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)

Fox News Anchor or Porn Star

I thought this was pretty good. It's harder than you think..

Buddha Bar

I'd like to recommend a group of albums that I have really enjoyed over the past few years. The entire Buddha Bar Series of Albums. Buddha Bar 1 - 8, all 2-disc sets. It's a world / jazz / house / lo-fi / chill compilation of music mixed together.

It is perfect background music for relaxing, studying, meditating, reading, subway drown-out etc. These albums got me through many tough nights of pre-exam cramming in school. In fact I think my brain is so accustomed to these albums that it kicks into another gear when I put them on. My work breaks occur during my favorite parts of certain songs, and I just kick back for a moment and listen.

There are so many languages and styles of music represented, they always remind me how big the world really is.

Entrepreneurship Quick Notes

According to some US government statistics: (I pulled these from a speech)

70% of college graduates will start a business at some point in their careers

In the baby boomer generation each worker held an average of 4 jobs by age 65
In our generation each worker holds 4 jobs by the time they are 30

50% of the jobs in the current US economy are in firms that are less than 5 years old.

And to end it nicely, I have a Bush Quote on entrepreneurship. "The problem with the French economy, is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur" (he he he)

To be fair, there is some debate that he did not really say this.

But if that's false I'll give you three more Bushisms: (sorry, couldn't resist)
1. “I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.”
2. “Most imports are from outside of the country”
3. “You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”

Barack and Hillary's Days in Law School

I read a good article on the subway this morning. When They Were Young by John Heilemann.



Heilemann did a good job of relating how each candidate changed during his/her early years and gave some interesting biographical information from their pasts. I was interested to hear a little about Hillary and Bill's relationship; they married knowing they would be a political team. I also found it interesting how Obama was perceived by many of those around him as charismatic and confident, yet he resisted the call to become involved in student/political life until his time at the law review.

They Can't Kill The Electric Car

There has been more than one electric car program crushed (see photo) in the past few decades. Some say that big-auto and big-oil scrapped the most successful programs because they didn't like the thought of efficient automobiles dragging down future earnings. I wouldn't put it past them, but the good news is that the economy is becoming increasingly global; if US companies don't innovate then others will. More important to the dream of electric vehicles (E.V.'s) is the battery technology that has been developed to power our mobile electronic arsenals (especially lithium-ion batteries). Now more than ever it looks as if E.V.'s are ready to make an appearance in the marketplace and help relieve our dependence on foreign oil.

The Tesla Roadster is what really convinced me that E.V.'s were already practical and nearly ready to be adopted by people other than the super rich. Tesla Motor's founder Martin Eberhard showed excellent entrepreneurial skills by steering the company in its early stages and by raising the necessary capital from such investors as Sergey Brin and Elon Musk (paypal founder). Despite adequate funding, this company was still run like a start-up with a tight budget.

The newly released Tesla Roadster is a dream machine, designed to make people forget they ever though that an E.V. was a glorified golf cart. The car can go 0-60 in under 4 seconds, that's better than a Porsche 911 Turbo. It costs about 2cents a mile to operate, that would be kind of like getting 135 miles per gallon. Finally, the car can travel 245 miles on one charge. The downside is the $100,000 price tag. But as batteries continue to become more of a commodity and the design team works on a more practical vehicle we may start seeing E.V.'s on the road. Tesla has such a vehicle in the works (due out in 2010), and this one has an estimated $50-60,000 price tag. Now we're getting somewhere, lets keep cutting that price in half.

With continuing improvement to E.V. technology and better alternatives to coal power plants, it's not hard to imagine an environmentally friendly solution to transportation. I know the idea for the electric car has been bouncing around relatively unsuccessfully for many years. But get excited, every new bit of technology brings us that much closer. Most ideas take 20 years to become an overnight success.

(p.s. That link is a good article about a different type of solar power plant)

Taskbar Manager

Here is a program that incorporates a function I think windows should definitely have added. Taskbar Manager lets you move around the tabs on your taskbar into more logical groupings. I hate when I close outlook (it happens) and then open it to find it at the end of my tasks, I want it on the top left of my taskbar and sometimes I close every other program open to get it there (depends on my mood).

This program will do that, and I'd encourage you to visit their site where you too can learn that if you write a blog post they will give you the program or free! : )

While you're at it you might want to download the Alt-Tab Replacement power toy. It gives a view of each web page in the alt-tab menu, much like the Mac OS does.

Enjoy