1. SO YOU THINK IT'S TOUGH to become a major league baseball player or an Olympian? Imagine training to be a concert pianist. Impelled by a love of music, classically-trained musicians often work extremely hard to excel, while knowing they may have little chance of "making it big."
Incidentally, I considered learning to play Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, but was slightly daunted as to how to go about it, so I decided to listen to a Youtube video of it. The first video I pulled up was of 40 Chinese youngsters playing it together by ear in perfect synchrony. I'm no longer daunted; instead I'm merely discouraged (ha). I think I'll learn something else instead. :-)
2. COWS IN ZOOS?...Perhaps they will be 20 years from now. "Artificial milk" is not a new concept; it has been produced since 1912 in small quantities. Today we can buy milk that's made from almonds, coconuts, rice, soy, even hemp. If you've ever toured a dairy up close and personal, you probably like the idea of these substitutes...not to mention the fact that dairies are now lobbying hard to add aspartame to regular cow's milk without labeling it as such. They probably figure if Monsanto can push through GMO products without labeling, they ought to be permitted to secretly put aspartame in milk. Of course, this and other food industries have a backup plan if that doesn't work: they'll attempt to hide it by labeling aspartame with a new, fifth brand name in an effort to fool consumers (after "nutrisweet", "equal", and "spoonful"): "aminosweet."
But why stop with milk? Why not also produce vegetable-based beef and chicken meat as well? Today you can buy "Beyond Meat" branded 'chicken' and 'beef' at Whole foods stores, and will very soon be able to buy them from Safeway and Target. Supposedly, it's a pretty good approximation in both taste and texture, although I haven't personally tasted it. Ultimately, it may take far less energy to produce and it represents a greener and potentially healthier option. Note, however, it may also have to compete with "franken-meat", another emerging alternative that could be synthetically grown from (for instance) bovine stem cells.
The Chinese have made plenty of illicit attempts to produce artificial food...reminding us that human advancements and new ideas can often have a dark side, especially when money is (almost always) involved.
3. INTERESTING SOLAR STATISTICS: Like wind power, solar power is now already cheaper than natural gas, coal and nuclear power in some areas of the country. In the interest of continuing to "beat the drum" on solar, here's a chart showing solar cell efficiency trends; and here's a list of defunct solar companies. This list is reminiscent of the list of defunct car companies or piano companies or, for that matter, wind turbine companies at the beginning of the boom in these respective industries. It's part of the natural process of product evolution and growth. Finally, here's an article that takes the reader through some simple math to dispel some persistent myths regarding the amount of land (or rooftop) required for solar power production.
Alas, most consumers still haven't got the message that solar prices have plummeted.
4. A CLEAR WINNER is emerging from Warren Buffet's bet with the hedge fund industry. The idea that a hedge fund is likely to increase your returns is being proven as total bunk. If you're invested in a hedge fund, you're merely making the hedge fund manager wealthy. You'd be better off just putting your money in an S&P index fund. Now ask yourself: Am I smarter, more knowledgeable, more experienced, better informed and have more powerful tools at my disposal than a hand-picked group of the best hedge fund managers in the world? If so, you can beat the stock market...go for it, you might get lucky. Just a warning...the house (i.e., the S&P, DOW, etc.) usually wins. Active trading is a zero-sum game of luck (or worse) that just runs up your expenses. But if you insist on 'betting' on certain stocks, bet on businesses or technologies you're more knowledgeable about than most people, and then completely forget about your investment for several years. I'll bet the vast majority of you would not be able to do this...and that's a pretty sure bet. For most of us, it's much easier, rewarding and time efficient to just invest in a "boring" index fund.
5. If you haven't seen it already, this documentary preview pretty much has the last word on childhood obesity. It makes sense that the latest generation of kids have not suddenly become couch potatoes, are not suddenly lazier than all previous generations, and have not suddenly become more susceptible to food cravings than all previous generations. And you can't blame it all on the internet, either. Its thesis sounds pretty credible to me.
Incidentally, I considered learning to play Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, but was slightly daunted as to how to go about it, so I decided to listen to a Youtube video of it. The first video I pulled up was of 40 Chinese youngsters playing it together by ear in perfect synchrony. I'm no longer daunted; instead I'm merely discouraged (ha). I think I'll learn something else instead. :-)
2. COWS IN ZOOS?...Perhaps they will be 20 years from now. "Artificial milk" is not a new concept; it has been produced since 1912 in small quantities. Today we can buy milk that's made from almonds, coconuts, rice, soy, even hemp. If you've ever toured a dairy up close and personal, you probably like the idea of these substitutes...not to mention the fact that dairies are now lobbying hard to add aspartame to regular cow's milk without labeling it as such. They probably figure if Monsanto can push through GMO products without labeling, they ought to be permitted to secretly put aspartame in milk. Of course, this and other food industries have a backup plan if that doesn't work: they'll attempt to hide it by labeling aspartame with a new, fifth brand name in an effort to fool consumers (after "nutrisweet", "equal", and "spoonful"): "aminosweet."
But why stop with milk? Why not also produce vegetable-based beef and chicken meat as well? Today you can buy "Beyond Meat" branded 'chicken' and 'beef' at Whole foods stores, and will very soon be able to buy them from Safeway and Target. Supposedly, it's a pretty good approximation in both taste and texture, although I haven't personally tasted it. Ultimately, it may take far less energy to produce and it represents a greener and potentially healthier option. Note, however, it may also have to compete with "franken-meat", another emerging alternative that could be synthetically grown from (for instance) bovine stem cells.
The Chinese have made plenty of illicit attempts to produce artificial food...reminding us that human advancements and new ideas can often have a dark side, especially when money is (almost always) involved.
3. INTERESTING SOLAR STATISTICS: Like wind power, solar power is now already cheaper than natural gas, coal and nuclear power in some areas of the country. In the interest of continuing to "beat the drum" on solar, here's a chart showing solar cell efficiency trends; and here's a list of defunct solar companies. This list is reminiscent of the list of defunct car companies or piano companies or, for that matter, wind turbine companies at the beginning of the boom in these respective industries. It's part of the natural process of product evolution and growth. Finally, here's an article that takes the reader through some simple math to dispel some persistent myths regarding the amount of land (or rooftop) required for solar power production.
Alas, most consumers still haven't got the message that solar prices have plummeted.
4. A CLEAR WINNER is emerging from Warren Buffet's bet with the hedge fund industry. The idea that a hedge fund is likely to increase your returns is being proven as total bunk. If you're invested in a hedge fund, you're merely making the hedge fund manager wealthy. You'd be better off just putting your money in an S&P index fund. Now ask yourself: Am I smarter, more knowledgeable, more experienced, better informed and have more powerful tools at my disposal than a hand-picked group of the best hedge fund managers in the world? If so, you can beat the stock market...go for it, you might get lucky. Just a warning...the house (i.e., the S&P, DOW, etc.) usually wins. Active trading is a zero-sum game of luck (or worse) that just runs up your expenses. But if you insist on 'betting' on certain stocks, bet on businesses or technologies you're more knowledgeable about than most people, and then completely forget about your investment for several years. I'll bet the vast majority of you would not be able to do this...and that's a pretty sure bet. For most of us, it's much easier, rewarding and time efficient to just invest in a "boring" index fund.
5. If you haven't seen it already, this documentary preview pretty much has the last word on childhood obesity. It makes sense that the latest generation of kids have not suddenly become couch potatoes, are not suddenly lazier than all previous generations, and have not suddenly become more susceptible to food cravings than all previous generations. And you can't blame it all on the internet, either. Its thesis sounds pretty credible to me.
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