Fired Up about this story!

January 23, 2013.  Holy cow!  Check out this story!  Let's hope it true, a hybrid car that can run on air?  Check it out:

London, January 23 (ANI): If you have ever grimaced at your never ending petrol bill and dreamed of a car that runs on fresh air, your prayers are about to be answered.

French car giant PSA Peugeot Citroen believes that it can put an air- powered vehicle on the road by 2016, the Daily Mail reported.
Its scientists say it will knock 45 percent off fuel bills for an average motorist, and when driving in towns and cities costs could be slashed by as much as 80 percent because the car will be running on air for four-fifths of the time.
The system works by using a normal internal combustion engine, special hydraulics and an adapted gearbox along with compressed air cylinders that store and release energy. This enables it to run on petrol or air, or a combination of the two.
Air power would be used solely for city use, automatically activated below 43mph and available for '60 to 80 percent of the time in city driving'. By 2020, the cars could be achieving an average of 117 miles a gallon, the company predicts.
The air compression system can re-use all the energy normally lost when slowing down and braking. The motor and a pump are in the engine bay, fed by a compressed air tank underneath the car, running parallel to the exhaust.
The revolutionary new 'Hybrid Air' engine system - the first to combine petrol with compressed air - is a breakthrough for hybrid cars because expensive batteries will no longer be needed.
Cars fitted with Hybrid Air will be about 1,000 pounds cheaper to buy than current hybrid models.
For more than two years, 100 elite scientists and engineers have been working on the air-powered car in top-secret conditions at Peugeot's research and development centre at Velizy, just south of Paris.
Hybrid Air is the centrepiece of Peugeot chief executive Philippe Varin's efforts to restore the fortunes of the historic car maker.
The revolutionary system will be able to be installed on any normal family car without altering its external shape or size or reducing the boot size, provided the spare wheel is not stored there.
From the outside, an air-powered car will look identical to a conventional vehicle. (ANI)

Joe Lizura

Joe Lizura San Diego Travel Tip

January 1, 2013. Here's a very useful article for saving money on flights, whether it's San Diego or any other city, this study points out the best number of days in advance to book you airline flight.  I've also found that having your email on some of the travel notification sites also helps you lock in a low fare when they are having those 24 or 48 hour fare sales.

Here's the story.  Bargain-conscious travelers have been trying to answer the question for years and are still stymied: How far in advance do you have to book to get the best airfare?

According to new research by CheapAir.com based on the travel site's review of 560 million airfares, the optimal time to book a domestic flight is 49 days in advance. If you're flying overseas, you should book almost three months -- 81 days, to be precise -- before you travel.

Too much planning for you? Don't worry. While the average domestic flight was the cheapest 49 days out, it didn't start to rise dramatically in price until about two weeks before the departure date. But if you wait until the day or two before you want to travel, get ready for some serious pocketbook pain. Domestic flights that would normally cost less than $400 jump to about $625.

Notably, it's also bad for your pocketbook to book too far in advance, according to CheapAir. People who booked 210 days before the flight ended up paying an average of $475 for a domestic ticket. There are exceptions and caveats, however. If you're booking for a high-traffic time, like Thanksgiving, it can make sense to book well in advance. The optimal time to buy a flight for Thanksgiving weekend in 2012, for instance, was 96 days in advance.

If you're taking an international flight, by contrast, you might score a real bargain by being spontaneous. For example, the best price CheapAir found for a Los Angeles-to-Tokyo flight was when the traveler booked one day before the flight.

Other factoids of note: Booking a flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday is not likely to save any money. But flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday will.

And, of course, while this study focuses on average ticket prices, there are a lot of one-time deals that can make booking at any given time either a bargain or a bust. CheapAir tries to deal with the frustrations of variable airline pricing by offering a customer payback program. If you book a flight through the site and find that your specific itinerary has dropped in price, it offers you up to a $100 credit for another flight. And what if another airline offers a better deal in the meantime? Unless you're traveling on one of the rare airlines, such as Southwest, that will allow you to change your ticket without penalty, you're out of luck.

Nothing quite like saving money!   Joe Lizura

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A Truly Fantastic Story

On January 5, 2012 San Diego's Joe Lizura wrote.  This is truly a fantastic story about an incredibly successful man (and his family) who rose from poverty and and a lack of education at the age of 13 to one of the wealthiest men in the world.  It shows that anyone can succeed - it's always determination and hard work that will help. 

This is a definite "must read" story to start out your new year:  http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/zara-co-founder-increases-wealth-22-2b-2012-182819240.html

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 100 richest people around the globe boosted their net worth by a collective $241 billion over the last 12 months. As of Dec. 31, 2012, these tycoons controlled a combined $1.9 trillion of the world’s wealth.
The biggest winner in 2012 was Amancio Ortega, founder of the Spanish retail conglomerate Inditex SA, says Matt Miller, editor of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in an interview with The Daily Ticker.
Ortega increased his wealth by $22.2 billion in 2012 – more than the entire fortune of Alisher Usmanov, Russia’s richest man. The massive jump in Ortega’s fortune can be attributed to the 66.7% rise in Inditex SA stock (like most wealthy people, Ortega's wealth is "paper money" i.e. stock holdings).
One of the best-performing companies in the Inditex SA umbrella is Zara, a popular women’s clothing retailer that sells the latest fashion trends at affordable prices. Ortega and his ex-wife started Zara at their Spanish home, designing and stitching together the fabric with help from family members.
Zara has now become a hugely profitable fashion empire with retail storefronts in every major metropolitan city.
Ortega, the third richest person in the world with a net worth of $57.5 billion, grew up poor in Spain and had to drop out of school at the age of 13 to earn money. But Ortega’s rags to riches story is not unique, says Miller. He estimates that three-quarters of the world’s billionaires are self-made.


Joe Lizura
www.twitter.com/joelizura