Monday, April 30, 2012

 

Panasonic shows off a freakin' huge 145-inch 8K resolution TV

This makes no sense to me.  Who is going to buy this?  No consumer could fit it in their home and almost no content is being produced at that resolution*.  I guess they are building it to show that they can.  But if they are doing that why not wait to unveil it at CES?



* I think next gen video games will be the first to dive into ultra HD resolutions.  I can't wait.

# posted by Bill C @ 2:52 PM |

Sunday, April 29, 2012

 

The way rich people invest



There is only one way to earn 20%/year.  You have to live through breathtaking draw downs.  Up 40, down 30, down 15, up 20, down 10, up 50...if you can handle volatility then trend following is the way to go.  What is so amazing is listening to the inane questions of these financial journalists.  They do not seem to know anything about what Winton Capital does!  This is the method that made George Soros his fortune besides many others that you might have heard of but who chose to remain anonymous because they are making money hand over fist.

# posted by Bill C @ 3:23 PM |

Friday, April 27, 2012

 

L7 - Pretend We're Dead

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# posted by Bill C @ 7:06 AM |

Thursday, April 26, 2012

 

Cadillac road tests self-driving Super Cruise tech, could hit highways by mid-decade



(Via Engadget.)

# posted by Bill C @ 3:33 PM |

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

 

"Why Marxism?" An Evening at FEE with C. Bradley Thompson



The lecture "Why Marxism?", is an examination of why so many people are still attracted to Marxism despite the history of totalitarianism and genocide. 

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# posted by Bill C @ 3:29 PM |

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

 

Karate Kyle

                                                          Karate Kyle meme generator.

# posted by Bill C @ 3:10 PM |

Friday, April 20, 2012

 

Wavves- Bug

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# posted by Bill C @ 8:52 AM |

Thursday, April 19, 2012

 

I Wish That I Could Live it All Again


# posted by Diego @ 3:15 PM |

Sunday, April 15, 2012

 

MIT scientists explain when we'll have fusion power

The old joke is that no matter when you ask when we will have fusion power the answer is always in 50 years. There seems to be reason to believe that the clock on fusion power might start ticking down.

When will fusion power my house (or vehicle)?

This is obviously an impossible question to answer, but we can give some thoughts about when it might happen, and why. First, the current official plan is that ITER will demonstrate net fusion gain (Q = 10, that is, ten times more fusion power out than heating power put in) in about 2028 or 2029. (Construction will be done by about 2022 but there's a six-year shakedown process of steadily increasing the power and learning how to run the machine before the full-power fusion shots.)

At that point, designs can begin for a "DEMO", which is the fusion community's term for a demonstration power plant. That would come online around 2040 (and would putt watts on the grid, although probably at an economic loss at first), and would be followed by (profitable, economic) commercial plants around 2050.

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# posted by Bill C @ 10:55 AM |

Friday, April 13, 2012

 

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)

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# posted by Bill C @ 6:41 AM |

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

 

The Battle of the Diets: Is Anyone Winning (At Losing?)

Synopsis: Hippie professor is in great pain to say that low carb diets work better than low fat diets.




Insulin resistance at 39 minutes. Insulin resistant people do better on low carb diets than those that are not insulin resistant.

At 50 minutes is a short history of dietary guidelines.

53 minutes: "What a bitter pill this was for a 25 year vegetarian to have to write in a paper that Atkins did better than the other diets."

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# posted by Bill C @ 3:28 PM |
 

There is Still Some Rocket Sauce Left in the Bottle


# posted by Diego @ 9:50 AM |

Monday, April 09, 2012

 

The housing bust is over

I correctly called the end of the initial credit crisis in 2008 and banking crisis in 2009 although I did not see that this would immediately lead to the huge stock market rally that began in March 2009. (I tend to be a little early on these calls, from months to a couple of years. For this reason I only say be aware of market patterns that look like housing bottoms; signs of which I've seen in housing.) This call is of similar importance. Look for signs that housing prices have bottomed and treasury bond prices are peaking.

There has been an agreement that will increase the number of foreclosures thereby removing people who are not current on their mortgages.

The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may result in a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely.

I believe this will be good for the housing market in the long run. My reasoning is:

-People squatting in properties they can't afford keeps those properties from being sold to people who can afford them. It is a drain on bank capital. If stronger, i.e., wealthier, homeowners buy these homes then they will be taking their capital out of savings to spend on those homes. Deflation is a problem because it creates an incentive for people to hold onto their capital waiting for further price drops.
-Those people squatting will be forced to take money out of savings and pay rent. Again, more money moving out of savings into the economy will counter deflation.
-Allowing the depreciating assets to be exposed to the market and traded at the market will begin the process of clearing the market of excess inventory. This is a necessary step to ending deflation.

I am not saying the price drops are over and we are very vulnerable to exogenous (external) market shocks. (Yes Europe, I am talking about you.) But I have noticed a couple of markets in which housing inventories have begun to fall very quickly. I am not going to talk about this because I looking to buy in one of these markets and I rather not discuss my reasoning before I get on board. (That would be the equivalent of someone touting a stock before he owns it.)

Ironically, this is very bad news for the bond market. As homes get bought banks will be extending credit to worthy borrowers. Capital will be allocated out of fixed income and the demand for more mortgages will drive up interest rates. I expect over the next few years to see capital start to move from fixed income, especially, and stocks into real estate. This will be a slow but increasing trend over the next decade.

You have been warned.

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# posted by Bill C @ 12:38 PM |

Friday, April 06, 2012

 

The Shins- Simple Song

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# posted by Bill C @ 6:46 AM |

Thursday, April 05, 2012

 

Younger Women Turning to Domesticity

The Roe effect strikes feminism.

I know women who grew up with progressive mothers. Almost all of them turned out progressive themselves. However, in the new generation there simply aren’t as many of them. Some women from conservative families became progressive, but most of them are content to live life as their mothers did. Recruiting these women didn’t really work.

It’s looking more and more as though feminism may simply deal with itself in the same manner the Shakers did. The Shakers may have been America’s first influential gender equality movement, and they rejected marriage and procreation. Shaker membership peaked in the early 19th century at about 6,000. Today, there are three Shakers in the US. In contrast, the ultra-traditional Amish have seen their ranks nearly double in the last twenty years alone. Despite the enormous impact feminism had on the West over the last half century, it may turn out to be merely a flash in the pan; a demographic dead end. Ironically, however, in retrospect we may see that it had one of the most enduring demographic impacts on Western populations of any movement or event in US history. By pushing down the fertility rate of an enormous cohort of Western women and aborting untold numbers of children, feminists may have successfully marginalized and all but assured the extermination of a particular group of Americans: themselves.

I would guess that every movement that turned away from valuing the family eventually died out.

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# posted by Bill C @ 10:49 AM |

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

 

Sugar and kids: The toxic truth

This week on 60 Minutes, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on new research coming out of some of America's most respected institutions, which find that sugar-- the way it's being consumed by Americans today-- is a toxin. And it could be the driving force behind some of this country's leading killers, including heart disease.


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# posted by Bill C @ 6:52 PM |

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