Twhirl. Excellent Twitter client
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 22:53 - Category: Unfiled ;
Archive for February 28th, 2008
Yet another debt market freezes
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 20:16 - Category: Credit crisis ;
Variable-rate demand notes are long-term debt where the interest rate fluctuates on a short-term, sometimes weekly basis. Like their cousins before them; subprime, CDOs, SIEs, SIVs, and the rest of the toxic alphabet soup, these notes have just done a swan dive into an empty swimming poll too.
As an example, rates on $300 million of California debt just went from 2% to 8.5%. Ouch. Lots of other such debt is feeling similar pain today too.
iTunes replacing Wal-Mart as No. 1 music retailer
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 17:10 - Category: Unfiled Tags: Apple, Wal-Mart;
Looks like this will happen this year. Music CDs are quickly becoming extinct while iTunes commands a massive share of the legal download market.
Key fact:
Nearly half of all U.S. teens (48 percent) did not purchase a CD last year. That is up from 2006, when about 38 percent of teens made no CD purchases.
Nader announces Matt Gonzalez as VP
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 15:29 - Category: Election 2008 Tags: Nader;
Nader could still run on the Green Party ticket, but I’m guessing he won’t.
Tip: Green Lisa
‘Virtual fence’ isn’t
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 14:21 - Category: Immigrant rights Tags: border fence;
The BushCo plan to build a highly automated “virtual fence” at the US - Mexico border is now years behind schedule because, well, all their ballyhooed technological spying devices don’t work.
Software integration issues stymied a timely launch.
In the past, other glitches–including lags in radar information displaying in command centers and newly deployed radars being activated by rain or other environmental factors–have made the system unusable, according to Government Accountability Office investigators
The amount of information being transmitted overwhelmed the control centers, a problem that I think is inherent in any massive surveillance system. There’s just too much data to sort through and act on in anything approaching real time. False positives will abound, genuine threats will be missed. It’s all reminiscent of the faulty US military belief in both Vietnam and Iraq that they could win from the air alone, with no need to get on the ground with troops. That approach didn’t work there and it won’t work at the border.
The system was developed with “minimal input” from Border Patrol agents, resulting in an unworkable “demonstration project” instead of a operating pilot system.
Sigh. For a system to work and be effective, the developers really need to talk to and get input from the end users. Otherwise it probably won’t do what they need it to do thus it won’t be used. Or, like here, won’t work at all. So not only is the idea of Orwellian border fences an affront, they don’t function. Which is probably a good thing.
Cadres and organizing
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 10:19 - Category: Socialism ;
Dave Riley responds in the comments to Marxist groups, organizing, and clowning.
Personally I think the old guard standalone groupuscule form like the ISO, your old outfit, the SWP, etc has reached its use by date. But where Camejo tripped up, I think, is that he failed to note the massive advantage of cadreisation and collective commitment that is fostered in these partyish milieux under Leninist protocols.
Absolutely. It’s often the cadre organizations whose members keep working long after everyone else has gone home or given up. It’s in their collective DNA to do so.
You need very serious activists working together to do politics that returns to the attack again and again. But that’s the rub. How do you sustain that core without falling victim to the circle or bunker spirit? Especially when you are still marginal regardless of all your activity.
Dedication that was once admirable can become inbred and exclusionary, pushing out others, causing friction and fractures. Really, circular firing squads are such a huge waste of resources and time…
Maybe the organization needs to open up. Realize that other besides cadre can and should be members, that they can bring new ideas and perspectives into the group. Indeed, a group that remains insular has little hope of growing and spreading their message.
Would the non-cadre change the group? Absolutely. That’s what the cadre are afraid of, losing control. But if they took the risk, they could end up with a much larger organization and wouldn’t need to be tireless cadre any more because there would be so many more to do the work.
How fuel cells work
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 07:23 - Category: Renewable energy Tags: fuel cells;
From UTC Power. Fuel cells take a chemical input and convert it directly to electricity, outputting only water and heat with no carbon as byproducts. Most use hydrogen, which can be produced by solar, which means the entire process is extremely clean.
“I have seen the future of evangelical Christianity, and it is pierced.”
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 03:12 - Category: Unfiled ;
Something new is happening out there in Evangelical Land.
Politicians and the Net
Bob Morris @ Feb 28th 2008 00:13 - Category: Blogging, Politics ;
Nader’s brand of crusade-like issue advocacy would seem perfectly suited for the Internet age. But he has a big problem: He doesn’t understand the Web.
“Doesn’t understand” is an understatement. More like “clueless and contemptuous.” I mean, he still refers to the Net as “virtual reality,” not understanding that for millions, their online and offlines lives mesh into one, without there being little separation between them.
Ron Paul doesn’t get the Net, but his hordes of libertarian geek supporters sure do, and they created a viral buzz that enabled Paul to raise tens of millions of dollars.
Much of the hard left doesn’t get the Net either. Oh, they have websites and blogs, but they lock them down and control the content, often not even allowing comments on blogs. Or they use blogs solely to re-post articles from their other sites. This totally misunderstands what blogs are about.
For blogs (and websites) to be successful, they need to be two-way. The comments that readers leave and the incoming and outgoing links are what gives life to a blog. Without that, you might as well post it on your refrigerator door, for all the effect it will have.
A blog needs to leave the doors open, letting lots of stuff fly in and out, and to have a personal point of view as well. That’s why the blogs for most politicians are dull. They have few if any outgoing links, hardly ever allow criticism (or even liveliness) in the comments, and present a bland personality to the reader. Someone told them they need a blog, so they got one, but don’t know why.
More than a few websites and blogs on the hard left have the same problems, except the personality presented is militant rather than bland. But it’s still one-dimensional, with humor, wry comments, links to organizations outside themselves, and feedback from readers often being nonexistent.
Like I say, they don’t get the Net.
