Market Observations
This week saw three major market positives:
-Blow out earnings from Apple (AAPL).
-The Fed, while not opening up QE 3 directly, made it clear they want to see some inflation even if they have no idea where the hell it shows up.
-Facebook has moved up their IPO offering, all the way to next week.
That is quite a trio of fuses to light an already explosive looking market.
Because I am a skeptic at heart, I would wonder why Facebook is rushing this move so much. After a huge rally, are they worried it might reverse? I have no idea but file it under "suspect".
That said, next week may provide one of those rare opportunities to get long and be very confident. Market players will make very sure that IPO has a nice running environment. Seeing the Internet momo plays skyrocket late day makes me confident a run higher is at hand. All to place an IPO everyone can dump to make money. Nice.
Friday Night Entertainment
Because you worked hard all week and deserve a break.
Missing Ships and People
I love real mystery or tales of extreme situations. Always have. The great site iO9 has a collection of 10 tales that they think could make great science fiction novels:
10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels
A couple selections:
-Roman Ninth Legion
-Percy Fawcette, whom have covered before. This will get movie treatment and I think I saw Brad Pitt will star.
There were also some great articles on iO9 this week about "Mitochondrial Eve" and how that data backs up the idea that humans evolved one time in one place in Africa then spread across the globe. Here is a graphic with years ago estimated and routes of human migration:
Picture Pages
Visual cues.
Smile Rabbit!:
see more This is Photobomb
The old days:
see more Historic LOL
Never changes.
Film Clips
In case you need a movie idea.
Plenty of great horse centered films (Hidalgo, War Horse) but from my youth I always loved "The Black Stallion Returns" best of all:
If you have not seen the classic film "Used Cars" with Kurt Russell, well, you should:
The price (or rent?) is too damn high! Blame Bernanke.
Rock Blogging
Bringing the tunes since 2007.
Loyal reader Gawains was looking for some Steppenwolf and "Born to Be Wild" circa 1969 works!:
Good pick.
One of the hardest workers on charts and ideas on Twitter is G. Thomas Lackey and he puts so much effort in day and day out he needs a song break. He also knows engines and cars, which is cool beyond doubt. Here is Sublime and "Santeria":
You can follow him on Twitter via @gtlackey
My friend Arctic Gambino wanted The Black Keys and "Your Touch" and I have never heard this song, its wonderful! Bluesy and edgy:
LOVE IT!!! Follow him on Twitter as @a_bh_a
Not quite under the 1 year rule, but I was wanting some LA Guns and "Over the Edge":
I am in a sad mood so why not up the ante with "Love Hurts" from Nazareth:
Two songs to go.
Heavy time.Turn it up. White Zombie and "Thunder Kiss 65":
Last call.
Close the show with Heart and "Alone":
Fitting.
Have a good night.
Thunder Kiss 65! Damn cool song.
ReplyDeleteAnd the best part of the Heart video? One word - Nancy.
Agree 10000% Alex.
ReplyDeleteSpot on observations here and an action packed entertainment to boot. Thx for heads up on this post. Agree with the migration map, since reading recently that some Native Americans share a disproportionately large pool of genes with modern Greeks. -Eve
ReplyDeleteYou know, there used to be this little theater down here, called the Last Picture Show. Steppenwolf played there. I was, what, maybe 13 when I saw them play.
ReplyDeleteNice touch on the Nazareth. That was the album in the 70s. You had to live through that decade to really get it, but that was the album. We used to go this club in Reynosa named Eddies, because they served alcohol and stayed open till 4:00 AM. Whenever they played Nazareth, it filled the dance floor.
Then we would all go to Armando's for giant tacos. But that restaurant burned down years ago.
The memories of childhood, they really make you think.
Eve, agree genes dont lie! Thanks for stopping in.
ReplyDeleteGawains, you write so well, love to see your comments.
Well, back in the day, late 60s, early 70s, this area was a quiet hippie hideaway. I'm not talking about communists. These guys were radicals.
ReplyDeleteIt was my friend Sean's older brother, Clayton. He turned me on to Black Sabbath, and he took us to see Steppenwolf.
This guy was really cool. Long hair, tattered jeans, tie-dyed t-shirts, underground music, he was the prototypical hippie. But he was an American, a lover of freedom, through and through. I learned a lot from him.
Good summary of the week. What seemed most amazing was not just Apple's blowout quarter, but that they now have US$97.6 billion on thie books!
ReplyDeleteLove that migration map! Right down my alley, in fact. I've always found genetic revelations like this so fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAnd i09 rocks! Yet something else we have in common. :)
David, there's an interesting book titled Albion's Seed. It's about how peoples from different parts of England migrated to different parts of the US. This is why northeasterners are distinct from southerners and midwesterners. They come from different parts of Britain.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fascinating subject, on which there are several books. The British, the French, the Italians, the Germans, the Polish, what have you, they all immigrated and relocated in areas of the country that most resembled their homelands.
It's the same in Texas, which really is basically five states--north, south, east, west, and central. Each has its own unique ethnic makeup. The north is mostly Anglo, from the northeast. The south, while largely Hispanic, was actually developed by midwesterners, mostly Scots-Irish in the early 1900s. That's why the towns have names like Edinburg and McAllen. The east has a large French influence. Galveston, for example, is a sister city of New Orleans and holds its own version of Mardi Gras every year. The west is mostly unpopulated, with large swaths of desert, but with a predominately Mexican influence. The central is mostly German and some Polish.
It's funny, but I took a linguistics course in college. People in some parts of the state pronounce Houston as "Hew-ston." In other parts of the state, people pronounce it as "Hoos-ston."
Go figure. Different peoples, different pronunciations. What I've noticed in my travels, is that no matter where you go, if you ask someone, anyone, where they're from, they will tell you the city. If you ask someone, anyone, from Texas where they're from, they will tell you the state.
We're a little weird about that.
May need to check that book out Gawains, thanks.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's a little thick but worth a read, if you're into that sort of thing. Migatory habits and their cultural influences, I mean.
ReplyDeleteMost people on this side of the pond don't really understand the UK. You'd have to be an Anglophile and a Medievalst like me. There's Britain, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. When peoples from those different areas immigrated to the US, they formed different cultural communities. Same with the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Russians, the Poles, etc.
By the way, and this is an interesting historical fact. Do you know who the first slaves imported to America were? They were the Irish. Yep, early 1600s.
Imagine that. The first slaves in America were white.
Nice meal
ReplyDelete