theDrahos

Coca-Cola is the world’s best-known brand. In 2012, more than 1.8 billion people in more than 200 countries drank a Coke every day — that’s about one can or bottle for every four human beings on the planet. To create all the world’s Coke takes 79 billion gallons of water every year, added to a secret syrup of sugar (or high-fructose corn syrup), caffeine, coca leaf extract and flavourings. And an estimated eight thousand billion gallons of water is used to make the bottles and cans each year. When chemist John Stith Pemberton, from the U.S. state of Georgia, created … Continue reading →

This morning’s market is more erratic than Claire Danes off her lithium. Gold is soaring, the euro’s plunging, US treasury yields are in free fall, junk bonds are faltering, copper is bouncing, oil has rolled over, the Russell 2000 momos are getting mauled, the swissie has shot the moon, the Dow is knee-jerking down, correlations are failing……and the robo traders are flat-out lost. All praise the god of price discovery! For six years financial markets have been drugged into zombiedom by maniacal central bankers who have violated every known rule of sound money and financial market honesty. In expanding their collective balance sheets from … Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: We are no longer certain that the Swiss Water Method is safe, so please disregard our recommendation until we have an opportunity to do further research. For now, our recommendation is to avoid all decaffeinated tea and coffee. Decaffeinated drinks have been touted as a healthy alternative for several decades at the behest of the chemical industry, but these drinks are often more dangerous than the unmodified versions. Early decaffeination efforts were abruptly terminated because of the toxic solvents that were used in the process (benzene, chloroform, and trichloroethylene).  Of course, the F.D.A. is okay with benzene being … Continue reading →

The lawful owner of the 8,134 tonnes of official gold holdings of the United States is the US Treasury. The Federal Reserve handed over the official gold reserves to the Treasury in 1934 and in return received gold certificates – which, by the way, are not redeemable for gold, only for dollars, but that’s not the point now. The point is these gold certificates are still valued on the Fed’s balance sheet at $42.22 an ounce. The free market price of gold is currently about $1,200. The reason the US capped the value of gold on their books at $42.22 … Continue reading →

Most of us would like our vehicles to last a long time – and cost us as little money as possible during that time. Here are a few tips toward that end: * If your vehicle has a manual transmission, the first time you start the car in the morning – especially if it’s a cold morning – select neutral after starting the engine, gently release the clutch and let the car idle for about 30 seconds before driving off. This isn’t about warming up the engine(that’s no longer necessary, unless the car is very old and has a carburetor rather than … Continue reading →