The Blunder Years, Episode 23: Sex robots, guys after 35, and people at Target (plus China)
Two close male friends shooting the shit on a wide variety of different stuff, including geopolitics, nuclear families, and Target. Continue Reading
China
Your Christmas stuff is likely from Yiwu, a small town in China
Read this, then read this, then watch this:
It’s currently end of days in Siberia and the Zhejiang province of China, apparently
Overnight, a waterway in China turned a blood red color — shades of a little Ghostbusters II action, perhaps — and we’re up to two (as opposed to one) deep craters in Siberia, in a place locals had already called… Continue Reading
What is Alibaba? It’s kind of like if you combined Amazon, Hulu, JCPenney, PayPal, Google Maps, Twitter, Spotify, Orbitz…
Lot of news recently about Alibaba, since it’s going public in the United States. A common refrain is: what is it? There are many ways to answer that — do your own Google search — but this one might be the… Continue Reading
Can we generate electricity from the oceans? Well, for damn sure China is going to try.
Actually this does happen around the world, but very rarely is it ever successful. Here’s the essential challenge: Their quest has been to create a machine that’s tough enough to withstand the constant pressure of surging water, yet sensitive enough to harness that… Continue Reading
Dov Charney and the moving target of cheap labor
Dov Charney is the CEO of American Apparel and, for what it’s worth, he once masturbated in front of a reporter. (Just thought we’d get that out of the way quickly.) Right now, American Apparel’s stock is trading under $1, so suffice… Continue Reading
Ultimately, does China or Russia (or the USA or Chile or someone else) stand to benefit the most from Antarctica?
Everyone is staking their claim to Antarctica these days; China just built its fourth research base there, which is shaped like a lantern. China’s now spending about $55 million per year on the Antarctic; 15-20 years ago, they were spending $20… Continue Reading
An iPhone costs about $872 U.S. in China, and yet, they’re flying off the shelves
Most of your iPhone comes from China, but now the story has a new twist: the Chinese are buying up iPhones at new-record rates, despite the fact that a 5S costs about $872 U.S. (5,288 yuan). In the most recently-ended… Continue Reading