If ya got some white friends, they'll be clapping like this, y'all.

Random QBert post

GOP needs 'hip-hop' makeover

"Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

Full Article

Clearly the problem with the Republican party was it isn't hip hop enough.

Dear NYU, there is a lesson here

The lesson is simple, don't let kids like this into your school. Similarly, don't offer tenure to faculty that help to cultivate this sort of anti-social behavior. Communism is about greed. These kids want something they cannot afford to pay for and they are willing to violate the rights of others to get it. That is the essence of greed.

To be certain, the banner makes a valid point. NYU does over charge many students. Many qualified students are likely overcharged in order to compensate for the undercharging of many students. The problem is easily resolved, but I doubt these kids would like the solution.

Contango and Crash

The above chart shows the year to date performance of two different "Double Long" Oil investments you could have made to speculate on the price of oil. Clearly investments that have the seemingly same objective, doubling the performance of an investment in oil futures contracts. Regardless of what one feels about the direction of oil, clearly there is a dramatic dispersion in the performance.

Clearly Ultra DJ-AIG Crude Oil (UCO) and PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Long have similar names. The difference is in the "roll method" the funds use in the futures market and the leverage methods. The DB has a proprietary optimizion method that attempts to mitigate the effects of contango by buying the contracts that cost the least per month to hold. The AIG index lacks this. Futher, the DB index is leveraged monthly vs. daily. Proshares has a good explaination of this issue on there site.

Bottom line stick with investments you understand or seek advice of someone who does understand. Most people don't understand contango or the way daily compounding effects long term returns. People who lost 40% in UCO probably had no idea what they were getting involved with.


*This blog is not a suggestion to buy or sell any security.

Please VW don't do it

As seen on Autoblog. A terrible, terrible design. VW don't start selling shitty Americanized cars. People already hate your stupid Dodge minivan.

Please build: GTI - 200 lbs + 80 horsepower + 4 Motion = R20

And no, please don't try to build this car without 4 Motion. It will be awful.

Fast, good, pasta.

Very simple.

Boil water.

Add salt (it should taste like the sea as they say).

Cook spaghetti until very close to done. More than say, if you were going to finish it in a tomato sauce.

Add olive oil, balsamic, crumbled bleu cheese, and black pepper to taste.

This would probably work with ramen. Gourmet dorm food.

High at the dentist, great stuff

Baked Beans

I loosely followed this recipe over the weekend, with 5 pieces of bacon omitting the salt pork, and prepared mustard instead of powder (a somewhat random quantity). I also put in a bit less ketchup. Cooking them far longer than suggested helps with the texture of the beans. However, I was bit short on soaking the beans. To anyone who hasn't used dry beans before, reading up on phytohaemagglutinin is a good idea.

I normally avoid Emeril's recipes as the seem to be untested or just not that good. This is an exception. Even if you don't know how to cook, this will probably turn out decent. Just be sure to cook the bacon until it is reasonably crispy. Once the onion and celery was added to the bacon, I knew it would be delicious. It takes what you expect to be a forgetable side, to the status of something that could be eaten as a meal.