tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57636942024-03-08T01:01:31.172-05:00rambling on through the worlda place for me to pontificate on that which i think is important. do i know that you will as well - no - but that doesn't really matter much to me to tell you the truth!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger521125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-18891500225187019462010-09-16T17:15:00.000-04:002010-09-16T17:15:14.649-04:00Fin-world.png (PNG Image, 778x1036 pixels) - Scaled (53%)Oh how accurate this is!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-85352376055409799402010-09-15T22:25:00.000-04:002010-09-15T22:25:35.193-04:00Gold Bugs, Not Bed Bugs, Found in East Village Bar - WNYCWhen film directors hanging out in East Village bars are telling you it's time to invest in gold...I'd suggest that it may be time to sell. This reeks of taxi drivers trading in their cars in the last 90's internet bubble.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-19425993783146580792010-08-18T21:23:00.000-04:002010-08-18T21:23:18.711-04:00Parking Lots Help Predict Earnings<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/frrcegkoIBI/">Parking Lots Help Predict Earnings</a>: "<p>Satellite images aren’t just useful for protecting national security, looking up online directions and checking out your roof on Google Earth anymore. Now market analysts are spying on us from above. UBS Investment Research has started incorporating analysis of satellite images of the parking lots of big-box retailers into its earnings estimates, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/38722872/">reports CNBC</a>, forecasting an uptick in sales based on parking lot traffic where a drop was previously expected.</p><br /><br /><p>It turns out that rather than a 1 percent decline in sales for Walmart in the second quarter compared to year ago, relatively full parking lots indicate a 0.7 percent gain in sales for the quarter.</p><br /><br /><div style="width:310px"><a href="http://gigaom.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/walmart-parking-lot.png"><img title="Walmart parking lot" src="http://gigaom.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/walmart-parking-lot-e1282163552842.png?w=300&h=200" alt="" width="300" height="200"></a><p>Satellite picture of a Walmart parking lot</p></div><br /><br /><p>UBS bought its satellite data and analysis from a startup called <a href="http://rsmetrics.com/">Remote Sensing Metrics</a>, which built a model for how customer flow presages quarterly earnings. Remote Sensing found that Walmart parking lot traffic was up 4 percent in June from a year ago, probably because of an aggressive “rollback” marketing campaign.</p><br /><div><span></span></div><br /><p>Remote Sensing also determined that earlier this year, Walmart stores were attracting growth in areas where there was more unemployment, while Target stores were doing the opposite. Now both retailers are seeing growth, which the firm thinks bodes well for the economy. It also found that Lowe’s is outpacing Home Depot in summer shoppers.</p><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.lanworth.com/">Lanworth</a>, another research company mentioned in the CNBC report, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/38738523/">analyzes</a> commodity crop production using infrared and microwave images. Last year, it detected a drop in corn production months months before the USDA, and it recently warned that 2010 Russian wheat production is far below reported levels.</p><br /><br /><p>Just imagine if such satellite image analysis were crowdsourced on a service like Amazon Mechanical Turk. We could probably figure out just about everything that’s happening in the world at any time. Privacy lovers might want to avoid satellite detection by staying indoors and buying from Walmart.com where they can’t be tracked. Oh wait — that won’t work either.</p><br /><br /><p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):<br /></strong></p><br /><br /><p><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/10/how-search-is-evolving-beyond-text/?utm_source=gigaom&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=lizg&utm_campaign=related">How Search Is Evolving Beyond Text</a></p><br /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&blog=1149864&post=138777&subd=gigaom&ref=&feed=1"><hr><p><br /> <a href="http://gigaom.com/sponsor/alcatel-lucent/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=RSS%2BLucent"><br /> <img src="http://a.gigaom.com/feed-injector/img/lucent-2010-05-17.gif" alt="Alcatel-Lucent NextGen Communications Spotlight — Learn More »" border="0"><br /> </a><br /></p><div><br /><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?a=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?a=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?i=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?a=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?i=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?a=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?a=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OmMalik?i=frrcegkoIBI:Wa6H0bjVFUY:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></a><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~4/frrcegkoIBI" height="1" width="1">"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-69274137708369799572009-01-14T20:10:00.000-05:002009-01-14T20:10:40.863-05:00Obama me<a href="http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/">If you like Obama you'll love this!</a><br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-58470593833842986732008-12-12T11:38:00.000-05:002008-12-12T11:38:54.611-05:00Russia joining OPEC?This could be an interesting move - one that may introduce a whole new dynamic to world oil pricing.<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-70614571576828572642008-10-14T20:09:00.000-04:002008-10-14T20:09:36.633-04:00McCain Transition Chief Helped Saddam HusseinWow...this just can't be good.<br /><br /><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/14/mccain-transition-saddam-hussein/">McCain's transition chief was a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein?!?!</a><br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-88736029052015554562008-10-10T13:03:00.000-04:002008-10-10T13:03:16.079-04:00McCain Touts ‘Energy Expert’ Palin’s Credentials<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/09/mccain-palin-pipeline/">Oh, yet another feather in Palin's cap of crap - </a><br /><br />The gas pipeline that's being bragged about? Yeah, it's a $500mm (that's half a billion dollars in corporate welfare) GIFT to a CANADIAN company for work they don't have to do?!?!?!?!<br /><br />W...T....F<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-17624487790863198522008-10-10T12:57:00.000-04:002008-10-10T12:57:34.225-04:00McCain's mortgage planIt's f'ing mind boggling that <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/10/wilson-moran/">McCain is planning on paying the banks 100% of the value </a>of the bad loans they wrote....f'ing mind boggling!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-37104507155349709142008-10-08T16:55:00.000-04:002008-10-08T16:55:13.774-04:00Donna Brazile Is Not Going To The Back Of The BusDo me a favor....<a href="http://jezebel.com/5059945/donna-brazile-is-not-going-to-the-back-of-the-bus?cpage=2&sort=asc#viewcomments">watch this, pass it on, and think about it</a> before you pull the handle to close the curtain on your polling booth...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-26806749276550281302008-10-08T16:45:00.000-04:002008-10-08T16:45:19.365-04:00"I Voted For Hillary Clinton!"<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/im-voting-for-h.html">Absolute proof that you should have to take an IQ test and get a license before being allowed to vote</a>....there is no f'ing way that someone this STUPID should be allowed to have ANY part of electing the next leader of the free world! It makes me cry that their votes count the same as mine ;-(<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-84199936386831262932008-10-08T16:33:00.000-04:002008-10-08T16:33:33.468-04:00Electoral College ProjectionsI wonder what McCain and Winky the clown would <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/todays-polls-108.html">say if they saw this analysis of the current polling numbers</a>:<br /><br />"We are now projecting Obama to win the election 90.5 percent of the time, with an average of 346.8 electoral votes, and a 5.4-point margin in the national popular vote."<br /><br />Kind of puts a smile on my face...a smile that has a hard time breaking through the grimace caused by the anger and hate of the McCain/Palin campaign.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-72074248241606721592008-10-08T14:21:00.000-04:002008-10-08T14:21:24.028-04:00McCain screwing up history....again...I love when politicians <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/politics/2008/10/social_security.html">say silly things like this....</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-59455452284291888222008-10-08T11:37:00.000-04:002008-10-08T11:37:02.851-04:001 In 6 US Homeowners Underwater<a href="http://www.clusterstock.com/2008/10/1-in-6-us-homeowners-underwater">One in six homeowners owe more then the value of their home?!?!</a> WHAT THE F*&K?<br /><br />While this doesn't "really" impact them till they sell, it's a huge psychological weight....huge.<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-86440143736319003262008-10-07T10:58:00.000-04:002008-10-07T10:58:33.039-04:00Stop sending mail you later regretGmail has hit a new high/low - you can now set up controls <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html">to prevent EWI (emailing while intoxicated!!)</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-35630462006087021342008-10-04T00:24:00.001-04:002008-10-04T00:25:28.641-04:00Obama or McCain: Global Electoral CollegeOk, I'll be the first one to admit that it's not very scientific. That being said - <a href="http://www.economist.com/vote2008/?source=hpevents">seeing Obama ahead 8375 to 15 in a "global electoral college"</a> (McCain is winning the country of Georgia) makes you stop and think about how the rest of the world views that "shining city on the hill" and who's best positioned to lead it into the next decade.<br /><br />And to top it all off, this is being done via The Economist - hardly a left leaning/liberal publication!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-64125628572888639272008-10-02T16:49:00.001-04:002008-10-02T16:50:06.988-04:00CNN: McCain cedes ground in MichiganA month out and <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/02/mccain-camp-cedes-ground-in-michigan/">McCain is already starting to give up?</a> What a freakin' wuss!<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-73215127617540604192008-09-25T18:05:00.000-04:002008-09-25T18:05:19.266-04:00Correlating Rock Music to US Oil ProductionOk....I'm going to say it - anyone who takes the time<a href="http://www.overthinkingit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/rs-500-us-oil-production1.jpg"> to correlate US oil production against the 500 greatest rock music songs as decided on by Rolling Stone</a> has WAY too much time on their hands....or are they onto something?!?!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-51719828013400496932008-09-22T12:29:00.000-04:002008-09-22T12:29:12.615-04:00Think Progress » McCain Clueless When Asked About Fiorina’s $40 Million Golden Parachute: ‘I Do Not Know The Details’Let me get this straight.....McCain screams and yells (justly, I feel) about excessive executive pay <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/22/fiorina-mccain-pay/">yet doesn't know that Carly Fiorina got an ~ $40,000,000 payout.</a>.....what kind of leadership is that??Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-72724600691215698062008-09-16T14:42:00.000-04:002008-09-16T14:42:12.159-04:00Palin cut funding for Alaska Special Olympics.At the RNC Palin stood up and said that the parents of special needs kids would have "a friend in the White House"....I guess they just didn't have one @ the governors mansion in Alaska <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/15/palin-cut-funding-for-alaska-special-olympics/">when she cut Special Olympics funding??<br /></a><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-75259577165117701972008-09-16T14:07:00.000-04:002008-09-16T14:07:44.350-04:00McCain: Obama didn't call Palin a pig - War Room - Salon.comSo <a href="http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/09/15/mccain_lipstick/index.html?source=newsletter">now McCain says Obamba DIDN'T call Palin a pig??</a> So we chalk it up to "much ado about nothing"??<br /><br />It either is or isn't an issue....<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-67220052555012635582008-09-16T10:37:00.000-04:002008-09-16T10:37:17.567-04:00Why Lehman's Failure Is the Best OutcomeWow, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2008/09/15/why-lehmans-failure-is-the-best-outcome.aspx">I like this..</a>...someone taking the position (and notionally backing it up) that it was GOOD to let Lehman fail.<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-8402965061118386462008-09-07T11:49:00.000-04:002008-09-07T11:49:14.985-04:00Today's Sarah Palin MadnessOh, I love this...the <a href="http://gawker.com/5046317/todays-sarah-palin-madness">"Caribou Barbie" / Sarah Palin doll!</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-26838518994113794572008-09-04T23:56:00.000-04:002008-09-04T23:56:42.752-04:00The cruel offshore-drilling hoax, part 1 | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist<a href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/7/10/142042/915">Some great, straightforward analysis on the TRUTH about off-shore drilling</a> and what a scam it is as a political issue.<br /><br />Problem 1 - The oil companies have access to 200% more oil that they haven't tapped yet then there is available in ALL the new areas they want to start poking around!<br /><br />Problem 2 - Even if they did start looking at the new areas it won't make a difference till 2030...maybe later?!?!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-58383513973720642862008-08-29T17:32:00.000-04:002008-08-29T17:32:43.534-04:00perspctv<a href="http://www.perspctv.com/#map">This is just plain cool.</a><br /><br />It's also a great example of stats being skewed via self-selection. Take a look at how Obama "polls" via Twitter users - it's a LANDSLIDE!! I don't know how much better Electoral-vote.com and Hubdub.com work around the self-selection bias but at least it looks a bit more reasonable.<br /><br />In addition, it's a great lesson in the oddities of the electoral college system. Obama and McCain could be a dead-heat percentage wise but as long as Obama carries the big states he's can walk away with it...hence the ever present discussion of battleground states.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763694.post-9574804529853587312008-08-28T14:08:00.000-04:002008-08-28T14:08:43.031-04:00Campaign Cola 2008 | Election Resources | Voting Vernacular<a href="http://www.campaigncola.com/">What are the poll tracking implications</a> of the number of cases of soda bought with each candidates likeness on it?<br /><br />r.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0