Monday, February 13, 2017

China is out performing the USA in many areas, including high speed transportation.

Top 10 Chinese Regions with most innovation patents (click here)

AI is number one.

Different types of artificially intelligent (AI) robots are on display at the 2016 AI World Expo, held in Beijing on Oct 18, 2016.


High Speed Rail was number 10.

The investment into China by American financial markets has been foolish. It hasn't provided a better quality of life to the Chinese people. Chinese parents had been importing an incredible amount of infant formula (click here). Those imports are changing because the Chinese government has developed their own CFDA (Chinese Food and Drug Administration). At a time when a Republican legislature is basically telling the American people, "Live at your own risk," China is seeking to improve the quality of it's domestic products.

Taking care of more than a billion people is not an easy task. While China is pushing it's limits in the border lines of the Pacific Ocean, there could be a real reason domestically why that is the case.

One might recall the Chinese bought the largest pork enterprise in the world, Smithfield Farms. The politics were that China is going to take over the markets of the USA. That the people of the US would be eating Chinese pork and not their own. I wouldn't have minded that, it would mean Smithfield would have less lagoon waste on the North Carolina coastal plain, but, that isn't what happened.

See, I had been following some of the events in China regarding it's pig farms long before the Smithfield purchase and it was very bad news. There were bloated pigs found floating down rivers. Not what I would call a big plus in confidence for the Chinese government. But, the reality was not about China taking over anything, the company was bought to feed the Chinese people. 

Smithfield was purchased in 2013 by the Chinese and by 2015 exports of pork TO China increased by 45%. That's right. China didn't purchase Smithfield to shut it down; which was a disappointment to me; but to feed their own people. (click here)

So, while the right wing of the USA political scheme likes to huff and puff and declare China the enemy, it is far from it.

February 8, 2017

Some petty-minded people (click here) ruin their own opportunities by viewing their potential partners as being as mercantilistic as themselves. This is the way in which some trade war warriors in the United States see their country's trade relations with China.

They see China, by selling more to the US, as being cunning or pursuing the strategic goal of eventually undoing the US. They say the US, which sells less merchandise to China, is being robbed of its jobs, and claim its economy is being raped.

They refuse to see that every year China is buying a lot more services from the US, Chinese parents pay huge amounts to educate their children in US colleges, and that in more recent years, Chinese companies have begun investing more and more in US companies.

In 2016, according to law firm Baker & McKenzie and research company Rhodium, China's direct investment into the US and Europe more than doubled, to a record $94.2 billion, even after almost $75 billion worth of deals were canceled for reasons that included US government objections.

They also point out that in 2015, when China's total outbound investments hit a record high of $145 billion and the country overtook Japan to be the world's second-biggest cross-border investor after the US, China's investment was $15 billion in the US and $23 billion in Europe.

A mere decade ago, when China was the world champion for receiving foreign direct investment, Chinese companies' outbound investments were only minimal....

Oh, by the way, Wall Street over invested in China. It could be said there is a real reason Wall Street kept begging to keep Qantitative Easing as a top priority at The Fed.

Easy money.

That was something Wall Street didn't find in China. Why? Come on everyone, why did the over investment in China occur?

NO CHINESE MIDDLE CLASS UNTIL THE LAST FEW YEARS !!!!!

Erecting industry in China to make more profit in The West was completely stupid. Paying the Chinese worker more to improve quality of life and hopefully increase disposable income ADDS consumers to Wall Street's products! Jerks. And whom exactly is OCCUPYING the US government?

Trump likes to take hostages, including the American people.

Perhaps it was time to shake up The West. They are vulnerable. Not necessarily to Russia, but, certainly to the USA's extremist government.

I have stated this before in regard to NATO and it was before the elections in November. I think USA allies have vulnerabilities and they need to examine those vulnerabilities and address them.

It is true that the best way to avoid nuclear holocaust is to eliminate the weapons from a military arsenal. But, there are vulnerabilities there and USA allies need to examine those vulnerabilities. Perhaps, in addition to the USA overseeing Japan's security in the Pacific, other countries such as the UK and France should be as valuable to Japan's security as the USA is currently.

Previous to the Vietnam War, southeast Asia had a French presence. At the time there was SEATO. Eventually, France would hand over it's post WWII interest in the divided Vietnam to the USA and subsequently SEATO was dissolved. It may be in the interest of the UK and France to have a Pacific presence along with the USA.

I do not see anything wrong in shadowing the presence of the US in the Pacific as reassurances to their own people and to validate there is no reason for alarm for China, Russia or North Korea.

China is a vital interest for The West in communicating with Pongyang. That should be a secure relationship with The West in general.

February 12, 2017
By Hirotoshi

With U.S. (click here) President Donald Trump apparently set on an "America First" stance even in alliances, his standard for viewing the Japan-U.S. relationship will focus mainly on how it benefits the U.S. economy.

Although global attention is focusing on his close relationship with visiting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, there is the impression of a detachment from the bilateral relationship of the past that contributed to multilateral cooperation.

Abe had two options: either distance himself from Trump, who had become a threat not only to universal values such as freedom and human rights, but also the global order, or move closer to the U.S. president.

The prime minister has staked his chances on the latter course likely due to wanting to advance Japan's position before the new U.S. administration solidified its diplomatic policy regarding ties to China and Russia, among other countries.

In the postwar era, Japan has formulated its foreign policy around its relationship with the United States, on which it relies for its national security....       
"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

February 13, 2017
By Jon O'Connell

Fell Twp. — While (click here) most of her neighbors rolled out of bed to find ankle-deep slush outside, Suzanne Kornutiak and her friends strapped on bike helmets.

“It’s not uncommon for us all to do this, though,” she said at a table in Frank’s Place in Simpson, near the trailhead, after their ride. “It’s just kind of the bike culture, and we’re passionate about it.”

Kornutiak and cycling buddies Alaina Dietz and Cindy Copley met by way of their bikes. Last year, they started the Keystone Composite Co-ed Mountain Bike Team for school-age cyclists, grades six to 12, to train the next generation of riders.

“We love riding. We love the aspects of racing and the camaraderie of it,” Copley said. “We thought, ‘Let’s get a team together.’ ”...

The troposphere has become turbulent with patterns unique to me.

There is not water vapor populating the ITCZ. None.















February 11, 2017
1330.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of North and West Hemisphere








February 12, 2017
0130.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of North and West Hemisphere (click here for current 12 hour loop - thank you)




February 13, 2017
0130.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere


February 13, 2017
1330.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere

February 13, 2017
By Samantha Schmidt and Derek Hawkins

About 188,000 residents near Oroville, Calif., (click here) were ordered to evacuate Sunday after a hole in an emergency spillway in the Oroville Dam threatened to flood the surrounding area. Thousands clogged highways leading out of the area headed south, north and west, and arteries major and minor remained jammed as midnight approached on the West Coast.

Even as they fled, however, the flow of water over the spillway halted late in the evening, stabilizing the crisis. But officials warned the damaged infrastructure could create further dangers as storms approach in the week ahead, and it remained unclear when residents might be able to return to their homes.

Lake Oroville is one of California’s largest man-made lakes, with 3.5 million acre-feet of water and 167 miles of shoreline, and the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam is the nation’s tallest, about 44 feet higher than the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The lake is the linchpin of California’s government-run water delivery system, sending water from the Sierra Nevada for agriculture in the Central Valley and for residents and businesses in Southern California.

After a record-setting drought, California has been battered by potentially record-setting rain, with the Northern California region getting 228 percent more than its normal rainfall for this time of year. The average annual rainfall of about 50 inches had already been overtaken with 68 inches in 2017 alone....

The Oroville watershed has been receiving higher amounts of rain than it has seen in decades.

The Weekly Precipitation (click here) map shows the amount of precipitation that has accumulated within the last 7 days. The precipitation imagery displays precipitation estimates in colorized contoured bands by interpreting the intensity levels of NOWrad mosaic rainfall estimates each hour. These daily summaries provide a cumulative precipitation estimate from 1200GMT yesterday to 1200 GMT (daily) or 1200 GMT 7 days ago to 1200 GMT today (weekly).

Additionally, there have been high winds throughout the country. Wind driven water is powerful water. There is little doubt high wind velocities played a part in the need for the spillway in the first place. 

Description:
The 10-Day Precipitation Departure map shows areas where precipitation is expected to be above, below, or near normal for the next 10 days.

"Good Night, Moon"

Waning Gibbous

16.7 days old

95.7 percent lit

February 12, 2017
By Bob King

Stunning. Incredible. (click here) Alright, I'll shut up. But it's not easy when the photos are this inspiring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has just returned some of the closest images of Saturn's rings ever taken. Photos that need to be shared widely.

The view at top shows the outer edge of the B ring, the brightest of Saturn's rings and easily visible in the smallest of telescopes. The edge appears sharp because the region next to the ring is cleared of ring particles by the moon Mimas. For every single orbit of Mimas, the ring particles — mostly made of water ice — are tugged on by the little moon. The repeated pulls force them into new orbits outside the gap. This all happens because the ring particles at this location orbit twice for every one orbit of Mimas. Astronomers call it a resonance, and it's much like finding the sweet spot when giving someone a push on a swing to provide the maximum boost....