Obama's Iowa Victory Speech

This is a moving speech. It gives me hope for America.


It's only 13 min and worth your time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZaq-YKCnE

Radiohead: Hour Long Private Taping

Radiohead's Scotch Mist, brought to you by Current TV. It's well worth your time.
http://current.com/items/88803042_radiohead_s_scotch_mist

Cyprus and Malta Adopt the Euro

It is interesting to see how the European Monetary Union continues to grow. I don't know that much about Cyprus or Malta, but I do know that the EMU has just added another 1.2 million participants (CIA). Which should bring it in the neighborhood of 316 million people total (World Bank). More on the Cyprus and Malta conversion here.

Europe and the Euro are continuing to strengthen. 2008 may not look like a year for strong growth and Euro Market returns, but there's no generally accepted decline in their future economic strength --seemingly opposite of the US. Despite the price of the Euro in dollar terms, Europe still exports a considerable amount more products than the US. They also make up about 30% of the world economy, but most American portfolios don't have near that exposure. It seems like their years of slow growth while investing in infrastructure paired with low inflation might make for a stable environment, who ever would think that?...

Immigrants Leave Oklahoma

Oklahoma's new law to combat illegal immigration has had a significant affect on the immigrant populations in Oklahoma. The new law makes it a felony to harbor, transport or aid an illegal immigrant. This is having an affect on both legal and illegal immigrants.

Listen to the NPR report here.

Anti-Spyware Application Recommendations

Spyware is evolving. Just AdAware will no longer take care of your machine. Developers laugh at the common virus and go straight for more effective spyware and rootkits. These programs will help out:

AdAware (a standard)

PC Tools Spyware Doctor (Free as part of the Google Updater software pack).

AVG Spyware Detector

AVG Anti-RootKit

Helps my machine run smooth. I'm sure there's even more I could do...

iPhone Password Manager

Having one device for everything, and having all that info backed up on my computer makes me kind of excited. Phone / camera / music / podcasts / internet (you get the point). Now I want the connection with all of these products to be seamless and I want a guarantee that I won't lose all the hard work. 2 external hard drives for media is a must. I also use every feature on Google Mobile as well. (Search, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Docs, News, Photos, Reader, Blogger, Notebook). Brilliant job Google.

The Password Manager
I often have problems remembering all of my passwords and login names and want to add this to the list of things my iPhone can do for me.

The most promising app is from eWallet.
See a good blog post on it here.

I feel comfortable enough with this app to upload my credit card and financial info. Unfortunately it is only in beta at this time, but I will keep an eye on its progress.

For now I found jkpassword.com. It is a nice web app and seems secure. I couldn't find any internet complaints on it, but I don't trust it as much as eWallet. One downside is that it only allows 8 free entries. I'm using it for now and just putting multiple passwords in each entry. It works quite well for your everyday password storage, and it loads like a breeze on a mobile device.

Now I know what the "Wintry Mix" is

I had heard people talk of this "wintry mix" that descends on the region, but didn't understand until last night what it really was. The conditions have to be just right for this little phenomenon.

It was raining, half the rain was frozen, the other half was wet. The ground was cold, and the mix of precipitation was forming several inches of slush. It's like that stuff around the chairlifts on a sunny day at the ski slopes. The slush has just enough body stack up like snow, but when you step on that layer it's like walking in a puddle. So walking back from the subway I got to walk in the rain and in a perpetual 2-3 inch puddle of slush. What Fun! So that's the wintery mix.

Paul Kedrosky's iGreed

My favorite blog lately has been Paul Kedrosky's blog Infectious Greed. There's a good mix of tech and business news, as well as interesting posts. And theres always lots of links to other media.

Jim Rogers Interview

I listened to a very good interview with Jim Rogers. Jim Rogers helped found the Quantum fund with George Soros.

Rogers talks about his investment strategy and his ideas about investing in China. Rogers sees China as being a new frontier in investing, much like the US was in the early 1900s.

The low down:

The dollar is going down, get out of dollar denominated assets. You can check out www.everbank.com for a bank account that will allow foreign currency trading. It's FDIC insured too.

Consinder investing in commodities (especially agriculture at the moment)

An easy way to play commodities is through ETFs and ETNs. Barclays has a number of these products. iShare.com.

I thought it was an enlightening interview, and it made me think a little deeper about my investment strategy and search for markets that were less correlated with the US market.

You can also find this on iTunes by looking for "dorsey wright & associates technical analysis podcast." There is a similar interview (text)in Forbes.

Underwithholding Your Taxes

Update: Thanks to my friend and his excellent investigative accounting skills, I've learned this is not such a good idea after all. Unless you are very productive with that money you withhold, you won't beat the tax they asses you. I appreciate the tax advice Tyler.

Why didn't I think of this before. You can gain interest on the money that is withheld from your paycheck to pay your taxes. Simply choose to withhold no money in the beginning of the tax season, and then greatly increase your withholding as tax season draws near. With a little bit of financial discipline and some buffer income you can put that money to good use --instead of giving the government and interest free loan. Mental math says at 50k per year, that money in a no risk investment will return at least $300. That's about $100 per hour of work that it takes to do the research and fill out a few W-4 forms.

And with that money in a trading account you have enough money to chase a more sizable return. Be careful of course, because the taxes will still be due at the end of the year.

More information

Randy Pausch "Last Lecture"

Randy Pausch was recently diagnosed with liver cancer and was given 3-6 months of good health. He gives a speech about his childhood dreams and how to live your life. It just makes sense to listen to someone who has achieved a fine degree of happiness and success. His terminal condition forces him to stop and reflect on lessons learned. The video is not sappy, he makes a point to dispel any pity in the beginning. It's worth your time.



Randy's Last Speech

What Axe?!

If politicians would spend less time "Sharpening their axes" and more time swinging their blunt axes, things would be a lot more interesting.

I know it's just a media term, but can we stop sharpening axes? I want a gun. You can keep on sharpening that thing down to the hilt, I'll be "taking aim!" (at the next journalist who thinks it's smart to give any politician an axe).

We are all influenced by our desire to be important

Think about it... And don't get too caught up in it.

Frito Lay Uses Sunflower Oil

Frito Lay has spent several million dollars to build up a farming operation that can continuously provide enough sunflower oil to use in all of their chips. Sunflower oil apparently has no trans fat and has the good cholesterol. I wonder if we'll start to see more sunflower oil in stores? Of course this improvement is plastered all over their bags of chips, but I tend to ignore a good deal of packaging and advertising.

Props to them for taking this initiative a while back. And props to their new development in fruit chips and other healthy snacks. The big guys are moving into the healthy(er) snack market; it might be worth taking a look at Frito Lay's stock. Those Sun Chips I just ate did taste healthier, healthy enough to have 3 servings...

Germs!!!!

Been doing a bit of reading about germs lately. I'd like to avoid sickness in this crowded city... Newsweek has had quite a few stories concerning anti-bacterial products and antibiotics. Here are some of the interesting things I read:

Bacteria are responsible for processing the calories in food, and they react differently depending on the person. So, some people are more prone to get fat because they have more "efficient" bacteria. (Newsweek)

The bacteria in your gut may be more responsible for the food you crave than you know. They want that extra cheeseburger, not you...

They have found evidence of bacteria that can stimulate serotonin production, acting like an anti-depressant without side effects.

Washing your hands well for at least 30 seconds with soap, and scrubbing between fingers etc. is more effective than using all the anti-bacterial wipes and creams that are out there. The alcohol in things like Purel hand sanitizer merely dry the bacteria to kill it, but your hands aren't exactly clean.

There is a strong link between allergies and exposure to bacteria in your early years. This includes food allergies as well. Today's children are increasingly susceptible to food allergies.(Newsweek)

Good bacteria are responsible for helping us fight bad bacteria (we've all heard this). So why do we use anti-bacterial soap and kill all the good bacteria? I'm no longer buying anti-bacterial products.

Industry uses mass amounts of antibiotics in livestock and farming. These pass straight through to the consumers (us). Here's a good article about 5 items you can use to limit your exposure. (NYT)