10-1-11 Hodgepodge

Arsenal's Mortgage Woes

This season could be a long one for this Gunners fan. Now, at least, I am beginning to understand why:

Life has surprises, and it did not work out that way. The greatest contribution Emirates Stadium has made to its tenants is the mortgage. Rather than assisting the club, the new stadium has been the biggest obstacle to success.

To ease financial difficulties, the club sells its best players and cannot spend enough money to acquire adequate reinforcements. This past summer, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, and Gael Clichy were sold. The club received more than $100 million, but signed a plethora of second-rate players and was unable to acquire a much needed goalkeeper.

This alone doesn't explain the collapse of the team I watched finish its season undefeated a few years ago at Houston's Richmond Arms. The article goes on to question whether manager Arsene Wenger has lost his touch at finding undervalued talent to stock his roster.

That remains to be seen, as many losses and draws have resulted from the kinds of mistakes that inexperience or the weak-mindedness of youth can cause. If the team improves over the season, Wenger will prove that he's still the magician who brought such great success to the club.

Weekend Reading

"In a twisted sort of way, some people actually thrive on pain and trauma. Why? Because they like being either a victim or a caretaker." -- Michael Hurd, in "Does Pain Make Us Stronger?" at DrHurd.com

"[T]here are some early signs rates might not yield to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's will." -- Jonathan Hoenig, in "The Anti-Bernanke Bet" at SmartMoney

"Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme, thus criminally fraudulent (as I’ll explain), but even worse, because it coerces us to be a part of it." -- Richard Salsman, in "Social Security is Much Worse Than a Ponzi Scheme – and Here’s How to End It" at Forbes

And the Winner is ...

Pursuant to yesterday's post on the "re-launch" of the former bookmarking service known as Delicious: I have decided to go with Pinboard as my new bookmarking service. Its About page is full of gems like this:

Pinboard is a bookmarking website for introverted people in a hurry. The focus of the site is less on socializing, and more on speed and utility. The goals of the site, in order of priority, are: 1. Never lose data; 2. Be ridiculously fast; [and] 3. Offer useful features[.] [re-formatted]

Wow! A site guided by actual priorities ... that make actual sense! This alone makes Pinboard stand out, but its FAQ and the nature (and sources) of the testimonials on its main page make me hopeful that these people are actually competent, and serious about what they are doing. I'll even have a few days to see if this impression is correct.

Read Practically Any Book for $79.00

Amazon has, in the words of Ars Technica, introduced the "first viable non-iPad tablet by not copying the iPad." It's also lowering the price of the vanilla, book-reading Kindle to $79.00, and this just after making it possible to borrow books from the library and indefinitely store any marginalia over the device.

-- CAV