Quotations from "Asia's Cauldron" - The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific by Robert D. Kaplan
" ...the South China Sea shows us a twenty-first- century world void of moral struggles .."
" ... East Asia is all about trade and business."
"There are no philosophical questions to ponder in this new and somewhat sterile landscape of the twenty-first century."
"While the United States has been distracted by land wars in the Greater Middle East, military power has been quietly shifting from Europe to Asia, < > with emphasis on naval forces."
"As a whole, Asia's per capita income rose sevenfold in less than six decades following 1950, reports Asia expert Bill Emmott .."
"Of particular note is the feverish acquisition of submarines ..."
"China has over sixty submarines .."
"India, South Korea, and Vietnam are expected to acquire six more subs apiece < > while Australia will acquire twelve new subs < > Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia will shortly acquire two more subs apiece .."
" .. Asian nations are expected to purchase as many as 111 subs by 2030 .. "
"Vietnam is in a situation similar to that of China: governed by a Communist Party that has all but given up communism, and has an implicit social contract with the population, in which the party guarantees higher or sustained income levels while the citizens agree not to protest too loudly."
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Experimental Blog # 181
Quotations or notes from "Overbooked - The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism" by Elizabeth Becker
"In 1950 < > only 25 million trips recorded by foreign tourists < > 25 million tourist trips to foreign countries in 1960; 250 million in 1970; 536 million in 1995; 922 million in 2008; 1 billion in 2012."
" .. the tourism industry contributed $7 trillion to the world economy in 2007 and was the biggest employer, with nearly 250 million associated jobs. {And those figures don't include people who vacation in their own countries.}"
"Tourism creates $3 billion in business every day." This figure seems inconsistent with the $7 trillion right above.
"In gross economic power it is in the same company as oil, energy, finance and agriculture. At least one out of every ten people around the world is employed by the industry .."
"As of 2011, China had 271 billionaires and 960,000 millionaires. < > by 2020, when China is expected to become the number-one destination, tourism will provide over 10% of China's GDP. To keep up with all those tourists, China is expected to need 5,000 additional new passenger airplanes at a cost of $600 billion."
""There is also the bigger issue of saying thank you and please. Some Chinese consider saying thank you and please as somehow degrading.""!?
"The flash points of travel and tourism are the same around the world: local communities feeling powerless in the face of their governments and big industry; < ...........>; civil societies feeling ignored when they try to protect their forests and beaches, neighborhoods and children; ..."
"In 1950 < > only 25 million trips recorded by foreign tourists < > 25 million tourist trips to foreign countries in 1960; 250 million in 1970; 536 million in 1995; 922 million in 2008; 1 billion in 2012."
" .. the tourism industry contributed $7 trillion to the world economy in 2007 and was the biggest employer, with nearly 250 million associated jobs. {And those figures don't include people who vacation in their own countries.}"
"Tourism creates $3 billion in business every day." This figure seems inconsistent with the $7 trillion right above.
"In gross economic power it is in the same company as oil, energy, finance and agriculture. At least one out of every ten people around the world is employed by the industry .."
"As of 2011, China had 271 billionaires and 960,000 millionaires. < > by 2020, when China is expected to become the number-one destination, tourism will provide over 10% of China's GDP. To keep up with all those tourists, China is expected to need 5,000 additional new passenger airplanes at a cost of $600 billion."
""There is also the bigger issue of saying thank you and please. Some Chinese consider saying thank you and please as somehow degrading.""!?
"The flash points of travel and tourism are the same around the world: local communities feeling powerless in the face of their governments and big industry; < ...........>; civil societies feeling ignored when they try to protect their forests and beaches, neighborhoods and children; ..."
Friday, May 30, 2014
Experimental Blog # 180
Quotations and comments from "Tiger Woman on Wall Street" - Winning Business Strategies from Shanghai to New York and Back by Junheng Li
"My conviction that the market is not efficient < > contradicts one of the great canons of modern finance theory: < > Inefficiency exists because accurate information takes time to travel and surface .."
" .. China is essentially caught in a prison of its own success: the staggering and unprecedented achievement of lifting 500 million people out of poverty in a bit more than 30 years."
"By shorting a stock you are effectively expressing your opinion that the business has a risk or flaw that the rest of the market doesn't yet see."
" .. there are two types of short candidates: hypes and frauds."
"In 2009 < > to stave off the impact of the global financial crisis, China pulled its stimulus trigger and released a $4 trillion package for large fiscal projects."
"The world was impressed, < > Commentators everywhere forecast the decline of America, and some even went as far as to make the case that state capitalism should be the new model for the modern era." China was relatively untouched by the 2008 financial crisis and following recession. However, Junheng Li goes into considerable detail in describing China's social problems that she believes will prevent China from taking world leadership completely away from the United States.
"Changes in a stock's market value are typically driven by expectations of a company's earnings - profits distributable to shareholders - quarter by quarter."
Towards the end of her book Junheng Li recounts the very informative history of KFC{Kentucky Fried Chicken} in China. This history includes a description of China's traditional 100-day yellow free range chickens and America's 45-day white "shoebox" chickens. Although America seems to exceed China in numerous "human rights" issues, this "chicken history" would be disquieting for more sensitive animal rights advocates.
"My conviction that the market is not efficient < > contradicts one of the great canons of modern finance theory: < > Inefficiency exists because accurate information takes time to travel and surface .."
" .. China is essentially caught in a prison of its own success: the staggering and unprecedented achievement of lifting 500 million people out of poverty in a bit more than 30 years."
"By shorting a stock you are effectively expressing your opinion that the business has a risk or flaw that the rest of the market doesn't yet see."
" .. there are two types of short candidates: hypes and frauds."
"In 2009 < > to stave off the impact of the global financial crisis, China pulled its stimulus trigger and released a $4 trillion package for large fiscal projects."
"The world was impressed, < > Commentators everywhere forecast the decline of America, and some even went as far as to make the case that state capitalism should be the new model for the modern era." China was relatively untouched by the 2008 financial crisis and following recession. However, Junheng Li goes into considerable detail in describing China's social problems that she believes will prevent China from taking world leadership completely away from the United States.
"Changes in a stock's market value are typically driven by expectations of a company's earnings - profits distributable to shareholders - quarter by quarter."
Towards the end of her book Junheng Li recounts the very informative history of KFC{Kentucky Fried Chicken} in China. This history includes a description of China's traditional 100-day yellow free range chickens and America's 45-day white "shoebox" chickens. Although America seems to exceed China in numerous "human rights" issues, this "chicken history" would be disquieting for more sensitive animal rights advocates.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Experimental Blog # 179
Quotations and comments from "You Are Here" - From the Compass to GPS, the History and Future of How We Find Ourselves by Hiawatha Bray and "Dragnet Nation" - A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance by Julia Angwin
From "You Are Here":
"As I read the street map on my smartphone, the map also read me, broadcasting my movements < > Its server computers timed my footsteps, noted my detours < > A permanent record of our movements over days, months and years, these maps can reveal the most salient details of our lives - political and religious beliefs, suspicious friendships, bad habits."
" ...every cell phone is a little homing beacon that gives the phone company a rough idea of the phone's location. < > it was the decision to build GPS into hundreds of millions of commonplace phones that transformed the technology from a costly curiosity to an everyday necessity < > anybody could own a cheap device that would tell her exactly where she was and exactly how to get where she wanted to go."
" .. GPS was born of the US military's Cold War quest to deliver devastating firepower to exactly the right spot, anywhere on earth."
"Skyhook works where GPS can't - in urban canyons or inside thick concrete walls < > Skyhook markets a hybrid service that combines GPS and Wi-Fi data, offering whichever will give the most accurate result at a given moment."
Our location by latitude, longitude, and altitude is identified by the Internet protocol{IP} addresses of our internet connected devices, sometimes "static" and other times "dynamic".
"For centuries people have been able to disappear. < > the twentieth century made it nearly impossible to live the anonymous life."
"Thanks to our mastery of location, we may never be truly invisible again."
From "Dragnet Nation":
"Dragnets that scoop up information indiscriminately about everyone in their path used to be rare: < > But technology has enabled a new era of supercharged dragnets that can gather vast amounts of personal data with little human effort."
"The rise of indiscriminate tracking is powered by the same forces that have brought us the technology we love so much - powerful computing on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones."
"The combination of massive computing power, smaller and smaller devices, and cheap storage has enabled a huge increase in indiscriminate tracking of personal data."
From "You Are Here":
"As I read the street map on my smartphone, the map also read me, broadcasting my movements < > Its server computers timed my footsteps, noted my detours < > A permanent record of our movements over days, months and years, these maps can reveal the most salient details of our lives - political and religious beliefs, suspicious friendships, bad habits."
" ...every cell phone is a little homing beacon that gives the phone company a rough idea of the phone's location. < > it was the decision to build GPS into hundreds of millions of commonplace phones that transformed the technology from a costly curiosity to an everyday necessity < > anybody could own a cheap device that would tell her exactly where she was and exactly how to get where she wanted to go."
" .. GPS was born of the US military's Cold War quest to deliver devastating firepower to exactly the right spot, anywhere on earth."
"Skyhook works where GPS can't - in urban canyons or inside thick concrete walls < > Skyhook markets a hybrid service that combines GPS and Wi-Fi data, offering whichever will give the most accurate result at a given moment."
Our location by latitude, longitude, and altitude is identified by the Internet protocol{IP} addresses of our internet connected devices, sometimes "static" and other times "dynamic".
"For centuries people have been able to disappear. < > the twentieth century made it nearly impossible to live the anonymous life."
"Thanks to our mastery of location, we may never be truly invisible again."
From "Dragnet Nation":
"Dragnets that scoop up information indiscriminately about everyone in their path used to be rare: < > But technology has enabled a new era of supercharged dragnets that can gather vast amounts of personal data with little human effort."
"The rise of indiscriminate tracking is powered by the same forces that have brought us the technology we love so much - powerful computing on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones."
"The combination of massive computing power, smaller and smaller devices, and cheap storage has enabled a huge increase in indiscriminate tracking of personal data."
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Experimental Blog # 178
Quotations and comments from "Uncharted - Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture" by Erez Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel
" ..Google has digitized more than 30 million books. That's about one in every four books ever published."
" ..nearly all irregular verbs are very frequent. Although only about 3 percent of verbs are irregular, the ten most frequent verbs are all irregular." The authors explain that very old, but common, verbs were less subject to change when a new linguistic rule was adopted for new verbs. "The use of -ed to signify the past tense emerged in Proto-Germanic, a language spoken between 500 and 250 BCE in Scandinavia."
" ..our idea was to create a shadow dataset containing a single record{n-gram} for every word and phrase that appeared in English books." Except for those "that had been written only a handful of times." These measures are to avoid copyright infringement and "hacking".
" ..what we measure with n-grams is not fame itself but a simplification, a fame facsimile."
The authors have compiled a list of people born from 1800 to 1949 that they call the 150 valedictorians; whose full names have turned up the most number of times in their data base of 500 billion words. However, it seems that the most famous, not great and certainly not most popular, are those people who are often referred to by their last names only.
The top 10, paired with their "valedictorians" are: #1- Adolf Hitler{1889- Jawaharlal Nehru}, #2- Karl Marx{1818- with self}, #3- Sigmund Freud{1856- Woodrow Wilson}, #4- Ronald Reagan{1911- with self}, #5- Joseph Stalin{1879- Albert Einstein}, #6- Vladimir Lenin{1870- Frank Norris}, #7- Dwight Eisenhower{1890- Ho Chi Minh}, #8- Charles Dickens{1812- with self}, #9- Benito Mussolini{1883- William Carlos Williams}, and #10- Richard Wagner{1813- Henry Ward Beecher}.
" ..Google has digitized more than 30 million books. That's about one in every four books ever published."
" ..nearly all irregular verbs are very frequent. Although only about 3 percent of verbs are irregular, the ten most frequent verbs are all irregular." The authors explain that very old, but common, verbs were less subject to change when a new linguistic rule was adopted for new verbs. "The use of -ed to signify the past tense emerged in Proto-Germanic, a language spoken between 500 and 250 BCE in Scandinavia."
" ..our idea was to create a shadow dataset containing a single record{n-gram} for every word and phrase that appeared in English books." Except for those "that had been written only a handful of times." These measures are to avoid copyright infringement and "hacking".
" ..what we measure with n-grams is not fame itself but a simplification, a fame facsimile."
The authors have compiled a list of people born from 1800 to 1949 that they call the 150 valedictorians; whose full names have turned up the most number of times in their data base of 500 billion words. However, it seems that the most famous, not great and certainly not most popular, are those people who are often referred to by their last names only.
The top 10, paired with their "valedictorians" are: #1- Adolf Hitler{1889- Jawaharlal Nehru}, #2- Karl Marx{1818- with self}, #3- Sigmund Freud{1856- Woodrow Wilson}, #4- Ronald Reagan{1911- with self}, #5- Joseph Stalin{1879- Albert Einstein}, #6- Vladimir Lenin{1870- Frank Norris}, #7- Dwight Eisenhower{1890- Ho Chi Minh}, #8- Charles Dickens{1812- with self}, #9- Benito Mussolini{1883- William Carlos Williams}, and #10- Richard Wagner{1813- Henry Ward Beecher}.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Experimental Blog #177
Notes and quotations from "Day of Empire - How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - And Why They Fall" by Amy Chua
" ...every single world power in history - was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant during its rise to preeminence. < > tolerance simply means letting very different kinds of people live, work, and prosper in your society - even if only for instrumental or strategic reasons."
"Because tolerance is a relative matter, even tolerated groups may be subject to harshly inequitable treatment."
"History shows that hyperpowers can survive only if they find ways to command the allegiance or at least the acquiescence of the foreign populations they dominate .."
"Achaemenid Persia was the first world-dominant power in history."
Other empires described at great length are: Imperial Rome, China's Tang Empire, the Great Mongol Empire, the Dutch Republic, China's Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire{Muslim rulers with Hindu subjects}, and the British Empire.
"Whereas Achaemenid Persia was essentially just a war machine, Rome was also an idea. Inhabitants from the farthest reaches of the empire wanted to be - and became-"Roman." Along the empires remarkable 53,000-mile net work of paved roads and bridges that linked Britons to Berbers, one could find thousands of Roman baths, amphitheaters, and temples, built to the same specifications and filled with toga-clad Roman citizens."
"The Dutch are famous for many things - but these days it's often forgotten that the Dutch once presided over the world's preeminent maritime trading empire .."
"Nevertheless, the contributions of the Jews, Huguenots, and Scots - which would not have been possible without Britain's turn to tolerance - were not only disproportionate but pivotal."
Amy Chua's descriptions of Britain's relations and treatment of Ireland and India are quite stark and grim; as are many other details in this remarkable book.
" ...every single world power in history - was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant during its rise to preeminence. < > tolerance simply means letting very different kinds of people live, work, and prosper in your society - even if only for instrumental or strategic reasons."
"Because tolerance is a relative matter, even tolerated groups may be subject to harshly inequitable treatment."
"History shows that hyperpowers can survive only if they find ways to command the allegiance or at least the acquiescence of the foreign populations they dominate .."
"Achaemenid Persia was the first world-dominant power in history."
Other empires described at great length are: Imperial Rome, China's Tang Empire, the Great Mongol Empire, the Dutch Republic, China's Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire{Muslim rulers with Hindu subjects}, and the British Empire.
"Whereas Achaemenid Persia was essentially just a war machine, Rome was also an idea. Inhabitants from the farthest reaches of the empire wanted to be - and became-"Roman." Along the empires remarkable 53,000-mile net work of paved roads and bridges that linked Britons to Berbers, one could find thousands of Roman baths, amphitheaters, and temples, built to the same specifications and filled with toga-clad Roman citizens."
"The Dutch are famous for many things - but these days it's often forgotten that the Dutch once presided over the world's preeminent maritime trading empire .."
"Nevertheless, the contributions of the Jews, Huguenots, and Scots - which would not have been possible without Britain's turn to tolerance - were not only disproportionate but pivotal."
Amy Chua's descriptions of Britain's relations and treatment of Ireland and India are quite stark and grim; as are many other details in this remarkable book.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Experimental Blog # 176
Quotations and comments from "The Triple Package - How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld
"Indian Americans have the highest income of any Census-tracked ethnic group, almost twice the national average. Chinese, Iranian, and Lebanese Americans are not far behind."
"America's 5 to 6 million Mormons represent just 1.7 percent.{of the U.S. population} Yet a stunning number have risen to the top of America's corporate and political spheres."
"The U.S. Census Bureau used to compile data on religion, but this was largely discontinued after World War II, and today the Census is barred by law from asking mandatory questions about individuals' faith. < > But the fact is that Jews{who are apparently not Census-tracked} are the quintessential successful minority."
"Because the Census does not track religion, there's no authoritative measure of overall Jewish income."
"A few groups in America are not upwardly mobile because they don't want to be. The roughly two hundred thousand Amish living mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana are prime examples."
The "three unlikely traits" that the authors call "The Triple Package" are: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. The authors also write about the superior economic group performances of the Cuban Americans of Miami and the more recent immigrants from the West Indies and Africa.
"Indian Americans have the highest income of any Census-tracked ethnic group, almost twice the national average. Chinese, Iranian, and Lebanese Americans are not far behind."
"America's 5 to 6 million Mormons represent just 1.7 percent.{of the U.S. population} Yet a stunning number have risen to the top of America's corporate and political spheres."
"The U.S. Census Bureau used to compile data on religion, but this was largely discontinued after World War II, and today the Census is barred by law from asking mandatory questions about individuals' faith. < > But the fact is that Jews{who are apparently not Census-tracked} are the quintessential successful minority."
"Because the Census does not track religion, there's no authoritative measure of overall Jewish income."
"A few groups in America are not upwardly mobile because they don't want to be. The roughly two hundred thousand Amish living mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana are prime examples."
The "three unlikely traits" that the authors call "The Triple Package" are: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. The authors also write about the superior economic group performances of the Cuban Americans of Miami and the more recent immigrants from the West Indies and Africa.
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