El Presidente, if you're not into the whole brevity thing

Listening to the President's interview on NPR was a puzzling piece of oration, until I read it as The Dude would. And then, suddenly, it all makes sense.

Donny: By the way, just quickly, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader says that if you have an incursion into Iran, he expects that you would come to the Senate for approval.

El Presidente: I have no intent upon incur—going into Iran. I mean, this is the kind of thing that happens in Washington. People ascribe, you know, motives to me beyond a simple statement – of course we'll protect our troops. I don't know how anybody can then say, well, protecting the troops means that we're going to invade Iran. If that's what he's talking about, there's – I mean, we will protect our interests in Iraq. That's what the American people expect us to do. That's definitely what our troops want to do, and that's what the families of our troops want us to do. And if we find the Iranians are moving weapons that will end up harming American troops, we'll deal with it.

He said the magic words!

For the first time ever, in a State of the Union address, Pres. G.W. Bush used the words "climate change." Hazzah!

America’s on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.

Lessons Learned

I think at least one of this blog's readers is considering graduate study in economics at the U of C. Bear this in mind; If you should ever get on Gary Becker's bad side, do not put yourself in a position where you are vulnerable to him. He will hurt you.

I'm from Cork, apparently

I had to get my car inspected today. I had to drive to Staten Island to do so. To make a long story short the mechanic was very helpful and when he through me the keys he remarked,

I had a bit of a problem with the engine, but don't worry, I got the sticker on there anyhow. Anything for a fellow Irishman.

I would have driven twice as far to get that line.

Why can't we just all get along?

Because you're a shmuck, that's why! The NYT ran a strange article last week about the feeble and misunderstood R. Yisroel Dovid Weiss and the Neturei Karta movement. What the article oddly neglects to say is that Iran is calling for Israel to be wiped off the map while simultaneously seeking the means to make good on the hope. Generally, a position which compromises millions of (Jewish) lives in looked upon with derision amongst normative Judaism (sometimes called a moser, a distinction better to avoid). I am thus puzzled why neither he, nor the good article's author, appear to grasp this rather rudimentary principle. The article further neglects to mention that similar treatment is not bestowed on all Jewish anti-Zionist, but reserved for ones who support the current Iranian regime. I doubt, though, that acute (or even accurate) sociology was Ms. Santos's motive.

I'm Done!!!

Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the rejection letters to roll in.

Saturnight

Saturnight: (n) the non-frum way of referring to motza"sh.

Apple

Along with the name change, Apple unveiled a cool new gadget that does just about everything save for washing underwear and toasting bread. I am very happy with the result for a couple reasons:

1. It will rock the market- As soon as I saw it I ran to see what RIMM (Blackberry) stock was doing. Sure enough it shed a good 11 points on the day. That's almost 8% of its total value! The iPhone does make the Blackberry look a little bit lot out-dated. The iPhone interface is so much smoother and the software will allow for upgrades which the Blackberry will need to employ in its hardwear, i.e. requiring one to buy a whole new device.

2. It is not that good- While it is about the coolest looking thing to come around in a while, it is not that good. It can't sync with Outlook, its price point is a bit high and the capacity is tiny. The iPod started out at 5gb and it is now up to 80, so progress will come in time. It also means that my 5G iPod has not moved from cool to junk in the course of an hour. You will not be able to hold all your music on the new iPhone so it will not be able to replace the 5G for a few more years. Innovation can tend to piss people off that way by making one feel a bit slow. At least this way I can still feel up-to-date for a little while longer.

Well the Street seemed to like it. The dip at about 12:15 EST today was for the announcement of the Apple TV and the subsequent rise occurred when Jobs announced the phone. AAPL never looked back (although not reaching its 52 wk high either, funny enough). As far as all the whining on Macforums over the iPhone many posts have referenced the iconic Thread 500. What is thread 500? It was the Macforums thread after the iPod was released. 133 positives to 173 negatives. Mac people were upset about the iPod! The same little gizmo that transformed Apple's market cap. It just shows how silly even people who are technically savy can often be.

Regionalism, here we go again.

Gematria Coincidences?

According to the calculations I made with the help of this website, it appears that Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein, have more in common (from the perspective of Gematria) than one might think. Not only did the two die within four (4) days of one another, but the gematria of גראלד פורד is 528, half of which is 264. Now 264 is exactly 16 (that is 4*4) more than 248, the gematria of סדם חוסיין. In other words, Saddam is 4*4 less than half the man Gerald Ford was and note the significance of the number four here. Can this be mere coincidence?