An Ode to Red Zone

 Red Zone may take up one channel, but it's measure of magnitude takes up multiple.  Mellifluously switching between not only games, but plays and time zones, as well as end zones.  Dual box, tri-box and QUAD BOX.  Its entertainment value sees no bounds and its magnificence can barley be expressed in words.  Showcasing Gridiron Glory and all its serendipitous pleasure.  I can only hope, no desire heaven to be this pleasant.

Chipper Jones First Ballot?

Of course Chipper Jones is a Hall of Famer, but the question remains.  Is Chipper a first ballot Hall of Famer?  The answer in my mind is an emphatic, “YES”.  Chipper Jones is not only a very likable character but has bona-fide stats to boot.  Chipper has over 450 home runs while having a batting average over .300.  Willie Stargell (first ballot) can’t make that claim.  Eddie Murray (first ballot) can’t make that claim.  He also comes in at number 50 for all time On Base-Percentage.  Above the legendary Joe DiMaggio, above Rod Carew (first ballot), and above Joe Morgan (first ballot).  Also above the greatest leadoff hitter Rickey Henderson (first ballot).   The Chip also ranks in the top 50 for Wins Above Replacement (WAR).  Chipper Jones has played in not one, but two Fall Classics, winning one.  Chipper accomplished all these statistics while batting a valuable switch.  One knock against Chipper being his fielding ability.  While this is true the same can be said for the big hurt, Frank Thomas, and Derek Jeter.  Both being infallible first ballot Hall of Famers.  Baring his injuries later in his career Chipper would have been assured 3000 hits, which would have made his 1^st ballot status certain.  Chipper, as of this writing, as has not been accused of using the stuff, aka Steroids and Performance Enhancing drugs.  Chipper ranks as one of the top 3 third basemen of all time.  Chipper is also not all washed up before he retired.  Hitting 18 dingers in 2011 and 14 in 2012 (in only 112 games).  So has your belief been swayed on the old Chip (hopefully it didn’t have to be), I think so.

Jon Stewart you Bastard

I believe your berating of Jim Cramer on your show was grossly unjustified.  Jim Cramer was not prepared for your argument; you on the other hand had a team of writers, researchers and producers working on your agenda.  He merely thought he was going to come on your show and have an impromptu conversation.  You then blind side him with these old tapes.  Jim had no use of old footage or days to prepare for this encounter.  You then discuss how Jim led investors down a dark path to the abyss.  Which may be true, but Jim neither forced nor required people to invest in what he recommended.  He was not in people’s homes every morning with a gun to people’s head forcing them to invest.  He was providing free investment advice, free.  Going on that same philosophy you Mr. Stewart infringe your political beliefs on your viewers.  You also lead them down a path mimicking your judgments.  If you had any knowledge of modern financial markets you would know there are intended risks when investing.  A disclaimer clearly appears on his show saying to consult with a financial professional before investing.  You on the other hand have no disclaimer.  But, why must you have a disclaimer, obvious.  You provide people with what can be considered your own political opinions four days a week.  People formulate political opinions while watching your program.  You must be thinking, “So Cramer was risking people’s money, my show is just for entertainment”.  You, Jon are a rapacious bastard if you believe this.  People’s political freedom is much more essential than people’s money.  You sir are making a mockery of it, with your fart jokes and sexual innuendoes.  You say Jim should abandon the noises.  He is doing his “stupid” stunts for the same reason you do, ratings.  You influence people into your way of thinking.  You can’t tell me for one second that your show is the only political show people watch.  There’s are a reason C-Span and PBS isn’t funny.  It’s because it’s serious business.  You are not infallible, yet you push your opinions on your show.  When you are selected Pope I’ll relent, but until that day comes you will never be axiomatic.  If we do not have freedom of choice, we have nothing.  Furthermore you always make fun of Romney for being in the 1%, which upon itself is insane.  But you sir are more 1% then anyone in your audience, including me.  You attended a world class college and now make millions of dollars a year for watching the news and then making fun of it.  You don’t even have the highest rated show on COMEDY CENTERAL, that’s right not NBC, ABC, but COMEDY CENTRAL.  To make matters worse the only political contribution you ever made went to one Mr. Weiner; don’t even get me started on that conflict of interest.  So as one of your assistant’s or interns reads this I hope they email to it to your 1% computer in your 1% 3.8 million dollar home and just consider an apology to Mr. Cramer.

I do however support your right to voice your opinion and use America’s free market system to be paid highly for it.

Your number 1 non-fan

Steve Job's eulogy

Steve Jobs Eulogy
​Steve Job the man, the innovator, and the creator. Steve Job’s was a man who was misunderstood by many and didn’t care how he was portrayed. He was a man of insane believes, yet not always stood by them, but in some way believed in them. For much of his life he was a vegan. He would walk around with a rancid smell, because he thought his diet would dispel any bad smelling odors from his body.
​The man was a perfectionist, which could have been considered both a positive and negative attribute. As even his factories would have to not only been spotless, he would even design the factories and pay attention to aspects that would barely if at all be visible. Yet coincidentally his home was the least bit of perfection. His palatial mansion in the exclusive neighborhood of Woodside, California, was mostly unfurnished. With only a few fixtures and a minuscule number of furniture.
​His innovations were outstanding to put it lightly. Starting not only the MP3, music player generation but the tablet generation. His products according to some are the best in the world. While I feel this is due to the ecosystem/cult, which is Apple Computers. His iPhone line may have evolved the cell phone market into the new smartphone age. But his is in no regards the best device available. Regardless his ability to know not only what people wanted, but what people didn’t even know they wanted, helped make Apple into the juggernaut we are all accustomed to today.
​Now Steve Job’s was by no means the best CEO or manager that many people labeled him as. He would not only yell excessively at his subordinates, it would take an army for him to realize that he was in fact wrong. He would storm out of meetings constantly. He would never be able to take orders. He had what people called a reality distortion field where not only would he convince himself he was correct, but even other people into his way of thinking. It is possible to say that he is the worst CEO to ever walk the face of the earth. But, because his company did well he was well received. The best CIO-Chief Innovation Officer ever, maybe, but best CEO, I am highly suspect.
​Steve Jobs was not only a terrible manager, but an atrocious person. He had a bastard child that he had rarely seen until she was 14; this is ironic as Steve was adopted. His list of nefarious activities could be as long as Santa’s naughty list. A psychologist would have had a field day counseling Steve Jobs. He was not charitable or hospitable. He was neither studious nor wholesome. He was put on a pedestal because of his aura, and image of a hippie billionaire, who didn’t care what people thought.
​Steve Job’s has been given comparisons to Leonardo Da Vinci and Thomas Edison. Both of those comparisons are grossly exaggerated. The man made luxury items, he doesn’t deserve nearly the amount of accolades he receives.
​Don’t get me wrong I can respect what the man did for not only technology, but the world. But, please that doesn’t grant a man immunity from criticism.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Okun's Law

- Featured in the Wall Street Journal, the trend has been breaking latly.

Mila Kunis looks like Elisha Cuthbert and Sarah Hyland/ Kuntang

If you take the upper portion of Sarah Hyland's face and her skin complextion and combine it with the bottom half of Elisha Cuthbert's face the end result is Mila Kunis.  And Mila Kunis's new nickname is Kuntang, because of her famous Black Swan Girl on Girl scene with Nathalie Portman.  It is slightly a rip off of Cloontang from TV's American Dad.


Mila Kunis- That 70s Show and Black Swan








- Sarah Hyland- Modern Family


- Elisha Cuthbert- Happy Endings

Stress Indicator and the S&P 500

A news article passed across my newswire that I thought some would find intreasting.  ritholtz.com published a correlation regarding the St. Louis Fed Stress Level Index and the S&P 500.  The article is posted below.


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The folks at the St. Louis Fed – about whom I can’t say enough good things — produce a proprietary Financial Stress Index, a full explanation of which can be found here [PDF].
A full deconstruction of the Index is, frankly, a bit above my pay grade. What’s not, though, is exploring the correlation of the Index to the S&P500 and discovering that while it’s generally well-correlated, that correlation has increased dramatically since the recession began at the end of 2007, as can easily be seen in the chart above. (I’ve inverted the S&P500 to better display the correlation.)
The question I need to explore, of course, is whether — or how — this information might be useful in the context of equity exposure.
Note that the Index can dip below zero, and that it is still well off its lows. Should “financial stress” continue to ease — the Index is updated weekly — it would suggest to me more S&P upside. The biggest caveat, of course, is that all correlations work — until they don’t.
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BR: I would add that peaks in economic activity precede recessions — they start with economic stress rather low. So if we extrapolate from the (very limited data) above, we still have 12-24 months before the real heavy stuff starts coming down.
That said, 2 is not a statistically significant sample

Facebook Valuation

Interesting chart posted on tech crunch.  This will change though as many people believe the valuation exceeds 100 billion.  I for one believe that is overpriced, as according to projected revenue they should be worth about 37 Billion.  But hype trumps common sense.  I would stay away from this one.

Ultrabooks and the future

Ultrabooks, light weight computers, are the future of personal non-tablet computing.  Some say by the end of 2012 ultrabooks will make up 40% of the marketplace.  Many have i7 intel processors, the best on the market and large amounts of RAM, 4-8 GB.  And it is all packed into a tiny package.  I personally don't see the appeal.  They have very little hardrive space, the cloud solves this, but at this point Cloud computing is in its infancy, only 128 to 256 GB, with a hefty price to match, cheapest is $999.  I have a lenovo with an i3 Processor, 750GB  Hardrive, and 4GB Ram, for about $379.  The best thing though about ultrabooks is they can run for about 8 hours on a single charge due to their small stature.  While my lenovo can last about 2-3 hours.  I personally like working on a desktop, as you can have multiple screens, and they run much faster and longer.  Obviosuly ultrabooks are the highpower business persons device, with thousands in dispoable income.  But for the average Joe a laptop below $500, will surly suffice.

Makers include Samsung, Asus and HP.

Gas vs. Oil Prices

- oil prices 1 month

Gas Prices 1 month

Oil should be 4 dollars a gallon, at least historically, so why isn't gas peaking over 3.50 a gallon, when oil is over 100.  Seems fishy to me.