Islamic-Compliant ETF

Below is an interesting article about how deeply religious Muslim investors avoided the full brunt of the stock market crash:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/147358-religious-muslims-now-have-an-etf-to-call-their-own

Hint: if you can't invest in companies that charge interest on loans, you avoid investing in banks.

Update: my friend, M. Izak, reminds us that Muslims aren't against banks per se. He says the current banking system is anti-Islamic because it charges interest rather than fees. Banks may rely on fees instead of interest payments but have chosen to rely on interest payments.

Hiking in the Dark: Don't Do It

Lesson learned: never, ever go hiking without a whistle; lots of water; food; blanket; and phone # of the ranger. Also, try to go in the daytime and with someone--when it gets dark, hiking gets scary if you're by yourself. I got lost hiking last weekend in Almaden Quicksilver park and walked, in fear, for 3 hours straight before finding my way out.

My sole saving grace is that I had lots of water, which saved my hide. Without the water, I could not have walked that long, even with fear as a motivator.

My friend Marlene B. had these recommendations:

~Always bring your phone--you never know where you'll have a signal.
~ Always have water
~ Bring a snack
~ Wear sunscreen
~ Hat... you can put a solar kind of emergency blanket in your pack.
~ NEVER HIKE ALONE! I don't care if you're a boy!
~ Take a map unless you know the route for sure

Other people suggested toilet paper, a headlamp and a GPS. One really good idea was attaching a bell to your backpack and letting it ring. It's the best way to make noise to make the predators look up and away instead of startling them. (Thanks to Mike I. for the recommendation.)

I was not expecting that level of wilderness on the side trails (which I went on accidentally). I couldn't see a darn thing, and the path got really narrow. I expected better signposts, maybe even lighted signposts. When it got dark, I could barely see/read where I was going. One disconcerting but apparently normal event was that my hands felt inflated--I had a hard time making a fist. (If anyone knows the science behind this phenomenon, please post a comment.) Then, birds started chirping, so I started singing to let the animals know I was coming. At least my night hiking trip is going to be a funny cocktail party story. I guess state parks are one place where the lawyers haven't been able to make the experience foolproof. That's a good thing.

Taxpayers on the Hook for Public Pensions

From WSJ (July 6, 2009, Andrew Biggs):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683573382697889.html

[E]conomists Robert Novy-Marx and Joshua Rauh calculate that, even prior to the market collapse, public pensions were actually short by nearly $2 trillion. That's nearly $87,000 per plan participant. With employee benefits guaranteed by law and sometimes even by state constitutions, it's likely these gargantuan shortfalls will have to be borne by unsuspecting taxpayers.

Lord, what fools these mortals be.

Palm Beach Post Gets it Right

Congratulations to the Palm Beach Post for doing the right thing. Its headline on July 5, 2009: "No bailout for Madoff's investors." Full opinion here:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/07/05/a22a_thought_0705.html

Back in the day, we would call this journalistic integrity. Hope the Wall Street Journal gets a copy.

Movie Recommendation: Au Revoir Les Enfants

I just watched Au Revoir Les Enfants, a 1987 docu-drama about a Catholic boys' school in Nazi-occupied France. Many WWII films are melodramatic or make the war into a typical American tale where the good guys win.

In contrast, Au Revoir Les Enfants avoids all melodrama. Its beauty comes from its stunning realism of the war and its victims. Au revoir gains a lasting imprint in the viewer's psyche because of its understated simplicity. I recommend the film. (4 out of 5 stars)

Bonus: if you haven't seen the Hobart Shakespeareans (2004), you are missing out. It's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. The documentary follows an elementary school teacher and his class of inner-city, immigrant students as they learn Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and other famous authors. Special appearance by Sir Ian McKellen.

Wisdom

Robert Haas, from the WSJ, 06/27/09:

In his 1980 Nobel acceptance speech, [Czeslaw] Milosz said something similar: "Those who are alive receive a mandate from those who are silent forever. They can fulfill their duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely things as they were, and by wresting the past from fictions and legends."

Happy 4th of July

A high school teacher once call me a rabblerouser. Jim Hightower's 4th of July article reminded of my former teacher's unintentional compliment:

http://www.alternet.org/story/141055/this_july_4th%2C_rebel_and_agitate_for_change

Agitators created America, and it's their feisty spirit and outright rebelliousness that we celebrate on our national holiday.