Blog

Maintaining peak combat readiness begins and ends with healthy, motivated and
well-trained Airmen…

On one high-definition screen a guy in a tiger suit was boxing a giant panda. On
another monitor a short plumber was searching for mushrooms. And a few feet away a
digital version of the Beatles crooned ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’…

The first Air National Guard class of officer cadets to graduate from the Academy of
Military Sciences at Maxwell Air Force Base received their golden bars Nov.
13…

Intelligence reporting indicated that foreign fighters could be located in a town in
Iraq’s northwestern Ninewah province near the Syrian border…

Retired Army Col. Lewis L. Millett, who received the Medal of Honor during the
Korean War for leading what reportedly was the last major American bayonet charge,
died Nov 14…

The first female and first Air Force senior enlisted advisor to the chief of the
National Guard Bureau said her new job is a calling…

Because of the current slow economy, some Guardsmen are returning from deployments
to find their civilian job has been downsized or completely done away
with…

Pimco’s Guillermo Osses believes that currency traders are set to bid up the Mexican peso as much as 20% against the dollar during the next year, right after Mexico just had its credit rating downgraded to BBB by Fitch Ratings.

While Mr. Osses appears to be one of the most bullish on the peso, he’s not alone. Economists’ consensus forecast predicts a 3.3% rise against the dollar, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg: …investors were “awaiting the downgrade to take positions in Mexico,” Osses said in a telephone interview from Newport Beach, California. “The peso is one of the cheapest currencies in emerging markets. External accounts will improve and the government’s efforts on the fiscal side are reasonable.”

Given the Mexican peso’s horrible performance year to date, a 20% rally wouldn’t be too wild, simply recovering some of the ground it has lost against the U.S. dollar since the middle of 2008. Any large move in the peso would have serious repercussions for manufacturers set up along the U.S./Mexican border, including the many relocated Chinese ones.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Mexico Calls Citi’s Nationalization Illegal, May Cost Firm 15% Of Its Profits (C)
• Mom & Pop U.S. Pot Growers Beat The Mexican Cartels
• Mexican Cartels Busted Smuggling Oil To U.S. Refiners

Just a few minutes ago General Motors released a statement confirming that Koenigsegg has suddenly reneged on their agreement to purchase Saab. Despite the fact that GM is no stranger to failed deals (for further reference, please contact your nearest disgruntled Saturn dealer), CEO Fritz Henderson expressed surprise and regret over the decision. “We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase,” said GM President and CEO, Fritz Henderson. “Many have worked tirelessly over the past several months to create a sustainable plan for the future of Saab by selling the brand and its manufacturing interests to Koenigsegg Group AB. Given the sudden change in direction, we will take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week.”

While Henderson’s promise to weigh their options carefully seem promising, those who are familiar with GM’s proven track record for leeching what they can from a brand before tossing its lifeless carcass to the buzzards are not optimistic about Saab’s future.

On a lighter note, this now frees up the funds previously guaranteed by the Swedish government for the Saab-Koenigsegg purchase to be invest elsewhere, possibly with the Crown consortium.

Source: GM
Image Cred: Reuters Pictures

Google hasn’t even launched the extensions gallery for Chrome and the excitement is already building. Extensions have been supported to some extent by the browser for several months now, but only recently has Google gotten close to launching the feature to a wider audience. The company is now weeks, maybe days, away from introducing extensions to the Chrome beta channel and launching the online gallery, so developers are gearing up to get in early. Feedly, a feed reader – social networking aggregator hybrid, isn’t wasting any time and has just launched support for Chrome.

Feedly is a service which aims to change the way you read and explore your feeds. It’s not a dedicated feed reader in its own rights, it uses the feeds you already have in Google Reader, but, then again, it doesn’t have to be. The interesting part comes from the way it presents the items in a magazine-style interface, making it actually feasible to read the entries inside the reader in a way that is also visually appealing.

Every action is synced back to Google Reader and almost all of the options available from Google are available in Feedly as well. It isn’t a complete replacement for hardcore feed users, but for everyone else it makes an interesting option. It also integrates with other services like Twitter and FriendFeed allowing you t… (read more)

Yesterday, during the over-hyped debut of the new 2011 5-Series, I made a nostalgic reference to the extinct front end styling of 80s – early 90s Bimmers and, much to my surprise, received nary a grammatically incorrect letter of dissent. So, it is on that faintly encouraging note that I bring to you Tuesday’s eBay Find of the Day: a mint condition, one owner 1986 BMW L7. As classic BMW enthusiasts are already aware, the L7 was a souped up version of the 735i originally introduced exclusively to the American market to sate the growing, fervent luxury ride lust of gangster rappers and coke dealers. Plebeian wood trim was replaced with sumptuous leather on the dashboard and door panels and enough extra interior accessories were added to ensure European automotive garages no shortage of business decades down the road. As was intended, the L7 eventually became the ultimate status symbol and, after putting a few years on it, the biggest electrical nightmare outside of a Land Rover dealership.

This particular L7, however, appears to be in excellent working condition and was apparently meticulously cared for by its one owner. The original leather is not only still intact but as blemish free as the day it was driven home and the seller has all of the service records in his possession, so you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into. My personal spending limit is somewhere around $5k which puts me out of the race for this gem, but if I had the scratch I can assure you this would be making its way home to momma. Reliability be damned.

Pics after the jump

Source: eBay

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Saab, Earnings/Financials

After riding in on a white horse, Koenigsegg Group AB has pulled out of negotiations to buy Saab from General Motors, leaving the Swedish automaker’s future very much in doubt. In a brief statement issued by GM (available after the jump), president and CEO Fritz Henderson says that the company is “very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase.”

It is unclear what will happen to the brand now, but if Saab fans can hold on to any hope, GM says it will “take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week.” It is worth noting that this is different from the brief announcement that GM issued when Roger Penske’s group pulled out from buying Saturn – GM immediately announced that they would begin “winding down” the brand. There was at least one other serious bidder interested in purchasing Saab previous to Koenigsegg becoming the preferred purchaser, but it isn’t immediately clear if they are still interested, or if their financial backing checked out to begin with.

We suspect that even if Saab is unable to survive as a brand, someone will step in and purchase the assets to the already tooled-up forthcoming 9-5 sedan – perhaps the Chinese – and potentially the newish 9-3/9-3X as well.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading BREAKING: Koenigsegg backs out of Saab purchase, brand future up in the air

BREAKING: Koenigsegg backs out of Saab purchase, brand future up in the air originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

I saw these news blurbs about a man in Belgium who allegedly was awake for 23 years although the doctors thought he was in a coma. This story brought so many thoughts ot my head I though I would try to get them down.

• I have a living will that tells my loved ones to pull the plug if I go in a vegetative state
• I think we are going to see more and more stories about medicine going wrong in countries with socialized health care
• This sort of thing give more inflated, uncouched ammunition to CAM practitioners
• I’m not convinced that this guy is actually saying anything.

Living Wills and Vegetative states
I am an engineer, not only by trade but “by life”. When I see things that are cool I want to know how they work. But more importantly, I get an large amount of joy when I build something, write something, or perform something. I love life, I love my abilities and to use them (even if I bitch and moan sometimes during the process). My biggest fear in life, is to come out of a long coma, which unlike in the movies, people do not come out of the same way they went into. It is crippling. You only need to look at the video above.

It’s not like losing a hand, or an eye. I could probably deal with that (both hands would be extremely debilitating to me though). Its an all over muscular loss. I simply do not want to live like that. And no, hearing about the one or two people who not only come out of a long coma but also regain mobility and speech does not provide any comfort to me when that is the extreme exception.

Socialized Medicine
We’ve already seen it from Fox in some respect when they did some ridiculous reporting about how The Netherlands are in a state of anarchy, reveling in a mire of smut and drugs, implying that this is what we can expect if those damn liberals get in charge. I expect we will see more and more of isolated cases where medicine went wrong (as if that has anything to do with how the medicine is paid for) on the news as we move towards, you know, a new healthcare system that is also not socialized.

Strengthening CAM
I also bet we are going to see cases like this used to strengthen the canard of “Doctors don’t know everything”. You see, the “logic” goes like this, if doctors screw up somewhere on the planet, then homeopathy works. Isn’t that clear as day? Take a look over at NaturalNews or HuffPo in the next few days, I have little doubt that this case will be made.

Is he really writing?
Before I actually read any of the articles about this case, I saw a few tweets from Michael Shermer.

So, I thought “What is Michael yammering on about?” So I saw the video above. What the hell? Is everyone credulous? Would it have been so offensive or so unethical to actually put some headphones on the woman moving that mans hand so we could determine if this is real or not.

I’m not saying that the guy is not awake, I’m not saying he didn’t suffer for 23 years. I’m not a doctor, I didn’t diagnose him, I haven’t seen any of the data suggesting he is not in a coma. I’m saying that it’s bullshit that he is typing out these words, that fast. Isn’t it just as unethical to force words down his throat in the form of typing things he may not actually be saying?

I do wish some modicum of skepticism would enter the media the first time, and not at the end of weeks of hype.

Railroad stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 by 10% since Berkshire Hathaway acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway early last month, but the risk of underperformance now looms large between now and year’s end, says UBS.

(via DealJournal):

“[T]his is the third period of outperformance on the back of significant Buffett investments in this industry, and the stocks quickly gave back half of those relative gains on the back of the first two of these Buffett ‘bubbles,’” firm notes. Says UNP “has the most to lose if this bubble unwinds” as it’s the biggest outperformer since the BNI deal was announced.

Continue reading >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• U.S. Rail Traffic Sinks 9% (BNI)
• U.S. Rail Traffic Backslides In October
• Sorry Warren Buffett, Rail Traffic Still Sinks

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Retail Sales During Recessions
• Monthly Employment Change, Recent
• Part-Time For Economic Reasons

Pickle Monger alerts us to a CNN story suggesting that a Facebook group “may have lead to the beating of a 12-year-old” boy. Really? Facebook could do that rather than a group of kids who are bullies? The “group” in question was apparently a group (potentially inspired by a South Park episode) for a national “kick a ginger” (redhead) day. There was actually some controversy about this last year as well. It seems bizarre to blame Facebook (or, for that matter, South Park) for this at all, and so Pickle Monger went and checked out the actual Facebook group and noted: “There doesn’t seem to be any outrageous comments. In fact most comments are in good humor, some by readheads. The event has one confirmed guest – assumingly the creator, who seems to be readheaded (assuming it’s his photo on the profile). The event has two people awaiting reply.” Kids do stupid things, and sometimes the stupid things they do involve hitting other kids. That’s not the fault of Facebook.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Guest Blog:  Joshua Breitbart is the Policy Director for People’s Production House.  This Op-Ed originally appeared in the online version of The Weekly Haitian Times on  Nov. 19th, 2009

For many of us, the diversity and abundance of information on the Internet has become part of our daily lives. We assume that we will always be able to view the websites of our choosing and even upload our own photos and videos onto the Internet. However, as teachers of radio journalism, we can’t take net neutrality – the principle that prohibits discrimination of content and applications on the Internet – for granted. Our organization, People’s Production House, includes lessons on net neutrality as part of our year-long courses in public schools because without it, our students could soon be making entertaining and informative radio pieces without the ability to share them online.

With last week’s introduction of Resolution 712, the New York City Council has taken up this important issue. While we don’t hear much about it in the news, the current debate over net neutrality will determine the future of how we communicate. Two companies alone – Verizon and AT&T – have spent over $20 million on federal lobbying this year trying to thwart The Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, a bill in Congress that would enshrine net neutrality in law. Resolution 712, if the Council passes it, would endorse this bill.

Net neutrality was the law of the land until 2005 and it brought us many benefits. Skype is an Internet-based voice service that is extremely popular among the recent immigrants we teach who wish to keep in touch with family around the world. Skype competes with the voice services of cable companies like Optimum and Time Warner. Without net neutrality, those companies could have kept Skype and similar products like Magic Jack from launching by blocking it or charging the companies exorbitant fees that would be passed on to users.

Opponents of net neutrality point to the existing variety of online voice services as evidence that the system works. They call net neutrality a “solution in search of a problem,” but the problem is staring anyone who owns an Internet-enabled mobile phone right in the face. As it is now, most cellular phone companies – who have so far been exempt from net neutrality – block Skype from operating on their networks so people are forced to use their minutes for calls rather than their data connections.

This is particularly harmful to poor people, people of color, and seniors who are all more likely to have a mobile phone than a broadband-enabled personal computer or laptop. While laptop users can use whatever chat or voice service they want – thanks, so far, to net neutrality – mobile phone users can only access the parts of the Internet that their service providers approve. For international calls they still have to rely on expensive phone company connections or unreliable pre-paid phone cards. We need to extend net neutrality protections to wireless networks, not allow these kinds of discriminatory practices to spread, especially not now that the Bloomberg administration is finally taking action to close the digital divide in our city with its new NYC Connected Communities initiative.

Some companies say they need to be able to block unreasonable use of their networks. Then why, in 2007, when cable television and Internet service behemoth Comcast was found to be blocking a service called Bit Torrent that is popular for downloading movies, did they at first try to deny it? The Federal Communications Commission penalized the company, but Comcast is challenging the FCC’s authority in court – suing for its right to block our access to video services like Bit Torrent or voice services like Skype. Now that Comcast is seeking to purchase NBC Universal, it will have even more reason to block competitors’ content traveling over their wires.

For community journalists like the immigrants, low-wage workers, and public school students that we teach at People’s Production House, this is a scary thought. The NBC corporation has been broadcasting its content since 1926, while our trainees are just now finding the power of distributing their own media through the Internet. They’re finding new ways of engaging in civic life, new job skills, and a new sense of community, locally and globally. Without net neutrality, Comcast and other corporate giants could take that power away.

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, GMC

The GMT900 platform is by far the highest volume chassis General Motors has here in the States, as it underpins the Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe, Avalanche and Suburban, the Cadillac Escalade/Escalade ESV, and the GMC Sierra, Yukon and Yukon XL. We never had any doubt that GM would continue to build body-on-frame trucks in the future, but with demand for SUVs shrinking quickly, some thought the body-on-frame SUV would soon be a thing of the past. Maybe not.

Our friends over at Pickuptrucks.com are reporting that the next generation of the GMT platform will be produced by Magna International’s Cosma in Canada and Mexico – and that new platform will underpin the next-generation of GM SUVs along with the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado. Pickuptrucks quotes Magna spokesperson Scott Worden as confirming that the next generation of GM’s large SUVs will come with the body-on-frame architecture. This sort of chassis tends to add weight versus a unibody platform, but it also adds capability for towing and payload at lower cost.

We’re not really all the surprised that GM will continue to build BOF SUVs, especially when considering that the General sold a combined 200,000 copies of the Suburban, Yukon, Tahoe and Escalade last month alone. And last we checked, these are still relatively expensive vehicles that bring in quite a bit of desperately needed profit. And if customers are interested in a family hauler with better interior packaging and fuel economy, we’re sure GM dealers will be happy to get them into a Buick Enclave, Chevy Traverse or GMC Acadia.

[Source: Pickuptrucks]

REPORT: GM’s next-gen SUVs to be body-on-frame (otherwise they’d be crossovers) originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments