China

Dang, I’ve accumulated quite a bit of material worth commenting on during the craziness of the past few weeks.   Some of the more interesting articles include:

• Redstate referenced an article in the Telegraph entitled “The Great Oil Bubble Has Burst”.  While Redstate seems inclined to play up the influence of off-shore drilling expectations in the recent rationalization of oil prices, the more complete story seems to be the free market coming back into balance.  Yes, the markets seem to reflect expectation of new supplies, and global economic slowing is shifting expectations of demand, and these shifts in turn seem to end the incentive to dance the contango. 
     
  However, I do notice that both articles also fail to touch on expectations of the US Dollar strengthening / Euro weakening impacting dollar-denominated oil futures contracts, as well as China presumably ending its massive stockpiling of diesel fuel for Olympics power-generation.

  It’ll be interesting to see where  the new oil/fuel price equilibrium emerges.  It’s a little odd that I’d ever be happy over gas and heating oil prices locally dropping below $3.90 – a year ago that would have been an unsettling price to think about.  Hopefully planners and venture capitalists will continue to see the market potential of alternative power sources (wind, solar, non-food-based-ethanol) enough to justify further development of such technology.
   

• You may have heard that the Olympics are on. NBC apparently racked up record ratings, which annoys me since it will only support that network’s practice of tainting the games (and its ceremonies) with inane, fluffy chatter.   You’d think that with the advent of digital multicasting, there would at least be some move to provide a commentator-less soundtrack, as well as additional coverage of some of the less-popular (but more interesting) sports.
   
• Tyson Foods drew some flack in Nashville media for one provision in its recently announced 5-year contract at a Shelbyville processing plant – workers will no longer receive Labor Day as a paid day off, instead picking up Eid al-Fitr, the end of the month of Ramadan.  The fuss seems to be focused around the appearance of sacrificing an American holiday for an Islamic one.  
   
  However, not much seems to be made of approximately 60% of staff at the plant being Somali (and presumably Muslim)…and that not much work would be done that day anyway.  It seems like a rather practical approach to maximize plant efficiency while being sensitive to workers’ wishes.   It’s similar to how even the most secular institutions in the U.S. observe Christmas Day.
   
• The Dems reportedly have reached the necessary compromises to draft a platform for the ’08 election season.  I’m hoping to have time to look through it more carefully later, but I can observe now that quickly searching for the word “insurance” and skimming through the results makes me feel oh-so-loved, and causes me to wonder if I should be searching for “bread and circus” as well.
   
• And finally, while I might feel unloved by the Dems due to my association with the “evil” insurance industry, I still can’t help but compliment the Obama camp for seemingly almost mastering the art of media hype.   The current example of this is was the invitation broadcast far and wide for a text message alert when Barack’s veep choice (presumably Bayh) is announced (presumably in the next day or two).

Whew!  And now, it’s time for me to head back into the salt mine….

It’s Beijing’s week to get a highway feature highlighted.  So, in honor of the Summer Olympics….

(View in Google Maps)

The Fourth Ring Road is a frequently congested loop about 8 kilometers outside the core of the city of Beijing.  This particular location is where the expressway passes just south of the new National Stadium, the “birds nest” that will be the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Games.

This article at Bloomberg caught my eye:

China is pushing the price of diesel fuel higher by stockpiling it ahead of both the Summer Olympics and the need to rebuild Sichuan province after last week’s earthquake, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The country is hoarding the fuel in the event that its power grid fails and it needs to use backup generators, the Journal said.

Now, I don’t think anyone could fault a country for stepping up fuel acquisition in the wake of a disaster.  However, the article makes it sound like Chinese authorities are uncertain of their power grid’s ability to support the demands that the Olympics will make on local power resources.

Shouldn’t availability of power, preferably without need of falling back to more-polluting, backup sources, be a key criterion in site selection?

Also, aren’t the Olympics supposed to be a celebration of peaceful competition and cooperation, rather than a drag on the rest of the world?

By now you’ve probably heard plenty about the 7.9 earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China — over 13,000 people dead, schools collapsed, chemical leaks…and it was felt over 1000 miles away.

The New York Times has a map available to provide a bit of scale around the potentially devastated area.

Looking at the map, and some of the descriptions, I can’t help but think — in terms of magnitude and geographic scope, doesn’t this sound a little like the New Madrid quakes of 1811-1812?

True, in terms of human tragedy, there’s no comparison — the central part of North America was very sparsely populated at the time, while over 15.4 million folks felt the Dujiangyan quake “strongly”.  But still… folks in St. Louis and Memphis…and property insurance underwriters and actuaries…ought to take a moment to contemplate the “what if’s”.

This week brings us to an interesting interchange in Tianjin, China:

This is the interchange of the Jingtang Expressway (京津塘高速公路), the Jinji Expressway (津蓟高速公路), and Tianjin’s Outer Ring Road (Waihuanxian)

The Jingtang Expressway (the upper northwest-southeast highway above) is a 4-lane tollway connecting Beijing with Tianjin.  It was built in 1993, and is reported to be seriously plagued by high traffic loads arising from the growth of long-haul trucking and personal auto ownership in the past 15 years.

The Jinji Expressway (running southwest-northeast in the map above) connects the urban center of Tianjin with Ji County of Tianjin province.

And, of course, the Waihuanxian (the more impressive-looking northwest-southeast highway in the map above) is the outer ring road.  Although it looks like a freeway in the above clip, in reality it is just a major road, not-fully controlled access.

A couple of thoughts that have been bouncing around my head, given how much news coverage there has recently been on the Olympic Torch and related pro-Tibet protests.

First, in the Olympic Torch relays I’ve been aware of (from ‘84 on), the torch has been portrayed as a symbol of the ideal of the world coming together in peace and good sportsmanship.

This year, for the first time, I’ve been hearing folks recall that the torch relay was originally developed as an element of Nazi propaganda associated with the ‘36 Olympics.

How come when the U.S., or Australia, or South Korea, or any other country hosts the Olympics, the torch relay is symbolic of peace, but when the PRC gets the Olympics, it’s a resurrection of Nazism?

Haven’t the pro-Tibet/pro-Darfur/anti-China protesters ever heard of Godwin’s Law?

Second, don’t I remember hearing China promise that these would be the Green Olympics?

Seen in Wired:

If people are looking for another reason to be pissed at China, how about this: By the time this pyro parade is over, it will have produced about 11 million pounds of carbon emissions.

While reading about the challenges the Olympic torch relay faced in Paris, a comment in the Washington Post caught my eye:

But the relay team struggled at a slow pace as it followed the banks of the Seine and looped back toward the Trocadero across the river from the Eiffel Tower, where pro-Tibet demonstrators pelted the torch bearer—a wheelchair-bound ping pong player—and his assistants with bottles of juice, fruit and other projectiles.

Um…while I agree that China’s policy towards Tibet (and many ethnic minorities, for that matter) is atrocious, and their implicit support for the Darfur massacres is heinous…dudes, is belting a wheelchair-bound torchbearer really the right way to get your message across?

Flying Tibetan flags, waving “Save Darfur” signs…those would be acceptable ways to get the message across, in the faint hope that the semi-openness Beijing is allegedly honoring for the Olympics permits the message to get through. Asking political leaders to take the PRC to task, or even campaigning to permit athletes to add Tibetan or Darfur-oriented flair to their uniforms…that would be fine too.

But throwing stuff at a wheelchair-bound torchbearer?! The only thing that will be effective in doing is arming China with material to show what rabble Tibetan supporters “really” are.

This week takes us to China:

This is the Yangpu Bridge (杨浦大桥), an 8.4 kilometer bridge which provides a link between Pudong and the Yangpu District of Shanghai.   It is one part of the Inner Ring Road of Shanghai’s freeway system, and it’s center span of just over 600 meters renders it the fourth-largest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Even though Hong Kong has been returned to China for over a decade now, the autonomy granted to the Hong Kong S.A.R. means that the border between mainland China and the former British Colony still functions like an international border.   Consider, for example the Lok Ma Chau ( 落馬洲) border crossing:

To the right is the road crossing, used primarily by trucks, coming in the form of a high bridge across the Shenzhen River.  The north end of a bridge features an impressive ramp structure that not only helps achieve the necessary elevation, but also facilitates the switchover of traffic from left-hand-drive in Hong Kong to right-hand-drive in mainland China.

To the left is a double-decked pedestrian bridge, housing immigration checks for pedestrians crossing the river between train stations on both sides of the river.

Back in the dark ages of bachelorhood, I tended to be a little miffed about a lack of good, available women. (This was, of course, before I met my wife and learned what a good woman really is.)

I wonder how my assessment would have been different if only Kissinger had taken Chariman Mao up on this offer described at CNN:

You know, China is a very poor country,” Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department’s historian office.

“We don’t have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands.”

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. “Do you want our Chinese women?” he asked. “We can give you 10 million.”