John Melloy. 24/7 news addict. A pithy headline makes my heart flutter. Former CEO, Executive Producer, Editor, Reporter, Student. [email protected] for stories, suggestions, scoops, free gifts, hatemail.
It took five years for the DVD to reach the unit sales pace that the iPad reached in just its first quarter. Is the game changing for good?
Here's my piece from 2010 for CNBC.com that got picked up by Drudge Report because of the great headline: IPad Fastest-Selling Electronic Device Ever. In just three years we are already talking about iPad sales not growing fast enough. Wow.
Daniel Akst reviews “How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness” by Russ Roberts.
Great quote here in review: Society doesn’t enslave us, as Rousseau and others have suggested; rather, according to Smith, it liberates us from the worst part of ourselves and allows us to thrive in concert.
A special episode focused on the Grammy-winning rockers.
Love these guys. Funny and smart and passionate about their music. Glad North America birthed them and not Britain and France like so many. Without drugs in the equation, maybe they'll keep making albums for many hears.
This is not WWII memorabilia -- not that that is more acceptable for Amazon.
This is what appears to be recent addition to the site.
Look at the reviews today after product hit:
Amazon appears to be acting as the middleman -- as it very often does -- for The Sterling Jewelers. This is a conglomerate of jewelers based in the Midwest which operate http://www.sterlingjewelers.com/
A search of that web site does not turn up the ring.
The company must know what it is doing as the posters took the time to add this 'disclaimer' with the item.
Not for Neo Nazi or any Nazi implication.
I would use caution as anything on the Internet could be an elaborate hoax but this appears to be a very big oversight by Bezos Inc.
Full Disclosure: I'm in cash right now and I have been for a year. I was very bearish at this time a year ago and was proven wrong.
Tonight I've been discussing with some friends their investments and some things are troubling me. I can't IMAGINE a single bullish resolution to the major issues facing us today.
This gets me very bearish.
Feel free to comment, email me, or tweet if you disagree.
1. Ebola - What's the best case scenario here? The Texas nurse is cured and a month later no one else gets sick? Will the market wait for that scenario to play out?
I think the most likely scenario is that more people get sick and air travel is curbed.
And then enter Black Friday and the most important month for retailers. Who will want to pile into malls with Ebola still lingering? Yeah I know you can't get it from grabbing the same Elmo doll, but still...this is crowd psychology were dealing with here.
2. Fed - Let's say that Yellen & Co. backtrack and say, "We are going to ramp QE3 back up folks."
The market should think this is bullish, right? I don't think so.
This is like the friend who keeps being nice to you because he feels guilty he's sleeping with your wife. You don't know why but you know there's something bad behind it.
That's how the market will feel. Surely this nice gesture by the Fed is because they know something we don't know and it's scaring the hell out of them.
3. Oil's Crash - I think any gasoline stimulus is baked into the market by now. Whatever oil does from here is bearish. If it continues to plunge, the global economy slides into a recession. If Saudi Arabia and Mexico and Russia are able to arrest the decline, it only does so temporarily and that won't help the U.S. consumer.
After opening higher, the S&P 500 is nose diving again
After losing 3% last week, the S&P 500 opened slightly higher this morning in an attempt to shake off the selling.
However, the rally appears to be short-lived as the selling is picking up again. At 10:37, the index is trading down .6% to 1895, its first foray below the 1900 level since May.
This is 116 points below the all-time high close of 2011 set on September 18th.
Everyone is Italian today. And everyone is a technical analyst today as well.
The S&P 500 on Friday closed right on its 200-day moving average, the most commonly-used study in the science (art?) of technical analysis.
The benchmark for U.S. stocks closed at 1951.27 and the moving average stands at 1905.22.
If the average breaks below that number, you could see an increase in selling and that alone makes it worth highlighting but take a step back please.
As any technical analyst will tell you: One day does not make a trend and it is simply not this easy.
I've studied the great chart experts and written about them since 1999 -- guys and gals like Alan Shaw, Ralph Acampora, Louise Yamada, John Bollinger, Rick Bensignor -- and I bet none of them have changed their world view based on a close above or below the 200-day average.
I was talking to JC Parets last night about this. I consider him the heir-apparent to the folks mentioned above... kinda of like Jeffrey Ross at The Friars Club. Here's what JC told me:
It's not the location of line that matters. It's the slope of the line and direction it's heading in. Two hundred periods is basically the average close over the last year and its slope defines trend. Up , down or flat.
The Russell 200 is now below a downward sloping 200 day and hitting new 52wk lows. Guess what? That's not an uptrend.
People use technical tools in stupid ways. It's not technical analysis. It's the ignorant trying to do it. Same can be said about fundamentals. People misuse those tools as well
Like for example the whole, "oh xyz is now in correction territory bc it's down 10%. Or bear market = 20%". Stupid. Those numbers don't mean anything.
The 200 is a better indicator for that. Because actually means something. The fact that price is above or below it is not relevant for this purpose. Where I think it's more relevant is when it's substantially below an upward sloping. Or substantially above downward sloping 200 days. In these cases you get tremendous failed moves with great risk rewards for a mean reversion. Look at solars weekly chart right now.
So just relax about today.
Technical analysis has always fascinated me because... ironically... it is suffering from too much supply. Everyone uses it in their daily trading. If someone says they don't, they don't realize it or they are lying.
How can something be so popular yet experts in that discipline can't find top positions at investment banks?
(Citibank's Shaw - mentioned above and now retired -- was the only practitioner to rise to the investment committee of a major investment bank.)
There are two explanations for that:
1. It's difficult to link trading commissions to an analyst that is covering Apple one day and then German interest rates the next.
2. Sometimes being a technical analyst (at least a good one) is boring and one does not have an opinion on a particular metric because it isn't trending. That's just not acceptable in this buy or sell world.
3. It still has a stigma of voodoo to it and no one wants to explain that to a board.
Amazing Tesla P85D self-driving features demonstration
The new Tesla “D” has self-driving features that will amaze and delight. This is where we are heading folks. Buckle up but don’t worry so much about keeping your hands on the wheel.
One Time a Crazy Person Built a Theme Park in the Bronx Bigger Than Disneyland
For a very short period in the early Sixties, America's favorite playground was not in Southern California, nor Orlando. it was in the Bronx.
This is the strange but true story of New York City's Freedomland USA.
Recently, New York city just got its first new indoor mall in forty years. The Mall at Bay Plaza in the Baychester area of the Bronx opened at the end of August. My wife and kids went to the shiny new Olive Garden Thursday. Over some neverending salad and breadsticks, my wife said, "I think we're on the grounds of Freedomland USA."
I said, "What?"
My wife worked and studied at Walt Disney World one semester in college and will forever be a bottomless pit of information about the so-called World's Happiest Place.
While we've traveled the world together, we've also gone to Disney World too many times to count. You snobs need to get over yourself. It's awesome.
Anyway, she went on to tell me what she knew of Freedomland USA, the brainchild of a jilted, ex-friend of Walt Disney who successfully built the world's largest theme park right in the middle of the borough better known for Babe Ruth and bruising mobsters.
The craziest part of this story is that the history of Freedomland was passed on to her in oral form by older Disney workers. Like she was a prisoner at Shawshank and keeping Freedomland alive in their minds was a way to get back at the warden.
Walt pretty much made sure this place -- and the man who built it -- was permanently wiped from all public record and apparently people still honor his wishes to this day!
This is evident by the fact that there's not much to be found about this forgotten utopia on the Internet. It seems only one book was written about it.
It's almost as if people are still heeding Disney's decree on fear of some otherworldly punishment by his cryogenically frozen corpse.
Anyway here's what I found:
1. Built by Walt Disney's "Son": The man behind Freedomland USA was Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood, an aerospace engineer who was the FIRST employee of Disneyland. He was hired by Disney to design the Southern California park. The two were so close that Disney said publicly that he considered Woods a son.
Disney, Wood and Buzz Price planning Disneyland (Source: The Disney Revue)
2. Founder was a UFO Truther: Woods helped select the infamous Anaheim location for Disneyland. Many think it was because of its beautiful orange tree groves, but it actually was because Woods liked the celestial view there, making it ideal to communicate with aliens.
Disneyland Under Construction (source)
3. World's Largest Theme Park: At a total of 205 acres (85 acres minus parking) Freedomland USA dwarfed Disneyland's original 65 acres.
(Source)
4. Play on the Automobile Boom: Woods selected this particular part of the Bronx because of its ideal location between the Hutchison River Parkway and I-95. It was boom time for the automobile and the typical 1950s family hit the road hard every summer for vacation.
(Source)
5.A Man-made Wonder of the World: The park was laid out in the shape of the contiguous United States. It contained 10,000 trees and 18 manmade waterways.
(Source)
Seven different major geographical/themes were used for the rides and attractions:
Little Old New York
Chicago
The Great Plains
San Francisco
The Old Southwest
New Orleans Mardi Gras
Satellite City-The Future
6. Opened to a Monster Crowd of 60,000 in 1960. Walt probably sh*t himself when his former protege was mobbed at this amazing, grand opening. They had to stop selling tickets at noon and traffic from the North on the NY Thruway was so bad that the road had to be closed. Among the wide-eyed throng were the top celebrities of the day, such as Paul Anka and Benny Goodman. The Ed Sullivan Show highlighted the opening that evening. The park would finish that year with an astounding 6 million visitors.
Woods, Pat Boone & Family (Source)
7. The Park Was Cursed: A fire during construction - located in Old Chicago of all places - destroyed six buildings. In the first five days, a stagecoach turned over in Old New York, paralyzing one visitor.
(Source)
8. Gone Without a Trace. All of its buildings and rides were completely destroyed following the park's bankruptcy and closing in 1964. The only remnant is a boat used in the Great Lakes section. It is still moored to this day on water in nearby Port Chester. All traces of Woods was removed -- by directive from the man himself -- in the official historical accounts of Disney corp. and Disneyland. Supposedly there's a small plaque marking this forgotten park near the new mall.
(Source)
9. Woods May Have Been Crook. No one is quite sure why the fallout between Disney and C.V. Woods, but it seems the scenario most commonly referenced is some sort of embezzlement done by Woods after the opening of Disneyland. Walt also wasn't a fan of Woods' growing obsession with aliens.
10. Now Home to Co-Op City. The 205 acres leased went back to their original owner, who built the largest residential complex ever constructed in the U.S. - now and since.
(Source)
Other than bad luck, it's not clear why Freedomland went bankrupt as it clearly was a commercial success. While Woods publicly blamed competition from the NY World's Fair, something more must have happened. This is just one of the many unsolved mysteries surrounding Freedomland.
BBC Launches New Music Site w/ Epic 'God Only Knows' Cover
Thank God for the BBC. One of our world's last cultural bastions just launched a new music site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music
It looks like it will feature news, songs and specials of all genres with only one condition: actual MUSICIANS.
They are publicizing the launch with the video below, a cover of Brian Wilson's 'God Only Knows' by 27 musicians and the BBC Concert orchestra. Music nuts will know the symbolism of picking a song from Pet Sounds, Wilson's masterpiece upon which he played all the instruments and obsessively layered sound over sound. Proceeds from the single also go to charity. Enjoy.
discoholicmusic
jbbartram-illu
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
kaledo-art
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
titsay
areudirty
romaincrisis
