Month: August 2009

This Has Fail Written All Over It

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Apple is working with the four largest record distributors to create a format that will force people buy albums, rather than singles. (see also here)

The theory is that people will shell out $20 for

People don’t buy albums because they don’t want to buy albums.

In most cases, they never wanted to buy albums, they bought “b-sides” on old 45’s because you had to put something on the other side of the vinyl, and they bought albums because they were offered no other choice, particularly with CD’s where CD “singles” were about 25¢ cheaper than the complete album.

As Greg Sandoval (2nd link) notes:

Perhaps Apple and the labels can come up with content combos that people will find valuable. But the danger here is in trying to force the packages on consumers and possibly alienating them even more, which could send them sailing into new piracy waters.

I will make two points about album sales:

  1. The record companies put out crap, and frequently put forward no-talent photogenic “artists” who can’t even manage one good song per album.
  2. Most of the so-called drop in album sales over the past few years that has the record companies asking for the death penalty for Bit Torrent users is actually more efficient sales…Fewer albums are shipped, because they better model sales, and get fewer returns.
  3. The record companies put out crap, and frequently put forward no-talent photogenic “artists” who can’t even manage one good song per album. (Yes I know, but item 1 bears repeating)

There are a lot of people who have lost a lot of money betting against Steve Jobs, but I don’t see how this is a win….iTunes downloads are about 99¢, so a full album comes to about $12.00, and the record distributors want to bundle up those 12 songs with some liner notes, and go back to charging $19.99 for it.

Not gonna happen.

787 Wings Worse Than Thought

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So, we have some more details on just how screwed up the Boeing 787 wing is.

Not only is there delamination in the wing, but it appears that they have the same sort of problem on the wingbox, opposite the attachment bulkhead body fixture.

As you can see from the pictures, the geometry there appears to be a read-made pull test machine. I’m not a composites guy, but this is really really ugly work, and the idea that they did not experimentally verify this joint before assembling aircraft just buggers the mind.

I would also note that the problem is with two different vendors and the interface across the fastening fixture, and their geometry, and their fix, appears to be identical, so the finger of blame points back squarely to Boeing, and not their “partners”.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

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So, I was eating dinner with the family, and I happened to express the exquisite lust that I feel for Sharon.*

This is not an uncommon occurrence. The expression of affection, including physical affection, is something that occurs in our house…..It’s not like we are making love on the dining room floor.†

In any case, my son, Charlie, who is not quite 10, his birthday is in September, rolls his eyes, and says, “I cannot believe that I’m going to be that way when I’m 15.”

He has no idea whatsoever as to the hormonal roller coaster that awaits him.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

†At least not while the kids are in the house.

How is Hank Paulson Like Bernie Madoff?

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Well, Eric Falkenstein has the following take on Bernie Madoff:

Clearly, he understood phone calls are best. People who meticulously avoid email should not be trusted, because it is simply too calculating, as if they know they are regularly committing crimes. A phone conversation can always be disavowed, you just say you were talking about last weekend’s bar mitzvah.

And Felix Salmon, who has one of the sharpest minds in finance, notes a parallel with Hank Paulson in his exchange with Representative Jackie Speier:

Jackie Speier (D-Calif): Do you use email?

Hank Paulson: Do I use email? No, I don’t use it, personally.

JS: You don’t use it personally, or professionally?

HP: Yeah, I just don’t. So I’ve never used it for any business communications. Just never use it.

JS: So while you were secretary of the Treasury you never used email?

HP: No.

JS: How did you communicate with people?

HP: Telephone.

This does not prove that he is a dishonest person, though being a former head of Goldman Sachs certainly implies it, and as someone born in 1946, I understand how this might be a generational thing, but as someone who worked in finance, the value, and risks, of having a clear and incontrovertible copy of his discussions had to be clear to him.

If I were a betting man, I’d go with the fact that he knew that he broke the law regularly, and wanted deniability.

Nostalgia…..

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It looks like Russian attack boats Akula class according to reports, are patrolling off of the US coast.

The military says that they are not concerned, and that they tracked them all the way here:

Two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in the first mission of its kind so close to shore in nearly a decade, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The Pentagon said it was not alarmed by the maneuvers, carried out by what officials described as Soviet-designed Akula-class submarines in international waters as little as 200 miles off the coast.

Interesting in all this is the rather matter of fact statement that there was no problem tracking the boats:

The official said the Navy was able to track the submarines as they made their way through international waters off the American coastline. This can be done from aircraft, ships, underwater sensors or other submarines.

It makes me wonder if this was not intended to be public in the first place. The Russians have already leased a sub to India, and there are other potential customers, and patrolling off the US coast, if it makes it into the papers, is an advertisement for the product.

The Akulas may not be Virginia class boats, but they are pretty quiet, after all.

Then again, maybe they just wanted some good cigars, as some of the reports note that at least one of the boats paid a visit to Cuba.

H/t Information Dissemination.

Punk’d

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It now appears that the was a practical joke designed specifically ensnare the birthers.

It’s looking more and more like the forged “Kenyan birth certificate” released by Orly Taitz on Sunday was a prank by a supporter of President Obama. Politijab points to an anonymous blogger at FearlessBlogging, who has uploaded four photos of the original forgery and a mocking declaration:

Fine cotton business paper: $11

Inkjet printer: $35

1940 Royal Model KMM manual typewriter: $10

2 Shilling coin: $1

Pilot Varsity fountain pen: $3

Punkin’ the Birthers: Priceless

Morons.

Economics Update

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While the (only relative to prior months) good job numbers for July got their own post, there is other news out there.

Most notably, conflicting figures on two important economic indicators, with the Baltic Dry Index hitting a 10 month low, indicating that international shipping is hurting, but the July Manufacturing hour numbers up.

Not surprisingly, the job numbers increased risk appetite, and so Treasuries fell, and their yields rose, as people pulled out of them in search of a greater return.

Currency and energy have me confused…..Good jobs news should push the dollar down, as there is less of a flight to safety, and oil up, as it signals increased demand, but today, the dollar rose sharply, and oil fell.

You know, as much as I blog about this stuff, I really don’t have a damn clue.

Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) Resigns

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No indications of any “hikes along the Appalachian trail,” my guess is that he is just sick and tired of an increasingly racist and anti-Hispanic GOP, and wants out.

It may also be that he does not want to be in the position of ,making the swing vote for cloture on healthcare reform, and you still need 60 votes even if he is gone (it rounds up).

Charlie Crist, who is running to replace him in 2010 (he had announced that he would not seek reelection) would appoint his successor, but has promised that he will nto appoint himself, so the dynamics are interesting.

Bueller???? Bueller????*

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Yes, as Felix Salmon notes, with no small amount of exhultation, the New York Times has fired Ben Stein as a columnist.

Of course, it was not his deliberate lies, nor his stupidity that got him, but rather the fact that he was cashing in on his Times gig in a way that did not generate them money:

NYT spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed this, telling Gawker that “Ben Stein’s fine work for us as a columnist for Sunday Business had to end, we told him, after we learned that he had become a commercial spokesman for FreeScore, a financial services company.”

More’s the pity that he got the gig in the 1st place.

*A reference to what was John Hughs’ best movie. The director and writer of teen angst flicks died yesterday.