In SD!

DOWWTF is in San Diego, designing software with the coolest guy in the world, for the next three days, so don't expect any posts until Sunday or Monday. In the meantime, take a look at the office I'm working at, here. Yes, it's outside. Yes, it's on a rooftop. And yes, that's the Pacific Ocean in the background. And yes, we're taking surfing breaks.


Oh, and here's Miss Kigurumi to keep you company while I'm gone...

Credit Crisis Interferes With Punjabi Woman's Effort to Import Caste System to New Jersey

From the LA Times...

"Here in Jersey you just have to have a house unless you're just a fresh immigrant," says Mona, who thinks she should be past that stage. Twenty years ago, she moved from the Punjab state in India to Santa Clara, Calif., where she lived with her parents in another two-bedroom apartment."

If You Were an Impoverished Egyptian

Bad news if you were one of the Egyptians rioting over the high food prices this past summer: at first, the credit crisis was good for the poor of developing nations. It lowered food and commodity prices. But now, farmers have reacted, and decided to cut production, and raise prices. So now you're effed. More from Bloomberg (they're on a roll, today)...

"The credit crunch is compounding a profit squeeze for farmers that may curb global harvests and worsen a food crisis for developing countries.

Global production of wheat, the most-consumed food crop, may drop 4.4 percent next year, said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co. in Chicago, who has advised farmers, food companies and investors for 29 years. Harvests of corn, and soybeans also are likely to fall, Basse said.

Smaller crops risk reviving prices of farm commodities that sank from records in 2008 after a six-year rally that spurred inflation and sparked riots from Asia to the Caribbean. Futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade show wheat will jump 16 percent by the end of 2009, corn will rise 15 percent and soybeans will gain 3 percent."

Obama's a Muslim Antichrist

Who the eff are these people? (Note that the man is knowingly on camera, speaking to an international news source, giving his name, and representing his company, and doing it all with pride, not an ounce of hesitation.)

Who's on TARP?

Who's in the Paulson club, and who ain't? From Bloomberg today...

"The U.S. government's $160 billion handout to banks from Niagara Falls to Beverly Hills is going mostly to lenders that need it least, putting weaker rivals at risk of being shut down or taken over, analysts say.

'This has the unintended effect of making the strong stronger and the weak weaker,' said Gray Medlin, founder of Carson Medlin Co., a Raleigh, North Carolina, investment bank focused on banking deals. 'Banks that are getting bad exams and are under intense pressure from regulators won't be successful in applying.'"

Election TV-Ad Roundup

Great interactive graphic from the Times...


But Bloomberg notes that, because many of the big state races aren't competitive, election TV ad spending is down 40% from '04:

"Instead, campaign spending on local TV will fall to $984.3 million from 2004's $1.05 billion, Cassino said. Total ad sales for local TV will fall 8 percent this year."

KUDURO!

Just give up: this kid is so much cooler than you will ever be...