Designing a Self-Driving Car; Google's Self-Driving Car Isn't a Car, it's the Future

From Googleblog:

Ever since we started the Google self-driving car project, we’ve been working toward the goal of vehicles that can shoulder the entire burden of driving. Just imagine: You can take a trip downtown at lunchtime without a 20-minute buffer to find parking. Seniors can keep their freedom even if they can’t keep their car keys. And drunk and distracted driving? History.

We’re now exploring what fully self-driving vehicles would look like by building some prototypes; they’ll be designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention. They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work. The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.


http://googleblog.blogspot.kr/2014/05/just-press-go-designing-self-driving.html

From On theVerge:

On Tuesday night, onstage at the Code Conference in California, Brin revealed an entirely new take on a self-driving car, one decidedly more ambitious than anything we've seen before. Google's as-yet-unnamed car isn't a modified Lexus. It doesn't just park itself. It's an entirely autonomous vehicle, with no need for steering wheels or gas pedals or human intervention of any kind. You can't drive it even if you want to.

Self-driving cars are coming. That's essentially a given: the technology already mostly works, and nearly all automakers believe autonomous vehicles are both a good and feasible idea. They disagree only on the timing, though "by 2020" has become an increasingly popular refrain. The biggest remaining challenges appear to be regulatory rather than technological, as governments start to answer questions like who's responsible when a self-driving car gets in an accident.

This is only the beginning, of course. Google's not shy in admitting its cars have trouble in rain and snow; they'll work nicely in a consistent and comfortable climate like Mountain View's, but the mountains of Lake Tahoe might prove another story. And they sure as hell can’t drift. And for Google's car to be the future of cars and not of golf carts, the company will need to solve for those and countless other problems around the world.

Eventually it's going to work, though, even if by the time autonomous vehicles hit the mainstream they'll more likely have a Ford or Nissan logo than a Google Doodle. (Brin himself mentioned taking a "partnership approach" for the tech.) Google doesn't have the scale, the infrastructure, or likely the desire to enter the car market in a real way. But Google's hardware moves, from the Chromebook Pixel to Google Fiber to Project Loon, have never been about sales. They're about proving what can be done, about pushing the limits, about making us think bigger and differently about what's possible.

Even if only 100 ever see the road, Google's car will force lawmakers to finally figure out what happens when cars stop helping us drive and starts truly driving us. It will force automakers to think two steps further down the self-driven road than they had before. It will force customers to get used to the idea of not owning a car, and the notion that it's actually more convenient doing things the Uber and Zipcar way. It’ll teach us to think of cars as public transportation, a service provided for us. Even if we're years away from the wide availability of the technology it's now clearer than ever that's what a "self-driving car" really means.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/5756852/googles-self-driving-car-isnt-a-car-its-the-future

Kyle Bass On China's "Contraction" And "The Fed's Worst Nightmare"

From Zero Hedge:

With the Fed tapering and both China “I don't think the markets are discounting what’s really happening in China,” and Japan’s currencies likely to weaken, the net impact on the U.S. will be deflationary, Kyle Bass warned in a recent presentation. That trend will be accelerated by the improvement in the balance of trade for the U.S., which had its current account deficit shrink due to increased hydrocarbon production. Bass warns, the crucial moment will come when the U.S. reports a sub-6% unemployment rate, meeting the target it has set for normalizing its monetary policy by ending QE and raising rates. He predicted that will come in July. That will be the Fed’s “worst nightmare,” he said. Raising rates would stifle growth and recreate unemployment problems, which would be disastrous politically, according to Bass.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-26/kyle-bass-chinas-contraction-and-feds-worst-nightmare

California Will Start Granting Licenses For Driverless Cars In September

From TechCrunch:

Come September, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will begin granting licenses to select driverless cars and their human co-pilots, which will make it a bit less legally iffy as to whether or not they’re actually allowed to be on a public road.

The good news: The license will only cost $150 a pop, and that covers 10 vehicles and up to 20 test drivers.

The bad (but probably actually good) news: You probably can’t get one, so don’t go trying to make your own Googlecar just yet.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/22/california-will-start-granting-licenses-for-driverless-cars-in-september/

This Is Why Hewlett Packard Just Announced Another 16,000 Job Cuts

I worked for HP in Palo Alto.  This once-great-company is faltering.

From Zero Hedge:

Want to know why HPQ is forced to fire so many well-paying jobs it once again makes a mockery of anyone who claims there is some economic recovery going on? The chart below, which compares the company's quarterly CapEx, declining (so no, not increasing as some clueless sellside analyst hacks claim) by 16% from last quarter to $840 million and thus leading to less growth opportunities for the company and resulting in tens of thousands of pink slips, and the soaring amount of stock buybacks, which rose by nearly 50% in Q2 from Q1 to $831 million, the most since 2011, should provide all the answers.




http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-22/why-hewlett-packard-just-announced-another-16000-job-cuts

Marc Faber: "The System Is Very Vulnerable," Brace For A "General Asset Deflation"

From Zero Hedge:

With global debts 30% higher than they were at the 2007 crisis peaks, enabled by the money printing of central banks, Marc Faber warns that the "asset inflation" of the last years is not reflective of the broad growth seen in the 70s. "The system is still very vulnerable," he warned as investors are exuberant over "hot new issues" just as they were in 2000 and fears "excessive speculation" means investors should brace for a "general asset deflation." Emerging markets are relatively cheap to the US and Europe, he notes, but it is too early; there is nothing to like about low treasury yields but they are good to offset risk. As the market soared recently, fewer and fewer stocks are making new highs and this internal weakness (lack of breadth) and the breakdown in so many 'loved' stocks says the drop is coming sooner rather than later...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-22/marc-faber-system-very-vulnerable-brace-general-asset-deflation

Business Models for Open Source Hardware and Open Design

From Blog LZ:

Open Source for hardware and physical objects and processes is a growing movement. But „how to make money with that“ is the question most people ask within the first minutes. There are a lot of answers – a lot of open source hardware business models. And we get more. This page collects answers and organizes them in the „open source hardware business model matrix“.



http://bloglz.de/business-models-for-open-source-hardware-open-design/

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

I majored in piano in art schools during my secondary school years.  Music has been close to my heart.  I can't live without  it.  I am introducing an excellent MIDI keyboard based on Arduino made in Korea for you to purchase soon.  I've been greatly interested in integrating engineering education with music education.

From the Adafruit Blog:

IDI, first established back in 1983, is the defacto standard for digital music notation. MIDI messages are relatively easy to understand and generate – and open up a variety of interesting project ideas using a microcontroller.

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2014/05/16/collins-lab-midi/

Pancake Bot Draws Edible Makey Art

I find this cool.

From Makezine:

The Pancake Bot doesn’t just provide fabulous flapjacks — it also feeds your mind.

Maker Miguel Valenzuela’s goal is to inspire kids to get into technology, and learn about programming and food manufacturing.

“They have something to eat right after they are done,” he says, “so instant gratification robot.”

http://makezine.com/2014/05/18/pancake-bot-draws-edible-makey-art/

Deutsche Bank Scrambles To Raise Capital: Will Sell €8 Billion In Stock At Up To 30% Discount

From Zero Hedge:

Just out from Bloomberg:

• Deutsche Bank preparing a capital increase, aims to raise EU8 billion through new shares by end of June, Handelsblatt says, citing unidentified people in the finance industry.
• Deutsche Bank likely to get new single investor
• Deutsche Bank new investor may hold 5%-8% of shares
• Deutsche Bank declined to comment: Handelsblatt

And the punchline: Bank’s new shares may be sold with 25%-30% discount. In other words, it is liquidity scramble time, and the bank is willing to give anyone with deep enough pockets a 30% discount to market price just to get some additional short-term funding.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-18/deutsche-bank-scrambles-raise-capital-will-sell-%E2%82%AC8-billion-stock-30-discount

Where the World's Unsold Cars Go To Die

Regular readers know what channel stuffing is about.  I worked in a division of GM.  It was a tough work environment for a foreign young women to work.(It was quite different from HP I worked later on)  And yet, I developed my interest in manufacturing from there.  I appreciate that.

From Zero Hedge:

In the past several years, one of the topics covered in detail on these pages has been the surge in such gimmicks designed to disguise lack of demand and end customer sales, used extensively by US automotive manufacturers, better known as "channel stuffing", of which General Motors is particularly guilty and whose inventory at dealer lots just hit a new record high. But did you know that when it comes to flat or declining sales and stagnant end demand, channel stuffing is merely the beginning? Presenting... Where the World's Unsold Cars Go To Die

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-16/where-worlds-unsold-cars-go-die

Most Destructive Bubbles of All: Corporate Profits Amid Private Poverty

From Jesse's Cafe:

How The Debt Trap Swallowed Asia In Three Charts

From Zero Hedge:

When it comes to the topic of the marginal utility of debt, or how much GDP does a dollar of debt buy (an example of which can be seen here), most people are aware that the developed world is facing ruin: with debt across the west already at record, nosebleed levels, and with GDP growth slowing down (due to capital misallocation, thank you Fed, demographic and productivity reasons), it is only a matter of time before it doesn't matter how many trillions in debt a given treasury will issue (and a given central bank will monetize) - the credit impulse will simply not translate into incremental economic growth.

But did those same people also know that Asia is almost as bad if not worse as the west when it comes to the marginal utility of debt, or as the FT calls, it credit intensity.

Here, in three simple charts, is a visual summary of Asia's debt trap:



Asian economies have experienced a surge in credit intensity – a measure of the borrowing required to generate a unit of growth





Rising consumer and corporate debt – some infrastructure and construction-related – has helped growth at a time of weak exports





The low cost of credit has helped growth, delaying structural reforms in countries including China, India and Indonesia

Some further thoughts from the FT:

While much has been written about China’s debt addiction, the experience is far from unique within Asia. Credit levels have risen sharply since 2008 in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, while already high levels of household debt in South Korea and Taiwan have tracked even higher.

During times of accelerating growth, that might not be a cause for concern. But now much of Asia is faltering. Credit intensity – the amount of borrowing needed to generate a unit of output – has surged, while productivity growth has tumbled. The debt train appears to be fast running out of track just as the world prepares for higher interest rates.

“There’s no problem in having the debt to GDP growth go up. It doesn’t have to collapse necessarily as long as you can turn around productivity growth,” says Fred Neumann, Asian economist at HSBC. “The big problem Asia faces is to implement structural reforms that are politically unpalatable before a crisis actually occurs.”

Reforms or not, all of the above is well-known to Zero Hedge readers who first, before anyone else, saw what in our opinion is perhaps the most important, and most underappreciated chart of the New Normal (one which has since been used by everyone from the WSJ to FT to NYT to Fitch): the comparison of bank asset growth in China vs the US.



One doesn't need fancy formulas or long paragraphs to explain that a situation in which $1 trillion in credit creation per month leads to ever smaller GDP growth is absolutely unsustainable, and it won't matter if and when the Politburo decides the time for a hard landing has come, as very soon the decision will be made for it.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-14/how-debt-trap-swallowed-asia-three-charts

What Happens When America Goes Bankrupt?

Of course, the U.S. is a sovereign nation.  It is also morelike a corporate entity as well.

Frrom Zero Hedge:

Last week in the Land of the Free, I heard a radio campaign ad for a local political candidate while in Texas. In the ad, he was talking about the debt and excessive government spending. And then he said something along the lines of, “We need to get this under control before America goes bankrupt.”
‘Buddy,’ I remember thinking, "America isn’t going bankrupt. It already IS bankrupt."

This is the stuff that revolutions are made of. It’s already happening around the world from North Africa to Southeast Asia. And it’s starting to spread to the West.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-14/what-happens-when-america-goes-bankrupt

How Rolling Robots Spark Engineering Education

We are also thinking along this line to make engineering education fun and enjoyable.  An editor below writes well to make his points.  I was trained to be a journalist (I was trained to be a pianist as well.)  I don't find enough time to write these days.

From Makezine:

A short train ride outside New York City, New Jersey’s South Orange Middle School has a new inhabitant rolling around its classrooms. The diverse yet inclusive Title I public school of about 700 students has a small but influential population of little round robots called Spheros, thanks to librarian Elissa Malespina.

When her son got a Sphero as a present, Malespina immediately recognized its educational potential, and introduced Spheros to her class of multiply disabled students.

“It was amazing because these children were children that, because of their issues, can be hard to get engaged. They have some fine motor issues and stuff like that,” she says. “It really opened up a lot of things we can do with them.”

Malespina’s students have built mazes and played games. She has started a Sphero club at the school, and hopes to eventually teach coding with it. And her efforts are an example of — and an inspiration to — the latest push from Sphero’s manufacturer to bring the toy to schools, and unlock the educational potential that Malespina saw.

So Sphero is a toy. But it’s also a robot, albeit one with an atypical appearance, and its true power is that it’s programmable. Its maker, Orbotix, recognizes this, and is using that potency to drive education via a new program called SPRK — “Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids.” Programming can be challenging, and building a toy with an understandable interface — the Sphero app — is one way to make it accessible.

But upon seeing what educators were doing, Ingram and the Orbotix crew decided to replicate the idea on a larger scale. They now offer discounted multi-Sphero packs for educators, and free tutorials and lesson plans from basic robot control to advanced programming challenges. It’s an opportunity to facilitate interests in programming, math, and science, while selling Spheros and engaging with the makers the company grew up with.

“Educators are looking for this,” says Ingram. “It solves that problem of, How do we reach young kids, how do we get them introduced to engineering and programming?”

http://makezine.com/2014/05/13/how-rolling-robots-spark-engineering-education/

Students 3D Print Pink Robotic Prosthetic Arm for 13 -Year-Old Girl

From 3ders:

Students at the Washington University in St. Louis has built a robotic prosthetic arm for thirteen-year-old Sydney Kendall who lost her right arm in a boating accident when she was six years old.



Using a computer program and a 3D printer, Kendall Gretsch, Henry Lather and Kranti Peddada, seniors studying biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, created a robotic prosthetic arm out of bright-pink plastic. Each part of the robotic hand and arm is made individually. It took about 20 minutes to print the small parts, and an hour to make larger parts. The whole project took about 13-15 hours to print. Total cost is only $200, while normally a prosthetic would cost a minimum of $6,000.

The students developed the robotic hand as part of their engineering design course with associate professor of physical therapy Joseph Klaesner. With guidance from several medical practitioners including orthopedic hand surgeons Charles A. Goldfarb and Lindley Wall, they built the prosthetic out of bright-PINK plastic, as request by Sydney.

"They brought their engineering expertise, and we shared our practical experience with prosthetics and the needs of children," Goldfarb wrote in a recent blog post about the project. "It was a valuable experience as Kendall, Henry and Kranti had no prosthetic experience and were able to think about the issues in a very different way."

After the accident, Sydney learned to write with her left hand, but found most tasks difficult to accomplish with her prosthetic arm. On the other side, the new 3D printed arm is very easy to manipulate. By moving her shoulder, she can direct the arm to throw a ball, move a computer mouse and perform other tasks.

Peddada said it was thrilling to observe Sydney use her arm. "It really showed us the great things you can accomplish when you bridge medicine and technology," Peddada said.



Sydney's new arm has motor and working thumb, which set it apart from similar "Robohand" that has been widely adopted. A sensor worn on the shoulder detects motion, and sends a signal through a cord to a micro controller chip which activates little motors that control the fingers and thumb. The prosthetic is powered by a nine volt battery.

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140509-students-3d-print-pink-robotic-prosthetic-arm-for-a-13-year-old-girl.html

Japan Balance Of Payments Current Account Collapses To Record Deficit; Japan Debt Update: ¥1,020,000,000,000,000.00

From Zero Hedge:

Any day, week, month, quarter, year now... that J-Curve 'recovery' will come bounding over the horizon and save the Japanese economy from its inevitable death spiral... for now, presented with little comment aside for historical confirmation (as even Goldman Sachs has now given up on hope of a bounce), Japan's largest (seasonally-adjusted) Balance of Payment Trade Deficit ever...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-11/japan-balance-payments-current-account-collapses-record-deficit

From Zero Hedge:

It's been a while since we looked at Japan's debt situation. Here is the dire update.

From Japan News:

Japan’s national debt totaled a record-high ¥1.02 quadrillion as of the end of March, up ¥33.36 trillion from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said.

The central government debt, which increased ¥7.01 trillion from the end of December last year, kept rising mainly due to ballooning social security costs in line with the aging of the population.

The balance of government bonds, financing bills and other borrowing crossed the ¥1 quadrillion line for the first time ever at the end of June 2013.

The national debt stood at ¥8.06 million per capita, based on an estimated population of 127.14 million as of April 1.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said the situation has become “very severe” because of slow progress in fiscal reforms.

Of the debt, general government bonds increased ¥38.86 trillion from a year earlier to ¥743.87 trillion. Financing bills, used to procure funds for currency market intervention, totaled ¥115.69 trillion, up ¥420.8 billion.

But fiscal investment and loan program bonds, used to raise funds for loans to government affiliates, decreased ¥5.05 trillion to ¥104.21 trillion.

Long-term debt, excluding fiscal investment and loan bonds, financing bills and others, totaled ¥770.4 trillion.

* * *

So Japan's debt grew by 7 trillion in one quarter? Sure, why not. Here's why: presenting the Bank of Japan's balance sheet.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-10/japan-debt-update-%C2%A5102000000000000000

Arduino Vs. Raspberry Pi: Which is the Right DIY Platform for You?

From the Adafruit Blog:

If you’re at all familiar with do-it-yourself (DIY) electronics, you’ve probably heard about the comparable merits of Arduino and Raspberry Pi. You may have even, like I did, assumed they were competing hardware platforms solving similar problems.

Actually, Arduino and Raspberry Pi are quite different. For starters, Raspberry Pi is a fully functional computer, while Arduino is a microcontroller, which is just a single component of a computer.

Here’s a primer to differentiating Arduino and Raspberry Pi, and to determining which of the two DIY hacking devices best fits your needs as a maker.

Overview

Raspberry Pi and Arduino were both originally designed to be teaching tools, which is why they’ve become so popular—both devices are very easy to learn to use.

Raspberry Pi hails from the United Kingdom. Inventor Eben Upton and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory were frustrated by the dwindling number of students, and the poor skill levels of those students, entering the program. Raspberry Pi was designed to be a cheap, hackable computer for improving tinkering skills. While Upton worked on prototypes from 2006 onward, the first shipment of Pis became available in April 2012.

Arduino, on the other hand, was born in Italy. It was named after the bar where inventor Massimo Banzi and his cofounders first forged the idea. Banzi, a teacher at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, wanted a simple hardware prototyping tool for his design students.

As teaching tools, both Arduino and Raspberry Pi suitable for beginners. It’s only when examining their hardware and software that it becomes apparent they’re used for very different types of projects.

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2014/05/09/arduino-vs-raspberry-pi-which-is-the-right-diy-platform-for-you-piday-raspberrypi-raspberry_pi/

Doctors Use 3D Printing To Help A Baby Breathe

From the Adafruit Blog:

Ever since the day Garrett Peterson was born, his parents have had to watch him suddenly just stop breathing.
“He could go from being totally fine to turning blue sometimes — not even kidding — in 30 seconds,” says Garrett’s mother, Natalie Peterson, 25, of Layton, Utah. “It was so fast. It was really scary.”
Garrett was born with a defective windpipe. His condition, known as tracheomalacia, left his trachea so weak the littlest thing makes it collapse, cutting off his ability to breathe.
…So the Petersons contacted Dr. Glenn Green at the University of Michigan, who specializes in conditions like Garrett’s. He teamed up with Scott Hollister, a biomedical engineer who runs the university’s 3-D Printing Lab, to create a remarkable solution to Garrett’s problem — a device that will hold open Garrett’s windpipe until it’s strong enough to work on its own.
…3-D printers have been used to build jewelry, art and even guns. But Hollister is using the technology to create medical devices. He uses a 3-D printer that melts particles of plastic dust with a laser. He has already built a jawbone for a patient in Italy and has helped another baby with a condition similar to Garrett’s. But Garrett is a lot of sicker and his condition is a lot more complicated.
“It’s just been issue after issue with breathing, and just trying to keep him breathing at all,” Jake Peterson, Garrett’s dad, says.
At 16 months old, Garrett had never been able to leave the hospital. Every time he stopped breathing, it was a mad rush to save him. And the doctors weren’t sure how much longer they could keep him alive.
“In some sense we were thrown directly into the fire,” Hollister says. “We characterized it as sort of a Hail Mary

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2014/03/27/doctors-use-3d-printing-to-help-a-baby-breathe-3dxmedicine-3dthursday-3dprinting/

U.S. Businesses AAre Being Destroyed Faster Than They’re Being Created

From the Washington Post Blog:

The American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades. That's the conclusion of a new study out from the Brookings Institution, which looks at the rates of new business creation and destruction since 1978.
Not only that, but during the most recent three years of the study -- 2009, 2010 and 2011 -- businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed, a first. Overall, new businesses creation (measured as the share of all businesses less than one year old) declined by about half from 1978 to 2011.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/05/u-s-businesses-are-being-destroyed-faster-than-theyre-being-created/

"경제 엔진 꺼진다"..10대재벌 수익 15% 가까이 감소

연합뉴스로부터:

대한민국의 경제 엔진 역할을 해온 주요 기업들의 실적이 큰 폭으로 악화하면서, 이들이 납부하는 법인세도 급감한 것으로 나타났다.

삼성전자로 인한 '착시 현상'을 제거하면 이런 현상은 더욱 두드러진다. 경기불황의 그림자가 짙어지면서 세수에도 주름이 잡히고 있는 것이다.

7일 금융감독원 전자공시시스템과 금융정보업체 에프앤가이드에 따르면 10대재벌 계열 12월결산 상장법인 87곳의 지난해 세전 순이익은 50조9천억원으로 전년의 59조8천억원보다 14.9% 감소했다.

수익이 준 만큼 세금도 줄어서, 이 회사들의 법인세 비용은 2012년 11조9천억원에서 2013년 11조2천억원으로 5.8% 줄어들었다.

삼성전자를 뺄 경우 10대재벌 상장사의 지난해 세전이익은 전년(39조원)보다 31.7% 적은 26조7천억원에 불과하다. 법인세 비용도 2012년 8조6천억원에서 2013년 4조9천억원으로 42.3%나 급감한다.

한 해 사이 이익은 3분의 1이, 세금은 거의 절반이나 줄어든 셈이다.

http://media.daum.net/economic/newsview?newsid=20140507060306306

Global Outlook for 2014 by Kyle Bass: "Proceed With Caution"

I have found Kyle Bass' take on global economy interesting.

From Zero Hedge:

From fears of Argentinian devaluations (and a 26-year-old running policy) to Japan's structural collapse; from Europe's false hope to China's bubbles; and from the Fed taper to the US hydrocarbon revolution, Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass provides a broad-based presentation of global risks and opportunities in the clip below. The Q&A is where Bass comes alive and is well worth the price of admission for a hedge fund manager unafraid to discuss the possibility that the status quo is unsustainable. Bass sums it all up perfectly succinctly, "proceed with caution."

Kyle Bass Presentation clip here (embed unavailable - click image for video) - make sure to watch through the Q&A...

As Bass recently noted, there is no safe-haven in Japan...

"The interesting thing in this selloff in the marketplace and in tech ... and this huge selloff in Japanese equities, is that the Japanese bond market hasn't gone anywhere," Bass said.

"Yields haven't collapsed, which is fascinating. So their bonds are acting pretty terribly in the environment of their equity market. So we'll see what happens."

Full Hayman Capital Presentation:

 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-04/kyle-bass-sums-it-all-proceed-caution

China Manufacturing PMI Misses 6th Month In A Row As Home Sales Collapse 47% YoY

China is slowing down in several aspects.  China doesn't seem to lead the global recovery.

From Zero Hedge:

For the 6th month in a row, China HSBC Manufacturing PMI missed expectations. With a 48.1 flash print for April (vs 48.3 expectation) this is a very modest rise from March's 48.0 but is the 4th month in a row of contraction for the broader-based HSBC-version of the PMI (as opposed to the official more-SOE-biased version which remains in modest expansion). This is the longest streak of contraction since Oct 2012 (and the 3rd consecutive month of new order contraction). As if that was not enough to upset the 'recovery is around the corner' crew, home sales in China in the most recent (most frenetic typically) period, collapsed 47% year-over-year (and a stunning 65% in tier-2 cities). But apart from that - everything's great in the newly appointed largest economy on earth...

with the 6th miss in a row and 4th month of contraction...

And as Bloomberg reports, Sales of 236,000 sq. meters in 54 cities monitored by Centaline shows 47% drop vs same period in 2012, 19% decline vs 2011, China Business News reports, citing Centaline Shenzhen.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-04/china-manufacturing-pmi-misses-6th-month-row-home-sales-collapse-47-yoy

Global 3D Printing Market Grows by 34.9%

From the Financial Times:

The global 3D printing industry has grown by 34.9% over the past year, its highest increase in 17 years.
A report by Wohlers Associate, a consultancy, says the market is now worth $3.07bn and is fuelled by sales of under $5,000 personal 3D printers. The figures account for the manufacturing of printers as well as sales.
3D printing technology has been developed since the 1980s, but has taken off in earnest in recent years. Scientists around the world are racing to find ways to harness the technology to meet demand across sectors.
In April, a US laboratory announced that it would attempt to create a human heart using 3D printing technology. It's hoped that a functioning organ will be available to test within 10 years.

Earlier this year, doctors in Michigan used 3D printed bioresorbable devices to save a baby's life by opening his airways to allow him to breathe.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/global-3d-printing-market-grows-by-34-9-1447104

"He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, well acquainted with human weakness; we hid our faces from him, for he was despised by the world. He bore our grief and carried our pain; Yet we thought Him stricken, forsaken by God. But He was wounded for our sins, He was bruised for our vanity. The price for our peace was upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. All have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to their own ways. He has paid the debt for us all."
Isaiah 53:3-6

5월 초하루 날 여러 해 인연을 맺고 있는 장애인 시설 원장님의 장인어른께서 입원해 계시는 대학병원에 다녀왔다.  파키슨병, 암, 치매를 겪고 계시고 식사를 전혀 못하시고 IV만 맞고 계셔 간호하고 계신 복지사 선생님 드실 것만 갖다 드렸다.  부엌에서 움직임이 그리 빠르지 못하고 한식보다는 오븐요리가 더 편한 사람이라 자신있는 라자냐 등을 만들어 갈까 하다가 스파게티 외에는 한식을 준비해 갔다.  밥도 흰쌀밥이 아닌 몸에 좋은 잡곡밥이니 맛있게 드셔야 한다고 했다.^^  암이 전이가 많이 된 상태이나 다행히 통증은 없으시다 하셨다.  금요일에 여러가지 시술을 한다고 했다. 

복지사 선생님은 남동생과 나이가 비슷하다.  장애가 있어 부모에게 일찍이 버림받은 아이들을 먹이고, 씻기고, 입히고 청소하고, 빨래하고, 병원 데리고 가는 등 실질적으로 키워오셨다.  지금이야 일상적으로 받아들이지만 하민이가 멀쩡히 잘 놀다가 아무 이유없이 갑자기 경기를 일으키듯 서럽게 울어대는 데 놀래기도 했는데 복지사 선생님은 어떨 때는 업어서 달래기도 하고 야단을 치기도 해서 우는 것을 능숙하게 다루셨다.  한국과 미국에서 좋은 교육을 받고 대학교수인 동생의 인생과 아이들을 부모대신 해서 오랫동안 돌보시고 있는 선생님의 삶을 세상적인 잣대로 비교할 수 없다는 생각을 가끔 한다.

병원에서 시설이 가까운데 아이들 보러 들리려고 했다가 몸상태가 좋질 않아 그냥 왔다.  몸무게는 여전히 50킬로가 안되고 얼굴 살이 빠져 보는 사람마다 왜그리 말랐냐고 해서 속상할 지경이다.  그래도 작년 5월은 간병인과 24시간 병원생활하면서 사투를 벌였기에 이만큼 건강을 회복한 것에 대해 감사할 뿐이다.  강현아, 고등학교 졸업한 것 축하해.  나 보고 싶어하는 것 알고 있어.  졸업 선물 갖고 곧 보러갈께.  혜성이, 기원이, 두민이도 삼촌 여유생기는 대로 또 산책하고 맛있는 것도 먹으러 가자.  너희들을 위한 기도를 늘 하고 있단다.