American Madness

I sympathize with Merrill Lynch. Like many Wall Street research providers, the firm’s stock reports have long been seen as a commodity. The firm has two choices: lower its own internal cost of creation, or try to reframe its reports as more exclusive, higher quality, etc. ML has taken the latter approach, today informing the media that it will begin restricting access to specific stock research. I fear they are swimming upstream.

The good stuff will leak out. Always does. The pablum simply won’t be publicized. I suppose ML can say its analysts’ research and ratings are somehow special as compared with the stuff put out by all the other Wall Street firms, but can they command a premium price when the other reports are out for free in the media?

April 23, 2007
Dear Journalist:

Candace Browning, the head of Global Securities Research & Economics, recently sent a letter to clients outlining a number of additional steps that Merrill Lynch is taking to further protect the value of the premium products and services that we provide for the exclusive use of our clients.

To address a growing concern regarding the misuse of our proprietary research products, we will be modifying our research media policy effective April 23, 2007.

For macro reports on topics such as Economics, Foreign Exchange and Investment Strategy that we intend to make publicly available, media access will not change significantly.

However, continued media access to reports that contain fundamental equity opinions or stock lists through our research subscribe system will be significantly restricted, beginning April 23. We will continue to consider your other requests, including for company or industry reports or equity analyst interviews on these topics, on a case-by-case basis.

We want to thank you in advance for your cooperation with these changes. The goal of our media relations team is to accommodate your requests whenever possible.

Sincerely,

Susan McCabe Walley
Head of Global Research Communications and Media Relations

I’m obsessive about making lists. That doesn’t mean I actually do the tasks on the list, but it’s nice to know I have written them down in 20 different places.

Lately, I’ve been using a task list widget on Google Homepage to keep track of personal tasks. For work items, I just keep on open Word document or for more immediate tasks I make a note in my Outlook calendar. But all are very unsatisfying. The Google widget doesn’t tell me what I’ve done (just what I have left to do), Outlook is very annoying, and Word is bare bones. So I went hunting for an online solution.

The best site I’ve found so far has been Remember the Milk, which offers a fair amount of functionality, but not enough to drive me crazy. You can specify tasks in a variety of categories that you define, and either set definite due dates for those tasks or not. It’s free and there don’t appear to be any annoying ads (so I have no idea what the business model is…ads to come, maybe?). The site keeps track of when you’ve completed tasks and can even email reminders and let you share parts of your list.

I recently launched a news style website for Tadias Magazine. The site is my first stab at deconstructing the WordPress content management system and the idea that personal publishing should always adhere to the rather boring blog format. Who said that the majority of websites on the internet must be one column stream of consciousness rants with a smaller column for navigation and random doodads? It’s a designers dystopian nightmare, everything reduced to rigid conformity. Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way.

At root WordPress is a fully functional open source CMS that is quite easy to play with and modify. Many media companies use their own customized versions of WordPress to power large complex sites, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to give the average user this power in the form of feature rich easily customizeable templates. A more interesting array of these templates should have a significant transformative effect on the landscape of the internet.

After all, the amazing success of the blog came from the fact that it gave everyone the ability to easily manage their own website. It is time to take personal web publishing to the next level and allow users to design and manage more than just the plain vanilla website. I’m starting with a total redesign of my own site, which I will turn into a new WordPress theme. All ideas are welcome.

This site has pictures of what 200 calories of food looks like and also has the amount that is equal to 200 calories. It is actually kind of interesting to compare 200 calories of Kiwis to 200 calories of Doritos. Personally I think seeing the 2 side by side makes the Kiwis look that much more appealing. The site is: What Does 200 Calories Look Like?

In a week where the media headlines were dominated by the Virginia Tech Massacre and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, it’s important to also not some other headlines that should be getting some attention.

The first is the one Adam posted below “Iran Exonerates Six Who Killed in Islam’s Name.” Which ranks #6 in the NY Times most emailed articles (#1 being the all-important “But What if You Get Hit By a Taxi?” about Men’s underwear and #5 being “Bereft of BlackBerrys, the Untethered Make Do” about the 12 hours people had to deal without having email on their BlackBerrys)

The next article just cracks the top 10 most emailed: At #10 “Justices Back Ban on Method of Abortion.” About the Supreme Courts ruling that was released yesterday which will probably play a factor in the 2008 elections, especially with Giuliani supporting the Supreme Courts ruling while Obama has been quoted saying “I strongly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling, which dramatically departs from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women,” Mr. Obama added. Even Justice Ginsburg came out saying that “this way of thinking reflects ancient notions of women’s place in the family and under the Constitution — ideas that have long since been discredited.” and wrote, as the voice of the 4 dissenters, that the decision is “so at odds with our jurisprudence” that it “should not have staying power.”

You can get the list of all the NY Times most emailed articles here

Time for a little field trip:

Start at Google Maps

Clcik on “Get Directions”

Enter New York, NY as your Starting Address and Paris, France as your End Address scroll down and checkout step number 23. Make sure you pack accordingly.
(This also works for most European Cities)

If you have ever caught yourself wondering how a company like Google came to the Search Engine game late, but has managed to pretty much dominate its competition, well, the reason why is that Google seems to always be a couple steps ahead of its competition, takes these two NY Time’s headlines as an example-

From today’s paper: Yahoo Strikes Ad Deal With More Papers 
From yesterday’s paper: Google Reaches Deal With Clear Channel to Sell Radio Ads

Smooth move Yahoo, maybe you guys can get a foothold in the world of radio around the same time that Google strikes a deal with a cable company… Oh and on Friday Google also purchased DoubleClick to increase its advertising presence on the internet.

Is it me or does anyone else think the NY Times should reconsider the headline “Interactive: Massacre in Virginia“?

Also, I know that the actual definition of interactive, when it comes to computer usage, basically means “responding to user’s input,” but seriously, since when does clicking the Next button constitute interaction? If that is the case, then why don’t they list that on every article that is longer then 1 page?

But never really had a forum for it. Now that Josh has given me the ability to write to the world I can finally do it, I am going to follow up on Friday’s post and drop a recipe or 2 on ya’ll.

First up we have Potato Pancake’s with Manchengo Cheese (adapted from The Joy of Cooking)-
2 cups coarsely grated potato
1 tbsp finely grated onion
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 - 1 cup Manchengo Cheeses
4 tbsp canola oil
Start with 2 cups coarsely grated potatoes that have been patted dry and had all the excess moisture removed from them (I ring it all out between 2 paper towels). Add to the potato 1 tbsp finely grated onion, 3 eggs lightly beaten and 1/4 tsp salt. Mix it all together. Next add in a handful (about 3/4 - 1 cup) finely grated manchengo cheese and mix it all up. Now, I fried these puppies up in some canola oil until they got to be a nice brown color on both sides and then dropped them onto some paper towels to remove any excess oil. Finally I topped these with a dollop of creme fresh (though sour cream would work as well) and a few capers… These were a damn tasty starter if I do say so myself.

Next up we had a nice seafood Paella-
1lb bay scallops
1lb mussels
2/4lb small shrimp
2 Chorizo sausages
1 cup frozen peas & carrots
1/2 cup chopped red onion
6 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
3 cups rice
4 cloves garlic sliced3/4 tsp ground saffron
Ok, here we go, hopefully I won’t fuck up this recipe as I am going from my head here… if I do I will correct it, though since I have no idea if anyone is reading this it may not make a difference-
In a large heavy bottom sauce pan bring chicken stock, wine, garlic and saffron to a boil. Add rice, cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the rice doesn’t burn. Add the shrimp, scallops and mussels and lower to a medium heat, continue to cook for another 3 minutes, while this is cooking dice the onion and cut the sausage into 1/4″ pieces. Add the sausage, peas & carrots and onion, stir together and continue to cook until rice is cooked through and has absorbed almost all of the liquid but still is very moist (about 2-5 minutes). Uncover and serve. I am not big on over spicing so I usually leave salt & pepper for people to add on their own. For people who like a bit of spice you can add a chopped chili pepper when you add the sausage and such, or if you are like me, just douse it with Tabasco when you have it on your plate. I may try to take a pretty picture of the leftovers this evenign to add to the post, but don’t hold your breath.

They say admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery. Well, here I am am, out in the open, admitting it to anyone who is actually reading this: I can’t stop buying food.
Now, most people wouldn’t see this as a huge problem, we all need to buy food for meals and the like, but I have become obsessive, and I blame my problem on the new Whole Foods that opened on Bowery.

Now, prior to this 71,000 sq foot mega-supermarket I always enjoyed a nice trip to the supermarket, being able to pick up fresh produce for dinner and restocking anything that I was low on. I’d hit the supermarket a couple of times a week, spending around $10 a trip on a couple of veggies, maybe a piece of fruit or two and anything else I might need for dinner. Now with this new palace of produce and fresh foods within walking distance from my apartment, I can’t help myself. Now don’t get me wrong, Since I moved into my apartment 7 years ago, there has been a supermarket within walking distance, in fact there are about 5 markets within a 6 block radius of my apartment other then Whole Foods, some close at 6pm, some are open all night long, usually, unless I was planning a meal that need some late night prep work, I was done with my shopping by 6pm, getting everything I need on my walk home from work. Last night I found myself making excuses to go to Whole Foods at 10pm. Did I really need that yoghurt and the oranges at 10pm last night. Short answer: No.

But it wasn’t just the tasty oranges (which are possibly some of the best oranges I have had, so sweet and juicy) I was drawn to the new Whole Foods, it makes me happy to shop there, I get a rush knowing that I could purchase some organic white asparagus at 10:45pm if I needed to. Even my junk food has gotten healthier. I can’t give into the craving for Oreos I have at KeyFood. Instead I find myself giving into the Ben & Jerry’s Organic Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. And then I get to write it off to: “I Purchased it at Whole Foods. It’s Healthy!”

My only hope is that the novelty of having this mass market of magnificent meals
mere minutes away wears off soon, otherwise I am going to have to start just writing my paychecks over to them directly. As an example of the problem I am having, I went last night to get yoghurt, oranges and a bite to eat for dinner. I came home with yoghurt, oranges, a 6 pack of organic raspberry soda, an organic frozen BBQ chicken pizza, buffalo wings and some organic gummi worms.

I need to be stopped, though not before I cook dinner tomorrow night. I plan on making full use of there Seafood Department, Cheese Room, On-site Smoke House, and Organic Produce for a nice dinner consisting of Potato Pancakes with Melted Manchengo Cheese, Seafood Paella with Chorizo Sausage followed by an Organic Mixed Berry Pie with a multi-grain crust… Doesn’t sound like such a bad problem now, does it?