Movies Watched -- Crossfire

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This one wasn't so great, preachy ... heavy-handed moralizing ... how big a problem was anti-Semitism in 1947? Jews being beaten to death in America by strangers for being Jews? Did this ever happen?... Mitchum is in it but he's kind of sleepwalking through it. Not recommended.

UPDATE: I watched the "featurette" that accompanied the movie and they explained the story was originally about a homosexual marine who was beaten to death by three of his fellow marines, which is believable ... probably happened hundreds of times? but the censors in 1955 wouldn't allow it, so they changed it to the improbable beating death of a Jew. As an aside, the many stories of soldiers killing their commanding officers or fellow soldiers is interesting, and I thought this was going to be Don Draper's story in Mad Men, but they pussyfooted around and made it an "accident" in his case. 

Avago and Broadcom Pops, 1 Minute View

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Didn't have the scanner running but clearly it would have picked these up pronto ... refresh rate ideally 10 seconds on the scan? Dunno, will have to work on it once back in the proper timezone ... when I'm not doing yard work.  Always happy to talk with humans (no bots, please) who caught this in real-time.

Crick to enrarge

Crick to enrarge

My buddy @HCPG was kind enough to share a ten tick chart of BRCM with me ... this is a better way to view these pops:

StockTwits stream for AVGO ... NewsHedge_Squawk and danshep55 on top of it. 

StockTwits stream for BRCM ... OpenOutcrier not on his usual game with a 14:00 post:

Beijing Restaurants -- Noodle Bar

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I scootered over to the Jing A Taproom intending to have lunch there only to discover that they open at 5 PM. It's up in the 1949 compound behind the IBM building.  It took me 18 minutes and 8 seconds (approximately) to get there from my office the way the scooter flies (via Er Huan).

Below are the hours of the Jing A Taproom.  There was a friendly handsome bearded white guy in there (in addition to a gaggle of youngsters staring into laptops) who told me they open at 5 PM.  I should have called ahead but that isn't my style. 

See the QR code there?  Yes, big in China. 

Next door to the Taproom is the old Noodle Bar, which has been there for many many years, so I had lunch there.  Here's the lunch menu:

DSC05783.JPG

I got the set lunch (beef brisket, tendon, and tripe) with thick spinach noodles, snack, and oolong tea for 48 kuai (US$7.74) (actually turned out to be 58 kuai (US$9.35) since the spinach noodles are 10 kuai extra -- not disclosed on the menu or verbally at the time, to my annoyance, though of course they were effusively apologetic later and I didn't make a scene like I would have done in my youth, mainly to show off my ability to scream "fluently" and at length in Chinese) .

I also got a small bottle of Heineken for the low low price of 45 kuai (US$7.25) since I was in the mood for beer, any beer. Oh, I also got the deep-fried tofu cubes with pepper and salt, which are excellent beer food, if you didn't know.  

Deep-fried tofu, good beer food

You can sit in the courtyard, which was pleasant on a warm day like today, though the air quality left something to be desired (05-27-2015 12:00; PM2.5; 111.0; 180; Unhealthy (at 24-hour exposure at this level)). Below are my thick spinach noodles with brisket, tripe and tendon (see them all floating there?). They were OK. I'm not big on tripe or tendon but I'm not picky either, I'll eat anything (once). 

Spinach noodley with floating bits

There is a 10% service charge (the horror!?!), but they do take credit cards and were quick with the fapiao. They did collect the money upfront which always makes me uncomfortable, like they think you're going to pull a runner, but it's actually nice simply to get up and leave when you're finished. Grand total was 133 kuai (US$21.44).

I scootered back to the office via San Huan which took 16 minutes 47 seconds (approximately) the way the scooter flies. 

salesforce.com Pop, 1 Minute View

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Things that take off during the lunch hour (esp. before a three day weekend) really stand out ... every day trader (and our bot brethren) on planet earth was on top of this from 13:02. 

StockTwits stream at the time ... David Faber talking on CNBC the cause? ... Newshedge_Squawk on top of it as usual followed by a gentleman in Moscow ... it's a small world. 

Quest Diagnostics Pop, 1 Minute View

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I did have the scanner running on Friday ... DGX was #2 on it at 10:29 AM and then went to #1 for many minutes thereafter ... if you were fast enough you could have made some money ... slow and it would have been a scratch ... very slow and you would have lost a bundle. Let me look at the Twitter feed mentioned in this Bloomberg piece:

“Quest shares gave up most of their gains within minutes. They were up 6.9 percent to $79.07 at 11:07 a.m. in New York. In his tweet, since removed, Joe Kunkle, known as @OptionsHawk, said Quest had hired Goldman Sachs & Co. after receiving a $95-a-share approach. A Quest spokesman didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.”

Tweet simply conveyed a market rumor, says the author. I'd like to know the time stamp of the deleted tweet ... was it 10:29 AM or earlier?  

StockTwits stream from the time... WallStJesus and OptionRunners both noted unusual activity in calls before my scanner picked up stock movement at 10:29 AM.

Nanex posted a nice chart, as usual ... professional traders need a good data feed like his, $9.99 isn't going to cut it. 

Yahoo Drop, 1 Minute View

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Did not have the scanner running but assume it would have chirped at 15:34. I do know how to spell "unusual," though you wouldn't know it from my chart annotations. 

Crick to enrarge

Movies Watched -- Feuchtgebiete (Wetlands)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Tries to shock and revolt and succeeds ... a gross-out story from Germany about a screwed-up girl with boyish good looks who has hemorrhoids and hasn't read Charles Willeford's classic book, "A guide for the undehemorrhoided" ... she has terrible, cruel parents (esp. her mother) which explains a lot of her behavior (spoiler: it's revealed late in the movie that the worst of her many childhood traumas was her mother's attempted suicide/filicide of her baby brother) ... but it has a sort of weirdly conventional ending.

I did watch it to the end and didn't fast forward (it is under 100 minutes) so it earns a yellow rating. Can't recommend it. I'm sure many people can't make it even ten minutes in, but if you're difficult to disgust, you might enjoy it.