Twitter Shares Get Hammered: It Seems that the Active Monthly Users Number is Shrinking

I wonder if this might be the roll-over point for social media?

Around midday, shares of the microblogging company were down 10.4 percent to $38.18 on the New York Stock Exchange, after earlier falling to $37.24, its lowest price since its November 7, 2013 introduction on Wall Street.

Though still above its initial public offering price of $26, Twitter has lost more than half its value since peaking at $73.31 in December 26.

Investors were troubled by data showing the company had 255 million active monthly users in March, below the 257 million projected by Wall Street, said BMO Capital Markets.

It looks like the actual monthly users is not meeting Wall Street expectations and the stock is getting pounded because of it. Twitter needs to do something splashy like buy out Kik or Snapchat or something in order keep themselves relevant.

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Obama Reaches Career Low in Approval Rating

I just think people are tired of him and just want to see the page turned on his entire Presidency.

Obama's job approval rating, after a slight winter rebound, has lost 5 points among all adults since March, to 41 percent, the lowest of his presidency by a single point. Fifty-two percent disapprove, with "strong" disapproval exceeding strong approval by 17 percentage points. He's lost ground in particular among some of his core support groups.

It also seems that people want the GOP to take their turn at fixing the economy.

Registered voters by 53-39 percent in the national survey say they'd rather see the Republicans in control of Congress as a counterbalance to Obama's policies than a Democratic-led Congress to help support him. It was similar in fall 2010, when the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and gained six Senate seats.

That is a pretty big margin of people that are tired of the Democrats running the economy into the ground.

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Yeah Blacks Are Better Off Free: Cliven Bundy Reveals He is a Pro-Slavery Asswipe

Well I guess this is where the Left keeps getting the idea that Conservatives are racist assholes.

�I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,� Bundy said during one of his daily press conferences. �[B]ecause they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children; they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I�ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn�t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.�

Whenever someone starts by saying "I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro" it can only go downhill from there. Also I would rather be under government subsidy than the following:

1. Work 16 hour days from sunup to sundown and sometimes at torchlight
2. Endure daily beatings
3. Can have your wife and kids sold right out shattering your "family life" that Bundy praised
4. Die before 40 usually of exhaustion
5. Be bought and sold several times during ones lifetime
6. Be murdered without trial for saying the wrong thing or even looking a white person in the eye
7. Have the same rights as a plow horse, dog, or oxen.
8. Endure the atrocity that was the Middle Passage if you were a slave before 1807

I think Cliven Bundy really needs to crack a book about slavery or perhaps keep his bigoted mouth shut and fade into the dustbin of history. He went from a little guy fighting the Man to racist asshole in a few weeks. I think that might be a new record.

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Apples Kills Numbers and Announces 7 for 1 Stock Split

Now they need to announce an iWatch or an iTV and we can really get the stock rolling.

The company posted earnings of $11.62 a share, on revenue of $45.6 billion, blowing past estimates for $10.18 a share on $43.53 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. 

Apple also authorized a 7-for-1 stock split, addressing calls to share more of its cash hoard. The board also approved a dividend increase of approximately 8 percent to $3.29 a share. The company additionally said it would boost the overall size of its capital return program to more than $130 billion by the end of 2015, up from its previous $100 billion plan. 

That is a pretty nice dividend and they are giving some more of their massive cash hoard back to investors. It looks like the iPhone 6 is coming out in the fall so it looks like Apple is still a force to reckoned with.

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Fracking is Actually Fixing the Global Warming CO2 Problem?

I guess all those environmental nutjobs against the Keystone XL Pipeline do not know what they are talking about.

The reduction is even more impressive when one considers that 57 million additional energy consumers were added to the U.S. population over the past two decades. Indeed, U.S. carbon emissions have dropped about 20 percent per capita, and are now at their lowest level since Dwight D. Eisenhower left the White House in 1961.

David Victor, an energy expert at UC-San Diego, estimates that the shift from coal to natural gas has reduced U.S. emissions by 400 to 500 megatons CO₂ per year. To put that number in perspective, it is about twice the total effect of the Kyoto Protocol on carbon emissions in the rest of the world, including the European Union.

I guess Crap and Trade on CO2 emissions won't make Al Gore a Climate Change Millionaire after all. Maybe he should have invested in some fracking companies because they seem to be doing more to combat global warming then he has. What is eye-opening though is how little renewable energy is contributing to CO2 reduction.

It is tempting to believe that renewable energy sources are responsible for emissions reductions, but the numbers clearly say otherwise. Accounting for a reduction of 50 Mt of CO₂ per year, America�s 30,000 wind turbines reduce emissions by just one-10^th the amount that natural gas does. Biofuels reduce emissions by only 10 megatons, and solar panels by a paltry three megatons. 

Wind turbines are an eyesore and solar panels do almost nothing to reduce the CO2. Plus biofuels get the dubious distinction of wasting acreage that could have fed someone to power someone elses car instead. So instead of wasting money on this stuff I guess we should just build more natural gas and next generation nuclear plants instead.


What is interesting is that it seems that market forces will reduce the hated CO2 emissions far faster than some policy-maker driven boondoggle or rigged crap-and-trade CO2 scheme ever could. I wonder in light of these facts do we still have to pony up $300 billion to give to third-world despots to combat climate change?

If the Red Chinese follow our lead and start their own fracking and build a bunch of natural gas power plants maybe we can get this global warming thing licked in the next decade. The poor climate scientists with all their scare-mongering will have to go into a new field because the grant money and rubbing elbows with Matt Damon will all disappear.

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Socialized Medicine at Its Worst: Woman Went in for an Appendectomy and Left Without an Ovary and She Died

This might be the nightmare scenario we have to look forward to depending on how far a "single-payer option" is advanced by various liberal groups. This all happened in Britain which of course has socialized medicine.

During the Oct. 23 surgery, De Jesus began to bleed "quite heavily. ... In the midst of this, Mr. Al-Abed removed what he clearly believed to be the appendix. He thought he found it, removed it, and gave to a nurse what later turned out to be Patient A's ovary," the tribunal heard. Coker, who was eating lunch at the time, was never summoned, nor was he aware the surgery was taking place. The mistake wasn't uncovered until much later. 

The Telegraph reports that De Jesus returned to the hospital in severe pain on Nov. 7; two days later another doctor realized she still had her appendix, and the next day she went into surgery to have it actually removed. Instead, she died on the OR table, having earlier delivered a stillborn boy. Her cause of death was ruled as multiple organ failure due to septicemia. The Press Association reports the hearing will likely last a month. 

I wonder if the heirs to Ms. De Jesus gets the chance to sue everyone involved in this debacle?

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This is Exactly What The Right and Left Need to Do When Talking to One Another

If more liberals and conservatives have this attitude then the world will be a better place.

If you were a salesperson trying to persuade a potential client to switch suppliers, you would be kind and friendly to that client, not dismiss them as stupid or worse for their current supplier choice. So if you're trying to sell an idea � whether on the national political stage or at a family dinner with your uncle � why would you behave any differently? Kindness, respect, finding the basic goodness and human dignity in everyone � that is the essence of emotional correctness, and that is how we begin the conversations that lead to change.

A Happy Warrior wins more converts to his side than some mean-spirited asshole waving his fist at everyone.

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Pakistan Accused of "Double Dealing" and Tricking the US on Afganistan

Well it won't be the first time the US was tricked by an "ally" and probably won't be the last.

Perhaps the biggest betrayal of all in the U.S.-Pakistani relationship, and one that came as no surprise to Gall, was the fact that bin Laden found shelter in Abbottabad, Pakistan, for six years before he was killed in a Navy SEAL raid in 2011. And, according to Gall, Pakistan�s government was orchestrating his protection.

�Pakistan did know,� Gall said, speaking about bin Laden�s location. �They were hiding him, they were handling him. Someone on the inside told me this. They had a special desk that knew where bin Laden was.

�Not only that, but put him there, protected him, oversaw him, handled him in the terms of the secret intelligence services,� she added. �And it's all deniable, but I�m told the top bosses knew.�

This is so obvious. There is no way such a high profile figure can hide for 6 years in a country without that country giving him some sort of support. Sometimes it seems that America is so poor at playing the "Great Game" we shouldn't even be playing it in the first place.

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Chongqing Hot Pot? Sign Me Up

Now this might be a reason to take a little trip to Chongqing, China.

Thousands of vats of hot pot seasoning thicken the air around Nie Ganru's home with a miasma of chili as flame-red paste, thick with oil, bakes in the sun. 

Nie lives and effectively breathes hot pot, the spicy cook-it-yourself communal Chinese meal that made his fortune, and has built a pot-shaped six-storey museum dedicated to the dish.

Now his home town, the megalopolis of Chongqing, is seeking national and ultimately global recognition for the food.

"It's numbing, it's hot, it's very flavourful, it has an aroma that hits you in the face, and that's why everybody likes it," says the 70-year-old tycoon, who eats it about every other day.

It looks like Sukiyaki but instead of beef broth you cook the food in a mixture of hot peppers and stuff. You then dip chicken and beef into the boiling red mixture and you get some heat and hopefully some flavor mixed in. The broth does like quite evil if you aren't into hot foods though. I am willing to try it as long as there is quite a bit of water or milky stuff provided.

 

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Global Warming Report Dials Up the Scare Tactics

Global Warming will be so bad they had to add a new category of risks!

The problems have gotten so bad that the panel had to add a new and dangerous level of risks. In 2007, the biggest risk level in one key summary graphic was "high" and colored blazing red. The latest report adds a new level, "very high," and colors it deep purple.

You might as well call it a "horrible" risk level, said van Aalst: "The horrible is something quite likely, and we won't be able to do anything about it."

The report predicts that the highest level of risk would first hit plants and animals, both on land and the acidifying oceans.

Um, if we cannot do anything about it then why worry? Just take that $30 billion or whatever Al Gore wants and use it to buy mosquito netting or building sea walls to protect against storm surge something. That will save quite a few more lives than whatever these scientists have already earmarked this money for.

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Romney Won 18-20 Year Olds? What? Really?

I never knew this fact about the 2012 election.

As George Washington University political science Prof. John Sides wrote earlier this month, 18-year-old voters casting their initial ballot in 2012 broke for Mitt Romney over Obama. Romney won 19 and 20-year-olds, too.

�The political identities of future generations will depend on economic trends and the popularity of presidents who haven�t been elected. Maybe those factors will tend to break in Democrats� favor, and maybe they won�t,� writes Professor Sides on the Monkey Cage political science blog of the Washington Post

It will be interesting to see how these new voters do in 2016 when they are just getting out of college. Will they be saddled with debt with no job prospects on the horizon? Victims of the Obameconomy they will probably still be effected by the slow-assed recovery. 

They get to stay on their parents health plans for few years but that is if their parents still have them. We might see a wave of businesses cutting their health plans and save money by taking the penalty. So they might not even get a chance to stay on their parents plan once they graduate.

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Hypocrite of the Year: Gun Grabbing California State Senator Leland Yee a Gun Runner?

I think this may have gotten taken from a movie script instead of real life.

Court documents allege that Yee sought campaign donations in exchange for introducing an undercover FBI agent to an arms trafficker. An FBI affidavit says Yee talked with the undercover agent about acquiring weapons worth $500,000 to $2.5 million, including shoulder-fired missiles, from a Muslim separatist group in the Philippines.

Organizers said the arrest of Yee particularly clouds the future of two of his gun control bills.

Yee's SB47 would prohibit the use of so-called bullet buttons and other devices that allow for swift reloading of military-style assault weapons. His SB108 would require the state Department of Justice to study safe firearm storage methods. Both stalled in the Assembly last year.

I guess Yee believes that in the idea of: guns for Muslim separatist groups in the Philippines and not for thee. I wonder if he wanted to ban "bullet buttons" on the automatic weapons he wanted to sell to his Muslim terrorists, err separatist, pals? Also I wonder if he wants the Department of Justice to study safe firearm storage techniques in the terrorist camps of his pals as well? I mean Muslim terrorists might hurt themselves with the guns that Yee sold them.

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Student Loan Debt a Corrosive Acid on Students Futures?

It seems that workers saddled by tons of debt are falling behind those who are not.

Graduates who can immediately begin building equity in housing or stocks and bonds get more time to see their investments grow, while indebted graduates spend years paying principal and interest on loans. The standard student loan repayment schedule is 10 years but can be much longer.

The median 2009 net worth for a household without outstanding student debt was $117,700, nearly three times the $42,800 worth in a household with outstanding student debt, according to a report co-written by Elliott last November.

Wow that is quite a disparity. I think it is more important than ever to price a decent college. I will be willing to bet that if you graduated from a State College with only $26k in loans you would be much better off than if you had $100k in loans from some Private College. This is an especially bad rip-off if you look at this:

College degrees can pay off. College graduates ages 25 to 32 working full time earn $45,500, about $17,500 more than their peers with just a high school diploma, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data.

So if you had $100K in loans you would owe $1150 per month. That is $13,800 per year which makes you only $3700 ahead of the high school diploma person. That money can be eaten up fairly easily if you don't have health insurance and decide to buy Obamacare or whatever. If this student had the $110k that he paid back to the private school he could have most of the way toward an entire house or a pretty decent nest egg.

I guess this goes to show you that unless you go to an Ivy than it is almost always better to go to a State School than a Private School if they have comparable academic records. I would much rather owe $27k than $100k no matter what.

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New Trend Emerging: Hospitals Will Offer Their Own Health Insurance and Health Insurers Will Buy Hospitals

I guess this is a case of cutting out the middle man.

Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, CEO and  president of Mount Sinai Health System, the largest health care provider in the state of New York, said that starting next year, Mt. Sinai will begin offering its own Medicare Advantage plan. It will look for other opportunities to bring premium payments directly into the hospital system, rather than filtering them through insurance companies.

This also opens the door for Insurance Companies buying hospitals.

He noted that large insurer Wellpoint recently completed the acquisition of a health care company in California, apparently with an eye toward replicating the Kaiser model in some form.

I guess this starts the end-to-end care model of health care. You buy the insurance (hopefully at a discount) from your hospital on the Obamacare exchanges and then go to the hospital. Then the hospital charges you a co-pay and pays for the rest.

The hospital would be very good at figuring out how much they need to reimburse on what procedures. It seems to work well for Kaiser so I can see it working well for other groups of hospitals. The hospital wants to do good work so that their insurance will be sold at a good value. Also it provides built-in brand loyalty to certain hospitals as well. If you have Mt. Sinai brand insurance you will probably be going to Mt. Sinai over some other sawbones.

However, there needs to be checks in place if the insurance company owns a hospital. It would be interesting to see if certain things that are not cost effective or lose money suddenly are not done at that hospital. The article says that Mt. Sinai loses $14 million a year on mental health. Do you think WellPoint Hospital will have a money losing mental health ward? I guess these are the changes that Obamacare seems to have created.

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What? There Might Be Opportunities from Global Warming? IPCC drums Out Scientist That Believes That.

It seems that dissenters like Richard Tol from Sussex University in England need to be removed from the Global Warming Orthodoxy.

Tol said the IPCC emphasized the risks of climate change far more than the opportunities to adapt. A Reuters count shows the final draft has 139 mentions of "risk" and 8 of "opportunity".

Tol said farmers, for instance, could grow new crops if the climate in their region became hotter, wetter or drier. "They will adapt. Farmers are not stupid," he said.

He said the report played down possible economic benefits of low levels of warming. Less cold winters may mean fewer deaths among the elderly, and crops may grow better in some regions.

"It is pretty damn obvious that there are positive impacts of climate change, even though we are not always allowed to talk about them," he said. But he said temperatures were set to rise to levels this century that would be damaging overall.

That sounds like something an economist would say. People will adapt and figure things out and that might be a benefit of global warming. However, his fellow scientists seem to disagree:

Another expert criticized Tol, saying his IPCC chapter exaggerated possible benefits.

"Of the 19 studies he surveyed only one shows net positive benefits from warming. And it's the one he wrote," said Bob Ward, policy and communications director of the Grantham Research Unit on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.

Um, shouldn't there be more science behind trying to figure out the benefits from warming? I mean only one guy did any research on it? Or maybe that doesn't factor into the scare tactics that the Global Warming crowd wants to put on everyone.

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