Alone Together

1. Great QOTD

The QOTD below is from Fred Wilpon. Fred baby is the owner of the NY Mets. Fred invested most of his fortune with one of his best friends in the world... [wait for it]... Bernie Madoff. Because of Madoff's lying and deceit, the Wilpon family may very well lose their ownership of the Mets after owning (and loving) the team for more than 3 decades. 

All this is blah blah blah, human interest stuff, but Fred Wilpon's quote about dealing with such a hardship and betrayal by one of his closest friends really got to me.

QOTD

"Don't get angry. Be very disappointed in Bernie.
Hurt? You can feel that personally. But don't get angry.
Because if you get angry, you will eat up your own insides."

- F Wilpon, on dealing with Bernie Madoff's betrayal, SI article

2. 2%

Book: "The Extra 2%" by Jonah Keri
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... OK.

This book describes the early, funny years of the Tampa Devil Rays, and then their ascendency under new, high-falutin' ownership. The book has meager goals, which are meagerly achieved. It's pretty dry, but there are some pretty funny stories in there that make it worth it:

1. Tampa traded OF Randy Winn to Seattle for manager Lou Piniella.
2. Tampa had a low-level scout following a "pudgy kid from Missouri", but the scout is ignored. In the 13th round of the 1999 draft, the D-Rays selected Jason Pruett. 7 picks later the St. Louis Cardinal picked Albert Pujols. Pujols was the 400-something'th pick in the draft. In Pujols' rookie season, a year later, he hits 37 homer and 130 rbi.

3. Me and you and tech
Book: "Alone Together" by Sherry Turkle
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... very good!
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/169514799

I stopped at Starbucks one afternoon before heading in to St Eth. There was a father there with his daughter. It was Norman Rockwell visits the 21st century. The young Dad seemed solid. She was 4-5 years old... as cute as could be. The two were interacting while he was in line for some coffee: a fine father-daughter afternoon out.

Well, he got his cuppa joe and then sat down with his daughter and... whipped out his iPhone, and the dude was gone. Zoned out. He started texting while his cuter-than-cute daughter walked the aisles. We waved at each other a couple of times. But the Dad was zoned out. Not present.

This book is nonfiction, a nerdy enterprise, about technology and its impact on us as human beings. The author is a sociologist/psychologist, (dop) but it's quite good. Relevant technology ranges from robots to cell phones to Facebook and beyond... anything that is part of the tech immersion that society is undergoing.

The book seems to have two separate veins running through it:

1. Turkle's analysis of the impact of technology on future generations and her predictions about this.
2. Turkle's experience as a 50-something in using and adapting to technology in her own life

Of course, her personal stories are a lot more interesting than her predictions. And I'll admit, I definitely empathized with her stories:

• She pines for the voice quality of a land-line phone when she's talking on the crappy cell phone.
• One of the author's most-valued possessions is the collection of letters her mother wrote her in college. She compares that to what happens now: texting, maybe Skype.
• She visits Paris with her teenage daughter, recalling her own exploration of a new city/country and how exotic is was when she was a girl. Her daughter, however, remains connected to friends and the net via her cellphone and Facebook and all.

There's really a lot packed in the book, more than I can comment on here. It's substantial. She describes experiments introducing children to robot pets or babies that are really interesting. Young people rarely call each other these days, preferring texting or Facebook. The result is a loss of spontaneity, the "stress" of interactive, live human communication. There are dozens more interesting points in the book.

QOTD2

"We enjoy continual connection but rarely have each other's full attention."
- Sherry Turkle

I agree with one of Turkle's conclusions: control your tech rather than it controlling you. Make a conscious decision about your level of connectivity. I have already started making some of these "control" changes:

• Lugging my cell phone with me as infrequently as possible. I've never been totally attached to my cellphone, but I'm more conscious about leaving it whenever possible. Example: I went to the movies and left my cell in the car. After the movie, everyone else in the theater immediately hopped on their phones clickety-clackety. Everyone! I turned to my hot date and we talked about the movie.
• Calling people on the damn phone, rather than texting. I am easing into this because this is kind of hard. Somehow, someway, calling has become an imposition. You're supposed to text or email or Facebook or whatever. I'm still figuring this one out.
• I am using Facebook in read-only mode. I would totally kick Facebook to the curb, but some people post news there, so what you gonna do? But my read-only experience has been pretty positive. I've also blocked a lot of people to try and minimize any negative chatter.

Teeny-boppers and 20-somethings have grown up with "the tether" or constant connectivity. Obviously, we oldies did not grow up with this. I'm going to decide when and where I connect, and it won't connect. I don't want "zoning out" to be a default condition, like the young Dad at Starbucks with his daughter.

And yes, I heart my old school blog here. So, if you call or text me, I'll get back to you sooner or later, eh. Maybe I'll actually call you. Yikes! But at least you will have my full attention. Huzzah!

Good book!
gort... yow, bill

PS - Sherry Turkle and Gort. Excellent.

Happy Memorial Day

I found this excellent Reagan quote via the Crossing Wall Street guy.

QOTD

"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember."

- Ronald Reagan, Nov 1985, www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/speakers/1985remarks.asp

In memory of John Sullivan: www.williamt.com/johnsullivan/index.htm.
peace... yow, bill

A traveler

QOTD

"A traveler needs optimism and heart."
- P Theroux, wsj intervirew

1. I heart David Mamet, continued

Weird. This williamt post is almost 3 years old: williamt - I heart David Mamet

The WSJ interviewed him this weekend about his philosophical transformation.

wsj - David Mamet's Coming Out Party

I've directly experienced the QOTD below. I had a date with a city girl. She was more than flabbergasted when she learned that I did not vote for President Obama (I know, I know... don't talk politics on a first date... but she started it, he he!). After I talked her off the ledge, she told me that she didn't know anyone who hadn't voted for Obama... didn't know anyone who didn't vote straight democrat... didn't know anyone who didn't read the NY Times... and so on.

She declared this myopia without pause or reflection. It just was. She was exposed to only one political view, presumably over her lifetime.

QOTD2

Before he moved to California, Mr. Mamet had never met a self-described conservative or read one's writings. He'd never heard of Messrs. Sowell or Steele. "No one on the left has," he tells me. "I realized I lived in this bubble."
- David Mamet, on his NYNY leftie bubble

Mamet was interview because he has a new book out: The Secret Knowledge.
It's in my Amazon cart, and BTW, it's yet another non-Kindle purchase.

• Hardcover cost = $15.80
• Kindle bits cost = $14.99

"Not with my money."
Mr. Potter or William T?!?!?

2. Panda 2

Movie: Kung Fu Panda 2
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... OK.

The original Panda was transcendent. This one was just OK. It was a shadow of the original, but it was still positive and worth it (for 90 minutes).

After the movie, Ty celebrated by blowing the heads off aliens for about 5 minutes (or should I say 1 dollar), and then we went to get mini-burgers.
excellent... yow, bill

More on (moron) the last 5 years

1. More

My last post was on the feds blowing out spending since 2007.
But good news... tax receipts are down as well.

This is a topic of great interest, and one that is penetrating my media bubble with great frequency:

• Goofus: nytimes - The case for higher taxes: In this article, a fancy econ prof from Princeton (oh my!) very studiously explains the narrative: The W tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are the problem. Alas, this is not true. Fed tax revenues in 2000 were $2T. Fed tax revenues in 2007 were $2.6T. That's a 30% increase in 8 years. The REAL problem: Fed spending rose 52% in the same time period.
• Gallant: The US fiscal solution - Follow Canada's lead: This is a quality PDF report on Canada's solution to government deficits. Canada faced something like our debt/spending dilemma nearly 20 years ago.

2. Bad Bill

I'm usually good here on the blog. Really, I am. I think.
So, please give me a pass on this gratuitous (and fun) shot.

QOTD

"Netanyahu's deadly, devastating speech to Congress in which he eviscerated President Obama's foreign policy to prolonged and repeated standing ovations by members of both parties—may have been the single most stunning and effective public rebuke to an American President a foreign leader has ever delivered.

Netanyahu beat Obama like a red-headed stepchild; he played him like a fiddle; he pounded him like a big brass drum. The Prime Minister of Israel danced rings around his arrogant, professorial opponent. It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters go up against the junior squad from Miss Porter's School; like watching Harvard play Texas A&M, like watching Bambi meet Godzilla—or Bill Clinton run against Bob Dole."
- Walter Russell Mead, wsj link

Way over the top. Sorry about that one. He he.

I heart Israel: the spirit, the freedom, the effort and achievement.
Bibi sitting next to Obama: an incredible contrast.
yow, bill

PS - Evernote. Evernote?
Email me if you use this, eh. I'm curious.
www.evernote.com/about/download/mac.php

PPS - Quick. This is some worthy Radiohead shit... and it's free free free:

1. Radiohead's 20 Best Cover Songs
2. OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer

The last 5 years

1. Go!

The last 5 years for the feds:

Source: wsj - Cool Hand Harry

I disagree with the WSJ... why focus on Reid-Pelosi? This is bigger than them.
So, in 5 years:

• Fed spending has increased $979B, a 36% increase since 2007
• Fed receipts in have decreased $340B, a 13% decrease since 2007

Here's another table for you. 2007-2011 fed revenue in and spending as a percentage of GDP.

So let's do those bullet points again:

• Basically, President Obama shifted spending into high gear, raising spending from 20% of GDP to 25% of GDP. 
• Since 2007, tax revenues for the feds have declined from 18% of GDP to 14%. 
• That difference (spending - tax revenues) is about 10% of GDP, or $1.5 Trillion dollars.

My take: goob!
Can you imagine how much Obama would have spent with more money available in the till?
The inability of the feds to raise taxes politically (re. the Tea Party) should eventually choke this spending binge. We have the Ryan plan as a starting point for spending cuts. Two goals:

1. Return fed spending to less than 20% of GDP
2. De-fund and de-fang Obamacare

If repubs hammer on those two points over and over again, then they have a winner. And hey, throw in the Big Brother stuff like de-fanging (again) the President Obama TSA strip searches, too.

QOTD

“I worship the ground the Paul Ryan walks on”

- Dick Cheney, link

2. PCTV

Gimme me my political correctness: commercials defining acceptable speech. Mmm good. I think both of these commercials were aired during Bulls games, or at least sporting events of some kind.

• www.thinkb4youspeak.com - this commercial cautions us against calling other "fags" or saying things like, "that's so gay"
• www.r-word.org - this commercial warns against the hazards of the word "retard"... as a bonus (who doesn't like a bonus), here's a site counting uses of "retard" on the web, somehow or other: www.rwordcounter.org

Now, these commercials aren't warning against calling gay guys "fags" or mentally-disabled people "retards"... no, they're warning against you calling me a "fag" or a "retard".

Of course, back in the day, through junior high at least, everyone was a "fag" or a "retard". It didn't have any defined meaning because we didn't really know what homosexuals were, and there really weren't retarded (oops) kids at school.

Who wastes their time and money on this shit?
Oh yeah, it's probably our money actually. Dop.
And it's not a waste of time to get paid, or at the very least, to get a sweet resume tick for doing a commercial or ad campaign... and you get some nice networking out of the deal to boot.

Once this "problem" get solved and you guys stop calling me a "fag" and a "retard"... imagine how great the world will be. Dreamy!
he he... yow, bill

Denting a banana

Baseball QOTD1

"Ty got two hits, but I don't think either one would have dented a banana."
- Coach K

A month later...
Baseball QOTD2

"Dented a banana"
- new slang term in little league meaning a sharply hit baseball; ex. 'Ty dented a banana on that double to the right field wall'

Look for "dented a banana" to be right up there with "can a corn" or "seeing eye grounder" in the baseball lexicon.

1. Illinois. Greece?

IL debt woes, continued...

ibd - Will Illinois be America's Greece?

QOTD

"...as a result of [Goofus Gov] Quinn's tax increases, the corporate income tax will rise 49% to 10.9% from 7.3%, making Illinois' the highest state corporate income tax in the United States and the highest combined national-local corporate income tax in the industrialized world."
- IBD editorial, link

The obvious question... what did we all get for all this debt in Illinois?
I mean, other than the higher taxes.
What will we get for further fed debt?
Ditto, I reckon.

2. Posting everywhere

I heart this free-range kid chick:

freerangekids - Please Post This Everywhere: Steady Decline in Crime

QOTD2

"The odds of being murdered or robbed are now less than half of what they were in the early 1990s, when violent crime peaked in the United States. Small towns, especially, are seeing far fewer murders: In cities with populations under 10,000, the number plunged by more than 25 percent last year."
- NY Times article, link

Excellent.
yow, bill

Slow and ugly v. fast and ugly

1. Photo tips

Nice link:

25 Photo Composition Tips

No tips here. This photo is a dang mess.

"Free Pizza"

2. The narrative
The American consumer is getting his act together:

trib - Credit card delinquencies near 15 year low

It seems that nearly every day the Bill Media Bubble (TM) is pierced with the narrative. Excuse me. The Narrative. The Narrative from my leftie brothers in zee media is that the Tea Party is wrong again. Last November, they were a violent, racist mob completely outside of mainstream America. Now, here in May, the Tea Party guys are out of touch once again in thinking that the American people will tolerate any actual cuts in the size of the federal government.

Pardon my French, but I say it's bullshit. I say Americans are getting their house in order, and they want the feds to do the same. We shall see, but we have as an example, a laboratory, our 50 states. You have Gallant states with low debt, low taxes, and higher growth and employment. And you have the Goofus states where government continues to grow at the expense of its citizenry.

We in Illinois are a Goofus state. Illinois is a microcosm for this battle. While consumers tighten their belts, the state of Illinois continues to spend spend spend and gorge at the taxpayer trough. In this little blurb, the IL State Treasurer says he feels an obligation to warn investors to not allow Illinois to borrow more money:

Treasurer says he would call bond houses, warn against lending to Illinois

QOTD

"The backlog of unpaid bills will reach $8 billion by July... [Treasurer] Rutherford says the debt from past borrowing has soared to $45 billion in recent years, which amounts to $10,000 for every household in the state. As a result, Illinois has the second-worst credit rating in the nation, above only California"
- Illinois debt blurb, article

Illinois is a state. A fucking state. One of 50 in the union.
And we owe $10,000 per household in debt?!?!
That ain't right.

3. Ugly

James Grant is an investing nabob. Yawn. But, I like this summary of the current economic situation and the role of Fed/government intervention.

QOTD2

"I have great faith in the price mechanism, in the mechanics of markets. I think there should have been much less intervention and we should have let some chips fall, many chips fall.

Before the Great Depression, there was a great depression (lower case 'g') in 1920-21. Within 18 months, the GDP was down double digits and commodity prices collapsed. Harry Truman lost his haberdashery in Kansas City. It was very painful, but it ended. And the Fed, during that depression, actually raised its discount rate and the Treasury ran a surplus. The reason it ended was the so-called real balance effect — that is, prices came down and people with savings saw things that were cheap and they invested. That's the fast and ugly approach.

The slow and ugly approach is to mitigate, temporize and forestall to give us time to work ourselves out of difficulties. That's the current approach. I think it's intended to be a more humane approach, but I wonder about its humanity. I mean these college kids get out of school and they've got nothing. It's awful — 9 percent unemployment and going nowhere except sideways."
- James Grant, AP interview

This "slow ugly" effect is most obvious in our housing market. All the federal spending and programs and the Fed buying mortgages and everything... and the housing market continues to decline. For jiminy's sake already, let it decline! Let the market find a bottom and let's move on.

Alternatively, we could continue on our current path and try the Japan approach which is to go really slow and really ugly. Barf. As Grant says in his interview about the Fed shenanigans: "In three or four years we'll look back and say, 'Can you believe we fell for this again?'"
yow, bill

Write your own dang book

QOTD

"I think you're foxy when you break things."
- Muscle Man

1. Doctor, doctor...

In zee future, your doctor will walk around with an iPad-like device that is connected to a Watson-like computer that the doctor will interact with to make a diagnosis.

Watson goes from Jeopardy to medical school

So, we can pretend about this system. Let's call it Dr. Watson:

1. With Dr. Watson in tow, doctors will have an expert in every imaginable field at their fingertips. Doctors will have a drug database checking every prescription.
2. Nurses will be able to use Dr. Watson to report changes in a patients condition. What needs to change in treatment? Should we call the doctor?
3. Patients should be able to interact themselves with Dr. Watson online. 
4. Malpractice insurance should plummet. Doctors should be indemnified when Dr. Watson confirms their diagnoses. When Watson makes a mistake... well, this will decline with every year the system is in use. But I think the system will quickly show, just as in Jeopardy, that it will make mistakes, but it will still be better than even the best doctors. When doctors disagree with Watson, then they huddle up with their peers and figure it out.

And so on... and so on... and so on...

2. Self-publishing

Here's a great article on publishing your own book. The great part is how detailed the post is at the end about how he exactly did it, websites and all:

altucher - Why and how I self-published a book

Also at the bottom of his post, Altucher gives you instruction on how to get a free PDF of his book. I just sent that one in, so we'll see.

And www.createspace.com... looks very cool.
peace... yow, bill

PS - Oh, already got my Altucher reply.

QOTD

"Oh! PS. If you like the book, no pressures, but please review it on
Amazon. Thanks."

- J Altucher, free book email reply 

Sitting 'round the (dung) campfire

1. Fun quiz

Here's a fun political current events quiz: www.pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php

I am so clever. More cleverer than 90% of the public. I only got one question (the obesity one) wrong.
Try it. It's light fun.


2. Sitting 'round the (dung) campfire
This is a wonderful, plain as dirt, boring as vanilla, obvious as the sunburn nose on my face, little article on the real state of renewable energy:

Inconvenient truths about renewable energy

First off, enough with the "inconvenient truth" zinger. It's not a zinger any more because everyone knows Al Gore is a doof. So, give it up.

His first stat is the best.

QOTD

"It turns out that the great majority of this energy, 10.2% out of the 13.8% share, comes from biomass, mainly wood (often transformed into charcoal) and dung. Most of the rest is hydro; less than 0.5% of the world's energy comes from wind, tide, wave, solar and geothermal put together."
-  Matt Ridley, on the UN reporting that 13.8% of energy is from renewable sources, wsj piece

It's the Monty Python classic, right?

What's brown and sounds like a bell?
Dung!

3. Inside Job

Movie: "Inside Job" by Charles Ferguson
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not worth it
IMDB link: www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089

"Inside Job" is a documentary about the financial collapse of 2008. This could have been a 4 bill-star movie, but it lost points (and credibility) on its rampant bogusness (bogosity?):

• In many instances, the guy's interview style is unprofessional, and he injects his own emotional reaction while interviewing people for his documentary.
• Do you remember the Simpson where Homer is accused of sexual harassment. You know, the one with the Venus de Milo gummi bear. Anyway, the satirize pieces like this documentary that show photos of people with goofy looks on their faces to try and make them look bad. This film does that constantly, from the start to the finish.
• Guys like George Soros and Barney Frank and Nouriel Rabini are lionized in the movie. Are you fucking kidding me?
• He leaves out obvious, my head's on fire, things about the crisis because it doesn't fit his narrative. Two examples: 1) he mentions subprime loans and their negative effect and the money that Wall Street made by pumping subprime loans. What he didn't mention was the feds impact on pushing subprime loans through Fannie and Freddie and also through legislation passed to "protect" minorities seeking loans. 2) He mentions Countrywide a couple of times, but never mentions the VIP loan deals that members of Congress got directly from Countrywide.
• Most annoying to me as a nerd is the profligate use of bogus, misleading charts. Here's my example of these shenanigans. OK, cue up the dramatic violin music in the background. Then, get Matt Damon to use his most dramatic weepy tone, "From 2005 on, visitors to williamt.com increased dramatically." And then up goes the chart:

You tweak the start and end of the axes of your chart to make a smaller percentage move look HUGE. By doing this, your documentary is screaming, "I'm a big faker and not really serious!"

OK, that's a lot of complaining, but there is good stuff in the movie too. In all aspects of the crisis, there was a ton of fraud and mismanagement and blah blah blah. The movie was pretty non-partisan because it attacks all the administrations from Reagan through to Obama. And some reforms seem quite obvious: regulating derivatives, lowering leverage allowed at investment banks, blowing up the ratings agencies, etc. Oddly, Ferguson seems more focused on regulating compensation than these other things.

For me, the very best moments of the documentary comes when he is interviewing a number of academics about conflicts of interest in academia. He asked college bigwigs about the conflict of interest inherent in doing consulting work for financial service firms and then publishing reports on them as an academic. He had pointy-headed professors from Harvard and Columbia and other top, top schools just completely seize up when he questioned their ethics. I laughed out loud at that one.
yow, bill

PS - Oh, almost forgot. In the movie, I gasped when a brief interview with the IMF guy who tried to rape the hotel maid popped up. Yikes.

The "C" Word

1. G & G

Ah yes, it's Goofus and Gallant time...

• Goofus blames Ronald McDonald for childhood obesity: Health professionals rally against McDonald's marketing to children
• Gallant says we should let kids go out and play unsupervised like all the other kids on the planet and the way we used to do growing up: It's Leave-Your-Kids-at-the-Park-Alone Day! 

I think it's pretty universal for anyone over 40. When you were a kid, you hopped on your bike with your friends and went somewhere or did something. There were never any adults around. We played baseball or rode our bikes as far as we dared or whatever.

It reminds me a lot of global warming, this Ronald McDonald stuff. For example, if we blew up every single McDonalds today, would childhood obesity go down? Um, no. Same deal for our curly cue light bulbs. If we all use curly cue light bulbs, will this stop or reduce global warming. Um, no. But they're both the "right" things to do in leftie dogma, regardless of how flaccid the logic is.

The other common thread is people are getting paid. The nabobs against Ronald McDonald are getting paid. The global warming guys are REALLY getting paid. At least when McDonalds gets paid, you get a prize with your Happy Meal. Oh my!

This article is the 2nd one I've read from Lenore Skenazy. She's a nabob, but she seems pretty cool. Here's her blog: freerangekids.wordpress.com. Free range kids. Good one.

QOTD

"Back in the 1970s and '80s, the crime rate was higher than it is now. Yet our parents let us play outside not because they thought crime did not exist—they weren't idiots—but because they weren't yet in the grip of predator panic."
- Lenore Skenazy

And Lenore talks about a product called Toothprints which is "a $5.99 plastic wafer that records the size and shape of your child's teeth so police can identify the body even if it's badly decomposed."

I was incredulous. Lenore was making shit up.
Wrong.
Toothprints... here it is, from some "child safety" website.

Pay the man. He he.

2. The "C" word
Movie: "Bridesmaids"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... very funny.

"Bridesmaids" is a girlie version of the raunchy buddy comedy genre that has had a popular run these last few years. This movie is the female version of  "40 Year-old Virgin" or "Old School" or "Hangover". It was fun and worth seeing. I enjoyed seeing the female protagonist scream the "C" word at a young high school girl. He he.

Also kind of interesting... as the credits rolled and the lights were turned up in the theater, a lot of the girls in the crowd just kept on laughing. I think the female review of this movie will be substantially higher than 3 bill-stars. For us guys, it was fun and enjoyable and the movie has a positive feeling throughout.

And I say huzzah to any girlie movie that isn't just goo.
the c word... yow, bill

Two million people can't be... right?

"Cone of shame"

1. TS3

Movie: "Toy Story 3"
Review: 1 bill-stars (out of 5)... hot garbage

Jeez. What a violent, negative mess. I'd be pretty pissed if I took my 3-8 year-old to see the violence and torture and negativity in Toy Story 3. I was surprised to see that this movie is rated G. If actual humans were playing these parts, rather than cartoons, then the movie would have been rated PG-13.

Without the nice, sappy ending, this is a zero-star movie.

And the topper... two MILLION people on Netflix disagree with me.

QOTD

"Average of 2,037,537 ratings: 4.4 stars"

- Netflix rating (out of 5 stars) for "Toy Story 3"

Two million people. He he. What a head-scratcher?!?!
So, the nice folks at Pixar are welcome to use my tag line for the Toy Story 3 DVD case:

Toy Story 3... "it's hot garbage"... says the williamt blog

2. Library automation
This is a fun look at the new library at the University of Chicago:

wbez - U of C's futuristic library

The video in the link shows how the library automated the retrieval of books and magazines. That was a head-scratcher to me... how can you get a robot to grab one book or magazine? And the answer is you don't. They still have humans in the loop. The books and magazines are organized into 100 book bins. Getting the bin is automated. From there, humans have to grab the magazines from the bin and give it to the patron requesting the material.

Speaking of fine literature...

QOTD

"My head was roiled because Marybelle seemed to be less like she originally presented herself in her letters or in our first hours together. I'm not saying she was deceitful but that she was slowly unwrapping herself and the fresh layers were as caustic as Drano."
- "The English Major"

he he... yow, bill

Pre-review

QOTD

"Dog whistle racism"
- a leftie term that describes the used of hidden code words, presumably by righties, to be covertly racist. (wikipedia - dog-whistle politics)

I heard this term applied to Trump (I think) in reference to his questioning President Obama's birthplace. Somehow this was deemed racist, which is a head-scratcher. This whole dog whistle thing seems like obvious nabobery to me, but I thought the term was clever.

1. Pre-review

I am reading this book: "alone together" by Sherry Turkle
Oops, excuse me for a second while I tell goodreads.com that I am currently reading this book.
Ah. Much better. Thanks.

Anyway, my pre-review is 4 bill-stars... very good.

The book is non-fiction, and it deals with the impact of technology on our lives. The book has merit, I think, on its own. But it may speak with especially clarity to those of us over 40. The author has about 10 laps on me, and she describes her struggles really well. Here's an example.

QOTD2

"I asked her if she wouldn't rather experience Paris without continual reminders of Boston. She told me she was happy; she liked being in touch with her friends. She seemed to barely understand my question."
- Sherry Turkle in "alone together", on her teenage daughter being on her cellphone during much of their trip to Paris

I have experienced this "barely understanding" phenomenon. He he. It used to be called the generation gap, I believe. But gol dang, when I go to Paris... or more likely, to the ballgame... I want to be there. Just there. Totally. Connection and tether-free.

Even though I'm a mega-nerd, I do struggle to integrate a lot of the new, immersive technologies into my life. I have a very clear love/hate relationship (hate/love?) with things like cell phones, texting, Facebook, email etc. And obviously, there is technology that I really enjoy, like my little blog here.

I bought the book looking for ideas on these topics. It's been very interesting and a good read to this point. I don't have many answers, I must admit, but stay tuned. I have a feeling that my "answer" 1) will only for me, not some general manifesto, and 2) it will involve me exercising some explicit control over this technology. I will choose my technologies, not visa versa. Huzzah!

BTW, Ms. Turkle is (really poorly) interviewed by TV comedian Steven Colbert about her book here: Colbert interviews Turkel

BTW BTW, I have never seen Colbert's show on TV. Shoot, I know his persona is just schtick, but jeez, that 5 minute clip is about as annoying as anything I've ever encountered.
But I won't judge. Snort.

2. Google Fun

Google holds a contest for kids to design their little search doodle thingie... and a 7 year-old wins:

Google search doodle winner

It would be fun to steal this idea for my favorite school. Hint, hint Bill.
yow, bill
PS - Mrs. Cutler. Snort again.

Taj

1. B-slap
How's that feel D-Wade?

youtube - Taj Gibson b-slaps D-Wade

QOTD

"That was a good one. I really got punked."
- D-Wade, sun times story

Or maybe you prefer the exclamation point!

youtube - Taj Gibson one-handed putback

QOTD2

[just crowd noise]
- 10+ seconds of network TV silence from Marv, Reggie and Kerr after Taj 2nd slam

bull win... yow, bill

$1.49 Honeycomb

It was kind of an emotional time for me yesterday at the Jew-el.

They had Honeycomb on sale for a buck, forty nine.
$1.49.
Sigh.

It's the BIG box of Honeycomb, too. So tall and yet still too wide to get your hands around. Substantial.
So big. And delicious. 
sniff... yow, bill

High-smellin' and low down

QOTD

"My hide is tougher than boot leather, but no man likes to be called high-smellin' and low down."
- Rooster Cogburn

1. Natural Computing

Book: "Natural Computing" by Shasha & Lazere
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not good.
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/168000062

Got me! I fell for the Amazon reviews and didn't read what I was getting. This book is just a quick survey of 15 scientists and their computing projects. Everything is too quick and too shallow as each story is only 10-15 pages. The actual project descriptions are even shorter than that because the author does 2-3 pages of human interest on each guy.

No meat. Mostly filler. All dop.

2. True Grit, part 4

Movie: "Rooster Cogburn"
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... glorious!

QOTD2

"This man may pull a cork now and then, but he's as straight as a string."
- Miss Goodnight, Rooster Cogburn

This is a wonderful western starring John Wayne (Rooster) and Katherine Hepburn (Bible lady). The screenwriter appeared to know the gold he had with these two. There are a a number of scenes where The Duke and Hepburn just plop down and have at it.

That's a wrap on my True Grit sequence I think: the original movie, the new movie, the book, and "Rooster Cogburn". I think Rooster is probably the best of the bunch.

QOTD3

"No, I ain't forgotten. I ain't forgot the naggin', schemin' ways of a woman. You're figgering' to take a bottle out of my hand and put a cake of soap in it! Probably a Bible for a gun in the other.
Well, it ain't gonna work. No bit and harness for me. I am what I am. That's what I am."
- Rooster Cogburn, drunken rant

peace... yow, bill

Ride the trend

1. Shenanigans
Lots of marital shenanigans going on with the potential repub presidential candidates:

wsj - Am I running? Ask my wife

IN gov Mitch Daniels and his wife have the most, um, interesting story.

QOTD

"Cheri Daniels broke off their 16-year marriage in 1994 and moved to California, leaving Mitch Daniels with their four daughters, the eldest of whom was 14. She got married there, but then divorced her second husband and returned to Indiana, remarrying Mr. Daniels in 1997."
- the Mitch and Cheri Daniels story, wsj - Am I running? Ask my wife

So, Cheri Daniels is a wee bit different. Cough. She has this fun website/radio gig we she does various "chores" which range from learning how to 1) drive a truck, 2) play guitar, 3) milk a cow, and so on: www.in.gov/gov/firstlady/chores.htm

2. Worse shenanigans

Lordy. Is this just silly pol blather or incredible ignorance?

QOTD2

“It is time for companies to step up. American taxpayers contributed to that process of stabilizing the economy. Companies have benefited from that, and they're making a lot of money, and now's the time for them to start betting on American workers and American products.”
- President Obama, story

Jesus. I'm actively rooting that this is just blather.

3. Mojo explained
This is great summary/philosophy on why trend-following investment strategies work:

Why trend-following works

So, the idea is to buy what's strong and ride it until it's not. Do not buy low and sell high. Buy strong assets form your basket (asset allocation) in the hopes that they will continue their positive returns, in other words, keep their momentum.

QOTD3

"The basics of trend following is to ride the trend until the end (when it bends) and to protect yourself on the downside by cutting your losses."
- Explanation of trend-following investing, link

This basic approach has a bunch of different names: trend-following, momentum, relative strength. The returns of investing like this should have three characteristics:

1. Participate in the everyday part of the curve of investment returns during "normal" times
2. Avoid the nasty fat-tail down-sides when they occur
3. Participate in the tasty fat-tail upsides when they occur

I use relative strength in my crappy investment algorithms, basically to choose between various asset classes. The goal: tasty returns better than the market at lower volatility.
trendy girl... yow, bill

Artsy, naked backgammon

1. ANB

For the man (or woman) who has everything... artsy, naked backgammon.

All yours for just $3K: www.alexandralldesign.com/Nudes.html
Hey now.

2. The price of gas
Gas prices are up, up, up. Yet, adjusted for inflation, gas prices are still lower than they were in 1919 or 1969 or... this is a cool chart of the inflation-adjusted price of gas since 1919 (the green line):

Source: Freakonomics - A crude guess about the future

3. The Red Garden
Book: "The Red Garden" by Alice Hoffman
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... worth it
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/167390683

Typical of Alice Hoffman, this is a very girlie book: ghosts, gardening, and lots of shirtless bad boys who are oddly eager to commit to that one special girl. Now, this is not subject matter that I find particularly interesting, but Alice's writing style is smooth as butt-ah. That alone makes her work an enjoyable read.

And I don't want to hear about me reading girlie books being a little swishy and all that. I'm all man, baby. Look at the backgammon set up there, cmon! OK, maybe "The English Major" can save me.

QOTD

"[Professor] Brad liked to think he was on the cutting edge of everything including his idea of "pansexuality" which he believed had a firm historical basis. Translated this means he fucked his students."
- "The English Major"

men men men men... yow, bill

Swat me

1. Scene: the pet store

QOTD

[scene: Today at the Petco checkout. Bill is smiling, giggling]
Bill: "He he. They have expiration dates on doggie treats."
Checkout girl: [smiles, laughs] "Yeah, what will they think of next?"
[pause]
Checkout girl: "Would you like to donate a dollar to pet cancer awareness month?"

Snort.
Yup, it's pet cancer awareness month at Petco: www.petcancerawareness.org/petco.html 
BTW, the pet cancer ribbon color is lavender.
I'm not making this shit up.

2. Not even a fly is safe
Marketing run amok. I'm a big fan.
Example. Franklin Gutierrez Fly Swatter Day


Yeah, I heart them boys over at Seattle Mariner marketing. That's called workin' for a living.

QOTD2

"The first 20,000 fans take home a fly swatter because nothing, not even a fly, is safe in centerfield with Franklin Gutierrez on the prowl."
- May 19, 2011... Franklin Gutierrez Fly Swatter Day 

Alas, Gutierrez has been on the DL all year.  Hopefully, he'll make it back into the Mariner lineup by the 19th.

And hey, this is a cooler blog post than this one: Top 10 Giveaway for the 2011 MLB season
But did you notice they missed the Rickey Henderson bobblehead day (williamt link)? For shame!

I'll give it up for the Mariners marketing team. At least they're trying. The Cleveland Indians marketing guys need some help:

• The Cleveland Indians are 22-11, the best record in all of baseball.
• The Cleveland Indians have the league's lowest average attendance at 14K/game (link)

Dop.

3. War

This is a flabbergasting read about teacher's unions in NY city, written by the guy in charge from 2002-10. Alas, it's a subscription piece, I think, but oh well:

wsj - Scenes from the NY Education Wars

The whole piece is worthy, but a couple snippets for you:

• Jaw-dropper stat - in NY City, there are 55,000 tenured teachers. They "were able to fire only half a dozen or so for incompetence in a given year, even though we devoted significant resources to this effort."
• He talks about how the administration and the community banded together against teacher's unions to give parents alternative choices, like charter schools.
• The analogy between teacher's unions and the UAW is crystal clear. Eerily so, and it has been for years. "We [teacher's unions] are at the point that the auto industry was at a few years ago. They could see they were losing market share every year and still not believe that it really had anything to do with the quality of the product. . . . I think we will get—and deserve—the end of public education through some sort of privatization scheme if we don't behave differently."

This "war" continues on today.

QOTD3

"The head of the New York City teachers’ union declared war on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to layoff 4,100 teachers Saturday -- and angrily vowed a massive Wisconsin-style protest this Thursday as an opening salvo."
- NY teacher's union vows WI-style protest

I've gotten some gender-based heat about my bikini pics recently. So ladies, this underwear's for you.
whatever... yow, bill

PS - Late addition from last night...

QOTD4

"Ty got two hits... though I don't think either of them would have dented a banana."
- Coach Dan, "pep talk" after the game (he he)

The Obama Express

"Lisle Psychic"

QOTD

"So we're drinkin' drinkin' drinkin' drinkin' coca coca cola"
- Modest Mouse, "Tiny Cities Made of Ash"

1. Milk out my nose

This headline made milk come out my nose:

Chicago-Detroit high-speed rail gets a boost

I do have a notion. We named public highways after pols: the "Eisenhower", the "Stevenson". How about we call the (empty) bullet train between Chicago and Detroit, The Obama Express.

LOL QOTD

"LaHood notes the Transportation Department received nearly 100 applications for federal rail money. He says it's evidence the United States is hungry for better rail service."
- Ray LaHood, Sec of Transportation (AP story)

100 applications for "free" money from the feds. Nice "evidence" there, poindexter.

Note to all ourselves. There's no need to raise taxes while projects like this continue.

2. Housing sucks
The housing market sucks and is down another 8% this year:

yahoo - Housing crash is getting worse

16M upside down on their homes. Dop.

I assume that the castle market is even worse.

The guy gives his Top 10 list of why he likes to buy now. I get it. Buy low, sell high. If everyone is bearish, then... blah blah. And that's cool.

But he also concludes that he has "absolutely no idea when real estate is going to hit rock bottom". Well, how are you going to lever up 5-10x to buy a house, when it may go down another 10-20% or more?

QOTD

"I'm going to hit you in the face
I'm going to punch you in your glasses... Oh no!"
- more Modest Mouse

oh no... yow, bill

A jar of cat vomit and a Happy Meal toy (for a girl)

1. 40-something dating

40-something dating. It's the stories. (TM)

QOTD

"I'm sorry but I'm not attracted to African Americans or Italians. I've never been attracted to African Americans and I was married to an Italian. Sorry!!"
- Girl-fishie profile on www.plentyoffish.com

I get more emails requesting 40-something dating stories than anything else on this (crappy) blog, by far. Alas, not gonna happen. My dating stories, I remember. The rest goes up on the blog so I can remember. He he.

2. Attention K-Mart shoppers
Must have for all us consumers... the watermelon bikini:



Well, officially, it's the Watermelon Dress-up Kit.
Only $8.95!

3. Media bubble
Hey, this guy's a little like me. He's got a media bubble: Avoid the news

QOTD2

"News is to the mind what sugar is to the body."
- dude, link

Actually, sugar wasn't bad for you 40 years ago, so why would it be now? I mean sugar hasn't changed. Has the news? I think so.


4. Donkey humor
Adam Dunn is on my fantasy baseball team. 3rd round, thank you. Well, the Donkey is struggling mightily out of the box here in 2011.

Here's an all-time fave QOTD from another Donkey owner, despairing over the crappy trade offers he is receiving.

QOTD3

"And today I'm looking at another proposal: He gets Dunn and a second player, I get a jar of cat vomit and a Happy Meal toy (for a girl)."
- fellow Donkey owner, yahoo link

The dude's a Donkey believer, fer sher: "Unless you think that somehow Dunn's appendix (removed in April) was the key to his power, then you need to retain his services."

Me too. I'm weak though. So, I pray regularly to my Adam Dunn leisure suit-clad bobblehead for 40+ towering Donkey home runs this year. You can't be too safe.
he he... yow, bill

PS - Watermelon bikini 2.
I think this version costs more than $8.95.