Had a surprising experience with Enterprise Car Rental this week. Even though I've long been impressed with their low prices and very friendly, service-oriented approach, they exceeded my expectations this week by going the extra mile to help me out. I had just returned a car that I had used for five days in Arkansas and Missouri. I was charged the expected weekly rate of $187 plus taxes (much cheaper than their competitors for the large Honda Accord I was driving). I went to the terminal to check in, and found that my flight was canceled. Would have to stay overnight and take a flight the next day. Ugh. Went back to Enterprise to see if they had any openings so I could rent a car. Fully expecting a "no" answer, I asked if I could continue my rental under the week plan. Of course, I had already turned the car in and rental had been closed out in their system, so I expected to have to create a new transaction and pay the fee for a day. But even though they had closed it out, they were able to get me back into the same car that I had just brought and keep me on the week plan as long as I had in back in the next morning. This really was going the extra mile to be kind to me and help me out. Wow. Enterprise, you've won my loyalty with this kind of treatment.

My experiences with Enterprise in Arizona, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Utah, and Illinois have all been positive. Plus I've saved a lot of money, too. I really like how they get you to your car and personally help the customer out. Never feel like I'm a number, as I do with some other rental car agencies. Enterprise, thank you! And a special thanks to two Enterprise employees in Arkansas for their kindness. Let me know if I can mention your names and the specific airport.

Our new book, Conquering Innovation Fatigue, is now available at Amazon.com for pre-ordering. An easy way to get there is with the Tinyurl name of "nofatigue": http://tinyurl.com/nofatigue. The book is supported by the related blog, InnovationFatigue.com, where you can read an overview of the book and what some early reviewers are saying (endorsements).

I am looking for bloggers willing to review the book. Contact me at <jlindsay at innovationedge dot com> and let me know. If you pre-order and then write about the book on your blog (honest review), I'll send you an extra copy (but you need to get my OK ahead of time so we can screen the blog and give it a thumbs up for participating in this effort - but of course you are free to say what you think, good or bad). 

After being obliterated by the crash of 2008 and the plummeting price of oil, uranium and uranium stocks may be on the rise again. One of my favorite producers, Denison Mines (DNN), with operations in the United States and Canada, saw its shares drop well below one dollar when it was around 9 when I first bought some a couple years ago. Painful as that was, the long-term demand for uranium is not going away and Denison has a future worth investing in, so I bought more at 0.78. Had also bought some at 1.1 and 1.3. Now it's back up above 2 and looking healthy. I recommend buying in this range with a target of 3 and more likely 4 by the end of this year.

I had some Consolidated Abaddon which also got clobbered, but I think this current penny stock is on the rise again. Higher risk, so beware - but they own some great properties and could be a buyout target from larger companies as uranium heats up. 

Cameco (CCJ) is "safer" but I also think less attractive than DNN right now. Tough call, though. 

Nuclear energy makes a lot of sense to me and to most of the world. Too bad we deny ourselves of its green benefits here!

The spirit of liberty and financial responsibility burns bright in many parts of the world, but usually not in the hearts of those swollen with power. The voices who call for restraint in the growth of government power and spending will always be outcasts and mavericks in this era. One of those mavericks is Daniel Hannan , a member of European Parliament. Daniel Hannan's blog is with the British Telegraph. He is famous now for a speech he gave in the European Parliament on March 24, 2009, when UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was present.  Daniel Hannan spoke boldly against the reckless financial policies of Brown. His speech was ignored by the UK press, but fortunately was placed on YouTube where it became one of the most popular videos for a while. Enjoy - and think about the sinking situation we are facing in this nation as well, bloated by years of reckless spending and now a maniacal surge in debt and the size of government.

Some mining stocks and energy stocks such as Canada's Advantage Energy Income Fund (AAV) may be converting over to regular companies instead of being royalty trusts that pay most of their profits to investors as dividends. This may seem like bad news to those who invested  for the royalties, but in this era of very tight credit, it can be a wise way to fund future growth and lay a foundation for a higher profits in the future. When a company like AAV announces that they will be stopping dividends altogether, first find out why. If it is because the company is no longer profitable and is on its path to economic doom, OK, sell. But if the company has good production, good resources, and is generally healthy but needs more money to grow, it may be a buy - especially after the market overreacts in dumping the stock. Consider buying some within an hour of the bad news, when a very sharp downward spike may occur, or about two days after, hoping to catch a second down day. After maybe 15-30% of the stock price has been trimmed, it may be a screaming buy.

In AAV's case, there is the risk of more dilution of the stock and further dumping by those wanting dividends. May be too early to buy, but I bought some yesterday anyway, motivated by my belief that energy prices have to fly upward in the future due to a lack of new drilling,  increased burdens for exploration and development, increasing money supply (inflation), and a likelihood of international demand increasing with global supply challenges.

The Canadian Royalty Stocks (Canroys) are especially likely to follow AAV's route since the Canadian government has foolishly decided to change their tax status starting around 2011, as I recall, making the lucrative dividend stream from these energy stocks more difficult to sustain. That has already been priced in to most of these companies, in my opinion. I think they are still good to own - especially after they convert to regular companies instead of royalty stocks. 

Hmong people in the Fresno area who have converted to Christianity (the LDS flavor) were recently featured in an LDS Church New publication: Hmong examine role of traditions in gospel life.

Learning of the Church may be the first time for some Hmong to have heard of Jesus Christ, [Christine] Lor said. "For many of the older Hmong people, who come from a non-Christian culture, they may have believed in a God higher than us, but did not know of Jesus or of Heavenly Father," she said.

Nhia Bee Lor (no relation to Sister Lor), first counselor in the Pioneer Park Ward bishopric, drew similarities between the struggles and the migrations of the Hmong people to that of the Israelites in ancient Egypt. In a workshop session, he said many of the older Hmong generation lived through persecution and killings in China, Laos and Vietnam. Just as the Israelites were led to a new land, he said, he and many of the Hmong people were brought to the United States after living for months in a refugee camp in Thailand.

 THere's a nice photo of some Hmong people in traditional attire at the Church event. Hello, Fresno! Nyob zoo!

A few photos of the Hmong people (guys and girls) from the Fox Valley valley of Wisconsin. This video was generated by Animoto, the free video service (with added features for pay).

The Federal Reserve Bank issued an emergency appeal today to counterfeiters across America to help in the Herculean task of creating more dollars to stimulate the economy. “Our printing presses are running 24/7 at 120% capacity,” said Kasha Cummin, Director of the Fed’s Currency Production Department. “We’re still not able to meet the demand for more currency -- not with all this bailout activity and added Congressional spending. We can’t afford to wait for more presses to be built -- we need help from the pros who are already out there.”

Electronic cash creation is painless and efficient, but physical currency is still needed for many sectors of the economy and can’t keep up. “Without loads of added cash visibly in circulation, people might think there is not enough paper backing the dollar today, and that could result in lost confidence in the dollar,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke explained to reporters during a helicopter flight over Manhattan, where the Chairman was dumping bales of cash into blighted neighborhoods suffering from economic distress. After dumping his last bale onto Wall Street, he observed: “This stuff doesn’t grow on trees, you know. We need more now.”

The Fed is asking all skilled counterfeiters to join in the effort to create as much cash as possible in the next 12 months. Presidential pardons for past and selected future crimes will be issued to qualified participants, a Bush Administration spokesman said. Qualified counterfeiters are asked to bring their goods to a local Federal Reserve Bank, where they will be given 80 cents on the dollar as credit in tax-free electronic accounts that they can use almost anywhere -- Amazon, iTunes, Congress, etc.

“America appreciates the skilled help of those who have been augmenting the work of the Federal Reserve Bank for years. Now we ask you to step it up in this time of national emergency,” President Bush said.

Unfortunately, the American Union of Counterfeiters (AUC) is balking at the proposal. “We’ve been running an honest shop for decades, stimulating the economy and greasing the wheels of commerce,” said AUC President Bill Supplenti in a statement issued this afternoon. “We’ve avoided irresponsible dumping of cash that would weaken confidence in the dollar. Now the Fed is asking us to engage in insane inflationary actions that will ultimately destroy the value of our business, and weaken this great nation. Even though many of our members have been persecuted by the government in the past, we are loyal Americans and we want this country to survive. We cannot endorse the Fed’s actions. At least not as long as they are taking an unfair 20% cut.”

AUC’s lobbying group is pressuring Congress to resist the offer. The efforts, admittedly, may not succeed. Head lobbyist Grace Moore-Palms complained that she can’t compete with the monetary resources the Dept. of Treasury is using to influence Congress. “When Henry Paulson can dip into his trillion dollar fund to help Congressmen see things his way, there’s no way our briefcases of beautifully crafted cash can compete. We’re having to appeal to higher values than cash alone – patriotism, the future of the country, the welfare of our grandchildren, the wellbeing of mankind – obviously, that’s not going to get us very far with this batch of Congressmen. We’re looking for a global warming angle, but it’s a long shot.”

Recognizing that American counterfeiters may not cooperate to meet the Fed's currency creation goals, economic advisors for President-elect Obama are currently meeting with the Finance Ministry of Zimbabwe to explore collaborative efforts in currency creation. 

Meanwhile, if you are a skilled counterfeiter of US currency, the US Government is asking that you contact your local Federal Reserve Bank as soon as possible for details on how you can help.

Just found that Carbonite's behavior doesn't always match the official specifications. Users are led to believe that multiple versions of their files are being stored and will be available for back-up. That may not be the case!

Carbonite's claim: "Carbonite will keep up to three months' worth of old versions of the files in your backup. For example, if you edit a document daily over the course of three months, Carbonite will save one version for each of the previous seven days, one version for each of the prior three weeks, and one version for each of the prior two months."

But upon checking, most of my files only had the most recent version available. A few heavily edited files had versions only for the past week - nothing more. Even for files I edit almost every day (contacts, for example). 

Carbonite tech support has been frustrating. You have to wait for long periods in their online chat process and they don't pay a lot of attention to what you say initially, so it can take a long time to get a simple answer. And they they hang up on your quickly in you don't respond in 30 seconds or so. 

I finally was told that lost old versions is an "issue" - not a bug - that can be fixed by running a file they sent me. They send me bizarre instructions:

Please follow the steps below to fix the issue you are experiencing with your status files:

1. Save the attached file to your desktop.
2. Double-click the .zip file to "un-zip" it to your desktop.
3. Click Start; My Computer
4. Drag and drop CarboniteFixStatusfast.ex_ from your desktop onto your C: drive icon shown in the My Computer window.
5. Click Start; Run
6. Within the Open text field, type cmd and then click OK.
7. If the command prompt next to the blinking cursor says anything other than C:\ , type in cd\ and press Enter.
8. Type REN c:\CarboniteFixStatusfast.ex_ CarboniteFixStatusfast.exe (exactly as shown here) and press Enter. (This will rename CarboniteFixStatusfast.ex_ to CarboniteFixStatusfast.exe.)
9. Type in c:\carbonitefixstatusfast.exe /f (exactly as shown here) and press Enter.
10. The carbonitefixstatus utility will scan your backup status file and display a list of any corrections it made. When it has finished, click OK.
11. Type exit and then press Enter to close the command prompt window.

Step 8 actually did not work, but since it's just renaming, I just used Explorer to rename the file. Why not tell users that and spate the torture of typing out long commands in an interface without copy and paste. So I renamed it in Explorer, used the CMD window to run the file with /f, and then it scanned and said all was OK. Except nothing was fixed and I still don't have access to old versions beyond a week. 

Now I''m told my case is being escalated and I should here something from someone in a few days. I'm not holding my breath. 

There are other users who have had this problem, so check and see if it affects you. If you know you can't restore old versions, you can at least create mutliple versions with different names and back those files up - but it won't help for files that need a specific name. 

This is one of a couple of time-consuming Carbonite problems I've had. Nice when it's working - but check to be sure it does.

Broccoli has long been known for its compounds that can help prevent cancer. Now the latest news suggests that broccoli can be useful even against lung cancer. It's for prevention, though. Don't expect it to do anything once you've got tumors. Eat it now, while you're healthy. And be sure to consider broccoli sprouts which have a very high concentration of anti-cancer compounds. Here is an excerpt:

A compound found in broccoli may help protect against lung cancer in smokers, according to results of a study with mice.

Although expert advice is clearly to avoid tobacco smoke altogether, the results suggest smokers could benefit from upping their intake of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower that contain the compound indole-3-carbinol (I3C).

Writing in Cancer Prevention Research, scientists from the University of Minnesota report that mice exposed to carcinogens found in tobacco smoke and fed varying doses of I3C had significant reductions in the number of lung tumours.

Indeed, mice fed the highest amount of I3C had 88 per cent fewer tumours than control mice, with the scientists reporting the compound appeared to act on inhibiting cell proliferation, and enhancing programmed cell death (apoptosis).

“These results clearly show the efficacy of I3C in the prevention of tobacco carcinogen-induced lung tumorigenesis in […] mice and provide a basis for future evaluation of this compound in clinical trials as a chemopreventive agent for current and former smokers,” wrote lead author Fekadu Kassie.

One in three Europeans are smokers, while the US figure is one in five. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 compounds, of which 60 are known carcinogens. The oxidative stress levels of smokers are significantly greater than non-smokers, and as such there is a bigger drain on the levels of antioxidants in the body.

 

I could hardly believe my eyes when I heard the WFTV interview of Barbara West with Joe Biden. Did someone forget to tell this woman that softball questions only are allowed? She could have been asking questions about Sarah Palin's wardrobe, about Joe's favorite sports teams, or about Obama's passion to life America. Instead she's asking tough questions about "spreading the wealth" and Marxsim - amazed that she was allowed to say such things. I won't be surprised if the station isn't punished in some way for this uncontrolled thinking.

One topic is still off limits for both candidates: illegal immigration. America doesn't want to hear what either of these open-door, open-treasury leaders have to say. But it could make for some great drama. For example, "Mr. McCain, you say were are involved in a war on terror where we must protect America from foreign threats. How can that be when you don't want to tighten the border to actually keep foreign enemies off our soil, enemies who can pretty much stroll in any time they want right now - and probably get free medical care to boot, free education for their families, drivers licenses in many states, and probably even a chance tol vote. If Obama wants to set up shop here, how would your immigration policies keep him and his team out?"

The former CEO of Goldman Sachs, our Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Poulson, is asking for nearly a trillion dollars from all of you to bail out his friends on Wall Street. But this grab of power and wealth may end up being far bigger than you think. One hint at the vast goals of the banking special interests is found in this MSNBC story :

In Washington, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox appeared before Congress Tuesday morning to update lawmakers on the bailout plan, which would take hundreds of billions of dollars in bad mortgages and other risky assets off of banks' and brokers' books.

The Treasury Department's first draft said that only mortgage-related assets would be purchased. But in a later version, the Treasury secretary asked for the power to expand purchases to troubled assets beyond real estate.

That would conceivably leave taxpayers picking up the tab on things like bad car loans and credit card debt. 

The Constitution was meant to severely limit the power of government and to prevent power grabs and insane spending. Where does it authorize a Cabinet member or a central bank to manipulate the markets in this manner? Where is anyone on government given authority to bail out the businesses of their friends with your money?

This is the end of financial freedom and liberty if we do not oppose it. Call your elected officials today and demand that they oppose this power grab and theft by the insiders of the Bush administration.