http://lifehacker.com/5659358/google-shuts-down-goog+411
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Google is closing 1-800-GOOG-411, their first speech recognition service that acted as a free “voice-powered directory assistance”, on November 12.
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BING 1-800-246-4411
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Why do I suspect the phone companies are protecting a very lucrative income stream?
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Leave a Comment » | 
SERVICE | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/10/if-im-drunk-youre-a-jerk.ars
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Nearly all the participants, no matter what condition, judged all the unambiguous statements correctly. However, when the actions were ambiguous and could have been performed either intentionally or unintentionally, the “drunk” participants were much more likely to perceive the actions as deliberate than the sober participants were. The clever design of this experiment allowed the researchers to separate the actual physical effects of alcohol from its expectancy effects. What the subjects believed they had consumed didn’t affect their responses—only whether they had actually consumed booze or not.
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Then, I must be drunk all the time. I don’t think anything is “unintentional”.
No?
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams53.1.html
Politicians Exploit Economic Ignorance by Walter E. Williams
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What about the politician who tells us that he’s not going to raise taxes on the middle class; instead, he’s going to raise corporate income taxes as means to get rich corporations to pay their rightful share of government? If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if it is to survive, it will have one of three responses, or some combination thereof. One response is to raise the price of its product, so who bears the burden? Another response is to lower dividends; again, who bears the burden? Yet another response is to lay off workers. In each case, it is people, not some legal fiction called a corporation, who bear the burden of the tax.
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So the corporate tax rate should ALWAYS be zero. Anything higher and it’s the politicians trying to sheer the sheeple!
Corporations don’t “pay” taxes; only real flesh and blood people do. Corporations provide politicians “cover” because the Sheeple don’t recognize the tax is buried in the price.
When the tax is put on a capital asset used in the production of other goods (like gasoline) the impact is magnified. So every UPS package that’s delivered has that gas “tax” factored in.
When UPS buys the trucks that GM paid tax on, that’s buried in the cost of every package delivered.
They taught us this in injineering school. No one can really know how much tax they are paying and the politicians and bureaucrats like that just fine. Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/johnsson8.1.1.html
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Gold is probably the only asset that could eliminate the mountains of debt we see today. And the folks in the governments of China, Russia, Nepal, etc., have already realized this. Hundreds of millions of people around the planet has also already realized this. Or rather, they haven’t forgotten, or they haven’t been brainwashed into believing gold is simply a “barbarous relic.” They are accumulating gold. For example, in China the government is running TV ads (available at YouTube) encouraging people to have at least 5% of their assets in physical gold and you can get gold coins and bars at any decent shopping mall, at banks and at airports. I know it’s the same in Russia, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same in India.
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5% is a modest amount. But, most folks in the US have zero. They may have etfs, or such paper. That’s not gold!
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Leave a Comment » | GOLDBUG | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/thinktank/2010-10/02/content_11374685.htm
$10,000 Gold?
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Indeed, another critical fundamental factor that has been sustaining high gold prices might prove far more ephemeral than globalization. Gold prices are extremely sensitive to global interest-rate movements. After all, gold pays no interest and even costs something to store. Today, with interest rates near or at record lows in many countries, it is relatively cheap to speculate in gold instead of investing in bonds. But if real interest rates rise significantly, as well they might someday, gold prices could plummet.
Most economic research suggests that gold prices are very difficult to predict over the short to medium term, with the odds of gains and losses being roughly in balance. It is therefore dangerous to extrapolate from short-term trends. Yes, gold has had a great run, but so, too, did worldwide housing prices until a couple of years ago.
If you are a high-net-worth investor, a sovereign wealth fund, or a central bank, it makes perfect sense to hold a modest proportion of your portfolio in gold as a hedge against extreme events. But, despite gold’s heightened allure in the wake of an extraordinary run-up in its price, it remains a very risky bet for most of us.
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A gold price of 10k$/oz has terrible implications for the American economy and the average American. It’ll freeze global commerce as the price of oil gets denominated in gold. Hope they’re wrong.
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Leave a Comment » | GOLDBUG | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Please read this one. Priceless!!!
http://www.lewrockwell.com/crovelli/crovelli50.1.html
Anarchy vs. Barney Fife by Mark R. Crovelli
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If our lives and fortunes were indeed dependent upon protection from a handful of people swaddled in hideous blue polyester, mankind would have long ago lost them. If human nature were truly as depraved as these arguments would have us believe, then the chubby blue line would long ago have been annihilated by its vastly numerically superior criminal adversaries. No “criminal” worth the name would be deterred from committing his favored atrocities by a small group of lightly-armed fat people, whose national reputation is tied inextricably to the donut. To even suggest that this 300 million-strong horde of savage, would-be criminals are kept at bay only by some irrational fear of blue polyester is so asinine that it makes the flat-Earthers look like geniuses by comparison.
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Emphasis mine; think it’s a great zinger.
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Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.ricedelman.com/cs/pressroom/pressroom_detail?pressrelease.id=1629
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Lawmakers are creating solutions for their pension shortfalls. New York is considering a plan that would let it borrow money from the state’s pension plan and use that money to pay its annual obligations to the pension plan. (No, that’s not a typo — they’re essentially planning to rob Peter to pay, well, Peter.)
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Worth reading. The insanity of unfunded liabilities is only going to get worse.
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/04/limits-of-libertarianism-hypot
Limits-of-Libertarianism Hypothetical Brought to Life in Tennessee
Katherine Mangu-Ward | October 4, 2010
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Obion County resident Gene Cranick decided not to pay the $75 fee, and then he set a fire in his backyard in two large barrels. The fire began to spread, and he called 911. The 911 operator told him that because he hadn’t paid the fee, the fire department would not respond. Cranick’s wife told the 911 operator that she would be willing to pay “whatever the cost” to hire the Fire Department to put out the fire, but was told that this was not an option. The Fire Department did not come out until the fire spread to a neighbor’s yard — the neighbor had paid the fee — and the firemen put out the neighbor’s fire but not Cranick’s.
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Did he have fire insurance on his house? If he did, I bet his insurance company lawyers are hard at work reviewing their policy language.
Note Gooferment fire department; does Sears refuse to service folks who don’t buy their service plans? Of course not!
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1 Comment | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=210789
Social Security example of government rigor mortis
Posted: October 02, 2010
Star Parker
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Social Security passed in 1935. Although there have been changes in the way of tax increases and expansions of the program, Social Security is essentially the same system as was passed 75 years ago.
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Americans are retiring earlier and living longer. In 1950, the median male retirement age and male life expectancy were about the same – 66. By 2005, the median retirement age for men was under 62 and the median male life expectancy was over 75.
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And the promise we get from our leaders is that they will save and preserve a system that was conceived 120 years ago and enacted here 75 years ago. This is leadership?
Not only is our Social Security system unsuited to our times, it is bankrupt. It went into a deficit situation this year and its overall unfunded liabilities – the total amount promised less the total amount for which there is funding – is almost $20 trillion.
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Clearly “Social Security Insurance”, which is NOT Social, NOT Security, NOT insurance, is an meme that no longer fits. If it ever did! The stated public purpose was “welfare” when the public was scared by the Great Depression; the unstated private purpose was to amass political power. It basically setup many if, not all, of the problems that we are facing today. Bu allowing the Gooferment to raid the “mythical lockbox”.
Argh!
How can you “insure” against old age?
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Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100906192154AAN9byy
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In addition to the penny, the nickel also has a physical value which is higher than its face value; nickels cost around 7.7¢ US to make.
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http://www.metalprices.com/FreeSite/metals/nickelalloy/nickelalloy.asp
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OK, you can afford a truckload of gold or silver.
How about a couple hundred buck in nickles?
The Gooferment is paying 7¢ each. And, it still has an intrinsic worth.
When the crunch happens, it’ll have some value over and above the paper value.
When the hyperinflation hits, we all know what the paper will be useful for!
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
-
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
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