That is a fairly gross title to an article, if your mind is wired that way! But seriously, it seems from the evidence that I have been incorporated into a Far Eastern search engine that has lots of erotic piccies in the margins. The site is Favorstar.



Don't be afraid to click through and gawp at porno photos - they barely reach the hanky panky oriental style category, and will even make your protestant spinster grandmother roll her eyes in disappointment. But you know that it is just the tip of the iceberg and very soon, the site will be pointing and clicking visitors down a path to sexual rack and ruin.

I have no idea how I got involved in this chicanery, and don't know whether one day I will receive a check for 2 million Yuan for search services rendered, but if you get the urge to go looking, give it a go.

Don't forget Sunday

There should be some way cool mini reviewing going on with MyBlogLogLog Sunday. I say should because again, I am heading West and all being well, they have internet in that part of the USA! Did you catch the OS9User Breaking News video of MBL Sunday 30? Check it out if you haven't.

Have a good one, and thanks to the 9000 visitors last month. Much appreciated, and I hope to keep it fresh and relatively amusing around here for a while longer, so tell all your friend.

A matter of thirds

A stable boy was telling me how they shave the coat of a certain shaggy horse every Spring. He said they sharpen up a set of blades and after doing a quarter of the horse, the first blade is blunt as a badger's ass, so they use another one for the next quarter, and so on.

"You know what, Ed, by the time we've finished shaving that fricking horse we've used 3 blades." Go figure!

Ever heard of Jim Cramer, the Mad Money financial stock-picking Booyah guru from CNBC and King of Prussia, NJ? I thought so. Do you like him? Maybe, maybe not.

There are loads of "better" TV entertainers out there, (Colbert is king of my TV castle) but Cramer is talk-worthy because he performs his show in the dry world of stocks and shares. And he is particularly talk-worthy because millions of ordinary people put faith in his ability to buy and sell stocks, and practically lay their financial life in his hands. That is Mad!

The first time I saw a clip of the show, the Lightening Round, I held my ears and thought it would be impossible to sit through an hour of that racket. Crazy talk. But I gave it another go, and to be fair, he is very entertaining, (chopping plastic bears' heads off with his Bowie knife); he is slightly anarchic (he took an MA in Communism at Harvard); and is not without wit and humor (he invested in a company offering psychiatric services and justified it as a good move at a time when hedge fund managers are jumping off buildings amidst the credit crunch) . He is also very passionate, as witnessed by his famed "The Feds know nothing rant." and apparently does make people mad money.

So how good is Cramer?

He was one of the stars of the 90's calling the crash ahead of time. So he made money off a half billion dollar fund when everyone was losing their shirt. And he runs a charitable trust, can own no shares of his own, and has a TV show at age 63. I guess he has credibility and a track record, no particular axe to grind and knows a lot more than most of us plebs. He also seems to genuinely want us to make mad money. So do you do everything he says?

What can Cramer teach us about stock-picking?

He does find interesting ways of looking at stocks and shares to buy into. Microtrends, the weather, contrarian views... as well as the safe stuff and best of breed big blue chips.

He does blow the lid on Wall Street practices too. Do you know how the big boys operate towards the end of a quarter for instance? Statistically, 80% of fund managers fail to outperform the market, so towards the end of every quarter they try to compensate for their inadequacies by driving the price of a good stock down - just in time for them to buy more and ride the surge back up. They can then report some better face saving numbers to customers and encourage more investment in their funds.

What wankers these conmen are! Not illegal, but not fair, especially if you are one of the small-time investors suckered into selling your "good" stock because you think the market knows something you don't. But now you know!

Cramer advises against instant decisions

Cramer teaches to never act immediately on a stock tip. In fact, one of his mantras is to wait 5 days after he gives advice (time to do research and let knee-jerk market movement settle down).

But it is wierd that another mantra of his is to never act on a stock tip from friends, or anyone! Bottom line, according to Jim, there is almost no positive motivation behind a nod and a wink to buy a certain stock. Either a hustler is trying to create demand for a crap company, or the news is insider info and illegal or... you get the idea. But somehow, the followers of Cramer act on HIS tips!

Not everyone rates Cramer!

I was reading a report in a forum by a guy who ran a Mad Money paper portfolio. He lost money. Then he ran a real portfolio and claims he did the opposite of what Cramer said. When Cramer yelled, "Buy, buy, buy." he sold, sold, sold, and vice versa. Out of 153 Cramer calls, he did the opposite and made money 132 times. Make of that what you will.

Do your homework

Cramer nearly always insists that you do your homework before acting. I have done my homework with the tiny stocks I own, and I am glad I didn't follow Cramer's advice with my modest holding in touchpad specialists, Synaptics.

Wednesday, Cramer yelled to not touch the stock. Loads of people who didn't know what they had on their hands, sold their holding. Ouch, people. Thursday night, as predicted by anyone who follows the advances in touchscreens in cellphones and touchpads in laptops, the SYNA boys did better than OK. Then they predicted even more blow-out earnings for the forseeable future. Today SYNA stock hit all-time highs, and is up about 12% from Wednesday's price. Sorry Mr Cramer, the future is touch screens!

Final move

Mad Money is fun, it is entertaining and it is educational. Whether it is your road to long term wealth, I dunno. If you have balls of steel and can keep track of all your profits and losses and eTrade fees at tax return time, his 18-month window / twist and turn approach is worth emulating. If not, try a more long term ignore the knee-jerks way.

After discovering the New England Lighthouses blog via MyBlogLog Sunday, I was a bit taken aback to learn that the author is calling it a day. She is fed up doing work that others are copying and taking the credit for.

I can understand how demoralising it must be to compile an article that requires research and creativity, only to see some robot take the credit for it elsewhere on the splog-a-net. It isn't right. The only consolation I can offer is that splogged bloggers, or sploggees, are in good company. Shakespeare copied Sir Francis Bacon, if you believe the historians.

On the plus side, if it is good enough to copy, it s good material! (Not my words by the way, I have few original thoughts in my head this morning.)

Protection from copyright thieves

So what can be done to avoid wholesale theft of original material?

Don't publish work on a publicly available platform. (How demoralising, to write a literary gem, only to have to lock it in your drawers for posterity. And how stressful to die in the hope that the people who discover your words after your death, attribute the work correctly. Being plagiarised in the grave is not a pretty prospect.)

Write your work in code and distribute the key to discerning readers. (That counts me out, I can't even de-code the numbers indicating which check-out desk is open at the supermarket.)

Start a Name and Shame website. (Debbie has a great blueprint. )

"Name and shame" could be one way to solve this problem using a unique site called "B.A.N. - Blogger Alert Network" or some catchy name where every blogger spotlights the "protected by B.A.N." link.

The B.A.N. Hall of Shame site would list any site using feeds and content without the author's permission or sites changing the name of the author.

She doesn't know how to set up and administer such a site, but maybe you do?

Get rid of copyright laws An ITH journalist champions the Dutch ideas on copyright. They say, ban copyright and instantly prevent corporate copyright holders from charging for access to culturally important entities. The Dutch say that important works should be available to the people at no cost. Hear, hear. (This is an easy thesis for a journalist to endorse, when your salary is paid by the newspaper publishing this sort of thesis!)

If you don't understand copyright laws, try this for size. And if you want to check if an article has been copied elsewhere, run it through - I can't find the site right now. HELP!!!!

And feel free to copy this article, it is linked to The Pisstakers!

Health warning The following has been brought to you by a person who has touched peanuts and eaten Pad Thai food within the last 24 hours. Ed also exceeded the speed limit in 2002, emits environmentally unfriendly methane and has contributed to landfill. You have been warned.

I was sent a great video of a German approach to carpentry. The ultimate "How to". Don't try this at home without a helmet.

The cell phone is the way ahead and I took a look at three mobile angles that you may or may not be familiar with. I expect in a few years time we will look back and think, "Did we pay that much to use the internet from our cells?" rather like we laugh at the cell phones of the 80's, but hey, we have to start somewhere.

Dog the bounty hunter is one of my favorite characters on TV and I had a little delve into his website and story. Don't jump bail in Hawaii, boys and girls, he WILL catch you.

Drum rolls and rockets please, for the latest Breaking News video broadcast about MyBlogLog Sunday.

Pictures are worth a thousand words - and there are words too, dedicated to MyBlogLog Sunday 30 and all who are involved with her. Enjoy, and let your peeps know about the hottest (only?) weekly feature related to the MyBlogLog community.

Share, blog, embed, Digg, Stumble, fall over yourselves to spread the word...



Many thanks guys.

There are reports of tens of thousands of riots every year in China. It is easy to jump on the bandwagon and decry the social system there, saying it is full of injustices peculiar to commie regimes, and it is terrible that rioting discontented citizens are shipped off to jail for expressing their unhappiness, blah, blah blah... I recall my English Industrial revolution history lessons (Luddites, deportation to Australia, mob rule) and perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to judge.

Industrial Revolution on TV

The Chinese are in the early stages of an Industrial Revolution, and with over 1 billion participants, it is no wonder there are such violent rifts in a huge society in flux. Uneven progress, disproportionate distribution of wealth yadda yadda are part of a fairly common pattern in the history of industrial revolution. Admittedly, the behavior of the authorities isn't acceptable from our cotton wool-wrapped perspective, but the only difference between the English and the Chinese experience is timing. This time, it is repeating before our very eyes in 2007 in glorious technicolor. Nasty, isn't it!

History repeats

In 2005, the Peking Duck reported a riot in their local town, where people revolted against corrupt officials and the practices of a pharmaceutical plant. It is like a repeat performance of English farmers burning down looms. Just no cameras to capture the moment.

A report from The India Daily, a paper writing out of a country that never has riots, relates,

Tens of thousands of villagers in China’s Zhejiang province rioted against police and security forces April 10, leaving some 50 police officers hospitalized, according to April 11th reports. The clash started after police tried to dislodge 200 elderly women from a camp they had established to protest pollution at an industrial site in Huankantou village, Dongyang city.

Again, a similar story, different time - women protesting about nuclear pollution in rural England in the 1980's had quite a bad time of it too. As did coal miners....Funny how we can move past periodic violent undemocratic behavior in the West, but somehow, unpleasant behavior elsewhere is really really bad and no good comes of it whatsoever!

Overall

The last time I looked, civil unrest is part and parcel of revolution. On the plus side, though, apart from rioting, positive progress is happening in China. 300 million fairly well off people now. Not bad. I have no idea if or when China will become tinsel town, but, if trade brings empowerment, the average Chinese worker will be better off, eventually.

Anyway, nothing is simple. We who buy trainers and cheap furniture are part of the process that drives people who work for pennies to rebel. And you can bet your bottom dollar that foreign CEOs turn a blind eye when rioting workers get a good hiding for revolting undemocratically against rich paymaster companies and powerful officials.

Rob rock 'n rolls around the internet & discovered a site called Jamendo where you can legally download albums for free. The bands are obscure, so although you can download, will you necessarily want to?

Although his brother came to a sticky end on Mount Penis, Lord Likely escaped death and was revived by the only squaw in the Red Rump Tribe. Reading is believing this amazing jaunt around America.

Sanibel Lighthouse gets an insanitary amount of attention on Debbie's excellent blog. Thousands of dead fish landed amidst a flood of theories on what caused their demise. Something stinks here.

Norman Roberts' photo blog, Innings, is a must visit. Quality images, haunting, telling, witty messages... he has it all covered. Check out No Subscription Required too. Everything video for free.

Save Our Forest gives 15 reasons to go vegetarian. Perhaps a non-meat diet will reduce chances of death from degenerative disease, but won't living on lettuce result 100% in death by starvation?

Ses is a computer geek with an imaginative About Me page. It is in the form of a Q&A session. She must rank as the smartest thing to come out of Belgium since, I dunno, Jean-Claude van Damme or Wavumi?

Split Brain have been performing electronic brain surgery since 2001. 300 RSS readers, hundreds of varied posts, and 2 launches paint a picture of persistence and smarts. Bookmark

Diane is to arts and crafts what Hannibal Lector is to human liver recipes - there seems to be no limit to her creativity. Paper, book-binding and "Paper, scissors, stone" it's all there.

N-n-n-n-nineteen, a video and song they tried to ban. N-n-n-n-never again will there be a repeat of Vietnam? N-n-n-n-o, it is different this time round. Average age of death, n-n-n-nearer 30.

OS9 User had a sleepless night pondering the upcoming video broadcast of MyBlogLog Sunday. It is easy for an outsider with no pressure to say relax & enjoy, but really, relax & enjoy. Let the muse take over.

OK - MyBlogLog Sunday is over for another day. I will be stumbling and admin-ing later because partying ghosties and ghoulies are taking over the house for a few hours!

I was talking to a lady with a broken leg in plaster who related a queer tale.

She was going to be taken to hospital by ambulance for a check-up. When they arrived to pick her up she was told, "Sorry, you can't bring your Zimmer frame, it is a Health and Safety hazard." No joke!

Sea horse

Another lady was telling me how she went with a bunch of friends to the beach to ride their horses. She said she felt a bit dizzy after riding through the waves for an hour and had to hold on tight as she lost her balance and nearly fell out her saddle. (It seems that the mix of horizon and breakers and bouncing up and down does that to you.)

It never occurred to her that a horse might get giddy too, but the next thing, she sees a friend's Clydesdale stop in its tracks before toppling sideways into the sea. At 18 hands and over a ton, it made quite a splash and quite an impression on the sand and the riders.

Welcome to the MyBlogLog Sunday 30 Halloween video broadcast - the compact sequel edition. Later today, the Breaking News team will scan their camera eye over the mini reviews and share some opinions and insights.

Look out for the finished vid later in the week and enjoy the moment (BN cameras are heading for pastures new to study other blogs, so this will be the last movie action here for some time.)

As usual, the 10 bloggers in the screenshot will get a mini review, a juicy PR5 backlink, plus a link to your MyBlogLog community... and for grins, I will stumble any posts from bloggers who leave a link to their own favorite post of the week.

MyBlogLog Sunday info links

Be back later. And this is last week's review from Breaking News.