I just skimmed http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/24/1637247.
In short: "Santa Coloma de Gramanet has installed 462 solar panels over its multi-story mausoleums in the cemetery. The installation cost 720,000 euros (£608,000) but will keep about 62 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year."
This is plain crazy - mentioning meaningless reduction of harmless carbon dioxide emission at such a huge cost. And I wonder how many CO2 was produced when assembling this installation...
I'm all for renewables, but this reasoning is crazy.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Long-term investment approaches.
I just read and interesting approach to regular investments/savings, to my surprise it came from financial adviser...
Until now, I've known few approaches:
- invest same amount of money every month
- buy same amount of mutual fund units (or stocks) every month
- keep the coefficient of investments in safe/unsafe instruments at a constant (B. Graham)
- progressive investing using futures (gaost.pl - currently down)
Today I read about another approach - buy that amount, which will keep your investment growing at desired level (i.e. buy $1k every month - if you lost $600 - buy for $1600, you gained $300 - buy only for $700). Interesting. Perhaps can be combined with 3rd approach for greater efficiency.
Until now, I've known few approaches:
- invest same amount of money every month
- buy same amount of mutual fund units (or stocks) every month
- keep the coefficient of investments in safe/unsafe instruments at a constant (B. Graham)
- progressive investing using futures (gaost.pl - currently down)
Today I read about another approach - buy that amount, which will keep your investment growing at desired level (i.e. buy $1k every month - if you lost $600 - buy for $1600, you gained $300 - buy only for $700). Interesting. Perhaps can be combined with 3rd approach for greater efficiency.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Somebody predicted...
...mortgage meltdown. Well, maybe not in full, but anyway this is an impressive read:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Last week's red color was pretty depressing. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure, that this is really close to the bottom. At least Poland's position is really strong. I think we can highly benefit from this crisis, as our banks are healthy, mortgages are still small percent of the GDP, and GDP itself is still growing quite fast. Inflation should not be that much of an issue with dropping food and gas prices as well. The core thing is to leverage our lower costs in export. If we can do that, and sell our stuff and services to now-frugal western Europe we can do really well, and close the gap even faster than in good times. Oh - and I forgot - amount of outsourcing placed in Poland should further increase, I hope.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Last week's red color was pretty depressing. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure, that this is really close to the bottom. At least Poland's position is really strong. I think we can highly benefit from this crisis, as our banks are healthy, mortgages are still small percent of the GDP, and GDP itself is still growing quite fast. Inflation should not be that much of an issue with dropping food and gas prices as well. The core thing is to leverage our lower costs in export. If we can do that, and sell our stuff and services to now-frugal western Europe we can do really well, and close the gap even faster than in good times. Oh - and I forgot - amount of outsourcing placed in Poland should further increase, I hope.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Why capitalism is good for poor and middle class.
From Milton Friedman:
"Industrial progress, mechanical improvement, all of the great wonders of the modern era have meant little to the wealthy. The rich in ancient Greece would have benefited hardly at all from modern plumbing — running servants replaced running water. Television and radio — the patricians of Rome could enjoy the leading musicians and actors in their home, could have the leading artists as domestic retainers. Ready-to-wear clothing, supermarkets — all these and many other modern developments would have added little to their life. They would have welcomed the improvements in transportation and in medicine, but for the rest, the great achievements of western capitalism have rebounded primarily to the benefit of the ordinary person. These achievements have made available to the masses conveniences and amenities that were previously the exclusive prerogative of the rich and powerful"
Free to Choose (1980) p.148
Nothing to add. Really.
"Industrial progress, mechanical improvement, all of the great wonders of the modern era have meant little to the wealthy. The rich in ancient Greece would have benefited hardly at all from modern plumbing — running servants replaced running water. Television and radio — the patricians of Rome could enjoy the leading musicians and actors in their home, could have the leading artists as domestic retainers. Ready-to-wear clothing, supermarkets — all these and many other modern developments would have added little to their life. They would have welcomed the improvements in transportation and in medicine, but for the rest, the great achievements of western capitalism have rebounded primarily to the benefit of the ordinary person. These achievements have made available to the masses conveniences and amenities that were previously the exclusive prerogative of the rich and powerful"
Free to Choose (1980) p.148
Nothing to add. Really.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Energy, fossil fuels and carbon footprint
As oil prices skyrocketed, many people and companies are reconsidering their fuel usage, and adjusting behaviour. Still, we clearly have much oil, coal and natural gas, to be extracted at current prices. Besides that, we still got atom. And I'm sure that market forces are enough to force people to save energy. The only thing that government needs to do is to change some of existing taxes to pollution taxes - but real pollution, not harmless CO2. After all, before we burnt all this fuel, couple of dozen millions years ago, it was in the air, in threes, and so on, wasn't it?
I have read also quite a bit about electric cars recently. They seem pretty cheap to use right now, as cost of 1km is $0.01-$0.03 (off-peak fare) comparing to $0.1+ when using gas.
But there's a catch - replacement of batteries (after 50-100k km) costs roughly $25k. This adds up to a lot more than gas price (even at current oil prices), rendering it not yet reasonable.
Therefore the way to go for now seems to be Toyota Prius. But I don't mean going hybrid. This is still not feasible IMHO. The reason why Prius is efficient is drawn mainly from its low weight, not from regenerative breaking. But all these experiments such as EV1, Prius or Tesla Roadster are great because they are improving all the pieces we need to be more effective. And it's better Priuses than Hammers are fashionable...
I have read also quite a bit about electric cars recently. They seem pretty cheap to use right now, as cost of 1km is $0.01-$0.03 (off-peak fare) comparing to $0.1+ when using gas.
But there's a catch - replacement of batteries (after 50-100k km) costs roughly $25k. This adds up to a lot more than gas price (even at current oil prices), rendering it not yet reasonable.
Therefore the way to go for now seems to be Toyota Prius. But I don't mean going hybrid. This is still not feasible IMHO. The reason why Prius is efficient is drawn mainly from its low weight, not from regenerative breaking. But all these experiments such as EV1, Prius or Tesla Roadster are great because they are improving all the pieces we need to be more effective. And it's better Priuses than Hammers are fashionable...
Monday, April 28, 2008
Energy, information, civilization
After watching Copenhagen movie I've did some further reading on nuclear power, and, again, I'm amazed by it's potential. Following up a link from peakoildebunked I've read parts of this paper from 1956.
If its only approximately correct, it would mean that we really have centuries or even milleniums-long supply of uranium, which can power our civilization exactly the same way it's powered now. Will have to check that (and current consumption levels in comparison to those mentioned in the paper).
On the other hand, as Stanislaw Lem predicted (in 1960s) we will be (actually we already are) moving into more information-hungry than energy-hungry civilization. Microsoft's success, premature Internet-bubble, and Google are (early) signs of that time, I guess.
When we develop virtual realities and robotics even further, we will certainly be able to drop a large portion of travel. Also manufacturing can't grow forever. Actually, as some people complain, we already consume more information (in various incarnations) than actual physical goods. Steve Jobs knows that as well.
And when, finally, we will be able to put information production and processing into really automated and efficient process, we will be able to grow even faster in this dimension.
So good luck civilization! We all put great hopes in you!
If its only approximately correct, it would mean that we really have centuries or even milleniums-long supply of uranium, which can power our civilization exactly the same way it's powered now. Will have to check that (and current consumption levels in comparison to those mentioned in the paper).
On the other hand, as Stanislaw Lem predicted (in 1960s) we will be (actually we already are) moving into more information-hungry than energy-hungry civilization. Microsoft's success, premature Internet-bubble, and Google are (early) signs of that time, I guess.
When we develop virtual realities and robotics even further, we will certainly be able to drop a large portion of travel. Also manufacturing can't grow forever. Actually, as some people complain, we already consume more information (in various incarnations) than actual physical goods. Steve Jobs knows that as well.
And when, finally, we will be able to put information production and processing into really automated and efficient process, we will be able to grow even faster in this dimension.
So good luck civilization! We all put great hopes in you!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
What's next?
Climbing in California was certainly fun, however I haven't achieved what I've hoped for in terms of route hardness. Maybe next time...
Right now I'm preparing to one-week paragliding course. This should be fun as well.
This weekend we've watched Star Wars for the first time. It was nice, still not breathtaking. But it put into my mind an idea to try to watch some more movies from the IMDB's top 250. This is kind of a follow-up idea to visiting all countries of the world. Certainly this one is cheaper and easier to achieve ;). After initial counting, I can remember watching 39 of those 250 movies. This is surely better percent than ~15 countries visited so far...
Right now I'm preparing to one-week paragliding course. This should be fun as well.
This weekend we've watched Star Wars for the first time. It was nice, still not breathtaking. But it put into my mind an idea to try to watch some more movies from the IMDB's top 250. This is kind of a follow-up idea to visiting all countries of the world. Certainly this one is cheaper and easier to achieve ;). After initial counting, I can remember watching 39 of those 250 movies. This is surely better percent than ~15 countries visited so far...
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Joshua Tree
It's all set up. We're going to Mountain View, CA, and are going to Joshua Tree on weekend. This will be surely fun. Following the first season I was quite regularly going to climbing gym, I hope to do some 10a/b OSes and 10c/d quick RPs. We will see...
Friday, February 8, 2008
Term of the day
Just came across a definition of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost
which (concept, not the article) I believe is the best reason to support freedom of choice and free market.
BTW. I came across this after reading this Slashdot discussion...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost
which (concept, not the article) I believe is the best reason to support freedom of choice and free market.
BTW. I came across this after reading this Slashdot discussion...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Nord Stream
Just for the record, after reading another article concerning Finland's objections on the route, I want to say that I have been sure from day one, an am still, that this investment will never go into operation because of environmental issues, economic ones or both.
As energy sources (including natural gas) prices will inevitably go done, Russia and other energy price addicted countries will fall short of money, this investment will be postponed a lot of times, and (finally) cancelled. The worst would be to end up with a lot of useless steel crap in Baltic...
The simplest, and perhaps the best scenario is that we will fall back to route through Poland (second stage of Yamal pipeline) in few years.
As energy sources (including natural gas) prices will inevitably go done, Russia and other energy price addicted countries will fall short of money, this investment will be postponed a lot of times, and (finally) cancelled. The worst would be to end up with a lot of useless steel crap in Baltic...
The simplest, and perhaps the best scenario is that we will fall back to route through Poland (second stage of Yamal pipeline) in few years.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
January Sale on stock markets
It seems that Big Sale on stock markets is ending, so this might be last time to buy stocks. Anyway this surely is a better moment to buy stocks than May/June or September, isn't it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)