May 2012 – Page 2

adminMay 28, 2012Khazen BlogComments are off for this post

People in the U.S. are feeling better about the coming Memorial Day weekend than they did a year ago, according to an IBM study. As a result they may have bigger travel and shopping plans for the unofficial kickoff of the summer road-trip and vacation season.

Through an analysis of social media sentiment IBM found a significant increase in the number of people talking about travel and spending. The IBM Social Sentiment Index, uses analytics and language processing technology to identify and gather consumer opinions from Twitter, blogs, message boards and other social media.

According to the index conversations about Memorial Day travel increased by 46% compared to 2011. This suggests travel providers could see a boost in business and transportation officials will have to deal with more traffic. The index also shows a 65% rise in people mentioning traveling by air while discussion of driving increased 13%.

IBM said consumer sentiment regarding gasoline prices is surprisingly positive considering the average price of a gallon of regular gas, while 13 cents lower than a year ago, is still high at $3.71 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Social media showed a five-to-one ratio of positive to negative mentions about gas in 2012 compared to a one-to-one ratio in 2011. These trends may indicate people are more confident about their finances this year.

Warren Buffett sticks with what he knows, and that now includes newspapers

Warren Buffett doesn’t buy Google.
Last week, he didn’t buy Facebook, the social-media phenomenon that started trading Friday on the Nasdaq, ending the day with a market capitalization of about $105 billion.
"I kind of ventured quite a ways out to buy IBM," Buffett said in an interview with the Fox Business cable network. "Facebook would be — my doctor would require a checkup."
No, Buffett puts money in things he understands. Among them: trains, insurance and newspapers.
Yes. Newspapers.
Atop his shopping list last week was a cluster of Southern newspapers in an industry that is — as Buffett himself said during this month’s shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., his $200 billion company — declining.
In fact, he agreed to put $142 million in newspapers, buying the Winston-Salem Journal and all but one of Media General Inc.’s newspapers in a deal announced last week.
"Warren Buffett is the guy who orchestrated this transaction," said Terry Kroeger, president of BH Media Group, a holding company set up by Berkshire.
Efforts to contact Buffett were unsuccessful. In previous interviews, Buffett has said newspapers can do fine as long as they provide content that no one else does, and as long as they don’t provide it for free.
When the transaction goes through, probably by June 25, the ownership structure will have a few layers.
Kroeger said BH Media owns World Media Enterprises, which will be the actual owner of the Journal and 62 other dailies and weeklies in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama, in addition to digital assets, including websites and mobile and tablet applications.

The world’s worst traffic

IBM’s "Commuter Pain 2011" survey doesn’t look at the causes of congestion or offer any solutions. Too difficult. Instead, IBM merely asks people how they commute and how much their commute sucks. Congratulations Mexico City, you suck and you know it.

The chart above shows how people in 20 cities react to their commute, with drivers in China and Russia describing traffic that sounds like the premise of a Jacques Tati movie. More than a quarter of respondents in Moscow claim to have spent more than three hours stuck in traffic. And we all know how crazy China is.

Tellingly, the 8,042 people surveyed were people who lived in a major city, were 18-65 years old, and drove a vehicle alone as their main mode of transportation. Considering there are decent transit options in most of these places it means IBM interviewed the people who were mostly to blame for their own congestion.

The Inrix study shows that drivers in other major cities are still spending a fair number of hours stuck in traffic, too. While Los Angeles ranked a close second to Honolulu, those in San Francisco spent almost 48 additional hours in the car because of traffic.

The news wasn’t all bad, though. Inrix says overall congestion was down 30 percent in 2011 from the year before, and notes that of the 100 cities it surveyed, 70 of them logged lower rates of congestion year over year.

These cities had the worst traffic in 2011, according to Inrix, which lists the average hours wasted per driver after each city:

10)      Chicago – 32.8 hours
9)         Boston – 35 hours
8)         Austin – 30 hours
7)         Seattle – 33 hours
6)         Washington, D.C. – 45 hours
5)         Bridgeport, CT – 42 hours
4)         New York – 57 hours
3)         San Francisco – 48 hours
2)         Los Angeles – 56 hours
1)         Honolulu – 58 hours

The study also finds that, nationally, the worst morning commute occurs on Tuesday, while the worst evening commute is on Friday.