Category: News

The Defense Department has made progress in improving its response to the needs of
sexual assault victims, but needs to do more, a special task force has
determined…

Even the most advanced military aircraft needs fuel in order to be of
use…

More than 20 disadvantaged children in Afghanistan will get new bikes this month
thanks to a group of Anchorage volunteers and an assist from the Alaska Air National
Guard…

More than 100 chaplains and chaplain assistants from throughout the Air Force
attended the Chaplain Corps Summit here recently, in part to celebrate 60th
anniversary of the Air Force Chaplain Corps and the 100th anniversary of the
chaplain assistant career field…

While the increase of 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan has garnered most of the
headlines, a concurrent increase on the civilian side also is occurring, the U.S.
ambassador to Afghanistan told Congress today…

Here’s one more book in our list of books to consider as gifts this holiday. This last book is one that I want to devour, but I am forcing myself to nibble it instead — short, delicious essays, consumed one by one.

Read Full Post

We’ve had stories about consumers complaining that ebooks are too expensive and about book publishers complaining that ebooks are too cheap. Guess who’s getting squeezed in the middle? According to this unsourced report (so, perhaps take it with a grain of salt), Amazon is losing $2 per ebook sale, because publishers are wholesaling the books at $12, while Amazon wants to keep selling its ebooks at $10. The conclusion is the same all the way around, however: the publishers are living in a fantasy world if they think that $12 makes sense as a wholesale price for an ebook. Without the cost of printing, binding and distribution, the wholesale price should be a hell of a lot lower.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Our look at some recent books that would make great gifts for cooks this Christmas continues with the latest from young star chef Marcus Samuelsson. New American Table is a love song to Samuelsson’s adopted country, the United States, and especially to New York City, which practically shows up as an extra character in this book.

Read Full Post

“If you’re a parent, you don’t have time to read cookbooks. That’s why we wrote this one.” That’s how Hugh Garvey and Matthew Yeomans start their new book. It’s a pretty good way to sum up this slim, well-designed, and highly entertaining book for parents fed up with feeding their youngsters.

Read Full Post

Google wants to recreate the world online, at least that’s what it looks like, as it’s been adding all manner of imagery and data to Google Maps. At first, it was satellite imagery of most parts of the world making for a very interesting perspective one that wasn’t available for the public prior to that. Later it started to include Street View images to get a feel for the locations from the ground level. And finally it is now gathering aerial images of major cities around the world in an effort to add yet another perspective. These images aren’t live yet, but Google is making a first step by letting developers access them in two cities in the US, San Jose and San Diego.

“Starting today, developers will have access through the Google Maps API to high-resolution overhead imagery that is presented in a new aerial perspective. This is currently available in 2 spots in California: San Jose and San Diego,” Randy Wilson and Manish Patel, Google Imagery Team, wrote.

“This new perspective gives users the ability to tilt their view of the world. In addition to seeing hotel rooftops like in our current “satellite” view, users can now see both the rooftop and sides of the hotel at an angle. In fact, users can rotate around all the sides of a hotel to get 4 different views from back to front,&rdqu… (read more)

Dubai’s economic meltdown was a warning sign of further sovereign default troubles for other governments.

CMA, a credit information specialist, tracks the world’s most volatile sovereign debt issuers according to percentage changes in their 5 year Credit Default Swaps.

On top of their list for the greatest sovereign risks are countries from the former Russian Eastern Bloc, conflict-torn nations, and an oil-rich dictatorship.

See the next round of governments to go bankrupt >

Join the conversation about this story »

Not surprisingly, delivery services and freight forwarders have been an “industry on the move” recently.  And, as if on cue, FedEx announced before  the bell this morning that it expects to report a profit that is considerably higher than their previous guidance.  FedEx is wayyy out of our field of interest, but there are, in fact, lots of delivery services and freight forwarders in the small-cap world, even if they don’t advertise on the SuperBowl broadcast.

Look at Purchase NY-based Atlas Air Worldwide (Nasdaq: AAWW; http://www.atlasair.com/), for instance.  They may not be cashing in on the Christmas season, but they are delivering big items for big customers.  They just announced this morning, for instance, that they are delivering 55 mine-resistant vehicles to US troops in Afghanistan.  But they do a lot more than just deliver things — they also operate a charter service whose large-client list also includes the US military.  The company sports a market cap of about $725 million, and completed just before Halloween a follow-on stock offering run by Morgan Stanley & Goldman Sachs, raising about $112 million for the general fund.  The shares are trading at $35.07, within kissing distance of  the 52-week high at $37.97, and on good average volume of over 500,000 shares. 

Atlas Air offers a wide variety of aircraft, freight, passenger and logistics services

Then there’s Greeneville TN-based Forward Air Corp (Nasdaq: FWRD; http://www.forwardair.com/), which serves the deferred air freight market — things that need to be moved on aircraft, but not in a mad scramble to get there first.  With a market cap of just under $700 million it is right in our crosshairs, and the stock at $24.02 is not far off its year-high of $26.29, on volume of nearly 700,000 shares a day.

Please do your own diligence before trading or owning any stock — we do not recommend stocks; we just write on interesting companies.

Downers Grove IL-based Hub Group Inc (Nasdaq: HUBG; http://www.hubgroup.com/)   is another case in point.  With a market cap of  just about $1 billion it still qualifies as small cap, and its shares at $26.61 are not far off the year-high of $28.47 on average volume of about 390,000 shares per day.  HUBG is an “asset-light” freight mover that basically contracts its services out in a variety of transport modes, most commonly rail and trucking.  HUBG seems mainly to carry consumer goods and durable goods (your new washer-dryer combo, for instance) in container-size quantities.

Fort Smith AR-based Arkansas Best Corp (Nasdaq: ABFS; http://www.arkbest.com/)  is a less-than-truckload (LTL) specialist, and going on 90 years in the business.  They carry commercial and industrial loads and operate nationwide.  They lost money in their most recent quarter due to the general downturn in the economy, but the way I read their balance sheet, they have around $190 million cash and short-term securities, an almost negligible amount of long-term debt, and a current ratio of a bit better than 1.7:1.  At $27.43, the stock is down from its 52-week high of $34.56 for a current market cap of about $685 million and average daily volume of about 500,000 shares.  Might be worth a gander, since longterm viability does not seem to be a problem.

Finally if special situations appeal to you, have a look at Overland Park KS-based YRC Worldwide Inc (Nasdaq: YRCW, http://www.yrcw.com/) , which is just being dropped from the Dow Jones Transport Index, and is facing a deadline for an exchange offer of equity for debt today (Tuesday the 8th).  The stock has plunged to $1.02 vs a year-high of $6.18.  Today’s market cap is about $60 million, and daily volume on the stock is in the millions of shares as people jockey to get in or out of a company that seems to be accelerating down.  It remains one of the largest transportation service providers in the world, and there are 11 analysts following them who see losses diminishing compared to last year. 

None of these looks like a lump of coal in the Christmas stocking, at least not to us, although YRCW has all the earmarks of a lottery ticket as opposed to a longterm investment.

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Ford, Toyota

We’re guessing you’ve heard about Toyota’s massive 3.8 million vehicle recall for unintended acceleration. It appears to be an issue that could have potentially resulted in several deaths and reports of hundreds of accidents. Consumer Reports wanted to dig deeper on the matter, studying National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data for the 2008 model year. CR chose 2008 because the claims occurred prior to the widespread media coverage that has resulted in a flood of new complaints.

In studying NHTSA’s accumulated 5,916 reports CR found that 166 involved unintended acceleration complaints. Of those complaints, 47 came from Toyota and five from Lexus, representing 41 percent of overall unintended acceleration complaints. That’s obviously a disproportionate amount of reports for an automaker with 16 percent of the US market’s overall share. Here’s one complaint logged by NHTSA.

“I felt the vehicle [2008 Lexus ES 350] increasing in speed to about 90 mph, without depressing the accelerator. I had been on cruise control at about 73 mph… [A] passenger screamed at me to slow down. I was unable to do so, even after stepping forcefully on the brakes.”

While Toyota had a disproportionate amount of unintended acceleration claims, the Japanese automaker wasn’t alone. Ford received an also high 36 overall complaints, or 28 percent of all U.S. models. The F-150 appears to have been one of the Blue Oval’s main culprits, and complaints ranged from a gas pedal that was too wide to an engine that decided to go buck wild.

“The engine immediately increased in rpm to the point where the rear tires began spinning on the gravel. I put the transmission in Neutral and the engine rpm increased. I removed my foot from the brake and the engine continued at a very high rpm. I then depressed and released the accelerator and the engine returned to a normal idle.”

While Toyota and Ford have the lion’s share of unintended acceleration claims, other automakers have a disproportionately low amount of complaints. Chrysler came in with 11 complaints, GM had seven, Honda had five and Nissan had three. Head over to Consumer Reports for its full report and more information on unintended acceleration.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

Consumer Reports: Over 40 percent of ‘sudden acceleration’ claims involve Toyota originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fuel cell sailboats and motorboats are both making headlines promoting the use of green hydrogen as way to clean up oceans, rivers, lakes and other waterways. I’ve talked about EFOY several times in the past as providing auxiliary power to motor homes and traffic signals.

This time on the Pogo2 yacht the EFOY 2200 provided auxiliary power to keep the ship on course for its 27 day, 4,800 mile journey from France to Portugal to Brazil. Out of 85 yachts in the race, the Pogo2 took 2nd place largely due to the trouble free power provided by the fuel cell for the GPS system, lights, refrigerator and other navigational tools.

The Pogo2 yacht used swappable hydrogen tanks that can be obtained from any one of 1,400 sales points around Europe in both 5 and 10 liter cartridges. A 10-liter cartridge can provide enough power for a typical ship’s onboard systems for 14-days before it has to be swapped out.

Now, in the Austria, a fuel cell is being used to power a motorboat on a lake that forbids the use of gasoline or diesel engines. The boat is a Frauscher 750 St. Tropez powered by a Fronius fuel cell and electric motor.

The Frauscher motorboat uses a swappable 5,000 psi hydrogen tank. The hydrogen itself is made by solar cells, which electrolyze water to create hydrogen and oxygen, making the whole process of motoring upon this lake a very clean adventure indeed.

There is a video on the Motor Boats Monthly website that explains how the fuel cell motorboat works and the company’s plans to commercialize this technology. While many are concerned about cleaning up our highways and byways, our oceans, lakes and river systems also must not be ignored. Hydrogen boats, ships, yachts and even submarines will help keep our waterways cleaner than they are right now.

Marcus Samuelsson’s book New American Table is an explosion of love and praise for all the many immigrant cuisines that melt together to make American food so glorious. And yet the recipe in his book that we were most drawn to was Doro We’t, the classic Ethiopian stew. But maybe this just reinforces his premise: we all bring our own histories to the table, and this is part of his, and his wife’s.

Read Full Post

In this morning’s Breakfast With Dave newsletter, analyst Dave Rosenberg talks about Ben Bernanke’s speech yesterday at the NY Economic Club. He likens its speech to that of Alan Greenspan in 1992:

Rosenberg: We are talking about the latest employment report, which had far too many non- confirmations … like the one above. In yesterday’s Economics Club speech in Washington, the Fed Chairman stressed that “the economy confronts some formidable headwinds that seem likely to keep the pace of expansion moderate … we still have some way to go before we can be assured that the recovery will be self-sustaining.”

The last time we heard the term “headwinds” was from Alan Greenspan in the summer of ’92 when the economy was out of technical recession but not yet into a complete recovery, and the Fed waited 20 months to tighten rates! Quick, buy me back those Eurodollar futures!!

Mr. Bernanke received some key support from Bill Dudley who heads up the New York Fed, and stated that the economy faces near term “downward pressure” and that “mostly because some of the current sources of strength are temporary” (ie. fiscal stimulus and the arithmetic boost from reduced inventory de-stocking).

Essentially, Americans will have to continue waiting for the job market to recover if this post-recession vibe is anything like that of the Greenspan era.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Greenspan: Another Financial Crisis Is Coming
• Watch The Market Go Gaga For Ben Bernanke
• John Mauldin: We’re Still Heading For A Double-Dip Recession

The Minerals Management Service on Monday approved  Shell’s plan to drill three “exploratory” wells off the North Slope of Alaska.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) calls it “progress.” Alaskan environmentalists are crying foul. Big surprise.

The Houston Chronicle: A number of Alaskan environmental and community groups expressed disappointment in the MMS decision, calling it a “rubber stamp” on the plan without doing “a full analysis of its potentially significant effects on wildlife and Alaska Native subsistence, already threatened by climate change…

The greenlight for Shell will likely put wildlife at risk, says Karla Dutton, Alaska Program Director with the Defenders of Wildlife.

Continue reading here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Shell Doesn’t Expect Oil Prices To Rebound In The Next Year (RDS)
• What Advances In Horizontal Drilling Mean For Shale Oil (UNG, USO)

Warner Bros. has released the first Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 trailer that includes actual in-game footage. Check it out after the jump.