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วันพุธที่ 25 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2563

COVID-19 and JEFF BEZOS

This is Wednesday, my "science" day, so after presenting my now daily Worldometer analysis, I will add a possible next stage of the Blue Revolution, by featuring the richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos.  Worldometer:

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 196 countries and territories around the world and 1 international conveyance (the Diamond Princess cruise ship harbored in Yokohama, Japan). The day is reset after midnight GMT+0.

WORLD                          462,772          40,245           20,877             1987          

NEW DEATHS OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

Mar 18        11  475       41      105             2         
        19         8  427       21      165            15     
        20         3  627       18      213            15 
        21         7  793       32      285            15
        22         6  651       98      375              9               6   
        23         9  601       85      435            24               7        1631
        24         7  743     100      489            33               9        1983
        25         4  683     129      454            47               6        1987
           
Analysis:
  • China and South Korea are stabilized and approaching zero deaths over the past 24 hours.
  • Italy, Spain, and the WORLD seem to be reaching a peak, but both countries now have more deaths than China.
  • USA still increasing.
  • China, South Korea and Germany at 2 deaths per million people.
  • WORLD at 2.7 D/MP.
  • USA at 3 D/MP.
  • Italy at 124 D/MP and Spain at 74 D/MP.
  • India is only at 0.1 D/MP, but has already begun a three-week lockdown.  The Trump-type comment is that hunger may kill us before coronavirus.
  • Bangladesh at 0.03 D/MP
  • Pakistan and Mexico are at 0.04 D/MP, and so are several other African countries.
  • Taiwan at 0.08 D/MP.
  • South Africa, with 709 cases, has had no deaths.  However, there were 155 new cases from yesterday.
  • Hawaii had one official death as of yesterday.  But today, that death, it turned out, was not from COVID-19, so we now officially have zero deaths with 70 cases, or 49 cases/million people.  Italy has 1230 cases/million and the USA 206 cases/million.  New York?  3479 cases/million.
  • New York has 210 deaths (which keeps increasing).  That's 24.4 D/MP, about equal to the Iran rate.  Italy has 124 deaths D/MP.  China?  2 D/MP.
I should mention that several people regularly send me cartoons, suggest future topics, and so on.  Wilbur, a resident at 15 Craigside and local Department Health retiree, sends me things now and then.  He attached a note attached to the November 2019 issue of The Atlantic:  Get Jeff Bezos to fund your Blue Revolution--he dreams about space travel.

Actually, that has been one of my frustrations about the Blue Revolution.  Billionaires are enamored of outer space...like I once was.  You've heard about their dreams:

I've feature them on several occasions and generally provided supportive comments.  

However, a few years ago I compared my self with Elon Musk, perhaps with a tinge of sarcasm.  How stupid of me.  If he had any possible interest in the Blue Revolution, that went with that posting, for I kind of deprecated space as a viable field of current investment.

I worked for NASA once on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but subsequently felt that space exploration involving real people and billions of bucks was both dangerous and not a smart way to spend your money.  There are too many other more important priorities.  The Apollo Project was an almost necessary policy decision that helped end the Cold War.

We avoided nuclear holocaust through  this space adventure, but there was a compelling political reason.  Here I go again, but I don't see space being profitable for at least a century, and perhaps millennium.  Fine if you are rich and seek this seeming ultimate adventure, but not ideal for saving Planet Earth and Humanity.  Yes, someday possibly necessary, but not today, nor for the next century.  Well, perhaps I haven't yet learned my lesson.

Of course, many billionaires will live out their dreams, for they deserve and can afford it.  I, too, am captivated by their imagination and efforts.  Perhaps, though, one or more might want to also look into the Blue Revolution, for the potential benefits are more immediate and, maybe even necessary, for the survival of Planet Earth and Humanity now.  Here is where they can truly mold their legacy:  floating cities, remediation of global warming, sustainable products, hydrogen, prevention of hurricanes...all while actually making a financial profit!

I don't recall ever reading The Atlantic.  It's sort of like The New Yorker, both featuring excellent writing.  However, I felt that The Atlantic went further in-depth.  I started from the beginning, ended up reading the whole issue, and set aside several articles to become future postings.

About the magazine, did you know:
  • It was founded in 1857?
  • Has around half a million subscribers.
  • Almost expired, but recovered, in 2101 posting its first profit in a decade, and in 2016 being named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
Today, Jeff Bezos runs nearly 40% of all e-commerce in the U.S.  Amazon controls half of the cloud-computing industry.  They sell 42% of all books and a third of the market for streaming video.  Add selling food and getting into real estate.  Then there is The Washington Post, with The New York Times, the conscience and nemeses of Donald Trump.

But you know all that.  From that article written by Franklin Foer:
  • Bezos is relentless, but thinks there is a virtue to wandering.  Sort of like me.
  • Was made by his mother, in almost all ways.
  • Flirted with becoming a theoretical physicist at Princeton.
  • Is elitist, and fosters a meritocracy of hard-working intelligence.  A lot of PhD economists.  Few women at the top.  Top six are white men.  In history, one black female on the board.  But not much different from Google and Facebook.
  • If you're going in for a Bezos meeting, you're like preparing as if the world is going to end.
  • Hire smart people who are tasked to find smarter people.  Hey, that's what I did.
  • Invent and Simplify...Bias for Action...Have Backbone...Disagree and Commit.  Some of 14 principles.
  • Fanatic about Star Trek and wants to get into outer space.
  • Has a profit-making company called Blue Origin, dealing with space.  At least it's blue.
  • Admires Gerard O'Neill and his Space Cylinder, which somewhat looks like a first image of the Blue Revolution platform.  We've met, and exchanged experiences about Wolfgang Panofsky, who was my physics professor at Stanford.  Says Bezos:

The professor (O'Neill) imagined colonies housed in miles-long cylindrical tubes floating between Earth and the moon. The tubes would sustain a simulacrum of life back on the mother planet, with soil, oxygenated air, free-flying birds, and “beaches lapped by waves.” When Bezos describes these colonies—and presents artists’ renderings of them—he sounds almost rapturous.
  • From the author:  In contrast to the dysfunction and cynicism that define the times, Amazon is the embodiment of competence, the rare institution that routinely works.  600 million items for sale from 3 million vendors. Has set aside $700 to retrain a third of its 600,000 employees.  No unions.  The company is deeply trusted by the public...unlike politicians and just about everyone else, these days.
  • Whoops, Forbes indicated that Bezos is no longer the richest person in the world.  He only has $115.6 billion.  Bernard Arnault of LVMH is worth 117 billion.  Bill Gates is #3, but would have been #1 had he not donated $35.8 billion to charity.
Bezos worries that in the coming generations the planet’s growing energy demands will outstrip its limited supply. “We have to go to space to save Earth,” he says.

 Makes sense.  But what about timing and global warming and the rest of this century?  

While Bezos is developing the technology for space, perhaps he might also want to consider in parallel the NEXT GREATEST CHALLENGE FOR PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY, which, of course, is the Blue Revolution.  This posting is way too long already, so I leave with a few references for your perusal:
Someone out there, please send this posting to Jeff Bezos, or one of his associates, or a friend of them, or...  I can be reached at 808 550 3110.  Or, e-mail me at PatKenTak@hotmail.com.

Add caption
Can't leave without another Trumpism, sent by my most prolific contributor:

There are five people on a private jet when the engines begin to fail.  Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, The Pope, Nicola Sturgeon (that's  her photo) and a ten year old school boy.   They are about to crash and there are only four parachutes.  Nicola says I need one, I’ve got to sort out Scottish Independence.  She takes one and jumps.   The Pope says I need one, I’ve got to sort out the Catholic Church.  He takes another one and jumps.  

 Donald Trump says "I’m the smartest man in the
USA”,  so he takes one and jumps.


Boris says to the ten year old, “you can have the last parachute.  I’ve lived my life, yours is only just starting”.  The ten year old replies “Don’t worry, there are two parachutes left.  The Smartest Man in America took my school bag”.





















If I had created this joke I would have had the Pope as the 4th person, saying he is 83 years old, had a blessed life, and pray that you (the 10-year old) can go on to become the next Pope or President of the USA.

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