A nova revista The Economist traz Bill Gates na capa. E o sub-título da matéria é interessante: “À medida que seu reino termina, também termina a era que ele dominou!
Posts de Junho, 2008
O significado de Bill Gates
Junho 26, 2008Exploração de Petróleo no Alasca: notícia boa ou ruim?
Junho 26, 2008Já que estamos em tempos globais, nada mais normal do que observarmos políticas públicas no restante do mundo!
Vejam só a notícia abaixo (tirada do blog do Prof. Mark Perry). A Governadora do Alasca (um ser previlegiado da nossa espécie!) escreveu uma carta a um Senador dos EUA indicando seu apoio à exploração de petróleo no seu território! Esta é uma notícia a comemorar ou a lamentar? Eis aí algo para nossos leitores comentarem!
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Alaska’s Governor Supports Drilling in ANWR, OCS
Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska (pictured above) submitted this letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the importance of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to address the energy crisis. Sen. Reid is a staunch foe of opening ANWR and has a long track record blocking ANWR legislation. Gov. Palin’s letter stated how ANWR could provide 1 million barrels of oil a day and provide relief at the pump for all Americans over time.
Gov. Palin strongly supports opening ANWR to oil and gas development as well as environmentally responsible development of the outer continental shelf (OCS). ANWR and OCS are headline news across the nation now due to the record level prices of oil and gasoline.
Gov. Palin strongly supports opening ANWR to oil and gas development as well as environmentally responsible development of the outer continental shelf (OCS). ANWR and OCS are headline news across the nation now due to the record level prices of oil and gasoline.
ANWR production will benefit the nation with long-term jobs in all 50 states for services and infrastructure construction and maintenance. Federal taxes from oil production totally over 200 billion dollars would be used to fund alternative energies and future energy development for over 3 decades to come. ANWR oil is worth $1.3 trillion to the nation at today’s prices.
Link.MP: How about we let the people of Alaska decide? 75% of Alaskans support exploration and production in ANWR.
Qual Presidente dos EUA será melhor para o Brasil: McCain ou Obama?
Junho 25, 2008
(Senator Barack Obama last July in Adel, Iowa. His strong support of ethanol helped propel him to his first caucus victory there)
Eis aí a million dollar question (como se diz nos EUA)! Até agora nós só estivemos vendo o desenlace da questão entre os democratas americanos. Mas está chegando a hora de avaliarmos o que será melhor para o Brasil: que o Presidente dos EUA seja McCain ou seja Obama?
Pelo menos no que diz respeito ao Etanol as posições estão se definindo! É o que mostra a matéria do dia 23/06 de The New York Times, abaixo!
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June 23, 2008
Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol
LARRY ROHTER
When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Senator Barack Obama.
Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.
Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.
In the heart of the Corn Belt that August day, Mr. Obama argued that embracing ethanol “ultimately helps our national security, because right now we’re sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth.” America’s oil dependence, he added, “makes it more difficult for us to shape a foreign policy that is intelligent and is creating security for the long term.”
Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.”
Mr. Obama’s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.
Not long after arriving in the Senate, Mr. Obama himself briefly provoked a controversy by flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes, including twice on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation’s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.
Jason Furman, the Obama campaign’s economic policy director, said Mr. Obama’s stance on ethanol was based on its merits. “That is what has always motivated him on this issue, and will continue to determine his policy going forward,” Mr. Furman said.
Asked if Mr. Obama brought any predisposition or bias to the ethanol debate because he represents a corn-growing state that stands to benefit from a boom, Mr. Furman said, “He wants to represent the United States of America, and his policies are based on what’s best for the country.”
Mr. Daschle, a national co-chairman of the Obama campaign, said in a telephone interview on Friday that his role advising the Obama campaign on energy matters was limited. He said he was not a lobbyist for ethanol companies, but did speak publicly about renewable energy options and worked “with a number of associations and groups to orchestrate and coordinate their activities,” including the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition.
Of Mr. Obama, Mr. Daschle said, “He has a terrific policy staff and relies primarily on those key people to advise him on key issues, whether energy or climate change or other things.”
Ethanol is one area in which Mr. Obama strongly disagrees with his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. While both presidential candidates emphasize the need for the United States to achieve “energy security” while also slowing down the carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, they offer sharply different visions of the role that ethanol, which can be made from a variety of organic materials, should play in those efforts.
Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.
“We made a series of mistakes by not adopting a sustainable energy policy, one of which is the subsidies for corn ethanol, which I warned in Iowa were going to destroy the market” and contribute to inflation, Mr. McCain said this month in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo. “Besides, it is wrong,” he added, to tax Brazilian-made sugar cane ethanol, “which is much more efficient than corn ethanol.”
Mr. Obama, in contrast, favors the subsidies, some of which end up in the hands of the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax. In the name of helping the United States build “energy independence,” he also supports the tariff, which some economists say may well be illegal under the World Trade Organization’s rules but which his advisers say is not.
Many economists, consumer advocates, environmental experts and tax groups have been critical of corn ethanol programs as a boondoggle that benefits agribusiness conglomerates more than small farmers. Those complaints have intensified recently as corn prices have risen sharply in tandem with oil prices and corn normally used for food stock has been diverted to ethanol production.
“If you want to take some of the pressure off this market, the obvious thing to do is lower that tariff and let some Brazilian ethanol come in,” said C. Ford Runge, an economist specializing in commodities and trade policy at the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. “But one of the fundamental reasons biofuels policy is so out of whack with markets and reality is that interest group politics have been so dominant in the construction of the subsidies that support it.”
Corn ethanol generates less than two units of energy for every unit of energy used to produce it, while the energy ratio for sugar cane is more than 8 to 1. With lower production costs and cheaper land prices in the tropical countries where it is grown, sugar cane is a more efficient source.
Mr. Furman said the campaign continued to examine the issue. “We want to evaluate all our energy subsidies to make sure that taxpayers are getting their money’s worth,” he said.
He added that Mr. Obama favored “a range of initiatives” that were aimed at “diversification across countries and sources of energy,” including cellulosic ethanol, and which, unlike Mr. McCain’s proposals, were specifically meant to “reduce overall demand through conservation, new technology and improved efficiency.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has not explained his opposition to imported sugar cane ethanol. But in remarks last year, made as President Bush was about to sign an ethanol cooperation agreement with his Brazilian counterpart, Mr. Obama argued that “our country’s drive toward energy independence” could suffer if Mr. Bush relaxed restrictions, as Mr. McCain now proposes.
“It does not serve our national and economic security to replace imported oil with Brazilian ethanol,” he argued.
Mr. Obama does talk regularly about developing switchgrass, which flourishes in the Midwest and Great Plains, as a source for ethanol. While the energy ratio for switchgrass and other types of cellulosic ethanol is much greater than corn, economists say that time-consuming investments in infrastructure would be required to make it viable, and with corn nearing $8 a bushel, farmers have little incentive to shift.
Ethanol industry executives and advocates have not made large donations to either candidate for president, an examination of campaign contribution records shows. But they have noted the difference between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.
Brian Jennings, a vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, said he hoped that Mr. McCain, as a presidential candidate, “would take a broader view of energy security and recognize the important role that ethanol plays.”
The candidates’ views were tested recently in the Farm Bill approved by Congress that extended the subsidies for corn ethanol, though reducing them slightly, and the tariffs on imported sugar cane ethanol. Because Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama were campaigning, neither voted. But Mr. McCain said that as president he would veto the bill, while Mr. Obama praised it.
Alta dos preços do petróleo pode reverter globalização
Junho 22, 2008
A notícia parece catastrófica (e longe de mim tal incursão), mas a evidência que está se acumulando sobre o impacto alta dos preços do petróleo já é um dado da discussão macroeconômica de relevância.
Foi o Prof. Paul Krugman que apontou para o problema em seu blog. E ontem ele voltou à questão trazendo um report da empresa CIBC World Markets Inc. Enquanto muitos estão preocupados com o fenômeno da inflação global, alguns estão observando que a alta dos preços do petróleo, ao fazer com que o transporte de bens fique mais caro, pode reverter uma significativa fração da globalização.
É só esperar para ver o quanto o comércio internacional de bens cai à medida que o preço do óleo sobe!
Fuga de talentos: péssimo sinal para Yahoo!
Junho 21, 2008
Começou uma fuga de talentos do Yahoo. É o que trata uma interessante matéria da Businessweek!
Se isto é um resultado da não desejada oferta da Microsoft, ou se é fruto dos comentários do investidor Carl Icahn, só o tempo pode dizer!
O Futuro da Energia
Junho 21, 2008
A nova The Economist vem com uma excelente matéria sobre o Futuro da Energia!
O editor de Ciência da revista, Geoffrey Carr, acredita que o próximo boom tecnológico será baseado em energia alternativa. Mas qual apoiar?
Al Gore: faça o que eu digo, não faça o que eu faço! (revelações sobre um americano dissimulado)
Junho 20, 2008Os leitores já devem ter ouvido falar no nome de Al Gore, ex-Vice-Presidente dos EUA no período de Bill Clinton. Recentemente ele recebeu o prêmio Nobel da Paz, pelos seus trabalhos em prol do ambiente.
Mas vejam só o que foi descoberto sobre consumo de energia de sua residência nos EUA (dados do blog do Prof. Mark Perry). Em resumo, mais um americano falso que agora vive pregando por um mundo que polua menos e que consuma menos energia!
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Al Gore, Energy Hog: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville-based free market think tank and watchdog organization, obtained information about Al Gore’s home energy use through a public records request to the Nashville Electric Service. In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%.
In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month. Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations – at a cost of $16,533.
By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year (almost 20 times less than Al Gore), according to the Energy Information Administration (see chart above).
MP: Wow, talk about the need for some carbon offsets……
Ross Perot está de volta!
Junho 19, 2008
Lembram do bilionário texano que é um eterno candidato a Presidente dos EUA? Pois bem; ele está de volta. E desta vez usando bem a Internet.
Ele voltou apresentando um conjunto de charts (quadros) apontando os problemas que a economia americana está enfrentando, e os desafios da mesma para os próximos anos.
Em matéria de informação, o baixinho (de quase oitenta anos) botou prá quebrar! Confira aqui!
Americanos vêem 11 bilhões de vídeos na Internet
Junho 18, 2008Realmente os vídeos (conteúdo por natureza) vieram para salvar os investimentos daqueles que apostaram em infraestrutura para a Internet. Vejam só o que o blogueiro Don Dodge, da Microsoft, colocou em seu blog hoje!
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11 Billion videos served – Profits ???
Comscore says Americans watched 11 Billion videos in April. Nearly 75% of Americans with Internet access watched at least one video. The “average” user watched 82 videos. Average length was 3 minutes. Hmm…I guess I am way below average.
John Paczkowski at AllThingsD says most of those 11 billion videos were unmonetized.
Mark Cuban says Hulu is making more money at video than YouTube. Although Hulu is tiny by comparison, they are better able to monetize their traffic…and use YouTube as a traffic generator.
Google / YouTube streamed over 4 Billion videos. Hulu wasn’t even in the top 10. This is a case where bigger isn’t better. My guess is that 5th place Viacom made way more profit on their videos than YouTube made streaming 20 times as many videos. Google CEO Eric Schmidt admitted in a recent interview that they haven’t yet figured out how to effectively monetize YouTube.
Video is incredibly expensive to host on servers and stream out to users. YouTube is loading 10 hours of video every minute of every day. Imagine how much storage and bandwidth it takes to handle that. The costs are staggering. The revenues? Not so much.
Andrew Chen asks “where are all the video startups on this list?” Simple answer Andrew, the online video business is way too expensive for any startup to compete on volume. Every company on this list is a huge media company because the costs of creating, hosting, streaming, and audience building is enormously expensive. Well beyond the means of any startup. However, there is a place for clever startups like Hip Mojo. Small is beautiful…and profitable.
