Saturday Pop Quiz: Remember This Number?

 

12,743.  Sound familiar?

 

I first drew your attention to this number back in an early December edition of this site.  To make a long story short, because this is Saturday and I should be getting time and a half for this, 12,743 was the low the first leg down from the all-time-high hit in late November. (Nov. 26 at 12743.44 to be presact.)

 

You'll notice - perhaps with some concern that the close on Friday of this week was 12,743.19 - which is just an hair under the November low.  And when I say a 'hair' I mean less than a point.  Again, for precision, I mean a quarter of a point.

 

A chart, please?

 

 

Technical analysis would argue that what was supportive resistance on the way down, back in November, is now overhead resistance on the way back up and that unless we see a close above 12,743.44 next week, the bear would be about to resume in a major way and the first big down wave would begin with a collapse of confidence around, oh, just to pick a linguistically hot date, around the 5th of February.

 

So, we shouldn't have long to wait.  It should be clear by the end of trading by Wednesday, or so, what's going to happen.

 

My personal expectation?  See the next story....

 

Bearish Association

I hope you are old enough to remember the pop tune by a group called the Association titled "Cherish" from a few lifetimes back; that'd be the 1970's.  "Cherish" was an OK song, and while not as overworked by radio station programmers as badly as 'Hey Jude" (which I maintain was one the biggest audience boosters of long-form FM programming), it was not completely beaten to death by repetition.  Still, it was retooled at elevator music and shows up on occasional "call now, operators are standing by" CD anthologies sold on the boob tube.

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Fast forward to the 9th year of a new millennium and the song is still around.  The difference is that it has been delightfully reworked from "Cherish" to "Bearish" which pretty well sums up my view of what comes next.  Enjoy courtesy of reader RW who's sharp ears picked up on the link. OK, anatomically that sounds difficult, but just go with it...it's Saturday morning and that's what you get with no time and a half pay.

 

Gusty Associations

As long as we're going back to 1970's Association music, click here for their other biggie hit: "Windy" and we'll trip through some "here come the winds" stories that the predictive linguistics boys are up in jitters about, although that's likely more due to too many sugary pies and Starbucks double-shots.

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People in Home Alaska are wondering why the tides were running backwards lately, although you guessed it, windy conditions offshore might have something to do with it.

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In the windy city, the clean up continues from the big snowstorm that went through Friday.

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Wind power generated in the US grew by 45% in 2007 claims a new report.

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A new [theatrical] production of "Gone with the Wind" has been announced in the UK.

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All this is in the mood to get you primed for what is (linguistically) supposed to be coming along this spring - and it's looking more and more to me like the one of the fiercest tornado seasons ever. 

 

"Wait, George!  What about the falling space debris worries and wind-driven dangers from fallout from that?"  Glad you asked...

 

Falling Satellite no Danger?

I don't know as I have mentioned this, but here at UrbanSurvival, we keep a reactor service engineer on staff to serve as a double (or sometimes triple) check on our assumptions.  Here's a reassuring note from him:

"Just wanted to drop a quick note on the potential for a radiation hazard from the re-entry of one of our spy satellite.

There should be zero-to-no radiation hazard from this craft. This class of satellite uses hydrazine as a fuel source, not a plutonium-238 “radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)”. RTGs are used for deep-space missions to the outer planets where solar panels won’t give you enough juice for your onboard systems power (Cassini being the last RTG-powered satellite launched). Now, having a 9000 kg chunk of metal fall on your house might put a damper on your day, but frankly, I’d save the batteries on your Geiger-Mueller detector for the ugliness to come.

Just my two cents. Keep up the great work.

Whew!  Now, what can I do with all those D cells I've stocked up on?  Oh well, back into the fridge.  Now, maybe we can get back to what the rest of the world is worried about.  Ooops...one more story worth mentioning outside the MainStreamMediaDrone (MSMD):

 

About Those Cables

"One cable cut in the Middle East, that's understandable.  Two and it's got my attention - but three???"  Our consulting attorney was on the line making an interesting point:  Doesn't it seem kind of odd, went his reasoning, that we'd have three (or is it really four) undersea cable breaks funneling down web traffic to and from the Middle East?

 

No doubt about it, if I were a Decider underling charged with ensuring security for the Super Bowl, I would sure as hell  want as much traffic from the Middle East funneled down so I could get a good look at the traffic leading up to and after tomorrow's Super Bowl this weekend in Phoenix, where security is super tight.  DSP - ASR keyword scanning takes hardware, and there's only so much of it in so many places.  Hmmm...what would a virtual cable break look like?

 

Interesting area of speculation about these 'timely' cable breaks - and yeah, isn't bandwidth rationing convenient? - but the only way you and I would ever know about what really is going on is to see inside HR scheduling departments for Echelon.  Not likely.

 

I suppose we don't really need to know - just keep those Super Bowl ads on schedule tomorrow - Hyundai's ad might be interesting.  And, oh yeah, let's see how long the final 2-minutes of the game can be dragged out this year.  Hell, that's the only reason I can think of to watch the game.

 

OK, one other reason for dyed-in-the-wool FB fans might be to see if the Super Bowl Indicator works (see the SBI page here).  But, being out of paper, I'm more interested in fourth quarter time dilation studies...

 

Snipes Wins

While it's true that Wesley Snipes got off the charge of Tax Fraud, he still has to be deal with the conviction of failing to file a tax return. 

 

Sure, it may seem like a government-backed 'protection racket' but I've got better things to do with my life than worry about IRS enforcement actions.   So, I pay the freight due.

 

What's the old saying?  "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day." 

 

The Runs: A Billion Dollar Presidency

Yeah, this is only a 'teaser' headline, but that's really all we need to know: We have the best corptocracy money can buy.

 

When it comes to government, forget the Framer's Constitution.  Nice ideals and all, but since corporations have more rights than humans now:  The New World Odor is this: "If you ain't paying, you ain't playing." 

 

Fat Chance Department

Yes, Mississippi really has a couple of lawmakers who want to make it illegal to serve obese people.  If they aren't doing this tongue in cheek, then they are doing it head up....

 

Say, where is a lawmaker introducing a credit card usury limit, or something useful like that?

 

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Coping:  Carrying Food Through Time

"You and Elaine should never have to waste any eggs." explain chief time monk Cliff.  "What most people don't realize is that many foods - like making egg noodles - had their origins in ways to store food without refrigeration in ancient times.  Same with matzo balls:  They were a Jewish (and before that Chaldean) way to preserve eggs, too." 

 

"Hey, could you write up some of that 'carry food through time' safely stuff for Saturday's column," I asked. 

 

"Sure, but I'll just do the egg noodles part," said Cliff, "You might ask readers to contribute other methods of food preservation - there's a ton of them."

 

"Yeah, I'm make that next week's topic...so you'll send me an email?"

 

"Yeah, as soon as I get these noodles cut...later..."

 

Sure enough, shortly thereafter here's what the email router dumped into the "Time Monks" file:

"to carry eggs as high quality protein foods forward into the future use dried egg noodles since it is almost impossible for a home dried egg powder to be safe, especially these days of bad air, chemtrails, et al.

recipe as follows.

double batch (depending on width, perhaps 100/one hundred egg noodles of 1 foot length)

4 cups wheat flour (fresher the better) 8 eggs (6 as yolks, 2 as whole) 2 tsp of salt (sea salt best, lower sodium ratios) 1 cup more or less of really cold water

Put flour in big bowl, make well in middle of pile of flour. Put in salt. Then add all the egg yolks and the 2/two whole eggs. Use wooden spoon and mix and mash and stir and bash until your arm falls off. Then use the other arm until the mixture is all crumbly and uniform in appearance and breaks up to the size of large peas.

Then add water slowly, mixing as you go along until a very stiff, but slightly sticky dough is formed. Do not be shy about mixing with the wooden spoon. Must be thoroughly mixed. Can't emphasize that enough. Mix the stuff up.

Then let rest covered in bowl up from 20/twenty minutes to 2/two hours. This allows the dough to mature, and the glutens to form longer chains.

Then take small handfuls and roll out on a floured board until about 1/8 (one-eighth) of an inch thick. Then slice into noodles.

These may be cooked fresh, and gobbled right down. Boil for about 5/five or so minutes. Cover with other good stuff and eat.

OR; to carry through time, dry in single layers or twisted 'nests' until almost brittle or very 'leathery'. These are then dusted and put into air tight containers with a cracker as a desiccant. These will be nutritionally viable for between several months to several years depending on conditions of storage.

To carry milk along, substitute it for water. Use less as the fat content of the milk alters the mix ratio to a 'wetter feel' earlier in the process. "

Ah!  We will try it out today.  By the way, the time monks offer two reminders.  The first is that you can have great quality food on the cheap if you have time to spend on food prep.  The other is to use a pizza cutter to slice your noodles - much easier than a knife.

 

Longer Life Cars

I mentioned my skepticism this week about whether autos were running longer due to computers, or tighter machining practices.  Turns out, General's foot soldiers says it's really both things that have extended car life to beyond 100,000 miles:

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Around the Ranch: Farmerly Saturday

With one of our does about ready to pop kids on us (maybe today or tomorrow) most of today will be spent fencing and carpentering.  Door for the goat barn and a thousand feet of fence on the agenda.  If we get kid(s), I'll try to remember to put up a picture Monday. 

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Missed the Maritime Services Net last night...drat!  Will try to make it tonight around 5:30 PM Texas time. 14,300 USB.

 

Peoplenomics: Re: Thinking Higher Ed

Since it's looking more like the US is in a recession - and things could really fall apart toward the end of the year (think Depression 2 ) I thought it would be useful to have a discussion about the nature of service economies, so-called higher education, and offer at least one innovative solution to the soaring cost of sheepskins. In order to understand the playing field, we'll start by differentiating what's currently available in the market: Accredited, state licensed, and unlicensed schools....then a surprising idea or two....

 

Subscription information: $40/year                      Report Access for Subscribers

 

Some reader feedback:

From a serious academic: "What you are uncovering here is the difference between the theory of education and the theory of the educational system, something that (as an academic-type) I have been writing about for 30 years."

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From  a subscriber: "Nice piece on higher ed!  "

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Another:  "I am showing this to my stepdaughter, who is in my living room right now trying to apply at (school name deleted)."

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And the best so far: "That is a major work/statement, George, thank you. I spent 30 years in industrial training, programmed instruction, etc."

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