On Pro-Wrestling

The great Aloysius Martin "Lou" Thesz

Don't judge my parents but I used to watch pro-wrestling back when I was a kid in the '50s

No one should be surprised ... but today's pro-wrestling is scripted (err ... fixed).

On the 4% rule

Is the 4 Percent Rule Still Relevant for Retirees?

Excerpt:

It's useful to know that initially withdrawing 4 percent of your retirement savings would allow most people to avoid running out of money through all kinds of historical scenarios. But with bond and stock returns now excepted to be lower than historical averages, it's prudent to shine the spotlight on the safe withdrawal rule to make sure retirees are still being conservative by withdrawing 4 percent of assets. Perhaps the safe number is now 3.5 or 2.8 percent.

Comment: I think we are going to start with a 3% rule and see how that goes.

Straight talk on legalized weed from "a roly-poly former guerrilla"

Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law 'fiction'
Excerpt:

"We don't go along with the idea that marijuana is benign, poetic and surrounded by virtues. No addiction is good," he said. "We aren't going to promote smokefests, bohemianism, all this stuff they try to pass off as innocuous when it isn't. They'll label us old reactionaries. But this isn't a policy that seeks to expand marijuana consumption. What it aims to do is keep it all within reason, and not allow it to become an illness."

Uruguay plans to create clones of approved marijuana plants, so that police can test weed possessed by licensed users and ensure that it's bona fide. Possession of marijuana lacking the genetic markers of approved plants will be criminally punished. Unlike Colorado, which licenses marijuana sellers and producers but allows any adult to buy up to 28 grams at a time, Uruguay will license consumers as well, and limit their purchases to 10 grams a week.

"It's a complete fiction what they do in Colorado," Mujica said. "There are places where there are forms already filled out with a doctor's signature. So you go, you say that you need marijuana because your ear hurts, they fill out the form, you prescribe it yourself and with the signature of a doctor. This is brutal hypocrisy."

Mujica spoke with a team of AP journalists after a quick ride in his Volkswagen Beetle with his wife, Sen. Lucia Topolansky, to the butcher's to buy some meat for dinner. He later answered questions in his garden, surrounded by cats and dogs including a greyhound that he recently took on after someone abandoned it at the door of his farm, where he lives and grows flowers for sale.

Comment: The Wiki on José Mujica is interesting

The Wall

A little history most people will never know.

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 57 years since the firstcasualty.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ..

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ...

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school.

8 Women are on the Wall
, Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest . And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam . In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.


The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.

Comment: More information here and here. Above from a FaceBook post by John Swol (Vietnam Vet)

Papa Murphy's IPO ... as FRSH

'Take-and-bake': Will investors buy Papa Murphy's story?

Excerpt:

Papa Murphy's, which is set to go public this week, isn't your garden-variety pizza shop. It operates and franchises restaurants built to sell pizzas that are, as would be expected, made in the store. But then its work ends. That's because Papa Murphy's is about "take and bake" -- customers buy at the counter and then handle the baking at home. It doesn't have any ovens. While that's the most obvious differentiator from Domino's (DPZ), Pizza Hut and most others, the Vancouver, Wash.-based company likely would prefer to focus on another aspect of its food: the "fresh" factor. Papa Murphy's is so serious about this that its ticker symbol is going to be FRSH. If Papa Murphy's ultimately sells 6.7 million shares at $13, the high end of the projected range, it would raise about $87 million. Including that float, around 17 million shares will be outstanding after the IPO.

Comment: Love their pizza (a Friday night tradition for us). I don't do IPO's. After the excitement passes and if the company proves profitable AND pays a dividend ... then in my radar. Image source

Happy Birthday - BASIC

Remembering BASIC on its 50th birthday

Excerpt:

Fifty years ago on this very day, however, it was the name given to a new computer-programming language born in a Dartmouth College basement. Devised initially by a group of the school's undergraduates and professors, BASIC's initial academic purpose was simple: to enable time-sharing on Dartmouth computers with an easy-to-learn, English-based language

Comment: My BASIC accomplishments

• Began programming in BASIC on an Apple ][ at the Christian Day School of our church. Because I used it too much was basically (no pun intended) kicked off it. So I bought my own TRS-80 Model 3.  I enrolled in a night class to enhance my BASIC programming skills. After 1 class, it was obvious to me that I was already an advanced programmer
• After buying a 5 meg hard drive for the TRS-80, I had a database of our membership. All written in BASIC. A true hierarchical database with family records and children records. 
• I had an assembler subroutine that I found in a magazine. It was my sort subroutine. I really didn't understand the code but it worked like a champ.
• I also developed a expense program that I used to keep track of all of my ministry expenses: mileage, books, meals, et cetera. I advertised this program in a magazine and sold ... ready for this ... 1 copy!
• I also had an accounting program that I developed to keep track of our state Baptist association income and expenses. At any time I could simply print out: income and expenses, a check registry, and a balance sheet. (I was the treasurer of our state association). I also used this same application for our home owners' association (I was the treasurer there as well.)

A Moral Compass?

How Does a Compass Work

Comment: A discussion with a co-worker this week about "a moral compass". I observed at my Toastmaster's speech on "A Christian Response to Racism" that one could say "2 + 2 = 5" as much as he likes but it is error every time. The anti-racism call is based on the dignity of human kind. And that dignity is based on men being created in the image and likeness of God. It is based on an absolute truth. "A compass works by detecting the Earth’s natural magnetic fields. The Earth has an iron core that is part liquid and part solid crystal due to gravitational pressure". A moral compass works by the absolutes of the moral law of God. Without accepting the moral law of God, there is no absolute moral compass.

Minnesota's “Fertile Crescent” and Bonding Fairness

Suburbs, including wealthy west, want more state bonding money

 Excerpt:

Lawmakers like to joke that there’s a “Fertile Crescent” in Minnesota, starting in Bloomington and working up through wealthy western Twin Cities suburbs such as Edina, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Plymouth and Maple Grove. Those cities are home to some of the state’s largest companies and wealthiest individuals that pump most of the income and sales taxes that fill the state’s coffers. However, legislators all around the suburban ring say they don’t get much back from the state when the bonding bill is debated. “The general feeling is that the suburbs are rich, especially the western suburbs, so we aren’t going to give them any more than we have to,” Rep. Ron Erhardt, DFL-Edina, said. For all lawmakers, bonding projects are a way to bring jobs and development directly to their districts. In election years, ribbon-cutting ceremonies for major construction projects can be even more important, especially in the politically volatile ‘burbs, which often swing back and forth with national political winds.

The Problem:

... roughly a quarter of the total House bonding bill — $213 million of $850 million — is spending for the suburbs. In comparison, 64 percent of state's tax base and 66 percent of its income tax revenue comes from the seven-county metro area (including Minneapolis and St. Paul), according to the state Revenue Department.

Comments: The City of Plymouth itself gets no funds from the state (I forgot what those funds are called). I don't care about the SouthWest light rail line (let 'em take a bus!). But I would like to see I-494 expanded with an additional lane through Plymouth.

Will companies dump health benefits?

Thanks to Obamacare, more companies are likely to dump health benefits

Excerpt:

S&P predicts that companies will do the math and find it irresistible to move more and more of their workers off company-run plans and into the exchanges established under Obamacare, as the ACA is known. Companies with more than 50 workers will have to pay a penalty if they don’t offer insurance, but it could still be cheaper when factoring in the savings on healthcare; that’s because insurance costs have skyrocketed during the last 20 years, making healthcare one of the costs companies find most difficult to control. The rising and unpredictable nature of healthcare costs led AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to make his unfortunate comment about "distressed babies" earlier this year. Armstrong took a lot of heat and later apologized, but many CEOs expresss similar frustrations (usually privately). Health Benefits Phased Out The migration away from employer-based coverage would probably occur in phases. Companies might start by moving part-timers and new hires off their plans, since they tend to get paid less than other workers and would be more likely to qualify for subsidies under the exchanges. Established employees might be the last to lose employer-based coverage, and companies would still be free to offer healthcare benefits as they choose. Such moves would probably be controversial at first, given that just about everything related to Obamacare is controversial. And most companies will probably be reluctant to make big changes likely to produce negative headlines. “However, once a few notable companies start to depart from their traditional approach to health care benefits, it's likely that a substantial number of firms could quickly follow suit,” S&P Capital predicts. S&P likens this change to the evolution away from defined-benefit pension plans toward employee-managed 401(k) plans and IRAs. It would put more burden on individuals to choose a plan from among dozens that might be offered. Out-of-pocket costs could rise, since employers today essentially subsidize premiums at many companies. Companies could offer stipends meant to cover some or all of the premium for workers who buy coverage on an exchange, just as many companies make contributions to workers’ 401(k) plans. Still, some people undoubtedly would go without insurance, just as many workers who ought to save for retirement don’t.

Comment: Likely!

MLK niece: Black people are murdering themselves

Dr. Alveda King tells students of modern day black genocide

Excerpt:

My grandfather, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., once said, “No one is going to kill a child of mine.” Tragically, two of his grandchildren had already been aborted when he saved the life of his next great-grandson with this statement. His son, King once said, “The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.” How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. The mother decides his or her fate.

Comment: Abortion violates the 6th commandment: "Thou shalt not murder" (Exodus 20:13). More on (and image source): Alveda King

The NBA acts quickly and decisively

NBA Suspends Clippers’ Owner Donald Sterling For Life, Imposes $2.5 Million Fine

Excerpt:

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday Clippers owner Donald Sterling will be suspended for life and fined $2.5 million following racist remarks he made in a recorded audio clip. Silver spoke to the press at an 11 a.m. news conference from New York, stating he will “do everything in my power” to force the sale of the Clippers. “The hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of Mr. Sterling. The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful. That they came from an NBA owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage,” Silver said. “I am banning Mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clippers association or the NBA. Mr. Sterling may not attend any NBA games or practices, he may not be present at any Clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or decisions involving the team.”

Comment: Today I gave my "A Christian Response to Racism" speech at Toastmasters

Real median income stagnates

Men Who Work Full-Time Earn Less Than 40 Years Ago

Excerpt:

The real median income of American men who work full-time, year-round peaked forty years ago in 1973, according to data published by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1973, median earnings for men who worked full-time, year-round were $51,670 in inflation-adjusted 2012 dollars. The median earnings of men who work full-time year-round have never been that high again.

Comment: In February of 1973 (when I basically began my career*, my salary was $ 9,600. Per this CPI calculator that would be the equivalent of $51,090.38 in 2014 dollars.)
---- *Timeline:

• June 1971: Graduated from college (University of Cincinnati)
• Summer 1971: Campus Crusade for Christ training at Arrowhead Springs California
• 1971-72 school year: CCC at University of Buffalo
• Summer '72: Pastoral internship
• Fall '72: My abortive attempt at seminary school (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• February '73: Hired by IBM and moved to Tampa Florida

Behind Pfizer's bid for AstraZeneca - flee high US Corporate taxes

Pfizer's Tax Takeover - Spend $100 billion abroad rather than pay 40% at home.
Excerpt:

U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. wants to buy AstraZeneca, and not just for its pipeline of cancer drugs. Acquiring the British company would also give Pfizer shareholders welcome relief from a U.S. corporate tax rate that is among the world's highest. Instead of paying punitive rates to return its money to the U.S., Pfizer figures it can get a better return paying $100 billion or so to buy a foreign company. .... Pfizer's presentation also noted the deal would be "structured to achieve an efficient tax structure." Mr. Read noted the "negative impact" of the U.S. tax code, which would be "problematical" if applied to the money AstraZeneca now earns in the U.K. That's because the combined state-federal corporate income tax rate in the U.S. is nearly 40%, compared to the 21% rate in the U.K. Though Pfizer is a U.S. company, more than 70% of its cash—amounting to more than $35 billion—is sitting overseas. To bring it back home would expose shareholders to the punitive U.S. rate. Instead, Pfizer aims to use some of that cash pile to finance the merger, and Mr. Read also plans to domicile the new combined holding company in the U.K., though its headquarters would remain in New York. Can anyone blame him? We call the U.S. business tax rate "among" the world's highest because, outside of places like North Korea that don't allow private business, it's nearly impossible to find a more punitive rate than the 40% inflicted in the U.S.

Comment: Secret .... corporations are not the ultimate payers of income taxes ... people are.

The Apple stock split and even lot trading

Who Cares What Apple's Stock Price Is?
Excerpt:

... if the split doesn't have any economic impact, why bother? I've seen two explanations. One is that doing this will probably get Apple included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Who cares about round lots? Historically, "trading commissions for odd lots are generally higher on a percentage basis than those for standard lots," and I suppose someone somewhere is still being charged extra to trade odd lots. But in the real world, it costs $9.99 to trade one or six or 100 or 10,000 shares of any stock; that is the price to trade stock, it has nothing to do with lots.4 Your cost to buy 100 shares of New Apple for $8,000 is the same as your cost to buy 14 shares of Old Apple for $8,000: $8,009.99. But round lots do matter, for market structure reasons. Odd lots -- orders of fewer than 100 shares -- are treated differently under the Securities and Exchange Commission's national market rules. They are not part of the national best bid or offer, and are not "protected orders" under Regulation NMS ...

The higher the dollar price of a stock, the more odd-lot trades there will be, and the wider the spread will be.8 So high dollar prices pretty directly take money from investors and give it to high-frequency traders. Now, like so many of the concerns that people have with high-frequency trading, this is a pure issue of market structure. The SEC could solve it in various ways, perhaps by getting rid of Regulation NMS entirely, or more simply by "protecting" odd lots. This recent BlackRock white paper calls for the latter solution

Comment: Interesting. Most of my trades are odd-lots. Image source

Byron Smith and Bernhard Goetz

Little Falls trial has echoes of unlikely vigilante Bernhard Goetz
Excerpt:

He'd had enough. It was time to draw that line in the sand. He had been victimized before. So, when it happened again, he was armed and ready and took action. Yet, the question remains whether he went too far and crossed the line from self-defense to deliberate criminal intent. I am not talking here about Byron Smith, the 65-year-old Little Falls, Minn., homeowner on trial in the fatal shootings of two teenagers who broke into his home on Thanksgiving Day two years ago. I'm talking about Bernhard Goetz, the white, nerdy-looking, bespectacled calibration-machine expert who shot and wounded four black teenagers who he said were about to rob him on a New York City subway train Dec. 22, 1984.

Neighbors, friends, say Smith was frightened and scared after burglaries
Excerpt:

Brian-Paul Crowder and Bill and Georgia Anderson testified Friday afternoon, that Byron Smith was concerned, frightened and scared after an Oct. 27, 2012 burglary at his home, which the Andersons said had not been the first. Smith, 65, is being tried on two counts of first-degree murder for shooting Nick Brady, 17, and Haile Kifer, 18, multiple times after the two broke into his Little Falls home.

Comment: More. The 2nd week of the trial continues tomorrow. Clearly Smith went too far, but in my own view, 1st degree murder will not be the verdict

"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts [and] murders ... "

Accused Killer Jeffrey Chapman Wants 'Murder' Neck Tattoo Removed Before Trial

Excerpt:

A murder suspect who has the word "murder" tattooed on his neck is hoping to have the tattoo removed as he fears it will prejudice him in front of a jury. Jeffrey Chapman is accused of murdering Damon Gailart in 2011 in Kansas and is worried that the tattoo would have a negative impact at the trial. Prosecutors said they were not opposed to Chapman removing or covering his tattoo, but Barton County police department said they would not transport the suspect to a tattoo parlour for the removal process. Under Kansas law, tattoo artists are only allowed to practise in licensed facilities, which also rules out a professional coming to visit Chapman in jail where he is currently held in custody. "Mr. Chapman's tattoos are not relevant to any material facts and Mr Chapman asks for the court to exclude any mention of his tattoos at trial and further to be allowed to cover them up in an appropriate manner," court documents said. "The fact that he has 'murder' tattooed across his neck is irrelevant to the State's case and extremely prejudicial to Mr Chapman if introduced at trial or observed by the jury." State prosecutors said Chapman could simply cover the tattoo with "clothing, a bandage or other means compliant with jail policy".

Comment: Options: Beard ... high collar ... Neck (cervical) braces (I've got a lot of experience with these!) Snarky remark: Looks like a pleasant young man!

Full quote:

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” (Matthew 15:18-20)

Minnesota's Ancient Trees

To get your arms around history, consider the ancient trees

Excerpt:

The Rockwood Oak is located on a trail near Wirth Lake, just east of Theodore Wirth Parkway between the Olson Highway and Glenwood Avenue. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find it, that it’d blend into the sylvan background, but I really shouldn’t have been. The Rockwood Oak looks, compared to its neighbors, almost impossibly ancient. In 2011, it was damaged in the tornado, as were a great number of the trees in the area, a small part of the vast swath of wreckage of that storm. The damage to the Rockwood Oak manages to make it look even more grizzled and primeval, stooped over, blackened with age, covered in bulbous forms on the trunk. It looks at once vulnerable and completely impervious to the passage of time.

When the sapling that would grow into the Rockwood Oak pushed its way through the ground by a lake around 1700, Rockwood’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was a teenager on a farm somewhere far, far away from the Upper Mississippi River. When the tree finally dies, Rockwood himself may well have been gone for well over a century. There are oak trees in the United States that are almost 1,500 years old. Who knows how many more centuries it may have in it.

Minneapolis Heritage Tree Program

Location: Rockwood Oak

Comment: My own oak tree story. When my Dad died in 1999, I bought an oak tree for the back yard. It was planted in Summer 2000. it will be a great tree someday ... but boy it is a slow grower.

Yawn

About a guy who seems to think I am someone important (which I am not) and has misrepresented me: His comment in this post of his ...

Excerpt:

To All: Sharper Iron (SI) posted a Filing today on the Woman Preaching at NIU. As one could expect, Aaron Blumer and Jim Peet create ways to allow for and legitimize NIU having a woman preaching in chapel. One example reminds one of Dave Doran's Second Defintion for "Separation" in Academic Contexts teaching to essentially escape the force of Scripture. Peet wrote, "NIU is not a church." Blumer wrote, "Is a Bible college a church?" Both Blumer and Peet reject that this was a chapel preaching service, to instead as Blumer calls it, "address the organization...inspiring lecture." No surprise here from the pseudo- fundamentalist SI.

Comment: My full comments are here. On NIU ... never been there. I am neither a defender nor a critic. Outside of my orbit of interest.  Been close once. Wanted to go there when K and I drove around Lake Superior but we mapped it out and it was hours away. On the man and his comments about me. He has a serious inferiority complex. I mentioned him once before on my blog. On pseudo-fundamentalism (I'm not even sure what that means ... but see this link for my entire view on "prefixes"). Image is a cat yawning. Source.. Having had many cats ... a cat yawning and a cat about to cough up a hairball ... look very much alike! Just saying!

How BUD wins with the distribution business

The 10 Biggest Brewers in America

Excerpt:

... the brewer is beholden to the distributor. Though some of the brewers on this list -- Craft Brew Alliance, for one -- operate brew pubs where they can cut out the middleman, distributors remain vital to the long-term growth story of U.S. breweries. This reality forms the basis of a pretty strong competitive advantage for Anheuser-Busch InBev. At 500 wholesalers -- 17 of which are owned outright -- the company's U.S. distribution network is much larger than that of Boston Beer. Does it pay to own 17 wholesalers in markets like Boston, New York, Denver, and Los Angeles? You bet. Consider this gem from the company's annual filing: "Revenue per hectoliter derived from sales through own distribution tends to be higher than revenue derived from sales through third parties." It's just one more way Anheuser-Busch wins with distribution.

Comment: A nice 3.7% dividend

Sliced Apple - 7 to 1 Stock Split

Apple expands buybacks by $30 billion, OKs seven-for-one stock split

Apple Expands Capital Return Program to Over $130 Billion - Board of Directors also Approves Seven-for-One Stock Split

Excerpt:

The Board of Directors has also announced a seven-for-one stock split. Each Apple shareholder of record at the close of business on June 2, 2014 will receive six additional shares for every share held on the record date, and trading will begin on a split-adjusted basis on June 9, 2014.

Comment: Kathee to me ... "Well now we can maybe get to 100" (We have 11 pre-split shares). Image source. Investors happy ... see aftermarket trading below (Up $ 41):

$ 1 Million enough for retirement?

Why even $1M may not be enough for retirement

Excerpt:

"Thirty years ago, $1 million was a huge amount of money," says Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo, CEO of Pillar Wealth Management, in Walnut Creek, Calif. "Today, given today's lifestyles and costs, it isn't so much money." Why not? "It translates into $40,000 to $50,000 (annually) in sustainable revenue," says Joe Heider, regional managing principal for Rehmann Financial Group in Westlake, Ohio. "That is not that much money on an annual basis." Heider says that 10 to 12 years ago, when people earned a lot more on their investments, $1 million could generate $70,000 to $80,000 a year in retirement income. But with interest rates as low as they are, that's not really feasible. Still, that's not to say that no one could live on savings of $1 million. Not everyone will need that kind of cash in their retirement kitty, financial planners say. It all depends on your lifestyle — the one you're living now, and the one you want to live in retirement. It also depends on your investment returns, taxes and inflation. "I think it depends on how much money you're going to spend," says Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Exencial Wealth Advisors in Oklahoma City. "A million is not like $1 million 20 years ago or 30 years ago. If you're wanting to spend $50,000 a year or less from your investment portfolio, $1 million will probably get it done for you. "If you want more than that, $1 million is not going to provide that for you," he says. Otherwise, you run the risk of depleting your savings before you die. "Everything is relative," says Clarence Kehoe, executive partner in the accounting firm Anchin, Block & Anchin in New York City. "For some people, I would think $1 million would be more than enough. For other people, I can tell you some of these clients spend more than $1 million in a year. It depends on the person, their lifestyle and what they are used to."

Comment: Our  target is a bit beyond this. Hope to retire approx. December 2015.

Organize your neighborhood: NextDoor

NextDoor - Referral

Comment: So far we've reached 29% of the 76 homes in Forster's Preserve. In May I'm going to do a big push: Balsam, Deerwood, and Evergreen. Hoping to reach 50%.

About Nextdoor

Use the above referral link, and receive a $ 25 Amazon gift certificate (I will receive one as well).

Forsters is one of 4 Plymouth NextDoor neighborhoods: Map below:

Cobalt Condos

Today's condo viewing (open house - drop in)

Cobalt - Unit 310
Observations:

• Nice location - 45 SE University
• Lund's Grocery on 1st floor - private entrance to store from main lobby of condo w privacy fob.
• Across the street and overlooks Chute Square park
• Stacked washer and dryer off hallway
• 2 bed / 2 bath
• Needs paint (and in my view) and refresh on carpeting in bedrooms
• Hardwood in kitchen and living
• Kitchen very nice with high end appliances and granite 
• 1 parking spot with unit
• Last sold for  $440,900 in January 2007
• Negatives: custom beds in both bedrooms (built-ins). Not our style. Also built-in custom desk in master bed room  

New Mailbox

Jim Dahlheimer from Homewise Repair installed our new mailbox today. We bought an Avalon at Menards. Lower photo is from January. A new 45° support was also installed. We had lost that more then 10 years ago to a snow plow. Numbers to be installed tomorrow. Existing wood needs to be scraped and painted.

Bodyguard for El Presidente Echeverría

In 1969, through a seemingly unusual sequence of events, in a jam-packed plaza, in an unruly crowd, at a Mexican presidential campaign event, I came face to face with Luis Echeverría. Concerned for his safety, I was enlisted to extricate the candidate to safety.

1. American Airlines campus sales representative - Not an typical student job
1. In my Junior and Senior year at University of Cincinnati
2. Paid $ 50 per month = approx. $ 300 per month in today’s dollars
3. What did I do?
1.  Booked charter flights for students to fly back to NYC for holidays
2. Worked with the athletic department for flights for the football team
3. Booked an “Arts” charter to NYC for Broadway & off-Broadway plays
4. The Student Union was my office
5. Also recruited (really “tried to recruit” candidates for stewardess) f. I can attest that “you would make a great American Airlines stewardess” is not an effective pickup line! 
6. An unusual benefit: 2 free 1st class passes annually … anywhere AA flew - my first trip was Christmas 1969 … to San Diego to scuba dive. I had a one day excursion to Tijuana
2. Tijuana – Not an ordinary American tourist destination
   1. For beaches: Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, or Puerto Vallarta,
   2. For Aztec or Mayan ruins: Morelos
   3. For natural wonders: Mazatlán
   4. For Spanish colonial history: Mexico City.
   5. For Mexican traditions (of say tequila, mariachi music and charros): Guadalajara
   6. Tijuana:
      1. Tijuana Zebra: donkey painted like a zebra
      2. VW bugs as taxis
      3. The origin of Caesar salad @ Hotel Caesar’s
      4. Slums
      5. Denture clinics (more than 50)
      6. Bullfighting (Bullring by the Sea)
      7. Inspiration for Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (the Lonely Bull & Tijuana Taxi)
      8. Now also known for the Tijuana crime Cartel
   7. To Tijuana:
      1. Bus from San Diego
      2. Through the San Ysidro border crossing
         1. One of the busiest border crossings in the world
         2. On foot
         3. Over the Tijuana River
      3. And into the sprawling city of more than 1 Million people
3. Luis Echeverría – Not an uncommon Mexican politician
   1. The 50th President of Mexico
   2. From 1970-1976
   3. B 1922 … still alive / In 1969 he would have been 47 years old
   4. He was campaigning for President:
      1. PRI party - Institutional Revolutionary Party
      2. July 5th 1970
      3. 86% of vote
4. An unusual, fortuitous meeting
   1. Avenue of Revolution the main tourist route
   2. Running parallel the Avenue of the Constitution
   3. I ate in a genuine Mexican restaurant:
      1. My 2 year of HS Latin and 2 years of HS Spanish had not prepared me well for the immersion into Mexican culture
      2. Not seated at an individual table but with 2 mexicans
      3. Common bowl of salad w flat bread
   4. West of Avenue of the Constitution – the Parque Teniente Guerrero
   5. Parque Teniente Guerrero or Park warrior Lieutenant
      1. Oldest park in Tijauna
      2. Really the heart of the city
   6. Drawn there because a large assembled crowd
      1. Banners & placards
      2. And there Luis Echeverría was publically campaigning for President
   7. I worked a seam and pushed to the center of the activity and
   8. Came shoulder to shoulder with the next President of Mexico – cream colored guayabera – an embroidered linen shirt
   9. If ever been to a US campaign event … completely unlike that - Where the President or candidate is insulated from the public by a security detail
   10. Call it fortuitous, chance or luck, I was just left of center of the focus of activity
   11. The crowd became rambunctious and his security detail became secure and the enlisted me to rush El Presidente to safety
   12. I was joined to a phalanx of men:
       1. A row in front of the candidate
       2. And a row behind (I was in the rear)
       3. Who hurriedly moved him to a secure place

Comment: Outline of my Toastmaster's speech from 2 weeks ago and also tonight

The Chicago Railroad bottleneck

Freight Train Late? Blame Chicago

Excerpt:

Shippers complain that a load of freight can make its way from Los Angeles to Chicago in 48 hours, then take 30 hours to travel across the city. A recent trainload of sulfur took some 27 hours to pass through Chicago — an average speed of 1.13 miles per hour, or about a quarter the pace of many electric wheelchairs. With freight volume in the United States expected to grow by more than 80 percent in the next 20 years, delays are projected to only get worse. The underlying reasons for this sprawling traffic jam are complex, involving history, economics and a nation’s disinclination to improve its roads, bridges and rails. Six of the nation’s seven biggest railroads pass through the city, a testament to Chicago’s economic might when the rail lines were laid from the 1800s on. Today, a quarter of all rail traffic in the nation touches Chicago. Nearly half of what is known as intermodal rail traffic, the big steel boxes that can be carried aboard ships, trains or trucks, roll by or through this city.

Winter Took its Toll on the Achilles’ Heel of American Railroads

Excerpt:

CSX Corp.chief executive Michael Ward insisted today that the railroad operator is not running out of capacity, even as analysts questioned the continuing costs, delays and fallout from the great rail tie-ups and tangles of the first quarter. “You don’t build the church for Easter Sunday,” Mr. Ward said in an interview after his first quarter earnings call. “We have plenty of capacity for all the growth you can foresee — but not for one of the coldest and snowiest winters in history.” Normally in Chicago, you have either cold winters or snowy winters, he told the analysts. “It’s highly unusual the winter is both,” he said. But in what has become a railroad mantra lately, he said there had been twenty-five significant snowfalls during the third coldest winter ever in Chicago this year. And Chicago happens to be the Achilles’ Heel of the rail system — a major bottleneck where all the major railroads converge. Problems there have a “cascading impact” on the rest of the network, Mr. Ward said.

Here's the long-term solution:

Plan floated for $3 billion Chicago rail bypass

Excerpt:

Under the plan, a six-track, freight-only rail line would be built between Coal City, Ill., and Wellsboro, Ind., in a portion of the right-of-way that transit officials hope to acquire for the proposed Illiana Expressway. The line could be extended farther west later. The $3 billion structure faces all kinds of obstacles, not least among them the fact that the Illiana Expressway still is just a dream. But the idea of getting private investors to put up money that would be repaid by railroads paying charges to use the tracks does have a certain big-picture beauty to it. That would make the line something like a public utility.

Coldwater Creek to fold

Coldwater Creek files bankruptcy, to close all stores

Excerpt:

Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek Inc. on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to find a buyer said it plans to close its stores by early summer.

Coldwater Creek joins other retailers to seek protection from creditors in recent months as consumers keep a lid on spending.

The company said it plans to wind down its operations over the coming months and begin going-out-of-business sales in early May, before the traditionally busy Mother's Day weekend. Coldwater Creek said it has 365 stores and employs about 6,000 people.

Comment: My wife's goto store for clothing.

About Stock Symbols - The Single Character Symbols

The Ticker Symbol

Historical components of the DJIA

Interesting to me:

• "C" formerly was Chrysler
• Surprised no one has requested "J", "U", "W"
• Who would think "Y" would be Alleghany Corporation?!

Ditch XP ... fast!

Microsoft Windows XP support ends Tuesday: Why users need to upgrade -- now

Excerpt:

Microsoft will end support for the persistently popular Windows XP on Tuesday, and the move could put everything from the operations of heavy industry to the identities of everyday people in danger.

An estimated 30 percent of computers being used by businesses and consumers around the world are still running the 12-year-old operating system. "What once was considered low-hanging fruit by hackers now has a big neon bull's eye on it," says Patrick Thomas, a security consultant at the San Jose, Calif.-based firm Neohapsis.

Microsoft has released a handful of Windows operating systems since 2001, but XP's popularity and the durability of the computers it was installed on kept it around longer than expected. Analysts say that if a PC is more than five years old, chances are it's running XP.

While users can still run XP after Tuesday, Microsoft says it will no longer provide security updates, issue fixes to non-security related problems or offer online technical content updates. The company is discontinuing XP to focus on maintaining its newer operating systems, the core programs that run personal computers. The Redmond, Wash.-based company says it will provide anti-malware-related updates through July 14, 2015, but warns that the tweaks could be of limited help on an outdated operating system.

Comment: Whenever Microsoft releases a patch for Windows 7 or 8, malicious hackers will look at the patch and consider whether it telegraphs an XP vulnerability. Options:

• Windows 7: A solid operating system. 
• Windows 8:1: Probably better (I'm not keen on touching a laptop screen all the time - messy - but one can use in keyboard & mouse mode too!)
• The non-Microsoft options: Mac OS (matches Apple hardware); Linux (works great on older desktops ... sometimes doesn't install well on laptops because of specialized drivers for the screen); IOS (IPAD) (someone said that the IPAD is analogous to a microwave in a kitchen. Not the oven or range top but can cook with it). Or Android (for a tablet)

For the Peets: Windows 7 at work. MacBooks at home + an Ipad. 

The Myth of 77%

The '77 Cents on the Dollar' Myth About Women's Pay

Long Excerpt:

But every "full-time" worker, as the BLS notes, is not the same: Men were almost twice as likely as women to work more than 40 hours a week, and women almost twice as likely to work only 35 to 39 hours per week. Once that is taken into consideration, the pay gap begins to shrink. Women who worked a 40-hour week earned 88% of male earnings.

Then there is the issue of marriage and children. The BLS reports that single women who have never married earned 96% of men's earnings in 2012.

The supposed pay gap appears when marriage and children enter the picture. Child care takes mothers out of the labor market, so when they return they have less work experience than similarly-aged males. Many working mothers seek jobs that provide greater flexibility, such as telecommuting or flexible hours. Not all jobs can be flexible, and all other things being equal, those which are will pay less than those that do not.

Education also matters. Even within groups with the same educational attainment, women often choose fields of study, such as sociology, liberal arts or psychology, that pay less in the labor market. Men are more likely to major in finance, accounting or engineering. And as the American Association of University Women reports, men are four times more likely to bargain over salaries once they enter the job market.

Risk is another factor. Nearly all the most dangerous occupations, such as loggers or iron workers, are majority male and 92% of work-related deaths in 2012 were to men. Dangerous jobs tend to pay higher salaries to attract workers. Also: Males are more likely to pursue occupations where compensation is risky from year to year, such as law and finance. Research shows that average pay in such jobs is higher to compensate for that risk.

While the BLS reports that full-time female workers earned 81% of full-time males, that is very different than saying that women earned 81% of what men earned for doing the same jobs, while working the same hours, with the same level of risk, with the same educational background and the same years of continuous, uninterrupted work experience, and assuming no gender differences in family roles like child care. In a more comprehensive study that controlled for most of these relevant variables simultaneously—such as that from economists June and Dave O'Neill for the American Enterprise Institute in 2012—nearly all of the 23% raw gender pay gap cited by Mr. Obama can be attributed to factors other than discrimination. The O'Neills conclude that, "labor market discrimination is unlikely to account for more than 5% but may not be present at all."

These gender-disparity claims are also economically illogical. If women were paid 77 cents on the dollar, a profit-oriented firm could dramatically cut labor costs by replacing male employees with females. Progressives assume that businesses nickel-and-dime suppliers, customers, consultants, anyone with whom they come into contact—yet ignore a great opportunity to reduce wages costs by 23%. They don't ignore the opportunity because it doesn't exist. Women are not in fact paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men.

Comment: Our family: My wife makes more than I do (I was out of the business world for 18 years (2 years for graduate school and 16 years of vocational ministry). When I was in  the ministry, among my siblings, my sister made the most (working for American Airlines). See also As Obama Spotlights Gender Gap in Wages, His Own Payroll Draws Scrutiny and CBS: WH 'Roughed Up By Its Own Pay Equity Rhetoric'

Who's splitting ... who's not

• Baxter Plans to Split Into Two Companies - Independent Firms Will Focus On Biopharmaceuticals, Medical Products BAX (2015)
• What Occidental Petroleum Corporation Might Look Like After the Split OXY (2015)
• Dow Chemical Rejects Loeb's Call for Company to Split DOW. Comment: Plans to spin off its commodity-chemical operations
• DuPont to Split Into 2 as It Plans to Spin Off a Major Segment DD (2015)

Why I like Qualcomm

Deutsche Bank’s Top Five Wireless Tech Stocks to Buy

Excerpt:

Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) remains the 900-pound gorilla in the wireless space. A new Qualcomm technology used to create a series of reliable, on-the-fly wireless networks at the South by Southwest Interactive conference earlier this month may soon provide high-end mobile-device users across the United States with a new type of digital experience -- one that combines their live presence and digital identity. The GIMBAL smartphone technology, which was just transferred from Qualcomm Labs to the chip maker's retail services unit, may also prove a watershed for cellular consumers willing to trade location privacy for shopping deals and convenience. Deutsche Bank raised its price target from $76 to $86. The consensus target is $81.43. Qualcomm closed Monday at $77.74.

As the wireless world continues to explode, the companies that focus on new network applications that support increasing mobile use are the companies that will win the battle. Mobile computing via smartphones and tablets is totally changing the game for everything from advertising to entertainment. Stocks that cater to and support the technological change will be the ultimate winners.

Comment: I  have a small position in QCOM. While the dividend is low (1.8%), I see growth potential ahead

Investing: Don't waste your 30's

Observations and comments:

• It's not easy to make 8% year after year in investments. I don't think I've done it! The best bet would be the mother of all ETFs, SPY which invests in the S&P 500
• Presumptions in the above calculation (using the FV (Future Value) function of Excel): 
• Starting with $ 0.
• Investing monthly
• Target of $ 1,000,000 at retirement
• Delaying start by a decade really hurts!

Marijuana Production in America - Not "unicorns and rainbows"

24 Mind-Blowing Facts About Marijuana Production in America
The Landscape-Scarring, Energy-Sucking, Wildlife-Killing Reality of Pot Farming

 Excerpt:

In the journal Energy Policy, researcher Evan Mills estimated that indoor grows suck up enough electricity to supply 1.7 million homes—in California, they account for a whopping 9 percent of household energy use.

Comment: 1st article is an infographic of the second.

"Suntory" time at the Fed

The 2008 FOMC Laugh Track: Gallows Humor at the Federal Reserve

Excerpt:

“I liken the fed funds rate to a good single malt whiskey—it takes time to have its ameliorative or stimulative effect.” [Laughter]

Comment: Image ... Bill Murray in Lost in Translation

IPhone 5s: The amazing power in one's pocket

An iPhone 5s would have cost more than $3.5 million in 1991

Excerpt:

The iPhone 5s is so advanced, compared to what was available in 1991, that it would actually cost more than $3.5-million to buy something resembling it 23 years ago. This was calculated by an analyst over at Tech Police Daily, where the cost was put down to the following factors. Flash storage in 1991 cost $45,000 per gigabyte. When you consider a 32GB iPhone 5s, the total cost is $1.44 million. Processors cost about $30 per MIPS (millions of instructions per second) in 1991. The A7 chip can execute 20,500 million instructions per second, so the total cost for a similar processor in 1991 would be $620,000.

Comment: Having sold mainframe and midrange computers (1973-78), I found this incredible. See DEC 10 article

The Wells Fargo preferred stock

Source: quantumonline.com
Today's closing prices:

The Wells Fargo preferred stocks page

The GOOG (Google) stock split

We Interrupt This Program to Tell You About Google's Stock Split

Excerpt:

Google's plan will create a new class of "C'' share that has no voting power. As reported, the share of C stock will be distributed for each share of voting Class A stock owned as of March 27. To begin with the value of the current stock will be divided equally between the two types of shares. Both classes of stock will then trade separately with different ticker symbols. Class C shares will still use the company's existing "GOOG" ticker symbol, while Class A stock will use the symbol "GOOGL." 

When? "The split is scheduled to occur April 2."

408 Parkers Lake Road #208

408 Parkers Lake Road 208 Minnetonka, MN 55391

Comment: Tomorrow's viewing

Earliest Tax Day - 2014

Filing Your Taxes Early? IRS Will Not Process Returns Before Opening Day

Excerpt:

Tax season for individual taxpayers opens on January 31, 2014

Comment: The earliest I've ever filed taxes

DNA Results - Great Britain

From Ancestry.com. Click image for larger

Investing beyond your 401K

Investing beyond your 401K

Comment: Handout for my Tuesday January 21st Toastmaster's speech.

Siri get hackles up over "Her"

Asking Siri About ‘Her’ AND Siri's a little jealous of Scarlett Johansson in 'Her' AND Siri Is Not a Fan of Her

Comment: Image above is from my IPhone. Movie "Her" (looks stupid!)

Easy way to do screen shot with IPhone w IOS 7

• Go to settings
• Tap general
• Scroll down to accessibility
• Scroll down to assistive touch
• Turn it on
• You will now have a semi transparent button on your screen
• When you tap this you will get options of voice control, favorites, device, home you need to tap device,then more, then screenshot.

Comment: Found here