You purchase gold as an asset, and perhaps make a bet that the price will go up.

An investment produces a regular return based on a mathmatical formula. That can be a poriton of profits from a venture you've invested in, or a standard interest rate earned on the cash invested.

When, you buy, gold, art, comic books, dot come stocks or tulip bulbs with the intention of selling them later for more than you paid you are making a bet, not investing. This sort of financial speculation is based on what economists call "the bigger idiot theory" which states that no matter how much you paid for an asset, there is a bigger idiot than you who will pay more. Eventually however you do arrive at the king idiot who pays more for the asset, than can be returned from the market. Everytime you buy gold or other assets as an "investment" you are making a bet that you are not the king idiot, and like those at the OTB who make similar wagers on which is the fastest horse, they are more often wrong than they are right.

There are three things you can do with your money:

Invest it, gamble with it, or purchase an asset.

When you purchase an asset you are either makeing said purchase to hold value (which is gold's traditional use) or to use the asset. This was the basic financial misunderstanding in housing. Your house will always have less value than what you paid for it, as your use of the house lowers it's value. Now some market factors may come into play and make the land your house is on worth more or less, but if you are making that bet, you are gambling. Your actual house depreciates in value just like your car, every year you use it.

This is basic financial literacy which is sorely lacking in the world. That Salon, and CNBC and eveyr other outlet would use the word investor when they mean gambler shows exactly how little these people really know about finance.

Yes a good gambler can make money, they can make that money on wall street or cross the river to atlantic city. As a gambler you play the odds and look at recent trends.

However they don't pay for those nice carpets and free drinks at the casino by giving away money, and those nice offices at Goldman Sachs aren't paid for by making you rich.

Now, investing in stocks and bonds are still good ideas, provided you know what you're buying and why. Likewise you can buy an asset like a home or gold and hold it for the long haul.

Right now however there is a bubble in gold which will pop and people will lose their shirts, so I would stick with just buying a roof over your head for the moment, and realize that's probably where you will be living for the rest of your life.

The Attraction of Vampires is that they are evil, but can be changed through the love of a good woman.

This is the essence of most commercial erotic fables for women.

It is the best of all worlds, rebllion, freedom, and of course controll, which is what all erotic fiction is about in the end.

It is a story as old as Enkidu, the wild man tamed by woman, and brought back to use his talents for the betterment of society.

The story is mysogynistic from told from the male point of view (likely why men have such a dislike of this crop of vampire porn) but empowering from the female point of view.

The story is of how love changes a mate, and that is of course the fantasy. In truth the person's nature doesn't change, male or female, no matter what you do. If they are a snake, they remain a snake. You can't tame a wild man or wild woman through the force of your love or will alone, and I think in it's own way was the repudiation of this story we saw in the Buffy Angel story.

If you want to know why Twilight is popular, ask why the Song of Gilgamesh was popular some few thousand years ago, and why we keep revisiting the same story those bards put down then.

Obviously, it's entirely possible they enlarged the breasts for the cover, but I think the cover shot was intended to be a sexy supervillain look for the actress, something she likely agreed to since such cover shots are often used to break out of established character norms for television actresses.

In truth, it's not like they made her look like Daphne Rosen, at most they highlighted the space between (which could have been done with lighting or make up not necessarily photo shop). And if they aribrushed, probably just an "evening up" of the offending orbs.

Regardless, most covershots of professional actresses have numerous riders that go along with them. This is her image afterall, somethign she lives or dies on in her business, so any manipulation usually has the consent of the actress.

I have been to burningman and I believe that ammounts to a life time ban from public office.

Beyond that, actual politicing is hard and difficult work, it is much easier and more pleasant to be a loud mouthed schnook then to actually try to affect change in a political office.

I love politics, much like Einstein loved the violin, and I take his advice, if you love something that much, why would you ever want to make it work?

P.S. I am assuming you were sarcastic, but felt like responding anyway.