Sunday, January 02, 2005
Rocket vehicles
This auction (found by Spring reminds me of The Rocket Car Legend, a long article about a “real life rocket car:”
I've been trying to figure out a way to put it into words, but the sight is almost impossible to describe. Think of this: You know what it looks like when you shoot a paper clip with a rubber band? One second the clip is between your fingers, and the next it's just … gone. You can't track it with your eyes, because it moves too fast. All you can do is hope to shift your eyes to where it was going, so you can see where it hits.
Think of the same thing happening with a 1500-pound car.
I don't know of the story presented above is actually true or not (to me it rings true, but you never know). But this truck … sure, it's a truck cab stuck in front of a jet engine, but Does that mean it could actually work? Where's the air intake? Where's the fuel tanks? Jet engines aren't exactly known for their gas mileage. And as the article above points out, you are going to have a heck of a time controlling the vehicle and forget about brakes—they'll burn out long before you hit that mountain side.
Interesting auction though.
Cuts both ways
American multinational companies outsource manufacturing to China. Why can't a Chinese company outsource management to the United States?
Via Mises Economic Blog, Chinese Buyer of PC Unit Is Moving to I.B.M.'s Hometown
Now this is a twist—China outsourcing to us, and what they're outsourcing is interesting—management! I've often heard jokes about US companies to outsource CEOs as a way to cut costs, but here we have a Chinese company that's outsourcing their CEO operations to us.
I'm not sure what to make of this. Ironic, in a way sure.
So does this doom us as a country of middle to high management?
Monday, January 3rd, 2005
A friend who works at IBM sent the following:
Believe me, the move is only temporary.
The only reason Levono is having anything to do with the United States is because, as part of the deal, IBM still retains an 18% share in the PC Company.
Remember, I work with these types of people every day. It's a good thing they're staying here. If you sent our management over to China, the land mass would be thrown into total chaos by year's end and they'd be strung up in Tienmen Square as enemies of the people.
