Driven By Curiosity

I subscribe to Google alerts for a variety of subjects, including starter interrupts. It had been months since there had been any notices. Suddenely, a couple of weeks ago they started coming in citing a variety of newspapers. It turns out there was apparently one story which was sent out via the Associated Press and that article was repeated in many places.

This is interesting. It really shows how what looks like a trend or development of a serious interest is only a single source article. Reading the article and knowing something about the subprime lending business, I can also say the article was not especially useful.

In particular, the quotes from the “consumer advocate” were extremely un-informed. It was clear that he has no experience with the sub prime automobile lending market or he would not have made the comments he did. Perhaps he was miss-quoted?

He was quoted as saying the starter interrupts took all the risk out of the loans. He sort of forgot to mention
1. The customer abuses the car and then defaults
2. The customer drops the insurance and then totals the car
3. The customer bypasses the starter interrupt and keeps driving
4. The customer skips town with the car and it can’t be recovered

plus many others. Installation of a starter interrupt device helps the lender get paid, but to say it removes all the risk from the transaction is wrong!

I have added a section to the site to discuss pictues and photography. In brief I think the advances in computer and imaging technology are poised to overturn the current stock photography model. Photoshop, a digital camera and some website publishing savvy all a single person, with miniscule overhead, to do almost everything the whole stock photography industry provides.

I have some plans for this myself, involving all those negatives from pictures of the American Southwest I have accumulated over the last 30 years.

Stay tuned.