Mindconnection eNL, 2011-08-21

Home
 

In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Thought 4 the Day

• Automation World (a trade pub) reports that USA manufacturing orders are up this year and are on track to reach the 2010 level by the end of August. As of June 2011, U.S. manufacturing orders totaled $459 million. That's an increase of 15% over May. It's nearly double what it was in June 2010. You may recall that last June the nation was gripped in the fear of the Unaffordable Care Act. Now that states seem to be rejecting that mislegislation, there is hope.
   
• Modern Materials Handling (a trade pub) reports that the North American robotics industry just completed its best quarter in six years. According to Jeff Burnstein, President of the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry trade group, North American companies ordered 8879 robots valued at $577.8 million in the first six months of 2011. Add in the orders from outside North America, and you get a total of 10,476 robots valued at $667.9 million.

This second item is a "leading indicator," which means it's one of those items that tends to predict the economic trend. As leading indicators go up, the economy is increasingly likely to trend. In this particular case, the purchases are for tools of production, that is wealth creation.

Outside the USA, there is some very good news on the economic and social freedom front. Peasants everywhere are rising up against the criminal psychopaths who took the stealing to extreme levels with the bankster scandals of recent years and the ascendency of crime lieutenant Barry Sotoro (or whatever alias he's using now).

Last week, German peasants all over Germany torched the cars of the elite criminals. This sends a clear message t to criminals in the highest places.

• Maybe the US banksters who siphoned hundreds of billions of dollars from the peasant class taxpayers via their employees in high govt offices will now deign to lend us back some of our own money. Then maybe decent people can buy homes and invest in job-producing small businesses. Homes? Yes. In Kansas City, there are 800 homeless children registered for school.
   
• Maybe the gang known as "The Wal-Mart Five" will take a hint and stop their practice of undercutting reputable business by dint of grossly underpaying their employees. It really is underpaying; Wal-Mart even gives its grossly underpaid employees classes on how to apply for federal assistance (e.g., food stamps) rather than just pay them a decent wage. This is why your neighborhood pharmacy is gone, along with many other businesses that existed to serve the customer rather than to make five people absurdly rich.
   
• Maybe the US CONgress will stop being so brazenly criminal and arrogant. Their employers in Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Banking aren't the only ones who matter. There's a reason why Americans despise members of CONgress, and it is called "the stealing." Since voting doesn't work (due to ballot access control), what alternatives do they think they leave their victims? They can look at Germany and other nations currently undergoing peasant uprisings and retributions, if they are too stupid to figure it out on their own.
   
• The USA might even remove its Constitution from eBay (I can't think of where else it might be) and start using it.

It is entirely possible that this decade will be the one where legitimate, law-abiding governments that follow a constitution are established in many major nations. And that, dear readers, is very good news.

• Chinese.
• Russian.
• Spanish.

The offer is special low pricing, made available by eliminating the bonus items in the regular offering. You get just the iTravl and the AC Travel Kit, but you save $80. That's right, eighty dollars.

This offer ends on 24AUG. Only four more days left. Act now!

Of course, you can still get the regular offering. But you can get this $80 savings for only a little while longer.

In a martial arts school, it's pretty certain you aren't going to be beaten to within an inch of your life and left for dead on the street. So being calm there is much less challenging than when outside that protected environment.

When emotions kick in, the brain's higher powers disengage.

We can really see this effect when two people get into an angry argument. Later, they usually regret what they said. You may have heard someone say, "I don't know why I said that. I was out of my mind." Exactly.

Back in my corporate employee days, I used to sit in staff meetings. I had some bosses who would try to use intimidation to get their direct reports to agree to something stupid like coming back at ten that night for another meeting.

This didn't work on me. I always had a calm, rational response that bosses respected (yes, I got raises and layoff survivor privileges). My coworkers, with few exceptions, just sat there stupidly. It wasn't because they were stupid, it's because they were stupid at that particular moment. They were afraid of the boss.

At one point in my career, I had managed such a good track record of this that I was certain Carly Simon had me in mind ("nobody does it better"). Then I met Bill Hightower.

I never saw Bill get rattled. He had nothing to prove, because he knew he was good.

One way bosses will intimidate workers is to ask questions that people can't answer. The idea is to give you the "I failed" feeling, even if there's no logical reason for you to know the answer. If Bill didn't know something, this didn't cause him to go into a state of fear.

Bill was the embodiment of all I'd learned in the martial arts. The mental game in the meeting room or any other venue is the same one in martial arts. You must come from a position of calmness that allows your higher brain power to engage.

If you're really lucky, you work for a boss like the one I had in my last corporate employee job. Mike is calm, and has a way of instilling calmness in others. He's respectful of others, and his character is above reproach. He's just a good human being. If you don't have a boss like that, perhaps your being calm around him/her will help bring that out. In any case, your being calm will help bring out your best performance on the job and in any situation that demands brainpower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBoYYc1APr8&feature=player_embedded

Here's a scam that originated in the People's Republic of Canada. I'm not dissing Canadians; I am dissing those who believe that Canadian citizens do not have the right to life and material possessions. Canada, like Illinois, is a place where violent criminals enjoy laws based on the notion that violent criminals need to be protected from their victims rather than the other way around. Personally, I highly value the law-abiding Canadian citizen. I don't value criminals anywhere. It saddens me that so many in the Canadian legislature have the opposite view.

Anyhow....

This is a credit card scam. It's a play on the same old technique of providing the mark several pieces of information to gain their trust, then asking for the one bit you really need. This is often done in corporate environments to obtain passwords (it's called "social" something or other, for that reason).

Royal Bank Canada (RBC) put out a notice about a scam that popped up in southern Alberta and quickly spread.

The scammer obtains credit card numbers and phone numbers, first. Tip: Use a browser to buy from home, rather than giving your credit card number over the phone. The browser is secure, your phone line is not.

The scam works like this (names are for illustration purposes, only).

Con artist. "This is Joan Rogers calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460, your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. Am I speaking to Tina Target?"

Tina. "Yes."

Con artist.  "This would be on your VISA card which was issued by the Royal Bank of Canada. Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a marketing company based in Arizona?"

Tina. "No, I did not."

Con artist. "Well, you don't have to pay for that. We'll issue a credit to your account. The reason we called you is this is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. It's not a purchase you authorized?

Tina. "No, it's not."

Con artist. "Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to Tina Target at 123 Gotcha Street, Victimville, AB. Is that correct?"

Tina. "Well, that's my address."

Con artist. "I will be starting a Fraud Investigation, for your protection. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. Can you write this down, now?
 

The con artist provides a 6 digit number. Geez, you can actually follow up on this. You even have a control number!

But all of this just sets the hook. You are about to be reeled in.

Con artist. "I need to verify you are in possession of your card."

Here's the tug on that fishing line....

You know that security code on your card? The credit card company will never ask you for it. The purpose of that code is for processing "card not present" transactions. It is not for security checks by the fraud department. To be able to use your card number and other info without actually having your card, the criminals will often need that 3 or 4 digit code. And that's what this scam is about. They now ask you for the code, and voila! Major security breach.

To prevent arousing suspicion, the con artist may ask you a few more questions, ask if you have questions, or give you some sort of additional information "for your protection" (sounds like the gummit!).

Now, realistically, this isn't a huge danger to you directly. You see, the credit card companies treat fraud as a profit center. They make billions off this, and if they did not they'd come up with a way to make the system secure. In the event of fraud, you have quite a while to notify them of the fraud and not have to pay anything.

Who gets stuck with the fraudulent charge?

The merchant! Of course, this raises all of our prices. Crime isn't free, someone has to pay for what was stolen. In response, many merchants have stopped accepting credit cards. Others give you a discount for cash.

So, it does help you (and everyone else) to stop this kind of fraud.

If you get a call where the alleged fraud department asks you for anything other than to verify the charge is authorized, hang up on the caller. Then call the customer service number on the back of your card. If there is a fraud investigation, you can talk with THAT person because you know it's your credit card company.

Unfortunately, this does nothing about the rampant "credit card" charges run up by the federal government or the fraud they engage in to do that.

I listened to a great audiobook that explains quite a bit about this more serious and devastating fraud. It's called Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins. I suggest reading the print version or hearing the audio version. Then you will be an informed citizen, rather than merely a plundered citizen who doesn't know why the economy is in the mess it's in.

Last year, the country was inflicted with a major wealth transfer scheme (from regular people to the ultra wealthy) that incidentally had a little bit to do with medical care (namely, making it far more expensive and far less accessible).

For reasons not yet explained, this was referred to as "health care reform." What cycnics!

But what if we had a real health care plan? And what if it was free? We do, and it is.

The key here is it's a health care plan. Read those three words again. Separately.

Age 50.

1. The quality of your health depends on the tripod of nutrition, rest, and exercise.
2. If you take special care to address these properly, you will be healthy.
3. It requires planning your meals, planning your exercise, and planning your rest.

This isn't something a government can provide.

The Latin word "mal" means "bad" (so does the Spanish word mal). We see this prefix in words such as and malfeasance. But it's misused in "malnutrition" to mean lack of nutrition. Bad nutrition is so rampant in our culture that we refuse to have a word for it. But let's assume we use "malnutrition" correctly. How can we change nutrition from bad to good? Here are some tips:

• Don't poison yourself. From what I see at the grocery store, this is the first step nearly everyone needs to start getting serious about. The mainstream meat supply is too contaminated for humans to safely consume that meat. Ditto for eggs and dairy. And, yes, by "meat" I mean all animal flesh. You are probably safer eating millipedes off your floor than you are eating meat that has come from one of the nation's five major packing operations. Off-limits also: corn syrup anything, processed grains, hydrogenated oil.
   
• Don't waste calories. Some foods are high in calories but low in nutrition; don't eat these. Some are high in calories and high in nutrition (e.g., nuts); eat these sparingly. Some are low in calories and high in nutrition (green veggies); make these the bulk of your diet.
   
• Eat variety. The typical American diet consists of two flavors: extracted sugars and damaged fats. I consume exactly zero of these on an annual basis. Instead, I enjoy the rich bounty that nature offers. Flavor, color, and texture vary dramatically among my favorite vegetables: various kinds of kale and cabbages, various kinds of peppers, various kinds of onions, different varieties of eggplant, and so forth. I eat most of this raw, with a dressing of olive oil and vinegar, plus whatever spices suit me at the moment.
   
• Use unusual flours. Readers are familiar with my amaranth cookie recipe (medium in calories, heavy in nutrition). Small problem: amaranth is expensive. I also use other flours, such as garbonzo, oat, and whatever else I haven't used lately.
   
• Eat often. If you eat six meals a day, you eat just often enough to prevent your body from going into catabolic (fat-storing, muscle-eating) mode. Most bodybuilders adopt this frequency, because eating even more often means really tiny meals and extra hassle. No serious bodybuilder eats below this frequency, because doing so means gaining fat and losing muscle. Personally, I can't imagine why anyone would pursue that particular goal, but many people do. And quite successfully, I might add.
   
• Watch the acid. Generally, a person getting a variety of foods is not going to suffer from excess acid. But it's still worth monitoring. And it has nothing to do with the acid in your stomach. Some foods cause the body to generate acid, even though the foods themselves aren't particularly acidic (cow's milk, for example, which is one of the reasons it leads to a net calcium loss in many people).
  
  If you have unexplained aches and pains, slow-healing wounds, allergies, or bowel problems, you may have an acid imbalance. There are other symptoms; feel free to look them up. To correct for this imbalance, you'll need to substitute a few low acid foods for the high acid ones you are eating.
   
• Control for body fat. An adult male with double digit body fat is too fat. Period. If your stomach doesn't have the washboard look, you are carrying too much fat. Women have an extra layer of fat, so for them a "flat tummy" look is a pretty good indicator they are on target.
  
  If you have too much fat, don't panic. Don't starve yourself. Just pick one of your six daily meals and make it a little smaller. This decrease in calories should result in a noticeable fat loss in a week to 10 days. If not, then decrease another meal. You may want to add in some wind sprints twice a month or in some other way burn more calories. But the key is adjusting the meal size.

At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.