In the WTF category, this photo was literally, honestly published on the whitehouse.gov server. No shit.
Friday, November 14, 2008
In the WTF category, this photo was literally, honestly published on the whitehouse.gov server. No shit.
So much has been said about the subprime mess, that it's getting difficult to find fresh perspective. I think this article delivers in spades.
The End (Portfolio) by Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker)
There weren’t enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors’ appetite for the end product. The firms used Eisman’s bet to synthesize more of them. Here, then, was the difference between fantasy finance and fantasy football: When a fantasy player drafts Peyton Manning, he doesn’t create a second Peyton Manning to inflate the league’s stats. But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original. The only difference was that there was no actual homebuyer or borrower. The only assets backing the bonds were the side bets Eisman and others made with firms like Goldman Sachs. Eisman, in effect, was paying to Goldman the interest on a subprime mortgage. In fact, there was no mortgage at all. "They weren’t satisfied getting lots of unqualified borrowers to borrow money to buy a house they couldn’t afford," Eisman says. "They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That’s why the losses are so much greater than the loans. But that’s when I realized they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?"
The End (Portfolio) by Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker)
There weren’t enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors’ appetite for the end product. The firms used Eisman’s bet to synthesize more of them. Here, then, was the difference between fantasy finance and fantasy football: When a fantasy player drafts Peyton Manning, he doesn’t create a second Peyton Manning to inflate the league’s stats. But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original. The only difference was that there was no actual homebuyer or borrower. The only assets backing the bonds were the side bets Eisman and others made with firms like Goldman Sachs. Eisman, in effect, was paying to Goldman the interest on a subprime mortgage. In fact, there was no mortgage at all. "They weren’t satisfied getting lots of unqualified borrowers to borrow money to buy a house they couldn’t afford," Eisman says. "They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That’s why the losses are so much greater than the loans. But that’s when I realized they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?"
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Private Snafu - Booby Traps (1944)
This is one of 26 Private SNAFU ('Situation Normal, All Fouled Up) cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale the troops. Originally created by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Phil Eastman, most of the cartoons were produced by Warner Brothers Animation Studios - employing their animators, voice actors (primarily Mel Blanc) and Carl Stalling's music.
This is one of 26 Private SNAFU ('Situation Normal, All Fouled Up) cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale the troops. Originally created by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Phil Eastman, most of the cartoons were produced by Warner Brothers Animation Studios - employing their animators, voice actors (primarily Mel Blanc) and Carl Stalling's music.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Early Star Wars storyboards (flickr)
If these are legit, I'm not sure why these aren't getting more play...
If these are legit, I'm not sure why these aren't getting more play...
Monday, November 10, 2008
Friday, November 07, 2008
After the Imperial Presidency (Herald Tribune, longish)
The assertion and expansion of presidential power is arguably the defining feature of the Bush years. Come January, the current administration will pass on to its successor a vast infrastructure for electronic surveillance, secret sites for detention and interrogation and a sheaf of legal opinions empowering the executive to do whatever he feels necessary to protect the country. The new administration will also be the beneficiary of Congress's recent history of complacency, which amounts to a tacit acceptance of the Bush administration's expansive views of executive authority. For that matter, thanks to the recent economic bailout, Bush's successor will inherit control over much of the banking industry. "The next president will enter office as the most powerful president who has ever sat in the White House," Jack Balkin, a constitutional law professor at Yale and an influential legal blogger, told me a few weeks ago.
The assertion and expansion of presidential power is arguably the defining feature of the Bush years. Come January, the current administration will pass on to its successor a vast infrastructure for electronic surveillance, secret sites for detention and interrogation and a sheaf of legal opinions empowering the executive to do whatever he feels necessary to protect the country. The new administration will also be the beneficiary of Congress's recent history of complacency, which amounts to a tacit acceptance of the Bush administration's expansive views of executive authority. For that matter, thanks to the recent economic bailout, Bush's successor will inherit control over much of the banking industry. "The next president will enter office as the most powerful president who has ever sat in the White House," Jack Balkin, a constitutional law professor at Yale and an influential legal blogger, told me a few weeks ago.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Worst. Promotion. Ever.
Guinness Book of World Records-breaking pinata, here in Philly. That you're not allowed to break. Epic Suck.
Eventually, however, officials announced that the breaking would not be happening, and people were asked to leave.
Most spectators left by 3 p.m., many booing and expressing dissatisfaction as they left.
Heald apologized for the postponement, citing police concerns that the breaking would cause a surge of running to grab the pinata's contents (yeah, no shit. that's typically what happens when a pinata breaks. you were expecting maybe something else? -Ed).
Guinness Book of World Records-breaking pinata, here in Philly. That you're not allowed to break. Epic Suck.
Eventually, however, officials announced that the breaking would not be happening, and people were asked to leave.
Most spectators left by 3 p.m., many booing and expressing dissatisfaction as they left.
Heald apologized for the postponement, citing police concerns that the breaking would cause a surge of running to grab the pinata's contents (yeah, no shit. that's typically what happens when a pinata breaks. you were expecting maybe something else? -Ed).
Comics.com is releasing their entire United Features Syndicate archive for free, including every Peanuts strip ever drawn! Fantastic!
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
We did it. Now it's time to root out the gophers and stop the damage that Bush is dead-set on inflicting in his final weeks.
8 years of agonizingly wrongheaded and arrogantly corrupt policy don't lie. These guys know no shame and they're already hard at work on rewarding their crony constituency at the expense of the economy, human health and the environment. There's work to do.
8 years of agonizingly wrongheaded and arrogantly corrupt policy don't lie. These guys know no shame and they're already hard at work on rewarding their crony constituency at the expense of the economy, human health and the environment. There's work to do.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
VOTE!
George Bush won by 537 votes in Florida in 2000. We can't let this happen again. Your vote COUNTS! Make sure you use it and use it wisely. Our future depends upon it.
George Bush won by 537 votes in Florida in 2000. We can't let this happen again. Your vote COUNTS! Make sure you use it and use it wisely. Our future depends upon it.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Krugman on what to expect next week from the Rump of the GOP (nytimes)
But the G.O.P.’s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat.
This will pose a dilemma for moderate conservatives. Many of them spent the Bush years in denial, closing their eyes to the administration’s dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law. Some of them have tried to maintain that denial through this year’s election season, even as the McCain-Palin campaign’s tactics have grown ever uglier. But one of these days they’re going to have to realize that the G.O.P. has become the party of intolerance.