Archive for Richard Cochrane

Bend over and brace yourself America — here it comes again.

Martin Walker write in a Washington (UPI) Nov 19, 2008 datelined article that, “(A) GM bankruptcy would not save money for the U.S. economy. The healthcare and pension obligations would simply shift to state welfare, Medicare and Medicaid and the pension guarantee system.”

There are 479,000 retirees getting GM pensions. Pensioners are quarantined a maximum of $40,000 a year from The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. PBGC is another one of those federal shadow corporations nobody pays much attention to until the defecation hits the impeller. But, it GM fails PBGC could wind up paying 20 billion a year to GM pensioners, or for any other qualifying company that fails. So in that context a $25 billion “bridge-to-nowhere-loan” to GM looks cheap is there is even a slight chance it will reverse track and could be paid back.

Second, he says a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing would likely hit sales hard, as consumers fear that multiyear warranties and their local dealerships and future supplies of spare parts might not be reliable. Frankly that’s mostly a boogieman.

Third, Walker argues there is a strategic aspect to the U.S. auto industry. It is a critical part of the national industrial base and the economy as a whole, as well as the defense sector. But, what he doesn’t say many of US military vehicles are being made elsewhere anyway because U. S. plants can’t or won’t do it.

Detroit he points out is the key partner in the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator Project. Detroit Diesel and ArvinMeritor are irreplaceable links in the military’s long supply chain but they can run just fine without help from legions of General Motors Institute graduates’ help.

Fourth, GM is profitable in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. GM upped its profits in Europe by 65 percent last year. GM also posted records in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In China, GM leads all automakers in sales. In 2007 sales rose 20 percent for GM in China compared with 2006, and GM became the first manufacturer to sell 1 million vehicles in China.

But, that may not last. Opel, GM’s German wing wants Berlin to bail it out and Brussels to restructure aid under the European Union’s proposed scheme to help its auto industries retool for a green future. But Opel, like the British wing of GM known as Vauxhall, is looking hard at buyout options and there are buyers.

Fifth, and maybe most important people are still going to buy cars. The credit crunch has been complicating things since the boneheads in Congress shoveled money to banks without a demand to lend it – so they aren’t – but will. But forget about the U. S. the growing wealth of the developing world means a boom is on the way.

Walker says there are now 800 million vehicles on the world’s roads; by 2020 there are expected to be 1.5 billion, with strong growth in China, India and elsewhere.

The good news is things like the Volt, GM’s electric-powered (but still hybrid) car coming to market within 18 months. Ford and Chrysler have hybrid vehicles already, and fully electric and fuel-cell cars are in development.

He argues all these good idea should not go to waste what he doesn’t say is they won’t. Remember GM and to some extent Ford and Chrysler won’t let that happen and their foreign operations although related are more independent that dependent.

Sixth, remember GM and Ford are well advanced on the restructuring path, after new agreements with the labor unions, improved quality and models, and ongoing reform of its sprawling dealer network.

United Auto Workers union is talking about funding a voluntary employee beneficiary association has ended its $50 billion liability in unfounded benefits. This has already saved GM $5 billion.

Moreover, healthcare reform, a likely priority of the incoming Obama administration, could shift the remaining burden of health costs from companies to a national insurance system that should further relieve the auto industry’s current high cost structure. The bugaboo is those costs will fall on taxpayers.

The rub in all this is that the current crash sneaked up on America driving car and truck sales down from 16 to 13 million units and it is still headed south.

GM’s current North American operating costs of $31 billion a year at its 24 plants need to be slashed by at least a third. That costs jobs and wrecks communities. I know I watched steel plants close followed by blocks of closed stores and even the local movie house. Three plants are already slated for closure.

Walker’s argument that GM’s has “spawned a “sprawling and swollen dealership network” but he forgets that dealerships – including some 4,000 in small-towns are private businesses and that will take care of itself. So keep hands off.

He rightly points out if Congress decides against a GM bailout it need not be the end of the world. When UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused further subsidies to British Leyland, the last U.K.-owned major car manufacturer things came back and UK now makes and exports more cars and employee more people than it did then. Plus, Walker finally says, given the manufacturing presence of Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes and Hyundai, the U.K. experience may well be repeated in the United States, even if Ford and GM collapse.

After all based on current share price Ford and GM both could be bought for less than $10 billion so somebody will – clean house; flush those toilets and clean the bowls and get on with it.

The Democrats in Congress are so beholding to tens of millions of contributions from big labor and millions of workers to keep them in office they will likely not do what’s right. So here comes $25 billion and probably $50 billion or more and things will still be a fouled up as Hogan’s goat.

Martin Walker hit a pretty solid ball but I had to short stop it and hold him up on first base. But, he still did better than those strike outs in Washington DC.

Water needed for long term Mars exploration and colonization.

So far NASA has not discovered any H. G. Wells-like Martian monsters but it’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found vast buried water ice glaciers under blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on Mars.

Ground-penetrating radar was used to detect the glaciers that extend for dozens of miles from the edges of mountains or cliffs. This discovery is similar to massive ice glaciers that have been detected under rocky coverings in Antarctica.

“Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles and up to half a mile thick. And there are many more,” Scientists report.

“The fact these features are in the same latitude bands, about 35 to 60 degrees in both hemispheres, points to a climate-driven mechanism for explaining how they got there.”

“The tilt of Mars’ spin axis sometimes gets much greater than it is now. Climate modeling tells us ice sheets could cover mid-latitude regions of Mars during those high-tilt periods. The buried glaciers make sense as preserved fragments from an ice age millions of years ago. On Earth, such buried glacial ice in Antarctica preserves the record of traces of ancient organisms and past climate history.”

Even though no “little green men” have been discovered on Mars or for that matter even traces of life – this discovery raises interests and the presence of trillions of gallons of water removes a big question of long term exploration missions or even colonialization.

Chambliss and Coleman Seats on knife’s edge.

Republican incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss holds a four-point lead over Democratic challenger Jim Martin in Georgia ’s closely-watched Senate runoff race, according to the first Rasmussen Reports survey in the state since Election Day.

A runoff is required since no one security a majority of the vote on November 4^th ,Chambliss leads 50% to 46%, with the vote scheduled for December 2. Only four percent (4%) are undecided. At present Democrats have a 56 advantage; plus one avowed Socialist and an independent (Lieberman) who caucus with the Democrats - two short of a veto proof Senate and hence Congress.

The Minnesota race between uber-leftist, and sarcastic un-funny man Al Franken and bland Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is in a manual recount. They were separated by 209 votes of 2.9 million cast but Coleman’s lead as of 7:03 AM Thursday is 179 due to results from liberal, urban St. Louis County Franken has sued to count absentee ballots even if received late.

Franken’s camp estimates that as many as 250 volunteer attorneys will descend on the state.

Coleman is a former Mayor of St, Paul; first term Senator elected in 2002, a previous member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), Coleman switched to the Republican Party of Minnesota in 1996. In 1998 he lost a bid for Governor of Minnesota against former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura , a member of the Reform Party of Minnesota , and Democratic Farmer Labor candidate Hubert H. “Skip” Humphrey III .

Recounting costs about 3 cents per ballot or $87,000 but before every legal challenge is resolved could consume millions of dollars.

Earth to NASA - how about a cost inventory of a $100,000 tool bag?

‘Oh, great!” Astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper exclaimed watching helplessly as a $100,000 tool bag floated off into the void of space while she was working on the International Sp[ace State (ISS).

Piper forgot to tie it down and the world’s most expensive tool bag is now part of the floating junk orbiting the Earth.

Stefanyshyn-Piper borrowed tools from her companion space walker Steve Bowen, who carried the same contents in his bag.

NASA tracks objects lost close to the International Space Station and the space shuttle because they can be harmful if they later collide.

There is so much space debris in low orbits around the Earth, we wish Chicken Little were right about the sky falling-at least when it comes to debris that is cluttering up our space environment and starting to truly interfere with use of space.

Man-made debris is clogging up active satellite traffic lanes and the situation is getting worse. As we approach space gridlock, space will eventually become inaccessible to all nations for all applications. There will eventually be no more GPS navigation, no more weather data beamed from space and no more satellite television, etc. — and, unfortunately, no one is doing anything about cleaning up space!

There are good things from Tuesday “whoops” renewed discussions about cleaning up space, and requiring “deorbiting” mechanisms that would ensure stuff leaves orbit and burns up and doesn’t just float around for decades and even centuries.

A request has been sent to NASA to explain what could cost $100,000 in a tool bag and if it answers we will let you know.

Qaddafi Tweaked Putin’s Nose Just As His Grand Scheme Is Going South

Russia is exasperated that Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi balked at signing contracts worth up to $4.5 billion during his recent three-day visit to Russia. The Russian analyst said Moscow offered Libya the most advanced weaponry, much of it still unavailable to the Russian military.

Sources said Putin, had agreed to write off Libya’s old $4.5 billion debt, when he met Qaddafi in Tripoli in April 2008, and the two leaders agreed to promote defense and energy cooperation. “Everything is moving very slowly, much too slowly for Putin,” a Russian defense source said.

During Qaddafi’s visit to Moscow, the Libyan leader was shown the Su-35 multi-role fighter, the T-90 MBT, the S-300PMU2 air defense system and the Ka-50-2 attack helicopter. No deals were announced. Part is the reason maybe complaints from other about the reliability and effectiveness of Russian weapons.

Qaddafi tweaked Putin’s nose negotiating for Soviet-era S-300 air defense platforms in Belarus and Ukraine. The sources said both Kiev and Minsk offered the platforms at a much cheaper price than Moscow.

Plus, Qaddafi has other fish to fry as his country appears about to fly apart as unrest and revolution is growing and entrenching as a new guerrilla force that is attracting outside interest.

Russia is cash strapped and Libya maybe miffed by being excused from the recent natural gas cartel meeting involving Iran, Qatar and Russia. Plus as crude oil use crashes in China prices are plummeting. Europe is less enthusiastic about its dependency on Russia’s natural gas. All this presents Putin with the worst of all worlds.

Grudgingly Putin is recognizing that his personal plans for a new Russian empire will have to be delayed until the world’s economic downturn turns around. He’s buying time by signaling willingness to get closer to the West including the USA, and apparently believes a new Obama administration will make it easier to get what he wants.

This posting is adapted, edited and supplemented from a November 18, 2008 Moscow datelined World Tribune article.

Celebrations of death from Neanderthal to NASA and Beyond.

Funeral rites are as old as the human culture itself, predating modern homo sapiens, to at least 300,000 years ago. For example, in the Shanidar cave in Iraq, in Pontnewydd Cave in Wales and other sites across Europe and the Near East, Neanderthal skeletons have been discovered with a characteristic layer of pollen, which suggests that Neanderthals buried the dead with gifts of flowers.This has been interpreted as suggesting that Neanderthals believed in an afterlife

Humankinds obsession with death not only continues but is even accelerated by modern technology. Ten years ago NASA paid tribute to top US astronomer Eugene Shoemaker by carrying into space a portion of his cremated remains.

After a year in lunar orbit Shoemaker’s remains were intentionally planted on the moon’s south pole, the first time human remains have been landed on the lunar surface — but maybe not the last time.

Soon for $9,995 one gram of cremated remains can be sent to the moon according to a website for Celestis a space funeral company. Other funeral services besides the full lunar trip include sending ash into Earth’s orbit — the cheapest option, starting at $700 – and all the way up to launching remains far, far away into deep space, for which the company charges more than $37,000. Moon funerals could start in 2010. and the pricier packages by 2011.

One day relatives could visit the lunar cemetery. For transportation, Celestis has made deals with two other US private space companies, Odyssey Moon and Astrobotic Technology, which are currently working on making commercial flights to the moon.

Other companies offer space burials but a flight that was to orbit the Sun went haywire earlier plunging the hapless ash filled capsules into it.

For the ultimate a rather morbid “bling” Life Gems will turn human ashes into a manmade diamond so relatives can wear your around for eternity or until you are pawned.

…at all levels voters considered nearly a thousand referenda and initiatives on the November ballot.

Same-sex marriage bans passed in California , Arizona and Florida got a lot of attention and bring to 30 the number of states with prohibitions in their constitutions to block same-sex unions. A Connecticut judge decreed same sex marriage OK there. Voters in Arkansas stopped adoptions of children by homosexuals.

Voters in Colorado and South Dakota rejected sweeping bans on abortion that could have tested Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that provided women seeking abortions with legal protections. A third abortion measure — requiring doctors to notify parents of minors before performing the procedure — failed in California .

Washington became only the second state after Oregon to allow doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Michigan lifted a 30-year ban on stem-cell research. Nebraska agreed to ban affirmative action. President-elect Obma is expected the end the ban on human fetal stem cell research by executive order as soon as he takes office January 20th .

Massachusetts rejected a plan to eliminate the state’s income tax, a proposal that could have cut the state’s budget by more than 40%. North Dakotans declined to cut the state’s personal income tax in half and reduce the corporate income tax by 15%, moves that would have slashed the state’s budget by about 17%. In Oregon , a proposal to allow residents to deduct federal taxes from their state income tax returns failed; the measure would have trimmed the state’s budget by about $1 billion. Coloradans refused to create a savings account for public schools that would have used money otherwise returned to residents as rebates under the state’s landmark Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

Voters in Massachusetts and Michigan relaxed penalties for the possession and use of marijuana. Massachusetts became the first state to decriminalize the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana via ballot initiative, while Michigan became the 13th state — and first in the Great Lakes or Midwest — to sign off on use of the drug for medical purposes.

Washington voters easily approved - by a 58.7%t to 41.3% margin - a “death with dignity” law modeled on Oregon ’s, which took effect in 1997. More than 340 patients have taken lethal prescriptions in the decade since Oregon ’s law was enacted. Some think doctor-assisted suicide is “something that could be coming down the pike in other states” after Washington ’s approval.

South Dakota voters rejected a proposal to repeal legislative term limits. Colorado rejected a plan to lower age limits for those serving in the General Assembly. Perhaps most significantly, Californians were considering giving redistricting authority to an independent commission instead of the state Legislature, a proposal that has failed five times before in the Golden State . With 99 percent of precincts reporting, the proposal was ahead by the narrowest of margins.

California became the latest state to approve a measure requiring more humane conditions for farm animals. But the proposal would not go into effect until 2015. Similar proposals won approval in Florida in 2002 and Arizona in 2006.

Energy-Capture technology key to whole new alternative energy idea.

Octillion has announced plans to further Octillion’s development of first-generation devices capable of generating electricity by harvesting energy from vehicles in motion and is partnering with Naval Research, to use recent advances by Veryst engineers to do it.

Engineers are harvesting energy from motion says an article titled “Harvest of Motion” featured in the September 2008 issue of Mechanical Engineering Magazine. The idea is simplicity itself but not simple to do to efficiently use the movement of millions of cars, buses, trucks, trains, and even rapid transit to generate electricity, through the installation of kinetic-power technologies at high-volume toll plazas, border check points, truck weigh scales, highway rest stops, exit ramps, and even restaurant drive-thru windows.

The idea is based on developing energy-capture devices that produce more than they use and represent a truly transformational technology for generating electricity in a brand new way. The United States is the world’s largest consumer of electricity burning coal or natural gas to produce 70% of it. Electricity is expected to remain the fastest-growing form of end-use energy worldwide through 2030, as it has been over the past several decades.

The actual gadget necessary to do so exists in small scale, the challenge now is to upscale it, and there is optimism that this can be done but the issue is when. It is doubtless that harvesting all this excess energy has huge potential.

Young Communist League Celebrates 90th Anniversary

The 90^th Anniversary of the Komsomol - Young Communist League – was celebrated last week in Russia. The youth wing of the Communist Party disbanded after an unsuccessful August 1991 coup attempt by communist hardliners against the reformist rule of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the USSR was collapsing. Far from everyone is happy and since two-thirds of adult Russians are estimated to have been members of the the organization continues to hold fond memories for many of them.

The Komsomol was formed at the First All-Russia Congress of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Youth Lea­gues in 1918. The youngest members were 14 years old and the oldest 28. The organization provided many “volunteer” members for mass construction projects across the U.S.S.R.

The organization had tens of millions of members at its peak, and as perestroika allowed limited private enterprise, many of its top members were in positions to gain an advantage in business through membership of Russian Regional and State Anti-Monopoly Committees.

Vladimir Sungorkin, the editor of one of the most popular newspapers in Russia today, Komsomolskaya Pravda (Komsomol Truth) said that he believed the Soviet youth organization had been founded on ad­mirable principles.

Sungorkin editorialized that “The Komsomol was founded on Christian, humanitarian ideals, the ideas of equality and brotherhood,” opining that its rubbish that many tried to avoid it. He failed to mention that during Stalin’s time teenagers were obliged to join Komsomol or explain why not. It is incorrect to compare membership in it to the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts

Modern day Russia also has a number of state-backed youth organizations, the most prominent of which is Nashi (Ours). However, these movements do not enjoy anything like “popularity” of the Komsomol. says an article in this week’s Moscow News Weekly that some insist on comparing to Time or Newsweek.

A number of events are planned to mark the 90th anniversary of the Komsomol and will take place across Russia on Wednesday, November 19. On October 26, a concert marking the anniversary took place at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow.