King Midas, you may remember, had a problem with gold. Everything he touched turned to the yellow stuff.
Fine for a while, but not when he realised "everything" meant just that - everything.
He might have had some sympathy with Apple's problem of simply having too much money.
And the biggest quarterly profit in history, $18bn, is actually adding to Apple's biggest headache - an excess of cash.
In short the company is making money far faster than it can spend it.
Its cash pile now stands at close to $142bn (£93.5bn).
The problem is how to generate a return with that money for shareholders.
It has enough, in theory, to buy 480 or so of the companies in the S&P 500.
Or Lithuania, three times over.
But simply buying up companies is a complex and intricate business and suitable take-over targets are few and far between.
Its latest, the subscription music service Beats, cost just $3bn - and that was its largest purchase ever.
Apple is spending cash - but buying Beats subscription music service only cost $3bn
Apple Campus
It can invest in its own development, and it is spending an estimated $5bn on the 176-acre Apple Campus headquarters site.
But still the money keeps rolling in.
Most of it gets parked in what the accounts call "cash and cash equivalents" and short and long term marketable securities: government and corporate bonds.
Apple manages the cash through a subsidiary, Braeburn Capital, based in Reno, Nevada which has no state corporate income tax, or taxes on corporate shares.
It is in effect one of the largest hedge funds in the world.
But shareholders like shareholder activist, Carl Icahn, have been demanding the company simply must hand some of that cash back to shareholders by buying back shares.
Share buybacks
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital went so far as to sue the company two years ago to try to get a payout.
They argue that cash, invested largely in government securities gives a paltry rate of return.
Einhorn argued that getting the excess cash off Apple's balance sheet and back to shareholders would increase the value of the company by $50 per share or more.
So the company obliged and in 2012 started buying back its own stock . Last year it spent some $45bn buying back Apple shares.
Shareholders have been demanding share buybacks from Apple - and getting them
The problem is it has not made much difference. The latest set of results show it has as much cash as it has ever had.
In total, the amount of cash in the group is around $178bn. Some $35bn in debt reduces that figure to the $142bn mentioned above.
Debt? Why on earth, when you have more wealth in your piggy bank than the average developing nation generates in a year, would you want to borrow more?
The answer is that little of that cash is easily accessible to pay shareholders. Some 89% of it lies offshore out of the hands of the Internal Revenue Service.
Tax reform
Bringing it back would subject it to a top corporate tax rate of 35%.
Far easier to borrow the money instead. And since it has a such a cash pile behind it, banks are happy to lend to Apple at rock bottom rates - even by today's standards.
Last year Apple funded its share buy-back with a $17bn bond issue.
So, in effect, Apple did what Icahn and Einhorn wanted.
The share price has recovered from around $60 in mid 2013 to around $110 this week.
But the cash mountain remains.
Chief Executive Tim Cook told Congress two years ago that much of it could eventually come back to the US.
He even admitted Apple would be happy to pay more tax, but only if there was a "dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code" including a "reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows the free flow of capital back to the United States".
But of course if the money did flow freely back to the US, no one is guaranteeing it would be invested any more wisely than it is at the moment.
Gaps detected in the ring system also suggest that some of the material may already have coalesced to form moons. This phenomenon can beseen at work in Saturn's rings today.
"You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn," said Prof Eric Mamajek, from the University of Rochester in the US.
The rings were found in data gathered by the SuperWASP observatory, which can detect exoplanets as they cross in front of their parent stars, causing the light from them to dim.
In this case, the astronomers saw a complex series of deep eclipses lasting for 56 days. They think this is caused by a planet with a giant ring system blocking out light as it passes in front of the star J1407.
"The light curve from end-to-end took about two months, but we could see very rapid changes in the space of one night," lead author Dr Matthew Kenworthy, from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, told BBC News.
"Over a time of half an hour, the star can dim by 30 or 40%."
If Saturn's rings were the same size as those around J1407b, they would be easily visible from Earth at night and would be many times larger than a full Moon.
This artist's impression shows how the ring system might look in our night sky if they were put around Saturn
Other possibilities, such as a planet-forming disc (the swirling mass of dust and gas from which planets form around a star) can be ruled out. A disc, says Dr Kenworthy, would produce much smoother changes in the light curve of J1407.
Last year, the astronomers tried to find the planet itself, but were not able to observe it.
"We threw the kitchen sink at this, we tried every single technique that we could think of," said Dr Kenworthy.
"But the lack of a detection means it has to be substellar, and the only thing that could hold these rings in place is a planet."
The team thinks that the planet itself is most likely a gas giant like Jupiter, but between 10 and 40 times as massive as that planet.
The distant ringworld, named J1407b, might also offer a glimpse - on a much larger scale - of the process that led to the formation of moons around gas giants in our own Solar System.
"The planetary science community has theorised for decades that planets like Jupiter and Saturn would have had, at an early stage, disks around them that then led to the formation of satellites," said Prof Mamajek.
The astronomers found at least one clean gap in the ring structure.
"One obvious explanation is that a satellite formed and carved out this gap," said Dr Kenworthy. "The mass of the satellite could be between that of Earth and Mars."
The researchers are encouraging amateur astronomers to help monitor J1407, which would help detect the next eclipse of the rings. Observations of J1407 can be reported to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).
: the study of how the positions of the stars and movements of the planets have a supposed influence on events and on the lives and behavior of people. – Merriam-Webster Dictionary
A recent Norwegian study, found that humans born during solar minimums (periods of lesser Sun activity) live 5 years more than people born during solar periods of higher activity.
The researchers examined the lives of 8,600 people born in between the years of 1676 to 1878 and they noticed this reoccurring trend. They then established that higher Sun rays affected the amino acids during higher periods of energy – therefore damaging the acids more so than the calm, to say for lack of a better term. Of course, astrology has not been given more credence in light of this.
Pictured is NASA data on peak levels of solar activity – indicated by higher levels of sunspots – from 1750 to 2014 (image source)
Astrology claims that stars and movements of the planets have a supposed influence on events and on the lives and behavior of people, as stated in the definition above.
Key word: influence – since the Sun affects us it offers more insight into the term, “astrology.” But wait a second, there’s more to this topic that must be considered. A real science to this.
Let’s get this clear, water has a memory. Some in mainstream “science” wish to “debate” this “theory,” one cause for this is because if they accept this, they must also accept homeopathic healing. Homeopathy is the medicine of using water to retain the information of plant parts – when this is ingested it balances the energy in your body. Allegedly, I’ve never had it done myself, but they do not believe this because they cannot see plant particles by the time the water is ready. “It can’t work, there isn’t any plant particles left!” Oh, but there is. It was scientifically proven several years ago.
The peer-reviewed scientific journal Naturepublished a study in 1988 detailing the science of water memory. Some have dismissed this study and that is alright. One who has dismissed it is a scientist who brushed off a new study, that I will detail in a moment. He said he “looked really hard” to find the citations for the said study and found “nothing.” However, some of his commenters found data within a two minute window, including a book for the public to read that describes theexperiments in detail.
In 2012 the Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart, Germany found that water retains information. They created technology that enables them to photograph the physical structure of water.
In 2004 the researchers conducted an interesting experiment. They instructed four students to retrieve water from the same source, then drop a row of four droplets each, per student. The water “remembered” each students’ unique “imprint” seamlessly:
Water remembers information, so what? Well, this is where it gets very intriguing. The researchers also found that human blood remembers music, it remembers sound.
Since the human body (which has blood in it) is 50-70% water this is no surprise. Lets take this a bit further and expand this theme shall we? Russian scientist Dr. Peter Gariaev lead a research group into the theme that DNA can affect its surroundings. That DNA itself has a memory, or an information pattern that can be memorized by the environment and perhaps even manipulated. Peter Gariaev showed through his experiments that DNA and sound waves correspond with one another. Gariaev also alleges that DNA itself not only possesses its own memory but also an awareness of its own surroundings and its own consciousness – a little similar to the water theme huh?
Scientist Harry Bigelsen found that human blood memorizes all illness throughout the body. So if you have a broken leg, Bigelsen can use what he calls Symplast to “photograph” your blood and establish an illness far more accurately and faster than any method today. Any method propped by mainstream medicine that is. He calls it holographic blood:
Nobel peace prize winner Luc Montagnier found that DNA can imprint on its environment. Once the DNA was removed during the experiments it could still bedetected by his instruments. He later filed a patent for technology that can more accurately detect “phantom DNA” as he calls it.
DNA and water can be affected by sound, their very physical makeup can be altered and rewritten via sound and energy and it has its own memory. It is also a two way street, in terms of it also imprinting on the environment. Just like an interactive game, you give the gave input and it will give it back to you. What this means we have a relationship with reality that we never fully understood the significance of. Now lets remember that thoughts have their own energy and can be measured as well. What power do our own thoughts have when we can reprogram our own DNA?? Hey, while we’re at it – words are sounds too aren’t they? The implications for this understanding have opened an entirely new view of the universe and us as humanity. I feel this must be explored deeper. It is no surprise therefore, that studies are showing phototherapy (using light to heal the body) make teeth heal faster, cure ulcers and a multitude of other illness. Big Pharma never told you about that one did they?
We interact with reality in a far more fluid way than we ever understood before. But hey, lets wrap this up with astrology.
Whenever the sun enters very high levels of activity it affects life on this planet, so when it was publicly stated that the Sun and the Earth have magnetic portals that connect the two this is no surprise. Scientists also didn’t believe this was “possible” until recently, but let’s remember: Just because they don’t believe it’s true doesn’t mean that it isn’t still true.
It has been documented over and over again that the number of sunspots in coherence with this planet, will relate to the number of historical events on this planet. We’re talking about revolutions, renaissance – evolution. Joe Martinoperformed a Ted Talk and goes into detail about this subject. I highly recommend watching this. The Global Coherence Initiative has heavily documented this and other phenomena and I highly recommend reviewing this information and creating your own conclusion. They also found that the sun can give usinformation input! We can “learn” from the Sun!
It is no secret that our moon affects human behavior, including increasing murder and psychotic action amongst the population during full moon cycles. British police departments even add more officers during shifts that occur with the full moon, including eclipses. Hence the term: lunatic = lunar-tic.
Here is where we wrap this baby up and send it home. We have understood the theme: sound and energy affect us on a whole new level we never understood before. It can affect our very genetic structure, even enhancing our consciousness via sound. Guess what? As it turns out, he Sun emits sound:
Mythologically, the planet Saturn has been worshiped as the God of time, death, rape, institutions, authority and an assortment of other connotations similar to this. Saturn also has an odd and almost haunting sound:
Saturn also gives off 2.5 times more heat than it receives from the Sun, NASA also recently discovered a super giant Saturn ring that swallows this planet. This giant of a planet emits more energy than it receives, those who know David Icke and his work, understand he alleges Saturn is actually a brown dwarf star. Perhaps he’s not too far off?
What does this mean? I don’t really know, but I do know that there is something happening here. There is a relationship between heavenly bodies and us that is very significant. This is a new science, a new frontier that will be explored and I am convinced there will be many many new discoveries that will benefit us as a whole. Take note, not all of my details may be correct, but it is the theme that is important. I sincerely hope I offered a new perspective into your life that you found wholesome and true. If this information felt right to you, follow it. It may bring you to some interesting places. As always, thank you so much for reading.
About the Author Alec Cope is a journalist, researcher and an instrument in new forms of perception and evolution. I am a contributor to We Are Change as well as Collective Evolution and I am creating my own media/news outlet as well which will be completed soon. I have a YouTube page where I post new videos daily:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHO_7a2qm6nM6LCr_rlE9VgI have a Facebook page where you can keep up with the latest news as well as my work:https://www.facebook.com/alecope88 If you wish to contact me my personal email is alecope8@gmail.com. I love hearing from everyone
The Science That Validates Astrologyby Alec Cope as·trol·o·gy noun \?-?strä-l?-j?\ : the study of how the positions of the stars and movements of the planets have a supposed...
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Amateur historian John Greenewald has spent nearly two decades requesting declassified information from the US government regarding UFOs.
Recently, he posted more than 100,000 pages of documents on the US Air Force's internal UFO investigations to the internet. Here are the top five things to know from the open files of Project Blue Book.
1. Project Blue Book had a sizeable mission
The origins of the ambitious project can be traced to June 1947, UFO researcher Alejandro Rojas tells the BBC.
The editor of Open Minds magazine says a well-respected businessman and pilot, Kenneth Arnold, was flying over Washington state when he witnessed several unidentified flying objects.
Arnold later described the crafts as "skipping like saucers", which the media adopted and took to calling flying saucers.
This high-profile incident - along with several others, including a rumoured UFO landing in Roswell, New Mexico, the same year - led the Air Force to launch an investigative body.
The Air Force says this wreckage, recovered near Roswell, New Mexico, came from a radar target
Named Project Blue Book and headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the programme was reportedly comprising only a handful of staff.
Nonetheless the group investigated 12,618 UFO sightings in a two-decade period.
2. Project Blue Book was created in a time of public unease
Formed in the years immediately following World War Two, Project Blue Book was intended to stop the spread of public unease about a growing number of reported UFO sightings, including over such landmarks as the White House and US Capitol.
"There was a lot of hysteria with the public, and that to the military and government at the time was a big threat in itself," Greenewald says. "It didn't matter if UFOs were alien or not, they were causing a panic, so [the government] had to settle everybody's nerves."
There are secrets after conspiracies after scandals that continue to come out”
John GreenewaldAmateur UFO historian
Though frequently met with derision today, UFO sightings are said to have been discussed at the top levels of government in the 1940s and 1950s.
"It was taken very seriously back then," Rojas says, with Central Intelligence Agency chiefs publicly claiming it was a real phenomenon and even then-Congressman Gerald Ford warning it needed to be investigated.
In 1966 a separate Air Force committee was set up to further delve into some of the cases within Project Blue Book. That group later released a report finding no evidence of UFO activity.
Project Blue Book was officially shuttered in 1969.
3. Many of the Project Blue Book cases appear open-and-shut
Though many credible sources, from Navy admirals to military and civilian pilots, reported seeing UFOs, most of the cases investigated by Project Blue Book were deemed caused by weather balloons, swamp gases, meteorological events or even temperature inversions.
In Seattle, Washington, in April 1956, a witness described seeing a "round, white object, one-half the size of the moon … [and] going round and round", according to documents.
Investigators later concluded it was a meteor and closed the case.
Amateur UFO investigators believe the truth is still out there
In January 1961 in Newark, New Jersey, a witness reported viewing a dark grey object "about the size of a jet with no wings".
That object was later deemed a jet aircraft flying in the area.
4. Some Project Blue Book cases aren't so easily explained
According to Greenewald and Rojas, more than 700 Project Blue Book entries could not ultimately be explained by investigators. Many such cases cited insufficient data or evidence.
But even some of the closed cases raise more questions than answers for UFO researchers.
In one such example, a police officer in 1964 in Socorro, New Mexico, halted vehicular pursuit of a suspect after he saw a strange aircraft overhead.
The officer followed the craft - which he described as bearing a strange red insignia - and saw it land and two child-sized beings exit.
It later took off, leaving scorch marks and trace evidence on the ground.
"[Project] Blue Book labelled it unexplained; even after all these decades they still can't explain it," Greenewald says.
5. There is still information to be uncovered about UFO activity
Though Greenewald has amassed a stockpile of government documents, he says there are still many he - and the public - has not yet accessed.
One request to the National Security Agency yielded hundreds of pages, but they were so redacted only a few words were readable on each page, he says.
Other US government entities - including the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency - also conducted UFO investigations that have not been publicly released, Greenewald notes.
"I think Project Bluebook … is simply the tip of the iceberg," he says, adding he will continue to request more information from the US government.
"There are secrets after conspiracies after scandals that continue to come out," Greenewald concludes. "There's always something to go after."
Dwarfed by his own success - CEO Tim Cook and Apple's money making monster
Apple is spending cash - but buying Beats subscription music service only cost $3bn
Shareholders have been demanding share buybacks from Apple - and getting them
