Keekee Speaks

The price of a barrel of oil fell to below $52 a barrel because of people cashing in on the profits.  I guess that’s a sign of the times.  People are having to sell a lot of their stocks just to survive this world wide economic down turn.  The question I have is are the prices at the gas pumps going to reflect the drop?

Gas prices have been inching up again but I bet that’s not a news flash now is it?  I’m still having trouble figuring out how the gas companies can justify the prices going up when they seem to be the only business that is making record profits.  If the rest of the country has to tighten their belts, why aren’t the gas companies helping by allowing the price of a gallon of gas to drop and maybe making a little less than the millions they keep reporting as profits.  That would help a lot of people right there so why hasn’t President Obama done something about them since he seems to be trying to to help in so many other ways?  Sounds like a pretty good question to me??  But you know me, that’s just my opinion!!

Well it looks like we have a new car to look forward to possibly.  It’s billed as the worlds cheapest car but what I wanted to know is since it is about the size of a lunch box, well not really but it’s small, does it get great gas mileage or what.  It should I would think so I did a little research to find out more about this tiny little car.

I don’t know if any of you remember the last ‘worlds cheapest’ car or not but it was a Yugo and it was junk.  I hope the Nano fares better than the Yugo did.  It is about $2000 but that’s without air conditioning, air bags, radio and things that us in the US take for granted.  One good thing about it is it will make it easier for people of little means, or not money if you will, to be able to afford a new car.  That’s good but is it safe?  I guess we will just have to see but here’s a little of what I found out about the Nano:

Technical specifications

According to Tata Group’s Chairman Ratan Tata, the Nano is a 33 hp car with a 623 cc rear engine and rear wheel drive, and has a fuel economy of 51.7 mpg, under city road conditions, and 61.1 mpg on highways. It is the first time a two-cylinder non-opposed gas engine will be used in a car with a single balance shaft. Tata Motors has reportedly filed 34 patents related to the innovations in the design of Nano, with power train accounting for over half of them. The project head, Girish Wagh has been credited with being one of the brains behind Nano’s design.

Much has been made of Tata’s patents pending for the Nano. Yet during a news conference at the New Delhi Auto Expo, Ratan Tata pointed out none of these is revolutionary or represents earth-shaking technology. He said most relate to rather mundane items such as the two-cylinder engine’s balance shaft, and how the gears were cut in the transmission.

Though the car has been appreciated by many sources, including Reuters due to “the way it has tweaked existing technologies to target an as-yet untapped segment of the market”, yet it has been stated by the same sources that Nano is not quite “revolutionary in its technology”, just low in price. Moreover, technologies which are expected of the new and yet-to-be-released car include a revolutionary compressed-air fuel system and an eco-friendly electric-version, technologies on which Tata is reportedly already working, though no official incorporation-date for these technologies in the new car has been released.

According to Tata, the Nano complies with Bharat Stage-III and Euro-IV emission standards. Ratan Tata also said, ‘The car has passed the full-frontal crash and the side impact crash’. Tata Nano passed the required ‘homologation’ tests with Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).This means that the car has met all the specified criteria for roadworthiness laid out by the government including emissions or noise & vibration and can now ply on Indian roads. Tata Nano managed to score around 24 km per litre during its ‘homologation’ tests with ARAI. This makes Tata Nano the most fuel efficient car in India. Nano will be the first car in India to display the actual fuel mileage figures it recorded at ARAI’s tests on its windshield. According to ARAI it conforms to Euro IV emission standards which will come into effect in India in 2010.

Rear mounted engine

The use of a rear mounted engine to help maximize interior space makes the Nano similar to the original Fiat 500, another technically innovative “people’s car”. A concept vehicle similar in styling to the Nano, also with rear engined layout was proposed by the UK Rover Group in the 1990s to succeed the original Mini but was not put into production. The eventual new Mini was much larger and technically conservative. The independent, and now-defunct, MG Rover Group later based their Rover City Rover on the Tata Indica. Tata is also reported to be contemplating offering a compressed air engine as an option.

Well for the first time ever, a current president appeared on a late night TV program and promptly stuck his foot in his mouth.   Well at least he’s human, ya know.  How many of us have said things without first thinking who they might or if it might hurt someone.  At least he was attempting to make fun of himself and not someone else but it backfired unfortunately.  I do respect the fact that he was man enough to apologize before it was even aired.

In an appearance on the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Thursday night, United States President Barack Obama told host, Jay Leno, that he had bowled at the White House bowling alley and scored a 129.  “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” the President said.

The Special Olympics is an international organization that promotes self-confidence and social skills for people with intellectual disabilities. It organizes the Special Olympics World Games which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and is similar to the Paralympic Games which are for people with physical disabilities.

Even before the taped show was aired, Barack Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics to apologize. He phoned Timothy Shriver from Air Force One on the way back to Washington, D.C.. Tim Shriver is also the son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver who founded the Special Olympics. “He expressed his disappointment, and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population,” Shriver said on Friday in an interview on Good Morning America. “Words hurt, words do matter,” Shriver added. “People with special needs are great athletes and productive citizens.”

Bernard Madoff has become one of the symbols of pure greed in today’s economic mess among other business names and so called ‘financial advisers’.  To think that he stood in court and announced that he was ashamed of himself and what he has done and is truly sorry, I wasn’t convinced.  Were you?  This person was the cause of people committing suicide, of having to go back to work in their 90′s and wondering just what they were going to do now that all of their savings are gone.  He’s sorry about that though.

I wish that I could honestly tell you what I think a man like that deserves but I can’t.  It’s just not something a lady should say and if nothing else, I am a lady.  I’ll give you a hint though.  He sure wouldn’t have a cell all to himself and his cell mate would be the one that would do to him what he did to those people that trusted everything to him.  He stuck it to them so he deserves to have something stuck to him too.  THAT IS MY OPINION!!!!!!

My mother is planning our annual ‘spring break vacation’.  I always take that week off of work to spend with her and my brother.  This year, Mom wants us to go to Universal Studios.  We have been to Disney World several years ago and spent the week there but it’s been a long time since we did that.

There is so much to do in that area that you have to be able to find something the whole family can enjoy.  My brother wants to visit the ‘Richard Petty driving experience’.  Yeah that’s what we need!!  I don’t think Mom’s going to go for that one though.  I don’t know if you have ever been to Gatorland but it burnt down a few years ago.  They rebuilt it so we just might go see it again.  It’s an amazing place.  My mother went there when she was a little girl many, many years ago.  Sorry Mom, I’m just playing around.

I’m really looking forward to the trip too.  Even though I’m not a kid anymore, you can’t help but get excited about going to Universal Studios and feeling the same old excitement you felt as a kid the first time you saw Disney World.  Now is a great time to get discount rates too so you really need to start checking 0nline for the best deals.