たぶん大丈夫な。
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Initiation
It looks like I have actually started the blog here. I've been blogging at louisvillemojo.com/zombiesurvival since...April 7, 2006, wow!
It's been fun there, but Mojo lacks a couple of features I would like. Unicode is the main issue: I want to blog in Japanese, as well as unconventional or made-up languages and alphabets.
Who is Panglott? Perhaps a foolish disciple of the optimistic doctor, a necromaunt of inkhorns, or merely boring, pedantic, and unfun.
It's been fun there, but Mojo lacks a couple of features I would like. Unicode is the main issue: I want to blog in Japanese, as well as unconventional or made-up languages and alphabets.
Who is Panglott? Perhaps a foolish disciple of the optimistic doctor, a necromaunt of inkhorns, or merely boring, pedantic, and unfun.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
StZA: Only the Awesome: Vampire Hunting Kit
Real 19th Century Vampire Killing Kit Is a Must In Current Economic Climate: Sold at an auction for $14,850, this 100% authentic vampire kit made circa 1800 is an absolute steal, specially compared to this $12,000 kit which is from a later date and has fewer apparatus.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
StZA: Whistler's Jug Band, 1930
This is Whistler's Jug Band of Louisville, Kentucky, playing in 1930.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
StZA: Krugman wins a Nobel
I started reading Paul Krugman's blog last year, among several others, when I started following the implosion of the housing bubble. His columns are unavoidable if you read the NYT, but his blog is so much better than the simplistic polemics about politics he writes for print. Now, he's won a Nobel. It's interesting when a blogger you read wins a Nobel!
Marginal Revolution has links, or try this. Others are busy cataloging the wingnut reaction.
Baby-Sitting the Economy: The Baby-Sitting Economy that Went Bust Could Teach Us Something That Could Save the World (Slate)
Marginal Revolution has links, or try this. Others are busy cataloging the wingnut reaction.
Baby-Sitting the Economy: The Baby-Sitting Economy that Went Bust Could Teach Us Something That Could Save the World (Slate)
Friday, May 30, 2008
StZA: Criticisms of Prosper.com
I while ago I posted a thread about P2P lending through Prosper.com, and similar sites.
Anybody thinking about that would be well-served spending and hour reading the prospers.org forums, especially this thread, and browsing lendingstats.com and eriscc.com.
It appears that a lot of the lenders have lost huge amounts of money since defaults are much higher than Prosper.com advertises. See this and this; within six months of opening, more than 30% of loans were delinquent. Delinquincies and defaults are probably 15-20%.
One problem seems to be that prosper.com doesn't have incentive to aggressively pursue delinquincies; in order to sue delinquent borrowers, the company has to buy back the loan and assume the credit risk, whereas otherwise lenders have all the credit risk.
If collections are as pitiful as some post, defrauding Prosper.com lenders must be relatively lucrative and risk-free. If a grifter already has bad credit already, what would they lose from taking out a Prosper.com loan for $20,000, never paying on it, and sending a PFD letter to the collection agency a few years later?
Browsing through the list of borrowers asking for loans, there are lots and lots of people who are sitting under huge debt loads that are turning to Prosper as a lender of last resort, or have a brief credit history of maxing out credit cards whenever they want to buy something. There are relatively fewer borrowers who have established themselves as responsible users of credit at all, or have ample income to meet their obligations.
Another problem is that none of the borrowers have been there long enough to develop social capital, while ordinary lenders do not have sufficient experience or skills to adequately price risk. It looks like many iffy loans are filled by newbie lenders bidding through portfolio plans.
A number of disgruntled lenders are skeptical that the company Prosper.com will even survive the three-year term of its first loans.
EDIT
Check out the $1,000 coup d'etat. It was killed as obvious fraud, apparently.
Anybody thinking about that would be well-served spending and hour reading the prospers.org forums, especially this thread, and browsing lendingstats.com and eriscc.com.
It appears that a lot of the lenders have lost huge amounts of money since defaults are much higher than Prosper.com advertises. See this and this; within six months of opening, more than 30% of loans were delinquent. Delinquincies and defaults are probably 15-20%.
One problem seems to be that prosper.com doesn't have incentive to aggressively pursue delinquincies; in order to sue delinquent borrowers, the company has to buy back the loan and assume the credit risk, whereas otherwise lenders have all the credit risk.
If collections are as pitiful as some post, defrauding Prosper.com lenders must be relatively lucrative and risk-free. If a grifter already has bad credit already, what would they lose from taking out a Prosper.com loan for $20,000, never paying on it, and sending a PFD letter to the collection agency a few years later?
Browsing through the list of borrowers asking for loans, there are lots and lots of people who are sitting under huge debt loads that are turning to Prosper as a lender of last resort, or have a brief credit history of maxing out credit cards whenever they want to buy something. There are relatively fewer borrowers who have established themselves as responsible users of credit at all, or have ample income to meet their obligations.
Another problem is that none of the borrowers have been there long enough to develop social capital, while ordinary lenders do not have sufficient experience or skills to adequately price risk. It looks like many iffy loans are filled by newbie lenders bidding through portfolio plans.
A number of disgruntled lenders are skeptical that the company Prosper.com will even survive the three-year term of its first loans.
EDIT
Check out the $1,000 coup d'etat. It was killed as obvious fraud, apparently.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
StZA: Bike Routes and Pedestrian Overpasses
Pedestrian overpasses are great when you can find them. Google Maps satellite view reveals only two over the Watterson: here and here.
CARTKY.org links to a Google Maps scrolling map of Louisville Bike Routes.
They also have Car-Free Guides to Louisville Neighborhoods, including Deer Park, St. Matthews, Clifton, and (soon) the Highlands.
CARTKY.org links to a Google Maps scrolling map of Louisville Bike Routes.
They also have Car-Free Guides to Louisville Neighborhoods, including Deer Park, St. Matthews, Clifton, and (soon) the Highlands.
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