Archive for December, 2008

“He’s tainted the entire auction” 0

And I’m so glad he did…

From the AP (via TPM):

An environmental activist tainted an auction of oil and gas drilling leases Friday by bidding up parcels of land by hundreds of thousands of dollars without any intention of paying for them, a federal official said.

The process was thrown into chaos and the bidding halted for a time before the auction was closed, with 116 parcels totaling 148,598 acres having sold for $7.2 million plus fees.

“He’s tainted the entire auction,” said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.

No need for my comments as I can just link to more from Mr. Marshall:

Auctions work on the theory that open bidding will efficiently yield the highest price any bidder is willing to pay. DeChristopher’s stunt suggests that, for whatever reason, that’s often not the case at BLM auctions. It turns out that, when pressed, most bidders are willing to pay more, often much more. In other words, DeChristopher exposed the fact that we’re routinely selling the rights to public land for less than its actual market value. No wonder BLM is mad.

DemocracyNow! interviewed the Utah student about the incident. You can watch that interview at this link.

Collusion, corruption and cronyism. This is our America?

‘Homebrew’ Holiday Tree 0

Via Lifehacker

I know a few people that will now probably try this.

The Buckminster-meister Blows Your Mind 0

I’ll need to watch this again, and then again before I’ll get the whole point. Runtime approx 1 hour.



For the uninitiated, here’s R Buck’s wikipedia page.

HT George

Expensive Shiny Rocks 0

Thank the sweet baby jesus for Sarah Haskins:


Totally ripping off Consumerist on this one, even if they can’t embed correctly (will prob be fixed when you click, at least i hope.)

‘Black September’ 0

A DKos diarist takes a look at the month the financial calamity began to begin the ‘first drafts of history’. For those who don’t want to read the entire thing, here’s some of the meat from the conclusion:

American consumers sustained two massive shocks as a result of Black September.  First, their confidence was shattered not just by news of corporate collapses, including sensationalistic reports that they were newly responsible for trillions of dollars’ worth of mortgages, but more importantly by the magnification of those collapses by the public figures (the President, the Treasury Secretary, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Senators and Members of Congress) in statements that quite plainly advised Americans that imminent panic over the fate of the entire economy was a proper reaction.  And panic American consumers did, as millions of households listened to a President’s speech telling them that the End was Imminent, and then had sober discussions over the kitchen table in which they decided to drastically pull back on discretionary spending, literally overnight.

Full Article Here

Resourceful Iowans 0

I wonder how lemon pepper would fare…

Previously On Heroes 0

Haven’t watched the season finale yet, but wondering if this clip plays into it at all. If not, it should have.

“There is no innocent explanation” 0

Thats the quote from the guy (Bernard Madoff) who defrauded his hedge fund investors of $50 BILLION.

I would posit that the same can be said for the rest of the current economic downturn.

Scary Numbers 1

The logical disconnects some people go to in order to be ‘safe’…

Via Mr.George