catdynamics | September 29, 2008the financial crisis spreads to Iceland
the financial markets are in turmoil outside the US also
mortgage companies, investment banks and insurance groups are collapsing in the UK, Belgium and Germany as well as the US, with the trouble likely to spread further
now one of Iceland's major investment banks has collapsed leading to a partial nationalization, with the Icelandic government assuming a 75% ownership and injecting about a billion dollar to recapitalize the bank after losses
Glitnir is one of the three big commercial banks in Iceland who expanded aggressively into foreign markets…
catdynamics | September 28, 2008the US can not afford to start another war, it does not have the forces or the finance
so... clearly it is time to contemplate stupidest possible scenarios...
A lot of interesting little things have happened in the world.
Russia is moving fleet units to Venezuela, Syria and Somalia. Venezuela also gets some visiting Bear Recon/Bomber planes, with Cuban layovers.
The ships in Venezuela and Syria seem to partly there to rub some noses and distract, and partly as "don't you dare bomb here" - much like US sixth fleet ships rushing to Georgian ports last month. The Somalian deployment is…
catdynamics | September 28, 2008Falcon 1 makes orbit.
SpaceX light launcher has finally made orbit on fourth try.
Good one.
Press info here
165 kg dummy payload this time...
catdynamics | September 27, 2008There will be a strange and wonderful gathering at the Apple Soho, NYC store at 7 pm on wednesday night...
It is The Jonas Brothers!!!
No, wait! That was Last Month.
Damn.
They rock. (Or so I'm told...)
But, it gets even better!
This wednesday, Oct 1st, at
the Apple store in Soho, New York City
it is Blogging Science: What's Hot, What's Not
7:00-8:30 pm, sharp.
Be there, or be at home having a quiet dinner watching Jeopardy reruns...
Part of the Apple - Science thingy they are doing.
We will be provocative, we promise, and we'll talk about stuff and science thingies, and probably…
catdynamics | September 26, 2008tra la la la tra la la la
tra la la la tra la la la
we're making the world safe for capitalism
tra la la la
catdynamics | September 26, 2008google "CfA"
1. Chartered Finanical Analyst Institute Home
2. Chartered Finanical Analyst (Program)
3. Cat Fanciers' Association
4. Cat Fanciers' Association (Breeds)
5. Center for Astrophysics
at least it beats out the Consumer Federation of America and the California Faculty Association
catdynamics | September 26, 2008soggy cool friday, and a new beginning at hand
so, we slosh to the Mighty iPod, and ask: that Super Earth we conjecture to be in transit, is it wet or dry?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: I Wanna Be Lover - Elvis Costello
The Crossing: Police & Thieves - Clash
The Crown: Grænmetisvísur - Thorbjorn Egner
The Root: Which Side Are You On? - Billy Bragg
The Past: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Percussion
The Future: Garageland - Clash
The Questioner: Valentine's Day is Over - Billy Bragg
The House: Apollo 8. Pas de deux (Apollon et Terpsichore) - Stravinsky
The…
catdynamics | September 26, 2008he was one of those big boys
who went to high school
and came back as well rounded mystical men
The Seattle Times reports: that though vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin claimed in her ABC television interview with Gibson that she had never met with the leader of another nation.
She has in fact met with at least one, the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the week of Oct 15th-18th, when they met privately for about an hour during the Arctic Energy Symposium.
Óli is actually back in Alaska this week for another Arctic Issues forum.
Now, I know he's an ex-Professor, of…
catdynamics | September 26, 2008in case you missed it, Jon totally nailed the situation on the Daily Show last night
'cause y'know linking is an intrinsic good
catdynamics | September 24, 2008after hitting a minimum between solar cycles and a zero sunspot count for a brief period, Cycle 24 appears to have started
From Soho
Soho magnetogram - 24 Sep 2008
Nice big spot on upper right
Here is emission image
compare with 4 days ago...
Here is the current magnetogram movie - it is very interesting, shows the spot emerging into the photosphere a couple of days ago, it does not rotate into view (caveat: dynamic page, view only good this week).
Cool.
This is the movie archive - look at Sep 20-24
NASA is so excited they put out a press release
catdynamics | September 23, 2008with all the turmoil, it is good to think about how houses are bought in the US
Now
We'll do a first order estimate, it scales linearly with changes in income and is an adequate approximation to understand how things work. Now.
Unless you have a lot of cash, you need to get a loan to buy a house.
This is typically a fixed rate loan, secured by the house as collateral, and we'll estimate an 8% interest. Simple interest will do as first order estimate. Doing the full compound estimate is trivial and an exercise for the reader. The loan term will be 15 or 30 years typically. Long enough that…
catdynamics | September 22, 2008MacArthur Fellows to be announced Sep 23rd
Looks like Rocky Mountain News accidentally broke the embargo...
Andrea Ghez and Adam Riess get a MacArthur.
Wow!
h/t Quantum Pontiff
catdynamics | September 22, 2008Incoherent Ponderer points out the real serious consequences of the financial crisis
You thought the old professors would finally retire and make way for y'all young whippersnappers?
Not without some retirement assets...
wot? you did all move into TIPS last year, right?
catdynamics | September 22, 2008we need to make the political personal
Hank Paulson, US Secretary for the Treasury, wants a "clean" bill to bailout the investment banks.
$700 billion, he disposes, no review or oversight.
Now, there is an argument that the bailout will lead to a probable profit for the taxpayer in the long run.
The argument is that forced sales of mortgage bonds have driven prices too low, and that vulture investors are waiting to pick them up for too low a price, after the banks go under due to positive feedback driving down asset prices, and the government must not only save the banks (for systemic reasons…
catdynamics | September 22, 2008Its nice and quick and clean and gets things done
Away with excess enemy
But no less value to property
catdynamics | September 22, 2008Fury at Lehman bonus
Here is an bit of financial news from the UK that might have been overlooked...
Fury at Lehman $2.5 billion bonus
When Lehman went bankrupt, the company had a market value of about $3 billion.
In a move foreshadowing subsequent events, the company had paid half the year end bonus to staff at the end of June.
Hours before the collapse of the firm, Lehman transferred $8 billion from its UK subsidiary to the US, leaving no money even for salaries owed to UK staff.
The administrator of the European operations group would like that money back, although there may not be much…
catdynamics | September 21, 2008More critique and backlash on the proposed financial bailout:
Krugman in NYT monday
Tanta at Calculated Risk forwards a Congressional communique - it is worth the read.
I like the suggestion that bankers should have to write nice begging letters explaining their stupidity for each bond they sell to the taxpayer.
(here is the original congresscritter missive at OpenLeft - worth reading for the unbowdlerized version - the fantasy that such a congresscritter still exists is worth it)
deLong suggest what looks at a glance to be a rational way of doing unearthing of shitpiles
'cause linking is an…
catdynamics | September 20, 2008The proposed text of the law to bail out financial institutions is extraordinary to say the lease - the biggest blank check in world history is being written and given to a single person to share with his friends. Without review or recourse.
NYTimes source of proposed text
This is for $700 billion, at a time - the treasury can buy more crap if they manage to offload any after they max out.
The idea is that the US government will buy unsellable debt off select financial institutions, who will basically get US Treasury bonds in return.
The sale ought to be at some discount - which is the catch…