BusinessWeek’s Ben Steverman makes some good points here. Alan was making a similar point a few days ago in our conversations. I think there should be quite a few intelligent investors out there who aware of this well. But of course acting on it and getting the timing right are a completely different ballgame and way way tougher, for anyone.

Stocks: The Meltdown and the Media – BusinessWeek

Wall Street has been through crises before—1907, 1929, the 1970s, and 1987 all tested investors as much as the financial crisis of 2008. But this time, something is different: Three cable business channels and countless web sites offer 24-hour coverage of financial markets seven days a week.

The sheer quantity of information available raises the question: Could the media actually be contributing to the very crisis it is covering?

During past crises, average investors needed to wait until the evening news or the next day’s newspaper to learn how their investments had done.
A Recipe for Panic

This year, the financial panic has unfolded minute by minute in front of investors’ eyes. Meanwhile, online tools allow investors to make rash decisions, buying or selling stocks with the click of a mouse.

The market is a little boring so I thought I’d write a bit about the last few weekends. I’ve not updated much lately. I’m slowly going into a routine over here. With weekends spent mostly doing some shopping, eating, movie going, relaxed visits to the pool and watching my favourite sitcoms (Two Men and Half and King of Queens). Today was a nice day as well, went to a new restaurant place not far off from my condo and then to the driving range to hit a few balls. It was bloody hot though so I’m looking forward to go back and do some more when it’s a little cooler.

Movies. Watched a few, here’s a quick round-up. Warning a couple spoilers on The Kingdom.

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Kind of slow day with just one position left open. So I’m watching Ghost Rider. The promos looked silly but I thought maybe Nicholas Cage did something decent with it. Alas, no, it’s total crap. One of the worst movies I’ve seen lately. He must have sold his soul to have to make this movie :-) a real shame. Btw, my favourite Cage movie is Lord of War, excellent movie.

This is absolutely brilliant. A video of 1,500 plus inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu, Phillipines. There’s a reason why virtually *every* entertainment band in major Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand outing establishments is from the Philippines.

- via Maoxian

Check out a video clip released by the EU Communications Commission to promote its movies.. caution – NSFW!

More info can be found at the EU site here.

Incoming search terms for the article:

• eu movie
• eu movies
• movies from eu
• eu moevies
• eu moveis
• eu moviese
• eu-movie com
• films about europe union
• VİDEO CİLİCK EU

Just finished reading Clive Cussler’s Cyclops. The trigger that got me interested in reading the book is a bit unusual, I came across the author and his series while checking out a wristwatch, an orange faced diver’s called Doxa. It turns out the fictional hero wears this watch in all his adventures and there’s quite a bit of talk about this and the author on the Doxa official forum. That’s the kind of stuff WIS‘s do in their spare time ;-)

Anyway, I’m glad I gave it a shot. Cyclops was my second Clive Cussler book after reading the excellent Sahara (yeah, much better than the movie). The style is pretty gripping, a geo-political techno-thriller / adventure type of genre where the main hero, Dirk Pitt, is a cross between James Bond and McGyver. He saves the world, gets the girl and jokes his way wittingly through it all. Not the most profound stuff but damn fun to read.  I’ve got another Cussler – Dragon – waiting for me and if I don’t get tired of it I’ll probably go for another when I’m done.

I finally watched Blood Diamond over the weekend. I didn’t expect much from the movie as I’m not a big DiCaprio fan. But I ended up enjoying most of it and also being surprised at DiCaprio’s acting skills. The movie itself is loaded with cliches and repeats some of the main themes over and over again in an obvious way, particularly about child soldiers, lack of respect to people’s lives and the American reporter character. Parts of the movie also reminded me of Lord of War which was excellent.

Nevertheless there are some interesting scenes and the plot is engaging. I also thought DiCaprio’s character was quite believable and the South African accent was not bad. Getting the accent right definitely adds to the atmosphere in the movie. So all in all, recommended, 7 out of 10.