Shanghai Maglev Train on the track (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

China is now the second largest economy in the world, but it might surpass the United States if the United States’ economy continues to be a laggard economic force.  Nonetheless, this post isn’t about comparing the two countries, because nobody can predict the future.  If someone says he or she can, that someone must not come from earth.  Anyhow, China’s amazing economy is all we talk about today, and partly because of how we have seen major corporations of the world (not only inside the United States) have built or will build their second headquarter in China.  How come?  They plan to sell their ideas, their innovations, their business plans, and their whatever in China.  I think the go without saying consensus among the businesses is that the Chinese people are plenty in number and they have been saving up — they might be the most profitable consumers in the world.  This is why many of us might not be so surprised to have seen Volkswagen started a concept car project in China known as People’s Car Project, because Volkswagen probably had similar idea about China.  Similar idea?  I think Volkswagen might think that China will be the biggest car market in the making.

As of December 31, 2011, China had about 1.347 billion people.  With the biggest population and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, no wonder the business world is going crazy for China — and so the car market.  Next, India?  So, it is not so surprising to see Volkswagen is hard at work in promoting their brand in China.  What is the surprise is that the Volkswagen People’s Car Project has came up with a really cool, bloody hell, freaking rock my world, kind of concept car!  People’s Car Project came up with a hover car.  OK, it does sound familiar, but will it be cool?  In my opinion, it got to be one of the coolest vehicles I have ever seen, ever.  It’s very futuristic and it hovers, need I say more?  OK, probably not, but you probably want to check out the video right after the break to see Volkswagen’s concept hover car in action.

Afterthought:  I wish I understand Chinese language so I know what they’ve said in the video above, but just by watching the moving image, I have to say I really like Volkswagen’s concept hover car.  Unfortunately, the word concept might overpower gravity in this case (and most cases), because we have seen uncountable concepts have been abandoned right?  OK, to be honest, that is what most people say, and I truly don’t know any specific concept had been abandoned on the top of my head, and if even I knew about one I probably don’t remember it now.  Still, it’s more believable to believe that most concepts are often abandoned than not, because most concepts are really over the top.  By that I mean most concepts frequently introduce ideas that might be easier to be said than done.  According to Huffingtonpost.com’s Volkswagen Hover Car: Are Flying Cars The Model Of The Future? (VIDEO) article, Volkswagen’s concept hover car relies on the idea of utilizing electromagnetic levitation.  Such a big word, and I don’t remember what it means (I think I had read on this before), but it does sound so science cool.  Anyhow, I whisked over to Wikipedia and found out that China had built electromagnetic levitation train known as Shanghai Maglev Train.  So, I figure if they already knew how to levitate a whole train, then Volkswagen concept hover car must be doable, right?  Nonetheless, don’t ever underestimate the word concept, because Volkswagen might never go ahead of making concept hover car into a real product for countless reasons (e.g., cost, demand, regulation).  In the end, bottom line has got to mean a lot more than realizing a concept.

Sources:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/volkswagen-hover-flying-car-nevada_n_1499501.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train

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• Beijing: Two new Honda Concept Cars revealed (inautonews.com)
• Nuccio, Bertone Concept Car Sold The 23.8 Billion (athingforcars.com)
• VW People’s Car Project: Hover Car, The Flying Two-Seater (presurfer.blogspot.de)
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Česky: Foxconn Pardubice, GPS: 50°1'28.591"N, 15°48'12.260"E (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Foxconn has been under scrutinized lately as it is known for manufacturing hot Apple’s products.  We know Foxconn isn’t only manufacturing products for Apple as it is also manufacturing products for other big tech brands such as Amazon (i.e., Kindle).  Nonetheless, many people are seeing Apple as an evil entity as they have believed that Foxconn’s employees are being pushed to piece together certain Apple products (i.e., iPad) under harsh working conditions.  Unfortunately, people like me in the West are definitely not knowing the real truth, whether Foxconn employees are really working under extreme conditions with low wages or vice versa, because the media has reported contradictory stories on Foxconn.  Some news would portrait Foxconn as a hell on earth, and others would praise Foxconn as if Foxconn is the best place to work in China.  Furthermore, videos like the one after the break contradict the stories on how Foxconn has treated their employees badly.

Propaganda or not, I guess we don’t really know the truth of Foxconn’s employee working conditions (i.e., too many contradictory news on Foxconn).  I guess we can only rely on the selected media we like to trust most for the messages on Foxconn’s employee working conditions.  In the end, most of us are the humans who want to be good to other humans, and we definitely wish Foxconn’s employees to have peace and prosper.

I do not really want to write extensively on the topic of why we are so angry to see Foxconn and similar companies in the East take jobs away from Americans.  Why?  I think it’s obvious that exporting jobs has to fall onto the shoulders of the corporations that send jobs to China.  Nobody has actually aimed a gun at the CEOs of such corporations and demanded them to ship jobs oversea, right?  In the end, the reality is all about location, location, location.  Building a product in a wrong location might cost a company a fortune, therefore we see many companies ship jobs over China so the bottom lines can be healthier.

Under the YouTube video above, I encountered a comment that commented how big corporations prefer to ship jobs over China since product turnover rate in general for high tech products nowadays is too fast and so these corporations cannot have everything relies on automatons (i.e., Chinese employees are cheaper this way).  It does sound like employees in countries similar to China are voluntary slave (i.e., willing to work for less wages and benefits), but it’s the reality.  Perhaps, one day when employees in these cheap labor countries get much higher wages, then automatons might be the preferable employees.  What does all of this mean for the employees of the West?  The reality is that I fear employees of the West might never again get to see the heyday of manufacturing.  Even worse, when one day big corporations can employ automatons for all tasks, even the jobs aren’t relating to manufacturing might have to hand over to automatons only.  When automatons get to repair and maintain automatons, it’s game over for the humans’ labor forces.  The question is, what people of the world do when automatons take over all jobs?

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• Apple shows Foxconn iPad construction in rare hands-on video (slashgear.com)
• Labor activists call on Apple to stop squeezing suppliers (news.cnet.com)
• Could Foxconn’s factory in Brazil be a model for Apple production? (news.cnet.com)
• Marketplace’s Rob Schmitz interviews Foxconn workers, shows how an iPad is made (tuaw.com)
• See an iPad being built at a Foxconn factory (news.cnet.com)
• First look at the assembly process of an iPad at Foxconn factory (technocraz.com)
• Reporter visits Foxconn factory in China, while Apple’s competitors stay quiet (theverge.com)

Image by x-av via Flickr

A commenter oridade on YouTube points out that the title of a YouTube video (***30-story building built in 15 days*** Construction time lapse *View Fullscreen*) is clearly and utterly misleading.  Instead, oridade points out that the video only shows the 30 story building is being assembled within 15 days.  Still, for assembling a 30 story building with the latest technologies within 15 days is quite a feat nonetheless.  The latest technologies that are being installed inside this 30 story building enable the building itself to withstand 9 magnitude earthquake resistance, have 5 times more energy efficient, have 4-paned window type, have internal window insulation for windows, have 20 times purer air, and monitor air quality for each and every room of the building.  It seems that Broad Group is the Chinese company which had pulled off this feat.  This 30 story building is now a hotel prototype, according to the information below the YouTube video which you can watch right after the break.  Enough reading, why not check out the YouTube time lapse video to see the assembling of China‘s 30 story building in 15 days for yourself right after the break.

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• Amazing Timelapse of 30-Story Building Constructed In Only 360 Hours (gizmodo.co.uk)

Image by MarkWallace via Flickr

China is smartly moving into 3D TV trend and trying to stay ahead of the pack so even when its economy might slow down for any odd number of reasons, China is still likely to attract advertisers like crazy so more inflow of profits can flow in.  According to Physorg, Chinese think that the new 3D channel might increase demand for 3D TV sets.  If more Chinese people buy up 3D TV sets, there will be more money to be made for 3D TV makers.  If we look at a much bigger picture though, more 3D TV sets in more Chinese homes might create even more opportunities to make even more money for advertisers and companies alike.

It’s well known that China has a biggest population in the world, numbering in a billion plus, and so it’s also likely now a richer/wealthier China presents a special circumstance where more Chinese are hungry for better, bigger, and more advanced whatever.  My guess is that Chinese might become even more hungry for consumptions than how Americans are.  This is why I think it’s a smart move for the Chinese government to allow test launch of 3D TV channel.

According to Physorg, the channel is free and will be officially launched on January 23rd, coinciding with Chinese New Year.  The new 3D TV channel launch is a move to encourage Chinese people to consume more 3D TV sets, but let not forget that more Chinese might buy more products when they see more awesome 3D commercials.  Perhaps, the Chinese government is thinking by driving their people to consume more whatever, there will be more demands for everything, and this includes more employers seek out for more employees so their companies can be even more productive in producing more goods.  Consequently, the trend might encourage Chinese economy to grow even bigger or prevent a slowing down of Chinese economic extraordinary growth rate.

Then again, we have to ask what if Chinese are driving to consume to a point of overconsumption, would this be a foresight to how more Chinese will spend beyond their means?  If overconsumption might become a big problem for future China, might we see a second United States?  After all, more people within the United States are spending beyond their means, and so we’ve seen how hard it’s for the people within the United States to regain their financial strengths during a recession and post recession era.  Nonetheless, if China is willing to consume, the world might also be more prosperous since Chinese people might want to import more luxurious foreign stuffs from countries such as the United States.  This means countries that are doing business with China might have to ramp up their exports in the near future.

Regardless how China will demand for consumptions, I think large pools of wealthy Chinese will drive up the demands for foreign goods.  Chinese government is helping to push the demand for consumption further by encouraging their people to consume more.  What’s better to do that by allowing people to watch more 3D TV commercials and entertainment shows?  By the way, I’m just speculating from one opinionated angle, therefore you have to take my idiotic, bold assessment of how China will go for consumption through 3D TV trend with a grain of salt.  It’s obvious that a country is complex as China, we can never pinpoint on one thing and say this is how China will behave.  You can say this post is for your entertainment only!

Source:  http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-china-test-launches-3d-tv-channel.html

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• Why Apple Won’t Release a 3D TV (forbes.com)
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Image via Wikipedia

There are folks who champion Thorium as the safest nuclear energy.  I’ve written about it in the article “Can Thorium Be The Only One Element That Energizes The World Of The Future?” — and now there is Bill Gates who champions depleted uranium to be used in new nuclear technology which he said it would be the safest nuclear energy yet.  He also said this new nuclear technology requires no human intervention and it is still going to be safe.  You can read Huffingtonpost’s article “Bill Gates’ China Nuclear Reactor Project: Microsoft Co-Founder Aims To Develop Safer Version” for more details on Bill Gates’ pushing for new nuclear technology which requires depleted uranium.

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/bill-gates-china-nuclear-reactor-project_n_1134359.html

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• Bill Gates, China jointly developing nuclear reactor – CBC.ca (cbc.ca)
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Image via Wikipedia

As financial instruments that keep nations stay healthy find to be less effective, nations are facing direr prospects of having to see their economies slowly inch closer to unsustainable conditions.  Imagine China continues to see United States prints more dollars out of thin air to devalue the dollar so United States’ exports can be competitive against the rest of the world, and China will face higher import costs to produce lesser profitable export goods since Chinese yuan is pegging against dollar.  As China isn’t so willingly to revalue yuan and allowing yuan to appreciate against dollar, China forces United States to print more money than ever to devalue the dollar so United States can stay competitive in exporting its goods.  United States knowing that exporting more will create jobs at home, consequently taming the wild beasts of deflation and unemployment that will lead to a healthier economy in near term or however long the United States can print money and China won’t scream foul.

Let assume China and United States are going to be locked in a currency war for a long time to come, and the financial instruments of both sides aren’t that effective since both sides might be able to dish out comparable damages, a tic for tac kind of things.  Seeing from this perspective, one can see why United States is so concerning about cyber security.  Once the usual financial instruments aren’t that effective, an oppose entity (e.g., nation, country, faction, coalition, and so on) can try to use a stealthier and more malicious mean to gain some advantages in regarding to world trade and a nation’s financial matters, and we’re talking of hacking.  Of course, there are many other means that might be as vicious as hacking or even more vicious than hacking such as intentionally manipulating an opposing nation’s derivative market to a point that such market would crash and create havocs within a nation’s economy.  Nonetheless, hacking is probably one of the easiest maneuvers which one nation can carry out against another nation.

Hacking can be inexpensive for the hackers and yet sometimes hackers can get more than what they want.  Hackers can also stay anonymous if they’re good, therefore hacking can be stealthy if stealth is important to the hackers.  Knowing hacking can be carried out with precision and with almost no consequence at state sponsor level, I don’t see why hacking is not one of the desirable methods in acquiring financial information and gaining sensitive data to manipulate another nation’s economy.  This is why it’s not unimaginable for the United States to consider hacking as an act of war and might lead to military actions.  As more facets of an economy come online or digitize, hacking can become an evermore dangerous and powerful instrument among other financial instruments to be used by nations.  Of course, hacking isn’t always motivating by financial means, sometimes it’s more about gaining military advance weaponries.  This is why hacking can become even more important than just a covert financial instrument for any nation.

So, I guess we can expect China and United States to continue playing a game of blaming each other on how they got hacked by the opposing nation.  I suspect that the United States and China won’t go as far as declaring war on each other if indeed they find out that the opposing party is hacking them, but I can see United States and China won’t be hesitating in punishing weaker opposing enemies in all means, even things has to boil down to carrying out some military actions.  Don’t be surprised to see more headlines of how one nation is hacking another in the news, because hacking can be quite a useful financial instrument and more.  It’s that serious!

Source —  Currency Wars:  The Making of the Next Global Crisis by James Rikards (book).

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E-waste is multiplying everyday as we continue to abandon a year or two year old electronic products so we can gobble up new ones that come out yesterday or so.  Before most e-waste end up in the landfills, these abandon electronic things tend to collect dust in closets and garages.  Eventually, to free up the space of closets and garages, people have to discard their e-waste in landfills.

So what is the problem with throwing e-waste in landfills?  As I read, I notice the complaints of health risks that are associating with having e-waste to be leached away in landfills and having e-waste to be recycled in unsafe manners.  Many toxic elements (e.g., lead, cadmium, mercury, americium, sulphur, BFRs, beryllium oxide) come from e-waste that are not appropriately contained can be health hazardous to humans.

Let see how health hazardous it is for lead to be leaked into our environment through possible routes such as air, soil, water, food, and consumer products.  Quoting directly from Wikipedia, lead can be dangerous to human health as how it’s described below:

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter’s colic) is a medical condition caused by increased levels of theheavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death.  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning

Quoting directly from Wikipedia, Cadmium poisoning can be dangerous to human health as how it’s described below:

Acute exposure to cadmium fumes may cause flu like symptoms including chills, fever, and muscle ache sometimes referred to as “the cadmium blues.” Symptoms may resolve after a week if there is no respiratory damage. More severe exposures can cause tracheo-bronchitis, pneumonitis, and pulmonary edema. Symptoms of inflammation may start hours after the exposure and include cough, dryness and irritation of the nose and throat, headache, dizziness, weakness, fever, chills, and chest pain.

Inhaling cadmium-laden dust quickly leads to respiratory tract and kidney problems which can be fatal (often from renal failure). Ingestion of any significant amount of cadmium causes immediate poisoning and damage to the liver and the kidneys. Compounds containing cadmium are also carcinogenic[citation needed].

The bones become soft (osteomalacia), lose bone mineral density (osteoporosis) and become weaker. This causes the pain in the joints and the back, and also increases the risk of fractures. In extreme cases of cadmium poisoning, mere body weight causes a fracture.

The kidneys lose their function to remove acids from the blood in proximal renal tubular dysfunction. The kidney damage inflicted by cadmium poisoning is irreversible. The proximal renal tubular dysfunction creates low phosphate levels in the blood (hypophosphatemia), causing muscle weakness and sometimes coma. The dysfunction also causes gout, a form of arthritis due to the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints because of high acidity of the blood (hyperuricemia). Another side effect is increased levels of chloride in the blood (hyperchloremia). The kidneys can also shrink up to 30%.

Other patients lose their sense of smell (anosmia). Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_poisoning

Quoting directly from Wikipedia, Mercury poisoning can be dangerous to human health as how it’s described below:

Toxic effects include damage to the brain, kidney, and lungs.[1] Mercury poisoning can result in several diseases, including acrodynia (pink disease)[2], Hunter-Russell syndrome, and Minamata disease.[3]  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

Mercury: found in fluorescent tubes (numerous applications), tilt switches (mechanical doorbells, thermostats),[38] and flat screen monitors. Health effects include sensory impairment, dermatitis, memory loss, and muscle weakness. Environmental effects in animals include death, reduced fertility, slower growth and development.  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste

Americium is known to be carcinogenic.  To put this in another way, Americium can cause cancers.

Quoting directly from Wikipedia, Sulphur can be dangerous to human health as how it’s described below:

Sulphur: found in lead-acid batteries. Health effects include liver damage, kidney damage, heart damage, eye and throat irritation. When released in to the environment, it can create sulphuric acid.  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste

Quoting directly from Wikipedia, BFRs can be dangerous to human health as how it’s described below:

BFRs: Used as flame retardants in plastics in most electronics. Includes PBBs, PBDE, DecaBDE, OctaBDE, PentaBDE. Health effects include impaired development of the nervous system, thyroid problems, liver problems. Environmental effects: similar effects as in animals as humans. PBBs were banned from 1973-1977 on. PCBs were banned during the 1980′s.  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste

Quoting directly from Wikipedia, Beryllium Oxide can be dangerous to human health as how it’s described below:

Beryllium oxide: filler in some thermal interface materials such as thermal grease used on heatsinks for CPUs and power transistors,[41] magnetrons, X-ray-transparent ceramic windows, heat transfer fins in vacuum tubes, and gas lasers.  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste

Many developed countries acknowledge the health issues that are associating with e-waste, and so these countries have laws that restrict or ban the importation of e-waste from abroad.  Although many developing countries know the health issues that are associating with e-waste, these countries somewhat lack in regulations to prevent the importation of e-waste.  China passed law to prevent the importation of e-waste, but the law was and is ineffective from stopping the massive illegal importation of e-waste.  A YouTube video below shows desperate Chinese who work for very little money in recycling e-waste factory of sort — these folks confront with health issues and problems that are responsible by the unsafe handling of e-waste.

Europe has proposed a law that requires big electronic retailers (including online retailers) to accept e-waste from consumers.  To know more about this law, check out the article “New EU Proposals on E-waste to Help Consumers Recycle.”

In conclusion, e-waste is health hazardous when recycling or disposing e-waste improperly.  E-waste can grow faster, because electronic market has become ever more competitive.  More electronic products come out at faster pace, and prices for these products have become very affordable.  These changes encourage consumers to acquire more of newer electronic products at faster pace, giving way to filling up the landfills faster with abandoned e-waste.  Without wanting to accumulate e-waste, developed countries tend to illegally ship e-waste to developing countries for unsafe e-waste recycling and handling.  To solve the e-waste problem, we need to promote the use of greener electronic products (i.e., friendlier to the environments).  Perhaps, even that will not be able to cut back the disposable of e-waste, but at least greener e-waste (i.e., less toxic) will be somewhat safer to humans.

Sources:  http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/electronics/the-e-waste-problem/where-does-e-waste-end-up/, http://www.pcworld.com/article/241060/new_eu_proposals_on_ewaste_
to_help_consumers_recycle.html#tk.rss_news, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Electronic_waste, http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-e-waste, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning, http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Lead_poisoning, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_poisoning

If the facts are corrected, then China is now officially competing against Google in designing and producing driverless cars.  Without using GPS, China’s driverless car navigated China’s expressway which links Changsha and Wuhan successfully.  It’s not clear just yet, but it seems that China’s driverless car relies on artificial intelligence since the computer brains in the trunk of China’s driverless car decides everything.  It was smart enough to avoid obstacles and other cars by using its sensors and lasers.

According to China Daily, China’s driverless car was tested in difficult conditions such as fog and thundershower and unclear lane markings.  The test shown that China’s driverless car overtook human drivers 67 times and was able to cope with humans’ driving behaviors such as abrupt lane changes.  Perhaps, adding GPS capability to China’s driverless car will make it one of the first driverless cars to be smart and safe at the same time?

Source:  http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-08/03/content_13037633.htm

As United States and China carry out actions to beef up each own cyber security, many of us might not understand why the two countries have done so!  Even I’m not sure why, but I think I know.  I think that more governments are signed up to the idea of securing a nation’s cyber security with one thing in mind, it’s that to protect their digital integrity!

Imagine, one nation can hack into another nation digital infrastructure so the activity of rendering one’s nation banking and intelligence systems useless, the whole idea in itself is scaring the heck out of each nation.  I think by now, it’s a known fact that many nations are using the digital world to formulate all types of plans such as monitoring the intentions of the enemy!  Without staying ahead of one another, how one nation knows that its intelligence has the right information to keep its nation safe?

Albeit, physical destruction has to be the last resort, but before such measure to be carried out, I think many nations of the world will try to outmaneuver one another through the medium of Internet.  Perhaps, the Internet may be up for a consideration of total control, and who shall control the Internet?  In the meantime, more and more news are reporting about group after group of hackers have successfully penetrated and compromised important entities.  United States has had seen so much hacking activities came from China, and China denies all of that.  In return, China says that she herself is also a target of hackers.

Cnet is reporting president Obama has laid out cyberwar guidelines.  The article isn’t thorough at all, but it does point out one interesting aspect as to increase cyberwar effort.  So, I guess we are going to see a trend of evermore unrest in the digital world, whether that be coming from China or U.S. or any other country that wants to participate in the cyber conflict.  So the question is, can cyberwar be more damaging than wars that require weapons and dead bodies?