Book Of Norm

China has just passed the US as the world's largest consumer of computers, after passing us as the world's largest consumer of cars about a year ago. While in $ terms, they are still far behind the US on both counts, in terms of sheer volume, China is quickly surpassing the US as the biggest market for expensive and high-tech products. While measuring things in volume is a bit misleading, so would be measuring in dollar value. Some economists would go on about purchasing price parity at this point. But while I also have a particular penchant for popularly promoting prolonged arbitrary and amazing alliteration, I think the simplest thing to say at this point is that if you want to sell stuff, not just make stuff, China is going to be the place to be. Which is not really surprising, considering it has three times the population of the US, but nonetheless is interesting, especially at a time when the US administration seems hell bent on limiting growth and introducing excessiv...

Today, HP announced that they were killing off webOS. What a bunch of idiots. They paid $1.2 billion for it a year ago, and today, after releasing only the shrunken Pre the Veer, and the half-baked TouchPad tablet, they are killing off what is in my opinion still the world's best mobile operating system. Seriously, I just switched to the latest and greatest Android (the Photon) because the Pre3 was not going to come to Sprint - and Android it idiotically counter-intuitive compared to the Pre, and the multitasking... sucks. Plain and simple. Also, HP... you are a bunch of idiots. Right when Google is moving into the hardware business by buying Motorola  Mobility, and thus Android is showing some weakness with traditional hardware partners looking for new options... HP is abandoning ship. Fucking morons. I was going to do a long write up for the Pre and webOS - but this article from PopSci does it very well: RIP WebOS, the Best Smartphone Platform Nobody Used You were too good...

Today, the world is facing a shortage of fresh water. In 20 years that shortage is just going to get worse: most fresh water sources have been tapped, and a lot of the developing world will see massive population expansion, leading to the need for more eater for both man and beast, as agriculture is the largest user of fresh water. The solution most environmentalists want and are looking at is water conservation, especially in areas like the United States. The truth of the matter is that conservation does not mean a damn thing when there is simply not enough water to start with. The solution is in engineering,  as are many of the solutions to today's environmental challenges. The earth has no shortage of water.... we are the blue planet after all. And the solution is to use the oceans as our source of fresh water. Israel is putting a few billion behind desalinization over the next decade, but the challenge is that even the most moder reverse osmosis plants are damn expensive. Th...

Apple was, briefly, the largest company in the world. For a short time today, it topped Exxon Mobile to be the largest company by market cap. Which is pretty interesting, because you know what the largest company is by revenue? Walmart. More than that, what is the worlds largest computer/tech company by revenue? HP. By a lot. And finally - where is Apple on the list of largest companies by revenue? 109th. It is behind companies like The US Postal Service, Walgreens, Kroger, Sony, Panasonic etc etc etc... So why the huge market cap? Well, profits are one thing, growth is another. But really? It's the hype. And at some point, at some point everyone will realize that Apple will lose the battle against Android, that the hardware is really not that amazing, and that really the only things which the company excels in are design and marketing, in which case Porsche should be the world's largest car company.

In the wake of a police killing, England is experiencing its worst wave of civil unrest felt in years. This is not the legitimate expression of public frustration with the government or anything like that, this is the pissed off youth of mostly the lower class and immigrant communities lashing out against authority and society. The police killing was of Mark Duggan, a 29yr old wanted on a number of gun-crime related charges. A special unit of the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) pulled the cab he was in over, and attempted to arrest him. He resisted, and fired at the police officers, including one bullet which lodged itself in a police radio on an officer's hip. He was shot and killed. While I am often skeptical of the police, this seems like a completely legitimate though unfortunate incident. In the wake of the killing, which happened in the traditionally crime-centric suburb of Hackney (of Hackney rhyming slang fame), there have been a wave of riots, first across London a...

We keep talking about how China owns most of the US debt, etc etc. Turns out that while China is indeed the largest foreign owner of US govt. debt... the biggest owner of US government debt is... the US Government.  Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent) Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent) Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent) Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent) Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent) Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent) Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent) State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent) Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent) United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent) Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent) State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent) Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent) U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent) China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent) Th...

New findings lend further credence to the idea that all life on earth is in fact alien life. At least to a degree. NASA recently found building blocks of life being delivered by the interstellar bike messengers - meteorites (seriously - I once saw one hope the curb between the Milky Way and Andromeda).  The discovery is outlined in a new paper from Dr. Michael Callahan, whose team of researchers closely analyzed samples from 12 different meteorites, using a mass spectrometer and liquid chromatagraph. According to the church, they probably also used Satan's violin. In their samples, they found traces of adenine, guanine, and a variety of molecules known as nucleobase analogs -- including three that are rarely found on Earth. Scientists have long known that meteorites can contain DNA elements, but were unsure whether these materials actually originate in space. The presence of these three molecules, however, suggest that they do, potentially raising new questions about the dawn o...

Ok, this may sound a little esoteric, but bear with me. What this chart means is that until the deal was passed, it cost more to buy insurance against 1 year US Treasuries defaulting than to buy insurance against 5 year treasuries defaulting. This shows just how close traders believed the US was to defaulting on its short term debt because of the debt crises. Pretty damn interesting to me, though I think it is ridiculous that anyone would think the US would actually let the Treasury default on any bond.

Yes, I know my history. And I know that I am 30 years off more or less. But the interesting thing is this: there were Japanese holdouts who refused to accept that the war was over, or did not know the war was over, who kept fighting into the 1970's. This is pretty amazing, and not something I had heard before. That is 30 years believing that Imperial Japan was still in power, and that you were still in the middle of armed conflict. By 1974 Japan was a rapidly developing modern economy and a close ally of the US, it is pretty amazing to think that there were still soldiers holed up on Pacific islands, prepared to take on the GIs.. Japanese Army stragglers after the end of World War II 1945-1949 Captain  Sakae Ōba , who led his company of 46 men in guerrilla actions against US troops following the  Battle of Saipan , did not surrender until December 1, 1945, three months after the war ended. Major  Sei Igawa  (井川省) volunteered as a  Viet Minh  staff off...