The keen-eyed folks at Inhabitat have identified a useful way of re-using wooden pallets; you can read about this furniture project, developed by James Higginson – turning pallets into cabinets. Not for beginners, we think, but in any case it’s inspired: the pallets are common, are abandoned as soon as they’re damaged, and, it’s clear, that in the right hands they can be repurposed as beautiful cabinets.
Hot on the heels of the December 21, 2012 launch of the Popular Logistics Virtual Portfolio in Sustainable Energy, here, up 22.36%, I am announcing the launch of the Popular Logistics Virtual Portfolio in Information Technology. Roughly $1.0 million in Apple, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle.(Their investor relations pages are Apple, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle.)
| Tech Virtual Portfolio | ||||
| Item | Stock | Price | Shares | Total |
| 1 | Apple | $446 | 2,242 | $1,000,000 |
| 2 | $795 | 1,258 | $1,000,000 | |
| 3 | HP | $17 | 59,559 | $1,000,000 |
| 4 | IBM | $198 | 5,051 | $1,000,000 |
| 5 | Intel | $20 | 50,000 | $1,000,000 |
| 6 | Microsoft | $27 | 37,037 | $1,000,000 |
| 7 | Oracle | $24 | 41,667 | $1,000,000 |
| total | $7,000,000 | |||
| Table 1. Acquisitions, Start of Business, 2/22/13 | ||||
Generally speaking, here’s what I expect:
These are in table 2, below
Apple, if it can be compared to Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle, should be priced at 665 per share. This analysis is simply based on Stock Price, Earnings per Share (EPS) and the Price Earnings ratio. or P/E. The average P/E of these companies is 15.08. If Apple’s stock was 15.08 times earnings, it would be 665. If you take Apple out of the mix, the average P/E becomes 16.01. At 16.01 times earnings, Apple’s stock price would be 705. And if priced like Google, $1077. Continue reading
On Dec. 21, 2012, with virtual portfolios of 7 sustainable energy and 7 fossil fuel companies, I launched the Popular Logistics Sustainable Energy simulation, here.
On Feb. 8, 2013, after 6 weeks, after exercising virtual options to invest in 2 additional companies at 12/21/12 prices, I reported the results, here.
These results are not that surprising. Continue reading
On Dec. 21, 2012, I launched the Popular Logistics Sustainable Energy Portfolio Simulation. After 6 weeks, as of the close of business 2/7/13, the results are:
In comparison,
While six weeks is a very short time frame, except for fruit flies and Day Traders, the Popular Logistics Sustainable Energy Portfolio outperformed the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Fossil Fuel Reference Portfolio by a wide margin. In the same time frame the Fossil Fuel Reference Portfolio also underperformed these indices.
Details are below
Image 1. Beijing from space, Jan., 2013, courtesy NASA
忘了长城 – 我们现在有大的雾度
“Forget the Great Wall – We Now Have the Great Haze”
– Translation by Google
In the 1960’s and 1970’s astronauts showed that we could see the Great Wall of China from space. Today, it’s the Great Haze of China that we can see from space . The New York Daily News, here, published this image, taken by NASA in January 12, 2013 (here) when the Air Quality Index, AQI, reached 775.
The AQI was established by the US EPA. AQI above 300 is considered dangerous. AQI at 775 is probably deadly.
Popular Logistics is a Policy Blog, not a Politics Blog. However, as Deborah Stone wrote in “The Policy Paradox,” ISBN 0393-976-254, In order to make policy you need to win at politics.
NJ State Senator Barbara Buono, a progressive Democrat, has a diametrically opposed political philosophy – and a very different leadership style, compared to Gov. Chris Christie. She has been fighting for the middle class since starting her career, and promises to continue to fight for the middle class if elected Governor.
When I called the election for Senator Buono (here) and criticized Gov. Christie (here) it was less an endorsement of Buono than a statement that we need to change direction. Based on the policy statements in her press releases, her statement at the Campaign kick-off, Saturday, Feb. 2, and very brief conversations I had with Senator Buono, as Governor, Barbara Buono would lead New Jersey in the right direction.
The most important questions are:
What would a Governor Buono do to develop a sustainable energy infrastructure and a healthy, sustainable economy?
How can she wield the power of the Governor’s office to strengthen the middle class and help the poor – to create good jobs, to lower the unemployment rate, lay a strong foundation for the future?
These are really the same question. Stay Tuned. I think we will find out over the next four to eight years.
Popular Logistics is a 
Policy Blog, not a Politics Blog. However, as Deborah Stone wrote in “The Policy Paradox,” ISBN 0393-976-254,
In order to make policy you need to win at politics.
Chris Christie, left, who is good at politics, seems to have made several serious policy blunders during his first term as Governor of New Jersey. I have questions about his capabilities in areas including Law & Order Fiscal Responsibility, Leadership, Mass Transit and Infrastructure and the Environment, and the intersection of these domains – the ‘Bio-Humano-Sphere’.
What should we do now?
As President Obama said, in his Second Inauguration, (White House . Gov / The Atlantic)
“The commitments we make to each other … do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. “
Close to One Million people were in Washington to celebrate President Obama’s second inauguration. As Rachel Maddow commented on her show, you can catch a glimpse of the character of the man in his unscripted moments. She showed footage of Barack the man, with Michelle and their children. Maddow also showed that on the occasion of his Second Inauguration, President Obama turned, as people walked past him, to regard the crowd, estimated on The Hill, to over 1,000,000 people, and said “I’ll never see this again.”
But we can also infer the character of the man from his speeches. He said “We” 65 times. He said “I” four times, including the phrase “you and I” twice.
Obama’s greatest accomplishments for his first term, according to an NBC Poll:
I would add passing the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare and thwarting the Republican efforts in the House and Senate to be a One Term President.
In “The World Will Not End and Other Predictions for 2012,” I developed a set of predictions for 2012, the accuracy of which were described by me in 2012 Revisited. Here are my predictions for 2013. As noted last year, I am extrapolating from patterns that I see – also known as reading tea leaves.
For an overview of the details see below.
Social Security will be solvent until 2038. (Social Security Adminstration, Summary of 2012 Annual Reports). Social Security is completely funded by the Social Security Tax and the payouts add nothing to the deficit. Reducing Social Security benefits will not reduce the Federal deficit one cent. Social Security benefits are fully funded until 2038. However, there are five changes to the structure of the Social Security tax that could, and I think should, be made.
First, eliminate the ceiling. Currently the Social Security tax is 6.2% of the first $110,000 of income. Everyone who makes $110,000 or less pays 6.2% of his or her income into the Social Security fund. People who make $50,000 pay $3,100. People who make $100,000 pay $6,200. People who make $110,000 pay $6,820. But people who make $1,000,000 also pay $6,820, as do people who make $100 million, or $1 billion. This makes Social Security a regressive tax. Eliminating the ceiling would make it flat tax.
Second, impose a floor, perhaps $25,000 per year. This would transform the tax from a regressive tax into a slightly progressive tax for the lower 80%.
Third, transform the structure of the tax to a fully progressive tax, as illustrated below.
| Progressive Structure for Social Security | |
| Income | Tax Rate |
| Under $25,000 | 0.00% |
| $25,001 to $50,000 | 2.50% |
| $50,001 to $100,000 | 3.50% |
| $100,001 to $250,000 | 4.50% |
| $250,001 to $500,000 | 5.50% |
| $500,001 to $1.0 Million | 6.50% |
| over $1.0 Million | 7.50% |
| Table 1 | |
Fourth, REQUIRE, elected and appointed representatives in all branches and at all levels of Federal government to participate in the program. That would include the President, Representatives in the House and Senate, the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court, lower courts, as well as elected representatives in the governments of the states of the Union and territories.
And Fifth, consider Capital Gains, distributions from Trust Funds, and other distributions that are not “W2 Income” as defined by the Internal Revenue Service to be treated like “W2 Income” for the purposes of funding Social Security.
Other posts on tax policy:
We assume that this facility – or at least that part pictured – was intended as a short-term refuge. Via The National Archives Image Library (UK).
We’ve excerpted just a slice of a single view of Bombsight.org’s interactive map of the London Blitz. Our screen grab doesn’t do it justice – no scrolling, zooming, no selection of time slices. Check it out.
This is a project of the United Kingdom’s National Archives Image Library; we can imagine this map as a point of departure for other datasets, such us as overhead images of the damage and recovery. Compare this to one of the first iterations of the very first data map, Dr. John Snow’s mapping of cholera in London.
httpv://youtu.be/3Zaqi5DwCYE
Via Kottke.org, a Russian dashboard cam captures a plane crash. Apparently, according to Kottke, dashboard video is very popular in Russia. See Kottke’s earlier post Russians are dashboard-cam crazy.
I would disagree with Kottke. The Russians are not crazy. Apparently their legal and insurance systems are in such a state of failure that vehicle owners must be prepared to capture their own evidence in order to prove their claims. Thus a driver with a dashboard camera can provide proof of the facts of a case.
Maybe that’s a good outcome – better evidence, more accurate outcomes – but a sad way to come to it. On the other hand, as we have seen here in the United States, after members of the LA Police were filmed beating Rodney King, citizens with video have prompted the police to change their behavior.