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!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, March 20, 2009
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!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Annualization is not a word...
Suggestions:
animalization
naturalization
cannibalization
tantalization
It's so hard to choose!
animalization
naturalization
cannibalization
tantalization
It's so hard to choose!
Friday, March 06, 2009
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.
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.
"If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate."
I found this odd.
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