Platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) are two interesting precious metals (actually all metals are interesting, maybe I should have studied Material Science rather than Geology and Business).
Barron's (the financial newspaper that comes out on weekends) has a good article in their "Commodities Corner" column there in the Market Watch section. Those of you who are interested might want to check it out. Barron's has an online edition, but I do not know if it is free.
Pt is used in jewelry (the white crown that holds the diamond in a ring is usually Pt) as well as a catalyst (industrial and automotive catalytic converters) as well as investment demand (me).
Pd is an interesting metal too. Pd is permeable to hydrogen gas, that is hydrogen can go through Pd, but no other gas can! This could be very useful in upcoming green technologies, especially if they wind up using hydrogen in vehicles. Pd can hold 900 TIMES its volume of hydrogen. Pd is used some as a catalyst,but apparently does not have as wide a range of uses as Pt does. Pt, for example, can be used in diesel engines as well as gasoline engines. Pd cannot (yet anyway) be used in diesel engines.
"Sometime" I will get around to writing more on platinum and palladium. Unless I can con an expert (like virtual friend T.M. for example) to do a Guest Post... :-)
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Too Busy...!
I started my blog last Monday, and I have put in perhaps 65 hours working on it and managing related emails (emails mostly with you, my kind readers from ZH). I NEVER work like that anymore! I am usually the guy who has more time than anyone else...
During the past week, I have asked many people (Facebook, my email lists, ZH-ers) to go look at my blog! Some (mostly friends and family) have said they are "too busy..."
Some DO have very good reasons (moving, two women I know who run businesses on their own, my wife who is always busy, etc.). The others I do not really know WHY they are SO BUSY.
For now I am BUSY!
What about you? Is almost everyone you know Too Busy as well?
Why? Is this an indicator of the complexity in which we are all enmeshed? (For example, I just renewed my passport, it was MUCH more arduous this time than 10 years ago -- Oh, and I get the chip in my new passport)
I just signed my wife up on Facebook. I went on Facebook maybe 6 weeks ago. To sign her up, 6 weeks later, was MUCH harder than before! EVERY time I go to the doctor (etc.), I have to fill out more, and more complicated, forms...
I would be curious to know whether this is just me ("Normalcy Bias") or whether this is a larger problem. Please comment...
During the past week, I have asked many people (Facebook, my email lists, ZH-ers) to go look at my blog! Some (mostly friends and family) have said they are "too busy..."
Some DO have very good reasons (moving, two women I know who run businesses on their own, my wife who is always busy, etc.). The others I do not really know WHY they are SO BUSY.
For now I am BUSY!
What about you? Is almost everyone you know Too Busy as well?
Why? Is this an indicator of the complexity in which we are all enmeshed? (For example, I just renewed my passport, it was MUCH more arduous this time than 10 years ago -- Oh, and I get the chip in my new passport)
I just signed my wife up on Facebook. I went on Facebook maybe 6 weeks ago. To sign her up, 6 weeks later, was MUCH harder than before! EVERY time I go to the doctor (etc.), I have to fill out more, and more complicated, forms...
I would be curious to know whether this is just me ("Normalcy Bias") or whether this is a larger problem. Please comment...
Saturday, May 28, 2011
A Big Welcome to my ZeroHedge Visitors!
OK, I was kind of a troll the way I handled my zerohedge.com fishing expedition in pimping my blog..., but:
---
Update, 11:49 PM ET
There are 89 of you ZeroHedge visitors who got officially welcomed here! Each of you got a test email minutes ago.
---
Thanks for jumping through the hoops to come.
Please keep in mind that I am not an expert in anything. I do voice my opinions though! I do try to keep up on issues of interest to me however. I am DEFINITELY going to write more on financial topics than I had earlier thought. But, there will be lots of other kinds of stuff too. And depending on how many Comments (and what kinds) I get will influence the directions this blog will go. For example, in my Poetry and Haiku article (below) I had sort of expected a bigger response. One of the Comments had a great Haiku, you should go check his... But, someone else told my poetry was bad (well, yes). I can only plead that it was written in my youth (I was around 40 or so then).
100 people means I have to go and copy your emails and put them somewhere (Notepad is what am using now), so it will take some time before I can send out mass email notifications that there are new posts up.
100 of you also means that you are almost TRIPLE the number of the people I send out jokes to (my "People OK w/ Ethnic Jokes List"). Most of family and friends are on that joke list, and that is one of my ways of keeping in touch with them. I had figured that they would all come running breathlessly over here to see my blog, but most have not, too busy. Too busy... An article idea? What say you Cognitive Dissonance? (Oh, did I just drop a name here? The Host of this blog is a troll!!!)
I am very happy to have done the work to do this. About 10 or so of my friends and family had earlier replied to me that yes, I should do a blog.
I will probably "dial back" the intensity though. I have been doing little else since last Monday. I really do need to go get last week's bearing sales data and get it into my database...
Thank you again for visiting. Remember, as I have mentioned, that I am doing this to serve my readers and to try to learn more about things I am interested in.
Learning more... Pasting data from our company's sales database
Well that was interesting. I was not able to post a "copy & paste" from my database (tracking sales of our bearings in Peru), I got a gibberish error note about HTML. So I copy & pasted the below info into Notepad and then repasted it here. That is too bad that I cannot paste my stuff directly from my database. My database is almost 100 MBs and has 11 years of sales history.
Our company in Peru is called Ameru Trading del Peru S.A. The below numbers show our best selling bearings in 2011, ranked by sales in US$. The numbers under each month are the quantities sold. "Codigo" is our internal coding for each item, the two letter/number prefix is the brand, the balance is the bearing number.
Codigo Total_Qty Total_Sales 01-Jan 02-Feb 03-Mar 04-Apr 05-May
02-6007-RS 13640 $43,682.00 2400 8361 2879
13-38BWD22 731 $9,814.06 74 122 229 306
02-6204-2RS 4271 $8,863.31 664 1291 1388 696 232
02-6000-2RSC 5880 $8,392.95 1472 2603 1805
02-6205-RSC3 3582 $8,145.19 774 1018 1347 443
11-IJ-113002 172 $7,901.89 38 23 62 14 35
11-IJ-111001 383 $6,069.73 276 107
C3-RCT283SA 503 $5,044.97 231 61 112 99
02-68149G/11 1164 $4,870.87 292 449 270 153
03-DAC3872-8 279 $4,311.30 46 28 113 91 1
03-12649/10 905 $4,288.41 40 415 195 132 123
11-IJ-111003 200 $3,788.35 65 35 56 28 16
11-IJ-113015 75 $3,471.30 26 3 26 20
02-38KW01CG5 632 $3,095.40 196 60 225 108 43
03-48548/10 574 $3,079.00 30 256 105 137 46
02-6002-2RS 2211 $2,997.85 316 1002 536 217 140
02-TR285216G 585 $2,911.17 100 52 251 130 52
13-M3874W 238 $2,909.49 47 43 42 90 16
11-IJ-111009 207 $2,784.70 174 33
Ouch! That came out badly! Back to the drawing board...
You might be able to see that in May (as of last week) that we sold ZERO pieces of our best selling piece. Same with Number 2. No stock. YES, that was me you heard screaming...
Our company in Peru is called Ameru Trading del Peru S.A. The below numbers show our best selling bearings in 2011, ranked by sales in US$. The numbers under each month are the quantities sold. "Codigo" is our internal coding for each item, the two letter/number prefix is the brand, the balance is the bearing number.
Codigo Total_Qty Total_Sales 01-Jan 02-Feb 03-Mar 04-Apr 05-May
02-6007-RS 13640 $43,682.00 2400 8361 2879
13-38BWD22 731 $9,814.06 74 122 229 306
02-6204-2RS 4271 $8,863.31 664 1291 1388 696 232
02-6000-2RSC 5880 $8,392.95 1472 2603 1805
02-6205-RSC3 3582 $8,145.19 774 1018 1347 443
11-IJ-113002 172 $7,901.89 38 23 62 14 35
11-IJ-111001 383 $6,069.73 276 107
C3-RCT283SA 503 $5,044.97 231 61 112 99
02-68149G/11 1164 $4,870.87 292 449 270 153
03-DAC3872-8 279 $4,311.30 46 28 113 91 1
03-12649/10 905 $4,288.41 40 415 195 132 123
11-IJ-111003 200 $3,788.35 65 35 56 28 16
11-IJ-113015 75 $3,471.30 26 3 26 20
02-38KW01CG5 632 $3,095.40 196 60 225 108 43
03-48548/10 574 $3,079.00 30 256 105 137 46
02-6002-2RS 2211 $2,997.85 316 1002 536 217 140
02-TR285216G 585 $2,911.17 100 52 251 130 52
13-M3874W 238 $2,909.49 47 43 42 90 16
11-IJ-111009 207 $2,784.70 174 33
Ouch! That came out badly! Back to the drawing board...
You might be able to see that in May (as of last week) that we sold ZERO pieces of our best selling piece. Same with Number 2. No stock. YES, that was me you heard screaming...
Friday, May 27, 2011
Geography re my Viewers -- Quick Note!
I am honored to have viewers from the following countries:
USA
Peru
Canada
Australia
UK
Germany
Italy
Finland
Updated to now include Sweden! Our daughter went to Stockholm last fall to visit an American friend there. She loved the city. She practically walked the whole of it. She took very nice pictures with her 12 MB digital camera.
Thank you for coming by to take a look!
Update: 12:30 AM ET Memorial Day (May 29): Japan now goes green! Thanks dp!
Update: 12:46 AM ET Memorial Day (May 29): The Republic of the Marshall Islands does not show up on the Google stats world map! But, I know I have a viewer there, she IS the Mariposa, The Pearl of the Pacific!
USA
Peru
Canada
Australia
UK
Germany
Italy
Finland
Updated to now include Sweden! Our daughter went to Stockholm last fall to visit an American friend there. She loved the city. She practically walked the whole of it. She took very nice pictures with her 12 MB digital camera.
Thank you for coming by to take a look!
Update: 12:30 AM ET Memorial Day (May 29): Japan now goes green! Thanks dp!
Update: 12:46 AM ET Memorial Day (May 29): The Republic of the Marshall Islands does not show up on the Google stats world map! But, I know I have a viewer there, she IS the Mariposa, The Pearl of the Pacific!
Learning about putting photos in my blog
If these photos are copyrighted, I will remove them immediately upon request. I got these photos from Google. Kindly email me at DoChenRollingBearing@gmail.com if you want any image removed.
The below are American Gold Eagle 1 oz bullion coins. All the precious metals images are apparently from the Public Domain.
Below are pictures of bearings!
The below are American Gold Eagle 1 oz bullion coins. All the precious metals images are apparently from the Public Domain.
Below are pictures of bearings!
Bearings from China -- alibaba.com
^----- a tapered roller bearing, used in wheels of cars.
Copied from wikipedia, an animation of dirt in a ball bearing, look carefully to see the red spot (dirt) on ONE of the steel balls --->
Thursday, May 26, 2011
I Have Widgets
^---- Right up there at the very top! ----^
Jason suggested I go to kitco.com to get the HTML coding for widgets for my blog. But, I could not find them there at kitco! So, I looked at some other precious metals pricing widgets and selected those from 24hgold.com (note the "h" in there). 24hgold is a good site! Probably my favorite of the gold price sites because they have good articles. Thank you, Jason, you started me down a good trail!
24hgold.com also has a handy widget of its own that they do with eBay. There, the "paper gold" (and silver) prices are compared with actual live prices at eBay. It also calculates the premium of eBay bullion coins in percentages. Gold Eagles are typically 6% - 11% over spot, Silver Eagles are typically 20% - 30% over spot.
I was NOT able to find any decent US$ (only) widgets or a decent S&P 500 widget. I ask you my readers to suggest a decent S&P 500 widget or a decent US$ Index widget.
Or any other widget that might be FUN. If I like it, up it goes. Fun widgets are subject to change of course!
Your comments on helping me to make my blog a better place are most welcome!
Finally, because I can so clearly see the gold price from my blog (and also because the song is great) I steal an idea from FOFOA! To post Youtube videos to help keep you coming back. I even stole the song he put up in April. Thanks FOFOA, you have been a great help in so many ways!
<a href="http://youtu.be/HagzTRmUBIE";>
Bah, the coding did not work this time, no blue. Copy and paste the below into your browser, I just tried that and it works:
http://youtu.be/HagzTRmUBIE
or better yet, rob the Master himself:
Many of you got this from me last April. Do not worry, I will be putting up many videos and songs of different types in coming posts.
All of this is new for me, I am learning something new every day now...
Jason suggested I go to kitco.com to get the HTML coding for widgets for my blog. But, I could not find them there at kitco! So, I looked at some other precious metals pricing widgets and selected those from 24hgold.com (note the "h" in there). 24hgold is a good site! Probably my favorite of the gold price sites because they have good articles. Thank you, Jason, you started me down a good trail!
24hgold.com also has a handy widget of its own that they do with eBay. There, the "paper gold" (and silver) prices are compared with actual live prices at eBay. It also calculates the premium of eBay bullion coins in percentages. Gold Eagles are typically 6% - 11% over spot, Silver Eagles are typically 20% - 30% over spot.
I was NOT able to find any decent US$ (only) widgets or a decent S&P 500 widget. I ask you my readers to suggest a decent S&P 500 widget or a decent US$ Index widget.
Or any other widget that might be FUN. If I like it, up it goes. Fun widgets are subject to change of course!
Your comments on helping me to make my blog a better place are most welcome!
Finally, because I can so clearly see the gold price from my blog (and also because the song is great) I steal an idea from FOFOA! To post Youtube videos to help keep you coming back. I even stole the song he put up in April. Thanks FOFOA, you have been a great help in so many ways!
<a href="http://youtu.be/HagzTRmUBIE";>
Bah, the coding did not work this time, no blue. Copy and paste the below into your browser, I just tried that and it works:
http://youtu.be/HagzTRmUBIE
or better yet, rob the Master himself:
Many of you got this from me last April. Do not worry, I will be putting up many videos and songs of different types in coming posts.
All of this is new for me, I am learning something new every day now...
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Gold, Bitchez! Part 1
Gold, Bitchez!
I would for sure lose all credibility, especially among my new ZH, (that would be ZeroHedge.com a most excellent website for financial topics, especially for those suspicious of the banksters and Wall $t. fraud, highly recommended) readers if I go for long without writing a gold article.
As I write, I have my laptop on my lap at the airport, so my writing may not be at its best. Nor have I put much thought into this, but I felt the need to get something out about gold. So I am just going to wing this one.
FreeGold
Many people claim expertise on gold. I make no such claim, although I have looked into the subject since the 1980s, mainly by buying it! Almost every day I read something about gold. There are many "camps" (FOFOA's term) in the Precious Metals Community. I am in FOFOA's camp, pretty much, read on.
FOFOA (fofoa.blogspot.com) writes about FreeGold, a concept first taken up in the late 1990s by a European ("Another") purportedly highly placed among those designing the Euro currency. He contributed his THOUGHTS! at some gold site back then. After a couple of years, he stopped writing. A bit later a Friend of Another" (FOA) who continued exploring the FreeGold idea. FOA was perhaps an American. But, he too stopped writing after a couple of years or so.
And then came along FOFOA who started writing his blog in +/- 2008 (sorry I do not remember what year FOFOA!). FOFOA continues writing to this day, mostly about FreeGold.
Disclosure: I am a contributor to his blog, so I am biased.
FreeGold is a concept that is either intuitively clear or not. It has taken me a long time just to get to my limited understanding. But, there is an essential believability that I find in FOFOA's dramatic prediction of gold priced from $25,000 - $60,000 (non-hyperinflated 2009 dollars)! When I first ran into FOFOA and started reading, I thought "Wow this guy is a real radical". I have a soft spot in my heart for non-violent radicals (well, of a certain kind), so I continued to read his stuff. I started in mid-late 2009.
FOFOA describes his concept in great detail at his blog, but it is hard for many (like me) to really "get" the concept although feel that I basically do.
FreeGold will happen when the physical price of gold diverges from the "paper price" (gold futures prices, etc.). There are apparently 100 times as much "paper gold" (claims on actual physical ounces) as there are actual physical ounces (that perhaps is within the USA only). At some point there will likely be a failure to deliver real physical gold to holders of paper gold wanting the real thing. Gold is "leased out" by the Bullion Banks (sort of market makers in gold and gold derivatives, you will have to dig into FOFOA's rich detailed writings for more details).
Probably all of a sudden there will a demand for the real gold. And there will be many who will not be able to deliver. Then gold will NOT be available at the COMEX price (paper price). It might not even be available AT ALL for a short time, at ANY price, as any real gold left disappears...
FOFOA explained in one of his articles ("The Shoeshine Boy") that Robert Prechter (often a gold bear I understand)b will have his 15 minutes of fame, as gold falls to $400 / oz. OK, they say $400, so you go to your favorite coin shop or to APMEX, and guess what? No gold for sale. You would be prepared to pay a premium of, say, $200 / oz? Sorry, no gold. $1000 / oz. No gold.
After this all shakes out, the market for physical gold will lead to a likely quick quantum-like jump in the price of gold to prices like $50,000 / oz. He also makes a great case for saying you do not even have to UNDERSTAND FreeGold, just buy some, and you will be very happy with your purchases.
FOFOA makes a great case. You should read his blog. The best one IMO regarding the Ancient Metal of Kings: Gold!
He does not (much anyway) like other PMs like silver. GOLD is where wealth is HELD, sitting still for generations. Silver gets spent.
***
The only real point of difference I have is that I do not know the future, and what is predictable or no. I hold other PMs myself: platinum, silver and palladium. But, the bulk ($ value) is in gold.
***
Please discuss! I am here to serve and learn from you.
FOFOA has helped me in starting and improving my blog! Thank him by visiting his blog, and consider contributing, his blog takes NO advertising even though he has a large following.
fofoa.blogspot.com
Thanks again, family, friends and "virtual friends" for stopping by my blog.
I would for sure lose all credibility, especially among my new ZH, (that would be ZeroHedge.com a most excellent website for financial topics, especially for those suspicious of the banksters and Wall $t. fraud, highly recommended) readers if I go for long without writing a gold article.
As I write, I have my laptop on my lap at the airport, so my writing may not be at its best. Nor have I put much thought into this, but I felt the need to get something out about gold. So I am just going to wing this one.
FreeGold
Many people claim expertise on gold. I make no such claim, although I have looked into the subject since the 1980s, mainly by buying it! Almost every day I read something about gold. There are many "camps" (FOFOA's term) in the Precious Metals Community. I am in FOFOA's camp, pretty much, read on.
FOFOA (fofoa.blogspot.com) writes about FreeGold, a concept first taken up in the late 1990s by a European ("Another") purportedly highly placed among those designing the Euro currency. He contributed his THOUGHTS! at some gold site back then. After a couple of years, he stopped writing. A bit later a Friend of Another" (FOA) who continued exploring the FreeGold idea. FOA was perhaps an American. But, he too stopped writing after a couple of years or so.
And then came along FOFOA who started writing his blog in +/- 2008 (sorry I do not remember what year FOFOA!). FOFOA continues writing to this day, mostly about FreeGold.
Disclosure: I am a contributor to his blog, so I am biased.
FreeGold is a concept that is either intuitively clear or not. It has taken me a long time just to get to my limited understanding. But, there is an essential believability that I find in FOFOA's dramatic prediction of gold priced from $25,000 - $60,000 (non-hyperinflated 2009 dollars)! When I first ran into FOFOA and started reading, I thought "Wow this guy is a real radical". I have a soft spot in my heart for non-violent radicals (well, of a certain kind), so I continued to read his stuff. I started in mid-late 2009.
FOFOA describes his concept in great detail at his blog, but it is hard for many (like me) to really "get" the concept although feel that I basically do.
FreeGold will happen when the physical price of gold diverges from the "paper price" (gold futures prices, etc.). There are apparently 100 times as much "paper gold" (claims on actual physical ounces) as there are actual physical ounces (that perhaps is within the USA only). At some point there will likely be a failure to deliver real physical gold to holders of paper gold wanting the real thing. Gold is "leased out" by the Bullion Banks (sort of market makers in gold and gold derivatives, you will have to dig into FOFOA's rich detailed writings for more details).
Probably all of a sudden there will a demand for the real gold. And there will be many who will not be able to deliver. Then gold will NOT be available at the COMEX price (paper price). It might not even be available AT ALL for a short time, at ANY price, as any real gold left disappears...
FOFOA explained in one of his articles ("The Shoeshine Boy") that Robert Prechter (often a gold bear I understand)b will have his 15 minutes of fame, as gold falls to $400 / oz. OK, they say $400, so you go to your favorite coin shop or to APMEX, and guess what? No gold for sale. You would be prepared to pay a premium of, say, $200 / oz? Sorry, no gold. $1000 / oz. No gold.
After this all shakes out, the market for physical gold will lead to a likely quick quantum-like jump in the price of gold to prices like $50,000 / oz. He also makes a great case for saying you do not even have to UNDERSTAND FreeGold, just buy some, and you will be very happy with your purchases.
FOFOA makes a great case. You should read his blog. The best one IMO regarding the Ancient Metal of Kings: Gold!
He does not (much anyway) like other PMs like silver. GOLD is where wealth is HELD, sitting still for generations. Silver gets spent.
***
The only real point of difference I have is that I do not know the future, and what is predictable or no. I hold other PMs myself: platinum, silver and palladium. But, the bulk ($ value) is in gold.
***
Please discuss! I am here to serve and learn from you.
FOFOA has helped me in starting and improving my blog! Thank him by visiting his blog, and consider contributing, his blog takes NO advertising even though he has a large following.
fofoa.blogspot.com
Thanks again, family, friends and "virtual friends" for stopping by my blog.
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