Amazon extends free shipping

The free shipping cutoff for Christmas was pushed back for people who procrastinated for shopping. This is a great move because this will cause people top make decisions faster and maybe buy more stuff.

The new holiday-season deadline to qualify for Amazon's popular "Super Saver Shipping" option is Dec. 17, according to a revised timetable announced Friday. The previous cutoff date under the program had been Dec. 16.
The free-shipping offer applies to all Amazon purchases of at least $25.
The extension is aimed at boosting Amazon's sales during the pivotal holiday shopping season.

I want to see how the market reacts to this. Amazon looks like it is consistently going up by this diagram, and the addition of the Christmas season makes Amazon more promising.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is...

Julian Assange is now being prosecuted by the United States in retaliation from the embarrassing cables released over the past year.

Assange has been remanded in custody in Britain after a European arrest warrant was issued by Sweden, which wants to question Assange about allegations made by two women of sexual crimes. He has denied the allegations.
"I came to Sweden as a refugee publisher involved with an extraordinary publishing fight with the Pentagon, where people were being detained and there is an attempt to prosecute me for espionage," Assange said in an interview in the documentary, aired on Swedish public television.

If you don't know who Mr. Assange is, well he is basically the main man in the creation of the website Wikileaks (founded in 2006) that has "leaked" multiple harmful documents on governments and other political figures. Wikileaks is self proclaimed that they are present to report the truth to the people. Check these sites out for more info: Wikipedia Wikileaks

And no, Wikipedia and Wikileaks have no known correlation to each other other than their names.

Here is a picture of Assange earlier this year, who just so happened to be in a family's vacation photos.

Steve Jobs - CEO of the decade

Many of us know about Apple and why it is so great. The marketing schemes and revolutionary products are state of the art and are of the highest quality. But there is a story behind this that I did not know about before. Here is an excerpt from an article about how Steve Jobs got apple to where it is today.

After pulling his own company back from the brink of bankruptcy before the decade started, he almost single-handedly went on to save the recording industry with the iPod and iTunes. He revolutionized handheld devices and touch-screen technology with the iPhone. And he may well usher in a post-PC era of computing with his latest gadget, the iPad.

No wonder Apple's stock is above 300 dollars, 43 times what it was a decade ago. People see this company as one that will continue to reign over the tech industry and give the example for success. In the long run, it looks reassuring that their stock will climb even higher.

Mental Health Break

Awesome skateboard maneuvers in San Fran

Ireland's Pickle

Ireland is following in the American footsteps of harmful spending mistakes. They closely resemble our own problem with banks and home foreclosures. CNN reports:

Irish banks, like others around the world, loaned money to people who in some cases couldn't pay it back. Cheap loans created extra demand for housing and as prices surged the construction industry raced to build more.

 Just as the economy of America is getting back on it's feet, Ireland falls over on itself. The hangover of reckless funds is settling in resembling our recent fall in 08. Ireland is not asking for outside aid though, while America received China's aid. I feel as if history is just repeating itself. It appears that countries around the world need to enact reforms to their spending habits and to revive from their economic slumps. This is easier said than done, but I believe we can learn from our past and move onto more pressing problems.

Balance the Budget

The NYTimes has a game you can play, balance the budget!

One potential aspect of balancing the budget is basically to cut military spending. This could potentially save around 262 billion by 2030. This is a very strict cut most people would most likely agree with, along with myself. Though, I do believe some cuts can and should be made. Here is a quote from Wired about the relationship between the deficit and military.

 Whether Washington politicians will actually cut defense is uncertain, even with the giant federal deficit and weak economy. The incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon, said on Monday that defense cuts were a “red line” for him. And the Pentagon leadership is focused on spending its cash more wisely, not necessarily spending less of it. Adams noted that the military wasn’t immune to cuts during the deficit-slashing attempts that defined the late 80s and most of the 1990s. But that was before the U.S. got attacked on its own soil and launched two wars with murky endpoints.

If we start pulling out more troops, we will eventually be able to save more than 100 billion. Military is a major investment that we need to have until there is world peace, which will most likely never happen in our lifetimes. However, where we are almost 14 trillion dollars in debt, so saving money is a high priority. Who knows what will happen though, we can only try to make a difference and watch.

Mental Health Break

Full hour long concert brought to you by Radiohead.