For the first time ever, China has launched more rockets into orbit in a year than the U.S. In 2011, the Chinese sent 19 rockets into space. The U.S. sent just 18. Russia, the Walmart of space launches, fired off no fewer than 31 rockets. …Beijing is not about to catch up to Washington in …
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No, this picture doesn’t show a black and white image of the rebel base on the ice planet Hoth. It’s part of a semi-secret, nuclear-powered U.S. Army base that was built under the Greenland ice cap only 800 miles from the North Pole. The base was officially built to conduct scientific research but the real …
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The largest private employer in China, Foxconn with over 1 million employees, is finally facing stiff labor costs. This is great news for the U.S. manufacturing sector who may be able to lure some work back to the United States. It will be interesting to see how this affects the global market, but for now …
Continue reading “One million robots in three years – Foxconn’s Robot Kingdom”
We are truly in the age of the internet, or rather the Dawn of the Internet Age, as the number of internet connected homes approaches a billion. The stats on broadband and wi-fi in homes: According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, 25 percent of all “households” worldwide now have Wi-Fi networks set up. In …
Continue reading “In 2012, broadband will be in 678 million homes”
The debate goes much deeper than who received money, but these numbers are still important: In a 51-47 vote, 43 Senate Republicans and four Democrats filibustered to protect $24 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil. Although a majority voted for Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) bill, it fell short of the 60 needed. The only …
Selling consumer electronics isn’t as easy as it used to be for Best Buy. The big-box retailer is closing 50 stores and compensating employees based on customer service after its fiscal fourth-quarter sales fell short of expectations. The company today reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $1.7 billion, on revenue of $16.63 billion, up …
Continue reading “Best Buy to close 50 stores in the U.S. and 11 in the U.K.”
English – “trust but verify” Russian – “doveryai, no proveryai” The phrase was used by U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a press conference with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev during the of the signing the INF Treaty at the White House in 1987. After Reagan used the phrase, Mikhail Gorbachev responded: “You repeat that at …
Continue reading ““Trust, but verify” – the code of nuclear treaties”
The following chart shows U.S. petroleum and gasoline usage for the same three-month period (Dec-Feb) going back to 1992. Note that petroleum usage is back to 1995 levels, and gasoline usage is back to 2001. Chart via Global Economic Analysis – (thx to Steven Witt for the tip) This graph highlights a continuing U.S. trend …
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Todd Park has been named the next U.S. Chief Technology Officer by the White House. A profile of him in O’Reilly Radar written by Alex Howard: Park has been working to revolutionize the healthcare industry at HHS since 2009, and in the private sector as an entrepreneur since 1997. Now he’ll have the opportunity to try to improve …
In 2010, we imported less than 50 percent of the oil our nation consumed—the first time that’s happened in 13 years—and the trend continued in 2011. via WhiteHouse.gov