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Another Dismal Day — Why Now?
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Another Dismal Day

We have been stuck in a cycle of thunderstorms coming onshore at odd moments, which makes everything soggy, because if it isn’t actually raining, the humidity is so high you are dripping with sweat in seconds.

The fun news is that we probably won’t get hit by the falling satellite, but no one is sure: NASA not sure where space junk will come down

Most of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is made of aluminum and will burn up on re-entry, NASA said. Of the satellite’s 6 tons, only about half a ton of it will make it back to Earth. The components that won’t burn are made of stainless steel, titanium and beryllium. NASA has identified 26 pieces they expect to survive, ranging in size from around 10 pounds to hundreds of pounds.

There’s an accident report I’d like to read: ‘Well, sir, was it the half ton of beryllium, or the 1000 pounds of of titanium that smashed into your Yugo?’

WIRED magazine looks at 8 Netflix alternatives compared. Not a lot to choose from, and they all look more expensive than Netflix. YMMV.

CBS has been the only media outlet actually offering any coverage of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations that are on-going. The only reference I could locate on CNN was a Tech article on the 16th about the use of social media, and even that only shows up on the International edition. The corporate media doesn’t seem interested in thousands of people holding a week-long demonstration.

Another ‘vote of confidence’ for austerity: Treasuries twisting, with 10-year yield at record low

A day after the central bank announced Operation Twist, a plan to shift $400 billion from short-term Treasuries into long-term bonds in an effort to boost lending, yields on long-dated government debt fell sharply.

Early Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield fell to a fresh all-time low of 1.762%, while the yield on the 30-year bond dropped to 2.858% — its lowest since January 2009. The 10-year yield had dropped as low as 1.858% on Wednesday, while the 30-year bond yielded 3.01%.

The rush toward Treasuries comes as investors bail out of stocks around the world.

Understand, people are flocking to T-Bills despite the announced intention of the Fed to push down the yield. At this point it is fairly obvious that investors are expecting deflation, and the recession to continue for an extended period.

5 comments

1 ellroon { 09.23.11 at 10:42 am }

I was just wondering whether NASA decided not to tell the public where the satellite was coming down because they’ve charted it and it’s going to fall on a major city… and they don’t want to scare the population? Or maybe they’ve planned it to fall on Tehran (oops!) Or on a Taliban stronghold (my my). Or on Moscow (for old times’ sake).

Maybe Los Angeles ? (those damned liberals!) There’s a lot they could do with setting the declining orbit so old satellites could be used ‘efficiently’….

2 Badtux { 09.23.11 at 11:45 am }

If you do Blu-Ray, Blockbuster’s mail server is actually cheaper than Netflix was. Yeah, I switched. It’s also slower than Netflix, but there’s always the option of taking the disc to your local Blockbuster outlet and trading it in for one of the new releases (all that’s ever there in Blockbuster outlets). So you can do that, then receive a new obscure flick in the mail a few days later, and wash rinse repeat.

– Badtux the No-Netflix Penguin

3 Bryan { 09.23.11 at 1:09 pm }

Ah, yes, Badtux, but I’m afraid you are dealing with ‘facts not in evidence, as in ‘your local Blockbuster’. Blu-Ray [whatever that may be] might be cheaper, but it’s hard to beat the turn-around of Netflix. I mailed my Mother’s latest return yesterday afternoon, and they received this morning, so she will get the next disk on Saturday. She likes old British TV shows and movies, which are not readily available anywhere else.

Ellroon, if they could maneuver the satellite it wouldn’t be coming out of orbit, and the US is responsible for any damage it causes, which would make the Repubs very unhappy.

4 Steve Bates { 09.23.11 at 5:42 pm }
5 Bryan { 09.23.11 at 8:13 pm }

Now they are guessing late tonight or early tomorrow morning in the South Pacific [cue the sound track].