My Irrational Distrust of Real Estate Agents is Avery Ant’s latest one minute rant.

Some quotes:

Real estate agents are basically failed actors who get huge commissions for opening doors and turning on and off lights.

You pay them large sums of money to pound a sign into your front lawn and bring strangers through your home.

Beyond that I think they spend most of their time getting their latest head shots airbrushed and photoshopped.

I was just reading a story on Newsweek about how much money college kids are spending to customize their cars. I don’t understand it. Tricking out a newer vehicle has never appealed to me. I don’t even understand why some people think the custom rims they put on their vehicle make them look any better.

There are still plenty of college kids who are happy to drive a junkmobile. And at city schools, students rely on bikes or even—gasp!—the subway to get to class. But on many campuses today, college kids want the wicked whips they’ve seen in popular movies like “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and hit shows like MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.” Nearly nine out of 10 college students today own a car, according to a survey by Harris Interactive. They’ve become a $15 billion auto market and now purchase nearly one in 10 new cars, according to automotive researcher J.D. Power and Associates. And many aren’t satisfied with stock. They’re spending $4.2 billion a year customizing their cars, according to the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association. They’re outfitting their rides with ground-shaking sound systems, nitrous-injected engines and 20-inch rims (called dubs in street parlance). “Just like their ringtones, their clothes and their dorm rooms,” says SEMA’s Peter MacGillivray, “their vehicles reflect their personalities.”

No longer do Honda Civics rule the student parking lot. As a matter of fact the article says that the Civic isn’t even in the top 10.

The top five, according to J.D. Power, are the Scion tC, Acura RSX, Mazda3, Volkswagen GTI and Hyundai Tiburon. The common characteristic: all these models are easy to modify. California Polytechnic engineering student Erick Li spent $4,000 customizing his black Scion tC by lowering it, beefing up the suspension and adding red “underglow” interior lights and high-intensity headlights for carving turns in the California hills. “A lot of cars can outpower me,” he says, “but I can outmaneuver them.”

Ever seen ‘distressed furniture’ or kitchen cabinets? You know, expensive cabinets that are made to look all beat up? Well, just like their parents, these kids are ‘distressing’ what they call rat rods, “well-worn hot rods with distressed paint jobs (including faux rust)”.

Now, I must admit I do have a ‘57 Chevy pickup that I will one day pull out of the garage again. But I don’t plan on tricking it out - I want to restore it to a near original look - plus air conditioning of course.

I thought I had seen some scary roads including one I travelled to a ski resort outside of Tehran, Iran that had those ‘corner mirrors’ installed at curves to keep people from running in to each other, but this road in Boliva is one I would not want to drive even when there are no other vehicles on the road.

The YouTube slide show above shows photos of the North Yungas Road in Bolivia and its danger is legendary, killing about 100 travellers annually. The road descends from cool altiplano terrain at 12,000 ft down to the rain forest at 1,000 ft.

Update: I removed the photo and text relating to the road carved into the rock and created a separate post for it since that road is the Guoliang Road/Tunnel in China and is not in Bolivia.

HatTip: A Welsh View

Cool Photo of the Day

gregorypleau was very creative with this shot.

It is not the typical “Cool Photo of the Day”, but then again sunsets get boring after a while!

Actually, I really like the creativity it shows. We all see symbols similar to this everyday, but Greg thought outside the box and got a cool photo.

© Used with permission

Seth Godin pointed me to HP’s new in-camera feature. Most cameras have allowed you to add simple borders and other effects to photos. But now you can actually ‘photoshop’ your photos right in the camera.

While reviewing an image on the camera, you can compresses the center of the photo and stretches the edges, thereby ’slimming’ the subject. Who says you always look 10 pounds heavier in a photo?

Paul Merriman’s recent paper tells how easy it is to start investing. He gives 10 basic principles for successful investing. The principles are not overwhelming, complex, or difficult. Instead it is a plan anyone can understand use.

Lets look at the first five:

1. Have a plan. Even if it’s simple, even if it’s imperfect, having a plan is much better than simply following your whims and emotions. Put your plan in writing and keep it handy.

Why in writing? It keeps the emotions at bay. Your plan should be systematic and logical.

2. Start investing as soon as possible. We have said it repeatedly: Time is your best ally. Give your plan time to perform and you’ll get the benefit of compound interest. This is especially effective in tax-deferred accounts.

If only we started putting 10% away every year since getting out of school…

3. Diversify your investments. Your job and your home are both dependent on your local economy. If you invest in your company’s stock as well, you may be putting too many proverbial eggs in one proverbial basket. Diversify asset classes (stocks, bonds, cash) and diversify geographically by having some of your money invested internationally.

Do you hear the words “Index Fund”?

4. Invest regularly. Investing is a process, not a onetime event. If you make investing a habit and routinely “pay yourself first” from your income, you’ll maximize your chance for success. Best: Set up an automatic savings plan at work so you don’t even see the money before it is invested for you.

If you are not your most important asset then why are you working?

5. Maintain a long-term perspective. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, now the richest man alive, once said he only looked at the price of Microsoft stock about once a month. Gates knows a secret that too many investors ignore: Focus on long-term results, not what’s immediately in front of you.

Stocks go up, stocks go down, invest for the long term and not for the new hot fad.

Go read the rest of his 10 principles.

All you fishermen (fisherpeople?) out there been looking for a nice secluded spot to fish? How about these isolated lakes on Saturns moon, Titan? I wonder what kind of fish swim in a mixture of methane and ethane?

This incredible photograph taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows two lakes on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, attached by a thin channel. The image was taken during Cassini’s most recent flyby, when it passed by on September 23, 2006. On Earth, they’d be filled with water, but it’s just too cold on Titan; so these lakes contain a mixture of methane and ethane.

HatTip: UniverseToday.com

I was amazed to see that Money Magazine named Walla Walla as the best place to retire

Walla Walla, WA
Population: 30,000
Maximum income tax: 0%
Sales tax: 8.3%
Typical three-bedroom house: $275,000
Est. property tax: $3,500 to $4,100

This southeastern Washington town has become a destination for wine connoisseurs, urban refugees and roving retirees, despite its out-of-the-way location. 19th century Italianate-style commercial buildings are being revamped to house art galleries, bookstores and restaurants. Three colleges are hubs of activity for retirees, who can enjoy classical music, lectures or lifelong learning classes. Walla Walla home prices, up more than 50% over the past five years, are still affordable by big-city standards.

Walla Walla has some interesting old homes but I am not sure why anyone would prefer to live in Walla Walla rather than the Tri-Cities - just 50 miles west.

Cool Photo of the Day

teetah caught these thunder clouds over the Horse Heaven Hills.

The colors in the clouds are incredible.

� Used with permission

Ever feel like the rat race has you spinning your wheels, going nowhere fast? Maybe you need a pet hamster to commiserate with you.

Plug it into your USB port, load the software from the CD provided and get typing. As you type, the hamster gets running, spinning the hamster wheel around in the process - the faster you type, the faster he runs. This demented rodent sent shrieks of laughter around the office when we tested it, and is the ultimate parody of modern society.

Features

• Cute little furry hamster in a red plastic wheel.
• The hamster and its wheel are powered by USB.
• The hamster starts to run in its wheel when you start typing.
• An on/off switch on the wheel so your hamster can have a rest.
• Compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
• Size: 14 x 13 x 12cm.

And, just in case some lawyer is reading this, or you are morbidly stupid:

The hamster is not a real hamster and is not suitable for your pet hamster at that.

Cost? About $45.00

HatTip: Gizmodo

We had mentioned a while back that Covenant Theological Seminary was making some of their classes available online. BiblicalTraining.org is a new website that is also offering classes online. They have a class for new believers called Now That I Believe, classes designed for the layperson or lay-leader in the church under the heading Foundations , as well as seminary level classes filed under Leadership Education.

The web site state that once all the classes are completed, they hope to be able to send a CD player, batteries, and the classes on CD to pastors-in-training in developing countries.

The classes and the teachers look pretty impressive and I plan to listen to them. The classes might also be great material for small groups to listen to and discuss.

The classes listed below are from the ‘Foundation’ series. The classes without links are waiting for funding.

HatTip: ESV Bible Blog

Cool Photo of the Day

This gorgeous Tri-City sunset was caught by Ar’alani.

The sun beam coming through the tree is an extra bonus.

(I had to make this my desktop background. (I downloaded the full size image, turned off ’stretch’, and it fit the 1280×800 laptop pretty well.)

� Used with permission

The Miami Herald has an article about who developed a tracking system that is used to monitor vehicles and objects via GPS satellite.

The owners of a now-defunct Fort Lauderdale firm, SPS Technologies, claim they spent six years developing the technology. Motorola gave the company $5 million and paid for SPS’s offices and employee salaries when they formed a joint venture with SPS in early 2000.

The suit alleges Motorola ended the joint venture a few months later when it realized how valuable the tracking technology could become, bringing the development in-house, essentially stealing SPS’s work and forcing the company to shut down.

The potential $1 Billion dollar lawsuit is expected to last about a month.

This article and other articles about this law suit makes it sound like it is about who developed “GPS technology”. But it is not. This “tracking system” simply uses GPS technology to radio back to a base station where the vehicle is at any time. Sort of like hooking up a cell phone to a GPS.

HatTip: PodCacher

Cool Photo of the Day

This incredible photo was taken by Steve Took It.

What is amazing is that he says the colors are strictly due to zooming in on this flower directly in front of the sunset and not any kind of photoshop effect.

Ever wonder how a GPS works? This 4 minute Google Video is an excerpt from the NASA SCI Files™ “The Case of the Technical Knockout” video.

This segment explains how GPS receivers work with GPS satellites to determine an exact location. The concept of trilateration in two and three dimensions at a 3rd-5th Grade level, which is great since that means I can understand most of it!

If you want to watch the full “The Case of the Technical Knockout”, click on each of the pictures to watch the four 15-minute segments.

First Segment

Armed with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, compasses, maps, and travel bugs, the tree house detectives set off to do some “geocaching” in the national parks of Virginia. Unexpectedly, while trying to find their first cache, their GPS receivers begin to give multiple coordinates, and the detectives believe they might be lost. When they try to radio home base, they find that their two-way radios are also on the blink. Then, as quickly as the strange phenomenon began, it ends, and the detectives are back on track. They are concerned, however, that if the GPS and radio malfunctions occur again, they might not be so lucky. The detectives decide that they must solve this mystery and discover what caused the radio and GPS malfunctions. Their first stop is NASA Langley Research Center to speak with Charles Cope, a pilot for NASA, to learn more about how a GPS is used for navigation. Next stop is a videoconference with Dr. D, who just happens to be in Oslo, Norway at the Viking Ship Museum. Dr. D tells the detectives how explorers have navigated around the world for thousands of years by using the stars, lodestones, and Iceland spar. Finally, they decide to prepare for their next expedition and head to the store to find a container for their cache.

Second Segment

Still concerned that their Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and radios might go on the blink again, Tony and Catherine go to NASA Langley Research Center to talk to Mr. George Ganoe to learn more about the GPS and how it works. After speaking with Mr. Ganoe, the detectives decide that it probably wasn’t the GPS satellite system that caused the communications problem, but they begin to think that it might have something to do with radio waves. They decide to email two of the NASA SCI Files™ Kids’ Club members in Norway, Ole and Nina, to talk with Dr. D. He meets Ole and Nina at the ALOMAR Observatory in Andenes, Norway where he explains the electromagnetic spectrum. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Tony heads to Colorado and takes time to stop by the University of Colorado to visit Dr. Fran Bagenal to learn about electricity.

Third Segment

Still undecided about what might have caused the GPS and radio glitches, the detectives contact Ole and Nina to meet Dr. D to learn about magnetism. Dr. D meets them at the Northern Lights Museum in Andenes, Norway, where he performs several demonstrations and discusses how the Earth’s magnetic field interacts with light particles coming from the Sun. To learn more about electromagnets, the tree house detectives dial up Mr. Jacobsen’s class at Andenes Ungdomskole (middle school). Last stop for the detectives is NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where RJ and Catherine talk with Dr. Nicky Fox to learn more about our star, the Sun.

Fourth Segment

Trying to put the final pieces of the puzzle together, the tree house detectives dial up Dr. Sten Odenwald to learn about solar flares and coronal mass ejections and their effect on Earth. To confirm their hypothesis, the detectives send Tony to visit Joe Kunches at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado, to learn more about space weather. At last the detectives think they know why their GPS receivers and radios went on the blink and had a few glitches. To wrap up the problem, they head to the airport to meet Dr. D as he returns from Norway.

Educators Guide

There is even an comprehensive, 70 page, Educator’s Guide that provides overviews, lesson plans, student worksheets, glossaries, materials lists, objectives, standards, and resources.