yankees and retail investors

The Yankees' ownership strikes me as similar to a retail stock investor (speculator) - always chasing (and lagging) trends, buying at the top, selling at the bottom, and abandoning shares when they hit bottom. Hope they keep Girardi and lose some of the short-term thinking.

WTF?

From this week's Economist: "Plutonium-powered thermogenerators have also been used to power lighthouses and radio beacons in isolated areas." Are these things guarded? I would think remote locations make them easier to hijack?

Apple product announcement

Perhaps "iPhone on MacBook" is more than simply an LCD touchscreen. I think it has been conspicuous that adding a WLAN to a MacBook has not been a simple "check-the-box" option. Perhaps there will REALLY be something like an iPod Touch on the new MacBooks. This would definitely affect profit margins as indicated on the recent earnings call. The touchscreen would allow an "instant-on" type of connection for medium-duty tasks. And would build in tethering (also conspicuously absent from AT&T's offerings). Pricing is tricky (if built in to all, those who don't want/need, will feel like pricing of the computer is too high - but if an option, doesn't seem as groundbreaking). But simply having the LCD touchscreen may be differentiating enough. And if they can sell an iPod Touch at $200, not that expensive to build-in to every laptop in the line.

human calculator

I have heard that there used to be a job description of "calculator" - people who could do arithmetic very quickly would be centrally located in an office bullpen and give answers as needed. Even if apocryphal, it is suggestive - there are skills that can become almost useless because of new technologies. I wonder if recall/memory is one of those skills.

suzlon = enron?

Just asking.

fannie freddie

Much of the discussion I've seen on Fannie and Freddie has involved wiping out the equity and/or bailing out the debt, all in the name of protecting the housing market (and the economy that relies heavily on the housing market). I don't understand why the second (protection) is so closely linked with the first. As Warren Buffet did with bond insurance, why couldn't the government set up a new entity to buy and package mortgages and let both the equity AND debt holders of Fannie and Freddie bear the pain? It's not as if no one knew the two companies weren't rotten to the core. Unless the debt is so immense and widely held that a writedown would cripple the economy.

Apple

I really must not have any understanding of the computer market. Apple has some tiny (under 10%) slice of the computer market. But it has "66% of the market for retail PCs over $1000". Which means that the retail market is mostly sub-$1000 machines and/or the retail market is nothing. I had no idea. It also explains why it seems everyone has a Mac and yet they have no market.