Gravity Train

Brad at Wendy’s place points out the obvious that is probably usually overlooked:

…choose an operating system and an office suite (and whatever else you use) that lets you retain full control of your files. Because they’re yours.

Why?

…suppose your word processor and spreadsheet programs stored all of your files in encrypted form. But not encrypted with a key you choose, or know; instead, encrypted with a secret key of the manufacturer, who assures you that the encryption key will always be available to you. At least, as long as you remain a customer of theirs. Would you trust your business’ important documents to that software?

There are software companies out there that would foist that very thing upon you. Choose wisely.

Look at these pics:

http://www.arthurdevany.com/?p=1116

http://www.arthurdevany.com/?p=1111

Art DeVany advocates eating like a caveman, and he practices what he preaches.

I stumbled onto Art’s site about a year ago, and his approach to diet and exercise rings true, so I gave it a try, more or less. I’ve lost 8 pounds since I started eating and working out like a caveman. I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I just want to be healthy. I was at a nearly ideal weight already, but when I started eating, fasting, and training like a caveman, I lost a little weight and have definitely gained some muscle and definition.

It makes sense. Eat like a caveman: mostly plants and once in a while, some meat, and sometimes, nothing at all. Work out in intense bursts, like you’re chasing your next meal.

Some folks in California have made some microbes that convert yard waste into crude oil. This is particularly interesting:

What is most remarkable about what they are doing is that instead of trying to reengineer the global economy – as is required, for example, for the use of hydrogen fuel – they are trying to make a product that is interchangeable with oil. The company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.

If they can engineer a microbe that will convert the contents of my septic tank into gasoline, I’ll be all set to drive that Canyonero I’ve been wanting.

No, I’m not dead. Yet, anyway.

The improving weather has been getting the best of me. Intentions to blog here regularly have fallen victim lately to sunny days and outdoor projects.

Buy for $36B and sell for $7.4B. Or buy for $5B and sell for $1.7B. From 4-Block World’s Automotive Investments.

Mises.org has a PDF of Henry Hazlitt’s What You Should Know About Inflation originally published 44 years ago.

They excerpt a portion:

No subject is so much discussed today — or so little understood — as inflation. The politicians in Washington talk of it as if it were some horrible visitation from without, over which they had no control — like a flood, a foreign invasion, or a plague. It is something they are always promising to “fight” — if Congress or the people will only give them the “weapons” or “a strong law” to do the job.

Yet the plain truth is that our political leaders have brought on inflation by their own money and fiscal policies. They are promising to fight with their right hand the conditions brought on with their left.

Inflation, always and everywhere, is primarily caused by an increase in the supply of money and credit. In fact, inflation is the increase in the supply of money and credit.

There is a one-page summary here (PDF).

The recent run-up in housing prices which is now biting mortgage companies is a perfect example of inflation due to massive expansion of credit in the last decade.

On this day in 1956, Alf Dean landed a 2,664-pound great white shark with a fishing rod.

That’s a damn big fish. Simply amazing.

Today’s header image is an annoying mess, just like the US tax codes.

Another April 15th comes and goes.

Only 8 more days until Tax Freedom Day this year.

The editors of Wired magazine assembled the Wired Index many years ago. I never paid much attention to it, and assumed it had gone defunct. Turns out, it’s still alive, though I haven’t looked at any historical data yet, so I’m not sure at this point if it can be considered well.

If I have some time this weekend, I’ll do a little digging and see if I can find some performance data.

Update: The ticker for the Wired Index is IWIRX.  Compared to the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ, it’s done a bit better over the long haul, but not much. Compared to the Dow, it’s basically a wash. Now, compare them all to Apple, over the life of the Wired Index.

So, what does this illustrate? Well, for one thing, we know that the editors of Wired are no better at picking stocks than anyone else. It’s also a fine example of Chebyshev’s inequality, which, in essence, says that if you average a bunch of things together, the result is about average. It’s also a painful reminder that I should have bought Apple when I was thinking about buying it about 10 years ago.

Best Buy has the US Postal Service pitching ads for them, via a monthly online coupon for 10% off Best Buy stuff. This article from CyberNet news lists the items to which the 10% discount applies (although one commenter notes the staff probably won’t check the coupon details), and describes how to manipulate the URL from month to month, so you can effectively get yourself a coupon any time you want to, that is, until BB and USPS figure out what people are doing.

Here’s the latest coupon, which expires May 31st:

https://moversguide.usps.com/img/coupon/bestbuy/200804_clientarea.gif

And the previous one, good until April 30th:

https://moversguide.usps.com/img/coupon/bestbuy/200803_clientarea.gif

 Via Lifehacker.