And the hits just keep on coming: BOSTON (Reuters) — General Electric Co.’s WMC Mortgage unit is laying off 460 staffers across the United States, representing about 20 percent of its work force, spokeswoman Brandie Young said Friday. The mortgage lender has also stopped writing new loans to people who do not make down payments, […]
A group over in Europe apparently specializes in high-quality film mashups. This trailer — Arnold Schwarzenegger in James Cameron’s “Hamlet is Back” — is so well done that it’s not entirely clear how they did it. And if you go to their web site, you’ll find such things as Gollum and Smeagol singing a Barry […]
[UPDATED 03/09/07 — 15:41 MST] GE is cutting staff and ending no-down-payment mortgages. [UPDATED 03/08/07 — 07:41 MST] New Century (#2 sub-prime lender) calls it quits; the question now is how long until WAMU, Wells Fargo and Countrywide start to show signs of the financial pressure they are under, too. The unwinding of the Yen […]
This ad wasn’t done by Barack Obama’s campaign — and I suspect that Steve Jobs at Apple won’t be very happy with it [*] — but, boy, it’s certainly effective (or, at least, amusing). Hat tip to The New Editor via Instapundit. ..bruce.. [*] The ad uses footage and sound from Apple’s famous ‘1984’ ad, […]
The always-erudite and readable Mark Steyn traces the surprising and convoluted history of one of the best-known songs of the 20th century: The third take almost collapsed at the outset as the unrehearsed musicians dithered and fished for the key, but once they started cooking, the song was glory bound. ‘Mbube’ wasn’t the most remarkable […]
The first woman to win a Silver Star since World War II: Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester fought her way through an enemy ambush south of Baghdad, killing three insurgents with her M-4 rifle to save fellow soldiers’ lives — and yesterday became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star medal […]
No, not on Earth – on Mars. A growing number of people are raising a stink about global warming, claiming that mankind is causing the world we all share to heat, by some claims, to a point that will cause a climatic catastrophe. Now a bit of a hint from Mars: Mars, too, appears to […]
For all of you burka fans out there (short German intro with a song)
In my latest post, I threw around a few terms at the end that may not be well understood. One of them in particular, Yen Carry Trade, is key to the risk our economy is in. Mark Larson from Money and Markets has an excellent write up A real monster behind the market plunge! Executive […]
Up Earth Creek without a paddle
I am a child of the Space Age (or, to use Robert Heinlein’s phrase from his ‘Future History‘ timeline, the False Dawn of Space Travel). I had just turned 8 years old when President Kennedy in May 1961 issued his famous challenge: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this […]
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