| Le Roc du Nord?
There are striking parallels between the manner in which the crisis at Northern Rock unfolded and the descent into chaos at Société Générale - not least the blatant evidence of the failure of internal risk management and of external regulatory control. But there are, of course, equally obvious differences. The Newcastle-based mortgage lender was bailed out by the government to the tune of £55bn in loans and guarantees after its board, as a central strategy, endorsed an excessively high-risk loan policy and exposed the bank to the US sub-prime residential market - and ministers are now trying to engineer a private sector takeover after rejecting nationalisation, finally. SocGen is now being made ready by the hyperactive Sarkozy government, which has similarly turned away the option of state control, for takeover by a domestic rival or rivals to create an all-French mega-bank.
MannsHomes.com Makes Building an Online Photo Album Easy Online Photo ...
MannsHomes.com offers yet another way for you to use your domain name with Online Photo Filer, an affordable, easy-to-use method for sharing photos on the World Wide Web. Whether you're a shutterbug or an Internet amateur, Online Photo Filer is a cinch to use and best of all, your family, friends and colleagues can view your images without the hassle of logging in. .
Three bits of recent news got me thinking:
You can currently buy a 250GB FireWire drive for less than $1 per gigabyte, while flash memory cards run $50 or more per gig. But flash prices will likely fall quickly over the next couple of years. And as they do, and as Intel perfects the design of low-power, high-speed CPUs, Apple's going to have ample opportunity to do what it does best: out-innovate the rest of the computer industry. Much of the above is fantasy and speculation on my part, but Apple's now got the real-world partnerships to make it all happen for real. From my keyboard to Steve's ears… .
Barksdale at 75
Arthur Corliss, assistant medical officer at Barksdale Field, examined the Municipal airport at Hot Springs Friday.
Feb. 25, 1933: Excellent Gunnery Record Made by Lieut. Saville at Barksdale
Despite adverse weather conditions, Lieut. Gordon P. Saville of the 55th Pursuit Squadron hung up a "record" score in ground gunnery practice when he scored 703 points out of a possible 1,000 on the Barksdale Field range. The officer fired 200 rounds of ammunition, the maximum allowed for this phase of gunnery training.
Feb. 22, 1933: Contractors at Barksdale Work Alien Employes
There is no statute requiring that persons employed on government contracts must be citizens of the United States, according to a statement received by Capt. George E. Lamb, constructing quartermaster at Barksdale Field, from Washington.
Forget the Meluas ... Adele's the real thing
Suspicions were raised when it slipped out that, like Katie Melua, Kate Nash and Amy Winehouse (all of whom she intermittently resembled), she is a former pupil of Croydon luvvy factory, The BRIT School For The Performing Arts And Technology. Those suspicions were partly dispersed when it transpired that she is not, by any yardstick, a stick-thin glamourpuss and she still lives with her masseuse mother. If her unashamedly estuary tones, her mangled introductions ("It hasn't got a chorus or nothing," she explained of First Love) and her decision to dress for an afternoon in front of the television suggested one of Catherine Tate's more lazily observed characters, only the flintiest of hearts could fail to respond to Adele's wideeyed, boundless enthusiasm as, to celebrate its release this week, she performed her debut album 19 from beginning to end.
Domestic Spying
Cenk Uygur: Why Do You Need Immunity If You Haven't Broken the Law? (1 comments) The Bush administration is desperately trying to get immunity for the telecom companies inserted into the next wiretapping bill. But let me ask a simple question - why would the telecom companies need immunity if they didn't break the law? I'm not trying to be clever here. I'm asking a literal question. Isn't this an obvious admission that the administration did ask the large telecommunication companies to break the law ? Tuesday, October 9: Dave Lindorff: What are Progressives Waiting For? (8 comments) The Democrats have made it clear: They're not going to end the war, and they're not going to impeach. They're not even going to stop the spying on Americans. How much more abuse do progressives plan to stand for? Dean Powers: On Wiretapping, Democrats Ask Bush: "Would You Like it Gift-Wrapped?" (6 comments) Rooting for the Democrats is like rooting for the Chicago Cubs...
A Play on the New Digital Living Room
Such is the case for copy-protection software vendor Macrovision, whose shares are down almost 37% since Dec. 6, the day before the company announced it would acquire Gemstar-TV Guide International for $2.8 billion, twice the market cap of Macrovision itself at the time. Clearly, some investors wonder whether the deal, which will saddle Macrovision with lots of debt, is a case of a company biting ... .
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