Tag: Meme

INSPIRATIONAL: “Be Present” is like “Be in the moment” or “Mindfulness”

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http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-10-habits-of-highly-successful-hunter-gatherers/#axzz2glGmraDk

The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Hunter-Gatherers

*** begin quote ***

Habit #4: Be Present

We can all do a self-inventory now of the attention we give our phones or other technological devices. We can confess to ourselves how much we let residual work infiltrate our personal lives. Don’t forget what I think is one of our biggest trip-ups in modern living: the penchant for mental chatter. Truth be told, how much time do we spend caught up in replaying a conversation from the previous evening, imagining multiple stressful scenarios that might take place when we confront a certain person about x, y, and z, worrying about what other people think of our outfit or hair today? Let’s face it, our modern disconnect is rampant distraction.

Can you imagine if Grok walked across the savanna perpetually lost in thought about his latest wardrobe experiment? (As if he ever saw his reflection anyway…) He wouldn’t last long enough for it to matter. For our ancestors, life was an exercise in continual hyper-vigilance. Not every second, but close. It wasn’t just the risk of becoming another creature’s dinner either. Attentiveness also meant watching for weather, catching migratory patterns, and deciphering water sources – just to name a few examples.

The Primal Connection is to be found in giving the moment your full attention. It’s about minding the difference between thoughtful deliberation or reflection and so-called monkey brain. It’s about throwing off the strangling self-absorption we trap ourselves in every day standing in line with our phones or with our mental chatter. See the people, places, and possibilities in front of you. Feed this “highly successful” habit by observing your loved ones – all the changes and uniqueness that’s right there to be appreciated. Go on a walk with the goal of finding at least a dozen things you’ve never noticed. Use mindfulness check-ins to remember to come down from the mental busyness and come back to center throughout the day.

*** end quote ***

It’s hard not to “multi-task”.

It’s not like we are computers.

And even when they “multitask”, there is a certain about of inefficiency in doing it.

I remember coding BALR 14,15, Using 15, with all sorts of saving and restoring. That’s all “wasted effort”. We used to carefully consider if the “overhead” was worth the “gain”.

Sitting just doing one thing. Fully engaged. With no distraction. Is the closest thing we get here on the dirt.

If you’ve ever been in “the zone”, it’s as if time stands still. (And, I’ve had some Theology lecture that proved the principle that Hell is real and unending!)

If you’ve NEVER been in “the zone”, how sad!!!

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MONEY: 12 Cognitive Biases That Endanger Investors

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Good thing I have a team. Otherwise, I’d be sitting, guarding my “pirate’s chest” of gold coins. I don’t know what bias being a Gold Bug is, but I have it bad. The thieves in DC are robbing us poor folk blind. And, what’s worse, folks are clueless. Argh!

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12 Cognitive Biases That Endanger Investors: “

Before Todd Harrison created Minyanville, he was an options trader at Morgan Stanley, eventually becoming President of Cramer Berkowitz, where he toiled as head trader at Jim Cramer’s hedge fund.

Todd has an excellent analysis of the various biases that endanger investors.

Here is the full list:

1. Confirmation Bias
2. In-Group Bias
3. Gambler’s Fallacy
4. Post-Purchase Rationalization
5. Neglecting Probability
6. Observational Selection Bias
7. Status-Quo Bias
8. Negativity Bias
9. Bandwagon Effect
10. Projection Bias
11. The Current Moment Bias
12. Anchoring Effect

Check out his explanation and descriptions here.

 

 

Source:
12 Cognitive Biases That Endanger Investors
Todd Harrison
Minyanville January 17, 2013
http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/random-thoughts/articles/12-Cognitive-Biases-that-Endanger-Investors/1/17/2013/id/47441

“

(Via The Big Picture.)

 

–30–

INTERESTING: Is the inet “catalog buying” of yesteryear?

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

It occurs me that in the old days, folk sat at home far from the store and ordered from the Sear’s catalog and waited for it to arrive. Is that the same as today’s “order via the inet”?

Not sure if “inet ordering” is such a new meme.

(See what happens when you can’t sleep? You ponder the trivial.)

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FUN: My paradigm shift at the recent wedding as I was taught a new wedding meme

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Went 2 THAT wedding Saturday.

“We’ll see if I have the charm of my younger days and some beautiful young thing finds me young, thin, handsome, AND irresistible.”

… to my Russian co-worker, who wanted to schedule an early Monday meeting. She looks at me in her deadpan style mitt the thick accent and replies: “I C U. I schedule Monday meeting at 8!”.

After the rehersal dinner, as the Father of the Bride and I were leaving together, three “young” (30-ish) expressed graphically some interest. They must have been querying my “older” friend cause they couldn’t a been talking to me. Outside he and I got a lotta yucks out of that one. I have to go back to repentance again. I’m not sure who exactly came up with the very uncharitable comments — ‘Melanie Griffith” (our code for “Looks like a Working Girl”), “everyone is beautiful at closing time”, and particularly Not Zen like “that 1,000 mile journey can be seen on the your wrinkles”. And those were the bloggable ones.

At the reception, I got razzed about two female guests who expressed interest. One was just a “lost soul” and the other was on the hunt. Thanks to the Sister of the Bride’s Mother, who threw a key block to spring the running buck (me) to complete my run to the door. Yep, still got it. Yeah, I know. All it was, was that I was alive. ROFL!

And, thanks to the Husband of Bride’s Mom’s Sister, who thought it was hysterical to do something like “Hey have you met my friend John” every time “the tigress” cruised by our table. Glad to know my discomfort was SO entertaining. He was just paying me back for scaring him that my “reading” was really four pages long. He thought I was announce my run for Pope. It was a short reading that I reprinted and corrected. (Yeah, a fat old white guy injineer correcting spelling. What’s next? “CHURCH 10●19●62” wins a Pulitzer? More likely a “pull it sir; it blocking real books”!) Maybe I should HAVE read it as written originally from the Bride: “Don Ho Hot Love”! ROFL!!!

Sigh!

Oh well, on to work tomorrow. My Russian co-worker was correct. I’ll be back to the “fun” tomorrow.

If I survive the Beltway traffic?

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I survived.

The paradigm shift: SOME women saw me as “available”. And, at least, two made no bones about it.

The meme shift: Gone are the days when I can just go to a wedding and relax. Now I know how the chicken feels being chased around the barnyard.

Thanksgiving prayer: Thank you Universe for not making me, or letting me, do a “face plant” on the way to or from that sky platform. 

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MEME: Occam’s, or Ockham’s, razor

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

Occam’s razor

*** begin quote ***

Occam’s razor (also written as Ockham’s razor, Latin lex parsimoniae) is the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness. It is a principle urging one to select among competing hypotheses that which makes the fewest assumptions and thereby offers the simplest explanation of the effect.

*** end quote ***

Or, as I like to say it, “KISS — Keep it simple, stupid!”.

I took some trash yday for being too erudite (That’s, for the intellectually challenged or those eddykated in a Gooferment Skrule, using de big wurds.) and making a joke at the expense of poor old Ockham and his razor or a German knife.

Tuff!

Grow up.

Stretch your paradigms and memes.

(Pair of dimes is how you perceive stuff. Your eyes can deceive you. Look in Johari’s box.)

(Meme, like genes for ideas. How you think about thinking. SOP’s for life. An idea that can spread from human mind to human mind. Like a fad, rumor, or (mis)understanding. Think MegaBall Jackpot craze, “pet rock”, religious beliefs, and concepts like “money”. Memes can be handy shorthand, like the United States Government, Alma Mater, political party, or the “Tea Party”. They can be false like “Social Security is insurance”, “Laws protect me”, or even that there is such a thing as “government”. They can be unprovable “God Exists”. Or obvious, “Law of Gravity”.)

I refuse to accept that using the correct word, even if it’s big, uncommon, or strange, is being pedantic, obtuse, or show offy.

So, get a dictionary, use Wikipedia, or get lost!

:-)

The fat old white guy injineer is in his alter ego “Grumpy”.

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FUN: A Hug From Taylor Swift (Revision 2.0)

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A Hug From Taylor Swift Part 1

http://youtu.be/zEalFT3KM_k

A Hug From Taylor Swift Part 2

http://youtu.be/ws6OW4VtiV0

A Hug From Taylor Swift Part 3

http://youtu.be/E2mVJW6PpgQ

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Learnings from the Taylor Swift’s Auburn video

1) YouTube and Verizon have issues

Watching a YouTube video is a mess. You can figure out what the technical dimension the problem is. Users don’t have access to the diags necessary to tell where or what the problem really is. What’s worse one always has to be suspicious that either or both have their “thumb” on the scale. Verizon to sell FIOS or 4G. YouTube to extract payment from the ISPs.

2) YouTube software

Try resetting a video to someplace other than the beginning. Doesn’t work for me. But shouldn’t it DL the file to you so you can play it over and over. You shouldn’t need a utility or another site to collect it for you. Plus why can’t we have one open standard for video.

3) Assumption

You have to admire the innovation of these two Auburn guys, and one webmaster, for their ability to capture the essence of the inet and social media. Taylor Swift gets kudos for finding them, challenging them, and making the event. Of course, if I made 35M$ last year, I’d take a chance. Maybe not! It could have been a bust. So there was some risk in it for her. She could have been playing to an empty house. Not very likely. She could have leaked it to her fan base minutes before and I’m sure the tweens and teens would have packed the joint. I know I’d have gone. Everyone won. They got their hug; she got the buzz.

4) Make it happen

You have to admire these fellow’s ability to “instantiate” their vision. The Eastern philosophies always suggest that vision precedes actuality. These fellows demonstrated that principle. Or is it a meme? You have to visualize the end and the Universe will “make it so”. To steal a Star Trek line.

5) Noblese oblige

Taylor Swift exemplifies this meme. She could have, but never has, sat in her tour bus and counted her pennies. How to say one of her CPAs wasn’t doing this for her ( i.e.: “Taylor, do realize what this is going to cost you?” “So, how much is five million hits on YouTube worth in terms of paid downloads?”)? She seems propelled by human emotion. But buzz does translate to dollars, so she can be ‘frisky’. Knowing that the “buzz” is worth gazillions. That doesn’t diminish her. She really is an icon.

6) Fun

You have to be “hard hearted” not to enjoy the serendipity of the whole scenario. Other than a “young girl skirt” around some rowdy college students, one would be hard pressed to find a flaw in the whole video. Marginally, one can feel bad for the campus and her security people who had to make her safe. You can see the expressions on their faces that they were not happy on what should have been a sleepy afternoon. You have to wonder how the many folks who were “locked out” felt? Sorry, but I always look at the silent majority feels. I’d have been the 350+1!

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I’m told the skirt is not that short. Guess it’s my Catholic school upbringing when the girls would roll down for school and roll up for dismissal.

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GAMBLING: Betting on an RNG trend is the path to poverty

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FROM LUDDITE:

>1.  First article…. lol

http://scoblete.casinocitytimes.com/article/trend-betting-pure-and-simple-60033

*** begin quote ***

Frank Scoblete: The simple truth about trend betting    The simple truth about trend betting    Scoblete says trend betting does not work in random games. You can’t get an edge over the house by betting for or against the trends you just saw. What happened in the past has no influence on what happens in the future.

*** end quote ***

He’s right, BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), he doesn’t address the paradigm (the perception) that human beings always see order out of chaos. So we see trends. If UGH the caveman didn’t he was some predator’s lunch. Look at those people who say the Devil’s face in the billowing clouds at the 9/11 attack. Our wetware is hard wired to see <synonym for excrement> that may or may not be there. And the trend is your friend.

So, it’s a meme that if you’re gambling, you can’t “beat the house”. That’s why we do money management.

And, when you find an advantage, like I did when I realized the Riviera’s new loyalty ticket machines gave a slot player a small amount of additional information about the history of the machine (i.e., on a three dollar slot, a loyalty reading of 1 or 2 to go on a machine where the last play was 1 or 2 dollars MEANT that the last player went broke. Did it always pay to play that machine? No, but I’d give it two spins $6 to hit. One of the few times I made a lot of money. I’d have to call Our Girl to come down and wait for the tax papers.

Argh! I was at Comdex and had to go back to work. I got back out there three weeks later and the system had been removed.

I bet the pros realized it and used it. The casino probably lost the pro’s action because the pros would wait patiently for the tourists to “prime the pump”. Casino mistakes are few and far between. Like the Fremont’s repeat roulette number bet.

But he’s right. Betting on an RNG trend is the path to poverty. I’ll still do it in the short run (i.e., jump in the grave).

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JOBSEARCH: The “work till you drop” meme in employment

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boomers-era-til-drop-160032353.html

For boomers, it’s a new era of ‘work til you drop’
By JOHN ROGERS | Associated Press

*** begin quote ***

Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She’s been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen.

So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans.

“I’ll probably just work until I drop,” she says, a sentiment expressed, with varying degrees of humor, by numerous members of her age group.

Like 78 million other U.S. Baby Boomers, Symons and her husband had the misfortune of approaching retirement age at a time when stock market crashes diminished their 401(k) nest eggs, companies began eliminating defined benefit pensions in record numbers and previously unimagined technical advances all but eliminated entire job descriptions from travel agent to telephone operator.

*** and ***

“My advice is above all don’t retire,” he says. “If you like your job at all, hold onto it. Because getting back in in this era is essentially impossible.”

*** end quote ***

“Jobs” is not a zero sum game. But it is an obsolete meme.

The “gold watch” meme was obsoleted in the early Eighties.

The first torpedo a midship was the ERISA rule that did 5 year pension vesting. We then became a nation of five year employees. “Pension harvesters”. I got two.

The second was the entrepreneurial meme that came into place big time in the late Eighties with the updated Sub S corporation rules.

When job requiring obsolete skills go unfilled because business can’t find anyone qualified at a price they could afford to pay, how is an old person taking it depriving someone younger person?

If anything, it’s “good” that boomers are clogging those old “jobs”. Like making buggie whips. This may induce youngsters to recognize the new meme and open their own biz. Growing the pool of “jobs”.

The pie isn’t a fixed size. We should want the yutes out creating new wealth; not laboring in dead end corporations.

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TECHNOLOGY: APPLE’s IBOOKS2 is a paradigm and meme shift in education. And elsewhere.

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http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-57362293-12/ibooks-2-brings-textbooks-to-life-hands-on

iBooks 2 brings textbooks to life (hands-on)
by Jason Parker
January 19, 2012 3:01 PM PST

*** begin quote ***

We decided to download a free preview version of E.O. Wilson’s “Life on Earth” textbook to get a feel for the features (the preview comes with only two chapters). Navigating through chapters and sections of a textbook works great on the iPad. You swipe to switch chapters, or touch sections or pages to get right into the content. We think this will be useful for students who need to jump around through chapters. Once you’re looking at a page, you also have touch options, such as a pinch, which shrinks a page, and slide, which returns it to the navigation area on the bottom of the chapter screen.

*** end quote ***

Looks like Apple hit this one out of the park.

(I’ve got to upgrade my MACBOOKAIR to try the “AUTHOR” software.)

If it’s as easy and as free as they say, it might be another even bigger revolution. Figure education, from a technology pov, hasn’t changed since Plato taught Aristotle.

This is BOTH a paradigm and meme shift.

Wonder how to extract some of the value from such a shift?

And, how does it impact medicine, engineering, and Informaton Technology?

Free AUTHOR software and easy e-publishing throws the doors open even wider than LULU did.

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INTERESTING: Paradigm shift — the Praetorian Class

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http://lewrockwell.com/orig12/kofod2.1.1.html

The Rise of the Praetorian Class
by Pete KofodCasey Research

*** begin quote ***

Legions and Lictors – the Praetorian Class

The Praetorian Class includes members of the Armed Services, federal, state and local law enforcement personnel as well as numerous militarized officials including agents from the DEA, Immigrations, Customs Enforcement, Air Marshalls, US Marshalls, and more. It also includes, although to a lesser extent, various stage actors in the expanding security theater such as TSA personnel. The main mission of the Praetorian Class is to keep the order of the day. This requires displaying an intimidating presence in their interactions with the Economic Class.

*** end quote ***

Hmm, very profound statement of the meme — Political Class oppresses Economic Class with the Praetorian Class.

Certainly, a paradigm shift!

Explains a lot about why us in the Economic Class are losing our freedom.

Argh!

Might be too late to reverse this trends.

Time to nuke the TSA.

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RANT: “Big Church”, another failed concept

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/diocese-of-orange-raises-bid-for-crystal-cathedral/

Diocese of Orange raises bid for Crystal Cathedral
By Marianne Medlin

*** begin quote ***

Garden Grove, Calif., Aug 11, 2011 / 05:59 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Orange upped its previous bid and signaled openness to new negotiations for the Crystal Cathedral after board members recently announced that the building is no longer for sale.

*** and ***

The liturgist for the Orange diocese, Monsignor Arthur Holquin, said July 26 that several changes would need to take place in order for the Crystal Cathedral to become a Catholic worship space.

Along with a central altar, a tabernacle and a baptismal font, the building would need a “cathedra” or bishop’s chair. While renovations are needed to the building, “not much deconstruction would be required and the iconic personality of the original architecture and design would, for the most part, be retained,” he said.

Purchasing the Crystal Cathedral is an attractive option for the diocese because it provides an instant solution to its building needs and would cost roughly half the $100 million price tag for the planned Santa Ana cathedral.

Though the diocese made an official $50 million bid for the Crystal Cathedral on July 22, the church’s board later voted against selling it and decided to appeal to church members and viewers to donate the funds instead.

*** end quote ***

Guess I just don’t understand.

Couldn’t God be worshiped in an appropriately decorated warehouse?

As far as the “bishop’s chair”, I have a old folding chair to donate. Won’t that hold a butt.

$100M$?

Reminds me of the French’s Maginot Line and Patton’s famous apocryphal remark “fixed fortifications are monuments to man’s stupidity”.

Maybe a cathedral is marketing? Of an idea who’s time has past. “Big Church” must join the dustbin of failed concepts like: Big Gooferment, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Labor, Big Biz, “Too Big To Fail” (2B2F), Social Security “Insurance”, the misnamed Federal Reserve Bank, Wall Street, Fiat Paper aka “monopoly money”, and all such stupidity?

It’s always sad when the illusions and delusions die. And all we are left with is the wreckage.

Is it too late to rebuild from the pieces?

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RANT: The meme of TOD; one label globally

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http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_b28af7e2-4c32-11e0-a426-001cc4c03286.html

It’s that time again: Clocks change this weekend

By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press | Posted: Friday, March 11, 2011 5:00 pm

*** begin quote ***

NEW YORK (AP) – It’s an annoying ritual to some: Clocks go back in the fall and ahead for spring, but why do we do it, when did it start and how does it affect our lives?

*** end quote ***

It’s a dumb idea.

And, serves no rational purpose.

I’d rather see the entire world on GMT.

When I had national responsibilities, time zones were annoying. When I had global responsibilities, time zones were impossible.

Who cares what label is applies for the time to get up or go to sleep.

We should have one label globally. One time, one date. Who cares about the Earth’s rotation anyway?

We’re not so smart in choosing our memes.

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INTERESTING: Time to nuke Freddy and Fannie!

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703513604575310383542102668.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_realestate

http://goo.gl/O4AQ

CAPITALJUNE 17, 2010
Rethinking Part of the American Dream
By DAVID WESSEL

*** begin quote ***

In hard-hit Las Vegas, nearly 59% of households own their homes, but only 15% to 19% of households own a home in which they have any equity left.

For many, the American dream of home ownership turned into a nightmare of debt and foreclosure. Some people should rent.

As late as the 1930s, a U.S. mortgage was generally a loan for three to five years, at which time the borrower had to pay it off. Then the government fostered the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage—and eventually the 30—and the concept that the homeowner would pay off principal in monthly installments.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

Several thoughts occur to me here:

① 15 to 20% of homes left with the owners having equity? All those senior citizens who bought retirement homes? That’s astounding.

② Talk about malinvestment. (That’s Austrian economics term. See below.) Detroit, Flint, and Gary are destroying houses to avoid providing gooferment services. We as a society have our wealth destroyed by such action. Are there no homeles there?

③ It would seem that the FTC and the TREASURY / FED / SEC could stop this disaster anytime they want to. Regulations of minimum down payment like stock margins. Rules about honest disclosure. Limits on what banks can resell as “securities”. AND, the biggest rule, the originator get stuck with defaults! No more package it and forget it. (But then we’d see just how crappy the economy is. And, how many banks would be insolvent. It’s in the Gooferment’s interest to keep putting lipstick on the is pig. Pucker up! Guess who’s going ot have to kiss it?

④ I remember reading that Freddy and Fannie make the economy more uncompetitive and more “rigid” in that owning a home meant the workforce could not adapt to new opportunities in new locations. A high percentage of folks renting means they can move more quickly. Didn’t the Mayans force migrations by burning the village and forcing them to move hundreds of miles? Is this our modern equvalent?

⑤ Speaking of Freddy and Fannie, I see where bailing them out is going to be the “mother of all bailouts”. Shouldn’t we put them out of their, and our, misery? Time for a Constitutional Amendment banning all GSEs! (Gooferment Sponsored Entities)

⑥ Why don’t we bring back the 30 year Treasury Bond as a method of financing the deficit and easing the pain we are facing? Or is the GOoferment afraid of what that 30 year rate will be?

⑦ On HGTV, there are a lot of home buyers, some first timers, who are buying big ticket homes with nearly nothing down. Several hundred thousand dollar mortgages and they need “mortgage assistance”, seller paid closing costs, and even the tax credits to make the numbers work at all. And, in the cases of two income “families” (i.e., DINKs), one paycheck is completely going to the mortgage. Isn’t that a recipe for default in a job loss scenario?

⑧ Perhaps, it’s time for multi-generational households (i.e., grandma and grandpa buy with their retirement money; mom, dad, and the grandkids bunk in)? Wasn’t that the model before Social Security allowed Grandparents to escape to Florida? Makes the Grandparent able to dodge the nursing home.

⑨ Interesting that the Wall Street Journal paywall isn’t very encompassing.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinvestment

“Panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works.”

— John Mills, December 11, 1867, on Credit Cycles and the Origin of Commercial Panics

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SERVICE: 750WORDS RECOMMENDED

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http://750words.com

*** begin quote ***

Hello, welcome to a little thing called 750 Words

I’ve long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist’s Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in “long hand”, typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. It’s about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. Unlike many of the other exercises in that book, I found that this one actually worked and was really really useful.

*** end quote ***

Amusing little site that has a way of getting under your skin.

I’m using it to write my course and my next book.

It sort of fits my early morning persona.

Maybe like Sudoku, it too will ward of the dreaded Alzheimer’s?

No one can see what you write but you can share the automated analysis of that writing.

See me at: http://750words.com/entries/share/174852

ROFL, yeah, I’m that nuts!

Now all I need is a tshirt declaring that I’m an ITSJ and a fat old white guy injineer. (But then I repeat myself.)

LOL!

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LIBERTY: Markets allow peaceful cooperation

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http://freekeene.com/free-audiobook/

“The Market for Liberty”
Linda & Morris Tannehill (1970)

*** begin quote ***

Government: An Unnecessary Evil

There was once a time when it was widely believed the world was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. Now we know better and most reasonable people have rejected these ideas. Similarly, most people have rejected the once widely accepted idea of slavery, and rightfully so. If you’re like most people, your government high school history classes probably taught you that slavery was abolished years ago. Government people wouldn’t lie to you, would they?

The book you are about to listen to explodes the myths of government. Its message is simple:

“Government is an unnecessary evil and freedom is the best and most practical way of life.” Spread this idea, and we can change the world. That is why I’ve taken the time to create this audio book. These days, many people do not have time to read and it would be a shame to allow such a brilliant work to continue to gather dust on the shelves of history.

*** end quote ***

Gooferment is the meme that kills.

It’s hard to imagine a person, killing millions, without the assistance of a “government” to help him.

Genocides, Purges, Killing Fields, and such are only possible by gooferment. Even religious wars can’t match the numbers.

Liberty and Free Markets allow humans to peacefully cooperate with each other.

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POLITICAL: Why can’t we buy and sell human organs?

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http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2009/09/opting-in-vs-opting-out.html

LifeSharers: Opting In vs. Opting Out

*** begin quote ***

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the national organ allocation system, has the power to put registered organ donors first. Sadly, it has not chosen to make this common-sense change. Americans who want to donate their organs to other organ donors don’t have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a national non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org/ or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.

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Until we wise up and allow a marketplace in human organs, we will always have shortages. The lack of a marketplace hurts the poor the worst. The rich always seem to have “connections”. The poor don’t get a chance to sell what they no longer have a need for and help their families. May sound grusome, but it’s a tough life being poor. Why further complicate a poor family’s life? They should be allowed, no encouraged, to sell their deceased family member for parts. Instead they get their arm twisted to “donate” and a bill for the funeral. Why is it OK for doctors and hospitals to make a buck doing transplants, but not for the “donor” to get paid? I can envision that some unfortunate’s child gets to go to college on his dead relative’s kidney. What’s so terrible about that?

See its our own thinking that kills us by preventing us from seeing the solution. All because it doesn’t fit someone’s preconceived notions. Free markets always clear the supply and demand. Only when the gooferment gets involved to we have shortages, waste, death, injury, and destruction.

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LIBERTY: Memorial Day; very sad

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

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A lot of good men, and even some women, paid the ultimate price getting us to where we are now. Memorial Day remembers them.

And, that their sacrifice should not be in vane.

Sigh, sadly, I’m not so sure we appreciate it.

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POLITICAL: What are “states” and why do they have pension funds?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

State Pension Funds’ $865 Billion Loss Means New Hires Get Less


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=worldwide&sid=aw9HrY21Ynno

     

As a budding libertarian, you might ask “why do states have pensions?”. Us old libertarians ask: “What the hell is a state?” A fiction. A figment of the imagination. A collective delusion that enslaves us. A meme whose time has past?


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