My Posts (29 Sep - 12 Oct, 2024)

The story of a high school student who achieved nuclear fusion—a peaceful way to harness energy—using YouTube, the web, and a Raspberry Pi, alongside the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to atomic bomb survivors, was deeply symbolic. Technology can be a tool for both prosperity and destruction.

Above photo: Reuters, After the atomic blast, https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/after-the-atomic-blast

Japan

Nobel Peace Prize 2024: Japanese atomic bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo wins (Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/nobel-peace-prize-2024-live-announcement-soon-2024-10-11/): "Nobel Peace Prize?was awarded to?Japanese?organisation Nihon Hidankyo. The winner is a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Asian demand for factory robots powers Mitsubishi Electric profits (Nikkei Asia): How to take advantage of the shrinking labor force in Japan is a theme for many firms. It forces the firms to focus and it is creating results.

Tokyo expands underground 'temple' complex to counter climate change rains (Reuters): They say pictures are worth 1000 words. The system is impressive but the photos really tell the story.

Japan Offers a Glimpse into the Future (aei.org):This article was written before the LDP election where Shigeru Ishiba was elected as the new Prime Minister. PM Ishiba, during his policy speech, he proposed a comprehensive energy mix that includes the promotion of renewable energies, such as geothermal power and the safe utilization of nuclear power. Nevertheless, the article has a good insight.

Tokyo Stock Exchange seeks Asian unicorns to revive foreign listings (Nikkei Asia): “The TSE hopes to draw Asian companies by offering higher liquidity and market capitalization than other startup-focused markets in the region. The TSE Growth market’s trading value totaled $273 billion last year, while Hong Kong’s comparable value was $5 billion and Singapore’s equivalent was $1 billion.”

Berkshire raises $1.9bn in yen bonds. What's Warren Buffett's next Japan move? (Nikkei Asia): He’s not the only one buying Japanese stocks. ?“Japan share buybacks on record pace as foreign investors sell” (Nikkei Asia)

Nippon Steel's profit per tonne is triple U.S. Steel's, double others (Nikkei Asia): Nippon Steel was one of the typical "重厚長大" (heavy and large scale) companies that became less profitable and seen almost as a dinosaur in the Japanese industries. Quietly, they transformed themselves, like Hitachi, to become profitable in the current era.

Investment

Pete Rose and gambling addiction: An insight and a question (Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science) Professor Andrew Gelman's post on gambling addiction is insightful. It has one important message that applies to investing. You will lose if you keep playing a game with negative expected value.

Bank of Singapore to close Luxembourg subsidiary (Luxembourg Times): "Bank of Singapore has announced the closure of its Luxembourg operations with a view to shifting focus to the UK market, less than six years after the bank established the European hub of its wealth management business in the Grand Duchy."

Why China needs a ‘Three Arrows’ strategy (FT): Personally, apart from geographical proximity and the over-leveraged real estate sector, I don't see many similarities between the economic challenges faced by Japan at the time and China today. The demographics, size of the agricultural sector, government control, and military expenditures are all markedly different which I think have important inputs. That said, I agree that the core issue lies in the need for "structural" reforms.

Checking Out Hotel California (FT): Financial Times says both talent and corporates are migrating out of California to Texas and Florida. One reason is regulation, but Texas ranks 4th and Florida ranks 5th, following California, New York and Illinois. Must be a combination of things.

Africa

Sahel States laud Royal Atlantic access initiative as strategic (The North Africa Post): The Sahel States (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) are landlocked and knowing that, it’s clear why this initiative is so significant for them.

How Presto became Libya’s most successful tech startup (Rest of the World): A delivery app in civil war torned Libiya! Anything seems possible.

Kenya Looks To Become A Semiconductor Manufacturing Player (Diplomatic Courier): "Kenya is the leader in Africa when it comes to manufacturing semiconductors, and given Africa regularly exports critical minerals for semiconductor production, Kenya and its trade partners could reap great benefits through expanded manufacturing capacity.”

Emerging Markets

India's toilet-building plan saves thousands of babies, report says (Nikkei Asia): Why does it make sense for your toilet be near your kitchen or your prayer room? It is rational only if you can trust that flushing is cleaner than the facility outside your house (but near your well). I applaud the persistence of the Indian government to promote cleanliness since Mahatma Ghandi.

Three International Water Conflicts to Watch (Geopolitical Monitor): China/India, Ethiopia/Egypt and Turkey/Iraq. Is it a coincidence that all three of these regions have a long history of civilizations?

Science

Criminalizing Science Fraud (instapundit): Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds of University of Tennessee College of Law has an interesting opinion about criminalizing science fraud (not mistakes or errors) and is inviting ideas to make scientific research more reliable. Informative article.

Seven Things You Thought You Knew about Nuclear Energy (Breakthrough Institute): Although the specifics are probably quite different, if nuclear submarines are possible, small scale nuclear power plants seems to be possible. ?

Scientists have captured Earth’s climate over the last 485 million years. Here’s the surprising place we stand now (Washington Post): ?"[T]he world was in a much warmer state for most of the history of complex animal life." The data was "[c]reated by combining more than 150,000 pieces of fossil evidence with state-of-the-art climate models, it shows the intimate link between carbon dioxide and global temperatures."

When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself (NYT): “As (A.I. companies) trawl the web for new data to train their next models on—an increasingly challenging task—they’re likely to ingest some of their own A.I.-generated content, creating an unintentional feedback loop in which what was once the output from one A.I. becomes the input for another. In the long run, this cycle may pose a threat to A.I. itself. Research has shown that when generative A.I. is trained on a lot of its own output, it can get a lot worse.”

Unraveling the Nuclear Fusion Confusion (Real Clear Science): As a father of a high school student, I am in awe. "Cesare Mencarini, an Italian studying in the United Kingdom, taught himself to code and how to work with electrical systems. He searched YouTube and the Internet and built a custom-made reactor that was controlled and hosted from a Raspberry Pi system. His reactor achieved plasma, the fourth state of matter, a crucial step in the fusion process, by effectively using high voltage to heat atoms to the required temperatures.”