Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 10, 2013

Amazing things are happening in technology……

• The Samsung S4 launch will be on Wednesday
• Rumoured features include wireless charging and ‘eye scroll’ screen

The iPhone may face its biggest challenge for supremacy in the smartphone market this week with the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy.

In what has been described by some as the most eagerly awaited technology release of the year, the Galaxy S4 will be unveiled in New York on Wednesday and rumours are the device will feature eye control.

Category: Commentary, Inspirational, National News, Research, Technology, Tid Bits, Uncategorized, Wall Street | 2 Comments »
Tags: Apple Worm, Cell, cell phones, Eye Control, High Tech, Launch, Magic, New Launch;Samsung;Worm, Phones, Technoligy

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 9, 2013

Yep, just as we thought, nobody likes the rules being changed as described below in this make believe scenario involving golf. Why? Because it gives an unfair advantage to those that didn’t earn it. The government is doing similar things involving almost every aspect of our lives. So then what makes it so hard to understand? Well, let’s look at an example. To put it all in perspective, we can look at the new health-care rules. Aah, now everything going on with the new normal of unlimited government support becomes much easier to comprehend.  Capice!

Special Notice To All Golfers:

The Government has recently appointed a Golf Czar and major rule changes in the game of Golf are now being posted.  They will become effective as of April 2013. All private golf country clubs will now be nationally regulated. Special subsidies will be given to anybody who wants to join but can’t afford to. Golf balls are now free to all entitlement card holders. Food stamps will be accepted in the private dining area and for green fee’s.  Existing private members will be taxed a 50% executive tax surcharge for the current year, 100% next year and 200% there after.  

Below is a preview as the complete rule book (expect 20,000 pages) is being rewritten as we speak. The new rule book will be available to members in paper back for $200.00 per copy. Non members will receive a hard bound collectors edition for free but must show a government entitlement card. 

Here are a few of the notable changes in the” New Golf Rule Book”.

Golfers with handicaps: Revised Rules

~ below 10 will have their green fees increased by 100%. 
~ between 11 and 18 will see an increase in green fees of 50%. 
~ above 18 will get a $40 check each time they play.

The term “gimme” will be changed to “entitlement” and will be used as follows:

Cursing will not be tolerated from equity club members. Upon the second cursing tirade, the equity member’s clubs will be impounded and redistributed to an entitlement holder. The entitlement cursing redistribution list is located in the pro shop, now renamed the community shop.  Cursing and bad sportsmanship from an entitlement holder is totally understandable due to their inequity.

~ handicaps  below 10, no entitlements.
~ handicaps from 11 to 17, entitlements for putter length putts.
~ handicaps above 18, if your ball is on green, no need to putt, just pick it up.

These entitlements are intended to bring about fairness and, most importantly, equality in scoring.

In addition, a Player will be limited to a maximum of one birdie or six pars in any given 18-hole round.

Any excess must be given to those fellow players who have not yet scored a birdie or par. Only after all players have received a birdie or par from the player actually making the birdie or par, can that player begin to count his pars and birdies again.

The current USGA handicap system will be used for the above purposes, but the term ‘net score’ will be available only for scoring those players with handicaps of 18 and above.

This is intended to ‘redistribute’ the success of winning by making sure that in every competition, the above 18 handicap players will post only ‘net score’ against every other player’s gross score.  

These new Rules are intended to CHANGE the game of golf  because the President says it’s the “right thing to do”.

Golf must be about Fairness and Equality.   It should have nothing to do with Ability, Hard Work, Practice, and Responsibility.    

Wise Dog

Category: Commentary, Inspirational, Jokes, Tid Bits | 17 Comments »
Tags: Change, Equality, Fairness, Go Joe, gold, New, Rules, Tiger

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 8, 2013

Here are the key words from below:  Two categories of spending represent 12.5% of all discretionary spending. These costs go up when the economy is weak, they have never, repeat never declined.

Consider just these two components of the discretionary spending budget; (1) Food Stamps, and (2) the Earned Income and Child Credits.

1) Food Stamps cost the government $82b in 2012, up from $25b in 2003 (325% increase).

2) The Earned Income and Child Credits cost $80b, up from $33b in 2003 (240% increase).

Bruce Krasting

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags: Economy, Food, food stamps, Free, Gifts, Giveaway, Government, spending, Stamps

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 8, 2013

Hmm….the average working age person has only about $79,651 saved up for retirement. That works out to about  $416 per mounth of retirement payout if retiring at age 62.

ICI recently released their retirement plan data through Q3 of 2012. The chart of the day shows the real (inflation adjusted) total retirement market assets per working age citizen in the U.S. This includes IRA’s, defined contribution plans, private defined benefit plans, state and local government pension plans, federal pension plans, and annuities.

The good news is that the liquidity induced rally over the last four years has finally, along with plan matches and contributions, recovered much of the lost value that occurred during the financial crisis in 2008. The bad news is, as shown below, that on average each working age person has roughly only $79,651 saved up for retirement and is no better off today than they were in 1999.

There are two major problems that arise from this. The first is that for individuals trying to save for their retirement they have lost 14 years of irreplaceable time to do so. In 1999 an individual with 15 years to retirement had plenty of time to get there. That is not the case today as they stare retirement in the face and come to the realization that working through their golden years will have to be seriously considered.

Secondly, consumption makes up roughly 70% of the overall economy. With incomes stagnant, and personal savings rates below 3%, the spread between the cost of living and incomes continues to widen. In turn, consumption is crimped keeping economic growth weak which exacerbates job creation, income increases and overall prosperity. With the average income at roughly $55,000 per year – retirees have little margin of error with only 18 months of incomes saved up in retirement plans.

Street Talk Live

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 48 Comments »
Tags: Data, Money, Payouts Assets Chart of the Day, retirement, Saved

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 3, 2013

So……

A New Study Shows 59% of “Tuna” Sold in the U.S. Isn’t Tuna

The non-profit group Oceana took samples of 1,215 fish sold in the U.S. and genetic tests found that that 59% of those labeled tuna were mislabeled.

It seems that “white tuna” should be avoided in particular as “84% of fish samples labeled “white tuna” were actually escolar, a fish that can cause prolonged, uncontrollable, oily anal leakage.”

And if you live in New York City, you should pay particular attention:

Big Apple has big problem with seafood fraud: 94 percent of tuna and more than three quarters of sushi samples in New York City mislabeled.

Of the 142 fish samples collected in New York, 39 percent were mislabeled. New York City led the nation with the highest occurrence of mislabeled salmon as well as the highest amount of fraud among salmon collected from grocery stores and restaurants.

The full report from Oceana can be found here.

 by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog and www.zerohedge.com

Category: Commentary, Commodities, Healthcare and Science, National News, Tid Bits, Uncategorized | 31 Comments »
Tags: Charlie, Fishy, Oceans, Something Fishy, Tuna

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 1, 2013

How do we define austerity?  Quit simply we think it means that out into the future… “we’re all going to be poorer”.

This sets up a bad game, and looking at the view of the field, it really doesn’t look anything like the ticket they sold us……more specifically, we have  “bad seats, hey buddy…front row behind a pole, and we just sat on a nail!”

The US consumer gave back all the December gains and then much following news that while spending did nothing, and came in as expected at 0.2%, personal income imploded by 3.6% on estimates of a modest 2.4% drop. This was the biggest drop in personal income in 20 years  just as the US consumer’s confidence was soaring at least according to UMich data.

The personal saving rate, which crashed from 6.4% to 2.4%, the lowest since November 2007, and leaving Americans with the least purchasing power just as the full impact of a government that is flirting with austerity is starting to be felt. And just as bad was the material 4% pullback in real disposable personal income which is adjusted for inflation.

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth, Tid Bits, Wall Street, World News | 23 Comments »
Tags: austerity, Bad Seats Hey Buddy, Blocked View, Confidence, Free Everything, Government money, Nails, Poles, Purchasing Power, Saving Rate, Savings Rate

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on February 27, 2013

In some cases, a picture is worth a thousand words….in this case, we’re in the trillions.

www.jsmineset.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Wall Street, World News | 3 Comments »
Tags: Budget Cuts, Federal Spending, politics, Trillions, Yep

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on February 27, 2013

What a nightmare…..We spend almost 20% of our gross domestic product on health care in the U.S., and that figure continues to climb.

In the U.S., people spend almost 20% of the gross domestic product on health care, compared with about half that in most developed countries. Yet in every measurable way, the results our health care system produces are no better and often worse than the outcomes in those countries.

According to one of a series of exhaustive studies done by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm, we spend more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia. We may be shocked at the $60 billion price tag for cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy. We spent almost that much last week on health care. We spend more every year on artificial knees and hips than what Hollywood collects at the box office. We spend two or three times that much on durable medical devices like canes and wheelchairs, in part because a heavily lobbied Congress forces Medicare to pay 25% to 75% more for this equipment than it would cost at Walmart.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 10 of the 20 occupations that will grow the fastest in the U.S. by 2020 are related to health care. America’s largest city may be commonly thought of as the world’s financial-services capital, but of New York’s 18 largest private employers, eight are hospitals and four are banks. Employing all those people in the cause of curing the sick is, of course, not anything to be ashamed of. But the drag on our overall economy that comes with taxpayers, employers and consumers spending so much more than is spent in any other country for the same product is unsustainable. Health care is eating away at our economy and our treasury.

The health care industry seems to have the will and the means to keep it that way. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical and health-care-product industries, combined with organizations representing doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, health services and HMOs, have spent $5.36 billion since 1998 on lobbying in Washington. That dwarfs the $1.53 billion spent by the defense and aerospace industries and the $1.3 billion spent by oil and gas interests over the same period. That’s right: the health-care-industrial complex spends more than three times what the military-industrial complex spends in Washington.

When you crunch data compiled by McKinsey and other researchers, the big picture looks like this: We’re likely to spend $2.8 trillion this year on health care. That $2.8 trillion is likely to be $750 billion, or 27%, more than we would spend if we spent the same per capita as other developed countries, even after adjusting for the relatively high per capita income in the U.S. vs. those other countries. Of the total $2.8 trillion that will be spent on health care, about $800 billion will be paid by the federal government through the Medicare insurance program for the disabled and those 65 and older and the Medicaid program, which provides care for the poor.

That $800 billion, which keeps rising far faster than inflation and the gross domestic product, is what’s driving the federal deficit. The other $2 trillion will be paid mostly by private health-insurance companies and individuals who have no insurance or who will pay some portion of the bills covered by their insurance. This is what’s increasingly burdening businesses that pay for their employees’ health insurance and forcing individuals to pay so much in out-of-pocket expenses.

From John Mauldin’s Thoughts From The Front Line

Category: Commentary, Economy, Healthcare and Science, National News | 14 Comments »
Tags: health, healthcare, Medical, spending

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on February 20, 2013

Interesting tid bit’s…..

Pennies and nickels have cost more than their face value to mint since 2006……and Since 2012, the penny has cost almost 2 cents to make and the nickel more than 10 cents, according to the U.S. Mint’s annual report released in January. Those prices have almost doubled over the past seven years.

But if you thought a penny is still made of copper, nope, not since 1982.

Here’s how a penny looks by composition:

1909-1942: 95% copper and 5% tin/zinc mixture.

1943: Zinc-coated steel; 2.7 grams

1944-1946 (and part of 1942): 95% copper and 5% zinc

1947-1961: 95% copper and 5% tin/zinc mixture.

1962-1982: 95% copper and 5% zinc

1982-Current: 2.5% Copper (Cu); 97.5% Zinc (Zn.) (official);

0.8% Copper (Cu); 99.2% Zinc (Zn.) (actual); 2.5 grams

And, how about a nickel…..well, here we still have a nickel composition…sort of!

1938-Current  Jefferson Nickels Composition….

25% nickel and 75% copper…..

Category: Commentary, Gold and Silver, National News, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags: Cents 5 Cents, Money, Nickels, Penney For Your Thought

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on January 13, 2013

10,000 Boomers turn 65 years old every day. Here is how it looks on a chart.  Empty nut shells piled high for the old folks….

These costs will be exceeding $1 trillion per year in the near future. Meanwhile, the number of workers per retiree will continue to fall as it has for decades. In 1945 there were 42 workers per retiree. In 1965 there were 5 workers per retiree. Today there are less than 2.5 workers per retiree. There are only 1.6 full time private workers for every one retiree. With Obamacare working its magic of destroying jobs across the land, there is much less revenue going into the Social Security System. The system is unsustainable and ignoring the problem will not make it go away.

A recent article on Bloomberg below barely scratches the surface of the massive fraud going on in the SSDI program. Those who think we owe them a living are faking disabilities by the millions. The number of annual applications were flat at 2.1 million per year between 2004 and 2007. They now exceed 3 million per year, as the Obama administration has actively attempted to get more people on the dole. In a matter of a couple years, there were suddenly 40% more people getting disabled. Amazing!!!

Shockingly, as 1.4 million people have been kicked off the 99 week unemployment rolls, the number of people applying for SSDI skyrocketed. Just because Wall Street and areas of corporate America commit fraud on a massive scale does not mean we should look the other way when lowlifes in our community do the same thing on a smaller scale. The working middle class pays the bill for the cost of both frauds. More than 90% of all the people who go onto SSDI never go back to work. This program was supposed to be short term until people could recover and go back to work. There are now 8.83 million people so disabled, they supposedly can’t work. There are only 12 million officially unemployed people in the country. The government is so incompetent, they barely check the applications for SSDI. Anyone with an ounce of brain power (this disqualifies anyone on MSNBC) knows that at least 50% of the people on SSDI are capable of some form of employment.

by Jim Quinn from The Burning Platform

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth, Pictures | 6 Comments »
Tags: broke, Facts, Nut Shells, pensions, Piles, Review, Social Security Charts

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on January 13, 2013

Here are some interesting numbers on life expectancy from different countries around the world….2007 being the most recent data used in a number of studies.

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Healthcare and Science, National News | 49 Comments »
Tags: Elderly, Life Expectancy, Life Spans, Living Long, longivity, Old Age, Old Folks, retired

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on December 9, 2012

How about that!   Just over a mind-boggling 50 million Americans are living in absolute poverty while collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person.    

Here’s a fictitious account of how food stamp day might go……..No time to work just got hooked up for some free money, gotta go wait in that long food stamp line, it goes down the street and around the corner, across a busy bridge and then up, over and around the river road to the big building with an American flag flying.  Hmm, think’in this might be more work then a job.    Oh well, finally got my food stamp money and it’s off to Walmart…what a crowd on food stamp night, finished up and heading back home where the mortgage is in default, but hey, it’s free rent until the banks get around to kicking everyone out, that should take a year or two or never.  Oh well, all of that hard work collecting my free food stamp money tires oneself out, so it’s time to relax and turn on the new big screen TV and have a nice sit down TV diner, then maybe a late snack.  Boy oh boy how time flies… on the first day of food stamps, who would have thunk it’s bed time already. Wow, been a tough tiring day.  Night night.   

The just reported foodstamp number for September was a doozy, with 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for foodstamps, as a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty at least according to the USDA. The monthly increase was the highest since May 2011, and with August’s 421K new impoverished America, over 1 million Americans made the EBT card their new best friend. It is unclear just which atmospheric phenomenon will get the blame for this unprecedented surge in poverty, which comes at a time when the pre-election economic data euphoria was adamant that the US economy was on an escape velocity to utopia. Instead what we do know is that in August and September, over three times as many foodstamp recipients were add to the economy as jobs (324,000). The US may end 2012 with just over a mindboggling 50 million Americans living in absolute poverty and collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person, instead of working. Welcome to the recovery indeed.

Individual Americans on foodstamps Are at a new all time record…….

Foodstamps at the household level rose to a record 24 million:

Source: SNAP

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street | 2 Comments »
Tags: Cash, food stamps, Free Money, Money, No Job, Unemployed

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 30, 2012

Pretty stunning news…..and what does this mean, it means slow or no growth in the economy for many many years.  Oh, and the chart below explains how much government assistance the baby boomers are reliant on, and it becomes worse with the working population slowing, not growing. 

The U.S. birthrate fell to a record low last year, coming in at its lowest level since statistics began being collected in 1920. 

The birthrate was 63.2 babies per 1,000 women of childbearing age in 2011. That number is about half what the birth rate was during the Baby Boom, when the rate was 122.7 per 1,000 women.

While the 2011 rate is based on a preliminary set of statistics that will be finalized sometime next year, the early numbers continue a trend that has been playing out for some time. Between 2007 and 2010, the birth rate also fell, from 69.3 per 1,000 women to 64 per 1,000.

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth, Tid Bits | 25 Comments »
Tags: Baby Boomers, Bad Seats, Declining Populaion, Higher Entitlments, Less Births

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 29, 2012

Yikes!

A key stretch of the drought-ravaged Mississippi River may fall to a record low by mid-December, halting barge traffic and disrupting billions in commerce on the nation’s busiest inland waterway.

President Obama on Tuesday was urged to declare an emergency so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can take steps to boost the river’s flow and deepen the channel along the 200-mile segment between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill.

Category: Commentary, National News, Weather | 11,657 Comments »
Tags: Drought, River, Water Levels, Wow

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 25, 2012

According to Business Week:

Last year, for the first time ever, sales of adult diapers in Japan exceeded those for babies.

Yep, we said you wouldn’t believe it!

Category: Commentary, Economy, Healthcare and Science, National News, Tid Bits, Wall Street | 11 Comments »
Tags: Adults, Diapers, japan, Old Population, retired

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 25, 2012

What is the #5 Internet website in the world.

Hmm…. With 450 million monthly users, It’s Wikipedia

We would never had guessed!

Category: Tid Bits | 2 Comments »
Tags: Interesting, tid bits, What? Nah

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 22, 2012

There are indications that union bosses are very perplexed at union workers over this decision….

Hostess will start selling off the rights to Twinkies, Ding Dongs and other baked brands after a federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved its plan for an “orderly wind-down.”

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn testified that layoffs of 15,000 employees would begin immediately, with head counts shrinking 94% within 16 weeks. Some 3,200 workers would remain to see the shuttering through.

The company said its “inflated cost structure” – which it attributed primarily to its collective bargaining agreements with unions – put it at a “profound competitive disadvantage.”

Hostess also said it will close 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores.

So….Did union workers simply get their ‘Just Desserts’ for backing Hostess into a corner with too many unreasonable demands? Consider the evidence.

Union workers have now lost the cause as 18,500 jobs are gone forever.

The national labor bosses stood firm. Labor leaders are proud they stood up to those nasty ‘suits’ [see Entourage for definition] who refused to run a money-losing business simply to continue paying salaries and benefits.

Hostess posted a $341 million loss in 2011 on revenues of about $2.5 billion. Contributing to those 2011 losses:

• $52 million in Workers’ Comp Claims
• Dealing with 372 Distinct Collective-Bargaining Contracts
• Administration of 80 Separate Health and Benefits Plans
• Funding and Tending to 40 Discrete Pension Plans
• $31 million in year-over-year increases in wages and health care benefits for 2012 v. 2011

Uncounted in the above numbers were the outrageous union-imposed rules that made for a too-high-to-bear cost of sales:

• No truck could carry both bread and snacks even when going to the same location
• Drivers were not permitted to load their own trucks
• Workers who loaded bread were not allowed to also load snacks
• Bringing products from back rooms to shelves required another set of union employees
• Multi-Employer pension obligations made Hostess liable for other, previously bankrupted, retirement plan contributions from employees that never worked for Hostess at all.

The company thought the only defense against unreasanable union demands was the willingness to walk away and close shop.

Courtesy of Dr. Paul Price

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Tid Bits | 2 Comments »
Tags: Agreeded, Bad Decision, Greed, Hostess, Lost Cause, No More, Union Workers

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 19, 2012

Cumberland Associates has this perspective about the world wide slippery economic situation, and failed post-retirement promises made to a trusting populace.

Let us get back to the difference between the US and Europe. European peripheral countries waited too long.  Now they cannot fund the promises that they made for retirement and post-retirement benefits, and so they have to impose austerity budgets. Those budgets strip away promises that were made. That is what drives people into the streets and increasingly threatens the political regimes of Europe.

European political leaders realize they have run out of rope. Especially in Greece, where the turmoil has been greatest, governmental leaders realize they must either severely alter the form of their government through austerity measures or see their society collapse into anarchy and chaos.

When governments impose austerity, they need police power to maintain civil order. In some sections of European cities, the police presence has been withdrawn or reduced and there is turmoil and deterioration of safety for the citizens. Other European countries are experiencing a migration of wealth. Citizens are not dumb; they vote with their feet if they are able to do it.

In the US, we see increasing divisions among the states. States that impose increasing levels of taxation continue to lose wealth to states that invite wealth and entrepreneurial spirit.  A good case in point is California, which has now imposed a higher level of taxation in order to preserve the payment streams from its pension system.  That system is bankrupting California cities, due to the overly generous pension policies they have put in place.

Here’s an example reported by Reuters: 

“In bankrupt San Bernardino, a third of the city’s 210,000 people live below the poverty line, making it the poorest city of its size in California. But a police lieutenant can retire in his 50s and take home $230,000 in one-time payouts on his last day, before settling in with a guaranteed $128,000-a-year pension. Forty-six retired city employees receive over $100,000 a year in pensions.  Almost 75 percent of the city’s general fund is now spent solely on the police and fire departments, according to Reuter’s analysis of city bankruptcy documents – most of that on wages and pension costs.” 

Until California changes its behavior, it will lose wealth and income to other states.  We see this in comparisons among states around the country.

Now the US federal system is in the throes of a great debate as to whether it can remain a functional democracy and act prospectively.  Will it do so, rather than being forced to act retrospectively?  Consider this:  Barron’s reports that New Jersey’s median income for a household of four people (two kids) is $102,000.  That household will see a $6900 tax increase if we fall over the fiscal cliff and stay there.  Mississippi’s median income for the same-sized household is $58,000.  That household will get a $3100 tax hike.  I think you get my point about the cliff.

www.cumber.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Wall Street, World News | 3 Comments »
Tags: Cliff, Fiscal, government pensions, retirement, Riots, taxes

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 15, 2012

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) uses $250 million per day to operate and had a total of 607,400 employees as of October.  This was the lowest number of total employees for the non-profit ( loss-driven) government run entity since the 1960s!  Perhaps more interesting (but not surprising) is that USPS employees peaked at over 900,000 back in 1999!

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News | 49 Comments »
Tags: Envolopes, Letters, Mail, Post Office, Postal, Send, Service

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 15, 2012

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Outliers, Wall Street | 2 Comments »
Tags: Bruce Krasting, Gone, Hikes, Income, Money, Screwed, taxes, Wipeout

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 15, 2012

A wise old Owl sits and watches with ruffled feathers…

Quotes for the day!

From the Daily Reckoning

Category: Commentary, Education and Schooling, National News, Quote of the Day | 13 Comments »
Tags: Daily Quotes, He Said, Mentioned, More, Quotes, Said

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 13, 2012

This will change everything folks…….Growing supplies of crude oil extracted through new technologies including hydraulic fracturing of underground rock formations will transform the U.S. into the worlds largest producer of oil starting as early as 2017, the Paris-based adviser to 28 nations said in its annual World Energy Outlook. The U.S. met 83 percent of its energy needs in the first six months of this year, according to the Energy Department in Washington. 

Both Canada,  Mexico and South America should also see huge benefit’s from these new oil drilling and recovery technologies now being developed.  This may well end up being the semiconductor growth story of the 1970’s and 1980’s but potentialy being repeated in the 2015 to 2025 period.  If so, it will open up a dynamic new growth horizon for all of North and South American economies.   

MORE….

A new IEA report described the U.S.’s advancement toward energy self-sufficiency as “a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy-importing countries.”

“Around 2017, the U.S. will be the largest oil producer of the world, overtaking Saudi Arabia,” IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said at a press conference in London. “This is of course a major development and definitely will have significant implications.”

The U.S. will pump 11.1 million barrels of oil a day in 2020 and 10.9 million in 2025, the IEA said. Those figures are 500,000 barrels a day and 100,000 barrels a day higher, respectively, than its forecasts for Saudi Arabia for those years. The desert kingdom may have a chance to become the biggest producer again by 2030, pumping 11.4 million barrels a day versus 10.2 million in the U.S.

Category: Commentary, Economy, Oil and Nat Gas, Wall Street, World News | 5 Comments »
Tags: 2017, Barrels Of Oil, Drilling, New Technologies, Oil, Petroleum, Pumping, U.S.

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 10, 2012

The USDA delayed until Friday night its release of food stamp data for August. A quick glance at the number reveals 47.1 million recipients, which was a new all time record. The monthly increase of 420,947 from July was the biggest monthly increase since last year.

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News | 2 Comments »
Tags: Foof Stamps, Free, Gifts, Give Outs

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 29, 2012

Maybe it’s just aa simple matter of to many video games……or not!

Category: Commentary, Education and Schooling, National News, Wall Street, World News | 3 Comments »
Tags: Educational, Learning, Reading Skills, SAT

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 27, 2012

Median U.S. household incomes have been stagnant for most of the last twenty years…and falling hard for the last four years.

But…..the top 10% and the top 1% earners have risen dramatically!

www.mauldineconomics.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 695 Comments »
Tags: Bad, Income, Lost, Money, Oh No, top earners, Top Income, Wealth

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 26, 2012

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who put us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.
                                                                                     –Mark Twain

Category: Commentary, Quote of the Day | 49 Comments »
Tags: Famous Quots, Geez, Nonsense, Ok, Quote of the Day, Quotes, Wow

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 25, 2012

This one is a whopper….“If the storm follows the current hurricane center forecast, we are looking at over $5 billion in damage,” said Chuck Watson, director of research and development at Kinetic Analysis……

New Huricane Sandy may combine with a second storm coming out of the Midwest to create a system that would rival the New England Hurricane of 1938 in intensity, said Paul Kocin, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

“What we’re seeing in some of our models is a storm at an intensity that we have not seen in this part of the country in the past century,” Kocin said in a telephone interview. “We’re not trying to hype it, this is what we’re seeing in some of our models. It may come in weaker.”

The hybrid storm may strike anywhere from the Delaware- Maryland-Virginia peninsula to southern New England. The current National Hurricane Center track calls for the system to go ashore in New Jersey on Oct. 30. 

The system crossed Jamaica yesterday and Cuba early today, tracking north to the central Bahamas, where a hurricane was posted for many of the islands. A tropical storm watch has been issued for Florida’s east coast from north of Flagler Beach to Fernandina Beach, as well as the upper Keys from Ocean Reef to Craig Key. The watch also extends to Florida Bay.

Winds of at least 74 mph extend 35 miles from Sandy’s core, while winds of 39 mph reach out 205 miles. The distance from Freeport, Bahamas, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is 94 miles.

“Sandy is expected to grow larger in size during the next couple of days,” the hurricane center said. “Some weakening is expected in the next 48 hours but Sandy is expected to remain a hurricane for the next couple of days.”

“If the storm follows the current hurricane center forecast, we are looking at over $5 billion in damage,” said Chuck Watson, director of research and development at Kinetic Analysis Corp. in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Weather, World News | 2 Comments »
Tags: Huge Storm, Lu Lu, Massive, tropical storms, Whopper

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 25, 2012

Looks like a heavy breeze is blowing accross this windy political road with switch backs at every turn…..

The Senate electoral landscape was supposed to favor Republicans, who are defending 10 seats, compared with 23 for Democrats. Democrats now control the Senate 53-47. Republicans must hold all of their seats and pick up four to gain control if President Barack Obama wins a second term. They would need a net three seats if Republican nominee Mitt Romney wins because the vice president casts tie-breaking votes.

Republicans would need to win four of the five Democratic-held seats rated as tossups. They are in Montana, North Dakota, Virginia, Connecticut and Wisconsin.

And this…..

Only twenty-one percent of Americans approved of Congress in October, among the lowest ratings in the final month before a presidential election, according to a Gallup poll released yesterday. In the House, Democrats probably will gain four to 10 seats — far short of the 25 they need to take a majority of the 435 seats, according to the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 3 Comments »
Tags: congress, Election News, politics, President, Seneate, Voting

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 24, 2012

Here is an interesting new projection of the presidential election.  It comes from John Mauldin’s ‘Thoughts From The Front Line’ ….it looks like a toss up to us!

According to Bickers and Berry’s analysis, Romney is projected to receive 330 of the total 538 Electoral College votes. President Obama is expected to receive 208 votes – down five votes from their initial prediction and well short of the 270 needed to win. The focus of their study is on state-level economic stress. I think the approach of using economic-stress models to predict election outcomes is a very interesting one. Their model was within five electoral votes in Obama’s 2008 trouncing of McCain.

In addition to state and national unemployment rates, the authors analyzed changes in personal income since the prior presidential election. Research shows that these two factors, unemployment and income, affect the major parties differently: voters hold Democrats more responsible for unemployment rates, while Republicans are held more responsible for fluctuations in personal income. Accordingly – and depending largely on which party is in the White House at the time – either factor can either help or hurt the major parties disproportionately.

The authors also provided caveats. Their model had an average error rate of five states and 28 Electoral College votes. Factors they said might affect their prediction include the timeframe of the economic data used in the study and the fact that states very close to a 50-50 split might fall in an unexpected direction due to factors not included in the model. Right now their study is an interesting curiosity, but if it is as close to right this time as it has been in some past elections, it might have a serious impact on future campaigns. You can see the full report and their data at http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/10/04/updated-election-forecasting-model-still-points-romney-win-university.

I should note that PS: Political Science & Politics, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Political Science Association, has published collections of presidential election models every four years since 1996, but this year the 13 featured models showed the widest split ever in outcomes. Five predict an Obama win, five forecast a Romney win, and three rate the 2012 race as a toss-up. As with economic models and austerity programs, you can find something that makes the case for your favorite candidate. Serious data wonks and political junkies (I am both, so doubly cursed) can revel in all 13 models at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PSC.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Election Opinions, National Elections, U.S. Elections, Vote

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 17, 2012

This is the Canary in the coal mine for colleges……trade schools get hit first, then private universities, and then state colleges and universities.  The big growth cycle is over for education.  The student population is buried in record amounts of student loans and debt, and this will take a long time to work off.  A whole lot of money has been spent recently on college and university expansion expecting unending growth.  It will most likely end badly.

Apollo Group Inc.  the largest U.S. for-profit college chain, missed analysts’ estimates and announced it would close campuses and cut jobs.

“Education stocks are value traps, burdened by a downward bias in estimates, limited enrollment visibility and increasingly intense competitive dynamics,”.  Over the past year, enrollment at the University of Phoenix fell 14 percent to 328,400 students.

Category: Commentary, Economy, Education and Schooling, National News | 2 Comments »
Tags: Costs, education, Money, schools, Students

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on September 30, 2012

Wow, this is really unbelievable.  Truly, it’s unbelievable! You’ll never guess the name that controls the worlds biggest hedge fund. Chances are good that nobody will get this one right!

The world’s largest hedge fund is not located in the top floor of some shiny, floor-to-ceiling glass clad skyscraper in New York, London, Hong Kong or Shanghai. Instead it can be found in a tiny, nondescript office located in of all places, Reno, Nevada.

“That’s not possible” one may say – the world’s largest hedge fund is Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater, which at last check had about $100 billion in AUM  (Assets Under Management).   Turns out there’s a new Sheriff in town. It’s a fund which had $117.2 billion AUM as of June 30, and which has lately been growing at a pace of about $15 billion per quarter (which would put it at about $130 billion currently).

Unbelievable you may say…..so did we!

It’s none other than Braeburn Capital, a Nevada-based asset management corporation.

Duh, you got’ta be kidding, who is Braeburn we ask?

Braeburn is a subsidiary of another far more famous company, which since 2006 has had one simple task: manage the cash of the parent company.

At Braeburn’s inception, the cash pile was modest, yet absolutely massive in unlevered terms, at just over $10 billion. Fast forward 6 years, and the massive cash pile has now grown to be epically gargantuan. Of course, the parent company in question is none other than Apple, whose publicly reported cash horde as of June 30, 2012 was a whopping $117,221,000,000 ($117.2 Billion).  

Mind boggling…….we say!

Any substantial follow up diligence on Braeburn will not reveal much if anything.

CapitalIQ has the following description of the firm: “Braeburn Capital Inc. is the asset management arm of Apple Inc. The firm invests in the public equity markets. Braeburn Capital Inc. was founded in 2006 and is based in Reno, Nevada.” And that’s it – there is no breakdown of which “public equity market” investments Braeburn is invested in. 

So, what did we say at the beginning of this article….we said the chances are good that nobody will get this one right. Yep, just as we thought.

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, Inspirational, National News, Research, Technology, Wall Street | 40 Comments »
Tags: Big Money, Hedge Funds, Massive Money, The Worlds Largest Hedge Fund, Unbelievable, Wealth

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on September 30, 2012

In This Guessing Game……There Are Four Possible Answers. 

So here we go with inquiring minds!

With the World on your shoulders,  which one  of  these four outcomes would you look to hitch your horse to….

1. One who knows and knows that he knows… His horse of wisdom will reach the skies.
2. One who knows, but doesn’t know that he knows… He is fast asleep, so you should wake him up!
3. One who doesn’t know, but knows that he doesn’t know… His limping mule will eventually get him home.
4. One who doesn’t know and doesn’t know that he doesn’t know… He will be eternally lost in his hopeless oblivion!”

If you picked number 1, raise your hand!

-Ibn Yami, 13^th-Century Persian-Tajik poet

Category: Astrology, Commentary, Finance, Inspirational, Jokes, National News, National Security, Outliers, Quote of the Day, Technology, Tid Bits, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Weather, World News | 2 Comments »
Tags: It's A Guessing Game, Know It, None Of Them Know, The Knower, The Ones That Know, They Know It ll, Which One

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on September 27, 2012

As often is the case, we present some unusual stuff.  Enjoy the ride…

The InTrade markets trading on the various outcomes of the Presidential have become increasingly liquid and active in recent weeks. As Morgan Stanley’s Vince Reinhart cleverly notes, by analyzing the odds for control of the Senate, the House, and the Presidential winner, one can arrive at some rather useful insights into the conditional probabilities of various tax-and-spending-related outcomes.

Critically, he notes that while Obama is a 75%-25% favorite to win the vote, control of the House and Senate appears most likely to remain split.

There is a joint 50% probability of an Obama victory and split government – which inevitably means more gridlock and a likely charge over the fiscal cliff.

On the other hand, conditioned on a Romney win, there is a 15% probability that the Republicans end up with control of the House and the Senate– which almost inevitably means the ‘new’ government will enact the front-laoded spending cuts they have been putting forward.

This leaves us with at least the combined 65% probability of drastic cuts to spending or rises in taxes which will weigh heavily on the aggregate economy early in 2013.

Here is the matrix:

Source: Morgan Stanley

About InTrade Markets:

Intrade is an online trading exchange website. The website’s members bet on the outcomes of non-sports-related future events. Intrade was founded by John Delaney in 1999. Intrade.com offers only non-sports markets (politics, finance, entertainment, current events, transportation, legal, weather, pop culture, etc.).

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Outliers, Research, Uncategorized, World News | 2 Comments »
Tags: Election, Opinions, Outcomes, politics, Predictions

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on September 25, 2012

Savings….The average American says, what savings?

The main reason for the recent surge in consumer “confidence” in September was the near record surge in sentiment for those making $15,000-$25,000, which soared from 43.5 to 62.4 in the month, the most since April 2009. And whether this was due to their forecast of the future, and expectation that things will get much better, or not, we don’t know, what we do know is that half all of those people whose sentiment defined the market tone today, and who may be quite instrumental in the outcome of the upcoming election (per Mitt Romney), have less than $100 in cash savings. Other findings: both males and females reported similar savings patterns, however, 55 percent of Americans with children under the age of 18 reported having less than $800 in emergency savings compared to 42 percent of those without. Findings also reflect disparities across geographic regions, with 60 percent of individuals living in both the Northeast and the West having $800 or more in savings, yet 31 percent of those living in the North Central region reported that they had less than $100. Most importantly, 23% of all Americans have less than $100 in savings to cover any emergency expenses, and 46% have less than $800. One can see why when it comes to the discussion of whether or not financial assets should be taxes, soon 46% may be the new 47%.

Visually:

www.zerohedge.com

And…Top Earners Are Still Rolling!

But

The less affluent — the other 80%, some 250 million people — are little concerned by an eventual wealth effect but highly, directly and immediately impacted by the side effects of all these government QEs, namely rising commodity prices and near zero interest rates. Consider that:

• 15% of the U.S. population lives in poverty.
• 44% of those 46.2 million poor Americans are in “deep poverty,” which is half the poverty line defined as $22,811 for a family of four.
• More than 45 million Americans are in the food stamps program — 15% of the population compared with the 7.9% participation from 1970-2000. Food-stamp enrollment has been rising at a rate of 400,000 per month over the past four years. Only last August, more people went on the food-stamp program (173,000) than those who managed to find a new job (96,000).
• More than 11 million Americans are collecting federal disability checks.
• 11.2% of the labor force is out of work if we include the 7 million people no longer seeking employment. This number (over 17 million workers) is unchanged since 2009.
• Full-time employment remains 1.4 million below its 2009 level. Needless to say, part-timers earn and spend considerably less.
• Most of the 43.5 million American retirees must cope with nominal interest rates near zero through 2015 when inflation is around 2.0%.

Source www.wsj.com, www.news-to-use.com,  www.zerohedge.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News, Personal Net Worth | 26 Comments »
Tags: Earned, High Earners, Low Income, Money, net worth, retirement, Savings, Top 1%

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on September 24, 2012

Is this a surprise….We think not!

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Education and Schooling | 4,598 Comments »
Tags: education, Learning, Reading, Schooling, Skills

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on September 21, 2012

A wise old Owl recently dropped this in my box…..it pretty much sums things up.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
–Albert Einstein

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
–Albert Einstein

Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.
–Albert Einstein

Category: Commentary, Inspirational, Quote of the Day | 11,638 Comments »
Tags: Owl, Say It, Wise Old Owl, Wise Thoughts

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on August 26, 2012

Life as we thought it to be,  has changed for ever!  So what’s the new plan? Uh….Hello

By Henry Blodget – Daily Ticker

Annual incomes in the United States have dropped sharply in recent years, and near-retirees are getting hit the worst.

That’s the conclusion of a new study by Sentier Research, which looked at the trend in median U.S. household incomes since 2000.

Twelve years ago, after adjusting for inflation, the median household in the United States earned about $55,000 per year, reports Catherine Rampell of the New York Times, citing Sentier’s data.

Now, the median income has fallen to about $51,000.

The two age-groups that have been hit the worst in this period are households led by those in the 55-64 age group and those in the 25-34 age group. The incomes of the near-retirees have fallen by nearly 10% in the past three years.

This data explains why our economic recovery is so sluggish.

www.jsmineset.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth | 11,899 Comments »
Tags: Annual Income, Earnings, Economy, retirement, Savings

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on July 16, 2012

Well, we know it’s a hot subject pun intended, so we’ll just say records are made to be broken….

The Northern Hemisphere just experienced the all-time warmest June on record, at 2.34°F above average. The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during June was 71.2°F, which is 2.0°F above the 20th century average, contributing to a record-warm first half of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since record-keeping began in 1895. Scorching temperatures during the second half of the month led many cities to set all-time temperature records. The nation, as a whole, experienced its tenth driest June on record. Record and near-record dry conditions were present across the Intermountain West. Over 170 all-time warm temperature records were broken or tied during the month. Temperatures in South Carolina (113°F) and Georgia (112°F) are currently under review by the U.S. State Climate Extremes Committee as possible all-time statewide temperature records. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of July 3, 56.0 percent of the contiguous U.S. experienced drought conditions, the most since records began.The Northern Hemisphere just experienced the all-time warmest June on record, at 2.34°F above average.

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Charts and Graphs, Economy, National News, Weather | 49 Comments »
Tags: Cold, Hot, Temperature, Waether

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on July 12, 2012

Can small town America survive a local Wal-Mart……Our opinion is that anytime one company controls so many things, it’s not good for anyone! 

A study of small and rural towns in Iowa showed lost sales for local businesses ranging from -17.2% in small towns to -61.4% in rural areas, amounting to a total dollar loss of $2.46 BILLION over a 13-year period.

The following are 20 facts about Wal-Mart that will absolutely shock you….

#1 The average U.S. family now spends more than $4000 a year at Wal-Mart.

#2 In 2010, Wal-Mart had revenues of 421 billion dollars. That amount was greater than the GDP of 170 different countries including Norway, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.

#3 If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have the 23rd largest GDP in the world.

#4 Wal-Mart now sells more groceries than anyone else in America does. In the United States today, one out of every four grocery dollars is spent at Wal-Mart.

#5 Amazingly, 100 million customers shop at Wal-Mart every single week.

#6 Wal-Mart has opened more than 1,100 ”supercenters” since 2005 alone.

#7 Today, Wal-Mart has more than 2 million employees.

#8 If Wal-Mart was an army, it would be the second largest military on the planet behind China.

#9 Wal-Mart is the largest employer in 25 different U.S. states.

#10 According to the Economic Policy Institute, trade between Wal-Mart and China resulted in the loss of 133,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2006.

#11 The CEO of Wal-Mart makes more in a single hour than a full-time Wal-Mart associate makes in an entire year.

#12 Tens of thousands of Wal-Mart employees and their children are enrolled in Medicaid and are dependent on the government for healthcare.

#13 Between 2001 and 2007, the value of products that Wal-Mart imported from China grew from $9 billion to $27 billion.

#14 Sadly, about 85 percent of all the products sold at Wal-Mart are made outside of the United States.

#15 It is being reported that about 80 percent of all Wal-Mart suppliers are in China at this point.

#16 Amazingly, 96 percent of all Americans now live within 20 miles of a Wal-Mart.

#17 The number of “independent retailers” in the United States declined by 60,000 between 1992 and 2007.

#18 According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wal-Mart spent 7.8 million dollars on political lobbying during 2011. That number does not even include campaign contributions.

#19 Today, Wal-Mart has five times the sales of the second largest U.S. retailer (Costco).

#20 The combined net worth of six members of the Walton family is roughly equal to the combined net worth of the poorest 30 percent of all Americans.

All over the country, independent retailers are going out of business because they cannot compete with Wal-Mart and their super cheap Chinese products. Often communities will give Wal-Mart huge tax breaks just to move in to their areas.

But what many communities don’t take into account is that the introduction of a Wal-Mart is often absolutely devastating to small businesses….

From… yolo.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Retail, World News | 13 Comments »
Tags: Big Stores, Control, Large Company, retail, spending, Super Stores, walmart

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on July 11, 2012

Heads up class…We just read this, it’s very interesting and somewhat concerning, and also off the mainstream table…But then again, that’s why you come here!

This from  Bruce Krasting’s blog ……..

I have absolutely no credentials or expertise to discuss matters related to climate change. I’ll do it anyway. I follow this topic and read what I can. In my opinion:

I) – Climate change is happening on a global scale. The evidence that this occurring is conclusive.

II) – I don’t know if humans are contributing to the rapid change, but I suspect they are.

III) – Even if there were conclusive evidence that human activity was contributing to global warming, I’m not at all sure that there is anything that can be done about it.

Consider these before and after pictures from NASA. These are images of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska.

May 13, 2012

One month later…

Okay, so some ice melted. Is that a big deal? The folks at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) think it is:

Sea ice retreat in June is typical, but the first half of June 2012 brought unusually rapid ice loss.

How unusual?

On June 19, 2012, NSIDC reported: “Recent ice loss rates have been 100,000 to 150,000 square kilometers per day, which is more than double the climatological rate.”

Double the rate? How much ice is melting every day in the Beauford Sea? About the size of the state of Illinois – big!

As of June 18, temperatures were above freezing over much of the sea ice in the Arctic, and snow had melted earlier than normal, leading to warming on land.

June 18? It has been hot as hell over the globe since then. This year’s arctic ice melt will set a record.

The rapid melt north of Alaska was part of a larger phenomenon. Sea ice across the entire Arctic reached record-low levels for this time of year. It was also lower than the extent in June 2007; Arctic sea ice reached its lowest extent ever recorded by satellite in September 2007.

This is not a record that we want to set. Now consider this number:

20,900,000,000,000 .

20.9 Trillion is the number of pounds of CO2 that humans sent into the atmosphere in the last 12 months. It’s hard to relate to a number as big as that. Think seven billion Hondas. But even that is a number that is hard to fathom, as there are only a billion cars in the world today. How could we be producing 7Xs the weight of all the cars, every year?

Is there a connection to the incredible output of CO2 and the rapid ice melt that is happening all over the world? I wish I knew the answer to this question. I do know that CO2 emissions are directly tied to population growth/economic activity.

The question is how rapidly CO2 output will rise.

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Commentary, National News, Weather | 1 Comment »
Tags: Global Warming, Ice, Melting Snow, weather