Crazy Rich Asians
Although Singapore has about 74% citizens
of Chinese descent and most can speak Mandarin, English is the language in the
movie. Asked about how was the movie, my friend replied it was not important
and the importance was it was the first Asian Hollywood movie after Joy Luck
Club that was filmed 25 years ago.
On a related topic, Chinese Americans
are about 1.5% of the total US population. It has 2% of US doctors and about
10% working in Silicon Valley.
R.I.P. Queen of Soul
I do not know why most
entertainers and athletes die early. It could be the life style. Learn from her
huge mistake in not having a will. Lawyers will be happy and her children would
hate her for this.
Mirrorless camera
Mirrorless camera is a big one. I
saw some selling for $500 (less for the street prices) and another one for
$2,000. Most selling $1000 have high-end features. Most consumers do not need
them unless they're into sports photography. Wait for a year and the prices
will come down.
My cameras
I'm quite happy with my iPhone
and my Canon (with replaceable lens). Just bought a Canon with 50X zoom (huge
optical zoom for the price) camera for my wife. If I go to safari, I need this
zoom for sure. You do not want to get closer to take a picture at the risk of
being eaten. It is small, inexpensive and full of features (using the phone to
control zooming and taking pictures) to replace her pocket camera. With the
movements of the zoom lens, they may not last too long and hopefully not so.
Starting a firestorm?
How many Trump's hires have
committed frauds?
How many crimes he may have
committed himself?
How many of his hires besides his
immediate family have survived?
I rest my case.
One told me I started a political firestorm. I am
politically neutral and just want to tell the truths and nothing else.
Amending the Constitution
Some laws work fine before but do
not apply to today’s society.
·
Requiring the president to make public his tax
returns for the last 5 years. I bet conflicts of interest would be easily
identified.
·
Taking out the president tweeter account. There
should be a sign in all rest rooms in the White House saying “No Tweeting
allowed”.
·
Balancing the budget. Excessive spending will
buy votes but our next generation(s) will pay back our debts.
·
Resolving gun shooting. It is not in the Wild,
Wild West any more.
Elizabeth Warren
I am eating lunch and Elizabeth
Warren suddenly appeared on TV. She is the first native Indian I know who has
blue eyes and blonde hair. Everything from her is garbage to me as she has lost
credential to me. Next time I have to turn off my TV while eating lunch.
Nuclear subs
Nuclear subs are for
long-distance, so it is not the right subs for Taiwan. Some Chinese subs can be
undetected - could be a technology stolen from us. It surfaced (I believed more
than one time) within torpedo range to a carrier without being detected. There are
carrier killer missiles, GPS missiles and other advanced weapons on destroying carriers.
Carriers could be sitting ducks.
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan
Hong Kong and Macau are different
from Taiwan. They just turn off water supply to Hong Kong and Hong Kong would
be back to China without any negotiation. Macau has been made wealthy (one of
the top richest cities) by allowing whalers (big gamblers) swim to Macau.
Taiwan
Taiwan is wasting money to hold
the 17 or so countries to recognize her as the only China. Most are small
countries in the Pacific. Most do not trade with China as they are too small
and some have Taiwan contributing a good portion of their GDPs.
Taiwan's economy now is tied to
China. However, with the backing of US and the fleet of navy, it is harder for
China to invade (or reunite depending on your viewpoint).
Reunite China by Taiwanese
Taiwan used to proclaim
"returning the lost land". They used to have the imaginary governors
of every province in China. These old men (most died now) fell asleep in all the
meetings except the first meeting. Not any more. Now they seek the better deal
by proclaiming independence. Today Taiwan's economy depends too much on China.
China offers them “One Country and Two Systems.”
Two-party political system
We're losing resources,
continuity... with changes or complete deletions due to a new political party
taking reign.
ObamaCare is a big one and many
smaller ones have been surfaced. Stupid to say "if the idea is not
invented in our political party, it must be no good." We have said this
many, many times.
China and EV
China has 50% of the total EV
market in quantity, not in total cost I bet. China subsidies EV from all fronts
and we only have incentives for the consumers.
Chinese EVs will face heavy
tariff from US. They would build an assembly plant in US like the Japanese
cars.
Besides the economies of scale, I
watched from YouTube that they have a new battery (with the research from
Stanford University) that can charge faster and last longer. They are building
the second largest battery factory (after Tesla).
Without transmission and gas
engine, EV technologies are quite easy to master for China.
Beijing has the first day of blue
sky after all the anti-pollution measures and EV is one of them.
Shenzhen
Shenzhen has almost 100% buses
running on EVs. Their subway system is quite efficient. On my first day there,
I broke my record by using taxi 4 times. They were not expensive and saved us
time to see 4 attractions in one day.
On the second day we visited
Cultural Village which was free or half price for seniors. The subway was
clean, efficient with all the helpful signs. That’s why Boston is buying subway
cars from China.
China’s jets
China got the jet technologies
more from Russia than from us. The stealth technology could be stolen from us.
China still has a lot to improve their jet engines. Is GE’s technology transfer
on commercial jet engines help China?
Campbell and my friend Au
I cannot believe a company that
can survive with a debt/equity ratio of 7.
Several of my friends have
personal experiences with Campbell. One lost a limb while working there in a
summer job.
We have one or two opportunities
in life. Most just let them pass thru but not Au.
He did not do well in high school
from my faint memory. I remembered him playing and sweating in the basketball
courts (we have only two outdoor courts). He graduated in chemical engineering
and then had a master degree in food processing (first opportunity in life)
that was not common at the time.
We had emails at one time and he
was applying for funds with Fidelity in Hong Kong while I retired early. China
was just opened up and needed technologies oversea (second opportunity). He
must have connection to the inside circle to attain the contracts to supply
food to China’s army.
I was told he was once one of the
richest 50 Asians (even 5000 is still good for someone starting from scratch).
He was in real expedition to Tibet before the train was available. He has been
donating a lot to charities. He is not the most famous classmates (that honor
goes to Martin Yan of Yan-Can-Cook and Charles Huang, a Hong Kong movie
producer) among about 200 classmates in two high schools I was in but he could
be the richest.
8K TV
8K TVs are not practical today.
We do not have too many TV shows and movies even available in 4K.
I have seen many 65 inch or even
larger TVs and in today’s technology such as network speed I do not know the quality
can be improved with 8K.
Requiring other country’s minimum wage?
It solves the problem of building
a wall. When the Mexicans make $16 / hour, they will not come to US. Silly
Trump thinks he has fixed the problem in building wall, trade deficit… Actually
US workers will flock to Mexico (illegally of course) to abandon the $10 per
hour wage in US. Why don’t we do the same to China and any low-wage country? Is Trump smart or utterly stupid?
Africa’s explosive population growth
Africa is one example of the
explosive growth of population even their life expectancy is quite low. In the
average, an African woman has more than 6 children. They eat up all the food
and that's why they're poor. They need more public education, a lot of condoms,
more recreation facilities, and less advice from the Pope...
China’s One-child policy
China needed one-child policy for
economical reason. Now, she is wealthier, she can afford more population but it
should be controlled.
I believe two-child policy is
good today. China is not blessed in resources / farm land distribution per
capita (vs. ours). Since the resources are fixed, the variable is population.
Minorities have no limit on the
number of children and that creates a lot of social problems in addition to jealousy.
China’s Two-Child policy
China may follow the developed
countries one day to have fewer children. However, Chinese are keen to have the
family names to pass to the next generation similar to many other countries.
Hence, they want more boys. If the first one or even two are girls, they want
to try at least one more time to get a boy.
From my experiences, one-child
policy has been enforced to some extent. Those who defied it are given less
opportunities in education and jobs.
AI
China has AI and face recognition
both in hardware and software. Their AI is about the same level as the US -
some areas are better than ours and vice versa. It is a great tool for fighting
crimes and against 'trouble makers'. We cannot implement this in the same scale
due to violating privacy.
China’s Social score card
Should we have one in the US at
least useful for buying guns?
China has good control on their
citizens already with the face recognition and CCTVs - technology sucks to some.
It is the most cost effective way to control her population. I do not want to
use our yardstick to judge them.
Road to a developed country
China is moving to higher-valued
products. They outsource many polluting and labor-intensive manufacturing to
other countries due to higher wages and aging population in China.
We are losing the battle in
fighting these low-wage countries and in defending our high-valued products
from China.
Solve the illegal problems from Mexico
* Punish employers for hiring
illegals.
* Wall-less walls with today's
technologies esp. against drug trafficking.
* Improve work visas to take up
jobs no one wants. There are plenty such as farming.
China and the trade war
Even without a full-fledged trade
war, China will suffer economic downturn. However, it will be good for the
country in the long run and they will most likely recover after a few years.
China will transfer herself from an economy driven by manufacturing to service
(export to internal consumption).
Religion and economy
What are Turkey, Iran and many
Middle East companies have in common? They spend too much time in religion than
economy. They spend too much resources on wars than on peaceful endeavors. Without
natural resources, many should be far poorer. Well, spiritually rich but
materially poor.
John McCain
John McCain was a true American
hero and a gentleman too nice and decent to be a president.
He was mocked of being a 'victim'
by those who are draft dodgers.
Aug 27, 2018. 08:28 AMLink
Video games
Good for China to restrict video
games. We should do the same. This generation is wasting a lot of time in video
games. They have big thumbs, and are quick to press any triggers. They have
less social interaction.
Do you think the young kids in
China, Singapore, S. Korea and Japan will achieve the same in life as our kids
when our kids play far more hours in a day? If you do, you believe in fairy
tales and this is one reason we're declining and they're rising. Wake up and
get out more often as there are more in life than playing games.
If you are a teenager, what do
you select to play: an addictive, violent game or a boring educational game?
I do not have any objection what
my children and grandchildren do in the free time as long as it is legal and
does not hurt others. I'm more concerned about the students spending too much
time in video games.
I encourage my grandchildren to
play educational games unsuccessfully.
Joke of the day: Modern Trojan horses
If you want to defeat China, send
them fast food and video games free of charge. They are the modern Trojan
horses.
Why HSR (high speed rail) is no good for California
It is not cost effective
described as follows while China can.
1. When
including construction cost, I do not see any country can make money with HSR.
2. Some
routes in China start to make money. It is due to the higher population
density.
3. Our
air travel and highway are quite efficient already. Boeing or other companies
will build more efficient planes.
4. The
infrastructure should be spent on the ‘last miles’ from the airport to the city
centers.
5. Our
labor is expensive and our unemployment rate is virtually zero for practical
purpose. China needs jobs for the unemployed.
6. We
will lose a lot of valuable farm land and will pay a lot to secure the land
parcels. China’s government own most land.
7. So
far, how many of our big projects are under budget or delivered within the time
frame? Not recently in my memory. Most Chinese projects are within budget and
on-time.
8. Politics
play a role. Some rails are longer in order to satisfy local governments. It is
supposed to build the legacy of Jerry Brown.
China does not have that problem but corruption is more
wide-spread. Without money for big projects, there is no corrupt money passed
from business folks to the local officials.
VR
Virtual Reality is better than
Reality. You do not go to jail or kill yourself in VR. If all the world plays
the same video war game, we do not have real wars.
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