rughetta

Ethanol vs. Natural Gas or Coal: Comparison Not Even Close

First, very good article. However, one fact was omitted. The primary reason ethanol was introduced into gasoline was to reduce emissions. Only later, when the Gulf War put the spotlight on our dependence on foreign oil, did some politicians forward the idea of using ethanol as a petroleum substitute. Unfortunately, none of them heeded the cries of many experts saying that the production of ethanol used about as much petrochemical and other energy (when all the energy inputs such as producing fertilizer, tilling, harvesting, transporting, distilling, etc.) as it provided. This was really not a concern when air quality was the issue but it makes for very poor profits when when trying to use ethanol as an fuel substitute. Additionally, as the article rightly states, the unintended consequences were and continue to be even more costly.

CAVU,

Rughetta

Garmin Reports Robust Third Quarter

These results appear to argue against the devastating deterioration in PND sales due to the proliferation of GPS functionality in smart phones posited by many prognosticators--at least for the time being. The guidance was sketchy but not terrible yet the stock price fell as if the guidance was down. Did investors actually expect GRMN to have better numbers in this ecconomy? Of course, the critical Christmas quarter is yet to come. This will be the first REAL (as opposed to speculative) test of the PND vs smart phone debate.

Disclosure: I own stock in GRMN

CAVU,

Rughetta

Garmin and TomTom in Google's Crosshairs

Actually, the PND function of the Garmin Nuviphone needs no subscription. It is the smartphone function that requires the subscription. That has been the advantage of the Nuviphone over other smartphones--standalone GPS functionality that does not depend on a cellphone connection to navigate. Most other smartphones lose their GPS functionality when out of the mobile service area

CAVU,

Rughetta.

Will Smart Phones Crush the Stand-Alone GPS Market?

Presently, many smartphones employ GPS chips but many do not. Some use differential signal reception times at multiple cell antennas to triangulate position. Either way, the vast majority of smartphones do not have sufficient memory to contain the map data and therefore are reliant on sending coordinates back to the service provider then receiving position data from the service provider to display. Note that this requires a lot of power to maintain the two-way communication during the entire time that the GPS function is used. Furthermore, GPS function is unavailable where there is no reception. This precludes the use of smartphone-based GPS location in sparsely populated areas, mountainous areas, and any other area where reception is poor. Even if enough memory to carry map software were available in a smartphone, the service providers may be reluctant to relinquish the ~$10/mo service charge they garner for providing the GPS service to their customers. Thus, providing a disincentive for cell service providers to sign contracts with smartphone manufacturers that want to market products with stand-alone GPS capability. These problems are circumvented with a PND since thy have plenty of memory and there is no need of a service contract or constant two-way communication for the GPS function to work. At the present time, only Garmin (Nuviphone), Apple (i-phone with GPS app), RIM (Blackberry with Garmin software), and maybe a few others with special software are the only smartphones that have stand-alone GPS functionality. Because the Garmin was designed as a PND with smartphone capabilities, its GPS function is by far th easiest to use and most bug-free. Time will start to change these things as GPS alone will not be nough but will start to give way to other location-based services (LBS) such as location-sensitive advertising, peer-to-peer mapping, real-time traffic routing, etc. This will start requiring PNDs to evolve into internet-connected devices that will start to resemble cell phones but coming from the other direction. Eventually, all cell phones will have stand-alone GPS function (thus saving battery power) and the service providers will get their revenue from the LBS market.

Just my take on the fuzzy image in my crystal ball.

Rughetta

Natural Gas: Bridge to the Energy Future

In the future, when peak oil has come and gone, methane (along with biomaterials) will become the raw material of choice for all the current petroleum-based chemicals. This will probably happen near the end of my lifetime so it is not an investment play for me but for the youth of today, look for some emerging chemical companies sometime 30 to 40 years from now to invent new chemistries and associated catalysts (possibly synthetic enzyme-based) to take advantage of this shift.

Corning: Looking Very Cheap

Weekly TA,

Is that just a guess or do you have any data to support your statement?

Rughetta

Disclosure: I am neither long or short GLW

Something's Brewing at Oilsands Quest Inc.

DDyer,

The price of in-situ recovery of bitumen vary with the price of natural gas (which is used to fire the boilers), the availability of a continual source of water (river rather than lake), royalty taxes (provincial government controlled) and any environmental fees for use of water (various government controlled). I remember a number a few years ago of somewhere between $40 to $50 per barrel but that was before a lot of changes occured in natural gas prices and government regulations. I would guestimate that it may be up about 50% since then but that is just a guess. It is a profitable way to recover bitument (Suncor has been doing it for years) and can be more ecconomical than mining because the environmental fees and provincial taxes are lower for in-situ recovery. I have read that the recent renegotiation of Alberta's royalty taxes retains favorable tax treatment for the in-situ recovery operations.

Sorry I didn't have more specific numbers but I hope this helps a bit.

CAVU,

Rughetta

MEMC Electronic’s Problems Continue with Latest Earnings

If the majority of investors have no idea what the 200 DMA is, how can it be relevant to investor sentiment regarding whether or not WFR's polysilicon production problems are temporary? If anyone can show a mechanism (not simply a correlation) that directly links investors thinking that the polysilicon problems at WFR are not temporary to the movement of the stock price below such an arbitrary number (e.g. why the 200 DMA and not the 184 DMA?), please post it here to help me to understand your reasoning.

CAVU,

Rughetta