Fed cut rates … again.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

“Fed Cuts Rate another 1/2 Point”
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080130/fed_interest_rates.html

“The Fed’s hope is that by making credit cheaper, it will encourage more borrowing, giving the economy a needed boost.”

Tell me how the fugg that makes sense?

The “economy is in shock” due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Which is what happens when greedy mortgage brokers lend money to people who shouldn’t be allowed to borrow any, then those debts get sold as an investment package. Then the investment goes south and people who bought the debt that poor people owed are losing their money so all the wallstreeters are panicking.

So the Fed cut rates again. To stimulate growth by making it cheaper for banks to borrow money from other banks, and hoping the banks will lower the rate they charge when loaning out money to customers.

And since people borrowed more than they could afford and investors were stupid enough to take on these debts thinking they’d get paid back eventually but are not, now the government is making it easier to rack up debt, so we can buy crap and keep the economy growing.

“To combat the threat of a recession in an election year, the Bush administration has been negotiating with congressional leaders for an economic stimulus package of around $150 billion, focused on tax rebates for households and business tax breaks to spur investment. The House passed its version of the proposal on Tuesday but Senate action could be delayed by efforts to expand the relief to senior citizens and the unemployed.”

So after making it easier to borrow money, they divert taxes away from things we want to spend them on (like education and social services and OUR national defense) and give some of it back to us right before we have to turn around and give it back to them. Probably costing more in postal services than the “boost” will provide to the economy.

How about doing something that will actually boost the economy. Like keeping jobs in America. And refining corporate tax breaks to stimulate industry that actually needs help. Or how about a program to create a new infrastructure to support our energy needs. Imagine the number of jobs that would be created if an entire generation / distribution system based on solar/geo/bio energies was started RIGHT NOW. Sure, they’d be construction and manufacturing jobs, but the work would take decades and the resources / manpower / money would all stay here.

Unless we hire a bunch of migrant workers to do it because manual labor is beneath Americans. [/sarcasm]

Burning coal and loving it

We actually burned coal for two winters, then the soot and carbon monoxide warnings got to be more stressful than it was worth. The house has electric heat and no A.C. (we used window units) and just got a mini-split air-sourced heat pump (Feb 2022) that will give the main room A.C. and more efficient heating, in theory.

Fri, 18 Jan 2008

I’m a coal-burning Neanderthal. But my house is warm and my electric bill is tiny so… I’m good with it.

Back in college a professor reminded the class that burning a primary energy source for heat was always more energy efficient than electric heat. Why burn fuel to make steam to make electricity and pipe it across vast distances into your house to convert it back to heat with resistance coils while losing energy at every transfer and conversion? Isn’t it better just to burn it and get the heat out yourself?

So we do. Coal is regional in PA, and anthracite is hard, black coal that burns cleaner and hotter than Bituminous coal that is used in power plants.

The house is warmer that when we used all electric heat, and savings are about $50 / month. We’ll see after the cold season is over, but it’s looking good.

So I’m actually reducing global warming emissions by burning coal in my house and using less electricity (made from burning coal).
Yay me.

I hate dreaming.

October 2nd, 2007

It’s not that dreaming is bad or I have nightmares or anything like that. It just seems that dreaming is a waste of perfectly good sleep time. In my dreams, I’m usually active or doing something or interacting… realistic dreams. I don’t have abstract, pretty color, flying / falling, or fantasy world dreams. Sci-fi sometimes, but still first-person and active.

So my brain acts like I’m doing things and thinking about what’s going on and trying to reason things out, which is difficult at times. When I wake up (or usually when I’m woken up) I have to switch gears, clear the dream out and get real-world functions going again. Since my brain has been active, I usually feel more tired after 6-8 hours of dreaming sleep than if I just crash for 3-5.

[there was probably more to this that’s gone]

new iPod firmware

June 12th, 2007

I’m not a fan of computer hardware that behaves the wants to, rather than the way I tell it to. My wife thinks it’s a control issue. She’ probably right.

I was getting peeved that the music on my (gifted) iPod wasn’t readable by anything that couldn’t decode the iTunes database structure. Well, the music is readable, but you can’t tell what song you’re clicking on unless you memorize the length and size of every song. The names are replaced with things like FWOX.mp3 in folders of similar names with dissimilar tracks (not of the same album). Plus you couldn’t copy (decoded) music from the iPod to another computer unless you purchased it through iTunes and were transferring it to one of your five approved machines. And you couldn’t play open-source music formats (ogg, flac, etc)

Well, I fixed that.

[probably more that’s missing]

new iPod firmware

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

I’m not a fan of computer hardware that behaves the wants to, rather than the way I tell it to. My wife thinks it’s a control issue. She’ probably right.

I was getting peeved that the music on my (gifted) iPod wasn’t readable by anything that couldn’t decode the iTunes database structure. Well, the music is readable, but you can’t tell what song you’re clicking on unless you memorize the length and size of every song. The names are replaced with things like FWOX.mp3 in folders of similar names with dissimilar tracks (not of the same album). Plus you couldn’t copy (decoded) music from the iPod to another computer unless you purchased it through iTunes and were transferring it to one of your five approved machines. And you couldn’t play open-source music formats (ogg, flac, etc)

Well, I fixed that.
(more…)

Posted in Technical | No Comments »

Vegan Birkenstocks … suck

I bought a pair of vegan birk sandals in April 05. For $90 you’d expect a pair of shoes to last more than 2 years, especially when they’re only seasonal wear.
I took them in the other day to get resoled, and the guy said fixing them would be “throwing good money after bad.” The footbed (the pride and joy of birks) was cracked, and the synthetic straps were tearing on both feet. Now they no longer (according to the birkenstock USA website) carry 100% leather-free sandals, so replacing them is as pointless as repairing them.

Just for grins and giggles, I’ll post the email exchange I’ve had with customer service. More if they bother replying again.

From: Phill Becker
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:17 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: My sandals are falling apart

I bought a pair of synthetic leather birks from a local shoe store here in April 2005. They started wearing thin this last winter, and I took them to a repair store today only to be told they were beyond repair. The straps are splitting on both shoes (right where they attach to the base) and the base is cracked on one.

I bought these sandals partly because I wanted to be able to repair them and keep wearing them for a long time. If 2 years is the max lifespan of Birk. sandals, I will never buy another pair. My Tevas lasted 5 years of hard abuse. I guess I expected more from legendary Birkenstock.

If you would like me to send the sandals back so you can examine them for quality control, please let me know. Otherwise I’ll wear them until they fall off my feet, then never buy another pair.

pb

On 6/8/07, Consumer Relations wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for emailing us at Birkenstock Distribution, USA!

Please Read our FAQ’s below for an answer to your inquiry.

We are the US distributor of Birkenstocks, and run as a company separate to other suppliers and retailers both in the US and internationally. So unfortunately, we do not do direct business with the general consumer base. And since all of our retailers are independently owned and operated we do not have insight to their specific inventory.

We are the US distributor of the Birkenstock Classic Brand only.

We no longer carry or represent Birki’s, Footprints, Tatami, Alpro, Papillio and Betula.

For more information on those lines of Bikenstock, please contact the appropriate distributor…

Tatami / Newalk / Footprints :

Web :http://www.tatami.com/tatami_usa.html

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