Spend 4 minutes watching this video

...instead of 4 minutes texting while driving.

Watch it over at ShareShoreDriveDay.net.

Aliens from outer space could abduct you if they know you read this. Does this possiblity concern you?

On a related note, from a Republican National Committee mailer entitled "Future of American Health Care Survey", this question:

"It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person's political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you?"

Read entire "push poll" mailer at The Washington Independent.
The Columbian of Clark County Washington broke the story.

Should President have emergency power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet

Article at CNET.com:

Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to "direct the national response to the cyber threat" if necessary for "the national defense and security." The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government. ("Cyber" is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.)

"The language has changed but it doesn't contain any real additional limits," EFF's Tien says. "It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)...The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There's no provision for any administrative process or review. That's where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it."

Translation: If your company is deemed "critical," a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.

Robo calls illegal starting Sept 1st

FINALLY!

Beginning September 1, 2009, prerecorded commercial telemarketing calls to consumers – commonly known as robocalls – will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such calls, the Federal Trade Commission announced today.

Read the press release at FTC.gov.

If you've never done it for some bizarre reason, here's the link to the Do Not Call Registry. It actually works great!

...and bizness is a boomin'

Tarantino was on Fresh Air yesterday. The interview was so interesting we went to see it last night. Wanna go? I'll see it again & again... Audio is available around 3pm est at NPR.org. Here's the transcript:

I just love movies. And I loved seeing, you know, I guess around the age of like 13 and 14 is when I started venturing out from just like, you know, the standard Hollywood movie to see a lot of these different exploitation movies or art films. You know, I guess like, say, like around my '76, where, you know, I guess the standard Hollywood movie would be "A Star Is Born," with Barbra Streisand, okay, that would be that movie.

Official site for Inglorious Basterds.
At Internet Movie Data Base. IMDB.com.
Tarantino's bio at IMDB.com:

First noted screenplay was titled "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit," which was written in 1985.

Has stated that he would like to direct a James Bond movie at some point in his career.

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

No meetings! The perfect place to work?

From Wired.com article about craigslist:

Only programmers, customer service reps, and accounting staff work at craigslist. There is no business development, no human resources, no sales. As a result, there are no meetings.

Hatip to kottke.org.

Financial institutions diversify into their level of incompetence

From FT.com:

Financial institutions diversify into their level of incompetence.

Then they blow up?

...It is therefore particularly easy for those who work in financial institutions to make the mistake of believing that their success is the result of exceptional skill rather than good fortune. What more natural to believe than that extraordinary talent will find pots of gold under other rainbows?

When you're considering diversifying your portfolio into stocks keep in mind on Tuesday, trading in 4 stocks represented 37% of the trading volume. Two of them are essentially insolvent companies too. Here's the scoop at Seeking Alpha.

So, could the big institutional traders, even mutual funds, be diversifying into their level of incompetence with your money?

What does it mean when 37% of the trading volume was in 4 stocks? That "big money" is thinking & investing rationally, or that Wall Street is basically gambling?

Warren Buffett's early strategy of investing was, as you probably know, buy & hold only companies he understood. Most people don't realize he believed a large portion of "his diversification" came from completely understanding each company he invested in, vs. throwing money at a lot of different companies without the appropriate due diligence.

The point? Be careful in your risk vs. reward assessment by not diversifying into your level of incompetency.

More about the Peter Principle.

Michael Steele's ideas on health care reform

From an interview at Fox w/Greta on August 25th:
Excerpts posted if you don't have time to read entire transcript.

VS: But can you sort of, you know -- you know, bring me in on the secret why the Republicans didn't do health care reform when they owned the House, the Senate and the White House? Do you have any idea?

S: No, I don't have an idea, and I think, you know, again, it's one of those -- those flaws of the past that, you know, we tripped ourselves up on. We had a perfect opportunity even when we didn't have control of the House and Senate during the early days of the Bush -- of Bush first term to at least put in place some of the -- some of the efforts to put, you know, our imprimatur, if you will, on the health care debate.

...What I do not applaud is the way they want to go about reforming our health care system when, in fact, the parts that they want to reform and don't need it, and the parts like Medicare that do need to be addressed, they're kind of slipping off to the side because everyone knows there's no money here, Greta, in about six or seven years. And so with all this spending now, where will the money come from to deal for our seniors in about six years when there is no money for Medicare?

From Washington Post opinion piece from August 24th:

Furthermore, under the Democrats' plan, senior citizens will pay a steeper price and will have their treatment options reduced or rationed.

...Many of the most significant costs of care come in the last six months of a patient's life, and every American household must consider how to treat their loved ones.

So part of the goal is to drive the conversation for health care reform to:

The parts like Medicare that do need to be addressed do not touch?

Continue to spend the most significant costs of care...in the last six months of a patient's life?

COLBERT launch scrubed

From NASA:

Wednesday Morning Launch Attempt Called Off
Mission managers have decided to scrub Wednesday morning’s launch attempt due to a stuck valve associated with the fill and drain plumbing of the main propulsion system within the orbiter aft compartment.

Previously.

How to be perfect in under a minute

At Major League Baseball dot com.

Did ya hear the one about the Mets losing from being on the wrong end of the first unassisted quadruple play?

AARP dismisses RNC's statement as misleading & alarmist

From Wall Street Journal:

The country's largest lobbying group for seniors, AARP, said it welcomed the RNC's commitment to protect Medicare. But the group, which supports efforts to overhaul the health-care system, also dismissed the RNC statement as misleading and alarmist.

"Change by itself is anxiety producing, but as we have analyzed the various bills [before Congress], the proposed Medicare savings do not limit benefits, they do not impose rationing and they do not put the government between patients and their doctors," said John Rother, AARP's executive vice president.

Check out the idea at the GOP's official page.

The Fed must release docs relating to "emergency lending"

From Bloomberg:

The Federal Reserve must make records about emergency lending to financial institutions public within five days because it failed to convince a judge the documents should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

And:

Bloomberg said in the suit U.S. taxpayers need to know the risks behind the central bank’s $2 trillion in lending because the public is an “involuntary investor” in the nation’s banks.

Previously at Bloomberg:

The Fed began expanding its lending programs in August 2007 with the Term Discount Window program. The central bank’s loans don’t have oversight requirements or compensation limits that Congress imposed upon the TARP.

This is going to make some incredibly fascinating, & hopefully, "indictful" reading.

More info from Megan at Va Coalition for Open Government:

At the NFOIC conference in June, Bloomberg's inhouse lawyer, Charles Glasser, was a great panelist on the topic.

Here's a link to the blog coverage on his panel on fiscal transparency.
Video link to fiscal transparency panel.

More from Huffington Post, the docs from the lawsuit Bloomberg v. Fed.

COLBERT heads to space Tuesday morning

Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill or COLBERT is launching in a few hours! Woo Hoo! [In your best Stephen voice.]

More about C.O.L.B.E.R.T. at NASA.
Space Shuttle Missions at NASA.

Check out the Official Patch:
















Seriously, it's the official patch. Check out the link about COLBERT at NASA.

Wanna get stupiderer ? Take a class at Occidental College

Occidental College Course Catalog 2008-2009:
Seriously. Don't be stupid. Follow the above link too.

180. STUPIDITY.

Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny.

Note: It's only a 100 Level course so you probably just touch on the subject.
Hatip to Huffington Post where I first saw this.

A friend has a question after reading this post:

I wonder if you have to get an "F" to pass this course?

That could be true, but it might not be good enough in Canada:

B.C. university adds grade worse than F

Article at the Calgary Herald.
Simon Frasier University News about new grade.

An idea for a national strike

I suggested you check out Change Congress here to learn what we can do to take big lobbying out of our government. Today, in an article by Larry Flynt, he has another idea:

As Thomas Jefferson famously quipped in regard to the insurrection: "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Perhaps it's time to consider that option once again.

I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful.

Let's set a date. No one goes to work. No one buys anything. And if that isn't effective -- if the politicians ignore us -- we do it again. And again. And again.

The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It's time we took back our government from those who would make us their slaves.

Read his whole article. I hadn't planned on linking to it, but several financial blogs I read pointed it out. They are livid, as you should be too, about the Wall Street bail out with seemingly little accountability plus a lot of the jerks who helped get us in this mess are still getting their obnoxious multi-million dollar salaries to "clean it up".

Believe the "govt death panel" bs or I don't want to talk about it now, I'll wait until I can't

View Press Releases from Cantel Medical Corp:

CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. (NYSE: CMN – News) announced that on August 20, 2009 it received a letter of resignation from Ms. Elizabeth McCaughey as a director of the Company. Ms. McCaughey, who had served as a director since 2005, stated that she was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform.

On Wednesday, the day before she resigned, she appeared on the Daily Show and could not find her "proof" of the so called death panel crap.
Watch the first part here. Be sure to watch this part & this part too.

So I guess a question could be, should we continue to pollute the health care debate with crap to get the bill killed & waste another 10 years not fixing our health care system or should we talk about the important factual details now and not put it off?

There's only time to debate the tough choices we're all going to have to make, like who is going to decide if you are intubated or not.

Let's get it done event - find an event near you

Be part of the solution to help get an appropriate health care bill done. Find out where an event is near you & take part in it.

CEO of Palantir on Charlie Rose

At CharlieRose.com:



A fascinating interview how Palantir is able to "spy" while adhering to their core principle of:

Putting our values to work, Palantir voluntarily developed new technologies and a rigorous framework to: protect privacy and civil liberties; empower policymakers and administrators to enforce legal, regulatory, and policy requirements; and, equally important, ensure that the implementation of all requirements is audited.

More about their privacy & civil liberty policies.
Their home page.

Read love letters between the SEC & AIG

Remember last fall when the world's financial system came within hours of completely melting down? Welp, the SEC has released letters it exchanged with AIG starting in spring 2008.

Check post at Footnoted.org.
Do some investigative reporting and read the letters at SEC's site.

There's some fascinating stuff in there like this.

From this link at SEC:

Question by SEC attorney, note date:

Form 10-Q for the Fiscal Quarter Ended March 31, 2008

Note 4—Shareholders’ Equity and Earnings (Loss) Per Share, page 19

1.

You disclose that you shortened the vesting period of outstanding awards under your share-based employee compensation plans during the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Please provide us your evaluation of the modification[.]

Another exchange in the same document:

2. You state that your credit-based analyses estimate potential realized credit pre-tax losses of approximately $1.2 billion to approximately $2.4 billion, as compared to the $20.6 billion of unrealized market losses recognized in the fourth quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008. Please expand your disclosure to explain the specific factors causing the divergence between your estimates of fair value and amounts to be ultimately realized upon settlement maturity.

AIG Response:

The unrealized market valuation losses of $20.6 billion recorded on AIGFP’s super senior credit default swap portfolio represent the cumulative change in fair value of these derivatives. Consistent with the definition of fair value in the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, “Fair Value Measurements” (FAS 157), the unrealized market valuation loss of $20.6 billion represents AIG’s best estimate of the amount it would need to pay to a willing, able and knowledgeable third-party to assume the obligations under AIGFP’s super senior credit default swap portfolio as of March 31, 2008.

On the other hand, AIG’s estimate of the potential pre-tax realized credit losses of approximately $1.2 billion to approximately $2.4 billion as of March 31, 2008 represents its then current estimate of the potential credit losses that it may incur if the multi-sector CDO portion of AIGFP’s super senior credit default swap portfolio and the referenced obligations acquired by AIGFP in extinguishing its obligations under the swaps are held to maturity. Credit losses represent a point-in-time estimate, using information available at that particular date, of the potential shortfall of principal and/or interest cash flows on the referenced obligations and credits underlying the portfolio that will not be recovered assuming the credit derivative portfolio and referenced obligations are held to maturity. At March 31, 2008, AIG derived its estimates of the potential pre-tax realized credit losses by applying two distinct methods, a ratings-based static stress test and a roll rate analysis.

At March 31, 2008, the estimates for the range of the potential realized credit losses were lower than the fair value of AIGFP’s super senior multi-sector CDO credit default swap portfolio, a net loss of $19.3 billion at March 31, 2008. The fair value of AIGFP’s super senior multi-sector CDO credit default swap portfolio is based upon fair value accounting principles, which rely on third-party prices for both the underlying collateral securities and the CDOs that AIGFP’s super senior credit default swaps wrap. These prices currently incorporate liquidity premiums, risk aversion elements and credit risk modeling, which in some instances may use more conservative assumptions than those used by AIG in its roll rate stress testing. Due to the ongoing disruption in the U.S. residential mortgage market and credit markets and the downgrades of RMBS and CDOs by the rating agencies,the market continues to lack transparency around the pricing of these securities. These prices are not necessarily reflective of the ultimate potential realized credit losses AIGFP could incur in the future related to the AIGFP super senior multi-sector CDO credit default swap portfolio, and AIG believes they incorporate a significant amount of market-driven risk aversion.

In conducting its risk analyses as of June 30, 2008, AIG discontinued use of the rating-based static stress test and used only the roll rate stress test because it believes that the roll rate stress test provides a more reasonable analysis methodology to illustrate potential realized credit losses than the rating-based static stress test used previously.

To the uneducated, say someone like me, it appears AIG gave "x" number of employees early vesting, re: faster bonuses, at the same time they were trying to explain to the SEC why their hallucinogenic valuations of their credit default swap portfolio was $18B "off".

Note the date of this correspondence? March 2008.

Remember Bear Sterns?

There's been people working on the story of the possibility Bear Sterns was "bailed out" by JPMorgan Chase & us because Bear Sterns was going to bring down JPMorgan with it.

Facebook could be 4th largest country, or social media is bigger than you think

Read the info behind the video at Socialnomics.
Thanks to Virginia Bicycling Federation's blog for the link.

Contract law & mortgage back securities complicate more than you think

From NYTimes article:

The case against Countrywide is being closely watched by pension funds, insurance companies and other investors in mortgage securities who contend that loan servicing companies that agree to change the terms of mortgages are breaching contractual obligations to owners of those loans.

Investors who own mortgage securities receive interest and principal payments from borrowers over the life of the loans. When servicing companies modify those loans, investor payments are typically reduced.

“I view this as an opening salvo and a demonstration that investors do have contractual rights, even when it is politically unpopular,” said William A. Frey, one of the investors who brought the lawsuit. “This is ultimately going to be one of many legal battles over who should pay the hundreds of billions of dollars in losses on mortgages.”

In other words, the derivative called a mortgage back security[MBS], which is bundled mortgages, has complicated any home owner assistance programs, balance sheets of banks & other holders of the MBS.

It can certainly be argued this will be a large factor in complicating & delaying any recovery in the "real" economy.

Who is more un-patriotic?

It is well known, heavily documented & is considered fact that plastic litter, particularly in water like bays & oceans, kill. It kills sea life, as an example, when it's eaten, can't be digested and plugs up the animal.

There's also a pretty good argument that "waste" kills, like too much packaging as an example.

So if a local restaurant packages their mints in packaging like this:



And undoubtedly some of this packaging is washed down our storm drains which lead to a creek which flows into an inlet which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, and we're talking only a few hundred yards from creek to bay:



The question is, who is more un-patriotic?

The seafood restaurateur for over packaging their mints?
The few patrons who litter every day?
Or both?

BTW, there is cigarette butt litter on the ground, visible in the storm drains & on the streets everyday as well.

Fox News are liberals & hears their proof

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Fox News: The New Liberals
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Robots controlling our money - is it worth the risk?

The future doesn't bring an army of robots walking down the streets shooting at humans who don't obey them. You've seen the movies & read the sci-fi.

It would be a lot easier if the robots just took our money wouldn't it? Then we'd kill each other.
Wanna help me write the movie/book? Contact me.

On a side note, from an article at Security Industry News:

The rise of high-frequency trading and speed-of-light transactions has fueled the need. Now, 70 percent of average daily trading volume in equities involves a buy or sell order from a high-frequency trader, according to research Aite Group[.]

The article goes on to describe how the industry is working it's butt off to increase that & to speed up the trading which is currently measured in milliseconds.

And from a different article at Security Industry News:

There's even a thriving business to be had in "latency arbitrage," which focuses on fast and frequent trading.

This so called "trading" is done by algorithmic software written for the most powerful hardware & stretched to squeeze out "profits" in milliseconds. Sounds like it's simply trying to squeeze out waste, but what happens when the computerized trading "breaks" and loses control?

On Black Monday in October 1987, the stock market melted down in a catastrophic one day.

In 2008/09, it took several months to melt down to its current "bottom" in March '09.

So far, regulations have not been put in place to address the incredible risk, complexity, lack of safeguards re: massive high-frequency trading. Not to mention other safeguards. Writing such legislation & regulation in such a short time is impossible.

That being said, have you contacted your legislators to demand they tighten the regulations on the gambling, I mean, on the finance/banking industry? No? Are you still contributing to your 401(k) & IRA buying stocks & mutual funds?

Like somebody once said, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again."

Treasury's legislative proposals on OTC derivative trading sent to Congree

Opinion piece from FT.com:

“Through higher capital requirements and higher margin requirements for non-standardised derivatives, the legislation will encourage substantially greater use of standardised derivatives and thereby will facilitate substantial migration of OTC derivatives onto central clearing houses and exchanges,” says the Treasury.

Paul Hamill, a director in Credit Trading at Barclays Capital, says: “Liquidity will determine how the market settles on a concept of what is a standard contract and therefore can be cleared.

If you do not understand the high priority this legislation needs, how these contracts have been traded & what they did to the global economy & will do again; and, you have money invested "for the long term", you should worry.

Why?

You wouldn't give someone you don't know thousands of dollars without doing your due diligence about whether you'd get paid back or not.

You wouldn't buy a used car/truck from someone you didn't know sight unseen without a test drive .

So it's pretty simple, if you do not understand the macro risks to your long term investments, you shouldn't "blindly" throw money in it hallucinating that "the market will come back like it has in the past".

Could take a couple years to regulate $592T derivatives market

According to Bloomberg news:

President Barack Obama sent Congress his plan to rein in the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives industry, a measure that would cut into a profitable market for banks led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

And:

“Operationally and legally, at least for a few years, it seems like it’s going to be complicated and costly,” he said.

Obviously it'll take a couple years, even in a perfect world, to regulate something so large & complicated. Wonder what kind of an affect on stock & bond values, interest rates, etc there will be. Think you should still invest like it's 1989?

Goldman Ex-CEO Paulson talked to Goldman a lot while Treasury Secretary

From nakedcapitalism.com post:

“The waiver was in anticipation of a need to rescue Goldman Sachs,” Ms. Davis said, “not to bail out A.I.G.”

In case you didn't realize, "rescuing" AIG was not to rescue AIG, it was to rescue the planet's financial system as AIG's failure would have not only bankrupted "x" number of international companies, but would have further destroyed confidence in our ponzi scheme, I mean, confidence in our financial system.

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer

...and if uneducated, will harm your brain.

Blog of the dentist, I mean lawyer behind the birthers:

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 42 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 26 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-08-07, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-08-07.

Flash trades being dropped next month by a couple exchanges

From today's Marketplace show:

The Nasdaq and the electronic exchange BATS say they'll both stop offering flash orders as of next month.

Flash trades, or flash orders are computerized "looks" at the market for securities milliseconds before the "public" views them. Doesn't sound like a lot of time, but the fact ~50% of daily trading is computer generated, milliseconds gives an unfair advantage to unknown players.

An unfair advantage to unknown players = another unknown level of complexity to maintaining stable markets, investor confidence & fair price discovery = another level of unnecessary enormous risk to the entire market.

Those reading this probably can't "move the market", but the big money who knows flash trading exists, uses it, & uses computer generated trading can & has moved the market. Remember Fall 2008 with the wild swings? Chance are it will happen again.

Previously here.

Is CPR dedicated to maintainting for-profit health insurance status quo

According to CPR, they are:

...a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and informing the public about the principles of patients rights and, in doing so, advancing the debate over health care reform. Those principles include choice, competition, accountability and responsibility. We believe the path to effective health care reform must be based on the patient-doctor relationship and not from a top-down, big government perspective. Anything that interferes with an individual’s freedom to consult their doctor of choice to make health care decisions defeats the purpose of meaningful health care reform.

CPR is run by the previous CEO of Columbia/HCA, now known as HCA and is a privately held company that is:

...the nation’s leading provider of healthcare.

Scott was apparently forced out, in part, due to the 10 year DOJ investigation into fraud which the company eventually agreed to pay a $1.7B fine. That is billion:

LARGEST HEALTH CARE FRAUD CASE IN U.S. HISTORY SETTLED HCA INVESTIGATION NETS RECORD TOTAL OF $1.7 BILLION at DOJ.

Surely Scott has no influence with HCA. He certainly does at CPR since he apparently runs it.

Why is an organization allegedly dedicated to educating and informing the public about the principles of patients rights pushing the talking point of:

The public option will kill competition, increase health care premiums, lead to the delay and denial of needed medical care and put bureaucrats in charge of health care rather than the doctor. The public option tramples on patients' rights and puts government in charge of your health care. The public option is patient enemy number one and we must stop it.

The talking point is being pushed by CPR at their website, with blog posts, tweets & Facebooking. According to them, on their own website, they are not organizing people to come out and discuss heath care at Town Hall Meetings.

Why is CPR fighting competition with an attack stating [t]he public option tramples on patients' rights?

Does that mean the status quo of a for-profit hospital system and a for-profit health insurance system that has been increasing premiums at multiples of other industries price increases protects patients' rights?

No where on their site do I find an explanation of how for-profit insurance companies currently dictate care.

Over & over they strongly imply you & your doctor alone dictates your care.

If their true mission is dedicated to educating and informing the public about the principles of patients rights and, in doing so, advancing the debate over health care reform, why wouldn't they choose to educate instead of choosing to try to kill the public option?

Why I love insurance companies or screw the socialist plan for healthcare

Newsweek article via Daring Fire Ball:

Speaking of fair, it seems fair to me that cost-cutting bureaucrats at the insurance companies—not doctors—decide what's reimbursable. After all, the insurance companies know best.

Flash orders could be banned by SEC

Interesting name, flash orders. From The Wall Street Journal:

High-frequency trading, a lightning-fast, computer-based trading technique, now accounts for more than half of all stock trading in the U.S. Flash orders represent a much smaller part of the market, and are used by high-frequency and other traders....
Beyond the official scrutiny lies a tussle among exchanges for market share as high-speed trading becomes a central cog of the market.

So high speed, non-human computerized trading is 50% of the daily volume, with a goal to increase flash trading. Running more orders through dark pools is growing as well.

Flash trading at Bloomberg.
Does flash trading + computing power = a form of front running?
Front running & dark pools at Wikipedia.

Significance to you?

Besides the growth of dark pools' trading, plus the existence of the unregulated shadow banking system which collapsed pretty spectacularly last year, & an explosion in computerized trading - massive volatility in minutes to split seconds that could crash the stock market. Again. And again.

Flash trading gives unknown "players" an unknown advantage & certainly looks like it's close to impossible to "catch" illegal front running, or at the least, opens the door a little wider to tempt one to front run.

New & improved regulations must address all these risks to the system or the next time the market crashes, it'll make the crash of Fall 2008 look like an after school special.

Have you talked to your legislator to push for stiffer Wall Street regs?!

Protecting your privacy in social networking sites

From NYTimes.com, funny but pretty darn scary:

Attention on the issue was brought about with an outraged post on AOL’s Download Squad blog about a man who, while using a third-party app, saw an ad for a dating site that, to his surprise, was dressed up with his wife’s picture. No, she wasn’t looking for a lover. Her picture had been usurped by an ad network in the employ of a third-party application developer, which she believes was a quiz app.

Originally from EFF.org newsletter.

Change Congress & drive a stake in lobbying

The Problem & a plan to fix it includes you taking a pledge:

“I’m pledging not to donate to any federal candidate unless they support legislation making congressional elections citizen-funded, not special-interest funded.”

If you give a crap about taking back your governement, check out Change-Congress.org & join.

Giant orb weaver eats bird

Umm, yeah.

So we had this crablike spiny orb weaver in our back yard for a day.

And then we spotted one hiking with friends in First Landing State Park yesterday. Pics didn't turn out.

And then I learned Mary really likes spiders.

And then:

Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.

Are you sure you want to click here to read the article & view the image?

Vol Libre, fractals, CG, & modern finance theories

From Kottke.org, the first CG movie using fractals to generate graphics.

Vol Libre from Loren Carpenter on Vimeo.

In 1980, Boeing employee Loren Carpenter presented a film called Vol Libre at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference. It was the world's first film using fractals to generate the graphics.

Fractals explained at Wikipedia.
The birth of Fractal Geometry was by Benoît Mandelbrot.

Mandelbrot's research, some of which can be found in his book, inspired others like Nassim Taleb author of The Black Swan. If a fraction of their theories are correct, what has been learned in undergrad & grad schools the last 20 or so years relating to modern finance theory & macro economics is sorta wrong to all wrong.

Imagine the field you are working in & you learn that what you and your collegues have been taught is wrong to various degrees & what that would do to your profession.

Now go "invest" like it's 1989.

Google Code tutorials

A comprehensive resource of tutorials at Google Code.

There are many ways to make websites run faster.

Cool Ben Franklin illustrated story

By Maira Kalman posted at NYTimes.com. It is impossible that Ben Franklin ever slept.

From kottke.org.

CNBC tried spinning Nouriel Roubini's statements into bullish bullshit

Watch CNBC long enough & you realize a lot of it is total bullshit. Recently, Nouriel Roubini made a statement that CNBC twisted into meaning Mr. Roubini turned bullish. It is false.

Explanation at RGE's website plus links to other blogs supporting the facts discrediting CNBC's bullshit.

Link to an email explaining how his views were taken out of context:

“I have also consistently argued that there is a risk of a double-dip W-shaped recession toward the end of 2010, as a tough policy dilemma will emerge next year: on one side, early exit from monetary and fiscal easing would tip the economy into a new recession as the recovery is anemic and deflationary pressures are dominant. On the other side, maintaining large budget deficits and continued monetization of such deficits would eventually increase long term interest rates (because of concerns about medium term fiscal sustainability and because of an increase in expected inflation) and thus would lead to a crowding out of private demand.

Why should you care?
His statements & opinions can move markets & a lot of influential people listen to him & respect him. Others know this & can believe "news" about his statements without digging beyond a single bullshit source.

Sudanese woman appears in court wearing trousers she is accused of wearing

From the Globe & Mail:

A Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public made her first appearance today in a court packed with supporters, in what her lawyer described as a test case in Sudan's decency laws.

There were chaotic scenes as Lubna Hussein, a former journalist who works for the United Nations, attended the hearing wearing the same green slacks that got her arrested for immodest dress. Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan. But Ms. Hussein has attracted attention by publicizing her case, inviting journalists to hearings and using it to campaign against dress codes sporadically imposed in the capital.

GovLoop.com, premier social network connecting the government community

Swiped the info from the listserv email I subscribe to from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Visit them online at http://www.opengovva.org:

Thousands of the nation's bureaucrats are spending their free time on Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites trying to make government better. Really. Employees of city, state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, have come together with the help of a new Web site called GovLoop.com to share their experiences and "best practices." The site was founded a year ago by Steve Ressler, 28, an information-technology specialist at the Department of Homeland Security. Already, more than 14,000 people have joined, creating nearly 500 subcommunities and more than 1,000 discussion forums. Brainstorming sessions online have produced ideas on everything from government transparency to interoffice communication.

GovLoop.com is the premier social network connecting the government community.
Article Megan from VCOG linked to at WashingtonTimes.com.

We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving

From NYTimes:

On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.

And:

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

Read 266 page report at NYTimes.com:

The following body of research, conducted by the Department of Transportation and completed in 2003, has not been made public until now. The documents pertain to the safety of using wireless communication devices while driving.

Get your bras ready & watch your captchas

From Pilotonline.com article:

Bras as art? The Chesapeake Regional Medical Center is staging its second annual Bra-ha-ha to raise awareness about breast cancer.

Get your entry form filled out:



Captcha at Wikipedia which should help explain why the one pictured is funny at some teenage level.

This American Life covers health insurance horror stories

From The Baseline Scenario:

The This American Life crew, once again proving that they can cover any topic they want better than anyone else in the media,* has a segment in this weekend’s episode on rescission of health insurance policies – insurers’ established practice of looking for ways to invalidate policies once it turns out that the insured actually needs significant medical care. (The segment is around the 30-minute mark; audio should be available on that page sometime on Monday.) The story describes a couple of particularly egregious cases, such as a woman who was denied breast cancer surgery because she had been treated for acne in the past, and a person whose policy was rescinded because his insurance agent had incorrectly entered his weight on the application form.

Interesting discussion about Economics as a recognized "theory"

From Linda Beale's guess post at NakedCapitalism.com:

What does the lead-in admit to, then (if it still thinks economic and free market theory are worth defending)? It acknowledgs that the discipline is subject to three critiques:

1) it helped cause the current economic crisis
2) It failed to see it coming
3) It doesn't know how to fix it.

FINRA warns brokerages not to push leveraged ETFs on retail customers

From Investment News:

...the company decided to prohibit the sale of leveraged ETFs that seek more than two times the long or short performance of the target index, said spokesman Joseph Kuo.

Don't know what a leveraged ETF is but would still "invest" in them? I have an idea for an investment fund that simply "invests" in lottery tickets. When you "retire", you find out how much $$$ you have.

Fed chairman didn't want to preside over the 2nd Great Depression

From Bloomberg:

“In a financial crisis, if you let the big firms collapse in a disorderly way, it will bring down the whole system,” Bernanke said yesterday at a town-hall-style meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, taped for broadcast this week on PBS television. “I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression.”

There are those who think everything is fixed now. Yeah, right.

I guess an alternative way to look at it is, invest like you did in the past or go to Atlantic City or Vegas with your retirement/savings dough.

Then again, you could believe it'll take more than a few months to come back from the brink of total global financial collapse.

S M I L E

Sniffle, sniffle.

Dug up YouTube video after watching story here.

Speculating in CDS is a good thing

Hahahahaha. Ahem. From Bloomberg:

The legislation Frank plans to release next week might disrupt the flow of capital to companies by making it costlier for investors to hedge their stakes, said Robert Pickel, chief executive officer of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a New York-based industry group that sets rules and guidelines for the market.

‘Liquidity and Depth’

“Having people who are in there speculating adds liquidity and depth to the market so that anybody who is a pure hedger, they can tap that market and know they have a deep and liquid market to turn to,” Pickel said in an interview yesterday.

Costlier for investors to hedge their stakes! Costlier? Does this moron mean costlier than the worlds financial system melting down?

You know, like a deep and liquid market back stopped by you & me the tax payers. Anyone remember Bear Sterns, Lehman Bros, AIG, Merril Lynch, yes they too were history without their private bailout, et al.

CDS at wikipedia.

In case you aren't aware of the problems CDS has caused, one example is how AIG wrote many, many, many of them. Basically without collateral backing them up, collecting premiums and "insuring" far more than they could ever dream of covering.

Sort of like you collecting premiums on insuring New Orleans in the event of a disaster without any way to pay the bill. Some believe this is fraud plan and simple.

President's Press Conference from July 22

This debate is not a game.

Whitehouse blog.

Ignore Everybody & 39 other keys to creativity

Reading the book from Gapingvoid.com.
Recommend getting or at least reading his story at his blog.
His back of business card cartoons are addictive.

Public Surplus auction site

From Public Surplus, a web based auction site for institutions to sell stuff & you to buy it. From their History page:

Intrigued, we decided to do some research in Utah, as well as other States. It would be important to asses the level of need other public agencies may have for a complete surplus inventory management system. Ninety-four agencies, (cities, counties, school districts and colleges), were contacted during this research. It was determined that none of these agencies were in full compliance with their State's regulations or policies. Problems were found relating to record keeping, reallocation and/or collusion avoidance. Moreover, the processes for managing surplus inventory operations were generally disorganized.

Simplenote for your iPhone

Simplenote rocks. More than worth the $1.99!

Crushes Apple's included Notepad, syncs over WiFi to their website. Just works. Beautiful.

Found the app thanks to DaringFireBall.net.

7 reasons why housing isn't bottoming yet & how it could affect you

From Ritholtz:

There are more reasons I expect the Real Estate market to remain punk for many years, but these are a good place to start when considering the question.

The Housing Boom & Bust, and the 2002-07 credit bubble created massive excesses. More than anything, it is going to take time to resolve them.

He details his ideas on Prices, Mean Reversion, Employment & Wages, Foreclosures, Inventory of which there is a substantial part of Shadow Inventory, Psychology, Debt Service/Down Payment & finally Deleveraging.

While planning on saving, investing, purchasing large items & evaluating risk vs. reward, it is clear the previous 20-40 years could be dangerous to extrapolate forward. His list is simply another example of the incredible challenges & opportunities that have been created recently. Extreme due diligence & caution will sooner or later rule the day.

Big money in gas

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
iFeud
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Bernanke's op ed on how the Fed will not repeat history for the first time

From the Wall Street Journal:

My colleagues and I believe that accommodative policies will likely be warranted for an extended period. At some point, however, as economic recovery takes hold, we will need to tighten monetary policy to prevent the emergence of an inflation problem down the road. The Federal Open Market Committee, which is responsible for setting U.S. monetary policy, has devoted considerable time to issues relating to an exit strategy. We are confident we have the necessary tools to withdraw policy accommodation, when that becomes appropriate, in a smooth and timely manner.

Good luck with that red part.

Apollo 11 landing on TV as it aired 40 years ago

Super awesome cool from kottke:

...I've built a page where you can watch the CBS News coverage of Walter Cronkite reporting on the Moon landing and the first moon walk, 40 years to the second after it originally happened.

His post explaining it including "live schedule".

Crablike spiny orb weaver

4 pics in Flickr set.

Showed up yesterday with a huge web from one of our live oaks, to a statue, to our garden table.

Luckily the web had "little tufts of silk" so it was easier to see. I gently moved the web out of the path we had to work in. Link at Wikipedia. Unfortunately she was gone today.

Cycle for bike lanes on Shore Drive & Laskin Road Sunday July 26th

This coming Sunday July 26th be at Kokoamos by 8am to ride Tour de Virginia Beach.

More info at ShareShoreDriveDay.net.

Photobucket Share Shore Drive Group

Share Shore Drive Day ?

Find out what it's all about here.

The power of comedy & FOIA

Hat tip to VCOG about NYTimes article:

Through his spokeswoman, Mr. Colbert cheekily responded on Wednesday to questions about his e-mail message to the governor. “I have a comment, but I am sending it to Mark Sanford’s office, so you can get it through the Freedom of Information Act,” he said.

About the Virginia Coalition for Open Government:

We are a nonprofit alliance formed to promote expanded access to government records, meetings and other proceedings at the state and local level. Our efforts are focused solely on local/state information access. While we do some lobbying (within limits imposed by IRS rules), our primary work is educational.

Restructuring debt to equity, FT article by Taleb

More pressure to balance risk vs. reward while investing.

Taleb's latest article FT.com:

The core of the problem, the unavoidable truth, is that our economic system is laden with debt, about triple the amount relative to gross domestic product that we had in the 1980s. This does not sit well with globalisation. Our view is that government policies worldwide are causing more instability rather than curing the trouble in the system. The only solution is the immediate, forcible and systematic conversion of debt to equity. There is no other option.

Financial Times is free to join & it's worth it to view a entire articles that are sometimes blocked with membership.

Check out Soundcloud for uploading, sharing & listening to new tunes

From Music Business & Trend Mongering I saw Soundcloud:

lets you move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.

More:

We love audio. And we don't discriminate against big files in strange formats, we welcome anything and everything audio. We've made it damn fast to upload and choose who you're sending to, no matter if they're on SoundCloud or not.

Share Shore Drive Day

Been working on Share Shore Drive Day.

Eat Doritos & rock out

Buy Doritos.
Go to DoritosLateNight.com.
Select Blink 182 or Big Boi.
Allow the site to "use" your camera and mic.

What the hell am I talking about?
Check it out at Gizmodo, Smartbrief, & Marketplace.
Woooooooo.

CEO of Lehman Brothers talks about buying time

From Calculated Risk

That is the phases we are in right now. Everyone is trying to buy time, as opposed to dealing with the leverage, they are trying to buy time. Whether you are a banker or a company, they are all trying to buy time. I don't see the leverage coming back, and I don't see the consumption of good and services coming back.
Bryan Marsal, CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

He's the CEO hired on to wind down the company.

What happens when the 8th largest economy in the world is insolvent

And Friday, their IOU's:

A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California's IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap.

From The Wall Street Journal.

Wonder if their problems & budget problems in other states will have a negative or positive effect.

SP in VF

From VF:

Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?

Ouch.

Surfing the web "only" device

Super cool from the NY Times blog Bits:

The purpose of the CrunchPad will be very simple: surfing the Web. Turn it on and up comes a browser.

I came up with an idea in the late 90s for something similar that had included a QWERTY keyboard since at the time, the touch screen wasn't developed yet. We developed a business plan that included licensing the technology instead of building it ourselves, got an attorney on board, and after an aggressive patent search, we found a patent held by National Semiconductor that stopped us. Their device never came out.

A review of Lecturing Birds on Flying

From naked capitalism:

Chapter 2: modern finance theory is a crock, peddled by charlatans at business schools who have managed to seal themselves off from the usual empirical tests of a theory.

And:

In the end, the message of the book is that quantitative finance is a delusion, and that common sense is a better starting point for risk management.

So if modern finance theory is being proven wrong, depending whether you believe that or not, coupled with the world economy blowing up, how should you invest? The same as you've always done since "the market will come back".

Negative equity key factor in mushrooming rate of foreclosures

Opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal:

What is really behind the mushrooming rate of mortgage foreclosures since 2007? The evidence from a huge national database containing millions of individual loans strongly suggests that the single most important factor is whether the homeowner has negative equity in a house...

And:

We are at a crossroads where we can undo the damage to the housing market by strengthening underwriting standards in a reasonable way. But to do so political leaders must face up to the actual causes of the mortgage crisis, not fictitious causes that fit political agendas and election strategies.

Apple retail stores can fix a cracked iPhone screen on the spot

From The Loop:

The Loop has confirmed that if your iPhone has a broken screen and you take it to an Apple retail relocation, they have the capability to fix it on the spot.

Hat tip DaringFireball.net.

DoGood app imagines 300,000 people a day doing the same random act of kindness

Spotted DoGood at Gadgetwise blog at NYTimes.com.

Called DoGood, the iPhone app is the creation of a group of University of Michigan students who hope to spread random acts of kindness.

Check out DoGood.

365 collective acts of kindness

How to solve too big to fail

If you invest for the "long term" and/or plan on "retiring", have a 401(k), etc, you want this problem solved sooner rather than later to reduce the risk of the worldwide economy melting down more than it did in the fall of 2008. [Remember when your mutual fund portfolio tanked last year? There is huge risk that tanking is not done.]

Willem Buiter, Professor of European Political Economy, London School of Economics and Political Science, writes for FT.com & has a solution for the immense problem of "too big to fail" which is why we taxpayers own AIG & a number of other banks now.

The key points to his solution from his blog post are:

(1) Become too big to save
(2) Restore narrow banking or public utility banking
(3) Create mono-product central counterparties and providers of custodial services, central wholesale and securities payment, clearing and settlement platforms
(4) Keep a lid on the size of investment banks
(5) Tax bank size
(6) Use competition policy
(7) Restrict limited liability to prevent excessive risk taking and reduce the size of banks
8) Create effective special resolution mechanisms for all systemically important financial institutions

In banking and most highly leveraged finance, size is a social bad. Fortunately, there is quite a list of effective instruments for cutting leveraged finance down to size.

If you don't read the entire article, at least read the Conclusion.
Don't let your elected official off the hook. Make them fix the problem now!

Mike Kim of Crossing Borders

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mike Kim
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

He is the writer of the book Escaping North Korea, & founder of Crossing Borders.

Every day, North Korean citizens who are in search for food and medical help sneak into China where they receive no rights as refugees. This means that many are captured by human traffickers and sold as slaves. Those that are not captured must hide from the Chinese authorities that will send them back to North Korea where they will be tortured and even murdered in their political concentration camps.

Transparency in advertising

Didn't quite "catch it" the first time I watched it.

Saw it at Boing Boing Gadgets:

How cool would it be to have every City offer incentives to develop apps to promote transparency?

At NYTimes.com:

In an effort to improve government transparency and accountability and stimulate development of the digital media industry, New York City is inviting software developers and related professionals this fall to develop applications to help Internet users navigate vast stores of data in areas like citywide events, property sales, recreational centers and restaurant inspections.

So ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you

From jay parkinson + md + mph

No diploma no license

I still believe that America, with its unrivaled freedoms, venture capital industry, research universities and openness to new immigrants has the best assets to be taking advantage of this moment — to out-innovate our competition. But we should be pressing these advantages to the max right now.

Link

The moment we're living in, is the largest increase in expressive capability in human history

Wolfram|Alpha

Today's Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all
systematic knowledge immediately computable
by anyone.

Link

The case for working with your hands

The Princeton economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site.

Link

Nature and Origin of the Shadow Banking System

The Financial Instability Hypothesis
Minsky took Keynes to the next level, and his huge contribution to macroeconomics comes under the label of the “Financial Instability Hypothesis.” Minsky openly declared that his Hypothesis was “an interpretation of the substance of Keynes’s General Theory.”

Link

Imagine L.E.A.R.N. on Pleasure House Point

Imagine L.E.A.R.N. The Lynnhaven Environmental Area Research Network or the McLesky Center for Learning, or the Sandler Center for Learning or another appropriate name for it's mission: Restoring historical Pleasure House Point[PHP] to its environmental glory.

That's just one idea that is a better alternative than building 1000 housing units including all the paving, concrete, pesticides & lawn fertilizer produced by an urban development that is currently proposed. There is a far better public use for what is the last remaining property of significant size that is located in the Lynnhaven Watershed.

Imagine PHP being used for an internationally recognized research facility that would compliment the hard work of our local educational institutions including TCC, ODU, NSU, VT, VBC, VWC, WHRO, Public School Systems, CHCS, etc.

It could even include a unique eco-tourism opportunity at the Beach. Local Seniors beginning their second careers could be included to provide guidance, wisdom & leadership skills.

An incomparable Foundation managed by students whose purpose is to provide educational opportunities that would return the property to it’s original state, definition to be determined, with a focus on study, database creation and scientific, social, environmental, historical, political research based on the activities & results of working toward the long term goal of restoration.

Funding sources could come from various foundations, educational institutions, various levels of membership, fees/donations for use of the property, creation of a Wetlands Bank, tax breaks and other funding sources as they are negotiated and determined to fit with the goals of the umbrella operational foundation. A small footprint, off the grid, high tech facility could provide flex-offices for local environmental organizations including classrooms with 21st Century high speed wireless internet access.

All accomplished by students working with the guidance of the best facilitators from around the area.

Housing on Pleasure House Point. You got to be kidding.

My Bayfront Vision

A Bayfront Community that is pedestrian & bicycle friendly, architecturally interesting, landscaped with significant native plants and is an engaging, involved community worthy of its unique & historically significant location on the Chesapeake Bay and Lynnhaven Inlet.

Pedestrian & Bicycle Friendly

Safety of its residents and visitors would be the highest priority. Taming the perceived speedway that is a major influence both positive and negative on the entire Bayfront needs to be addressed immediately.

Life, including quality of life, would replace the short sighted, ill conceived historical notion that moving vehicles faster at virtually all costs is part of creating an engaging, safe, tax payer friendly environment.

Demographically speaking, it is ignorant not to understand, and plan for the more mobile, aging population that will complicate driving issues for decades to come.

Having a more pedestrian & bicycle friendly Shore Drive would also show the hundreds of thousands of visitors, and potential home owners, who travel down the Eastern Shore annually for vacation at the Ocean Front a more people friendly destination.

Vacationers reaching this side of the Bay Bridge Tunnel, after driving such a distance, would have a more positive all around experience with their trip to Virginia Beach/The Ocean Front if it “started” at a more people friendly Shore Drive. This would in turn, sell the Bayfront area more positively to possible future home owners. Many more obvious benefits would accrue as well.

Transporting people and not moving vehicles more efficiently is a more sustainable goal. This needs to be understood considering the enormous downside of not addressing this today, coupled with budget constraints, and dangers of an aging, older, & more prevalent driver – moving people and not vehicles must be the goal.

Thanks to the current density, and realistic probability that density will indeed increase, localized, unique, friendly & desirable transportation besides cars would also become ‘cool’.

Architecturally Interesting

Subjective & objective guidelines would be enforced using both a carrot and stick approach.

Stick – City ordinances would exist and be enforced creating a style of architecture worthy of being allowed to be built in such a unique, high profile, desirable area as the Bayfront currently is.

Carrot – market pressures, education & incentives that would inspire more architecturally interesting construction and renovation of existing properties.

Subjective - you know attractive architecture when you see it. You also know obviously unattractive architecture as well. Finding the broad spectrum of attractive will be challenging and can be accomplished. Think Santa Fe, Martha’s Vineyard, Charlestown, Ocean View East & other architecturally interesting areas you’ve seen.

Objective – guidelines set up to give property owners and developers inspired ideas would be perused aggressively. Short term short cuts for short term profits under the guise of private property rights would not be tolerated.

Landscaping with Significant Native Plants

Since the Live Oak was made the Official Tree of the City, a more positive corner has been turned.

More education, intelligent construction guidelines, incentives and enforcement of saving significant native plants would be the rule and not the exception. Again, short term short cuts for short term profits under the guise of private property rights would not be tolerated. On the other hand, some sort of fair financial incentives would inspire property owners to save, maintain and plant significant native plants.

Tangible benefits to all who travel & live in the Bayfront area would be significant, especially considering the unique and historical beauty of the existing native plants.

The significant investment required to move older oak trees, and others, would be seriously contemplated. Moving said trees using best practices already in use in other areas such as South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, etc would be the norm instead of the destruction of said trees.

Engaging, Involved Community

The Bayfront area would have large public spaces for planned and unplanned gatherings that are located in areas safe for people to travel to whether it’s by foot, bicycle, car or other transportation like a Segway.

They would be areas that would inspire creative thinking and interaction similar to the finest college campuses and would encourage the free exchange of ideas, and other social activities.

They would be designed on a pedestrian friendly scale, not on a ‘vehicle themed’ sprawling parking lot scale.

Open space would also be aggressively pursued to offer residents & visitors to the area engaging locations outside housing and business developments that acknowledge the significant shortage of open space in the Bayfront area especially considering the increasing population density that will be multiplying over time. Think smaller footprint and taller rather than shorter and larger footprint. [Not taller and larger!]

Bottom Line

My Bayfront Vision, is a Bayfront area that will offer the best of all things for its residents & visitors.

A Shore Drive scaled to a human being and not to a vehicle.

Open spaces that can be enjoyed by all.

Landscaping relevant, & unique to the area that is not only revered but respected.

Architecture that is well conceived, constructed and attractive that is worthy of such an area as the Bayfront.

Pedestrian & bicycle friendly and safe for all.

More of my vision includes a free, wireless internet available to the entire area, desirable transportation to areas such as the Ocean Front, Hilltop and Town Center, bike paths, eatery’s and other business establishments that are Bayfront friendly, no plastic litter anywhere, a Chesapeake Bay and Lynnhaven that produces shell fish, & fish that are safe to eat and prevalent, and finally responsive city leaders that are engaged in a more thoughtful, democratic, & forward thinking manner that would help achieve a better Bayfront.