Friday, July 19, 2013
USDA Grants $149,074.00 to Study Food Shopping Patterns with GPS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a $149,074 grant to study food shopping patterns that may form the basis of future shopping "interventions.”
The USDA award went to the University of Kentucky in April for the study titled, “Adolescent and Parent Food Activity Patterns as Drivers of Food Choice and Behaviors."
According to the grant abstract, “There is limited research understanding how adolescents and their parents move within their daily lives which may influence their food choices and ultimately diet behavior."
The project will examine the influences on food shopping patterns, or as the proposal put it: "The overall goal of the proposed project is to examine the drivers of food shopping patterns, behaviors and food purchasing choices within the food activity space among adolescents and their parents.”
Some of the families involved in the study will be given GPS data recorders so researchers can conduct an "objective measure of the food environment."
The study's primary director Prof. Alison Gustafson tells CNSNews.com, “A lot of the work is on proximal deterrents -- things that are close to you that would bring you to a store. For example, shopping venues that are in a person’s travel pattern – in their daily route, they may pass certain types of food establishments.
“The GPS will help us map out a travel pattern, the geographic space and the number of food venues in this space. As well as the type -- grocery stores, gas stations or super centers,” Gustafson said.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/usda-grants-149074-study-food-shopping-patterns-gps#sthash.wVVENI6u.dpuf
Peter Schiff: “I Think The Dollar Is Going To Collapse Before The Market Does”
I had the opportunity this week to reconnect with Peter Schiff, CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital.
It was a powerful interview, as Peter indicated the Fed is trapped in a long-term position of destroying the dollar, while mainstream voices cheer resultant new highs of the stock market. Such dollar debasement Peter explained, means “the price of gold is going to skyrocket”—once the negative propaganda wears off.
In response to this week’s conflicting policy statements issued by the Fed, Peter said, “They checked into the ‘Roach Motel’ of monetary policies because they can get in—but there’s no way to get out. So what they do is they bluff. They pretend there is an exit strategy knowing that exit is impossible…they just have to maintain the pretense as long as they can, before the market figures out the true predicament they’re in.”
“No matter what Ben Bernanke says, between now and the time he’s supposed to taper, he will come up with an excuse why he can’t and I think he already knows this. But he can’t let the market know that the whole recovery…is merely a temporary by-product of the QE, and that the minute you remove the QE—we’re right back in recession.”
When asked if continued money printing is setting the stage for an equities market collapse, Peter said, “I think the dollar is going to collapse before the market [does]…The Fed is propping up asset prices by debasing the dollar—the currency with which those asset prices are denominated.”
“So if you’re going to destroy your currency, then asset prices are not going to collapse…Another way you can look at it is expressed in gold…Stock and real estate prices expressed in gold are going to go down significantly over time. I know we’ve had a rally in asset prices in terms of gold recently…but I think that’s very temporary.”
In terms of the most beat-up sector in the marketplace at the moment, gold mining stocks, Peter indicated that they represent, “The greatest buying opportunity that I’ve seen during the entire bull market…Many gold stocks are actually priced even lower than they were a decade ago…So you got the opportunity to ‘roll back the clock’ to the time where gold was under $300 oz…[but] I’m not sure how long this window of opportunity will be open…hopefully people will take advantage of it.”
Speaking also to the cost-struggles these companies have suffered through, Peter said, “Gold has not gone up as fast as the cost of mining it, because everybody is convinced there is no inflation. They believed the propaganda from the central banks and governments, and so gold has not even gone up to reflect the increased cost of mining it…but I think eventually…the price of gold is going to skyrocket and the miners are going to literally be gold mines. Right now they’re not—but I think eventually they will be.”
As a final comment towards the ‘madness of crowds’, Peter said, “The majority is always going to be wrong…the mob has such a vested interest in believing in a fantasy, that they can’t reject it…[even] in light of evidence that would seemingly prove them wrong.”
“[But] I think those of us who can see through all the B.S.—we know how this game is going to end. We know where the puzzle pieces need to be and we just have to position ourselves accordingly…The fundamentals are going to win out in the end regardless of how far they deviate…[even] during these periods of mania.”
This was another powerful interview with one of the true market visionaries of our time. It is required listening for serious investors and market students.
Bull Market Thinking
Scientist discovery of two new jumbo-sized viruses
The discovery of two new jumbo-sized viruses is blurring the lines between viral and cellular life and could point to the existence of a new type of life, scientists suggest.
The two large viruses, detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science, have been dubbed "Pandoraviruses" because of the surprises they may hold for biologists, in reference to the mythical Greek figure who opened a box and released evil into the world.
The discovery of Pandoraviruses is an indication that our knowledge of Earth's microbial biodiversity is still incomplete, explained study coauthor Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist at the French National Research Agency at Aix-Marseille University.
"Huge discoveries remain to be made at the most fundamental level that may change our present conception about the origin of life and its evolution," Claverie said.
Eugene Koonin, a computational evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Md., who was not involved in the study, called the Pandoraviruses a "wonderful discovery," but not a complete surprise.
"In a certain sense, it's something that we saw coming, and it's wonderful that it has come," Koonin said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/07/18/jumbo-viruses-hint-at-fourth-domain-life/#ixzz2ZV5ZsMQS
EU officially publishes settlement guidelines despite Israeli objections
The European Union, as expected, published new guidelines limiting interaction with Israeli entities beyond the pre-1967 lines on Friday, with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying that this is in no way meant to "prejudge the outcome of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians."
The statement said that the guidelines "reiterate the long-held position that bilateral agreements with Israel do not cover the territory that came under Israel's administration in June 1967."
She said this was done now to clarify the EU position before negotiations with Israel over financial agreements that will commence in 2014.
In an apparent reference to Israel's angry reaction and claims that the EU is essentially prejudging the outcome of negotiations, Ashton said that this is not the case, and that it "has been the EU's long-held position that it will recognize changes made to the borders once agreed by both parties."
The EU , she said, is "deeply committed" to the negotiations, and fully supports US Secretary of State John Kerry's intense efforts to restart negotiations at a particularly delicate time.
Israel has said that the move at this time does serious damage to Kerry's efforts because it gives the Palestinians the impression that the Europeans back their demands that the baseline for the talks be the June 4, 1967 lines.
Ashton said that the new guidelines will not be implemented before January 1, and in the meantime she has invited Israel to hold discussions on "the territorial scope of agreements with the EU that are currently under preparation."
What this means essentially is that the two sides will try to hash out language on the "territorial clause" that both sides can live with.
The guidelines do not spell out exactly what the so called “territorial clause” on future agreements will say.
For instance, in the recently signed Open Skies aviation agreement, the territorial clause reads: “The application of this agreement is understood to be without prejudice to the status of the territories that came under Israel’s administration after June 1967.” A senior diplomatic official said this was language Israel could live with.
An example of language Jerusalem would not sign, he added, was the draft of the next stage of the Euro-Med Youth Program, which read: “This agreement will be implemented in conformity with the European Union’s position that the territories that came under Israel’s administration in June 1967 are not part of the territory of Israel.”
The discussion between the two sides will now apparently be aimed at finding a formula that both sides are comfortable with.
Jerusalem Post
Detroit Files Chapter 9 Bankruptcy As Moody's Raises US Outlook
Change you can believe in with Detroit filing Chapter 9. But, really, adjusted for AFS, one-time items and a stock buyback which was pending but never fully effected, it is only a Chapter 11 and thus bullish.
Wait, wait, we know: it's the weather's fault. Also, soaring gas prices mean much more weather is coming.
And in an example of absolutely sublime timing, Uncle Warren's Moody's just hiked its oulook on the US from negative to stable. It is unclear if the opinion included the following line: "AAA+++ utopia; would gladly accept more bribes from any time", but it contained the following piece de resistance:
MOODY'S: U.S. Aaa SUPPORTED BY SECURE STATUS OF U.S. DOLLARS
Zero Hedge
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)