Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Juan Williams Finds Racism in Use of 'Constitution' and 'Founding Fathers'
That is what Juan Williams outrageously claims in his latest column at the Hill today (bold is mine):
Townhall monthly presidential poll
 The media may be viewing the race for the GOP presidential nomination as Mitt Romney versus everyone else, but the voters in the Townhall and HotAir Republican Straw Poll are painting a very different picture. For the third month in a row the battle for the Straw Poll has been Newt Gingrich versus everyone else, with Mitt Romney continuing to languish near the bottom. With exit polls in the Florida primary showing the most conservative voters casting their ballots for Newt Gingrich combined with another impressive win in the Straw Poll this may be a sign of a groundswell of support in the upcoming nominating contests. After Gingrich there is a logjam of support for the other candidates. Ron Paul was the only candidate who seemingly did not benefit from the campaign exits of Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Jon Huntsman. Rick Santorum gained the most from those exits in addition to his belated Iowa victory. Every candidate has vowed to keep their campaigns going until the last possible moment so this race is just heating up! | |||
Costa Concordia Grounding data
Click on the link below to watch a fascinating and accurate picture of the actual track of Costa Concordia as it approached Point di Castellari about 20:35. You can see that they were steering directly toward Giglio Island at 15.5 knots. As they neared the point, the ship began to execute a nearly 60 degree turn to the north. Although the Rate of Turn (ROT) data did not seem to be working, it is interesting to watch the turn develop, at the last minute, apparently with hard over helm that caused a significant "advance" toward the rocks on the Point. (Advance is the track a ship continues to maintain sideways when a hard turn is executed. ((A skid)) It is exacerbated by full rudder and a high rate of speed).
After striking the rocks, the ship continued to lose speed until it seemed to be almost dead in the water just north of its final resting place. It appears that there was some power available to make an almost 180 degree turn and slowly thrust the vessel sideways toward the beach, possibly aided by wind or current. . Note the differences between the compass heading (HDG) and the Course Over Ground (COG).
This data was obtained from the Concordia's AIS transmitter, a device required to be carried on all large ships, that transmits the vessel's position, as determined by GPS, to other vessels and shore monitors by means of VHF radio. The abbreviated data shown in the square box is just a small part of all the information that is available. The position data can be plotted on a navigation chart showing time intervals as seen here in the picture.
Coolest Small Town Results 2012: Beaufort, NC 36.2% = Hammondsport, NY 36.0%
Hammondsport and Beaufort had been locked in fierce battle for much of the month-long vote, seesawing back and forth for the top spot. In the final hours of online voting, toward midnight of Jan. 31, the traffic was so intense that it crashed the Budget Travel website. The site had been programmed to cut off voting at the stroke of midnight and declare a winner, and at precisely 12 a.m. it did—picking Beaufort, which was technically ahead by a few votes at that time. However, since voters in several parts of the country had been locked out due to the site crash, Budget Travel editors decided it was impossible to determine which town would have won had all things been equal for all voters. "We have to declare a tie," said Lisa Schneider, the general manager for digital products. "It’s the only thing that’s fair under these circumstances."
In the end, more than 360,000 votes were cast, with Beaufort and Hammondsport receiving 36.2 and 36.0 percent of the vote respectively. Third place went to Weaverville, Calif., with 13.0 percent. The contest is open to towns with populations under 10,000. Last year’s winner was Lewisburg, W.Va. 45th Reunion, Greenbrier Military School
Red Alert: Credit Default Swaps Explained
This is extremely bad, and will spell the end of the big U.S. banks and the financial system in total. But EVERYONE needs to understand credit default swaps (CDS) first. CDS are insurance policies that investors have traded – very similar to OPTIONS for my old clients and cattle people out there. Buying a CDS is essentially like buying a put. The buyer pays a premium, or fee, to the writer, or seller of the CDS that says that the seller will guarantee and make whole the buyer’s position in a specific bond IF the entity behind the bond (such as Greece) defaults. In exchange for paying the premium and being made whole after a default, the buyer of the CDS surrenders the bond position to the seller of the CDS, and the seller gets to keep both the premium paid plus gets to keep any salvage value of the defaulted bond.
So the CDS buyer pays a premium or fee, and the seller guarantees against a default but gets to take ownership of the bonds and keep any salvage value if a default does happen.
Here is what I STRONGLY suspect is going to happen with this 70% haircut plan. The bondholders are going to take the full brunt of the 70% haircut, BUT the body that actually dictates whether or not a default has happened – the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) – will declare that this credit event is NOT a default, and thus all of the banks and entities that THOUGHT that their European debt positions were hedged with CDS will find out that they have no protection at all. And then the excrement hits the fan. Big time.
Mongolian Nomads Build a Yurt in an Hour, You Can Watch It in Two Minutes
Being a Mongolian nomad, it may not surprise you that Shagdarsuren Herelchuluun and family can build a ger (or more commonly known by the Russian “yurt”) in just over an hour. But thanks to the impressive time-lapse filming of Dan Grossman, you can watch the entire process in just over two minutes. Watching them put the home together, and the seeing the natural beauty of the surrounding Lake Hovsgol area, makes me feel like a rube for paying rent.
The sound track of this video is music recorded at the Choijin Lama Temple Museum in Ulaanbator, the Mongolian capital.