So in my previous ramble, I talked about this book called Woven into the Earth. I kind of expressed my uncomfortableness with having my work taken under the microscope, as the work of the women of Greenland was literally done. And I also mentioned another book, a kind of mock-up (in more ways than one) Click Here to continue reading.
Online computer games sure have hit the big time. Now top rated players are in danger of being kidnapped for their password.…
An armed gang of four kidnapped one of the world’s top RPG gamers after one criminal’s girlfriend lured him into a fake date using Orkut, Google’s social network. After sequestering him in Sao Paulo, they held a gun against the victim’s head for five hours to get his password, which they wanted to sell for $8,000. And yes, the story gets even better.
Surprisingly enough, after five hours the hostage wasn’t talking. The group leader had a gun against his head all that time but the guy didn’t say a word
You can read the rest here….
This week’s Poem of the week is called All my striving is fire. It has relevance to this week’s rant by the Ape Man.
This week’s rant of the week is from the Ape Man. He has a bone to pick with the social sciences.
This week’s essay is an overview of the current housing situation by Calculated Risk.
How trustworthy do you think most of the governments in the Middle East are? This question is important because according to a study requested by US Energy Secretary Bodman almost all the new oil for export in the coming years is going to come from the Middle East.
Now all by itself this is pretty depressing. But what would be even more depressing is that if no one could increase oil exports. After all, demand is projected to soar in China and other places. Without new sources of oil, prices are going to soar.
But as Stuart Staniford argues in this post, it is very likely that government in the Middle East are lying through their teeth about there likely reserves.
I won’t provide any quotes from his post, because his argument is too involved and chart dependent to quote well. But if you are familiar with Stuart Staniford body of work you know that just about anything he writes is worth reading.
This from R-Squared…..
Gasoline imports were strong while prices were at record highs. Looks like prices may need to head back that direction to attract more imports. That gasoline import number is pretty weak, considering gasoline imports have been running at well over a million barrels per day. I suspect today’s report means gasoline prices will continue their recent climb, after bottoming out a couple of weeks ago. That refinery utilization number is another big story. We have yet to see 92% utilization this summer. You have to go all the way back to 1991 to see summer utilization numbers in this range. Last year’s June number was 93%, and it was over 97% in June of 2004 and 2005.
As long as refinery utilization rates stay low, we are going to be dependent on imports. And as long as we are dependent on imports we are going to have to pay more then the wholesale price in Europe plus shipping costs for our gas. That will never be cheap.
The Bush administration is urging China’s central bank to buy more government-backed mortgage bonds in an effort to sustain financing for U.S. home loans.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is in Beijing to persuade the Chinese central bank to buy more securities from Ginnie Mae, a corporation under HUD that guarantees $417 billion in federally insured, fixed-rate mortgages.
What more is there to say? (Hat tip: Macro Man).
Tanta posted this quote from Alliance Bancorp over at Calculated Risk along with some commentary. If you are interested in economics, you already read Calculated Risk. But if your interest runs more towards all that is humorous, you might have missed it. So here it is in all its glory….
This year we’ve put up a valiant fight! One with integrity, dignity and never wavering determination, focused solely on how to succeed. We have reached out to everyone we know, and many that we don’t know, to tell our story, of how we have made it this far, of the expertise and skills that we have, of the quality of our organization, and of how we have refused to lose! We have received tremendous support and loyalty from our employees and business partners during this year’s extreme conditions. So many individuals and companies have believed in us and cheered us on as we’ve dodged the obstacles thrown in our path, obstacles that many others were unable to overcome. We have had extraordinary support from our ownership and Board of Directors. They have acted unselfishly, putting the company, its employees and creditors first and foremost. They are honorable people whom I highly respect.
Unfortunately the latest market was more than we were able to overcome. We have exhausted our resources and do not have the means to move forward. Therefore, it is with great sadness that I announce that we have ceased operations as of today, July 13th.
Technically we are breaking the rules today. The clip below is no poem by any conventional measure. But if you conceive of a poem as being something that expresses what you can not say with prose, then it follows that the clip below is poetic. Besides, we feel that it goes well with this week’s essay and rant.
Spring 007 from foopaux and Vimeo.
If this clip meant nothing to you, then maybe you should go watch this one instead.