Category Archives: Technology

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Government, Corporate & Media Incompetence! Radiation monitoring devices shown to be inaccurate! $1.8 million to fix the problem!

08 November 2012, Japan’s Science Ministry discovered that 675 radiation detectors, placed around Fukushima Daiichi, are reading at least 10% below actual radiation levels!

Since April 2011 the monitors have been uploading radiation readings to the internet, in real time.

The Science Ministry investigated their devices because independent radiation detection by local governments, and individuals, were consistently higher than the national Science Ministry’s data.  Something I’ve pointed out in past postings, but of course the main stream media goes with official national government data.

In March 2012, residents of Fukushima Prefecture reported that the national government data was too low.  They were ignored.  In April 2012, Green Peace reported that radiation levels were much higher than what the national government was reporting.  Green Peace was blown off.   Even independent Japanese reporters risked their lives going into the radiation contamination zone, then posted their video on YouTube, in some cases showing their radiation detectors pegging at higher than officially reported levels.  They were ignored.

The Science Ministry now says the data from individuals and local governments are correct. The 675 defective official radiation monitors were constructed with the battery housing blocking the radiation detectors’ sensors!

It will now cost Japanese taxpayers $1.8 million USD to fix the problem!

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Corporate Incompetence: Two nuclear reactors shut down due to thousands of faulty parts! Three more reactors to follow!

05 November 2012, two nuclear power reactors in Korea, south, have been shut down due to the discovery of thousands of potentially faulty parts.

Government officials (Knowledge Economy Ministry) say they discovered that at least eight parts suppliers have been lying about the reliability of those parts.  Officials suspect that at least 5,233 bad parts are being used in five nuclear reactors.

The parts include things like fuses and switches.  Officials say they are not parts directly related to the nuclear reactors and their radioactive fuel.  However, the reactor shut downs will greatly impact electric power supply in the Republic of Korea, officials say it will take several months to replace all the parts.

I did not find any reports indicating if the faulty parts might have been the cause of two emergency shut downs back in August.  Korea (south) currently has 23 nuclear reactors in operation. They hope to have 39 by the Gregorian/Western/Christian calender year 2030.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? 3M says sales in the U.S. will continue to fall for years to come! Blames crashing solar power demand in U.S.!

“We will continue our Hefei project, which includes 12 big buildings. I believe, as a clean and stable energy, solar must be promising in the future. I don’t think the behavior of the EU and the U.S. is proper.”-Kenneth Yu, 3M China operations

31 October 2012, U.S. based 3M expects its U.S. sales to fall for the next five to ten years, and they expect China to become their number one market.

In their latest quarterly report, 3M showed a big jump in revenues from Canada and Latin America, up 10.5%.  The United States had increased sales of 2.3%. Sales in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia were flat.  However, 3M officials think that over the next decade their sales will boom in China.

They say they will streamline their operations, with their consumer and office supplies division looking like it will be drastically cut due to flat profits.  3M will continue investing in future markets.

3M has already invested $1.2 billion USD in China since 1984.  For the next five years the corporation, formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is investing $120 million in the solar power industry in China.

3M officials say global demand for solar power products are booming, and China is likely to become the center of the global solar power industry.

As an example of government incompetence, President Barack Obama, with support from the Republican controlled Congress, enacted outrageous tariffs on solar products from China.  It was the death blow to struggling Hoku Materials in Pocatello, Idaho.

The newly built polysilicon factory, in southeast Idaho, had locals hopeful that hundreds of desperately needed good paying jobs would be available.  Hoku’s contracts were with Chinese solar product companies that were directly affected by the tariffs.

Now it looks like U.S. based 3M is jumping ship for better shores in China.

Business/Economics, International, Technology

What Economic Recovery? Sharp projects record loss for 2012!

01 November 2012, yet another Japanese electronics maker announced they are losing money big time, and for the second year in a row.  Sharp predicts it will lose at least $5.6 billion USD by March 2013 (the end of the Japanese fiscal year)!

From April to September 2012 Sharp lost nearly $5 billion, 80% more than they originally predicted!  As other Japanese electronics makers, they blame crashing TV sales.

Sharp officials say they will now layoff 10,000 employees and sell assets.  They’ve also taken on a $4.6 billion bailout loan.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3 & What Economic Recovery? Japan to suspend elections to avoid fiscal cliff? Part of IMF’s fiscal consolidation order? Growing regional disputes with China?

“We shouldn’t create at will a political vacuum that would cause policies to stall.”-Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan, 29 October 2012

The “political vacuum” the Prime Minister is talking about concerns his loss of political power: “Noda wants to delay the day of reckoning as long as possible. Who would call an election now knowing that over 100 parliament seats would be lost, putting the party on the brink of collapse?”-Harumi Arima, political analyst

Noda is using the now catastrophic Japanese economy as an excuse not to dissolve the Lower House of Parliament: “If the situation is left as it is, administrative services could stall, which would seriously affect people’s livelihoods and thwart efforts to revive the economy.”-Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan, 29 October 2012

Dissolving the Lower House is a necessary step in Japan, before elections can be held.

The above statements were made two days ago. Today, 31 October 2012, Noda confronted critics, saying he will decide when the time is right for elections, and the time will be right only when the economic situation is properly addressed: “I will make a decision on the dissolution after doing some necessary tasks and preparing responses to the economic situation.”-Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan, 31 October 2012

Just how bad is the economy in Japan?  For one, the Japanese government has more debt than the Greek government.

For two, Japanese companies are experiencing huge drops in sales, so much so that tens of thousands of Japanese have lost their jobs in the past year alone.

For three: “The situation is worse than we had expected earlier, and we have a severe outlook for the second half. Digital consumer businesses such as TV, cameras, Blu-ray disc players and PCs worsened faster than we had expected three months ago.”-Hideaki Kawai, CFO Panasonic

For four: “We don’t see when bad news will stop coming out.”-Kazuyuki Terao, Allianz Global Investors Japan Co.

Prime Minister Noda stated today, that before elections could be held he wanted policies passed that would issue debt covering bonds, drastically change the retirement program for Japanese, and other additional economic austerity measures by the end of November.  These are inline with what the International Monetary Fund ordered just days ago.

Noda also admitted that he wanted the right environment to correct the disparity in Lower House, meaning he wanted to make sure his political party got most of the seats!

Delaying elections is also about maintaining regional power, with the backing of the United States.

Two days ago Noda mentioned growing disputes between China, Russia and Korea, South: “Achieving relationships of trust with surrounding countries such as China, South Korea and Russia, with a comprehensive view, strengthens the foundations on which Japan and the whole region enjoy peace and prosperity. It is one of the grave responsibilities a country has to fulfill.”

Business/Economics, International, Technology

What Economic Recovery? Panasonic predicts more massive losses! Suspends dividend payments for first time! Chairman cuts his own pay by 40%!

31 October 2012, one of Japan’s electronics giants, Panasonic, announced massive losses by the end of their fiscal year.

Panasonic officials say they expect to have suffered a net loss of more than $9 billion USD by March 2013!   They already lost $8.6 billion from April to September 2012!

For the first time in 62 years it is suspending dividend payments to stockholders!  Company officials say they are now forced to “restructure unprofitable operations”.  That’s industry code for shut factories down and lay people off (they already laid off 39,000 people in 2011!).  But unlike greedy unAmerican Corporate America leaders, the boss of Panasonic said he was cutting his own pay by 40%!

Just like other Japanese electronics makers, Panasonic blames the huge losses on crashing TV and camera sales.  Panasonic lost $9.7 billion in 2011!

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Dow Chemical to close 20 factories, despite making profits! Warns economy is getting worse!

“Economic growth in 2012 has slowed to a trickle, and that has spooked a lot of people.”-Jake Dollarhide, Longbow Asset Management

“Our low cost feedstock [natural gas] advantage enabled us to deliver volume growth, despite weakening demand. These difficult conditions [bad economy] may have extended staying power, as the new reality is that we are operating in a slow growth and volatile world.”-Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical CEO

On 24 October 2012, Liveris explained the 2,400 job cuts (inadvertently announced the day before) as being necessary because Dow officials see the world economy getting worse.

Some analysts were surprised by the elimination of jobs and 20 factories: “Dow had very strong volumes in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. When I heard the announcement they were cutting jobs, I thought they had a really bad quarter, but it seems that business is A-OK.”-Hassan Ahmed, Alembic Global Advisors

Stock market investors are overjoyed at the announcement of the elimination of jobs (as they always are), and Dow Chemical stock values shot up 5 to 6% the morning after the job cuts were announced.

Dow reported net revenue for this past quarter at $582 million USD.  But that’s down from the same quarter last year, when they reported $900 million. (note: various U.S. media sources are reporting slightly different revenue numbers) Dow officials say their sales are down across the board.  The only area they see possible increase in sales is in their plastics made from cheap natural gas.

Their natural gas supplies come from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico operations, and Saudi Arabia.  Dow has no plans for cutting workers from those operations. About 1,500 of the job losses will come from Dow’s paint and solar cell factories.

20 factories in Japan, Belgium, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain and the United States will be closed.  Bloomberg reports that Dow did not want to make the layoffs public, but mistakenly emailed the announcement to some media outlets!

Despite stock investors buying up Dow stock, the chemical company said it will also cut $500 million from their own investing and capital spending.   That’s the exact opposite of what U.S. President Barack Obama has been saying is needed to revive the economy.  Obama has been stressing that unAmerican Corporate America needs to increase spending on investments and capital.

 

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Some Economic Recovery? GM & HP make deal to end outsourcing! GM software deal and new tablet could save HP?

22 October 2012, General Motors (GM) and Hewlett Packard (HP) announced a deal that will see 3,000 HP employees go to work for GM.

GM officials claim it’s part of a plan to reduce outsourcing and increase in-house operations, at least when it comes to information technology.

Randy Mott, GM Chief Information Officer, stated that when it comes to IT work, it’s more efficient and cost effective if done in-house: “These agreements with HP will enable us to accelerate the progress of our IT transformation by delivering increased innovation and speed of delivery to our GM business partners, and reduce the cost of ongoing IT operations…”

With IT workers they’re able to change projects rapidly, no need to re-tool  factories.

But don’t think this is actually 3,000 new jobs, as, according to Automotive News, most of the HP employees already do outsourced work for GM. According to InformationWeek, those HP workers are actually being hired away from HP, meaning they will become full fledged in-house GM employees (so this allows HP to layoff those employees, right into GM jobs).  Reports vary on how long this new deal will last, one report said it was multi-year.

A couple of weeks ago GM said they were going to hire 2,000 IT people in Michigan and Texas, but no clarification if this is part of the HP deal.  GM also said it would open new software centers.

Another part of the deal is that GM will buy software from HP for its IT operations.  HP officials called it “…the largest deployment of our full software portfolio in the world!”-George Kadifa, executive VP of HP Software

Add that to HP’s new Envy X2 hybrid tablet (which some reviewers are raving about) and maybe HP will be on its way back up, and even challenge Apple.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Sony to force 2,000 employees into early retirement!

19 October 2012, four years later and still losing money, electronics giant Sony says it’s forced to push 2,000 Japanese employees into early retirement.

This means those employees will have much less retirement money coming to them, with reduced or no benefits.  That means people not able to spend as much money as they planned, pushing the consumer driven economy further down.

The new announcement could be part of the already planned layoffs of 10,000 employees worldwide.  Even so, Sony admits the job cuts will have limited impact on revenue.  That’s because of all the people who’s incomes have dropped, or ceased all together (no thanks to the too Big to Fail Corporations/Banks), who can no longer buy the latest high tech electronic devices!

Sony is also closing a Japanese factory that makes lenses for digital cameras.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, Technology, U.S.

World War 3 & What Economic Recovery? USS Stennis joins up with USS Washington near Myanmar. On way to Iran, or preps for war with China? Employing new Advanced Precision Kill Weapons. An example of what’s wrong with the U.S. economy!

“As the Asia-Pacific region continues to grow in importance, we must ensure we are capable of operating in a complex environment in order to continue to promote peace, cooperation and stability here.”-Rear Admiral Chuck Gaouette, commander of the Stennis CSG

12 October 2012, two Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) led by USS Stennis and the USS Washington, conducted joint flight operations and anti-submarine drills in the Andaman Sea.

The Andaman Sea is just west of Myanmar.  The two CSGs employ more than 10,000 USN and USMC personnel.

Rear Admiral Gaouette mentions the importance of increasing the presence of the United States in the Asia Pacific area (aka forward presence operations), but no mention of the original plan to send the USS Stennis to the Persian Gulf.

At the beginning of 2012, Iranian military officials gave a dire warning: “…we are not in the habit of repeating a warning and we warn only once.”-Major General Ataollah Salehi, Iranian Army, 03 January 2012 threat against USS Stennis

Iranians claim the USS Stennis deliberately sailed through Iranian naval war games, and sailed danger close to Iranian oil platforms.

In July it was announced the USS Stennis would return to the Persian Gulf, four months ahead of schedule. The aircraft carrier left its home port in Bremerton, Washington, on 27 August 2012 for an eight month deployment.

So far, the two CSGs have spent a lot of time in and around the now hotly disputed South China Sea.  Most of the countries that border the South China Sea are currently in a war of words over who has rights to access natural resources, mainly petroleum.  Those countries include Korea, Japan and China.

In September it was revealed that the Stennis CSG is armed with a new Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS). These weapons come from a Red Coat British empire company, BAE.

The APKWS is basically “…a standard unguided 2.75-inch (70 millimeter) rocket into a precision laser guided rocket to give warfighters a low cost surgical strike capability.”-BAE statement

Admiral Jonathan Greenert says the updated short range missile (now that it’s guided it’s a missile) system is needed to fight off smaller Iranian attack ships. Greenert wants all U.S. military vessels, deploying to the Persian Gulf, to be equipped with the BAE system.   Reports are confusing as it seems the Stennis CSG is not completely updated with APKWS.  Greenert said the cost to update a CSG is about $250 million (U.S. taxes going to make money for the Red Coats).

BAE is the result of a merger between British Aerospace and Marconi Electronics. It is the sixth largest military contractor for the United States. They just won a $97 million U.S. taxpayer dollar contract to “reset” Bradley armored personnel carriers  (more U.S. taxes going to make money for the Red Coats).

Speaking of U.S. taxpayer money being spent outside the U.S., according to officials with the city of Phuket, Thailand, U.S. military personnel spent up to $326,000 USD during their five day shore leave. And that’s just one out of dozens of port of calls made by the U.S. Navy and Marines around the world.

U.S. military personnel are paid with tax dollars, but while thousands of sailors and Marines are spending hundreds of thousands of U.S. taxes in foreign ports (for who knows what), their loved ones back home in the states are spending money to donate items to sailors and Marines!

According to he Wythe-Bland Navy for Moms project, for the end of year holiday season at least 4,800 care packages and cards will be sent to USN and USMC personnel (supposedly most people back in the states think these highly paid warriors are somehow deprived).

Someone should do a study to see how much is spent in the U.S. on care packages versus how much is spent by USN and USMC (as well as USAF & USA) personnel in other countries!

Don’t bitch at me! I’m former military, as is my father, uncle, grandfathers, great grandfathers, and my son (until he had a stroke, which the USA conveniently label “prior existing condition” so he doesn’t get VA help!).  What I can’t stand is inefficiency, waste and ignorance. Here we have prime examples of U.S. taxpayer money being spent on weapon systems made by foreigners, U.S. military personnel spending huge amounts of their taxpayer funded paychecks in the countries they visit rather than at home where the economy is going down the toilet, and their loved ones struggling to put together care packages ’cause they think that somehow their warriors are deprived!?

The city of Phuket, Thailand, also reported that 19 sailors (only 19 out of the thousands that make up a CSG?) volunteered to help build a drainage line for rainwater runoff at an orphanage.