Lofty Matters

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A drop in solar activity has the potential to effect the climate on earth.

The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years.  An entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being recorded.

This event is significant because many climatologists now believe that solar magnetic activity (which determines the number of sunspots) has an influence on the earth’s climate.

According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month passed without a spot. The last time this occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected and recorded since 1749.

When the sun is active it is common to see sunspot numbers of over 100 in a single month. Every 11 years the activity slows and numbers briefly drop to near zero.  Then the sunspots return quickly as a new cycle begins.

This year, however, has been very long and quiet.  The first seven months averaged a sunspot number of only 3. Then August followed with none at all.

In 2005, a pair of astronomers attempted to publish a paper after research on minute spectroscopic and magnetic changes in the sun. They reached the conclusion that within 10 years sunspots would vanish altogether. Most of their peers laughed at their conclusion and their paper was rejected.

Similar events in the past 1000 years have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called a “mini ice age”. Because our society is dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. The growing season would shorten, yields would drop, and the crop-destroying frosts would increase.

Tags: solar activity, sunspot, sunspots

I feel so encouraged when I learn about new services designed to enhance safety on the internet!

SarvaSECURE is a new service that is designed to keep your ecommerce store safe as it increases conversions. With a combination of remote vulnerability scanning, complete protection from hackers, and protection for your visitors from adware, spyware, browser exploits, spammers, phishing attacks and online scams sarvaSECURE is a smart choice for your ecommerce site.

Benefits:

Sarvasecure boosts online sales.

SarvaSECURE will increase conversion rates (as much as 40%!).

SarvaSECURE will boost consumer confidence in the safety of your web site.

SarvaSECURE is easy to use. No additional hardware or software required.

SarvaSECURE provides vulnerability scanning that is non-invasive.

SarvaSECURE costs $99 a year. This is less than 10% of what comparable services cost.

Tags: ecommerce, increase web sales, sarvasecure, seo, website conversions

Happy Weekend to you! The first weekend of fall. How’s the weather where you are? Still summer-like….or is autumn taking hold? We’ve been quite warm where I live but a front is moving through today some time and on the other side they are promising crisp, fall weather. I have to say I’m looking forward to it!

Here is some good news to start your weekend off right! Enjoy…

Georgia Superintendent Donates $1M Prize to Schools

Georgia Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox proved she is smarter than a 5th grader by winning $1 million for her school system on the third season debut of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”

She is the first contestant to win the big $1 million.

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: “Who was the longest reigning British monarch?”

Answer: Queen Victoria (63 years)

Solar Stocks Set to Shine After Senate Measure

Solar stocks rallied after the Senate voted to continue tax breaks amounting to $18 billion for renewable energy sources. This includes an eight-year extension for solar.

Federal renewable energy tax credits had been set to expire at the end of this year. This is considered critical to helping solar power compete with electricity from coal and fossil fuels. The Senate refused to extend the subsidies eight times earlier this year and this hurt solar stocks because investors didn’t like the lack of government support.

This bill eliminated a $2,000 cap on tax credits for residential solar systems.

A ‘Miracle Tree’ That Could Feed Sub-Saharan Africa

The seedpods from the Moringa Oleifera tree are locally known as “drumsticks” and this sub-Saharan tree is now being called a “miracle tree.”

Moringa leaves contain more beta carotene than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, more Vitamin C than oranges, and more potassium than bananas. Its protein content compares to milk and eggs and its leaves are still available for harvest after the dry season (other food is often scarce). Malnourished children gained weight when supplemented with the leaves.

Its leaves are boiled like spinach. The long seedpods are stewed or cooked like green beans. Laboratory analysis has confirmed the traditional knowledge about the plant.

The leaves and the seedpods and seeds all being edible makes moringa a desirable crop. The seeds also can provide an oil that could be used as biofuel, and the ground seeds may help purify water. Parts of the tree are also used in traditional medicine. It grows quickly which means it would be good for reforestation and reaches a mature height of 30 feet.

All-in-all this seems like a truly “miracle tree.”

Apparently some laptops carried on board by U.S. astronauts were infected with the Gammima.AG virus recently.

This is a password-stealing virus that is intended to transmit login names and passwords back to a central server.

No virus detection was installed on the network and NASA doesn’t know how the virus got onto the laptop. A memory stick is suspected as the source. No command or control systems were compromised.

“This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus,” said NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries during a press conference. “It’s not a frequent occurrence, but this isn’t the first time.”

“We continually refine and update our procedures and do our best to protect the systems on the station,” Humphries said. She also added that security would be tightened up. “Our Expedition 17 crew on the station is working with flight control and engineering teams and with our international partners to identify and eradicate the virus that’s on board and we’ll look for any actions we can take to prevent that from happening again.”

NASA says that their systems are completely protected from the virus but that laptops do still connect through ISS’s KU band data link.

I consider anything that will help me improve my efficiency as a blogger something that will help improve my blogging overall. Let’s face it…no one seems to have enough time to do everything these days. My life is as crammed as anyone else’s and an unfortunate effect of this is a reduction in the quality of your efforts. Yes…sometimes your work just isn’t as good as it could be when you are pressed for time.

I happen to be a bit of a perfectionist who often overschedules herself…so this chafes on me from time to time. I hate it when I don’t measure up to my standards! When I found out about a new release of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard I was immediately very interested. This software is the answer for what many of we bloggers struggle with on a daily basis…TIME.

Listen to how Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Preferred can help you in your blogging efforts.

See?  I told you this was just what you’ve needed!

The typical typist can type about 80-90 words per minute. Most people speak at a rate of 150 words per minute! Imagine how great it would be if you could speed up your typing input to your speaking rate! This software is able to process your speech and produce a copy of your words for many different applications. You can use it for email or for inputting blog posts…simply speak into the included headset (including punctuation…this isn’t as difficult as it sounds) and your words are entered into your PC! This has some amazing possibilities! No more being chained to your keyboard typing endlessly! You can be up and around while you enter your thoughts. I would imagine that you might even notice an increase in the quality of your work as you have the freedom to explore thoughts while you speak.

If you are interested, please see this NY Times Review of DNS10.

Do we really appreciate the magnitude of the financial crisis we see unfolding before our very eyes? It’s tempting to allow the soothing words of politicians to comfort us into believing that this crisis won’t personally touch us…much.

Unfortunately…this is not going to be comfortable and it is very, very real. And it is getting worse with each passing day.

There have been several ideas paraded out in an attempt to put off the inevitable. The economic stimulus checks we all received were great for a few extra trips to Walmart. Did you know that they cost we taxpayers $107 billion and did NOTHING to even slow down the economic downturn?

The next efforts we’ve seen have been the bailouts. These were akin to the little dutch boy with his finger in the dyke holding back the floodwaters.

Last night President Bush presented the latest plan and that is to attempt to protect the growing number of bad debts, failing banks, and dying money market funds. Bush promises that this will effectively end our debt crisis and allow confidence in our system to be restored. Will this work?

Let’s see…

I predict that there will soon be some encouragement for the inexperienced investor to purchase financial assets at low, attractive prices. During this time those that know better will be using this short time of market stability to sell everything that they can for as much as they can.

It’s obvious to the whole world that the US has a huge financial crisis going on here. This latest plan will most likely produce more fear instead of calming nerves. Selling follows fear. World investors abhor risk and following the unveiling of Bush’s latest plan look for these investors to start to bail out on their US investments even faster than they were before.

Unfortunately, the market average will continue its downward trend and our retirement accounts are going to be decimated in the process.

Most Americans have no safety net anymore. Any equity we earned on our mortgages is gone and we are in dangerous debt. As the economy gets worse the unemployment rate will start to climb. At this point the downward trend will begin to get worse fast. Credit card offers will stop. Balance transfer offers will cease. There will be no more lending offers for Americans who are defaulting on all of their current debts.

As this continues where will the Fed get the money they need to fund their plans? They will have two options:

• Borrow from investors who don’t want to lend it to them

or

• Take it from taxpayers who don’t have it to give them

The bailouts that have already occurred have cost us $1 trillion. That’s not the final tab, though. Oh no, no, no. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t stop their continued decline that bill to the taxpayers will be more than $10 trillion.

The wise and prudent will take some steps to protect themselves now.

Look for interest rates to begin to rise. This is simple law of supply and demand. With the demand slated to be exceptionally strong, prices are going to go up dramatically. This also means that the Fed will be forced to pay more interest for the money it needs to fund these bailouts.

Obviously, the rising interest rates are going to affect us personally, too. If your mortgage is financed with a variable rate and you have ANY money in the stock market or bonds get it out NOW and pay off your mortgage before you lose even more money in the stock market.

Also…do NOT increase your debt!

If you have been putting money in an employer sponsored IRA you won’t be able to withdraw it without penalty until you are at least 59.5. You can move your balances though. A gold fund or a precious metal fund or a commodity fund is a good place to put your money right now. Experts agree that gold is going to be a safe place to invest during this crisis.

Investing in real assets is the best course of action at this time. This includes natural gas, mining, minerals, energy, agricultural, livestock, farm land, and precious and industrial metals.

While the housing bubble deflation has been going on for some time now…up until now commercial real estate has not yet begun its deflation process.

Watch how this is going to unfurl, though.

• With house prices declining, people can’t borrow on the equity in their homes to fuel their over consumption any longer

• As interest rates rise, ARMs will also rise…as will the cost of anything that is considered a commodity

• This will also affect consumption and force it to decrease

• As consumption declines, the industries and businesses that depend on consumer consumption will begin to fail

• Workers layoffs will begin in earnest and these people will be forced to reduce their consumption even more

• As the unemployment rate climbs, the rents on commercial real estate will have to be lowered

• This will create an implosion of commercial real estate prices that may be even more significant than the implosion of house prices

• As this is happening, consumers will stop being able to even pay the minimums on their credit cards

• This will result in further escalation of pressure on the already hurting lending institutions

Our foremost goal must be preserving what we have worked hard to earn. Please do NOT allow yourself to be comforted into believing that this “will all work out.” There is a huge sell-off looming and once this starts it is going to shake the world down to its very foundation.

Tags: commodity, economic crisis, Fannie Mae, Fed, Freddie Mac, stock market, unemployment rates

Time for me to learn something new. Have you heard of metaRL? I have heard this word and seen various bits of information about this here and there on the internet, but had never really understood anything about this.

Here is what I have recently learned. If you are an online gamer, this should interest you.

MetaRL is a portal created for people who play virtual games. Through various activities (games, surveys, tasks, and contests) you earn metapoints. Metapoints are basically another name for a virtual world currency that can be converted and used in many online virtual worlds. At this time members can earn free habbo credits, points at SecondLife, Entropia, and also IMVU.

Virtual Gamers should check this out!

Not much more needs to be said.  This cartoon pretty much says it all.

I just read something today that confirms that it certainly isn’t ONLY the US that is teetering on crisis, though.  According to what I read, the global financial system was only 500 trades away from experiencing a global meltdown which was narrowly averted by a last-minute rescue measure by the Fed. If the Fed been just slightly later in its action, huge parts of the global economy would have collapsed.

Tags: crisis, Fed, global meltdown

Are you up for a rousing Howl At the Moon?

I was just reading about a really neat Hollywood piano bar called Howl at the Moon. I don’t know about you…but this nightclub sounds like it would be a very cool spot to spend a really fun evening.

Just listen…

The “dueling piano” format first originated in New Orleans. The music they played was Dixieland, 40’s, and 50’s music. Fast forward to today’s Howl at the Moon and you will find two baby grand pianos on the stage at the nightclub. The piano players are responsible for creating the excitement that Howl at the Moon is famous for. These piano players are hand picked from the best and are thoroughly trained to completely entertain the audience. Most customers are able to sing along with about 90% of the songs in the shows.

Howl at the Moon is entertainment that completely engages the audience. The piano players and staff not only entertain the guests, the guests interact and actually become part of the show.

The first Howl at the Moon opened in 1990 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was an immediate success and they expanded to new locations quickly. There are currently eleven Howl at the Moon locations in the US and they are looking for new locations.

Election Theme Yet Again:  “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Americans are desperate for economic leadership.

Both candidates are relying heavily on promised tax cuts to fix the economy’s major problems. No surprises here, however…both have fallen back on their traditional party instincts.

McCain promises to keep tax rates low for all and to reduce corporate tax. This is a traditional Republican recipe for jump starting a suffering economy and creating jobs.

Obama is proposing tax cuts for the many that will target help on the middle classes. He will eliminate tax cuts for the very wealthy and reserve them for those that need it badly.

The Federal budget deficit, already at $400 billion, will absolutely grow in the new fiscal year.

Spending on healthcare, energy security, and alternative power all may be in danger if the candidates are serious about their promise to balance the books. The market’s lackluster response to the latest economic boost shows that whoever wins in November will face a long struggle to get America strong again.

It is not clear whether the result of the upcoming election will have an impact on either the economy or prospects for investors. Basically, the most powerful man in the world is less influential than one might think.

The actions taken by the Federal Reserve have had a much bigger influence on the US economy than the President’s tax relief package.

As for the markets, a research firm has released statistics showing that the Dow Jones average has risen an average of 7.2% a year under Democratic presidents compared with just 3.6% a year under Republicans.

Let’s not forget the important of the balance of power between Congress and the White House. When Democrats have controlled Congress (predicted to occur this year) the post-election year has been good for investors under a Democrat President (+12% on average) but poorer under a Republican (-1% on average).

History shows that a positive stock market performance between August and October of an election year precedes the re-election of the incumbent party about 80% of the time.  A weak stock market has a similar ability to predict a change in party.

No one has said this won’t be interesting!

Tags: Congress, democrat, Economy, Federal Reserve, McCain, Obama, Presidential election, republican, stock market