But to my main point, yes, the Panic of 1873 is a good analogy, but only because all panics are basically the same, in the way that starts can be very different but once they collapse into black holes, all black holes are basically the same.

Nearly, every panic, every depression, and every financial crisis is caused by the same thing - hyper expansion of the money supply driven by bubbles in one or a handful of assets which eventually triggers inflation and slowing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 2:50 PM on October 3, 2008

I would like Mutant to write a book, so I can buy it.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 4:44 PM on October 3, 2008

"Whenever I hear liberal hand-wringing, I figure the Obama team is either moving ahead or has an even shot"

This.

Obama's campaign has been quite stunning up until this point. It's not that they are smarter than the Republicans, they are smarter than the Democrats too.
posted to MetaFilter by fullerine at 6:24 PM on October 1, 2008

Being the best debater in Alaska is sort of like being the tannest person in LA.

This might be one of the worst analogies in the history of analogies.

My assumption is that the person making the comment thinks that Sarah Palin is a poor debater. The person then takes into consideration the relatively small and rural population of Alaska and then decides that the best debaters are not likely to hail from that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by flarbuse at 6:42 PM on October 1, 2008

Why, there was a whole team of mavericks.

I think the collective noun is "a Dallas".
posted to MetaFilter by penduluum at 9:13 PM on October 2, 2008

I liked this summary from the FT:

If you owe the bank $10, it’s your problem. If you owe the bank $10m, it’s the bank’s problem. If you and a million others owe the bank $10 each, it’s still your problem – but it’s also the bank’s problem. If the bank then sells to an investor the $10 you owe, it ought to be the investor’s problem. But if you have a problem repaying the $10 – and so do a million others – it’s both the investor’s problem and the bank’s problem. Your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by athenian at 1:41 PM on September 29, 2008

Can you blame us, Pastabagel? What's your take on the bill, if you've had time to digest it?
posted by Mister_A at 2:10 PM on September 29

I trust no one. I say pass anything that allows the government to profit from the buyout and mandates some congressional oversight. There's no time to do the bill right, it's too complex and too massive to slap together even in a week.

So we need to elect Obama. After... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 11:28 AM on September 29, 2008

The house isn't going to vote again today; they are taking tomorrow off for Rosh Hashanah.

I think I just figured out the new bailout plan:
Shmita (Hebrew: שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel, and still observed in contemporary Judaism.

When the Shmita year ends, personal debts... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by designbot at 1:22 PM on September 29, 2008

So I was just listening to NPR, and they had this Democratic Georgia Congressman on, and he was talking about how he voted for the bill, even though many of his constituents were against it. The host said "you were overheard saying that you may lose your seat over this vote, but it's more important to the future of the country that this bill passes, is that true?" The guy said yes, that was true, but he hopes that in time, people will see that this bill was necessary. Just then the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by billysumday at 2:03 PM on September 29, 2008

Is there a difference between "discover your passion" and "discover what you want to do"?

I ask because I hear people talk about their Passion (with a capital P), as if everyone has one whether they know it or not. As it it's a special glowing ball inside each of us. Yet I see no evidence that this ball necessarily exists.

To me, it's more likely that we have things we like and things we dislike. A like becomes a passion when... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by grumblebee at 12:22 PM on September 4, 2008

A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office. "Is it true," she wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the doctor told her.

There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious is my condition, because this prescription is marked NO REFILLS."
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 6:00 PM on September 28, 2008

Ah, Metafilter. Just when I think I enjoyed something, I can come here to find out how wrong I was.
posted to MetaFilter by LooseFilter at 6:49 PM on September 28, 2008

This place is turning into Markovfilter.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrogin at 1:45 PM on September 28, 2008

Does anyone really think The Onion is ever being sincere?

I do. I think they have a viewpoint: that Americans in general are self-obsessed idiots, that a consumerist culture feeds that obsession, that a vapid right-wing media panders to their insecurities, and that there are laughs to be mined in that vast wasteland. DeLillo is ripe for parody somewhere in there.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 4:41 PM on September 28, 2008

I would like Blazecock Pileon to have a sockpuppet account with which he posts nothing but contextualized variations on the above comment. That was brilliant.
posted to MetaFilter by Ryvar at 4:52 PM on September 28, 2008

The hysteria about what will happen to "the economy" if the "Big Bailout Plan" is not passed IMMEDIATELY is just that: hysteria. It is being manufactured.

Let me draw you a diagram.

Bailout stalls in Congress, plan is DOA on Monday. Short sell ban expires Oct. 2 (I think, perhaps earlier).

Financials are sold off and shorts return, destroying Morgan Stanley. Washington Mutual fails.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 3:01 PM on September 24, 2008

in immediate risk of a depression look pretty goddamn fucking ridiculous.

Do you know what caused the Great Depression? Too-low interest rates that fueled a credit-based economic boom that expanded the money supply in the twenties. Sound familiar?

Interest rates hit a low in mid to late 2005. 2005 marks the peak of the housing boom, i.e. the mortgage-based economic boom that inflated the money supply. But you want to know... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 10:59 PM on September 24, 2008

Remember the Gore/Bush debates? Or the Kerry/Bush debates?

Oh so well. One reason I supported Obama is that I was sick of dems acting like pussies and losing as a result.

Obama knows John Kerry. John Kerry is a friend of his. He's no John Kerry. There's a big difference. Obama knows how to fucking win, and he knows how to kick ass and take names.

Stop being afraid of the GOP. Look at Obama --... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:11 AM on September 25, 2008

Asked about how being near the Russian border gave her foreign policy experience -

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ragma at 8:01 AM on September 26, 2008

Re the debate and McCain's take on war.

Basically McCain sounds to me as if he has a war chip on his shoulder, like Bush Sr. And that's not what the USA or the world needs now, another guy with some unresolved, Dr. Strangelovian type of push the red button, Slim Picken's rides the nuke Yeeha into oblivion chip.

All politicians have sounded utterly slimy and total liars to me before. It's felt literally sickening to listen to them. Until Obama.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 9:41 PM on September 26, 2008

JENGA!!!
posted to MetaFilter by shadow vector at 6:41 PM on September 25, 2008

The FDIC only has $45bln in reserve at the moment. A few weeks ago, they were ratcheting up the premiums they charge banks to cover the insurance. They may not have started early enough.

Let me divert a moment to explain what caused this. A few years ago, 2004, my brother, a successful computer geek and his wife, a top-tier business loan officer at a local branch, decided to buy a house. Through luck and connections, they bought an ordinary house in an ordinary... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Slap*Happy at 7:37 PM on September 25, 2008

I wrote this at 6 pm on Wednesday. It was supposed to be a horror show scenario describing what would happen if everyone dropped the ball. It wasn't supposed to, you know, actually happen.

I was stunned when I heard the bailout deal went south. I now believe John McCain derailed the negotiations, I just am not sure whether he did it on purpose or incompetence. But what the fuck is the rest of Congress and the President doing? Brinksmanship? Now?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 9:41 PM on September 25, 2008

Aside from Kristol and survivalist nuts, anyone involved who is affiliated with the Republican Party wants to pass this as quickly as possible, before everyone gets wise to the con job.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 2:46 AM on September 22, 2008

Interesting side note. today's Time mag pointed out that with all the yelling Obama remains very cool. He has to. If you are white and you yell, you are a populist. If you yell and yo are black, you are a militant.
posted to MetaFilter by Postroad at 3:29 PM on September 22, 2008

Am I the only one here who thinks this is extremely tacky and cheap looking?

So far, yes.

I loved this part of the article, for some reason: The rippling gold-plated dial was made by exploding a thin sheet of stainless steel onto a mould underwater: none of the team actually saw it happen because the only place in the world which could make it was a secret military research institute in Holland.
posted to MetaFilter by rtha at 9:24 AM on September 19, 2008

I'm surprised no one's quoted this little ditty yet:

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by StrangeTikiGod at 10:07 AM on September 19, 2008

Hi everyone! I'm at Cambridge (St. John's), and my flatmate is the director of the Corpus Christi Choir. We walked over to see the unveiling this evening. I took some photos [1] [2] [3]. It was a bizarre evening.

The crowd was modest, but there was a large contingent of fellows in black tie and gowns on a dais overlooking the unveiling. We had been told that the event started at 5:30, so there were plenty of spectators to listen to the (very tight) brass band which... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by honest knave at 6:20 PM on September 19, 2008

my favourite 'cheering up' bollywood song

[yes shahrukh is HOT]
posted to MetaFilter by infini at 10:55 PM on September 17, 2008

The Mercy Of Their Cycles

Could this be the world's first all-female post-rock band?
posted to MetaFilter by turgid dahlia at 8:35 PM on September 17, 2008

I think that was from his memoir, Surely You're Trolling, Mr. Feynman.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 11:44 AM on September 17, 2008

Sigh.

Here's how you hack a VIP's email. Upon successfully accessing someone's email account:

1. Do absolutely nothing. Now that you have the password, disconnect.

2. Go to a public access point with your laptop, like an open wifi or a library. Install Thunderbird or some similar program. Login to the email account again. Remember that the clock is ticking, and that everything you are doing is logged. Don't click... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 11:57 AM on September 17, 2008

My black swan's broken window has a tipping point that blinks correctly twice a day.
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 5:30 PM on September 16, 2008

My mom lives in Houston, and works for AIG. She's close to retirement age, but her 401k just took a major dive. So she weathered the worst hurricane to hit in quite awhile -- not to mention the resultant water, power, and info loss -- to wake up to discover that her 401k is pretty much worthless, and that she very well may not have a job by the time they're able to repair the building she works in.

I don't know how to frame this, but I can't help thinking it at least... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by treepour at 9:50 PM on September 16, 2008

Now NATO is fighting in Afghanistan and the US is about to have a state-owned insurance company.

And a really sweet sponsor's box at Old Trafford.
posted to MetaFilter by Lazlo at 11:20 PM on September 16, 2008

What did I tell you, stav?

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say
posted to MetaFilter by Meatbomb at 10:11 AM on September 15, 2008

--/\<
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 10:21 AM on September 15, 2008

Factors in the Democrat's favor this year: a disastrous economy, an unpopular war, an incumbent president with a 30% approval rating, far more money and better organization than the other side, a candidate who is charismatic, smart, accomplished and eloquent, an opponent who is old, out of touch, disliked by a large portion of his own party and a Washington insider when people want change.

Factors in the Republican's favor this year: the Democratic candidate is black.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ND¢ at 8:31 AM on September 15, 2008

This is one of those moments where I should be really worried that I went to art school, right?
posted to MetaFilter by XQUZYPHYR at 6:38 PM on September 14, 2008

The masturbation thing threw me for a loop, too.

I thought I was asexual for a time, but it turned out I'm just really lazy.
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 8:44 AM on September 9, 2008

Did anyone else immediately compose a Chuck Palahniuk book in their head about a couple who meets at the NYC asexuality support group? And it turns out that she's just there to meet guys and seduce them as part of a complex personal quest to prove there's no such thing as asexuality? And then she meets this one guy that she can't turn, no matter what? But then we find out that he's not only attending the asexuality support meetings, but also the sex addicts meetings, and he's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rusty at 9:48 AM on September 9, 2008

Ok, I thought that was a fun piece of music and was sure it was authentic. Curiosity got the better of me, looked up the lead singer on WhitePages and gave him a call. Sal Polichetti, a lovely guy. Told him there was a controversy about whether Sonseed existed or not, about this post. He was totally friendly and likable. Turns out he works in NYC, a couple of blocks from where I live.

I asked him if I could take notes as we spoke and said ok. This is what he... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 12:42 PM on September 12, 2008

Republicans have pretty much been admitting that they can't win without cheating for some time now. See:

Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi (and a Republican, naturally), is trying to hide a Senate race where a Democrat has a pretty good chance of winning at the bottom of the ballot. This is a violation of Mississippi state law (which requires all federal races to be above local races), and the Secretary of State has sent the governor a notice that the proposed... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sotonohito at 1:20 PM on September 11, 2008

Interesting stuff. I think one of the reasons why Obama's rhetoric resonates so strongly in this climate is that he hearkens back to real techniques of persuasive oratory. These entail risk, since they try to forge a bond between speaker and audience instead of the former attempting to manipulate the latter's self-identification. There's certainly a lot of "narrative" making going on in Obama's campaign, and much of it weaselly too. But the centerpiece of his political persona is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by felix betachat at 1:22 AM on September 9, 2008

It must be noted that the News Media, especially the 24-hour-TV-news biz doesn't just love a narrative, they need one, preferably one they don't have to develop themselves, because doing so would appear "non-impartial". Senator Obama has done well at developing a personal narrative, a Cinderella story that, unfortunately for him, doesn't need to end happily to be a Great Story when all is said and done.

But when you're pitching a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 1:58 AM on September 9, 2008

At the famous Used Bookstore we generally turn down people selling used travel guides more than two years old, for obvious reasons. One time, however, in a huge lot of books from an estate sale we got a Fodor's Yugoslavia 1976. I can just picture some poor schmuck buying it and standing on the edge of a bomb crater squinting at the horizon, thinking 'Now where did they say that restaurant was again?'
posted to MetaFilter by jonmc at 6:59 PM on September 7, 2008

Leaving aside the District of Columbia, 7 of America’s 10 best-educated states are strongly “blue” in national politics, and the others (Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia) have been trending blue. Of the 10 least-educated, only one (Nevada) is not reliably Republican. And so we arrive at a weird situation in which the party that identifies itself with markets, with business and with technology cannot win the votes of those who have prospered most from markets, from business and from... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Orb2069 at 5:33 PM on September 6, 2008

David Simon just wrote an excellent article on very much the same topic in Bmore (of course), that's well worth the read, as it's pretty widely applicable.
posted to MetaFilter by Dr.Enormous at 11:56 AM on September 6, 2008

Woah, can you believe it? Baked beans are only $1.09!
posted to MetaFilter by subgear at 11:41 PM on September 5, 2008

About the taxes. A friend of mine was at the DNC and put together this break out based the on Brookings Institute's mathematical analysis of each plan. Not saying this is definitive or official, but I found it useful.

Income: $2,871,682 or more (top .01% of earners)
Obama's Tax Change: raises income tax 7.9% (+$701,688)
McCain's Tax Change: decreases income tax 3.3% (-$290, 708)

Income: $603,403-$2,871,682 (top 1% of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kimdog at 2:15 PM on September 5, 2008