patrick.net

monkframe,

I had thought that depleted uranium was only typically used in the Phalynx type system (6K rounds per minute) to "flatten out" in trajectory and assure destruction of incoming missles etc. A 50 Cal. HB (Heavy Barrel) machine gun is armed w/ conventional rounds, no?

Either way it isn't good, but I didn't think there were that many A-10 "Tank-Busters" in country and thus far the Navy hasn't fired a round?

gmail is not working for me -- I get blank white screen ....

About the Megan Meier story,

This is a real tragedy, but did she not commit suicide after having a quarrel with her mother about the foul language that she was using to respond to the taunts, rather than after receiving some particular taunt?

I do not want in any way to defend the despicable taunters, but has this incident not been somewhat misrepresented in the media?

Here's the latest email from "my" realtor:

Here are 10 solid reasons why you should invest in one of the best areas around the world:
The San Francisco Peninsula.

1. We are an international market place, there are buyers coming from all over the world investing here.

2. We have an ongoing growing high tech, bio tech development industry.

3. This brings us high income levels for buyers and sellers.

4. We have the transportation to handle the traffic.

5. We have good schools so your children can get a high level education.

6. We have a multicultural environment welcoming all nationalities to our area.

7. The weather is great.

8. The crime rate is low.

9. The development is limited so the prices will hold.

10. Investment in rental property is good due to limited rentals available.

Please contact me directly for specific information on the areas you are interested in.

See, times ain't changin' after all!! (LOL)

This past week I got 3 phone calls asking for people with same last name as me but different first name. I wondered if it's the credit card companies stepping up their effort to find delinquent. They just searched the phone book calling people with the matching last name and first initial.

HelloKitty Says:

> yes the ‘cfc going under’ really did seem to not
> pass the ‘too good to be true rule’.
> i have dreams of them going under laying off
> 100% of staff

There will be a ton of Countrywide layoffs in California just like there were at BofA when NationsBank bought the bank and took the name (then called the purchase a “merger of equals”)…

BofA wanted to buy Countrywide for about $40 Billion for the last couple years but the orange guy wouldn’t sell. Since they got it for $4 Billion today they can still have some big losses and do OK…

There will be a ton of Countrywide layoffs in California just like there were at BofA when NationsBank bought the bank and took the name (then called the purchase a “merger of equals”)…

I'll concur w/ FAB. When BofA bought Fleet Bank Boston, there were significant layoffs, as well as transfers to Charlotte, NC.

goober Says:

> Here’s the latest email from “my” realtor:
> Here are 10 solid reasons why you should invest in
> one of the best areas around the world…
> The San Francisco Peninsula.
> 9. The development is limited so the prices will hold.

We didn’t have much new development from 1990 – 1995 when most Peninsula homes dropped more than 25% in value (and many Hillsborough and Atherton homes dropped over 50%). Ask the Realtor how sure he is that “prices will hold” and if he says he is sure see if he will agree to refund his commission if prices drop…

P.S. A friend that I talked out of buying a $2mm Burlingame piece of crap in early 2005 called last week to tell me that his wife doesn’t hate me anymore and that the talk at the Burlingame Mom play groups today is about people in trouble that need to sell (not people making tons of money owning real estate like 2005)…

The home we bought in Redwood City in 96 had dropped over 15% from the price the sellers paid in 1989. More if you add in inflation. I'm sure if I went and found any of those realtors involved back then they'd all tell you that prices never go down in the Bay Area.

It's not a hard concept to grasp: realtors lie. Some just do it artfully. Hell, we can all appreciate a good con, so long as we're not the one who's the mark.

The statement "no amount of X is safe" is vapid and pointless. Everything involves a certain degree of risk because nothing is deterministic.

Try this: "no amount of air is safe". After all, a single bubble of it well placed in your bloodstream can turn you into Schrodinger's pet much faster than a couple millirads.

But hey, we're much better off playing the science ignorance card and whipping up boomer-style fear tactics on the sheeple populace. Oh how I can't wait for the election season to really heat up so we can really get on with this circus show...

"When BofA bought Fleet Bank Boston there were significant layoffs"

Well... I "heard" about this ONE guy... :(

Rather than have the chutzpah to to fire us outright we were subjected to endless rounds of salary reductions and reduced payouts etc. By the time I "left" I'd heard they were going to make us pay for parking.

"his wife doesn't hate me any more"

This is good! (Certainly a step in the right direction?)

What's sad is there aren't enough people that DID listen to fill a VW Bug (let alone a book of business)

Please step forward and accept your CBA (Certified Bubble Analyst) (TM) Award!

If we don't do something about the bubble, we will just end up like Tesla. :(

This is just a classic asset bubble. Perhaps we should expect a new book from Soros talking about that.

Anyone who says that nobody could have seen it coming is either a liar or an idiot or both.

DinOR,

Man, sorry to hear you were part of that heinousness. I was living in Boston at the time. If it's any consolation, customer service went to pot after the takeover, and it still sucks. BofA is pretty lame, unless I guess you're a Spanish speaking customer:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/11/news/companies/tully_countrywide.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008011112

Gold Hits Record $900 an Ounce
Gold Futures Surge to Record $900 an Ounce on Weak Dollar, Fears of U.S. Recession

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gold futures briefly rose above $900 an ounce Friday for the first time as high oil prices, a weak dollar and fears of a U.S. recession led uneasy investors to keep buying the precious metal.

An ounce of gold for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped $6.50 to $900.10 in morning trading, an all-time high and a psychologically important milestone. Gold later slipped to $898.70 an ounce on profit-taking but remained in record territory.

"It's a reflection of market sentiment: Gold is a hedge against uncertainty and right now it's the best bet," said Carlos Sanchez, a precious metals analyst at CPM Group in New York. "None of the other investment options look that great and gold does."

@skibum,

Thanks. It sucked at the time but... in the end it all worked out for the best. There was a lot of "carrot and stick" (but in the end, more stick than carrot) but I'm over it, after we RUINED our scumbag branch and regional managers careers that is! (Freaking scumbags) He-he.

My scumbag BM was "transferred" to HELL and racked up an all-expense-paid move! He was being demoted to just another Rep. and I'll never forget "just walking past" the interim mgrs. door and "over hearing" him tell the schmuck the classic line; "Oh... didn't you get that e-mail?"

Left him on the hook for the entire 10K move! (Freaking scumbag) Our Regional guy, well last I heard he was in the park throwing bread crumbs at himself. But I'm... over it.

boomer-style fear tactics
Well, I do have to admire some of the pro-nuke websites; they point out that some of the waste byproducts (heavy metals) from burning coal never lose their toxicity (kinda makes uranium's half life look good :-) Seriously, though, isn't the future about "decentralized" energy. I like the recycling plans of some of the producers of thin film solar panels, though I have to admit that maintenance (and oops, I need a new inverter) don't seem to get factored into the "solar calculators".

Was watching an E(squared) special on PBS last night that featured some of Grameen's energy initiatives in Bangladesh. They showed a tea vendor had reduced his fuel costs (previously using kerosene) by over 75% once he got plumbed for a biogas line from a local chicken farmer.

Anyone who says that nobody could have seen it coming is either a liar or an idiot or both.

I've been called both on numerous occasions, but....

I quit a good paying (1 HAHA) job in 2005 so I could prep and sell my Cambrian Park house. I saw the bubble for what it was, and yet I have no background in finance (physics and law for me). It still amazes me when people claim they couldn't see it coming. There have been numerous times in the BA's past when housing prices zoomed up for 4-5 years, dropped somewhat, and lay in a plateau for 5-7 years. That's the long-term pattern.

I saw the bubble for what it was, and yet I have no background in finance

Dennis, it has nothing to do with finance. It is all about human nature and behavior.

BTW, is Coeur D'Alene a nice place?

The sad irony is the knee-jerk anti-nuke movement (if you can call it that) has probably contributed as much to the present state of global warming (in terms of carbon) as have any of the corporate or fossil fuel interests. The hidden assumption in many of their agendas is one of neo-luddism: they don't factor in that the energy will be produced anyway from other sources. They envision that energy demand will decrease, which I'll wager will never happen in my lifetime regardless of any efficiency and conservation progress due solely to population increase in the developed world + population increase and industrialization of the developing world.

Coal is a whole different story. We spent some time at the experimental gasification project site. Interesting stuff, far beyond anything I understand (Chemistry isn't my strong suit). There's a catch to clean coal too. A big one. It produces some nasty nasty nasty gaseous byproducts which have to be safely sequestered or else small amounts could kill lots of people (and animals) over wide areas. Given that trade off, I'll take the output of a fast-breeder reactor, thank you very much.

By the way, I also firmly believe the clean-coal trend will continue unabated until these contraptions are rolled into wide production. The USA is the Saudi Arabia of coal, after all. We can chalk that future up to the knee-jerk anti nukers, in my opinion. I've often thought all the anti-nuke stuff is secretly funded by fossil interests.

Decentralized production is great. It is already happening to some degree. But it will take decades to retool the grid. Maybe longer. A dumb-grid can't handle efficient decentralized production. And we'll always need a good number of huge, scale production facilities to power our cities, factories, and hopefully increasingly transport.

dow down 300+ points.

OO,

I read a story about slowdown in China, Just wondering what's your take?

Mayor of Cleveland, OH suing 21 major banks, lenders, and blue chip companies claiming they are similar to organized crime. He is seeking compensation for lost tax revenue, money to fight skyrocketing crime, and for demolishing abandoned houses.

Mozilo to get 150 million as a golden parachute severance.

Source: CNN Just DVRd it.

I don't know Randy, with all of these hidden social costs that you keep bringing up, solar, wind, and hydro are starting to look pretty cost effective. Frankly I don't really care if it takes massive subsidies to get this country on the right track.
Either we will pay the social costs as investments in the future or we will become a nation similar to the "home debtor" model where we never pull ahead because we will constantly be cleaning up the environment, or becoming even unhealthier, or still acting as drug addicts to foreign countries to supply our energy habbit.

Peter P,

I haven't been up north in ID yet. Coeur d'Alene is about 370 miles north of Boise on a winding 2-lane highway. By all accounts it's spectacular. National Geo magazine once ranked the lake there among the 5 most beautiful lakes in the entire world.

A DVD video suggestion:
http://www.idptvsecure.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ARTP&Category_Code=

This is the best 1-hour documentary on what Idaho looks like. It's all aerial photography, similar to those "Over XXX" shows the national PBS has produced. Too bad the narration is a bit "hokey".

Mr. Terminator Blues.

Schwarzenegger is facing the kind of fiscal crisis in California that ruined his predecessor

EBGuy,

Actually I believe that is chicken "rancher". You know, rope'n and ride'n? Git' along little... chickie?

Well, if you had to live within sniffin' distance of a chicken ranch (it's the least that rancher could do!)

DennisN,

If you're talking about Priest Lake (Upper and Lower) I'd say #1. And I've seen a few. IMHO.

Actually all of northern Idaho is "lake country", what with Lake Coeur d'Alene, Lake Pend Oreille, Hayden Lake, and upper/lower Priest Lake. Aerial shots of Pend Oreille, with its steep slopes diving into the lake, make it look like the fijords of Norway.

What I especially liked about Priest Lake is that you're so far north the sunsets seem to last forever!

When we looked back on the vacation video everybody is just suh-mashed. It looks like it's only 7:00pm when it's actually closer to 10:00pm!

The Summer Solstice! Yeah, yeah, that's why we're suh-mashed.

The sad irony is the knee-jerk anti-nuke movement (if you can call it that) has probably contributed as much to the present state of global warming (in terms of carbon) as have any of the corporate or fossil fuel interests.

I think the knee-jerk movement to "global warming" and "coming ice age" will ruin the environment.

I heard from the radio yesterday that someone proposed introducing iron into the ocean to absorb CO2 using micro-organisms. I was so mad! They are going to destroy my seafood!

The best way to handle "global warming" is to ignore it. Even in the extreme unlikely event that it is more than make-believe, we will adapt to the consequences easily.

Thanks DennisN!

Perhaps we may look to visit Idaho sometime this Summer.

Peter P,

On the RADIO!? The radio? I get these insane investment "newsletters" touting outrageous returns on this BS! I think they called the ship (ship hell it was a boat) something like "Planktos". Yeah, they're going to dump iron filings in the ocean off of Galapagos.

Madness!

Hilary Clinton just made what in my opinion is one of her scariest soundbites.
Quote: "It's imperative that we have an economy that works for everyone, that we take care of people who get up ever day and do the very best they can."

Source: Just played on C-Span

Now she is calling on the President and Congress to come up with some quick action to prevent the slide into recession.

"ever day"? Was she trying out her fake Southern accent again?

Yes, yes the $70 bil. Economic Stimulus Package?

It was Seven-Oh right? I don't get it. Stimulate what? Were we... under stimulated?

Some reports from the front. Its probably too soon to call it a trend, but it does appear from Socketsite that condos are tettering on a knife edge in Ess Eff. Foreclosures in new buildings are popping up now and again and listing lower than their previous sales price. SpecUvestors?! I'm shocked!
In Fortress East Bay, Piedmont (yes, its the schools) is starting to show some cracks. Three green pins (NODs) showed up on my latest Trulia search -- up from no pins last time I searched for foreclosures. Also, this took place just a bit outside of Piedmont proper.

Just 'cause it's Friday,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk7hFnB4JnA

She is proposing a 30 billion dollar fund to help hard hit communities and homeowners to weather the foreclosure crisis.

"In CA you have 95,000 homes in foreclosure."

~The fund would give states resources to provide at risk families with desperately needed services like financial counseling, and legal assistance, and help refinancing these unworkable unaffordable loans. States and communities can also use these funds to offset the costs from rising foreclosures, everything from maintaining vacant properties to services like community policing.~

(The typical liberal, create a crisis to justify more power for them.)

Oh and the clincher, "vacant properties attract people you don't want in your neighborhood." (Aren't those people her voting block?)

Now the 90 day moratorium on foreclosures.

Her reasoning for the crisis:

1. We've had predatory lending practices
2. People who put homeowners into mortgages they couldn't afford because they got more money for having a higher interest rate.
3. A lot of people who could pay for a good rate but were pushed into adjustable mortgages.
4. A lot of families could stay in their houses and pay the mortages they are currently paying.
5. (Plays the race card nicely)Pressure coming from investors, understand it's not the local bank, it is someone sitting in Shanghai, or Dubai, or Berlin, or London, and what they're saying is I'm supposed to get an interest rate return up here (hand gesture) and if YOU stop me I'm not getting my return on investment.
6. She's proud to represent Wall Street, but on this issue Wall St is complicitous (WTF?) with the banks and the mortgage brokers and the lenders and everybody who took advantage of Americans in this mortgage crisis.

(Note: Not once does she blame the borrower)

Now the 5 year moratorium.

(She gets the most upset about this abusive practice.) 1st time buyers or people who moved to a larger home who didn't read the fine print, "I gotta tell ya, I skimed MY mortgage papers, I didn't read them, I didn't know what was that fine print and all those pages of legalese." ( she didn't read her own mortgage documents, I thought she was a lawyer, and yes she did just say this!!) People did what their friends and familty told them and put extra money in with their check or tried to pay their house off and were Hammered wtih a prepayment penalty. "You see the investors didn't want you to pay off your mortgage." People are being punished for doing the right thing.~

Oh, now the emergency energy assistance for the poor, I'll stop here.