Mindconnection eNL, 2019-12-15

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

Item 1. Dr. Fritz Zolrath, a zoologist at Oxford University, has developed a fake rhinoceros horn that is almost impossible to differentiate from a real one. Once he gets the process to scale, certain national governments would likely be paying customers to help flood the market and lower the profits made by poachers. Several African nations now are forced to deploy military forces to protect endangered rhinos and other large mammals, because park rangers are no match for the well-funded, excessively armed poachers. In addition to saving a precious natural resource within their borders, these nations would vastly reduce the staggering costs of fighting poachers.

Item 2. The rollback of Obamageddon anti-economy, anti-jobs executive orders, policies, etc., continues to provide benefits to Americans. More than 266,000 new jobs were created, last month alone. Unemployment is down to 3.5%, the lowest it has been since the year we put Neal Armstrong (RIP) on the moon (1969).

Item 3. The real news about the economy is reducing the left's power to control people's minds with their fake news.

Item 4. The fantastic economic news nearly ensures President Trump will be re-elected, since it's obvious why that news is so good (Trump's policies versus Soetoro's policies). The left, which hates law and the democratic process, fears an election loss. Just as they have been misusing the courts in an effort to eviscerate our First, Second, and Fourth Amendment rights, they are now using impeachment as a means to invalidate elections. The good news is this skullduggery is almost certain to backfire. And the Senate is about 99% sure to not back impeachment. Talk about egg on the face.

Item 5. The election for POTUS is decided on the basis of voting precincts. It's all or nothing, precinct by precinct. Many voters don't know this, just as many voters cannot name the three branches of the federal government. The USA has about 3200 voting precincts. When Hillary ran against Trump, she won 59 of them. Most were in "communist countries" such as the People's Republic of New York and the People's Republic of California, where thinking appears to be illegal. Those places also collect a hugely disproportionate share of government benefits. Hillary claims she won the popular vote, but she won in places with exceptionally high population density. She lost to Trump in 3100 of the 3200 voting precincts. Frontrunner Elizabeth Warren is widely considered even more whacky than Hillary, and her math is so bizarre that few people with at least a third grade education will take her seriously. Which means she is likely to win even fewer than 59 precincts, and that would be very good news.

Item 6. Most people do not know that alcohol is a carcinogen, even in small amounts. It crosses the blood-brain barrier, so if brain cancer is your idea of fun then drink up. There's no such thing as beer or wine in moderation, it's just plain bad. The good news is millennials started drinking much later than any other generation since Prohibition. And once they start drinking, they drink less. The pattern is continuing with Generation Z already. Like smoking, drinking is going out of fashion. And that is very good news indeed.

Item 7. The Communist News Network (CNN) continues to see its ratings decline. That is really good news, it means more and more people are rejecting the fake news provided by this disinformation outlet.

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Because intelligent, conscious thought is not on auto-pilot. You have to decide to use it.

Suppose you drove a car into a wall. Did the brakes fail, or did you fail to use them? Brainpower is like that.

Normal people have considerable brain power. Smart people have even more. A normal person who decides to use his/her brainpower will easily outperform a genius who doesn't decide the same.

When confronted with a problem, make a point of stopping to think about it. At first, your thoughts should be directed at defining the problem. You can't correctly solve a problem until you know exactly what that problem is. From this point, you can choose from a long list of problem-solving techniques. Once you make the choice, think things through at every step rather than mindlessly go through the motions. Your brain is a powerful system. Going back to the car analogy, turn the key (decide to think) and then stomp that accelerator. You'll get impressive results.

Let's look at two examples: Driving for Uber and selling on Amazon.

Uber

After Uber takes its cut from a typical ride, the driver is left with an amount that is less than the minimum wage. But some rides net well above minimum wage. To determine hourly pay, count all the time your car is out there, not just the revenue per ride. This includes the time you spend returning empty from a paying ride and the time you spend driving around waiting for Uber to provide you with a paying customer.

Once you figure your hourly pay, you have a number that is a long way from your profit (if any). Some costs to consider:

• Cleaning. Many Uber users call Uber for a ride home after an evening of binge drinking. Vomiting in your car is very likely.
• Cleaning. People like to fart and pick their noses in rental cars, and it's no different in cars driven by other people such as taxi drivers and Uber drivers.
• Washing. You have to keep your car's exterior clean, or you are not going to have five-star ratings and you are not going to get tips. That means at least one daily trip through a car wash.
• Fuel. It really adds up.
• Tires. The standard tires that come on the typical passenger car are crap. They provide poor mileage, poor handling, poor traction, and adequate ride comfort. You will want to upgrade for at least two of those reasons, and this is not cheap. A set of high-end Michelins could easily run you $800 (on sale, no less!).
• More frequent wheel balancing and alignments. These cost money and take time.
• Cosmetic repairs. Most people don't understand how easy it is to damage the paint on a car. Take strangers into your car, and expect to spend considerable money repairing the exterior. Fingerprint oil is a common culprit most people do not even think of, but take a look at the passenger doors of a typical Uber car and you will see plenty of little scratches.
• Increased maintenance. All those short trips mean you should change your oil and filter every 2,000 miles.
• Wear and tear. You're piling more miles onto your car, shortening its life and its resale value.
• Increased likelihood of filing an insurance claim. You're driving more. A lot more. Plus you will have riders who want to chat so you can't focus on driving. Plus you have to use the Uber app while driving, yet another distraction. Plus you will be driving through unfamiliar neighborhoods and other unfamiliar places. Often at times of high traffic congestion.
• Possibly higher insurance rates. If you get a break now for low annual mileage, that will disappear. But many insurance companies are also assessing the increase risk they must cover for Uber drivers and adjusting (raising) their rates accordingly.

Other costs to consider:

• Opportunity costs.
• Wear and tear on your back.
• The risk of being attacked or robbed by a "customer", causing you to pull out your 9mm pistol and hold them until the police come (losing about an hour in the process).

Is it possible to make a living with Uber? Perhaps, but the odds are slim and you'd need ideal conditions (including being in a dense metro area that has plenty of short rides available). You'd also need to be an expert at gaming the Uber system so you can snag the most profitable fares.

Amazon

Many people start a side hustle as an Amazon seller. This is a mistake. The job has become so complex, you either do it full-time or expect mediocrity and financial losses. The common misconception is you just list your stuff on Amazon, and they take 8%.

Aside from the work-intensive time you have to put in to succeed on Amazon, here are some costs people fail to consider while running up credit card debt it will take them years to pay off:

• The actual sales commission to Amazon. For many categories, it's 16%. Not 8%.
• If using FBA, the cost of inbound shipping.
• If doing your own fulfillment or dropshipping, the cost of shipping to the customer.
• If using FBA, the FBA fees.
• The cost of returns. They often come back in unsellable condition.
• Warranty costs. Yes, manufacturers love the extra revenue Amazon sellers provide. No, they do not usually support Amazon sellers with tech support or warranty support. You must back the warranty yourself, in most cases.

Here are sample numbers for a $100 product that moves 10 units per month:

• You buy a case of 10 at a time.
• The product is smallish and weighs 2lbs each.
• It has an "average" return rate; let's say one out of twelve orders.
• Your cost is $75.

Right off the bat, it looks like you make $25 per sale. But of course, Amazon takes 8% so you make $17 per order. Right?

• $0.60: Inbound shipping to FBA.
• $0.20: Labeling fees by distributor.
• $5.30. FBA fees.
• $0.75. Cost of return shipping of one return, $9 per 12 units (you pay for return shipping)
• $9.00. Cost of shipping "unfulfillable" to you or your distributor.

Note that when there's a return, Amazon does not refund its commission. So now it looks like we must subtract $15.85 from our "profit" netting just $1.15. But that's not the end of the cost story. And it assumes the price won't drop on Amazon or returns won't increase.

Suppose:

Amazon's fee is 15%. Now you have a loss per sale of $6.85.

You run advertising and your Acquisition Cost Of Sales is 5% (which is considered very low). Now you have a loss on ad sales of $3.85 per unit. But you also move units organically, so you about break even. If you scale this up to a normal self-employment level, you work about 60 hours a week for free.

For this product, we would want a margin of 30% to even consider it. If we got 40%, that would be good.

Now, it is possible to make very good money selling on Amazon. But to do that, you must "do the math". A lot. This aspect of sourcing and profitable product is maybe 10% of what it takes to succeed on Amazon. There are dozens of other things a seller must do. It's a real business, not an ATM that draws on someone else's account for you. It was once possible to sell on Amazon as a part-time gig and make extra money. Today, that is probably not possible. I have thought about how that might work and just do not see it.

The gig economy, general thoughts

People who are used to working on a W-2  see the gig economy and think whatever they are paid is pure profit. As I have shown, that is not at all the case. In addition, you are not employee in the gig economy. If you sell online, rent out space for Air BnB, provide freelance services via a "hire a geek" site, drive for Uber or Lyft, etc., you do not have employee benefits. There are no paid holidays, paid vacations, sick days, or personal days. You don't get medical insurance, educational reimbursement,  retirement/pension, or any other employee benefits. You just get the check (or electronic deposit). Also, it's up to you to deal with the Institute of Reprobates and Sociopaths, correctly reporting your income and paying your income taxes.

You do get to set your own hours. For most self-employed individuals, those hours are pretty much "all of them" unless you figure out how to set realistic limits so you run the business instead of the other way around.

One of the big problems with being a gig economy worker (or, related to it, being self-employed in a real business) is you are seen differently by banks. Try buying a house if you are self-employed, and you'll see what I mean. I don't know how gig economy workers actually fare in the mortgage market, but given the fact they typically are working long hours in a low-profit, high audit-risk endeavor, I have a pretty good idea.

Should you ever be a gig economy worker? Perhaps if you are in a financial tight spot, yes. Since you are more likely to lose money than net a profit (or at best barely make any profit), you can consider the opportunity costs and other costs as "loan interest" and use the cash flow to get you out of a bind.

But a better approach is to decide on a real business. Then figure out how that business would work, how much time you can realistically devote to it, and what resources are available to help you succeed. One trap here is people pick a business based on how much money they think it could make. That is how you pick a business at which you will fail. Pick a business that you are, or can be, passionate about. If you really care about that business, the money will follow. If you are disengaged, as the typical W-2 worker is, the money will not follow.

Engagement is the key to succeeding with your side hustle or part-time business. It is also the key to succeeding in a W-2 job. Many people quit their W-2 job because they hate it, then go into a "business" in which they are just as disengaged as they were in their job. For such folks, the first thing to try is to figure out how you can become enthusiastic about your job or find a job in which you will be fully engaged every day because you love what you do.

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/social-engineering/2019/10/help-prevent-disaster-donation-scams-from-causing-more-misery

Photo taken a couple of weeks after my 59th birthday.

Note that the information provided here will likely conflict with the "fad of the moment" and other unsustainable, unproductive ways of looking at health and fitness.

Article appears below.

See my climbing videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCyb67uKOxW_TsG6BVPbBIQ/videos

In the United States today, there is a terrible drug epidemic. One drug in particular is causing massive failure in people's endocrine systems, with a death rate that exceeds the death rate from all other causes combined. The deaths are often violent in nature, with toes being amputated and then limbs. Yes, we are talking about sugar.

Sugar causes vastly more deaths and vastly greater social disruption than methamphetamines. Yet, the same government that bans methamphetamines subsidizes sugar. Go figure. And I don't mean just cane sugar. I also mean maltodextrin (a common sugar that does not have to be included as sugar on an FDA-approved food label), fructose (fruit juice), and the various derivatives of wheat, corn, and soy. These various forms of sugar cause:

• Male feminization.

• Reduced IQ.

• Accelerated aging.

• Adult onset diabetes.

• Cardiovascular disease.

• Obesity, morbid obesity, and all the other names we have for "way-ay-ay too fat".

• Kidney disease, liver disease, pancreatic disease, you name it.

• Various forms of cancer.

• Bad breath.

• Body odor.

• Foul stool.

• Osteoporosis and muscle loss, due to the significant reduction in testosterone each time sugar is consumed.

Here's the crux of what you need to know:

• If it's processed, it's not food.

• Just about anything in the produce department is a "super food". This does not include iceberg lettuce, but it does include such nutritional bonanzas as romaine lettuce.

• "Great bodies are made in the kitchen, not in the gym." Bill Phillips, author of Body For Life, 1999.

• Excess body fat is the most visible symptom of endocrine abuse. You do not solve this by "losing weight." You solve this by losing sugar.

Some additional details:

• Special diets such as the Paleo Diet and Atkins Diet are nonsense. They are based on selective facts and dubious logic.
• A diet that is plant-based or primarily plant-based, and the plants are mostly organic, is very healthy for your endocrine system.
• Any diet that includes wheat, corn, or derivatives of them (e.g., high fructose corn syrup, "whole wheat" flour, etc.) is hostile to your endocrine system.
• Don't reduce sugar in your diet. Eliminate it from your diet. Entirely.

Notice, I'm not prescribing any particular diet. That's because there are so many great foods to choose from. You almost cannot go wrong, as long as you stick to food. But wait, different people have different definitions of "food". So let me be clear. Food is:

• Sugar-free.
• Unprocessed.
• Nutrient-dense.
• Mostly found in the produce department at the grocery store. Of course, beans, rice, oils, vinegars, eggs, nuts, non-wheat flours, and spices are found elsewhere in the store (far from the soda aisle).
• Seldom packaged in a can or box.
• Rarely found in restaurants.

***

Here's the (remaining) game plan for this series:

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 3
Training. There are smart ways to train, and then there are the ways the vast majority of people use.

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 4
Rest. Recuperation from training requires time. You also need to get adequate sleep every day.

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 5
Consistency. Don't skip meals and don't skip workouts. Skipping arguments is fine, however.

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 6
Mental focus. People who lack focus tend to fail at everything, rather than succeed at anything. This can become depressing. Concentrate on the task at hand.

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 7
Positive mental attitude. That glass isn't half full, it's overflowing!

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 8
Supplements. How to sort scams from the good stuff.

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 9
Chemicals to avoid. Many commonly-used chemicals adversely affect endocrine health.
 

How to manage hormones naturally, Part 10
Handling social pressure. Rather than use willpower to fight social pressure from the disease-embracing, health-averse culture, follow these tips to use social pressure to your advantage.

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

Sugar causes more deaths in the USA than all other drugs combined. And yes, sugar is a drug. It's a highly addictive one, which is why it's routinely put into processed "food".

The USA and Europe have made dramatic reductions in carbon emissions. China has more than offset those reductions with its own increased emissions. India is rapidly increasing its carbon emissions as well.

Translation: For the western nations, carbon emission concerns are a non-sequitor. Despite this, many libtard-infested cities either have implemented a carbon tax or are seriously considering doing so. But that tax will only prevent people from updating to more energy-efficient lighting, cars, appliances, etc. It will have zero effect on China or India. Ponder this example of stupidity for a while.