Category: agricluture

Some of Henry Ford’s ideas were way ahead of their time. In fact a few ideas were so far out that they went nowhere, but not for lack of merit. For example, Ford was always looking for ways to save money on the costs of materials but without sacrificing quality, design integrity or safety. From his childhood background on a farm, and because many of his customers were farmers, Ford was deeply interested in agriculture. Ford often commented that crops could grow quickly, “as compared with lumber or especially iron ore.” So Ford funded a laboratory to assist farmers to find a way to use crops in industrial applications. Ford hired a highly regarded chemist named Robert Boyer to run the lab, where dozens of workers researched industrial uses for farm crops such as cantaloupes, carrots and beets.
Among other crops, Henry Ford was a great promoter of soybeans. In one marketing effort that Ford intended to impress his farmer-customers, every vehicle that Ford sold came with a bushel of soybeans on the front seat. And during the Great Depression, Ford entertained visitors at luncheons in which every course contained locally grown soybeans. The Ford menu included tomato juice with soybean sauce, soybean cookies and soybean candy for dessert.
But Ford used soybeans to do more than just amuse visitors at lunch. Ford was looking for projects that combined industry with the output of agriculture. Among other things, Ford had an abiding interest in developing soybean-based plastics. Throughout the 1930s Ford pioneered the use of soybeans in plastics that he used in his automobiles. The soybean components included plastic parts (even body panels), seat covers and paint. Ford’s soybean-automobile project culminated in August 1941, when he patented an automobile made almost entirely of soybean plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame.
Ford’s soybean-car weighed 30% less than a car made of steel. Even better, the plastic panels did not rust. And an array of experiments concluded that they were ten times as durable as steel. Ford claimed that plastic panels made the car safer than traditional steel cars because the car could roll over without being crushed. Ford hoped that the new soybean plastic would replace metal, which was in short supply in the years just before World War II as the U.S. government was building up the country’s navy. Furthermore, Ford’s soybean-car ran on grain alcohol — yes, ethanol — instead of gasoline.
Ford’s engineers were building a second soybean-based car when the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. Because of the war, the federal government suspended all U.S. automobile production for the duration of the conflict. Thus Ford’s soybean-based car experiment languished. Almost all of the Ford Company’s resources were directed towards war-related production. Indeed, in one gigantic undertaking Ford converted the massive facility at Willow Run, Michigan to building B-24 bombers. At one point during the war, the Willow Run plant rolled a brand-new B-24 — made of over 140,000 separate parts — off the assembly line every hour. This was a far cry from building automobiles — made of soybeans or otherwise. By the end of the war in September 1945 the idea of a soybean car had simply fallen through the cracks.
Henry Ford died in 1947, aged 84. And we can only speculate about what might have happened if Henry Ford and his company had continued to pursue the idea of a car made out of soybeans, and powered by ethanol

Question asked on 03/14/2008 at 06:36 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

The ability to create credit now extends far beyond the reach of the traditional banking system. A revolution is transforming the credit markets, establishing links among borrowers and lenders that previously would have been impossible.

Every imaginable stream of future cash flow — from car and mortgage payments to the loans that fund private equity deals — can be "securitized" and sold to the highest bidder. Securitization is simply the process whereby a stream of future cash flow becomes pledged to a separate legal entity, which then divvies up the cash flow among different "tranches," or classes, of creditors.

The growth of securitization has truly altered the global economy, and most choose to focus only on the positives. But like everything in life, the securitization revolution has its positives and negatives.

One negative consequence is that financial markets are starting to shape the destiny of the real economy, not the other way around. Storied currency speculator George Soros was one of the first to speak publicly about the phenomenon of markets shaping economies. He calls it the theory of "reflexivity" and described it when testifying in front of Congress in 1994:

The generally accepted theory is that financial markets tend toward equilibrium and, on the whole, discount the future correctly. I operate using a different theory, according to which financial markets cannot possibly discount the future correctly, because they do not merely discount the future; they help to shape it [emphasis added]. In certain circumstances, financial markets can affect the so-called fundamentals which they are supposed to reflect. When that happens, markets enter into a state of dynamic disequilibrium and behave quite differently from what would be considered normal.

In Soros' view, the judgments and emotions of today's financial market participants can alter future economic fundamentals. For example, as a company's stock grows more coveted by wild-eyed speculators, its cost of capital gets lower and lower as its stock skyrockets; the higher its stock price, the more capital a company can raise in a secondary stock offering by issuing a set amount of shares. So its ability to reinvest capital and grow — its future — is shaped by the whims of speculators.

Another negative consequence of the securitization revolution: The further a lender is separated from a borrower, the more potential there is for fraud on the part of the borrower and underestimation of risk on the part of the lender. Very bad loans tend to be made when this is the case, as those who've dabbled in subprime mortgages are discovering, and the process of discovering just how many doomed-to-fail mortgages were written is far from over. On one end of the lending chain are plenty of fraudulent "liars' loans" yet to default, and on the other are plenty of lenders who don't fully understand the risks they are taking.

Wall Street investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns have long outpaced traditional commercial banks in the race to originate the most profitable loans. Proliferation of CDOs has enabled the best salesmen on the Street to stuff all manner of debt down the gullet of formerly unsuspecting institutional buyers. But ever since these buyers started refusing unfriendly provisions like payment-in-kind (PIK) toggles, investment banks have had to retain far larger morsels of LBO debt than they had planned.

Indigestion tends to lower an appetite, and institutional investors' appetite for junk bonds is spoiling just as Wall Street tries to serve them heaps of acidic securities. While CDOs have shifted risk away from the banking system by linking borrowers with lenders from around the world, they have not lessened default risk; they've merely transferred it to unsuspecting lenders that are just beginning to push back.

Question asked on 09/14/2007 at 06:27 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

When we went on a vacation 20 years ago we visited the Vanderbilt estate in North Carolina.
The Vanderbilts were one of the richest people on earth back in the 19th century and part of the elite class.
How did they get so rich? Shipping. They supplied the growing industry that served the masses.
So how does one become filthy rich.
Look at Bill Gates who went from a upper middle class family to the same status of super rich.
He provided something that has served the masses in todays\'s world.
When I was learning 30 years ago about how to get rich I heard a saying,
" If you want to be of class serve the masses."
I had an understanding of this but didn't know how to do it.
Now do you have a way of doing it? Do you really want to do that?
There are alot of sacrifices made to do this.
Let me know your thoughts on this.
Everybody is different and can dream but don't act on their dreams.

Question asked on 06/04/2007 at 07:32 AM :: Comments to date: 1

Category: Business

South Korea is often underestimated. Its Hyundai automobiles are nipping at the heels of Honda and other Japanese giants, offering comparable quality with better prices and better warranties.
On the high-tech front, in just five years, the nation managed to extend broadband Internet access to 72% of its households. It made infrastructure investments to support this.
Even more remarkable, it has assisted poor families in acquiring computers, offered widespread subsidize training, and became the first country on Earth to offer broadband access to every primary, junior and high school.
South Koreans get to use technologies years before they’re offered in the United States. Microsoft and Motorola test products here before introducing them in the United States.
Approximately 17 million of the 48 million people living in South Korea have joined Cyworld, a Web-based service that connects everyone via home pages. This reportedly has changed how people discuss things, form opinions and act.
So, when South Korea announces a high-tech project — even an audacious one — it pays to listen.
Now, reports the New York Times, the country has marshaled “an army of scientists and business leaders to make robots full members of society.”
The vision is quite robust, even breathtaking. The intent is that by the end of this year a new kind of robot will enter mass production and sweep through the society into common use.
These robots will serve as ideal nannies to help overworked parents. They will teach children English and perhaps other subjects. They will entertain the kids by singing and dancing and perhaps even play games with them.
Though not discussed in the article, clearly such robots could begin to take the place of teachers for certain purposes. Eventually, as their sophistication grows, they could serve as ideal tutors. They would be ever-patient, tailoring both content and their style of teaching to the needs of the specific student.
The Koreans envision that these robots will have broader uses. For example, for people visiting retail establishments they could answer routine questions, thereby taking the place of greeters such as those employed at Wal-Mart.
They could also take the place of security guards for routine inspections and monitoring of facilities.
The plan is that robots will be in every South Korean household not later than 2020. This project has brought together 30 South Korean companies and approximately 1,000 scientists from universities and research institutes. It is a serious undertaking.
Some see a more aggressive schedule as possible. “My personal goal is to put a robot in every home by 2010,” said Oh Sang Rok, manager of the Ministry of Information and Communication’s intelligent service robot project.
Other countries also have robotics development programs. However, South Korea has focused on consumer market robots that will derive much of their knowledge and capability from being part of a network — a network that will be enhanced by South Korea’s imminent success at making itself the world’s first nation with universal mobile high-speed Internet access.
This is a perfect example of converging technologies, something I’ve been preaching for over a year will largely drive the future.
Prototype robots have already been tested in 64 households and several post offices. In October, a second phase of testing will involve 650 households and 20 public places.
Yujin Robot is confident that it can put these networked, low-cost consumer service robots on the market starting this year. Currently, it offers small, $500 robots that replace vacuum cleaners and brooms. They've been quite successful.
Kim Mun Sang, director of the Center for Intelligent Robotics, commented that "…eventually robots could change how we live in a way we can't predict right now… No one ever thought the PC and the Internet would transform our society the way they have."
He's right. The social consequences of all this are impossible to predict. However, we can be certain that the ripple effects of such a revolution will go far beyond those anticipated by the South Korean planning authorities, and far beyond the country’s shores.
Successful mass production of such remarkable appliances will surely lead to their widespread adoption and deployment in all other industrialized nations. If South Korea becomes the world leader in robotics manufacturing, as now seems possible, it will assure that country a competitive future for years to come.
There is, however, a larger question… As robots prove capable of performing an ever-greater range of tasks with competency equal to or greater than humans, a growing percentage of the population will become not just unemployed but unemployable unless they can rapidly learn new skills.

Question asked on 06/03/2007 at 07:25 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

I have been writing this for one year now.

I hope you all have had some success following my rambleings.

Please write back to me for comments because I do need to know how you like what I post.

I want to help all those that are willing to work at their betterment.

Thank You

Question asked on 05/21/2007 at 10:14 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

USU is a long term keeper.

Question asked on 05/20/2007 at 05:12 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Scientists have discovered a way to measure molecular motion that’s so fast; it’s hard to find a real-world analogy.

As a child, did you ever play the game where a deck of cards was riffed so that at first you saw the top card, then the second card and so on…at the rate of multiple cards per second?

If you did, you were no doubt delighted (as was I) by the illusion of motion thereby created.

Movies work in exactly the same way. A professional projector can display 32 frames per second. Each image is still, yet their rapid display in succession fools the eye and the brain into believing there is movement.

Some physicists believe the whole universe actually works this way. In effect, on an incomprehensibly short time frame, everything in the universe is “born,” then exists for a blindingly fast moment, “dies” and the process is repeated again and again.

The only difference from one “frame” to another, according to this theory, is that the motion of objects is reflected by their changing position from frame one to frame two.

The theory sounds bizarre, and yet we will never be able to judge its accuracy through our senses. On the other hand, scientists have now taken a giant leap towards instruments capable of making such measurements.

BBC News reports that scientists at Imperial College have developed a way to track changes in molecular movement on an attosecond scale.

Attosecond? No, that’s not a typo, and don’t feel bad if you thought so. I’d never heard of this word either. An attosecond is one billionth of a billionth of a second.

The technique uses a special laser.
According to Dr. John Tisch, of Imperial College, the procedure fires an intense laser pulse at a molecule. This tears an electron away. The electron is pulled back into the molecule and a burst of x-rays is generated.

The laser’s effect on protons in the molecule is indicated by the x-rays. It can be determined to an interval of 100 attoseconds.

Dr. Tisch commented that if the distance from Earth to Jupiter were a second, then an attosecond would be the distance of a human hair.

This kind of profound accuracy can help scientists track molecular behavior in chemical reactions. This technological breakthrough therefore has implications Symyx (SMMX: NASDAQ).

Symyx leads the world in commercial molecular simulations.
Symyx has just reported a bad quarter and is on the chopping block.
For future buying opportunities watch this stock and buy it once it has shown a base and a little rebound.

Question asked on 05/01/2007 at 07:31 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Physorg.com reports that researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute have found a 3-D way to design solar cells. The design uses tiny "tower" structures like high-rise buildings in a city. The new cells trap light between their tower structures.

Jud Ready, a senior research engineer on the team, said, "Our goal is to harvest every last photon that is available to our cells. By capturing more of the light in our 3-D structures, we can use much smaller photovoltaic arrays. On a satellite or other spacecraft, that would mean less weight and less space taken up with the PV system."

The tiny towers are 100 microns tall and 40 microns by 40 microns square. They stand just 10 microns apart, and contain millions of carbon nanotubes. Flat polysilicon-based solar cells reflect much of the light that strikes them.

Unlike flat cells, the new towers absorb light received from many different angles. This means they are efficient even when the sun is not directly overhead. This gives them the advantages of active solar systems that track the sun, but at the expense of energy use.

They could be used on spacecraft, reducing weight and complexity and improving reliability. These are all vital considerations where each pound is worth millions of dollars.

Further, because the 3-D cells absorb more of the photons than conventional cells, their coatings can be made thinner. This means the electrons can move to power lines more quickly, which cuts the reabsorption of electrons -- a problem with conventional solar cells.

Not surprisingly, nanotechnology is involved. A special process grows the towers at the molecular level on an iron substrate. They are then coated with cadmium telluride and cadmium sulfide to create photovoltaic layers. A thin coating of conducting material is added to complete them.

Cadmium was chosen because it seemed a suitable material. However, many other materials can be used and will be tested to optimize efficiency. Likewise, height and spacing for the towers needs to be optimized.

NewCyte, an Ohio company, is developing designs for using the towers in Earth-based solar collector panels.
There is a gap of at least several years from successful prototype of a new design to manufacture and commercialization. When that happens, the design must be incorporated into a system that’s user-friendly, reliable, easy to install and easy to maintain.

Should this new technology fulfill its promise, it will need a vendor such as Akeena to take it to market. While another company could wind up with the technology, Akeena is rapidly emerging as one of a handful of leaders in America’s solar industry.

Akeena (AKNS) has the most customer-centered philosophy of any of the serious players. That gives it a good chance of access to this technology, when these micro-towers are ready for market.
I am not recomending this penny stock yet but keep it in your watch folder to see when is the best time to buy it.

Question asked on 04/23/2007 at 05:11 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Visionary

The BBC reports that a virus has been used as scaffolding to build nanoparticles. The mosaic virus normally attacks black-eyed pea plants. It’s just 30 nanometers in size (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter).

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have successfully added iron-containing molecules to the surface of this virus. The result is electronically active nanoparticles. They believe this will in the future facilitate the manufacture of nanotechnology electrical devices.

The work is yet another example of how scientists are now trying to engineer objects on the scale of atoms and molecules.

Question asked on 04/22/2007 at 04:48 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Politics and the Economy

The year is 1906. One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1906

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47.

A three-minute call from Denver cost eleven dollars. There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the US. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME-ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press. AND the government as "sub-standard." Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. ?? (EE-EWW)? Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school. Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

Question asked on 04/11/2007 at 06:53 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

The stock market is toppy. The Feds are still worried about inflation. The US is trying to get sanctions and import fees against China. All the headlines are pointing to an anti-business environment.
On 1/16/07 I made a post about the leading indicators for recession.

No false signals have been given by the 10-year bond minus the three-month T-Bill spread since 1970.

Today this signal has been down long enough to say the recession is coming. This will put a damper on stocks.
The last week high is now the high for along time coming.

Protect yourself on any rallies and buy puts or sell calls or sell some stocks that are going south. Tighten up your stops.

Good Luck.

Question asked on 03/31/2007 at 07:14 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Here’s a suggestion to Mr. Icahn: Why not consider targeting one of the many cheap offshore drillers? Most have already booked up their rigs for a few years under long-term contracts at very attractive dayrates. These contracts provide very visible cash flows, so perhaps a recapitalization is in order?

You have a business for which the underlying assets are increasing in value, not deflating. State-of-the-art drilling equipment has not yet succumbed to the global deflationary pressures we see in businesses like cell phone and chip manufacturing. Cell phone manufacturing capacity is overbuilt yet still receives more and more capital investment worldwide -- good for consumers, bad for producers. But offshore drillers emerged out of a 20-year recession just a few years ago.
Continued:
Furthermore, while earnings visibility is very low at most technology companies, several offshore drillers know the next few years of earnings with a fair degree of confidence. To top it off, they’ll have very valuable rig fleets at the end of the high-visibility period. Who knows what the cell phone industry will look like?

Technology businesses are not considered as “capital intensive” as drillers, but in my view, the ever-present challenge of technology obsolescence more than offsets this. Carl Icahn’s efforts may pay off for shareholders in 2007, but they will magnify, or leverage, the shrinking shareholder base (shrinking due to share buybacks) to the downside of technology’s creative destruction.

Examining the Effects of GlobalSantaFe’s Cash Flow on Its Balance Sheet

When you buy a stock, you are essentially buying a claim on the company’s assets and the cash that those assets generate when they are put to productive use. If you look at the assets on a balance sheet from the bottom up, you see that the least liquid assets are toward the bottom and the most liquid assets are closer to the top. Management’s top job is to extract as much value out of these assets as possible, gradually converting them to cash over long periods of time:

The answer to: "Private Equity V (3/28/07)"

Question asked on 03/28/2007 at 06:12 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Let's see what the capital structure of two well-known companies -- cell phone maker Motorola and offshore driller GlobalSantaFe -- and why private equity and merger activity is likely to continue bidding up drillers.

Most private equity deals seek to optimize the target company’s capital structure, or the appropriate mix of debt and equity claims.

Debt holders have a priority claim on the company’s assets, while equity holders have a residual claim. If things go wrong, debt holders are first in line at bankruptcy court, but their exposure to the good times is basically limited to a fixed stream of payments. Equity holders are left with nothing if the company a) goes bankrupt and b) there’s nothing left after creditors liquidate what’s left of the assets in an attempt to recoup as much of their principal as possible. But equity holders enjoy all the extra cash flow when business is booming.

When used appropriately, debt, or “leverage,” can greatly enhance shareholder returns. Private equity, aka “leveraged buyout,” funds generally look for businesses with solid competitive positions that consistently generate cash. Private equity deals are heating up into a craze because the supply of cheap credit appears to have no limit (until all of a sudden, everyone discovers that there is, in fact, a limit).

Continued;

The answer to: "Private Equity IV (3/27/07)"

Question asked on 03/27/2007 at 06:05 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Word of mouth is the best way of knowing what is going on. If you talk to or email someone you know they will usually read or listen to what you have to say. As you can see I am human and don't have a crystal ball but I have made some good recomendations and I believe that some that haven't are still going to make it.
I want to poll my readers and find out who is reading. This way I can see what they like or don't like.

Please send back your comments and let me know what you like or dislike about my writings.
Also, please include what your professions are so I can determine who my audience is.
Thank You for responding

Question asked on 03/22/2007 at 06:58 AM :: Comments to date: 2

Category: Business

So whether it is a former startup that grows and eventually sells out to PE or a mainstream, old-line firm that gets bought out from a major stock exchange, PE moves in to take over. Private equity funds typically control management of the companies in which they invest. Often, PE brings in new management teams that focus on making the company more valuable. At least that is the idea.

Critics, of course, have a less charitable view, which can be boiled down to the accusation that PE takeovers are little more than “strip and flip” operations. That is, the new guys take over and promptly lay off lots of personnel (usually, goes the claim, they lay off the ones who know how to run the business). Then the new guys sell the good stuff, load the company up with debt, and bail out by selling the corporate carcass to gullible investors who are too dumb to know any better. There have been quite a few examples of this kind of relatively destructive PE management activity in the past few years (one fast-food chain that shall remain unnamed offers a Whopper of an example), but then again, one can cite publicly traded companies that have financially engineered themselves into the dirt as well (Sunbeam and the mercurial “Chain Saw” Al Dunlap come to mind). As is the case with many things in this world, however, the truth depends upon the situation. Nothing is all good or all bad.

Question asked on 03/22/2007 at 06:18 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

What is PE? In a broad and general sense, PE is a term that commonly refers to any type of “equity” investment in an asset, but in which the underlying equity does not trade freely on a public stock market like the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Also, in a general sense, PE refers to the manner in which the funds have been raised, namely on the private markets. Many people use the term “private equity” interchangeably with the term “private equity funds,” which are committed pools of managed capital, raised from private sources.

Currently, some PE funds invest across a broad spectrum of industries. KKR, Texas Pacific Group, Blackstone, and Carlyle are well-known names in this area, and there are many others. Some PE funds focus on investments in particular industries, such as energy, technology, or health care. In many instances, PE firms invest in companies listed on public exchanges, by buying up the stocks and taking them private. But PE might also purchase a company from private holders, such as an individual or family (often as part of a succession plan), or from a closely held group of owners who want to cash out.

Spectrum of Investment Methods: Not a Hedge Fund

PE funds are part of a spectrum of investment methods. For comparison, let’s look at how PE differs from hedge funds. Hedge funds are vehicles that work with an investment of pooled funds, almost always open only to “accredited investors.” PE tends to take a relatively long-term view of investing, such as a four-eight-year horizon (and sometimes even longer), for reasons that we will review toward the end. In contrast, a hedge fund usually is focused on short-term trading opportunities, with traders using instruments such as arbitrage, swaps, derivatives, and other forms of financial leverage. In many instances, and again unlike the case with PE, the hedge fund traders might have little fundamental knowledge of the companies or industries in which they are conducting their trading, but to them it does not matter. The hedge fund traders are following the trading action, the price movement, and the overall market volatility in an effort to capture short-term gains.

Hedge funds usually charge a performance fee against both the principal within the fund, and any gains over time. Despite much criticism of their short-term view of just trading in and trading out of stocks and other ownership instruments, hedge funds have grown very much in size and influence on both the public securities and private investment markets.

Continued

The answer to: "What Is Private Equity? (3/21/07)"

Question asked on 03/21/2007 at 06:11 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Visionary

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the remote reservation asked their new chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But, being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, “Is the coming winter going to be cold?”

“It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again.

“Is it going to be a very cold winter?”

“Yes,” the man at the National Weather Service again replied, “It’s definitely going to be a very cold winter.”

The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again.

“Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?”

“Absolutely,” the man replied.

“It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever.”

“How can you be so sure?” the chief asked.

The weatherman replied, “The Red Indians are collecting wood like crazy.”

Continued-

The answer to: "A Tale of Predictions (3/11/07)"

Question asked on 03/11/2007 at 08:39 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.
For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321.
The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.
The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.
This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it Is seldom used because people don't know it exists.

Question asked on 12/06/2006 at 06:40 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

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If you are interested in this continue on.

The answer to: "Do you want to make money? Level 2 (10/30/06)"

Question asked on 10/30/2006 at 08:07 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

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For every $10,000 invested in July of 2003 our business at all levels would have yielded $156,142.00 by August of 2006 versus only $15,435.00 if those funds had been invested in the S&P 500 stock index.

Our business model allows us to help you while you help us. Here's how - Continued.

The answer to: "Do you want to make money? (10/28/06)"

Question asked on 10/28/2006 at 09:24 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Are you looking for an investment plan that beats more than 99% of all mutual funds and investment newsletters?

The Master Investor Club is an LLC that invests in anything and everything to make money.
It is one of 5 levels of investment we offer.

For every $1,000,000 invested in July of 2003 our business at all levels would have yielded $15,561,420.00 by August of 2006 versus only $1,544,350 if those monies had been invested in the S&P 500 stock index. There is only 1 investor in each LLC. We do not mix your funds with anyone else's.

You could be 50% richer or 50% poorer by next year depending on what you invest in.

Our business allows us to help you while you help us. Let me explain- Continued.

The answer to: "Do you want to make more money? #5 (10/26/06)"

Question asked on 10/26/2006 at 07:26 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Are you interested in a simple investment strategy that beats more than 95% of all mutual funds and investment newsletters?

We can give you five, if you're a regular reader, you know how the first 3 work. Here is #4.
The Master Investor Club starts is an LLC that invests in anything and everything to grow your investment.

For every $100,000 invested in July of 2003, our business at all levels would have yielded $1,561,420.00 by August of 2006 compared to $154,350 if you had invested in the S&P 500 stock index. There are 10 investors in each unit. Once $1 million is reached, new unit is started; we treat all units the same.

You could be 50% richer or 50% poorer 12 months from now, depending on how you invest.

Our business allows us to help you while you help us. Let me explain- Continued.

The answer to: "Do you want to make more money? #4 (10/25/06)"

Question asked on 10/25/2006 at 07:19 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Are you searching for a simple, straight forward investment that beats the recommendations of more than 95% of all mutual funds and investment newsletters? We have 5 solid ideas for you to consider.

Investor Club is an LLC that invests in anything and everything to make money grow.
For every $10,000 invested in July of 2003 our business at all levels would have yielded $156,142.00 by August of 2006. This compares with just $15,435 if you had invested $10,000 in the S&P 500 stock index.

You could be 50% richer or 50% poorer by next year depending on your investment decisions.

Our business allows us to help you while you help us. Let me explain -

The answer to: "Do you want to make more money? #3 (10/23/06)"

Question asked on 10/24/2006 at 05:28 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Business

Are you looking for a simple investment that beats more than 99% of all mutual funds and investment newsletters?

It takes as little as $90.00 a month to get these results by joining the Market Club.

The Market Club is a stock market research opinion collection poll taker report that is sold to corporations or individuals that want to use the poll results for their market analysis. We present 5 levels of investment systems for you to make money. Each level gives the participant a chance to make more money.

For every $10,000 invested in July of 2003 our business at all levels would have yielded $156,142.00 by August of 2006 versus only $15,435 if you had been invested in the S&P 500 stock index.

You could be 50% richer or 50% poorer by next year depending on what you invest in.

Our business allows us to help you while you help us. Let me explain- Continued.

The answer to: "Do you want to make more money? #2 (10/23/06)"

Question asked on 10/23/2006 at 06:03 AM :: Comments to date: 0