Newton Running – Run Better

To discover your best running form all you need to do is run barefoot. You’ll immediately discover that when barefoot you’re not landing on your heels, you’re striking on your forefoot.

Striking on your forefoot is the most natural way to run, it is also the fastest and most efficient way to run. Newton Running shoes were developed to make your feet think they’re barefoot and increase your performance.

via Newton Running – Run Better.

Milton Friedman Tells Phil Donahue Why Socialism Fails

via YouTube – Milton Friedman

Brookfield Properties – suprisingly solid …

Brookfield Properties is committed to building shareholder value by investing in premier quality assets and pro-actively managing each of our properties to increase cashflows and maximize return on capital. With our strong financial position, premier assets and an experienced and dedicated management team, we are confident in our ability to deliver on our financial performance targets. Brookfield Properties is well-positioned to ride out the current market downturn:

- Average occupancy on managed portfolio today: 96%

- Average annual lease rollover over next three years: 5%

- Average lease duration: over 7 years

- Average tenant quality: “A” rated

- Average net rent: 30% below current market

- Investment grade financing at asset level: 94% non-recourse

- Average duration of financing: 7 years

via Brookfield Properties – Investor Relations – Overview.

Hugh Hendry Musings On Deflation

I have been keeping a low profile and have reduced the length of my reports. There has been little to note: my favourite asset class is long duration bonds; not index linkers. These have performed poorly so far this year. I have not fought this trend aggressively. By March I had rebuilt a modest sized position owing to the severity of the weak economic data. However this was mostly eliminated by the first week of April out of respect for the formidable price correction that was ongoing. As a result the Fund is down modestly on the year to date following last year’s surge. However, with the long bond yield in America now not far off 5pc, it is my contention that the trend may be approaching another extreme. I therefore thought it appropriate to once more outline my thoughts: what if the trend in the charts below continues; what if this year is a re-run of last year?

via Zero Hedge: Hugh Hendry Musings On Deflation.

Roubini says oil, gold look overpriced

Oil and gold are overvalued at current prices, which do not reflecting their market fundamentals, economist Nouriel Roubini said at the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit on Tuesday.

Roubini, who is known for having predicted the financial crisis that rocked the global economy in the past two years, painted an economic backdrop of deflationary risks and warned that if oil keeps climbing toward the $100 level it would deal an “economic shock” similar to the one last seen in 2008.

The recent rally in oil, which sent prices to an eight-month high above $73 per barrel, was “too high too soon,” Roubini told the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in New York.

U.S. crude oil reached a record high near $150 per barrel in July 2008 based on overly bullish global demand expectations, but prices have since more than halved with the global economic slowdown.

Roubini, who is chairman of economics research firm RGE Monitor, said the current price of gold looks overextended as deflation is likely to outweigh any risks of inflation in the near term.

“For the next two years, deflationary pressure is going to be dominant, and it is going to become a time bomb down the line if and when we keep monetizing large deficits. It may be too soon to hedge with gold,” he said.

“Unless we have high inflation, or…other risks like depression, gold looks toppy,” he said.

Gold could spike again whenever there is rising risk aversion, he said, though noting that bullion prices had declined after the Lehman Brothers debacle in September last year.

via Roubini says oil, gold look overpriced | Industry Summits | Reuters.

Catherine Mohr: Surgery’s past, present and robotic future

Surgeon and inventor Catherine Mohr tours the history of surgery (and its pre-painkiller, pre-antiseptic past), then demos some of the newest tools for surgery through tiny incisions, performed using nimble robot hands. Fascinating — but not for the squeamish.

via Catherine Mohr: Surgery’s past, present and robotic future | Video on TED.com.

Ideologue-in-chief | Caroline Glick

So if Obama’s foreign policy has already failed or is in the process of failing throughout the world, why is he refusing to reassess it? Why, with blood running through the streets of Iran, is he still interested in appeasing the mullahs? Why, with Venezuela threatening to invade Honduras for Zelaya, is he siding with Zelaya against Honduran democrats? Why, with the Palestinians refusing to accept the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, is he seeking to expel some 500,000 Jews from their homes in the interest of appeasing the Palestinians? Why, with North Korea threatening to attack the US with ballistic missiles, is he refusing to order the USS John McCain to interdict the suspected North Korean missile ship it has been trailing for the past two weeks? Why, when the Sudanese government continues to sponsor the murder of Darfuris, is the administration claiming that the genocide in Darfur has ended?

The only reasonable answer to all of these questions is that far from being nonideological, Obama’s foreign policy is the most ideologically driven since Carter’s tenure in office. If when Obama came into office there was a question about whether he was a foreign policy pragmatist or an ideologue, his behavior in his first six months in office has dispelled all doubt. Obama is moved by a radical, anti-American ideology that motivates him to dismiss the importance of democracy and side with anti-American dictators against US allies.

via Column: Ideologue-in-chief | Columnists | Jerusalem Post.

PINOCCHIO the Politician

via bizzaro

Using computer models to predict war

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita teaches international politics at New York University and consults for the Pentagon and the private sector. He applies his predictive computer models to national security issues, public policy debates, mergers and acquisitions, legal proceedings and questions regarding regulation, corporate fraud and more.

Your computer model has been used by the Department of Defense to help predict political outcomes across the globe. How does it work? The model starts by assuming that everyone cares about two dimensions on any policy issue: getting an outcome as close to what they want as possible, and getting credit for being essential in putting a deal together — or preventing a deal. The model estimates the way in which individual decision-makers trade off between credit and policy outcomes. Some are prepared to go down in a blaze of glory seeking the outcome they want, knowing they will lose. Others have their finger in the wind, trying to figure out what position is likely to win and then attach themselves to that position in the hope of getting credit for promoting the final agreement.

via The Grill: Using computer models to predict war.

Police “Automatic License Plate Scanning

This is why patrol cars are looking at their dash instead of the road at times.

ALPR – License plate scanning in Canada – coming soon to a police department near you! This will give you an overview of some of the new technology the police will be using in the future.

This video was made in Canada. More recently, these systems have begun to see use in the United States to quickly pick out vehicles without insurance, unregistered, reported stolen, involved in crimes, etc… that have been entered into a database.

via YouTube – Police License Plate Scanner.