Let the “the economy is not as bad here” smack talk begin!

P.S. I hope this gives y’all extra incentive to make it to T-Town on August 1st of this year.

Shep lets another one rip on live television. Will this ever get old?

I created an NBA playoff bracket competition for us. I tried to email all of you, but if I missed you, please send me an email and I’ll send you an invite. The playoffs start on Saturday.

League name = JttM
password = Joe (or maybe it’s “joe,” not sure about the capital letter)

The Fayetteville Athletic Club (a/k/a F.A.C. or the FAC (pronounced “fak”)), the place where I spent a large chunk (and best part) of my teenage years, is unhappily featured on the front page of the New York Times business section.

Some (and maybe all) of the Denver JttMers are talking about a little Seattle excursion for Potlatch / Independance Day / Zmurder’s bday. As per Zach’s request I’ve created an rss feed for updates on our plans. Slap this ridiculous, hand edited, lo-fi yet hi-tech bad boy into your feed reader on the off chance I remember to add to it.

I can’t wait for the day a U.S. President makes an open and announced visit to Iraq.

Arcade Fire made many millions of dollars on Funeral, and they invested it wisely in a church studio, orchestral arrangements, instruments to smash, a second album, and they produced a film about Neon Bible - Miroir Noir. I have not made millions of dollars, but I have invested my money wisely by watching Miroir Noir on Pitchfork TV for free. It’s only on there for a week, so hurry. I’m not giving a summary because any Arcade Fire fan should just watch it… with their headphones on. If you miss the one-week window, buy it. If you are low on time and want to experience what it’s like to see Arcade Fire live, watch part 6. … Neon God, thank you.

I know, I know, you’ve already seen or been sent a hundred links that are supposed to be “a great explanation of the financial crisis.” This is the first one I’ve read that I’d actually hope our policy-makers read. It’s less about what happened and more about how we let it happen and how to restore confidence that, if we give our money to these institutions (whether as taxpayers or investors), it won’t just go right back down the drain. According to the article, and contrary to conventional wisdom, every recession or depression is different. We are pretty good at learning what went wrong in the past and typically avoid the same mistakes. Instead we need to look at what was different this time:

• Diversification of businesses and investments
• Objective, mathematical measures of performance

As good as those two things sound, the author makes a good case that we pursued these virtues way to far. They led us away from simple, understandable business models and concrete understanding to a point where almost nobody understood what the hell was happening.

Our Epistemological Depression by Jerry Z. Muller

Wow this little tidbit was cool in a story I was reading on the right whale having a great breeding year. Check it out:

It was the first time researchers had successfully sedated a large whale of any type, according to NOAA. To do so, they had to use two cups worth of tranquilizer and a foot-long needle. Two drops of the concoction would be enough to kill a person, said Jamison Smith, NOAA’s large whale disentanglement coordinator.

Amazing!