November 2008 Archives

A rather stupid blog post from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph where he claims that the state of California is a bigger bankruptcy risk than Slovakia:

By the way, my colleague Yvette Essen showed me the CDS data on some of the US states. These are quite revealing too. Michigan - 192, California - 165, Nevada - 164, New Jersey - 150, Ohio - 104.

So, California is now priced as a greater bankruptcy risk than Slovakia 150.

No shit Sherlock!

Bankruptcy update, Britain plus California [Telegraph]

Here's 100+ hi-res pictures from this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show featuring Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio (pictured), Heidi Klum, Marisa Miller and others.

Headhoods is an idea that started from a good coffee buzz and didn't just stop there... It is now a reality and Headhoods are currently being produced by one devoted individual in his bustling studio located not so desirable part of Brooklyn, New York. Each and every hood is meticulously designed and hand-printed, and is sought as something truly unique.

Get yourself a new t-shit and let the world know how poor you are in New York, especially in these times of economic downturn. Up for a change?

ICantAffordToLoveNY / Headhoods

Via CNN:

Some lawmakers lashed out at the CEOs of the Big Three auto companies Wednesday for flying private jets to Washington to request taxpayer bailout money. "There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they're going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses," Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told the chief executive officers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

How friggin' ridiculous is that!?

A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged "affair" in the online world. Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

Jesus friggin' Christ! Don't you sometimes get the impression that Second Life is for people who don't have a first?

Second Life affair ends in divorce [CNN]
Revealed: The 'other woman' in Second Life divorce... who's now engaged to the web cheat she's never met [MailOnline]

Unthinkable happens: A completely fake version of The New York Times somehow pops up on the internets. Genius!

A nice set of vintage images of New York City in the 1930's.

New York 1930's [Flickr]

Here's a stunning new promo reel from Your Majesty - a New York-based creative agency run by Jens Karlsson of the Chapter3/Kioken fame and others. Clients include AmEx, The New York Times, Qualcomm, Starbucks, VitaminWater, Volvo and Yahoo!

You can watch the hi-res version here.

The Washington Post's "Security Fix" blog has managed to shut down McColo, a US-based web hosting provider which facilitated more than 75 percent of global spam:

A U.S. based Web hosting firm that security experts say was responsible for facilitating more than 75 percent of the junk e-mail blasted out each day globally has been knocked offline following reports from Security Fix on evidence gathered about suspicious activity emanating from the network.

For the past four months, Security Fix has been gathering data from the security industry about McColo Corp., a San Jose, Calif., based Web hosting service whose client list experts say includes some of the most disreputable cyber-criminal gangs in business today.

Major Source of Online Scams and Spams Knocked Offline [SecurityFix]
Host of Internet Spam Groups is Cut Off [WashingtonPost]

Foreplay may be overrated according to a new survey based on 2,300 women. The study apparently found that foreplay has little or no significance when it comes to the likelihood of having an orgasm:

In the study, reported in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, the academics quizzed a representative sample of 2,360 Czech women of all ages about details of their sex lives, including orgasmic consistency with a partner along with estimated duration of foreplay and intercourse. Results show that for the women in the study, the average duration of foreplay was 15.4 minutes, and intercourse, 16.2 minutes.

Results based on a single ethnic/nationality group? I say bullshit.

Foreplay is overrated, researchers claim [Telegraph]

Only when the last tree has withered, the last fish has been caught, and the last river's been poisoned, will man realize we cannot eat money.

—author unknown

Ars Technica is reporting that Craigslist, the largest classifieds website, has entered into an agreement with 40 state attorney generals to take measures intended to fight child exploitation and limit sexually explicit ads posted by its users:

As part of the new measures, Craigslist has filed 14 lawsuits against businesses that offer services designed to circumvent the site's protections against misuse and evade Craigslist's Terms of Service. Craigslist is also sending cease-and-desist orders to a number of other companies that offer such services, and plans to investigate those who engage in criminal activity in order to turn the information over to state AGs. (Translation: it appears as if the company is suing spambots that make mass postings automatically, many of which are sexually-themed.)

So does this mean the end of casual encounters via Craigslist? I doubt it.

Craigslist puts a dimmer on its red-light district [ArsTechnica]

Via NME:

Radiohead's Thom Yorke has made a new remix of his solo song 'Harrowdown Hill' available as a free download, in celebration of Barack Obama's win in the US presidential election.

The track is available to download now from Radiohead.com.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke releases Barack Obama celebration song [NME]

Barack Obama has a new website:

Throughout the Presidential Transition Project, this website will be your source for the latest news, events, and announcements so that you can follow the setting up of the Obama Administration. And just as this historic campaign was, from the beginning, about you -- the transition process will offer you opportunities to participate in redefining our government.

CHANGE.gov

It's always six o'clock [0100101110101101.org]

The South Park dudes have done it again: this time their targets are Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. Yup, it's Election 2008 South Park style! You can watch the whole episode online at SouthParkStudios.com. One word: Hilarious!

Unfortunately I do not know the owner/copyright holder of these pictures. If you do, please leave a comment or contact me and I'll update this post.

It kinda looks like me...

Umair Haque of Harvard Business Publishing offers some insight into Obama's sweeping victory and how did it happen:

So how did this unlikeliest of candidates do it? How did Obama utilize radically asymmetrical competition to shatter Washington's toxic, bitter 20th century status quo?

The most critical part of the story is the organization Obama built. Though conservatives are still arguing that Obama has little executive experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. Obama's team built something truly world-changing: a new kind of political organization for the 21st century. It differs from yesterday's political organizations as much as Google and Threadless differ from yesterday's corporations: all are a tiny handful of truly new, 21st century institutions in the world today.

Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators [HBP]

Vaclav Havel, the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic, on Obama's victory:

With all respect to Senator McCain, whom I know and whom I find very sympathetic, I am more glad that Barack Obama won the election. I have an intense impression that a fresh wind will drift into the Washington air upon his arrival, that he will be a President of a new generation — a new type, with a great understanding of the multicultural nature of the contemporary world.

The World's View of Obama's Win [Time]

From Obama's blog, addressing last night's victory:

I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing...

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

Message from Barack: "How this happened" [BarackObama.com]

Sad news for the literary world today: Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton died "unexpectedly" after a private battle with cancer on November 4, 2008 in Los Angeles:

Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton has died in Los Angeles at the age of 66, according to his website. The creator of the popular TV drama ER died "unexpectedly" after a private battle with cancer, his family said. Crichton, a medical doctor turned novelist, has sold than 150 million of his books worldwide.

Jurassic Park author dies [Yahoo!News]

Thank you, America! I am confident you made the right choice. I'd be lying if I said I am not getting a bit emotional right now... WOW.

You can watch Obama's victory speech on Election Night in Chicago here.

Oh, and yes, Obama's headline on NY Times hompage is 60px tall. SIXTY PIXELS TALL! When was the last time this happened!?

Obama Wins Election [NYTimes]
Obama Secures Historic Presidential Victory [WashingtonPost]
Barack Obama makes history [BostonGlobe]
Hard-Fought, Historic Contest Ends With Obama Victory [WSJ]
Obama inspires historic victory [CNN]
Barack Obama Wins Big: "Change Has Come to America" [Time]
President-Elect Obama [Newsweek]
Obama elected nation's 44th president [USAToday]
Obama's historic victory [SFChronicle]
Barack Obama elected president [LATimes]
Obama elected 44th president [NBC]
Obama's historic victory [Economist]
Obama captures White House win [Reuters]
Barack Obama to be America's first black president [Guardian]
Obama wins historic US election [BBC]
Obama elected US president [FinancialTimes]
Barack Obama elected next President of the United States after defeating John McCain [Telegraph]

Barack Obama je novym americkym prezidentom [SME.sk]
Obama zvolen prvnim cernym americkym prezidentem! [Blesk.cz]

Fantastic blog post by Roger Ehrenberg, managing partner of IA Capital Partners, discussing the problems with short-term thinking of the US government:

Providing financing to failing businesses and broken portfolios without dealing with the problems will only result in one outcome: more taxpayer dollars being thrown at the problem when the initial amounts are burned through due to "unexpected" losses. There is nothing unexpected about how it will end up; it will end up badly because we didn't do what was necessary upfront. Just like Social Security. "Why deal with it now when it is so politically costly and when it can be dealt with in the future?" This appears to be the stance of successive Administrations; pass the hot potato onto some other sucker, far, far in the future. Even our corporate compensation regimes are cast in the same light. Managing quarterly earnings to Wall Street expectations, large cash bonuses based on annual performance metrics, etc. This is not the way to promote long-term value creation. Yet this is what our society expects. We are sadly mistaken.

So true.

The Plague of Short-termism [InformationArbitrage]

To all my American peeps: Tomorrow is the big day. Please take a break and go out and vote. The choice is ultimately yours, however, just make sure you make the right one.

I say Barack Obama for President!