Now I need to find the energy to cycle home.  Fortunately I am solar powered so I ought to last the journey.

Ad astra per aspera

I couldn't really get to sleep last night, so I'm in full Zombie Mode today.  Less than four hours to go, though, thankfully.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

I don't think I'm over the income limit, but I'm not sure. Too lazy to check.

you are the media you consume.

10 Things Your Body Can Do After You Die

one of them:

4. Fuel a city

Cremating a body uses up a lot of energy -- and a lot of nonrenewable resources. So how do you give Grandma the send-off she wanted and protect the planet at the same time? Multitask.

Some European crematoriums have figured out a way to replace conventional boilers by harnessing the heat produced in their fires, which can reach temperatures in excess of 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, starting in 1997, the Swedish city of Helsingborg used local crematoriums to supply 10 percent of the heat for its homes.

That is, it shot up to 123.80 in dollars, while the Euro declined to $1.54.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

A Public Choice theory of Chinese food

Seth Roberts, citing Jennifer 8 Lee, writes:

Why did Chinese immigrants to America start so many restaurants? Because Chinese cuisine is glorious, right? Well, no. Chinese immigrants started a lot of laundries, too, and there is nothing wonderful about Chinese ways of washing clothes. As Jennifer Lee explains in this excellent talk, the first Chinese immigrants were laborers. They were taking jobs away from American men, and this caused problems. Restaurants and laundries were much safer immigrant jobs because cooking and cleaning were women's work.

By the way, here is some work on immigrant complementarity with native labor.  George Borjas rebuts.

[Marginal Revolution]

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

For those of you who have an hour to kill and have already read my shoe blog...

Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms.

It's the first one I've seen since I built the pond four years ago.  I'd been wondering if my neighbours' immaculate and sterile gardens were proving too much of a desert to cross.

But it made me happy, anyway  :)

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears. But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.
"I get a call the middle of the day from the supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue. You can't take any more assignments. You need to come in right away,'" he said.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell that went much farther than he'd hoped.

"I said, 'Well Pat, can you explain this to me?' 'You've been accused of wizardry,' [he said]. Wizardry?" he asked.

I keep trying to explain to people that Florida is a very stupid place.  Everybody thinks of Palm Beach and Miami.  Beaches, golf courses, mixed drinks, and the elderly.  They have no idea about the other Florida.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

Preferred stocks pay a guaranteed fixed dividend until they are called or mature, so they are purely a play on interest rates. As a consequence the price only varies for two reasons. First, the interest rates available elsewhere change and second the soundness of the company becomes questioned so the chances of their defaulting on either the dividend or the redemption increases.

Preferred stocks, even in grade A firms, tend to pay a fairly high rate of interest because of their lack of flexibility. Now to the example:

The stock symbol GED belongs to a preferred issued by General Electric. There is no firm in the world with a better credit rating than GE, so price changes reflect interest rate expectations. GED traded above the redemption price today for the first time since late 2005. This means that traders are now expecting interest rates to stay low.

The second barometer is GPM which was issued by General Motors. It is now up by about 20% from its low of a two month's ago. This despite GM's latest miserable quarterly report. In other words traders think that the worst in the industrial sector is drawing to a close.

When the "conventional wisdom" all sounds the same, it is time to look elsewhere for hints about what is to come. I'm not suggesting diving into the stock market, but those with money to invest and a longish horizon for their investments might start to look for good deals.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape