It Is Friday After All

Well today was more New England like with blustery winds and colder temperatures! A literal ton of work to do in the yard tomorrow so you can guess how excited I am about that!

Could Have Skipped Friday
I don't have much to say about things economic tonight. I am in weekend mode already.

I think today the markets could have been closed as the NASDAQ ended right where it started (0.00% change) and both the DOW and S&P ended up 0.04% which is really creepy how they all were moving in identical patterns all day. Almost fractal like, or computer generated. Weird stuff.

Friday Night Entertainment
An extended dose of the "other" stuff as I am not really into a groove yet for the heavy duty stuff.

Macro Man Does Comedy
A great stop in finance is Macro Man and he had a very funny post up titled:
You Know QE Expectations are Getting Out of Hand When....
The whole thing is a must read, but a sample to get you to click over:

You know QE expectations are getting a bit out of hand when...
1. Goldman calls for $2trn.
2. Rumours fly around that the Fed may eventually do $4trn.
3. China starts complaining that the Fed is about to purchase $1trn of USTs despite buying a similar amount themselves.
4. Xerox is up 36% since Jackson Hole.
5. Your Mom calls you asking what QE is.
6. The BoJ buys a promissory note from TMM for $1bn whose principal is equal to their combined yearend bonuses price in Gold today.
7. IBM issues a super long bond.
8. Mexico issues a really super duper long bond.
9. You find out that both of these organisations have a guy who had Bernanke as a thesis advisor in their Economics PhD program before joining their respective Treasury departments.
10. Greek tourist-tat shops sell QE wallets three times the size of normal ones.

There are 10 more at the link.

They Are Already Arming Them!
First they are teaching the robots how to hurt a human in the best way, now they are handing out guns!:
Robots with Guns are the Pentagon's Equivalent of Booth Babes
Just wonderful.

Reddit Not so Great Here
I always see little tags for Reddit but I had no idea what is was. I am going to say it is safe that this poor guy will not be using it again (click for larger view):

Indeed.

In Case You Need One
As I am horrible at math I often resort to calculators for assistance. Here is a great online one if you need to do some crazy math:
Online Calculator
It does most everything.

Corrected, Project Azorian
Last November I highlighted a wild story about the CIA project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129. I thought the project was called Project Jennifer, but a new book I just finished that was just released (Project Azorian by Polmar and White) details it was really called Project Azorian:

"AZORIAN" (erroneously called JENNIFER after its Top Secret Security Compartment by the press) was the code name for a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in the summer of 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. The 1968 sinking of the K-129 occurred approximately 1,560 nautical miles (2,890 km) northwest of Hawaii

I love this kind of stuff.

Added right after I posted:
Had to show this picture (click for larger):

via Geekologie, the graphic shows where various films were based in the US states! Too cool. "Children of the Corn"!

Film Clips
I will stick with the horror genre due to the approaching holiday.

My all time scariest movie? Easily "The Exorcist". I still cannot watch this thing and go to bed anytime soon that night. Here is the original trailer:

No, I am not watching that any time soon again.

Best scene from "Halloween"? The Lonnie scene:

Hee hee.

"The Blair Witch" film creeped me out and the ending was shocking and terrifying:

He's in the CORNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rock Blogging
While the music never leaves, the songs have returned to Friday night!

Watchtower wanted some Billy Squier and "In the Dark" and I had never heard it before! I like it very much:

Nice!

Let's go with "Born on the Bayou" for a CCR fix:

Always nice.

Play this one for the kids before Halloween night! Iron Maiden's "Fear of the Dark":

They can pull anything off. Bruce Dickinson is the greatest. Great live version here with a great crowd. A real show.

How I came to know the Del Shannon song "Runaway" was through the theme for the show "Crime Story" and someone was nice enough to post it on YouTube:

Love it.

You know you love the "Chariots of Fire" song, admit it:

One of the comments on the song at the Tube was "makes me want to run in slow motion!". Too funny.

Two songs left, what will it be?

"Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers is up:

Wonderful tune.

Last call! One more song and I am gone.

Ok, in my dreams I can play guitar! Seeing as I cannot, here is exactly what I would do if I could! Play the middle acoustic section of the Metallica song "To Live is to Die" right off the cue:

The studio version of the band is at the 4:50 mark of this video. Great job dude!

Have a good night.

Friday Out Loud

We had to put on the gas fireplace tonight, it is pretty chilly!

Awesome game last night as the New Orleans Saints defeat the Minnesota Vikings 14-9. All the press was how the game was low scoring but I was focused on how the Saints were able to run inside against the top run defense in the league. That would scare me more than the usual aerial show! Full NFL post tomorrow.

Week Ends
Ok, maybe I have been a bit negative this week, so I will lay off the economics tonight. I could hardly do better than Mish on this item from today anyway:

Instant Insanity
Willem Buiter, chief economist for Citigroup arguably provides another example of why shares of Citigroup are sitting in the gutter at $4 a share in spite of trillions of dollars in bailouts to banks.
The fact that Buiter entertains "innovative and unorthodox" measures such as "expiring currency" proves he is off his rocker even though he states "the mere fact that something has not been done before often is sufficient grounds for not doing it now."
Any chief economist, anywhere in the world, should be able to come up with better rationale than that.

There is plenty more where that came from so check it out.

Friday Night Entertainment
Yeah, this is going to be a good one, probably a long one too! I was inundated with requests so I will apologize up front if I cannot get to everything!

Greatest Invention Ever!
Well maybe not the greatest, but close! I submit the Nut Wizard (get your minds out of the gutter!):

The acorns in the yard do not stand a chance, and yes I have already tried it! I love it!

Disturbing Move in the Robot Revolution
I find this item very disturbing:
Robots capable of 'deceiving humans' built by crazed boffins
Oh No! From the story:

"We have developed algorithms that allow a robot to determine whether it should deceive a human or other intelligent machine and we have designed techniques that help the robot select the best deceptive strategy to reduce its chance of being discovered," says Arkin, proudly.
"We strongly encourage discussion about the appropriateness of deceptive robots to determine what, if any, regulations or guidelines should constrain the development of these systems," adds the prof.
So there you have it - conclusive proof that robots are quite capable of lying to or otherwise deceiving their fleshy masters. Don't trust the machines. 'We do understand there's a downside to this'

Remember, these things start small and innocent and build.

Odds and Ends
Various items that could be worth a look.

-An artificial kidney getting closer?
-Do you know to whom the horse Bucephalus belonged?
--A great write up on Anterograde Amnesia:

“I don’t remember things,” Henry explained to the unfamiliar female interviewer. She seemed very curious about how he spends a typical day, and about what he had eaten for breakfast, but his efforts to summon the information from his mind were fruitless. He could easily answer her questions regarding his childhood and early adult years, but the indefinite expanse of time since then was bereft of memories. In fact, from moment to moment Henry feels almost as though he has just awakened from a deep sleep, with the fleeting remnants of a dream always just beyond his grasp. Each experience, dull or dramatic, evaporates from his memory within a few dozen heartbeats and leaves no trace.
For over fifty years Henry has lived with anterograde amnesia, a form of profound memory loss which prevents new events from reaching his long-term memory. As a result his only memories are those he possessed prior to his amnesia, and the small window of moments immediately preceding the present.

Much more at the link.
-The 15 Hottest Hollywood Actresses that have strict No Nudity clauses. Sorry guys! (Note, link is a little edgy and NSFW)

Video Killed the Radio Star
Stuff to watch!

Mike Tyson's first fight after his loss to Buster Douglas was against Henry Tillman. Now the fight was not supposed to be hard, and it wasn't, but I LOVE the sarcasm on display by announcer Larry Merchant. Skip to the 3:20 mark, watch Tillman get KO'd, and then Merchant yells out "SURPRISE!!!!!"! Classic funny:

Love it.

I really love the film "The Mask of Zorro" and check the scene from the 1:40 mark to 3:10 for my favorite part:

Epic.

If you have not seen "Zombieland" yet you are missing out. Zombie Kill of the week?:

Was that a baby grand piano?

Rock Blogging
In the end, it is about the tunes is it not? Quite a few requests for the show this week, but not all can make it. What will we see tonight?

Reader C-T was looking for some Counting Crows and "Anna Begins" which is weird because I have this album but could not remember the tune! Very nice one indeed:


Lurker requested "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins and why anyone would want to come here I have no idea, but the song was pretty cool and I had never heard it before:


Watchtower was maybe "Dreaming" about Blondie front woman Debbie Harry and this is a nice version live from the Glasgow Theater:

Debbie Harry can visit my dreams anytime!

Ok, this is a direct ripoff of a tune over at The Illusion of Prosperity, but he is used to it and I do so LOVE Lacuna Coil! Try out "Our Truth":

For more, a nice cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence". Sweet!

Quite a few requests for CCR this week! I thought I had played all their tunes by now, and all are so great. I searched the sight, and "Long as I Can See the Light" has yet to make an appearance:

Guess I've go that old travelin' bone!

Only two songs left! I am always excited to do the Friday night post, but I hate when it ends. I could do this all night! Still, it is what it is!

Let get it going with Heart showcasing what real vocal talent can do with "If Looks Could Kill":

Live no less!

Last call! Time to close the show! Grab a girl, a drink, or the mouse and get ready!

You need some bluesy, heavy metal, rock out tunage? I have you covered with Black Sabbath and N.I.B.!:

That song is sick as all GET OUT!!!!!

Have a good night.