Now THATS Old School

That's right, I used ed. In 2016. Why? Because the 1998-era Solaris installed on this E450 was complaining that vi couldn't load any termcap information. So, ed.

The Big Short

Financial Capers Made Easy To Understand.

What I don't understand from the whole thing: this doctor guy went to the banks and said I want to buy insurance that pays me if other people's mortgages fail. And the banks said, OK. (Which was dumb.) But then the banks started to sell each other insurance on whether or not that insurance would have to be paid out. And then insurance on THAT insurance. And so on. So: how was this EVER a good idea? I understand short selling -- you borrow a share and sell it, on the assumption that when you need to return the share you can buy it at a lower price -- because there's actual skin in the game (theoretically the share you borrow has to exist somewhere first). I also understand margin buying (basically the investment banks are lending you the difference between what you have and what you want to buy on the assumption that A) if you need to pay off the margin call you can sell the shares, presumably for more money than you bought them for and B) the shares you are buying actually exist somewhere and acts as a form of collateral. But this selling each other insurance on conditions they don't actually have any skin in the game on, that's either gambling -- or outright fraud. The insurance payout doesn't have any relationship to the underlying insured "property" (which itself is a terrible word for this situation but you know what I mean).

So people losing their homes -- that part was always going to happen because the loans were always bad. The financial market imploding, though, that was because of this synthetic CDO insurance bullshit they were selling each other. And yes, you have to bail out the banks because while people losing their houses is bad, you can say well they shouldn't have received the loans in the first place, but all the retirement investments that people have tied up in the banks would have been lost as the whole CDO thing unwound and took out all the banks' assets. And the alternative, bailing out a wide range of individuals because they've lost everything, is hard.

But the movie was a lot more fun than financial fraud had any right to be.

Toon'd Pajero

Mitsubishi Pajero (Toon'd)
Mainline 2004-054

This is a rare car in my collection -- a 'Toon'd car, where the wheels are exaggerated in proportion to everything else and the car is generally cartoony. I usually don't like these kinds of model, I am more interested in a realistic portrayal of the car I am collecting. This is one of two exceptions, and I got it because the 'tooning does make the car look like the Dakar racers that was running around northern Africa around the turn of the century, in particular a Renault powered one-off called a "Mega". In this case, the 'tooning works for the model rather than against it.

Ferrari F12berlinetta

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
Mainline 2014-031

This is also one of the highlights of 2015. This car represents one of the last, if not the last, common Ferrari casting for Hot Wheels. Despite being a 2014 series casting, this car was almost depressingly common through the early parts of 2015, the bright yellow standing out on both the racks and in dump bins. And it was hard for me to resist because I found the car so attractive and because of what the car represented. I have three or four of them tucked away somewhere.

That said, this particular model doesn't seem to photograph well. The combination of the yellow and the harsh white lights I am using for lighting seem to emphasize every flaw on the car, while simultaneously turning the detail into yellowish mud.

It is still a favourite, to the point that it is one of the cars that grace the desk at my office.

Lego Space Outposts

One from me, one from Nathan. I think mine is too busy even if it does have some nice touches.

Subaru BRAT

 

Subaru BRAT
2014 Cool Classics Series 3

Subaru BRAT
Mainline 2015-123

The Subaru BRAT isn't a new casting, it was released first in 2012 as part of The Hot Ones premium series. This year we got three more examples. The blue one is a Mainline car, and there is a bright yellow variant with the same tampos floating around as well that I have not been able to get. The red one is a Spetrafrost Red Cool Classics Series 3 car, ostensibly from 2014 but only making an appearance here in Ottawa in late 2015 in the Dollarama stores. However when I first saw the red one on the internet I knew I had to have it. I have two, one that is opened and one that is still in the package. For the mainline I also have two, but the one in the package is broken.

It is interesting to compare the two cars. The red one is a metal-on-metal car and has a much more solid feel to it than the mainline, which has a plastic-chrome base. Similarly the red one has more premium wheels on it than the mainline. Put the weight and the wheels together and the Cool Classics car is clearly the better car on the orange track, although the nice paint would make me more reluctant to put it on the track in the first place. Both of them are visually fun to look at, and I'm still on the look out for the yellow one should it surface here in Ottawa.

'96 Nissan 180 SX Type X

'96 Nissan 180 SX Type X 
Mainline 2015-205

This is one of the nice surprises of 2015. I like the relatively clean and unfussed lines and the half-recessed headlights. I was reading somewhere that Mattel usually releases new castings, especially real castings, with very simple decorations -- no wild tampo art -- and that these ones were more popular with some collectors. I do agree. For the most part, the busy tampo art can detract from the forms of the car itself, like the car is trying to take on another identity somehow.