Ongoing news stories

[tw]

So what are the smaller news stories?

Countries in Africa have demanded that big drug companies slash prices on Aids drugs since millions of their people are dying from Aids. 1st World Nations refused to force drastic price cuts. But now we have Anthrax. What happens? Bayer is forced by the US goverment to slash prices of Cipro by almost 1/2. Canada actually suspends the patent so that others can also manufacture the drug. Double standard?

Bethlehem Steel is bankrupt. They and US Steel (now USX) refused to innovate since the 1960s. Back then big steel was so rich that they could build whole integrated steel mills (the most expensive facilities) without any outside financing. Pres Kennedy eventually stepped in to stop steel price increases by all steel companies when they were making obscene profits. What happened? The only US steel company that makes a profit is the only US steel company to innovate. It did not exist in the 1960s. Nucor is the only major US steel company that was willing to innovate. Nucor pioneered electric arc technology whereas MBA dominated steel companies made new blast furnaces bigger - the mythical and MBA taught 'economies of scale'.

Before Sept 11, George Jr was going to bail out the steel companies withstiff tarriffs that would raise all American steel prices to the consumers. A major trade war was suppose to start. But why? We need to bankrupt these anti-American companies to eliminate their MBA management - to save the companies. Of course the promised trade war over steel never happened. 11 Sept got in the way.

Bethlehem Steel's only electric arc furnace - purchased from Lukins steel, just last year, in Coatsville PA. IOW someone in Bethlehem Steel management comes from where the work gets done. Only when the ship is sinking fast do the MBAs listen to him?

It is not just terrorists that are driven by emotion. Their financial backers have the same shortage of logical thought. The IRA is financed mostly in America. Terrorism suddenly 'feels' real in America. IRA financial supporters suddenly 'feel' that terrorism can acutally hurt people. Therefore the IRA decided to agree to disarment. Why? A sudden and severe shortage of Americans who finance IRA terrorism. The IRA needs to be sincere about negotiating. Emotional Amerians have suddenly learned the logic of supporting terrorism - and stopped sending cash.

Both the head of NASA and of NASA's manned space programs have resigned. And so The Economist repeats their statements:

...sending people into space is pointless. It is dangerous, costly and scientifically useless. Yet this is a lesson that NASA ... has never managed to learn. ... At the moment, [the manned space program] is kept alive by three things. The first is showmanship. ... Second, the space station helps diplomatic relations with Russia ... and also keeps lots of Russians rocket scientists out of pay of countries such as Iraq and North Korea. Third, and most disgracefully, it puts billions of dollars into the pockets of aerospace companies such as Boeing.

Then there was my previous posts. We had a choice between space stations and the supercollider - that had scientific purpose. The supercollider may have been learning sub-atomic secrets that make Quantum computers possible, explain so many chemical structures, optical computers and communication, and solve the mystery of superconductivity. Instead our Congress went for the glory and hype of space rather than research necessary to maintain Moore's Law. The Economist was also quite blunt:

In any case, most researchers regard the science done on [the space station] as pointless. .... it might be time to close the whole thing down.

Assume for the moment that some estimates are correct - that NASA is overbudget by $5billion. Does that change your thinking? A space station that was suppose to house seven astronauts doing research is now only housing three who only do maintenance.


In 1998, demand for MBA school dropped. They're back. In 2001, the number of GMAT tests for business school application rose back up to about 225,000 per year. BTW, the number of engineering degrees since 1990 - dropped 15%. "I don't need no friggin engineering degree. I'm already a computer expert." That is the thinking more often in the computer industry. So where is the next wave of innovative products?

So how many computer experts really have the necessary background? How many are so technically ignorant as to recommend plug-in surge protectors. The science is quite clear. Plug-in surge protectors provide ineffective surge protection AND can complete a circuit that damages an adjacent computer. Too much MBA mentality. It is called a surge protector; therefore it must protect from surges. Scientific American discusses such 'experts' in Baloney Detection .

Japan has launched the world's first Generation 3 cell phones. DoCoMo is the world leader in cell phone utilitization. Their demonstration room is said to be the Mecca of mobile communication and computing. In simple terms, their phones operate on 56K data speeds where as current US cell phones are stuck at somewhere around 9K. DoCoMo's system was suppose to be introduced last spring, but technical problems were encountered. European third generation phones are expected soon. BTW, profits from phones are mostly from downloading content. For example, a new ringer sound (Bach's Concerto, for example) would cost about 2 cents.

Israeli tanks invaded Palestinian cities as demonstrated by a picture in "Image of the Day". In fact tanks fired much more randomly in Ramallah while the press and even ambulance drivers were kept out of the town and as victims bled to death on the streets. Now for the story beyond that 'Image of the Day' wall.

On October 22, the US State Dept ordered the Israelis to end their incursions "immediately". So Ariel Sharon sends his foreign minister out to throw the bird at George Jr. "Immediately, in English, doesn't mean at once. It means as soon as possible". He continued that immediately was "not in the chronological sense but rather in the intentional sense." Mr Peres was "immediately" called to an unscheduled meeting with George Jr. "who told him in semantically unequivocal terms that the seizure of these cities was exactly what America does not need at this stage in the Afghan war." (according to The Economist). Then he was told that Israel could delay their withdrawl long enough to save face. What a wimp! Immediately truly does not mean 'right now' to George Jr - just as Sharon and friends claimed.

From the Wall Street Journal of 2 Nov:

Under his 99 year lease, Mr Silverstein and his partners can take the insurance proceeds and rebuild exactly what was there. But experts agree that the 110 story Twin Towers should never be rebuilt, given the slim chance that anybody would want to lease space on the top floors. ... Some believe that his unwillingness to replace what was there would give the Port Authority the legal right to nullify Mr Sivlerstein's lease, pay off his creditors and keep the rest of the insurance money for itself. ... One of his 22 insurance carriers, Swiss Reinsurance Co, has filed a lawsuit challenging his argument that the separate plane crashes amounted to two occurances. Swiss Re, which has the largest single share of the risk, is contending the Mr Silverstein's "audacious theory" stems from his realization that $3.5billion is far too little to rebuild the Trade Center. .... [They] projected he would need more than $5billion to replace the complex and cover its rental income losses during the rebuilding.

Estimates to rebuild anything are around $7billion. Silverstein lost 11 million square feet of high rise building. Based upon previous posts, one should realize that if he instead builds those four low rise buildings, he will still have 11 million square feet of downtown office space. Those tall structures were that inefficient.

If Silverstein's deals are successful (also requires approval of Governors in NY & NJ), the first new steel will probably start rising in Nov 2002.

The same WSJ issue of 2 Nov is full of 11 Sept arguments. Another is the chronological history of government response starting 15 Oct to Anthrax. For some strange reason, the CDC kept insisting that envelopes are sealed airtight. Put some talcum powder and a letter in one. Press and release it as if compressed and removed from sorting bins and machines. CDC kept insisting all was safe when even some post office management and the NJ Dept of Enviromental Protection both remained suspicious? NJ EPA recommended postal employees take Cipro against the advise of the CDC. The CDC was reported 'shocked' that any postal employees could be sick because envelopes are 'airtight'? Someone had to die, Mr Richmond, before anyone at CDC realized that envelopes are not airtight? Events on Saturday, 20 Oct according to the WSJ:

At the CDC's Altanta Headquarters, people were stunned by the Richmond case. "It didn't make any sense," says Dr Fleming. "Somthing different happened at Brentwood. Something there allowed this material to become aerosolized."

No shit. Its called shorting envelopes which breeth when they are sorted.

Three decades ago, Sheridon of Xerox PARC tried to create electronic paper called Gyricon (Greek for rotating image). Xerox wasn't interested. Today, Sheridon's creation is found in Macy's in the Bridgewater Mall. Sheridon's concept uses rotating balls that rotate up either black or white. An MIT idea, called E-Ink does the same thing by driving colored ink to the top or bottom of a microcapsule. E-Ink also has the advantage of Lucent's plastic transistors - another recent achievement. But electronic paper even has a better advantage over LCDs - less power by a factor of ten. Electronic paper products should appear about 2005. However they may not first be flexible paper sheets since even stiff PDAs may replace LCD displays with the electronic paper technology.

1970 Xerox PARC was an amazing place. How many other ideas developed there are awaiting rescue. Xerox, however, still dominated by MBA management in Stamford CT, is currently on the verge of bankruptcy.