Friggin' hot around here. The big storm on Sunday passed just south of us - we got wind and a little drizzle, but the apocalyptic stuff missed by a mile or two. Friday hit us, though.

CHIHUSIMEET on 7/14 chez gzt. Meet like 1pm or something, low key stuff through evening. PM me for details about location and parking or something. Discuss below for discussion of activities, possible other related events for the Friday or Sunday or whatever.

Finally finishing Jacques le Fataliste. I can definitely see why Kundera likes it so much, not yet sure of my opinion of it.

More about LIBOR, explaining a couple more details I didn't know or think of: http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2012/07/ready-fire-aim.html The whole LIBOR thing makes banks look bad and fudges with a few individuals' numbers, but, for the most part, doesn't obviously harm anybody. Why? Any bank's next exposure to LIBOR is close to zero, it's mostly used for short-term loans and this was a 5-year problem, and banks will charge interest rates based on actual risk (viz. if LIBOR is artificially low, they'll charge LIBOR + a few extra basis points rather than LIBOR + some basis points (nobody charges LIBOR)).

Honestly, the ACA isn't a great piece of legislation. It's a compromise that nobody truly loves. It's not quite the way I would have done it, but every system has its tradeoffs. You also can't, with a flick of the pen, eliminate a $100B+ industry. I can understand why the Republicans don't like it, but I can't understand some of the rhetoric around it. One author titled an article, "The Republic is Finished and the America We Knew is Gone". He says, "The path of the free West now follows the path of Russia under the Soviets." Wait, what? As I said, there's a lot to dislike about the legislation from either side of the debate, but I missed the creeping Stalinism.

The wife's bosses' move fell through because of something or other with the appraisal or whatever, so the wifing unit might remain employed for a bit, so we might not have her move a week before me. Okay, whatevs.

Rock music time machine: strap on your goggles and grab your guitars. This is going to be the loudest science you've ever heard.

We just finished season 4 of The Wire. It was fairly amazing.