Chinese Launch Special EV

The electric vehicle market continues to excel as it addresses common anxieties about EV ranges. IM Motors is one of the latest companies introducing EVs with solid-state battery technology to increase their range and charging speeds.


Chinese automaker IM Motors — a joint venture of tech companies SAIC Motor and Alibaba — has just released a revolutionary new electric vehicle with a "semi-solid-state battery" that allows for better charging capabilities and a longer life cycle, according to Interesting Engineering.


The development of high-performance batteries is important because it can help reduce anxieties about EV ranges, proving that new technologies can eliminate drivers' fears about their EV batteries not lasting long enough.     READ  MORE...

Chinese Alibaba Gains Wealth

Jan 2 (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group (9988.HK) said on Tuesday it had repurchased a total of 897.9 million of its shares for $9.5 billion during 2023.

The shares were bought in both the U.S. and Hong Kong stock markets, the company said in a filing. The e-commerce giant said the remaining amount the company's Board had authorized for its share repurchase program, which is effective through March 2025, was $11.7 billion.

"Our share repurchase program resulted in a net reduction of 3.3% in our outstanding shares in the last 12 months after accounting for shares issued under our ESOP (employee stock ownership plan)," the company said.

Alibaba had 20 billon outstanding shares as of Dec. 31, compared with 29.7 billion at the end of 2022.

Chip Price Wars Unfold

To ensure the maximum utilization of their fabs today and in the future, Chinese chipmakers have already started cutting tape-out prices to retain existing customers and attract business from Taiwanese IC design companies, reports IJIWEI (via TrendForce). This trend comes as China is expanding its mature node production dramatically as it appears to plan to flood the market with chips to push out competitors. Chinese contract chipmakers have yet to increase their output considerably, but gaining customers will be important as it increases production throughout the coming quarters.


Mainland China-based SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, and Nexchip reduced their tape-out service prices last year for Taiwanese chip design companies to secure orders for new capacity. As a result, some customers of GlobalFoundries, PSMC, Samsung Foundry, and UMC canceled their orders with their regular production partners as they geared up to move them to Mainland China's wafer fabs, according to the report.  READ MORE...

Chinese EV Makers

LONDON/DETROIT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The rise of inexpensive Chinese electric vehicles has upped the pressure on legacy automakers who have turned to suppliers, from battery materials makers to chipmakers, to squeeze out costs and develop affordable EVs quicker than previously planned.

"Automakers are really now only turning to affordable vehicles, knowing they've got to or they will lose out to Chinese manufacturers," said Andy Palmer, chairman of UK startup Brill Power, which has developed hardware and software to boost EV battery management system performance.

Palmer, formerly Aston Martin's CEO, said Brill Power's products could boost EV range by 60% and enable smaller batteries. The battery is an EV's most costly component.

Fears of slowing demand because EVs are expensive has increased urgency to reduce costs.  That urgency can be seen everywhere. Renault (RENA.PA), opens new tab said last month it plans 40% cost reductions for its EVs to reach price parity with fossil-fuel models.  READ MORE...

Chinese Wingship

The South China Morning Post claims that China's new ground-effect "wingship" has just completed 30 sea trials. According to the state-run media company, the new vehicle could be used to airdrop supplies on islands and beaches and conduct quick search and rescue missions.

The "wingship," which seems to be an example of a ground-effect vehicle or wing-in-ground-effect craft, combines an air-cushioned vehicle and an aircraft that glides close to the ground. From the images in the article, it has a propeller engine that allows it to travel over the water's surface, and its wings allow it to fly and support itself in the air.

A ground effect vehicle (GEV) uses the "ground effect," which is the decrease in aerodynamic drag that an object experiences when it approaches a surface to achieve lift and boost efficiency. This air cushion between the surface and the object reduces drag and enables the object to gain lift at lower speeds.

One famous example of this kind of vehicle was the Soviet-era ekranoplan which could travel only a few meters above the water's surface and had a massive, 70-meter-long wing. The vehicle, built for military applications such as moving people and equipment over water, could move at speeds up to 400 km/h.

According to a report from Science and Technology Daily on Monday, the new Chinese vehicle can travel for six hours continuously at speeds of up to 150 mph (240 kph). The vehicle reportedly has a total takeoff weight of 4.5 tonnes and a passenger capacity of up to 12.  READ MORE...

Americans Avoid Going to Work

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said he expects China to produce "some very strong companies" because of the country's workforce.

"There's just a lot of super-talented, hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing," Musk said in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday.

"They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil," he continued. "They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."

Musk himself famously slept on the floor of Tesla's Fremont factory during the "production hell" for the Model 3.

"I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company," he told Bloomberg in 2018. "Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse."

Last month, workers at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory were required to sleep at the facility as production resumed following a three-week shutdown, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A memo, which Bloomberg reported, indicated that each worker would be provided with a sleeping bag and an air mattress and expected to work 12-hour shifts with one day off per week.

But workplace tides may be shifting in China after tech workers there protested the "996" schedule that had many working 72 hours per week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for six days.  READ MORE...

Hunter Biden Helps Chinese

An investment firm founded by Hunter Biden assisted a Chinese company in purchasing one of the world's richest cobalt mines from an American company for $3.8 billion - helping the conglomerate gain a massive share of the key metal used to make electric car batteries.

The president's son was one of three Americans who joined Chinese partners in establishing the Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, or BHR, in 2013.

The Americans controlled 30 percent of the company and made successful investments that culminated in aiding China Molybdenum purchase the Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine in the Congo from the American company Freeport-McMoRan in 2016, the New York Times reported.

The news comes after President Joe Biden had warned that China could use its dominance of mined cobalt to disrupt America's development of electric vehicles.

It also adds to the scrutiny Biden and his father have faced for his dealings with Chines and Ukrainian companies while Joe was vice president and later running for president.  READ MORE...

Fifty Percent Versus Fifty Percent

I am 73 years old, born in 1947 and this is the first time that I have ever seen this country SO DIVIDED outside of the HIPPIE PROTESTS of the 1960's...  which was not really a 50/50 division at all but more of a ONE GROUP DISAGREEMENT...  however, the only positive thing that came out of the 1960's was the lyrics of the rock and roll music.

I have been retired since 2015 and to be quite honest with you (implying I have not been honest before) I have not voted in an election here in the USA for over 20 years.  The original reason was so that I would not be called for JURY DUTY but then over the years, I have not been able to support either the Democrats or the Republicans.

WHY?  This is an easy answer:  Nothing has changed in this country since the 1960's as we basically have the same problems today (2021) that we had  back then...  and that is the fault of BOTH PARTIES.

BUT...  it seems that we have a bigger problem here in the US of A and that is that we are divided RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE...  half are liberal and democrat and half are conservative and republican with a handful of socialists and libertarians who bitch the loudest but who are in essence ignored behind the scenes...  as if they are spoiled children.

This division in the US of A while a natural by product of DEMOCRACY and our Democratic Republic form of government and is more or less a healthy expression of one's beliefs...  is a source of pleasure for our enemies because it is much easier to take over a country if that country is divided.

The other issue with a equally divided country is that neither party who has governmental control really has a mandate from all of the people to do whatever it is that they want to do...  This lack of support causes an upheaval in direction every 4 years and keeps the residents of the country angry at each other rather than divided.

However, what remains constant is that THE WEALTHY will continue to get WEALTHIER as we ignore them and fight among each other.  The second issue here is that TECHNOLOGY will continue to advance and the general public will be caught off guard when AI ROBOTS replace 50% of their jobs in just a few years.  

These advances in TECHOLOGY will change our lives forever...  some for the better and some for the worst as we adapt, change, and modify our behaviors.

What is even more hideous is the fact that while our Federal Government spends money (that it does not have) to give the people (you and I) more benefits, this same government will NOT BE PUTTING INCREASES OF MONEY INTO THE MILITARY while China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea will be ignoring their citizens and beefing up their militaries.

What does this mean?

This means that while you will have FREE EDUCATION, FREE DAY CARE, and a FREE GUARANTEED INCOME, the global economy will shift away from the USA and move east towards Russia, China, India, Asia, Japan, and parts of Europe and the Middle East...  rendering your free education WORTHLESS for all intents and purposes.

How will this happen?

Our Federal Government COUNTS on your short term focus rather than on your long term focus of 10 years or more.

One of the facts-of-life, that I realize after living for 73 years is that TIME MOVES QUICKLY by us all and the older we become, the quicker time seems to move.  In no time at all, I am in my 70's when my last really congnizant thoughts about all of this, I was in my 50's...  and, while you may just think it is just me and my behavior...  but, this is a comment you hear for ALL OLDER PEOPLE which is why they encourage you to live for the day and pursue your dreams.

Hypersonic Drone Landing

Chinese military researchers note that they might have cracked the possibility of landing a hypersonic drone. Landing an unmanned aircraft that is flying over five times the speed of sound on a general standard air strip is not easy at all.

Chinese Military Researchers on Hypersonic Flight
According to the story by SCMP, Chinese military researchers note that they have reportedly found a way to make the process safer and is potentially bringing applications for hypersonic flight a full step closer. The technology has reportedly progressed quite considerably.

China and Russia have been deploying various types of different hypersonic missiles in the recent year as well as the growing interest in applying the advances of these drones. Bringing such aircrafts back to the ground safely has reportedly proven to be problematic especially with the added complexity and urgency of military settings.

Modern Planes of Today
A modern plane reportedly relies on software in order to look for an optimal path of descent and humans can now intervene if anything would go wrong. At hypervelocity, however, even the fastest type of flight control computer still struggles to be able to calculate it in time.

In a particular paper that was published in a peer-reviewed domestic journal known as Tactical Missile Technology, Dai Fei as well as colleagues that come from the People's Liberation Army Air Force notes that they have made improvements that are based on a certain classified model of hypersonic drone. The rocket-propelled surveillance drone known as the Wuzhen 8 appeared in Beijing's military parade two years ago.  READ MIRE

The Art of WAR

"If you now wish to inquire into the Way of [the ancient sages], may I suggest that one can hardly be certain of it? To be certain of it without evidence is foolishness, to appeal to it though unable to be certain of it is fraud."   Hanfeizi (3rd century BCE)[1]

“Translation,” an American poet and translator of Dante’s Inferno opined, “is the art of failure.”[2] In Don Quixote, the eponymous character notes that distortion is often a natural byproduct of the effort: “translation from one language into another…is like looking at Flemish tapestries on the wrong side; for though the figures are visible, they are full of threads that make them indistinct, and they do not show with the smoothness and brightness of the right side.” 

The reverse tapestry is an apt metaphor for reading any ancient Chinese text, particularly The Art of War. While the use of logographs to express complex thoughts has been a constant feature throughout China’s recorded history, the written language of thousands of years ago differs significantly from its modern variant. 

While the original Art of War consists of approximately 6,ooo characters, a modern Chinese version requires more than double that number to convey the same approximate meaning.  Even most native Chinese speakers, therefore, read a translation of the original.

While The Art of War is surprisingly short and compact, much remains ambiguous in its received message. As a result, our contemporary interpretations require constant skepticism, debate, and revision. While Sun Tzu’s text is arguably the oldest within the core strategic canon, it has been studied for the least amount of time by Western military theorists, in comparison with Thucydides and Clausewitz, for example. 

First translated into English only in the early twentieth century, strategists largely ignored The Art of War until the Vietnam War renewed interest in Asian military thinking. READ MORE