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Rude A Quakenings

We're continuing to keep our eye on the swarm of earthquakes off the coast of Oregon.  Why?  Well, remember that we had a swarm of quakes a month or two back down in the Salton Sea area of California?

 

This may sound high speculative but it seems to me that when one end of a massive fault zone (California) has a swarming event indicating earth movement, and then an area off the northern end of the same structures goes through another major swarming event like the one that's going on this weekend off Oregon, then the people in between (e.g. Californians) may wish to prudently prepare for a major earthquake which could arise from a sudden evening up of forces along the north-south fault lines.

 

It's a weekend, so no excuses for not being ready for come-what-may - you've got the heads up and the time to go shopping.

 

Bring Back Jack Department:  GE's Stumbles

The idea that there's still another shoe to drop in the world financial mess was getting moves along in the investment community's collective subconscious Friday by several events that were feeding on one another.  First, there was the surprise miss by GE of it's targets.

 

this is a significant development because GE is a large enough company that they may be considered almost like their own kind of mutual fund - the company is that broad in its coverage that the under current seems to have been "If this can happen to something as large and well-run and GE, what could upcoming earnings confessionals be like from the other players?

 

About the same time, billionaire George Soros was getting a lot of face time on the tube over his new book, which among other things notes that the current global financial crisis is the worst challenge to come along since the Depression of the 1930's.  Some headlines about his remarks carry a lot of its content:

• "Beware of credit swaps: Soros"

• "Subprime may lead to $1-trillion worth of losses"

• "We need a Basel III for a new order: Soros"

• "Global finance relies on a false paradigm"

 

Well, you get the idea.  It's likely still worth buying the book because the underlying theory of Soros - that of something called reflexivity - doesn't get as much play as the headline-grabbing remarks:  Google's news engine hits 889 times for "Soros" and only 32 times for "reflexivity" - Soros's pet theory.  Like most good ideas, it's not sound-bite proof.

 

Put all of this together and the markets start chasing their own tails...and by the time all the circular referencing was done, the Dow had dropped 256-points, and I was handed the topic for Peoplenomics.com subscribers Sunday:  "Implications of a Fifth Wave Failure".

 

Another Soft Week?

As we look forward to the coming trading week, there appears to be some sentiment left to go to the down side.  Out of Canada, the outlook is plain gloomy.  On the north side  headlines like "Royal Bank sees US consumer confidence at new low" appeared while on the south side, "Consumer confidence falls as expectations for future financial conditions continue to deteriorate".

 

Grounds/Groundings

So after this morning's interminable wait for Mr. Coffee to produce the wake up juice, the result of someone forgetting to insert the filter basket, and dumping in the coffee sans filtration (I told you, I am a genius, right?) I read about how more American Airlines planes are being grounded for the wiring checks of DC-9/MD-80's.  American says it should all be over today.  All the delays (restrictions on travel hit from the linguistics noted) the email was chock full of questions like this one:

"George,

Consider the possibility that the fuel that's not being burned by the cancelled commercial flights is being diverted and stockpiled as war materiel, either for direct use by U.S. forces (Navy frigates run on jet fuel also, I believe) or for lend lease to Israel, in the time monks' upcoming Middle East opera, if actualized. There's only so much to go around, and American Airlines management, being based in Houston, could be thick as thieves with Mr. B. Mr. G.W.B, that is."

I've mentioned how many times that I served for a couple of years as VP of Sales, In-flight, and Communications for a small regional jet carrier in the Caribbean.  From personal experience, I can tell you that when there's something like this that comes along, the way it's handled it to first whip out the spreadsheet and figure out what's the least possible impact to have on the bottom line while still complying with the regs.

 

So the question is open: Was this really the least revenue impacting approach that American could have taken, or is there something else to it?

 

Hu's Kidding Who?

"China's Hu: Tibet is an Internal Matter." Oh yeah?

 

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Coping: With Fire Ants, Ultra High Tech

We continue to accrete responses to the problem of fire ants and I have to confess that I'm in awe of how some readers think about such travails.  Here's a dandy example of someone who could easily be working in the Pentagon as a DARPA liaison:

Dear George,

You're a radio guy, why not try Royal Rife's technology for your fire ant problem? Here's the Gist: Every organism has a resonant frequency range. When exposed to that frequency, the organism self-destructs. Think of it this way: When the fat lady sings, the wine glass shatters.

Case in point: When the dreaded MRSA Staphylococcus is exposed to a positive-offset frequency range from 376.27 to 381.00 KHz for a period of about 4 minutes, the organisms shatter. (Source: "The Cure for All Diseases" by Dr. Hulda Clark.)

According to a graph in her book, the resonant frequency for ants is around 1500 KHz.

Back to Dr. Rife. He isolated a germ on a microscope slide and exposed it to different frequencies. Sure enough, when the germ shattered, he found the frequency. After that, he was able to zap the germs at will with his transmitter, called "The Rife Machine" back in the 1930s.

Hulda Clark has a nice little gadget that does the same thing for under $200. It's a "poor man's Rife Machine." Apply the electrodes to your body, insert the disease chip and your infection is gone. As the germs are dying, you can actually feel little sparks as they wink out. Very cool! [BTW: I found a way to enhance its effectiveness by piggybacking the transmission through a cheap IPod to car radio FM transmitter... but I digress. ( www.drclark.com  )]

My suggestion is to put a few ants in a jar and place it next to a low power transmitter. See what happens when you very slowly change the frequency from 1200 to 1700 KHz. There should be a point where the ants simply die.

After Dr. Clark invented her Zapper, she made the invention public domain and even published the schematics in her book. You can make your own for $20 worth of Radio Shack Parts. Once you've determined the frequency and built your gadget, zap your garden.

Incidentally, this is not science fiction. The PTB have advanced versions. Think back to 2003 when SARs struck Toronto. A major North American City is struck by a highly communicable aerosol droplet-borne virus, truly an "Andromeda Strain" scenario. All of a sudden — POOF — it's gone! Very strange. Was this miracle due to hand washing? Face masks? Stellar public health measures? Even stranger was the absence of self-congratulating by the CDC and local authorities upon the "success" of their containment efforts. It's like their mouths were duct-taped.

On September 28, 2005, Tim Bolen ( www.bolenreport.net  ) was interviewed on Coast to Coast. He casually mentioned that the US Air Force has a transmitter that can "eliminate all the Anthrax on an airbase in 40 seconds." He went on to explain that the Russians are way ahead of us in this technology and that's the real reason why both sides eliminated their biological weapons programs in the 1980s.

Well George, if you happen to have any radio parts laying around your shop, you may be able to solve your ant problem in a couple of days. And the Zapper, with its anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-everything effects, is a gadget that should be in the Clip-and-Save section of your newsletter.

OK, OK, this reader has really stumbled onto one of my formerly secret projects here at the ranch: Working on ways to dramatically increase the radiated power of a ham radio antenna by employing advanced physics.  It's all George Noory's fault (www.coasttocoastam.com ) and

I suppose that demands an explanation, so here goes - and I will try to keep this brief:

 

A week or two back, Noory had Joseph P. Farrell on his show and I happened to be awake (with my gout at maximal pain about that time) and so unable to sleep I listened to most of the interview Noory did concerning Farrell's new book "Secrets of the Unfed Field: The Philadelphia Experiment, the Nazi Bell and the Discarded Theory". 

 

The long and the short of the book distills down to this:  Even though Einstein's Unified Field Theory may not have been perfect in some of its predictions, it was still close enough to be engineerable and as a result, during WW-II both the Germans and the U.S. were busy building radical new technologies, any one of which could have changed the outcome of the war.

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Side note: It helps if you've read Farrell's  "Hitler's Suppressed and Still-Secret Weapons, Science, and Technology" because although parts seem highly speculative, there's no doubt that the technology being developed during the war on both sides was very advanced - so much so that the F-86 fighter of the Korean War era may not have been as good in certain regards as the WW II German ME-262 jet which was entering limited production by war's end.

 

A little more obscure, but definitely a good 'trainer' for thinking outside the box, is P.D. Ouspensky's "Tertium Organum: Or, The Third Canon of Thought" which is has some dandy instruction in how to build multi-dimensional mental constructs, which when you're studying Riemann-space can be a useful tool to have handy in your mental tool-kit.

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So back to the point: Without the rotating magnetic fields, which seem to have been at the core of the Philadelphia Experiment (and perhaps the Nazi Bell, see: Die Glocke ), the simple application of  RF at sufficient levels to do cellular damage of the sort that could kill a fire ant seems pretty far-fetched.  The reason is low frequency RF (under 10 MHz or so, quickly loses its ionizing effect. 

 

On the other hand, the heating effectiveness (ionizing) of RF increases at the frequency increases.  That's why a microwave oven operates around 2.4-2.5 gigahertz, near the resonant frequency of water, which coincidentally is worth thinking about when you sit your wireless router (2.4 GHz also)  next to your arm which also operates in the same microwave region.  Your wireless router may not work when your microwave is warming up your coffee nearby, too.

 

So, if you want a little 'science' project for yourself this weekend, please do some research into rumored scalar wave theory, come up with a ham radio antenna that will dramatically increase the efficiency of coupling RF into the aether, and send along plans to modify a 200-watt 160 meter ham radio rig to used this antenna to zap fire ants.

 

Tell you what: Just for good measure, put the work in the public domain because it would have obvious application to the search for free energy or the often cited zero point energy search, too.

 

No fair sending in Crossed Field antenna plans - these are pretty well documented, but as far as I've been able to tell, the waves generated by such antennas are not scalar in nature, which is to say that they seem to behave according to the regular everyday inverse square law which simply says when you double the distance from a radiator of energy, the field strength is quartered.  Scalar waves supposedly cheat physics by only losing half their energy at twice the distance.

 

I know the pseudo-science folks would argue that's because I don't have a scalar wave receiver, so sure, go ahead and send those plans in too, along with the scalar antenna, and I'll see you on the 20-meter SSTV frequency (14,230.00 USB - those funny warbling tones which is folks like me sending pictures around the world) and we'll see if we can't weasel our way into some weak signal record books.  Want to start on the 20-meter (three links follow)  QRP    CW    frequencies?  Sure, I'm good with that.

 

In the meantime, while I appreciate the theories about the resonant frequency of fire ants, the empirical tests show that non-ionizing radiation (absent the rotating magnetic fields?) is not going to blow up fire ants. 

 

What surely would work would be a microwave signal blasted into the grou8nd at sufficient energy levels so as to just cook the critters.  Unfortunately, I don't have the money to spend that HAARP does, and the power levels necessary to cook fire ants 4-10 feet underground would require a bigger investment in equipment, than just pouring a cup of gasoline on the mound for 30-cents, or putting powdered dry ice down the hill and smothering the buggers.

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And you thought I was preoccupied with something as mundane as long wave economics? Ha!  There's a very simple reason to remain well-read in the area of pseudo-science:  Some of it isn't pseudo and as Farrell notes, once something is even partly understood to the level that it is engineerable, then the door opens to all kinds of technical innovation. 

 

Occasional reads of sites like www.americanantigravity.com have definite high pay-out potential for the aware investor looking for something with as little more impact that a few more pixels of resolution being added to a cell phone cam..

 

And where would you like to invest your money?

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Send snip and save comments/suggestions to george@ure.net

 

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Around the Ranch: Zzzz...

 The Saturday morning report was about an hour late Saturday for the following reasons:

• I filled up Mr. Coffee's hopper without the strainer basket in it.

• My cranky knee is aching because I overdid things yesterday (again)

• I'm still sorting out the decline in the market Friday

• Client workload

• Had to do the animals this morning (feed/water) because E is sleeping in

• I broke my glasses and am doing the best impression of Mr. McGoo ever.

 

Yeah...not the usual ultra-smooth flow of things,  So the Saturday report wwas posted late

 

This Week for Peoplenomics Subscribers

Personal Planning: 14,966 then Crash 2.0?

Lot's to cover this weekend: I'm going to show you the Elliott wave count that would put us in the 'fifth of the fifth" which could lead to a Fall in the Fall, and we're going to consider a batch of historical data to ask the question "How would you have played The Crash of 1929? - What would have tipped you off?" But before we get into hypothetical topics, let's start with a little chart work and I'll show you how I pencil in a Dow of 14,966 as one projected rally high for the summer....

 

             More for Subscribers (login here)         Subscription Info ($40/year)

 

Tell Your Friends About This Site!

If you know anyone who is interested in preserving the Constitution, fighting usury from banksters, and shaking off consumer hypnosis, tell them about this site.  Click here to send 'em an invite...

 

Mr. Cheap's Tricks

There are lots of ways to save money on food, shelter, transportation, and such.  It just takes a little reading and one source of good ideas is  our handy ebook "How to Live on $10,000 a year or less.  Still just $10.

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

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I promised Elaine that I would unload some of my equipment, so if you're looking for ham gear, especially the older tube-type (EMP resistant) type, send me a note and I will send out the list of what I'm selling off when I get it together.    Click here to  Put Me On Ham Gear List

 

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Friday April 11, 2008

Personal Planning: Adventures in Real Estate

A couple of years ago, when Elaine and I were out in Burbank, I started watching real estate prices like a hawk.  Not that I'm bound and determined to buy more real estate (30-acres with animals is enough work, thanks), but I figured when the current recession  that might shade to Depression, ends it might be a dandy time to buy a few fixer homes and operate them as inexpensive rentals. I've had a rental before - and it was fun.

 

Not that we'd be trying to 'get rich', but a few paid up homes might be a dandy source of income in the event that Social Security becomes meaningless due to how government manages it.  in other words, a fall-back income stream.

 

I've also become a big fan of small town American.  I think it's where the future lies and I've got some company in thinking this, notably urban geographer Jim Kunstler and others who cite cities in the 15-40,000 range are about optimal because they are big enough to have a robust local economy on the one hand, but small enough so that they are 'walkable' and so that there's a genuine sense of community.

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It was therefore with some interest that I reviewed a link this morning for homes that people can get into in the Detroit Michigan area for next to nothing down.

 

If you click here, you'll find about 922 homes which can be had for $5,000 or less.  While some of them are for the land only (with houses either severely damaged by fire, or due to be demolished as unsafe, there may be a couple of gems in here.

 

I've written previously in the little eBook "How to Live on $10,000 a year, or less..." that a person who is industrious, is willing to live below their means and doesn't mind a little sweat equity can do extremely well for themselves.

 

While I'm not really keen on moving into Detroit, it should give you an idea of just how band things have become in the Motor City environs in the context of what I call Bushvilles.

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As I was getting ready for a chat with Alex Ansary on "Outside the Box" (WTPRN) on Wednesday night ( the show was postponed till next Wednesday due to technical issues), I decided to see what I could come up with in the way of a small family farm. 

 

The search restraints over at www.unitedcountry.com were that the property I was looking for had to have at least 10-acres of land and must have at least one bedroom on it.  Oh, and the price had to be $50,000 or less.

 

The very first house I found looked like it would be perfect for a small 'urban flight' family:  An A Frame type house with two bedrooms, one bath, a small lake, on a state highway, with a well, close to town and 25 minutes from Marshall Missouri.  In a big city 'burb, this is the cost of a kitchen remodel.  What's more valuable?

 

Similarly, a 20 acres property with a three bedroom, two bath mobile with central heat and air in rural Arkansas looked interesting, too. With a $10-thosuand dollar down stroke, the monthly payment before taxes would be $293, and with an ag exemption (tree farming maybe?) the taxes would likely be well under $1,000 a year.  I'd guess $500 to $600.

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No, I'm not suggesting that you blow off the HOV/Corporate treadmill lifestyle.  Rather, this is about opening your head up to a little different way of thinking: QOL which means quality of life.

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My commodity broker pal has been thinking about it.  He and Mrs. Commodity Broker live in the L.A. area and  I don't think I'm out of school saying that their monthly nut could be cut about in half by a move to somewhere else.  They're thinking over a place near Prescott Arizona. 

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Whether you listen to Jim Kunstler's view that suburbia is dead, or consider the advise of oil experts who argue that suburbs are not energy efficient, my strongly held view is that times are really changing and this is not the same world you grew up in.

 

Just like there are only two ways to own real estate (100% borrowed, or 100% paid up free and clear) the same can be said of the real estate.  Long term, it's got to be in a vibrant core city, or it's got to be far enough from the core that it has some land and that land can be brought into some kind of production.

 

One of my heroes in this regard has been Jack Lessinger, professor emeritus of business from the University of Washington.  Lessinger's works include "Penturbia: The fifth migration" and "Schizomania: Split Society, Perilous Economy, 1990-2020" which is about the odd bumps and grinds that society goes through on our way from the Little King era of big government to the 'next economy' which will be populated by people who have made better QOL decisions than our energy-rich predecessors.

 

Lately, Lessinger has had a site up called "Predicting 2020" which focuses on one of my favorite topics: Long-Run Economics.  Lessinger's web site counsels us that:

1. Periodically, a mass society is shaken by a contagious new vision of the good life.

2. As the “contagion” spreads, vision explodes into a mania to transform the way we live—our values and attitudes; what we want and how we get it.

3. The new mania arouses new demands and supplies—a new economy.

4. Driven by the mania for many decades, an economy defies the law of diminishing returns and perishes.

5. Every “economy” is perishable. It lives and dies.

6. Before an aging economy perishes, an opposing vision arises. It aims to correct mounting excesses.

7. Two conflicting economies overlap. One rises, the other falls

8. Schizomania begins when opposing manias create a peak probability of depression. The Great Depression was caused by conflict between the industrial and consumer economies of the 19th and 20th centuries.

9. Depressions are not preventable.

10. Four U.S. economies rose and fell since 1790. A fifth is now rising.

11. Franklin D. Roosevelt helped to jump-start the fourth, today’s Consumer Economy

 

I mention all of this because it's over weekends that most folks have the time to talk with the other members of the household.  Husbands and wives may not have time for a lingering branch water during the week, but on weekend, the longer range ideas and goals can be dusted off for review.

 

I'm not saying that blowing out of big cities is a good thing for everyone.  But, for a certain kind of modern day rural pioneer is does make sense.

 

Rural America still has lots of growth potential and one way to spot opportunity is bring the big city yellow pages out here and compare it with the local phone book's yellow pages.  Then go through the two side-by-side and see if there's not a need for one of the big city businesses.

 

It is, as Warren Buffett says, a matter of spotting genuine value when we make the long term investment decisions in our lives. 

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Speaking of the Sage of Omaha, I didn't mention his annual letter to shareholders when it was released recently, but he makes a pretty good point about Bubbles:

"You may recall a 2003 Silicon Valley bumper sticker that implored, “Please, God, Just One More Bubble.” Unfortunately, this wish was promptly granted, as just about all Americans came to believe that house prices would forever rise. That conviction made a borrower’s income and cash equity seem unimportant to lenders, who shoveled out money, confident that HPA – house price appreciation – would cure all problems. Today, our country is experiencing widespread pain because of that erroneous belief. As house prices fall, a huge amount of financial folly is being exposed. You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight."

To be sure, just how ugly is still being revealed. 

 

With any luck, "Fed" chairman Ben Bernanke will be right when he argues that the "economic woes [of today] nothing like Depression" of the 1930's.

 

Unfortunately, however, while they may be nothing like the 1930's at the moment, we are still waiting for the other shoe to drop in the derivatives world. 

 

Broker friend Robin Landry told he this week that he attended a conference recently in which some of the 'still under wraps' data was talked about and it was just plain scary.  While he continues to expect a rally to new highs to develop, there's nothing technically that precludes a fifth wave failure and should that arrive, bar the door - the market could take out 7,400 on the Dow and perhaps much lower.

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As I've chronicled for Peoplenomics.com subscribers, there has been a 'right shoulder' forming in my global index (a kind of composite view of some of the G-7).  These central banksters will be meeting this weekend to try and decide where to go next in the global currency game.

 

But while they do, and while there's still time to make major lifestyle moves, a few hours of long range planning and conscious lifestyle decisions seems like a fine investment to make over the weekend. If you can tear yourself away from the Masters long enough.

 

Readings: Rogue Economics

Seems that (look surprised here) the past decade of growth globally has been accompanied by a dark side.  Which is to say, that as the global economy seems to have flourished, there has been a corresponding increase in what author Loretta Napoleoni figures is an emergency corrupt and brutal capitalism.  It goes on my reading list - you might consider it, too.  Unless, of course, you'd just as soon not know about things like slave labor and sweat shops...

 

Slow Friday?

I usually worry a bit when the news headlines start to feel boring and stale.  Maybe its because so many people are worried about taxes and such - whatever the cause, the headlines are like taking 50 mg of Benadryl - it's enough to cause heavy eyelids.  Spill your coffee on yourself, if you find the eyes closing...I've found that a good scalding chases off slumber at least for a few minutes.

 

It's on days like this one that I drag out "fill-in the blanks news reporting" to at least wade through boring mornings in the newsroom while patiently waiting for all hell to break loose so there'd be something fresh to report.  In the meantime...

 

Still Flying

(Blank airline) has filed for bankruptcy, but plans to keep flying.  Blank= Frontier.

 

War News

We could run almost any day:  "New US air strikes kill x in Iraq"  Today, x equals12.

 

More Fill Ins?

How about this one:  "Israeli army kills y and z in Gaza fighting"  Today, y = boy and z = two gunmen.

 

Late

"House votes to put off (blank)"  Blank= trade deal Bush sought.

 

There's a certain monotony to the news after a while...

 

Old Newsroom Reliables

What to do on a slow news day?  "Health, heart, pocketbook, and weather stories!" advised on 1970's rock & roll radio news consultant.  OK, fine:

 

:"People without health insurance are dying"  So are people with, just maybe not as fast.

 

"Unbreak My Heart star Toni Braxton cancels Las Vegas shows after chest pains" (We're wondering if it is still broken after all...)

 

"Tire prices pinch the pocketbook."  So does everything else.

 

"Helping the Weather Service spot storms"

 

Why is it that this morning's report feels like an all-night cramming session in school? Makes me wonder what's just ahead that there's this calm before the storm...

 

Think you're bummed now? Just wait till the market opens.  Due to slide on poor GE results...

 

Some how will I stay awake today?  Dissecting the EPC: RFID for the commercial sector in the new issue of 2600 (The hacker's quarterly) caught my eye because of our RFID discussions earlier this week.   Hey!  Speaking of Computers...

 

Credit Where Due

I know I don't give the Redmond boyz (& girlz) at MSFT a hand often, but I'm pleased to report that my copy of Web Expression now longer points at a useless page when I click on "Update".  There's actually a Service Pack for Expression Web.  If I get really brave, I may try rolling one of my sites over into it.

 

Either that, or I will see if the 2600 reported leak (Downloading MP3;s from **** For Free) has been plugged yet. Say, I didn't know about how www.10minutemail.com...

 

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Coping: Vampires and Corporations

A reader studied yesterday's call for a fiction writer to do a reall-life horror story of the economy and offers this:

"George --

Cool idea about current real life nightmares being cast in horror fiction.

I've wondered over the past five years (or more) about the very popular fiction trend featuring vampires.

Vampires:

--are dead but have a body - in corpore

--suck the blood of the living

--have the potential to exist forever

--thrive in darkness and conditions favoring secrecy and high security

--cultivate an atmosphere of fear in humans

Of course, monsters aren't anything new in fiction or in real life. What strikes me about the most recent fictional vampires is that novelists have sought ways to make them likable oddballs who live on blood banks, just misunderstood, or simply another species humans haven't recognized until now.

So, are the writers using this form to showcase our attempt to convince ourselves the monsters in corporate and government spheres aren't so bad? That we can close the novel and pretend they're only fictions? Or is it through the veil of fiction we are getting ready to face what we really don't want to face?

Still wondering."

Not to wonder - I assume you've figured out why a stake from a precious metal needs to be driven through the vampire's heart, right?

 

Taxable Forgiven Debt

It didn't take long for yesterday's story about how certain firms were vindictively issuing 1099's to people on the forgiven portion of their debts, in order to write them off on the corporate side, and if that comes around and bites the taxpayer, who had part of their debts forgiven, which looks like taxable income, then so be it.

 

In fact, a reader said:

"George, debt forgiveness is not taxable if the person is insolvent. Do some research Man."

Well, hmmm...how to reply?

"My tax atny says true, but only if you file bankruptcy “If the bank forgiveness is in connection with a bankruptcy then it is not a gain” - it’s nearly always been regarded as income except when it’s part of a bankruptcy filing…

Absent a bankruptcy file the 1099’ing is legit as a general rule."

Not to give in, my other reader offered this advice:

George, you need a new tax attorney. You don't have to file for bankruptcy. This is according to IRS:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=174034,00.html 

"2. Is Cancellation of Debt income always taxable? Not always. There are some exceptions. The most common situations when cancellation of debt income is not taxable involve:

• Bankruptcy: Debts discharged through bankruptcy are not considered taxable income.

• Insolvency: If you are insolvent when the debt is cancelled, some or all of the cancelled debt may not be taxable to you. You are insolvent when your total debts are more than the fair market value of your total assets. Insolvency can be fairly complex to determine and the assistance of a tax professional is recommended if you believe you qualify for this exception.

• Certain farm debts: If you incurred the debt directly in operation of a farm, more than half your income from the prior three years was from farming, and the loan was owed to a person or agency regularly engaged in lending, your cancelled debt is generally not considered taxable income. The rules applicable to farmers are complex and the assistance of a tax professional is recommended if you believe you qualify for this exception.

• Non-recourse loans: A non-recourse loan is a loan for which the lender’s only remedy in case of default is to repossess the property being financed or used as collateral. T hat is, the lender cannot pursue you personally in case of default. Forgiveness of a non-recourse loan resulting from a foreclosure does not result in cancellation of debt income. However, it may result in other tax consequences, as discussed in Question 3 below."

This began to get interesting - so I sent the whole gob of notes to my tax attorney who then  sorted through it this way:

"Thanks George:

The issue he talks about as to insolvency without filing bankruptcy are generally addressed through the "Compromise and Settlement" procedures ... but the comments are correct ... baring a Bankruptcy Filing it is complex and difficult to get the IRS to NOT tax a debt forgiveness.

As for Farm issues ... I leave that to those who deal in farmers on a regular basis. I haven't done a farm foreclosure or debt forgiveness issue in over 25 years ... and have no desire to get into that realm of work now.

Yes ... non-recourse loans have NO income tax consequences, because they are not debt forgiveness of YOU, to You, to begin with. "

As usual, I'll offer the disclaimer that I don't offer tax advice here, and for its part of the bargain, IRS doesn't raise goats. 

As to whether companies will tack on fees and 'charges' till hell ain't a foot away and then 'forgive them' and 1099 us po' folks - yeah, that sadly does go on.  I now folks who have been down that road and have to come to terms with pejorative 1099's this week.  For some, it will come down to weighing whether to 'fess up and file' and get the 'rebate' on the 2009 taxes, or lay low and hope the IRS doesn't notice.

Our return went in last week - a small refund and the usual quarterly filing.  I may disagree with the fellow in the White House (or both of them), and I may not like the oil war, but I also understand that there really are people who want to kill Americans because despite it all, this is still the greatest country on earth - and I'm willing to pay my share to support the dream.

You Area What Eats You

When I read headlines that a "Bacteria-eating Virus Approved as Food Additive" if makes me run up the the garden and urge the plants to hurry along with their work.  I can hardly wait to read the labels to see how the corpfood industry covers this one over.

 

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A zillion ore fire ant treatments have arrived - we'll have more on tomorrow morning - drop by then...

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Send Snip and Save ideas and comments to george@ure.net.

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Thursday April 10, 2008

Novel Plots: Taxmares in Bushvilles

UrbanSurvival is unfortunately a nonfiction writing operation.  But, every once in a while an idea slams me across the right hemisphere that brings tears to my eyes because of what a fine nonfictional fiction plot it would make.

 

Oh sure, we get out fair share of emails from published writers, but in the main these are people who have stuck to the nuts and bolts of life - the nonfiction side of things.  The great nonfiction writers who wander by now and then include Financial Armageddon writer Michael Panzner, whose hardcover is going to paperback this month, just in time to make it accessible to the bulk of the middle class which is lined up against the financial wall with cigarettes lit, awaiting only the next credit card rate increase or unexpected  change in home loan terms, before being dispatched to the Other Side.

 

To be sure, folks like Jim Kunstler of "The Long Emergency" and more recently a fine fiction work "World Made by Hand", set in the post collapse world, might be able to do it.  I worry that Jim's too rational a fellow to be able to give the Taxmares in  Bushvilles' plot line the necessary shades of dark, foreboding, and macabre   Jim's just too nice a guy and his mind seems to lack that half-twist of wry horror common in the 'scare the daylights out of you" genre (in both writing and directing) of the sort that sends either shivers up the spine, or makes you pledge never to shower in a small, out of the way motel, no matter what.  Now, where are those scissors?

 

Not that a Long Emergency or a World Made by Hand is not scary - don't get me wrong: It's just that this plot deserves a real horror pro at the pen. A Richard Bachman type, perhaps.

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It's not like the book needs to venture too far from reality.  In the same vein as Jaws III (it's early, so puns flow freer than Type A in a water park), the reality of a man-eating tax policy is already  among us.  It just hasn't been immortalized on paper or film yet, except in the CONgressional Record, and 30-second sound bites of course.

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The plot of this takes place in the many Bushvilles which I asked people to send in notes on in yesterday's column.  These emergent new features of "Shruburbia" are popping up all over the country, although they seem to weight toward the Midwest and West.  The author of Taxmares can set it almost anywhere in the country, judging by our reports of Bushvilles:

"Hey Hey George, ***** from Cleveland State University.

Yep got one permanent one here, and some one or two tents popping up next to the highway off/on ramps.

What used to be a thriving night district, "The Flats" now houses a small tent city underneath a major highway.

My next year change will take some more planning, No Orchestral jobs yet for me, but my farming gene is kicking back in and a move back to Kansas or Arkansas is in the making."

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Howdy George, Ontario CA has a bushville created by the City of Ontario, CA due tot the massive foreclosures there.

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George,

You asked for examples of Bushville's.

You need not travel any further than your local county or state park. Gathered there are the people who live in the "low tent district".

They are easily recognizable.

Their clothing is hung on a clothesline between two trees. Their children, if they have any with them, are not "normal", because they don't smile much. Their "storage facility" is a few boxes under a tarp. Their vehicle, if they have one, is generally an older one or a very rusty pickup truck. It doubles as a storage facility, since it doesn't move much. Their daily activity is searching out the aluminum cans or anything else of value in dumpsters , to provide meal(s) for the family. Their favorite "hang out" is the local "daily" work agency. Most stay all day, just hoping for something to get them through that day.

I have met: a chef (who just loves MRE's) [yeah right], two people with Muscular Dystrophy (she was pregnant), an Electrical Engineer who lost his house and was trying to get to a new "job site" and many, many, many, many, others in the same situation.

These people will not beg. When approached, they will not "readily" talk about their situation. Most of these people are very proud and have the same "positive outlook" about life. They believe their situation is "only temporary".

However; when they approach a local church, the question asked first is: "Are you a member of our congregation"? "What denomination are you"? The local "relief" organizations want to know an address to visit. When they find out it's a tent, they say "come back when you have a residence".

In the seven states that I traveled through, the "tents", if they had one, were everywhere.

This summer should bring out the need for more "parks".

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Portland Oregon has had an officially sanctioned Bushville near the Airport for several years now

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We live in the Golden Triangle( Beaumont, Port Arthur, Bridge City) Texas. What we notice are the number of travel trailers being set up in every nook and cranny. We are not tourist area, every travel trailer park is full from here to Texarkana. Monday we noticed a large slab than was under a building that burnt down basically a parking lot, no trees) 2 trailers were on it, Tuesday there were 9. It will hold about 12 trailers, I suspect it will be full today. I think people are living in travel trailers in LARGE numbers. I have been living in this area for 50 years and have never seen anything like this.

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Cleveland, Ohio had a tent city that was south of downtown around Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in 2007. I heard that the city moved the residents, but they are no longer visible to the persons going to the stadium.

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Hi George,

I've lived in Hawaii (on Oahu) for 20 years now and yes, we have a growing community of Bushvilles here. Our homeless population continues to grow, so much so, that its no longer a good idea to take the kid to any of the beaches on the west coast. Years back, those were pristine undeveloped beaches that I used to love going to. MSNBC did a story on it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14788746/

Lately, the Dept. of Transportation has been tearing down tent cities in Honolulu to keep them out of the eye of tourists and sending in other corpgov thugs to take their dogs. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/23/ln/hawaii803230347.html 

All is not well in paradise.

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George This may seem obvious, but I was in New Orleans last month and the size of the Bushville tent city under the I-10 was truly substantial. I would figure hundreds of tents spread along a long stretch.

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RV park for homeless planned Austin City Council to vote on lease this week.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/07/0407homeless.html

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...here in Joplin Missouri, too.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/siteSearch/apstorysection/local_story_083210727.html

Even the time monks at HPH report that their trips to the server farm near Olympia Washington have yielded glimpse into the more or less officially denied impromptu self-organizing collectives of Newly Poor: "

"3/three tent cities here in oly/lacey. One is near my house...about 5 miles away with probably 20 families. Others, non sanctioned homeless camps in the woods are being raided by police these days. Have seen it twice here in last month. "

One reason why there are likely so many Bushvilles in the southern half of the country is winters.  It was pretty common during the last Depression for hobos and others down and out on their luck, to hop the next possible southbound freight and head for warmer climates.  If you're going to squat a home, best do it where utility bills are low.

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Having a fair title (which is something every publishing house gets worked up about) and several settings including a John Steinbeck-like Grapes of Wrath mobility, we next have to look for some of the main points to the plot.

 

The time monks have found these in abundance in the form of what can perhaps best be described as punitive 1099'ing - a topic which is cropping up on web forums all over the place.

 

The basics mechanics of it go something like this - and whether it is applied to a credit card balance or to a house matters little:

• A person gets into a big debt.

• They find that for whatever reason they can not make their payments.

• The default on the debt.

• The lender tacks whatever they feel like on top of the debt as "cost of collection" and then "forgives" some portion of the debt.

• The forgiven portion is then 1099'ed to the taxpayer.

• The business bundles up all the "forgivenesses" and writes it all off as a business expense against their taxes  (bad debt account).

• IRS (and other tax authorities) are then flooded with 1099's of people who can't really afford to pay.

• The consumer then has a choice to make:  File taxes, but admit to a 1099'ed amount that is absurd and so large as to be unpayable, OR don't file and skip out.

 

The idea being that if you have a credit card debt, say, and you roll up $30,000 worth of expenses, and are forgiven $20,000 of it, then you should pay tax on the $20,000 of lifestyle accumulated tax-free.

 

Or, in the case of a house, you go through a home equity loan and do a 125% LTV (loan to value) and pull out perhaps $100,000 of cash -- well, Uncle wants his bite.

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The problem is that the very people who are getting these kind of 1099's - what we could call 10-90-ninemares - are the very people who have lived beyond their means for so long that they have nothing left to pay their tax bills.

 

Which leads to an interesting moral dilemma - always good grist for a novel: Who's the bad guy here?

• Is it the mean tax authority who wants to make sure than no income goes unpunished?

• Is it the house flipping couple who were guilty of taking the easy money and trying to 'get rich quick' at the expense of others?

• Is it the Congress and the White House (and let's not forget Mr. Bubbles, Alan Greenspan, who during his tenure at the "Fed" helm was caught many times extolling the virtues of historical records being set in home ownership without considering the consequences of such excess)

• Is it the homebuilders who over-built demand based on historical means?

• Is it the PowersThatBe who behind the scenes are happily making 6% every year by renting America its own money through the mechanism of that Critter from Jekyll Island?

• Is it the colluding real estate agents, appraisers, house-flippers, and growth at all costs mortgage bankers?

• Or, is it the enablers on Wall Street who bundled up all the bad paper and sold it from New York to Shanghai under the guise of it being a collateralized debt obligation which could be traded like a bond, until of course, it couldn't

 

It may be a little early to see the dénouement clearly.  If my sense of it is correct, everyone has a little portion of the blame to bear.

 

But, you get the idea:  There's a horror novel unfolding before the common-sense portion of the population (both of us and that one other reader overs there) which is really worthy of the finest horror writer we can find.  Otherwise, no one would believe it.

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I keep coming back to titles.  Perhaps Taxmares in Bushvilles is not quite right.  A few other titles come to mind:

• Taxjoe

• Taxcatcher

• The Flipperknockers

• Wealth Sematary

 

OK, not as flashy as a kid running around starting fires or werewolves, but in its own Rod Serling-esque "To Serve Man" kind of way, this plot has the ring of believability and in the end, who needs mean kids, wolves, or Kanamits when we have an abdicated Congress, a Strong Man Ruler, and circularly referenced economy?

 

Certainly not us, the good citizens of Bushville.

 

Novel Plot #2:  Grounded!

Here's a really good plot line - they seem to be all over the place:  Suppose there was a problem with an airplane, such as the MD-80 for example, and only one airline was going through the wiring checks and cancelling another 900 or so flights today. You could come up with all kinds of conspiratorial plot theories behind it.  That'd be the American way. 

 

More coming through June.  And now we wonder if this might not be the linguistic fulfillment of a little bit of model space which went to the idea of '30 planes coming down' - maybe it was 30 airlines, now that American is being joined by Alaska, Delta and Southwest, with more MD-80 operators globally likely to at least look in on the problem.

 

Unbalanced of Trade

The latest trade report is out.  A little guv'mint Gospel from the Book of Bush, if yah please?

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total February exports of $151.4 billion and imports of $213.7 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $62.3 billion, up from $59.0 billion in January, revised. February exports were $3.0 billion more than January exports of $148.4 billion. February imports were $6.3 billion more than January imports of $207.3 billion.

 

In February, the goods deficit increased $3.5 billion from January to $72.9 billion, and the services surplus increased $0.1 billion to $10.6 billion. Exports of goods increased $2.6 billion to $107.3 billion, and imports of goods increased $6.0 billion to $180.2 billion. Exports of services increased $0.4 billion to $44.1 billion, and imports of services increased $0.3 billion to $33.5 billion.

 

In February, the goods and services deficit increased $4.1 billion from February 2007. Exports were up $26.1 billion, or 20.8 percent, and imports were up $30.2 billion, or 16.4 percent.

The wild idea which is still alive on financial life support globally is that the U.S. can continue living above its means for years on end, offering nothing but paper and ink in return.  Economic reality is a bear (market).

 

Oily Mess

And, of course, as the dollar continues to tank (in spite of the 'strong dollar policy' drivel fed by the MainStreamMedia), we notice that oil set new highs yesterday and hold on for more to come.

 

Them Floods

The death toll in Brazil is now up to 33 - 76-towns are under water.

 

We are So Screwed Department

So much so that Pennsylvania state police report a former Cumberland County commissioner may have secretly taped 100 to 500 sexual encounters with a hidden camera network.

 

Science on Drugs

20 percent of scientists take drugs to improve their performance and improve
concentration says a report in Nature.

 

Lifestyle Goes to Court

Is the gangstah lifestyle legally liable for an assault?  I mean on more than just sensibilities...

 

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Coping: Anti Ants

Oh boy, did I ever kick over an ant pile with the question about fire ants - one of the worst scourges ever to visit earth - right up there with Biblical locusts in my book. 

 

Curiously, we only got three real answers to the question: One is based on the persistent rumor that artificial sweeteners can somehow kill ants - here's a typical note:

Hi George, I note from today's Chicken Moat section that you have a problem with fire ants. Don't know where I first read this but it was probably on the web somewhere :-) Try putting down some Aspartame sweetener like candarel or NutraSweet granules. Little blighters carry it off to their nest and it screws up their nervous system. Works with ordinary ants so It should work with fire ants too. If they don't take to it initially try dampening it to give them a chemical scent to sniff out. Worked for me and haven't had any ants around for a couple of years now. Worth a try.'

Such a large number of readers sent in the supposed link between aspartame and ants, that I suppose it's time to haul out the reference to the Urban Legends site again, which
 says no, this is an Urban Legend.

 

Just to see for myself, I spent about an hour last night in the US Patent Office database looking up everything I could about aspartame and no, I couldn't find a patent linking aspartame to ant killing, but if you know of such a patent number, please send it along.

 

I try to follow the advice "It's not the things that are true that misinform folks, it's the things that aren't truth that they insist on believing anyway that get them."  Send a patent number, or evidence that predates the 2005/2006 internet rumor and I'll be more receptive.

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Don't get me wrong: I'm not pimping aspartame, and I'll point you to any one of the dozens of sites around the net, such as this one, where you can read all about aspartame symptoms and toxicity.  he stuff has enough dangers to it, as it is, just like so-called "high fructose corn syrup" which is by is another corporate bad answer to a problem.

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Our second batch of ant killers was grits.  A typical submission is this:

Grits, uncooked, normal old grits.

Just pore them on the ground near the ants. You might want to not let the chickens get to the grits? I'm sure a little uncooked grits wont hurt them as we have had chickens and have done this.

The wife learned of it from some lady from the south.

It works on the ants here.

What you need is a good sheep dog:-)

Only if the sheep dog will eat fire ants.  Otherwise, the attorney for the cats would haul us into court in a heartbeat.  The cats refuse to share their space with anyone.

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Side note about the cats:  Pusscilla is doing just fine, and Zeus, the miniature jaguar masquerading as a cat, will now get within about 6 inches of my hand at feeding time.  I've got him hooked on a tablespoon of cream a day, and Elaine  sometimes puts a dollop of wet food in the dry food we feed him.  In return, he doesn't chase the chickens that fly out of the chicken moat in their quest for crickets.

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A few almost "off the wall" ant killing  ideas came in, too.  Gassing ants with CO2?  May be possible:

"Hate the little bastids, Maestro. I've heard that pouring club soda on the nests kills them over a few days by taking up their oxygen. Haven't been able to get the club soda bottle connected to the hose. I'm wondering about baking soda."

Hmmm... a solution of baking soda followed by a half gallon of vinegar might be worth a try...

 

Then again, we've tried this one:

"George, Love your commentaries. Makes a Helluva lot a sense. Too bad the other George doesn't read em. Keep 'em coming. Anyway, try dish soap to get rid of those nasty little fire ants. I've used it in Florida just for that problem. (it also works to get rid of Aphids)"

Unfortunately, this one hasn't worked for us.  Elaine has spent hours and hours poking at fire ant hills and pouring detergents into the ground.  As best I can tell, the only major result has been an exceptionally clean colony.

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In the end, it seemed like one way to beat the little critters was to try this:

My early childhood in southern Alabama included an up-close and personal introduction to fire ants - very unpleasant. I immediately learned the "farmers trick" for killing most aggressive ants - swap shovel-fulls of different hills. Each community assumes the other is attacking, especially when it is dry, and in the best case, both queens are killed. The real fun of the process is, using two people, agitating the nests and quickly swapping portions. Beware, they can climb the handle quickly. I wouldn't plan on yard work in the area for the rest of the day. Thanks for the time you spend to educate / update "the little people"

'Welcome.  Note, however, that there are no 'little people' - all souls weigh the same in Universe.  Some souls just have to carry a lot more money around.

 

Pigs Of Ourselves

A reader wants to know why I haven't mentioned wild hogs as a source of protein:

"Hi George,

Reading your descriptions of Survivalists, Hippies and Farmers, which placed the words "guns" and the phrase "protein shortage" in somewhat close proximity, jogged my memory about a news story I saw about a year ago. Go to Yahoo, enter: news stories feral pigs. The very first story is a transcript from ABC Nightly News Nov. 13, 2006:

"A million feral pigs are roaming Texas soil, challenging farmers and devouring crops. These animals have ravenous appetites and no natural predators in Texas. . .game wardens are begging hunters to go after the wild animals." 'Nuff said.

We live in a neighborhood of two-flats and single family homes in Chicago about halfway between downtown and Evanston, (and a 10-15-minute drive from Lake Michigan.) We have always had a vegetable garden, and plan to expand it this year. It's amazing how much food you can grow in a small space. People who have never lived near the Great Lakes don't realize what a fabulous resource they are. Fresh water, for one thing. Also--the perch are coming back this year. And there are lake trout and Chinook salmon. Sad to say, you're not supposed to eat too many of the latter two because of heavy metals contamination. Recently, a woman who lives on the far northwest side was allowed to keep a few chickens in her back yard. But aside from the police and carriage horses, there're no livestock in the city. But who knows what may happen in the next few years? "

Well, yes, we do have some feral wild hogs around here.  In fact, I run across hoof prints all the time when I'm working down at the creek that runs through the property.  When there are fresh tracks about I make a lot of noise and make sure I have a sidearm handy.  Feral hogs and boars are not to be trifled with.

 

However, like the dozen or so deer than roam through the property, I don't have any argument with the animals.  As long as I can get a bit of protein downtown, they're all safe.  If the power goes off, the gasoline stations get shuttered, then yeah, the rules might change.

 

More RFID Help

Another note from the Wiz:

was truly amazed and honored to see the links I sent yesterday posted so quickly!

Not looking for another mention, I honestly just came across this one today: http://www.idstronghold.com/index.php  These products are not leather-covered, therefore more affordable. Best Regards Wizard

Send snip and save ideas/contributions and aspartame as ant poison patents if you find them, to george@ure.net.

 

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Around the Ranch:  Rescheduled

The appearance on the We The People Radio Network was glitched last night, so it has been rescheduled for a week from last night.

 

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Wednesday April 9, 2008

Lessons from Jericho

An email from a colleague, who's been watching the TV series Jericho (I don't have time for such, but the episode summaries are here) offers this sobering forecast:

"When an abrupt climate/pole shift strikes simultaneously between 2010-2015 (best bet 2011-2012), it won't really matter. Any way you slice it, high tech is toast, along with all the rest of civilization's associated trappings.

At least as far back as 1900 era technology the best I could project and only then if we're very lucky and events do not transpire as Kunstler predicts in 'The Long Emergency' or even worse along the lines of Chew's 'The Recurring Dark Ages." Should that occur, no one knows how far down the collapse of civilization and ensuing chaos will descend.

That, in the end, is the objective lesson of Jericho. Not certain if CBS intended it that way, but......"

The piece last weekend in the NY Times ("Duck and Cover: It's the New Survivalism", in which a Dallas-area exec and US reader was interviewed, has, in my view, missed the point.

 

At the risk of sounding a little too woo woo, some of those of us who have fled the big cities and the corporate treadmill are doing so because we see that the problems brought to our attention during the Hippies 1.0 period (in the 1960's and 1970's) have not been solved, and if anything, they are now likely to arrive with no mercy for the lazy.

 

When we notice the increased frequency of terms like "shortage" in the news, or we read how "Food riots could spread, UN chief warns", or how another $50-billion is being pushed into the banking system, the question pops up: Is it correct to label people who are actively constructing work-arounds to keep their own lives independent and free as "survivalists"?

 

True, a person with a few acres, a well with a hand pump, and a garden or greenhouse and a way to survive heat and cold without relying on Hugo Chavez's country sending us oil might indeed  may have higher odds of survival when TSHTF, but "Survivalism" has been morphed by the mainstream into a pejorative term.  It's not a compliment.

 

If you ever do decide to click out of the HOV lane life and get back to the country, which is closer to a Hippy 2.0 lifestyle, consider doing so under a different banner to ensure you don't become the target of ridicule.

 

Farmer NOT Hippy 2.0 or Survivalist

The way to avoid the labeling as a 'survivalist' is to actually do something in agriculture which make you a 'farmer'.  With headlines like "Rice shortage may continue until August" and "When wheat shortage hurts bakers, it hurts everyone" being a "farmer" will no doubt be a much more acceptable label going forward than being a "survivalist."

 

I bet if you were to ask someone "What is a survivalist?" they'd answer with things like "People who store guns, food, medicines, and what have you and expect the world to end."

 

On the other hand, if youi were to ask "What is a farmer?" the answer might be "Oh, they're people that grow some crop or raise some animals, I guess."  But, upon closer inspection, you'd find that most farmers and ranchers have a gun (or three) to keep down the local populations of rats, coyotes, and other vermin, and they're also know for canning and storing foods.  Independent in thought and deed in the main, too.

 

Yet MainStreamMedia doesn't attack farmers with the same vigor that survivalists are cast and paranoid people who worry about the theft of the Constitution and other such issues, widely trivialized.  Nope.  Farmers are level-headed, common sense endowed people.

 

There are some who call it the "Modern Patriot Movement" but again, seems to me like that's way to easily spun into something pejorative.  But to me, it sounds confrontational.  There would be little cognitive dissonance in a hypothetical headline like "Homeland Security surrounds Modern Patriot leaders..."  but a hypothetical headline like "Homeland Security surrounds group of farmers..."  has a much different feel to it and would be harder to spin.

 

Our on small scale agricultural operation here in East Texas is being converted from tree farm to raising registered Boer goats.  There herd is now 10-animals, but the way goat procreate, we will be up to production levels within 2-years.  Why goats?  They're easy to raise, eat all kinds of brush and can turn even wild/overgrown property into a golf course-like setting.

 

More important, however, is the idea that as the shortages of grains continue to increase, I've written for Peoplenomics.com subscribers about how the "Coming Protein Shortage" in future years is really an opportunity for someone with a longer view of history.

 

You may not read the Seattle PI, but there's a story in there this morning about how with the collapse of Pacific salmon stocks and the fishing agreement reached earlier this week, how wild salmon is already being sold for $30 a pound  by the legendary Pike Place Market fish mongers, and there's speculation that salmon prices could go to $40 a pound or even more!

 

If you ever get on the topic among your friends, before opening your mouth about wanting to have stored food, a gun for personal protection, copy of the Constitution, and a good source of water, consider that there are three groups that could loosely be defined this way.

• FEMA, which stores food and water, but seizes guns (as we saw in the KatRita episode)

• "Survivalists" which 'don't get no respect' (even though they will likely be right in the long term)

• Farmers who are the salt of the earth, hard working, common sense-filled backbone of the country.

 

Not a particularly difficult choice, is it?

 

Path to Meltdown: $1 Trillion Dollar Bill

As the markets are being sprayed with money to keep them afloat, the head of the International Monetary Fund has let the cat out of the bag:  The Credit Crisis could cost more than $1-trillion dollars. 

• Citigroup may sell $12 billion of loans.

• WAMU is trying to raise $7 billion.

• UBS to raise more than the previously announced $14.9 billion? Maybe...

 

Former chief Fedster Alan Greenspan, who many credit with helping get us into the present mess with his collection of serial bubbles is now admitting to CNBC that the U.S. is in a recession.  Genius.  Pure Genius.

 

Missing Number

OK, sure, the headline sounds good:  "Mortgage applications rose 5.4% last week: MBIA" reports MarketWatch. 

 

But the one number that I can't seem to find is the actual number of closings that take place on a week to week basis.

 

The problem?  With banks getting really tight on their lending policies, it's easy to figure that mortgage applications could double, or triple, or even more, without the number of closings going up - and when you get down to it, only the closings matter.  So where's that number, or is this just an exercise in group feel-good?

 

Consumer Credit

I didn't mention this week that the "Fed"'s Consumer Credit report came out earlier this week and shows an annual rate of increase of 2.5%. 

 

My deflationist pal, Jas Jain, has made the point repeatedly that "It's the Debt, Stupid!" and that if the Consumer Credit figures goes negative, we might as well board things up and go home because then serious deflation will arrive and the replay of the 1930's will be upon us.

 

Meantime, he shared this email on point which deserves serious thinking:

"I have pointed out to Bud that during the Great Depression FDR was able to create inflation at will by manipulating the price of gold in dollars almost like an amateur. After 2-3 years he came to the realization that it wasn’t much help except for the fact that deflation was turned into inflation and it hurt as many, or more, than it helped. Deflation was the symptom and not the cause of the economic problems. As a matter of FACT, 1920s boom took place with deflation (with annualized deflation rate of 1.5% for the last three years of the boom)!

It will be lot harder to create inflation at will without the currency pegged to gold. If the USG were to announce that the dollar would be pegged to gold at $10,000 an ounce then it can easily fight deflation and create quite a bit of inflation.

The Fed has been fighting deflation for some 20 years. How? By facilitating the pushing of debt. That process has run into some problems. Inflation is a lagging indicator and has always fallen after few months of recession. We are witnessing the peaking of the CPI inflation rate in the US.

Bud, let us bet a bottle of wine. If CPI inflation goes above 5% for six months then you win and if it goes negative for six months then I win. "

I'm still holding a bottle of wine hostage because while Jas and I also had a wine bet (Jas arguing deflation and me holding to inflation) the government numbers (arguably not the best metric) have failed to show a decline in the general level of prices.  On the other hand, the prices we're paying for everything seem to be going up like crazy, and coupled with the price of gold which recently soared past $1,000, and $100+ oil, I'd say the deflationist case is far from a 'done deal.'

 

What's more:  A short hyperinflation would be a lot less painful that a deflation simply because deflations take much longer to work out.

 

Counting Bushvilles

A reader has raised a really interesting point:

"I have to wonder if there is a way to find out how many "new" Bushvilles have cropped up... All those people out of work, all the houses being foreclosed. The people HAVE to be going somewhere..."

Realizing that government is not likely to advertise the existence of Bushvilles, please send me a note and let me know if you have personal knowledge of a tent city of homeless in your city.  Click to submit or email to george@ure.net and put "Bushvilles" in the subject line for my email router - thanks.

 

Grounded: Temporaries and Permanents

Temp:  American is grounding as many as 500 flights for safety checks of MD-80's.

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Permanent? One less carrier for the OAG:  Oasis Hong Kong Air has folded.

 

Fueling the Public

With talk about $4 gas (and higher) this summer, the Houston Chronicle reports that "Fuel prices aren't done setting records" yet.  Quick: feign a look of surprise.

 

Middle East Mess

Where to start?  Elections in Egypt fizzle. Israeli children are going to shelters today in their defense drills. Syria is now planning to a defense drill clone.  Fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad is marked with a curfew.  With all these items, seems not much has changed...still the same old tempestuous headline-grabbing ME Mess.

 

Funai You Would Ask

"Funai Electric Now Peddling TV's in America" under the Phillips and Magnavox brands, in a deal inked today.

 

Radio Chat

If you are up around 8 PM West Coast time, which is past my bedtime, I'll be on the "We The People Radio Network for an hour tonight.  Details at www.wtprn.com.

 

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Coping:  Vista Solved?

Here's an AMAZING EMAIL:

"Hi George. Subscriber of a few months (name) here. Your columns are helpful, and I really like it when you publish thoughts from your varied and impressive subscribers, like today.

Anyway, I have noted your bemoaning about Vista for some time now. Not sure if you're interested or not, but I wrote a book about how to setup XP to remain stable and virus free in perpetuity. I'm serious. It could be done to VISTA as well, with some modifications. I just prefer XP though, and wrote about it. Anyway, I would be happy to send you a copy of the book.

[George : HELL YES!!!! Please!!!]

In fact the only way you can get the book is if I send it to you. You can't actually *buy* it because it was never published. I am a successful, published author, but I like writing my book FIRST, and then selling it to the publisher (otherwise the weasels pester you incessantly for chapters before they have matured). In this case though, the few remaining computer type book publishers (due to takeovers) all took a pass. They thought the concept was great, but the problem is people are not buying anti-malware books; the closest established category this book fits into. So, no deal.

[ Notice George rolling his eyes at the antics of publishers?]

I am eventually going to just give the book away for free on my website, with a rider that if the reader gets value from the book they send me a PayPal payment of an amount of their choosing. I haven't posted it yet because it's only 90% done. Been that way for a while because most of my time is spent researching what tomorrow may look like, and tailoring my investments accordingly (gold, gold stocks, commodities; the usual suspects).

But like I say, you have been helpful to me, and I am happy to return the favor. The book is complete enough where you could carry out the procedure entailing how to set up XP to be permanent stable and free of viruses (the introduction to the book explains all). And I can help you if you get in a pinch.

I have to tell you, I and my clients have used this approach for years now, and we simply don't have the day-to-day, nagging computer problems that most Windows users suffer from.

Heck, that sounds like the all-time great deal.  Not only that, but as soon as it's ready for prime time, I will put a link to the book download on this page which gets 25,000 to 30,000 page views per day and I will implement it on my system here immediately!

 

Even more amazing?  Mr. Cheap (me) will be pleased to send $20 to PayPal for such a book - a way bigger slice of the pie than most publishers offer.  Why Microsoft Press hasn't sent a limo to bring you to a deal-signing is totally beyond me, but then again, I can't figure out how to turn the Aero feature of Vista on and off...

 

Locking Up Gas

Here's an interesting anecdote from the wilds of New Jersey...

Hi George , I've been following your site since first hearing you on George Noory about 8-9 months ago. Love the useful info. A brief observation about the coming revolt meme, I drive 75miles each way to work here in NJ from the shore to just outside of NYC daily. It pays right? Anyway I noticed lately that as I drive down the parkway to and from work that cars are beginning to appear with missing / broken fuel doors! Let the gas games begin . And with Jersey having the cheapest pump gas in the nation at around $3.03 a gallon, I can't help but think the readers around the country aren't starting to notice the same thing, only worse? Would be curious to hear from them. My proximity to wall street and play money generation, has to be the only thing saving my job at the moment, though we have slowed precipitously in the last 3 weeks as well hear in the wireless infrastructure/communications biz. Keep up the good work.

While a locking gas cap is usually a good idea, there's still no way to prevent a motivated traveler with an ice pick and a dishpan from ruining your day.

 

Chicken Moat

A reader asks:

"George, Whatever happened to the chicken moat. Did/does it work? Are there less bugs attacking your crops?"

The answer seems to be "Yes" the chicken moat works.  What's a chicken moat?  Well, what we did was put a 10 foot wide chicken run around three sides of the garden.  The chickens run through the moat with the idea that they will slow the flow of bugs from 'the environment' into the garden.  So it seems to work, but our biggest pest issue right now is fire ants and if anyone has a sure-fire way to get rid of them, please let us know.  The chickens don't seem to like them and they eat the crops that I like most - like the Chinese sugar peas and such.  Anything with a fair amount of sugars to it.

 

How Markets Work

Yes, I have mentioned it before, but this YouTube video explains a lot about how the financial markets really work.  An oldie but goodie which a few readers have missed.

 

Precise Language

On the political front:

"George,  Each week you run a little blurb ad for "No Incumbents in 2008". Does that mean that you don't support Ron Paul running for re-election to CONgress?"

An incumbent is someone who is running again for an office already held.  Paul has not been President yet.

 

Personal Countermeasures Department

Advice from the Wizard:

"Saw your post on the Armadillo dollar, thought you might be interested in this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8cdd/ 

and this http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/910f/ 

Think of a cheap RFID reader (like this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/907a/  ) attached to a bomb trigger in a rubbish can in Paris/TelAviv/Rome/Mumbai, waiting for an American to walk by, and you'll realize the value... I bought three of them for my family. Note: These items do not play well with metal detectors at the airport - send them through the xray.

Best regards Wizard"

There are folks in the MSM who might make fun of the tin foil hats types, but more and more, the threat of RFID is growing.  And, thanks to the digidollar rush, all those bank and ATM cards will no doubt proven a new frontier for crime...

 

Bottled Water Prices

A couple of readers sent in notes yesterday concerning the price of bottled water.  "At $100 for a 55 gallon barrel..." started one email.

 

Hold it!

 

This is a fine point, but try to remember that there are two kinds of "barrels" when it comes to liquid measurements.  One is the 55-gallon drum, such as the kind that's used for industrial chemicals and is the basis of the popular  "barrel stove kits" that you see on the market. 

 

The other kind of "barrel" is the kind used for measuring petroleum product and that's a 42-gallon barrel.

 

I mention all this so that next time you run across a story about how bottled water is more than $50 a gallon, you won't make any math errors due to barrel sizes.  Bet you fell all better now, eh?

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Tuesday April 8, 2007

The Runs:  Talking Up the Wars

The presidential wannabe's are all expected to have something to say about the Bush wars today. This as the abdicated CONgress holds hearings on the Iraq conflict.  To set expectations simply it's likely to be Obama against, McCain for, and Hillary on both sides depending on who she thinks is in the audience, and then when no one's looking she'll be for it..

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Speak of her, there's yet another Hillary story about how "Counsel confirms Hillary's 'fraudulent' Watergate brief" sub headline: Clinton was fired for allegedly colluding with Kennedys to protect JFK legacy.

 

Best quote: "Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, called Clinton a "liar" and "an unethical, dishonest lawyer."   Sounds like presidential material, doesn't it?  Are we all nuts?  No, make that "How nuts are we?"

 

The Revolution Meme: Email from the Front

While the MSM (*MainStreamMedia) continues with the illusion that everything is fine the anger from people losing their homes continues to build.  Here's the kind of email I get from people who figure they've been written off by both the political parties:

"Yes, our house goes to Sheriff's Sale next week. Yes, I was laid off March 17 (exactly one week before the Sheriff's Sale was posted on our front door.) Yes, I have been driving around (and biking around the neighborhood) looking for houses.

There are a LOT of houses for sale in Indianapolis. What struck me today was the number of houses for sale by owner. That's gotta suck for Century 21, eh?

Found out that our landlord's mortgage on this house was about 50 grand. It's on the market for 25 grand right now. About 5 grand down, and it's about 120 a month on a 30 year mortgage. We've been paying 650 a month for rent, up until this went into foreclosure. Kicking my own butt sternly...

This is so silly. The best rental (as far as safest neighborhood...I know from doing service plumbing where the bad areas are) is $750 a month... Now, I don't live in the best area here right now, but it seems to me that if we could swing a loan for a mere $25000, we would be in like Flynn. TPTB are making it damn hard for Joe Six Pack to get a loan FOR A HOUSE THAT IS CHEAPER THAN A NEW PICKUP.

Yeah, Diaspora. And no damn wonder. Revolution? It's going to be a f**king (pardon my French) massacre.

Just to clarify a little. I went a mile up the road to the cheap liquor store. 2 guys in an SUV parked in back. I get out of my car to go into the store, and one of them is holding up a gas can, yelling at me to "come here." I went on in the store. I keep a Spyderco Civilian in my right front pocket at all times. I came out of the store, flashed it, and we went our separate ways. This is really common around here, that is, people asking for money for GAS at LIQUOR STORES. Why not at the gas station? (Yeah duh, scam) Anyway, these guys were a lot more aggressive than usual, and that's the only reason I'm writing about this.

Fights at scrap yards to come soon. People there just watching like hyenas. Weird and a little freaky. I'm a plumber, and I deal with the scrap yards on occasion. Everything you've mentioned is right on the money. Kind of looks like a fast-forward of your predictions around here from my point of view. (Pardon that last sentence.)

Watch your six ,George. Watch your six. It's coming soon."

Of course, I don't encourage "revolution" or "rebellion" - it's just a meme (*thought virus) that's been building in the HPH modelspace and is deserving of coverage, even if the MSM is snoozing along through it.  But, for the aware observer,  in places like Indianapolis at least, it's becoming visible.

 

Printers Sink

Yeah, there used to be powerful newspapers but with the higher costs of deforestation, competition from The Tube and now the internet, the days of high-powered newspapering seem to be setting.  Take for example the headline from local KING-TV in Seattle that "Huge Layoff for the Seattle Times" are in the works.  A little more than 10% of the workforce.

 

I have to wonder whether the likes of  the late SF Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, or the Seattle PI's late Emmett Watson of today won't be those of us who write for the joy of writing on web sites like this one.

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In a way, it's  unfortunate timing.  Thousands of people were able to live through the last Depression by stuffing newspapers into their clothes to keep warm.  Also dandy for starting fires and such.  And I'd bet there's still a lot of demand for newspapers in the tent cities that have cropped up in places California. 

 

All the while, the MSM isn't calling them what they are: Bushvilles.  Instead, we hear the constant drone of the money honeys on teevee promising "Good times are just ahead..."  Apparently, they don't have correspondents in Indianapolis or Riverside.

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On the other hand, the net revolution continues to change how retailing is done worldwide.  A report out says that as the economy slows, sales of online merchants are expected to grow by 17% this year.  For those of us who still have jobs.

 

RFID Theft

A site called www.armadillodollar.com has been brought to my attention./  With the Real ID Act coming (obviously not for illegal border-crossers, just for those of us who are born Americans!), and more RFID readers popping up on the market all the time, the first of the genre of personal electronic countermeasures is surfacing.  I'm not clear how much more effective this would be than, say, a piece of foil, but it's an interesting concept worth a little research.

 

Shortages and Hunger

A reader has been watching an interesting news search engine return that's building in strength:

"google news search for 'food riot'

278 on the 22 mar 08

289 23 mar

330 24 Mar

380 26 Mar

970 02 Apr

1330 05 Apr

1698 07 April 08"

Meantime, the word "shortage is hanging around 33,000 hits a day, up from the 11,500 a day back when we started tracking the meme 2-years ago as of March 15th.

 

The Case Against Paper Assets

I've told youi about the danger of paper assets almost forever.  But now, here's a perfect example of the lack of intrinsic value to paper: "Termites feast on trader's money." 

 

A Crazy Industry

A glance through the BBC web site reveals that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is hinting at a replacement operating system (*OS) to succeed Vista, which hasn't.

 

Two points - one free and one will cost them if they use it.  The freebie is this: Has anyone at Microsoft figured out how insane a business is that obsoletes a good product just when they get it working?  It'd be like Detroit going through all the preproduction work on a brand new car and making 100 of them and saying 'Wow, that was fun - now let's go make something else and see if we can get it to run."  Nutty, huh?  Just when XP was getting great, along came...er....Vista.

 

The second concept is something I developed back when I was doing strategic planning & sales for an ERP software company in the higher ed space.  It's called "Evergreen Software".  The concept is dirt simple:  You buy a subscription to the software which is continuously updated with new features with multiple update releases during the year.

 

Microsoft is 7/8th's of the way there, already, with the automatic downloading of updates.

 

So, if I were the strategic planner at MSFT, I'd start with a core product like XP which already has the auto-update feature, and then roll out ONE WORKING FEATURE at a time which people could download at their convenience.  The features would be selected by a user group which would give significant feedback to the company.  It works in open source circles, doesn't it?

 

Heck, I'd pay $50 a year for that, no sweat.  The key thing is that when people pay money, they want something that works.  I've read that somewhere in Vista there's a fancy transparent layers mode - which sounds good, except that I'm just a business user and RELIABILITY IS EVERYTHING.  Instead of trying to sell the OS

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If you work at Microsoft, please forward this to the high-priced execs and tell them if they use it, all I expect is a 3-4 year old 911 (manual shift/a/c, anthracite with black interior is fine). 

 

Simple concept:  continuously updated feature set via downloaded updates to a stable core product like XP Pro. 

 

Market Manipulation 101

In case you missed it when I posted it last week, a former member of the plunge protection team has outed the government's manipulation in the markets.  My commodities guy missed it last week, and maybe you did too, so go listen to the NPR report, ok?

 

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Coping:  A Handy Library

Let's say that I woke up one morning and I couldn't find any of my gun manuals, and I had been attacked by amnesia to the point where I could no longer strip down the Mossberg, Ruger, or SKS  blindfolded in the dark.  Where would I go?

 

Here.

 

Which is a subdirectory of something really cool here.

 

be sure and check out the Skills directory, too.  Many interesting things to read.

 

Drink To This

A reader has penciled out that when he buys bottled water, it's costing him $29.04 a gallon - which is waaaay less than oil or gasoline.  Posit!

 

Time to Party?

Getting no coverage mainstream:  The new Constitution Party of Louisiana.

"The Constitution Party of Louisiana held its Electoral Convention in Baton Rouge on March 15 of this year. The state committee welcomed 27 delegates and guests to a full afternoon of addresses, entertainment and Constitution Party business. State Committee Chairman Robert Waldron started the proceedings with a prayerful introduction and greetings to the distinguished speakers in attendance before reciting a moving Preamble composed by our own 6th District Committeeman, Shane Landry. He then led the meeting in a rousing performance of the Star Spangled Banner. Campaign letters were presented to the delegates from several Constitution Party candidates for President, including Dr. Don Grundman (California), Rep. Steve Stockman (Texas), and Lt. Colonel Max Reiske (Michigan)

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Presidential Candidate Alan Keyes picked up in this same vein, as he delivered a stirring, 20- minute address to the delegates. Keyes' eloquent rhetoric was alternately inspirational and informative, lambasting the Republican power structure for its abandonment of traditional conservative principles. He ended his words to the convention with a pitch for our support in the coming campaign.

 

Tom Cryer, the man who beat the IRS in open court and who is Chief Executive of TruthAttack.org,, made an in-depth presentation detailing his own blueprint for American liberty specifically regarding income tax issues and their relevance to funding government in a free society. As a successful member of the Louisiana Bar, and as one of the framers of Louisiana's current State Constitution, he has emerged as a leading advocate of fair and honest tax policy."

The party's web site is www.cpofla.org and one of the party platform planks that the republicopr and democorps aren't mentioning is this one:

"Executive Orders

 

We oppose the use of Presidential executive orders that make law or otherwise usurp the Constitutional authority and responsibilities of the legislative and judicial branches. This Constitutionally subversive practice must be stopped by Congress. All unconstitutional executive orders must be repealed."

Since it's being formed in a state which has had recent experience with illegal gun seizures during KatRita, I expect there will be a fair amount of interest in the party once the word gets out.

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Send snip and save contributions to george@ure.net

 

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Around The Ranch: "Onions"

Apparently, the Universe has not imparted all possible knowledge of things agriculture to me just yet.  I've reluctantly reached this conclusion after going up to the chicken moat yesterday morning and noticing some particularly large onions. 

 

Now, you have to understand that we have a bazillion wild onions around here; it's one of the few things that grows well - so well that just up the road a piece from us there's a regionally famous onion called the Noonday Onion which has a cult following sort of like the Walla Walla Sweets have.

 

Spying what I reckoned to be these 16" high onion tops I proceeded to pull them and sure enough, each had a bulb about the size of a golf ball.  After a quick rinse-off, I took them down to the house and later in the day mentioned my discover to Elaine, going so far as to propose that she find some way to cook them up.

 

A little later she advised "George, those weren't onions, there were flower bulbs.

 

Well, hell, who would have known?  Makes me wonder what else I've been mistaken about...and eaten...

 

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Monday April 7, 2008

One-Size Fits All Medicine

I mentioned last week that it looks like a fight was brewing between independent genetic testing laboratories and the Big Pharma industry.  One reason to suspect this is the report that claims "Gene Tests May Be More Confusing than Illuminating" carried by Bloomberg.

 

The headline in Wired  "Lawless Gene-Testing Industry Needs a Sheriff" goes a big step further and asserts: "As a result, advice given by these tests -- for instance, on what drugs might be beneficial to you based on your genetic profile -- does not necessarily have a sound scientific basis. "

 

On the other side of this - virtually ignored by the MSM which derives millions of revenue from Big Pharma with their nearly nonstop "be sure and tell your doctor..." ads, one of my daughters who works for independent testing company Genelex says contrary to the issue being raised, real life experience has taught her otherwise; namely that genetic background has everything to do with how people react to different medicines:

"Case in point is a friend I'll just call Chad. He was off and on Prozac and different drugs from 1992 to 2007. His doctor only took him off meds after he showed them his 2D6 result: He's a poor metabolizer!!. Result: He had been suffering nearly constant insomnia due to the meds! Seriously - he couldn't sleep. Occasionally he slept for 16 hours like once every 2-3 weeks. He's on welfare, can't work, and doctors thought all the terrible side effects were in his head. They were focused his head -destroying his brain -  instead of looking at the real issue:  his liver couldn't make the enzymes to neutralize the meds!!"

The formal Genelex response, getting almost no play in the face of the much hyped MSM story, is that "Science fuels controversy with prejudicial misquote" says Genelex and then continues with a rebuttal to the Science article this way:

"The quote in the article is:

"Some Web sites make explicit claims about the utility of CYP450 testing for particular drugs, such as the claim by Genelex that pharmacogenetic testing is "required to effectively prescribe Paxil" (10).

The actual statement is:

Paxil (paroxetine) is metabolized through CYP2D6. Pharmacogenetic testing of this pathway serves as an anchor for the intense personalization required to effectively prescribe Paxil and other antidepressant medicines. http://www.healthanddna.com/professional/paxil.html 

We are narrowing the focus of our response to the focus of the policy comment – SSRIs. However, this focus also points out the continuing problem in healthcare of putting patient information in silos. The fact is just three P450 enzymes – 2D6, 2C9, and 2C19 are responsible for the metabolism of over half of commonly prescribed medications and over half of the population has a variation in one of these key processing enzymes. This information can be used for a lifetime to help caregivers provide more effective and safe treatment regimens. Considering that adverse drug reactions currently kill twice as many as people as vehicle accidents and cost billions of healthcare dollars, a panel that costs less than installing an airbag will certainly prove to be cost-effective when taken in the context of overall medication management not one medication or class at a time.

Relevant facts and quotes:

"The cytochrome P-450 test represents a major advance in the ability to provide the best care possible for depression" Access April 2, 2008 Mayo Clinic Web site http://www.mayoclinic.org/depression/cytochrome.html 

Hospitalized psychiatric patients who are poor metabolizers cost $4,000 - $6,000 more in medical care compared to patients with an average metabolizer genotype. Virtually, all antidepressants and antipsychotic medicines are processed by enzymes with a high incidence of poor metabolizers. Journal of Clinical Psycopharmacology 20:246 2000

Fifty-nine percent of drugs most commonly cited in ADR studies are processed by enzymes with genes known to have poor metabolizer variants. This is compared to 7% of a random selection of the top selling drugs. (JAMA 286:2270 2001).

Multiple studies have found that people with CYP variants require lower doses of the affected medications. Molecular Psychiatry 9:442-473, 2004"

With, by some accounts, nearly 50% of the adult population popping antidepressants of one flavor or another, it's no wonder that the whole notion of genetic testing would come under fire.  Under the high sounding claims of 'science' is a battle over a very simple concept:  Different medicines have different effects of humans, depending on their genetic make-up.  Sounds simple enough to me.

 

Even more simple?  We follow the money.  We read, for example, that Big Pharma spent $182 million in Washington between January 2005 and June 2006, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity.

 

Two significant points here:  The first is that the reported $182-million was only money that Big Pharma was required to report.  How many other millions went into unreported funding of things like "interest groups" (or got laundered from endowments to interest groups) which is not reportable is something we'll never know as consumers. 

 

What's more, when a study is reported by a "public research group' no one in MSM seems to have the presence of mind to ask the question which we hold sacred around here: "Who wrote the check to fund this study?"  Don't ask, don't tell, huh?

 

Absent transparency on the part of the critics, we'll just have to assume what the evidence seems to suggest:  Big Pharma probably senses that genetic testing outfits are starting to leak out the awful truth that not all selective serotonin uptake inhibitors are good for all patients. 

 

Genetic diversity, while cool in the workplace and life in general ,  is a real bummer when it comes to the Big Pharma's corporate bottom line.  Seem like the offensive is on to plug that leak.

 

Web Bot Hit: National Archives Takeover

Want another story buried by MainStream media?  Why sure...it's the takeover of the national monument by Iraq Veterans Against the War.  Happened on march 19th, just as the predictive linguistics said it would.

 

You can watch the YouTube video of the event here.  But what's the really big question raised by this event?

 

Why is the MSM blacking out stories like this?

Could be a prequel - another such event might come down the road a ways.

 

The Runs: Rice Dream

Speculation builds that SecState Condi Rice is hoping for a VP spot.

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Defenders of the Paradigm?  Al Greenspan ("Mr. Serial Bubbles") has endorsed John McCain in an interview in which he admits the chance of recession is more than 50%..  Genius, just pure genius.

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Another Hillary recall issue:  "Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells".  Want some free advise for Hil?  Given the snipers in Bosnia story and now this, maybe someone on the staff oughta suggest gingko biloba for memory?  Get some for McCain, too...

 

Passings: Charlton Heston

Superstar actor and NRA President, died Saturday night  A Great American, indeed.

 

Zimbabwe Elections:  Court, Not Count

Oh sure, instead of going with the count, let's put it into the courts appointed by....Wrong continent for such Banana Republic behavior, but then again, resource is resource...

 

"There be Pirates..."

So France is sending elite troops to rescue folks off the Somalia coast.

 

Israel's Drills

Israel continues a week-long emergency drill today.  This as Iran pushes its nuke program along, the Syrians have troops massed, and things in Lebanon and Gaza are dicey.  So what else is new?

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Now that you ask:  A new Israeli warning to Iran...

 

Let's Make a Deal Department

"Yahoo Not Opposed to deal with Microsoft:  Yahoo says current Microsoft bid undervalues Yahoo, but not opposed to better deal.  Gee, guys, hate to tell you this, but ever since the CPM-86 deal with Seattle Silicon, MSFT execs haven't paid absolute top dollar for anything, I can remember...

 

Reader Note:  I think the page width issue in this week's report resolves the Firefox overrun/  Let me know if it fits now...seems to on my end.

 

Number of the Day

Consumer Debt (they call it credit to suck you in deeper) is due out from the "Fed" this afternoon...

 

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Coping:  Dioramas In The House?

Elaine has had her nose in a couple of books I picked up on stage design for theater.  OK, "Why?"  Simple enough:  I love Disneyland.  Specifically it's not the rides -- it's the transporting a person mentally to different space/time regions that they do some damn well.

 

And, I also loved a restaurant that was in Bellevue (WA) years ago called 'Saratoga Trunk'.  The common theme?  In Disneyland and at the Old Saratoga Truck, you didn't just walk into a 'normal room'.  You walk into what's more aptly described as a 'set'.  Just like Trader Vic's when I used to lunch there with the likes of Dr. Paul Erdman.  These spots were like off planet jumps.

 

At Saratoga Truck, back when it was around, you might be in an African grass house in one dining area, a Polynesian village next to that, and an antique seaport next to that. 

 

OK, back to the other subversive book: Dioramas of the National Museum.  In case you haven't seen a life-sized diorama, here's a good explanation of them by Clarence Tillenius. 

 

What we're tinkering with is turning each room into the house into a specific place.  The test of success in that effort being:  If you stand in that room, would it transport you to a different place and time?  Example:  I'm thinking about a mountain cabin theme and diorama for the master bedroom.  So off past the foot of the bed, you'd look at a wall that you'd swear was the view from a mountain cabin, complete with a big focal point animal like a mountain goat, in 3-D in the foreground, and a painted backdrop with a hidden boundary to fool the eye. 

 

Before I start banging on the garden room, I'm thinking about turning that room into a mid 1920's veranda of a Midwest farm house.  The kitchen will go to either Mediterranean or Asian (paint and mood swings will determine which region) while the entry and screen porch will likely go Polynesian, South Seas).  A few hidden doors and other design quirks, and it should turn into q really entertaining to live in kind of house.

 

I've always been amazed at the lack of depth most interior designers display.  I want to live in a house where each room or space transports me to a different place and time.  None of this austere same-old stuff for me, thanks.  In other words, I don't want to see a few suggestions of something nautical with a painting here and a nautical knick knack there - I wanna be on the damn ship!

 

How can you keep your brain fired up with energy if you're not stimulating it? 

 

To my way of thinking, a South Florida beach home room, or a mountain cabin, perhaps a Northwest fishing village.  Just to thoroughly whet your appetite and make you impatient with modern (bland/gag me) interior design, here's a short video of the farm diorama at the Royal B.C. Museum up in Victoria.  They thing to remember: This is all inside!  Same thing with he primeval forest diorama which you can see here, along with what the inside of a sunken ship would be like - all inside and no reason you couldn't create something like this in your house, right?

 

One thing's for sure, The moved water heater will make a fine semblance of a NY midtown bar by the time I build a faux bar, complete with a mannequin dressed as the barman and Elaine doing a trompe l'oeil of the background.  I don't think I'm up for the whole audioanimatronic Disney deal, an Imagineer I am not.

 

It might be fun to recreate part of a 1920's house.  Complete with an antique bedroom, perhaps with an antique ham radio set-up at an old desk of the period and books in a 1920's kind of library.  A 1929 paper and other period decor would round out the period room.  Textured ceiling?  Modern lights and floor covering?  They'd be toast.

 

To my way of thinking, if you put new visuals (or a wide range of them) into your head, along with some good reading material and a bit of music to feed the other side of the brain once in a while, you almost can't help but be more vital and creative than someone who suffers through the low level effects of sensory deprivation sitting in front of the teevee with no particular agenda.

 

Life's too short to be boring!

 

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Send Snip & Save entries to george@ure.net.  Anything that helps you get along, have a higher state of readiness for whatever comes next, saves youi money, or gives you peace of mind is encouraged...

 

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Around The Ranch:  Just a Lazy Weekend

There was actually a time in my long-lost youth that I remember sitting around the house relaxing with a glass of wine, cooking a gourmet meal, reading a book, watching a movie, going to some small town for weekend tourism, or just 'chillin'. 

 

But, that was when I either lived on a sailboat - and it's like a some shadowy bit of fiction from a novelist's keyboard nowadays.  Here are some of the major changes around here this weekend:

• (Fri) Collectible old radio shows up (Drake TR-3 with MS-4, AC3 p/s) and it was damaged in shipping.  (The damage picture of the radio is here).  The plate current meter was pretty much wrecked, along with the meter mounting hardware and the case was mashed, so that led to negotiating a very fair to both parties settlement with the seller - a 24 kt. guy.  Then, with the rebate for damage in hand, shopping for a replacement meter, mounting hardware, and a few other items on eBay.  Functional test of the radio was OK, although it could use alignment.  It's amazing how well the radio works even compared with the more modern gear in the ham shack.

• (Sat)  This was the day of Taxes.  From about 9 AM straight through till 5:30 in the evening, all I did was crunch numbers.  QuickBooks shows the right balances now, and we're actually getting a little something back.  The filing is 20+ pages, but I guess that's to be expected when we operate a consulting business, the little web hobby here, not to mention a farm and such.

• Elaine and the neighbor brought over two more Boer goats for the herd.  One of these days I will have to get a picture up of how well they have done, but simply put, if you ever find yourself with a big hunk of land that needs clearing, put goats on in in the Spring and they will turn it income something looking like a golf course.  Talked to a buddy Sunday who's active .mil type and trying to get him to write up a cheap eBook on the impact of putting animals on land.  He's got some pretty good knowledge that I've never seen in print, going to the idea that putting animals on land changes the land in some very positive ways, and how to manage all that.  Might give him something to do on his next tour which is to Outer Mongolia or somewhere...  (Do we have any readers in Mongolia?, If so I'm curious...)

• Elaine has been chopping down the bushes around the foundation of the house.  She got a little freaked out when she swears she heard slithering there.

• (Sun)  Peoplenomics report (7 AM to 4 PM), then repair of a small lawn tractor cart which  needed to have its axle turned down slightly to accept 5/8" wheels  (Of cool! A lathe project!!), note to order some C2 carbine cutters for the lathe.  And about quarter of five, I hopped on the lawnmower to tackle the yard.  By 7:30, it was all done, so then time to digest the latest "Trader Slices" from the HalfPastHuman.com web bot linguistics..  A shower and a small salad and it's off to the rack to start this morning at 4:30.

• Big project this week: Picking up materials for a number of projects pending, such as rebuilding the generator so I can put a 10 kW power head on it.  That'll be a black pipe frame, welded mounting plates and so forth.  Also about ready to start on the remodel of the 'garden room' in the house, which may consist of a small 'mud room'  along with tons of cabinets (getting into this cabinetmaking stuff), or we may get really artsy..but like I explained, we're still trying to sort out which rooms will look like what times and places...

 

So that's the lazy and 'idyllic farm life' for yah...