How did we get into this mess?

Here's a good visualization of the credit crisis.

http://www.crisisofcredit.com/

Or on YouTube in 2 parts:
Part 1
Part 2

The YouTube version seems to load more reliably.

The Forest Grows

CNN has recently reported that with soon-to-be-President Obama's 800 billion dollar stimulus package the total cost of America's economic bailout will likely reach 8 trillion dollars. Using the calculations from my last post that would be 143 square miles of money tree forest.

To put that in perspective, that could be a forest 2 miles wide and more than 70 miles long of dense money trees. You could start out on edge of the forest in the early morning and run until the sun goes down never seeing beyond the forest.

Again, the forest in red:

If money grew on trees...

2008 has been a rough year for the US financial system. Our political leaders have been trying everything they can think of restore our crippled economy. Primarily their efforts have involved the government loaning or giving away lots of money it does not have. Some of the more conservative estimates say the cost of various bailouts is now 1.2 trillion dollars with some saying at high as 7.7 trillion (let's not think about that number). 1.2 trillion is a very big number. It is so big it is hard to wrap the mind around. This got me thinking.

If money grew on trees, how big a forest would be necessary to save us?

Let us assume a money tree is about the size of good sized sugar maple and that each leaf is a 1 dollar bill. Let us also assume that an adult tree has about 200,000 leaves. Figuring that a large tree needs about 10 feet of spacing we can fit 436 large money trees per acre. That's 87.2 million dollars per an acre of money tree forest. So to come up with the 1.2 trillion dollars that have been used too keep our economy afloat so far, the government would need to harvest every leaf from every tree in 13,761 acres or 21.5 square miles of lush money tree forest.

As a visual aid. Imagine our money forest is the red area sitting on top of one of Northeast Ohio's largest parks.



I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE USED SO THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING..

As most everyone knows there is risk involved purchasing anything from E-Bay. It had been long time since I've gotten anything there, but Microsoft live.com's Cash Back partnership program with E-Bay promised to save me about $30 on a new scope. The potential savings lured me back and reminded me why I haven't shopped there in a while.

The item I was attempting to purchase is an Osprey International rifle scope. The seller had it listed for $20 less than the cheapest retail store I'd found and with the $30 from MS, I stood to save about $50. That bit of motivation is what got me into the following email chain. I chose Buy It Now and paid with PayPal. I knew I was in trouble from my first communication with the seller. Messages are edited slightly for anonymity and language.

Seller [9:24 pm]:

THIS IS A BRAND NEW OSPREY SCOPE--NEW IN BOX--DO YOU MIND LEAVING POSITIVE FEEDBACK SO PAY-PAL WILL RELEASE YOU PAYMENT--I WILL POST IN THE MORNING--PRIORITY MAIL--THIS NEW POLICY IS A BUNCH OF S***..

Apparently, Pay-Pal has a new policy that requires "risky" seller's money to be held until feedback is given, delivery is confirmed, or 21 days pass. On E-Bay, feedback is the only thing that keeps sellers honest, so asking for feedback in advance is a giant red flag. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I responded.

Me [10:48 pm]:

I will be happy to leave you feedback as soon as I receive the product in promised condition. E-Bay's feedback system is designed to allow buyers and sellers to evaluate quality of service. It would be dishonest leave feedback regarding future events.

Thank you for your prompt response. I look forward to leaving positive feedback.

Seller [6:41 am]:

I SUGGEST YOU CONTACT EBAY OR PAY-PAL AND REQUEST A REFUND--I DO NOT HAVE A FINANCE PLAN AND THIS IS NOT AARON,S RENTS!! THE POLICIES ARE DESIGNED TO SCREW PEOPLE THAT SELL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE..YOUR MONEY WILL BE FROZEN FOR 21 DAY,S SO THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME IS PAY-PAL--I,M NOT SENDING A G*D-D**N THING TO ANYONE--NOTHING PERSONAL

Seller [7:52 am]:

I,M SORRY BUT I HAVE NOTIFIED PAY-PAL & EBAY THAT I "WILL NOT SHIP" THIS ITEM--IF YOU WILL LOOK ON SPORTSMANGUIDE.COM--ITEM# WX2-140288 THIS IS THE SAME OSPREY SCOPE AS I OWN--SORRY--IF YOU WILL LOOK AT MY FEEDBACK IT IS 100%--EBAY,S POLICY IS NOT ASSURANCE IT EXTORTION--I RETIRED FROM THE GA. LAW ENFORCE ASSOCIATION AND THIS IS EXTORTION--JUST LIKE KID-NAPPING AND I FULLY INTEND ON FOLLOWING UP ON THESE BLOOD SUCKING PARASITES--I HAD (3)NON-PAYING BIDDERS THAT HELD MY PRODUCTS UP FOR WEEKS AND EBAY WOULD NOT DO A D**N THING--DOUBLE-STANDARD OR PROFILEING--REGARDS

At this point I still wanted my scope, but was getting very tired of the swearing and capital letters. Though he wasn't swearing at me (yes at E-Bay/Pal-Pal), it was in my general direction. Also, there was no visible indication to me of the "will not ship" status. It should be noted that he and I both had only small amounts of only positive E-Bay feedback. Nothing bad, but not a lot of transactions to build confidence. My response was, I felt, very measured--except maybe at the end.

Me [9:12 AM]:

Mr. ########,

I think you're exaggerating just a bit. I am happy to leave you feedback as soon as I receive the product, which believe will release your money fairly quickly.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/sell/SaferPayments-outside

I will deal with attempting to get a refund tonight if unless I hear that you've shipped the product. I would ask that if you do reconsider and decide to ship at this point that you make use of the delivery confirmation number option from USPS and provide me with that number so that I may track that it has shipped and you may determine when it is received.

Please reconsider. If you do your part, you WILL be paid. If you don't, then it will be a pain for me and you will receive negative feedback.

Thank you,
-#######

PS. On the left hand side of your keyboard below the tab key is a button called Caps Lock. If you tap it once, your text will no longer appear in all capital letters.

I tried to tell myself the PS was actually meant to educate, but who am I fooling.

Seller [10:52 am]:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVISE IN ADVANCE BUT I WILL NOT RE-CONSIDER FOR ANY REASON--EBAY POLICIES ARE GOOD FOR EBAY ONLY--NOT THE MEMBERS--I HAVE DEALT WITH THESE PEOPLE BEFORE--OUESTION--LETS SAY 250,000 SELLERS PAYMENTS ARE PUT ON HOLD EVERY DAY--ESCROW ACCOUNTS--THAT PAD EBAYS POCKETS WHILE THE SELLERS HAVE TO WAIT AND EBAY LAUGHS ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK--I,M SORRY BUT MY DECISION IS FINAL--VERY BEST REGARDS

Seller[10:54 am]:

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE USED SO THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING..

Hahahahaha! Really? Capital letters are the key to writing clearly? I would have thought that spelling and punctuation might go further. My grammar and spelling are far from perfect, but I understand their value. It is probably like talking to foreigners. If you speak English really slowly and loudly that's just as good has having a translator, isn't it. :-)

At this point I had been told firmly, twice, that I would not be getting my merchandise. I didn't have my Pay-Pal login info handy so I figured I would take care of filing a dispute later. In the mean time I still needed a scope, so I ordered the one for $50 more at a legitimate online store. But uh-o what's this?

Seller [3:41 pm]:

I would not want you to think i would take your money and not give in return, besides i couldn,t punish you because of something i dont like--anyway i have your scope ready to ship--priority mail--and will post at 8:45 est in the morning--you can count on it-----( SIMPER FI )

It looks like someone got their medication. That seemed civil and even used the shift key, but I don't need 2 scopes. Luckily, communications were reasonable from there.

Me [3:48 pm]:

Please don't ship it. Since you're firm refusal to ship in your last correspondence I've since bought it from someone else, and I don't need 2 of them. Just return the money and we'll go our separate ways. Please acknowledge.

Yes, I know. "You're" is different than "Your." Care to lay odds as to whether he noticed?

Seller [3:55 pm]:

THAT,S FINE..

After that, I got a refund notice from Pay-Pal. That is, sort of, a happy ending to the story. Now I just have decide what kind of feedback, if any, to leave. I didn't get my stuff, but I did get my money back. I would consider that a negative experience. "Probably not a criminal", isn't a ringing endorsement. Negative, neutral, or none?

The phone company HATES trees!

That's the only explanation. The phone company wants every tree dead. Below is a photo of all of the phone books that have been delivered to my home this year. I've added the Mountain Dew can for scale... and because I like Mountain Dew.

The real tragedy of the phone company mowing down our the forest is that it is pointless. Having received these 10 phone books, how many do you think I'll use? One? Two perhaps? Nope. The answer is zero.

Not one of these phone books will get put to their intended use. Why? Since you're reading this, you likely know what I'm going to say. The reason these won't get opened is that they have been replaced by the Internet. Anyone with a network connection can instantly locate information far more plentiful and up to date than all 10 of these books combined contain.

Luckily, they at least make good targets.

Cabela's

During a recent trip to Michigan I stopped at Cabela's. For anyone who doesn't know, it is an outdoor outfitter. Camping, hunting, boating etc. One of the major attractions in the store is a large display of taxidermied animals.

I wasn't sure what to make of the display. While the display was amazing and beautiful to see, I couldn't help but thinking it would be better if the animals were alive, perhaps in a zoo or even in the wild. It seems like a bit of waste. Perhaps I'll never be a hunter--at least so long as there is still food pre-killed on grocery store shelves.

Here are some pics:

Fun with slow motion

This has to be my favorite slow motion video I've made so far. I give you "the exploding pumpkin" slowed down to 1/30th speed.

Tannerite... A fun weekend.

This stuff is really fun to use. It is just hard to find a place where the neighbors won't complain.




Here it is again in slow motion.

Joining the Web 2.0 Phenomenon

Here it is. My own blog. A place where I can rant, speculate, philosophize and ramble on a public media platform for the benefit or detriment of the whole English-speaking world. I certainly feel important now.

Perhaps I'll just contribute to the chaos of the internet.

Anyway, this is the start of it. Whatever "it" ends up being.

This post: words = yes, content = no