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News and Media Relations
Branding and Marketing
Social Media
Creating Communications
Statements and Disclaimers
This page covers the following topics: Use the proper identities and icons, Provide a disclaimer and register your effort, Pay attention to how you conduct yourself, Pay attention to the content you provide, and Join the Facebook Conversation.
It's important to look for the best ways to engage new and existing audiences. Social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs) are engaging tools that have been growing in popularity.
So what social media should you use? What is the best way to reach your audience? How do you make your efforts worthwhile for your readers, Purdue Agriculture, and Purdue Extension? This page will help answer these questions and provide you with useful information that will help you reach new audiences to effectively communicate and market Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension. Purdue Marketing & Media also offers a Guide to Social Media that provides guidelines for the University — please note that registering your social media presence with us satisfies Marketing & Media's requirement.
In social media (and all communication) an effective, professional, and well-branded appearance is important. To foster consistency among Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension social media sites, we have developed profile pictures, plus the guidelines and etiquette for using social media.
Do not use these images as your personal profile picture on social media sites. Use them only for social media pages you administer for Purdue Agriculture, Purdue Extension, the Department of Agricultural Communication, or Agriculture Information Technology.
Remember the naming conventions for Purdue Extension county offices. Always list Purdue Extension first, then use a hyphen between Purdue Extension and your county name. Do not use any other punctuation and do not list the county first. Example:
Purdue Extension-Sample CountyPurdue Extension-Tippecanoe County
Faculty and on-campus staff should also use these icons - choose the one that best fits your program. For consistent naming, we recommend that you list Purdue Agriculture or Purdue Extension first, then a hyphen, and then your name or program. Example:
Purdue Agriculture-Office of Academic ProgramsPurdue Extension-Weed Science
Purdue Agriculture-Office of Academic ProgramsPurdue Extension-Weed Science
Purdue Marketing & Media requires all social media sites to include a disclaimer in the profile. For Facebook or Twitter pages, the disclaimer should be:
"Opinions expressed on this site may not represent the official views of Purdue University."
When you create an official Purdue Extension or Purdue Agriculture social media profile, register your effort with our social media directory.
Adding your social media presence to this directory helps us share your work with others and allows you to more easily keep tabs on others. Registering with our social media directory also satisfies the Purdue Marketing & Media registration requirement (so you don't have to register twice).
The full directoryThe campus-based directoryThe county-based directory
When you use social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in your professional activities, it's important to observe general guidelines and remember basic social media etiquette. The sections below are meant to guide you. Broadly speaking, there are three things you need to pay attention to in social media:
Just like any setting, you must first pay attention to how you conduct yourself on social media sites. On social media sites, always remember to:
Because we are part of a public institution, we strongly recommend that you do not obscure your identity using a fictitious, "character"-like name. Use the privacy settings the social media site offers to protect your personal information, but do not hide behind a false identity.
If you have a personal Facebook profile page, then you should administer a separate page for your professional activities. For example, you may have a personal profile page as Joe Boilermaker and administer another page as Purdue Extension-Sample County. If you are a Facebook page administrator, you have the option of making personal posts (as yourself) or of making professional posts (as the page you administer). You can go back and forth between these separate identities using the Account menu on Facebook.
When you list your employer in your profile (personal or professional), anything you post can be linked to the agency or university.
And if, on your personal profile page, you "friend" colleagues or clients in Facebook or have them among your followers for Twitter, etc., be aware that your account is no longer just a private or personal account. Anything you post not only influences how others perceive you, your posts may also reflect on Purdue Agriculture, Purdue Extension, or Purdue University.
For example, if your Facebook profile photo shows you doing something, well personal, or if you post a status update or tweet that contains a complaint about monthly reports, a political comment, or even a derogatory opinion of another university's football team, that information can reflect poorly on you and on Purdue.
Protect yourself. Remember that your social media activity, whether personal or professional, is always public.
If you are representing Purdue Agriculture or Purdue Extension, use the social media graphics we have created. Using these profile pictures on the pages that you administer maintains brand identity. However, never use these Purdue Extension or Purdue Agriculture icons for your personal use, nor use them outside social media.
Pay attention to the official names of the programs or areas you represent. In particular, don't forget the naming conventions for Purdue Extension county offices. Always list Purdue Extension first, then use a hyphen, and then provide your county name. Do not use any other punctuation and do not list the county first. Example:
If you'd like to include your program area or program, include it after your county name. Examples:
Purdue Extension-Sample County 4-H
Campus and statewide Extension faculty and staff also should follow these guidelines.
For other faculty and staff, list Purdue Agriculture first, then hyphen, then your name, class or program.Examples:
Purdue Agriculture-Office of Multicultural ProgramsPurdue Agriculture-YDAE 460 (Agricultural Publishing)
The next step in social media is to monitor how you interact with others. On social media sites, always remember to:
Most social media environments are communities of equals, not classrooms with instructors. An important element of your credibility is your ability to communicate authentically and respectfully as a member of the community. And the credibility of Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension in the social media world (just like they do in the real world) depend upon your credibility.
Research shows that 70 percent of Facebook users who "like" a company or organization do not believe they have given that organization permission to send them marketing messages. So do not just push out promotional messages to your friends and fans. Instead, engage them with questions, dialogue, invitations to comment, and useful information.
In the social media environment, think of yourself as a good host. You want to keep conversations going, not corner your guests with every sales pitch. If you're always selling and promoting, people stop coming to see you.
Do not post photos or identifying information about other adults unless you have their written consent (if needed, download the official release form here).
And never share identifying information about children (information that would enable a stranger to find them) on public pages or posts to public pages.
Administrators for social media sites must be prepared to monitor comments and posts by others (including external visitors) for professionalism. At a minimum, site administrators should spend a couple of minutes at the beginning of each day monitoring social media activity.
If anyone posts something profane or inappropriate on your page, delete it without comment. Do not repost or retweet it, even to point out its errors. Doing so just spreads the negativity further and may even make it seem to have originated with you.
If someone repeatedly posts inappropriate content, block that person from using the features available on the site.
However, users will post comments that are critical of Purdue Agriculture or Purdue Extension. You should not immediately remove them from the page. Rather, respond to them in the same way you would respond to a person who visits or calls your office with a complaint or criticism. Address the individual's concerns professionally and courteously. To simply remove all dissent removes the social from social media.
The U.S. Air Force has an excellent resource about dealing with difficult social media visitors (PDF).
Participate in other social media efforts that are relevant to your work. Write on their Facebook walls, comment on their blogs, post to discussion forums, and follow their Twitter feeds. Include links back to you (if it does not happen automatically, as it does in Facebook and Twitter). All these interactions will build visibility and credibility for you.
Be sure to monitor your messages. Being plugged in to social media means that you must respond promptly to comments on your wall, feed, or posts. It also means paying attention to what others are saying about you and reposting. If somebody reposts or retweets your information, be sure to thank that person - this is the social part of social media.
And be sure to register with and keep tabs on our social media directory.
The last piece of the social media puzzle is to provide good content. On social media sites, always remember to:
When you use social media for professional activities, be sure that your posts are valuable to your friends, readers, or followers. Make the information as complete and accurate as possible within the medium, just as you would in a face-to-face presentation. Remember, you are representing Purdue Agriculture or Purdue Extension.
Keep the following tips in mind:
Do not share information, images, or other items that are copyrighted by another organization or are the intellectual property of anyone other than yourself unless you're sharing official Purdue news and information.
When in doubt, do not post it.
Participate in social media in ways that add to Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension's popularity, credibility, and ratings. Here are some specific strategies:
If a Facebook page already exists for a Purdue Agriculture or Purdue Extension program, or an account is already established for a program in another social medium, interact as a peer with your clients and participants on those existing pages instead of creating a new page. Using existing accounts will make those sites more active, and boost the visibility of your work as well as the program.
If you are extremely active on that page, contact the administrator and ask about becoming a co-administrator.
Check out the Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension social media registry to find out what already exists:
To use social media professionally, you need to participate frequently and meaningfully. If you don't have new content, then consider posting a question that prompts others to participate and share information. But if you really do not have anything to say, do not post. You might check out some Purdue Agriculture and Purdue Extension resources that you can share, such as Purdue News, Ag Answers, Connections, or Making a Difference. Consider posting a story or page from these sites once a week or so.
Vary your posts to keep followers interested. Post newsy updates, share links to other Web-based resources, include photos or videos, ask questions, or request input or feedback. Post information that relates to issues current in other media, such as news or weather reports.
When someone posts a question, answer it promptly and publicly where others can see your response. Other visitors may have the same question, and visibly interacting with visitors builds your credibility. Don't be discouraged if you don't receive responses to your questions initially. It may take time to build up some rapport with your followers.
Also, be sure to post engaging content. Social media is not one-way communication, so be sure to provide content that invites followers to engage with you and with others. Don't just post upcoming events or news releases.
Be sure to thank people for retweeting, or reposting items you have shared.
Write content specifically for the forum where you post it. Do not just copy and paste from other sources. One social media expert recommends beginning a Facebook post with a question that prompts a quick, easy answer from your friends or fans. Then, follow, within the same post or in a comment on it, with the information you want to share.
When you share a Web link, write a brief description of it in your post, along with the link. This way, you are telling your followers why you have chosen it for them and why you believe it is relevant to them, and not just launching them off into cyberspace.
As a user of social media, pay attention to messages that generate good responses and lively discussions on the pages and accounts you like to visit. Use those posts as models for constructing your own.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Texas A&M UniversityElizabeth Gregory NorthAgriLife CommunicationsJanuary 6, 2009
"12 Ways to Be Likeable on Facebook"
"How To Develop a Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans"


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edit member
If you are a business based in Lismore, Nimbin or the surrounding Villages then we would like to offer you a free business listing in the 'directory' on our website.
add your business
- To add your business simply complete the details in the form below and submit.
- The Lismore & Niimbin Tourism team will review your submission and get back to you within five working days from the date your business is submitted.
- Before you add your business listing make sure it is not already listed by searching the business directory search box here.
edit your business
- If your business is already listed you can edit your member profile by selecting the member login at the bottom of your member page.
- If this is the first time you have edited your profile, simply add your email address and click on the 'recover your password' link to obtain your password.
- If you are unable to access your member profile please contact us at the Lismore Visitor Information Centre on 02 6626 0100 or email us at email@example.com
other opportunities
- If you are looking to increase your exposure on the site, to really stand out from the crowd, then take a look at our new display advertising with "click-throughs" to external business websites.
- These individually designed advertisements will appear in rotation with three other advertisers per space and will be featured on key pages.
- To find out more take a look at the advertising prospectus or call Mitch Lowe, Tourism Coordinator on 6626 0105.
terms & conditions
- We reserve the right to edit all listings submitted according to the format and layout of our website.
- All images submitted must be your legal property and not copyrighted to a third party.
- You are responsible for all content you contribute to visitnimbin.com.au, visitlismore.com.au and cometotheheart.com.au, including text, photos, videos, audio and links (Your Content).
- You confirm you own or have the right to use any copyright material included in Your Content (including music, photos, quotes and excerpts of audio or video), that you have permission of anyone appearing or performing in Your Content and that you are not infringing any person's rights by submitting the content to visitnimbin.com.au, visitlismore.com.au and cometotheheart.com.au. You also confirm you have, where appropriate, sought the consent of the parent or guardian of any person under the age of 18 who is featured in Your Content.
- By contributing content to visitnimbin.com.au, visitlismore.com.au and cometotheheart.com.au, you grant Lismore Tourism & Events a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use your Content in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. This may include the use of your photos or video on. You retain copyright and any other rights you hold in Your Content and can continue to share and commercialise Your Content as you wish.
Lismore Tourism & Events will endeavour to provide you with an appropriate credit when using Your Content on our platforms, though you understand and agree this may not always be possible.
If you have a business member profile on this website you can use the login below:

subset: commoncrawl


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Login Required
You need to have a Pokémon Trainer Club account to save your Favorite Pokémon!Log In Sign Up No Thanks
After long exposure to sunlight, the patterns on its tail fins shine vividly when darkness arrives.
The line running down its side can store sunlight. It shines vividly at night.
Boosts the Pokémon's Speed stat in rain.
Draws in all Water-type moves to boost its Sp. Atk stat.
The Pokémon Company International is not responsible for the content of any linked website that is not operated by The Pokémon Company International. Please note that these websites' privacy policies and security practices may differ from The Pokémon Company International's standards.
Pokemon.com administrators have been notified and will review the screen name for compliance with the Terms of Use.
Your request could not be completed. Please try again. If the problem persists, please contact Customer Support.


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Top Graduate Employers
The finance and retail sectors are recruiting the greatest number of graduates into graduate-level employment, according to our latest figures. So, where are the jobs?
Filter the table below by region, industry and occupation.
- Click on a company name to read an employer profile and find details of their graduate training – where in the UK they recruit, in what industries, and into what types of job.
- See starting salaries and minimum educational requirements.
- Find out how we created the graduate employers table.
London – Information & communication – Protective service occupations
|Graduate-level posts
These tables are compiled using data taken from the annual Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey (2011–12) conducted by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Read more about the methodology of this study.


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The Story: Andrew Reynolds Arrested at Tampa Pro
Posted by Rob, Friday, February 8, 2013 2:47 PM
Over a decade ago, Officer Perry, a friend of ours through his son who was a local at the Park, arrested Andrew Reynolds at Tampa Pro. Officer Perry had no idea who he was. Andrew did what he could to get out of it while in the back of the police car, using the fact that he's a pro skater in video games and with his own shoe. I got the story right from the source today as Officer Perry stopped by to visit the Park. What a great Tampa Pro memory from over the years. Tampa Pro 2013 is next month. Get the full schedule here and will call tickets at skateparkoftampa.com/tickets. It's not just the 19th Annual Tampa Pro, it's 20 years of Skatepark of Tampa and we want you here to be a part of it from March 22 - 24.
Post Tags: [Meronek's Cell Phone Edits]


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1 results for request «petis écrits réponse à l annonce»
Try to search for more results on General Files
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Kindle — small, light, and fast. Less than 6 ounces - lighter than a paperback device can provide you with access to millions of books. You can dowload books in 60 seconds with wi-fi. Hundreds of thousands of Kindle-exclusive titles that you won't find anywhere else, including books by best-selling authors such as Kurt Vonnegut are available for you. Our system supports children's books and includes parental controls. Kindle – all libraries of the world are in your pocket.
Petis écrits... Réponse à l'annonce
Author: Zede Byben-Taï
Joutes verbales pour réveiller quotidiens mornes
Book rate:
40 downloadsread online


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These days, recycling is more ubiquitous than ever. The EPA estimates that the U.S. recycles 32 percent of its waste, and in many cities, residents need only place their glass, plastic or paper in the proper receptacle outside their front doors. But sometimes it's hard to tell if a particular piece of garbage, like a greasy, cheese-encrusted pizza box, is actually recyclable. In these instances, is it better to toss something that's potentially recyclable in the landfill-bound trash, or take your chances and send it to the recycler?
The Claim: When in doubt, throw it out.
The Facts: Misidentifying recyclables is costly. In Phoenix, for instance, almost 25 percent of items mixed in with the recycling aren't really recyclable, and removing this errant trash (which is rerouted to the local landfill) costs the city nearly $1 million every year. Some unacceptable junk, such as plastic grocery sacks and extension cords, can jam conveyor belts and cause equipment breakdowns. Food scraps left clinging to cans and other packaging can also gum up the works. These work stoppages and machine repairs add to the costs that recyclers charge cities. And even if the non-recyclable trash doesn't cause delays or damage, it still has to be separated and transported to a dump, which wastes resources and makes recycling more expensive.
The Conclusion: If you're not absolutely sure that an item is recyclable, bypass the recycling bin and throw it in the trash instead. For a list of recyclables, contact your local recycler or the National Recycling Coalition. And if you're still wondering about that pizza box — pitch it in the recycling bin only if it's free of food and grease.
Story by Alisa Opar. This article originally appeared in Plenty in April 2007. The story was added to MNN.com in June 2009.


text: When installing new parts or servicing an engine, reliable gaskets, seals, and o-rings can be one of the most important elements on any job. Gaskets which seal and perform reliably are essential; no one wants to suffer avoidable leaks and performance loss. Zipper's Performance Products sells gaskets and gasket kits from notable manufacturers like Cometic®, James®, and S&S® for all Haley-Davidson® engine types. Zipper's Performance stocks most all gaskets, seals, and o-rings individually for 1966-up Big Twins and 1957-up Sportster® engines. (Individual parts are available by phone or email only.)


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In stock
Instantly bouffant your hair with and get creative. Get the original bumped hair style look without any tedious mucking around with wires or foam inserts.
Colour shown is 60/56 - Silver Grey Mix. Other colours are available.
Synthetic Fibers
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Instant chic it's easy to apply with a dependable secure clip. This item is only available from Vanessa Grey.
Buy it now...


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This Friday is G1988's (Venice) tribute to Alfred Hitchcock.
There's a scene in Hitchcock's Spellbound where Salvadore Dali designed the dream sequence. It's crazier than I remember. Should have done something more surreal now that I think about it Oh well.
If you're a Hitchcock nerd, this is pretty neat.
This is actually cooler. My buddies just turned me onto this Rear Window project.
Jimmy Stewart's POV spliced together in real time. Neato!
Here's one more. Hitch's answer to, "What is your definition of happiness?"
It's my new mantra.


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Mary Lou Lord
Top SongsSee All
Some Jingle Jangle MorningGot No Shadow 1993
His Lamest FlameGot No Shadow 1998
I Figured You OutMartian Saints! - EP 1996
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You GoLive City Sounds 2001
Thunder RoadLive City Sounds 2001
Lights Are ChangingGot No Shadow 1998
AlbumsSee All
Music VideosSee All
Singles & EPsSee All
About Mary Lou Lord
Playing her way from the subways and streets of London and Boston, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Mary Lou Lord broke into the indie rock scene in 1994 on the Kill Rock Stars label. After appearing on a KRS compilation, Lord released a self-titled EP in 1995 and a second EP, Martian Saints, in early 1997. Got No Shadow, her major-label debut with Sony Music's WORK Group, was released in 1998.
Lord's interest in music started when she worked as a DJ for a college radio station in the Boston area as a teenager. When the station changed format, she decided to concentrate on making her own music. After a stint at Boston's Berklee School of Music, she moved to London and learned the art of busking in the subway. She moved back to Boston and continued to play mostly acoustic covers on city sidewalks and in subways. In eight years of busking, she refined her talent and determined what music she liked to play. A KRS executive heard her and eventually signed her to the label.
While most of Lord's live shows have been just her and her acoustic Martin guitar (even those beyond the subway), with the recording of Got No Shadow, she moved in the direction of electric pop/rock. She has recorded songs for two tribute albums -- "Power to the People" for Working Class Hero, a John Lennon tribute, and "Jump" for Everybody Wants Some, a Van Halen tribute released in fall of 1997.
Lord made the leap to the majors in 1997, signing with the Sony subsidiary Work. Her major-label debut and first full-length album, Got No Shadow, was released in January 1998. On it she performed songs by Nick Saloman of Bevis Frond and Freedy Johnston, as well as some of her own. The album, her first full-length release, was produced by Tom Rothrock and Rod Schnapf, co-founders of the WORK Group. Saloman also produced Lord's long-awaited sophomore album, Baby Blue. The album appeared on Rubric in March 2004. ~ Nick Kemper
- Salem, MA
- Alternative
- 1 May 1965
Similar ArtistsSee All


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Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur
- Free WiFi and free parking
- Collect nights
Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpurfrom $14
- Xpress Room No Window
- Superior Room
- Deluxe Room
- Executive Room
More great choices
What's around Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur
- Heart of Kuala Lumpur
- Petaling Street - 25 min walk
- Mid Valley Mega Mall - 28 min walk
- NU Sentral - 2 min walk
- Kuala Lumpur Sentral - 5 min walk
- Central Market - 24 min walk
- National Mosque - 24 min walk
- Jamek Mosque - 26 min walk
Getting around
- Kuala Lumpur (KUL-Kuala Lumpur Intl.) - 43 min drive
- Subang (SZB-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah) - 19 min drive
- Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station - 4 min walk
- Kuala Lumpur KTM Komuter Station - 15 min walk
- Kuala Lumpur Station - 15 min walk
- KL Sentral Station - 1 min walk
- Tun Sambanthan Station - 7 min walk
- Bangsar Station - 15 min walk
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 192 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 15 floors
- Check-in time 2 PM-midnight
- Check-out time is noon
Required at check-in
- Credit card or cash deposit required for incidental charges
- Government-issued photo ID required
Travelling with others
- No cribs (infant beds)
- Pets not allowed
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
- Free self parking
Payment types at the property
Other information
- Smoke-free property
In the hotel
- Buffet breakfast daily (surcharge)
- Restaurant
- Coffee shop/café
- Meeting rooms
- 24-hour front desk
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Luggage storage
- Number of buildings/towers - 2
- Wheelchair-accessible path of travel
- Chinese
- English
- Malay
In the room
- Air conditioning
- Iron/ironing board (on request)
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Free WiFi
- Daily housekeeping
Also popular with travelers from the USA
Special features
DiningStarmint Coffee House - This coffee shop serves breakfast only.
Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur's small print
Also known as
- Hotel Kuala Lumpur Sentral
- Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur
- Kuala Lumpur Sentral Hotel
- Hotel Sentral
- Sentral Kuala Lumpur
- Sentral Kuala Lumpur
- Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur Hotel
- Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur
- Hotel Sentral Kuala Lumpur Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Mandatory fees
You'll be asked to pay the following charges at check-in or check-out:
- A tax of MYR 10.00 per accommodation, per night is imposed by the country of Malaysia and collected at the property. Permanent residents and Malaysian nationals are exempt from the tax. For more details, please contact the property using the information on the reservation confirmation received after booking.
Deposit: MYR 100.00 per stay
Optional extras
Rollaway beds are available for MYR 50.0 per stay
Buffet breakfast is offered for an extra charge of MYR 24 for adults and MYR 15 for children (approximately)
We have included all charges provided to us by this property. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the unit you book.
Didn't find the right property?Continue searching for Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Is the description of this hotel not correct? Tell us


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Introducing the UltraCoin Cryptocurrency Composite Index
Cryptocurrencies have been on a tear over the last 2 years, both in terms of mindshare and returns. This is particularly true of the last year, in which Bitcoin (the de facto proxy for cryptocurrencies) has heaved from $13 to $950, making a pit stop at $1200 along the way. This 7,308% return looks to be outrageously delectable to many a speculator and has even caught the eye of an institutional fund or two. The problem is, and what many novice investors have a problem conceptualizing, that astute institutional "investment" funds actually have a problem dipping their toes in the wilding appreciative yet hyper-volatile world that is cryptocurrencies.
The reason is because "investment funds" as opposed to beta chasing "trading" or "hedge" funds seek a measured return on investment. The raw returns that you see spouted for Bitcoin and the various alt.coins are actually not what the smart institutional money is looking for.
Put another way, you tend to get what you pay for. Risk is the price of reward, with risk being defined as deviation from expected return. You nearly never get a reward without bearing some risk to attain said reward. On the flip side, you should always demand a commensurate reward for the risk that you take. Measuring reward without taking into consideration the risk paid to attain such reward is akin to jumping out of the top floor of a 50 story building to revel in the exhilaration of the drop without taking into consideration what happens when you reach ground level. All in all, it tends to end ugly.
My clients are told that if you assumed $1 of risk to reap $1 of reward, then you effectively made nothing from an economic, risk adjusted reward perspective. This is difficult for the layperson to understand since those who reaped said dollar are left holding one dollar of nominal returns which looks, smells and spends like a dollar. They don't seem to get it until that third or fourth go around when they get 30 cents back for the dollar they invested (versus an amount over a dollar, hence a negative return). You see, probabilistically, you can reap more than you sow over the short term simply out of dumb luck. Realistically, the law of averages will catch up to you and eventually (and most likely close to immediately) you will reap what you sow, or... you get what you pay for!
Similarly, if bitcoin investors/traders believed they are doing well when bitcoin jumps from $13 to $950, they may be mistaken. The reason? Bitcoin has a modified beta of roughly 673! That means that it is volatile. Very volatile! More volatile than practically any basket of currencies or stocks you can think of. This volatility means that in a short period of time it's just as easy to be on the losing side of the trade of this asset as it is to be on the winning side. So, you're lucky if you bought at $500 and rode it to $950, but you could have just as easily bought at $1,200 and rode it down to $500.
With these concepts in mind, you should always adjust for risk before attempting to measure reward. By doing that you will find that you can compare disparate assets, ventures and opportunities that have different reward propositions and even different horizons by measuring the risk (or the economic cost) of the investments and then adjusting the actual or expected reward desired to compensate for said risk commensurately.
Notice how, if one were to take this approach, one can see the different risk adjusted returns between the top two cryptocurrencies by market value. Bitcoin is the most popular, but Litecoin is the most profitable - even when fully adjusted for risk.
The UltraCoin team has run these calculations, among many other currencies, on every cryptocurrency with a market value over $1 million. In addition, these currencies have been aggregated to form what we have coined as the "UltraCoin Cryptocurrency Composite Index" - a basket of cryptocurrencies upon which our custom UltraCoin derivatives can trade, hedge, invest and speculate.
These indices and calculations (not to mention a bevy of other calculations to assist in trading) are part and parcel of the UltraCoin client.
The graph below depicts the outrageous raw returns had by holders of bitcoin. It also denotes the extreme volatility experienced therein, particularly from late 2013 onward.If one were to place a hurdle rate of required return to compensate for said volatility, the return curve will look somewhat different.
As you can see, all that glitters is not necessarily gold! I will be pushing for the beta release of the UltraCoin client quite soon, quite possibly at the Berlin Bicoin conference. In the meantime, for those of you who have not had a chance to play with the software, here are a few screen shots.
Exactly As I Anticipated & Warned Subscribers (again)... Apple Tanks!!!
A screen shot of the page before the valuation section of the BoomBustBlog Apple Q3 update...
Apple has peformed EXACTLY as forecast. There's not much more to include here except for a subscription link (subscribe here)...
- Apple 4Q2013 preliminary update (Technology)
- Apple 3Q2013 Valuation Update - Retail (Technology)
- Apple 3Q2013 Valuation Update - Pro & Institutional (Technology)
Is The Old Guard About To Get Disintermediated By UltraCoin? Ask Carl Icahn & PayPal
A few days ago I was waxing poetic over the abilty of David Z. Morris' ability to grasp rather complex, intangible concepts and loquaciously lay them forth in the written word via the pages of Fortune magazine. After all, what creative destruction advocate wouldn't get all mushy after reading "Reggie Middleton, currently building a client called BTC Swap. Middleton, gravelly voiced, dapper, and businesslike, doesn't fit the stereotype of woolly young bitcoin developers. But he slyly describes himself as "not quite an anarchist," and BTC Swap is a shot directly across the bow of the financial industry"...
Or "Middleton sounds a bit like an 18th-century pirate striking back against the Empire when he declares that "what I'm doing right now is a direct threat to fiat merchant banking." For him, excitement over value fluctuations in the bitcoin currency is missing the point: "It's not a threat as people sit there and ponder whether bitcoin is a bubble or not. But if people go through the protocol and use their imagination, the existing system is threatened.""
Alas, nothing lasts forever. Fastforward 72 hours and Fortune publishes...
As exerpted:
FORTUNE -- Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor, has been interested in technology lately. Wednesday, he made several TV appearances to reiterate his call for tech giant Apple (AAPL) to engage in a massive $150 billion share buyback. As usual, he demonstrated that he was willing to put his money where his mouth was, revealing that he had upped his stake in the company by $500 million to $3 billion, causing Apple's stock to jump 1%.
Well, my subscribers (click here to subscribe) know where I stand on Apple, reference:
- Apple 4Q2013 preliminary update (Technology)
- Apple 3Q2013 Valuation Update - Retail (Technology)
- Apple 3Q2013 Valuation Update - Pro & Institutional)
Then, after the bell, eBay (EBAY) revealed that Icahn had built up a stake in the online auction retailer and was pushing for some radical changes. But in this case, though, Icahn wasn't interested in buybacks -- he was looking for a breakup. Ebay said Icahn wanted the company to spin off its online payment arm, Paypal, and had requested two seats on eBay's board. eBay rejected both of Mr. Icahn's proposals.
... Paypal has grown from its roots as a small payment processor helping buyers and sellers of Beanie Babies feel safe to do business on eBay, to a full-on payment alternative for thousands of merchants with millions of members. Its advantage in many cases is simply speed and convenience -- how many times have you clicked the Paypal button while checking out of an e-commerce store just because you didn't want to get off the couch to grab your credit card?
Does the author mean like this?
...eBay is also lagging when it comes to valuation. The company as a whole trades on a multiple of nine times next year's enterprise value divided by earnings (or ev/ebitida), which measures a company's return on investment. Meanwhile, the payment operators, like Visa and Mastercard (MA), trade roughly at 15 to 17 times next year's ev/ebitda, or around 40% higher than eBay. E-commerce sites also trump eBay's numbers with Amazon trading at around 33 times next year's ev/ebitida and Groupon (GRPN) trading at around 17 times.
But Visa and Mastercard are about to face the same double whammy that PayPal is staying at. Let me show you with video...
or pretty pictures...
You see, the payment processors are very soon to be subject to...
Why? Because P2P solutions such as UltraCoin easily allow for such, and at dramatically lower prices to boot...
If we were to look at this graphically, it would be comical to compare...
On the commercial macro payments side...
So, what happens when your competitors offer a competitive product for between 1/1000th and 1/3rd the price?
Now, back to the Fortune article and the apparent strawman argument...
... As a part of eBay, Paypal is run by people who know tech and know retail, not by people who necessarily know payment networks. As such, Paypal's growth beyond the web may not be as successful as it could be if it was led by people who worked at a credit card company like American Express (AXP) or a global payment provider like First Data Resources.
Again this seems to ignore the coming wave, alas... I digress...
... eBay's aggressive international expansion is helping to grow PayPal's global presence, especially in countries like Brazil and Russia, where eBay is taking off. If the cord is cut too early the fear is that PayPal's international growth may stall.
Stall or stagnate?
As my readers recall, I've developed a cross currency swap system that allows holders of BTC to dance around two dozen or so sovereign fiat currencies with ease. Combine this with dramatically lower costs and ease of transmission and I see either a material change in business model or... Margin Compression!!!
This really makes one think... Is eBay a short play in and of itself? I know Carl Icahn would likely get a large bang for his investment buck backing UltraCoin than he would calling for a PayPal spinoff. Then again, what do I know? Those who wish to discuss the merits of an UltraCoin investment by Icahn can feel free to ping me at reggie at ultra-coin.com.
Enter UltraCoin: It Is To Banks As Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Is To The Music Industry
I'm rapidly unveiling what's been brewing in the BoomBust labs over the last few months - UltraCoin an intelligent derivative layer of smart financial contracts that sit on top of the Bitcoin architecture. In short, the recreation of the banking industry in software - without the trust and counterparty risk issues!
For those of you who are still skeptical re: cryptocurrencies, I please read the most excellent article by David Z. Morris, which also happens to grace the front page of Fortune magazine today.
I'll excerpt some choice snippets:
Some still doubt bitcoin's usefulness and durability, but 2014 may leave skeptics even further behind -- developers and entrepreneurs are already hard at work building features on top of the Bitcoin protocol that will allow for the decentralized execution of financial services, from currency hedging to loans to stock issuance to rental and purchase contracts...
In the long term, peer-to-peer finance threatens to weaken banks and other financial agents just as peer-to-peer file sharing did the music industry -- and some of the architects of this financial Napster seem gleeful about the possibility.
Ya damn skippy!!!
That means loans without banks, contracts without lawyers, and stocks without brokers, executed and recorded across hundreds of servers at all corners of the earth.
Independent entrepreneurs are also working to build this infrastructure. One of these is Reggie Middleton, currently building a client called BTC Swap.
This will be marketed as UltraCoin! Wasn't completely ready for the interview, but will be shown live at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami Beach this weekend!
Middleton, gravelly voiced, dapper, and businesslike, doesn't fit the stereotype of woolly young bitcoin developers. But he slyly describes himself as "not quite an anarchist," and BTC Swap is a shot directly across the bow of the financial industry.
Believe it!
Still in early development, BTC Swap is planned to facilitate a variety of what Middleton calls "Zero-Trust Digital Contracts," which recreate financial functions in software code by matching offered and desired transactions between parties without the need for intermediary institutions. Because these contracts are automated, instantaneous, and executed with assets already represented in the Bitcoin blockchain, Middleton says they eliminate counterparty risk while also subtracting conventional banking and brokerage fees.
David was correct in that it was in early development when he saw it, but we've been busting our collective asses (analysts, financial engineers, software engineers, programmers, website designers, the whole crew) and we'll not only be demonstrating live but will be trading risk down in Miami, right in front of your eyes!
The most immediate function Middleton envisions for his system is for hedging bitcoin against existing national currencies. With bitcoin's valuation still showing huge volatility, Middleton claims the availability of distributed hedging will both ensure the value of bitcoin for individuals holding the asset and provide systemic stability. (Given persistent skepticism, there should be plenty of takers to short bitcoin against the dollar.) And the entire system relies on decentralization for its security and integrity: "My contracts are peer-to-peer," says Middleton. "If you hack my servers, there's nothing to get." Somebody call Target (TGT).
Somebody? Anybody? Target, drop me a line at reggie.middleton at ultra-coin.com if you want my assistance in getting in on this distributed, peer-to-peer bitcoin thingy. My next post will show how my UltraCoins can add 15% to Overstock.com's bottom line. That's pretty damn good if you ask me! As a matter of fact, it's pretty damn good even if you didn't ask me :-)
Such hedging functions have particularly unique promise because of the extremely low transaction costs of peer-to-peer currency. Bitcoin makes microtransactions ranging down to fractions of a cent viable, but Middleton says that "right now, if you do micropayments, the volatility of bitcoin can really take you out." Because of the low cost of Middleton's swaps, "I can let [payees] manage risk and decrease volatility at the micro-level."
Please pardon me for the heavy excerpts taken from this article, but it is really... just.. that.. good!!! And it gets even better. Check it out:
The functions that advocates say could be automated through the Bitcoin network seem nearly endless, including peer-to-peer investment funds, Kickstarter-like crowdfunding, binding arbitrations, and even non-financial transactions such as naming rights management and encrypted communication.
I actually have much of this stuff oven already. All I need is the funds to help accelerate development becuase "you know who" is likely to get their bonus pool panties in a bunch and start coming after me :-)
And all could be executed without a cut for intermediaries. Bitcoin partisans, from developers down to rank-and-file users, often seem to revel in the idea that they are threatening the control and profits of Wall Street institutions, who they see as rent-seeking fat cats. If it were limited to the loss of fees on payments and transfers, bitcoin's threat to existing financial institutions would still be substantial. But with a full array of commission-free financial services on the horizon, there is even more reason to take heed.
Oh, and I love this part...
Middleton sounds a bit like an 18th-century pirate striking back against the Empire when he declares that "what I'm doing right now is a direct threat to fiat merchant banking." For him, excitement over value fluctuations in the bitcoin currency is missing the point: "It's not a threat as people sit there and ponder whether bitcoin is a bubble or not. But if people go through the protocol and use their imagination, the existing system is threatened."
And here comes the rain on the parade :-(
However, there is a substantial obstacle to this coming revolution. Despite the emergence in 2013 of entities like Coinbase that have drastically streamlined the process, it is still difficult to exchange bitcoin for national currencies in a quick, reliable manner. It's unclear how Middleton's automated dollar-bitcoin hedging will work without a lightning-quick and reliable dollar-bitcoin exchange platform.
UltraCoin was in early beta stage when David saw it. It'll be ready to strut much of its stuff in Miami, making things much clearer.
So, the true "automation" of bitcoin functions that integrate with the economy as a whole may require a reconciliation with existing trading platforms.
Oh, I wouldn't bet the farm on that one.
Bitcoin 2.0, aka Ultra Coin: Bitcoin's Derivative Layer That Allows The Virtual To Control Real Things
As should be obvious to many, I'm quite serious about recreating today's financial system. I'd like to introduce what some in the media have coined (no pun intended) Bitcoin 2.0 (which is actually just the true implementation of bitcoin), otherwise known as UtlraCoin. UltraCoin is the derivative layer that we're writing on top of Bitcoin to enable Bitcoin holders, buyers and sellers to do some pretty amazing things.
Here's the latest Max Keiser in which he and Stacey Herbert to a good job of explaining what I have in mind. Of course, I get to speak my mind in the second half of the show.
I am pushing very hard to have the Zero Trust Currency Contracts, the first implementation of UltraCoin, to go into open public beta by the end of next week. That means you will be able to short, leverage, go long and arbitrage BTC. The strategies I and my analysts and developers have come up with will blow... your... mind! Here's a screen shot of the early beta trading desk:
Making Real Money from Virtual Money – Arbitrage opportunities in Bitcoin trading
Brand spanking new research is available to all paying subscibers, with a super bonus to my professional and institutional subscribers. To excerpt from said pages...
The professional and institutional versions of this report contain over 30 pages of data and analysis. These trades are for big boys (and girls), or at least those who can think like big boys (and girls). It is my intent to have traders, investors, companies and speculators use our Zero Trust Digital Contracts often, and knowledge of opportunities such as these do a lot to foster such use. Click here to subscribe.
Paying subscribers, download here:
- Making Real Money from Virtual Money – Arbitrage opportunities in Bitcoin trading
(Global Macro, Trades & Strategy)
- Digital_Currency_Returns Pro blog download (excel spreadsheet)
(Global Macro, Trades & Strategy)
- Making Real Money from Virtual Money ~Arbitrage opportunities in Bitcoin trading - Professional & Institutional
More Doubts About "Liking" Facebook
Nearly one year ago, I warned yet again of the trend starting to turn against Facebook. For those who don't follow me, I was most bearish on Facebook - even before its IPO. This was not because I doubted the company, but because I doubted the Goldmans Sachs/Morgan Stanley snakeoil salesman valuation. To wit:
pre-IPO - Facebook Registers The WHOLE WORLD! Or At Least They Would Have To In Order To Justify Goldman's Pricing: Here's What $2 Billion Or So Worth Of Goldman HNW Clients Probably Wish They Read This Time Last Week!
at the IPO - The World's First Phenomenally Forensic Facebook Analysis - This Is What You Need Before You Invest, Pt 1 as well as The Final Facebook Forensic IPO Analysis: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
and post-IPO - On Top Of The 2x-10x Return Had Off Of BoomBustBlog Facebook Research, Our Models Show How Much More Is Available... as well as...
- Is Time For Facebook Investors To Literally Face the Book (Value)?
- Facebook Bubble Blowing Justification Exercises Commence Today
- Facebook Options Are Now Trading, Or At Least The PUTS Are!
These reports and articles saved my subscribers a ton of money and making those few braver souls another ton in shorts and puts. I cautioned about Facebook again, not so much on valuation but on future growth prospects as FB actually encountered negative subscriber growth likely caused by competitors stealing potential market share during a period where it was supposed to be experiencing rapid growth (see I Don't Think Facebook Investors Will "Like" This ...). Of course, nearly all sell side analysts and financial pundits in the media somehow overlooked this.
Well, while on the topic, let's peruse this infographic by Finance Degree Center. Please note this is a very large graphic, so click it to enlarge and see the whole thing (it is big!).
How the Facebook story got started...
Facebook started its institutional investment life as a very popular, very well known company. Goldman took this story (private) stock and went bananas with it, as meticulously illustrated in the following blog posts:
- Facebook Registers The WHOLE WORLD! Or At Least They Would Have To In Order To Justify Goldman's Pricing: Here's What $2 Billion Or So Worth Of Goldman HNW Clients Probably Wish They Read This Time Last Week!
- Facebook Becomes One Of The Most Highly Valued Media Companies In The World Thanks To Goldman, & Its Still Private!
- Here's A Look At What The Goldman FaceBook Fund Will Look Like As It Ignores The SEC & Peddles Private Shares To The Public Without Full Disclosure
- The Anatomy Of The Record Bonus Pool As The Foregone Conclusion: We Plug The Numbers From Goldman's Facebook Fund Marketing Brochure Into Our Models
- Did Goldman Just Rip Its HNW and Institutional Clients Once Again? Facebook Growth Slows Pre-IPO, Just As We Warned!
I issued private research to my subscribers while publicly warning that Facebook at, or anywhere near, its IPO price was a blatant bald faced SCAM & RIPOFF!!!
- The World's First Phenomenally Forensic Facebook Analysis - This Is What You Need Before You Invest, Pt 1
- The Final Facebook Forensic IPO Analysis: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
As the actual IPO arrived, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, etc. piled on the Bullshit, basically espousing how great an investment this was at $38, screaming that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Basically, they took the opposite stance of yours truly. And how did that worked out??? BoomBustBlog Challenges Face Ripping Facebook Share Peddlers That Left Muppets Faceless And Nearly 50% Poorer After IPO.
Here is a full year of free blog posts and paid research material warning that ANYBODY following the lead of Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan on the Facebook offering would get their Face(book)s RIPPED!!! Could you imagine me on a reality TV show based on this stuff??? Well, it's coming...
- Facebook Registers The WHOLE WORLD! Or At Least They Would Have To In Order To Justify Goldman's Pricing: Here's What $2 Billion Or So Worth Of Goldman HNW Clients Probably Wish They Read This Time Last Week!
- Facebook Becomes One Of The Most Highly Valued Media Companies In The World Thanks To Goldman, & Its Still Private!
- Here's A Look At What The Goldman FaceBook Fund Will Look Like As It Ignores The SEC & Peddles Private Shares To The Public Without Full Disclosure
- The Anatomy Of The Record Bonus Pool As The Foregone Conclusion: We Plug The Numbers From Goldman's Facebook Fund Marketing Brochure Into Our Models
- Did Goldman Just Rip Its HNW and Institutional Clients Once Again? Facebook Growth Slows Pre-IPO, Just As We Warned!
- The World's First Phenomenally Forensic Facebook Analysis - This Is What You Need Before You Invest, Pt 1
- The Final Facebook Forensic IPO Analysis: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
- On Top Of The 2x-10x Return Had Off Of BoomBustBlog Facebook Research, Our Models Show How Much More Is Available...
- Is Time For Facebook Investors To Literally Face the Book (Value)?
- Facebook Bubble Blowing Justification Exercises Commence Today
- Facebook Options Are Now Trading, Or At Least The PUTS Are!
- Reggie Middleton breaks down "Muppetology," Face Ripping IPO's, and the Chinese Wall!
- Facebooking The Chinese Wall: How A Blog Has Outperformed Wall Street For 5 Yrs
- Why Shouldn't Practitioners Of Muppetology Get Swallowed In A Facebook IPO Class Action Suit?
- Shorting Federal Facebook Notes Are Not Allowed Today ?
- As I Promised Last Year, Facebook Is Being Proven To Be Overhyped and Overpriced!
It would seem that Facebook Finally Faces The Fact Of BoomBustBlog Analysis. Professional and institutional BoomBustBlog subscribers have access to a simplified unlocked version of the valuation model used for this report, available for immediate download - Facebook Valuation Model 08Feb2012. I just nominally input some very generous numbers and the best case scenario chart (see the chart tab after your own individual inputs) is quite revealing, indeed! The full forensic opinion is available to all subscribers here FaceBook IPO & Valuation Note Update, and the latest iteration can be found here FB IPO Analysis & Valuation Note - update with per share valuation 05/21/2012. It is recommended that subscribers (click here to subscribe) also review the original analyses (FB note final 01/11/2011).
A Visual Demo of the Future of Money: Zero Trust Digital Contracts
Bitcoin is highly volatile. It also experienced astonomical returns. That we all know. What I wanted to know was the true source of those returns. Some say it's speculation, some say is fundamentally derived. Most say things they have no business saying. I believe it's fair to say that bitcoin adoption will increase, and increase rapidly. It makes sense to believe said adoption will increase bitcoin's price. It's interesting in that history doesn't necessarily support that assumption though, as trading volume and daily returns have a low (or sometimes even negative) correlation.
I believe I have amassed one of the biggest libraries of bitcoin investment and financial data available in a very short period of time. I will start distributing this data via forensic reports to all paying subscribers as of tomorrow. Professional and Institutional subscribers will recieve some very, very advanced trading strategies that I have discovered that appear to still be making some pretty big short term returns as well. They are not simple, they proffer more than a little risk, but they are capable of some very material returns.
On a different front, it is also widely known that bitocoin's high volatility hampers its use by many would be vendors and institutions. I have created a solution, which I have illustrated in the following video - a brief demo of the early code of our Zero Trust Currency Contracts and an explanation of what they do.
Those who are interested in getting in on our closed beta, please email me at reggie at boombustblog dot com. Paid subscribers to my blog (click here to subscribe) get first crack, then those who are influential in the business, corporate finance guys, etc. and/or the high net worth crowd. I'm trying hard to get the beta rolled out today, but you know how this software development stuff goes. As of now, we're right on schedule for a beta release last week. :-)
Although this is a mere introduction, paying subscribers can catch a preview with Digital Currencies' Risks, Rewards & Returns - An Into Into Bitcoin Investing For Longer Term Horizons
The Future of Money is Here: BoomBust Zero Trust Digital Currency Contracts
Note: New subscriber content available below.
I have created derivatives for Bitcoin that work exclusively on the Bitcoin network. They are capable of literally replacing the role of the large money center and investment banks. YES! This is a big thing. I will hopefully have a limited use beta example of the first product for the viewers of the show to experiment with. These products have been designed as zero trust contracts (meaning it was designed to eliminate the human judgment factor, thereby nearly completely automating the entire transaction). Currently, trust issues that the conventional OTC banking system products incur severely hamper free flowing capital markets. Greed begets inefficiencies. Digital zero trust contracts (as opposed to physical legal contracts) "theoretically" eliminate litigation and court involvement and expensive dispute resolution through means of the legal system. My BoomBust contracts allows anonymous parties to swap exposure in and out of Bitcoin from many widely traded currencies. (USD, EUR, YEN, CNY, etc.).
The state of the capitalist union today is ripe for Bitcoin activity to explode if knowledge of the platform spreads. Just to list a few catalysts:
- The lack of trust in the world's reserve currency, the USD.
- The financial controls in the world's most populous nations, India and China.
- The Pan-European sovereign debt crisis
- The confiscation of bank deposits in Cyprus (EU Bank Depositors: Your Mattress Is Starting To Look Awfully Attractive - Bank Risk, Reward & Compensation) and Ireland (As Forewarned, Irish Savers Have Just Been "Cyprus'd", And There's MUCH MORE "Cyprusing" To Come) and eventually anywhere banks are overleveraged and/or undercapitalized.
- The billions of the great "unbanked" of the world, in both 3rd world nations and even in the most developed nations on earth, ex. right here in the US.
- The paltry returns on loans and bank deposits as well as the unsubstantiated bubble returns on risk assets – all stemming from the Fed's unprecedented 6 year global ZIRP real time experiment. I commented on this back in 2008 (A real life, real time example of the Great Global Macro Experiment)and it's still running strong.
Possible uses for the BoomBust contracts:
Simple investment/speculation
Those who want to gain exposure to a foreign or digital currency can easily enter into a swap to gain said exposure without actually having to purchase said currency (other than BTC, of course).
The swap can be used as a simple hedge for any party that has large exposure to BTC, USD, EUR, etc., such as a retailer with low margins and high volume, ex. Chinese widget manufacturer or smartphone OEM, that accepts bitcoin but wants to hedge out the volatility and market risk. The BoomBust contracts can be layered, levered and/or compounded to make more complex hedges as well.
Capital flight/mobility & Banking System Bail-in protection
Parties who are domiciled in free flowing capital hostile states that have tight capital controls, ex. China, India, and now France with its 75% effective wealth confiscation scheme, etc. that have banned or limited BTC trading by banks and/or individuals can take advantage of the BoomBust contracts to gain multi-currency exposure without explicitly violating the law. Take note that the systems with the tightest capital controls have been the one's exhibiting the most aggressive stance to bitcoin. Unfortunately, they don't seem to understand what Bitcoin is and what it can do. I stand to educate the masses. See below…
Cyprus banks closed on a Friday and announced confiscation of assets over the weekend. These BoomBust contracts could have been used to move monetary value outside of the Cyprus banking system assuming the participants had a store of Bitcoin (it is rumored that this is how some of the Russian money was removed over the weekend). Let's assume a small businessman would like to purchase $1M euro worth of bitcoin, yet is concerned that the BTC volatility may cause more of a loss than the Cypriot capital controls. He buys the BTC then hedges his large BTC position into EUR. He proceeds to do that with a quarter of his monthly cashflows, building up a sizeable, fully hedged position in cyberspace (thus, effectively offshore) and outside of the fragile Cyprus banking system. The Cyprus banks pull the trigger to confiscate funds and the Russian bank depositor has significant funds mobile and ready to deliver anywhere in the internet connected world within minutes, even on a Sunday afternoon.
Another example of dealing with a company with tight capital controls would be India. India has extremely tight capital controls that have (IMHO) hampered its economic progress relative to China, despite having similar populations and the advantage of a large indigenous English speaking population stemming from British occupation (easier to do business with the larger capitalist nations when more of your constituents speaks the native tongue).
India has effectively outlawed trading in bitcoin, but Indians can still participate in the evolution of money by taking advantage of the liberalised remittances scheme of the Central Bank of India, a person can remit up to 75,000 USD offshore annually. These monies can end up in a Bitcoin friendly jurisdiction (amazingly enough, like the US), and be used to purchase BTC hedged, via BoomBust contracts, back into rupees or the currency of choice.
This can also work the other way around, which would actually be quite advantageous to the Indian government and potentially make them rethink the real world practicality of capital controls. Even in a country that has capital controls and fears Bitcoin may threaten its banks, a decentralized near friction free currency exchange would be beneficial solely do to international remittances from expats in foreign workers. A real world example are Indians that I know who lose significant money because of PayPal and Western Union fees (not to mention bank wire fees). Indians can send BoomBust digital contract rupee locked BTC home on a deferred basis. The registered exchange or ATM in India however could only be one-way so that it only accepts BTC from the Indian general public in exchange for rupees and not the other way around.
Spread Arbitrage
On Dec 13th, the EUR/USD exchange rate was roughly .78x, thus if one were to have sold 1 BTC into EUR than purchased USD, a $10.66 spread could have been realized over buying the USD with EUR directly.
Notice the differences in prices throughout the SAME MARKETS, contingent upon exchange.
I am happy to discuss this with institutional and professional subscribers whenever possible.
All paying subscribers (click here to subscribe) can download this introduction to our institutional level report on investing in cryptocurrencies: Digital Currencies' Risks, Rewards & Returns - An Into Into Bitcoin Investing For Longer Term Horizon. There will be much more to follow in the upcoming days. Below is the brief summary as how we have computed the following ratios:
Excess Risk Adjusted Return
Excess Risk Adjusted Return is defined as returns over and above the required return on asset based on its risk characteristics. BITCOIN being a very volatile asset, the required return of the currency has been computed using the CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model) approach. CAPM equation requires a variable known as Return on Market Portfolio (a portfolio comprising of all risky assets, conventional as well as alternative assets like antiques, currencies, private equity investments, etc.). For equity investments, general Market Index shall suffice but in our case the investment is altogether different (Digital Currency) and the conventional market index will be a bad proxy. Best Proxy in our case shall be a diversified Currency Portfolio – comprising all global as well as digital currencies. As such there exists no known proxy/Index consisting all Currencies, We have approximated it by using MSCI – EM Currency Index. The Index comprises a basket of 25 emerging market currencies.
Excess Risk Adjusted Return = (Return on Asset) – (Required Return on asset based on its risk characteristics)
Return on Asset (Ra) = Return on B ITCOIN for different periods like 3M, 6M 12M, etc.
Required Return on Asset = RFR + β * (Rm – Ra)
RFR = Current US I year Treasury Yield
Beta = Covariance of (Returns on Asset & Returns on comparable Index) divided by Variance of (Index Returns)
Rm = Long term return on comparable Index, (in our case which is the Currency Index return comprising 25 Emerging Market currencies)
What's so eery is that now even Ben Bernanke and I actually agree upon something...
"Digital currencies may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system."
The Future of Money: A Matter of Functions Four, a Medium, a Measure, a Standard, a Store!
So, what is money? According to Wikipedia:
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given socio-economic context or country. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past, a standard of deferred payment. Any kind of object or secure verifiable record that fulfills these functions can be considered money.
When currency is stable, money can serve all four of the functions above. Things get trickier when currencies are not stable. If we were all to be honest with ourselves, we'd have to query, "What fiat currency is truly stable over time?".
When unstable currencies or engineered forms of financial capital are brought into play the fourth aspect of defined money (and the least addressed) gains significantly in importance. Here we must differentiate and distinguish between true capital (economic capital) which comprises physical goods that explicitly and directly assist in the production of other goods and services, e.g. hammers for carpenters, paintbrushes for painters, wrenches for plumbers, tooling for factories, etc., and financial capital. Financial capital is funds provided by lenders and/or investors to businesses and entrepeneurs to purchase economic capital (ie.equipment) for producing real goods and services.
To explain why the 4th aspect of money's definition is important, yet often and in my opinion purposely ignored, let's examine the three concepts of capital maintenance in terms of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): (1) Physical capital maintenance (2) Financial capital maintenance in nominal monetary units (3) Financial capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power.
- Physical (economic) capital - We have covered already.
- Financial capital in monetary units is best described as basic accounting. It's how most financial reporting is done in the states (and in Europe). It fails to take into consideration the constant destruction of value of the fiat currencies, an aspect of the definition of money that is a foundation of money itself!
- Financial capital measured in constant purchasing power - something that effectively never happens. It is the "Real" value of money, adjusted for destructive aspects, ex. inflation, particularly purposeful inflation brought upon by a banking system that attempts to adjust and control the prices of goods and services for its own end (as opposed to the end that will benefit the masses) through the artificial manipulation of the value of the means of exchange, the currency.
Financial capital is provided by lenders for a price, commonly known as interest. This price to attain financial capital is not the only cost though, for the price of the financial capital provided by lenders through things such as debt does not take into account the cost of currency maintenance destruction, or the purposeful manipulation of the currency value by the lender or lending system to which the lender belongs to to further its own means. This is why the prudent may wish to identify a single standard of deferred payment to avoid purposeful manipulation (otherwise known as cheating) by transacting in a denominator of debt that the participant believes to be dropping in value, ie. fiat currency!
Relation to debt-based society
A debt in any form is essentially a deferred payment. The fourth definintion of money, standard of deferred payment, is usually what the debts are denominated in. The value of any and all money – including the most liquid and deep, ex. dollars or euros, or the oldest and revered, ex. gold and silver, or the newest and least understood, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies – may fluctuate over time via inflation and deflation and often through direct manipulation and unforeseen results that stem from the same. The value of deferred payments (the real level of debt) likewise fluctuates.
Money, as Leading Economists Such As Paul Krugman Appear To Know It, Is Obsolete - There's a New Sheriff In Town
The definitions of money mentioned above are predicated upon the assumption that money must be dumb! What I mean by this is that money was defined in a time when the store of value was an inanimante object designed to represent a simple binary concept of buy or sell, that had no abilities other than to look or appear as if it had the value believingly bestowed upon it by society - or at least two of the participants in a particular transaction. What if money in this digital day and age was smart? What if money was able to do things besides just sit there and be called money?
Here's an example...
Historically, and up until now, deferred payment was/is based on enforceability of debts and rule of law. The rule of law, particularly engagement within the legal system is destructively expensive, time consuming and essentially the antithesis of friction free commerce, ex. capitalism. The rule of law is generally not relied upon when debts are unlikely to be collectable. For illegal transactions, or for low or zero trust transactions, gold or diamonds may be preferred as the medium of exchange and in those circumstaces there is no recourse in case of counterfeit currency (bogus, bank peddeled Mortgage Backed Securities, fake US dollars, etc.) is being used. — and there is rarely any deferral of payment: if there is, it will most likely be stated in dollars - which brings us back to where we started.
What if currency was smart enough to act upon a predetermined set of parameters, even after being released to the payee? What if trust never had to be a factor in negotiation fo payment, even in a negative trust environment? What if the highly ineffecient legal system could be wholly avoided in the risk/reward calculation of a monetary transaction? Would the existence of this possibility, in essence, demand a 5th definition for money - intelligence and/or malleability? You see, the cryptographic digital currencies are smart as compared to the dumb dollar or euro, or yen or yuan! It is this intelligent ability to control money during a transaction and even post transaction, the abilty to instruct money to disburse iteslf only open mutual agreement by all parties present, that appears to elude the prominent MSM economists of today.
Furthermore, dumb money as purely fiat is truly without physical value or utility value as a physical or digital commodity. It derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for all debts, public and private - including taxes, where in the US, it is the only currency accepted. Laws in place such as these essentially imbue fiat money with the value of any of the goods and services that it may be traded for within the nation that issues it. The fact remains though, the value of fiat money is held in belief and belief only, enforced by the whims of government. With this being the case, there is no true utility argument to be made for fiat currencies, including the USD.
Digital cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, however, have an implicit edge on the fiat currencies in that its utility (or use value) is dramatically leveraged as compared to fiat because it comes part and parcel with its own, virtually unassailable transmission system. In essence, this means that if Bitcoin, the USD and the EUR were cars, BTC would be the only one that comes with its own international roads open 24/7 that were able to bypass all of the toll roads and bridges, everywhere there was an Internet connection - not to mention power itself with a virtual fuel that was limitless and had no costs. Now, if one were to think of it, such an aspect is so valuable and useful (as in utilitarian) that not only does it qualify for significant use value, but in the very near future one could wonder how the world ever got along without it. Does this mean that a sixth aspect of the definition of money needs to be added - autonomous transferability!
This is why I say there's a new sheriff in town and the old schoolers whose eyes are not yet open should recognize that the future of money is here!
According to famed economist and NY Times pundit Paul Krugman, "To be successful, money must be both a medium of exchange and a reasonably stable store of value. And it remains completely unclear why BitCoin should be a stable store of value."
I counter these widely believed assumptions with the fact that the USD, the world's reserve currency, has not been a stable store of value. As a matter of fact, from its underpinnings (as described in the BoomBustBlog link below) and throughout its history, the dollar has consistently lost its value over time to inflation. Thus, as per Krugman, the USD is not successful!
As per Wikipedia:
To be widely acceptable, a medium of exchange should have stable purchasing power (Value) and therefore it should possess the following characteristics:
- Value common assets
- Constant utility [I have explained the constant utility of Bitcoin above, a utility which trumps the relatively dumb dollar]
- Low cost of preservation [the cost of preservation is a fraction of that of the dollar, with constant reprinting of physical dollars and coins and the power, machinery and labor required to do so; as well as the recircutlation of those new bills, not to mention the destrcution of the old bills]
- Transportability [This is moderately difficult with large amounts of physical bills, but much easier with the digital manifestation of those physical bills that most institutions deal with. The mere existence of the banks as necessary intermediaries and middlemen add signficant, and in this day and age of P2P technology, unnecessary costs and frictions and rules. This hampers portability significantly - no transfers on weekends and bank holidays, no low margin business models due to artificially high transaction costs, big up Visa, Mastercard and Paypal!)
- Divisibility
- High market value in relation to volume and weight [Bitcoin can't be beat in this regard]
- Recognisability
- Resistance to counterfeiting [A currency based on cryptography, need I say more?!]
As quoted from the Wikpedia link above:
"fiat money is the root cause of the continuum of economic crises, since it leads to the dominance of fraud, corruption, and manipulation precisely because it does not satisfy the criteria for a medium of exchange cited above. Specifically, prevailing fiat money is free float and depending upon its supply market finds or sets a value to it that continues to change as the supply of money is changed with respect to the economy's demand. Increasing free floating money supply with respect to needs of the economy reduces the quantity of the basket of the goods and services to which it is linked by the market and that provides it purchasing power. Thus it is not a unit or standard measure of wealth and its manipulation impedes the market mechanism by that it sets/determine just prices. That leads us to a situation where no value-related economic data is just or reliable.[3][4]"
I will continue this missive in part 2 of the series wherein I will announce my efforts in bringing the beneftis of smart money to light. I'm sure these concepts and products will blow your socks off, even if you are an old school economist! For those who don't follow me, this is who I am. - Who is Reggie Middleton? I believe track record speaks louder than Op-Ed columns, degrees or TV show appearances. Let me know if you agree...


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Weird Schemes To Make It RAIN … but they never work (Jul, 1936)
Weird Schemes To Make It RAIN …but they never work
By Robert E. Martin
CHILLING the winds with giant refrigerating coils! Bombarding storm clouds with long-range siege guns! Churning the air with airplane propellers! These are but a few of the hundreds of strange and curious schemes that have been devised to wheedle rain from an unwilling sky. Each year brings its crop of weird plans to combat drought and produce rain when and where it is needed. Some are based on scientific fact, many have never passed the "paper" stage, and others are the fantastic ideas of professional "weather makers," who even today are able to find credulous customers to pay them for their services.
Just a few months ago, a French inventor proposed, in all seriousness, that rain could be produced by erecting a 2,000-foot-high, cone-shaped "meteorological tube" beside an ocean bay. Leaning concrete struts, according to his plan, would support the narrow base of the hollow tube so that it would overhang the water. At its flaring upper end, giant wind vanes, whirled by ocean breezes, would suck aloft the moisture-laden air from the surface of
Other ideas of would-be rain makers may likewise be greeted with more levity than they deserve. Impractical as they may be, however, each of the ideas so far mentioned has at least some shred of scientific theory to bolster it up.
The hitch appears, not in the theory, but in finding a practical way to carry out such an enormous undertaking. The airplane-propeller idea, for example, is like trying to lift a towering skyscraper with an auto jack. Its principle is sound, but the apparatus simply isn't large-scale enough to be effective.
No objection could be made to the plan of one amateur weather maker on this ground, at least—for he urged the Government to build an artificial mountain 100 miles long and 5,000 feet high! The sloping side of this gigantic lean-to would deflect horizontal winds upward and shower rain on the windward side just as a real mountain does, he maintained. So would a large sheet of canvas supported by balloons, as another inventor proposed.
Discarding any roundabout way of chilling air to extract its moisture, an adherent of more direct methods favored erecting giant refrigerating coils in the path of humid winds. Just as dew forms upon a pitcher of ice water, so water from the air would collect on the coils. As it ran off, pipes would carry it to irrigation reservoirs and thence to sun-baked fields. Basically, the idea is sound, but under average conditions the annual cost of irrigation with the "cold-coil" plan would be about $20,000 an acre.
Another plan patented some years ago would have cost even more. Batteries of cannons were to bombard the sky with shells filled with carbon dioxide gas. Dynamite and time fuses would explode the shells at a predetermined height. The carbon dioxide, chilled as it expanded, would evaporate into a sheet of low-temperature vapor, cooling the surrounding air in turn and precipitating rain. A California scientist did a bit of figuring on this plan. Counting only the price of the gas itself, the cost of treating a single acre of land to a quarter inch of rainfall would be about $600,000.
Rain-making schemes of another brand approach the purely fantastic, even in theory. One inventor proposed to send aloft, successively, four fleets of balloons. The first, by exploding charges of gunpowder, would scatter particles of chlorate of potash through the air; the second, a spray of water; the third, nitrogen gas; and the fourth, steam. Rain would surely follow, he declared, within twenty-four hours. Just why he expected this happy outcome remains a mystery.
Another balloon enthusiast patented a gas bag covered with metal spurs, which were to be joined by a wire network surrounding the fabric. The wires led to a cable that tethered the "lightning-rod balloon" to the ground. When this extraordinary device was allowed to rise into an electrically charged cloud, its designer argued, the discharge of electricity to the ground through the cable would release raindrops from the cloud.
By far the greatest number of plans for producing rain have been based on the popular, and mistaken, belief that loud noises or heavy concussions will cause a downpour. Early proponents of the noise theory of rain erroneously believed that the concussion of thunder or artillery fire would jostle together the small droplets of moisture in a cloud, forming larger drops that would fall as rain. One of their leaders, Edward Powers, published in 1871 a book in which he assembled enough supporting evidence to wield tremendous popular influence. The following year, he petitioned Congress to finance an ambitious rain-making experiment, in which 300 cannon were to be taken to an arid section of the West and fired simultaneously.
Congress refused, but by 1891 public pressure became so great that it consented to authorize an elaborate test of the theory.
Odd, indeed, for a grizzled war dog, must have seemed the task assigned to Gen. Robert Dyrenforth, under whose direction the trial was actually carried out near Midland, Tex. Instead of hurling steel at an enemy, his cannon barked defiance at the sky. Shell after shell went screaming aloft. Balloons soared into the air, filled with an explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, and exploded high above the ground as fuses touched them off. One went off squarely in the middle of a black rain cloud—but, like the rest of the skyward volley, to no avail.
Did the Dyrenforth experiments settle the question once and for all, as anyone might have expected? Quite the contrary! As late as' 1912, a group bombed storm clouds near Battle Creek, Mich., and cheered when rain shortly arrived. However, as a matter of record, it rained that day over an area extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic.
Quick to capitalize upon the national interest in rain making aroused by the Dyrenforth tests, a horde of professional "weather wizards" invaded the agricultural regions of the west. Approaching a farmer, one of these self-styled experts would contract to deliver a certain amount of rain within a specified time, for a sizable fee. He was to be paid, the "rain contract" usually stipulated, only in case he made good on his promise.
Thereupon, the "wizard" retired into a win-dowless shack from which wisps of smoke soon arose, showing that he was at work with his "secret chemicals." Presently he emerged, announcing that he had done his work and rain might now be expected. If nature came to his aid by providing the desired shower, he pocketed his fee and went blithely on his way.
Naturally, a shrewd rain maker took care to consult weather maps and records, attempted his operations only in favorable weather, and never contracted to "produce" more rain than normally fell in a given locality. Thus he had an excellent chance of making good.
Should he fail, he had nothing to lose.
One of the most famed of all claimed to bring rain by evaporating "secret chemicals" in tanks mounted on thirty-five-foot towers. This man plied his trade for fifteen years over a territory from central Texas to Alaska. The secret of his success may be judged from his contract with an agricultural association in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, to supply rain over a period of three months at a fee of $1,000 an inch. The official rain gauge at Medicine Hat recorded five inches of rain during that period. But weather records show that the normal average rainfall in that section for those three months is more than six inches!
A western railroad hired a man who was said to have broken innumerable dry spells in Australia, and gave him a special car which he fitted with chemicals, water tanks, exhaust pipes, and electric batteries. At intervals along the line, the "rain car" was deposited on a siding. Smoke curled from its exhaust pipes, and presently the "Australian rain wizard" emerged and assured the congregated farmers that, thanks to the generosity of the railroad, rain soon would fall upon their parched fields. Then the rain car was hauled away to another dry spot.
The railroad tour was reported to be "amazingly successful." Follow the rainmaker's route with U. S. Weather Bureau maps, however, and you discover that rain followed his mysterious activities only where the weather was unsettled and where the local Weather Bureau official had definitely predicted rain!
Preventing rain is as easy as producing it, if you would credit the glib sales talk of a professional weather maker. Officials of an Eastern race track, in 1930, actually engaged the services of one of these specialists. He was commissioned to set up his apparatus and attempt to prevent rain during the week of horse races, at a fee of $1,000 a day and $2,500 for Saturday. Fortunately for him, not a drop of rain fell the whole week. Following his apparent success, the expert was rehired for one day the next week. It poured.
Government weather experts supply the epilogue. So far as is known, they say, no man has ever succeeded in producing or preventing rain.
Attempts to control other kinds of weather have fared no better—though not for want of trying. One inventor would improve our national climate by placing a 3,000-mile string of coal stoves along the Canadian border, to keep blizzards away!
ANOTHER produced a more imaginative plan. Let a windbreak of fifty-foot evergreen trees be planted, he suggests, on parallel ridges running along our northern boundary. There might be 100 such "shelter ridges," spaced about 500 feet apart. Now, suppose a layer of polar air, 5,000 feet deep, sweeps down from Canada. As it crosses the border, the first shelter ridge will clip off the lowest fifty feet of the cold air stream. Deprived of its underpinning, the remaining 4,950 feet will settle to earth and continue onward until it hits the second ridge, when another fifty feet will be amputated. Thus, the frigid blast will lose a fifty-foot slice at each ridge, until the final one annihilates the last trace of polar cold. Follow these directions, the sponsor of the plan maintains, and America will become a tropical paradise. Even if it were practical to carry out so vast an undertaking, however, skeptics may reserve their opinion as to whether the wind would fall into the trap so carefully laid for it.
The best that man can do, meteorologists insist, is to adapt himself to existing conditions. He can't force rain to fall on parched fields, but he can build irrigation systems to water the soil. He can't prevent the spring rains that cause floods, but he can plant trees to help the water soak into the ground, and build dams to stem the raging torrents.
Sound advice, no doubt—but it's safe to wager that inventors, with indomitable optimism, will go right on thinking up bigger and fancier schemes for controlling the weather!


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Nov 15, 2011 5
Grand Rounds: Best of Health and Medical Blogging
By: Alvaro Fernandez
Welcome to a new edition of Grand Rounds blog carnival, the weekly edition of what's best in the health and medical blogosphere. This week, twenty four bloggers share data, insights, questions, reflections and more. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »


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Back to Locations
Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center is proud to be the first Eastern Kentucky hospital to join the UK HealthCare/Norton Healthcare Stroke Care Network. This partnership allows residents to access emergency stroke care even faster. It is critical to get emergency care close to home because even a few extra minutes on the road can lead to more extensive brain loss. Hazard ARH's affiliation with UK will help the staff provide better patient care. With both hospitals working together, we can maximize the potential for the best possible outcome.


text: The dreamy-but-tough indie rock of L.A.'s Giant Drag is the brainchild of singer/guitarist Annie Hardy, whose knowing lyrics and washes of guitar suggest a mix of My Bloody Valentine, the Breeders, PJ Harvey, and Mazzy Star. Hardy played keyboards in an area band called Shrinkwrap before striking out on her own. After writing a few songs, she drafted drummer/keyboardist Micah Calabrese to collaborate with her; after auditioning several other potential members, the duo decided to stay a duo. Giant Drag appeared on the Fold compilation and earned a following in the U.K., where noted indie label Wichita signed the band. The Lemona EP arrived in 2004; soon after its release, Calabrese was replaced by new drummer/keyboardist Eli. Lemona saw a U.S. release in early 2005. The band's debut full-length album, Hearts & Unicorns, followed in September.