The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not CPI, Toy Recalls, Applied Materials, or Credit Contagion

Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• Earnings from Applied Materials (AMAT)...the stock is indicated down three percent in pre-open action...
• Data on inflation as the CPI "increased 0.1% in July, the slowest inflation rate in eight months"...
• A look into the "credit contagion"...
• A survey from Merrill Lynch that says "Fund managers remain relatively positive about the prospects for global equity markets, even after the recent market downturn"...
• A look into "what went wrong at Mattel (MAT)" as the company is forced to recall more toys...
• A report that says "Certain vinyl baby bibs sold at Toys "R" Us stores appear to be contaminated with lead"...
• A boost in attention for American toy manufacturers...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is this...well...a trio of stories that I are just screaming to be discussed -

1. UFO 'debris' lands in Maryland park - a woman found "a strange metal object near the path where she was walking" and her first thought was "I was like, 'Oh my God! I saw aliens! Aliens are here!' And I thought, 'How exciting!'"...no not aliens...a small door fell off an airplane...
2. Blind driver caught again - "An Estonian man who was caught driving a car even though he is blind has been at it again"..."He was drunk. There were three people in the car with him giving him instructions"...
3. Monkey apparently picks lock, escapes - "A monkey that freed himself two weeks ago from a Mississippi zoo has escaped again"...

While not seemingly related, these three stories do point to a couple of disturbing trends - 1) things keep falling from the sky and 2) we should be smarter than the animals.

Take story number 1. Let's put aside that the first thought to seeing a chunk of metal on ground was "aliens(?!?!?!)" and focus on this quote from a FAA spokeswoman - "Various things fall off airplanes from time to time, but it's fairly unusual to have one of these landing-gear doors fall off...Airplanes are designed not to shed parts". While this does fit the concerning pattern of things falling from the sky that we recently discussed it is the bolded part of the quote that really caught my eye. Fairly unusual?!?! Does anyone else find "fairly" an interesting choice of words? Given that she points out that "airplanes are designed not to shed parts" I would think (hope) that "extremely unusual" would be the case. Fairly unusual sounds like what you say when something "only" happens every few weeks.

And as far stories 2 and 3, neither inspires me with confidence in humanity. As I said the first time the monkey escaped, "Com'on people - you are representing mankind! We are supposed to be the dominant species". And for 2#? I have to say I am more concerned about the fact that three people actually thought it was a good idea to get into a car with a drunk, blind driver.