Labels: heart, home projects, house for sale

Labels: misanthropy, ponderings, preparedness, society and culture, stream of consciousness

Is the option adjustable-rate mortgage the next subprime disaster? For anyone who remembers that souring subprime loans kicked off the real estate meltdown, that's a scary thought. Recent analysis from Standard & Poor's (S&P) anticipates that a full 37.5% of such loans (dubbed option ARMs) that were written in 2007, at the height of lax lending, will eventually go bad. The kicker is that most option ARMs undergo payment spikes after five years, which means the brunt of the impact has yet to be felt. That will change in late 2010, delivering another blow to the fragile housing market just as it begins to regain strength.

How worried should we be? Perhaps very, according to a chart from a recent report by Amherst Securities. The chart shows the dollar value of loans that will undergo a 10% or more jump in monthly payments, an amount that plenty of families would find unaffordable considering nearly 1 in 10 workers is out of a job. The chart has two big peaks — the first is the rush of subprime resets that peaked in late 2007 and early 2008; the second is the upcoming wave of option ARMs, which don't hit their full reset stride until 2011. By the middle of next year, more then $10 billion worth of option ARMs will reset higher each month, according to data from mortgage tracker Loan Performance. That comes close to the figures we saw during subprime's height.

'Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change,' Citigroup said on statements received by customers all over the country.

Labels: home projects, San Pedro homestead

New Way of Making Solar Cells Promises Cheaper Power | Science and Technology | English

A new way of making solar cells promises a cheaper way to generate electricity from the sun and new ways to integrate solar power into other products.

Solar cells, or photovoltaics, are widely made using wafers of silicon that are stiff and brittle. California Institute of Technology physics professor Harry Atwater is making photovoltaics differently.

"Our technology uses 50-100 times less silicon," he said, "in the form of a sparse array of wires. And that sparse array of wires has exactly the same light absorption and electricity-collection properties as the conventional silicon wafer cell."

Labels: preparedness, resources

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Labels: preparedness, San Pedro homestead

Labels: art appreciation, San Pedro homestead

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
Revelation 6:9-11

So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.
Then they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth: Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test Me? Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?”
They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.
Luke 20:20-26

“Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues..."

Labels: conspiracies, fascism on parade, liberty, personal responsibility, preparedness, society and culture, stupid terrorist tricks, watching the skies

One of the key models for goal achievement is that of cause and effect. This model says that your goal is an effect to be achieved, and your task is to identify and then create the cause that will produce the desired effect, thereby achieving your goal.

Sounds simple enough, right?

However, the main problem with this model is that nearly everyone seriously misunderstands it. And that misunderstanding comes from not knowing what a “cause” really is.

You might assume that the cause of an effect would be a series of physical and mental actions leading up to that effect. Action-reaction. If your goal is to make dinner, then you might think the cause would be the series of preparation steps.

To an outside observer, that certainly appears to be the case. The scientific method would suggest that this is how things work, based on a purely objective observation.

However, within your own consciousness, you know that the series of action steps is not the real cause. The actions are themselves an effect, aren’t they?

What’s the real cause? The real cause is the decision you made to create that effect in the first place. That’s the moment you said to yourself, “Let it be” or “make it so.” At some point you decided to make dinner. That decision may have been subconscious, but it was still a decision. Without that decision the dinner would never manifest. That decision ultimately caused the whole series of actions and finally the manifestation of your dinner.

Labels: firearms, food, health and lifestyle, military stuff, preparedness, resources

When psychologists evaluate human behavior, one of the most prevalent observations regarding any activity is the all too often flawed basis of perceived versus realistic outcomes that dictates our every action. As imperfect creatures, we tend to construct theories that conform with our worldview, which are subsequently reinforced by our confidence (or lack thereof) in the future. This is true in any discipline: finance, politics, gambling, mating, etc. There is hardly a better example of this than the very basis of modern economic theory where assumptions about the validity of fiat currencies determine the actions of central banks, which in turn spill over into every aspect of modern society. Yet what if the very basis of core assumptions is wrong? What if every activity exhibited by humans in the post gold-standard world has a flawed assumption at its core? Austrian economists have, of course, claimed this for ages, usually seeing their efforts conclude with a dead-end as the attempt to change the status quo hits the brick wall of quadrillions of (arguably worthless) pieces of paper which dictate the status quo. However, with the recent turn for the worse, courtesy of sovereign bail outs (as confused as they may be) could the day of reckoning be fast approaching? With each passing the day an affirmative answer seems closer at hand. Today SocGen's Dylan Grice shares his perspectives on popular delusions, and why these may soon be coming to an abrupt end.

Labels: financial ponderings, watching the skies

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Labels: gardening, San Pedro homestead

Labels: heart

Labels: felicity and jocularity

Official Home Page of the Best Rocket Stoves on the Planet - Welcome to StoveTec

Labels: preparedness, resources

Labels: watching the skies

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing, felicity and jocularity, society and culture, women

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing, minutiae

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.

We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system -- apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout -- deserves further congressional scrutiny.

Labels: firearms, tactical shooting, women

Labels: financial ponderings

During the Summer of 2007, I had the opportunity to backpack around Europe for 2 weeks. I talked about it often before I left. My girlfriend however, although great in many respects, was not the world's greatest listener. I left on Friday June 1st. Despite even calling her to say goodbye the night before, she never realized I left. When I arrived home 2 weeks later, I had several emails from her, waiting in my inbox...

Labels: life on the border, women

Labels: health and lifestyle, omg teh SCIENCE111, women

Labels: life on the border

Labels: life on the border