A Rare Midday Update: Putin Message in a Missile Miss?

As we have been reporting for months, the EU has its eyes on subjugating Russia and forming a super union which (as one EU official put it) would stretch from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

At the time, I told you this was dangerous talk and that the Russian people still had borders and no intentions of joining the EU particularly in the wake of the German siege in World War II.

But now fast forward to today’s tragedy over Ukraine where a(north) Malaysian airline has been involved in disaster – thing time a purported missile shootdown that claimed all 295 souls aboard the jet.

But here’s the rub:  The rebel forces in Eastern Ukraine/disputed territories, don’t have that kind of hardware.

And what’s more, Russia Today/RT reports that “President Putin’s plane might have been the target for Ukrainian missile – sources…”

If you’re a non-partisan analyst, with an eye to detail and a keen sense of inquiry, the Russian denial of Kiev’s move on Black Sea ports would be reason enough to attempt to kill Putin, but then toss on the flames of that fire, no more “freebies” on natural gas.

Now toss in Russia’s backing for a reopening of a Cold War era spy facility (regardless of how insignificant compared to the American mass recording/Studio Provo operations).

Then for a capper, toss in Putin’s efforts to end US Dollar hegemony via the BRICs summit and you have all the makings for an….er….accident.

It reads like a poor novel of political intrigue played out by fools.  Unable to aim, alright, and now it’s not an unreasonable stretch to call it a “Message in a missile.”

We shouldn’t have to wait more than a month, or two, for Putin to retaliate with a “message back” if indeed it was a missing message, so to speak.

Still, it may be an “accident” (or it may be sold after the fact as such.  It wouldn’t be the first time that Ukraine has knocked down an airliner, if it plays out that way.  Check the Wikipedia entry for Sibera Airliones Flight 1812:

Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashed over the Black Sea on 4 October 2001, en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia. The plane, a Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-154, carried an estimated 66 passengers and 12 crew members. Most of the passengers were Israelis visiting relatives in Russia.

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“If You Always Do…

….what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you always got.” 

The sage advice from an old friend applies (many times over) in politics.  While a Gallup poll out this morning shows that immigration has eclipsed the economy in most people’s minds, the results of recent elections continue to sting:

Overwhelmingly, the same idiots who got us into this mess have been winning their primaries…so the public expects those “who broke it” to now “fix it.”

If that isn’t the clearest example of national stupidity ever, I’ll eat my hat.  (I had a special chocolate one made, so it won’t be too bad if it comes down to it…)

It also begins to show the Northeast Liberals for what they really are, too:  Do as we say, not as we….

Maryland governor says don’t dump illegals here.

So too, Connecticut wants no part of housing illegal kids en masse.

What?  Two standards?  One for the border states and one for the land of liberals?

I know my N.E. liberal friends will be calling any minute – it will go to voicemail today.  But the point is that tearing down America’s border (let’s call it what it is….) is treasonous.  Both money-corrupted parties are elbow-deep in the scam including George Bush who pushed for Amnesty, something the right doesn’t like to bring us.  It’s a business model to have a “zone” and not border. 

Anyone who’s in favor of that is a scammer, in my book.  Border or merger with Mexico…there’s no “soft in-between.”  I’m prepared to leave Texas if the border continues to fall.  I’m willing to vote with my wallet.

And if American’s aren’t bright enough to figure that out, then we would like to thank Common Core and its precedents that eroded once solid values-and-skills-based curriculum and stuffed the minds of America’s young with situational excusifications, all backed up by case law made up from the bench liberalista-stuffed Courts and promoted by the political correctness corps.

So enjoy your police state, your surveillance, and what the ACLU calls the Constitution-Free Zone –  and remembers those fine words of Pogo:  “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

I wish I could say “George is losing it.”  But no, you are:  The country.  You know, those things on maps indicated by borders?

Gaza Reloaded

So in the rest of what passes for news, we see how there’s what passes for a cease-fire in Gaza.  But based on historical data, the smartest bet in the house this morning is that this will just time time for resupply and reloading until the death festival comes back for an encore.

Hmmmm….another one of those hard questions to answer:  Where is that line between optimist and idiot, again?

Selling Terrorism

Say, this is choice:  The CBS affil in NYC headlines “Police: Al Qaeda magazine suggesting attack on US Open.”

I know, how is it with anti-terrorism budgets what they are, that AQ can publish a magazine that the NY PD  gets?

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Coping: Here’s What Will Save America

As we were sitting here, splitting a bag of O’berto Teriyaki Beef Jerky for breakfast, Zeus the Cat was remarking on how what has saved America’s bacon in the past has been our sense of inventiveness.

“Ure kind of a sourpuss and too cynical, most times,” he told me.  “You didn’t mention the article on HackaDay about the Midwest Maker Faire up in Kansas City.  If you want to see where the future is going, and be able to invest in “the right stuff” you need to get out to precisely this kind of event.  More jerky?”

I didn’t find too many right off the bat, but a list of some of the major international technology fairs over here looked interesting, particularly the Smart Materials and Surfaces conference in Thailand.

“Wrong search terms, Fatso.  Try “inventor conventions” to improve your search results.”

And insulting cat who hogs the beef jerky….what could be worse?  I mean other than him being right all the time…

“Say, the Cat, there’s only one good one left on this list (close enough we could make it) – and it’s up in Chicago in November.”

“Try this one.”

“I don’t see anything good there….”

“I’d be a lot more up to speed if you’d give me back the big-screen you took away claiming I was watching kitty porn on it…”

“It wasn’t just the kitty porn, if the 976 numbers and not sharing your catnip,” I reminded him.

“Trivialities, biped.  You and I have both missed Everyday Edisons and a whole lot more.”

Hmmm…

Truth of the matter is that the Cat may be onto something.  Inventing is one of the coolest pursuits out there…and just having my name on three or four patents is a high-mark in life.

I didn’t pursue the conversation.  Original thinking is our stock-in-trade around here.  Besides, I already have an IP attorney, and I don’t want Zeus the Cat’s animal rights attorney crossing him.

But I thought I’d mention it: Who will be the next Ron Popeil  (perhaps the second best American inventor/marketer after Edison) and where do I buy shares in it?   Ever read the list of his (or should we count them as Ronco) products?

  • Chop-O-Matic: a hand food processor. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to show you the greatest kitchen appliance ever made … All your onions chopped to perfection without shedding a single tear.”
  • Dial-O-Matic: successor to the Veg-O-Matic (and very similar to a mandolin slicer). “Slice a tomato so thin it only has one side.” “When chopping onions with this machine, the only tears you will shed will be tears of joy.”
  • Popeil Pocket Fisherman: a small fishing pole. “The biggest fishing invention since the hook … and still only $19.95!” (According to the program Biography, the original product was the invention of Popeil’s father and only marketed by Ronco, but as of 2006, Popeil had introduced a redesigned version of the product.)[6]
  • Mr. Microphone: a short-range hand-held radio transmitter that would broadcast over an FM radio. The nearby radio(s) would therefore amplify the sound coming from the Mr. Microphone.

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The Future for Millenials

A look into the next 10-years for Millenials this morning, along with a visit to my electronics bench were we will turn a sine wave pattern on an oscilloscope into a useful economic teaching too. But first, we need to go over a few things including the PPI numbers just out this morning and the other floating bits of madness. With coffee, of course… More for Subscribers ||| SUBSCRIBE NOW! ||| Subscriber Help Center

Retail Numbers: Is the “Auto-Save” Ending?

We begin this morning with a quickie “economic history” lesson, but you’ll soon see why somewhere, someone in Washington who has been laughing their butts off about the taxpayer bailouts of Detroit’s auto giants may be coming to their senses today. 

The Wikipedia entry on the global auto crisis in the wake of the Housing Collapse, sums it up this way:

The crisis in the United States is mainly defined by the government rescue of both General Motors and Chrysler. Ford secured a line of credit in case they require a bridging loan in the near future. Car sales declined in the United States, affecting both US based and foreign car manufacturers. The bridging loans led to greater scrutiny of the U.S. automotive industry in addition to criticism of their product range, product quality, high labour wages, job bank programs. The government-backed rescue of the American auto industry gained the support of a 56% of Americans in 2012 according a Pew Research Center poll.[62]

While the “Big Three” U.S. market share declined from 70% in 1998 to 53% in 2008, global volume increased particularly in Asia and Europe.[63] The U.S. auto industry was profitable in every year since 1955, except those years following U.S. recessions and involvement in wars. U.S.

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Coping: A Personal Time Warp

I don’t often begin with a bit of personal woo (and in WoWW) but I had one of those days Monday that only comes along every of often, and I thought I’d share it with you.

It almost feels like one of those scenes from the movie The Adjustment Bureau but obviously it’s not.  Still, here’s what happened:

Monday was “double lube, oil, and filter” day for me.

I finished writing my column at precisely 8 AM (as always) and then headed over to the house, took a shower and got dressed.  Leisurely, too. 

I departed the house at exactly 8:33 and it takes 25-minutes to get into town for my first appointment – a fresh set of labs for my doc since we keep an eye on cholesterol and so on. 

I’d walked into the office at 9 AM and when I walked out I noticed the time on the clock in the car:  9:17 AM.  Hmmm…people never get out of a doctor’s office in less than 20 minutes, and that includes not only the blood draw but a fair amount of screw-around time because the veins in my left arm were on vacation.  That meant giving up on that one and doing the right arm.

Done in less than 20- minutes?  Not bloody likely, but a check of the cell phone confirmed “cell time” was also 9:17.

On to the next stop then:  The lube joint on the loop.  Showed up, and there was an empty bay so my car went right in.  Dang! 

I settled in, repaired to wait a good while and started to read on my Kindle.  Just after only three pages, the lady at the counter called me up, gave me the amount and I’m sure thought I was a nutter as I muttered  “Done already?”

Even more curious, I’d had a cup of coffee while I was reading, so I didn’t think to check the clock at this point.

OK, on to the next task:  Get the car washed and have the inside windows cleaned. 

Again, first in line, but a bit of screwing around because the detailing part (windows) had to be wrung up  on a different machine, and there was some confabbing about how much to charge.  Turned out to be $5-bucks, by the way.  Even with a very generous tip, that is a deal.

The car washed and detailed, clean windows and all, my next stop was Lowes for some molding that I’d run short on.  And I tried to get an LED dimmer – a long story, but I bought one – and tossed it in the car.

OK:  Get in the car and it’s only 5-minutes before 10.  What!!???

I went through a mental checklist:  Doctor’s appointment, oil change, car wash, detail, tripe to Lowes and less than an hour?  (I’m good and efficient, but this was verging on ridiculous.

Next stop was J.C. Penny’s where I picked up two pairs of pants, a shirt, some socks and figured I’d killed enough time that surely my favorite Chinese joint would be open for the lunch buffet.

But as I pulled into the parking lot, that wasn’t the case:  It was only 10:30!  So I went to the place next door (Cavender’s Boot City) to buy a shirt and some knickknacks for the kids on our upcoming trip.

Finally, I got to the Chinese buffet and ate and returned home.  Elaine looked a bit surprised to see me to early, too:  Doc’s appointment, oil change, car wash/detail, Lowes, Penny’s, Cavender’s, and lunch – and the half-hour drive home – all in less than 3-hours.

Any other day the doctor would have been 40-minutes.  The oil change would have been half an hour.  The car wash and detail another 20-minutes.  Lowes is a half-hour almost without fail, and getting into Penny’s and Cavenders?  Maybe 20 minutes each.  Lunch out to have been a half-hour and time in between for driving…Don’t forget we’re an honest 25-30 minutes of driving to get back out to the ranch.

To to get home at 10-minutes before noon was, to put it mildly, unexpected.

I don’t hold that anything Woo’ish happened, but what I do know is that Monday I was completely “in the groove” in terms of personal productivity.

Either that, or as you age things really do seem to go by faster.

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Point and to the Short

Lexdysia may have set in early, but according to my calculations, worked out with a piece of sharp bone on a fresh animal skin, along with several cups of herb tea leaves, the market should be ready to bounce this morning at the open.

I’ve been telling you for a while now that market experts (like Robin Landry) always keep an eye on August 26th because somewhere in there (plus or minute a week, or so) the market usually hit a peak for the “summer rally.”  The high before the Crash in 1929 came on a September 3rd.

So we look at the news flow this week with some suspicion, while still planning to blow out of my long position (options) in a month, or so, and hopefully with a profit (for a change.)

News-wise, this morning is a yawner:  With the possible exception of those immigrant kids being dumped far away from the border now, something which has gotten the attention of the Christian Science Monitor.

Near as I can tell, the American public will sleep through this, until the Mexican government is escorting “refugees” all the way to the Canadian border.

Other than that, the doomsayers don’t have much to talk about other than the Obama administration saying (via A.G. Eric Holder) that to oppose the imperial presidency is driven by racial “animus.”  Playing that card again, huh?  (Couldn’t be that policies are F/U’ed could it?)

Elsewhere in our morning survey of guilt, we notice that borders also don’t mean as much in Israel, where the death toll in Gaza keeps rising and now the Israelis say that have shot down a drone.

If you’re trying to make sense out of the world (and we were talking about rule sets as one of the three major approached to artificial intelligence applications to make scads of money in the markets for Peoplenomics readers this weekend) we can now proudly present the following Monday Morning Truth Table:

    • If you lob rockets into a country, the offended country will respond with an invasion and killing those who did the lobbing.
    • If, on the other hand, you lob children into a country,  the offended country will not be offended at all, and will go out of its way to reward the lobbers so that the flood increases.

    And since both major political parties in America have gotten elbow-deep into the payoff pocket of the K-Street Mafia, we can’t help but notice that the issue is no longer about whether we have borders.  We know those are gone, at least if you’re under 18 and from S.A.  They will still apply to older people, in order to shim up the sagging foreign threat reason to submit to the biggest tax increases in history coming down the pike.  (*Obamacare is a tax don’t forget, as opined not by me but by a Chief Justice.  The good news is that the number of people without healthcare insurance is quickly dropping.  But if government mandates healthcare and it’s a tax, how come government-mandated car insurance isn’t a write-off, hmmm???)

    Against this cynical background, though, (no change from last week) the ascent of gold has stalled and been reversed, along with silver which has slowed.

    If you can stay awake through work today, the retail sales figures come out tomorrow and we’ll get to see if the overpriced autos are still keeping America on life support.  The Empire (state) manufacturing report from the NY Fed is closely watched, too.

    Wednesday morning we get to consumer prices but already we have been collecting a few tidbits on  recent price action to set expectations:

    All of which gets us around to suggesting that ain’t gonna be much happening today. Other than the Dow heading back to the 17,000 levels and the S&P st8ill 30 points from the 2,000 barrier.

    More after this…

    (*Geez…that time already?)

    The Climate Change Scam

    At last!  Someone else is seeing the climate change scam for what it is!  Go read “On Global Warming, Follow the Money…”

    Climate has been changing since humans began to walk upright and we managed to get this far without a global carbon scam, did we not?

    Record low temps this weekend in Slidell, LA.

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    Coping: Monday at the WoWW

    Funny how the name “Vern” has cropped up in my life this weekend:  Note only was Peoplenomics about computational wealth (which circles around to Jules Verne) but in came this interesting “me too, I heard it” from a reader named Vern who heard those same odd voices we talked about a week or so back…

    George, I’ve written to you before about a single event. Other things have happened since; chiefly a phenomenon which started in 2011 where as I would just descend into sleep and a bright light that seemed to be aimed at my eyes from very close would awaken me. The very instant that I would open my eyes the light would go out. I have since moved from that residence but the same thing happened to me here in my current residence which would rule out anything tied to that location, with an easy explanation. These occurrences increased through 2012 and into 2013 but have faded since and have not happened this year.

    I was compelled to write you after reading the account of the woman who heard conversations close by as she was falling asleep. I too have been experiencing something similar for perhaps the last six months. I often awaken at night due to insomnia. I keep an MP3 player next to my bed and listen to audio books until I get sleepy again. If my neck is bothering me as it often does, I get up, go to the living room and sit in the easy chair so to get the pressure off of my neck for a while.

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    Computational Intelligence and the "Verne Cycle"

    As much as I lover spreadsheets, databases, data-mining, and neural networks, one of the biggest problems we keep stumbling toward (as technology continues to run-ahead of gray matter) really comes down to one ugly question: Assume you have all the computational horsepower on the planet. Given this, what would your methodology be to design a profitable trading tool? Computational investment algorithms aren’t a lightweight topic for a Peoplenomics report (far more complicated that robust home power or bug-out bags for preppers) but they do present…uh….

    More Bad Climate News

    It’s not bad per se…unless you like to eat and such, but the arrival of a Polar Vortex next week in the US promises to chill down summer more than a tad.

    The cold weather next week should set off all kinds of showers and storms but it’s not likely to have any impact on the national drought picture, which as I told you yesterday, is pretty grim.

    So, hold cold will it get?  There’s no telling for sure, but temps are forecast to be in the mid 80’s down here in East Texas, where usually by this time of year things have turned seriously brown by now.  Still, that 15-degrees under “normal” around here may not be as bad as places like Chicago.

    The forecast high in Chicago Tuesday may only hit 68 degrees according to the WeatherUnderground forecast over here.

    It’s only been a couple of weeks since the NOAA folks quietly re-instated the 1930’s as the warmest period of recent record.  And the last several years have failed to break records.

    But is this evidence enough to change the political wankers who are licking their chops at the prospect of a global tax to support their empire-building?  Most certainly not!

    The International Business Times report that “Climate Change Deals Signed Between U.S., China; China Vowed to Cooperate But ‘Compromise’ Still Far Away.”

    Gee, let me guess:  Does this mean China is not run by morons?  By extension and remembering there’s two sides to any equation, what would that make us?

    Until I’m blue in the face, but here goes again:  Look at the Solar Cycle Progression report for this month and what do you see? 

    The peak for the cycle looks like it will be about 105 (and a very short peak it was).  The previous peak hit 170 and that’s a damn big reduction when you’re talking about something as big as the Sun.

    While governments are putting out BS and hokum to sell climate scare, the oscillations of el Nino and la Nina are far more important as every farmer in California already knows.  The classic anti-stampede book by Robert Felix (Not by Fire but by Ice, link below) as well as some other reads may slow the stampede, but don’t count on it.  America has been dumbed down through medication and repetition to the point where we’re a soft-headed nation of lard-asses who wouldn’t get off the couch if the house were on fire.

    I’m not saying climate change isn’t real.  I am saying there’s a lot of data and a cool appraisal is in order, not this carbon-trading and global tax crap.   When trading schemes and power grabs precede events, my BS detector goes off so much I’ve had to take the battery out!

    Make your plans for future accordingly:  These are the chip-chomping version of zombies and instead of blood, these run on high fructose corn syrup and medications.  REAL zombies would be easier to deal with.

    More after this…

              

    Waiting on Inflation Data

    The market has been taking a time-out this week after bumping up on the top of a couple of trend channels, including an ultra-long one that can be traced back to market lows in 2009.  So the snooze here this week is less than frightening and more like the pause that refreshes.  Still, been entertaining to see the parade of doomers out with TEOTWAWKI predictions.

    The main economic deal today might be this afternoon’s Treasury Budget, or (after the close) let’s see if FDIC marches any banks out back for the final smoke and blindfold.

    In the meantime, it will be difficult, as always, to sort out how much impact government spending (gotta hire them babysitters for the border, right?) will have.

    For a good, short, education on GDP and GNP flip over here and once done, you can hang out your shingle as an economist, too.

    Ultimately, all this stuff comes down to a simple question being answered correctly:  “Is the market in a sell the rumor, buy the news” mode?  In which case, the consumer price report next week could result in a huge run to the upside.

    The other choice is no, we’re in “Buy the rumor, sell the news” in which case next week could be the start of a correction that might go 10-15%, but I’m really in favor of that not getting underway until this fall sometime.  I keep looking at the Trader’s Almanac for hints and the average summer rally high isn’t due for another month and a half, so I need to be patient, doctor.

    Gold and silver are screaming ahead as though prices will be rising faster than expected:  Gold passed the $1,338 level this morning and silver is over $21.50.  In the virtuals, we notice that Bitcoins are at $622 and popping around a bit.  We still hold that if a currency depends on carrying an electronic device and having power to run it, it’s not really a durable currency, but WTF do I know.

    What I do know is that moving to cash (or short) might be an interesting play  A note from Robin Handler’s Options Signal Service has me looking at that:

    Next week we enter a period filled with sudden and unexpected events. This happens from time to time, but this one is different: its global!

    The one thing the stock market does like is uncertainty, and it is going to get what will seem like a never ending dose of it from now till the end of the month. Financial astrology Ray Merriman says it could run well into August. The astrological aspects during the second half of the month are powerful, big and not good!

    Further evidence can be found at NOAA

    NOAA is predicting a spike in geomagnetic activity around the 15th next week, and high levels before and after. (see table below). The correlation between an increase in geomagnetic activity and sell in the stock market is a strong and reliable one.

    2014 Jul 12 160 8 3

    2014 Jul 13 140 8 3

    2014 Jul 14 135 8 3

    2014 Jul 15 120 12 4

    2014 Jul 16 110 8 3

    2014 Jul 17 110 8 3

    Spiral analysis of the 100 or so stock I am watching, while not show super big drops in the stocks during the second half of the month, I am struck by the sheer number of spiral charts all showing a drop in the latter part of the month.

    And then we have a cyclical analysis which say we have seen the top, and we are not going back for a long time.

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    Coping: ElectroPrepper Notes: Saved by a Sandwich Bag

    Yeah…besides being a convenient place to stash a half ounce of bud, which we don’t, but let’s pretend, the lowly sandwich bag may be my salvation when it comes to putting a mag-mount antenna on my wife’s car.

    Check this out:

    Well, still a pretty weak justification for CB you gave.  You could get the same stuff from local ham ops on 2mtrs as you pass by.
    So what I am writing about, I am SCANDALIZED you don’t know how to avoid scratches from the mag mount on the paint.  IT IS SO SIMPLE.  Just put a zip lock sandwich bag on the roof and put the mag mount on that.  No scratches.  Stays on just fine.  At least up to 80mph in my experience. (my deceased partner Judy had a mag mount on her Jeep Cherokee fyi).
    Myself, I detest mag mounts.  On all my cars which have been a number, I ALWAYS just bored a hole and put a Larson 5/8 or 1/4 wave mobile antenna in there so I could use 2mtrs.  My CRX SI has it on the back spoiler, works great.  Nice Kenwood mobile in the car.  Don’t do HF mobile now, years ago I did in my MG TD with a webster band spanner antenna.
    If I wanted to use HF mobile I would DRILL A HOLE.  Like I said I detest mag mounts.  I confess I do have a 5/8 wave mag mount for my 2mtr base station here at home.  BECAUSE I have a metal roof.  So…putting an unused mag mount 5/8 up there was a real simple way to have a nice 2mtr base antenna.  And I can hit all 12 repeaters in our very large county with it.  Cool. (Humboldt County BTW),
    Have a nice trip.  I still like your airplane.

    I still like the airplane, too, and I’m still only 80% committed to the car.  All it will take is the right-sized box and zing!  the plane it will be, provided there is a PERFECT weather window.  I’m all about flying when I can, especially over the beautiful Rockies, but even a hint of clouds and I’m back to the car idea….but we still have some time to run on that.

    I did have a “Hold it, dude!” from another fellow ham (with an Extra Class ticket):

    G,

    Don’t know if you are aware, but the app “RepeaterBook, free on Google Play lists repeaters by distance starting with the closest one to your phone. It also provides all the info you need to access them.

    Hold it, dude:  When we’re traveling, there are still huge areas with a) no cell phones and b) no repeaters.  So if we needed the 2-meter HT and we’re not in cell range…you following me here?  No repeater directory?

    Oh…and one other fellow ham admitted that  lots of the repeaters have moved or put on tones for access, so that’s screwed up the accuracy of things.

    The only sure-fire bet for perfect communications on the road would be a mobile kilowatt on the Maritime Mobile net on ‘20 (14.300 USB thanks for asking) or a sat-phone and even then, neither one of those will work well after EMP, at least for a few days….

    Although the cacophony of 14.313 will likely persist through it all…

    Seasonal Hotel Prices

    Speaking of our plans and going north for the heat of the summer, this hasn’t been a bad one, at least so far.  Normally, by this time of year, everything is dried out and ugly around here, but this year things look pretty darn good.

    I did find that hotel prices are a heck of a lot more seasonal than I thought including (especially?) those on the road from Texas to Washington where places like Moab, Utah have hotel prices pushing $200 bucks for some at this time of the year.

    With the airplane, we would do three days of flying (4.5 hours per day) and we’d overnight in Dodge City, KS and Sheridan, Wyoming and then KSHR to KGEG via KMLP.  So two hotel nights and with the option to overnight at KHLN (Helena) if Mullan Pass gets socked in.

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    Does it Take a “Special Brain” to Make Serious Money?

    No, this isn’t a crash.  That comes later.

    But the Market’s going to tank this morning, so we begin first-off  with a hat tip to Madison Avenue Mike (in reality a scion of the NYC fashion industry/glitterati) who has a keen eye for the important as opposed to the “obvious” and generously shares his findings.

    What he tipped us to is the story out of the Virginia Tech (Carilion) Research Institute that reveals “High-earning investors have neural signals that successfully predict stock market bubbles and crashes.”

    They musta missed this website, but we continue…

    The key part of the article goes into how more than 300 research subjects were hooked up to functional MRI machines and they were put into an artificial trading environment.  Here’s where it gets cool:

    “Traders who bought more aggressively based on activity in one brain region, the nucleus accumbens, earned less.

    In contrast, the high earners seemed to ignore nucleus accumbens activity in favor of the anterior insular cortex, a brain area active during bodily discomfort and unpleasant emotional states.

    Just before a bubble peaked – as their brain scans were revealing an increased activity in the anterior insula – the high earners would begin to sell their shares.

    The scientists believe the high earners’ brain activity may represent a neural early warning signal of an impending crash.”

    Even with the market set this morning to blow off 150-points to the downside, we aren’t really in “crash country” yet on the major markets.  But this research has terribly important implications in terms both of learning to trade and (perhaps) one day being screened for that “big job” at a GS or somewhere with a brain scan in addition to the usual HR tools.

    By extension, there are a lot of other jobs which functional MRI’s might be useful for spotting real talent:  I can see airline pilots, for example, or neurosurgeons having key areas of brain “lighting up” at precisely the right moments as being a predictor of success or failure..

    No More Free Money

    Oh, about the market drop this morning?  Part of it is due to the Bank of England not giving the Bankster class more free money to play with. 

    This comes at an awful time for the EU because most of the region’s manufacturing just sucks, but then we knew what the problem was from the get-go:  New Millennialism is going to cause the biggest crash in the history of the world, but we’ll work through the moving parts of that one for Peoplenomics readers this weekend.

    The main feature this morning is to look at the price of gold and silver.  (Charts up top of this page if you’re not on a mobile device — otherwise this is where I say neener-neener I told you to stick with a laptop and Skype, you idiot!)

    Gold is up almost $25 and silver was up to $21.55 and pretty soon, I will hit the phone and call the boys over at CB-Mint (shameless advertiser plug) and ask them if selling my lone gold coin and my lone silver one, will buy us a steak dinner before beef prices disappear into the stratosphere due to the drought…

    More after this…

             

    Speaking of Drought and such…

    The latest US Drought monitor picture looks grim as ever this morning:  The dark patches, which is where things aren’t growing, continue to be most all of the Central and San Joaquin Valley in Veggifornia and the old home of the Dust Bowl, up toward Amarillo and extending into Oklahoma and threatening the “square states” region.

    For us carnivores, the bad news is (according to the Drover’s Cattle Network) that meat prices are expected to remain high.  I suppose you already noticed this overs the Fourth.

    I can hardly wait to see how the government papers this over in the cost of living report due out next week.  We’ve seen hedonics cut out steak by substituting ground sirloin on the logic thast sirloin is sirloin, I suppose.  But pretty quick, we’ll all be on veggie-burgers and even then prices won’t come down.

    So for breakfast this morning’s we’ll be having soy bacon, scrambled air and dried toast as we bulk up for another hard day of “Recovery” and “Change.”

    When I look at the cats here lately, I can’t tell if my eyes are watering….or drooling…

    Like to thank the prices who clearcut and wreck rainforests, for the help toward turning this into lizard planet.

    Madness on Bordering

    Conservatives (people who can spell b-o-r-d-e-r without the XXI or apology after it) are incensed with what’s being called an act of war by Mexico and Guatemala: “The Southern Border Program to Improve Passage” which is like putting a human freeway in to dump even more people into Texas and the other border states.

    And John Boehner’s control file must have been opened because he’s backed off talk of impeachment.

    The real reason?  Border XXI and Canamex and TransTexas Highway are all issues where republicorps have previously screwed the pooch and the democorps have them by the goanies on this one.

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    Coping: Why I Broke Down and Bought a CB Radio

    Me….me of all damn people!

    Holding a GROL (and the First Class Commercial Radiotelephone before that) and an Extra Class ham ticket…why did I just plunk down $79 for a Midland 75-822 40 Channel CB-Way Radio?  And then a further $22 for a K40 K-30 35″ 300 Watts Stainless Steel Magnet Mount CB Antenna to go with it?

    We’re going to take the car, looks like, and therein lies an interesting tale.  At the risk of offending everyone who’s a ham, let me explain:

    Elaine and I are planning to spend a month, or so, up in the Seattle area on a mixture of business and pleasure.

    The business part is pretty simple (making money, yada, yada, and maybe a stop at the East Bay on the way home to work on the “secret robotics project” with a client and yes, I may have some equity interest there…but another story for someday/maybe.

    The “pleasure” part is somewhat muted by dad always seeming to be the one picking up the check, but that goes with parenthood.

    We have been eyeing the decision between airplane and driving.  Airplane would be fun, but everywhere we go, we’d be limited to airport courtesy cars (usually they’re out) and then there’s the rental car at the other end.

    Really minor nits in the Big Picture.  What’s problematic is what I need to take as freight/cargo:  There will be three laptops to begin with:  Mine, Elaine’s and the new server.  Then there will be backup software and an external hard driver or two.  And then books on the server and about a dozen reference books I’ll need when I lock myself into a writing frenzy. 

    This payload in itself will come in about 75-80 pounds.  And then there’s 100-110 pounds of personal gear:  Clothing, shoes, gifts, vitamins, toiletries…enough for a month+ and social occasions that will range from one or two fancy-schmantzy to (hopefully) a couple of rounds of golf.

    And if we’re doing that, why my bring my old sticks that I haven’t touched in 9-years?

    There’s no way to get all that in the airplane (and still do anything more that a high speed taxi, lol).  And no, I am not going to ship all that stuff UPS or FedEx because that’s just one more thing to go wrong and….and….

    So we’ll likely take the car.

    And now comes the reason for the CB radio.

    It’s terribly hard sometimes (even for me) to put aside my prejudice against CB.  In ham radio circles there’s a reason that it’s called “Children’s Band” and using “Ancient Modulation” (instead of the more proper term Amplitude Modulation, or AM).

    But the fact of the matter is that on this trip (though not all) the car wins over the airplane even though they are about even (until you count rental car costs for a month) on a cost basis.

    The CB will be the “tool of choice” on the road since channel 19 is inhabited by truckers.  And, since listening to their chatter is impossible without a radio, we now come down to the desire for a radio.

    So there we were coming down into Wendover Utah on our last trip (fall 2013):  And I wanted to know more about the place.  What better means than simply monitor a CB?  I could have figured in advance what was going on at Bonneville out on the Salt Flats without pulling into the rest area, though my co-pilot was intrigued by the trees there…I was still wondering about the casino payouts at Wendover…was the Pepper Mill or the Rainbow paying better?

    Elaine’s generally keen on the idea of me putting a radio in the old Lexus, although she (years ago at the height of the rage) had a CB handle when she drove truck for a few months, long-haul with one of her boys.  (There’s a finite supply of women who’s been in the army, qualify expert,  has been a masseuse, and can handle a Kenworth gearbox and drive an 18-wheeler, and is a hellavah dancer, an impossibly rare mix…so not wanting to drive her off, there’s no big HF radio or antennas in her car.) 

    But she definitely knows the lingo  of trucks and CB and give the Midland also has all the NOAA weather/all-hazards channels, she understands that the radio can be useful.  Most important, once the trip is over, there won’t be bonding straps in the trunk, static arrestors wicks, and a big serious mobile antenna mount on her car.  The radio is portable, the antenna is a mag-mount and that will be that.

    Except, she’ll have to be the one putting the mag-mount on because back when we had our old Daewoo, I put a four-magnet monstrosity of a ham antenna on the car and it must have moved while I was rolling through West Texas at 9-over the (then) speed limit of 80 out west.  The discussion of the minute scratches in the trunk lid eventually died down after, oh, four-years, or so.

    Light antennas don’t slip and slide as much.

    Sure, we’ll have a 2-meter ham rig with us, but in all of our cross countries I have yes to make a contact on it. 

    Periodically, I go through delusions of whipping out the cheap and handy ARRL Repeater Directory 2014/2015 Pocket Size ($12) and making a few contacts from our hotel room.

    Even this, however, has proven difficult.  There are the issues of structural steel, enough man-made noise to drown out an EMP blast, and then there’s the matter of programming either of my (Chinese or Japanese) 2-meter radios.

    “Why not just plug in the programming cable, Ure…for heaven’s sake!”

    “Oh?  That’s down in the car, I just has two slugs of night-night juice, and it’s raining.  Hand me the clicker and let’s see what’s on TV.  You figured out how to use the sleep timer on this one?”

    There aren’t any hard and fast numbers on how many CB users there are in America.  Many millions, for sure.  On the ham radio side? 725,216 in June according to the AH0A website.

    Finding someone to talk to is not a problem on ham radio in a big city.  But on VHF once you get up around Trinidad, Colorado, or up into the hills northwest of Albuquerque?  Uh…lil different deal up thataway.

    After (65-13=) 52 years of dissing other radio services, including and especially children’s band, I’m finally picking up a CB but strictly for long-haul trips in the car.  RVs on 13, truckers on 17 (north-south) and 19 (east-west like I-40 or I-80) and channel 9 for emergencies, it’s cheaper than making random cell phone calls.

    About the only thing missing is a good “handle.”  (Elaine’s the “Mink Box”)  I’m thinking 6-Geezer (knowing it will be mispronounced) but suggestions are welcome…

    Over, over, come back?

    (But if you prefer grown-up high speed CW/Morse, we can meet up on 14.020 where I’m still AC7X who’s still aghast that Morse isn’t required for a ham ticket, anymore.  There would be a lot few hams of course, but that would make the hobby a lot more like fishing…waiting for the rare ones…)

    Thursday at the WoWW

    OMG:  World of Woo-Woo is back!  Reader Sharon reports in…

    Hi George!

    Today’s WoWW hit the ‘now I’ve got to tell button’, so here goes.

    Background.  I have been psychically open and aware all of my life with a vast array of experiences and have traveled through the Land of WoWW on many pathways.  In my thirty’s I worked with teachers and activated my awareness to a much higher level.  I taught classes, held conferences and conducted personal psychic readings and past life readings for a number of years all around the US.  I stopped when I realized that people just wanted a quick fix and were unwilling to do the work that was needed to actually take charge of changing their lives.  They wanted me to just make it all better then business as usual.

    In all of my prior experiences, both in this realm and others, I have noticed the same things happened before that are happening now. 

    It started about a month ago.  I was in bed starting to move into the sleep state and began to hear a conversation between at least two voices.  I couldn’t hear what they were saying.. it was distant and faint, but I could tell there was a discussion somewhere that was carrying to my bedroom.  I live in  a ‘burb of Houston, quite a way out of town, on a double cul-de-sac, in a gated community.  We get very little traffic or traffic noise.  In fact, I can’t hear anything going on outside of my house even when there are emergency responders in the area.  Since the voices continued, I got up and went to the windows in my bedroom that face onto the street.  There were no people to be seen.  I lay back down and in a couple of minutes it started again.  I got back up and went to the other windows in the front of the house and still nothing.  I went back to bed, didn’t hear anything else and went to sleep.

    I thought it was odd, but forgot about it until a couple of weeks later.  It started again right as I was dropping off to sleep.  It surprised me so much and was loud enough that I sat straight up in bed looking around.  Then got up and did the window drill.  Nobody on the street, nothing to be seen.  It stopped by the time I lay back down.  This was a Friday night.  The next day I worked in the yard and garden all morning and then decided to lay down for a short nap in the afternoon.  As I began to drift off, the voices started talking again… actually louder than before, but still unable to understand what they were saying and was under the impression that they were speaking a language that I do not understand.  Since it was daylight, I had to get up and look.  Still an empty street and o one around my house on the outside in the front.

    When I got up from my nap, I went to my sister who lives with me and told her I’d had something weird happen and told her the story.  She immediately said, “Oh thank God, I thought I was losing it!”  She had started hearing the same thing about the same time I did… and had even heard it again the night before like me.  Her bedroom is on the second floor of the house, at the very back of the house.  My bedroom is in the very front on the bottom floor.  She had also gotten up and gone to all of the windows and looked out… both the top front and top back windows.  There was nothing to be seen.  No people, nothing. 

    Since we talked about it, neither of us have had the experience again, but I will not be surprised if it happens again.  There is definitely a thinning of some barrier that exists between our conscious world and what lies beyond.  I’ve experienced it on several levels, but this is the most vivid at this time.  Please understand, I am VERY conscious of how entities and people who are in other realms communicate with us… and I have a lifetime of stories about what both my sister and I have experienced from that type of communication… but it is not the same type of experience as what we’ve both just encountered now that we seem to be able to eavesdrop across some time/space barrier.

    The young woman who went to the garage because she heard voices talking was probably experiencing the same thing.  Something has changed and those who ‘have ears to hear’ are beginning to hear.

    Just as a side note… I’ve typed this email 3 times now.  Each time I’ve typed it before, something has interrupted me in the middle of it and the email disappeared.  This one might make it… and I hope it does because I think you and the readers of the WoWW need to know this is in play.

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