[simpleaffiliate source="chitika" results="0"][/simpleaffiliate] How do you alphabetize a list of words, say book titles, when some of them are two or more words?
For example:
Braindead Brain Damage from Car Wrecks Brains for Dummies
It may sound silly, but I keep getting stuck on this detail. Do you go by just the first word, or do you treat the first and second words as though one word?
In other words, would it be the way I originally typed it or:
Brain Damage from Car Wrecks Braindead Brains for Dummies
There are two acceptable ways to alphabetize: letter by letter or word by word.
Letter by letter is the most common. In that case, regardless of the length of the words or where they break, your list follows each letter:
Brain Damage from Car Wrecks (BRAINDA) Braindead (BRAINDE) Brains for Dummies (BRAINS)
If you alphabetize word by word, then you'll alphabetize only to the end of the first word. All 3 of your titles start with "Brain," but one of them is "Brain" all by itself, ending short. That comes first. Next, compare "Brains" and "Braindead." D comes before S, so the order is:
Brain Damage (BRAIN _) Braindead (BRAIND) Brains for Dummies (BRAINS)
How to Add New Contacts to Your Blackberry Address Book For Dummies
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I know there is some old saying to do with the first half of your life you are looked after by your parents and the second half you your life you look after your parents. Well I’ve been looking after my mother my whole life especially on occasions when my father isn’t around and she goes into complete competency melt down. The first time my dad went on a business trip abroad, she managed (and don’t ask me how) to put her hand in the bottom of the lawn mower whilst it was still running. I can still see, and will forever have imprinted in to my brain the moment when she shoved her hand in a sink full of water which instantaneously turned a deep shade of red, a bit like in the movie ‘Jaws’. Duggan women aren’t of a strong stomached nature and on my mother passing out, my sister ran out of the room with the good intension of phoning a family friend from down the road for help, only to pass out on the way due to “sight of blood”. So you are left with nine year old Alice running between relations with wet towels and sugar water trying to revive both. Needless to say I was rewarded on my Dad’s return from Hong Kong with a big bag of Haribo for being ‘daddy’s brave little girl’ and my mother was never allowed to mow the lawn again.
So this gives you an idea of the mental status of Mrs Duggan when embarking on a journey in to the depths of the Caribbean with her least responsible daughter, without the only man in the world that can salvage any situation no mater how dire. I’d like to say I was sympathetic towards this but in honesty if I see weakness in some one I kinda play on it? “You’ve got the passports right?”, “Flight IS from Gatwick not Heathrow right?” etc.. Cruel really, but highly amusing. Anyhow the joke was on me on arriving at Gatwick at 4.30am to find that our 07.55am flight to Havana with Cubana airways was not anywhere to be seen on the board, and after half an hour frantic running around to discover that the plane on which we were meant to be flying on (that was meant to arrive in the UK at 6.20am from Havana) had not even left Cuba yet. Another half an hour later it was revealed that the plane was faulty and another plane was being shipped in from Madrid and due to leave at 2.30pm. Marvellous. Anybody got any great suggestions how to spend 9 hours in Gatwick airport departures? No me either. Reading maybe – well I cleverly packed all my nice easy going books in my main luggage and was carrying only Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, trying to embrace the whole Cuba thing, which is not the easiest read to pass time, believe me. So giving in I bought a puzzler, plugged my ipod in and watched the weird and wonderful existence of the airport departure lounge inhabitant (and it is no wonder they make so many tv shows about them!)
Well the plane didn’t go at 2.30, it went at 4.30 and you’d think maybe after the hell my now extended family of Cubana airways victims had been through, we would be treated like movie stars, pampered with drinks and nibbles, checked on at ever available moment. Well you would think wrong and must be alerted to the fact that the communist regime demands Cubans all work, for more or less the same wage, and are in no danger of losing there jobs…..so where is the incentive to do their job well, especially when surrounded by hundreds of high maintenance tourists?! Anyways the plane had no entertainment, seating was a free for all, the staff were rude to the point of disbelief, there was a fucking annoying group of school kids among which were two blossoming lovers sat in front of me who snogged for the WHOLE 11 hour journey, and, as I had banished any hope of a vegetarian meal, no food. Gosh I sound like my grandma moaning. Still I console myself in the fact that the money spent on the flights went in to the Cuban economy and the not the pocket of that cunt Branson.
Anyways with plenty of time on my hand I though it was about time I tackled the lonely planets guide “A brief history of Cuba”. And so the obsession began…..
Hands up, I knew very little about the Cuban culture/history before I went (“They’re communists, right?”) and generally have no interest in learning about history of places. A few years back I spent a month travelling in Japan with two of my bestest friends, one who was living out there for a few years. We had a great time, however both being History(ish) students I can imagine my “You’ve seen one temple you’ve seen them all, lets go do Karaoke again” mentality grated a bit. I figured I would be the same in Cuba… “yes yes very nice now lets go dance salsa and drink rum!” Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’m getting older and this is what happens, but I’m absolutely fascinated by the whole shebang.
So as I say all I knew was they were communists and that recently some dude called Castro had stepped down. I was concerned that this may cause mayhem and riots but was assured by work colleagues that caribbeaners(?!) are far to busy drinking rum and smoking cigars to get all worked up about stuff, and as long as the yanks stayed away there was unlikely to be any civil unrest (and I would hope that the yanks had f*cked up enough countries in the last few years to stay away, at least until I had got a sun tan).
Reading the guide helped set the scene for me so I jotted down a little summary of events as I saw them:
-Native Cubans all lived happily
-Natives of another Caribbean island arrive, kill all the native Cubans and live happily
-Spanish turn up and fuck things up – killing loads and using the rest for slaves
-400 years later Jose Marti leads a revolution to get freed from the Spaniards and the USA step in last minute and steal the glory
-USA REALLY fuck things up
-A group of rude boys (inc. Castro and Che Guavara) plot to over throw the Americans and some dick Batista, and trampled them freeing Cuban residents giving them the ‘ideal’ existence
-To piss of the US, Russia keep Cuba alive by buying lots of sugar and cigars
- Russia (or I should say the USSR) fucks up (greedy bastards) and Cuba gets screwed over and people are starving
- They start letting in lots of snappy happy tourists (such as myself) to take all their money so they can eat again.
So you can see why I gave up history at the 1st available moment!
Anyways back to the long gruelling flight…..we eventually got off that blasted craft about 1am Cuban time (5am English) due to a rather extended drop off in Holguin, and rushed through visa check and baggage which took us in to arrivals about 2am….
So first thought is will our transfer be there seeing we were meant to arrive at 4pm? On first inspection no, but after half an hour panic we deduced that our company we booked with has two names – how fucking stupid of us! So we taxied off in to Havana praying our hotel had 24hr reception. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of the city on the drive as planned being 3am but at least we were on our way. Getting closer to the hotel I started getting a nauseous feeling which is far too familiar with me now being in a city at night, stemming from a nasty incident in Barcelona a few years back (and yes the story gets more elaborate each time it is told – they had knives you know, did I say knives? I meant guns). So I wasn’t all best pleased when I found out our taxi couldn’t drive down the street our hotel was on and intended to leave us at the end of it. A few pesos (I’ll explain money later) encouraged him to wait while mother dear (entirely unfazed by this) ran up the road to check it was open. Halle-fucking-lujah it was. Almost kissing the cab driver I popped on my backpack and headed up the road to the lovely “Beltran de Santa Cruz” Hotel.
So being greeted with a smile by the receptionist he then blurts out “There is a bit of a problem with your room, the plumbing has broken and we have had to relocate you to another hotel, it is only just 5 minutes round the corner across the square”
What point would you snap? Honestly? I snapped here. “Look buddy, We’ve been up for 30 hours, 13 of these spend in fucking Gatwick airport, 13 on a fucking aeroplane fresh out of Bedrock and the rest in transit between these places, we haven’t eaten, we haven’t changed out underwear, we haven’t cleaned our teeth, and we smell like dead fucking rats and you are trying to tell me that you are going to make 2 poor helpless women lug there baggage across a city unknown to them at 4am in the morning to go to a hotel because you have a fucking plumbing problem?”
At least that is what was being said in my head…what I actually said, in a very weak and feeble whine “Please will you come with us, I’m scared”. And bless his cottons he did.
Eventually my head touched a pillow at 5.30am Cuba time (9.30am English) after dealing with the final disaster of the night that on opening my rucksack I found my suncream had exploded all over my stuff. A perfect start to a holiday wouldn’t you agree? Things could only get better.
I guess maybe I should actually tell you something about my trip instead of my script from “Holidays from hell”.
This was my first and most definitely not last trip to the Caribbean. I think I was about 8 when I bought “100% reggae” and decided that I would spend my honeymoon in Jamaica, so I hope I will again reach these shores, given I can find someone who will marry me. Plus there are so many other places to visit, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, Bahamas etc etc…Lets hope this future husband is rich! Cuba, however seems to have something different to the rest and walking out in to the sunny streets of Havana that first morning confirmed this. The Cubana airways big day out suddenly seemed a distant memory. Breath taking architecture ranging from the Spanish colonial style buildings in old Havana, (many completely derelict, but in a funky way!), to neo classical in the vedado district and art deco American influence in central Havana. Diversity that I have never seen in any city, and with the added benefit that unlike most cities they have avoided shoving eyesore 1970s tower blocks dead in the centre of some beautiful area. Any run down ugly buildings just added to the character.
It isn’t a cliché that there are bands playing at every restaurant, on every street corner with people singing and dancing around. Its true, I was there. The first pit stop was at il Patio restaurant in Cathedral square (possibly my favourite mojito of the whole holiday, though there were many and the 1st is bound to taste best!). There was a little 3 piece band playing (guitar, sax and bass) while some nut case woman danced around (mum said she had been there 2 years ago when her and my sister had gone!). They were awesome, I just couldn’t get enough of it! Then this guy from the crowd (Italian I think) just waltzed up, asked to have a go on the sax and just wiped the floor with some improvisation which put anything I ever managed when I played in to a remedial category. That wouldn’t happen anywhere else in the world and the punters went mad for it!
So the first day was mostly spent getting a feel for the place. Walking around getting lost, stopping for mojitos every now and again taking several thousand of photos at every new street at every possible angle. In the afternoon we did (on recommendation by some friends) a ferry trip across to the other side of the water to climb up to a fort (and a MASSIVE statue of Jesus). It was really fun actually as this clearly wasn’t a main tourist attraction and the ferry seemed to be literally the locals bus to and from work. We stuck out like sore thumbs! Also at the top of our little trek we discovered not only amazing views of Havana but also a mini museum of Che Guavara’s house where he lived post revolution and pre him running off to help Bolivia and get himself killed. Here I discovered he had asthma, just like me, which briefly inspired me to go and start a revolution, but I soon got over it.
Food in Cuba is shit, I mean really shit. I don’t actually understand how they can get it so wrong, but they do and especially as a vegetarian we were screwed. You get eggs, lots of eggs, so many eggs that the word is still making me feel physically sick. Mother, having been here before knew all this so had packed a kettle and a big bag of cous cous to help us in dire situations, but had also brilliantly worked out the whereabouts of the only Italian restaurant (possibly in the whole of Cuba) so in Havana at least we managed to get half decent meals! So after munching our way through a big margarita and one more quick mojito we scooted off to bed pretty early, still kinda fucked from the previous days monstrosities.
The second day was one massive lecture on politics and history for me. Though normally this concept would make me shudder with fear and despair, as I said before I’m utterly gripped by the fact that this teeny little spec on the earth’s surface has contributed so much to the history of the human race. We had a bit of fun first though getting a taxi ride to the Plaza de la Revolucion in a classic, bright purple (my favourite!) 1950s Buick with a rather bemused driver being made to pose for many a cheesy snap! The Plaza is kinda bare unfortunately with only 2 things to see. Firstly the Jose Marti memorial statue in front of the massive lookout, which we went up to get some awesome views across the city and watch lots of scary turkey vultures circle around it. And secondly my favourite bit – the huge Che image on the side of the government building with 'Hasta la Victoria Siempre' (Forever Onwards Towards Victory) written along side. I have a bit of a Che obsession to be honest, is it weird to think he was hot? Anyways bare as it was it felt pretty cool to be standing where so many political rallies and addresses from Castro and other revolutionaries has taken place.
After this we got a bug taxi (look at pics) to the hotel nationale (very posh!). It was so funny watching so many people turn up in mercs and swish cars and we turn up in a little yellow blob! Here we had a mojito looking out across the water to where we had been the previous day and then set off on quite a bit walk down the sea front where we finally ended up at the Museum of the Revolution. Here contained everything you would ever need to know about Cuba from the dawn of time. At some point it was really quite bizarre how much detail they added – “Here is the spoon Castro used whilst hiding in Argentina” – no joke! But it was fascinating. I won’t bother saying much about it (as I’ve already given you my brief history of Cuba) but one of the highlights was the “Wall of Cretins” thanking various political idiots for their input in causing/consolidating the revolution. They really don’t give a shit who they insult!
The next day we had rather a stressful bus journey (6 hours – 1 toilet stop) to a supposed beautiful, friendly colonial town though on first impressions this didn’t seem to be the case. The bus ride in showed some really quite nasty, run down areas lacking in the Havana charm, and on arrival into the bus station crowds of people were literally being restrained from mobbing us. They were advertising there “casas” – equivalent to hostelling in Cuba is to stay in casas with a Cuban family who cook and provide for you, but it all seemed all to threatening for me. So we jumped in a cab and headed for our hotel ‘Las Cuevas’ (the caves). Any doubts about the next few days in this place were soon dissolved when we saw how lush where we were staying was!! We dumped our luggage and were straight to poolside sampling the local delicacies – mojitos, pina colladas, and rather bizarre red, orange and blue drinks called Trinidad Colonials, which I took a liking to. We managed to befriend a group of locals in no time who were feeding us more rum and nibbles and giving us salsa lessons. I was pretty pro already after my set of classes I went to in my “I’m sad, lonely and desperate and need to learn salsa to meet more sad lonely and desperate people phase”, but I did learn a new step which was nice. Plus got a chance to laugh at my completely uncoordinated mother. Then at about 5pm, in a matter of 3 minutes the sky was covered in thick black clouds and the heavens opened. I’ve never been in a tropical storm before and I just found it absolutely hilarious – the whole area was flooded after 2 mins of rain, yet it is still bloody boiling and people were still dancing and in the pool! I asked my new best friend Tiago how long these storms usually last to which he replied “That is up to St Peter” – can’t argue with that!
For our first full day in Trinidad we got up bright and early and put on our sexy walking gear and headed off into the mountains on a hike with another unfairly beautiful couple from the hotel and our lovely little tour guide Jordan, who kinda sounded like Borat when he talked which was a tad off putting but you got used to it!
The first part was walking through Trinidad centre which was a lot nicer than it had seemed from the bus the day before – lovely and colourful, with people all going about there everyday business or hanging about in there door ways, playing the guitar or selling fresh fruit. The second bit took us across some fields in to the national park in the thick jungle like mountains. We hiked for about two hours ending up eventually at a gorgeous waterfall and water reserve where Cuban kids were jumping in and playing. I abstained as always when is comes to water that may contain living things. Though I did dip my feet in and noticed a huge lobster like nasty thing crawling around on the bottom and concluded that I had made the right decision.
The hike back was not as fun. The midday heat had really hit in and Trinidad town is located on top of a hill and our hotel on top of a hill on that hill and energy levels were most definitely low by the end. Still we had an afternoon once again of cocktails by the pool and salsa dancing so can’t complain! This evening after dinner (hotel buffet slop) we were treated to an Afro-Caribbean traditional show. 4 uber hot black dudes pranced around stage doing crazy things like eating hot coal and picking up tables with their teeth. It was rather erotic and I may have left a little puddle on my seat.
Next day was our last day in Trinidad town as we were heading that evening to the Ancon Peninsula, about 30 mins south of Trinidad on the coast. Still we made the most of the morning in the hotel. It was actually called Las Cuevas for a reason and (as you probably guessed) this is because it was situated above a group of caves. One of which is open for tours during the day and very funkily becomes a night club by night (though we never went to this unfortunately). So my little buddy Tiago took us on a tour of it which was just amazing! Stalagmites and stalactites to your hearts content – could just imaging people salsaing around them! He he!
After this it was a bit more pool but, as seemed to be the pattern here, late afternoon St Peter pissed on us so we decided we may as well transfer to the new place while the weather was crappy. So off we went through town (which at this point resembled a river) and down to the coast for a few days of sunbathing and chilling. Arriving at the place it seemed nice enough but being an all-inclusive had a rather different clientele, namely idiotic, drunk, burnt Brits. Well I only saw one of these to be honest, a 50ish year old fat northerner who was being rude to a bar man, but it just really got me annoyed. I just don’t understand these people who just want to go on holiday to not actually experience anything of the country, treat the staff like slaves, and abuse the unlimited available alcohol. Anyways we checked in and had an explore and felt pretty disappointed to find that the ‘beach’ didn’t actually really exist– well there was a patch of sand but it didn’t extend to the sea. Compared to our last place it just all seemed a bit, well seedy. The sun wasn’t quite back out so we camped at the pool bar and had a few drinks. My mum, sensing that it wasn’t quite perfect, and of a far too sensitive nature decided to drink a few to many pinas and start really getting on my tits by being over enthusiastic about the place “I’m really warming to this place Alice, I’m really warming to it. Yes, I’m definitely warming to this place”…..then declared she wanted to swim in the ocean before dinner. So in a drastic mother/daughter roll reversal I was trying my best to, in the least patronising way possible explain that to throw herself off a small cliff edge to get to the sea when she was pissed as a fart was possibly not the best idea. Needless to say a combination of her being drunk and over emotional, and me still being a bit wound up and beginning to feel a bit ill culminated in us having our only argument of the holiday involving lots of “I’m just an embarrassment to you” and “I’ve booked us a rubbish holiday I bet you wish you were with your friends” comments……not enjoyable. Especially not enjoyable as the me beginning to feel sick actually turned out to be food poisoning and I spent the next 12 hours on the loo simultaneously pissing out of my arsehole and vomiting. Not the highlight of my holiday.
But a new day dawned. Feeling rather weakened from my night in the shitter I abstained from breakfast (if I saw a plate of eggs I don’t know what would have happened) but walking around I suddenly realised what an over reaction the previous day had been. The place was gorgeous. There wasn’t any drunk English people at all – just that one who was only kicking off because they refused to serve him (quite rightly so – the cunt) and even better than that we found the proper beach! A gorgeous little practically deserted beach with a tiny bar behind it and a semi circle of rocks about 100m out where, according to mum, was the best collection of tropical fish she had ever seen. It was perfect for me to whack my ipod on, indulge in a brilliant book (not Hemingway!) and recuperate from my traumatic night, whilst my overly excitable mother swam, and befriended any body who came within 10 feet of us. Much better!
The next day we took advantage of the hotel free bikes and went on a bike ride down through the peninsula. I haven’t been on a bike ride since I was about 10 and after this I just don’t know why?! It was such fun! Admittedly a bike ride surrounded by sea on both sides on a road lined with palm trees is a lot more appealing than cycling down the A413 but it really should be done more often!! We stopped off on the tip of the peninsula where there was a hotel and mum jetted off on a boat trip to do some snorkelling on the reef (I obviously didn’t – I’m not going to go in to my fear of the sea here – you’ll only mock me) and I had a chance to improve on my ‘getting stupid now’ tan (apparently those last 2 years working in suncare hasn’t really changed my opinion on skin cancer).
We had one more morning on the beach after this before our transfer back to Havana which I was actually ready for by this point. Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with being sun tanned but this whole “culture” malarkey had really got to me and I was itching to get back to Havana and learn more! At the end of the day I could get a sun tan in Lanzagrotty if I wanted for a tenth of the price (with the added benefit of picking up a few STIs), and my tan was pretty much perfect by then anyway (if I don’t mind being incredibly arrogant!)
The bus journey back was even more of a fucking nightmare than the way there. 2 hours longer than it should have been, over booked (so people were standing), road closures etc etc. Plus when we got to Havana we were so late that there were no taxis at the bus station to take us to a hotel, and it was bloody raining again! After pretty much every other person on the bus had managed to hail a cab (we need to be more pushy!) we eventually got back to the lovely Beltran and had a gourmet meal of cous cous prepared en suite and settled down to bed ready to make the most of our last day.
The next morning Havana all of a sudden seemed 100 times more amazing than it was when I was there 9 days prior (and it was a pretty amazing then). Just mooching around I suddenly got that horrible “By 5pm this evening this is all going to be over” feeling. And I wasn’t ready for it. Trying not to let it detract, we walked through the beautiful streets of old Havana through cathedral square where we had that first life changing mojito, and on to the sea front where we decided it was time to tackle the hustle and bustle of the markets and buy some pressies and tacky souveniers, a Che Guavara beret being the most important, of course. Then we went on to find firstly a new discovery which was a street which appeared in ALL the paintings of Havana which were on sale in the market. This was a street with a sign hanging down saying “La Bodeguito del Medio” which turned out to be a tiny little bar where Hemingway used to hang out and it seemed many other celebs had been there too as the wall was covered in pictures and signatures. This took us on nicely to our next planned point of call. The Ambos Mundos Hotel, where Hemingway stayed when he was visiting. They have preserved his room exactly how he had it when he stayed and you can look round it. Also the roof of this hotel has a bar so we went up there and whiled away the rest of our afternoon having a few drinks up there, soaking up the city sunshine with fabulous views and lovely company.
On our walk back to the hotel to catch our transfer something occurred to me. These were streets of a capital city and there were people sitting in there doorways nattering, people playing guitars and others dancing and singing around, kids playing baseball, women hanging their washing out there windows. This wouldn’t happen anywhere else, ever. Can you imagine walking through London chatting to people, dancing with them, children playing? I bet 99% of Londoners don’t even know there next door neighbour’s names! And this was communism – everyone equal, everyone working as a team, no greed, no corruption, a real community. And I thought ‘I could do this’ – I could live in an ‘ideal’ world possibly I’d prefer the countryside – where the houses each have a chicken and a plot of land to grow veg. But I could really live like that. I’ve always been against people earning more money than is conceivable doing satanic jobs, effectively only making money by screwing other people over – bankers, lawyers etc. And I’ve been against the situation you are born in to reflecting how far you can make it in life (I know it isn’t meant to be like this but it is). And I love the ideal. Everyone gets the same, provided they work, whatever they do and as a benefit receive a perfect education system, perfect national health service, a perfect everything government run and a complete sense of patriotism. Real patriotism – not just beating up other nation’s football fans patriotism.
I started thinking about England and wondering why I wanted to stay living here. A country where our so called “left wing” prime minister (who apparently is Gordon Brown now, not Tony Blair anymore) spends £2000 of the British tax payers money per year on cleaners for his stupid amount of houses also paid for by the state. And where white trash Vicky Pollards with 10 babies leak money out of the welfare state whilst moaning about the “bloody asians and poles – they come over here taking our jobs and tax money”. They fucking pay tax so why shouldn’t they be entitled to it? I’d rather they got it than the fat arse Keith Millers of the world. It is disgusting really and I don’t want to be a part of it.
But of course Cuba doesn’t have the ideal. The dream is there and I think it probably worked before the eastern block dissolved, but then again if they can’t really support themselves as a single unit then communism fails doesn’t it.
Personally I think one of the major problems as to why things aren’t working as well as they should stems from tourism. Admittedly it saved the country from starvation but it has created no end of issues and seemingly split the people in to two personality types. Type one are mainly the older generation, still very much pro-Castro. These remember and appreciate that they lived well post revolution, pre special period (between the fall of the eastern block and start of tourism), and also appreciate that the tourists saved their arses when things were looking pretty bleak. These people hence treat tourists with gratitude, respect and kindness. The second type, what I’m calling the ‘next’ generation of Cubans, seem to be much more cynical and unsure what they get is really ‘fair’. These people are really quite resentful of tourists often to the point they are just plain rude (turning their backs, shooing away etc). I think the problem is as they are unaware of what life was like before. All they see is these rich idiots, with their snazzy clothes, flash digital cameras and disposable cash to throw about, travelling around seeing all different cultures and places. Everything they can't have and what they could have if things were different. I suppose it would piss me off.
Another massive problem with letting tourists in is the discrepancy in what people earn depending on whether they work in the tourist industry or not. Money is a bit complex but Cuba has two currencies – local pesos and convertible pesos. Tourists are only eligible to use convertible pesos and each convertible peso is actually worth 10 Cuban pesos. So effectively if I were to go in to a shop and buy a bottle of water – this would cost me say 1cp (around 50p) and a cuban 1p (i.e around 5p). So effectively they are charging tourists ten times for everything which still always seems reasonable to us (2 mojitos tended to be around 5cp - £2.50 – not bad!). This means when you tip someone in a bar, say 1cp – they are getting about £5.00 worth out of it yet it is only costing you 50p. I think this is absolutely genius and I can’t see why other countries haven’t caught on. In Thailand why not charge £5.00 for a meal instead of 50p?! Tourists will still pay £5.00! However the people in tourist industry, with their tips, get much more disposable cash than anyone else which brings about inequality in the people – everything communism isn’t. Take for example the scenario of the hiking trip we did in to the mountains in Trinidad. The cost of this was 7cp each so 14cp in total and seeing as our guide stayed with us from 9am-2pm in the blistering heat enthusiastically talking all the time, we had a 20cp note and told him to keep the change. So he got 6cp - £3 to us, worth £30. This makes you feel great as a tourist. Giving a tip of not that much value to you makes a huge different to the local’s life. In fact their monthly salary is 300p so we actually tipped him a 5th of what he would earn in a month. Crazy really. However you think of all the doctors and teachers etc who slave their arses off and don’t see anything of the sort coming their way. Where is the incentive to work then? This isn’t fair and is where the system really breaks down. You could definitely feel a certain civil unrest and I reckon especially now as Castro has stepped down, big changes are afoot. I guess if you were thinking of going I’d recommend going asap. (Hark at me making political predictions when 2 weeks ago I didn’t even know what communism really meant!)
Anyways enough politics and back to reality. Damn I wish I could but I’m hooked! Six months ago, to spend all my time googling Che Guavara and ‘communism for dummies’ or writing ridiculously long blogs that no-one will read (except maybe Sam – and even he will probably have got bored by now), would have been fine as I had nout better else to do. However right now I do, like revise for these bastard exams, and this new found obsession is greatly reducing the productivity stakes!
All in all the holiday (which is what it was at the end of the day) was a big success. I’d love to go back there and see and do more of it, and like so many places I’ve been I say I will one day. But then I realise that to go back to somewhere I have already been means sacrificing going somewhere new which I can get momentarily obsessed with until the next place…..etc etc.
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THE COMPLETE IDIOTS GUIDE TO THE NWO
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I write rap, i want to create beats and recrod myself. what type of equipment do i need to do so? You combine beat programs..This site http://www.beatmakerprogram.com/ talks in the order of beat maker. It can backing you there how you can compose and create beats contained by...
What "as see on tv" work out dvds/equipment really work?
I've used the Firm and Core Rythyms, and they both worked awesome for me. I similar to a variety so I switch back and forth. I've tried P90X, but you've already get to be in pretty good shape for that one, but it works too. Personally, I'd stir with the...
What (besides stairs or gym equipment) is the best bearing to work sour love handle?
i need to loose around 45lbs but i really want to focus on my love handles. plz and ty sit ups, rinning, crunches, and lifting weights, i know the weights nouns weird, but if u lift them aft your back it streatches your stomach
What (If any) work out equipment do you hold within your home?
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What accesories or equipment should I buy?
So i recently got a hdtv for my room and its for my xbox 360 entertainment. I am wondering what should i buy to spawn my entertainment system cooler? i got a hdmi cable and a small surround system , but what else is good "> a PS3(Blu-Ray) or a better surround nouns...
What adjectives applications of electronic monitoring or surveillance equipment are nearby?
There are lots of product options available and it can be checked online..www.easyspyshop.com have lots of products available. . I advise that you read product reviews before making the finding of purchasing such products. Here are some electronic monitoring equipment I know, CCTV, Telephone recorder, GPS and Vehicle Tracking,...
What adjectives can I do near my equipment?
I have a Sony HD TV, an all HD computer, a PS3, an xBox, and surround nouns. What is my potential with this equipment? How high is my electronic sky? I want everything to be working contained by conjunction. Is that easy? From your TV, use the DVI or HDMI to hook...
What adjectives do I want (utensils/equipment) to heat a stuffed turkey surrounded by a conventional oven?
It's 15 lb. My bf and I are cooking our very own turkey for the first time, and I need to know so that he can gain them in advance, and I can prepare.... :) Thanks <3 Seems I preserve giving this website out!...
What adjectives do you obligation as far as equipment, beforehand you start gigging?
I obviously know you need adjectives the instruments, but are there anything you need as far as live nouns goes? Well it depends where you are playing, some places will provide mics and stuff. But you entail pedals, amps, mics, lots of spare cords. you may also...
What adjectives equipment is needed surrounded by a music CD studio?
Music, Recording, Equipment A nice little e-book that tell you all the basic equipment needed is available on Ebay for $2.50. http://cgi.ebay.com/How-To-Build-A-Home-… first, it would lend a hand to have a sound proofed soundtrack room, in the recording room, u want like a 64 track recorder mixer board,...
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I have been without a flaw operating within a network of something like 12 computers. I now need to provide internet service to a friend whose house is only just about 170 meters away from my office. What is the...
What adjectives equipment or supplies do I involve to become a professional women's boxer?
First, you gotta go amateur. Buy headgear gloves, ring shoes, trunks, since your a female a top. Then draw from a trainer or train yorself. Get some fights. Do good, draw from noticed, become professional IF YOU ARE A GOOD TOUGH STREET FIGHTER, THEN THEY WILL...
What advance surrounded by equipment do you believe have be most beneficial to the police officer working within the streets?
What advances in equipment do you believe have be most beneficial to the police officer working in the streets? dental floss Communication and information sharing technology, along with self protection equipment such as improved soft body armor and conducted animation...
What age can i stop sterilising feed equipment, dummies etc?
i breastfeed so i dont have any milky bottles just beaker with water contained by, dummies, and pots and spoons. my baby's 6months now and iv heard i can stop presently except for with bottles, is this ok? Well at 6 months you can start trying wean your tot onto...
What aids & equipment are available for moving & handling individuals?
There are a vast range of moving and handling aids available. They are suitable for different level of mobility/immobility as well. There are "banana" boards, which are shaped like a boomerang, and are used by family that have upper body mobility, but immobility or weakness contained by their lower...
What airlines allow you to bring scuba diving equipment for free?
Are there any airlines out there that realize that scuba divers travel to exotic locations beside their heavy gear and have added dive equipment into the free luggage allowance? Golf equipment and surfboards already are adjectives so why not dive gear? Scuba equipment is like anything else you check...
What amount should be record as the cost of equipment?
Augustine Company purchased land, buildings, and equipment for $2,400. The appraised values for the assets are $765, $1,275, and $510, respectively. What amount should be recorded as the cost of equipment? a. $525 b. $500 c. $480 d. $410.16 C. $480 Calculated as: 765 + 1275 + 510 = 2,550...
What amount should Reveille transcription as the cost of the equipment?
Reveille Company purchased new equipment on January 1, 2006. The purchase contract required Reveille to make a bread down payment of $70,000 and six annual payments of $30,000 each, dawn December 31, 2006. Reveille's cost of borrowing is 6%. What amount should Reveille record as the cost of the...
What amp should i attain for kicker equipment?
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What amplifier equipment do i requirement for the following items contained by my saloon?
i have 2 12 inch kicker subs which are capable of 800 watts together, afterwards i have 4 infinity kappa 62.9 speakers which are capable of 75 watts a piece which make 300 watts total for the speakers. leaving me with a august total of 1100...
What and be could i grasp equipment to set up a saltwater cistern. Edinburgh?
hi i live in edinburgh and i have a fresh dampen tank just in a minute. and hopefuly buying a 200 litre corner tank. and i was wondering what equpiment would you have need of to set up a saltwater tank and wat is involved. and...
About the Author
MachineryFAQ.com
SketchUp: Making Stairs: The Treads are Components method
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Trig for dummies (Help please, it's my 16th Bday! )?
I am a 10th grader in Accelerated Algebra 2/Trig. I am really good at math, but I can't figure out trig. I need to figure out trigonometric identities, inverse circular functions, and trigonometric equations by tomorrow. Any websites or suggestions? I know I should have studied earlier, but I just got home because it is my birthday. Thanks.
It would be a great birthday present if you could help, if that counts for anything!
http://www.college-cram.com/study/trigonometry/
Click on the links within the page
Pythagorean Theorem Derived Using Algebra for Dummies
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For the person who is just trying to study how the stock market works, the business of trading stocks may seem quite difficult at the start. In fact, the entire stock exchange business may prove to be quite hard to understand for somebody who doesn't even have a single clue yet what stocks are really all about - let alone the very idea of how the trading of these stocks is being done as a process. However, because of its growing popularity, you will never run out of available resources to turn to, in order to get well familiarized with its entirety as a profit generating investment medium.
When you begin your study and research around the subject of stock trading, it won't be surprising if you immediately stumble upon various strategies that can get you profits really quick. The most basic principle of creating profits through trading is by being able to purchase stocks at a low price and then selling them for a much higher price. Now how basic can that ever get, in order for you to understand the principle of making profits through trading?
If you are ever to make profits out of your trading efforts, there is one task that you really need to be good at, and it's the task of finding out which specific stocks you will want to focus your attention and energy onto. Another very important thing you should also be keen at doing is the task of knowing when exactly is the appropriate time to begin trading already. Just becoming really good with these two basic requirements will immediately give you the advantage you need in order to really make some profits.
However, as simple as it may sound, there is a lot more to those basic trading requirements than you could ever comprehend in just one sitting. In fact, just the task of finding the right stocks to invest upon can begin to become a little bit complicated once you begin to dissect it. You need to know what kinds of stocks are best qualified to be considered for trading. So, to determine those stocks, you need to learn a little bit of history and background on each one of your targets.
If finding the right kind of stock will already be a challenge for you, then wait till you get to the task of determining the most appropriate time to begin your trading activities. If you do a little bit of reading about this subject, some will suggest that the start of the week is the best schedule for trading. Another suggestion you might also read is the strategy of holding your stocks until you come to a certain point of timing where profits can be most prevalent for that specific stock. But then again, there are also requirements that you need to further learn to master just that single holding technique.
While you will be presented with several ideas, suggestions and opinions in your research and study about the stock exchange market, always keep in mind the basic principles of trading and you will be just fine.
"Wag the Dog" is a euphemism for when a politician in trouble at home wages a war or does some other diversion to divert attention. President Barack Hussein Obama and the Democratic Party are in trouble. With only a couple months until the midterm elections, some pundits say they may loose control of both houses of congress.
Why did President Obama suddenly take the moral high ground and come out in favor of building the Manhattan Muslim mosque so close to the site of the 9/11/2001 World Trade Towers ground zero attack? He knew 70% of New Yorkers are against building the 51 Park Avenue Islamic place of worship at that particular site. President Obama, it appears to me is doing a "Wag the Mosque" as a smokescreen for the rotten state of the economy during his administration and to help his parties election chances in November.
The libertarian in me applauds liberty, freedom of religion and the free market in any form. The realist in me knows this a a big diversionary tactic. He recently actually had the nerve to bash the state of Arizona over their newly passed Mexican border immigration law. A law closely matching Federal guidelines. The explosion in media coverage of both sides of this illegal alien issue was a wonder to behold. Isn't it the federal governments job to protect our borders? "Wagging Arizona?" Was that a movie in 1987 starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter? OH! "Raising Arizona" was the name. That makes this the second "wag" in so many months!
The Democrats want all those illegals made into citizens so they can get their votes. Don't they?
See the movie: Wag the Dog (1997), directed by Barry Levinson. Staring Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Anne Heche. Funny. Priceless!
On Sunday 8/22/2010, Meet the Press on CNBC, with David Gregory hosting, spent one half of the program on the mosque issue and on Iraq and Iran. Meet The Press and the President should be more concerned about rising unemployment, the tight money crisis, real estate problems and deflation cropping up everywhere.
People out of work can't buy stuff. That means businesses have to cut back and layoff. The newly laid off plus the 9.7% already unemployed mean more reductions in consumer spending. This thing can turn into a vicious cycle catching us all in a snowball rolling down the hill. Watch out below, stocks.
"To put it succinctly, the stock market is a thermometer of public mood and a barometer of public action," Robert Prechter.
"A deflationary crash is characterized in part by a persistent, sustained, deep general decline in peoples' desire and ability to lend and borrow. A depression is characterized in part by a persistent, sustained, deep, general decline in production. Since a decline in production reduces debtors' means to repay and service debt, a depression supports deflation. Since a decline in credit reduces new investment in economic activity, deflation supports depression. Because both credit and production support prices for investment assets, their prices fall in a deflationary depression. As asset prices fall, people lose wealth, which reduces their ability to offer credit, service debt and support production. The mix of forces is self-reinforcing." Robert Prechter, Conquer the Crash (2002).
Xenophobia is the fear and loathing of strangers. Xenophobic trends increase as economies regress into deflation and peoples attitude turns sour. In deflationary downturns, people in general become afraid and therefore hateful of strangers. The mood of the total populace wanes. People are rabidly against the mosque. A recent poll asked the question: Is it appropriate to erect a Mosque and Islamic Community Center close to the 9/11 site? 37% said "yes", 62% said "no."
In addition to xenophobia, during a waning mood swing society does not start new businesses, loan money or invest. This retrenchment is textbook Robert Prechter Socionomics. According to him, socionomics is a marriage of sociology and economics that sees societal mood swings from positive to negative and back again as the driving force behind booms and busts in the economy. Man is a herd animal so he can't help following the herd. Not the way to invest, by the way. Buying more as prices go up and buying "hand over fist" at price peaks.
Robert Prechter, President of Elliott Wave International, has written about socionomics in his book, "The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior and the New Science of Socionomics (1999). To me, the mosque situation is proof positive we are in a negative social mood change era evidenced by fear, xenophobia, pessimism, conservatism, thrift, savings and a general retrenchment. A waning instead of a waxing.
The deflation dead ahead is destined to morph into a deep dangerous depression. All credit inflations end badly according to the Austrian School of Economics. We have had a 100 year doozie of a runaway inflation. The 1913 dollar is now only worth 5 cents. Deflation, however, is the only cure for inflation.
The Greater Depression started in 2000 with the dot com bust and may last into 2016-2018 with a 90% drop in most assets and 30% plus unemployment rate. Better to lower taxes this time and let business make the jobs that will last and not disappear when the project is finished.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did us no favor. He made up government jobs and delayed recovery from the 1930"s depression with all his hair-brained socialist programs and ideas that took us to where we are today. He outlawed gold ownership. How crazy is that! Keynesianism-BAD!
You want conspiracy theory? I bet you can't handle this conspiracy theory. Read The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin (1994). Every word is true! Here is a sample.
1913 was the year the Federal Reserve Board, a cartel and a monopoly, was formed in secret to create a one-world-order. International bankers figured they will plunder the world via taxes, debt, inflation and the farce of fiat currencies. Since the U.S. was so strong back then, they needed the cover of a private central bank to bring America down. Wars and even global warming were planned to be smokescreens for the big hustle. What a fraud. What a bunch of dummies we are to let them take our freedoms so slowly we hardly notice.
The Fed is not federal, a reserve or a bank. It is not even subject to an audit or accountable. Who owns it? The shares are not traded on any exchange. It is a private corporation watering down our money with inflation. The U.S is now policeman and foreign aid giver of the world. We fund bailouts left and right. All this will be paid for by you and I the taxpayers. Both parties are in on the nefarious scheme, by the way.
Now, we get deflation leading up to the Greater Depression. Will the banksters foreclose on everything and get richer? Probably. Smaller government due to reduced tax revenues will be a good thing. Mark my words! Unless a private money backed by gold catches on we are doomed to a repeat driving gold to $5,000 per ounce in the distant future. Money with no backing in Germany after WWI lead to hyperinflation helping Hitler hustle everyone. You don't want to elect the next antichrist besides the one we have in office now, do you? Only gold is not also a debt instrument. Only gold is honest. Not like politicians playing "Wag the Dog" with our LIBERTY.
New York City has a long history of intolerance. First called New Amsterdam by its Dutch founders. The leaders back then delayed letting the early Jewish immigrants build their own church until 1730. Waves of Irish, Italian and other foreigners passing the Statue of Liberty to be processed at Ellis Island were greeted with the same initial intolerance. The last ones onshore got the worst jobs with the lowest pay. Let us find another place for the mosque and not open up old wounds. I think they will find another place for the mosque.
The 70% coordinated collective citizen reaction against the mosque at this spot at this time is further socionomic proof we are indeed heading into the Greater Depression. It will be three times larger and longer than the depression in the 1930's due to the excess government, excess waste, excess war and excesses in general.
So, President Obama took the high road coming out for the mosque in theory. What a hornets nest he stirred up. Of course, he is right. Not allowing it would be against the law and a violation of the constitution. Denying the mosque would only engender a huge unproductive wasteful loosing lawsuit. The courts would have to rule on the side of religious freedom. It's a given.
Unfortunately, he is also on a program of weakening the constitution by appointing left leaning Supreme Court Judges and beating up on banks and business. Remarkably, only 10% of his administration have any business experience. Obamas' policies are making business uncertain and cautious. Business is frozen up because of all the bank bailouts, auto company bailouts, ObamaCare costs and financial reforms and regulations.
Obama know he is only a one term president. That is why he wants the U.S. to get wrapped up around the axle. So that his socialistic and many wealth redistribution job killing aspirations can be foisted upon us. There is no better way than this to help the onslaught of deflation and depression and make them worse in the long run. Socialism is economic death. Period!
Obama is the most distructive political figure America has ever had. Period!
The peoples mood is downright nasty these days. Stocks are topping out. Israel is reporting Iran will have a working nuclear bomb in 9 months. A "Wag the Dog" war with Iran is next. Another smokescreen for the power elite with the help of the Federal Reserve to finalize their one-world-government to take our FREEDOMS forever. Say hello to Big Brother!
This is not what our freedom favoring founding fathers had in mind.
This is TYRANNY!
See http://www.deflationeconomy.com for depression survival information and a FREE download of a 60 page - Understanding Deflation Guide - by Robert Prechter.
By Delwyn Lounsbury
Copyright 2010 - use allowed with attribution back to:
How to survive and get rich in the coming Greater Depression. Get FREE download of 60 page "Understanding Deflation Guide." Delwyn Lounsbury is an Eagle Scout and has been a real estate agent in California since 1968. Go to www.deflationeconomy.com for articles on real estate deflation, stocks and deflation, gold and deflation, define deflation, socionomics, kondratiev, bank bailouts, elliott wave principle more...
How to Fix an Ancestry Online Family Tree - Genealogy Gems Podcast App Bonus Content
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[simpleaffiliate source="chitika" results="0"][/simpleaffiliate] Best way to get rid of dummy?
My daughter is approaching 3 (july) we have just come back off holiday and i decided that when we got home her dummy would not be used other than bedtime, she used to have it during the day, at first if she was tired or hurt herself but recently it got to the point when she wanted it ALL the time, today was the first day without it, she went to playgroup and was fine when she got home but when we went out in the car she kept asking for it, she eventually fell asleep without it, when i bought her in from the car she woke up and had a MASSIVE tantrum because she wanted her dummy, she was hitting me repeatedly and got very angry......anyway eventually i managed to calm her by doing a jigsaw together and she is now playing in the garden happily.
Q. Any good tips on how to cope, things to distract with etc and just to share your experiences with me so i know i am not the only one going through this!!
I had problems with my daughter giving up her paci so I kept telling her that she could use it to go to bed with but once she turned 2 she could not have it at all, I would tell her all day long, every nap, bedtime everything remember no more paci after your birthday. The day after her birthday she asked for it and I told her she was 2 now and so she could not have it. That was enough of an answer because she had been told so many times that that was what was going to happen. So since you have her birthday coming up maybe you could do the same thing,let her use it to go to sleep now but then tell her after her birthday she is a "big girl" and big girls dont need it anymore so it will have to go bye bye. Hopefully that would work for you too! Good Luck!
HiTech Pharma Sales, Stock and Accounts Manager
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Using SPSS to predict a nominal outcome using nominal predictors?
I have both spss 16 (with all add ons) and spss17 stats base. I would like to predict a nominal (yes/no) outcomes using mainly group level predictors. Just an example... such as a pass/fail from things like gender, college major, etc. I have only one ratio level measurement.
Does anyone know how to do this? Also, is it possible to do this without a ton of dummy coding?
Thanks for any help that you can offer.
Logistic regression.
This will dummy code for you (click on categorical, and tell SPSS which predictors are categorical).
"That's All That Matters To Me" By The Isaacs
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[simpleaffiliate source="chitika" results="0"][/simpleaffiliate] Who came up with the "~for dummies"?
I was just wondering, I'm always going to the bookstore to find books about random how-to's for beginners titled "~for dummies"
Who first came up with that kind of a title?
What was the first book named like that about?
Is the phrase patented?
The For Dummies series began during 1991 with DOS for Dummies, written by Dan Gookin and published by IDG Books. The concept originated with Michael "Mac" McCarthy, who got the idea during a discussion with his uncle who suggested a "just enough information" book "for us Dummies". The book became popular due to a lack of beginner-friendly materials on using DOS. While initially the series focused on software and technology topics, it later branched out to more general-interest titles. The series is now published by John Wiley & Sons, which acquired Hungry Minds (the new name for IDG Books as of 2000) in early 2001.
It probably is trademarked....
Inventing For Dummies
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[simpleaffiliate source="chitika" results="0"][/simpleaffiliate] Do most people lose money trading stocks or gain it?
How can people lose money while trading stocks, i dont really understand it. If im going to invest in a company i will invest in a company that i know it will give me profits and i willl do a lot of research before investing in this company. Even if the company is not gaining much profit for the mean time, i will just hold it until it is back on track (i wouldnt mind holding onto it til 3 or 4 years), so i dont understand why people lose money by trading stocks.
One more question, if there is a slight change on my shares price of 5% in few minutes after i buy it. Should i resell it? and does the percentage of the shares change everyday? Ten points for the best answer. I hope i dont get any comments from people that tend to make fun of those who want to learn, i know this place is full of intelligent people but it has too many dummies. Thanks.
Losing money trading stocks is very easy, especially if you get a tip on a stock. By the time you get a tip and move in, everybody else has been there. Entry and exit (or partial exit) are as important as picking the right stock. Stocks are subject to market conditions as well as the analysts expectations, come in pennies short on the wrong day and you could lose 10-20%.
The 5% question is interesting and depending on how many shares and the price of shares, I might sell 1/3 of my position and if it went up another 5% the same day another 1/3. I take out partial profits on the way up and move my stop on the last 1/3 to entry or higher.
Google GOOG stock trading for dummies
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For people who want to learn to play the guitar, follow these guidelines below and become a guitar player in no time. So now let us begin.
First thing on this guitar lessons for dummies is a run-through on the parts of a guitar.
Basic parts of a guitar include:
the body – holds all the parts together and has a hole in the middle
neck – the long stick with many divisions
the frets – the dividers on the neck
tuning pegs – the six heads at the base of the neck
bridge – the steel bar found at the body of a guitar
After you have familiarized yourself with the parts of the guitar, the next agenda in this guitar lessons for dummies is for you to learn strumming.
Strumming is done by hitting all 6-string of the guitar with your fingers repeatedly. Strumming has two strokes, the up stroke and the down stroke. Practice this with variations and find what you like most.
Next thing to know would be the chords.
Learn the basic A, B, C, D, E, F and G then try playing these with a song you are familiar with. Find the simplest song to play, any song that is made of 2-3 chords. Finishing the song would mean you have completed your first song ever! So congratulations to you!
After you've been able to play a nursery guitar song, to advance in this guitar lessons for dummies, you now have to learn the chords sharps and flats then proceed to harder ones like minor 7th. Remember not to skip a step and master the initial steps first because this will serve as your foundation. Mastering the basics makes learning the variations fairly easy. Start with open chords first before proceeding with closed chord because closed chords require more skill.
Subsequently, scales should be learned. Basic scales are the major and minor scales. Intermediate levels are the pentatonic, Phrygian and many others. After learning scales, you can proceed to variations and then you are basically done. Remember to take it step by step as learning is not a fast thing. If you really want to become magnificent, then work really hard.
About the Author
Are you ready to discover the secrets on guitar lessons for dummies? Visit http://www.GuitarSuccess.com today and pick up a free eBook on how to play the guitar like a pro!
How to Apply Order of Operations in Algebra For Dummies
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[simpleaffiliate source="chitika" results="0"][/simpleaffiliate] Can any one please upload the pdf of ofiice 2003 all-in-one desk referance for dummies in esnips.com for me?
I badly need this book. I searched a lot in various free ebook sites. My Isp blocks torrent file upload/download or anything larger than 21 MB. I use esnips.com.
This sounds like a violation of copyright laws to me, and thus would be illegal. Unless one KNOWS that this material is not copyrighted, such a distribution would be unwise. (Besides, couldn't you find one in a large reference library to borrow?)
Readers thoughts on Economics for Dummies book...
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If I have to be an idiot, at the least I’m a green idiot. I believe in clean air, corporate responsibility, community activism, licorice, pizza and Thai food. And healthy living, freedom, and of course freedom raisins.
Shiny happy raisins
I love trees, sky, and ah, the OXYGEN! But I’m worried about the dismal state of health care, education funding, the ozone hole, the Medicare donut hole, and your little dog too! Did you know the North Pole is melting? That really scares me. Plus I need to cut down on my Chunky Monkey intake.
In everything I do, in every move I make, it seems that I’m part of the worldwide web of production and consumption. So I pertly place my recyclables in the blue bin, our family uses reusable grocery bags, and I vote. What more can a light-switch thumping, gasoline-pumping 21st century fox do?
C'mon, baby, light my SRI fire...
It was only a couple of years ago a friend remarked to me that real estate was the only investment that made any sense, as if his seat on the Ferris Wheel of investments, propelled by an invincible source, would forever be going up, up, UP! Instead, what happened was “up, up and away.”
The first Ferris wheel, from 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago
The desire for a sure thing is hard to resist. Albert Einstein, succumbing to pressure to support the idea of a static universe, in his 1917 paper added an adjustment number called the “cosmological constant” to his equation for general relativity. In 1931 he publicly renounced this static cosmology and endorsed the Big Bang expanding universe model, ditching the cosmological constant and returning to his original equation. He later called his bowing to peer pressure the greatest blunder of his entire life. You can read about the adventure in author Simon Singh’s “Big Bang - The Origin of the Universe.”
Many philanthropic foundations have long drawn a wall between their socially conscious mission statements that drive grant making, and the investment holdings of their endowment. There is a truism that investing for social benefit results in lower returns. But just as scientific peer consensus eventually embraced the Big Bang theory, so has the thinking of philanthropic foundations changed. The reasons are twofold: A recognition that corporate responsibility and societal concerns are valid parts of investment decisions, (1) and a growing number of academic studies have demonstrated that socially responsible investment (SRI) mutual funds perform competitively with non-SRI funds over time. (2)
For example, according to University of Maastricht and Erasmus University Rotterdam economists in their prize-winning paper, “we find little evidence of significant differences in risk-adjusted returns between ethical and conventional funds for the 1990-2001 period.” (3)
Foundation investment choices seem to be increasingly guided by effect upon society as a whole, not just financial gain, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. (4) Fresh thinking in the nation’s largest foundations may be driving the impetus ever faster: The $8.5-billion William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Menlo Park), the $6.1-billion John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Chicago), the $7.8-billion W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Battle Creek, Michigan) all have made recent changes to improve the social effect of their investments. (5)
SRI assets are also growing faster than assets as a whole: according to the non-profit Social Investment Forum’s 2005 biennial report, SRI assets rose more than 258 percent from $639 billion in 1995 to $2.29 trillion in 2005. Over those ten years, SRI assets grew four percent faster than the entire universe of managed assets in the United States. (6)
Some have already been on the SRI track: the nation’s second largest foundation, the Ford Foundation, along with others such as the F.B. Herron Foundation, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and the Nathan Cumings Foundation, have for a long time aligned their charitable and investment practices.
What is Socially Responsible Investing? Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is a broad-based approach to investing that now encompasses an estimated $2.3 trillion out of $24 trillion in the U.S. investment marketplace today. (7) The release of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment–subscribed to by some of the world’s largest institutional investors, asset managers, and related organizations representing over $9 trillion in assets as of mid- 2007–underscores the widespread acceptance of the principle that investors cannot, in the long run, achieve their goals by investing in corporations that externalize their costs onto society. (8)
How do I research SRI funds? A good place to start is the Social Investment Forum (http://www.socialinvest.org). Look at the resource list at the end of this article too.
How do I start investing? If you participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, there may be SRI funds already available to you. If you manage your own IRA or other plan, look into what’s available. But don’t just go adding a fund without considering the entire makeup of your portfolio.
The key to earning decent long-term returns and limiting overall risk is to have a proper asset allocation, meaning you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. For do-it-yourself-ers, check out the government’s website about asset allocation (http://tinyurl.com/2825hw), or purchase “All About Asset Allocation” by Richard A. Ferri ($13.57 at Amazon), a great introduction to the topic. Your personal financial advisor or company where you have your investment or retirement accounts can help.
How do I know which funds will produce the highest returns? You don’t, you can’t, and you won’t, so just forget about it because past performance doesn’t predict future results. The day-to-day ups and downs of the market receive the media attention, but the daily, quarterly, or even yearly returns are largely irrelevant in constructing an individual’s portfolio whose objectives are long-range. What you want to look for are funds that perform well over the long run within their particular sector, as compared to the appropriate benchmark indices. Various areas of the economy are always moving up and down and sideways, and so far no one has ever been able to know ahead of time what the pattern will be. Asset allocation, I’ll say again, may be the key to long-term success in building a financially secure future. Not panicking helps too!
What makes an SRI fund different? If a prospective company is a fit according to a fund’s stated objectives, research is performed to determine whether or not it’s a good idea to buy stock at the current offering price. It boils down to the question “Within the guidelines of the stated objectives of the fund, will this purchase help to achieve the highest possible return for the fund’s shareholders?”
The three core socially responsible investing strategies are screening, shareholder advocacy, and community investing. Screening means a fund will include or exclude companies based upon criteria such as alcohol, tobacco, animal testing, and human rights, among others. These screens can be positive (e.g., including companies that treat employees well) or negative (e.g., excluding companies who do business with disturbed musicians).
Keep in mind that, as with all mutual funds, SRI funds have no guarantees of future return.
In any case, you'd better take this lad's offering of raisins!
If you use electricity, drive a car, and participate in many other activities of daily living, in a very true sense you are already investing in the companies that allow and encourage your consumption. In other words, you are part of the “market” whether or not you actually own stocks or mutual funds. Socially responsible investing can be a way to make your dollars work toward something in which you believe, and support those companies you believe have a vision in line with your own.
Resources and suggested reading
1. “The Mission in the Marketplace: How Responsible Investing Can Strengthen the Fiduciary Oversight of Foundation Endowments and Enhance Philanthropic Missions.” Social Investment Forum Foundation’s resource guide for foundations to manage risk and leverage their investment assets more fully with their core philanthropic purpose, while creating lasting value. http://tinyurl.com/35t49h 2. “10 best” list of companies. Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine rates the citizenship disclosures, policies and performance of large-cap, public companies in the following industries: Auto & Vehicles, Paper, Technology Hardware, Technology Software, Transport, and Travel & Lodging industries, Chemical, Energy, Financial, Media and Utilities industries. http://www.thecro.com/node/580 3. Social Science Research Network. http://www.ssrn.com/ 4. United Nations’ “The Principles for Responsible Investment.” An investor initiative in partnership with UNEP Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact. http://www.unpri.org/ 5. The Social Investment Forum; national membership association dedicated to advancing the concept, practice, and growth of socially and environmentally responsible investing. http://www.socialinvest.org/ 6. Social Investment Forum’s 2005 biennial report. http://tinyurl.com/258794 7. Sristudies.org, a resource for quantitative aspects of socially responsible investing. Includes an annotated bibliography of studies of socially responsible investing. A project of the Moskowitz Research Program, which is affiliated with the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. 8. Socially Responsible Mutual Fund Charts of Financial Performance. http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/mfpc/ 9. SocialFunds.com, an advertising-driven website with information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news. 10. “Handbook on Responsible Investment Across Asset Classes.” For asset allocation junkies, individuals and institutional investors the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship created this work. http://tinyurl.com/2ffqbu
Footnotes
1. The Maturing of Socially Responsible Investment: A Review of the Developing Link with Corporate Social Responsibility by Russell Sparkes and Christopher J. Cowton. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 52, Number 1 / June, 2004. 2. SriStudies.org 3. International Evidence on Ethical Mutual Fund Performance and Investment Style, paper by Rob Bauer, Kees Koedijk, Rogér Otten. Limburg Institute of Financial Economics, November 2002. (socialinvest.org/resources/research) 4. Foundations align investments with their charitable goals by Charles Piller, Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2007. Section C, p 1. 5. Ibid. 6. 2005 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States. Social Investment Forum. (www.socialinvest.org) 7. Socially Responsible Investing Facts. Social Investment Forum. www.socialinvest.org 8. PRI Report On Progress 2007. PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment), United Nations. (www.unpri.org)
Image credits
Sun-Maid/George Bush composite image • First Sun-Maid packaging to feature a likeness of Lorraine Collett as the “Sun-Maid Girl,” 1916. Designer unknown, incorporates painting by Fanny Scafford. Public domain in the United States. • Photograph of Bush speaking. Brazil, November 6, 2005. Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency, produced photograph. Published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil.
Fox/Morrison composite image • Foxes by Franz Marc, 1913. The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Public Domain. • Jim Morrison portrait, 2007, by Amadeu.taradell. Released by author into public domain.
Ferris Wheel/Superman composite image • The first Ferris wheel from the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The New York Times photo archive. Public Domain. • Screenshot of 1941 cartoon Superman. Fleischer Studios. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, and its copyright was not renewed.
Musician holding Valentine’s Day raisins composite image • Photo of musician Jeff Hawley, 2007. Manager, Marketing Content Pro Audio and Combo Division, Yamaha Corporation of America. Courtesy of Mr. Hawley. • Photo, August 3, 2005 by Mazbln. Halberstadt, Klosterkirche St. Burchardi, Ort des John-Cage-Projektes “As slow as possible.” Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. • Original painting of Lorraine Collett by Fanny Scafford, 1915, later used on Sun-Maid raisin packaging. Public domain in the United States.
This column is meant to provide general information, and should not be construed as providing investment, legal, or tax advice. There is no guarantee as to the accuracy or completeness of the information in this article. There are no guarantees of future return for any fund, nor an endorsement of any investment product. Mutual funds are sold by prospectus only. For complete information on mutual funds including sales charges and expenses, call your financial professional for a prospectus. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. Links are provided herein as a courtesy, and no guarantees are made as to the accuracy of the content on the referenced websites.
Michael Grodsky (AquariusFinancial.com) is a fee-based financial planner in Los Angeles, California. He serves artists and non-profit organizations, helping them to align their investments with their values. He can be reached at 323-293-6800, michael@aquariusfinancial.com Registered Representative offering securities and investment advisory services through Independent Financial Group, LLC, a registered broker-dealer and investment advisor, member FINRA/SIPC. Registered to sell securities in the state of California. Aquarius Financial and IFG are not affiliated. Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction: 4518 Winnetka Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA 91364
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Whether you're a homeowner or you rent your home, your personal safety and the security of your home and your property is important to you. If you're on a budget, though, you might feel that there aren't a lot of options available to you to improve your home's security. Aside from the monthly home security monitoring services and expensive home alarm systems, however, there are low-cost home security options available to you that won't cost you an arm and a leg.
Here are a few home security options that will not only help to protect your home, but they'll give you the peace of mind that you're taking proactive measures to protect your person, your family, and your property.
Locking down your windows
While newer windows tend to offer much better protection than older windows, they are still a weak point for your home's security. There are two steps that you can take, however, to better-protect this all-too-common home entry point.
* Cheap locking mechanisms - most windows have locks, but not all window locks are strong or secure. Using a simple 1"x1" piece of wood to place in your window when it's closed, to prevent sliding, will prevent somebody from breaking your window's locks and simply sliding the window open. You just need a spare 1x1 piece of wood and a saw of some kind to cut it to the right length. * Window alarms - Window alarms can work with the wooden stick window-locking method to alert you if somebody is trying to gain entry to your home through your window. You can pick up window alarm sensors on sites like Amazon.com for as low as a few dollars, and they're a great investment if you're looking to improve your home's security.
Light up your home at night
One of the best crime deterrents is light -- thieves like to lurk around in the darkness, and they predominantly like to strike when you're not at home. Even if you're not at home, however, you can make it seem like you are.
Motion-sensor floodlight systems are very inexpensive -- you can pick up an outdoors motion-detection lighting system for under $20 in many locations, and floodlights cost less than the motion-sensor kits. Motion sensor units are preferred for a couple of reasons: they do not run continuously, which on-all-the-time outdoor lighting will increase your monthly electrical costs, and they switch on when motion is detected -- this gives the allusion that somebody is home switching on the lights.
If you plan to be away from home for the evening, or even a day or two, security timer switches can help you create the allusion that somebody is home. Timer switches plug into your home's electrical outlets and will switch on the plugged-in appliances at intervals that you select. For instance, you can have your TV switch on at 9pm at night and shut off at 11pm, or you can schedule a lamp or two to turn on and off throughout the evening. If you wanted, you could even set your home's music system to kick on for a couple of hours. With security timers being as cheap as they are, you could pick up several of them so that you could replicate a night's activities, even if you're out of town.
Keep a watchful eye on your property
Another great way to improve home security is by using security cameras. Now, security cameras are more expensive than the other security options listed here, but they an effective addition to the measures already listed. If your home security budget is exceedingly small, you can opt for fake, or 'dummy', security cameras -- imitation security cameras can cost as little as $10 each. If you want to have a real security camera or cameras setup in your home, the prices for those start at around $50 per camera, but can cost much more if you want better options.
Along with powerful outdoor lighting, security cameras -- whether they are real or fake -- add a lot in terms of the perception of your home's security measures. Just like using security timer switches can create the allusion that you're home even if you're not, security cameras create the allusion that would-be thieves will be filmed if they venture too far onto your property. Security cameras can be a great crime deterrent if used correctly.
Improving your home's security doesn't need to be difficult or expensive. In fact, even with a budget of only $100, and a few hours of your time, you can increase your home's safety exponentially. Not only will these home security options improve your home's actual security -- they'll improve your own sense of security, and that's something that you cannot put a price tag on.
