The following are two vlogs on the 2008 presidential election by Lloyd Graff, editor and owner of In this video, Lloyd Graff criticizes a recent article by John Ratzenberger which says “a president should be able to change a tire” in order to represent the common man and demonstrate the importance of keeping manufacturing in the United States. He believes the most important thing for our next president is that he or she can unite the people. In this video, Lloyd says that he will vote for Barack Obama despite disagreeing with 80 percent of his policies. He believes that…
Author: Noah Graff
In the 2008 January issue, Today’s Machining World did an interview with Dennis Hoff, president of Hoff-Hilk Auction Services, an online auctioneer which sells commercial and capital equipment exclusively. In the interview Hoff gives an insider’s perspective on the online auction business, discussing the effects of auctions on both the buyers and sellers from both a monetary standpoint as well as psychological one. In this video Hoff addresses how site coordinators for an auction sale often must play “psychologist” to help sellers cope with the pain or angst which often accompanies selling their businesses. In this video Hoff…
Rarely have I ever seen such a dramatic glass half empty, glass half filled story. The pessimists, the bears, the media based in New York and the economists who work for money center banks see an economy tanking, dollar falling apart, housing dead for a decade, and a stock market shuffling in the mud. Virtually, blood in the streets. The optimists see a slowdown in housing offset by a surge in exports. They see softening interest rates, a useful fiscal stimulus that will easily pass Congress and be signed, a bottoming residential real estate climate very inviting to speculators, and…
On Jan. 10, 2008, Tata Motors unveiled its revolutionary $2500 car, the Tata Nano, also being called “The People’s Car” by its maker. The vehicle measures 3.1 meters in length, 1.5 meters in width and 1.6 meters in height. It has a mono-volume design, with wheels at the corners and the power-train at the rear in order to provide both maneuverability and space on the inside to accommodate families. The Nano has a rear-wheel drive, all-aluminum, two-cylinder, 623 cc, 33 PS, multi point fuel injection petrol engine. It’s the first time that a two-cylinder gasoline engine is being used in…
The December 12, Wall Street Journal discussed how 3-D printing machines are now becoming available to consumers to produce objects in their homes as diverse as iPod covers, action figures or ash trays. Such machines also known as rapid prototyping machines have been in use by manufacturers, scientists, and professional artists for years but this is ground breaking because it brings the power to produce objects quickly at low volume to the common person. Video about consumer 3-D printers Last year Today’s Machining World did an interview with the late Larry Rhoades, former CEO of Ex-One, a company that…
One of the best early indicators of the American economy may be breast implants, tummy tucks and LASIK procedures. According to the December 8th Wall Street Journal, cosmetic surgery is a dead-on indicator of consumer confidence. Confidence is not a perfect match for consumer behavior, but uninsured cosmetic procedures are expensive, put off-able acts like car buying and condo shopping. The Journal tells us that breast building is soft, and the fat has been sucked out of the liposuction racket for the moment, so we can expect the stock market to droop. Cutera, the Brisbane, California laser maker, says that…
The $100 computer and the $2500 car are the hottest products on the planet today. Neither one is yet a reality, but the intense interest in developing these mass produced items for potentially a billion new customers in Asia, Africa, and South America is driving a mega battle in electronics and autos. Video of $100 Computer A few years ago, the personal computer push built the Microsoft and Intel fortunes. But in 2005, Nicholas Negroponte, of MIT, postulated that the $100 dollar computer was doable and set out to build the market and design the product. In the Nov. 24,…
I recently made a trip to downtown San Francisco and discovered a new approach to fast food that seems to be prospering — the soup and oatmeal take-out restaurant. Take-out Soup Restaurant Review This is limited menu to the extreme. One location was an eight foot wide hole in the wall. Oatmeal was served until 10:00 a.m. and then replaced by soup. The soups rotated daily. When they run out of one, that particular variety was finished for the day. The other soup outlet had a dozen tables, more staff, longer hours, but also stuck to the oatmeal and soup…
The immigration pickle we are in is supposedly being debated in the preprimary beanbag in Iowa and New Hampshire. But all I’m hearing is lowest denominator crap about keeping out nasty Mexicans. Lost in the mush mongering is the diminishing magnetism of America to the best and brightest in the world who are getting the fuzzy message that they are welcome to come as tourists or students but if they expect to stay for a career they’ll have to beat a system that is rigged against the honest and successful would-be immigrant. I have witnessed this messed up system first…
Two decades ago, a cashmere sweater was a soft symbol of wealth and status warn by pipe smoking duffers at the club. Eventually women also wanted to wear the wool from the shaggy goat. The boosted demand beyond the capability of shepherds filled in the production shortfall. But the sharp folk in Bentonville Arkansas who run Wal-Mart believed that cashmere was not the exclusive wool for the rich, and decided cashmere sweaters should be brought to the masses. It was the perfect Christmas present. They asked the disintermediating question, “Why not sell a $49 cashmere women’s sweater, or a $39…