12 Aug 2011
7 reasons the stock market is so volatile

Well, seven reasons are listed, but in the humble opinion of this observer, all but number 6 miss the mark completely: Computer trades are destabilzing.

Well, yes, they are. But why? There's only one reason and that's speed. When you have algorithms firing on the millisecond and trading millions of shares, you will have volatility, no way to avoid it. If the market really wants to stop this insane roller coaster, it needs to set rules to slow stuff down. No doubt they would be derided as "old fashioned" and inconvenient, but that's the point. Faster is not always better, and sometimes speed kills. Let's hope it doesn't get going fast enough to do in the whole economy.

Plunge! Rebound! Crash! Rally! Plunge again! That's been the depressing story line of the stock market the past five trading days, a gut-wrenching, confidence-testing, wealth-destroying bout of volatility that has put investors on edge

(link) [USA Today]

21:53 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

07 Aug 2011
Sam Brownback joins Rick Perry on stage

This is going into my Asatru category, although perhaps it belongs in Politics. Unfortunately, there are times when the two mix, and never more so than in contemporary America, where the "Religious Right" has taken on a new power role in government. Frankly some of these folks scare me.

One of their bugaboos is "creeping Sharia" (Islamic law). There's a lot of rumbles about this even from a pagan perspective. I think this concern is misplaced - the danger here is not Islamic law, but Christian law, not sharia, but good old fashioned American Puritanism, wrapped in a Dominonist American flag. There are very few instances of attempted Muslim domination of politics here - but there are more and more instances of events like this "Response". We pagans are allegedly what they're responding to - and while I'll acknowledge that "pagan" to one of these folks is just a name for anything they don't care for politically, as a very public "real deal" heathen it sure makes me feel like I have a target on my back.

Some pagan folks get it, but many more do not, especially those of a more conservative political bent (which means most heathens).

I only wish my religious fellow travelers, of whatever particular stripe, would wake up and smell the coffee. Events like this one scare me - I can only wonder what solution is proposed to deal with the "problem" of pagans in America, and if it's meant to be a final one.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback was the only one of Rick Perry's 49 colleagues to join him in Houston today, though Florida Gov. Rick Scott taped a message for "The Response."

(link) [Politico]

10:23 /Asatru | 2 comments | permanent link

06 Aug 2011
Ragnarök: the doom of the gods

Interesting analysis - not heathen, to be sure, but certainly illustrative of the power of the Northern mythos that still resonates today.

Myth comes from muthos in Greek, something said, as opposed to something done. We think of myths as stories, although, as Heather O'Donoghue says in her book From Asgard to Valhalla, there are myths that are not essentially narratives at all. We think of them loosely as tales that explain, or embody, the origins of our world. Karen Armstrong writes in A Short History of Myths that myths are ways of making things comprehensible and meaningful in human terms (the sun as a chariot driven by a woman through the firmament) and that they are almost all "rooted in death and the fear of extinction".

(link) [The Guardian]

07:59 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Who cut the cheese?

The most dangerous thing in this sordid tale is not the raw milk ...

A yearlong sting operation involving a multitude of state and federal agencies brought to justice Wednesday a dangerous ring of raw dairy enthusiasts in California.

(link) [Daily Caller]

via Overlawyered

07:48 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

04 Aug 2011
News and No Mistake

After several recent abortive attempts, and many years (11 to be exact) of intense frustration, I am pleased to announce:

WE HAVE BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS FROM THE FARM!!!!

Our new provider is Hoosier Broadband, and with 768 kbps down and 384 kbps up for $50 month, it should save us about $50 off our current ISDN setup with AT&T. Six times faster downloads, three times faster uploads, my bill gets cut in half, no data caps or throttling - what's not to like?

It's wireless, and I'm sure there's going to be some signal degradation during stormy weather, but still ... it's broadband, it's fast, and we're surfin' like it's 1999!

21:12 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link