Check out this fascinating story about innovation in medicine, which is having a hard time getting adopted in USA. thanks to Mohammed for the tip...
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Finding the Best Source
When someone thiinks up an innovative product with various new components, and the idea does not exist, then the question comes up, "If there is no manufacturer yet, to whom do you turn to have it made?" Well, once upon a time there was no such thing as a kiteboard, which is a blend of sailboard and parachute. The first models were made by sailboard makers, because the technical changes were concentrated on the board, not the parachute. These are largely made overseas becuase the management cost of bring all the parts together is chaper there than in USA.
AS the idea for the bicycle developed at the time of the French revolution, it was umbrella makers and corset makers who began producing the original versions. The key technological innovation in a bicycle is the spoke wheel, and who had the technology to develop this part? Corset and umbrella makers.
Of course the bicycle was expensive at first, so it was the rich who first bought them. Peopl who used bucycles to push the limits for speed began racing them and making design change demands. AS the bikes got better, and prices fell, more people could buy them. In France the Farman brothers began racing and making bicycles, and then began making and racing cars, with many of the same parts as bicycles. After cars, the need for speed and pushing the envelope got them into making and racing airplanes as well. The Farmans became at one point France's #1 airplane maker.
Toyota
Last year Ford Motor Company recalled 4.5 million defective cars. There was no congressional hearing. For Toyota, the problem is most likely after-market floor mats are getting stuck on the gas pedal, leading to problems. Toyota testified as much, but it will not get reported. Why doesn't Toyota defend itself? When your competitor is a failing business owned by the United States government, there is not enough money to defend yourself.
Toyota will simply act like it is making changes, and raise prices to cover the cost. This will allow the US Govt to raise prices on GM cars, which is needed to pay their CEO 9 million dollars and a consultant to the CEO $3000 per hour, and so on, and many more such monstrous wastes.
There is money to be made here in USA, but slowly, surely, what goodwill USA once had, ebbs away. Our political masters do not care, they would rather rule over ruins then get a real job.
Monday, February 22, 2010
How China Gets Oil
Without a single soldier or sailor in the middle east to protect is "intersts", China now buys more oil from Saudi Arabia than USA does. Once upon a time USA would buy what it needed. Now we invade. We need to return to where we got off track. Say, about the Grover Cleveland administration might be good.
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