UrbanSurvival

Nearly the worst thing imaginable has happened to the global pharmaceutical industry:  My

 esteemed colleague - The Mogambo Guru - has made plans to cut back his meds and spend more time on the golf course.

This all came to light when a couple of readers passed on “Pssst!  The Mogambo is quitting!”

Instantly, I fired up the teletype to Mogambo Headquarters - we keep a highly classified private network of venerable model 28-KSR teletypes (thanks for asking) once used for the Washington-Moscow hotline connected between hooked up us.  Since Moscow has moved operations to Washington and Venezuela, and we picked up the surplused units cheap…

“Dear Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR) George,

Well, since you asked, I have not officially retired, but I originally went on a short vacation, and then it just morphed into not working, and now I am giving retirement a try, which is interesting since I am still in Phase One of retirement, the one where I really get serious about playing golf well as part of the Stupid Mogambo Plan (SMP) that I will get so good, so suddenly, that I will, like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, come literally out of nowhere and eliminate the hell out of all competition utilizing a “Tap-In Birdie Every Time” approach that I have yet to develop or even figure out how in the hell I can do such a thing, but which ought to bring in, oh, say $39.95 a pop as a DVD (”It’s a 50 dollar value!”).

I also intend to make a lot more money winning golf tournament after golf tournament, make even MORE money from milking lotsa, lotsa moolah from the lusciously lucrative product endorsements, become a media darling where I habitually hobnob with cute Hollywood starlets and famous celebrities, and drive a really nice car, too.

Being naturally suspicious and paranoid, of course, I assume that you are ingratiating yourself so that I will introduce you to my future Hollywood friends or let you borrow my aforementioned nice car.

No promises, you understand, but it’s a deal! Thanks!

And as to the question “Will I write again before the Mother Ship arrives and takes me back to my home planet where I can escape the bankrupting stupidities of a deficit-spending leftist government financed by the loathsome Federal Reserve’s suicidal creation of excess money and credit made possible only by their laughable neo-Keynesian econometric imbecilities?” I hope not! Hahahaha!

So, good luck to us both, George!

-Mogambo

Prediction:  Once the Mogambo figures out there are course marshals, he’s throw down his sticks and get back to writing…such is his fear of rule enforcement. 

Or, if he really does get famous and the Retired Financial Stars Tour stops at Pine Dunes, my home course ( played exactly once so far),  I’ll bounce for a round.  But only Monday-Thursday - the same offer I extended to president Obama.

Hey!  Here’s a great idea: What about a three-some? 

Mr. Ure’s Flu-Like Symptoms

So there I was last night - pondering whether to eat dinner, since I had just spent a good hunk of Thursday afternoon playing “shopping with Lola” except of course it was Elaine, not Lola, but that was the only difference I could find.  Run from this store to that, wait around for inspiration on which thing to buy - then failing that, another dash to another store, only to arrive home past dark to wrestle a hundred pounds of second vanity and sink off the pickup and onto the deck which was the closest spot to the project.

Somewhere along the way I had started to develop what are for me classic signs that something wasn’t quite right.  A slight ringing in the left ear, touch of a sore throat - not distinct, more like an awareness of it, and a few passing flashes of ‘Gee, is the heat turned up?”

Since there is far too much going on getting construction finished before T-day at the ranch to take time out to be sick (I’m convinced busy people get sick less often, anyway) I applied my normal ‘just-in-case’ which although not guarantees are offered,; seems to work:

• I started with a zinc tablet since zinc lozenges are supposed to be good for colds.

• Then I had a glass of Italian vitamins (Paisano) since grape juice is a fine source of reversartrol, anti-oxidants, and vitamin C.

• Since it’s not good to drink on an empty stomach, a couple of lour tortillas with a huge helping of melted Mozzarella cheese that I told myself was a quesadilla but not quite.

• Since the cheese is a little salty, more Italian vitamins.

• And as long as things are going into the mouth, a Co-Q-10.

About here it was confirmed that I really had the start of something because usually 8-10 ounces of wine and a quesadilla and I feel something of effects.  But, when coming down with something - or just outright sick - the effects of salutatory alcohol disappear.  Not good - but not a waste of the Italian vitamins, since I use them as an important diagnostic tool.

I made note to mention this diagnostic sequence since it’s a little different than the EMT SOAP approach (subjective, objectives, assessment, and plan of treatment) that goes into life support.

Oh, sure, Western medical figures a BP cuff, thermometer, pulse oximeter and a 3-lead ECG backed up with O2 and an AED is how medicine is done, but it’s a lot of work when for something basic, two glasses or wine and getting in touch with yourself can get there.  And no question, orange tongue depressants to look at the ’something’ in the throat is much less satisfying than a quesadilla.

At any rate, my self-SOAP done, I augmented my plan with the following:

• 2-5 grams of vitamin C since vitamin C is one of the wonder drugs of the world.

• Along with that 2 Benadryl’s since best I can recall, it’s an H1 blocker and if I was getting anything serious (like swine) it’d be harder to storm with H1 blocked.

Next up on the list was 8+ hours of sleep and a system recheck.  Which I did at 5 AM today and honestly, except for a touch of ‘feel slow after Benadryl’ effect, the throat is normal, the only flash of heat-feeling was from drinking 600  ml (2+cups) of scalding hot coffee and no runs, drips, or aches.

Good news and bad:  On the one hand, further symptoms would have indicated more sleep, but on the other, no rest for the wicked.  Since I feel great, I must be wicked, which means I must get more stuff done today.

Darn shame:  My next level of treatment is a super-hot shrimp curry over rice with the objective of suppressing TNFa (curcumin), accompanied by a bit more wine (reversartrol) but just a bit, and depending of symptomology, move to an H2 blocker like Zantac but being very aware & careful to remember that Zantac is different from Zyrtec.  Again, with H1 & H2 blocked, I figure cytokine storm risk would go down - but this is only my thinking and IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE.

This would be followed by either very hot buttered rum or hot Southern Comfort and water, or the old sailing warmer-upper  Hot Yukon Jack and water, while snuggled under plenty of blankets since higher temps is one way to kill some bugs and it seems worth a chance.

—

A couple of readers have been asking about my approach to flu-like symptoms, so there it is.  No  mercury-based preservatives, no egg or canine by-products.  Toss in a good book for periods between sleep (I’ve got a half dozen on the night stand already) and bring it on.  I could use the break.

Financial Enlightenment

Been thinking over LED, fluorescent lights and such - pondering this:

“Your speaking of light bulbs!!! Do you remember the LIFE TIME Bulbs. I had one in the bathroom that lasted 20 years, and one in the garage that is doing better than that. Imagine the savings there. So what happened to them? They seemed pretty green(cash) to me!!!! Maybe we need a company to bring them back or the Gov’t!!!

Having just had a couple of screw-in fluorescent lights go out after only a year or two of use, I got myself to thinking that one of these mornings I should fire up a spreadsheet and see where the breakeven points are for energy lighting on a KWHr annual basis. 

Seems to me that a 50-watt light bulb will burn for (pencil?) 20-hours for 11-cents worth of power. So if the price different is $8, then if the fancy light doesn’t last at least x hours,  then….

At this point, I drift off into thinking about two trains, one leaving Chicago and the other leaving New York….OMG I’m have a quadratic equation relapse!  Quick, where’s my reversartrol liquid?

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

Thursday November 19, 2009

My friend Howard Hill (web site) who writes most excellent from the insider perspective on markets - having been there - sent me a note today wondering in all marriages in Texas are illegal.  Took me a couple of seconds of reading the McClatchy papers web site “Texas’ gay marriage ban may have banned all marriages” to figure out what he was talking about, but the long & short seems to be that in their zeal to make one kind of marriage illegal, the other may have been screwed up.

But, it raises an important question about when people are married.  Seems there are tons of definitions out there - depending on whether you’re looking at it from a governmental standpoint, a tax standpoint, common law, civil law, Church law, credit laws, and all that before you get into the basics of  (as “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” points out) being excellent to one another.

I hadn’t worried too much the matter of legality until reading this thing in the news today.  Now I’m wondering if Elaine and I are ‘legally’ married here in Texas.  The problem is that we were married in Victoria, British Columbia, in a park on the inner harbor with the Empress Hotel in the background. We had other ideas, but knot-tiers tend to hang out near big cities, so logistics of getting one to go climb a mountain and do the vows on a mountaintop at sunrise (which I’d thought about) wasn’t as simple.

You see the problem?  We’re for-sure married when we go to Canada - except in Quebec, who knows what they’re doing.  Since it’s all properly registered, I never thought any further than that…

But this gives me a wonderful idea for a new intrusive government operation that will create lots of government employment, justify more record-keeping, and impose more social control in the holy name of “Security”:  Maybe what’s coming is marriage police.

Yessir - think of it.  Thousands of ‘marriage auditors’ could be hired and that would mean a huge database - so one (or more) of those would have to be built.  Cars to get these people around to various interviews, layer upon layer of management - yes, I see perhaps 100,000 jobs directly7 and indirectly coming from this - why it’s a grand economic stimulus.

Not that the problem of who should be the ‘marriage police’ wouldn’t be controversial; IRS has the most skin in the game from a money standpoint, but Census has already been in nose-counting and going to people’s homes.  You saw the Census news release Wednesday?

“The U.S. Census Bureau today opened its last of three data capture centers that will process 2010 Census questionnaires as they are mailed back by households across the nation next spring. The 212,000 square-foot facility in Phoenix will bring more than 2,800 jobs to the area.

“Processing the 2010 Census questionnaires accurately and safely at the data capture centers is a crucial step to a successful census,” said Census Bureau Associate Director for Decennial Programs Arnold Jackson. “The responses from each form processed at the facility will help provide a complete count of the nation’s population and a new portrait of America.”

Which reminds me - and don’t tell anyone else this - but since we’ve got about 30-acres here, I thought we might jack up our house and move it a thousand feet from its present location after the Census is done - no clue why they would need my home’s GPS location, unless its so a SWAT team should ever need to be dispatched, or so aliens looking to harvest fat old white guys as hors d’ orderves will know where to go to harvest them…but that’s another worry.

—-

I suppose I’m tilting at windmills on this marriage police concept.  But since someone sent me a copy of US Patent # 6,971,031 (”National identification card system and biometric identity verification“) which is “A method and system for preventing or obstructing a person from negotiating a transaction with another person, group, or entity in a population, include verifying and crosschecking the identity of the person and the stratus of the national identification card carried by the person, as a prerequisite to negotiating or entering into a transaction such as….” and it goes on from there, perhaps I’m not just tilting, after all.

The concern is underscored when you watch the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions - which seems focused this week on how to co-opt the small family farms in America to hand over the reigns of food production to corpgov agribiz.

Of course, the senate can be expected  to take up issues like ‘food safety’ because elections are costly things and contributions from agribusiness are more than from the home average working folks.  But I’m seeing the outline of some more here:  The reinforcing of the foundations of the Command Economy - where you & I get commanded by those who we’re told are working for us.

There’s a great - slow motion- shift underway:  A patent issued on technology to restrict people’s right to free exchange, subtle jabs at the family farms, and on top of the so-called voluntary National Animal Identification Act…. it all sounds worrisome to me: 

I’ve got a terrible memory but I don’t remember the Framers of the great Constitution putting in a provision that freedom has to be so closely regulated - seems the concepts are diametrically opposed.  Then again, Elaine & I thought we were married but now….who knows?

Making Light of Things

A nice contributed report showed up this morning on home lighting progress made by a reader:

“I changed most of the bulbs to florescent several years ago and noticed a 1/3 drop in electric usage.

Florescent comparisons. 20w uses 3w 60w uses 13w 200w uses 40w

I went from 200w incandescent in the basement to 200w florescent which use 40w. I had to get rid of the dimmer switches. After working 2 jobs for 3 years I now have the job called “Light Switch Controller.” Telling everyone to turn off the lights or turning them off myself has resulted in 12% less electric usage and we even changed to an electric oven (gas stove with electric oven) and bought a electric dehydrator.

Then recently I changed out bulbs in multiple bulb fixtures. For example the ceiling fan with the 3, 4 or 5 bulb fixture that had all 60w florescent I changed one to a 20w and unscrewed the others only until they turned off so only the 20w is on. This works well for most applications and if we need more light just turn in as many of the other bulbs you need. I found that instead of five, 13w fluorescents (65w) we got by on one 3w most of the time, especially when you have lights on just to walk through the house. And if we needed more light we tightened one or two additional instead of all. With incandescent and dimmer switches I could adjust the light level as needed. With fluorescents the dimmable type are expensive, there are 3 way, I have one. I found the florescent light annoying at times and found myself trying to block the glare. I went through each room and hallway and looked closer at the light levels and room light needs. Initially I replaced a 60w incandescent with a 60w florescent without any though to real lighting needs. By looking closer at the lighting and replacing bulbs with smaller or combination bulbs I reduced electric consumption. This is recent so I do not have data but I can give examples. This is an example based on the changes not my real savings since the lights are not on always and sometimes more bulbs are on than at other times. Maximum wattage reduction 310w.

I bought a new bicycle this year. Courtney needed a new larger bike and we could not find her size, one we liked or what we were willing to pay. Well as a result we finally found Courtney a new bike and everyone else also. I haven’t ridden my bike often for years. It is a very nice bike but it is the racing style and was not comfortable anymore. Maybe if I rode more often I would adjust but I decided to get a more upright bike. (If you think you are still in shape try keeping up with the kids on their bikes.)

Anyway when I bought my bike I saw 1w LED for night riding, they were blinding. (Planet Bike Superflash) I was looking on eBay for the bike lights cheaper and came across 110 volt LED’s and purchased a few to try. I was impressed when I got them and have since ordered a variety more to try to better determine which size works best. They come from China and are a bit more expensive than florescent. A 50w LED uses 5w compared to the 60w florescent using 13w. There are also 1w to 2w LED’s at 21, 24, 48, 60, 72 LED. You know what I did next! I replaced the 3w florescent with the 1w LED and the 13w with the 5w. They produce a bright very white light but still have a far amount of glare unlike the dimmed incandescent. I put one 90 LED bulb on a dimmer and it works as a high low switch, only two choices. When you turn on the switch the LED lights dimmer than when the switch is all the way up but there is no variation in between. For example the light we leave lit in the bedroom once it gets dark until I go to sleep has been on since 5pm and it is now 2am. The florescent was using 3w and the led now uses 1w that’s 18w so far today. I have not received all the bulbs I ordered yet and I just received some today so the change to LED is new. The change to LED is a couple of months after the florescent change mentioned above so I will not be able to determine the difference between them. I do like them they provide adequate lighting. Last months electric bill $108, of course rates are also a factor. It will be better to determine after one year.

Let’s see if I can’t get those soda can furnaces built.

I paid for a lighting up grade at the laundry; only it was done the same day as the new dryers were installed. I was expecting $150 to $180 month saving in electric which would have paid for the upgrade but so far $0 savings. The electric bill is exactly the same. Maybe the dryers use more electric than the old ones. They have 2 motors, the old ones only had 1. If that is the case than I am saving but I do not see it.

That’s it for now.

Light controller signing out”

Very encouraging report.  I’ve been using a 48-led desk lamp for about 6-months now although the payback for the higher price means it won’t be profitable until long after I’m dead…

My last venture into decreasing energy use was simply turning off lights resulted in an increase in medical bills from running into things and falling down and getting stitches was more than the energy savings.  I’m hoping there’s something in the mega-long health care bill to cover “injuries due to energy saving devices” but somehow  I doubt it. 

Flu shot Update

I went to the doctor’s office yesterday (normal visit) and the doc asked me if I wanted a swine flu shot.  “No, thanks.”  How about a pneumonia vaccine shot?  “Pass”.  How about….and the list went on.  He finally shrugged and said something like you’re one of those if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it guys….presactly.

Want to see something interesting, go watch video “M.D. Retracts H1N1 Vaccine Advice after Reading Insert.”  No, this is not medical advice….viewing suggestion.

And Most Important of All:

Only 36 days until Christmas or 1128 days until 12/21/2012.  Depending on your outlook.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

Despite my protests, seems the cell phone industry will continue to grow, since most people are not conscious enough to define what is pertinent information to real-world life and what’s not. 

The latest round of ’social media’ simply capitalized on the willingness of people to shun the unpleasant and pursue the frivolous, which is fine, since it makes being focused a lot more rewarding than if everyone was not distracted.

In India today, the word is that they will soon have 1-billion mobile phones.  That’s three times as many phone users as there is population in these United States - an amazing feat of marketing.  Why, it’s now possible to go into a store and hear personal details of almost anyone’s life if you just follow them around the aisles a bit.  Crazy, huh?

—

If you want a good project that has the potential to turn you into a millionaire, try to figure out the next appliance that will be put into cell phones. I trust you see the progression, right?  You start with a simple phone.  Then you add a tiny keyboard for testing - and then a camera which even sour George admits do take pretty good pictures - and emails them from wherever.

But what’s the next big thing to be added?  What runs on electricity, is small and can be effectively battery-powered?  No, I won’t go into sex toys since this is a PG-rated site, but it did occur to me that Norelco could come out with a shaver-phone.  Toss in a camera and you could email your twits a picture of yourself before and after.

But wait - that’s already on the market as the Cool758 Razor-Smartphone.

Hmmm….small, electric-powered, eh?  How about an electric can opener phone?  Maybe a coffee-grinder phone?  Or, how about a phone that doubles as an electric screwdriver?  Now we’re getting somewhere.

Since the phones already have a vibrating function, seems like the R&D boyz at Black & Decker shouldn’t have any trouble making a Sander-Phone.  MagLite has to have a high-powered LED flashlight phone in the works since that’d be a sure-fire hit with our friends in law enforcement.  I only recently found out you can buy a glass-breaking end cap for a MagLite.  (See: MagLite D Cell Flashlight glass breaking Tail Cap X Cape Cap ) Shows how far behind the curve I am, huh?

I actually came up with what I thought would be a ‘killer ap’ - putting the remote control for the TV into a cell phone, but there are already downloadable aps for that.  Besides, there’s work being done now using image recognition software that would let you control your TV with a wave of your hand. 

This kind of visual recognition software has some interesting potential:  Make a big shrug and the TV could flip to a news channel.  Or, make the football time-out sign and TiVo pauses.  Or the sign of the cross brings up the 700 Club and so forth. How about this: Pretend to swing an imaginary baseball bat and up would pop ESPN.  Maybe a “Aw, get outta here” wave would turn off O’Reilly, Hannity, or whoever’s disagreeing with me at the moment….Why this opens up whole next potentials for exercise in the media room, doesn’t it?  Like channeling Merlin, or something.

Figure this can’t be far off - I’m already on speaking terms with wife’s car - and it answers simple requests. More often than…well…that’s another story.

—

I know there has to be a limit to how closely marketing genius can mold the man-machine interface but I keep getting stuck on power density of the battery pack as a stumbling block for some of my more aggressive concepts.  Like perking coffee on a cell phone or toasting a bagel…that kind of thing.

Powering up the cell phone to pop popcorn seems within reason, if you don’t mind cooking yourself a bit faster.

But the real danger with cell phones is that voice recognition systems are not yet ready for the noisy primetime mobile environment.  Until that kind of functionality is perfected, the biggest threat on the roads when you’re out driving about may not longer be drunk drivers.  May be texters.  More than a third of 16-17 year olds admit to texting while driving.  If the cell phone toasted bagels instead of texting, imagine how much safer we’d all be.

Archeological Question of the Day

So - got Google Earth?  Tell me what 33º12′22.82N by 103º35′04.67W is from 4000 feet or so…and why is it so close to the Roswell crash site?  Answer: government bombing range from WW II- but quite cool…

Lingo-Lango-Local

Had to run into town to pick up some material for our bathroom remodeling project and happened to chat with a local at the lumber yard.  The usual pleasantries caught be a bit off guard.  My “How you doing?” got an usual reply:  “If I was any better I’d be fartin’ rainbows…” explained the feller.

I’ve heard a lot of answers to my “How are you today?”  Most folks mutter ‘fine’ and that’s that.  But occasionally you get a decent answer like “Any day on this side of the lawn is a great one” or the similar “Better’n pushin up daisies…”   My personal response usually goes something like “If I was doing any better, why there’d be two of me…”

But ‘rainbows’?  New one on me - thought you might find a use for it sometime.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

“Unfriend” is the word of the year for the Oxford Dictionary folk.  Since I’m a language abuser at heart, here’s their press release:

    Notable Word Clusters for 2009

    Twitter related:

    Tweeps                   Twibe
    Tweetup                  Sweeple
    Twitt                    Tweepish
    Twitterati               Tweetaholic
    Twitterature             Twittermob
    Twitterverse/sphere      Twitterhea
    Retweet

    Obamaisms:

    Obamanomics              Obamaeur
    Obamarama                Obamanator
    Obamasty                 Obamaland
    Obamacons                Obamalicious
    Obamanos                 Obamacles
    Obamanation              Obamania
    Obamafication            Obamacracy
    Obamamessiah             Obamanon
    Obamamama                Obamalypse

Despite all this, most humans use fewer than 5,000 words in a week +they r gting shrtr. Tnx2txting.

Storming Toward Winter’s Arrival

Apparently, not too many people in the UK have been reading UrbanSurvival.  If they had been, somewhere along the way I would have mentioned that from a reporter or editor standpoint “news” manufacturing is a fine art.

Take weather stories (please):  Every year has a “Hottest Day of the Year” story.  Every year has a Coldest Day of the Year” headline to go with it.

Example of how this works out?  Sure: “Britain prepares for ANOTHER battering after biggest storm of the year washes out the weekend” says the Daily Mail.

The cyclical nature of news isn’t something most folks devote mental processor clicks to, but it’s there.  Inauguration stories repeat every four years, Congressman reelected stories continue either until they retire or are caught…so there’s a rhythm to that comes with time of year.

No, it’s not winter yet but already the seasonal news stories are starting to pop up. I hope the fine folks at Google’s Trend Lab won’t mind my borrowing this graphic to make a point…but in language and in consciousness there is a regular heartbeat to this - something anyone with cardiac medicine would recognize as a big strip on life in these United States:

What’s interesting to look at is that looking at general search use of Christmas seems to be in some kind of long-term trend.  When I tell you “Grim Reaper Does Christmas” this year is likely in the cards, it’s not from some woo-woo science…just continue the trend and what do you find?

T’ain’t pretty.

—

38º on the north deck as I strolled over to the office this morning…Both the cats are coming into the office in the early morning hours when I get up.  Pusscilla sleeps on the rug in front of the drum set.  Zeus prefers a chair (covered with a paper towel to keep cat dander & tag-alongs off it). 

Their presence has kept me from some of my usual holiday is coming stress relievers such as banging on the snare drum… recently forgot Z was in the room and slammed some paradiddles and crash rides  (you do know what rudiments are to novice drummers, right?).  Never seen a cat move so fast.

Ever since, all I have to do is look at the drumsticks and Zeus gets worried.  So, for now, the drum bashing is on hold, which seems to please both cats.  Something about Silent Night.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

If you saw the movie 2012 this weekend, you were not alone:  Elaine & I went Friday with one of our friends and it was a) great computer graphics…damn fine and worth seeing for that alone; b) thin on plot, but that may have been a function of overwhelming CG, and 3) a monster bringing in $225 at the box office globally.

After seeing the movie, I came home to the ranch and wondered if maybe I shouldn’t call the Texas Railroad Commission this week - since they’re the people in charge of capped off oil and gas wells in our neighborhood.  Since our property is literally across the street from a 600-acre drilling reserve, I figure if I can lease out part of our land to a wildcatter, maybe I could at least find one of the capped off wells to turn into a neutrino detector, like the old mine shaft in India was used for in the movie.

Not sure it would work.  With my luck, I’d strike oil, instead, although that wouldn’t be such a bad thing; E & I have jokes about doing a a real-life Beverly Hillbillies…

But the movie was entertaining, although I’m not sure where all the water comes from. What’s more worrisome is the alternative to 2012 which I outlined in the Saturday column for Peoplenomics subscribers. 

Of note: There’s only one itsy-bitsy-teeny sunspot today  over at Space Weather and it’s really, really small.  Who needs the earth’s crust going walkabout when we have bozos at the helm?  We’re doomed by stupidity, anyway, it seems.  No fair doing double shots for breakfast, or popping a second pill…you really oughta suffer through Monday’s like the rest of us.

Car Pollution Tax Scams

The report that “Dutch drivers to pay tax on road time, not car” can be read any number of ways.  One is that it would be fair to tax people for pollution purposes depending on how much they drive.  But does that really make sense?

As I’m reading it, a lot of this global warming stuff (which is inconveniently happening to other planets in our solar system) is nothing more than a way for governments to reorganize to extract continuing tribute from taxpayers.

You see, governments globally have a problem:  They need more money to do things like bail out their banks, build their militaries and so forth.  So what do they do?  Invent global warming and tah-dah!  Excuse to play three-card Monte with taxes.

In some places - like the Netherlands case - the concept is to use technology to install a mileage tax.  In other places, like Texas, the sweetheart deals are cut to lease freeways that were paid for by taxpayers once, out to foreign outfits which reap profits and pay a piece to government.

Here’s the nitty-gritty:  In both cases, you’ve got roads - a huge sunk cost fixed asset.  How does government monetize a fixed asset to fund its never-ending growth?  Simple!  Lease it out (Texas and other states) or install a new ongoing tax regime (Netherlands).

Of course, people would be grabbing their pitchforks is this was put before the people directly, so a slow-motion scare tactic can be used, social engineering at its best and what do you get?  Bippity Boppity Boo.

If pollution is the problem, sticking a sniffer up a car’s exhaust pipe tells the truth in PPM.  GPS mileage-based taxes?  Ding ding ding: Loser.  Tax scam.  Fixed asset conversion to rent.

Optimist and Pessimists Test

You know how to tell the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?

The optimist says it’s 39 shopping days till Christmas.

The pessimist says its 1131 days until 12/21/2012…

The realist says we mostly end up broke either way….

The UrbanSurvivalist says see you tomorrow morning…planning to start my Christmas Want List.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

What is Cocooning?  It’s what happens to people when they lose their jobs, can’t afford to go much of anywhere ‘big’ and living the large - the blingish thingish falls out of favor.  Which - in case you were planning to install some fancy grillwork - has become decidedly uncool.

When cocooning sinks in, people start to pay attention to their homes - and apparently there are tons of people doing it, since we are presently finishing off the last unpresentable room in our every room gets fixed remodeling project and we can’t find anyone to install a bathroom floor for at least a week and a half.  Normally, this would be a “Dammit…” and just schedule and run with it.  But, since we have house guests landing on the 22nd, fourteen days from now would be the 27th and Elaine mutters something about needing a day or two to do ‘finishing touches’ before company arrives.

The ‘last room’ happens to be a bathroom and the repair is from a slow water leak under one of the two vanities in the room - and since the home was made with OSB (oriented strand board) flooring over the  joists, yours truly got to experience the joys of ripping out a 4′ by 5′ section of floor and replacing it.  In some houses, this would not be a terrible and grueling task, but in our house, it involved not only ripping out the floor, putting in runners and cross bracing (can’t have flooring meet in mid-air) and the normal stuff, but going down into the crawlspace under the house to pick up leftover chunks of OSB.  This was followed by man-handling the 4X8 sheets of OSB that went in…had to use two sheets of OSB that were 7/16th’s since no one seems to have 7/8th’s OSB anymore…but I digress.

For taking glue off floor joists, can’t think of a better tool than my Rockwell Sonicrafter.

Darn fine tool for that kind of project.  (Christmas is coming…)

Elaine had the good sense to go $hopping for flooring and lighting, so when she got back I was really ready for some humor - a hot shower and a cold beverage go only so far when you’ve been under a house and schlepping OSB…

“I heard the most amazing thing on the radio on the way home….there’s some serve advertising that there’s a site on the internet that will do break ups for you….”

“You mean like ’sick of remodeling…you’re fired…kind of thing?”

“No…like tell a boyfriend or girlfriend you’re history….tell a spouse you’re getting a divorce from them…that kind of thing…”

—

No, we still get along fine, but it got me to thinking about what shows through in people’s character when times get tough.   In the consulting arena, I’m at the slow time of the year, so while working on a couple of projects, time’s also loose enough to be able to spend quality time with my Skil saw which despite all the complaining, I really enjoy.  I’ve always found that when things slow in one area of life, there’s always lots to do in other areas.

But as a business model I wondered what it meant - if anything - when a society starts to farm out basics of getting along with other people…just struck us both as odd that there’s a business model for this type of misery.  Maybe the internet really has gotten us to the point where everything can be monetized…  If you’ve used such a service, let me know?  Curious what the costs are and whether it’s a viable business. - Thanks.

Oh…and if you know a flooring installed in the Athens- Tyler - Palestine area that’s not booked out solid (and does first-rate work) send me an email.

BBQ Weekend

A couple of calendar items here….Yes!  Tomorrow is the Elmwood Volunteer Fire Department’s fall BBQ.  More on the department web site…  I plan to skip breakfast tomorrow to be extra hungry for lunch.  If you’re in Dallas or Houston - for that matter, anywhere within driving distance - ya’ll come on by…

Google Map is here.

Last Day Note

This is the last day you can sign up for EMWD web hosting and get the discount I mentioned earlier this week.  Click here to check prices & sign up.  Discount codes are:

B-DAY01 - to receive 40% off a new domain name

B-DAY02 - to receive 40% off any of our hosting packages except our mailman service.

Ghosts in Machines

Our inquiry into the source of the mystery code-like noises in Alabama continues.  A fresh case to ponder this morning:

“Hi George,

In light of the comments on the ‘mystery code’ today in your most welcomed newsletter, I’d like to share another strange experience, via phones and TV….phone system supplied by AT&T, just a plain old landline, and TV by satellite, Direct TV.

The location is ******** out in the country, about ********, though I would appreciate your not publishing this location. Cell phone reception is awful, in fact can’t be used consistently even outside, unless one is about a mile down the road. This is so far out in the country that besides dial-up, only satellite Internet is available, kinda….

+ When the phone rings, if the TV is on, for a very brief time, the name of who is calling appears on the TV screen on the lower right side. The caller can be either on a landline or on a cell…..same thing happens. I was stunned the first time I saw this….is this normal?

This one is too easy!  Get the manual out for the DTV receiver and see if you have it plugged into a phone line.  Bet me that as part of the “call home feature” to bill you for all those PPV movies, the sat. receiver has caller ID outputted to whatever is on-screen at the time.

Your cell phone service is presently set to ‘dual ring’ I expect, so you can pick it up free on the landline if you’re home …er…watching TV…

The number of emails on topic this week gets me to wondering if there’s a niche for this kind of service on the internet…you know - pay $5 to ask the home electronics guru a question.  Just thinking out loud.  Say, your TV doesn’t break up much, does it?  (Just kidding…)

Cookie Crunching

Maxa Cookie Manager - MCM has now deleted 53,513 cookies from my computer - and of these 1,439 were in the web bug category.  Typical comments:

“Recommendation of George Ure on UrbanSurvival.com. It is unobtrusive, cleans as promised, and integrated with my Kaspersky anti-ware program without a hitch. Very pleased.

—

“I love the control that comes with managing web based cookies so easily and conveniently. I think you have a great product, and will consider other products available from your company. Your customer support is awesome, and that speaks well of your company also. “

Test drive it free by downloading it.  To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks.  Is your privacy worth it?  Latest factory version here:

www.urbansurvival.com/setupMCMstdGU.exe

Attn: Mac Drivers:  MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far.  Given Jens and the other engineers time…

Looking Ahead

I decided that Saturday Morning’s report - when I do them - will be posted for Peoplenomics.com subscribers only. 

Peoplenomics on Sunday is “Woo-Woo as a Business Model”.

Drop by Monday - next week we get PPI, CPI and EIEIO…

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

Yet another reader has chimed in on our discussion of strange noises (other than cell phones) coming out of radio speakers:

“Hi George!

I too have been plagued with ‘code’ from my computer speakers, but I finally figured out what it was (took me a couple days though ha). Bear hunters (we’re in the boonies) and whatever communications device they use (CB, etc), was interfering with them. Was looking out my window one day while they were driving by, saw them talking on something then whamo, out of my speakers comes that “code” that had been driving me nuts for the past week. Such a simple thing! ugh

Then there was this:

“George,

 

I’m not from ‘Bama… But I’m willing to bet that the reader that sent in his experience with his cell phone has an AT&T phone (or Tracphone, or any other GSM-850 phone).  This is typical for these devices to cause RF interference with anything near them.  We just happen to hear it because the harmonics of the interference are within the range of normal human hearing.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM

 

There is no “satellite” communication going on with these phones… It’s all between the phone itself, the towers and the switching office.  And yes, you can tell if you’re about to receive a call if you have your phone next to, say, your computer speakers.  It will start the “codes” and shortly thereafter the phone will ring.  The same is true for texting, or even the routine communications between the phone and the tower.  There is ALWAYS a small amount of traffic between the phone and the system as long as the phone is ON… Imagine the system is asking your phone “are you still there?” and your phone either replies with “yes, I’m here” or the system gets no reply.  If no reply, calls to your phone are more quickly routed to your voicemail instead of trying to ring a phone that is “unavailable”.

 

This “morse code sound” doesn’t happen with Verizon or Sprint phones since they use CDMA, not GSM.  OK, I should say we just can’t hear it, since all RF causes interference somewhere.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA

 

However, these technologies have been blended into a new standard called

UTMS:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTMS

 

And that is developing into LTE:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution

 

If you’re interested, I can give you a rant on the old analog cellular technology…

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Mobile_Phone_System

 

But that rant goes off on another tangent…”

Meantime, our reader in Alabama with the ‘mystery code’ has a recorder ready for next time it shows up - and no, it was NOT a cell phone.  Reader happens to be quite computer savvy and ruled that one out right away.  We continue tracking this…

Sarbanes and Servers

The other day I was just thinking out loud that not keeping server logs would be an easy way to prevent too much collection of people’s ID & IP info.  Got a couple of very good replies including this:

“George,

RE: “legal requirement to maintain server logs,” consider a corporate officer in a commercial (public) or financial trading institution, accessing corporate accounts from a laptop computer using a VPN (virtual private network) or similar enterprise system remote entry process.

The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act requires all corporations to log all FTP server activity, then report on that activity, which requires a “maintained server log.” The log lets one recreate a sequence of changes to the database in case of a system crash or other problem, and to validate the legality of each activity affecting account value. The system must thus Capture Client-Server connections and activities related to the storage and transfer of files, and maintain a managed backup of those log files.

Log files can provide information on logon success or failure; system file read, write or delete; host session status; and account management. These logs provide a trail for forensic investigation. Section 802 of SOX mandates that records, including system logs, are maintained for seven years after an auditor concludes an audit.

SOX applies to all public company boards, but not private ones.”

Upshot of it seems to be that private entities could just not keep server logs - and thus - nothing to produce if subpoenaed.   I know, too simple, LOL.

Brazil  Is Not Alone

…when it comes to power outages, says a reader in Ecuador:

“Hi George:

Brazil is certainly not the only country suffering blackouts in South America. Here in Ecuador we have been twice a day electric outages for the past week, and no one seems to be all that upset. The electricity goes out promptly at 6:00AM and turns back on approximately three hours later. Depending upon usage, there might be another outage in the early evening for an hour. All of this to relieve the burden on our inefficient electrical grid system due to a lack of power generation. As it is, a good percentage of our electric needs are imported from Columbia, and they are beginning to have problems, too.

Our one hydroelectric power plant is located in Cuenca in the Northern part of the country, where there is a continuing draught caused by a lack of rainfall. This is normally our “Rainy Season”, but El Nino has decided to visit our coast changing the weather patterns. The gov’ment informs us that we may have these residential blackouts for up to six month, if the climate doesn’t change. Hm-mmm, sounds like preparation training for 2012 to me.

The point is that all of us simply do a “work-around” to fit the circumstances. Everyone in the country now seems to arise with the sun at 5:30AM, to make their coffee, cook their breakfast and use what appliances are absolutely necessary. No big deal. Since I’m prone to oversleeping now and then, I’ve had to learn how to make “camp coffee” with candle heat, if I need my caffeine hit. Food doesn’t spoil in three hours and there is still good fresh water to drink. And most importantly, there has been NO reported increase in crime within this wonderfully safe and peaceful country. Maybe that’s why they call the place where I live the Valley of Longevity.”

Mr. Science has a different idea:  You only think it’s longevity because the clocks weren’t running much of the time….it’s always later than we think…just sayin’…

Reset Jitterz

Several readers have asked me if there is a Big Worry in all the mortgage resets coming next year after reading the headline “US foreclosure filings surpass 300,000 for 8th straight month.”

Although I am a management geek by trade, not an economist, I have nevertheless mastered the fine art of talking out of both sides of my mouth; to wit:

No, there’s nothing to worry about because most of the rates will reset to at - and in a good number of cases actually lower than where they are now.

Yes, because no one will have a job.

There:  See see how much clarity that brought to your life?

A Proud Fathering Note

Every so often someone sends me an email demanding I ‘put more good news in your column’…so when my son did a ride-along with Medic One up in Seattle yesterday as part of his EMT recert, I thought it would be interesting for him to write something up on it - you know, some of the hints that our medically focused  readers might find useful.

But after saying - in so many words - that Medic One has already been written up in all kinds of places and just keeps getting better all the time, he shared this:

“I can’t sit and rewrite a story about a program we all know works, that does not appeal to me in the least.

But what I dream about is being the guy with the vision and making it happen.

For example taking some of medic ones tactics and some of my own and making a rural fire department have a kick ass BLS response team that causes lives to be saved. Then take that same recipe to other places.

I remember you teaching me all about the lily pads and thinking in ways of the “George Ure SR. recipe work the system” way of doing things. Well good news your teachings have worked.

I just want to get out and do it because I need to serve something much greater then myself that helps people and in turn if I am doing that I am also helping me because I am only happy when I am doing such things.

Write back to me tell me what you think?

I wrote him back to told him he was a genius - and one with focus at that - and that a thoughtful note from son to father like this makes me proud as hell.  (don’t think he’ll mind me sharing it)

“What about the lily pads?” you’re wondering…”What’s that part about?” 

Ah!  The lily pad theory is one I don’t think I’ve shared before but it goes something like this:  If you envision a possible future…and can get a really clear vision of it, then it’s only a simple matter of working backwards to figure out the steps to get there. 

Just like a frog sitting on a log in the middle of a pond:  He sees his objective is getting to shore where the bug hunting might be better.  From the moment he sets his little froggy-sized brain on “get to shore”, something almost automatically happens when it comes to the jumping.  Without too much thought to the matter, he simply picks out the best set of lily pads to land on to get him to his objective.

Like my ‘recipe system of learning’ - which empowers me (and you, too)  to do anything by simply finding the ‘recipe’ for it - so too, the “lily pads to the desired future” concept should be incredibly obvious.

But it’s not.  All too often it’s so much ‘taken for granted’ that it’s not stated and that’s how a lot of plain common sense gets lost between the generations.  The simple stories, and information framing concepts are the keys and few people spend much time figuring out ‘how they frame’ things in their heads.  Get the framing tools right and the world changes - to the good.

As my son is learning, once you empower yourself to learn and do anything and once you get the lily pad approach to the future worked out, then you can become a powerful agent for change in the direction of your personal vision of the future.  Oh, and you also wake up a bit more.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Maxa-Cookie Manager

No, when you tell your browser to ‘empty your cookies’ of web sites you’ve visited, it probably won’t get them all.  Why?  Because there is a whole class of ‘browser-independent’ cookies that will gobble up space on your hard drive, but more important is they will sneak out information about you without you being aware of it.    Ever week I get emails like this one:

“Thanks again for the Maxa Tools recommendation, I never knew how much additional garbage gets attached every time I browse. “

Test drive it free by downloading it.  To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks.  Is your privacy worth it?

www.urbansurvival.com/setupMCMstdGU.exe

Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive ‘non-browser specific’ cookies.  Bonus:  You computer may run faster.  I’ve taken 1,000  37,970 41,837 cookies off my machine now.  It’s just amazing.  (I might ask their CTO to add one more digit to the “Total deleted till now” window…)

Attn: Mac Drivers:  MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far.  Given Jens and the other engineers time…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

Getting on down the road toward 2012 seems to be concurrent with a rise in movies that could be a serious bummer for those folks that just want to get along with life.  The NY Times site has a trailer for the new movie Collapse, for example.

then on Friday we get the answer to the question “Who will survive 2012“  The answer - if you haven’t already guessed - is not many.  That is, if the 2012′ers are right.

The problem is that even if the 2012′ers are not right, there is still the whole problem which “Collapse” brings up - and it’s a nasty one:  All it takes is a major spike in oil prices/shortfall in supplies due to whatever and the ‘civilized world’ (whatever that is) could just simply begin to fall apart.

Seems like a fine time to be working on the fine art of detachment:  Not getting too involved (if at all) in the left-right political game.  Focusing instead on food, shelter, and being away from crowds.  Pay the taxes, drive within the speed limit, and generally maintain a low profile.  At some level there’s a real threat that global system collapse will show up despite best efforts of a power & control structure to work it for their own ends, the simple strategy now in play is ‘get through it.’

So over the next couple of weeks I’ve got these two movies on my “must see” list.  But will either change my personal plans?  Unlikely.  If - after seeing both and doing some reading about 2012 and independently researching - you choose to make changes in your lifestyle and personal plans I reckon that would be a good thing.

My simple guiding principle of life is don’t try too hard to win…but try really hard not to lose.

Swirlies

Do crop circles hold information way beyond our present level of knowledge?  Like schematics on how to building machines?  You gotta see this video.

—

Just to keep up, read the story “Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life.”  This from the folks who locked up Galileo?

Morse Code - Oh Doh!

Yesterday’s report on electronic interference had a huge hole in it:  Forgot about cells phones since I swore off the damn things as ‘electronic dog leashes.

“Good afternoon George:

First, I would like to say that I have recently discovered your site and that it has since become a morning routine to read your daily newsletter. I appreciate both the commentary and comedy that you provide on a daily basis; it makes the working day a little more tolerable, so THANK YOU!

I just read your post, or rather another readers email that you had posted about getting a “morse code” sound out of her computer speakers. I too had experienced something similar to this recently, and your explanation of long wave radio navigation or ham radio interference was something that never occurred to me ( I am NO electronics expert be any stretch of the imagination). I did however find the source of my problem. The culprit was my cell phone and its proximity to my computer and alarm clock. I find that if I have it in my pocket when I am near my computer or set it down on the computer desk or night stand next to the alarm clock, that I get a continuous mild static hiss with random bursts of what sounds like “morse code”. What I found even more interesting after experimenting was that after I set the phone near the alarm clock (I get a stronger “signal” sound from the alarm clock) I would get an extremely violent burst of “morse code” seconds before the phone would ring. I would get bursts at random points without the phone ringing as well but not as strong as when the phone actually did ring. I can only guess that maybe these other random bursts are updates being sent to my phone via satellite? I don’t know, like I said electronics are not my strong suite. I have not looked into this any further as I found a solution that works for me (keep the phone away from the computer and alarm clock), the post just had me thinking about it again. Maybe you know about this kind of thing already? Any thoughts? Any plausibility to cell phone interference being the problem?

Anyway, thanks again for all the work you do, I really enjoy reading your daily newsletter!

Yeah…damn silly oversight on my part:  Yes cell phones talk to cell towers so they know which cell they should be listening to…and even if you’re not actively using the phone they will ‘ping’ so the cell system knows if you are still in ring range - otherwise they shunt off to voicemail and such.

Will let you know what I hear back from the reader in ‘Bama.

Web Hosting Deals On

Birthday deal at emwd.com is on today…Click here to check prices & sign up.  Discount codes are:

B-DAY01 - to receive 40% off a new domain name

B-DAY02 - to receive 40% off any of our hosting packages except our mailman service.

Yo Bo!

I mentioned yesterday about how the Bovespa was crazy out-performing the Dow.  Seems it’s not the hemline/miniskirt flap says a reader from Brazil:

“This one is easy George. I happen to be in Sao Paolo this week, and today we had a meeting @BOVESPA with their IT Infrastructure and Performance Management group to start a project. Brazilians are enjoying a “War Free” environment, with self-sufficient amounts of Petroleum products (and daily new findings off Rio) + a very strict taxing system, where corporations and individuals alike have to file and pay every month (incredible cash flows into their Treasury kitties). There you have it. if the US starts by eliminating at least one War, well you have those numbers…

Monthly tax filings?  You know that’s not a bad idea.  Makes more sense than…oh…throwing people in jail for not having insurance, huh?

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Maxa-Cookie Manager

No, when you tell your browser to ‘empty your cookies’ of web sites you’ve visited, it probably won’t get them all.  Why?  Because there is a whole class of ‘browser-independent’ cookies that will gobble up space on your hard drive, but more important is they will sneak out information about you without you being aware of it.    Ever week I get emails like this one:

“Thanks again for the Maxa Tools recommendation, I never knew how much additional garbage gets attached every time I browse. “

Test drive it free by downloading it.  To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks.  Is your privacy worth it?

www.urbansurvival.com/setupMCMstdGU.exe

Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive ‘non-browser specific’ cookies.  Bonus:  You computer may run faster.  I’ve taken 1,000  37,970 41,837 cookies off my machine now.  It’s just amazing.  (I might ask their CTO to add one more digit to the “Total deleted till now” window…)

Attn: Mac Drivers:  MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far.  Given Jens and the other engineers time…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

A few readers some time back mentioned that they had been hearing voices.  Not some kind of disembodied far away stuff, either.  These were ‘just like were standing there’ voices.  This morning, a follow-on piece to noodle:

“Hello George,

I’ve been reading your site for a while now and I remember seeing a few entries about people hearing voices. My husband and I didn’t think too much about the voices as we live in a house that, let’s just say has a lot of otherworld activity so hearing voices is nothing new to us. For the past two weeks I have been hearing something in our house that I hadn’t mentioned to my husband before until 4 days ago when I realized what the sound was.

I have a separate computer on my desk that I use to connect to work and every so many minutes the speakers will start squawking and that squawk sounds like Morse code. I really need to redo this machine and replace the speakers but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’m sure that most everyone in the world knows what Morse code is and some may even have played around with it in the past. I know as a child of about 8 or 9 years old, my uncle gave me a book and a device to learn Morse code but that was the only time in my life that I had ever used or even gave a second thought to this very old technology.

Bear with me as I am setting the scene for what happened next. While we were sitting on the sofa, the familiar tones started resounding. I looked over at my husband and asked him if he heard the noise and his reply was yes. We both think that this unusual sound is from a bird. To rule out any other interference we made sure and closed the door to our computer room which sits way off of the living room. The sound the speakers make can only be heard if you are in the computer room. Ok, I’m not going crazy. Now at least what I heard was experienced by someone other than myself.

We are currently living in Madison, Alabama and have been here for almost 4 years now. We have lived in the same house since we got here so no change in local. We have a lot of animal and bird activity around our neighborhood but have never heard this strange sound before. This sound just started happening about 2 weeks ago. I have searched the internet for birds of this area that have calls that sound like Morse code but have come up empty handed. I did run across a frog that is from Alabama that makes sounds like Morse code but when it displayed the map of where the frogs are located, you got it, it’s not the area I am living in.

Now for the Woo Woo portion of the email. Being of Native American decent, animals and plant life have always held a special place in how I live my life day to day. I believe that if an animal shows up, that it also has special meaning about what is currently going on in your life or for what is to come. Each animal and insect have a meaning and if one shows up it could be that they are trying to tell you something. My husband suggested that I try and decipher the code and see if it says anything. My Morse code skills are surely lacking since it’s been years since I messed with Morse code. This weekend we are going to get a recording device and I will see what I can come up with. How weird would it be though if I decoded the sounds and it really contain a message. I find it quite odd that in the 4 years we have been here that this is the first time we have ever heard this sound before. I will have to let you know if I come up with anything other than gibberish if I can recall the Morse code.

If you have a cassette recorder and can send along a tape, I’d be glad to interpret it - since I’m a member of FISTS - the International Morse Code Preservation Society.  Honestly, I expect that when you send the tape (or copy it yourself and play back what’s being sent), you’ll find that it’s a local longwave radio navigation system being picked up by your computer’s audio system or a ham radio operator working CW (continuous wave/Morse) nearby.  A lot of ham radio types have had to become very stealthy in their antenna building due to community restrictions in some parts of the country so you wouldn’t necessarily notice a nearby ham.

However, hams don’t use modulated carriers to do CW - so if a ham was at fault you probably would NOT hear tones.

Since you are hearing tones, I dragged out the best woo-woo tools I own and put them to work on your problem:  Microsoft Streets & Trips and www.airnav.com. 

Knowing that both VOR and longwave radio beacons still use modulated CW, I clicked around Madison Alabama for about 1-second before discovering that you are probably within 4 miles of the Huntsville/Madison County International Airport. 

Putting in Huntsville International we find one each Carl T. Jones Field (KHSV) 4.1 miles south of Madison so we look for nearby radio navigation aids.  Our suspects are the VOR stations (lower probability due to higher frequency - and that’s a longer discussion of why best held for another day):

And my primary suspects would be the NDB (nondirectional beacons/longwave) at:

So the first question is:  Does there seem to be a repeating pattern?  If the code is there most of the time and is repeating,  then odds would favor the navigation beacon.   If it is once per hour, or a few times an hour, then you may have a VHF or UHF repeater located on a nearby water tower (or other high place owned by local government or a ham club) that you’re picking up.  I expect there would be few - if any - really high towers in Madison, since the city is 5-miles north of what looks like runways 36 (left traffic) at Huntsville Regional.  Get a fair bit of jet noise out there?

That’s the most likely explanation.  If it was clicking instead of Morse-sounding, then things would be interesting because clicking (the old Continental code) and such was a part of the bygone days when tones were not ‘copied” - it was the difference in clicks of a DC powered annunciator.  Then we could have had time tunnels/time warps - magical vortex to another time - you know - the fun stuff.

Sorry, but my money’s on a new repeater going up nearby for government or ham use, or you’re near the Redstone beacon 5.7 miles west of the airport or up by Cole Spring NDB which would be just east 9º of due north 16.3 miles north of the airport, which would put your home 11-12 miles north of Madison?

—-

See how much fun this is?  Ham radio has a whole subgroup within the ham radio culture that does hidden transmitter hunts.  Back in the old days we called these ‘bunny hunts’.

Best-ever ‘bunny hunting” story?  Back in the mid 1960’s up in the Seattle area we were having a ‘bunny hunt” one rainy Friday night and hams from all over the Seattle area were participating.  Maybe 20 in all.  The “bunny” station decided to pull one of the meanest, nastiest tricks ever.  The ‘bunny’ hid next to the railroad tracks in Edmonds, Washington and used the rails as a ground!

Since radio waves tend to follow nearly perfect grounds (and the tracks next to the water along Puget Sound are nearly perfect), every time someone got near the tracks they would think “Aha!  I’ve got you know you wraskly wabbit!”

In fact, along about midnight we finally had to tell the people who were walking up the tracks 15-miles south of the bunny that they were a little off in their calculations.  Such being the joys of hiding a transmitter down on the low frequency bands.  2-meter & VHF bunny hunts?  b-o-r-i-n-g….

Say, did this morning’s report just turn into a book on ham radio?  Ooops….

The Real Deal on Web Hosting

Once a year I’m please to pass on this from my hosting provider EMWD:

“Dear EMWD Client:

Nov 15th will be my 42nd birthday. Now that I am over the hill, I realize life after 40 is not so bad. To celebrate my new outlook on life, I am offering a very generous 40% discount on all new domain and new web hosting packages. This discount is for the life of the package. This is an incredible deal and should be taken full advantage of.

The sale will be on Thursday, Nov 12th, and Friday, Nov 13th. Please mark your calendar.

We would like to request that you use all available means to promote our sale such as posting it on your web site, blog, etc. As an incentive, we will be giving a free month of web hosting for every 3 of your referrals that sign up during this sale. That means if you refer 9 new customers to us during our sale, you will receive 3 free months of web hosting. Please be sure to pass on to them the following coupon codes:

B-DAY01 - to receive 40% off a new domain name

B-DAY02 - to receive 40% off any of our hosting packages except our mailman service.

Please keep in mind that the above coupon codes will only be valid on Nov 12th and 13th. The discount is also good for domain name transfers.

I have appreciated all of your business and friendships through the years, and I look forward to serving you in the years to come.

Kind regards,

Brian Carpenter, Owner

EMWD.com”

Remember this is on Thursday and Friday only, but start looking at hosting plans and such now - Click here to check prices & sign up.

So far this year, UrbanSurvival has served up almost 15-million pages with almost no glitches - a few are going to happen no matter what - that’s just how the law of large numbers work.  In October Urban passed 337 GB of bandwidth to just under a million visitors.

What I’m not sure of is whether those numbers should give me faith that America has that many reasonable, intelligent, and light hearted people who haven’t been dumbed down completely yet, or whether it’s evidence that we’re in a whole heap-o-trouble.  Still pondering that one.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Maxa-Cookie Manager

No, when you tell your browser to ‘empty your cookies’ of web sites you’ve visited, it probably won’t get them all.  Why?  Because there is a whole class of ‘browser-independent’ cookies that will gobble up space on your hard drive, but more important is they will sneak out information about you without you being aware of it.    Ever week I get emails like this one:

“Thanks again for the Maxa Tools recommendation, I never knew how much additional garbage gets attached every time I browse. “

Test drive it free by downloading it.  To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks.  Is your privacy worth it?

www.urbansurvival.com/setupMCMstdGU.exe

Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive ‘non-browser specific’ cookies.  Bonus:  You computer may run faster.  I’ve taken 1,000  37,970 41,837 cookies off my machine now.  It’s just amazing.  (I might ask their CTO to add one more digit to the “Total deleted till now” window…)

Attn: Mac Drivers:  MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far.  Given Jens and the other engineers time…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

Marvelous email to share!  This totally rocks…

“Hi George,

I’ve been following your site for a couple of years. I really appreciate your mixture of humor and doom - especially the really bad puns. Quite a few bring a range of responses from a simple smile to a full body guffaw. I’ve gotten quite a bit of good information from your readers. Now, I finally have something to share.

One of the things you’ve been stressing in these uncertain times is preparedness. Find the weak point and work on that area. Once that is solved, move on to the next weak point. Unexpected events can change the landscape, so it is necessary to reevaluate frequently. It is a constant battle.

I live on the outskirts of Portland, OR, so I have 7 months of wet, 2 months of semi-wet, and 3 months of mostly dry weather each year. Our winters aren’t too severe; however, we usually get enough cold weather to keep coconuts from growing. It keeps the killer bees and tropical diseases in check. Nonetheless, the dreary conditions can exact a toll on the spirit. There is nothing like a bunch of fresh vegetables to lift the spirits when the gloomy weather sets in. At some point, they may not always be available at the local grocery store.

Last year, I built a Solexx Conservatory Greenhouse http://www.solexx.com/solexx_conservatory_greenhouse.html.  After spending about 3 months researching, I settled on this one because of the size, the light diffusion, easy cleaning, and insulation. Looking back, it is a bit larger than I need and a bit expensive, but I’m mostly happy with it so far - insulation could be better and it needs external power to get adequate ventilation (fans) in summer time; otherwise, it gets too hot on long sunny days.

Here’s the crux of this e-mail. I needed to have pots for my plants. I had lots of 5 gallon buckets available and thought that they might fit the bill. The problem is that they have a big volume and small growing top surface, therefore limiting the plants per bucket. I had seen the topsy turvy planters https://www.topsyturvy.com/  and wondered why things wouldn’t grow out the sides as well. I experimented with drilled holes first in a few buckets; however, it only worked (and minimally) with pre-sprouted seedlings. Big holes allowed too much dirt to flow out and little holes were too difficult to plant. Then, I wondered why a flap wouldn’t work better. After a bit of experimenting, I came up with this design …

 

I use a drill to make the two holes at the top and a jig saw to connect the dots. The flap can be pushed back to expose a small garden area - large enough for a couple of beans, a strawberry plant, lettuce, etc. The drilled holes act as stress relievers to keep the flap from tearing further into the bucket. A few more drill holes in the bottom of the bucket for adequate drainage and I’m in business. It works quite well. Here are some photos I took in mid October inside my greenhouse.

 

Here is a Home Depot bucket that I planted green beans into. The beans have been producing all summer and are finally going dormant. You can see the typical flap pattern. There are 3 rows of 8 flaps on this bucket. On this bucket, the flaps are about 3″ wide. I think that 2″ wide would be sufficient. Because the flap size was a bit large, some soil eroded out during watering.

 

This is a bucket with the same hole pattern as in the bean bucket above. It has everbearing strawberries (Tristar) growing in it. They are as good as they look! The plants are still blooming and producing berries, but the lack of sunshine and high humidity inside the greenhouse are encouraging mold to grow on them now. Always something to work on.

 

The yellow bucket has Swiss chard and the bucket on the left contains beets. The greenhouse was usually 30+ degrees warmer than the outside temperature. It would regularly get above 120 degrees in there this last summer. Cool weather crops like this don’t respond well to excess heat. Now, after a few weeks of cooler temps, the Swiss chard and broccoli are really taking off. Again, quite delicious. The buckets don’t work too well for root crops, but the beet seeds were cheap enough to experiment with.

These buckets are cheap! Lots of fast food places get pickles in these and will give them away if you ask. You don’t need to pay more than a buck for each bucket. A large heavy duty clear garbage bag over the top will turn these into individual patio greenhouses. Bird netting or chicken wire will keep most pests at bay. My biggest headache this year was watering. Because of all the plants per bucket, these had to be watered every other day or they would show severe stress.

I used a soil mixture of half worm compost, a quarter perlite, and a quarter mineral sand. I added a little dolomite lime and gypsum to increase the calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Potting soil will work too, but I had most of the ingredients so made my own.

The world is a giant class room.

[name withheld - Portland area]

Is this cool, or what?  Of course, the reader’s jig sawing skills are a lot better than mine and maybe yours…but you get the idea, right?

Violence Against Bankers

Worth reading: “As foreclosure nightmares increase, will more homeowners play off their bankers in violence?“

When this first popped up in the predictive linguistics it sounded almost far-fetched - with visions of “lamp posted bankers” and such.  But now, well, seems to be arriving.

—

A number of readers have been asking “Where’s that predictive linguistics stuff about building tensions that’s supposed to be going on now?”  Oh, tensions are building and events like Fort Hood are signs of ‘release’ of tension in the form of ‘outburst of violence’. 

I’m just kicking back watching events unfold.

The Mindless MainStreamMedia

Still, a reader asks:

“Can’t find a motive………………….?

Have I lost my mind? Or is everyone in the media brain dead? This is insanity.”

No, this is Monday.

–-

Send your comments to george@ure.net

The UrbanSurvival Mall:

“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

Maxa-Cookie Manager

No, when you tell your browser to ‘empty your cookies’ of web sites you’ve visited, it probably won’t get them all.  Why?  Because there is a whole class of ‘browser-independent’ cookies that will gobble up space on your hard drive, but more important is they will sneak out information about you without you being aware of it.    Ever week I get emails like this one:

“Thanks again for the Maxa Tools recommendation, I never knew how much additional garbage gets attached every time I browse. “

Test drive it free by downloading it.  To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks.  Is your privacy worth it?

www.urbansurvival.com/setupMCMstdGU.exe

Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive ‘non-browser specific’ cookies.  Bonus:  You computer may run faster.  I’ve taken 1,000  37,970 41,837 cookies off my machine now.  It’s just amazing.  (I might ask their CTO to add one more digit to the “Total deleted till now” window…)

Attn: Mac Drivers:  MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far.  Given Jens and the other engineers time…

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

—-

 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)