| A "Bradley Effect" for Blacks?
Like the "chartist" approach to investing, they're right until they're wrong. But at least the chartists are charting a big data set. With presidential elections, any patterns are based on a very small set of examples. (There are only 16 elected presidents since TR, for example.) b) Even the 14 year pattern isn't as clear as Lizza and Rauch say it is. Kennedy pushes the boundary--he was elected to Congress in 1946, won the presidency in 1960. Lizza gives FDR's gestation period as four years, but FDR was the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee in 1920, twelve years before he was elected president. Nixon took 21 years to reach the White House after his first election to Congress in 1947. (Yes, Nixon was elected Vice President in 1952. But if the problem is that national politicians grow stale and record-bound, why should their "expiration date" be put on permanent hold just because they're elected to the vice-presidency? Shouldn't national office and national exposure make them staler quicker?) c) Lizza's chartist panic is at war with the common-sense view that before he runs for President, maybe Obama should have accomplished something, or at least demonstrated the ability to wield executive power effectively.
Archives for: July 2007
Dow Jones/Ottaway owners have until 5pm today to decide Bancrofts' jockeying over Murdoch deal goes down to the wire Some family members have committed to vote in favor of a sale, but others oppose the deal for fear that News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's style of journalism would damage the integrity of Dow Jones's publications... which includes The Standard-Times in New Bedford and The Cape Cod Times in Hyannis The Bancroft family and its advisers headed into the final hours of deliberations over the fate of Dow Jones & Co. Sunday amid heated jockeying and negotiating that threatened to create a rift between the company's board and some family advisers, according to people familiar with the matter. Still, the company's fate remained too close to call, these people said. Michael B.
fighting words
3) The Unocal company in Texas had been willing to discuss a gas pipeline across Afghanistan with the Taliban, as had other vested interests. 4) The Bush administration sent far too few ground troops to Afghanistan and thus allowed far too many Taliban and al-Qaida members to escape. 5) The Afghan government, in supporting the coalition in Iraq, was purely risible in that its non-army was purely American. 6) The American lives lost in Afghanistan have been wasted. (This I divine from the fact that this supposedly "antiwar" film is dedicated ruefully to all those killed there, as well as in Iraq.) It must be evident to anyone, despite the rapid-fire way in which Moore's direction eases the audience hastily past the contradictions, that these discrepant scatter shots do not cohere at any point.
Google gatecrashes the mobile market
Confirming its long-rumoured foray into the mobile market, Google said Monday it is developing a free mobile phone software package so the Internet search leader can more easily peddle ads and services to people who aren't in front of a PC. While the announcement ended months of speculation about the company's cellular ambitions, the first phones equipped with Google's so-called "software stack" still won't be available until the second half of 2008. And Google won't be making the phones, nor does it plan to stamp its prized brand on the devices. Instead, it will work with four mobile phone manufacturers who have agreed to use Google's programs in their handsets. Consumers will have to buy a new phone to get the Google software because the bundle wasn't made for existing handsets.
Digital Camera Essentials
They usually specialise in one type of product (say digital cameras or mobile phones) and have hundreds of independent comparative reviews of almost every model on the market from people who know them inside and out. These sites will prevent you from being persuaded by an unscrupulous salesperson into buying an expensive top-of the range model when all you needed was something middle-of-the-road and reliable. Expert opinion sites can also help you create a shortlist of quality products to prevent you from buying a lemon that you will regret later. Sites We Like:www.dpreview.com (digital cameras)www.hdtvorg.co.uk (HD televisions)www.imobile.com.au (mobile phones)www.consumer.org.nz (various products) Last-Minute Deals(Savings rating: $$$) Web sites that have last-minute deals on things like flights and accommodation are a great way to save money.
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