Issue #2250
- WEALTHY: Don’t make this experienced investor’s mistake (R. Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Can the soda, for brain health (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Felix Frankfurter on words
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- If you liked ETR’s 12 Days of Christmas Give Away… (Charlie Byrne)
- The (10+2)*5 plan for being more productive (John Forde)
- It’s Fun to Know… about the great Pacific garbage patch
- Add "indomitable" to your vocabulary
Imagine Knowing of a Casino Where the Dealer Tipped His Hand Before You Made Your Move and Didn’t Care How Many Times You Beat Him.
When would you stop going there?
This is nothing to do with games of chance, but I hope your answer to that question would be a resounding, "NEVER!!" Assuming you’re sane that is… Well, that is a virtually PERFECT analogy of the power of the insider signal!
It’s often said, "The Stock Market is just a big casino." And it’s true. But the important omission in that statement (to keep the masses out!) is the dealer in this casino tips his hand to the select few… the insiders.
Such powerful knowledge could make YOU very rich indeed… Click here to learn more…
ETR Insider Report: A Return to Basics
Over the past six months, I have been planning and developing a CD-Rom program that will show investors and would-be traders how to successfully trade options. I’ve been involved in the markets for over two decades, and I’ve had a lot of success with the trading I’ve done. (Just in the last nine months, I have seen my personal account rise by 60 percent.) This program, which consolidates everything I have learned over the past 20 years, will teach even the newest investors the ins and outs of options trading.
While preparing this new program, I was surprised to see how prominently the basic guidelines of trading are still featured in my own trading. Basic technical indicators I learned to use 20 years ago, such as moving averages and volume, play a very important role in my decisions on whether or not to enter a trade.
Much like addition and subtraction pave the way for all other math concepts, the basic technical indicators lay the foundation for almost all other trading concepts. Unfortunately, as many traders become more experienced, they forget the basics and how vital they are to making winning trades.
Don’t make the same mistake. If you are going through a rough period, when it seems that the markets are going against every investment decision you make, step back and look at the basics. That should help you snap out of it and get back on the right track.
The basics I’m talking about here include the major moving averages (20-day, 50-day, and 100-day) for any stock you’re interested in. You should also keep an eye on the stock’s weekly chart to make sure the price isn’t getting ready to hit resistance or support from the weekly moving averages. Watch the trading volume, too, and take note of whether it is trending higher or lower. Volume can tell you whether or not a trend will continue or if it has run its course.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft is a contributor to ETR's free investment e-zine, Investor's Daily Edge.
Whether you need to brush up on the basics of trading or are starting from scratch, Rick's soon-to-be-released options trading program can help. You'll learn the ins and outs of technical investing, the importance of understanding the mental side of trading, the way to identify a trade that's gone bad, and much more. We'll let you know exactly how to get it as soon as it's available.]
"All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them."
Felix Frankfurter
Kicking Off 2008 With ETR: Unleash a Power That’s Worth Untold Fortunes
Today, I’d like to offer you an incredibly powerful gift, one that will "keep on giving" every day throughout 2008!
For the "12 Days of Christmas," ETR helped bring in the New Year by giving you, our loyal reader, 12 special gifts. Hopefully, you’ve taken advantage of some (if not all) of that great information.
And we want to keep sending you valuable presents. So throughout the entire year of 2008, we want to give you something every day. It’s a special gift – a power, really – that can be worth untold fortunes and can yield awesome consequences.
Proof? In one case, this power will settle a fortune of $3.5 billion. In another, it held the ability to nearly bring down the most powerful man in the world.
I am talking about the power of the simple word.
Because they’re plentiful and cheap, it is easy to take words for granted. But here at ETR, we take the words we give you very seriously. For every issue of Early to Rise (each consisting of somewhere around 3,000 words)…
- Our managing editor Suzanne Richardson tirelessly works with all of our contributors to ensure that each article you eventually see has passed the "5 C’s" test: that it’s clean, clear, concise, compelling, and correct. (And that’s just the beginning…)
- Editor-extraordinaire Judith Strauss dramatically improves virtually every article we run with her 30+ years of skillful copyediting.
- Michael Masterson, MaryEllen Tribby, and I (and often other ETR staff experts) carefully review every article to make sure it is consistent with the core Early to Rise philosophy… and perhaps most important, that it gives you useful, interesting, and actionable advice.
And so, with our day-to-day obsession with words, it’s good to step back once in a while and consider their awesome might from a new perspective.
That’s just what I’ve been doing over the past few weeks as I’ve been reading Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker’s book, The Stuff of Thought – Language as a Window Into Human Nature.
At 499 pages, I have to admit this brainy treatise occasionally dives into academic waters a bit too deep for me. And yet, most of the time, Pinker manages to bring complex but intellectually fascinating linguistic subjects down to earth with popular culture references, a coy sense of wit, and clear and concise writing.
The book opens with a remarkable story about one word that could very well be said to be worth $3.5 billion. It is the word "event."
When we think of an "event," we think of a thin slice of time. But where does one cut the ribbon in the time continuum on either side of that slice?
This is not just an academic question. Consider, for example, September 11, 2001, our own modern "day that will live in infamy."
On that late-summer morning, was the World Trade Center tragedy one event… or two?
You could certainly make a case that the answer is "one." As Pinker explains, "The attacks on the buildings were part of a single plan conceived in the mind of one man in service of a single agenda. They unfolded within a few minutes and yards of each other, targeting the parts of a complex with a single name, design, and owner. And they launched a single chain of military and political events in their aftermath."
Sounds reasonable enough, yes?
Well, maybe not. Perhaps the answer should be that 9/11 was "two" events. Listen as Pinker plays devil’s advocate to himself:
"The towers were distinct collections of glass and steel… separated and hit at different times." He explains that in looking at the foreboding amateur video of the second plane approaching, one event appears frozen in the past; the other just about to happen. Clearly, these are two distinct events.
But why all the fuss? One event, two events, what’s the difference? Isn’t it all just semantics?
Well, to Larry Silverstein, leaseholder of the World Trade Center, the difference is much more than semantics. Silverstein held insurance that stipulated a maximum reimbursement of $3.5 billion for each destructive "event."
If 9/11 was a single event, he collects $3.5 billion. If it was two events, he gets $7 billion. Think the meaning of the word "event" is just semantics to Silverstein or his insurance company?
Here’s another example of the power of a single word from The Stuff of Thought.
Did George Bush lie in his 2003 State of the Union address when he said "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa"?
Investigations since have shown that British intelligence did believe that Saddam was trying to buy yellowcake (uranium ore) from Africa. But, Pinker explains, the "lie" question hinges on one of Bush’s words.
Can you guess which one it is?
If you said "learned," you are right.
In just one of dozens of fascinating insights in the book, Pinker explains that "learn" is a "factive" verb. That means it presupposes that the proposition it introduces is factually and indisputably true. (Some factive verbs are: knew, agreed, realized, discovered, admitted, observed, showed, and learned. Some non-factive verbs are: suspect, believe, think, wonder, and hope.)
Condoleezza Rice, Pinker reports, later argued "The British have said that" regarding Saddam Hussein seeking uranium from Africa. But, of course, President Bush did not say "The British have said that." He said they have "learned" that.
Again, just one word – and think of the consequences! This time, not representing $3.5 billion in insurance payments but perhaps far, far more.
As an Early to Rise reader, we hope you see and share in our respect for the power of words. And that you benefit richly from it too.
We try to bring you unique, interesting, useful, contrarian ideas each morning, 365 days a year (366 in 2008!). Some to improve your health. Some to build your wealth. And others, perhaps like today’s, to just let you ponder ideas you might not otherwise encounter.
But the ideas we offer up are only valuable if the words you choose to express them with can clearly transmit that idea into your consciousness. That’s why we go through the considerable pains I mentioned earlier in our attempt to do so.
We’re also your eyes and ears for new books, such as Steven Pinker’s, that provide plenty of fodder for those little idea incubators we hope many of our readers have running in their minds.
And speaking of Pinker, I’d be remiss if I didn’t leave you with a few more nuggets from his book…
- On words and emotional connotations: "I am slim; you are thin; he is scrawny. I am a perfectionist; you are anal; he is a control freak. I am exploring my sexuality; you are promiscuous; she is a slut."
- On polite requests (what linguists call a whimperative): "When you issue a request, you are presupposing that the hearer will comply. But apart from employees or intimates, you can’t just boss people around. Still, you do want the damn guacamole. The way out is to couch your request as a stupid question (’Can you…?’), a pointless rumination (’I was wondering if…’), a gross overstatement (’It would be awesome if…’), or some other blather that is so incongruous the hearer can’t take it at face value. She does some quick intuitive psychology to infer your real intent and at that same time she senses that you have made an effort not to treat her as a factotum. A stealthy request allows you to do two things at once – communicate your request, and signal your understanding of the relationship."
- On passive verbs and objectivity: "A pro-Israel group noted the prevalence of Reuter’s headlines like BUS BLOWS UP IN CENTRAL JERUSALEM, which uses an intransitive to downplay the responsible agent. As the linguist Geoffrey Pullum notes, ‘"Bus Blows Up" is indeed a strange way to describe an incident in which a human being straps explosives to himself, gets on a crowded bus in a city street, and kills 13 people by detonating his payload, clearly intending to murder as many Jews as possible at one go…. Reuters describes the event as if the bus had just exploded all on its own.’"
- On semantic chaos: "Often polysemy arises when a word is used to refer to something that is merely associated with its usual referent, a device called metonymy. I can say that Suzie is parked out back or that Bradley was rear-ended by a bus, or Put Chomsky on the Linguistics shelf and You can find Hitchcock at the back of the store. We can also refer to people by their parts and associations, as when a nurse says The gallbladder in 220 needs his dressing changed or when one waitress tells another The ham sandwich wants his check."
The list goes on… and on. If you’re interested in polysemy and metonymy; if you take pleasure in analogies and metaphors; if you want to read an illuminating (and very funny) chapter on the most foul and vile words and why they have the very odd effects that they do… then I suggest you pick up a copy of The Stuff of Thought.
And then throughout the rest of this 2008 year, take our ideas from ETR (and the ones we tell you about that originate in other places), and take our ideas about words too – and see what you can do with them yourself.
As Pinker says, "We are verbivores, a species that lives on words, and the meaning and use of language are bound to be among the major things we ponder, share, and dispute."
After all, if knowledge is power, then the words you read here – and can reuse and reshape yourself – are the tools that can turn that inherent power into love, money, influence, fame… whatever it is you desire.
[Ed. Note: Charlie Byrne is ETR's Editorial and Creative Director. Harness the incredible power of words by adding 120 new words to your vocabulary with ETR's Words to the Wise CD Library. You'll feel smarter and more confident, you'll be more persuasive to others, and you'll gain more respect from your peers and superiors alike.]
Are You Ready for a Thrilling, Positive Change In Your Life?
This may be the life-changing opportunity you’ve been waiting for. If you continue doing everything the same way, you’re going to get the same results. You must make a change TODAY to see a change in 2008.
I’d like to show you how to dramatically increase the chances of making all your dreams – whatever they may be – come true in 2008.
-Charlie Byrne
Praise for Ready, Fire, Aim: "RFA should be ‘must reading’ at every company everywhere."
"Michael Masterson is a personal hero of mine. Not only is he one of the greatest copywriters ever to grace the direct-response stage… not only is he a master entrepreneur who has repeatedly created businesses that lined his pockets with tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars… he is also the single savviest manager I know.
"His genius is in his renegade approach. He repeatedly builds world-class businesses and creates quantum growth by ignoring business orthodoxy and innovating new rules that fully engage each employee’s full potential.
"Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat should be ‘must reading’ at every business school and at every company everywhere.
"My advice: Read it before your competitors do!"
Clayton Makepeace
Publisher of The Total Package
How to Pack Your Next Hour (With Progress)
By John Forde
Hey, I’m just like you. I get easily distracted. In fact, maybe more so than the average procrastinator.
Every detail, every idea, every other person’s problems… they beckon me down paths that open up other paths that lead to more paths that… you get the idea. And before you know it, I’ve very busily gotten nothing done. Yet when I actually get rolling, the opposite happens. I hate to stop. And those days are my best days, hands down. Not only do I make more income (by multiples), but I discover all over again why I love my career as a copywriter.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Writing when you’re rolling is a breeze, even a pleasure. But getting going, that’s a whole other kind of challenge.
You might already be familiar with the trick used by legendary and prolific copywriter Eugene Schwartz. Gene kept a kitchen timer on his desk. When he sat down, he’d punch in 33 minutes and 33 seconds. Then he’d write. When the timer went off, he would take a very short break and then do it again. Unless he was writing too fast, at that point, to pay attention to the timer anymore.
Well, here’s a more modern version, courtesy of Merlin Mann over at the 43folders.com website. He calls it the "(10+2)*5" plan.
The idea still centers around a timer. Only this time, you give 10 minutes to the first thing on your prioritized to-do list. At the ding, you break for two minutes. (The break is mandatory.) Then you do it again and again, for at least one hour.
You’ll be amazed, says Mann, at the progress you’ll make. I’ll bet he’s right. Mann suggests you should move on to each task on your to-do list after each break, not feeling compelled to finish them one by one. But I’m not sure that matters.
Still, any way you add it up, you’re moving forward. And that’s a heck of a lot better than standing still, isn’t it?
[Ed Note: John Forde, a published writer and a direct-mail copywriter since 1992, is the editor of the free weekly e-zine, The Copywriter's Roundtable.]
Want to Prevent Alzheimer’s? Ban the Sugar
If you indulge in sugar-laden foods and beverages, you may be increasing your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study conducted at the University of Alabama.
The researchers worked with mice that were genetically bred to develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in adulthood. The mice were separated into two groups. One group had a regular, balanced diet, and the other group was supplemented with 10 percent sugar water. After 25 weeks, the researchers compared the metabolism, brain composition, and memory skills of the two groups.
The sugar-fed mice gained approximately 17 percent more weight than the control group, developed insulin resistance, and had higher cholesterol levels. These mice also demonstrated more difficulty with learning and memory retention, and their brains had over twice the amount of amyloid plaque deposits – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
The researchers noted that the human equivalent of the mouse diet would be about five cans of soda per day. But since mice have a higher metabolism, it may actually take less sugar for humans to develop the same health-harming results.
Ban the sugar in your home and cater to your sweet cravings with the latest all-natural, no-calorie, sugar-free sweeteners. Use erythritol instead of sugar, cup for cup, to create delicious baked goodies, and use stevia to sweeten up your coffee and tea.
[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com), and is editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series. Learn more about how simple lifestyle choices can improve your health by reading ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Fun to Know: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Practically unknown to anyone except oceanographers and marine biologists, there is a Texas-sized, 3.5 million-ton heap of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean between the California coast and Hawaii. The debris field, which has grown 10 times larger every decade since the 1950s, is 80 percent plastic. And although some of the garbage comes from passing ships, scientists and environmentalists say the vast majority originates on shore. Items such as plastic bags and bottles wash into the ocean, eventually making their way to the "Patch," where they are trapped by a combination of wind and currents.
The debris is dangerous for marine life and birds, but because the estimated cost of a clean-up is in the billions of dollars, none is planned.
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle)
The Internet Money-Making Secret of a Desperate Housewife.
More bills than money. Dave, bless his heart, was trying, but he just couldn’t keep their heads above water.
Vicky and her husband Dave were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Vicky couldn’t stand to see the pain on Dave’s face.
That night fate intervened… Vicky got her hands on something very special.
What she saw changed her life… forever!
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Indomitable
"Indomitable" (in-DOM-ih-tuh-bul) means impossible to subdue or overcome. The word is from the Latin for "not to tame."
Example (as used by Scott Eyman in The Palm Beach Post): "When Sinclair [Lewis] couldn’t find a publisher for The Jungle, with typical indomitability he published it himself."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
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