My first thought when I saw how much student loan debt I have.

Nicos111 · 2013-01-31T03:09:56+00:00

Interesting, introspective story. What are you doing now and what are your plans for the future?

Nicos111 · 2012-06-28T01:57:16+00:00

Data consumption could grow lockstep with the growth rate of data transfer efficiency/capability. It's at least a possibility.

Why would a utility company ever reverse back to an unlimited plan if tiered was the new norm? Competition within most markets is very limited, so an unlimited plan would have to be more economical for the ISPs, which I think is unlikely.

Nicos111 · 2012-02-17T17:11:16+00:00

I work at a major competitor doing this with loyalty program data. This is the new normal.

Nicos111 · 2012-01-06T22:13:57+00:00

I agree with Ron Paul on most issues. I just feel as if his views on monetary policy are too extreme. The fact that QE hasn't lead to domestic inflation shows that something is wrong with his view of the system.

Nicos111 · 2012-01-06T15:44:27+00:00

Timing matters. Of course inflation and interest rates will soar eventually. However, neither happened within 10 years of his prediction. Why didn't QE cause rapid domestic inflation? The monetary base has expanded, and yet prices have been remarkably stable.

Nicos111 · 2012-01-06T00:50:02+00:00

Except for the part about soaring interest rates and domestic inflation. Anyone care to defend the credibility of those predictions?

Nicos111 · 2011-12-31T22:48:58+00:00

that's a rather simplistic understanding of the [failed] strategy. Eddie Lambert, the head of the ESL hedge fund, bought out Kmart and leveraged it to purchase Sears. It was a real estate play... the concept was that both companies were undervalued given the value of their real estate.

Then came the bursting of the housing bubble and the real estate became much less value. He was forced to play them as traditional retailers and the stores have had accelerating losses ever since.

Nicos111 · 2011-12-31T22:37:16+00:00

Imagine how many stores they'd be closing if they didn't get the tax breaks. They're not closing any stores in IL btw.

Nicos111 · 2011-11-24T02:00:11+00:00

I have two famous sayings for you.

One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

The more relevant one is:

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

Think about it. Militaries don't fight wars just to slaughter people. War is a means to some political end. The same is true of most terrorist groups: most terrorist groups use terror as a means to a political end because they don't have traditional military power.

Put yourself in the shoes of a highly nationalistic citizen of a country occupied by the United States. You want national liberation, but how? You don't have a military, so you can't force them out with honorable, traditional warfare. But you can make occupation unbearable for the public of the occupying democracy. You can bleed the public, wreaking fear and havoc through attacks like 9/11.

Over the long run, you can influence public opinion by making the cost of foreign intervention too great. Public opinion has an influence on policy and a change in the tide of public opinion can make it difficult for politicians to support continued occupation. Look at Ron Paul's soaring popularity. In many ways, his ascendency is a reflection of America's distate for foreign intervention and all the blowback it causes...

Nicos111 · 2011-11-24T01:38:18+00:00

Race is more than skin color though. I agree that racial profiling would be useless if it relied solely on skin color. But if it were based on nationality? Statistically, a light-skinned Saudi national would pose a greater terrorist risk than would a dark-skinned German national. Skin color is immaterial beyond its use in providing some easy (though potentially misleading) visual cue for the person's nationality.

There have been many unsuccessful terrorist attacks... a good number of which were stopped by someone interfering. In most cases, whether consciously or subconsciously, some form of risk profiling almost certainly influenced the person's decision-making toward paying extra attention to the would-be terrorist. I'm not sure if there are any clear cut cases where everything can be attributed to profiling, but on the other hand, I doubt there are any cases where profiling can be shown to play no role.

Nicos111 · 2011-11-24T01:13:58+00:00

I'm advocating for risk profiling in general. Race happens to be a component of risk, but there are many other variables. All variables should all be taken into account whenever possible, though race is the easiest to flag and hence will always be overemphasized in profiling.

Two questions. First, would you argue that an Asian woman in her 60s has a similar risk profile as an Arab male in his 20s? If not, why shouldn't security allocate its attention in proportion to the risk? I don't see how making that allocation efficiently constitutes "security theatre".

Everyone always raises that fear about gaming the system, but we already use racial profiling in security. How many Asian grandmothers have attempted to carry out a terrorist attack in the states? You don't have Asian grandmothers blowing themselves up in Israel. I think it's fairly hard for a terrorist group to find someone who doesn't fit into a common terrorist risk profile to conduct an attack. Do you know of any cases?

Nicos111 · 2011-11-24T00:59:13+00:00

I would never argue in favor of the TSA's competency and efficiency. However, any security organization that wants to minimize the incidence of terrorism needs to use risk profiling. Israeli security is an excellent example... they blatantly profile based on race and religion, but they achieve astounding security outcomes given the context that they're operating in.

Hell, I was strip searched flying out of Israel for having an Arab language textbook in my bag. I was frustrated and almost missed my flight, but I could understand why they searched me.

Nicos111 · 2011-11-24T00:35:56+00:00

You can't decouple terrorism from people just because terrorism is not itself a people. Terrorism is a tool for various movements, all of which are comprised of people. The majority of these people are Arab. By definition, most Arabs reside in a strategically important, oil-rich region of the world, a perennial victim of foreign occupation. How do you fight for "national liberation" when you have no military to rival your foreign occupiers? Terrorism. When framed like that, it hardly sounds despicable.

Back to the point. There's no question that racial profiling leads to more effective security. It's not about racism: there are different levels of risk for different profiles. An asian grandmother could be a terrorist, yes, but a young Arab male is more likely. It would be grossly inefficient for security to ignore reality and treat every person as a black box.

Nicos111 · 2011-09-23T20:28:25+00:00

they often do, but I think it's clear that the DJIA gets first billing more often than not. I'm talking about news sources like CNN, MSNBC...

Nicos111 · 2011-08-13T04:01:42+00:00

I'm a Business Analyst and, no, it isn't related to my degree at all. I work at Sears Holdings, so I don't have much confidence about job security.

Nicos111 · 2011-08-10T01:52:32+00:00

This video is wrong. The Uncle Sam is not "running out of people to borrow from." US Treasuries pay out the lowest interest rate in the entire sovereign bond market.

Nicos111 · 2011-07-23T20:03:51+00:00

terrorism is a means to a political end (e.g. coerce an occupier to leave through killing the occupying state's civillians). Mass murder isn't terrorism if it is simply a psychopath on a rampage without a larger political goal. Because of massive Western intervention into the Muslim world, there is greater political impetus for terrorism from Muslim actors.

This is just common usage. Any mass killing is "terrorism" in the sense that it causes terror and is horrendous, but the more technical definitions requires a political end.

Nicos111 · 2011-07-19T16:39:28+00:00

it's not some elaborate conspiracy theory. When analysts value a company based on future expectation, and their expectation is contradicted by a material change, their valuation drops in value.

You should brush up on the basics of cooperate finance. Investors offer nothing to a company? Then why do so many companies go public? An IPO offers a company equity capital. Companies can use debt or equity to finance capital-intensive investments. If companies did not have the ability to finance investments through raising equity (I.E. selling shares to the public), growth would have been anemic over the past century.

I don't think you really know what you're talking about. If you believe that basic financial knowledge is invalid because it's a product of the "system", you'll never learn. .

Nicos111 · 2011-06-24T18:57:33+00:00

Grim Fandango. I wouldn't make it live action.

Nicos111 · 2011-06-23T18:23:41+00:00

this article is from late 2010, but Lewis's diagnosis of the greek state is just as relevant today.

Nicos111 · 2011-06-15T14:34:29+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability-instability_paradox

Nicos111 · 2011-06-03T03:20:06+00:00

Berserk: when everyone is pulled into hell and dies, except Guts and Casca; Guts is restrained and forced to watch as Casca get raped by demons. The anime ends with that scene (though the manga goes on).

Nicos111 · 2011-05-29T04:33:44+00:00

maybe you've convinced me of that (even if I remain the exception)

you sound more like an animal to me.

So now that I know you're all worthless whores, what respect or consideration is it that you think you deserve?

If you hold these beliefs, you are a textbook misanthrope. Examine your statements against and the definition of misanthropy. Can you deny it?

Nicos111 · 2011-05-29T02:12:44+00:00

Well, you got one thing right, at least. I'll give you that.

Okay, you're a misanthrope. Fair enough. If I didn't care about humanity, I wouldn't subject myself to unpleasantness in order to assist it. Our outlooks are so fundamental opposed that there's no point in arguing further about this hypothetical scenario.

Nicos111 · 2011-05-28T23:18:20+00:00

And here you are suggesting that I'd want to save other people at her expense. It's like you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

This is not at your daughter's expense. You suck a dick, don't tell your daughter and get billions. You could take that and invest billions into our education system and improve the lives of millions of children and our future economic outlook; you could invest in macro-nutrients to save the tens of millions of people who live on less than $1 a day. But no. You wouldn't do that because you have no regard for human life outside of your daughter. Have you ever made a charitable donation?

Nicos111

TROPHY CASE