Capitalism - Cheating?

Rich and intelligent cheating the poor and less intelligent?

Democracy, Capitalism, Monarchy - all have the same (defect?) feature...

“Civil law is for the rich. Criminal Law is for the poor.”

Adult Intussusception

Information:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intussusception_(medical_disorder)
2. http://bjr.birjournals.org/cgi/content/full/75/890/185
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohn
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_bowel_irrigation
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverticulosis

Medicines:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_hydroxide
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_citrate
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_glycol (MiraLAX)

US hand in Anna Hazare Movement against corruption?

US hand in Anna Hazare Movement against corruption? This is a statement/suspicion hinted by Republic of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This information was also reinforced by Mr. Rashid Alvi of Indian Congress party. From certain perspective, this can be true. Let us try to see what's happening...

I am all for the reduction/elimination of corruption every where - not just in India. This is one of the bad behavior that's worth changing in the gene.

Anna's supporters are from US as well. http://www.dandimarch2.org/ is owned by Ranadheer Kumar Varma Dantuluri 3901 Parkview Ln Apt #9B Irvine California 92612 9493506498 varmadrk@gmail.com . The web site says "6 main marchers (Jawahar Kambhampati, Kewal Parnami, Srihari Atluri, Srinivas Nandiwada, Subhash Karri & Sunil Kumar) walked 240 miles in 15 days and concluded at Gandhi Statue in San Francisco. 600 or more walkers supported them in over 30 cities with 5000 man miles. Varma Dantuluri alone added 100 man miles."

Do we consider this information as US influence? Are these individuals and their supports American Citizens/immigration/residents (even if they are Indian Citizens / OCI holders).

Moving on to the support with in India. The movement is supported by younger generation - Some of them get paid on their day job by their US clients.

So, on a long stretch - US has supported Anna's movement against Corruption in India.

How to know/track the owners of a public company

How to know/track the owners of a public company and how can we know how things changed in any unit time - say 3 month period. This info is available in different places. How to compile them to know the dynamics.

Possible source of info are

1. SEC filing for the company.
2. Institutional Holders and Mutual Funds Holders periodic reports
3. Company's annual report
4. Sell/Buy raters will tell their hand if they hold any (This is not as reliable and we can not hold them accountable)
5. Press who cover the company

What can we learn when this is done methodically:

1. Find Insider trading, if any
2. Trends - just follow another knowledgeable person/company who do the research
3. We can get some indication on the internal health of the company

Example: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000119309911000056/xslF345X03/edgar.xml indicates this director got paid $10K (cash equivalent) + stocks - probably for attending a board meeting.

Waterfalls near Pune

Pune, Maharashtra waterfalls

Kundalika river - White Water rafting - around 2 hours from pune towards Pirangut. Lot of beautiful water falls on the way. The famous water fall close to pune is Tamhani.

http://www.whereincity.com/photo-gallery/show-big-photo.php?photoID=703

http://www.whereincity.com/photo-gallery/show-big-photo.php?photoID=702

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marleshwar_Fall1.jpg

Mid-day Meal Scheme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-day_Meal_Scheme

"The Mid-day Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal programme in India which started in the 1960s.It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women. The scheme has a long history especially in the state of Tamil Nadu introduced statewide by the then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in 1960s and later expanded by M. G. Ramachandran government in 1982 has been adopted by most of the states in India after a landmark direction by the Supreme Court of India on November 28, 2001.[1] The success of this scheme is illustrated by the tremendous increase in the school participation and completion rates in the state of Tamil Nadu."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARE_(relief_agency)

The idea was that Americans would be able to send “CARE Packages” those who were in desperate need of (food) relief.

In 1948, CARE was already working in many Asian countries—first came Japan, then the Philippines, Korea, India, and Pakistan.

"Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe" in 1945 to

"Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere" in 1953 to

"Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere" in 1993

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_School_Lunch_Act

The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a United States federal law signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1946. The act created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a program to provide low cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools. The program was established as a way to prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses, while at the same time providing food to school age children.

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Who can connect the dot - where CARE packages of wheat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina) were in-fact used for Kamaraj's noon-meal program in the early 90s.

Online version of numerically intensive papers

http://www.w2express.com

Noticed this feature recently where a paper document with full of numbers can be stored/distributed over the web as well. May be we can do similar thing for purchase order/Invoice and plain Point of Sale receipts.

Invoice sounds more interesting... We need more work flow (deeper integration into existing documents that consume the Invoices) and support dual mode (Paper containing a way to enable pulling the info online as well - in machine readable data format and human readable format for legal purposes).

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Recently noticed the following software

1. http://blinksale.com/
2. http://www.billingboss.com/
3. http://www.invoicejournal.com/index.html
4. http://payments.intuit.com/products/quickbooks-payment-solutions/quickbooks-online-billing.jsp

Taxes for goods not stocks

When I buy goods and services, I Pay taxes. Even when I get paid for my labor (employment), government takes taxes. However, when I buy stock of a company (I become part owner) of a company, I do not have to pay taxes at all. (Today, I pay taxes only when I sell and make a profit on the sale, I need to pay tax).

Recommendation: Tax the sale of shares of companies.

Benefits:

1. Gets more money in to US Treasuries
2. Reduces the high volatility in stock prices

Downsides:

1. Lower trade volume
2. People may claim, that's not capitalism

Middle grounds:

1. Charge on the sale of shares on any company that claims they are too big to fail
2. Charge people/companies that sell/buy more shares (day traders)

Rant from a person who lost his job during 2008 recession: "The Companies who took my money (US Tax dollars), took my money, my job and my home with it. When things are turning around, the people who came for arms on my tax dollars are still keeping their jobs and my money - while I still suffer with no money."

Pure Day Trading Risk

What if the company releases it's results or sets revised expectations? As Day trader, this can be a big problem.

BRCD: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1009626/000119312511211376/dex991.htm

3.52

-1.37 (-28.02%)

This is fertile ground for insider trading of sell activity prior to this announcement!!

Operating Systems - lost it's importance?

Since MS-DOS came in to the market, Microsoft was monoploy in the inexpensive operating system market. Recently, Mac & Linux have come in the mix. Mac on the desktop market and Linux in the server market.

Thrown in to the mix is Virtualization (Desktop) and Cloud (Server). Now, is it time to preciously define what is Operating System and see if it is still relevant? May be we do not need Operating System after all. May be a dumb terminal connecting to various specialized applications on private/public cloud could be one of the path?

Night vision - next winner in war technology?

American military is resorting night vision. Examples include Bin Laden died on a moonless night shortly after 1:00am local time. Night rides in Afghanistan has increased many folds recently.

In the past, different technologies brought big difference in successful military campaigns

1. Bow & Arrow
2. Horse
3. Fire Arm
4. Navel Fleet

The next phase seems to turn to night vision.

Bay Area Colleges

Bay Area Colleges

College/University	Population	Institution Type
San Jose State University	32,746	4-year, Public
De Anza College	26,056	2-year, Public
Foothill College	19,485	2-year, Public
Stanford University	17,833	4-year, Private not-for-profit
Cabrillo College	16,387	2-year, Public
California State University-East Bay	14,167	4-year, Public
Chabot College	13,398	2-year, Public
Ohlone College	12,896	2-year, Public
West Valley College	11,762	2-year, Public
San Jose City College	11,707	2-year, Public
Evergreen Valley College	11,119	2-year, Public
College of San Mateo	10,911	2-year, Public
Mission College	10,397	2-year, Public
Skyline College	9,463	2-year, Public
Santa Clara University	8,758	4-year, Private not-for-profit
College of Alameda	6,789	2-year, Public
Canada College	6,642	2-year, Public
Heald College - Hayward	1,272	Private for-profit, 2-year
Northwestern Polytechnic University	1,107	4-year, Private not-for-profit
Patten University	1,056	4-year, Private not-for-profit

http://education-portal.com/sunnyvale,_california_(ca)_colleges.html