Jim

I would agree that there is money to be made in advertising - good point on the old Madison Ave mafia. But I'd also say the hype about it being a sustainable public company, or at least anywhere the valuations currently, is doomed. And no, FB doesn't have my number - I've no need to be a member. I'm busy enough. Probably someone like Google is selling my data to someone out there, however.

In general, I find FB a very odd business model, particuarly for a public company. No product other than advertising dollars - keyed to personal information and without studies to show that it is effective in steering customers to clients. Seems rather misplaced fascination with a business model that is not sustainable. Amazon and Apple are on the bubble as well, but at least the have a product. I suppose there will always be some portion of folks that find the social media intriguing, personally I find it amazingly banal and a waste of time. But, whatever (now CC.com on the other hand....at least it's not trying to go public). It's an economic blib and another naval gazing fad.

Yea, skimming 1% of a lot of stuff ends up being - well, a lot of stuff! Read an interesting article in the NYT on Sunday how the poppy crop over there is on the verge of exploding. Hard to see any long-term good outcome here. Would be interesting to hear the inside view of all this over a beer when you return.

Thanks for the posts. Plus I keep sending links to the GAO to make sure my dollars are being spent efficiently over there. Whatever that means!!

My gym partner bailed this evening so on the ride home I stopped for a couple laps of the tower in Volunteer Park. I hadn't been there for a year or so and was surprised to find five bolts scattered around about seven feet off the deck. WTF? This is a historic structure in a city park. The Park's folks are not too crazy about the accumulated chalk dust but manage to shrug it off - this will make them cough up a hairball. Seriously, what is the point? I was here? Please, go practice on the I-5 underpass or some other out of the way structure instead.

There is an elegant solution to this crap, bring back the Glass-Stegal Act. The Volker Rule, which is under consideration not, is trying to something similar but it is now vastly too complicated and riddled with loopholes thanks to the bank lobby. Just friggin' go back to seperation of investment and commercial banks. You want to gamble, have it in investment banks and if you fail you close. Commercial banks are backed by FDIC for a reason. Not investment banks.

Oppsey!! Bump that estimated loss by 50%. Dang these things can get away from you quickly. NYT ---The trading losses suffered by JPMorgan Chase have surged in recent days, surpassing the bank’s initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the losses. When Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, announced the losses last Thursday, he indicated they could double within the next few quarters. But that process has been compressed into four trading days as hedge funds and other investors take advantage of JPMorgan’s distress, fueling faster deterioration in the underlying credit market positions held by the bank. A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment, although Mr. Dimon has said the total paper trading losses will be volatile depending on day-to-day market fluctuations. Opps

Maybe I'm trying to get higher pay the conventional way. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Even as he apologized for a $2 billion trading loss, shareholders approved JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's $23 million pay package Tuesday at the bank's annual meeting. Ka-ching!

Agreed - but there was a lot of corruption in the loop as well. One example - In AL the locals went to a known finicial wizard for advice and he said, yea, go for it. Little did they know the bank got to him first and paid him a huge sum to approve the deal. And there was all sorts of complicity. Moodys rated the CDFs as AAA!!!! How the hell can that be? You're not sure, you look it up, and it's rated investment grade safe! I don't understand how the bankers can sleep at night making a living by ripping off people. Time to reinstate Glass-Stegal.

So wait, you're there a couple weeks and the president shows up to make sure everything is working well. Coincidence - I think not!

People make mistakes, hope he pulls out. I volunteer and rebuild at this place - they have a temp position but could lead to something - great place. http://bikeworks.org/about_jobs.php

Yea, but if these guys can't get it right what chance do I have? http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/rankings/commodities-broad-basket Where's JayB when you need him?

Gold or Canadian pork bellies?

I consider myself pretty informed but was taken aback by some of the items discussed in this Frontline series, of which Part II aired last night. Enlighting. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/ I generally knew about the extent of CDF peddling, but this was surprising. The bankers had a term "...ripping their face off" for when they sold a client a finance vehicle where the client didn't know WTF he was buying yet the bankers made a huge profit. Great. The bankers fanned across the US selling extremely complex vehicles to unsophisticated buyers - cities, towns, counties; help countries hide their debt for crazy interst rates (16% on millions)that they knew would crash and burn sooner or later. While I knew Geithner was a Wall Street man all the way, I did not know how hard he pushed to let the banks off scott free during and after the crash. Even Larry Summers was pushing for the break up of some of the large banks and dismissal of CEOs after they required tazpayer money. And - Obama blew it; possibly because of a combination of being distracted by health care and being naive. He did not push for change in the fianacial system when he had the banks on the ropes. Now - too late; and the bank lobbists are shredding the rule making for Frank-Dodd reform bill. So the banks are now even bigger - 5 of them carry 58% of the nation's wealth, there have been no real regulatory changes, and the change of another crash is looking 50-50. Looking for a big matress for my cash.

Manging pizza, the US economy, it's kinda the same thing. Just more.

Trifle

Unfortunately, not unprecedented. On White Friday, Dec 1916, an estimated 10,000 troops were killed by avalanches in Dolomites. Lots more cumulatively: During the three-year war in the Austro-Italian Alps at least 60,000 soldiers died in avalanches. [This conservative statistic comes from the research of Heinz von Lichem, in his outstanding three-volume study Gebirgskrieg 1915-1918] Ten thousand died from avalanches in the "lesser" ranges of the eastern half of the high front -- the Carnic and Julian Alps. In the "high" Alps to the west, the Ortler and Adamello groups, the Dolomites, avalanches claimed 50,000 lives. The only good to come out of it I suppose were some interesting via ferreta routes.

Best of luck on the adventure. Eyes open, head down. Take care and keep us posted. Oh - and no cultural blunders please. We don't want to read about anything on the English version of the al jezzera website.

Good luck with that one. I spend the better part of two recent summers along the Pend Oreille River near the border on field work - not a siting. They apparantly are pretty wary and uncommon. I did speak to some hunters up there who occassionally saw one. You never know. Did see wolves and a lynx swimming across the river!

Oh yea, big time. Chronic issue do to some back sturctural things. Chiropractors - despite their claim I've found them rather useless in this area - they all seem to revert to the same lay-on-your-side and wing away process, rather than actually diagnosing the sturctural movement of a particular issue. After a year of searching I found a PT who actually knew what he was doing. It's amazing the amoung of BS practioners out there who are willing to try anything w/o the proper background or skills. Anyway, this PT would look at the mechanics closely and slowly pop it back in place with subtle movements. Probably the best advice I can give is to regularly, several times a week, work on low back and core exercises. Mine is generally in check, but wigs out once in a while. Unfortunately that great PT moved to AZ and semi-retirement. I haven't found a similar one yet, but have a line on one I'm planning on seeing soon.

Duh! Missed that - thanks. Anywhere in town to check it or all mail order?

Heads up over there dude. Is this work or Reserve? If work, what are doing? You don't have to kill me if you tell me do you?

You meant this? http://www.backcountry.com/dmm-phantom-carabiner

That was well done! Thanks. Refreshing perspective. Awesome climbing.

I assume you prefer it because less chance of snagging/opening - ease of one-handed use? And worth the 6 gm over OZ?