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Friday March 12, 2010

Special Update

New ALTA/Shape of Things To Come Report

First  Cliff at www.halfpasthuman.com has in the past few minutes released a new "Shape of Things to Come" report (#4) -  his first since last December 9th.  If you have $10 bucks and want a good overview of what's maybe coming down the road towards us (humans) as presaged by shifts in language, then go read the report.

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The method of perceiving change in the future - based on shifts in language - seems to have some degree of accuracy based on past 'hits' (e.g. fulfillments of expected descriptor sets).  Often times, these not as we project things will happen, but this is more a function of the limited scope of humans to properly interpret rather than any failing of the processing which is spread across several hundred discrete .EXE files and stitched together with glue, scripts, rubber bands, and subroutines such as to make 'spaghetti code' orderly in comparison.

 

Interpretation is the core shortfall.  The human element seems to be weakest.  Just as First Peoples  in 600 A.D. would not have a word-pairing for "TV remote"  or "9-volt battery" we probably don't have words yet for some of what will likely emerge in coming months. 

 

Still, a key (and public) takeaway from the work is that the tipping point discussed in previous SOTTC/ALTA reports that occurred in (roughly) the Dec. 9 - December 21, 2009 window brought an unexpected change relative to 2012.  Essentially: We lost more than a year and events once associated in the mass [internet] consciousness with 2012 seem now to break into the public mind in early 2011 with foreshadowing events late this year.

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A fair question to ask is why hasn't there been more notice that a new report was in the works?  Predictive linguistics has an Achilles Heel: This method of predicting the future has only limited capability of being shared with the public lest it become self-referential.

 

The reason is that by putting ideas out onto the internet, we set up a kind of feedback loop which become extremely onerous in processing.  Despite have a new (old/recycled) RAID array for this run, four processors have been busy for months running about 72% of their efforts simply throwing out references to our own works and writings. In the short term, it means more processing to get a large enough input cross-section and in the long term, it means there's a finite limit as to how many can 'know the future'.

 

Perhaps no clearer illustration exists than the term 'web bot' itself. 

 

When we first started using the term to describe the project in the summer of 2001, predicting a massive 'tipping point' in human affairs which we didn't have a (single) word for at the time, but which would have aspects of 'military' and 'accident', the term 'web bot' was only occasionally referenced in obscure programming books.

 

Today, that word pair brings more than 21,400,000 references in a Google Search and stands as clear evidence that just injecting a new concept (or word-pair meaning/word-pair context) into the global discourse brings with it a set of problems (maybe even some karmic burdens, who knows?) such that our own linguistic footprint - the self-referential occurrences must be scrubbed.

 

It's like stomping around on the ground while looking for wild game tracks.  At some point - if there's too much messing about - you'll never find the tracks of a wandering critter, no matter how good a hunter you are, since your own 'footprints' will obscure what you're after in the first place.

 

Time's an elusive critter and we have to deal with our own footprints since we're now 9 and 13-years into this little time tracking exercise.

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When Cliff talks about "not doing another report' (as he has in the past) it's not only because of the emotional burden of seeing the future (lots of dead people and suffering) well in advance - which means having to experience the worst of humans twice-over.  But the second problem is the self-referential loop - almost a feedback problem - that takes time off the task of tracking the wandering critters in time.

 

So with this morning's release with virtually no advance notice, we've got spiders deployed to see who is posting references here and there, who's posting unacceptably large chucks of the data, not to mention looking for those paths which lead to people modifying cliff's proprietary content with the apparent aim of putting their particular spin on future events.  At a minimum this part of the project will possibly make it possible to do a future run, however given the immediacy of events, that may be pointless.

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Cliff will be on CoastToCoastAM with George Noory (I'll be there, too) on the April 1st show - which considering what we're looking at...well, Universe is wry at times...

 

The Elusive Recovery

The stock market's optimism the past couple of days certainly poses an interesting problem.  While outfits like FedEx are worried the recovery is in trouble, there's trouble afoot on Fleet Street as Fitch is saying that the UK's credit profile has continued to erode.  Oh, and you see where Greece is wrapped up in a general strike today?

 

Thanks to the miracle of  globalism (OK, corporate cannibalism, then) it means that a screw-up anywhere on earth can topple the whole planetary game if the botch is bad enough.  THAT my friend is progress.

 

Then we see where S&P is warning over America's top-tier debt, too. But it's nothing a little more ink, some new hundred dollar bills, and an unlimited supply of zeroes can't fix, is it?

 

And what's one way to do that?:  Why slam through a high-cost spending bill for national health care, of course.

 

But just anyone starts to worry about the financial world imploding a little too much, there's also the Middle East to serve as a distraction as Israel seals off the West Bank.

 

While that's going on, we continue to see the "Battle for Pakistan" heat up since the Pakistanis have nukes and that's gotta be a wet dream for jihadists.

 

As luck would have it, we've managed to get through another week on Third Rock without any danger of global peace, harmony and goodwill breaking out.  Good thing, since there's no money to be made in caring and sharing and globalism is based on giving your job to someone who will do it cheaper.  Since there are almost 7-billion people who like to eat, it's been a relatively easy thing to find humans who will undercut American workers.

 

But, just to make sure, the borders still don't have fences and sicne they don't the national ID card is in the works, too. 

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If this sounds a little cynical to you, gee, you think?  But wait!  Stop the presses!  Here's some "good news" in retail sales figures just out today...hell, I was able to write that half an hour before the news release came out because things are so damn predictable...

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(32 minutes later):

"The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $355.5 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 3.9 percent (±0.5%) above February 2009. Total sales for the December 2009 through February 2010 period were up 4.5 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The December 2009 to January 2010 percent change was revised from +0.5 percent (±0.5%)* to +0.1 percent (±0.3%)*.

Retail trade sales were up 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from January 2010 and 4.4 percent (±0.5%) above last year. Gasoline stations sales were up 24.0 percent (±1.5%) from February 2009 and nonstore retailers sales were up 11.8 percent (±1.7%) from last year.

So if you want a fine zoom-in on irrational, try this one on for size:  The Dow has run up from last year about this time being 6,627 to yesterday's close around 10,612.

 

That's a 60.1% increase for stocks and all this teetering on a retail sales increase of a whopping 3.9% increase from year ago retail sales...but that doesn't take into account whatever monetary inflation is.

 

Say, you don't think it would be a fine time to look at how much more M1 money is sloshing around the system, do you?  Lemme see, Feb 2009 was 1.5621 trillion and this year it's 1.7104 trillion...an increase of 9.5% in M1.

 

I won't paint the obvious for you - it's probably slow at work (if you have a job at all) so it'll give you something to noodle on till 10 AM.

 

Still Lots of Debt

Think the credit card business is gaining because people are paying off debt and not piling it on like they used to?  guess again:  An MSNBC story reveals that much of the decline in credit card debt has been due to credit card companies writing off bad debts.  Damn...just when we thought thter was hope...

 

Some morning's it just don't pay to be an optimist, huh?

 

But wait!  Did you see where Citi is bringing back to Zero Percent APR for 15-months card?

 

Lost Wages, Nevada

A reader in Sin City sends this:

"Hi George: The latest news out of Las Vegas NV is the Mayor Oscar Goodman wants to fire all City employees and re-hire them all at a lower rate of pay.The mayor is asking Attorneys whether this is legal or not.He the mayor is not kidding. If this doesn't happen app 150+ people will lose jobs, and alot of things / places will close if not done.The major was asking everyone to take a 8% cut in pay this year and next. and so far the Unions are throwing a fit. And have threaten to sue the City over it.

You could check out the Review Journal/Sun Newspaper as there is probably articles about it.

Stay tuned it can't get much worse here.

Oh sure it can.  You just don't have enough faith in government.

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Say, here's a dandy example: A report that the CIA may have poisoned a whole French village in 1951 with LSD in bread.

 

Pass the French bread and have faith in gubmint.

 

Swiss (Banking) Cheese

UBS - which has been in talks with IRS reportedly has 20-odd Swiss banks that have secret accounts in their sights as the drive to crack down on offshore tax evaders continues.

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No doubt we will hear all kinds of noise from this "I oughta be able not to pay taxes while my countrymen get screwed" crowd.  You know - the phat cats who got paid options offshore, cashed 'em in, dumped the money offshore in a numbered about and draw in dough from ofrfshore when the bar tab gets too high. 

 

Sorry, got no sympathy from me.  

 

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Coping:  Quest for Transmutation

It's amazing all the time people have put into the study of the occult.  Why there are books, treatises, and grimoires ,all over the place.  Occasionally, the study of such tombs bring about a discussion of "transmutation" and the supposedly lost art (if one believers alchemists) of turning something of little value into greater value;  lead to gold being the use case most often searched.

 

Around the WuJo - where the world of woo woo meets hardcore science - we have always been curious about 'transmuting' in general not so much as a course to power and position (those are easy if you are willing to abandon morality, forsake trust, breach confidences, and mind others through trickery), but with an eye toward understanding some of the more often repeated 'miracles' that some humans have achieved.

 

Among such, beside levitation, makes ashes appear out of an empty hand, and starting fire by touch, more interesting is the study of chi (Eastern Life force energy) and how all of the above relate to the emerging high strangeness in the world of quantum physics.

 

The main 'transmutation problem' is that quantum physics are getting closer and closer.  As Gary Zukav suggested in Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics.  A quote from the book (borrowed from the Amazon site) offers this:

"The Wu Li Master dances with his student. The Wu Li Master does not teach, but the student learns. The Wu Li Master always begins at the center, the heart of the matter.... This book deals not with knowledge, which is always past tense anyway, but with imagination, which is physics come alive, which is Wu Li.... Most people believe that physicists are explaining the world. Some physicists even believe that, but the Wu Li Masters know that they are only dancing with it."

And, of course, the ultimate Master is the Universe itself, which as all of us have to admit does step on toes of almost all humans who don't understand the dance steps.

 

The short bottom line is that as humans advance the line between 'miracle' and science continues to wear thin.  And as Arthur C. Clarke's Frank Pool character noted in 3001: The Final Odyssey ""A wise man once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and then commented on facing the magic of 3001.

---

Word this week that the Large Hadron Collider will be shutting down for a year to have certain key sections redesigned and rebuilt has passed somewhat unnoticed in the MSM. 

 

However, it hasn't slipped notice down at the WuJo where earlier articles about how Universe may not want pesky humans lifting its skirts and learning its source code en masse. pointed to a series of statistically improbable events (a bird dropping crumbs from a scrounged piece of bread cause one set of problems for example).

 

With the Large Hadron operating at only half-power until it is updated and upgraded, seems we will have more time to contemplate the core problem of the new physics which is "How much responsibility to humans have for the world is simply observe events also seems to create (or at least co-create) them?

 

A reader I've been tossing some ideas around suggests a good starting point on the road for deeper knowledge may be a rereading of "The Emerald Tablet" one of the more enduring rumored sources of knowledge:

"Just wanted to toss in a couple more comments as well as a few references from which the majority of my (limited) technical knowledge was gained.

The first comment has to do with Enoch/Enki/Hermes Trismegistus and his Emerald Tablet. Here is the translation as provided by Mr. Isaac Newton:

1. Tis true without lying, certain most true.

2. That which is below is like that which is above that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.

3. And as all things have been arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.

4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,

5. the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.

6. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.

7. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.

7a. Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.

8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior.

9. By this means ye shall have the glory of the whole world thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.

10. Its force is above all force. for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.

11a. So was the world created. 1

2. From this are and do come admirable adaptations whereof the means (Or process) is here in this.

13. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.

14. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended. and a more modern translation

1. It contains an accurate commentary that can't be doubted.

2. It states: What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.

3. And all things sprang from this essence through a single projection. How marvelous is its work! It is the principle [sic] part of the world and its custodian.

4. Its father is the sun and its mother is the moon. Thus the wind bore it within it and the earth nourished it.

5. Father of talismans and keeper of wonders.

6. Perfect in power that reveals the lights.

7. It is a fire that became our earth. Separate the earth from the fire and you shall adhere more to that which is subtle than that which is coarse, through care and wisdom.

8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven. It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore the darkness flees from it.

9. The greatest power overcomes everything that is subtle and it penetrates all that is coarse.

10. The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm.

11. The scholars made this their path.

12. This is why Thrice Hermes was exalted with wisdom.

13. This is his last book that he hid in the catacomb.

Let us attempt to assign correlations of each of these to properties of an excitable medium...

1. Claims to not be lying. Supposedly built the pyramids so let us just take this to be true.

2. A statement about the fractal structure of Reactive-Diffusive systems in terms of Orders of Magnitude (a real mathematical method, used by Prandtl to develop boundary layer equations for one). At the most basic level, we treat the sources (and possibly sinks) of an auto-catalytic system as constants. The premise here is that their Diffusive constants (the rate at which inhomogeneities spread into a uniform state) are much, much, much, much larger than those of the variables in the 'loops'. Essentially, in an infinitesimal step of time, where the loop variables have scarcely diffused or reacted, the source has diffused to a near constant state due to its rapid speed.

Further, we can assume that two di-polar reaction loops with diffusive rates much much much much slower (much smaller scale) than those within the loop of interest also exist (perhaps with very high reaction rates). These can essentially be ignored, because within an infinitesimal step of time again the loop of interest could disappear/reappear a billion times before it has diffused or reacted any appreciable amount at its own level. It is now treated as a 'Source' but it would have to be replenished for it to hold up with observation. One reason to consider this is that, upon doing a fair amount of research into ET's you will eventually find several statements refering to 'vibration levels'. These statements do not make any sense with respect to wave equation solutions, but make perfect sense with respect to fractally nested chemical clocks.

3. What is observed as objects is truly just a Non Equilibrium Steady State structure emanating from smaller objects arising from the assumed existence of the medium.

4. ---

5. ---

6. ---

7. Could be a reference to the fact that we can isolate all of the elements if we sit down and carefully study the processes involved. Perhaps even a reference to the understanding of the underlying system.

8. Perhaps referring to the fact that the system is inherently diffusive. 2 way flux is required.

9. Small perturbations will not survive and will decay to equilibrium (zero) under the right conditions. All Non Equilibrium Steady State structures are inherently built from smaller parts of the system.

10. Fractals again.

11. Think twice. Then thrice!

12.---

13.---

In my opinion, not such a bad fit since this is pure speculation.

The second has to do with another of Mr. Haramein's statements concerning the fractal nature of the universe recast in terms of Reactive-Diffusive systems. Essentially, when he states that a proton could contain its own universe, we should consider this a Method of Orders of Magnitude applied to the diffusion rates of the R-D System. This has already been done and is stated within the texts I have read.

And those texts are:

Prigogine, Ilya; Nicolis, G. (1977). Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems Subquantum Kinetics by Paul Laviolette. Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan, Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life. A math book that I will send you the title of later, but it is a text on Partial Differential Equations.

Now we're talking.

 

And this has exactly WHAT to do with anything?

 

It's all about the flavor of all 'the stuff of Universe' and the weave of the fabric of 'all that is'; and it all figures - at a not very complicated level - into what we'll talk about when our 10 AM announcement today is posted and with what we'll be getting into in Peoplenomics this weekend.

 

In Defense of Virginia

My "Virginia is for Revenue" report earlier this week didn't get rave reviews in Virginia...

"Hi George,

Instead of handing out false "Fee Justice", you ought to strive for more truth and call it "Reporting Justice". Specifically, today's reference to an almost totally false article, and your equally unflattering personal commentary on Virginia. I am disappointed by your apparent lack of investigative journalism skills.

First, there are no "frantic efforts by state officials to close a $2.2 billion budget deficit". While there is a $4.3 billion budget shortfall at the present time, Virginia operates on a rolling two-year budget so there is almost always plenty of time to deal with budget issues. None of those last minute "frantic efforts" for our legislators -- they leisurely stick it to us taxpayers with plenty of time to spare!

Second, the Virginia State Police do not take orders from "local supervisors". In fact, they take orders only from the Virginia State Police Superintendent who reports directly to the Governor. Furthermore, local sheriffs are elected directly by the voters, and they don't take "orders" from local supervisors, state legislators, judges, the state police, or federal agencies. In short, politicians have little influence, and no direct control, over the activities of state and local police.

Third, I live about 25 miles from I-81. The 50 mile segment North and South of my nearest on-ramp is the deadliest and most dangerous section of interstate highway in Virginia despite it passing primarily through lightly populated rural areas of the state. About half of this segment has been designated an "Enhanced Enforcement Zone" for the past ten+ years in an attempt to reduce the mayhem (one death per week on average). The zone is clearly marked with huge signs that are impossible to miss (even at 100 mph when almost drunk).

Federal Funding. Yep! If a State wants federal money for law enforcement, it has to periodically participate in federally sponsored, federally defined, and federally approved programs. “Operation Air, Land & Speed” is one of those federally sponsored programs. In Virginia, there were five installments in 2009, and 21 since the program began in 2006. I don't particularly approve of such federal mandated programs, but I'd bet you have them from time to time in Texas -- not to mention lots of other states too....

Finally, I will readily attest that there is a lot wrong with Virginia -- I could probably fill a small book with complaints. If you criticize her justifiably, I'll very likely shout, "Amen, brother!" On the other hand, if you or your facts are all wet, I'll certainly call you on it!

On the other hand, professional drivers in other parts of the country are noticing the same thing - an increase in fine for...whatever...like this report from county worker in Ohio:

"George, here at the county they just posted that the municipalities are now ticketing all big trucks( dump trucks) for not staying on truck routes. This went into effect recently. We're the county and they are telling us to stay out of the towns unless we are repairing main breaks ( water breaks) or they will fine us. I just had to laugh at that one .

And getting justice?

"It now costs money to appeal a ticket in Mass and Florida..$50 in Mass, Fl is very own-er-ush (sp?)"

Two sides to this:  governments looking for money and people just wanting to peaceful go about their pursuits of life, liberty and with whatever's left over...

The Sky Falling Department

The report out of the Western Morning News Thursday that a batch of starlings had fallen out of the sky with apparent damage to their beaks has a few readers wondering if they ran into some kind of force field from a cloaked aircraft of some kind.

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Want something to do?  Figure out how far this was from...oh...Rendlesham Forrest, for example.

 

 

You Is What You Eat Department

A couple of stories recently from the Natural News website which is looking more and more like a daily site to click by to find out what's not making headlines ain the MainStreamMedia:

• "Vitamin D slashes bowel cancer by 40 percent" is one intriguing headlines.

• Also on Vitamin D: It may help to prevent diabetes.

• And a new reported crop of scientific papers released in Europe (but not in the US) seem to raise still more questions about "Roundup Ready" genetically modified crops.

 

Given that what you put in your mouth is still one of the areas where corpgov hasn't completely taken over, just seems to me like a scan every now and then of their headlines about what may be bad for you would be as good an investment as, oh, bank stocks in 2008, for example.

 

Would'ja pass the BHA, BTA, MSG, and NaCl please?

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Send your comments to george@ure.net

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Shop Till You Drop Department:

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"Live on $10,000" A Year

Having a hard time making ends meet?  (Like who isn't, right?)  A good starting point to better match up income with outgo is our $10 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.  A bonus section called "How to Build Anything" should instill confidence if you've never taken on a home improvement/home creation project before, too.....  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

A different take on things - that's what you'll find here most mornings.  If you know of anyone who might also like our content, simply click here and send a link to them.  Or, if you hated what you read, send the link to all your 'worst enemies'.  Like they say in Burbank, "Ain't no such thing as bad press..."

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 Last week's report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.

 

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Thursday March 11, 2010

Trade Figures

So, you're wondering, when does the "improved productivity' we keep hearing about turn into an increase in the balance of trade?  new figures out from the Census Bureau today may hold some hints:

"The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total January exports of $142.7 billion and imports of $180.0 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $37.3 billion, down from $39.9 billion in December, revised. January exports were $0.5 billion less than December exports of $143.2 billion. January imports were $3.1 billion less than December imports of $183.1 billion.

 

In January, the goods deficit decreased $2.5 billion from December to $49.4 billion, and the services surplus increased $0.1 billion to $12.1 billion. Exports of goods decreased $0.7 billion to $98.4 billion, and imports of goods decreased $3.2 billion to $147.8 billion. Exports of services increased $0.2 billion to $44.3 billion, and imports of services increased $0.1 billion to $32.2 billion.

 

In January, the goods and services deficit increased $0.4 billion from January 2009. Exports were up $18.7 billion, or 15.1 percent, and imports were up $19.1 billion, or 11.9 percent.

 

Goods (Census basis)

The December to January decrease in exports of goods reflected decreases in capital goods ($1.0 billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.5 billion); and foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.1 billion). Increases occurred in industrial supplies and materials ($0.5 billion) and consumer goods ($0.2 billion).

 

Other goods were virtually unchanged.

 

The December to January decrease in imports of goods reflected decreases in automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($1.5 billion); capital goods ($1.1 billion); and consumer goods ($0.9 billion). An increase occurred in foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.1 billion). Other goods and industrial supplies and materials were virtually unchanged.

 

The January 2009 to January 2010 increase in exports of goods reflected increases in industrial supplies and materials ($7.0 billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($3.4 billion); consumer goods ($2.1 billion); foods, feeds, and beverages ($1.7 billion); capital goods ($1.6 billion); and other goods ($0.4 billion)

It all boils down to a simple picture:

 

The Balance of Trade deficit got smaller, but we're still spending more overseas than we ship out to the tune of $37.3 billion in January and that means we're still living beyond out income as a country.  So, what else is new?

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Inflation in China hit a 16-month high and that has some people worried...but an annual inflation rate of 2.7% t'ain't no biggie.  Why the annual rate of debasing the US currency has averaged...oh...2,3% per year since 1913, so what's the big deal?  Inflation's one of those games every talks about being bad but then everyone turns around and does it.   It is what it is, know what I'm sayin'?

 

Unemployment Drops a Tad

Latest from Labor:

"In the week ending March 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 462,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 468,000. The 4-week moving average was 475,500, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week's revised average of 470,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending Feb. 27, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.5 percent.

Futures are pointing down a bit for the open.

 

Foreclosure Rate Slowing - A Bit

I don't usually post whole sections of press releases, but the one from RealtyTrac on foreclosure data is a must read:

"RealtyTrac® (realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its February 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 308,524 U.S. properties during the month, a decrease of 2 percent from the previous month but still 6 percent above the level reported in February 2009. The report also shows one in every 418 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in February.

“The 6 percent year-over-year increase we saw in February was the smallest annual increase we’ve seen since January 2006, when we began calculating year-over-year increases, but it still marked the 50th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “This leveling of the foreclosure trend is not necessarily evidence that fewer homeowners are in distress and at risk for foreclosure, but rather that foreclosure prevention programs, legislation and other processing delays are in effect capping monthly foreclosure activity — albeit at a historically high level that will likely continue for an extended period.

“In addition, severe winter weather appears to have temporarily slowed the processing of foreclosure records in some Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.”

Foreclosure activity by type Default notices (Notices of Default and Lis Pendens) were reported on a total of 106,208 U.S. properties during the month, an increase of 3 percent from the previous month but down 3 percent from February 2009. Default notices were down 25 percent from their peak of more than 142,000 in April 2009 but were still more than three times the number they were four years ago in February 2006.

Foreclosure auctions (Notices of Trustee’s Sale and Notices of Sheriff’s Sales) were scheduled for the first time on a total of 123,633 U.S. properties, a decrease of 1 percent from the previous month but still 16 percent higher than the level reported in February 2009. Scheduled auctions were down 14 percent from their peak of more than 144,000 in August 2009 but were also about three times higher than the number reported in February 2006.

Bank repossessions (REOs) were reported on a total of 78,683 U.S. properties during the month, a 10 percent decrease from the previous month but an increase of 6 percent from February 2009. Bank repossessions were down nearly 15 percent from their peak of more than 92,000 in December 2009 but were at nearly twice the level reported in February 2006.

Nevada, Arizona, Florida post top state foreclosure rates Nevada foreclosure activity decreased nearly 7 percent from the previous month and was down 30 percent from February 2009, but the state’s foreclosure rate continued to rank highest in the nation for the 38th month in a row. One in every 102 Nevada housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month — more than four times the national average.

Arizona and Florida documented nearly identical foreclosure rates, with one in every 163 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in both states. Despite a nearly 21 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month, Arizona’s rate was statistically slightly higher than Florida’s rate and ranked second highest among the states.

California’s foreclosure rate ranked fourth highest among the states, with one in every 195 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month, and Michigan’s foreclosure rate ranked fifth highest among the states, with one in every 226 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

Other states with foreclosure rates among the nation’s 10 highest were Utah (one in every 275 housing units), Idaho (one in 296), Illinois (one in 305), Georgia (one in 331) and Maryland (one in 407).

Six states account for more than 60 percent of national total The six states with the most foreclosure activity accounted for 61 percent of the national total in February. California led the way, with 68,562 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — down nearly 5 percent from the previous month and down 15 percent from February 2009.

Foreclosure activity in Florida increased nearly 15 percent from the previous month and was up more than 16 percent from February 2009. The state continued to post the nation’s second highest total, with 54,032 properties received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Increasing foreclosure activity boosted Michigan’s total to third highest among the states. A total of 20,028 Michigan properties received a foreclosure filing during the month — up nearly 14 percent from the previous month and up 59 percent from February 2009.

With 17,312 properties receiving a foreclosure filing, Illinois posted the fourth highest total, followed by Arizona, with 16,718 properties receiving a foreclosure filing, and Texas, with 12,638 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in February.

Other states with totals among the 10 highest in the country were Georgia (12,177), Ohio (11,286), Nevada (11,035), and Maryland (5,732).

Divergent trends in metro areas with top 10 foreclosure rates Metro areas in the Sun Belt states of Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona continued to dominate the top 10 highest foreclosure rates among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, but activity trends in these areas varied considerably.

The Las Vegas metro area documented the highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 90 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month, despite a 9 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month.

Six of the other metro areas in the top 10 — all in California or Arizona — also reported decreasing foreclosure activity from the previous month. The biggest monthly decrease among the top 10 was in the Phoenix metro area, where foreclosure activity dropped nearly 18 percent.

In contrast, the two Florida metro areas in the top 10 both posted substantial monthly increases in foreclosure activity. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro area saw a 31 percent increase in foreclosure activity from the previous month, giving it the second highest metro foreclosure rate — one in every 92 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing. An increase of nearly 66 percent in foreclosure activity from the previous month helped boost the foreclosure rate in Port St. Lucie to sixth highest.

All of which is critically important stuff to watch if you're planning to invest in a home (or a rental or two) over the next few years.  Seems early yet to me, but I'm a reclusive miser - what can I say? Which gets me to...

 

'Closing" in on Depression 2

Every once in a while folks have a "Duh!" moment - and this must be my day for it.  Came when I was looking at the usual swarm of headlines that was floating on the screens and scanning two gazillion emails.  Was there a common thread in the fabric of the news that hadn't been 'zoomed in on'?

 

The latest word to hit my news filters is "closing".  If there's some common element to a Second Depression's economic stories, it might be 'closing' down of all kinds of things.  For instance:

• "Kansas City board OKs plan to close nearly half of schools"

• "Big ax looming at FDNY: Threat of 1,000 layoffs, closing of 62 fire companies"

• "USPS should engage public more when closing office, PRC says"

• "SCSD Superintendent proposes cutting jobs and closing a school"

 

Taken individually, may not seem like any one of these is a particularly big deal (although obviously it is to the people involved). Looking at the Google Trend Labs data, some of the use of 'closing' as it relates to Olympics may be declining, but the word itself is still going strong in searches.

 

Just something to keep an eye (and ear, I suppose) on, since as we edge closer to Depression going mainstream in everyday speech (mid summerish) we ought to see the work 'closing' figuring prominently in daily discourse.

 

Cost of Illegals

Report out of the LA area's Daily Breeze reveals that 25% of welfare payments in LA County go to illegals.

---

2½ million people in Florida are on food stamps.

 

Fee Justice

Let me ask you something:  If you found out that a state government was deliberately handing out speeding tickets to try and close a budget gap, how would you feel about it? Pissed?  Well then you don't what to read about recent goings on in Virginia.  Oh - paid for in part by the feds.  With friends like this....

 

Shouldn't hurt tourism too much - that is, if the state adopts my new ad campaign which would make a dandy new license plate slogan, too...you like?  I make for you?

 

 

Street Creds

A number of people have written in to ask if the linguistically forecast major fall-off in religions might have something to do with the return (about now) of headlines like "Devil has infiltrated Vatican, says chief exorcist"?

 

Can't say since any number of things might drive large numbers of people from organized religions.  But, a cross-section (no pun intended!) of religious leaders behaving badly and 10,000-year (or longer) floods like the rains in Georgia last year certainly do give rise to a few questions.

 

When I see stories about either the current administration's 'faith-based initiative' (as in this Newsweek piece) or the ongoing Texas textbook battle which argues over what should (and should not be) in social studies textbooks, I watch in semi-disbelief as events unfold...

 

"Terror Trend"?

The bust of Jihad Jane this week sure seems to bolster the case for those who would extend more federal controls over what happens on the Internet.  Take for example this little quote out of the USA Today coverage of the story:

"Her case is the latest in a string of domestic terrorism probes in which defendants have turned to the Internet for financial, moral and operational support to plan attacks against the U.S. and its allies, court papers say."

Demonizing the 'net, sounds like is where this leads - and in turn that lays the groundwork for eventual licensure of net use or maybe content kontrol.  Bet me?

 

There Must Be a Reason

...that the US Department of Education is buying 27 shotguns.  Executive protection more'n likely, not unruly students..

 

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Coping: With Pillaged Retirements

Every so often I get an email (usually surly in tone, BTW) that says something like "George, what you write about is crap because you have managed to ready yourself for retirement and the end of the world as we know it - but what about the rest of us?"

 

This came home to roost again this morning when someone sent me a like to the CNN/Money story this week which has the shocking (or is it?) headline that "43% have less than $10k fror retirement."

 

Two ponder points to offer on this:  One is about the cause of such a miserable figure and the other is on what to do about it.

 

The cause of the small amount of prepping for retirement is extremely simple:  Americans have grown fat and lazy....they've given up critical thinking, inventiveness, and ingenuity at an astounding rate and have swallow the whole corpgov disingenuous lifestyle myth hook, line & sinker.

 

I was talking to a friend up in Pennsylvania just yesterday afternoon and the subject of gardening came up.  "Too cold for us to do that up here yet..." he mentioned in passing. 

 

I made a mental note to mention that is the kind of defeatist attitude that keeps people from realizing a higher degree of self-sufficiency and a higher level of independence from the mainstream.  "What about cold frames, you have daylight up there, right?" I asked.

 

Don't think my friend has read Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long yet, but since he reads the site now and then, I expect he'll get the drift, although he's well ahead of millions of others because he's already cleared some land for a garden this year.

 

Thing is: My friend is actually doing something to retake control of his own destiny.  He's got enough sense to turn off his television and get out and do rather than sit and complain.

 

It doesn't take a 'rocket surgeon' to start reclaiming personal destiny.  You don't need to be anti-government or even join a 'cause' group, either.  You just need a few minutes to make a list of basics of human survival and figure out how to evolve yourself into an independent position. 

 

Take something as basic as water.  Yes, we have a well.  But if there was catastrophic change - say a replay of the New Madrid Earthquake, would the well survive?  Maybe not.  But, odds are very good that at least one of the 55-gallon water barrels would make it through.  And once there, whatever is left of a roof could be made into a water catchment system.

 

But how many people think about that?

 

The roof on our home was put on in 1989...so it's getting on time to replace it.  So what drives the decision on materials?  Rather than put on a new roof of fiberglass shingles, we'll be putting on a metal roof this summer and with new metal gutters, it ought to provide more water than we could ever realistically use.  We get around 40" of rain a year here, so the area 30 feet by 60 feet should produce....nope.  not going to tell you.  You have enough math to be able to figure that out...I hope!

 

Point is that even a simple decision ("Which roof material?") can be turned into part of an overall strategy toward self-reliance at virtually no cost.

 

Same thing with gardening.  You'd be amazed at how much food can be grown indoors behind sliding glass doors and picture windows.  But how many people turn off the television set long enough to even put in a $20 herb garden in the kitchen window?  Almost none.

 

I can't think of a better time of year than...oh...now, to turn off the television and get creative about at least three basics in life:  Food, Water, ands Clothing.

---

My particular slant on "How to Retire" has been carved out of life experience which didn't make me 'rich".  So we bought a small place with a mobile/modular on it that we could afford. 

 

We deliberating under spent so that we would not be as beholden to the Debt Monster.  I do most of the work around here (Panama Bates is visiting and working on goat fencing, though) and although I might hire local folks which keeps the money in the community, the idea is that we life below our income (not above) and have done so for some period of time.

 

The 'earnings' if you think of it that way pile up.  When we get to retirement - if there really is such a time - our monthly "nut" will be next to zero, except for electricity and I'm even working on that one.

 

My point is not to say "Look what I did" but rather to say "Look what you can do!"  You can learn almost anything in an hour (or less) if you use that "Recipe Method of Learning" I'm so fond of.  You can scrounge old plastic buckets to do some 'condo farming' and you can slowly evolve a 3-4 week 'cushion' of canned goods and dry staples in the home larder.

 

Not all that tough, is it?

 

Retirement is a somewhat modern concept and don't tell too many people this because it's dangerous to runaway financial planing. But what if Buckminster Fuller was right when he said something to the effect that "Wealth is how long you have assured your long-term survivability."

 

In other words, if you don't have 'money' with which to retire, you have something much more valuable:  A brain that can be turned on and come up with creative ways to 'work around' the problem of paper.  What does paper buy?  Water?  Food?  Light & heat?  Clothing?

 

One of my personal projects this year is learning to sew.  May not be particularly graceful looking, but clothing to cover and protection ain't that difficult.  Fashion & bling?  I could care.  But basic clothing?  How to make a pair of gloves out of an animal skin?  Useful stuff that.  All readily learnable in nice recipe-sized bites:  Pattern-making, fabric layout & cutting, stitching...all nice bite-sized morsels of brain food resulting in long-term useable skills and that's part of mastery of the physical realm.

 

I'll step down from the soap box now after leaving one parting thought: 

 

Do you bet on paper or bet on brains for retirement?  And, are you investing in either today?

 

Down at the WuJo: Snow Circles?

This makes perfect sense especially since this story has nothing to do with Washington where nothing makes sense anyways...;-)  But after all the reading I've done on Crop Circles, I must be living under a rock because I had never heard of snow circles until this morning when a reader brought it to my attention. 

 

The story has been around since December on the BLT Research Team site, but I hadn't been aware of it.

 

No, the patterns weren't yellow-tinged.

 

Around the Ranch:  Name That Goat

Several readers have sent in some clever names for the newly-arrived goats that hatched this week.   I told you earlier this week that three had shown up promoting one male reader to suggest if they were all females to name them Gina, Lolla, and Bridgetta...and you thought my humor was bad?

 

Another suggested April, May, and June.  We'll see about July.  One of the boys will have to be named Rahm to counterbalance Dick Chinney...as they seem cut from the same cloth.

 

Fortunately, we now have even more to name...another pair was born yesterday so the herd is now approaching 30.

---

I used to think that goats were just 'dumb animals'.  But, then I got to thinking about Dick Chinney surrounded by 20 odd females with little to do but sniff flanks and graze.

 

Humans do the same thing, but in a fraction of the time.  Maybe goats aren't as dumb as I used to think.  They don't bring me breakfast, now, do they?

 

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Wednesday March 10, 2009

Recovery or Resupply?

The report in the NY Times Global Biz section that "China's Exports Rise 46%" has me wondering if there's really and economic recovery going on.  The argument in my head begins with "How much of this increase is coming to the USA?"  The NY Times piece attributes orders from the US, EU and Japan with almost half the growth and while an Econographer piece on  the same topic has some fancy charts showing China's balance of trade may not be so grand going forward, I keep wondering "How much of this is US related?"

 

I suppose it's symptomatic of being a) in the US and b) being part of the "Me Generation" but seems to me that this is one of those stories which is being positioned as somehow related to US-China relations.  In fact, a Bloomberg piece on the topic says"

"China has kept its currency at about 6.8 per dollar since July 2008. Record loan growth is threatening to stoke inflation and has prompted the central bank to twice this year raise the amount of cash banks must set aside as reserves.

Persuading China to allow the yuan to climb this year is one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s stated goals. A group of 15 senators last month called for stiffer tariffs on Chinese imports, saying an undervalued currency gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage. "

 Yeah, yeah, sure...whatever.  But how much of this was due to the US increasing its imports? 

 

Tracking back to the People's Daily Online, I finally stumbled over this nugget:

"China's trade surplus with the United States in the January-February period shrank by 27 percent to $20.9 billion. "

Being as it's a bit early (and the caffeine is late showing up for work this morning) it takes a second or two to stitch all this into a meaningful picture, but the bullet points in a PowerPoint might be something like:

• China's Exports are up 47.5% in February

• China's imports are up 44.7%

• China's trade surplus with the US is DOWN 27% which means...

• China will be buying less US debt.

 

Oh...that makes sense, now, doesn't it?  China had been selling the US goods and accumulating our debt paper.  Now, they seem to be importing more from the US which means less paper will be bought.

 

Now, I don't claim to be a whiz-bang economist (I think of myself more as an economically literate business writer) but just reading the articles it seems like China is deliberately managing down its relationship with US which leads to the biggest question of all:  Who will buy the mountains of US debt which need to be pedaled in order to fund things like a massive government debt which the Obama administration seems determined one way ors the other to add onto with health care insurance?

 

This all continues to weave into an emergent economic problem which no one is talking about, but it boils down to "If China buys less debt, and if people are going to be hornswaggled into buying US government debt for their 401(k) accounts, what must necessarily happen to interest rates?

 

We've already seen this week that interest rates are up on short-term Treasuries to their highest levels in 6-months.

 

The dynamics of a 'recovery' generally include a lot of new business formation activity and part & parcel of this is banks being 'loose' (relatively speaking) with their small business loans.  People I talk to aren't seeing that yet.

 

Moreover, the MainStreamMedia has  more or less unquestioningly reported that the unemployment rate is under 10%, but I don't see many people questioning how it is in the last year that the civilian labor force in America has managed to shrink by a million people.

 

Moreover, in 2007, the number of people employed in the US is listed at 146,047,000.  In the latest month, the number of people working was 138,641,000.  You do the math.

---

Sometime between now and a week from Friday, whole national outlook going forward ought to resolve into better focus as we will have new trade figures out tomorrow, our assessment of port traffic next week, maybe some new rail traffic figures, a forecast on when healthcare will be done and we'll be past options expiration on the 19th.

 

In the meantime, small mysteries, like "How much of China's trade with the US is new business and how much is resupply?" will have to keep monkeymind occupied.  What little data there is suggests that recovery is still a long, long ways in our future.

 

Related: Trader Bart's reconstructed M3 shows that despite all the pump-priming, there's still a terrible mess in M3.  Even though there has been nominal growth in M1 (cash) the problem is that velocity of money seems to be decreasing which means less turnover and that means less economic activity.  So if the annual change rate for M3/M3b is declining at, oh 4 percent annually here lately, there's still a deflationary tone to the Big Picture.

 

You should be able to see why the democons are desperate for a make-work/make-spend bill like healthcare - obviously thinking that will solve things.  That's because the previous administration played out most all the war spending cards....and massive public works projects are hard to come by let alone cost justify. 

 

D1 Vs. D2

Last week in Peoplenomics, we got into the question of "When will this really be a Depression?" in which we got into the rhyming of the times and such.  An alert reader found an article this week that's very much on point called "What do the new data tell us?  Quick read - lots of charts, well worth considering.

 

Trade Wars, Redux

If you're looking for the rhyme on 1930's global tariffs, how about Brazil which has slapped a tariff on a wide range of American goods because of US cotton subsidies.

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I keep telling people that all we need to do is tariff outsourced IT & customer service jobs which have fled the US by the 10's of thousands for places like the Philippines and India and we could fix the job depression overnight.

 

Wonder how long it will take for IT and CSR jobs to get subsidized like farmers got in the previous depression?  Could be a while yet...

 

Something [else is] Fishy Department

It was only a couple of days back - maybe last week - that I told you about the report that claimed mercury was found in virtually all fish being tested in the US and while some give the reason as 'coal plants' that doesn't hold water since the tests included fish in coal-free zones like Washington and Oregon so unless we're talking Chinese coal plant plumes...

 

But now we see how the Obama administration has closed comment on a federal plan to hijack American fishing rights in waters that include oceans, coastal areas, the Great Lakes and even inland waters.

 

The way this is developing is in "zoning uses" of these waters.

 

It doesn't take very much 'conspiracy theory' to see the pattern here that's developed over the past several dozen years.  first, the "public" gets excluded from large areas of "public" land such that what were once 'rights' become privileges which are sold for user and/or license fees.

 

And now, the government's about to go after fishing...  I read once that some huge fraction of the population goes fishing...over 76% of Americans have at one time or another drown worms in their quest for record bass, trout, pike, or just as a reason to sit out on a lake and suck down a six pack and some sandwiches.  Ah....

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Definition of the Day:  What's the difference between a socialist government and a communist government?  The socialist government doesn't have all the guns yet.

 

War Pool

Lemme see here:  I think there was an article in the JPost this week that said Iran had less than eight weeks to give up its nuclear ambitions OR... and this morning we see that Iran's president says the US is playing a 'game' in Afghanistan - creating - then fighting 'terrorists'.  But at the same time Veep Joe Biden says the US is 'determined' to stop a nuclear armed Iran. 

 

Place you bets in the office 'war' pool accordingly.

 

Ring Around the Congo

I didn't have time to drop by the recent Lunar and Planetary Science conference here in Texas, but a BBC reporter did and there's a dandy picture of a 30-40 km wide crater-looking area in DR Congo.

 

More to the point is the little chart of largest impact craters with the most recent pegged at about 35.7 million years ago.  Kinda makes you wonder "When's the next one due?"

 

Also out of BBC's science coverage comes word that the Large Hadron Collider will have to be shut down for a year to address design flaws.

 

So, until the tweaks get made, I'll just have to limit my physics experiments to 3.5 trillion electron volts, I guess, or finish up the 20 TEV collider I've got penciled in for the west pasture here at the ranch...that project is on hold until I figure out how to borrow $1.6 trillion on my bank card.

 

Free: Zillion Dollar Marketing Idea

Don't know as you've noticed, but the world's oldest "flying car" is going on the auction block shortly in Atlanta.  Not that the thing really flies, but here's my plan:  We sell it to Toyota as a marketing tool!

--

Me?  I'm still saving money for one of those Oscar Meyer weinermobiles.

 

Aging Records

I think the old saying is "aging ain't so bad, and it beats the alternative..."  Oldest woman in the US is 114 and lives in Iowa.  A woman in Georgia (the country) claims to be 130.

 

Yeah, I know, old news... (sorry)

 

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Coping: Staring at the Blender

Back in 2002 when I was still in the 'corporate game'  [high education software space] I made a decision to opt out and live in the 'outback' for a while.  Part of that was based on some extremely long-term values in the predictive linguistics project which had shown several significant hits such that by fall 2002 we were able to see that over time, the best place to be might not be in a Big City.

 

While the decision was perhaps too early, I figure better to be years early than minutes late on this sort of thing.  In particular I'm now looking ahead a ways to around the middle of July because the last HPH SOTTC report pointed to that July 4-7 kind of range and readers keep asking "What's that about?"  Here's a typical note:

"Howdy George

I discovered you & Cliff High through Coast to Coast. I live in Calgary, Alberta. Thought you might be interested in a little look at our current economic situation. I’ve ran my current business since the late 1990’s, before that I was self employed since 1987, it seems like our economy mirrors your economic reporting of continual decline. My business has suffered more than a 75% drop in volume over the last few years with no real sign of improvement on the horizon. I have talked with many other business people in the same boat. One might say this is the result of the boom/bust oil & gas industry however it really seems to be much wider than that this time around. My business was very successful prior to the oil/gas boom & yes it did ramp up with the boom, but has dropped far more than the oil/gas industry can account for. People are watching what they spend so as to save for tough times. We can all feel those times upon us. Other parts of Canada are in much worse shape financially.

The main reason for this email is a linguistics issue. I have July 4th 2010 marked as a date Cliff High said is a very important date. I believe he said it could be (although I realize he was speculating) a Revolution Date Turning Point. A Revolution would have to be under way long before any turning point. With that in mind I have come across a couple of articles which may point to the start of this type of activity.

The first article involves: We the People Vs. The IRS http://www.nationalexpositor.com/News/2317.html 

The second an article is calling for a National Strike April 15th to 18th, 2010

http://www.nationalexpositor.com/News/2317.html 

I believe you to be the real deal. I am an absolute believer in I calls m as I see’s m and you in my mind are on the executive of that club. So my question to you George is (I’m not asking you to endorse or decline support here) simply is this something possibly showing up in the linguistics? There is no doubt there is a full out war on the U.S. Constitution by the PTB. The Constitution is the one thing I can see that could break open the flood gates of a general populous up rising & more & more people do seem to be waking up these days. So this would also tie in with the September 2011 beginning of the end for the MSM as we all know where they will stand on any issue between the people & the PTB.

Now here’s an interesting thought for you! I have seen numerous reports both on the boob tube & in print that claim that the Soviet Union was brought down by broadcasting TV images of descent activities into the controlled areas. This in my opinion is what the PTB are afraid of with our free (of PTB censorship controlled) internet. If something was to start the internet would likely be the catalyst of the people rather than for the PTB. After all if you have internet access what in the world do you need MSM for? You don’t! Your daily reports have provided me & countless others with valuable insight & info MSM does not provide us with Since turning off the TV & discovering your site & others I find I am able to pick n choose what I consider important rather then what they choose to let me see or feed me and the best part George is my hunger for the truth has done nothing but grow in leaps & bounds.

I look forward to your daily report including your humor.

Thanks for the attaboys and all but I really don't know what to expect come July 4-on.  Yes, it looks like a change in the 'revolution' meme, but that doesn't mean that government will just stop bailouts, stop trying to seize fishing rights (from States) and it doesn't mean taxes will go down.  All that stuff will presumably keep going forward on momentum.

What we may notice, between now and then seems to me to be likely something that will economically polarize the public.  In other words, there are lots of retirement-aged people who are still working because they lost a good chunk of their life savings in the dotcom bubble collapse.  Does enough people (think millions here) getting seriously pissed at losing it all over again when this market lets go have 'revolutionary implications'?

Of course.

So it might easily be that kind of thing - the internal realization that something's going on and things are not all as they appear - that could turn millions into partisans of a 'revolutionary mindset'.  It could just be something as simple as waking up on the morning of July 13th (to throw a dart) and find everyone at Starbucks is talking about 'revolutionary change' and using the word Depression freely...that kind of thing.

In the linguistics, we're in a building period till then so if you notice the tensions rising around you, take it all in stride.  The key thing to do is let all the change happen, watch it closely, figure out where it's going, and then figure out a way to stay off the radar, out of the crowds, and have your own plans to work through whatever changes come along.

Seeing the Bigger Picture is the hardest part.  Tim Erickson (who seems to have fixed the checkout for his book The Big Sleep BTW) writes a semi-fictional plot about how indeed, there may be something akin to 2012 coming, but maybe sooner than that and maybe world governments are acting like they do because there's a secret 'getting ready' plan underway.

Or, applying Occam's Razor a bit, maybe this is just how global competition governments and corporations work when we run out of frontiers and new lands to go conquer/subjugate.  Kind of like turning on the blender and seeing what comes out of it.

Obviously one person is not going to be able to do much - I mean besides watch the blender every day (which is what UrbanSurvival does) and every once in a while make some educated guesses as to what the next couple of ingredients might be that get heaped into the global blender (which is what Peoplenomics does) and looking far in advance Cliff's work looks at trends in language which seem to reveal "the arm grabbing ingredients seems to be going that way around here...).

Key thing, best I can tell, is not to get too invested in any particular outcome.  Do I respect the tax protesters that want to stand up to IRS?  Sure.  Do I want to do that?  Nope - I report every dime pay my taxes so I can work on my agenda.  It's like paying protection money.  Do I respect people who protest the Wars as morally wrong?  Sure, but at the same time, watching the blender whirl, the wars perform an economic function for which there's little substitute.

Maybe I need to watch more television, get a little more fluoride.  But being unplugged (just enough to allow a nice sense of detachment to creep in) is almost relaxing in comparison to throwing in with True Believers in this cause, or that.  The Truthers, the Birthers, the Healthcare Promoters, the Fishing Rights thieves, the wars, the Madison Avenue hypesters and the Hollywood bling & bullshit is just more stuff being tossed into the blender.

There may be a lot of glory to be had in fighting the good fight and all, but at the moment, I'm trying to figure out how to make more crops come out of the ground this year, what do we name the three new goats born yesterday, and issues like that.

They're not as 'big' or as 'patriotic' or whatever other label you want to toss in, but the East Texas Outback is a fine place from which to watch the blender and for now, that seems to suit me.  We've got bigger problems than these coming later this year.

Much bigger.

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Tuesday March 9, 2010

Divining the Next Big Move

A couple of people including our sage reader in Luxembourg have pointed to a fairly new market indicator that's telling us 'thumbs down" about economic recovery prospects.  It's referred to as the 'first principal component of 44 indicators" and although it briefly popped to the upside, more recently it has taken on a decidedly bearish cast.

 

While a more thorough discussion of the indicator is here, it suggests that we're at a key inflection point for markets  - something discussed with Peoplenomics subscribers last weekend. 

 

Even if you don't subscribe, here's one of the tidbits from last week's report:  The release of the Wizard of Oz came just about 10-years after the 1929 market peak...and here we are, just about smack-dab at the 10-year mark after the Year 2000 market peak and what comes out?  Alice in Wonderland.

 

Not that history replays or repeats precisely, but it does rhyme often enough that a serious student of the market might be asking "Gee, where are things in the great blender of time?"
 

The parallels to the 1930's Depression ("D1" around here) are not precisely the same as here in Depression 2.0 ("D2"). but a lot of that has to do with the schizophrenic way this economy has 'come undone' compared with the previous experience.

 

As I've told you before, on topics like the banking crisis, in the D1 event, the results of bank failures were both personal and immediate.  Here in D2, the effects have been pushed out over time (e.g. moderated) by FDIC and what was an immediate implosion (more or less) in D1 is a Grand Slow-Motion Collapse in D2.

 

If you look at my "Aggregate Index" (bottom of the UrbanSurvival daily page) you'll see that the market is within inches of either breakingf furiously to the upside - which would happen with a hundred or so more Dow points, or failing that, collapse into a heap if we drop down a few hundred.  It's really quite graceful how this all works out, but the closer we get to the one-year anniversary of "bottom pickers" calling the 2009 bottom, the more my sense is that things will end badly.

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Seems like everyone's got a way to play the 'big move' when it comes.  You'll know it's here when you wake up one morning and and I'm screaming about the futures being down hundreds of points and how it's time to get to the lifeboats.  But, we're not there - at least this morning (yet).

 

The Wall Street Cheat Sheet's interview with commodities legend Jim Rogers is an interesting contrarian piece, if you've thought about going long the Euro.  My tastes are a bit more on the practical side.  The way I figure it, all the "money" (paper) and even gold & silver may not be as important as a block of .22 ammo or MRE's & a tent in our future.  Such things are "money" only so long as the key infrastructure that everyone seems to take for granted are in place.

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A Tyler Durden report over at ZeroHedge notes that SPY volume is back to 2010 lows as equity mutual funds run out of cash" so we may not have long to wait for the downside resolution of matters.

 

With all this in mind, it's little surprise to see a headline this morning like "Stock futures fall on 1-year anniversary of Low."  Some things are just far too predictable...
 

Papieren Bitte? Department

The "National Terror Alert" site has an article about how a new "Worker ID card at center of Immigration Plan."  Vee vill haff ORDER! 

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Lest you think the rush to chip humans (one way or the other) is overdone, note that in the UK (which you remember recently revealed they are chipping garbage cans) now has a plan to chip 'dangerous dogs'.

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I've got a couple of working theories on this stuff:  One is that there are no dangerous dogs, only dangerous owners.  The second is that if no-fly lists and chipping immigrants was such a fine plan, how come lawmakers ,don't make themselves subject to the kind of "just-us" they seem so eager to dish out (heap is maybe a better word) on the rest of us?

 

I know, I know, I'm just to egalitarian to understand what being "on top' means, in the world of power, payoffs, and politics.

 

Summer of Hell

Remember the linguistics about this time a year ago about the 'summer of hell'?  Looking to me more and more like we may have been a year early on that call.  The good news was we didn't really get it last year, but the bad news is that when predictive linguistics show something more than a year ahead of time, it's generally as bad as the linguistics - or worse.

 

So, it's with a certain sense of trepidation that I noticed Jane's (of Defence publications) is talking about "Greece bracers for a hot summer of discontent."

 

Looks like the 'revolution' meme will be spreading globally since so many people are still blind to the real up/down (or have/have-not) paradigm, and still buy into the flagrantly absurd notion of right/left political freedom, strictly controlled by the two major parties that eat 99% of what's at the corporate trough.

 

Everyone's a Terrorist?

A recent Paul Joseph Watson article "Pentagon Shooting: Now Everyone's a terrorist"...subhead: Birther, truther, drug war critic, tea partier, libertarian, liberal – any and all dissent is “violent extremism" is a must read.

 

One upon a time, America used to honor dissent.  Now, we moving to jail it.

 

Am I kidding?  Read the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010" and get back to me.  The key concept is if you're considered an 'enemy belligerent' you no longer have rights.  Which I guess takes them out of 'rights' and puts them into privileges" doesn't it?

 

Whoa Joe Department

While US Veep Joe "Biden sees 'moment of opportunity for Mid-East peace" I find myself reaching for the ViseGrips again to pinch myself:  With Israel planning more building in the West Bank, what's he thinking?

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You can buy a good assortment of ViseGrips from Amazon for about $70.  See: Vice-Grip 5-Pc. Welding Tool Set  I find them especially useful on mornings like this when about every other story has me pinching myself.

 

No offense to the "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" contingent.

But that does set up our next headline...

 

Back to Nukes

North Korea is back on the nuclear development path stating that the latest US-South Korean exercises are threatening.  So much for six party talks...

 

More Quakes Ahead

A reader wants to know:

"Hey George,

How come you have not been talking about all the oddities with the sun recently?? There is another filament which may cause a Hyder flare if it collapses and there are strange radio waves going across the sun as well?

I am FAR from any type of expert on this but from what I am reading these things are very rare!!! Maybe you could comment on this?

Not much to say:  You have the link to www.spaceweather.com and I assume you know the Chilean quake followed a Hyder filament collapse by a few days...and I assume you have seen the USGS site?  And you know a Chilean city moved 10-feet in the last one?

 

Linguistically, we're not even halfway through the quake damage/headlines/fears due over the balance of the year...so all things in time and I'm in no hurry for 4-5 more Great Quakes, thanks. 

 

Don't wanna be repetitious...just not worried about another Great Quake for another week or so...that should give the filaments time to collapse and flares to pop out...even that's no timing guarantee, however.

 

Harsh On Pot

If you ever come to Texas for a visit, might want to read up on drug laws around these parts.  Here's a recent story about a fellow up in Tyler getting handed a 35-year jail term for having 4.6 ounces of  weed plus a scale.  Because of priors and being within a "drug-free" zone, this fellow age 54 seems destined to spend the rest of his life in jail for the offending 4.6 ounces. 

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I figure at what?  $20-grand a year to feed and house an inmate times 35 years, Texas just spent $700,000 for this 4.6 ounces.  But then, jailing people is a big industry in these parts.  Ummm...pencils to $2.4 million a pound, I think...

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"We just hope [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] can free up room for this menace to society; maybe the state can release a child molester or serial arsonist to find a cell for Wooten," the Houston Press scoffed in a Friday blog post.

 

Harsh on Beer

Unfortunately, Texas wisdom on how to spend resources isn't an isolated case.  Take the one going on up in Philadelphia where "Troopers raid popular bars for unlicensed beers."  Oh, sure, the vitamin B-laden brews were all bought proper-like from state warehouses.  What's missing is some of the brewskis hadn't paid a $75 dollar licensing fee to the state.

 

Say, am I the only one who smells that bad stuff that comes out of the back-ends of male cattle?

 

Colorado Versus Amazon Associates

Speaking of government behavior, Amazon has pulled the plug on its Associates in Colorado because the state is trying to get web entrepreneurs to collect sales tax.

 

Colorado is trying to strong-arm online compliance ignoring that Amazon is ultimately the beneficial entity and the sales is not done with the Associates - they just get what amounts to a referral fee. 

 

So yeah, you can still order Amazon goods in Colorado with no sales tax, it's just the geniuses in state government have decided to tax the little guys who were bird-dogging for them - out of existence in a way no other state has done.

 

I can hardly wait for Colorado to start imposing a sales tax on all other small business entrepreneurs who get commissions.  A prime example of how to turn a recession into a depression - just watch this kind of non-thinking propagate among the economically challenged. 

 

Governments have a way of solving every problem but the right one.  Tax foreign provided services sold within the state!  OMG do I have to explain everything?

 

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Coping: New Reading Materials

A couple of new ebooks in the wings, which I'm pleased to share with you.  One of these is a new ebook (57 pages) from Dick ("Texas Book of the Dead") Browning that takes a look at how a family in the Dallas area might find life should the modern infrastructure taken so for-granted fail.  Interesting ideas to consider, since at some point in a collapse scenario, people would likely flee big cities and head for the hills.  And what would the folks in the hills do?

 Download "Yikes"  for $10.00  

 

 

The second ebook is longer (244 pages) and is called "The Deep Sleep" by Tim Erickson.  The cover for this one is also tempting:

 

 

This one is also in the $10 range ($9.99 is close, eh?) and the download page is here.

 

And, as long as we're on the topic of surviving 'worst case' (and how we got here)

 

James Wesley Rawles's' (survivalblog.com) "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times" is more of a workbook with lots of contingency planning ideas.

 

 Taken as a whole, these three books are a pretty good intro to the "prepper mindset"..  Browning's book is a fictionalized "how it might be experienced" level, Erickson's is an extremely well documented (with new clips) summary of how the national hypnosis works, and Rawles' book is a practical "How do we plan for it?" sequence.

 

By the way, Rawles's' site has a dandy article on it this morning about "the Looter Mentality" - something which has always fascinated me.  Every time there's a major flood, earthquake, or other 'disturbance in the social balance' people start stealing which is a sad commentary on just how thin the veil of civilization really is.

 

A practical question to be asked (not a happy question, at that) is "If 9-11 emergency service stop working, how are you going to behave, how are others going to behave, and will their behavior terminate or shorten your lifespan?

 

UrbanSurvival's place in all this has been oriented toward the economic, and in particular the way there's a cycle to how all this goes, and until there gets to be some genuine light at the end of the tunnel, we'll keep adding to our library of information, skill building, and sharing what we can about the value of (as the Boy Scouts  motto puts it) "being prepared".

 

Also Worth a Read

Tony Ring (not running earthquake data at the moment) has a fine post on his site under the title "Illumination on Illuminism" you might find interesting.

"Spent about six hours of my life listening to the DVD lectures sold by Nassim Haramein. I got interested because he is a published, peer reviewed, bonafide brilliant physicist. I think the brightest I have heard speak in my lifetime. It is really ironic that I bought the series and listened to it because I was looking for a happy distraction from the daily gloom and doom all around the net. Boy, did I get a surprise. The first three hours delivered wonderful, amazing new views of physics and the universe just as I expected. Then the last three hours tied that physics straight into the Mason/Illuminati cabal and what it all means to the future of the planet. It’s like I can’t achieve escape velocity from this issue no matter where I turn! Gaaaak!

(more)

 

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Monday March 8, 2010

Crunch Week for Markets

I mentioned to Peoplenomics subscribers that the rest of this month could be really critical for the markets since so many people were 'buying at the bottom" a year ago when the market was 4,000 points lower than it is now.  Under IRS rules, long term gains come after "more than a year" which most traders take to be a year plus one day, or two, depending on how good your legal budget is and the odds of being caught.

 

The real pile-on didn't happen (as inferred by volume in March of 2009) until around the 18th & 19th, but as trading opens this morning, there's a big question about which way the market will pop.  Robin Landry's latest to his colleagues 'in the business' lays out the problem this way:

"Hi Everyone,

The market action since the top in the Dow on Jan 19th has certainly been anything but easy to analyze. On a 90 minute chart you get a clear 5 waves down but the rally off the Feb 5th low is approaching the limits for a Minor wave 2 rally. Unless the market turns down decisively in the next couple days then I believe the wave count is that we are in the 3rd zigzag off the Marc 09 low and headed to new highs between 10780-11241 to complete P2. For those more technically inclined the count off the March 09 low is as follows. The first zigzag W topped on 6/11/09, the decline to the low on 7/08/09 was an X wave. The long rally to the 1/19/10 high was the second zigzag labeled Y. The decline to the recent low on 2/5/10 is another X wave and we are now going up in the final zigzag Z to new rally highs over the next few months. The most likely time frame for the top is the April-May area. To say we are at a major inflection point, and the next couple days are important is an understatement. Remember the evidence IMHO still says we are in a bear market rally with a major decline to follow once this rally ends. The market action over the past few weeks is indicative of topping action on declining volume. As I have said many times over the years I have been writing this market update, Technical Analysis is like having a 2 watt bulb (Nightlight) when everyone else is completely in the dark. It gives one a little better insight, but sometimes the patterns are still more difficult to read. This has been one of those times. The good news is when the market turns down and the count clears up it should stay that way for some time. As always questions and comments are welcome. I will answer as time allows.  rlandry@allegiance.tv

Not too much in the way of numbers this week...wholesale inventories Wednesday and the balance of trade on Thursday, but nothing to get too excited about...maybe retail sales Friday?  Whatever pulls your chain...

 

Friday's Consumer Debt report still showed revolving debt is decreasing although at a slower rate, so any recovery in the economy may be elusive for months to come.  Futures up. But only a tad.

 

Another Killer Quake

Just as the world was settling down from the quakes in Haiti, Chile, and the 7.0 in the southern Japanese islands recently, along comes a 5.9 shaker in Turkey which has killed at least 41 so far.

 

More Building

Think the Middle East will see any progress in peace talks?  Not likely since Israel has approved more construction in the contested West bank area.

 

Battle For Pakistan

What I label the battle for Pakistan may be starting as a suicide bomber has killed 11 people in Lahore.  Yeah, Afghanistan is real estate, as is Iraq with its oil (and elections this weekend) but Pakistan has something even more dear to terrorists - nukes.

 

A US citizen purported to be an al Qaeda spokesman has reportedly been arrested, but officials are being tight-lipped about details for obvious reasons.  Significance: More Pakistan-centered action.

 

And just as he was about to head for Kabul, Iran's president is reported touting that country's first cruise missile...and then canceled the trip.  On the other hand, Iranian media says US SecDef Gates is in Afghanistan visiting.

 

Best Laid Plans

US efforts to move a base in Okinawa have been turned down by Japan.

 

Down Under

floodwaters in much of eastern Australia this weekend.  Amazing video of it here.

 

About to Be Toast Department

Say, I know you may think global warming has been a somewhat overdone deal, but here's a report that should make the hairs stand up a bit: "Methane frozen beneath Arctic seabed destabilising, scientists warn".  Yep, that could be a biggie...

 

Another Clinton Fan

Notice how Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is calling Hillary a "blond Condoleezza"?  Tisk, tisk and even more so because...

 

Today Is...

International Woman's Day.

 

I'm sure somehow it must be my fault.

 

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Coping:  The Chemtrail Argument

First email to greet me this morning dealt with the idea of PROBE - the Private Responsible Organization Bringing Effect - which I discussed last week.

"I just read your public article, and I will quote you:

“1.  Chemistry & Physics:  Given that the content of chemtrails is fairly well documented.  Some of the chemicals involved have been noted by Wikipedia as:

"Various versions of the chemtrail conspiracy theory have circulated through internet websites and radio programs.[1] In some of the accounts, the chemicals are described as barium and aluminum salts, polymer fibers, thorium, or silicon carbide.[6] In other accounts it is alleged the skies are being seeded with electrical conductive materials as part of a massive electromagnetic superweapons program based around the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP).[17] "

 George, I guess you did NOT read the Wikipedia article because the WHOLE of its contents have eluded you.  Hundreds of thousands of scientists and military members and anyone with half an education in high school physics ALL agree that chemtrails are paranoid nonsense.  And there is NO documentation or agreement from ANY scientists that support the assertion that chemtrails consist of thorium or fibers or whatever.    None Zero Nada ZIP Zilch…       the only “proofs” you have are the rantings of uneducated conspiracy theorists or fakirs claiming to be legit!   You have NOTHING that corroborates anything about chemtrails outside of 2^nd or 3^rd hand here-say  (rantings).    Period. 

 

They are contrails, not chemtrails.  But – well, I suppose I am just part of the HUGE and VAST CONSPIRACY THAT SOMEHOW WANTS TO HURT OUR FELLOW NEIGHBORS, CHILDEN, and SPOUSES…    honest to God, you are such a dolt when it comes to this nonsense.    Or should I say, a first class sucker.   

 

Like tens of thousands of military members are purposefully engaged in the logistics and operations of spraying bad things onto their own families…     you should be ashamed.  

 

And just like with Global Warming… which you took hook line and sinker when that was big with conspiracists…  that, and chemtrails, do not exist.  But, I guess w/my scientific and military background is just part of the BIG VAST EXPANSIVE ILLOGICAL EVIL CONSPIRACY TOO.      And I suppose I’m just trying to DISCREDIT YOU with I write to you with these criticisms.  Pleeeze….

 

George… you do a great job with economic news and ideas… stick to it.  When you venture into stupid ignorances, you discredit yourself.

Let's back up here and start from the top. I assume you'll agree that  injection of substances into the atmosphere has been done for decades in the form of cloud seeding to cause precipitation, right?  Why is further injection for other things (HAARP efficiency maybe?) so hard to conceive of?

 

I assume you've read the famous Eastlund patent on weather modification using a HAARP-like system?  Or, the patents that relate to generation of an Artificial Ionospheric Mirror which can be tilted for aiming purposes, but heating the atmosphere?  Say, you are aware of the patent covering a "process for absorbing ultraviolet radiation in the atmosphere by dispersing melanin, its analogs, or derivatives into the atmosphere..."?  And these are the patents that are out in the open.  Wanna bet on some being issued, but not public for national security reasons?  Probably close to HAARP is this patent on ground global tomography.  Conveniently works in the 2-15 MHz range...

 

Is the US Government at least STUDYING aerosols aloft?  Absolutely, unequivocally YES.  There's been so much leaked on the net that the government has an entire website on topic under the heading "Atmospheric Science Program" (ASP) which it is claimed is trying to assess climate impacts of manmade aerosols aloft...

"The current focus of the program is aerosol radiative forcing of climate: aerosol formation and evolution and aerosol properties that affect direct and indirect influences on climate and climate change. "

Does the site admit to any spraying?  Not that I have found - yet.  On the other hand, a predecessor program, the government had plans from the Tropospheric Aerosol Program Plan (2001) to inject what's called an "inert tracer" into plumes of urban areas and power plants!

"Development of a quantitative understanding of aerosol formation in urban and power plant plumes will be greatly enhanced by the addition of two additional elements, concurrent release of an inert tracer, and synchronized (to the in-situ aircraft) overflights by an aircraft with the ability to remotely sense the vertical distribution of aerosols. Release of tracers concurrent with the experiment allows a much more quantitative assessment of the rates of transformation processes to be developed, as losses of substances from the plume, and dilution can be accounted for by ratioing concentrations to the concentration of the inert tracer. The technology for releasing tracers from such point sources and for measuring them from aircraft platforms is well developed and available for use in TAP. (Koffi et al., 1998)

And what is the 'inert tracer" we wonder?  And the release mechanism for urban plumes?  Not specified.

 

Is it a stretch that a nonpublic extension of this program could involve spraying (to study dispersal rates under various conditions)?  Well, that's just a tiny step to take from what's already a full-blown study of aerosols and so to me it comes down to the question "How much do you trust your government?"

 

We know from the literature that governments have in the past conducted massive experiments on civilian populations with (among other things) chemical weapons without bothering to tell anyone about it.  No chance to opt out and no reason to think that has changed.  The whole idea of 'secret' tests means 'no public accountability' at its core.

 

A specific example:  The UK's

"...Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public. A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979.

Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told. "

Right there, in black and white in a mainstream British paper. And 2002 BTW.

 

Now, like it or not, I don't find it a stretch to think that the US either did (or may be doing) something similar...but as luck would have it, there are enough people of the "Ain't true if it isn't on XYZ media..." that similar programs are not out of the question.

 

Mind you, I do not claim chemtrails are 'real', however, governments have shown repeatedly that they don't value the lives of all citizens equally.  And lest you think it's 'out of the question', I'd offer as my centerpiece of US government abuse the 1930's Tuskegee experiments where syphilis was deliberated given to black men without their knowledge and then untreated to see how the disease would develop.  In the name of 'science'.

 

This little horror of history was covered up from about 1932 until 1972 before it finally 'leaked' to the mainstream.  And then there were the servicemen who were deliberately exposed to atomic tests and the list goes on....

 

So, given the number of patents on weather modification, RF propagation, and other suggestive developments like the aerosols measurement projects, no, I don't think chemtrails are completely 'out of the question' at all.  Could they be partly an artifact of reformulation of jet fuel to make it safer (anti-wicking)? Nope...seems more to it than that.

 

But since I've done a little reading and research on the topic, if the government were to announce that "Yeah, we've done spraying to test this or that..."  (especially if connected with something like global warming or improving the aim of HAARP or some yet-to-be-disclosed project) would I be surprised?

 

Not in the slightest. 

 

Read what I wrote carefully: "the chemtrail conspiracy theory" and "In some of the accounts...".  Stop projecting...like many other topics, I'm in the research mode on this with no predisposition to outcome of the research - which is the only way honest result are ever obtained.  Take the IPCC, please.

 

If, in your judgment this constitutes stupid ignorances on my part, I guess, so be it.  Could be that's a two way street. 

 

I try to strive for an open mind, but not so open that my brain falls out. 

 

UFO's?

Video out of China looks more like a big kite than a UFO to me, but go have a look yourself.

 

Monday Management Notes

Don't know if you've seen how Google is continuing to press Microsoft's Office franchise with something called DocVerse.  A plug-in that lets Office work with docs. ppt's, xls's, etc 'in the cloud'...

 

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