Headed for bagel land?

Posted on May 29, 2012 by

Bagels! Yum, yum!

Poor Facebook stockholders. Their pain must be excruciating right now. We had no idea this was going to happen, even though we did warn that the hype had seemed to be pretty feverish. As always, time will tell.

This does give us an opportunity to trot out a new investing term we’ve learned from one of our favorite  websites: Investopedia.  “If a stock or other asset is headed toward bagel land or is approaching $0 (resembling the hole in the middle of a bagel), investors generally feel that the security is nearly worthless.”

Speaking of bagels – deep inside the world of retail cafes serving bagels, there is a move afoot to merge several bagel operations. Portland Business Journal reports: “Nation’s Restaurant News reports in its current edition that “(T)he time is right for the parent of the Einstein Bros Bagels, Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel brands, to explore strategic alternatives.”

Quick – call out the trust-busters! We’re not going to discuss this silly concept at this time, except to say that no trust can exist for long without government protection.

Speaking of bagel land – this is where Eastman Kodak landed back on Jan. 19, 2012, when the company, founded in 1888, filed for bankruptcy. It breaks our heart to report this and we’re sorry we were so late, but bad financial news had been coming for months. We did warn you though back on Nov. 3, 2011.

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A closer look at central planning and regulation

Posted on May 28, 2012 by

Hat tip: http://entreprenerdblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/4-steps-to-beat-the-red-tape-in-india/

Sometimes when conservatives and libertarians complain about over-regulation or too  much govt planning, it sounds like baseless whining. They never seem to cite the details. Sometimes they’ve been challenged, “Tell me one regulation that has hurt your business!”

The answer is usually a stunned or stuttering silence. Since IFO, in our real life, is a freelance business reporter, we could help them out a bit. We cover a business owner/entrepreneur who doesn’t take bureaucratic bullying quietly. Here’s an OSHA citation he’s challenged successfully so far:

Activity       Opened        RID     St    Type     Sc            SIC     NAICS   Vio
1 314616947   06/14/2011  1054193 OR  Planned     Complete    2421   321999    3
Close Conference:    08/23/2011                        Establishment Name XXXXX

Substance:    8111 Noise, Continuous Or Intermittent (Action Level)

Violation Items
#    ID  Type    Standard Issuance     Abate     Curr$     Init$     Fta$       Contest    LastEvent
1. 01001A Serious  19100095 C01 09/06/2011 10/07/2011 $165    $165 $0 10/05/2011  2. 01001B Serious  19100095 D01 09/06/2011 10/07/2011     $0     $0    $0  10/05/2011
3. 01001C Serious  19100095 G01 09/06/2011 10/07/2011    $0     $0    $0  10/05/2011
4. 01001D Serious  19100095 K01 09/06/2011 10/07/2011 $0     $0    $0  10/05/2011
5. 02002   Other     19100132 D02 09/06/2011 10/07/2011     $0     $0    $0  10/05/2011
6. 02003   Other      19100132 F04  09/06/2011 10/07/2011 $0     $0    $0  10/05/2011

#s 1-4 Number [people] exposed – 2, type – noise, Abatement date: 10/07/2011
#s 5-6 Number exposed – 5, type Other, Abatement date: 10/07/2011

The long and the short of this ‘violation’ is that OSHA inspectors thought our businessman should provide ear plugs and training to about 4 workers on how to use them! He wrote a tough letter to the agency saying essentially, “Try and make me you @$%$#*^ s!”

Another run-in he had with the city where his business (10+ employees) is located concerned whether lumber-drying kilns he had installed were ‘equipment’ or ‘structures.’ Think this is a trivial matter? If they were structures, they required a (very expensive) building permit.

When we were reading the Wikipedia entry on George Orwell’s life, we came across a quote attributed to him, to wit, ” “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” We have no idea how he understood democratic socialism and wonder what he would have made of the EU’s undemocratic socialism.

Look at “The Fruit Police,” by Roger Kimball, Dec. 31, 2003. It is still relevant, perhaps even more so today.  We suggest that you read the whole piece and stop admiring policies that you think make the EU superior to the U.S. He quotes the London Times:

“GOODBYE bendy bananas. Farewell curved cucumbers. So long chunky carrots. The European Union has finally triumphed in its quest to tame nature and keep unusually shaped fruit and vegetables off our shop shelves.

“The House of Lords yesterday ordered greengrocers across the country to obey every EU horticultural regulation passed over the past 30 years concerning fresh produce and conform to the myriad of rules covering size, length, colour and texture.”

Is it any surprise that the EU seems to be falling apart?

Investment lesson: Socialism is neither bureaucratic or democratic, it is craptastic.

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Country living not all it’s cracked up to be

Posted on May 28, 2012 by

We’re normally very Pollyannaish about country living as regular readers of this blog are well aware. We more or less constantly sing the praises of the neighbors, the views, the weather, the outdoor challenges…

Wait – not all the outdoor challenges are praise-worthy. We’re currently in the process of harassing a colony of moles that has gotten too close for comfort. See May 25 post on this subject. The battle isn’t over by any means – we’re finding more and more tunnel doors. One new piece of information picked up this noon: the mole(s) cover up the entrances to the tunnels at some point each day. This may explain why we couldn’t find any entrances until recently.

There are other downsides to life in the country:

* You have to open the garage door, get the car out, and DRIVE somewhere to exercise! Silly, eh? Our meadows are so lumpy that it’s hard to get a brisk walk out here. The roadside shoulder is too narrow to walk safely, to say the least. There is a nice, steep, gravel road leading uphill that makes for an excellent workout, but the downhill trip is a bit scary due to moving gravel – so, again, no brisk walk.

The good part of this is that the steepness gives us an excellent fitness barometer – if our breath ever comes easily the entire way up and our legs stop trembling on the way down, we’ll know we’ve achieved enough strength to face our friends and relatives in Europe, all of whom adore walking all over the countryside.

* The vaunted country road is too noisy for walking with a lecture playing on our portable CD player. That’s one reason we have to go up that steep gravel road, which has only one or two cars a day driving up at regular and predictable times.

* Finally, we have to drive everywhere, not just to exercise. In our previous abode, we could walk to everything – grocery store, post office, courthouse, gym, cafe, book store, etc. Admittedly, that walking was all on concrete and everything was very close – we hardly covered a 1/2 mile to do every errand we needed to do. But still, we did get out nearly every day. Now, we only get the car out when we have at least three errands to do, or it isn’t worth it. This means all activity is indoor or within a short radius.

Investment lesson: no situation is perfect, some are just less bad than others.

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Oh, what a night!

Posted on May 26, 2012 by

Storm approaching

Wow, what a night last night was. A perfect drama, staged by G-d Himself! Kind of an “Upstairs-Downstairs” type of show, or the opera “Ariadne auf Naxos,” where two-tiered dramas play out – with one plot for the higher ups and another for a bunch of comedians.

 

 

 

Here’s the beginning of the Met Opera’s synopsis of Ariadne by R. Strauss:

“In the salon of “the richest man in Vienna,” preparations are in progress for a new opera seria based on the Ariadne legend, with which the master of the house will divert his guests after a sumptuous dinner. The Music Master accosts the pompous Major-domo, having heard that a foolish comedy is to follow his pupil’s opera, and warns that the Composer will never tolerate such an arrangement.”

Rain pours off roof

Okay, rather than this kind of opera, what we enjoyed last night was a baseball game of the utmost excitement in which our team won! Oregon v. Oregon State – our team is Oregon State. It was just fabulous and included a bases-loaded homerun in the ninth inning of what had been an excruciatingly close game. Let’s say this was the comedians.

Sun Setting

 

 

The serious part was an outrageous thunderstorm complete with lightening, a heavy downpour of rain, lightening, and spectacular scenery! One huge KEE-RACK of thunder was particularly noteworthy. We kept running out onto the porch to take pix. The storm finished about 20 minutes after the game was over.

Last glimpse of sun

Storm abating

 

 

 

The sunset lasted about half an hour – just like an opera – taking a looonnng time to wrap up.

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Regimentation

Posted on May 26, 2012 by

This wasn’t our original plan for today’s post, but Yahoo! squeezed our hearts with this story. A little girl’s pre-school in the U.K. sent her home when she appeared in this hair style, pictured at left, done by her own father.

Is that cute, or what? Reminds us of the elf Halloween costumes we made for our darling daughters.

But why not let her in school with this darling hairdo? According to the Yahoo story,

“…the primary school his daughter attends has a very strict dress code, which is detailed on its website. With regards to hair, the school requests ribbons or bows are “made of dark colors, maroon/navy blue/black” and states strictly that “Hair braids/beads may not be worn.”

This is just one aspect of the regimentation that schools lock our kids down with. No individuality or creativity allowed, thank you very much. Schools and other advocates of strict dress codes “…believe they’re protecting students by  encouraging discipline and eliminating classroom distractions.” Yeah, right.

Do read the entire story – it’s quite well written for Yahoo.

“1984,” anyone? That scary book was written by a British author, George Orwell. This is more to Orwell than his book, but its fame has overshadowed all of his other accomplishments.

 

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Quick question for you

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

IFO just got an email offering to pay her for the privilege of running a print ad on this website. We don’t have any details yet, but we’re curious about what you think.

We know that carrying advertising on a webpage or blog used to be quite controversial, with most opinions tending to oppose the practice. Too commercial, they said.

What’s your opinion?

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Market and index report

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

Market is still confused – or volatile, as the experts say. Gold bounced around the entire week and closed at $1,575.60 per oz. Silver did the same, and closed at $28.53 per oz. Crude oil, also pretty bouncy this week, closed at $90.72. So, explain to us again why gasoline prices have gotten so high?

Did we ever tell you we met a man at a local motel about five years ago who said that a few years prior he had been a PR guy for an Oregon oil company. The press called him and asked the same question we just did above.

“I had to think fast,” he related. He actually had no idea, but needed an answer and being the great PR guy he was, it popped into his head when needed. “The refineries are making the changeover from winter fuel to summer fuel,” he said. We’re still getting that answer years later, though “fire in the refinery” or “maintenance at several refineries” are sometimes swapped in. Just remember: He Made It Up.

Once again, the little monkeys are unhappy. Without further ado, we present our Model Portfolio Index:

Model Portfolio – Edit

Symbol Price Change
32.15 +0.05 +0.16%
31.84 +0.03 +0.09%
38.61 -0.08 -0.21%
72.83 -0.67 -0.91%
102.74 -1.46 -1.40%
Total (USD) $5,563.35 -42.65  -0.76%
Cumulative                                501.35  9.90%

 

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IFO vs. the Mole

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

We’ve been battling a determined mole who insists on tunneling into our yard. It took a long time to find the doors to his tunnel – it takes a sensitive eye, which only develops over time.  Sir Mole had encroached farther and farther into our own territory. Googling the topic, we found another blogger who faced this problem a few months ago.

We don’t mind the dirt piles on the meadow surrounding our house, but we have a mowed lawn, garage and gravel driveway and Mr. Mole is getting too close for comfort. The hole in the picture at left is in permitted territory, so it hasn’t been destroyed. Notice that it is moist, therefore, recently dug.

A couple of days ago, we went out and a movement in the nearby grass caught our eye. We looked over and staring out of his tunnel opening at us was Mr. Mole! We moved slightly and bang! He disappeared by dropping down into the vertical shaft quick as lightening.

How did we know it was a mole? Because gophers are cute! Even if they are digging holes in your yard. This guy wasn’t cute.

Next day, we opened a day-old package of red snapper for lunch. Ugh! It was expired. Even after washing thoroughly, the horrid smell wouldn’t go away. Not wanting to put it in our indoor trash container, we went outside to find a place to dispose of it.

Bingo! Two mole tunnel openings! We tossed rotten, stinking fillets into each hole. Then we shoveled some dirt in, tamped it down, and left. When we got back, we saw that one of the fillets had been tossed out. It smelled even worse than before.

Looking around, we saw another entrance had been opened, so moved that fillet into it and threw dirt in again.

This morning, we noticed that the tunnel opening was more disguised than the earlier ones. Was Mr. Mole getting advice from older, wiser moles? As we stared at the hole, he popped his head up again and we exchanged a long look. With no more rotten fillets left, we just threw dirt into both holes and tamped it down again.

How long will this battle continue? Until Mr. Mole realizes he’s going to have to get farther away, if he wants to live a life of peace.

If current measures don’t work, we’ll try to figure out how to tell Mr. Mole about our daughter, the computer genius, who trapped, skinned and tanned the skins of several moles.

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More news the warmists won’t like

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

Headline in today’s Houston Business Journal: Shale boom has led to lower U.S. carbon dioxide emissions

“The International Energy Agency says the shale gas boom in the U.S. has led to a domestic decline in carbon dioxide emissions as generators use more low-price natural gas over coal, the Financial Times reports. Greenhouse gas emissions, says the IEA, have dropped off nearly 5 million tons in five years, which is more than any other country the agency examined.”

Life must seem miserable for people who believe in man-caused global warming (MCGW). They keep getting mugged by reality.

News leaking out about bogus or tinkered-with data, otherwise known as ClimateGate; reports of coldest weather on record here and there; predictions getting thrown back in their faces – remember “next season will see record number of hurricanes/tornadoes?” Didn’t happen.

And now the carbon dioxide non-problem is evaporating as well. Two ways to go on this terrible news, warmists. A. Declare that MCGW is over and MCGC (cooling) is here as the new emergency. B. Accuse the International Energy Agency of lying and being in the pay of the energy industry.

As if to rub it in, the HBJ also reports that Texas’ economy is strong and growing fast. In 2012 so far, driven by the energy and manufacturing industries, according to Comerica Bank, the state’s job growth has far outpaced the rest of the country: unemployment rate was 7 percent in March.

“The bank’s index looks at a mix of economic indicators, including nonfarm payrolls, sales tax revenue, exports, hotel occupancy rates, claims for unemployment insurance, building permits and Baker Hughes rotary rig count,” the HBJ said.

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Politics: Guess who just came out with a memoir?

Posted on May 23, 2012 by

Guess who just came out with a memoir yesterday? “It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership,” by COLIN POWELL!!! Here’s the Amazon write-up [emphasis added]:

It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary public service career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At its heart are Powell’s “Thirteen Rules”—notes he gathered over the years and that now form the basis of his leadership presentations given throughout the world. Powell’s short but sweet rules—among them, “Get mad, then get over it” and “Share credit”—are illustrated by revealing personal stories that introduce and expand upon his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others…

A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond. “Trust your people,” he counsels as he delegates presidential briefing responsibilities to two junior State Department desk officers. “Do your best—someone is watching,” he advises those just starting out, recalling his own teenage summer job mopping floors in a soda-bottling factory.

Powell combines the insights he has gained serving in the top ranks of the military and in four presidential administrations with the lessons he’s learned from his immigrant-family upbringing in the Bronx, his training in the ROTC, and his growth as an Army officer. The result is a powerful portrait of a leader who is reflective, self-effacing, and grateful for the contributions of everyone he works with.

Why is IFO using so many exclamations and so much bold face? Because we still don’t know who Romney will pick for Veep. Our comment to our daughter, the real-estate genius, as we discussed that very question, was that it would be someone no one is talking about right now, plus would be a great surprise. Who fits that description better?

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