What is the value of Bluetooth? What makes Bluetooth better than any number of other wireless communication protocols out there? So, I went to the Bluetooth website with the following question in mind:
What makes a Bluetooth mouse automatically worth at least $20.00 more than any other wireless mouse?
It seems to me that the answer is nothing greater than an angular and stylized version of an uppercase B. Wow!
It seems as though the incredible majesty of the U.S. Shuttle program has been again brought to it's knees by, well, foam. Of course, if the Columbia was brought down by being struck with foam, it would seem like they'd have found something else to insulate the huge orange tank filled with 200+ tonnes of liquid hydrogen.
Oh, sure, Nasa removed some of the foam, but the issue of flying foam has obviously not been settled. More impressive, to me, is that 112 shuttle flights have taken off and successfully landed without foam being a problem. The engineer in me immediately wonders, "What changed?" Then, the cynic in me wonders, "Was the application of foam for these large, disposable tanks, outsourced?"
As China exports more and more product, directly into the United States of America (a country that happens to be under my feet), the financial "under valuation" of the Chinese Yuan, has been a critical complaint these last few years. So, in a surprise move last week, China's Yuan is no longer be pegged directly to the dollar. To prove their point, the Yuan immediately increased by 2.1% against the dollar.
Sounds like great news, but - well - not really. First and foremost, China has been in the practice of stabilizing it's currency to the Dollar by investing heavily in foreign currency reserves. Most of this, and estimated 711 billion dollars worth, directly in US Treasury Bonds. Second, instead of letting it's currency "free run" as most currencies do, they are now pegging their currency against an Index of several different currencies in aggregate.
One of the currencies in the new Chinese index is still the US Dollar.
Look, Ma, nothing changed.
How lame is that?