All posts by Lonewriter

Business, Culture

Who’s The Smartest Guy In The Room?

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Or perhaps the title should have been “Who’s the biggest CRETIN in the room?”

During all the devastation that was happening in Texas due to Hurricane Harvey, a panel on a business show was debating what the best money play is to profit from the disaster. This was the day after the hurricane made landfall and the first inkling of the devastation was shown.

The panel was discussing what would make a better investment play, new car sales or large used car dealerships.

Okay, I understand that investing is generally a “someone wins and someone loses” system, but this discussion about how to maximize a return as people are dying, losing their homes, trying to find shelters was a bit too disgusting for me. Three guys sitting around in suits inside of a comfy studio nonchalantly speculating on how best to capitalize on the suffering was abhorrent. Couldn’t they have had a bit of humanity and saved this discussion for a later date?

I believe that these “investors” were mostly trying to prove on national television how smart they were. First to come to the profit party. To me they only proved how worthless they are as human beings.

I remember a similar incident in the 1980s.  A volcano erupted in Columbia and buried tens of thousands of people in mud and ash. “Investors” were speculating on coffee futures because of the devastation.  Nothing like profiting on death and destruction of brown people in South America.

It’s not always about money!

I encourage anyone who is reading my musings to donate to the Red Cross or Samaritan’s Purse or to any other agency of your choosing, to help in the disaster relief.  Whatever amount you can, no matter how small or large.

Culture, Technology

Progressives, Smash Your Cellphones!

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Okay, show of hands. Raise them if you believe that all references to a RACIST past should be erased from this country’s collective memory. Progressives, let me see those hands raised high!

If you are holding your hand up, use your other hand, pull out your cellphone, and smash it into the ground. This will show that you don’t want anything to do with such a symbol of a RACIST past.

Why is a cellphone a symbol of racism, you might be asking?  Let me explain.

A key component in the cellphone is the TRANSISTOR. It is what makes modern electronics possible.  Who invented the transistor? William Shockley.

William who?

Dr. William Shockley was an MIT PhD who headed up the research group at Bell Labs and his team invented the TRANSISTOR. Shockley was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work. The good doctor founded his own company Shockley Semiconductors in Palo Alto, CA and he later became a professor at Stanford University. During the 1950s and 1960s he aggressively commercialized the semiconductor business which in turn created the billionaire’s center known as SILICON VALLEY.

How is your cellphone a symbol of racism?

Later in life Dr. Shockley believed that his greatest contribution to the world was NOT the TRANSISTOR, but his work on EUGENICS.

Quoting Dr. Shockley,

“My research leads me inescapably to the opinion that the major cause of the American Negro’s intellectual and social deficits is hereditary and racially genetic in origin and, thus, not remediable to a major degree by practical improvements in the environment.”

Shockley advocated that anyone with an IQ of less than 100 should be STERILIZED to prevent their genes from swimming in the future gene pool.

Nice guy.  This checkered past of electronics is something those of us from the old school engineering world knew about.  I suspect the younger folks may not have been exposed to this dirty little secret.

So Progresissies, step up and smash those cellphones and get rid of that reminder of overt RACISM!

You’re willing to smash stuff other people paid for but you’re NOT going to smash your own toys?

I didn’t think you would… #I’M A PUSSY

Culture, Finance, Government

Subsidizing The Disadvantaged

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This came to my attention from the good folks at Adafruit.com.

The Chinese company “Orange Pi” in Shenzhen, China is manufacturing and selling a powerful tiny computer selling for $35 US with some versions less than $9 US. It does 4K high-definition video, has 2 GBytes of RAM, WiFi, Ethernet, USB, and has a quad core processor running at 1.8 GHz.

Orange Pi is currently selling 40,000 units per month and predict sales to increase to 100,000 units per month by year end.  The company plans to sell 150 million units in the next 3 years. That dear reader is $5,250,000,000.00 (over $5 BILLION DOLLARS) in sales.

The interesting part is that the head of “Orange Pi”, Steven Zhao, in an interview with “Minimachines.net” states that the selling price of their computer only covers the cost of materials. In other words they are SELLING IT AT A LOSS and they are NOT recouping the cost to develop the computer (engineering), pay for the premises (offices or factory), pay for any capital equipment to design and manufacture, or pay for employees. When asked how they can have a business that loses money on everything they make, Mr. Zhao openly said “WE ARE SUBSIDIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT“.  That’s one way to quickly dominate a market and eliminate the competition.

Okay but that’s not all folks.  The fair trade deal gets better, at least for the Chinese.

Notice that I mentioned it costs $4 US to send the computer, over 7000 miles, in a box to the good old USA. It is delivered by what’s called an ePacket by the United States Postal Service. To ship the same package from the US to China would cost over $20!  How can they ship it so cheaply?

The United States Taxpayer SUBSIDIZES the shipping of goods from CHINA to the US!!! The Chinese appreciate the generosity of YOU the US Taxpayer!

Now you might ask, why am I subsidizing the Chinese manufacturers who are taking American jobs? The answer is that China, even though it is the SECOND LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD, is an “EMERGING COUNTRY” in the eyes of the United Nations run UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION or UPU. China is lumped in with powerhouse countries such as Gabon, Jamaica, and Kazakhstan.  As a member in good standing with the UN, you the taxpayer get to do what the UN tells you is the RIGHT thing to do.

Raise your empty glasses (as you may not have a job to fill it) to the United States and China for creating another multi-billion dollar company, in China!  Don’t you feel all nice and warm inside knowing that you are helping out all those disadvantaged workers in China?