Author: Serkadis

Let’s ensure this doesn’t happen again

The many expressions of love and compassion shown by the greater Puget Sound community, and by those from across the country and Canada, following the recent slaying of the four police officers in Lakewood, show the deep respect we have for those who enforce the laws of the land [“Two weeks after killing, community reclaims cafe,” NWSunday, Dec. 13].

The memorial service itself was an impressive display of community, sympathy, solidarity, tenderness and love in action.

Here are a few suggestions that, if implemented, might prevent such horror in the future: Increase taxes so that every police department in every community is fully funded every year. Enforce and enact gun-control laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who cannot handle them. Ensure that those with mental illnesses get proper treatment when needed, as long as needed, and include in that treatment a healthy dose of love and a sense of worth. Improve our criminal-justice system so that our jails are not overflowing with those whose crimes hurt no one, and keep locked up those who really do pose a threat to others.

All this takes money, that’s for sure. But what is the cost to a community of one dead police officer, let alone four?

— Jim Rettig, Woodinville

Huckabee and the difference between commuted and released

What part of commuted, but not released, don’t readers understand [“Excuses, excuses, excuses,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 11]?

It appears that those who wrote blaming former Gov. Mike Huckabee for the release of cop killer Maurice Clemmons were way off base. Also, it was nine years ago when then-Gov. Huckabee commuted — not released — Clemmons. Clemmons’ sentence was commuted from 100-plus years to 45-plus years.

It was the Arkansas courts that released him, and it was a Pierce County judge who set Clemmons free.

Maybe those who want to play the blame game should get their facts straight before they play the blame game. I also saw Fox News blaming Huckabee for the deaths of these fine, hardworking officers.

Once and for all, it was Clemmons who pulled the trigger. So don’t let him off the hook.

— Pat Gee, Federal Way

Stock market investors don’t care about homebuilders anymore.

For years, there was a surprising correlation between the National Association of Home Builders’ builder confidence and one-year lagging returns of the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock market index.

A 2006 Fortune article pointed out that from 1995 through 2005, builder confidence was a near-perfect predictor of future stock market returns.

But, as happens all too often, the Fortune story was a contrary indicator.

The correlation it noted broke down in 2006. The home builders index had begun to dramatically decline in 2005, but a year later the S&P kept climbing.  Eventually, stocks did follow the home builder index downward but the timing and the degree of the declines no longer tracked.  

As our chart of the day shows, the S&P-HMI correlation didn’t fare any better this year. The home builder index continued to decline in 2008, completely failing to predict the rally in the S&P in 2009. It’s as though stocks and housing have just decoupled.

This year, the home builder index briefly ticked upward before falling again.  Unfortunately, this tells us nothing reliable about the stock market for 2010. (Unless, of course, this article is also a contrary indicator and the correlation comes roaring back next year.)

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While some studies put video games in a bad light, there are ones like this that actually encourage gaming. According to the study conducted by Dr. Silvia Bunge, a neuroscientist at UC Berkley, some video games help

Filed under: Etc.

The same company that studied which cars are most likely to get you a ticket also determining which cars are most impervious to the police. Compared to the norm, the most XX sedan will put you at 60 percent less risk of a ticket, while the most resistant-to-the-law sedan will make you 89 percent less likely to be pulled over. That will practically turn you into a covert operative as far as the law concerned.

However, with four sedans, four SUVs, an MPV, and a pickup truck in the mix, you don’t have much chance of combining uninterrupted driving and looking good. Luckily the Jag XJ is on the list, and that’s good enough for us. Click the link to check out the rest of the cars too slippery for the long arm of Johnny law.

[Source: AOL Autos]

Invisible to Cops: Top 10 Least Ticketed Vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michigan, US | Memento Mori

Even great industrialists have heroes. Such was the case of Henry Ford and his idol Thomas Edison.

Ford grew up on a rural un-electrified farm, and as a young man he followed Edison’s meteoric career as the inventor rose to become a national icon. Edison was Ford’s role model and as a young man Ford took a job at the Edison Illuminating Company working his way up to chief engineer.

In 1896 Ford was thirty three and, though still working for Edison Co., had on his off-time, created his first experimental automobile the Ford Quadricycle. At an Edison company party in New York Ford got his first chance to meet his hero Edison, and even got the chance to explain his new automobile to the prolific inventor. Edison was impressed. Edison is said to have slammed his fist down and shouted “Young man, that’s the thing! You have it! Your car is self contained and carries its own power plant.” Edison himself had been working on the idea, but had only been considering electricity as the power source, so the idea of a gas engine was a new and somewhat novel one.

The words comforted Ford tremendously, who immediately set out building a second prototype which was to become the Model-T. The two men became fast friends and would go on camping trips together along with naturalist John Burroughs, botanist Luther Burbank creator of the Russet Burbank potato, Harvey Firestone of Firestone tires and occasionally, President Harding.*

When Edison became confined to a wheelchair Ford brought and extra one to his estate so they could race. At a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the lightbulb Ford honored Edison, and when Edison spoke he ended his speech directed at Ford “”As to Henry Ford, words are inadequate to express my feelings. I can only say that in the fullest meaning of the term, he is my friend.” So it is no surprise that Ford wanted something to remember Edison by after he passed away in 1931.

As the legend goes Ford asked Thomas Edison’s son Charles to sit by the dying inventor’s bedside and hold a test tube next to his father’s mouth to catch his final breath. Ford was a man with many eccentricities (as was Edison) including some interest in reanimation and spiritualism, and some say that he was attempting to capture Edison’s soul as it escaped his body in hopes of later reanimating the inventor.

The truth of the story is somewhat less intense but bears a fairly close resemblance to the legend. While by no means did Charles hold up a test tube to Edison’s lips as he lay ding, there were indeed a series of eight test tubes very nearby his bed. In the words of his son Charles

“Though he is mainly remembered for his work in electrical fields, his real love was chemistry. It is not strange, but symbolic, that those test tubes were close to him at the end. Immediately after his passing I asked Dr. Hubert S. Howe, his attending physician, to seal them with paraffin. He did. Later I gave one of them to Mr. Ford.”

The test tube itself didn’t turn up until 1950 when it was cataloged in the Ford estate after Clara Ford’s passing, and then promptly lost again until 1978 when it was discovered “in its cardboard mailing tube along with the hat and shoes under one of the display cases in an exhibit entitled, “Henry Ford—A Personal History” in the Henry Ford Museum. It would then that the tube was labeled “Edison’s Last Breath?”

There is a further mystery and irony of this ‘last breath’ test tube. It would seem as if Edison had quite a last breath indeed, as the Edison Estate holds a collection of 42 test tubes all supposedly containing Edison’s last breath.

Regardless of the hoopla over the last breath, the test tube is quite touching in its meaning. Although both men were known for all sorts of poor behavior towards their loved ones, mistreatment of employees, between them at least, there was clearly a deep and profound mutual respect and admiration. The test tube a last gift of friendship, memory and inspiration from one inventor to another.

The museum has many other wonder exhibits besides the Edison Breath test tube (which can be found just inside the door to the right) including the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop, Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, George Washington’s camp bed, and morbidly both the rocker in which Lincoln was shot and the car in JFK was assassinated.

*There is a story that on one of these camping trips the men got into an accident on the way back. A farmer pulled the car from the mud with his old Model-T. Starting with Ford the men introduced themselves to the farmer as “the man who invented that tractor,””the man who made those tires,””the man who invented the lightbulb,”and as the president of the United States” to which the farmer replied by pointing to Burbank and saying “and who is he, Santa Claus?”

Well, this is just lovely. I added it as an update to the original post about Biden’s highly questionable, one-sided “piracy summit,” but it’s an issue that deserves an additional post. Reporter Ryan Reilly was attending the summit, and was Twittering what was going on, so we got to hear Biden say that piracy is “flat unadulterated theft” (apparently the Vice President of the US is unfamiliar with US law and the difference between infringement and theft, which is… um… scary). Then we heard that Attorney General Eric Holder was reinvigorating the Justice Department’s “task force” on copyright. Why? There’s still no indication of any actual harm (both the movie and music industries are growing). Then, Commerce Secretary Locke noted that anti-camcording efforts are an important part of the anti-piracy effort. Funny timing, given the recent fiasco over a young woman arrested for incidental capturing of snippets of New Moon.

So it started out just great. And then? Well, then the press got kicked out. Seriously. Isn’t this the Obama administration that’s supposed to be all about openness and transparency and not giving in to industry lobbyists? So it gathers up a bunch of the highest ranking government officials, (and doesn’t invite any consumer advocates or tech industry representatives) puts those politicians in a room with industry bosses and lobbyists, claims that “all stakeholders” are present (seriously, that’s what Biden’s press release said), has those government officials make a few blatantly false or misleading claims, and then kicks out the press. Yikes. Update: Reilly has now published his article on the event, which includes a list of attendees.

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Stocks weren’t down by that much today — the Dow was just down 50 — so there’s no reason to get too freaked out yet.

But we wonder if just possibly the market is waking up to the new world that’s emerged in the last couple of weeks.

Gold is at a 4-week low. Oil is below $70. The dollar is surging. Unemployment in the US is tapering. The Euro appears to be breaking up (it’s not yet, but it’s a fear that nobody was thinking about a month ago).

Every single one of those things point to a reversal of the trends we’ve seen all year. And yet — financials not included (see: Goldman Sachs) the market didn’t really care.

But the market finally seems to be giving some ground, so with Europe trembling, and the PPI rising faster than expected (suggesting, possibly that the Fed’s hand on inflation will be moved to act), could the stock market finally be taking a clue?

We welcome your thoughts.

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See Also:

• Goldman Sachs Is WAY Off Its 52-Week High (GS)
• Gartman: Greece’s Prime Minister Doesn’t Realize How Much Trouble He’s In
• Lemmings And Manufacturers Crushed As Dollar Surge Continues

from various sources, 14 December 2009: The antiauthoritarian centre Resalto in Athens was raided by the police on the evening of December the 5th 2009… In response, the Town Hall of Keratsini was occupied by comrades, and was later raided as well. 22 comrades where arrested during the brutal break-in of the Resalto centre and where charged under the anti-terrorist law and another 42 afterwards in the Town Hall.

The court imposed very strict bail conditions, the first ever so strict in recent Greek history, which included very high amounts of bail-money. Only for the 22 of Resalto the bail money amounts to 51.000 euros…” more

It’s been a while since Monolith released anything F.E.A.R.-related, but rumors suggest that they may be getting ready for another run-in with Alma.

Filed under: GM, Saab, Spyker

It’s now or never. By the end of December General Motors will either divest itself of Saab by selling the Swedish automaker or by permanently closing its doors. And there is but one company bidding for the Swedish automaker — Spyker — which has yet to turn a profit. GM Chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre told a group of reporters at the company’s Detroit headquarters that Spyker is the only automaker left bidding for the perennially struggling automaker. Whitacre reportedly told attendees that striking a deal was “possible,” but he then reiterated that Saab would close if the deal isn’t struck by the end of the year.

At the same time, the General is also reportedly selling off bits to the outgoing Saab 9-5 and the pre-2006 9-3 to Chinese automaker BAIC. Tooling for the vehicles is likely never to be used by GM or Spyker in the future so the move makes plenty of financial sense.

While the potential demise of Saab saddens us, especially when considering how close the Swedish automaker is to launching the new 9-5 and perhaps the 9-4, it’s nice to see that the General is finally moving quickly and decisively to right its ship. Hat tip to MowtownMan!

[Source: Reuters]

REPORT: No alternatives left – Whitacre says it’s Spyker or the Grim Reaper for Saab originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from various sources, 16 December 2009: The Reclaim Power march to the Bella centre was blocked by Danish riot police using batons, pepper spray, tear gas and dogs. At least 200 peope have been detained, perhaps many more. At least 35 injured have been reported. NGO and developing world delegates from inside the COP15 summit – who had been marginalised by the arrival of the delegations of many heads of government – tried to leave the Bella centre to hold a People’s Assembly with Reclaim Power, but were beaten back and gassed… more

Lots of folks have been submitting the story of Microsoft’s China operations being caught with its fingers in the cookie jar in directly copying the code from a small company called Plurk. This isn’t just the look and feel that was copied, but it appears that some of the code itself was directly copied. Of course, this seems doubly amusing, since Microsoft has, in the past, been at the forefront of complaining about “piracy” in China — even as the details have long suggested Microsoft benefited greatly from unauthorized copying of its software in China, by building tremendous lock-in and making Microsoft the defacto standard. Of course, when a Microsoft exec recently announced that “piracy” was no longer a threat who knew he meant because Microsoft had decided to go in the other direction and use it to its own advantage?

Of course, I’m joking there. Microsoft continues to insist that piracy is a huge problem, and over in India, Dan alerts us that Microsoft has actually been fined for harassing “pirates” by trying to take them to court in the national capitol, instead of where the “piracy” actually happened:

According to the Court, Microsoft is needlessly abusing its unlimited cash flow as a power tool to financially hurt the defendants, who will have to travel all across the country in order to defend themselves. This abuse of “money power” to “harass” defendants is unacceptable according to the Court.

“When the constitution of India provides equality before law, this equality has to be all pervasive and cannot be allowed to be diluted because of money power or lobbying power,” Judge Dhingra commented on the case.

So, it’s fine to try to bankrupt “pirates” as you’re pirating software yourself? Of course, Microsoft will squirm out of this one just fine. It’ll claim it was a mistake, probably throw some money at Plurk (who just got a ton of free PR) and move on, still claiming that “piracy” is bad, bad, bad and must be stopped (especially in China).

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– Easy in-field upgrade to corner sealing
– Low machine height enables higher production speed and increases Overall Efficiency Equipment (OEE)
– Economic entry model with multiple in-field upgrade options

The machine’s low height and the numerous in-field upgrade options make the new SVI vertical bagger series from Bosch Packaging Technology ideal for a wide range of food and non-food applications. The intermittent SVI machines can produce bags with corner seal and doy style bags with optional zippers. For corner sealing, an in-field upgrade of the machine is made with an additional module. The production of a doy style bag can be easily performed by turning the machine cross seal jaws to a 90 degrees position. Whenever the package style is changed, there is no need to adapt the machine height or dosing platform. This efficient changeover reduces machine downtime during format change and increases the overall performance of the equipment.

For the production of several standard bag styles the operator simply changes the forming set. This flexibility allows manufacturers to produce a high variety of packaging styles for point-of-sale diversity with a very short time to market. The SVI series is designed to package an unlimited range of food and non-food products, such as powders, bakery and confectionery items, tea, coffee, fresh pasta, as well as pet food and non-food products such as detergents.

The SVI series consists of two machines for packaging different format ranges: the SVI 4020 packages bag sizes with a maximum 400 mm width, while the SVI 2620 forms a bag with a maximum 260 mm width. The machines have an output ranging from 10 to 120 bags per minute.

“The uniqueness of the SVI series is its combination of low machine height, and bag format flexibility due to its versatile upgrade capabilities,” says Eric Aasen, Product Manager Vertical at Bosch Packaging Technology. “The series is the most cost-effective and competitive solution for customers looking to increase their production efficiency and differentiate their products at point-of-sale with a diverse choice of bag shapes and styles.”
The flexible SVI series offers heatsealing and polysealing options, with freely adjustable sealing temperatures. The various up- and downstream interfaces are part of Bosch’s modular machine design concept (Module ++), which allows the easy integration with other packaging machine modules into an efficient packaging line.

The first annual Inside Gaming Awards were held last December 11th in Los Angeles, and looking at 16 awards that the guys at Infinity Ward took home, it’s safe to say that they were all over the

Casio rocks it this year with the Exilim Zoom EX-Z280 digital camera, and we like it enough that we are recommending it in this years gift guide. It sports a dedicated Easy Mode, making it easy enough for pretty much anyone who enjoys pressing buttons to operate, while still maintaining the advanced features for more experienced pros, including ones that you don’t typically find on budget-priced digital cameras. One such feature is mechanical (instead of digital) image stabilization, giving you nice clear shots while you stumble around during a holiday party after one-too-many eggnogs, as well as a 4x optical zoom lens. In addition, it shoots video in 720p, so it can even take the place of your Flip-style camcorder. You can grab one now for $173 on Amazon.

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The market is down today, though it continues to hover somewhere around its highs of the year. But not Goldman Sachs (GS). It’s lost around 16% since early October.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Surprise: Goldman Got Played On Its TARP Warrants (GS)
• Roubini: Here’s Five Reasons The "Barbarous Relic" Gold Is Going To Tank
• Jim Chanos: We’re Shorting Autos, China, And Commodities But Not Financials

It turns out that the iPhone isn’t the only new handheld frontier Dirk the Daring is out to conquer this month. Digital Leisure today announced that Nintendo’s DSiWare service will soon be home to Dragon’s Lair as

from davenportgrandjury, 14 December 2009: “For those late in the game, I was recently subpoenaed to a grand jury in Davenport, Iowa and was subsequently charged with conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Grand juries are secret proceedings, and those subpoenaed do not have a right to an attorney or a judge during questioning by the prosecutor. Historically, this legal process has been used in abusive ways to investigate and intimidate social movements…” more