Year: 2010

T-50 & Su-35 Side By Side

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Source is the USAF via AV Week


Apologies for the cheesy music

The side by side picture, courtesy of Aviation Week (paid subscription required), clearly shows that the aircraft are very similar in size.

What is also clear is that the T-50/PAK-FA is rather more compact in appearance, and would likely be a little bit more difficult to detect visually at range, though it is clearly no F-5.

What is also clear, see the 1990s Northrop/Grumman YF-23 video, is that its fuselage is rather more like that failed ATF competitor than that of the F-22, though the wing and 4-post tail surfaces more closely resemble those of the Raptor.

H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog for the vid.

Sharon Osbourne Has Something to Get off Her Chest

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She is selling her breast implants on eBay:

Unsatisfied with the result of her breast augmentation procedure, Sharon Osbourne recently revealed that she plans to sell the breast implants online once they are removed. Talking to Britain’s New! Magazine, the judge of “America’s Got Talent” admitted that she’s thinking of putting them up for sale on eBay.

“I wish I had never had my breasts done. They have put these bloody great bags in that are too ****ing round. It is like [having] a waterbed on your chest. I hate my [breasts],” the wife of Ozzy Osbourne first pointed out why she was left disappointed. She continued to say, “I want to have the bags taken out – then I will put them on eBay.”

Ummm……I got nothing here……Too weird for me to pull out any additional humor……

‘Phant Phamily Values

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The Majority (Republican) leader of the Utah House of Delegates has been forced to reveal that when he was 28, he went nude hot-tubbing with a 15 year old that worked for him in the warehouse that he managed.

What’s more, he paid $150,000 in hush money to her when he tried to run for Congress:

In the midst of his 2002 congressional campaign, Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn paid $150,000 to a woman threatening to go public with a past relationship.

………

Maher’s story is this: In 1985, then 15 years old, Maher worked for then 30-year-old Garn at his business, Pegasus Records and KSG Enterprises.

She said Garn, who was married, struck up a relationship with her and one night took her to a location in Salt Lake City where they hot-tubbed together nude.

It would be sleazy even if she weren’t 15. She was his employee, and this is sexual harassment.

And if that weren’t squicky enough, he is her, “onetime Sunday school teacher.”

One note: as far as I can tell, Kevin Garn is not related to former Utah Senator Jake Garn.

The Forensic Acountants Have Been Through Lehman’s Books

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And Maybe Some Water Boarding

And their analysis is that Lehman Brothers were insolvent for months, if not years before they finally collapsed, and that the firm use unethical, and possibly illegal tricks to conceal the amount of their debt:

But the examiner, Anton R. Valukas, also for the first time, laid out what the report characterized as “materially misleading” accounting gimmicks that Lehman used to mask the perilous state of its finances. The bank’s bankruptcy, the largest in American history, shook the financial world. Fears that other banks might topple in a cascade of failures eventually led Washington to arrange a sweeping rescue for the nation’s financial system.

That sounds like fraud to me, and I think that it warrants a criminal investigation.

What is even more interesting is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was aware of the accounting activities, and that they appear to be in violation of regulations.

Yves Smith, reading the 2200 page report so that yiours’s truly does not have to, makes this clear, and makes it clear that regulators were complicit:

Well, it is folks, as a newly-released examiner’s report by Anton Valukas in connection with the Lehman bankruptcy makes clear. The unraveling isn’t merely implicating Fuld and his recent succession of CFOs, or its accounting firm, Ernst & Young, as might be expected. It also emerges that the NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict in the performance of their duties, and may well be culpable in aiding and abetting Lehman in accounting fraud and Sarbox violations.

…………

But here is the part of the report that discussed how the Fed aided and abetted Lehman misconduct:

[T]he Examiner questioned Lehman executives and other witnesses about Lehman’s financial health and reporting, a recurrent theme in their responses was that Lehman gave full and complete financial information to Government agencies, and that the Government never raised significant objections or directed that Lehman take any corrective action.

I would note that at the time of the Lehman collapse, and for some time before it, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was one Timothy Geithner.

I’m beginning to think that this is more than incompetence, I’m beginning to think that a criminal investigation should include our current Treasury Secretary.

Barack Obama, you need to fire Timothy Geithner. If the ‘Phants filibuster, then you recess appoint his successor.

James Dobson Forced Out of Focus on the Family

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My view of the conflict between Dobson and the FoF board is, but to quote Henry Kissinger, “too bad they can’t both lose.”

In any case, he’s stepped down from all corporate positions and his radio show, and starting a new radio show separate from the organization.

The cause of the split between appears to be the unwillingness of the board to make his son heir apparent, because they don’t approve of divorce, and Ryan Dobson got one in 2001.

Gee, self-importance masquerading as morality is a bitch, ain’t it?

Economics Update

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The decades long downward trend is improvements inventory tracking, largely from automation


It appears that stability looms

Again, abbreviated, because in addition to not fullying balancing work and blogging, I’m feeling a bit off today.

The lede is obviously that the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey showed a decline in consumer sentiment.

On the other side of the coin is that economics retail sales retail sales rose unexpectedly in February, confounding economists who thought that the snowpocalypse would push the numbers down.

Sales rose by 0.3%, which is beat expectations, but this is off a January where the delta in retail sales was revised from 0.5% to 0.1%, so the delta from is .3%-.4%=-.1%, so the total picture at the end of February is actually down from what it was on February 1.

Finally, Calculated Risk points out (see chart pr0n) that inventories are now basically in line with sales, which means that inventory replenishment bumps to GDP are pretty much done.

I’m Famous!

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I just got a letter to the editor published to the Financial Times.

Happy dance time.

Basically, it’s about something that I’ve written many times; that there should be a requirement for insurance like financial products to have insurnace like regulations, such as the 260+ year old requirement that you cannot take out insurance on somethting that it is not yours to lose.

Of course, I understand that this actually does not mean much in the greater scheme of things: People get LTE’s published all the time.

Of course, I don’t have what the conquoring Roman general had, a slave whispering in his ear that fame is fleeting, but I do have a cat with a piece of bacon that has been taped to it.

The Next Senator from Illinois Will Be a Republican

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First, the Dems nominated a guy, Alexi Giannoulias, whose family made its money from the dodgy Broadway Bank, and he was its loan officer during the bubble years.

And now, we have this:

Boston Blackie’s owner hit with bank fraud charges

Nick Giannis a big financial supporter of Alexi Giannoulias

March 11, 2010
By RUMMANA HUSSAIN, ABDON M. PALLASCH and FRANK MAIN Staff Reporters

On the same day Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias tried to shift the spotlight off his family’s struggling bank and onto his opponent’s bank ties, police arrested a major Giannoulias contributor and customer of the family bank as he tried to flee the country ahead of check-kiting charges.

Nick Giannis, owner of the Boston Blackie’s restaurant chain, was caught at the Canadian border with his Greek passport as he was being driven by a man believed to be an employee, sources said.

And it should be noted that one of the reasons that he got the Democratic nomination was that he is a close friend, a basketball buddy, of Barack Obama, though there was not, to the best of my knowledge any endorsement made during the primary.

This is Literally the American Taliban

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It appears that there is a group of Talibaptists in Amarillo, Texas who have decided to spend their time engaging in a concerted program of harassment and intimidation directed at the local swingers club.

I could lambaste them, but PZ Myers does so well at the above link that it’s not necessary.

I would note that their targets, in addition to swingers and strip clubs, includes:

  • Buddhists.
  • Moslems.
  • Unitarian Universalists
  • Shriners (the Masons)
  • The Local Episcopal Church
  • Earth Day
  • Breast Cancer Awareness Day

And of course:

  • Rock and roll

Unsurprisingly, the local Sheriff’s department has been unwilling to respond to this, though, according to the Texas Monthly, the state troopers have been actually doing their job after a fashion.

He’s Just Not That Into You

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It looks like Democrat Chris Dodd has dumped Republican Bob Corker in his efforts to create financial reform, and has announced that he will be releasing a Corker-less proposal on Monday:

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he will release his version of legislation to overhaul financial rules, signaling that talks on a compromise with Republican Bob Corker have collapsed.

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who had been negotiating with Corker since last month, will release his proposal March 15 and hold a committee meeting to consider changes in two weeks, according to a statement released today.

“I have been fortunate to have a strong partner in Senator Corker and my new proposal will reflect his input and the good work done by many of our colleagues,” Dodd said. “Our talks will continue and it is still our hope to come to agreement on a strong bill all of the Senate can be proud to support.”

Note that he did not mention Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the committee, which I think was a deliberate snub; Shelby refused to do anything even approaching good faith.

I am not certain of the dynamics.

It could be that he realized that Corker was actually just trying to delay, that there were unbridgeable differences, or that the recent stories on how Bob Corker was doing the bidding of his campaign donor payday lenders skeeved him out.

My guess is that, at it’s core, Dodd did not want to spend any more time making the bill worse for just one Republican vote.

Senate Majority Leader’s Wife & Daughter in Accident

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They were rear ended by a semi-truck, and the injuries are described as serious but not life threatening:

Both Reid-Barringer and Reid were wearing seatbelts and were transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church. The driver of a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee and the driver of a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt, also involved in the crash, were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“Mrs. Reid has a broken nose, broken back and broken neck. Lana has a neck injury and facial lacerations. Both Mrs. Reid and Lana are conscious, can feel their extremities, and according to doctors their injuries are non-life threatening,” Jon Summers, a spokesman for Sen. Reid (D-Nev.), said in a statement late Thursday afternoon.

One note here: Wear your damn seatbelts.

It’s Bank Failure ……… Thursday???

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OK, we have a bank shut down today, a day before the normal Friday closures, and it makes 27 for the year, LibertyPointe Bank, of New York, NY.

I would note that the trend line moved down a bit, because we added one to the sample, but 6 to the number of days, and we are trending around 3 a week. There will be a more meaningful pic tomorrow.

I’m wondering if the FDIC is waiting to roll up a sh%$mess of banks tomorrow, or if this is some peculiarity of the New York State banking department, which executed the closure.

Another Shoe to Drop in Real Estate

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The FDIC is planning to auction off some the assets that it has accumulated, and that has the banks worried that this will force many of them into insolvency, because it will set a market price for the sh%$ that is on their books:

A Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan to auction more than $1 billion in assets seized from failed banks next month, including a loan to build a W Hotel in Atlanta, may trigger writedowns that weaken lenders nationwide.

Almost half of the loans were originated by Silverton Bank N.A., whose collapse last May was the biggest in Georgia history. Community banks that joined Silverton in providing $80 million for the 237-room hotel and condominium complex, as well as backing for 39 other projects, could be forced to write down their stakes to reflect sale prices.

What is going on here is that because the FDIC will be auctioning off assets, as it is required to do by law, these illiquid assets, and this will assign a fair market value to said assets.

Banks and other institutions who have maintained the illusion of solvency by using some variant of mark to myth model will therefore have to reassess the value of these assets on their books, pushing some, perhaps many, of these institutions into bankruptcy.