Commentary

Clueless Wall Street Investors

by

More proof that a huge number of people who invest in stocks don’t know what they’re doing. According to this story on www.BusinessInsider.com, the stock in a company with the ticker MYRA surged 900% immediately after President Obama’s announcement of the MyRA retirement savings program. This is despite the fact that Myriad Entertainment & Resorts (MYRA) has absolutely nothing to do with the President’s new program. Did any of those investors even bother to research their buy? Unlikely, as MYRA was delisted from stock exchanges four years ago.

As the Business Insider story points out, this is not the first time clueless investors have rushed to buy into a company based solely on their stock market ticker.

This would be laughable were it not for the fact that there are now huge numbers of poorly informed investors and they can have a very big, and very negative, impact on our economy with their impulsive moves to buy and sell.

Why did the chicken cross the ocean?

by

Did you read that the US Dept. of Agriculture now says it’s okay for American chicken farming operations to kill the birds here in the US, then ship them to China for processing, and then bring them back to the US to sell in local grocery stores?

Truly amazing. Hard to fathom that this makes sense even economically. I guess that the cost of labor in China is so much lower than in the US that it will create bigger profit for big agribusiness despite the shipping cost and delay in getting the product to market.

Beyond that, however, is certainly the question of food safety. Transit time from slaughterhouse to grocery store shelves? More than a few days, I’d think. And I don’t like to seem like a xenophobe, but Chinese food processors don’t have the best record. Tainted infant formula and dog food come to mind?

And guess what?  That package of international chicken at Walmart won’t have to be labeled with where it came from.

Here’s more about it: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/usda-allow-china-process-chickens-ship-back-u-214500281.html 

More than ever, it’s a good idea to buy your chicken from a local store that gets it’s poultry from local farmers.

What do you think? 

God bless…

by

Saw a bumper sticker the other day:

God Bless Our Troops. Especially Our Snipers.

Obviously the driver of the big SUV is a true patriot. Probably also considers himself a good Christian.  Must not be familiar with God’s Ten Commandments, at least the one that says “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.

A better bumper sticker:  God Bless Everyone. No Exceptions.

Why aren’t US automakers doing better on gas mileage?

by

One of my favorite magazines arrived in the mail a few days ago with a back page ad for the 2013 Ford Explorer.  Nice looking car.

The tag line on the ad reads “EcoBoost fuel economy and 365 horsepower*”

The fine print at the bottom says EPA-estimated rating of 16 city/22 hwy/18 combined mpg. This is for a 3.5 liter engine and 4 wheel drive.

Until very recently, I drove a 1995 GMC Safari (essentially the same as a Chevrolet Astro), that was rated at 16 city/21 hwy for the AWD model, and this was with a 4.3 liter engine.

How is it that in almost 20 years of automotive technology advances a brand new passenger crossover SUV gets the same mileage as a hulking 1/2-ton utility van? That just ain’t right.

The fine print also notes that the advertised horsepower rating of 365 is for 93 octane premium fuel. When was the last time you saw premium at your gas station for anything more than 91-92 octane?

I don’t mean to pick on Ford here in particular, and I come from a family that bought and drove Fords for generations, But all of the automakers are pulling the same BS and greenwashing their new cars, and they need to be called on this. Do you agree?

 

Sunday Night in Spring

by

It is after 7:30pm on Sunday night, on the first weekend of official Spring, and one of those rare early spring evenings in the Pacific Northwest where it’s actually comfortable to sit outside in the yard and enjoy the fact that there is both still light in the sky at this time of day and it’s warm enough to enjoy being outside in the evening without multiple layers of insulating poly clothing.

My neighbor has just finished mowing his ¼ acre with a gas-powered lawn mower and is now finishing up the job with a power leaf blower. I use similar machines myself, and know that I am disturbing the peace of my neighborhood whenever I do, so I try to use them only at mid-day. I am torn between admiring my neighbors energy, feeling like I should be out doing the same, and wishing that I could just sit here and enjoy quiet and calm of the evening.

Should I post this on my Facebook page?  My neighbor is one of my Facebook “Friends” and we are generally on good terms. If I posted this, might he take it as antagonistic?

Newspaper with good news

by

Remarkable:  all front pages news stories on the printed edition of our local newspaper today are good news. Possible HIV cure in a baby, brewpub opening revitalizes downtown Springfield, and, the U.S. and Russia are cooperating in an effort to protect polar bears.

So much better to start the morning read this way. No blaring headlines of murder, no mayhem, no political bickering. Thanks Register-Guard!

 

Sierra Club Mail

by

Today’s snailmail, once again, includes a thick envelope from the Sierra Club urging me to renew my membership. It’s hard for me to understand how an organization that is supposed to be all about the environment keeps sending out the same tired packet of paper: four page letter about all the good things they do, special offer (hurry, limited supply) for a backpack, poorly reproduced flyer on John Muir, a “petition” to sign with membership renewal (printed on heavy cardstock), another flyer telling me I must respond immediately to get this special renewal offer (same one I’ve been getting for years), and a very large, totally useless map of the USA.

I have been a strong supporter, and sometimes member, of the Sierra Club for many years. It’s a great organization and it’s members have done a lot for conservation and trail maintenance. But these repeated, wasteful mailings really irk me.

Yes, I recycle the whole thing. I doubt that most people who receive it do. And even if the vast majority of recipients recycle all that paper, it’s a giant waste of resources to print it, ship it, have it delivered, haul away the recycling and process the pulp all over again.

I have asked Sierra Club to stop sending me snailmail, told them I’m fine getting email from them, but I still get the fat packet. I think maybe I’ll start mailing all the papers back to them in the postage-paid envelope they provide.

 

Quicken for Mac users

by

Why is it that Intuit continues to ignore the many thousands of Mac computer users and not come out with an updated version of Quicken for Mac?  They produce an update every year for Windows users, but haven’t updated the tired, crippled “Quicken Essentials for Mac” in years.

Stranger still is that Quicken 2013 for Windows users can use a new iPhone app, but Mac users can’t!

What’s up with that Intuit?

 

Web hosts counter pollution with green power

by

I just read that, if things continue the way they have been, the web hosting industry will be a bigger polluter than the entire airline industry by the year 2020. If you have a blog or website, I hope you’re using a green host like GreenGeeks.com or Hostgator.com, and not supporting that Daddy guy just because he’s cheap.

Electricity-generating wind turbines in wheat field near Condon, Oregon. (Greg Vaughn/© Greg Vaughn)

Here’s a New York Times story about the problem: http://nyti.ms/Rgujuu . And here is Hostgator’s statement on what they’re doing: http://www.hostgator.com/green-web-hosting . And GreenGeeks: http://www.greengeeks.com/about/how-is-greengeeks-green.php .