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Thanks Rckhnd
The spread is moving up anyone have L2 please , TIA
when I linked through the first guardian web site this is what i got
........
Welcome to Buysellmerge.com
The Premier Business Portal
we are under development please check back for our launch date
A FIRST GUARDIAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION COMPANY
www.guardianfinancialcorp.com
Anybody know of any penny stocks involved in growing ginseng ....?
Great News, hopefully we see some investor confidence today.........
GLTA
Good Morning AMHD Longs, looking for a good day today....
My scottrade broker shivers when i mention penny stocks hehehehe altho I probably made 10,000 times what he made dollar for dollar...... they don't want to hear it ....
DICK !
We shall overcome......
This isn't running because I'm in it. LOL
Now if a few people want to pool their money for me to get out ...... well maybe we can work something out ...........LOL
No Problem tony, i was just pointing that out. Thanks for your DD bud.
Hey BTW I used to live in garfield.
GLTU
Sound familiar ???
DHBT - SEC Charges Former Officers of Military Body Armor Supplier with Financial Fraud
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2006-142
Washington, D.C., Aug. 17, 2006 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the filing of securities fraud charges against Dawn M. Schlegel and Sandra L. Hatfield, two former officers of DHB Industries, Inc., a major supplier of body armor to the United States military and law enforcement agencies. The SEC alleges that Schlegel, DHB's former Chief Financial Officer, and Hatfield, DHB's former Chief Operating Officer, routinely overstated the value of the company's inventory and directed the booking of numerous fraudulent journal entries in order to reduce the company's cost of goods sold. This had the effect of falsely increasing the company's gross profit margins, and in some instances, net income. As a result of their misconduct, DHB materially misstated key financial information in filings with the SEC and in public statements.
Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said, "By manipulating DHB's gross profit margin, Schlegel and Hatfield knew that investors would be given a false portrait of DHB's operating results. The Commission will not tolerate accounting fraud because it not only deceives the company's shareholders but undermines public confidence in our financial markets."
David Nelson, Director of the SEC's Southeast Regional Office in Miami, stated, "Schlegel and Hatfield showed wanton disregard for DHB's investors and the federal securities laws. Today's action seeks to restore investor confidence by holding them accountable."
According to the SEC's complaint, Schlegel, of Eastport, N.Y., and Hatfield, of Pompano Beach, Fla., regularly overstated the value of DHB's inventory by fraudulently increasing inventory quantities, labor costs, overhead costs, and the amount of raw materials used in DHB's products. The complaint alleges that Hatfield and Schlegel also transferred millions of dollars of expenses from cost of goods sold to research and development costs to materially increase the company's gross profit. The complaint further alleges that Schlegel falsely inflated DHB's $60 million charge against earnings taken in the third quarter of 2005 to mask her and Hatfield's fraudulent conduct. Schlegel is alleged to have lied to DHB's auditors and provided fake inventory schedules and other documents to conceal the fraud.
The complaint also alleges that during the period of their fraudulent conduct, Schlegel and Hatfield collectively profited by over $8.2 million from the cashless exercise of warrants and sale of over 400,000 DHB shares. Schlegel and Hatfield sold these shares at the end of 2004 at the height of DHB's stock price and before the public knew about the misrepresentations in DHB's filings and public statements.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York conducted a parallel investigation of this matter. Simultaneous with the SEC's announcement of this action, the United States Attorney's Office announced the filing of charges against Hatfield and Schlegel for securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
The staff's investigation is continuing.
# # #
For further information regarding the complaint, contact:
Glenn Gordon
Associate Regional Director
SEC Southeast Regional Office
305-982-6360
Additional materials: Litigation Release 19806
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2006/2006-142.htm
whats this ? typo?
Accounts receivable, less allowance of $34,550 667,730
No, I haven't.
Thats why Im somewhat suspicious of the whole deal too.
Don't get me wrong I'm still in and holding but we all need to be suspicious of pinky's when it sounds to good to be true.
Right on brother. I think it's noble to share but to give the whole frikin thing away is a travesty.
We are driving to the edge of the cliff with no brakes.
OT : but some real interesting reading ...................
Notice the part where it says ......... 49 trillion in debt ......... heheheh no not a typo
GLTA
God bless this country , we're going to need it ..........
Dobbs: It's good to be a superpower
By Lou Dobbs
CNN
Thursday, August 17, 2006; Posted: 10:01 a.m. EDT (14:01 GMT)
Lou Dobbs decries America's reliance on imports for the basic necessities of modern life, such as fuel and clothing.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Soviet Union, Marxist Leninism, the Evil Empire and their ugly metaphor, the Berlin Wall, crumbled and collapsed almost 17 years ago.
At the time, I thought it was strange that the United States didn't have the inclination to celebrate. There were no victory parades and no fireworks; nor did Congress declare a V-CW Day, as in Victory in the Cold War. There weren't even any grand speeches about America's emergence as the World's Only Superpower.
But a grand smugness did grip most of Washington. And hubris became the foundation of almost every national policy, foreign and domestic. And why not? We were entitled as the World's Only Superpower.
What a blessing, all these superpower advantages. What other people besides Americans can afford not to make their own clothes? The world has other people for such menial tasks, and they sell us all but a few of our shoes, shirts, slacks, suits, dresses and coats (and, of course, accessories). We now import around 96 percent of our clothing.
What other nation can afford to dismantle its manufacturing base and export high-paying middle-class jobs overseas to lesser, cheaper foreign labor markets and then buy back the goods those poorer people provide us?
And energy? Why, we Americans have money to burn. We spend $15-20 billion each and every month to import fuel for our cars, trucks, office buildings and few remaining factories and plants. We can be heedless to the consequences, because as Vice President Dick Cheney suggests, conservation doesn't work well anyway. So why be bothered with such irritating constraints?
Because we're a superpower, we needn't concern ourselves with silly little annoyances like trade and budget deficits. Who cares? What greater proof of our superpower status can there be than 30 consecutive years of trade deficits, evaporating surpluses in services and agricultural goods and even technology.
Our trade deficit in manufacturing soared nearly 300 percent from 1997 to 2005, surging to $662.5 billion. Our business and government leaders soothingly remind us that we are a technology economy and needn't be distracted by developments like the reversal of what was a $35-billion surplus in high-tech goods to what is now a $44-billion deficit. It's great to be The Superpower.
What about all that money we're burning? Not to worry. Spend it if you got it. Well, we really don't have it, actually. We're borrowing more than $2 billion a day to send to those lesser souls who are uncomfortably situated in poorer nations that can only aspire to our superpower status.
As to our government's budget deficit, again, that's not a problem. Our federal government keeps two sets of books: one that shows our budget deficit shrank to $319 billion last year and the Treasury Department set that shows $760 billion. Now, we don't want anyone to get needlessly anxious here. It turns out that our national debts and commitments actually stand at an incredible $49 trillion. But let's just keep that little number amongst ourselves.
The federal government uses a quaint accounting system that would be illegal for any large enterprise in America, and there are those who believe our government should be more transparent, or perhaps honest, if you will. One of those with a very unpopular wet-blanket attitude is David Williams of the Citizens Against Government Waste. "If this happened in the private sector, we would call the government 'Enron,' " Williams says.
David, David, David...A little less negativity, please. David Williams is among that small, insignificant and clearly irrelevant group of eccentric rationalists who care about cause and effect, truth and consequence.
Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat, is among them as well. In his new book, Cooper writes about things like the fact that our federal government last year paid out $38 billion to the wrong people and that $20 billion of taxpayer money simply disappeared from the government's treasury.
Negativists like Williams and Cooper get all a-gaggle over the fact that the GAO can't certify the books of the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the Energy Department and NASA. They're even upset that the federal government has failed its annual audit for nine years in a row. Talk about Nervous Nellies.
So what if the U.S. debt rating is heading for junk status by 2025, according to Standard & Poor's. That's a problem for nations that aren't superpowers, don't you think?
When it comes to international relations, our superpower status is even clearer. Though admittedly, it is a little embarrassing to watch how easily the United States imposes its will on the Middle East and brings aspiring superpowers like China to heel on issues like human rights and democracy.
Looking back, I'm grateful that we didn't celebrate our emergence as the World's Only Superpower those many years ago. In our current exalted state, it's clear we were wise not to do so.
some real interesting reading ...................
notice the part ...... 49 trillion in debt .... hehehehe no thats not a typo
glta
God bless this country, we're going to need it ...
Dobbs: It's good to be a superpower
By Lou Dobbs
CNN
Thursday, August 17, 2006; Posted: 10:01 a.m. EDT (14:01 GMT)
Lou Dobbs decries America's reliance on imports for the basic necessities of modern life, such as fuel and clothing.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Soviet Union, Marxist Leninism, the Evil Empire and their ugly metaphor, the Berlin Wall, crumbled and collapsed almost 17 years ago.
At the time, I thought it was strange that the United States didn't have the inclination to celebrate. There were no victory parades and no fireworks; nor did Congress declare a V-CW Day, as in Victory in the Cold War. There weren't even any grand speeches about America's emergence as the World's Only Superpower.
But a grand smugness did grip most of Washington. And hubris became the foundation of almost every national policy, foreign and domestic. And why not? We were entitled as the World's Only Superpower.
What a blessing, all these superpower advantages. What other people besides Americans can afford not to make their own clothes? The world has other people for such menial tasks, and they sell us all but a few of our shoes, shirts, slacks, suits, dresses and coats (and, of course, accessories). We now import around 96 percent of our clothing.
What other nation can afford to dismantle its manufacturing base and export high-paying middle-class jobs overseas to lesser, cheaper foreign labor markets and then buy back the goods those poorer people provide us?
And energy? Why, we Americans have money to burn. We spend $15-20 billion each and every month to import fuel for our cars, trucks, office buildings and few remaining factories and plants. We can be heedless to the consequences, because as Vice President Dick Cheney suggests, conservation doesn't work well anyway. So why be bothered with such irritating constraints?
Because we're a superpower, we needn't concern ourselves with silly little annoyances like trade and budget deficits. Who cares? What greater proof of our superpower status can there be than 30 consecutive years of trade deficits, evaporating surpluses in services and agricultural goods and even technology.
Our trade deficit in manufacturing soared nearly 300 percent from 1997 to 2005, surging to $662.5 billion. Our business and government leaders soothingly remind us that we are a technology economy and needn't be distracted by developments like the reversal of what was a $35-billion surplus in high-tech goods to what is now a $44-billion deficit. It's great to be The Superpower.
What about all that money we're burning? Not to worry. Spend it if you got it. Well, we really don't have it, actually. We're borrowing more than $2 billion a day to send to those lesser souls who are uncomfortably situated in poorer nations that can only aspire to our superpower status.
As to our government's budget deficit, again, that's not a problem. Our federal government keeps two sets of books: one that shows our budget deficit shrank to $319 billion last year and the Treasury Department set that shows $760 billion. Now, we don't want anyone to get needlessly anxious here. It turns out that our national debts and commitments actually stand at an incredible $49 trillion. But let's just keep that little number amongst ourselves.
The federal government uses a quaint accounting system that would be illegal for any large enterprise in America, and there are those who believe our government should be more transparent, or perhaps honest, if you will. One of those with a very unpopular wet-blanket attitude is David Williams of the Citizens Against Government Waste. "If this happened in the private sector, we would call the government 'Enron,' " Williams says.
David, David, David...A little less negativity, please. David Williams is among that small, insignificant and clearly irrelevant group of eccentric rationalists who care about cause and effect, truth and consequence.
Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat, is among them as well. In his new book, Cooper writes about things like the fact that our federal government last year paid out $38 billion to the wrong people and that $20 billion of taxpayer money simply disappeared from the government's treasury.
Negativists like Williams and Cooper get all a-gaggle over the fact that the GAO can't certify the books of the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the Energy Department and NASA. They're even upset that the federal government has failed its annual audit for nine years in a row. Talk about Nervous Nellies.
So what if the U.S. debt rating is heading for junk status by 2025, according to Standard & Poor's. That's a problem for nations that aren't superpowers, don't you think?
When it comes to international relations, our superpower status is even clearer. Though admittedly, it is a little embarrassing to watch how easily the United States imposes its will on the Middle East and brings aspiring superpowers like China to heel on issues like human rights and democracy.
Looking back, I'm grateful that we didn't celebrate our emergence as the World's Only Superpower those many years ago. In our current exalted state, it's clear we were wise not to do so.
Of course lets give the gov contracts to a foreign company, we don't have enough jobs leaving the country.
sheeese
God help this country we are going to need it.
Yea Im aware of the tamper proof/anti transfer material evidence pouches, that is great stuff. I think they need to be a little more aggressive as far as pushing to the gov. as far as creating a solution for using their products . I know the way the gov works. You cant just dangle the stuff out there, it can be the greatest widget in the world but if you dont tell them why they need it they will walk right by it.
For example:
IMO and from what I see ( and I am by far no expert in their field and dont claim to be ) they should identify the problem = that is containers coming into the US with unknown contents seals broken or unknown status.
They need to devise and push a system in place say pass a law that any container without a sign off and SEALED with their product or a product is automatically rejected or put into some kind of paperwork hell for the shipper so the shippers somewhat in check with what goes on on the originating end etc.
It probably cant solve the whole dilemma but it would be a start and if you ask the gov to find solutions forget it, they can barely keep up with the beauracacy , I know because I've seen it and been there.
It is a big problem and it doesn't seem like there is any solutions presented at all from what I've been reading, and this is opportunity for DDSI. Ive been holding this puppy to long, almost a year with a pps written in stone, and this is a very promising company.
it seems like there is so much business in Homeland Security to be had these days, WTF are these guys doing ..............
any body check to see if they are diluting ?
interesting article , Maybe jeff would be interested in the oil angle ......
Libya: Now open for business
By Paul Sloan, Business 2.0 Magazine
August 1 2006: 10:15 AM EDT
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- A nation emerging from international pariah status is a blank slate for investors.
Investment level: Any
Bureaucracy
"Most processes that require official sanction or approval have a lengthy gestation (2-24 months)."
Be among the first to invest in the new Libya.
Risk level: High
Improbable as it may sound, Libya - the North African nation with which the U.S. government restored diplomatic relations only this May - is now welcoming American entrepreneurs with open arms.
"Libya is a virgin market," begins a recent State Department report about doing business there. "Opportunities exist in almost every sector."
Libya is rich in oil, and top energy companies are expanding there. But other possibilities are emerging, starting with tourism. The country has dozens of archaeological sites and 1,100 miles of undeveloped beachfront - attractions that will lure visitors and investors alike.
By 2010, Libya expects to have 1 million tourists a year, more than triple the current number. Hotels are expanding in the capital city of Tripoli. Bus services are popping up.
Several Italian firms are building resorts, and France's Club Med (Charts) is reportedly prospecting.
"We are essentially a brand-new country," says Naser Edeeb, who runs Safari Tourism Services, a Tripoli-based tour company.
People like Edeeb have become key conduits to outside investors. He launched his business in 1996, taking Europeans to ruins and on trips through the desert. Lately, he says, he's been fielding calls from Americans looking for help with Libya's various regulatory agencies.
Even with a reputable local partner clearing the way, plenty of obstacles loom to trip up Western investors.
Banks began installing ATMs only last year. Credit cards are just starting to appear. Strict rules govern advertising. And the country is dry (not arid, but completely booze-free).
"Talk about a disadvantage," says Geoff Porter, an analyst with Eurasia Group.
No explosives found at Seattle port
Suspicion prompted evacuation
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; Posted: 7:46 p.m. EDT (23:46 GMT)
Bomb-sniffing dogs had indicated that two shipping containers at the Port of Seattle could contain explosives.
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Two suspicious cargo containers that prompted the evacuation of the Port of Seattle do not contain explosives or radioactive materials, port officials said Wednesday.
Bomb-sniffing dogs indicated that two containers from Pakistan could contain explosives.
Officials are still trying to determine exactly what is in the containers. It was not immediately clear why the dogs were mistaken.
Dozens of personnel were evacuated from Terminal 18, south of downtown, and nearby businesses were advised to keep their workers indoors.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents used a "gamma-ray" device to peer through the containers' steel walls to determine what they contained, said spokesman Mike Milne. It detected some of the items did not appear to match what was listed on the containers' manifest, he added.
Officials said the containers were supposed to contain oily rags, which are often shipped internationally for recycling or use in packaging.
The Port of Seattle bomb squad used explosive charges to cut into the containers, which may have detonated any explosives therein, said spokesman Mick Shultz. Milne said the ship had originated in Hong Kong and made stops in China before arriving in Seattle on Monday.
Terminal 18 covers nearly 200 acres, making it the port's largest container terminal and one of the largest in the nation. It serves more than 20 steamship lines and receives more than 40 vessels each month.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
I think she will run when she is ready. Best to let it play out, be patient. When they make their future pr's she will run good. We know it will be soon. I would rather they make their announcements when BSM is absolutely ready instead of pushing it half-fast. If it just is one tenth of what they said it would be ( the google for business) we will be glad we waited.
Quality counts.
GLTA
beautiful steps
I think we will have a retrace eventually, watch for profit taking on friday.
this baby's got legs. .033 : )
scottrade is showing 10.5 mil
Anybody have glbt's email address i want to send this article to them. They are already in the latin american markets. They should push this as well ........
Lets get this hag off the ground.......
Business 2.0: The best business ideas in the world
Beaming broadband to the beach
By Michael V. Copeland, Business 2.0 Magazine
August 1 2006: 10:01 AM EDT
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Brazilian resorts are woefully underserved when it comes to Internet access -- despite clear consumer demand for the service.
Investment level: <$100K
Barely 14 percent of Brazil's 188 million residents enjoy an Internet connection. But for those who do, the Web is as beloved as Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. For starters, Brazilians are among the most active foreign users of Google's (Charts) Orkut social network, the photo-sharing service Fotolog, and MSN Messenger.
Yet outside major cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, most Brazilians are stuck with poky dial-up service or nothing at all. And for major carriers, rolling out fixed broadband to those low-population areas wouldn't drum up enough revenue to justify the costs.
But what if you could set up wireless networks to deliver broadband to narrowly targeted groups of customers - tourists and well-to-do Brazilians at beach resorts, for instance?
"You have this tremendous pent-up demand for broadband access," says Charles Brown, president of California-based Wireless Networks, which sets up high-speed Wi-Fi for rural locales and founded a Brazilian company that handles wireless payments for retail merchants. "There just isn't anything there."
That scenario could change quickly - with the right team of telecom-savvy investors. The simplest method to bridge the gap would be to create a point-to-point network that can transmit a signal as far as 25 miles. (Most of Brazil's top beach resorts are within 15 miles of the nearest broadband connection.)
For each location, that would require spending less than $10,000 for transmission equipment, applying for a government license to tap into a carrier's data line, and Wi-Fi routers and other gear to start bathing hotels in signal. According to Brown, vacationers would pay $10 a day for basic service. At a 500-guest resort where half pay for Wi-Fi, the service would generate $75,000 in gross sales per month.
Consider Augusto Cardoso, a Brazilian director of product development for Pioneer Electronics already sold on the idea. Cardoso was on vacation recently with his family on the coast near São Paulo.
"The place was beautiful," Cardoso says. "But I had work to do, and all I could get in this high-end hotel was dial-up. What a pain in the ass."
Great start this morning..........
GO AMHD .............
Understood
Just throwing info out there on general market conditions.
Things change and I think things will change for IDCN as well. Just because we are at a very slow period doesn't mean we're out of the game IMO.
Question, what's everyone's opinion on holding this long term? It seems everyone has the idea of a in - out strategy. Anybody think this has long term advantage?
TIA
GLTA
Business 2.0: The best business ideas in the world
Soybeans that give you gas
By Paul Kaihla, Business 2.0 Magazine
August 1 2006: 10:02 AM EDT
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Argentina is a prime market for making and selling renewable biodiesel fuel thanks to cheap land and labor, as well as bumper crops of soybeans.
Investment level: $100K -$500K
Argentina has three key resources that make a certain niche of investors lunge for their calculators: inexpensive land, cheap labor, and bumper crops of soybeans.
No, we're not talking about ideal conditions for a soy-milk venture. We're thinking bigger: a next-generation biodiesel plant. For starters, the timing is ideal.
The $15 billion global biofuel market is expected to triple by 2015, and one of the most promising niches to step into, experts say, will be refining and selling biodiesel fuel for trucks, buses, and other commercial vehicles in Argentina. Following Brazil's lead, the nation just passed a law mandating that biofuels account for 5 percent of all fuel sold by 2010.
Better than ethanol
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel because it's made by refining oil derived from plants like soybeans, palm trees, and rapeseed. Thinner than vegetable oil, biodiesel can power diesel engines without further conversion. That gives it a big advantage over ethanol, which burns in standard gasoline engines only when it's blended with petroleum.
The first significant player in this market just emerged: Imperium Renewables, a Seattle startup, will soon begin building a biodiesel refinery in Argentina that CEO Martin Tobias says will produce 100 million gallons of fuel per year. That, for comparison's sake, is more than the entire U.S. output in 2005.
While the VC-backed plant will cost about $50 million to build and takes 50 people to operate, clean-tech experts consider the Argentine biodiesel market wide open to smaller players. In fact, newer off-the-shelf technology that's currently being commercialized will lower plant construction costs to about $3 million, a far more digestible sum for angel investors.
Micro-refinery
It's possible to go even smaller. Tobias's Argentine refinery - to be situated near a major city, which he declines to name - makes sense because the number of customers within a small radius means minimal shipping costs. But Argentina's farmers account for about 75 percent of the country's diesel consumption; entrepreneurs can apply the same sell-local principle by building micro-refineries in rural areas.
Last year Edmundo Defferrari, an industrial engineer, built a prototype of such a plant 145 miles west of Buenos Aires for just $150,000. It already produces 130,000 gallons of biodiesel a year and requires human labor only to load the plant with soybeans and turn it on. Defferrari sells fuel to local farmers for 95 cents a gallon, about two-thirds the cost of regular diesel. It's a virtuous circle: His customers grow the soybean feedstock that he puts into his machinery.
Ethanol could leave the world hungry
One tankful of the latest craze in alternative energy could feed one person for a year, Lester Brown tells Fortune.
By Lester Brown
August 16 2006: 5:39 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- The growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food. While crop-based ethanol -the latest craze in alternative energy - promises a guilt-free way to keep our gas tanks full, the reality is that overuse of our agricultural resources could have consequences even more drastic than, say, being deprived of our SUVs. It could leave much of the world hungry.
We are facing an epic competition between the 800 million motorists who want to protect their mobility and the two billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. In effect, supermarkets and service stations are now competing for the same resources.
E85 is available at only a tiny fraction of gas stations. But the giant retailer is poised to change that. (more)
Manure mountains to fuel ethanol plant
One company's drive to locate domestic sources of energy is taking a turn into the barnyard. (more)
Soybeans that give you gas
Argentina is a prime market for making and selling renewable biodiesel fuel thanks to cheap land and labor, as well as bumper crops of soybeans. (more)
This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption. The problem is simple: It takes a whole lot of agricultural produce to create a modest amount of automotive fuel.
The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed one person for a year. If today's entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into fuel for cars, it would still satisfy less than one-sixth of U.S. demand.
Worldwide increase in grain consumption
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that world grain consumption will increase by 20 million tons this year, roughly 1%. Of that, 14 million tons will be used to fuel cars in the U.S., leaving only six million tons to cover the world's growing food needs.
Already commodity prices are rising. Sugar prices have doubled over the past 18 months (driven in part by Brazil's use of sugar cane for fuel), and world corn and wheat prices are up one-fourth so far this year.
For the world's poorest people, many of whom spend half or more of their income on food, rising grain prices can quickly become life threatening.
Once stimulated solely by government subsidies, biofuel production is now being driven largely by the runaway price of oil. Many food commodities, including corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, and sugar cane, can be converted into fuel; thus the food and energy economies are beginning to merge.
The market is setting the price for farm commodities at their oil-equivalent value. As the price of oil climbs, so will the price of food.
In some U.S. Cornbelt states, ethanol distilleries are taking over the corn supply. In Iowa, 25 ethanol plants are operating, four are under construction, and another 26 are planned.
Iowa State University economist Bob Wisner observes that if all those plants are built, distilleries would use the entire Iowa corn harvest. In South Dakota, ethanol distilleries are already claiming over half that state's crop.
The key to lessening demand for grain is to commercialize ethanol production from cellulosic materials such as switchgrass or poplar trees, a prospect that is at least five years away.
Malaysia, the leading exporter of palm oil, is emerging as the biofuel leader in Asia. But after approving 32 biodiesel refineries within the past 15 months, it recently suspended further licensing while it assesses the adequacy of its palm oil supplies. Fast-rising global demand for palm oil for both food and biodiesel purposes, coupled with rising domestic needs, has the government concerned that there will not be enough to go around.
Less costly alternatives
There are truly guilt-free alternatives to using food-based fuels. The equivalent of the 3% of U.S. automotive fuel supplies coming from ethanol could be achieved several times over - and at a fraction of the cost - by raising auto fuel-efficiency standards by 20%. (Unfortunately Detroit has resisted this, preferring to produce flex-fuel vehicles that will burn either gasoline or ethanol.)
Or what if we shifted to gas-electric hybrid plug-in cars over the next decade, powering short-distance driving, such as the daily commute or grocery shopping, with electricity?
By investing not in hundreds of wind farms, as we now are, but rather in thousands of them to feed cheap electricity into the grid, the U.S. could have cars running primarily on wind energy, and at the gasoline equivalent of less than $1 a gallon.
Clearly, solutions exist. The world desperately needs a strategy to deal with the emerging food-fuel battle. As the world's leading grain producer and exporter, as well as its largest producer of ethanol, the U.S. is in the driver's seat.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble."
From the August 21, 2006 issue
Gulf leaves gas supplies in precarious position
As the Atlantic hurricane season gets into full swing, natural gas production and infrastructure are still recovering from last year's storms.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 15 2006: 1:57 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two years after Hurricane Ivan, and nearly a year after both Rita and Katrina tore through the Gulf of Mexico, energy production in the region still has some big problems.
Pipelines on the sea floor which deliver most of the region's oil and gas to shore remain twisted. Key ports on the Louisiana coast are just now limping back to life. And a big chunk of the region's energy production remains shut down.
According to the federal Minerals Management Service, the equivalent of 165,000 barrels per day of natural gas production is still offline.
That means the Gulf is producing the equivalent of 1.7 million bpd of natural gas, which is about 9 percent below full capacity.
That's not as steep of a reduction as oil has seen in the region, where roughly 180,000 bpd of oil, or nearly 12 percent of the Gulf's current 1.5 million bpd output is still shut in.
But this cut in natural gas production could have a greater effect on natural gas prices than the corresponding cut in the Gulf's oil production.
That's because oil can be moved by tanker around the globe to cover localized shortages, easing price spikes, while natural gas cannot be easily transported this way.
This fragile state of affairs in the Gulf, along with the record-breaking heat that's blanketed large parts of the country, is what pushed natural gas prices up over 40 percent last month. Prices have cooled since then, but they're still up roughly 15 percent from mid-July.
Some energy traders say there is plenty of natural gas around and forecast that, barring an "unforeseen event" like a major hurricane, prices should remain flat to lower.
But with Gulf infrastructure in the condition it is, and with experts predicting an active hurricane season, there is reason to fear another price spike.
"Everybody is scared of even a midsized storm coming through," said John Sullivan, a Houston-based analyst at the Energy Intelligence Group who covers Gulf of Mexico issues. "If a monster storm like Rita shows up, all bets are off."
Getting back in the game
Sullivan said there are several reasons why energy production in the region is having such a hard time coming back online.
People tend to think of only Rita and Katrina when talking about the destruction to the industry.
But Sullivan said Ivan tore up a lot of infrastructure when it came through two years ago, and production never fully recovered from that.
"You're talking about a cumulative effect here," he said. "People are still fixing things broken in 2004."
Last year's storms not only knocked out platforms and pipelines, but also hit key logistics bases on the Louisiana coast.
These bases are essential to Gulf operations. Oil and oil service companies use them as heliports, storage centers for supplies like water and fuel for rigs, and as staging areas to assemble giant prefabricated parts for the rigs themselves.
Sullivan said there are five ports in Louisiana that were damaged which are especially important.
The biggest one is in Venice and is only now starting to reopen for operations. Until all of these ports are fully operational again, he said oil companies will have to rely on ports that are further away and aren't designed for this specific task, making things more difficult and more expensive.
Meanwhile, the surge in demand for skilled workers who can dive to inspect pipelines and can weld underwater to fix them has caused a labor shortage across the entire industry.
"[Rebuilding is] just not a process that is very easy to do or very quick to do," said Sullivan.
Hurricanes and your heating bill
So what does all this mean for the price of natural gas?
Traders said the spike earlier this month was not unusual, as industries that use large amounts of natural gas and nervously buy up supplies ahead of hurricane season and during times of peak summer electricity demand.
"During hurricane season people are afraid of getting caught in a squeeze," said Sal Gilbertie, and energy trader at Fimat in New York.
And Brian Hicks, co-manager of the Global Resources Fund at U.S. Global Investors in San Antonio, said this year's run up was also a little more exaggerated, because a warm winter created a build up in supplies that depressed prices at the beginning of the summer.
Both Hicks and Gilbertie see natural gas prices staying relatively stable. Unless, of course, a big storm moves through.
But Gilbertie said one can't trade around storm speculation.
"Do I think we're gonna get a major hurricane? How should I know?" he said. "You'd be better off asking weather man."
Gulf leaves gas supplies in precarious position
As the Atlantic hurricane season gets into full swing, natural gas production and infrastructure are still recovering from last year's storms.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 15 2006: 1:57 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two years after Hurricane Ivan, and nearly a year after both Rita and Katrina tore through the Gulf of Mexico, energy production in the region still has some big problems.
Pipelines on the sea floor which deliver most of the region's oil and gas to shore remain twisted. Key ports on the Louisiana coast are just now limping back to life. And a big chunk of the region's energy production remains shut down.
According to the federal Minerals Management Service, the equivalent of 165,000 barrels per day of natural gas production is still offline.
That means the Gulf is producing the equivalent of 1.7 million bpd of natural gas, which is about 9 percent below full capacity.
That's not as steep of a reduction as oil has seen in the region, where roughly 180,000 bpd of oil, or nearly 12 percent of the Gulf's current 1.5 million bpd output is still shut in.
But this cut in natural gas production could have a greater effect on natural gas prices than the corresponding cut in the Gulf's oil production.
That's because oil can be moved by tanker around the globe to cover localized shortages, easing price spikes, while natural gas cannot be easily transported this way.
This fragile state of affairs in the Gulf, along with the record-breaking heat that's blanketed large parts of the country, is what pushed natural gas prices up over 40 percent last month. Prices have cooled since then, but they're still up roughly 15 percent from mid-July.
Some energy traders say there is plenty of natural gas around and forecast that, barring an "unforeseen event" like a major hurricane, prices should remain flat to lower.
But with Gulf infrastructure in the condition it is, and with experts predicting an active hurricane season, there is reason to fear another price spike.
"Everybody is scared of even a midsized storm coming through," said John Sullivan, a Houston-based analyst at the Energy Intelligence Group who covers Gulf of Mexico issues. "If a monster storm like Rita shows up, all bets are off."
Getting back in the game
Sullivan said there are several reasons why energy production in the region is having such a hard time coming back online.
People tend to think of only Rita and Katrina when talking about the destruction to the industry.
But Sullivan said Ivan tore up a lot of infrastructure when it came through two years ago, and production never fully recovered from that.
"You're talking about a cumulative effect here," he said. "People are still fixing things broken in 2004."
Last year's storms not only knocked out platforms and pipelines, but also hit key logistics bases on the Louisiana coast.
These bases are essential to Gulf operations. Oil and oil service companies use them as heliports, storage centers for supplies like water and fuel for rigs, and as staging areas to assemble giant prefabricated parts for the rigs themselves.
Sullivan said there are five ports in Louisiana that were damaged which are especially important.
The biggest one is in Venice and is only now starting to reopen for operations. Until all of these ports are fully operational again, he said oil companies will have to rely on ports that are further away and aren't designed for this specific task, making things more difficult and more expensive.
Meanwhile, the surge in demand for skilled workers who can dive to inspect pipelines and can weld underwater to fix them has caused a labor shortage across the entire industry.
"[Rebuilding is] just not a process that is very easy to do or very quick to do," said Sullivan.
Hurricanes and your heating bill
So what does all this mean for the price of natural gas?
Traders said the spike earlier this month was not unusual, as industries that use large amounts of natural gas and nervously buy up supplies ahead of hurricane season and during times of peak summer electricity demand.
"During hurricane season people are afraid of getting caught in a squeeze," said Sal Gilbertie, and energy trader at Fimat in New York.
And Brian Hicks, co-manager of the Global Resources Fund at U.S. Global Investors in San Antonio, said this year's run up was also a little more exaggerated, because a warm winter created a build up in supplies that depressed prices at the beginning of the summer.
Both Hicks and Gilbertie see natural gas prices staying relatively stable. Unless, of course, a big storm moves through.
But Gilbertie said one can't trade around storm speculation.
"Do I think we're gonna get a major hurricane? How should I know?" he said. "You'd be better off asking weather man."
Reported U.S. bird flu probably no human threat, feds say
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Posted: 4:30 a.m. EDT (08:30 GMT)
"We do not believe this virus represents a risk to human health," the USDA's DeHaven said Monday.
SWASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists have discovered possible bird flu in two wild swans on the shore of Lake Erie -- but it does not appear to be the much-feared Asian strain that has ravaged poultry and killed at least 138 people elsewhere in the world.
It will take up to two weeks to confirm whether the seemingly healthy wild mute swans in Michigan really harbored the H5N1 virus or not.
On Monday, the Agriculture Department declared that initial testing had ruled out the so-called highly pathogenic version of H5N1 -- but that they could have a relatively harmless, low-grade H5N1 strain instead.
That's the suspicion, making Monday's announcement almost a practice run for the day the more worrisome Asian strain actually arrives.
"This is not the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus that has spread through much of other parts of the world," said Ron DeHaven, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, adding, "We do not believe this virus represents a risk to human health."
Monday's announcement was the first reported hit from a massive new program to test up to 100,000 wild birds in an effort to catch the deadly Asian H5N1 virus if it does wing its way to North America, something the government thinks could happen this year.
Were the highly pathogenic H5N1 to be found in any wild birds here, that could trigger additional security steps to prevent infection of commercial poultry flocks, and even more intensive monitoring.
Wild birds, especially waterfowl, are flu's natural reservoir -- they carry a multitude of influenza viruses. Sometimes, those strains jump species, and if it's a flu virus very different from one people have experienced before, a worldwide epidemic could result.
That's why scientists have closely tracked the virulent H5N1 strain since it began its global march in late 2003. It is blamed for the death or destruction of millions of birds overseas. Virtually all the people who have caught it did so from close contact with infected birds or their droppings. But scientists worry that the virus eventually could mutate to become easily spread from person to person.
Last week, the government expanded the bird-testing program to encompass the entire nation, after initial sampling mostly in Alaska. Twenty mute swans from a Monroe County, Michigan, game area were among the first new batches of tests -- because, coincidentally, they were part of a state program to lower overcrowding of the nonnative species. That testing found the possibility of H5N1 in two of the swans.
Initial genetic testing ruled out the deadly Asian strain. In fact, USDA said the virus' genes suggest that it is similar to a low-grade North American version of H5N1, a virus found here in wild ducks in 1975 and 1986 and on a Michigan turkey farm in 2003. Another similar version was detected last year in Canada, and scientists have thought it probably common in wild birds -- but didn't have the testing to prove it.
"This is no surprise," DeHaven stressed.
Plus, all the swans appeared healthy, a good signal, he added. The virulent form of H5N1 usually rapidly sickens birds.
So why Monday's announcement? To be open about all this testing, DeHaven said. And even low-pathogenic H5N1 requires monitoring, because it has the potential to mutate into the more virulent form, he added.
More important, "It was a real good test run of the system," Dr. Willie Reed, director of the Michigan State University laboratory where the initial testing was done, told The Associated Press.
Flu strains are named for two proteins that stud the virus' surface. There are 16 known hemagglutinin versions, the "H," and nine neuramindases, the "N."
Michigan State's initial screening tests searched for the presence of H5 or H7, two variants that can signal signs of concern in birds. On Friday, Reed's lab alerted USDA's confirmatory laboratory in Ames, Iowa, that it had found H5 in the two swans.
Over the weekend, more testing at Ames found the N1 protein. That doesn't necessarily mean the swans harbored the H5N1 strain; they could have carried two different flu strains at once, say an H5N2 and an H6N1.
That's a lot of science-speak to say stay tuned: It will take up to two weeks to sort out exactly what the swans had, and to make sure it was a low-pathogen version -- by injecting baby chicks with the swans' virus to see if they die.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
thats what i say, this is a real company with a future ...........
gltu
Seeing as we are throwing out ideas here .............
We should get a list of marathons across the country and rush should donate the
e water family to the races, hey u might pick up some air time on tv.
may be worth it.
thoughts
AMHD - bio-fuel play - up last 2 weeks about 150% nice steady climb
You have to figure that their not going to start hiring full time people unless there's something positive in the wind.
If we are successful with this court case ( and in my opinion we will be ) this will explode IMO.
Thanks gramps.
We are looking good with this play.
Hey did anybody get, or does anybody know when we are suppose to get the spin off shares for the wood portal ??? i know divy on 31 july but I cant find an issue date. TIA