August 2015 – Page 11 – The Burning Platform

Pictorial Essay: 21 of the World’s Coolest Treehouses

I’m pretty much BURNED OUT with the crapola newz. I can’t take it anymore. I have little left to say that I haven’t said before. Really. Amerika sucks. See what I mean? Same shit, different day. And, when I DO come up with something novel — like men boinking horses — you people go ape-shit, for weeks on end.

Anyway … treehouses. Every real boy has built one. So, this should be an entertaining few minutes. I built three. They all lasted a long time …. until the tree grew and the thing stretched apart, or a branch rotted and it collapsed, or in one case a strong wind twisted the supporting tree trunks in opposite directions and the whole damn thing ripped apart. That last one was literally across the street from the house my parents still live in. Anyway, I don’t know how these treehouses below solved these problems. Maybe they used a better brand of duct tape and better finishing nails.

I don’t know if girls built treehouses. So, you ladies here might find this boring. I do know they liked climbing up in them, though. I saw my second ever vaginny in my tree house — the one the wind tore apart. Her name was Susan K. — and, yeah, we played “doctor” fifteen feet above the ground. I think I was about twelve. Today’s twelve year old would have tapped that thing out. Me? I didn’t know what to do with the damned thing. Just looked at it. Poked it once or twice. And that was that. She looked at my thang, and laughed. It would be another eight years till I saw another vaginny again. This time I knew what to do with it. Ya just poke it with a special tool.

Minimal commentary. I mean what can you say about a treehouse that I haven’t already said?

====================================================

COSTA RICA — more of a “house in the trees” than an actual treehouse. The Boeing 727 cost $2,000, another $4,000 to move, and $24,000 to build. It has a jacuzzi in the cockpit. I think that’s a helluva bargain. More very cool pictures and a brief story here; http://www.boredpanda.com/vintage-boeing-727-turned-into-luxorious-hotel/

Continue reading “Pictorial Essay: 21 of the World’s Coolest Treehouses”

Another Day Younger and Deeper in Debt

Outside the Box: Another Day Younger and Deeper in Debt

By John Mauldin

My friend Neil Howe, author of Generations, The Fourth Turning, and other books and president of Saeculum Research, joins us today in Outside the Box with a succinct, eye-opening essay on generational differences in debt levels and attitudes towards debt.

I often write about the problems that come with overindebtedness, but we’re usually talking about public debt, here in the US or abroad. But personal or household debt in America is nearly as massive as government debt, as this chart shows:

As you can see, household debt was relatively stable from the mid-’50s until the turn of the century, when it ballooned for a few years until the Great Recession hit and then was subject to significant deleveraging in the years since. Still, as Neil notes, average household debt is nearly twice as high today as it was in 1989, with most of the increase coming in the form of mortgage debt, although student loans are taking a bite, too – they’re up sixfold, from $888 per household in 1989 to a painful $5791 in 2013.

Since these dramatic changes in indebtedness have occurred mostly in the past 20 years – in the span of a generation, that is – they have resulted in very different attitudes toward debt among US generations. The Silent generation (75+) was well-established before the changes hit, is the least burdened by debt – and sees debt in the most positive light, as an opportunity for financial advancement. But the debt they took on, back in the “good old days,” was mostly in the relatively innocuous forms of house and car loans. They weren’t subject to the wave of high-interest credit cards and “seductive Web-based come-ons for low-doc, no-down-payment bubble loans they couldn’t possibly afford,” as Neil puts it, that have plagued Boomers and Gen-Xers scrambling to keep up with the lifestyles of their elders. Millennials (today’s 20-somethings, roughly speaking), who have seen how the generation just ahead of them has suffered, are not surprisingly the most risk-averse when it comes to taking on debt.

There’s more to chew on here, and a lot more to learn about the impact of demographics on economic and social change in America and the world at Neil’s Saeculum Research website.

Continue reading “Another Day Younger and Deeper in Debt”

Why Does the Number 7 Keep Showing Up??

Via The Silicon Graybeard

What’s so important about the number 7? Why does it keep coming up? This is the question posed by Peter Degraaf in a commentary on Kitco, posted last Thursday.

Reaching back to forty nine years ago (7 x 7), in 1966 the USA experienced a ‘credit crunch’. In August of that year the US bond market suffered a serious ‘liquidity crisis’.

Seven years later in 1973, the world experienced an ‘oil embargo’ followed by a dramatic rise in the price of oil. There were long lines of cars at gas stations.

Move forward by 7 years and in 1980 Wall Street avoided the collapse of some of its banks and brokerage houses by forcing the Hunt Brothers to stop accumulating silver.

Another seven years passed and in the fall of 1987 stock markets crashed around the world. ‘Black Monday’ of October 1987 saw the Dow lose 22% in one day.

Then seven years later, in 1994, the bond markets crashed.

Seven years passed and in 2001 Wall Street was closed for 5 days due to the militant Islamists attack on the World Trade Center in New York. The DOW lost 684 points on Sept 17th 2001. Banks received billions of dollars of newly created money from the Federal Reserve, to keep the system afloat.

The seven year cycle moved on and in 2008 we saw the Subprime Housing Market Collapse, along with the overnight bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The Lehman investment bank fell so fast, none of the employees had any idea their jobs were disappearing. The DOW lost 777 points on Sept 29th 2008. The banking system almost collapsed, (banks refused to cash checks except after a three day ‘hold’, for fear that the issuing bank might fail), but the US FED saved the day, by massive injections of newly created cash, not only into US banks, but also some Canadian and foreign banks. The debt problem was ‘solved’ with more debt!

On the 7th straight of 7 year cycles, the Dow lost 777 points?? I think if I was into numerology I’d be saying, “you’ve got to be kidding me!” and “are you trying for style points?”

Continue reading “Why Does the Number 7 Keep Showing Up??”

Question of the Day, August 20

Today’s Constitutional question comes from all the birthright citizen jabber in the MSM. If “birthright citizenship” is really guaranteed in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, why is the phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” included prominently in the verbiage?

Mapping Every Power Plant in the United States

Via Visual Capitalist

The Washington Post has put together an extraordinary data visualization that shows how the United States has generated its electricity so far this year. Using data from the Energy Information Administration, they have mapped every power source and categorized it by type and size.

Related Topic: What it Takes to Power New York (Slideshow)

I will recap the most interesting parts of their project here, but we highly recommend that you visit their online interactive version of this visualization to get the most out of their work.

Plant Capacity by Megawatt

This above visualization is a little overwhelming, as it includes every power source in America. However, later on we will show various visualizations by power type, which make it easier to make sense of.

Power Generated by Source: Coal

Data visualized like this shows there is still a large reliance on specific energy types such as coal, hydro, and nuclear. For example, 28 states still rely on coal in 2015 to produce at least 25% of their electricity.

Meanwhile, the following chart on solar shows how far photovoltaics still have to go to make a significant impact in the overall energy mix.

Power Generated by Source: Solar

While community solar farms are starting to take off in the United States, solar technology as a whole still does not provide substantial amounts of electricity. It is clear that California is the leader in solar capacity, but it actually only accounts for 8% of total electricity generation in the state.