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POPSWall Street Derivatives: So complex as to be "Computationall intractable" MORE: In principle, an alert buyer can detect tampering even if he doesn't know which asset classes are the lemons: he simply examines all 1000 CDOs and looks for a suspicious overrepresentation of some of the asset classes in some of the CDOs. What Arora et al. show is that is an NP-complete problem ("densest subgraph"). This problem is believed to be computationally intractable; thus, even the most alert buyer can't have enough computational power to do the analysis. Arora et al. show it's even worse than that: even after the buyer has lost a lot of money (because enough mortgages defaulted to devalue his "senior tranche"), he can't prove that that tampering occurred: he can't prove that the distribution of lemons wasn't random. This makes it hard to get recourse in court; it also makes it hard to regulate CDOs. Everyone on Wall Street... UP AGAINST THE WALL, THE LOT OF YOU BASTARDS!
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POPSThe Left Turns on Obama as the Right Breaks Out the Popcorn Third were the inflated lectures on historic foreign policy to be made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censured Saudi-run press organ . Fourth was the campaign rhetoric of Bush shredding the Constitution—FISA, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, renditions, etc.— followed by “all that for now stays the same”. Fifth, Gibbs as press secretary is a Scott McClellan nightmare that won’t go away . Blaming Fox News for Obama’s calamities is McClellan to the core and doesn’t work. Six, Biden is being Biden. Already, he’s ridiculed the chief justice, trashed the former VP, bragged on himself ad nauseam in Bidenesque weird ways, and it’s only been two weeks. At home, Obama is becoming laughable and laying the groundwork for the greatest conservative populist reaction since the Reagan Revolution.
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POPSAmazing Architecture of Dubai One never ceases to be amazed at the creativity of the human mind. Enjoy more photos of the beautiful and the unusual in buildings and in islands.
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POPSWeird Al Will Release Music As He Records It Parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic says that thanks to the internet, he can now release songs whenever he completes them, and doesn't have to wait until he's got a whole album done. It's a big deal for an artist like Al, who produces very topical music -- and perhaps its another nail in the coffin of album-centric music. Why go through all the cost and complication of recording, releasing, and promoting an album every few years, when you can just cheaply churn out singles and provide a more reliable revenue stream?
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POPSMiltant Atheism on the March! Al is back! This label of the militant atheist for nonviolent authors and speakers is asinine mudslinging. So stop using the term already, or else… Please watch the whole thing before inserting the standard "But Stalin..." BS.
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POPSExplorers, Daredevils & Record Setters of the 30's The Twenties and Thirties have always been an area of interest to me. The Roaring Twenties, where we drank Bathtub Gin and danced the Charleston. Speakeasies everywhere! (One reporter did an experiment in 25 different US Cities where he timed how long it would take to be able to buy illegal liquor. Shortest time was 21 seconds. Longest was 3 hours and 19 minutes. That must have been a "Dry County.") America was in love with the "new" vogue and any fads it could find. Just a few examples: phone booth stuffing (25 college students at University of Chicago), Marathon Dancing, Flagpole Sitting, Racecar Driving, Monopoly, the :"Talkies," Radio Programs, Coney Island, Daredevil Flying, Long-Distance Swimming, Harry Houdini, Solo Flights, Self-Made Millionaires, the Gangster (especially Al Capone who courted the media), Exploring the Unknown, and Political Radical Causes! History is amazing!
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POPSThe Legacy of Charles Fort Many people over the space of 5000 yrs of human civilization have claimed to be prophets, messiahs, holy men or the Illuminated as compared to the rest of us "mere" normals. Some have claimed to be masters of the Black Arts (Aleister Crowley, et al) and some have claimed to be immortal or possessing long lives (Comte de Saint-Germain, Cagliostro, John Dee) or incredible psychic awareness (Edgar Cayce, Uri Gellar, Madame Blavatsky) but as far as I know only one man made his life out of collecting facts that were witnessed by many and researched diligently by him that still astound us. You have seen the kinds of things I am talking about on the X-Files or read of it in the Tabloids, but this man never took it as more than a wonderful reach that man's scientific knowledge was far from complete. Charles Fort only collected curiosities as I do. He was my inspiration. This is his legacy.
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POPSYou're Pitiful - "Weird Al" Yankovic This is a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beaut... This is a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful." This song was actually recorded by "Weird Al" Yankovic, and is available for free download on his website. www.weirdal.com
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