Daddy Longlegs Spiders are Cool

First, if you think you can just take a daddy longslegs to work, place it on a plant and expect it to start building a web and catching little gnats you're wrong.  Yeah, in hind sight I know it sounds a little stupid.  (note: next time get a garden spider that doesn't mind being in the open/light)

Within minutes of being placed on said plant I could see him/her pushing out the fishing line, hoping it would catch a breeze and whisk it off to some darker corner.  Of course I'm in an office and the only breeze is coming straight down from the ventilation.  Yet within a minute it was traversing a 3 foot length from my plant to my monitor and 20 seconds later he was 5 feet away and setting up shop comfortably in the dark behind one of my "guest" chairs!  How the hell did it manage that so damn fast?  They are truly amazing creatures.

Screw you HSBC!

HSBC has pulled off what is my opinion is one of the biggest asshole moves a company can make.  First, they are diluting the company value and asking current investors to chip in more to keep their ownership constant.  They are offering everyone 5 shares for every 12 shares they hold, but you have to buy the 5 shares at a price of 254 pence.  Current market price is 400 pence so by my math after the dilution the market is valuing HSBC at 282 pence (400 x 12/17) so it's a discount of 30 pence, which isn't much of a bargain.

On top of all of that most everyone I know got a notice in the mail Monday evening (3/23).  The notice said that if you wanted to pay up then they needed to receive your check (in pounds sterling no less!) by 4/3 at 3pm.  If you wanted any of their other options then they had to receive the letter by 3/27 at 3pm!  And of course they're in London so we're talking a long journey in the mail.  I pretty much feel extorted by the whole situation and opted for a middle option where they sell half my shares to cover the price for the other half my shares (I guess there's some inherent value in the warrants but they never disclose that, maybe it's just the 30 pence discount!) and they'll send me however many shares come out of that.  Of course there's no way in hell they are getting my letter, mailed 3/26, so maybe I'll just get a check (cheque) out of this and have 30% of the company I rightfully owned through stock yanked out from under me.  This just doesn't seem right.

Beneficial Nematodes

The Home Depot product description: (bold = my emphasis added)

Beneficial Nematodes are microscopic warriors that kill soil borne pests such as flea larvae, spidermites, fungus gnat, weevils, grubs, rootworms, cutworms, and many more. These Nematodes search, find, and kill pests living in the soil. They are extremely effective, and will reproduce and spread to provide you with long lasting organic pest control.

• Economical
• Effective! (<- their !, not mine)
• Fun for the garden
• Natural
• MFG Model # : 361
• MFG Part # : 361
• ADA Compliant : Yes (American Dental, Diabetes, Dietetic Association or Americans with Disabilities Act?)
• Assembled Depth (In Inches) : 6 In.
• Assembled Height (In Inches) : 4 In.
• Assembled Weight (In LBS) : 1
• Assembled Width (In Inches) : 4 In.
• Indoor or Outdoor : Outdoor
• Longevity : 12 months
• Stains : No

Fungus... Gnats!

"Ever notice those irritating little insects that fly out of the soil when you water your potted indoor plants? You are probably seeing fungus gnats."


Indeed, it appears that I am!


"An adult fungus gnat lays up to 200 eggs during the one week it spends as an adult winged gnat. The adult then dies. Legless larvae hatch out in about four days. After two weeks of feeding, larvae spend about three to four days as pupae before emerging as the next generation of adults."


Oh shit!


"Apply beneficial nematodes (Steinernematids or Neoaplectanids) to control larvae."


Spiders? OK!

In Harmony with Nature

As usual, plants that I tend to introduce into an environment seem to gather their own wildlife, as I mentioned earlier.  Gnats have gone from "a few" to "several" in very little time.  I'm not exactly sure how they are thriving, but they are.  I set out to find a spider to control my problem passively.

Instead I found a lady bug nymph!  It may not have any effect on my gnats, but I'm excited to see if it cruises for scales.  I have long suspected that I only see the mature and established scales, which I have been removing from my plant, but that there was some dense subculture of immature scales.  I think that my young lady bug friend will be able to infiltrate the source and thrive.  Now if only it could move a little faster maybe it could catch some gnats as well!

A Troubling Thought...

While keeping myself fairly informed on the situation given my general curiosity towards economics, I have generally not been concerned with the economic turmoil facing the country.  That has mostly been because of the single selfish viewpoint that as long as I am still employed and earning money I can wait out everything occurring to my investments and retirement accounts.

Something just troubled me, and it won't trouble me for long but it's still unsettling enough to document.  Even though I have a bank account that shows a balance, that money has been spent by someone.  Every bank right now is for the most part insolvent (the loans it made with my money are not expected to be repaid meaning the money is gone).  The government has promised that it would print more money but that's not very satisfying.  The government is trying to hide the fact that it's printing money by instead concocting a crazy program where hedge funds will buy these loans at inflated prices from banks.  The hedge funds get most of their money from the government (printing money) and the hedge funds are profiting more through transaction fees than the hope of these assets ever making a profit.  It's all a way to follow the accounting rules that at this point seem irrelevant.  The reason I'd prefer nationalization is because then everything would be transparent.  Instead of closed door meeting the government could just fess up that it's holding a bunch of crappy mortgages and would print money that I earned at some point and may have been lost in the shuffle.  The best answer in my opinion is still the tough answer, and that's the one that no president has the balls to deliver.  Instead we are spoon-fed the answer that the situation is difficult but manageable and everything will be fine.  Thanks, but maybe I'm fine with things being crappy for people so they can get a dose of something that's actually good for them, not just something that tastes good.  Eat your damn vegetables!

Miracle Fruit Progress

We're getting up close to track the progress of the new growth of the Miracle Fruit plant.  It's been two weeks and I've had to defend it from various bugs, tried adding a guardian spider who after attempting suicide I decided to free in the wild, and I'm fertilizing it with used coffee grounds.  This plant is in for an experience!

Miracle Fruit Project

Expect pictures to be posted as I see progress or lack of progress in my growing of a Miracle Fruit bush.  One site said it could produce fruit when it was as little as 12'' tall.  It's 9'' right now but apparently grows very very slowly.

Annualization is not a word...

Suggestions:
animalization
naturalization
cannibalization
tantalization

It's so hard to choose!

Stop Annualizing Already!!!

"Consumer borrowing fell at an annual rate of $7.48 billion in December, which followed an $9.13 billion drop in November."


Annualizing one month is fine for these purposes but you can't keep compounding it!  I'm going to start a news outlet that will sensationalize current events by millenializing all data.  


That's right, there was a $9,130,000,000,000 ($9.13 Trillion) millenialized drop in consumer borrowing in November and then a $7,480,000,000,000 ($7.48 Trillion) millenialized drop in consumer borrowing in December! DO THE MATH then FREAK OUT!.  This news report brought to you by Kelloggs. 

A Little Too Strict

Here's what you'll see if you're on the LA Times website and want to post a comment about a news article:

"If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate."


I found this odd.

Finite, Then and Now

These cuts, while regrettable, were necessary, Kim says. “In a world where we find finite resources becoming a little more finite, we had to make decisions about (the) best place to utilize those resources.”