Many factors combine to make this an eery video. Hopkins’ body language seems remote and forced, as of an animated wax figure. I think this is partly a change in mannerism over the years. But the poor synching, the black and white, and the beat also contribute.
And I think it will shortly seem more appropriate than it does even now.
“Oh, my friend, we’re older but no wiser.”
Saw this courtesy of Calculated Risk…..
Joan Shaffer is turning in the keys of the north Phoenix Tatum Ranch home she bought with her daughter in late 2005. They put nothing down on the home, took out a loan that let them pay less than they owed each month and now their loan is $200,000 more than the house is worth.
“We paid $585,000. It was the peak of the market, but no one told us,” said Shaffer, a real-estate agent from Colorado. “We would probably have to spend the next 20 years trying to get right on the mortgage. That’s crazy.”
As Calculated Risk said “It’s amusing that she is a real estate agent.” He has such a gift for understatement.
On a more serious note, I saw a link to this discussion thread in the comments of CR post. The discussion is about the morality of just walking away from ones mortgage and it takes place on a forum for mortgage brokers. I recommend that everyone take the time to least skim the thread. The perspective of the people who where involved in making these loans is very interesting.
The furor over Obama’s recent comments on people is small towns clinging to guns and God due to economic problems caused us to think of the country music song below.
Monster Cables is one of those companies that relies on lawyers to make money because it is easier than relying on the quality of their goods and services. In other words, they like to sue other companies on dubious trademark grounds.
While we feel that the behavior of companies like Monster Cables is proof that are legal system needs reforming, we must admit that part of the problem is general cowardice on the part of victims. So often companies decided to settle over these dubious claims rather than fight because it cost less in the short term and is less “risky”. But of course, this only encourages the bullies continue with their misuse of the law.
Happily, Blue Jeans Cable is not one of those who are inclined to roll over. Here is Blue Jeans Cable’s response to Monster Cables. Make sure you read the last three paragraphs even the the rest of the rant is to much for you.
There are a number of soldiers over in Iraq who have tried to document their experience over in Iraq. But amongst all of them, LT G stands out. We have already named one of his posts essay of the week some time ago. But he writes so many good posts that it would be an injustice to only highlight one.
In this essay he ruminates on dealing with the after affects of a Special Forces (our inference, he just calls them the other unit) raid.
At a meeting on Friday afternoon, P.B. introduced to some of the supervisors a template for creating work instructions. I regret that I once again demonstrated my talent for being an obnoxious questioner. I questioned whether there was really the political will to accomplish the arduous work of creating and maintaining a comprehensive set of Click Here to continue reading.
A discussion was overheard In the Ethereal Land regarding Hillary’s chances of taking the democratic nomination. Some people were of the opinion that the delegate count was so close that Hillary had just as good of a chance of winning it as she ever did. Others argued that it is almost certain that she will lose because their are not enough states left for her to make up her short fall.
In the spirit of public service, I thought I would throw out some numbers for those who are not following this contest very closely so that people could make up their own mind. (All numbers taken from here.)
First let us compare what New York Times calls projected pledged delegates. These are the delegates that each candidate has already won in the various primaries and caucus. The only reason that the New York Times calls them projected pledged delegates because a lot of the caucus are non-binding. In other words, just because your supporters elected a slate of delegates does not mean they are legally bound to support you in some states. But this is a distinction without a difference. A slate voted in by Obama supporters will vote for Obama and vis a versa. The Associated Press does not even bother to break out the two types of delegates for this very reason.
So by looking at the data we can see that Hillary has 1,250.5 pledged delegates and Obama has 1,418.5. Again, these are all the delegates that have been won in the various primaries and caucus up this point. This does not seem like a very big lead for Obama does it?
But if you do the math you will see that this puts Obama 168 delegates ahead. To put that number in perspective, Pennsylvania only has 158 delegates to offer. So even if Hillary won every delegate that Pennsylvania has to offer, she still would not have caught up to Obama in the pledged delegate count.
We all know that Hillary will not win every delegate that Pennsylvania has to offer. So let us run some more figures. Not counting the super delegates, there are 566 delegates left. That sounds like a lot when you consider that Obama only has a 168 delegate lead. But remember that Obama is going to keep picking up delegates too. In order for Hillary to beat Obama in the pledged delegate race, she is going to have to win a little under 30% (29.68 if you want to get technical) more delegates than Obama. To put it another way, Hillary is going to have to win 65% of the 566 delegates that are remaining.
Since Pennsylvania has such a huge proportion of the delegates that are left, this means that Hillary has to win at least 65% of Pennsylvania delegates to have a hope of overtaking Obama. Especially when you factor in the fact that the next biggist state up for grabs is North Carolina with 115 delegates. Since that state is expected to go for Obama, Hillary has to do really well in Pennsylvania.
And what are the odds that Hillary will win 65% of Pennsylvania delegates? Well, none of the polls put here anywhere near the levels she needs to pull off that kind of feat. If she did mange something close to 65% she would have won Pennsylvania by a greater margin then she won New York. And if Obama wins North Carolina like he won South Carolina, he will more then make up for any gains she makes in Pennsylvania.
To be fair, there are some contests coming up where Hillary will probably win by 65% or more. Puerto Rico with its 55 delegates comes to mind. And it is conceivable that if everything went right that she could win all of the contests coming up except North Carolina. But winning 65% of all the delegates that are at stake? I can’t conceive of any way that can happen.
That brings us to super delegates. Right know Hillary is ahead on most “on the record” counts of super delegates. The New York Times put her at 259 and Obama at 226. But there is still 241 undecided super delegates out there so in theory the counts are still wide open. In practices, Obama has been gaining on the super delegate count quite rapidly. Many super delegates who came out for Hillary have switched to Obama and Hillary is clearly concerned that Obama will wind up winning the majority of super delegates.
Nobody can predict how the super delegates will go. But if you read the comments of the undecided super delegates over at the New York Times site, you would think that Obama would take more of the undecided super delegates then Hillary.
The Wall Street Journal reports on another sign of how bad the credit crunch has gotten: banks fudging on what they are reporting as their short-term cost of interbank borrowing, out of fear of revealing how stressed they are. So the Libor becomes less useful as a guide. That in turn means that the so-called TED spread (the difference between three month Libora and ninety-day Treasuries), which is one of the preferred measures of stress in the interbank markets, is understated by as much as 30 basis points.
Next they will be telling us that the inflation figures are not accurate.
I am taking classes at a local trade school at night. You should not confuse this place with the various technical schools that are around. This place is where the mentally handicapped are sent from the various school districts. This is the place where all the people who are considered too dumb to go to Click Here to continue reading.
New York’s argument, based on a reading of the 1992 Quill vs. North Dakota U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is that because Amazon makes sales through affiliates who live in the state, it can be considered to have a physical presence there—which means the new law wouldn’t apply to retailers who don’t use affiliate programs.
Oddly, until now New York residents have been asked to voluntarily provide their total sum of online purchases on their state tax forms in order to estimate a tax payment, but InternetNews wrly notes it “evidently has fallen short” of the expected revenue goals set by the state.
In other words, because some people sell stuff over Amazon even though they do not work for Amazon and Amazon does not own their stuff, New York State thinks that it has the right to tax them.