Kids and Komputers

iTouch after a Shower

It’s always the youngest.

On Saturday my 4yr-old left our iTouch (old iPhone) outside for four hours of rain.  We didn’t notice it was missing until we went looking to play with it at 9:00 PM.   My 4yr-old  sheepishly told my oldest that she was using it outside and put it down on a lawn chair shortly before being chased back inside by the rain.

While holding the now dripping device, I did a little searching on some tech blogs for hope.  Not surprisingly, I found numerous others with a similar problem, though different causes; dropped in the toilet being the best.

Following the advice of blogs, I dried it with a paper towel and stuck in a tupperware container with some silica packets and rice (short grain, in case you were wondering).

Well I opened the tupperware up this morning, plugged it into the computer and presto, it works.

I think I may be buying some more AAPL today.

— Tom

Our Walter (Winchell or Cronkite) Debates Healthcare

Stewart v. Kristol

Of course we all know that our troops don’t really get the best medical care.

Truth can be Violent, Vulgar and makes good Video

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.
John Ruskin

WARNING: While full of truth and sorta funny, the following video does have some offensive language.   Please avoid if you don’t want to here some bad words or the truth about our “Green Shoots”

Ok, a lot of bad words  ;-)

UK Healthcare – Too Simple for Our Feeble Brains

We all know the meme, “Government wants to take over health care and get between you and your doctor”, and we all know it’s not that simple.  In fact the UK system is quite simple.  They have guaranteed healthcare for all but you can still get health insurance if you are dissatisfied will the governments system.

Why Both?

In the United Kingdom, both emergency care and standard physician services are guaranteed for all.  Then why do they still have Health Insurance?

There is a grain of truth to the threats of long waiting times for medical procedures under government run health insurance and it typically doesn’t cover “elective” procedures.  This is where health insurance fills in for the governments deficiencies.

For example, an athletic sixty year-old might purchase insurance to cover procedures like hip replacement or optical laser surgery that might be neglected in a government insurance plan.  We can all be sure that the insurance companies will be quite adept at pointing out these gaps in coverage.

Why haven’t we heard this argument from the Dems?  Either they think its a nuance too complicated for our feeble brains to understand or (much worse) they think we might.

Fraud is Fundamental

Hound Dogs

Trusting Wall Street Much

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220252&title=cnbc-gives-financial-advice

(sorry for the Ad, not in my control)

Goldman Knows Nothing !!

Goldman Oil Forcast was $200 a barrel, now $45

Like a monkey throwing darts

UPDATE: Mar 2, 2009 – With oil right around $45 Goldman’s analysts are statistically closer to flipping a coin than throwing darts.  The latter requiring skill.

Rotten Apple

 

Gimme your Money...and your house

Ever pick up a seemingly perfect apple only to start peeling it to find some small bruises underneath the skin.  Of course you can continue to peel the apple, grab a small paring knife and cut away the rotten parts.  What you will be left with is a delicious apple.

 

But imagine you are told to stop peeling that apple immediately, glue the old skin over it and wait until the rotten part reverts back to good apple.  Ridiculous huh.

 

Well that is exactly what we are doing in the economy.  In late 2006, the first layer of the rotten housing market was revealed, sub-prime.  And rather then continue to peel the apple of housing, revealing all the rotten and bruised portions we have been told these rotten parts are only temporary, just stop peeling and surround the rotten parts with additional apples waiting for the good ones to cover for the bad until they all miraculously turn good.

 

There are two types of people who don’t like throwing $700,000,000,000 of our apples into a basket with all the bad apples.

 

The first, like myself, have spent years studying finance and economics, look carefully at the legislation and can form smart arguments about why this plan will not work.

 

The second, and far more important, is the average “Main Street” American who isn’t confused by all the details.  They simply recognize the extortion for what it is.  For them it’s simple.  They DO understand that Wall Street impacts Main Street.  In fact they feel better if Wall Street might actually share their economic misery.

 

And are you for it?  They you must be scared and trust the same con-artists who got us into this mess or you ARE the con-artist.

 

Additionally, all you Supply Siders were sorta right.  Except rather then the billions made by the rich trickling down, the economic suffering of the middle class over the last ten years is trickling up.

 

Now that is something that everyone should understand.

Slate: First Palin, Then Campaign Suspension. What Now?

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of “vice vice president” to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

New World Order