Which is Crazier? South Carolina Polling or Blogger’s New Commenting Format?

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Michigoose

Stephen Colbert, favorite son, polls higher in South Carolina than Jon Huntsman.

Discuss amongst yourselves for a bit–I’m on my way out to a birthday dinner for a friend and will join the discussion in progress. . .

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FYI – Blogger changes

Posted on January 12, 2012 by ScottC

So yesterday Blogger put in place some changes, in particular to the comments section. Unfortunately, they did not add new options, but rather changed existing options, so it is impossible (at least for now) for us to keep the look that we used to have.

The major change they made was to add threading comments, ie exactly what PL has now. The primary downside to this change, as we experienced last night, is twofold. First, there appears to be spacing/font issues in the comments. It doesn’t look quite right, and the comments input box seems to be a bit erratic, sometimes showing up and other times not. Also, on mobile devices (at least the iPad and iPhone) there are some technical problems. For instance, I can no longer copy and paste from the comments.

We can get the comments section to revert back to the way it looked via one of two options, but with one significant exception. The comments input box will not appear on the post page under the comments. Instead, you have to click on “Post a comment”, and you will be taken either to a pop-up window with the input box, or a whole new page with the input box. Currently we have it set to the latter, but in either case, all of the comments are viewable in the new window, as well as on the original post. If you want you can look through last nights open thread to see the comments that some of us have already had about each option.

None of the options are ideal, and each has its drawbacks. We are currently using what is called the full page comments, ie clicking on “post a comment” takes you to a whole new page, with all the comments in a blogger style format, and an input box at the top. There are other options on that page which you may or may not like (ie view blog entry, collapse comments). But I just wanted to give you a heads up. Please post any comments/preferences to this post, and we will have to come to a consensus on which style we should use going forward.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention. When I was trolling around on the Blogger help site last night, I saw one comment which suggests that, when using the threaded comments option, if comments ever reach a total of 200, then the Plum Line method of only displaying X number of comments with a “Load More” button kicks in. And there were complaints about the loading speed of the “Load More”. So it seems that, with threading, Blogger is moving towards the Plum Line style which we all loved so much.

UPDATE 2: I’ve turned the threaded comments back on, at lms’ suggestion, so others can see what it looks like and test it out. Please post any problems here or, if you can’t post at all, e-mail me or kevin or lme.

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Morning Report

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1294.5 6.3 0.49%
Eurostoxx Index 2371.5 31.960 1.37%
Oil (WTI) 101.97 1.100 1.09%
LIBOR 0.5715 -0.005 -0.87%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 81.118 -0.140 -0.17%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 1.92% 0.01%

Markets are slightly positive this morning as good news out of Europe is offset by disappointing economic numbers out of the US. Spain and Italy had good debt auctions, which is pulling down sovereign yields across the board. The ECB held rates at 1% and noted “tentative signs of stabilization” in Europe.
Initial Jobless claims for the week ending 1/7 were 399k, versus 375k expected. Continuing claims were higher as well. Retail Sales for December were flat ex autos. November numbers were revised upwards. Given the comp numbers reported last week, I would not be surprised to see upward revisions. It feels like an outlier.
Regarding the jobs numbers, an interesting dynamic will be playing out in the unemployment numbers. Workers who have been unemployed for over 6 months are considered “discouraged workers” and do not count in the unemployment numbers. As the economy improves, those workers will start looking for work again and should be counted as “unemployed” This should add upward pressure to the unemployment numbers. But, with an election coming up, the Labor Department will want to understate this phenomenon as much as possible. So I would take any unemployment numbers with a grain of salt, if you don’t already.
The winter that never was (it is 40 degrees and rainy this morning in the Northeast) is wreaking havoc on natural gas prices. While WTI continues to hang around $100, gas is now down to $2.71. Natural gas bulls are being taken to the woodshed, and is approaching the 2009 lows of $2.51. It will be interesting to see if someone ends up getting carried out on a gas bet.

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Bits & Pieces (Wednesday Night Health Edition)

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Michigoose

Well, there goes my reason for drinking red wine!  Guess I’ll just have to stick with white. . . and the occasional martini when I’m out of state (due to Utah’s often odd liquor laws a real martini can’t be made here:

Metered Dispensing
Utah law requires restaurants, clubs, on-premise banquet licensees, reception centers, and airport lounges to use a metered dispensing system that is calibrated to dispense no more than 1.5 ounces of primary liquor in a mixed drink. Secondary alcoholic flavorings may then be added to a mixed drink as the recipe requires, not to exceed a total of 2.5 ounces of spirituous liquor.


Internal medicine vs surgery. . . also female vs male.  “Eating is for wimps and dermatologists!”  LMAO!


And just to show how versatile these characters are, here’s the explanation we’ve all been waiting for:




While Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines doesn’t allow YouTube (or iTunes, for that matter) to distribute his videos, Don Henley is a worthy substitute:


And another oldie but goodie:

Bob graduated from the high school that I would have attended had I stayed in Ann Arbor (darn my parents for moving!!), and one year he came back to be the Senior Prom “band”.  One of my very best friends of all time knew how much I loved Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and invited me to the prom. . . Best. Concert. Ever!

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Morning Report

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1282.1 -4 -0.31%
Eurostoxx Index 2333.4 -14.120 -0.60%
Oil (WTI) 101.41 -0.830 -0.81%
LIBOR 0.5765 -0.003 -0.52%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 81.325 0.426 0.53%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 1.94% -0.03%

Markets are a touch weaker this morning after yesterday’s rally. Euro sovereign yields are tighter on a lack of news. The Fed’s Beige Book comes out around 2:00 this afternoon and tomorrow we get jobless claims and retail sales data.
Bloomberg is speculating that the Fed is ready to start large-scale mortgage purchases again. I suspect the reason for this is the new increased fee that Fannie Mae is going to charge, which will probably tack on 10 basis points or so to the interest rate on new mortgages starting next month. The hope is that they can reduce the base yield of MBS in order to take the sting out of the increased fee.
Rumors of a big refi package coming from the GSEs will get more life as Fannie Mae’s CEO Michael Williams is stepping down. The rumor has been that the government will start offering no-questions-asked refis to anyone who is current on their mortgage. I have said before that the originator is the weak link in this plan, but there is an election coming up. Even if it doesn’t work, it allows obama to say he is doing something about house prices.
Lennar reported earnings in line with expectations this morning, but the focus is going to be on the outlook. They reported a 35% increase in backlog and a 20% increase in new orders – more indications that construction is coming back, albeit from a very depressed level. Historically, housing starts would be 1.5MM to 2MM units at this point in the economic cycle, not the current 650k annual pace. Their view is that the housing market is stabilizing.

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Bits & Pieces (Tuesday Night Open Mic)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Michigoose

Well, well, well. . . many of our hometowns turn up on this list, but look who’s the gayest of them all.  Who’d a thunk it??

Few things are better than women in science (right??!!??), and this TED talk is great!

Another edition of clinician silliness cartoons: 

Try as they might. . .

The Granite State © Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner,mitt romney, new hampshire, granite, state, primary, campaign, 2012, republican, gop, candidates, nomination, election, politics, newt gingrich, ron paul, rick santorum, jon huntsman, stone

So what else is up out there?  Got any more code for us tonight, Kevin?  🙂

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Whither Texas?

Posted on January 10, 2012 by markinaustin

Quandary.  Texas’ primary will surely be postponed until June.

How did we get here?

1]  TX Lege published its CD map based on the 2010 census.

2]  TX is a state that must pre-clear its map with the Justice Department or alternatively ask a USDC in Washington DC for a declaratory judgment.  No state had ever gone to court before, but TX thought it would do “better” in court than with a D DOJ.  This infused delay, as a matter of course – DOJ pre-clearance takes but 60 days.

3]  The DC Court has not finally ruled, but did make an interim finding that the TX plan violated the VRA.  The DC Court will finally rule in March, perhaps.

4]  TX had scheduled its primary for Super Tuesday in March, so, in an unusual move, the DC Court permitted a TX federal court panel to draw an interim plan for TX.  The San Antonio panel obliged, but without ever making its own preliminary finding that the TX plan violated the VRA.  

5]  TX appealed the SA map to the Supremes saying it was not based on a finding of a violation. Further, TX said, it could use its own map if no violation had been found.  The DC court case was not part of the appeal but it was not far from the Supremes’ minds, either.

6]  Read the link to see that the Supremes are confused, too. I think you will sense that the Supremes will probably come up with a compromise result that will be more about judicial administration of the federal court system, IMHO, then about the probable swing of 4 HoR votes by party that are the political stakes.  3 of 4 new HoR seats are R under the TX plan, but D under the San Antonio USDC plan.

7]  Remember that this is only about TX’s interim plan at this point – the final plan will be dictated by the USDC in DC, or the appeal of that case.  Problem for TX is that the interim makes the CD lines for 2012, and until we have a final ruling, we cannot have 2012 elections or primaries.  The Supremes [and all courts] hate tight timelines in complex matters.

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Morning Report

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1289.5 13.9 1.09%
Eurostoxx Index 2351.9 65.460 2.86%
Oil (WTI) 103.13 1.820 1.80%
LIBOR 0.5795 -0.001 -0.17%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 80.776 -0.212 -0.26%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 2.00% 0.04%

Markets are rallying worldwide on no real news. Alcoa kicked off earnings season last night with a loss that was more or less expected. Sales were higher than forecast. Alcoa also forecast global demand will drop to 7% from 11% last year on China weakness. Regardless, the stock is up this morning. Lennar and JP Morgan also report this week. I am interested in what Lennar has to say – construction has been the weak link in this recovery, and some of the other homebuilders had been relatively optimistic about 2012. If housing construction starts picking up, that is a great sign that the recovery is picking up steam.
The markets are rallying partly on hope that China will ease. China’s hard or soft landing may turn out to be the next wall of worry after Europe. By all accounts, their real estate bubble has burst and Chinese savers are heavily exposed to real estate. China’s capital controls mean that Western banks don’t have much exposure to China’s banks, but they do have exposure to the big UK/HK giants HSBC and Standard Chartered. At any rate, the loss of Chinese demand is the last thing the global economy needs at the moment, though it will be music to the Fed’s ears as it should lead to lower commodity prices.

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Another Baby

Posted on January 10, 2012 by lmsinca

I’m not sure how many of you remember BGinCHI (Brad-King of Snark), or ever knew him, but here’s a picture of their little guy born on Jan. 6.  Maybe once his life gets back into a nice routine he’ll have time to post over here occasionally…..lol.  Hey if Ash can do it………………………

Also, some of you may remember me asking for advice when our daughter fell in New Orleans at one of the hotels and broke her front tooth quite badly.  We’re still waiting to see if their insurance pays for it (about $5K) but she got her smile back and is grinning again.  I just wanted to say thanks for the advice.

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Bits & Pieces (Monday Night Open Mic)

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Kevin S. Willis

I been gone all day, and will be similarly disposed Tuesday and Wednesday. PowerSchool SQL training at work, new puppy and busted TV at home, I’m busy.

So, this is what I’m doing right now:

select st.lastfirst,st.grade_level gl,sc.abbreviation, 

sch2.abbreviation as abbr2,st.entrydate,st.exitdate,st.enroll_status, 

sch2.dfltnextschool, sch3.name,re.entrydate “PrevEntDate”, 

re.grade_level PrevGL,re.schoolid PrevSchoolID

from students st 

join schools scon st.schoolid = sc.school_numberjoin reenrollments re 

on st.schoolid != re.schoolidand st.id = re.studentidjoin schools sch2

on re.schoolid=sch2.school_numberjoin schools sch3

on sch3.school_number = sch2.dfltnextschoolwhere st.schoolid=25and st.enroll_status = 0

and re.exitdate = to_date(’06/04/2011′,’mm/dd/yyyy’)

and (sch2.dfltnextschool != st.schoolid)

and st.schoolid != st.next_schoolorder BY lastfirst

But I’m more interested in figuring out what the custom fields are inside custom CLOBs, but no love so far. See you later!

***

A former employee dishes on working for Keith Olberman. Blocked by my net nanny, but I’m going to have to read that later. 😉

– KW

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