Monday, August 25, 2008 Soaring Gas prices bring us long-term cures! POST A COMMENT Look around, notice anything different? -- I sure do. 'People are changing how they go about their daily lives; the Highway Administration says: Americans drove 12 billion less miles in June '08 than last June -- the biggest monthly drop in eight months. An even bigger decline than what we saw in the oil-shock of the 1970s. 'Bus and train usage is up. More people are looking for ways to conserve energy. 'News today shows gas prices have temporally dropped 15 cents a gallon in the past two weeks; but, isn't the better news, at least from where I sit, that sense-of-crisis has forced people to change their behavior. 'Back in the 70's the country made promises to increase gas efficiency, reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and find alternative forms of energy...'sound familiar? 'None of that happened. Today, we get-a-do-over: 'There's every reason to continue to chase alternatives. 'Right now, our oil-dependent economy is shaped by oil's arbitrarily determined price. It's become like a fake-currency. And we're slaves to that black gold standard -- (with most of those profits shipping off to foreign soil). Obviously, we can't over simplify all the issues. "The soaring cost of energy is causing plenty of pain for Americans, especially at a time when they're being hammered by declining house values and rising food prices. The pain isn't about to ease, either - 'We haven't yet seen the cost of heating,' warns Business Week. 'Expensive energy is a powerful medicine. It may hurt when taken, but it brings long-term cures for a host of ills. Focus on what High energy prices is bringing us: (1) Military-funded researchers have made jet fuel from plants. (2) Toyota and General Motors are testing plug-in hybrid cars that can run 40 miles on electricity alone. (3) Companies are building vast expanses of mirrors in the desert to make steam, and thus electricity, from the sun. (4) There are new systems to control power consumption by homes and businesses from afar and programs to insulate inner-city houses, providing energy savings—and jobs. (5) All this cuts pollution and slash carbon dioxide emissions, which cause global warming. They reduce the need for a military presence to ensure global commerce in oil. (6) And they slow the flood of dollars to the Middle East, Russia, and Venezuela, keeping more wealth in the U.S. instead of handing it over to often unfriendly suppliers. Source: Business Week Labels: Business-101, capitalism, cars, economy, Elections, emissions, Energy-101, environment, fuel economy, Go-green, green living, mudprint.com, Oil Prices, smaller carbon footprint, Solar Power, Tech posted by Henry Cruz at 3:17 AM Tuesday, August 12, 2008 The iPod of the book world... POST A COMMENT In this rough economy, 'always great to hear about a company -- (that's not in the Oil-Biz) -- with a rock-solid-foundation in place. I got the Kindle -- (Amazon.com) -- as birthday present in June...'and I will admit to being a little put off by yet another-gadget-to-feed...'and another attempt at another e-book reader... 'however, Amazon's figured out how to make a book-reader-done-sorta-right -- (and no, I don't own stock in Amazon) -- 'apparently I'm not alone in this assessment...'as it's projected to be the hot holiday stocking stuffer this year. "Kindle will about sell 380,000 units in 2008, more than double what analyst previously projected..." -- which is good news -- for a selfish reason, because it actually means this gadget might stick around for a while. "In its first year, that's exactly how many iPods were sold," Says the Seattle PI. "Turns out the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world." I'm not going to sit here and do a commercial for it -- (and frankly, they don't need one)...but, I've used it since June, and thought I'd offer my three-cents: on a scale of 1-10 it ranks a solid 8 in the world of gadgets...Now, if only we can apply that same Amazon-business-model on tougher things like world peace, or that cure for Cancer... Here's a decent review: Source: Seattle PI Labels: Amazon.com, Books, Business-101, Gadgets, Kindle, News Trends, Tech, web trends posted by Henry Cruz at 4:44 AM     ARCHIVES October 2005 . November 2005 . December 2005 . August 2007 . September 2007 . October 2007 . November 2007 . December 2007 . March 2008 . April 2008 . May 2008 . June 2008 . July 2008 . August 2008 . September 2008 .