Progression of Halloween costume ideas
For Halloween I don’t want to be a generic pirate or ghoul, I want to be a bit more meaningful.
I considered being a societal villain. Maybe a CEO with an actual parachute painted gold. But alas, my favorite parachute supplier didn’t have any.
A biking freak in the requisite spandex? A hipster or other pretentious person? Nah, both took too much work; and I really didn’t feel like shaving my legs.
Then my thoughts became obtuse; a dull suit or entirely blank white wardrobe symbolizing America’s lack of creativity. (a crude reflection of how uncreative I was feeling then)
The horrors continued as thoughts of an experimental or concept costume were entertained. Would I create a powerful costume while using only X elements of disguise?
No.
All my lofty ideas were either awful or unattainable. So I regressed.
I might be Cyrano de Bergerac with a 2 foot piece of ornamental grass as a feather; or a wizard whose staff carries a microwaved Beatles CD I found in the street this week.
Or I could just be a ghost; ironically.
Speechless.
langer: A weekend bombshell from Philip Greenspun:
Wall Street banks have had profitable quarters. JPMorgan Chase reported $3.6 billion in profit (more than $1 billion per month). Goldman Sachs was only slightly behind, at $3.2 billion. These profits supposedly came from “trading.” I asked a friend who has worked in the money business how this was possible. “For someone to make money trading, there has to be someone on the other side of every trade who is losing money. Where does each bank find someone who can lose $1 billion every month?”
He explained that “carry trade” would be a more accurate description of what they’re doing. Because of the Collapse of 2008 financial reforms, the big investment banks are able to borrow money from the U.S. government at 0 percent interest. Then they can turn around and buy short-term bonds that pay 2 or 3 percent annual interest. Now they’re making 2 percent on whatever they borrowed. They can use leverage to increase this number, by pledging some of the bonds that they’ve already bought as collateral on additional bonds.
I asked if they were taking any risk in order to earn this return. “If interest rates went up to 20 percent, even though the bonds are short-term, the price of the bond could fall enough to make the trade a money-loser.” (Though since the banks are too big to fail, they would simply be bailed out with additional taxpayer funds.)
What kind of bonds are they buying? Are they investing the money in American business? “No, they are mostly buying Treasuries.” So the money is just being shuffled from one Federal bank account to another, with each Wall Street bank skimming off $1 billion per month for itself? “Pretty much.”
(via Jason Kottke)
“The World Bank predicts that Yemen’s oil and gas revenues will plummet during 2009 and 2010, and fall to zero by 2017 as supplies run out.
In 2008 the UK’s Royal Institute for International Affairs warned that economic collapse in Yemen could threaten stability throughout the region from northeast Africa to Saudi Arabia and, citing armed conflicts with Islamists and tribal insurgents, described Yemen’s democracy as “fragile”. These concerns have prompted the desires of leaders and diplomats from the West and elsewhere to preserve Yemen’s economic stability.
”
Pretend for a moment that you’re running a international group of crazy people from your cave in Afghanistan, and you want to talk to your super secret switchboard in the capital of your fathers birth country.
So you just take out your satellite phone and call direct to HQ. To provide some level of security you speak in using code words like you’re an 8 year old with a secret clubhouse. Your sinister bearded operatives in foreign countries also call direct to your communications hub to receive your orders.
As you somewhat openly plot your moves, the agency motoring your calls (NSA) refuses to share intelligence with other agencies due to interagency rivalries. Similar issues of non-communication occur to a lesser extent with the CIA & FBI.
While they’re bickering you bomb 2 US embassies, the USS Cole and hijack 4 planes which you crash into various buildings of significance.
Congratulations, your operations are now at international mastermind level; and your enemies have hamstrung themselves.
ps: watch the whole nova program on this, it’s very interesting.
I was stuck without transportation or motivation last week so I decided to chart my online identity. Each node is an account or online presence with a list of what information can be gleaned from it. (eg: gender, location, sexual attraction to pink toilet seats)
Nodes are linked with others that have information in common (eg: shared alias or link pointing to other presence) Sites which are private or ambiguously linked (site linked to, but no specific user specified) are noted with a clouded outline.
Some interesting things can be considered with this data. Though my main/real email address is publicly available (and associated with my name thanks to google cache) it’s very hard to link it to any other facet of my online identities.
In other news, I am not paranoid; just realistic.
