Arik Johnson’s Weblog

However, conspicuously absent from the collective rhetoric from the auto industry is any reference to the 500 pound gorilla in the corner. GM is burning through cash to the tune of $4 to $5 billion per month. At that rate, even if they were to snag the entire $25 billion from Uncle Sam, the company could remain solvent only through Q1 2009. Does any reputable economist think the economy will be markedly better by April? Unlikely. So it begs the question: Rather than treat the American public to another horror story, why don't you help show us how you plan to build better cars? Cars that can compete with their German and Japanese counterparts?

The allegations against Ye and Zhong amounted to one of the first economic espionage cases filed. Since then, other cases in Silicon Valley have developed, including one in which an engineer admitted in June he tried to sell fighter-pilot training software to the Chinese Navy. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Prosecutors in that case said the engineer, Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, who was raised in China and holds Canadian citizenship, was focused on profit, not a foreign allegiance. Two other Silicon Valley engineers, Lan Lee and Yuefei Ge, are under indictment on charges they stole chip designs and tried to launch a microprocessor startup with a Chinese venture capital firm. Chinese-American engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung, who worked at Boeing Co. and space shuttle-builder Rockwell International, is accused of stealing secrets regarding the space shuttle, a military transport plane and a rocket on behalf of China. Chung has pleaded not guilty.

When making real-life decisions such as whom to hire, managers and entrepreneurs performed similarly, but throw some rewards and punishments into the mix and things got more interesting. When the researchers had the entrepreneurs and managers make “hot” or risky decisions such as whether to finance one of several potentially excellent but risky business opportunities, entrepreneurs made significantly riskier decisions. Entrepreneurs also showed greater mental flexibility and a greater tendency to be impulsive when given psychological tests.

Those CIOs who cannot unshackle themselves from the age-old bonds of internally focused thinking and execution will not be able to survive, let alone thrive, in the years ahead, while those that can shake free and lead the interconnected engagement with customers will remake the way business success and business technology are defined for many years to come.

With Lehman Brothers bust and banks across the world posting some pretty dismal results, some 200,000 or so Wall Street workers are set to lose their jobs. That’s obviously rough news for the economy and even rougher news for the families involved, but there is a silver lining argues Dubner. He starts with the premise that for the past few decades Wall Street has attracted our nation’s best and brightest:

Like them or not, the men and women who’ve gone into finance in the past 10 or 20 years… are super-well-educated and work incredibly hard, with intense focus. In economic terms, these people represent a huge stockpile of human capital.

Now, with the detonation of the financial markets, this talent pool is set to disperse to a variety of industries. In addition, “perhaps millions, of college undergrads and graduate students who had planned to work in finance” will be seeking alternate career paths.

So Windows 7 looks good. What does this mean to Apple? It means an end to Windows problems driving increased Mac market share. Mac market grew share 60% in 2007, hitting 14% of the market by February. Much of that growth was fueled by Apple making great products, but some of it was disillusioned Windows users switching to Mac.

I should know; I was one of them. In February 2007, I walked into a computer store to buy a new PC. Faced with the choice between XP, which was a six-year-old operating system; or the brand-new Windows Vista, which I was already hearing bad things about, I chose "none of the above" and bought a Mac. It was a good choice, and I'm glad I made it — but if Microsoft had an up-to-date, solid operating system available then, I would have gone with that instead.

Indeed, Microsoft has in recent months reversed its losses; its market share is growing and Apple's share slipped slightly.

Yet the greatest challenge was finding craftsmen who could replicate the refined decorations that are no longer fashionable, said Berliner. One surprising find, she said, was an 80-year-old man in the eastern city of Yangzhou who still knew how to carve lanterns from goat horns.

Artisans from Zhejiang province have preserved techniques for using the inner skin of bamboo and bamboo thread in woodworking, skills needed to restore a two-story screen in the apartment's entrance.

The zeal the Qianlong Emperor showed for the project underscored the diligence he applied throughout his 60-year reign. Though he retired in 1796, he never moved into the studio, preferring to stay in the western half of the palace to watch over his son, the new emperor.

"Ultimately the greatest delight he derived from it may have been the creative process," Berliner wrote in the catalog.

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts alleged this week in a five-count indictment that Biswamohan Pani, 33, illegally downloaded more than a dozen confidential documents from Intel's computer system in California during a four-day stretch in June. He had already resigned from Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, but remained on the payroll and still had access to the company's computers while he burned unused vacation days.

What Pani's supervisors didn't know then is that instead of taking the time to investigate a hedge fund job Pani claimed he was considering, he had actually started working for AMD and for a brief period was on both companies' payrolls.

Prosecutors say AMD had no knowledge of Pani's actions and did not benefit. But they say the information Pani downloaded was worth more than $1 billion in research and development costs, and included details about methods for designing microprocessors.

On Day 3, I think Obama has to solve energy independence, oh, and jobs, too. Shouldn't be too tough once you realize that we have enough natural gas to supply all of our energy needs until the end of days, and he can make a backroom deal with the autos for a plan to use compressed natural gas to fuel their new cars when they accept the bailout money. All federal vehicles must run on natural gas by 2012, something like that. And say to the integrated oils that if they don't open natural gas fueling stations, they won't be eligible for tax credits. That's all we need to achieve energy independence, and it will create millions of drilling jobs. Pretty good for his first three days in office.

On the Friday before the Bee story appeared, a group of San Francisco first-graders was taken to city hall to see their lesbian teacher marry her partner. Apparently the field trip was a parent's idea – not the teacher's – but the optics of the event were terrible for the gay side. It seemed like so much indoctrination.
That news came around the same time the pro-amendment forces were running a devastating ad showing a self-satisfied San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom shouting wild-eyed at a rally that same-sex marriage was inevitable "whether you like it or not." The announcer then said darkly, "It's no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of gay marriage is now mandatory." Many fence sitters were turned off by Newsom's arrogance; blogger Andrew Sullivan attributed mid-October polls against the gay side to the "Newsom effect."