General Motors has reached the lowest level in over 70 years, and earlier today touched $1.70 (that’s right, one dollar and seventy cents). After yesterday’s rejection of a large government aid package, GM will finally be allowed to die. There was a time when GM was the largest corporation in the US, and there was a time when GM was the single largest employer in the world. However shoddy products and expensive production costs, mixed with its union liabilities and benefits for generations of retirees has culminated into an unmanageable mess that cannot be fixed by any non-miraculous means.
Tags: depression, GM
Aerogel is made from Silicon Dioxide, the same material as ordinary Glass, only 1,000 times less dense. It has incredible insulating properties, and was used by NASA for thermal insulation of the Mars Rover and space suits. NASA also used aerogel to capture space dust particles. It is made by drying a hydrogel composed of colloidal silica in an extreme environment. Below are a few amazing photos displaying some of it’s properties:
visual appeal, gas like appearance
Isulation properties
Strength on display: 2 grams of aerogel supporting a brick 2,500 times it’s weight
Tags: aerogel, NASA
It has been almost forty years since NASA sent the first man to the moon. In 1969 the integrated circuit had only recently been introduced, as is obvious by checking out the Saturn V guidance and control computer logic circuit board [photo 1] and the launch vehicle electronic analog control circuit board [photo 2].
Now, forty years later, we have more than 400 functional satellites in Earths orbit [graph 1]
and have sent Galileo to Jupiter, Viking to Mars, and have built a space station.
First Two Photos come from David Meerman Scott’s Blog
Tags: Apollo, Galileo, Jupiter, Mars, NASA, Saturn V, Viking
In a surprising show of common sense, Congress has decided not to dole out billions more to a failed and irresponsible industry. The importance of General Motors and the Big Three to the country at this stage is significantly smaller than what the auto makers are trying to make out, and in the worst case scenario they could file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. As the free market dictates, weak and inefficient companies go under, and the strong survive. Ford seems to be best suited for Congressional rejection of an auto-bailout, and has sufficient cash reserves to handle such a situation. GM, on the other hand, will run out of the cash it needs to operate late this year, or early next year. Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli told the Senate Banking Committee that his firm is also at risk of running out of cash [1].
Ron Paul believes that a bailout will only delay the economic consequences of the Big 3’s current predicaments, and that Congress should allow the market to work so that the fallout can be dealt with and overcome as quickly as possible. He also believes that this action would move us further away from the free market ideas that made America great. Mitt Romney also shares similar views, and is quoted saying the following:
“If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”
“Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.” -Mitt Romney
Only time will tell if Congress remains strong against bailing out a failed industry and going against the principles of the free market. Although truth be said, the auto industry is one of the most regulated industries and a free market approach to alleviate their problems would be less regulation and taxes.
[1] Isidore, Chris. “Consumers to suffer if GM goes under” CNNMoney.com November 19, 2008
Tags: Big Three Bailout, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul
