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| Source: HERE |
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Boys have more value than Girls. Don't blame me---How could 2 billion people be wrong???
Quite amazing is the social change going on in India, not in a postive way, in JUST the last 10 years. The ratio of boys to girls under 6 is increasing because of parental "selectiveness". Boys are valued more than girls, and, well, you can guess what happens when parents find out they are having a girl. Again I find myself asking the question "What is wrong with people?!?!? Rhetorical question, there is no answer...I encourage you to read the article that accompanies this graphic and become more informed.
A similar thing is going on in China but, in my opinion, more hideous:
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| Source: Christian Science Monitor |
""XINRAN XUE, a Chinese writer, describes visiting a peasant family in the Yimeng area of Shandong province. The wife was giving birth. “We had scarcely sat down in the kitchen”, she writes (see article), “when we heard a moan of pain from the bedroom next door…The cries from the inner room grew louder—and abruptly stopped. There was a low sob, and then a man’s gruff voice said accusingly: ‘Useless thing!’
“Suddenly, I thought I heard a slight movement in the slops pail behind me,” Miss Xinran remembers. “To my absolute horror, I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail. The midwife must have dropped that tiny baby alive into the slops pail! I nearly threw myself at it, but the two policemen [who had accompanied me] held my shoulders in a firm grip. ‘Don’t move, you can’t save it, it’s too late.’
“‘But that’s...murder...and you’re the police!’ The little foot was still now. The policemen held on to me for a few more minutes. ‘Doing a baby girl is not a big thing around here,’ [an] older woman said comfortingly. ‘That’s a living child,’ I said in a shaking voice, pointing at the slops pail. ‘It’s not a child,’ she corrected me. ‘It’s a girl baby, and we can’t keep it. Around these parts, you can’t get by without a son. Girl babies don’t count.’” Source: The Economist
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Would you rather have an economy with 100 people making $11,620 per year or one with 50 people making $53,591? If you own an I-Pod you have already chosen your answer...
This graphic is from Carpe Diem. I encourage you to go there and read the analysis. I just did some back of the envelop calculations comparing the average wage paid to US workers vs "foreign" workers.
The inputs to that go into making an I-Pod are sourced from many parts of the world, with the final assembly is done in very large Chinese facilities. According to the graphic, the wage paid per US job is $53,591 ($746M/13,920). The wage paid per foreign job $11,670 ($318M/27,250). The US has half as many jobs devoted to the production of the I-Pod but each of those jobs pays 4.6 times as much ($53,591/$11,670) as each foreign job.
On a per-job basis, why are US workers paid so much more? You have to look at the types of jobs AND worker productivity:
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| Source: Carpe Diem |
The inputs to that go into making an I-Pod are sourced from many parts of the world, with the final assembly is done in very large Chinese facilities. According to the graphic, the wage paid per US job is $53,591 ($746M/13,920). The wage paid per foreign job $11,670 ($318M/27,250). The US has half as many jobs devoted to the production of the I-Pod but each of those jobs pays 4.6 times as much ($53,591/$11,670) as each foreign job.
On a per-job basis, why are US workers paid so much more? You have to look at the types of jobs AND worker productivity:
""When innovative products are designed and marketed by U.S. companies, they can create valuable jobs for American workers even if the products are manufactured offshore. Apple’s tremendous success with the iPod and other innovative products in recent years has driven growth in U.S. employment, even though these products are made offshore. These jobs pay well and employ people with college degrees. They are at the high end of what might be considered middle class jobs and appear to be less at risk of vanishing from the United States than production jobs." Source: Innovation and Job Creation in a Global Economy: The Case of Apple’s iPod
Dr Perry's comment: ""Part of the current and future strength of America’s manufacturing sector could be explained by the global shift in manufacturing that has leveraged the relative cost advantages of shifting low-end production and assembly to low-wage countries like China, while advanced economies and companies in the U.S. like Apple have increasingly specialized in the research, design and marketing of products like the iPod. China’s focus on labor-intensive, low-skill, and low-value-added assembly of manufactured goods has allowed America to become even more competitive in the higher-end, higher-skilled manufacturing design and engineering in areas like electronics, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and medicine, industrial machinery, medical and scientific equipment and supplies, computers, software and semi-conductors, and oil and natural-gas equipment.
"" The case study of Apple's iPod illustrates the reality that U.S. manufacturing in the 21st century will be increasingly focused on the high-tech, high valued-added, high-skilled, research-intensive, high-paying aspects of manufacturing, with the production and assembly taking place elsewhere. U.S. manufacturing is alive and well, it's just strategically shifted higher up the value chain.""
Man tries to pay a bill with pennies and ends up with a disorderly conduct ticket for his efforts...Can a business refuse his pennies for payment? See why here...
But the incident does raise a legitimate question: Are businesses required to take your pennies? A penny is, after all, legal tender. Doesn't that mean they are good everywhere? From the Christian Science Monitor:
"Here's what the law says: The Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts."Source: Christian Science Monitor
All this means is that the US Federal Reserve system must honor all US currency. As the US Treasury points out, there's nothing in the law that says that private businesses have to accept it for all transactions. If a merchant wants to sell her products in exchange for gold bullion, nothing but dimes minted before 1946, Swedish fish, or Monopoly money, that's her right under the law.
The absence of such a law is how bus lines can legally refuse to accept your dollar bills, gas station clerks can turn their noses up at your $100s, and panhandlers near the Monitor's newsroom can yell at you after you drop a Sacagawea dollar coin in their cup, even though you were just trying to be nice.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
10 Political Quotes that are accepted as fact but were never actually spoken by the person.
Some of these surprised me. Mostly the really old ones attributed to a historical figure. Pretty interesting how something not accurate can become accepted as historical fact. Click HERE to see the other 8 quotes and why they may not be true...
Source: Christian Science Monitor
10. "I can see Russia from my house!" – Sarah Palin
It was actually comedian Tina Fey, who was impersonating Ms. Palin on Saturday Night Live who uttered this line that is now widely attributed to the former Alaska governor.
The basis for this line comes from a September 2008 interview with ABC News's Charles Gibson, who asked Palin what insights she had from her state being so close to Russia. She responded: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
This is true. As Slate has pointed out, on a clear day, those on the Alaskan island of Little Diomede can see the Russian island of Big Diomede, located across the International Date Line some two and a half miles away. Given that Big Diomede has no permanent population, the amount of foreign policy experience one can gain from staring at it is debatable. But you can see Russian soil while standing in Alaska.
9. 'I invented the Internet.' – Al Gore
Everybody knows that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet. But like many things that everyone knows, it's not actually true.
So where did it come from? In a March 9, 1999 interview on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked the candidate to describe what distinguished him from his Democratic challenger, New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Here is how the exchange went:
Blitzer: "Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley?"
Gore: I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
It's clumsy wording, to be sure. But it's clear from looking at Gore's whole statement that he never claimed to have invented the Internet, in the sense of writing code or laying fiber-optic cables. He meant only to take credit for the contributions that he made as a member of Congress, contributions that have been lauded by people like Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf, who wrote the code that serves as the foundation for the Internet.
Who is to blame for coming up with the "Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet" meme? This guy.
Two days after Gore appeared on CNN, libertarian writer Declan McCullagh posted a story on Wired News mocking him for claiming to be the "father of the Internet." McCullagh never used the word "invented," but it took only a few days before it mutated into its current form, helping to cement the public perception of Gore as a serial exaggerator.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
10. "I can see Russia from my house!" – Sarah Palin
It was actually comedian Tina Fey, who was impersonating Ms. Palin on Saturday Night Live who uttered this line that is now widely attributed to the former Alaska governor.
The basis for this line comes from a September 2008 interview with ABC News's Charles Gibson, who asked Palin what insights she had from her state being so close to Russia. She responded: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
This is true. As Slate has pointed out, on a clear day, those on the Alaskan island of Little Diomede can see the Russian island of Big Diomede, located across the International Date Line some two and a half miles away. Given that Big Diomede has no permanent population, the amount of foreign policy experience one can gain from staring at it is debatable. But you can see Russian soil while standing in Alaska.
9. 'I invented the Internet.' – Al Gore
Everybody knows that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet. But like many things that everyone knows, it's not actually true.
So where did it come from? In a March 9, 1999 interview on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked the candidate to describe what distinguished him from his Democratic challenger, New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Here is how the exchange went:
Blitzer: "Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley?"
Gore: I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
It's clumsy wording, to be sure. But it's clear from looking at Gore's whole statement that he never claimed to have invented the Internet, in the sense of writing code or laying fiber-optic cables. He meant only to take credit for the contributions that he made as a member of Congress, contributions that have been lauded by people like Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf, who wrote the code that serves as the foundation for the Internet.
Who is to blame for coming up with the "Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet" meme? This guy.
Two days after Gore appeared on CNN, libertarian writer Declan McCullagh posted a story on Wired News mocking him for claiming to be the "father of the Internet." McCullagh never used the word "invented," but it took only a few days before it mutated into its current form, helping to cement the public perception of Gore as a serial exaggerator.
North Korea publishes it first "Global Happiness Index"...Guess who comes in first (not who you think) and who comes in last (who you think)? See the results here...
Here are the results of the 1st Annual "Global Happiness Index" produced by the North Korean government. Yes, it is in Korean, but tranlated Number 1 is China followed by North Korea (2), Cuba (3), Iran (4), Venezuela (5). Coming in at the end of the list is South Korea (152) and The USA (203). I guess we have some work to do...Get you some North Korea-style happiness, people! We need to catch up....(HT: Marginal Revolution)
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| Source: HERE |
North Korean "Global Happiness Index" ranks China no. 1, USA dead last
View this short video on Horizontal Drilling and the controversial technique called "Fracking". The video shows only the mechanics of how fracking works NOT the negative side effects.
I have heard alot of the controversial drilling technique called "Fracking" that takes place with a relatively new concept of Horizontal Drilling to get at either natural gas or oil. I have to admit I did not really know the physical process of how either of these techniques worked. This short video, produced by an energy company shows the actual process. They OBVIOUSLY leave out the negative externalities produced by this process (contaminated groundwater, etc). And they are numerous. The purpose for me posting this link is just so you can see how the drilling technique and fracking work in practice. You can see for yourself how this process can produce negative side effects on the environment.
I did not know about the little "explosions" that is the source of fracking. If anyone knows of a video that objectively shows the MECHANICS (not the politics) of horizontal drilling, I would appreciate the link and will post it.
CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO
Yes, I am familiar with the "documentary" Gasland...Here is the link to that site if you want another view of Fracking...
I did not know about the little "explosions" that is the source of fracking. If anyone knows of a video that objectively shows the MECHANICS (not the politics) of horizontal drilling, I would appreciate the link and will post it.
CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO
Yes, I am familiar with the "documentary" Gasland...Here is the link to that site if you want another view of Fracking...
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Tragedy of the Fishy's Part 2---Nice map showing the depletion of major North Atlantic fishing grounds...We can stop trying to Find Nemo now. He is gone...
Not exactly sure how they got the data from 1900 to make this map....but there is no question that the major fishing areas of the North Atlantic are getting fished-out. While many efforts have been tried to reign in commercial fishing, the "Tragedy of the Commons" is playing out in this situation.
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| Source: HERE HT: Paul Kedrosky |
Friday, June 3, 2011
The Tragedy of the Fishies and Bunnies...See how you can keep these critters alive!! (hint: give their hunters private property rights)...
This video uses commercial fishing as an example of the Tragedy of the Commons. When property rights are not clear, or don't exist at all, then when people compete for an economic resource they have no incentive conserve the resource, and every incentive to pillage the resource as much as possible. Property held "in common" will become subject to over-exploitation. It is a zero-sum game---if I don't get it, then you will. If acceptable ownership rights are established and enforced (the most important part) then all parties have an incentive to not pillage the resource, which ensures more will be available in the future.
This way of thinking has many applications. Can you think of a resource held in common currently that could benefit from private ownership? (HT: Division of Labour for the video)
Here is a link to an interactive game to teach the lesson of the Tragedy of the Commons. This one is called "The Tragedy of the Bunnies"...Get there quick to save the little fluffy things!!! :)
This way of thinking has many applications. Can you think of a resource held in common currently that could benefit from private ownership? (HT: Division of Labour for the video)
Here is a link to an interactive game to teach the lesson of the Tragedy of the Commons. This one is called "The Tragedy of the Bunnies"...Get there quick to save the little fluffy things!!! :)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Terrific interactive timeline of the "Arab Spring" protest movement throughout the MiddleEast from Day 1. Worth a bookmark if you ever need background information.
Perhaps THE definitive interactive on the "Arab Spring" protest movements. Click HERE to go to the site. A great timeline with links to articles on the particular event. Great for a research paper or for background on the situation in the Middle East....HT: Chris Blattman
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| Source: The Guardian |
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The best place to find a job is where there are lots of job postings per capita AND they pay above average wages...Look at these two maps then load up the moving van...
I came across these two maps at about the same time. Saw one and thought of the other. The first one shows national wage comparisons--green areas are where wages/salaries are above average and the red areas are below average. The second one shows job postings per capita. The bigger the bubble the more openings per person. If you look closely at the areas with large bubbles they are, in general, areas where lots of high tech (Washington, Oregon, San Jose CA) and high value manufacturing (i.e. pharmaceuticals) take place. Lots of white collar "clean" occupations. These are the hardest to fill positions because they require LOTS of skill and education. While not a perfect comparison, the two graphs correlate rather well between job postings and higher wages. Some geographical areas are gray areas. Austin, Tx has a large bubble but is not considered a high wage area. I think it is borderline. It is rapidly becoming a high tech hub. Maybe a little green is in its future...
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| Source: WSJ |
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| Source: HERE |
Can someone explain this to me after looking at this graphic why South Koreans consume so much of the internet traffic? No jokes, please...
How the world will use the internet in 2015
RELIABLE data about internet traffic is hard to come by. One of the better sources is Cisco's annual Visual Networking Index, which was published on June 1st. Internet traffic, the world's biggest maker of networking gear predicts, will quadruple and reach 80.5 exabytes per month (80 exabytes would fill 20 billion DVDs) by 2015. That year, for the first time, Asia will generate more traffic (24.1 exabytes per month) than North America (22.3 exabytes per month)—although Amercia still beats China (6.9 versus 5.6 exabytes per month). Yet if traffic figures are divided by population, a somewhat different (and more meaningful) picture emerges: South Korea is and will be the world's most data-hungry country in Cisco's sample. Even Canada and France (and, by 2015, Britain) will consume more gigabytes per month per person than America. As for China, it drops down the list and will be overtaken by Brazil, but remains way ahead of India.
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| Source: The Economist |
RELIABLE data about internet traffic is hard to come by. One of the better sources is Cisco's annual Visual Networking Index, which was published on June 1st. Internet traffic, the world's biggest maker of networking gear predicts, will quadruple and reach 80.5 exabytes per month (80 exabytes would fill 20 billion DVDs) by 2015. That year, for the first time, Asia will generate more traffic (24.1 exabytes per month) than North America (22.3 exabytes per month)—although Amercia still beats China (6.9 versus 5.6 exabytes per month). Yet if traffic figures are divided by population, a somewhat different (and more meaningful) picture emerges: South Korea is and will be the world's most data-hungry country in Cisco's sample. Even Canada and France (and, by 2015, Britain) will consume more gigabytes per month per person than America. As for China, it drops down the list and will be overtaken by Brazil, but remains way ahead of India.
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