Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed

Hitchens: 1949-2011
Three Nutty Things Worth Reading, Plus the RIMM Product Pecking Order
Following the Bouncing RIMM Analysts
Twitter Digest: 2011-12-15

Hitchens: 1949-2011

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 11:52 PM PST

Terrible news, truly, and not made an iota better by being less than unexpected.

Three Nutty Things Worth Reading, Plus the RIMM Product Pecking Order

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 07:34 PM PST

The MF Global Black Box: A Minute By Minute Breakdown Of The Doomed Broker’s Last Week On Earth (Source)
Pair of Robbers Want Only iPhones, No BlackBerries (Source)
French banker says UK should be downgraded first (Source)

On that second-last RIMM story (full disclosure, I’ve been short all year), here is the precedence of failing products:

Stuff you can sell at a premium
Stuff you only sell at market prices
Stuff you can only sell at a discount
Stuff you have to give away
Stuff you can’t give away
Stuff people won’t steal

Somehow, and this is sort of unprecedented, RIMM has reached Stage 6 of product. That’s almost unprecedented.

Following the Bouncing RIMM Analysts

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 06:48 PM PST

Somehow RIMM managed to disappoint analysts again tonight — not an easy task — so I thought it would be good to look at what the analysts had been saying this year. Turns out they’re dutifully tracking the stock downward. Can we cut some analysts’ pay now?

Rimm

Twitter Digest: 2011-12-15

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 12:00 PM PST

When most people call a learning curve steep they mean it's shallow. Why is that metaphor so mixed up? #
My issue with the otherwise v good Tweetbot is the orifice-centric icon. Gives me the willies. #
.@Ian_Wilson_ My sense with learning curves is people are tacitly mixing physical and mathematical models. #
The Worst Hockey Game Ever http://t.co/5Pr1ZMRB #
Fun meetings/drinks/etc yest in San Francisco. Good seeing @dickc, @nickbilton, @medriscoll, @dens, @chrisfralic, etc. #
Mirror-world fun how the rise of digital, HD, etc. has created booming business in scratch, glitch, hair insertion filters for video. #
La Jolla has more hairstyling &/or plastic surgery startups/yr than any place on earth. #
I'm in. RT @EvolveTom: @pkedrosky I demand the ability to crowdsource funding for my next nose job. #
Note to reporters: Calling for comments & ignoring me saying that your story is wrong isn't reporting. It's short-story writing. #
Trying to close two investments in last week before Christmas was always going to be a bad idea that made me realy grouchy. #
.@daytrend I'll name names if article comes out as framed to me. #
So there I was, last Monday, thinking … If only FIO were a little cheaper, I'd buy some. I have power. http://t.co/pxVvaTz4 #
Butch Cassidy: [to Sundance] Kid, the next time I say, "Let's go someplace like Bolivia," let's GO someplace like Bolivia. #
QotD: Amazon is blithely using its rivals' property as a storefront – http://t.co/HxwF58xA /by @johngapper #
The fall of Microsoft's Andy Lees: inside the Windows Phone power shift http://t.co/3wMWijnh /via @paidContent #
By my calculations semicolons are going to take out colons sometime in 2012. Death to colons. – http://t.co/r1AyzzN9 #
What is going on over at Google+ that I'm newly adding 6,000-16,000 followers a day? #
+ RT @sorenmacbeth: @pkedrosky So your saying you're nonplussed about the goings on at google plus? #
Good follow-up. RT @Revkin: Methane Time Bomb in Arctic Seas? Apocalypse Not: http://t.co/7m83ijVv #
So, you're thinking to yourself, "Self, I want to see what it's like to do a 90-foot drop on a kayak". http://t.co/BrFH45On #
Back off Kyle Bass & you financial weenies: GnR's Duff McKagan's in the BBC Hardtalk house – http://t.co/Iya5kJV3 /via @joehas #
Dear spammers at Smith Publicity: You keep using that word "Unsubscribe". I don't think it means what you think it means. #
"Listen we'd love to stand around and chat, but we gotta sit down in the lobby and wait for the limo". http://t.co/TfSMqPxg #
Das: School for economists – http://t.co/VTsnHbqL #
.@cameronherald at TEDx: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs – http://t.co/9izO2ZEN #
Snow drought in west; balmy east – RT @aeroculus: Warm temps in Northeast thwart resorts' snowmaking: http://t.co/PIZCEiub #
Latest investment round values online survey co @SurveyMonkey at $1b – http://t.co/cj3fDcVL /via @jason #
Shafer: Are you reading the best magazine in America? http://t.co/bDMFdKlU #
Simply sublime GoPro HD footage shooting Pipeline barrels. Full-screen bliss, baby. http://t.co/g0H7uzOc #
I can now die happy. RT @errolmorris: Thank you, Elizabeth McCracken and Paul Kedrosky. (Isn't Twitter wonderful?) #
Evidence of market manipulation in the financial crisis http://t.co/Ed4shoGz #
.@georgevhulme I know. I was as taken aback as you were. I mean, it's enough we had a crisis — but market manipulation too #
I need to start posting more often with whatever the emoticon is for irony. #
Apple and Google mobile grew in 2011, all others shrank – http://t.co/Ls1QswBl #