Schizophrenia Kit: China

by | posted in: Ape Con Myth, External Other | 0

What to feel a lot of different ways about China in the span of a few minutes?

Simply start with any Business Insider post on China and then go to the next one they suggest at the end…

Out of all that, what can’t ACM get out of its head?  Five words from the 17th fact about China that will blow your mind:

“mobile execution vans for efficiency”

…  What the hell is the rush?!

Amazon’s Risk Factors make for Bad Corporate Poetry

by | posted in: External Other, The Economics Devision | 1

We face intense competition.

Our expansion places
a significant strain
on our management, operational, financial and other resources.

Our expansion into
new products, services,
technologies and geographic regions
subjects us to
additional business, legal,
financial and competitive risks.

We may experience significant fluctuations
in our operating results
and growth rate.
We may not be successful in our efforts
to expand
into international market segments.

If we do not successfully optimize
and operate
our fulfillment centers,
our business could be harmed.
The seasonality of our business
places increased strain
on our operations.

Our business could suffer
if we are unsuccessful
in making, integrating, and maintaining
commercial agreements, strategic alliances, and other business relationships.
Our business could suffer
if we are unsuccessful
in making, integrating, and maintaining
acquisitions and investments.

We have foreign exchange risk.

The loss of key senior management personnel could
negatively affect our business.
We face risks
related to system interruption
and lack of redundancy.
We face significant inventory risk.
We may not be able to adequately protect our intellectual property rights
or may be accused of infringing intellectual property rights of third parties.

We have a rapidly evolving business model
and
our stock price is highly volatile.

Government regulation is evolving and
unfavorable changes could harm our business.
Taxation risks could subject us to liability
for past sales
and
cause our future sales to decrease.
We could be subject to additional income tax liabilities.

Our supplier relationships subject us to
a number of risks.

We may be subject to
risks related to government contracts
and related procurement regulations.
We may be subject to
product liability claims
if people or property are harmed
by the products
we sell.
We are subject to payments-related risks.

We could be liable
for breaches
of security.
We could be liable
for fraudulent or unlawful activities
of sellers.

[from Amazon.com’s 2010 Annual Report (PDF)]

Global Water Summary Info

by | posted in: Ape Con Myth, External Charts, External Other, Features, The Necessities | 0

It’s too bad UN-Water didn’t make it in our initial Google results for “water” (it’s the 64th result) because if you have a few minutes and a desire to understand the global water situation, the links to all the information you need are on one page.

In addition to their statistics page, UN-Water has three flagship publications:

What’s the story?  From skimming 500 pages of pdfs, it was largely what you’d expect.  Developing countries are making progress, but have a long way to go.  Increasing populations, advancing economies, climate change and lack of information, communication and funding are just a few of the factors involved.  Billions of people are still without the basics and while Africa and Asia house the areas furthest behind, there’s plenty of trouble spots in the most developed of countries and economies.

Although the challenges are great, it is important to remember that this is not a problem in search of a solution.  For the most part, it is a lame-duck problem waiting for the implementation of solutions already in hand.  That’s why the World Water Development Report focuses our attention on decision-making:

That’s the finish line for this week’s water sprint.  Next steps include digging into some country-level data, where we’ll really start to see what the hold-up is, and updating/expanding on our first water map.

International Water

by | posted in: Ape Con Myth, External Other, The Necessities | 0

Four links to international water organizations quickly turn into the pile below with a little looking.  If you include UN-Water’s members and partners and UNESCO-IHP’s Water Centres, we probably have before us what could be called most of the border pieces of the water puzzle.

Now the question becomes, is that too many organizations or not enough?  No, wait.  What’s the problem again?

“Water” Results – Round 2

by | posted in: Ape Con Myth, External Other, The Necessities | 0

Okay, here’s our top 50 “water’ results minus what we don’t need and organized by type of source:

Next step?  Skim, expand and reorganize…

Getting a Handle on the Water Situation

by | posted in: Ape Con Myth, External Other, The Necessities | 0

So far Ape Con Myth has put together a few pieces of the water puzzle.  Now it’s time to start dumping the rest of the box out on the table.  And what better way to do that then with a Google search.

Here’s the first 50 results for “water”:

  1. Water – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  2. Properties of water – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  3. Home – World Water Day
  4. USGS Water Science for Schools: All about water!
  5. USGS Water Resources of the United States
  6. Water.org
  7. HowStuffWorks “How Water Works”
  8. charity: water
  9. Index | Water | US EPA
  10. DS Waters of America, Inc.; Home & Office Bottled Water Delivery Plans
  11. Water (2005) – IMDb
  12. The Water Cycle
  13. water news and articles
  14. Brad Paisley – Water
  15. World Water Council
  16. Water.org (Water) on Twitter
  17. Water
  18. Water | Define Water at Dictionary.com
  19. WATER: Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual – Home
  20. EPA Environmental Kids Club – Water
  21. Brad Paisley – Water
  22. Water: How much should you drink every day? – MayoClinic.com
  23. Water Environment Federation: The Water Quality People
  24. Fox Searchlight – Water – Official Site
  25. Home | World Bank – Water
  26. Water
  27. Water | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural…
  28. Water | Environment | guardian.co.uk
  29. Why Drinking Water Is the Way to Go
  30. Water: H2O = Life | American Museum of Natural History
  31. Water – Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
  32. ScienceDirect – Water Research, Volume 45, Issue 10, Pages 3015…
  33. FIJI Water
  34. Scientific American: Water
  35. The World’s Water
  36. Trailer for Deepa Mehta’s OSCAR-nominated film WATER
  37. FEMA: Water
  38. ScienceDaily: Water Conservation News
  39. Water.org >> Water Facts
  40. Water and Ice
  41. USA Water Polo United States Water Polo
  42. American Water Corporate
  43. Waterfootprint.org: Water footprint and virtual water
  44. NRDC: Water
  45. WHO| Water
  46. Good: Water
  47. Ready.gov: Water
  48. WQA, water quality, NSF certified, certification, filtration
  49. Living Water International | Living Water International
  50. water – Wiktionary

While looking up “water” in Wikipedia wouldn’t be enough, searching for it on Google provides more than we need.  In this first round, 21 of the results have been crossed out for being unrelated or useless to our research.  Next comes a little organization…

Instant Soundtrack Generator

by | posted in: External Other, External Viz, The Cultural Devision | 0

Meet Otomata, an online audio toy ready to lay tracks for your independent feature film!

Start out with something simple…

…and then add a few more cells anywhere to crank up the existential tension!

Links to your compositions (and associated plot lines) are welcome in the comments.

Amazon.com Pricing Aid

by | posted in: External Other, External Viz, The Economics Devision | 0

You know we’ve come a long way as a civilization as soon as you can get this kind of information about the price of a board game.  (And you can tell a lot about that civilization by how often it changes the price of them.)

CamelCamelCamel will tell you how much of a deal you are or are not getting, historically, on every item on Amazon.  They also cover Best Buy and a few other retailers too.

[via BoingBoing’s Cool Tools]
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