Home Archives Receive an e-mail [reminder & link] Physics of Change will feature information in specific sections each month. The information is intended to inform the readers of this newsletter. However, it is not advice!!  Any decisions made based on this information are to be done in a self-responsible manner. Mulai de Guise Publishing, LLC cannot be held responsible for any individual actions based on the information it presents. ~~~February 2008 Edition ~~~ "If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Section 1 - Q & A What is it that makes it difficult for me this time to decide where to settle? Like I mentioned before, we had quite definitely decided to go to Yelm for so many obvious reasons, among all the fact of the school being there. But these last months many questions arise: 1. Wouldn't it be easier to stay in Europe? Much cheaper moving expenses: truck instead of container. No customs clearing so no need to declare whatsoever. I could even take my gold bars along with me while that would be impossible if going to USA. No plane ticket for my dog - which is quite expensive. 2. It is not because we are close to school that we are better students. Our Mastery depends on our own work, our will, sincerity and dedication, not on the distance to that place, even if we consider it holy. 3. No problems with residence visa. We wouldn't intend to hide, anyway, but we would be obliged to leave the country every 3-6 months, depending on duration of visa. 4. There are also safe places in Europe. Well considered, it also is a big challenge to our God to choose not to live in a place of which we know that it is "protected" by Ramtha. It would even mean that I feel strong and confident enough to create my continuity on my own. In any case, following Ramtha's advice, we would probably move to southern Spain. 5. If we remain in Europe, the remaining family (those who don't want to believe that all this is going to happen) could join us easier when needed - if not too late of course. We could easily come and visit our old parents, while still alive. 6. When all this is over - when traveling is again possible - we certainly will have the chance to move to Yelm - unless we travel to a much further place...! 7. We could build up here a small community with other students. One of them has huge knowledge in energy of the future - hydrogen is already "old stuff" for him. I consider his appearance in my life - since autumn in Sportilia - a manifestation of my list, in which I get to meet wonderful beings with great knowledge that are willing to share their experience with me. But he and his wife would never consider living in the USA. 8. One of the main reasons for my doubts: the extreme degradation of the socio-economic and political situation in the USA these last months. Someone with a minimum of common sense would think that moving there is total insanity. Would someone want to enter into a bear's cave knowing that the bear most certainly is there? Surely, for people with foreign currency it is a great moment to change and buy, but what happens once you are there with your money invested in a country who's currency is not even wanted for buying the entrance to the Taj Mahal? The only thing I feel like doing lately - as soon as the roulette of thoughts appears - is to focus on the last card I found on the Field. On the left hand there I am, with my head hanging, standing in the dark. On the right hand, I am walking - confidently and singing - on a nice landscape towards a rising sun in the horizon which stands for the Future. And, believe me, I do know THAT I BELONG TO THE FUTURE. There's no doubt about that. It is just as if I didn't know through which door to go... Sorry, Greg, for this huge mail. It was not my intention to be that long (I realize it is past 3:oo am here!) but one thing pulled the other. Usually it's me helping the others, this time it's me needing some help - the opinion of an impartial observer. Thank you so much for your patience and time. Be blessed, Carolina Carolina- Here is your answer!!! The only thing I feel like doing lately - as soon as the roulette of thoughts appears - is to focus on the last card I found on the Field. On the left hand there I am, with my head hanging, standing in the dark. On the right hand, I am walking - confidently and singing - on a nice landscape towards a rising sun in the horizon which stands for the Future. And, believe me, I do know THAT I BELONG TO THE FUTURE. There's no doubt about that. It is just as if I didn't know through which door to go... If you belong to the future, it does not matter where you live!! Give yourself the luxury of knowing that it will become clear very soon. You don't have to make a decision today. Remember, if you belong to the future, time and circumstances wrap themselves around the dream….. walking - confidently and singing - on a nice landscape towards a rising sun in the horizon. If you focus on this card everyday - like I did with my arms raised in triumph looking at a rainbow, the environment will move quickly to accommodate you!! It has to - THAT IS THE LAW!! You will have your answer very soon. Greg, Thank you so much for your quick answer. As soon as I started reading, I started crying - as if I had recognized something familiar in those words... I do realize that by thinking about all the details (moving, customs, etc.) I am already limiting the result with my monkey mind. I will follow your advice and really focus on my card every day (I will even paint a new, brighter one with only the right side on it) but also - like you say - I will give myself the luxury of knowing that it will become clear very soon. Funny enough, for New Year, at my parents' present residence they had this nice idea of hanging a blue cloth that should represent the sky and they prepared little papers in the shape of clouds for people to write down their dream for the year and stick it to the sky. For a few days I didn't know what to write, but at the last minute I instinctively wrote down: "To see clearly". Thank you again - and have a wonderful year! Carolina. Save Hundreds on Your Credit Card Interest The average American household is carrying more than $9,000 in credit card debt, with the interest rates on their cards averaging 16 ˝ %. $9,000 x 16.5% = almost $1500 per year in finance charges. You may be overlooking one of the simplest and surest ways to immediately put a dent in your debt: Lower the interest rate you pay on your credit card balance. If you're paying more than 15% on your credit cards, listen up. If you are like me, you are getting a few credit card offers in the mail each week. Instead of throwing the offers away, open several and look at the rate you will be charged. Most have introductory rates, but if you look in the disclosure box, it will tell the rate after the introductory offer. Then call your credit card company and ask them if they are willing to lower your rate or if you should accept the offer you have in your hand. I called one of my credit card companies and told them that I wanted to close my account. The agent said, "One moment, please." The next voice I heard was the supervisor. He said, "Mr. Simmons, you have been with us for a long time and we want to keep you as a customer." He offered me a significant interest rate reduction and I accepted his new offer. It took less than three minutes to get this substantial savings. ATLANTA and BOSTON - A gallon of milk in Birmingham, Ala., is expected to cost $4.50 this summer, perhaps more. At Wetzel's Market in Glen Rock, Pa., the New York strip steaks that were on sale for $4.99 a pound last Fourth of July will be $6.99 this year. In Boston, some shoppers report checkout prices on certain items that are 30 percent higher now than last summer. The reason people are smarting: Inflation in grocery aisles is up by more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006. That means food costs are on track for the biggest annual percentage hike since 1980, according to the Labor Department. The anticipated 7.5 percent increase would readily outflank the 2.6 percent core inflation rate to date, which excludes food and energy. It's across every grocery aisle, too, from burgers to bagels, from duck to dumpling. "There's a ... combination of higher demand, natural disasters, higher energy prices - just a myriad of factors driving what price increases we're seeing across the food sector," says Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development in Ames, Iowa. The chief culprit is corn, namely No. 2 feed corn, the staple of the breadbasket. In answer to President Bush's call for greater oil independence, the amount of feed corn distilled into ethanol is expected to double in the next five to six years. Distillation is already sucking up 18 percent of the total crop. Facing higher costs at the farm and shareholder pressure to maintain profits, companies such as Tyson Chicken and Coca-Cola are raising prices. The fact that fuel prices remain relatively high hasn't helped either, allowing no break in the cost of transporting perishable goods. For fruit and vegetable growers, labor shortages are also a factor. A $2 cantaloupe sold for $3 at the South Carolina Farmer's Market in Greenville recently, largely because of labor woes, says Thompson Smith of the South Carolina Farm Bureau. Winter cold snaps and hard freezes in California and the Southeast have made peaches, apples, and oranges pricier. In the heartland, low yields on winter wheat mean cookies and baguettes are more expensive. Meat costs are up by 15 percent in some regions, in part because of drought that, as in Alabama, caused a cattle sell-off. Milk prices are up in part because of a global shortage, with milk exporters such as New Zealand unable to add capacity and Australia enduring a debilitating drought, even as demand rises in Europe, China, and India. "Five-dollar milk by the end of the summer - that's the big rumor," Mr. Wetzel said in a phone interview. "It's one of those things that nobody's happy about, but when everybody's prices go up, they're pretty well stuck." With gasoline prices high, he suggests, consumers are less likely to shop at different stores for bargains. Overview of the current US economy Goldman Sachs reports that the US is in an outright recession. The prognosis is that the US dollar will continue to decline in value and in purchasing power as goods and services become more expensive. Oil will soon be $120 barrel on its way to $150. Gold is on its way to $1000 AN OUNCE AND SOONER RATHER THAN LATER TO $1500. With the housing sector collapsing, the credit crunch affecting REGIONAL BANKS that service auto loans, credit cards, and 2nd mortgages will be facing bankruptcy. And following these sectors will be tech stocks and publicly traded large retail corporations. Throughout 2008, discretionary income will become scarcer. This is the money that people have to spend in whatever way they choose. For example, Amazon.com is a retailer that sells goods that is bought with discretionary cash. You should not have your money in a bank. Cash should be converted to gold, silver, and foreign currencies. There are three conditions that will continue to collapse the US economy. 1.) The CREDIT CRUNCH which makes it difficult to borrow money. Most businesses borrow money at one time or another to increase the opportunities of that business. 2) JOB INSECURITY is becoming a major concern. In the most recent month, unemployment had it sharpest rise in years. 3) INFLATION which translates as an inordinate rise in the general level of prices. Your money will not buy very much and will continue to buy less. It is my conclusion that with this declining economy, there are several opportunities that can be easily executed to take advantage of this special financial environment. 1)   Inverse Investments: Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) can be used to invest in specific sectors that appear to be in trouble. If a company's stock goes down 10%, the ETF account will increase 10%. In this way you can target a specific stock that you think will go down. The following ETFs have an inverse relationship to a sector. Two examples, and I am going to invest in these to see how they do, are PSQ and SBB. They have an inverse relationship with the NASDAQ and the S&P small cap 600 Index respectively. 2)   Stock options: I do not gamble in the stock market, but there is some amount of speculation that I am willing to do if the downside is limited to my investment. Stock options have much more leverage than ETFs. A few hundred dollars can control tens of thousands of dollars of upside potential without risking more than your original several hundred dollars. If you can identify the sectors that are in trouble - housing, sub prime lenders, regional banks, tech stocks, and high-end retailers, and then the companies that you think will likely lose stock value, then you have the perfect formula for investing $30 - $750 for a put option on any one of these companies. Some examples of this highly leveraged opportunity: If you had bought a $150 put option on Countrywide Financial in July 31 '07, you could have sold it for $5200 on August 16 - a 3367% profit in 16 days. You could have bought a $100 put option on New Century Financial on February 5, 2007 and sold it for $4200. A $200 put option July 30 with Washington Mutual could have been sold for $2550 on October 15. The list is endless, however, you don't make money on every transaction - you will have losses. What I like about this financial model is the upside potential combined with a limited downside. I am going to buy put options on the two following companies: Amazon.com and Capital One Financial. I will let you know how I do!! THE LAST HOURS OF ANCIENT SUNLIGHT is one of the most informative books I have read. Written by Thom Hartmann and available through the RSE online bookstore - http://ramtha.com/html/rse-store/books.stm - type in last hours in the search feature - it is a book about the fate of the world and what we can do before its too late. I underline books when I read them so that I can quickly review the important points or concepts - this book is heavily underlined. "…recycling won't save the world, birth control won't save the world, and saving what little is left of the rainforests won't save the world … Nothing but changing our way of seeing and understanding the world can produce real, meaningful, and lasting change." Human beings consume 50% of the available fresh water on Earth. This leaves every other species of plant and animal to compete for what's left. We are currently adding another Los Angeles' worth of people to the world every three weeks. There is a collision coming between our growing population and the dwindling supplies necessary to sustain that population. More than half of the world's countries (82) have reached a critical state in which they cannot grow enough food nor do they have the resources to pay to import enough food to adequately feed their population. Americans in particular are uninformed about the rest of the state of the world. How could it be that the most prosperous nation in the world with the greatest media establishment could be so ill informed? Among the largest 100 corporations in the US are the five that own the TV networks that deliver the evening news. Grain and food production in the US and the rest of the world hit its highest peak in the 1980s and has declined steadily since. The US has lost 1/3 of its topsoil since 1950. It takes an average of 400 years for a forest to create a foot of topsoil that is capable of sustaining crops. When China becomes hungry over the next few years, her need for food will rock world food prices. In its lifetime, a rainforest tree will draw three million gallons of water up through its root system and release the vapor into the air. Over 1500 acres of land are becoming desert worldwide every hour because of the destruction of forests. Without forestland pumping million of tons of water into the area's atmosphere, there's little moisture released into the air to condense into clouds and then fall as rain. Antarctica holds 70% of the planet's fresh water. It is melting at an alarming rate. Food shortages will begin all around the world within the next decade as a result of the loss of irrigation water. Where will the fresh water come from once it is melted into the ocean? If the Great Conveyor Belt, which includes the Gulf Stream were to stop flowing (caused by large amounts of fresh water dumped into the Atlantic from melting icecaps), the result would be sudden and dramatic. Winter would set in for the eastern half of North America and all of Europe and Siberia, and never go away. Within three years those regions would become uninhabitable. Far more seductive than opium, infinitely more effective at shaping behavior and expectations than alcohol, and used for more minutes every day than tobacco, our culture's most pervasive and most insidious "drugging agent" is television. Most people's major life regrets are not about the things they have done, but about the things they have not done, the goals they never reached, the type of parent they wished they had been but know they failed to be, the exotic and foreign places they wanted to visit. Yet our culture encourages us to sit in front of a TV for dozens of hours a week, hundreds to thousands of hours a year, and thereby watch, as if from a distance, the future of our lives flow through our hands like dry sand. Our minds and our cultures created our situation. There's great insight in understanding this, and power in realizing how much of a role we can play in redefining the future of the planet for ourselves and our children. I encourage you to read this book. It gives specific strategies in the last 1/3 of the book for "What We Can Do About it." BUYING FOOD NOW I have started to stock up on basic foods that I think will become 3 - 4 times more expensive in the next few years. These foods include very basic items such as white and brown sugar, brown and basmati rice, powdered milk, wheat, rolled oats, granola, butter and cheese. I buy only organic foods and I like them stored in #10 cans. This allows me to open one of these cans and consume it over a relatively short period of time. It is also advisable to preserve water and treated in a way that gives it a safe, shelf life of 5 years. I have several filters that I use to eliminate 99.9% of anything dangerous in my water supply. You can find these water filters and many other helpful items at: www.survivalcenter.com The toxins and drugs that are in the rivers, lakes, city water, and even in underground aquifers are extremely dangerous. Another great source for food and water storage and information for preparing for these uncertain times is: www.happyhovelfoods.com. Fed delivers another rate cut - Should you refinance? Ben Bernanke and the central bank deliver the half-point cut that Wall Street expected and see more 'downside risks' for the economy. This lowers the rate to 3.0%. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage or a fixed rate mortgage that is higher than 5.5%, you should consider refinancing. You must refinance if you have an adjustable rate mortgage. If you don't, you are always vulnerable to the vicious swings of the adjustable rate and the next swing to higher rates could put you into a payment that could create a hardship for you. For an existing fixed rate mortgage, you need to do the numbers to see if a refinance and the costs to close the loan are lower for the life-of-the-loan savings of the existing rate. There will certainly be more cuts. The more the Fed cuts the rate, the better interest you can get on a refinance. The best mortgage interest rates are usually about 2% above the prime rate. Stay tuned to see how low these rates are expected to go. Here is just one of the many reasons, not a pleasant one, why gold is headed to at least $1650. Taliban factions unite to battle Pakistan Warlord reports aid from Al Qaeda By Kathy Gannon PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Sometime in mid-December, as the winter winds howled across the snow-dusted hills of Pakistan's inhospitable border regions, 40 men representing Taliban groups all across Pakistan's northwest frontier came together to unify under a single banner and to choose a leader. The banner was Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan, or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, with a fighting force estimated at up to 40,000. And the leader was Baitullah Mehsud, the man Pakistan accuses of assassinating former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The move is an attempt to present a united front against the Pakistani Army, which has been fighting insurgents along the border with Afghanistan. It is also the latest sign of the rise of Mehsud, considered the deadliest of the Taliban mullahs or clerics in northwest Pakistan. Mehsud is based in the rugged, heavily treed mountains of South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's so-called tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan, where Western intelligence says Al Qaeda is regrouping. His organization has claimed responsibility, often backed up by videos, for killing and kidnapping hundreds of soldiers, beheading women, and burning schools that teach girls anything other than religion. He also says he has a steady supply of suicide bombers and strong ties to Al Qaeda. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson took aim at Wall Street on Thursday with a lawsuit against 21 major investment banks that he said have enabled the subprime lending and foreclosure crisis here. The one-of-a-kind suit, filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, accuses venerable institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo of creating a public nuisance. Jackson contends the companies irresponsibly bought and sold high-interest home loans. The result: widespread defaults that depleted the city's tax base and left entire neighborhoods in ruins. City officials hope to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, including lost taxes from devalued property and money spent demolishing and boarding up thousands of abandoned houses. "To me, this is no different than organized crime or drugs," Jackson said in an interview with Plain Dealer reporters and editors. "It has the same effect as drug activity in neighborhoods. It's a form of organized crime that happens to be legal in many respects." A city spokeswoman said the companies, which are based across the country, were not given advance notice of the suit, which was submitted late Thursday and assigned to Judge Peter Corrigan. Cleveland is the second major U.S. city this week to sue over the ills of subprime loans. On Tuesday, Baltimore sued Wells Fargo, alleging the bank intentionally sold high-interest mortgages more to blacks than to whites - a violation of federal law. The Baltimore and Cleveland efforts are believed to be the first attempts by large cities to recover losses blamed on the foreclosure epidemic, which has particularly plagued Ohio. Fire Below the Ice By Phil Berardelli ScienceNOW Daily News 22 January 2008 Researchers have found evidence that a previously undiscovered active volcano, which last erupted about 2300 years ago, could be heating a portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing enough melting to nudge the sheet toward the sea. The find is bad news for scientists already worried about the stability of the giant ice sheet as global temperatures climb. Furthermore, the volcano's residual heat might still be warming the underside of the ice sheet and speeding up its march toward the ocean, Corr says. And if the volcano does erupt again, much of the sheet could slide into the ocean, adding to already-rising sea levels fueled by global warming. The effect would be even more pronounced if a new eruption occurs, he adds. The research confirms that there are indeed active volcanoes under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, says geophysicist Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas, Austin. But what is even more important is how the constant geothermal heating from the volcano is affecting the ice sheet's dynamics. How the meltwater is interacting with the volcanism is "what we need to understand," he says. Drought Could Shut Down Nuclear Plants By MITCH WEISS, AP Posted: 2008-01-23 18:17:56 LAKE NORMAN, N.C. (Jan. 23) - Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate. Utility officials say such shutdowns probably wouldn't result in blackouts. But they could lead to shockingly higher electric bills for millions of Southerners, because the region's utilities could be forced to buy expensive replacement power from other energy companies. Already, there has been one brief, drought-related shutdown, at a reactor in Alabama over the summer. "Water is the nuclear industry's Achilles' heel," said Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, an environmental group critical of nuclear power. "You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants." He added: "This is becoming a crisis." An Associated Press analysis of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors found that 24 are in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants' turbines. New Sunspot Is Harbinger Of New Solar Cycle, Increasing Risk For Electrical Systems First official sunspot belonging to the new Solar Cycle 24. by Staff Writers Washington DC (SPX) Jan 07, 2008 A new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity, bringing with it increased risks for power grids, critical military, civilian and airline communications, GPS signals and even cell phones and ATM transactions, showed signs it was on its way late yesterday when the cycle's first sunspot appeared in the sun's Northern Hemisphere, NOAA scientists said. "This sunspot is like the first robin of spring," said solar physicist Douglas Biesecker of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. "In this case, it's an early omen of solar storms that will gradually increase over the next few years." A sunspot is an area of highly organized magnetic activity on the surface of the sun. The new 11-year cycle, called Solar Cycle 24, is expected to build gradually, with the number of sunspots and solar storms reaching a maximum by 2011 or 2012, though devastating storms can occur at any time. During a solar storm, highly charged material ejected from the sun may head toward Earth, where it can bring down power grids, disrupt critical communications, and threaten astronauts with harmful radiation. Storms can also knock out commercial communications satellites and swamp Global Positioning System signals. Routine activities such as talking on a cell phone or getting money from an ATM machine could suddenly halt over a large part of the globe. We May Need This Next Report: 2˝ bottles of wine a week can save your life That's the headline from a story published in The Times today. According to this article, those who drink up to 14 drinks each week have a lower risk of death from heart disease than both heavy drinkers and non-drinkers. "A weekly moderate alcohol intake reduced the risk of all-cause mortality among both men and women, whereas the risk among heavy drinkers was similar to nondrinkers." Additionally, those who exercise regularly and consume 14 drinks weekly were the healthiest with a magnified health benefit from the exercise. The article is based on a study published in the European Heart Journal in which some 12,000 Danish men and women were evaluated over several years in the 1970s and 1980s. In a similar story, Wired Magazine recently reported on a "red wine drug" that combats aging. The drug is a derivative of resveratrol (an ingredient found in red wine known for anti-aging qualities) and it reportedly is showing promise to lower blood sugar in diabetic patients. Taking Delivery of Paper Certificates: Your opportunity for taking physical delivery of paper shares of ANY company is coming to an end. Major brokerage houses have indicated and some have already put in place a policy of electronic shares only. What that means is that they simply refuse by operating practice to forward your request for paper certificates along with your signature guarantee on the stock power to the transfer agent. Since the transfer agent requires a signature guarantee and your shares are now at the refusing broker you cannot get the proper request and documents to the transfer agent. This means you take delivery now or forever have an agent between what you own and yourself. Now means today, not tomorrow. TESTIMONIALS and COMMENTS Greg, Thank you for publishing the letter from the woman who was dealing with so much lack in her life. Her situation resonated with me although my circumstances are different. Most importantly, your advice to her was inspirational to me on a personal level. As a result, I am already seeing changes. Thanks again! My name is Madelayne and I live in Sweden. I'd like to thank you for being an incredible inspiration. I have listened to the files in BTO where you share your knowledge. A lot of what you have said has changed my life and I thank you for that Mr Greg.