New Mini-SLR Cameras

I love digital SLR cameras. I’ve just bought my first this summer, an Olympus E-410, the smallest and lightest DSLR on the market.

You can imagine how happy I was to hear that Panasonic and Olympus want to shrink the DSLR even further with their new Micro Four-Thirds interchangeable-lens system, which is poised to make these cameras nearly pocketable.

Olympus just threw out some shots of one of their future Micro Four-Thirds cameras, it’s retro and delicious:

Olympus drops jaws with retro Micro Four Thirds concept – Engadget

Did the CIA Bomb the Islamabad Marriott?

Pakistan has been making noise about US incursions into its territory lately.

Did the CIA bomb the Islamabad Marriott? Doing so might solidify anti-Taliban sentiment in Pakistan, which could lead to Pakistan’s authorization of more cross-border raids, or perhaps a stronger Pakistani military stance toward the Taliban.

It’s a classic ‘focusing event’, e.g. 9/11.

Just wondering aloud…

Suicide bomb guts Pakistan Marriott hotel; 40 dead – AP

Forbes 400: Seattle Well Represented

Bill Gates anchors the top spot on the list of the 400 richest Americans for another year, coming in at $57 billion.

Mercer Island resident Paul Allen comes in at #12 with $16 billion, Hunts Point Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is #15 with $15 billion, and University of Washington graduate Donald Bren rang in at #20, with a $12 billion fortune.

Check it out:

The Forbes 400

Lesson 1: Don’t Listen To Business Magazines

Much noise has been made about divining the future through magazine covers. The conventional wisdom is that you should do exactly what the magazine covers tell you not to do, and you will profit.

Consider the Time Magazine cover from 2005: “Why we are gaga over real estate”.

This bullish piece on real estate should be correctly interpreted as: Sell your house immediately!

The following is a fantastic Gawker article detailing the business magazines’ best efforts in telling investors to buy stock earlier this year in companies like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG:

How Magazines Led Investors Toward Ruin – Gawker

Just another piece of evidence for why we should all consult professional financial advisers instead of taking stock picks out of magazines.

Magazine Covers as Contrarian Indicators – Seeking Alpha

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure

Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch, and Barclays bought Lehman Brothers.

Who got a better deal?

Bank of America paid $50 billion for Merrill, inheriting a strong pool of stockbrokers and a pile of toxic mortgage debt that is sure to sour the combined firm.

Barclays paid only $250 million (that’s right, 1/200th of what Merrill went for!) for Lehman Brothers’ North American investment bank, inheriting a strong mergers and acquisitions business, a sales and trading platform, stock and bond underwriting department, and all this WITHOUT taking on a pile of toxic debt!

Bank of America overpaid for Merrill Lynch by at least 2x; consequently, they’re caught holding the bag. Barclays, on the other hand, bought a golden goose for mere pennies.

I think we have a winner.

Gore Created Internet, McCain The BlackBerry

McCain’s policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, claims that McCain’s efforts on telecom regulation in the Senate birthed the BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry is Canadian, not American, and its development was a result of both consumer demand for mobile email devices and stellar technology innovation, things having little to do with telecom legislation.

McCain has acknowledged that he doesn’t know how to use a computer and can’t send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry’s prime functions.

The Arizona senator’s handling of regulation and deregulation of [the telecom] industry in particular left him with the skills to help revive the economy amid a mortgage crisis, an energy crisis and a Wall Street meltdown, the adviser said.

How could McCain’s regulatory skills revive our economy amid three crises?

Keep in mind, this is coming from one of his crackpot advisers, and not him, so I guess we shouldn’t knock McCain for this. However, he should ensure that his posse sticks to the script when talking to the media.

It’s not like politicians are known for embellishing or anything.

Adviser says McCain helped create the BlackBerry – AP

Bill Richardson on Teenage Driving

Governor Bill Richardson of Nevada has an awesome idea to motivate teens to perform well in school:

[...] Gov. Bill Richardson’s radical proposal of last spring: To be eligible for a driver’s license, you’ve got to go to school — and knock down decent grades.

Once the governor’s program is in place, driver’s-license eligibility for teens would be pegged to “near-proficient” scores on tests, and 90-percent attendance rates, or at least according to his original pitch. We’ll be curious to see how it reaches the rule-books, and what kind of civil-liberties challenges it raises.

Kids share plenty of blame for our schools’ failings – SFNM

Hubris and the Financial Meltdown

Great article at NYT on irrational hubris of both American homeowners and Wall Street banks:

On Wall Street as on Main Street, a Problem of Denial – NYT

Greece: 2 Animal Quota

Greece has passed a law that I am completely in support of, mandating that any citizen is to own only two pets.

It seems almost every day there is an article in some local paper noting the arrest of some crazy “cat lady” found with 150 cats living in her home, some of them dead, others lying in their own ***** because the crazy lady was unable to clean up after so many animals.

Population control with animals is a tricky issue, because animals don’t think to use protection or use the pill before they go out on a one night stand.  The more unwanted animals born means the more animals to be euthanized at shelters.  It’d just sad.  Too many animals, too few good homes.

In Greece, this is a much more pressing issue because they’ve got the problem of wild dogs roving the streets throughout the country.  Much noise was made over their effort to rid the country of these wild dogs prior to the 2004 Olympics, but since the games, the wild street dog population has rebounded.

Greeks seem to think that this 2-pet law would increase the wild dog population by forcing owners of more than 2 dogs to set the others free to be in compliance with the law.

Better a short-term surge of wild dogs than a long-term disposition to out-of-control pet breeding, as is the case usually.

New law limits number of pets per Greek citizen – DailyFrappe

Is Bank of America the new Citigroup?

American megabank Citigroup is known for trying to become the supermarket of banks — and failing.

They merged with Travelers Group in 1998, which put an investment bank, a wealth manager, and an insurance company all into one.

It was a horrible idea. In fact, it was technically illegal at the time (insurance companies, commercial banks, and investment banks were required to be separate entities) until new legislation passed in the years after.

Why would three unrelated businesses merge? How does that provide value to your customers?

I mean, if you’re looking for a tailored suit, why would you go to the supermarket? Citi’s opinion on the subject was that they could cross-sell services between their units. “Hey, we don’t have tailored suits, but we have cakes and pastries on aisle five!” Cross-selling doesn’t work; being a trusted expert in a niche business has proven that it does work.

Today, by buying investment bank Merrill Lynch, Bank of America looks to be going down the same road that Citi took, but apparently they didn’t notice the cliff at the end.

“Why would Bank of America do this?” said analyst Nancy Bush at NAB Research LLC in Annandale, N.J. “Ken Lewis always likes to buy the biggest thing he can. So why not this? You are master of the universe, basically.”

Bank of America, the New Financial Supermarket

Bank of America has already overpaid for falling mortgage giant Countrywide. That acquisition alone did enough to dilute Bank of America’s management resources, expertise, and vision. So why dilute further and buy into another business? Becoming a supermarket is not an aspiration. It’s a step backwards.

Really, everybody knows that buying unrelated companies doesn’t work.

This makes the second time this year that Bank of America thought it got a bargain, but in a year’s time, they’ll re-examine their prize and find it to be a painful burden.

(When you read the first article about Merrill Lynch brokers leaving the new company in droves, think back to this diatribe — I told you so.)

Bank of America Reaches Deal for Merrill – WSJ

TopShop has landed!

If H&M and Zara’s arrival to the US captivated you, then you’ll be equally pleased to hear that UK trendsetter TopShop has hit our shores, albeit only in web form (their first brick and mortar diggs open up in October in Manhattan).

TopShop USA

TopMan USA (Men’s TopShop)

Benazir Bhutto Visits Nigeria

A new Nigerian scam uses Benazir Bhutto’s story to scam money out of unsuspecting do-gooders:

Hello,

Cheers,
John Mustapha.

If anyone falls for this, I’m sorry for you.

Judge’s Ruling: ‘No more kids’

This is awesome. A judge has ruled that, as a condition of her 10-year probation sentence, Felicia Salazar bear no children.

Salazar, 20, admitted to failing to provide protection and medical care to her 19-month-old daughter, who suffered broken bones and other injuries when she was beaten by her father, Roberto Alvarado, 25, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Laycock, the Michigan law professor, said that in a past Wisconsin case, a father of nine who was convicted of intentionally failing to pay child support was ordered to have no more children as a condition of probation. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin upheld that condition.

Seriously, I hope this type of order (to not procreate) becomes widespread. Got a domestic violence conviction? You shouldn’t be able to have kids — or adopt — for 10 years. Also, you should get a psychiatric evaluation before getting the OK. I think we should have the same restrictions on alcoholics, drug addicts, and crazy people. Why should we let them procreate and increase the number of children born into broken homes?

Travis judge tells woman to stop having kids – Austin-American Statesman

Ridiculous.

This is ridiculous:

Supreme Court rule smoking ban applies to private clubs

A deeply divided Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that smoking is illegal even in private clubs.

Government should keep their hands out of our personal lives. Why did the Supreme Court decide they had the right to rule on this in the first place? It’s the legislature’s job to make laws, not the courts. If the legislators wanted to specifically ban smoking in private clubs, they would’ve done so.

Airline Baggage Fees

With regard to my air travel experiences, I’ve always been the exception to the rule. While others complain about lost bags and missed connections, I’ve always found flights to have fantastic food, friendly stewards, and ne’er have I had a bag lost by an airline.

This year, that’s starting to change. In July, Olympic Airlines disappointed me by not allowing me to carry my skateboard onboard the aircraft (they confiscated it). The meal on that flight was inedible. Cornbread like a brick, a mini-hot dog that had a rubbery consistency, and a mini-brownie that tasted like chalk and felt like a sponge.

On my United flight last week, I was charged $15 to check my 1st bag. Now, Continental is doing the same.

As an economist, I think prices should reflect services rendered, in order to pass on costs only to those that use the service. What pisses me off about the United bag fee is that is was never disclosed to me before I bought the ticket. Fare-search engines like Kayak.com and Expedia.com should ask how many bags you plan to check, and adjust the flight cost accordingly. This way, you might find that a $250 roundtrip flight on Alaska might actually be less expensive than a $225 roundtrip fare on United or Continental, considering the $30 fee to check a bag each way.

If a fee is not disclosed, it’s unethical.