The Addis Ababa-Adama Expressway in Ethiopia.
A Remarkable Aptitude for a High Material Civilization
Excerpts from Francis Galton's letter to the editor of The Times, "Africa for the Chinese," dated June 5, 1873.
The Chinaman ... is endowed with a remarkable aptitude for a high material civilization. He is seen to the least advantage in his own country, where a temporary dark age still prevails, which has not sapped the genius of the race, though it has stunted the developed the of each member of it, by the rigid enforcement of an effete system of classical education which treats originality as a social crime. All the bad parts of his character, as his lying and servility, spring from timidity due to an education that has cowed him, and no treatment is better calculated to remedy that evil than location in a free settlement. ... [The Chinese] are good-tempered, frugal, industrious, saving, commercially inclined, and extraordinarily prolific. ...take a globe and examine it, and consider the huge but poorly-peopled bulk of Africa, by whose side the areas of India and of China look insignificant, and think what a field lies there for the development of a suitable race.
Gilbert Malcolm Sprout concludes his rejoinder to Galton's letter by writing:
Chinamen, for many generations, are likely to have quite enough to do in their own country without taking Africa in hand.
Brought to my attention by @BarbarianCap.
Along the Addis Ababa-Adama Expressway in Ethiopia.
Above is a screenshot from Google Earth ... you can see the housing for the imported Chinese labor. These temporary housing structures are familiar to anyone who has been to a Chinese city; they are used to house migrant workers ("民工").
Addition to Clay Figure Collection -- 猪八戒
猪八戒 is a character from Journey to the West, a story which all Chinese people (and a few barbarians) know. There are now five clay figures in our collection.
Dissemination of Content Deemed to be Socially Destabilizing
Interesting bit from Weibo's Prospectus:
Risks Relating to Doing Business in China
Regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the internet in China may adversely affect our business and subject us to liability for information displayed on our platform.
The PRC government has adopted regulations governing internet access and the distribution of information over the internet. Under these regulations, internet content providers and internet publishers are prohibited from posting or displaying over the internet content that, among other things, impairs the national dignity of China, is reactionary, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent or defamatory, or otherwise violates PRC laws and regulations. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the revocation of licenses to provide internet content and other licenses and the closure of the concerned websites. The website operator may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on or linked to the website.
In addition, the MIIT has published regulations that subject website operators to potential liability for content displayed on their websites and for the actions of users and others using their systems, including liability for violations of PRC laws prohibiting the dissemination of content deemed to be socially destabilizing. The Ministry of Public Security has the authority to order any local internet service provider to block any internet website at its sole discretion. From time to time, the Ministry of Public Security has stopped the dissemination over the internet of information which it believes to be socially destabilizing. The State Administration for the Protection of State Secrets is also authorized to block any website it deems to be leaking state secrets or failing to meet the relevant regulations relating to the protection of state secrets in the dissemination of online information.
Although we attempt to monitor the content posted by users on our platform, we are not able to effectively control or restrict content (including comments as well as pictures, videos and other multimedia content) generated or placed on our platform by our users. In March 2012, we had to disable the Comment feature on our platform for three days to clean up feeds related to certain rumors. To the extent that PRC regulatory authorities find any content displayed on our platform objectionable, they may require us to limit or eliminate the dissemination of such information on our platform. Failure to do so may subject us to liabilities and penalties and may even result in the temporary blockage or complete shutdown of our online operations.
In addition, the Judicial Interpretation on the Application of Law in Trial of Online Defamation and Other Online Crimes jointly promulgated by the Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which became effective on September 10, 2013, imposes up to a three-year prison sentence on internet users who fabricate or knowingly share defamatory false information online. The implementation of this newly promulgated judicial interpretation may have a significant and adverse effect on the traffic of our platform and discourage the creation of user generated content, which in turn may impact the results of our operations and ultimately the trading price of our ADSs.
Although our active user base has increased over the past several years, regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the internet in China may adversely affect our user experience and reduce users’ engagement and activities on our platform as well as adversely affect our ability to attract new users to our platform. Any and all of these adverse impacts may ultimately materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Bonds Set Up Nicely Again
I watch the bonds via the ETFs TLT and TBT, but if I were serious about trading them I'd have to subscribe to the CME's data feed (not sure how much it is a month, would have to look it up -- looks like $95 a month?).
TLT, 5 minute
ZB M4 US Treasury Bond futures June 2014
Trading idea for Fri. May 9, 2014 | St. Jude Medical (STJ)
Bad Auction Bonds
Apparently there was a bad bond auction yesterday ... in any event, there was a beautiful "impulse bar" (an old Linda Raschke term) at 1 PM after which price zig-zagged creating a perfect set-up on the five minute. Below are the TLT and TBT (the short fund) charts which are worth close study:
TLT 5 minute
TBT 5 minute
Trading idea for Thu. May 8, 2014 | Microsoft (MSFT)
See quite a few longs out there for Thursday (incl. INTC and KLAC) but I will go with Mister Softee here. Not great risk/reward if you're stopping below the bottom of that hammer, but clever day traders always find better stops than those working off of daily charts.
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Quick Look at SPXU
Five minute SPXU chart here ... SPXU is an ultrashort (-3x) SPX ETF ... block those acronyms! Good liquidity, should be a decent daytrading vehicle. Anyway, when the market is going up, I like to look short the short funds. SPXU gave two spots yesterday, but working off the five minute is tricky because the stops are so tight. If you shorted the 12:55 bar (spot 1) and put your stop above at 55.60, you would have been picked off. But if you put your initial stop above the 11:20 swing at, say, 56.05, you'd be risking more than you'd be expecting to make (at target 1), and that's a recipe for disaster. Never risk 50 cents to make 50 cents.
Jimmy DiResta Makes Bookends
I love watching Jimmy DiResta make stuff. Here he is free-handing the bandsaw again. Take note of the shape of the pinkie finger on his left hand. It met the bandsaw up close one time.
I first learned about Jimmy DiResta from his TV show "Dirty Money," which is still the best trash-to-cash show I've ever seen. It ran only one season which proves that the TV gods are not just.