So I was in Walmart's today, looking around while they filled my prescriptions. Wandered over the the television display. They are all flat screen, and this year, is the year of no bezel. The fronts of the TV's are all screen, no ring of plastic around the edge (the bezel). And they are bigger. 55 inch for $800. And the labels all say LED (light emitting diode) rather than LCD (liquid crystal display). This is a forward step technology wise. The LED screens are a little brighter and a little more vivid than my LCD Sony (state of the art a few years ago). LED's emit light by them selves, and are very efficient, say 80% of the juice in comes out as light. An LCD doesn't make it's own light, it acts as a shutter, blocking or passing a light source behind it, (the backlight). I'm not sure just how backlights worked, but I expect LED's to use less juice than the backlight uses.
The surprise to me, was this major technological step forward got all the way to retail shelves before I heard of it. No mention of this appeared in any websites, trade rags, or blogs that I read. Or if it did I missed it.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
FDA declares war on anti microbial soap
Just what the manufacturers need, an FDA order to run a bunch of expensive tests to prove that the anti microbial chemicals are safe in hand soap. Fairer would be to require the FDA to run some tests proving the stuff is harmful. The soaps have been on the market for 30 years or more and in all that time nobody has been hurt enough to sue.
I'm neutral on this one, I figure no germ can stand up to plain old soap or detergent and hot water. So I don't buy anti microbial things. I'm not deep enough into chemistry to really know one way or the other. But I have noticed the tendency to label ordinary things hazardous material. Even solid brass castings. So I'm a little suspicious of the new born discovery of hazards lurking in something that's been on the market for years and years.
I'm neutral on this one, I figure no germ can stand up to plain old soap or detergent and hot water. So I don't buy anti microbial things. I'm not deep enough into chemistry to really know one way or the other. But I have noticed the tendency to label ordinary things hazardous material. Even solid brass castings. So I'm a little suspicious of the new born discovery of hazards lurking in something that's been on the market for years and years.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The Volcker Rule
Paul Volcker, former head of Federal Reserve bank, widely admired financial expert. He ran the Fed for many years or more with steady economic growth and no depressions.
Few newsies actually understand what the Volcker Rule is, but they are all in favor of it. Volcker wants to restrict bank trading in stocks. He wants to forbid banks from trading stocks "on their own account". If a bank customer orders the bank to "get me 400 shares of XYZ corp", that's trading on the customer's account, and that's OK. But for the bank to guess that XYZ stock is gonna take a dive, and dump it, or even worse, sell it short, that's verboten. There are some other tricky exceptions, but Volcker clearly desires to keep banks from playing the market.
Why you ask? First off, banks have enough money to move a stock's value. Buy up all the shares in sight, and the price of those shares goes up. Dump a bunch of shares on the market and the price tanks. Corporations hate this.
Second, investing in the stock market is riskier than doing home mortgages. A low speed, dumb guy bank can loose it's shirt in the market, and fail. Fail means the depositors loose their deposits. Everybody hates that.
Back after Great Depression I, Congress decided that banks playing the market had caused the depression. They passed the Glass Steagall act which forbid banks from buying or selling stocks at all. That was 1933. Glass Steagall was in effect right up until Willy Clinton was president. The banks hated Glass Steagall and they lobbied hard for its repeal and ten presidents after FDR turned a deaf ear. Finally we came to Clinton, he listened to the pleas of the banks and got a repeal of Glass Steagall thru Congress sometime in the 1990's.
Then we had Great Depression 2.0 in 2007. The Fed people didn't want to actually reverse themselves and call for re instituting Glass Steagall. But they did call for the Volcker Rule, which is Glass Steagall in more complicated language. Welfare for lawyers.
Me, I think we oughta bring back Glass Steagall. Any outfit, no matter what it calls itself, that has FDIC insured anything, may NOT play the stock market in any way shape or form. You wanna trade stocks, you go to a stock broker. Uncle Sam does NOT insure brokers or stock accounts, no way, no how.
Few newsies actually understand what the Volcker Rule is, but they are all in favor of it. Volcker wants to restrict bank trading in stocks. He wants to forbid banks from trading stocks "on their own account". If a bank customer orders the bank to "get me 400 shares of XYZ corp", that's trading on the customer's account, and that's OK. But for the bank to guess that XYZ stock is gonna take a dive, and dump it, or even worse, sell it short, that's verboten. There are some other tricky exceptions, but Volcker clearly desires to keep banks from playing the market.
Why you ask? First off, banks have enough money to move a stock's value. Buy up all the shares in sight, and the price of those shares goes up. Dump a bunch of shares on the market and the price tanks. Corporations hate this.
Second, investing in the stock market is riskier than doing home mortgages. A low speed, dumb guy bank can loose it's shirt in the market, and fail. Fail means the depositors loose their deposits. Everybody hates that.
Back after Great Depression I, Congress decided that banks playing the market had caused the depression. They passed the Glass Steagall act which forbid banks from buying or selling stocks at all. That was 1933. Glass Steagall was in effect right up until Willy Clinton was president. The banks hated Glass Steagall and they lobbied hard for its repeal and ten presidents after FDR turned a deaf ear. Finally we came to Clinton, he listened to the pleas of the banks and got a repeal of Glass Steagall thru Congress sometime in the 1990's.
Then we had Great Depression 2.0 in 2007. The Fed people didn't want to actually reverse themselves and call for re instituting Glass Steagall. But they did call for the Volcker Rule, which is Glass Steagall in more complicated language. Welfare for lawyers.
Me, I think we oughta bring back Glass Steagall. Any outfit, no matter what it calls itself, that has FDIC insured anything, may NOT play the stock market in any way shape or form. You wanna trade stocks, you go to a stock broker. Uncle Sam does NOT insure brokers or stock accounts, no way, no how.
Amnesty for Snowdon in return for?
TV news was talking about a deal for Snowdon, we give him amnesty if he gives us all the juicy secrets he still has, the ones he hasn't let out yet.
And so how do you do this. All the stuff Snowdon took fits on a thumbdrive, may be two thumbdrives, but still , real small. Fits in a coatpocket without a bulge. And, any computer geek like Snowdon understands about back up of essential data. He must have made a bunch of duplicates and hidden them the best he can. With friends, buried in his back yard, bank safe deposit boxes, with his folks, and somewhere in the cloud. We will never find them.
So, Snowdon gets amnesty back here, and he still has every thing he took from NSA.
Although I cannot imagine what stuff he has left being anything as juicy as the stuff he has released. But then maybe my imagination is weak.
And so how do you do this. All the stuff Snowdon took fits on a thumbdrive, may be two thumbdrives, but still , real small. Fits in a coatpocket without a bulge. And, any computer geek like Snowdon understands about back up of essential data. He must have made a bunch of duplicates and hidden them the best he can. With friends, buried in his back yard, bank safe deposit boxes, with his folks, and somewhere in the cloud. We will never find them.
So, Snowdon gets amnesty back here, and he still has every thing he took from NSA.
Although I cannot imagine what stuff he has left being anything as juicy as the stuff he has released. But then maybe my imagination is weak.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Ammunition shortage caused by consumer demand
Not government hoarding. Despite some staggeringly large ammunition buys from HHS. This from American Rifleman, the NRA magazine. The shortage is real, at least up here the shelves down at Cory's Sport Shop, are empty of all but the most common calibers.
Although HHS has placed some massive buys, these are multi year contracts, and according to American Rifleman, the quantities are about what the agency has bought in past years. The real increase is in the number of American gun owners. Particularly striking is the increase in woman gun owners. The increase in demand is real, and you can see it in the revenues from the federal ammunition tax. That's gone up and up and is showing no sign of slowing down. The number of federal instant background checks has also grown significantly, supporting the ammunition tax data.
Although HHS has placed some massive buys, these are multi year contracts, and according to American Rifleman, the quantities are about what the agency has bought in past years. The real increase is in the number of American gun owners. Particularly striking is the increase in woman gun owners. The increase in demand is real, and you can see it in the revenues from the federal ammunition tax. That's gone up and up and is showing no sign of slowing down. The number of federal instant background checks has also grown significantly, supporting the ammunition tax data.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Thanks goodness for gridlock
According to Fox TV News, this year Congress only passed 51 bills, as opposed to last year when they passed 350 odd.
This is a good thing. Most bills are bad for the country. We don't need another farm bill passing money to corporate farms. We don't need another highway bill to keep road contractors fully employed. We don't need Obamacare. We don't need Dodd Frank or Sarbanes Oxley. We don't need more special favors for special interests. We don't need to extend unemployment benefits from two years to three.
Since the country and the Congress is evenly divided, neither party can push its pet programs thru.
Which is what democracy is all about.
Until one party or the other can muster the votes to control both House and Senate, things will stay as they are. And that's the way it should be.
This is a good thing. Most bills are bad for the country. We don't need another farm bill passing money to corporate farms. We don't need another highway bill to keep road contractors fully employed. We don't need Obamacare. We don't need Dodd Frank or Sarbanes Oxley. We don't need more special favors for special interests. We don't need to extend unemployment benefits from two years to three.
Since the country and the Congress is evenly divided, neither party can push its pet programs thru.
Which is what democracy is all about.
Until one party or the other can muster the votes to control both House and Senate, things will stay as they are. And that's the way it should be.
Cannon gets some decent snow.
We have 6-8 inches down, and it's still falling. Plus we have good low temps forcast for next week so the snowblowing can continue. They ought to have all the trails open by tomorrow. Christmas week ought to be good skiing. We need it up here.
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