longoil

116 Comments

    • Nortel: Who's Going to Buy MEN? [view article]
      Nortel's short term thinking (e.g. selling MEN for quick cash) clearly demonstrates the bad management of Morin and Zafirovsky.

      Morin escalated through the ranks of management quickly only because his father (Yves Morin) is a senator in the Canadian senate connected with many Nortel executives, certainly not because of his management skills.

      Zafirovsky's incompetence in managing Nortel explains why Motorola did not want to promote him as their CEO.

      Contrast this with Cisco who had the same CEO (John Chambers) for the last 20 yrs. Nortel has had 7 or 8 CEO (most of them bad, with the exception of Jean Monty) during the same period.

      During the high tech days, Nortel was spending billions on stupid acquisitions and wound up selling most at 10% of the original cost.
      Contrast this with Cisco who saved billions for a rainy day during that time.

      Nortel is definitely a short.       Sep 25 09:50 AM
    • RBC Analyst: Nortel Networks Needs New Strategy [view article]
      Nortel also needs people in the upper management who can do basic math.

      Philippe Morin (president of MEN) was quoted this morning as saying the MEN division should fetch 2 billion dollars.
      www.lightreading.com/d...


      As of this morning the entire company had a market capitalization of $1.4 billion. You would think someone with an MBA like Phil would wonder why someone would pay $2 billion for a slice of the pie, when the can buy the entire pie for $1.4 billion.

      No wonder this company is dying.       Sep 18 03:19 PM
    • Nortel Lowers Targets on Currency and Lower Carrier Spending [view article]
      Let's see:

      1) Sell the Metro Ethernet and Optical divisions that are actually worth something for quick cash.

      2) Keep the Entreprise division, a sector where Nortel has a very weak presence and competes with Cisco and Juniper

      3) Keep the Wirless division, a sector Nortel miscalculated completely. They still manufacture CDMA equipment when the world has gone to GSM and is going to LTE.

      4) They keep talking about Hyperconnectivity, but have no broadband technology (they sold it in 2001) to support hyperconnectivity. Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco both have a good footprint in broadband.

      All four of these points add up to a death spiral for Nortel.       Sep 17 04:29 PM
    • The Case for Natural Gas Powered Transportation [view article]
      I suspect the hestiation for making residental natural gas fill-up hookups available is due to liability reasons. I image many insurance would either crank up the insurance premiums or refuse coverage all together. Unlike stoves or central heating systems powered by natural gas where the gas connections are installed once and left alone, the act of refueling where connecting and disconnecting to the NG line frequently increases the possibility of an in-home explosion. It just takes a small leak caused by either a worn-out nozzle interface or an improperly seated nozzle combined with someone smoking, static electricity or someone flicking an electrical switch.

      I am all for for the Picken plan for converting cars to natural gas, but I think liability reaons will confine NG refilling to designated natural gas stations like CLNE.       Sep 14 09:53 AM
    • Oil: The Inconvenient Truth [view article]
      Fitz,
      I was pretty neutral on McCain before, but I agree with you since he made Palin his running mate, I am very scared considering he is 72 yrs old and the possibility that he might not live to finish his term is a strong possibility.

      Can you image if she became president, some world adversaries like Putin & Medvedev would have a field day. This novice Palin would start World War 3 in a heartbeat. Given that scenario, Rice (with her expertise on the USSR) or Powell (with his military background) would have been much better running mates. Both of these people are too smart to be involved in politics, unfortunately.

      Look at her husband, he was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party from 1995 to 2002. Interestingly enough he quit (or was forced to quit by his wife) in 2002 when she ran for Lieutenant Governor. All of a sudden he is a Republican. I thought Arctic spotted leopards don't change their spots.

      Just look at some of the the ramblings from the AIP FAQ website:

      Q: Would I lose my U.S. citizenship (if Alaska separated from the US)?

      "A: Depending on the form of independence, several forms of citizenship would be possible, including the retention of U.S. citizenship or dual citizenship. However, considering the moral, educational, and economic decay of the U.S., Alaskans' who hold themselves to a higher standard might very well decide to at least maintain an arm's length distance from a country in decline."

      I am pretty both Palin and her husband hold the view that America is in a state terminal moral decline and this is the opportunity to "fix" the situation.
       Sep 08 08:50 AM
    • Oil: The Inconvenient Truth [view article]
      Jack,

      I know coal-to-liquids technology works, but I always associated it as a last ditch desperate measure (i.e. Apartheid regime in South Africa and Nazi Germany), since it very energy intensive and polluting.

      SASOL, South Africa, one of the leaders in coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology, is moving away from CTL to natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology for the following reasons. (I copied this from the oildrum.com site)

      Sasol officials outlined the environmental benefits of switching from coal to natural gas at Sasolburg:

      * Elimination of hydrogen sulfide emissions.
      * Sulfur dioxide emissions lowered by 15,000 tons per year.
      * Nitrogen oxide emissions lowered by 10,000 tons per year.
      * Carbon dioxide emissions lowered by 47%, or five million tons per year.
      * Particulates lowered by 25%.
      * Fine ash reduced 73%.
      * Solid waste reduction of 50%.
      * Water consumption reduced 27% - 30%.

      Also, the availability of high quality coal parallels that of high quality oil. The world is not only running out of high quality (light sweet) oil, it is also running out of high quality black coal (i.e. Anthracite) and low quality brown coal is being used more and more.

       Sep 05 01:42 PM
    • eBay Caps Shipping Rates: What Is the CEO Thinking? [view article]
      I am really surprised that a serious competitor has not come forth and challenged eBay. They are assuming they will always be the only game in town.

      Their customer service is non-existent, fees having been increasing steadily in the last 12 years, and they keep screwing their sellers (who are the ones the pay all the eBay fees, not the buyers) with things like the removal of seller feedback and the buyer is always right in transaction disputes even if he has zero feedback and the seller has 1000+ feedback.

      There is an interesting detailed description of where eBay is headed on the following website: www.ebayexodus.com/
       Sep 05 11:01 AM
    • Oil: The Inconvenient Truth [view article]
      Current low oil prices are a combination of things: Sluggish global economy, reduced domestic demand and the end of summer driving season and pre-heating season demand drop correction.

      If I subscribed to conspiracy theories, I would a draw a comparison of the current situation to the summer-fall 2004 (when Bush was up fro re-election) and oil dropped $10 a barrel. Wasn't the current US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson the CEO of Goldman Sachs ? LOL       Sep 03 11:29 AM
    • Will Brazil Really Nationalize Oil? [view article]
      I hope da Silva learns from the mistakes of his neighbor Chavez.
      It is easy to nationalize conventional oil fields where old technology will suffice for extraction. Chavez essentially doomed his country to the fate of a banana republic in the near future. His conventional oil fields are depleting much faster than he anticipated thanks to the in-house expertise (and inefficiency) of PDVSA. His nationalization in 2006 drove out the companies (Exxon & Conoco) with expertise needed for heavy oil extraction in the Orinco oil fields. Brazil needs external expertise to get any oil from its Tupi fields located under 2km of water, 2km or rock and 2km of unstable salt.

      I hope Brazil learns from Chavez's socialist experiment. The problem with these socialists is they want all the money, but nobody wants to take any of the risk or do any of the work. This why the old political systems of USSR, Vietnam, and China all failed. The ancient Greeks saw the flaws of socialism over 2000 years ago. Aristotle noted a property with sole owner was more fruitful and well taken of than a property with common ownership (as advocated by Plato) among numerous citizens .       Sep 01 10:05 AM
    • The Economics of Political Spin [view article]
      Old Wizard,
      I would bet bin Laden improvisioned the video with the drawings of the WTC after the fact to further terrorize people with his supposed know-how. Everything these Al Quaeda guys have done so far shows what a bunch of amateurs they are: e.g. the shoelace bomber and the liquid and gel bombers. I doubt very much they would have done a structural analysis of the WTC, calculated the explosive force of 20000 gallons of kerosine and figure out the optimal point to hit the buildings in order to collapse them.

      I agree with you on the potential of jet fuel. In liquid state this stuff is as safe as kerosine in a lamp. However, when jet fuel is vaporized (i.e. after a 600 mph) impact, it is capable of incredible explosive force and high temperatures enough to melt I-bars.

      What really worries me is if these terrorists get better funded by the Saudi Arabians et al., they will have access to more dangerous weaponry like Surface-to-Missles and nuclear technology. This is why I believe it is important to move to alternative energy technology now, not just to save a few cents on motor fuel, but to deprive the principal funders of terrorism.

      Aug 31 07:36 PM
    • 11 Top Canadian Dividend Stocks Available as ADRs [view article]
      and funds Al Quieda, Hamas and Hezbollah. Aug 31 12:12 PM
    • 11 Top Canadian Dividend Stocks Available as ADRs [view article]
      To expand on the previous comments about US investments in Canada.

      Canada is the largest provider of oil to the USA. $150 billion dollars is spent by the USA for Canadian oil. Unlike money spent for Middle East oil which moves one way, the Canada is the largest buyer for US exports ($215 billion according to cia.gov). There is a circuluation of money between the USA and Canada, unlike the money spent for Middel East oil which never returns to the USA and is spent on royal palaces, indoor ski hills and underwater hotels.       Aug 31 10:17 AM
    • The Economics of Political Spin [view article]
      Fitz,
      You mentioned a while back ago your frustration after you sent your energy plan to the Obama and McCain camps, only to receive responses back soliciting campaign contributions.

      Perhaps, you should try an indirect approach. There is a Republican congressman from Maryland called Roscoe Bartlett that is one of the few US politicans that acknowledges the reality of Peak Oil and the need to do something about it now. He has done several presentations in the house to educate his fellow congressman. I think it would be worth a few moments of your time to send him your energy plan. I am sure he would appreciate ideas for concrete action to deal with Peak Oil and the related issues (like climate change, resource wars, domestic economy and global famine).

      His website is: bartlett.house.gov/       Aug 30 07:11 PM
    • The Economics of Political Spin [view article]
      Old Wizard,
      Bin Laden has a degree in civil engineering but never practiced as one.

      I think you are giving these 9/11 terrorist fanatics too much credit.
      Yes, they took advantage of flaws in airport security to sneak in box cutters. And the airlines should have gotten suspicious when these guys paid for one way tickets in first class with cash.

      The terrorists expected fanastic explosions and the deaths of all the passengers, but never expected the buildings to collapse as mentioned in one of Bin Laden's communique shortly after 9/11. He said "the collapse of buildings was much more than he could have prayed for."

      I remembered watching some documentaries where the engineers that designed the towers in the 1960's said they designed the buildings to take head-on impacts of Boeing 707s (the largest planes at the time.) They did not anticipate the scenario of larger planes (i.e. Boeing 757s) built 30 years crashing into the towers. I doubt very much Bin Laden knew this tid-bit of information.
      Aug 29 06:12 PM
    • The Economics of Political Spin [view article]
      Fitz, did you see McCain’s new running mate ?

      Wow, he managed to find someone to appeal to everyone (from a political point of view)

      1) A woman running mate will certainly siphon off many disenchanted Hillary supporters from the Obama’s camp. I’ll bet you McCain did not know who he was going to choose for VP until the Joe Biden announcement.

      2) She an evangelical, so his got the ultra-right side of the Republican party back on his side.

      3) She from Alaska and is pro drilling, so ANWR is a step closer. So much for his alternative energy stance. I think this alone point confirms that McCain is back in the Bush camp as far as energy policy goes.

      If I was Obama, I would really be worried now. I think McCain has just shrunk Obama’s 3 point lead in the polls to zero. We’ll at least Obama can refute the inexperienced line (Palin is only 44 yrs old herself) and the fact she’s under investigation by her own legislature provides another target for the Obama camp.
       Aug 29 01:47 PM
Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:
Quick Links:
Contribute an Article Become a Seeking Alpha Contributor

Transcripts

More Transcripts»