Regional Banking Is Back

Warren Buffett once quipped that when the tide goes out, you discover who has been swimming naked. At first glance, the banking sector now looks like a nudist beach. But if you look closer, you'll discover that a few regional banks didn't forget to put on their swimsuits.

Regional Banks, Securitizations, and Subprime Lending
Regional banking was always a competitive field, but its fortunes took a negative turn a few decades ago with the surge of securitizations. Gradually old-school regional bankers found themselves competing with investors in the multi-trillion-dollar fixed-income market and their enablers on Wall Street. The regional banker who used to personally know his borrowers and manually underwrite loans had no chance against the Street's well-oiled sales machine that was both flush with cash and ready to gobble up anything that it could package as a security and resell to yield-hungry investors.

In order to maintain their relevance and profitability, regional banks had to either cater to more marginal clients (read: subprime) or find a new gig, which led them to focus on less-homogenous products such as commercial real estate, construction, and loans to local businesses. For many years, this strategy worked well because the rise in real estate prices and relatively buoyant economy obscured the risks that were building up on their balance sheets. Although competition from super-regional banks and Wall Street was tough, regional banks could still grow by a very nice clip, report only minimal loan losses, and boast an eye-popping return on equity. Life was great--or at least it seemed to be.

Then the credit bubble burst and real estate prices collapsed. Regional banks suddenly faced a new reality: slowing growth and escalating loan losses that threatened their survival. This triggered a wave of bank failures. Since January 2008, the FDIC has closed over 30 regional banks, and we expect many more failures in 2009. The table below includes a few examples of banks that have a question mark hanging over their future. If current credit trends persist for a few more quarters, without raising more capital, failure is a possible outcome for these banks.

Source:- News.morningstar.com

Global Warming Gets Top Level Domain.

Global Warming May Get Its Very Own Top Level Domain.

I’m deadpooling this .ECO top level domain right now. Not because it’s global warming/eco related, there’s plenty of money being thrown around to support just about every crazy green idea out there. I just don’t think the world needs another top level domain, and certainly not one that is designed for “individuals to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations to maintain their websites.”
People like .COM domains, or alternatively country level domains. These other ones are little more than traps to force brands to protect their trademarks during expensive pre-sale periods. The company behind the domain gets their most of the money, and ICANN, the quasi-governmental, quai-mafia organization that oversees this mess gets their cut as well. The more domain names get registered, the more money ICANN makes, which lets them hire more staff to stick their noses into more things. Meanwhile, they’re making a mess of the Internet.
Al Gore is partnering with the company to help secure ICANN approval and then promote the domain. Which goes without saying. Fred Kreuger, previously the founder of Tagworld (now Social Project), is one of the founders.

Source:- Techcrunch.com

China Stimulus Can’t Pull World Out of ‘Hole,’ Jim Rogers Says

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- China cannot pull the world economy “out of the hole” through its stimulus spending alone and the global recession is not going to end anytime soon, investor Jim Rogers said.

China’s parliament convened today in its annual meeting in Beijing, where Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the government’s pledge to “significantly increase” investment in 2009 to help counter the slowest growth in seven years. He didn’t announce any new stimulus spending.

“China can’t solve the world’s problems,” Rogers, the author of “A Bull in China: Investing Profitably In The World’s Greatest Market,” said in a phone interview today. “China is a wonderful and growing economy but it cannot pull the world out of the hole.”

Wen’s report to lawmakers, the equivalent of a U.S. State of the Union speech, reiterated the country’s 8 percent growth target. That’s more optimistic than the International Monetary Fund’s forecast that the nation’s economy will expand 6.7 percent, the least in almost two decades.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 6.1 percent yesterday, the most in four months, on speculation the government will increase a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus plan announced in November aimed at combating a slowdown that’s thrown at least 20 million workers out of work.

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Obama Orders New Contracting Rules in Bid to Save $40 Billion

By Kim Chipman and Julianna Goldman

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama ordered administration officials to set new rules on government contracting in a bid to cut as much as $40 billion in federal spending.

“Even if these were the best of times budget reform would be long overdue in Washington,” Obama said in announcing the order. The new rules are needed now, he said, because “my administration inherited a fiscal disaster.”

Obama signed a presidential memorandum that calls for an overhaul of a “broken” system of government contracting, whose spending has doubled over the past eight years to more than half a trillion dollars.

The Democratic president is seeking to halt outsourcing of work that could be done by the government and to open up contract bidding to small businesses. He also wants to increase oversight of weapons acquisitions and end unnecessary “no-bid” contracts.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Washington at Jgoldman6@bloomberg.net.

Source:-Bloomberg.com

Top Web Technology by Indian-American Scientist

Washington, March 2 (IANS) HashCache, the technological brainchild of a team of Princeton computer science researchers led by an Indian American scientist, has drawn recognition as a revolutionary way to expand internet access around the world.

Created by a team of researchers headed by computer science professor Vivek Pai, the new efficient data storage system was featured as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of the year in Technology Review, a scientific magazine published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

HashCache, features a new data-caching system that stores information more efficiently than current methods. By making internet access more affordable, HashCache has the potential to expand web use in developing regions around the world.

“The whole point of HashCache is that it can be deployed in a very low-cost box,” Pai explained.

The development team includes PhD student and IIT-Madras graduate Anirudh Badam, computer science department chair Larry Peterson, computer science researcher Marc Fiuczynski and University of Pittsburgh professor Kyoung Soo Park.

Because of its affordability, HashCache presents new opportunities for poorer regions to gain internet access. Instead of relying heavily on RAM, HashCache stores information from frequently visited web sites on a local hard drive so the data can be accessed directly.

This system significantly increases the efficiency of internet data transfer, which can reduce the cost of maintaining a one-terabyte hard drive tenfold, Pai said.

HashCache is “flexible,” Badam noted. “We can implement it in cell phones, laptops or nearly any other hardware.”

Commercialisation is a consideration for the group, Pai noted, but the main goal is to release HashCache for practical and widespread use.

Some plans even involve making the system free for nonprofit organizations and schools in developing countries that already have technology support.

“I’m happy about the reception [of HashCache],” Pai said, adding that the acclaim the team has garnered provides evidence that the rift between high-end science and low-cost engineering is not as wide as it seems.

Testing of the new caching system is currently underway at two deployment sites at the Kokrobitey Institute in Ghana and Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.

The Princeton University team will continue to explore ways to provide greater efficiency in web usage, including a planned project for systems that monitor people’s behaviour to reduce slow connection speeds

Source :- Thaindian.com/

MAGENN POWER - Ontario Canada based...

ABOUT MAGENN POWER

Magenn Power draws on over 30 years of research and development in advance materials and structure. It all began with designing the Magnus Spherical Airship starting in 1978. Fred Ferguson (founder of Magenn Power) patented the Magnus Airship in the 1980s. This unique airship utilized the Magnus effect for the first time in lighter-than-air craft. This Magnus Airship was a large spherical envelope filled with helium to achieve static, buoyant lift. As the sphere rotated during forward motion, Magnus lift was generated proportional to the airspeed flowing over the sphere; the faster the vehicle, the higher the Magnus lift.

The huge sphere rotated backwards as the craft flew forward. The resulting lift at cruise speed was greater than the total buoyant lift which could be up to 60 tons payload depending upon the final production size. For the Magnus airship and hence the patented Magenn Air Rotors System, we have proven that as wind speed increases, rotation increases, lift increases, drag will be minimized because of reduced leaning, and stability increases.



Canadian Star Wars contract - This airship design was fully patented world-wide and was developed over a decade at a cost of $20 million. It won the Canadian Government Award of Excellence in 1984. And the Philip Petroleum Award for Science 1985. The Smithsonian Institute requested the prototype which was unfortunately destroyed in an accident.

Over 160 wind tunnel tests were conducted by our engineers and aerodynamicists at the Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, under the Direction of Dr. James DeLaurier, Department Head. Further smoke tunnel tests were documented at the Carleton University aerodynamic smoke tunnel lab under the direction of Morley O'Neill.

In the early 1990's, Fred Ferguson then formed Av-Intel Inc., a small private company with a group of prominent financiers from US industry. AV-Intel represents fully patented airship technologies. Av-Intel's research has shown that a modern long fineness ratio airship is substantially more load and cost efficient than equivalent payload shorter blimp-like airships. However, history has shown that all past long fineness ratio rigid airships had inherent structural inadequacies, many resulting in catastrophic failures. The Av-Intel series of airships has correctly analyzed and isolated the inadequacies of the past era. The Av-Intel airship design advances the current state-of-the-art for ultra-large pressure airships. The overall result is a fineness ratio in excess of 8:1 which provides a minimal cross section and cost relative to load capability.

The new Av-Intel airships encompass an advanced new technology that divides the long cigar-shaped airship into sections or segments that act similar to a huge shock absorber. In simulation studies contracted to the Lockheed Advanced Development Corporation, Av-Intel's design proved to exceed the current requirements for safety and gust loading by a broad positive margin. Other contractual analysis included extensive loads versus economic analysis utilizing the Texas A&M wind tunnel, structural envelope design evaluation at France's CNES, and froude scale flying prototypes, the latest of which have been tested to 10,000-ft altitude. Commercial Market studies were conducted by Federal Express and American President Lines which show the Av-Intel Cargo Airship efficiency is based upon projected technical and economic performance features.

The Av-Intel airship patents also include the correct positioning of propulsion for controlled low speed flight, and precision low speed crosswind maneuvers. The propulsion design includes off-the-shelf technologies and does not require new rotational or gear box systems. The first commercial prototype planned is similar to the aerodynamic design of the historical US dirigible, "The Shenandoah" and will be built for a net payload of 40 tons. The larger airship sizes as anticipated by the past FedEx-LADC assessment include net payloads up to 500 tons.

MAGENN AIR ROTOR SYSTEM (MARS)

Magenn Power has built and tested several small MARS prototypes in 2006, and 2007.

In April of 2008, Magenn Power made history by having the world's first rotating airship (see below).

This MARS Alpha prototype generated 2kW of electrical power; further testing is being done to bring the power output to 10 to 12 kW. (Size of MARS above is 29.5 feet by 57 feet)

Picture above shows MARS on a 370 foot tether.

Picture above shows the Magenn Power Team (April 2008), from left to right: Mac Brown (COO), Matthew Wilkins, Jeffrey Ferguson, Dale George, Thomas Wolstenholme, Tony Asterita, Axel Doerwald, Uncle `Buck` Ross, Fred Ferguson (CTO), Donald Charpentier, Pierre Rivard (CEO). Missing team members are Bruno Dorewald (see picture below), Chris Dawes (UK), Barry Monette, Mike Brown, Anthony Pizarro, Angela Faulkner and Jason Hatcher.

Source : - Magenn.com

Lighter-Than-Air Tethered Wind Turbine

A leading airship engineer, Fred Ferguson has won numerous awards for innovation in aeronautical design, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Award of merit for Innovative Technologies for his work on the Mars vehicle design for NASA’s Outreach Program.

He is the founder of Magenn Power, a company whose aim is to establish wind energy as the renewable resource of the future. It all began when Ferguson designed and patented the Magnus Airship in the 1980s. This unique airship utilized a phenomenon known as the Magnus effect for the first time in lighter-than-air craft. (The Magnus was the first "lighter-than-air" craft to use the Magnus effect.)

More than 30 years of research and development in advanced airship design has refined these concepts, culminating in the company's present project.

Infinite Winds Dummies' Guide
An Introduction to Wind Turbine Energy

Fred Ferguson, a Canadian engineer specializing in airships, thinks the answer to climate change lies in the wind, literally. He's designed a turbine that will use the constant winds that exist at 1,000 feet above sea level to produce energy. The the M.A.R.S. (Magenn Air Rotor System) Floating Wind Generator — essentially a turbine attached to a blimp-like structure — will ultimately be deployed in Mexico.

Test 1: Dominican Republic — Airspeed

In this test, Dr. Singer will launch himself into the air on a paramotor (a propeller-powered parachute) where he'll deploy a GPS device to collect wind speeds at different altitudes. These measurements will be fed into further wind tunnel tests and will dictate the final build design and the flight height of the generator.

The team chose to fly with a paramotor because they could obtain accurate readings without disturbing the air around the vehicle. Other options might have included a helicopter or paraglder, but a helicopter's rotor would contaminate the readings and paragliders are subject to convection currents, making flying height difficult to control and predict.

Test 2: Kentucky – Tether

This experiment will test a balloon tether for strength using a crank. The tether will be attached to a crane at one end and a long string of scrap cars on the other. It will slowly lift the cars off the ground one by one. The tether will conduct electricity as it lifts, lighting the car headlights. The tether must be able to hold five cars off the ground with lights on in order to prove it can withstand the equivalent force of the balloon.

Test 3: Virginia – Wind Tunnel

In this test, the team will explain the concepts of Magnus Effect, torque, drag and lift using a wind tunnel and smoke on a model, which will be held by one of the scientists inside the tunnel.

Wind speed data collected during the paramotoring experiment will be used here. Sensors in the specially built wind tunnel test model will feed into a computer providing detailed information about each of these forces and also providing the build team with vital information for the build of the prototype.

Final Test

A test model of the M.A.R.S. Generator will be erected in a village in Mexico. The generator will power a water-purification unit.

The test model will be constructed and built in Wiarton, Canada. Once finished, the test model will be inflated with helium and tested to make sure that it will function correctly. Then, the test model will be shipped to Mexico, where it will be re-inflated and erected in the village location.

The M.A.R.S. Generator will be connected to a bank of batteries, which will convert the harnessed energy into 10 kilowatts of power.

Source : Discovery.com