We
are off for three weeks after this blog, time to get to that “Summer To Do”
list: leaking faucets, clean windows, clean carpets, organize storage, organize
my office, today my office resembles an English Literature Professor’s, fifteen
student job recommendations to write, golf game needs serious transfusion and
my beach body. If I get to half of these
it will be a miracle.
See
you on August 28 with our preseason NFL and College Football picks, an update
on the real life soap opera of “Trump In Washington”, and of course our usual
mayhem.
I
regret to inform readers that my beach body, slated for arrival in early June
of this year, will be delayed, perhaps indefinitely. A number of factors, all
under my direct control, have contributed to this unfortunate setback.
First
and foremost, I still love a good hot dog. While I have done an excellent job
of including more vegetables in my diet, I have also included more of
everything else, like soft drinks. In the past month alone, averaging two-four
a day, not good.
My
metabolism is slowing down. Metabolic rate is difficult to determine, but what
is certainly not slowing down is my intake of pizza. In fact, it is more than
likely that one of those cheese-choked blubber-makers is circling inside my
fridge at this very moment.
While
my recent efforts to increase the intensity of my workouts has been admirable,
a look at the numbers indicates that my treadmill speeds have increased only
from an average of 3.8 miles per hour to 3.9 miles per hour. Not surprisingly,
the impact on my beach body has been negligible. One might argue that it has
worked to my detriment, given that my duration on the treadmill has plummeted
by an average of fourteen minutes. My Fitbit just sent me a message: “You are kidding,
right?”
As
you know, motivation can be elusive. There are unseen forces that oppose
motivation and seek to douse the flames of inspiration. In my case, that force
is napping. I really do like a good nap.
As
the summer days pass and the temperatures rise, I have found myself scrambling
to re-calibrate my goals. To lose just five pounds instead of twenty, or to
unearth just one ab instead of six. Sadly, when measured against the utopian
physique I set out to achieve, these thoughts will quickly fade—drowned out, in
all likelihood, by the crunch of a Dorito.
In
conclusion, with some significant life-style tweaks I could, according to a
consultant’s estimate, achieve my beach body by November. Just in time for
Thanksgiving. Revealing my actual body before then, may trigger feelings of
disappointment and guilt, even shame. Try to focus not on negative emotions but
on ways in which I can stay positive and also stay submerged up to my neck for
as much of the summer as possible.
Oh
well, the White House is having an even worse summer.
COLLEGE
CHRONICLES
- Over the past 15 years, 1.5 million more people have left California than
have moved here from other states, according to estimates from the California
Department of Finance. Remarkably, even in the face of this outflow, California
still experiences net gains of college graduates (those with at least a
bachelor's degree).
WHAT
STUDENTS KNOW ABOUT MONEY - US Bank last week rolled out a study on college students'
financial literacy. One of the main findings is that students across the board
wish they knew more about how to manage their money.
From
the bank: "Credit, in particular, stands out as an area where students
continue to need more financial education during their college years: Many
students believe common myths. For example, 55% of students do not know that
their credit score is not impacted by how much money is in their bank account.
There is a gap between white and multicultural students; 84 percent of white
students say they know what a credit score is, compared with 77 percent of
African-American students, 75 percent of Hispanic students and 68 percent of
Asian students. There's a gender gap, too, although male students don't realize
it. Females demonstrated more knowledge than males about what a credit score is
used for.”
May
I suggest Personal Finance BUS 345, thank you.
TOYOTA - Toyota says
it is nearing a breakthrough in a type of lithium-ion battery system that has
vexed researchers for decades. The company also says it plans to unveil a
family of electric cars with a jump in currently available driving range, in
the early 2020s.
Given the high stakes and risk of embarrassment if something goes
wrong, Japanese companies virtually never flag a big tech breakthrough before
it is actually produced and delivered to the market. Hence, Toyota's
comparatively specific announcement suggests it is reasonably confident that it
really has mastered a new battery technology.
AMAZON REACHES
$500B - Amazon's market value last week smashed through the
half-a-trillion dollar mark for the first time, underscoring the rapid
appreciation in the e-commerce giant's share price. The market value has surged
by $146.3bn since the end of 2016, rising as high as $502.6bn on the day. In
comparison, Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer by revenues, has seen its
market capitalization tick up by $23bn in 2017 to $235.4bn.
HOLY SNAP! - A high
school in Mountain View, Calif., has a unique dilemma. A $15,000 investment by
St. Francis High School five years ago turned into $34 million this past March
when Snapchat parent Snap went public. The school has had to weigh competing
ideas for what to do with the money. Students speculated they wouldn’t have to
pay tuition next year. Parents asked whether annual fundraisers, including a
Christmas boutique sale, were still necessary. Some advisers urged school
officials to construct a new chapel and science laboratories. It is exceedingly
rare to net such a huge return in an initial public offering. In fact, most
venture-capital bets fail. “We are blessed,” the head of school said in his
first interview about how St. Francis will spend the money. “But we don’t want
to become a cautionary tale.”
SUMMER
ENTERTAINMENT - Ah, summer. A time to kick back, sit under a fan, and hide from
the weather in the shady comfort of the great indoors. Why go to the beach,
where there are sunburns to be gotten? Why go to the park, where bugs eagerly
await—ready to bite on any bare skin? And for the love of God, why subject
oneself to the sweat and grass stains that come with—shudder—playing sports
outside in the heat?
No, summer is for binge-watching. It’s the best time to catch up
on all the shows you’ve meant to watch but put off in favor of more
urgent-sounding things. The ideal summer binge is a show you can idly watch
through a haze of second screens, rosé, and half-awakeness. Here, for your
enjoyment, are a few shows that fit the bill.
Catastrophe
Three seasons in, this comedy is as hilarious as ever. And Season
4 has one of Carrie Fisher’s very last performances—more than enough reason to
catch up. The best part? As a Britcom, each season of the series only contains
six episodes. You’ll breeze through it in no time. (Catch up on Hulu.)
GLOW
You might have heard about this show; with its ‘80s focus and
drug-toting robot, it’s all the rage on Netflix right now. Come for the zany
fashion, stay for Alison Brie’s soulful Audrey Hepburn impression.
Insecure
As Issa Rae’s comedy prepares for its second-season debut next
month, make sure you’re caught up on all the laughs, dating woes, and
girlfriend drama. Insecure was one of the freshest new shows of 2016, and its
second season promises to be just as delightful. (Catch up on HBO.)
TRAVEL APPS - The last
thing anyone wants to do is spend more money than necessary when planning a
vacation. But luckily, there are plenty of great apps to help you cut your
travel costs.
Airfare
Hopper: Hopper shows the best time to buy a ticket and whether a flight
you're interested in might change in price. Users can select their destination,
and Hopper will show airline schedules months in the future. Each day is color
coded by price, with green dates showing cheaper prices and red dates
indicating more expensive flights. You can also ask Hopper to "watch"
your trip and alert you of any price changes.
Hotels
Hotel Tonight: Hotel Tonight
searches nearby hotels for spots that same day, the next day or within a week,
making it useful in case of emergencies like a cancelled flight. Hotel Tonight
also has a website, its last-minute booking feature works better on the app.
However, there are a few drawbacks: Users can't take advantage of any elite
memberships and almost all bookings are non-refundable with full cancellation
penalties. Hotel Tonight offers the best discounts outside of prime travel
seasons.
StayAtHand: StayAtHand
works similarly to Hotel Tonight, users can search farther ahead than the next
week and can also use their elite hotel memberships. Although it's useful for
short term booking and for searching nearby options, StayAtHand only lists
rooms within the U.S.
Car Rental and Parking
Turo: Turo is sort
of like Airbnb for cars. The app allows users to make make their vehicle available
for use when they're away, and it also allows users to rent someone else's car.
Similar to Airbnb, there's a wide range of options, with offerings including
everything from Hondas to Teslas. Turo's options will generally be a bit
cheaper than traditional car rentals.
SpotHero: For anyone tired of paying extravagant prices for hotel parking,
SpotHero can help deliver some cheaper options. The app looks at parking in the
area and lets users chose the cheapest and closest spot. It also offers
cashless parking — users pay through the app and are given a barcode to scan at
their parking destination. SpotHero also comes with great customer service, the
app will try to find another vendor that will honor the same price if any
problems occur.
BRUTAL – Peggy Noonan
in the WSJ: "Trump Is Woody Allen Without the Humor: Half his tweets show
utter weakness. They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after
dawn":"The president's primary problem as a leader is not that he is
impetuous, brash or naive. It's not that he is inexperienced, crude, an
outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself
almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity,
skinny.
"He's not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not
low-key and determined; he's whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself,
sobbing, on the body politic. He's a drama queen. It was once said,
sarcastically, of George H.W. Bush that he reminded everyone of her first
husband. Trump must remind people of their first wife. Actually his wife,
Melania, is tougher than he is with her stoicism and grace, her self-discipline
and desire to show the world respect by presenting herself with dignity."
GOOD READ - "Justin
Trudeau: The North Star," by Stephen Rodrick on the
cover of Rolling Stone: "He was raised in jet-set privilege but overcame
tragedy to become Canada's prime minister. Is he the free world's best
hope?" http://rol.st/2h6M1KN
SILICON
VALLEY
- Think everyone in software works in the Bay Area? Think again. A new study by
The App Association shows that 89% of U.S. software developers actually live
and work outside of the Bay Area.
Software
is the basis for the technologies — and therefore jobs — of the future:
self-driving cars, augmented reality, student recruitment, and artificial
intelligence, to name a few. The high cost of living in Silicon Valley has
driven some workers elsewhere and therefore tech companies are starting to
branch out to other cities to capitalize on that migration. For example, big
names like Apple and Google now have engineering offices in Seattle, providing
competition for talent to local companies Microsoft and Amazon.
This
as a healthy sign for Silicon Valley and the software industry. Most key
companies are still based in the Bay Area, with outposts elsewhere. But there
are others based in hubs like Seattle and Boston. Having more jobs in more
places, especially as software becomes more important, should help the U.S.
industry to both grow and diversify.
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK
– Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Tony Bennett (91) Brooklyn, NY.; Tom Brady (40) Beacon Hill, MA.; Paula Creamer (31) Orlando, FL.; Martin Sheen (77) Malibu, CA.
WORDS
OF THE MONTH –
Vim: noun - lively or energetic
spirit; enthusiasm; vitality
ORIGIN
- Vim began as an American colloquialism but became standard on both sides of
the Atlantic within a generation. It is the accusative singular of the
irregular Latin noun vīs (stem vīr-) “power, force.” Latin vīs is related to
the Latin noun vir “man (i.e., a male person), husband.” The same
Proto-Indo-European root wir-, wīr- in Latin vir appears in English wergild and
werewolf. Vim entered English in the mid-19th century.
QUOTES
– “Certainly no better selection of a
leader could have been made, for Neil was full of the vim of youth, and had a
newly acquired fund of scientific knowledge just waiting to be applied.”
--
Caroline Abbot Stanley, The Keeper of the Vineyard, 1913
Cibernauta: noun - internet user
Both
Spanish and English share many words derived from Greek or Latin. In the case
of el cibernauta, however, while the word cybernaut exists in English, it is
not very common, and has a slightly different meaning from the Spanish.
Cibernauta is the basic word for anybody who is an internet user, whether
proficient or otherwise:
QUOTES
– “Los cibernautas de todo el mundo.”
Internet
users all round the world
MARKET WEEK
- We're
getting into the dog days of summer, but that's typically when the stock market
cools off.
August
has historically been a weak month for equities. The S&P 500 has averaged a
1.4% decline in August over the past two decades, according to Bespoke
Investment Group.
Over
the past half century, an investor who put $100 into the S&P 500 only for the
month of August each year would have $98 today. That same amount invested only
in December, another typically slow month for the market and the best for
performance, would be worth $204 over the half-century span.
Markets
are always subject to seasonal factors that can distort performance, and it's
not surprising that the market lags during a low-volume period where traders
and investors are often on vacation. But investors should pay particular
attention this year as they contend with a stock market whose unusual calm has
itself become a source of concern.
Stocks
have marched higher this year almost unabated, even as President Donald Trump's
agenda has stalled, geopolitical tensions have risen, and the economy has
cooled off.
The
S&P 500 is up 10% in 2017 and has gone more than a year without a 5%
pullback, the longest such stretch in more than two decades, according to LPL
Financial. In fact, it has been nine months since the market pulled back even
3%, the firm notes. That's led to worries that stocks are climbing too fast,
making them subject to a sharp reversal.
Some
say the seasonality in play in August could hasten a retreat in the market.
Still
there are also reasons to believe stocks will keep chugging higher. The Federal
Reserve has continued to hold rates historically low, keeping that nearly
decade-long support for the stock market intact. Earnings are also robust, with
companies set to report their best two quarters of growth in six years.
But
if the seasonality kicks into gear in 2017, it doesn't paint a particularly
bright picture for the market in the months to come. Over the last half
century, September has been even worse for the S&P 500 than August.
WHAT’S ON
THE iPOD?
– five songs we are listening to this week:
1).
“Blue Bayou”, 1977 – Linda Ronstadt
2).
“Your So Vain”, 1972 – Carly Simon
3).
“Whiter Shade of Pale”, 1967 – Procol Harem
4).
“Turn! Turn! Turn!”, 1965 – The Byrds
5).
“All Day and All of the Night”, 1964 – The Kinks
HERE WE GO
AGAIN
- It's that time again: NFL training camps.
This
week, several teams report to training camp, beginning the grind of the NFL
season and in just seven weeks, we'll be kicking off the regular season.
It
was an eventful off season, with a hectic draft that saw the Chicago Bears make
a controversial trade up to draft a quarterback and the Cleveland Browns
continue to stockpile assets. Meanwhile, in free agency, the least likely team
to spend big, the New England Patriots, landed some big names, while risers
like the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans continued to fortify their
rosters with some key acquisitions.
We
will have Rink Rats preseason NFL and College Football picks when we come back
from our summer break on August 28.
SWAMI’S WEEK
TOP PICKS
–
MLB Game of the Week (Aug. 5) – New York Yankees (57-48) and
Cleveland Indians (57-48), both teams playing good baseball, Indians win 6 – 4.
Whitney Stakes (Aug. 5) – Week #3 at the Spa (Saratoga) is
highlighted by the 90th Whitney Stakes. This Grade 1 stakes race for
Thoroughbred racehorses three years of age and older run at a distance of 1
1⁄8 miles. The current purse is $1,250,000. The Swami likes a sawbuck to win on Keen Ice. Todd Pletcher’s horse
Keen Ice beat American Pharaoh in last year’s Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
Season to Date
(46 - 23)
ON THIS DATE - Happy
birthday time for one Bugs Bunny, whose formal name is apparently George
Washington Bunny and who debuted on this day 77 years ago in an animated short
called "The Wild Hare.”
Next Blog: Jack Ass of
the Month and The Swami’s preseason football picks.
Summer
break time - See you on August 28, Happy
Trails.
Claremont,
California
August
2, 2017
#VIII-11-353
CARTOON OF
THE WEEK – Mike
Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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