New York SBDC Research Network

On a website, I saw a reference to the price of gas as 1.279. Initially, I didn't get it. Then I realized I was on a Canadian website and it was a reference to Canadian dollars per liter. So what is that in US dollars per gallon? And how do I figure it out without having to do two calculations, one for liter to gallon and another for the currency. Google, of course. To use my example, type: 1.279 CAD per litre in USD per gallon and click "Google Search". When I did it at noon on August 11, the result was "1.27900 (Canadian dollars per litre) = 4.58349234 U.S. dollars per US gallon". By the way, it doesn't matter if you spell it "litre" or "liter". What you will need is the three-letter code for currency, which you can find several places, including here , one of the sites noted on this website . More about Google's unit conversions here . Tip of the cap to Arthur @ AmeriNZ , who mentioned this on his podcast.

Al Scher, our resident cycling geek, emailed me two interesting items this week. Both would be of interest to any clients you might have who run bike shops: From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune comes an article titled $4-a-Gallon Gasoline Knocking Bicycle Sales, Repairs Into a Higher Gear" . Bike shop owners around the country are noticing a remarkable jump in the number of bikes being bought. I haven't had a bike in years, and I'm thinking of paying a visit to a local shop. TheCyclePeople.com promotes itself as a site where 1.5 million cyclists visit often. This page is promoting a deal where owners of bike shops, touring companies, or cycling clubs can submit one or more listings - for FREE - for display for the rest of 2008. The catch is that they need to have the business' information by May 31st, 2008. So, again, if you have clients in this industry, let them know about this deal.

Rising gas prices dominate the headlines these days. Our paper in Albany featured a photo of a family of three, with a gas pump wrapped around them collectively, like a python. It's a squeeze, all right, and a daily topic of conversation around here. Fuel Economy is a website - an almanac, really - put together by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office within the U.S. Department of (you guessed it) Energy. In addition to linking to sites with information on why we're paying $3.80 a gallon (check out the FAQs section in their "Gasoline Prices" section), there's also a wealth of material to help you when you're buying that new hybrid vehicle, or exploring alternative fuels. And now, I'm off to drive my six-cylinder car to Kerhonkson. See you there!