Occupy Wall Street explained in 60 seconds

Today marks the one month anniversary of protesters occupying Wall Street (even though most of the investment banking houses whose leaders and practices they are protesting against moved out of the Wall Street area to midtown Manhattan years ago). Yet even as the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow, and spawn similar protests around the globe, many (most?) people, including many politicians, are unsure what specifically the protesters are protesting -- or simply don't get it.

Though not former Florida Representative Alan Grayson, who provided this succinct explanation of the Occupy Wall Street movement on a recent Real Time with Bill Maher.



Get that man a bongo drum -- and a seat in Congress!

Btw, is it just me, or does Alan Grayson remind you just a wee bit of Howard Beale in Network -- and his famous "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore" speech, which is just as if not more relevant today than it was 35 years ago.

World's scariest roller-coaster ride? The Stock Market

In July, Travel + Leisure magazine ranked the World's Scariest Roller Coasters. However, they left out what most Americans (at least in August) would likely agree was by far the world's scariest roller-coaster ride, the stock market.

Seriously, the Intimidator 305 (voted Best Coaster of 2010 by Amusement Today) has got nothing on the Standard & Poor's rating agency when it comes to intimidation.

Oh, and in case you're not an investor in the market and want to know what the past week has felt like to those of us who are, check out this short video clip a passenger riding the El Toro roller coaster took:



(I think Six Flags Great Adventure should consider changing the name from El Toro -- the Bull -- to El Oso, the Bear.)

Any guesses as to what the market will do tomorrow?

UPDATED: Well, we ended the week on the upside -- which probably means we're goin' down on Monday. Brace yourselves, people. And speaking of Standard & Poor's, I enjoyed this recent post over on Rumproast, which quotes an S&P senior director saying who is responsible for the downgrade.