Television Coverage of the Mid-terms

From what I can tell, the cable news channels are not reporting any news any more. Maybe there is none, or at least none that is of any interest to their audience. They are devoting their time to mid-term election related stuff, including especially: Trump's continuing drop in the polls; how misguided Trump is to be campaigning in MAGA communities in Red states; how well the Dems are doing in race after race that no one thought they could be competitive in; to the panic the Reps are in; to the certainty the House will flip and the strong possibility the Senate will flip; and how, the Magic 8 Ball says, "All signs point to yes" when asked are the Dems going to kick ass. If this serves to up the Dem and Independent turnout, fantastic; if not, and it serves to up the Rep turnout, put me down as unhappy.

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Reclaiming 10GB of Storage By Replacing 5 Google Apps

If you're short on storage on your phone, or just want to free up 10GB of memory, this article explains an easy way to do it: Replace 5 Google apps with smaller, free, perfectly good, alternatives.

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Avoiding the Pitfalls When Helping Your Kids or Grandkids Buying a Home

Many young adults today do a lot of whining when it comes to the supposed unaffordability of getting into a starter home. As they've done since they day they were born, they look to their parents and grandparents for help. Some won't help, but others will. As a favor for those that will, we warn you that there are many pitfalls standing in the way(s) of doing it right, and we bring you Terrell Wright's suggestions as to how to avoid them. Unfortunately, we have no advice to shield you from what too often happens, other than to point to King Lear's cutting to the chase: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child."

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Will the Fed Raising Interest Rates Kill the AI Boom?

Everyone believes that the Fed will be hiking the interest rate they control. No one knows for sure if doing so will douse the AI boom. Greg Ip argues that it will: "Skeptics assume interest rates could only slow AI companies by raising their cost of borrowing. That is a fallacy. Short-term rates are the benchmark cost of liquidity, affecting overall financial conditions. With each successive increase, tighter credit ripples out along the risk spectrum, from Treasurys to corporate and household loans, equity and so on. The leveraged investors who buy risky assets see their funding squeezed. Appetites for initial public offerings, high-yield bonds, private credit and securitizations dry up. This is why asset meltdowns through history bear the Fed’s fingerprints: the 1929 and 1987 stock-market crashes, the dot-com and housing busts, emerging-market crises in 1982 and 1997-98. As assets deflate, investment follows and sometimes recession comes next. And with recession, inflation goes down. To be clear, the Fed doesn’t want to end the AI boom. It only wants overall inflation to fall to 2%, which doesn’t require that AI-related inflation do so as well. But make no mistake: If the only way to 2% inflation is to drain the lake of liquidity sustaining AI, the Fed has the means and, very likely, the will to do it." We believe Paul Krugman would agree. We know Spencer Jakab does from a different angle.

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Why Colleges Are Lax in Cracking Down on Fraternities

The one thing that is in arguable with the recent disclosures about Cornell is that, if Cornell has been lax on curbing abuses at fraternities, it is not alone. It is a problem that  plagues most if not all schools that have fraternities. Occam's Razor provides a compelling reason this is so, a reason that is said to root all evils: money. Specifically, studies from the North American Interfraternity Conference and university advancement offices show that Greek-affiliated alumni give back to their alma maters at roughly double the rate of non-Greek peers.

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Pardon the Interruption (PTI) 25th Anniversary Show

PTI is a wonderful conversational show with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. Who thought 25 years ago it would last this long, but it has. How good the upcoming special commemorating this milestone will be I don't know, but I'm taping it. It will air on ESPN this Thursday, October 22 at 5:00 pm EDT.

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Cautionary Note re New Airline "Base Fare" Premium (Business/First Class) Seats

Airlines are expanding their premium seating and making them more affordable with different tiered pricing within them (akin to different tiered pricing in the back of the plane). While this is welcome news, one note of caution: Where a premium seat typically had benefits such as no checked-baggage fee and refundability, the new so called "base fares" might not have them. So, be careful when you book.

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The Surprising Case for Investing in Real Estate Now

Two separate WSJ articles (article 1 and article 2) look at what one might want to do given the steep and sudden rise in long-term rates, and suggest that this might be a good time to add real estate to one's portfolio.

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Keeping Oil Out of the Kitchen Sink Drain

As this cnet article explains in more detail, never dispose of oil down the kitchen sink drain, and there's an easy hack to avoid doing so. While wiping oil off a pan with a paper towel or other disposable does an okay job, what does an even better job is to wipe the pan with a  slice or chunk of bread before washing the pan.

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How Cushiony Shoes Add Stress to Your Feet

High-stack shoes are all the rage. But some doctors worry they could pose long-term risks to a runner’s ankles, knees, or hips. If you don’t own a pair of so-called high-stack or max-cushion running shoes yourself, no doubt you’ve seen others wearing them, whether at the gym, on trails or just knocking about town. Sandwiched between the tire tread-like outer sole and nylon upper is as much as 2 inches of soft and springy foam, which gives these shoes both the look and feel of walking around with mini-mattresses on your feet. It all started back in 2010 with the introduction of the Hoka line of maxcushion shoes, which led other brands to develop similar styles, each stacked with its own patented lightweight foam. Now it is difficult to find running or walking shoes that aren’t raised on a platform of puff, some with the added oomph of a layer, or plate, of carbon fiber. While max-cushion shoes may feel super comfy, and can improve running efficiency and performance if embedded with a carbon plate, there are concerns among podiatrists, orthopedists, kinesiologists, and sports-medicine doctors about the long-term effects, not only on your feet, but also your ankles, knees, and hips. Further detail is provided in this article.

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