The US stock market surprised many with strength as all three indices were up after continued turmoil in Egypt over the weekend and today (last week).To nobody’s surprise though, oil traded higher on the ICE futures exchange which saw Brent crude up $1.59, or 1.6%, at $101.01 a barrel; that was the highest settlement since Sept. 26, 2008. It has been two years since oil has hit the $100-a-barrel threshold. On the New York Mercantile, light, sweet crude for March delivery closed up $2.85, or 3.2%, at $92.19 a barrel … which was its highest settlement since Oct. 3, 2008.
Probably not a shock to many who travel, but don’t think that just because you’ve put a small travel lock on your suitcase, and that it doesn’t look tampered with, that your contents are safe, or alone – if traveling across borders you could be used as an involuntary mule.
Who knew it was this easy to access and re-zip (self-healing zipper) a suitcase.
My daughter headed across the country on Saturday for what should be an enjoyable month of February working in California.
As part of her M4 rotations, Katelyn will be staying with her long time friend Nora in Santa Clara and will be working at a hospital in conjunction with Stanford School of Medicine.
The opportunity on the west coast will give her a chance to compare programs and interface with residents and doctors practicing medicine in a different area of the country. I’ll be interested to talk with her about the similarities and differences … although suspect she will prefer sharing the extracurricular activities? She has come a long way since her earlier years (work above).
I think she’ll have a good time.
Tracked her flight using the free version of FlightAware
For those who remember the last days of the cold war and paying attention to military aviation advancements, the Russian Mig-29 was a frightening aircraft … and it still is. It was put into service in 1983 and remains an “air superiority” jet fighter in my air forces around the world.
In December of 2010 and then on January 23rd, two of these Mach 2.3 twin engine jet fighters are now flying in private hands. The latest Soviet fighter, N29UB, belongs to the Historic Flight Foundation, based at Paine Field in Mukilteo, which specializes in vintage airplanes. This second restored Mig-29 may be joining RedAir in missions that can help western pilots in preparing against their Mig-29 adversaries.
Below is a video highlighting RedAir’s first flight of their restored Mig-29 in Quincy, Illinois on December 16th, 2010.
Indian Air Force has 69 MiG-29s in service as of December 2010.[90] The upgrade of all MiG-29s to latest MiG-29SMT standard is in process which will include latest avionics, Zhuk-ME Radar, engine, weapon control systems etc.[36][37]
North Korea – 40 in service as of January 2010.[94][98] 12 initially bought from Belarus in 1995 and a follow up order of 18 MiG-29SE plus 3 new from Russia in 1996. Two were lost in accidents.
While I’ve been anxious for the new tablet computer device from HP-Palm, expected to be announce at a California press event on February 9th, I wasn’t holding my breath as to when the devices would actually make it to market. Most industry watchers either have been told or expected them sometime this summer, although a few thought something would be available sooner.
As slow as HP has been to release anything Palm or webOS related this past year, I didn’t expect to hear this from HP CEO Leo Apotheker, at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland this week: “HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have. When HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship." He hinted that the products launched on February 9th will be on sale just a few weeks later. This I’m anxious to see (Engadget leaked images below).
The L1 concept Volkswagen has been toying around with for the past couple of years is finally inching towards limited production (100 to be built). The car has grown into a side-by-side two seater and is known as the XL1 diesel plug-in hybridhas an aero design to reduce drag and increase gas mileage. It is build using a lot of carbon fiber and looks pretty amazing with its gull wing doors too. Perhaps where is really stands out is in it’s 261 miles per gallon number … being called the most efficient car in the world … by Volkswagen of course.
The XL1 concept is currently at the auto show in Qatar, the Persian Gulf. . VW calls it the most efficient car in the world. The new Volkswagen XL1 combines light weight and a low aerodynamic drag to get the most out of its hybrid system. The system has a two-cylinder diesel engine and a seven-speed transmission. It can accelerate from a stop to 62 miles an hour in 11.9 seconds and has a top speed higher than 85 miles per hour. I’m wondering what the price might be … pretty high even if I could get my hands on one?
As the middle east boils and Egypt joins Tunisia in a public uprising against their governments, world markets grow nervous seeing oil rise 4% today on worry over disruption. Not only is our U.S. stock market giving back it’s gains from the past few days, but the political unrest a half a world away reminds me just how connected our world has become … for the good and the bad.
Neil Cavuto reminded us (audio above), that during times of international turmoil just like back in the 1970 in Iran during the overthrow of the Shah, events can quickly spiral out of control and even bring down the president in the United States. This is of serious concern both economically and politically. (AP video update below)
Adding some follow up video illustrating the chaos …
In the State of the Union address this past Tuesday night, President Obama reflected on the space race as a time American’s found themselves behind in technology and rose to the occasion as Americans competed with the Russians in the frontier of space. “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment,” Obama said. As a result, we need to fund “a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the space race,” with particularly strong investments in biomedicine, information technology, and clean-energy technology.
For those a bit too young to remember, this is the sound being broadcast from a circling satellite that sent chills down the spines of all who were charged with protecting our nation from nuclear weapons.
To nobody’s surprise though, oil traded higher on the ICE futures exchange which saw Brent crude up $1.59, or 1.6%, at $101.01 a barrel; that was the highest settlement since Sept. 26, 2008. It has been two years since oil has hit the $100-a-barrel threshold. On the New York Mercantile, light, sweet crude for March delivery closed up $2.85, or 3.2%, at $92.19 a barrel … which was its highest settlement since Oct. 3, 2008.
A few words of appreciation from 