April Earnings
May 2nd, 2008In April, Cryptogon and Farmlet earnings came to a total of $3,286.06, or about 6.6x the the minimum monthly goal of $500.
April was the best month for earnings that we have ever had. 😉
There were three earnings wild cards.
First, a reader, who wished to remain anonymous, sent $400.
Second, readers ordered more than $10,000 worth of emergency food and supplies from Nitro-Pak (via Cryptogon), resulting in a commission payment of $1,009.63.
Third, there was what can only be described as an unbelievable response to the Revolution MoneyExchange post and offer. Within minutes of that post going live, I started seeing email notifications from MoneyExchange indicating that I was receiving funds. These were the $10 commission payments from people signing up for accounts via Cryptogon. The next day, I had a total of 52 notifications in my inbox!
The last one came in at around mid day after the post went up, and then they just stopped and no more came in after that. I thought, “I wonder why people suddenly stopped signing up right then…”
They didn’t.
I went back and read the fine print on the commission agreement and found this sentence:
You are limited to 50 referral bonuses per calendar year as part of this Program’s promotional offer, which means that the maximum dollar amount of referral bonuses you can earn from your Contact referrals in any one calendar year is $500.
HAHA; fifty Cryptogon readers signed up in about 12 hours, at which point, I’d earned the maximum commission. I shudder to think how much that total would have climbed to if it wasn’t capped at $500 per year.
But if I could only earn the $10 commission from the first 50 signups, what were the other two notifications?
Core Cryptogon contributors Dagobaz and NH sent me their $25 dollar signup bonuses via the MoneyExchange system. I didn’t acknowledge these earlier because I didn’t realize what had happened until just now. Thanks, guys!
And yep, the system absolutely works as advertised. What you send is what the person on the other end receives. No fees.
Those were the wild cards.
Next we had cash contributions, mostly from regular supporters. There were some first timers, too. Thanks to all of you.
We had six BlueHost signups in April. Thanks to the owners of these domains for signing up via Cryptogon and Farmlet:
Thanks to the many readers who made sure to click through to Amazon via Cryptogon. It’s incredible how it all adds up. Keep in mind, you don’t have to buy anything that I mention or advertise for me to get credit for your purchases. If you go to Amazon via Cryptogon, they will pay me a commission on anything that you buy. Clicking any Amazon banner or book on Cryptogon is all it takes.
Finally, thanks to Financial Web for continuing their generous sponsorship of Cryptogon.
The Danger of Excessive Vaccination During Brain Development: The Case for a Link to Autism Spectrum Disorders
May 2nd, 2008The bio below is from Dr. Russell Blaylock’s site, russellblaylockmd.com:
Dr. Blaylock is a board certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer. He attended the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed his general surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. During his residency he ran the neurology program for one year and did a fellowship in neurosurgery after his residency. For the past 25 years he has practiced neurosurgery in addition to having a nutritional practice. He recently retired from both practices to devote full time to nutritional studies and research.
New Zealand Will Participate in Gardasil Vaccine Atrocity Against Young Women
May 2nd, 2008Search: Gardasil deaths
Search: Gardasil adverse
FDA Report Shows 49 Problems at Merck Vaccine Plant
Deadly Immunity: Government and Industry Coverup of Vaccine Dangers
Via: Stuff:
The Government has confirmed it will spend $164.2 million over the next five years on a cervical cancer immunisation programme.
Prime Minister Helen Clark, Health Minister David Cunliffe and Associate Health Minister Steve Chadwick said the major programme would be offered free to 300,000 women aged 12 to 18 years from this September.
One Month Layoffs Rise 68%
May 1st, 2008Via: Reuters:
U.S. companies’ planned layoffs jumped 68 percent in April from the prior month to the highest since September 2006, pointing to further deterioration in the labor market, a report showed on Thursday.
Planned job cuts in U.S. companies totaled 90,015 last month, up from 53,579 in March and up 27 percent from a year earlier, employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported.
The April layoffs were the steepest since the 100,315 cuts announced in September 2006.
Most of the announced job cuts came from the financial sector, due to the housing slump and about $300 billion in write-downs on bad mortgages and investments, the firm said.
The financial services industry announced 23,106 cuts in April with almost half of them occurring in a two-day period that saw hefty planned layoffs from Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, it said.
The telecommunications sector was second in announced layoffs in April with 8,007, followed closely by 7,954 planned cuts in the transportation industry.
Employers have announced 290,671 jobs to be eliminated in the first four months of 2008, up 9 percent from the 266,658 cuts recorded during the same span in 2007, the firm said.
Going forward, the fallout from record oil prices may result in more layoffs than the housing slump, John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“The impact of high gasoline prices is rippling through the economy much faster than the housing collapse ever did or will,” Challenger said in a statement.
D.C. Madam Found Dead: “Apparent Suicide”
May 1st, 2008Update: DC Madam Predicted She Would Be Suicided
Via: WTOP:
D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey has been found dead in a home in Florida, police say.
Police in Tarpon Springs, Fla. were called to the home of Palfrey’s mother, Blanche, to investigate an apparent suicide at 10:52 a.m.
Police confirmed the dead woman as 52-year-old Deborah Jeane Palfrey.
Palfrey’s body was found in a small storage shed near her mother’s mobile home, police say.
There was a handwritten suicide note, but police did not disclose its contents.
Palfrey was convicted on April 15 of racketeering and money laundering charges for running a prostitution ring.
Throughout her trial in U.S. District Court, Palfrey maintained her company, Pamela Martin & Associates, provided legal escort services and catered to adult fantasies from 1993 until 2006.
Palfrey was scheduled to be sentenced on July 24. She faced a maximum of 55 years in prison.
Rockefeller Family Members Urge ExxonMobil to Develop Alternative Energy Sources
May 1st, 2008Imagine my shock.
Via: PR Newswire:
A total of 15 Rockefeller Family members have filed or co-filed four shareholder resolutions urging ExxonMobil to look beyond its current focus also to more effectively address a rapidly evolving energy industry, including the growing market in renewables and alternative fuels that competitors Shell, Chevron, BP, Total and Petrobras now are expanding into to a much greater extent than ExxonMobil.
Research Credit: RR
Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says
May 1st, 2008Via: Bloomberg:
Gulf states are considering dropping their pegs to the dollar after the U.S. currency’s decline stoked inflation across the region, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa al- Shimali said.
“Yes, there are some” Gulf Cooperation Council states considering dropping their pegs to the dollar, which has fallen 13 percent against the euro in the last 12 months, al-Shimali said in an interview in Kuwait late yesterday without naming the countries. “Some countries will do what we are doing.”
Al-Shimali’s comments may restoke speculation of a change in Middle East currency systems that eased after the United Arab Emirates and Qatar last month ruled out any revaluation or dropping the dollar peg in the short term. The issue will remain a key issue as long as inflation remains high.
“Inflation is rising in the Gulf to a great extent because of loose monetary policy,” said Marios Maratheftis, head of research for Standard Chartered Plc in the Middle East in a telephone interview from Dubai. “Tightening monetary policy can only happen if they drop their currency pegs or strengthen the currency, preferably both.”
The U.A.E., Bahrain and Qatar lowered their benchmark interest rates today by a quarter point, matching a cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve a day earlier. The move is needed to maintain the dollar pegs. Saudi Arabia is on its weekend while Oman moves its interest rates in line with the London Inter Bank Offered Rate.
Gulf Inflation
Inflation is running close to 10 percent in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., while Qatar’s consumer prices rose 14 percent in the fourth quarter.
The Kuwaiti dinar has appreciated 7.9 percent against the dollar since the nation in May became the only Gulf Arab state to drop its peg to the U.S. currency. Contracts to buy U.A.E. dirhams in 12 months time are trading at a 2 percent premium and Saudi riyal forwards are trading at a 1.3 percent premium to the spot price, suggesting that some traders are betting that those countries will follow Kuwait in revaluing. The link to the dollar meant that imports in euros and other currencies that have strengthened against the dollar became more expensive.
The idea of dropping the peg “has been started by other Gulf countries and they are partially going this way because the dollar has been going down for some time,” al-Shimali said yesterday.
Iran Drops U.S. Dollar, U.S. Draws Up New Plans to Attack Iran
May 1st, 2008Via: CBS:
A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the “increasingly hostile role” Iran is playing in Iraq – smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.
“What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq,” said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
U.S. officials are also concerned by Iranian harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as well as Iran’s still growing nuclear program. New pictures of Iran’s uranium enrichment plant show the country’s defense minister in the background, as if deliberately mocking a recent finding by U.S. intelligence that Iran had ceased work on a nuclear weapon.
No attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war, but Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can’t strike.
“I have reserve capability, in particular our Navy and our Air Force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability,” Mullen said.
Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq. Later this week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt.
Related: Iran Pricing Oil in Euros and Yen
Air Marshals Grounded by Government’s No-Fly List
May 1st, 2008HA.
Via: Washington Times:
False identifications based on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address the problem.
Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) familiar with the situation say the mix-ups, in which marshals are mistaken for terrorism suspects who share the same names, have gone on for years — just as they have for thousands of members of the traveling public.
One air marshal said it has been “a major problem, where guys are denied boarding by the airline.”
“In some cases, planes have departed without any coverage because the airline employees were adamant they would not fly,” said the air marshal, who asked not to be named because the job requires anonymity. “I’ve seen guys actually being denied boarding.”
A second air marshal said one agent “has been getting harassed for six years because his exact name is on the no-fly list.” [Can this guy just collect his pay check without having to show up to work?]
Hundreds of Ducks Dead After Landing in Pond Owned by Canadian Oil Sands Company
May 1st, 2008Via: IHT:
Alberta’s environment minister said the provincial government’s efforts to allay environmental concerns about its booming oil sands industry will be hurt by the deaths of hundreds of ducks that landed on a pond filled with toxic waste.
Environment Minister Rob Renner concedes the deaths have put a dent in Alberta’s efforts to counter the message being spread by environmental groups that Canada’s oil sands projects are taking a toll on the environment.
“It’s a real blow to our messaging that we are working very, very hard ensure that we do have sustainable development,” Renner said.
The government is investigating the incident in which about 500 birds landed and died in the oil sands pond. The pond full of toxic sludge sits along a major flight path for migrating waterfowl.
The province requires that all such ponds have noisemaking devices to scare the birds and prevent them from landing.
