Reality TV: Financial Catastrofuck

The US Congress and Dow Jones don't usually make exciting TV, but last night was different.  Watching BBC and CNN at 1:30 to 4:00 in the morning was more nail-biting and nerve-wracking than that overhyped, inconsequential Ateneo-La Salle game.  By the time it was over, the Dow Jones lost 778 points, its biggest one-day loss ever.  The World Trade Center being demolished by two planes in the middle of Manhattan did not have that much impact on the Dow.

The day started ominously enough with multiple bank failures and bailouts-- in the US, UK, Belgium, Germany, even Iceland-- and that was on top of all the bank failures and bailouts of the past two weeks. Then congressmen started debating whether or not they will approve the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act, which is essentially a transfusion of captial into markets that have stopped running.  It was a very unpopular bill as Main Street complained that their tax dollars are being used to help Wall Street fatcats while ordinary taxpayers are left with foreclosures and bankruptcies.  But after three days of intense negotiations and with the solid backing of the White House and the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties, the bill's passage was almost a foregone conclusion.

Then the voting started.  The Yeas started with a margin of 30 votes, all the way to 110 Yeas and 80 Nays.  Then the margin was whittled down to 25.  20.  15.  10.  Then it was dead even with only a few minutes left for voting.  Then the Nays were leading and the lead stood.  Voting ended with 228 Nays and 205 Yeas.  The bill failed.

As voting took place CNN was showing a live feed from Dow Jones showing real-time reaction to the vote.  When voting started the Dow was down around 200 points.  Then it was down 300.  400.  500. 600.  Hala Gorani, the CNN anchor who used to be a finance news reporter, could not believe the numbers she was seeing.  By the time the 15-minute voting window ran out the Dow lost 700 points.  The index was erratic for the next few hours while the House Democrats and Republicans were blaming each other, but by the end of the trading day the Dow suffered its worst single-day loss ever, worse than 9/11, the DotCom Bust, and the Asian Crisis.  And after a few hours, as I write this, the Asian markets are crashing as well; European markets haven't opened yet.

As Jon Stewart would say, this is a financial catastrofuck.  On live TV.

Woman on Top: Lisa Randall

Lisa Randall

Professor of Physics

Department of Physics, Harvard University

• Born on 18 June 1962.
• Obtained her BA in Physics from Harvard University in June 1983 and immediately proceeded to the PhD programme.
• First taught classes at the Harvard University Physics Department as a Teaching Assistant in 1984.
• Obtained her PhD in Physics from Harvard University in June 1987, specialising in particle physics.
• Named Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1995, being the first tenured female theoretical physicist in MIT. 
• Transferred to Princeton University in 1998 as Professor of Physics, becoming the first tenured woman in the university's Physics Department.
• Returned to Harvard University in 2001 as Professor of Physics, making her the first tenured female theoretical phycisist in Harvard.
• Received the Premio Caterina Tomassoni e Felice Pietro Chisesi Award from the University of Rome, La Sapienza in 2003. 
• Published Warped Passages: Unraveling The Mysteries Of The Universe's Hidden Dimensions in 2005, which was cited by the New York Times as one of the 100 most notable books in 2005.
• Won the Julius Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society in 2007 for her work in particle physics.
• Named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2007.
• Her image dispersion has been known to cause the momentary collapse of heartwave functions.

As if we needed any more convincing...

... that RP media is going to the dogs, we see this article:

Oil price rollbacks ‘big argument’ vs deregulation -- Palace

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:26:00 09/12/2008

MANILA, Philippines—The rollback in oil prices by P2 to P3 on Friday is a "big argument" against calls by leftwing militants to deregulate the petroleum industry, Malacañang said Friday. 

xxx

This is terribly sloppy-- not only on Mr. Guinto's part but also on the part of his section editor and anyone else who approved this article before publication.  Typos and grammatical mistakes are understandable (albeit regrettable for a broadsheet), but this is way beyond that.  This article defies logic.  In case they haven't noticed, the petroleum industry is already deregulated, that's why oil companies could raise (and lower) prices at will (RA 8479, anyone?).  And why would the lowering of prices-- a perceived benefit of deregulation-- be an argument against it?  Also, the last thing the Left will call for is the deregulation of anything; in case they haven't heard, the "leftwing militants" are actually calling for the reregulation of the oil industry.

At best this is just sloppy work-- maybe they meant reregulation when they wrote deregulation, or maybe they meant for when they wrote vs-- extremely sloppy that it is incompetent.  And this sloppiness is systemic, from the beat writer to the section editor to the copy editor.  

At worst they don't know what the hell deregulation means and the issues surrounding it.  And they're the ones who are supposed to tell us what the news is.

Woman on Top

Sarah Louise Palin
Governor of the State of Alaska
United States of America

• Born Sarah Louise Heath on 11 February 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho; moved to Alaska soon after.
• Studied high school in Wasilla, Alaska, where she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her basketball prowess.
• Was crowned Miss Wasilla in 1984 and won second place in the Miss Alaska pageant the same year.
• Majored in Journalism and minored in Politics at the University of Idaho.
• Married Todd Palin, a commercial fisherman, in 1988; they have five children.
• Served on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996.
• Appointed Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2002.
• Elected governor of Alaska in 2006; the first woman and, at 42, the youngest person elected to the post.
• Selected by John McCain to be the Republican vice-presidential candidate for the 2008 US presidential elections, making her the second woman to be nominated to the position.
• Is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.

Give them bloody hell

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Singapore Places and People

View the pics here.

Notes from Singapore

1. I have two words to describe Singapore: homogenised and sterilised. The Singapore we know is all about enviously efficient urban planning and housing development buildings (HDBs); unfortunately, it is also about cold social engineering and control. Even the urban artwork has the feel of being State-sanctioned, like a committee decides on what is acceptable at any given moment, down to the something@thisplace label for everything. I finally understand what dr.sbdink has been saying all along, that Singapore has a "Disneyfied" artificial feel to it. I never really got what he was driving at until I saw it myself. It's like using pasteurised milk to make cheese-- it can give you a good variety of taste and texture, but it has that unnatural and flat feel to it.

2. Which brings us to Geylang, the seedy underbelly of Singapore (or at least as seedy as Singapore can get). It is grimy and rowdy, the city-state's designated redlight district. It is the only place in Singapore where I frequently saw flies and cockroaches. It still felt relatively safe walking around Geylang past midnight though, the eminent threat being an overly aggressive "working girl". But of all the places in Singapore I visited, Geylang was the one where it did not feel homogenised and sterilised, the part of the city-state that seems to have been overlooked by the social planners. It has a genuine feel to it, like how Singapore was before HDBs, social engineering, and State-sanctioned cultural events. You feel it in the colourful (almost chaotic) architecture, the non-uniform businesses, and the relaxed pace of the people. Walk past the brothels and bars and you'll see mom-and-pop stores, mosques, and real communities. It's a good contrast to the Disneyfied city centre, where even daily life can feel touristy.

3. As a food heaven, Singapore definitely does not disappoint. I'll have a separate entry for food because it deserves special attention. What did disappoint me is my stomach-- seems it can only take too much chili and spice. My tastebuds are willing but my stomach is weak.

4. The Singapore transit system is the most efficient, convenient, and comfortable I have ever experienced. It was actually a pleasure to use public transportation and was very safe even late at night. It also helps that Singapore is a very walkable city and the streets are clean and dust-free. Goes to show that some things are really meant to be centrally planned.

5. Using my very scientific travel host-based rating scale, I'd say Singapore is mostly touristy along the lines of Sandra Brown and Janet Hsieh. If you're more like the Ian Wright or Anthony Bourdain traveller, then Geylang is definitely worth a visit. Food-wise, Singapore is a veritable destination for Maeve O'Meara and Andrew Zimmern and everyone in between.