The Michael Canfield Channel

Michael Canfield by day: Blogging Stocks

Check out my new gig over at the AOL family of weblogs: Blogging Stocks. I willl be working on mostly Starbucks and Time Warner, with a few other posts about things when I just cannot resist.

Overclocking in the 17th Century

Samuel Pepys used to get up at four. That's four in the morning! Link

 

Merging Urging

Although Palm/Rim sounds like something that should only be attempted by an expert ...

Covert Stock Operations site: Palm-RIM merger may be announced Thursday - BBHub.

Dumb Idea Rejected by Apathy

Link: Garcia Marquez hometown rejects name change |Reuters.com.

Life did not imitate art on Sunday when this town where Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born and first heard the ghost stories that would inform the "magical realism" of his novels, rejected a proposal to change its name to honor him.

[snip]

After the polls closed in the late afternoon, Sanchez said more than 90 percent of the votes cast were in favor of the proposal. "But turnout was not high enough for the vote to count," he conceded.

Battle of the Little Bighorn 130 years ago today.

Wikipedia:

Blackberry Time

Spent a lot of time today in a cafe playing with my Blackberry, adding some stuff to it, and generally cramping up my thumbs. Being back at a fullsize keyboard right now sure is fun. One thing I learned: never put an underscore in your webpage title if you can help it.  Requires pulling up a special screen and all on a PDA.

Does Our Desire for a Higher Power Lead Us to Overestimate the Chances for Finding Other Intelligent Life in the Universe?

From the editorial material:

"[The author] questions the common modern scientific reasoning that life converges on intelligence, and intelligence converges on one science valid everywhere. He ends the book by agreeing with Stephen Hawking (usually a safe bet) that intelligence is overrated for survival in the universe, and that we are most likely alone."

Could be worse ...

Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

- H. L. Mencken

Hawking and the Vatican

Hawking follows universal riddle to Beijing hall:

At an hour-long lecture last week at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Dr Hawking said the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.

And the Vatican responds:

Said [spokesman] Donohue: "There is a monumental difference between saying that there are certain questions that science cannot answer” which is what the Pope said - and authoritarian pronouncements warning scientists to back off.

Catholic League: Hawking Wrong About Pope.