On the today show, the figure $900B was thrown around as the total cost of bailouts so far (Bear, Fannie and Freddie, AIG). That is about $3,000 for every citizen of the US. Congratulations!

We entrusted the financial services sector with a big and important aspect of our economy, and we let them run it with less oversight than historically provided. And they made a hash of it, borrowing money like mad men from overseas borrowers and pouring it into ill-considered and ill-managed investments. And now we have to make the overseas borrowers whole, and it is going to fall on the backs of each of us. Many of the senior people in the financial services sector have escaped the carnage and have extracted millions from all of us.

Quite addictive. And the exchange of creatures online adds a great element. Recommended. Yeah the amazon reviewers are all going apeshit over the drm on the title, but it is fun.

Nice post from Phil pointing out the huge debt incurred by either Obama or McCain plans.

The critical thing to consider is the trillions of dollars being added to the national debt ($4.5 trillion over ten years for McCain, $3.2 trillion for Obama) at a time when we are already running deficits and fighting a war. – Comparing McCain and Obama’s tax cuts: trillions in new debt, small salary impact » Bogle’s Blog.

And don’t forget to add the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts on top of that, plus any other future bailouts.

Whoever wins this election has an economic mess to work with.

Sigh. USC is a great team, there was probably no way OSU was winning this game. The turning point was in the 2nd quarter when OSU penalized themselves out of a score. Things just got worse.

You have to pin the poor performance on coaching. USC offense and defense both have commented that they didn’t see anything surprising. OSU put no pressure on USC offensively or defensively. No interesting halftime adjustments – in fact halftime misadjustments as the staff decided to let Boechman carry the load – an impossible position for him with no running threat to keep the defense honest. There were a lot of stupid penalties and some really poor qb decisions to put the icing on the cake.

Here’s hoping that the staff learns something from this debacle.

On the plus side, the USC fans around us couldn’t have been nicer. Families, alums, a very pleasant crowd.

I’m not sure which was more disappointing: Ohio State’s defense trying to defend Joe McKnight, or the Buckeyes’ insistence on Todd Boeckman, who has never been anything but a red siren liability when asked to make plays with the game on the line. To me, it’s clearly Boeckman: while McKnight gashed OSU’s defense for almost nine yards per carry, the Buckeyes would have been in the game well into the second half if not for a) Boeckman’s throw directly into the arms of Rey Maulauga for a USC touchdown in the second quarter, and b) his cement-footed stand in the pocket on the very next possession, when he was sacked on consecutive snaps and stripped (above) on the second just to make a nice picture of his helpless inadequacy. Both turnovers, for the record, followed first down runs by Terrelle Pryor.

Sunday Morning Rewind: Trojan horses, trampled Todd - Dr. Saturday - NCAA Football - Rivals.com.

Totally agree but to be clear – not Boeckman’s fault. He is what he is and that is well known by now. The fault lies with the coaching, expecting him to be something he is not.

* “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex”:amazon by Mary Roach. Moments of interesting info but a lot of tedium about the crazy ideas people have had about sex research and the crazy methods used. A little bit is titillating, a book worth is off-putting. * “By Schism Rent Asunder”:amazon by David Weber.. Solid nautical adventure. Incomprehensible if you didn’t read first in series. * “Dauntless”:amazon by Jack Campbell. A space officer revived after 100 years and thrust into a leadership role. He is isolated by the responsibilities thrust onto him and by the differences between his values and those of the current society. The character development of every other character is paper thin, which oddly works to support the feeling of isolation. I’m not sure I’d read more in the series but oddly effective. * “Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?”:amazon by Thomas Kohnstamm. Well this travel writer is sure going to hell based on the life of debauchery he has led. Interesting insight into the quality of research that goes into travel books.

chartjunk » Blog Archive » Tax Plans (that’s one for you, nineteen for me) – nice charting. i’ve done no research to understand the veracity but nice chart.

Willingham by the numbers - UW Dawg Pound – wow a crushing analysis of UW recruiting. This pretty much lays out exactly why there will be a coaching change.

StorageMojo » Our changing file workloads Interesting study results. Some of the things that fascinate me:

* Files rarely re-opened. Over 66% are re-opened once and 95% fewer than 5 times. Over 60% of file re-opens are within a minute of the first open. * over 90% of the active storage was untouched during the study

hmm, providing a backup service has to be profitable given this info.

Ohio State deserves to lose to USC? - USC - OCRegister.com – the OC Register columnists and bloggers are pretty inflamatory. Here’s hoping they are crying in their beers Saturday night. On this particular point, Ohio State supports 35 varsity sports. USC supports 19. The revenue from the cupcake games is what provides the funding for the incremental 16 sports. No one is excited about the games, but you have to give Ohio State some credit for the use of the funds

MAKE: Blog: Non-circular gears in motion – nice video. I’ve got a great set of books – “Ingenious Mechanisms”:amazon – that show how to turn one form of motion into any other form using gears, cogs, etc. Amazing what you can do

MAKE: Blog: Hot glue for expressive LED diffusion – nice looking effects. Has to be some Halloween potential

I don’t think anyone in the family is confused about this but just in case – The Congressional Budget Office estimates that there is only a 7% probability that someone born in 2000 will receive their Social Security benefits as promised today.

From Marginal Revolution: The Return of the Zombie.

MAKE: Blog: ‘Big Bang’ experiment starts well. Whew.