Felix

Eco Architecture: Sphere – A recyclable habitat for post-disaster accommodation — Eco Factor: Recyclable tent structure to provide accommodation after a disaster. Providing lodging facilities after a disaster is the most tiresome job of all. People living in such areas need much more than housing. They have been displaced from their familiar living environments and houses, and are often traumatized. Felix Stark has developed a concept for emergency accommodation that supports social interaction and induces a sense of community by making people live close to one another. The shelter, known as Sphere, not only protects people from extreme weather conditions but makes use of lively materials to reduce the stress... [Tags: breathable material, electricity, emergency accommodation, extreme weather conditions, felix]

No Worries? — Felix Salmon says the stock market slump isn't another meltdown:The TED spread today is 213bp -- more or less exactly where it's been for the past few weeks. Which says to me that for all that financial stocks are being crushed, this is no reprise of the financial crisis we saw in the wake of Lehman's collapse. Rather, it's an old-fashioned economic crisis, which severely erodes the equity of leveraged banks, but where money still flows and even the occasional IPO can get away if it's priced at a discount. Or, to put it another way: it's a bear market,... [Tags: banks, bear market, collapse, economic crisis, felix]

A Bankruptcy And Bailout For Detroit — Felix Salmon doesn't agree with the the bailout vs. bankruptcy meme surrounding the big three. Yglesias makes a similar argument for making the best of a unique situation and fusing the two concepts:Everyone says that part of the conditions of doing a bailout is going to have to be some major restructuring of this and that. But normally Chapter 11 bankruptcy is precisely the means through which such restructuring is done. If unusual circumstances mean we can’t do Chapter 11 and we need extraordinary congressional intervention, then it seems to me that the extraordinary intervention should be aimed at making... [Tags: bailout, chapter 11 bankruptcy, congressional intervention, course key, felix]

Blogonomics — Felix Salmon questions if micropublishing is dead:The dream of internet publishers was that media buyers would flock to a more niche medium, where they could target people much more accurately. But the problem is that media buyers, and ad sales people, get paid a lot of money: it's just not worth their while to collaborate on a campaign which only reaches a relative handful of readers. To be successful in publishing, you need economies of scale, and that means big websites with a mass audience rather than niche blogs which need to be sold separately by expensive sales teams.... [Tags: blogs, economies of scale, felix, internet publishers, mass audience]

Can It Get Even Worse? — Felix Salmon is worried about $2 trillion behemoth Citigroup:Citi might well turn out to be Hank Paulson's largest and biggest headache. There's no one he can sell it to -- it's far too big already. Which means that Paulson's only real option, if things deteriorate much further from here, is nationalization. Bits of it could be sold, at a price -- the retail bank to Santander, perhaps; other bits to JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs -- but the losses to the taxpayer would be enormous, and the disruption associated with breaking Citi up and then trying to integrate the pieces... [Tags: behemoth, citigroup, disruption, economy, felix]

The Chatter Begins: The Safety Of Citibank Deposits — For the first time, just last night, we actually chatted about the safety of Citi's (C) retail banking operations, in light of the failures of WaMu, Wachovia and several others. The conclusion: There's really nothing to worry about, and if Citi were to fail, we'd have much bigger concerns than the FDIC bureacracy while we wait to get our insured deposits back. But what's crazy is that the conversation is actually happening now. And we see Felix Salmon is talking about it as well: But this is important: don't panic. Citi really is too big to fail, and its depositors... [Tags: amount of money, amp, banking operations, behemoth, bureacracy]

Saving The Rust Belt — Felix Salmon makes a list of reasons to bailout GM, while Henry Blodget still wants bankruptcy:We stress that, in recommending the bankruptcy option, we are not suggesting that the government abandon GM's workers: We'd rather the government spend billions on retraining and job placement than on propping up perpetually weak companies that can't fix themselves. I'm with Blodget.... [Tags: bailout, bankruptcy, billions, felix, gm]

I'M A LITTLE NERVOUS ABOUT ELECTION RESULTS! — Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom Dread, worry! (Medo, pavor, ansiedade), originally uploaded by Fernando Felix.... [Tags: ansiedade, election results, felix, worry]

Bad News, Good News — Felix Salmon on the GDP numbers:If you're one of those people who needs a negative GDP number to convince yourself that we're in a recession, here you go. But the headline -0.3% figure isn't the worst bit: that would be the 8.7% fall in disposable personal income. If there was any doubt about the outcome of this election, that number alone should put it to rest: there's no way that the incumbent party can win in that kind of economic environment.... [Tags: bad news good news, disposable personal income, doubt, economic environment, felix]

Purr-Muda: The Bermuda Triangle for Cats — In the sleepy suburb of Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England, there is a mystery brewing: 50 cats have been missing from the area dubbed "Purr-Muda," the Bermuda Triangle for cats! First to go was Tabatha, then Blackie, Lucky and Norman. Felix vanished, Star never came home and YumYum was never seen again. In all, at least 45 cats have gone missing in eight years from the quiet, tree-lined Meriden Avenue and its surrounding streets. Nobody knows what is behind the disappearances, and the only clues have been a few discarded collars - no bodies have ever been found. Link Photo: CATERS... [Tags: bermuda triangle, cats, disappearances, felix, link photo]

Dr. Fluffy's Cathouse of Horror! — NOW THROUGH OCTOBER 31, Dogtopolis Jaycees present the 17th annual Dr. Fluffy's Cathouse of Horror!  Enter — if you dare — and witness scenes so gruesome, you'll leave with your tail tucked between your legs! SEE!!!  The terrifying Terrier-Eating Toilet in ... THE BATHROOM OF BLOOD!!! SEE!!!  Hideous mutant experiments in ... FELIX'S LABORATORY OF NIGHTMARES!!! And your tail will tremble with terror when you come face to face with ... SATAN HIMSELF!!! The Dogtopolis Jaycees thank Chelsee I., Hans L., and Dan K. for their help with this year's production.... [Tags: cathouse, felix, horror, jaycees, legs]

Mainstream Media Still Stingy About Linking to Blogs? — Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com has sour news for econobloggers. According to Salmon, blogs may have gained more respect over the past year among mainstream media publishers of economic news and opinion, but they are still not recognized by some as deserving of outbound links. The latest evidence for this, as Salmon sees it, is the refusal by VoxEU, an economics news portal that has been called a blog before, to be included in Aaron Schiff’s popular directory of top economics blogs. While I’m not so sure VoxEU is clearly a blog - it seems more like a blog-like aggregator to... [Tags: aggregator, blog, blogs, economic news, economics news]

Will Even This Work? — Felix Salmon: America's banks -- and the world's, for that matter -- have had de facto unlimited access to very cheap Fed liquidity for many months now. That hasn't induced them to lend. Will this latest recapitalization do the trick? I'm far from convinced. And what's more, the demand for loans is drying up fast: do you really feel like buying a bigger house right now, or taking out a car loan? Well, businesses are in the same boat. In a recession, their [Return On Investment] falls, so they borrow less. With less demand for money, and no real desire... [Tags: banks, car loan, credit markets, demand for money, felix]

OS X Running on Lenovo Netbook — Yesterday, Apple didn't announce a netbook. When asked why, Jobs replied "That's a nascent market that's just getting started, and we'll see how it goes." Nascent it may be, but it isn't stopping people rolling their own OS X netbooks. We did it here at Gadget Lab (in fact, I just put in a new, Apple-supported wireless card this morning -- more on that soon), and now Flung, over at NetBook Tech, has managed it with Lenovo's new IdeaPad S10, which we previously declared "The Best Netbook We've Seen All Year". Flung has posted an exhaustive how-to, suitable for... [Tags: broadcom, creators, felix, gadget, hackers]

Jairus Grove: Left Behind: McCain's Broken Promises — Tuesday night's debate gave us insight into McCain's strategy from here on out. It goes something like this, "Trust me, I can't tell you how I am going to fix things but I know how to and dont worry it is easy". The refusal to give details in regards to spending cuts, and an 'entitlement freeze" should unsettle all Americans at a time when the promise of the free market has failed us all. If you want a preview of what is to come McCain's record on Veterans Affairs could not be more telling of what to expect. McCain once... [Tags: american soldiers, dollar expansion, dollar increase, emergency situation, felix]

The Meltdown Hits Main Street — Felix Salmon highlights this paragraph:The average subprime borrower facing an adjustable payment for the first time next month would face a monthly payment increase of about 18 percent based on Libor rates as of Sept. 30, rather than the 10 percent that would have occurred based on the rates on Sept. 15, the analysts wrote. The payment would be $1,951, instead of $1,807, they said. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans would be boosted to $1,021 on average, instead of $904.And if they can't afford it?... [Tags: 10 percent, fannie mae, fannie mae and freddie mac, felix, freddie mac]

Attention all TechCrunch readers in Munich: here’s your chance to meet Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. (Hmm, I wonder if he’ll be making some sort of announcement). He will be giving a speech at a closed, invite-only event on Tuesday evening, October 7 at Amiando headquarters. Amiando CEO Felix Haas is offering to give admission to one lucky TechCrunch reader. (That’s right, only one). Explains Haas in an e-mail: Mark will give a speech to the selected guests about Facebook’s plans for Europe and Germany. After the speeches and an extensive Q&A session with Mark Zuckerberg there will be plenty... [Tags: admission, amp, ceo, crunch, e mail address]

The "Bloodbath Ahead" — Felix Salmon reports that hedge funds are in big trouble.... [Tags: big trouble, bloodbath, felix, hedge funds, salmon]

Google's scare on Wall Street — It was already a wild day on Wall Street. Then it got even wilder today on the Nasdaq for Google investors. At first, all was right with the tech world. Stocks were swimming in a sea of green, recovering from a bloody red Monday. Google was trading up slightly most of the day, staying in a fairly narrow but very respectable range. Then suddenly in the final few minutes, the stock began to soar and plummet like an out-of-control yo-yo. Google Finance lists the day's high as $488.43 and the low as $25.80. Felix Salmon's reaction: Say what? We... [Tags: associated press, e mail, felix, financial meltdown, fund managers]

Calming Bailout Skeptics — Felix Salmon answers David Cay Johnston's questions about the economy. So does Ryan Avent.... [Tags: avent, bailout, david cay johnston, economy, felix]