James Kunstler: The Tragedy of Suburbia

An open letter to all airline customers - Messed Up!

An open letter to all airline customers

Dear Mr. Tosh Bulger, Last week, crude oil hit an all-time high of $146, and the skyrocketing cost of fuel is impacting our customers, our employees, the communities we serve, and the economy as a whole. United, and the majority of other major U.S. airlines, are asking our most loyal customers to join us in pushing for legislation to add more transparency and disclosure in the oil markets. Please see the attached open letter from the leaders of the U.S. airline industry. An Open letter to All Airline Customers:Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now.For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers. Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation. Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs. Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper. The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem. We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.   Robert FornaroChairman, President and CEO AirTran Airways Bill Ayer Chairman, President and CEO Alaska Airlines, Inc. Gerard J. Arpey Chairman, President and CEO American Airlines, Inc.   Lawrence W. KellnerChairman and CEO Continental Airlines, Inc. Richard Anderson CEO Delta Air Lines, Inc. Mark B. Dunkerley President and CEOHawaiian Airlines, Inc.   Dave Barger CEO JetBlue Airways Corporation Timothy E. Hoeksema Chairman, President and CEO Midwest Airlines Douglas M. Steenland President and CEO Northwest Airlines, Inc.   Gary Kelly Chairman and CEO Southwest Airlines Co. Glenn F. Tilton Chairman,President and CEO United Airlines, Inc. Douglas Parker Chairman and CEO US Airways Group, Inc.

I Love Ted Talks

Offshore Oil Drilling - That should do the Trick!

Already well into my news fast, I went to OC for my Father in-laws (Jimbo’s) birthday. One of Jimbo’s goals in life is to convert me to GOP.  Now although I identify most closely with a more libertarian point of view - I actually am a Ron Paul supporter - I have always been highly disappointed with GW as a leader and with what the GOP has done to the country using fear to forward weak dollar policy. Soon enough after Dinner, the multi-year persuasion conversion started up again. This time, the narrative on how McCain was going to solve the current Oil crisis by opening up more area on the Florida and CA coast to offshore oil drilling and how Obama was going to block this if elected causing ruin.This is for you Jimbo - here is 5 minutes worth of research from Wikipedia. I’m guessing it’s about 4 minutes more research than most news sources spent researching this.

US production / consumption

TOTAL known OIL = 21,000,000,000

TOTAL OIL USED PER DAY USA = 20,000,000

21,000,000,000 / 20,000,000 = 1050 DAYS OF OIL ==> NO MORE US OIL IN 3 YRS ==> No Good Short/Medium/Long Term Solution for oil ==> another hyperbole red meat issue by the GOP so we do not have to talk about the difficult changes that will be needed in a post cheap oil world.

 

 

 

News Fasting

Inspired by Tim Ferris, I started a news fast about a month ago in order to create more time in my day for living. If you are like me (a news addict) I highly recommend starting this fast to help wean yourself of a 24 hour (digital, and cable) news cycle where most of the information is low or no value. Only after sneaking a few minutes on Drudgereport.com on the 6 day or so did I start to get perspective that all the news was essentially unchanged from the previous week. My fast continues this week with a 2 week vacation in Spain - with no internet.

Going for the Anti Marketing Dollar!

Independent Contractors and Office Politics

What is Best in Life?

Great Targeting from YuMeNetworks.com

It appears brand ads running on inappropriate content is not limited to the traditional banner ad networks and in-page ad units.

Keeping with my theme of picking on Vidilife.com; here is an example of premium HGTV ads running embedded in Vidilife’s soft core porn video content. From the URL in the screenshot these video ads are being served through YuMeNetworks.com.

HGTV + ASS = NO GOOD FOR ONLINE AD INDUSTRY!

How do Malicious Ads get on Premium Ad Networks?

So there are a few different kinds of ad networks out there. This would include: general banner ad networks, advanced targeting ad networks, and exchanges.

The Ad Network world is certainly in a state of flux and these definitions are changing - but the general banner ad networks business model concentrates on performance type CPA (DR) offers. What this means is that they serve a whole lot of ads with a whole lot of offers for “Free Florida Vacations”. These networks are shall we say more liberal with the types of advertisers and publishers they work with.

The advanced targeting networks business model concentrates on highly targeted Brand type offers. This type of network generally offers very high CPM (high for remnant at least) but lower fill since they are only able to monetize qualified traffic. These networks generally are more restrictive in terms of the advertisers and publishers they work with because they need to be to work with premium partners to command premium rates.

The exchange is where all these networks collide; and indeed most all ad networks participate in some way with exchanges be it with MSN, RightMedia, and/or DoubleClick. It is in this marketplace where premium ad networks can be exposed to the more flexible policies of the general banner ad networks if they are buying and selling inventory. This issue is much worse when it is the exchange in questions policy not to provide adequate transparency between the advertiser, network, and publishers partners.