Jessica get a really cool (aka – stupid and dangerous) gift for Christmas.

It’s an ear candle.  What you do is take this hollow candle that is small enough on one end to stick in your ear.  Then you light it and it will help you get well.  It is total shit – but they still sell.  Now you can see one in action!

NOTE:  This information is about an event that is planned for Champaign Urbana Freethinkers in central Illinois.  The public is welcome, provided they can behave like an adult and not proselytize.

Next meeting for Champaign Urbana Freethinkers is January 24th 1:30PM to 4:30 PM at the Urbana Free Library in the Auditorium. (Next to children’s department).

Not only will have some funny videos but, we will have a very special guest speaker.

Adam Slagell, CISSP

He is a computer security researcher and analyst at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. He is the author of “Collaborative Computer Security and Trust Management” and the security architect of the world’s largest supercomputer for open science research. He is also developing the security program for GENI, the National Science Foundation’s test bed for the next generation of Internet technologies. His recent research has focused on privacy and anonymization to enable data sharing and collaboration.
Just 6 month ago he gave a presentation at TAM 7; you can see the paper here. (#2 on the list)
A revised version of this paper will be in the Mar/Apr issue of Skeptical Inquirer.  Adam is a local star in the Skeptical movement.

I will also give a presentation on Investment rip offs.

Mr. Slagell and I will also be presenting at

NOTE:  This post is part of an ongoing education series.  This information is for educational purposes only.  This information does not constitute investment advice.  No rational person would make investment decisions based on a blog post.  Please consult with your financial advisor before taking any action.

According to data released by the National Retail Federation, retail sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 2009 are up 3.6% as compared to the same period in 2008.  Sales for the same period in 2008 were down 2.3% when compared to 2007.

Retail makes up 70% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the United States.  A very strong sign that the economy is growing.

Recently the Governor of the fine state of Indiana sat down for an interview.  

(Special thanks to BlagHag)

 Mr Daniels starts off ok…

 I don’t talk about these things too openly for two reasons.One is [that] although faith is very central to me, I also take very seriously the responsibility to treat my public duties in a way that keeps separate church and state and respects alternative views.

Secondly, I’ve sometimes referred to it as a Matthew 6 Christian. If you read that chapter, it’s the one that talks about praying in private, not giving your alms in public, not being ostentatious about your faith. And I’ve always liked that notion and thought that was a pretty important instruction.

No problems for me there.   If that’s what you want or like – knock yourself out.  All I ask is that you leave me out of it.  Sadly, the interview went on….

To me, the core of the Christian faith is humility…

Really?  How humble is it to tell others that you have a direct line to a man with ultimate power and that you will go to a nice place and live forever.  Oh and if you don’t agree, you will burn in HELL forever.  Not my definition of humility!  Oh lord it’s hard to be humble, when you perfect in every way….

But wait there’s more.

Our country was founded -this is just an historic fact; some people today may resist this notion but it is absolutely true- it was founded by people of faith. It was founded on principles of faith. The whole idea of equality of men and women [and] of the races all springs from the notion that we’re all children of a just God. It is very important to at least my notion of what America’s about and should be about and I hope it’s reflected most of the time in the choices that we make personally.

I love when people say things like, “this is just an historic fact” then speak untruths.  Now it’s true that many of the founders were “people of faith”, however, many were not.  Most would fail the modern standard for Christian.  The idea that Christianity suggests that women are equal to men is a joke.  Take any bible and flip to almost any page and you can read that women are NOT equal to men.  Note:  This is not my view!  The founding fathers did not think women were equal and they sure did not think that all races were equal.  What a bizarre world Mr. Daniels must have in his head.

I recently came a across a product in a local drug store. I won’t say the name because I don’t want to give them any free press and I don’t want to get sued. You can find it or things like it in almost any drug store. These products are called Homeopathic. They will often use phrases like, “pain relief”, “active formula”, “stimulate the body’s natural response”. They will often boast that their “homeopathic medications” are safe, effective, have no side effects and have no drug interactions. They can do this because all of those comments have no real value or are actually true. Let me explain the true part by explaining homeopathy…

Homeopathy is the dilution of a “natural’ compound to the extent that it may not even be in the product you buy. Therefore, it’s just water or some kind of harmless pill made of sugar or milk powder.  Also, the more dilute it is, the more power it has.  No one has ever explained how water can remember the good stuff but forgets all of the poo that has been in it.  Here is a video from the Amazing James Randi to explain it…

Well the product I found said, “Now available in a Children’s formula!”  What was it – ear drops.  If your child gets sick – don’t go to a doctor – put a few drops of this magic water in their ear.  The product contains things like….

Chamomilla 10x, Mercurius solubilis 15x, Sulphur 12x, Pulsatilla 12x

10x means there is 1 part in 10,000,000,000 parts of water.

15x means there is 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000 parts of water

As I’ve said before, if it’s just water - it won’t hurt.  However, there may be harm caused when the parents decide to not go to the doctor.  If it is a bad infection the child could lose their hearing.  So you’re not just out a few buck, you could cost your child their hearing.  Some products will also say things like, “patient may experience a temporary worsening of the symptoms”.  So if your child gets worse – it’s all good.  They also cover the ass with a small note like, “if symptoms persist consult your doctor”.

So… whatever you do, don’t buy homeopathic products.

A web comic for your inner geek!

There is also a book, posters and shirts.  They all make a great gifts.

Make sure you find the secret text on most pages.

Mr. Kelly is a candidate for comptroller for the state of Illinois.  He grabbed a sign put up by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and turned it upside down, according to the story from channel 2 news.  My Kelly was escorted from the capitol by police.

William J. Kelly announced Tuesday that he planned to take down the sign put up by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and on Wednesday, he tried to make good on his plan.

Mr. Kelly said the sign was “hate speech”.  Really?  He also said that it is not ok for such a sign to be near a xmas tree.  Would that make the tree and Idol? hmmm…  

“I don’t think the State of Illinois has any business denigrating or mocking any religion,” Kelly said, “and I think that’s what the verbiage on the sign was doing.”

Text from the sign

 ”At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Maybe not the softest message.  Is it also a little nasty to tell everyone that if you don’t believe that you will burn in hell forever?  I find Mr. Kelly’s view and statements offensive.  How about this gem.

“The fact that sign was immediately in front of the tree, I found that to be disturbing because any family and any child would run up to that tree with a smile on their face, and they would immediately see that sign,” 

NOOOO….  I child being exposed to different world views – how can we let this happen.  If your god is not strong enough to survive examination then it may be time for a new god. 

Maybe we should just have the state get out of the business of putting up a nativity.  Problem solved.

NOTE:  This post is part of an ongoing education series.  This information is for educational purposes only.  This information does not constitute investment advice.  No rational person would make investment decisions based on a blog post.  Please consult with your financial advisor before taking any action.

Historically the US market is around 70% large cap, 20% mid cap and 10% small cap.  The market can also be divided as 50% Growth and 50% Value.  Mid and Small caps tend to provide slightly higher returns over long periods of time. (As always, past performance is no guarantee of future results).  However, they also tend to have volatility that is even higher.  Investments in Mid Cap and Small cap segments above market norms should be reserved for investors with higher than average risk / volatility tolerance. 

Below is the historical performance 6 US market segments.  I divide the US market this way to try and decide where to invest money.

Data as of 9/30/09

This is only one source of information I generally think of it as a contrarian indicator.  That is to say, the better one of the segments has done and the longer it has exceeded the long term mean the less desirous it is.  As can be seen above all six US segments are down over the past 12 months.  Large Growth has the smallest loss of 2.69% and Large Value the largest 1 year loss of 7.23%.  At this time the 1,3 and 5 year averages do not show any significant variance from each other and all are far below the expected long term average return of 10-11% per year. 

The 10 year returns do seem to indicate under performance from large caps and growth investments and may indicate an opportunity.  On the other hand this could be a result of the dramatic losses suffered by these segments around 9 – 10 years ago after several years of dramatic and unsustainable growth.