to others (little MOUs). I’m not sure where you got all that from. Peace out. Rock on. Stay cool. Etc.
October 25, 2008 at 11:17 pm
thal
It’s the little mous that are the key. Therein are the conflcted, and relevant, lessons, if one is ready to learn. Bless your heart. Just sayin’. Fast forward.
October 26, 2008 at 12:38 am
EEofDC
“I have been homeless myself a great deal as a child, and a few short periods of time as a teenager on my own (once in my early twenties for a couple months)…”
MOU-
You’ve written about this a number of times over the last year, mostly on CFN, and I thank you for that. This was the first time (at least in my dotage that I remember) you included more details about your parents and their stories.
You are strong, girlfriend. No denying that!
Homelessness is a multi-faceted “issue” and the homeless run the gamut. One of my good buddies runs an org here in DC that deals with the homeless and works to get them connected up to services they need. My sense is that it isn’t homelessness that is so bothersome to “regular” folks but all of the attendant features–the dirt, degradation, mental illness, health hazards, etc.–of that condition which cause people to run in the opposite direction or to become abusive.
We’re all just passing through here, anyhoo (as Dave would say), so why get your knickers in a twist over anything–it just uses up too much energy.
October 26, 2008 at 1:01 am
Dr.Doom
EE, have I told you of my brief stint as a guest scientist on a German research ship? I was friends with the chief scientist, hence the invite.
We were cruising between stations in the North Fiji Basin. One day he spies me relaxing on the upper deck, dressed in my Hawaiian work clothes, Tee shirt, shorts and flip flops (aka Samoan work boots). So Peter says “Gary, you look like a tourist!” Moi (picking up on some disdain in those words) replies: “Peter, we’re all tourists!” He just walked away.
October 26, 2008 at 1:13 am
EEofDC
LOL, Good comeback, Doom! He probably took you literally–in too many ways.
This one’s for you!!
October 26, 2008 at 4:29 am
Dr.Doom
A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.–Thomas Carlyle
October 26, 2008 at 9:09 am
dave
feelings of compassion, like feelings of hate, anger, distane, like everything else in the universe, are contingent. i’d say that it’s very difficult to consiously and reliably and consistantly bring about the right conditions to foster the “desirable”, whatever those might be, feelings.
not that that it’s technically difficult, per se. or that the various underlieing neccesities aren’t known, but that the neccesities themselves are contigent phenomena. (compassion, for example, is easy when everyone is warm dry and well fed. not that it can’t exist under other conditions, but it’s certainly less and less common as conditions, which are always contingent, deteriorate.)
October 26, 2008 at 9:17 am
dave
holmes,
all i can say is something like: stick to the basics(energy, food, strategic metals) and you’ll be ok. ya, like i know.
anyhoo, at some point, i think, the markets will just be too unstable. the only thing worth playing will be some thing like vix(that’s a joke). my own magic number is oil at 180 – 200, particularly if that happens within the next year or 2. those numbers might be completely meaningless any farther out than that, due to inflation and such.
October 26, 2008 at 9:27 am
dave
if you have a run in with a cop after he just had a fight with his wife, or he’s hungry and tired, or has a hangover, ect., just lay face down and put your hands behind your head, no problem.
if you’re under 40, and in reasonably good condition, run away.
October 26, 2008 at 9:32 am
dave
as a general rule, the less that those around around you are able to control thier emotions, the more important it is for you to do so. at least that’s my general rule.
unless you want to, for some reason, get caught up in the moment. then just go with it.
suck to be self aware. you start to think about this stupid shit.
October 26, 2008 at 9:34 am
dave
not that you can actually be self aware, i guess. what’s to be aware of? where or what is the self? blahblahblah. not that it’s not fun to think about sometimes.
October 26, 2008 at 9:36 am
dave
it’s all contingent.
October 26, 2008 at 9:42 am
dave
unintended consequances, i love those.
October 26, 2008 at 10:01 am
EEofDC
“Peter, we’re all tourists!” He just walked away.
LOLOLOL. Doom, you are almost as BAD as Holmes.
This Bud’s for you!
October 26, 2008 at 10:20 am
dave
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/Navy-is-given-new-power.4628685.jp
looks like the brits are being tapped to do the dirty work. the russians will have to wait thier turn i guess.
October 26, 2008 at 11:44 am
Holmes, I presume
dave wrote: “my own magic number is oil at 180 – 200, particularly if that happens within the next year or 2″
I’m still holding my energy related and commodities (oil mostly) bets. Like I was saying to JR, to attempt to unload them at this point would be, well… pretty pointless, especially when most of the futures options I’m holding don’t expire until Dec. 2010 or later anyway. This may or may not be enough time to prove me right. Either way, another story I’m telling myself is that this in now a buying opportunity zone, so most likely I’ll “average in” at these lower prices, at more favorable strike prices (and maybe still further out expiration dates). A more risky strategy would be to load up on far out of the money futures options that are soon to expire — the “asoka play”, I’ll call it (e.g., oil at 180 by end of 2008). LOL I have not placed such bets. But if a person kept making these kinds of plays indefinitely, at some point, say if there were circumstances that very quickly brought about a 50-100 dollar/bbl increase in the price of oil, then serious money could be make. High stakes gambling to be sure. And, as you’ve implied, we just can’t know how long it’s going to take to reach 180-200. I have and will continue to wager that you (and the rest of us who don’t believe that demand for oil is going to decrease fast enough to undermine declines in aggregate world oil production) are going to be vindicated at some point.
October 26, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Holmes, I presume
p.s. — I appreciate your point about 180-200 being a number that’s applied to present circumstances. I believe you are referring to a price point, in terms of 2008 dollars, when the price of oil may be too cripplingly high for the system to carry on, thereby transforming the rules of the speculative game yet again and probably in ways that will be very difficult to predict. (There might not even be the same currencies in use a few years out. I’m not telling myself that story just yet, but some commentators obviously are.)
October 26, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Dr. Doom
Yep, I’m mulling an TEOTWAWKI story over today. Let’s see if I can find some time to write it as a ZK post. Hint: it may be a lot closer and a steeper cliff than many imagine. If correct, oil may never sell higher than $147 in 2008 dollars.
October 28, 2008 at 5:35 am
Mary
MOU
Agree with Holmes that special is not the right word for you so will have to go with two – fucking amazing. To be where you are without rancour shows how rock solid you are.
You’ve shown that with some help along the way and grit despite difficulties victory is sweet, if hard won.
Shine on.
October 28, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Dr.Doom
Still mulling…
October 28, 2008 at 8:06 pm
tipping point
So JR, is the mutual admiration society still open for members? oeo wont post here I guess cause people might start agreeing and that would take all the fun out of it.
October 29, 2008 at 1:57 am
Uncle Remus
mullet
October 29, 2008 at 2:03 am
Uncle Remus
Great Society, Part Deux.
It’s the war, stupid.
Say goodnight, Dick.
October 29, 2008 at 5:44 am
Uncle Yarra
Anyone see this posted on TOD the other day?
(future lumpenproles for Nudge)
http://brighton.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~prajlich/forster.html
October 31, 2008 at 9:31 am
tipping point
Well we don’t know about the bees still, but at least now we have an explanation for the bats.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081030/sc_nm/us_bats_fungus;_ylt=An2rcfT2fTG1pQnZU4WcTpqs0NUE
October 31, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Autonomous Unit
I heard Obama went back to Chicago to be with his family today. Halloween. I had this vision of two kids trick or treating with Papa standing in the background, wearing an Obama mask. So somebody giving out candy asks who they are, and the older child, dressed as a princess, says”I’m Malia!’, then the younger girl, as a Cow-girl, says ‘I’m Natasha!’, and then Obama peels off his Obama mask, revealing his true Obama-hood, and laughs diabolically. I think this would be funny, but it may freak-out the candy giver.
November 2, 2008 at 1:02 am
MOU
Because I fucking feel like it!
The dogs of doom are howling more…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBsbCMIyG6E&feature=related
No Quarter
Sexy goddamn guitar.
November 2, 2008 at 1:07 am
MOU
Sing my soul baby, as only a guitar can. Give it to me. Jaaaazz. I am your hostage. Love me up good. Do it Jimmy, do it.
November 2, 2008 at 6:49 am
dave
ya, but robert plant was born to suck my dick. that’s what he told me anyway. so i had to kick his ass. but then he wouldn’t leave me alone. i finally learned to just ignore him.
November 2, 2008 at 6:52 am
dave
some kind of wierd masculine/feminine shit going on there. awakens my primal asskicking instinct. not sure why that is. all limbic and shit i guess.
November 2, 2008 at 7:02 am
dave
November 6, 2008 at 4:19 pm
tipping point
I had a feeling this would happen. I know it sounds a little like a conspiracy theory, but I just felt like someone didn’t want him getting too close to… something. NOw that he is out of power, no sense in pursuing it anymore.
Feds won’t charge Spitzer in call-girl scandal
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27578390/
November 6, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Uncle Remus
dave, u animal.
November 6, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Saint Bif
Georgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/world/europe/07georgia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
“Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.
Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.”
November 8, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Holmes, I presume
This guy does a credible job of identifying and parsing salient issues relating to the deleveraging topic.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122611122832410627.html
“The bottom line is that, assuming further credit losses from global recession take U.S. and EU tier-one bank capital back to where it was before state injections and capital raisings, then financial-sector credit would have to shrink 37% just to keep leverage constant at precrisis levels — that’s how you get global depression.
But government is now part of bank management. Government intervention could manage to limit the credit decline to less than 10%, at the cost of more capital injections, further longer-term guarantees of liabilities, tolerance of higher leverage within socialized banks, and not a little credit “dirigisme,” i.e., directing banks to lend.
This will avoid the global depression that many fear, but at the high long-term cost of a socialized financial system. And it still heralds a very long, gray, global recession as the world learns to use less capital to meet its needs.”
November 9, 2008 at 8:11 am
JR
Bif – I read that NYT article when it was first printed. I felt it was a rehash of things everybody already knew written in the guise of providing new info, but was basically an attempt by certain parties (the NYT) to make it seem like they haven;t forgotten about this major conflict so soon after it happened. They did.
Everybody got sucked in by the election, now the “news” has nothing to talk about. Obama, it seems, is an extremely boring subject. Notice the avalanche of articles and opinion pieces about how this election is so important. All wrong. Fabrication to the highest degree.
Obama is owned by the corporations. Get used to four years of McSame.
This seems to be a war of the intelligence agencies.
November 9, 2008 at 10:53 am
Saint Bif
http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=qHi3vkXls1I
November 9, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Dr. Doom
A look at Obama’s campaign funding should tell us about his ownership, assuming it’s all reported.
Everything’s gonna be alright, cause asoka sez so.
Seems to me an interesting story is developing about the potential loss of car making abilities in car culture nation, on its 100th anniversary.
Here’s another: America defeats Communism in Asia, then decides to try it at home.
Interesting times, thanks Chinese seer.
November 9, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Saint Bif
A new movie just released. “Admiral”, the quest of Aleksandr Kolchak to rule Russia. Civil war. For love is strong as death. Trailer looks pretty good. Although a collaboration with 20th Century Fox, it will probably never be released in U.S. Except maybe on DVD.
http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=w6dwXSMhAxs&feature=related
November 12, 2008 at 5:05 pm
tipping point
Anyone know what happened to thal yet?
November 13, 2008 at 11:05 am
Uncle Remus
Zombie Defense
http://www.major-malfunction.com/maj_malf_5u_019.htm
November 13, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Dr. Doom
Earth to JR, calling JR, your blog needs you.
November 13, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Autonomous Unit
“Admiral” is available as a torrent on the Pirate bay with english subtitles, if you’re into such sharing.
November 14, 2008 at 12:14 am
Bunn Bunn
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I didn’t see any chimps running around excitedly waving their rebate checks several months ago. I know, I know… even when I sit very very still and concentrate as hard as I can, I still don’t resemble a check cashing facility.
Look, people… we’re all adults here… let’s dispense with technicalities and admit that that which from my perspective could only be assessed as a prodigiously rumored burst of trickle down was, in its final effective effectiveness, little more an urban legend (like the punching of transsexuals and such). If you really want to be purely academic, I mean think about the fact that no one staked me to sit on my furry ass or to do the other things that I envision myself doing.
November 14, 2008 at 12:41 am
Bunn Bunn
One more thing… I just want to say that I really appreciate ZK contributors such Mary and Bif who lately have shared some really great stories and thoughts.
November 14, 2008 at 12:46 am
Bunn Bunn
How monkeys ever used to live without crosscut shredders, electronic bill paying, and drive-through car washes that you pay for at the pump is one of the greatest mysteries that ponder these days.
November 14, 2008 at 12:51 am
Bunn Bunn
*that I ponder*
Got dammit! Fucking English. If I was writing this shit in Spanish the verb would have covered my lack-of-subject ass. As I like to say, I’m illiterate in at least three languages.
November 14, 2008 at 12:55 am
Bunn Bunn
JR, why don’t you just give Doom the keys and let him run the joint for a week? He’s chomping at the bit.
November 14, 2008 at 1:11 am
Dr.Doom
Hummm…..maybe…..one thing for certain, i don’t miss posting amongst the maroons hanging out over at CFN these daz. Bunn, you should take it for a spin. I’d be afraid to hand it over to dave, though. OTOH, he practically moderates the site as it is.
November 14, 2008 at 1:16 am
Bunn Bunn
tipping, don’ worry baby. I’ll remotely activate thal’s gps device. That way we can get a good fix on him before he unintentionally swaggers into an enemy combatant facility thinking that he’s just agreed to coach girls basketball and dance camp (such places really do exist, so say my sources).
If he’s already made his way to Romania or Russia, it would be rhythmic gymnastics instead (I guess).
November 14, 2008 at 1:21 am
Bunn Bunn
dave is just about the only one of us here who still consistently engages (or attempts to engage) with the current CFN denizens. Hats off to you, dave, I think.
November 14, 2008 at 12:56 pm
MOU
Read Kunstler’s Monday post and that is all I have done over there, I think. Can’t be as bad as before the erection.
I have an unhealthy obsession with the economy right now so I cruise financial news . I spend time worrying about the Baltic Dry Shipping Index and stuff like that.
We are so fucked. At least the D word is finally hitting the mainstream. I don’t think folks get it, yet I have a colleague who talks to me privately about it (TSHTF) but he will say nothing of it publicly. He has left my ass flapping in the wind once or twice recently, then privately told me he thought what I was saying was right on. My guess is he is not willing to look nuts in public.
JR maybe you should put up an “Ideas for ZK” thread to discuss possible things to do with ZK. May be it would take some pressure off you, make it a little more of a collective effort, but still keep it under your control, with your creative touch guiding the process.
Just a thought.
Anyway, that is my idea for a submission to the “Ideas for ZK” thread. If you don’t like my idea, you can say this idea ate that one.
Or that Bunn Bunn ate it.
Burp!
Do bunnies burp? I know they eat their poo. Do they have poo burps? Do I need to stop this train of thought before things derail too badly…
November 14, 2008 at 1:31 pm
MOU
JR
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=bdiy&exch=IND&x=15&y=11
BALTIC DRY INDEX
You are right, I don’t follow this, that would be funny, but this chart should scare the shit out of you if you have not seen it. The cost of shipping has gone down fast because no one will give anyone letters of credit to ship. Boats are sitting empty in harbors waiting for business. Shipping lines are going bankrupt because the value of the ships which is also the collateral for the loans is going down and forcing margin calls. All part of the great unwinding. But mostly, a symptom. Fewer imports and exports, all over the world. Even in your lovely Greece, ships are crowding the harbors. Ask Iceland about their shipping. Ditto our ports.
So no, I don’t follow it like religion, but I am a bit obsessed with things financial. I don’t get what I am interested in over at Clusterfuck any more. But I do lurk here at least once or twice daily. But that’s for the people…and some Johnny Cakes (that is a stolen echo from a movie I can’t remember, where they called the guy Johnny Cakes, the memory feels mafia, but I can’t get it to tune in).
I take you in like a drug, dear, in hits and doses.
Loved the ACDC post. I love Angus’s short pants and the story behind why he wears them. There are a few people in my past who told me I would not amount to anything either. So maybe I should teach in a stripper outfit!
Hope you all are doing well.
November 14, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Dr.Doom
you know, with global warming, and the higher latitudes warming faster than the tropics, then the atmospheric delta-T is getting smaller between the poles and the equator, and the trade winds should slacken, bringing less weather and precipitation to the islands.
so why, when i tell a physical oceanographer this idea, they tell me “Gary, it’s moron complicated than that”? what’s so complicated about it? i know weather is noisy data, but there must be trends to climate.
dave, help, please.
November 17, 2008 at 8:58 pm
uncleyarra
Ha-ha, now I have found a perfect place to hide next week’s lottery numbers (1,13,17,23,29 & 43).
That’s because JR is SOOO STOOPID he doesn’t have the recent comments section up, so no-one will ever see this until it’s too late!!
November 18, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Autonomous Unit
Y’all hear about this?
Pirates take ’super tanker’ toward Somalia
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/17/kenya.tanker.pirates/index.html
November 18, 2008 at 4:18 pm
JR
Yes, thanks for reminding me. Sounds like a job for the British SAS.
November 20, 2008 at 12:36 am
uncleyarra
“Gary the global warming goat”
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ugtJEQ40A&feature=dir
This is even funnier if you’re from Oz…
November 20, 2008 at 12:48 am
Dr.Doom
Uncle, I’m so proud they named that goat after me.
November 20, 2008 at 3:53 am
Mary
Yarra
Cool flick – the 13 amp wire crack was a laugh.
Nudge will adore the SUV bit.
November 20, 2008 at 9:05 am
dave
you know, with global warming, and the higher latitudes warming faster than the tropics, then the atmospheric delta-T is getting smaller between the poles and the equator, and the trade winds should slacken, bringing less weather and precipitation to the islands.
hard to say what the end result will be. just as a fer instance, more heat might be available to do work, ie, produce and maintain a trade winds. this is just a single fer instance.
i think that about the best one can say about anthropomorphic GW is something like: yeah, we’re sure to fuck things up in one way or another. that’s what we do best.
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Thermal/WorhHeatIntEner.html
November 20, 2008 at 9:09 am
dave
despite a lower temperature gradient.
higher temps overall definately means more moisture in the atmosphere. where it will be dumped as paterns change, and paterns always change, is something of a crap shoot in my mind.
November 20, 2008 at 9:13 am
dave
http://www.dieoff.org/page78.htm
this is what we do, fuck things up. imo.
November 20, 2008 at 2:02 pm
dave
what you’re saying would definately be true if one could assume that gradient pathways, or routes, will be maintained.
another fer instance: the gulf stream pumps a lot of heat into the northern latitudes, thereby reducing the temperature gradient between the equator and the north pole. if this flow is shut off due changes in the mineral content (again, who knows, it’s justa fer instance) the overall tempearture differential could increase.
if you really wanted to get into, i think you’d have to critque the specifics of the model. personally, i wouldn’t waste my time. i’d just kinda nod and say: yeah, that’s nice. then i’d go back about my business of trying to fuck 20 yo women. they often want to experiment with anal sex at that age. so that’s a plus.
November 20, 2008 at 4:12 pm
uncleyarra
Thank god you got back to anal, Dave, I was worried you were going all techno on us.
November 20, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Uncle Remus
Yarra & dave
“Australians could face ‘pay as you dump’ charges as part of a Toilet Tax. It’s all in the name of “sustainability” – and part of a growing eco-movement to replace flushing conveniences with smelly and unhealthy inconvenience.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/20/carbon_cult_war_on_toilets/
November 20, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Dr.Doom
dave, thanks, i guess, that Logan article depresses even me. i hope i’m not keeping you from your experiments with 20 yo women. i recall conducting similar experiments with 25 yo women. they acted all surprised and like they were virgins, ha ha, they probably had 10 boyfriends before i came along, pun intended.
November 20, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Dr.Doom
Uncle Remus, before we go too overboard with the shit recycling, it may perhaps be worthwhile to work the math on all this organic recycling and see how much energy consumption is really offset. it could save us getting our hands all dirty.
we need to start reducing our populations. we should do this voluntarily before it becomes mandatory, with nature calling all the shots. who’s population will be first to volunteer to save our planet? shall we do it by lotto?
November 20, 2008 at 8:33 pm
uncleyarra
UR,
I got a permit to shit for ten years (we’re on septic).
Anyone comes to inspect for some pay as you dump shit, they can go down to the chook shed and breathe deeply.
Then again, the septic tank is 2000 litre, could hold a body or two…
But you should always be respectful of your partner, y’know pay for a taxi in the morning, their turd tax after butt sex – all good manners.
November 20, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Nudge
UY, thanks for the video link. Loved that SUV line .. “the only time it’s ever been off-road is when the driver’s texting behind the wheel ..”
*snort*
November 20, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Uncle Remus
Doom, could be that a side effect of “smelly and unhealthy inconvenience” will be to attenuate coital ardor. Or everyone claiming to be French. [shrug] In which case, our socialist future would be apropos.
Yarra, yes, good manners. Which likely falls into the same category as common sense.
Got cob?
Is that too cheek?
November 20, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Uncle Remus
Nudge,
I’ll see your *snort* and raise you a chortle.
November 22, 2008 at 11:46 am
bunnbunn
more on pirates…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122731000016149251.html
November 22, 2008 at 1:37 pm
MOU
Bunn Bunn,
I left Tipping Point a message under “I’m gonna try this again” and I can’t get the thread to come up.
Hi Tipper!
November 22, 2008 at 3:06 pm
bunnbunn
MOU, said thread appears to be history. Hopefully, you saved your message and can repost it elsewhere. ~BB
November 24, 2008 at 8:18 pm
tipping point
Hey MOU! I knew that thread would dissappear eventually; I might have to start a black box archive of ZK posts that JR deletes after sobering up : ) Just kidding JR, though blackmail can be a lucrative business…. hmmm
I have a financial question- it’s been thrown around that the best bay to invest in oil is through an etf but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with Energy mutual funds? I was looking at “portfolio composition” of a fund that lists the majority of holdings in “integrated oil and gas” I’m not sure what that means- can someone illuminate me, por favor? (fyi the other listings included oil and gas -equip and svcs, – drilling, -exploration and production, refining and mkting and strg and xportation) Perhaps integrated just means companies like Exxon or Royal Dutch Shell? Thanks in advance
November 24, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Saint Bif
Tip. By integrated they mean companies engaged in all of the upstream (exploration and production), midstream (transport and refining/processing) and downstream (wholesale/retail) activites. So yes, you would be buying major oil and gas companies.
November 24, 2008 at 11:06 pm
tipping point
Thanks Bif; I knew I could count on you ; )
November 25, 2008 at 2:59 am
Dr.Doom
George, I thought you were dead, or at least on vakay.
November 30, 2008 at 10:41 am
nomouth
hey doom, do your students offer to fugger you often?
November 30, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Dr.Doom
i wish. glad you found that program. i met the film crew in Seattle for my interview on their way back from Lituya Bay, Alaska. that tsunami was the record at over 500 m run-up, but we’ve since found much bigger ones that hit the Hawaiian islands about 100,000 years ago. and, Lituya Bay event was confined to an estuary, whereas the Hawaii ones were in the open ocean, therefore much larger.
December 3, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Dr.Doom
Smart monkey finds black hole discovery useful, until…
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk&fmt=18p
December 4, 2008 at 12:25 am
nomouth
bunnbunn?
December 4, 2008 at 12:26 am
nomouth
ive found you
December 4, 2008 at 8:34 am
dave
fucking polacks are silly.
December 4, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Nudge
Ahh, the potty-mouthed pollack has spoken again, and with all the usual refinement of that 20-something generation. This current run of links to perpetual-motion free-energy stuff won’t last long.
December 4, 2008 at 3:24 pm
bunnbunn
Nomouth, that animated rabbit seems to have it going on. We should get him on the team. And those wacky Poles too.
Yeah dave, here’s an example of working too hard to be funny. All I can say about it is that tourists sicken me. These sorts of European jackoffs do too.
http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/02/monochrom-nazi-petti.html
On second thought, maybe this shit IS funny and I’m just not cool enough to get the joke. What next? A Plantation Petting Zoo in the heart of Dixie? These Europeans deserve to be destroyed.
What was that you saw in WSJ, Holmes? An article about Lufthansa being set to buy Austrian Airlines? Didn’t something like this happen before about 70 years ago? Where’s the gotdamm reportage?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122834410051377213.html
(A hiatus needs a hiatus when my friend JR is bemoaning circumstances in general. But, for the record, I’m still officially in idle mode.)
December 4, 2008 at 3:49 pm
bunnbunn
testing… uno, due, tre
December 4, 2008 at 3:52 pm
bunnbunn
off all the indignities… software that dares to moderate a god
December 4, 2008 at 4:41 pm
nomouth
Nudge,
Are you calling me an abstract piece of art from the 40/50’s? That’s pretty cool. Colourful, fluid barf.
Aw, c’mon. I thought we were BFFs now? Don’t deny you wanted to be that duck for even a second.
December 5, 2008 at 2:00 pm
GB
The lack of acorns around here is forcing gray squirrels to eat anything they can find. They are getting into garbage cans, climbing out onto the ends of thorny hawthorn tree branches to eat the haws, raiding bird feeders and chasing away smaller squirrels. Still, I am seeing some huge fat and healthy squirrels around. Point? It apparently pays to be big, bad, bold and acrobatic during a bottleneck.
December 5, 2008 at 4:25 pm
nomouth
bunnbunn,
thanks for the casting some insights on to my personal identity crisis.
fucking parents told me they fled polska under ‘refugee’ status to escape the commies. then my mom happens to slip me out from beneath her whorish panties in some mountain valley called furstenfeld?
i used to blame recessive genes, but now i really know why im teutonic and theyre – well inferior.
i can’t click to send… I have this strange feeling of love in my right arm.
December 7, 2008 at 8:20 am
Nudge
Nomouth, you mean you weren’t whelped over there in the Fatherland? Shame on me for making that misassumption. But, hey, there’s no harm in being Teutonic or partway so. My dad grew up in a rather infamous European dictatorship of the last century. Had lots of interesting & scrary stories to tell about it too. I would call it a blessing to have at least one parent who didn’t grow up here in Duhmerica, where practically no one knows how to do stuff.
The nice Chinese lady at the local dry-cleaner was telling me how most people in China know how to sew stuff if they need to .. and she was somewhat amused at seeing all the American ladies who buy those $2000 Bernina / Husquevara machines and then don’t even know how to shank a button, duh.
December 7, 2008 at 8:26 am
Nudge
First in peace, first in war .. Furstenburg
December 7, 2008 at 10:25 am
tipping point
I am always curious about other country’s social structures. What’s the underlying reason for their discontent?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/world/europe/08greece.html?hp
December 7, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Dr. Doom
Bell Peppers
I saw them at the What White People Like website. What is up with these “vegetables”? They have basically no flavor. They are not hot, as peppers are supposed to be. They give you gas if you eat them, and they are expensive unless you raise them yourself. Why are they so popular? Is it their color (red, yellow, green, purple) or their shape? They are kinda big. They suck, IHO.
December 7, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Phelps Phan
Joke for Dave:
Dave the hen
Dave came home from the pub late one Friday evening stinking drunk, as he often did, and crept into bed beside his wife who was already asleep.
He gave her a peck on the cheek and fell asleep. When he awoke, he found a strange man standing at the end of his bed. ‘Who the hell are you?’, demanded Dave, ‘and what are you doing in my bedroom ?’
The mysterious man answered, ‘This isn’t your bedroom and I’m St Peter.’
Dave was stunned. ‘You mean I’m dead !!! That can’t be, I have so much to live for – and I haven’t said goodbye to my family. . . You’ve got to send me back straight away.’
St Peter replied, ‘Yes, you can be reincarnated but there is a catch.
We can only send you back as a dog or a hen.’
Dave was devastated, but knowing there was a farm not far from his house, he asked to be sent back as a hen.
A flash of light later, he was covered in feathers and clucking around, pecking the ground.
‘This ain’t so bad’, he thought until he felt this strange feeling
welling up inside him. The farmyard rooster strolled over and said,
‘So you’re the new hen, How are you enjoying your first day here ?’
‘It’s not so bad’, replies Dave, ‘but I have this strange feeling
inside like I’m about to explode.’
‘You’re ovulating’, explained the rooster. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve never laid an egg before.’
‘Never’, replies Dave. Well just relax and let it happen’.
And so he did and after a few uncomfortable seconds later, an egg pops out from under his tail. An immense feeling of relief swept over him and his emotions got the better of him as he experienced motherhood for the first time.
When he laid his second egg, the feeling of happiness was overwhelming and he knew that being reincarnated as a hen was the best thing that ever happened to him . . . Ever!!!
The joy kept coming and as he was just about to lay his third egg, he felt an enormous smack on the back of his head and heard his wife shouting…
‘Dave, wake up, you drunken bastard. You’ve shit the bed !!’
December 7, 2008 at 10:39 pm
EEofDC
“The lack of acorns around here is forcing gray squirrels to eat anything they can find. They are getting into garbage cans, climbing out onto the ends of thorny hawthorn tree branches to eat the haws, raiding bird feeders and chasing away smaller squirrels.” -GB
Hey, GB! Good to see ya here.
Here’s an interesting article from the “Post” last Sunday on the dearth of acorns:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR2008112902045.html
My Squirrel-PAC down on the Mall is in pretty good shape but the poor little critters are in for the shock of their lives in about six weeks when our nation’s capital becomes a gigantic blowout.
December 8, 2008 at 12:42 am
Dr.Doom
Block party!!!
December 8, 2008 at 3:02 am
Uncle Yarra
Bit of growth happening….
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4188&p=162714#p162714
December 8, 2008 at 5:48 am
Nudge
Can we get some sort of Special Dispensation or a Carbon Credit Waiver for the travel necessary to get to the block party?
December 8, 2008 at 9:30 am
dave
i thought that the nazi petting zoo bit was pretty funny. i loved the way the nazi stayed in character.
December 8, 2008 at 9:32 am
dave
i’ve always kind of admired the eastern europeans. time to be a nazi, ok no problem. time to be a communist, ok problem. time to be a capitalist, sure, why not?
December 8, 2008 at 9:34 am
dave
theocracy? that works.
December 8, 2008 at 9:37 am
dave
feudal monarchy? oh, you mean like when the local bishop got tired of sending shit to rome? who could blame him?
December 8, 2008 at 9:40 am
dave
well phelps, some humor theorists say that all jokes must have some element of truth, i guess.
December 8, 2008 at 9:43 am
dave
time to feed the squirls. my work nevr ends.
December 8, 2008 at 11:26 am
bunnbunn
dave, thanks for explaining, now I unnerstand.
how about… pro-colonial populationists. makes prefect sense to me (especially if combined with alzheimers)
self-cannibalizing excretologists. on the throne of a dilemma, to be sure. but hey… it could work for awhile
I’m not trying to be funny, just fooling around with some paradigm shift potentialities that we all might want to prepare ourselves for. Scratchpad. Honestly, people… nothing to see here. As you were. Carry on. God Save the Queen. Etc.
December 9, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Uncle Yarra
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
Fuck Asoka.
December 9, 2008 at 10:59 pm
tipping point
Well, UY, could you tell us how you really feel?
I guess I have to go read that other blog now….
December 9, 2008 at 11:13 pm
tipping point
Hmmm, I tried but I scrolled through four pages of “I really don’t give a shit” comments. Ah well, Asoka probably needs to get fucked anyway. I think I like Ryan Crocker(from other posts); don’t know if it’s despite or in spite of Nudge. Now, that Howard Effing Beale, he is one sexy effer!
December 13, 2008 at 11:20 pm
nomouth
Crisis & Collapse – Dmitri Orlov
Radio Ecoshock
http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/economy/ES_Orlov_2.mp3
December 18, 2008 at 12:14 am
Uncle Yarra
You’ve got an audience now that CFN is down – so post something already.
December 18, 2008 at 12:24 am
theroachman
CFN is only partly down
The older threads work
December 18, 2008 at 12:18 pm
MOU
I just posted this and it disappeared.
Postus-interuptus…
JHK,
While I enjoyed reading this post (you are a wonderful writer), you make me hopeless, not hopeful. You are trying to shape the discourse around this movement and you insist on insulting a certain segment of the population. Your judgmental attitude will not make them want to consider the options you suggest. Why alienate anyone, anyone at all?
The only answer I can come up with is that you have not thought through what it is you would like to accomplish with this work. Your ego is SUV sized and burning up the atmosphere. Deflate it or suffer being pinned down in a tattoo parlor while thugs decorate you with neo-con propaganda. Or maybe they will just link you with a Madoff fund or something and turn you lose on Wallstreet with the words “SEC Regulator” tattooed to your forehead.
I am being silly, but I am trying to make a point– why single out people who wear sagging jeans or tattoos as deserving of so much contempt when the problem is people who wear Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Channel, Fendi, or Rolex?
December 18, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Uncle Remus
“Your ego is SUV sized and burning up the atmosphere.”
Such is the lot of Latter-Day Prophets it seems.
“the problem is people who wear Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Channel, Fendi, or Rolex”
Or more properly, think that wearing them is significant in some way. It is of course, in a parochial, inbred sort of way.
Jimmy is suffering pre traumatic stress disorder – a symptom of not believing your own shit.
December 18, 2008 at 4:39 pm
theroachman
Or is it too much belief in himself?
Thus he can not look at his own work more critically or take constructive criticism as well as he should.
It often does seem as if he dives into mode that puts his ideas and what not on par with the txrenegade joker.
December 18, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Uncle Yarra
I wonder when he starts writing his weekly piece – Sunday night? I dunno, I couldn’t do it every week. Then again, he doesn’t participate in the discussion, so that probably makes it easier. Maybe he should downshift to a fortnightly or monthly article.
December 18, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Uncle Yarra
Oh yeah, and I posted on CFN the two words Johnny Rico and I didn’t get the spam message.
December 21, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Nudge
Nomouth: was at the following place today and wishing you were there:
http://cafepolonia.com/
Don’t tell JR I went to Boston again and didn’t try looking him up.
December 29, 2008 at 1:18 am
Mary
if anyone’s interested JHK’s predictions for 2009 are up.
January 15, 2009 at 6:12 am
Uncle Yarra
Another Churchill gem (from parliament)
“Mr Churchill, you are drunk”
“And you, madam, are ugly”
“Mr Churchill you are VERY drunk!”
“And you madam, are extremely ugly – but tomorrow I shall be sober”
January 26, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Donovan
Aloha
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275493079711741.html
January 26, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Dr.Doom
Donovan, that post belongs in the Cultural area.
Aloha,
Dr. Doom
January 26, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Donovan
Pardon the fuck out of me.
January 26, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Holmes
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25every.html?em
That Ben Stein… what a card.
January 26, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Saint Bif
Holmes. That column by Stein was unusually dark for him. He’s always been such a big cornucopian perma bull. Stein was encouraging people to get into and stay in the markets in 2007. He was writing in his personal finance column that the only thing that could stop a long term upward trend of the market was nuclear war. Well since 2007 the Dow has dropped 6000 points and I haven’t seen any mushroom clouds yet. He deserves his place in Dickipedia.
January 26, 2009 at 11:32 pm
JR
That’s it, Doom, you’re banned. First new reader I’ve had in a month and you’re giving him shit? WTF
@Donovan -
I can’t believe the WSJ sometimes. I can remember five or six years ago when they ran a story on how Snoop Dog’s marketing worth and sales were dropping – even after quitting weed and getting all “family-man.” The NYT wishes they could be the WSJ.
I actually own that Blue Hawaii album (CD). About ten years ago I suddenly decided I needed to expand my horizons and embarked on a mission to find what the deal was with Elvis. I got that and one other for $10. That was the end of that adventure.
The whole musical 50’s thing with him kills it for me. At least Sinatra played some serious roles in war flicks and the like.
So Hawaiian (spell that for me) shirts were born in Beirut? I won’t forget that. The Lebanese are one of my favorite peoples. Actually, let me rephrase that – they are the most interesting people. I hate all peoples as I have said numerous times. I’ve got a few personal Beirut stories which I will share some time when I’m not so sober.
January 26, 2009 at 11:40 pm
JR
I’ve read that Stein column a few times over the years and sometimes he makes a lot of sense and I’m ready to actually think there’s some talent there, but usually he is just a super douche.
Ehh. At least it got Holmes away from the XBox for two minutes. I’d reinstate Doom – or do anything – to get Holmes back on CFN. Somebody needs to deal with that twit, Asoka. Nudge thinks it’s funny. She just encourages him.
The next Zulu-dickipedia entry is Nouriel Roubini. I still just think I might be imaging this one. I can’t believe what a bad call he made on oil. Nobody confirm he said it would trade between $30-40 for the entire year 1 day before it closed at $43 and and 4 days before it closed at $46.
I was almost willing to dis-believe the stories about his late-night Facebook rants until I stumbled upon this one. Bif definitely has a nose for these things, I gotta say that.
January 27, 2009 at 12:34 am
Dr.Doom
Holmes, please post something, anything, on CFN so JR will reinstate me here.
Donovan, my apologies, I thought you were a JR or Holmes sockpuppet.
We do have a Cultural tab for all things cultural.
January 27, 2009 at 1:03 am
Holmes
Bif, yeah… I was thinking the same thing. Clearly Stein’s tone is different. I never too much took him seriously before, but he is a funny guy… and he definitely can write.
Doom, if you go missing here for a week or so, I will consider. ;-)
January 27, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Donovan
JR,
Site looks fine with Windows 7 64-bit and IE8 betas. 706MB RAM with OS, AVG Free and IE8 running. A friend has it loaded so I thought I see how ZK looks.
Doom,
This is an Open Thread, but in hindsight, yes, the cultural area would likely have been more appropriate. But I figured it more for poetry, opera & polka.
January 27, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Saint Bif
Cultural area would be a bit cruel. Thats where I keep my off-spec stuff and nerdy pop youtoobs. Don’t do that to him.
January 27, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Uncle Yarra
http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=1
Not 99.9%, 100%!
Because we burp up the CO2 in the soft-drink!
February 13, 2009 at 3:00 am
Dr.Doom
It takes Balls to announce the frightening truth: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4571944/Ed-Balls-minister-fears-rise-of-fascism-amid-economic-gloom.html
February 14, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Autonomous Unit
The revolution will not be televised, but the die-off will.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/feb/11/zimbabwe-gold-panning-starvation-food
February 14, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Autonomous Unit
“Who will dig for the old people?”
February 14, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Saint Bif
AU, incredible, thanks for posting this.
I send checks to Oxfam. I think its probably the best and most effective of the relief groups.
http://www.oxfam.org/development/zimbabwe
They have worked hard in Zimbabwe, or as well as anyone can. I think its been extremely difficult in getting aid and assistance to people. There is much hope that the new government there will be more effective. But you know how that goes.
February 15, 2009 at 11:26 pm
EEofDC
JR-
Check it out!! Nassim strikes again.
http://blogs.reuters.com/jim-saft/2009/01/30/save-capitalism-from-the-banks-nassim-taleb/
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, has a simple proposal to as he puts it, “save capitalism and free markets from the banks.”
Nationalise the banks, limit the rewards to those who work in what he calls the “utility” part of the system and have a completely uninsured second leg that can take all the risks it wants and lose its shirt, he said in an interview in Davos at the World Economic Forum.
February 15, 2009 at 11:29 pm
EEofDC
Taleb has started a facebook discussion on the blowup….
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51818722129
February 16, 2009 at 12:22 am
EEofDC
Experience has demonstrated that it takes a substantial amount of time–and repetition–for folks to absorb a concept before embracing it. (That curmudgeonly old amygdala at work.)
So without fear of boring the geniuses here at ZK, I’ll propose once again my suggestion for dealing with the banking and finance offenders–all of the scofflaws knowingly engaged in naked shorts, Ponzi/pyramid investments, mortgage-backed securities, OTC derivatives, etc.
The Martha Stewart Solution
No violence, no prisons. House arrest with an implanted chip or tracking device–provision of the basics (food and shelter)–in exchange for “public servitude” to the government until the losses generated by each individual are returned to the public coffers.
Choice of two assignments: 1. Remaining in the US and working with low-income/poor populations to help rebuild their communites in a sustainable way or 2. Working with similar poulations overseas.
February 16, 2009 at 12:56 am
bunnbunn
Not saying that I’m a genius (no self-respecting god would allow himself to be saddled with such a label) (and maybe I’m missing something in the fact pattern), but how is either
1. Remaining in the US and working with low-income/poor populations to help rebuild their communites in a sustainable way or
2. Working with similar poulations overseas
going to make any money to effect the restitution? I mean maybe the ill-gotten gains already been spent, baby doll.
February 16, 2009 at 2:03 am
Dr. Doom
bunn, it’s “The Magnificent Seven” dilemma, or to be correct, “The Seven Samurai” dilemma.
You know, Dmitry Orlov gives us a big hint on what his plans are on his web site: a picture of tropical islands. He owns a sailboat, resides in JR town (Boston), a port.
February 16, 2009 at 2:48 am
bunnbunn
Yes, Dr. Doom… I was imagining JR posing as a priest and Orlov stepping into the confessional to spill a dark secret or two. Such clandestine meetings can happen. The disguise is merely an afterthought. You’ll be talking to him, real close, but you never see him. (tipping, you have to understand that’s the way it is.)
February 16, 2009 at 4:06 am
MOU
Her Docktor Doom,
I just read this quote in the comments section on Orlov’s blog:
“You could take all the capitalists and bankers, including those in Wall Street, and bury them, and you would still be facing the same fundamental problems.”
Look, a null hypothesis, just waiting to be tested. Darling, could we write a grant proposal? Puhleaaaze? We will need to conceptualize and operationalize the term “same fundamental problems” but I think we can be pretty clear on the independant variable and the treatment. We could switch up burial with other things such as lynching and see if it affects the outcome.
And it wouldn’t be rioting or revolution. It would all be in the name of science.
And when IRB loses their pensions, I bet they will approve it. ;-) You only worry about human subjects if they are human.
February 16, 2009 at 4:19 am
Dr. Doom
MOU, I think we should try for an NSF SGER, as they fast track those, no normal peer review, to expedite them. Time is not on our side here, as the subjects could be lynched and their heads impaled on poles at almost any moment now.
I suspect the null hypothesis is correct. Nothing much will change, as the damage was done long ago, and we are now living with the aftermath of the effect (those loud popping sounds were bursting bubbles).
I’m going to attempt to pull the remainder of my 403b on Tuesday AM. No sense watching it all evaporate.
My two cents: Orlov is both funnier and more correct about the future than that Florida windbag.
February 16, 2009 at 1:00 pm
EEofDC
“…going to make any money to effect the restitution? I mean maybe the ill-gotten gains already been spent, baby doll.” -bunnbunn
Bunn-
My all-knowing and delightful overlord, forgive my jump from Point A to Point Z.
1. Money does not necessarily equate with value;
2. Sieze and calculate the monetary measure of the ill-gotten gains (homes, cars, boats, trips, etc.);
3. Translate into tangible and intangible equivalents (cleaning up pollution, community service, education, food production, etc., etc.);
3. Assume that your only cost for this new “workforce” will be monitoring, food and basic shelter and that it will undoubtedly be with us for some long time.
February 16, 2009 at 2:04 pm
theroachman
EEofDC
We can start with the CEO of Peanut Corp. He can pick peanuts to replace all the illegals leaving Georgia
February 16, 2009 at 3:26 pm
bunnbunn
yes EE, there are definitely other forms of restitution such as the intangible equivalents you mention. In some instances, for example, if the criminals were tasked with educating people about something, the resulting good or benefit might eventually scale to some kind of equivalent (putting aside, for the sake of discussion, the difficulty in measuring such things). We need to put you in charge of administering this program. But don’t make it too much fun for the villains, lest you inadvertently entirely remove the punitive aspect. Perhaps this is where Martha and I diverge, but I don’t have time to be concerned solely about whether an optimally happy face purported solution has been presented. Most of these cretins are never going to be able to provide adequate compensation for the damage that they’ve done.
February 16, 2009 at 4:23 pm
dave
hmmm?, ya! president’s day. little known fact. licoln used to love fried black people thigh meat for lunch. sometimes he’d put it on rye with a little saurcraut and mustard, particlarly if the particular negro happened to be named ruben. he prefered field hand over house nigger. he never recorded the reasons for this preferance.
historical fact.
February 16, 2009 at 4:45 pm
theroachman
Irrefutable
I could not add high enouph the number of times I have to remind people that Lincoln did not give a flying fuck about the slaves. If he cared so much for human rights of non white males the end of the civil war would have also ment then end to the Indian Wars.
Simple fact for all the Lincoln lovers.
February 16, 2009 at 4:52 pm
theroachman
Oil tanker attacked off Nigeria
Armed men in speedboats have abducted a Romanian crew member after an attack on an oil tanker off Nigeria’s southern coast, security sources say.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/01/20091219320627635.html
February 16, 2009 at 6:43 pm
EEofDC
“Most of these cretins are never going to be able to provide adequate compensation for the damage that they’ve done.” –bunnbunn
Bunn, m’love-
I sense your bunny blood pressure rising, much as mine used to do before I started to reframe my interpretations of the world around me (remember, I’m that much older than you) over our perceived collective injuries as a society from the actions of others, particularly in the “finance” area.
It seems to me that the blowup of the finance/banking system is simply the latest in a series stretching back over millenia each time society reached its limits.
Some day we may actually be grateful that these financial dimwits unequivocally proved–once again–that you can’t live on nor sustain illusion.
Now we are a global neural network and the “shock” of limits is calling for a paradigm shift worldwide in what is valuable. Time will tell if the human race is flexible enough to make an about-face and survive it.
P.S. My reference to Martha was about her period of “home confinement” with a tracking ankle bracelet after her jail time. Boesky, Milken, and their ilk haven’t changed one whit.
February 16, 2009 at 9:18 pm
MOU
EEofDC
Niiiiice.
Just cause bunnbunn is a young godling, does not mean he can’t learn a thing or two from his worshipers.
Do you think it was a conservative, tasteful, yet fashionably demure ankle bracelet? Or was it large, tacky, and neon? A wise judge would have her suffer something ghettolicious to expand her horizons. Then again, you can’t really cure “white,” can you?
February 16, 2009 at 9:22 pm
theroachman
Martha showing some leg
Sexy!!!
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1100413,00.html
February 18, 2009 at 2:14 am
MOU
First Roubini, now Fucking Greenspan.
Greenspan backs bank nationalisation
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e310cbf6-fd4e-11dd-a103-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Everyone should get out of the market and pull their money out of everything NOW. All investments you can get out of. Punish them with the numbers. Give them nothing. Don’t float this balloon baby, we’ll gun it down.
If everything is collapsing any way, what does it matter?
LET IT FALL
WE WITHDRAW
Come on, they want a war, lets give them one.
Tax Rebellion
Withdraw all funds from the banks you can.
Withdraw from all the investments you possibly can.
Buy PMs.
You guys have fun with pretend war over here. They are building a case for this shit. Do you support nationalization? Is there a way you can do any of the warfare I suggest?
LET IT FALL
WE WITHDRAW
I am so pissed. They are stealing absolutely everything.
February 18, 2009 at 2:57 am
JR
You need to calm down. You may be right. But nothing is going to change because you are pissed.
I learned this the hard way over a number of years when nobody joined me while getting banned from website after website.
Nobody gives a fuck, MOU. Get used to it. It also isn’t as bad as you think and won’t get as bad as THEY tell you it will.
If you want to put money into gold, put it into gold. Just don’t put it ALL into gold. And don’t blame me when I laugh at you 6 months from now at $500 an ounce.
Gold is worthless. You can’t eat it. It has a certain industrial value which is determined by real supply and demand (in industry).
You also can’t eat oil. You can’t even run a car on oil. Cars run on gasoline.
There is not going to be any new national rail / train system.
Hope is not a plan. Obama’s presidency was dead the second he was elected. I’d argue it was dead before that.
How long do I have to wait?
How long do I have to wait before I can say this?
I was the first person to ever say Obama was full of shit.
I was the first person to say Hope was not a very good campaign slogan.
I was the first person to say call him on every one of his war promises.
This wasn’t vague “years ago.” This was very clear 6 months ago.
Now these are all daily headlines.
Now I gotta wait what? another 60 days. He’s gotta get his 100 days before he can be criticized?
Nobody gives a fuck.
I keep playing the Saving Private Ryan video of Dog Red Beach and people either ignore it or complain later or both.
LET IT FUCKING BURN.
Let it die and feel the pain. It needs to die before it can be reborn. We don’t need a revolution. We need to feel some pain and put the guilty people in prison. That’s all. Otherwise, it can fix itself. The alternatives to that are what are scary.
Meanwhile, over at Fabius Maximus, they continue to discuss “Grand Strategy.” Fucking morons.
okay, that’s it. I’m starting to get angry…
February 18, 2009 at 3:10 am
JR
Tax Rebellion ?!
What are you fucking nuts! … no, no , I didn’t mean that, but slow down and think a second.
This is a “tax rebellion” you are talking about. Not a surprise birthday party for Uncle Larry. Okay. Are we together on this point so far?
This isn’t going to happen. Why? Because you aren’t capable of organizing it. And it’s your idea.
I won’t for the record go anywhere near it.
I believe the last one that was successful was “the Boston Tea Party.”
MOU, I love you, but first you read that history and come up with a business plan, then I will talk to you about it.
I’m with Thal on this one. You cut off their fucking heads. I’m on your side when you’ve got it done.
February 18, 2009 at 3:25 am
MOU
“Nobody gives a fuck.”
I think that is coming together for me tonight.
Your reply is spot on.
Actually, my husband, a psychologist, thought the same things about Obama too, early on. My husband has a dark side to him I call “cult leader.” Everywhere he goes, they want to make him the leader. We don’t go too many places any more. Unlike Obama, he does not jockey for it. Anyway, he spotted that (and the needs that get fed with that shit) in Obama.
Thanks for your reply. I like “real.” A lot. Medicine.
Take care.
February 18, 2009 at 3:34 am
JR
“Take care.” is banned
I know I have used this phrase thousands of times in my life and it was actualy my signature for a number of years.
But it is banned from this site. It is awful.
If you need to say something and you can’t come up with something original, try “I’ll be back.”
“I’ll be back” or “I’ll see you on the flipside” or even “I’ll see you when I see you”
Right, Holmes? Gimme some feedback. Even “I’ll see you when I see you” is fairly positive, right?
February 18, 2009 at 3:51 am
Holmes
“Take care” might be disconcerting, but “Take care of yourself” is even more problematic, I’m afraid. So I think we’re headed in the right direction.
I once said “con cuidado” to a Spanish speaker. She just kind of shook her head and looked away like I was the biggest dork on the planet.
I always used to think that a language barrier is a beautiful thing. As much as it may handicap me, I still believe it to be true.
“If you show your face again, let it be I who does the witnessing.”
February 18, 2009 at 3:58 am
bunnbunn
Splendid! Uncle Remus has returned.
February 18, 2009 at 4:18 am
Dr. Doom
bunn, where did to spot Uncle Remus?
February 18, 2009 at 4:19 am
Dr. Doom
bunn, where did YOU spot Uncle Remus?
Et to, Brutus?
February 22, 2009 at 9:25 pm
MOU
http://www.thestreet.com/video/10465193/cramer-nationalization-would-crush-america.html
This is Cramer. You decide.
February 24, 2009 at 1:03 pm
theroachman
Cramer the bigest dolt in all of CNBC? Kudro is a close second maybe worse.
February 26, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Dr.Doom
“From Beverly Hills to shoveling manure on a farm, or How my salary changed but only the location of my job, not the basic tasks”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/02/26/economy.survivor.farm/index.html
February 27, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Donovan
“…we want to see the High School Musical heartthrob subject the galactically-talented thespiatrix to a shotgun divorce.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/27/total_recall/
February 27, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Donovan
Eye of Sauron?
http://www.eso.org/gallery/d/83185-2/phot-07a-09.jpg
February 27, 2009 at 9:59 pm
EEofDC
Just a little gratuitous advice from some random site that I’ll probably never find again.
The author doesn’t offer remedies (other than advice to invest in commodities). His statements that “They are only concerned about the next election cycle” has been used by others to claim that democracy itself it the problem. I have some far simpler solutions:
1) Ban Lobbying. It is blatant bribery. How in the world did our society decide that bribes were acceptable. There is nothing free speech about trading money for political favors at the expense of the public. What did we expect would happen when we made fundraising/corruption a prerequisite for public office? If we publicly financed all campaigns, and banned all gifts to public officials, the investment would yield exponential returns in terms of government integrity and competence.
2) A Balanced Budget Amendment. Make it a crime for Congress to spend more than the government takes in unless a well defined short term state of emergency is declared — by the supreme court. This relatively simple step would practically ensure currency stability, remove an economic doomsday weapon from China’s hands, and wipe out the national debt within a generation.
3) Align tax incentives with the changes we desire. Tax hikes on cigarettes and alcohol have been proven to reduce consumption of those products. Why not tax gasoline to reduce our economic dependency on hostile dictatorships? Offset a gas tax with a cut in the income tax. Net results: More incentive to be economically productive and earn income. Less incentive to waste gasoline while funding terrorists. Why tax manufacturing businesses at 35% and hedge fund speculators at 15%? Are we trying to discourage manufacturing and encourage AIG-style speculation? You get more of what you encourage. Duh.
4) Equal Justice for All. Corrupt politicians, lobbyists, and financiers should go to the same prisons as convenience-store robbers and for the same terms. The public should be outraged that there is no justice for people with wealth or connections.
5) End Earmarks. This is where the pork comes from. It’s hidden in budget documents thousands of pages long and placed there anonymously by paid-off congresspeople. The opportunity for corruption is obvious.
6) Refuse to Fight Oil Wars. “Spending” tens of thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars spent to secure oilfields in dictatorship nations that support terrorism offers no return on investment for the public, only for oil and defense firms and their lobbyists. The trillions spent on the Gulf War and Iraq have done nothing for the public, except increase the national debt burden on their children, thousands of whom lost a parent in “the sandbox”. No “made in China” pseudo-patriotic magnetic bumper ribbon will change that fact.
There you have it. Six relatively minor steps that would lead to a stable currency, the end of the national debt, a more competent government, a less corrupt government, and a more functional society. No crackpot economic theories or radical revolutions needed.
The trick is getting the population to demand these changes – the same population where 60% of people haven’t read an actual book since high school.
February 27, 2009 at 10:57 pm
tipping point
Well EE, what was the random site? Those six steps sound very reasonable to me.
I have spent the last 48 hours cleaning my house cause I have a big day tomorrow! Thanks everyone for being supportive despite my idiosyncrasies… If I’m not around for a little while it’s not because I don’t think you guys are awesome, I’m just busy readjusting to married life. Then again, maybe I’ll finally be able to have some time to myself!
February 28, 2009 at 1:50 am
Saint Bif
hey good for tip, sounds like her hub’s back. Nice for her.
I haven’t been around. Lots of train time though, WDC, NYC and Boston.
The site looks good/different. Nice change. Looks like Hawaii in the banner.
The rabbit looks like its eating high quality greens, lots of carrots. Thats a healthy rabbit.
JR, FYI, i got a haircut in Southie wednesday. Lookin good.
I like what you are doing with the peak oil post so far, will come back and look at more closely.
Onward.
February 28, 2009 at 3:06 am
Dr. Doom
I don’t think it’s Hawaii, Bif. Maybe New Zealand.
February 28, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Dr. Doom
Is anyone else old enough here to recall some of these?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK__U-1z-_A&feature=related
I really miss car culture extremis.
February 28, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Donovan
We got your money.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/we-got-your-money/
March 1, 2009 at 1:32 am
theroachman
The daily reckoning
That happens be something several of us here read often. Interesting to see you read it too.
March 24, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Autonomous Unit
Somebody else said:
”
“Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we can identify their corporate sponsors.”
Of course, it would never work. The print would be too fine to read.”
March 24, 2009 at 1:32 pm
dave
as a young child, say 1958 thru 1963, i wouls go to the drive in with my parents and my asshole brothers. i remember being dressed in bunny pajamas, the kind with the feet sown in.
inthe early 70’s i would go with my asshole buddies and do drugs and smoke pot and stuff.
of course, i got my forst blow job at a drive in, circa 1972? something like that.
March 24, 2009 at 1:35 pm
dave
car culture extreme? just plain old car culture, i’d say.
March 24, 2009 at 1:36 pm
dave
f1 and nascar are extreme. not that there anything wrong, per se, with extreme. i’d say.
March 24, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Ralph Nader
drive-ins were a chance to get a lot of stuff that you can’t get (as easily) at malls, because the latter are too well lit and they have security cameras and shit.
oh well, they served a purpose, and were fun while they lasted. sometimes the movies were good, too.
March 25, 2009 at 4:01 pm
theroachman
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/25/california.crash/index.html
Air Force jet crashes in California
Story Highlights
F-22A fighter jet crashed 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB around 10:30 a.m.
The one-seater was on a test mission when it crashed; status of pilot unknown
At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter
From Mike Mount
CNN Pentagon Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) — An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, Air Force officials said.
The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. for unknown reasons, the officials said.
The status of the pilot was unknown.
At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter.
The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release.
In 2004, an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert. The pilot ejected and was not hurt, though the jet was destroyed.
The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike.
Once the Cold War ended, the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival.
However, the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program, which was almost killed by Congress.
In the end, the aircraft survived, and most of the problems were fixed, except for the price tag, which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft.
March 27, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Autonomous Unit
As Craig Kilborn used to say, “Well, it’s happened again.”
March 26, 2009 — Updated 1626 GMT (0026 HKT)
Pirates hijack two chemical tankers off SomaliaStory Highlights
Pirates hijack two European-owned chemical tankers off the coast of Somalia
23,000-ton Norwegian-owned M/V Bow-Asir captured
M/V Nipayia, a 9,000-ton Greek-owned vessel also seized
(CNN) — Pirates have hijacked two European-owned chemical tankers off the coast of Somalia in the past 24 hours, the European Union Maritime Security Center said Thursday.
The 23,000-ton Norwegian-owned and Bahamian-registered M/V Bow-Asir was captured 250 miles east of the southern Somali city Kismayo on Thursday morning, the security center said in a release.
The M/V Nipayia, a 9,000-ton Greek-owned and Panamanian-registered vessel with 19 crew members, was attacked approximately 450 miles east of Kismayo on Wednesday afternoon, the security center said.
Officials have issued an alert site notifying all vessels in the area to be aware of the increase in pirate activity.
March 27, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Autonomous Unit
taleb update:
To Taleb, Scholes’ academic work, which enabled the widespread use of complex derivatives, was like “giving children dynamite.” “This guy should be in a retirement home doing Sudoku,” Taleb says. “His funds have blown up twice. He shouldn’t be allowed in Washington to lecture anyone on risk.”
http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/03/26/mr-taleb-goes-washington
March 27, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Donovan
For those about to fail, we will chide you.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29923316/
March 28, 2009 at 12:54 am
Dr. Doom
“You need to calm down. You may be right. But nothing is going to change because you are pissed.
I learned this the hard way over a number of years when nobody joined me while getting banned from website after website.”–JR, from above post.
Not picking on you JR, in fact, I applaud your responses to MOU above. It was stellar.
BUT, when you were banned at CFN, and you started ZK, several folks did indeed join you at this site, and here we are, baby. So, I logically conclude that some folks do indeed give a fuck.
March 28, 2009 at 1:20 am
EEofDC
“BUT, when you were banned at CFN, and you started ZK, several folks did indeed join you at this site, and here we are, baby. So, I logically conclude that some folks do indeed give a fuck.” –Dr. Doom
Yup… yer right, Doom. We may not “give a fuck” in the way that JR does. In fact, since we’re all individuals, it’s probably a given that our egos will ensure each one of us clings with a death-grip to those ways. Here’s my current way:
“THE NEW FINANCIERS”
By Hazel Henderson © 2009
A venture capitalist friend of mine asked me in a recent discussion about the financial meltdown, “who will be the new financiers?”
I answered immediately, “the new financiers will be the high-level information and knowledge brokers – and they will aggregate the new research on global change processes and lead in structuring the deals now creating the growing green economy.” Today information and media drive markets.
These new financiers are already operating unseen by traditional Wall Streeters and asset managers. They are largely invisible to current financial players and governments because information is their prime currency; rather than money. The new deal-makers value the role of honest, well-managed currencies that remain dependable stores of value and mediums of exchange. Money is a special kind of information, not a commodity in itself, but rather a brilliant invention of the human mind. When backed by real-world goods and service, as well as strong contracts, money can accurately track and score human ingenuity, productivity and transactions interacting with the natural wealth of resources of our home: Planet Earth.
The problem with money is keeping it honest and keeping its “promise to pay” firm. From the goldsmiths who over-lent against their piles of gold held in storage for their customers, to the kings who shaved of the edges of coins and today’s bankers who create our money out of thin air, we humans have found many ways to debase our currencies.
Human activities grew from traditional barter, mutual aid and gifting to the invention of money back around 3,000 BC. Our money evolved from clay tablets, shells and cows to metal tokens, gold, silver, today’s paper money and electronic currencies that are blips on millions of financial trading screens.
As we expanded worldwide with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Europe 300 years ago, our need to trade and exchange grew exponentially. This required expanding our money systems of exchange. Gold, which backed most currencies in growing international trade, became too constricting – there just wasn’t enough of it. Many traders turned to silver and other precious metals. Soon, the lack of gold led governments to issue paper “fiat” currencies backed only by promises and a fraction of actual gold. Some countries shut their “gold windows,” including the USA in 1971, and restricted their citizens from owning gold.
Our current financial crises go beyond those earlier contractions, panics and recessions caused by the lack of gold or sufficient supplies of credible paper money. Central bankers have learned the lessons of the Great Depression. The money supply must keep up with, not surpass, the expansion of production and trading as a country grows and its real economy progresses. Today, the interlinking of all countries’ economies due to the globalization of finance and technology caused money-creation to go wild, leading to a credit bubble and mountains of debt.
Computerization of finance and markets speeded up trading to seconds; satellite inter-linkage of round-the-clock stock and commodity exchanges led to the explosion of derivatives contracts, ever more exotic “securitization” of packages of mortgages, student loans and credit card debts. Risk-analysis was relegated to ivory-tower mathematicians’ algorithms which ignored real-world conditions. All this multiplied the creation of money and credit exponentially.
Reckless, poorly regulated financial firms on Wall Street sold their dubious, toxic “securities” to gullible investors and pension funds (which should have known better) around the world. For example, the bets on who might default, called credit default swaps, grew unregulated to now comprise $683 trillion of contracts (Bank for International Settlements December 2008) – while real global production measures only the $62 trillion of global GDP (IMF October 2008).
The resulting crises were predicted by me and others over the past decades. All that money and debt creation led to illusory gains and today’s inevitable losses and “de-leveraging.” The bubble in finance and money itself has popped. Central bankers and financiers, schooled in the world’s leading business schools and economics departments focus on money and global monetary circuitry. They were rarely taught that money was simply one form of information – now deeply devalued as all the new forms of money-creation went wild.
Today, we see central bankers printing money on TV. No amount of ink and paper can print enough new money to close the hole between that $683 trillion of false promises and the world’s real GDP of $62 trillion. The only issue is who will take the hit. Up to now, the political influence of financial sectors has forced taxpayers to bail out financiers. The blatant unfairness and stupidity of this has caused huge outcries from outraged citizens. Those billions given to irresponsible bankers could have financed universal healthcare and college education. This is the end of finance based only on money and fiat currencies. We now know it’s about priorities and values.
Enter the new financiers: those high-level information and knowledge brokers who understand our Information Age and the great transition from the fossil-fueled Industrial Age to our new Solar Age. Overloaded money-circuits have broken down and the huge new volume of transactions in the past decade have migrated to the internet. Pure information-based exchange and sharing has led to the new hybrid economic model described by experts, including Lawrence Lessig’s Remix (2008), Yoichi Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks (2007), Don Tapscott’s Wikinomics (2008), Verna Allee’s Knowledge Evolution (1997) and my own work (www.ethicalmarkets.com). This hybrid economy is half the old money-based competition and half information-based sharing, cooperation and exchange. From electronic stock exchanges, Instinet, Archipelago, NASDAQ, Knight and Entrex to Google, e-Bay, Craigslist, Amazon, Facebook and Wikipedia, we are seeing how money-obsessed financiers are trailing behind. The new financiers: those high-level information brokers go beyond economics to understanding whole systems and the human family on planet Earth.
Money may return to its honest base, reflecting real world values of Main Street productivity but may never again be the dominant medium of exchange. Just as gold remains valuable but can no longer support the new volume of human transactions. Money will be superseded by all the new digital currencies already circulating from local exchange trading systems (LETS) and complementary currencies like “Berkshares” and “Wirs” in Switzerland to Freecycle and many other barter sites, cell phone networks and radio shows. Incumbent money-circuit players will try to get regulators to shut down these upstart, disruptive technologies and competitors. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, shut down the website Prosper.com which boomed by facilitating local residents and businesses in lending to each other.
The new financiers are operating these new digital trading platforms in many countries. Many designs for global digital currencies are on the way. They will complement the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, another pure information-based currency for international development which is still conceptually tied to gold. The new financiers will show why the old financiers and central bankers can no longer have a monopoly on money and its creation. Information-based currencies and trading platforms will operate wherever necessary for evolving human communities so as to match needs with resources and create jobs – from local and regional to national and international exchange.
Today’s financial “crisis” is facilitating the evolutionary jump to the next stage of human development – shifting from faulty, money-measured GDP growth to the cleaner, greener sustainable economies. Governments are realizing that they must now also correct those money-based indicators and GDP national accounts to adopt the new Quality of Life Indicators. Pension funds have realized their errors in chasing only short-term money returns and are demanding that companies report their performance beyond the old single bottom line of money to the triple bottom line, including progress on social, environmental and governance performance. Welcome to the Information Age.
March 28, 2009 at 1:47 am
Dr. Doom
EE, drop me an email. Do you have my addee?
March 28, 2009 at 2:07 am
JR
I need to lose my paranoia. I go on CFN and follow it sometimes. I lose interest quick. zsazsa is OEO. You know that, right?
I hate Asoka. At one point I liked him. About a year ago (I was drinking heavily at that point, I think to counter-effect the dope, for like 2 months). Believe me, I’ve got a much worse stategery now. But I’m working on tactics.
So the point is, I hate Asoka even more.
March 28, 2009 at 2:15 am
JR
And Howard Beale. I dig him. He reminds me of myself, except he seems to be able to stay sober. Plus he’s funnier than me, so I like him even more. Sorry. Howard “Effing” Beale. Not sure what Effing stands for. kindof a weird middle name. I keep hearing that too, and seeing it. What’s the deal, is this some movie I have not seen? Don’t make me look like a fool just tell me what the joke is.
If you do, I’ll throw up a good link to quotes of VERY stupid people.
March 28, 2009 at 3:09 am
Dood o' Doom
Effing is polite speak for Fucking. Howard Fucking Beale (I called him that once), Frank Fucking Zappa, John Fucking Wayne. It’s a form of street respect. Really, JR, you need to hang with truck drivers more often.
March 28, 2009 at 3:19 am
Dood o' Doom
BTW JR, Nudge and EE still think you are HEB. Have to admit, it took me awhile, and a big hint from HEB himself, to convince me you were not him.
You must both be happy knowing that a kindred spirit it out there, roaming the land, but you two have hooked up on the internet. Mind clones.
You talking to me, bro? Wot, you talking to me?
March 28, 2009 at 3:41 am
JR
I need to hang out with the truck drivers?
I’m always talking to you.
Do I need to cut off your toes?
Do you watch Dexter?
Doom?
I WAS a truck driver between 18 and 22. I’ve done enough of truck driving in my life. Unless Rihanna is a truck. That would be called truck saving.
Dexter, Motherfucker, HBO. Bing bing bing. Hello! Doom? I know you. Just cuz I don’t call on you during my favorite blog extrevaganza don’t mean you ain’t real. Doom . On eof these daze.
I know Johnny Rico is a bitch, but he nose wats heze doinngz (sorry, looking for the springy). He also has our respect and you you to back off..
March 28, 2009 at 4:04 am
Dr. Doom
Dexter? A sitcom on HBO? I thought HBO was for watching movies and soft porn. Oh, and Bill Mahr, Maaahrrrrr. And George Carlin reruns on the Comedy Channel.
Well, I’m the first to admit that I don’t know doodle about F1 racing. Looks expensive (gotta be good, then, right?) and a tad dangerous. I don’t watch them for the gore. I know you guys don’t also.
On this topic, I will admit being turned off to NASCAR when I realized that the cars under the fake bodies were no moron than bigger, clunkier F1 racers. Seems a bit disingenuous, like posing.
Happy to know you did some time behind thee wheel. I did construction about that time of my life. Damn near killed myself, so took an early retirement from such work and doubled up on the book learnin. That experience and Nam hanging over our young heads made the college work worth all the challenges, despite the competing calls of drugs, sex, fast cars, fast times.
March 28, 2009 at 4:11 am
Dr. Doom
Hey, so what’s so bad about talking to me all the time?
March 28, 2009 at 4:15 am
Dr. Doom
I beleive you were addressing Hamilton when you said this:
“I feel for you, Brother. I’ve felt that way just yesterday. Complete despair and hopelessness. It hurts. It becomes a physical pain. Depression is no joke.”
Tell old Doomie your problems. I promise to be more sincere than that old Magic Eight Ball under your bed. Cough it. I’m waiting, scotch rocks in hand.
March 28, 2009 at 4:30 am
JR
“Tell old Doomie your problems.”
I just did.
But seriously, my boy Steve McQueen needs a better option than the M3 grease gun. Personally I’ve recommended the Thompson. He just won’t listen to me
March 28, 2009 at 4:43 am
Dr. Doom
OK, so you’re paranoid. A lot of us social animals are, to varying degrees. And that’s when times are good. When times are bad or dicey, even, paranoia looms large. “Paranoia rules the streets, into your mind it will creep, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong, ….[Buffalo Springfield, circa 1968].
I’ve held but not shot a Thompson. Heavy gun. I’d recommend a lighter, compact Israeli model, like the ones the Secret Service body guards use.
March 28, 2009 at 4:53 am
Nudge
Still trying to get JR to meet in Boston before the place gets nuked. I’ve long since moved west of the city so as not to be downwind of the fallout cloud. Err, and that’s if we’re lucky enough to get a relatively “clean” bomb too.
Mandatory geiger counter checks at the 128 and 495 ring roads. “It’s all contained.”
March 28, 2009 at 4:58 am
Dr. Doom
Nudge, I thought the real threat to Boston was a LNG tanker explosion in Boston Harbour. Maybe that’s what’s keeping our chief editor up late at night?
March 28, 2009 at 5:06 am
Nudge
The LNG tankers unload at Deer Island, which is way out in the harbor and connected via buried pipes. I only know where it is because the handlers asked me to go there for pictures and a location fix .. was easy to schedule a weekend camping trip to the outer harbor islands as a pretext.
Huh, JR would make quite the “project guy”.
March 28, 2009 at 5:18 am
JR
“I only know where it is because the handlers asked me to go there for pictures and a location fix .. was easy to schedule a weekend camping trip to the outer harbor islands as a pretext.”
Wuh? Yeah, I’m sure you had nothing to do with it. You are such a KGB spy, it’s not funny, Nudge. Have you even seen Duplicity? I’m sending in Wombat just to take photos before I even recon. We really aren’t that dumb. Gimme the dates. I wanna check the logs.
March 28, 2009 at 5:19 am
Dr. Doom
Not if it was serious work. Who needs a guy always questioning your underlying motives, primal beliefs and undying faith in capitalistic growth-based economics on a finite, populous planet whilst trying to concentrate on the right combination of blasting caps and plastic? No thanks, that’d be like inviting the wife to come along.
March 28, 2009 at 5:30 am
JR
Hey…Hey…Hey!!!
Let’s all just relax. Long time, no see.
That’s just my way of saying I don’t play that way anymore. Let bygones be bygones.
I would love to throw down, but I don’t do that. I’m trying to get sane.
Me and Holmes and Bif run a totally legit website. It’s about adults writing. That’s it. That’s all we do. You were party to this at one point, but you walked away. You are still welcome. But that is all we do. We just write. And Respect.
March 28, 2009 at 5:30 am
Nudge
JR, KGB is soooooo passé. It’s FSB now. So what if I carry a camera most of the time now.
Actually I have to be in Beantown Thursday afternoon for something else, but unfortunately it won’t be a good time to get together. Hold the radiation party some other time, please.
March 28, 2009 at 5:31 am
JR
I’ve always invited Doom, but he always wants to stay on the outside. That’s cool.
March 28, 2009 at 5:34 am
JR
“carry a camera most of the time ”
what’s the model? then I’ll let you know.
This site has always been about writing not photos. You are one of the original editors. you know that. You are always welcome to print anything you want. you know that.
Blast Away, Baby.
March 28, 2009 at 5:34 am
Nudge
JR, I write but I don’t respect. Life’s too short for that crap. Gawd, if I ever run into that cornucopian-nazi-asshole Thomas Friedman, the first words out of my mouth would be to ask him where the bathroom is. Seriously, that’s one fool in desperate need of major smackdown.
Hey, do you like Abe & Louie’s at all? On Boylston, not far down from that pretty Richardson Romanesque building they’re using as a fire station? Good eats. :)
March 28, 2009 at 5:38 am
JR
It’s Saturday. I don’t even give a fuck. I’m loaded up on booze and even if I pass out, my DVR will capture melbourne 2009. Plus it’s so early I’m libel to pass out and wake up just in time.
In the meantime I might try to get some reading done.
March 28, 2009 at 5:43 am
Dr. Doom
Well, I know I’m invited, and I’m flattered, really. My work keeps me real busy. It could just about dominate all of my life, but I don’t let it. Really, lately I’ve been working seven days a week. Mostly part-time on the weekends, and be a parent/husband. I try to get some licks in here, sorta like dave.
I keep hoping it will let up and I can write moron. Maybe in a few weeks.
March 28, 2009 at 5:48 am
JR
What the fuck is wrong with you? Nobody likes Thomas Friedman. Why do you read that shit? I spent all week critiquing Kristof and that asshole that they put on McNeil Lehrer. You aren’t even supposed to reead the NYT.
Try the Nation for Christ’s sake. Or even exiledonline. or TomDispatch.
Holmes, I can’t deal with this anymore. I’m checking out. I can’t have people asking me about Friedman. This is like my own family 10 years ago.
I listen to some guy read Taleb’s audiotape of The Black Swan 24/7. I’ve gone totally psycho.
Nudge, with all due respect. I just can’t deal with small talk. Friedman is small talk. Or rather… small talk is what I enjoy… and it only includes trying to figure out what dave and yarra and remus are talking about.
When I used to do drugs I could handle all this shit, but it is way too dicey on just booze. jus sayin.
We’ll see. We’ll see. OK? Lemme see how Milo Minderbinder comes out on audio. Then I’ll tell you, OK?
March 28, 2009 at 5:49 am
Nudge
Err, reading. My dark obsession is the rampant schadenfreude on the HBB. This one thread in particular is pure overload, including the original nooz articles linked therein:
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=5348
Where did nomouth go lately? Sometimes it seems like it’s getting moron quieter on the blogs. Is everyone well into bad-nooz-overload territory now?
JR .. analysis of traffic from when you visited FTA tells me you live in or near Oil City, PA. Is this why you can never meet? :(
Doom: do what you gotta do, but hang in there please. I still want to meet you someday! :)
March 28, 2009 at 5:50 am
Dr. Doom
Abe & Louie’s. Get enough coffee in him Nudge and he’ll think he was up all night at the Buena Vista in San Francisco drinking Irish Coffees.
Surely there must be a good place for Irish Coffees in Boston? I know, and don’t call you…
March 28, 2009 at 5:56 am
Dr. Doom
JR’s got an excellent point about Tom Friedman and the NYT. Sayin you don’t like old Tom is like sayin you don’t like the smell or taste of dog shit. Who would have known?
March 28, 2009 at 5:57 am
JR
What the FUCK is his name? Brooks? Awe I hate that douche!
Doom – part of writing is writing hateful shit about your enemies. I would give anything to see dave write some good stuff. He’s probably the funniest person I’ve ever met. The shit about his neighbors’ chickens (which is probably totally untrue) was the funniest shit I have ever read.
One of my life goals is trying to capture dave’s words in a bottle so to speak. Let’s face it. Dave is not a stand-up comic, or an anecdotal story teller. But he has the best fucking phrases you ever heard.
If I could capture them and sell them for a dollar, I could be a millionaire if I only took 2%. So I’ve decided to be daves’ agent. And he has agreed. On his own terms.
March 28, 2009 at 5:59 am
Dr. Doom
“you live in or near Oil City, PA.” Huh? Try that routine on me, please, as a test.
March 28, 2009 at 6:03 am
Nudge
Doom, go figure, the same service is way off on your IP location too. Sez you’re actually operating out of Vladivostok. What gives?
March 28, 2009 at 6:06 am
JR
HBB?
The HBB. I know this is going to annoy you, since you thought I might have checked it out once. Nope.
I knew the thing was in a bubble in 1999 or 2000. I read an article in the New Yorker. I gotta look it up for you, smartass? I could give a fuck about the “HBB.”
Taleb completely predicted the Bank explosion in the Black Swan in 2006. Read it. Duh. Why the fuck would I care about HBB anymore than Taleb would?
C’mon, Nudge, I’m literally ahead of you by sometimes a decade. Can you just leave me alone. I’m hopelessly depressed and am trying to kill myself, you don’t want to deal with me. I just want to die. You and your evil friends try to give me some reason to live. Just fuck off. My family tries to do this, this. Just fuck off.
March 28, 2009 at 6:11 am
Dr. Doom
Sez you’re actually operating out of Vladivostok. What gives?
That’s probably where my assigned FSB spies are monitoring all my transmissions. On Monday, I’ll have to blow that by my Russian lab tech to get her reaction. She’s got a green card, so she can’t be a spy, right?
March 28, 2009 at 6:18 am
JR
Who’s sez? We’ve got ya covered…. no, I mean, talk away, don’t mind me, I actually don’t care… me and fucking numbnuts have some stuff, but, whatever.
March 28, 2009 at 6:33 am
Dr. Doom
OK, I want half, JR, because this is a good idea. Just go back and collect all the dave entries on ZK. There’s a book deal right there. Then, with dave’s permission of course, go back and grab all his exchanges with dale and others on CFN. Book number two.
The wit and wisdom of dave, ice fishing with dave, dave’s greatest thoughts, hot stock tips from dave, dave on love, sex and womanfolk, cruisn connecticut with dave, on thanksgiving holiday with dave.
We’re gonna be rich!
March 28, 2009 at 6:46 am
jr
but i don wanna be rich. I jus wanna have the piece of mind dave has. If I could kidnap him and torture him til he told me how, I still wouldn’t do it. Cuz that wouldn’t kill it. You can’t fuck with me. If you could kill my pain you could deal. Sorry. I only talk to dave and Holmes.
March 28, 2009 at 7:11 am
Dr. Doom
Okay, but let’s at least try. Let’s kidnap dave and torture him*. Who knows? He might just fess it all up. Worth a try, I’d say.
*How best to do this? Put him in a small room with asoka and dale?
March 28, 2009 at 7:20 am
Dr. Doom
dave, just kidding about the abduction and torture stuff. best leave that shit to professionals.
March 28, 2009 at 7:21 am
Nudge
Err, Doom, that plan has Unintended Consequences written all over it. From what I heard, all you’d get is a strangled Asoka left (as a joke) in some sort of lurid sexual pose with an equally dead dummy-boy “infestor” from Idaho.
March 28, 2009 at 7:22 am
JR
I know of no “dave.” You have to be more specific. I’m not into torture. Doom, you’ve always been my friend, but you can get the fuck out of here with that talk. Zulu Kilo is a torture free zone. It is a free speech zone. It is a free-zone. It is a bullshit free zone. In other words this place is free of that kinda shit. get your act together or get the fuck out.
Doom, I love you, so pull it together. There will be none of that here. Only talk of it is allowed.
I can’t stand asoka or dale. But they are welcome here.
the only “dave” I know owns this website, so you better fucking watch it.
March 28, 2009 at 7:26 am
Dr. Doom
You know JR, what you need is a nice vacation to lovely Hawaii. You’ve got an invitation. Let me know if interested. It would be a kick to show you around, meet some folks here, etc. Just do it.
March 28, 2009 at 7:29 am
Nudge
JR, this is a blog, with none of us physically present. Therefore, there can be no torture here anyway ** regardless of your approval or lack thereof. Have some sleep or some coffee, whatever you need. Heck, I keep trying to meet you for coffee anyway.
** Unless you count mental or emotional torture. Not sure if those would work here. But you could try going all Catholic on us to see what happens.
Doom, I think he needs to get laid.
March 28, 2009 at 7:34 am
Nudge
Doom, does anyone make waterproof SPF 500 sunscreen? That’s the sort of stuff I’d need.
Uggh, the last time I got carded it was by some wrinkly-looking chick in the town next door. I started laughing hysterically, which only irritated her. Tried to explain that I was born not long after JFK rode by the grassy knoll ~ and she missed the reference. After seeing the drivers license, she asked me how, and I said it had something to do with avoiding that fricking bright sunlight outside.
So .. does anyone make SPF 500 that doesn’t look like white paint or giant lead screens? Err, I suppose really thin gold leaf might do.
March 28, 2009 at 7:34 am
Dr. Doom
Good grief it’s late now. Have a nice weekend, Nudge and JR.
March 28, 2009 at 7:49 am
JR
Jesus, I’m just tryin to stay sane.
That’s it. No more. Back to the formula one.
March 28, 2009 at 7:52 am
JR
You mean it’s early. yes, have a great weekend. You know I didn’t mean nothing by that Doom, I don’t know what I said.
March 28, 2009 at 7:53 am
Nudge
JR, huh, you /did/ hear about that pending peak-oil thing, right? So you’re going back to the obsession on expensive 5mpg fuel-guzzlers? Niiiiice :)
Just hacking on you. Go to sleep, man.
March 28, 2009 at 1:23 pm
JR
3.5 mpg last time I checked. But F1 cars are different. they only weigh 1300 lbs. that’s what? 40% of a regular car (including Honda Insights, and even the two seat models)
They are reportedly able to hit 260 mph, but the tracks are specifically engineered to never allow that. 190 if you are lucky. This year’s engine size has been reduced to 2.4 liter V-8s. Thats like a mid-range Audi A6.
revs have been limited to 18,000 from 19,000 last year.
There are many reasons I love F1. I don’t believe this one, but I love it: reportedly certain drivers have been working in the off-season to lose weight (off their obviously notable huge frames) to compensate for the additional weight of the KERS system in their cars).
I don’t ask you to like F1 or sport in general, but the more you listen to my take on this form of entertainment, the more you will love it. Beware. NASCAR bores me too . But you know that.
If you really loved me, you would spend all day researching the F1 KERS specification and how this fucker works. You are an engineer, right? I am absolutely perplexed by it. There is one team that is reportedly using a mechanical “complex” flywheel system rather than storing the energy in batteries.
They get to use the added energy for 6.5 seconds per lap, but they can’t save that up as capital/credit per the rules.
I guess I’ll have to wait for Yarra.
Like I say – if you really loved me.
March 28, 2009 at 2:26 pm
bunnbunn
Damn, dude. I already posted a link to stuff about the KERS flywheels as a first comment under my F1 Primer post. (No point in reinventing the wheel. Just sayin’.)
http://www.f1technical.net/features/11805?sid=9caa2876814667af5c80ce5ff8d69665
And somewhere else a few days ago I said that KERS was optional in 2009, mandatory in 2010 unless of course the rules get changed again. How much more technical do you want? You looking for a cad or Solidworks drawing or something?
March 28, 2009 at 2:37 pm
JR
Dude, I’ve been in Cairo advising the First Lady. I can’t be reading all the comments on my blog. There’s only 24 hours in a day. That’s why I made you an editor. Perhaps it is time to advance to to administrator.
Your attention to F1 is nice. You need your own tab?
I’m looking for sanity.
Only someone who can get Nudge and Tipping to contribute at the same time can provide that.
(Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I needed something to read, always with the perfect timing, this Bunn)
March 28, 2009 at 3:22 pm
JR
Bunn, I’m posting this link on F1W. This is great stuff. You will soon be an F1 God.
March 28, 2009 at 3:41 pm
JR
“In the event of a burst failure, the containment has to withstand only the crushing force of the composite material, which is less than the load of discrete metallic fragments.”
Are you fucking kidding me. Bunn? you are very shortly gonna find yourself as the first rabbit on the Ferrari team. You are unbelievable. You are worth millions. Fuck Flavio Briatore.
March 29, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Dr. Doom
Hey MOU, This article is for you!
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/earticle/6397/
Gotta get the sequel, the editor’s book called “Can I Recycle My Granny?”
March 29, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Donovan
“A senior Obama administration official has told NBC’s John Yang that General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was asked to step down by the administration.”
Bet Wagoner didn’t see THAT coming…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29946290/
March 29, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Dr. Doom
Donovan, Wagoner should have fallen on his sword long ago. Now they will do it for him. Sob, poor chump.
March 29, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Dr. Doom
Also, isn’t it amazing that the Fed administration is seemingly so hard on the auto industry, which at least makes useable stuff with its energy allowance, and only slaps the hand of the finance industry, which almost singlehandedly brought the whole house of cards to its knees? Gee, no wonder when so many of them are embedded and in bed with the administration.
Wake up, chumps.
March 29, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Donovan
Gots to be embarrassing, having POTUS essentially can his sorry civilian ass.
March 30, 2009 at 7:09 pm
theroachman
I would not call a 20 million dollar retirment package falling on one’s sword kind of exit. The guy destroys GM then gets paid extra? I call that stealing.
When the house of cards falls from its knees to its face I hope that Wagoner has a spot in Peru waiting for him. Because he is going to be a poor man when the cards are a mess on the floor.
April 7, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Autonomous Unit
Fuck Target National Bank. Fuck Bank of America.
Target credit card sends me a letter, stating my interest rate is going to be 24%. Usury!On a card with no balance due, last charge 11 months ago. Fuck you, Target! I cancelled it last week. Then, tonight, BoA sends me a letter stating my interest on one card is going from 7.99 to 13.99 percent. So I go online, to check out what my other BoA cards’ rates are (I had three CCs fron BoA). One card doesn’t appear online. WTF? I’m holding the card in my hand, it expires next year. So I call them up on the ‘phone. The missing account was cancelled in January. News to me. I ask the nice lady if I was sent any notification. She says “No, the comments here show that no letter or email was sent telling you that the account has been closed by us. It wasn’t closed due any risk regarding your credit worthiness, it was closed to reduce Bank of America’s outstanding credit available to it’s customers”. So one card is going from 7.99 to 13.99, one card has been cancelled. I tell her that it was a good thing I didn’t try paying for a restaurant bill in front of my friends as the means to learn that the card has been cancelled. She agreed. So she tells me that she will lower the third card from 12.99 to 9.99 fixed rate, but can’t lower the recently raised card’s rate. WTF?
Just venting.
April 8, 2009 at 6:15 am
MOU
I keep my cards in case I am unemployed and need them to get me through after savings run out. Otherwise they are empty or paid off monthly. They raised my rate too. I told them I was canceling the card, my call was for that purpose. They had to “talk me out of it.” I started the process, vented, the whole bit. They lowered it back down. They also gifted me some frequent flyer miles. They also offered me a 1.99% on a balance transfer (no balance to transfer).
You may be able to get your old rate back by writing them and telling them you do not agree to the terms of the new arrangement and therefore you are shutting the card down.
I agree, fuck them. Only, AU, really do it.
Hard.
April 8, 2009 at 7:03 am
GB
AU and MOU I feel for you guys… almost. Drop the whole credit card idea altogether if you can. I have been lucky enough to have never had the need for a credit card. Just another way for the system to own you. Keep it simple, just say no to credit cards. So what if I can’t rent a car? I’ll hitchhike if need be. I’ve done a lot of that. Helps to be young, carefree and single though. At least I’m single.
April 8, 2009 at 10:36 am
MOU
I keep thinking about that GB. I used credit cards to pay off my house and student loans. They let me have a whole lot of money at 1.99%. They were the reason I was able to get out of debt so fast and own my house immediately. Every other day I tell myself I will just get rid of them. But what if something huge comes up? I have a child and because I have paid off everything and I am totally debt free they will loan me a barge load of money. If things get FUBAR, a credit card or so could be a bridge that gets my family out of something bad and into something better.
So for now, they stay. But yeah, it is a vulnerability. If someone steals my identity right now, they can do me some damage. There is merit to what you say.
April 8, 2009 at 11:02 am
Autonomous Unit
I’m poor. I have no real savings. I need credit cards for emergencies. In the past, this has been $3000 for dental work, and $4000 for a new transmission for my car (out of warranty, yet still owed the bank, so I couldn’t junk it). Also, paid for additional college classes on plastic. I’ve not used them for non-emergencies for 5-6 years, just been paying them down. That’s how I ended up with zero balances resulting in the banks either cancelling them, or raising the rates. I’m not profitable enough for them.
After the commercial real estate crises this summer, the credit card defaulto-rama is on the national agenda for the fall, according to my notes.
P.S. I was a bill collector for a couple of years. I’ve seen what happens when people try to live on the plastic when unemployed. I don’t recommend it. Pretend you are already maxed out, and take the next step; when in a hole, stop digging.
P.S.S. I gave up on hitching 25 years ago, when it took 3 days to go from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo, which is about 200 miles. Maybe when gas is rationed, hitching will come back.
April 8, 2009 at 1:31 pm
theroachman
The credit card thing is pretty fucked up
We re-arainged our payments based on a change in days we are paid. So every thing is moved up a week. So on the first day where the old payment scedual would have been due… The fuckers call and say we are late.
Hello fuckers look at the new payment dates.
April 9, 2009 at 12:09 am
theroachman
http://redtory.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/the-glenn-beck-apocalypse/
Glen Beck at his best
April 21, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Nudge
Silly question for the ZK contingent: is there any interest here in stuff like the following?
http://futuretowniesofamerica.blogspot.com/2009/04/loom-work-jig-for-making-heddles.html
Consider it an experiment-in-localism gone overboard! :)
April 21, 2009 at 9:21 pm
bunnbunn
Nudge, Google is everywhere…
http://www.google.com/patents?id=K45NAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=United+States+Patent+1948129#PPA8,M1
April 22, 2009 at 4:07 am
Nudge
Cool stuff. Clearly, that machine is beyond my abilities to build, and the heddles it makes are not the kind I want. Those kind can be bought at around 50c apiece. Part of what I wanted to find out is if it’s possible to make this sort of stuff using only simple tools/materials and without reference to anyone’s patent bank.
April 22, 2009 at 7:41 am
dave
http://housebarra.com/EP/ep02/18bone.html
April 22, 2009 at 11:24 am
bunnbunn
This stuff (old expired patents) is in the public domain for your and everyone’s benefit. So you don’t need to reinvent the wheel quite so often (plus it’s sometimes interesting to see how we used to build machines back in the old days). The quid pro quo aspect of the patent system: limited monopoly granted in return for required eventual dedication of the technology to the public. People used to say that future wars would be fought over intellectual property rights. Ha ha.
April 22, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Doom Docktor
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money*.” Cree native saying.
*unless you’re a rabbit.
April 22, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Nudge
BunnBunn .. thanks for the clarification. Some of us actually enjoy reinventing the wheel :)
Hey, weren’t those future wars supposed to be fought over water? Or oil? Bring on the Carrot Wars! ;)
April 22, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Saint Bif
Old saying. Never get involved in a bootleg war in Asia.
April 23, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Dr. Doom
For those not reading CFN these days:
Good news & bad news on the oil exploration front. First the good news: per a geophysicist friend who gave a seminar yesterday, there is about 12 years supply of light, sweet crude off the South Atlantic coasts of Brazil and Angola, at current global consumption rates. The bad news: development will be expensive and production is about 10 years off. Most of it sits in deep water, >2500 m water depth, and is locked up under thick salt deposits that are hard to drill through. Amazingly, the oil was formed from shallow, probably brackish lakes during the initial formation of the South Atlantic (rifting, like the Red Sea) over 120 million years ago.
April 23, 2009 at 9:29 pm
EEofDC
“Amazingly, the oil was formed from shallow, probably brackish lakes during the initial formation of the South Atlantic (rifting, like the Red Sea) over 120 million years ago.” –Dr. Doom
Well, Hay-soose, Doom! What the f*ck are we waiting for–let’s get in there and defile the beejesus out the place before it’s too late. I vote we nuke both locales and then skim the slicks when they hit the surface.
April 23, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Dr. Doom
Yup, the news just keeps getting moron better for Brazil and Angola. Nukes not necessary, but drilling through salt is apparently a bitch, not to mention the water and overburden depths. They may be like the Canada oil sands, with very low to zero or negative net energy.
April 25, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Dood o' Doom
i guess it’s still too early to tell if dave’s prayers have been answered: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/25/swine.flu/index.html
April 27, 2009 at 12:59 am
Dr. Doom
Here FYI is an exchange on TOD that I was involved with today. I’m D3PO.
JoulesBurn on April 25, 2009 – 4:41pm
There are probably infinite ways to define capitalism, but I would contend that the simple charging of interest on loans is capitalism — getting money for doing nothing except tying up capital. And interest goes back further than Christianity.
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-History-Of-Interest-Throughout-Time&id=160818
Flag | Reply | Reply in new window | Start new thread
hightrekker on April 25, 2009 – 7:51pm
We are talking about ownership of the means of production, not interest.
Profit is extracted through surplus value on labor.
But, I agree, as long as interest is involved, economies need to expand to pay that interest off.
That has been arranged in numerous ways.
Flag | Reply | Reply in new window | Start new thread
D3PO on April 26, 2009 – 12:00pm
“Profit is extracted through surplus value on labor.”
Which means the person(s) receiving the profit have selfishly kept it for themselves and not distributed it back to the labor which produced it, or they charged too much for it in the first place. Either way, it is disgraceful behavior.
Lovely campfire post, BTW. Totally agree with it, but there are too many humans now to go backwards, and most of the damage to the planet has been done.
Flag | Reply | Reply in new window | Start new thread
[new] hightrekker on April 26, 2009 – 1:25pm
Actually, it is about the people doing the labor keeping the profit, not having someone take it from them. If you participated in the organization and creativity of the process, you are also part of the labor process. If you just abstractly own the means of production through a financial instrument, you are extracting wealth.
Flag | Reply | Reply in new window | Start new thread
[new] kyhardhead on April 26, 2009 – 5:35pm
“Interest” is only another form of “profit”; both are equally illusory, just another iteration of a perpetual-motion machine. Until humans get the Second Law in their bones, there will be no change, just more rainbow-chasing.
The vast diversity and exuberance of life on Earth is nearly all down to the energy profligacy of the Sun (the small remainder due to Earth’s own energy surplus, and that mostly in the distant past). THAT is the only real “profit” we have ever had, and can ever hope to have. Any culture without this realization, and its honoring, at its core is doomed, regardless of whatever other merit it may have.
Humans have lived, and “thrived” (or at least vastly increased our numbers), by usurping whatever pockets of current and past “profit” we have discovered, in the forms of cultivated biomass and fossil fuels. Our numbers are now so great, and the usurpations now so extensive, that The End has come into view, at least for those with eyes to see. It may, and probably will, take generations to unfold, but it has begun, and cannot now be stopped, even with all our cleverness.
But, in my view, that is a Good Thing, and our only real hope. Nothing short of a hard crash, with 95%+ population loss, will ever disabuse humans of the pathological notion that they can get something for nothing.
April 28, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Autonomous Unit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8v-DScBWLU
“Government Flu” by Dead Kennedys
We got a drug
We’re gonna try it out on you
Won’t make you die
It’ll getcha just a little bit sick
[Chorus]
Got a head cold
Got a chest cold
And it’s three days old
(Goin’ on forever)
Make you hazy
Make you lazy
Drive you crazy
For days and days and days and days and days
And years
Barely got the time now
To stay on the job
Double up the dosage in your water supply
Make you even sicker ’til you’re slippin’ away
Getting all depressed
It’s getting all your friends
You can’t get it up
For nothing that’ll rock the boat
The government flu
The government flu
The government flu
Slip it abroad
Keep a-slowin’ down the USSR
But meanwhile
We’ll keep an eye
On what it’s doin’ to you
[Chorus]
Got a head cold
Got a chest cold
And it’s three days old
(Goin’ on forever)
Make you hazy
Make you lazy
Drive you crazy
For days and days and days and days and days
And days and days and days and days and days
And days and days and days and days and days
And years
The government flu
The government flu
The government flu
Flew
Through
You
April 30, 2009 at 4:08 am
Dood o' Doom
Hey, the kitty’s jest tryin ta make a living.
http://www.flixxy.com/wildlife-adventure-cougar-bear.htm
May 9, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Dood o' Doom
Got this today from our Furher:
“Mahalo to the University Health Services (UHS) for their service today in light of the one UH Manoa student testing positive for H1N1 Influenza A virus, as reported yesterday. UHS saw slightly more than 50 people today with a variety of health concerns; in those individuals with influenza symptoms, no Influenza A virus was detected based on the rapid detection test.
That is reassuring. However, because H1N1 virus is in the community, all of us must remain vigilant and continue to take necessary precautions to prevent infection and spread (see http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu). Also, if you have influenza symptoms (flu always causes a fever, and is often accompanied by cough, sore throat, fatigue and aches/pains), seek medical care, and practice social isolation by staying at home or in your on-campus residence hall or dorm room to prevent spread of the disease.
UHS will resume its regular schedule and be closed on Sunday. It will be open at 7:45 a.m. on Monday morning (see http://www.hawaii.edu/shs).
Aloha! Chancellor VSH”
What’s going on? Is this like a dress rehearsal for the real deal? If it’s no moron serious than the regular flu, what is the bid deal?
May 9, 2009 at 10:17 pm
MOU
Doomy,
My semester, thank God, is over and I don’t teach this summer. I can run my journal from home. I do have some grad students working on theses, but that is it. Hope you can stay away from the office. Nothing like hopping into the viral cesspool and seeing what gets blended up.
Oddly, you may be the right age to survive this thing, not so young as the ones dying (the young immune system goes nuts as you probably know), not too old to be frail and vulnerable that way. Was that politically incorrect to say? Is there a pie for that one?
Good luck colleague. Stay healthy. We need you in these here parts.
May 9, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Dood o' Doom
Ha ha ha, Grandpa Pie, Grannie Pie.
My hair is mostly white now, and I could lose some weight, but I am as strong as an ox. I’m a bit like that picture of the angry old man drawn by da Vinci. Was it a self-portrait?
No, the bigger threat is the real possibility of faculty furloughs, for perhaps up to 32 days, and we’re hoping they mean calendar days. If they do that, I expect many of our best and brightest to vote with their feet. Several in our school and department have already announced they are leaving UH.
Tourism shrinks –> state income shrinks –> state departments shrink –> state university shrinks. The math is simple, the effects are dire.
May 10, 2009 at 1:04 am
MOU
I hear that, I really do. They talk about our talent (in Memphis for Christ’s sake) leaving for elsewhere. I’m always getting emails that try to get me to join the union. What a joke. Never mind it is not legal for state employees to unionize. Where is elsewhere? They got another planet or something to go to? I’m serious, no where to run to baby, no where to hide.
But when they start talking pay cuts, I am grateful to have a job. Other assholes whip out that leaving shit. Know what I say? Bye! Makes the rest of us safer, nit wit.
You guys are a state college, like us. The tax revenues are in the toilet. You should see the CA numbers, something like down over 50% sales tax, 48% payroll. So screwed. It’s coming for us all and us state people are not entitled to more than the private sector. We work at the leisure of the taxpayers. If they hurt, we should hurt. Nothing else makes sense, but so many folks are sooo defendant on those checks being a certain number that they can’t see the bigger picture and cut down on their consumption. I’m ranting, but this shortsightedness, this misplaced egotism, could really ego us all out of jobs.
You are right, the math is simple, the effects are dire, bro (not grandpa pie). I’ve seen your picture on line. You look sturdy to me!
May 10, 2009 at 1:07 am
MOU
dependent on checks that is.
May 10, 2009 at 4:40 am
Nudge
Good morning MOU & Doom:
There’s a page I’ve been watching to keep up with this Mexican Flu thing, though it seems we should really call it the UPL Flu now since, clearly, we are the country with the flu-control problem:
http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/
The link is rather interesting. The UPL is in the process now of moving up from 2x to 3x the number of cases seen in Mexico. No other country seems to be having this problem. Even in Mexico the number of cases seems to be leveling off or at least rising proportionally more slowly than here. What gives?
The CDC numbers, out later today, will probably corroborate this. (see http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) I’ve been too lazy to do the same spreadsheet from day to day to see which states are having the biggest percentage upticks. The last time I looked at it, the numbers showed that 7 states accounted for around 75% of the cases. It was a strange mix of border states and rich northern states.
MOU, thank you for that excellent point about how there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It’s not as if there’s any “planet prosperity” you can flee to anyway. (Dale may be disappointed when he lands in Costa Rica and is promptly eaten by the natives. Is he depending on them remaining friendly to rich Yankee outsiders? Ixnay that.) Things are unwinding most spectacularly everywhere these days.
May 10, 2009 at 11:54 am
EEofDC
Looks like we’re back to the meteor strike theory again….
Humanity will survive the worst that influenza can throw at it even without intervention. With modern intervention, its effect declines dramatically. But the key problem of pandemics was revealed in this case: The virus spread well before information on it spread. Detection and communication lagged. That did not matter in this case, and it did not matter in the case of HIV/AIDS, because the latter was a disease that did not spread through casual contact. However, should a disease arise that is as deadly as HIV, that spreads through casual contact, about which there is little knowledge and for which there is no cure, the medical capabilities of humanity would be virtually useless.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090504_geopolitics_pandemics
May 10, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Nudge
EE .. hi, thought you might like this one:
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/live-avian-flu-virus-placed-in-baxter-vaccine-materials-sent-to-18-countries/
Scary stuff.
May 10, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Nudge
Oh, and the number of reported Mexican cases took a 2x upward jump since I posted that thing earlier. Sheesh.
May 10, 2009 at 4:10 pm
EEofDC
Hey, Nudge, Thanks! My confirmation bias works again–it all comes down to money in the end. Too bad they always forget that pesky law of unintended consequences until AFTER they’ve screwed the pooch.
May 10, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Nudge
The Laws of Unintended Consequences serve as sort of a leveling effect among those who might otherwise be too dang clever for their own good.
In conspiracies as well as secret plots, the saying “All’s well that ends” applies equally.
Campion has left the base.
June 16, 2009 at 8:31 pm
D3PO
Yeah, baby! Put down that cheeseburger and get to work!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2009/06/15/moos.maher.rant.cnn
June 23, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Nudge
JR ~ do you ever check the mail at that address you provided? Or is there another I should use?
June 24, 2009 at 6:05 am
JR
Yes I do. I check it once every three months. I just checked it on Sunday.
Just kidding.
June 24, 2009 at 7:50 am
dave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF0lRYhhiwI
her voice is a little light for my tastes; but i liked the song.
June 26, 2009 at 1:13 pm
D3PO
Hey bunn, Bif, howz about a pictorial tribute to the late great Farrah Fawcett on ZK? She was always pretty to look at. Dunno about Jacko, he seemed a weird boy, even by ZK standards. I know, standards, what standards? Had a few good pop numbers.
June 26, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Autonomous Unit
Michael Jackson’s influence was world wide, as seen in the official ZK music video.
June 26, 2009 at 9:49 pm
D3PO
So, Benny Lava is Hindi for Michael Jackson? Truly a star of international proportions.
I get tired just watching that video.
June 28, 2009 at 2:22 am
D3PO
Check out the fire at the bottom of Halemaumanu Crater at night here: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam3/
Updated cam shots in the daylight shoe the gas plume.
Geology is so cool.
July 10, 2009 at 1:12 pm
D3PO
Hot Damn! I found a site that plays Hawaii Five-O complete classic epidoes in high-res feed. I may be gone for awhile.
http://www.cbs.com/classics/hawaii_five_0/
July 10, 2009 at 1:15 pm
D3PO
episodes….?
July 10, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Donovan
Book’em and torture’m Dan-o.
July 10, 2009 at 3:54 pm
D3PO
The old pineapple drip board technique….works every time.
July 19, 2009 at 2:14 am
D3PO
Da Man, Colin Campbell, on Peak Oil: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2521422940285513454
Good night and good luck.
July 20, 2009 at 12:15 am
jim e
Hello, from the deep south: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-M9gipm9s&feature=related
July 22, 2009 at 7:29 pm
jim e
I think I am Indestructible. No visits, doc or dentist in a couple of decades. Mr. O, May I please opt out!
This is for you guys and the best of the Nanny state, ” I am worth more Dead than Alive”. LET ME GO W/O HEALTH INSURANCE!
July 22, 2009 at 7:41 pm
jim e
Last time I checked my bankroll,
It was gettin’ thin
Sometimes it seems like the bottom
Is the only place I’ve been
I Chased a rainbow down a one-way street… dead end
And all my friends turned out to be insurance salesmen
J PRINE
July 22, 2009 at 7:50 pm
jim e
Mr. Kunstler, What do you think?
July 22, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Saint Bif
Jim e, fuck that, what do you think of Contador headed into the final week (Mt Ventoux!) and how about those Schleck brothers? You know what I’m talking about.
July 22, 2009 at 8:03 pm
jim e
Thanks for the platform Johnny Rico – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l23lxYFpu3c&feature=related
July 22, 2009 at 8:12 pm
jim e
Mr. Bif, The Good Saint, Never a better… Every time a see a green jersey (Liqui) I think of you. If RICO knows who Contador is Contador will win it. My last French cycling excursion was from the sweet (home of the nougat) Montelimar to the Med. and even though the MISTRAL was pushing me down I saw the VENTOUX and circled it! I see Fireworks on the 25th! On this day I see hope for a good teammate, Armstrong.
July 22, 2009 at 8:13 pm
bunnbunn
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124829403893673335.html
“There are signs medical pot’s increasing business legitimacy is crowding the market. A 20-mile stretch of Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley now has close to 100 places to buy. “So many dispensaries have come along, the prices are dropping,” says one operator, Calvin Frye. Two years ago, his least expensive pot was about $60 for an eighth of an ounce. Now it is $45.”
——–
The stuff is effectively legal.
I’ll send Holmes over with his camera to get some pictures of this. But first he’s going to need a pot card and a new passport. Rahm’s hyperruthless illegitimate nephew is the summer intern; we’ll get him on it straightaway.
Everyone sing with me… “Newclusterdam heeeere I come!”
July 22, 2009 at 8:16 pm
bunnbunn
“Calvin Frye”… the jokes practically write themselves.
July 22, 2009 at 8:24 pm
jim e
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
July 22, 2009 at 8:28 pm
jim e
@St. Bif- I have never seen three better riders than I did today.
July 22, 2009 at 8:52 pm
jim e
Saint Bif said:
Jim e, fuck that, what do you think of Contador headed into the final week (Mt Ventoux!) and how about those Schleck brothers?
I think as I posted here (jim e was taken)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/12/AR2009071201953_Comments.html#
-bamaearl wrote:
Mr. Armstrong deserves much respect but who is the greater teammate? Not in the past but today?
I have said since his return that he needs to play pretty. This team has four riders within a minute of the Maillot Jaune. It is Lance’s race to win when Alberto fails, Levi’s when Lance fails and Andreas’ when all else fails.
When they leave the sweet city of Montelimar and head to that lower Alp in the East, this race will be decided and I predict that Contador will chop down his rivals just as the French did the trees on the top of VENTOUX!
If I were Lance I would be proud to be Alberto’s teammate and the only way Lance will win is to do whatever he can for his teammates…
7/13/2009 11:07:54 PM
July 22, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Saint Bif
Never been a Lance fan, but Jim-e, I have to agree that he has played the role of super domestique in great form, and has been a good sportsman throughout. Like him or not, he is still the true patriarch and boss of the peloton.
Sadly my favorite riders Jens Voigt was badly hurt yesterday in the decent of Col du Petit Saint Bernard. Onto the pavement hard and at 55mph. I couldn’t bear to watch the slow mo replay. I have felt the pain of that kind of road rash and I would not wish it on my worst enemy.
Wow Jim e, nice ride. I’d kill for the opportunity to descend some switchbacks in the Alps. Probably isn’t going to happen though at this rate. But you never know.
Bunn, its the last American dream, really, photos are a must in this situation.
July 22, 2009 at 9:29 pm
D3PO
Finally, natural, organic relief for my glacoma condition is here! Where do I get my prescripton filled?
July 22, 2009 at 9:42 pm
jim e
D3PO- Give it a week or two… for your local pharmicia you had best learn barter. jim e
July 22, 2009 at 9:49 pm
jim e
You smart people… What of modern health neglect? Who wants to Ride their bicycle?
July 22, 2009 at 10:07 pm
jim e
I am am an alabama rednck, one of the most dificult states to ride in. I have been doin’ my best since 1979 with little comfort , Untill now! Gas to go to twenty JR by years end.
July 22, 2009 at 10:16 pm
jim e
what odds?
July 22, 2009 at 10:20 pm
D3PO
The Good News: gasoline to remain affordable in foreseeable future.
The Bad News: you may not have a job, making said gas expensive, anyway.
July 22, 2009 at 10:21 pm
jim e
ppg, ppb?
July 22, 2009 at 10:23 pm
jim e
DP3O- WHERELVIS JR?
July 22, 2009 at 10:31 pm
jim e
SAINT BIF, IF YOU GET THE CHANCE TO TRAVEL, I RECOMMEND A YEAR WE ARE NOT A WARING. JH
July 22, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Saint Bif
What? Jim-e get a hold of yourself. We don’t care about no stinkin’ WARING. We’ll descend from the Alps like sleek lycra-coated banshees at high speed, regroup into echelon formation, and enter Monaco like gentlemen. If they can’t deal with that, fuck’em. We’re Americans goddammit. And we don’t need fancy hotels or guns, we live in teepees and play banjos for crying out loud.
July 23, 2009 at 12:04 am
D3PO
DP3O- WHER ELVIS JR?
Jim e, you have to make up your mind. Do you want me to help you find Elvis or JR? Both? Many say Elvis is dead. I don’t know. But his music lives on.
I think JR is still alive, but I don’t know that for sure, either. We last thought he was on a month’s vakay from the blogosphere.
But his music lives on.
Jim e, are you drinking again?
July 23, 2009 at 7:31 am
dave
July 23, 2009 at 3:18 pm
dave
July 23, 2009 at 3:25 pm
dave
July 24, 2009 at 1:21 pm
D3PO
De horror, de horror…!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/07/24/dnt.or.mayor.bares.too.much.kgw
Woman looks like man but doesn’t see it or care.
July 28, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Autonomous Unit
My new wallpaper:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exxon_desert_tanker.jpg
(not my art)
July 30, 2009 at 2:02 pm
D3PO
Here JR, I wandered upon this whilst checking a recent OEO comment on CFN:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/goofs
Saving Private Ryan Goofs
July 30, 2009 at 8:10 pm
JR
@AU -
Is that real? Or photoshopped?
If it is fake, I praise the artist – who the christ has an imagination that good?
If it is real, I’m gonna have a hard time fitting it into the confines of my banner.
July 30, 2009 at 8:15 pm
JR
@Doom -
Thanks for that. Movies are collections of goofs and continuity errors. I still feel I’m getting my money’s worth when I see boom-mikes in the frame after paying $10 for an opening feature.
I feel cheated when I rent the DVD later only to see said boom-mike erased from the scene.
BTW, I think I know the OEO comment you are talking about. He was defending Tom Sizemore. I was actually stunned. He usually doesn’t delve into pop-culture. In a day or two, I’ll back him up on Sizemore.
Meanwhile, I’ll just sit back and chuckle at the notion that dale thinks he can play me better than me.
Chuckle, Chuckle.
July 30, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Autonomous Unit
Boom mikes are sometimes included in a shot because the film, when projected, is supposed to be matted, that is, the top and bottom of the frame is cut off in the projection booth. This makes for a sharper edge in the image. If you see the boom in the theater, the projectionist is messing up; in a dvd, the transfer was poor.
I was a projectionist as a work-study job at college, back in the day. Sweet job. Projecting movies, handing out equipment, helping the profs steal scenes from film to transfer to those new fangled VCRs. Took the Nagra that the film dept. had to a Dead concert.
http://www.archive.org/details/gd79-05-12.glassberg.vernon.18874.sbeok.shnf
(not my recording)
“C’est un Nagra. C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis”
July 31, 2009 at 12:25 pm
MOU
This was a cute splice job, not great but cute.
For John/Chris
Sgt Hartman VS Jack Nicholson