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- Friday about 8 AM Central Time ....some typos are fixed by
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The Usual Sat. AM Note: This being the weekend, content is for subscribers to our premium service www.peoplenomics.com. Some of this week';s highlights include the latest death march of banks worked over (and out) by FDIC, Robin Landry's latest update and in the in-depth section Sunday a look at what 'must go right' in order for the global economy not to wind up with a big flushing sound. If $40 a year is too much dough, come on back Monday for more of our free reports here - and if you get some time, try my 'burgundy beef' recipe laid out in the Friday column. Man (or woman, for that matter) doesn't live by money alone and, like Pappy used to say "You stomach doesn't have to know you're not rich..."
ABC: SEC's Porn Surfing Oh yeah - credit where due on this one. ABC's Good Morning America site has a story headline "SEC Officials Surfing Porn During Financial Crisis, Report Finds".
How long have I been telling you "We're screwed!"? Now, seems there's evidence that someone was at least fantasizing about it... --- Worth a read: Michael Barone's piece at Real Clear Politics: "Big Government in Bed with Big Business". It details how the SEC Goldman case was used to push through the Dodd 'financial reform bill' which as Barone writes "Its provisions promise to give us one episode of Gangster Government after another."
Hand-wringing
aside, what I'm not clear about how "one episode of Gangster
Government after another" would vary with what's already been
in play since the Reagan era? Somewhere, waaaay down my
reading list is David Stockman's book Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed
Theory was (for for about 10 minutes until disproven) that there would be some kind of free lunch for capitalism with tax reductions, outsourcing and globalism. But, no, instead a system that was working has gotten broken to the point where we're now in this purple haze land where "All the king's horse and all the king's men..." can't put Humpty Dumpty's Constitution and Runaway Corporate Fascists together back in the same bottle again.
Durable Goods The envelope, please?
Not to ruin Friday for you...BUT...this is sure as hell looking like the start of the double-dip recession tipping its hand to me. But does the market see things as I do? Never! In fact, seems the futures are still up on hopes about Greece's debt picture.
I don't know if it has occurred to any of the reptilian spawn down on the street that even if Greece was solved this would still portend a further drop in employment in the US, so what's this happy talk about rising markets, huh?
Not that it matters, since there's virtually no retail business - and what little there is is probably still front-run anyway. All acceptable of course, since the Fed's right role is no longer sound money. Nossir, they're in the 'stability business' which is freakin dandy, ain't it? So it means loaded markets...don't you worry, just trust US...heard that from Madoff I think, too.
Fungus Amungus Don't know if you remember reading one of Cliff's ALTA reports from several years back, but there was a really scary entry about the "fungus amungus" in one of the predictive linguistic reports. There was also - very shortly after that report - a 'hit' (fulfillment of linguistic attributes) when some kind of fungus (think it was of Asian origin best I can remember) and it was killing people who lived near forests in the Pacific Northwest/Vancouver Islandish.
We'll, like a bad horror movie (hand me the hockey mask or chain saw, wouldja?) It's baaack! "Potentially deadly fungus spreading in US, Canada."
Symptoms? The article calls 'em this way: "The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss."
The UrbanSurvival secondary screening protocol? Test for alcohol abuse since this sounds like the mudderlode (sic) of all hangovers, too.
Already six dead from it (the fungus, not the hangovers, probably more from that) but still notable and coming on strong in media.
Catching up with the Nazis Oh, here's a plot for a novel, if there ever was one: "Pentagon Plans to revive Nazi space-bomber plan".
Polish Plane Crash Echoes Our correspondent in the EU says there's still political fallout all over the place in Polish media: "
All coincidence, I tell yeah...sure makes the case for cracking down on the web this year, doesn't it? I mean, how can the PowersThatBe operate when there's such obvious truth-leaking going on? Why, next thing you know whole populations might call bullsh*t on their leaders who ain't telling all. And then what we we have? I mean besides freedom and honest government...
The "Freedom as a Business" Model Been eyeing developments up in Campbell Ohio, where we hear that gun rights activists may have succeeded in getting a ban on firearm sales in the city rolled back.
But, as I was watching this video off WFMJ I couldn't help but notice that the city wanted to charge $2,000 for a permit and then more than $400 for 'police protection' for people to merely exercise their (supposed Constitutional right) to assemble peaceably.
While the city council there rolled back the gun sales ban, what they haven't done (least as far as my research has found thus far) is where freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution get tariffed.
Worries about gun sales aside, I think the larger issue is governments charging anything for exercise of Constitutionally protected rights - which gets me around to free speech and the corporate attack on Net neutrality. We know (as so does 'the Hill') that a major fight on net neutrality is coming since free ought to cost more...or least so it's headed.
Falling Mass Storage Prices Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle: TigerDirect's got a 1.5 terabyte hard drive for $70 after rebates. Kinda makes me want to start downloading movies, you know it?
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Been collecting a fair number of books and techniques on Dutch Oven cooking, which I expect we'll get around to this weekend. The last of my cooking implements showed up yesterday; a lid lifter.
With regular cooking, there's nothing to lifting a lid, unless you're doing a casserole in the oven, in which case a mitt of some kind makes sense. But, since the search "dutch over" +"burned fingers" came up with 104,000 hits, I decided that lifting a lid which could have up to 14 pieces of charcoal blazing away on it, was maybe something best done with the right tool, hence the lid lifter.
Came complete with the "made in China" sticker, which was disappointing. Not that Chinese can't weld and bend metal...they do that just fine. But isn't there anything made for the masses coming out of these Untied (sic) States anymore?
Since you may be tempted to try some Dutch Ovening yourself, there are a couple of handy pointers on how to judge Dutch temperatures on this page here. See "Hand Method" (which may not be too accurate, depending on how much cooking wine the chef has taken in and his/her tolerance to pain). The other thing on the page is a calculator, based on oven size and desired temp seems more accurate, but I'm not sure how plain old East Texas hardwood sawn up and coaled translates into briquettes.
Not sure how people ever 'made it West' a hundred & fiddy-odd years ago without Java runtimes, but that's another problem for another day. --- Big questionmark of the day which has me reaching for Hildebrandt's "Inorganic Chemistry" (an oldie but goodie) which can still be found on Amazon for under $5-bucks.
Why ask? My beef bourguignon (recipe follows) is made with a liter bottle of cheap jug wine which is what?
A hand goes up in the back of the class and a small voice says "Acids leach out impurities from metal?" Bingo, bongo! Gold star for the day.
I'm getting hungry just thinking about this...
Collect:
Brown meat, throw in all the cut up veggies in whatever size you want. Usually I don't cut up very much at all - the nature of being lazy, I suppose. Hell: If the meats cut up, the onions are quartered, and the celery is cut into 1½ " hunks, that's about all the honest work I'm good for. The pre-cleaned carrots get a quick rinse with a splash of vinegar (which drains off upon rinsing) which may (or may not) kill off some pesticides. Cut up the 'taters" Nope. Too much work. Same with the mushrooms. Those the damn things in whole and be done with it.
Seasoning is another matter. 3/8th's of a teaspoon each of Rosemary, Parsley, Sage, and 3-5 Bay leaves (whole) spaced evenly throughout. A half teaspoon of fresh-cracked black pepper and then dump the whole bottle of wine in.
Bring to boil, simmer for 3½ hours to 6-weeks on low/simmer but still the odd bubble, until the meat falls apart with a harsh look or the mere proximity of a fork.
Two things ruin this dish: adding salt in the cooking process - this makes the meat tough-as-nails and there's no hope once that happens. The other thing is using meat that is too lean. If you use a really lean cut of round steak, for example, your cardiologist will love you because it's a low fat meal with high fiber. However, your guests may rebel and remark on the dry - sometimes as much as near powdery texture the meat gets. The only cure for this is more wine (or other liquids) at dinner.
Serve with fresh French bread and unsalted butter (keeps the cardio crowd somewhat in check) and give away prizes, like a new car, trip to Jamaica, or whatever's laying around the house as door prizes for the guests who get the Bay leaves. Since we're in a Depression, instead of new cars and vacations, we've been reduced to first dibs on dessert. Oh, and I fish out the Bay leaves ahead of time just to be safe. Haven't given away a car or vacation since I figured that out. --- Don't remember if I put this in the Second Depression cookbook, or not, but that was probably too many pages to print off and do anything with, besides, don't think I linked it to the leaching from the Dutch Oven. think the two I put in that cookbook (free PDF, here, scroll down to "Reader Recipes and Such") was the firehouse noodle dish and the SST Sandwich.
This stew is definitely worth trying, I promise...and if I'm repeating myself, its because I'm so hungry this morning my stomach has been sending questions to my brain like "Have you been gagged and bound by gunmen or something? Where's my chow?" Shhh!!! That'll have to wait until we get back from a trip to you know where...
Friday at the WuJo Here's an interesting - and true near as I can figure - report out of Canada:
I suggested a couple of possible reasons to the writer: One was that Universe was simply "dropping a dime" on them, to put it in the parlance of an old-time detective movie; as in "If you see, or hear anything, drop a dime onh me" (meaning to call from a payphone). However, I don't think Universe would risk that, since although the couple involved may be old enough to remember pay phones and dimes, Universe has to be a lot hipper than that so I offered explanation #2.
The second choice was that Universe was telling them in so many hints "here comes change...now get off the dime and change..." That's my favorite choice.
The third choice is that whoever was buying their morning coffee and going for a walk after getting 10-cents worth of change repeatedly, eventually discovered the hole in the pocket of that pair of pants at about the same time as the house deals closed. Least favorite explanation, but there it is. A nod to the "science rules crowd" which should keep them happy over the weekend.
Irwin Allen's Dreams, Redux Oh, nothing of particular note in the theater of the dreams last night except that I was somehow engaged in a conversation/trying to help a teacher who was trying to teach a classroom full of 'regular students' all about 'commerce'. This teacher (mid 30's type, short cropped hair) had problems with his vehicle which we left the class to go out and work on and to pick up some classroom supplies. Of course, the 'Vette wasn't starting, and we didn't get the school supplies, so when we got back to the class, this teacher tried to get up and explain commerce and I remember rolling up my sleeves and thinking "my pedagogy is much folksier and will be much more interesting to this crowd..." I remember a feeling that a lot of these students would somehow catch on.
Obviously, not a roomful of economic policy-makers.
Dying to Know What's Next Our discussion (sort of interwoven through the week) on "The Law", "What happens when we die?" and such, brought in some nice emails to share:
Uh...well, this isn't exactly effort - labor of love is more like it.
Related: I had a brief exchange with Dr. Reece Manley (whose books I referenced in yesterday's report) and asked him "How would you advise people who are about to die? I mean, what - based on your best research - should they expect and what should those bedside maybe offer in support?
Live right, die right. But first I think I'd like to make stew this weekend and get a few more things off my to-do list. ---- While none of us knows the hour, predictive linguistics work I've been involved in (peripherally) since spring 2001 seems to point to a less than pleasant November of this year and for several years on from there. Curtain down, kind of November through 2012 period. If you haven't read my colleague Cliff's report "Wolf and the other Blitzers, the new War Season, a terrible choice" which begins "World War 3 is here..." may be worth a read but it's sobering stuff. Curdle the Wheaties stuff. I grant you that the linguistics seem often to overstate things, but eventually, as was the case in the August read on the December following Banda Aceh quake, the numbers in the linguistics ("300,000 dead or driven back to a previous age") eventually showed up in media. Unless things change dramatically from the WW 3 track, an alien attack on earth leaving only a billion dead, would be comparatively a happy ending. Yeah, the numbers are staggering and never seen a tipping point like this ever. 9/11 was impact measures minutes worth of change. This is months and months of that level, although the main thrust seems like four days. Which, if you've been paying attention these past few weeks, explains why we've been talking so much about ancient roots, the lost Laws of The Way, the path ahead, and the right way to go in case you're not around a year from now. I'm figuring our odds are only 60% of seeing 2011 flip over to 2012 and we're in the boonies out here - for some reasons that at times seem to verge on paranoia. And then I read the headlines which only confirm it's the world's gone crazy, not us sensible humans. See you Monday (or tomorrow if you're a Peoplenomics subscriber).
Send your comments to george@ure.net Shop Till You Drop Department: Peoplenomics This Week Implications of a Self Defining Hebrew System (SDHS) Several times over the past few weeks, I have made reference to a group I call simply the Jewish studies group in Canada. Although not composed of highly papered Hebrew scholars, the group has spent several years refining a discovery they call the Self Defining Hebrew system. At the core of the system is the concept that within the basis of Hebrew, there is a definite structure of how words and concepts are formed, which provide for an error correcting built into the language. This week, we depart some distance from our normal economic content in order to step back and do some extremely big picture concept framing, which provide social boundaries within which economic systems must operate. And yes, I will of course share the website address of the group. So you can take a look at some of their work first hand. More For Subscribers To Subscribe, CLICK HERE Need Logon Assistance? Click here. Cookie Video The folks at Maxa Research have put together a short video (sound track by guess who?) that shows the Maxa Cookie Manager. You can see it here.
I don't usually get all whipped up about software, but this is one of those dandy tools that just simply works great. First thing I put on my new computer when I got it was Avira Anti-virus and Maxa Cookie Manager (MCM). Either follow the on-screen download instructions of simply click:
Once you try it out, to upgrade to the fully functioning version, just click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive 'non-browser specific' cookies. Bonus: You computer may run faster.
"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..." ---- Last week's report is here. For back issues of this site, click here.
Thursday April 22, 2010 The National Sales Tax Cometh Think Big government has its hand a little too far into your wallet and your personal life now? Whoa, pahdnah...we've got us a whole new can of worms this morning as "Obama suggests value-added tax may be an option" which means...you guessed it...it's in the works.
Wikipedia explains the principle of the VAT this way:
Which is here if you've managed to keep your breakfast down after reading this far.
Want to know my problem with the VAT? No telling yet if it would replace the income tax, or if this is just a new way to suck more money out of regular working folks for the elite class who live on the leverage of money instead of working.
Where this all goes is simple (and the topic of the Sunday in-depth Peoplenomics) report this weekend: corporate feudalism. And if you wonder what that means, go look up the history of the old coal-mining song "16 Tons" and you'll get the idea. But more on that for subscribers this weekend. --- Hey! Wanna hear my great idea for a free press? I figure under a VAT there are few new words and so if we count all the previous uses of words upon which tax has been paid, how could there possibly be anything but no VAT on words??? Just thinking aloud here - and no way that'll ever happen. ---- Taxes, however would seem to accumulate over time, so maybe there's a new kind of accounting business that could spring up": Tax regression analysis - which would go way back in history to see how much was previously paid in taxes up to some limit, say 4,000 years ago.
But, of course, ownership of America came at gunpoint, something we tend to wash over in our thinking, and so too, comes tax enforcement. It's got to be more than coincidence that VAT and BAD both have three letters to them, doesn't it? But that gets us to...
Bank Watch Wall Street Journal post from Wednesday: "The U.S.’s Least Capitalized Big Bank: The Fed". Of course, when you can still get ink and paper, I don't see any problem, LOL. --- Say, you're not really worried about the US Buck arriving at its "Havenstein Moment", are you?
That New Bill Several stories are out about how the new US $100 bill unveiled to much pomp and circumstance looks a little too much like someone else's currency. See if you can figure this out without too much help:
"America's new $100 bill might as well be a Euro".
Here's my free - multimillion dollar - marketing idea of the day. We declare some kind of fixed exchange to the Euro and call the new bill the "Hundred Buckaroo". (groans, faint rim shot heard from the bored drummer)
The (Latest) Big Lie? The new Producer Price Index figures are out from the Labor Department this morning:
Let me see here: finished goods up 6% Year on Year (YoY) and now we have 0.7% which annualized to 8.73%.
Now here's where you'll want to keep Occam's Razor away from your wrists: On the one hand, we see the prices of finished goods are up 6.0% by official figures out this morning - right?
But on the other, the same folks in Labor Stats argue in those Consumer Price Index numbers out last week that (let's quote to be sure I get this right...):
So, OK, follow the logic here: If the prices paid for finished goods are up 6% and the CPI is up only 2.3%, then the only place I can figure the money is going is into thinner margins of retailers...who should be going in the hole 3.7% compared with year ago earnings levels.
But wait! They're not. In fact, some report actual increases. In fact, the Census Bureau showed this in the March Retail report:
So...how do these numbers hang together?
In two words or less? They don't. At least not superficially.
Goods are up 6%, CPI is up only 2.3%, and sales of retail are up strongly. Is there an explanation? Why sure: We are only seeing the bulk of increases in things that don't translate immediately/directly into the CPI figures. Either that, or retailers are generously continuing to cut their margins: NOT.
Maybe I should maybe go into a treatment program and not come out till government figures all tie together.
Better Idea: Suggest that the Obama administration to set up a Cabinet Level "Office of Common Sense dot GOV" to explain a few things that thinking people worry about...numbers that don't seem to tie together might be a good starting point.
A PS: Did I mention that crude goods are up 33.4% - so what's in the pipeline could be massively inflationary? Yet, despite that, gold is down, so I can only guess the market will move lower from the open.
Oh crap: futures are pointing downward...well, I guess that's reassuring since some things hang together. Inflation getting to be a good long-term bet? Have to look at gold and silver options again, maybe...speaking of which...
From my commodity guy's blog this morning:
Polish Plane Crash Follow-Up I suppose you've heard by now that the fellow who shot the video which was reportedly shot at the crash site - video which caught what could be gunfire - has been reportedly killed by assailants. --- Even more interesting is the Czech report that runway lights were removed after the crash...(You find the translation site and run it).
While you're Czech'ing on that, a reader sends this:
All coincidental, I tell yah! Oil/gas resources, oppose the international banksters and not buying enough flu vaccine? Why that's enough to make any airplane stop flying especially with landing lights changed out....oh-oh...forgot: this is all coincidental. Yep...of course. Coincidental.
Mexico's New Economy Not sure how this will play out, but reports are coming out this morning that a hotel in Monterrey Mexico has been attacked by up to 50 gunmen and many people have been kidnapped. --- Want to cut off the Mexican drug gangs? Legalize drugs in the US - get people counseling and that will take the narcobiz money off the table. But, of course, this won't happen because there is too much dough and a fair chunk of it is laundered and sent to the people who make laws and...well, you know how them dots connect. Toss in prisons as a growth industry and...well...enough, huh?
Pimp My Site Department Reading how Facebook users got some new features rolled out yesterday including a clickable "like" button - which I'd appreciate you adding for UrbanSurvival. A little shameless self-promotion never hurt, just ask Bernie....uhhh...next?
Learning About Learning Lots of press
popping up about a topic we covered on Peoplenomics several
weeks back. In the new book Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs
Gee, bet you could never guess which way we lean around here.
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Coping: Irwin Allen's Newsroom So, if you read the post earlier this week about "Irwin Allen's Dream", in which I laid out dreaming about something having to do with warehouse, arson, cook, fire, deaths (2), and near someplace called "the Wall" in the oil services business, things got sorta half-way interesting on Wednesday when, in the aftermath of the rig fire in Louisiana when emails like this one started to come in:
About here, I got to wondering, so how did my 'dream' come up specifically with a 'cook' being involved/prominent? And then along comes the story out of Associate Press coverage here...
Maybe the reason that dream didn't contain any fear was that seems the cook is OK... But still, very interesting, but whether it's meaningful to have a dream like this and then have an event come along which hits on some of the key words within 24-hours, well, that's interesting, but of course Junior Scientist in my asks "Is it repeatable?" --- So I went back to my private "Irwin Allen" theater (sleep) last night to see what else could be captured in the way of approaching events.
Two dream segments, one in particular seems to have the same 'flavor' (similar-production values for a lack of a better ways of putting it...) of the "cook/fire/arson/the wall" dream. I think the mistake I made with my first Irwin Allen Dream post was I reported on my sense of what was behind the dream - in other words, I should stick to noting only those items which are visible & significant and try not to 'see beyond' the actual contents for contexts. Being a time monk in training helps a lot, it turns out, trying to understand the subtle ways of the future.
So the distinctly recallable elements of one segment from last night are these:
Naturally, I figured (with waking/logical mind) that this means sometime in the near future, say between now and Monday) we might get treated to a woman figure somewhere unveiling a national ID card concept, or that maybe the whole national ID controversy will spring back into the public mindset over the next few days....at least, that'd be the nickel bet down at the Casino of Life.
The second recallable portion of last night's dream dealt with a former co-worker - someone I haven't thought about for years - going into the hospital and knowing the outcome of that. I'll try to track him down today and inquire as to how things are going...but if he's in a hospital and planning to go in for surgery, I'll let you know. --- There was enough of a 'fit' around what I saw in my dream (Sunday night) and the oil/gas rig explosion and fire Monday night that I'm back to pondering how thin the veil might be between the 'here and now' and the 'then and there'.
As usual, when I'm on the 'right path' in any of my "coping section" writings, Universe drops hints that this is somehow the right thing to be writing about. Don't know how much you've gotten into the Self-Defining Hebrew Project at www.thechronicleproject.org which I referenced yesterday, or how far you've gotten into tracking back to times before Egypt with the Austine Waddell books I recommended a while back which traced the history of the Sumeria/Aryans (which we have foreshortened to 'Sumarians') but there seems to be a continuum here.
One of the big "Oh, so that's how things might work...", for example, is that has become evident to me is that at some 'level-above-humans' in the here and now, there is a huge emphasis on The Law. All of which has me wondering if The Law, which in the Old Testament was lost in Egyptian times (prior to Exodus) may not have been lost considerably earlier and it just got 're-issued/reminded' on the mountain with Moses.
So my two questions for the studies group is whether the time reference was specifically to Egypt (the place) or whether the loss of The Law from the original terraforming crew was actually lost over a longer period than 70-odd years - maybe back to Vedic, Chaldean, Sanskrit times? --- At any rate, Universe seems bound by whatever The Law is to only drop hints about things. Not sure why that is, but both sides of the Big/Cosmic rulebook (and Dance) seem to say that The Law must be followed which would neatly explain why when (in this case, the bad/evil side) do something, there are always hints laid out in plain sight about what's coming - and often far enough in advance that few people see the "Due Notice" function. Not sure how it all works, but it seems to be part of The Law.
While Universe/The Ruler of All, and The Supremes (Malak) are mostly limited to dropping hints, when hints are really obvious - like an email popping in as I write on a particular subject - and I mean at the exact moment I'm writing it - then I figure there must be something significant to be passed on. (Or, it's the bad side/evil) Nakhash/Luciferian side...again, no telling how this works, since I may have missed some fine print in The Law somewhere along the way.)
Whew! Don't mean to get too long-winded about this, but it's really both complicated and simple, how Universe seems to work. The underlying principal is that The Laws are only now coming into focus and the laws of physics are a fine example. We've gone from basic theory, to Newton, to Einstein to Schrodinger to CERN and at each step along the way the real (i.e. underlying) Law comes closer into view - except of course, it gets fuzzier, too...which may be part of the grand joke (or is it the challenge?) of Total Law for everything, everywhere, every time, every dimension.
Not sure if that's a fasting, abstinence, roast a bowl, pour-me-another-one, or back to Irwin Allen's newsroom kind of problem to sort out. --- The (serendipitous) mail that popped in this morning was from Advocate Publishing, and this particular hint/slap/reminder timed so gracefully by Universe was to mention the book "Crossing Twice" by Dr. Reece Manley, which according to this email which popped in:
The books (two
volumes worth) are available from Amazon as Crossing Twice: Answers from the Source: The Journey to the After Life and the Wisdom Brought Back (Volume 1)
Now, inquiring
mind goes off wondering, what is IANDS that's referred to in yon
email? I sort of suspected it would be something like the
"The
A quick view of the site says, yep, plenty of additional reading to be done here including discovering that a 2-part documentary on the near-death experience is about to his New Tang Dynasty Television (in China) with a potential for 200-milloion viewers.
So, not sure if Universe wanted me to pass on the book or whether just a news item to be tucked away that some porti8on of up to 200-million more humans may be partially awakened to the larger reality (within which this little one operates, apparently) as part 1 goes on tomorrow and seems like part two goes on a week from Friday.
Either way,
interesting stuff, however still taken with a healthy dose of
skepticism. After all, I remember the book How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
Since the
publication of the breakthrough book on the subject, Dr. Raymond
Moody's Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon--Survival of Bodily Death
Dying
brain cranks out DMT, for example, would seem to fit. The
leading edge on this is probably still near
DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences
That offered, there's another one of those pesky Laws that we seem to be slowly sorting out that has to do with the conservation of energy - and that gets us back to where does human energy go at the time of death. Way? Away, where then? --- Regardless, I have had plenty of dreams of a very personal and specific nature (like knowing when my youngest daughter was in the hospital as a dream/vision when I was hundreds of miles away and not near any telephone or communications device) and the odd semi-fitted segment that seems to fit following events, that I find myself still groping around in the dark looking for more of Jung's synchronicity. From personal experience, there's a seldom-used, but still workable 'phone line' between humans that comes to life (for now) mainly at times of extreme stress...but with enough tension and pressure in our lives (not to mention EMF field densities and such) that seems to be a kind of 'personal 9/11' that works only between connected humans.
If you haven't
read up on that, there's a fine (not overly academic read) in
Chapter 4 of "Synchronicity : Through the Eyes of Science, Myth and the Trickster
As we get on toward the weekend, I'll be the guy surfing channels trying to see the woman in the light brown outfit trying to figure out stacking of Social Security, military service, and driving records/license info onto a single card. Maybe she'll be on the Sunday news channel talking-head circuit defending National ID cards...but something like that. She seems quite worried about the balancing act.
Oh, and if you happen to catch a better glimpse of Jung's unus mundus, and how to put a dime in that Wurlitzer, please send it along. Trying to feel along the path slowly is lots of work and painfully slow.
Another Path Son, George II, not finding an EMT gig in the Seattle area, for now, is planning in a month to do a couple of weeks of public service time in Haiti. Says it will be a chance to test his skills to their limits. Plans to rent a satphone and send pix...which we'll post if it happens. Never know about these things.
Wednesday April 21, 2010 Greeced and Ready? Can't help but notice a good chunk of the headlines in financial sources today deal with the "Euro drops against Dollar as talks being on aid for Greece" and other such maneuverings as efforts continue to find the right Grecian formula.
One of the possibilities is hitting up some EU countries, but the German Economy Minster says they haven't requested aid yet.
Off in the credit-default markets, people holding Greek paper seem to be searchin g for the next greater fools... and no, I sort of doubt the Bulgarian/Greek plans to copromote tourism to Rhodopes will solve a lot, although looks like a spot worth visiting. --- Air travel is turning back on in Europe today, but slowly and the losses are largish.
Financially, not much going on other than crude inventories coming out at 10:30 this morning and this could be just one boring-as-hell day in the markets barring some actual news happening.
Nevertheless, best Greece'd and ready for whatever comes next, besides a possible backslide after yesterday's rally. The real action for the week will have to wait for tomorrow when president O (oh, not zero) comes out with his "defining finance reform speech" tomorrow. Oh goodie.
Speaking of finance...Howard Hill's latest posting (I get up earlier than Howard) is another chapter from his book and this one is called "Invisible Leverage" and you absolutely have to read it or go wandering around economically ignorant...which doesn't seem to bother 306.4 million Americans much... even if you scroll down to the bottom of the entry for definitions of terms like prime broker, notional, and side pocket investments, you'd be far ahead of most.
But that gets us around to the great fleecing and something we can sink our teeth into a little bit today as the futures are even to down slightly...
Best Gov't Money Can Buy Department Recrudescent Politics Once upon a time, the republicorps a/k/a the GOP stood for smaller central government and strong of Constitutional issues including 'that piece of paper' and civil rights. Once upon a time it was worth supporting, but then I liked Ike. However, the latest headlines that "GOP seeks SEC records on Goldman" seem to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Why, it's almost like the GOP is coming to the defense of Goldman by just asking such questions. Must be an election nearby, huh?
But then again, this ain't Pappy's Republican Party. This one gave up on small central government long ago, balanced budgets were off'ed long before Bush (you figure out if I'm talking I or II, too early for me), and once pro Constitution leanings seem to have been replaced by the realization that regular little folks (like you & me) don't part with their dough as easily as some big name corporations some of which gave around a million to each side of the last presidential contest (if my memory is not completely gone) which gets cheerfully accepted as a down payment for later 'access'.
I couldn't help but notice that cong. Darrell Issa's contributions to his campaign are about 52% from political action committees of late, but more interestingly, I don't see a lot of dough coming into to his campaign here lately from insurance, finance, and banking outfits...his top dollars seem to be coming from Defense Electronics and Casinos & Gambling interests. However there doesn't seem to be much from real estate, finance, and banking types.
Seeing as this is an election year - and thanks to www.opensecrets.org for giving the public an eyes-on view of this stuff, question is, will that change?
Want to see someone working over the wallets of the bankster class more effectively? Go check "financial reformer" Chris Dodd. OpenSecrets shows in his top five industries for support over the past five years have been 1) Securities and investment (a/k/a/ Wall St.), 2) Lawyers and Law firms (representing whom? Or, do lawyers just give away money and do lots of pro bono inside the Beltway? 3) Insurance, 4) real estate, and 5 (you'll love this...) Commercial banks. Wonder what Dodd will do with that $3.7 million cash-on-hand when he leaves office? Be fun to watch where that goes, huh? Issa should make notes on Dodd's stable of supporters...er....check-writers...or has he already?
So while some on the right may ask for documents about Goldman's contacts with the White House and elsewhere, near as I can figure, this is just two sides to the same old political (protection racket) coin: Contribute or headlines will come. ---- I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Elections in the USA should be limited to only money from inside congressional districts or inside states for senators and no corporate or special interest/PAC money.
Until that changes, we might as well put elections on eBay and let the corporate bidders and the PAC rats spend away in plain sight/realtime. I'm pretty sure a few million thinking Americans see the bidding process for what it is and have stepped aside in disgust.... which is why around here, we, call that whole pile of people inside the Beltway "corpgov". --- Recrudescent is a medical term which goes to the idea of 'becoming raw again' after a period of quiescence. Like politics becomes raw again as we get closer to E day now.
Domestic Terrorism Front? 23-people arrested (so far) in the Hemet California area suspected of attacks against police. Not sure if this is a white supremacist group or just gangs trying to lay blame off on the people who want less porous borders...I suppose that'll come out over time. Office pool?
Cars: Good News/Bad News The good: Americans say US cars are better than Asian cars now claims a poll. Bhe bad? Didn't stop Chrysler from bleeding $187 mil Q1.
I'd buy another Chrysler product, but the local dealership in Palestine, Texas was one of those which lost its dealership rights and I'm still pissed about that. Can't get my truck serviced...end up doing it myself and that cuts into beer time.
Irwin Allen's Dreams, Redux Nothing in Cornwall (Fal Ria) yet, but there was an oil platform explosion and 11 or 12 are missing in a Louisiana oil rig blast about 10 PM last night. Has me rereading my dream notes from Monday.
Bond Woes Or, is it Bond Whoa's!? The BBC reporting the "James Bond film suspended amid MGM uncertainty". Yes, I've told the readers who sent in that tip "Indicates more serious trouble in the Bond market, doesn't it?" (rim shot, groans) --- Gotta wonder what the
impact of political correctness and inflation would have been on
Ian Flemming's series if written today? Character names
would have to be changed to cope with inflation, for sure.
Octopussy would have to be updated to Fiddypussy, and Moneypenny
would have to be Moneydime. But this gets us off into a
discussion of what (pardon this) these inflatable dolls ought to
be named in current times, and somehow that just seems, oh, you
know...tacky. And we never do that, around here, do
we? --- snip and save section ---
Coping: Alien Wars' Start Tomorrow Say, not to ruin your day early on (although that's never stopped me before) but seems as though one of the long-term web bot hits is about to smack us upside the head tomorrow. And that is? The Alien Wars meme.
"Say what?"
Oh yeah, for more than a year (two or three I think it is, not all of it published) there's been this part of predictive linguistics that points (within the SpaceGoatFart entity/bit bucket where all non-Earthly stuff lands) this meta set that is encapsulated under the term "alien wars".
I refer to this because of the headline from Debka.com this morning which announces "Secret US Air Force unmanned space plane set for launch" which we note isn't much of a 'secret" anymore and has been pushed back to tomorrow due to weather.
Not exactly 'alien wars'? Well, there's the one sentence in particular I'd draw your attention to that's has me worried I've tripped over one of those 'truth-hidden-in-plain-sight" kind of things:
Don't know if you have looked at some of the raw footage over at Ed Grimsley's site but it seems there's a whole bunch of activity going on overhead which is acting non-terrestrial. Oh sure, there's speculation that it's either an off-planet breakaway civilization from here or it's an off-planet group from elsewhere. But, as one of the Star Trek characters used to say "Insufficient data, Capt'n". --- I'm sure you've followed the exploits of various writers who have claimed that we never went to the moon in what, 1969 wasn't it? Moreover, there are plenty of people on the net lately who have been speculating that the first moon missions actually saw something on the backside of the moon (as in once inhabited ruins).
Even wilder speculation that 'reptilians' who have had us warming up the planet to make it a little more hospitable (global warming) have instructed us not to go back to the moon, which - say current conspiracy theories floating about - is why president Obama scrubbed the US going back to the Moon although curiously China is moving aggressively ahead with Moon missions. Moon real estate for bonds? You tell me.
I won't kid you: Stories under headlines like ""Figures. Obama's NASA Speech Completely Staged - No NASA Employees Allowed to Attend" last week was extremely interesting. Especially when read back-to-back with "Neil Armstrong blasts Obama's 'devastating' NASA cuts". --- And this has what to do, exactly, with the Economy and longwave economics?
Well, since we've been sinking into a second Depression since the Dow (and other averages) peaked (on a purchasing power/inflation adjusted basis) in early 2000, here we are 10-years later needing some kind of major economic stimulus to drag the country back into production and growth. While the Healthscare Bill night do part of it, there's a lot more since the economy can't get completely circular (shoemakers selling shoes to other shoemakers, or in this case, doctors doctoring doctors) so we need a good off-planet enemy.
And to do that, we need war-fighting machinery.
Which is why tomorrow's launch of the X-37B is so cool. It starts to fill a linguistic set that has all kinds of alien wars (e.g. off planet militarization) going on. I assume you had enough school and enough curiosity to figure out the asteroid belt was from a planet which was blown up the last time 'alien wars' went hot? --- Now, go click over to www.thechronicleproject.org (very slow loading) which is the little Jewish studies group up in Canada which has been busy rediscovering the Self Defining Hebrew System. Not saying they're right, but their work (reconstructing Genesis from the 22 letters of SDHS Hebrew) seems to indicate that Earth was a terraforming project way back when. And that fits with what? Oh, how about alien wars?
The go read "Disclosure: Aryans, Mars, and the End of Days" an interview with Jay Weidner.
Of course, all
this started to get traction in the 1990's when Graham Hancock's
book Fingerprints of the Gods
So is there really going to be 'alien wars'? Well, time wise, now's about when we should be seeing a prequel/pre-echo of what's to come later on this year. And there's your off planet combat talk starting up.
While I'm not going to tell you that something like this will happen, let's just say that the linguistic fill has begunst (sic) and things are looking up, more than ever.
Great Balls of Fire? That recent Wisconsin fireball last weekend?
So sayeth a reader from her days at U Wyoming. Don't let her read about the alien wars timing... say, that wasn't wreckage from a shoot-down, was it?
Ure Advertising Policy If you're really wide awake this morning, you'll notice that there's a link to Emergency Essentials down at the bottom of the few ads that this site sports. The small number of folks that actually buy anything from advertisers actually contributes to keeping the lights on around here. But, unlike some site where ads come from fancy servers and such, this one comes from the heart.
The reason is I did a lot of shopping around for long-term storable foods about 4-years ago...wanted to have enough to last a full season. Beside planting our own garden (and having a year or two 'in the can' with heritage seeds from Everlasting Seeds), a sun oven, and so on, we also wanted a store of both red and white wheat, rolled oats, and some MRE's and freeze-dried foods....so we got them from Emergency Essentials. Don't know if Scotty is still there - forgot to ask, but just darned good people.
At the moment, they're having a sale on Mountain House freeze-dried products and they've got some pretty good deals. Back when I was living on my sailboat (pre-Elaine) I kept a stock of freeze-dried beef stroganoff on the boat. All it takes to prepare is hot water and on a sailboat, especially when single-handing a boat, there's not much better than a hot meal with not much effort.
Yeah, we can go into the discussion about how fresh-cooked meals are this or that, but if you have a boat or RV, seems to me that having a good stock of meals-on-the-fly is a good thing. And at the house, we have 220 gallons of water in those blue water barrels. --- Now and then I get inquiries from folks (often in financial services) who will ask me "Would you consider selling me ad space on your site?" Answer is no. Reason? This site is about finance and the second Depression and about being prepared.
I'm pretty
straightforward about advertising...if it's on the right side of
the page, it's people I've done business with, or in the case of
the Open ECG Project, it's people who are doing so much good as
to deserve broad public support. But, since people ask now and then, I thought I should write it down...these are people we personally use. We got our radiation survey meter from Shane over at www.KI4u.com and so forth.
I call my approach the "reputational filter". May be quirky, but that's how things are around here.
Word Search Been thinking about mentioning the Silly Con Valley lost Apple 4G iPhone prototype that's been getting so much ink (or is that pixels?) in the tech-blogosphere.
"How can I cover the event, so as to have people fully informed of what's going on and yet, not also become a me-too writer on a topic only of interest to people who insist on carrying electric dog leashes (cell phones) around?"
As usual, Universe came through with the one word (from the UrbanDictionary.com word of the day email) that tells the whole story in one word:
Tuesday April 20, 2010 Good News for Lawyers The story that "Goldman Tops Forecast, With $3.46 Billion in Earnings" means something really simple to me: They ought to have the dough to buy good lawyers for their SEC showdown.
But it's not just Goldman. Why, all those lawyers ostensibly representing We the People are busily arguing about 'financial reform' and I have no idea how many lawyers that will keep busy.
But, now we come to the latest of Ure's New Economic theories. After careful study, I have concluded that Lawyers are going to lead the economic recovery!
Want evidence? Sure! A search of Google's news items shows 58,748 hits on the word "lawyer" and 88,100 for the word "attorney". By comparison, there were only 97.330 hits for "workers" but since most lawyers have at least one paralegal, I figure right there we have a huge boost coming for the economy.
Of course, the reason is obvious when I think it through. There are 147,500 stories in the Googlemeister's news box this morning related to "law" while there were only 9 hits for the phrase "common sense."
Peace scores 52,937 stories. War scores 169,753 when I looked.
On Monday, The Conference Board released its monthly report on leading economic indicators and it points to a recovery:
But wait - check this out:
I don't want to suggest that Leading Economic Indicators might be a little misleading (or off base), but the LEI has been recovering nicely since 13-months ago and I'm not seeing the improvement in the jobs picture and last time I checked, foreclosures were heading up again.
Oh - and improvement in the jobs picture? 'Scuse me? 167,000 Census workers, was it? Still 9.x percent unemployment?
Worse, the "U.S. Housing Program Fails to Stem Foreclosures, Watchdog Says" headlines a BusinessWeek story this morning. But it goes deeper than that.
LEI simply doesn't measure your well-being. It measures numbers, but as my deflationist pal Jas Jain keeps reminding: In a credit based economy, if credit creation isn't stable to increasing, you're not going to have a recovery.
Some numbers considered are building permits... but little growth there, and things like new durable goods order? That impacts Japan, Korea, Mexico, and India more than here, the way I figure it. The whole handbook of how LEI is figured is 156 pages and is online here. skip to page 75 for 1996 Indicators Close Up and you can see other areas where distortion might occur - counting initial unemployment claims, but what about the long-term unemployed who haven't gotten a job yet?
Things like that bother me. Not saying LEI is wrong, just saying it doesn't completely square with street-level economics or my vastly simpler: family unemployment index which although it has improved, has done so at on average, about 17% lower pay. LEI might improve...but where the pull through spending? Don't bet too much on it being there are previous levels. --- So when I read through the remarks of Fed governor Elizabeth Duke on Monday where she said...
...it says to me "Is there a gap between LEI (which could be respelled a little differently, I think) and what the real world is foretelling?"
Duh. --- Policymakers seem blinded by numbers and here's the news flash: Exported jobs making imported goods is not a growing economy. It's further collapse waiting to happen. LEI or spelled some other way....time oughta tell on this one, but my money's still on double dip, even once the market gets up to our best case Dow 11,245 expectations for the Big La Bouncsky.
Meantime, I figure at best, we have a recovery lead by lawyers, repo men, and government employees. This is change, huh?
Moody's Blues California attorney general Jerry Brown is trying to get Moody's - the rating outfit - to comply with a state subpoena which seeks to find out how they were involved in the state's housing meltdown.
Ah...more lawyering work.
Volcano Bailouts? I have a great sense of humor and all, but airline bailouts? OMG, not another bailout plan... --- Not that I'm completely insensitive to this...I suppose we could recover the whole of the world's economy if we'd all just open bed & breakfasts that operate 6-months out of the year and all go traveling.... but then we get almost to "Dr Ron's Leisure Class" idea...which is where we seem to be headed anyway. --- I assume you saw the headline that the "Ash fallout worse than 9/11: official"? With all due respect to IATA, the volcano is not going to spawn a whole new security/war-making industry...and no, no one at the airport is going to ask "Anyone shove any hot lava into your luggage when you weren't looking?"
Besides, laws of physics are still in place: It's a lot more energy efficient to push a ton of cargo (11.76 average 170 pound air passengers) across a state on steel rails and steel wheels than it is to launch half a million pounds of aluminum into the sky on the pretext that the difference between lower pressure on the upper side of a wing compared with the lower side is worth it.
Is there that much to be in such a damn hurry for? There's an art to sailing ships and trains get to the heart of the city (as any New Yorker knows) so if volcanoes remind us to keep our feet on the ground, well, that's ain't all bad.
Unless you own or have an airline, car rental, airplane, airplane engine maker, restaurant, or an aircraft electronics job (mostly exported, I figure).
Drought Notes Developing world is running out, says a new report. The planet, meantime, is happily screwing its way into oblivion...food, water... I think it was Jay Hanson who wrote on the Dieoff.org site a long time ago. Something to the effect that we don't have a shortage of resources, what we have is a longage of humans.
For whatever reason, the US Drought Monitor (here) hasn't been looking bad lately. However, an alert reader says in the UK the whole issue of sustainable food seems to have gotten politicized a couple of months back. Amazing, huh?
The Bigger Problem Is.... A number of readers are back to sending me websites claiming that the real problem of 2012 will be something really big - and earth impacting - flying by our little rock. Here's a typical link.
Not saying they are wrong because another reader sends this 'blast from the past"
Yeah - and what about those huge civil defense shelters the Russians built? Why do I have the feeling there's so much more to 2012 than we're being told, huh?
Oh, Look Surprised Gee, imagine this! A Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission member seem likely to place the recently dead in a plane crash president of Poland. Gee...who would ever have suspected? --- Of course the crash was an accident -- a brilliantly timed, massively inconvenient accident but.....gosh, why question the Matrix?
--- snip and save section ---
Coping: Spring Ranch Chores The addition onto the office is finally mostly done - a light fixture to add today but it adds a couple of hundred square feet of space and looks like part of the building - which was the intent. never been a big fan of additions with too much of a 'cobbled on look'.
But that gets me to the question of what this year's property tax bill should look like, and near as I can reckon, that should be about the same amount as last year's. However, governments being governments, there are plenty of stories starting to pop up like this one, that inform us "Property tax bills rise even as home values fall".
A sensible county commissioner I know here in Texas (of a different county) explained the process to me...although this year, our home's assessed valuation here is down 3.1% and our adjoining land is down almost 15%, so I can't really kick.
But, my point is that in some places around the country, the real economics of property are being distorted so I decided to jot down a list some of the property tax arguments you might want to consider if your tax bill goes up this year, instead of down like it should most places:
My friendly county commissioner from another county would no doubt question my logic on a couple of these points, but in particular, I'd argue that all tax sales of similar property would have to be included in the base.
One thing seems like a pretty safe bet (the only kind I take): Real estate valuation workers ought to have a bumper crop of appeals this year. ---- It may be headline grabbing to be a birther or a tea partier, or open carry demonstrator (three stories that non-USA media are currently playing up) but when comes down to practicalities, the real blocking and tackling is in real estate assessments that go up when the economy (and home sales prices are down). Seems like a reasonable area of focus and one of the most practical means there is to keep the size of government proportionate to the population. --- Of course, over the longer term, it hasn't worked. My friends who are defenders of big government point out that "How are you going to pay for fire and police?" To which I point out that the local sales tax was 6.5% when I moved here and it's now 8.5% (or so such). In some states, the sales tax is north of 9%.
My point being what? Government shouldn't cost more than a 5% sales tax and property shouldn't be taxed as more than ½ of 1% of net market value.
That's plenty of money for schools, fire and police services. What it won't fund is the plethora of new county agencies which most places have spawned over the last 50-years. Frogs don't jump being brought slowly to a boil, I suppose.
Curious Promotion I seem to be scheduled as a guest on Beyond the Ordinary - an internet radio show on Friday. The fun thing on their schedule is the ham radio code on the list, LOL.
SOC's and Like-Minded Folks Not sure how to deal with this one, but a reader has a bone to pick:
I've thought about these kinds of things several times. In fact, if you think back a year or two, I actually set up a user forum where people could post their ideas on this, or that.
The reason I got rid of it was pretty simple: it's too easily abused and the last thing I need would be baddies posting notes back and forth on an open forum. Since this kind of thing inevitably leads to some kind of registration process, I thought "Do I want to wade into this?" Since there's little return ( just a lot more work ) in forums - especially when even with profanity filters, people can still get pretty ornery and offensive, I've just put that all into the "Nice, but too hard for now..." pile and let it go.
I guess one approach would be to set up a FaceBook 'group' or twitter or whatever, but again, I've got plenty to do around here as is, so I can't get excited about more web space and time.
Besides, I figure the folks that will really matter most will be those who are nearby...and I mean really nearby - like within walking distance. For these people, you can just make up some excuse and go knock on their door and that's how you get to know 'em. "Say, I see you just put in a such-and-such...and I live just over there and was wondering where you found...." Got that? When the crappola hits the roundy thing, these are the local connections you'll need to have - so the time to get acquainted with your neighbors is, oh, I don't know...yesterday, maybe?
Picture a world with no power, no municipal water, and then ask yourself "What good are friends 50-miles away?" nice now, maybe, but are they trading partners in a worst case outcome? Nope.
Irwin Allen's Dream, Redux No question about it: the place that meets all my dream requirements and could be somehow called "the wall" and fits with my bizarre dream about the oil services/warehouse fire, etc would be Cornwall England's "Fal Ria"
It's be interesting to see how many warehouse fires there have been in the past 10-years or so around there. disembodied spirits visiting dreams department, maybe? No clue...but just coincidentally, a strange number of brush fires in that part of Cornwall lately. Back to pondering an ruminating on this one. Gorse which they talk about in the article being local brush.
Monday April 19, 2010 Public Economic Hangings? With all the moves in CDS related news last week, I found myself wondering how soon we'd be hearing calls for capital punishment of financial offenders. Yeah, yeah, I know....not gonna happen, right? But there are countries (Switzerland among them) which in the past have sent bank presidents to jail for misdeeds even of their underlings and even if they weren't aware of the events. An example might be the late Dr. Paul Erdman, who I got to know after he'd done a stretch in the Swiss Big House because some folks in his bank got into a currency scandal...
Jail time is all it was...but with the growing size of the problems in high finance, one has to wonder if the problems become so severe that they can actually take down whole countries whether adverse trading couldn't be likened to treason and we know what level of punishments come with that, right?
Pop forward a few months to world going toward nuclear war this fall - partly because of dwindling resources but more than likely driven by the extremes of people being stiffed on serious debts. Got to imagine that China and other once-big buyers of US debt wouldn't be too happy with devaluation of the dollar over the long term, yet I don't see how that'll be avoided as the size of our debt makes the printing press the only long-term 'out'.
Why bring this up on what's a beautiful spring morning? Well, first it ain't beautiful - when I checked at press time all the European markets were bleeding red numbers. And a savvy reader thinks maybe the top is in":
I'm in no hurry to go making such pronouncements, but I've been short in my own account for more than a month. I expect this week Robin Landry will have something to say as his model of things is looking "toppish", but then again, he's also been looking at things like this national unemployment video - which if you take the time to watch it - raises a really good question or two. Like "How do you get a 'recovery' outa that?" --- All of which gets me to my first thought of the morning. Suppose we actually are to experience a global economic meltdown. I mean, seems to me we're in the middle of that right now...just in such slow enough motion that most people don't get it.
And suppose that we see a couple of more countries push over the economic brink to become wholly owned subsidiaries of (whatever).
How soon before
the global population starts thinking in terms of "public
hangings/executions"? I mean, if there's a group of people
who are systematically running things into the gutter for
private profit (or sovereign profit) then how long before the
public mood turns really ugly and pissy and in effect says
"100-years ago people got shot for horse thieving" What
not do a little of that for country busting today? Seems to me at some level (which we're well past) high economic crimes cross over from being 'civil events' to 'criminal events' to becoming 'capital crimes' (spelled both ways if you insist) for which people can be tried and if convicted pay the ultimate price.
So here's the ponder point: How bad does a crime/fraud/scam have to be - how many people does it have to destroy - before it scales beyond going to jail and means instead going to the gallows? What's that threshold?
If enough of the country-busting crimes happen, yeah, we may get a small economic ruling class, but if it drives the world into WW III by stiffing whole countries and trading blocks with bad paper and broken promises, isn't it just possible that some of the perps ought to be exited politely offstage and step up on this thing here, before the flashes of light start melting cities?
Just a thought. But one worth pondering because ultimately I think what starts as economic gamesmanship and then leads to cornered markets and diminished resources is well on a path to war.
How many dollars of crime does it take before capitol (sic) pilfering becomes capital crime? $1-million? $10-million? $100-billion? Losses from WW III? If I sound like deliberate economic losses (including those SOB's that create computer viruses that cause millions of economic damage, too) should be capital offenses, gee...your coffee must be sinking in.
Famous Howard Department How long have I been telling you my friend Howard Hill is the dude when it comes to understanding the ins and outs of Hi Fi (no, not stereos, you dolt, although he's into classic hifi gear as it happens....) No, we're talking high finance and this morning HH hisself was on Bloomberg talking about GS and some of the implications of kettle of fish/can of worms.
But, as the clock is an evil beasty, Howard didn't get to finish his whole thought on how "You can put any financial business into bankruptcy by denying them credit. And you can deny any company credit by buying enough protection in the CDS market." That - and a lot more - over at Howard's site which you can think of as "The Daily Howard".
I figure if you know everything Howard writes in a year (plus comprehend the formulas when he rolls them into the conversation) then you should just skip the undergrad degree and go right down to the Street where they need help. Oh, boy, do they need help...
The Future Dims Say, you don't think this will be a break-the-pattern of Monday rallies day, do you? Futures are initially down...my commodity guy is also watching a broad decline in almost everything but the softs...
Trusty Dusty Wanna see some dirty pictures? Then flip over to the Mount Unpronounceable video came out of Iceland. People is Europe are learning an old lesson: Smoking is bad for you. Duh....especially if it's volcanic. --- Say, you don't want to hear me rant for the umpteenth time about gardening, do you? Food prices are going to ripple globally over time from this, or so I'd wager...which is what I do when I call my commodities guy...
Half of flights over the EU should be back today. so, if you were going to send us tickets for Europe this summer, that's back on now...go ahead and send them...
Brown Makes an Ash of Himself Mr. desperation - a/k/a Gordo the Gold Seller, is planning or trying anyway to give Brit tax money to airlines and other travel firms impacted by the volcano is Iceland.
You go, Gordo! And soon, please. --- No, it hasn't escaped my notice that the linguistics hot date of May 6 happens to fall when? On the day of the Brit elections - which leaves me thinking "Aha! An Englishmen's version of Florida!" we shall see....
Last chance to register in the UK is tomorrow for the fun and frivolity of it all.
Am I the only one who has figured that turning Mr. Brown's hot air to the northwest would keep the ash at bay? Word that the UK economy could languish for another year - or longer - doesn't seem to matter to the Brits. Must be nice to be rich...or is that dumb?
But Today's Biggest Worry? Oh...yeah - should mention Anthony Ring's work that shows there has been a LARGE increase in the amount of energy released by earthquakes this year in April - and when the data was snapped we were only halfway through the month.
Now, don't go getting upset, or anything, but if you notice there was a broad peak in the 1992 area...then another in the 2002 area....and if I'm reading this right, then the ramp-up we're no now, given some kind of cyclical (10-year periodicity) to this would seem to imply the coming several years could be all-time (at least since written English) which gives a little credence to what? 2012 fears, maybe?
The red line is a 5th order polynomial trend line, and 6th order just moves the peaks to mid/late 1994 and late 2005 which means an even longer period of global bump & grind...that is, if the chart is anything other than seeing trends in noise.
Ask me after our next 8.0 soon enough. 21st and 28th I still have the ham radio beam pointed out west... --- Speaking of which, purely anecdotal but a guy I was talking (on 20 meters) to in Belgium this weekend thought radio propagation has changed slightly for the better without all the jet traffic...which would make sense, I suppose. Know anyone involved with HAARP? Ask 'em if they are probing this....
We'll Grant You That A reader sends in a link to www.grants.gov and suggests we read this one in particular which reads in part:
I think this is a "Do we need to bribe 'em?" study, in which case the complaining reader and I have co-authored a simply reply: Yes and we'd now like our cut of the "Total costs are limited to $1,250,000 throughout the grant period." Right, then....we jointly promise to use at least $200,000 in gambling establishments to test comparative effectiveness research at blackjack tables since Monte Carlo Analysis is already taken. We're thinking along the lines of 'Ure-Kidding" analysis would work... --- Further research grant needed: "How filling is gobbledygook and can it solve the world's hunger crisis?" Oughta be worth millions.
--- snip and save section ---
I wish I could figure out what it is in either my diet, exercise, daily activities, or general state of restfulness that sets off what I call my "Irwin Allen Dreams" that I have several times a week. And who's Irwin Allen, you're wondering? Hand me that Wikipedia, wouldja?
Some of his credits include the series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" along with "The Time Tunnel", Code Red" and others. But on the big screen, he was the genius behind epic films like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" which had an amazing cast including Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain, OJ Simpson, Robert Vaughn and event Robert Wagoner. Quite the flick.
I mention this because I periodically get treated to dreams that are of similar proportion in their (for lack of a better word) epic-ness.
Last night's was another amazing dream, which will go into my novel. Yep, everyone's got at least one good book in their head, and I've read enough Alistair MacLean and Louis L'Amour, and Clive Cussler, too, that capturing the dreams is pretty easy and I'm hoping to get the flavor of them right, since on morning's after a particularly intense dream (sound, colors, smells, tactile sensations and such), that waking up in the here and now is almost like walking into a...well.....movie!
Eventually, I'll get around to finishing the book - and may publish it as an ebook, since I heard that getting fiction published is akin to winning a progressive slot in Las Vegas, although the odds there are better,. Besides, non-fiction is where the money is for writers; something like 95% of the money in book-writing is fact-based, although including political confessionals in the 'fact-based' category seems to stretch the definition of nonfiction all out of shape.
But back to my question of the morning: A couple of nights ago I woke up as Elaine was coming to bed and insisted that she write down the world "faleria"....no...and I was quite insistent about the spelling of this... "falria". It was somehow very important, yet at the same time, when I fully awakened, I had no idea why it was so important to capture and bring back over to "this side".
"This side?"
You'll have to
wait for the book, of course, but its working title "Dimension
Barrier" hasn't changed and if you've read L'Amour's The Haunted Mesa
So far, not much to go on. My insistent spelling hasn't turned up much, and the three syllable variants only turn up a place outside Rome and the first person singular of the Portuguese word "falar" (to chat/converse). Hmmm...is my subconscious talking to me in Portuguese?
Not sure where
this is coming from, spiritual balancing rituals, too much time
trying to sort out C.G. Jung's posthumously published
The Red Book --- Last night's "movie" involved a witness to something - some ill doings - in a warehouse which served the (offshore) oil services industry. A cook who worked on a farthest out oil platform on a formation the industry called "The Wall" was involved and the warehouse was set ablaze to cover a murder. What was so interesting was that the two perps used two sources of ignition. One was a syrupy kind of adhesive (semi-clear --construction adhesive?) and then they went back and splashed something like gasoline (or other clear volatile) on top of it.
Wasn't a scary movie...it was just a movie... but real enough that I went through the headlines this morning looking for a warehouse fire. A series of warehouse fires were fought over the weekend up in the Flint, Michigan area, but no word of any deaths there, and I don't see how these would be related to an oil services operation or well-drilling, or a cook, so far as I can find.
Might have just been an "Irwin Allen" night at the movies but fascinating, to be sure. Never have a problem going to sleep, since that whole 'other world' is a fascinating place with the wide range of tactile inputs, though no sound tracks yet.
What Deals on LCD Monitors Noticed in the flood of emails this morning that both TigerDirect and CompUSA have 20" LCD monitors for $99. Both HDMI, too. If you don't use dual monitors, and extended desktop you are sooo in the Dark Ages of computing. Even works on most laptops.
UFO's at the WuJo A reader is asking why China gets all the really cool UFO pictures like these. Gee, I don't know - maybe they aren't as deeply mortgaged to the reptilians, or something?
Ill April Go over to G.A. Stewart's site and scroll a bit more than halfway down until you come to "April 19, 2010: Two Days to Remember?" In it, Stewart outlines why he expects today - or tomorrow - for there to be some major events here in the Age of Desolation...murder & mayhem kind of headlines by close of business tomorrow likely. --- Bad as Aprils have a reputation as being, I've always figured that luck doesn't pile all the molecules on one side of the room very often.
I'm buying a lotto ticket today. Even in April, all those molecules have to go somewhere.
Before the chart, a little background: Once upon a time, a long while ago, I observed during my quest for 'truth' in economics, that the PowersThatBe, the talking heads on the teeve, and the other information sources that actively engage in the programming of humans not to think, had conveniently swept several trillions of dollars that disappeared in the Internet Bubble's bursting (since spring 2000) under the rug. Surely, it wasn't unnoticed by the thousands of people who called brokers and said "Where is my money?" "Gone, but hang in there as you're a long term investor!" was about all they heard back.
So one of our charts for Peoplenomics subscribers oughta be widely circulated - it shows that if you line up the peak of the Dow in January 2000 with the peak in early September of 1929, we're on a very very close replay track. Much closer than even the chart shows if you were to back out inflation, and put in the effects of 1929 deflation, but that'd be real work, and I'm sort of lazy if the truth be told.
No, it's not a perfect replay of 1929, but history doesn't repeat exactly, it only rhymes. So think of this as the rhymes and the crimes chart:
"George, that's only a coincidence!" your monkey-mind will protest.
Why sure it is...you bet. A 9½ year long coincidence...yessir....just a coincidence, I'm sure...
Write when you get rich,
George Ure, The People's Economist
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since I think I already know the answer.
has been getting a fair amount of press recently.
and
.
The author's
.
(circa 1976 or so is when I interviewed Moody) there has been
all kinds of scientific explanation of why Life After Life may
be a kind of hallucinogenic kind of event.
.
which
has part posted at
came out raising all kinds of questions about conventional/peer
reviewed archeology worked. We saw recently how well peer
review worked out in climate studies...
it's along those lines, except instead of descending into
,
or just if it was nothing more than tryptophan overload from
having a turkey on croissant as a light dinner, but if that's
the case, I'll start
