TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW: The Connected Vehicle. “The automotive and transportation industries are entering a phase of the most significant innovation since the popularization of personal automobiles a hundred years ago. Similar to the way telephones have evolved into smart phones, over the next 10 years automobiles will rapidly become ‘connected vehicles’ that access, consume, and create information and share it with drivers, passengers, public infrastructure, and machines including other cars. We can already predict benefits such as reduced accident rates, improved productivity, lowered emissions, and on-demand entertainment for passengers. The rise of connected cars will lead to widespread changes affecting many kinds of businesses, not to mention governments and communities.”
Archive for 2012
January 4, 2012
SELENIUM AND NICKEL GOOD, ARSENIC BAD: Trace Elements And Pancreatic Cancer Risk. Cadmium and lead not so good, either.
PAY FOR PERFORMANCE: “Singapore will cut salaries for its prime minister and top office holders after voter unhappiness over a widening income gap weakened support for the ruling party in last year’s elections.”
I actually like Singapore’s high salaries, and wish we had something similar here — along with very strict rules on investment, and post-government employment.
BOOKING A FLIGHT TO SPACE, with travel insurance. “The first flights of the new airlines that will take tourists past the threshold of space are poised to take off in 2012, and getting a seat on one is not all that different from booking a trip someplace on Earth. You can sign up on the Web site of, say, Virgin Galactic, the most prominent of the new space tourism companies, or go to a travel agent and put down a hefty deposit. Soon you will be able to buy travel insurance, just as you can for any other vacation.”
You know, back in the ’90s I worked on two things that had a high “giggle factor” then — Second Amendment rights and space commercialization/tourism. Both have now reached the point where the giggle factor is nearly forgotten.
GOVERNMENT: The Role of the Prison Guards Union in California’s Troubled Prison System. “California spends approximately $9 billion a year on its correctional system, and hosts one in seven of the nation’s prisoners. It has the largest prison population of any state. The number of correctional facilities, the amount of compensation for their unionized staffs, and the total cost of incarcerating a prisoner in the state—$44,563 a year—have exploded over the past 30 years. Over that same period, the quality of the state’s prison system declined precipitously. . . . The growth of California’s incarceration system, and the decline of its quality, tracks the accession to power of the state’s prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.”
NEWS: Breaking: Three GOP Candidates File Motion to Join Perry’s fight for Ballot Access in Virginia. “Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum joined forces today and filed a joint motion with a district court in Virginia, joining Rick Perry’s effort to force the Virginia Board of Elections to put them on the ballot for the state’s March 6 presidential primary.”
RARE COLOR PHOTOS from the early 20th Century.
BOSTON’S BRAIN DRAIN: The Cost Of Being America’s Drunkest City. From the comments: “Boston doesn’t have a drinking problem; they have an a-hole problem.” Plus this: “I’d say Washington D.C. is the ‘drunkest’ city in America—on its power.” At least the boozehounds sober up sometimes.
BRYAN PRESTON: Five Things We Learned From Iowa.
DARON ACEMOGLU: Why do nations fail?
IN THE MAIL: Captain Flandry (The Technic Civilization Saga). As I recall, Flandry thought that the best place to live was in a society that was experiencing the early stages of decadence.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: India Is Afraid, Very Afraid.
CALIFORNIA STREAMING . . . FOR THE EXITS: The Great California Business Exodus. “California’s in trouble. Businesses are leaving along with intellectual and investment capital and skilled workers. But rather than face up to serious problems, legislators pass silly laws.”
CLIVE CROOK: A Crisis of Leadership, Not of Capitalism.
The rightward shift of electorates since 2008 rather casts doubt on the idea that capitalism is suffering a crisis of confidence. Where is the demand for a bigger state, for industries to be taken into public ownership, for domestic producers to be sheltered and imports blocked? Surging support for protectionist trade policies was widely predicted as the slump began. It hasn’t materialized.
This could change. The crisis, as I say, isn’t over. But what is already the worst recession in seven decades hasn’t destroyed or even much disturbed popular support for actually existing capitalism — by which I mean mixed-economy capitalism, based on markets, profit-seeking and competition plus a good strong dose of state intervention. Many countries have seen a collapse of confidence in their political leaders, but not in the prevailing economic order.
In this respect, by the way, popular opinion is exactly right. It’s frivolous to argue that actually existing capitalism is fundamentally flawed unless you compare it to relevant alternatives. There are no relevant alternatives.
Notwithstanding that certain New York Times columnists with amazingly large houses display an irrational admiration for China.
HOUSING BUBBLE UPDATE: Real distressed properties of Corona del Mar – Most expensive zip code in Orange County lists 2 foreclosures on MLS but has 28 properties in the shadow inventory. “According to LPS Applied Analytics nearly 40% of homeowners in default have not made a payment in at least two years. The typical foreclosure now takes 674 days. It is one thing to talk about some middle class family in a $150,000 home struggling to get by because of a job loss or illness. But what about squatters sitting in million dollar homes in prime locations?”
BEWARE THE frappucinos of hate.
DAVID HARSANYI: Rick Santorum: Conservative Technocrat.
MEGAN MCARDLE: What Do We Really Know About Losing Weight?
I think Gary Taubes is a good place to start.
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Science Fiction & Fantasy.
Also, today only, a sale on the Milwaukee M-Spector Camera & Compact Driver Combo Kit. A cordless drill and a fiber-optic inspection camera for $143.99.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Univision Wages Political War On Latino Conservatives. It’s like they’re just a bunch of political tools or something.
TRANSPARENCY: D.C. Council TV feed cut as Kwame Brown questioned on ethics. “The live television coverage of a D.C. Council news conference was cut on Tuesday as Council Chairman Kwame Brown was being asked a question about the council’s ethical lapses and poor approval ratings last year.”
A RECESS APPOINTMENT FOR THE CONTROVERSIAL RICHARD CORDRAY? “The Obama administration’s lawyers have concluded that President Obama has the legal authority to name Richard Cordray head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) through a recess appointment. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Democrats and Obama administration lawyers said the president has that right. The newspaper also reported that the appointment could happen as early as Wednesday, while Obama is in Ohio to give a speech on the economy.”
GLIMMERS OF SANITY IN NEW YORK: Our Misfiring Gun Laws: Ending Nightmares For Travelers. It’s the combination of bad publicity in cases like Meredith Graves’ — and, more importantly, the threat of a national carry law that would override New York’s draconian and barbaric regulations — that has induced it, but let’s be grateful for small changes.
My thoughts on reform are here.