Podcastin'
If you haven't heard my dreary baritone rambling about stuff slightly less nerdy than on this site (and if you have please click-through anyway) go listen to this week's Worst of the Free Financial Advisor podcast. I promise it is interesting enough to listen to while reading financial links!
Sites Linking In!
- Best of Money Carnival
- Carnival of Wealth
- Carnival of Personal Finance
- The Yakezie Carnival
- Financial Uproar
- 101 Centavos
- Free By 50
Articles We Liked!
- The Financial God had a nice piece on Automated Cars. If you're fascinated by inane things like traffic, read about traffic jams some time. You'll learn all sorts of cool stuff like 'accident ghosts' which allow traffic jams to persist for hours after a crash is cleared.
- Free By 50 had an analysis of home energy costs by square footage and date of construction - showing the movement to better efficiency didn't really start until the 80s. We own a mid-70s house with a number of features which give us confidence in the builder (cement board under the vinyl/foam insulation, R-30 blown in attic insulation in the Bay Area(!), ...) and think we're a little better off than the average 70s house.
- At Married With Debt, a guest post analysis of buy and hold investing (from Rob Bennett) which devolved into... something... in the comments. I'll be following this up as I have a lot to say!
- Domninique at Your Finances Simplified has thrown down the credit limit gauntlet. Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to use it, people. Also, if you can handle an App-O-Rama and better signup bonuses come back to credit cards? Responsible people can follow in his footsteps!
- I should have linked it last week, but Bret at Hope to Prosper stopped doing his own taxes. Cheers for stepping up from TurboTax Tim!
- Len Penzo also isn't a fan of the penny!
Déjà vu
Remember a few months ago we complained about SOPA and PIPA, two poorly considered internet bills which would have had a ridiculous chilling effect on free speech on the internet (and that's not hyperbole...)? Keep your eye on CISPA, which just moved through the House of Representatives. Roughly, one section in CISPA grants automatic immunity for any organization or corporation to volunteer private information to another entity or Government agency. Read the CNet FAQ on CISPA for more details.
Why does this matter? Well, the word 'notwithstanding' means that any information which is digitized can be passed along for 'cyber security' reasons. What is 'cyber security'? Your guess is as good as mine - that phrase isn't well defined. Doesn't it seem like a pretty blatant violation of the fourth amendment? Expect more of this crap winding through Congress until we actually, you know, vote a few of these idiots out.
On a lighter note, this Onion article is pretty hilarious. Enjoy your weekends!
