http://eclecticlip.ca ...chatter from a fallen monkey... Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:10:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The other week, I partook in a stock trading course I’d bid on as a lark, as part of the company United Way campaign.  I can blithely report that it amounted to a get-rich-quick scheme for people who are otherwise immune to get-rich-quick schemes.  :) I doubt any of the professionals ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2010/02/07/cultural-anthropology-the-investing-seminar/ The mining show this year (2010 - not sure if they recycle the web address annually) featured a lot more well-dressed people than in years past -- which probably means a lot of first-timers, which itself means gold is due for a plunge.  All the better to part newcomers and ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2010/01/22/vancouver-mining-show-2010/ While downtown yesterday, I went to a local company's [stock-promoting] presentation, something I found out about through a connect at TEDxVancouver.  While I'm unsure about this company's business model -- perhaps because I don't know much about business models! -- I attended 'cause there's always free food at these things.  ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2010/01/15/book-swag-and-istockphoto/ Ah, January -- when mutual funds roll out ads for RRSP season, and investment advisors get exponentially busier as February 28 approaches.  This year, the industry's "Christmas-after-Christmas" season will be particularly joyous, as many funds will have risen 20% or more in 2009.  That still qualifies as underachievement, though, as ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2010/01/08/215/ Newsweek ran a story awhile back on how "big oil's gone green for real".  (Though the correct phrase would be "big oil's gone greenwashing for real".) A sample looks-good-at-first-glance sentence is the following: In fact, while companies like BP and Shell are cutting back on commercial projects in wind and solar, Big ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2009/12/15/big-oils-hierarchy-of-denial/ Finally transferred some files over from the gmail this morning... Here, here, and here. http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2009/11/23/catchin-up-on-some-backfill/ August 31 2009 is evidently the fifth annual Blog Day. In light of this wonderful occasion -- Blog Day's "wood" anniversary --  here is a timely Demotivator® poster from the cheery folks at despair.com.  :) http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2009/08/31/happy-blog-day/ For the third year in eight, European nuclear reactors are having to shut down in summer, on account of the heat.  To understate things mildly, this does not bode well for nuclear as a major power source, in a warming world!  One-third of France's nuclear capacity is currently offline, to ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2009/07/13/nuclear-power-kyoto-cramer-and-the-peter-principle/ We went on a double date on Saturday with some friends, to the Metro Vancouver landfill in Delta.  (There was an open house, and being the romantic type that I am...)  We spent a couple hours there and saw all the highlights -- the mountains of garbage, the compost piles, ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2009/06/09/landfill-eat-vancouver-backfill-from-june/ I've been contacting folks from various sectors in the past couple months to get a better understanding of what authentic sustainability implies.  Having started correspondences with folks in manufacturing, I recently turned to mining.  And so it was that I had lunch last week with a friend of a friend ... http://eclecticlip.ca/archives/2009/05/19/mining-mahayana-buddhism-that-is-backfill/