Jim Manis on Most Anything

Jim Manis can formulate an opinion about a good many things, including those about which he has little knowledge. (And some dude named "Lazlo.") Visit The MagicFactory.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Some things you just do for fun:

Second Story Resident.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Next Big Thing:


You're thinking Apple, right? They just came out with a new iPhone (minus the Google Maps function that everybody wants, using their own version instead, which doesn't seem to work right), but that's not it.

The next big thing has got to be a way to harvest all that wasted energy that data centers use, and reduce the enormous amount of pollution their generators emit. According to a New York Times story today, world-wide, data centers use the equivalent of 30 nuclear powered energy plants. That's a staggering amount of energy use so that you can watch last week's episode of your favorite TV show on your handheld device.

In addition, as much as 90 percent of the energy use is wasted in making sure that the servers are running at maximum capacity whether they are needed or not. I'm guessing that energy use in cooling is also extremely high.

The next big thing, at least in computing, has got to be a way to harness or diminish all of this energy use and the accompanying pollution. You'd think with all the engineers the industry has working in the field that the answers would be just around the corner. I suppose the incentive just hasn't been there.

Come on Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook. You guys have tons of money. Start incentivizing this thing.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

You Knew This All Along, Right?


Remember all the hype about moving medical records from paper records to the digital world? It was guaranteed to save us billions. At least that's what people said.

Better healthcare and savings. Microsoft and Apple to the rescue. Electrons would revolutionize the world.

The thing is that the digital world just hasn't been able to change human nature. Studies are now showing that going digital has enabled your health provider, your doctor and your hospital, with easier methods of over charging you, your insurance company and Medicare.

According to today's New York Times, "Hospitals received $1 billion more in medicare reimbursements in 2010 than they did five years earlier, at least in art by changing the billing codes they assign to patients in emergency rooms" because they find it easy to do so in a digital world.

And you thought these people had dedicated themselves to helping you. Turns out, they've dedicated themselves to helping themselves to our money.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Best Analysis on the Recent Events in the Middle-East:


David Kirkpatrick, in today's New York Times, explains the uproar around the dispicable film that Google has continued to allow to be seen on UTube. (Umph! That was a mouthful.)

Kirkpatrick does his best to explain the Muslim view of the blasphemous film. Muslims in the region have little understanding of freedom of speech, it seems, at least in Western terms. For them, insulting their religion and their community violates their rights far more seriously than murdering four people.

That's as hard to grasp for westerners as our willingness to accept blasphemous talk is for them. Some westerners should find it remarkable that Egyptians object to films and books that are critical of Christianity as well, particularly puzzling in light of the fact that the anti Muslim film now showing on UTube is apparently made by Coptic Christians from Egypt.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

And Now for Today's GOOD NEWS!


It's that time of the century folks! That's right, it's time to overhaul our nuclear arsenal, or as W used to call it "new-kew-lar." (Gosh, we miss that guy! Wonder how the weeding's going on the Texas ranch? W never met a problem that deserved interrupting his eight-year vacation for.)

Estimates for the updates begin at $352 billion for the overhaul, in order to update America's 5,113 nukes, enough to blow up several worlds numerous times (a sure fire solution to global warming and all our economic woes).

According to The Washington Post, "Failing to act before the end of the next year, ..., is likely to mean that there won't be enough time to design and build the new systems that would be required if the old arsenal is no longer safe or reliable."

Now for the $64K question:  "What is a safe and reliable nuclear arsenal?" (All reasonable answers will be considered and prizes awarded on the second Tuesday of the following week. Read the small print.)

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

China Invades Russia!


Well, not exactly. However the Chinese are emigrating to Russia, notably rural Asian Russia, which is rich in under developed land and resources. The population in Russia has been dropping for a generation now, and this may turn out to be a much larger story down the road than anyone seems to realize at the moment.

China's population has stabilized, more or less, but it is still the most populace nation, with large numbers of people who have not benefited from the economic boom. China is still predominantly an agricultural nation, but it also struggles with its water supply and desertification.

(See The New York Times' story.)

Monday, September 03, 2012

The Bush Legacy