Fed to markets: Let the bubble blow David Callaway – MarketWatch

Fed to markets: Let the bubble blow David Callaway – MarketWatch

Posted using ShareThis

The FTC and the Bamboo-zling

The FTC recently released a “Consumer Warning” regarding Bamboo Fabric and I have seen several blogs and news articles that have covered the story. The one thing that seems to be missing in every case are the facts. The fact is that Bamboo Fabric, which is made using the Rayon process, is in fact made from Bamboo. The FTC claims that after this process there is “no trace of bamboo”. This is not a fact. The fact is that the cellulose even after being broken down during the preocess is still in the finished fabric, or else we could just make it with air!

The other fact, which has been tested by Chinese Textile researchers as well as Japan’s Textile researchers, is the properties of anti bacterial qualities in the finished fabric. The FTC listed no test results whatsoever. According to the Japanese research, after 50 washes the material impregnated with bacteria resolved 70% of the bacteria. China found it to alleviate 99.8% of bacteria imbedded in the fiber. These are independent tests and were not included in the FTC’s findings.

Treehugger.com recently reported on the FTC release with complete complacency for the information, which was responded to by Mo from Bamboosa (one of the four companies charged by the FTC).. He says, in response to the FTC’s anti-microbial claims:

On the second point, (antimicrobial properties) we sent test results to the FTC showing 100% ‘viscose from bamboo’ fabric tested positive for antimicrobial properties. Unfortunately, we also sent them, in the over 200 pages of documents, the test results for one particular fabric that did not test as antimicrobial. The FTC’s assessment of this data was that it was ‘inconclusive’. We are not sure how they went from ‘inconclusive’ to the statement issued in their press release that the product in question was NOT antimicrobial. We are having additional testing done that we hope will satisfy the FTC’s requirement for substantiation.

Another fact that seems to be missing in almost every blog and news article is the fact that only one of the four companies charged with making false claims (Bamboo Fabric and antimicrobial) agreed to the terms set by the FTC regarding the fabric. The other three companies are not. The fact is that, although bamboo fabric is Fabric made from bamboo, the FTC does not recognize it, and according to Mo,

“The FTC does not recognize any fiber called ‘bamboo fiber’. ‘Bamboo fiber’ does not exist because the FTC says is doesn’t. Even if the fiber in question was produced via a different method such as mechanically, without the use of any chemicals, it could still not be called bamboo fiber.”

The question in my mind, and for the future of sustainable causes in the US is, when do we hold the Government of the US responsible for making false and misleading statements in the wake of an industrial nightmare that our predessesors unconscious behavior, or do we just keep buying crap that is killing the planet?

Bamboo Clothing

In 2002 one of 2* Chinese Textile Companies decided to use bamboo instead of wood in the Rayon process and came up with a new fabric. Many different fabrics have since been created out of the idea including; terry, jersey, linens, and some high end fabric made out of bamboo charcoal. It wasn’t originally intended to be a sustainable choice, but has rather started to become that on its own due to the nature of growing bamboo vs. wood.

Bamboo can grow in several temperate climates and requires no pesticides or fertilizers in order to grow. It can be harvested over and over without ever replanting and is the fastest growing plant on the planet. It can grow up to 4 ft. in one hour during certain growing cycles. You can actually watch it grow.

Some of the natural qualities that stay in the fabric are the natural qualities of the bamboo. Bamboo is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and hypo-allergenic. Perfect for anyone with sensitive skin, and so soft and comfortable that it will gradually replace many of your favorite clothes.

Bamboo Clothing Co. one of the many new companies offering bamboo has focused on graphic design, but also offers plain t-shirts, and has plans to introduce many other affordable lines of new clothing for yoga and casual wear. BCC was one of the most affordable of the new lines I have researched and include shipping cost into the shirt price so you know what your paying for and don’t get caught by surprise at checkout.

They also have a lot of information on their Bamboo page about bamboo; everything from growing it to types and climate regions, as well as fabrics and other information. There is even a blog about a bamboo fiber bike frame! There are so many benefits to bamboo that are still being researched, so check out this site from time to time as they continue to add new findings. Word has it that Woody Harrelson is putting together a bamboo and hemp ski clothing business.

I got a chance to try some of the shirts and I will have a hard time going back to some of my old favorites. I am amazed at how soft and comfortable they are, especially on a hot muggy day. One of my friends said they had to keep looking down to make sure they were really wearing something, it is so soft.

The Mathmatics of Economics (revisited)

The shortest point between two distances is a straight comment.
It’s simple mathmatics really; if you take the transcontinental railroad
and divide it by the country, you get the first National Corporation;
multiply that by the media squared and you get the population cubed.

Now divide the population by religion,
subtract the truth from education
and multiply that by terrorism
and you get a icon that occupies a sphere

This makes thermodynamics and inertia possible thusly;
an objective economy in motion will stay in motion
until it is acted upon by an outside war;
this inversly purportional to (oil times the media) squared
over the population.

now lets consider the 2nd law of thermodynamics;
the losses in 3rd world economic health
must be considered acceptable,
in order to keep inflation from… well inflating.

labor plus healthcare, minus 1st world compassion,
equals polution.
it’s cheaper to bury the dead there; and labor without benefits
equals microwaves and color TVs.
It’s a perfect solution. (for mathmaticians)

Without this “acceptable” loss in thermodynamic theory
1st world economics fails to dictate real-world dynamics
and the media squared over the population
become imaginary numbers.

so… without math, there could be no order;
and without order, there could be no economy, therefor;
the New World Order…
is simple mathmatics

The NBA Belongs to the Ref’s

I am still marveling on the officiating in tonights game. So many aggressive plays un-called and so many called to intently, if you ask me. I have seen 2 players on the Nuggets get away with flagrant fouls. One of them was a two handed push in the back. He was later bumped up to a flagrant foul 1, which wasn’t assessed in the game, which sucks because there would have been 2 free throws and the Lakers getting the ball back. Too much of the games momentum has fallen into the hands of the officials, and that kind of power cannot be trusted. It could easily lead to officials accepting money to control the momentum of the game.

It has always been a good practice for officials to call a game with an even temper. This has not been the case with this series, and I’ve got to wonder if my favorite sport is going the way of the Wrestling World?

The play that blew my mind was the intentional tripping of Kobe, which wasn’t even called a foul, let alone flagrant. What’s that saying. There were 3 officials standing there, who get paid to watch the whole floor. Paid, man! If a player tells the officials he was intentionally tripped, and there going to assess the foul at some later point, then why not right then. We saw the replay 12 times on TNT. We all saw it! How do you think this will effect the fans of the team you called, while ignoring the other?

I know there is a lot of confusion out there amoung ref’s trying to do the right thing and call the game fairly, but when I have to listen to the announcers state there favorite on one team while criticizing the other throughout the game, while the refs are showing a heavy hand toward one team and showing lenience toward the other one play later, it starts looking a bit scripted. Are you sure they are playing against each other Mr. Stearn? Do you investigate your own refs, or do you leave that to the local authorities?

Look Phil! I just gotta tell you something!

Look Phil, I know that you’ll never get around to reading this right now, what with the Play-offs and all, but I would like to say that if you were listening I would want you to hear this.

First off I love that you been given Arriza more playing time, I mean the guy has got it going on against this team, coach! I gotta say that, and don’t take me the wrong way on this but, Fisher just isn’t the playmaker we need on point guard right now. I really like the guy, but to be honest with you nothin person, I really think Farmar blossemed into a great player this year. He was definitely available from time to time before but the other night when he took charge and started hitting everyone underneath with those miraculous passes. I saw the ghost of Scotty Pippen, or even what’s his name on The Phoenix Sons; that really quick white guy… Anyway.

I just think you ought to consider Bynum, Gasol, Kobe, Farmar, and Arriza as your starting five and leave them till their like fingers on a hand. This will flourish for years. These guys are all young and healthy and the potential just blasts out of them in spurts, when we could be submerged in their greatness. How would you like 5 more rings Phil? Can you see it?!

Geez Phil! Thanks so much for listenin. I hope this stuff will help you get through the finals so you can start polishing that Red Auerbach victory! Just trust me on this one coach. I know it’s right fucking on!

Politicking: The New Media Century

Lately we’ve heard about the wrestling match going on between the Senate and the White House Administration about when, how and if we should close Guantanamo Bay. Better known as Gitmo. This battle, or war, is being defined by the PR through the public response to the information being passed to us through the Media. You might ask the question, “is there some other way to understand what’s going on?”.

Lets just look at the campaign without the blinders. First we have the campaign promises of Obama on the road to the White House. The next thing we hear is that a one year commitment Obama made to look into the facts about the prisoners being held there so that a plan for dealing with them can be created. The funny part are the things that begin to happen after this.

Next Obama requests 80 million dollars from Congress in order to properly transfer, try and relocate these prisoners according to their threat levels, the evidence surrounding their suspicions, and whether or not they deserve to be released, not to mention everyone’s desire to keep all the secrets secret. Whatever that means.

Now if we look at the dynamics that are occurring in the media we begin to see an array of complexities that are being introduced by the different measures of PR Politicking that is appearing in the press. This is where TV Media gets most of its sources for our prime time viewing. The front page of the NY Times online, for instance, started with not only the articles regarding the events occurring in Congress and the White House, but suddenly there appears this article about a one year investigation that ended in the arrest of several people that, according to the NY Times, have no Terrorist affiliations. Their plan, according to their sources, was to plant an explosive in a car and detonate it at a Jewish Temple.

The investigation, supposedly, lasted for a full year before any arrests were made, and its got me wondering why so long. The fact is that just because someone is accused of something doesn’t make it real until they are convicted fairly, but in America it has become popular to convict people in the media, especially if it runs concurrent to timely events.

Well, someone at the White House must read the papers pretty early, because the next thing that happens is the White House announces that President Obama will appear before the public on the same day to present his case to the American People and to discredit the actions and legal council of the previous administration. And suddenly, this is the new NY Times Headline! That’s when it hit me that this was all a chess game of PR to form an opinion, in the minds of the people, that will allow the course of future events surrounding the prisoners in Guantanamo, to become the path of least resistance. Like parting the Red Sea, so that events can travel through the path created instead of creating one based on facts and truth.

To me this has all become the reasons why we will never, under these conditions, reach any of the goals that were laid down by Obama when he was running for President. People always talk about “how Washington operates”, and from this brief look at the politics of our media, I can see that it is a combination of Lobbyist powers (private and governmental) coupled with the Media Game, and the numbers in their ingenious poles. This is entirely built on the foundation that people, as a mass response, are dictated by their emotional bond with the story behind why we embrace certain points rather than the truth involved.

The second Iraq invasion is a perfect example of how American’s can be blinded into seeing justification within the perfect lie. Their PR work on the ‘War on Terror’ was so effective that Obama must now confront the existing momentum of those past policies in order to change course. He will have to prove to the American People that the things they were doing, speaking of the past Administration, were quote: “unjust, haphazard, ad hoc approach”. The old PR slant was to push people into thinking that Democrats were NOT tough on Security Issues. Then Cheney appears out of nowhere to refute Obama’s claims against the Bush Administration, and this will go on for a week.

This is slightly off topic, but has a similar relationship to the dynamics I’m seeing. Last night I watched a documentary on Frazetta, an artist whose work became so popular on science fiction novels that publishers wanted to buy his art before they had a novel to put it on. People would buy the books just because he had done the art on the cover, regardless of the content. Our Pop Media has become so caught up in this that the momentum alone has become bigger than any one reporter, or team or paper, or network.

This is what the decline of a culture looks like. When truth becomes someones slant and facts are things we say ending in the phrase, “these are the facts”. And, if you don’t believe me just ask someone for there opinion about something recent in the news and you will get quotes from whatever news agency they preach. Then try to point out any real facts you have uncovered and see where the conversation goes. I’d like to say it’s fun, but it’s not. It’s a bit sad if you ask me.

Last Night on TV

So, last night I’m watching the La Lakers take the first game of the Western Conference Finals (online of course) and I get to watch all the commercials on ESPN. Some of you might think that’s a bit odd, but I don’t have access to commercial television; no cable or satellite dish, just my internet connection.

All through the game I saw a lot of different advertising and this one I couldn’t believe. First of all Toyota is advertising their prius and it’s Green Appeal, and then I see this Cadillac Escalade commercial and it hits me that this whole GM bailout is going to fail, sure as shit. How is this any different?

Toyota and Honda are both selling cars that people need in order to meet with the changes coming, frankly gasoline cannot last for ever and these things can get 50 mpg. What does an Escalade get for mileage. I don’t even care. Like I said I don’t even own cable..

It amazes me we even bothered bailing anything out at all, the banks the insurers and the automakers can fold and I don’t think I would miss them at all. It seems to me that they got themselves into this mess, right!?

But, promising the American Government that it would change directions and then going on like “business as usual”, minus the layoffs, factory closures, and dealer closings. Don’t worry we’ll help you stretch out that failure, while we let our factory workers and and sales people find something else to do.

Personally I believe that all that bailout money would have been far more wisely spent on education, because the people running these companies obviously missed out on economics 101…

My Name is America, and I’m a Power-aholic…

Since the dawn of Power, Nations have sought to control the world through political and military strength. It is quite rare that countries and there power are ever totally honest about their own repercussions unless they are defeated by the next leader of the “Known World”.

For the last two years (one of the longest campaigns in history) we have heard about the “Change” embraced by the Obama Administration, but what does that mean. Well, according to Alex, change means to fix the pipes that are broken. Bronco says that it is an inherent trait of every administration to build new things in order to leave a mark in history, but the problems are underground, in those pipes.

What really needs to change in America lately seems to be the need to change. We live in a two party political system that swings like a rusty pendulum, where nothing ever really seems to change at all. It’s renamed or ignored and the thing that does seems to change is usually the etiquette defining the behavior surrounding it, rather than the thing itself. If you don’t believe me try ending some pork barrel project in the democratic whip’s state.

Seriously, we all just need to get used to it. Franky nothing short of a total overhaul of Washington will accomplish a thing, because no matter what it’s just going to keep pretending to represent the people and will continue to support the special interests of politicians that benefit from their constituents political payoffs, in the form of campaign funding. It’s all about getting and keeping you position, rather than sacrificing any political future to do what is right for the individuals whom you represent.

America needs to go to Rehab, and get off the politico-Crack it’s high on. And the media, which is supposed to be the public watch dog, has way fallen short of it’s duties, suffering the same addictive behaviors that Washington is suffering from, which is the threat of being cut off by the dealers that are swinging the Blonde, Gold the political system is all cracked out on!

“Half measures availed us nothing.. We stood at a turning point” and guess what happens if nothing changes… you got it, “Nothing Changes”!

Come on Stern. It’s Basketball, not BasketBrawl!

This year watching the NBA Finals has been a bit rough for my tastes. I mean, I’ll be honest. I don’t really much care for Football for 2 reasons, 1). It violent! When I was younger I saw Bo Jackson break his hip and stopped watching the sport. The other reason is that it stops after every play for huddles and shit, which is boring. Same with Baseball… boring, but Basketball constantly moves and strikes an elegance in the dance of players moving on offense and defense. Anyway..

Last nights Lakers Houston Playoff games was brutal, but I could see it coming from the previous games I had watched in the first round match-ups. It is common, from what I understand, for the refs to give more leave when it comes to calling quick fouls in the Playoffs vs. the regular season. Sure it gets more press to have 2 players thrown out for raising their tempers, but honestly it could have all been avoided. I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to keep the game clean when it comes to the playoffs. These teams got here by playing good basketball, and not by breaking the other teams spirits by constantly pushing them physically. I just want to go on record as saying I don’t like it!

Lets get back to basics. Teams should come ready to play and not ready to fight. It just annoys me to see shirts being grabbed and held onto and no foul called. Or seeing players hit someone harder than they normally would just to prove a point to the other player that they can play rough to.. Just do it! Right! Call the fouls ref! Make it you duty to help players by alleviating their need to retaliate. Keep it clean!