Goldman Sachs Exec Quits, Blasts Firm

We'll see if this makes any difference in the long run.

A Goldman Sachs director in London has resigned after publishing a devastating open letter accusing senior staff of being "morally bankrupt" and bent on extracting maximum fees from clients by offloading unsuitable investment products.

the seventh voyage of nada

Nothing today, sorry.

Omm Kalthoum - Inta Omri

A taste of someone many people think was one of the greatest singers who ever lived. Robert Plant has cited her influence on him more than once.

Aretha Franklin - Never Grow Old

Aretha Franklin singing a song that I first heard on the Smithsonian collection of classic country music in a recording from the 1920s. The best-known gospel songs of the twentieth century tended to cross over between the black and white gospel traditions, and this song is no exception.

According to the YouTube page for this video, she was fourteen years old when this recording was made, but her voice and interpretive skills are very much as they were in her best-known recordings.

RIP Peter Bergman

Here's the LA Times obit. And now for some Jack Poet Volkswagen ads from 1969. Peter is your host.

Krugman on the Republican War on Education

Krugman, well, he's right as usual.

One of our two major political parties has taken a hard right turn against education, or at least against education that working Americans can afford. Remarkably, this new hostility to education is shared by the social conservative and economic conservative wings of the Republican coalition.

Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme

What you can do with several computer-controlled tiny helicopters, musical instruments, and an imagination. H/t Andrew Sullivan.