What More Apt Nirvana for an old Depeche Mode fan than to Find this Gem?
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So we did the Twilight Puffin Cruise tonight, and we got that behind us. The good news is, it appears I no longer get seasick. I know this because in order to get out to said “Puffin Island” — which is not only replete with aforesaid funny looking black and white and orange birds, but also terns, laughing gulls, seals and all other manner of remote oceanic fauna AND U.S. Oceanographic Institute equipment– we had to brave 12 foot swells that would have set Captain Nemo himself hurling over the gunwhales.
But I didn’t puke, much to my wife’s amazement, and later, suspicion. You see, I’d always refused to participate on such things as sea cruises due to my notoriously bad stomach which was particularly sensitive to oceanic rolling. I’ve stuck to my guns on that ever since we met, and it’s worked. To my chagrin and embarrassment, however, I didn’t even get slightly green in the gills tonight. Perhaps it was the brisk Maine sea air? Maybe it’s been the myriad plane flights I’ve taken since I was a late teen (the last time I braved a fishing boat off of Long Island, and puked my guts out)? I just don’t know.
I’m just hoping this doesn’t mean I have to start taking hideous sea cruises, trapped aboard a behemoth white bathtub with sweaty obese people I’d rather not meet. Maybe I should have fake-puked?
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I was away most of the day, so I didn’t see much market action. It seems it didn’t matter, as my port ended up over 1.5% in the black, again. It’s like these damn PM’s won’t take a rest. It’s starting to get consternating, actually. So for some respite, I added today to TC (Thompson Creek), which has started to diversify into precious metals, but still has a large concentration in molybdenum, which I like for the long cycle. I now have officially a shitte tonne of that name again after having sold it down egregiously in the mid teens.
I also added to le Monsieur’s current flavor of the month, social net venture capital investor GSVC. Note: this is an “outside the box” investment for me, and I count it in the same diversified category as my much more illiquid private venture capital investments. In that regard, I would say that if you are not a high net worth investor (with liquid investable assets of one million or more), I would stay away from this play. Given that this advice will fall on deaf ears for most of the cowboys that attend this site, I would at least implore that you play this one small. I am fully aware that I could lose 50% of this play in the blink of an eye. You should be prepared for that as well, or leave off completely.
Best to you all from swimmable Maine.
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You mean GSVC right ?
SVBC = GSVC ?
Thanks Jake
Okay, you got me.
I had a coupla bourbons tonight. Knob Creek.
I’m on vacation for Christmas sake!
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“I’m just hoping this doesn’t mean I have to start taking hideous sea cruises, trapped aboard a behemoth white bathtub with sweaty obese people I’d rather not meet.”
That’s pretty much what I thought about 15 years ago when Mrs. 50 starting booking cruises for us.
Now it’s our preferred way to travel. What can be wrong with sipping scotch, eating great food from a variety of fine restaurants, listening to music, and watching Broadway like plays, while traveling from one new destination to another.
Yes, it can be a bit decadent and you might have to take off a few pounds after your vacation, but it’s not something you do everyday. And it sure beats driving around in a car and schlepping your luggage from hotel to hotel.
I too was originally concerned about tossing my lunch over the side, after doing just that in a fishing boat in the Gulf years earlier, but the stabilizers on a large ship make that almost impossible.
Please do yourself a favor, pick some interesting destinations and give it a try. Also, you can choose whether you want to hang with others or not. On many ships, it’s no longer a requirement to dine with others. Mrs 50 and I usually dine by ourselves. I guess all I can really say is that it works for us.
I might do it for Italy and the Mediterranean. I could not do it for the Caribbean, etc. Too boring.
H50 — what do you think of riverboat cruising? Have you tried it? What about a 5-7 day luxury cruise on the Mississippi, from N’Orleans through Memphis and points north?
This is a serious question, so consider seriously.
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Jake,
I can’t advise you on the Mississippi cruise.
Mrs. 50 was a travel agent 10 years ago before we retired and she would tell people not to do it. She seemed to think it was populated by too many boring country bumpkins who would be disinclined to partake of alcohol. I asked her about it along time ago, because I had read most of Mark Twain’s works and visited his home in H. Missouri. Yesterday, she said that she thought the only cruise line doing it went out of business.
I do like your idea of a Mediterranean cruise.
Tell Mrs. 50 it’s coming back… and the main agent is out of California.
It’s an older crowd, that’s for sure. Cruise line went out of business because they expanded into… wait for it…. wait for iiiiitt…..
HAWAII!
Lol.
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Jake,
As far as I know the only cruise line that’s currently in Hawaii is Norwegian.
Also, a few years ago, a company (can’t remember the name) tried and failed to introduce what was called the Super Ferry into Hawaii for the express purpose of transporting people, cars, and goods from one island to another.
If the the Mississippi cruise comes back and you take it, let me know. I’d definitely like to hear a review.
Jake- I sense you have affection for the heart and soul of our country. I think that is a good thing.
I have an affection for every square inch of the country, even the commie bits.
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Be advised. Don’t go anywhere close to NO by train, boat or car. The best part of the population left before Katrina and never came back. The only ones around are the ones you saw on TV shopping for goods without money. Same with Memphis and St Louis, don’t bother going there unless you want to be held up and robbed. If you really must go there go with a friend, pack heat and whatever you do, don’t act like a tourist, leave the camera at home.
Thompson Creek should see a pretty good pop sometime after the warrants expire in October,but I wouldn’t expect much action before then as they are being very heavily shorted. TC already had to revise the mt. milligan capex budget from $915 million to C$1.26 billion this May, and the rumor floating around is that they are behind schedule.
I believe that the shorts are trying to cause the warrants to expire worthless which will negate the $220 million in proceeds, money that was part of the original budget for the project. Just a heads up.
Good knowledge, thx.
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In regards to GSVC. Either Fly is attempting a new method of making money by buying a thinly traded stock then pumping it to death only to sell to all unsuspecting lemmings (which I doubt he does).
Or, he has deep conviction about this trade.
There have been days where the stock has traded less than 100,000 shares, and I suspect he owns approximately 50,000 shares himself. Now that is ballsy, considering one could lose 50% of their investment in the blink of an eye.
The effect on that stock from this blog is clear, simply by looking at the yahoo finance page where WNR is listed as one of the stocks People viewing GSVC also viewed.
Senator;
Three years ago there was a significant probability that the entire Pacific Ocean would be declared a dead zone after I nearly filled it with stomach contents and later some form of green toxic material, previously unknown to medical science. My fishing companions swore I sounded like a wounded bull walrus while expectorating said green goo. This, despite the fact that while living in NC, I had made dozens of forays offshore to the Gulf Stream from Hatteras — without incident. My salvation = Bonine, available OTC. It has worked every time, including 50 miles offshore last Feb in Costa Rica.
Good to know. People who grow up on islands (no matter how long) are not supposed to take sea palliatives, however.
It’s considered unmanly.
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As you know, this, let’s call it a “minor mark” on an otherwise strong constitution, runs in the family, and i can tell you that neither bonine, nor dramamine nor any other of those silly pressure point BS bracelets work for our variant of motion sickness. The only thing that works, and it’s been a lifesaver on vacations, is the scapolomine patch (transderma scop). Put it behind you ear and you’re right as rain for 3 days. It’s a prescription but it’s worth every penny when you’re either snorkeling (a form of sea sicknesses i didn’t know existed until one unfortunate coral reef dive) or drinking beers on a sunny afternoon in the middle of the ocean. Spending the majority of the day leaning over the side while everyone else is bringing in “the big one” is no fun.
Wow, snorkeling?
You must be even worse than me… I’ve never had even a twinge from snorkeling…
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pissies
Try drinking 2 beers before going out next time. Just enough to knock your interior gyro off kilter just a smidge. The rocking of the ocean serves as the counter balance. Seriously, dramamine puts me to sleep. 2 beers and I can kill Tuna all day long offshore.
BRD is indeed the WRD by the by.
When in the midst of projectile puking Ghost Buster-ish green slime, my manliness was pretty much near the bottom of my concerns. Never have I wanted to be put out of my misery more. Have fun in Maine.
agreud. try the patch. whole new world.
Jake:
Check this out. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article29403.html
In a nutshell, on Friday July 22 the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange will start trading dollar denominated silver future.
This guy seems to think it will make the manipulation of the silver market more difficult.
Any thoughts.
I wish it wasn’t dollar denominated. Overall, positive for the silver price.
Sorry to disturb a great vac. Is AXU still a hold for new highs?
Fek yes.
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Senator – have fun with this one:
YEP……………
THIS SENIOR CITIZEN NAILED IT!!!!
Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming, Co-Chair of Obama’s deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared “Social Security” to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
August, 2010.
Here’s a response in a letter from a unknown fellow in Montana…
I think he is a little ticked off! He also tells it like it is !
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“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight..
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other
Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
5 I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game.. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills..
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why?
Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you
proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called
Congress who are the “greedy” ones. It is you and your fellow
nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes.
That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.
And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch.
If you like the way things are in America, delete this. If you agree
with what a fellow Montana citizen says, PASS IT ON!!!!
This would change everything and should be retroactive!
No one has been able to explain why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.
On Fox news they learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop?
35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government
Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
This will take less than thir ty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on..
This is an idea that we should address.
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform….. in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.
If each person that receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message… This is one proposal that really should be passed around.
Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”
You are one of my 20.
I agree with part of this but there are some very false (lies) statements in there.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/studentloans.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/socialsecurity/pensions.asp
I liked the tone. That’s my kind of style.
I concuer.
If we simply repeal the 16th amendment, as congress taking claim to the fruits of our labor is one step removed from slavery, and mandate a hard money policy; we would effectively remove the weapons of mass destruction which they have been using to hold us hostage and rob us of our wealth for all these years.
Seems XG has brushed off that $10.50 offering quite nicely. She’s a beast.
I concuer. Hoovered a bunch 15% ago.
I had a bid in at $11.57 — never even got close.
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i’LL BE A BULL WHEN : http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock
shut down NASA
Stop the drug War
stop putting so much into defense
Re-instate the Gold/silver standard…..create more jobs than dying Construction
http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock
Love you blog and analysis. If like Johnny Cash, you should see his cover of Trent Reznor’s Hurt. One of the best videos of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aF9AJm0RFc
Jake,
Was this you raising a little cash?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y–jCrDOSjk