Category: energy | 能源 | 에너지 | エネルギー

  • NCNRs + more stuff

    NCNRs Industry Structure: Fabs are in Favor – LTAs are the Tell – Fabricated Knowledge had this interesting article on the role of NCNRs – which means non cancelable, non refundable orders. Chip foundries have to spend an enormous amount of money to be at the cutting edge of manufacturing. They also need to retain…

  • Guyana + more stuff

    Chinese business corruption in Guyana For a while Vice News was the hotness in news reporting, now they seem to have got their mojo back with a report on Chinese business people taking advantage of corruption at the highest level in Guyana. British Hong Konger Isobel Yeung did an amazing report on how Chinese business,…

  • Electric cars + more things

    Electric cars When you think about electric cars you usually think of Tesla. But the reality is that electric cars have been about for almost 200 years. I was reminded of Bob Cringely’s analogy about technology success being about ‘surfing waves‘. The first electric car turned up sometimes in the 1830s. By the beginning of…

  • Soviet steel + more things

    Soviet steel urban legend I had heard a variant on the ‘Soviet steel’ story that was responsible for Italian cars being rust buckets when I was growing up. The version I heard was that high proportions of recycled scrap from rusted war wreckage and dismantled ships had been put in Italian steel to make it…

  • Platinum jubilee + more stuff

    Platinum jubilee versus pride Transforming logos for Pride has lost brand impact | Marketing Week – When the mass market starts arguing over who gets the specially altered distinctive asset for the month, it’s probably time to retire the whole code-playing business forever. Monkeys cannot run the zoo – especially the zoo’s Special Surprise Tricks…

  • Davis Polk Asia + more things

    Davis Polk Asia Davis Polk Asia chair withdraws from Hong Kong security law forum | Financial Times – Guessing that Davis Polk Asia didn’t do a thorough opportunity cost analysis before agreeing to participate in the Hong Kong National Security Law Forum. An alternative hypothesis that I have heard about Davis Polk Asia could be…

  • Special branch & other stuff

    I think my interest in this vintage TV series Special Branch comes from a couple of places: Special Branch was before my life time. The episodes start very much in the vein of a Le Carre or Len Deighton-type story. Later episodes were more human interest focused including an investigation of a religious cult. However…

  • Bongbong Marcos + more things

    Bongbong Marcos Bongbong Marcos aka Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr is the son of former Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos. The Asia Society did a really good talk on the election which explains what got Bongbong Marcos elected as president of the Philippines. Yes there was a lot of misinformation and sketchy tactics by the Bongbong Marcos…

  • Naked power politics + more things

    Naked power politics is a challenge to the post cold war consensus. Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, like Ethiopia’s invasion of Tigray are two examples of naked power politics in action. Russia’s naked power politics approach isn’t new and was something that the Financial Times and others had been talking about for at least a decade…