The pirates are demanding $25M in ransom (the tanker is carrying roughly $100M worth of oil).

The AP has more:

“We are demanding 25 million dollars (20 million euros) from the Saudi owners of the tanker. We do not want long-term discussions to resolve the matter,” a pirate who identified himself as Mohamed Said said from the ship.

“The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous,” Said told AFP from the ship now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere, without elaborating.

Seized at the weekend in the Indian Ocean some 500 miles (800 kilometres) off the coast of Kenya, the Sirius Star tanker was loaded to capacity with two million barrels of oil and the biggest vessel to be seized by pirates so far.

Think it’s an isolated incident?  Not so fast.  The International Chamber of Commerce has a live google piracy map that you can see of all the incidents taking place in the world right now.  I have a snapshot of it below.

First off, remember that you’re investing for the long-term future. The benefit about investing at our age is that we aren’t going to need the money in a year, we hopefully won’t need it for decades. The stock market will eventually be back up, and at the very least all you would need to do is wait.

Secondly, remember this is why you invested in primarily index funds (and if you didn’t, hopefully you’ll learn for the future). While your stocks are down (as the entire market is down) you won’t need to worry about the company you invested in declaring itself bankrupt.

Thirdly, look for the bottom. At some point, the stock market will start to recover. It may be in a few months, it may be a few years, but eventually that will happen. Around that point, is the perfect time to invest. It’ll average the cost of your stocks lower, and give you some great deals. Remember, you’re investing for the long-term future, a deal is a deal, don’t sell everything just because it’s going down.

What were the best instances to make money after economic downturns in the USA? Right after an economic decline. After the dot com burst, if you had invested in the 90’s you would have been able to sell for a significant profit in the past few years. Don’t forget the motto for investing. Buy low, sell high, and diversify and you’ll be just fine. I know it’s tempting to look at your portfolio, see it’s down 20% and freak out. Remember, until you sell it you haven’t lost anything yet. Take advantage of that most valuable resource that we possess  –time– and wait it out.

Finally, if you do feel comfortable investing a set amount of money every month knowing it’ll leverage your costs down and that you don’t need the money anytime soon (and that you’re a cool enough investor not to sell when you see a loss), look to dividend stocks for individual investments and index funds.

Hope that helps, keep your heads up, it’ll all turn around eventually. I’m a firm believer that you learn a lot more from mistakes than success. This economic downturn hopefully reinforces the same points I’ve tried to make on this blog, and will help you carry them with you for the rest of your life. If you did make some significant mistakes, remember it’s better to lose a couple hundred dollars now (and report that as a loss on your taxes) than to lose thousands of dollars when investing later in life.

I’m pretty impressed.  It couldn’t be easier to use, and works on any browser that has the plugin installed.  If you have never used a webcam before, Google is also offering some great deals for purchasing one through partner organizations.  See below for the links

Click here or go to http://mail.google.com/videochat to download and install the plugin.

Click here or go to http://www.google.com/mail/help/videochat/learnmore.html for special google webcams (offer ends November 30th).

Enjoy!

Amiable states, like Minnesota, tend to be lower in crime. Dutiful states — an eclectic bunch that includes New Mexico, North Carolina and Utah — produce a disproportionate share of mathematicians. States that rank high in openness to new ideas are quite creative, as measured by per-capita patent production. But they’re also high-crime and a bit aloof. Apparently, Californians don’t much like socializing, the research suggests.

The whole story was quite interesting and there is a great interactive graphic to see the results.  Read full story here.

The downside, of course, is that you’re constantly on call…and even more frustrating is that while fixing a problem may be simple for you, it grows much more complicated when you need to relay instructions through another person.

Fortunately, there’s a way to skip having to describe when to left-click and when to right-click (while not being able to see the screen yourself) and that solution is LogMeIn.

LogMeIn is extremely easy to use Remote Control software.  It’s far superior in functionality to the built-in Remote Desktop function on Windows, and more importantly it is very simple to install.  It is free, like everything else I profile, and allows you to gain remote control of your parent’s home computer using your computer from wherever you happen to be throughout the world.

Thus, next time there is a problem, instead of spending time over the phone explaining how to fix it, simply go to the website and log into your parents computer and you will have complete control over their computer.  That means that their screen will be displayed on yours, when you move your mouse it’ll move on their home computer screen, etc..  Thus no more explaining, simply do it yourself and then give control back to them and they’ll be good to go.

I’ve found LogMeIn to be very useful.  With a free version, the only thing it requires is a working internet connection.  Check it out, I hope it makes that long-distance remote support that much easier for you!

http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Main.aspx

Want to do a more advanced name search?  Forget just googling someone’s name, try Pipl.  It’s a search engine specifically for people that goes beyond Facebook and Google to give you more comprehensive results.

http://pipl.com/

Some classes require numerous novels, others require textbooks that cost hundreds of dollars.  The problem is that most of these books you will never need past the semester and if you try to sell them back when done using them to a street vendor it will often be at a price less than 10% of what you originally paid for it.  Here is a great way to save money and avoid following the old system.

First off, don’t buy textbooks from the official bookstore, these are extremely overpriced.  At the very least, buy them online through amazon.com or something similar.

A better option, however, is to merely rent the textbook for the semester!  This means that you pay a fee to rent the book (typically under 50% of the actual cost of the book) and at the end of the semester you mail it back in (if you fail to mail or return the book, or if you find the book useful and want to keep it you can then buy it at the full price).

The website I use for this is Chegg.

Check it out, see what you think.  Here are some additional features of Chegg.

• For every book you rent, Chegg plants a single tree to further your paper savings.
• Chegg pays the full shipping cost for returning your books.
• You can sell books you no longer use back to Chegg.
• Every semester, chegg has a wider range of books to rent out.

So what are you waiting for?  Look up some of your textbooks, see how much you can save and rent them for the semester.  Chegg.

-Tobin

1.  Unplug

Did you know that even if you aren’t using an electronic device but leave it plugged in, it still consumes electricity?  Computers, chargers, etc.., use electricity regardless of whether you are using the device so unplug them overnight.

Appliances such as toasters, coffee makers, and blenders are even worse, and you should only plug them in when you’re actually using them.

Take a look around and unplug those electronic devices you rarely use or think are “off” even though they’re plugged in.  Simply unplugging those devices will save you dollars at the month’s end.

2.  Switch to flourescent light bulbs

I highlighted this in an earlier post, but switching from your normal bulb to compact fluorescent bulbs is indeed one of the best waves to cut down on electricity usage.  Just don’t forget to make sure you properly dispose of any broken bulbs as the florescent bulbs contain trace amounts of mercury (which is why they are brighter, whiter, and last longer).

3.  Drive less

Walk, take public transportation, bike, or carpool.  All of these save you money, reduce carbon emissions, and thereby help lower the price you do pay at the pump.  Maryland recently announced a tax credit for small businesses that establish programs for their employees to use a more efficient method of transportation such as public transit or commuting.

4.  Buy the new IKEA solar panels

Ok so these panels aren’t actually ready yet, BUT it was recently revealed that IKEA is investing $77 Million into its GreenTech energy fund in order to create solar panels that it can sell at its stores.  With 270 stores in 25 countries, IKEA has the potential to distribute these solar panels far and wide.

Their goal is to have it ready for production within 3-5 years.

5.  Recycle

This definitely isn’t a new method, but it still is important.  Simply putting recycable materials in the right containers instead of the trash helps tremendously.

Don’t think it has an impact on your wallet? Think again.  Paper, plastic and metal are the three things most commonly recycled.  Those plastic milk jugs are made from oil-based products.  Recycle more of them, less oil is used, price of oil goes down, and you get the picture.

There you go!  I’m all about helping keep the planet in tact for the future, but when it helps me save some money at the same time it seems like a no-brainer to me.  There are far more than 5 ways to go green and save money at the same time so feel free to post any other ideas you’ve heard of.

Check it out: https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx