cn & iq & add ons

I have added some gadgets in the right-hand column.  First, is a feature where someone can automatically receive daily updates of this blog by email.

Due to some inadvertent changes, if you subscribed to a news feed you may need to subscribe again.  Sorry.

Under the heading International  Time & Temp  (you may have to hit page down once or twice) there are clocks for IQ and CN as well as weather forecasts.  Why IQ?  I know an LT there and this might cause someone to remember him, especially with highs over 110 degrees daily and the lows sometimes get below 100. 

As mentioned in my March 23rd post, I'll be traveling to CN with three students for three weeks visiting four cities (Shanghai, Fuzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu). Since I'm leaving for CN on Friday, I also have the Shanghai weather forecast posted.  The CN time is easy if you are on EDT since it is 12 hours ahead -- just change a.m. to p.m. and p.m. to a.m. That is, 8 p.m. in NY is 8 a.m. the next morning in CN. 

If you check out the Shanghai weather you won't envy my traveling there.

The Chicago to Shanghai leg of my trip takes 27 1/2 hours on the clock but the return trip only 40 minutes.

So this week is being spent running around and trying to prepare for my departure and absence from NNY.

the five stupidest fatwas

The editors at ForeignPolicy.com came up with a list of the world's stupidest Islamic legal rulings. They are amusing, except for the fourth, which is quite tragic. Click HERE to see the list and explanations.

the great firewall of china

Many of you know that China censors the internet. Many sites are banned by the Great Firewall of China including many blogs (e.g., xanga and blogger).

You can test web sites in real time on the tool below. Just click the dot for Beijing or Shanghai (Hong Kong does not censor very much) and then enter the sites address or url. Go ahead, play around with it and see what they ban.



SLU's website and my personal website are allowed but not my blogs.

Doesn't it make you bloggers out there feel a little special being banned by government censors in the People's Republic of China?

It just shows you that those godless commies are afraid of us!

Be blessed.
RB

a new blogger and new pics

There is a new blogger in town: http://www.xanga.com/nymrsb

[Her Xanga lock should now be disabled.]

Pics upload #4 is the last for awhile. Pics from June until this past Monday are available HERE.

Be blessed!
RB

harry potter ending

If you want to know the ending to the latest and supposedly last Harry Potter book, just go here. From this link, you can also read about the hacker who claimed to have posted the book's ending earlier this week.

Just trying to save the non-Potter fans a little time and trouble.

Be blessed!
RB

science v. atheism

Is atheism is incompatible with science? You usually don’t hear this question in the popular press. The fundamental premise of atheism is that God does not exist. This is an untestable hypothesis. You can not do a real world test of God’s existence unless God makes his manifest presence known to all. I doubt this will happen until the Judgement Day.

It takes far too, too much of a blind leap of faith to be an honest, I-believe-in-science, rational atheist. The basis for atheism is inherently unscientific. How can you believe in something that, while conceptually possible, is quite impossible to prove and still be "scientific." It is much easier, in that it requires much, much less faith, to believe in a God who makes Himself real to you.

Atheism is making a bit of a comeback at least in terms of book publishing. In a critique of the “new atheism” in The Wall Street Journal (“The New New Atheism” by Peter Berkowitz, Monday 16 July 2007, p. A13) noted that four recent champions of godlessness have sold nearly a million copies of their books altogether. This is a lot of sales for this type of book.

I found the Berkowitz critique persuasive and it has gotten a lot of play in various blogs. On an atheist’s blog, someone commented, “Are these guys trying to make atheists look stupid?” Believe me, I feel her pain.

Science is incredibly useful but isn’t always able to clarify or settle all disputes over every aspect of reality. That’s OK. God can reveal Himself if and when He wants to really settle the issue of His existence. In fact, I know He will if you honestly ask Him.

Be blessed!
RB

pics upload #3

One album a day. Pics from May, mostly of our youngest son's prom, are available HERE.

Be blessed!
RB

pics upload #2

I'm a little behind, but I finally uploaded pics from my father-in-law's 80th birthday in early May. They are available HERE.

Be blessed!
RB

pics upload #1

I'm a little behind, but I just uploaded pics of the family together around Easter and other shots from March and April 2007. They are available HERE.

Be blessed!
RB

where is the world’s best performing stock market?

Zimbabwe, of course. This country in southeast Africa has a booming stock market, up 595 per cent this year and up about 12,000 per cent over the past twelve months. I know, you’re thinking there must be a catch. What about inflation? Well, Zimbabwe also has the world’s highest inflation rate. In April of this year the annual inflation rate was 3,714 per cent.

Do the math. The stock market grew more than three times faster than inflation. Take inflation out and the returns were still over 8,000 per cent. Zimbabwe still has the best performing stock market in the world.

Is it the economy? Incomes and output per person in Zimbabwe have fallen for eight consecutive years. Incomes and output are half of what they were in 2000. The consensus is that the country’s economy is imploding.

Robert Mugabe, president since independence has got the printing presses going, pumping out massive amounts of the Zimbabwe dollar.
As you can see, it is a very lovely, nicely designed currency. It is just not worth much. A few days ago you would have needed three thousand of these 500ZW$ bills to buy a single US$.

What would you do if you had a pile of the newly minted currency? If you hold on to the cash, it will soon be worth much less. Each month the ZW$ loses two-thirds of its purchasing power. There is not much left to buy because production is imploding. It takes too much time to buy property or whatever large physical assets are left. (Ever closed on a house?)

What can you buy quickly? That’s right: stocks of Zimbabwean corporations. Outside of the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe has (had?) the most developed financial system in Africa, actually quite decent for a developing country. So buying shares of stock can be done quickly and easily.

What we have in the Zimbabwean stock market is a very unusual bubble. The excess money supply flows very quickly into the stock market, driving up prices.

Is it time to sell stock before the bubble bursts? (Assuming you had Zimbabwean stocks.) Think about it. If you got out of the market, what would you do with the ZW$’s?

If you regularly read this blog, you know I am an advocate of indexed mutual funds for various types of stocks, bonds and property. It is pretty dull though. Of course, another down side is missing special and interesting investment opportunities that come along like the Zimbabwean stock market.

I’ll get over it. I'll take dull.

Be blessed!
RB