We Are Not Afraid

Found this excellent site today for those who think bombing us will cause us to cower in fear. We Are Not Afraid.

9/11, Bali, Madrid, London. Is this a war?

Today I read two excellent essays by Lee Harris regarding the "war" that Al Qaeda as declared on the world. I put the word "war" in quotes because Mr. Harris argues that this is not a war. It is a blood feud. He claims that we are mistaken to attempt to frame these terror attacks as battles in a war. They simply do not fit. However, when framed within the concept of a blood feud, which is an integral part of middle eastern tribal society, they makes perfect sense.

They are well worth the read.

Click HERE for the essay about blood feuds (Written after the London bombings).
Click HERE for the essay about Al Qaeda's Ideology (written after Sept 11).

E-mail gone wrong

A friend sent this "news story" to me today. It is so obiously fake, and an urban legend updated for the Internet age. But it is still funny.

An amazing story about an email gone wrong

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of hectic schedules, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with the wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in the room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and, without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned from her husband’s funeral. He was a minister who had died of a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email, expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow’s son rushed in to the room and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I’ve Arrived
Date: October 16, 2004

I know that you’re surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P.S. Sure is freaking hot down here!

Donald Trump.... what a scumbag

Donald 'Da Crook' Trump

I've never liked Donald Trump. I do admire successful people. He is an exception. How on earth can someone who claims to be successful businessman, the man with the golden touch, loose money owning casinos? Simple. He is crooked as a dog's hind leg. Anyone who invests their money in his enterprises has to be a stupid fool.

He is crooked, and rich, because he knows how to manipulate the books so that his personal fortune always gets the winning investments, and his shareholders get stuck with the dogs. He has mastered the art of using OTM (Other People's Money).

He sucked so much money out of his casino that it never had a chance. That is why it went bankrupt. I'd bet the company that "owns" the casino has to pay Donald a fat licensing fee to use the Trump name. That way he gets paid when the shareholders don't.

This weekend Donald is up to his usual three-card-monte tricks. He participated as a buyer in a bankruptcy auction of land he already owns in Atlantic City. Yes, that's right. He is bidding on his own property. And guess what? He won the auction. Story on CNN.

One of his companies came out as the winner for property that another one of his companies owns and had to dump in a bankruptcy fire-sale. In the words of Shakespeare's Hamlet, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Here are two free investing tips:

1. Never invest in a company that doesn't have a full time CEO. Trump is CEO of a handful of his companies. His attention to his hotel & casino company is a fraction of what it should be.
2. Never invest in a company where CEO and top executives have inherent conflicts of interest such as also owning the company that the owns the land, name, or other critical resource. Trump owns the land under his casinos, and he owns the name on their marquees.

This is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

Wow. I just installed Google's new Google Earth program. I am just... speechless. This is the most fantastic f**king thing I've seen in a long, long time. I've have spent the last few hours "flying" around California, Australia, Italy, Central Asia. This is like using a flight simulator that covers the whole planet.

It uses data from satellite photos, 3-d terrain mapping, building, roads, landmarks, etc to give you a 3-d perspective of any spot on earth. You can "fly" down the I-5 from Seattle to Los Angeles with all the mountains around you. I flew up the Nile River in Egypt. Wow.

You have to get this. You need broadband though. Here are some screen shots I took. And it is free.

My house in Cottesloe Lat: 32° 0'44.33"S Long:115°45'11.98"E

Santa Barbara

Firenze (Florence), Italy