Hyde Park Blvd

Amazing video collaboration called Combo by Blu and David Ellis via MH.

David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff provides an interesting picture of life across the border, and just how much different the economic mess looks from Toronto:

If there is one thing that Canadians are never happy with (in addition to their local hockey team) it is the Canadian dollar. When it was flirting near that record low of 62 cents nearly a decade ago, everyone lamented the future of the Loonie and closer ties to the U.S. were being recommended from various corners of Bay Street. It was too expensive to buy anything that was imported, it was too costly to make that annual trip to Florida, and tickets to a Broadway play were prohibitive. We felt poorer. We must have been doing something wrong.

Fast-forward to today. Canadians are now fretting about a strong currency. After all, it is going to crush our manufacturing sector, kill our export base and undermines our domestic competitiveness. Even the Bank of Canada commented on how the strength in the CAD is dampening our growth prospects, cutting its medium-term GDP growth forecast.

Remember, when currencies move there are going to be winners and losers. In its latest policy statement, the Bank of Canada said that “persistent strength in the Canadian dollar” is going to “slow growth and subdue inflation pressures.” So, in return for softer economic growth coming from a more challenging export outlook, what we get back is lower “inflation pressures.” The winner here is anyone who is seeking to borrow money to buy something because the stronger Loonie will prevent the BoC from taking the interest-rate punchbowl away any time soon.

For Canadian businesses, the silver lining is that it will be easier to attract talent today compared to a decade ago when the Loonie was sinking. Call it the reverse brain drain. Whatever it is, it is a good thing from a productivity standpoint, which is the cornerstone to our standard of living. That is why I think we should embrace this new era of Canadian dollar strength as opposed to resisting it.

Myoung Ho Lee redefines tree.  Via Frango.

For those who remember his dad, Mike, on Boston local news (circa 1970s), Matt Taibbi’s rollicking style is a delight, full of genetic echoes.  His Rolling Stone article on Bear Sterns and Lehman — and the naked short-selling behind their demise — is a good read:

Six months after Bear was eaten by predators, virtually the same scenario repeated itself in the case of Lehman Brothers — another top-five investment bank that in September 2008 was vaporized in an obvious case of market manipulation. From there, the financial crisis was on, and the global economy went into full-blown crater mode.

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again asked
readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,
subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the 2009 winners (thanks to reader RS for tip):

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts
until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra
credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all
these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes
and it’s like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n..): The frantic dance performed just
after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets
into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a
worm in the fruit you’re eating.

Given their popularity throughout the 60s, video of the Association seem scarce.  Here they are in 1967; almost the perfect 60s video.  Great clothes, great cheesy slo-mo film footage, great facial expressions.  Why Windy is in Chicago (at places like the Pickle Barrel in Old Town, Oak Street Beach, Grant Park) is never explained.  The obvious answer makes the video ever richer.

From Roger Myerson’s web page.  Something a little more thoughtful than the usual prattle:

A COMMENT ON THE 2009 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

By giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama at this stage, less than one year into his Presidency, the Prize Committee has emphasized the importance of his redefining how American power will be used in the world: with manifest restraint and respect for world opinion. In his first nine months in office, without giving any foreign power a veto over America’s use of military force, President Obama has reassured the world that the military superiority of the world’s greatest superpower will used only with broad consultation and support from other nations throughout the world. This reassurance has greatly reduced international tensions, so that people can feel safer in America and throughout the world. The Peace Prize Committee may be anticipating that President Obama’s acceptance speech could become a clear statement of a new doctrine: that America can retain its position as the world’s dominant military power without serious challenges only if we exercise our dominance according to principles of restraint that the whole world can judge. If Americans embrace such a doctrine and demand that our future presidents should adhere to it, then there may be some real hope of global peace under American leadership for generations to come. In the long run, this accomplishment may be a far greater contribution to peace than mediating a resolution to one international dispute.

Roger Myerson
2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Few material possessions as wondrous or satisfying as a clean, well-designed car. Fiat Cinquecento via Frango.

I write about Citroen more than I should.  Innovative and maddening, beautiful and disappointing.  But this is a great ad done by someone who knows a lot about the cars DNA — and how to make a great video.  Bon apetit!

The Royal Meterological Society calls them undulatus asperatus, evidently a new cloud type that has been identified and deemed worthy of study.  Reprinted from Daily Dish.