I was musing geopolitik today and wondered about the world's largest countries by economy, land mass, and population. Among the standard pool of top contenders, an interesting comparison came to mind: Japan v. Russia.
GDP World Rank
Japan is #2
Russia is #8
Size
Japan covers 374,744 sq km
Russia covers 16,995,800 sq km
Population
Japan has 127,288,416 people
Russia has 140,702,096 people
So here's the punchline:
Japan's economy is roughly 3x the size of Russia's economy, however Japan only has 2% the land mass of Russia, which is the largest country in the world in terms of land mass AND Russia's population is only 1.1x greater than Japan's - nearly the same number of people in both countries!
Additionally, 13.7% of Russia's population is 65+yrs compared with Japan's 22%. The average life expectancy in Russia is 66yrs, while Japan has one of the highest average life expectancies at 82yrs!
So who wins in Japan v. Russia? The island nation of Japan has some compelling figures for it's relatively small size, however, it's military spending as a % of GDP is only 0.8% compared with Russia's 3.9%. Considering that Japan's not allowed to have a strong military per the 1947 Constitution and for post WWII cultural reasons you could say the USA + a small native defense force, is the de facto military for Japan. Since the USA's % military spending is 4.06% I'm going to go ahead and give the win in this country comparison to Japan.
*data comes from 2008 & 2009 estimates on www.cia.gov and 2008 IMF estimates.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
MCA aka Adam Yauch has cancer! Get Better Soon, Nethanial Hornblower!
It's hard to imagine that MC Adam Yauch is 44 years old. Born in 1964, the oldest, and in my opinion the most god-fatherly of the NYC based rap trio is my favorite B-Boy and I was sad to hear today that he has a type of cancer of the salivary gland. Luckily he says it's "very treatable" and should not affect his voice. His YouTube announcement was very lighthearted and was done with Adam Horowitz aka Ad-Rock in a studio. For more details check out the WebMD article on the matter... surprising that WebMD has written an article in the first place!
My friends know I'm a die-hard Beastie Boys fan. I bought Check Your Head & Ill Communication back when I was 11 years old (Ill Communication had just been released) and Licenced to Ill and Paul's Boutiques shortly afterwards. I remember making off like a bandit just like all the other kids using the BMG CD subscription service - yup - all done by snail mail. Remember that service where you could pick up 10-20 cds for just a few pennies?
Ill Communication quickly became my favorite CD. The B-Boys and Encarta '95 sound clips of grandmaster flash basically introduced me to the world of hip hop. These guys were my heroes, and I was always blaring their music in my '93 red honda civic. MCA's maturation from unruly, irresponsible teen-punk to Buddhist, Free Tibet activist was astounding to me. Tracks like Bodhisattva's vow, which include signature guttural Buddhist prayer chants, were inspiring to a kid very interesting in Hinduism and Buddhism...
After moaning and groaning about a lack of west coast concert dates over the years, I finally saw the b-boys live at the Bill Graham Civic in SF back in 2004. I was pretty much at the front of the line, I waited there all day maybe the second or third person from the entrance, reading a copy of enders game or speaker for the dead, I think... being at the front paid off when I had the chance to shake MCA's hand and have a fraction of a second cameo in the they filmed of the line outside the auditorium for the Mix Master Mike intro.
Adam Yauch, hope you have a smooth and speedy recovery so you can get back to pouring down the dharma for all the sisters and brothers.
My friends know I'm a die-hard Beastie Boys fan. I bought Check Your Head & Ill Communication back when I was 11 years old (Ill Communication had just been released) and Licenced to Ill and Paul's Boutiques shortly afterwards. I remember making off like a bandit just like all the other kids using the BMG CD subscription service - yup - all done by snail mail. Remember that service where you could pick up 10-20 cds for just a few pennies?
Ill Communication quickly became my favorite CD. The B-Boys and Encarta '95 sound clips of grandmaster flash basically introduced me to the world of hip hop. These guys were my heroes, and I was always blaring their music in my '93 red honda civic. MCA's maturation from unruly, irresponsible teen-punk to Buddhist, Free Tibet activist was astounding to me. Tracks like Bodhisattva's vow, which include signature guttural Buddhist prayer chants, were inspiring to a kid very interesting in Hinduism and Buddhism...
After moaning and groaning about a lack of west coast concert dates over the years, I finally saw the b-boys live at the Bill Graham Civic in SF back in 2004. I was pretty much at the front of the line, I waited there all day maybe the second or third person from the entrance, reading a copy of enders game or speaker for the dead, I think... being at the front paid off when I had the chance to shake MCA's hand and have a fraction of a second cameo in the they filmed of the line outside the auditorium for the Mix Master Mike intro.
Adam Yauch, hope you have a smooth and speedy recovery so you can get back to pouring down the dharma for all the sisters and brothers.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
RIP Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed MacMahon, So Forth
Today we were blindsided by MJ's death. Tomorrow we'll be blindsided by the details reporters dig up about his life.
It's been a tough couple weeks it's a media feeding frenzy out there, bigger sharks are feeding on smaller sharks every half hour:
MJ has died suddenly
Iran Contra(versy)
Riots everywhere
Pre-Troop Pullout Violence in Iraq
Beautiful & Courageous Neda
US Beefing up Missile Defenses "just to be safe" while N. Korea sails a ship possible laden with nuclear "magic dust" bound for an equally totalitarian Burma
Euna Lee and Laura Ling are sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korean death camps. Godspeed on their safe release.
NY Times Reporter escapes taliban captors, NY Times asked all other media outlets to keep his capture a secret, they comply, I'm scared about what else the media is hiding
Oh in fact they are hiding more stuff: Mark Sanfords infidelity and possible abuse of power - an SC paper had the details for months, but decided not to print anything allowing him to provide the American public with a surreal press conference
Jon and Kate + 8 - Too Late... omg. But I thought reality tv strengthens couples, like when Speidi went on that bs celeb island show and got kicked off in a humid costa rican minute.
Mexico's war on drugs has killed over 8000 mexicans in the last two years (on both sides of the law)
hmmmmmmmmm kind of makes you want to write a new version of:
we didn't start the fire (billy joel)
OR
it's the end of the world as we know it (REM)
Cheers America.
It's been a tough couple weeks it's a media feeding frenzy out there, bigger sharks are feeding on smaller sharks every half hour:
MJ has died suddenly
Iran Contra(versy)
Riots everywhere
Pre-Troop Pullout Violence in Iraq
Beautiful & Courageous Neda
US Beefing up Missile Defenses "just to be safe" while N. Korea sails a ship possible laden with nuclear "magic dust" bound for an equally totalitarian Burma
Euna Lee and Laura Ling are sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korean death camps. Godspeed on their safe release.
NY Times Reporter escapes taliban captors, NY Times asked all other media outlets to keep his capture a secret, they comply, I'm scared about what else the media is hiding
Oh in fact they are hiding more stuff: Mark Sanfords infidelity and possible abuse of power - an SC paper had the details for months, but decided not to print anything allowing him to provide the American public with a surreal press conference
Jon and Kate + 8 - Too Late... omg. But I thought reality tv strengthens couples, like when Speidi went on that bs celeb island show and got kicked off in a humid costa rican minute.
Mexico's war on drugs has killed over 8000 mexicans in the last two years (on both sides of the law)
hmmmmmmmmm kind of makes you want to write a new version of:
we didn't start the fire (billy joel)
OR
it's the end of the world as we know it (REM)
Cheers America.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Mark Sanford - A New Martyr for Fiscally Conservative Republicans?
Mark Sanford is the governor of South Carolina. He's also been touted as one of four top choices for a 2012 GOP run for the White House. A few days ago he stirred up great concern after reporting to his staff that he was taking a hike through the Appalachia. He could not be reached and "the public" speculated on his whereabouts. Today at 11:30AM Pacific Time we found him on the major cable news stations: MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, giving a highly anticipated press conference a few hours after he initially told reporters he'd actually been in Argentina (a reporter met him at the airport).
I randomly tuned into the broadcast, knowing a little bit about the story beforehand, and immediately and not surprisingly guessed where his press conference was headed - straight to infidelity land. After making a series of heartfelt apologies to his family, father in law, staff, people of faith, etc. he announced that he had been unfaithful to his wife with a woman he befriended in Argentina 8 years prior. The relationship had "become something more" only in the last year or so and he provided lots of details during the Q&A portion of the press conference. He revealed that his wife/family had discovered the affair about 5 months ago and that this was his first instance of infidelity.
While I've followed most of the recent political affair-scandals in newspapers and on second hand reports via the local TV news, this one really struck me as surreal, since I was catching it live with the rest of the Nation. Here is a man, a governor of a state I know next to nothing about, who is apparently a top choice for the republican presidential nomination in 2012 (with others like Bobby Jindal). And he's telling the whole country of his lecherous behavior with an Argentinian woman. I just guess I had one of those, "we live in strange times" moments.
Other than the fantastical nature of the admission itself, I was curious about how the different cable news stations would cover this breaking story. I watched most of the live press conference on CNN and then some of CNN's commentary, later I switched to Fox News to hear their commentary. I was trying to put myself in a neutral mindset even though, I was expecting more searing commentary from CNN and a more defensive posture from correspondents and commentators on Fox News...
The woman at the CNN news desk expressed a restrained contempt for the Governor and towards the end of the segment praised the Governor's wife for not being "at his side" during the press conference as the correspondent felt it was a sign of being "fake". Strong feminist undertones, but with a calculated restraint. Fox News was interesting because they were able to get comments from people very close to the Governor and so the tone was extremely sympathetic... but even more interesting was what I perceived to be Fox New's strategy of how to frame this political-scandal narrative.
Governor Sanford has made a lot of enemies on both sides due to his rejection of the Obama stimulus package, he was overridden in South Carolina but made lots of fellow Republicans enemies in the process. The Fox News report went out of their way to suggest that perhaps a political opponent forced this scandal out in order to further weaken his strength SC and also his nomination potential in 2012. The guest on the program didn't think that was at all plausible, but the seed was planted. Fox News also went on to frame the Governor's plight in this way: that he was a responsible, fiscally conservative republican being ganged up on by egregiously spendy democrats and the socially conservative republicans that dominate SC politics.
I just have a hunch that the political commentary around this scandal will be interesting to look at retrospectively as we move closer to 2012 as republicans try to posture to find a fresh platform and fresh face for their next bid at the White House.
I randomly tuned into the broadcast, knowing a little bit about the story beforehand, and immediately and not surprisingly guessed where his press conference was headed - straight to infidelity land. After making a series of heartfelt apologies to his family, father in law, staff, people of faith, etc. he announced that he had been unfaithful to his wife with a woman he befriended in Argentina 8 years prior. The relationship had "become something more" only in the last year or so and he provided lots of details during the Q&A portion of the press conference. He revealed that his wife/family had discovered the affair about 5 months ago and that this was his first instance of infidelity.
While I've followed most of the recent political affair-scandals in newspapers and on second hand reports via the local TV news, this one really struck me as surreal, since I was catching it live with the rest of the Nation. Here is a man, a governor of a state I know next to nothing about, who is apparently a top choice for the republican presidential nomination in 2012 (with others like Bobby Jindal). And he's telling the whole country of his lecherous behavior with an Argentinian woman. I just guess I had one of those, "we live in strange times" moments.
Other than the fantastical nature of the admission itself, I was curious about how the different cable news stations would cover this breaking story. I watched most of the live press conference on CNN and then some of CNN's commentary, later I switched to Fox News to hear their commentary. I was trying to put myself in a neutral mindset even though, I was expecting more searing commentary from CNN and a more defensive posture from correspondents and commentators on Fox News...
The woman at the CNN news desk expressed a restrained contempt for the Governor and towards the end of the segment praised the Governor's wife for not being "at his side" during the press conference as the correspondent felt it was a sign of being "fake". Strong feminist undertones, but with a calculated restraint. Fox News was interesting because they were able to get comments from people very close to the Governor and so the tone was extremely sympathetic... but even more interesting was what I perceived to be Fox New's strategy of how to frame this political-scandal narrative.
Governor Sanford has made a lot of enemies on both sides due to his rejection of the Obama stimulus package, he was overridden in South Carolina but made lots of fellow Republicans enemies in the process. The Fox News report went out of their way to suggest that perhaps a political opponent forced this scandal out in order to further weaken his strength SC and also his nomination potential in 2012. The guest on the program didn't think that was at all plausible, but the seed was planted. Fox News also went on to frame the Governor's plight in this way: that he was a responsible, fiscally conservative republican being ganged up on by egregiously spendy democrats and the socially conservative republicans that dominate SC politics.
I just have a hunch that the political commentary around this scandal will be interesting to look at retrospectively as we move closer to 2012 as republicans try to posture to find a fresh platform and fresh face for their next bid at the White House.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
$7000 for a 1000 sq ft home? Sign me up.
I've never visited Slate.com to read an article. Perhaps I've read an article or two forwarded to me in the distant past, but a couple days ago I thought, why not, they're supposed to have interesting reads...
So I just read this article about Flint, Michigan in Slate. It's apparently a dilapidated, crime-ridden town with few job prospects, but that aside the San Francisco transplant who writes the article drops some values on the homes out there, it's really surprising!
The SF housing bubble is ridiculous. The slate article (below) relates that a perfectly good 1000 sq ft house near a university campus went for 7 grand in a short sale recently. WTF. Aside from all the quality of life factors, housing bubble dynamics, robustness of local industries, etc. just compare that number for a second to the $2750 you could be paying for a recently renovated sub 800 sq ft'er 2 bedroom in Mission Dolores. Less than 3 months of rent for that bigger house in flint, it just blows my mind. I mean the author here talks of crack dens, etc. plaguing some of these Flint neibhorhoods with really low housing prices... it's not like people don't regularly get shot just a few blocks away from the ivory tower mission dolores neighbhorhood. I'm thinking below 16th and Mission... and that doesn't include all the dealing that goes down just at Albion and 16th... ah, but the grungy hipster entrepreneurial lifestyle!
The Slate Article About Flint by Gordon Young
SF Murders - A great interactive feature
I count roughly 10 murders alone near my old Mission Dolores pad, they occured between 07-08.
Gordon Young, the Slate article that inspired this post also has a blog, I've included a link here to his Flint murder map... I love how they call themselves Flint expatriates... maybe they should be known as refugees...
Maybe someone can write a robust post on the concept of Murder Maps...
So I just read this article about Flint, Michigan in Slate. It's apparently a dilapidated, crime-ridden town with few job prospects, but that aside the San Francisco transplant who writes the article drops some values on the homes out there, it's really surprising!
The SF housing bubble is ridiculous. The slate article (below) relates that a perfectly good 1000 sq ft house near a university campus went for 7 grand in a short sale recently. WTF. Aside from all the quality of life factors, housing bubble dynamics, robustness of local industries, etc. just compare that number for a second to the $2750 you could be paying for a recently renovated sub 800 sq ft'er 2 bedroom in Mission Dolores. Less than 3 months of rent for that bigger house in flint, it just blows my mind. I mean the author here talks of crack dens, etc. plaguing some of these Flint neibhorhoods with really low housing prices... it's not like people don't regularly get shot just a few blocks away from the ivory tower mission dolores neighbhorhood. I'm thinking below 16th and Mission... and that doesn't include all the dealing that goes down just at Albion and 16th... ah, but the grungy hipster entrepreneurial lifestyle!
The Slate Article About Flint by Gordon Young
SF Murders - A great interactive feature
I count roughly 10 murders alone near my old Mission Dolores pad, they occured between 07-08.
Gordon Young, the Slate article that inspired this post also has a blog, I've included a link here to his Flint murder map... I love how they call themselves Flint expatriates... maybe they should be known as refugees...
Maybe someone can write a robust post on the concept of Murder Maps...
Monday, June 15, 2009
Foodie FAIL
A friend of mine attended this and it was so bad he received a refund upon request. Apparantly expecations were extremely high and the event under-delivered.
I told him I thought this was the absolute worst aggregation of Yelp reviews I've ever seen (and in such a short period of time)
Monday, June 8, 2009
Up - the new disney/pixar movie
I went to the movies last Friday with my parents. We wante to see Up, but the 8:30PM show was sold out. In a fit of confused rage I purchased 3 "night at the museum II" lie-max (thanks rich) tickets (@ $16.50 for adults, that's stinking nuts) but then my wise parents exchanged those tickets for the 10PM up showing. THANK YOU PARENTS.
Disney/Pixar's "Up" was awesome! But beware, it's not your typical happy go lucky animated kid film: it's rated PG, there are two scenes with a little bit of blood, and the beginning story arc is very poignantly sad - but it will "lift" you up with great laughs, a fresh-current story, and a strong moral compass.
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