Long Live the King and Queen!

(photo from nytimes.com)

Great book: "Panic! The Story of Modern Financial Insanity"

Just finished reading this book - which is really a series of news stories and essays leading up to, during, and after 4 modern market crashes.

I was too young to remember what the crash of '87 was about. And as a freshman in college didn't really pay attention to the Asian market crash in '98 (too much studying.... yeah right). It was interesting to see the common threads: lots of leverage, poor rick assessments, swarming investors, and the belief that "this time it's different" and that no bubble exists. It was also really fun to remember the silly dotcom madness - when some companies spent over half their cash on superbowl commercials!

To reminisce, here's a few of them:

OurBeginning.com


Computer.com


EDS

Video of Airplane Crash and Rescue in the Hudson

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/01/17/multimedia/1231545530718/coast-guard-video-of-plane-crash.html

Water Landing!

There's been a lot of high profile crashes lately. Today, 155 lucky people survived a crash into the Hudson thanks to a heroic pilot named "Sully". Crazy. Then of course DJ AM and Travis Barker were in one... and I know there was another recently, I just can't remember.

I think I've become more afraid of flying, and I've been doing a lot of it lately. The odds are not that slim that I'll be in some kind of emergency landing.

A few weeks ago on NPR I heard a discussion about installing emergency exit doors in the airport so that passengers can practice opening the door. That's a great idea and I am not sure why airports don't do it. Maybe they don't want to remind passengers of the possibility of a crash.

Anyways - I'll be reading the emergency exit material more closely now. And thanks to the wonderful pilot that saved all those people today!

Trying out Intense Debate

Trying out a new commenting system... let's see how it goes

"The Wire" Actors on "Life On Mars" Tonight

So - I never watch the show Life on Mars. But as a finish up work tonight I put it on in the background and am so glad I did!

In the last several minutes I've seen 3 actors from HBO's The Wire (aka The Best Show Ever Produced For Television).

So far it's Lester, Cutty, and Sobatka! Now I can't stop watching - I hope Bubbles or Dukie are on!!!!

Update: OK wait - now Whoopi Goldberg is on this show too....

GOBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So so so so happy. Also check out http://change.gov