How to Look Beyond the Obvious....identify trends, use your peripheral vision, and take action.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Toyota Prius X Parlee Concept Bike
Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten (Podcast)
- Original Content the Alzheimer's Reading -- to read the text version go here --
Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten? - To learn what people are saying about the Alzheimer's Reading Room go here --
100+ Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room - To learn more about the Alzheimer's Reading Room go here --
About Alzheimer's Reading Room - To learn more about Alzheimer's and dementia start here --
What’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia? - To test your memory for Alzheimer's or dementia go here --
Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Self Assessment Tests)
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Escaped Wild Boars Are Killing Pets And Chasing People In New York State
Friday, July 29, 2011
Is Internet Explorer For The Dumb? A New Study Suggests Exactly That
Is Internet Explorer For The Dumb? A New Study Suggests Exactly That.
Read more at www.aptiquant.comA Vancouver based Psychometric Consulting company, AptiQuant, has released a report on a trial it conducted to measure the effects of cognitive ability on the choice of web browser. AptiQuant offered free online IQ tests to over a 100,000 people and then plotted the average IQ scores based on the browser on which the test was taken. And the results are really not that surprising. With just a look at the graphs in the report, it comes out pretty clear that Internet Explorer users scored lower than average on the IQ tests. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users had just a teeny bit higher than average IQ scores. And users of Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame had exceptionally higher IQ levels.
What is Alzheimer's Disease?
What is Alzheimer's Disease?
What is Alzheimer's Disease?
Alzheimer's disease is a physical illness that causes radical changes in the brain. As healthy brain tissues degenerate persons suffering from Alzheimer's experience a steady decline in memory and the ability to use their brain to perform tasks.
In order to be an effective Alzheimer's caregiver or to communicate with someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease, you must understand Alzheimer's disease. A solid understanding of Alzheimer's is an essential part of the foundation.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia.
Alzheimer's disease affects a person's memory, mood, and behavior.
Read more at www.alzheimersreadingroom.com
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Milky Way So Close You Can Almost Taste It
Help your friends make the switch to Gmail
Google Offers To Re-Write Your Webpages On The Fly
But a new service Google is launching this evening very much puts the focus back on speed — an obsessive amount of focus, one might say.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Manufacturers' New Orders: Durable Goods, ’ Shipments, Inventories (Chart, 7-27)
New orders for manufactured durable goods in June decreased $4.0 billion or 2.1 percent to $192.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down two of the last three months, followed a 1.9 percent May increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.8 percent.
Transportation equipment, also down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, $4.2 billion or 8.5 percent to $45.4 billion. This was due to nondefense aircraft and parts which decreased $2.8 billion.Read more at allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com
Universities launch Gig.U for high-speed computing and economic growth
A broad-based group of 29 universities and communities across the country today (July 27) launched "Gig.U: The University Community Next Generation Innovation Project," which aims to accelerate the deployment of ultra high-speed networks to leading U.S. universities and their surrounding communities. Penn State is a partner in this initiative.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
The Secret 10 Step Guide to Giving Good Social
Beyond this tier, there's a second layer of folks who are quite visible on the social sites, even if what you know about their real lives pales in what you see online. So what's the secret? I've finally caved and decided to spill it.
Some Quick Tips on Giving "Good Social".
Monday, July 25, 2011
80 Percent of Medical Bills Contain Errors -- 20 Percent Don't
Here is the real issue, only 20 percent of medical bills are correct. This means it is more likely that you are holding an incorrect medical bill in your hand, than a correct bill.
I learned a long time ago, you can negotiate down the price of any hospital medical bill. To be honest, its the game they play. A hospital medical bill is like negotiating with a painter on the price to paint your home. If you accept the price the painter gives you without negotiating you are making a mistake. All painters will reduce their estimate if you negotiate.Read more at www.alzheimersreadingroom.com
Existing Drug Improves Brain Function in Condition that Leads to Alzheimer’s
The findings have possible implications for the progression to Alzheimer’s disease.
An existing anti-seizure drug improves memory and brain function in adults with a form of cognitive impairment that often leads to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease, a Johns Hopkins University study has found.Read more at www.alzheimersreadingroom.com
Forrest Blue, and Giving Offensive Linemen Their Due
Read more at fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.comA few thoughts about Forrest Blue, one of the N.F.L.’s best centers of the early 1970s. Blue was residing at an assisted-living facility in Carmichael, Calif., when he died last week at age 65 or 66 (There is some discrepancy as to whether he was born in 1944 or in 1945.) According to his daughter, Blue began exhibiting symptoms of dementia about 15 years ago. His brain will be sent to Boston University for further study. Andy Barall writes about pro football history for The Fifth Down.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Subprime Mortgage Crisis
All American Investor
This comprehensive articles touches all the bases.
Includes: The rise and fall of subprime lending, The insider/outsider theory, The bubble theory, Were interest-rate resets responsible for the subprime crisis, Were prime borrowers steered into subprime mortgages, Did investors in subprime securities know what they were buying, and much more.
Abstract
During the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–2008, previously profitable loans to subprime borrowers turned sour and investments thought to be as safe as government debt sustained severe and unexpected losses.
The crisis reconfigured the US financial services industry and helped spark the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
While the consequences of subprime losses for Wall Street are well understood, the reason that the crisis occurred is not.
The fundamental outstanding question is why so many people made decisions that turned out to be so unprofitable. Millions of borrowers took out loans they could not repay. Thousands of lenders lent them money. And investors advanced billions of dollars, either to fund the firms involved in subprime lending, or to purchase the mortgage-backed securities that these firms created.
This article outlines and evaluates two potential explanations for the subprime crisis. One is based on ‘insider/outsider’ frictions in the subprime lending industry. The other interprets the crisis as the consequence of a classic asset bubble, which in this case occurred in the US housing market. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these explanations for policies designed to prevent financial crises in the future.
Read the full blown article, The Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Read more at allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com
In Silicon Valley, select tech workers are in high demand
"If you can write code at a high level, you can write your own ticket," said Tom Silver, a vice president for the technology job site Dice.com.
See more at www.mercurynews.com
Odds Long-Term Unemployed Will Find Work
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The Magic of Comedy DICK CAVETT
The Future of Comedy RICKY GERVAIS
Ricky Gervais: Well, things are evolving. But the important thing is, they were nailed a hundred years ago by Laurel and Hardy. As I say, character, relationship, empathy. There has to be sweetness. There has to be precarious. And they did all that to a great level; needs to be done.
And they’re a big influence on me. And they’re funny. They got funny bones, which is important, funny lines. And nowhere near as important as funny bones.
M2 Money Stock Up Up and Away (Chart, 722)
Current reading $9258.9 Billion versus $8596.1 a year ago.
Seasonally adjusted M2 is computed by summing savings deposits, small-denomination time deposits, and retail MMMFs, each seasonally adjusted separately, and adding this result to seasonally adjusted M1.Read more at allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com
Friday, July 22, 2011
Comic-Con 2011: 6 oddball couples (Poll)
St. Louis Adjusted Monetary Base (Chart, 7-21)
Source(s): Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Release: St. Louis Bi-Weekly Reserves and Monetary Base (Not a Press Release)
Units: Billions of Dollars
Frequency: Bi-Weekly, Ending Wednesday
Seasonal
Adjustment: Not Seasonally Adjusted
This series has been reconstructed starting July 14, 2003. For further information, please refer to http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/03/09/Anderson.pdf. Historical data and components are available at http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/03/09/0309ra.xls.
Overwhelming Majority of the Public Want to Know If They Have Alzheimer's
Results of an international survey reveal that over 85% of respondents in the five countries surveyed say that if they were exhibiting confusion and memory loss, they would want to see a doctor to determine if the cause of the symptoms was Alzheimer's disease. Over 94% would want the same if a family member were exhibiting the symptoms.
The Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health is holding a live webcast tomorow, Friday July, 22, at 12 PM eastern time. The forum is open to the public. Go here to learn more, or to attend.
The topic of the forum webcast is, Alzheimer's: What is the Value of Knowing Early?
73 percent of respondents to the survey in the U.S. say they know or have known someone with Alzheimer's.
Read more at www.alzheimersreadingroom.com
Thursday, July 21, 2011
4-Week Moving Average of Initial Unemployment Claims
In the graph below you can see that the over all trend of the 4 week moving average of claims is still down.
Near term the 400,000 and 440,000 areas are what to watch.
The market tends to discount bad news well in advance. The nervous norvis contingent continues to try and sell the market. They are getting waxed.
The Weirdness of 10-Year Deficit Reduction
The Gang of Six plan proposes to reduce the cumulative deficit by $3.6-3.7 trillion over ten years relative to the CBO’s March 2011 baseline. Everyone’s excited about it. Four trillion dollars! Hooray!
Read more at baselinescenario.comThe weird thing is that if you are claiming deficit reductions against the CBO’s baseline, I think intellectual honesty requires you to point out that, according to the CBO’s baseline, there is no deficit problem. The projected 2021 deficit is $729 billion, but net interest spending is $807 billion (Table 1-5). That means that the primary budget is running a surplus of $78 billion, the entire deficit is due to interest payments on the debt, and the debt has stabilized around 75 percent of GDP. This is not a great situation, but it’s no emergency, either.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Housing Starts: New Residential Construction (Chart, 7-19)
Privately owned housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 629,000.
This is 14.6 percent (±10.9%) above the revised May estimate of 549,000 and is 16.7 percent (±11.8%) above the June 2010 rate of 539,000.
Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 453,000; this is 9.4 percent (±11.1%)* above the revised May figure of 414,000.
The June rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 170,000.
Early Morning Spotlight July 19
Special report: Rupert Murdoch, a hands-on newspaperman | Reuters http://reut.rsDsh/qDy
Gold May Rise, Extend Longest Winning Streak in Nine Decades, on Debt Woes - Bloomberg http://bloom.bg/q6Xs1K
House To Vote On Doomed GOP-Backed Debt Plan : NPR http://n.pr/qORXOa
U.S. House Set to Pass Doomed Spending-Cut Bill With No Debt Deal Imminent - Bloomberg http://bloom.bg/ngaLOj
Reaganite Delusions http://nyti.ms/p368z4
Economist's View: Is This More Than a Bump In the Road? http://bit.ly/oxNfTg
Monday, July 18, 2011
Kindle Textbook Rental, Students Save up to 80% Off List Price for Textbooks
Kindle Textbook Rental is a flexible and affordable way to read textbooks.
You can rent for the minimum length, typically 30 days, and save up to 80% off the print list price.
If you find you need your textbook longer, you can extend your rental by as little as 1 day as many times as you want and just pay for the added days.
'Breast Milk Baby' Coming to U.S. Market
The doll, which comes with a special halter top with two flowers positioned where nipples would be, makes suckling sounds when its mouth is brought close to sensors embedded in the flowers. But breast-feeding experts and moms are torn on whether the toy is natural, useful or disgusting.
Critics say the doll can over-sexualize young girls or force them to grow up too quickly.
Is 'The Google Way' A Model To Fix The U.S. Economy?
Should we look to Google (the company, not the search engine) for lessons on economic growth and employment? Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, and until last April Google’s chief executive, thinks what he’s got goes way beyond Google’s campus.
“Google proved that you could systematize innovation,” he told me recently, adding that this meant you could “create an environment where are asking why things are the way they are, and wondering if they can be done in a different way — where you look outside your own field for an idea.”
America Could Default Even if Debt Ceiling is Raised
As I noted yesterday, America could default even if the debt ceiling is raised.
One of the big, government-sponsored American rating agencies has just confirmed my post.
Specifically, Standard & Poor’s announced today:
[We're putting U.S. debt on] CreditWatch with negative implications … owing to the dynamics of the political debate on the debt ceiling, there is at least a one-in-two likelihood that we could lower the long-term rating on the U.S. within the next 90 days ….
The political debate about the U.S.’ fiscal stance and the related issue of the U.S. government debt ceiling has, in our view, only become more entangled.
We may lower the long-term rating on the U.S. by one or more notches into the ‘AA’ category in the next three months, if we conclude that Congress and the Administration have not achieved a credible solution to the rising U.S. government debt burden and are not likely to achieve one in the foreseeable future.
The Washington Post adds:
S&P managing director John Chambers said in an interview … even if the parties agree to raise the debt ceiling, it may not be enough to avert a downgrade. Chambers said the country must implement a plan to reduce the annual budget deficit by roughly $4 trillion over 10 years, which makes the debt manageable over the long term.
The White House and Congress have discussed a plan that big, but negotiations have more recently centered on a smaller deal, at $2 trillion or less.
Read more at www.ritholtz.com“That could still lead to a downgrade,” Chambers said.
Poll: 71% shun GOP handling of debt crisis
Americans are unimpressed with their political leaders' handling of the debt ceiling crisis, with a new CBS News poll showing a majority disapprove of all the involved parties' conduct, but Republicans in Congress fare the worst, with just 21 percent backing their resistance to raising taxes.
President Obama earned the most generous approval ratings for his handling of the weeks-old negotiations, but still more people said they disapproved (48 percent) than approved (43 percent) of what he has done and said.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Reserve Bank Credit (Chart, 7-16)
Source(s): Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Release: H.4.1 Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
Units: Billions of Dollars
Frequency: Weekly, Ending Wednesday
Securing Our Fiscal Future
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Dow Jones CEO quits over phone-hacking scandal
Binge drinking 'can damage memory skills' in teen girls
The Post-Foreclosure Experience of U.S. Households
These results suggest that, on average, foreclosure does not impose an economic burden large enough to severely reduce housing consumption.
See more at allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com
Industrial Production Index (Chart, 7-15)
May was revised downward to -0.1%.
Manufacturing industrial production flat lined with no change and Japan supply disruptions are to blame according to the Fed.
Autos & Parts dropped -2.0% in June.
Industrial production is still down -6.9% from pre-recession levels, in other words going on 4 years, even while up 3.4% from June 2010. Here is the Federal Reserve's detailed report.
Friday, July 15, 2011
How Do Alzheimer's Patients Die?
Alzheimer's Front Row
I have a good friend. We are close in age. Like my mother, Dotty, his mother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
His mother is cared for by his sister. He lives a long way from his mom.
John is getting worried so he calls me and asks, how do you die from Alzheimer's disease? Just asks me, up front, straight out.
Richest Americans have seen their taxes cut by half
The tax argument has been going on for three decades. The best economic period in the history of the country occurred after income taxes were raised. 1994-2000.
We already lowered taxes in the 1980s. Even Ronald Reagan realized income taxes were too low and raised them.
Lower taxes, trillion dollar war, dishwashers buying $500,000 houses with nothing down.
And we are arguing about taxes.
Good article on the Kos. Leads to information directly from tax records.
It's an offensive position. Let's make that clear—it's not just ridiculous, or irresponsible, or unrealistic, but patently offensive. When you cut taxes for the wealthy in half, and threaten to shut down the government and/or default on the national debt rather than raise them back up again by one penny, that's class warfare.
Americans
New data released by the IRS reveals that, over a period of 12 years, tax rates for the richest 400 Americans were effectively cut in half. In 1995, the richest 400 Americans paid, on average, 29.93% of their income in federal taxes. In 2007, the last year for which the IRS has released data, the richest 400 Americans paid just 16.63%.
Read more at www.dailykos.comNew data released by the IRS reveals that, over a period of 12 years, tax rates for the richest 400 Americans were effectively cut in half. In 1995, the richest 400 Americans paid, on average, 29.93% of their income in federal taxes. In 2007, the last year for which the IRS has released data, the richest 400 Americans paid just 16.63%.In 1995, just 12 of the 400 richest Americans paid an effective tax rat of between zero and 15%. By 2007, that number skyrocketed to over 150. The massive reduction is due to both Bush-era tax reductions for the wealthy and the aggressive exploitation of tax dodges and shelters.
Bill Guard via Fred Wilson
I love it when entrepreneurs take a trick from one market and apply it to another. The founders of BillGuard have done that with credit card fraud. They took the lessons from the anti-virus and anti-spam markets and apply it to your credit cards.
I just signed up for BillGuard and put four credit cards on the service. They asked me for my credit card website logins, I provided them, and they took down all the transactions and showed me this screen:
They list all the transactions that they think could be problematic. Clearly the $29.86 charge by Charlie O'Donnell is problematic. I'll have to look into that one!
But on a more serious note, I see this recurring $16 transaction for Been Verified. I am sure I signed up for that service at some point to check it out for some reason. But at this point, I'm not using it and I should turn it off.
But on a more serious note, I see this recurring $16 transaction for Been Verified. I am sure I signed up for that service at some point to check it out for some reason. But at this point, I'm not using it and I should turn it off.
Read more at www.avc.comBillGuard is great for exactly this kind of thing. And it may also help with truly fraudulent transactions. I haven't run into any of them yet on my four cards.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
PRODUCER PRICE INDEXES – JUNE 2011
The Producer Price Index for finished goods decreased 0.4 percent in June, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
This decline followed increases of 0.2 percent in May and 0.8 percent in April. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods were unchanged in June, and the crude goods index moved down 0.6 percent.
On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods climbed 7.0 percent for the 12 months ended June 2011.
To read all the details and breakdown, go here.
10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate (Chart, 7-13)
Source(s): Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Release: H.15 Selected Interest Rates
Units: Percent
Frequency: Daily
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Job Openings
The hires rate (3.1 percent) and separations rate (3.1 percent) were again little changed over the month. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region.
30-Year Conventional Mortgage Rate (Chart, 7-13)
The Google+ Cheat Sheet
You’re not alone.
As Google releases more invites to its social network, more people are trying to learn the ins-and-outs of the Google+ ecosystem.
We’ve already taught you how to upload iPhone photos to Google+, make a Google+ desktop app and get your own Google+ vanity URL, but there’s still a lot to Google+ we haven’t mastered yet.
That’s why we were excited when we stumbled across a Google+ cheat sheet, whose origin we’ve traced to Google+ user Simon Laustsen.
The cheat sheet includes most of the common syntax, hotkeys and tips you need to know to use Google+ like a pro.
Read more at mashable.com
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Google+ To Pass 10,000,000 Users Tomorrow (on 7/12)
Google+ To Pass 10,000,000 Users Tomorrow (on 7/12)
As I promised on Saturday night, I have finished updating my Google+ membership model with new data and re-estimated the Google+ user base.
My surname-based analysis shows that the number of Google+ users worldwide reached 7.3 million yesterday (July 10) – up from 1.7 million users on July 4th. That is a 350% increase in six days. The userbase is growing so quickly that it is challenging for me to keep up, since the number of users of any given surname (even the rare ones I am tracking) seems to be climbing every day.
More
More impressive than last week's growth is the astonishing growth in users from yesterday at mid-day to tonight -- a 30% jump. My latest estimate tonight shows approximately 9.5 million users. This suggests that 2.2 million people have joined Google+ in the past 32-34 hours.
I project that Google will easily pass 10 million users tomorrow and could reach 20 million user by this coming weekend if they keep the Invite Button available. As one G+ user put it, it is easy to underestimate the power of exponential growthRead more at plus.google.com
Twitter's Biggest Rival Thinks Google Plus Could Become Fastest Growing Network in History
But can you guess what Gross is hot on now? Google Plus - the new Google social network launched late last month that's been stealing the hearts, minds and time of many Twitter power players. Today Gross wrote that he believes Plus may be the fastest social network in history to hit 1 million users and he predicts it will become the fastest network ever to hit 100 million. That's a bold prediction that if accurate could point to some serious social networking disruption.
"I predict that Google Plus will go from 0 to 100,000,000 users faster than any other service in history," Gross wrote this morning on his Plus page. (Text may not be readable in full for those without Google Plus accounts yet.)
Read more at www.readwriteweb.com"The service is great. It is timely. People are engaging with it like crazy. There are rumors that there are already 4.5m people. That might be high. It might be as low as 1m, or even lower, but my guess is that it's more than 1m people already. That already is probably the fastest growing service (0 to 1m) ever. Now it's not completely fair, since when Facebook started, and when Twitter started, etc. those were tiny companies, and Google is huge. However, the product is extremely well executed, and a lot of people are smitten.
"The next year will tell. Will there be bumps in the road? Sure. Will Facebook and Twitter fight back with more innovation? Of course! But I'm saying that Google Plus is already good enough, and the team on Google Plus is being so responsive in a way that makes me believe they have a real winner here."
Mama's Boy
Monday, July 11, 2011
"The Animal Connection"
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Consumer Price Index of All Items in United States (Chart, 5-11)
CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index (GVZCLS, Chart, 7-7)
CBOE Volatility Index: VIX (VIXCLS Chart, 7-7)
Release: CBOE Market Statistics (Not a Press Release)
Units: Percent
Frequency: Daily, Close
Original content Bob DeMarco, Look Beyond the Obvious
Civilian Unemployment Rate (Chart, 7-8)
How Close are We To a Second Recession?
Read more at economistsview.typepad.comIf the blue line showing real GDP growth continues heading downward and crosses the 2% threshold shown by the red line, watch out:
Crusade To Fix Tax Code Gains Steam
Next week, the House and Senate tax-writing committees will hold a joint session on tax reform for the first time since 1940.
The idea of tax reform has been tossed around Washington left and right the last few weeks. Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the tax code is unfair and overly complex. But what exactly is wrong with it? What are lawmakers planning to do it about? And could a bipartisan deal actually solve the fiscal crisis?
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