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Four or five counties in Southern California are on fire. A little unusual this late into the year.

NaBloPoMo 15

Posted on November 15th, 2008 § 0 comments

I could care less if the Big Three were to disappear overnight. For decades they’ve existed as marketing and financial bureaucracies–not car companies, putting out shitty products propped up by nostalgia, misguided patriotism, cheap fuel, and cheap money. In the meantime, their foreign competitors have innovated, diversified, and invested wisely, building their brands over years, if not decades. The American automotive industry seems to be institutionally incapable of learning anything; it’s time to stand back and watch those institutions implode. This doesn’t mean we won’t have an automotive industry; it just means that new companies will have a chance to grow and innovate without being overshadowed by these soulless monstrosities.

However, I’d be perfectly happy to have the Feds relieve them, and American businesses in general, of the twin clusterfucks we know as defined benefit retirement plans and employer-based health insurance.

NaBloPoMo 13

Posted on November 13th, 2008 § 0 comments

TechCrunch is reporting (spreading the rumor?) that: Facebook May Be Growing Too Fast. And Hitting The Capital Markets Again.

Some of the key items:

• Revenues are not covering costs, and costs are growing faster than revenues
• Half of Facebook’s users are from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, places where you can’t make too much money
• Facebook’s CFO is reportedly in Dubai trying to get some oil money

Yahoo!’s $1b is probably looking pretty good right about now. Then again, Yahoo! probably would have fucked it up.

NaBloPoMo 1

Posted on November 1st, 2008 § 0 comments

Good weekend for space: the Chinese conducted their first space walk, and now a private company has sent a rocket into space.

Wired: SpaceX Did It — Falcon 1 Made it to Space

SpaceX has made history. Its privately developed rocket has made it into space.

After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk worked all of the bugs out of their Falcon 1 launch vehicles.

The entire spectacle was broadcast live from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. Cameras mounted on the spacecraft showed our planet shrinking in the distance and the empty first stage engine falling back to Earth.

As the rocket ascended, cheers rang out during every crucial step of the launch sequence, and at the final stage their headquarters in Hawthorne, California erupted in excitement. (Wired.com viewed the launch over the Internet on SpaceX’s live webcast.)

The tensest moment came just before stage separation. At that critical juncture, the third launch attempt had failed. This time, it worked out perfectly.

Eight minutes after leaving the ground, Falcon 1 reached a speed of 5200 meters per second and passed above the International Space Station.

Here’s the video of the flight:

Posted on September 29th, 2008 § 0 comments

Washington Mutual died on its 119th birthday.

Reuters: WaMu is largest U.S. bank failure

Washington Mutual Inc was closed by the U.S. government in by far the largest failure of a U.S. bank, and its banking assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion.

Thursday’s seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. Negotiations over a $700 billion bailout of the entire financial system stalled in Washington on Thursday.

…

119-YEAR HISTORY

The transaction ends exactly 119 years of independence for Washington Mutual, whose predecessor was incorporated on September 25, 1889, “to offer its stockholders a safe and profitable vehicle for investing and lending,” according to the thrift’s website. This helped Seattle residents rebuild after a fire torched the city’s downtown.

Maybe I should have deposited that check this morning.

Posted on September 25th, 2008 § 0 comments