Flashlights to the Amazon May 24, 2007March 6, 2017 FOREVER STAMPS Bill Spencer: ‘Don’t buy too many. You may have seen this explanation, but it is an interesting take on the value of Forever Stamps.’ ☞ Yes. They are wonderful – because you’ll never have any ‘left over’ that require annoying 2-cent stamps to go with them. But there is no point buying more than usual, because as an investment, they’ll barely provide a 0% real return, if that. BUY THIS FLASHLIGHT This from the New York Times tells the story of 2 billion people who have no light after dark (except fire) (and maybe fireflies, but first you have to catch them, then you have to feed them, and they are really annoying to try to read by) (the part about fireflies is not in the Times story, but I’ve always loved fireflies) – and how you can change a life by buying yourself a solar-powered flashlight. What a nice gift for a young kid this summer, along with the story that goes with it. MOST AMBIGUOUS MESSAGE OF ALL TIME ‘I’m thinking about not resigning,’ emailed a friend. But, from the context, I wondered: was he really thinking about not resigning? It sure sounded to me as though he were fed up and might resign. Turned out he meant not re-signing, as in not signing back up – the exact opposite. It’s not hard to see how wars start. (And will someone please tell my why flammable and inflammable are the same thing? Or specify or verify for me why ‘rarefy’ and ‘liquefy’ – but only these, I have been notified -are spelled Efy? Is French this nuts?) PINCHON Artie Doskow: ‘What ever happened to the Pinchot Retirement Program? I’m waiting with bated breath to retire.’ ☞ Well, this is embarrassing. Harlem Success Academy got me off track; the whooping over GLDD got me off track; and last night, it was a shaman from the Amazon who had traveled 25 hours by bus to Brasilia to get a long flight to Sao Paolo and from there to New York and then drove up to Westport for dinner to help us understand the important work of the Amazon Conservation Team. Doing injustice to the Pinchot Retirement Program is not something I can just toss off. I need some uninterrupted time and a sharpened scalpel. (And then I worry I have built expectations too high and . . . and . . . and just at that moment, in trots the dog to eat my homework.)
Time to Pay Attention May 23, 2007March 6, 2017 The Assault On Reason. Even the reviews give you goose bumps: May 22, 2007 The Gore Book: Sweeping Indictment, Rousing Challenge, Massive Best-seller By Brent Budowsky The real presidential campaign begins now with the publication of Al Gore’s sweeping, passionate and uncompromising indictment of Bush, Bushism and American politics in the Bush era. This book will be a massive and gigantic best-seller as Americans vote with their book-buying bucks. This book will have dramatic impact on the presidential campaign by setting the gold standard for what a Loyal Opposition should stand for. If Congress again capitulates to Bush on Iraq policy, the juxtaposition of Gore’s massive assault on Bushism, his criticism of Congress for not presenting authoritative opposition and current events in Washington will unleash a major groundswell in many circles of Democratic and independent politics. This is not a book about politics. It is a book about American democracy in 2007. Gore challenges the surrender of major media to false notions, unreason, misunderstanding and dishonesty that drove America to disastrous war. Gore challenges the onslaught against the Bill of Rights and fundamental freedoms by an administration seeking to monopolize its power in ways reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984. Gore attacks a war that was not just wrong, but in his word ‘absurd,’ an Orwellian preemptive war attacking a country that did not invade us, in response to a terrorist attack that could have been prevented. Gore condemns the exploitation and abuse of 9/11 and the abuse of power, and abuse of trust, of a politics aimed at driving the nation into a frenzy of fear to justify unwise war, un-American torture and illegal actions beyond the reach of Congress and the courts. Gore issues a clarion call for America to rejoin the global community and lead the fight against global warming, AIDS, the crisis of water and a range of global issues that threaten a world that hungers for renewed American leadership. What is striking and powerful about Gore’s book is the sweeping and comprehensive indictment of Bush and the Bush years, and the passion, reason and intensity of his challenge. The pundits will smirk and ask whether Gore’s weight means he is running. The insiders will guffaw and ask whether Gore is still too boring. The analysts with nothing better to say than trite remarks will ask how this will affect Hillary or Barack. All of this makes and empowers Gore’s very point . . . Gore is saying that these are deadly serious times that demand highly serious leaders and that our democracy, too long put to shame by shallowness and deceit, must be reawakened by a people who say, ‘No more.’ Maybe Gore will run, maybe Gore will not, but this book will begin a far greater and deeper debate. The power, strength and sweep of this book are words from a man who should have been president, might well still be president, and provide a call to action for the next man or woman who will be president. ☞ I am enthusiastically neutral among all our fine Democratic candidates (even our drop-outs were great: Russ Feingold, Mark Warner, Tom Vilsack). And I note that, to a man (and a woman), ours all believe in evolution.
Like Father Like Son May 22, 2007March 6, 2017 GLDD EXPLAINED Will: ‘The water resources bill passed in the House and Senate overwhelmingly at the end of last week. After an agreement on the final bill is reached in conference, both houses of congress will vote again and it will be sent to the President. Apparently, this is a high priority bill that authorizes more than $12 billion in water resource development spending. I’m guessing this could account for some of the recent volume.’ ☞ Every $12 billion helps. BOREALIS Nathan Johansen: ‘That original link to the WheelTug video breaks down near the end. It’s since been fixed and reposted with this link.’ Jim Batterson: ‘It seems like Borealis is so thinly traded that anyone buying or selling a hundred shares can shift the ‘last sale’ price of the stock by a dollar or so. Obviously it is a mistake to buy or sell shares ‘at market’ for a stock like this. So, two questions: (1) Is there a ‘right’ strategy for buying or selling a stock like this? If the ‘last trade’ is $8.20, can I put in a buy order for, say, $7.50 and just be patient? Can I put in a sell order for $9 and hope someone wants to buy some? Patience seems very important here. (2) Doesn’t this create an opportunity for someone to ‘make a market’ in the stuff and do the arbitrage thing, putting in buy orders for $7.50 and sell orders for $9.00 and make money both ways following the meanderings of a thinly-traded stock like this?’ ☞ The first thing to say is that, ordinarily, ‘spreads’ and other transaction costs kill you in the stock market, which is why, over time, a monkey throwing darts beats most mutual fund managers. The second thing to say is that BOREF is not ordinary. Either it will eventually be zero, in which case you will lose 100% of your money whether you paid $8 or $9, or – however slim the chance – it will be worth much, much more than $9. (I will admit to having become increasingly hopeful, or perhaps simply increasingly deluded.) So, yes, you should never enter a ‘market’ order for a stock like this. But I don’t think it’s crazy to offer to buy it, with money you can truly afford to lose, at the ‘ask’ price, even though you’d lose 10% or 15% if you turned around immediately and sold it. (With a house, you’d also lose close to 10%, between commissions and closing costs, if you sold the day after you bought.) As to your second question, the market makers in BOREF make the spread between bid and asked, not retail investors like you and me. We pay the spread. You can’t just put up a shingle and become a market maker. FATHERS DAY Okay, tell me this isn’t funny. For a whole book of father-related New Yorker cartoons, click here. (Fathers Day falls on June 17 this year.) GORE And I say again: After you read his essay, buy The Assault On Reason, Al Gore’s new book.
WATCH The Plane Move May 21, 2007March 6, 2017 THE BEST POSSIBLE HOTEL PRICE I can’t believe there are still people who book hotel rooms without ‘naming their own price’ at Priceline.com – ah, the profligate traveler. (The two exceptions: if you need a specific hotel, not just a specific neighborhood; or if plans might change, as the Priceline charge is nonrefundable.) Well, for us Priceline enthusiasts, there’s a way to beat Priceline at its own game, as detailed here. Basically, the notion is to start your bidding way low, then gradually increase it (he uses $1 increments, but it would be a lot faster, at little extra cost, to jump $5 at a time). Normally, Priceline makes you wait a day to re-bid. Those of us who use it regularly have figured out the obvious way around that – add a neighborhood, so it’s not an identical search, and you can re-bid right away. But all hail Matt Markovich of KOMO-TV (or whoever he learned this from) for taking this to a whole new level. WHAT THE PROSECUTOR SCANDAL REALLY IS Writes Marie Cocco: It is time to stop referring to the “fired U.S attorneys scandal” by that misnomer, and call it what it is: a White House-coordinated effort to use the vast powers of the Justice Department to swing elections to Republicans. FALWELL ‘I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!’ – the late Reverend Falwell, as quoted in Bill Press’s column. Bill goes on to write: In 2000, Falwell even said that Christians had a moral duty to vote for George W. Bush over fellow Christian Al Gore. . . . In the end, that was Jerry Falwell’s undoing. He tied his faith so closely to politics that he cheapened religion and made all evangelicals look like puppets of the Republican party. Falwell, in fact, redefined Christianity so narrowly and so politically, that if Jesus Christ himself came back today, he wouldn’t qualify for membership. ☞ And then there is this pitch-perfect column from the Miami Herald, about Jerry Falwell’s finest hour (a day in 1999) – but noting, in broader context, that ‘[Reverend Falwell] had an uncanny ability to miss the moment. Time after time when great issues of the day demanded moral leadership, the founder of the Moral Majority proved himself bereft of same.’ (As when he supported Apartheid.) AND WHILE I AM GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL . . . You will not find a more blunt assessment than Christopher Hitchens’s, in this Anderson Cooper interview. BUT IF GOD HATES ME, WHY DOES GLDD KEEP GOING UP? The stock and warrants gained another half buck Friday. Maybe something’s going on, or maybe the stock is up simply in the wake of its first quarterly report filed last week. Revenues were up 16% from the prior year’s first quarter, the prior year’s loss was flipped to a modest profit, and the backlog of business jumped 30%. All this before the hoped-for return to normalcy in U.S. dredging activity (cut by 50% the last several years because of budget constraints from the Iraq war). So something specific may be happening, or maybe it’s nothing more than some mutual fund manager, with billions to invest, picking up a couple million shares – pocket change. I’m not selling any of my warrants that haven’t gone long-term (and in hindsight, of course, I’m sorry to have sold even those) . . . although we need now to pay attention to the terms of the warrant, which allow forced conversion if the stock stays above $8.50 for 20 consecutive business days (as outlined here). I’ll try to make sense of that in the coming days and offer suggestions. BOREF Well, for what it’s worth, you can now watch the plane move, on YouTube. I doubt you will be able to judge from the video whether this is really viable. I certainly couldn’t. But Delta may have that competence – and they seem enthusiastic about the prospects.
Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! And a Must-Buy New Book May 18, 2007March 6, 2017 ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’ If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Wednesday it was the Harlem Success Academy that got me off track. Yesterday it was dealing with police who had been summoned on a noise complaint from my neighbors, who’d been driven crazy by my uncontrollable whooping. That whooping, fellow GLDD warrant owners will understand, was brought on as the underlying stock climbed to $8.75 on volume of more than a million shares – I don’t know what’s going on, but something must be – giving our warrants, which we bought at prices between 38 cents and 70 cents this past year, an intrinsic value of $3.75. Any time I can make six or eight times my money in a year, I whoop. A good neighbor should understand that. So Monday (I hope): ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’ In the meantime . . . HARLEM George Berger: ‘Harlem Success Academy sounds wonderful, as does Joel Greenblatt’s work with Public School 65Q in Queens. Now those are a couple of projects I wouldn’t mind sending some of my GLDD and TLBTBTM profits to. (Sorry, not the DNC.) I was thinking it would be great if Joel Greenblatt could set up a charitable foundation to fund worthy education projects, so we TLBTBTM people could have a reliable place to donate that could really make a difference in education. Or if you’re familiar with anything like that I’d be interested to hear about it.’ ☞ That’s a great idea! (Except for the part about the DNC – you are missing the best possible political investment.) And for now, there’s an immediate solution. Just send your check to: HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 34 W. 118th Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10026 ATTN: Jenny Sedlis Their 501(c)(3) tax ID number is 20-5298861. (Amazingly, the web site does not yet accept on-line donations; but I’ll bet it soon will.) And when you have finished funding Harlem Success Academy, never fear: the goal is to open three more such school next year and a lot more after that. But neither is this a bottomless pit. The further goal is for each school to reach breakeven in about six years – even when funded with just 75% of what public schools currently get per pupil. Warren Spieker: ‘As you know, this is an initiative (charter schools) which most Democratic politicians have opposed – largely due to the influence of the teachers unions, I suspect. Like Joel, I contribute to a local charter school and have seen similar extraordinary results. I would be interested to read more about your thoughts on this subject. Even better, what can you do as the treasurer of the DNC to influence party politicians to change their position on this issue? It seems at odds with Democrats general interest in looking out for the poor and giving them the opportunity to improve their lives through education.’ ☞ Well, yes and no. Many Democratic politicians have led the way on charter schools (and I agree with you that more should). Here is a news report that begins: President Bill Clinton took his education reform tour to Minnesota on Thursday, heralding the rapid expansion of public charter schools during his seven years in office and announcing additional federal grants to help ensure their continued success. . . . “We have invested almost half a billion dollars since 1994 to help communities start charter schools [Clinton said] … my goal was to at least fund 3,000 (charter schools) or more by the time I left office and I believe we are going to meet that goal.” ☞ Governor Spitzer and New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein (who came from the Clinton White House) have been important supporters. Joel Greenblatt and his business partner John Petry have launched Democrats for Education Reform. I’ll post a link to the web site when it’s ready a few weeks from now. I hope our Democratic nominee will take a strong stand for continuing the progress our last Democratic Administration was very much a part of encouraging. We need to support our teachers and our public schools. The teachers unions do a great job of that . . . but sometimes a little too great. We need to make it easier to replace poorly performing teachers and administrators, because our kids deserve competence. And because the return on investment of providing an effective education (which most of our kids get but far too many don’t) is all but incalculably large. Gennady: ‘I think the charter school movement is great. I’m speaking from experience since my youngest son Jacob went to the first, only – and now defunct – High School of Math and Science here in Fulton County. The school closed due to lack of funding. While on the state and national level there is a lot of support for the idea, on the local level (county board of ed) there is a lot of resistance which really ends up sabotaging the idea. The failed schools, like ours, are then used by opponents as ‘examples’ of why not to support the charter schools. By far the biggest problem is funding, as you mentioned in your column. Here in Atlanta, school boards pay charter schools 100% of operating costs per pupil (roughly $7.5K/year for high school here), but they conveniently forget the capital side of the budget (which is used to build schools, like our new $50 million high school), which would make per pupil number more like $10K. They force the charter schools to pay rent out of the same measly per-pupil money they give – which is what closed our beloved Math & Science High in three years, after a very supporting and understanding landlord ran out of patience.’ GORE Mark Lefler: ‘Al Gore hits the nail on the head.’ ☞ After you read that essay, buy The Assault On Reason, Al Gore’s new book. Have a great weekend.
These Six Year Olds Wear Ties And They Sure Looked Happy To Me May 17, 2007March 6, 2017 ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’ will have to wait – I got carried away up at Harlem Success Academy, a charter school, watching five-year-olds learn the difference between a mixture and a solution (they take science five days a week) and six-year-olds learn chess (I could still beat them, but by the time they’re eight, who knows?). I was the only male in the school not wearing a tie – including the five- and six-year-olds. I got there at the very civilized hour of 1pm. The students had been there since 7am and would be staying, as they do each day, until 5pm. (No naps, either, except for me, when I got home.) No kidding around: these children are going to succeed. Despite the extraordinary results the school is already showing, New York reimburses charter schools for only 75% of what it pays to educate its public school students. That should actually be enough for Harlem Success Academy, once it’s at its full complement; but with only two grades enrolled so far (a new one is added each year), there is a significant shortfall. Interestingly, that shortfall is currently made up in large measure by the author of The Little Book That Beats the Market, from which some of you have begun to profit. GEORGIA RULE Mike Lynott: ‘As you said, it’s ‘set in Idaho.’ That’s different from being filmed in Idaho. Those were California hills you saw, not the foothills we see from Boise, not the ski slopes of Sun Valley, and certainly not the splendor of the Sawtooths. Jane [Fonda] apparently explained in an interview that it was ‘too expensive’ to actually film it in Idaho. I too will see it soon. I’ll be fascinated to watch the reactions of my fellow Idahoans.’ DAVID ‘D’ITALIANO’ RESPONDS ‘You wrote: ‘It’s not an extra law, really, it’s fixing the one glaring omission in the existing law, to send an important signal: hate crimes against sexual minorities are repugnant, too.’ I’m very curious to whom you think this message is being sent. I doubt someone who would beat up or kill someone, especially someone they hate, is going to suddenly be put off doing so by this law.’ ☞ For starters, it sends the message to me. I want to know that my country – which does not tolerate hate crimes against blacks or whites or Jews or Catholics or Poles – also does not tolerate hate crimes against people like me. There are other reasons for the law (sending the message to tens of thousands of police officers is one; sending it to the nation as a whole is another; providing extra resources to solve hate crimes is a third). But I’m not sure any more reason is needed than the first.
Winning In Iraq and Fort Lauderdale May 16, 2007January 6, 2017 IRAQ Excerpted from today’s THE HILL . . . How to win the Iraq war By Brent Budowsky Success can still be achieved in Iraq along historic precedents of Ireland, South Africa and El Salvador when armed combatants ended their wars and joined the political process. The current escalation is doomed because it encourages the dominant party to sectarian war . . . using American troops to achieve military victory in their war against Sunnis. . . . There are two wars in Iraq, both of which can be won, through completely different tactics. There is a war against al Qaeda that must be won through military victory, uniting America with patriotic Iraqis of all factions who oppose occupation by America, Iran or al Qaeda. There is a war pitting Shi’ites against Sunnis for dominance in post-occupation Iraq. The escalation places America on the side of Iraqi Shi’ites and Iran. It destroys the one hope for victory through a political solution similar to El Salvador, Ireland and South Africa. . . . We can only win military victory in the first war, against al Qaeda, by achieving political victory that ends the second war, among Iraqis. While we urgently want a political solution, the Iraqi parliament wants a two-month vacation to avoid it. While we urgently want an Iraqi government for all Iraqis, Maliki removes Iraqi generals seeking reconciliation because he wants military victory over the Sunnis, and will fight to the last American to achieve it. . . . Will Maliki and his allies agree to Iraqi power-sharing that is genuinely pluralistic, tolerant and fair? If not, Americans should not die for a sectarian cause serving Iranian interests. If they will, it happened in El Salvador, South Africa and Ireland and can happen in Iraq with demonstrable progress within 90 days. . . . Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and to Bill Alexander, then-chief deputy whip of the House. He is a contributing editor to Fighting Dems News Service. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog. HATE As noted a couple of weeks ago, the House voted extended the federal hate crimes statute to include sexual orientation and gender identity. David D’Italiano: ‘I’m with the conservatives on this one; there is no need for extra laws, so adding yet another extra law really is a bad thing to do. [Why ‘bad?’ Why not, at worst, unnecessary? – A.T.] None of these laws will stop any violence; if someone isn’t put off by the laws against beating someone up or killing them, they won’t be put off by this, either; all it is is an extra ‘revenge’ law to whack the perp with later and I’d rather our justice system not be about that.’ ☞ It’s not an extra law, really, it’s fixing the one glaring omission in the existing law, to send an important signal: hate crimes against sexual minorities are repugnant, too. If every ethnicity were covered except Italians, would David feel the same way? Especially if Italians were routinely beat up or murdered simply because they were perceived to be Italian? (David’s last name, though I’ve changed it, is Italian.) Or what if he heard an announcement at an airport – ‘Flight 552 will begin boarding shortly; Italians shall be subject to death.’ Now that would be peculiar (read on) . . . although, to be clear, it would not be covered by the federal hate crimes statute. Only if the passengers in the waiting room, incited by the announcement, perceived David to be Italian (whether he was or not) and beat or killed him before boarding their flight would the law kick in. FROM A LAW PROFESSOR IN FORT LAUDERDALE Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 18:33:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [TheDolphinDemocrats] Thanks Waymon and I are sorry that we could not come to today’s meeting, but we are leaving for Washington DC for his sister’s wedding. We both wanted to express our appreciation for all of the hard work that Ken Keechl did for us over the past weekend. Without his hard work behind the scenes, we would not have had the result that we got. It was not until he was involved did the airport take the situation seriously. For those who did not follow the story (or only read the slanted story in the Sun-Sentinel), here is what happened: On Tuesday morning while Waymon and I were waiting for our luggage, we heard a weird announcement come over the airport’s PA system. It said that “a man who lies with another man as he would a woman shall be subject to death.” Upon hearing this twice, we looked for security or a phone, but could not find either one. We went home, and I called the airport when I woke up that morning. After talking with several different people, I finally was able to talk to the manager of the airport. He seemed disinterested, and just closed by saying that he was “sorry for the inconvenience.” I waited one day to see if he would follow up on the complaint. On Wednesday, after not hearing anything from the airport manager, I emailed Ken [a county commissioner] and contacted NBC6. NBC6 did a story and Ken started working his political magic. The next day, I received phone calls from airport officials and the sheriff’s department telling me that they were both doing investigations. On Friday morning, I received a call from the mayor who said that he was holding a press conference to apologize to us. On Sunday, I received a call from the police that they were able to locate the person who made the announcement and that he confessed. Ken contacted me as well. Throughout the interviews, we could not say enough about how much Ken did to move things along. He was constantly checking in with us and making sure that the investigation was continuing. Having Ken immediately push this forward resulted in exactly what we wanted all along – to make sure the person who made this announcement was fired. Waymon and I can’t thank him enough. We have learned many lessons over the past week. First, we realized how important it was to have an openly gay official who could help us. He immediately understood the issue and pushed it when others were not so understanding. Second, we learned how people still blame the victim for these types of events. I have been asked what we were doing to get attention (getting our luggage, by the way). Others quickly questioned our credibility (like I would make this up and possibly lose my license as a lawyer). Some of the media focus was on the Bible, claiming that the main source of our complaint was hearing a Bible verse (see the Sun-Sentinel’s headline this past week). Third, we realized how we need to become more active in our community, so you will be seeing more of us here at Dolphin Dems meetings. The biggest lesson, however, was that we still have so much work to do as a community. The level of hatred that has now been directed towards us this week has been amazing and eye-opening. Just yesterday, a older woman approached Waymon at the grocery story and asked if he had been on TV this week. He said that he had, and she responded by saying: “You faggots deserve what that guy said.” Earlier today, Waymon left the gym and found a piece of paper on his windshield that said “FAG!” Through email and comments to articles online, we have been called every imaginable derogatory name for gay men. Some even said that we must have been having sex in the bathroom and we just heard God talking to us out of guilt. We have kept almost one hundred pages of comments that have circulated about us and the incident. The majority of them have been hate-filled and even scary. We are actually a bit scared and are taking security precautions, simply because we spoke out about hearing the words “subject to death” on the PA system of an international airport. As I have said several times this week, if the words preceding “subject to death” were “Americans”, “Christians”, or “Muslims” instead of referring to gays, homeland security would have been involved! All of these threats and hateful words we have heard this week just prove that we, along with Ken, took the right steps in pushing this important issue. I would like to close again by thanking Ken and all of the officials that stepped up and helped solve this matter. Waymon Hudson & Anthony S. Niedwiecki Ass’t Prof. of Law Director of LSV Program Shepard Broad Law Center Nova Southeastern Univ. Tomorrow (I hope): ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’
1.8 Million Species, But a Single Stamp May 15, 2007January 6, 2017 BOREF According to this press release last week, Gilbert Thomson has signed on to get WheelTug certified with the FAA and has 30 years’ experience in the field. ‘I’m proud to help make this groundbreaking technology a reality,’ he says. Time will tell. ‘GEORGIA RULE’ Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, and Lindsay Lohan. It’s set in Idaho, not Georgia, and it’s good. (I went having no idea what to expect – my favorite way to see a movie.) Click here. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE II Ron G.: ‘Your mention of the Encyclopedia of Life is a good thing. For readers interested in more detailed and somewhat critical discussion of the project, this is helpful. It’s at a biologist’s blog titled ‘Pharyngula: Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.’ It’s very popular.’ ☞ With a title like that, how could it not be? ‘There are some related projects [Ron continues], like Tree of Life, which emphasizes phylogeny (evolutionary relatedness) so that even if a species is now extinct, one can learn what its relatives are (or were) like. TOL and EOL should obviously collaborate. Also, a bunch of different relevant databases aimed at particular taxa already exist (FishBase, CephBase, Hexacoral, etc.), and a number of these face the real possibility of becoming financially orphaned.’ FOREVER STAMPS Ralph: ‘Thanks to your suggestion, on Monday the Post Office started selling first-class stamps that are good ‘forever.’ Today will be the last time I will trade-in the remaining stamps (currently 88) on my roll of 100.’ ☞ I hardly think it was thanks to my suggestion, but it is a bureaucratic triumph barely a million years from conception to execution. Larry: ‘The forever stamp is valid on international mail (contrary to what one of your readers feared). From the USPS site: ‘The postage value of the Forever Stamp is always the domestic First-Class Mail single-piece 1-ounce letter rate that is in effect on the day of use (mailing).’ So when the rate for mailing a standard letter goes to 43 cents, the forever stamp will be worth 43 cents towards the postage on international mail.’
Listen to the General May 14, 2007March 6, 2017 CBS fires Gen. Batiste over VoteVets ad. Iraq veteran Gen. John Batiste ‘has been asked to leave his position as a consultant to CBS News’ over a new VoteVets ad criticizing the Iraq war. He was interviewed [Thursday] by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. From Carolyn Kay: ‘Click through to watch the video. You can be for the war and do commentary for CBS, but you can’t be against the war and do commentary for CBS. And just how is this different from the blacklisting of the 1950s?’ ☞ General Batiste is a strong Republican. It’s really worth watching at least the first few minutes of this 6-minute video. Lots more stuff to write today, but the General deserves our undivided attention.
A Graduation Day Gift (And Don't Forget Mom on Sunday!) May 11, 2007March 6, 2017 YOU NEVER CALL . . . Wayne Arczynski: ‘Never! Never! Never put your email address on a web page! Just as Google traverses the web to index content, a bazillion spam and phishing engines do the same looking for email addresses, phone numbers, SSN numbers and credit card numbers. Expect a serious increase in spam and phishing in about a week.’ ☞ Ugh. Well, too late now, I guess. But I was desperate to hear from you guys. IT’S FIXED! It seems AOL’s server suddenly – after all these years – somehow stopped communicating with my web site provider’s server. So my trusty webmaster, Jason, has switched the ME-MAIL address to a non-AOL account and we’re back in business. BOREALIS Joe: ‘Are you sure the plane moved?’ ☞ Joe attached a copy of his confirmed purchase yesterday morning of 400 shares at $8.50. All I can say is, you must truly only do this with money you can afford to lose – because you may. But just as (to me, anyway) the facts of the Nitromed story last year made the stock’s high valuation bizarrely irrational – and its puts a greta speculation – so what we know of Borealis makes its low valuation bizarrely irrational. Not to say the company can’t fail – it absolutely can fail. But why is the chance it will succeed currently valued at under $45 millon? (Five million shares at $8.50 each when Joe bought his.) A Jackson Pollock painting recently fetched $140 million, more than three times as much. And it’s not the only one he did. GAS PRICES Gennady: ‘Please explain to this neophyte how this works: GOP lowers the prices for mid-term elections, loses them, then raises the prices? If this is the logic, why did they wait six months? Nov. 8 was as good time as any, and if the price increases were instituted for profits, why start in May 07 instead of Nov 06? Makes little sense. Your obsession with Reps and Bush reminds me an old saying: ‘If all you have is a hammer, the rest of world looks like a nail.’ Admit it, not every problem, catastrophe or event are Bush’s fault!’ ☞ I admit it. And I absolutely don’t know for sure that the Saudis and the oil companies leaned against high gasoline prices in advance of the election. But they surely did not want to see the gavels change hands. And they surely have a bit of influence over oil prices. Given their past track record, and their closeness to the Administration, I think it’s naive to think this could not have been a factor. (Look at how the Administration failed to lean against high electricity prices in the artificial California crisis, despite the clear power of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to do so.) This is an Administration that got elected saying of their giant tax cuts that ‘by far, the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder.’ This is an Administration that got elected promising a humble foreign policy – yet was planning how to split up Iraq’s oil even before 9/11. This an Administration that even under subpoena from the General Accounting Office would not release the names of the participants in Vice President Cheney’s energy task force. This is a team that threw out thousands of ‘overvotes’ in Florida because the intent of the voter – who had punched Gore but also written in Gore – could not be discerned. So, no, I may have just been lucky in guessing that gas prices would rebound after the election (‘don’t sell your oil stocks’). But please don’t tell me the oil interests didn’t want a Republican win or that the oil interests have no influence over the price of oil. (As to the timing, would it really have been possible – or smart – to drop the price of gasoline a buck and a half November 6 and then hike it back up November 8? Would that have left you arguing that it was just coincidence, as you do now?) FOR FATHER’S DAY, FOR GRADUATION I am in a twelve-step program for self-promotion (‘Hello. I’m Andy and I’m a shameless self-promoter.’ ‘Hi, Andy!’), but this generous review over at Amazon a few weeks ago knocked me off the wagon: Truly the only investment guide you will ever need!, March 24, 2007 Reviewer: Douglas Lindal “SeaBear” (Seattle, WA USA) I purchased my first copy of Mr. Tobias’s book when I was in my mid thirties and it truly changed my life. I found it to be such practical advice that I started following it immediately. Written in a self depreciating manner the author just made the complicated financial decisions we all mishandle or put off seem so simple. Insurance, banking, investments, clipping coupons, saving money – he addresses it all and you can understand it. I am now 56 and retired and I know a lot of it I owe to this book. Read it! ☞ I net 82 cents if you buy the book, so I hope you will. 65 years ago today two very wonderful people got married in New York