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Caterpillar Expects New Rival To Emerge From China
Caterpillar Expects New Rival To Emerge From China - WSJ
I would not be surprised if Caterpillar's name in China has a big target next to it. The other US company I would worry about is Boeing (China has been working to improve their aerospace industry with forced joint manufacturing (technology transferes) and subsidies. Europe grew Airbus using only subsidies.
China has already done similar work on building home grown competitors in networking (Habei), Automotive (forced joint manufacturing with technology transfer), and bullet trains (Japanese Manufacturers). Labels: made in china
Scam Targeting High School Graduates
My daughter got a letter last night from Vector Marketing presenting an opportunity for a $16 an hour job.
I did a bit of googling, and it is a scam.
With the high teen unemployment rate, I don't think a lot of companies that target teens for direct sales jobs, where you need to buy the demo kit first ($200).
References:
Vector Marketing Scam - Spam Laws
Cutco Cutlery - It's a Scam, but the Knives Are FantasticLabels: spam
Youku, China's No. 1 video site, signs deal with Warner Bros.
I am surprised at the deal.
Some Guesses:
May be the thought by the government is there is so much online piracy in China anyway, that there is no cost to give permission for the streaming of western movies legally in China?
Or is this prevention from allowing the streaming by Western Firms directly over the Internet, such as NetFlix?
Or something else?
Youku, China's No. 1 video site, signs deal with Warner Bros. - LA Times Labels: Learn Chinese DVD for kids
China firms face research armies
China wrestles with food safety problems
Sad article. The root cause seems to be corruption, lack of an FDA type agency, and punitive secrecy (speak up and end up in jail).
China wrestles with food safety problems - LA Times
Good article. I did not realize the China does not have an equivalent to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Authority in China involves several different agencies (only 2 in the US, Department of Agriculture and FDA). Labels: china food safety, Chinese Food
Prada Made in China?
Per the Wall Street Journal, 20% of Prada's products are made in China. The reasoning is China has excellent manufacturing, especially in shoes.
Prada also has manufacturing in Vietnam, Turkey, and Romania.
The question is if buyers become aware of many Prada products are made outside of Italy, will they still pay a premium for the Prada name?
Prada Is Making Fashion in China - WSJ Labels: made in china
China's Conflict Handbags
I am surprised at the amount of high end, luxury brand name bags that are being made in China, in pretty bad conditions, by a Korean owned company. The potential for bad publicity I would have thought would have made the brands super careful. I would hope that nobody would want to be like Nike, and get mentioned in Doonesbury.
Michael Kors, DKNY, Burberry, Kate Spade, and and Coach are supposed made at one factory with the bad working conditions!
Great article to read on why the labor unrest in China is happening.
China's Conflict HandBags - Forbes Labels: made in china
Foxconn staffer jailed for iPad IP theft
This is significant, but I am not sure why this happened. And it was reported in the Chinese press!
Lots of guesses... I should do a poll :-)
Some guesses, but I have no idea truthfully.
1. FoxConn has major Guanxi (pull)
2. Great way to show China is now serious on IP (intellectual property)
3. Payback to Apple for opening stores in China, or something?
Foxconn staffer jailed for iPad IP theft - The Register Labels: made in china
Translated Chinese Internet Content
Interesting site to browse through.
http://www.chinasmack.com/
Warning - there is a sickening translated article about eating dogs in China. I made the mistake of clicking through to it. I should not have. Labels: china's future
Chinese food: Can Chinatown be saved by authentic food?
Corruption in China
Interesting quote I just heard from a person who started a business that needed local as well as central approvals. The higher you go, the more the corruption. The person explained this was how many higher level officials could afford a bunch of fancy cars, and such. Labels: chinese corruption
Short Sales in Rowland Heights
The house next to us got forclosed, and is now for sale. And for some reason there are 5 houses within 2 blocks of us for sale.
We got a flyer for a Short Sale at our house. Flyer was in English, which was dumb. The majority of our neighborhood is ethnic Chinese, some Koreans, and a mixture of others. Labels: chinatown
Beijing to Shanghai in 5 Hours?
Chinese manufacturers: The end of cheap goods?
I have mixed feelings on this article.
Yes, China is no longer the endless supply of cheap labor it was. But, in the electronics/computer area, there has been a continual decrease in prices with changes in technology. And productivity has been improving, that has resulted in lower manufacturing costs. Labor cost is often a small part of the total cost of an item.
Chinese manufacturers: The end of cheap goods? - The EconomistLabels: made in china
Service Dog in School?
I have mixed feelings on this.
Autistic boy: School must let autistic boy may take service dog to class, judge rules - La Times
An autistic boy can take his Golden Retriever to school. The dog helps calm him down. The parents had to sue to get permission for the dog to go with him to school.
I subbed a few Special Ed. classes and I understand the worry of the school on liability, as well as being practical. Some students may be very afraid of dogs. And what if the dog bit somebody?
Yes, Golden Retrievers are incredibly patient, and usually well behaved (except for slight chewing of a red pair of shoes, mustard yellow pair of shoes, two pairs of sandals, a piano book, and a few other items at my house). I may be a bit biased since I have a Golden Retriever, my third one, and yes, he likes to chew.Labels: Best Schools, School Safety
Da Vinci Exhibit
I went to the Da Vinci exhibit in Hollywood on Sunday and it was great! I had checked out the reviews first, which were very positive.
Lots of hands on exhibits showing the machines Leonardo Da Vinci along with the pictures he painted. The exhibit reminded me of the Exploratorium in San Franscisco.
I found it a bit sad the lack of people at the exhibit. My guess was a bad location (mall at Hollywood and Highland). Good news was you can validate your parking at the Kelly's Coffee.
Tickets were only $7 (63% off) with a deal from Buy With Me. Labels: Activities for kids
Registration is Open for SAT 2 Chinese Listening on November 2011
The testing day is on November 5, 2011. Deadline of submission for US examinees is on October 7, 2011. Late registration is until October 21, 2011 but fees apply.
HOW TO REGISTER FOR SAT SUBJECT TESTS?
1. Register Online
- select your testing date and register. You will receive immediate registration afterwards.
2. Register by Mail
- for special cases some students need to register by mail and see if you fall on this category
http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/how-to-register
3. Standby Registration
- If you were unable to register on time, you can still go to the testing center to standby and hope that there is a space available for you inside the testing center. For more information refer to http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/how-to-register
4. Home schooled Student Registration
- Home-schooled students can register online or by mail for the SAT. When prompted for their high school code, they should enter 970000.Labels: Chinese SAT II
China to get new skyscraper every five days for three years
'Red song' campaign in China strikes some false notes
What I find more interesting is:
Political Jockeying - Mao is being used to help candidates for high political office as well as hitting the nationalism response.
Abilty to use masses of people for activities (volunteer, with no choice not to volunteer)
Subtle ways attempted to control society (temp. banning of Taiwan love songs in Karoke places as an example).
'Red song' campaign in China strikes some false notes - LA Times Labels: china's future, mao
Youths' media appetite: Greater use of iPods, gadgets found among non-whites
After reading this and comparing it to my daughter's media usage who is mixed, she is more on the Asian side for the statistics :-) Of course we have terrible TV reception, and we don't have cable.
Fascinating report.
Asian youth spend more time in recreational computer use: Nearly 3 hours a day compared to 1:49 for Hispanics, nearly 1.24 for blacks and 1:17 for whites.
Youths' media appetite: Greater use of iPods, gadgets found among non-whites - Mercury NewsLabels: media
RSA Hack - Stealing from the Lock Smith
RSA is a security firm that provides a SecurID product used by 40 users. Basically they provide a token that is carried and provides a code that changes every 30-60 seconds that is also entered for a login. This way without the token logins should be secure. The problem is the seed and the algorithm for the tokens was stolen from RSA in a hack. This was used in the hack of Lockheed Martin.
It seems that RSA had poor security on their own network. I guess the idea of the cobblers children having no shoes.
The RSA Hack: How They Did It - NY Times
RSA finally comes clean: SecurID is compromised - Ars Tecnnica Labels: google, US Chinese Image
Dragon Boat Festival
Was Monday. So on Sunday we bought a bunch of the rice in banana leaves (zongzi). In China it' s a public holiday.
Labels: dragon boat festival
Chinese Begin Volvo Overhaul
Chinese classes miss point
A Japanese teacher of mine for math told of going to school in Iowa. He was met at the train station by a couple of other Japanese students, who now had enough people for Majong. His English did not improve while he was in college :-)
For a long while my wife's English was much better than her friends. The reason was her American boy friend (me).
Chinese classes miss point - The Australian Labels: Learning Chinese
Shorter break doesn’t mean more learning
Does a shorter summer break mean more learning in school?
On one side in the US you have the no home work crowd. A new movie is pushing this view point Race to Nowhere
And on the other side you have the our school year is too short in the US.
A good article that is a good read - Shorter break doesn’t mean more learning- The Jerusalem Post
My view is a mixture of both. HW is helpful, but good teaching is also needed. As well as less time spent on discipline in the classroom. I would like to know more about why teaching is so effective in Finland. Labels: teaching chinese
China seems to have stopped buying US short term bonds recently. Since October the overall US debt held by China has been decreasing. Going from a high of $210 Billion to $5.69 Billion in March.
The question is why?
My guess is China expects a devuation of the US dollar to the Yuan. I would also guess that China does not expect a real deficit cutting deal in the US.
How China owns $1.2TRILLION of American deficit - Daily Mail
Labels: US Chinese Image
Canadian Postal Workers on Strike
We ship to Canada via the Post Office, so there will be a delay. Seems to be rolling strikes. I am sure if your in Canada you know a lot more about this than me :-)
And I agree with this. What I have noticed with strikes is many customers find other alternatives, and don't come back.
Canada Post fears strike could cause long-term harm - Toronto Sun
Labels: canada, shipping costs
Latest Gmail Hacking Scandal
Burglar Alarms in Rowland Heights
My bank manager mentioned there have been more burglaries in Rowland Heights. And asked if we had gotten anything back, my answer was no :-(
Last week I pointed out to my parents who were visiting us, the number of houeses alarms on the street I live on in Rowland Heights. About 70%. I was amazed how the street I grew up on in Monrovia (above Foothill), there are no burglar alarms on houses. Such a difference. Labels: chinatown
Metal Scavenger Trucks
A week ago in Rowland Heights there was a bulky item and e-waste pick up day. Leave out items such as chairs, computers, monitors, etc. and the trash company would pick them up.
I was cleaning out my garage and getting rid of a bunch of old computers - hard drives already removed for separate data erasing/destruction/disposal. I also took out a few other items including some old chairs.
I saw 7 trucks full of metal items cruise by my house and the next morning, everything I had left out was gone, except an old torn garbage container the trash company was left to pick up. Four different trucks stopped in front of my house since I did not take just one load of items out to the curb (remove a hard drive, take computer out, work on next computer, truck drives up and takes computer). Labels: chinatown
Lunch Trucks in Rowland Heights Chinatown
We went yesterday to the HK Market Plaza at Colima a block from Fullerton. They had a bunch of lunch trucks with a couple of other stalls. May it was for Dragon Boat Festival (which is today).
Observations:
- The most popular lunch truck was one that made Octopus Balls. My wife and daughter had them, and my wife's comment was the ones in Osaka were much better (famous local food). My daughter's comments was she would not know, since she had to go to school instead of going to Japan... Kids have long memories. That was 8 years ago for a business trip :-)
- Many of the lunch trucks did not make sense. Rowland Heights has cheap lunch specials. And the pricing of the trucks was mostly higher. $6 to $8 sandwiches, in the land of $5.99 Chinese lunch specials is challenging.
- The lunch trucks included a fusion American Indian (desert Fry Bread was great), Greek, Hawaiian Ice, Ice Cream, Sushi, Octopus Balls, Korean Mexican, NY Sandwiches, and Philippine. Truthfully, wrong location for most of them.
Labels: Chinese Food
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