Each day, as I post my days' worth of posts, I check my home page to make sure it isn't broken somehow, scrolling down to the bottom, and each day I therefore notice the last post on the page, which is usually ten days old.  But if I had a gap in posting for some reason it might be less, and so it is now; the last post on my home page is you can't script October, from a week ago.  And rereading it I realize it was never more true; the last week was completely unscriptable, with my recovery from a lung infection, the financial crisis and bailout bill, the McCain - Obama wars, including the world's most boring debate (okay, that was scriptable), and in lighter news the Dodgers sweeping the Cubs and the Angels getting blown out by Boston.  What will the next week bring?  Who can say?

New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki seems to have found his form commenting on the financial crisis of the day; his most recent effort, Public Humiliation, pounds the nail through the wood.  "Once upon a time, investment banks were private firms, structured as partnerships, and relying on the capital provided by the partners in order to run their operations.... But... there were two big waves of I.P.O.s, one in the nineteen-seventies and one in the eighties, at the end of which nearly every prominent Wall Street firm was public...  going public was a deal with the devil, because it meant exposing themselves to what was, in effect, a minute-by-minute referendum, in the form of the stock price, on the health of their operations." 

This is amazing: Disney have made a movie about sailboat racing called Morning Light, and according to Scot Tempesta at Sailing Anarchy, who attended the premier, it doesn't suck!  That would be a complete first in the annals of movies about sailing; they generally botch it so badly you can't believe anyone who had ever set foot on a boat was involved.  I can't wait to see it! 

The ultimate driving machine, cont...  The other day I posted pics of my encounter with Trizilla, the giant BMW Oracle racing trimaran now berthed in San Diego.  They have the rig up now, and my new best friend Gilles Martin-Raget took this picture during sea trials in a light breeze...  making 20 knots to weather.  Sheesh.  (click to enbiggen amazingly) 

Velonews have an interesting interview with Tyler Hamilton, the discredited pro tour racer who came back from a two-year suspension to win the U.S. road racing championship this year.  You've got to root for him to make it all the way back.  Him and Floyd.  And Vino.  And Basso.  It will be the wildest possible year next year, huh? 

John Gruber thinks the iPhone 3G is the greatest piece of consumer electronics that has ever been made.  Huh.  I disagree with some of John's comments - especially where he thinks the lack of a physical keyboard is a virtue (!) - but I'm not sure I disagree with his conclusion.  I guess it would be interesting to ask, if the iPhone 3G is not the greatest, what is?  Looking around my house, the two contenders are my Tivo and my Centro phone, both of which I love more than an iPhone, but neither of which I would necessarily put forward as the greatest piece of consumer electronics ever.  Interesting... 

Here we have Mufin, "an automated music recommendation engine that works".  If so, it would be the first one; I have tried Pandora, and last.fm, and they sort of work, but I put them in the dancing bear category.  Hope springs eternal, I will try Mufin, stay tuned... 

Michael Arrington notes Yahoo closes at $13.76, and comments "what a train wreck".  Of course tech stocks have been battered by the general market downturn, but Yahoo is special for having fallen so far, so fast.  I wonder if Microsoft will buy them in the end, anyway?