Space agency reaching out for astronauts
This may be the best want ad I’ve ever seen. The Canadian Space Agency is seeking astronauts, and you can begin the application process online. That is, if you’re Canadian and fulfill several other requirements.
Long-duration missions aboard the ISS (International Space Station) generally last from three to six months. Training for long-duration missions is very arduous and takes two to three years. This follows basic training of about one year. This training requires extensive travelling, and includes assimilation of the ISS assembly sequence and its on-orbit operations. Travel to and from the ISS will be by Space Shuttle until its retirement in 2010. Following the Shuttle retirement, all trips to and from the ISS will be aboard the Russian Soyuz vehicle. Consequently, astronauts must meet the Soyuz size requirements, as indicated below.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
It takes me nearly an hour to ride the 10 miles from my west Edmond home to the office at Britton Road and the Broadway Extension. I could make better time with a jet-powered bike — if I could survive using such a device. This also would defeat part of the purpose of riding a bike to work, which is to save fuel. But it certainly wouldn’t be a boring commute.
The guy who made this sold one on eBay for $920, which isn’t much more than I paid for my used Cannondale, also bought on eBay.
Wired Blog headlines its report “Jet-Powered Bicycle Makes 50 MPH Feel WaaaaaaY Too Fast.”
And loud. Way too loud.
“It’s loud like a top alcohol dragster loud,” he says. “It’ll pop your ear drums if you aren’t wearing protective gear. That’s a drawback to the engines.”
No kidding.
A better idea might be to attach a jet engine to one of our Metro Transit buses. That might have shortened my colleague’s 2-1/2 hour bus ride from Edmond to The Oklahoman.
Business Writer
Fun link of the day
The folks here at The Business love to poke around the NASA Web site and learn about the latest missions such as the Phoenix Mars Lander.
The space lander touched down on Sunday and already has transmitted some striking photos of the Red Planet. Some of them look remarkably similar to the rugged terrain on my mother in-law’s farm near Hammon.
The Phoenix Mars Lander Web site also offers a video of the Lander’s Mars landing, although the actual landing is animated, as are the reactions of the NASA crew to the successful landing.
I’m not sure if they were actually watching anything, but their celebration reminded me of the reaction of the nerds in my 10th grade science class when a chemical reaction in a test tube boiled over onto the lab table.
See for yourself and enjoy.
Oh, and one more thing. NASA is now Twittering the Phoenix Mars Lander updates, so if you like your news in two-sentence bites, check it out.
Jim Stafford
Business News Writer
What movie title best describes your finances?
A new national survey of retirees included an intriguing question. When asked what movie title best described their retirement years, 41 percent chose “Staying Alive” to signify they are barely keeping their heads above water financially. The least popular answer was “Easy Money.” One in four said they weren’t sure.
Perhaps Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, which performed the survey, should have offered more choices. Some suggestions:
For those whose financial situation is hopeless, there’s “Gone With the Wind,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Apocalypse Now.”
For those who aren’t really sure where they stand, perhaps “Daredevil,” “While You Were Sleeping,” or “Road to Perdition.”
If you just can’t bear to know where you stand, how about “Chicken Little,” “Heaven Can Wait” or “Cliffhanger?”
Got a better idea? Show off in the comments.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
The bus stories stop here
There was some unfinished business from a recent series of bus-to-work stories that I wrote as a companion to bike-to-work stories written by my co-worker Don Mecoy.
I capped the stories with a column that focused on Nathaniel Martinez, a blind student at Oklahoma City Community College who bused to the southside of the city three days a week from Edmond.
I met him at the bus stop across from the University of Central Oklahoma as he waited for the Edmond Express bus that would take him to the Downtown Transit Center. From there he would catch another bus to OCCC.
Anyway, he was escorted to the bus stop by a taxi driver who stayed with him until the bus picked him up at UCO. That’s taxi driver David Kisling standing with Nathaniel at the bus stop in the photo above.
After the bus pulled away with Nathaniel on it, I spoke with Kisling and asked him how Martinez made the bus exchange at the transit center. He told me that Martinez pretty much did it on his own, sometimes asking fellow travelers to help him identify the correct bus he needed.
However, that wasn’t the whole story.
A Metro Transit bus driver who chose to remain anonymous called me to set me straight on the deal last week. The bus drivers all know Nathaniel and ensure that he makes it from bus to bus, he said.
“No driver would ever leave him on his own,” the driver told me. He seemed distraught that the story left that impression, and I apologized.
So, now you have the rest of the story.
Jim Stafford
Business News Writer
Ace in the hole
Alan “Ace” Greenberg
There’s an Okie on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today, but I bet he wishes he wasn’t. Alan “Ace” Greenberg, a native Oklahoman who ran Bear Stearns for 15 years, was among the major players who tried to stem the investment giant’s demise. Turns out corporate leaders should have heeded Greenberg’s advice to dump its massive and risky mortgage portfolio, the Wall Street Journal recounts.
Oklahoma-bred and Missouri-educated, Mr. Greenberg was the embodiment of the “PSDs” — poor, smart employees with a deep desire to get rich, upon whom the firm had been built. Mr. Greenberg, who ran the firm for 15 years before Mr. Cayne nudged him aside, was known on Wall Street for his voluminous memos, in the voice of a fictional character, urging traders on issues large (”it doesn’t pay to get too arrogant”) and small (save paper clips to cut costs).
But it was Mr. Greenberg’s trading style that had most defined Bear Stearns: Sell losing trading positions — quickly. Mr. Greenberg still recalled what his father, an Oklahoma City clothier, told him: “If something isn’t moving, sell it today because tomorrow it will be worth less.”
Greenberg, 80, has been openly critical of the company’s former leadership since Bear Stearns’ collapse. Greenberg, who came to the company 59 years ago after graduating from the University of Missouri, was particularly pained by the impact on thousands of employees.
The Journal’s three-part series on Bear Stearns continues Wednesday.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Stocking up
Tom L. Ward, chairman of SandRidge Energy.
Tom Ward, chairman of Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy, gathered up some spare change last week and bought a piece of something that he knows pretty well: His own company.
On Monday through Wednesday, Ward spent more than $34 million to buy 690,000 shares of SandRidge on the open market (that is, paying the same price you and I would have paid). Ward now directly owns 25.2 million shares of the company, and through his TLW Properties LLC, beneficially owns more than 37 million shares. At Friday’s closing price of $50.75, Ward’s SandRidge stake is worth a tidy $1.9 billion. SandRidge shares, by the way, are up more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year.
Ward’s buying spree is no surprise to observers of local public companies. Ward and his fellow founder of Chesapeake Energy, Aubrey McClendon, bought large chunks of Chesapeake stock in lockstep until Ward left the company in August 2006. Since that time, McClendon has become even more bullish on Chesapeake. This year, he has spent more than $90 million to boost his multi-billion dollar stake in Chesapeake.
Aubrey McClendon, chairman of Chesapeake Energy.
It’s certainly something that stockholders and potential buyers like to see. A longtime local broker calls it “having some skin in the game” when a CEO lets his cash ride with the common shareholders.
A few months ago, I asked McClendon why he would spend so much to buy his stock, he said the market has undervalued the company’s shares. So far, he’s been right in a big way. Apparently, Ward believes the same thing about his company.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Boone’s birthday bash
Boone Pickens and Gov. Brad Henry announce Pickens’ $100 million gift to Oklahoma State University a day after celebrating Pickens’ 80th birthday in an exclusive, celebrity-splashed Dallas party.
Happy 80th birthday to native Oklahoman Boone Pickens. The energy maven and billionaire dropped off a $100 million check up in Stillwater Wednesday, after celebrating Tuesday night with celebrities and VIPs in a black-tie extravaganza engineered by his wife, Madeleine.
Alan Peppard in the The Dallas Morning News reported on the festivities, which included Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry among the celebrants.
Madeleine dispatched a Gulfstream to Italy to fetch Mr. (Andrea) Bocelli and his fiancee, Veronica Berti, and bring them to Dallas for Monday’s rehearsal and Tuesday’s party. Another plane went for Miss (Sarah) Brightman, the former wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber who originated some of his most famous roles, including Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera .
American Idol fave Katharine McPhee, who stirred up McPheever among her Idolfans, has toured and recorded with Mr. Bocelli. She opened the evening along with Belgian chanteuse Lara Fabian.
Emcee Dennis Miller said the lavish gala “makes Caligula look like a minimalist.”
“Boone is one of the few people who can watch Giant and think it’s a home movie,” Miller quipped.
Pickens regularly says that he’s never had more fun making money than he has in the past several years, and there’s no reason to doubt him.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Thinking outside the shoe box
Zappos is a leader in online shoes sales, and the company’s success is due to its attention to detail and innovation. In a brief article, Bill Taylor writes of one way Zappos makes sure that it is hiring people who believe in the company:
So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.
After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!
Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for.
It’s an amazing offer from a remarkable company. A company, by the way, that expects to generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year. (via Kottke)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Boone Pickens says natural gas the answer
Boone Pickens sees increasing energy prices as a major political issue going into November.
But in an interview on CNBC this morning, he said the three presidential nominees still in the race don’t get it yet, and that Congress isn’t paying attention, either.
“I talk to them. They don’t hear me. I know what I am talking about, though,” Pickens said. “What politicans think about is getting elected — not solving the energy problems in America. This will be a huge issue before election day.“Reducing taxes on gasoline in the summer? Is that an energy plan? Hell no, that’s no plan at all. I haven’t heard anybody say anything that they have impressed me that they know much about it.”Pickens reiterated his opinion that oil prices are continuing to climb because the world needs more oil than it can produce every day. “It is that simple — just the facts of supply and demand. That’s it.”He described President Bush’s trip to Saudi Arabia as a waste of time, saying that country can’t produce anymore oil than it is now, and that production in other countries around the globe also is headed down.
With prices at $100 a barrel, Pickens estimated the country would be paying out $600 billion a year during the next decade for its oil. If prices go to $150 a barrel — which Pickens said he now thinks likely — the number increases to about $900 billion a year.
At those rates, the country will go broke, he said. But Pickens does have a plan. He proposes using wind and solar power to generate electricity that is made today by burning natural gas. Then, he proposes using that natural gas to instead power the nation’s automobiles.
“We have only one fuel” that can reduce the nation’s imports, he said, adding that natural gas also is abundantly available in the U.S. Used properly, the fuel could reduce the nation’s oil imports by 40 percent, he said.
By Jack Money, Business Writer
