Category: Aggregated

You may have noticed that men are looking so clean-shaven these days! While some men like to let their facial hair fill in for extra warmth during the colder season, others have just shaven off their “Movember” moustaches. If you aren’t familiar with the term Movember, let me explain: The month of November is dedicated to men supporting prostate cancer research – and growing a formidable moustache for a good cause. To celebrate the close of this annual prostate cancer awareness campaign, I’d like to take a moment to recap what we know about the risk, treatment and prevention for … Continue reading →

Jacques Chirac, when he was mayor of Paris, offered the municipal workers a deal: They could have a short workweek if in exchange they agreed to verification that they actually worked during those hours. The workers, or their leaders, rejected the offer with contumely, from which the most likely conclusion is that they were already working fewer hours than the mayor proposed, and wanted to keep this secret from the public. Other interpretations for their refusal are possible, of course, for example that the municipal workers were so imbued by public spirit that they wanted to work as many hours … Continue reading →

Geeky is the new sexy. If, like me, you love a good puzzle, then you’re no longer just someone who’s up for a wordsearch of a Sunday afternoon. No, you’re a zeitgeist-busting puzzle-solver. And puzzle-solvers are cool now. Whether it’s Mark Zuckerberg’s hackathons or otterfaced heart throb Benedict Cumberbatch in the Imitation Game, our stock is high. NSA coder Edward Snowdon is so popular that there are multiple agencies desperate to get their hands on him. With the summer ahead, I’ve packed in the puzzle books and plan to spend long hours by the pool cryptic-crossword-ing away. But now there’s … Continue reading →

For the last three weeks, gold has experienced something that has never happened before – hedge funds aggregate net position has been short for the first time in history.   However, as Dana Lyons notes, this week saw another ‘historic’ shift in gold positioning as commercial hedgers shifted to the least hedged since 2001… so the ‘fast’ money is chasing momentum and the ‘smart’ money is lifting hedges into them. Via Dana Lyons’ Tumblr, It’s no secret that commodities have taken a drubbing during the deflationary spiral over the past year. And precious metals have been right up front in … Continue reading →

Lew Rockwell ran my article on going to jail for not filing your tax returns. I was besieged by the victims of jailhouse lawyers who use word magic to beat the IRS. How dare I say such a thing! The IRS can be beaten by saying the magic words! One of them said these gurus are courageous. I replied: “They are fools.” He then sent my reply — no confidentiality — to his IRS-beating guru, an ex-con. I got back a letter from the guru. None of the people whose checks and filed forms in the loooonnnnng stack of links … Continue reading →

All war is a crime. There is no such thing as a “good war.” As the great Benjamin Franklin said, “there is no good war; and no bad peace.” We are now in the midst of the annual debate over the atomic bombing of Japan by the United States. Seventy years ago this week, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing or injuring some 140,000 people. A few days later, a second atomic weapon was dropped on Nagasaki,  causing 80,000 casualties. Most of the dead in both cities were civilians. Passionate debate has raged ever since between those … Continue reading →