ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

A little over 100 in a compact rental car in New Mexico years ago. Not sure of the exact speed, because my focus was on (1) not killing anybody, and (2) scanning the horizon for cops. After skiing, I decided to take a scenic detour through some mountains on the way to the airport. The nice straight line on the map had a ton of switchbacks for miles, and put me WAY behind schedule to make the flight home. When I finally got out of the mountains, I told my significant other - - "If we miss our flight and have to buy 2 last minute tix on a different flight, it will cost us more than the speeding ticket, even with the insurance bump." She said "Go for it" and closed her eyes for the next 30 minutes or so. Never crossed paths with a cop, and just barely made our flight. I don't recommend it.

Just to muddy the waters a bit, this is from a government website - - the undated document is entitled "Making Home Affordable Program Enhancements to Offer More Help for Homeowners:" http://www.makinghom...2510 FINAL2.pdf I'm no expert on HAMP or TARP, but the document appears to outline an expansion of the HAMP program to include FHA loans, which were not originally eligible for HAMP. Near the bottom of page 3, this document states: The above quote raises more questions than it answers for me, but seems to indicate that TARP and HAMP may not be totally disconnected from each other. I'm not suggesting that birddog's initial overview was right, because this doesn't sound like TARP money intended to keep B of A from failing, but I simply don't know enough to explain the possible connection. For example, if the "incentives are comparable to the incentive structure of HAMP," does that mean that the original incentive structure of HAMP likewise included "TARP funded incentives?" And even if the answer is yes, WTF does that actually mean? Beats the s**t out of me. I now return this thread to your originally scheduled insults and related programming. Edit: Here's a couple links that provide a little more insight and answer some questions about how HAMP was funded by TARP: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09837.pdf (see the 1st paragraph on page 2 - - that's all I read) http://useconomy.about.com/od/glossary/g/TARP.htm I'm still not clear on a lot of the details - - if banks only received HAMP funds after successfully modifying non-performing loans, seems like they were incentivized to make HAMP work. Maybe it was mainly a staffing problem for B of A.

I found another story about the new Mass. federal court suit against B of A that seems, from memory alone, to have some details that weren't in the OP's cnbc link (I did not go back to compare the two): http://www.propublic...ed-foreclosures As others have pointed out, we only have one side of the story at this point, because it's early in the lawsuit. And I don't have any idea if the pro publica article is slanted. But the pro publica link above has hyperlinks to the full text of each of the six sworn declarations by former B of A employees - - for the lazy, here's one of the six: http://www.propublic...iam-wilson.html

The drones are here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/congress-surprised-drone-u-soil-shouldn-t-194751908.html

Here's the actual text of the Consent Judgment entered against B of A a little over a year ago in the national mortgage servicing suit: https://d9klfgibkcqu...BoA-4-11-12.pdf If you don't feel like reading the lengthy Consent Judgment, here's a 4 page executive summary of how the overall settlement (not just the settlement with B of A) was incorporated into individual consent judgments against each of the five national mortgage servicer defendants - - the summary was prepared by an assistant attorney general of North Carolina: https://d9klfgibkcqu...y-7-23-2012.pdf Here's a Washington Post article describing the court appointed settlement monitor's most recent report (published Wednesday) about how the national mortgage servicers are complying with their obligations under the Consent Judgments: http://www.washingto...3c30_story.html

My high school's starting point guard against a much, much bigger guy. Turns out, fearless (crazy?) with fast hands beats big and lumbering. Like they say, it ain't the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Did you drop it out of an airplane?

Hey Zosomerperzosomer, I'm curious - - Do you have Toxic Memories? Or in the spirit of this thread, Recuerdos Toxicos? I don't know the Canadian translation, but if I'm right it doesn't matter. Signed, A privacy advocate

For those who may not be familiar with him, I found this highlight clip of Butler: One drawback, though - - guy has his own cheerleading squad, so he might not have the right mindset.

The guy with a skillet I really like is Kenny Butler. Not overly fast, but a quick first step, good athleticism, and I think he's a free agent, so we could still sign him.

The article linked above seems to indicate that the federal judge didn't laugh: It's not clear to me why the judge should care whether the surveillance was legally conducted - - the defendant seeking the records isn't responsible for the government's surveillance activities. Seems to me like if the gov't has potentially exculpatory evidence and can produce it with reasonable effort then it should be required to produce it, even if the gov't originally obtained it illegally. And even if the defendant can't get the requested records, his attorney might have a shot at getting any incriminating phone records excluded from the trial if the gov't can't or won't produce potentially exculpatory phone records that it may admit having. I'll be interested to see how the government responds, and what happens next.

Would you believe sushi and pizza delivery drones? http://o.canada.com/2013/06/11/sushi-drone/

"I never blew over 750 large on an engagement ring because my Daddy gave me the TALK. I'll give it to you in football terms - - Sperm look just like this thing, but with a squiggly tail. Ya gotta keep 'em from gettin' to places where you don't want 'em to go. No, not with your hands! Let's start over . . . . ."

Many may already be aware of this, but because I think it's important and I have not seen a link to info about the Utah data center posted in this thread: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

In the gold rush days, most prospectors went broke, and a few got wealthy. The guys who sold picks and shovels to the prospectors made nice steady profits. One way to participate in the biotech industry with less risk (and admittedly less potential upside) is to figure out what kinds of "picks and shovels" the biotech researchers need and invest in the companies that make them. Takes some time and effort to figure out what the best new types of shovels will be, and it's certainly no sure thing, but it's less risky than trying to figure out (guess?) what clinical trials will be successful. But even this somewhat less risky approach should not be used if you aren't willing to do some investigation first.

I suppose this might not be practical in New Hampshire (sadly only one picture): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/7717810/Australias-bikini-wearing-meter-maids-forced-to-cover-up.html

http://online-billing-review.toptenreviews.com/freshbooks-review.html http://online-billing-review.toptenreviews.com/ Will you be selling services, goods or both?

My significant other dragged me kicking and screaming on our first cruise - - but I had some serious misconceptions and wound up enjoying it. Christmas carols on steel drums - - who knew? I have been on several other cruises since then. One of the best things about cruises, especially if you like seeing new places, is that you only have to unpack once - - your "hotel room" then does the traveling. One thing I have not seen mentioned yet in this thread is ship size. Think about whether you would prefer a slightly smaller ship over one of the floating cities they have more recently been building. Even the smaller ships generally have lots of dining and entertainment options. You also may have an option to either have meals "freestyle" (i.e., come and go whenever you want), or seated at a table at an assigned time with the same people at each dinner. There are pros and cons to each approach, depending on the personalities of any assigned table-mates. It's an oversimplification, but my impression is that Carnival ships encourage more of a young party atmosphere, RC focuses on outdoor activities, and Holland America draws an older, more "dignified" crowd [yuck!]. I have not cruised on Carnival, but enjoyed myself on the other two. Given a choice, I would pick a mid-sized RC ship. Carnival ships have been in the news a lot in the last couple years with mechanical problems, but I suspect some of that is just increased media scrutiny after one of their Italian subsidiary's ships struck rocks and capsized off the coast of Italy a couple years ago. Cruise ships sometimes have outbreaks of the norovirus - - I've never been on a ship with a problem, but it would be a good idea to use the hand sanitizers that all ships make available in their dining halls. It's not a very serious illness, but it's highly contagious, and it could ruin your trip. One last thing - - if you wind up on a really big ship, consider packing lightly enough so that you can cart your own bags on and off the ship. At the end of the cruise, the big ships assign you a disembark (?) time, and I'm pretty sure the high rollers get priority. If you're willing to lug your own bags, some cruise lines let you depart immediately. That may give you time to see or do more things in your final port city, or time to catch an earlier or cheaper flight home that day. Have a great time - - it's hard not to on a cruise!

If the manager was misdemeanor stupid, the "actors" he hired were felony stupid. They put their own lives at risk. Any off-duty cop or armed civilian might have killed them if they "brandished" their weapons while acting out their "part."

Beat me to it, but I was going to add this video:

The guys who had the most heart and grit (not the most talent): Don Beebe - - best example of how any sport SHOULD be played Antoine Winfield - - when a large FB caught a swing pass heading in his direction it wasn't a fair fight Frank Reich - - QB for biggest comebacks in both NCAA and NFL history Darryl Talley - - my brothers voted him in

I only have two bits of information about Lane College "Dragon" Vernon Kearney. He got beat once in a while, but: 1. He asked no quarter; and 2. Gave none.

I wonder if the same scout who recommended drafting Reggie Corner suggested that we sign Nickell?

Reported suicide rates are increasing, but reported murder rates are steadily declining: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/preliminary-semiannual-uniform-crime-report-january-june-2012/data-tables/table_3_percent_change_for_consecutive_years_2012.xls There's more than one way to interpret that data. My oldest brother Darryl figures that with all those CSI type shows on TV, we've educated a lot of criminals. They now know a lot more about how to cover their tracks, so killers are a lot better than they used to be at making things look like suicide. He says the population isn't more depressed, it's just smarter. But he's a glass half-full kind of moron.

Nickell went undrafted for a reason. He's only half good enough to play in the dime sub-package.