My latest stock picks

Maybe I am in the wrong field. On May 17th of this year I identified two stocks that looked like real champions: Frontier Oil (FTO) and Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS). Full disclosure: I bought FTO.

As of today those two stocks are up 97% and 20%, respectively. The S&P 500 is up 4% since then :)

I don't do this for a living, so I advise against following my lead. Today I am selecting Fording Canadian Coal Trust (FDG) and Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD).

Charlottesville has an Ethiopian restaurant!

W00t! Nancy and I enjoyed our first Ethiopian meal in more than a year last night at Mesob. The Cavalier Daily gave it a mediocre review last week, but we were quite happy with it.

Nancy and I are afficionados of the cuisine -- in fact, our first date nearly 17 years ago was at the Red Sea in DC. Mesob is not the best Ethiopian we've had, but we were delighted to finally have a local place to enjoy it.

The husband-and-wife team were overwhelmed last night. The restaurant was nearly full and he was taking all the orders and she was doing all the cooking. Hopefully with their success they can hire some staff!

Ansel, again

Excellent:

Astronomers have pinned down the exact time and date that renowned photographer Ansel Adams snapped his ethereal picture, "Autumn Moon," and have determined that the sun, moon and mountains will align in the same positions on Thursday.

The Texas State University astronomers, who have earned a reputation for nailing down historical dates and events, reached their conclusions after poring through celestial history, plotting lunar phases, building a special computer program and calculating shadow angles.

They concluded that Adams snapped the shutter at 7:03 p.m. on Sept. 15, 1948 — not in 1944 as was long believed.