The summer offers greater opportunity to drive around the location where you live and learn the stories of how and why you came to be there. If you go back in history, people originally settled by the water for both water and food. In time the place either grew or people moved to other places which evolved into cities. Once the cities came, people wanted more space and if they had come to the eastern part of the US, they thought of going west. The west offered many opportunities and people shipped their goods to the east to be sold. As time goes on, the search for a less expensive and relatively faster way to ship goods and people came and the first choice was canals. In a book called Bridges, Canals & Tunnels – the Engineering Conquest of America by David Jacobs and Anthony Neville published by American Heritage Publishing, NY, 1968 the authors describe the challenges of doing what we all consider to be normal. The first canal built was the Erie Canal – from New York City take the Hudson River north to Albany (the state Capital) and turn west to end up in Buffalo.  While the line on the map is relatively straight the terrain is not. Similar to canals at the time, everyone thought it was a great idea, but it was expensive, there were many political challenges, however once in operation the cost to build the canal was earned back with 10 years. With those results, the rest of the US looked to build canals to generate income – most did not succeed, perhaps there are canals where you are going this summer many of them are now used for more leisurely or tourist purposes.  It was interesting with the building of the Erie Canal the cost of the sending goods from Philadelphia to Columbus, Ohio overland was twice as expensive and took 10 days longer than sending the goods from Philly to New York through the Erie Canal to Buffalo and then onto Columbus.

The invention of the steam engine lead to the great railway building age and once again prices fell and length of time to ship the goods fell. The challenge of the engineers was the lands around the Appalachian Mountain range is not flat and many bridges needed to be built. The design of the bridge which fit the needs to be relatively inexpensive, pleasing to look at and very functional was a given that the engineers overcame. After the bridges, because trains have to have a relatively flat base, the great train tunnels were built – it was technically easier to go through the mountains than around them and new processes were developed. After the private automobile became affordable the demand for roads, highways, interchanges kept the engineers busy.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with the 3 transportation routes, those that could build the first ones were the companies which would have a monopoly and could increase prices to make healthy profits. The government’s role was to ensure bonds could be sold, but there was limited competition which would allow the bondholders to be repaid. The barriers to entry meant new competition was desired after the first company increased prices too much and sometimes it was cheaper to go through a different city to get better prices. There were alternatives and dividend paying companies must watch monitor closely the alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

There is an expression, what does that taste like? chicken and everyone seems to know what chicken tastes like. Why is that and why did the chicken of all animals be found in all countries of the world? The book Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? by Andrew Lawler published by Atria Books, NY, 2014 tries to answer the question and the chicken turns out to be an interesting bird. The next time the reader goes to the Fall Fair, looking at the chickens will be more than a quick in and out. The chicken has its roots in South East Asia and is known as the Red Jungle Fowl. The characteristics of the chicken soon made in valuable and revered throughout the world. If you are sick – eating chicken soup is good for you, all around the world everyone knows this and it works. The rest of the chicken is used for other aliments too. In addition, because the chicken scratches the ground looking to eat bugs, it is desired around the world. The male is the rooster and it crows in the morning as the sunrises – it sees the light before the other animals this makes the rooster needed for religious ceremonies around the world. The chicken also lays eggs at a faster rate than other birds which makes it a food source and very desirous for health research. It turns out the chicken is more valuable than at first glance. The book tells many different stories about people around the world for centuries and their relationship to the chicken.

In many of those stories, women have a lead role – food, medicine, collecting the eggs. It was not until the 1950’s when a committee called the Chicken of Tomorrow decided to breed the chicken to look more like a turkey in the sense of broader and thicker breast and meatier thighs and drumsticks. The crossing of California Cornish males and New Hampshire females gave this bird the correct amount of European and Asian genes made the chicken about 4 pounds or twice the size of the average bird. With advances in science, nutrition, breeding it was soon able to grow a bird in half the normal time which allowed prices to fall. The falling prices plus advertising and linkages to the post world lifestyle and soon more people were choosing to eat chicken. At this time the chicken producers John Tyson Farms, Frank Perdue and others entered and changed the chicken business.

One of the hot new movies this month is expected to be Mission Impossible staring Tom Cruise, this is a franchise which keeps delivering box office revenues for the movie companies. In my part of the county, while the weather is wonderful it is also hot which drives people to air conditioning facilities including movie theaters. The summer is traditionally one where more people go to the theater and if you have checked out the prices at the popcorn stand you will determine if your rather invest in the studio or the company showing the movies. It is likely the better choice of the company, multimillion dollar blockbusters help the company stock more. Every week the top movies are released and some of them have been Marvel franchise which is owned by Disney.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, enjoy the movie and watch the credits how is the distributor? who is the director? are they great and hot? are they consistent? If they you may more money in the months to come.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In our lives, we hear many speeches or parts of them, hopefully the best parts of them for there is only a limited time on the news hour. Sometimes the speeches are delivered by managers or executives or outsiders. The problem is most are not classic or telling you anything. Often times speeches are given which do not seem to project the sincerity or honesty of the speaker, the speech was scheduled but it is not to offend or jeopardize a person’s position in the company or political party. There are methods which the speeches could be better and the book Classic Speeches edited by Richard Crisscup published by The Citadel Press, NY, 1965 can help. The book is an anthology of speeches that have been monumental, both in their impact on their times and in their influence on history. One good thing about this anthology is there are speeches by a wide variety of speakers – hopefully some you would disagree with.

The aspect of reading classic speeches is to review the ones that resonate with you and ask yourself why? In this case, classic speeches do not have to be long, but they have to an opening, body and conclusion. The speech must reflect the sincerity and passion of the individual and it has to offer some sort of hope. Hope for the listener something will be better in the future.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the words the President says about the company are taken seriously and when he/she says the wrong thing, stocks changed hands. As dividend holders we want to hear the company has another successful year to stay profitable and pay the dividend (that is a good speech in itself); afterwards we want to hear hope for the future. Why will the company continue to be profitable? Shareholders reports are rarely classic speeches in the vein the Classic Speeches book categories them, but we can hope.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

The book called The Race – The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon by James Schefter, Doubleday, NY, 1999. In the book is President Kennedy’s one sentence from a speech where he was honest, blunt, with a youthful and idealistic heart which changed everything about space, He said,  “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out; of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

At the time, both Russia and the US had put a man in space but not very far into space. The rockets which sent the first people into space would have to be redesigned; the first capsules were for one person – the journey to the moon takes 3 people. There was no method to disengage from the main rocket while one person continues to orbit the moon; the other 2 to land on the moon and then take samples. The vehicle would have to take off and connect back to the main rocket and come home safely. There was still many unknowns and many aspects of the journey to be created. This was a time when millions of people regularly watched the lift offs of the rockets and their short journeys.

The genius of the manned spaceflight team only became obvious later. They understood that the advanced work took time and must be done right. The goals were set were superhuman and dedication flowed from the top to the bottom of the chain. The hallmarks of the team were brilliance, innovation, passion and sacrifice. The only clock that counted was the countdown clock.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the space program had a great many unknowns but it was fortunate to be led by the right people for its time. One can imagine it was one thing to see the rockets go up successfully, but budgets and political considerations needed to be managed, all by people who were brilliant at science to those who were not. However the driving force was President Kennedy’s remark about going to the moon, landing, and coming back safely. Each were huge challenges and would lead to many problem solving exercises. The point is the people did it, does your company which you have invested in have a goal which at present is a dream? could it? then you would know what to look forward to.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

After World War II, many aspects of life were better, for example because of the concentration of resources and desire to win in the war those military findings can create new ways to do things. In the war, the idea is to kill more people so they surrender, but after the war those advances can be used for peaceful purposes. During the war, the Germans engineers were far ahead of the Americans and Russians, this resulted both sides took as many Germans engineers as possible to their countries to work on rockets. These rockets were to be aimed at space – outer space and who arrived first besides bragging rights could control space. There was a long time between WW II and when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon but all the wonders and themes of technology to help man are wrapped up in the story. The story is written in a book called The Race – The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon by James Schefter, Doubleday, NY, 1999.

The book is a wonderful guide and story to how we arrived at where we are now – looking back decisions are made while innocent at the time lead to new ideas and the continual improvement. One idea was when a person is sent to space how involved should they be? the answer was without man being in control why go? Another idea was the miniaturization of the materials to save weight and space, this continues today. In the 1950’s and beyond computers and equipment were big, today they fit into your hand.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the Race was leading by Russia (the first satellites) and then President Kennedy said we will land on the moon in the early 1960’s with the Americans landing in 1969. This decade lead to great research and development and wonderful engineering problem solving with significant spinoffs to everyday life. Those spinoffs helped create companies that exist today for they had the foresight to do something with the learning. Dividend paying stocks are the profitable ones and although there is no great race today, companies still have to be conservative enough to keep paying dividends and liberal enough to look forward to future earnings.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In 1977 a blockbuster movie came out about World War II called a Bridge Too Far. It had a long cast of famous actors and depicted the actions around one of the most disastrous battles during the war The operation was called Operation Market Garden and on paper it seemed like a good idea. The war was winding down by September 1944 (it was over in 1945) and the allies controlled the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. In seem like a good idea to jump ahead, control the bridges over the rivers in the Netherlands (Holland) and put a end to the war quickly. It seemed like a good idea, confidence was high and the thought was the area in question was not highly defended. It turned out, by accident or luck the Germans had moved a highly skilled tank unit into the area, the allied commanders dismissed the warnings and had a great desire to go ahead with the plans did not put those considerations into the plans. Some bridges were taken but the main bridge was not, which meant because there was one road leading to the bridge, the allied troops could not go over the bridge and after many lives were lost, the allies retreated.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the combination of overconfidence and not estimating the moves of the competition is a deadly one In battle, it leads to people dying; in economics it leads to loss of market share or no return on your investment. Confidence is a great thing – companies and people gain it over time and believe what they are doing is good and can lead to even better results Under estimating your competition is a death nail, particularly now when companies are so nimble. There is more competition because the barriers or ability to compete are continually falling. If the management of the companies you own underestimates the competition they will be out of their seats in a short time and you will be changing companies

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Recently a picture was in the newspaper about Ford’s Ergonomics Lab with the caption line since 2003, Ford has reduced the injured rate for its more than 50,000 US assembly line workers by 70% through ergonomics technology. This statistic screams to me about declining insurance and hospital costs paid by Ford Motor. There are a number of You Tube videos of how they do what they are doing, needless to say it is very good they are doing it. An assembly line means vehicles come down the line and parts are added to it; in the world of design the heights would have been set to an average person – but if you look at who the company hired, most of them are not average. For example, someone is a little shorter and standing on their toes to do the job, causes back strain which is an extremely hard thing to prove and get over. Standing on a raise platform solves the problem. In the Ergonomics Lab the lab can go through the motions and see the stresses on the joints and pressure points and design the line to significantly reduce the stresses. The healthier the people are, the less the insurance costs and the company can use the people it spent time and effort to hire in the first place.

There are many ways to save costs, one method is to force it onto the employees or the government, which means the company does not pay for costs,  but the problem is not solved. The Ergonomics Lab helps save cost which is why you might ask the larger companies if they have the capabilities or have used the lessons to design to save money – both insurance and human costs. From my perspective this is something all companies should be using for their employees because great design saves money, bad design costs money.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When we sign on to any electronic device, we have the ability to find information or to create or to be curious about any subject or many other descriptive ideals that can or could bring the world closer to each other. Those are valuable ideas, but there is also organizations generally governments which only want us to go so far and then they monitor us. The internet has two sides one open and free the other all the issues of surveillance, privacy and the dark side of the internet. In a book called Black Code published by Signal – a division of Penguin Random House, Toronto, 2013 the author Ronald Deibert takes the reader into the darker side of the internet. The world of the internet can be a friendly place, but it has many attributes of carefully watching and in some instances acting on your concerns. In the world of Big Data, the individual is not focused on because it is trying to figure out the patterns of many people. In the aspect of surveillance and privacy the individual is focused on, typically the government of the day can easily find what words and when you are using words which they do not want you to use. Mr. Deibert and others focus on what the government is following. In some cases – China – it focus on those having too friendly relations with countries they consider to be there territory. In some cases – China – it focuses on gathering data which can be used by state companies. In some cases – Russia – there is a the fraud aspect. In some cases – Syria, with the internal war going on, the internet is used to pinpoint where the opposition is (there is a old movie Independence Day where to defeat the alien enemy morse code is used, if you are going to be in a war zone learn morse code). There are many methods which the internet can be used in the dark side.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while these companies earn profits which pay dividends the threat is fraud and draining banking accounts. All companies have information on the internet and use the pipelines of the net. What happens if something goes wrong? Part of the internet network is based on trust, and if you are easily looking trust can be broken for a price, how does the company protect your investment?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.