Turbines at Windeby
Rather than “Can we get away from Nuclear Power?” The real questions we need to ask ourselves are:
Did the Japanese (and the rest of the world) NEED Fukushima?
Happy Earth Day. Think for the Future.
Ford Fusion, available as a hybrid
Back in October, 2007, I wrote about the Toyota Prius and the GM Hummer in Prius v Hummer, the Battle for the Streets and the Prius v Hummer, the Battle for the Brains. (Spoiler alert – the Prius won). Now I’m thinking about Ford Motor Company. A few years back their tag line was “Ford Has A Better Idea.” That may not be the current tag line, but I think it is the case. I will go further and say that Ford is on the road to being Sustainable car company, and is a Value Investment.
While Toyota deserves credit for developing the hybrid- the Prius was introduced in 2000 – Ford has an extensive lineup of hybrids and is putting the EcoDrive – which boosts mileage by 20% – on vehicles, from small cars to the F150 truck. And 40% of the F150′s sold today are sold with the EcoDrive engine. Continue reading
Al Gore
The decision in Bush v Gore is widely regarded as a landmark mistake, both because the Supreme Court acted politically and because of President Bush’s accomplishments and legacy.
While it is too recent for a historical consensus, and too political to be without controversy, virtually all liberals and progressives view the results of Bush v Gore, 2000, (Cornell Law School / Wikipedia) as disastrous based on the Bush Administration’s environmental, economic, and foreign policies, i.e., the Bush tax cuts, ignoring intelligence regarding Osama bin Laden on 6, August, 2011 (here), not killing bin Laden when we allegedly had him cornered in Tora Bora in 2001 (here), the War in Iraq, appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, etc.
If Dred Scott, Citizen’s United, and Florence v Burlington are the three worst decisions by the United States Supreme Court, (post here) then Korematsu v United States, Dec. 18, 1944, Plessy v Ferguson, May 18, 1896 are next in line.
In Korematsu v United States, decided Dec. 18, 1944, the Supreme Court upheld Executive Order 9066, authorizing the internment of all Americans of Japanese ancestry. Mr. Korematsu is biographed here.
Plessy v Ferguson, decided on May 18, 1896, enabled segregation. This was overruled by Brown v Bd. of Education, May 17, 1954, with the now famous observation that “separate but equal is inherently unequal.”
Dred Scott
Worst Three Decisions by the US Supreme Court: Dred Scott, Citizen’s United, and Florence v Burlington. Dred Scott reinforced slavery – and led to the Civil War. Citizen’s United puts really, really big money in politics – think Mr. Gingrich’s sugar daddy with his $10 million in PAC-Gingrich, and leads to what we have today. Florence allows the police to strip search anyone they arrest.
The good news and is that these decisions force us to recognize that the Justices of the Supreme Court are fallible men and women who sometimes make decisions emotionally and or based on their perceived financial interest, as the five members of the Taney court whos families owned slaves and who voted for slavery. This is also the bad news. The really bad news is that two out of three of these landmark mistakes occurred since January, 2010.
Looking with a long term perspective, the Dred Scott decision was overturned by the 14th Amendment. Roger B. Taney and the other six justices who voted for slavery and against freedom are history. Their names are generally not remembered. Similarly, Citizen’s United and Florence can, should, and someday will be overturned. Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas will someday join Roger B. Taney in the history books.
I am not a lawyer. But the Constitution is written for the citizens, not the citizens who are also lawyers.
Newt Gingrich says, “I have a plan to set gasoline prices at $2.50 per gallon. We have 1.4 trillion barrels of potentially recoverable oil in the United States. Join us to make it happen.” on YouTube, here.
At a rally in Dalton, Georgia, reported here on CNN, he said, “Just tell all your friends we’re setting it up so you can go online at newt.org and you can give one Newt-gallon which is $2.50, or you can give 10 Newt gallons which is $25, or 100 Newt gallons which is $250 or a thousand Newt gallons which is $2500.”
I wonder who’s picture he wants on those “Newt Dollars.”
The Jane Dough blog describes “Today in Improbable Campaign Promises: Gingrich Bus Advertises $2.50/Gallon Gas,” here.
Talking Points Memo, here, says “Newt Gingrich Running On Bitterness and $2.50 Gas.”
Newt doesn’t offer the details, which brings to mind the so-called “investment strategies” of Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford, recently convicted of the largest Ponzi schemes in history. Both consistently refused to explain how they made money; 
“It’s complicated,” they said, “You wouldn’t understand. But I guarantee that I will make you money. And look at these pictures of me with important people”
In “How to Smell A Rat,” Ken Fisher, of Ken Fisher Investments, with co-author Lara Hoffmans, says, “If a so-called ‘Investment Strategy’ is ‘too complicated to explain’ it’s probably a scam.”
The Chairman of the Communist Party in China can set the value of the currency and price of any commodities in China – because China has a command economy not free markets. The President of the United States, who’s authority, responsibilities, and limits are described in the Constitution, has a lot of power. As Commander In Chief, the President can wage war. But the President can not set the price of commodities traded on free markets.
I don’t believe that Mr. Gingrich has a realistic plan to set the price of gas to $2.50 per gallon. However, I can think of several ways to appear to cut the price of gasoline from $3.73 to $2.50 per gallon:
The first two are smoke and mirrors. The third requires massive amounts of clean water and would create massive amounts of toxic by-products. The fourth would work in time of war or disaster. All require what might be termed “Big Government.” All would pour tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to mile winters such as the winter of 2012, climate change, storms like Hurricanes Katrina and Irene, and acidification of the oceans.
There’s one other thing we could try:
Develop fuels derived from sustainably grown plants to legitimately cut demand on fossil fuels.
While this would require “Big Government” to fund research this seems to me to make sense. It is also the mid-term to long term plan of Continental / United, Virgin, Alaska Air, Horizon Air, other carriers, and Boeing (click here for Gizmag or here for Bio-JetFuel Blog). Solazyme (SZYM) and General Electric (GE) are working on the technology. The US Navy is also working with Solazyme for fuels derived from algae (Business Wire). However, based on Mr. Gingrich’s statement that “We have 1.4 trillion barrels of potentially recoverable oil in the United States,” I suspect that he is playing fast and loose with facts and ginning up support for “Drill, Baby, Drill.”
Gingrich, Romney, Santorum & Paul: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, here,
“Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and businesses services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining.”
If nonfarm payroll rises by 227,000 (an annual rate of 2.7 million) why is the unemployment rate unchanged? Again, according to the BLS,
“Both the labor force and employment rose in February. The civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.9 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.6 percent, edged up over the month. (See table A-1.)”
The reasons are simple:
These are summarized here, on Think Progress.org. We also lost 14,000 construction jobs last month because the Republicans refuse to rebuild the infrastructure of America.
What happens next? Again, according to ThinkProgress, here,
Mitt Romney,as president, would fire even more government workers. “We just have too many” public sector employees, Romney said, “and they’re paid too much.” Rick Santorum’s plan to cut $5 trillion in federal spending would undoubtedly lead to significantly higher government job losses.
Gingrich shut down the government once before. Altho he does want to build a lunar colony. Ron Paul wants to abolish every agency that exists, and basically return to the days immediately following the American Revolution, when the USA was 13 confederated states – before the Constitution was ratified. (Today I guess it would be 50 – or maybe 47, plus Alaska and Texas (but not including Hawaii). Governors Christie of NJ, Daniels of Indiana, Perry of Texas, and Walker of Wisconsin are reading from the same playbook as Romney and Paul.
ThinkProgress concludes:
It’s clear that even as the economic recovery continues, it will fall short of its full potential so long as governments continue to shed thousands of jobs. President Obama has proposed to address this problem by creating public sector jobs to repair our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. The Republican presidential candidates have proposed to address this problem by exacerbating it.
It is as if, now that the “Cold War” is over, the Republican Party is waging war against the United States of America.
Plume from the meltdowns at Fukushima. Image courtesy Reuters.
Mycle Schneider, describing the Worldwatch Report he wrote on nuclear power last year (Press Release / Report) said:
“The industry was arguably on life support before Fukushima. When the history of this industry is written, Fukushima is likely to introduce its final chapter.”
Amory Lovins, of the Rocky Mountain Institute, in the foreword to the report, wrote,
“An accident can swiftly transform a mult-billion dollar generating asset into a larger cleanup liability. The Fukushima accident has just vaporized the balance sheet of the world’s #4 power company, TEPCO. A 2007 earthquake had cost the company perhaps $20 billion; this one could cost $100-plus billion. TEPCO is now broke and is becoming, in whaterver form, a ward of the state. And with such an unforgiving technology, accidents anywhere are accidents everywhere.”
Schneider’s report looks at the big picture. It is not directly focused on the impact that Fukushima has had, is having and will continue to have on the people of Japan.
As I wrote (here),
I spoke with people from Fukushima Prefecture at the “No More Fukushimas” event in Lincroft, NJ, on March 5, 2011, and expect to be at the event in Zuccotti Park at 9:00 AM on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Because radioactive particles are not easily identified – you need a Geiger Counter – the people I spoke with and many in Japan are worried that the vegetables they eat come from the Fukushima area. Even if the vegetables are labled from prefectures in the north, south and west, they are worried that the vegetables are actually from Fukushima but packaged in northern, southern or western prefectures. They have lost confidence in their government. (My question, as an American, is “How different is our government from the Japanese government, when it comes to managing the safety of nuclear power plants?”)
The Japanese also acknowledge that it could have been worse, much worse. In the days after the Earthquake / Tsunami / Triple Meltdown the winds blew from west to east – and blew much of the air borne radioactive particles into the skies above the Pacific, toward Hawaii, the United States, Canada, Chile. Japan was saved from what could have been a worse fate. The good news, I suppose, is that some of those particles will fall into the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and trigger mutations which will sooner or later develop into metabolic pathways by which bacteria, algae, or plankton will be able to eat the currently non-biodegradable plastics.
While some will say: there were meltdowns in Three out of the Six power plants at Fukushima Dai’ichi, and those melt-downs were caused by the failure of the cooling system, all we need to do is engineer better cooling systems. However, they are missing the point. We can build pretty good ones, but we can’t build a perfect nuclear power plant.
And building them well means they are very expensive. As David Lochbaum, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told me last year,
“The NRC permits ALL nuclear plants to emit tritium. It is simply too expensive to capture ALL the tritium.”
Here’s the paradox: My light bulbs, computers, television and other appliances can’t distinguish between electricity from a coal plant, a nuclear plant, a wind turbine, or a solar module. In a competitive environment the owners of nuclear power plants need to manage costs. In a non-competitive environment, such as Iran, China, North Korea, or the Soviet Union, they don’t worry about costs, but they also don’t worry about what others (dissidents) say. So while we can build them safer, and we can maintain them at a higher level of safety, we don’t because it’s too expensive. People in command economies, who don’t concern themselves with money, don’t build them safely because they don’t worry about safety.
Senator John Kerry
I met Senator John Kerry at the Harvey Nash Inc. Leadership Breakfast at the Plaza Hotel in NYC on Friday, March 2, 2012. He spoke unequivocally about infrastructure, energy, mass transit, and foreign policy, saying,
We need to invest in our infrastructure. The people who talk the loudest about ‘American Exceptionalism’ are destroying America.
Sending our children to college is competitiveness, not elistism.
“The American Infrastructure Financing Authority,” Kerry said, “would generate revenue by loaning money to people to build infrastructure. It has bi-partisan support. It should be a slam-dunk. But we can’t get it passed because of Republicans intransigence. The American people have to force the Republicans to compromise and force the Democrats to stand tall.
In the ’70’s we were #1 in college graduates; now we’re 16 th. We were #1 of the G 20, now we’re 5th.
The Acela can go 150 mph – and it does for about 18 miles between New York City and Washington, DC. It can’t go 150 mph over the Chesapeake Bay bridge because in doing so it may wind up in the Chesapeake. It can’t go 150 mph in the Baltimore tunnel because the vibrations may damage the tunnel.
The Acela
Editor’s note: The Acela runs it’s top rated speed for 16 miles on a 220 mile trip – about 7.3%. The trip on regular Amtrak is 4 hours. The trip on Acela is 3 1/2 hours. That’s about 62.9 mph.If the tracks would allow the train to make the run at it’s design speed of 15o miles per hour the trip would take an hour and a half, not 3 1/2 hours. Average 125 mph, it would take about an hour and 45 minutes.
A few years ago we were first in manufacturing solar energy. Now China has taken over that industry.
China spends 9% of GDP on infrastructure. Germany spends 5%. We spend less than 2%.
We are using the infrastructure that our parents and grandparents built. And it’s crumbling!
Wall of the bridge leading to the Holland Tunnel
In order to compete we must rebuild our infrastructure – and send our children to school. (And sending your children to school is not elitist.)
Kerry spoke like a Keynesian:
Saving GM and Chrysler saved about 1 million jobs. Had they been allowed to fail Ford and all the suppliers, and all the clothing stores, food stores, delis, diners, restaurants – all would have failed. Saving the American auto industry saved the midwest from a Depression. That’s not socialism; that’s what government is for. And Ford, GM, and Chrysler are profitable!
Editor’s note: Ford did not take TARP money. GM, Ford and Chrysler are building cars people want to buy, and people are buying them. The following chart shows market capitalization, stock price, earnings per share, price earnings ratio and net profit margin for GM and Ford. Chrysler is not included because it is privately held.
| Company | Valuation | Stock Price | EPS | P/E Ratio | Net Profit |
| (Billions) | (3/2/12) | Margin | |||
| Ford | $48.4 | $12.72 | $5.01 | 2.54 | 14.84 |
| General Motors | $41.4 | $26.45 | $4.58 | 5.77 | 4.06 |
According to San Francisco Chronicle / Bloomberg, here,
U.S. auto sales accelerated to the fastest pace in four years … a 15.1 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, exceeding the 14.2 million pace that was the average of 17 analysts’ estimates… the best since February 2008 when U.S. sales ran at a 15.5 million rate,
GM deliveries rose 1.1 percent to 209,306 cars and light trucks, beating analysts’ estimates for a 4.8 percent decrease. Chrysler sales increased 40 percent to 133,521 and Ford Motor Co.’s climbed 14 percent to 178,644. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. deliveries each gained 12 percent, while Nissan Motor Co. sales rose 16 percent.
Yet Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul persist in the lunacy that bailing out GM and Chrysler was a mistake. If they don’t want to govern, why do they want to be President?
Kerry also said:
Successful businesses today have a lot of cash. But the executives are reluctant to invest because the economic climate is too uncertain. That’s why government must step in.
This statement could have been made in 1932 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt or John Maynard Keynes.
Kerry criticized Santorum. “Saying my grandfather was a coal miner, so I could go to college, go to grad school, get an MBA and a JD, then get elected to the Senate, then make millions lobbying, and tell you not to send your kids to college…” If that’s not elitism and demagoguery I don’t know what that is.
The current political climate in Washington is terrible, that’s why Olympia Snowe is leaving the Senate. The Republicans are intransigent, they refuse to compromise; they are focused on destroying Obama’s Presidency – and will sacrifice America to do it. When G W Bush was President it took 30 days to get a judge approved. Today it takes 100 days, maybe 200 days. There were two (2) filibusters in the 19th Century, and another two (2) in the 20th before WW II. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of civil rights legislation, a few more in the 60’s. Today there are 100 filibusters per session.
And “do the math, folks, we can’t balance the budget on the backs of our poor and our seniors. We must raise revenues. The Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest 1% and 2% must end.”
Kerry spoke about money in politics, and the disaster that was the Citizens United decision.
He also noted that Congress has an approval rating of 8%. I know why. Or at least, why I have disgust and contempt for most of the members of the House and Senate. The Republicans won’t compromise; they are beholden to “King” Grover, aka Norquist the Zeroth, and Democrats are too willing to compromise.
However, he ended on a positive note. He is confident that President Obama will be reelected, and is also confident that America’s best days are yet to come. All we have to is take the money out of politics, force the Congress to change, reelect the good incumbents and throw the bums out.
40 KW PV Solar Array on SI Ferry Terminal
While Chinese subsidies of their solar energy industry have decimated the manufacturing base of the American solar industry, solar energy continues to expand across the country.
What if we stimulated the solar industry with a public works program?
What if we decided to deploy a 40 kilowatt photovoltaic solar array on each of the approximately 90,000 public schools in the country?
The best kept secret in NYC may be found on the Staten Island Ferry, or more precisely, on the south roof of the Whitehall Street terminal. It’s a 40 kilowatt photovoltaic solar array.
Taxpayers pay the electric bills of the ferry terminal, which today are much lower because of the energy the system produces. Taxpayers also pay the electric bills of public schools, courts and other municipal, state and federal office buildings – and the externalized costs of pollution and “health effects” related to mining coal and uranium, drilling oil or frakking gas.
I met Senator John Kerry at the Harvey Nash Inc. Leadership Breakfast at the Plaza Hotel in NYC on Friday, March 2, 2012. At the conclusion I asked him to consider a 40 kw photovoltaic solar energy system on each of the approximately 90,000 public schools in the US.
At $5.00 per watt, which is less than the cost of new nuclear and much less than coal with carbon sequestration, these 90,000 systems would cost $18 billion. They would produce electricity without burning fuel, creating wastes, or creating targets for terrorists, and would pay for themselves in eight to 15 years, depending on the market price of electricity. They would also produce energy for 25 to 40 years – paying for themselves several times over.
This kind of a public works project would create jobs. Even if we didn’t mandate that these used products made in American factories, which I think we should, installation and maintenance would have to be local.
It would also lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.
And each solar energy powered building could be designed to generate electricity during the day during an emergency which shuts down the grid, further enhancing our emergency response capability.
Senator Kerry responded that this would be a perfect project for the Infrastructure Bank that he wants to create. However, the political climate is such that it can’t get done.
Fukushima reactors, after tsunami
On March 11, 2011, the Fukushima nuclear disaster shocked the world. Sadly, the thinkers in the anti-nuclear world were not complete surprised. We were startled, but we know that disasters, while unpredictable, are inevitable. Disasters are built into the nuclear power system. The best engineers are fallible. (Anyone who drives a car or uses a personal computer knows this.) We can engineer nuclear reactors to be “reasonably” safe – but that costs a lot of money. That’s why ALL nuclear reactors leak “acceptable” levels of tritium – it is too expensive to capture all the tritium.
We also know
In command economies, such as existed in the Soviet Union, or exists in Iran and North Korea, it is illegal – and dangerous – to question the government. In market economies, such as exist in the United States, Europe, and Japan, there are strong incentives to cut corners.
But back to Fukushima – following the disaster, nearly all of Japan’s 54 Nuclear Plants have been shut down due to pressure by the Japanese people.
The disaster deposited radioactive fallout on a semicircular area of Japan with a radius of 50 miles. It caused the permanent displacement of 160,000 people. An unknown amount of radioactive materials have been flushed into the Pacific Ocean. TEPCO, the owners of the reactors, have a $100 Billion liability (that will probably be absorbed by Japanese citizens over the next 20 or 50 years).
So after Fukushima, the question that we ought to be asking is not: “Can solar, wind, geothermal, marine current and other sustainable technologies meet our energy needs?”
The question is: “HOW can solar, wind, geothermal, marine current and other sustainable technologies meet our energy needs?”
I will be speaking on Monday, March 5th, at 6:00pm, at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House on West Front Street in Lincroft, NJ. This will be part of a series of discussions along a 250 mile walk from Oyster Creek, in Ocean County, NJ to Vermont, Yankee, in Vernon, Vermont. I will make a statement similar to the talk at the Space Coast Green Living Festival, reported here.
A group of Japanese Buddhists, Fukushima eye-witnesses and US citizens will be walking over 250 miles from Oyster Creek to Indian Point to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plants to bring awareness of the terrible risks of nuclear power. The “No More Fukushimas Peace Walk” is being led by Jun Yasuda.
Scheduled events open to the public:
Friday March 2nd, 7pm, “Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster for the U.S and continuing Japanese crisis”
Little Theatre, Georgian Court University, 900 Lakewood Ave, Lakewood N.J.
Speakers:
Hosts: Sister Mary Bilderback, Mary Paula Cancienne
For information Kasturi DasGupta, PhD 732-987-2336
Saturday, March 3, 6:00 pm,
Sky Walk Cafeteria, 2nd Floor, 129 Hooper Ave, Toms River, NJ (Connected to parking garage)
Speakers:
For information Burt Gbur, 732-240-5107
Sunday, March 4th, 6:00 pm,
Murray Grove Retreat Conference Center, Lanoka-Harbor, NJ Church Lane and US Highway 9
Speakers:
For information Matt Reid, 609-312-6798
Monday, March 5th, 6:00pm,
Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, West Front Street, Lincroft, NJ
Speakers:
For Information:. Elaine Held (732-774-3492).
Thursday, March 8, 6:00 pm
Puffin Foundation, 20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, N.J.
Speaker:
For information Jules Orkin, 201-566-8403
The walk will start at 10am on Saturday, March 3rd near the Oyster Creek area, and end at 129 Hooper Ave, Toms River. Starting times and places for March 4th and 5thwill also be announced on February 27th.
————————————————–
The mission of the Walk:
A plea for the people of New Jersey, New York and New England to recognize the grave dangers that nuclear energy poses to our lives, property, and all life on the planet.
We walk together in love and solidarity for a nuclear free future, and a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world built on respect for all living beings.
JOIN THE WALK FOR AN HOUR OR A DAY.
Edith Gbur 732-240-5107
Christian Collins 413-320- 2856
Cathy Sims 732-280-2244
Apple HQ, Cupertino, California
Back in 1965, IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson, Jr, wrote, in IBM’s Basic Beliefs & Principles,
“We accept our responsibilities as a corporate citizen in community, national, and world affairs; we serve our interests best when we serve the public interest…. We want to be at the forefront of those companies which are working to make the world a better place.”
Today, IBM says “Sustainability is no longer an option. Sustainability is an imperative.” IBM is focused on making data centers and supply chains more efficient, and providing their customers with tools to become less unsustainable (IBM green blog). The European Commission awarded IBM for energy efficiency at 27 data centers (IBM Press Release).
However, it looks to me that Google and Apple are one or two steps ahead of IBM. Google has invested $915 Million in solar arrays, which should be 1.0 to 1.5 MW. Apple is putting a 5MW solar array on the roof of it’s headquarters in Cupertino, pictured above, and described here on Treehugger and here on 9to5mac. Apple is also using solar and biofuel to power it’s new data center in South Carolina (article in Renewable Energy World). Essentially:
For more details, see the 2012 Apple Facilities Report.
Apple’s building may be a derivative design of the Widex headquarters, in Allerød, Denmark, described on Widex home page, here. The Widex building is a ring that surrounds a large atrium courtyard to be planted with grass, flowers and trees and is according to Widex,”designed to be both pleasant to look at and be in…. and environmentally friendly
Heat for the building will be supplied by a geothermal system, where groundwater is used like a heat reservoir; excess heat in summer can be stored and used when needed during winter. Our ambition is to reduce energy consumption by 75 percent compared to traditional technology.
Apple, Google, and IBM report high profits. Their stock prices are also high, perhaps demonstrating the correlation between doing well and doing good.
CVAX ... When you care enough to steal the very best
Mark Landler and Edward Wong, covering Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s trip to the US, in the New York Times, Feb 14, With Edge, U.S. Greets China’s Heir Apparent, wrote,
“On the list of American concerns, Mr. Biden said, were China’s artificially depressed currency and conditions imposed by the Chinese that require foreign companies to turn over technology in return for doing business in China. He raised the issue of jailed Chinese dissidents and … Syria”
In Inflaming Trademark Dispute, Second City in China Halts Sales of the iPad, published in the NY Times, Feb. 14, 2012, Michael Wines wrote:
“The authorities in a second Chinese city have begun seizing iPads from local retailers in an escalating trademark dispute between Apple and Proview Technology. … The seizures follow a ruling in December in which a court in Shenzhen dismissed Apple’s contention that it owned the iPad name in China. … Proview has also made a filing with the General Administration of Customs in China putting Apple on notice that the company could seek to block the export of iPads, should Proview’s ownership claims be upheld. … the seizures and the filing are warnings by Proview of the havoc it could wreak unless Apple agrees to pay a large fee to settle the trademark fight. … Paradoxically, China’s intellectual property laws are so sweeping that they allow the government to ban the worldwide sale of any made-in-China product that is found to violate a Chinese patent, trademark or other protection.”
Remember back during the cold war, when Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev said “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.” ( various quotes by Kruschev).
And later when the American computer company DEC, in response to reverse engineering of VAX computers by Soviet computer scientists inscribed, in Russian,“CVAX, … When you care enough to steal the very best” on the CVAX microprocessors. (Links: TRAILING EDGE.com, CNET, FSU.edu.)
Suppose Khrushchev had called John Kennedy, on the occasion of John Glenn’s orbit in the Friendship 7, February 20, 1962, here, or Leonid Brezhnev had called Richard Nixon, after Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins returned from the moon in Apollo 11, July 24, 1969, Apollo 11, or Mikhail Gorbachev had answered Ronald Reagan’s call to “tear down this wall,” and said
“Mister President, I have business proposition for you: Let us to build your consumer goods. We have factories with skilled laborers. Our workers are like children, so eager to please. (Ok, they are children.) We can more or less match your quality control. We can deliver on time. And we do this for pennies on the dollar – pennie!
“All we ask is you give us designs for the products, and computer software source code for computers and telecommunications de-wices we assemble. It will be great Soviet / American partnership.”
Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan would have said
“Give you our designs? Our software? That’s our intellectual property? Are you nuts? That would be crazy!”
Premiers Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev might have answered,
“But our labor costs are much lower than yours. We have workers in factories, happy workers in the ‘Worker’s Paradise.’ Why. workers in our factories in Siberia work 7 days a week. And for little more than food and water. Go on strike? Never! (If they did we would shoot them.) You won’t have to pay them union scale or retirement benefits.”
Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan would still have said
“Give you our designs? Our software? Our intellectual property? So you can use children and slave labor to build our consumer goods? That would destroy our middle class. That would be nuts.”
And they would have been right.
So how exactly are the Chinese communists different from the Soviet communists?
We wouldn’t outsource to the Soviet Union. Why are we outsourcing to China?
Fukushima Nuclear sites and Evacuation Zones. Courtesy, National Post.
Fukushima Prefecture. Courtesy NY Times.
I drew four conclusions after reading Hiroko Tabuchi’s article, A Confused Nuclear Cleanup, in the NY Times, and looking at the US Government’s evacuation map, pictured above (obtained at the National Post, here.
Here are the essential facts, as reported:
The Japanese government wants to clean an 8,000 sq mi area near Fukushima [about the size of New Jersey] to allow residents to return to their homes.
A day laborer wiping down windows at an abandoned school nearby shrugged at the work crew’s haphazard approach. “We are all amateurs,” he said. “Nobody really knows how to clean up radiation.”
The Japanese government awarded the first contracts to three giant construction companies — corporations that have no more expertise in radiation cleanup than anyone else does, but that profited hugely from Japan’s previous embrace of nuclear power.
“We are building expertise as we work,” said Fumiyasu Hirai, a Taisei spokesman. [Taisei is one of the three companies.] “It is a process of trial and error, but we are well-equipped for the job.”
“It’s a scam,” said Kiyoshi Sakurai, a critic of the nuclear industry and a former researcher at a forerunner to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which is overseeing this phase of decontamination. “Decontamination is becoming big business.”
The cleanup contracts, Mr. Sakurai and other critics contend, are emblematic of the too-cozy ties they say have long existed between the nuclear industry and government.
“The Japanese nuclear industry is run so that the more you fail, the more money you receive,” Mr. Sakurai said.
Though big companies have won the main contracts so far, the actual cleanup — essentially a simple but tedious task of scrubbing and digging — is being carried out by numerous subcontractors and sub-subcontractors, who in turn rely on untrained casual laborers to do the dirtiest decontamination work.
This tiered structure, in which fees are siphoned off and wages dwindle each step down the ladder, follows the familiar pattern of Japan’s nuclear and construction industries.
Fukushima coverage on Popular Logistics:
