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Rebellion/Revolution Arrives Shutting Out Fox Most Americans this Labor Day weekend are almost completely unaware of what is developing in Mexico and the implications it holds for the rest of North America as the Fall progresses. Let's start at the top: First, and making surprisingly little news among Nortes is that Mexico's President was shut out of the capitol yesterday and was prevented from giving his State of the Union address from Congress. This is absolutely unprecedented. It would be like George Bush show up to deliver his State of the Union and being sent packing by CONgress. Truly landmark stuff.
The second data point to keep in mind is that Mexico, with a population of over 100-million, has more than 1/10th of its population living in the United States. --- --- We have been picking up bits and pieces on our "software radar" about Aztlan/Reconquista demonstrations to come later this month. While the "rickety time machine" at www.halfpasthuman.com says we should expect an "emotional whump about now, and turning a president away from his Congress is a big deal, what may be happening is that a large portion of the US is about to be "blind sided" by the breadth and depth of the protests to come.
Recall that at the end of March, while the web bot project was forecasting a "context creation period" there seemed to be little going on - yet we had a huge pro Aztlan outpouring of emotions during the "reconquista" demonstrations. A few days later, the mass marches, protests and the creation of the context shift - which remains almost nameless even today.
We may be presently on the verge of another such massive outburst of emotional energies. If you haven't been following the alternative media coverage of what's going on in Oaxaca in border state indy media, you need to do some heavy-duty catch-up reading to get current with the times. --- One of the reasons I expect large-scale participation by young people in possible demonstrations this month is that as the time monks tell us, the nation is going through something of an "echo" of the 1970's. If you're too young to remember the period, it was rocked by resistance to an unpopular war (Vietnam = Iraq), there was a scandal involving corruption in government (Watergate = either 9/11 or Florida elections) and there was a back-to-earth movement (hippies = environmentalists). --- One of the galvanizing events of the 1970's was the shooting death of four Kent State (Ohio) protesters. Not only was the shooting of anti-war protesters the subject of much speculation, but it also resulted in a very popular song by Crosby Stills and Nash (Ohio lyrics) that became thematic of the anti-war movement.
If the time monks are correct (and they are more often than not) then what should concern us later this month would be any violence in confrontations between demonstrators and either counter-demonstrators or "officialdom" that results in shootings/violent/death/martyrdom.
Depending on the strength of the 1970's echo, and coupled with "not-quite-invisible hand operations" like the government's deliberately misleading "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (code words for North American union, and based on direction from the Council on Foreign Relations), one can almost see the Hegelian Dialectic in action: First, the "problem is created",. the reaction planned and promoted, to be followed by the powers-that-be imposing their intended solution - no doubt one that would never have been accepted by otherwise right-thinking humans.
In this case, there's plenty of evidence that people in government deliberately didn't enforce laws concerning illegal entry into the US, and thus, set the stage for the problems we are about to go through. At a minimum, that's criminal malfeasance/misfeasance, but at worst, traitorous behavior. Not by the rank and file Border Patrol agents, though! Oh no, this rot or planning was and is at the top. Think about it: 1/10th of the population of Mexico walks in and no one lifts a finger except symbolically! And Janet Reno took automatic weapons away from Border Patrol agents during the Klintonistacorp regime.
We'll be waiting for the ramp up of the "problem" to appear on in-your-face TV later this month along with the planned excessive reaction. Already though, we know what the "planned solution" is - a North American Union.
It seems you're not as free as you think...notice how US corpmedia brand those blocking the Fox address as "leftists" because they didn't swallow a questionable election hook, line, and sinker.
That Not-So-Civil War The bombings have continued overnight in Iraq. Depending on who you listen to, the country either IS on the brink of a disastrous civil war (such as this South African News 24 report, or, if you're George Bush, you'll deny the reality of civil war. As the Toronto Star reports, the Pentagon is admitting that mounting sectarian violent has pushed the US occupied country to the brink of civil war. Sadly, by the time the Pentagon gets around to admitting it, it's likely already well underway.
Denver's Plutonium? A curious post at Rumor Mill News has us wondering just how much plutonium has been put into a Denver superfund pollution clean-up site. Here's a link to an interview on the subject if you have enough bandwidth, with Adrian Anderson on point. Interview starts about 2:20 into the Windows Media file. Interesting stuff about Denver's water supplies.
UK "Terror" Raids 14 people were arrested overnight in the UK in what are described as anti-terrorist operations.
Reset Iran Clock The EU figures Iran should have two more weeks ion the nuclear standoff. Might push back earnings of defense contractors bristling for more business, huh? Give it time...
Hurricane Turns Remember earlier on this week when I was warning that next week Los Angeles weather could be impacted by Hurricane John which made landfall today in Baja? Well, click here and check out the five-day projections and you'll see that San Diego (or at San Ysidro) is now "in the cone". Not surprised.
As Housing Collapses... We notice the article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer this week about smaller footprint condos. The story details how a 296 square foot condo has an asking price of $149,950. That pencils out to $506 a square foot. Gulp.
Hmmm...let me see: That means the house and offices here at the ranch would be worth well north of $2-million..and that's before land! Hallelujah! Is this a great country, or what?.
Peoplenomics: The Turbulent Future of Air Travel It's almost an Article of Faith: America owns the sky. Air travel and America's economic dominance of the world seem almost inseparable in dozens of ways. We transport our troops, our Western lifestyle, and import everything from flowers to salads to machine parts on planes as small as Cessna's and as as large as 747 jumbo freighters. But, for all their convenience, our reliance of air travel has some serious costs; primarily economic and environmental, along with a set of risks which is not decreasing. This week, a quick course in airline management, from building city-pairs and setting fares to pricing tickets, and then on to assessing the public cost and social impacts of air travel in general and pension plan default in particular. As you'll see as we run through the numbers and the forecasts, what's ahead looks like an even bumpier ride than we've seen lately. (Subscriber Access). Subscription info: $30/year.
More than Tuna Casserole Oh sure, there are plenty of ways to eat cheaper in our e-book "How to Live on $10,000 a year - or less" but it's a whole lot more than eating on the cheap. Why, there's drinking on the cheap and other tips, too. Available in the www.peoplenomics.com/bookstore.htm
"Confess or I'll...." UrbanSurvival's readership has still not recovered from the "hack attack" of a couple of weeks ago. So please, take a few minutes and recommend this site to your friends. Click here for an Outlook email - or just send them a link to www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm. Thanks...
Friday September 1, 2006 Employment Number Another day of stats from the Labor Department to digest.
My favorite number, the U-6 underemployed from table A-12 ran at 8.3% unemployed in August of this year, compared with 8.9% in August of 2005...
The CES Birth/Death model contributed 121,000 new jobs - which may or may not be real as CES is a guestimate kind of number.
To my jaundiced eyes, it looks like when I back out the CES model, the economy gained 7,000 jobs for the month. Big whooop.
Mexico Flashpoint? Watch later today for Mexico to be a flashpoint for the rebellion/revolution meme (thought virus) as Vincente Fox gives a State of the Union speech in Mexico City. Protesters say they will disrupt the proceedings. The speech ought to be an interesting revelation in itself. Fox, after six years hasn't done much we can see to improve the lot of the average Mexican and we note than fully a 10th of the country is living in economic exile in the US to make ends meet. --- I was shocked yesterday when I called Bank of America to be treated to an on-hold message telling me how they have a new safe way to send money to Mexico. And this was on the English language side of their call distribution system. Go figure.
Already Checked Out One of the interesting sidelights of operating a web site like this one is that it provides all kinds of statistics - like the number of people reading a particular web page on a particular day. I noticed about a 20% decline in page views for Thursday - and a similar decline today would come as no surprise, as lots of UrbanSurvival readers seem to take four and five-day weekends when they can. They're not alone. The traffic nationally should be a bear starting this afternoon, say starting after lunch - as millions take to the road for the last fling of summer.
Not to be missed: The possible impact of Tropical Storm Ernesto on the East Coast. Having made landfall in North Carolina, it's now meandering its way northward and soaking everything in its path along the way. In those areas, traffic oughta be a double-joy as the four-wheeled Exodus continues this afternoon.
The one holiday celebration that I regret not being able to attend is the "Burning Man" festival in Nevada next week. That's definitely on the list of "once-before-I-die" things to see.
LA Weather I see this morning that Hurricane John, making landfall about now at the southern tip of Baja California (Mexico) shows a more northerly track today. The top of the five day cone is almost up to even with San Diego. I've got a nagging feeling about southern California weather impacts next week - but it's probably just jitters on my part.
Iran Watch It's been another week of "more ink that action" on the Iran nuclear question. A sampling of the ink:
Iraq Bombing With 55 people killed in the latest day of the civil war in Iraq (which we're assured isn't really a civil war by US "leadership"), we're wondering how long before 100+ per day becomes the new "normal".
Muddy River Blues The drought, which has caused so many problems in the nation's cattle belt, is now starting to be felt along the banks of the Mississippi River, which is shrinking. Possible impacts on farming, shipping, and water supplies are on the horizon.
Quakes Up There has been what anecdotally "feels" like an increase in earthquakes in the past few days. A 5.7 magnitude temblor struck Japan's southern islands Friday morning (their time). While the 5.6 recorded this morning up in the Kamchatka region of Siberia is no big deal, the 6.8 magnitude quake in the Papua New Guinea area is certainly large enough to get our attention.
Just in at press time - a 6.0 in the Aleutian Islands. Hmmm...
Shortage Indicator Climbs The concept of "shortage" seems to be popping up in news stories again, although I don't expect new highs to be hit for perhaps three weeks to a month:
Oil Back Up The price of crude oil is back over $70 in many markets this morning due to threats from NBiegerian workers who say they will be going on strike. I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another with oil lately.
Accounting Packages I'd had lots of feedback on Thursday's question about which accounting package is the friendliest and offers the ability to operate multiple subsidiaries (or at least departments) and then roll everything up into a single series of financial statements.
You'll recall that this has application for me personally as well as a consulting client. On the personal side, I'm looking for something that will show me our farm/ranch operation separate from our www.peoplenomics.com site, separate from my consulting (real) work.
The best bang-for-the-buck seems to be QuickBooks Pro which is going brand new on Amazon for $125 or so. One suggestion is that I use "class" identifiers (E.G. "F" classed items would be "farm", "W" would be web related, etc.) and then run reports in QB Pro using filters to I would get just the particular class I'm interested in. No guarantees it would be simple, but it's cheaper than buying an enterprise version of something for $500+ a whack. I like the online services (they do all the backups and such) but I HATE monthly bills for anything, and I'm not sure if they'd charge $20/month per subsidiary, or if the $20/month is for "all you can eat."
Bottom line for me will probably be QB Pro...
Cliff's Dome Several people have written in wondering if www.halfpasthuman.com Cliff's grow dome was available as a kit or if there was a book about it. No and no. Cliff reports he's too busy with the web bot project to go off doing a book - too much of a detour. On the other hand he suggested that Elaine and I build a dome and write it up with the math, pictures, etc. We're thinking about it, but there are a zillion other projects ahead of that one. It's not like we don't have plenty to do on 30-acres...
Thursday August 31, 2006 Digging Your Personal Hole The government's latest "Personal Income and Expenditures" report is out today. The blah-blah goes like this:
Sounds peachy, so far, right? Well, read on and you'll see where it sucks - I've added a highlight so you can see it clearly through your personal morning fog:
So, there you go. The harder you work, the behinder you get. It's the corporate thing. So, stop reading and start digging that personal financial hole, would you?
Wrong Labels The president of Syria and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez are both busy today denouncing "imperialism."
It's curious to me is that presidents Chavez and Assad are missing a real bet in terms of PR and popular support because they're recycling old Marxist linguistics. What they are talking about it "American imperialism." If they were smart - and in tune with language, they'd be targeting "corporatists" "corporate elites" and "corporatism" as the cancer afoot in the world. They'd be talking about rape and pillage of the environment/first peoples/economy/workers in the name of "corporate profits."
I expect that till they figure out the right words - which would resonate more - they'll be marginalized by the US mainstream media, which doesn't even begin to have a clue, being fed 95% "news releases" as their main fare.
Pesky Iran Not the people, mind you, but the people in charge of Iran - they're remaining defiant today in the wake of a deadline that called for them to stop sensitive nuclear work. So later on today, look for the UN deadline to arrive and more talk about sanctions. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that Iran won't budget, the neocons won't stop the war chant, and that's in part why gold's bottom - at least for now - may be in.
Selling bombing: The latest buzz is that "Iran will have a bomb in five years." Of course, what's not reported in Washington (there's no money in it) is that in a bit more than a year from now, war will be either out of style or there won't be any way to wage it - is one of the images the web bot folks are pondering. Implies some massive changes, doesn't it?
Selling with Bombs 2 In Thailand, 23 bombs have gone off nearly simultaneously. Placed by militant Muslims figure authorities. Dozens of injuries and one death, say reports.
Blockade Remains Israel has continued to dig in its heels against compliance with a UN demand that they lift their naval blockade of Lebanon. To recap incase you've been cryogenically frozen for the past month, Israel wants the blockade to remain to assure that Hezbollah won't get arms by sea. The UN figures a blockage isn't in keeping with the intent of the cease fire. Israel wants its two prisoners back before they'll talk about it.
An international conference on aid for Lebanon is opening in Stockholm today. In case you can't attend, they're looking to raise half a billion dollars. I wonder if Israel will contribute anything?
Cat 4 Hurricane John is still hanging out off Mexico's west coast. Here's my question: What's going to happen to LA weather in a week to 10-days? Oh, sure, at the moment there are head advisories out for the South Land. And, the track map takes John out to sea next week, but forecasts do change.
One safe bet: Wax up the long board - the surf oughta be up. All that's missing from the SoCal surf scene is Paraquat Kelly's "Surf Report with a Beat" from back in the day of the mighty met, KMET. (Where did Jackson B. Snyderfish, Gonzer, and Ace Young (not the American Idol Ace Young), go? Ace is in Wyoming???? Hooooyah...) --- Speaking of California, officials have cut a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Grown Up Questions - Play Time Here comes a holiday. More time for projects here at the ranch. Every so often, we come up with questions though, which are best asked of a very smart set of readers like you, rather than spending a lot of time on researching the answers myself. Life is only so long, and if I can "farm out the research" to you, I can focus on my core value creation role. (When I figure out what that is, I'll get back to you.) So, to tease your coffee stewed brain, here are the two questions of the day.
Question #1 (Accounting): I have been keeping the books for the farm/the urban web site, my consulting, and whatever else, as a series of spreadsheets for a long time. Cash basis, expenses in this column, income in that - you get the idea. Well, a client of my consulting practice has grown his business and has outgrown his basic one-file-per-company accounting system. He's got several subsidiaries, each with incomes and expenses. What he'd like (and I would like, too) is to find a CHEAP accounting package that will roll-up several small businesses into a single financial statement, yet also offer subsidiary accounting as well.
I know that QuickBooks Online offers the feature, but I'm one of those "I'd rather buy it, than sign up for perpetual payments" although as a business expense, it sort of comes out in the wash. So the first question this morning is what is the cheapest accounting solution you know of. Here's the catch: Nothing over $00 and preferable nothing over $150, and if you're a genius, $100.
I know QuickBooks "Starter Edition" is on sale at Amazon for $39.99, but I'm pretty sure that package won't roll up departments or companies, but you can open different files for different companies. I can get the "roll-up report writer" as an add-on, but that seems the wrong approach - so here we go:
What is the best software under $200 that will support multiple profit centers/companies and provide roll-up info that's easy to use? Click here to send me an answer. Of course, I'll be pleased the share the results. Don't get cute. I know versions of high end PeachTree/QuickBooks/Mas-90/Real-World etc will do it. But what's the entry-level product that's not online/perpetual payments?
Question #2 (Metalworking). Elaine and I are going to try some custom casting of aluminum. I've been collecting books on home-built metal casting (two of them so far, including David J. Gingery's carcoal foundry book) and we're about ready to give it a whirl this fall. But we need to find some pre-mixed casting sand ["green sand"] and here's the catch: I like the idea of casting with an oil-based casting sand rather than water-based.
If you're new to home foundry work (it's been 45 years since I cast anything), the idea is that you can cast a lot of things at home using materials such as crushed aluminum cans - and if you run short of metal, you simply drink more beer [my kind of recycling]. The problem is when it comes time to ram up a mold (beyond the scope of your one cup of coffee at this hour) you make the mold out of sand, which has some binders in it (clay, bentonite, etc.) which in turn are held together by water or light oil.
Given that water-based casting mixes are a little less safe than oil-based (think steam from too much water can "explode" in the midst of a pour into a too-wet mold) I'm looking for a good source of oil-based casting "green sand". Not that I need much - 50-100 pounds ought to do it. But any advice here would be appreciated. Click here to send green sand advice and a source of cost-effective supply.
Hanging Out with the Time Monks Although the web bot project occupies most of chief "time monk" Cliff's hours of daylight - he's still waiting for the big emotional "whump" between now and Sept 6 (over the holiday weekend, perhaps?) - it's fun to see that he's made himself a "grow dome". If there's a common thread that runs among Cliff-Igor-George type folks: We like to do things. Perhaps a label as renaissance types would fit. Life is after all, for the doing, and it's not a spectator sport.
Cliff's grow dome ensures his family a source of good food and a great (and dare I say stylish) emergency shelter should they need it. What's more - a consideration here in drought land is that - a dome can dramatically reduce water use. So Elaine and I are considering a small 25-30 foot dome which would be a living area/grow dome between our main house and the office/shop building. When places like Tofino British Columbia are having a drought, we think that too much prep would be hard to do. Climate change is already impacting the world and De Nile is a bad place to go when the alternative is personal proactive planning and actions like small-scale construction projects. --- Looking at the future can be quite depressing. It's easy to doubt the outlook now, but you ought to see really "whumps" and building tensions this fall and winter. Developing some real survival skills seems easy enough to do - now. I don't expect you to run out this weekend and throw a geodesic dome together. But it's not unreasonable to allocate some few number of hours per week to genuine personal preparedness. Hour or two long walks in some good walking shoes, and two or three hours a week of reading survival and outdoor skills isn't too difficult to fit in.
Your alternative is what? Watching some lowest-common-denominator crap on TV ? Gag me! --- OK, there are some good things on TV like the speech yesterday by Salt Lake city Mayor Rocky Anderson...
Wednesday August 30, 2005 GDP Slowing Not too much surprising in the new GDP report out today - except in how the fact that the national personal savings rate is collapsing and that fact is buried in page 10 of a spreadsheet...:
On the consumer side:
Now to my point in all this: Click here for the spreadsheet of supporting data and click on down to line 31 - which is the personal sales rate. Regular humans took $62.2 billion out of their savings to make ends meet in the quarter. But hey, that's gotta fuel some kind of market rally, in this "things work backwards world" right?
Personal outlays are exceeding personal income and by a wider margin in this report, perhaps due in part to the notion that bankers are doing a fine job of hypnotizing today's young people into the idea of "renting their lives" - and that debt/interest/making bankers fat is just now the world ought to operate. In their freakin' dreams.
Here's the People's Economist at his simplest: "Save 10% or more on everything you buy this year. STOP PAYING INTEREST / USURY to these bloodsuckers. Live cheap and escape the bankers prison."
While we're at it, why is our government paying the bankster cabal interest / rent on our own money? (That's what monetary inflation amounts to and it's why 95% of the purchasing power of the US dollar has been sucked out of it since 1913...) Hmmm...smell a rat yet?
Calm Before the Storm The period before a major holiday can usually be depended on to provide several things:
Old-time news managers (which I'll admit to being, but only under duress) quietly mutter about this part of the year being when "fill-in-the-blank stories" prevail. See if you don't hear one - or more - of these pat stories over the upcoming weekend:
Not to be excessively cynical about holidays (I like them, too). But there's a certain "holiday weekend news droning" that goes on and most of it looks like pages out of my "fill-in-the-blanks Junior Reporter News Book."
Boom Times No, not the economy. The situation in Iraq. Another 40-dead in the various bombings of the day.
Let's pencil this out. Iraq had about 26.8 million people at the start of the war. Let's say that 250,000, or so, have been killed so far. And let's say that left us with 26.55 million people. Then let's suppose that we keep seeing 50 a day die in bombings.
Why at that rate, in just 531,000 days, there won't be anyone left to kill. So you can confidently tell all your friends today that the Iraq War will be over in 1,454.7945 years (not counting Leap Years or oil embargoes). At 33-years per generation (folks are having kids later, and military tours are being extended), we only have 44-generations to hold the "coalition of the willing" together.
Israel - Not Budging Kofi Annan has been making headline talking with folks in Lebanon and environs. Not that Israel is likely to pay any heed to Annan's demand that Israel lift its naval blockade of Lebanon. They're worried about Hezbollah being resupplied by sea routes.
Hard of Hearing If Israel is being a little hard of hearing when it comes to their naval blockade, it's a similar disease afflicting Ir
More Plot Charges Three more British Muslims have been charged in connection with the 10-Planes Plot.
Weathering South Florida is breathing a sigh of relief today as Ernesto's gusto dropped to 45-miles per hour. Enough to cause some damage, but not the blue-tarp dispenser like previous 'canes.
On the other hand, Hurricane John, over on the Pacific side, is beating the snot out of southern Mexico today and might hit Category 4 levels by this afternoon.
Terminator Seed Sale From our "buy our corporate seeds or starve, because we now own life" department, Monsanto is buying a "terminator seed" company.
Tuesday August 29, 2006 From the Federal Reserve's minutes:
Dodging Bullets The feared arrival of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ernesto in the Western Caribbean didn't happen - thanks to strong winds from the west. But how long will the Gulf continue to be lucky? Still, Florida is not out of the woods yet, and the watch is up on the Atlantic side. At some point, no doubt a bit further along into the hurricane season, we ought to see revealed how much "diddling" of statistics there will be. You'll remember that last year, shut-in statistics on oil (to pick one item) was based on a daily run rate out of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) of about 1.5-million barrels per day. I suspect that should we see shut-in oil and gas this year, the stats will be based on some smaller production cap, because it just wouldn't do to admit that there's as much permanently lost production from 2005-2006 as our friends in the oil patch keep intimating.
Of course, the other problem to consider when you're looking at production figures is that we've been reading how Mexico's giant Cantarell field may also be past peak now (joining Saudi Arabia). No doubt that at some point, the GOM fields will pass peak, as well. Still, for this morning, the price of oil is down due to the relief of "no storm for now" thinking. --- If you shade your bets on world wars over energy (resources) and religion, as we do around here, there's an interesting - almost curious note - today that will likely pass by the Mainstream Media (MSM): Iran has issued a report saying that it will miss its 2010 oil production targets by 500,000 - half a million - barrels per day! --- Regardless of whether Iran's new figures are real - or simply footwork to look less inviting as an invasion/bombing target by the oil/resource/empire driven BCRN (Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Neocon) cabal is no doubt open to speculation. But more experts keep piping up that we're only dodging the big energy bullet for a short time - then the clock runs out. There's a very good article in the (Australian) Sydney Morning Herald about what's ahead according to California professor Richard Heinberg:
Not to throw too many rocks at our present political "leadership", or their MSM puppets, but a thoughtful person might want to pay a lot less attention to stories like the dropping of charges in the JonBent Ramsey case and a lot more attention to crop yield stories. It's depressing to think that we continue to squander an opportunity to prepare for a different energy-consumption profile lifestyle that geopolitical, economic, and geologic reality will force on us in the near future, whether we agree to such constraints, or not. Universe don't care and participation is not optional. --- A fair numbers of readers have written in to opine one way, or the other, about the New Farmer's Almanac - which is predicting a cold & snowy winter ahead. A typical newsgroup posting goes like this:
--- Readers of UrbanSurvival, being a more thoughtful crew than the swirling masses, are doing what they can, yet at the same time, there's a sense that government statistics and anecdotal reports about gasoline prices somehow aren't capturing the whole "real life" experience well. A Syracusian [which I think I can call a person from Syracuse] (NY) reader sends this:
To return to my point, while the US is paralyzed by the gunpoint democracy plan, beneficial to defense contractors, I have to note that China has continued to focus on breeding new strains of crops which will ultimately result in much higher biodiesel production. I might offer that China seems more inclined to long-term strategic thinking, comes from a several thousand year history, where the US comes from a 230-year history, and the lynchpin of our Middle East policy has a 58-year history. --- While the US It's not exactly a Norman Rockwell picture of life in America, the notion that we're a country dodging bullets seems to capture at least some of the essence that comes through in our daily load of emails - usually number more than 200.
Election Upheld So what kind of leader will Felipe Calderon be when he takes office on December 1st in Mexico/ Here's a summary of his previously stated positions on various issues, not that they won't change now that he's going into office.
All this seems on railroad tracks now that allegations of fraud have been rejected by Mexco's top electoral court. You didn't really think the outcomes would be anything else, did you? Ha!
How Old? A report out of Ecuador that the world's oldest woman has died - at age 116!
By the way, life expectancy in the US is 19th in the world for 2006 - 77.8 years. The short list of places to live long (>80) are #1 Japan (81.2), a three-way tie for seconds at 80.5 years between Australia, Sweden, and Switzerland, and Canada comes in 5th at 80.2 years. Worst outlook: Angola at 38.6 years.
Doggie Driver A woman in China has wrecked her car while trying to teach her dog to drive. This makes as much sense as most of the other headlines today.
Unless, of course, you care that Saddam Hussein was a "South Park" fan. Seems more like a Beavis and Butthead kinda guy, but no one's asking me.
Not a Dynamite Idea A 21-year college student old is free on $75,000 bail while awaiting legal action for brining a stick of dynamite (along with a blasting cap) in his checked luggage from Argentina. If you're wondering which college would claim such a student, that'd be Lafayette College according to the report. I'll look up their admissions office's address later.
Churn Prudential admits criminal wrongdoing says a report, and is paying $600-million for misleading mutual fund investors. They did what?
Calendar: Fed minutes due out later today.
Pension Problems A friend in Israel has been thinking about my none-to-delicate handling of the broader pension issues raised by this week's www.peoplenomics.com report on airlines. He writes:
The problem with us Baby Boomers is that few have figured out exactly what will happen when everyone tries to leave the financial-casino/theater-smelling-of-smoke all at the same time. Gray Cardiff wrote a book way back in 1980 called "The Coming Real Estate Crash" (which I just ordered for a buck from an Amazon seller in order to review his scenarios). There's this fervent hope/belief that the country will be able to survive with all of our paper assets intact as we go through what will be the largest rollover in history. Curious bet to be making. One of the reasons my friend Jas Jain makes such confident deflation forecasts is that he's figured out that when everyone goes to a casino, not everyone can be "winners." And Jas' latest outlook?
I'm still hoping for some good old-fashioned inflation, but the deflationary pressures are out there, for sure. I'd have to say Jas is now a 70-30 favorite to win our win bet this year. Monday August 28, 2006 Monday's Whump Watch Look, I'll save you the trouble of getting up: The market's going down during the first part of the week and then, by the end of the week a bit of a bounce as the country makes one last fling at "party" prior to the down hill sleigh ride that will result from the transition to violence/revolution/rebellion that ought to be visible to most by the middle of September, at about the same time as the market declines get going in earnest. But since you're up already, I'll find in some of the blanks for you from the overnight headlines.
Naturally, one of the stories we will be watching as the day develops will be the predicable unhappy sentiments that will come when the Mexican electoral court rubberstamps the disputed July 2 "election" results. Tensions are already high in Oaxaca where at least one death is attributed to the election dispute.
I'm intrigued to see how the USA/Pop entity in web bot model space will resolve into conflict/revolution/rebellion this fall. Perhaps Mexico will be a flashpoint/trigger.
Hardly a "Civil" War Not that a war is anything but a serious breakdown in the normal operation of the human mind, but that continues to become evident in Iraq where we've been pouring US dollars on bad decision-making for better than three years, after being "bait & switched" into the war for Iraqi oil, now gone terribly bad. Just how bad? Terminally bad for more than 50 people in the country this weekend. --- The violence in Iraq has also spilled over into Turkey, which along with Iran, keeps funneling support to various factions in Northern Iraq, where there's not even a charade of Western control. Result: bomb explosions that killed 27 and are linked to religious differences. How unique for the region, huh?
Bomb Popularity Not to put too much of a "gallows bent" on our normally cheerful Monday review of life (Ha! Just kidding...) but have you noticed how bombs have become something of a "news fixture" globally? Oh sure, you'd expect to see "bomb" as a word associated with would-be terrorist suspects in the USA, but check out where else in the world they're going off lately:
And even when the actual use of bombs stops, it doesn't. Take for example the World War II bomb that went off south of Manila and killed five people this weekend. Or, take the US use (and sale to our "friends" of depleted uranium shells, associated with climbing global disease rates. Slogan of the day: "Bombs, the gift that keeps on giving."
A Telling War Apology The head of Hezbollah has apologized for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that sparked the month-long war. Regional lesson? Abduct IDF forces and end up in a war. I wonder if anyone's paying attention in Damascus?</ |
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Given
the bot's outlook for food shortages, Cliff's "grow dome" is a
3-frequency geodesic. Completely built by hand (including the
math calcs and bending the steel channels)Cliff's grow dome is now
covered and about to enter operation. Here's a picture of him
"load testing" the frame a week or two back. It's about 17 feet high
at the center, and it will support at least the weight of one human.