Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Toothpaste factory
A toothpaste factory had a problem: it sometimes shipped empty boxes without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can't be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality-assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down to the supermarket don't get pissed off and buy another product instead.
Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together, and they decided to start a new project in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as the engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.
The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later it had a fantastic solution - on time, on budget, high quality, and everyone in the project had a great time.
They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it should. The line would stop; someone would walk over and yank the defective box off of it and press another button when done to re-start the line.
A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the Return On Investment of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. "That's some money well spent!" he said, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.
It turned out that the number of defects picked up by the scales was zero after three weeks of production use. It should have picked up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He requested an inquiry, and after some investigation, the engineers came back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren't picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.
Puzzled, the CEO traveled down to the factory and walked up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed.
A few feet before the scale was a cheap desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin.
"Oh, that," says one of the workers, "One of the guys put it there 'cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang."
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Has water entered my ship?
In 1923, eight of the wealthiest people in the world met. Their combined wealth, it is estimated, exceeded the wealth of the government of the United States at that time.
These men certainly knew how to make a living and accumulate wealth.
But let's examine what happened to them 25 years later.
1. President of the largest steel company, Charies Schwab, lived on borrowed capital for five years before he died bankrupt.
2. President of the largest gas company, Howard Hubson, went insane.
3. One of the greatest commodity traders, Arthur Cutton, died insolvent.
4. President of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, was sent to jail.
5. A member of the President's Cabinet, Albert Fall, was pardoned from jail to go home and die in peace.
6. The greatest "bear" on Wall Street, Jessie Livermore, committed suicide.
7. President of the world's greatest monopoly, Ivar Krueger, committed suicide.
8. President of the Bank of International Settlement, Leon Fraser, Committed Suicide.
What they forgot was how to make life! Money in itself is not evil!
Money provides food for the hungry, medicine for the sick, clothes for the needy; Money is only a medium of exchange.
We need two kinds of education.
.....a) One that teaches us how to make a living and
......b) one that teaches us how to live.
There are people who are so engrossed in their professional life that they neglect their family, health and social responsibilities.
If asked why they do this they would reply that they were doing it for their family.
Our kids are sleeping when we leave home.
They are sleeping when we come home.
Twenty years later, we'll turn back, and they'll all be gone.
Without water, a ship cannot move.
The ship needs water, but if the water gets into the ship, the ship will face problems. What was once a means of living for the ship will now become a means of destruction.
Similarly we live in time where earning is necessity but let not the earning enter our hearts, for what was once a means of living will become a means of destruction.
So take a moment and ask yourself - Has water entered my ship?
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Kimmie Rhodes
Kimmie Rhodes & Willie Nelson - Contrabandistas
Kimmie Rhodes - Wild Roses
Kimmie Rhodes - love me like a song (with Willie)
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A Golden Idea - Jim Sinclair
April 5, 2012
Dear Friends,
What we need is the second coming of a determined trader so convinced of his/her opinion and feel for the market that taking on the gold banks would seem like a divine calling.
The same stuff we see today went on in the great gold bull market of the 1970s. Then I was a kid in my mid 30s with more guts than is usually good for ones financial health.
I watched the gold dealer’s brokers, then of Phillips Brothers and J. Aron, running the living hell out of the gold gang with the locals jumping on the bandwagon the moment the dealers showed their selling interest. I also saw the same quietly covering by the brokers for the dealers taking back their sells after they had bullied the market lower, exactly like the Goldmans and their pals do today.
read more here ...
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Monday, April 09, 2012
Top five regrets of the dying
A nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'. What would your biggest regret be if this was your last day of life?
There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps. A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'.
Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. "When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently," she says, "common themes surfaced again and again."
Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware:
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it."
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
"This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
"Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result."
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying."
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?commentpage=1#start-of-comments
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There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps. A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'.
Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. "When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently," she says, "common themes surfaced again and again."
Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware:
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it."
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
"This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
"Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result."
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying."
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?commentpage=1#start-of-comments
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Charles Nenner - March 28, 2012
http://watch.bnn.ca/business-day/march-2012/business-day-march-28-2012/ShowAllClips/#clip646638
BNN Business Day
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BNN Business Day
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Seasonality - years ending in "2"
http://www.timingthemarket.ca/techtalk/2012/04/09/tech-talk-for-monday-april-9th-2012/
Monday, April 02, 2012
When to quit gold
The Critical Number for Gold
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/critical-number-gold
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"Implications for Investors
"Armed with these data, there are definite steps you can take with your investments at this point, as well as reasonable expectations you can have going forward:
"You can buy gold today. As long as real interest rates are negative, gold will remain in a bull market. If you already own some gold, you can and should ask yourself if it's enough at a time when money in the bank is a losing proposition.
"Don't get flummoxed when you hear talk about rising rates. Watch the real rate instead.
"In our opinion, real rates will be negative for some time for the simple reason that we think inflation will be rising for some time. Ask yourself: Will the Fed and other central banks raise rates aggressively enough to catch up to inflation? Someday, sure… but not anytime soon.
"When real rates turn positive, especially above 2%, it may be time to sell. "We'll have to see what's going on in the world at that time; if there's financial chaos, the fear factor could cause gold to depart from this historic pattern. But even if not, keep in mind that while the price of gold fluctuates every day, the shift out of gold-based investments won't occur overnight. There should be time to gain clarity.
"There are a lot of reasons to own gold today, and there will likely be more before it's time to say goodbye. In the meantime, we take comfort in the fact that the strongest historical indicator of all tells us the gold bull market is alive and well and has years to play out.
Carpe aurum."
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/critical-number-gold
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Sunday, April 01, 2012
Sugar: the bitter truth
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.