Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Markets crash around the world . . men or machines?

If you need an explanation as to what happened today around 3 PM EST time read this article. In one minute the DJI dropped 200 points . . . all systems crashed and volume on the NYSE hit 4 billion shares! That's epic.

God violates local codes in San Mateo

Darn, just when I was getting ready to paint some signs on my house announcing the apocalyptic event I had just discovered when overing a "voice" in my backyard I read this story about a woman in San Mateo who is being told she can't paint signs all over her house . . . . guess the neighbors thought it was hurting real estate values.

read about it here

Monday, February 26, 2007

Oscars afterthoughts

Ellen was no John Stewart, Martin Scorcese was a done deal but where oh where was Robert de Niro (as important to Scorcese's library of films, one would have thought that he'd be there or at least some kind of video "hello")? I liked "Queen" and "Venus" but believed that the Academy would give it Forrestt . . pretty damn good performance. It must truly difficult to play yourself as Peter O'Toole has done in Venus . . . incredible film for those of us getting a little older.

Biggest mistake . . . Inconvenient Truth. This award lowers the bar for documentary films doesn't it?

Guess I have to go see Pans Labyrinth and we have Departed coming from Netflix.

The vignettes were great again and the segues from the commercials (which are now better than the Superbowl's) back into the show were great.

Last but not least . . . . seeing Lucas, Coppola and Spielberg together on one stage was terrific and they were funny too.

craigkincaid.com

time for a little self service promotion . . . . . check my website www.craigkincaid.com
you can learn a little about my music and my hardwood lumber business

thanks

Craig

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Tax preparers aren't always that good at it

The IRS reports that 10,000,000 early filers this year so far did not request the telephone tax refund which could be worth as much as $60 . . . . the really bad news - half of those returns were prepared by tax preparers who got paid to do so. Be careful out there.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Stranded airline passengers revolt

finally someone has the ball rolling to put things right for airline passengers. just the other day I was talking with a friend about "flying" and we both agreed that it's now an everyday ordeal. the thrill and excitement of flying has gone. I dread the day I get stuck on tarmac within view of the loading gate and . . . . . nothing to read!

check out the stranded passengers bill of rights blog here

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Revolting Sounds

In a year long Internet study of 1,100,000 people, Professor Trevor Cox, an acoustical engineer doing research at Salford University in Manchester, England had participants listen to 34 sounds and rate them from bad, really bad, awful, really awful to horrible. Drum roll please . . . . . here are the top ten
1 vomiting
2 microphone feedback
3 multiple babies crying
4 scraping of train wheels
5 seesaw squeaking
6 bad violin playing
7 flatulence
8 one baby crying
9 soap opera argument
10 electicity hum

the survey is here

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Common Logic Fallacy

There's a letter in today's Tribune which I thought covered the topic of logic very well. . . . . . someone in a previous letter chose "to argue the premise that belief and evidence are contradictory. He concludes that, if evidence is presented, belief cannot exist. He has concluded his argument by restating the premise, a common fallacy of logic. The problem is that, if the premise is false, so is the conclusion.

One can have faith that an untried chair will hold if one should decide to sit. That faith maybe unproven prior to sitting, but the faith can be based on a lifetime of evidence. One may recognize the structure as skillfully constructed. One may accept as evidence the hospitality with which the chair is offered. Documents can guarantee there are no defects. But despite the evidence, until one actually sits in the chair, its only by faith that one assumes the chair will not fail.

So, one can have faith, and entertain logical evidence that supports that faith.

And then there will always be those who, like a child, will confidently sit by faith alone.