techimoto

FROM THE LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA, WEBSITE:

When Mike Scott took charge of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in 2005, he became just the 12th person to oversee the agency since 1887. Already, he has made his mark in the community – and the state.

“People could say running for sheriff took either courage, ignorance, or a combination of both,” says Scott. “People have to respect the campaign. It was more than a fluke.”

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The New York Federal Reserve is lending up to $37.8 billion to American International Group to give the troubled insurer access to much-needed cash (for more, and better parties?).

The new program, announced Wednesday, is on top of the $85 billion the federal government agreed to lend to AIG last month to prevent the global company from collapsing. AIG said last Friday it had drawn down $61 billion (no wonder, those parties are expensive! See previous techimoto article about AIG spending $440,000 on a party at the St. Regis!).

The latest announcement does not jeopardize the government’s ability to recoup its loan to AIG, experts said.

“AIG will repay the loan,” said Stewart Johnson, portfolio manager at Philo Smith, an investment bank specializing in insurance. “It’s just a matter of how much of themselves they will have to sell.” (NOT MUCH IF THE PARTIES CONTINUE!)

“We fully expect to emerge from this with a capital structure that’s fit to fight (AND DRINK?) ,” he said. “Our insurance businesses…are strong and well-capitalized.”

But some analysts are more skeptical. “The current disruption in the credit markets could make it difficult to sell businesses at attractive valuations,” ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said.

Hey dude, those parties are expensive! They need more capital! Partey on dudes!

This from the LA TImes: Days after the Feds committed $85 billion of tax-payers’ money to a bailout of insurance giant AIG, senior execs from the troubled company headed to Southern California’s ultra swanky St.Regis Resort in Monarch Beach for a week of wining (or should it be “whining”) and dining. The company paid more than $440k for the event, including $23k for spa treatments, and $7k for golf.

What I can’t figure out is how the government decides who gets bailed out, and who doesn’t. Campaign contributions?

Hmmm, I just got to get me one of those “lobbyists”.

For breakfast today, me and some friends went to the local IHOP. We weren’t exactly sure how to get there so we used our GPS devices in our cars to navigate there. On the way, we marveled at how the stop lights changed yellow just as we passed by. And once we had arrived, everyone seemed to be using their i-phones to call other people to join us, or to play games. But what if all these electronics were used against us? Breakfast at IHOP probably wouldn’t happen is what.
Generally this is the concept that Steven Speilberg and co. are throwing at us. Add to this mix some politics regarding a certain war in the Middle East and the current administration, and you’ve got the batter to begin the recipe.
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COMPUTERWORLD: T-Mobile Inc., Google Inc. and HTC Corp. unveiled the long-awaited G1 Android phone at an event in New York today, revealing pricing, availability and some of the initial applications available for it. They emphasized that the software is open source.

The phone will first become available in the U.S., and a U.K. launch will follow shortly afterward. Starting Oct. 22, U.S. consumers will be able to buy the G1 for $179. Users can subscribe to a limited data plan for $25 a month or $35 for unlimited data access.

The G1 will go on sale in the U.K. in early November and in other T-Mobile European markets in the first quarter of next year.

“We believe open will drive the future of the mobile Internet,” said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer at T-Mobile USA. “From garages to graduate schools, from small towns to big cities, we believe third parties will drive the innovation and future of the mobile Net, along with partnerships with carriers and key manufacturers.”

A demonstration of the phone showed a user flicking the screen to scroll through items, in much the same way people can use gestures to navigate the iPhone. The G1, however, also supports the “long press,” where a user holds a finger to the screen to open up a menu. For example, holding a finger on a photograph opens a menu offering options such as the ability to send the photo to someone else.

The phone includes a browser built on Webkit, the same technology that drives Apple’s Safari browser, said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms at Google, who is credited with leading the Android development. He called it “Chrome-light,” comparing it to the Chrome browser that Google recently introduced.

The T-Mobile G1

In a browser window, a user can drag a small box around the Web site and the content behind the box is magnified for easier viewing on the small screen.

The phone, which the executives referred to as “G1 with Google”, features many Google applications, including Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Flickr and GTalk. It is also integrated with the Amazon MP3 store, allowing users to easily buy digital music, and it features the Android store where users can browse and buy new applications.

The phone also includes a dedicated search button. When users press it, a Google search bar pops up on the screen.

G1 users will be able to read Word, PDF and Excel documents but, initially at least, they won’t be able to sync Microsoft Exchange mail with the phone. “Currently there’s no Exchange compatibility, but that’s a perfect opportunity for a third-party developer,” Rubin said.

In a bold move, especially for a battered company in a  bruised economy, GM has aggressively developed a prototype car that, for all effective purposes, run entirely on electricity.  It uses a 400-lb lithium-ion battery, an energy source that is silent and emission-free. 

The big difference from other “hybrid” cars such as the “Prius”, is that propulsion is expected to be from the battery the majority of the time.  The battery can sustain travel for up to 40 miles, more than enough for most drivers daily needs (80% of Americans drive less than 40 miles in a day).  If needed, a gas engine is on-board as well, and by functioning as as a generator (a “GenSet”), it can increase the range for up to another 200 miles.    For the majority of Americans, that would mean eliminating gasoline for ever! 

Bob Lutz, GM’s 76-year-old vice chairman for global product development, and the force behind the project, say’s he’s shooting for a sales price of “$40,000 or less”.

Oh well, you can always wait for the end-of-year sale.

William Yuan, from Portland, Oregon, has a better idea.  A recent science project he developed, entitled “A Highly-Efficient 3-Dimensional Nanotube Solar Cell for Visible and UVLight,” William invented a novel solar panel that enables light absorption from visible toultraviolet light. He designed carbon nanotubes to overcome the barriers of electron movement, doubling the light-electricity conversion efficiency. William also developed a model for solar towers and a computer program to simulate and optimize the tower parameters. His optimized design provides 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than the cutting-edge, three dimensional solar cell.

William probably put this project together using funds from his paper route.  Just think what we could do if Big Oil put even 1% of their profits into alternative energy research!   Rock on William, you are a true American. 

Whatever happened to “small government”.  Isn’t that a Republican trademark?  Now, thanks to our tax dollars, we (and I mean everyone in this country that pays taxes), own 79% of AIG, paying $85-billion, and of course manage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well.  And how did you feel about paying out $24 million to the Mae/Mac executives after they were fired for doing a terrible job?  That’s not a “management decision” I would have made, would you?  Were you even asked your opinion as a manager, I wasn’t.

Officials decided they had to act lest the nation’s largest insurer file bankruptcy. Such a move would roil world markets since AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) has $1.1 trillion in assets and 74 million clients in 130 countries.

An eventual liquidation of the company is most likely, senior Fed officials said. But with the government loan, the company won’t have to go through a tumultuous fire sale.

“[A] disorderly failure of AIG could add to already significant levels of financial market fragility and lead to substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth and materially weaker economic performance,” the Fed said in a statement. Read the rest

In a future with no need for fossil fuels and with the need of renewable energies, solar power seems to be the best option available on the market. In order to be efficient and cost-effective, the sun has to shine all day long and the perfect place for that is the African continent. The latest project consists of solar updraft towers which will be built in Namibia and each tower could generate about 400 megawatts of power.

The gigantic solar towers were only “proposed” by Hahn & Hahn and each will be 1.5km tall and 280m wide, and the towers will be welcomed in Africa as at the base of them, people could grow crops. The base will measure about 37-square km and it will work as a greenhouse. Read the rest