Another example of how china is taking the west's surplus cash it ships there, and turns around and invests heavily in places to get access to their natural resources, then they turn around and sell to them, developing new markets.

The developed world is going to be the late not so great de-developing world pretty soon now. China invests in Brazil

All these western economists go on and on how we don't need "protectionism"..well, why is it then with china being so protectionist, they are advancing at a record pace? Could it be that some protectionism is necessary to keep from going bankrupt?

"Chinese firms have bought stakes in Brazil's electrical grid; they are building steel mills, car plants and a telecommunications infrastructure in that country. Chinese grain companies are negotiating to buy huge tracts -- some larger than 600,000 acres -- of Brazilian outback to plant soybeans. Chinese firms have the inside track on landing a huge high-speed-rail contract. They want to help realize Brazil's gargantuan plans -- estimated at more than $250 billion -- to tap its offshore oil reserves. "

And they have all this investment money because our glorious leaders said we didn't need old fashioned manufacturing, oh noes, that is passe', that we would be some sort of combo financial services (90% high stakes casino games), IP (ideas=dime a dozen), service (we'll mow each other's yards and get rich!) and governmental workers (in a shrinking economy, by all means, quadruple the size of government as the first step, raise taxes on those still barely producing any real wealth, plus add a few trillion in debt!) economy.

  Well, that mastermind theory sure has worked out just swell....and we still keep electing these people who let those pirates keep selling off what is left of the national seed corn for a fast buck. Corporate raiders, nation sized. Our political and economic "leaders"... When does this get to shift from just "sucky" to "treasonous" anyway? Oh, I guess that is passe' now as well, to be loyal to one's nation first.

And I can't blame China, they would have been stone idjits to not take the golden egg laying goose when it was offered. They are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing as a nation, looking out for themselves FIRST. After that, sure, get generous, but if you can't take care of affairs at home first, you won't have any "extra" to be generous with. You have to make wealth before you spend it, that's the real economic bottom line, and manufacturing is the top way to make wealth today, closely followed by agriculture and mining/natural resource extraction.

    The big kahuna though, is the factory. Destroy your factories, you lose, end of story. You aren't replacing them with *anything*, that's the fairy tale they get people to believe in. Destroy your ag, you lose + starve, end of story. Sell off your natural resources cheap, fat city for some years..then you lose. You gain a few warlords who own a lot of yachts and limos and tanks and jet fighters eventually, that's about it for selling off natural resources cheap, that's the end game there.

A pretty good read about the republishing of a book detailing what happened socially when the banksters and their political puppets lose control of their printing presses, back in the Weimar Republic. What follows, in the historical record, would be classed in the US as a red versus blue civil war (note, red state and blue state are overly simplified, look closer at the records and this red blue schism is urban versus "other than urban", in just about any state you want to look at. Then it turned into a general large war as we all know when they weren't able to repair all the damage, and those "elites" created internal and external patsies to blame all their troubles on.

It can happen again, too...

    The collapse of fiat currency systems lead to the collapse of the blue urban areas *really quickly*..as they have no actual human needed product, none of the necessities I mean. The currency system must be sound, not overly inflated or manipulated excessively for it to keep working. If they screw it up, "bad stuff" happens and the system breaks down.

    In the record, they flee the cities and go on looting rampages, that's the real bottom line, the cities become untenable for the most part. The "blue" areas are completely dependent on imports and exploitation of the red areas, despite claims they "support" the red areas. This "support" is a false notion, it is merely modern day imperialism backed up by the controllers "trickle down" economic theory of credit and currency creation at the top, in the mega blue urban areas, then lending it into existence-complete with charging interest on this newly poof created currency- at lower levels, until eventually a pittance makes it to the red areas, even though they really produce all the needed "stuff".

Of course there are variables, government checks now go to a lot of places, but once you subtract that, and a bout of fiat currency panic, such as loss of the FRN and the world's reserve currency would bring, would certainly subtract that as those checks go worthless for getting much real goods, because look at real wealth production..the red areas start the whole thing rolling, because that's where the food/water/energy/materials come from. All the stuff necessary for modern life. And the manufactured goods today..the stuff that keeps all the retailers busy..increasingly comes from places that might just cease taking fiat currency A as they deem it worth-less and less.

Anyway, a decent little read from Ambrose: Paper money

This is something that is really disturbing to me and I hope to more people, food security and prices. We have a food commodities market now that is skewed way out of proportion, it results in higher than necessary prices for consumers, really doesn't address farmers security, forces people to pay tribute to-once again-that nest of global thieves in Manhattan.

I farm because I want a peaceful life, do an honest job, and just make a living, not a killing, and provide food for people..because all of that is a combined good idea. But see, we all are subject to the parasite tax now, we've become defacto put into economic bondage to these gents, and they try to hide it like saying biofuels drive up the prices of food, etc, which is hogwash, and will also kill off the only viable option we have to use instead of pumped crude for all the millions of existing vehicles out there. This is the same sort of thing they do in the metals markets, and the same guys doing it, game the system because they now pwn the system..and they shouldn't..no one elected these thieves, but they sure have seized control.

Here is a nice interview with an additional link to the original story on manipulations in the global food markets.

Oh, food security? We swapped actual stockpiled mass quantities of food, which is a good idea, for server entries in these investor banks and letting them skim off zillions. That's not security, it's stupidity.

"Ya, Mom, what's for dinner"?

"Here ya go Junior and Sis, nice heaping plate of news reports about some huge banks with their leveraged and hedged futures contracts..dee lish"!

"Wahhh..we wanted real food"!

"Sorry, our betters decided this was..better..it makes them more money, which we all know now is the most important thing in the world..we are lucky we all get to work for them"

"Oh..."

A Website Design & Development Project Checklist (Repost)

Posted by: Eric Key in websites, web design, marketing on Nov 19, 2008

Another great post by Shaun is this one:

A (Nearly) Bulletproof Web Design & Development Project Checklist for clients and designers.

If you're aiming to agree a fixed price for the development of the website, as we do, ensure the project goes smoothly before you start, by communicating with your client at the outset.

They'll appreciate you for it, there will be less surprises, and you may be able to start making a profit from fixed cost website design jobs again;
Prices can change even for a fixed cost website
Web Design Costs are dependent on how many hours is spent working on a design and how many times the client asks for changes to it
Show the client your portfolio - that's the type of sites you build, do they like it?
Has the client supplied examples of the sort of site they are looking for?
Estimate a cost for a job, based on early discussion.
Ensure the client knows you can quote for a job only on the information you have available to you at the time
Confirm a job cost on reviewed client requirements
50% of job before start, 50% on completion
Ensure the client knows you are costing the job by hours and you do have other clients
Make sure all your costs are approved before starting a job (remember VAT)
Ask the client to send you an email notifying his acceptance of the project scope and cost
It's impossible to make a site that will look the same in all browsers;
Specify which Resolution / Screen Size the Website Should Be Designed to
Specify a fixed width or fluid layout
Inform the client which browser versions you support
Ensure the client is aware of website font restrictions or recommendations and web page download considerations
Ensure the client is aware websites look different than on paper
Content should be supplied by the client in a form easily used
Who is supplying the text?
Who is supplying the images?
Get the client to supply all text, photographs and content in electronic format
Make sure text supplied, if formatted, is in a web-ready format
The client should supply an example site-plan, in a bulleted list
The client needs to specify any specific functionality required at the outset
âMilestone' dates for the project should be agreed
Communicate missing any milestone date for supplying content / adding new content will have an impact on launch commitments and costs - both of you have businesses to run
Agree content delivery date
Agree Site Architecture Freeze Date
Agree Site Functionality Freeze Date
Agree Design Freeze date
Agree Launch Date
Changes to the brief should be communicated and costs agreed / timings considered in electronic form
No Favours - The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the bodies of well meaning web developers
Everything should be charged out, agreed and accountable
Websites can go down every now and then
Who hosts the current site?
Get Contact Details
Hosting is a recurring annual charge
Domain transfers sometimes go a bit Pete Tong
You are at the mercy of third parties
Who controls current domain(s)?
Domains need registered every year
Get Contact Details
Emails might go down for a period of perhaps 24-48 hours
Who controls current email(s)?
Get Contact Details
How many email accounts to you have/need
Launching a website can be about pressing buttons and.... waiting
Websites Get Hacked
All CMS needs kept up to date
In most cases hackers seek to deface the site
A hacked site can mean disaster in Google
A site that has been hacked can be rescued
Who's in charge of security / CMS updates
Agree maintenance fees
A Winning Website Is never âFinished'!
The client should keep his site up-to-date with news if he has a CMS
Training for the CMS should be costed if required
A website is subject to Laws of The Land and the client should investigate these
The UK Companies Act
UK Distance Selling Regulations
Website Accessibility Recommendations
Agree ongoing responsibilities
Who is responsible for the client's email, hosting and domain management
Do you âguarantee' a website is fit for purpose for say 1 year?
When will annual billing start and occur

I'm sure I've missed some things out, but I wanted a post on the site I could point my clients to, to educate them on some of the less talked about aspects of developing a website. I expect to modify this page every now and again.

Take responsibility, agree the scope of the project, recognise the requirements to meet the brief within allocated time-frame, and bill for your time.

I've learned this the hard way. Now I aim at all times to communicate with the client as much as possible to ensure any web development job doesn't get out of control.

Original Post: A Website Design & Development Project Checklist
{jomcomment}

This is an indication of the moves I have been saying that china will do as the economy changes around the world. Now that they have extracted the bulk of the necessary manufacturing knowledge they need from the west, they no longer absolutely "need" the western markets. It's not that they will abandon them, but they now have the wherewithal to not be fixated on them, a significant change. They had to export cheap and work really hard for a long time, just so they could get access to western currencies so they could turn around and get the high tech goodies from those nations. This is done, accomplished for the most part. They can build most anything, in mass quantities, at globally competitive prices, and will now just get better at it.

  Now stage two, the big shift, where they emphasize their internal markets more, the thing I said was 'coming soon". It got here. Here is the reference, China and internal markets They move this way and institute polices to rapidly expand their middle classes, this makes them really much wealthier, and eliminates the potential for mass social unrest (while the western nations are killing off their middle classes and increasing the odds of mass social unrest...)

  Stage three is then another expansionist move they will make into areas of the world where they source raw materials from. This will be an almost unprecedented diaspora type event, millions of people going to set up businesses in cooperation with the locals, on a much larger scale than they are doing now, which is impressive enough. they have to, they have to get millions to move someplace else, they have run out of water and arable land at home. They will develop way more of an interest exporting and trading with these raw resource areas than they have with just the fiat currency "consuming" nations (they want real stuff for their manufactured goods now, they have about had it exchanging IOUs for just relabeled other sorts of IOUs for all their expotts. This has gotten old for them. It's also why they started unpegging from the dollar). This big change will also include exporting just a ton of their population as a necessity move. They *have* to, they have no choice at all, all you had to do to see this was look at some simple data from years ago, demographics and so on, and extrapolate it. They have to lose tens of millions of their people out, or run dry, plus they have this hugemongous young male surplus, plus people with good college degrees and no domestic jobs for them. that means..they have to go expansionist.. They simply do not have the water and the space any more, and need to keep expanding, or their fatcats lose their cushy jobs and heads..so the orders will come down to go this way, because that is the only other option they have, internal collapse, or expand..

  This will be part of the deals they arrange with a lot of foreign nations, offer them all kinds of manufacturing help and natural resource extraction help, and a ton of "engineers" and so on moving there will be part of the deal. That stage three move, when it begins in earnest, will be (IMO) the tipping point for the US to lose world's reserve currency status, right then, and to hit a really fast decline (barring some other real hard to predict wildcard). There will be "enough" indicators for that point to narrow the timing down better once it gets closer, that's when the major dollar rout will occur.

Much fun and games in the USA then.

(just a note: the past full month now my net connection has been more down than up, and even when up really flaky. I was more relying on my slow cell connection and "bent" the TOS a little-tethering- just to have any connection at all, so I didn't want to push it and lose that as well. I use a WISP and they got hammered with a huge batch of the radios we customers use that are all crapping out just a scosh past warranty, and they are proprietary and expensive. They've replaced mine twice now, but only a matter of time before it craps out again, and the speeds are really slow now. So it goes. Allegedly they might switch to a more "4g" technology and apparently I might be on the shortlist for the initial trials. Anyway, that's the reason I was mostly absent for several weeks, I could only skim the major stories and add the odd comment before losing connection, didn't have the luxury of my normal JE back and forths until just a coupla days ago.)

Arrggghhhhh

So, my co-worker, people person in IT was contacted today about an issue in our CMS. They could not click any of the buttons or tabs in the CMS on just one Article. It worked everywhere else but the one article. My co-worker looked at it, but could not figure it out, so he passed it on to me.

So I logged in to look at it. Weird. Very very weird.

        On a hunch, I highlighted and drug my mouse across the page. Voila. Something was blocking the edit and tab buttons. Now I had to figure out what. Of course, IE8 doesn't have the same options / tools that FF has and the Workarea doesn't work with FF. Argghhh!

        Finally, got the Workarea into a full IE page and was able to pull up the tools, but once I found the Absolute Position with the top:0 left:0 location I couldn't remove it from that page and then edit it to fix it. So I had to go back to the normal CMS and F12 to get the tools. THEN I was able to search and destroy all the absolute positioning (it was in there 8 times). Then I checked it in. Sadly, since I couldn't publish it, the problem was not resolved, so once we received permission from the editor to publish, I had to do it again to get in, so a total of 6 times, I had to remove all the absolute positioning to make this work. Wow. I hope no one ever does that again. I can also, honestly say, that no one else would have figured it out as quickly as I did. Think anyone will notice? Nah. It wasn't Mother. LOL Once again, the KB, behind the scenes, saves the day and shall never be recognized for her good deeds and brilliant mind.
Welcome to the world of that Girl in IT.

Thanks for listening. ;)

Closer pirate action

And by all means, let us have the feds and fearless leader continue to dump on Arizona, to protect this sort of action. I mean, those are just poor unfortunate pirates who just need jobs, the jobs gringoes won't take..or something like that.

    I mean I didn't really realize that folks down there in Texas refused to take the pirate jobs, maybe it doesn't pay well or something, so we must import "guest workers" to fill those slots. We should offer them nice benefits and retirement packages as well..and instant drivers licenses, any name they want, low interest loans-scratch- outright grants to get better new pirate boats, free healthcare, personal translation services so they can apply for more government help, and subsidized more modern and lethal weaponry. They need decent tools for their jobs. Someone has to protect us from those dangerous bass fishing terrorists!

The FDA is now claiming, in a convoluted case involving raw milk, that you have no inherent right to choose your own food, that this "right" exists solely with the Federal government.

OK, here's a situation where market forces are going to ignore a tremendous source of wealth, wealth that could be taken from what is now a huge environmental disaster, the pine beetle infestations.

  The pine beetle basically kills off entire huge forests. It is unstoppable. Hundreds of millions of pines in western north America are dead. The deal is, this wealth wouldn't show up for years and years..so..it probably won't happen, there are no short term profits, just huge short term expense, but long range it *would* pay off. The "snatch wealth from the jaws of disaster" involves converting all this loose carbon into biochar, before we have regional sized forest fires or it just rots and still releases the carbon. There's enough potential there to improve the soils in millions of acres and provide a ton of really useful rural work. but..that no short term profit catch 22. So, how to do it?

My idea is to stop this carbon credits nonsense, take that same theoretical money and do it. Trading credits on the market just skims that investment potential away from the taxpayer consumers. All I can think of is direct multigovernmental efforts with something this scale, in part because so much of this now standing dead timber is on public lands. Print the loot up (no taxes, I mean print it up and start paying a lot of unemployed people with it), spend it, get it done. Get huge biochar facilities up and running and get that stuff to farmers all over to plow into their soil, the soil where our food comes from. National security, heck, global security.

  Or watch it rot away, or someday with a dry summer, areas like small European nations in size will burn up. That's the choices. Millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, or deep down in the soil where it acts wonderfully to help regulate subsurface soil moisture and help plants grow, and keeps that carbon sequestered for decades to centuries.

That insider whistleblower case about the rigged precious metals market keeps getting interesting. The NY Post is reporting the authorities are now doing a criminal probe of those manipulation allegations.

A rather vivid description of the standard operating procedure for modern high finance.

More or less what I have been saying, but I am not as afraid of any collapse as the "insider" giving the lecture in the article. Because I know the bulk of those electronic promises of future wealth called "pensions" and so on are *already gone*, already "collapsed", and there never was any intention of actually swapping them back for all the retirees so they could have living expenses.

  The whole article is about cons, so really..that was the ultimate magic beans for the milkcow con the grifters have been selling the public..and municipalities..and unions and organizations and other corporations.... "Gives us all your extra loot for decades, we'll "invest it", then we promise to pay you back later on even moar, forever and ever"! I mean, geez loweez,,, The numbers have never added up, it just cannot be done. That money/wealth is long gone. The rest is ..what to call it..chimeric wealth. Giant ponzi scheme. Sure it has paid off for some. that's how they work, they have to build the hype, so the earlier investors get back some big bucks and get all tuplip mania about it, they "sell" the con to their friends, and it snowballs from there.. only for awhile though, then they collapse once too many are "owed" more than what is coming in.

  So...there's no way it can pay off for the vast retiring boomer generation and beyond, because all ponzi schemes rely on new investors to pay the old investors, and the lie is that the money is "working for you" someplace in magical fairyland ville upstream. Once the pool of new suckers slows down, it gets harder and harder for ponzi schemes to operate, because they *don't make money* they just skim a lot and divvy some out to keep everyone faked out that it is a perpetual motion money machine.

    They'll try accounting tricks and come up with even more exotic forms of future credit, plus always the old faithful run the printing presses. Then tell people they should be robbed..err..taxed more.. all of that ...but the real wealth no longer exists, it has already been spent. It's gone.

You know the famous white van and speakers for sale con? It's famous, happened all over the country, I even saw it once in a parking lot in Stone Mountain Georgia when a friend was driving and I talked him out of it, told him straight up it was a con, freakin obvious. Oh man he had instant greed in his eyes and heart though, that blinded him to reality, so he couldn't see it. Anyway, that's the vast bulk of pensions and retirement accounts and so on today, a real impressive heavy box..it even looks like a speaker inside, nice wood cabinet and grill...you get home, plug it in, nothing. Open it up...full of rocks. The sellers are long gone by then. Your thousand dollar speakers that you "invested" 200 in was a *box of rocks*. Because no one is going to give you real thousand buck speakers, except for a thousand bucks. There ain't no free lunch, there is no magical something for nothing, money doesn't work, money is imaginary property, people have to work, and perpetual motion-something for nothing- doesn't ever work at all.

OK, it is pretty bad now, but just suppose..there's nothing they can do about it, and it keeps leaking forever until it runs out. We need to know how much is in that field and estimated recoverable amounts, but my guess is, and it is a total guess, enough to kill the gulf of mexico pretty much once it spreads out all over, which it would. This is also going to put the kabosh and much more offshore drilling for quite awhile.

And here's another thing...I haven't seen any reason for the explosion/fire. How come no one is speculating on a deliberate attack yet? Why is this *crickets* in this day and age? OK, I just did, as a possibility. Maybe not probable, but a possibility.

OK, more links size of the spill

Maybe it is Halliburton's fault

^^^^ that one sure seemed to take a little while to come out, didn't it? I think there's another example of a corporation that is just too big to exist. They have been implicated in just tons of bogus corporate activities and bogus competence in a lot of their endeavors.

With that said, where are the oil sucker ships/tankers? Seems like they could have something like a long pipe they could maneuver down close and just start sucking the oil from as close to the leak point as possible, then load tankers with it and take it directly to a specialized refinery that could deal with salt water contaminated oil easier (they have to do that with our strategic reserve oil anyway, because it is stashed in old salt mines, and that refinery is down in Louisiana IIRC). Then there needs to be a way to quickly separate oil from seawater and put the water back in the ocean, perhaps with a big centrifuge like device? They have something like this on some diesel air intakes, a spinning fan that shoots the heavier dust and dirt off to the side and out and away before it hits the filter.

My guess is, this will wipe out gulf fishing for a long time though. Might be a good time to throw some shrimp, etc in the freezer.

Ha! I thought I was down on our favorite "investment" bank.... Check out Tarpley's rant.

More righteous ranting at the link, including an important point I agree with (although on a lot of issues I don't agree with Tarpley)..the tea party folks have been seriously compromised, mind faked, if they think the R party will do anything constructive with this set of events. Just like they equated unlimited campaign donations by corporations to be "free speech" instead of just looking and going "Hey, a bribe"! There will be no "reform" of the R party..or the D party for that matter..ever. Waste of time. The largest most constructive change we could do in the next election is *every* incumbent out, replaced by independents.

Seems an expensive balloon based telescope didn't quite make a good liftoff.

The planet runs on still cheap to get in terms of energy in to energy out petroleum. Now..what happens when demand outstrips supply?

There's a good clue in there that has been brought up before, the lack of many new refineries being built. Sure, some are going in, and you can point to a lot of costly regs, etc...but the lack of interest, especially with the US petrogiants is a major clue that they *know* that we already have enough refinery capacity and it won't be cost effective to build more *if there ain't gonna be much crude to run through them*. If they knew or best guessed that a couple new saudi arabias were going to be found anytime in the next few decades, they know enough to start building the refineries now...crickets. There are some niche ones going in to process ultra heavy crude, like for Venezuela's big stash..but besides that, not too many. They *know*, and if they know, you should too, and plan your energy needs for the future *now* unless you want to be wallet raped then.

I told folks this ten years ago, told them we hit peak cheap solar panels (ha, same time I told folks we hit peak bottom gold prices and get some then..I did both in that timeframe, took my own advice, proven correct now). We have very marginal efficiency gains offset by bad inflation and the rising cost of production of said panels...and the fix has been in somewhat, look at the dozens of "breakthroughs" you and I have read about over the years..but no buck a watt retail yet. And it is not likely to happen either with long term patents, and this looming energy crunch. Takes energy to build them things, even the new plastics based panels..petroleum plastics. Plus, a lot of the critical minerals and exotic metals needed hitting peak demand as well.

Anyway, snooze ya lose. Energy production facilities in hand, insuring some reasonable supply for you for the next thirty years, versus ..paper or electronic promises of future wealth, plus nebulous job security, that you are relying on to "pay the utility bill". I know I have a coupla goals for this upcoming decade, two of which are an electric truck with some reasonable range (just enough to get to town and back, thirty miles) that I can keep charged with my solar panels, and also a small electric garden tractor so I can raise food and haul in my firewood, etc, little personal chores and not worry about liquid fuels supply. In between charging those things I already have a bare minimum amount of solar to at least run some lights and a laptop, etc.

There used to be a spiffy product for firewood that evaporated, but I bet it could make a comeback if some company wanted to take another stab at it, a 12 VDC electric chainsaw. Not expensive and limited teeny onboard batteries, just jumper cables to run it from your big truck battery. They used to make the things with something like a 50 foot set of jumpers so you could drive your truck in, cut a load of wood, and still restart and get back out. They make 110 AC saws obviously, but one with just two electric clamps would be nice, and skip the whole inverter deal. Off the wall products like that *might be* a way to future proof employment, just go with the flow of more and more expensive liquid fuels, and see what sort of electric whatever that people will want and need, could be run from solar panels dealie could replace it. It is obvious they really want to do carbon tax and skim globally, so conventional electricity will be going up in price severely, no way around that. So that means..home solar or something that fits in your area, personal windcharger, small scale hydro, etc.