Dennis sends in this short video of what really happens when a drop of water hits water... see for yourself... now, when will this fact pop up when you are working on a solution to a problem?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Blame The Black Guy
This is so raw... commentators right and left are saying the upset victory of the Massachusetts Senate race is a referendum on Obama. Obama was set up: an inexperienced kid with no depth and connections, plucked out of Chicago, and run as president. Everyone knew the disasters ahead, and this kid was too clueless to see them coming. He is a fall guy.
Scott Brown is a Bush republican who is pro-war, pro-bailout and pro-healthcare expansion(helping create the massachusetts program upon which the obama plan is based). Obama, who is embracing Bush's war, torture, govt healthcare expansion and bailout policies, is getting blamed for USA problems. When the dem loses in Massacchusetts to a republican candidate who also supports Bush's war, torture, govt healthcare expansion and bailout policies, this is a repudiation of Obama? It is all exactly the same? How do they turn more of the same into a repudiation of Obama?
It is all too raw. I've said it before, watch Volcker. He is the adult supervision, and if it looks dangerous for corporate america (they are getting everything they want now) Volcker will step in and save capitalism.
Sigh. At least it is a good time to start a business.
Politics and Money
My UPS driver told me today the Supreme Court ruled campaign contribution and business endorsing candidates is free speech and cannot be regulated by Congress. People are calling it the end of the world. I doubt it. Just how much more money can be crammed into a system in which big biz already calls the shots.
I informed the UPS driver, who I guess this was before his time, that UPS was once regional and to ship a package across the country one had to stand in line in the post office, becuase the USPS had a monopoly on country-wude parcel delivery. UPS bribed NIxon in 1972 (happily) with enoough money to get reelected, and UPS won the right to deliver packages nationwide. It was wonderful for we who once stood in line to turn over packages that were soon lost or stolen. UPS changed all that.
I don't think the ruling will have much change. Big Biz already wins the elections no matter what, so why would they spend even more money? The fact they now funnel through the back door probably wont change either, since big bix wants to appear fair and balanced.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Kinsella On Patents
Here a patent attorney develops his argument for getting rid of the patent system in USA...
Why USA is Not Free
Mish Shedlock gleaned another revealing quote:
Kyle Bass: .... China and Japan own a lot of Fannie and Freddie Debt. I think we are more sensitive to them losing money than we are to the US taxpayer losing money and I think that has to change. ... Fannie and Freddie have paid $200 million into campaigns of 354 politicians over the last 10 years. This is an organization created by the lawmakers. Why are they paying the lawmakers? Let's get rid of this structure and just have the government make mortgage loans. ...
Communist China Leads The Way
By permitting more freedoom in China than The Dems and Repub parties allow in USA. Hong Kong again rates the freest economy in the world.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Small Business Loans Nonsense
Mish Shedlock is on it again... I read him every day. He notes a contradiction regarding small business loans, but I explain why. First Small Business loans by banks are down. Small Business loans by the Small Business Administration are up. Banks are on the hook for their own small business loans, the taxpayer is on the hook for Small Buisness Administration Loans (SBA). Banks write the SBA loans. Therefore, naturally, banks are writing SBA loans, which are skewed to political results, and these loans will be as bad as any subprime loans during the housing boom. To get an SBA loan, you have to be turned down by two banks first. Thereforre, once you prove you are not worthy of the loan, the government will give you one.
Financially, it is the least of the scams out there, but a good start to recovery would be to eliminate the small business administration.
Bongo 3PL
This website offers a useful service for people who want to buy off-the-shelf items in small quantities and get them delivered around the world... I am surprised this service was not offered earlier by someone. Actually, just about any Third Party Logistics (3PL) company cold do this, but by concentrating it looks like Bongo has cut the costs. It is so slick I would not be surprised if it was owned by Fedex or someone...
Monday, January 18, 2010
Does It Apply To Taiwan?
Clayton,
Thanks for your kind note. The principles are the same, with emphasis on getting your customers first, working with what you love, and testing your hypothesis, over and over.
Of anything I ever sell, of all the talking that is done throughout the sales channel, I am rarely the one doing any talking. Sales reps, retailers, customers... they are critical, but I am not there. It matters little to me what language they speak. Von Mises said something about innovators necessarily use inefficient, cumbersome means to get product out there, since we are working before the conservators aply their economies of scale and efficiencies to our innovations. Perhaps fielding a chinese speaking sales force, with a bilingual sales manager, is one requirement your customers have. Perhaps not. That will be learned in time.
It gets down to you, your service or product, and your customers. Everything else will get worked out.
Let me know how it goes...
John
On Jan 18, 2010, at 10:48 AM, CA wrote:
Hi John,
I am ... living in Taiwan. I'm currently halfway through your book and noticed you mentioned a lot about success in this business depends upon understanding your customers when starting out as an importer. However as a native English speaker living in a Chinese speaking country and not knowing any Mandarin I'm sure there will be some problems encountered with understanding the customers. Not just understanding the customers but understanding the culture as well and speaking to points of contacts such as sales agents etc. I was just wondering if I can still be successful following your steps in Taiwan and if it would be better to take a different approach such as starting out as an exporter? Thanks for you time.
Regards
CA
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Abernathy On King
Twenty years ago Rev. Ralph David Abernathy published an autobiography called AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN. Abernathy was the heart and conscience of the civil rights movement as Dr King was its undisputed charismatic leader. It was widely panned by the powers that be, so I decided someday I must read it.
Now that you can get anything on the internet, I finally came by a copy. It was worth the wait. Anyone interested in freedom and the struggle thereto will very much enjoy this book.
Abernathy tells the story from one who was there as the movement got going. And Abernathy and King are so young when the story starts Abernathy has tales of them competing for the same gals to marry.
Abernathy describes a South few people recall or understand. It was brutal, but the Abernathy family had carved out a separate peace and thrived. The description of their life, and the South, and how they coped is a case study in “secession in place.”
How Abernathy and King met, their struggles and disappointments, the arc of the movement and its dissolution in the Resurrection City demonstration in the USCapitol is told city by city, campaign by campaign.
The dissension among black leaders and groups, the degree to which their movement had been infiltrated to subvert it, and the self-inflicted scandals are all there, the stuff of any movement.
One aspect is the sheer joy of their work, and Abernathy explains they had to protect MLK’s image: he had a keen sense of humor and was a deadly mimic, keeping the crew in stitches between confrontations. They appreciated the raw grandstanding of racist politicians, such as when one governor gave white women the day off so they could stay home when blacks marched (the implication being “uppity blacks” would assault white women if the were in a mob. The on the edge humor lasted until Rev. King’s funeral: Abernathy reveals the donkey-led rickety cart used to carry this poor boy to his grave had actually been stolen! They thought it would be easy to find one, but when it proved to be a challenge, well...
Few people realize that the Jim Crow laws which oppressed blacks in the South until the 1960’s were just that: laws. the powers that be passed the laws. The busses and businesses could care less about whether or not blacks ate in their restaurants or what seat they took on the bus. It was the government and politicians, using power aggregated by a political system, to put blacks in such a place.
Abernathy does not have much use for the Kennedy's, but he sure likes LB., who passed the voting rights act and other legislation the SCLC desired. Although Abernathy expressly states their success came from pressuring private business, he seems for most of the book to not realize that his success came through private channels, not the government channels. (Also, kind, gentle reasonable sheriffs were a disaster, since they did not generate news. Big success and support and money came when dogs and firehouses were turned loose.)
Fascinating are the details of the movement, events and strategy. Particularly interesting was the debate for the SCLC to back off and let the black militants bring down the wrath of the state upon themselves, and resume with nonviolent confrontation after the militants had been wiped out. The debate never finished, because King was murdered and the violence erupted.
It seems some mistakes in strategy were made.
1. Their appeals should have been to business, not to govt.
2. They ought not have stressed rights for negroes (the term kept changing), but rights for everyone. Blacks were pitted against poor whites who were as abused as blacks in many cases. We may have had better results faster if the terms of the argument were more inclusive. The powers that be were able to divide and delay.
Rev. Abernathy loves Jesse Jackson very much, but that does not mean Jackson comes off very favorably. Inner workings of Jackson’s schtick are revealed, not that it was any secret.
With our political system, as practiced, a small group of evil people can band together and take over the political landscape. Emerson regretted it and blamed the civil war on precisely such a concatenation. The oppression of blacks in the South was an unholy alliance between the government and big business. Small and medium business pressured the powers that be to finally make changes. Change did come.
In an effort to revive the movement, Abernathy led all peoples and races to set up Resurrection City in our nations capital. The event lasted a few months, a demonstration project highlighting need for government intervention and cooperation among minorities.
Abernathy was appalled to find Mexicans refusing to live next door to blacks, and youth gangs robbing and burgling the participants. It was an end of an era, and time for new leadership and direction. The movement died with Dr. King.
But on the last page of the book, Dr. Abernathy reproduces a proclamation of the SCLC declaring January 15th as Martin Luther King Day, under the aegis of the SCLC and over his signature. Finally Rev. Abernathy gets it. Private initiative is the best way.
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