AIG might soon be better known as American Investment Gougers rather than American International Group. First, AIG gave us the Marsh McLennan scandal that cost its shareholders $850 million though AIG doesn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing. ($850 million is a hell of a price for doing nothing wrong.) Now it seems C.V. Starr, a private holding company owned by top AIG executives and directors, is pocketing big profits on lucrative insurance business, profits that could be earned by AIG investors. How much? A cool hundred to two hundred million since 1999. AIG’s comment…“The company does not comment on matters in litigation.” Don’t you just feel like slapping someone silly every time you hear that?
Viacom took an $18 billion—that’s B as in BILLION—non-cash write down for its radio and outdoor advertising businesses purchased in 2000. With 18 billion carat gold chutzpah, Viacom’s octogenarian chief executive, Sumner Redstone, said Viacom couldn’t be accused of overpaying. Oh, and the ‘non-cash charge’ crap: someone’s paying, like shareholders whose stock took a dump and tax payers as in you and me baby.
Rather than wasting time trying to hijack Uncle Sam for big bucks, American-based airlines should boogie to Bombay where Jet Airways India’s $400 million (+) IPO sold out in ten minutes and ended up being oversubscribed 18.7 times.
Color-coded Tom Ridge of Homeland Security fame has been named a director of Home Depot. Who knew duct tape and plastic sheeting sales had gone so well.
Was Scott A. Livengood, ousted ceo of Krispy Kreme, liven too good? The United States Attorney’s office and the SEC seem to think so and are poking around for more than a dozen to go.
I wonder if Dracula or one of his pals might have eased the tension between Vladimir and George when they met yesterday at Bratislava Castle in Slovakia. It would seem G may have been Put in his place by V.
So Karen R. Hitchcock, president of SUNY at Albany, about to be tarred with the brush of questionable ethics, scoots north to become principal of Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. Canada may need to tighten its border crossings.
Oy robot! MIT has designed a knee-high guy with clothespin like arms, mouse trap feet, a cylinder shaped head the size of a D cell battery, a chrome ring for shoulders and chest from which dangle a handful of crayon-like appendages (one of which must surely be the spare rib for the Eve version) and two metal pegs for legs. The reported beauty of this generation of robots is that they walk more naturally—I guess that’s so they can blend in.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
ED is rearing its ugly head again, and those of us in the target market for Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra know all too well it can’t be raised enough. But should Medicare pay for a bunch of guys over sixty-five to run around like sex-craved teenagers? That is the question.
Not yourself lately? Maybe it’s because Choice Point, a gatherer of background information, has sold somewhere between 145,000 and 500,000 private information files, maybe yours and mine, to fake companies that outsmarted its…credentialing process? But take heart, Choice Point hired a—as in singular—retired Secret Service agent to help revamp its verification process—I guess that would be its ‘credentialing process.’
Quick, what do the Saab R-7X, Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier and Isuzu Ascender have in common? Answer: same production line. What does the R-7X cost? Answer: $39,000 (+-). What does the Trailblazer cost? Answer $28,000 (+-).
Headline: Lawsuits Are Not the Only Reason for Higher Malpractice Insurance Premiums. Doh! Would the other reason be malpractice?
Nielsen is finally going to change its research to something more in tune with what its clients want—talk about independent research. Anyway, the company did propose setting aside $2.5 million to pay for a year’s worth of methodological research. Wow, a whole $2.5 million for methodological research! Maybe they’re going to use the same Secret Service agent that Choice Point hired to revamp its ‘credentialing process.’
Forget all the other definitions of nanometer—this is the only one you’ll ever need: meter is to 400 miles as nanometer is to 1 inch. Oh sure, you could use the old billionth of a meter or one 25-millionth of an inch definitions, but they’re so passé don’t you think?
Have you ever wondered why crickets travel in crowds?
And finally, you’ll be pleased to know that rather than call a newly discovered female cockroach chemical—one that (finally?) might actually work as bait—gentisyl quinine isovalerate, you may call it blattellaquinone. Whew! Glad they got that resolved. Alas, 15,000 virgin female cockroaches (I wonder how they knew they were virgins), probably about one gazillionth of those in NYC alone, had to be dissected in this noble cause. No mention made of the male cockroaches that raced crazily into these baited sex traps. Poor buggers.
Not yourself lately? Maybe it’s because Choice Point, a gatherer of background information, has sold somewhere between 145,000 and 500,000 private information files, maybe yours and mine, to fake companies that outsmarted its…credentialing process? But take heart, Choice Point hired a—as in singular—retired Secret Service agent to help revamp its verification process—I guess that would be its ‘credentialing process.’
Quick, what do the Saab R-7X, Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier and Isuzu Ascender have in common? Answer: same production line. What does the R-7X cost? Answer: $39,000 (+-). What does the Trailblazer cost? Answer $28,000 (+-).
Headline: Lawsuits Are Not the Only Reason for Higher Malpractice Insurance Premiums. Doh! Would the other reason be malpractice?
Nielsen is finally going to change its research to something more in tune with what its clients want—talk about independent research. Anyway, the company did propose setting aside $2.5 million to pay for a year’s worth of methodological research. Wow, a whole $2.5 million for methodological research! Maybe they’re going to use the same Secret Service agent that Choice Point hired to revamp its ‘credentialing process.’
Forget all the other definitions of nanometer—this is the only one you’ll ever need: meter is to 400 miles as nanometer is to 1 inch. Oh sure, you could use the old billionth of a meter or one 25-millionth of an inch definitions, but they’re so passé don’t you think?
Have you ever wondered why crickets travel in crowds?
And finally, you’ll be pleased to know that rather than call a newly discovered female cockroach chemical—one that (finally?) might actually work as bait—gentisyl quinine isovalerate, you may call it blattellaquinone. Whew! Glad they got that resolved. Alas, 15,000 virgin female cockroaches (I wonder how they knew they were virgins), probably about one gazillionth of those in NYC alone, had to be dissected in this noble cause. No mention made of the male cockroaches that raced crazily into these baited sex traps. Poor buggers.
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