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June 6, 2008 - No Agenda

01:36:12

34: 200 Dollar Oil

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Time	Text
	Well, summer is almost upon us, and the days, well, they are growing longer.
	They're growing warmer on both continents.
	It's time once again for No Agenda, coming to you from the Curry Manor in the United Kingdom.
	It's Adam Curry.
	And up here in Northern California, where it looks to be another sunny day, I'm John C. Dvorak.
	Hey, John.
	Good to talk to you.
	We haven't spoken almost all week, have we?
	No, once we did.
	You were in New York.
	Right, yeah, I gave you a call because our crappy cell phones finally left me a message saying, just a vague message.
	You know, they don't time stamp the messages, so it just said, it's Adam, give me a call.
	But wait a minute, that was a text message?
	No, no, this was a voice message.
	Really?
	Yeah, so who knows how old it was.
	Holy crap.
	I did switch to...
	Maybe that was part of the problem.
	I did switch to...
	What is the network?
	The 3 network instead of O2, which is the one that was giving me all the problems.
	So now people are leaving me voicemail, because you actually get through when you call, and I'm unavailable.
	Now, of course, the downside is I fixed the problem, but I have voicemail, which means I've got to listen to it.
	I don't find voicemail very productive.
	No, I find it confusing.
	For one thing, especially with those systems that we have, it's an AT&T system.
	They don't timestamp.
	I mean, even the hotels timestamp half the time.
	Can you press a button and get a timestamp?
	There's got to be some command for that.
	I don't know.
	Maybe, but who's going to leave one?
	No, I mean, you should be...
	No, there's none that I know of.
	I mean, it just comes in, your first unheard message.
	And then, you know, hi, madam, can you call?
	That was an uncanny impression of me, John.
	Thanks.
	That was just fantastic.
	Yeah, well, I'm going to get, I'm done with them.
	Actually, something messed up last Friday.
	I invited someone, Herdy, our blonde bombshell banker in Holland.
	I invited her to come to the last episode, the last live show of Holland's Got Talent.
	And I said, you know, I'll send you a text message with, you know, when I've got the tickets to the door or whatever the studio number is.
	I sent her the text message.
	She never got it, so she didn't show up.
	And it's like, you know, three days later, she gets a text message.
	It's not reliable anymore.
	Yeah, it sucks.
	That's not right.
	No, it's not.
	It has something to do with all the, you know, because it's hopping from one network to the other and someone's messed up.
	I would probably say AT&T is probably messed up.
	Well, you know, is this not rocket science to send the message out and ask for an acknowledgement?
	It's like email, right?
	It should work.
	Yeah, and then if you don't get the acknowledgement, you...
	Send it out again until the phone says, hey, okay, okay, okay, it's in here, or I got it listed, or the system.
	It's not even kept on the phone.
	It's kept on a server someplace.
	Yeah, well, you can choose to keep it on the phone, and you can actually choose to get a receipt, an acknowledgement receipt.
	You can switch that on.
	Nobody's going to do that.
	No, I know, but you can actually do it, but it's really annoying because then for every message you send, you receive one that it's been verified.
	But there is a way to do it.
	Well, whatever the case.
	Well, that's all right.
	I'm getting me a UK number with my new iPhone, which is coming out.
	That's what I'm getting.
	A UK number?
	Yeah, a UK number.
	I'm just going to get a regular UK cell phone number.
	I'm done with this AT&T crap from the States.
	You're still calling a US number when you call me over here.
	Yeah, do you?
	So we're going to have to call long distance to get a hold of you now?
	Yeah.
	It's such a good convenience.
	Oh boy, how horrible.
	Yeah, absolutely.
	So, what's been going on?
	You know, I didn't take any notes this week, so I have literally no agenda.
	Although, you know, there's a bunch of good things that have happened I'm sure we can chat about.
	Yeah, I mean, I got lots of interesting stuff that's going on over here in Europe.
	I wouldn't mind hearing about what you got going on.
	I always have to start off, John.
	It's your turn.
	Well, you know, Obama seems to be the guy they're going to run for the presidency.
	Do you know how many people are angry at me about this?
	Why?
	What did you do?
	Well, of course, I totally took your theory, and I've been saying, forget about it, Clinton's going to get the nomination.
	So my wife has been telling everyone, you know, Adam says Clinton's getting the nomination.
	And everyone I've told are like, you douchebag.
	You know, it's like, now we look like shit, because it was such a sure thing.
	It was a shoo-in, you said.
	It's not over.
	Well, that's what I'm saying.
	I keep saying, look, you know, don't underestimate these Clintons.
	You know, she could run as an independent and still try and go for the presidency.
	But you're right, it's not over.
	I don't quite understand how it works.
	I mean, does she have to concede before?
	No, even if she concedes, it's not over.
	It's not official until...
	It goes to the convention and says it's over.
	Right.
	So anything can still happen.
	I'm with you, John.
	I think that they've got shit up their sleeve that is not to be believed.
	I think they can change people's minds.
	It wouldn't take much.
	I mean, the thing going on, the rumor right now is that there's a videotape of Michelle Obama doing something weird.
	You know, there's another thing that's...
	Did you hear about this?
	Apparently two...
	Members of the congregation, the church he belongs to in Chicago, two of them have been murdered, and both were apparently either gay or bisexual men, and so now this is another story going around that Obama had, that he's bisexual, and that he had an affair with one of them, and there's this wacko guy who's all over YouTube saying he blew Obama in a limo.
	This is weird shit going on.
	You'd think I would have heard of that or we would have blogged it by now.
	You haven't heard that one?
	Oh, shit, man.
	I'll find it for you.
	Hold on.
	Oh, yeah.
	I was looking at it today.
	Send me a link and I'll blog it.
	I didn't hear that one, but I'm not paying much attention.
	Brian Williams wasn't discussing it, let me tell you right now.
	You want the story about the two guys who were executed, right?
	And the blowjob.
	And the blowjob guy.
	Hold on, I'll give you one blowjob guy.
	What was Michelle Obama doing?
	We don't know.
	Here's the story, though.
	It's going around.
	Apparently somebody's got a videotape of her going nuts.
	Just like a freak-out nut?
	She might be bipolar for all we know.
	She's a mean-spirited person from the looks of it.
	Patricia says the same thing.
	She says, I don't like her.
	There's something about her.
	And I think more people may have this.
	I don't know what it is.
	I, of course, have an immediate kinship being a not-so-likable guy myself.
	She's a ball buster.
	Hold on, I got it here, John.
	Here it is.
	This is a great story.
	I can't believe I didn't hear about this.
	Hold on.
	Yeah, you know, maybe I'm not keeping up.
	Well, it's also from the AmericanFreePress.net.
	Here it is.
	Murder of Donald Young, a 47-year-old choir master at former Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, the same congregation that Obama has attended for the past 20 years.
	Two other young black men that attended the same church, Larry Bland and Nate Spencer, were also murdered, execution-style, with bullets to the backs of their head.
	All within 40 days of each other, beginning in November 2007, all three were openly homosexual.
	Interesting.
	You know, Wright has decided to go back to the pulpit.
	I didn't even know he left.
	Well, he was supposed to be retiring, but it looks like he's not going to, and I think he's irked about a lot of things.
	I'm just going to hit you with this video page.
	Larry Sinclair is the guy.
	He's a real kook.
	You know, I don't care how bisexual you are.
	You're not going to let that guy blow you, okay?
	It's just not going to happen.
	No way.
	I mean, Obama may not be my favorite politician, but I think he's a lot better than that.
	I never thought of...
	You know, so here's a story that...
	I was in Manhattan this week, and I was talking to my agent, and...
	There's a couple of, apparently, and I'm not sure who was involved in this, but some guys that we both know, I guess, who are like Democrats or whatever.
	Like, I don't know when the, this is a vague story, so let me start off with that premise.
	Apparently they had dinner with Obama, and it turns out the guy, something of a, of a, of a, He was unlikable, they said, at the end of the whole thing.
	He was mean to the help and arrogant and has all these characteristics.
	I mean, if you watch the guy, I find, you know, I saw him the other day and I think people are going to get tired of him.
	He looks like a robot.
	He's like a robot.
	Well, he's got a robot-like thing, but he's always kind of looking with this kind of, you know, look at me kind of thing.
	And he's very, I don't know, he just gets on my nerves at this point.
	I mean, I thought when I first heard him give that speech at the convention...
	Well substantiated this, John.
	I really appreciate it.
	He's just creepy.
	He just creeps me out.
	He's no good.
	It's the best I can do.
	Hey, just like I said, I didn't take notes.
	No agenda.
	I understand what you're saying.
	I mean, I'm always thinking, where's the guy's money coming from?
	We talked about that last week.
	The guy's got 20s coming out of his ears.
	And boy, those are big ears.
	And so...
	I don't know.
	It just seems like he's got a certain kind of a quality that gets on...
	By the time the election rolls around, I'm sure it's going to get on everybody's nerves if somebody doesn't start coaching him to be a little more human.
	And I'm not so sure that this orator personality that he's got, where everything's an oration...
	With the pauses.
	Yeah.
	And more pauses.
	Yeah, that's going to get real irritating, I agree.
	I think it's going to get irritating because it's unnatural.
	I mean, that's old-fashioned.
	I mean, it sounds good.
	It was really, you know, in 2004 at the convention, when you first heard him do it, it was like, wow.
	It was kind of cool, right?
	It was like a famous leader type of speech.
	Absolutely.
	It was one of the best speeches you've ever heard.
	And especially in contrast to what the Republicans were up to.
	And so, you know, everyone's jacked up about it.
	And then he's, you know, but he's never, still, that's what he, this is apparently the way he just, if I was talking to you now, well, Adam, what do you think of Obama?
	It's like when you listen to Obama, it's like you're continuously talking to someone on Skype.
	It's delayed and sometimes the words get drawn out.
	So anyways, well these murders are interesting, but somebody else was murdered for something else.
	There was some other...
	Recently?
	An Obama affiliation?
	No, no, this was another thing that was going on and people were...
	It was like a whistleblower or something.
	I kind of remember this.
	Maybe by the end of the show I'll figure it out or we'll talk about it next week.
	But it was also a mysterious murder.
	I've been catching myself spiraling down once in a while again, John, into the conspiracy theory tunnel.
	Yeah, it's avoidable.
	Just stop doing it.
	Yes and no.
	Like this weekend.
	You know what's happening this weekend in Virginia?
	I'm sure you vlog this somewhere.
	I don't know.
	The Bilderberg Group's annual meeting?
	And by the way, I don't think that's probably just as harmless as the World Economic Forum.
	Except without Scoble.
	It's probably exactly the same thing.
	Yeah, no, I don't see it being important or having to do with anything.
	It's just a drinking club.
	Well, although I must say, you know, it is a little bit irritating that you've got the, you know, you've got owners and editors and big publishers of big media who are also invited and, you know, nothing's ever, ever discussed.
	Nothing's ever printed about, you know, what goes on.
	That's irritating.
	Yeah, I guess.
	But that's not the conspiracy theory thing I'm going down.
	Just saying, you know, it's like then you read about that and then before you know it, you're looking at David Icke videos and everyone's a reptile.
	You know, it's like, whoa, step back for a second.
	Well, you know, that's always, I think that's more likely.
	Everyone's a reptile.
	I was telling Patricia about it, and I was like, hon, you know, I'm just saying, okay, I'm not saying I believe in this, but, you know, so there's this guy, David Icke, who was, I think, a famous football player in the UK, and then he went on to become a sports commentator, and then about 16 years ago, he went on the Terry Wogan Show, and this whole thing about how the government is trying to, you know...
	Gain control over us through a number of ways and really have us just be enslaved.
	Which, you know, is viable.
	And then all of a sudden he goes in this whole reptile rap.
	The Queen Mother's a reptile.
	Right.
	No, it's always funny.
	All these guys who are into this kind of craziness, you know, they make a lot of sense and then all of a sudden they fall off the cliff.
	What is that?
	I mean, is that calculated?
	Are these guys just in the business of selling books?
	I mean, some of this shit they say...
	I think they're nuts.
	I think these guys are crazy.
	But the reptile thing, by the way, for anyone listening to it, I think we blogged it probably about a year and a half or two years ago when he came out again with one of these theories.
	For anyone out there who wants to know, essentially what he's saying is that a number of people around the world are actually reptiles that are trying to...
	They eat children.
	Trying to kill us all.
	Yeah.
	I'm not...
	I'm not seeing any real evidence.
	Well, you know, the evidence they show in these videos is historic symbolism, you know, throughout the ages of the reptiles, of the snake, you know, and lots of images of snakes and reptiles eating people, eating children, drinking blood.
	And then this is a great video, and I'm sure it's doctored, but it doesn't even matter.
	So, of course, George Bush Sr.
	is, of course, one of the reptiles, according to the theory.
	Do you remember that he, after Katrina, so 41, George Bush, President 41, and Clinton went on TV and they had some website and they were soliciting donations?
	Yeah.
	And it was really kind of uncomfortable to watch and Bush was kind of speaking a little bit slower than Clinton.
	It was kind of a weird, I don't know if you remember, it just felt really uncomfortable the way they were talking together.
	I remember.
	And so they have that video of Bush, and they zoom in on it, and so what they're showing and what you see in this video, true or not, is you see Bush's eyes go reptilian, and they get little thin slits, and they turn red.
	Yeah, that's not doctor.
	That's the way they shot it.
	It's fantastic.
	It's fantastic.
	But anyway, whatever.
	Hey, here's one that I didn't send to you on purpose because I wanted to talk about it on the show and I didn't want you to blog it before we talked about it.
	That's how bad it's become, John.
	We can't go on seeing each other this way.
	I can't send you anything.
	This is from Russia Today.
	I should send you the link.
	Russian geologists have discovered a new mineral which absorbs radiation from liquid nuclear waste and now are striving to chemically clone it in the hope it may solve the problem of radioactive waste disposal.
	It's called lead.
	Kryptonite.
	No, it's not.
	It's called...
	What the hell is it called?
	They don't give the name here.
	Send me the link.
	This sounds like a typical Russian crock of crap story.
	Well, you'd like to believe it, right?
	Yeah, everybody likes to believe this stuff.
	Russia Today.
	It's nature that is showing us a way to solve the problem of preserving those radioactive isotopes, says inventor Yakovenchuk.
	Meanwhile, they have a picture here on this site.
	It looks like quartz, doesn't it?
	I was just going to say, it looks just like a big thing of rose quartz.
	I used to collect rocks as a kid.
	I had a little rock collection.
	You know, the place to go, if you have a shot at it, there's a rock shop, and people are going to really roll their eyes on this one, but everybody knows about it, by the way.
	There's a rock shop in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
	And one can only imagine, because Brazil is one of these countries that has, you know, with all the Amazon and the rest of it, a treasure trove of rocks that are cool.
	But they have geodes.
	And this rock shop has probably, I don't know, a hundred of these things.
	It's geodes that are about, in many cases...
	What's a geode?
	What is a geode?
	A geode is that rock that if you bust it open...
	Oh, it's silver on the inside?
	Inside, it's all crystal.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	That's not garnish, but it's whatever that purple thing is.
	And you crack it open, and it opens up like an egg, and inside is all this beautiful crystal.
	Right, right.
	And they have them there that are two, three, four, five, six feet high.
	Really?
	Awesome.
	And I have some pictures.
	I'll try to remember to blog.
	Let me make a note.
	I'll blog pictures of the geodes in Sao Paulo, Brazil's rock shop.
	Anyway, it's a very famous place.
	And you can go in there and you can buy what kinds of individual stones by the pound.
	And you can use...
	Jewelers go there to make junk jewelry.
	Right.
	You see, I think it was my grandmother gave me like a starter kit rock collection when I was a kid, like five or six.
	And...
	And I got interested in rocks.
	And, you know, I'd go out looking for rocks, of course.
	I'd never find anything near the quality or anything that's cool looking that was in my starter kit collection.
	And then, you know, so I used to go buy rocks.
	And I felt kind of bad.
	It's like, that's not really, it didn't feel right, buying the rocks.
	Instead of, like, sourcing them and finding them yourself.
	You know, it just felt wrong.
	Well, my wife is into this.
	I mean, she doesn't collect rocks, but she's into geology.
	She married one instead of collecting them.
	There you have it.
	Rock hard.
	Anyway, so...
	Viagra.
	Yeah, what else is new?
	She...
	You know, there's a joke there.
	I'm not going to use it.
	Anyway, she is still, you know, will be driving around.
	Oh, there's a such and such formation, blah, blah, blah, from Uplift.
	Pull over, honey.
	Pull over.
	So anyway, if you really like that kind of stuff, you should go to the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
	The geologist there will give you a tour, and they have some of the greatest stuff that's amazing.
	I think you can buy a tour, like an individual tour, for about a hundred bucks.
	Oh, on a private tour, you mean?
	Yeah, a private tour with a geologist.
	Oh, cool.
	That maintains the collection, so you get to see stuff you wouldn't normally see.
	Which reminds me, you know, when I was in Korea, I met a guy who's, I got this card here, I can't remember his name right now, but he is the, he's like the public relations gopher and go-to guy and intermediary for the Vatican.
	Really?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, and so he says, I said, well, can I get a tour of the Vatican?
	Hell yeah.
	He says, oh yeah, I can take you down into the archives that they'd never show anybody.
	Yeah, you should do that.
	Oh, I better.
	Maybe when you're over in Amsterdam, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump over to Vatican City.
	Yeah, this wouldn't be a bad idea.
	I mentioned to the guy that, he said to me that he's got stuff, he goes through, they don't even know what's down in the archives.
	They have their museum, and then they have all this stuff.
	Most museums nowadays, people should realize, are probably only, what, 5% visible to the public, the rest of the stuff they rotate.
	Yeah, they have to.
	Or if you take that museum in China, the one in Taiwan, where they took all the artifacts from the mainland when Chiang Kai-shek fled China, it's something that takes, like the collection, they can rotate it like every month for the next 100 years and they still won't finish going through all this stuff.
	And never have anything new, never ever duplicate anything out there.
	Yeah, but anyway, so he says that he was looking over some of the stuff down there and he found the divorce papers for Marco Polo.
	He thought they were pretty funny.
	Wow.
	I don't know how many people would be interested in that, but I'd be amused.
	That's a historic document.
	That's interesting.
	Yeah.
	So they've collected...
	You can imagine what the Catholic Church must have collected.
	That's in quotation marks, collected.
	So, I was in New York, and I found an interesting counter-trend, which no one's discussed.
	I'm going to have to figure out what this is about, but it doesn't surprise me.
	So, I'm sitting there in the lobby of this little hotel, which is, it actually was refurbished, so it was actually pretty nice, even though it was in the middle of nowhere.
	Which one was it?
	It was the Bentley.
	It's like about a block away from the bottom underneath the Queensborough Bridge.
	Oh, man.
	It's a boutique hotel, I presume?
	Yeah, it's like an old dump that's been fixed up a little bit.
	Even though they could have done a better job in some cases, at least the rooms were almost brand new.
	Right, and what they did, they just throw a sheet over some old furniture and call it nouveau?
	No, actually, I think they actually have real new furniture in there.
	But anyway, it was okay.
	I didn't mind it.
	And they said for the location.
	There was no subway around there.
	It was way in the middle of nowhere.
	62nd and York, which is past First Avenue.
	It's almost in the drink.
	I mean, you could look out the window.
	There was FDR Drive.
	That's how far away it was.
	But anyway, for you New Yorkers.
	That's not exactly the happening hood to be.
	That's for sure.
	Right.
	And there wasn't any really notable restaurants in the area.
	Although Patsy's, the 1933 coal-fired pizza place, was within walking distance.
	Wait, isn't there a Greek restaurant there that's pretty famous on that side?
	Like, way out there?
	There might be.
	I didn't see anything.
	I didn't do a lot of research.
	I only went for a couple of days because I had a meeting with the Market Watch people and I had to meet with my book agent.
	And then so I stopped here and there and visited a few people I knew.
	So I had lunch with my editor at PC Magazine.
	And I expected this to be the...
	When you go to New York, you have to go to one good restaurant.
	So I went to the cafe at Country.
	And Country is a restaurant that I've never been to before.
	It's around the corner from the PC Magazine offices.
	And it is a one-star Michelin restaurant.
	Okay.
	It was terrible.
	Wait, they're off the list.
	What was the name?
	Well, it was the cafe at Country.
	It wasn't the restaurant itself, which was what got the star, but it's beside the point.
	It's the same kitchen.
	That's the one on the corner?
	Yeah.
	Oh man, I've been there.
	I had one of their, they have hamburgers, right?
	They have like a really gourmet...
	For lunch, yeah, they do.
	Yeah, oh, I totally agree.
	And the service was very iffy.
	Oh, the service was absolutely ridiculous.
	It was terrible.
	I had lunch with Ted Leonsis there, and it's like his favorite place.
	Well, Ted is crazy.
	He's also a board member, John.
	Well, I've known Ted longer than you have, and so I can say that he'll think, well, you know, Dvorak has his opinion.
	How do you know you've known him longer than I have?
	I've known Ted since 1984.
	Okay.
	Yeah, you beat me there.
	A couple of years.
	But not much.
	Hmm.
	So anyway, I knew him when he was doing a List magazine.
	Hmm.
	I don't even know about that.
	What's List Magazine?
	What was that?
	Well, Ted has always been...
	Ted Leons is one of the more interesting characters in the industry.
	I love him.
	Because he's...
	I consider him to be one of the most creative people I've ever met.
	Yeah, I agree.
	And although, you know, I think he's almost like a, you know, a Ferrari engine in a Volvo.
	I mean, it doesn't necessarily...
	How about a Ferrari engine in a Hummer?
	That may be a little better analogy for Ted there.
	It could be.
	Whatever the case is, he doesn't, you know, he's just a lot of good ideas, and he executes only a very few of them.
	But they always may do well, but List Magazine was the craziest idea.
	It essentially was a magazine, I think it came out monthly, that did nothing more than list every software product available on the market.
	Interesting.
	And it was actually quite successful.
	I think he sold it to some suckers.
	You know what his new thing is?
	You know what he's doing?
	Besides, he's on our board.
	And what's the other thing he does?
	Clear Spring, the widget company.
	That's his.
	He's starting a new credit card.
	Oh, really?
	Yeah.
	What's his special about it?
	I can't remember what it was.
	Oh, it had something to do with...
	Well, obviously, it's all about the deals, right?
	That's what all the credit cards are about.
	And I think it was...
	It was like a white label back-end system.
	That's what it was.
	So it's customized.
	Obviously, he showed me the Washington Nationals credit card.
	It's one of those deals.
	Capital One will give you a card with anything you want on it.
	I know, but there was some other benefit to it.
	I'll ask him.
	I can't remember.
	At the time, I was like, okay, cool.
	But anyway, so Ted, I always thought Ted should have been the CEO of AOL because he was over there as the vice president.
	He started a lot of those little programs they had over there that were all successful.
	But I don't know what it is that he doesn't take a higher profile in a lot of them.
	I think he doesn't like the politics, John.
	I think the whole Time Warner thing, I think that just really turned him off.
	He just doesn't enjoy it.
	You know, he should learn to.
	I mean, a lot of people don't enjoy it at first, but it actually could be a lot of fun.
	But he's doing other stuff.
	Like the stadium they have for the team, he built that.
	Right.
	You should mention he owns a team.
	Yeah.
	Isn't it the Nationals that he owns?
	The hockey team?
	The Nationals, I think the Nationals are a baseball team.
	But he owns a hockey team.
	I'm not sure which one.
	But he built the stadium.
	It used to be complete ghetto land in D.C. And he built the stadium there.
	Now it's like a huge, thriving economic community.
	And he also did...
	He's in foreign...
	He financed some film about...
	I'm going to say China...
	And he's worshipped over there because it was about the oppression of the people.
	God, I wish I remembered all this because he tells the story really well.
	But he financed the movie.
	Of course, he lost...
	Well, I mean, it was intended to not make money.
	But now when he goes to China, it's like he's the...
	He gets the red carpet.
	Yeah, he does.
	As it were.
	Yes, boom, boom.
	The red Chinese carpet.
	Yes, he does.
	Anyway, how did we get to Ted?
	I can't remember...
	Well, I was talking about this counter-trend that I witnessed at the hotel.
	Somehow, I don't know how we got to Ted.
	Oh, it's because of countries while we got to Ted, because I ate there, and that was the way I killed my glasses.
	And that was the biggest disappointment, because like I said, I mean, I did go to Patsy's and have a coal-fired pizza, and that was actually good, but I was hoping to go to one one-star restaurant that had Good food, and I can't say the food was inedible, because it was actually, the food was okay, even though Lance Ulanoff, who was eating it once before, said that he did have that hamburger you're talking about, and he hated it.
	I didn't like it.
	It was lame.
	Bad bun, too.
	Really poor choice of bun.
	Yeah, this is inexcusable for a restaurant that has this reputation.
	I took a little movie of it with one of my little Kodak cameras, and I'll post the movie on the blog, walking out of the place.
	The place was almost dead empty.
	It was embarrassing.
	They should just close the place for lunch.
	Anyway, so I'm at this hotel, and they have the newspapers in the lobby where you're waiting for your car or whatever.
	And there was a financial time, and then there was a copy, a big pile of The Independent.
	I'm thinking the Independent, what's that doing here in New York City?
	And it says, you know, it's from the UK, Independent, International Edition.
	Oh, interesting.
	Yeah, that's what I thought, because this is like, to me, it's like the Herald Tribune, you know, with Americans, we have a paper called the Herald Tribune, which is a combination, or used to be a combination of the New York Times and the Washington Post that's published and is distributed throughout Europe for Americans floating around.
	But I've never seen the other side of this.
	I mean, usually it would be the real paper.
	It wouldn't be like a special edition for the U.S. Well, you have the Financial Times, which is pretty much the same edition.
	Yeah, the Financial Times looks like the same edition to me.
	But this was a special edition.
	It was not as thick as the real Independent, but it was pretty big.
	And it had all these stories in there.
	I'm looking through this and I think this thing could take off.
	It's interesting news, right?
	Yeah, it's better American news, including a breakout story about how they found a secret plan to keep us in Iraq forever.
	That was highlighted in this one edition, which I'll blog that to, I guess.
	And I was just like, said, well, this is an interesting turn of events.
	You know, and all of a sudden now we have to get, you know, it's getting to the point where we're really going to Turn to the British to get American news.
	That's how bad it's gotten.
	Oh, woe is me.
	Yeah.
	Well, let me tell you.
	I don't know about...
	Who owns the Independent?
	Who runs that?
	I don't know.
	It's not a Murdoch paper, I know that.
	No, it's definitely not.
	I like the Financial Times.
	It really does it for me, John.
	You really should try and pick that one up more regularly.
	You know, I should, and the funny thing is that the reason I got the trip to New York was that Market Watch decided to have a summit with all their columnists.
	Oh, that's why you had the shitty hotel?
	Well, the reason for the shitty hotel was, you know, it's a funny gag, but the reason for the shitty hotel is because they booked late, and nobody realizes nowadays that New York is full.
	It's full, of course it is.
	It's a great place to go.
	It's full of Europeans.
	It's full of Europeans.
	Yeah, it's full of Europeans and it's full of Europeans all year round.
	And if you want to go visit New York, you have to book months and months in advance.
	And this was maybe a month and a half in advance, which was too late.
	And what are people speaking there, Russian?
	This place was, let me think.
	Because in London right now, John, every hotel, every bar, it's all Russian.
	And the weed trade, as a trend, while we're talking about trends and counter-trends, the Chinese are taking over the weed trade in the UK. By weed, you don't mean gardening.
	No.
	And they're buying up council, so basically like, what is council?
	Like social security homes, council estates, council estate homes.
	And they're just cranking it out.
	Cranking it out.
	I mean, the word is all over the place.
	The Chinese are taking over the entire business.
	Now, can I just say one other thing?
	They got primo shit, dude.
	Rock on to China.
	I don't know how they don't come over your house right now and put you in cups.
	Ted Leonsis was cruising the Caribbean on his yacht a couple of years ago, poring over old newspapers when he noticed an obituary for Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, the bestseller about the killing in 1937 of 300,000 Chinese by the Japanese army.
	Oh, that's what the movie's about.
	Well, yeah, the Chinese would love the guy.
	Well, he did it, and he spent...
	Well, good for him.
	You know, that whole episode in history was deplorable, and it's done nothing for the Japanese reputation, that's for sure.
	Tell us about it, John, because I don't know about it.
	I will get copies of the DVD from Ted, no problem.
	Yeah, give me a copy.
	I'd like to see it.
	Yeah, that's what I mean.
	I'll get copies, sure.
	Tell me what went on there.
	What, the Rape of Nanking?
	Yeah.
	Oh, that's pretty funny you don't know that.
	Well, essentially what happens is the Japanese occupied this part of Manchuria.
	And then they essentially enslaved and killed and murdered and raped the women and turned them into hookers.
	And they just ravished the place.
	In fact, the Japanese, there's been a lot of studies about this, how the Japanese got so out of control and how they tend to get out of control in situations outside their own country.
	That model who's actually quite a good actress, kind of a good-looking brunette woman who's done a lot of work.
	Angelina Jolie?
	No, no, no.
	We're talking about an older model that is...
	Cindy Crawford?
	No, no, older.
	Well, hold on.
	I've got to know.
	She's older.
	Is she MILF? Yeah, she's MILF. Now you've got to know for sure.
	MILF? Okay.
	Sorry?
	Is she a MILF or a GILF? Oh, she's beautiful.
	I mean, whatever you want to...
	How old is she now?
	I think she's about 45, maybe.
	Maybe 50.
	And she's an actress?
	Yeah, she's a very famous actress.
	You know, this is everyone who knows about...
	I mean, I'm sure half the listeners are going, come on, come on.
	What's the movie?
	What's the movie?
	Oh, shit.
	Who else is in it?
	Come on, man.
	I can't think of a movie.
	She's been in a lot of movies and she did a lot of TV work.
	Who else was in the movie she was in?
	The movie I'm talking about is a documentary that she narrated about the Japanese culture.
	And it's a very good series.
	It's called Japan or something like that.
	It was on PBS and I can probably find it that way.
	Let me click on the keyboard.
	Somebody pointed out on Twitter that I sound like an old fart sitting here typing away on this noisy old keyboard.
	It's not live, John.
	It's not live.
	Someone did send an email about that, didn't they?
	Yeah, you know, you sound like that's funny.
	I can just see him hunching over the keyboard typing away like an old man.
	Let's see.
	Which is exactly what's happening.
	It is.
	That's the irony of it.
	Damn, what was her name?
	It's kind of embarrassing.
	That's the thing about marketing.
	If your name's not constantly out there, Jane Seymour.
	Oh, Jane Seymour.
	Yeah, she's a great actress.
	Yeah, she was a model.
	Turned actress and did well.
	But John, James Seymour, excuse me, not 45, okay?
	Try closer to 60.
	Well, she looks 45.
	Yeah, sure.
	But anyway...
	Which is what?
	Grandmother I'd like to do.
	Grandmother.
	God, you're sick.
	Yes, I am.
	So anyway, she did this thing on Japan, and if you ever see it, it was about a five or six, maybe more, part series.
	I don't know, four to six.
	Seven, eight, nine parts, not sure.
	But it was outstanding because it really breaks down the history of Japan, where it's headed, and it was just fascinating.
	Especially if you've never been to Japan before, it's definitely something to watch.
	But the thing that she did, she had one section about the rape of Nanking, and she discussed the fact that the Japanese are concerned to some large extent about the fact that once they leave...
	A group of them leave their own, you know, enclave of, you know...
	Like the island.
	And they go someplace else and they have to start running things in a foreign environment.
	They become extremely brutal and weird.
	Almost like, you know, Klingons or something.
	Really?
	Is this kind of like the kamikaze gene or something like that?
	Well, it's probably more of a samurai ronin kind of gene or something there, you know.
	It all stems back to the Tokugawa shugunate, which was a period of time where the Japanese had to learn to be expressionless.
	I guess it was legal for any of the people in the government just to kill you on the spot if they didn't like the way you looked at them.
	Anyway, so this seems to be some sort of an issue with them.
	They think it's some sort of a cultural problem when they leave the country.
	They think they can lord it over.
	But they also have a superiority complex.
	And I guess they don't think much of the Chinese.
	But anyway, the Chinese got really brutalized by them.
	And it was a horrible, one of the worst.
	I mean, I think they killed...
	I don't know, close to a million people, maybe more.
	And just, you know, like, butchered them.
	And so anybody who would do a documentary on this, like Ted apparently did, would be adored by the Chinese who still hate the Japanese for this.
	But you don't know the title of it?
	Because I'm looking at IMDB.com.
	Oh, yeah.
	Let me see.
	How I Met Your Mother.
	I know that, isn't it?
	Blind Dating.
	No, it would be under the TV listing.
	Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.
	Yeah, that's where I am.
	Jane Seymour.
	Wedding Cues and Wedding Crashers.
	That was good.
	That was a good one.
	Dr.
	Quinn, of course.
	What a career this woman's had.
	And she's hot.
	Yeah, and there's a picture of her I see next to her daughter.
	She's prettier than her daughter.
	Is it the absolute truth?
	No, no, no.
	Hang on a second.
	Here it is.
	Let me just get to the Jane Seymour list.
	It would probably be under, let's say, it would be interesting if it's not here.
	I don't see that.
	It's not an act.
	It's recent.
	It's got to be down at the bottom.
	So it's old.
	It's like from the 80s or 90s?
	It's pretty old.
	Yeah, it's probably from the 80s.
	Thanks.
	It's got to be way down, way down, way down.
	Keys to Freedom?
	No.
	Jack the Ripper?
	Angel of Death?
	God, she's got a huge list.
	It's amazing, isn't it?
	That's what you call a working actress, man.
	She does good work.
	And she's got like 18 kids.
	Yeah, no, she did it right.
	Alright, so we can't find it.
	Well.
	It's not here.
	I'm not seeing it either.
	I don't see her television credits.
	Are you sure she did it?
	Are you sure she's the one?
	Oh yeah.
	Believe me.
	It's nothing you'd forget.
	Oh wait a minute.
	Here's another of these lists where it says 2080s.
	Let's click on the 80s.
	Oh I see.
	It's just part of a link.
	Running Dry?
	Is that what it's called?
	Well, we should move on to this topic.
	Yeah, whatever.
	But anyway, the point is that you should look up this topic and catch up to it.
	You're remiss, as a matter of fact.
	Yes, I am.
	That's part of the world history I should know more about, particularly because I could certainly interrogate Uncle Don about some of that.
	He was all over Japan.
	Well, I'll tell you something.
	If you watch the Leonce's piece, I'm guessing, you'll probably be right up to speed.
	I'm gonna.
	I gotta get that.
	So just get that from him and you'll be all fine.
	I'll get you a copy, too.
	Okay, good.
	So anyway, so I'm looking at the independent.
	I thought that was an interesting trend.
	And now I'm thinking, is there anyone who can get a subscription to this?
	I mean, the news in there was just stuff that they don't even print here.
	Our news has just gotten dreadful.
	Anyway, when I was in New York, I also did two other things.
	I really jam when I go anywhere.
	It's pretty funny.
	You didn't even call me back.
	I emailed you and I said, you know, call me if you have a second.
	You must have been really busy.
	So I was pretty busy.
	So I visited both Fox Business and got a complete tour.
	This is, of course, with the MarketWatch folks.
	And then the next day, I got a car out to Jersey and went and visited the CNBC studios.
	CNBC, yeah, right across the bridge, right?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	And I got to meet all the people there.
	One of the executive producers brings me on every so often.
	And so she gave me a complete tour.
	I got to meet former Market Watch person, Trish Regan, who's just gorgeous.
	And then Courtney Regan, who's really pretty.
	She does a little spot news.
	And all the hostesses, and all the guys that do all the shows.
	And I got to compare the Fox Business show.
	Uh, operation with the CNBC because they're kind of competing with each other.
	And, um...
	Let me guess, let me guess, Fox far superior?
	No, far inferior.
	Really?
	Oh, I thought they would have all kinds of cool shit going on there.
	They have a lot of cool stuff, but compared to what's going on, I mean, it's like night and day.
	Oh, really?
	It's like, I wouldn't, you know, they dropped, I think, $150 million or something into the Fox TV. The infrastructure, right?
	Into the studios and everything?
	Yeah.
	You know, some huge amount of money and it's all digital.
	It's really cool.
	It looks like a kiddie car compared to, like, you know, Lamborghini.
	To the CNBC stuff, huh?
	Yeah, I mean, the CNBC thing is probably three times bigger.
	It's got different energy.
	The energy is really amazing.
	It just...
	It's just, I don't see how, Fox is going to, it's going to be years and years before Fox can catch up to these guys.
	And I also don't think Fox has got the right idea how to do that kind of business channel, to be honest about it.
	I think they're completely, they're going in the wrong direction in every which way.
	Didn't Brian Williams come from CNBC? That or MSNBC, but I think he came from MSNBC. Because he does the nightly news now, doesn't he?
	Because we get that over here on Sky.
	Yeah, he used to do MSNBC's news, and he was always...
	I used to work at MSNBC for a while.
	when Soledad O'Brien was there.
	And it was always obvious to me that Brian Williams was the heir apparent to Tom Brokaw, even though sometimes you can't really tell.
	With NBC, it's pretty obvious because they line him up in a certain way.
	And I always thought Brian Williams was outstanding, except for the fact that he's got this broken nose I don't know why he hasn't...
	Well, you want to hear a story?
	Yeah.
	So he must have been either at CNBC or maybe doing human interest pieces for the nightly news.
	But he did a piece on a cosmetic surgeon in New Jersey, and Patricia was there, and she was asked to be a part of the piece.
	She had done, I don't know, maybe it was her boob job, I don't know, something she had done.
	And Brian Williams was really hitting on her.
	Wanted to take her out.
	Wanted to go hang out.
	Because the other day, we're sitting, and I'm flipping through Sky Channels, you know, somewhere up around the 500s, you know, where all the news shit is.
	And Brian Williams is on.
	So, you know, I hold, it's the nightly news I'm looking at.
	She says, oh, that's the guy that hit on me.
	Like, really?
	So, yeah, he was courteous, but he was pushing pretty hard.
	Courteous.
	I like that.
	He's courteous, but...
	Yet firm.
	Courteous.
	Yeah, I'm sure he was firm.
	So, anyway, so the...
	No, Fox is not going to...
	I mean, I've only done one hit for them.
	I did the Neil Cavuto show, I think, a few weeks ago, and somehow Neil's got moved over there, and he's...
	You know, he's talented guys, but they don't have numbers, and I think they don't have the right...
	Personally, I don't think they're pointed in the room.
	Well, does CNBC really have numbers?
	Oh, CNBC is one of the most profitable broadcasting operations in the world.
	Profitable, but what are the actual numbers?
	What are the ratings?
	You know, I don't know what the ratings are, but they...
	It can't be that high, man.
	It's just not.
	It's not that high.
	If it's topping a million, I'd be very surprised.
	No, it's not that high, but the point is it's the people who watch it.
	Yeah, of course it is.
	I mean, you have some of the biggest money people in the world that just essentially have CNBC on, just on.
	Well, you know why?
	It's because they run it properly.
	You got that squawk box in the morning with that fat fuck.
	What's his name?
	Mark or whatever?
	I can't get up that early.
	I used to watch it religiously.
	And it's great because they do get all the CEOs on.
	He's on a first-name basis with them.
	He punches them around.
	They are right on top of all of the fucking stories.
	I mean, anything that's breaking, they've got the right people.
	It's quite impressive.
	And that's what keeps people going.
	That's why they keep it on at the office.
	Yeah, no, they just keep it on 24-7.
	Every time I do a CNBC spot, everyone I know who's in the financial world sends me an email.
	Yeah, they see it, of course.
	Hey, you were on yesterday.
	That was pretty good.
	You said I was on for like two minutes, you know, a minute and a half.
	With Neil Cavuto.
	Talking about what?
	Let me guess.
	Microsoft?
	Well, with Cavuto, it was actually on Fox because he's moved over.
	But no, generally speaking, I would do the Aaron Burnett, the show with Aaron Burnett that's on just before street signs or whatever it's called, just before the 12 o'clock.
	Yeah, the lunch hour.
	Yeah.
	So they have a different crew over here in the UK. They also have Squawk Box in the morning.
	And they have some interesting personalities to do it here.
	Same format, though.
	Same formula.
	Right on top of it.
	Really good watching.
	Yeah, well, if you go to see their operation, you can see why.
	I mean, they have, I mean, the number of people that are on any given show, I mean, I was taken into the control room, and they'll have, like, one person who just does the one, just like the Chiron person, in charge of only the graphs that they show, and then there's a Chiron person in charge of all the names and all the other movement.
	Yeah, you've got to have that.
	It's like, you know, for each show, there's probably five or six technicians doing behind-the-scenes stuff besides the director and all the camera people and everything else in between.
	It's actually quite...
	I mean, Fox has that same kind of layout, but it's just smaller.
	Everything is smaller.
	Their offices are, you know, less interesting.
	But it's the same facilities where they had MSNBC. Isn't it?
	The CNBC offices?
	Yeah.
	Oh, you mean the Fox ones?
	No, no, no.
	The ones across the river in Jersey, CNBC. I don't know.
	I mean, I never went to this MSNBC offices when they were out on the East Coast.
	I only worked on the West Coast.
	I don't know.
	All right.
	I thought it was the same facility.
	I don't know.
	It might be.
	I'll tell you, this is huge.
	Oh, cool.
	So that was educational.
	Um...
	And, you know, you have to go over there once in a while and show your face.
	So people say, you know, we need somebody for today's show.
	You can think anybody.
	And then somebody says...
	John, can I tell you something?
	Because I know you're looking for money, like always, right?
	You're just like me.
	You're scrounging around.
	We're getting gigs.
	We're doing shit.
	Check this out, man.
	You've got to get yourself an ISDN set.
	You could call into so many shows...
	You could just sit at home.
	You could call into all these shows.
	When I finish my book about American depressions, then I'll...
	Then you need it.
	Because I talked about it on the Daily Source Code.
	I talked about it.
	I had this thing.
	I got like three radio stations calling me saying, Hey, can we talk to you next Tuesday morning or whatever?
	Yeah, no, I'll do that, Adam.
	But the problem is I'm actually not, generally speaking...
	Of the ilk that I want to get on the air unless I have something to sell.
	Well, I'm sorry.
	You don't have to get pissed off at me.
	No, I'm just saying I don't have anything to sell because you've been hounding me to get ISDN. I want the ISDN for us.
	I don't give a shit what else you do with it.
	I'm just trying to think of ways that you can...
	I'm like, maybe it's too expensive.
	You know what?
	It is too expensive.
	That's the problem.
	It'll pay for itself, John.
	It won't pay for itself.
	That's the point.
	Let me tell you, BT, man.
	So I hooked up this line, right?
	I got a business line.
	And they called me on my home line and said, do you want a free ad in the Yellow Pages?
	I said, no.
	This thing go at least four times a day.
	And it's an auto answer, right?
	Because it's plugged into the codec.
	So it automatically answers.
	And I'm like, what the hell?
	Are they testing the line?
	And then click, it'll go on.
	And it's routed through the mixer and I'll hear someone, hello, hello?
	And I open up the microphone like, yeah.
	And like, we want to offer you.
	And it's like solicitations.
	They gave my number away immediately.
	Oh, so you're getting a bunch of spam.
	Yes!
	ISDN spam.
	Wow, that's weird.
	Of course.
	Yeah, I guess it is ISDN spam.
	I wonder if it calls if it just registers a regular number.
	It is a regular number when you look at it.
	Yeah.
	Anyway.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Okay, okay.
	As soon as I have something to sell, I'll do it.
	I mean, I'm just not going to, I just definitely don't want to get a bunch of guys calling me left and right.
	No, I know, I know.
	So how does that work?
	So you go with your agent and you, what, do you go to publishers and you pitch the idea?
	Oh, no, the way, well, it depends.
	I mean, my book on depression is I'm going to self-publish.
	I went to see him about another project I'm working on with Gina Smith.
	Can you tell me about it?
	Yeah, as soon as we have it a little more hammered down, because we're fine-tuning the pitch.
	Were you pitching with Gina?
	Together?
	No, no, I'm pitching by myself.
	But, you know, Gina's worked with Brockman before.
	This is John Brockman.
	I actually worked...
	Worked for him once.
	But Brockman does all these high-end products that get big money.
	And she did the Wozniak book through him and some other projects, I guess.
	So he knows who she is, and it's not an issue.
	I just wanted to sit in his office and chat for a while anyway, which is what you have to do.
	You've got to sit there and you've got to say, give me a goddamn contract already.
	I'm not going to leave.
	And so, you know, so essentially the way it works, though, generally speaking, is depending on the agent you work with, and all agents have a slightly different process, but for the most part, it goes like this.
	You come up with an idea, and people out there who want to sell books, this is how you do it.
	First, you've got to find an agent, which is not easy, but you come up with a...
	They're in the phone book under L for Lefty, Lefty Schwartz.
	L for literary agent.
	Anyway, so you come up with an idea and you write a proposal and everything is done based on this, generally speaking.
	And the proposals are interesting because they're trendy.
	Sometimes they want long proposals and everybody wants a long proposal that goes on forever, 15 pages.
	Or they want short proposals.
	Nobody wants a long proposal.
	They want two-page proposals.
	Okay, whatever.
	It's like Hollywood.
	Yeah, it just goes back and forth and back and forth.
	So if you don't have an agent, you don't know what the trend is for the day.
	It's three pages exactly.
	So...
	Anyway, so you write the thing up, and usually, depending on the agency, but many of them like to, you know, you go back and forth to the agent with the proposal, honing it.
	And then the agent presents it to a publisher that, usually a pal, because they all have, you know, every agent, which is kind of interesting to me, every agent has his own channels.
	And they're all different.
	So if you went to Agent A, they would have channels into maybe, let's say, maybe 20 editors total in 10 different publishing houses.
	If you went to Agent B, they'd have a whole different group that they would be pitching.
	That's the same with all agents.
	That's what you get an agent for.
	Yeah, they have their friends.
	It's all their buddies.
	It's the Rolovics.
	And if they've been making money for the publisher, then their buddies are happy to see them.
	So anyway, you find the agent that's got a conduit you're looking for.
	So in other words, you wouldn't take a fiction book and give it to somebody who does nonfiction.
	Because no matter how good of an agent they are, there's no channels.
	So finding the right agent is a big deal.
	And anyway, so then they take it in and then a couple things can happen.
	In the olden days, you used to have these book auctions which were pretty cool because then they'd run up the price between, you know, you'd get two or three people together that would all want it and then they'd argue amongst themselves and give you way too much money.
	But nowadays, they just do a deal and it's over.
	Anyway, so then you do a book, generally speaking, that is not the same book as the one in the proposal.
	And then they take the book that you gave them and print something that's not what you gave them.
	And then out it comes.
	Excellent.
	And how long does that process take?
	The process takes too long.
	The process probably takes a good nine months.
	Oh, man.
	And it's a...
	And the way you get paid, generally...
	Is it an advance?
	You get an advance.
	Well, it depends on the advance.
	If it's a big advance, you get it in three payments.
	If it's a big advance, then it just can change.
	It can be done in any way you can make them agree to, which is the key.
	And I always tell people, you've got to be careful about...
	The main thing that authors have to worry about is the dummy contract.
	And dummy contracts are, in fact, you know, at Mevio we have a dummy contract that I've heard people bitch about.
	And because everybody has a dummy contract, because if you are going to hire somebody and they're going to sign this thing, fine.
	But in the business, it's called the dummy contract.
	I mean, that's what they call it.
	And because you're a dummy, if you sign it, The idea is, of course, you change what you want to change, and then they usually agree to it, unless you're a dummy.
	And there's an agent, by the way, who did a lot of tech books.
	I was talking to one of my publisher friends.
	He says they love this agent, and they take anything.
	Because he would actually encourage his writers to sign the dummy contract.
	To sign the dummy contract?
	Cool.
	Yeah, what a nice guy.
	Anyway, so you get this dummy contract, and then you just change it to whatever you want.
	But typically, with a big advance, you'll get one-third right away.
	Of the money.
	Here's your money.
	And by the way, if you don't turn in the book or anything, they have a hard time getting that money back.
	So they have to, if you don't have a track record, you know, they are very reluctant to give you a lot of money up front because they're, I've, you know, situations do occur where you, the book is canceled or you can't do it or the project changed or the editor quit.
	I mean, there's a million possibilities and you end up with this money.
	It's almost impossible to get it back unless you go back to that publisher and have to do another book deal with them.
	Then that money is still somewhere on the books.
	That's when you get screwed.
	The money goes away.
	It gets recouped.
	It's just like the record business.
	Right, and so anyway, so you get a third up front, and then when you deliver the manuscript officially, even though you might be doling it out in pieces, when the thing is finished, you get another third, and then when it finally hits the street, you get the last third.
	In smaller advances, you tend to get half of it right away, and then when the book is delivered, you get the other half, and then you're done.
	I should send you the contract they just sent over.
	Patricia's doing...
	She wrote a Dutch version of Heat Wave.
	And she's going to do a duet with this guy.
	He's putting it on his album.
	Or on his CD, I should say.
	And I should send it over because you really laugh when you see that, first of all, it's like 10%.
	First, it's 10% of the song, which in itself is already one-twelfth of the CD. And that's over...
	PPD over retail.
	So it's really 5%.
	Of the 112th.
	And then it's after deduction of like 20% for mechanical reproduction.
	But if it's for download reproduction...
	Oh, I'd love to see this kind of...
	You know, I have to say this, and this is kind of obscure, but we collect contracts.
	My wife has become kind of...
	Really?
	Because we work with so many lawyers.
	She's really good at...
	We don't even use lawyers that often unless it gets really complicated.
	You just pull something out of the archives and just use that.
	Well, we have all this language.
	And in fact, when I did the deal with Mevio, you know, working with Bobby Garcia, I mean, we pulled a lot of contract language out.
	You signed the fucking dummy contract, John.
	What are you talking about?
	I saw that.
	You know what I'll send you?
	I'll send you the, how about the MTV Adam Curry settlement agreement?
	Yeah, I'd like that too.
	I mean, we have a collection of these things and we use them.
	We actually developed a force majeure, some force majeure language, which you can look up, for speaking engagements.
	Because when I started doing a lot of public speaking through agents, through the speaking bureaus, speaking bureaus.
	You'd wake up and you'd be like, I don't want to go, honey.
	Figure out some kind of force majeure so I can get out of it.
	Well, no, you have to worry about that.
	That's the problem.
	But none of the Speakers Bureaus used it in their contract language.
	And we actually developed a contract with the basic template was from the Washington Speakers Bureau.
	And then we modified it because they had a beautiful contract.
	And then we modified it and then we added this force majeure thing and now we present it to other agents.
	This is like the contract we like to use.
	And they look at it and they all say, wow, this is a great idea.
	We have to put this in our contract.
	I can't wait to meet your wife, man.
	Maybe I should be doing this show with her.
	She's more interesting.
	Anyway, the thing is, contracts are in some ways almost like folklore because they get passed around and rewritten.
	And it gets to the point where you look at them.
	You can look at a contract.
	In fact, the contract I did originally with CBS when it was CBS Market Watch before it became Dow Jones, we had to really spend a lot of time on it because it was a really crappy contract that was written for broadcasters, not writers.
	Right.
	And I've seen this before where somebody comes in and they say, we use this, and they use this wrong contract.
	And we actually probably helped them get their contract straightened out so it's right for the right purposes.
	But you can look at contracts really quickly and say, this is written by somebody that doesn't know what they're doing.
	And I don't want to beat this to death, but the typical giveaway for a crappy contract writer is that the language is very legalese and really complicated when a good contract is simple to read and understand.
	So this morphs perfectly into the next topic, which is the contract known as the Lisbon Treaty in Europe.
	Okay.
	Are you familiar with this?
	Nope.
	Okay, you will recall in 2005 there was a European constitution put forth to all 27 member states and two countries voted it down in a referendum.
	Do you recall which two countries?
	Well, I don't know.
	Would it be Norway and Switzerland?
	No.
	France and the Netherlands.
	Oh, right, right.
	This is the one.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	No, I'm thinking Norway and Switzerland didn't even get involved in this.
	They just said no.
	But, right, right.
	And this became the big controversy.
	This was news for, like, months on end when these, when they, you know, especially the French, you know, they're going to, let's, do you want to make the EU the EU? Let's sign off on this and now we vote against it.
	Yeah, exactly.
	So, you know, so I didn't pay much attention to it in 2005.
	My wife, you know, she was ill, and so, you know, I was paying attention to other things.
	And also, I was in between countries.
	I couldn't even, I think we just moved here.
	I couldn't really even vote on it, I don't think.
	I was kind of like an illegal status for a while there.
	And so now this thing crops up called the Lisbon Treaty.
	And I didn't pay any attention to it until, you know, all this stuff started surfacing.
	And of course, my audience, known as the Chuckleheads, they start sending me all these links about Ireland.
	Like, Ireland's the only country that can now save Europe from, you know, the evil politicians in Brussels.
	You know me.
	Oh, right, right, right.
	This has been coming up over the last week or so.
	Yes, exactly.
	And I'll tell you why.
	Five days from now, that's when Ireland is the only country in the only state in the union to hold a referendum on this.
	And of course, all 27 states have to say yes to this Lisbon treaty.
	So I got interested in it.
	I'm like, let me go read this fucking Lisbon treaty.
	And so, you know, we discussed this last week, I think.
	You know, everything in Europe is published.
	But it's published in its raw form.
	There's rarely a translation for the common man.
	So it's a real struggle.
	But it's in, you know, 27 languages or more than that.
	Like 30 languages.
	Everything's translated.
	They spend a billion euros a year on translations alone.
	But it's great.
	So I'm like, let me go read the Lisbon Treaty.
	And look at this thing, John.
	I'm like, what is this?
	And it's all...
	All it is is...
	What would you call it?
	References to this original constitution.
	So we would say...
	Wait, how big is this document?
	Uh...
	Like, uh...
	70 pages?
	Okay.
	Just wondering.
	It's like a contract.
	It really is.
	And it is exactly like a contract.
	Because what the Lisbon Treaty is, it says, okay, in reference to, you know, the original document, the original constitution, change all words like ECU, which used to be, you know, that was the European currency unit, change that to euro.
	Okay.
	So, you know, that means basically this document is that document with these changes.
	And the most important change, of course, was everywhere you reference in that original document to the word constitution, we now replace that with Lisbon Treaty.
	And the reason, you know, of course this is what the conspiracy theorists say is, and in fact Angela Merkel was heard saying this, by not calling it a constitution, the member states had no obligation to So, hey, it's not a constitution, guys.
	It's a treaty.
	But the treaty is just a legal document of search and replace.
	So then I go and read the constitution.
	I'm like, what?
	And the Constitution in itself has reference to protocol documents?
	So, you know, people send me some links and stuff, and I'm looking at it.
	It's like, the right to freedom.
	You know, some of the basic human rights, which I presumed were going to be meant only for the entire Union.
	And it's like, well, you cannot be incarcerated without just cause unless...
	You have a transmittable disease, you're an alcoholic, a drug addict, or a vagrant.
	I'm like, that's going to be the fucking constitution?
	Or like the death penalty.
	You cannot be put to death unless you try to escape or if you are running away from a legal arrest.
	Then you being accidentally or unpurposely killed would not be seen as a violation of the constitution.
	So I'm like, I'm tripping out over this.
	I'm like, this is amazing shit.
	And now I understand why Ireland is such a big deal.
	So I'm doing this radio show in Holland.
	But wait, you've got to explain why Ireland is such a big deal.
	I did explain, because they're the only country that has a referendum.
	In every other country, this is now being ratified.
	So last week it was ratified in the Netherlands, which means that the government basically has a little debate, and then it's like, okay, that was nice opposition, guys.
	Thanks for speaking up.
	And now it's ratified.
	So now the Lisbon Treaty is put into law.
	And the only country that has a referendum is Ireland.
	And if they say no, then it's off the table for everybody.
	Oh.
	I hope they say no.
	Well, so anyway, I want to investigate.
	And so I'm doing this radio show, and I say, you know, call someone up.
	Call someone who's in this debate.
	And so I get the leader of one of the Democratic parties.
	And I ask him these questions.
	I say, what the hell is this?
	He's like, you know, honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about.
	I'm like, well, have you read this thing?
	He says, it's very hard to read, isn't it?
	I'm like, yeah, hell yeah.
	It's a constitution.
	Why don't you make it simple, like the American constitution?
	So he says, okay, I will ask this question to the minister of foreign affairs in parliament today.
	And dude, so I'm watching this, and I'm taping it, and he actually says, you know, Adam Curry asked me this morning, he's like, he went a step further, he says, you know, this morning I was on Arrow Classic Rock, and Adam Curry asked me these questions, and I really didn't know how to answer them.
	You must have just fallen on the floor.
	I had a boner from here to Tokyo.
	And then he takes it one step further.
	He says to the, actually not the minister, but the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, he says, so I understand, Mr.
	Secretary, that you're going to appear on this show tomorrow.
	So why don't you rehearse your answer now before you go and talk to Mr.
	Curry about it?
	I'm like, oh man, this is so cool.
	Anyway, so it turns out that there is, what they've done is they've taken the range.
	So across all of Europe, the range is from, you know, you cannot be killed under any circumstances to this very broad, well, if you try to run away while we're trying to arrest you and we kill you, then, you know, that's not illegal.
	That would not constitute a violation of your basic human rights according to the Constitution.
	And each individual country gets to implement the version they want.
	That's how it's going to work.
	So anyway, it's very suspicious.
	No one understands what the hell is in a document.
	It's unreadable.
	And I think the reason why the Dutch and the French said no three years ago is because no one read it.
	They just were pissed off about the euro and they weren't happy.
	And it's like, you guys want something?
	Screw you.
	We're going to say no.
	So anyway, this is now bubbling up and there's a lot of posting about it on the Internet and there's It's a big campaign.
	You can see it happening.
	And the numbers, according to the Financial Times, have shifted dramatically where the beginning of the week they expected 41% to say yes, 35% to say no, and now they're expecting 35% to say yes and 30% to say no.
	And it's pretty fundamental.
	It is a constitution.
	It's fascinating to watch.
	Okay, so while you were talking about that, which is interesting, I just thought, there's an aside, this is a little callback here.
	Using, again, Twitter, The Real Dvorak, I just typed in, does anyone remember Jane Seymour's series on PBS in Japan, and the date and the name?
	No, no, tell me.
	And, of course, Twitter, I got 22,000 people, so it's like, you know, there's a bunch of geniuses out there.
	So, Jay Trosper, It says it was called Japan and it was done in 1988.
	Just plain Japan.
	You know, I'm so happy that you took me out of my European...
	I'm sorry.
	I just...
	Yeah, well, this was kind of European.
	You know, Jane Seymour's from England.
	Let me throw another...
	Anyway, back to that topic.
	I'm sorry, but back to that topic.
	That's all right.
	It's boring.
	Most people...
	That's the problem.
	Most people think it's boring.
	They don't think about it.
	They don't think that, you know, that they could, you know...
	Well, I'm always surprised that it's gone this far, to be honest about it.
	If anyone who's known me since the EU was first formulated has known I've been skeptical because of stuff like this.
	And I still don't understand how the French and the Germans can ever agree to anything at that level.
	I mean, they're already telling the French how to make cheese.
	Meanwhile, the Germans just passed a national law that now by law, law enforcement officials can monitor and invade your computer via the internet, and they can hang up covert cameras in your house.
	Just for no good reason?
	No, you gotta have a reason.
	You sure?
	Does it say you have to have a reason, or does it just feel like doing it?
	My German's not good enough to read the actual law.
	Maybe I can find an English version of it.
	I'll find out.
	Well, let me ask my Twitter group if somebody can translate on the spot.
	All right, while you're doing, I got one for your Twitter group.
	This is cool.
	So I'm nosing around.
	There's a new law going into effect.
	Now, of course, this is not something that they can choose on a national level in Europe, but this is a European law.
	It's something that we've had in America for as long as I can remember, actually.
	Only the, of course, now with the exchange rates, it's a little skewed.
	You may no longer transport more than 10,000 euros in cash online.
	Or in other, you know, like traveler's checks or anything like that, in or out of the European Union without declaring it.
	Give me this again.
	Because this has always been the case with the U.S. Yeah.
	So, you know, this is, what they're saying is this is for two reasons.
	You know, for money laundering and financing of terrorism, of course.
	You can no longer enter or leave the European Union with more than 10,000 euros in cash or other, you know, faceless, nameless cash equivalents without registering it.
	And, you know, it's like, alright, well, obviously...
	Can't you just do a money transfer?
	Oh, yeah.
	Have you ever heard of SWIFT? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
	Yeah, well, yeah.
	SWIFT is, you know, the CIA taps into SWIFT. Well, the money still gets moved.
	Yeah, but you know, it's like you have to declare...
	What you do with your money should be your business.
	Unless you're doing illegal activity.
	But anyway, so that's beyond the point.
	Because here's what popped up.
	And this is a story that's been around for a while as well.
	So they now have, at the airports, they now have money-sniffing dogs.
	Literally.
	Oh, that's interesting.
	You know, because I'm a big fan of these dogs, by the way.
	And every time I see one, I ask the guy what kind of a dog it is.
	I say, is it a bomb dog?
	I know there's bomb dogs.
	There's fruit dogs.
	You know, looking for fruit.
	They're all over Hawaii.
	Because they don't want you bringing fruit out of Hawaii.
	And there's bomb dogs, fruit dogs, and drug dogs.
	I did not know there was a money dog.
	Oh, you still there?
	Yeah, barely.
	Okay, sorry.
	Yeah, so they have money sniffing dogs.
	Wow, that's cool.
	But now, so what pops up on the radar?
	Up pops on the radar this story, which is pretty interesting because you can kind of prove it.
	That, you know, obviously with this new law going into effect, it's not the most effective way to track money or to see how much money you've got.
	So apparently, now in, as far as I can tell, in the lower denomination notes, the rumor is that there is an RFID chip implanted in the euro bill in the currency.
	And you can check this.
	This is great.
	You put either a 5, a 10, or a 20 euro note into the microwave.
	And you turn it on, and within like a second, you'll hear a pop, and there'll be a little hole right off to the center of the paper.
	And that's supposed to be the chip that explodes because of the microwaves.
	You know, I find this to be a folklore thing, and I suspect that the thing exploding may be some sort of metallic ink.
	And I'll tell you why, because I don't think you can make an RFID chip that small.
	Ah, no, man.
	This is what I've been looking into.
	They're getting it down to like 50 microns.
	It's outrageous.
	Really?
	Yeah, because it doesn't need a power source.
	The way the RFID chip works...
	Yeah, no, it's passive.
	Yeah, you activate it with a magnetic field and then...
	Induction.
	Yeah, thank you.
	With induction.
	And then it sends back its identifier.
	Yeah, no, the induction triggers the circuit and it turns it on, essentially.
	And then it says, hi, I'm here.
	Here's my number.
	Right.
	Yeah, there's my number or whatever.
	Right.
	So I've done this.
	I've done this with all different notes.
	You put it in the microwave, and then it pops.
	Now, I've asked the guy from the RFID business platform.
	I have a call in to the Minister of Finance, because now I've got a radio show.
	I can get all these fuckers on the phone.
	It's pretty funny.
	You know, and I said, you know, so what's the deal?
	And so the RFID platform guy says, I don't really know, and I've heard this too, but, you know, I hear there's a little piece of wire in there that is, you know, for counterfeit purposes.
	And I'm like, okay.
	So I go to the, you know, to the European Union money website, and it says, here's the five ways that we've baked into the currency, you know, for you to able identify if it's authentic or not.
	None of which is talking about some kind of wire that's in there.
	And it's not anywhere near anything that looks metallic, and it pops with a little hole, John.
	I'm kidding, man.
	Right in the same spot on every single bill.
	Huh.
	So, you know, and I've been looking into this RFID shit, man.
	That's pretty awesome.
	It's in everything.
	It's in your clothes.
	It's in, you know, like your jeans.
	It's, you know, these chips are absolutely everywhere.
	And they're making them, I think you can get them commercially.
	You could even buy them yourself for like, they're like 0.4 millimeters, which is already pretty small.
	But yeah, they're trying to now, I understand the next level they're trying to go below is 50 microns.
	I have no idea how big that is, but it sounds like you wouldn't be able to see it.
	No, and the thing is, how much data can it hold?
	I mean, is it just an identifier?
	It can't really have any information except the serial number.
	No, you can't rewrite them, and of course the problem is always the antenna.
	You know, the chip is one thing, but if you want to have any kind of reach, the antenna has to be in certain dimensions.
	That's why these higher frequencies are the most desired.
	It's fascinating technology.
	It really is.
	But also just the idea of, you know, so there is this data of all this stuff that is just not really broadcasting, but is accessible.
	So you're cooking all your money?
	I cooked about eight bills, yeah.
	Now, having said that, of course, I'm surprised they're not over there knocking on your door.
	What would prevent somebody who was a criminal that wanted to smuggle out $100,000 in a money belt just from cooking all his money in advance of the...
	Of the induction, whatever the receiver is that they have.
	Well, I mean, if you really want to smuggle out a significant amount of money, you're going to be popping a lot of individual bills.
	It's not really simple, and by itself, it is pretty suspicious looking.
	I haven't tried to spend it yet, but there's like a hole in the bill.
	Oh, how big is the hole?
	It's just a little pinhole, though, right?
	No, no, no.
	It's like a little, I'd say, about the size of an eraser on a pencil.
	Well, you know, it probably, now that you mentioned, the guy did say it was about counterfeiting.
	It might be actually about counterfeiting.
	Yeah, but then why wouldn't they list that as one of the ways to see if it's counterfeiting?
	Because they don't want a bunch of people like you out there smoking the bill just as a joke.
	Yeah, but why not?
	It's my money if I want to burn it in the air or if I want to burn it in my microwave.
	That's up to me.
	Or maybe they just don't want people knowing what, you know, because you could probably counterfeit that chip just as easy as you could the rest of the crap on that bill.
	Yeah, I'm sure it's not encrypted or anything like that.
	I mean, I'm just saying it would make sense, you know, now you could just, when you're walking through customs, you know, the sensor could go, oh, well, that's quite a lot of, you know, 20-euro-pound notes you have there, sir.
	Yeah, hundreds.
	I'm sure someone out there has some info on it.
	But I'm going to ask the Minister of Finance.
	Isn't that the best I can do?
	Boy, I'll tell you.
	You're up there now.
	I feel like a loser.
	No, man.
	It's from Holland, dude.
	No one cares.
	Holland is below Ireland.
	Have you checked bills from other countries?
	Because every country prints their own euros.
	There's actually...
	I haven't tried this yet because I don't think I have any.
	The new $20 bills apparently have the same characteristics.
	The 20-euro bill from England?
	No, the $20 bill.
	The new $20 bills.
	The $20 U.S. bill?
	Yeah, yeah.
	The purple ones?
	The new ink?
	Huh.
	Yeah.
	You just Google it, man.
	Google $20 bill RFID. You'll see.
	Well, I have wallets.
	I've actually plugged this, I think, on my PCMag column some time ago.
	But there's a guy down in Southern California who makes these really nice wallets that have the Faraday cage built into them.
	Oh, yeah, so nothing penetrates it.
	Right.
	Yeah, I've seen those online.
	Here you go.
	Check this out.
	Here's a picture.
	Is it a picture of your...
	No, of the $20 bills.
	Prison planet.
	Holy, is this guy who cooked these bills?
	RFID tags and new U.S. notes explode when you try to microwave them.
	It's the same thing.
	Jackson's head is blown off.
	See how it's in the same spot every single time?
	Yeah.
	This is interesting.
	And that's about the same spot where it's embedded in the Euro bills.
	Yeah, man, you can take...
	I'll blog this.
	I got a lot of stuff to blog.
	I won't get to half of it.
	That's why I don't send you this shit, man, because I know you're going to blog that before we talk about it and take all the glory.
	This guy, how many bills is this guy?
	The picture that's funny here, which for people who aren't watching this, but it's on Prison Planet.
	You can probably look it up.
	It looks like he's probably fried about 15.
	Well, he's got like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times 4, 20 bills plus 2 more.
	How many bills do you have to blow up before you get a clue?
	Check this out.
	He says, I want to share an event with you.
	That we were experiencing this evening.
	You've got to read this story.
	Dave had over $1,000 in his back pocket in his wallet.
	New 20s were the lion's share of the bills in his wallet.
	We walked into a truck stop travel plaza, and they had those electronic monitors that were supposed to say if you were stealing something.
	But through every monitor, Dave set it off.
	his hands or pockets after numerous times of setting these off a person approached dave with a wand to swipe him anyway so that's why the guy started trying you know fried his bills to see if uh if there was something in there so if he's if he's setting off uh you know security gates well i'm gonna have to get into this uh I'm going to have to talk to my wallet-making buddy.
	So, apparently, Hitachi...
	Because, you know, people have been sending me stuff about this.
	But Hitachi developed some of this technology in, like, 2000.
	And I think it's Philips and...
	Phillips and one other company that are supposedly supplying chips that are being put into paper.
	I don't know if it's true, man.
	All right, but if it's true, it's okay, but we should know about it.
	Well, it's obvious.
	These bills weren't blowing up for no good reason.
	People will see this link later.
	Oh, man, scroll down.
	No, that's what I was saying.
	Oh, there you go.
	See, there's the 10-euro note.
	See where it's popped?
	Yeah, that's a little hole.
	That's a lot smaller than the U.S. one where the whole head of Jackson gets blown off.
	Yeah, that's because I think the U.S. paper burns quicker.
	Well, it could be.
	I guess the thing's catching on fire.
	Yeah, that's what it looks like.
	It just looks...
	I mean, I wouldn't...
	I mean, it's just like...
	I guess you could take it into the...
	Are you going to put a 20 in your microwave?
	You know, you want to hear something funny?
	I don't have a microwave.
	You don't believe in them?
	No, it's not that I don't believe in them.
	I just...
	I don't see the purpose of them.
	I mean, you can...
	All I do is reheat stuff and, you know, I can do that in a million different ways.
	It's more practical.
	I like to cook...
	Over flames.
	Yeah.
	I'm not a big fan of microwave cooking.
	I think it makes food tough.
	I think it's the only thing I ever used one for when I did have one was to boil water for tea.
	And I got a teapot, you know, a kettle.
	It's just as fast.
	Yeah.
	You're right.
	We only use it for...
	We don't cook in it.
	We only use it...
	I think most people probably just use it for reheating.
	And some people use it for thawing, and I find that there's better ways to thaw, as a matter of fact.
	Don't use it for thawing.
	Just reheats.
	Or maybe, here's the things I might do in the microwave.
	I might do a potato in the microwave, if I want to get one going quick.
	Or, I do happen to like, if I'll take corn on the cob, and so I'll put butter around the ear of corn, put a little bit of sugar on it, roll it up in wax paper, and then pop it in the microwave.
	That's an eye-roller.
	It tastes really good.
	I'm sure it does.
	Might as well just give it some more heat to see what happens, see if I can get it to blow up.
	But no, I don't have one in the house.
	In fact, I think in both houses, I got another house obviously in Washington, and I think we had one for a while, and then...
	I think we got rid of it.
	I mean, it's just not a device I have much pride in owning.
	And they're ugly.
	They're just horrible looking things.
	Yeah, they are.
	I agree.
	Anyway, quite handy when you want to see if there's RFID chips embedded in your money.
	Well, I don't think there's a question, there's no question that RFID chips are embedded.
	I think it is odd that no one's talked about it, except on this show.
	Well, no, but if you look around, you'll see that people have been doing this since 2003, they've been talking about it.
	It's like, you know, it's one of these things that you see go in cycles, because, you know, you do the research, and you're Googling around, and even though it's kind of hard, Google doesn't do date-based searches very well, or the results are kind of hard to organize, but you'll see 2003...
	There's kind of a little blip there.
	And then around 2006, it popped up again.
	And then it just died away.
	Something else happened, I guess.
	Yes, people don't care.
	That's right.
	Let's just ride this wave until people don't care again.
	So, the hot news over here, now that I think about it, is the Fast Company article on China, which is a topic that we discussed months ago, about how China's, you know, taking, stealing, or getting, or making arrangements to get all this stuff out of Africa, right?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	So, now all the business talk shows, everybody's all over this article, which is like...
	We should have known this before, which I should have written, I guess, but it would have taken too much work.
	You actually said you were going to write about it in Market Wash.
	You said it was going to make a great column.
	I think you said that when we talked about it.
	Well, it's too late now.
	But the thing I think they overlooked was the one aspect, which is the most interesting, which is the fact that they do these deals where they get a free ride in terms of customs.
	Taxes.
	In taxes and tariffs.
	And they bring all their stuff over here.
	They never finish the projects that they promise.
	And then they sell everything, like they love to do.
	And they put every little vendor out of business because they have to pay customs, and the Chinese don't.
	And that seems to be more interesting than the fact that the Chinese are taking all the resources out of Africa.
	People have been taking resources out of Africa forever.
	It's not like, you know, it's...
	That's what it's there for.
	So it's there for, and the Chinese probably need more resources than anybody else right now, and at least there's a supply.
	I mean, otherwise, the prices of everything would be through the ceiling.
	Yeah, unlike $140 oil.
	Yeah, the oil thing is...
	So I listened to the...
	You know, it's funny, because I talked to all these people about this oil thing.
	So I was in...
	It was actually when I was in New York.
	I turned on C-SPAN... And they had the entire hearing about the oil situation with, what's his name, George Soros.
	And this guy, let's see, his last name is Greenberger, Kenneth, I think.
	Greenberger, you can look that up.
	Or Michael.
	Michael or Ken.
	I think it's Michael Greenberger.
	Oh, is this where Soros said it's all speculators who are driving the price up?
	It's the insurance companies who are rolling over month to month?
	Yep.
	Which, of course, we've talked about.
	Yep.
	Because it's pretty obvious that's what's going on.
	But anyway, this Greenberger guy, that was actually a lot more interesting than...
	And he used to be one of these regulators in the government, I guess, to around the year 2000 when he quit or retired or whatever.
	And he said something interesting that nobody seems to have picked up on.
	He says that there was a law that was passed sometime around in the late 80s or wherever it was just before the first energy crisis that allowed...
	It was called the Enron...
	The Enron bill or something.
	He has a name for it.
	Unfortunately, I didn't write it down.
	Like I said, I didn't write anything down.
	It was the thing that benefited Enron.
	It was kind of snuck into some other bill.
	And it allowed people to trade energy in a certain way.
	I think it was called the Enron loophole.
	And it made Enron what it was, which was an energy trading company.
	And so then they closed the loophole.
	But according to him, they left...
	A loophole open for this sort of speculation that's going on now with oil.
	And he says that's the only loophole.
	It's unregulated speculation.
	And he blames mostly the Dubai people because there's a Dubai trading desk.
	And London, there's a group in London, and those are the guys doing all the heavy lifting in this.
	And then he named two other American companies.
	Goldman Sachs and...
	What's the other one?
	Goldman Sachs and...
	Lehman?
	Lehman?
	No, it wasn't Lehman.
	It was one of the ones that seemed to be unscathed.
	Think about it.
	But anyway, these two American investment bankers, Morgan Stanley, he said Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are in up to their ears in this oil scam.
	Go ahead.
	And until they change the law where they have to, you know, get these guys back under regulation because they're speculating with, you know, essentially with no money.
	I mean, they're just essentially running this thing up like crazy.
	What I understand is that it's gotten so out of control that there's actually tankers off the coast of multiple countries, including the U.S., filled with oil, just waiting to unload the minute they're at the peak of the game.
	Because at a certain point, everyone's going to flip around and start selling, right?
	Yeah, they have to.
	So apparently there's even a shortage of tanker space right now because these tankers are just at anchor waiting to rush into a port to offload.
	Well, you know, this is the problem, and everybody knows that there's some, you know, 80 billion barrels, and there's some huge number of oil that's actually coming out of the ground, and it has to go someplace, and it has to go through the system, and the Americans in particular, I think we've dropped off 4%, 5%, I mean, it just doesn't sound like much, but it's, you know.
	It's like 300,000 barrels a day or something.
	It's millions of barrels overall that we're not soaking up anymore because we just...
	I've noticed this when I commute to San Francisco.
	It's like, wow, this is the way it ought to be.
	There's not as crowded.
	Yeah, no one's working.
	There's no jobs.
	Everyone's at home, not driving around.
	Fuck yeah!
	America!
	Fuck yeah!
	Here to save the motherfucking day, yeah!
	Okay, sorry.
	People, by the way, complain when you sing.
	As they should.
	Well, you never heard me sing.
	Then they really complain.
	So, yeah, there's a problem.
	And so I'm sure that all these tanks and all the refineries and everything must be filled to the brim.
	And, you know, this can't go on much longer because at some point, the oil starts just being dumped on the dirt, you know, or something because you can't, you know, it's a continuous process.
	It's not like batch.
	These are contracts.
	You're buying commodities, you know.
	Yeah, it's on paper, but at a certain point, it's like, all right, pay me and I deliver.
	Right.
	That's how it goes, right?
	Now, this latest run-up, when I was at the thing with the MarketWatch guys, we had one guy who was the CEO of Minionville, who was also a columnist for us, Todd, and he was a really typical stock trader.
	He was on the machine, and he was short on some energy futures, but he had to monitor it.
	By the second.
	So he's basically what everyone else is talking about things.
	He was like, he would say something and check the chart and say something.
	Because it had to be a minute by minute thing because he knew it was a little risky, his position, because oil was dipping that day.
	But anyway, he was on top of this and felt that there was something screwy going on, and he didn't have the opportunity to watch this hearing, and I don't think a lot of people did, but it was fascinating.
	But the thing that I was thinking when the thing took this big jump...
	The biggest jump in history, like the other day, yesterday, I'm thinking, and of course it's sunk the mark of 400 points, I'm thinking that maybe this is the death knell, because at some point, you know, let's just do everything we can to get it up to as high as we can, as far as we can, and then get out.
	I think that might have been it.
	Possibly.
	I had exactly the same response, only I'm going to take it one step further.
	I think it was a test.
	And they popped it and they're like, oh shit.
	So $150 is the next psychological barrier that will freak everybody out.
	I think they're going to try for $200 because there's no downside.
	The credit crisis just showed that.
	So what?
	So what if it blows up?
	They'll get bailed out or something will happen or whatever.
	I think they're going to go for $200 and that's the pop.
	Then all of a sudden this oil comes rushing into ports all over the place.
	It swamps the country.
	We're getting back to $2 a gallon.
	Oh, man.
	It's going to drop like an MF. The dollar is going to go sky high.
	And John McCain will be president.
	You know, I like what you said.
	I think it actually makes more sense.
	Because they have no downside.
	Yeah, no, no, no.
	You're right.
	I was thinking small.
	You're right.
	You got the right.
	I think you're right.
	That's the difference, John, between you and me.
	You think small, my friend.
	So, yeah, you might be right.
	They might just be saying, okay, screw it.
	We're just going to take it to the wall until it blows up.
	Let's end it on that note.
	We're at over an hour and a half.
	That's what people complain about.
	Actually, they don't.
	I know.
	They love it.
	Ah, yes.
	Well, we'll see what happens.
	So, the things we need to look out for.
	You have a lot to blog today, John.
	Way too much.
	Yeah, so it's not over with Clinton yet.
	I think we both agree on that.
	It's not over yet.
	Who knows what they'll come up with.
	Right, and it's not over with oil.
	It's definitely not over with oil.
	They're going to go for $200.
	It'll be interesting to see if they make it, because some of the contracts are already written, so it would make sense.
	And, uh, crap, I don't know, you around this week?
	I have to go to Michigan for a couple days.
	I'll be back on Wednesday.
	Okay.
	I'm giving a talk about, you know, the future of newspapers to a publishing group up there.
	Yeah, that's your new speech, right?
	That's your new thing?
	Yeah, it's one of them.
	You were going to send me that.
	I wanted to see your speech.
	Yeah, I'm finishing it today.
	I thought you had already done this just recently.
	I have, but I have a slide show to go with it that's a little more advanced.
	Wow.
	When one's in the neighborhood, would you get me an invite?
	I'd love to see one of your shows.
	One of your gigs.
	Yeah, absolutely.
	Do you sell merch?
	Do you have like t-shirts?
	No, you know, people say, well, you should be selling books at these things.
	Stuff to schlep.
	You know, I'm like a light traveler.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	There's a joke in that, too.
	Hey.
	All right, everybody.
	This is it.
	Winding down the show, once again, from Guilford in the United Kingdom, I'm Adam Curry.
	And out here in Northern California, it's a nice sunny day, by the way.
	I'm John C. Dvorak.

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