George Ure

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/George-Ure/e/B0098M3VY8%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share UrbanSurvival Bio: https://urbansurvival.com/about-george-ure/

Paths to Global War

We begin with the nagging thought (with the markets closed, and all, which we’ll get to) that 2014 could be the year that sets us firmly on the path toward global war.  It’s not a pretty thought, but it may have some basis in fact.

Let’s begin by taking a look at spiraling events in Ukraine, which our Winnipeg news analyst sums up this way:

Dear Mr. Ure,

“Espreso TV” has a live feed on “YouTube” scanning the locale of recent Ukrainian confrontations. Beneath such moving pictures of confusion, Wikipedia’s page of Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions offers helpful links for reading of well-heeled support, as well as pointing to a Ukrainian president allegedly schooled with American lobbyist knowledge.

Read More

Coping: Global Warming’s Return?

It’s a holiday.  Well, kind of, sort of, and in a way.

Despite that, I need to draw your attention to the fine work being done by colleague Grady over at the www.nostracodeus.com site.

I was going to put out a “heads up” on Friday when we started seeing a lot of “earthquake” mentions in the data – in the absence of a quake (odd thing, that).  And so this morning (more on less as expected, the quake headlines are all over the mainstream with events this morning down in New Zealand.

To be sure, this is not to make any claims that Nostracodeus can actually see the future.  We just notice that often times, in advance of a major news story (Death of Nelson Mandela, for example) we get lots of “dead” and “president” popping up in data runs in very close proximity.

Which gets us to a couple of items pending which should be make headlines here shortly.

One was something in the Saturday report, another report of a “president” and “dies” popping up, but we have no means to know is that is somehow related to today’s holiday (and the coming President’s Day next month) or to something else.  We shall wait and see.

“And WRF does this have to do with global warming?”

Ah…I was just getting to that.

The really tweaky thing to pop out when Grady ran data Sunday was “Out of Hibernation” making its arrival.  More over here.

Here’s how being a Junior News Detective works:  You look at Nostracodeus results and spy the words that are bubbling up out of the noise.  Like Hibernation.

Then you notice the weather:  Grady’s not too far from Edmonton in Saudi Alberta, which we call it because of all their oil resources.  And up there, the weather has been warmish the last several days.

Not only that, but down here in Texas, we’ve had a week or longer of what Pappy would have called “good working weather”  Lows around 50, highs around 70…just the ideal conditions to be doing outside work of almost any sort.

Couple all that with the drought building out west, the lack of rain in the Central Valley of California, and the prospect of sky-bound vegetable prices, and you can almost get the sense that maybe the animals (and bugs and snakes…) will come out of hibernation earlier than usual this year.

But wait, putting on the Sherlock hat, a quick search of Google’s news indexing shows that “hibernation” is not breaking early, just yet

Instead, there’s a pile of news surrounding the European Space Agency’s “Rosetta” spacecraft which is waking up from two years of what?  Hibernation.

But our quest doesn’t end there.

Another lead to follow shows up in The Guardian which proclaims that “Unchecked global warming ‘will double extreme El Niño weather events‘”

All of which leaves us with a big “bag of evidence” to ponder. 

We know that Rosetta is the source of a lot of “hibernation” lingo.  Yet, we also know that down at the “Humans as co-creators of reality” level, ideas mush, mulch, and meander.  This gives us strong reason not to be surprised if reports of animals coming out of hibernation early begin to appear.

And that will spell the return of the Global Warming Panic that the transfictional media keep trying to whip up.

One of the best views on the whole Warming thing come courtesy of read Joe M…

George,

Just read a British news article about the West Coast drought.  That led to the Maunder Minimum which led to the Little Ice Age (LIA) which was preceded by the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) which according to Wikipedia was similar to our climate today.  Anyone living during the MWP would certainly be concerned about global warming.  Anyone living during the LIA would certainly be concerned about global cooling (and the increase in volcanic activity…).  Those caught in the middle would be confused.

Thank the Renaissance and advent of good, scientific recordkeeping.

Throw the MWP and LIA onto a time graph, map meteorological and crop data, overlay a K-wave or five and adjust to fit, insert Elliott waves, and adjust further for man-made interventions.  Because humans en masse are predictable, voila!

Read More

Peoplenomics: Trending Out the Future

Two things to talk about this morning, since we’re way ahead of the California Drought which has become a big deal, as we expected it would: One is how the Millennial mindset and new minimalism may work against Boomers trying to unload property for years to come. And the second is an assessment of west coast port data. But, before we look under those carpets, let’s pick up our drought discussion that we forecast would pop in last weekend’s report… More for Subscribers ||| SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Snowden: Snooping Every Text / Dishfire

The latest disclosure (nightmare) for the NSA and the Obama damage control teams is the report in the UK Guardian this morning about a program called Dishfire which reads more than 200-million text messages per day.  Probably yours.

Oh,; and the really bad part of this?  (Like that’s not bad enough?)  There was no control over whose texts were involved.  It was uncontrolled and aimed at everyone. Once again, proof, as I see it, that the FISA Court has failed.  Wallpaper at its finest

The next act due (center ring) at the National Security Circus, will be Ringmaster Obama calling later today for an “overhaul” of the NSA phone data collection system.  Yeah, sure, you betcha.   But, like I’ve told you before, they wouldn’t do the reform unless the replacement was in the wings.

And gee, gosh, what’s that building outside Provo for, anyway?

Or, will an already bad idea become an outsourcing project?    As country we can’t walk and chew gum, it seems.

Waiting for California’s Drought Exodus

California Burning

As we discussed in the drought story yesterday, our preliminary pencil-pushing suggests that a modern-day Dust Bowl equivalent in California could displace 4-million people (or more) if rain doesn’t come along soon.

And this morning there’s no sign of it.  Nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the San Gabriel mountains where a fire is up to almost 2,000 acres.  Three campers have been arrested for supposedly starting it.

Further to that discouraging drought map I showed you Thursday, here’s a report in the San Joe Mercury News headline “California Drought:  Three more months of dry weather like, National Weather Service announces.”

And in San Francisco, which should be coming up on 2 1/2-inches of rain for the year, we’re still stuck at one one-hundredth on an inch for the year.  No rain for the next week or two, either.

I’m waiting for the “shower on odd days only if your last name begins A through L” to come along.

Say, you don’t think Warren Buffett bought personal care products stock Henkel do you?  Maybe the sage of Omaha looked at the long range drought forecasts and looked up, as we did, who owns the Right Guard deodorant brand…

More after this…

Housing Starts a Mess

A picture is worth a thousand words, but being too lazy to gin those up, we’ll simple serve a side order of Press Release stew here…

BUILDING PERMITS
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 986,000. This is 3.0 percent (±1.1%) below the revised November rate of 1,017,000, but is 4.6 percent (±1.1%) above the December 2012 estimate of
943,000.

Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 610,000; this is 4.8 percent (±1.0%) below the revised November figure of
641,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 350,000 in December.

An estimated 974,700 housing units were authorized by building permits in 2013. This is 17.5 percent (±0.8%) above the 2012 figure
of 829,700.

HOUSING STARTS
Privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000. This is 9.8 percent (±10.7%)* below
the revised November estimate of 1,107,000, but is 1.6 percent (±11.9%)* above the December 2012 rate of 983,000.

Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 667,000; this is 7.0 percent (±8.9%)* below the revised November figure of
717,000. The December rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 312,000.

An estimated 923,400 housing units were started in 2013. This is 18.3 percent (±2.9%) above the 2012 figure of 780,600.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS
Privately-owned housing completions in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 744,000. This is 10.8 percent (±9.9%)
below the revised November estimate of 834,000, but is 10.7 percent (±11.7%)* above the December 2012 rate of 672,000.

Dangerous Data: Double-Digit Money Spike

We notice this morning that the Dow last Friday closed very near 14,437 while the S&P last week closed at 1,842,37.  With yesterday’s close, the S&P was up a few points and the Dow was down 20 for the week. The Techs, basis last week, are doing a little better.

As long as the market holds above the 1808 S&P level, odds of a running correction before going higher seem to be in place. 

But for now, the futures point to a Dow which would end the week within a few points of last Friday…which means the whole of the financial industry could have taken the week off and it wouldn’t have mattered…

“Warning Will Rogers”

That’s the foreplay.  Now the news….

Thursday’s M1 reading shot up to a dramatic 11.4% 3-months annualized rate.  And, what’s more, the M1 on a six-months annualized basis is now 10.0%.

M2 was going up at a more measured 6.2%, but with the jack-up of M1 we can’t help but wonder is the Santa Season didn’t get a little goose from the Fed just to make sure the holidays didn’t collapse?

I wish I was selling specialty ink to the money industry.

At 9:15 this morning, the Fed will release the Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization reports.  A lot of good news and the markets could move up smartly from here ahead of the month-end Fed meeting.

French-Style Politics

Got to love politics in France.  Pictures over at Breitbart this morning of a load of manure being dumped on the doorstep of government give us all kinds of ideas.

Not of which we can speak, write, or text.

Read More

Coping: Prepping for Oil Price Whacks & EviroCops

Back on terra firma, Oilman2 added something to think about if you’re considering that idea I mentioned (buy “proven reserves” and wait).

First, read this (it’s short):

BP Expects Shale Boom in Russia and S. America to Cause Problems for Middle East

Now, look at CanUSA – 3450 rigs total with 1754 in US & Canada 804 or so.  There are 3450 land rigs in the world…..1754 + 804 = 2558 and 2558/3450 = 74%

Knowing that Shale gas and oil entail “drill or die” programs due to the nature of their depletion curves, they are proclaiming that the remaining rigs in the world all leave China, Saudi, Africa, Indonesia, etc. and go to Russia, whereupon 26% of the world fleet will perform like the 74% we have here in CanUSA…

DO NOT even get me going on how dilapidated the majority of the Russian/CIS rigs are (circa 1940 in age)…

BP is obviously smoking a unique blend of ganja, and we should invite them to meet us in Colorado where we can “share their vision”…

George, this is why most industry ‘analysts” should be drawn and quartered – they believe anything they hear over a few beers and lack any deductive reasoning capacity. 
FMTT, can I borrow your vicegrips?

Oilman2

We are also thinking through the matter of what’s a “proven reserve.”  Back in the day (when there were real oil analysts you’d be able to get reports that listed in tabular fashion “If oil is $150 then we have Y million barrels recoverable..  If the Price is $80, we have Z barrels recoverable.

They don’t call them the “good old days” for nothing.

Today it’s hard to work the numbers.  An oil company might have X in “proven reserves” but the multiplicity of factors leading to an insight on what’s profitable has tossed in so many interdependent variables has to make home calculation damn near impossible.

Some of the factors that come into play:

  • What’s the current (real) water cut in Saudi Arabia?
  • Is Venezuela stable?
  • How long are current prices expected to remain stable?
  • What’s the public mood and education level in proven reserve areas only recoverable by fracking?
  • What’s the environmental penalty cost if we frack anyway?
  • What’s the US dollar outlook, and how long is China going to keep us afloat?

I’m not going to tell you where this picture of a new kind of law enforcement came from, but once again, we see how the “federalization” of local police agencies is in full-tilt boogie.

As one reader tells us:

LE guys or government bureaucrats who take a 1, 2 or 3-day course and work for counties via the TNRCC. In short, amateur “eco-police” that aren’t likely to know what dihydrogen oxide is….

Read More

Droughtonomics – California Exodus II: 4-Million?

While the S&P is off into record setting territory and our Peoplenomics trading model is showing its stuff nicely, we need to consider the impacts of a left-field event that may lead to a California Exodus:  The quickly evolving Drought.

As you can see in the latest report out this week, the map has a big ugly spot that’s located right over the Central Valley and that’s where a good chunk of the nation’s fresh (and frozen) veggies and fruits come from.

According to the data released with the report, and I don’t think there’s an issue sharing this because it is BIG news and of public concern:

“There seems to be no relief in sight as the calendar flips over to 2014. Persistent ridging has kept precipitation at bay for many, leading to record-setting dryness for many locations in California and Oregon; this has become more of an issue of late in Washington as well.

Even though California sees no changes on this week’s map, more deterioration could be coming soon given the weather pattern, or lack thereof, and concern for water supply, fire and other impacts grows each week the rains and snows don’t come. In fact, many locations in California reported the calendar year 2013 as being the driest on record, smashing previous record dry years (including 1976).

One such example is Shasta Dam, where only 16.89 inches was reported in 2013, more than 11 inches below the previous record low of 27.99 inches in 1976. Shasta’s calendar year average is 62.72 inches. Upper elevation Sierra station snowpack and snow water equivalent (SWE) values in California have been abysmal for the Water Year (since October 1) as well. The historic low precipitation totals haven’t just been confined to the upper elevations either as dozens of locations have shattered their previous record low calendar year totals.

In the Pacific Northwest, D1 has pushed northward across western Oregon and into western Washington up to the Canadian border this week. Both snow pack and snow water equivalent SWE levels are very low as we move deeper into the wet season. In Idaho, D0 now covers the entire Panhandle and has pushed into more of extreme northwestern Montana.

Read More

Coping: Sunset in the Oil Patch

It’s an article of faith among most folks that we have more oil/energy than we know what to do with.  But, after spending some time with Oilman2 this week, talking through what’s ahead, I’m more convinced than ever that we need to be redirecting our prepping plans slightly to include the prospect of extremely tight energy supplies within the next 5-10 years.

As I’ve reported to you previously, the data suggests we have been in a slow-motion, rolling top, of Peak Energy and we’re slowly heading lower, rounding down toward the abyss.

The only thing that is keeping us stable – for the moment – is a kind of floor under oil at $90. 

Here’s the economics of it in a nutshell:

If the price of oil drops significantly, then a lot of the “new oil” suddenly doesn’t make sense: In addition to unannounced helicopter visits to oil rigs by the retooled version of the former Minerals Management Service (at a “regulatory fee” $25,000 a pop, a price which gets rolled into oil prices), there’s the increasing cost of rig rentals, seismic studies, liability insurance, and all that. 

Bottom line?  Forget about really cheap oil.  I doubt that we’ll see $75 oil for a long time, although that really depends on how bad demand collapse is when the stock and bond bubble ends badly in a year or three.

On the other hand, if the price of oil goes significantly higher, then it pushes inflation through the pipeline.  When that happens, the rental on money begins to rise (interest rates if you’re not awake), labor rates go up and all the bad stuff turns into a horrific vicious cycle.

Interest rates rise, business collapses, oil demand collapses, and we come back to $100 oil…except it will be $110 oil.  Then another pop up and a collapse back to $120 oil…and what used to be the ‘Merican middle class totters off into the sunset to becomes footnote in history.  We join the illegal immigrants and except for the language, we turn into Mexico. 

Think of it as the Great Crookification already underway.  We already have the corruption working its way up, the buying of politicians, though shielded as “campaign contributions” is still graft, just better marketed. But, a purchase, nevertheless.  I digress.

The other problem Oilman2 gripes about is the large number of “worms” in the oil industry.  A worm, in case you  skipped our class “Coon-ass Rig Talk 101,” is roughly the equivalent of a “newbie” in computers. A lot of the young-uns coming up almost need to be burped every time a new joint is turned-up.

Oil timers who know the rig business are quickly cashing in heading for the exits.  In the rig business an OF is age 45…and many see what’s coming – much  more starkly than makes it into the transfictional media buzz.

With this as stage-setting, OM2 sent me a follow-up overnight with some details about the latest “hot” area in oil:  The Eagle Ford Shale Play which runs in a band from the lower Rio Grande Valley area of southwest Texas, up to the northeast, passing south of San Antonio and Austin, but stopping a hundred miles, or so, short of our oil country (Palestine Dome).

From that article OM2 tells me this part is key:

“We’re drilling shale not because it’s a good idea but because we’ve exhausted all other good opportunities,” he says. “It’s all we got left. When this is done, we’re done.”

On this shale drilling stuff, I have been right from the get-go. This is the “rolling price plateau” now, and this type of extraction removes recharging mechanism for shallower fields above the Eagle Ford. The 4000′ depth described in this article is the shallowest workable portion of the play – most of it is below 10,000′.

If you could get onto some of these private ranches and see the mess, smell it everywhere, hit the potholes in all the roads…you would be amazed and not in a happy way.

This means (for us in the USA) that when we hit the wall on these shale plays, we hit it hard and at a good clip.

Read More

Do We Really Need Government?

At least as we now know it… In many of my recent UrbanSurvival and Peoplenomics columns, I have asked whether there isn’t a Terrible Vortex ahead, somewhere a year or two out, when misguided government policies all come home to roost at the same time? The question is particularly pertinent because of recent disclosures about governments spying on civilians (non-suspects) in an effort to do for the present day with computers, what the McCarthy Era did for rabid anti-communists one long-wave economic cycle ago. As usual, we try not to ask questions we don’t already know the answers to, but not without coffee first…and then we’ll get down to whatever happened to Robin Hood and since when did robbing ‘hoods take become acceptable?

The –39% Baltic Dry Problem

“What the hell is the Baltic Dry problem and why are we being harangued about that on this fine Tuesday morning?” The Baltic Dry is an index of ocean shipping activity (by Dry Ships) that shows up most places on a delayed basis. You can see it updated yourself at www.dryships.com (see the market info) and then it lands in charts like this one over here with the symbol BDIY.

Personal Prepping: “The Vortex” Arrives in Five Years

Later this morning, my friend Oilman2 will be dropping by for one of our occasional face-times where we discuss different items we’re both eyeing with some suspicion.

The biggest one is reliability of energy… and an overnight email in advance of our meeting explains why Peak Oil is still on our agenda and now, once again, moving up the strategic planning priority:

I don’t know if you saw this one, but it might be good for those Peak Oil deniers – those that also deny other things that discomfit them…

That link takes you to an OilPrice.com article, which in turn, references the underlying World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Administration.

Unlike Global Warming – now in a small reprieve due to the cyclical reduction in solar output – the Peak Oil problem has not gone away.  Instead, it’s been swept under the rug.   Some of the perps are in the industry itself, while others occupy government positions at almost all levels.

Under one corner of the carpet, for example, we find continuing evidence (that we’ve been discussing around here for three years, or longer): There is a statistical relationship between fracking and increased upper strata earthquake activity.

People up in Oklahoma in the flatlands east of OKC have known that for several years, and we hear low-level grumbles around it when we go up to meet with Robin Landry in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  From about there, up to the northwest maybe 50 miles, there’s been something of a drilling festival, and the low-level quakes seem to be a result.

Looking up into the Square States, there was an article in the Kansas City Star this weekend that’s directly on point: “Shaking Kansas: With an increase in earthquakes, many wonder if fracking is the cause…”

Oftentimes, it is not the fracking itself that’s the problem: It’s what to do with the polluted waste waster that is often pumped back into the ground.  Stories like “Groundwater contamination may end the Gas-fracking Boom” that showed up in Scientific American, are definitely telling us something.

In fact, just 10-days ago, USA Today was outing how “4 states confirm water pollution from drilling.”

Then there was the major lawsuit settlement in Pennsylvania where a landowner’s settlement for groundwater pollution ($750,000 was widely reported) but so anxious were the attorneys to keep details away from the public that even the children were put under gag orders. Life-long, no less.

Then there has been the ongoing ethics collision over fracking.  You may remember the state of Pennsylvania defeated a physician’s lawsuit which challenged the states gag-order on informing patients about the risks of fracking.  Clearly, Big Oil has Big Influence.  As the people of Oklahoma, Kansas, and elsewhere are learning.

Read More

Yawnday Morning Deflationary Blues

The price of oil is heading down, even more.  It has taken out $92 on the futures this morning and it is yet-another reason why in about three weeks, I don’t expect the Fed to do much more than sit around and announce further assaults on the public’s hearing, as they continue to attempt what’s never been done before.

Which is?  Oh, as we’ve been telling Peoplenomics readers:  Stepping on the gas (printing/inflation) just slightly faster than the underlying (deflation/collapse) that has been ongoing from 2000.  That’s when things hit the round-rotator, but since the End of the World doesn’t do much for ad sales, the networks have not been too keen reporting on it.

So we are being bludgeoned to death by media reports of the innocuous.  So yes, as this Monday in the mines begins again, Ariel Sharon is still dead, Dennis Rodman is still talking about North Korea, and we see bread and circuses in full bloom as we arrive at the silly-season of football.

Here, take one of these-here cynical pills, and lets get real, or at least honestly transfictional, shall we?

1.  The death of Ariel Sharon is a key loss for Israel.  But the next “biggy” related to the story will be finding out if the Rabbi Kaduri prophesy (of a Jewish Messiah announcing himself in Jerusalem) comes true.  Not likely today.  You’ll need your “Date the Messiah Shows Up” app running for that one.

2.  The adventures of Dennis Rodman are telling us something about the future:  Expect all US Secretaries of State to henceforth be required to pass a singing audition, as well as produce a certification that they have played at least one season of professional sports.  The only question is whether wresting ought to qualify, but we already know the answer is “Hell yes!”  That way the truth-slinging Jesse Ventura would be a candidate.

3.  We will also be watching for officials of CERN to load up all their equipment and arrive at Super Bowl XLVIII.  The reason?  They may learn something about how time-warps really work since nowhere else can you see one-hour morph into four-hours and 100-million people don’t notice.

But hey, this column isn’t about cynical coverage of the news in general, except that everything is connected to everything else. 

It’s really all about finance.  But if I simply told you modest gains occurred overnight in Asia and Europe, which means some of the “hot money” will leave the market this morning, but the week should end up…” that wouldn’t be very exciting, now, would it?

The good news about deflation (which is there is the data) is that a $10 stock when rates were 5% is now a $50 stock when rates are 0.5%.  So the market is still going up.

Until, of course, it doesn’t.  In the meantime?  It’s Yawnday morning.

Later on today, transfictional arrives full-force with release of the monthly Treasury budget.  Tomorrow there’s retail sales which will give us a belated “Ho-ho” or another “Oh-0h…”  Wednesday brings PPI  (producer prices) and the Fed Beige Book. And that will lead up to the CPI data Thursday, before we wind up the week with housing starts Friday.

I’ll be sure to set an alarm.  In the meantime, relax.  The world is in for another day.

More after this.

Quakes:  Not the Big One / Quaketans

Since we are popping cynical this morning, we might as well get this one out of the way.  Yes, there was a 6.5 earthquake down off Puerto Rico overnight, but NO it is not a Big One or any kind of “I told you so” that I’m sure quake predictors will claim it to be as fulfilling of this forecast, or that.  Crap.

So let’s look at the data, shall we?  This is down in that area where there has been a lot of minor quake action over the past couple of years.  But calling it a “big one” qualifies for a place in my Charlatan’s Hall of Fame, since the data is really clear, but the Quaketans know the public is pretty dumb.

Earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 (or larger) have been in decline since 2011.  And, in fact, there were only a half-dozen, or so, last month.  Since the normal on 6+ quakes has been running up around 13-15 per month, you can predict a 6.0 or larger quake and always be right within a week,  and often 2-days at least until here lately.

But, if you consider the Sun’s output is at many-hundred years lows, even here on the backside of the peak,  it would make sense that matter condensation as crustal expansion just went to lunch.  Which is what earthquake predictors are out to, if they claim this quake had any significance.

Get back to me when there’s a 8.0 or larger, please.  And not predicted in general terms like “soon” or “just ahead.”  I want a date and without it, fortune-telling is just that: A tax on the statistically inept.

The “Short Course on Robust Statistics” from David Tyler of Rutgers, is online here and worth review if you’re rusty.  I’ll be the guy waving the “How big is n?” sign.

On the other hand, if this is the morning that a massive undersea earth slide happens off in the Canary Islands, and sends 57-foot rollers slamming ashore along the East Coast, well then, maybe the doomsters get a pass.  But, in the meantime, that’s going to happen anyway, and just like a broken watch that’s right twice a day, one of these eons, they’ll be right.  Their larger problem is living the 6,343 years to have a good chance of calling it.

See what I mean about Yawnday?

Except for China’s First War, Of Course

Say what?  Yes, “Chinese troops to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines this year.  The Chinese say the Philippines stole it and they’re going to wage it as a “contained war” for it now.

With this ramping up in the background, we see state media is out with “Xinhua Insight:  Silent revolution of “made-in-China” is being put out there.

No doubt a none-too-subtle nudge to remind the USA that we couldn’t even build the F-35 fighter without Chinese parts..  And yes, Honeywell’s being investigated over that, but the messaging is pretty clear, don’tcha think?

The whole world is noticing this, and unsurprisingly, it shows up as big news on Iran’s state run news site.

War Gaming

Just between us, you should enjoy this Yawnday morning because next Monday is when the Iran nuclear plan is supposed to go into effect.

Read Time Magazine’s sketch of the plan over here, and then ask yourself how much breathing room Israel will offer in the event of delays getting the plan implementation rolling?  Months or minutes?  Bets in, please.  Flash goggles optional.

Is This Really News?

Golden Globes.  Weird speech of the event?  Jacqueline Bisset.   Ronan Farrow’s dump on Woody Allen is not really news, unless family laundry is your ticket.

Better: Deseret News’ collection of Christie quips…worth a smile.

CES: Coming for Your Job / Crop Circles

Yes, 3D printers are quite the rage at the Consumer Electronics show (more in Coping).  Oh, and a Peoplenomics subscriber as this gem of a footnote…

Hi George, spent three exhausting days at CES last week. I cornered a rep at the nVidia booth and asked him about the “crop circle” near Salinas.

Read More

Coping: Robots, Digital Hoboes & Transfictional Life

Yet another indication that the US (and world) are headed for a terrible economic outcome is piled high with extra ‘relish’ this morning:  A company called Momentum Machines has been developing a machine that will displace the last retreat of the marginalized and unemployed:  The burger-flipping job.

To be sure, it almost sounds like a Popeil ad: slices things like pickles and fries up to 360-burgers per hour.

All of which gets us to commiserating with you on the whole “Damn, it’s Monday and I don’t want to get out of bed” thing.

But maybe not for much longer.  According to Wikipedia:

The United States has the largest fast food industry in the world, and American fast food restaurants are located in over 100 countries. Approximately 4.1 million U.S. workers are employed in the areas of food preparation and food servicing, including fast food in the USA.[11] Worries of an obesity epidemic and its related illnesses have inspired many local government officials in the United Sates to propose to limit or regulate fast-food restaurants. However, some areas are more affected than others. In Los Angeles County, for example, about 45% of the restaurants in South Central Los Angeles are fast-food chains or restaurants with minimal seating. By comparison, only 16% of those on the Westside are such restaurants

About here, one of two things is likely to happen.  If you’re over 50, you might remember the cartoons from the days of yore that included robo-restaurants that were called “automats” and many a cartoon was built around this notion:

Originally, the machines in U.S. automats took only nickels.[1] In the original format, a cashier would sit in a change booth in the center of the restaurant, behind a wide marble counter with five to eight rounded depressions in it. The diner would insert the required number of coins in a machine and then lift a window, which was hinged at the top, to remove the meal, which was generally wrapped in waxed paper. The machines were filled from the kitchen behind. All or most New York automats also had a cafeteria-style steam table where patrons could slide a tray along rails and choose foods, which were ladled out of steaming tureens.

Read More

Left Field Alert: California Exodus?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a major state – like California – just had to up and quit doing business in the ways it always had? What would be the impacts? That’s the question we ponder this morning as we look at a possible “left field event” (black swan or outlier is also used) that may be developing right now. It’s also a story of political intrigue involving a frog – and maybe someone behind the scenes running an agenda. First, however coffee and munchies as we spin up the brainerator for weekend use…

+ More