iStringer

The Blue Man Lake

2011-02-05T16:52:00.008-05:00

Gippsland lake near Victoria, Australia is home to the bluest waters in the world--and I do mean blue. A species of plankton, Noctiluca Scintillans, that lives in the lake, but have grown much larger in population due to the extreme weather that has rained down on Australia these past couple years have caused this simple form of organic life to grow, or is that glow?

The species turn blue, and give off bio luminescence when exposed to movement. And Phil Hart, engineer by day and plankton photographer extraordinaire by night, took the pictures you see here. They are not manipulated in any way. But, no need to worry, climate change, extreme weather and the rest of the strange happenings these last couple years are just part of a natural cycle according to ideological non-scientist politicians. And politicians never lie.

From The Age:

He said the conditions required to generate the deep sulphur-coloured glow emerged over many months - starting with the December 2006 alpine bushfires.

Within months of the fires, which left the landscape scarred and dusted with nitrogen-rich ash, came rain. More than 100 millimetres fell on parts of Gippsland in June 2007, flushing nitrogen and other nutrients into the Gippsland Lakes.

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Monkey Business Japanese Style

2011-01-24T10:23:00.003-05:00

Japan is known as an international business powerhouse and for it's non-nonsese police force but one thing keeps evading the Japanese: a macaque monkey named Lucky. Her luck ran out on Oct. 18 of last year after she was caught in a residents home in Mishima and her crime spree came to an abrupt end. She is accused of biting over 118 people in addition to being disorderly and stealing food, mainly bananas.

Lucky made her daring escape from Rakujuen Garden in Mishima, which she probably had planned for weeks, when a a zoo keeper who was cleaning his cage took her eye off the feisty little gal for a second and left the door unlocked. Lucky was gone after she looked up from her cleaning duties.

"It was a human error," Rakujuen head of Shizuo Sugiyama (the zoo she was kept at) said in an apology during a news conference held by city officials.

Lucky's was spotted JR Mishima Station and 20 workers tried to capture her but were unsuccessful. It is not known whether she boarded a train, but, if she did, there is no record of her purchasing a ticket.

Mishima City city officials have put out an APB for lucky and have urged residents to stay in doors. As of the time of this report, no new thefts have been reported as Lucky is probably laying low, or, maybe flying high, evading capture by stealthily hanging from trees.

One thing is for certain: Lucky will be captured again. The only question is when, who will be bit and how many more bananas will to be stolen beforehand. The garden she was being held at did see an increase in visitors as a result of Lucky's stay but the monkey was losing hair due to stress from captivity, which probably led to Lucky planning this daring escape.

Anne Hathaway Gets Catty!

2011-01-19T18:20:00.004-05:00

Anne Hathaway, who first came to the Hollywood scene in The Princess Diaries, has is been cast as the Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's third, and last, series in his Batman films. Throughout the vast and unedited world of commenting on yahoo! stories the reaction was quicker than a cheetah: Hathaway apparently has no business in a catsuit as she is no Kiera Knightley, the supposed runner-up for the role.

However, Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight was nothing short of brilliant and the late actor pushed the envelope and in my opinion, did a far better job as the Joker than his predecessor, Jack Nicholson. And that says a lot since I saw Tim Burton's Batman in the theater with my mom and my brother John and it is a shining memory from childhood.

But, to my point: Ledger was most well-known in the 2000s from Brokeback Mountain and 10 Things I hate About You. And guess what? Both those movies targeted women. They were love stories. One high-brow, one more teeny bobberish. So, Ledger didn't exactly have a bona-fide bad guy resume at all before the joker, yet he excelled. So, I think the same leeway should be afforded to Hathaway. Moreover, the young actress has at least one high-brow bad girl role: Rachael Getting Married. In it she plays the sister of Rachael, and she is just home from rehab and was a pretty bad girl who brought the usual torment to her family that drug addicts bring to the table. Granted it was a chick-flick, but she made the movie enjoyable and shined in it. She also starred in Havoc, a film about a rich, spoiled teen from a wealthy area in LA and she pulled that role off too, by changing from a teen looking for fun to full-fledged girlfriend of a dangerous gangbanger from East LA. She received praise from Christopher Null, of filmcritc.com, who wrote that Hathaway's performance proved "without a doubt that she has been underutilized as an actress for far too long."

Ironically, she was a voice in the anime movie, The Cat Returns. Yes, she does so Michelle Pfeiffer meet Anne Hathaway. I, for one, think Hathaway will, at the very least, scratch at the threads of Pfeiffer's much praised performance from Batman Returns and give her a run for her money--or, in this case, milk.

I Hate To Burst Your Bubble, But Inflation In The Yaun Aint Nutin' But Trouble

2011-01-11T16:49:00.002-05:00

China only officially raised interest rates one time last year but in December 2010, for sixth time last year, they raised the Reserve Ratio Requirement (RRR) to a record 19 percent. It is 10 percent in the United States. For some background, the RRR is that amount of money that a bank must hold in ratio to it's liabilities (i.e. deposits). China uses the RRR as an inflation-fighting tool and if China was a Mortal Kombat avatar it would be the easiest move to make: Rawr, Raise that ratio again. The problem is it doesn't appear to be working; as of November inflation was at 5 percent.

This must come as a surprise to some people as the unlimited China growth dragon flies high in the minds of most Americans who regard it as some type of super economy that holds America hostage with T-Bonds. To clarify, China holds about $2 trillion of them. We use this money to finance operations (the deficit); they use it to peg the value of the Yuan (RMB) to the dollar. If China were to dump Treasuries en masses it would hurt us but it would crush them. Unlike China, the Untied States isn't a fairy tale and our country holds a lot of welth in its assets alone. The problem is we have a lot of debt which is never good as it puts to be in the position of having to at the very least entertian Cjineses demands and at most to give in to them. But that sounds so adversarial, and the Unitied States and China are undergoing some current friction in regards to trade but war is hardly imminent.

But this story is popular in Asia and if you watch movies from the 1980s you'd think that by now Japan would be our feudal overlords when in fact they have been mired in deflation and a no-growth slump for decades.

The problem is that rising inflation in China in commodities, like food and gas, kill their consumer sector which is barely a fetus right now. It also kills jobs. China has a jobs policy ever since Tienanmen Square in order to quell protests and riots--one person, one job. But, if the current pace keeps up, China will burst big time, just like the Tulip bubble back in the 1600s. Tulips once went from being worth thousands of dollars in today's money to being worth, well, the price of a tulip.

From Peter Tasker, in a Financial Times article:

"The China story that has been sold so skilfully all over the world is simply another version of the “new era” thinking that has characterized every investment mania from the South Sea bubble to the dot-com frenzy

"If China were to follow Japan, the next stage would be labor strife and inflation. The best way to avoid that outcome would be a radical tightening of the current super-easy monetary policy. But that would risk a serious slowdown and probably necessitate a large revaluation of the Renminbi – both anathema to Beijing. Meanwhile, China’s reliance on a cheap currency is helping to fuel a trade war, in the words of the Brazilian finance minister."

I fear the biggest threat right now in finance comes from China and the mania that goes along with it. Whole cities sit empty. Don't beleive me look up Ordos City on YouTube; it's quite creepy. The South China Mall is the titanic of commercial properties built to be the best and right now it is a sunken shell of dreams too big to have been dreamt.

The point is is that if you believe the China story, you will be in for a big surprise this year or sometime soon as inflation finally takes off to the moon. And just today the China decided for the first time to offer the Yuan to U.S. traders in FOREX markets, which is something that before now would have been unthinkable as it takes away power from the party leaders in China. But things are happening fast so before you go buying a bunch of Yuans, you might want to consider building a fireplace in order to keep you warm because you could lose all your money and need those Yuans to keep warm.

Grumpy Old Swedes

2011-01-09T15:52:00.004-05:00

Well, Philadelphia can breathe a sigh of relief this snow brawl didn't involve Santa or parking chairs (yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a parking chair). Anyhoo, in Jönköping in southern central Sweden, two elderly men, who probably had icy relations to begin with, took a disagreement about shoveling their driveways to a new level: they attacked each other with their shovels. It was a real cage match.

"Something happened that upset one of the neighbors, who then attacked, while the other one defended himself. It started out with a little shove, then some chaos ensued," Nils-Erik Eriksson, media relations officer at the Jönköping police force, told the local newspaper J-Nytt.

It's certainly not the news of the day with the tragedy that struck our nation yesterday, but this is a little something to add some levity to these times as no one was seriosly hurt and it just seems like something out of a bad B-movie. Here's the link: Grumpy old Swedes.

Does anyone else get the feeling Russel Brand is in BIG trouble?

2011-01-07T00:57:00.004-05:00

Ok, this happened days ago but i like to keep the pop flowing like lava, or mud, since that is what Katy Perry Should have been wearing on her face to hide her different she looks sans Loreal. In all seriousness, what was Russell Brand thinking taking a photo of his new wife sans make-up and putting it on Twitter. Did he not understand the meaning of the site Gawker.com. Uh, it's fairly obvious. They gawk. And in this case they haven't laughed so hard since Heidi Montag took on robotic proportions. Seriously Heidi, why? why? why? I remember your cover shot from back in 2007 in Stuff, a now deceased mag, like so many other formerly great publications that bit it with Lehman Bros, and you were gorgeous. I could have loved you even with all your personality faults. Alas, here is Katy perry...sorry Katy:

OMG, It's Raing Blackbirds

2011-01-04T16:23:00.004-05:00

Blackbirds are dropping out of the sky in Beebee, Ark. (5,000 of them), and now, another 500 suffered they same fate yesterday in Louisiana. Is it time to panic? Were the Mayans a year off in their 2012 prediction? OMG, run, panic, hide.

Well, maybe you should stay put. As Pres. Calvin Coolidge said, and he didn't say much, four-fifths of your problems will disappear from just sitting still. From the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission: "Results from preliminary testing released today by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission Veterinary Diagnostic Lab show that red-winged blackbirds died from massive trauma on New Year’s Eve.

"It’s not apparent what caused the bird’s unusual behavior, although loud noises were reported shortly before the birds began to fall from the sky. Blackbirds have poor night vision and do not typically fly at night."

There, problem solved. Oh wait, no one believes any form of government these days. So it must be chemical testing by the evil wings of the secret government that runs the government. Possibly it's God's admonition to us. Maybe a cloaked UFO that the birds run afoul of in flight? Hey, the second season of V starts tonight. And it's raining red that show. Maybe this is just some over the top PR for ABC.

But incidents like this have occurred as recently as four years ago in Australia.

So, while the jury is out on what is causing birds to die en masse, it's safe to say you shouldn't run for the hills just yet. A caveat: culture throughout history have believed that birds are omens and birds falling from the sky are the worst kind. But, if you were living in 900 B.C.E., and saw 10,000 birds fall from the sky, that might just get passed down and become human myth. After all, they couldn't just log into Google and find all they needed to know, now could they?

A very, reasonable prediction for the new year

2011-01-03T14:52:00.003-05:00

In mid-April of 2010, Eyjafjallajokull (pronounce E-Ya-Jokul in American English), a volacono, erupted. It spewed ash into the Stratosphere bringing European air traffic to a grinding halt. Which is much better than keeping them in the air and having their engines come to a grinding halt because of ash. But E.Jokul, that's what we will call her or him (I'm not sure of the gender of this volcano) lives next door to a much more powerful giant caldera volcano, Katla.

And since records were kept, and this goes back to 900 A.D., every time E.Jokul erupts (it's erupted three times since 916 A.D), Katla blasts its top 6 months to 1.5 years later. Obviously, this is empirical evidence and geologists caution that one does not want to enage in the post hoc fallacy that one thing follows the other; there is no evidence for it. It is thought that the lava produced by E. Jokul melts the the 600 meter ice cap, yes 600 meters, that rests atop the sleeping giant, causing it to burst like a giant pimple sending ash high into the air since cold water and lava cause explosions. Hopefully, al-Qaeda isn't reading this though I doubt they'd be able to use it given their recent ineptitude with underwear bombs and death printers.

So, given the evidence I'm going to tell everyone to cool their jets as an eruption of Katla is likely given past history. But you might not want to start shorting European airline just yet, as predictions are just that, predictions. Though this is more of an educated guess. In any event, check out this video of last year's eruption. If nothing, else it'll make reading this post worthwhile is the video is simply amazing.

A Kosher NYE, a personal post

2010-12-31T20:33:00.002-05:00

This New Year's Eve I am going to spend it as if it were Yum Kippur: I am going to refelct on the year's events and what I did right and what I did wrong. I'm going to forgive all those who may have done something bad to me and forgive myself for the things I have done wrong. I'm going to reflect. I'm going to look forward. And my resolution is to never look back. It's hard to find your way if you're always looking behind you...and you also tend to run into problems since your not paying attention to what really matters: the present and the future, the things that can be changed with hard wrok and dedication. The past is just that, the past. It's good to refelct on it but obssevily reliving your mistakes and catching a case of the if-onlys and what-ifs never helped anyone. You can't change the past. Not yet. Not until someone builds atime machine. And if you read my one story you will notice the symbolism of isolation and being stuck and trapped. So happy New Years and don't drive drunk. Call a cab. Call a friend. Nut don't be stupid. You owe to yourself; you owe it to the society you live in.

Rare earths...the latest investment fad sure to make you money in the short term in my get in, get out philosophy.

2010-12-30T14:15:00.000-05:00

REE, SHZ, XING. You want to make money. There: that's how you do it. I'd get out of commodities and especially metals, that's a dangerous game there now with ll these asset purchases taking place. I've never seen bond move like this before. Phew. Mortage rates jump a percent in month. Ouch, homeowners, sorry you just 10 percent of your ass--et.

The Reports of Charlie Sheen's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

2010-12-27T16:42:00.009-05:00

Global Associated News, which as far as news sources go is apparently a little less reliable then The Onion for truthiness, reported that Sheen died in a snowboarding accident while on holiday in Switzerland. From the site:

--Charlie Sheen was air lifted by ski patrol teams to a local hospital, however, it is believed that the actor died instantly from the impact of the crash. The actor was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and drugs and alcohol do not appear to have played any part in his death. --

They probably should have added that he also just opened a Swiss bank account for good measure, that way they can play the paying-hookers-with-tax-evasion-monies angle. Now the only thing we have to wait for is the inevitable round of puns from the Internet's form of Troglodytes pontificating on how ironic it was that snow that caused his death.

Apparently, the good people of the Web receive a lot of joy from death hoaxes. First it was Bill Cosby. Russel Crowe was next. Then Morgan Freeman. Johnny Depp. Finally, Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series. However, I may have to look into reports of Meyer's death hoax, they may just have been commenting on the death of her literary career, and rebirth in the realm of zombie rom-com novels and movies that men everywhere are tortured by in theaters. Gossip Cop, which is neither a cop nor much of a gossiper, debunked the report and is very, very serious about not liking these death hoaxes. I believe they made the movie "A Serious Man" which should have been called a "Serious Waste of Money" and two hours of my life. You better make it up in True Grit, Coen brothers. Yeah, that's right, I'm looking at you two.

Wikileaks and other things with holes in them

2010-12-22T14:51:00.005-05:00

The one thing I don't understand about this wikileaks drama, and, no, if you haven't heard about it, it is not about Julian Assange's ability to break condoms before sex, is that some people seem stunned, stunned that the government keeps secrets. I no longer know how I feel about it. One ex-NSA contact of mine, says some disparaging things about Mr. Assange and I understand his reasons.

"People died as a direct result of him," the ex spy says. "He's scum and just wants to destroy the United Sates and embarrass us."

He did intimate that it would be hard to bring charges of treason against him given Assange's lack of U.S. citizenship, but he is sure there are other ways the government could get him and believes they should given the damage he has done and the people that died as a result of his action.

"You don't understand intelligence operations," he said. "Do you think they [al-Qaeda] can't act unless they have actual names. Even snippets of intel give them more than they need and now what interpreter would want to work for us?"

But the question I ask is this: has the release caused a confidential informant to die? We can never know for sure, but if what this ex-spy says is true, he damaged our ability to conduct diplomacy, so maybe this was a neo-con con job all along given their position of death not diplomacy. Hey this article has to have a little fun, no? I am its main backer, main writer, main producer, main editor, I am, in fact, iStringer, who is closely related to Matt Stringer in the sense that I am him too. This is virtual me. Wow, that was a tangent. Anyhoo...

Maybe for Christmas good 'ol Uncle Sammy will get Assange as a gift from the U.K. Maybe we'll just snag him or possibly, since he embarrassed Putin as well, he might just be eating some polonium sushi soon. Me, myself, I try to stay away from that brand of Sushi. Not done being alive yet.
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Fool's gold

2010-12-21T12:19:00.002-05:00

You can buy a a 1300 gold put right now for about $11. What that means is that Gold will go down to 1300 and the put is where you take profits when it does. If you do this, and it's correct, the profit will be huge, as shorts, ipso facto, always are, since they are risky. Am I stupid for thinking this? Maybe I am. And maybe house prices always rise. Oh wait, they don't. And guess what? Neither will gold and there's a reason pyrite is called fool's gold, cause there is never a shortage of pyrite or fools. BTW, there are good reasons I believe this and I didnt read it on fucking Yahoo!;furthermore, never, ever get and or believe any financial info on that shit Web site. They are coproration and have interests and inherently biased in this regard. Proceed with caution.

REVIEW: Good Time Max

2010-12-16T19:54:00.004-05:00

A low budget, high brow film directed by, starring, and produced by none other than the start of 127 hours: James Franco. From cocaine deals gone awry to defecation on antique rugs, Fracno rose above and got even higher in this film then even Pineapple Express, his most successful movie to date. Though I loved Pineapple Express, and it was a non stop ride of laughs, Good Time Max mixes high brow art with the lowest forms of depravity: meth smoking, drug pilfering and the corruption of fellow employers, which got him fired. "This is nerd fun" he says at one point while blasting off bottle-rockets that accidentally sets his friend's neighbors porch one fire and then sets of a water fight. It's a serious film about two genius brothers who paths diverge and converge in California: one becomes a successful surgeon, the other a part-time genius, full-time fuck-up. In the end, it all comes together and shows the intricacies of twinship. In short, this is what I will from now on will call A Great Fucking Movie, to quote Tome Sizemore in True Romance.

A Miracle on Broad Street

2010-12-14T10:47:00.004-05:00

Last December, as the Eagles were struggling against the Cowboys, news came across the ticker on the game in some local bar that the Phillies had signed Roy Halladay. They now had Both lee and Halladay--a literal dream team when combined with Hamels. Fans were high-fiving everywhere and then they heard the news and the only sound that could be heard, was not a mouse it twas the slow drop of glasses as if suspended in time before shattering the silence by breaking on the the ground. The Phils had traded every fans favorite pitcher: Cliff Lee. Even Lee himself was stunned. Ecstasy turned to agony and the what ifs began. Fast forward to July when the Phils picked up Roy Oswalt; the most coveted pitcher on the market at the time. It quieted all the what ifs. We again had a dream team of pitchers. But yesterday something miraculous happened. Cliff Lee, a man of men, a hero to the people, took a lower salary to return to Philadelphia and pitch for the Phillies. This is no longer a dream team of pitchers. It has become robotic: R2C2, the most dreaded rotation in baseball. I'm not saying the Phils will win 162 games, I'm just saying 161?

If your name is Putin, don't read any further

2010-12-10T17:21:00.004-05:00

So, apparently Putin, the Russian puppetmaster, er, Prime Minister, has this to say about the whole Wikidrama and Mr. Assange: "You know what our villagers say: while someone's cow is mooing, yours better be silent. So I would like to shoot the puck back at our American colleagues."Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Are you saying that we should muzzle our cows and getthem on the ice to play hockey, America's least favorite sport, in order to give it a ratings boost? 'Cause all I'm hearing is that you just lost a couple cards in your deck and that wasn't full to begin with.

David Rosenberg did you not get the memo?

2010-12-10T17:14:00.004-05:00

Orders from on high demand that all economists fall in line and tell the people the truth: that next year, the picture is so rosy the FED will be printing money with pictures of rainbows and unicorns that shit skittles. But, yet, the Gluskin Shiff economist continues to say stuff like this: "In my view, real GDP growth in the U.S.A. is set to slow from around 3% in 2010 to 2% in 2011, or possibly even lower. This is not a double-dip but it is a slower growth profile. We went to 3% in 2010 from -2.6% in 2009 so the second derivative was positive. But for the coming year, the second derivative is likely going to decline."

I like your whole the world-is-not-ending theme, but why not go the extra step and drink the CNBC koolaid. C'mon David you know you want to!

The Irish aren't going gentle into that goodnight, they are going to rage, rage against the IMF plight

2010-12-09T19:23:00.001-05:00

The much maligned bailout package forced on the now vassal state of Ireland by the EU and IMF may not come to fruition, sources say. And by sources I mean the Irish Times. The Labour Party is in staunch opposition to the package which will force draconian cuts in spending and lower the minimum wage to what amounts to $10.13/hr, which is still $3 more than here. Hmmm. That's, uh, something to ponder in and of itself. Anyhoo, if Labour gets its way the Irish may remain independent just yet. And if you think I'm being hyperbolic, go ask an Argentinian what he or she thinks of the IMF. You may want to learn some Spanish first and practice your running as you're going to need to get out of there faster then Speedy Gonzalez can say, rápido (run).

Sorry folks, the much talked about 2012 Sarah Palin/Kate Gosselin ticket looks like a bust

2010-12-09T19:00:00.006-05:00

Yup, after the two mama grizzlies, who juggle fame and family time, vacationed together in Alaska's wilderness and escaped the glaring spotlight of the pesky press in the continetnal U.S., with cameras in tow of course, it appears the chemistry between the two broke down like a seventh-grade science project--along with Kate herself. The former star of Jon and Kate Plus 8 just couldn't hang with Mrs. Mama Grizzly and scurried away like a scared squirrel after being afraid for her kids' lives. Maybe Sarah forgot to tell her they were the actual mama grizzlies; there weren't any real ones. I was so hoping for this super ticket which would be sure to bring down Pres. Obama, but some dreams don't come true. I guess I'll have to pin my hopes on the 2012 Bill O'Reilly/ Stephen Colbert ticket. But is papa bear still returning Stephen's phone calls? Don't know. Neither of them return mine.

In other news, I think I need to work on my satire cause after reading this I don't think it cuts it. Itmore like a dull spoon that makes me want to gag. But, I'm posting it anyways to keep this journalist humble. For now!

Hey, check out Echonomics for some more sounds from the perpetually noisy Wall Street.

The Silver Brick Road

2010-12-08T15:52:00.001-05:00

Silver has been shining as an investment opportunity as of late haveing risen as high as $31 from its $18 an ounce price a couple months ago. The historical ratio for an ounce of silver to and ounce of gold is 15-1, which is glaring different from now: the ratio is about 60-1. So, this make it potentially a huge investment and everyone is talking about it. With good reason: its risen 67.6 % this year. But, I wouldn't go investing just yet. I'm no expert; I'm just a journalist who reads a lot and finds economics fascinating.

But, there is one metal that is going under the radar: palladium. It's risen nearly 90 % this year and its only going further up, up and away. Why you ask? Simple. In those far off lands of India and China, who have booming middle classes, women don't want silver and they don't want no gold; they want palladium jewelry. And, it's alos cheaper to use then platinum in catalytic converters, and we're going to need a lot more of that car part thanks to the huge destruction of used cars in the cash for clunkers program last year. Thousands of cars were destroyed. New ones and new converters will be needed. Hey, this is just one man's view. Don't shoot the messenger.

This blog is going world wide

2010-12-08T15:41:00.000-05:00

Since I started this new blog and deleted my old one, which I thought was on life support since no live persons followed it, I have already gained one follower--and that's one more than my last old blog. Moreover, people have read my writings from America, Canada, Spain, Croatia, Russia, and the U.K. I'll be ecstatic when I get the reader I covet most; someone from Mongolia--that's when you know you've made it.

But I did import my short stories and kept the link to the podcast I help produce and edit. Take a listen to it; you can learn a lot from listening since the show goes on many tangents, hence its name. But, also check out my economics blog, since no one has. I'll be posting something new and exciting real soon. In other news, today was a great day.

AMC's latest drama walks all over Mad Men and Breaking Bad

2010-12-07T15:27:00.000-05:00

The Walking Dead's season finale killed the previous competition's records by taking the biggest bite ever out of the coveted blood of the 18-49 demographic, scoring 4.1 million viewers. That's twice as many as the channel's flag ship show, Mad Men. Though, I still think Breaking Bad beats 'em all in shear originality: a boring chemistry teacher who contracts lung cancer and starts cooking meth with his worst student ever and breaks bad in Southwest lingo. But the show is not about drugs; it's about living your life to the fullest and feeling alive and the show has some pretty good anti-drug messages, which is needed more than ever in our society with teenage drug use inching higher.

In other news, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange turned himself in but hasn't released the dreaded "insurance file." If nothing else, It has sparked a debate on the press which is surely good for me given that I'm a journalist by trade and a writer at heart.

P.S. It appears the Europe's popular revolt against deposits didn't have enough assets in the field to crash the big bad banks.

Europe's run and cyborg marriage.

2010-12-06T23:21:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is a big day in Europe and a major offensive on the part of the people is planned against the banks main assets: their deposits. Will it work. In theory, it could. But you must understand they can just limit access to funds and order more currency out of thin air, or, by the push of a button. If this occurred in money market funds, it definitely would work as these funds are tied to short-term high-value assets and liabilities like T-bills and CDs (which by the have to be the worst investment ever; yeah I'll tie up $500 for two years so I can gain a 1 percent return.) One MM run occurred in Sept. 15, 2008 in which $500 billion was withdrawn in a matter of hours. But we'll see.

This is my first post on this new blog. I will be updating and posting links to the old blogs, specifically, my collection of short stories. In other news, I heard Spedi (Heidi Montag and Spencer Bratt, er,Pratt) renewed their vows a couple weeks ago. I know there is a big push against gay marriage but since when are cyborgs who are part plastic allowed to marry? Maybe that was a little too far but Heidi used to be such a pretty woman and she didn't need to do that. I actually feel sorry for her and wish her the best.

The Part-time recovery

2010-12-04T17:29:00.001-05:00

It seems the unemployed, who are constantly berated as being pretty lazy people who hate work, are leading the trend in actual job growth cause it's all part-time, baby. Well, not all. Two-thirds of job growth since 2008 is part-time and those part-timers, just like the unemployed, must be living a life of lazy luxury with their annual $20,000 income. (Source: BLS) In other news, the economy netted a whopping 39,000 jobs in Novmebr; at that rate we will see employment back at its 2007 level sometime between 2039 and never.