Book Of Norm

Don't panic - the BoN will be back, but first, it will be gone, for 10 days, starting tonight. See you in July. Regards, Norm

When reading up on the Ilitch family, who seem to be the only ones determined to actually make something nice in Michigan (why, I have no idea, I guess the long defeat is a noble cause), I came across this little wikipedia gem: The family was presented the key to the City of Detroit by then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on February 14, 2008. They are only the fifth recipients in the history of the city, the others being actor James Earl Jones, Saddam Hussein, neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson, and Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis. I checked, and yes: Saddam Hussein received the key to the city after donating about $450,000 to a local christian church back in 1979 - before he turned evil it seems.

When asking about whether you are taking any dangerous objects on the plane, Canada Air makes sure that you have no: Guns Knives Compressed Air Antlers Yup. Antlers... oh Canada.

F1 has split in two. The top teams of F1, long chaffing under the rule of the FIA, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosely, have decided to set up their own rival league. The teams are Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, Renault, BMW, Brawn, Red Bull, Toro Rosso. So basically, all of the real teams. And the amazing part is - it includes Brawn! It is amazing because the only way the Brawn has been dominating this season is beacuse of the restrictive rules of F1. But, I suppose, they want to stay in the big league, and with all of the real teams going one way, and the name and bunch of also-rans going the other, Brawn wants to be a contender. It is however an amazing story that the FIA was so adamant about changing the rules that they forced out all of the top teams. From the rebel teams press release: "The teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 World Championship. "These teams therefor...

The latest Stig rumor - this one started by a fan who was at the show - is that Schumacher is really the Stig. Which would be interesting. The man known for his amazing albeit robotic driving style revealed to be the not-really-human presenter of the most popular car show on the planet. Thing is, I dont really believe it. There is just too much that does not makes sense. Schumy is just too busy to be the Stig. However I will believe, and I continue to believe, that Top Gear has one 'normal' stig who drives around the circuit and then invites others to be the Stig for special shows, special cars etc. So could Schumacher have been the stig for the Ferrari FXX drive that the fan claims? Sure. But I dont think he is "the" Stig.

Ground has been broken for the construction of the Worlds first commercial spaceport two years after Foster + Partners were selected for the plans. And they are some plans. Sir. Foster does have a sense of style, as does Richard Branson. Team them up and the gem you get is this: I would love to head there some time in the not to distant future and catch my ride to space. Hopefully Virgin Galactic takes off, and we can enjoy regular and progressively cheaper and better travel beyond the atmosphere.

From the Miami Herald, found by Randy: http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1098944.html Fresh out of prison on a money-laundering conviction, Marlon T. Moore tried to make a big score, federal prosecutors say. The Miami man -- aka ''X-Large Moore'' -- filed an income tax return seeking a refund of almost $15 trillion. No joke. Now Moore is charged with filing false claims with the IRS and obstructing the agency's laws. After his release from a Florida prison in late 2007, Moore allegedly prepared bogus documents claiming that the feds owed him various amounts, including $5,950,000,000,000, $2,975,000,000,000 and $6,000,000,000,000. ''In fact, however, defendant Moore knew he was owed no such amounts,'' according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami. Moore, 38, has a bond hearing on Thursday. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for each false claim and up to three years for impeding IRS laws.

According to some guy off the street.. I mean a website/consulting company which 'specializes' in valuing private companies, Tesla Motors is worth $1 billion. This is because of... ermm.. this chart: The chart clearly shows that though the company has so far lost a ton of money, gone through 4 CEO's, fired the founder and been sued by him, and sold about 500 cars, that it is worth $1 billion because suddenly most of the country will realize that what they really need is an electric track car. Can I just point out the stupidity of that? If I had the $100,000 to spend on transportation fun (what the Tesla costs today) I would get an Elise for $45,000, a Cherokee SRT 8 for about $20,000, a Subaru WRX for $25,000, a year's membership to a track for $9,500 and spend the other $500 on a road bike (if I did not have one) so I could commute to work with a negative carbon footprint. Then I would get home and decide which beast I would take to the track that day. Or, you could bu...

A new investment in facebook by a Russian company values the site at $10 billion, $5 billion less than the MSFT valuation 2 years ago. And its all just a load of hype anyway, because they are still yet to make any money. They say they will be cash flow positive in 2010. Sure. Great. But so far, I have little faith they will really be able to step beyond their current model and become the next great thing. Instead, I think they will become the next AOL, Yahoo, or MySpace.

This on is worth the longish read: The Learjet repo man Business has never been better for the fearless pilot who takes back millionaires' expensive toys. By Marc Weingarten Editor's note: This story has been corrected since it was originally published. Jun. 06, 2009 | It was snowing hard when the bank called Nick Popovich. They needed to grab a Gulfstream in South Carolina now. Not tomorrow. Tonight. All commercial and private planes were grounded, but Nick Popovich wasn't one to turn down a job. So he waited for the storm to clear long enough to charter a Hawker jet from Chicago into South Carolina. There was just one detail: No one had told Popovich about the heavily armed white supremacist militia that would be guarding the aircraft when he arrived. But then again, no one had told the militia about Popovich, a brawny and intimidating man who has been jailed and shot at and has faced down more angry men than a prison warden. When Popovich and t...

Tiptoes around criticism, but an interesting list nonetheless: No 10: PRESIDENT ZINE AL-ABIDINE BEN ALI of TUNISIA 21 YEARS IN POWER President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came to power in a bloodless coup in November 1987. He took over from Habib Bourguiba amid claims the latter was unfit to govern owing to senility. Mr Ben Ali marked the 21st anniversary of office by releasing 44 political prisoners. No 9: PRESIDENT BLAISE COMPAORE of BURKINA FASO 21 YEARS Mystery still surrounds the death of President Blaise Compaore's predecessor and friend, Thomas Sankara. But after he was shot dead by a group of soldiers in October 1987, Mr Compaore, as his number two, stepped into the breach. President Compaore has since won three elections, scraping in last time round in 2005 with 80% percent of the vote. No 8: KING MSWATI III of SWAZILAND ...

This is a repost of a fantastic letter. I recommend reading the original here: http://www.stumblingontruth.com/articles/Unafraid_In_Greenwich_Connecticut.pdf but I have also reposted it below. Credit goes to Frankie for finding this. Unafraid In Greenwich Connecticut Clifford S. Asness, Ph.D. AQR Capital Management, LLC Last updated: 5/5/2009 Comments welcome: comments@stumblingontruth.com Updated versions available at: StumblingOnTruth.com The President has just harshly castigated hedge fund managers for being unwilling to take his administration’s bid for their Chrysler bonds. He called them “speculators” who were “refusing to sacrifice like everyone else” and who wanted “to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” The responses of hedge fund managers have been, appropriately, outrage, but generally have been anonymous for fear of going on the record against a powerful President (an exception, though still in the form of a “group letter”, was the superb n...

Anyone with a good knowledge of Britain's involvement in WWII has likely come across the Dam Busters - the plucky and amazing RAF squadron 617 who took down Germany's dams, bunkers and other hard to hit targets with novel bombs developed by Barnes Wallis, including the "bouncing bomb." The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency has been looking into ways of taking down hardened storage sites and other bunkers and they have hit upon a solution: bouncing bombs. Specifically, the idea is to bounce the bomb right into the blast doors of the bunker rather than trying to come through from the top. Alternately they are also procuring the Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP) - which is a 30,000lb bomb. Interesting is that it was again Barnes Wallis who was a pioneer in developing heavy bombs, including the famous Tallboy and less well known but 22,000lb Grand Slam (this was in 1944).

Did you know that we are now living in a nation run by Czars? You thought Bush expanded the power of the executive branch - you 'aint seen nothing yet. Obama has set out to create a new arm of the government directly under his control. The most obvious of these (though it has still be pretty quietly done) are the impositions of Czars over most major elements of the US economy and society. Obama has pulled a Putin and put his own men in charge wherever possible. Instead of going through the traditional channels of power, this gives him much more direct control. To list the Czars, we now have: Pay Czar, Border Czar, Energy Czar, Urban Czar, Tech Czar, Faith Based Czar, Health Reform Czar, TARP Czar, Drug Czar, Stimulus Accountability Czar, Non-Proliferation Czar, Terrorism Czar, Regulatory Czar, Guantanamo Closure Czar, AIDS Czar, Weather Czar, Intelligence Czar, Economic Czar, Green Jobs Czar and Cybersecurity Czar. This is, in effect, a massive expansion of the power and direct con...

In a speech today Obama laid out some of his plans for a new national health care program. This has been widely opposed by doctors and healthcare groups and as usual with Obama his idea of "compromise" is "you do what I say or heads will roll." For example he's " not advocating caps on malpractice awards which I believe can be unfair to people who’ve been wrongfully harmed"" In a totally not surprising shift from his stance during the campaign, Obama is now willing to force every American to have health insurance, not just present them with a govt. subsidized plan for their perusal. Trying to sugarcoat the plan, Obama also stated that this government mandated and run healthcare system would not be like Europe and would actually save money. His health Czar probably told him to say that one (more on the Czar effect in the next post.)

BlackRock - which has become todays JP Morgan of the last great depression - has agreed to purchase Barclays Global Investors for a lot of cash (well, and equity). In a deal that will create the world's largest money manager, the two companies will combine to create a massive new power in the markets. Seriously, BlackRock is the new Goldman Sachs - with connections everywhere.

The Senate passed a bill to, finally, put tobacco under the regulation of the FDA. While not given the power to ban tobacco or nicotine it will lead to much stricter regulations including no terms such as "light" or "low tar," and eventually could lead to lower nicotine and worse-tasting cigarettes. Also included in the bill were bans on color ads for tobacco products, advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, and a number of other measures. While most libertarians would roast me for this, I dont agree with the right to smoke in a society where health and public well being are regulated/subsidized (as in every developed country). Also, I agree that the pressure to and effect of children smoking is incredibly harmful. I personally am also against any smoking in a public area where 2nd hand smoke could affect any other individual who did not chose to breath it in. Finally, though the FDA has its problems, I think that not only should Tobacco be under FDA regulation, b...

Koenigsegg - as I discussed before - has been one of the final suitors for Saab, and now looks set to buy it. All I can say is.... SWEEET!!! Koenigsegg makes cars that put Ferraris to shame. Applying some of their magic sauce to Saab would give what has become a dowdy brand sold to middle-aged suburbanites a much needed injection of sport and adrenalin. Saab 9-3 Koenigsegg Edition anyone?

Actually, not really. But there will be 13 people living on the ISS at one time. This is because of a space shuttle mission joining the 6 man crew. Though living quarters will be a little cramped, I still think it is pretty sweet milestone (the greatest number of people in space at one time). Of course, I probably would have chosen 12 or 14 instead of 13... but anyway, I am just looking forward to the day when the number of people in space is counted by district, or at least dozens.

Yeah, the title may seem a little off, but let me explain. Looking at the real meaning of the words, Republicans are traditionally social conservatives and economic liberals, while Democrats are the other way around. Of course, this gets all kind of screwed up looking at details but in general it holds up. Of course I don't like Obama mostly because of his economic policies, which I think are dangerous. Those policies are generally labeled "liberal" - but they are not. They are actually the opposite of liberal. It is just that over decades of misuse the term "liberal" has become synonymous with "left" in political jargon: which is completely wrong. This is why amusingly when I looked up "liberal" there were many possible definitions: 1. Favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties. 2. progressive politically or socially: favo...

New research shows that long-endurance space flight will have the side effects of making humans short, overweight, and generally unattractive. Much as floating around with no gravity would be fun for a while, after a while it leads to blood pooling in strange places, bone loss, and other effects. Right now NASA is recruiting "pillownauts" to stay in bed for long periods of time to mimic the effects of space flight. Hopefully, sometime in the not to distant future we set out on missions long than those achieved 40 years ago. But the end result - especially if there are generations involved - is not likely to be pretty. Humans may well end up short, blobby, and with really big heads: blood pools in the head without gravity as the heart is built to compensate for the gravity that is no longer there. So while my dreams of humans colonizing space remain unchanged, unfortunately it looks like we might all be ugly when we do it.

Turns out that for some idiotic reason a developer is trying to get a "ecovillage" built on top of the Top Gear test track. Turns out that more or less those whole kit and caboodle is owned by the UK Govt. which is not a good thing. The developer is independent, but the land, the BBC, and Royal Bank of Scotland who is putting up the money (the loan) are all crown properties. The locals are against the development - as they should be. I would like to think estimated 350,000,000 fans worldwide would also be against destroying the track. Seriously - it is one of the most popular global TV shows - how the hell did this even get mentioned seriously? Hopefully someone realizes just how stupid they are, fires themselves, and we will get to compare the 2020 WRX STI against the 2005 WRX STI lap times on the same track with the same driver (because obviously the Stig does not age.)

So the big electronics industry conference went down this weekend - and other than the fact that you cant now get a iPhone for only $99 (and $2,000 a year) - the most interesting news comes from Sony and the Xbox team. Turns out that the runaway success of the Wii has drawn their attention. The Wii has far outsold either of the other two consoles while having guts (processor, memory etc) more competitive to the original Xbox and the PS2. In response, PS3 will basically be getting a Wiimote, albeit one with a glowing ball on the end. In classic Sony style it is highly engineered and will have even greater accuracy that the Wiimote with the Wii Motion Plus (which is already far better than the original and pretty sloppy Wiimote). Sony's answer to the Wii should be shipping sometime in next March or thereabouts. However, I dont really think that this is such a big deal. My reasons are this: the PS3 has generally been bought by the hardcore gamers (it has the best technical specs and i...

Seems that while it has been confirmed that Penske will be taking over Saturn, they wont be getting the Sky. Which is really too bad. What they will be keeping is: Aura - the rebodied Opel which is a decent car Vue - the rebodied Opel which is a decent Crossover Outlook - the rebodied GM which is a decent big Crossover I think possibly the most interesting thing is that we will be seeing car companies which are small and independent going up against the giants of the industry. For the last 20 years, no one has really made it. I would like to think that a number of small and effective car companies could really put pressure on the big guys - and hopefully get more products to the "long tail" - those of us who dont want a red camry. On another auto note - and I appologize for so much auto news going into the BoN, but it has been a crazy time - it looks like Hummer is not going to be sold to whatever the heck the name of that heavy equipment company was. In a move that is not r...

This one is totally pointless, but still rather amusing. Seems the campaign slogan "Yes We Can" was already taken before Obama started his run at the White House. The first user of the slogan? Ahmadinejad. This is him pointing to the arabic for "Yes We Can" back in 2005.

So, I checked out the Maps function. I have not used anything but Google Maps for years - and I still like it better. However, obviously in an attempt to catch up with Streetview - Microsoft has something called bird's eye. Which is pretty much exactly as it sounds. Not as good for finding that one specific restaurant that you want to get to - but I think better for looking at a neighborhood overall. See below:

Bing is the replacement for MS Live Search and all the other terribly named search engines MSFT has had. And the thing is.. well.. I like it. It looks good, comes with cool interesting background images with associated information: today is Thailand - check it out www.bing.com It completely apes google in the way that searches are presented, along with a little more interesting and useful stuff on the right hand side. It also does a good job of presenting additional info (prices and reviews on products, search functions for popular sites, information and data about what you are searching for - though this is not Wolfram|Alpha). Of course, it is rare that I actually go to google.com anymore: I have the bar built into my firefox, and have google desktop - so just hitting ctrl twice pops up another search bar. But, I think for a while I will be trying bing whenever I actually bother going to the a search website - I think Microsoft has pulled ahead now in terms of functionality - it will...

Not confirmed yet - but it seems Penske just bought Saturn. Penske, which along with truck rental operates the second largest dealership network in the US, will use Saturn as a distribution channel for other companies products - including possibly extending the current arrangement of sourcing Opels - which would in this case be coming from Magna. For those who dont know - Magna bought Opel alongn with Vauxhall (Opel in the UK) and Chevy Russia. The trick to this is that Magna is one of the largest tier 1 suppliers to auto companies around the world - and it will now be competing directly with its customers. Works if you really belive in pure economics but something is bound to go wrong. That said, Magna is well run and one of the few companies to be still on very solid ground right now. My biggest hope is that this means somehow, somewhere, the Sky will survive..

Wait for the last line, or just skip to the last five seconds, its a classic.

"So we paid $30 billion for 60% of $90 billion in debt? Could we please stop buying shitty companies!" Classic.

Just realized this. With Hummer a two-car car-company, the "Corporate" in CAFE is no longer GM, but rather Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. Which means they are going to be screwed by CAFE if they dont start pumping out (and selling) little eco-friendly Hummerletts.

"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," - I did not make this up.

Ok, thats not totally fair. It is actually a big generalized Chinese industrial concern, and it makes a lot of different stuff. But the closest it comes currently to making cars is... farm equipment and 18 wheelers. So I guess Hummer has a nice new home. Of course, what they do with it is open to question. Currently Hummer has two vehicles, the Suburban based H2 and the Canyon based H3. Developing their own platforms or smaller vehicles will likely be the key to success for Hummer, but I would not at all be surprised for it to pull completely out of the US market in a year or two, as the current gen vehicles become outdated (for the US). Not to mention - the whole patriotic "I drive a Hummer, which is kind of related to the vehicle that stormed Iraq" thing does not really work when it was made by a Chinese company (albeit in a US factory, which is arguably more patriotic than a US car made in a Korean or Mexican factory).

Though the winner of this one would seem to be a no-brainer, it looks like Vietnam is building up firepower to take on China if needed. It is of course not the first time that the two nations fought: In 1979, feeling its oats in the aftermath of the victory over the US, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to topple the PRC backed Khmer Rouge. The PRC was not a big fan of this, and attacked Vietnam - Vietnam was communist, but was allied with Russia, not China. The border war was pretty brief however. In 1988 the two countries briefly clashed when Vietnam tried to land troops to on some of the Spratlys claimed by China - the ships were sunk by the PRC Army Navy. And, going back a lot further than that - the two countries have long been at odds, and are traditional enemies, with a fair deal of animosity on both sides. This time the conflict is again over the Spratly islands - the long-running source of conflict in the region. The question comes down to who owns what. Just about every country in the...

A new robot sub, sponsored by the Woods Hole Institute, is exploring the Marianas trench. This is of course the deepest point on earth and home to many weird and wonderful creatures. It has been explored one other time since Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh went deep in the Trieste - the Japanese sent a robot sub down there in 1995. The plan is to go down into the Challenger Deep - the specifically deepest point on earth. I just hope they brought along a few good cameras (I'm sure they did) and that some of the footage finds its way to the BBC. Challenger Deep in the Pacific's Mariana Trench is more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is high. Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

I may be wrong on this one. I hope I am wrong on this one. But I think I will be right. The way that most countries have dealt with the credit crises and the global economic slowdown is by spending more. Spending more than they "earn": far far more than they "earn." This is of course the way that a lot of individuals, and to some extent, a lot of companies got into trouble. When it comes down to it, you cant find buyers for your debt at prices which allow you to keep things running along smoothly. Essentially, I think that the wave of debt offerings triggered by the massive overspending of the US and other nations will be facing skeptical buyers. A failed Latvian offering today is one of the first signs that things are not going well. It will start with smaller, less secure nations, but it will go all the way to the top. The end result will be inflation. Quite possibly hyperinflation. This is a scary prospect, as it would easily turn what has been a tough but not ex...

From Ranimal... this is classic: Class lll Hitch Install... (patent pending..) Wouldn't you love to see how the trip went...? Good chance he ended up doin' some unintended off roadin' somewhere. Check the 'hills' in the background. Howja like to meet this rig on a two-lane road...coming down the mountain in your direction...? She's hitched up and ready to roll!! Amazin' how the extra weight smoothes out the ride. Needed to air up the rear tires a bit ('bout 160 psi). Added some super heavy-duty chain for extra support on the tailgate, (note the 'Heavy-Duty 'S' hooks to attach the chain) Also paid-up for some BIG Number 5/16 sheet metal screws to attach the Reese hitch frame to the tailgate (see 'em there? one on each side...) Likely two more through the carpet into the floor pan inside... Yep, probably overkill, but didn't want the possibility of having an axerdent. Most of the time was spent on the front porch whittli...

One of the most important features of the US relation to the world for the last 50 years has been the extended deterrence offered to allied nations. In other words, if anyone used a nuke on our ally, we would use a nuke on the aggressor. The problem is that we are now looking to dismantle our nuclear programs (and by "we" I mean Obama) at a time when the rest of the world is adding nukes. The big one is of course N. Korea and its now successful nuclear program. The fear is that without credible extended deterrence from the US, S. Korea and possibly Japan would be forced to start their own nuclear weapons programs. It is assumed given their wealth and technological advancement, it would take each of these states only a year or so to build their first nuke. The thinking goes, and I agree with it, the fewer states with nukes the better. The more countries with nukes, especially with limited nuclear arsenals which dont create the fear of world-ending annihilation, the more likely...

This is an interesting new search engine - from the really smart (British) guy who created Mathmatica - it does not search the web and point you in the direction of a website. Instead, it searches a knowledge databases (created from the web) and then shows you the "answer" to your question. I would suggest playing with it, as in my initial testing of it I have found it quite interesting, though exactly how useful it will be remains to be seen. www.wolframalpha.com

Almost forgot the spin news of the morning - to try and tamper the political risks of announcing the nationalization of GM, the Masters of the Universe... I mean Obama Administration have announced they.. I mean the bankruptcy Judge.. has allowed the sale of Chrysler to Fiat. Of course, there is no buyer for GM, because it is too freaking huge (even after selling off and killing off chunks of itself). Part of me is glad that GM will not be liquidated, the car-lover part of me. But a whole lot of me is really scared.

GM declared bankruptcy today with $82 billion in assets and $172 billion in debts. The company will be nationalized, with the US government taking 60%, and Canada taking 12%. The rest will probably go to the UAW and bondholders. It is expected that the US govt. will invest/lend another $30 billion over the $20 billion already invested/lent. Opel will be bought by Magna, Saturn will be sold off (probably to Penske), Saab will be sold off, Hummer will be sold off, Pontiac will be killed, 40% of dealers will be cut loose, 12 to 20 factories will be closed, and 21,000 workers will be laid off. Obama will be giving a speech to the nation as to how GM will be run, and returned to good health. To a great extent I do not wish to believe the era that we are living in.

The iPlayer - the expensive but ultimately highly successful attempt to put all BBC programming up on the web as a ad-free VOD service might be coming to the US - albeit with ads this time. The iPlayer has been only available to those with a British IP address, which is really too bad, because there is a ton of stuff that I would like to watch - and watch the current season of - as opposed to BBC America which really waters down the content for some reason (why do we get 1 year old top-gear? WHY??) This would be a fantastic move, and another step towards tv/movies over the internet becoming one of my most-watched sources of entertainment.