2022-10-26

Taiwan chip production

What if we were to incentivize, i.e. bribe, Taiwan to move its semiconductor business to someplace relatively safe?  Or move part of it?  Hawaii, Thailand, Australia, or the Philippines?  At some point they may want to expand their capacity, so why not expand it to another country?  Become more of an international company.   It might seem reasonable if we provide the right incentives.  

Better than fighting a war. 

Meanwhile we could work on increasing our capacity, or invest in some allied country that makes chips. 

Best wishes,

John Coffey

On Oct 26, 2022, at 4:21 PM, Larry wrote:

"If China would invade Taiwan, that would be the biggest impact we've seen to the global economy — possibly ever," Glenn O'Donnell, the vice president and research director at Forrester, told Insider. "This could be bigger than 1929."

While TSMC may not be a household name, you almost certainly own something that's powered by its chips.

TSMC is in the foundry business, meaning it doesn't design its chips but instead produces them at fabrication plants for other companies. The company accounts for over half of the global semiconductor market, and when it comes to advanced processors that number is, by some estimates, as high as 90%. In fact, even the best chip from China's top semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, has been said to be about five years behind TSMC's.

TSMC counts Apple as its biggest customer, supplying the California tech giant with the chips that power iPhones. In fact, most of the world's roughly 1.4 billion smartphone processors are produced by TSMC, as are about 60% of the chips used by automakers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

TSMC semiconductors are also used in high-performance computing: They can quickly process reams of data and guide missiles, making the company highly valuable in the eyes of government entities.

According to a 2021 report from the Semiconductor Industry Association, in 1990 the US produced 37% of the world's chip supply. These days, the US is responsible for only 12% of global chip production.

While the consequences of an invasion could be significant, many experts say it's just a matter of time before it happens, whether it's by 20302025, or even by the end of next year. On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken predicted China would take steps to annex Taiwan on a "much faster timeline" than previously thought, signaling that it could be sooner rather than later. The US government is already playing out war-game scenarios to prepare for this, and in the event of a full invasion it would reportedly consider evacuating the skilled chipmaker engineers on which it's become so reliant.

The spotlight has focused increasingly on Taiwan and the semiconductor industry as a whole in recent weeks following the export regulations the US government slapped on China. Those regulations limit sales of semiconductors made using US technology and are meant to curb China's ability to develop advanced technology.

How TSMC and US-China Tensions May Dictate Fate of Global Economy (businessinsider.com)

East Chicago man out on bond for attempted murder charged again with same crime

I am a little concerned that we release people to go out to commit the same crimes again.

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/east-chicago-man-out-on-bond-for-attempted-murder-charged-again-with-same-crime

2022-10-23

Trump 'Repeatedly' Discussing Picking MTG As Running Mate: Journalist

Donald Trump has "repeatedly" discussed choosing Marjorie Taylor Greene as his running mate, a journalist said.

He's been discussing it since February, NYT magazine reporter Robert Draper told the Daily Beast.

Trump is considering Greene because of her unflagging loyalty to him, Draper said.

Greene has promoted far-right, white supremacist, and antisemitic conspiracy theories, including the white genocide conspiracy theory,[6][7] QAnon, and Pizzagate,[8][9] as well as other extremist conspiracy theories[10][11] about mass shootings, the alleged killings perpetrated by the Clinton family, and the 9/11 attacks.[12][13] Before running for Congress, she supported calls to execute prominent Democratic politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.



"Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable," she wrote.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says COVID Safety Measures Are Equivalent to the Holocaust.

Ben Shapiro replied to the tweet, writing, "This is demented nonsense. It is nothing like the Holocaust, and any comparison thereto is both insulting and insane."

https://www.thewrap.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-holocaust-masks-republicans/


2022-10-18

Coming soon: Netflix with ads

Netflix has been discussing an ad-based tier for some time, and now we know how much it's going to cost. (Drumroll, please.) The new Basic with Ads plan will cost $6.99 per month. 

Compare that to the Basic plan at $9.99, Standard at $15.49 and Premium at $19.99.

Here's what you get with the ad-supported plan:

Video quality up to 720p HD
An average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour
There are a couple of caveats. Some movies and TV shows won't be available due to licensing restrictions, though Netflix says it's working on this. And you won't be able to download content to watch when you're offline.

Netflix's ad-based tier will launch Nov. 3. The streaming giant says its current Basic, Standard or Premium plans will not be impacted by the new one, but don't be surprised to see price hikes down the line. 

Other streaming services offer ad-supported plans, or they will soon. Compared to HBO and ESPN, Netflix isn't too bad. Here's how these plans stack up:

Paramount+ and Peacock: $4.99
Hulu and Disney+ (coming Dec. 8): $7.99
HBO Max and ESPN+: $9.99

A normal and terrifying thing about chemistry

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nleE-VEb_dU

The pork industry was looking for a humane way to slaughter pigs, so they tried having the pigs breathe pure nitrogen which did the trick.   This has been suggested as a humane way to do capital punishment, and there is a political movement of people who support suicide for terminally ill patients who were encouraging people to breathe pure helium, which is easy to obtain, as a painless way to die.

There is gas exchange between the oceans and the air.   CO2 in the oceans forms carbonic acid, which is used by calcifying marine organisms to combine with calcium to make calcium carbonate to create shells.  This process is sequestering atmospheric CO2 over the long term, turning CO2 into limestone deposits, which is why atmospheric CO2 has been on a serious decline over the last 40 million years.

2022-10-06

Electrical carbon capture

There are an octillion phytoplankton that are the basis of the ocean food chain, plus all the other plants that are the basis of the terrestrial food chain, all of which take CO2 out of atmosphere.  Atmospheric CO2 is plant food and it has been in a sharp decline over the last 40 million years.  What a pity to waste it.  It is a valuable natural resource. 

All of human civilization arose over just the last 12,000 years after we came out of the most recent period of mass glaciation.  Geologically it is not a very long time.  In just 10,000 years from now, half of North America will covered by a mile of ice and this period of mass glaciers will last another 80,000 years.

We will run out of most fossil fuels by the year 2100 and we will run out of coal by the year 2150.  Then the natural sequestration of CO2 by calcifying marine organisms will continue to deplete atmospheric CO2 until it eventually gets so low that it threatens all terrestrial plant life.  This has come close to happening already during the ice age 20,000 years ago.  If it happens again then we will have to generate CO2 from limestone deposits to survive.  

We are not the enemy of nature; we are its salvation. 

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Begin forwarded message:

From: Larry 
Subject: Electrical carbon capture



It would be great if we could go back to using coal with this carbon capture.
Allowing the demand on natural gas to drop lowering the price.
It would be interesting to see if this could be eventually used in personal gasoline cars so that the world doesn't also try to phase them out.

BYU Molten Salt Reactor


2022-10-04

Fire Tablets

Right now Amazon is selling some of their Fire Tablets at half price. Although they are budget tablets, not nearly as powerful as iPads, I am pretty impressed with the value for the price.
I have argued that if you have a good smartphone then you might not need a tablet, but I have enjoyed my Fire Tablet while traveling. They are more useful if you subscribe to Amazon Prime.


2022-10-01

How mobile games are designed to SCAM you

At-Home COVID-19 Antigen Tests-Take Steps to Reduce Your Risk of False Negative: FDA Safety Communication | FDA

Most at-home COVID-19 tests are antigen tests and do not detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as molecular tests, most of which are laboratory-based such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Molecular COVID-19 tests are generally expected to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus at least 95% of the time when someone is infected. However, at-home COVID-19 antigen tests are generally expected to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus at least 80% of the time when someone is infected.

When you perform an at-home COVID-19 antigen test, and you get a positive result, the results are typically accurate. However, if you perform an at-home COVID-19 antigen test, you could get a false negative result. 


The FDA recommends repeat testing following a negative result whether or not you have COVID-19 symptoms.

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/home-covid-19-antigen-tests-take-steps-reduce-your-risk-false-negative-fda-safety-communication

The WORST Housing Crash In 40 Years JUST BEGAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkIhqBHgEDQ

I have always been very skeptical of gloom and doom predictions.  Nobody can predict the future with any accuracy.  However, a housing bust would not surprise me.