Alice Cooper Redux

Feral Boy, do you remember the billion dollar bill that came with the album?

I came late to AC's music, like in the last 5 years. Killer is one of the greatest albums ever. I was too obsessed with Springsteen to take AC seriously back then. I missed the boat, like so many other boats in my youth.

Speaking of Springsteen, here's a Louis C.K. video that's gone viral in case you've missed it.


There's something about listening to Springsteen in the car as a man in the midst of middle age that brings on uncontrollable tears. I know, I know...

Another One of Wandering Earl's Money-Making Schemes?

What I love about the sign is he uses the correct form of "it's".  No, what I really love about the sign is the pure chutzpah.

Wandering Earl

Here's a lesson on the doggedness of a person bent on staying on the road for life.

...

Time to Storm the Bastille! I'll Be Right Behind You, Feral Boy

The redistribution of wealth continues. From the Wall Street Journal blog:

Only Richest 7% Saw Wealth Gains From 2009 to 2011, by Neil Shah: ... From 2009 to 2011, the average wealth of America’s richest 7% — the 8 million households with a net worth north of about $800,000 — rose nearly 30% to $3.2 million from $2.5 million, according to a Pew Research Center report... By contrast, the average wealth of America’s remaining 93%, some 111 million households, actually dropped by 4% to $134,000 from $140,000. ...

The findings show that America’s economic recovery has been not just sluggish, but painfully uneven in its benefits. Rallying stock and bond markets have boosted the wealth of America’s most affluent... The upper 7% of households held 63% of the nation’s wealth at the end of 2011, up from 56% in 2009.

“Wealth inequality increased during the first two years of the recovery,” the authors said. “On an individual household basis, the mean wealth of households in [the] more affluent group was almost 24 times that of those in the less affluent group in 2011. At the start of the recovery in 2009, that ratio had been less than 18-to-1.”

!&!

Capitalism and Its Discontents

Pacific Bluefin Tuna Stocks to be Replenished *

From an AP story:

A bluefin tuna sold for a record $1.76 million at a Tokyo auction Saturday, nearly three times the previous high set last year — even as environmentalists warn that stocks of the majestic, speedy fish are being depleted worldwide amid strong demand for sushi. The price works out to a stunning 700,000 yen per kilogram, or $3,603 per pound. The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., which operates the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, said "the price was a bit high," but that he wanted to "encourage Japan," according to Kyodo News agency. He was planning to serve the fish to customers later Saturday. The best slices of fatty bluefin — called "o-toro" here — can sell for 2,000 yen ($24) per piece at upmarket Tokyo sushi bars.

Stocks of all three bluefin species —the Pacific, Southern and Atlantic — have fallen over the past 15 years amid overfishing. Bluefin tuna populations in the Atlantic Ocean have declined over 70% in the last 30 years. The Southern Bluefin, which swims in the southern Pacific, has plunged to 3-8 percent of its original levels. On Monday, an intergovernmental group is to release data on Pacific Bluefin stocks that environmentalists believe will likely show an alarming decline.

Therefore, all profits from this sale will go towards efforts to repopulate Bluefin stocks, including lobbying for legislation, with stiff penalties, to adopt and enforce science-based, sustainable limits on both the minimum-size and number of Pacific bluefin tuna that can be caught.*

* Feral Boy is just kidding! Bluefin tuna profits will continue to be used for Eastern European prostitutes and panties that have been soiled by teen-aged school girls. Bluefin tuna populations will continue to decline toward extinction.

Royal Consequences

We didn't make any donations after the Crown Jewels tour and this happens. It turns out those donation boxes were sincere appeals to the public from the royal family.

Guess Which One Costs More

See comment for the answer

How to Beat High Airfares

This occurred to me before when looking at flights, but I lost patience or fretted about winding up on the no-fly list or something.

(from the New York Times)

By NATE SILVER 

Air travel remains a necessity, even as it gets ever more expensive. First, the cost of flights, which fell throughout most of the 2000s relative to inflation, is climbing once again thanks to higher fuel prices. And then there are the added fees for everything from checked baggage to those vile croissanwiches.

Well, there’s a way to save some of that money. It’s called “hidden-city ticketing,” but before I explain how to execute the maneuver, you’re going to need some background. Passengers flying to or from airports that are dominated by a single carrier — like Memphis, Newark or Dallas/Fort Worth — pay fares 20 or 30 percent higher than at non-hub airports. The prices are even more inflated when you’re flying from a smaller city with a limited number of flights. A nonstop one-way ticket from Des Moines to Dallas/Fort Worth is $375 on American Airlines, for example — more than the $335 Delta will charge you to fly from Miami to Anchorage.

But what happens when you’re interested in flying American from Des Moines to Los Angeles, which hosts a more competitive airport? That flight is only about half the price ($186), despite its being more than double the distance. Now, here’s the trick: American flights from Des Moines to L.A. have a layover in Dallas. If you want to travel to Dallas, the best way to get a reasonable fare is to book the flight to Los Angeles instead, and simply get off the plane at Dallas.

Making a habit of this certainly won’t endear you to the airlines. Most of them — the major exception being free-spirited Southwest Airlines — expressly forbid it in their ticketing rules. But those rules don’t carry the force of law, and most travel lawyers say that their recourse is limited. They could probably preclude you from flying with them in the future, but their case for demanding penalties is weak, and the risk of detection is low if you don’t book these kinds of routes more often than a couple of times per carrier per year. Just remember these tips for successfully executing the phantom flight trick:

1. Look to employ the switcheroo when your final destination is at a hub airport dominated by just one or two carriers, like Atlanta, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Detroit, Cincinnati or Chicago O’Hare, all of which have overpriced tickets.

2. When you’re traveling to one of those cities, you should search for phantom flights into airports that are more competitive — New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Boston are good examples. Search engines like Kayak.com will allow you to select your routing through your desired layover airport.

3. Book your itinerary as a set of two one-way flights, rather than as a round trip. If you miss any segment of your itinerary, the airline will usually cancel the rest of it.

4. Don’t check your bags, because they’ll find their way to the final destination listed on your itinerary. And get to your gate early, lest the overhead bins fill up.

5. Don’t lie if you get caught — travel lawyers agree that misstating your intentions could leave you facing fraud charges. Instead, proudly state that you’re doing your part to help the airlines understand the inefficiencies in their pricing structures, and that you’re bringing exorbitant fares more in line with the free market.

**

Twins, The Early Years

I've come up with an idea for a sequel to the classic Schwartzenegger and DeVito film, Twins - it's along the same lines as the no-stars Dumb & Dumberer leeching off... er, I mean building on... the success of Dumb & Dumber. Here are (fingers crossed!) the starring players (contracts pending):





I'm looking for savvy investors (such as yourself!) for this can't-lose venture. Have your girl call my girl.
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Why Are People So Worked Up About the Economy? Everything's Just Peachy!

From today's Times:

"American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms."
. . .

Brewdog

Again, from WIRED: Scotland's Brewdog brewery recently broke the record for World's Strongest Beer with a quaff they called the End of History (55% ABV). It was served in a taxidermied squirrel and sold for $1000 a pop.

Suicide Watch

Time's running out, rocky.
From The New York Times:
Bay Area moves ahead with plans for suicide net

SAN FRANCISCO — For 73 years, people have poured onto the picturesque Golden Gate Bridge to... jump to their deaths — an act transportation officials moved to stop Wednesday by authorizing money for a suicide barrier.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees transportation financing in the Bay Area, approved $5 million in federal money for the final engineering and design of a steel-mesh net to hang 20 feet below the span and catch would-be jumpers. Officials estimate the net system will cost an additional $45 million to build and install.

Entire Planet Awash in Unmitigated Gall

NYT: The future of BP’s offshore oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico has been thrown into doubt by the recent drilling disaster and court wrangling over a moratorium.


But about three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.

All other new projects in the Arctic have been halted by the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling, including more traditional projects like Shell Oil’s plans to drill three wells in the Chukchi Sea and two in the Beaufort.

But BP’s project, called Liberty, has been exempted as regulators have granted it status as an “onshore” project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea. The reason: it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP.

The project has already received its state and federal environmental permits, but BP has yet to file its final application to federal regulators to begin drilling, which it expects to start in the fall.

Some scientists and environmentalists say that other factors have helped keep the project moving forward.

Rather than conducting their own independent analysis, federal regulators, in a break from usual practice, allowed BP in 2007 to write its own environmental review for the project as well as its own consultation documents relating to the Endangered Species Act, according to two scientists from the Alaska office of the federal Mineral Management Service that oversees drilling.

Full story.

More photos from the Gulf.


.....

Economic Hope, Courtesy of Shanti

Interesting Architecture

"Now you can reserve an apartment in the first Rotating Skyscraper in Dubai by putting your name on the reservation list! " (How novel.)

From DynamicArchitecture.net: Dr. David Fisher's Dynamic Tower is the first building in motion that will change its shape and add a fourth dimension to architecture: Time. The shape will be determined by each floor's direction of rotation, speed, acceleration and the timing; with timing meaning how each floor rotates compared to the other. The rotation speed will be between 60 minutes and 24 hours for one revolution.

Residents, if they own the entire floor, are able to control the speed and direction of the rotation by voice command. One can have breakfast watching the sunrise, lunch viewing the open sea, and dinner overlooking the lights of the city - all from the same place inside their unit. The other floors will be commanded by the architect, by the mayor or whoever will have the password to the computer program that will give the building a different shape at every glance.






From StudioGang.net: In an increasingly dense city like Chicago, views from a new tower must be negotiated between existing buildings. Aqua tower considers criteria such as views, solar shading and function to derive a vertical system of contours that gives the structure its sculptural form. Its vertical topography is defined by its outdoor terraces that gradually change in plan over the length of the tower. These terraces offer a strong connection to the outdoors and allow inhabitants to occupy the building façade and city simultaneously. The result is a highly sculptural building when viewed obliquely that transforms into a slender rectangle from further away. Its powerful form suggests the limestone outcroppings and geologic forces that shaped the great lakes region.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai is set to open the world's tallest building amid tight security today, celebrating the tower as a bold feat on the world stage despite the city- state's shaky financial footing.

But the final height of the Burj Dubai — Arabic for Dubai Tower — remained a closely guarded secret on the eve of its opening. At a reported height of 2,684 feet, it long ago vanquished its nearest rival, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

The Burj's record-seeking developers didn't stop there.

The building boasts the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world and ranks as the world's tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North Dakota. Its observation deck — on floor 124 — also sets a record.

"We weren't sure how high we could go," said Bill Baker, the building's structural engineer, who is in Dubai for the inauguration. "It was kind of an exploration — a learning experience."

Easy Money

The rich fucking us over again:

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/10/17/how-wall-street-is-making-its-billions/

....

Fair Is Fair

These two Americans were just awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics -- despite having done nothing quantifiable to repair the world economy, let alone the economic turmoil in their native country!

I mean, where's the outcry?

Belize Update

Finally! A shift change at the convenience stores and fry chicken shacks of Caye Caulker!...

Many eyebrows were raised on Saturday when a chartered Aero-Mexico plane loaded with 28 Chinese nationals from mainland China landed at the Phillip SW Goldson International Airport at around 6:30 in the evening...

Full story.