BKC Solutions Corner

Everyone loves a good spy film. It’s great to just lose yourself in the mad action and adventure, and imagine what it would be like if you could really have all those cool spy gadgets and drive around in one of those amazing customised cars. Here are five of the best film spies, and some of the reasons why we love them so much.

5. Austin Powers (Mike Myers, the Austin Powers trilogy)

Austin Powers is the absolute Bond spoof, mixed with some bizarre 60s eccentricity and a whole lot of ‘mojo’. He thinks he is the essence of spy-movie cool, and is oblivious to the fact that he’s really nothing but a slightly disturbing (if at times hilarious) parody. As for gadgets, if you can think of it Austin Powers most likely has it. Forget hidden cameras, tiny guns and secret voice recorders. Here we have giant lasers meant for blowing up the planet, ‘fembots’ with machine guns in their nipples and even a time travelling car!

4. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible)

In his quest to prove his innocence Tom Cruise’s Hunt proves himself to be the perfect sleek, efficient secret agent. He has the cool skills and even cooler gadgets (camera-glasses, exploding chewing gum, and who could forget those awesome masks!) and that annoying ability to get through anything, even a high-speed chase involving a train, a helicopter and the channel tunnel… and still look like he’s just stepped out of the hosue at the end of it all.

3. Charlie’s Angels (Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, Charlie’s Angels)

Charlie’s three femmes fatales are the ultimate team of secret agents. Working under the direction of the mysterious Charlie and with the help of his assistant Bosley (Bill Murray), they go around fighting crime and, well, kicking ass. They may seem all sweetness and innocence but when these girls get angry, you wouldn’t want to get on their bad side. And with the help of Charlie’s technological genius (they can plant voice recorders and trackers in people’s teeth!) there is really no stopping them.

2. James Bond

The ultimate spy who needs no introduction. Bond, in all his many guises, sets the bar for spy movies in every way.He’s suave, sophisticated and has a seemingly neverending arsenal of inconceivable gadgets and awesome cars at his disposal. And of course, he always gets the girl!

1. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon, the Bourne trilogy)

Bourne could well be the best spy of them all. After waking up with amnesia he has no idea who he is or why he’s there, but he still has the skill and cunning to stay alive and work things out. He hasn’t got the cool spy gadgets like Bond but it’s not like he needs them, he’s an expert at using everyday objects in unusual ways and he can fashion pretty much anything into a weapon!

So what are forex scams? Some people jump to the conclusion that anything that doesn’t make them rich overnight is a scam. They do not want to have to spend any time developing skills – they want something that works like magic, without putting in any effort at all. That’s clearly crazy. If such a thing existed, everybody would be using it … and when you think about the economics, even if something like that was created, it wouldn’t be effective for very long.

The fact is that the money you make has to come from somewhere. Technology can improve our methods of producing goods so that everybody’s standard of living improves and everybody becomes richer in real terms. However, when you are trading, gambling or doing anything else that involves ‘pure cash’ without any goods or services being produced, then for one person to gain, another person or institution has to lose.

It is true that in forex currency trading exchange, some of the bad prices are taken by people or institutions who either do not know or do not care. Businesses who import or export goods rarely bother to try to schedule their payments for a moment when the exchange rates are favorable. People taking a vacation overseas are the same. Nevertheless, there are so many people and institutions in the ‘pure’ forex market these days that it is simply not possible for everybody to make money from forex trading.

So when you are in an internet forum and you are trying to decide whether negative comments that you read about a product are really a sign of a scam, it is useful to picture the situation happening in the real world, i.e. offline.

Imagine you bought a book about forex day trading from a bookstore, but the system described in it did not work for you. It might be that the methods in the book were out of date, or they might not be suitable for you for some reason. You would probably have learnt something, and you would just shrug and accept that wasn’t the right system for you. You wouldn’t go back into town and call the bookstore owner a scammer.

But if the bookstore was inviting everybody to pre order a great new book on forex that was about to be published, and you and 1000 other people all handed over your cash, and the next day the store was closed and the owner had left town … that is a scam.

A scam, according to the dictionary, is ‘a fraudulent business scheme; a swindle’. A scam involves fraud and an intention to deceive. Scams are illegal. It is not correct to use this word to describe something offered and delivered in good faith.

People are very suspicious of buying online and you will often see the word ’scam’ thrown around without much justification. Usually it is just a case of a frustrated customer trying to blame the product for his inability to be successful with it, or it might be something that worked at one time but is out of date or has been over-used. You wouldn’t want to buy it except for historical interest but it wouldn’t be right to call these systems forex trading scams.

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Solar energy for residential houses is nothing new.  It has just been banished to the background in lieu of increasing cost of real estate ; more recent more advanced building materials, design and the limitation of resources. 

Since man started building houses, daylight played a major influence in the design.  In fact, even in the more advanced urban planning method of the Ancient Chinese and Greeks, the orientation of the buildings is as much as humanly possible directed towards where it could capture the most sunlight. 

The ancients might not be as intellectually complicated then to use slogans as passive solar and thermal mass but when they build, they were building in compact proportion, employing overhangs, producing insulations and building in manners that direct the airflow within the structure and producing well lit, well ventilated spaces using the relative position of the sun to the orientation of their structures. 

Lately, as the conventional sources of energy became dearer, homeowners were once more turning to the sun for energy requirements. 

Since the 1950’s, harnessing the sun’s rays has been developing and today the solar cell technology has achieved very efficient levels that modern ( supposed green house ) designs apply the sun’s power to provide energy for the home. 

While solar energy is free, the device which will convert it to run our appliances isn’t.  To provide solar energy for the home, solar cells called photovoltaic made from semi-conducting materials, are grouped into modules.  These solar panels are mounted on rooftops, yards or open spaces where it can capture the maximum amount of sunlight. 

Whenever possible, the panels will be installed facing south to get the most out of the daylight but tracking systems are also used to follow the direction of the sun.  The solar panels collect the energy from the daylight.  The method basically is that when the panels are exposed to daylight, the electrons are separated form the atoms.  This movement of the electrons creates electricity. 

To store power, pumps are sometimes used – circulating water in the cells.  The water goes into a storage tank where the power is stored, prepared for use.  Sometimes, the utilization of gravity is used if it will just the same store the heated water in to the tank. 

In spite of all of the development in solar energy though, the utilization of this technology isn’t enough to provide power to the whole house.  The best technique so far can only fulfill about eighty percent of a homes power needs.  Using solar energy for the home will still need the employment of the standard power distribution technique. 

Powering the houses by solar means will still, for some time be augmented by a local power distribution agency.  To several, this is already a good starting point.  Homeowners that feel the high price of powering their houses through solar power, is justified when put next to the price that is now being paid for traditional electrification technique where horrendous amounts of CO2 are getting dumped into the atmosphere just to generate a pathetic amount of electricity. 

However, due partly to the rising costs of energy, the technology for solar energy has been undergoing rapid phases of development.  Experts are confident that within 5 years, powering the home thru the solar method will be made widely available for those who prefer it as its sole energy source.

Well it is the time of year when both cable and satellite TV companies are raising rates.Comcast got the ball rolling in November of 2008, with notice that they would be raising rates on their customers. Dish Network followed up with their own announcement that took effect in early February of 2009, also raising prices on customers.

Direct TV is the latest major player to announce a rate increase. The Direct TV price hike will take effect in early March, and will raise the prices of most packages between $3 and $5 dollars each. DirecTV is citing higher programming costs as the reason for the price hike. DIRECTV prices have been raised for the past three years.

All in all, the increase won’t break any budgets. When you look at it logically, they are basically raising the price of service about a dime a day, well worth it for most satellite customers who watch between one and four hours of television each day. Still, it seems as if consumers are getting nickel and dimed to death, even with the economy going into the tank.

On the other hand, compare Direct TV vs Dish and that will give you a good feel on what satellite TV will offer. One example is the price charged for DVR service every month. The DirecTV DVR is about per month, while Comcast charges upwards of for their DVR service. Fees like this really can inflate your bill.

Direct TV had another stellar quarter to finish out 2008. They added over 300,000 customers in the last quarter of 2008, while Comcast lost a half a million. That in itself show that DirecTV feels comfortable raising rates, even though the economy continues to slow to a crawl. Dish Network satellite will certainly have a hard time keeping up with Direct TV in 2009, as they have lost a key reseller, with AT&T switching over and offering Direct TV service this year.

There is plenty of opportunity for unscrupulous people to make money fraudulently by launching a forex trading scam. Unfortunately there are always people who will part with money too fast in the hope of making more, this is especially true when it comes to the stock market. However, we cannot assume that a system has to make cash for everybody using it in order to be genuine. So what are the signs of a real scam?

1. Unrealistic claims

All websites that are promoting a forex product or service will try to appeal to your wish to make money. That is what forex day trading is about, after all. But if a site promises to make you millions of dollars virtually overnight no matter who you are and without requiring any work on your part, stay clear.

2. Huge earnings on trading account screenshots

It is also common for sites to provide images of their own trading account results to convince you that their system makes money. This is standard practice. A scammer will fake the screenshots using Photoshop, and it is pretty much impossible to tell.

So although having screenshots on the site is not in itself a problem, you shouldn’t pay much attention to them. Even if they are not faked, you don’t know that the person followed the exact system you are buying in order to obtain those results … and  even if the figures are 100% genuine, it certainly does not mean that you will achieve the same results.

3. No guarantee

There should be a money back guarantee on any product and you should not have to jump through hoops to get it. Look for a “no questions” guarantee rather than something that says you must have followed all instructions to the letter before you can qualify for a refund. Following the instructions may include investing more money than you have.

If you are buying a downloadable product such as an ebook or expert advisor, you can trust anything that is sold by Clickbank as far as refunds are concerned. Clickbank will always refund these items within 58 days of your purchase.

If you are looking at a membership site or a service, refunds on past payments may not be offered because of the time that the company will have put in to providing the service for you during the time that you were a member. However, you should make sure that you can cancel at any time without incurring further charges. Don’t sign up for something that locks you in to a contract for 6 or 12 months.

4. Bad press in the forums

All products will show you recommendations and testimonials from satisfied customers. If you want to be sure you can ask for evidence that they are real, and a genuine business will usually find a way for you to contact the person if there is not already a link given along with the testimonial. 

But even the worst day trading system will have some users who were just lucky. What you want to know is what the unsatisfied customers are saying. There will be some for every product, no matter how good, and you need to find them and sift through their comments. Are they just unhappy because they didn’t make a million dollars overnight, or was there a genuine problem with the product? Search for them in online forums to get a clear idea of which products are worthwhile and which ones might be a forex scam.

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