Monday, March 7, 2011
A million Libyans ne
A million Libyans need aid as UK, France seek no-fly zone | Reuters
(Reuters) - Britain and France said they were seeking U.N. authorization for a no-fly zone over Libya, as Muammar Gaddafi's warplanes counter-attacked against rebels and aid officials said a million people were in need.
Al Jazeera television said rebels had rejected an offer by Gaddafi to hold a meeting of parliament to work out a deal under which he would step down.
With civilians surrounded by forces loyal to Gaddafi in two western towns, Misrata and Zawiyah, fears grew of a rising humanitarian crisis if the fighting continued.
U.N. aid coordinator Valerie Amos said more than a million people fleeing or inside the country needed humanitarian aid.
John Ensign, citing
Saudi Arabia’s `Da
Saudi Arabia's `Day of Rage' Lures Record Bets on $200 Oil: Chart of Day - Bloomberg
Options traders are betting more than ever that crude oil is heading to $200 a barrel as some websites call for a “Day of Rage” in Saudi Arabia and anti- government protests spread in the Middle East and North Africa.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows open interest, or the number of outstanding contracts, for “call” options to buy New York crude for June delivery at $200 a barrel. The number has escalated, along with crude futures, to the highest since the options started trading in July 2009 amid worsening civil unrest in Libya and rare demonstrations in Saudi Arabia.
“If you look at the volatility and increase in money for call options in the last month or so, it does suggest that market participants are now more worried about the upside,” said Yingxi Yu, a Singapore-based commodity analyst with Barclays Plc. “People are also quite concerned about protests spreading across different parts of the region.”
Russian Oil Pays Off
Iowa’s 2012 Race U
U.S. gasoline price
Oil jumps to near $1
Iowa's 2012 Race Unofficially Starts Today
Today marks the first major, multi-candidate forum in the 2012 presidential race, hosted by the socially conservative Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition. Five possible candidates will speak at the groups 11th annual Spring Kick-off Event, being held tonight at the Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa:Notable absences from the list: Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, and Donald Trump.
- Newt Gingrich, who launched a 2012 exploratory website last week
- Tim Pawlenty, who declined to run for reelection in 2010 and has been raising money through his federal PAC since October 2009
- Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, who spoke at CPAC and has been accruing tea party cachet
- Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who was suspended by Fox News (along with Gingrich) last week as he mulls a presidential bid
- Buddy Roemer, the former governor of Louisiana who isn't regularly included in 2012 polls or seen as a top-tier contender, but who announced a presidential exploratory committee last week
Other absences include former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and strategist Fred Karger, who is running for the Republican ticket on a gay-rights platform. (Karger is aiming to become the nation's first serious, openly gay presidential candidate. He's already openly gay, it's the serious-candidate part he's working on). Karger sought entry to this forum, but Iowa Faith & Freedom Alliance leader Steve Scheffler shut him out, claiming Karger is a single-issue candidate, not a serious contender. (Scheffler also told Karger he has a problem with the "radical homosexuality community" ...)
Oil jumps to near $107 amid fierce Libya fighting - Yahoo! Finance
Oil prices climbed to near $106 a barrel Monday as intense fighting between Libyan government forces and rebels appeared to be turning into a civil war and raised the prospect of a prolonged cut in crude exports from the OPEC nation.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was up $2.25 to $106.67 a barrel, the highest since September 2008, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had gained $2.51 to settle at $104.42 a barrel on Friday.
U.S. gasoline price averages $3.51 a gallon - MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. gasoline prices on Monday rose a penny to an average of $3.51 a gallon for regular unleaded, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. A week ago, gasoline cost $3.37 a gallon. A month ago, it cost $3.12 a gallon. Gasoline sold for an average of $2.75 a gallon one year ago.
Laptops play catch u
New Orleans: Tenness
Laptops play catch up to the iPad, Xoom | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News
Market researcher Gartner released a research note Thursday claiming that laptops are not meeting the demands of the social-networking era. So, will mobile PCs become more like the Xoom and the iPad, which are, in turn, larger versions of the smartphone? In a word, yes.
This theory--or fact, depending on how you look at it--can also be restated as the post-PC era, which is the Apple marketing-spin corollary to the Gartner argument.
But let's stick to Gartner's analysis about the unsuitability of laptops in the social-networking era. Here are the most significant points in the note about the average mainstream laptop:
- Battery life: not capable of all-day "untethered computing"
- Connections: constant and immediate connections are not possible (i.e., no standard 3G/4G)
- Heavy: still too heavy, lacks real mobility
What this means is more laptops need to be like the 11.6-inch MacBook Air: very light, very thin--just like a tablet and, by extension, like a smartphone.
Though small laptops aren't for everybody, it does mean more people will gravitate to this style as companies like Apple upgrade to powerful silicon like Intel's low-voltage Sandy Bridge processor (and its future Ivy Bridge chip) and upcoming power-efficient chips from Advanced Micro Devices.
And don't count out a clamshell MacBook--or a variation on that theme--sporting a future Apple A6 processor or an HP laptop packing a Qualcomm chip.
More future laptops will be like the 11.6-inch MacBook Air--but with 3G/4G standard and longer battery life.
(Credit: Apple)In the more immediate future, this trend stipulates that Apple seriously consider built-in 3G/4G capability in the next version of the Air, as an Apple survey about 3G in a future MacBook Air seems to indicate the company is doing. As always, battery life would need improvement too.
So, what about the Netbook, you might ask. That delivered on mobility but not--until recently--on long battery life, nor on standard 3G. Nor, most importantly, on adequate performance (for a laptop that would serve as someone's everyday machine). The Netbook was ahead of its time but has always been hampered by Intel's too-specific ideas about what a Netbook should and should not be.
For better or worse, it's going to take a company like Apple to take the lead in redefining the high-mobility laptop. With help, of course, from companies like Hewlett-Packard and Sony--the HP Pavilion dm1z and Sony Y series, respectively, are a good start.
A $999 MacBook Air with 3G/4G and monthly broadband plans similar to those of the iPad? That's another good start. Any takers?
Libyan warplanes str
Libyan warplanes strike rebels at oil port - Yahoo! News
RAS LANOUF, Libya – Libyan warplanes launched fresh airstrikes on rebel positions around a key oil port Monday, trying to block the opposition fighters from advancing toward Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital, Tripoli.
Rebels in the area said they can take on Gadhafi's elite ground forces, but are outgunned if he uses his air power.