The Chinese Threat

Threat to Pentagon's rationale for high tech toys?

Memo From Beijing - Quake Revealed Deficiencies of China’s Military - NYTimes.com: 

"James C. Mulvenon, a specialist on the Chinese military at the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, a government contractor in Washington that performs classified analyses on overseas military programs, said the earthquake showed the army’s best and worst sides. It mobilized quickly, but the troops were unprepared to save lives in the first 72 hours, when thousands were buried under toppled masonry and every minute mattered.

“You basically had a bunch of guys humping through the mountains on foot and digging out people with their hands,” Mr. Mulvenon said. “It was not a stellar example of a modern military.”"

Eat Healthy, live longer

Early signs that good diet can prevent, maybe fight cancer.
An important read

Medicine | Better than cure | Economist.com:
Healthy living switches off genes that promote cancer

"That a healthy way of life can prevent cancer is well known. It is also becoming clear that clean living can help those who already have tumours to survive, and may even prevent the disease from coming back. A number of studies have shown these effects in breast cancer and colon cancer. But how they work at a molecular level remains a mystery."

Demographics

Good piece that covers a lot of the ground on the how and why of Europe's pending population decline.
Social issues that lead to aging populations and it touches on issues like longer working lives.

Interesting discussion on managing declining populations and shrinking cities

No Babies? - Declining Population in Europe - NYTimes.com

No blogging

Notice

No blogging for awhile
Spent 6 HOURS trying to chase flaws out of our network ...
WiFi, trying to extend the network but constant failures

Then went down into the crawlspace, inspected the hub, looked suspect.

Tracked back to the router, checking cables, etc.
Then back into the crawlspace, and there it was - bad signal on the T-10

So back to square one, and finally got the system back
But - no final jump

Note : I'm not, nor will I likely ever be a network trouble-shooter

Stepping up

Accepted a position on the Board of Michigan Land Use Institute

First meeting today, lots to get my arms around ...

I accepted it because I think I can add something, and I truly am behind some of the key programs, from local foods to "The Grand Vision", I need to learn more about issues like energy, as I'm not ready yet on "Big Wind"
At least in my backyard.

I do firmly believe in the idea that it's much easier to manage growth than decline.

Age

Unable to link to piece in Aviation Week & Space Technology

Transcribe message June 23

" Given the amount of tracking of aircraft life-hours, cycles-it seems odd for aviation expert Edmund S. Greenslet (AW&ST May 19 p19) to generalize and apply the "dog years" standard to airliners, in this case multiplying calendar years by three to get an idea on life stage. Venerable DC-3s and B-52s are 150 -180 years old, according to his standard, and are dead by most biological standards. As any of us past Greenslet's "prime of life" standard of 36 can tell you, it's not the years that tell the story. It's the mileage and maintenance."
Jim Tang
Kula Hawaii

mileage and maintenance

Take care of yourself...

Notes on the Net

Been commenting a bit more on Doc's Blog lately
He did a stint in the hospital (Harvard) and I felt compelled to throw in a quip from time to time.

We barely got to know one another via PCForum, some shared interests

Maybe more important was the fact that we are a few weeks apart in age, some similar life experiences, and both sorta "old techies" embracing some of the internet formats and forms.

Doc Searls Weblog : Hallelujah

Anyway, point of the post is that there is an asynchronous, factor at work. At my age, I may slip in banter and repartee in "real time" (a relative term).

There is a quasi-time in asynchronous communication that allows reflection, the latent "ah-ha" and all the functions of a too full for real time reaction memory.

Reference this :
http://looneydunes.blogspot.com/search?q=older+brains

"When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit."

Here's to another 30 yrs Doc ...

Long Bets -gets some "juice"

Million Dollar bet should get some notice

Congrats to folks at Long Now/Long Bets

Long Bets -:
"“Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S & P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses.”

Predictor
Warren Buffett

Challenger
Protege Partners, LLC

Stakes $1,000,000
will go to Girls Incorporated of Omaha if Buffett wins,
or Friends of Absolute Return for Kids, Inc if Protege Partners, LLC wins."

R.I.P.

Ah ... "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television" ...
Groundbreaker

George Carlin, Irreverent Comedian, Dies at 71 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

"Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center in November. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”

BTW : George Carlin lyrics - The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV

Policy issues

On this one, I have to say I'd side with McCain.
Corn ethanol subsidies strike me as a boondoggle and contribute to food inflation, waste taxpayer money and distract from better solutions.

Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol - NYTimes.com:

"Ethanol is one area in which Mr. Obama strongly disagrees with his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. While both presidential candidates emphasize the need for the United States to achieve “energy security” while also slowing down the carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, they offer sharply different visions of the role that ethanol, which can be made from a variety of organic materials, should play in those efforts.

Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.

“We made a series of mistakes by not adopting a sustainable energy policy, one of which is the subsidies for corn ethanol, which I warned in Iowa were going to destroy the market” and contribute to inflation, Mr. McCain said this month in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de S�o Paulo. “Besides, it is wrong,” he added, to tax Brazilian-made sugar cane ethanol, “which is much more efficient than corn ethanol.”"

Moonset

6AM
Moon getting ready to set




Also tried a video

More on floding

Found this after prior post

Copyright material, but will go into archives later ...

Midwest Floods Dredge Up Dispute

Critics Say Building
Near Rivers Is Cause
Of Recent Problems

By DOUGLAS BELKIN
June 19, 2008; Page A4

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Since the historic flood of 1993, nearly 30,000 homes have been built on land that was underwater around the Mississippi and Missouri rivers near St. Louis. This weekend, the dwellers may find out if they built wisely.

As the swollen Mississippi rolls south, breaching levees, drowning crops and submerging towns, a debate is intensifying among scientists, environmentalists and developers about whether development not only flirts with disaster, but helps cause it.

Developers started building a planned 5,700-unit subdivision called The New Town at St. Charles after the 1993 flood. Residents in this town 20 miles west of St. Louis said builders told them it would never flood. But now, as waters rise, many are uneasy.

"I asked my sister this morning if she had flood insurance," said Patty Moore, who was walking her dog near the town green this week. "She said, 'We live between two rivers, it would be foolish not to.'"

The White House on Wednesday asked Congress for $1.8 billion in emergency disaster aid in the wake of the Midwest floods. The money is intended to replenish the federal disaster-relief fund in anticipation of future losses. Losses from the current floods might have been higher if the federal government hadn't purchased low-lying land after the 1993 flood caused $12 billion in damage. The government has since bought out thousands of homeowners and turned much of their land into parks and undeveloped areas.

Around St. Louis, where the Mississippi is expected to crest this weekend, a number of scientists and activists argue the floods aren't caused by heavy rainfall but by irresponsible development. There has been considerable building since 1993 in Greater St. Louis, where demand for accessible property is at a premium. New and expanding communities pushed for new, taller and stronger levees.

By building along the riverbanks and forcing the Mississippi into a bed that is less than half the width of where it ran a century ago, residents are displacing water and forcing the river to run faster and higher. That, in turn, increases demand for taller, broader levees.

But as those levees make way for development that paves over wetlands, more runoff water is channeled into the river. Critics said the result is a self-perpetuating cycle: The rivers rise higher, new levees are built bigger, the rivers rise again.

Bob Chriss, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, said about the same amount of water washed down the Mississippi during a flood in 1903 as did in 1993. But in 1903, the river crested at 38 feet in St. Louis; in 1993, the waters rose to almost 50 feet.

"We're making these flood levels higher," Mr. Chriss said. "A stage of 38 feet was almost unheard of 100 years ago. Now it happens all the time."

Tim Kusky, a professor of natural sciences at St. Louis University, said, "Eventually some of these levees are going to fail. The question is when, not if."

At the center of the problem is an absence of any comprehensive river-management plan. Each levee along the Mississippi is under local control.

"Each levee has a small impact, but cumulatively they can have a large impact," said David Busse, the chief of engineering and construction for the St. Louis District of the Army Corps of Engineers. "From an engineering point of view, it would be great to look at the system as a system." Past efforts to assemble such a plan have fallen short.

The Army Corps itself, which helps build levees, has been a target of criticism by groups such as the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance in St. Louis, an advocacy group led by Adolphus Busch IV, a scion of the beer-making family. The organization was founded in 2000 to fight development on the flood plain between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Mr. Busch said floods have three times destroyed his home on a 2,000-acre spread west of St. Louis. In 1993, water rose to the second floor. Since then, he has had the structure raised onto an 18-foot-high mound of earth. "The Corps can't keep pushing more water downstream and then be surprised when there are serious consequences," Mr. Busch said.

Once planned, levees are rarely stopped, but a recent lawsuit halted construction of a levee on the Missouri River in Jefferson City, Mo., on environmental grounds.

"[Hurricane] Katrina was the real turning point for all of this," Mr. Busch said. "For a long time the Army Corps of Engineers was as close as you could get to God in the United States, but I think that's finally changing."

The Corps' Mr. Busse said the agency is neutral when it comes to building levees and acts at the request of Congress and local communities.

Let's get real - at least a little

First, I'll set up the straw man - that floods are due to Global Warming

Iowa Flooding - Global Warming Increases Frequency of Extreme Weather - Mississippi River Flooding - thedailygreen.com:

"What the Mississippi River Flood Tells Us About Global Warming...

The slug of slow-moving destruction that is making its way from Iowa down the Mississippi River Valley is extraordinary by any measure.

That the last flood of this magnitude occurred just 15 years ago should be cause for concern.

Floods happen. Big floods happen. Epic floods happen.

But they don't happen all the time. Scientists talk about the 100 Year Flood, and the 500 Year Flood. These are floods of such magnitude they could be expected to occur every 100 years, or every 500 years. Infrequently, in other words.

In Iowa, and on down the Mississippi River, that once-a-century event has happened twice in the life of some teenagers"

But let's take some things into consideration

Like ... It's called a Flood Plain!
F-L-O-O-D
Why oh why would those that choose to build and live on a flood plain expect anything but floods.

Our house in the Lansing area is sited next to Sycamore Creek, which floods
But, our house is built into the bank, on the high ground and across the creek is a 30 to 40 acre flood plain. When the creek rises, as it clears the bank, it ... floods the flood plain, and stops rising.

But let's continue.

Parts of the flood plain (Mississippi and others) have been engineered to not serve their natural purpose.

Iowa Flooding Could Be An Act of Man, Experts Say - washingtonpost.com:

"Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa, suspects that this natural disaster wasn't really all that natural. He points out that the heavy rains fell on a landscape radically reengineered by humans. Plowed fields have replaced tallgrass prairies. Fields have been meticulously drained with underground pipes. Streams and creeks have been straightened. Most of the wetlands are gone. Flood plains have been filled and developed.

'We've done numerous things to the landscape that took away these water-absorbing functions,' he said. 'Agriculture must respect the limits of nature.'"


And there is the question of the levee's
Midwest floods expose outdated levee systems - USATODAY.com:

"At least half of the 31 levees already breached or topped between southern Iowa and St. Louis were not built to handle a flood of such historic proportions, according to a USA TODAY review of data from the Army Corps of Engineers. Many of those were built at least 30 years ago, and some date to the 1940s.

As riverside development has boomed, 'levees built 50 years ago for agricultural purposes are often now asked to do the work of a residential or urban levee,' says Eric Halpin, a corps special assistant for dam and levee safety. The floods 'show a need for more robust and resilient levee systems.'"

But note - other levee's have been build, increasing the load on earlier structures

When the Levee Breaks: Is the Culprit Rain--Or Overdevelopment?: Scientific American:

"Efforts to carve a controlled channel for the Missouri, Mississippi and their tributary rivers also contributed to the problem. The reason: the Mississippi now flows through a conduit roughly half the width of its channel that existed before most of the levees were built, which means more water passes faster through a narrower area. 'Channeling the river means you are going to have higher crests in the river,' Corley notes, that are sometimes higher than the levees built previously to contain them."

The following is from May 17th ... 2007

Development Rises on St. Louis Area Flood Plains - New York Times:

"About 28,000 homes have been built and more than 6,000 acres of commercial and industrial space developed on land that was underwater in 1993, according to research by Nicholas Pinter, a geologist who studies the region at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Building is happening on flood plains across Missouri, but most of the development is in the St. Louis area, and it is estimated to be worth more than $2.2 billion. Though scientists warn about the danger of such building, the Missouri government has subsidized some of it through tax financing for builders.

“No one has really looked at the cumulative effect,” said Timothy M. Kusky, a professor of natural sciences at St. Louis University, who calculates that there has been more development on the Missouri River flood plain in the years since 1993 than at any other time in the history of the region."


Maybe we should consider that it's not good to fool with Mother Nature
CO2 and other factors may be affecting climate change, but it's more obvious that drainage, channeling (higher levees) of rivers add a great deal to the problem.

As for development on flood plains - it should not be permitted.
And I think its an abomination that such development qualifies for "National Flood Insurance."

Hillary for Veep?

Maybe not ...

Obama's Message to Hillary - WSJ.com:
June 17, 2008 11:25 p.m.

"Barack Obama has sent a clear but unmistakable response to the pressure he's been getting to put Hillary Clinton on his ticket as the vice presidential nominee. Yesterday, his campaign named Patti Solis Doyle, the former Clinton campaign manager who was fired in February and has not spoken to Mrs. Clinton since, as the chief of staff who will help guide whomever he picks as his running mate.

A major Clinton fundraiser told the New York Observer he considered the move 'the biggest f--- you I have ever seen in politics.' According to the unnamed Clinton donor, 'Clinton loyalists view [Ms. Doyle] with deep suspicion and believe that she is shopping around a book deal and acted as a background source for an extremely harsh Vanity Fair piece about Bill Clinton.'

'Either one of two things happen,' predicted the fundraiser. 'Hillary is selected as vice president and they fire Patti, or Hillary is not going to be the vice president.'

Team Obama insists no message is being sent in the hiring of Ms. Doyle, who was one of several campaign staffers whose appointment was announced on Monday. But Clinton insiders say the former First Couple is livid over the appointment and it will not make repairing relations between the two camps any easier."

Le Bear

Black bear I'd posted about a few days ago
Front page of Leelanau Enterprise:

Joel Mabus

Played tonight at the Leelanau School
Crowd of a few dozen

Turns out he'd turned down a later offer to perform with Garrison Keeler in Ann Arbor tonight to fulfill his commitment to do a workshop and concert here.

Joel Mabus Home:
"'It's hard to imagine another artist on the folk scene
who combines the same concise, deceptively understated, lyrical insight and sometimes devastating wit with such world-class instrumental prowess'"

5th3rd Cont ...

and the Beat Goes On ...

MarketBeat : Today's Regional Banking Dog: Fifth Third:

"BMO analysts say the company is in danger of cutting its dividend by at least half due to greater-than-expected losses in the mortgage portfolio, where the bank has significant exposure to the stressed markets of Florida and Michigan. Shares are down 13% and are among the more actively traded on the Nasdaq (behind the usual tech giants).

In a commentary Wednesday, Fox, Pitt-Kelton analyst Dan Wantrobski questioned whether “anyone was even close” to that vaunted capitulation moment the world eagerly awaits. He says Fifth Third is one of those, demonstrating a requisite number of lousy characteristics that “in the past signaled proximity to trend exhaustion.”"

Or maybe just a poorly managed bank ...
Personally, I'm fed up with them.

So There

It was back at the end of February that they started chasing me away with failures to exectute.

Sit down with an officer was April 1 - he chose the day

It's taken a little time to set up alternatives, but I started pulling money out this month ...




Bye Bye

Maybe it was something else

Media Charged With Sexism in Clinton Coverage - NYTimes.com:

"Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a “Media Hall of Shame,” starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter."

Maybe there were other factors
Assuming too much, poor campaign management, wrong competition (an articulate, non "urban" black man). Maybe it was Bill Clinton - how could that factor be sexist?

Fickle

I'm not sure that this is "butterfly love" but, for a moment, it is a threesome


Tiger Swallowtails if I recall right

For Nikki - bit of Thunder

Audio on the camera did not pick up the Rolling Thunder well enough

Wild Life - update

Looney Dunes: Wild life

I'll update more if the Leelanau Enterprise posts online
Front page today's paper (it's a weekly) and story about Da Bear, spotted nearby, with photo.

Est was 200-300 lbs
bet it was same one we spotted

Brainwashing

Now This Really Is an Oil Shock:

A new poll says fewer Americans blame the industry for $4-a-gallon gas

Come on folks, those greedy, rapacious, oil companies have the current administration in their pocket.

Ideas that China and India are fueling global demand are just hogwash.

It's just a conspiracy

The companies have secretly invested in solar and wind, bio-fuels and are forcing oil prices higher so that these investments pay off.

Leadership

OK, so there's this "motivational" poster ...



But maybe the team just gets to see a horses ass?

Wild life

First off, headed to a meeting yesterday and moving along, speed limit (55) on M-72
Some woods, mostly farmland when I spotted a brown blur to my left, just about the A-Pillar of the Jeep.
Followed by a thump
Wow
Checked mirror - and a big white-tail, maybe buck, but too early in season to tell
Whoomped the left rear quarter
Saw the deer flailing about off to the shoulder
Stopped and got out
Deer had made to the treeline - may survive, may not
No real damage as it was a glancing blow
Some saliva, mud smear (shot taken this evening)



First serious deer hit for me

Then tonight, headed home from Glen Arbor, about 8:30PM

Big, healthy Black Bear sauntering off the road into the woods
Only have my phone camera, so you really can't make him/her out
But he/she is sitting just off the road, in the bushes

My guess 200+lbs
I was NOT going to get out for a closer shot!


Time to get back to keeping a camera in the car!

Jeff Jonas: Future of Data

Excellent post from a very knowledgeable source

read it

Jeff Jonas: USC School of Cinematic Arts, "Imagine the World in 2050":

"putting the science back in science fiction." and the future of ubiquitous data.

Follow up to Summary

Doc Searls Weblog � Meet the new boss, nothing like the old boss

Quoting Dave Winer
The Internet destabilizes every hierarchy it contacts. It erases every barrier to entry. The only way to win is to point off-site, in every way you can think of. Win by offering better value, not by locking users in. People will become instant refugees to escape your clutches. Think you’re immune? Think again.

It’s about the Net. And the Net is us. It’s all outside, not inside.

---
Clinton's may have been masters of the medium, pre-net, but not of today’s.

Suspect that you can’t spin the net, there is a lack of central mass

You can spin a top, something with centralized mass, inertia, but not a fog.

Summary

Good summary

Clinton's still "leaders of the party" until the election
Click to read the whole thing

Political Memo - Campaign Adds to Complicated Clinton Legacy - NYTimes.com:

"WASHINGTON — Bill and Hillary Clinton have stirred virulent passions in their nearly two decades in the national spotlight. They have been known as many things, good and bad — brilliant policy analysts, manipulators of facts and friends, tireless campaigners, skillful political tacticians, monumentally self-absorbed baby boomers. But most of all they were known as winners.

Until now.

While the Clintons will almost certainly play a continuing role in national politics, and while Mrs. Clinton could yet emerge as this year’s vice-presidential nominee, a major chapter in their vertiginous public biography was closed when Mrs. Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Senator Barack Obama on Saturday. The Clintons’ complicated legacy is all the more complicated now.

Mrs. Clinton, who survived public humiliation as first lady and then easily won two Senate races in New York, entered the 2008 presidential primary season as the odds-on favorite because of money, connections and celebrity. But through a series of blunders and the appearance of a once-in-a-lifetime opponent, Mrs. Clinton saw the prize slip through her grasp despite a valiant personal effort that lasted through the final contests in South Dakota and Montana.

The Clintons often seemed out of touch with the political times — cautious when they should have been bold, negative when they should have been inspirational. Exquisitely attuned to the political winds in 1992, they watched Mr. Obama almost effortlessly master the changed environment of 2008."

Bold added as I think it hits home
Just out of touch with today's voter, and IT/message handling

Then spotted Doc's piece:

Doc Searls Weblog � Meet the new boss, nothing like the old boss

Quoting Dave Winer
The Internet destabilizes every hierarchy it contacts. It erases every barrier to entry. The only way to win is to point off-site, in every way you can think of. Win by offering better value, not by locking users in. People will become instant refugees to escape your clutches. Think you’re immune? Think again.

It’s about the Net. And the Net is us. It’s all outside, not inside.

---
Clinton's may have been masters of the medium, pre-net, but not of today’s.

Suspect that you can’t spin the net, there is a lack of central mass

You can spin a top, something with centralized mass, inertia, but not a fog.

And from Dave Winer:
Scripting News: 6/8/2008:
"People who saw the Internet as a fund-raising phenomenon after the Dean campaign were missing the point, as we said over and over, and I think at first Obama missed it too -- but he has a young, flexible and ambitious mind. When Clinton said in one of the debates that he must not only denounce Lewis Farrakhan, he must also reject him, you could see his eyes light up (at 5:52 in the video) -- Okay cooool, he said 'I reject him!' So when the Internet proved it could deliver minds and bodies in addition to dollars and cents, who was Young Obama to argue?

This is the kind of flexibility you rarely see in anyone, esp in someone as young as Obama. Always look for ways to submit, to surrender. Decide what's important to you and give up on everything else. Who cares what word you want to use -- you want me to reject, then I reject!"

Again emphases added

Torture

Maybe Torture should be allowed

Plead guilty, your partners plead guilty, but you contend you were right all along ...

Maybe a bit of waterboarding, how about the rack, boiling oil?

Talking Business - Serving Time, but Lacking Remorse - NYTimes.com:

"Some guys just don’t know when to shut up. William S. Lerach is one of those guys.

William S. Lerach was sentenced to two years after pleading guilty to playing a role in a kickback scheme at his law firm.

Once the most feared plaintiffs’ lawyer in the land, Mr. Lerach went to prison last month for his involvement in a long-running kickback scheme. His former firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, you see, allegedly made secret payments to a small group of people who acted, in effect, as Potemkin plaintiffs, allowing the firm to trot them out as clients whenever it wanted to sue a company whose stock had fallen. Which, by the way, was often; in its glory years, Milberg Weiss’s annual “market share” in securities litigation exceeded 50 percent."

Great big Whoops

Flyboys screw up
Brass pays for it

From the service that's trying to find a justification for it's existence.
This was the same branch of the armed forces that hinted that it didn't care what Gates said about weapon's systems, they'd go to Congress for more money for pet projects.

2 Leaders Ousted From Air Force in Atomic Errors - NYTimes.com

"The Air Force secretary, Michael W. Wynne, and the service’s chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, were forced to resign after the inquiry found that the latest in a series of incidents reflected “a pattern of poor performance” in securing sensitive military components, Mr. Gates said at a Pentagon briefing.

So deep and serious are the problems, Mr. Gates said, that he has asked a former secretary of defense and of energy, James R. Schlesinger, to head “a senior-level task force” to recommend improvements in the safekeeping of nuclear weapons, delivery vehicles and other sensitive items."

Image so funny I had to post it

Bubba Trouble

The Comeback Id

Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton’s post–White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife’s campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton’s medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say “no.” Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self.

by Todd S. Purdum July 2008

Sic Transit Gloria

How about a big round of "boo hoo"
Note that this piece seems to be very Manhattan-centric.

It's as if layoffs on Wall St. are news.

Lesson - live below your means, not beyond.

It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich - NYTimes.com:

"They seem to have nothing to fret about: their net worths range from $5 million to $1 billion. A blip in the markets shouldn’t send their chateau-size Park Avenue co-ops to foreclosure or exile them to Payless Shoes.

But Ms. Chemtob’s clients are concerned all the same, she said, because their incomes have shrunk, say, to $2 million a year from $8 million, and they know that their 2008 bonus checks are likely to be much less impressive.

One of her clients recently confessed that his net worth had decreased to $8 million from more than $20 million, and he thinks that his wife will leave him. He has hidden their fall in fortune by taking on debt to pay for her extravagant clothes and vacations.

“I literally had to sit there and tell him that he had to tell his wife that she had to stop spending,” she said. “He was actually scared she would leave him because their financial situation changed so drastically.”"

Doofus season starts

At least they didn't have a group of strippers on board ... or did they. That's not covered.

Traverse City Record-Eagle - Party gets wet before it gets wild:
"TRAVERSE CITY -- He sunk his boat on his bachelor party, but Bryan Wyzgoski figures his bride-to-be will forgive him.

'I think she'll still take me,' he said with a wide grin.

The Traverse City resident, clad in full pirate gear for the party, was aboard his 1984 Aqua Patio in West Grand Traverse Bay with six friends Friday afternoon. They put in at Bowers Harbor on the way to Power Island for a camping trip, but the boat's left pontoon sprung a leak less than halfway to the island.

'It was a patched hole we had fixed,' Wyzgoski, 25, said. 'Well, apparently didn't fix.'"

Title says it all

Click below - for cool pic

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Captures Images of Phoenix Lander's Descent | Popular Science

Later : source:

Descent of the Phoenix Lander (PSP_008579_9020)
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

MRO's HiRISE camera acquired this dramatic oblique image of Phoenix descending on its parachute. Shown here is a a wider view of the full image, showing a 10 kilometer diameter crater informally called “Heimdall,” and an improved full-resolution image of the parachute and lander.

Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into the crater, it is actually about 20 kilometers in front of the crater. It is difficult to believe that it is in front of the crater because it is so much smaller, but in reality it is, and that's a good thing because landing on the steep rocky slopes of the crater would have been far too exciting (or risky).

Ouch Ouch Ow Ouch

Rules are for others ...

Hopefully we can move on soon.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan:
"My question to you and anyone else who may be interested is: Why is it that the Democrats who played by the rules are now to be punished?

I am a 51 year old white woman with two daughters who live, work and attend school in Florida. Both of them played by the rules and did not vote in the Florida primary as they were told their votes would not count. Why is no one concerned about their disenfranchisement?"

Evening videos

A few min late for best color
Shot 9PM

First, a pan from shore to clouds overhead




Then a horizontal pan



Still getting the hang of this, not steady enough

Slamming the Clintons

From Robert George - black republican jouralist from Brooklyn

Ouch
I noticed the reference to '68 Dem Convention (aka police riot) ... not really what the Democrats want as a reference point.

RAGGED THOTS: Co-Dependent No More:

"'Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. ...Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?'"

Joseph Welch to McCarthy in Army/McCarthy hearings

" For nearly two decades, we have enabled these deeply disturbing people to corrupt our politics and culture to a sickening level. We have said that their way of playing politics is just "hardball" of a different degree. No, this is politics of a different kind. Because the Clinton machine has an element of amour-propre that makes it something inhuman. There truly is nothing that these people will not do to gain and retain power.

I refuse to be party to this."

Celebs

Sydney Pollack, Director of High-Profile Hollywood Movies, Is Dead at 73 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Triggers thoughts of Celebs that are sighted up here

I recall a decade or more ago when Sydney was at one of our local haunts (LaBecasse).

Owner was in a tizzy, we said, please just calm down and let's get on with the evening

Local lore : 

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis : word that they had a kid at Interlochen

Big wedding last summer : George Clooney & Tom Hanks

Better was Harrison Ford on his bike (trailed by bodyguard)

Basically, I believe when I see

Farewell Sydney

Sounds sorta familiar

Deep Hot Biosphere?

Observatory - Evidence of Prokaryotes Far Below the Ocean Floor - NYTimes.com:
"The latest evidence for such a huge undersea biosphere, and a depth record of sorts, is reported in Science by R. John Parkes of Cardiff University and colleagues. They have found living prokaryotes 5,335 feet below the ocean floor off Newfoundland, about twice as deep as the previous record.

Intact cells were found in cores drilled through sediments up to 111 million years old, although the age of the prokaryotes themselves is an open question. The researchers were able to amplify genetic material, which strongly suggests that the cells are living, feeding on trapped methane, other hydrocarbons and organic carbon."

Wired 8.07: Fuel's Paradise: (highly suggested reading)

Buried deep in the Earth, says Gold, lies a second realm, a bacterial biosphere greater in mass than all the creatures living on the surface.

"Today, Gold sees other evidence of the deep hot biosphere. There's life on the floors of the oceans, making use of the chemicals gushing out of volcanic vents, and there have been bacteria turning up in deep holes all around the world - in the Columbia River basalts of Washington, in oil wells in the North Sea, in South African gold mines, and in the Swedish drilling program Gold set up. And though most planetary scientists are unconvinced by the claims made in 1996 that a Martian meteorite had fossils in it, thinking about the Mars rock focused people's minds on the possibility that a planet with a lifeless surface need not have a lifeless interior."

"The whole story of the deep hot biosphere is that oil coming up from below, without biology, will be food material for microbiology when it gets to a relatively shallow level where the temperature is not too high. For the microbes to use that oil as food when there's no atmospheric oxygen, they have to find oxygen in the rocks. There is plenty there, but there is not all that much in an easily removable form."

And the kicker :

"I knew something that, to this day, the petroleum geologists in this country don't seem to know - that astronomical observations had detected large amounts of hydrocarbons on various planetary bodies in our solar system. We didn't have the very good results that we now have from Titan showing seven different hydrocarbons. But I knew that there were perfectly sound astronomical observations showing hydrocarbons to be common on planetary bodies. So it seemed natural that there should be similar hydrocarbons within the Earth, slowly seeping out."

But if we aren't going to run out of hydrocarbons, how can we have high prices ???

Hummm

On the Road Again

First off, took a little while to learn how to "Embed" another's video in this blog

So here goes
Got the Saber out yesterday

All works just fine

Toes on pegs, about at the balls of my feet
Light touch on the bars, index and middle finger of each hand covering the clutch and front brake.
Pretty much steer by subtile shifting of weight.

The power is still soooo nice: a flat torque curve from 2,000 RPM to 10,000.
Nothing sudden, except that you end up going pretty fast pretty quickly.

Note that when young, with a more aggressive rider, this would be a low 11 second quarter mile machine.
It gets from zero to 50 in under 3 seconds if you want to.



Oh yeah and it gets about 40MPG
More fun than a Prius

Data Point

Significant change underway

This is about miles, not the type of vehicle, which takes longer to change.

Americans Driving At Historic Lows:

"The FHWA’s “Traffic Volume Trends” report, produced monthly since 1942, shows that estimated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on all U.S. public roads for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent as compared with March 2007 travel. This is the first time estimated March travel on public roads fell since 1979. At 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than in the previous March, this is the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history."

Good quote

From Wired

Climate Change Is Inevitable. Get Used to It: 

"Better to take Stewart Brand's advice from the opening page of the original Whole Earth Catalog: 'We are as gods and might as well get good at it.' 

We're in charge here. 

Let's get to work."

Geekdome rules...

OMG ... am I a geek?

Ah well, whatever

Op-Ed Columnist - The Alpha Geeks - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com


I do read Stewart Brand and Lawrence Lessig
And blog ... some

On a more serious note

I tried to read this piece at our wedding ...
got a bit choked up

...their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams

So so true

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Ready and waiting

Let's see, we use to hear that that those videos from Osama bin Laden could have contained hidden codes to signal terrorist cells to take action ...

Clinton, Discussing Nomination Battle, Invokes R.F.K. Assassination - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog:

"It was in the context of discussions about her political future that Mrs. Clinton made the remarks Thursday, in a meeting with the editorial board of the the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

“People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa,” where she came in third, behind Mr. Obama and former Senator John Edwards, Mrs. Clinton said. When asked why that would be she said she did not know; primaries sometimes go on a long time and there was no reason she should give up hers prematurely.

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,” Mrs. Clinton said, dismissing the idea of dropping out."

Back to Hybrid bashing

Just back from Silicon Valley a couple weeks ago, a place of odd motoring mix. Plenty of Prius's (or is it Priui") but many BMWs', some SUV's, motorcycles, bicycles etc.

Anyway, the following confirms my thinking, the Prius is an image thing, not an answer.

Envoy), 15yr old Cadillac For now, we'll stick to our 8yr old mid-sized SUV (GMCSTS (mid sized around town car when we are downstate), 10+yr old Jeep (woods beater), 3yr old Honda (about 30MPG), and 20+ yr old Motorcycle.

Keeping all running is less energy intensive than new cars.

Don't Buy That New Prius! Test-Drive a Used Car Instead:

"Pound for pound, making a Prius contributes more carbon to the atmosphere than making a Hummer, largely due to the environmental cost of the 30 pounds of nickel in the hybrid's battery."

More here:
AskPablo: Time to get a new car? ( Hummer, H2, Prius, Fuel Efficiency, Hybrid, Energy, BTU,)

Flashback

Listened to this on way home this afternoon

Biography Details the 'King of Comics' : NPR:

"In his new biography, Kirby: King of Comics, TV and comics writer Mark Evanier details the life and career of noted comic artist Jack Kirby.

Kirby is the co-creator (with Stan Lee) of the Marvel Comics characters the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and X-Men. He's also credited with changing the look of the comics in the 1940s, moving away from visuals that aped what was being done in syndicated newspaper strips."

Flashback to mid 60's, part of it was early college time.
Little did I know that my collection of Marvel Comics would be worth something (gave a large stack away to my brother)

I thought at the time that there was "something special" about some of them, Hulk, Thor, Spider Man, Silver Surfer, Doc Strange ...
Well, several have become major motion pictures, not all blockbusters, but some, such as Spiderman have!

I was drawn to the "graphic arts" that broke the mold of the old DC comics.

Sooo a flashback
I don't recall what grade I got, or even if it was more than a pass/fail class
Philosophy
For my term paper, I took a portable tape recorder, got behind the wheel and unloaded maybe an hour of "stream of consciousness" discourse.
I do recall referring to various "comicbook" characters, some mentioned above, throwing them into various philosophical contexts, and archtypes.

All I know is that I passes, I suspect that the professor didn't quite know how to judge it... different media and all.
Because, of course, I just turned in the tape.

October Suprise

Need to make this a quick post but here's some thinking

Changes in the Middle East

Israel and Syria are talking, Iran may be pressured to talk nice and back down from confrontation.

Instead of going to war with Iran (rumors from the left) ... some sort of deal arranged by the "most incompetent administration since Harding" that lowers tensions in the Middle East?

Maybe even lower oil by fall?

Is any of this possible?

Not betting on it, but not betting against it either...

Toping out?

Sometimes these headlines are a sign of the end of a move

An Oracle of Oil Predicts $200-a-Barrel Crude

"Mr. Murti, who has a bit of a green streak, is not bothered much by the prospect of even higher oil prices, figuring it might finally prompt America to become more energy efficient.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Murti has become the talk of the oil market by issuing one sensational forecast after another. A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas at $4 a gallon is arriving just in time for those long summer drives.

Mr. Murti, 39, argues that the world’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for oil means prices will keep rising from here and stay above $100 into 2011. Others disagree, arguing that prices could abruptly tumble if speculators in the market rush for the exits. But the grim calculus of Mr. Murti’s prediction, issued in March and reconfirmed two weeks ago, is enough to give anyone pause: in an America of $200 oil, gasoline could cost more than $6 a gallon.

That would be fine with Mr. Murti, who owns not one but two hybrid cars. “I’m actually fairly anti-oil,” says Mr. Murti, who grew up in New Jersey. “One of the biggest challenges our country faces is our addiction to oil.”

I thought so ...

Just as I thought I was getting more forgetfull

Aging Brains Take In More Information, Studies Show :

"When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit.

The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, “Progress in Brain Research.”

Some brains do deteriorate with age. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, strikes 13 percent of Americans 65 and older. But for most aging adults, the authors say, much of what occurs is a gradually widening focus of attention that makes it more difficult to latch onto just one fact, like a name or a telephone number. Although that can be frustrating, it is often useful."

I do find myself considering various options, although I seem to have always had a tendency to look several steps ahead in projects, take a global view and look for how disparate pieces might fit together.

Makes me feel ... OLD

Now the Gen X'ers are bashing the Gen Y's


Features : Radar Online : A Call to Arms Against Millennials

Calling Dr. Freud

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan:
Quote For The Day

18 May 2008 09:00 pm

'I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that anyone who supported me -- the 17 million people who have voted for me -- understand what a grave error it would be not to vote for Sen. McCain . . . uh, Sen. Obama, and against Sen. McCain,' - Senator Hillary Clinton.

CNN cleaned up the quote. But you know how she really feels."

Slip or was it, as Bill says "you know, she's 60 and maybe she was tired"

21st Century and Globalization

Excerpt from Fareed Zakaria's new book:

The Rise of the Rest 

Pax Americana and all that...

It's still an American world

"Generations from now, when historians write about these times, they might note that by the turn of the 21st century, the United States had succeeded in it's great, historical mission - globalizing the world."

More on the Legends

More good stuff, from one of the judges
View from the inside

Judging Legends

From two weeks ago, Ritz Carlton @ Half Moon Bay.
My prior post : Looney Dunes: Legend

Some video clips as well

Found another video here

Connections

Some pieces on connectivity, as in online community or group tools
Interesting stuff

Note : I'm a believer in wiki's for collaboration and archiving of information
But the fact that the service I've been using is currently off line is a bit disconcerting..




Other applications, Local to Federal

One on building tenants
They’re All Connected - New York Times


This one is copyright WSJournal:
---

From Wikinomics to Government 2.0
May 12, 2008; Page A13
You don't need to have a Facebook account, or to have edited a Wikipedia entry, to understand that the Web is in another highly disruptive period. Online tools under the rubric Web 2.0 are changing how information flows, with social networks letting people communicate directly with one another. This is reversing the top-down, one-way approach to communications that began with Gutenberg, challenging everything from how bosses try to manage to how consumers make or break products with instant mass feedback.

The institution that has most resisted new ways of doing things is the biggest one of all: government. This is about to change, with public-sector bureaucracies the new target for Web innovators. These include Don Tapscott, the business-strategy consultant who, with his New Paradigm consulting colleague Anthony Williams, in 2006 popularized Web 2.0 with the bestselling "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything."

Mr. Tapscott's next research project is called "Government 2.0: Wikinomics, Government & Democracy." Its participants include the Office of Management and Budget. The goal is to use Web-based collaboration to "reinvent government."

If this sounds fanciful, here's a quick refresher on these new Web tools, and why government makes an excellent prospect for change.

The Wikinomics book tells the über-anecdote of a Toronto gold mining company, Goldcorp, whose in-house geologists were no longer able to estimate the location of gold on its properties. The company decided to publish its geological data, previously considered confidential intellectual property. This "open source" approach solicited outsiders to suggest where to prospect. Contestants applied disciplines including math, physics, computer graphics and even military strategy. Goldcorp converted about a half million dollars in prize money into billions of dollars in found gold.

Likewise, services such as eBay and YouTube thrive by providing new ways for people to engage with one another. Open-source, nonprofit Linux confounded traditional software operating-system makers, and Wikipedia displaced the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica as an ultimate source for information.

The recently expanded edition of the "Wikinomics" book adds examples of how collaborative tools are changing governments. Technology makes it easy to publish information that used to be inaccessible. Chicagoans track crime by neighborhood, combining city crime statistics with Google's online maps (http://chicago.everyblock.com/). In Los Angeles, Neighborhood Knowledge California identifies communities at economic risk by tracking tax delinquency, fire violations and other signs of deterioration (http://nkca.ucla.edu/).

The federal government has launched several wikis, which permit staffers to post information and expand on it until a consensus is reached. Intellipedia lets 37,000 officials at the CIA, FBI, NSA and other U.S. intelligence agencies share information and even rate one another for accuracy in password-protected wikis, some "top secret." Users are told, "We want your knowledge, not your agency seal"; indeed, the wiki format may be the best last hope for connecting the dots of intelligence across 16 different agencies. Diplopedia lets State Department staff share information. It's closed to the public, rated "sensitive but unclassified." In the virtual world Second Life, where personal avatars can communicate with one another, the State Department now has an embassy.

Daniel Mintz, chief information officer for the Transportation Department, has noted how radical it is for government agencies to engage in wikis. They challenge the traditional notion that "all published information produced by a government agency be 'accurate,'" and that "any material a federal employee publishes can be taken as establishing or implying the establishment of formal policy."

Project Government 2.0 is based on the assumption that even governments can't fight technologies that give power to the people. "If governments are to ensure their relevance and authority, they must move quickly to meet rising expectations for openness, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency in the public sector," the project outline says.

Web 2.0 has promising implications for those who think the best government is the one that governs least, especially outside basic functions like national defense and law enforcement. Can more direct participation by citizens in assessing policies limit government ambitions to what government can actually accomplish? Would citizen taxpayers put their collective faith in most spending programs? Or is there a risk that the wisdom of crowds as reflected in Web 2.0 won't turn out to be so wise?

Democracy and governing are complex topics, but this makes it all the more important to apply technology as a solution. Government is the ultimate institution retaining the traditional top-down structure, technologically backward, with big decisions almost always made with incomplete information on what works and what doesn't work. Here's hoping that Web 2.0 can make government more effective by tapping information among officials and citizens, perhaps even finding a new consensus on where the wisdom of government begins and ends.

Please send comments to informationage@wsj.com

Morning

Just after 8AM today



Early morning fog had lifted

Feedback

Will be interesting to see if anything happens


Sent:
Dan (or whoever the screener is)

Spotted the Ad on ABC this evening and thought I'd give some feedback

1) I dropped Sprint wireless a few years back, but mainly because of spotty coverage
I live in a rural area, NW Mich and understand that it may not fit your business
model
That's OK
I was Sprint customer for CDMA

2) I was a user, until a couple of months ago, of your Long Distance service

a) some years ago, we had massive overcharges, which customer service could not
address
Collections were able to sort the problems out

b) for some reason, maybe fact that I use Mac's not PC, I could never make the
online payment work
Instead, I used the voice activated payment system

So here's my point - try your voice payment system
It just flat does not make sense

Frankly : it makes the company sound dumb

Situation : you either key in or speak your Visa number
The voice reads it back and asks "is this correct" : your respond
Then the voice reads a confirm code and asks "is this correct"

Can you see that the second read back makes no sense what so ever?

Just a past customer trying to give positive feedback

Best
JTHoagland

Received:
Thank you for taking the time to write. To truly revolutionize wireless, we need your input. It’s people like you who are using our services everyday that can provide the best perspective. We'll be looking through all the ideas and feedback we receive.

This will, of course, take some time. I appreciate your patience until we can get you a response. A representative from my office will be contacting you in about a week.

In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about our new Simply Everything plan, you can find the details at www.sprint.com/everything.

Once again, from all of us at Sprint, thank you.

Dan Hesse

President and CEO – Sprint

Goin Local

First local asparagus tonight

Picked up at local grocery ... some stalks thick, so I peeled the "skin" for the lower half of the stalks
Soaked in water while I prepped the steaks, onions, 'shrooms

I've learned to like our asparagus pencil thin to thick as your thumb.

Then tossed in skillet with boiling (beyond boiling) hot grapeseed oil
Splash of white wine and cover
Steam (with the oil) as well as crisp fry them.

We enjoy our neighbors "Empire Asparagus Festival - 5th Annual Empire Asparagus Fest!"

Have you tried Asparagus Brats? How about deep fried Asparagus ?
Don't knock them till you try them

Think local
Think good
Think "snap it"

Oh yeah
Local (well ex local) writer : Jim Harrison ( likely my favorite writer )
Movie Wolf

YouTube - Wolf - Breaking the News to Stewart

Horoscopes

subtitle "Entertainment Tonight"

1) I don't really buy into this hocus-pocus, but
2) being a "Gemini-Cancer cusp" ...
3) I can be in a crowd while all alone ... and
4) sometimes have interesting conversations ... with myself

So Sorry

Doubt that it's really my fault
But maybe ...

Dropped the spotty cell service sometime about a year ago.
Then dropped unused long distance service a couple of months ago.
Besides the automated pay process was totally lame

Unable to do it online (because I use Mac's?)
Had to do it by phone

Go through the robo-voice routine, but lame as in when you key in your card number, it reads it back, asking "is this correct"

Then gives you confirm number and repeats "is this correct"?
Huh?
How the F&%# would I know?

Sprint Nextel Posts Loss and Offers Gloomy Outlook - New York Times:

"Sprint Nextel has received plenty of attention recently for its plans to roll out a new kind of high-speed wireless Internet service. But in light of its earnings report on Monday, some analysts are saying that what it needs more is customers."

Watch This

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams:

Good clip

Good piece, we'll see if it stays or disappears

Video - CNBC.com

Thesis that banking and finance stocks are not the place to be, that there will be much more regulation in the years ahead, spreads and margins will suffer and the cost structure has been built for an earlier environment.
Read : more layoffs to come

More : Commodities may be in bubble stage, much like the dot-com era.

Good, economically sensitive stocks are a buy.

Excellent post

David Brooks on :

The Cognitive Age - New York Times


Good analysis that it's brains not brawn that determine where jobs go

Investment Banking

Summary is that Investment Banking is not a great place to be for some time to come:

Taking a closer look at today's market action, with Stephen Wood, Russell Investments portfolio strategist; Michael Aronstein, Oscar Gruss chief investment strategist; and CNBC's Dylan Ratigan.

Video - CNBC.com

I concur ... massive repricing of risk and growing conservatism by bankers.

Quick Link for photos

Been using Flickr for a few years now, agree that it's best for sharing.

Now video - discovered that sometime last month.
Will explore more


Flickr rules in photo sharing, as video tiptoes in - USATODAY.com

Google zaps MuSoft with Yahoo

I agree with the following, comments below.

Yahoo May Find Victory in Microsoft Deal's Defeat (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner) at SmartMoney.com:

"So I was hopping mad, and felt I had every right to be. I would have taken Microsoft's $33 and been happy to get it. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to believe that Yahoo may have stumbled onto the right course. My indignation has slowly drained way.

It all depends on what Yahoo does now. In my view, it has to abandon harebrained ideas like partnering with Time Warner's (TWX) AOL, and face up to some hard decisions. It should admit that its own search advertising effort has failed and vigorously pursue a relationship with Google (GOOG).

Yahoo made no mention of this in its statement, but clearly Google loomed large in determining the fate of the Microsoft bid. Under the pressure of the unsolicited offer, Yahoo began outsourcing some of its search advertising to Google in what apparently was a highly successful trial. This clearly weighed on Ballmer, and he specifically cited the potential relationship as a deal breaker in a weekend letter to Yang.

A Yahoo-Google search partnership would be the ultimate poison pill to Microsoft, which, should it acquire Yahoo, would never outsource a large chunk of its business to its archrival."

Background
When I ran ads for Earthy.com I'd tried banners then switched to AdWords. I was an early adopter and saw the value vs Yahoo's approach and less effective pay per click (which actually started as go.com then renamed as overture.

This is a brilliant move for Google and Yahoo as well.
Drop loosing model, adapt the winning.

I do use Yahoo for it's finance tools, and believe that it's interface works well for this type of function.
Google for search, Yahoo for set functions.

Starting to use Google tools like "Docs" as well.

Handwriting is on the wall for MuSoft, and I think Steve knows it.

More politics

Today's WSJournal on Gas Taxes"

If you want to discourage activity, tax it, not the other way
McCain and Clinton have it wrong

Mr. Market's Oil Fix: Higher Taxes
May 7, 2008

Oil's climb to $122 a barrel has policy makers and presidential candidates scrambling for quick, feel-good solutions. Trouble is, their ideas are exactly the opposite of what straightforward market economics says is needed.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton want to send cash-strapped consumers on holidays from the federal gasoline tax. But the law they can't rewrite -- the law of supply and demand -- suggests it would backfire. Lower taxes would encourage people to drive more, meaning more demand that would push prices higher again. That would fatten the bottom line of Big Oil and suppliers like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and add to global carbon emissions.

What the U.S. really needs, if it seeks a real fix to its energy-consumption problem, is less demand, not more. Mr. Market says there's a simple way to do that: Jack up the gas tax. Don't lower it.

Economists call it a "Pigovian Tax," in honor of English economist Arthur Pigou, who early in the 20th century examined economic activity that hurts innocent bystanders. To stop behavior that's not in the public good, you tax it more, not less.

Of course, a higher gas tax would hurt working-class Americans who rely on their cars, though other taxes, like the federal payroll taxes or state sales taxes on food, could be lowered to offset it.

Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, President Bush's former chief economic adviser, has proposed raising the tax by 10 cents a year for 10 years, to give the economy time to adjust.

"It should lower world oil prices," says Mr. Mankiw, whose pro-gas-tax group, the Pigou Club, includes unexpected bedfellows Alan Greenspan and Al Gore.

U.S. gas taxes have been flat for years, while most major industrialized nations have raised theirs. Raising them would fight pollution and congestion, ease the federal budget deficit, add urgency to the search for viable fossil-fuel alternatives, and help reduce U.S. addiction to foreign oil.

Unfortunately, it doesn't win elections. And the only market that matters now is the one for votes.

Another opinion on Legend

From Edmunds.com

While Pebble Beach has corporate branding, Legend is a pure enthusiast event:

Karl on Cars - Legend of the Motorcycle: Pebble Beach without Posers:

"This past weekend the show held its 3rd annual event, and I attended for the first time. Much like (I imagine) the third Pebble Beach Concours or Monterey Historics felt, this show has a purity that separates the posers from the players. While the occasional over-coiffed attendee made an apperance, the bulk of the assembled masses, whether showing a motorcycle or enjoying the motorcycle show, was clearly a true two-wheeled enthusiast."

Brief Political comment

Spotted this Monday:

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan:
"Intelligence Is The Enemy"

"[The gas tax holiday] idea is, as an educated friend of mine who very much wants to support Clinton told me as we waited for Clinton to arrive, an insult to her intelligence. But then, there was Clinton, insulting the intelligence of her audience every chance she got. The only common theme to emerge from the 30-minute ramble was an attack on our enemies. China is the enemy for selling us lead-contaminated toys and poison pet food. The Saudis are the enemy for exploiting our addition(sic) to oil. The rest of OPEC, too. And worst of all are those evil, parasitic "middlemen" who pop up in every corner of the economy, ready to take a cut and give back nothing."

Gas tax holiday is exactly the wrong message to send the market, unless, of course, you are politician.

Parasitic middlemen - like those who speculate on cattle futures...

Pondering differences

NYTimes referencing Legends as similar to Pebble Beach

Looney Dunes: Yet more on Legends

Got me thinking this AM ( as the cobwebs were clearing )
What's my personal perception on cars vs motorcycles, and the people who associate with each.

Cars : epitome of car collector/show entrant might be Ralph Lauren. While I've never met Ralph, and likely never will, I don't picture him on a motorcycle.
Cars are fashion, sometimes high fashion, beautiful but as rolling art.

Sometimes the folks who focus on cars are pretentious and posers (not all, but enough)

Motorcycles are kinetic, they are all about motion, action.
You may drive a car, you RIDE a motorcycle.
You can talk on a cellphone, eat, read, fiddle with the radio, even do your makeup while driving, not with a motorcycle.

Motorcycles are tactile, you feel the traction (or lack of), the throttle and brake, you use all of your limbs, and often your weight (shifting to the inside of turns, hanging off the inside).
Cars you steer and use throttle & brake but your butt stays put.

I guess the biggest difference is in the crowds at these shows.
Motorcyclists are passionate and rarely poseurs.
Poseurs soon fall down.
Riders with gray hair may well have fallen down, but they climb back on.

Which brings me to the true dividing line.
Motorcycles are dangerous, you can get hurt.
With cars, you can get hurt, but often as not, you don't.
With cars, you screw up, you bend it, with motorcycles, you screw up, likely you get bent.

Cars are fun, motorcycles are serious

Motorcyclists don't need to declare their passion, it just is.
The crowd at "Legend" was quiet and mutually respectful.
Those of us with some salt & pepper up top know that we all love the same things.

Ning-ing

I've tried it a bit

Ning's Infinite Ambition -- Viral Networks -- Viral Expansion Loop -- Social Networking Start-Ups | Fast Company

Just got it as for the name - n... an unspecified number.

So it's n-ing

But not necessarily a breakthrough, seem that it's similar to the old MCI "Friends and Family" promotion

Nevertheless - worth a try.

http://www.ning/com

Yeow

Just cruised Bonhams auction results (I did not hang around for it)

1975 Ducati 750SS

Mere $100,000 plus Premium and tax.

Granted, it's one owner, original, unrestored "low mileage" bike.

This is what we raced in the mid 70's
Now, what could a race winner go for?

Yet more on Legends

Brief piece in the Times:

Cycles Reach for Pebble Beach Cachet - Motorcycle Auction - Collecting - New York Times

"“In three short years, this has become what many call the ‘Pebble Beach of motorcycles,’ ” Mr. Zaugg said, “which is quite a compliment considering that the Pebble Beach concours has been in existence for over half a century and is considered the hallmark of automobile events. Nothing like this exists for motorcycles anywhere else in the world.”

I plan to make it an annual event.

Photos: Legends of the Motorcycle - The New York Times; Slide Show

Related: I don't know the gate, but last year's was reported to be 6000 attendees

Sounds from Half Moon - a set on Flickr

Posted up some video clips
Just with pocket camera, nothing spectacular, but maybe some spectacular sounds ...

Sounds from Half Moon - a set on Flickr

Noted that there were a lot of gray heads
As Jon noted : "Gray Heads have money"

Another great line - throttle therapy beats the any other type.

Note : I'm still learning this video stuff

Legend

Went over to Half Moon Bay today

Legend of the Motorcycle: Concours d'Elegance

Caught up with some friends
Fun day

Already thinking about next year, and pondering how to get a few of my bikes to the "left coast"

Some photos, maybe more later
Legend of the Motorcycle
Also did some video with pocket camera, will try to learn how to upload

Some very significant bikes on display (and runners)
Such as Honda 500GP : Hailwood's

With family less than an hour away, looks like this will be a regular event for me.

Later, discovered this:
2008 Legend of the Motorcycle - webBikeWorld

Wish I'd done my "homework" and I would have appreciated some of the rarer bikes more.

Stuff like this:
P1050328 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Hildebrand & Wolfm�ller

"the first motorcycle that was available for purchase" (1894)


One of the best t-shirts: "Don't Hide it ... Ride It"
I'll have to plead guilty of leaving too many in the shop

Pimp my ride

Got to the Valley today

Rental Car that I use : National
Offered up a Chevy or a Dodge "Magnum"
Well
Not in market for any, but took the Magnum
Cool looks, sparse features, but has Sirius Radio

Soo. .. cool thing about Sirius is : found "classic rock vinyl"
Dead with "Casey Jones", Creme with "White Room"
Had to roll down the windows and crank up the volume a bit

Byrds, Eagles, etc.
I always thought I understood the "California Car Culture"
Today ... maybe a bit more

Interesting bit on history

Listened to interview with Tony while driving home late Monday on NPR.
Interesting, may get his book:

Tony Horwitz’s Book ‘A Voyage Long and Strange’ Looks for Little-Known Stories of American History - New York Times

Dirty Michigan?

So far, just rumor
New state tax incentives may be taking hold

Will Michigan star in next Clint Eastwood film? | Freep.com |

There has been speculation that “Gran Torino” will be the sixth “Dirty Harry” entry — Harry drove a ’72 Gran Torino in 1973’s “Magnum Force,” the first “Harry” sequel — though the smarter money says it will involve Eastwood’s character befriending a Hmong family in a small Minnesota town.

Janet Lockwood, director of the Michigan Film Office, wouldn’t confirm that Eastwood is heading our way.

“Until the paperwork is signed, I can’t make any announcement.”

BF

Before Fudgies

Just after 9:30 AM
Our "front yard"

Still experimenting with video function of Canon "Powershot" SD 850IS