Sinking Dollar
If you're planning to buy something big in or from USA, then wait just one more year.
World Economic Forum opened on Wednesday the previous week in Davos, Switzerland. And what are they all worried about? The teetering dollar, USD. There are already reports that Asian countries are considering dumping dollars in favour of other more stable currencies.
Malaysia may be the first one. And China seems to consider it, too. But there's a catch. If you have a small bit of dollars, no big deal: sell them and buy some other currency. But if you have a significant portion of dollars, like China and Japan combined ($906 billion), then you risk losing a big chunk of your fortunes. It's the same problem Saudis are facing. Saudi Arabia has somewhere between $700 and $750 billion (estimated, exact figures are a secret) invested in the USA economy. If they pull the plug and sell their bonds, shares, etc., the dollar will sink rapidly and they'll get out less than it was originally worth, thus it's not a simple matter of converting from one currency to the other. This was already experienced a few years ago, when families of those deceased in the 9/11 attack started a lawsuit against some Saudis, the Saudi Binladin group, a few banks and Muslim charities, and maybe some more entities I've forgotten. Saudis pulled $200 billion out of USA in a matter of days and that had an immense impact on dollar. Well, who can blame them, they feared that the court would freeze their assets. The lawsuit is no small one, if I remember correctly the families are demanding $116 trillion. [There's also something to be said about the
high costs of the USA legal system.]
Now that dollar is weak, now that USA has a record budget deficit, and with no clear strategy to at least stop sinking, the depression seems more and more inevitable. But although the world would like to get rid of the rotting currency, it can't do that, or the rotting spreads. A magical circle, only prolonging the frustration. Well, at least Americans can't say they didn't have a chance and they weren't given the time to do something about it. Because of this vicious circle they are guaranteed to get all the time the world can muster, and then some.
Continuous Earthquakes
The
Andaman and Nicobar islands are experiencing
earthquakes of magnitudes between 5 and 6 for several days now. Would those still be aftershocks, or is there something big cooking underneath the Bay of Bengal?
And If I Receive This Crap Again...
... I'm going to cut some balls! For some odd reason people like to lose the touch with reality and email me requests to forward requests to identify a couple of tsunami victims. In zillionplicates! Do those morons really think that in more than a month after the disaster no relative is going to react to the fact that their dears are missing? Okay, so you cannot be 100% sure. But why forward it only because you cannot be sure they already found their family? Sheesh! Try to get sure, and only if you fail, click that damn itchy "forward" button! You only have to feed a part of the text into
Google to receive results clearly stating you don't have to bombard other people's mailboxes with some shit to identify a
boy or a
girl anymore!
Geeks as a Romantic Bunch
ThinkGeek came out with an
assortment for the Valentine's Day. What a
poetic T-shirt! ;-)
The End Of Hydrocarbon Energy... and World Sanity
Yes! The
Peak Oil is estimated at 2007 or 2008. No car for me! With heightening demand for oil from China, and a bit from India, and increasing energy spending in developed countries already being a problem (mostly because of pollution, but that's only a fancy excuse for you not to go digging deeper), I can only assume the gasoline prices to skyrocket as soon as in 2006 already. You know, the USA grabbing what they can etc., I can see no other solution for a poor Slovenian but to go back to those weird coal-fueled trucks. Well I say no, me, I'm going to cycle! I'd be insane to buy a car now. The taxes and insurance are already high, the new road-traffic law is insane (you can be fined if your car is dirty, if you don't have a shovel in your car, if you drank any alcohol at all, etc., and the fines are high), and to add to that high fuel prices, I'd give a third (okay, less if I really watched over my spending and didn't trot around with the car unnecesarilly, but still a fifth minimally) of my salary per month away. Currently I pay about 5% of my salary for public transport.
Reminds me of a verse from a piece by The Doors,
The End, that plays in
Apocalypse Now while a nighmarish scene of war is shown:
This is the end / Beautiful friend / This is the end / My only friend, the end. A great movie otherwise! I've seen some footage from Iraq that resembles the state of things as shown in that movie quite aptly, if you don't mind the absence of a jungle. I'm sure you've seen some of it. Or you're going to.
Abu Ghraib, for example.
But I'm smart. I'm going to buy a couple of stoves powered by solid fuel, like coal and wood. My family owns a smallish wood. Not exactly a forest, but from what I can tell it's sufficient to keep one house warm through winters endlessly if some reforesting is applied continuously.
It's time to rejoice! Soon our overlords will lose the foothold in our lives that is the oil. Economies will crash and we'll all enjoy the beauty of a bicycle. And conspiracy theories! I'll have to go into publishing business. I bet then the newspapers with conspiracy theories will sell very well.
Hm. I can't get that thing with a shovel in the car out of my mind. Why do they suddenly insist on having a shovel? To burry the bodies? [Of animals, of course! You animal!]
Will I Get My Own Flat Before World Ends?
According to
a site that quotes some Mayan and other prophecies the world ends in 2012. Suddenly I understand why USA didn't sign the Kyoto deal to limit the pollution. If the world is going to end... I mean: let's fuck up the planet before someone else does it! It's fun!
I found out that some shares I inherited are slowly nearing the last year's peak. Time to sell! I'll try to arrange it in the coming week and put the money into a mutual investment fund. Not much money, like a salary with a hefty bonus. I wonder if I'll save up enough money to afford myself at least a trashcan with its own mailbox before the world ends.
World's No. 1 Mental Disorder
A quote from
Depression Learning Path:
Clinical, or major depression is the world's No. 1 mental disorder, the 2nd most disabling condition in the world behind heart disease. And it's growing at an alarming rate.
Be careful then.
Nerve Jamming
One lady behind me on the bus. She was just loud and audible enough that I couldn't but overhear how she was abusing her cell phone.
"...and your car?"
"Oh, really?"
"So, you didn't?"
"Really?"
"Your brother didn't mind?"
"Oh, really?"
...
"Oh, really?"
...
"OH, REALLY?"
...
...
"Oh, really?"
"No, really?"
...
"Really?"
Her cell phone must be one of the later models. It seems to be killing her too slowly.
More McKenna
I've found a
repository of audio files featuring Terence McKenna, the man on the field of psychedelic plants, shamanism and spiritual transformation, with a huge
bibliography. And a
page full of material about him.
Not to be mistaken with
Paul McKenna. Actually, I've ordered a book from Amazon by Paul McKenna,
Change Your Life in Seven Days. Yes, you'll all say it's hogwash etc. But! I decided not to believe people that are not saying that from experience, but only expressing their preconceptions. At least when I'm through this book I can say with a strong confidence that it's crap. Or the opposite. Since I've been diagnosed with depression and a week on pills seems to have pulled me out enough for my ego to somewhat reassert itself, I'm out seeking for any and all artillery that will kill this beast. At least now I know I have a problem and I know what is the problem.
And I've ordered a couple of other books also. For some reason amazon decided to deliver three books to me in two deliveries. I'm not paying anything extra for an extra delivery, so, whatever. I'll turn them in at the local green party for excess usage of packaging. Interesting though, when I ordered the Paul McKenna book yesterday its availability was 24 hours, now it's 7 to 10 days. I'll see if it's really as good as it sells.
Plants are the Saviours
I've been reading Terence McKenna
a bit. Anyone knows where I could get a psychedelic plant or two? ;]
He died of a brain cancer. Hmmm... I'm having second thoughts all of a sudden.
The Big Cycle
I only pressed once on the "NEXT BLOG" link in the upper right corner! I swear! Anyway, a lengthy comment came out of it, it could be a post by itself. But I won't paste it here. Read it
there if you want.
Containment
Some lamer(z) tried throughout the last week to hack into a computer I administer. At first I was denying access to subnets with the attacking hosts. But today I got fed up. I locked out everyone except for a few Slovenian subnets. 0wn0rz th4t, h4xx0rz!
Today I'm experiencing an adrenaline rush. Walked over the local Rožnik hill. Yes,
over it. In a bit less than half an hour. I took the steepest way uphill. Was up in less than 5 minutes. And cursed two thirds of the world population on the way. They have to die in the next 50 years or so anyway, if Earth is to remain the only planet sustaining humans.
I must burn the adrenaline by hightened activity. Otherwise it would get stored in fat. Which I haven't got. So, I'm afraid I have to beat up all of you. I might explode once or twice in the process. But don't worry. Nothing personal.
