Apple: Worms Eating the Core or Golden?

Apple Logo

Apple stock closed on October 9, 2012 at $635. While up $247, or 64%,  for the year, the stock price has dropped 70 points, 10%, from the peak of $705 reached on Sept. 21, 2012. Where will it go next?  What caused this 10% drop? And what about Amazon, Google, Microsoft, & Research in Motion?

Here’s what I think:

  1. Apple (AAPL) will announce earnings on October 25, 2012. I expect $46.79 to $48.9 per share on an annualized basis, up 10 to 15% from the current $42.54 per share.
  2. Apple’s share price will increase back to $700, and then to $750 by year-end, 2012.
  3. Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) will be stable thru to year-end, 2012.
  4. Research In Motion (RIMM) will be acquired by June 2013.

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The Approach of Danger

 

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? No! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with the treasures of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is this approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was likely right for the most part, as he was on most matters. What he doesn’t seem to have foreseen – and how could he have – was that we’d foul our own environment sufficiently to poison entire communities, laying waste to our fellow citizens in ways that Lincoln knew was beyond the reach of outside armies.

Urgent Private Admin Message

Have started to close in on the bug which was preventing me from toggling function frames in the New/Edit Post page. Started by disabling plugins one at a time. Too slow. So I disabled all plugins except those which are security related, and WP-Footnotes, which we’ve used since the first year, and seemed an unlikely suspect. So – I stayed up way too late, bad, but have solved the basic problem, and will, by the end of the day, have identified  and deleted.

 

I’ve forced the evil troll out of the blog, and reclaimed my right to post on it.

 

Victory is within sight. Please be careful when – or refrain entirely from — activating plugins.

 

Jon

CBC’s Q: intense, intelligent conversation of urban bicycle policies

Do bike helmet laws discourage cycling? is a fascinating and intelligent conversation which starts with the assumption that encouraging bicycle usage is an important objective, for the type of multiple, overlapping outcomes which underly our policy views at Popular Logistics. Public health, energy consumption, carbon footprint, community, transportation, and even urban noise can be positively affected by increased bicycle use. Q, a brilliant CBC-produced show carried on many U.S. public radio station, shows that it’s not looking for simple answers or single-variable equations.

CBC’s “Q” on bicycle policy

 

Do bike helmet laws discourage cycling? is a fascinating and intelligent conversation which starts with the assumption that encouraging bicycle usage is an important objective, for the type of multiple, overlapping outcomes which underly our policy views at Popular Logistics. Public health, energy consumption, carbon footprint, community, transportation, and even urban noise can be positively affected by increased bicycle use. Q, a brilliant CBC-produced show carried on many U.S. public radio station, shows that it’s not looking for simple answers or single-variable equations.

Bush, Gore, Al Queda, and Sept. 11

Damadged sculpture that stands in Battery Park in New York City

The Sphere, by Fritz Koenig, in Battery Park. Image by L. Furman

Should the President have been able to foil the attacks of September 11?

Throughout the 1990’s we sustained:

  • The 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City,
  • The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
  • The 1998 bombings of the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
  • The 2000 bombing of the U. S. S. Cole,
  • And in 1999 we foiled Al Queda’s Millennium plot.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore knew that Osama bin Laden was a threat. They knew he had been trained by the CIA in the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. They also knew that he financed and or masterminded the simultaneous attacks on U. S. embassies in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998, and the October, 2000 attack on the U. S. S. Cole. And President Clinton told us that after his January 2001 inauguration he briefed President Bush on bin Laden.

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Ahmadinejad Hints About Robert Levinson

Robert Levinson

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has implicitly admitted that Robert Levinson in in Iranian custody, while simultaneously evading personal responsibility by saying that he thought Mr. Levinson had been part of a prisoner exchange which had already been negotiated and concluded.

Here’s an excerpt from CBS’s coverage:

[P]ressed by Charlie Rose in an interview for “CBS This Morning,” Ahmadinejad did not deny Iran still has Levinson in its custody, and he hinted that there had been talks about a prisoner exchange. “I remember that last year Iranian and American intelligence groups had a meeting, but I haven’t followed up on it,” said the Iranian president. “I thought they’d come to some kind of an agreement.”

John Miller  [CBS News senior correspondent a former FBI assistant director]  says that, “tacit admission that he’s in their custody and that there have been talks,” in and of itself, “is a big step.” “I think that’s going to give a ray of hope to the family, too,” adds Miller.

From Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops clue about Robert Levinson, ex-FBI agent who vanished 5 years ago in Iran – CBS News. There’s a link to video and more coverage on that page.

For more background, here’s are additional links on ABC News (From 12/9/11) Facebook, and Wikipedia.

Adventures in Driving – Hybrids

2913 Ford C max

One day, back in 2009, while driving my ’99 Chevy Malibu home from classes in Marleboro College’s MBA in Managing for Sustainability, I set a target for my next car that it would get over 45 Miles Per Gallon. That basically means a hybrid like the Ford CMax (Edmunds / Ford) pictured above or one of the uber-efficient Volkswagon TDI Clean Diesel (news / autoblog / VW).

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Occupy Wall Street, Obama, The American Jobs Act, Veterans & Patriots

The same way that they filibustered the The American Jobs Act of 2011, Senate Republicans filibustered the Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012. According to the Examiner, here,

the proposal failed 58-40, with most Republicans voting against it. Sixty votes were needed to overcome the procedural hurdle and push the bill toward final passage. Five Republicans – Sens. Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) – voted with all 53 members of the Democratic Conference to sidestep the procedural roadblock.

I know the Republicans CLAIM to be “Fiscal Conservatives” and “Patriots” but the evidence shows that they are neither.
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Occupy Wall Street – On Taxes

Woman Dancing on the Bull

“Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Progressive tax structures are not about punishing the rich. They are a recognition that wealthy people – like everyone else – derive benefits from being in society. Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, Oprah, for example, got rich because people buy their products or watched them play basketball or on TV.  Paris Hilton is wealthy because her great-grandfather built a successful business. Their successes are wonderful. But their success should not require me to subsidize their lifestyles.

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New Milage Standards: 54.5 MPG by 2025. Meaningful & Terrific!

President Obama, official portrait.The Obama Administration issued final rules Tuesday 8/28/12 requiring joint mileage and carbon emissions rules for model years 2017 through 2025 that will eventually force automakers to meet a standard equivalent to 54.5 miles per gallon (news / White House / Announcement).

Back on July 7, 2009, when President Obama raised the CAFE standards from 27.5 mpg to 35.5 mpg, I wrote “CAFE Standards, Not Meaningless but Trivial,”  I wrote, here,

Pres Obama has raised the CAFE standards from 27.5 mpg to 35.5 mpg, by 2016.  Raising the CAFE standards to 35.5 mpg in 7 (or 26) years is not the change we need. It is very little, and very late. The standard for cars has been 27.5 mpg since 1990 (DieselNet).  However, at least we are starting to move forward.

The standard of 54.5 MPG is Meaningful, Significant, and Terrific!

We also need a clean energy goals for the Efficient Use of Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Wave Power. 20% by 2020, and 100% by 2035!