Saying that stock market prices are wholly unpredictable is like saying you went to a Sotheby's auction and you didn't know when people were raising their bids.

I live for that moment where you feel you've finally 'gotten' something.

You figured it out... you might not have totally solved the problem yet, but you're on the way there and you can taste it. Finishing up is important, but is nearly a foregone conclusion once you've actually _clicked_

And you do that again, and again, and again, and again.

Nothing better.

Ratting Out Your Kid’s Competition

Filth, pure filth. What kinds of values are being imprinted on kids whose parents are like that?

Blah blah cutthroat college admissions process blah blah. Whatever.

that crap is obscene

looks like I came back just in time for some of the best goodies around.

Missed a lot of hot trades. Plenty more to come though! Keep your eyes peeled.

George Obama seems way cooler than his half-brother.

"There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges."

"I think in life, what you want is what you are supposed to get."

-George Obama

So according to my box of Frosted Mini-Wheats it

has been clinically shown to improve kids' attentiveness by nearly 20%!

wowzers! that's probably better than 40mg of methylphenidate for those little munchkins!

The footnote is where it all comes together though.

Based upon independent clinical research, kids who ate Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal for breakfast had up to 18% better attentiveness three hours after breakfast than kids who ate no breakfast. For more information, visit www.frostedminiwheats.com [!!!!]

I have to say I'm floored. They even tell you it's all a bunch of garbage, if you're willing to read between the lines EVER SO SLIGHTLY AS IN NOT AT ALL.

Wow, being hungry and starving makes it hard to concentrate. I'm glad I have my mini-wheats!

The little Asian kid with his hand raised is too much for me. Can you handle it?

Heaviest users of Web face limits on 'unlimited' - Chicago Tribune

I've been reading about this particular theme for a long time now; personally I believe content providers and network providers should, by necessity, be wholly separate entities so as to avoid conflicting interests.

Companies such as Comcast and Time Warner also fear becoming a "dumb pipe"—providing the conduit for data-intensive Internet activity but not managing the flow or making any money from it.

Why should they get to make money from the flow? They already get to make money from simply providing the access. These companies, much like the railroad companies of yore, have been provided with the chance to make investments in these kinds of networks, spreading their infrastructure across public spaces that they do not own, and can never own.

As far as I'm concerned, the pipe providers might as well be government-sponsored and chartered corporations like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Housing-loan-wholesalers and dumb-pipe-providers, although operating for a profit, exist to provide a public service - increasing the access and price efficiency of home loans or internet access.

Access to information is a basic human need, something that has been coming to peoples' attention in regards to the switch from over-the-air analog TV to a purely digital transmission medium.

These are just growing pains. The issue of information access is too essential to the health of our people for us to allow these corporations to set strong-arm policies regarding the use of the network infrastructure we allowed them to build.

I think the question itself is invalid.

An article on the NYT website about the booming self-storage business.

Here's an excerpt I found interesting.

“Storage has my hopes in it,” said Mr. Martin, who sleeps on a foldout bed in his mother’s guest room. “I don’t tell anyone this, but at least once a week I go over and look at my couch, my refrigerator, my TV stand, my mattress and realize I did have a life, and maybe there’s a way to go back to it.”

I hope you know what I find wrong and incomprehensible about this statement.

One common method for promoting blog posts and websites is to look for other blog posts and websites that discuss similar items and then leave a comment with a link back to relevant content.

What is interesting about this approach is that people regulate their comments very tightly. Let us examine two approaches that I have encountered when attempting to promote my website through this sort of largely harmless and possibly helpful, comment 'spam'.

I promote my Zecco review on The Sun's Financial Diary

So naturally, I want my articles to have high search engine ranking. So what do I do? I search for the keywords that I want other people to get to my site by using, and look for the blogs, because those will allow the posting of comments.

Here is a search for 'Zecco Review' on Google. When I wanted to open up a brokerage account, I used this review to help determine I first open a Zecco account, so when it came full circle and I commented on it and left a link to my review, it seemed quite appropriate. Sun (the website operator) was kind enough to reply to my comment and agree with my general opinion that Zecco was a so-so broker at best.

I attempt to promote my Zecco review on Debtkid's website

The very first result of that Google search leads right to a review of Zecco on Debtkid's site. Naturally, I wanted to promote my website on the Number 1 result for 'Zecco Review'! I believe I posted almost the exact same comment that you can see on the Sun's website, and shortly thereafter, I noticed that I received a few referrals from his site.

However within a day the referrals dried up. What happened? I went back to Debtkid's site, and surprise, my comment might as well have never existed! Why would this happen?

My comment was deleted because Debtkid, as an affiliate of Zecco, is trying to receive commissions for selling Zecco account signups, and people reading my so-so to possibly negative review is not going to help him do that.

In short, Debtkid has a conflict of interest and did not act with integrity by deleting my comment

The Sun also receives compensation for people signing up with Zecco, but because he is an ethical person that acts with integrity, he is not going to attempt to omit and hide the truth in order to line his pockets like Debtkid.

I left the following comment on Debtkid's site, I doubt it will ever show up:

Debtkid is vested in having you guys sign up for Zecco; of course he's not going to write a bad review.

I attempted to drop a link here to my more nuanced and not-so conflicted-of-interest review (I am not an affiliate of any brokerage unlike Debtkid) , but Debtkid apparently did not think my comment worthy of posting.

My review of Zecco in 2008
Some difficulties I have had with Zecco, and also, SogoTrade.

And of course, the only comment on this review is blandly positive nearly content-less praise:

I love Zecco so far, and I’ve been with them for over a year. Not only do you get the 10 free trades but the rates are pretty low for options and trades after ten, lower than most all the other sites I’ve looked at. Their customer service has also been great for me so far. I recently had a technical question, emailed them and not only got back an email back within a half-hour, but also got a call from one of their engineers who helped me solve the problem.

Where were those awesome engineers when Zecco decided to take the day off and read the paper while taking a huge dump on Monday, April 14th, 2008?