Samsung getting destroyed on low end by Chinese manufacturers (Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo, etc.) ... on the high end by Apple ... market appears to have done a good job discounting the 6+ model ... not unreasonable to think Samsung will return to 660,000 or so, a level it saw back in August 2011.
Links for 2014 10 06
This Is the First Weekend in America With No Saturday Morning Cartoons
SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS A FIXTURE OF MY YOUTH (but i was born in 1970)
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AND THE BLACK GUY ALWAYS DIES IN A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE
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The Man Who Smuggles Trader Joe’s into Canada
“At some point I asked, ‘Well what if corporate finds out?’” Hallatt said. “And Chris said, ‘They’re too stoned to find out.’”
JUST LIKE TWITTER
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IS MY IPAD STOLEN
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The NSA and Me - The Intercept
Not only did the classified file from the Justice Department accuse the NSA of systematically breaking the law by eavesdropping on American citizens, it concluded that it was impossible to prosecute those running the agency because of the enormous secrecy that enveloped it.
THAT WAS 1981, INFINITELY WORSE NOW
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"Yvonne Leung, 20, is the president of the Hong Kong University Students Union. “My main concern is to end one-party rule in China,” she told CNN in June." ... BAD IDEA ... MAIN CONCERN SHOULD BE STUDYING FOR HK BAR EXAM
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China’s Inscrutable Contraction by Kenneth Rogoff - Project Syndicate
The main house-price indices measure only asking prices and not actual sales prices. (Data in many other countries – for example, Spain – suffer from the same deficiency.)
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The Way Ahead in Hong Kong by Chris Patten - Project Syndicate
No one told Hong Kongers when they were assured of universal suffrage that it would not mean being able to choose for whom they could vote. No one said that Iran was the democratic model that China’s Communist bureaucracy had in mind, with the Chinese government authorized to exercise an effective veto over candidates.
AGAIN THIS IS SPIN
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Who Loves China? by Ian Buruma - Project Syndicate
"China’s government has promised Hong Kong’s citizens that they can freely elect their Chief Executive in 2017. But, given that candidates are to be carefully vetted by an unelected committee of pro-Chinese appointees, citizens would have no meaningful choice at all."
NOT TRUE, ALBERT HO A CANDIDATE IN 2012 C'MON
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MOST PEOPLE AREN'T WORTH WATCHING
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http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0HU0UN20141005?irpc=932
REUTERS GROSS GUNDLACH DATING STORY
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FED HAS BLUNT TOOLS
Boardwalk Empire -- S05 E05
Young Nucky, vampire teeth insert in place ...
Movies Watched -- Her
Watched 85 (!) minutes of this before losing interest and fast forwarding ... in the not too distant future dorky men will wear high-waisted pants and fall in love with their laptops. It was sort of interesting at first, until OS Samantha started to suffer from pre-menstrual syndrome. Grunt letter writers able to afford a beautiful downtown LA apartments in the future.
This is the look you have if you wear really high-waisted pants.
ETF Trading Portfolio Update -- October 6, 2014
Two more reversals short ... Europe and Basic Materials ... positions about evenly split between longs and shorts now.
Links for 2014 10 05
Guy Lodges top 10 films of 2013
THE HEAT
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
FRANCES HA
TOM AT THE FARM
CHILD'S POSE
MOTHER OF GEORGE
THE IMMIGRANT
UNDER THE SKIN (2014)
THE SELFISH GIANT
GRAVITY
A MORE INTERESTING LIST ... NOT A MAINSTREAM LIST
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Poker Pro Says He Preys on Casinos With All Legal Means - Bloomberg
Ivey, 38, won the money playing a form of Baccarat called Punto Banco, using a technique known as edge sorting, at Genting’s Crockfords casino in London, according to his lawyers. Genting refused to pay up, saying the practice is unfair. Edge sorting is a way a card player can gain an advantage by working out the value of a card by spotting flaws or particular patterns on the back of certain cards.
HE'S GOOD, STARTED OUT PLAYING SOME TRADING CARD GAME FORGET THE NAME
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How to Disable Annoying Autoplay Media in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer « Digiwonk
in Chrome, type chrome://chrome/settings/content into your address bar and find the Plug-ins section.
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The Communist Party had promised to give Hong Kong citizens the chance to vote for the territory’s top official in 2017, but, in August, Beijing released the details: only candidates acceptable to the central government would be permitted to run.
THAT'S IT IN A NUTSHELL (WITHOUT THE DETAILS)
Last year, when the Party faced mounting complaints over deadly air pollution, Internet censorship, and rampant graft, it arrested lawyers, activists, and journalists in the harshest such measure in decades, and circulated an internal directive to senior members. The notice identified seven “unmentionable” topics: Western-style democracy, “universal values,” civil society, pro-market liberalism, a free press, “nihilist” criticisms of Party history, and questions about the pace of China’s reforms. The list was, in retrospect, a near-perfect inventory of the liberties that distinguish life in Hong Kong.
YES, WELL SAID
"the costs of a crackdown—diplomatic isolation, recession, another alienated generation—would be incalculably higher than they were in 1989."
YEP, THIS IS WHAT I'VE HAD MANY LATE NIGHT PHONE CALLS ABOUT WITH POINTS EAST
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Albert Edwards Says Watch Japanese Yen and Be Very Afraid - Bloomberg
PERENNIAL PESSIMIST LOL, THAT SHOULD BE ON HIS BIZ CARD
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Khodorkovsky Sees 1917-Like Crisis Nearing Under Putin - Bloomberg
Khodorkovsky, who has been living in exile in Switzerland since his release, said last month’s house arrest of Russian billionaire Vladimir Evtushenkov is the result of shifting political influence within the Kremlin.
SO MANY ROGUE RUSSIANS IN SWITZERLAND NOW ... LOTS ON RIVIERA TOO
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You Know It’s a Tough Market When Bernanke Can’t Refinance - Bloomberg
“just between the two of us” -- that “I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so.”
NONSENSE, ALL OF THE LIAR LOAN TESTS PEOPLE I KNOW ARE RUNNING ARE GETTING THROUGH NOW, CREDIT MARKET IS WIDE OPEN
"Bernanke already has refinanced twice. When the former Fed chair and his wife Anna bought their Capitol Hill rowhouse in May 2004, they took out two loans, according to Washington, D.C., land records.
The first was an adjustable-rate mortgage of $671,200 with a starting rate of 4.125 percent. The 5-year ARM was capped at 10.125 percent."
OF COURSE HE REFI'D BEFORE IT STARTED "ADJUSTING"
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$600,000 Man Cave Features Ferrari Parked Next to Sofa - Bloomberg
men, who sometimes struggle to persuade spouses of the wisdom of plunking down $300,000 for a garage
BIFURCATED AMERICA FILE
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Mayor of Los Angeles Suburb Is Shot to Death in His Home - Bloomberg
The mayor was quarreling with his wife when his 19-year-old son “tried to intervene in the argument and a physical altercation ensued between father and son,” sheriff’s Lieutenant Steve Jauch said in an interview. “That’s when she produced a firearm and shot him multiple times.”
GOD BLESS 'MERIKA
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65 Years of Communism and One Red Hot Hong Kong - Bloomberg
demands aren’t met for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to resign and for the government in Beijing to drop plans to control the 2017 leadership election. s China’s influence has grown within the Hong Kong government, pro-democracy activists stepped up their fight for a open election when the city holds its first vote for chief executive in 2017.
WEAK EXPLANATIONS
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Ruble Drops to Record as Central Bank Intervention Level Nears - Bloomberg
The ruble fell 0.8 percent to 44.2450 versus the central bank’s target basket of dollars and euros at 8:10 p.m. in Moscow.
TREND FOLLOWERS WORLDWIDE HAVE BEEN PLAYING THIS
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Dern’s Prize Grab; Italian Beauty; Shia LaBeouf: Movies - Bloomberg
he quirky “Nebraska” is less convincing as Middle-American eulogy. There’s more than a whiff of condescension here.
“Nebraska” is far too precious to entertain that notion.
“The guy just needs something to live for,” there you have the message, barely 10 minutes into the film.
an overly fanciful ode to a make-believe Midwest where folks still call underwear “bloomers” and get bees in their bonnets.
LOTS OF PEOPLE STILL TALK LIKE THAT
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rank exercise in hicksploitation sentimentalism
There's no shortage of slack-jawed yokel stereotyping
an unharmonious mix of lowest common denominator satire and treacly emotionalism
I hope to see no scene this year as off-puttingly pleased with its own bathos as Woody and David's climactic, reconciliatory truck ride down main street.
HEE HEE YES HE HAS A POINT HERE, PAYNE HAS TROUBLE WITH SENTIMENTALITY
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veers between social satire and deadpan contempt
all of the men are stolid, mean of spirt and near-mute
THEY COME ACROSS AS SIMPLETONS, THIS IS ALSO WHAT I HATED ABOUT ABOUT SCHMIDT
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Bruce Dern’s red-state odyssey
demonstrate that the much-mythologized agricultural communities of the heartland are moral and economic vacuums, zones of stupidity, obesity and small-minded greed
Payne’s portrayal of Woody’s old friends and extended family is almost unrelentingly cruel
rolls together many of the themes of his previous work: “About Schmidt,” “Sideways” and “The Descendants” all involve road trips, family secrets and moments of male reckoning,
Nebraska” is also overtly manipulative, which has also become Payne’s trademark: He wants us to laugh at this demented old guy with his sweepstakes letter, his sad-sack son and their depraved surroundings, and then he wants to turn it all around at almost the last minute and redeem them
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How American parenting is killing the American marriage - Quartz
In the 21st century, most Americans marry for love.
LOL THIS WAS YOUR FIRST MISTAKE
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FEWER SYLLABLES
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What I Learned from My Time in Prison | Daily Stormer
LOOKS INTERESTING BUT THAT WEBSITE KEEPS CRASHING THE IPAD
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I'm Bre Pettis, Co-Founder of MakerBot, and This Is How I Work
HOW I WORK POSTS ARE ALWAYS GREAT
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MASTER KONG!
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What It's like to Fly the $23,000 Singapore Airlines Suites Class
. "May I escort you to The Private Room?" she asked.
YES YOU MAY!
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Most People With Addiction Simply Grow Out of It: Why Is This Widely Denied? | Substance.com
YOU'LL GROW OUT OF IT IF IT DOESN'T KILL YOU FIRST
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Elon Musk on Twitter: "About time to unveil the D and something else http://t.co/qp23yi59i6"
AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY IN 2020
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either relocate to San Francisco where Reddit is based or face termination.
REDDIT A TIME SINKHOLE LIKE METAFILTER, QUIT GOING THERE MANY YEARS AGO
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LOOKS LIKE CARD CUT SHORT FOR EFFECT, BUT YES
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Intel buckles to anti-feminist campaign by pulling ads from gaming site | The Verge
BUCKLES!
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WINDOWS 9X
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A Rare Look at Apple's Design Genius Jony Ive — Vogue
IS IVE GAY? WE KNOW TIM COOK IS AND HAS A PREDILECTION FOR ASIAN BOYS
Movies Watched -- Nebraska
I kind of liked this one but had mixed feelings about it ... it's laugh-out-loud funny in parts but also deeply depressing ... all the people in Payne's world are simpletons ... the ending was kind of sickly sentimental, ruined a lot of what came before. 15 or 20 minutes too long. Anyway, borderline recommended ... if you work your way through the other 2013 movies I liked (All Is Lost, Blue Is The Warmest Color, Mother of George, Museum Hours and Wadjda ... so far) and still haven't seen Nebraska, then you could watch it.
Links for 2014 10 04
Andrew Upton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Upton and Blanchett were married on 29 December 1997. They have three sons: Dashiell John, Roman Robert and Ignatius Martin. They live in Hunters Hill, New South Wales, Australia.
CATE IS AUSTRALIAN ... NO WONDER I THINK OF NICOLE KIDMAN AND NAOMI WATTS IN THE SAME THOUGHT
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Cate Blanchett winning Best Actress for "Blue Jasmine" - YouTube
AS RANDOM AND SUBJECTIVE ... IT MEANS A GREAT DEAL ... AH YES, SHE DID GET AN AWARD
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NOT ENTIRELY CLEAR TO ME WHAT'S GOING ON HERE ... WHO'S THE OLD LADY? COMMENTARY IN CANTONESE, CAN'T UNDERSTAND
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The Fed Trap by Stephen S. Roach - Project Syndicate
QE may have been a resounding success in some ways – namely, arresting the riskiest phase of the crisis. But it did little to revive household consumption, which accounts for about 70% of the US economy. In fact, since early 2008, annualized growth in real consumer expenditure has averaged a mere 1.3% – the most anemic period of consumption growth on record.
BOOBOISIE UNDERWATER
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Ellen Pompeo's Family-Friendly California Home : Architectural Digest
Pompeo is referring to the 1930 house she shares with her husband, music producer Chris Ivery, and their two daughters, five-year-old Stella Luna and baby Sienna May.
LOVELY LITTLE MULATTOS
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Nike Inc
Allergan Inc
Mckesson Corp
Covidien Plc.
Canadian Pacific Railway
Crown Castle International Corp
Energy Transfer Partners
Zoetis Inc. Class A Common Stoc
Hormel Foods Corp
Mobileye N.V.
Hanesbrands Inc
Palo Alto Networks Inc
Mallinckrodt Plc Ordinary Share
Hain Celestial Group
Global Payments Inc
Trident Performance Group
Icon Plc
Treehouse Foods
Catalent Inc.
Jack In The Box Inc
Knight Transportation
Churchill Downs Inc
Grupo Aeroportuario Del Centro
Logmein Inc
Natus Medical Inc
Sage Therapeutics Inc.
Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Inc
Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc
Ardelyx Inc.
Immune Design Corp.
Omniamerican Bancorp
Biospecifics Technologies Corp
Townsquare Media Llc
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The M Report: Best Movies of 2013
I loved quite a few movies and their respective stars. My list of favorite movies was at the beginning 40 strong, but, through careful consideration, I've managed to cut that list in half. Now, I have 20 titles that I hold rather dear. These are films that played in a movie theater in 2013. This is of course separate from the dozen or so movies that only saw a digital release either through DVD or VOD that I also hold dear, but, here they are, the best movies of 2013, according to me
DON'T AGREE WITH MUCH HERE
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Manohla Dargis: Top 39 Movies of 2013 — Year-End Lists
Mother of George – Andrew Dosunmu
WEIRD LIST FROM MANOHLA
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between Art & Business - 월간 디자인
IMPRESSIVE COLLECTION OF DESIGN MAGAZINES STRETCHING BACK TO 1976 ... KOREA HAS COME A LONG WAY, BABY