Logistics can be considered as a tool for getting resources, like products, services, and people, where they are needed and when they are desired. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufacturing without logistical support. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible.

The dictionary definition of logistics is: "The time related positioning of resources."

As such, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering which creates "people systems" rather than "machine systems".

More on [ Logistics ]

washingtonpost.com - Oil and Gas Prices

On the Road Again
Jordan Weissmann Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400
In the early 1990s, all three major American automakers started building clean and efficient natural gas vehicles. But when a new federal law failed to create an expected guaranteed market, the momentum died. Today, only Honda sells a model in the United States -- and in minuscule numbers.
Frequent Fliers' Wings Are Clipped
Sholnn Freeman Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Scott Zaban only flies United Airlines. As a loyal frequent flier, the 33-year-old writer from Northwest Washington is used to being pampered with seat upgrades and ticket awards.
A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading
David Cho Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses.
Commodity Prices Retreat
Neil Irwin Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Financial markets are frazzled, and the jobs situation is getting worse. But there is a surprising bit of good news for the economy in the months ahead.
Energy Firms Bid on Gulf Tracts
Dina Cappiello Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Energy companies bid hundreds of millions of dollars yesterday to explore for oil and natural gas beneath 1.8 million acres in the western Gulf of Mexico, while they look forward to the possibility of future drilling in federal waters now off limits.
Agreement on Drilling Doesn't Yet Mean Action
Ben Pershing Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Republicans are in their third week of House floor protests on the energy issue, and the political terrain appears to have shifted significantly since they launched their efforts Aug. 1.

Oil, Gas and Coal

Ducking Responsibility: Entergy Spins Its Nukes
Entergy Nuclear (part of the broader Entergy energy family) is spinning off its northeastern U.S.-based nuclear power plants into a related limited liability corporation, Enexus. Stakeholders in Vermont, home of the Yankee Nuclear power plant, are less than happy, with Entergy also reneging on prior commitments to cover eventual plant decommissioning costs, potentially stranding taxpayers with much of the bill.
FRANCE: Pipe Break Causes Leak Of Uranium at French Plant
Uranium-bearing liquid has leaked from a broken underground pipe at a nuclear site in southeastern France, the national nuclear-safety authority said Friday in the second leak discovered at a French site this month.
US: Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist
On June 23, James Hansen, a leading world climate scientist, called for the executives of major fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy, to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and nature through actions like funding climate skeptics to undermine global consensus around combating climate change.
US: Former Colo. nuke plant contractors ordered to pay $925M
Two companies that worked as contractors with the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have been ordered to pay $925 million to residents who claimed that contamination blown from the facility endangered people's health and devalued their property.
US: Bush administration files nuclear dump application
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday he's confident the government's license application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada will "stand up to any challenge anywhere."
US: Exxon investors reject green initiatives
The world's biggest oil company emerged bruised but victorious from a bust-up with the billionaire Rockefeller family yesterday as an effort to foist green initiatives on ExxonMobil failed to capture wholehearted support from shareholders.

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