Damn Cool Pics

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McDonald’s Happy Meals for Horror Film Fans Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:59 PM PDT This is what they would look like. Not for kids. Via newtclements

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Confirming Rich Cordray to Lead the CFPB

Here's What's Happening Here at the White House           DAILY SNAPSHOT Saturday, July 20, 2013           Featured  Weekly Address: Confirming Rich Cordray to Lead the CFPB In this week’s address, President Obama discusses the Senate’s confirmation of Rich Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is an independent watchdog set up to protect families from irresponsible behavior in the financial sector – one that puts mortgage lenders, student lenders, payday lenders, and credit reporting and debt collection agencies under greater scrutiny, while providing the American people a place to get some measure of justice if they don’t play by the rules. Watch this week's Weekly Address.       Top Stories Watch the West Wing Week here. Two Presidents in the White House: Former President George H.W. Bush joined President Obama at the White House on Monday to honor the 5,000th Daily Point of Light Award winners. This award recognizes Americans that serve their communities in unique ways. At the event, President Obama announced his plan to continue President Bush’s legacy: a new Presidential Memorandum on expanding national service. The President’s initiative will help Americans become more engaged in service by tapping the full resources of the federal government. Immigration Reform: Spanish-language television anchors from around the country were offered a unique opportunity on Tuesday – the chance to visit the White House with behind-the-scenes access and interview President Obama. After attending briefings surrounding issues important to Latinos, the reporters spoke with President Obama about the importance of comprehensive immigration reform. “Immigration is always difficult – it always has been in this country,” said President Obama. “But what’s also been true is that this is the thing that separated America from every other country on Earth. It’s part of what makes us special, and we have to continue that tradition by passing comprehensive immigration reform.”  Protecting Americans: After blocking a vote on his nomination for two years, the Senate confirmed Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday. President Obama spoke from the East Room on Wednesday about the significance of Cordray’s role – one that looks out for the financial interests of every day Americans. The President noted the accomplishments already made by the CFPB and said that with a leader in place, the Bureau would be well equipped to continue protecting consumers.  "Today, if you want to take out a mortgage or a student loan or a payday loan, or you’ve got a credit reporting agency or debt collector who’s causing you problems -- maybe they're not playing by the rules, maybe they're taking advantage of you -- you have somewhere to go.  The CFPB has already addressed more than 175,000 complaints from all across the nation, giving people an advocate who is working with them when they're dealing with these financial institutions that may not always be thinking about consumers first." Health Care Refunds: President Obama spoke from the White House on Thursday to discuss the Affordable Care Act. This year, 8.5 million Americans will receive a refund from their health insurance company, thanks to a rule that requires insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of their customers’ premiums on medical care, instead of administrative costs. “So this is just an example of how the Affordable Care Act is doing what it’s designed to do: deliver more choices, better benefits, a check on rising costs, and higher quality care,” the President said. “That’s what it was designed to do, and we’re already seeing those effects take place.”  President Obama discusses Trayvon Martin: The President surprised the White House Press Corps today with an appearance in the Briefing Room to talk about Trayvon Martin and the verdict in the trial following the teenager's death. "Watching the debate over the course of the last week, I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit," the President said: "You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.  Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.  And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away."   Facebook    Twitter   |   More Ways to Engage Did Someone Forward This to You? Sign Up for Email Updates This email was sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111

Seth's Blog : Sort & search

 

Sort & search

Search is powerful, essential and lucrative. Google demonstrated just how much value can be created when you let people easily find what they want.

Sort, on the other hand, is easily overlooked and something that most of us can can work with.

For example, the way a restaurant sorts the wines on the wine list at will have a dramatic impact on what people order. If you list the cheap wines first, people will probably end up spending less. And when your wine list migrates to an iPad and you let the diner sort by price, popularity and other indicators, consumption patterns will instantly change.

Hotels.com, Zagats, Kayak and hundreds of other sites let you sort by quality, ranking and price. Not only does this change the way we choose, it also changes the behavior of the those being ranked! Once a metric for ranking becomes popular (or the default) then those being ranked will work to make their ranking go up. No surprise. Then how come Airbnb.com doesn't let users rank places by the quality of their reviews? It would cost them close to nothing, but it would dramatically change how hard a location works to earn good ratings.

When someone encounters what you make, you must make a choice about the order of what's on offer, and you also make the choice as to whether or not you'll let the user sort by other attributes. Typepad doesn't provide me with a way to let you sort the posts on this blog by popularity, but it would certainly change how you consumed it if they did.

Alphabetical, numerical and first-come sorts by default are primarily a copout. They imply that a simple search is what the user is after, but that's almost never the case. Users want you to build information into the order of things. When we have the guts (and tech) to provide relevant sorting, we present a point of view and train our users as well as our providers.

When we rank people, or the products we create, we have the opportunity to not only change the way people select, we can also change what we make.

       

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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

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Japan Tells Firms "Stop Sitting on Cash", Ignore the Lack of Customers Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:40 PM PDT If you are looking for idiotic policies in action, the theories of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should be right in your spotlight. Abe now tells Japanese firms "Stop Sitting on Cash" Okuma, a Japanese machine-tool maker, has seen its stock price rise around 30% this year. Its customers have outdated machinery that needs replacing. But, for now, the company isn't investing. Instead, it is sitting on a pile of cash worth about $280 million—50% higher than its pile a decade ago, equivalent to one-fifth its annual sales, and more than twice the level required for the firm to be deemed loan-worthy by a bank. Why? Senior director Chikashi Horie says the answer is simple. Okuma's clients "are not investing, not even to raise efficiency, so we are not investing either," he says. Okuma's thinking embodies one of the key challenges for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambitious growth plan: persuading Japan's famously stingy companies to stop stashing their earnings in the bank, and putting the money to more productive use, helping complete—rather than short-circuit—the virtuous economic cycle. Blatantly Obvious Idiocy What is with these central planning fools anyway? Not only do they think they know better than the free markets, they want companies to produce what their customers clearly do not want. The irony in this situation is that Abe is hell bent on producing inflation in Japan. Here's a simple question: What happens to prices when more products are produced in the face of falling or static demand? Abe is a fool in the first place for his inflation targets, but he is even more of a fool to think producing merchandise no one wants is the way to achieve that goal.  Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Avalanche of City Debt Downgrades and Eventual Bankruptcies Coming Up; Numerous Cities Bankrupt Over Pension Promises Posted: 19 Jul 2013 10:15 AM PDT Yesterday Moody's downgrades Chicago's credit rating, pension debt to blame. Chicago's credit score is on the way down. The city is getting a small down grade from Aa3 to A3, because of the city's pension problem. Moody's Investors Service says it's making the move because of "formidable legal and political barriers to pension reform" in the state. The downgrade affects $8.2 billion in debt and means it will cost the city more to borrow money. According to Moody's Chicago has $19 billion in unfunded pension liability and faces a "tremendous strain" in meeting their budget and paying law enforcement. Avalanche of City Downgrades Coming Up With the bankruptcy of Detroit and numerous cities in California, it will not be long before the rating agencies downgrade city debt en masse. Zombified Cities Philadelphia: 5th Largest City in US is Effectively Bankrupt; Mayor Holds Closed Meeting With Wall Street to Discuss Asset Sales Houston: CPAs state Houston is Bankrupt LA: Mayor of Los Angeles Says "Bankruptcy is Not an Option" (Of Course It Is) New York Cities: Public Pension Ponzi Scheme - New York Cities Borrow From Pension Plan to Make Contributions Baltimore: Time for Baltimore to "Pull a Vallejo" and Declare Bankruptcy Miami: Miami Commissioner Says Bankruptcy is City's Best Hope; Chris Christie Says New Jersey Careens Towards Becoming Greece Chicago: Chicago's Mayor Daley Discusses Bankruptcy For City Pensions  Scranton: Scranton Mayor Slashes All Public Worker Wages to $7.25 per Hour, Including Police, Fire, His Own; City Effectively Bankrupt Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Capital Files for Bankruptcy Zombified Cities Roundup: Detroit Becomes Dumping Ground for the Dead; Financial Urgency in Miami; Oakland Pension Time Bomb; How Pensions Crashed Stockton and San Bernardino There is absolutely no way Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, LA, Houston, and numerous other cities can meet pension obligations without a major restructuring of promises. Given that public unions seldom if ever agree on even the smallest of pension concessions, expect many of those haircuts to happen in bankruptcy court. This article regarding the bankruptcy of Stockton, California shows why bankruptcy is inevitable: Federal Bankruptcy Court Lets Stockton, California Cut Retiree Health Care Benefits The bankruptcies in California cities and Detroit provide a backdrop of what's about to happen. In the meantime, expect an avalanche of city debt downgrades. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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Damn Cool Pics

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London flooded by Romanian Gypsies Posted: 18 Jul 2013 09:08 PM PDT Roma gypsies refuse to leave parks in central London. Germany, France, the UK. It seems like many Roma gypsies moved from Romania to the Western Europe after Romania has joined the European Union. This is what one shop owner from London says: 'They really smell, they don't clean, they don't shower, and they will not wash their hands. I serve them here every day. The way I serve them, I say to them stay outside the shop. I have asthma so the smell is not good for me.

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President Obama: Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me

Here's What's Happening Here at the White House           DAILY SNAPSHOT Friday, July 19, 2013             Featured  President Obama: Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me This afternoon, President Obama spoke from the White House Press Briefing Room about Trayvon Martin and the verdict of the trial that followed the Florida teenager’s death. Watch the President's remarks, then share this email with your friends and family.       Top Stories West Wing Week: 07/19/13 or "It's Hard To Argue With Success" This week, the 44th President hosted the 41st President at the White House to confer the 5,000th Daily Point of Light award, honored Richard Cordray as the newly confirmed Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, sat down to talk with Spanish language news anchors, and spoke on the importance of supporting full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. READ MORE Celebrating the Past and Making Progress in the Future While we know that lasting change takes time, perseverance, and a commitment to the truth that we can make this world a better place, we also know that there are defining moments in every major movement, where we feel the ground shift, and we know that change is in fact coming. READ MORE A Refund from Your Health Insurance Company? Thank the Affordable Care Act Did you know that 8.5 million Americans are getting a refund this year from their health insurance companies? READ MORE       Today's Schedule All times are Eastern Time (ET) 10:15 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing 11:30 AM: The Vice President meets with law enforcement officials to discuss commonsense immigration reform 1:30 PM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney 2:45 PM: The President meets with senior advisors 5:00 PM: The President and the First Lady host the Diplomatic Corps Reception   Facebook    Twitter   |   More Ways to Engage Did Someone Forward This to You? Sign Up for Email Updates This email was sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111