Happy Leap Day!

This year we got an extra day because a solar year lasts 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, these extra hours add up to another day, a day we have decided to insert into our calendar at the end of February. (Developed in ancient Rome by Julius Caesar and therefore named after him.)

Without the leap year correction, every four years the calendar year falls behind the seasons by one day. After 754 years, the seasons would be 180 degrees out of phase with the calendar. The first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere would be March 21st instead of September 21st. After 1508 years, the calendar would go all the way around the seasons and would once again be synchronized with the sun.

Now things are back in order, or are they?

Not quite. Even 365.25 days is not the exact duration of a solar year - it's a fraction shorter.




The Gregorian calendar, named after calendar reformer Pope Gregory XIII, solves this problem by leaving out three Julian leap-days every 400 years. Algorithmically, if the year is divisible by 100, avoid the leap-day UNLESS the year is divisible by 400.

Are we done yet? Not quite! There is still some drift.

The modern calendar does one final tweak on this: if the year is divisible by 4000, leave out the leap-day despite the Gregorian recommendation above.

And to account for variation beyond this, we insert leap seconds. However, I won't really concern myself with this in my lifetime.



Rather, I will go out and enjoy the beginning of spring (in the northern hemisphere...)

Ron Paul about the Phony Reserve

Ron Paul about the Federal resereve Bank (which, by the way, is a private enterprise and just as federal as FEDEX, the parcel delivery service is) :

"If you didn't have an accommodative Federal Reserve, Congress' deficits would cause very high interest rates. Because we run up the deficits, and if we couldn't borrow money and the Fed wasn't there, interest rates would respond by going up until we could find the money we need. The Fed spoils Congress into getting away with deficit spending. But in the long run, it's devastating because that destroys the value of the currency, and that destroys the middle class, destroys investment, creates malinvestment and bubbles."

Inflation will kill your savings!

When Bernanke panicked and lowered interest rates in response to the whining crowd of stock market investors, credit became cheaper: a lot cheaper, in fact, the interest rate in the USA dropped from 4.25% to 3% within a few days. This is a savings of 29,4% to the “grasshoppers” who borrow money freely and a minus of 29,4% to the “ants” who toil all summer long to save for the winter.
People who saved got punished, while those who got in over their heads are being rewarded.
And the punishment will be extended to the very limits of society as inflation will make life more expensive for everyone.
Buy Gold.

Speeding in Japan can be expensive

I was caught speeding at 170 km/h en route to Hakuba. It was getting late and we had fun in the car and just as Cyd pointed out that I was going too fast and I started to slow down, I saw the flashing red lights in the rear view mirror.

They pulled me over at the nearest highway exit / toll station that allowed for parking. I had to join the two policemen in their unmarked patrol car. The radar screen on their dashboard showed: 112 km/h.

3 points off my license and a 25,000 Yen fine (ca 250 USD)

The speed limit in Japan is 80 km/h.

Had they not cheated on the radar, my license would have been revoked and the fine would have been 10 fold. At first, I tried bargaining for a "chuui" which is a warning without a fine, but when I realized that they were already more than generous, I just agreed to the fine and put my signature and fingerprint under the ticket.

A few days in the snow

Went to Hakuba skiing from Dec 25 - 29. We met the Stummer family whom we know from their Kobe days. The first 2 days were beautiful with crisp snow and blue skies, the 3rd day was overcast and when it was time to leave on the 29th it rained.

All in all, a big success. Eva got some ski lessons and Conrad also spent a day with Ito sensei he, Conrad gained a lot of confidence on skis.

The Greenspan Standard

This is an excerpt of a recent article posted by Michael Nystrom on his website www.bullnotbull.com



It is well known that former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan was a disciple of Ayn Rand, who believed in (among other things) unregulated capitalism. When interviewed recently on NPR's Fresh Air, Greenspan was asked if he didn't see some irony that, despite his own self-proclaimed libertarian beliefs, he spent much of his time as one of the world's most powerful regulators.
Greenspan's response: Regulator? Moi?
Here is a transcript of the actual exchange. (This comes in the last seven minutes of the interview):
Greenspan: Well actually, we were not fundamentally regulators [at the Fed]. The vast portion of our efforts were not involved in bank regulation.
NPR: No, but you were regulating interest rates, which have a profound effect on world economies.
Greenspan: You're raising really a very interesting question. I have always argued that the gold standard of the 19th century was a very effective stabilizer. It kept inflation essentially at zero, and I felt it was critical for the tremendous growth that occurred for the American economy in the latter part of the 19th century. When we went off the gold standard essentially in 1933, we then had to have what we call "fiat money" which is essentially money that is - it's printed paper money. Which unless we restrict the volume of, can be highly inflationary.
The type of interest rate regulation that I and indeed most central banks in the last 20 years have been involved in...has been to try to replicate the laws and rules that were governing the gold standard. And so it is an odd situation where all the central bankers -- while none of them are advocating a return to the gold standard -- nonetheless try to replicate the various types of interest rate policies that the gold standard would have created. And it is an interesting question whether you call that regulation, or basically functioning of a central bank in stabilizing the economy."




In listening to his smooth, soothing voice, the meaning of his words can easily get lost. The man nearly puts you to sleep with what sounds like soothing wisdom. But in reading the above transcript, clarity returns with a vengeance. Allow me to clarify. What he said was: The gold standard was responsible for the tremendous growth during one of America's most innovative and productive periods, but unfortunately we "had to have" fiat money. (Really? We had to have it? Who made that decision for us?) Greenspan then goes on to admit that fiat money can be very inflationary, so it has to be regulated. However, in spite of the fact that he is the Chairman of the institution charged with regulating it, he is not the regulator.
How can this be possible!? Because, he soothingly reassures us, he was simply emulating the gold standard! He would have us believe (if we did not have brains) that he was simply an automaton - doing what the gold standard would have been doing automatically anyway. Which begs the question: If this is the case - if the gold standard worked so well - why do we need the Fed to attempt to emulate it?? Why not just bring the gold standard back?

This is an excerpt of a recent article posted by Michael Nystrom on his website www.bullnotbull.com

3 Year- Checkup Eva

On Sep 14 I had to take Eva to the ward office for her 3 year health and development check. What I hoped was going to be a quick in-and-out took 3 hours, as there were 100 other 3 year olds to be checked.


Eva weighed in at 17 kg and at 103 cm she was the tallest of the lot. While waiting for the various checks, she was also the noisiest. However, once it was her turn, she was brave and cooperative, while many of the other children started crying frantically when the doctors and dentists started working on them.