IBM Should Split 4 to 1

IBM: A Stock That Should Split

 Excerpt:

To make things easier for retail investors and individual shareholders, IBM -- a $224B market cap company -- should split its stock 4-for-1. Under this arrangement the shares would each cost under $50. In a hypothetical investment of $500, an individual would now only be able to afford 2 shares with the stock priced at $194.62, leaving over $100 of un-invested capital. The same investor could buy 10 shares of the post-split (4 to 1) IBM stock (in our example: $48.66 per share), thereby investing nearly the complete $500. Small investors who wish to contribute $100 monthly to buy the stock could also regulary buy a couple shares where now they are prohibited by the share price.

Comment: The logo back when I worked for them (early '70s)

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

S & P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

Companies that have had an increase in dividends for 25 consecutive years. The S&P Dividend Aristocrats index tracks the performance of these companies

TICKER	COMPANY	Yield
PBI	Pitney Bowes	11.50%
LEG	Leggett & Platt	5.00%
T	AT&T	4.80%
CINF	Cincinnati Financial	4.30%
HCP	HCP Inc	4.30%
NUE	Nucor Corp	3.90%
ED	Consolidated Edison	3.80%
SYY	Sysco Corp	3.70%
CLX	Clorox Co	3.50%
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	3.50%
KMB	Kimberly-Clark	3.50%
PG	Procter & Gamble	3.50%
EMR	Emerson Electric	3.40%
BMS	Bemis Co	3.30%
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	3.20%
AFL	AFLAC Inc	3.20%
APD	Air Products & Chemicals	3.20%
GPC	Genuine Parts	3.10%
MCD	McDonald's Corp	3.10%
WAG	Walgreen Co	3.10%
PEP	PepsiCo Inc	3.00%
SWK	Stanley Black & Decker	3.00%
ADP	Automatic Data Proc	2.80%
MDT	Medtronic, Inc	2.80%
ITW	Illinois Tool Works	2.70%
ADM	Archer-Daniels-Midland	2.60%
KO	Coca-Cola Co	2.60%
MMM	3M Co	2.60%
XOM	Exxon Mobil	2.60%
BDX	Becton, Dickinson	2.40%
CB	Chubb Corp	2.40%
DOV	Dover Corp	2.40%
LOW	Lowe's Cos	2.40%
TGT	Target Corp	2.40%
CL	Colgate-Palmolive	2.30%
TROW	T.Rowe Price Group	2.30%
MHP	McGraw-Hill Companies	2.20%
PPG	PPG Indus	2.20%
WMT	Wal-Mart Stores	2.20%
HRL	Hormel Foods	2.10%
MKC	McCormick & Co	2.00%
VFC	VF Corp	1.90%
BF-B	Brown-Forman'B'	1.60%
GWW	Grainger (W.W.)	1.60%
CTAS	Cintas Corp	1.40%
FDO	Family Dollar Stores	1.30%
ECL	Ecolab Inc	1.20%
SHW	Sherwin-Williams	1.20%
SIAL	Sigma-Aldrich	1.20%
BEN	Franklin Resources	1.00%
BCR	Bard (C.R.)	0.80%

Comment: A good list to start from if one is interested in dividends.

Why Is Walmart Evil?

pics on Sodahead Why Is Walmart Evil, But Amazon Isn't? Excerpt:

Fairness dictates that if Walmart is going to be criticized for the bad things it does, then it should also be praised for the good it brings. Walmart pays a large amount of tax to the U.S., state and local governments - in the form of income tax, property tax and so on. In fact, Walmart is consistently one of the largest taxpayers in the country, with nearly $6 billion in taxes paid in 2012 (not all to U.S. governments, though).

Second, while people complain about the pay Walmart offers, it is nevertheless the largest private employer in the world, and the leading private employer in most states. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have jobs and pay income taxes because they have a job at Walmart. Moreover, the second largest employer in the U.S. ((McDonald's (NYSE:MCD)) is not exactly famous for great wages either.

Last and not least, Walmart's low prices enable consumers to buy more with their money. Walmart is not solely (or even mostly) responsible for the minimal wage growth in the U.S. in recent history, but Walmart's obsession with low prices has allowed shoppers to take their slow-growing paychecks and stretch them farther. Try telling a stressed-out Walmart customer that they're evil for going there and putting 10% more food on the table.

Comment: WMT is one of the first stocks I bought. It's up 36% since I purchased it in December 2010. I like Wal-Mart for a number of reasons. We don't happen to shop there (well I don't shop anywhere! and Kathee does all of her shopping in Plymouth .. which means that Target is her store). Chart below compares with Target over 2 years. I like 'em both actually!

Bauder: Lessons from Colorado

Lessons from Colorado

 Excerpt:

... one of the worst ways of exposing people to violence is to herd them into zones in which they are publicly labeled as defenseless victims. This is precisely what happened at the Century 16 Theater. The state of Colorado allows its citizens to carry the means of defense, but both Century 16 and its parent company, Cinemark Century Theaters, disallow it. The predator (a bright guy from all accounts) did not plan to shoot up a police station. He planned his assault for a location filled with disarmed, defenseless victims. If the Century 16 Theater had permitted the necessary means of defense, the result would have been much the same as if the shooting had occurred in a police station. The death toll could have remained as low as two: the first victim and the perpetrator. Century 16 and Cinemark bear part of the responsibility for this catastrophe.

To understand this point, one need only consider the disparity between Colorado’s three recent shooting sprees. The Columbine shooting and the Cinemark shooting both occurred in disarmed-victim zones, and in each episode the death toll was staggering. The other shooting spree (the one that began at YWAM and ended at New Life Church), however, was cut short when a church lady, Jean Assam, applied the necessary means of defense to the shooter. This is the spree that fewer people remember, probably because it hardly began before it ended.

Comment: Well said, Dr Bauder

Gun control - 2nd Obama administration

Obama calls for measures against gun violence

Obama:

But I also believe that the majority of gun owners would agree that we should do everything possible to prevent criminals and fugitives from purchasing weapons, that we should check someone’s criminal record before they can [purchase a gun], that a mentally unbalanced individual should not be able to get his hands on a gun so easily. These steps shouldn’t be controversial, they should be common sense

Comment: Er ... they already check someone's criminal record! Gun Control Act of 1968

(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person - (1) is under indictment for, or has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year (2) is a fugitive from justice; (3) is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)); (4) has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution; (5) who, being an alien - (A) is illegally or unlawfully in the United States; or (B) except as provided in subsection (y)(2), has been admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(26) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(26))); (6) who (!2) has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions; (7) who, having been a citizen of the United States, has renounced his citizenship; (8) is subject to a court order that restrains such person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child, except that this paragraph shall only apply to a court order that - (A) was issued after a hearing of which such person received actual notice, and at which such person had the opportunity to participate; and (B)(i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child; or (ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against such intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury; or (9) has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act

The Brady Act requires that background checks be conducted on individuals before a firearm may be purchased from a federally licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer—unless an exception applies. If there are no additional state restrictions, a firearm may be transferred to an individual upon approval by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) maintained by the FBI.

Blame game

Media relates horror of Aurora movie theater slaughter

Excerpt:

The day's worst media over-reach: ABC News' Brian Ross suggested the shooter, Jim Holmes, might be affiliated with the Colorado Tea Party, based on a mention on that group's website of an Aurora man by the same name. "Now we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes," Ross said, "but it is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, CO." ABC News later issued a clarification. Different Jim Holmes.

Comment: Once again the tragic news of senseless violence. And the blamers point to "the Tea Party", student loan crisis, guns, movies, etc. I'm sure some Dems will blame Republicans and vice versa.

Missing is the real root of the human condition .... sin. And real evil.

Mohler comments on this here:

Christians know that the human heart is capable of great evil. Human history includes a catalog of human horrors. The twentieth century, described by historian Eric Hobsbawm as the century of “megadeath,” included a list of names such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, and Charles Manson. But those murderers did their killing from a distance, at least usually. Those who carry out the murders themselves are even more haunting to us. The young man arrested in this case, 24-year-old James Holmes, looks disarmingly normal.

The Fall released human moral evil into the cosmos, and every single human being is a sinner, tempted by a full range of sinfulness. When someone does something as seemingly unthinkable as this, we often question how anyone could do such a thing. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to this when he lamented, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?” [Jeremiah 17:9]

Human beings are capable of unspeakable moral evil. We are shocked by such atrocities, but only because we have some distance from the last one. We cannot afford to be shocked when humans commit grotesque moral evil. It tells us the truth about unbridled human sin.

The "Made in China" kerfuffle

Does It Matter China Made the U.S. Olympic Uniforms?

 Excerpt:

In a perfect world, here's what Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. John Boehner might have said when confronted last week with the revelation that China stitches together U.S. Olympic uniforms:

"Small potatoes. Call us back after we've fixed the deficit, the economy, Iran, and our real problems with China."

But no such luck. Democrat Reid said we should "burn" the clothes. Republican Boehner said, "They should have known better." Several senators this week spent their time, and the public's money, introducing the "Team USA Made in America Act," which would require that future Olympic uniforms be made—guess where.

... Says an executive with a U.S. manufacturer that has operations in China: "The comments reflect either a lack of understanding of comparative advantage and how trade works (the Chinese are really good at producing low-cost uniforms, the U.S. is really good at innovative technology and advanced manufacturing—which would you rather be?), or cynical politics. More likely both." He doesn't want to be named and get his company in trouble with the politicians.

It's "grandstanding," says another manager with a tech multinational. "There are far more important bilateral business and trade issues for both countries."

Comment: Why waste an opportunity to divert the focus off important things! (Check your own clothing labels .... I'm wearing a polo shirt today and guess where it was made!). Unfamiliar with the Law of Comparative advantage? Click the link above (in the article)

Kingsnake surprises Kathee

The image above is © www.scserp.com

 Kathee was weeding in the front yard in an area with river rock and small bushes. She was startled with a Kingsnake between 2 and 3' long. It was coiled but slinked away

My Yahool password was breached

Yahoo Password Breach: 7 Lessons Learned

Excerpt:

Recently, an attacker uploaded a subset of hashed passwords from LinkedIn to an online security forum, requesting help with cracking them. That was swiftly followed--apparently, by the same attacker--with similar requests for passwords purloined from dating website eHarmony and music-streaming website Last.fm.

This week, question-and-answer website Formspring said that 420,000 of its users' passwords had been compromised, leading the company to reset passwords for all 28 million users. Meanwhile, a hacker or hacking group known as D33Ds Company leaked about 450,000 email addresses and passwords associated with Yahoo Voices, formerly known as Yahoo Contributor Network. The motivation, according to D33Ds, was simple: it was sending "a wake-up call" to whoever was in charge of Yahoo Voices about the need to get serious about security.

Comment: Click image for larger. I use the Yahoo finance service. Also associated is an email account that I formerly used and is still active. I had three contacts in the contacts DB and SPAM was sent to at least one of them. Honestly I had a weak password (shame on me!). Yahoo notified me on their logon page (screen shot above). Note access from Japan!

Dr. Val Patterson, Ph.D.: Mottos, Confessions, Regrets

Man writes his own obituary, comes clean about not really having Ph.D., stealing safe

Excerpt:

Dr. Val Patterson, Ph.D., used his self-penned obituary as an opportunity to tell the world some surprising facts about himself, including ...

Comment: Link to his Obit here. I expect this link will not last a long time but I've screen grabbed a couple of key parts. Click image for larger.

His PhD:

His life motto:

His regret:

He stole the safe:

Mitch Daniels' "Yellow Pages Test"

The Stossel solution

Excerpt:

One of his guests was Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Forget for a moment that Daniels is a Republican. Focus on his accomplishments. "You were $78 million in debt," Stossel said during the program. "Now you have a $1.5 billion surplus." In a controversial decision, Indiana leaders leased a 157-mile toll road to foreign investors. "In exchange," writes Ryan Holeywell of Governing.com, "for a $3.8 billion, lump-sum payment, the investors would get to keep toll road revenue for 75 years ... a windfall for Indiana, with little downside to taxpayers." Next year, Daniels announced recently, his state's surplus will be at least $2 billion. Taxpayers can expect a credit on their 2013 taxes.

Daniels said he invokes what he calls "the Yellow Pages test. If it's in there, then conceivably government shouldn't be doing it itself."

And the result? "The result," said Daniels, "is we're repairing bridges, building roads. We're the only state with a building boom in infrastructure and it didn't cost the taxpayers a nickel."

Re-read that last sentence and then ask yourself why the federal government still sees itself as the primary builder of roads and bridges when it costs more and delivers less. This is a real solution to a nagging problem. Why isn't it more widely embraced? Refer to Stossel's previous answer about government: "They want their tentacles on everything." They're about power. The rest of the country wants results, which they must have in order for their businesses to survive and prosper.

Comment: Good artricle ... goes on to mention Amtrak (which should be shuttered!).

On the value of "First Jobs"

Why Are Politicians Killing Off "First Jobs"?

Excerpts:

What was your first job?

I stuck pieces of plastic and metal together at an Evanston, Ill., assembly line. We produced photocopiers for a company called American Photocopy.

I hated the work. It was hot and boring. But it was useful. It taught me to get good grades in school so I might have other choices.

...

I write about this because I’m appalled watching politicians kill off “first” jobs. (They say it’s to protect us.)

First, they raise the minimum wage. Forcing employers to pay $7.25 an hour leaves them reluctant to give unskilled kids a chance—why pay more than a worker can produce? So they offer fewer “first” jobs.

Comment: My first job was working at a greenhouse making $ 1. per hour. I started in the Spring of 1967. That summer I worked 54 hours a week ... 6 days X 9 hours and made $ 54 hours a week.

What did I do?

• I boxed plants into flats and carried them and loaded them into a delivery truck
• I mulched plants with manure
• I blended potting soil: dirt, manure, and some other stuff in a large grinder / blower
• I wheeled old dirt out and new dirt into greenhouses
• I occassionally drove the delivery truck
• I cleaned out the boiler (had to crawl inside and scrape it)
• I cut weeds and tall grass with a scythe
• I hacked vines off from fence with a small axe
• I burned a giant brush pile
• I mowed the owner's home lawn
• I weeded the owner's private garden
• I picked weeds
• I cut flowers
• I walked along side of a bush hog and picked up rocks / sticks ahead of it
• I repaired greenhouse glass
• I bulked up, muscled up and tanned up. I sweated a lot!
• There were no sick days, PTO, or vacation days!

The seminal events:

• A childhood friend's father committed suicide in the early morning hours of July 5th
• A guy I met at the greenhouse died in an auto accident - not that summer but later that year (I think Spring 1968)
• Two guys I knew well in H.S. died just after graduation. One: VW bug accident / other: tractor rolled over on him

Some have asked me about the $ 1 wage and minimum wage. This chart details that the minimum wage was $ 1.40 back then. Scroll right and the chart shows that the minimum wage for farm labor was $ 1.00. I was considered farm labor. In February 1968 I received a 15% raise to $ 1.15! The following Summer (1968) I started working at Monsanto Chemical and made as I recollect about $ 3.00 per hour.

Aren't there keys for planes?

Slaying suspect steals plane in Utah, crashes, then kills himself

Excerpt:

A man wanted in connection with a slaying in Colorado stole an airplane from a Utah airport Tuesday, then crashed it and killed himself with a shot to the head, officials said.

The man was identified as Brian Hedglin, 40, an employee of SkyWest, said Marc Mortensen, assistant to the city manager of St. George, Utah; the city of about 80,000 people is in the southwestern corner of the state.

Hedglin threw a rug over a razor wire fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday, Mortensen said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times. Wearing leather gloves, Hedglin climbed over the fence and got access to a SkyWest jet about 12:50 a.m.

Comment: So aren't there keys / locks for planes? If not, shouldn't there be! The plane is a Bombardier CRJ200 - looks like a shortened DC-9

Investing in the Grocery Stores

Click the image below for better viewing

Frankly there are only 2 I would invest in: WMT and TGT. Wal-Mart is the proverbial 800 lb gorilla that has mastered the distribution system. It's not an exciting store to visit but they beat everybody with prices. I was stung earlier by Super Value and bailed out taking a loss. Wal-Mart and Target are not pure grocery and are able to have loss-leaders in grocery and make up for it in higher margin departments.

Investing in Railroads

When you are ready to move up from HO (what I had as a kid), what are your choices? I've fantasized about owning a whole railroad. My brother would the the VP. I would drive the train, etc.. But since that is not likely to happen buying railroad stocks are the next best thing. The railroad you can't own is Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway - Warren Buffet already bought it. You can buy Berkshire Hathaway and have a whole bucket of great companies: See's Candies, DQ, Geico and many more. BRK-A is trading at about $ 127,000 per share (um .. out of my pricerange!). BRK-B is approximately 1/1500 of BRK-A and is trading at about $ 85.

The chart above details your investing choices.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. is a short-line railroad holding company that owns or maintains interests in 63 railroads.

RailAmerica likewise is a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada.

Providence and Worcester Railroad is as far as I can tell the only Class II publicly traded railroad.

 The Street here provides their list of the 10 Best Railroad Stocks for 2012. Seeking Alpha has their list of favorites here: Become A Railroad Baron: The Art Of Building Your Own Rail ETF

There is no true Railroad ETF but there is IVT. It offers a way to invest in transportation and have diversification.

Faking Disability

DISABILITY NATION

 Excerpt:

In the Age of Obama, Americans may be better off faking disability than trying to find a non-existent job. Obamanomics reached the bottom of the barrel last month, when more Americans went on disability than found jobs.

Given the immense amounts of money that are spent on medical and vocational rehabilitation, it is hard to believe that the number of Americans who are physically incapable of working has grown. The causes of the increase must be sought elsewhere. Note that the percentage of working-age Americans living on disability has more than doubled since the Reagan administration.

Comment: When I broke my neck 25 years ago, I was advised that I could qualify for disability payments. I chose not to. Some days (like today when I had to walk down 2 flights of stairs because the elevator in the skyway was out of service) I would like to be fully retired or fully on disability. On Saturday when I gave blood I asked the young phlebotomist about her father. She said that he was fifty and on disability for gout. I'm thinking for gout! Chart in the article linked is worthwhile.

Why your air conditioner may look like your neighbors'

I think we either have a Trane or a York. Our's is 10 or 11 years old.

Investing in the Pharmaceuticals

List of pharmaceutical companies

 Comments:

• Because I am a small investor I haven't invested in but a few
• But I like JNJ and PFE.
• Click image for larger
• Prices, P/E, Dividends as of today's date (7/13/2012)
• ABT is splitting into two companies later this year
• Optimer interests me because they developed the drug that healed me last year. But not making a profit yet
• I understand that Teva Pharmaceutical manufactures a lot of the generics

How Sara Lee split shaked out

I mentioned the Sara Lee divestiture several weeks ago here. I had 100 shares of SLE in my IRA. This is how it turned out

D.E Master Blenders 1753 N.V (DEMBF)
Hillshire Brands Company (HSH)
On the suggestion of two of my brother-in-laws I used the $ 300 to buy 20 shares of ALPS Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP)

Investing in Bonds the ETF way

Depending on an intester's trading outlook (eg age to retirement), investment advisors suggest various ratios of bonds to stocks. But bonds are harder to buy than stocks and bond mutual funds can have high expense ratios. In my view the easier way to buy bonds is with an Exchange Traded Fund. Several below are highlighted:

• BND
• AGG
• LQD
• TIP
• HYG

The above Yahoo Finance chart illustrates the relative stability of AGG and BND against IBM, the DOW and the S&P 500 over the last year. Bond investing is not "exciting" investing but it is very conservative. Yahoo Finance provides the Morningstar profile for each. Helpful for investers:

MacroWorld is another helpful site that provides charting and reporting. The example below is the Sector Allocation for BND:

8 Things Not to Keep in Your Wallet

8 Things Not to Keep in Your Wallet

 The List:

1. Your Social Security Card
2. Password Cheat Sheet
3. Spare Keys
4. Checks
5. Passport
6. Multiple Credit Cards
7. Birth Certificate
8. A Stack of Receipts

Comments:

• We have 2 credit cards. Kathee carries one (A Wells Fargo Visa) and I carry the other (Chase Visa)
• I used to carry a spare key but have not for a long time
• I used to carry my SS card (not sure why!) but it has long disintegrated and is no more.
• Passport? I'm not exactly a world traveler but recently needed it to visit Canada

Image: George Costanza's fat wallet

Coke to split

Coca-Cola Approves Two-For-One Stock Split

Excerpt:

Coca-Cola approved a two-for-one stock split, doubling the number of its shares outstanding to 11.2 billion from 5.6 billion. The stock split is expected to be effective July 27, with new shares set to be distributed near Aug. 10. At that time, each shareholder of record will double their holding, receiving one additional stock for each share held. The split marks Atlanta-based Coke’s 11th in its 92-year history and the first in 16 years. The company, which makes Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite, among other drinks, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1919. Its stock has since been split 11 times, the first in 1927 and, prior to Tuesday’s split, most recently in 1996.

Comment: Not my favorite drink but one of my favarite stocks. Vintage (1949) ad.

Shades of the 'Pericope de Adultera'

Afghan Taliban publicly execute woman accused of adultery; men cheer Excerpt:

A man Afghan officials say is a member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a crowd near Kabul, a video obtained by Reuters showed, a sign that the austere Islamist group dictates law even near the Afghan capital.

In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province. "Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way," another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of Allah that she be executed".

Comment: the 'Pericope de Adultera is the famous passage from John 8. And there is an interesting similarity - Where was the man?

Barry disses Bush for job creation of only 310,000 jobs

If every unemployed person would vote for Romney we could solve this thing!

CEO for a day

Intrigue Behind Ouster at Duke Energy

 Excerpt:

The merger closed Monday, creating a utility giant with former Progress CEO Bill Johnson at its helm. Hours later, the newly merged company's Duke-dominated board met for the first time and threw Mr. Johnson out of the job. It replaced him with Jim Rogers, who had run Duke before the deal and was slated to become the merged company's executive chairman. The boardroom coup was the latest bit of maneuvering by Mr. Rogers, a lawyer who worked his way to the top of one of the country's largest utilities.

NC attorney general launches probe of Duke-Progress Energy merger after CEO change Excerpt:

Johnson last week signed a three-year employment contract that was supposed to take effect Tuesday. Duke Energy reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that Johnson is entitled to a severance, bonus and other payments of up to $10.3 million. On Friday, Williams confirmed news reports that Johnson's combined package, including pensions and stock awards, could be worth nearly $45 million.

Comment: I would take that job (CEO for a day!). Nice severance package! Image is B/W still from The Hudsucker Proxy

Fireworks Oops

San Diego fireworks go kaboom then fizzle -- prematurely

Excerpt:

When most of the country was going ooh and aah over Fourth of July fireworks displays, San Diego spectators were treated to a spectacle that lit up the night sky -- for all of 15 seconds.

Comment: The problem: Computer Glitch

Check your computer for DNSChanger malware

Malware may block thousands Monday (so check your PC)

Excerpt:

... tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for the DNSChanger malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.

Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States. Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.

The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.

Comment: Official DCWG.org site to check for Malware (image above)

FINAL WARNING: YOU WILL BE ARRESTED AND JAILED IF YOU FAIL TO READ THE ATTACHED E-MAIL AND COMPLY

Comments:

• Obviously SPAM .... but I found it humorous
• FBI is using aol.com (return address ... probably spoofed!)
• Because of being arrested ... well I'm always on the lookout for warnings like this!
• Did I open the attachment? Not on your life!
• Click image for larger view
• GMAIL (which always does a good job with things like these!) flagged as SPAM

A big announcement

Anderson Cooper: "The Fact Is, I'm Gay."

 Excerpt:

The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud. I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.

My own statement:

The fact is, I'm heterosexual, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud. I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.

Not that anyone ever wondered about me!

California official faces calls for resignation after proclaiming July as 'straight pride’ month https://t.co/aOLa0gqNYK pic.twitter.com/yhxC9cgxtX

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 8, 2018

Berkshire Hathaway's 15 Biggest Stock Holdings

Berkshire Hathaway's 15 Biggest Stock Holdings

Comment: The top 10 wouldn't be a bad place to start. If you had 10 shares of each, it would be a $ 7,000 investment with a divident yield of 2.6%.

Heat buckles Wisconsin Highway 29

Heat buckles Highway 29, video captures airborne SUV

Comment: We just drove across here on Saturday - driving to a family reunion in Antigo WI ... and back on Sunday.