A great article on a new study out about the default rates on mortgages..

www.housingwire.com/2008/10/29/foreclosure-rates-comparable-across-incomes-study-says/

Some select quotes:

But among subprime borrowers, LISC also found that income level had little correlation to foreclosure rates: in other words, subprime borrowers in more prosperous ( Read more... )

From Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama for President:

Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who paid them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there is nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be ( Read more... )

This isn't the entire source of the problem, but..

When someone steps up and says "This is significantly our fault, and here are some ways to keep it from happening again.."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/business/27sec.html

I've been talking to lots of people about the bailout mess, but this summarizes it pretty darned well in fairly simple language:

http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/09/economic_disasters_and_stupid.php

(via unixronin)

At DragonCon this weekend, I was standing next to a poster with pictures of the guests.

3 teenagers walk up, and look at the poster.  They start pointing out people, "Oh look, there's Nathan Fillian".

Then one of them points at George Takei, and says "Hey look, it's that guy from Heroes."

I'll be at DragonCon Friday through Monday.  (Might stop by Thursday night to get my badge.)

If you want to get together, leave a comment.  I've screened comments, so feel free to leave contact info if I might not have it..

A recent email from Amazon.com that indicates their matching algorithm could use a little improvement:

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Frankie Manning have also purchased A Is for Abraham: A Jewish Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Alphabets: Cultures) by Richard Michelson. For this reason, you might like to know that A Is ( Read more... )

Any Atlanta folks interested in getting together to play Canasta?

We've got a Scottish Country Dance we might attend on Saturday, so dancing on Friday night isn't essential for my sanity.

But there's the weekly Contra Dance, as well as the GT Swing Dance, on Friday night, so I'm contemplating 4 days of dancing in a row.  :-)

Anyone interested in joining me for either dance?

I've been playing Warcraft off-and-on for about 2.5 years, and I'm not entirely happy with either server I'm currently playing on.

On the alliance PvE server, the guild has imploded two or three times in 2.5 years, and is just generally too drama-prone to warrant putting much energy into. My 66 pally is slowly working towards 70, but it isn't ( Read more... )