Sometimes fathers are brilliant.

When I think of all of the times I struggled to get my daughter's hair in a tight ponytail that was not crooked it makes me want to kick myself for not thinking of this myself.

I did once suggest introducing a power washer into the diaper changing room but the horrified looks I received let me know that I was a visionary way ahead of my time.

Wall St. Computers Trade on the News

By GRAHAM BOWLEY

The number-crunchers on Wall Street are starting to crunch something else: the news. 

Math-loving traders are using powerful computers to speed-read news reports, editorials, company Web sites, blog posts and even Twitter messages — and then letting the machines decide what it all means for the markets. 

The development goes far beyond standard digital fare like most-read and e-mailed lists. In some cases, the computers are actually parsing writers’ words, sentence structure, even the odd emoticon. A wink and a smile — ;) — for instance, just might mean things are looking up for the markets. Then, often without human intervention, the programs are interpreting that news and trading on it.