Vegan Mock Lobster Roll

 

This looks amazing.  The secret ingredient is Hearts of Palm in place of lobster.  And of course use Old Bay seasoning.  The recipe is here: https://www.theedgyveg.com/2020/06/18/vegan-lobster-roll/

Apple and Tesla split and soar

One week ago, Apple stock was at $503.43.  It closed Friday Aug 28 at $499.23.  Over the weekend, it split 4-1 which should make the current value $124.81.  But it soared to $129.75 (as of 8/31/20 at 11am), up 3.96%.  

Also, Tesla closed on Friday Aug 28 at $2,213.40.  It split 5-1 which should make its current value $442.68.  But it soared to $488.28 (as of 8/31/20 at 11am), up about 10%.  The market cap for Tesla is $454.98 billion.  If it gets to $500 billion (and stays there), I will add it to the G8 list.

Note:  Tesla is extremely overvalued. It was at $361.22 on March 18.  The equivalent post-split is $72.24.  It will drop 85% or more during the next "panic" (to use an older term for stock market declines).  But when will the crash occur?  I am not suggesting buying shorts, because the market can remain irrational far longer than you can remain liquid.

What is Government Account Series?

 Go to: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/daily-treasury-statement/public-debt-transactions

and look up the lines:   Issues Nonmarketable Government Account Series and: Redemptions and Nonmarketable Government Account Series

The numbers are similar every day.  For 8/27/20, there were $414.07 billion issued and $414.24 redeemed.  For some reason, the Treasury issues and redeems about $400 billion of non-marketable debt every day.  That explains the $100 trillion+ of churn every year.

But why do they do this?  A one-day Treasury bill is just as good as cash.  So this is effectively an internal currency.  But still very mysterious.  Why wouldn't they use at least 7-day bills? The things to look for would be sudden changes and if this increases over time.

And indeed it is increasing over time, but not by much.  On 8/27/19, as a comparison, there was 380.5 issued and 373.8 of redeemed of Government Account Series. 

Massive Accounting Fraud at the Pentagon

 

Dave Lindorff talks about massive ongoing fraud at the Pentagon.

See also:  The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed

In fiscal year 2015, for example, Congress appropriated $122 billion for the US Army. Yet DoD financial records for the Army’s 2015 budget included a whopping $6.5 trillion (yes, trillion) in plugs. Most of these plugs “lack[ed] supporting documentation,” in the bland phrasing of the department’s internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General. In other words, there were no ledger entries or receipts to back up how that $6.5 trillion supposedly was spent.

On September 10, 2001 Rumsfeld called a dramatic press conference at the Pentagon to make a startling announcement. Referring to the huge military budget that was his official responsibility, he said, “According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.” This shocking news that an amount more than five times as large as the Pentagon’s FY 2001 budget of an estimated $313 billion was lost or even just “untrackable” was—at least for one 24-hour news cycle—a big national story, as was Secretary Rumsfeld’s comment that America’s adversary was not China or Russia, but rather was “closer to home: It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy.” Equally stunning was Rumsfeld’s warning that the tracking down of those missing transactions “could be…a matter of life and death.” No Pentagon leader had ever before said such a thing, nor has anyone done so since then.

Mark Skidmore talks about the $90 trillion annual churn

 

Jump to 17:50.  "That 90 trillion could support up to $120 trillion in actual debt.  I don't know that that's a fact, but it's a discrepancy - why do we have 22 trillion in acknowledged debt but 90 trillion in reissuance.  According to my calculations and I'm pretty sure thats right - that we wouldn't need 90 trillion, we would only need 16 trillion. Maybe there is another explanation and I keep asking people is there some other explanation, but I haven't gotten one yet."

Is the actual government debt over $100 trillion dollars?

The official national debt, both debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings, is about $26.6 trillion.  But what if the actual debt was over $100 trillion?  This post briefly explores this conspiracy theory.

Where would the money have gone?  Much of the government budget is classified, either by the military or by intelligence agencies, like the CIA.  Each branch of the military and each intelligence agency likely has its own slush fund with hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars in it.  Each government entity just spends whatever it wants and uses the money from the Treasury to replenish its slush fund.  An entity with a guaranteed source of income also will have the ability to borrow money and just use the Treasury money to pay interest on the loans.  

Read:  Another Conspiracy Theory
Pentagon Accounting Fail

The shoddy Pentagon accounting is done on purpose in a bad attempt to disguise and obfuscate all of this secret money.  Because this issue keeps popping up and embarrassing the Pentagon, they passed a new accounting rule that lets them keep these issues a secret.  It is called FASAB 56.

The other side of the coin is where did the money come from?  Treasury annually issues trillions in new debt.  In 2019, Treasury issued $91 trillion in new debt, and redeemed $90 trillion.  They amount that is issued is far in excess of that required to reissue debt that has expired.  To just reissue expiring debt would take about $16 trillion per year. (See the chart called "Debt and Debt Turnover by Term-length" at solari.com).  

There must be a secret series of bills and notes.  So as a hypothetical example, if the Army needs to pay a contractor $100 million for work done, it would instead issue a 90-day DOD warrant (or whatever the name for this IOU is called).  This wouldn't come out of the Army budget because it isn't cash. The contractor would take the warrant and sell it to the bank (let's call it "JP Morgan Chase Bank" just for fun) at a slight discount and get its money.  The bank would hold it for 90 days and then swap it to a Primary Dealer for a legit 90-day T-bill.  The Primary Dealer would then exchange it with Treasury for a 90-day Series D (I just made that up, with D standing for Defense) note.  At the primary dealer level, the Series D notes and the Series P notes (I just made that up, with P standing for public) are essentially interchangeable.  

The Treasury only reports the Series P notes as being part of the debt, but not the Series D notes.  The P notes are legit and come from the budget authorized by Congress.  The D notes are essentially fake, and come from spending not authorized by Congress, but the primary dealers act as secret central banks and essentially issue counterfeit notes (which just to be clear are not U.S. dollar bills) which can be swapped out with the "real" notes on demand.  We are talking about massive fraud here on a scale that dwarfs the legitimate economy ($100 trillion+ v $26.6 trillion officially).  And everybody "in-the-loop" knows about this and condones it but Treasury has deniability.  The dirty money creation is contracted out.

And that is how the national debt could be much larger than is publicly reporting.  This is a theory because it is not proven.  Is there a way of disproving it? 

The Big 8 of Stocks

 There are 8 massive stocks that dominate the stock market, as follows:

Big 8
			Market Cap	Market Cap
Rank	Symbol	Company	06/30/20	08/28/20
1	AAPL	Apple Inc	1,563.0	2,138.0
2	MSFT	Microsoft	1,541.0	1,732.0
3	AMZN	Amazon	1,382.0	1,703.0
4	GOOG	Alphabet	963.0	1,119.0
5	FB	Facebook	647.2	836.4
6	BABA	Alibaba	579.5	781.4
7	TCEHY	Tencent	611.5	673.8
8	BRK	Berkshire Hathaway	427.8	521.0
Honorable Mention
	V	VISA	412.7	459.0
	TSLA	Tesla	200.8	412.5
	JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	370.2	404.4
	WMT	Walmart	339.2	397.4
	JPM	JP Morgan Chase	286.7	313.0
	VZ	Verizon		245.2
	NFLX	Netflix		231.0
	BAC	Bank of America	205.8	227.8
	XOM	Exxon Mobil	189.1	172.1
	CHL	China Mobile		149.5
	TM	Toyota		133.9
	RDS	Royal Dutch Shell	131.4	117.8
	WFC	Wells Fargo	105.5	101.6
	GE	General Electric		57.9

These 8 stocks seem exempt from the "laws of physics".  Their price earnings ratios make no sense.  They keep going up because when the Fed engages in quantitative easing, there is excess cash floating around the system that goes into stocks.  Not all stocks - these stocks.  Would it make more sense to invest in these than bonds?

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, I am just speculating.

Update: Proctor & Gamble (PG) has a market value of $345 billion, so it also deserves a slot on the honorable mention list.  

Samsung Electronics is listed on the Korean Stock Exchange, but it can be purchased OTC with the symbol SSNLF.  Its market value in USD is $324.7B.

Update 2:  Salesforce (CRM) will replace Exxon in the DJIA on Aug 31.  Salesforce has a market cap of $244.3, now much higher than Exxon.

Update 3: Nestle is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange under the symbol NESN.  It can be purchased OTC in the US under the symbol NSRGY.  It has a market capitalization of about $344.6B which is higher than some of the other companies listed.

Update 4: Adobe (ADBE) stock was at 293.61 of Apr 3.  Its high was 528.49 on Aug 26, although it could break that any day now. So it is up exactly 80% from low to high.  It has a current market cap of about $253B.

Update 5: NVIDIA (NVDA) also deserves a mention.  It had a low of $196.40 on Mar 16, and a high of 573.86 on Sept 2, for an increase of 192%.  It has a current market value of about $311B.

Kevin Smith loses 51 pounds on potato diet

Kevin Smith credits losing 51 pounds with a massive lifestyle change to two diets – Weight Watchers and The Mono Diet. He kickstarted his weight loss journey with the Mono Diet, On Instagram, he thanked author Penn Jillette “for his book Presto!: [How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear], to Ray Cronise for getting me started with his potato famine”. Smith said in his podcast Hollywood Babble-On in March: “It’s a pretty intense program, it’s been interesting. “And of course necessary for my health and stuff. But once I get to a decent place, then I can think about eating again.” Using the Mono Diet, he managed to lose 17lbs in nine days, and a total of 26lbs in just four weeks. He recommends only eating potatoes for the first two weeks, then adding in salads and vegetables over the next months.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/diet-fitness/kevin-smith-weight-loss-mono-16889319

Christian Bale lost 63 lbs on the tuna and apple diet for a movie role.

Penn Jillette lost 105 lbs on the potato diet.

Al Sharpton lost 176 lbs (from 305 to 129) by only eating 3 slices of toast, juice and a small salad each day.

Chris Pratt lost 60 lbs in 6 months by following a paleo diet and working out.

The Tuna and Water Diet

 

This guy (I don't know his name) ate nothing but tuna and mustard for 3 days.  He ate six times a day, with 2 cans of tuna at each meal for 1320 calories per day.  His starting weight was 205.7 and ending weight at 199.5, so he lost 6.2 lbs in 3 days.  He really hates tuna, but took one for the team.  Good job man.

Cred.ai is the next big thing in fintech

Cred.ai is a startup three years in the making—with funding from investors including former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Fanatics executive chairman Michael Rubin, along with celebrities like John Legend—that promises to make the whole world of credit cards more equitable. The premise is this: You sign up with Cred’s credit card and the company’s partner bank, WSFS. (Only banks can offer credit cards in the United States, which is why even companies like Apple partner with banks for their financial offerings.) If you agree to let the company’s AI manage your spending, Cred says you’ll never pay late fees or interest. In fact, the company promises its algorithms will help manage your financial life in a way that increases your credit over time, too. “We never profit off the customers themselves,” says CEO Ry Brown.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90537012/this-john-legend-backed-startup-uses-ai-to-improve-your-credit

imagine if tony stark built a bank.

cred.ai™ is a team of builders, scientists, artists, and hackers.

That’s why we have exclusive features like High Security Mode™, Friend & Foe List™, Stealth Card™, Check Please™, and Flux Capacitor.

This is the most cutting edge way to spend every day.

https://cred.ai/

Apply today at https://cred.ai/beta

New Salad and Fish Fad Diet

This is a new fad diet I am going to try.  There is something to the 2MAD theory (which is based on intermittent fasting), and this is a variant of it.  These are the rules.

1. No breakfast.  Don't eat anything before noon, and preferably drink very little before noon.  This is the intermittent fasting and possibly intermittent dry fasting portion of the plan.

2.  Eat twice a day at noon and at 9pm.  No snacks.  

3.  On day 1, the "feast" day, eat only salad, with minimal toppings or dressing, without protein.  Don't order a fast food salad, instead get a bag from the grocery store.  I don't like iceberg lettuce so I get romaine lettuce, spring mix, cabbage, bok choy, or kale.  If the salad kit has toppings, its ok to use them, but don't add any additional toppings such as cheese or egg or lunch meat.  A little fruit is ok.  And a small serving of beans is ok, if that's what you want.  No bread.  The theme on the feast day is vegetarian.

4.  On day 2, the "fast" day, eat only canned fish, either mackeral or tuna or sardines.  No veggies allowed and no other carbs or protein allowed.  No cheese.  Pickles are allowed as is a little mayonnaise.  The theme on the fast day is keto and your carb count should be zero.

5.  If you are going to cheat a little, do it on the "feast" day.  If you want additional protein, do it on the "fast" day.

FAQ.  

1. Are donuts allowed?  No.

2. Is cheese allowed?  No, unless a small amount is included as part of the salad kit.

3. Will this help me lose weight?  Maybe.  Try it and see.

4. What is wrong with a cheeseburger, if you skip the bun?  Two problems:  1) if you eat too much protein it triggers an insulin response just not quite as bad as carbs; 2) for me hamburger and steak are not filling and I want more, but I don't have the same problem with tuna.  So just say no to red meat.

5.  Can I combine the tuna with my salad?  No.  Keep it simple.  On the salad day, you can have as much salad as you want as long as you minimize the dressing.  On tuna day, you can have as much tuna as you want as long as you don't eat anything else. They are different weight loss strategies.

6. Should I count calories?  If you are seriously thinking this, then yes you should.  Cabbage has 17 calories per cup.  Tuna has 100 calories per 5 ounce can.

7. Can I eat fruit, like a grapefruit, banana or apple?  Only 1 per day on the feast day.  Fruit has glucose which requires insulin to metabolize.

To be continued...

Tomo Charge Card

 

Tomo (https://www.tomocredit.com/) is a fintech company offering a new type of credit card.  It's really a charge card because it has to be paid off every month and you aren't allowed to carry a balance.  It is worth applying for because there is no credit check - they analyze your bank account data to determine if you qualify.  Interesting concept.

The Human Bean

 

An Australian bloke decides to eat only beans for 40 days.  He is also an ultra-marathon runner.  He eats 191 tins of beans during that time and loses 4 kg.  This is a strangely fascinating and pointless video, more about philosophy than food.  This video has more than 1 million views so there is something interesting about it - maybe it has something to do with viewing a slice of the land down under.  It draws you in from the beginning, watching him eat beans off the floor with a spoon in homage to a page from a John Steinbeck novel.

Chaos after November 3

Link: https://www.brighteon.com/82c06ba2-d56f-45a6-9405-68b698840968

Apple hits $500/share

 

I really don't know what to say.  It has doubled in only 5 months.  Will it keep going up?  Will it crash?  Is Apple an independent country - a microstate like the Vatican - with its stock as a replacement for gold?  Can you become a citizen by buying an iPhone, which then gives you the right to have a credit card, the Apple Card?  Will it soon launch its own digital currency to compete with the dollar?

See also: https://aftermath2022.blogspot.com/2013/05/poor-homeless-corporation.html

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/apple-park-new-silicon-valley-campus/

Scientific Study on Water Intake

The book is called "Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate (2005)" and is available for free download at: http://nap.edu/10925 .  I am interested in how they came up with their recommendations.  The quotes are in italics and my comments are in regular text.

the AI [Adequate Intake] for total water (from a combination of drinking water, beverages, and food) is set based on the median total water intake from U.S. survey data. The AI for total water intake for young men and women (ages 19 to 30 years) is 3.7 L and 2.7 L per day, respectively. Fluids (drinking water and beverages) provided 3.0 L (101 fluid oz; ≈ 13 cups) and 2.2 L (74 fluid oz; ≈ 9 cups) per day for 19- to 30-year-old men and women, respectively, representing approximately 81 percent of total water intake in the U.S. survey. 

So they just did a study of water intake and took the median value and made that their recommendation, which is that men should drink 3.0 L of fluids and women should drink 2.2 L. What happens if people drink less or more than that?

As with AIs for other nutrients, for a healthy person, daily consumption below the AI may not confer additional risk because a wide range of intakes is compatible with normal hydration. In this setting, the AI should not be interpreted as a specific requirement. 

So drinking less than AI is not necessarily a problem.

Higher intakes of total water will be required for those who are physically active or who are exposed to hot environments. Because healthy individuals have considerable ability to excrete excess water and thereby maintain water balance, a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) was not set for water. However, acute water toxicity has been reported due to rapid consumption of large quantities of fluids that greatly exceeded the kidney’s maximal excretion rate of approximately 0.7 to 1.0 L/hour.

Drinking more than AI is not a problem because it can be excreted, so long as a large quantity is not quickly consumed.

So what is the real danger with drinking too little water?

an Adequate Intake (AI) for total water is set to prevent deleterious, primarily acute, effects of dehydration, which include metabolic and functional abnormalities.

Where does the water go?  1) Respiratory. Daily respiratory water loss averages about 250 to 350 mL/day for sedentary persons, but can increase to 500 to 600 mL/day for active persons living in temperate climates at sea level.  2) Urinary and gastrointestinal.  the minimum urine output is approximately 500 mL/day. Urine output generally averages 1 to 2 L/day. Exercise and heat strain will reduce urine output by 20 to 60 percent while cold and hypoxia will increase urine output.  Gastrointestinal and thus fecal water loss in healthy adults is approximately 100 to 200 mL/day.  3) Sweat.  For the average adult, loss of water by insensible diffusion is approximately 450 mL/day. For persons living in hot climates, daily sweat losses often exceed several liters.  The average daily sweat loss for 97 men in the desert was 4.9 L.

How much water does the body produce?  a reasonable estimate of daily metabolic water production is an average of approximately 250 to 350 L/day for sedentary persons—but which can increase to 500 to 600 mL/ day for physically active persons. Hence, respiratory water losses are roughly equivalent to, or offset by, metabolic water production.

By simple math, we can figure out the minimum requirement.  Respiratory (300 mL) + Urinary (500 mL) + Gastroinstestinal (150 mL) + Sweat (450 ml) - Metabolic (300 mL) = 1100 mL.  So that is how much fluid must be consumed each day.  

Subsequent studies recommended minimum daily water requirements of no less then 0.91 L for survival conditions and 3.0 L for hot weather.

So there you go - the average amount of fluid that an average person must consume each day to survive is about 37 ounces (1.1 L).  This level would increase in a hot or cold environment. There is nothing wrong with consuming much more than this, but that is the absolute minimum.  Anything more than this (if you are not in a hot environment) is just preference.

In praise of Dollar stores

Kanye West's airhead attorney accidentally makes Biden the winner

Lane Ruhland, doofus

Kanye West's election attorney, Lane Ruhland, was 14 seconds late in submitting the paperwork to the electoral commission.  She entered the building at 5:00:14 pm.  The deadline was 5:00:00 pm, so the paperwork was late and the ballot signatures were not valid, and West did not qualify to get on the presidential ballot in November.  https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7w5qd/kanye-west-gets-thrown-off-the-ballot-in-wisconsin

The votes in Wisconsin are likely to be extremely close, and if West would have gotten just a few thousand votes, that may have been enough to make Trump the winner.  If Trump won Wisconsin, that may be enough to give him 269 electoral votes and then the House could declare him the winner.  But without Wisconsin, it is practically impossible for Trump to win.  Since Lane Ruhland was 14 seconds late, that means Biden will win instead of Trump.

CBO to release 2020 Long Term Budget Outlook on September 21

 The 2020 Long-Term Budget Outlook, which will be published on September 21, will provide projections of federal spending, revenues, deficits, and debt for the next 30 years if current laws generally do not change. Those projections will be consistent with CBO’s latest baseline budget and economic projections. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56519

Inflation is here

 

Check this out.  The 30-year rate jumped from 1.20 to 1.42 in 7 days.  That is an 18.33% increase.  Since bond prices are the inverse of yield, that means the value of the 30-year dropped by 18% in one week.  There is similar action in everything over 1 year.  The  2-year rate jumped from 0.11 to 0.16 in one week, which is a 45% increase.

Inflation is here.  Well not this year, but by 2022 we will see it.

See also:  https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/treasuries-tumble-after-dismal-30y-auction-shocks-traders

NIH FCU

NIH Federal Credit Union is now the coolest thing around.  It used to only be open to the scientists at the National Institutes of Health but now it is open to everyone.  You should join at: https://www.nihfcu.org/become-a-member/

There are four easy ways to qualify for NIHFCU membership: 1. You’re an employee, contractor, fellow, volunteer, pensioner/retiree of the National Institutes of Health. 2. You’re an employee, member, or student of one of our many partners. Click here for a list. NIHFCU@Work Partners 3. You’re a child, sibling, parent, spouse, grandchild, or grandparent of, or share joint household financial responsibility with, a current NIHFCU member. 4. Or, none of the above? we’ll open a free membership for you to the American Consumer Council, a non-profit Consumer Education organization. It requires no work on your part and qualifies you immediately for NIHFCU membership.

They have a secured credit card with no annual fee and an interest rate of 8.99%.  

Do they require a hard pull for membership?  Unknown, I would say probably.

I think this is one of an elite group of credit unions including Navy Federal, NASA FCU, United Nations FCU and State Dept FCU.  Forget American Express, forget Chase and all the other toxic banks.  Join NIH FCU today!

They were so popular that their website temporarily crashed, but it should be back up now.

Shibam - the Manhattan of the Desert

 

Very cool

Seattle Destruction

 I want to link this because it is important.  A Seattle resident named Cliff Mass documented the destruction he saw in Seattle: https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/08/seattle-city-in-fear-can-be-restored.html

He was fired from his job because he dared to just post pictures: https://thepostmillennial.com/npr-fires-weatherman-for-comparing-seattle-riots-to-germany-in-1938  He compared the destruction in Seattle to destruction in Germany in 1938 and that rubbed people the wrong way.

Is water making you fat?

 I deliberately made the headline very provocative.  I am going to go on a tangent but hear me out.

The cause of obesity is unknown, despite numerous studies.  A whole diet industry exists with the intention of keeping people fat, and 99.999% of diets fail.  The idea of CICO (calories in and calories out) is false, but there is obviously some correlation between calories eaten and weight.  Here is a hypothesis: when you eat polluted food, your body reacts to the toxin, which causes inflammation.  Fighting obesity requires eating less food (obviously), but also eating a better quality of food, and treating the inflammation.  We know that chronic inflammation is linked to weight gain, whether cause or effect. We know that inflammation is linked to fluid retention, whether cause or effect.  Inflammation could be caused by food allergies.  But could inflammation be partially treated by consuming less fluids?

If you hear someone say dismissively, “Oh, you just lost water weight,” they’re right (at first), because eating foods you are allergic to causes inflammation, which leads to swelling and fluid retention. Getting rid of this fluid by reducing inflammation is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. It is what will allow your body to start the healing process so you can achieve permanent weight loss and optimal health. Consuming a low-allergy diet for just 1 week will help you eliminate the excess swelling and fluid that accumulates in your tissues from food-induced chronic inflammation. Despite criticisms you may have heard about losing ONLY water weight, this is essential for you body to begin to heal and detoxify. And the side effect is that you lose significant weight — quickly and safely.

https://drhyman.com/blog/2012/01/27/inflammation-how-to-cool-the-fire-inside-you-thats-making-you-fat-and-diseased/

It is very important to reduce the inflammation.  The best way is by identifying the cause of it, a toxin or allergen, and eliminating it from your diet.  But it isn't always clear what the cause is.  Another way of reducing the inflammation is by consuming less water.

Boxers have a protocol to rapidly lose weight to qualify for a certain weight class.  It involves deliberately being dehydrated.  They can lose 15-30 lbs within a few days.  Then after the weigh-in, they regain the weight.

As your body is mostly water - the quickest way to lose weight is to get rid of most of that water. Over the course of five days, you'll push your body into a state of dehydration. At the peak of the protocol you'll have lost anywhere from 15-30lbs and then you'll put it all back on in the next 24 hours.

https://commandoboxing.com/quickest-way-to-lose-weight-fast

Being mildly dehydrated will reduce water weight, which is very important, and it will reduce inflammation.

Now let's talk about dry fasting.  This can be very dangerous, because some people could die with 3 days without water.  However, I think dry fasting for a short period of time, no longer than 16 hours, could be beneficial.  When the body needs water, it can extract it from fat.

advocates of dry fasting claim it helps to burn three times more fat than regular fasting. That’s because when our bodies are out of water, they start looking for ways to make it ourselves. Interestingly, our fat is full of water. For every 100 grams of fat, the body can produce 110 grams of metabolic water, while 100 grams of carbohydrates yields only 55 grams of water. This means that the body intensifies the fat burn in order to make more water.

https://dofasting.com/blog/dry-fasting/

The conventional wisdom is that you must drink 8 cups of water per day, that you should never become dehydrated, and that you must drink lots of water to lose weight.

I am challenging the conventional wisdom.  I would like to see the studies on this question.  I am certainly not opposed to drinking water, and if you are thirsty, you should drink.  I am against forcing yourself to drink some quota.  And I believe that being dehydrated for a short period of time could be healthy because you reduce inflammation and increase your fat burning.  If you never experience mild dehydration, you never experience these benefits.  

A further hypothesis is that if you just paid attention to your natural thirst and only drank when thirsty and ate when hungry, not out of habit or perceived requirement, that you would lose weight naturally.  It is the act of drinking water that is preventing you from this weight loss.  The water itself, while not making you fat, is keeping you fat.

==============

Update:  See also: https://simple.life/blog/dry-fasting/

A 2020 study concluded that dry fasting offers “short-term antioxidant, anti-ischemic, immune-stimulating, anti-edematous, and anti-inflammatory effects.” In other words, dry fasting can potentially boost immunity, decrease inflammation, decrease edema and fluid retention, and reduce ischemia – a restriction of the blood vessels.

Intermittent dry fasting is when dry fasting is done periodically. Your body gets a chance to rehydrate and refuel within each 24-hour period, which makes this the safest form of dry fasting.

Sri Lanka has a secured credit card issued by the Fed for $1 Billion

 

This is almost exactly like a secured credit card with a credit line of $1 billion and an interest rate on this credit card is 0.35%.  The expiration date is March 31, 2021, unless it is renewed, which it likely will be.

According to an official statement by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), “the CBSL has decided to pledge a sum of USD 1 billion worth of US Treasury Bonds held in the CBSL reserve and enter into the above type of Repo facility with the FED. This would permit the CBSL to raise USD 1 billion in cash form when required. When this Repo facility is settled by the CBSL, there will be no change in the CBSL Reserve position as the FED would release the pledged bonds back to the CBSL. The cost to the CBSL would be the applicable Repo fee, which is about 0.35 per cent per annum.”

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/08/the-fed-created-an-emergency-lending-program-to-hold-interest-rates-down-the-tiny-country-of-sri-lanka-was-the-major-user/

So, Sri Lanka owns $1 billion of Treasury bonds that the Fed has custody of.  Why doesn't Sri Lanka just sell the bonds if it needs the cash?  Well, Sri Lanka doesn't want to make a change in its long-term investment portfolio.  Selling and buying bonds would have certain transaction costs which it wants to avoid.  It just has a need for short-term cash now.

Why would the Fed issue the repo loan?  Well, it wants to keep interest rates down, and if Sri Lanka sold the bonds it would put upward pressure on interest rates, even if it is by a very small amount.

The Fed is the world lender of last resort, and this is an example of it.

2MAD Military Diet

 I am very impressed with the military diet, and here is my latest version of it that I want to try sometime.

Day 1 Lunch:
1 whole grapefruit
1 slice toast with peanut butter
1 slice toast with tuna (5 oz)

Day 1 Dinner:
Hamburger patty, 3 ounces (or other meat)
Green beans, 14.5 ounce can, with seasoning
Non-fat greek yogurt (5 oz)
1 banana

1 apple

Day 2 Lunch:
2 hard-boiled eggs
1 slice of toast with butter
1 apple
1 cup of cottage cheese

Day 2 Dinner:
Vienna sausages, 4.6 oz
broccoli and carrots, 12 oz
Non-fat greek yogurt (5 oz)
1 banana

DAY 3 Lunch:
2 hard boiled eggs
1 slice toast with butter
1 slice of cheddar cheese (2 oz)
1 apple

Day 3 Dinner:
1 cup of tuna (5 oz)
Non-fat greek yogurt (5 oz)
1 banana

This is very similar to the original military diet meal plan, I just combined breakfast and lunch and replaced ice cream with greek yogurt.

Silver hits $29 per ounce

 It is now (August 10 at 1:30pm) at $29.01.  On August 6, it jumped from $27/ounce to $29/ounce then it dropped to just over $28/ounce on August 7.

Apple stock (AAPL) jumped to above $450/share.  It is now 450.57.

Facebook (FB) jumped above $260/share and it is now 262.78.

The other bubble stocks (Microsoft, Alphabet,Amazon,Tesla) have dropped slightly.

The July 2020 deficit was only $61 billion

 See: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2020-08/56497-CBO-MBR.pdf

The July 2020 deficit was $61 billion, and the fiscal year-to-date deficit was $2.806 trillion.  Why was the July deficit so low?  It wasn't because of  a decrease in spending, no it was because of a huge increase in revenue - but from where?  "payment deadlines for individual and corporate income taxes were delayed from April and June to July, so tax receipts were unusually large this July".

So this is a freak event, and August will be back to a "new normal" deficit of about $200 billion.  I expect the fiscal year 2020 deficit to be about $3.2 trillion, which is a huge number, but still less than the $4 trillion I previously thought it would be.  

The wildcard is if another stimulus bill is passed or if Trump's executive order in lieu of a spending bill is valid and what the cost of it will be.

2MAD

2MAD stands for Two Meals A Day, and it is my latest diet theory.  Here are the rules:

1. Skip breakfast except for coffee.
2. For lunch (12:00pm), have a sandwich or a fast-food cheeseburger (with bun) or 6-inch sub. No fries or chips or salad.
3. No snacks.
4. Skip supper.
5. Have a late night meal at 9pm. Include ramen noodles or other type of pasta, but watch the serving size. Also have a plate of whatever you want, like a fried egg or hamburger patty or salad or toast or green beans. Or you could eat breakfast food, like oatmeal or cereal.

That's it.  Simple, easy-to-follow, boring, cheap and effective.  I have been losing an average of 1/3 lb per day.

What is the theory behind this?  

1. Intermittent fasting.  You have 2 eating windows from 12-1 pm and 9-10 pm and 2 fasting cycles of 14 hours and 8 hours.  Instead of fasting for an entire day every week, you fast every day, just for shorter periods of time.

2. Eat your carbs.  Well, in limited quantities and no corn syrup.  Eat bread and pasta.  Keto doesn't work.

3. Calorie Restriction.   This doesn't involve calorie counting, but this plan should be less than 1500 calories per day.

See also https://2mealday.com/ where you can pay $50 for a customized meal plan.

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Update: Most diets involve "magic" foods, for example the grapefruit diet, or just eat salad.  The Atkins diet says only eat protein.  This diet has no magic foods.  You can eat anything you want, at the appropriate time, in an appropriate amount, everyday.  The problem isn't what you eat, the problem is how much you eat and when you eat it.

NASDAQ hits 11,000; Apple hits $440

Actually, the intraday high for Aug 5 was 11,002.11 and the close is at 10,998.40, so technically it hasn't hit 11,000 yet.

It was at 6861 on March 23, so it has increased 60% since then.  Apple (AAPL) makes up a big chunk of the increase.  It closed today at 440.24.  On March 23 it was at 224.37, so it increased 96% since then.

Just to compare, gold was at $1567 on March 23, and 1477.30 on March 18.  It is now at 2041.57, so it has increased 38% since March 18.  Is Apple the new gold?

More stocks to compare: Facebook was at 146.03 on March 16 and is now at 249.12.  It had a high of 253.67 on July 31.  It increased 73% between the low and high.

Amazon was at 1676.61 on March 12 and is now at 3205.03 which is an all time high. It increased 91%.

Microsoft was at 135.42 on March 16 and is now at 212.94. It had a high of 216.54 on Aug 3 so it increased 60%.

Alphabet (Google) was at 1054.13 on March 16 and is now (Aug 5) at 1479.09.  It had a high 1564.85 on July 22 so it increased 48%.

Before you go buy these at all time highs, remember that the bubble could pop any day.

Update: Tesla (TSLA) was at 361.22 on March 18 and is now at 1485.02.  It had a high of 1643.00 on July 20, so it increased 455%!.

Update 2: Netflix (NFLX) was at 298.84 on March 16 and is now (Aug 24) at 488.81.  It had a high of 548.73 on July 10, so it increased 83%.

Silver hits $27 per ounce

The price is now (Aug 5 at 8:00am) at $27.05.  It is up 42% in the last 30 days.  

Gold hits $2,000 per ounce; Silver hits $25 per ounce

Gold prices rallied to a fresh intraday record late-morning Thursday, propelled by continued appetite for precious metals amid the COVID-19 pandemic. December gold GCZ20, 2.30% was up $27.50, or 1.3%, at $2,013.60 an ounce, at last check. Meanwhile, silver prices for September delivery SIU20, 7.36%, the most-active contract, were also buoyant, up 4.7% at $25.56 an ounce.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-prices-surge-midday-tuesday-to-reach-an-intraday-record-above-2013-silver-jumps-nearly-5-2020-08-04

My first thought was that these are futures prices, not spot prices.  But the spot price of gold according to goldprice.org is now (8/4/20 at 2pm) $2015/ounce and the spot price of silver is now $25.93/ounce.  Hmm, it seems like it was just last week that gold was at $1900 and silver was at $24.  Wait, it was.

See http://aftermath2022.blogspot.com/2020/07/silver-hits-24-per-ounce.html published 7/31/20

http://aftermath2022.blogspot.com/2020/07/gold-hits-1900-per-ounce.html published 7/27/20

Killing the patient to save his life

https://www.aier.org/article/madness-in-melbourne/

As a result, a nation’s pride in having suppressed the virus turned to panic and full lockdown. Internal borders are sealed. And Melbourne has become a living hell, not because of the virus (which is still mild) but because of the unleashing of a hellish police state.

A friend summarized the situation for me:

• Police may now enter anyone’s home without a warrant.
• Curfew 8:00pm.
• $1,652 fine if outside without “a valid reason” – an amount being raised by the day
• Can’t visit any family or friends.
• $200 fine for no mask (mandatory masks at all times).
• Can only exercise once per day, for up to 1 hour. 

New Debt to the Penny website

The new website to track the daily government debt is: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/

On 7/31/20, the debt held by the public is $20,634,399,708,136.40

On 6/30/20, the debt held by the public was $20,530,278,232,389.35

So it went up by "only" $104 billion for July 2020.

I expect it to go past $21 trillion by September 30, and even more if another stimulus bill is passed.