Casualties of American Wars

In 2007 The United States celebrated its 231st year of existence. From the first this country has been under fire. If you include the War in Iraq we have now been involved in 11 major wars in our history. Some of them have been justified and no one doubts the need for ( World War 2 for example) but others have been a little harder to justify through the passage of time (Vietnam, The war in Iraq). The one consistant certainty about war is the human cost. Below is a list of all the major conflicts that the U.S. has been involved in and the number of war casualties we suffered in that particular conflict. Please note that the figures are estimates in some cases and more precise in others but even the most accurate figures cannot be exact. The amounts also only represent the war dead who immediately died in battle in that conflict. They do not represent for example soldiers who died weeks or months later from their wounds and they do not count soldiers who went missing or who were unaccounted for. The figures come from the Pentagon and are confirmed by other historical sources:

Revolutionary war --------------- 4400 dead
war of 1812 ---------------------- 2300
Mexican war --------------------- 1733
Civil War ----------------------192,000
Spanish American war ------------385
World War 1 --------------------53,500
World war 2 -------------------291,557
Korean war --------------------- 33,741
Vietnam ------------------------ 47,500
Gulf War ---------------------------147

P.S.-- Due to the scale of the conflict and the lack of complete records the figures for the Casualties during the Civil War are in dispute. The figure listed here is the best guess estimate at the number of combat casualties suffered by both sides during the conflict and exclude all other considerations. Estimates about the number of dead during the Civil War vary greatly. Some sources put the total figure as high as 700,000 and others as low as 500,000. More often the number listed is 620,000.

James Otis: Overshadowed American Colonial Hero

Although he is not as well known as others who forged the nation during the American revolution the significance of James Otis is no less in importance to that struggle. He was born on february 25th 1725 in Massachusetts and was educated at Harvard. He entered law in 1748 and basically spent the rest of his career to various degrees fighting the British over their excessive and unfair taxation and heavy handed tactics in the colonies.
In 1761 he resigned from the office of Advocate General in Boston so that he could represent merchants who opposed writs of assistance. These writs allowed Royal Customs collectors to search merchants who were suspected of possessing contraband which violated the Molasses Act of 1733.
In 1764 he authored a document that advocated for free speech and against taxation called: The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proven.
He condemned the Townshend Acts of 1767 which imposed customs duties on Colonists and required them to provide adequate accomodations for British troops. It was this move on the part of the English that led to unrest in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the colonies and events such as the Boston Massacre in 1770.
In 1769 Otis was physically attacked by a conservative customs collector who opposed his views. The severity of this attack left him permanantly injured and it forced him to withdraw from public life. He lived the rest of his life in a state of mental incapacitation and died 14 years later on May 23 1783.

Galileo: The Church made him pay for his inconvenient Truth

His full name was Galileo Galilei and he was an Italian physicist and astronomer whose observations and discoveries laid the ground work for future brilliant minds such as Issac Newton to build upon and who in history represents a symbol of victory for scientific inquiry over the forces of ignorance in pursuit of the truth.
He was born near Pisa on February 15th 1564. He was taught by monks in his early life and entered the University of Pisa in 1581 with the intent to study medicine. His attention however soon turned to philosophy and mathematics instead and he left the university after 4 years without a degree. By 1589 he became a professor of mathematics and he fell into disfavor quickly by having disproven a long held belief of Aristotle's that objects fall at different speeds based on weight. He dropped two items of different weight from the Leaning Tower of Piza and proved that objects all fall at the same speed. This challenge to Aristotle caused him problems at Piza with other professors who taught there and so his contract with the university was not renewed in 1592.
He moved on to teach at the University of Padua and while there he invented a calculating "compass" for the solution of mathematical problems. He also among other things discovered the law of falling bodies and investigated mechanics and how parts function.
In 1609 he built the first telescope. This invention proved valuable for naval and maritime operations and was a great success for him and his reputation. He turned a more powerful version of his original invention toward the stars and was the first to discover that there were craters on the moon and also spotted the 4 largest satellites of Jupiter.
He fell into his most serious trouble with the Roman Catholic Church which had long preached the supposed divinely aquired knowledge that the earth was the center of our universe as fact. Galileo discovered through telescopic observation that it was in fact not the case and it was actually the Sun that was at the center. When he published these findings and in the years after he became scorned by both the church and his contemporaries. By 1616 he was being denounced openly as a heretic by priests from their pulpits and his writings were subject to censorship. In response to this he fell silent and remained so for years in reaction to warnings from various members of the Roman catholic Church.
In 1632 the controversy flared up again when he was called to Rome to stand trial for suspicion of heresy for publishing a new book in which he again discussed the Capernican Hypotheses in relation to the physics of tides. This work supported the theory that the earth is not the center of the universe.
The result of the trial was that he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The sentence was quickly commuted to house arrest for life and his writings were ordered burned.
Galileo lived for 9 more years after the trial in a state of house arrest and was struck by blindness in the years before his death on January 8 1642 at the age of 77. In the years after his death his controversial discovery gained more prominance and through the observations of those who followed after him became reconfirmed as fact and as more time passed it gained acceptance for the truth that it was among both members of the church and the masses.

CF Holdings Stock has a Big Year

In the industry of agricultural chemicals CF Holdings Inc. (CF) has had a profitable ride this last year. The company is a manufacturer of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers including diammonium. The company operates a network of facilities for manufacturing and distribution in the midwestern part of the United States and it offers its products for sale world wide. It became a holding company in 2005 when it began to trade publicly for the first time.
In December of 2006 the stock was hovering around $20 a share. About 4 months later in April it was around $40. By August it was around $60. This month it shot passed $90 and on December 28th, 2007 it closed at $111.99 a share. It's flirting with the idea of a 5x increase in the value of its stock for the year.

Scientists Report Ironic Positive Effect of Global Warming

In an ironic twist scientists investigating the effects of global warming at the north pole report that there may be a positive effect occuring.
It is known that the oceans of the world are instrumental in the absorption of carbons in the atmosphere. The worlds oceans combined can absorb almost 50% of the total amount of CO2 emissions that we humans are pumping into the atmosphere each year. In order to do this the oceans have to be thawed. If they are frozen they lose the ability to perform this function. The ice caps in the North Pole have shrunk by about 25% in the last 30 years. Ironically this has been a positive effect in terms of thawing more ocean water and freeing it up to reduce more carbons in the atmosphere thereby reducing the greenhouse effect.
Scientists are warning everyone about feeling too positive about it. They further stress that this beneficial effect will be meaningless if the ice caps continue to melt and raise the water levels around the world and flood us all in ice cold water.

How the Defense Budget Hurts Americans Most

It was what President Dwight David Eisenhower warned about just before he left office in 1961. Since Eisenhower's time it has been taking up the biggest chunk by far of the federal budget in terms of total expenditures. It is of course the defense budget. The average American would be surprised to know exactly how much of their tax dollars really go to the military industrial complex and in turn what a price the nation as a whole pays in terms of other under funded areas of the budget that are just as vital and how the average American suffers because of it.
According to the Government Accounting Office it is projected that for fiscal year 2008 the federal Government will take in about 2 trillion 400 billion dollars in total tax revenues. Half of that will go to defense or defense related spending either through procurement and or research and development. This leaves half of the federal budget for everything else that the government has to finance.
Under President Bush the defense budget has shot up to record highs. In order to sustain this increase the budgets of other vital services have had to be cut. Here are a few examples:

1. Health care -- Almost 60 million people in the United States have no health care and the Bush Administration has done little to change this. In addition to no universal health care initiatives it has also continued to under fund the nations public hospitals and has sought to drastically cut programs like Medicare and Medicaid which forces groups like seniors to choose between buying food or paying for medicines due to their lack of economic resourses.

2. Public works -- Less money for projects such as rebuilding the destroyed levees in New Orleans to the strength that they need to be in order to resist another Katrina so that hundreds perhaps would be saved and thousands of homes would be undamaged.

3. Education -- Less money for education in order to finance the changes that need to be made to make our public schools true centers of learning and not the laughing stock dropout factories that they are today who push kids out into society prepared and equipped to do nothing.

4. Infrastructure -- No money to build and maintain bridges and roads so you can expect more of them to colapse and deteriorate which of course means that you will among other things have to take your car into the shop more often for repairs because of the beating it takes driving on all those beaten up pot hole filled streets that are not quickly repaired which can cost you thousands of dollars over time in addition to the general danger that a poorly kept infrastructure poses to the public.

Then we can all sit in front of our televisions and watch the members of the House (some of whom have been serving in the House and Senate for 20 and 30 years) talk about how these services and programs cannot be financed because there is not enough money in the budget just before they vote themselves another pay raise in the middle of the night and they continue to do everything possible to maintain the status quo as they have for decades.
The United States is spending exponentially more money on defense than most of the other countries of the world combined. The way we pay for it as a people is with a never ending health care crisis, a public education system that is an international joke, a neglected and crumbling infrastructure, and a national debt that in the near future may top 10 trillion dollars.
It is time for some sanity to prevail. We have to get the defense budget under control in order to address some of the other pressing issues that are eating away at the future prosperity and stability of our country. We cannot carry on as we have. We cannot afford to. The military industrial complex has been damaging the lives of more Americans than those of any enemy this nation has ever faced. It is in many ways an enemy from within.

Teen Hires Hitman to Kill Parents over Playstation

A 16 year old boy decided to hire a hitman to kill both his parents for revenge over having been grounded and having his playstation taken away due to his bad grades at school.
The youth, Cory Rider, reacted to his punishment by planning the murder of both his mother Shannen and step father Joey Troiano. He decided to hire a professional killer and pay him to shoot them both. Luckily his mother became aware of the plot and went to the police. A meeting was set up by a local officer who posed as a hitman and met the boy at a nearby hotel. During the meeting in the hotel room the young boy told the undercover officer that he would be paid with his stepfather's new pickup truck in return for committing the deed. In addition he encouraged the officer by telling him that "Two bullets is all it takes."
Cory Rider has not admitted that he made that remark. His mother, who has become scared of her son and his behavior, is expected to testify as a witness against him.

Ben and Jerry: A $5 course in ice cream making led to riches

You are likely one of the millions of Americans who have enjoyed the ice cream made by the company founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Their product is known by one name but many flavors. Perhaps the best known of these is Cherry Garcia which was named for the leader of the rock band Grateful Dead. Their story begins in 1978 on Long Island in New York. Jerry Greenfield originally wanted to be a doctor and he kept applying to medical school and kept getting rejected. At this point both he and Ben Cohen decided that they both wanted a "fun job" and they figured that the ice cream business could provide that for them. They took a $5 corespondence course on ice cream making from Penn State University, scraped together their combined savings of $8000, borrowed $4000 more and went off to Burlington, Vermont to start their company. Initially they ran the business out of a converted garage. They did well nearly from the beginning and their brand name and reputation grew. By 1986 they were topping 20 million a year in sales.
From early on they decided and were determined to run and maintain a company that would exercise environmentally friendly production practices despite the negative effect this might have on their bottom line.
They were also very worker friendly and socially involved. During a period in the 1980's when the company experienced a slowdown in sales instead of laying off employees they kept them on the payroll and sent them out to do community improvment projects such as winterizing the homes of senior citizens.
The success of Ben and Jerry's ice cream company was more than either of its founders could ever have hoped for. In the year 2000 they sold the company to Unilever for 326 million dollars.

What has happened to CNN?

CNN is like a lot of things in America these days, it's not what it used to be. It all started out with so much promise in 1980. Ted Turner and all his money setting out to start up a 24 hour news channel. It would be news 24 hours a day around the clock and the highest quality too, no fluff. The other news programs were laughing at them in the beginning because they were so green but after a while they were not laughing anymore and they were worried about the new kid on the block and what he could do. For years it lived up to the promise and surpassed it for the most part more or less. In the last several years CNN has caught a disease. I like to call it Fox-News-itis. This occurs when a news organization begins to value ratings over substance. This can be fatal for a legitimate news organization if they value their reputation that is. I just gave up and stopped watching. I got upset one day when i clicked on to CNN and they went into a commercial break that lasted so long that i actually forgot what channel i was watching. You know like when you are sitting there during the commercials and you are just tuning them all out and you are waiting for CNN to come back on? It had been so long since i heard any news that i actually could not recall for a moment what channel i was watching. That was the end for me. It felt like CNN was like a greedy pimp and i was just one of the hookers. I just got tired of having my eyes whored out to their advertisers every other minute. Besides they dont do real news all that much anymore really. I didn't need wall to wall coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death and all the freaks who were fighting about the paternity of her daughter and her estate. I got Entertainment Tonight for that if i wanted it. I dont need live coverage of police chases from news choppers in L.A. I got Fox News for junk like that. Their never ending alerts In red flashing letters on the screen. I love the way fox tries to paint it as real news and not a cheesy move to spike up their ratings on a slow news day. These are cheap attempts to increase the number of viewers watching their network so that they can go back to their advertisers and sponsors and demand more money for every 30 second spot they run. I expect this garbage from Fox because its a faux news network but when CNN does it i feel betrayed. I felt like as a viewer that my interests were no longer paramount anymore to them. I was now just a means to their end of increasing profits. CNN is like an honor student you went to college with who graduated at the top of the class with all the promise in the world and now you bump into them years later and they are a security guard at Wal-Mart. Your standing there in a shock thinking to yourself WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED! HOW DID THEY END UP HERE DOING THIS! In the case of CNN the answer is of course greed. Its not that CNN does not make a profit it just wants to make more of a profit. When that becomes the goal then they compromise their integrity and you end up with reports about who the winner of American Idol was and that kind of stuff. They became panderers. I stopped watching because CNN turned its back on me as a viewer too much. I dont mind that stuff every once in a while but it became so dominant in their broadcasts. They have just drifted so far away from what they are supposed to be. They are now just a news room full of ratings chasers that pay only lip service to the notion of serving the public trust.

Medical Myths Exposed

A new report released through a British medical journal has debunked 7 common myths about health that for the longest time have been believed to be true. Here they are one by one with explanations:

1. People need 8 glasses of water a day -- The authors of the report looked into this extensively and discovered that there is no magic number in terms of how much water you need to drink in one day. Most people get enough water through what they normally drink whether it be through juice or even some soda. If you somehow are not getting enough your body has a built in mechanism to let you know. It's called thirst.

2. Shaving your hair causes it to grow back thicker -- No - As it turns out when you shave your hair what happens when the new hair grows in is that it is usually darker in color because it has not been exposed to sunlight like the previous hair that you had that you shaved and that gives it the appearance of thicker hair. It is not actually thicker.

3. We only use 10% of our brain -- Studies that have looked at the brain and its different functions and mapping of brain activity indicates that we do use our entire brain. All areas of the brain show activity throughout the day. Not all parts of the brain are active at all times because certain parts of the brain are reserved for certain specific functions and when those functions are not in use there is less activity in that area but all parts of the brain show activity throughout the day.

4. Reading in dim light will damage your eyesight -- Not permanently. It is true that your eyes have to work harder to see in dim light but the result of this is only a temporary eye strain. Your eyes will quickly return to normal once you return to a situation where there is more normal light or you rest your eyes ideally after a nap or some sleep.

5. Eating turkey makes you drowsy -- Triptophan, which is the substance that is found in turkeys is known to have this effect when it is taken in its pure form but there is so little of it found in turkey that doctors tend to not believe that it can have much of an effect in this way. People usually have turkey for Thanksgiving and the reason you may feel drowsy or tired after your holiday feast is likely due to the fact that you have eaten too much food in general. Usually people also have a little wine as well which likely plays a part. Over eating will slow you down and make you sluggish no matter what you eat if you have too much of it in one sitting. Triptophan is also found in other foods such as pork and most cheeses and it exists in these foods in greater amounts than in turkey.

6. Mobile phones create interference in hospitals -- This one has been believed for a while and many hospitals would even have signs posted asking patients and visitors to curb the use of their cellphones for fear that they may interfere with the proper functioning of sensative medical equipment that would be in use such as cardiac monitors. Its not likely. The study indicates that you would have to be standing very close to the equipment (less than 1 meter) in order to have any kind of effect and even at that close distance the incidents of disruption to the function of any medical equipment was minor (less than 1%).

7. After you die your hair and fingernails continue to grow -- No - When your body dies all functions cease. Its a complete physical shutdown. Your heart stops beating, your blood stops flowing and your hair and nails stop growing out. Your body at that point is not doing anything to keep up appearances. When you die its all over.

Actor Adam Sandler sued

A lawsuit has been filed by an Austrailian production company against actor Adam Sandler and his production company Happy Madison Productions claiming that his movie I now Pronounce you Chuck and larry has a plot and story that is similar to a 2004 movie that they produced in Austrailia.
Strange Bedfellows is the name of the movie and it starred actor Paul Hogan who is best known for his Crocodile Dundee films in America. The film was the number one movie in Austrailia in 04 grossing over 5 million dollars. I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry has to date grossed almost 150 million dollars so far.
The Austrailian production company, Strange Bedfellows Pty. Ltd. alleges that Happy Madison Productions "continuously infringed copyright by distributing, selling, producing, and claiming authorship" over I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry when the idea was taken from their movie Strange Bedfellows.

Excel Maritime has been volatile but profitable in the long run

Excel Maritime Carriers ltd. (EXM) is in the business of dry bulk cargo transport. Primarily coal, grain, iron and steel. They have a fleet of 15 super vessels with a combined capacity of over 950,000 dead weight tons. The company is registered in Bermuda but operates out of Greece. The chairman of the company is Gabriel Panayotides. He and his family own a controlling interest.
In january of 2003 the stock was under $5 a share. By the summer of 04 it was around $60. The next two years were awful. It slid all the way back to under $10 by the summer of 06. Since then it has recovered all its losses and more and so by October of this year it was over $80. Since October it has been doing more falling than rising and so on December 24th, 07 it closed at $40.23.
A rocky ride to be sure but in the long term it is up. Even with the steep rises and declines it has gone from $5 a share 5 years ago to over $40 now and thats not bad. Obviously this stock isint for you if you are nervous about sharp declines and you are more trader oriented than long term investor oriented. If you play that game with this stock it could go badly. If you are long term thinking it has done well over time overall.

William Cecil: Architect of a Queen's Long Reign

He was an enormously capable and respected English statesman. William Cecil became the chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, who was the daughter of King Henry VIII and the sister of Queen Mary I. He was the most vital steward of her successful 45 year reign as her nation's Queen.
Cecil was born on September 20th, 1520 and was educated at St. John's College and later at the University of Cambridge. Early on he served in Parliament and eventually became secretary to King Edward VI. During the reign of Queen Mary, (who is more famously known as Bloody Mary) Cecil was invited to participate in her government but he turned it down. When Queen Mary suddenly died after only 5 years on the throne it was her sister Elizabeth, (Whom Mary was about to have executed due to their religious differences) who rises to become Queen. Cecil became her Chief secretary and trusted adviser and ushered in an age of rising prosperity and importance for England.
He helped heal, or at least abate, the religious differences dividing England by coming up with a compromise that was acceptable to most English and it brought into being the Anglican Church in 1559.
In a mostly successful attempt to deal with the subversion that existed in the government he organized an efficient and effective secret service to find and root out traitors to the Queen.
Elizabeth was Protestant and this fact did not sit well with many of the other Catholic countries in Europe and there were many attempts both covert and overt on their parts to overthrow her. The biggest of these attempts occured in 1588 when Spain launched it's giant Naval Armada against England to remove Elizabeth from power. it was Cecil's insight into the intentions of Spain and his preparations before hand to resist it that ultimately led to the defeat of Spain. It brought security to England and Elizabeth's reign.
William cecil's enormous contribution to his country was best expressed by Queen Elizabeth herself who said of him: "No Prince in Europe hath such a councilor as I have in mine". William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley died in 1598 at the age of 78 with Elizabeth in her 40th year as Queen and still on the throne.

Merry Christmas Blogosphere

Christmas time is here Again. I wanted to take the oppourtunity to wish everyone who reads this a happy holiday. For the occasion i have written a sort of original Christmas poem. The first two lines will be familiar to you i am sure but the rest of it is all original. I just wrote it about an hour ago as i type this. Im gonna keep it up until probably the day after tomorrow and then pull the poem down. I call it the semi original Christmas poem. I hope you enjoy it. Here goes nothing-lol.

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse
The gifts are all wrapped and have been placed under the tree with great care
Just before turning out the lights the parents give the tree and its gifts one last stare
The snow started falling and covered the house in pure white
The streets were not busy there was no one in sight
The whole night before Christmas a peaceful and tranquil delight
The next morning arrived and the children awoke from their rest
Believing that this day of the year is their best
They ran down the stairs without a moment to spare
There was the sound of laughter and their golden locks flowing through the air
They arrive at the tree and tear into their presents
Their giggling intensified and made the scene even more pleasant
They got what they wanted and their happiness is heartfelt
The joy on their children's faces made their parents hearts melt

Happy holidays to one and to all. I hope this year finds you in the warm glow of your family's love. Peace on Earth (dont give up hope it's gonna happen some day) and all the best in the new year.

Alexander Hamilton killed by Vice-President in Duel

Sometimes when two people meet they cannot get passed each other. There is an instant dislike that sets in and does not fade away. This perhaps must have been the case for framers Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. In order to fully understand the gravity of the loss to the nation one must understand what an asset Hamilton was, what he stood for, and what he did.
Alexander Hamilton was a statesman and a respected spokesman. He was the principle writer of the Federalist Papers which advocated for a strong central government. He was born on January 11th, 1755 on the west indian island of Nevis. He was the illegitimate son of a Scottish trader names James Hamilton. His mother Rachel Faucette Levine died when he was 14. His early education was financed by family friends and later he began to pursue a career in law and entered Kings College which is now Columbia University in New York City.
At the outbreak of the Revolution he became a captain of artillery and served with distinction in battle. His courage won him the notice of General George Washington and in 1777 he became his confidential secretary. By 1781 he was still in the Army and fought with distinction at Yorktown.
After the war Hamilton served in Congress briefly then returned to New York to practice law. In 1787 he played a leading role at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. In 1789 he served as Secretary of the Treasury under the new President Washington. In 1795 he turned down an appointment to the Supreme Court.
His troubles with Aaron Burr begin seriously at about 1800. That year Burr runs for president against Thomas Jefferson. The election ends up in a tie. Burr and Jefferson receive the exact number of votes in the Electoral College and so according to article 2, section 2 of the Constitution, The House of Representatives would vote to decide the election. Hamilton used his influence to push hard for Jefferson. Hamilton disliked Burr and had attacked him both publicly and privately for years. Jefferson wins the vote and according to the rules at the time Burr becomes Vice President.
In 1804 Jefferson runs for his second term but Burr fails to win renomination for Vice President. He basically got kicked off the ticket in effect. He attempts to rebound by running for Governor of New york State. Hamilton forcefully opposes him again and Burr fails to win the governorship. In a fit of anger and frustration Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton hated the idea of a duel but felt obligated to accept the challenge likely for fear of being considered a coward if he were to decline. So on July 11th, 1804 on a field in Weehawken, New Jersey, on almost the same spot where Hamilton's oldest son was killed in a duel only 3 years before, it was played out.
Hamilton was gravely wounded straight away but he did not die outright. He lingered on in his death bed falling in and out of conciousness and finally died the next day. The sitting Vice President had killed one of the nations Founding fathers. Hamilton was just 49 years old.
After the incident life for Aaron Burr got harder. He became involved over the years in various schemes that eroded away even more at his reputation. He fell so far that he even was indicted for treason in a scheme that became known as the Burr conspiracy but after a six month trial in 1807 he was acquitted. He went back to New York in 1812 to practice law. In 1833 he married a wealthy widow named Eliza Brown Jumel who was 58 at the time. They divorced within a year. Jumel claimed that he was very financially demanding. He lived for two more years and died on September 14th, 1836 on Staten Island in New york at the age of 80. Nearly 33 years after taking Hamilton's life in that infamous duel.

U.S. troops in Iraq suspected of gun running

According to the Government Accountability Office somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of all the weapons the U.S. sends to Iraq that are intended for the Newly trained Iraqi security forces have gone missing. The Pentagon is investigating the possibility that up to 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols have been intercepted by U.S. soldiers when they were on their way to Iraqi Security forces and instead diverted for sale on the black market by U.S troops and American contractors. The G.A.O. report sited that among other things there is insufficient staffing in Iraq to monitor the weapons coupled with a general failure to follow established procedures that is exaserbating the problem. It has cost U.S. taxpayers in excess of 19 billion dollars since 2003 just to train and equip the Iraqi Security forces. During the time the weapons went missing the General in charge of training those forces was David Petraeus who is currently the commanding general of all U.S. forces there. He is not suspected of and has not been implicated in any kind of wrongdoing. Commanders in Iraq believe that the failure to follow established procedures in Iraq has been a problem for a while. Other such incidents have involved leaving weapons depots unguarded. Such behavior helps put weapons in the hands of anti U.S. insurgents in Iraq and probably leads to an increase in the number of combat deaths the U.S. suffers in theater. Claude Kicklighter, the pentagon's Inspector General is believed to be quietly looking into the matter but the Pentagon has declined any official comment so far.

Populations of Nations

The world is full of human beings. There are more of us now living in the world than at any time in history and the number is skyrocketing. The U.N. estimates that in the next several years the worlds population will exceed 7 billion. The worlds people are distributed all around the Earth but in some places they are more concentrated than others. Did you know that almost 40% of the world's people live in only 2 countries and that neither one is the U.S.? How about That Indonesia is the world's 4th largest country by population or that Nigeria has more people living in it than Russia? How about that Vietnam has 27 million more people than England? Below is a list of the 15 most populated countries in the world based on U.N. estimates taken in the summer of 2007. It's important to note that these numbers change by the minute as some people die and others are born so there is no way to get an exact count. The chart is organized by country, their population, and the percentage of the world population their numbers represent:

1. China --------- 1,322,597,000 --- 19.8%
2. India ---------- 1,131,043,000 --- 16.9%
3. U.S. ------------- 303,636,000 ---- 4.5%
4. Indonesia ------- 231,627,000 ---- 3.4%
5. Brazil ------------ 185,217,000 ---- 2.7%
6. Pakistan -------- 162,040,500 ---- 2.4%
7. Bangladesh ----- 158,217,222 ---- 2.3%
8. Nigeria ----------148,093,000 ---- 2.2%
9. Russia ---------- 142,499,000 ---- 2.1%
10. Japan ----------127,718,000 ---- 1.9%
11. Mexico ---------106,535,000 --- 1.6%
12. Philippines ----- 88,706,300 ----1.3%
13. Vietnam ---------87,375,000 ----1.3%
14. Germany --------82,314,900 ----1.2%
15. Ethiopia ---------77,127,000 --- 1.1%
Other countries of note:
19. France --------64,102,140 -----0.96%
22. U.K. ---------- 60,587,300 ---- 0.91%
23. Italy -----------59,200,382 ---- 0.89%

Edwin Howard Armstrong - Suicidal Genius who brought radio to millions

To most people today his name means nothing. It makes no impression like the names of Edison or Bell. He is despite this nearly as important in the history of invention as they were. Edwin Howard Armstrong was an American inventor and electrical engineer. Born on December 18th 1890 in New York City he was educated at Columbia University. While it is true that Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla are far better known for their work in the early development of radio it was Armstrong that made it sing so to speak. The signals from the early version of the invention were originally weak. The signals were so weak in fact that the initial invention could only be used to send telegraph signals short distances. Armstrong made two contributions of great importance to the development of radio that would change all this. The first was the invention of the regenerative circuit in 1912 at the age of 22. This invention amplified weak signals with fidelity. It became known as Amplitude modulation or better known as AM radio. This boosted a radio signals power to the point where you were no longer limited to just sending telegraph signals but now you could broadcast voice and music over longer distances with improved clarity. It is radio as we know it today.
His second big contribution did not come until the 1930's with his invention of Frequency modulation. You know this better as FM radio. What frequency modulation did was improve the quality of the radio signal even further by eliminating much of the static that you find on the Am band and gave the signal stereo quality fidelity.
Despite Armstrong's obvious brilliance he suffered from bouts of depression and malaise. He was involved in his life in many lawsuits where others falsely claimed his inventions and achievements which robbed him of royalties and credit for his work. On the night of January 31, 1954 after an argument with his wife and in despair about his court battles over patent rights to his inventions he jumped from a window on the thirteenth floor of his apartment building in Manhattan. He was 63 years old.

World Population Explosion Well Under Way

According to a United Nations population estimate in the summer of 2007 the total number of humans currently living on the Earth is now 6,671,226,000. Now six and one half billion people is a startling amount but what is more amazing is just how quickly the Earths population has been growing in the last 200 years. Below is a chart beginning in the year 0 A.D. (which was the time of Jesus) and projected out to the year 2050 which tells the story of just how fast it has been growing and how fast it is expected to grow in the future.

World total Population:

0 A.D. ----- 300 million
1000 ------- 310 million
1800 ------- 1 billion
1927 ------- 2 billion
1960 ------- 3 billion
1974 ------- 4 billion
1987 ------- 5 billion
1999 ------- 6 billion
2050 ------- 9 billion

It is anticipated that by 2050 the demand for food and water will outstrip supply. It already does in some parts of the world and it is expected to worsen.

U.S. contractors in Iraq accused of rape

On Wednesday December 19th a Judiciary Committee Hearing in Washington heard the testimony of a young married woman named Jamie Leigh Jones who claims that while she was in the employ of a defense contracting company in Iraq named K.B.R. ( Kellogg, Brown, and Root) that she was drugged and gang raped by some male fellow employees of the company after only having been in Iraq 4 days in the summer of 2005.
Jamie Leigh Jones, who was only 21 years old at the time, claims that shortly after arriving to work for K.B.R. in Iraq she was constantly and repeatedly subjected to cat calls and raunchy comments from her fellow employees. On the night of July 29th she was invited to a party by some other co workers. Once there she was offered a drink. She remembers that at this point she had passed out and the next thing she recalls is that she wakes up in a bed in a room with a man she does not know and that she had multiple bruises and that she was bleeding from between her legs. She testified that she asked the man in the room with her if he had sex with her to which the man replied yes. In a panic she finds her way to an army medical doctor on the base who confirms to her that she has in fact been raped. Evidence of the rape was then collected in what is known as a rape kit which is used to collect and preserve evidence in such instances. After reporting the incident to her superiors at K.B.R. she says that she was told by them to basically get over it and get back to work or you will lose your job. After she did not return to work she says she was locked in a shipping container with two armed guards outside for one day until she was sent back home to the States.
Once she gets back home to America she attempted to pursue criminal and civil action against the men and has discovered that she cannot. Apparently there was a stipulation in her employment agreement with K.B.R. which prevents her from bringing charges against them or any of its employees. She says that she did not know there was any kind of clause in her employment agreement and that when she signed it she was just excited about getting the job and she signed the agreement without reading it fully. It is over two years later and no charges have been brought against anyone involved.
Jamie Leigh Jones still continues to suffer some effects from the sexual assault. She has had to have reconstructive surgery due to the brutality of the attack and she is in counseling. Despite all this she has also managed to begin a foundation. It is called the Jamie Leigh Foundation and it provides counseling for victims of similiar kinds of assaults.

Intuitive Surgical builds tiny robots to save you and their stock is up this year

In the industry of manufacturing surgical devices Intuitive Surgical Incorporated (ISRG) is a force. They are involved in Haptics which is the science of computer aided touch sensitivity. It is a technology that helps doctors perform surgeries with the aid of small robots. The surgeon does not even have to be in the room. He would direct the movements of the machines from a remote location. It is remote control surgery. The company developed the da Vinci Surgical System. It is a system that faithfully reproduces a doctors hand movements in real time. The surgery is performed by tiny machanical devices that are inserted into the patient through small openings. Once placed in the body they are controlled by a surgeon who operates the devices and performs the surgery from a control console. Intuitive sells its products to hospitals and clinics in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Austrailia.
In december of 2004 one share of its stock was at about $45 a share. One year later it was playing with the idea of hitting $120 a share. In 2006 the stock did not do too well. It went from just under $120 to about $100 for the year taking a loss in value by the end of 06. This year however it has been flying. By June of 07 it was at about $140 a share. In july it went from $150 to $210. By mid October it was around $260. It took a little drop then and fell back to $240 and then it recovered and shot up to about $330 by the beginning of November. Then another drop and it went back down to about $270 in the first half of the month but then in the second half it shoots back up to $360 by early December. The last few weeks it has fallen back again and on Decmeber 19th 2007 it closed at $312.95 after a gain of over $5 for the day.
Wow what a roller coaster ride. The ride has had some setbacks but on the whole it is way up. It was under $100 at the beginning of the year and now it sits over $300 a share. There is way more good news here than bad. The stock has had a volatile ride but a seriously profitable one this year. In the long run i dont see why it should not continue. Nothing is certain of course but it should continue upward despite the occasional pullback.

War efforts in both Iraq and Afganistan an increasing economic strain on U.S.

Waging wars is expensive. It is perhaps the most expensive thing that a country can undertake to do. The more a war drags on the more expensive it becomes both in terms of lives lost and money spent. The United States has been involved in two wars now in two seperate countries in Afganistan and Iraq since 2001 and 2003 respectively. They have both been expensive undertakings but as each year goes by and the conflicts drag on their costs are rising as well. Listed below is a year by year chart of the total costs of both conflicts since thay began and their costs so far. The numbers are estimates and they come from the U.S. Government Accounting Office.



War spending in Iraq and Afganistan:


2001 ----- 18 billion
2002 ----- 20 billion
2003 ----- 80 billion
2004 ----- 65 billion
2005 ----- 110 billion
2006 ----- 118 billion
2007 ----- 170 billion (projected total)
2008 ----- 161 billion (projected total)

Brad Pitt rebuilding lost homes for families in New Orleans

Actor and activist Brad Pitt is not just paying lip service to the notion that we all have to chip in to help New Orleans rebuild after Katrina. He is putting 5 million dollars of his own money where his mouth is along with the help of some friends and foundations and they are hoping to fund the building of 150 new eco-friendly homes in the lower ninth ward of the recovering city. "We are starting with 150 homes and we are hoping we can go to every parish and spin this off and that this thing works." He has also said "The powers that be have taken their eyes off the ball" and that his organization which is called Make it Right is a grass roots effort to rebuild as much of the damaged city as it can raise the funds to finance. When asked about how he feels about New Orleans he said "It is one of our most unique cities. I find it to be absolutely authentic. They are their own thing. Its just a great vibrant community and i think it would be a real shame to lose that."
His organization has been calling on businesses, foundations, and corporations to sponsor the building of new homes and he is hoping to have families living in the first of these environmentally friendly solar powered houses by the summer of 2008. The original goal was to build 150 new homes but Mr. Pitt has said that they have actually been funded through the generosity of friends and individuals to the point where they can now project that they can build 225 new homes.
The response from individual people has been great but Brad Pitt has been surprised so far by the lack of a response he has gotten from corporations he has asked to join the effort. "The big response we have had is from individuals. We have had no response from corporations. We have had some answers from foundations but nothing from corporations or businesses which i thought would be our biggest pool." When asked just exactly what their response has been he replied "Just crickets you know, just a dead ear."

Dryships stock way up this year but lately it's hit rough waters

Ever been interested in deep sea shipping? Dryships Inc. (DRYS) has a fleet of 45 dry bulk carriers that sail in all the oceans of the world. They transport coal, iron, grains, fertilizers, and steel. It's total fleet can carry over 4 million deadweight tons. Dryships is managed by Cardiff Marine Incorporated which is headed by CEO George Economou who controls more then 50% of it.
In january of 07 the stock was at about $18 a share. It had been roughly in this neighborhood for a while. By May it had shot up to almost $40. By July almost $65. By september nearly $80. By October nearly $100. About a week before Halloween it was around $130. Then it started to take a tumble and by a week before Thanksgiving it had fallen to less than $70. By early December it was rising again and it was up to about $95 a share. Since then it has been sliding again and so on December 17th 07 it closed at $72.18 after taking a $12 hit for that day.
O.k. so there are two ways to look at this. Overall for the year it is way up. It went from under $18 to over $70 as of today which is great. The other way to see it is that it went from $130 to less than $70 in one month which is horrible. If you are interested in it be careful. It's been pretty all over the place especially in the last months of the year.

How Wal-Mart is killing the American Dream

Everybody on Gods green Earth has been effected by Wal-mart by now. It is by far the worlds largest retailer. It did 244.5 billion in sales last year. To give you an idea about how big that is it sells more stuff in three months than its nearest rival Home Depot does in one year. It is far and away larger exponentially than Target or Sears or Kmart. The way it got there is simple. It provides its customers the lowest prices and the largest selections and the customers come in droves. What most customers who shop at Wal-Mart dont usually understand is that every time they make a purchase at the giant chain they are taking a small bite out of the future of their own country and here's how.
Wal-Mart kills good American jobs and replaces them with low wage ones that most Americans cant support themselves on. Whenever wal-mart locates a new store in a new location it has the effect of running all the other nearby smaller stores and chains out of business because they cant lower their prices enough to compete with Wal-mart and still make a profit. They have to close up shop and that costs the local economy jobs and it erodes away its tax base. In some cases these are little shops and smaller stores that have been in their communities for decades. These are the kind of people and places that Norman Rockwell used to paint, Small town America. When these people and places vanish it can devastate a community and in some instances leaves Wal-Mart as the only place in town to buy anything. The jobs that are lost are good jobs which are usually family run stores that have supported families for more than two and three generations in some cases and they are usually not replaced in the local economy. They are just gone.
Wal-Mart promotes low wage jobs both in America and overseas. The typical Wal-mart job is a stock worker or a checkout clerk. These jobs usually pay minimum wages with long hours and no health care benefits. That's what you get in America. In China its even worse. In order for Wal-mart to provide a tremendous amount of items for sale at very low prices it has to buy those items at low prices. You can check the items on the shelves yourself to see where they are made. The clothes and toys and everything else are usually from China. It buys them from China where in some instances the workers in the factories there have to work often 7 days a week for up to 15 hours a day and are payed in some instances as little as 9 cents an hour after their wages are deducted for food, room, and board, which their employers often provide and charge them for. They are provided with no benefits or health care and they are often not provided with any kind of safety equipment to work on the machinery in the factories where many of the toys and electronic equipment and clothing are made and colored with dyes and chemical lead based paints which are dangerous to inhale. Usually the workers in these factories are uneducated and poor and are not at all aware of the dangers. When a customer shops at Wal-mart they are supporting this chain and perpetuating it and usually they are not aware of it and have no understanding of it.
When wal-mart comes to town it kills all the small businesses and the American economy is overwhelmingly so made up of these types of mom and pop and smaller chain stores. The more Wal-Mart thrives the less there are of them as a result. In our desire as a nation of consumers to buy items that are inexpensive we are destroying the overall economic base of our own country and the long standing cornerstones of our own communities and we are replacing them with nothing.

The Wealth of Candidates

We have all by now become quite used to the fact that our candidates for both local and national office are always going to come from one particular class of the population, the wealthy class. This years nominees for president are no exception. The front runners especially are all of enormous wealth. It is estimated that republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has a personal fortune in excess of 200 million dollars. Democratic nominee John Edwards is in excess of 55 million. Rudy Giuliani is at over 50 million. John McCain at over 40 million. Hillary Clinton over 35 million. Millionaires in the United States make up less than one percent of the total population of the country and this raises the question of just how sensitive or interested wealthy elected officials will be to the needs and wants of a nation that is over 99% working class and poor.
In order for a candidate to become elected it requires an enormous amount of money to do so. We have all heard the saying that money is the mother's milk of politics and at every new election cycle it becomes even more true. It has been estimated that it will cost well in excess of 50 million dollars for each of the major candidates of both parties to run their campaigns before it is all over and in order to have access to that kind of money they need to court the wealthy in order to have any kind of serious chance. You know like the way that Barak Obama has been courting Oprah Winfrey in the last weeks. The problem comes in when after they are elected. All that support comes at a price and once they are in office they tend to serve those who provided them the greatest help to get where they are and that often comes at the expense of the middle class. Take George Bush for example. He garnered a huge amount of support for his two election campaigns in 2000 and 2004 from the elite. It is well known that major corporations like Exxon Mobil were large contibutors to his cause. That corporation is known to be a big contibutor to the negative effects of global warming due to the emmissions that it puts out into the atmosphere from its large number of oil refineries. Once elected what does President George Bush do? Well he spends the bulk of his two terms in office basically denying that global warming even exists and has his administration make public statements like "The science is incomplete on the issue of global warming". What does this do? Well it frees up Exxon Mobil to continue to pollute the atmosphere unchecked and frees the company from having to spend large amounts of money to install pollution controls in all its refineries and so they dont have any additional expenses like that eating into the record profits they have been making since Bush became president. It's called a "Quid pro quo", In other words you wash my back and i'll wash yours and so it goes and the result is that the majority of the country and indeed the world suffers. The best example of this lately occured this past week when the United States refused to sign the Kyoto Protocal which calls for all the worlds major industrial nations to set limits on the amount of pollution they distribute into the earths atmosphere each year. The U.S. was the worlds last holdout and did not want to sign on. This all of course is in addition to the enormous tax cuts for the wealthy that this president has championed. In a recent Senate Committee hearing in November of 2007 investor Warren Buffet Testified to the long term destructive nature of this policy when he Stated that under the current structure of taxation he in fact has to pay significantly fewer taxes proportionally on his income than his own secretary. He further stated that this does not bode well for the economic future of the country and should be changed.
They come from the wealthy class, they are elected by the wealthy class through their monetary support during the election campaigns and once elected they serve the interests of the wealthy class. Our first President George Washington came from the wealthy class. All our founding fathers did in fact. So it can be argued that the United States has been an aristocracy more than it has been a true democracy from the first. Being that only 1% of the country is wealthy this leaves most of us out in the cold. You should expect more of the same for the most part from this latest batch of wealthy presidential nominees. Especially the republican ones because its just how the system works.

Gun murder rates around the world

It might come as a surprise to many that when it comes to the number of murders committed with a handgun the United States is not number one. It is on the list but its not nearly close to being first relative to its population size. Here now is a list of the top 5 countries worldwide for gun murders. It is the number of deaths per 1,000,000 citizens in the year 2003. That is the most recent year for which there are complete statistics. The source is a group called the International Action Network on small Arms. They gathered information from various government sources:

1.Brazil -------------------------- 213 gun deaths per 1,000,000
2.South Africa -------------------126 gun deaths per 1,000,000
3.U.S. ----------------------------- 41 gun deaths per 1,000,000
4.Canada -------------------------5.1 gun deaths per 1,000,000
5.U.K. ---------------------------- 0.3 gun deaths per 1,000,000

Japan was tied with England at -0.3 gun deaths per 1,000,000

After a rough period Onyx stock riding high in 07

The last few years have not been all that tremendous for pharmaceutical stocks but this year has been excellent for Onyx Inc (ONXX). They have been working on a cancer drug that might turn out to be something maybe. Working with the giant drug company Bayer they have gained approval for a drug called Nexavar as a treatment for kidney cancer. In 2006 it also gained approval overseas for this use most notably in Europe. Bayer and Onyx believe that the drug might in fact be useful in the treatment of other types of cancer as well such as liver, skin, and lung cancer so they have been testing it for these therapies. Nexavar has been approved for liver cancer treatment in the E.U. already. That happened earlier this year.
In January of 2003 the stock was going at $8 a share. One year later it was at $30. Six months later in the summer of 04 it was around $60. Then came the hard times. From the summer of 04 to the beginning of this year the stock tumbled and went from about $60 to about $10 in January of 07. Since the start of the year it has been flying and on December 14th 07 it closed at $56.36 a share. Its amazing what can happen for a drug company when its drugs get approved.

Why baseball's "steroid era" will not stain baseball for long

It has been some of the biggest news to come out this week. The Mitchel report (An investigative committee set up by major league baseball to get to the bottom of the steroid matter currently hanging over the integrity of the game) has been released and it is naming names. Among the players both past and present that it has claimed were involved in steroid use are Roger Clemens, Andy Petitte, Barry Bonds, and Gary Sheffield. While some of these names are no surprise others are. One thing is almost certain though. Despite the fact that this is a hard period for baseball it will likely as a sport ride out the controversy and thrive beyond all of our lifetimes. Baseball has been through hard times before.
In 1919 the famous "Black Sox" scandal. in that year players from the Chicago White Sox team were accused of taking bribes to throw the world series in which they were appearing that year. The scandal was serious but ultimately baseball recovered and the sport entered into a golden period in the 1920's.
Some people lament that these kinds of scandals hurt the integrity and the history of the game. It screws around with the legitimacy of the stats from era to era. If you have players now who are bulking up with performance enhancing drugs then that will bulk up their stats artificially and then you cannot fairly compare them to the stats of baseball's former great players who did not bulk up to achieve their numbers. In the past some of baseball's greatest players have however benefited from some advantages all be it not by their own design. The most notable in my view is Babe Ruth. He benefited twice in a big way. Many casual followers of baseball are not aware of the fact that Babe Ruth began his career as a pitcher. He almost won 100 games and set a record for scoreless innings pitched that lasted for decades before he converted to an outfielder and began hitting everyday and went on to set the all time home run record with 714 which too was a record that lasted for decades. He accomplished his pitching feat in a period known as the "dead ball" era. So named because at that time the baseball that was used was considered "dead". The string inside a baseball back then was not woven around the core of the ball as tightly as it was in later "era's" and the result was that the ball would not travel as far when hit. Home runs in baseball were rare by any hitter in this period. This phase was followed by a live ball era at about 1920. The way baseballs were made was changed and the result was that the ball traveled farther when hit and this set the stage for Ruth as well as others to start knocking the cover off the ball and acheive their heddy home run numbers. All this happened just in time for Ruth who converted to being a hitter in 1920. It was like Ruth had the luck of the gods.
As time goes by the scandal will fade. Believe it or not one day Pete Rose will be inducted into the hall of fame too despite the fact that he illegally bet on games in which he was involved. You know why? Because eventually time heals all wounds. He may or may not live long enough to see it but its eventuality is certain. Over time a new generation of kids will be introduced to baseball by their fathers and they will have no memory of this scandal and baseball will be reborn in their eyes anew. Scandals fade, life goes on and it will be take me out to the ball game all over again. Every new baseball season is a new beginning.

Feeling depressed? It might have something to do with where you live

Everybody everywhere gets the blues from time to time but as it turns out your location may have something to do with how often it occurs and how severe it gets. A non profit organization called Mental Health America has done a state by state study of the U.S. and has ranked each state in the union based on the prevalence of depression reported there. Listed below is a chart of the top ten least depressed States followed by a chart of the top ten most depressed according to their survey.


Top 10 least depressed states: (shiny happy people states)
1.South Dakota
2.Hawaii
3.New Jersey
4.Iowa
5.Maryland
6.Minnesota
7.Louisiana
8.Illinois
9.North dakota
10.Texas


Top 10 most depressed states:
1.Utah
2.West Virginia
3.Kentucky
4.Rhode Island
5.Nevada
6.Oklahoma
7.Idaho
8.Missouri
9.Ohio
10.Wyoming

P.S. ----California ranked 15th least depressed and New York 19th least depressed.

Adobe stock has done well the last few years

If you know anything about the multimedia, graphics and publishing industries than you know what Adobe is. Adobe Sysyems inc. (ADBE) is a leading desktop publishing provider. It is responsible for the Acrobat reader which is distributed free of charge throughout the internet. It displays PDF files (Portable document files). The company also produces Photoshop, Illustrator and pagemaker. They also offer professional web design (Go Live) and electronic book publishing.
In January of 2003 one share of Adobe was going for about $15. One year later it was at $20. By january of 05 it hit $32 a share. By the beginning of 06 it was at $42. In the summer of 06 it hit the skids and dropped down to about $26 a share. It spent the rest of that year in recovery mode and by the end of 06 it was back at $42 a share. Less than 2 months ago it was flirting with the possibility of hitting $50 a share but it did not make it. On December 13th it closed at $43.90 so it is toying with the idea of not having done much this year but who knows the year is not over just yet. From $15 in the beginning of 03 to almost $44 now represents almost a 300% increase in the value of the stock. There is some risk here because it has had some drops so if your in it for the short term i would say no. Over the long term this should continue to do well but expect a temporary setback from time to time.

Stephanie Kwolek - Female Genius and inventor of life saving Kevlar

Many people have heard of it but few really know what it is or who invented it. Today it is one of the worlds most useful and life saving materials to have ever come out of the modern age. Kevlar is best known to the public as the material used to make bullet proof vests. For use in this purpose alone it is responsible for saving countless thousands of lives especially in the military and law enforcement. It has also countless other uses. It is used to make radial tires puncture resistant and also used to make brake pads for cars. It is used in the making of fiberglass cables for audio and video communications. For making safety helmets for the public and for soldiers in combat. It is used in the construction of suspension cables for bridges and the construction of aircraft, navy ships, and spacecraft for Nasa. It's invention was a revolution in 1965.
The inventor was a brilliant chemist who worked for the Dupont Chemical company named Stephanie Kwolek. Born on July 31, 1923 she was interested in science as a child. She attended the women's college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1946 and went right to work for Dupont in one of their labs in Buffalo, New York. She continued her brilliant career until her retirement in 1986. By the end of it she was the holder of 17 patents. She is the winner of numerous awards including the National Medal of Technology and the Lemelson-MIT lifetime acheivement award in 1999. She is also an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

The costs of waging war.

The government of the United States is in the middle of a long time trend of increasing the amount of money that it dedicates annually to preparing for and waging war. This trend while to some degree or other has existed in every administration is now reaching new and unprecedented heights under the presidency of George Bush. Here now is a quick breakdown of the Federal budget for fiscal year 2008 and a glimpse into how your tax dollars will be spent next year:
The total amount of revenue the government will take in is 2 trillion 387 billion dollars. Spending for the military is set at 1 trillion 228 billion dollars or 51% of the budget. This includes spending for the efforts in both Iraq and Afganistan which make up a combined total of 7% of the overall budget (161 billion) projected for the coming year. The budget for the Department of Defense will be 585 billion. The military portions of the budgets of other departments like Nasa for example as well as other departments will be 122 billion. This includes "past military" spending such as veterans benefits.
Spending that is non military---1 trillion 159 billion dollars or 49% of the budget. These figures are according to the U.S. Government Accounting office report estimate released in july of 2006.

Why waterboarding is Un-American

In the long and glorious history of the United States military there have been traditions that have withstood the test of time. Codes of conduct that go back as far as the birth of our nation and have long served to represent what we stand for as a country. One of the traditional behaviors that has seemingly fallen by the way side is the long standing tenent that forbade the military of this country from engaging in the use of torture as a legitimate tactic in the conduct of warfare. Most notably the use of a banned torture tactic known as waterboarding and the controversy over whether it has any real useful purpose for gathering useable intelligence.
In order to understand why it should not be practiced one must first understand what it is. Waterboarding simply put is what some people have refered to as a simulated drowning. The victim or "subject" of the act is first placed flat on their back onto a wooden board. Their head is then lowered to a level where the persons head is now lower than their feet on the board. A small towel or rag is then stuffed or placed over the mouth. A Bucket of water is then poured onto the persons face in a slow, deliberate and continual motion. The person soon feels the sensations of drowning because the water being poured onto their face enters the mouth and the nasal cavity and denies them the ability to breathe.
The practice dates back to the 1500's in Europe. It is believed it may have first been put to use during the Spanish Inquisition. Over the years it has been used by many of America's wartime enemies against our captured soldiers. Most notably it was used by the Nazi's during World war 2 and the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam war. It is a practice that has been banned by the codes of the Geneva Convention which is a document to which the U.S. is a co signer.
In History the thing that has distinguished the United States from it's enemies the most is it's behavior. The fact that we as a nation were not only honor bound by our own self imposed code of conduct but that we had no interest in ever engaging in the barbarism that our enemies displayed to us. It was what seperated "us" from "them" and it showed the world clearly who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. What was supposed to make us different from Al Queda and the Nazi's and the Vietcong was that we didnt do the disgusting things that they did in war. This gave us a "moral authority" And a respect and good standing in the international community that was beyond reproach and plain for all to see. When we begin to engage in the same unspeakable practices as our enemies we then lose that authority and it becomes difficult for other countries in the world to distinguish us from our enemies in our practices. For anyone to say that the United States has to engage in torture to fight the war on terror is nonsense. Its like saying that a police officer has to break the law in order to enforce the law. It is a nonsense argument. The job of a police officer is to uphold the law. If he violates the law he becomes by definition a criminal or a law breaker and thereby violates the very code he has sworn to uphold. A police officer is honor bound to live by a standard that a common criminal perhaps would not even understand. Let Al Queda be what it is. We all know that they are barbarians. They prove it everyday by their behavior. What we should have done is simply fight against them without becoming the barbarians that they are. We should not have become the cop who breaks the law. We should have let their evil stand on its own and not have stooped to engaging in it too and thereby violate all of our own tenents of acceptable behavior. We have stained our own toga. Even in the eyes of our allies it is going to take us years to recover our reputation as a nation if in fact we ever do at all.

Another high rising stock for your consideration

You would not happen to be in the need of some industrial equipment right now would you? Well around the world there are many companies who do and they have been known latley to call on Asea-Brown-Boveri (ABB) when that need arises for them. ABB is a company that provides both power and automation technologies to a variety of utility commercial and industrial companies. Their power products include transmission and distribution components. These technologies are used to monitor and control equipment in industrial plants and utilities. They operate in over one hundred countries worldwide.
In January of 2005 one share in this company was going for about $6. One year later it had climbed to $8. By June of 06 it got to $12. By January of 07 it was at $16. By June of 07 it was at $22. On December 11th it closed at over $29 a share. That is a 400% increase in the value of the stock in a little less than 3 years. Turning every $6 you invest into $29 in less than 3 years is not a bad way to go now is it?

Alfred Nobel - His famous prize was born of guilt

Almost everyone in the world has heard of the Nobel prize but few know very much about the man behind it. Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite in the year 1863. Initially he experimented with Nitroglycerine and progressed to blasting oil and from that to dynamite. His invention made him rich at an early age in 1863 he was only 30. He originally intended his invention to be used for industrial purposes but it gained increasing popularity in use for war. This fact took an emotional toll on him. It made him feel guilty. In response to this guilt he dedicated himself to the promotion of peace and established his Nobel Prize. The award is given every year on December 10th to commemorate the day he died in 1896. The first ones were awarded in 1901. Here now is a brief timeline of his life:
1833-Alfred Nobel is born in Stockholm Sweden.
1860-Begins his early experiments with Nitroglycerine.
1863-Obtains patent for Nitroglycerine and develops igniter (Blasting Caps),
1864-His brother Emil is killed during the preparation of Nitroglycerine in Stockholm.
1866-Establishes blasting oil company in America.
1867- obtains first patent for dynamite.
1870-Establishes dynamite manufacturing companies in U.K. and France the following year.
1873-Achieves enormous wealth and relocates to Paris from Sweden.
1889-His mother Andriette dies.
1891-Moves to Italy and settles in San Remo
1895-His third and last will is signed and establishes Nobel prizes.
1896-Dies at his home in San Remo.

P.S.-- Congradulations to Former Vice President and Senator Al Gore on his Nobel Prize for Peace which he was awarded yesterday in Oslo, Norway. The award was given to him for his on going efforts to educate others on the negative effects of global warming and his urging of citizens and governments around the world to take action to reverse the effects.

Ampal Corp stock rising steadily

Those of you who frequent this blog on a regular basis probably know by now that the only kinds of stocks that i like to blog about are the ones that are steady rising stocks that grow in value over time and are not all that risky. Have you looked at Ampal Corp? (AMPL) This is a company that focuses on other companies and industries that are Israeli or Israeli based. Usually but not exclusively involved in the Commercial real estate and the leisure industries like tourism. It also has a 22% stake in Carmel container systems which is a packing materials manufacturer and a 37% stake in Bay Heart limited which is involved in shopping malls in The city of Haifa in Israel. They are now looking for investment oppourtunities in the energy sector after having been focused on high tech and telecom stocks for a while.
In the beginning of 2003 one share was going for about $2.25. By the beginning of 04 it was at $3.25. By January of 05 it was $4.00 a share. By the spring of 06 $5.00. By the summer of 07 $6.50 a share. On December 10th of 2007 it closed at $7.12 a share. It is an affordable stock that just about anyone can buy into and it has a lot of potential climbing that it still can do. It might be worth a look.

The Pentagon - International symbol of military might

It has been called the largest low rise office building in the world and also a city on to itself. The pentagon building in Washington D.C. is one of the most immediately recognizable buildings on earth. The idea for the building was conceived in July of 1941. In a twist of irony the ground breaking ceremony to begin constuction occured on September 11th, 1941. The designers played around with more than a few ideas about what the building would look like before they settled on the familiar pentagon shape. Originally it was going to be a square building with just one of its corners cut off to accomadate a nearby road but they dropped this idea because it would make the building look lop sided on one side and the designers thought that was unattractive. Another design was that the building would be totally circular. That it would be 4 rings radiating out from a smaller core ring. This idea was well liked from an asthetic point of view but it proved to be too difficult to implement. Its very hard for construction engineers to build round walls as it turns out because you have to keep changing the angle of the wall being built as you build it so this idea was done away with too and finally the pentagon shape was settled on and construction began.
Early on there was some debate about what they were going to call it. Initially it was going to be called the National Defense Building. Then that got changed to the Pentagonal Building. People started calling it the Pentagon for short and so after a little while the name was officially changed. Over the years there have been moves to change its name yet again. When Dwight Eisenhower died in 1969 there was a brief ground swell by some members of Congress to rename the Pentagon in his honor but it went nowhere. When Ronald Reagan died in 2004 there was a similar move by then Senator Bill Frist in the House to name the building after him. This went nowhere either.
The building originally took only a total of 16 months to complete. It in fact was occupied and operating long before it was completed due to the outbreak of World War 2 just three months after the initial ground breaking. Each side wall of the Pentagon is one fifth of a mile long with reinforced concrete and steel construction. It is so big in fact that some members of the military establishment who go there to work for the first time are often assigned a guide to help them get around the building and avoid getting lost because of all of its confusing corridors and hallways. The Building had a little bit of luck on September 11th, 2001 when it was struck by an airliner in the terror attacks. The plane hit the Pentagon on the only side of the building that had recently been upgraded and that side wall had been further reinforced and had also recieved new blast proof windows. It is believed this fact helped keep down the number of dead and injured during the attack to the somewhat low number of 184. These casualties are often referred to as the forgottten victims of 9-11. After the attack the building was totally restored and all the damage repaired within one year. Today it continues to be the work place for over 23000 employees both military and civilian and over 3000 non defence support personel.

All Locked Up

It will not come as much of a surprise to most to know that the United States is number one in the world in terms of the number of its citizens that are locked away in prisons. It is not however the highest in terms of the number of its citizens locked away per 100,000 people. That dubious honor currently goes to Russia. Below is a chart that is accurate as of August 2007 of the top 20 countries worldwide for total prison inmate populations plus their incarceration rates per 100,000 citizens. The list is not complete because some countries, like North Korea for example, refuse to release their figures.

Country --- Incarceration rate (per 100,000) --- Total inmate Pop.
1. United States ---------666 ---------------------- 1,800,000
2. China ---------- -------103 -----------------------1,236,000
3. Russia ---------------- 690 -----------------------1,017,000
4. India -------------------24----- --------------------216,400
5. Ukraine ---------------390-------------------------204,000
6. South Africa---- ------265-------------------------110,000
7. Thailand-------- -------181------------------------106,700
8. Germany-------- -------85 -------------------------68,400
9. Poland -----------------170-------------------------65,800
10. South Korea----------137-------------------------61,000
11. France-----------------95------------------------- 53,700
12. Belarus ---------------505-------------------------52,000
13. England---------------100 ------------------------ 51,250
14. Turkey-------- --------80------------------------- 49,900
15. Italy----------- --------85------ -------------------47,300
16. Japan------------------37------------------------- 46,600
17. Romania-------------200------------------------- 45,300
18. Bangladesh---- -------37 -------------------------44,100
19. Spain-----------------105------------------------- 40,100
20. Canada --------------115------ -------------------33,900

Mobile Telesystems is flying high in Russia

Telecom companies always love it when people like you and me love to talk because they can hear the sounds of their profits going up and see their stock value climbing. Mobile Telesystems (MBT) is the number one digital mobile phone service in Russia where people like to talk too it seems. It currently has over 72 million subscribers across the 11 Different time zones that make up that giant sized nation. To give you an idea of how large that is the United States only has 3 time zones. The company exclusively uses the Global System for Mobile Communications Standard or GSM. The company has been in an expansion mode. It has aquired over 12 other mobile operators since 1998. Its communications network reaches across Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Sistema is a major industrial holding company that along with Deutsche Telecom formed MBT in 1993. It now holds about 53% of the company.
In the summer of 2002 one share of MBT was going for about $10. By the end of 04 it was at $20. By the end of 05 it was $30. In the summer of 06 it slipped a little and fell to about $25 and immediately began climbing again and so by the end of that year in December of 06 it was at $50. On December 7th of 07 it closed at over $96 a share. Its value has nearly doubled this year.

Mother Teresa - Future Saint who had her Doubts

Last September 5th was the tenth anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. The anniversary was somewhat overshadowed by the tenth anniversary of the death of another icon Princess Diana that had occured just a few days before. Born Agnes Bojaxhiu in the year 1910 she had already decided by her 12th birthday that she in fact wanted to be a missionary to the poor. By age 17 she had left her home village of Skopje and traveled to Ireland to begin to realize her childhood ambition. In 1931 she took her first vows as a nun. She became part of an order known as the Loreto sisters where she remained for 17 years. In 1948 she left this order to strike out on her own and form a new community. She believed that she was responding to a call from God for her to dedicate the rest of her life to the service of the poorest of the poor. She relocated to Calcutta, India to represent God in her service by founding an order that grew from just one woman at the beginning to nearly 4000 members and 600 foundations in 123 countries upon her passing. Despite her years of dedication to God there were periods in her life when she felt abandoned by him and had been filled with doubt.
She often wrote letters to superiors and confessors in which she would state that she believed that her prayers to God were going unanswered and felt an emptiness about this and that she thought she was being spurned. In one of these letters she wrote: " Lord, my God who am i that you should forsake me?...The one you have thrown away as unwanted and unloved...I call, I cling, I want and there is no one there to answer...". In another letter addressed to the Rev. Lawrence Picachy in August of 1959 she again repeats these sentiments, "Tell me father, Why is there so much pain and darkness in my soul." In another letter written in 1995 she wrote of her "Spiritual Dryness" just two years before her death so it becomes clear that her struggle with her faith was a matter that lingered with her through her life and was not merely a passing phase.
In these letters we see a woman who is attempting to come to terms with the day to day misery that she sees in the eyes of the suffering and square that with the inconsistancy of that reality and a loving God. Being honest with oneself is not a crime or sin it is actually an attempt to get to some truth. She believed in a loving God and could not understand how a slum like Calcutta could exist in light of the existance of such a being and it caused her crisis of faith. Most of us have been there too probably more than a few times.
In the estimation of most it detracts nothing from her relavence. A great life is measured by the actions of an individual. A life in service to others is a labor of love that is dedicated to God and is offered up in his name. For true believers they are the ones that get to go through the pearly gates with the most ease. They are the examples of the enormous wealth of a human soul when it is applied. Despite her crisis of faith it never stopped her from her service. Can anyone doubt the spiritual beauty of such a person? She is a standard for others to try and live up to but have no hope of ever matching. Few others have or ever will succeed in leaving behind a shining beacon as bright as her life and her legacy.

Pearl Harbor remembered

It is one of the great defining moments that shaped the course of modern history. As President Roosevelt Said, "December 7th 1941 A date which will live in imfamy. The United States was suddenly and viciously attacked by forces of the Empire of Japan..." It set in motion the greatest military conflict in the history of the world so far.
It began on a beautiful Sunday morning in the Pacific when the first of two waves of 360 Japanese attack planes began bombing and straifing Battleship Row where the bulk of the U.S. Pacific Naval fleet was moored that morning. Most of the damage occured in the first 30 minutes. There were Airmen and seamen on duty at the time who were becoming more familiar with a new British technology called R.A.D.A.R. (radio detection and ranging). They had noticed the Japanese fleet coming towards them on their new radar screens and had alerted superiors about it. They were told that it was probably American B-17's coming back in from some exercises and not to worry about it. Nurses arriving for duty on that morning found chaos ensuing. There were dead, dying and wounded all over the place and they began running around administering Morphine to those injured that they believed could be helped. In order to avoid administering overdoses they would write the letter M on the foreheads of those treated with red lipstick. After the attack there were over 2400 dead servicemen and the majority of the Pacific fleet was violently burning in the Harbor. Among the ships damaged and destroyed were the U.S.S. Arizona, Nevada, Vestal, West Virginia, Oklahoma, California, and Utah.

Union Pacific stock keeps chugging along nicely

Do you like to play with trains? Here is a stock that will keep you on the track. Union Pacific (UNP) is the number one rail freight carrier in the U.S. They transport anything you could imagine on a network of tracks more than 32,000 miles long stretching over 23 states. They own most of this track and lease it out to other freight carriers like U.P.S. and collect additional fees.
By the end of 2002 one share was at about $55 a share. By the summer of 2005 it was at about $70. By the beginning of 06 it was $80. The beginning of 07 it was at $90. On December 6th it closed at over $134 a share. Its a tried and true stock that has withstood the test of time. Its not going to skyrocket up as fast as some of the other stocks i have written about but it will give you a nice steady secure ride. It just keeps on rolling along.

Why the down turn in violence in Iraq is not the result of troop surge

In January of 2007 President Bush in a reaction to the escalating violence of the insurgency in Iraq announced that he would be sending an additional 21,500 U.S. troops there to help quell the uprisings. In March he announced an additional 8,000 to up the total of U.S. forces to around 170,000. In the military they refer to this kind of thing as a "Mission Creep". It refers to when a combat mission is expanded slowly but surely and before anybody knows it the goals of the mission have changed too. There is no denying that the amount of violence in Iraq is down now that we are at the end of the year but that has more to do with the heavy hand of Al Queda than with the new Americans in theater.
When the U.S. first invaded Iraq there were certain elements inside the country that banded together to resist the American ocupation. These elements consisted of Mostly former military commanders and Sadam loyalists who had been thrown out of their jobs when the U.S came in and took over. These elements banded together with Al Queda because they had a common enemy to fight and they did so until Al Queda started to throw its weight around with them too much and that caused a rift between them. Al Queda began enforcing its own brand of strict Islamic law with the citizens in the towns and villages of Iraq and they were doing so violently. There were some reports that they were beheading women because they were daring to be seen in public without head scarves which is a strict no no in Islamic law. Other reports were that they were threatening to wipe out the entire families of anyone who joined the police force and tried to restore order. The locals after dealing and living with this new brand of terror began to rebel against Al Queda and stopped setting I.E.D.'s in the roads to blow up american humvee's and began resisting the presence of Al Queda and started to drive them out of their villages with the help of the Americans who they were fighting previously.
The other big reason for the slow down in the violence is that the Bush administration changed its tune towards both Syria and Iran. Initially the Bush White House was openly blaming Syria for fueling the insurgency by claiming that they were not controlling their border and preventing new insurgents from coming down into Iraq to take on the Americans. They also accused Iran of aiding the insurgents by providing them with landmines to help blow up American military vehicles. These complaints while more than likely true never the less poisoned the well in terms of fostering even more ill will Between the U.S. and these countries which probably lead to their only adding even more intensity on their parts to their efforts to thwart the Americans in Iraq. Now that the Rhetoric has calmed down quite a bit and the Bush White house has toned down its shouting at these two countries the violence has toned down too. It's amazing to see just how far you can get when you use a little bit of careful diplomacy. it can get you the results that an entire Army cannot get you. It simply is not that plausible that the troop surge is responsible for the down turn in violence. You mean to tell me that we had over 140,000 soldiers fighting in Iraq and we could not put the lid on the insurgency but adding just 28,000 more troops did the trick? Its too small an amount to have made such a radical difference.
It is difficult to tell if the violence will continue to decline or not. Certainly the American public has tired of hearing about all the dead and wounded soldiers it has suffered through in the last nearly five years not to mention the enormous cost of the war. The good news may be bringing some hope that maybe the worst of it is over and we have finally turned a corner and are looking at possibly the beginning of the end of this long national nightmare. Its not likely but it certainly is worth hoping for. The families of the soldiers fighting there are probably all keeping their fingers crossed.

Baidu is a stock that is soaring like a rocket

The Chinese are discovering the internet. Have you ever heard of Baidu.com? It is a leading Chinese language search engine. It is basically the Chinese version of Google. It operates websites and it provides online advertising services in China. It also provides other services like news, mp3 and image search through a subsidiary called Baidu netcom. Baidu online operates a software business and provides technology consulting. The Chief executive officer is named Robin Li. He owns about 22% of the company. By the way Baidu means "hundred times" in Chinese.
In February of 2006 the stock was going for $50 a share. By December of 06 it had reached $100. By August of 07 it was over $200. By last month it was at $420 a share. Since this high it has taken a little dip and on December 5th it closed at $392 a share after a gain of more than $4 for that day. It has gone from $50 a share to nearly $400 in less that two years. That is one hell of a rocket ride for a stock. It's likely to keep climbing.

You gotta have faith

Now that the population of the world is well over 6 billion people it is not hard to understand that religions around the world are growing larger than ever. Do you know how many religions there are in the world? Well there are as it turns out more of them than you could shake a Bible at. In the world today there are 22 major ones. By major i mean religious faiths that have at least 500,000 followers. This standard leaves out religions like New Age and Taoism. Listed below are the worlds major religions and the estimated number of followers that are counted among their ranks as of this year.
1. Christians - 2.1 billion or 33% of the worlds population
2. Islam - 1.5 billion or 21% of the worlds population
3. Atheist or Agnostic - 1.1 billion
4. Hindu - 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion - 394 million
6. Buddhism - 376 million
7. Primal-indegnous - 300 million
8. Diasporic - 100 million
9. Sikhism - 23 million
10. Juche - 19 million
11. Spiritism - 15 million
12. Judaism - 14 million - about 9 million live in Israel.
13. Baha'i - 7 million
14. Jainism - 4.2 million
15. Shinto - 4 million
16. Cao Dai - 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism - 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo - 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism - 1 million
20. Unitarianism - 800,000
21. Rastafarianism - 600,000
22. Scientology - 500,000

Ishares stock has been rising since 2003

Ishares (EWS) is a company that is involved in exchange traded funds (ETF's). Basically they are index funds that are traded like stocks. Each individual share represents a proportion of ownership in every stock that makes up an index. It is a good way to diversify a portfolio without having to go out and buy each individual stock. When you buy one share you are not investing in just one company You in effect become part owner of up to 50 seperate companies. How these companies do overall determines if the shares rise or fall in value.
In early 2003 one share of Ishares was trading for about $4 a share. It was down from a high of almost $10 a share in the summer of 1999. Since that time it has been steadily rising and has recovered its earlier losses and now as of December 4th 2007 sits at $14.35 a share. It's value has more than tripled in four years. Exchange traded funds and index funds are a good way to reduce your risk when you invest. Your not just tied into the fortunes of just one company but a whole bunch of them. The idea is that You dont have all your eggs in one basket.

Struggle for power at the heart of crisis in Darfur

Since early in 2003 the government of Sudan has been involved in an armed struggle with rebel groups inside its own country and millions of its civilians have been caught in the crossfire. The government forces, known as the Janjaweed, have been fighting it out with two groups mainly. The first group is called the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA or also SLM) and the Justice and equality movement (JEM). During this struggle the Janjaweed have undertaken a policy of "Ethnic Cleansing" and have been attacking the civilians in the section of Sudan known as Darfur because those civilians happen to be of the same ethnic group as the rebels. The numbers of victims involved is staggering. It is estimated that in addition to the over 400,000 that have been killed there have been hundreds of thousands raped and somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.2 million who have been burned out of their homes and displaced and now are living in make shift refugee camps in and around the region and also in The neighboring country of Chad. An additional 2 million civilians are considered "Conflict Affected" and are in danger of starvation because their local economy has collapsed due to the fighting.
The U.N. is attempting to finally respond with a force of about 26,000 peace keepers but here too there are some problems. They will only be allowed into Sudan if they are given permission to do so by the Sudanese government. They are worried about their sovereignty. They have accused both the Governments of the U.S. and Britain of having imperialistic designs on Sudan. They are also insisting the peacekeeping force be made up of predominantly African peacekeepers. They do not want white soldiers making up the bulk of this force. The U.N. is having some difficulty meeting this request because most African Countries lack the resouces needed to get up a force of that size and deploy it. Estimates are that the force will begin to be put on the ground in early to mid Decenmber of 2007. It wont be at full strength in the beginning. It will start to deploy at about 9000 men and slowly increase in number as the new year comes in. If all goes smoothly this may begin to quell the violence going on there but many observers are not overly optimistic.

Time to get caught up on some internet code speak

Many of us have had the experience of chatting with people on line when suddenly they use some abbreviated lettering to reply to you that you have never seen before and you are at a loss to understand what they are saying. A lot of people like to type this way because it saves time and for some of us its a little easier on the fingers. Sometimes younger people on the net type and write to each other this way because it helps ensure them some privacy from the prying eyes of parents who usually are not in the know about what the shorthand version of the words mean. So for all those parents out there i offer you some help to understand. Some of them are more harmless than anything else but some of them might be red flags that you should pay attention to and help keep your kids out of danger on line. Some of these will likely be familiar to you and some maybe not.
LOL ---- Laugh out loud
BRB ---- Be right back
BFF ---- Best friends forever
BF ------ Boyfriend
TTYL --- Talk to you later
LMAO--- Laughing my A-- Off
LULAS-- Love you like a sister
MUSM-- Miss you so much
POS ---- Parent over shoulder
OLL ---- On line love
LMIRL - Let's meet in real life

America Movil is a stock that has been rising for years

Do you know anyone out there that likes to talk and talk? Well in Latin America as in the United States they like to use their cell phones to talk. This is where America Movil (AMX) comes in. They are latin America's number one moble phone company with over 93 million subscribers in 14 countries. Its TelCel unit is Mexico's number one cellular company and accounts for 36 million of those subscribers and half of its sales. The company now owns about 98% of a major Brazilian telecom provider after a recent takeover. The family of Carlos Slim owns about 66% of the company. In case you have not heard Carlos Slim just surpassed Bill Gates as the worlds Richest man according to Forbes Magazine with 59 billion to Bill Gates 58 billion. His Grupo Carso also owns mexico's largest phone company TelMex.
In January of 2003 one share of America Movil was going for about $5. One year later $10. One more year $17 a share. By January of 06 it reached $31. January 07 it hit $47. On December 3rd of this year it opened at $61.66 a share. This means of course that for every $5 you would have put into this company 5 years ago you would be now holding almost $62 in its place. Now you know how Carlos Slim came to have more money than Bill Gates.