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As summer driving season begins, squeezing the gas pump means squeezing the family budget . Households spent an average of $369 on gas last month. In April 2009, they spent just $201. Families now spend more filling up than they spend on cars, clothes or recreation. Last year, they spent less on gasoline than each of those things. ... The ramifications are far-reaching for an economy still struggling to gain momentum two years into a recovery. Economists say the gas squeeze makes people feel poorer than they actually are. They're showing it by limiting spending far beyond the gas station....

Crude Oil Price Surge and Supply, There Are No Good Outcomes Commodities / Crude Oil Mar 06, 2011 - 08:04 AM By: James Quinn The political class and their mouthpieces in the corporate controlled mainstream media are desperately trying to spin the oil price surge as a temporary inconvenience that will not derail their phony recovery story. Brent crude closed at $116 per barrel yesterday. West Texas crude closed at $104 per barrel. Unleaded gas has risen by 22% in the last month and 60% since September 1, 2010. I’m sure this slight increase hasn’t impacted Ben Bernanke or Lloyd...

The threat of a terrorist attack on French soil is at its highest as authorities suspect al-Qaida's North African affiliate may be plotting a conventional bomb attack on a crowded target, the director of the country's national police said Wednesday.

Investment banker Matt Simmons, who died suddenly over the weekend, was an energy industry insider and presidential adviser whose profile soared when he wrote that Saudi Arabia is running out of oil and world production is peaking. (Snip) But it was his 2005 best-selling book, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, that brought him a wider audience. The book argued that Saudi Arabia vastly overstated the size of its oil reserves and that the world was on the verge of a severe oil shortage as the largest oil fields become depleted.

While watching the Winter Olympics, you might have seen a prominent crag near the Whistler Ski Area. It took exhaustive searching for me to finally figure out that this peak is called "Black Tusk". If you knew that, very good! Below are some pictures of it. Click for full-size: Click for full-size: Click for full-size: Click for full-size:

You may not have noticed because most of the plots were foiled, but 2009 saw an unprecedented surge in terror "events" on U.S. soil. When analysts tally these events, they refer to anything from a disrupted plot to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to seek terror training or a lone gunman running amok in the U.S. And by the calculations of Rand Corporation expert Brian Jenkins, more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. during 2009 than in any year since 2001.

Price Trends / WAR OF THE WORLDS (Round # 2): If you use 120 years of data for your time horizon, and assume prices will return to the average, then our residential property bubble will fall 49% from the bubble peak to the long-run average (see above (a) aka “(x) - (z) / 202” aka “Projected Fall Peak to Trend”). This total projected fall is less than the 60% predicted in my recent post based upon 20 years of data and a trend line drawn with the eye (click here to see that post). Property Values Set to Fall 43%...

Pimco's Gross calls top of rally in risky assets Almost all assets appear overvalued, bond investment giant warns By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Bill Gross, managing director at fixed-income giant Pimco, called the top of the recent rally in stocks and other risky assets on Tuesday. "The six-month rally in risk assets -- while still continuously supported by Fed and Treasury policymakers -- is likely at its pinnacle," Gross wrote in his monthly market commentary. The U.S. economy and most other developed economies became too reliant on rising asset prices, rather than the production of goods and...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Two Purdue University math researchers have predicted the novel H1N1 flu will peak so early that planned vaccinations will not have a large effect on the number of people infected. Sherry Towers, from Purdue's statistics department, and Zhilan Feng, from Purdue's math department, used a mathematical model to predict the spread of the disease. They used data collected by the Centers for Disease Control in May, June, July and August. The result? The model predicted that H1N1 infections will reach their peak in either the week before or the week after Halloween. The researchers said...

Funny thing about this one; I was trying to use the newly flawed Panoramio to find a interesting picture of the geology of Kazakhstan (for fun). Well, it turns out the Kazakhstan looks a lot like Kansas. But when I used Kazakhstan as a keyword in Panoramio, I found this. It's in Pakistan, end of the Karakoram Range. Ultar Realize that Panoramio is a branch of Google; this does not say much for the accuracy of their search function. But it's a very impressive peak. A killer of climbers too, from the background information I read. Click the first and...

REMEMBER “peak oil”? It’s the theory that geological scarcity will at some point make it impossible for global petroleum production to avoid falling, heralding the end of the oil age and, potentially, economic catastrophe. Well, just when we thought that the collapse in oil prices since last summer had put an end to such talk, along comes Fatih Birol, the top economist at the International Energy Agency, to insist that we’ll reach the peak moment in 10 years, a decade sooner than most previous predictions (although a few ardent pessimists believe the moment of no return has already come and...

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2009 – Today marks the start of a monumental challenge for four wounded veterans, their two mentors and one guide, as they move from the base of North America’s highest peak in Alaska’s Denali National Park to the mountain’s base camp at an elevation of 6,850 feet. Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley, challenges anyone so bold as to try to conquer its peak, some 20,320 feet into the Alaskan sky. Bob Haines, a firefighter and retired Army sergeant first class, said that regardless of training, Denali demands a lot of anyone. The team has been...

The data is becoming conclusive that peak oil is a myth. High oil prices (USO) (OIL) are doing their job as oil exploration is flush with new finds: 1. An offshore find by Brazilian state oil company Petrobras (PBR) in partnership with BG Group (BRGYY.PK) and Repsol-YPF may be the world's biggest discovery in 30 years 2. A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. (CVX) has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost U.S. reserves by more than 50 percent.. 3.West Cape Three Points is the largest discovery in deep water West...

Dubai: With booming domestic demand for power, the Gulf countries are exploring the use of alternative and renewable energy resources including coal, nuclear, solar, wind and hydrogen, said an industry expert. There are 114 power generation projects of all types in the six GCC countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE together worth more than $160 billion.

Both Norwegian oil company Statoil and Norsk Hydro have struck more oil in territorial waters of the North Sea. It's not clear how much oil is involved. Norway's oil directorate reported Monday that Statoil found the oil in a well that lies 35 kilometers east of the Gudrun field. Statoil has a 30 percent stake in the area, along with the national agency Petoro that represents the state's direct oil investment and Det Norske Oljeselskap. Talisman Energy Norge AS has the remaining 10 percent, and Statoil is the operator. The sea is 113 meters deep at the site of the...

BOSTON, Aug. 22, 2007 – As the chief of the National Guard Bureau touted the achievements of today’s citizen-soldiers and -airmen to sports commentators at Fenway Park here earlier this month, a 91-year-old World War II veteran sitting in the stands below the broadcast booth made much the same claims on behalf of today’s Guard members. Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, meets with members of 1st Battalion, 158th Cavalry, of the Maryland Army National Guard and other National Guard troops who are about to deploy overseas, during a visit to Fort Dix,...

Population peaked in Dec. 2004 at 128 mil. The Yomiuri Shimbun The nation's population peaked in December 2004 at 127.838 million, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said Wednesday, citing its revision of monthly population estimate reports. The revision was made based on the the national census of October 2005. The estimated population for October 2005 was 127.768 million, while in October 2004 it was 127.787 million, meaning the population shrank 19,000 in a year. The population includes foreigners who stay in Japan for three months or more. According to the ministry, the population rose and fell in 2004, peaking...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - It's a true epidemic: the red, white and blue, stars-and-stripes banners are everywhere in the United States - on house facades, front lawns, cars and clothes. Hitting an high point on the July 4 US Independence Day holiday, it is a genuine phenomenon of American national pride that, inevitably, gets a good but also sometimes unwanted boost from commercial exploitation. "It's a little strange, this obsession of the flag," French author Bernard-Henri Levy wrote after traveling across the country. "Everywhere, in every form, flapping in the wind or on stickers, an epidemic of flags that has spread...

5/17/2006 - WASHINGTON -- Based on feedback received during visits with Airmen across the Air Force, the Air Force Uniform Board is reviewing several notional concepts that Airmen have suggested regarding the appearance of the service dress uniform. Some of the informal feedback about the current service dress includes Airmen wanting to revamp the service dress to look more military, like the other services. One senior airman said, “the current uniform resembles a cheesy business suit.” Another staff sergeant said, “think world’s most dominating air power, not CEO,” and another described it as a “cheap leisure suit.” Other comments have...