Swiftcreek1

Motor Monday: A Microturbine-Powered Auto from Capstone and an Energy-Efficient Mustang from Ford

and that would be fine if they could achieve those mileage numbers in a 3,500 pound car.....Hell, if I could retro-fit that engine into my '87 which weighs 1,000 pound less imagine what a fun ride that could be!

Still not a Shelby, but it would certainly turn the heads of the new crowd of hot rodders in love with rice burners......


On Dec 02 12:43 PM Tdot wrote:

> On Dec 02 10:48 AM Swiftcreek1 wrote:

Motor Monday: A Microturbine-Powered Auto from Capstone and an Energy-Efficient Mustang from Ford

The mustang II was Ford's attempt at doing just that in the aftermath of the Arab Oil Embargo.....It almost killed the Mustang. In fact the only thing that saved the Mustang was coming out with a V-8 version that could run with the now then Camaro.

Yes, they were small, light, and got good gas mileage. They were also junk. When people associate the name of a car with speed and power you don't turn it into an econobox.....

If you want mileage only buy a Focus.....or find an old Tempo.....

My 1987 is a 4 cylinder and can barely get out of it's own way when you mash the throttle. During the era from around 1986-2004 you will see a comparatively large number of Mustangs ordered with the V-8 rather than the 6 or 4 cylinder base engines. People who buy a Mustang generally want a little bit of power to go with the good looks.....

It would be marketing suicide to repeat the mistakes of the 74-78 Mustang II......Ford is profitable largely BECAUSE of the way they have chosen to do the Mustang, not inspite of it.


On Dec 01 11:15 AM a. palmer jr. wrote:

> One question: Why does Ford continue to raise horsepower and gas
> mileage? Why not keep the hp at the same or lower level and really
> raise the gas mileage. If we wanted more hp we would simply buy the
> V8 version. Keep the 4 and 6 cylinder cars for mpg.

Motor Monday: A Microturbine-Powered Auto from Capstone and an Energy-Efficient Mustang from Ford

While the technology has been updated the general ideas are not new.....

Chysler built a turbine powered car for the auto show circuit in the early 60's.

Ford has built fuel efficient 4 and 6 cylinder Mustangs since the early 70's starting with the Mustang II. Ford's base engine for it's early Mustangs in the 60's was an in-line 6.

I still have an '87 with a 4 popper that get's 35+ on the highway, and though it's not nearly as fun to drive as my '08 Shelby, it does see the majority of the road miles since it is just fine for a grocery getter.....even with 160,000 miles on the odometer

My Shelby on the other hand, is great for a summer time road trip car and inspite of what the EPA rating is, I'm finding that I get around 27 mpg in the Shelby if I don't have a heavy right foot.

Global Warming Models: 'Out of Order'?

What f***ing planet are you on??? Alaska is not facing any kind of water storage.

China has been struggling for centuries with water issues due to it's shear volume of people.

Africa?? about half the continent is desert and has been for thousands of years.....

The Antarctic Ice shelves have calved before and they will calve again. Legitimate studies have shown that the ice pack at our southern pole is growing. not receding. Calving events can occur for a number of reasons NOT related to warming. Try this little experiment at home. Take a piece of plywood put it half on firm ground and half dangling out over your pool or into empty space. put weights on each half then tell me what happens when the load stress on the plywood exceeds it's limits.....and note that when the plywood breaks it is not a uniform break, it breaks at weak points.

Did it ever occur to you that the shelves might calve due to their own WEIGHT????

As I said earlier......the Arctic ice sheet has ADDED 400,000 square miles since '07.

Here is a quote from a Baffin Island golf story.....

"It may seem like an unlikely game to be played north of the Arctic Circle, but resident David Kilabuk said children in the community have caught on to the sport, and learned to improvise on the tundra outside of town.

"We have a three-hole course right now. We use carpets as greens. We've gotten a few from the dump, and some people have given up their old carpets to us. We have a bit of a collection," he said."

Golf can be played anywhere......Neil Armstrong played golf on the moon for crying out loud.

Quit playing chicken little alarmist and look for some scientific data that isn't suffused with alarmist opinion.....The first sign that there is an agenda is that the conclusions of the research predict some dire outcome if we don't "DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW".....

Unless of course you are in on some Carbon Trading Scheme.....then by all means keep spouting your drivel.....

On Nov 28 04:27 PM Rktect wrote:

> For the "it isn't getting warmer" crowd, try explaining why first
> West Antartica and now East Antartica are calving icebergs the size
> of states which are now in such profusion they are beginning to be
> a hazard to shipping.
>
> Explain why the artic is already seeing shipping enabled to use the
> Northwest Passage because larger and larger areas are ice free in
> Summer and people are able to play golf on the Baffin Islands.<br/>
>

Global Warming Models: 'Out of Order'?

A few facts.....

1. The Arctic Ice Sheet has ADDED 400,000+ square miles of new ice since the 2007 low.....

2.The Polar Bear population is as healthy as it has been in 50 years.....Do a little research from independent sources and quit listening to the politicized crap from Enviro-nuts with an agenda.

3. As a few other commentors have pointed out.....CO2 is PLANT FOOD.

4. Ferdinand Banks' emissions of self-aggrandizing comments are responsible for as much air pollution as the collected fleet of British Airways.

Number 4 is only an opinion, but...........

On Nov 28 11:06 AM wgcamp wrote:

> Someone should tell the seals and polar bears that the ice underneath
> them is not really melting. Then they could stop swimming.

Are We Exacerbating China's Pollution?

Mr. Denniger......I, as much as anyone, lament the loss of American jobs to Chinese manufacturing companies. I, as much as anyone, am tired of not being able to find so much as a pizza slicer made in the U.S.

What YOU don't seem to understand is that even if we all stopped buying Chinese crap tomorrow nothing would change. That Girl isn't dealing with polluted water because of America. She is dealing with polluted water because of China.

The Chinese Government has one goal.....Global Domination. Since they don't have the capacity to do it at the end of a gun they are making a run at it through economics. This is a shrewd, calculated game they are playing, and the powers-that-be in China don't give a rat's ass if the citizens live in squalor. They don't give a rat's ass about human rights abuses in their own country, let alone the African continent, or Myanmar, or any other God-forsaken third world shit hole.

The Chinese HAVE plenty of money to solve their pollution problems, they are spending BILLIONS on infrastructure programs in Africa to help prop up brutal dictators by allowing those dictators to claim to be something good for their slave-citizens. In reality this is all a sham on the surface so the dictators and the Chinese can loot the resources of the country in question.

It's sad that you have to jump on the same train as the Obama administration and blame America First.....for everything......

Perhaps when you take the blinders off you will see that this isn't about one girl in a pond full of crap, or a million girls in the same situation.....It's about one Government's desire to control the world and it's willingness to sacrifice the well-being of it's own citizens to achieve that goal.....

......and in looking at the pond.....I would imagine if the Chinese were willing to provide garbage pick-up in their cities and towns and proper land fills you wouldn't have bags for rice chips and other waste paper floating in the pond.....Somehow I don't think an American flew over there to dump his paper waste in this girl's water supply......

Vietnam: Gold Already Trading at $1,300 Per Ounce

Not imperfect at all, and no one was "over-paying"......This is simply supply and demand working the way it is supposed to. (with the exception that only a few firms, mostly likely "well connected" with the government, are allowed to import in unlimited quantities, and probably then only with kickbacks to the government to pay for the privilege)

(People can be truly nut ball irrational when they want something, think back to the wars over Cabbage Patch Kids or, more recently, the Nintendo WII.)

Two things can happen here. Vietnam will reach market equilibrium and gold prices will stabilize closer to the world spot price.....OR.....The situation in Vietnam is a precursor to what will happen everywhere else and the World Spot Price for gold will continue to move upwards vs. the dollar and, to a lesser extent, against other currencies as well.....

The reason I have the qualifier on Gold priced in dollars is simple. While we here in the US are watching Gold go nuts against the dollar we have to remember that some of the price increase is due to the weakness in our own currency because our government is currently enjoying a torrid love affair with the printing presses that create the Benjamin's......

A bit of math to explain.....

In early August the yen was at 97 to the dollar and gold was around $965 so our converssion price was Y93605 per ounce......

At fridays close the yen was at 89.7 and gold closed at $1118.50, or Y100330 per ounce.

So......while gold enjoyed about a 16% bounce against the dollar (1118.50/965) it only enjoyed about a 7.2% rise against the yen during the same time frame (100330/93605).


On Nov 14 11:10 AM Nextel Accessories wrote:

> don't understand, is the market that imperfect that they would overpay
> for Gold in Vietnam?

Too Big to Fail Banks: A Simple Solution

Let's not forget that Canada and Australia each have a much smaller population, and that a great deal of their global trade involves the exploitation of natural resources. Because of their relatively small populations in comparison to the U.S. their per-capita revenue generation from extractive industries is FAR greater than that of the U.S......

While I agree that banks should be banks, not casinos for wannabe "Masters of the Universe" the disparity in economic focus between Canada, Australia, and the U.S. changes the playing field in such a way that a direct comparison between their banking systems and ours doesn't adequately address the underlying problems......

and......as a few others have said......you still have the lawyers......

GE to Close Its Only U.S. Solar Panel Factory

Assuming you are correct......hundreds of thousands of new "green jobs" will be created......in China......


On Nov 09 08:36 AM PastTense wrote:

> "Some manufacturers have seen prices for their products fall by anywhere
> from 30 percent to 50 percent over the past year."
>
> If these kind of price cuts continue this will make solar much more
> price competitive with traditional electrical generation--and thus
> demand will explode.

How Auto Bailout Is Punishing Ford

teenage unemployment is at record levels because of 30,000,000 illegals in our country......

<<< Ever wonder why teenage unemployment is at record levels?>>>

Trade Tensions Surfacing Between Emerging Markets of the Global South

This is just more proof positive that Communist China is not-so-quietly working to become THE new global Super Power.....A few questions remain:

Could the Governments of the other premiere economic powers put their differences aside long enough to stabilize their own economic situations and counter balance Chinese influence?..... Yes, they could......Will they? Doubtful, until it's too late......

Do those Governments have the will to do so without wrecking the whole process through politics?.....Not Likely. Especially here in the U.S. where getting re-elected is more important than actual service to the citizenry......Europe? Maybe, but the EU has other problems including a rising militant muslim population. The ASEAN Block? Again, not likely. Too much influence peddling in many of the countries and too large a gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" where the "haves" can be easily bought off.

Perhaps the biggest advantage the Chinese have is their focus on the singularly powerful goal of Chinese hegemony. It's a purely political goal given the nature of their government, but nevertheless the drive to achieve that goal is forcing the rest of us to be reactionary.

If we are to achieve something close to a global "balance" of trade then business people are going to need to be Proactive in facing the Chinese onslaught. Historically, (for our purposes since the Communist revolution in 1949) the primary Chinese disadvantage has been their rigid thinking, but they are quickly learning what Capitalists have known for years: How to make a deal, and how much easier it is to negotiate from a position of power.....In their case, right now, Money=Power.

Since we can safely assume that our Politicians will not be up to the task of staunching the flow of wealth to China, we can only hope they will have enough sense to get out of the way and let our businesses deliver the body blows that will drive them back to a neutral corner......

Good Day!

The Muddle Through Economy, R.I.P.?

There's always one socialist loon in the room......

Why not ask 9 of your friends at work if they are willing to take a 10% pay cut right along with you......Assuming you could find them there would be no positive net effect on the economy since you've done nothing but take money from 10 people to give to the 11th......that and reduce productivity by 9.111% per person since our fictitious company didn't have a need for the 11th guy you created the job for.....Thinking like yours is why the Soviet Union's (and every other country that has tried it) grand experiment with communism was a dismal failure.


On Oct 18 01:50 PM dracula99 wrote:

> Remember when the Left was warning the Right that by starting fictitious
> wars, neglecting the economy, cuting taxes for the rich, outsourcing,
> not regulating wall street, we were going to pay for these mistakes
> for a generation to come? That's what's happenig now. Suck it up
> and put the blame squarely on the Republicans, starting with that
> idiot Reagan.

U.S. Public Assault on Renminbi Peg Likely to Backfire

In the long run the Chinese don't give a rats ass about the U.S. so long as we remain useful idiots. (One could make a good argument that the same statement applies to the near term as well.)

While we're sitting here screwing around with "health insurance reform" and "Cap and Tax" the Chinese are expanding cash reserves, locking up supplies of strategic commodities around the world, spending tens of billions of $ on infrastructure improvements, and expanding into new markets.

Don't think for a hot second that Health Care and Cap and Trade are benevolent ideals. The words from the talking heads in D.C. aren't worth the CO2 exhaled when uttered. For D.C. this is about revenue generation for the Government to try to cover up for it's spending spree and exercise control over the populace.

The Chinese are actively pursuing expansion all over the world. They have no qualms about stealing technology or violating patents. If they can't adequately reverse engineer a product line they find a way to buy the company.....i.e. our own Milwaukee Tool Company, and several furniture companies.

The Chinese are playing a high stakes game to dethrone the U.S. as the preeminent economic power on the planet and are suceeding because the happy bunch of dimwit lawyers in Washington are collectively too stupid or ideologically blinded to get it.....

We broke the Soviet Union through economics (granted they were on the cliff's edge anyhow and we just pushed them over) and the Chinese learned the lesson well. They are doing whatever they need to do to make sure that their economy will survive and thrive. They don't care about what's economically "fair" or "balanced", they want to be where we were at the end of WWII.

The U.S. could stop all this crap tomorrow.....It would be painful, but in the end we would be stronger and better positioned for the future. What really needs to happen here isn't politically palatible. We should dump a million gallons of "Slimfast" on the Federal Budget, tell state governments to get their shit together, lower corporate tax rates and let our manufacturers do what they do best. Build the best products in the world and sell, sell, sell based on QUALITY.

Consumers aren't stupid in emerging markets. They actually understand that buying a good product once instead of a crappy version six times actually saves you money. We, on the other hand, seem to have forgotten that simple fact. The explosive growth of Walmart is ample evidence of that simple truth. I still remember the days when we referred to K-Mart as "Came Apart" and then it was cheap Japanese crap.....We didn't learn our first lesson very well did we?

In short.....The Chinese tie their currency to the dollar for economic reasons. The net effect of a weak dollar makes their products cheaper in markets with a stronger currency i.e. Europe. Right now it is to their advantage for selling in other established markets for the dollar to remain weak. It hurts them in the purchase of raw materials, but they can price that into their finished goods which will still enjoy a price advantage due to dollar weakness.

They will end the Dollar Peg when we are no longer useful idiots. This can happen one of two ways. We can allow our government to bankrupt the country and wreck our currency completely......Or we can simply quit being idiots and get back to being the best Capitalists on the planet......

A very strong dollar will hurt them far more than a weak dollar since they would lose the built in pricing advantage that a weak dollar tie provides. It would force them to look to boost domestic consumption to keep people working. In real terms our products would become more expensive all over the world, but the Chinese cannot compete with us in terms of quality when our industrial might is focused on building the best widgets on the planet. We don't need to be protectionist, we just need to prove to Average Joe consumer that buying a U.S. made widget for a few extra dollars is worth the added cost compared to buying someone else's widget.

I have all the faith in the world that our companies can do that, I'm just gravely concerned that the ideologues in the White House an on both sides of The Aisle don't have the vision to take a long term global economic view.

We've been complacent for far too long, thinking our economic position was a God Given Right. It's time to go back to work. Fifty years is a really long lunch break.

Why Exxon Should Significantly Increase its Dividend

actually.....I forgot the orginal principle in my calculations....when that is factored in to the purchase of BP our ficticious investor has over 23,000 shares, which generate $77,280.....roughly $43,000 more than the XOM stock was generating. Even after taxes at the highest marginal rate this would still keep our recoup period on the tax expense of the capital gain at 8 years.

Why Exxon Should Significantly Increase its Dividend

Michael, let's say for the sake of this discussion that someone was sitting on a capital gain of an even $1,000,000. Given your scenario of "decades" of holding the stock it qualifies for a "long term" capital gain tax rate. Under current tax rules that money would be taxed at a preferrential rate of 15% so the net after tax proceeds of that sale would be $850,000. Let's also assume that the stock price paid originally was $19.05, this simplifies the math and tells us that our ficticious investor had 20,000 shares that were generating $33,600 in dividend income.....Now he has cashed out and uses the $850,000 to buy 16,000 shares of BP based on the prices in your chart. (if he spent all of it the number would actually be 16,110.6899 etc. so I'm rounding down for the sake of simplicity)

The new holding of 16,000 BP would make for a better Capital gains position for future tax years and the 16,000 of BP would generate $53,760 in dividend income. Yes I realize that it would take 8 years to make up the difference between the sale's gross and net proceeds, but given the nature and purpose of the investment even if I didn't live long enough for the dividends to make up the difference the trust that the BP shares went into upon my death would more than make up for it over the life of the trust.

The bottom line for me is that if I am sitting on a million dollar capital gain but I need the dvidend income I'd make the jump in a heartbeat and take the tax beating. If I was keeping all the stock in trust then for me it would depend on which company I thought was better positioned for the future and would be more likely to hold it's capital value.

My ACORN comment was based on the seemingly never ending rant from the left that things aren't fair.....and it's parallel to your premise that XOM should raise their dividend because they aren't in line with other oil company dividends. The Board of Directors is responsible for those decisions and if enough shareholders who hold voting stock want a dividend increase then I have no doubt it will happen. I'm guessing the Board of XOM isn't seeing that kind of pressure.


On Oct 10 04:07 PM Michael Fitzsimmons wrote:

> swiftcreek1: i don't understand, and don't see the relevance of,
> your acorn comment. you say i have the choice to buy XOM or something.
> that is obviously true. the point you are missing, and what is not
> fair (imho), are the shareholders that have held exxon or mobil or
> XOM for decades and find themselves sitting on very large capital
> gains, preventing them from selling, while accepting the absolute
> lowest yielding stock in their peer group (by a longshot, not even
> close). nothing you wrote changes my mind on this matter. the table
> above speaks for itself, and XOM is obviously way out of whack on
> its dividend. wrt to the comment you cut and pasted, i already responded
> to that in my last post.
>