Portfolio Diversification

Have you thought about investing in silver?

Standard portfolio theory at least suggests that you should think about it for the secret is to make sure that your investments are diversified across different sources of risk. I don't mean investing in futures or options, no, not at all, rather, making sure that as a part of a well balanced portfolio you have an amount of physical precious metals stocked away for a rainy day.

We should have stocks in our investments, for they've provided the best growth over the decades. We want to make sure that we have some high risk and some low of those as well. We should also look at various types of bonds. Perhaps corporates, with slightly higher returns, or Treasuries with greater security, or municipals with their tax benefits.

But our classical theory about how to allocate your investments also says that you want something to guard against inflation, that's what the precious metals do.

Might be worth contacting Monex Deposit Company through the link above to see what they can do for you. They supply both bullion and coins and so can help you into this market with whatever level of investment you want to make.

Borat's a Human Rights Victim!

No, really, it's not a mistake. An offical State Department report has used Borat as an example of the absence of human rights in Kazakhstan:

Fictional Kazakh TV reporter Borat has made an unexpected cameo appearance as a victim of censorship in a heavyweight annual human rights report issued by the State Department.

The 2006 report, released in Washington on Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, criticized the real Kazakhstan, a vast oil-producing Central Asian state, for increased restrictions on freedom of speech and other abuses.

The State Department, which says Kazakhstan has no independent judiciary, also listed the murder last year of Kazakh opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, his bodyguard and driver as "unlawful deprivation of life."

The report cited Borat's loss of his Kazakh webpage www.borat.kz in late 2005 alongside court cases and limits on free speech faced by the few domestic media critical of Kazakhstan's long-serving President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

"The government deemed as offensive the content of a satirical site controlled by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and revoked the .kz domain," the report said.

Admittedly, losing your web site is less awful than losing your life but still, interesting to see a fictional character actually has human rights.

The Chicken Eating Cow

Reports from India of a cow that likes eating chickens:

When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighborhood dogs.

But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.

"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh told Reuters by phone from Chandpur village.

The family decided to stand guard at night on Monday at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.

"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.

Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.

"We think lack of vital minerals in the body is causing this behavior. We have taken a look and have asked doctors to look into the case immediately," Mihir Satpathy, a district veterinary officer, said by phone.

So, perhaps feeding the cows with  ground up sheep and so on wasn't such a bad idea at all? You know, if these things happen naturally then they must indeed be good for Gaia?

Fairfax Real Estate

One of the oddities of the so called free market system in hte US is the way that so much of the money to be made actually emanattes from hte Federal Government itself. This is what has made the area around Washington DC boom so much in recent decades.

Back when I lived there a couple of decades ago it wsa entirely possible to buy the American dream house on a  reasonable mortgage. The increase in the number of people working for the Feds has made this more difficult now: I will admit that the location of companies like The Motley Fool in Alexandria has also made a difference.

The flip side of this is that it has made it a very hot real estate market: and as we don't think government is going to go away soon one with many fewer risks than other areas of the country.

The Fairfax County real estate market, for example, looks very interesting. It's a lovely part of Northern Virginia and values should continue to rise strongly for, as above, no one forsees any cutting back on the bureaucracy. 

Worth clicking through the link there to see what John Holmes can do for you in this market.

Dedicated Servers

There comes a time in every serious adventure onto the web that you have to consider your hosting options. The free services aren't enough (you're using too muc bandwidth for example), shared hosting means you're open to the problems, spikes in traffic, even denial of service attacks on those you share the host with.

So, as traffic grows you'll need to look at a dedicated hosting solution and DMG Dedicated Servers looks like an extremely good place to get one.

They've grasped the two most important things about the business. The first, that it is their customers that make of break a business, so they must be treated as the most valuable asset. The second is that it is uptime that is most important, which is why they use AT&T as their primary provider.

Very much worth checking out if you need to upgrade from your current hosting solution.

Disclosure Policy.

Smoking and Social Stability

Now here's an interesting admission. The Chinese Communists are more susceptible to hte social pressures of those who wish to continue to smoke than our government in the UK is.

China's stability could be threatened if the government tried to curb smoking, a senior official said on Wednesday at a discussion of the annual meeting of parliament.

"Smoking harms people's health, but restraining smoking threatens social stability," said Zhang Baozhen, deputy chief of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration.

"Smokers rioted when the former Soviet Union collapsed because they could not get any cigarettes... The principle applies in China as well," Zhang said, responding to proposals from some members of China's parliamentary advisory body to curtail the smoking industry.

Partial smoking bans are already in effect in many places around the world, including Hong Kong, which returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, several American states and parts of Europe.

So, who is the democracy now?

Dating Single Moms

This internet and web thing does throw up some wonders. The way in which you can target a vertical sector, right across the country, is fascinating. Before, when things like dating sites were based around print media, there was always the problem with the fact that the costs meant that they had to accept everyone, there could be no distinctions made. The overheads meant that men and women, adulterers, Single Moms and so on all had to share the same pool of potential dates.

Now that the web has brought these costs down so much it's possible to slivce and dice that audience, to offer, as this one does, a dating site just for Single Moms.

I think it's great, further segmentation of the market, just what contributes to increasing human happiness.

Disclosure Policy.

Scooter Libby, Guilty

So the jury has found Scooter Libby guilty: but not of the original leak, of perjury in trying to cover it up.

No one is likely to face criminal charges for actually leaking CIA secrets even after a U.S. jury found a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney guilty of lying and obstructing a probe into the affair.

Just after the conviction on Tuesday of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told reporters the leak investigation was over and would not extend to other administration officials.

"I would not expect to see any further charges filed," he said.

...

Libby faces a maximum 25 years in prison for obstructing the Plame leak probe, perjury before a grand jury and making false statements to the FBI.

No charges were brought for actually leaking Plame's name. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert agent. Some suggested Libby was merely a scapegoat for higher-ups.

Well, that's what got both Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer. One does wonder whether that'll be what gets Ruth Turner and Lord Levy.

Preconstruction Investing

Now here's a sensible idea about preconstruction investing. There are a number of potential problems and pitfalls in the entire practice itself. When things go well very good profits can be made, when they go badly it can be the most almighty mess: that, of course, is why the profits can be high for there is the risk of things going badly.
Essentially the idea is that you buy house or property before it has been built. This gives the builder the capital to go and build it without needing to borrow: thus the house itself should be cheaper.
However, horror stories abound of people making those prepayments and either the project is never finished, or the builder goes bankrupt, or other things mean that matters don't turn out to rosily.
This good idea is that one should join one of the investing clubs. By doing this, by taking a fractional interest in a number of different projects (rather than 100% in just one) you are spreading risks. As in classical financial theory this should mean that you get slightly lower returns, but more certain returns: less profit perhaps, but a lot less risk of it all going horribly wrong.
There's an interesting ebook on the subject here.
Disclosure Policy.

Elvis Is Alive And Well

Yes, the King did not in fact leave us, Elvis Presley is alive and well in Papua New Guinea:

The late Elvis Presley plans to be a ghost voter at the 2007 national elections in the jungle-clad South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea -- if you believe the nation's electoral rolls.

In 2006 almost half of Papua New Guinea's 4.9 million registered voters were regarded by the electoral commission as ghost voters and did not exist.

The commission has been trying for a year to update voter registration ahead of June 30 elections, but admits voter rolls in remote, rugged highland electorates remain vastly inaccurate.

Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen said ghost voters remained a problem with several Elvis Presleys, the U.S. rocker who died in 1977, registering to vote, alongside a handful of Tom Jones, and a couple of kings and queens.

Unfortunately, it appears that his existence will not survive the investigations of the electoral commission.

Secured Loans

Some people seem to be rather worried about secured loans and the secured debt consolidation loan industry. I have to admit I've never really understood why. I've just taken out exactly one of those mortgages myself. By using the security in the house in the UK I've been able to buy the house in Portugal. What's wrong with this? I'm simply leveraging my assets which makes perfect sense as far as I can see.
You can also use the same sort of system to consolidate debts. Because there is now security against the borrowing you'll find that the interest rate being charged is significantly lower: imagine you were over your credit card limits and the like: moving from nearly 30% interest to the mortgage rate of 8% is obviously going to cut the pain of the repayments.
If this is the sort of thing that might interest you you can compare loans here.
Now it's important to remember that borrowing ever more money really isn't the best solution: at some point outgoings need to balance against income. But loans that either cut the interest on your debt, or that help you to leverage assets, seem entirely sensible to me.

Disclosure Policy.

Taking Daddy Home

There is a possibility that people will take things too far. The idea that some would like to die at home, in their own bed, rather than in a hospital bed is one thing, but taking the corpse home two years later is quite another:

Pakistani police are hunting a man who dug up his father's two-year old corpse and took it home in a hijacked ambulance to try to bring him back to life.

Abdul Rehman's family say he is mentally ill and has never been able to cope with his father's death, police said on Saturday.

"He dug up the corpse on Thursday night after he had hijacked an ambulance and its driver at gunpoint and took it to his home," Ghulam Murtaza, a duty officer at Ferozabad police station in the southern city of Karachi, told Reuters.

Police raided the house on Friday after a complaint from the trust that owned the ambulance and from Rehman's brother.

"He kept the corpse, which was nothing but a skeleton in his bedroom, for well over 12 hours. He escaped when we raided the house. We have buried it again," Murtaza said.

Rehman had also kidnapped a vagabond who slept in the graveyard and locked him up at home, police said.

"He told us he saw Rehman chanting magic spells and pouring rose water on the corpse to bring it back to life and was crying bitterly," Murtaza said.

Imagine the effect on his mental health if it actually had got up and walked!

Philadelphia Flower Delivery

Are you in Philadelphia? Are you also in need of a quick peace offering? Or perhaps there's a birthday or anniversary coming up that you need to mark? Why not try out Digital Flowers specialists in Philadelphia flower delivery ?

Not just the flowers though, they also carry teddy bears, chocolates and gift baskets. They're the number one online supplier, capable of meeting your urgent gift needs.

Disclosure Policy.

Take That

Way back when, when I left the country, one motivation was the excreble quality of the pop music, boy bands like Take That for example. I pop back for a couple of days and who is top of he charts? Yes, Take That.

TAKE That tonight clinched top spot in the singles charts and proved that their revival shows no sign of faltering.

The reformed boy band's latest release, Shine, jumped nine places to knock Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs into second.

Take That's album, Beautiful World, and previous single, Patience, which scooped a Best British Single Award at the Brits, have also both reached number one in the charts.

On Friday, the 22 dates for their Beautiful World arena tour sold out in record time.

Six extra nights have been added to meet the demand from fans who want to see the quartet.

Fortunately I have a ticket out of here tomorrow.

VoIP

Are you fed up with paying over the odds for your telephone service? Then you should be thinking about signing up for one of the VoIP services. If you don't know what that means, have a look at this site explaining all about Vonage.

You can sign up from the US, UK or Canada, no problems, you'll save perhaps 50% on your bills and, in contrast to what usually happens with cheaper services, the call quality actually goes up on a digital line as opposed to the regular phone service.

Definitely worth checking out.

Disclosure Policy.

George Galloway and the Baftas

It looks as if Gorgeous George might win a Bafta:

"SHALL I be the cat?" The memorable image of George Galloway licking an imaginary bowl of cream from the cupped hands of Rula Lenska has landed Celebrity Big Brother with a nomination for a Bafta television award.

The MP's authentic feline impersonation combined with his dynamic modern dance moves, performed while clad in a fetching, bright-red body stocking, helped secure Channel 4's solitary nomination for the Pioneer Audience Award, the only Bafta voted for by members of the public.

The shortlist, announced yesterday, will see the MP's imaginary cat and his fellow contestants, pitted against the genuine big cats filmed for Planet Earth, the BBC documentary series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, which contained the first TV images of wild snow leopards.

Well, the show that will get the award, not George, but it'll be nice to see that catsuit again, won't it?

Italian Property

When we were mulling over where to go after fleeing the UK we ran through the various options. My wife won't live within five miles of a Frenchman, the Spanish always shout, Greece is too far away and while I was keen on going back into Eastern Europe the wife most certainly was not. So we went to Portugal.

However, the other options was Italy and I'm not sure we made the right choice after all. The food's great, the weather better, I already speak some of the language (and it's a damn sight easier to learn than Portuguese) and looking at this site for property in Italy it seems that we c ould have, for our budget, bought something rather better to live in.

Ah well, as every good little economist knows, there are opportunity costs to any decision you take.

Disclosure Policy.

Well, really, why not?

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Coupon Chief

We're all familiar with clipping coupons out of the newspaper to use when we go down to the supermarket: hey, if someone's offering free money off something we're already going to buy, then why not take advantage of it?

But how do we find the same sorts of deals online? Obviously, these coupons for the online stores aren't printed in the old style dead tree newspapers: they're online. But, with all those billions upon billion of pages, where can we find them?

One answer, probably the best answer, is through couponchief.com.

They go out and collect all of the online coupons and then make them avalable in one handy place for us. They've over a thousand different stores, as an example have a look at their Best Buy online coupons section. As I write now, there's $150 off certain notebook computers, 15% off WesternDigital hard drives and another 15 or so different offers.

If you're going to be spending the money anyway, to be buying something, it simply makes sense to get money off it if you can, and a regular habit of taking a look at those couons just before you buy something online will save you a lot of money over time.

Disclosure Policy.

Smuggling Hand Grenades

This is a fairly impressive feat, even if one I wouldn't want to try and eumlate myself.

An inmate at an El Salvador jail was caught with a hand grenade stuffed up his backside -- a novel attempt to disguise his apparent escape plans.

Guards at the San Francisco Gotera prison outside the capital San Salvador found the V40 grenade, about the size of a golf ball, lodged up the man's rectum during a security clampdown, a prison spokesman said on Thursday.

They also caught another 16 inmates who each swallowed a mobile phone.

"We'll have to expel the objects and if they won't come out we'll have to perform surgery in hospital," said Alberto Uribe, a spokesman for the El Salvador prison service.