MONEY: currency hedge for the little guys

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

http://www.survivalblog.com/2007/11/mass_inflation_aheadsave_your.html

How To Build Your Pile of Nickels

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How can you amass a big pile-o-nickels? Obviously just saving the few that you normally receive as pocket change is insufficient. Here are some possibilities:

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2.) Obtain nickels in rolls from your friendly local bank teller. Most “retail” banks are already accustomed to handing over rolls of coins to private depositors because of collector demand for statehood commemorative quarters and the new presidential dollar coins. Ask for $20 or $30 of nickels in rolls each time that you visit to do your normal banking deposits or withdrawals. It is best to ask for new “wrapped” (fresh Federal Reserve Bank issue) rolls. This way, you might have the chance of getting rolls with valuable minting errors–such as “double die” strikes. These are usually noticed and publicized a few months after the fact, and can be quite valuable. You will also be assured that you are getting full 40 coin rolls. (Getting shorted with 38 or 39 coin rolls is possible with hand-rolled coins.) If the tellers ask why you want so many, you can honestly tell them: “I’m working on a collection for my children.” (You need not tell them how large a collection it is!)

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Get ready for rampant inflation and currency devaluation.

This is a currency hedge for the little guys.

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RANT: up to the Iraqis

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese412.html

A Lethal Year
by Charley Reese

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Iraq may or may not have a bloody war after we leave. That’s up to the Iraqis. It’s no skin off our nose whether they reconcile or draw their knives. It’s their country. Let them fight over it if that’s what they want to do. The Bush administration has not done one single thing right in the Middle East, and the situation in the whole area is worse and more dangerous because of these blunders.

American withdrawal would be a blessing to everyone concerned.

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… and there is only ONE presidential candidate who will DO it … … Ron Paul!

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TECHNOLOGY: BANANA (“Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone”)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/powerlessness_san_diego_almost.html

November 13, 2007
Powerlessness: San Diego almost blacked-out
Thomas Lifson

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During the recent wildfires, San Diego came perilously close to being blacked out, thanks to the vulnerability of its connections to the national power grid and the low portion of its electric power that is generated locally. The ability to fight that disaster might have been crippled if electric power had been out for any extended period.

Craig Rose of the San Diego Union-Tribune explains the technical complexities involved. But the fundamental issues are clear:

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2. It is very, very hard (and expensive) to build high capacity transmission lines in this age of BANANA (“Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone”)

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A grown-up approach would be to balance the risks if insufficient local generating capacity with the risks of nuclear power, CO2 emissions, and the like.

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While France, a tree hugging country if I ever heard of one, gens more than half of its electricity nuke-wise, we can’t seem to get our act together. BANANA will ensure that we are screwed royally in so many different ways. Imagine what we could tell the sheiks, Chavez, and Putin that they could do with their oil? The gooferment ensure that nothing ever gets done.

Sigh!

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TECH SOFTWARE: Flock gives a taste of what could be

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/web/2007/1105web2.html

Social networking integration
Flock integrates social networking Web services
Web Applications Newsletter By Mark Gibbs, Network World, 11/07/07

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Flock has taken the framework of the Mozilla Firefox browser and provided integration with a number of social networking Web services including Flickr, Del.icio.us, Technorati, Photobucket, RSS feeds, and a number of blogging services.

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Well, I put up FLOCK and it doesn’t do LinkedIn. Seems like it HAS to do LinkedIn to be considered as a “production quality” offering. It does give one a hint of what it could become.

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RANT: Usually calm driving …

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

… but this AM, a bozo in a white pickup (NJ VDR84U) cut me off. Normally, I’d just say “a special prayer” him and remember the Pope’s admonition about Christian principle on the road. But, this guy almost put my new pickup into the divider. To get ahead of me at a red light! Argh. Sufice it to say, I watch him do it to other people. Didn’t make me feel any better. But, the humorous part, was for all his jilly jacking around, he was still easily visible when I turned off on 295. But he did upset me. Even more upsetting was the thought that he might be going to trenton and be a gooferment slug. Argh! The possibility that I’m paying for him (Yes it was a him!) to work in trenton for the state gooferment and have him treat his employers that way was just some salt. So if you see him, you have my blessing to say a special prayer for him as well and watch out for him to cut you off as well. Argh!

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INTERESTING: demonstrated willingness to defend other’s liberty

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle443-20071111-03.html

Starship Troopers Revisited
by A.X. Perez
Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

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Starship Troopers is arguably Heinlein’s preachiest novel. This is because it is a rite of passage novel in which Johnny Rico progresses from a snot nose rich kid who “wouldn’t recognize civic virtue if it bit you in the ass” (to quote the movie version of ST which is vastly inferior to the book) to an adult who values his fellow man’s rights enough to voluntarily risk dying to defend them. Surprise, this includes a lot of internal debate in which Heinlein clearly demonstrates why ST is not a fascist book and instead is one in which the values held by a libertarian who chooses to serve his fellows through the state are spelled out.

Starship Troopers is not a fascist novel, instead it is an argument that only those who have demonstrated their love of and willingness to defend their brethren and sistern’s liberty should be trusted with political power. Golly, gee How dare Heinlein argue that?

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Did I mention that this is my favorite book?

Seriously, it was the first book I read that explained my thinking to me.

If only veterans could vote and hold office, then I bet a buck we would not be mired in losing war after losing war. I bet we be very careful about using the word “war” for anything.

We have a far better country if we were following Heinlein’s prescriptions.

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JOBSEARCH: JibberJobber running a sale

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

www.jibberjobber.com

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We are offering a special buy-one-get-one-free upgrade right now on the one year and two year packages, which expires on Monday, November 19th at midnight.

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This is one of the few things that I think a seeker might spend some buxs on. That list is very very short. So in case you were waiting for a sale to do “something”, here’s a sale.

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JOBSEARCH: Feedback on a resume

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A TURKEY SENT ME THEIR RESUME. SO I WAS OBLIGED TO COMMENT.

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May I make some observations?

Thanks, (I would anyway, but I’m working on my pushy image!)

For a project manager to be in a time bind, isn’t such a good admission. I try to answer every email or phone call in 24 hours. It might be just a quick response, but never never ever let them see you sweat.

:-)

I know I know easier said than done.

Now about your resume.

Sorry, but it “screams” I did it myself from a book.

I don’t have a slot free in my turkey farm http://tinyurl.com/lxu93 currently (I have five slots for my “turkeys” (i.e., people in job search) where I dedicate a short block of time to work with them 1on1 about their search.) but let me steal a few minutes from my morning coffee to give you some ideas. (Actually the ideas are precanned snippets of advice that I can use a macro to put up at a moment notice. Didn’t want you to think I was feeding you a load of “barbara streisand”.)

Here’s what I saw when I opened your resume and some thoughts.

* A resume’s only purpose is to get read and motivate the reader to action.

* You have to break the 15 second barrier and the 60 second barrier. You have 15 seconds to make the reader invest the next minute. Then, you have one minute to make the reader put your resume on the “keep stack”.

* Name address block takes far too much of the top real estate. Get it all on one line in unbolded ten point font. If you’re the right candidate, the hunter will break out a magnifying glass to read your contact info if needed.

* “summary” doesn’t summarize. Should be “objective”; and it’s not your objective it’s the reader’s.

* Upon further review “highly effective” should have been stroked out as well.

The balance of the resume is far too wordy. You need to make it easy to read. Think movie cliff hanger. Think “how’s she do that?”. Think “Wow!”.

You want to play par golf. In resume land, that is PaaR! Problem, analysis, action, results. Write down in each position what are the three major problems I was handed, what analysis did I do, what actions did I take, and what results I achieve. Then you throw out the Analysis and Action (They get that when they hire you.) and put in the Problem and Results.

So, for example, I found that the whatchamacallit project was late, over budget, and under functional. So I did an resource analysis and found that there were no left handed paper hangers assigned! Since fifty percent of the wall were right handed and the rest left handed, there were right handed paper hangers struggling to paper the left handed walls where they had to reach over their bodies to paper. I fired half the right handed ones and hired an equal number of left ones. Then you write: “The whatchamacallit project was late, over budget, and under functional. The project was back with in spec in 4 months at no additional cost after I was hired.”

See the diff! I can hear the recruiter getting on the phone know. “How did you do that?” “Hire me and I’ll tell you. I’m not a free consultant that can be had for an interview.”

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People are enamored by their own name. That block of text can easily occupy 100% of that incalculably valuable resume real estate. When I see a resume like that I cringe. Because I know what is coming. I, I, eye, I, I, eye. Everything will be about them. When it should be about the hiring manager who’s reading it.

fwiw

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LINKEDIN: an email about LinkedIn

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL ABOUT LINKEDIN

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>Second, what is the 5 strikes and you’re locked rule that you refer to below?

LinkedIn has a policy, about a year old, that if five people that you invite say “Don’t know”, you’re account is locked out. Depending upon how well you kowtow to “customer (dis)service”, they will unlock you. A second offense, and you may not be unlocked.

>Third, I like your “I am not accepting your request ..”

Contrary to the impression my large count gives, I am NOT an open networker. (I run an alumni ezine and have been “in transition” five times and ran a networking group.) I try to only connect with kindred spirits.

>Speaking of LinkedIn, I had an interesting conversation with a recruiter last week on the topic of having recruiters as LinkedIn connections.

I’d think that was “interesting” because recruiters have a completely different set of objectives than real people.

> I told her my take on how I see it being a one-way street (at least from a career networking point of view)

I’m not so sure I agree with you. LinkedIn for seekers allows one to find and be found.

>and she basically agreed as she said “I would never put my clients in my linkedin connections”.

Sure, because she can’t compete with all the recruiters out their chasing a diminishing world of hiring managers and job seekers. If I can id someone who needs my brand of poison then why should they hire a recruiter to find me. Or visa versa.

There’s a lot of sleeze tactics on LinkedIn.

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RANT: … and I thought the Indian casinos were the only ones who abused us

Monday, November 12, 2007

http://wcbstv.com/local/yonkers.raceway.strip.2.565987.html

Great Grandmother Strip-Searched At N.Y. Casino
Woman, 65, Furious Over Treatment At Yonkers Raceway
Reporting John Slattery

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YONKERS (CBS) — A great-grandmother from Mount Vernon is filing suit for allegedly being strip searched at the Yonkers Raceway casino. As CBS 2 HD has learned, the angry woman says it was over a winner’s slip that was missing.

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This is unbelievable. For $80! Eighty thousand maybe. 80?

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