Category: News

Reader Camron emailed:

I’ve dated lots of women and one common thread I’ve noticed is around the 1st or 2nd date, about 3/4 into the date, if you haven’t said anything for a minute the woman will ask “What are you thinking?”

Obviously I’m thinking about how awesome it would be to take her home and have sex with her, but my usually response is “Oh nothing,” and I changed the subject.

I usually end up sleeping with said woman, but I kinda feel like I’m slipping up at this moment. What should I say to that question? Should I tell her the truth? Should I move in closer at that moment and kiss her?

I get a lot of similar emails asking for advice along the lines of “What should I say when Girl says X?”, where X usually describes some innocuous question the girl asked or some kind of wholly typical shit test she’s tossing out. The answer I give is almost always the same: stop taking her so seriously.

If men could only learn and apply one rule of game it would be this: Don’t take her seriously. So much suffering of the heart could be avoided by following this one simple rule.

When a woman asks “What are you thinking?” your first, knee-jerk instinct should be to respond with something funny, silly, or evasive.

“What are you thinking?”

“If it’d be better to be reborn as a cat or a dog.”

Stop worrying about answering women’s questions directly. Playfully annoy them instead. Annoyance is great foreplay.

Better still, don’t answer with words at all. Let your kisses and gropes do the talking.

As for this reader’s specific scenario, the supersexed Don Juan strategy can work if the context is favorable. Have you gamed her to the point where she is throwing out lots of IOIs? Do her eyes sparkle with sex? Then, yes, lean into her ear and whisper that you’re thinking of ripping her clothes off so angrily that the buttons pop, and throwing her over the back of the sofa to fuck her like a wild animal in heat. But if you’re on the first date and kino has been mild, you may want to wait until you’ve at least kissed her before unleashing your inner crotch tyrant.

Truth is, most of the time the context will not allow you to run sex animal direct game. Save the raunch-talk for the bedroom if you’re in doubt about the suitability of the moment. Kissing a girl in response to an apparently banal question can be a good tactic if the mood is right.

There is a fine line of distinction between telling a girl your intentions and acting with intention. Sure, it’s a bold move to walk up to girls and, within five minutes of meeting, announce with great gusto that you want to fuck them, but that is the sort of boldness that’ll sooner get you shot than bring you battlefield victory. Your very low but time and energy efficient success rate will hardly compensate for the number of strikeouts you’ll have to endure. In contrast, *acting* with intention is very attractive to women. Your nonverbal communication (a big part of game) should be speaking what your tongue will hold. So while the reader might think that verbally expressing his honest desire is the winning move, more often than not it’s better to play a game of ambiguity and innuendo, and carry yourself with the swagger of a man who is thinking exactly what she thinks he’s thinking.

Filed under: Game, Girls

The German bank on the losing end of the Goldman Sachs derivatives deals that have attracted the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission was so absorbed in the pursuit of high-yield returns from financial instruments linked to the U.S. housing market that it preferred to lose one of its top executives rather than change course.

This single-minded pursuit of yield provides an important context for the SEC’s case against Goldman. In hindsight, it can appear that Goldman must have been committing some kind of fraud in order to sell subprime CDOs that performed so badly. But at the time, the buyers of these instruments were actively seeking exposure to subprime risk.

In 2002, IKB Deutsche Industriebank, the German bank, named as a victim in the SEC’s complaint against Goldman, launched an off-balance sheet, off-shore “conduit” called the Rhineland fund to buy up mortgage bonds and derivatives linked to the bonds. But by 2006, when Goldman and others began to see trouble ahead in the US mortgage market, and AIG had largely stopped writing credit insurance on subprime debt, the founder of the fund was attempting to chart a course away from the coming mortgage storm.

“I made several proposals for a more sophisticated portfolio management to address expected negative market developments,” Rhineland portfolio manager Dirk Rothig wrote in an e-mail to Fortune magazine in 2007. “These risk-management proposals were not accepted by IKB.”

Rothig left the Rhineland fund in 2006.

After the loss of its star portfolio manager, IKB continued to buy mortgage bonds and collateralized debt obligations through both the Rhineland fund and a similar fund called Rhinebridge. They were focused on the riskiest end of the market — subprime bonds.

“IKB was still buying strong in early 2007, but they were very specific about the collateral they wanted in the CDO’s. They had a big research team of 20 guys and would inspect the asset quality outside of what any rater was saying about the bond. They wanted subprime paper,” said a trader at Deutsche Bank who worked with IKB. Other Deutsche Bank employees who requested anonymity confirmed IKB’s hunger for subprime collateral.

IKB would approach banks with a request for a specially tailored CDO that matched their investment strategy of seeking out exposure to the riskiest bonds, because these came with the highest yields. And according to bank staffers involved in these transactions, which included not only Goldman but its German rival Deutsche Bank, they paid tens of millions of dollars in fees to get into these deals.

IKB may have been driven to this risky strategy because it was already somewhat distressed. Like many conduits, IKB’s Rhineland and Rhinebridge funds depended on the short term commercial paper market for funding. They would borrow short term debt on the commercial paper market in order to fund their purchases of mortgage bonds and CDOs. The difference between the costs of borrowing and the yield on the investment assets was the source of their profits. The assets of the conduits served as collateral for the short-term loans, which meant lenders to Rhineland and Rhinebridge would be entitled to their assets if they couldn’t make good on their debt.

The borrow short, invest long conduit strategy can be effective so long as the short term borrowing is cheap and easily available. But for IKB, borrowing on the short term commercial paper market was becoming more expensive, perhaps because lenders were concerned about the quality of its subprime heavy asset portfolio. In order to profit despite rising borrowing costs, IKB had to seek out ever riskier assets with higher yields.

Kostas Iordanidis, a portfolio manager for Olympia Capital and Julius Baer during the housing boom, says he saw Rhineland’s short term commercial paper for sale at higher yields than almost any similar funds. When he asked his broker about the situation, he found couldn’t get a good answer. Iordanidis figured something wasn’t right and told his broker to highlight in red any Rhineland paper so that “when you send over the days ‘buys’…my team knows never to buy it.”

“Banks like IKB were aggressively shopping just for yield. It was institutions’ hungry demand for B-rated paper that offered a high yield above government paper, which really caused a miss-match in the price of the paper and set them up for failure because the liquidity risk wasn’t priced in,” said Iordanidis.

This situation became critical when the commercial paper market began to freeze up in the second half of 2007. The IKB conduits found that they couldn’t raise the funds to roll their existing paper. At the same time, the market for their subprime assets nearly shut down, making it difficult for IKB to raise funds by liquidating their portfolio. For a time IKB attempted to sell some assets, but the discounts it had to offer were so steep it just gave up trying.

By late 2007, Rhineland Funding and Rhinebridge were collapsing, threatening to bring down IKB with them. The government owned German bank KfW rescued IKB with a series of capital injections that eventually totaled over 9.5 billion euros. The chase for yield turned out to be a very, very costly pursuit.

It seems like science fiction. It seems impossible that we would destroy our planet and our future, but, we did. We have no idea how bad the effects of our brief exploitation of fossil fuel will be, over the next centuries and millennia.

Since it is going to  be a completely different planet, it needs a new name. The UK Guardian reveals why Bill McKibben suggests we begin to call it “Eaarth”.

“There’s a slightly science fiction look to it; that’s appropriate in the sense it’s a little like a science fiction story: we wake up one day and the planet we have been used to for 10,000 years has 5% more moisture in the atmosphere, the sea is turning more acid. The only trouble is it’s not fiction.”

The 10,000 years helps us understand this. When I was a kid, we worried about the terrible problem of radioactive nuclear waste that would still be here in 10,000 years. Gradually, our perception of time horizons have closed in on us since then. Now we dare only look 50 or 100 years into the future, and no further.

We have stopped talking about 10,000 years ahead. (more…)

OK, so on the surface, the idea that the Braves might be willing to trade another collection of prospects for a soon-to-be free agent first baseman seems, well … ridiculous.

You’ll recall that in July of 2007, Atlanta acquired Mark Teixeira(notes) from Texas in exchange for a package that included, among others, the Rangers’ present-day shortstop (Elvis Andrus(notes)), closer (Neftali Feliz(notes)), catcher (Jarrod Saltalamacchia(notes)) and fifth starter (Matt Harrison(notes)). The Braves then finished third in the NL East, missing the playoffs. The following year, they dealt Teixeira to the Angels for Casey Kotchman(notes) and a minor league pitcher who remains in the minors (Stephen Marek).

Surely no one in Atlanta has any interest in repeating that experience. Nevertheless, the team’s current first baseman is batting .167/.237/.278 (Troy Glaus(notes)), and Plan B is a 32-year-old with a career OPS of .775 (Eric Hinske(notes)). Freddie Freeman(notes) is a terrific prospect, no doubt, but he’s only 20 and he’s still trying to figure out Triple-A.

As a result, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Adrian Gonzalez-to-Atlanta rumors have begun, though not with any confirmation from either team. It’s just pure speculation from Fox’s Jon Paul Morosi. Freeman would presumably have to be a component of any Gonzalez trade. (Again, not that there is one). And of course Gonzalez will command a nine-figure contract at the end of his current deal, which is up in 2011. And then there’s the long shadow cast by the Teixeira trades.

Still, on behalf of the global community of fantasy owners who’ve invested in Gonzalez in NL-only leagues, I fully endorse this non-deal. Let’s bring together some Pads and Braves fans in comments and hammer out a trade, then send it to the league for approval.

If Glaus can’t hit in April and May — historically, these are his best months — then he may simply be finished.

—

Photo via US Presswire 

The Nexus One‘s hardware supports wireless N networks. The phone’s software, well, sort of. But! Super-fast Wi-Fi may hit the Nexus one in the next Android update—and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can have it sooner. More »

We’ve learned over the last few days that Google is proactively seeking Apple developers, attempting to woo them with free phones.  Not a bad strategy if you can afford to toss a few hundred bucks at each person you want.  Now that the platform is established and super phones are coming out all the time, Google no longer has to worry about developers taking the “wait and see” approach. Rather, Google is now taking the “who else can we get?” approach.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a pretty heated spat going on between Apple and Adobe over the iPhone’s refusal to allow Flash.  Both companies have been twisting the words of the opposition to help justify their respective stances.

While it may very well be true that HTML 5 is the future of web,  the fact is that Flash is what works today.  It may be a few years before HTML crosses the tipping point and Flash becomes the minority.  Refusing to allow for Flash on the iPhone is like General Motors  refusing to use unleaded gasoline because bio-fuels and electricity are the future.  I believe Apple is shooting themselves in the foot with this long term play.  I also believe that Google recognizes this and is buddying up to Adobe for what may end up being a short (hop term relationship.

Adobe recently started offering beta signups for of a couple of their apps and service for Android.  We’ve heard that Flash 10.1 will be supported on nearly all Android devices going forward.  I think the chances are very good that we’ll see some sort of early look at some Android/Adobe apps at next month’s Google I/O conference.  Last year saw sneak previews of some Android features that later rolled out in Donut.  It stands to reason that the Android team will show us what’s capable in Froyo and with Adobe integration come May 19th.

For all I know Google has been going around secretly working to bring some Adobe applications to Android.  Whether that involves giving away free phones or not is hard to say.  I’d like to think that some of these developers would love nothing more than a chance to stand on stage at Google I/O and demonstrate their apps and games to the thousands in attendance.

Might We Suggest…

• Adobe Previews Flash/AIR Games Coming to Android
  If you’ve been wondering what Flash/AIR games were coming to Android when Flash 10.1 hits, today is your lucky day.  Thanks to Adobe Indie Developer Josh Tynjala we now have a idea of what is being pl…

It seems everyday when I am walking outside in the dark, seeing the moon has become a hard task than seeing my way home, well that doesn’t seem to be a problem with this app. The app was created by an XDA member who figured out how to keep track of the moon at all times, even in the brightest of days you will always know what shape and form the moon is taking.

The application can do a lot, all while looking fantastic with its dark blue design, and simple design.

The features consist of:

Visual picture of the moon phases and the percent of the illuminated area.
Full names of all moon phases.
Zodiac Sign the moon is in.
Current moon’s age:  how far along the moon is in its full cycle.
Moonrise and moonset times for your location.
Amount of time from moonrise and to moonset.
Calculations for the current and other dates.
Network independence:  you can work anywhere in the world without Internet or cellular connections.
Your current location determined by GPS or cellular network.

The application only works for WVGA devices so TG01, HD2, TP2, DIAM2, and all WVGA devices can all know what’s up with the moon, and will never be left wondering.

Read More And Download Here

Internationally known artist and landscape architect Walter Hood, Oakland, California, wins the art competition to design the University at Buffalo megawatt solar array. …

… “When complete, the UB solar installation’s 5,000 photovoltaic (PV) panels will generate solar energy for 735 student apartments at UB, reducing the university’s carbon emissions by more than 500 metric tons per year. The project will serve as a cornerstone of NYPA’s $21 million statewide renewable energy program. ” …

Via The University at Buffalo: Solar Array on UB Campus

Walter Hood via abc7news: “Walter Hood is Professor and former Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and principal of Hood Design in Oakland, CA. ”

His message: Jokes! Woz is one of about three people on the face of the planet who can wear this shirt without looking like a terrible asshole. Update: Steve responds. More »

Words can only say so much. Sometimes you need the numbers.

Below you’ll find my corner rankings from today-on, the cheat sheet I’d use if I were walking into a new draft tonight. Every player currently corner eligible in Yahoo’s game is listed, with two exceptions; Victor Martinez(notes) and Jeff Clement(notes) are held off the list since no one would bother slotting them away from catcher.

What’s happened to this point counts as an audition, but this isn’t a ranking of what’s happened – it’s meant to be a ranking of what will happen. Don’t get hung up too much on the individual prices in a vacuum; what matters is how the players relate to each other. Game on.

$40 Albert Pujols(notes)
$38 Alex Rodriguez(notes)
$38 Miguel Cabrera(notes)
$37 Ryan Howard(notes)
$37 Prince Fielder(notes)
$37 Mark Teixeira(notes)
$35 Evan Longoria(notes)
$32 David Wright(notes)

Comments: Cabrera is sitting on a career-high walk rate and I can only see that number going up as teams accept that no one after Cabrera in the Detroit lineup is going to hurt them. … You’re allowed some early-season panic on unproven hitters, but don’t waste any time worrying about Teixeira and Fielder. Ninety percent of your worry should be about pitchers, anyway.

$30 Mark Reynolds(notes)
$29 Ryan Zimmerman(notes)
$28 Justin Morneau(notes)
$27 Pablo Sandoval(notes)
$26 Kendry Morales(notes)
$26 Kevin Youkilis(notes)
$25 Carlos Pena(notes)
$25 Adrian Gonzalez(notes)
$25 Joey Votto(notes)
$25 Billy Butler(notes)
$22 Derrek Lee(notes)
$22 Aramis Ramirez(notes)

Comments: Ramirez is someone I annually give a high ranking too, but I can’t remember the last time I actually purchased him. Maybe I’m starting to believe in goat curses. … The new park in Minnesota certainly isn’t going to hurt left-handed hitters and it might actually give them a push. Good news when you’re sitting on Morneau, Mauer and Kubel for the middle of your order. … It’s hard to believe multiple organizations gave up on Pena and Gonzalez before they merged into stars. I realize San Diego is playing well right now, but I still think there’s a 40-to-50 percent chance that Gonzalez is traded at some point during the year.

$20 Chone Figgins(notes)
$20 Lance Berkman(notes)
$20 Adam Dunn(notes)
$19 Ian Stewart(notes)
$18 Jorge Cantu(notes)
$18 Michael Cuddyer(notes)
$18 Gordon Beckham(notes)
$17 Chase Headley(notes)
$16 Martin Prado(notes)
$15 James Loney(notes)
$15 Chipper Jones(notes)
$15 Adam LaRoche(notes)

Comments: I’m not a Headley owner anywhere but he looks like one of the breakthrough players of the season (don’t overlook the sneaky speed). … Cantu takes an aggressive approach to the plate, but when he makes contact, you almost feel sorry for the baseball. This guy is a rope machine. … Prado picks up some extra value for the multiple positions he covers. And this is another guy squaring the baseball regularly – he’s currently got a ridiculous (and unsustainable) line-drive rate of 31.5 percent.

$14 Michael Young(notes)
$14 Adrian Beltre(notes)
$13 Garrett Jones(notes)
$13 Placido Polanco(notes)
$12 Casey McGehee(notes)
$12 Paul Konerko(notes)
$12 Jose Lopez(notes)
$11 Scott Rolen(notes)
$11 Nick Swisher(notes)
$11 Alex Gordon(notes)
$11 Nick Johnson(notes)
$11 Justin Smoak(notes)
$10 Juan Uribe(notes)
$10 Casey Kotchman(notes)
$10 Daric Barton(notes)
$10 Mark DeRosa(notes)
$10 Ike Davis(notes)

Ya comenzaron a circular las primeras imágenes del modelo a presentar por BMW en Pekín y que seguramente será uno de los más visitados por el público y por los medios. Hablamos del BMW Gran Coupe Concept, un nuevo modelo de la marca de Munich poco menos que impresionante por su presencia, por su fluidez de líneas y porque es un ataque directo a ciertos modelos de la competencia, de los cuales se dice que no saldrán muy bien parados cuando este Gran Coupe irrumpa en el mercado.

A propósito de la competencia, es importante hacer una cierta diferenciación entre por ejemplo el Porsche Panamera, y este modelo, ya que el Gran Coupe no es un coupé propiamente dicho. Yo lo definiría como una berlina muy estilizada, como las que BMW ya ha ofrecido en el pasado. La comparación estaría mejor aplicada contra un Aston Martin Rapide, el Audi A7 o el Mercedes-Benz CLS.

Lo que sí es claro a todas luces es que el Gran Coupe Concept es uno de los modelos más bonitos que haya hecho jamás BMW (junto con el M3 y el legendario 2002, claro). El segmento de los coches de lujo con inclinaciones hacia lo deportivo, no estará más animado que a partir de ahora.

BMW Gran Coupe Concept

Vía | E90 Post

Filed under: Sedan, Hyundai, Police/Emergency, South Korea

This is interesting. As you cop-car fans well know, Ford recently introduced an all new Police Interceptor. After centuries decades of sticking with the body-on-frame, RWD Panther-platform Crown Victoria, Ford made the decision to go with the unit-bodied, front- or all-wheel drive Taurus chassis. They’ve beefed the full-size family hauler up to Herculean stature (claiming that it can withstand a 70 mph rear-end collision!) and by all accounts it should do just fine in the high speed pursuit biz. Still, to many officers and fans of the cars they drive, police cruisers should be driven via the rear wheels.

That said, check out this Hyundai. A Genesis sedan to be specific, all done up in Korean police livery. Looks good, no? Especially with the blue and red lights poking out from the grill. If you’re wondering, the Genesis sedan has either a 3.8-liter V6 or a more muscular 4.6-liter “Tau” V8 up front. Both motors propel the rear wheels. For police duty, we’ll go ahead and assume that Hyundai went with the more potent Tau option, as South Korean coppers will no doubt make use of the 375 horsepower and 333 pound-feet of torque (slight asterisk – that’s on premium fuel. Should you opt for regular gas, the V8 makes “just” 368 hp and 324 lb-ft of torque).

True, like the Taurus, the Genesis sedan is still a unit body, meaning that officers in pursuit won’t be able to drive over curbs at 50 mph without twisting the kimchi out of the structure. However, given the Genesis sedan’s better than average handling characteristics, they should have little trouble driving around said curb, and thereby bringing the perp to justice that much more quickly. No word on a super-pursuit Genesis Coupe-based cop car. Tip of the confession-extracting sap hat to Nathan!

[Source: Chosun]

Hyundai Genesis sedan gets the police package getup originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm has released several tools for developers to help promote their apps in conjunction with their Hot Apps $1 million promotion. The first bit is that in addition to the previously-mentioned Hot Apps Leaderboard at http://palmhotapps.com/, there the Hot Apps Pride Kit. The pride kit consists of a set of widgets and tools to help developers promote their apps on their own websites to show off your app’s position in the Hot Apps contest – heck, creating the widgets doesn’t look too difficult, so even users will be able to take part. We’ll be adding support for these widgets at PreCentral soon, stay tuned.

Palm has also put together a Hot Apps Marketing Kit to help developers promote their apps on social networks. The kit suggests how to optimize your app’s description, how to utilize Facebook and Twitter, and plenty more. All their suggestions are free and, well, we’ll humbly add our own PreCentral Featured Apps Program to the list.

Forget that musty fallout shelter your grandfather dug in the backyard. If you want to make it through the next zombie attack, earthquake or nuclear war in style, just write a check to Vivos, a California company that’s trying to build a network of swank shelters across the country. For $50K and up, you’ll get an underground home “designed to withstand a 50 megaton blast within 10 miles, a series of force 10 earthquakes, 450 MPH surface winds, a 1,000,000 volt electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and flooding submersion for up to 500 hours.” Of course, you’ll also have to sleep in bunk beds surrounded by 200 of your closest friends, and then deal with survivor’s guilt when you resurface after a year and learn that your less fortunate neighbors have already been eaten by the alien lizard people.

As highlighted by The Guardian, Vivos plans to build 20 underground “assurance of life” centers around the U.S., where up to 40,000 people can survive whatever kills off the other 296 million people in the rest of the country.

Should you have the credentials and the cash, the rewards of a berth in a Vivos shelter seem high. Each staffed complex has a decontamination shower and a jogging machine; a refrigerated vault for human DNA and a conference room with wheely chairs. There are TVs and radios, flat-screen computers, a hospital ward, even a dentist’s surgery ready to serve those who forgot to pack a toothbrush in the hurry. “Virtually any meal” can be cooked from a stockpile of ingredients that includes “baked potato soup” but, strangely, no fish, tinned or otherwise. Framed pictures of mountain ranges should help ease the loss of a world left behind

Vivos claims to have received over 1,000 applications for its network of shelters, though it’s unclear whether the company has built anything more than a prototype near Barstow, CA and a series of slick computer-rendered images of the planned shelters. However, Vivos is apparently hoping to finish its network by 2012, just in time for the Mayan-predicted end of the world.

Bunker mentality: the ultimate underground shelter [The Guardian]

Being the most functional video player Windows Mobile has got is not very easy, and the look suffers from that, well XDA has created a new skin. The skin was created by XDA Member bimbam69, who managed to get a new design, and feel to this great media player, but sadly it reminds me of the iPhone.

This skin only works for the most recent build of TCPMP which can be downloaded on XDA also. The build features many video format, and includes support for more devices, but not the HD2’s multi touch function.

If you don’t believe me, here is the feature list:

Suport of FLV1 FLV4 videos and subtitle straight of the box.
ffmpeg.plg now supports Cinepac, SVQ1, SVQ3, h.263, avc, mpeg4, flv1, flv4, on2Vp6.
matroska.plg is mkv version 2.0 compliant.
flac.plg has the latest 1.2.1 library
equalizer works fine
asap.plg has the latest library (still some problems exists)
minor fixes to skin addon
modified file open dialog
modified playlist dialog
reincluded mpc.plg and optionaly tta.plg (for tta.plg see extras.zip)

As you can see TCPMP is still the best and most feature pack. I will be using this skin on my HD2 once I get a good reason to, but for now, it should be worth a try.

Download it

Cash-strapped and scandal-stained starlet Lindsay Lohan has been dropped from the cast of the forthcoming film The Other Side after the movie’s financiers refused to work with the troubled actress, tattles close to the production have divulged.

Lohan had been tapped to star in the dramedy about a grad student working on a deserted island, but sources related to the production claim the studio became worried about the Mean Girls diva’s ability to deliver in the wake of a series of personal and professional troubles.

“Our team simply chose to move on from Lindsay and we’ll soon be announcing a replacement,” says David Michaels, says the writer/director of the flick, which stars Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Dave Matthews, and Alanis Morissette.

News of the movie debacle comes at the end of a long week for LiLo. Her father attempted to stage an intervention to “save” her on Thursday. Michael Lohan flew from New York to Los Angeles to convince his daughter to enter rehab for addiction to prescription drugs. He went to her apartment building in Hollywood – where she is hosting her 16-year-old sister Ali – accompanied by four plainclothes police officers. The act sent Lindsay on an adrenaline-fueled Twitter rampage against her “ex-dad.”

In addition, Lindsay — who is reportedly having trouble paying her rent — is also rumored to be the main suspect in the recent theft of a friend’s $35,000 Rolex watch.