All posts by Nathan Ruffing

Brazil Now What Introduction

This video on YouTube.

English translation below.

Oi. Sou Nathan.

Eu gosto de viajar para o Brasil. Já fui 5 vezes.

Amo o povo brasileiro.

Era da Marinha, e eu amava fazer missão.

Falo português.

Quero viver e trabalhar nesse país bonito.

Agora o que?

Esse site é para responder estrangeiros que tenham interesse no Brasil.

English translation:

Hi, I’m Nate.

I like going to Brazil. I have been to Brazil five times.

I love the Brazilian people.

I was in the military and I loved deploying.

I speak Portuguese.

I want to move to Brazil and find work there.

Now what?

This site is here to answer that question for myself and for anybody interested in Brazil.

Brazil Now What Migration Category All Posts, click here.

2020 Calendar of Events, Sports, Etcetera

2020 sports schedule that is mostly not happening!

January

13: BCS National Championship Game

February

1-2: Tennis Australian Open Finals, men’s final starts ~0030 EST Sunday morning (Sunday evening in Melbourne)

2: Super Bowl LIV, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens Florida

March

15: March Madness selection Sunday

April

6: March Madness Championship Game

9-12: Golf Masters

May

14-17: Golf PGA Championship, TPC Harding Park, San Francisco

June

6-7: Tennis French Open Finals, men’s final starts ~0900 EDT Sunday morning (Sunday afternoon in Paris)

18-21: Golf US Open, Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, NY

July

11-12: Tennis Wimbledon Finals, men’s final starts ~0900 EDT Sunday morning (Sunday afternoon in London)

27 June – 19 July: Tour de France

16-19: Golf British Open

24 July – 9 Aug: Summer Olympics, Tokyo

August

1-5 August: SCRABBLE NASPA North American SCRABBLE Championship, Radisson Hotel Downtown Baltimore

9-20 August: Chess Magnus Carlsen Tour Final. Organized by Magnus Carlsen, advertised by FIDE, online at Chess24

September

12-13: Tennis US Open Finals, USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in New York

October

Late Oct: Baseball World Series

November

None

December

14: Total solar eclipse visible in Chile and Argentina

There are no total lunar eclipses in 2020.

2022: Winter Olympics in Beijing, 4 – 20 Feb 2022

2022: Soccer World Cup in Qatar, 21 Nov – 18 Dec 2022

2023: Women’s Soccer World Cup, location TBD.

2023: Rugby Union World Cup, France 8 Sep – 21 Oct.

Global Carbon Transfer, and Evidence for Global Warming

Global Carbon Transfer

I have said before that we should call this concept we are all familiar with Global Carbon Transfer. That is what it is and always has been.

Global Carbon Transfer is directly measurable.

The term “Global Carbon Transfer” is completely accurate to what we are actually doing. We know that we are transferring carbon.

The name “Global Carbon Transfer” allows for consideration of other unknown effects that we have yet to identify that nobody even talks about.

We are transferring a lot of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere. This is an indisputable fact.

Simple Man’s Evidence for Global Warming

I personally believe that global carbon transfer is causing significant man-made global warming. Here is a list of the evidence that shapes my concept of the world, my personal observations that lead to my belief:

  • I learned in Physics class in high school in ~2001 that carbon dioxide reflects infrared light / heat more than the other more highly-abundant components of the atmosphere. This makes sense to me. It would be difficult to fake this, easy to confirm or refute. I put this under the heading of scientific fact.
  • We learned what the greenhouse effect is, and I have personally been inside both a hot car in the sun, and an actual greenhouse. Fact.
  • I have personally seen an equilibrium exhibit a large change based on a small increase in a catalyst. For example:
    • Milk goes sour if you drink from the carton.
    • I saw chemicals abruptly change color in chemistry class after just drops of liquid entering.
    • If I had drunk two beers this morning instead of two cups of coffee, my blood would have changed by less than one percent, but I would absolutely not have written this post.
    • Small change can yield big change.
    • Catalysts exist.
  • I have seen man affect the environment, both for good and bad. Some of these I didn’t personally see of course, but they happened:
    • Water quality in Columbus, Ohio versus Rio de Janeiro.
    • Chemical disaster in Bhopal, India 1984.
    • Smog in LA.
    • Scale of the Piper Alpha explosion in 1988.
    • Personal accounts of the reduction in litter in the United States following anti-litter campaigns in the 1970s.
    • Chernobyl of course, but that’s nuclear not chemical, a whole ‘nother level.
    • Urban sewage management, cities now versus 200 years ago.
    • Forests versus fields.
  • I see carbon entering the atmosphere that used to be in the ground from sources that are less than a century old. Sound ridiculous? It’s everywhere. Everywhere. Try not seeing it! We could not transfer more carbon if we started a campaign to transfer more. Everything we do contributes to carbon transfer, and is mostly new!
  • The earth is really really old. There has been a lot of time for plants live, absorb carbon dioxide, respire oxygen, die, and be buried in the ground. Let me repeat, really really old, and a lot a lot a lot a lot of time. A lot. There has been so much time in fact that I no longer view the air I breath as coming from “the earth in general,” but as being the breathed out breath of plants. Call me a tree-hugger, but it is an accurate concept, much more accurate than the “general earth air” idea that comes easy. The atmosphere is and always has been a product of life and vice versa. It is a two-way street.
Some more carbon numbers, click here.

John Oliver, Archetype of the Cancer that is the Media

The News Story:

Bill Nye (of “The Science Guy” fame) recently sold out and went on John Oliver’s late night show:

Notes

Full bias disclosure: while I believe that John Oliver and for example, Donald Trump, are near equals in the damage that they do by being entertaining idiots / bullies in the media (both are both, if you can’t see that, then you are stuck firmly on one side), when they face off, I personally would enjoy watching Trump name-call John Oliver instead of the reverse. This is probably very simply because Oliver seems like a little weeny to me.

The subject of this post, whose name I am finished using so that you and I can successfully forget it as soon as possible, does not himself warrant a post. However, he so acutely represents a form of the cancer that is the mainstream media that his name gets to appear in my title here on Rage and Frenzy Politics, the most prestigious place it will probably ever be written.

I am going to use the stupid media term “global warming” here, rather than the more accurate and effective term, “global carbon transfer,” because we are talking about media bias, not the actual phenomenon.

The Perceived Problem

The perceived problem, judging by Bill Nye’s calling somebody “you f***ing idiots” (we don’t swear here at NathanRuffing.com, but in this case, it is a direct quote), is that global warming is caused, or at least allowed to continue, by some portion of the population who isn’t smart enough to understand global warming. I assume the idea is that this idiot portion of the population is voting for selfish policies that exacerbate the problem, and also probably spreading conspiracy theories that discredit the basic science behind global warming. I personally believe that these things have some truth to them, but what follows is the actual problem.

The Actual Problem

The actual problem is that we – and I do mean we human beings, all of us, especially those of us living in industrialized nations – are logistically supported by the energy that comes largely from transferring carbon from the ground into the atmosphere. Keep in mind, I did not say that we are the problem, I am saying that our source of energy can cause problems that we did not foresee when we started using it.

The current population of the world is 7 billion +. That is seven times the population of just 200 years ago, and ~25x the population of about 1,000 years ago. That is a significant increase. On top of that, we use a lot more energy per person now than we did 1,000 years ago. This is great, and I am happy to be a beneficiary of this energy wealth, but we should recognize that we should conserve the resources that produce it.

The Mainstream Media

What does the mainstream media say?

One side of the media says that global warming is not happening at all. This side actually will go so far as to say that it is impossible to the point of ridiculous to even suggest that mankind could affect the entire atmosphere and the climate. The main evidence that I have heard cited for this idea is that some scientists faked data, and that there are large global climate cycles. Both are almost certainly true, neither is evidence one way or the other.

The other side says that global warming is definitely happening, and does things like have a “Science Guy” put safety glasses on, string swear words together, and take a torch to a globe while a laugh-track rolls. Very constructive, subject of this post, you little weeny. I agree with your science, but you are the ring leader of a half-political laugh-track circus whose carbon footprint is the size of most third-world countries. Your team of writers puts its energy toward corrupting Bill Nye The Science Guy into insulting half the country because it is more entertaining to call somebody stupid than to say something smart. Are you even the leader? I find it hard to believe. Who writes your teleprompter? Who tells that person what to write and not to write? Who pays that person?

My Opinion

I think I editorialized this post enough that you know my opinion.

The Solution

The solution is for us to identify things that we do that use a lot of energy, especially energy that transfers carbon into the atmosphere, and stop doing those things. The first thing that comes to my mind is the military-industrial complex. If you don’t know what the military industrial complex is, you should. Click the link for the Wikipedia article.

The military industrial complex is not a new concept. One of the greatest warfighters in our history recognized the military industrial complex and preached about it in 1935. Click for the PDF: War is a Racket, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

Stopping doing many things that transfer carbon into the atmosphere will be difficult. For example, if we fight fewer wars, trade routes will close, and prices may go up. This may include the price we pay for gas at the pump. This would be difficult. We would have to coordinate with each other and carpool to work for example. We might even have to live closer to work and bike there.

Venture Capital Criteria

After three years of experience in this type of investment, I made a list of criteria to use. Venture capital is must be flexible by nature, so the criteria are broad, but there are some components that must be present:

  1. Simplicity: Straightforward, valuable product.
  2. Consistent Action: People are doing hard work necessary to make the product with consistency and discipline.
  3. Frugality: Money is utilized exclusively toward value creation.
  4. Moral: Does overall good for the world. Not morally opposed to the product / company.
  5. Communication and Reporting = teamwork, team building. A business is its systems and people working together effectively. Communication is critical to developing a business.
  6. Common stock only. One and only one type of stock means everybody is on the same team. Companies are complex enough without having multiple types of equity. One type of stock streamlines the decision-making process. If “preferred shares” are introduced, there should be a good reason and the terms need to be understood by all stockholders.
  7. Investor must use money he can afford to lose.
  8. As investor, should meet the other investors, and at least one of them should be a successful institutional investor that has significant clout.
  9. What is the end-game? How are you going to get paid one day?

Ventures Update April 2019, The “Stop Doing List”

695 Riverview Drive

Still renovating, landlording, and taking notes about it for an operating manual. My favorite part is actually selecting the items to install and doing the work.

Here are the pictures from the most recent renovation, apartment B2:

https://www.nathanruffing.com/riverview/march-2019-b2/ 

I’m about to finish another renovation, apartment B4, within the next few days and I expect it to rent quickly. It is pretty much standard.

The next apartment, apartment A2, is more exciting. It will be the “Skunk Works” apartment with several major top-secret design overhauls that take some of my materials selection strategies to the extreme. It is unique, and minimalist but functional with high-quality materials. Should be done by the close of April. Stand by for photos next quarter.

Landlord’s Operating Manual

This is a double-down on the apartments. The manual describes my system in detail. I am looking to make it available to other landlords and aspiring investors.

PI Time
Piano

Kineomen

I remain the Secretary at Kineomen and record a monthly summary for the company.

Kineomen is trimming down to its winning parts.

Simple Kneads Gluten-Free Bread

Great product, great people.

www.simplekneads.com

These are the only money-making ventures that make the cut. I am trimming everything else out.

Friends’ Venture of the Quarter

Check out Travis and Marcus’ Paveway.

https://paveway.io/

They are five years out of the military, and this project has several years of momentum now. Paveway is about business development, and they just put up the website complete with a few blog posts. Read, comment, interact!

Below this point did not make the cut!

“Stop Doing List”

and lessons learned from four years of trying to do everything.

Real Estate Agent

(Maintaining the license!)

I am supporting my current clients, and maintaining the license, but not taking any new clients. I really appreciate all those who took a chance on me as a new agent and I feel fortunate that my clients are happy with their transactions. Real estate really is a lot of work, but it is fun too. Thanks everybody!

This was the most difficult to say ‘no’ to because I was just starting to gain some momentum and the money is great.

Don’t worry, I’m a part-timer for life! Any questions, let me know. Free advice, free guy with MLS access!

Meet Cbus TV

I would love to make this happen, but I simply do not have time. This is not a side-job. This would be full-time. Producing videos is time-consuming. Once you are reasonably good at it, figure an hour per minute of video, and that is if you already know what the content will be.

Clean video requires an hour per minute, PLUS thinking up and planning the content.

Nate TV

I still have the structure, the video equipment, and the editing software. I still have many videos that I really want to make! Down, but never out!

Park City Holdings

This ended some time ago, but I wanted to list it because I learned so much looking into the note business. It really helped me understand lenders’ motivations and value quality lenders as a real estate agent.

Columbus Area Technology Club

I love talking about tech.

Real Estate Agent by Location

This arose from my desire to do real estate close to home, and I hoped to help other agents do so as well, around the country! However, making money by referring is really hard to do. You are like the broker to the middleman and it is too many steps removed from the value creation.

Nate the Columbus Commuter Biker

Maybe with all these projects off my plate I can actually ride my bike again sometimes!

Art Gallery

I’ve dabbled in the idea of transporting art from Brazil for sale in friends’ establishments here in Columbus, but it’s another thing that just takes time time time. I will still write about it!

Uber Driver

People, my car is just too old and I’m not buying a car just to make $12 / hour!

The Stock Market

Every time I hear somebody talk about the stock market, whether up or down, I am so glad that I have reclaimed the time and energy by not paying attention to that pie in the sky to which I’m always an outsider.

Vino de Coco

I still plan to visit the Philippines. Still.

Industrial Everyday Consumer Relationships

What is a credit card?

A credit card is a card with a number on it that you can use to buy stuff.

Yes. Yes it is.

They also represent the systemization of all consumer relationships.

Credit cards have only existed since the 1950’s or so. That is not very long ago. So how new are they? Do they represent a completely new concept? As with many things that appear new, credit cards are really a transformation of something very old. In the case of credit cards, they transformed personal consumer relationships with vendors. The relationship is still there, but it has taken a different form, and different people and institutions handle it and profit from it.

Let’s consider 2 consumers: Consumer A, and Consumer B. We will consider how each did business in 1819, then we will consider how they do business now.

Consumer A: The Person and Habits

Consumer A is very responsible. He spends only what he makes. He is polite when he enters the store, makes his purchases and usually has cash on hand to pay for the merchandise. He likes a good deal, but pays the listed price. He considers debt to be a burden on his life and immediately pays it to keep his life clear. As the store owner, you happen to know several other people in Consumer A’s family who also shop in the store. Consumer A buys mostly bread and horse food, but enjoys the occasional beer with friends on the weekend.

In short, Consumer A is a responsible consumer who is a pleasure to do business with.

Consumer B: The Person and Habits

Consumer B is not responsible. He spends money when he sees things in front of him that he impulse buys. He is polite, but always seems like his politeness has an ulterior motive — hence when it comes time to pay, he is usually short some cash and asks for a “quick loan.” He likes a good deal — so he is always taking what he can get. Consumer B racks up little debt constantly and if you forget about it then so did he. As the store owner, you never really know Consumer B very well. Consumer B buys the necessities, but also a whole bunch of other stuff that nobody needs, drinks during the week and drinks too much on the weekends.

In short, Consumer B is worth doing business with, but only because barring him from the store would be more of a hassle than it’s worth.

Consumer A in 1819

Consumer A spends decades racking up goodwill with store owners, and store owners pay him in kind. When there is excess inventory of horse food one year that will go bad if they don’t give it away, the store owner takes Consumer A to the back of the store and gives him the horse food for free. When the store expands and gets rid of quality office furniture, it goes to Consumer A. When the store owner sees Consumer A at the bar on the weekends, he picks up Consumer A’s drink tab.

Consumer A normally has plenty of savings, but one time spends his savings to buy lumber to build a new house. The first day of construction, the load falls from the cart and breaks his arm. He can’t work for three months and is potentially mildly crippled permanently! The townspeople line up to help him out. The store owner drops off bread to his wife who is taking care of Consumer A. The horses eat for free. Consumer A recovers and manages to pay back the debt that he had his wife keep track of. The store owner and townspeople accept some repayment, but in the end Consumer A is hardly able to pay back what he actually received. There was certainly no interest added to his debt.

In short, Consumer A gets a bunch of extra little stuff that adds up over time, and in hard times gets even more because of the goodwill he had built up with others.

Consumer B in 1819

Consumer B spends decades making everybody a little angry and uncomfortable. He has several enemies who hate him and will take everything they can get from him. When he accidentally leaves his cash clip on the counter, it disappears. No free horse food. When the office furniture was given away, he was the last to know and found out too late. When he passes out at the bar one weekend, he wakes up with nothing. The wallet thief gives some of the take to the store owner because he knows Consumer B owes the store owner money — but the store owner won’t take it because he doesn’t want the dirty money.

One day, Consumer B wakes up with a broken wrist and he doesn’t know where it came from. He spends his recovery time of four months alone begging for crumbs, and loses weight almost to the point of death, but eventually recovers angrier than ever and antagonizing everybody even more.

In short, Consumer B fights hard for tiny little deals constantly and loses every penny that isn’t physically attached to him. In hard times, he loses everything and barely survives.

The Store Owner in 1819

The store owner wants to sell stuff, get paid for it, and go home to his family at the end of the day.

The store owner deals with Consumer A and Consumer B because they both pay for the merchandise, although in the case of Consumer B only after three times as much energy was expended hounding him.

Consumer A in 2019

Consumer A has a credit score of 770 that was determined by algorithms that used Consumer A’s habit data collected and stored by financial institutions.

Consumer A buys everything on the same rewards credit card that constantly gives him 1% – 1.5% cash back on everything he buys, and up to 5% on some merchandise. He pays his credit card statement balance every month.

Consumer A constantly receives offers for 0% financing. Normally he doesn’t use this financing, but the one time when his new house was under construction and he breaks his arm, he charges everything to a 0% credit card and pays no interest for the three months that he couldn’t make his payments.

In short, Consumer A gets a bunch of little extra stuff — well, exactly 1% — that adds up over time to a nice vacation each year.

Consumer B in 2019

Consumer B has a credit score of 550 that was determined by algorithms that used Consumer B’s habit data collected and stored by financial institutions.

Consumer B buys everything on credit from whomever will lend him money. The best credit card he can get charges him the maximum interest rate allowed by law. He pays the minimum balance every month and pays one credit card with another if possible.

Consumer B constantly receives offers for loans to buy a variety of optional expensive items like furniture, electronics, new cars, fancy liquor, anything sellers can put in front of him to impulse buy. He takes the bait often enough that he is in debt to many creditors who hound him all the time.

In short, Consumer B has nothing because every penny to his name is already spoken for by a creditor.

The Store Owner in 2019

The store owner wants to sell stuff, get paid for it, and go home to his family at the end of the day. (Notice this has not changed at all).

The store owner deals with Consumer A and Consumer B because they both pay for merchandise with credit cards. He goes home at the end of the day with 97% of what Consumer A and Consumer B spent without even knowing who the consumers are as people. Where did the 3% go that would make 100%? He paid 3% of his sales to …

The Credit Card Company in 2019

The credit card company did not exist in 1819. However, what the credit card company does is far from new. In fact, ironically, people in 1819 were much more familiar with what credit card companies actually do than we are today in 2019. The credit card companies deal with the store owners, and they deal with Consumer A and Consumer B. They manage that relationship and make it transparent to all parties.

The credit card company goes to the store owner and says,

“I will make sure you get paid 97% of all that you sell. You don’t have to know the customers at all. As long as they pay with this card, you will receive 97% of the value of what they purchased. You will receive it from our bank, in one big monthly payment — guaranteed.”

The store owner says,

“I don’t have to deal with Consumer B at all, and I don’t even have to lend to Consumer A when he breaks his arm? Just 3%?!?! Guaranteed payment?? Done. Where do I sign?”

The credit card company (which is essentially banks) collect all the data from all the consumers no matter where they shop, and they collect all payment data on all consumers. They use that data to determine who is Consumer A and who is Consumer B. They then take 3% of all sales, plus the interest – charged mostly to Consumer B – as their revenue. From their revenue, they subtract the rewards given to Consumer A as incentive for being zero hassle to them. The credit card companies then use the remaining money to pay the wallet thieves and hustlers to take everything they can from Consumer B through consumer data sales to impulse goods salesmen, interest charges, general hounding, and repossession. What remains is the credit card companies’ profit.

In short, the credit card companies make a lot of money by charging 3% on all sales to deal with the few Consumer B’s out there.