Penn & Teller: Hybrids & Nukes (May be Offensive to Some)

This edutainment piece is from the show Bullshit, and it comes with a warning-- many people might find some of the unnecessary antics offensive, and there's question that Penn is an obnoxious pig, which he proves time and time again throughout the video.

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Now a little energy trivia quiz for the readers. These pictures have been making their way around the Internet so some people may already know the answer. Can anyone identify the owners of these two houses?

House #1 
A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.


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House #2 
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

A Young Person's Guide to the United States Constitution

A little Klavan political humor on a serious subject, the sad state of civics in this country.

The Case for Investing Overseas

Part of investing success is recognizing demographic trends, and riding the wave of economic freedom and growing middle class wealth to profits.  The above graphs show the world's population by latitude and longitude.  I find the longitude graph much more interesting than the latitude graph.  It shows the potential impact of the large Asian and African populations on the world economy.  While Africa suffers from a lack of economic freedom and is probably not fertile investing ground at this time, Asia is an entirely different story.  Asia's populations dwarf that of the Western hemisphere and one can only imagine the economic potential of this area as the middle class grows and populations become wealthier and better educated.

New Trojan Virus Zeus v3 Empties Online Bank Accounts

Continuing on with the theme of scams, I found this in the UK Daily Mail:

Cyber criminals have raided the accounts of thousands of British Internet bank customers in one of the most sophisticated attacks of its kind.

The fraudsters used a malicious computer programme that hides on home computers to steal confidential passwords and account details from at least 3,000 people.

The Internet security experts M86, who uncovered the scam, estimate that at least £675,000 has been illegally transferred from the UK in the last month - and that the attacks are still continuing.

The new trojan virus can empty bank accounts without their owners knowing about the theft as it shows them fake statements.  All the victims were customers with the same unnamed online bank, the company said.

No doubt the same thing is happening here in the US or will happen soon as bank security vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited.

TROJAN PROTECTION TIPS

• Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date.

• Keep firewalls set to the highest level.

• Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don't know.

• Never double-click on an e-mail attachment that ends in .exe. It is an 'executable' file and can do what it likes in your system.

• If you think your machine has already been infected, contact your bank immediately. If the bank thinks you are a genuine victim of fraud it will reimburse you.

Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date.

Keep
firewalls set to the highest level.

Never open an e-mail
attachment from someone you don't know.

Never double-click on an
e-mail attachment that ends in .exe. It is an 'executable' file and can
do what it likes in your system.

If you think your machine has
already been infected, contact your bank immediately. If the bank thinks
you are a genuine victim of fraud it will reimburse you.

THE RISING THREAT OF TROJAN ATTACKS

• Attacks by ‘Trojan viruses’ are on the rise in all countries.
• Although up-to-date anti-virus software should prevent an attack, experts say an alarming number of people leave their computers vulnerable to cybertheft.
• Trojans are malicious programs that hide inside apparently harmless computer files.
• They can lurk on websites, online adverts or hitch a lift in emails.
• The Zeus v3 Trojan involved in the latest attacks hides in adverts that appear on legitimate websites.
• Each time someone clicks on the advertisement, the code is downloaded to their home computer where it lies dormant.
• The code only becomes active when the computer connects to a bank website when it starts to record account details, passwords and other confidential information.
• It checks to see if the account holds enough cash and then transfers up to $5,000 to a ‘mule’ account - a legitimate bank account held by a real customer.
• Owners of these mule accounts operate on the edge of the law and agree to transfer sums they receive to someone else, after taking a cut.
• By the time the police have investigated a Trojan attack, the recipient of the money has usually vanished without trace.
• Security experts say it is relatively easy to protect against Trojan attacks by installing anti-virus software and keeping it up to date.  
• Computer owners should also make sure they have downloaded any updates of their operating software - usually Windows - and other programs such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Adobe.
• People should also be alert to junk emails that pretend to be from banks, the Internal Revenue Service or online shops like Amazon and Ebay. 
• The emails invite the unwary to click on a link to a webpage containing a Trojan.

 One reason I run Linux instead of Windows on my PCs is because that OS is less of a target for criminals than Windows, it is more difficult to attack and it is in less widespread use so criminals won't find exploiting it anywhere near as profitable.  Bottom line is the average windows user needs to erect all the software/firewall barriers that they can in addition to using a lot of common sense when reading emails.

Jamie Dimon is Looking for Me

I received this email from from Jamie Dimon this morning addressed personally to me (imagine my excitement):

From The Desk OF: Jamie Dimon C.E.O
270 Park Avenue, 39th Floor New York, 10017
JP Morgan Chase Bank New York.
Webside: www.jpmorgan.com/wss
https://chaseonline.chase.com/
      www.chase.com
PHONE: 845-514-9871

Date: 08/11/2010.
                                        
REF: PAYMENT NOTIFICATION OF US$10.500,000.00
  
Dear: Sir.

I am Jamie Dimon,Chief Executive Officer, President and Member of Operating Committee, JPMorgan Chase & Co, set up to fight against scam and Fraudulent activities worldwide.

This Group is responsible for investigating the legitimacy of unpaid contract, inheritance and lotto winning claims by companies and individuals and directs  payment of verified claims to the beneficiaries without further delay.

You are being legally contacted regarding the release of your long awaited fund. After a detailed review of your file, the Halifax Bank UK has mandated the JP MORGAN CHASE BANK to release your fund immediately. The sum of US USD10.5Million has been approved in your favor via my desk. This payment will be effected through Swift Telegraphic Transfer.

You are advised to Include the following information. Your Full Name? Your Address? Your Private Cell Phone Number? Your Account Name? Your Bank Name / Address? Your Account Numbers? Your Routing Numbers? Your Age/ Marital Status? Your Occupation/ Position? Copy of your International Passport or Valuable Drivers License? for reconciliation with Information forwarded to the bank by this office.

Your Prompt Co-operation is highly imperative.

    Thanks for Banking with us.

            Yours Truly.
 
           Mr. Jamie Dimon.
          PHONE: 845-514-9871
  Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer,
President and Member of Operating Committee, JPMorgan Chase & Co

 Anyone reading through this email will immediately recognize it as a scam.  I never cease to be amazed that people actually fall for these cons.  There are plenty of give-aways in the email based on the way language is used that it is certain not written by an American, most likely someone who speaks English as a second language.  Never ever respond to any emails or open any attachments in emails from people you don't know or that look suspicious.  I'm certain that Jamie Dimon would never contact me personally (though I am always open for a high paying job at JPM), and definitely not from email address westsidecandr@aol.com.

'Peak Oil' Theory Advocate Matt Simmons Dies

Matt Simmons, a prominent oil investor who argued the world was rapidly approaching peak oil production capacity, died suddenly on Sunday at his home in North Haven, Maine. Simmons, 67 years old, founded Simmons & Co. International, an investment bank that caters to energy companies, in 1974.

More recently, Simmons had retired to devote his time to the Ocean Energy Institute, a group he founded to research and develop energy from wind and tidal sources.

In his 2005 book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy," Simmons drew attention to the unreliability of Middle East oil reserves, arguing that the nation's oil reserves were nearing their highest levels of production.

Simmons' views on "peak oil" have long be considered controversial as have his recent statements regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Simmons, who served as an energy advisor to President George W. Bush, asserted earlier this summer, that he expected BP would need to file for bankruptcy protection in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon accident.

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I have included a documentary called "A Crude Awakening" from 2007 that features Simmons, and my own local Congressman Roscoe Bartlett. You'll have to sort out the facts from the propaganda according to your own tastes.

My own personal, unscientific view is that we have not hit peak oil yet in the world, though it is coming within the next 10 - 25 years. Today's efforts to produce energy from solar and wind-power have a ways to go before they can replace oil. To my way of thinking, natural gas is the bridge energy source source to buy time until solar, wind, hydrogen fuel cells and nuclear fusion is ready for mass energy production.

Skype Set to Go Public

Skype has filed to go public in the near future and the S1 filing can be found here.  Could this be the beginning of a number of tech oriented IPOs?  I don't know the answer to that question, but Skype is an interesting company that is challenging the traditional phone powers, and likely to be adopted by a lot of tech savvy youth, further pinching the copper wire business.

The risk section of the filing details the narrow nature of their revenue stream:

Many of our products are free. As a result, we have generated nearly all of our historical revenues from our paid communications services products, which are purchased by a small minority of our users. During the three months ended June 30, 2010, we generated on average net revenues from calls made by approximately 8.1 million paying users to landline or mobile phones. These paying users represented less than 7% of our average connected users during this period. If even a small percentage of our paying users cease paying for our products, this could have a significant impact on our net revenues.

In addition, we have historically derived a substantial portion of our net revenues from a single product—SkypeOut. For the pro forma year ended December 31, 2009 and for the six months ended June 30, 2010, 86% and 87% of our pro forma net revenues and net revenues, respectively, were derived from the use of SkypeOut. Due to this dependence on SkypeOut as our primary source of net revenues, we are subject to an elevated risk of reduced demand for our SkypeOut product.

Our other sources of net revenues, including our Skype for Business products and marketing services and licensing, are currently limited. We may face challenges as we seek to expand our sources of revenue. For example, the current version of our software does not include functionality to allow industry standard-sized advertisements to be delivered to our users via the Skype software client. Furthermore, even if certain versions of the Skype software client were able to deliver advertisements, we may face difficulty in successfully implementing advertising on certain platforms, such as mobile devices. Finally, our users may respond negatively to receiving advertisements through their Skype software client, which could negatively and materially affect user engagement, our Skype brand and our results of operations.

The revenue and usage graphs are impressive, but are they sustainable?

Only time will tell.  I can neither endorse nor pan Skype as an investment.  My concern is that there are many ways to make free phone calls over the Internet, one of which I detailed in a previous article.  I believe in the resourcefulness of people to figure out these loopholes.

HT: http://paul.kedrosky.com/

Pet Peeves: Golden Parachutes = Perverse Incentives

The dismissal of HP CEO, Mark Hurd, after the market closed on Friday for a code of conduct violation brings up the topic of one of my favorite pet peeves: golden parachutes for executives.  I'm not going to delve into the circumstances that lead to his firing by the board.  I'll leave that to the news media.  However, as a shareholder of HP I'm pissed off that Hurd is rumored to be walking out the door with a rumored $10M in cash and $40M in stock all for violating company rules.  If any employee below the top executive ranks had committed this offense they would be shown the door with no severance package or golden parachute.  CEOs should be treated the same way.  Code of conduct violations should not be rewarded in this fashion, nor should being fired for poor performance.  If it isn't already clear, I am against golden parachutes period.  These executives are already compensated quite handsomely for the duties they perform.  Golden parachutes only hurt the stockholders of the company and the moral of the remaining employees while unduly rewarding individuals who are being shown the door.  I hope boardrooms will sober up and put an end to this distasteful practice.  If the job is not attractive enough on its own merits then it is time to move on to the next candidate, not put these golden parachutes in place that reward poor performance or ethical lapses.