Author: Krunk

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三人成虎 (3 Men Becomes a Tiger) – Applying to Religion

I was reading: The Dragon In My Garage by Carl Sagan and it reminded me of a Chinese Idiom I learnt in Chinese school. Obviously The Dragon In My Garage is an atheist/agnostic argument, but it resembled so much like the Chinese idiom, which I had never thought about in a religious way. The idiom is as follows:

Chinese: (taken from 華夏經緯)

三人成虎

魏國大夫龐恭和魏國太子一起作為趙國的人質，定於某日啟程赴趙都邯鄲。臨行時，龐恭向魏王提出一個問題，他說：“如果有一個人對您說，我看見鬧市熙熙攘攘的人群中有一隻老虎，君王相信嗎？”魏王說：“我當然不信。”龐恭又問：“如果是兩個人對您這樣說呢？”魏王說：“那我也不信。”龐恭緊接著追問了一句道：“如果有三個人都說親眼看見了鬧市中的老虎，君王是否還不相信？”魏王說道：“既然這麼多人都說看見了老虎，肯定確有其事，所以我不能不信。”

龐恭聽了這話以后，深有感觸地說：“果然不出我的所料，問題就出在這裡！事實上，人虎相怕，各佔幾分。具體地說，某一次究竟是人怕虎還是虎怕人，要根據力量對比來論。眾所周知，一隻老虎是決不敢闖入鬧市之中的。如今君王不顧及情理、不深入調查，隻憑三人說虎即肯定有虎，那麼等我到了比鬧市還遠的邯鄲，您要是聽見三個或更多不喜歡我的人說我的壞話，豈不是要斷言我是壞人嗎？臨別之前，我向您說出這點疑慮，希望君王一定不要輕信人言。”

龐恭走后，一些平時對他心懷不滿的人開始在魏王面前說他的壞話。時間一長，魏王果然聽信了這些讒言。當龐恭從邯鄲回魏國時，魏王再也不願意召見他了。

看起來，謠言惑眾，流言蜚語多了，的確足以毀掉一個人。隨聲附和的人一多，白的也會被說成黑的，真是叫做“眾口鑠金，積毀銷骨”。所以我們對待任何事情都要有自己的分析，不要人雲亦雲，被假象所蒙蔽。

English translation:

3 Men Becomes a Tiger

Pang Gong, an adviser to the Wei* Emperor, and the crown prince of Wei were planning a trip to Handan, Zhao* as hostages**. Just before leaving, Pang Gong proposed a question to the Wei Emperor. He asked, “If a person says to you that he sees a tiger in the bustling streets of the capital city, will the emperor believe?” Wei Emperor responded, “I certainly will not believe.” Pang Gong then asked, “If two people say the same thing to you?” Wei Emperor said that, “I still do not believe.” Pang Gong continued and asked, “If three people all claim to have seen the tiger in the bustling streets, will my emperor still not believe?” Wei Emperor said that, “Since so many people all claim to have seen the tiger, then it must be a matter of fact, therefore I have no choice but to believe.”

After hearing this, Pang Gong said, “Just as I expected, the problem arises from this fact! Frankly, humans fear the tiger, but the tiger also fears the humans. To be more specific, to determine if the current case is the humans fearing the tiger or the tiger fearing the humans, we must examine which side is stronger. It is well known that a tiger dares not intrude in the bustling streets. Currently, the emperor does not care about the reason, nor investigates the cause, but only depends on three people to say that the tiger exists. By the time I arrive Handan, which is much father away than the bustling streets of the capital city, if you hear malicious remarks about me behind my back from three or more people who do not like me, then is it true that you have no choice but to believe I am not loyal? Before I leave, I wanted to bring up this point, hoping the emperor will not easily believe in slander.”

After Pang Gong left, those who did not get along with Pang Gong began to slander him in front of the Wei Emperor. As time passed, the Wei Emperor actually started believing in the slanderous remarks. When Pang Gong returns from Handan, Wei Emperor will no longer see him.

As rumors spreads and misleads all people, it can indeed ruin a person. When more and more people echo the same thing, you can even convince someone that white is black. As the saying goes “Many mouths can melt gold, the damage created can dissolve bones”. Therefore we must analyze all matters with our own judgment, do not blindly believe, and be fooled by lies.

* Wei and Zhao are both names of countries
** 人質 (ren zi) translates to hostages, but if I recall story correctly, they were more like messengers/ambassadors

If we apply this to religion, it has the same effect as the invisible floating fire-breathing dragon, in which the only reason we believe God exists is because others say so. Personally, I’m an agnostic person. I believe in a higher being out there, but I don’t specifically believe in a particular god. I definitely don’t agree with those who force their religions onto others. Until one or more gods can prove to me that they really exist, I have no choice but continue to use critical thinking and analysis as I try to make sense of this world.

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うたわれるもの (Utawarerumono)

うたわれるもの (Utawarerumono) translates to “The One Being Sung”. I was first introduced to this series by Artemyst and I got addicted to it really fast. I finished all 26 episodes this weekend. Well, I started earlier in the week, but watched about 15 or so over these past 2 days.

The OP (opening) at first didn’t really attract me, however, after hearing the song a few times, the opening line really hooked me in and I began to always watch the OP. The opening line says 子供の頃の夢は (Kodomo no koro no yume ha) was just really catchy. I also like the translation of “The dreams I had when I was a child.” You can watch the OP at Stage6 (high resolution) or YouTube (low resolution). The subtitles provided actually were incorrect by using ご (go) instead of こ (ko): 子供のごろの夢は (Kodomo no goro no yume ha). The song is actually called 夢想歌 (Musouka) by Suara.

Right off the bat, the series reminded me of 十二国記 (Junni Kokki), another favorite series of mine. There were quite a few resemblances. First they introduce a world completely new and has different species and governed by different rules. Then they introduced the different countries and these countries have rebellions and go to war with each other. It’s also set back in the medieval ages with swords and arrows. And then there’s always the fun part of coming up with a plan when you’re at a disadvantaged and when it involves communicating with other groups, but communication isn’t quite possible. Different kings have different attitudes on how to treat its people. Villages get razes and fires are set to burn down capitals.

The character development was also done very well. Character introductions were done in a slow pace and only appeared when they became part of the overall group. The ending was also very well done and I’m definitely adding this to my list of favorite animes.

MY RATING: 9/10

** MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD **

The part where Hakuoro and his men go and help Karura’s people reminded me once again of 十二国記 (Junni Kokki), where the empress herself joined the rebels in fighting her own men. When the rebels realized who had helped them later, moments like that always make me excited.

My favorite character from the whole series would be Aruruu. She’s so cute and adorable. She has a pet tiger and can do some pretty crazy things. As a kid, she can say anything she want, even the truth when others don’t want to admit it. I almost cried when she died. Thankfully, she was resurrected an episode later. I bet the artist/producers must’ve gotten a lot of death threats. I love it when she goes やった (yatta), basically “no” when she defies Hakuoro’s orders. Hakuoro sort of became a father figure for her and she treats him like her dad.

I recall the moment when she accepted Hakuoro. The moment was rather sweet.

The ending was indeed bittersweet and not wanting to ruin much, Aruruu cries and wants Hakuoro to stay, claiming he had promised her that he’ll be with her forever. Hakuoro says that her sisters and brothers would be here with her, but she replies: お父さんはいない！(Otousan ha inai!) which translates to “Dad won’t be here.”

** END OF SPOILERS **

First there was 一人上手 (hitori jouzu), now there’s 床上手 (toko jouzu), which literally translates to bed skilled. I guess like what Xyon says about fortune cookies, if you have 上手 (jouzu) in a phrase, you have to add “in bed” after it. So 一人上手 (hitori jouzu) would be alone skilled in bed and 特上手 (toku jouzu) would be extra skilled in bed. It turns out that I misheard it as 特上手 (toku jouzu), which literally translates to extra skilled. Thanks to Tera for correcting me.

You can watch the clip here (high resolution and low resolution respectively):
utawarerumono - toko jouzuutawarerumono - toko jouzu

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Fried Rice

So I had some left over beef turnip dish thingy from Sichuanese Cuisine earlier this week and decided to finish it up. I also had some left over rice I had prepared to make fried rice with. I was taught that left over rice is the best for doing fried rice, due to the fact that freshly cooked rice sticks to the wok and is too mushy. Leave it in the fridge overnight and the rice-lings harden up. Anyway, I was trying to figure out what type of meat I wanted to add to my fried rice. What better than to use this already cooked meat.

So while I was at Safeway, I picked up some green onion and peas and carrots. I already had eggs, so now I was complete.

fried rice in wokfried rice in wokfried ricefried rice

It tasted actually really good. Too bad the chili peppers weren’t really edible, so I had to picked them out. However, it did make my fried rice spicy, and that was definitely added an interesting flavor.

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Piano Medley

Angelus shared this video with me earlier today: ピアノで「混ぜ過ぎし曲数は億千万」を弾き倒した. This guy’s rather amazing on the keyboard.

Since Nico Nico Douga requires registration and some delay before you can actually watch the videos, I decided to see if I can download it and upload it to my gallery. Using Ethereal, I wasn’t able to get anywhere. However, it turns out that Firefox actually cached the whole FLV file, which I in turn converted to WMV:

piano medley

I’m assuming the pianist is Japanese and that many of the songs he is playing is from animes and video games.

The few that I can point out are:

There were so many other songs that sounded really familiar. If you can point them out and tell me, I’d appreciate it!

As Skylancer says and I agree: makes me feel like practicing the piano again and finding sheet music =p

Enjoy!

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Trophy Wives Are Depreciating Assets

Thanks to Ungsunghero for sharing this link: Craigslist Meets WallStreet…Classic. Apparently it’s an email that’s been circling the finance circles.

A female seeking male with over $500K annual salary posted:

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy.
I’m not from New York . I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 – 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

– Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms

-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won’t hurt my feelings

-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I’m 25)?

– Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I’ve seen really ‘plain jane’ boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What’s the story there?

– Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows – lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?

– How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults – I’m putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I’m being up front about it. I wouldn’t be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn’t able to match them – in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.

it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Answer from a $500K+/year male:

Dear Pers-431649184:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.
Firstly, I’m not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here’s how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as “articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful”
as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn’t found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you’re going about it the right way.
Classic “pump and dump.”
I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

What a perfect reply! Trophy wives are depreciating assets. Therefore it is smart to never marry a trophy wife, but dating them would be fine.

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Ron Paul Has My Vote

After watching many of the recent Ron Paul videos on YouTube, I’ve got to say, I’m actually inclined to vote for him. The 2 democrats that I really like are Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, both who don’t really have a shot as the Democratic presidential candidate. However, I really think that Ron Paul does have a shot as the Republican presidential candidate seeing how bad all the other candidates are. I mean, just look at Rudy Giuliani. *shivers*

Looking at the polls, it looks like either Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama will most likely become the Democratic presidential candidate, neither which I believe is strong enough to repair the damage that Bush has caused. Both of them are such p*ssies, really. I mean before they were running for president, I’d say that they’d have some guts. But now, they’re all so centered on so many of the issues, nothing’s going to change once they get office. I understand they want the votes from the central people, but really, it’s not like all it takes to fix this country is a Democrat. I don’t care if it’s a Democrat or a Republican sitting in that chair. I want someone who can do the job right and without fear of what others think of him (or her).

If it did come down to Hilary Clinton/Barack Obama vs Ron Paul, I’d say Ron Paul has my vote.

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Texas Legistation Voting?

SueOn shared this video with me: Texas Legislation and I can’t believe how ridiculous the Texas Legislation is… Voting for others? Voting cross parties? The practice appears to be so common, everyone does it, and it’s a game of speed of who could push the button first.

According to this article: Lawmakers Vote Multiple Times For Others (which appears to be no longer available, but you can see the cache), here’s the statement the spokesperson for the House Speaker gave:

Statement from Alexis DeLee, Spokesperson for House Speaker, Tom Craddick.

Since the membership has adopted the requirement for a record vote on 3rd reading, it is probable that members may vote for other members when they leave the floor to eat, meet with constituents or go to the restroom. Like many House rules dealing with the interactions between members, we leave the enforcement of the rules to the good judgment of the members. Members shouldn’t be voting for members who aren’t here, but if they do, everyone has the right to ask for a verification vote. A member may always lock their voting machine and take their key when they are off the floor so they may not be voted in their absence. When a verification is called and a member is not found, the House Sergeant’s office locks their machine and takes their key. When strict enforcement is asked for by a house member, the Speaker allows each member time to get to their desk to vote.

Time to eat? Restroom breaks? Those reasons just sound ludicrous to allow others to vote for you.

I wonder if it’s the first vote that counts or the last vote that counts. It’d be cool if it was the last vote or last button push or if it isn’t, it should be, given how ridiculous this situation is. It reminds me of one of those Mario Party games where you try to make all the balls your color and the player who ends with the most balls in his color wins when time runs out. Running for legislation would no longer be about how smart you are (actually I don’t think that ever mattered), but how fast you can run and push buttons. Gamers might have a chance at winning a seat in the legislative branch now! I think that’ll actually make legislation voting actually worth watching.

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American Express Password Security or Should I Say Insecurity

I believe I saw this post from Digg: Password Security – Or Lack There Of and he has the exact same feelings I have toward American Express’ password requirement, which is so lenient, it’s scary…

My password lengths generally range between 12-16 characters with a mix of lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols, but American Express requires your password be 6-8 characters long. What!?!?! I can’t believe they would enforce such a weak password. I can understand if you have a lower bound of 6 for people who don’t care that their accounts can easily be hacked into, but for people who want to make it harder for the crackers out there, why is the limit so low?

I even b*tched about it to Derek awhile back:

Krunk4Ever: i don’t get any finance website
Derek: ?
Krunk4Ever: that limits you to a password of 6-8 characters
Derek: 🙂
Krunk4Ever: hsbc used to do that
Krunk4Ever: but they’ve fixed it
Krunk4Ever: but amex still limits you to 8

I mean if you applied a password strength to any 6-8 alphanumeric password, it probably won’t ever go beyond medium strength.

Hopefully with all this bad press about American Express’ password weakness, they’ll step up fix this problem.

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Black XP Theme

So I was searching for something and ended up on this page: Have A Look At My Desktop.

I thought the skull background image was rather cute, but the author stated he didn’t remember where he got it from, besides that it was from DeviantArt. So I searched for: cute skull deviantart and the first link on Blingo returned Skull Wallpaper by ~LordZoltan. (Did I mention that I won a $10 Amazon.com Gift Certificate off Blingo recently?) Anyway, I can’t believe such a query actually worked!

Unfortunately, he only has one size for this wall paper: 1152×864, but that was easily fixed by centering the image and changing the default background color to black.

Next, I noticed that his taskbar was black. I was like, that’s rather cool. I also liked how he replaced his start button with just a windows flag. He didn’t mention if this was XP or Vista, but I’m assuming it’s XP since the recycle bin icon I believe was updated in Vista.

So the hunt for the black XP theme began. I found a couple of them.

The first one I found was via this video: Black XP Theme FREE, which points us to Zune Desktop Theme. I gave that a whirl. Turned out pretty nice:

zune desktop windows xp theme - cute skull

I then found: Royale Noir: secret XP theme uncovered. Theme is very similar to the Zune Desktop. The shades of black and gray are definitely not the same, and instead of orange (for the start menu button and the arrow), they’ve chosen green. Not bad either:

royal noir windows xp theme - cute skull

I also found this one: XP Themes / Black Mesa which looks nice too, but I haven’t tried it on my system yet.

UPDATE: The Zune Desktop theme even made my download status bar orange!

firefox orange download status bar

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Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is a very interesting documentary I had downloaded awhile back. It’s actually a free documentary and you can stream it via Google Video or download a higher quality version using bittorrent.

Anyway, when I first started watching the film, I didn’t realize it was 3 parts, so I thought it was just a documentary on Christianity as the 1st part is about Jesus and the era of the Bull and the 2 fish and so on. It was fascinating, but not enough for me to watch it right then and there. So I put it on my back burner of stuff to watch when I eventually end up with some free time.

After posting my blog entry on Corrupt Banking System, RayAlome had asked if I had watched Zeitgeist yet as it contained very good information about the history of the Federal Reserve. I said I didn’t realize Zeitgeist talked about the Federal Reserve, but honestly, I’ve read a lot about the Federal Reserve already, usually linked to how it’s unconstitutional along with income tax; how the Federal Reserve scams the American people by controlling the money supply, when they’re not part of the government at all, but owned by private corporations; etc.

The film is almost 2 hours long and contains 3 parts: Christianity, 9/11, and The Federal Reserve. If you don’t have a full 2 hours to watch the entire film, I’d suggest you watch just Part 3, which begins at 01:09:17.

I give you this excellent quote from the narrator:

For every single dollar produced by the central bank, it is loaned at interest. That means every dollar produced is that dollar + a certain amount of debt based on that dollar. And since the central bank has a monopoly of the money production for the entire country, and they loan each dollar out with immediate debt attached to it, where does the money to pay for the debt come from? It can only come from the central bank again. Which means the central bank has to perpetually increase its money supply, to temporarily cover the outstanding debt created, which in turn since that new money is loaned out at interest as well, creates even more debt. The end result of is this system without fail is slavery, for it is impossible for government and thus public to ever come out this self generating debt.

Therefore, it is impossible in our current system for all debt, especially the government’s $9 trillion debt to ever disappear.

Speaking of which, did you know that most if not all income taxes Americans pay goes directly to pay for the interest generated by the government debt. The fact that the income tax amendment was created the same time that the Federal Reserve was created is not a coincidence. This little tidbit I knew before watching this film. Apparently, the income tax amendment was never ratified by the required 3/4 of all the states.

What never really made sense is the fact that the government borrows money from the Federal Reserve, who creates money to loan to the U.S. Government, but charges interest. Shouldn’t the interest be paid back to the government? Why is the interest paid to a select few private corporations?

The war tidbit of the documentary is fascinating. They provided interesting reasons to why America entered certain wars and how wars weren’t fought to be won, but fought to be extended for as long as possible. Wars are very lucrative to bankers as that’s when the government will keep borrowing money to fund the war. You should see the guidelines provided to the soldiers of the Vietnam War as it’s ridiculous and one of the reasons why that we lost so many soldiers.

Derek Tekmanrj has remarked what’s wrong with our money supply is due to the fact that it’s fiat money, basically it’s money because the government says so. Before, you were able to take a dollar and redeem it for gold and explicitly says so on the bill itself. Now, it just says legal tender which means it’s backed by nothing. The documentary also goes into this area, but not too deep.

Here are some interesting quotes I thought I’d share:

Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.

– Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Founder of Rothschild Banking Dynasty

“WE’RE IN A LOT OF TROUBLE! Because you people, and 62 million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than 3% of you people read books. ‘Cause less than 15% of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole … an entire generation, that never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel…the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.

And when the largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what SHIT we’ll be peddling for truth on this network.

So, you listen to me…LISTEN TO ME! Television is not the truth…television is a goddamn amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side show freaks, lion tamers and football players. We’re in the boredom killing business.

But you people sit there day after day, night after night…all ages, colors, creeds. Where are you now? You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here…you’re beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like a tube, you eat like a tube, you raise your children like a tube; you even THINK like a tube. This is MASS MADNESS you MANIACS! In God’s name, you people are the real thing…WE ARE THE ILLUSION!”

This was actually taken from a 1976 film called Network: Television Is Not The Truth and modified a bit.

An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland.

– Adolf Hitler
When announcing the Gestapo to the people

As the documentary continues, his pushes the idea that the main goal of a central banking system is One World Government.

Did you know that Bush is secretly pushing for a North American Union. Only one news reporter has ever reported about it on TV and that’s CNN. Everyone else has never even brought up the topic. Apparently, this has no consent from Congress either. If you haven’t heard of the North American Union, you probably haven’t heard of Amero either. Amero will be the new currency that will be used throughout the North American Union. Doesn’t this sound rather familiar to you? Of course! European Union, Euro, etc.

According to this documentary, an African Union and an Asian Union will also be formed. Who’s behind all this? Why, isn’t it the same investors of the Federal Reserve? Of course, I’d take that with a grain of salt, but the theory is enough to scare me.

Once again, I highly recommended watching Part 3 of this documentary.

On a related note, Ungsunghero told me that Netbank has closed/failed and the FDIC has taken over them. According to the closing information, all existing accounts will be transferred to ING. According to CNN’s article: 2nd UPDATE: US Federal Regulators Close NetBank:

NetBank marked the largest bank to fail since since the early 1990s, which marked the end of the savings and loan crisis. The Office of Thrift Supervision closed NetBank at 3 p.m. EDT, the federal regulator said, and the company was immediately taken into receivership by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.