Tuesday's Links: Mostly Trivia; No Bakken

Based on my daily informal survey of the number of Apple computers and tablets used on any given day at Starbucks, I agree: PC users are jumping ship to Apple products.

Anti-virus company Avast conducted a survey of Windows-based PC users the day before Windows 8 was released.

The results were devastating for Microsoft and non-Apple PC makers.

They were excellent, meanwhile, for Apple.

This is very, very interesting. Somewhat counterintuitive. A lot of folks, especially at Microsoft, would have thought that PC users were anxiously awaiting to upgrade their systems. In fact, the opposite happened. PC users now had an agonizing choice: upgrade their PCs (their old PCs could not make use of Windows 8) or switch to Apple. Many PC users already had Apple iPhones or iPods. It appears, if the data is correct, PC users felt this was a good time to upgrade/switch to Apple. Very, very interesting.

Trivia for tonight's cocktail party from one of the best sports pages in the print media, the WSJ: quarterbacks speak fluent gibberish:

In the last year, however, there has been a development that is unprecedented in the long history of quarterback signal calling. Thanks to a change in the way television broadcast microphones are positioned on the field, these strings of code that quarterbacks and linemen shout out before the snap are being relayed directly to the ears of millions of fans—and all of the team's future opponents.

Realizing their code languages may be compromised week to week, quarterbacks have taken the only avenue available to them: speaking total gibberish. To camouflage what they're trying to do, all of the NFL's biggest-name quarterbacks are employing a string of random, nonsensical shouts that make them sound, at times, like 1-year olds. 

Prior to the 2011 season, NFL umpires, who wore microphones and doubled as the network's boom operators, captured on-field sounds from their convenient position behind the linebackers. But when the officials were repositioned for safety reasons, the league needed to preserve its close-to-the-action sound. The easiest solution was to place microphones on offensive linemen. Today, all starting guards or centers now must wear a microphone, and all the once-muted pre-snap chatter has become public knowledge, whether teams like it or not.

What a great country. Car manufactures designing, building, and shipping cars that no one will buy: California spurs electric cars

Chrysler Group LLC next week plans to unveil an unusual automobile—an electric car that doesn't stand a chance soon of turning a profit and is unlikely to draw many customers.

So why is the company making it? It has to. California requires it. 

Nice.  The California law says the cars must be "sold." Not "given away."

I had lost the bubble on this, but there must be an epidemic that I am unaware of. A government health panel for the first time recommends testing for HIV for all -- repeat, all -- Americans aged 15 to 65, in an effort to show its spread. I'm in that age group, and somehow I don't feel the need. I assume this would not include foreign tourists, illegal immigrants, Hollywood elites, or space aliens.

Oil industry renews push for drilling in the Atlantic. As I noted yesterday with regard to all the oil under Santa Barbara, CA, oil off-shore North and South Carolina, and Florida, might as well be oil on the moon. I won't see it; my children won't see it; my grandchildren ... might. But there's a nice map at the linked article.

This may be the most important essay in the journal in today's edition: why the Carlyle Group is investing in America, by the co-founder and the co-CEO of the Carlyle Group:

Nowhere on the globe can my firm invest in companies with as much confidence as we do in the U.S. And while we take comfort in the long-term safety of U.S. assets, we also see opportunities for growth. This is because of a combination of very low interest rates, a strengthening housing market and significant domestic energy discoveries.

Today we find ourselves in a world of no return. With government bonds paying next to nothing and the yield on high-grade corporate bonds at historic lows, investors are seeking safety in addition to growth. The United States offers a powerful combination of the two.

The U.S. is characterized by inherent attributes that are often taken for granted: freedom, the rule of law, confidence in regulatory agencies. America has admired universities, the deepest and most-liquid capital markets, peerless medical systems, and pockets of innovation such as Silicon Valley—all of which, though not perfect, are highly advanced and function smoothly.

Now that the election is over, we learn the FHA is insolvent. 

Israel's Iron Dome.What does this remind you of?

However Israel's latest war with Hamas ends, the Gaza conflict will long be remembered for images of a military feat in the skies above Israel. Israeli interceptors have eviscerated the Iranian-supplied Hamas missiles heading for population centers. Chalk up an important strategic and technological win for missile defense.

The Jewish state's Iron Dome system was conceived after the 2006 war with Lebanon, when nearly 4,000 Hezbollah missiles killed 44 civilians in northern Israel; it was deployed only last year. Missile defenses have had vocal doubters since Ronald Reagan championed them in the 1980s, and Israeli critics focused on the price—around $50,000 for each Tamir interceptor—and supposedly dubious reliability. The last week ends that debate.

Yes, the Battle of Britain.

The food police are routed at the ballot box.

As Americans tuck into their turkey and dressing on Thursday, they might add one little item to the list of things for which they give thanks: the defeat of California's Proposition 37 on Election Day. That initiative would have made the Golden State the first and only to require the labeling of genetically modified foods. And its demise marks the death throes of a self-proclaimed "food movement" that urges ever-greater government intrusion into the nation's grocery stores and kitchens.

On the same day that Californians statewide voted down Prop. 37, the residents of El Monte (near Los Angeles) and Richmond (near San Francisco) also voted down a "fat tax" that would have added one cent per ounce to the price of sugared sodas.

The food movement is in retreat overseas, too: In Denmark, the government this month rescinded its one-year-old tax on saturated fat because of consumer backlash and adverse economic impacts. 

And so it goes.

Wow, I bet Meg Whitman wishes she had never heard of H-P.  At least it was her predecessor that bought into the alleged fraud. A day later, in the WSJ, "Heard on the Street": another fine mess for Hewlett -Packard. As noted elsewhere, I give her two years to turn H-P around. [Update: just a couple of hours later, I happened to catch a talking head on CNBC: a) Ms Whitman was on the board of directors when H-P bought this company; and, b) the talking head is already talking that it is time for Ms Whitman to go. Wow.]

I see former president Jimmy "Malaise" Carter is writing under a pseudonym: it's time to ban Christmas presents. Bah! Humbug! [18,435 former union workers at Hostess most likely agree.]