Wednesday Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Some people worry about what the global ramifications would be if China's economy were to implode as some have predicted. But if that were to happen it would be a combination of manufacturing jobs leaving for elsewhere, the Chinese real estate market collapsing, and their aging demographics bankrupting the CCP government. The first thing is happening but China's loss of jobs is someone else's (India, Vietnam, etc.) gain with manufacturers getting the benefit of lower costs and probably lower risk of CCP interference and IP theft. And the last two are more internal China issues. Let them collapse... Forty-years ago this week, the first cell phones went on sale from Motorola with their DynaTAC 8000x at a bargain price of $3,995. And all you could do with it was make calls... Ever the hypocrites - undergraduate students at Harvard are required to have their vaccines and boosters up to date to attend class in person. The faculty and staff? Not so much... Ever walk about an old antique store and think to yourself, "I wonder how many of these items are haunted?"... The pronoun game can be problematic... One of the lesser known repercussions from the sanctions on Russia because of the War in Ukraine is that Russia has stopped sending mail order brides to the US. Older lonely white guys hardest hit... Someone should remake the movie The Paper Chase as a woke parody where getting rid of the cantankerous John Houseman character Professor Kingsfield becomes more important than the stress of achieving high marks at Harvard law school. The script almost writes itself... The link between the atomic weight of an element and its position on the periodic table of elements was discovered by Niels Bohr in 1922. It's just been a century since this discovery although it seems to us like a truth that's been accepted forever... Speaking of movie remakes - how about a remake of Dave? The plot could revolve around both a stand in for the President coupled with deep fake speeches written by a McGuffin cabal... Iraq has a 2023 net immigration rate of .046 which means more people are moving to Iraq than leaving. Taken in that light our nation building should be considered a success... As always, if anything made you think or smile, please Subscribe (it's FREE), hit the Like button, or share with others. Thanks for your support...