Harry Newton's In Search of The Perfect Investment
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8:30 AM EST Monday, June 23, 2008: The
next boom will be alternative energy, but not because of our wonderful government,
which has delayed passing H.R. 6049 The Renewable Energy and
Job Creation Act of 2008. The Act extends for another eight years
the investment tax credit for installing solar energy and extends for one year
the production tax credit for producing wind power and for three years the credits
for geothermal, wave energy and other renewables.
These critical
tax credits for renewables are set to expire at the end of this fiscal year
and, if they do, it will mean thousands of jobs lost and billions of dollars
of investments not made. Already clean energy projects in the U.S. are
being put on hold, said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries
Association.
Please send your
congressperson a note saying it would be a seriously good thing for the country
if we passed this Act.
Meanwhile yesterday's
global energy summit in Saudi Arabia "ended largely in disagreement ...,
with only a modest pledge of increased production by the Saudis and no resolution
on what other practical steps should be taken to ease the crisis over soaring
oil prices."
According to today's
New York Times,
The Saudis,
who considered the meeting a success because of the high attendance, announced
a production increase of 200,000 barrels a day and an expansion of their output
capacity if needed in coming years.
But news of
the immediate production increase had already been absorbed by the world market
for oil. Some experts had anticipated that the Saudis might announce a bigger
increase.
Saudi Arabia,
the biggest oil exporter, is the only country with the ability to significantly
increase production quickly.
By Monday morning
in Singapore, the first oil market to react to the Saudi news, oil cost $135.72
a barrel, up slightly from $135.47 in New York on Friday.
Meanwhile, the
Economist this weekend came out with a special report on the future of
energy -- i.e. alternative energy. It was positive and said the high price of
oil would encourage alternatives. The Economist was most positive on wind power:
Wind power is
no illusion. World capacity is growing at 30% a year and will exceed 100 gigawatts
this year. Victor Abate, General Electrics vice-president of renewables,
is so convinced that by 2012 half of the new generating capacity built in
America will be wind-powered that he is basing his business plan on that assumption.
Wind currently
provides only about 1% of Americas electricity, but by 2020 that figure
may have risen to 15%. The one part of the United States that has something
approximating a proper free market in electricity, Texas, is also keener than
any other state on deploying the turbines. In May, T. Boone Pickens, one of
the states most famous oil tycoons, announced a deal with GE to build
a one-gigawatt wind farmthe worlds largestat a cost of $2
billion.
What was once
a greener-than-thou toy has thus become a real business (GE alone expects
to sell $6 billion-worth of turbines this year)and one with many advantages.
For example, as Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute,
a think-tank in Washington, DC, points out, a farmer in Iowa who gives up
a tenth of a hectare (a quarter of an acre) of land to a turbine might earn
$10,000 a year from it (about 3% of the value of the electricity it produces).
Planted with maize, the same land would yield a mere $300-worth of bioethanol.
Moreover, wind
farms can be built piecemeal, unlike most power stations. A half-finished
coal-fired or nuclear power plant is a useless waste of money, but a half-finished
wind farm is simply a wind farm half the size originally intendedand
one that has been providing revenue since the first turbine was completed.
Watch
your summer travel: From my friend and reader, Lucky Marr:
Hi Harry
Just a little tid-bit on travel today. It behooves anyone who booked early
to check on their flights frequently before their travel date. I always book
my leisure travel several months in advance and check the itinerary monthly.
Since we booked in March, Phoenix/Portland Maine/Phoenix leaving July 15 returning
Sept 30th on Delta, the flights have changed 5 times. One time they routed
us via Cleveland, from Atlanta, with the Atlanta flight arriving in Cleveland
two hours after the Cleveland-Portland flight had departed (true). Every time
they change flights on you they also change your seat assignments, and not
for the better. They seem to be switching to bigger aircraft and fewer of
them.
Then there is the cost. Our early booking flight cost $637 roundtrip. To book
the exact same flights today the cost is $2,193..
At the same time I booked out next January flights to Hawaii, on Hawaiian
Airlines, and I have a feeling the increases may be even more dramatic by
the time we fly.
Marriage
saver: Men lose their hearing faster than women. Hence we battle
over TV volume. The solution is the Sennheiser RS 110 headphones.
.
There are two ways of buying them -- with the charging cradle, for $76. Or without
the charging cradle, which is Amazon's incorrect name for the gray wireless
transmitter. You want them with the transmitter. You can use as many
headphones as you want on with one transmitter. You can also be in bed and listen
to a TV in another room. The headphones, by themselves, are called Sennheiser
HDR 110. For the set with the transmitter, go to Amazon.
The
tick season is on us. So is the season of B.S. remedies sent by email.
The common nonsense remedy consists of putting alcohol or soap on the tick and
watching it fall off. According to Snopes,
This (remedy)
may also make matters worse by stimulating the creatures to release additional
saliva or regurgitate their gut contents, acts that increase the chance of
its transmitting a pathogen to its host (i.e. you).
In addition to their being repulsive-looking bugs that survive by latching
onto warm-blooded victims to suck blood from them, there is another reason
to regard ticks with horror: they can deliver a deadly payload of disease
to those they are making a meal of. These arachnids feed by burrowing their
heads into skin, a method that introduces their body fluids into their victims.
If those fluids are disease-laden, those microbes will be passed to the ones
being dined upon. However, it generally takes at least 12 to 24 hours
of feeding before an infected tick can spread disease to its host, so speedy
removal of these parasites is therefore key to avoiding tick-borne illness,
including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Ehrlichia.
As to how to remove a tick:
+ With tweezers,
grasp the parasite close to the skin and pull it straight out.
+ If you must use your fingers rather than tweezers for this operation,
cover them with a tissue during the procedure and wash them after the tick
has been dispatched.
+ Do not twist or jerk the tick; this could cause the creature's head to
separate from its body, leaving its mouthparts lodged in your skin.
+ Wash the bite with antiseptic and place the tick inside a plastic container
marked with the date in case it is later needed for verification of illness.
+ Nail polish
and petroleum jelly are not good ideas for tick removal because the tick
has enough air to complete its feeding before dropping off.
To reduce your
chances of becoming a tick's dinner:
- Avoid tick-prone
areas whenever possible.
- When in
areas where ticks may be present, wear clothing that covers the arms and
legs, with cuffs fastened and pants tucked into boots and socks.
- Use a tick
repellent that contains DEET and reapply it every 1-2 hours
for maximum protection.
After any outdoor
excursion into areas where ticks are commonly found, adults should check themselves
and their children. Your four-legged friends should be checked for ticks too,
because dogs and cats can also be felled by the diseases spread by these blood-sucking
creatures.
Wimbledon
starts today. Here is the TV schedule.
All times listed are Eastern Standard Time (L) = Live (T) = Taped
Monday, June 23 |
7:00 am - 5:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Monday, June 23 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Tuesday, June 24 |
7:00 am - 5:30 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Tuesday, June 24 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Wednesday, June 25 |
7:00 am - 5:30 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Wednesday, June 25 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Thursday, June 26 |
7:00 am - 5:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Thursday, June 26 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Friday, June 27 |
7:00 am - 5:30 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Friday, June 27 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Saturday, June 28 |
7:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Saturday, June 28 |
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
NBC
(L) |
Saturday, June 28 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Sunday, June 29 |
7:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(T) |
Sunday, June 29 |
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
NBC
(T) |
Sunday, June 29 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Monday, June 30 |
7:00 am - 10:00 am |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Monday, June 30 |
10:00 am - 1:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
NBC
(L) |
Monday, June 30 |
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Monday, June 30 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
7:00 am - 10:00 am |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
ESPN2
(L) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
10:00 am - 1:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
NBC
(L) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
ESPN2
(L) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
7:00 am - 10:00 am |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
10:00 am - 1:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Thursday, July 3 |
7:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Ladies') |
ESPN2
(L) |
Thursday, July 3 |
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Ladies') |
NBC
(L) |
Thursday, July 3 |
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Ladies') |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Friday, July 4 |
7:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Friday, July 4 |
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Saturday, July 5 |
9:00 am - 2:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Saturday, July 5 |
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Sunday, July 6 |
9:00 am - 3:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Sunday, July 6 |
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
George
Carlin is dead at 71. He was the best. Irreverent,
funny, audacious and always pushing the envelope.
I loved his hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet. The
weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with
a Mexican high. Tonights forecast . . . dark, continued mostly dark tonight
turning to widely scattered light in the morning.
This morning's
New York Times obit ends:
Although some
criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended
the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance
for the shortcomings of humanity and society. Scratch any cynic,
he said, and youll find a disappointed idealist.
Still, when
pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act,
he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances.
I dont have pet peeves, he said, correcting the interviewer.
And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, I have major, psychotic
hatreds.

This column is about my personal search for the perfect
investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered
with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor.
I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three
reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column
is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect
Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas,
concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address
is . You can't
click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software
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