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Four recent Stanford alumni—Andrew Ehrich ‘09,  Anne Kalt ‘07,  Emily Warren ‘08 and Michael Wilkerson ‘09—have earned the prestigious Marshall scholarship for study in England.

Ehrich and Warren are off to the London School of Economics and Political Science, Kalt will study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Wilkerson will attend Oxford University.

Stanford has the most Marshall Scholars this year of any academic institution.

For in-depth profiles of the four students, please see further coverage in The Stanford Report. For a complete list of winners, please visit the The Marshall Scholarship’s Web site.

Stock the pet lover’s stocking with a staple-free stapler in Doggie or Kitty, available at Think Geek. This fly stapler never needs refills. It cuts a tiny flap and notch in the paper, then folds the flap back into the notch.

Adopt one of a 100 species of wild animals in need of conservation help through the World Wildlife Fund.

With a donation of $50, the recipient will be sent a plush animal in the species adopted, plus a photo, adoption certificate and species info card. You may also choose to have the goods mailed to you, but hurry if you want to adopt for the holidays. Animals include snow leopard, arctic fox, panda, polar bear, seahorse, harbor seal and many more.

Bring back memories of the beach, or just celebrate a fish keeper with the Capiz shell votive holder from Chimp Feet. They’re made with shell, glass and metal.

Present the dog and cat person in your life with a playful designer card case from Uncommon Goods.

Are you choosing animal-themed gifts for the holidays?

(Snow leopard image via stock.xchng; Other images via retailers linked above.)

Post from: Blisstree

Stocking Stuffers for Pet Lovers

 

80% of companies beat expectations during the recent earnings season according to Citi Investment Research. This was higher than the 73% beating estimates in the second quarter of 2009, and 65% in the first.

 

Still, many skeptics say this performance isn't sustainable since much of the earnings strength came from corporate cost-cutting rather than actual growth in new business. As proof of this, note how operating margins didn't fall as much as they had during the early nineties:

Yet Citi's Tobias Levkovich makes an interesting point on the growth prospects for 2010.

Basically, while the margin boost from cost-cutting may be coming to and end, operating leverage could support margins over the next few quarters. Essentially, small additions to revenue flow disproportionately grow profit when you maintain the same fixed costs, since revenue increase but without a concurrent increase in costs. This is known as operating leverage. Thus as many companies remain highly cost-conscious, even a small growth in revenue could deliver decent earnings growth in 2010.

Citi: While deep employment cuts clearly helped sustain corporate operating margins during the downturn, a reluctance to add people quickly and a turn in industrial production should keep the profitability machine running over the next several quarters. If history is any guide, analysts will under-estimate the potential for incremental returns given management guidance on fixed overhead cost structures that miss some key factors such as S,G&A and R&D expense that do not change much at cyclical turning points.

The 2010 challenge though will be in terms of expectations. Beating expectations isn't getting any easier after the 80% beat rate we just had.

(Via Cit Investment Research, 'Meaningful Margin Madness', Tobias Levkovich, 4 December 2009)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Former Citi Chairman Says Geithner Looks Uptight And Needs To Relax
• Citi: The Market Is Back In Panic Mode
• Citi's New Chief Economist Thinks Citi Is Too Big

Homebrew coder ant512 has released a new version of Woopsi, a handy Nintendo DS GUI library for creating homebrew user interface based on AmigaOS windowing system. The latest release is another feature pack update and includes a

Since 2009 is getting close to the end, I am going to join the Group Writing Project organized by DailyBloggingTips.com to write this article about the top 10 new discoveries of cancer treatment in 2009.
 
I have gathered the cancer research news from Google and NCI. Below are some of the new findings of cancer treatment which I found really benefits to the world.
 

1. Brachytherapy – New Cancer Treatment without Surgery

On the 27^th of January 2009, U.T.’s Health Science Centre unveiled a new promising cancer treatment that revolutionized the way to treat cancerous tumors in patients’ lungs. This new finding is called Brachytherapy, a new cancer treatment without surgery.

After mild sedation, a catheter is inserted into patient’s throat and the lung near to the tumor. Radiation is released from a small seed at the end of the catheter and killed the tumor cells without killing the normal lung tissue. Therefore, the patient can still live normally after treatment. It only takes 3 to 4 minutes to undergo the Brachytherapy and the patient can leave the hospital a short time later without feeling sick.
 

2. Linac – Machine Boots Cancer Treatment

On 12^th of June 2009, a new machine called Linac that can speed up cancer treatment for cancer patients has been unveiled at Velindre Cancer Centre. This machine enables an extra 200 radiotherapy cancer treatments to be carried out every week. Linac generate high intensity of radiation beams to kill cancer cells effectively.
 

3. CD8+ Memory Stem Cells to Destroy Large Tumors

On 14^th of June 2009, the researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that a subset of immune cells, T lymphocytes called CD8+ memory stem cells, were capable of mediating strong anti-tumor immune response. These stem-like characteristics of CD8+ memory stem cells enable tiny numbers of T cells to stimulate the destruction of large melanoma tumors. The CD8+ memory stem cells have the enhanced ability to renew themselves, to proliferate, to differentiate and to kill tumor cells effectively.
 

4. α-CbT – Compound Inhibited Nicotine Receptors for Cancer Treatment

On 15^th of June 2009, the compound α-CbT was found to inhibit the expression of nicotine receptors and increased apoptosis. As we all know, changes in genes encoding nicotine receptors can drive the urge to smoke and increase susceptibility to lung cancer as well. Exposure to nicotine will boost the expression of nicotine receptors which inhibits the apoptosis. Therefore, this new cancer treatment that targeted nicotine receptors by using α-CbT can prevent the developing of lung cancer. The α-CbT did not affect the noncancerous cells.
 

5. microRNA – Help Identify and Cancer Treatment for Lung Cancer

On 7^th of October 2009, the scientists at National Cancer Institute (NCI) revealed that a small RNA molecule, known as microRNA, can help to identify liver cancer and respond well to cancer treatment with a biological agent called interferon. The researchers showed that miR-26 (microRNA) status in tumors may be useful indicator both to determine prognosis for patients with hematocelular carcinoma (HCC) and to inform the selection of patients who might benefit from treatment with interferon to prevent disease relapse.
 

6. Suicide Gene – Induce Apoptosis on Tumor cells

On 9^th of October 2009, A group of researchers from National Cancer Institute (NCI) have used the suicide genes that cause a cell to kill itself through apoptosis to treat cancer. This new technique used the surviving gene promoter to induce the expression of suicide gene in cancer cells with a minimum effect on normal cells. When the survivin promoter-driven mutant bax was injected in to tumors of mice, the gene induced 60% of cancer cells in tumor tissue to undergo apoptosis. This slowed tumor growth significantly.
 

7. Reduce Radiation Damage by Blocking the Expression of CD47

On 21^st of October 2009, the researchers at National Cancer Institute (NCI) once again showed their contribution to the cancer research by developing a method that protects healthy tissues from damaging effects of radiation cancer treatment. Previous cancer research showed that mice lacking CD47 are resistant to radiation damage. Therefore, the researchers injected an agent that suppressed the CD47 expression during the radiation. They proved that this can protect the normal cells from damage by radiation.
 

8. Nicotine Patch and Nicotine Lozenge Works Best for Smoking Cessation

On 2^nd of November 2009, the researchers from National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed that the combination of nicotine patch and nicotine lozenge provided the great benefit for smokers to quit smoking effectively.
 

9. PDF – Mushroom Extract that Shrink Tumors Effectively

On 1^st of December 2009, Dr. Brandon Louie and colleagues from Department of Urology at New York Medical College showed that a combination of interferon alpha (immunotherapy for bladder cancer) and PDF (mushroom extract) can reduce bladder cancer cell growth. However, it is too soon to claim that the PDF are a cure for cancer as the study provides no evidence that the mushrooms extract have health benefits in humans. Anyway, I still feel that this study has the further research value for cancer treatment in future.
 

10. Lunasin – Fighting Leukemia and Blocking Inflammation

On 2^nd of December 2009, Elvira de Mejia, a professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition from University of Illinois claimed that lunasin, a soy peptide may have important benefits that fighting leukemia and blocking the inflammation that accompanies such chronic health conditions as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Lunasin is a soy peptide often discarded in the waste streams of soy-processing plants.
 
In conclusion, the cancer research on cancer treatment is still has a long way to go. The cancer research will continue to carry out to provide the greatest benefits to the world.
 

Do you know any new discovery of cancer treatment in 2009 that I do not mentioned above? Please leave your comment to provide us a great resource of information.

Top 10 Discoveries of Cancer Treatment in 2009 is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• November 19, 2009 — Apoptosis | Type 1 Programmed Cell Death Pathway (0)
• November 26, 2009 — Smoking Cessation Intervention to Quit Smoking Effectively (6)
• November 25, 2009 — 15 Benefits of Smoking Cessation (6)
• November 23, 2009 — Apoptosis and Lung Cancer (0)

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups apple juice
• 1lb / 450 g box of rasians
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1 t allspice
• 1 1/2 t cloves
• 3 T veg. oil
• 2 t baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups flour
  

METHOD:
Boil all the ingredients except the last 2 (baking soda and flour) for 5 minutes. Let the mix cool to room temperature.

Then mix the baking soda with 1 teaspoon of water and stir into the mix. Immediately add the flour and mix it well. Then bake for
1/2 hour to 45 minutes at 350F/180C. When it cools to eating temperature you will have a delicious cake.

If you’ve got your holiday gifts gathered up it’s time to get wrapping. You can wrap beautiful and green by doing the following…

Use amazing wrap that doubles as a gift or that doubles as a reusable wrap option. For example, ChicoBags, shown above make lovely wrap AND then your gift recipient will have an awesome reusable bag to use for groceries! See how to wrap a gift in a ChicoBag. You can also use reusable food containers, baskets, and more. See below for other reusable gift wrap options.

1. Modern Twist hide boxes
2. Furoshiki Silk Wrap
3. Gel-Cool Bento Box, Polar Bear
4. Bobo Wrapping Scarf – many colors available.
5. Lucky Crow Reusable Gift Bags, Organic Print, Crop Circles
6. Lucky Crow Reusable Gift Bags, Sock Monkey
7. Driftwood Basket
8. To-Go Ware – 2-Tier Stainless Steel Food Carrier

Use last year’s wrap or buy recycled wrapping paper.

Use the comics, recycled magazine pages, old construction paper your kids drew on and so on instead of new paper.

Top gifts off with cool DIY  gift bows made with recycled magazines. You can also use pine cones, leaves, evergreen branches, or other found nature items instead of paper bows. Or look for natural yarn or organic ribbon.

Make recycled paper gift tags, write directly on the gift with a non-leak-through pen, or get some plantable paper gift tags.

Don’t forget, no matter what wrap you use, reuse it or recycle it after the holidays.

Post from: Blisstree

Wrap a greener gift

“He’s always so upbeat.  Such a happy kid,” one of my grandson’s high school teachers remarked to me.

This made me realize that we are building attitudes at home.  It’s too easy to be grumpy at home, to air our gripes and disappointments rather than looking for the sunshine.  In our multigenerational home, with its many personalities, it’s sometimes difficult for all of us to be upbeat all the time.

However, it’s up to us adults to set the tone of the home and help youngsters build their attitudes…hopefully positive and problem solving ones.

• Do the youngsters in your home see you as an overcomer or as someone who lets life get you down?
• Do you find solutions to challenges or simply sit down and worry?
• Do you want your children to follow your example?

What do you do to affect your children’s attitudes in the home and in life?

Post from: Blisstree

Attitude Building With Children

This week I am in New York, and have a whirlwind of meetings (and I admit, a lot of fun on the side) and not much time to write.

I have been saving today’s letter for a month or so, for a time such as this. Damien Hoffman of the Wall Street Cheat Sheet interviewed me and posted the transcript on his web site. I thought it was one of the better interviews I have done recently, and so it is this week’s Thoughts from the Frontline. In addition to the wide-ranging economic questions, he asks for my thoughts on how one becomes an investment writer. I often demur when asked that question (what do I know?), but did my best to answer this time. I think you will enjoy the letter. (By the way, he does a lot of interesting interviews, which he posts for free on his web site at www.wallstcheatsheet.com.)

Unemployment Positives

This morning’s unemployment number, though still down by 11,000, is the best we have seen in a very long time. The birth/death ratio only added 30,000 jobs, and previous months were revised upwards. Given that the ADP employment number on Wednesday was so high, and the service ISM was not good, this comes as a very pleasant and positive surprise. Is this a trend, or something seasonal because the main driver was temporary jobs? We will see in a few months. Let’s hope we see a real turnaround soon.

A Conversation with John

With Damien Hoffman

John Mauldin coined the incredibly popular phrase, “Muddle Through Economy.” If the next few years continue to drag along as we rebuild from the greatest credit bubble in history, then John’s term may become the catch phrase used by every financial journalist and economist in the land.

John is a passionate traveler with business partners all over the world. He also puts out a free newsletter to over one million people worldwide. This reach of friends and travels give John an excellent macro view of the world economy. Further, his multidisciplinary interests offer some unique insights into economics and human behavior.

I had a chance to catch up with John and talk about his experiences as an economist, his perspective on which countries will grow the fastest in the coming decades, how he sees demographics affecting the world, and a bonus question from one of our 1400 Twitter followers …

Damien Hoffman: John, was economics part of your schooling or a passion of yours right from the start?

John: I had a triple major in college, one of them being economics and history. So I’ve always been fascinated by history, economics, and finance. The markets are a big puzzle to me and I’m a puzzle addict. So it feeds my addiction. I started reading the Austrian economists first, in the early ’80s as I entered the investment world. That was my real introduction to economics. Over time, if you stay around long enough and read enough, you can pick up all the other schools of thought, like I did.

Damien: Based on some of your newsletters, I can see you are also interested in anthropology via the studies of the generations. These are major themes for investors to trade, because they’re based on slow-moving macro phenomena. Can you share what interests you about this particular framework?

John: That’s a good question and a difficult one. This topic covers a book I’m trying to write. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get it done, but it’s called The Millennium Wave. It’s about what the world is going to look like in twenty years. My basic thesis is, we’re going to see a pace of change that far exceeds anything human beings have experienced since the dawn of man. Furthermore, in terms of technology, that change is going to accelerate. We’re going to have multiple waves of technological change. It would be as if electricity, the steam engine, and the automobile all showed up at the same time. Boom!

We’re going to see massive technological revolutions. However, as human beings, our psychology was developed on African savannas, dodging lions and chasing antelopes. So we have a much slower rhythm to us. We’re not paced for change. Therefore, we’re going to have a backdrop of slow-moving generational changes.

Demographic changes are predictable: we know how many people are going to be here in forty years because they’re already born. We know how many forty-year-olds we’ll have in forty years because they’re already born. So, we can see these changes coming at us.

If you’re Japan, you’re walking into a demographic nightmare. Russia is a demographic train wreck. And it’s not going to be but a few decades, in the grand scheme of things, until Iran will have more people than Russia. That’s got to be fit into your equations. You’ve got to look at these large, broad changes that are happening.

In the US, we’re going to be running into the freight train of Medicare and Social Security. There’s just not any way to get around it. We’re going to have to make tough generational decisions about how to handle that. And how we handle it is going to have enormous implications for our economy. If we handle it the way it’s likely to be handled – which is by raising taxes – then we have said we’re making a decision, conscious or not, that we’re going to become Europe. That means high residual unemployment and difficult, slower growth of individual opportunities.

There are other large changes when you talk about the demographic issues. Europe would have to take massive numbers of immigrants in order to support their system. They’re just not prepared for that. Neither is Japan. The US is blessed with a world population that wants to come here and are not very culturally different from us – especially the Hispanic populations. We’re going to need those immigrants. I think that one of the most economically suicidal things we’re doing today is trying to figure out how to close the borders. We need to be doing the opposite. We need to figure out how to open the borders. It needs to be a more rational policy than we have now. Again, you have to put those things into the financial equations.

We also have the fast-moving things such as the growth of biotech and the complete retooling of our telecommunications network over the next ten years. The way we communicate with each other and the way we receive information is also going to be significantly different in the next ten years. There will still be human beings talking, but how we sort through and assess information is going to be different. There are going to be winners and losers in that competition.

I do a lot of biotech research to determine where it’s going. For instance, you could construct an investment play where you are long life insurance companies and short annuity insurance companies, because we’re going to live much longer than any of the actuaries would tell us. That means life insurance companies aren’t going to have to pay, while annuity companies are going to have to pay longer. That trade is probably not ready to happen yet. But when the perception kicks in, that’s going to be a very good trade.

The new medical devices and therapies that are coming along are going to be transformational. I think about what kind of impact that will have on societies and generations – what John Howe and Richard Strauss call “the Fourth Turning,” which we’re in the middle of. All of these things have an impact on the way I think.

Damien: Keeping on a similar topic but shifting over into a different part of the logic tree, let’s talk about one of your passions: traveling. You kind of touched on which markets have a lot of trouble, but which markets will out-perform in the next decade?

John: If I’m picking regions, I would be an emerging market fan over the developed world, simply because the developed world, especially old Europe, is going to be running into such major underfunding problems in their pensions and healthcare. That’s going to put constraints on them and on their growth. Developing countries don’t have that problem. I’m not as much a China fan as an India fan. I like Brazil. I like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I know that Australia wouldn’t be an emerging market, but they sell the resources and the tools to the emerging markets.

Damien: Is there a specific reason why you prefer India over China? If you were going to have a conversation with Jim Rogers, who favors China, what would you say to him?

John: We’ve had a lot of conversations over time, but not that one. I think India is eventually going to get its act together. I think there’s more upside there. I think China is still trying to absorb 24 million new people into their markets annually. They’ve got major demographic issues. I’m talking about the next two decades. China may still be better than India in ten years, but I think India is the favorite over time, because they have natural resources, smart people, and better technology. But who knows. Governments can always alter the course by doing stupid things.

Damien: That’s inevitable.

John: Exactly. Government is the wild card. For example, Japan just elected a very left-of-center government. One that’s far more left of center than Obama. If interest rates were to rise by 1%, it would cut into their budgets by at least 25% or 30%. I think Japan is going to be a basket case ten years from now.

Damien: That’s interesting, because one of your letters sparked a conversation with my friend Andy Glatstein about the life cycle of empires. Thinking about the Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula, the British Empire, and the US after WWII, it seems our predecessors in the Western line of empires have a life-cycle. It started with entrepreneurism and ambition, exploring and conquering, then reached some sort of stability point that included a decent standard of living for the masses. However, ultimately the economy sort tripped over itself and all these former empires had major issues. If today you look at Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Britain, they’ve all moved in a similar direction. Is this the fate of the US?

John: We’re in the process of having that debate as we speak. It’s not clear how we’re going to answer that. We’re going to have to raise taxes when we hit the Medicare crisis in the next decade. No question about it. If we use that tax increase now, it will be hard to cut later. If we save the tax increases and hold our spending down, then we’ll be able to handle the Medicare crisis. It’s not clear which of two directions we’re going to take right now. We’re probably going to raise taxes and kick the ball down the road. It will have some very serious consequences in the middle of the next decade. We will probably be forced to implement a VAT tax, which is one more way to slow things down.

Damien: Switching topics, can you explain why Wall Street economists tend to be permabulls or permabears?

John: Mostly because their job descriptions create agendas. There are very few like David Rosenberg who feel they have the independence they need. Also, a lot of them are traditionally trained. So, they’re trained to create tools, and they think economics is a science. It’s not. It’s an art. And quite frankly, when you treat it as an art form you have a better chance of getting the numbers right.

Damien: Can you explain what you mean by that?

John: All of the economic models are created on past performance. For instance, right now the economic idea du jour is what the recovery will look like. So, economists go back and average the eight post-war recessions and say, “Look, this is what the average was and this is how it responded.” Well, making a prediction based on that only works as well as the underlying fundamentals of the recession.

This is a deleveraging, deflationary, asset-bubble-bursting recession. We’re going to lose 8-10 million jobs. We’re back to where we were in early 2000 in terms of jobs. Over the next five years, just to keep up with population growth, we must create another nine million jobs. Plus, we’ve got another almost five million people who are underemployed. And the Census Bureau took 450,000 people off this year because they said, “They’re no longer looking for jobs, and since they’re not looking for jobs they’re not unemployed.” That is a fascinating way of looking at it! Last month you were looking for a job and now you’re so discouraged you’re not looking for a job, so we’re not going to count you as unemployed. That’s a patently silly idea!

Damien: That’s absurd.

John: Right, it is absurd. Over the next five years we’re going to have to create something like 17-20 million jobs to get back to 4-5% unemployment. That’s a staggering number of jobs. That’s something like a 15% growth in the number of jobs over five years. You’d need real GDP growth of 15% to make that happen. What is the likelihood of total real GDP growth of 15% for the next five years?

Damien: Less than 0%. [Laughing]

John: I think we’re going to be lucky to have GDP growth of 8-10%. So there’s going to be a real shortfall with jobs. Unemployment is going to stay stubbornly high for the next five years unless something comes out of the clear blue – which is always possible. Somebody could invent a new energy source or we could start retooling our telecom systems – something like that.

Damien: Are those the technological catalysts that will bring us the next economic expansion?

John: Yes. Remember, in the late 1970s we were in an economic malaise. The Japanese were kicking our butts, inflation was high, and the market was in the doldrums. It was not a fun time. Yet the correct answer to the question “Where are the new jobs going to come from” was: I don’t know, but they will. Because that’s what happens in free-market societies. That’s why I’m an optimist. Even looking at all the data and all the problems, I’m saying that 130 million families will figure out what to do to make their lives better. Some of them will sit around and wait for the government to do it, but a lot of people will do it themselves. It’s like the two vultures sitting on the cactus, and one of them looks at the other and says, “Patience? Hell, let’s go kill something.”

Damien: As my regular readers know, that relates to one of my favorite quotes: “Desperation is the mother of ingenuity.”

John: Precisely. Most people will go out and try to figure out something to do. That’s just what we do as a country. It’s part of our particular genius. We’re going to be helped along by some major technological and scientific breakthroughs. I’m an optimist in that regard.

Damien: John, sometimes there are so many variables to think about and so much information it can lead to paralysis by analysis or even worse. Where do you draw the line while informing your investment decisions, when markets diverge from economic reality?

John: You’ve gotta look at why markets are diverging from economic reality. You have to ask yourself, “Do I need to reassess?” You must constantly question yourself and sift through the data.

Right now we’re at a place I call the Statistical Recovery. We’re going to see a recovery in the math, but it’s not going to feel like one in the real world. It’s probably going to be the middle of next year before we see job growth and reduced unemployment. If we’re not seeing job growth, if we’re not seeing income growth, if we’re not seeing a drop-off in foreclosures, if we’re not seeing a rise in consumer credit and consumer confidence, if we’re not seeing a lot of things of that nature, it won’t feel like a recovery.

Economists can say, “Look at these numbers! The numbers are good!” But in the real world you may say, “I’m still not getting the hours I want. I haven’t seen a revival of people coming into my store. Sales are still down 10%.” If that’s the case, then it doesn’t feel like a recovery.

That’s where I think we’re going to be. But that’s part of the process of going to the New Normal. We’re having to rationalize our entire economy, our world economy, which was built around ever-increasing amounts of leverage. And that leverage bubble has burst. The genie is not going back into the bottle. The psyche of the American consumer has been permanently scarred. And we’re going to get to a new level of economic activity that’s going to assume 7%, 8%, or 9% savings. We will see less credit. We’re watching unprecedented amounts of credit-card debt being paid off. That’s never happened in America. That’s positively un-American. Yet, we are. Because what happens? People are saying, “Maybe this leverage and debt thing is not so good. Let’s get more conservative.” It’s the new frugal.

All we did with this “Cash for Clunkers” thing was move cars forward that would have been bought later. You’re not increasing sales down the road. Yeah, you’re taking cars off the road and spare parts and stuff, but I think it’s kind of a silly investment in dollars. But, what’s $3 billion when we’re wasting a trillion here and a trillion there? Still, it’s disappointing.

Damien: Speaking of disappointment, I’m in my early thirties, and when I think about these trillions of dollars being thrown around I say, “I’ve been out of college a decade. We’ve had two bubbles and two collapses. It’s been a completely volatile employment and investment market. A completely volatile social environment. And, to top it all off, we’re kicked in the butt with all of this debt.” My peers look ahead and see our parents getting older and the cost to society. What do you say to our generation? Will we be the forgotten generation which toils our way through it and pays for the problems created before us, to repave the road for those behind us?

John: I tell you, I’m sorry. That’s what you’re going to have to do. You’re going to have to move the ball forward with an extra twenty pounds on your back. That’s just the way life is. I don’t think it’s only your generation in your thirties. I think it’s my kids in their twenties who are going to be dealing with it as well.

We’ve made some generationally bad choices, with unintended consequences. And now we’re going to have to deal with them. It just makes moving forward in the economic environment tougher. You play the hand that’s dealt to you.

You can’t wish, “I would have been better with 35% taxes.” I know that my tax bracket is going to go into the mid-40s at a minimum. Would I be happier and have more money to invest if I had a tax bracket in the mid-30s? Yeah. But that’s just not the hand that was dealt. So, I have to figure out how to move forward with my taxes. When they add the VAT tax in the middle of the next decade, my effective taxes will run into the 55%-60% range. That’s just the way it is. I can either crawl into some hole or go to another country, or just move on and make the best of the hand I’ve been dealt. I choose the latter.

Damien: John, we chose a question from one of our 1400 Twitter followers: Can you be very successful and still live a fulfilling family life without being obsessed with work?

John: I’m partly obsessed with work. But you have to take time for family. You can’t ignore it. It’s easier for me now; I’ve only got one left at home.

The most fulfilling part of my life is my seven kids. We adopted five, so it’s a colorful family. We all get along. It’s the one great pleasure of my life — the best pleasure of my life: my kids, and now grandkids.

Damien: What advice do you have for your grandkids if one day they read this and aspire to follow in your footsteps?

John: That’s a tough question, because I took the Yogi Berra path of career guidance: you come to the fork in the road and you take it. I am as surprised to be where I am today as anybody. I have partners around the world that take the leads we get and do sales and research on funds. Besides writing and trying to figure out the world of economics, my real job is to make sure I have the best partners, who are in the right spot to help readers find the appropriate investment ideas for them. That is not as easy as it sounds, because the majority of potential partners are either traditional money managers (which I am not) or have constraints because of their situation.

People ask me what I’d do if I retired. I’d read, write, travel, speak, and enjoy myself – that’s what I’m doing now! So, I don’t know if retirement is in my path. But for a young person starting now, looking at what I do, I’d say the first thing you have to do is start writing. It’s a craft. I didn’t start out writing top-quality work. When I look back on letters I wrote early on, I think, “My goodness that’s sloppy.” I’ve improved over time, over the decades.

One of the people who helped me learn how to write was my first publisher. I tried to copy his writing style. He had a particularly friendly, easy-to-understand writing style. I’ve long since developed my own style, but I am still grounded in that foundation. I tell people, “If you want to be a writer, find a writer you like and try to imitate him.” I have a certain style, a certain voice when I write. It’s not better than anybody else’s. Sometimes I go back and think, “I don’t particularly like that.” But it’s my voice and I’m comfortable with it.

Second, don’t be too hung up on knowing everything or thinking that you’ve got to have it all figured out. You won’t. You’ll never figure it all out. Economics is an art form. The goal is to kind of be in the middle of the lane and not end up in the ditch somewhere. Don’t think you’re going to be there by the time you’re 30 or 35. It takes time to reason, read, and mature.

Third, early in your career you should be reading more books and analyzing less data. Information is less important than theory and a grasp of the basics. You need to understand what the difference is between John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher and von Mises. If you don’t understand what they’re writing, if you can’t get your head around their concepts, data isn’t going to help you.

So, you’ve got to have a handle on how the big stuff works and what the theories are. But none of the theories have independently proven to be particularly adept at describing the problems we have. So, you’ve got to figure out how to blend them and weave them.

If you cling to one perspective, you are going to run into a wall. And you’re going to run into a wall at one of the most embarrassing times. It can be a career-ending event. I’ve been wrong. It’s easy to go back through my letters and say, “John, what were you thinking?” But on average, I’ve been more right than wrong. I often joke that I am often wrong, but seldom in doubt. But I never get married to a position. I constantly test my views. Constantly. It’s important to get the big things right and understand the big picture while not focusing too much on the little details.

Damien: John, thanks for that advice and thanks for indulging my curiosities this afternoon.

John: My pleasure. You asked some very interesting questions.

New York, London, Monaco, and Zurich

Today was a great (and going to be a long) day. I started off with a couple of interviews on Yahoo Tech Ticker with Henry Blodgett, had a few meetings, and then went to Henry Blodget’s office at Business Insider, where we did three more quick (and different) interviews. He is doing something quite intriguing. I walked in, and there were a dozen 20- and 30-something kids working intently at screens, crammed into a room not as big as my bedroom. In less than two years, he is getting two million unique visitors to come to his web site each month.

It made me feel like such an old lion. Tiffani and I have been giving a lot of thought as to how we should manage the business over the next two years. How do we adapt to a world that is changing so fast?

Zip to two million in two years? Interestingly, as we talked business at a long lunch, I wondered if I should write more, as there are so many blogs that hit us each day, and the number seems to be growing. He disagreed. He emphasized that I should not change my model. “You are the one guy I read each week who is above the fray. You see through the day-to-day noise. You come and tell me what was important and make me think. For you, less is more. Don’t change.” Maybe the old lion still has some teeth.

And speaking of old lions, I later visited with Art Cashin and the Friday evening gathering of the Friends of Fermentation, at Bobby Vann’s across from the exchange, at the close of the trading day. What a pleasure. Art is one of the world’s great market savants, full of wisdom and the greatest stories, and a true friend. There is never enough time to spend with him.

And when I hit the send button, I will go to Festivus with Todd Harrison and the crowd from Minyanville. That is always a great party and a worthy cause. Tomorrow night we see Gods of Carnage with Barry and Toni Habib, and then back on Sunday. And then home until the middle of January, when I go to London, Monaco, and Zurich.

But the most important news is that yesterday the doctor told Tiffani she may be getting ready to have my new granddaughter a little early. It is going to be a great Christmas.

Have a great week, and remember to make sure you have some fun on the way. And spend more times with friends. That is the best dividends you will ever get.

Your having fun in New York analyst,

John Mauldin
[email protected]

John Mauldin: We’re Still Heading For A Double-Dip Recession:
http://www.businessinsider.com/business-news/dec-04-mauldin1-2009-12

And here’s the Yahoo link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/384610/Beware-%22Nosebleed%22-Valuations-Plenty-Ways-to-Make-Money-Beyond-Stocks-Says-John-Mauldin?tickers=spy,dia,^dji,^gspc,vpu

Copyright 2009 John Mauldin. All Rights Reserved

John Mauldin, Best-Selling author and recognized financial expert, is also editor of the free Thoughts From the Frontline that goes to over 1 million readers each week. For more information on John or his FREE weekly economic letter go to: http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/learnmore

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• John Mauldin: We’re Still Heading For A Double-Dip Recession

Filed under: Europe, Marketing/Advertising, Videos

According to one of the YouTube commenters for the STR8 Challenger cologne commercial embedded after the jump, it was made for Polish television. Which , of course, makes perfect sense, since the whole thing’s in English. Regardless, the ad features Captain Generic Macho driving a Chevy Camaro, which gradually transforms into a giant robot tsunami of cologne that deposits him into the arms of Random Desert Babe. Frankly, “STR8 Challenger” sounds a lot more more like a certain Mopar than some quasi pheromone for European dudes. Check out the video after the jump to see how you too can have it “STR8 My Way.” Or, at least, smell like you do. Or something. Hat tip to our man in Poland, Rafal!

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading VIDEO: STR8 Weird: Euro cologne TV spot sounds like Mopar, looks like Chevy, but mostly stinks

VIDEO: STR8 Weird: Euro cologne TV spot sounds like Mopar, looks like Chevy, but mostly stinks originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The No. 1 Stanford women’s soccer team is moving on to its first ever national final after defeating conference rival UCLA, 2-1, in extra time of the semifinals Friday in College Station, Texas.

The match was a back and forth battle between two very evenly matched teams, and in the end it took more than 90 minutes to separate them, with a Lauren Cheney strike canceling out Stanford’s opener through Kelley O’Hara. However, junior Christen Press scored the golden goal three minutes into extra time to put the Cardinal in the final.

On a cold night in Texas, the game was slow to heat up, with the Pac-10 foes feeling each other out at the start. About ten minutes in both teams began to carve out some chances, with Stanford (25-0-0) getting more opportunities—mainly through the bursting runs of Press down the left. Yet the end product was just not there for either team.

The half’s best chance fell to UCLA’s Kristina Larsen in the 26th minute. After receiving the ball in the midfield around 30 yards from goal, Larsen made a smart turn on Stanford midfielder Hillary Heath and unleashed a rocket from long range. Stanford goalkeeper Kira Maker did very well to make a flying stop.

Stanford would get a few more chances, but the rest of the first half saw Cheney—an Olympic gold medalist with the US team last year—begin to exert her influence, creating four good chances for herself in the half’s final ten minutes. With good pressure from the Cardinal defense, however, she was not able to convert, and the game remained goalless going into halftime.

Once again, both teams took a while to get going after the restart, but the Bruins came close in the 56th minute. UCLA midfielder Kylie Wright headed a corner kick towards goal, but Cheney—stationed in front of the net—put the ball wide as she went for a redirection with her head.

O’Hara had two good chances in the 58th minute—one where she snapped a shot right at Bruins keeper Chante’ Sandiford and then choosing to cross instead of shoot after she had touched the ball past an on-rushing Sandiford outside the box—but UCLA was putting on more pressure. In the 60th minute, Bruins freshman Chelsea Cline dragged a shot wide after Maker was out of position to punch out a free kick, and two minutes later UCLA’s Lauren Barnes struck the post on a free kick.

The first goal would arrive two minutes later, but would be at the other end of the pitch, when O’Hara made something out of nothing. The senior collected a pass with her back to goal outside the box and feinted back to the middle of the field, only to turn around and go to her right, away from goal. Still, she blasted a flawless shot that sailed over Sandiford and into the net. O’Hara has been known to score incredible goals, but this one was stunning.

Still, the match was far from over, and UCLA began to push forward in search of an equalizer- when it arrived in the 76th minute, it was no surprise that it came from Cheney. Off of a throw-in, the US international—near the top of the box—made a quick turn to her right and curled a high shot that tailed inches away from Maker and into the net. It was eerily similar to the goal O’Hara, who will soon be her international teammate, had scored 12 minutes earlier.

It was the first time Stanford had relinquished a lead all year, but the Cardinal was determined to get it back. Freshman midfielder Mariah Nogueira headed a long free kick by Heath towards the corner of the goal in the 85^th minute, but Sandiford made a great save to keep it out with O’Hara lurking for a rebound.

With just three minutes left, the Card received a scare when a miscommunication between Maker and center back Alicia Jenkins allowed UCLA forward Sydney Leroux to burst between them and get off a shot. Fortunately for Stanford, it sailed over the crossbar.

Still, there was more drama before overtime. With 42 seconds left, Stanford forward Lindsay Taylor received a pass from O’Hara on the left and got the ball onto her favored right foot, but the sophomore curled her shot inches wide. Stanford won the resulting goal kick, and O’Hara raced onto it and touched it over Sandiford, who had charged out of her box. However, with Bruin defender Lauren Wilmoth chasing back to apply pressure, O’Hara saw her volley from the right side of the box go agonizingly off the outside of the post. The national semifinal was heading to a golden goal overtime.

It was not the first time the Card had been in overtime this year, having beaten Washington State 2-1 in the 95th minute back in October, and it was Press—who tied the WSU match in the 87th minute that day—who would provide the moment of magic this time. Three minutes into the overtime a long ball was cleared by the UCLA back line, but only as far as the junior. Her first touch was not great, pushing the ball forwards out of her range, but Press ran onto it and smashed a low shot into far corner of the goal from about 25 yards. It was a goal worthy of winning such an epic encounter.

The Cardinal now tries to complete its perfect season and win its first ever national championship on Sunday against North Carolina. The match will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

There has been 30 years of the UN women’s rights treaty, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Many indicators suggest that immense progress has been made, with the treaty even being described as one of the most successful human rights treaties ever. Nonetheless, numerous challenges remain around the world.

At the same time, it is increasingly accepted that women (especially in poorer countries) are going to be more vulnerable to climate change impacts. This can be for a number of reasons, including poverty, inequality and deprivation.

Fighting for women’s rights and gender equality is therefore seen as crucial from a number of perspectives.

This update includes a few notes on additional progress seen around the world due to the CEDAW treaty as well as information and a couple of videos on how climate change already impacts women in similar ways in places far apart as Bolivia and Vietnam.

Read full article: Women’s Rights

Key West, Florida | Subterranean Sites

Bringing a whole new meaning to the concept of “air guitar,” divers and musicians flock to the Florida Keys every year for a subaquatic sound experience aptly called the “Underwater Music Festival.” Bill Becker, founder, coordinator and music director of UMF, started the underwater music concerts as a way to raise awareness for coral preservation.

For the past 25 years, hundreds of divers and snorkelers have come together for the festival at Looe Key Reef, part of the only living coral barrier reef in North America. Here, a pre-selected radio playlist is streamed live from underwater speakers, while musician-divers and mermaids play whimsical instruments created by local artist, August Powers. In past years, instruments have included the “trom-bonefish,” “sea-phan flute” and a “Fluke-a-Lele.”

Becker selects all the ocean-themed songs, such as the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus Garden,” and even insists that the fish like to dance to Jimmy Buffett’s “Fins.” The audience, of course, enjoys the tunes from underwater as well; since sound travels 4.3 times faster in water than in air, the sonic experience has been described as particularly ethereal. For those who prefer the slower, standard fare, the playlist is also broadcast live on the local radio station, WWUS 104.1 FM.

Past festival themes have included 2008’s “EEL-ection Antics” festival, in which special guests “Barackuda Obama,” “Hillary Clin-Tuna” and “John McClam” fought for votes, and 2009’s Yellow Submarine event, which featured reef rockstars, “Paul McCarpney” and “Ringo Starfish.”

Pennsylvania, US | Museums and Collections

The front window of this museum boasts “Clean Air Started Here”; well, that was only after this sleepy mill town on the Monongahela River experienced some very, very dirty air. Founded in 1901, Donora was a mill town, and in 1948, two large plants dominated the town – the US Steel-owned Donora Zinc Works, once the largest such plant in the world, and the American Steel & Wire plant.

On October 26, 1948, a dense haze blanketed the town – this was a common occurrence, but unlike previous episodes, this fog failed to blow away. A temperature inversion in the valley trapped the noxious emission from the two plants in the town, and soon people began to fall ill. Finally, the plants were shut down on October 31, just hours before a rainstorm helped clear out the smog. All told, roughly half the town’s population of 14,000 people had become sick and 20 people were dead from the smog. Fifty more people died soon after the smog lifted, and an untold number had their lives severely shortened by the episode.

The plants never admitted responsibility for the deaths, calling the smog the result of a “freak weather condition.” They paid out some small settlements to victims, and both plants remained open until 1966. Though this was not the first such episode of deadly industrial smog in the world, it did raise national awareness to the problems of air pollution, thus giving the museum its slogan.

In addition to accounts and artifacts from the 1948 disaster, inside the museum you can also see aerial photographs from the 1940’s showing vast swaths of land downwind from the zinc plant utterly denuded from pollution. You can also hear the story of the young World War I veteran who returned home to work in the steel mill only to be encased in molten metal in an industrial accident; legend has it that during World War II, his accidental sarcophagus was dug up and the metal (as well as the body inside) was melted down and used to make artillery shells.

Despite its terrible air quality, Donora has a proud sporting history, producing such baseball stars as St. Louis Cardinal shortstop and Hall of Famer Stan Musial and both Ken Griffey, Jr. and Sr. Many bits of sports memorabilia, as well as other artifacts from the town’s history, are on display in this museum. The museum opened in October 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the smog.