"April 10, 2009"
http://www.spaceweather.com/
"Daily Sun: 10 Apr 09 The sun is blank--no sunspot. Sunspot number: 0"
"Far side of the Sun: This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far
side of the sun."

The face of the Sun is without blemish:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...4td12k6l sd06

Please visit:
http://blog.nj.com/southjersey_impac...SolarCycle.jpg

The right panel shows the face of the Sun as it looked on a good day during
the late Modern Warm Period. Sunspots are the apparent size of craters on
the moon. The left panel shows a Sun as it appears today. Please write to Al
Gore so that Al knows that the Sun is not living up to his religious
expectations. Al Gore is a divinity school dropout. George Carlin had a
better grasp of the true nature of God's creation, than does Al Gore.

Please visit:
http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsl...es/sun-etc.jpg
which shows the relative sizes of the Sun and planets. Compared to the Sun,
Jupiter is the size of a pea, earth is the size of a grain of sand.

Financial illiteracy got us into this economic mess
By Bill Losey

From News Services

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

We have a big financial crisis in America.

It’s not the weak housing market, rising unemployment, inflation, fallout
from the subprime mortgage fiasco, declining home prices, stock market
volatility or geopolitical unrest in the Middle East. They are symptoms of
the “spending crisis” in America. They are symptoms of the real issue: We
are a country of financially illiterate people.

“The statistics on financial well-being and young people are alarming,”
Elisabeth Donati noted in a recent issue of the Journal of Financial
Planning. “There’s a rise in college suicides because of credit card and
student loan debt, young adults under 25 are now the fastest-growing age
group filing bankruptcies, and more kids now see their parents file for
bankruptcy than file for divorce. Less than 10 percent of our high school
graduates take any courses on money management or wealth creation.”

The issues are easy to identify: The government and millions of consumers
alike spend more money than they bring in or make. When the government needs
more money they raise taxes or go further into debt. When Americans need
more money, they charge it or take out more of their home equity.

The solution is also easy to identify: financial literacy. Unless and until
basic financial literacy education becomes mainstream and required in
America’s schools and businesses, Americans will continue to rack up lots of
debt, fall behind on their bills, lose their homes and have to work
themselves to death to try to keep afloat.

Spending less money than you earn is fundamental to your financial health.
Having written financial goals and understanding your options and time
frames are keys to financial success. Differentiating between needs and
wants is critical to achieving your financial goals.

Setting money aside from each paycheck, which Americans are finally waking
up to, is basic and necessary. It is the medicine that will treat our
symptoms, but it is fundamentally ignored by millions of Americans who are
living paycheck to paycheck, delaying retirement or spending out of control
to garner immediate gratification. Something’s got to give.

How uncomplicated would it make our lives if we (and the government) just
spent less than we made and saved/invested the difference for our future?
How great would it be if every American knew, understood and was able to
articulate the difference between positive and negative cash flow? (I
recently conducted a survey with 10 people at random and asked them to
explain how their net worth is calculated. Only one person could answer the
question with any authority.) How much brighter would our future look if we
saved even a little more money today?

So, what do you get when you combine a weak housing market, rising
unemployment, inflation, fallout from the subprime mortgage fiasco,
declining home prices, stock market volatility and geopolitical unrest in
the Middle East? The opportunity of a lifetime to promote financial literacy
and potentially save a life. Maybe, just maybe, financial literacy could
solve many of our country’s social problems.

Bill Losey, a certified financial planner, is the author of “Retire in a
Weekend!”