Excellent Creative Commons images on Pixabay

I do a little bit of graphic design, and often I find I need just a background image of some type.  Often I'm  building a banner highlighting one of my wife's new books - so often the image is not central - it's just to set the right tone (at the beach, nature, sunshine sunset, etc).  I often don't need the "perfect" photo - heck often I use vacation photos that I've taken myself if they work - but sometimes you need a pic of somewhere you've never been - or just an artistic abstract background.  

Anyhow, a website that I've found very useful is Pixabay .  This website contains some very high quality creative commons licensed work (usually CC0 licensing which means you can use without worrying about licensing restrictions) and the site is searchable and easy to use.  And Pixabay is not just for background images.  If you need an image that sits front and center - you very well could find something here - although anything with peoples faces/expressions is going to be in short supply - likely due to the legal signoffs around using photos/likenesses.  Still - very useful site with great pictures.

I've uploaded some of my own photos there for usage (my photography isn't the best, but it might be helpful to some folks).  Several of my submissions have gotten rejected, so they just don't take any old photo - so only the good stuff makes it onto the site.  For folks like me who want a community to contribute to as well as be able to use a few photos for what little graphic design uses I have - Pixabay.com is excellent. 

Here's a few pics I've uploaded to the site
Cicada Shell Macro
Cool Flower and Butterfly Tongue Macro
A Wooly Worm Macro

Heard today

I laughed when I heard a quote from a frustrated announcer during Cincinnatti's 44 -43 victory over Pitt in the Jimmy V. classic.  The score tells alot, but at one point Pitt had gone about 9 minutes without scoring from the field in this clankfest and the announcer remarked something like:

"It's not a bad shot.  He's just not a good shooter."

Replaced some light switches

Replaced some light switches today.  Thank heavens for you tube instructional videos.  I opened up one and it was totally not the wiring I was expecting, but you tube straightened me out.

White Box Bacon

I tried some of the cheap white box bacon from Kroger this week and it's been awesome.  I tried it after having several batches of overly fatty bacon in my normal brands got me to try something else.

I was looking at the options for other bacons and saw the white box cheapy bacon was the lowest cost per lb, and it looked good to me through the little window, so I grabbed some.  The only difference I've noticed is the cut consistency isn't quite as uniform, and it's a little more stretchy than I'm used to - but it fries up pretty good without so much shrivel.

Saving on medicines

Interesting article on people buying prescriptions from outside the U.S. much more cheaply than they can get them in the U.S., but then the shipments getting seized at customs.


quote: "So about five years ago, Mrs. Higman started ordering the tablets from Canada, where a year’s supply that would cost about $1,000 in the United States sells for under $100."

Updated Stock Holdings 10-22

Hadn't done this in a while, and just wanting to update my top stock positions as of today.

INTC - Intel
WDC - Western Digital
CMI - Cummins
BRK.B - Berkshire Hathaway B shares
OUTR - Outerwall/Coinstar
NEU  - Newmarket Corp
CHRW - CH Robinson Worldwide
CTSH - Cognizant Tech
QCOM - Qualcom
SNI - Scripps Networks
CHKP - Checkpoint software
VMI - Valmont Industries
CF - CF Industries

I guess the newest 2 additions were VMI Valmont Industries and SNI Scripps.   I think the only recent sell I had was liquidating my ORCL Oracle position (at a loss I think). 

I did purchase a small position in TIVO (TiVo) the other day, but it is small and not based in my traditional valuation methods.  My wife really likes her TIVO and I read a presentation about their new products and progress in becoming the set top box for more cable providers (who then won't have to develop their own), and it just felt like TIVO might have a good chance to build up a to a tipping point where the economies of scale tip in their favor.  The stock has not done much in a long time, and the earnings are not currently there - so support things - this is just a small gut call that seemed it might have a good chance of working out.

Hemingway

I'm getting kindof old so I figured maybe I should read a Hemingway novel before my time was up.  I'd been looking for examples of what many considered excellent writing and Hemingway's books seem to be on most lists.  Particularly he was held up as an example of clean, clear, precise writing.

I did a little internet search and decided on reading "For whom bell tolls" and picked it up from the local library.  I finished it last night.  I was hoping I'd like it better, but unfortunately the book sortof lost me around page 350 or 400 - and I had to force myself to plow through the remaining 100-150 pages or so to get to the end.   While the final scenes were pretty interesting I felt like a lot of the "middle" of the book could've been trimmed considerably while preserving the story.  There was a large section that felt like it was just marking time until we got to the finish.

Anyhow, overall I was pretty disappointed with the pacing in the middle.  It had a very strong first half, and an exciting conclusion, but that part in between...

Something very interesting in the writing style was how Hemingway often would change from third person point of view (he, she, they) to first person point of view (I,me) - often even within the same paragraph.   It actually worked pretty well in the narrative to quickly move in and out of the main character's head, but it seems like it's something that would be discouraged by editors today.

Why Americans living abroad renounce their citizenship

I thought this was interesting.  It asks those who were American citizens but who were living abroad and renounced their US citizenship - why?   It seems alot of the comments are related to difficulties of living abroad while trying to comply with complicated U.S. tax filing laws that make it very difficult to live/work overseas.  Some also comment that overseas banks don't even want to deal with them due to all the complications.  Many don't seem to want to do it - but they seem to say it's financially too difficult to maintain.

Anyhow, I thought this BBC article was good reading:   Why I gave up my US passport

Near Nuclear disaster over North Carolina in 1961

I never heard this story.  Nuclear bombs were dropped over North Carolina in 1961 when a B-52 bomber came apart in flight and released the bombs - and in the process one of the bombs began arming itself as it fell.  One of the bombs was only 1 fail safe away from detonating.  According to the story the bomb was @260x as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

US plane in 1961 'nuclear bomb near-miss'

" three out of the four fail safe mechanisms failed"

Here's the event detail from wikipedia

Apparently the uranium from one of the bombs was buried so deeply after the bomb impacted into the field that it is still there - at estimated 180 ft below the surface of the ground.

 Here's some eye-witness reports from the local papers in Goldsboro, NC

"So despite the fact the the military claims to have recovered many components of that Mark 39, those who live near the site say there is still a bomb in the ground."

Here's apparently a picture of the land where the bomb is buried under

According to comments here (formerspook.blogspot.com) of the two bombs that fell, the parachute on only 1 opened (apparently the bombs are designed to float down on parachutes) and that bomb was the one that was only 1 fail safe from detonating.  The one has parts still buried in the field apparently fell so fast that it was less of a risk and couldn't arm properly as they were designed to fall slowly by parachute and that process would arm them.  There's good comments at that site.

Voyager 1 leaves solar system

Cool story for the day.  The voyager 1 spacecraft has left the solar system about 43 yrs from it launch - according to changes in measurements on it's internal devices.  It's now at a distance of @ 121 times the distance from the earth to the sun.  It's a really good article.

NSA spying and international cohesion

I try to stay away from political stuff on here, but I've found an interesting theme arising in international news that seems worth thinking about.  It feeds into the observed lack of international cohesion on the Syria question - but it speaks largely to the fracturing of U.S. allies due to revelations of the NSA spying activities.  In Germany news in particular there has been "heavy" coverage of the Snowden leaks.  Here's a story from Spiegel online that shows the ongoing theme:

NSA Affair: Germans Conduct Helicopter Flyover of US Consulate

This isn't the only article - other international news sources like the BBC as well as an Indian news source I read have run quite a few articles about U.S. spying activities.  The summary impression is that there's a very high level of doubt that these activities (even if in concert and collaboration with the the nations themselves) center primarily around security and terror prevention.  The underlying theme of much of it is the U.S. as a bad guy.  We don't see this type sentiment much in the U.S. as those country's leaders still seem to publicly align with us on the surface - these are difficult issues - but the underlying sentiments of the people seem to be eroding.

I can't help but wonder if the lack of international cohesion in Syria is to a large degree a statement about  NSA spying activities that have been revealed.  Dependable allies that used to act as if we were on their side now seem to be sending a signal that they think we don't have their back anymore and/or are not acting in western interests.

Overall - I wonder if we're seeing a wider move toward more hands-off isolationism globally and recognition that some of the issues at hand are not presently solvable no matter what is done.  They're messy and are likely to stay messy for a long time.  Good thing or not?  We'll have to wait and see. 

Portfolio holdings 9-2013

It's been a while since I posted positions so just wanted to go ahead and do that.   Below are my top stock holdings from larger to smaller

INTC Intel   (added to this recently)
WDC Western Digital
BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway
CMI Cummins
OUTR Coinstar (now called Outerwall)
CHRW CH Robinson Worldwide   (added to this recently)
NEU Newmarket
QCOM Qualcom   (added to this recently)
CTSH Cognizant Tech  (added to this recently)
CHKP Checkpoint Software
ORCL Oracle
CF  CF Industries 
....there are several more smaller positions but I'll stop here

Just looking through it I guess I'm a bit tech heavy right now.  It's not intentional - I guess the tech just looks attractive to me right now.

What I'm interested in and might be opening positions in soon:
SNI Scripps Networks - based on valuation and diversification reasons.  They have quite a bit of cable TV content like HGTV, Food Channel, Travel channel, among others, and seem to have decent growth prospects.
http://www.scrippsnetworksinteractive.com/

VMI Valmont Industries.  - another pick based on valuation and diversification.  They make a whole bunch of stuff related capital infrastructure like stoplight poles, light poles, guard rails, irrigation equipment, communication towers,  metal handrails/steps...  
http://www.valmont.com/

Both of these are kindof boring businesses, but seem to be run well with high returns on capital which is something I look for - so boring in this context is a good thing.  I'm also kindof into boring at the moment as I'm trying to put together portfolios that I can hold for extended period of time without monitoring closely.

Encouraging response in congress around Syria question

I've been watching some of the C-SPAN congressional member's responses to the briefing given  today regarding Syria.  It's been a long time since I've seen congressional members speaking as thoughtfully and in what seems to be a deeply considered way.  At least right now this is not a conversation of predetermined talking points - but is an adult conversation that even seeks to help the public understand the issues in a broad way.

Solar eclipse on Mars

Wow, check this out.  A picture of a solar eclipse on Mars taken by the Mars Curiosity rover.  You can see the oblong shape of the Martian moon Phobos as it passes across the sun.