The SoapBoxers

“The problem with money,” Lawrence Peters opined, “is that the ability to buy anything you want takes away the thrill of the chase.”

The others at the table nodded their agreement. None of them had yet reached forty-five years of age, and all of them had wealth measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars and growing steadily with each passing year.

Nate Bolton took a long sip of his Irish coffee before responding. “You know what I enjoyed as a kid? A treasure hunt. It’s too bad they don’t have treasure hunts for adults.”

Barry Julian snorted. “And what would the prize be? A car? A house? Some cash? That doesn’t seem like much incentive.”

“I could be the prize,” came a voice from behind them. Cheryl set down fresh cups of coffee and cleared away the empty ones. The four men gazed at her as they tried to absorb what she had said.

Marc Billups was the first to recover his composure. “What, exactly, are you proposing?”

Within an hour, the idea had been fleshed out. The young waitress would become a pawn in their game. The goal would be to hide her somewhere within the continental United States. One of the four men would pick a location, stash Cheryl there, and develop a treasure hunt that would lead the other three to the location. If everyone was stumped by a particular clue, the answer would be revealed one week after the clue had been given. The first to arrive at the destination would get three weeks alone in Honolulu with Cheryl.

For her part, Cheryl would be well compensated. There was a $250,000 signing bonus just for agreeing to the deal, and a salary of $1 million per year, deposited into her account in monthly installments. Her hideouts would be designed to be very comfortable – a luxurious bed, fully stocked kitchen, and cable TV among the amenities. The only limitation was her contact with the outside world. Cheryl would be forced to remain within her hiding spot, and she would only be able to communicate with the organizer of that particular game – to avoid her tipping off any of the players.

Cheryl would get six weeks in Hawaii at the conclusion of each game. The winner would leave after three weeks, setting up the next game.

Cheryl made it very clear – she was no prostitute. She was being paid for her companionship and for her time in isolation as the game’s prize. The four men readily agreed with her.

A month later, the game was ready to begin. Cheryl had been sequestered in a hidden location, and Nate Bolton was ready to kick off the great treasure hunt.

“OK, guys. The first clue is –“

And he promptly dropped dead.

 This is the first story in a new series.  New chapters will be added periodically (and I’ll include a table of contents once there is more than one chapter).  Where is Cheryl – and how long will it take the guys to find her, now that Nate isn’t around?

With everyone, including Barack Obama, painting the sitting president as an underdog, I feel compelled to suggest that everyone is wrong. In fact, the Republicans can’t win – and here’s a candidate-by-candidate breakdown of why they will fail.

Sarah Palin – The rest of this article is intended to be taken as satire, but my words about Palin are my true beliefs.  I feel that she does not really want to be the president.  I think that she craves publicity, money, and power.  You can get this from the presidency, but you can also get it from the sidelines – and with far fewer restrictions on your actions.  You can even argue that a non-politician can influence voting patterns more than a president.  Who has done more the shape the ideology of the current Republican party  – George W. Bush or Rush Limbaugh?  I think Palin will continue to write books and continue to pop up on the TV – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her sliding into that role.  I don’t, however, see her as a serious presidential candidate.

Ronald Reagan – He’s dead and has already served two terms as president.  In spite of these obstacles, it seems that there are some in the party who feel that he’d be the best man for the job.

Mitt Romney – The most interesting thing about Mitt Romney’s first name is that it is not Mitt.  Yes, Willard Mitt Romney chooses to go by his middle name of Mitt rather than Will or Bill.  While this demonstrates toughness, especially in the face of schoolyard bullies, it does bring into question his decision-making process.

Herman Cain – Cain is unelectable, for one obvious reason.  He killed his brother, Abel.

Rick Perry – He couldn’t win the Iowa Straw Poll, even with his campaign being bolstered by TV ads from Stephen Colbert’s super PAC Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.  If you can’t win with Colbert Nation pushing you along, you certainly can’t win on your own.

Rick Santorum – He’s not even the most popular Rick in the race.  If Santorum can’t strong arm Google, how can he expect to force the legislative and judicial branches to do his bidding?

Michele Bachmann – First, there’s the name.  One L in Michele or two?  One N in Bachmann or two? Easier just to vote for Ron Paul.  Whenever I hear her name, I feel the need to take the 8:15 into the city.  Four years of Taking Care of Business stuck in my head would be four years too many.

Ron Paul  – Paul was the Pennsylvania state champion in the 220 yard run in high school.  Guess what, Ron?  The race to the White House is a marathon, not a sprint.

Newt Gingrich – Seriously, he’s named after a rodent.  Maybe Gopher Tillman or Squirrel McGee can run in ’16.

Chris Christie – Christie announced that he wasn’t going to run.  It’s probably for the best.  The GOP nominee in 2012 will likely try to sell themself as having new and original ideas.  It might be difficult for a guy with basically the same first and last name to hold himself up as the bastion of creativity.  Not that he named himself, but he has the genes of his parents.  (If you were hoping for some fat jokes, you won’t get any from me.)

One thing that really jumps out at me is all the candidates with first names masquerading as last names – Perry, Paul, and Christie (and Cain, if you’re old school).  I’m not sure what to make of this odd coincidence, except that it’s likely to be tied into the End of Days.

In the span of about a year, I’ve gone from thinking I would never use an e-Reader to being an owner of a Kindle.  Much of this was spurred by the ease of deploying Kindle books.  I currently have 3 Kindle books listed on Amazon – perhaps it was time to take the plunge myself?

In July, I bought a Kindle.  At the time, I thought it was a second hand model.  It turns out that I was actually the third owner of the device.  It was a second generation model, but this didn’t bother me much.  The third generation models have more storage space, but if you run out of space on a Kindle, you have a serious reading problems (also, you can always delete and re-download).  Sure, the new generation had the sexy new version of e-Ink, but I decided to be economical and went the used route.

What do I like so far?

Experimental Web Browser

OK, so it’s the tail wagging the dog.  The Kindle’s browser is not going to put the iPad or Android tablets to shame.  If you have a smart phone, your experience will probably be better on your phone.  But for those of us who pass up smart phones for reasons of economy and battery life, the Kindle is a serviceable option.  Currently, Kindles that use 3G allow you to surf the web with no monthly fee.  That could change at any time, but it’s a nice fringe benefit.

The Classics are Free

I loaded the Kindle up with Dracula, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Count of Monte Cristo, and much more.  All for the price of NOTHING.  There are a couple of organization who are working to make public domain works available for Kindle.  This list will get you started, or you can go to Project Gutenberg for an easy-to-browse selection.  During this process, I came to the startling conclusion that  Daphne Du Maurier’s works are not in the public domain – for some reason, I thought she was born much earlier than she actually was.

Exclusive Content

My favorite author, Lawrence Block, began releasing short stories and novellas for bargain basement prices.  Many of these had not seen the light of day in many years, while other had been included in his omnibus Enough Rope.  He even cobbled together the after words from his books into Afterthoughts.  I’m not sure how many people would storm the doors of a store to pay $19.99 for a hardcover version of Afterthoughts, but at 99 cents, it’s hard to pass up (and Block will surely reap profits as people realize that there are several of his books they have neglected to read.

I Read More

I seem to be reading more since I bought the Kindle.  Part of that is the fact that I’m reading Block, whom I’ve always found hard to put down.  Then again, I’m reading the dead-tree edition of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, and I also am entranced by Stieg Larsson.  Perhaps it’s the fact that the Kindle is a one handed device, while it’s a bit awkward to read a book with one hand.

Those concerns I had about battery life?  Completely unfounded.  I probably charge once a week, just to make sure I don’t run out of battery power – but I’ve never had the Kindle below half.

What About You?

Have I sold you on the Kindle?  Swing over the Kindle Store at Amazon, where you can buy a Kindle and fill it with eBooks in time for the cold of winter.

The recent focus on the case of Troy Davis has made me think about the death penalty and its place in the American justice system.  I won’t comment on whether or not I feel Davis is guilty, because I haven’t paid enough attention to his case to justify having an opinion.

Capital punishment is a controversial issue in the United States.  Fourteen states have abolished it (Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin), while other states (notably Texas) execute prisoners with some regularity.

Are there crimes worthy of capital punishment?

The first question I ask myself is whether there are crimes that are worthy of the death penalty.  I do feel that there are some crimes where the death penalty is an appropriate punishment.  I believe that capital punishment is an appropriate punishment for cases of premeditated murder in which the perpetrator acted in cold blood.

While there is a segment of the population that advocates the death penalty for some sexual crimes, specifically those against children, I do not agree.  While I am the father of two young children, I believe is necessary to consider what is just in these cases, rather than what I would prefer for the punishment.  I truly believe that at some point down the road, medical science will discover a treatment for sex offenders.  The high rate of recidivism among offenders make me believe that an underlying mental defect contributes to the behavior.  However, I do realize that this is a controversial opinion and don’t want to get sidetracked too much.  The article is about capital punishment, not sex offenders.

Should we use capital punishment?

So I agree that there are crime worthy of capital punishment.  Do I agree that we should actively use the death penalty?  No.

There are a number of arguments that are made against the death penalty.  Amnesty International and other organizations argue that capital punishment is cruel and unusual, and often are joined by world leaders such as the Pope and Jimmy Carter.  Others argue that the cost of the nearly inexhaustible appeals a death row inmate is allow are a huge burden upon the taxpayers, and that it would be cheaper to simply incarcerate the person for life.

Those aren’t my reasons.  I’m opposed to the death penalty because it’s irreversible.  Our entire criminal justice system is biased toward the accused person, in an effort to prevent wrongful convictions.  For example, the burden of proof in a criminal case is beyond a reasonable doubt, as opposed to the civil burden of proof, which is a preponderance of the evidence.

What I worry about is one wrongful execution.  If you imprison someone for life and discover that they were wrongfully convicted, you can set them free, pay a settlement, and let them begin the rebuild their life.  Things will never be the same as they were before their imprisonment, of course, but they’ll still be able to hear the birds sing and catch a game at the stadium.

If you execute someone and realize later that they were wrongly convicted, there’s not much you can do other than apologize and cut a check to their family.

Can’t happen, with all the safeguards in the system?  I disagree.  It would only take a few dirty cops working in concert to plant evidence and frame someone.  While I believe that the vast majority of cops are dedicated public servants, it’s no secret that a small number are corrupt.  But even if those involved in the investigation conduct themselves professionally, evidence can sometimes be misleading, especially when dealing with newer scientific methods which are still being refined.

It’s my belief that one wrongly executed person is one too many.  I’d rather have a hundred serial killers doing life in prison (instead of on death row) than one innocent person executed.  I don’t want that “one too many” to be me.

Members of the Big XII conference have been scrambling for the exit door for more than a year.  Nebraska and Colorado have already exited for the Big 10 and Pac 12, respectively.  Texas A&M is actively trying to exist, and Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech are exploring their options.  If those schools all leave the conference, only five teams would remain.

Our neighbors to the Atlantic side of the country, the Big East conference, is also facing more defections.  Syracuse and Pitt will be leaving, dropping the number of football schools to six.

There has been talk of a merger between the leftovers of the two conferences.  Here’s how it would break down for football.

All of those schools have had some degree of football success in the last decade, but none of the teams are fighting for a BCS bid on a regular basis.  This conference would have three teams in the current AP Top 25 (West Virginia, Baylor, and South Florida in the 16, 17, and 18 spots).  Maybe the new conference could even snag BYU to get to 12 teams.  Twelve is a magic number, as conference are allowed to have title games if there are 12 teams, and Kosmo loves title games.

I do think that this conference would be stronger on the football field than it appears.  The lack of a historically dominant program could lead to an arms race among the other schools in the conference.  Do big boosters at Baylor and South Florida come forward with big donations in an attempt to push their team to the top of the conference and into the national spotlight?  Perhaps.

Where it would get very interesting is on the basketball court.  Assuming that BYU joins the conference, here’s what it could look like:

The result here is a step up from the existing 16 team Big East basketball conference – a 20 school behemoth that would snare a tremendous number of NCAA tournament bids.  The prize for the Big East, of course, would be the addition of Kansas to the mix.

I’m a graduate of Iowa State University and a longtime support of the Big XII conference.  The implosion of the conference has been a great disappointment to me.  As of a few days ago, my preference was just to become a 1-A independent if the conference dissolved.  This would allow the leftover teams to pick their own schedules and form new rivalries.

The rumors of a merger, however, have made me re-consider.  I’m jumping on the merger bandwagon.

It has been a quick rise to the top for Cam Newton.  He hit rock bottom in November 2008 when he was arrested for theft of a laptop (charges were dropped after Newton completed a diversion program).  This dark day resulted in Newton transferring to Blinn College, whom he lead to the JUCO national championship.  He then transferred to Auburn, leading them to the NCAA national championship and snagging a Heisman Trophy along the way.

The critics weren’t sure that Newton’s game would transfer to the NFL.  Would he become a super star, or go the route of JaMarcus Russell and set his NFL franchise back a few years?

Two games into his NFL career, Newton seems to have answered his critics.  With 422 yards in his first game and 432 in his second game, he broke Kurt Warner’s record for most passing yards in the first two games of the season (which had been 827).  Tom Brady smashed the mark later in the day when he reached 940 yards for the season, but that certain didn’t diminish Newton’s accomplishment.

However, before we build a statue for Newton, it’s time to take a step back.  First of all, other than Newton’s time at Florida (before Blinn) where he backed up Tim Tebow, he really has just one season of major college football under his belt.  This also means that there’s not as much film on Newton as there are on other rookies.  Newton is also on pace for 664 attempts.  Only twice in the history of the NFL has anyone thrown more than that many times – so it’s likely that his pass attempts will trend downward a bit.  Let’s also not overlook the 4 interceptions.  I’m not saying that Newton won’t be a great NFL quarterback – but let’s not start the work on his Canton bust quite yet.  Two games does not an NFL career make.

Around the NFL

The city of Philadelphia watched in horror as Michael Vick suffered a concussion and was replaced at quarterback by Franz Kafka.  Sorry, MIKE Kafka. Philly’s normal backup, Vince Young, was dinged up an inactive for this game.  That means that over the long term, the Eagles will be a bit stronger at QB than they were for this game (no disrespect to you, Mike – you certainly made the best of your opportunity).  A big factor in whether or not Michael Vick is worth $100 million is his health, especially has he ages.

Rumors are starting to swirl that the Colts might pursue Brett Favre in an attempt to save their season.  Really?  You want that soap opera on your team?  I’d take a pass and work out someone like Duante Culpepper.

Teams that have started the season 2-0: Patriots, Bills, Jets, Texas, Redskins, Packers, and Lions.  Teams that have started 0-2 are the Dolphins, Colts, Seahawks, Vikings, and Cam Newton’s Panthers.  The AFC North has a four way tie for first place, with the Ravens, Bengals, Brows, and Steelers are starting the season 1-1.

Cyclones Rally Behind Man of Steele

Iowa State QB Steele Jantz engineered a 4th quarter comeback for the third straight game, pushing the Cyclones to a 3-0 record with a win against Connecticut.  The state’s “other” 1-A team, the Iowa Hawkeyes, rallied from a 21 point second half deficit to knock off the Pitt Panthers.

Sadly, Notre Dame notched their first win of the year.

In realignment news, Syracuse and Pitt are the newest members of the Big East.  Iowa State and Baylor have initiated discussions with the Big East regarding joining the conference if the Big XII implodes (which seems to be a near certainty at the moment.  I think I’d prefer to simply become a 1-A independent, but the money is probably better as a conference member.

Around the diamond

Detroit’s Justin Verlander picked up his 24th win of the year with a complete game 3 hitter on Sunday.  Nobody has reached 25 wins since Bob Welch went 27-6 in 1990.  In the era of the five man rotation and extensive use of the bullpen in late innings, this is an almost impossible achievement, even if you’re on your “A” game all year.  I’m in the camp that says a starting pitcher can be an MVP candidate.  While it’s true that they don’t play every day, they have a massive amount of influence on the outcome of every game they player.  Even Albert Pujols has a lot of games where he’s a small factor in the outcome – position players simple have fewer opportunities to affect the outcome.

The Red Sox are finishing the season the way they started it (remember that awful April), losing 11 of their last 14 games.  After being arguably the best team in baseball for the majority of the season, the Sox are only two games up in the wild card race as we head into the final two weeks of the season.

In the National League, the Cardinals have tightened up a wild card race that was a runaway a few weeks ago.  They stand 3 1/2 games back as we head down the stretch.  The streaking Giants (8 straight wins) are just four back of the Braves in the wild card and five back in the division.

My favorite Brad Pitt movie ever?

Brad Pitt takes to the silver screen this weekend in the movie adaptation of the Michael Lewis book Moneyball.  I’m a big fan of the book, but am worried that the movie will distort or over-simplify the Bean approach.  Contrary to what many people think, it’s not just about walks (although a number of teams still don’t realize the importance of a free base on balls).

Image via CrunchBase

Wikipedia has had a huge impact on the ability to quickly research a topic.  Back in the old days, people had to dust off the encyclopedia to get in depth information on a topic, and the information might be decades old.  The world wide web in general helped bring update information to the masses.  Wikipedia took it a step further by creating a central repository for knowledge.

Some people love Wikipedia; others (particularly teachers) dislike it.  The general criticism is that it’s not a reliable source since anyone can edit it.  A high profile example of this was a 2008 edit to the page of Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany which claimed that he shot down proposals of a playoff in NCAA football, “making him a complete and total douchebag.”  While this incident was amusing to some playoff proponents, it was a black eye for Wikipedia.

Is Wikipedia a Reliable Source?

No, definitely not.  Wikipedia won’t even argue this.  Wikipedia doesn’t purport to be a source, but rather as a site that presents data from other sources.  Essentially, Wikipedia is a big research paper, with citations noted within each article.  Original research is explictly forbidden.  The sources themselves must meet the standard of being a reliable source – personal blogs are not allowed.

If you’re using Wikipedia for formal research, you should cite the actual source, rather than the Wikipedia page.  I’ll even take this a step further and suggest reading the source, to ensure that you have the proper context for the information.

Anyone Can Edit Wikipedia

This is true.  You can sign up as an editor on Wikipedia today and immediately start editing articles.  However, if you’re being (in  the words of Jethro Gibbs) a real jackwagon, you can find yourself banned pretty quickly.

In general, disputes on Wikipedia are handled via a dispute resolution policy.  Often, this centers around an article not conforming with Wikipedia’s policy that articles have a neutral point of view (naturally, this is more of a problem with articles of a political nature).

Articles that are particularly prone to vandalism or subject to edit wars (where editors with conflicting viewpoints constantly overwrite each other’s text) can be protected so that only privileged accounts can edit the article (anyone can suggest a change, though).

What’s Going On Behind The Scenes?

At the top of every Wikipedia article, there is a “Discussion” tab.  Click on this tab and you will find a discussion about the content of the article.  Not a general discussion of the topic, but a discussion as it relates to the exact content of the article.  This is often more informative than the actual article itself – it can provide an interesting context to the information in the article.  Take a look at the pages for Barack Obama or Sarah Palin.

You can go a step further and and become a Wikipedia editor yourself.  This can be a responsibility that takes a large amount of your time, or a small amount.  I became an editor several months ago.  No, I haven’t made any sweeping changes.  I’ve made a handful of very small changes (obvious thinks like incorrect links) and contributed to a few discussions in the Discussion tab of a few articles.

The topic of gold investing is a divisive one. One group of people say that gold is a great way to hedge against inflation and that it is a much better than currency. Others, such as myself, feel that the gold investors are simply replacing a de jure currency with a de facto currency. Are people investing in gold because of an underlying value in the product, or because they feel it will be a valuable trading chip in the case of an economic meltdown? If it’s the latter, then gold has become a de facto currency. If both are currencies, should we ridicule the dollar while at the same time praising gold?

Who knows more about precious metals than the people who go deep into the crust of the earth to extract them? Today, we sit down with Engineer Joe, a metallurgical engineer currently working at a mine in Peru.

Kosmo: First of all, why invest in metals at all? Why not put your money into other raw materials, such as rock, paper, chemicals, or water? What makes metal special?

Engineer Joe: You can buy rock (minerals), natural resources (paper, wood, whathaveyou), and most of the chemicals needed to make plastics are metals or derivatives of metals on the market. Water is not considered a tradable thing because of its abundance, but the metals and chemicals to treat water can be bought.

But none of those things retain their value like metals. Metals are easier to reuse (thus why they pay you to recycle aluminum and other scrap, but you have to pay to recycle paper and plastics), easier to extract, and easier in general to work with.

Kosmo: OK, gold is pretty, and it conducts electricity really well, but if you’re starving, you can’t eat it. It seems ridiculous to pay $1900 per ounce for something with fairly limited uses.

Engineer Joe: Gold is the flubber of metals. It can do some weird shit, along with looking cool. It’s extremely malleable (a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet), one of the most chemically resistant solid elements (for complete dissolution, you need to use a teflon coated beaker), more dense than most metals (almost twice as dense as lead), and it’s pretty rare (as of 2009, only 165,000 metric tonnes have ever been mined in human history, whereas most of the larger metal mines produce over half a million tonnes a year of common metals). Take all that, and find that it has a relatively low melting point and conducts electricity. It has all the most desirable characteristics of metals, rolled into one.

Kosmo: OK, gold is flubber. Very versatile and great for a lot of things. However, is there a point at which you go to a substitute? If gold goes to $1 million per ounce, obviously you’d need to use substitutes for a lot of uses. Not optimal, but acceptable. $1 million is an extreme example, but where is that line in the sand? $2500? $10K?

Engineer Joe: Yep, one of the best substitutes for gold is silver, which may be in part why its value has grown so much over the last two years. Certain applications can use other metals, which drives their value up as gold rises. But there are certain things that only gold may be used for, such as thin film deposits as on circuit boards. Only gold can be applied so thin and precise, and not corrode over millions of uses in many environments.

Kosmo: There are a lot of mines currently extracting metals from the earth. Is there any way I can keep track of the status of mines?

Engineer Joe: The USGS maintains a list of total inferred reserves (inferred by initial exploration), total proven reserves (final prep before mining), and total available reserves (in mines currently operating). As a company starts to reopen a mine, it moves the reserves from proven to available, which usually causes speculation that more supply will be available, and thus a price drop.

Most people are looking at the total reserves available for mining right now and the demand on the market. London Metal Exchange (LME) keeps track of all available raw metals available for trading on the market, and, for a price, you can see how many tonnes of any metal or significant mineral are available. You can also track the demand with their system. They also act as a middle man for buying large quantities.

Kosmo: One of the factors that keep the price of gold and other precious metals so high is the perception of scarcity. In theory, a mining company could strike a rich vein of gold tomorrow, right?

Engineer Joe: Actually, there is a mine in Alaska near Bristol Bay (Pebble Mine) working on obtaining necessary permits. If they can get things rolling in the next couple of years, you will see a drop in Gold, Silver, Copper, and other metals. It is the largest polymetallic deposit in the world, and their initial estimated production numbers show that it will dwarf all other mines currently in production. But they still have a long way to go.

Kosmo: When oil prices began to skyrocket, I heard about oil companies re-opening wells that had been capped years before. Oil wells that were unprofitable when crude was selling for $50 per barrel were profitable when oil was selling for $90 per barrel. It makes sense that there would be a similar situation in the mining industry – mines where the cost of extraction was high enough to make them unprofitable when gold was selling for $500 per ounce could be a cash cow with gold selling for $1900 per ounce.

Engineer Joe: Yes, this is the case of many mines. Most large mining companies will expand and buy these old properties, or just the mineral rights to them. They will do an assessment, determine the cost of remediation and reopening, and set a minimum price needed for reopening.

The Climax Mine in Leadville, Colorado is a good example. It was shut down in the early 90’s (as well as many times before), but Phelps Dodge (now owned by Freeport McMoran) announced in 2005 that it would refurbish the processing mill and reopen the mine. In 2008 Molybdenum prices dropped below where they though it was profitable to continue with reopening, so they idled the project. They resumed in early 2010 when both their stock price and Moly prices rose. It still has yet to be opened. Many presume that they just want to get the property “ready to operate” but not actually produce anything because it deters other companies from trying to develop a new mine or would be a good property to sell to a company looking to expand. It can take over 5 years to develop a new metal mine in the US right now. The EPA actually gives precedence to issuing permits if a company wants to reopen a mine because it includes clean-up of any problems that may exist and that the government is currently funding. So the process is faster than obtaining new permits from the EPA.

The problem that Freeport and many other companies see with reopening is the price of environmental remediation, and the fact that after buying the property, entering into environmental contracts with the government, the prices may drop due to the increase in proven reserves available for mining. That is why it is good for large mining companies to own the mineral rights, but not develop the old mines until the price gets so high that even with a drop it will be profitable to operate the mines.

Kosmo: In the oil market, OPEC has the power to set prices. They act as a cartel, working in concert to fix prices in a manner that maximizes their profit over the long term. This does not violate U.S. anti-trust laws because as a foreign entity, OPEC is not subject to these laws.

Does a similar situation exist in the metals market? Is there a cartel setting prices, or does the price fluctuate simply based on supply and demand?

Engineer Joe: I’m not aware of any cartels in the mining industry, other than diamonds. The most accessible diamonds are in Africa, and those mining companies did a good job over the years of protecting their investment. Things are changing now, as many jewelers won’t buy diamonds from Africa. There aren’t really any other companies or countries that have the most of a particular metal.

There is, however, an entity that plays a major role in the market.

There is this country in the Far East, with over a billion people. Maybe you’ve heard of it? For the last decade, they have been buying and stockpiling metals of all sorts, based on what they think they will need for the development of their country. This is probably the single reason why metals skipped a downturn in the mid-2000’s. Right now, they are still buying metals used for alloying steel, along with copper and other critical metals, and just stockpiling them. They’re still in raw form, so when processing prices drop, they can take advantage and have as much as they need. And if the prices rise, well then, they’re in a good spot to sell at a rate that wouldn’t flood the market.

Within the country, there are many natural occurring rare earth elements not found in abundance in many other places. They won’t sell those on the open market, and many speculate it’s because most rare earth elements are used in missile guidance systems and smart weapons. They really aren’t breaking any rules, but many speculate if there was a war, China (oops, just said their name) would be the most powerful country because of the amount of resources they have stockpiled. That is kind of scary, but the truth. And who knows how many oil reserves they have.

I was in a meeting when the planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center.  I know that the meeting was related to the project that re-wrote the system I support – turning a fat client application into a thin client one.  Any details of the exact content of the meeting have long since faded.

At the time, I worked in a building that houses five thousand IT professionals.  The building has a constant buzz of background conversation as people work together to solve problems.  On a typical day, you’ll see most people at their desks, with 2-3 people at some desks.  As we walked back from the meeting on September 11, 2001, where was none of this.  We became aware of the fact that larger groups of people were huddled around monitors.  At first, this seemed a bit unusual, but not overly so.  After all, in such a large building, there will be a handful of slightly odd occurrences at any point in time.

We quickly noticed that this was not an aberration – there were lots of groups of people huddled around monitors.  Curiosity got the better of one member of our team, and he joined one of the groups.  A minute later, Jeff caught up to us and shared the news – terrorists had attacked by crashing planes into the World Trade Center.

Most of the rest of the day was spent following the news as it unfolded.  Management didn’t make much of an effort to deter people.  Work wasn’t getting done, but there was the overriding feeling that this was an important day in the history of the country.  Impromptu prayer services were organized.

Later that day, I was in my car and noticed a single air plane flying across the sky.  Since US air space had been closed earlier in the day, the jet was clearly Air Force 1.  It felt very odd being able to look into the sky and know exactly where the president was.  Then the plane passed, and the sky was entirely devoid of air traffic.  Surreal.

Gas prices had risen dramatically during the day.  I had filled up a few days ago, so I wasn’t forced to buy at the panic prices of September 11.  I resisted the urge to top off my tank – would an extra two gallons of gas do anything for me?

I’ve never been the type of person who watches very much news.  However, that night, I was glued to CNN.  For the next several days, I followed the developments – praying for the victims, and hoping that more would be pulled out alive.  Hoping, too, that there would not be a backlash against American Muslims who had nothing to do with the attacks.

The Iowa State – Iowa football game was scheduled for the following weekend, and  I had a ticket to the game.  Like all other games that weekend, it was postponed.  I decided not to let the terrorists win, and I went forward with the weekend as planned – sans football game.  I drove the 330 miles to Ames, Iowa and had a good time hanging out with friends (including The Crunchy Conservative).

It’s certainly not as dramatic as Zarberg’s personal memories of 9/11 (great article with several photos), but that’s my story of September 11, 2001.

Where were YOU on September 11?

On Thursday, Amazon was given a one year reprieve from collecting sales tax by the state of California. During this year, Amazon will likely lobby California legislators in an attempt to make them, and other internet-based vendors, exempt from the duty of collecting sales tax.

Historically, only in-state sellers have been responsible for collecting and submitting sales tax. If a California resident drives to Oregon and buys a big screen TV, the Best Buy in Oregon does not collect California sales tax on the TV (and since Oregon has no sales tax, this means that no state received sales tax revenue from the sale). Of course, residents of states that have a sales tax are required by law to file a use tax form on which they list out of state purchases and pay taxes on those items. However, this is widely ignored, and a large chunk of the population is completely unaware of this requirement.  You would think states would make an effort to education people, but I haven’t seen evidence of this occurring.

The core question, really, is whether Amazon is like the Oregon Best Buy (which is not required to collect California sales tax) or like a California Best Buy (which is required to collect California sales tax). The California brick and mortar stores say that Amazon should be treated the same as they are – but Amazon could just as easily say that they (as an out of state internet retailer) should be treated the same as an out of state brick and mortar retailer.

In recent years, a number of states have passed – or strengthened – legislation defining the meaning of a business nexus. In California, affiliate programs such as the Amazon Associates program are deemed to be a business nexus, which would trigger the requirement to collect sales tax. Personally, I think this constitutes a pretty weak business nexus, as the associates are clearly independent contractors rather than people who are captive to Amazon.com.

(For those of you who don’t know what the Amazon Associates program is, it’s a system that allows people to earn a commission on Amazon sales by linking to Amazon on their web sites. The links contain a special code that allows Amazon to determine the source and credit the correct account. Look around The Soap Boxers and you’ll see a few of these.)

When California’s new law went into effect on July 1, Amazon immediately terminated agreements with thousands of Amazon Associates. No Amazon Associates meant no business nexus in California. Now that Amazon has a one year reprieve, will they immediately reinstate their affiliates?  There has been no word yet. Here are some reasons why they might not.

• If Amazon wants to continue to lobby for an exemption to collecting sales tax, they will want to minimize the perceived important of the Associates program. Rushing to reinstate the Associates will make it appear as if the Associates are a critical aspect of Amazon’s business – a bona fide nexus. Thus, they may choose to exhaust their lobbying efforts before reinstating affiliates.
• Amazon has retained mathe heavy hitters. There were some people making thousands of dollars per month from the Amazon Associates program. Many of these people set up shop in a neighboring state when Calfornia’s law went into effect (which had the effect of taking income tax money away from the state of California).
• While many people switched to a different affiliates program when Amazon drop the Associates program, many simply left the old links in place. In some cases, links were sprinkled across hundreds or thousands of pages on a web site, and there was the perception that it would take too much effort to make a change. These links are golden to Amazon – they are still directing traffic to Amazon, but Amazon isn’t paying a commission on the links.