I’m rarely impressed with ideas. After enough time in the web and business world, I’ve heard a tremendous number of ideas. Ideas often have little or no value. Execution is what counts. The ability to start and to finish. Not come up with an idea.
Having said that, some ideas do have negative value. This is one I ran across recently…
2005 National Blind Hunter Program. Granted…I haven’t really looked into it very far, but at first blush it just doesn’t seem safe.
Well, we have a new Pope. Benedict XVI? Hmm. I didn’t see that name coming. Can you imagine walking out onto a balcony and greeting the world as the new Pope. Heavy.
I’m sure all the upcoming programs will now be focused on educating us regarding this German. All I’ve read is “78-year-old transitional leader who promises to enforce strictly conservative policies for the world’s Roman Catholics.” Hmm. Didn’t see that one coming either.
I lived in Oregon for a few years before it dawned on me that local bakeries do not carry kolaches. Where I come from in Texas, a kolache is a little ball of bread containing almost any filling, but the staple is some kind of sausage. They are a great morning treat brought to this country by Czech settlers. In Texas they are so popular you have chains of restaurants specializing in their production, such as The Kolache Factory and Mornings Kolaches.
Upon bringing this lack of meat filled pastries to the attention of my Oregonian friends, some countered that what I sought were “pigs in blanket”. I disagree. I contend that “pigs in a blanket” refers to sausage wrapped in pancakes, not bread. I am supported by at least two Oregon institutions in this, the Original Pancake House in Portland and Bend, and Pig ‘n’ Pancake popular on the coast.
For more information on the wonderful world of Kolaches, you can check out Caldwell, Texas, the Kolache Capital of Texas and their 20th Annual Kolache Festival.
Now I make my own. On the weekends, I combine Pilsbury Crescent Rolls with Hillshire Farms veritable Cheddar Lit’l Smokies. The result is 8 little packages of sausage filled, Czech inspired, goodness.
This is an interesting article that coordinates my losses in General Motors stock with the collapse of the housing industry (my profession). The kind of thing that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. MSN Money - GM’s woes one more blow to housing bubble
“The use-your-house-as-an-ATM-to-live-beyond-your-means stimulus is finished, thanks to the recent de-leveraging/crackup in the bond market. The refi game and the bull market in housing it created postponed the consequences of the largest stock-market bubble in history. Though the Fed and the rest of the government succeeded in postponing the fallout from the massive misallocation of capital that took place in the mania, they have also succeeded in compounding and exacerbating those consequences. Even more leverage was created in the system, as we attempted to speculate our way to prosperity. “
I forwarded some of the homebrew information for making your own biodiesel to my brother who is a chemical engineer. This is what I got back this morning…too funny not to post:
“Hi Kerry,
It pisses me off that competent, prudent people can be sued and lose their life savings when they did everything right, and then you see wackos manufacturing biodiesel in their living rooms and promoting the practice! First of all, I don’t know much about biodiesel, but here is my quickie assessment:
Regarding performance claims - I find it hard to believe that a homemade product with variable quality can “make your diesel motor run better, last longer, and run cleaner.” I’m sure a refinery engineer would beg to differ in opinion. By the way, it’s an engine, not a motor.
Regarding the economics – I can’t understand how one can take ingredients costing over $1.00/gal, blend them up, generate a 20% waste stream, use lots of energy for heat and mixing, and end up with a product that costs $0.60/gal. I guess the oil is considered free (though here in Houston, spent cooking oils are sold for around $1/gal and recycled as low grade lube oils such as chain lube). Also, I guess these environmentalist-types are dumping the 20% glycerine stream and the 100% vol/vol wash water emulsion down their kitchen drains.
Regarding the legal aspects – it appears the home-based manufacturers of biodiesel don’t intend to pay fuel taxes. This could be the single reason the economics work – but it could get them in trouble.
Regarding the technical aspects – biodiesel may be common in the future, but I WOULD NOT be manufacturing it anywhere around my house. Think of it as a modern day moonshine still. Find some remote mountain land and make it there. It scares me that this article claims to be disclosing all the safety requirements you need to know, then they script a procedure that involves heating methanol mixtures. Holy Cow! Methanol has a flash point of 50F and is poisonous. It is one of the most dangerous chemicals I sell and all equipment around it must be explosionproof – no arcing light switches, blenders and the like.
Regarding the practicality – who has 2 days of manufacturing and 3 weeks of “drying” time on their hands? Obviously, you’ll need several batch reactor vessels and a storage tank – unless of course this is just a curiosity.
Regarding one last nit-pick – the following quote surprised me: “Still, for every gallon of vegetable oil you use, that’s one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, and that much less carbon in the atmosphere.” Either the author doesn’t realize that SVO contains hydrocarbons, or he is smarter than I think and he expects your vehicle to be stranded on the side of the road – which might just be one step toward saving this planet.
Later.”
I sent him some more biodiesel info and can’t wait for the next response.
The future of housing may lie in prefabricated structures, but I believe significant business logic will need to be applied to get there.
The latest edition of Dwell magazine focuses on the future of prefab possibilities. One of the more interesting articles showcases the FlatPak House idea of Charlie Lazor. The design is very impressive, but I was disappointed to see the $200 per foot estimated cost for building the system in my area. That cost includes many things right down to appliances, but does not include site work, permits, utilities, survey, or of course, the land.
Caught an interesting investment program this weekend. Mad Money with Jim Cramer. This guy runs around on stage setting off sound effects and ranting stock market advice. Rumor has it he knows what he’s talking about, and the floorshow is quite entertaining.
*update - He has an email service on his website, TheStreet.com, that allows you to follow his own stock purchases on a minute-by-minute basis. I tried to sign up for the 14-day trial, but they still wanted my credit card. I was afraid of forgetting to cancel and purchasing something I’d never use.
I love playing “what if” scenarios with money. I can entertain myself for sometime with a simple loan calculator, which is why I was very excited to find Calculators at Dinkytown.net. They have some great calculators that help you make descisions about insurance, finances, and life. Plus almost all of the calculators have graphics to help display their results.
I now know I have a life expectancy of 82 years. Now I can use that figure in some of my other calculation fun.
I’ve always dreaded paying my phone bill every month. Not that it’s outrageously high, or anything. It’s more about the components of it.
I understand my basic service. I’m getting a service and I must pay for it. Very simple. What I don’t understand are the:
I am a huge fan of the IBM ThinkPad laptops. I keep a little X40 connected to me most hours of the day. So I was more than a little concerned when the news came out regarding IBM selling its PC business to a Chinese company. I assumed, much like the newspaper headlines, that this was the end.
Well, that’s been a few months ago. Since then we’ve had to send some IBM computers in for standard warranty work and there seems to be no change in the type or quality of service. This morning I jumped on the IBM website to look at purchasing some of their cool new fingerprint authentication hardware for my notebook, and ran across this article putting most of my fears to rest. So now I’m really confused about what the change does mean.
Oh, well. While I was there I also ran across a pretty cool series called “Legends of Thinkpad” where you can watch movies about a ThinkPad being burned, run over by a truck, and left under a tree for a year. Pretty cool.
Powered by WordPress