Wow. What an amazing story.
Archive for October, 2008
October 30th, 2008
I can't think of a title for this post
October 30th, 2008
Robot News
I saw a post on DiscoveryBlog, blog.discovery.com, about how the Mars Phoenix lander is shutting down. Since the probe is, for all intents and purposes, at the North Pole in winter, it is not getting enough sunlight to keep itself warm. And with temperatures dropping to -150C, without power, the probe will quickly freeze in a block of ice and sublimated CO2. I hope that in the spring thaw, the machine will come back to life, but the odds of that are pretty much zero.
Spirit and Opportunity are still going strong, even though they were launched in the last presidential administration. Spirit is still exploring craters, and Opportunity is roaming around, looking for Osama bin Laden.
NASA has an image of Spirit on their page Spirit shot, with a link to the image here. What an amazing shot. The main page is The Completely and Utterly Awesome JPL.NASA page.
DARPA has asked for a bigger and better version of the BigDog mule system. BigDog is made by Boston Dynamics.
A YouTube beta. I about pissed myself laughing. Amazingly funny.
The Akiba robot at the Akibahara robot show.
Remember SAYA. Apparently, she’s learned to be sassy.
My favorite robots are still the Qrio, although they are, sadly, discontinued.
October 30th, 2008
The Federal Rate
Yesterday, the Fed cut rates a half point to 1%. Here are some comparisons with other lending rates.
Bank of America interest on a saving account.
- 1.5%-2%
Lowest rate on a mortgage I have seen lately
- 5.5%
Most common quoted rate range
- 7%-8%
Subprime mortgage lending rate
- 12%-15%
Discover Card Interest Rate
- 18%
Capital One Interest Rate
- 25%
Cheapo Payday Loan Place
- 102%
One Month Payday Loan Place
- 200%-300%
Two week Payday Loan Place
- 500%+
There is still quite a bit of money to be earned, just not by the consumer.
October 29th, 2008
Fed Cuts Rates
The Federal Government just announced a half a percentage point cut in the Prime Rate. This caused the markets to crash harder then a sleep deprived college student in a mattress store.
In local news, the banks where I live just cut a whole point off their savings account interest, and Wal-Mart raised the price of Ramen. Three years ago, it was 10/$1, now it’s 3/$1. The only upside is that gas is only $2.19/gallon.
October 28th, 2008
Beer bots
Here is an awesome link to a beer pouring robot made of Legos. Isn’t technology awesome?
October 28th, 2008
School Economics
I just found out children in Oregon’s public schools don’t learn about economics! Link here How screwed up is that? You would think that learning to manage money would be a critical life skill that would be taught. Of course, I’m whining b/c when I was in junior high school, my year was the last time an economics class was taught. The administration cited budget cuts.
Also, if 0.05% of tenth graders can make a profit on the stock market, WE ALL CAN!!!! Yay!
Good ol’ sarcasm, btw.
October 28th, 2008
Counting Bees
Australia Scientists find that bees can count up to four.
I remember first reading stories about crows that could use tools, dolphin languages, and even dinosaur languages.
I guess being human isn’t so special after all.
October 28th, 2008
Another Bailout
The US government is giving upwards of 20-22 US banks upwards of $250 billion dollars to stabilize lending and ease credit flow.
Nine of the banks are receiving the first $125 billion, with Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo each receiving $25 billion; or approximately $2 per star in our galaxy.
October 28th, 2008
More Economic News
Yesterdays and today’s financial outlook isn’t so bad. Yesterday, the DJIA dropped a few hundred points to close at about 8150, and in the early morning trading today, it appears to have made all that money back up. As I type this, we are trading almost 300 points over opening.
If you invested in BP, rejoice. BP announced profits of 148 percent over last quarter, and I can only imagine the other oil giants have a similar rosy outlook.
Google finance says almost everything is up today, so go ahead and splurge. Buy that extra can of soup for the family, you earned it!
However, not all is well in happyland. OPEC has decided to cut production by as much as 15 million barrels a day (I’m looking for a source, mine vanished.) Expect gas to rise after the election, just like it always does.
The Yen is falling like a rock vs the dollar, so expect Japanese goods to rise in price, and the rest of non-Chinese made goods to follow. Right now, China is so massive, they can absorb the blow from the market, although goods will adjust quickly. We can probably expect someone to blame the US for this crisis at some point soon.
Walmart is announcing they are pulling melamine tainted eggs off the market, and I have heard stories of chocolate coins being adulterated as well.
Some smaller nations are nearing economic collapse, for some, this will lead to civil war.
October 24th, 2008
Some quick predictions
The market is going to go down, but not severely. I have read some people claiming a 700+ point loss. I am going to go ahead and say 450 points down.
Gold will drop to a thirteen month low.
Oil will drop $3/barrel, gas will follow at $0.03/gal.
Copper will fall like it did last week, but silver will stay stable.
We can’t manufacture enough ammo to meet the gun needs of the United States, so stockpile some good rocks. :p
Rumor is, Ford will declare chapter 11 soon, and maybe GM will as well. I would be careful of this, as the GM Financing division is still turning a profit.
Microsoft is still turning a profit, so they will make a good investment, even if they make a lousy product.
Remember, with winter coming, now is the time to start getting your home and car ready for the cold weather, if you have not done so already. Check the weatherstripping your doors and windows, and make sure your car’s tires are properly inflated.
