No not Tupac, but Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.  In honor of 4/01,  Mountain Apple Company is acquiring the rights to use the website IZ reloaded on blogspot.com. 

No Matta what cala you, yellow, black, pink, purple, orange maroon. One race brah, da human  -Isreal “Bruddah Iz” Kamakawiwo’ole

While browsing my local liquor store today, I took the opportunity to get Hyphy.  Since the news of Mac Dre’s protege getting shot, I’ve been thinking a lot about(not really) the Hyphy movement and what it means to me(nothing.) 

I smuggled the can of Grapple(that’s a combination of Grape and Apple for you neophytes) flavored beverage home and began to admire the neon green glow of the intoxicating beverage.  I took a long sip from my specially designed wine tasting glass. Hmm, the taste is like a cold, carbonated Dimetapp.  Yum

What about the effects?  Well, I don’t feel the rush of energy like most drinks such as RedBull or Rockstarr.  I do feel extra fidgety and slightly nervous but that might attributed to my usual temperament.

Called Google TiSP, the service provides free in-house wireless broadband service by routing fiber optics through the plumbing system.  This of course, answers the ‘last hundred yards’ problem where it becomes very expensive to actually connect homes to the network.

There are detailed instructions as to how this will work here.

Obviously an april fools joke.  Not bad, i suppose.

KQED radio had an interesting debate yesterday on the topic ‘Global Warming is not a Crisis.’  The affirmative side included Michael Crichton, from Jurassic park fame, and a couple professors.  The negative, asserting that global warming is a crisis, included representatives from the union of concerned scientists, and a professor.  The debate was oxford-style, and also featured some Q&A from the audience.

This debate was interesting because it extended beyond the ‘does global warming exist?’ debate into the more relevant, ‘what should we do’ realm.  Before the debate, the audience was polled on the topic.  57% were for the negative, 30% were for the positive, while 13% were undecided.

Frankly, I’m sick of heaving about global warming already.  On one hand, you have the hippies going nuts over what kind of light bulb i’m using, and on the other you have fat texans trying to sell more oil.

I don’t really care either way, I just want to know who’s right.  I mean, my parent’s house in Hawaii is pretty close to the ocean - should we move, or do we have a few centuries?

For these global warming folks to be successful, they need to present their data in a way that can facilitate the construction of policy - not some gay hold hands and sing bullshit.  There needs to be a link between humans and climate change AND data that shows we are on the brink of an impact, data that shows there is not a safe threshold in which we can operate, and finally that there is a big impact.

To date, I think arguments are strong on link and impact - but do not have a brink or threshold.  There is no evidence that clearly shows that ‘x’ pounds more of CO2 will result in ‘y’ more water in my front yard.  So what do we do?  I mean, do we have a Deep Impact scenario here, were the U.S. needs to dedicate it’s entire budget to building a spaceship to intercept an asteroid, and I have to marry some teenage girl (now accepting applications) and move to the mountains in an effort to repopulate the earth?   Or can we just travel around the U.S. giving PowerPoints showing how bad the problem actually is?

One of the problems is that the climate change argument has been picked up by so many leftist groups - anti-oil, anti-bush, anti-Detroit, etc., when it should be really used primarily by the ‘prevent mass human deaths’ group.  This creates an environment that is heavy on rhetoric, but lacking on evidence.

For example, one audience member asked, in so many words, ‘when do we have to do something.’  And the woman who answered said something like, ‘as soon as possible, every second we wait’ blah blah blah.  But as soon as possible is the Deep Impact scenario - clearly not the case.

I think the fact is that these climate change folks simply do not have the evidence to prove brink and threshold.  That is fair, I mean, it’s hard to get millions of years worth of data.  But they just need to admit this and work towards a solution.  Otherwise, it’s easy to see that their ‘evidence’ is indeed just rhetoric that can be ignored.

Michael Crichton made a good point that the general proletariat should act when these environmentalist big wigs from the sierra club and travolta and gore or whatever stop flying private jets and reduce their own consumption.  A cheap shot, but it does prove the point that ‘as soon as possible’ is in fact, not the paradigm that even environmentalists are following here.

One of the important points that the affirmative made, is that there are other, more important problems, with real evidence, that we can address today.  Things like hunger or disease or whatever.  And, if the end of stopping global warming is indeed protecting human life, there are many other things we can do for less money that will provide a more pronounced, more immediate impact.  Sure, it is possible to do two things at once, but funding and public attention for this stuff is very much a zero sum game.  I think Crichton made this point - and he made it well.

At the end of the debate they polled the audience again, and the affirmative did well.  37% of the audience after the debate thought that global warming is not a crisis, while the negative reduced to, I believe 51%. (not so sure about these numbers, but the affirmative improved by A LOT)

The affirmative made their points well - and it was a very illuminating debate.  I makes sense, too.  I mean, remember An Inconvenient Truth?  Gore spends two hours talking about how this is a tragic problem, but when it comes to solutions, his answers are, tell people about this movie, buy a hybrid…if you can afford it, change your lightbulbs, etc.  It doesn’t make sense, y’know?  All these graphs with steep curves and animations of land eroding into ocean, and what, we’re told to change our lightbulbs?

I feel you brother

Richmond rapper’s slaying could be part of string of hip-hop violence

When will the violence end?  This isn’t what Hyphy is all about.

Recall my previous postings regarding the market, I’ve been bearish all year.  I’ve been evaluating my current positions and I’m getting increasingly cautious on the US Equity Market.  Here are my current worries:

• Iran.  It seems like Iran is going to challenge us in a game of brinkmanship.  We all know that the middle east has an inherent vested interest in keeping tensions and oil prices high.  Unfortunately for the economy these increased fuel costs start cutting in the profitability of US companies.
• China.  The decision of the United States to impose trade restrictions on coated paper from China is negative.  In a time where China’s growth is the only thing keeping the commodity market going we need an ally to purchase US Treasuries and US securities.  Getting the 800lbs gorilla angry is a poor strategy.
• US Dollar weakness.  United States in a net import economy, we can’t afford to pay more for foreign goods.
• Technology weakness.  The desktop market has sucked for a while.  There’s no end in site.  Microsoft Vista was a non-event, personal computer sales are down.  What’s going to cause a rally in technology?  The problems at Dell are very troublesome, should investors actually see previous growth numbers drastically revised down, it might end up being that this segment is weaker than initially thought. 
• Subprime lending.  This situation looks like its going to get worst before it gets better.  I’d keep an eye out for bulge bracket bank losses.  I have to assume there’s some major desks holding on to a lot of this stuff in the face of selling.
• Housing.  Home prices seem to be heading lower.  Are we headed for a soft landing?  I don’t think so.  When I look around San Francisco all I see is new construction, who’s going to buy all this stuff?
• Personal credit.  Consumer credit is pretty high, we’re seeing a larger amount of people declaring personal bankruptcy and defaulting on student loans.  This type of behavior cannot continue before we see liquidity dry up and companies begin to refuse credit applications.  Somehow the government is going to have to figure out a way to get people slowly unlevered.