Thursday, February 16, 2006

On XM

I have been considering financial blogging recently. The problem is that people like Jim Cramer can go on television, flog a stock relentlessly and watch it shoot up 10% the next day, but I couldn't recommend a stock without being prosecuted for financial shenanigans.

It's a pity because I see a great deal to skewer with the stock picks which are on today. Perhaps I should start a new segment: Bad stock pick of the month. In which, I would highlight a stock never to buy for your portfolio.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Al Salem: Lying about the passenger figures.

There is a discrepancy in passenger figures between that reported by the shipping line in 2005 and what it is claiming now.

In 2001, the shipping line, Al Salem, reported a capacity of 1100 passengers. Recently, the website has been revised to show an increased capacity of passengers, coincidentally, the same number carried by the ferry when it sank.

According to the Internet Way Back archive, the Feb. 2005, the passenger figure is reported as 1100. There were about 1500 people on the ship, including 100 crew.

From the internet way back archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050216095510/http://elsalammaritime.com/pvessels.html

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Baghdad Burning

Baghdad Burning

Her english is too good. I think this is a fraud. There are too many things she shouldn't know about christians, about churches, about American literature. This is written by a native english speaker or someone who has been in the Anglosphere a very long time. "Christmas miracles are exclusive to Dickens" sounds quite good. Also, the punctuation is fantastic. Most Americans can't do this kind of thing.

V-Day: afghanistan is everywhere

You too can join the oppressed!

"Until all women and girls are free from violence, women will continue to confront violence. We declare Afghanistan is Everywhere "

Let's reverse the sexes. "Until men are free from violence, men will continue to confront violence." Unless the guys feeding people into the plastic shredder are members of the Ba'athist party.

Maybe I missed the chadors and muttawas with steel rods beating women in the streets.

Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' undergoes interrogation

The gas chamber would be highly appropriate, don't you think?

Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' undergoes interrogation

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

ATRA :: Judicial Hellholes 2004

A list you don't want to make, unless you are a trial lawyer. Tort reform, anyone?


ATRA :: Judicial Hellholes 2004

News

Quality Islamic Justice

Well, she wouldn't be executed if she were a boy. After all, in the Iranian system, boys can't be executed before the age of 15 whereas girls could be executed at nine.

UPDATE: OK, she only has a mental age of 8.5. It's all good. /sarcasm

Friday, December 03, 2004

Miss World 2004: the official website - Contestants - Details

I took a look at the Miss World contestants. It served to increase my desire to travel to South America. I found the Chinese and Japanese contestants, well, ordinary. Couldn't they have found someone a little more glamorous? I mean, I have seen more attractive Asian women wandering around downtown Chicago.

Miss World 2004: the official website - Contestants - Details

The Editors on Intelligence Reform on National Review Online

Bipartisan legislation scares me. It tends to be made for tv crud devoid of redeeming value. Sort of like Sarbanes-Oxley.


The Editors on Intelligence Reform on National Review Online: "ed a thorough reevaluation of our intelligence system's capabilities and organization? Those days weren't so long ago, but they have been forgotten in the absurd rush in Washington to pass a massive centralization of U.S. intelligence months before the presidential commission charged with examining the Iraq intelligence failure and questions related to it has a chance to report.

President Bush named senior federal judge Laurence Silberman and former senator Charles Robb in February to head the bipartisan panel, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is scheduled to report by March. Its work directly touches on the changes contemplated in the intelligence-reform bill that conventional wisdom in Washington deems it imperative to pass in days (if not hours). As the commission's website explains, it 'will provide recommendations for ensuring that the Intelligence Community is best equipped and organized to warn the United States Government' of futu"

Monday, November 29, 2004

A fascinating view of city rank and importance by census year. We can see that there is a long term decline in certain cities. It takes 70-100 years for a city to decline into irrelavence. For example, look at Fall River MA. It was once a great city but it took 100 years to decline so far that it fell of the chart. Nantucket took 79 yeears. In hindsight, we can see that many of the cities which supposedly were wracked by racial problems in the 1960's actually were in a downward spiral far before that.


: "COLORADO (3)
Aurora *................. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 97"

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Havel for UN Chief!

Hit and Run

If Vaclav Havel were put in a position of great international authority, I think I would cry tears of joy. Incidentally, this will be the first test of the blogosphere to not only to reacty to the MSM but to implant and influence ideas in actual policies. I hope this works!

Passengers complain about pat-down searches at airports

Next news story: "Tens of thousands apply for TSA screening jobs"

Passengers complain about pat-down searches at airports

Article: Africa's deserts are in "spectacular" retreat�| New Scientist

Funny how good news doesn't get reported. Now, when things go bad, it is A1 above the fold news, even if the news isn't 'new.'
Article: Africa's deserts are in "spectacular" retreat�| New Scientist

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Roger L. Simon: A North Korean Freedom Movement?

Another result of Bush's Re-Election: Samizdat against the North Korean tyrant. Can Freedom Fighters be far behind?

Roger L. Simon: A North Korean Freedom Movement?

I pray for the day when the butcher of Pyongyang is hung from a meathook.

Monday, November 15, 2004

Car Wax Test Results, NSeXcitement Magazine

Here is an interesting test of . Car Waxes Unfortunately, the one I use came in dead last. I'll continue to look around for something better,

Sunday, November 07, 2004

israelinsider: diplomacy: Suspicions grow that Arafat is dying of AIDS

israelinsider: diplomacy: Suspicions grow that Arafat is dying of AIDS: "that Arafat is dying of AIDS
By israelinsider staff November 6, 2004

Former White House speechwriter David Frum has joined the growing chorus of pundits, medical experts, and intelligence operatives who claim Yasser Arafat is likely suffering from AIDS.

Frum, a key figure in Republican politics and the man who coined the terms 'axis of evil,' writes in National Review Online that Arafat's undisclosed illness is well-known, but has been kept under wraps by the mainstream media.

'Speaking of media bias, here's a question you won't hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS?' asks Frum, who also writes for the National Post.

'We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight -- possibly as much as one-third of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like?'

Earlier, John Loftus told John Batchelor on ABC radio on October 26 that Arafat is dying from AIDS. Loftus said the CIA has known this about Arafat for quite awhile and that as a result the US has encouraged Sharon not to take Arafat out because the US has known Arafat was about done. It was deemed better to have Arafat discredited as a homosexual.

Although homosexuality is rife in the Arab world, it is at least officially considered a sin and a crime, and regarded--especially in fundamentalist circles--as a mark of great shame and depravity.

Intelligence on 'the tiger' romping with bodyguards
Frum pointed to KGB evidence linking Arafat to homosexual activities, citing a 1987 book by Lt.-Gen. Ion Pacepa, the deputy chief of Romania's intelligence service under Commu"