I’ve often heard that the inflatable exit slides and oxygen masks on airline flights are useless in any real emergency, and are really there just to reassure us. After all, in the event of a water landing, everyone would be dead before they’d have the chance to use the exit slide.

I’ve never thought about the dual-use of oxygen masks in the event of an onboard emergency: the masks help to maintain order. A contraption covering everyone’s mouth ensures that nobody will talk; thus anarchy and fear are suppressed because creating chaos requires communication. Who knew that instead of serving oxygen, they’re really there to shut you up?

Earlier today, a Continental flight from Houston to Washington, D.C. demonstrated this theory flawlessly:

“Continental Airline’s personnel and staff were exceptional; executing what seemed to me a textbook performance in emergency procedure. I was very impressed,” [Congressman Nick] Lampson said in a release.

“There wasn’t any talk because a lot of people had their oxygen masks on,” according to US Rep. Ted Poe. “Everyone seemed to be quite calm.”

It’s amazing that little mask with instructions can keep people so calm in chaotic circumstances. What will they think of next?

Flight carrying members of Congress makes emergency landing

Apple stock has fallen 14.5% in the last two weeks, to $153/share (it sold for as little as $147 this morning). Apple has just reported third-quarter earnings, and though they beat expectations, their tempered outlook for the future gave analysts cold feet and sent shares lower. Steve Jobs’ health problems surely didn’t make analysts any happier.

Mac sales, however, are through the roof. This is particularly cheery news considering Mac computers haven’t had any significant redesign (less the MacBook Air) in ages. If people are going nuts buying the old, outdated Macs, they’ll surely buy more of thm (or pay a bigger premium for them) once the redesigned MacBook Pros/MacBooks are available (sometime in the next 12 months). Count me as one of those who is waiting for the redesign(s) to buy a new Mac.

This quarter’s iPhone sales clocked in at only 717,000, due to the shortage of first-generation iPhones prior to the iPhone 3G’s launch (remember, 1 million iPhone 3G’s were sold in the opening weekend alone). Next quarter’s report will be much more telling as to the iPhone 3G’s sales numbers, which will be stellar (somewhere in the realm of 2 or 3 million units).

Apple stock is no bargain even after its recent fall, but those growth investors looking for a well-branded firm with solid growth prospects and a reliable track record of innovative design (not to mention intense consumer loyalty) need look no further. Apple isn’t leaving the stage anytime soon.

VintageSeattle.org just threw up some of the first Space Needle mockups, made before the World Fair in 1962:

Check it out.

Balloon + Saucer = Needle - VintageSeattle

My Motorola Q9C tethers easily to my MacBook running Vista so that I can browse the internet at broadband speeds from anywhere, even on a Metro bus. The iPhone didn’t allow this sort of tethering (in fact, it’s banned in the service agreement).

That’s changed as of today. The hack isn’t convenient, but it works.

Check it out over at http://cre.ations.net.

DGENERATE NATION - Skate With Me @ Vimeo.

I’ve translated the following from a Spanish-language article from El Blog Salmon: Europa ayuda a Africa de la peor forma

The European Commission has proposed an aid package to poor African farmers in light of rising global food prices.

The idea is to help them with auxiliary goods, including seed and fertilizer, so that they can increase production. In the midst of rising prices, this production bump is to have a double positive-impact for poor farmers: more production and higher prices for their goods.

This all sounds good and fine; however, there are two problems with the announced project.

First, the €1.5 billion that have been announced for the project will come from leftover funds from the EU’s agricultural subsidy fund. If there would have been €2 billion left instead, would that have been the amount of aid given to African farmers? And had there been nothing left in the fund, where would this agricultural aid project’s budget come from?

This is definitely not the way you finance a serious aid project. If the project is legitimate, there would have been a professional evaluation of project cost and financing would come from the pertinent fund, as opposed to being sourced from unplanned leftovers.

It sounds like the authorities are wasting this money that’s ended up in their coffers instead of spending it on a project that’s considered necessary and important.

The second problem: the project changes nothing with respect to the repressive agricultural policy of the EU. Under the proposal, African farmers could indeed produce more and will benefit because global food prices are indeed high, but the EU still won’t let African farmers sell their goods in the EU, so how are we to believe that any of this is helping the Africans in the long-term?

We’re all for aid to the poor in Africa, put this stands as just another botched job by the Europeans.

Pope Benedict, speaking to the people of Australia, said today that the world’s natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of “insatiable consumption.” What he didn’t tell you was that his position on family planning ensures that our world is less sustainable than ever.

“Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption,” he said.

The Pope failed to note that his policy of denying condoms and birth control to developing nations allows for irresponsible and unsustainable population growth, which increases human resource usage and damages our planet. Such irresponsible policy simply forces our future generations to deal with the problem of environmental destruction, though they will be even less able to act because of their untenable population.

“The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity,” Benedict told the crowd.

My question has always been, “why does the Pope support this garbage population policy that only destabilizes humanity and brings us closer to the demons the church so opposes?”

The answer lies in plain sight. First, the Church thrives off instability. Those who have nothing often come to the Church as a last hope and seek salvation, which the Church is only so happy to provide –in exchange for complete devotion.

The second reason that the Church supports unsustainable population growth is that doing so furthers its own means. Membership has risen exponentially in the last 200 years. In 1970, the Church counted some 654 million adherents. In 2007, due to a lack of family planning in church ranks, membership now numbers 1.131 billion — a 73% increase.

What the world needs is reason, and little or none of it is coming out of the Catholic Church. To them, it’s like the Enlightenment never happened!

Pope says world’s resources being squandered - AP

Roman Catholic Church - Membership

At the Karachi Stock Exchange:

In Karachi investors today broke windows, threw plant holders in the parking lot of the building, burned shareholder statements and at least one protester was injured, prompting intervention by police and the paramilitary.

“We demand that all stock prices be frozen at current levels,” said a fellow called Kauser Javed, who heads the Small Investors Association.

Right.

Hopefully, the Small Investors Association will learn their lesson. Stocks are the best tool for building wealth, but at times they can be volatile. The wealth you build in stocks may only be apparent in the long term, when the upside and downside volatility is averaged out.

Pakistani Investors Stone Karachi Exchange as Stocks Plunge
Looking At International Solutions To Falling Stock Prices

Outside of Washington Mutual headquarters this morning, things didn’t look so rosy. The local CBS affiliate sent a news crew to report on WaMu’s potential insolvency and the big hit the stock took yesterday.

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If the media keeps blowing on the flames by reporting on potential bank failures, they might just come up with a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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