Rikiki

With Novatel Wireless' (NVTL) MiFi hotspot, users can get wireless internet access anywhere. Sleek, simple to use, and better than the cellular modems from the likes of Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S), the device could be a game changer.

WOW. I want one!

I just paid 15$ for broadband hookup at upscale Reno hotel.
Last Month I paid $10.00 at Lake Charles' L'Auberge hotel.
I paid $4.00 each at two airports during layover.

For travelers, this is a no brainer!

Possible home use, multiple users, continuous logins, 1.0+ Mb/sec downloads at $60/month..... not yet.

ATT, eat your heart out!

Rikiki

Jeff Bezos (AMZN) unveils Kindle DX. Display is two and a half times the size of Kindle, and it features a built-in PDF reader. Kindle sales are now 35% of all book sales. Engadget, TechCrunch, and Digits are all liveblogging. AMZN -1.8%.

Still Pricey for any volume movement. Needs competitors like Apple, Dell, Sony, and maybe Barnes & Noble and such. Some fully functioning laptops will be coming into this price range if not there already.

Wife claims she will never give up hard copy books, magazines and such...... but then, she said she didn't want a laptop either. Now she treats it as hers and not ours.... except if she has a problem with something. But then she also reads dozens of "newspapers" and blogs also.

I think dam breaks at <$250.00/unit and software (downloaded media) stays at 25% or less of printed paper media.

Gad Zooks! just think of what this could do the the ripoff college text book operations. And, just think of saving all that paper and ink... and recycling problems. and........and....
Rikiki

Ford (F) Chairman calls for higher gas prices: "We clearly need - whether it's a gasoline tax or cap and trade, it's something we do need because with gasoline at $2 [a gallon], customer behaviour is not driving in the direction that the government would like." Weird, but nothing new.

Vehicle fuel consumption is tightly coupled with the weight of the vehicle. While simply taxing the fuel is onerous, especially to our comfortable political re-electable representatives, we still need to reduce fuel consumption per Kg of vehicle (+load). Since we can depend that our US representative will not follow the Europeans with the heavy taxes on fuel, the more palatable option is to tax heavy vehicles more that lighter ones. Or, tax more for vehicle with more horsepower, larger number of cylinders, more cubic inches,.. etc...
If one (not me) believes in Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), the logic is infallible... Moving more weight uses more energy, using more energy with today's technology means more carbon based fuel being burned which in turn caused the dastardly carbon dioxide molecules to be liberated back into the air!

Consider a small single gasoline engine Cessna aircraft with four 250 pound people on board. That requires far more throttle and thereby FUEL to get and stay aloft. (If indeed any sane pilot would push the envelope). Likewise many airlines would like to charge ticket prices based upon weight ... just like freight. Fuel is the airlines number one cost and every manufacturer who makes heavier than air craft.
Weight based methods of taxation make both scientific and economic sense.
Rikiki

Not ready to roll: "GM (GM) wouldn’t be in quite so deep a hole if it had not sunk a billion dollars, and much of its corporate reputation, into a not-very-realistic plug-in electric hybrid vehicle known as the Chevrolet Volt."

Maybe GM should reinvent the Stanley Steamer! Buy NO!

The pollutiion problems (from WP article)"global warming not least among them" Even burning NatGas (the same stuff I burn in the kitchen to cook food) is a pollutant! But in my case kitchen warming is welcomed in January! LOL And if I havn't used enough polluting NatGas to cook the beans properly the world will still pay.

Oh, I see, use NatGas to generate electricity for your cars. Huh? Gee Dad, where does electricity come from? I thought it all came from the dams on the rivers. Isn't is almost like...free?

Maybe, dad, you should just get rid of your riding mower to save the planet! You only have two acres to mow! Also, dad, and get rid of the 6 horsepower polluting snow thrower that you use on you 300 foot driveway.
And what about your stinky speed boat at the lake.... you should be rowing anyway.
Someday, son, you will realize that one of the many college courses I paid for should have been ECONOMICS.
Rikiki

William Bernstein: Don't Panic and Sell into a Crash

3 feet...

Shhhhh! Don't talk so loud. Obama might find a way to turn this into a crisis as well.

Here is how I think Obama might play it .. Yes, we may have seen a very small ray of hope, but we are far from being out of the woods. We could still fall into the abyss if my XXXXXX progarm is not put into effect immediately!....

To Obama.... " We have nothing to fear but fear itself" If FDR is really your mentor.... PAY ATTENTION!

Rikiki

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Herr Klaus,

You are on a slippery slope Freund. Do you remember the AMT...Alternative Minimum Tax... meant to snare a few hundred non tax payers. The folly is that raw numbers, as opposted to percentage based calculated numbers, do not allow for INFLATION. And once congress has tasted blood with this program they will be just as loathe to fix it as the have the AMT.

However, I totaly agree that the NY financial instutions are totally out of whack with the rest of the world in that peple get paid way more than virtually all other industries. Better just tax income and not distinguish the source.

Rikiki


On Feb 11 10:37 AM [e-mail] wrote:

> I think they should relegislate the 91% Fedral Income Tax on all
> bonuses exceeding $1mil, no exceptions, no deductions and no exemptions
> - stick that up their craw - take the incentive out of these items
> of corporate squalor

Odds of Another Swing to Despair Seem High

>dcb, maybe you should hear more of what F.D.R. had to say in opening of first inauguration speech..

" This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days."

you can do a wiki on words to see and hear entire speech. This dem pres inspired hope and faith in american people from day 1.

Odds of Another Swing to Despair Seem High

"I see no reason to think the hope/despair pendulum has hung up on the hope side. "

When you get the Pres and Vpres constantly telling people that it is going to get much worse, does that inspire hope and change? Or, does ot inspire more FEAR(FDR) which we have to FEAR for its effect on prolonging the recession?

Maybe the new Dem leadership should think of another tactic to get the slushy bill to pass quickly instead of scaring the population into hunkering down and spending less. How about inspiration and accenuating the positives more.

Marc Faber on the Economy, Gold, WWIII

I no longer "watch or listen" to CNBC (also MSNBC &NBC). My wife got tired of me B*i*t*c* hing about the "financial channel" . I always had the channel on "mute" until I caught a banner teaser which made me "unmute". She knows that I watch the top and bottom tickers all the time. She took and cut a piece of cardboard to cover the central part of the tv screen leaving the upper and lower tickers visable. Thank you CNBC for my "free tickers" with out all the B.....S.... and hype. I have a ticker on my investment software but not nearly as encompassing as theirs.

Thanks again CNBC for the grreat tickers!
Rikiki

Federal Gas Tax Increase a Definite Possibility

Great ideas! I believe petroleum vulerable Europe has the general answer.... Tax motor fuels AND tax big cars by weight or engine size. Talk about demand destruction. In USA because of large geography, I don't think motor fuel should be taxed as heavily.... but still taxed more than now.
ASIDE: I never saw a Ford F150 sized pickup in Ireland where fuel is/was nearly $8.00/USG.

>> J. Wills.. When I lived in Texas, I had almost exactly the same daily (45) commute miles as yours. My Mercedes diesel routinely gets 30+ MPG and during the spike fuel averaged about $3.90/USG. For 21 work days/month plus approx 400 "leisure" miles, my ~80 gallons of diesel cost about $320/month. Your numbers don't compute.
Your ideas are quite credible.

Rikiki

PS. My brother's Jetta VW TDI (diesel) has given >50 mpg on road trips.

Rikiki

Obama's Plan to Double Energy Production

No schmuck, he spends it in Hawaii. You mean spirited Klutz. I Stopped reading at your first blather.
Rikiki

Let's Hope the Auto Bailout Has Failed for Good

>>ChuckL
RE: "Those UAW workers you whine about have doubled their productivity over the last 15 years, have you doubled yours?"

Chuckie, young man, the productivity gains in the last 100 years or so have come from automation and robotics. Humans can only do a certain amount without tools... the better the tools (in quality, quantity and design), the more product a singular human can create. Humans cannot physically work 20% faster!!!! Especially with the union stewards looking over their shoulders.

Not only the UAW, but many other unions are loathe to adopt automation and robotics because it reduces the need for so a large number of workers. They have generally fought to keep the productivity of workers from rising in order to keep the status quo of the production process. Production companies, particularly the Japanese and less so the Germans are keen on automation and robotics.

So Chuckie, laddie, Eat your words!

Rikiki

Is There Life After the Incandescent Bulb?

LED vs. CFL

Real costs should include cost/lumen calculated for the estimated life of the device. I believe the LED lifespan is many times the life of a 4,000 hour CFL. The costs of LED, like CFL, will come down as more manufacturers get into production.

Rikiki

The Future of Ethanol

>Redbaron

I believe that the following link is where author got most of info on "sweet" sorghum. Milo is a short, seed variety popular in central and southern US grown mainly for the feed you are already familiar with.

www.agribusinessweek.c.../

Rikiki

To What Extent Is Alternative Energy Performance Linked to Fossil Energy Prices?

>The Hand

I totaly concur with your points above.

As long as the congress and president act again as if the oil spike is an aberration, we are condemned to the repeat of history as you suggested. Congress and President have never had the guts to put forth a true "alternative energy" program. They have repeatedly reneged on CAFE (especially for light trucks) standards and buried heads in sand as to an increase in federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuels which would make european size vehicles the norm here. Heavens, they stand the chance of not getting reelected by the mindless mobs who want cheap now and the hell with the future. We americans are guilty of "more for us now" and less for our kids and grandkids. Almost sounds unionesque.

We have F150 and F250 pickups getting an average of 12 MPG. Who really needs that big of a truck .... I know .. Dallas, TX commuters. Right... I pick on Ford because the F150 is the most popular vehicle throughout the US (especially Texas, my former abode) . Yes, I had a F150 for my business 10 years ago. And, I got at best 16 MPG on the highway.

Another area where the government is way behind on is the new clean diesel cars and trucks. Diesel vehicles get at least 20% better mileage than injected gasoline options. My F150 only got 16 at best... my neighbor's F250 (bigger truck) claims as much as 24 on the highway. Why is it that VW, Mercedes and other imports meet our stiff standards for emissions and there is no american car that can?

The congress and the mob that continually reelects them apparently do not believe in long term solutions. I guess that we here are all victims of our culture of " I want now". Is there hope? People tend to believe their elected officials who depend on the lobby wonks to provide them with information on our votes... their way, of course.

To move to alternatives to liquid fuels, a very long, high price spike in petroleum is needed to get the attention of the mobs an the elected "servants". A gasoline and diesel tax increase could do a lot, in the mean time, to forestall the inevitable disaster of extreem fuel shortages and the crippling effect on the economy of the US.

Rikiki
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