Sunday, November 24, 2013

Get Your Excuses Ready

The impending holiday retail season bust has many legitimate reasons for falling short but it never hurts to have exogenous rationalizations handy.  From marketwatch we get this weather excuse:

Cold turkey? Forecast calls for chilliest Thanksgiving in nearly 60 years

  At least one meteorologist is predicting the coldest Thanksgiving week since the 1950s, driving a surge in energy demand and (attention shoppers!) perhaps even an early snowfall.

The cold snap would cover most of the eastern United States, led by a cold front sweeping down from Canada and a “double shot” of arctic air reinforcing the first front, said MDA Weather Services, a weather risk and commodities weather support company.
In the Midwest, temperatures will drop this weekend and moderate only slightly as the week wears on. Readings at least 10 degrees below normal are likely lasting through Thanksgiving Day, MDA said.
“Combined, the broad nature of the cold is set to produce the coldest Thanksgiving week since the 1950s...

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 These turkeys deserve an award. 

11 comments:

Son of Brock Landers said...

Got the econ excuse ready but what about the climate change advocate excuse?

sm_landlord said...

Perfect weather here. It could easily suck for most of the country, though. Storms seem to get worse as they blow through flyover. But it looks great here so far.

Cinco-X said...

I'll be goin' down to Bama tomorrow to watch the game next weekend. Hope that the weather driving down isn't too bad, and hopin' Bama shows up to play the War Chickens...I'll try to pop in as time permits...

Stagflationary Mark said...

Get Your Excuses Ready

November 25, 2013
Decrease in Sunspot Activity Raise Curiosity in Scientists

According to a new report, scientists have reported fewer sunspots on the surface of sun for the first time in last century. This calm nature of sun has raised curiosity among scientists, which forced them to think what could be its affect on Earth.

November 19, 2013
Sun fires off powerful solar flare, triggering radio blackout

While the powerful solar flare was not aimed directly at Earth when it erupted, it did trigger a radio blackout at 5:26 a.m.

How can I be expected to increase my retail buying this Christmas season by 11% when I am barraged with extreme solar activity reports? ;)

Cinco-X said...

Four More Reasons to Hate the Suburbs
Posted by David Callahan


First, suburbs are anti-egalitarian. They are basically education clubs, and you can only belong to the good clubs, with good schools, if you have enough money....

Second, suburbs are exclusionary. Many wealthier 'burbs have zoning rules that ban multi-family apartment buildings or other kinds of affordable housing options. That makes total sense: If you're part of a club with great perks but a killer membership fee and high dues, you don't want other people breezing in to enjoy the same perks, but pay far less than you do by renting a two-bedroom apartment down by the railroad tracks...

Third, suburban towns and villages are wildly inefficient as units of governance...

Fourth, suburban residential patterns are bad for economic growth. Why? Because density of population is closely linked to the generation of new ideas and businesses


I'm filing this under 4 more reasons to detest David Callahan...

Cinco-X said...

The 2013 Index of Dependence on Government

"Nearly 70% of total federal spending- discretionary and non-discretionary- goes to programs included on the Index of Dependence on Government"

The index had been as low as 12% at the end of the '60s and was only about 15% at the end of the Reagan administration, but it's not close to 50%...

Cinco-X said...

Scientists find brain region that helps you make up your mind

This region seems sorely underdeveloped in women...

Cinco-X said...

Teaching Computers Common Sense


If they figure this one out, perhaps they can turn their efforts to teaching liberals common sense...

Cinco-X said...

Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2...IBM doesn't make consumer, desktop operating systems anymore for a reason.

A lengthy but reasonably interesting read...

FlexMate said...

Moving into the Big Wet as Summer is starting.

Rob Dawg said...

Hey buddy!