PS3 gamers had quite a bit to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Sony whipped out some Black Friday deals, Killzone 2 players are getting a Double XP …

* US charities expecting lean holiday. This makes writing proposals even more important, as Isaac explained way back during 2008 in “Market Tanks, Donors Disappear, Corporate Givers Vanish: Not to Worry, This is a Great Time to Write Proposals.”

* How government policy defeats itself, with California as an example. That’s my title for the article, anyway; the NYTimes dubs it, “California’s Zigzag on Welfare Rules Worries Experts.”

* What’s Wrong With Charitable Giving—and How to Fix It.

* Recession Drives Surge in Youth Runaways according to Ian Urbina the New York Times. As Isaac said in a note to Urbina: “I loved the subject article, which reads just like one of our grant proposals . . . lots of anecdotes, a few well chosen, but meaningless, statistics from dubious sources, and an entirely specious argument. You would make a great grant writer.”

The article says things like, “Over the past two years, government officials and experts have seen an increasing number of children leave home for life on the streets, including many under 13.” Compare this to our advice in The Worse it is, the Better it is: Your Grant Story Needs to Get the Money and Finding and Using Phantom Data.

(Urbina should’ve referenced Charles Bock’s Beautiful Children, which covers this topic from the perspective of the economic boom times.)

* America can’t be the world’s tech leader without immigration reforms.

* Another round of broadband stimulus money should be coming soon.

* Why newspapers are important, part 10,122: “Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost to Health.” Few if any bloggers would go into anywhere near the depth Charles Duhigg does and can.

* Want 50Mbps Internet in your town? Threaten to roll out your own. This is from Ars Technica:

ISPs may not act for years on local complaints about slow Internet—but when a town rolls out its own solution, it’s amazing how fast the incumbents can deploy fiber, cut prices, and run to the legislature.

* The worst kind of good news on AIDS.

* The WSJ predicts “The Next Youth-Magnet Cities,” where D.C. ties for first with Seattle. No mention of Tucson on the list.

* Why are some cities more entrepreneurial than others?

* From the New York Times (and linked to by virtually every blog): Chicago’s [Olympic 2016] Loss: Is Passport Control to Blame? The thrust of the answer: at least in part. America’s immigration process is screwed up, and so is its border control, which manages to combine ineffectiveness with invasiveness.

* The Books of Brin—that’s Sergey Brin of Google fame.

* * Computers are less effective at improving developing world education than other, simpler measures, like de-worming.

* The bookcase staircase is very cool.

* A Brief History of Sex Ed in America. Notice how this relates to our post on the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program.

* On helping students to finish college in four years. Given how few students do finish in four, this is of major consequence for economic health.

* Japan shows that knowledge is power.

* Those who would sacrifice property rights to development end up with neither.

* 15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee. This comes in visual form.

* Learn your damn homophones.

* Hard-Hit Factory Towns Slow to See Relief From Stimulus.

* Ryan Vent on Libertarians and their “transportation blindspot.”

The Prudential group is withdrawing from the equity release (lifetime mortgage) market during the first quarter of next year.

Prudential said the product, which enables retired people to unlock money tied up in their home without having to move, was too capital intensive, and it could us the funds more profitably elsewhere.

The group first entered the equity release market four years ago, and it now has 14,000 customers and a lifetime mortgage book worth £1 billion.

But it has seen its share of the market halve this year, dropping from 23% at the end of 2008 to 12% during 2009 so far. Lifetime mortgages enable retired homeowners to borrow a lump sum against the value of their property, but the debt is not repaid until they die or move home. As a result, a significant amount of capital is paid out up front, but it is often many years before any of the money is repaid.

Barry O’Dwyer, managing director of retail life & pensions, said: “The focus for Prudential UK remains to compete selectively in areas of the retirement savings and income markets where we can generate attractive returns on capital employed.”

Existing lifetime mortgage customers will not be affected by Prudential’s decision to pull out of the market.

The number of providers of this financial service has dropped from 20 to 11 over the past year.

Prudential

 

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• Here’s a weird statistic:  Bert Blyleven pitched 75 complete games which he lost.  He had an excellent 3.19 ERA in those games, but his teams just didn’t give him enough run support.  Another example of not getting enough offensive support is the great Nolan Ryan.  Ryan pitched 75 games in his career in which he allowed 2 or fewer runs, and still lost.  His ERA in those 75 losses was 2.03.
• Here are the top eight banks by assets:

Bank of America	$2.232 trillion
JP Morgan Chase	$2.041 trillion
Citigroup	$1.888 trillion
Wells Fargo	$1.228 trillion
HSBC No. American	$  390 billion
PNC Financial	$  271 billion
U.S. Bancorp	$  265 billion
Bank of New York	$  212 billion

• Here are a few others:  #9 Suntrust ($172 billion), #11 BB&T ($163 billion), #14 Regions ($140 billion), #25 Comerica ($60 billion), #30 Huntington ($52 billion), #33 Charles Schwab Bank ($38 billion), #49 City National ($18 billion).
• Here they’re ranked by deposits, with U.S. Bancorp and PNC moving up in the rankings and HSBC moving down.

JP Morgan Chase	$868 billion
Citigroup	$832 billion
Wells Fargo	$796 billion
PNC Financial	$183 billion
U.S. Bancorp	$169 billion
HSBC No. American	$161 billion
Bank of New York	$133 billion

• Remember how the sub-prime crisis morphed into the mortgage crisis and then became the global economic crisis?  Today just might be the three anniversary of when it all started. On November 28, 2006, a Wall Street warehouse lender cut off subprime lender Ownit, which then promptly failed.  And from what we recall, that was the first such failure, a ground-zero for what was yet to come.  Kind of an après moi, le deluge.
• In response to some stuff on e-mail manners, we just got this.  “In my 20 years in the business, I think a simple thank you is one of the most important things we can teach our employees.  It’s not just e-mail etiquette; it’s etiquette in everything we do. Please, thank you, andyou’re welcome are still important words, and thank you notes after meeting someone are always the right thing to do.”
• We’re still puzzled by companies who do over $20-25 million a month and continue selling best efforts.  The pick-up between best efforts and going mandatory has never been so wide.  And those who agonize over it too long will, perhaps, finally decide to go to the party and find that the punch bowl has already been taken away, the band leaving, and nothing left but cold pizza and warm beer.  Put another way, no one wants to be the first one at a party, but you miss all the fun if you show up too late.
• Florida is the worst hit with non-performing mortgages including foreclosures, totaling 24.9% compared to 23.4% in Nevada , 18.1% in Arizona , and 16.3% in California .  That 24.9% for Florida is just a disaster.
• David Stein at Residential Finance Corp. wrote us that the basket building from the last issue is in a suburb of Columbus . On our next trip, maybe we’ll go see it.
• When growing up as teen age boys, we always tried figuring out how to be cool and be popular with girls. We read Playboy to learn Hugh Hefner’s techniques, but wearing silk pajamas and smoking a pipe looked pretty idiotic for a 15 year old. We watched James Bond movies to learn how to be cool, but 16 year old boys asking for martinis stirred rather shaken was really moronic.  The mystery has now been solved for 15 year old boys.  If they go see The Twilight Saga: New Moon, they’ll learn exactly what makes girls scream.  We watched the first 15 minutes while waiting for 2012 to start, and if there were any teenage boys in the audience, they should have been taking notes.
• Here’s a trailer for 2012.  If you don’t see the movie, take a few minutes and watch this preview. 
• Despite $62 billion in loan loss provisions and $51 billion in charge-offs, the banking industry still managed to make a profit of $2.8 billion for the recent quarter.  This shows real underlying strength and portends strong bank earnings once the economy is back to normal.
• And what’s going on with that warehouse lender who’s raising haircuts from two points to five points and eliminating bulge lines? Has that happened to you, or are we just seeing isolated instances?
• The FDIC just hit Pacific International Bank (Seattle) with civil money penalties because they failed to get flood insurance on 7 of 23 mortgage loans.  The penalty was charged to the bank, but when it gets really ugly is when they fine individual officers and directors.
• Did you know it’s been 28 years since Natalie Wood drowned? Within hours of her death, MBS traders were telling sick jokes about her, but her acting in movies like Splendor in the Grass was nothing les than terrific.
• Transparency International has ranked 181 nations from the least corrupt to the most corrupt.  The top five in order are New Zealand , Denmark , Singapore , Sweden and Switzerland .  The worst were Iraq , Sudan , Burma , Afghanistan , and finally, Somalia .  Russia was #146, Pakistan was #139, China was #79, and the U.S. was #19.  
• We made a list of fifty books we want to read or re-read. Here are twenty of them and we’ll show the rest next week.  If you think of any classics that should be on a must read list, let us know.

A Doll’s House (Ibsen)	Love (Stendhal)
All Quiet on the Western Front	Madame Bovary (Flaubert)
Confession (Augustine)	Notes from the Underground
Crime & Punishment	Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)
East of Eden (Steinbeck)	Sons & Lovers (D.H. Lawrence)
Far from the Madding Crowd	The American (Thomas Hardy)
First Love (Turgenev)	The Genius  (Dreiser)
Jayne Eyre (Bronte)	Last of the Mohicans (Cooper)
The Dead (James Joyce)	Wuthering Heights (Bronte)
Essays  (Schopenhauer)	The Way of All Flesh ( Butler )

•                                                                *     *
• We’ve been doing a lot of FOCIS-plus Reviews lately, and they’re one of the more gratifying aspects of our work.    We look at all the areas of risk, but the best part is figuring out how a company can make more money.  Sometimes it’s really obvious, and other times we need to tear apart the entire organization and put it back together before we find the source of the problem.
• And it’s not that we’re the smartest people in the world.  We’re not.  But the three of us have over 80 years experience in the mortgage banking industry and lending to it, and we’re in dozens and dozens of mortgage companies every year.   It’s the latter which proves so useful, as we see over and over again what works and what doesn’t.  We see certain processes and ways of doing certain things over and over again at all the highly profitable companies.  If ten companies perform a certain function one way and make good money, and you’re doing it a totally different way and losing money, maybe learning how the top performers do it can help you.
  The FOCIS-plus  looks at about 67 areas, and we typically have very specific recommendations on about 40-45 of them. Interestingly, the key to going from a low-performing company to a high-performing one is usually found in less than five recommendations.   The solution is usually not all that complicated.
• We’ve gone into companies that were making a ton of money and where our recommendations were more along the lines of how to better manage risk and have better financial reporting.  When someone’s making 125 bps per loan, we’re hard pressed to find ways for them to make even more.  But when companies make 50-60 bops, and less, these are our favorite ones where we’ve been able to make a real difference and help them really grow their revenues.  Those are the most gratifying.                                                                     * 

. Garrett, Watts & Co.  Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

• Corky Watts        ([email protected])
• Joe Garrett         ([email protected] )
• Mike McAuley      ([email protected] )

Bologna, Italy | Medical Museums

You know you are in for something unique as you walk down a hall lined from end to end with skulls. Housed in a historic building at the oldest still-operating university in the world, the Instituto has a collection of some of the first wax anatomical models ever made. Bologna University was the first institution to create a series of wax anatomical models for their medical students.

The Bologna school of wax modeling was distinct in that they would model wax directly onto real bone. Particularly excellent are the oversized wax models of brains, skulls and heads. Many of these remarkably beautiful works of art are still on display for students and visitors alike. However, the museum is not limited to anatomical waxes. The museum now also displays the collections of the Museo de Anatomia e Istologia Pathalogica or the Museo Cesare Taruffi.

In a room adjacent to the exposed muscles and veins of the anatomical waxes is an extraordinary collection of pathological specimens and models. Amazing and not for the faint of heart, it includes numerous delicately posed fetal skeletons and models of babies born without various organs. Don’t miss the wicker basket holding a dozen apple sized fetal skulls.

Also of note are the twisted frames of the pathological fetal skeletons and the strange and entertaining wax model of the albino with a mutton-chops and mullet.

Phillips, Wisconsin | Outsider Architecture

The untrained eye married to the compulsion to create can produce the most strangely moving art. The Wisconsin Concrete Park is one such outdoor museum housing 237 concrete sculptures built by the self-taught outsider artist Fred Smith. Smith was a retired lumberjack who didn’t sculpt his first figure until the age of 65.

The park’s subjects, which are decorated mostly with shards of broken glass from beer bottles, are figures from American folklore, tradition, historical events and nature, ranging from Native Americans to miners, and from soldiers to woodland creatures. Smith created this concrete walk through American history unmotivated by money or fame, but built the masterwork, in his words, “for all the American people everywhere. They need something like this.”

Kalaupapa, Hawaii | Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries

Cut off from the rest of the world by 1600-foot cliffs on one side and ocean on the other, Kalaupapa, Molokai, is a naturally beautiful prison. When Hansen’s Disease, historically known as leprosy, struck Hawaii in the mid-1800s along with other trade-borne eastern diseases, the government of Hawaii followed what was then common practice: they formed an isolated quarantine and moved the affected population there.

Starting in 1866 with nine men and three women who were allegedly tossed overboard and told to swim for shore, the colony eventually housed more than 8000 people. Despite medical advances and the discovery of sulfone drugs that effectively eliminated the contagious effects of Hanson’s Disease in the 1940s, Kalaupapa remained a forced quarantine site until 1969, over a century after its formation.

The saving grace of the colony may have been the arrival of the 33-year-old Belgian missionary Father Damien de Veuster in 1873. De Veuster lived and worked in the colony, eventually contracting the disease himself. He described himself as “the happiest missionary in the world” before his death in 1889. His work at Kalaupapa has been recognized as a model of compassionate care, and there are statues of De Veuster in the US and Hawaiian Capitol buildings. He is slated to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic church in October of 2009.

Jack London wrote about his visit to the island colony in 1908, saying that, from a distance and thanks to its reputation, it seemed “the pit of hell, the most cursed place on earth.” But after landing and spending time with the residents – watching horse races and listening to dinnertime sing-a-longs – he found himself to be “having a disgracefully good time along with eight hundred of the lepers who were likewise having a good time.”

Now a US national park, the colony is home to a dwindling population of fewer than two dozen voluntary exiles, workers, and family members. The residents of the colonial Hawaiian homes and small church are outnumbered by those in the cemetery, where there are an estimated 2000 unmarked graves in addition to those with headstones. An organization dedicated to the lives and legacy of the Kalaupapa residents is hoping to establish a formal memorial listing the names of all who were exiles there.

Visitation to the colony is strictly limited, and unless you are invited by a resident, tours must be arranged through Damien Tours or the Hawaii Department of Health. People without pre-arranged reservations will be denied access to the park.

Hey guys and girls, looks like Japan and Europe get to update their Walkman X firmware which is said to improve online browsing (is anyone surfing the net on your X?):

This firmware update improves the following performance:

• Displaying and navigating Web sites will be improved.

Note
“NetFront” browser installed in your device will be upgraded with this update. After the upgrade, the browser will not display Thai language fonts anylonger. If you want to be able to display Thai language fonts, do not perform this update.

Let’s hope we get the same treatment in the US soon, as I understand it is a holiday season and Sony software engineers just need to tweak the installer to work on the US models. When I tried using the firmware upgrade from a European website, it does not recognize my Walkman model (NWZ-X1051/1061) as it is intended for NWZ-X1050/1060 models (even though the software agreement lists all the US legal language and the installer is for X1000 series).

Anyways, the good news is Content Transfer software is at version 1.3 now and you can get it here and install it without any problems on your English speaking VAIOs, Lenovos, Dells  and whatever else you are using.

Content Transfer software is an easy way to get audio, video and photos, as well as podcasts on your Walkman.

Models:

・

NWZ-X1000 series

・

NW-A800 series

・

NW-S74x/S74xK/S64x/S64x

・

NWZ-W202

Filed under: Ferrari

Tod’s driving loafers and Ferraris go together like gin and vermouth, if not because every barchetta-driving playboy on the Amalfi Coast is sporting a pair, then because Ferrari’s longtime chairman Luca di Montezemolo also sits on the board of the leathercrafter’s company. But now the two companies have teamed up to bridge the divide with a special line of loafers bearing the iconic Cavallino Rampante.

The shoes bear all the hallmarks of Tod’s enduring design – comfort, flexibility, style and those little rubber nubs in lieu of actual soles, all the better for gripping the pedals. The Ferrari line upgrades with little prancing horses, insoles patterned after Ferrari seats and – in the case of the Gommino Mascherina Griglia – a badge on the tongue reminiscent of the GTO’s grille, replacing the tassels or laces on the Leccetto or Laccetto Tubi GT. They’re available in a variety of colors, but will set you back a little more than the horse-emblazoned Puma sneaks available at your local Foot Locker.

[Source: Ferrari]

Well Heeled: Ferrari and Tod’s team up for driving mocs originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear creditors of Dubai World: don’t come begging for cash from Abu Dhabi.

At least, that seems to be the message.

Reuters: Abu Dhabi, wealthy capital of the United Arab Emirates, will “pick and choose” how to assist debt-laden neighbor Dubai, a senior official said on Saturday, after fears of a Dubai default sent global markets reeling.

“We will look at Dubai’s commitments and approach them on a case-by-case basis. It does not mean that Abu Dhabi will underwrite all of their debts,” the official in the government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi told Reuters by phone.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• After Dubai, Is Greece Next?
• Mobius: Even If We’re In A Bull Market, Dubai Could Spark A 20% Correction
• Black Friday: Asian Markets Walloped After Dubai World

When you’re looking for a protein-packed breakfast, eggs and meat seem like the most obvious choice. But if you go for the most obvious choice every single morning, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. So on those mornings when meat and eggs aren’t what you’re craving and you wake up feeling less like a hunter and more like a gatherer, try Mark’s Daily Apple reader Doug Descant’s ingenious recipe for No-atmeal.

Pronounced “note-meal” (as in, no oatmeal) Doug’s recipe, that he submitted for the Primal Cookbook Challenge, is for all you ex-cereal lovers out there and for anyone who needs a warm bowl of comforting goodness on a cold winter morning. As Doug says, “it’s a hot meal full of essential proteins and fats, not to mention the necessary vitamins and minerals, in order to stay energized for the cold weeks ahead.”

In Doug’s recipe a blend of pecans, walnuts and a dash of flaxseed is warmed up with almond milk custard, mashed banana and almond butter to create a wholly satisfying hot cereal. The texture is rich and so is the flavor, especially when you add warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and a topping of fresh berries and almond milk. Just thinking about eating No-atmeal for breakfast is guaranteed to coax you out of bed in the morning.

Ingredients:

• 1 small handful of walnuts
• 1 small handful of pecans
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon almond butter
• 1 banana, mashed
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (add more if you prefer it a little runny)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds
• 1 handful of goji berries or fresh berries

Directions:

Add walnuts, pecans, flax seed and spices to a food processor and pulse it down to a course grain, making sure to stop before it’s totally ground into a powder. Set aside.

Whisk together eggs and almond milk (Doug uses a Blender Bottle) until the consistency thickens a little bit into a loose custard. Thoroughly blend together the mashed banana and almond butter and add it to the custard, mixing well.

Stir in the nut mixture. Microwave or gently warm on the stove until the “no-atmeal” reaches your desired consistency; this should only take a few minutes. In both cases, stir the mixture frequently as it cooks.

Sprinkle pumpkin seeds and berries on top. Add more almond milk if you want. Lick the bowl clean!

Get Free Health Tips, Recipes and Workouts Delivered to Your Inbox

Related posts:

1. Almond Banana Pancakes
2. Frozen Primal Custard
3. Top 10 Ways to “Go Nuts”

China’s top leadership said it will keep policies to support growth in place through 2010, despite concerns about the effects of more powerful stimulus on the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

The ruling Politburo of China’s Communist Party met Friday to discuss economic policy for next year, and decided it will “maintain the continuity and stability of economic policies, and continue to implement the proactive fiscal policy and loose monetary policy,” according to a statement carried by China Central Television, the state broadcaster.

Continue reading at WSJ »

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China Entering Winter With A Severe Natural Gas Shortage (UNG)
• How China’s Bank Regulator Could Slam The Markets
• China Begs Banks To Cut Back On Lending

Filed under: GM, Saab, Earnings/Financials, Rumormill

When Koenigsegg pulled out of its agreement with General Motors to purchase Saab, many thought that General Motors would dump the Swedish automaker much like it did the Saturn brand. But it appears that The General is still willing to look for another interested party, and speculation is that two perspective buyers are at the front of the line. The Swedish press is reporting that China’s Beijing Automotive (BAIC) and Wyoming-based merchant bank Merbanco have shown renewed interest in perennially cash-poor Saab.

Saab spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs reportedly told Automotive News that there were 27 suitors interested in the Swedish automaker prior to Koenigsegg becoming the preferred bidder and confirmed that there are now other bidders interested. “We have a close dialog and close contact with several who have expressed interest in buying Saab Automobile,” Gustavs says.

if another bidder does win the opportunity to purchase Saab, they’ll inherit an automaker that expects to lose $427 million in 2009 and a similar amount of cash in 2010. That buyer will also run into plenty of resistance when trying to get its hands on GM’s technology assets. One issue that reportedly derailed the Koenigsegg bid was GM’s reluctance to share its tech for new products like the new Saab 9-5. On the upside, the aforementioned 9-5 sedan has just begun serial production, the 9-3X allweatherwagon is ready to go, and the 9-4X looks to be just around the bend, too.

Earlier in the week, GM released a statement stating that it would “take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week.” Thanks for the tips, everyone!

[Sources: Autocar; Automotive News; Auto Motor und Sport]

REPORT: Saab still has at least two interested parties – BAIC and Merbanco originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may be its mortal enemy, but Facebook doesn’t mind borrowing a couple of tricks from Google’s playbook once in a while. Google is well known for the tests it rolls out for even the smallest features before integrating them with the proper product. It’s not the only company doing this, but Google has taken the practice to the extreme. Apparently, Facebook thinks that it’s a good idea and has adopted the practice to test out new design features and tweaks which we’ve been seeing a lot of lately.

The latest test to roll out for a handful of people involves a couple of changes mostly previewed about a month back. TechCrunch has managed to get its hands on several screenshots of the new design and, for the most part, they confirm the direction Facebook has said it would take. There are a couple new things, though, like the bigger search bar which now takes a more central position.

This time around the changes are pretty insignificant, nothing like the news feed / live feed thing which got most people all worked up. Undoubtedly, a lot of people will still hate them but they’ll get over it like they always do. The top bar gets all the attention and things get shuffled around hopefully for the better. The ‘Home,” “Profile,” and all the other sections, which are now on the left side, get pushed to the other corner, while the things that requir… (read more)

I’m on the road this weekend, so just a quick post: A few death penalty stories from the week I didn’t get a chance to share:

• Russia essentially abolished the death penalty last week. (I posted a bit of background here)
• Vietnam’s  legislature is considering adding lethal injection as a method of execution to the current firing squad. (Vietnam executed 25 people in 2007)
• Kentucky’s Supreme Court suspended executions in the state Wednesday in another lethal injection case
• Ohio got the ok to begin using its one-drug injection to kill people and a doctor is facing questions over her role in the failed attempt to execute Romell Broom on September 15.