The “Tells” of a Troubled Giant

John Mauldin, who I read often, ran a perfectly ghastly :-)  article in his Outside the Box yesterday: click here to read it.    I highlight it here for two reasons:

1. The diagram in the middle is an interesting depiction of the ”tells” or warning signs of companies that fail in a big way which may be useful for shorting or just getting out of the way of the next debacle.

2. At the bottom is a reasoned list of “dead man walking” financials which are poised to inconvenience depositors, bite bondholders, and wipe out shareholders.

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My Favorite Trading Books

What’s With All The Ads

You may have noticed – and I hope you did – that these blog pages carry advertising.   I’m fascinated with affiliate marketing programs and decided to experiment with a few select companies I know and use myself.  

To date, in each post where I’ve put a link to an advertiser, I have included a disclosure that says I’ll get commission on the sale.  Now that I think about it, it’s not such big a deal that they need to get called out in every post.  So I’m going to discontinue that, explain here how it works, and let this post be my blanket disclosure.  
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Web Site Building Software

Here is a high level survey of software platforms to build web sites, ranging from high price professional tools to their free open source counterparts.  This is not meant to be a comprehensive report – its a rundown of my recent experiences.  Continue reading

Blading Los Alamitos Creek Trail

I took a break today and got outdoors blading with a dear friend who is a master-rated figure skating coach.  We had a lovely time on the picturesque Los Alamitos Creek Trail, through Alamden Lake Park in San Jose, CA.  Blading is not for everyone but I highly recommend taking a look at this area in whatever way suits you.

What Are You Looking At?

Do you know, when you look at a web page, what you are really seeing? Do you wonder how this site got here?  I want to share what I’ve learned lately about making websites and give a roadmap for people who, like me, want to have their own sites for business and pleasure.   Continue reading

Grand Canyon Journal

 

Rafting the Grand Canyon
Rafting the Grand Canyon

Back in Sept 2004 I was lucky enough to raft the Colorado River in a private group of 16 people, including several world class river runners.  Shortly after, I began recording my experiences in an online journal.  Life got in the way and the journal remains a work in progress.  Today I moved it to the same web host as this blog.   As I make further updates to the journal I will post notices on this blog so that readers can get the benefit of the RSS feed.

Elegant Sheep Moth

Yesterday at Little Basin hiking with Sempervirens docents, we came across an interesting moth.   At the time, we didn’t know what it was.

Elegant Sheep Moth on Sempervirens Hike

Elegant Sheep Moth on Sempervirens Hike

Today docent Karen DeMello identified the moth.  She writes:

What a great day yesterday at Little Basin!  This morning I’ve been poking around the internet to find a photo of the moth that we saw yesterday.  If you scroll 1/3rd down this page, it’s in the middle and called “Elegant Sheep Moth”. 

See what I mean — these docents know their stuff and are dedicated to constantly building their knowledge!