Consider for a Moment

Could the Republicans be purposefully attempting to weaken the economy in preparation for the mid-term elections?

Greg Valliere, the Chief Political Strategist of the Potomac Research Group, presents his thoughts: http://www.cnbc.com/id/38023788

World Cup TV Ratings

This past Saturday's World Cup match between the US and Ghana attracted the biggest audience ever in the United States for men's soccer.

ESPN announced that the game Saturday afternoon drew 14.9 million viewers in English -- and Nielsen said another 4 million watched in Spanish.

ESPN said that overall ratings are nearly 50 percent higher for these games than the 2006 World Cup. The United States is currently bidding to become the host for the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022.

http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/blog/2010/06/record-breaking.html

Does America Need Royalty?

A very interesting perspective on a topic that at first glance may seem absurd, but will definitely make you think:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/opinion/10kristof.html

Missed Opportunity

Barry Ritholtz's take on what President Obama should have promised to the American people during his address to the nation regarding the BP disaster:

1. Energy R&D: First, we need to recognize that a decade into the 21st century, we are as a nation overwhelmingly wed to 19th century fuel sources. What we need is a fundamental breakthrough in energy technology. Toward that end, I am convening a new “Manhattan Project” — only this time, it is for fundamental research into new forms of Energy. We need more than incremental improvements in solar and battery power, we need a major breakthrough that is the equivalent of the Atomic bomb in its magnitude.

I am requesting Congress Fund a $250 billion dollar Federal research agency to fund fundamental physics and chemistry research — into battery technology, solar efficiency, wind and wave power, thorium nuclear, and all manners of new ideas. The private sector has failed to do this over the past century, so it is up to we the people to get this accomplished. (If we were able to find $185 billion dollars for AIG, then surely we can find $250B to secure our energy futures).

2. Gas Taxes: Gasoline is cheap and plentiful. This has encouraged us to be incredibly wasteful in our energy choices. We are the only industrialized western nation that has not implemented some form of disincentive to to be so profligate in our fuel consumption.

3. Mass Transit: I am implementing a massive overhaul of our national mass transit. We are too inefficient in how much energy we consume merely getting around from place to place. Hi Speed rail between cities, increased rail within the cities, natural gas burning buses, and electric vehicles will become the standard.

4. CAFE Standards: For local driving, we need to also be more efficient. Thus, we will raise our national Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles. We were making progress in the 1970s and early 80s, but we got complacent. I am confident that our auto engineers and manufacturers will find a way to deign more efficient vehicles.

5. Alternative Energy for Homes: I have already established tax credits for making homes more efficient, replacing old furnaces, upgrading insulation and windows. But we can do better. So we will be offering a new set of tax credits for alternative energy sources at the home level. Solar, geothermal, wind will all be subsidized by a federal tax credits for home and multi-unit apartment owners.

6. Upgrade the Grid: Our existing energy grid is antiquated, inefficient and problematic. I am appointing a panel of scientific experts to make recommendations to upgrade the electric grid, transmit power more efficiently, and help to reduce black outs. Further, we need to make the grid more secure from attack from overseas hackers and others who would use our open society to do us harm.

The entire post is well worth the read: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/06/missed-opportunity-bp-gulf-of-mexico-disaster/

World Cup

The knockout stage of the World Cup begins tomorrow. Here are some World Cup facts to get your pumped:

- The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. Many believed American Bart McGee scored the first goal in the World Cup, against Belgium in the 40th minute. But a dispute erupted and FIFA, soccer's governing body, determined the first goal was scored by Frenchman Lucien Laurent in the 19th minute against Mexico on July 13, 1930.

- The highest attendance for one match was in the 1950 final. The official attendance was 199,854 for the match between Brazil and Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

- The XXXIX Superbowl had an estimated 94 million viewers. The World Cup averages 1.1 billion viewers per day for the almost month-long event. This year it is estimated that 2.8 billion viewers will watch a World Cup game.

- Official World Cup Sponsorship cost $125 million dollars : Coke, Adidas, McDonald's, Visa, and Sony

GO USA!!!!

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5144103_interesting-fifa-world-cup.html

Where Americans Are Moving

More than 10 million Americans moved from one county to another during 2008. The Forbes webiste below visualizes those moves. All you do is click on a county to see the comings and goings: black lines indicate net inward movement, red lines net outward movement. Pretty cool stuff:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html

Against All Odds

From the Boston Globe:

Daniel Nava weighed 135 pounds and did not get many at-bats during his senior year at St. Francis High in Mountain View, Calif.

Mark O’Brien, the baseball coach at Santa Clara University, was only being polite when he invited Daniel Nava to come out for his team as a walk-on in the fall of 2001.

“He came out for the team and I’ll be honest with you, he didn’t get many balls out of the infield,’’ O’Brien said. “I called him in the office and said, ‘Hey, man, I love you as a kid but I can’t look you in the eye and say you can play for this team.’ It’s hard to let a kid go, but there wasn’t much I could do.’’

But O’Brien was willing to let Nava hang around the program. What he could offer was a chance to shag balls during batting practice, rake the field and wash the uniforms on road trips.

“Most kids wouldn’t have wanted to do that,’’ O’Brien said. “But look what happened.’’

Nava stuck around the Santa Clara program for two seasons and 2 years later an unexpected growth spurt left Nava 5 feet 10 inches and 170 pounds. A pipsqueak no longer, Nava was driving the ball to all fields. But for financial reasons, Nava had to leave school and enrolled at San Mateo Junior College.

Nava then tried out for the independent league Chico Outlaws and was cut. He made the team the following season and was named MVP. Baseball America magazine named Nava the best prospect in the independent leagues.

That caught the attention of Red Sox assistant director of pro scouting Jared Porter, who recommended that Nava’s rights be purchased from Chico.

The high-stakes deal: $1 up front with an additional $1,499 if Nava made it through spring training in 2008.

Nava soared through the organization, advancing a level each season before being called up to Fenway Park on Saturday. He came to the plate with the bases loaded in the second inning and hit the first pitch he saw from Joe Blanton into the Red Sox bullpen for a grand slam.

The former team manager is now 4 for 8 with 2 doubles, a grand slam, and 5 RBIs as a member of the Red Sox. There is not a more unlikely rookie in all of baseball than the 27-year-old Nava.

From: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/06/15/nava_still_rolling_against_all_odds/

Facebook Facts

1) Facebook was originally bankrolled by a co-founder of Paypal for $500,000

2) There is evidence that founder Mark Zuckerberg stole many of the ideas and much of the code from ConnectU. They sued Facebook and settled for an undisclosed amount.

3) 400,000,000 people log into their profile at least once a month

4) Half of those people log in every day

5) 70% of Facebook users live outside of the US

6 ) 44.1% of Denmark has an active Facebook profile

7) Only Google gets more traffic

8) Yahoo! tried to buy Facebook in 2006 for $1,000,000,000

9) 8,300,000,000 hours are spent on Facebook monthly

10) The fastest growing demographic in America on Facebook: Women 55+

11) FAD is a mental disorder – Facebook Addiction Disorder. FAD. Ironic.

12) Court notices and summons sent through Facebook are legal and binding in Australia.

From: http://socialblade.com/show/2010/06/13/facebook-facts/

Kids are Expensive!!

The annual report "Expenditures on Children by Families" was just recently released. A middle-income family, with a child born in 2009, can expect to spend about $222,360 for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise that child over the next 17 years.

Housing costs are the single largest expenditure, averaging $70,020 or 31 percent of the total cost over 17 years. Child care/education and food were the next two largest expenses, accounting for 17 and 16 percent of the total expenditure. Amazingly, the estimates do not include the costs associated with pregnancy or the cost of a college education.

www.pressreleasenetwork.com/newsroom/EINNews.php?id=89806

Dunkin vs Starbucks in Mass

Every wondered about the contest between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. Check out the website for a frightening look at the caffeine wars:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/massfacts/snapshot_dunkin_donuts_vs_starbucks_massachusetts/