Foxconn’s groundbreaking ceremony. Photo from the White House.
It was back in September 2017, that the Legislature approved a deal with a massive subsidy for Foxconn. That was nearly three years ago. And what has the company done for Wisconsin to date?
Supposedly, the deal was going to have a statewide impact, as Foxconn announced the creation of “innovation centers” in Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Green Bay. But as I predicted back in August 2018, these were simply “Potemkin villages,” glitzy sounding projects meant to help re-electScott Walkerthat would never be created. That’s exactly what has happened. The influential high tech industry publication The Verge has repeatedly investigated these innovation centers, along with a later proposed project in Madison, and come up with nothing. In April 2019, the publication visited the state and found buildings that were largely empty. In response Foxconn officials told the media the story was wrong, generating this headline from The Verge: “Foxconn says empty buildings in Wisconsin are not empty.”
Just a few days ago, The Verge published a follow-up story: “Foxconn’s Buildings Are Still Empty, One Year Later.” Its reporter Josh Dzieza found the Eau Claire building was empty “with no visible activity,” and in Green Bay, there was no building, the plans for it had been scaled down, and “no permits have been taken out, and construction has yet to begin.” In Madison, where Foxconn was supposed to have major partnership with the state’s flagship university, a “search of records for Foxconn’s property… turned up no building permits, and other tenants of the building have not seen any Foxconn employees.” In Milwaukee “the most significant permits the company has applied for are to renovate elevators and an exit door. In January, Ixonia Bank moved into the building’s first floor.”
“Foxconn has also continued to lease out its Green Bay building to other businesses,” the story reported. “Its Madison and Racine innovation centers are still occupied by the banks that were there before Foxconn purchased the buildings.”
Which brings us down to the big baby, the Mount Pleasant campus in Racine County, which was supposed to be a $10 billion colossus with 13,000 employees, the “eighth wonder of the world,” as President Donald Trump dubbed it. That was been downsized repeatedly, with an ever-changing manufacturing menu: first a Gen 10.5 plant, then a smaller Gen 6 plant, then coffee kiosks and recently ventilators. As The Verge reported: “The factory is set to open in May… It is unclear exactly what the factory will produce.”
What is clear is that the project violates the contract Foxconn signed with the state. It stipulates that Foxconn will build a Gen 10.5 LCD plant, which it is not doing, and its operations at Mount Pleasant are being done by its subsidiary Foxconn Industrial Internet, which was not a party to the contract.
“The project that they have right now is outside the bounds of the contract,” Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennantold The Verge in December. Since May 2019 Foxconn has been “continuously encouraged” to revise the contract, Brennan noted, but has yet to show any willingness to do so.
It is a commonly observed fact that overloaded systems are sensitive to small perturbations.
The world’s economy is strained by at least two tremendous burdens: one is the increasing costs of production of mineral resources (don’t be fooled by the current low prices of oil: prices are one thing, costs are another).
Then, there is pollution, including climate change, also weighing on the economy. These two factors define the condition called “overshoot,” when an economic system is consuming more resources than nature can replace. Sooner or later, an economy in overshoot has to come to terms with reality. It means that it can’t continue to grow: it must decline.
These considerations can be quantified. It was done for the first time in 1972 with the famous report The Limits to Growth sponsored by the Club of Rome. Widely discredited at the time, today we recognize that the model used for the study correctly identified some key trends of the world’s economy. The study found that the double burden of resource depletion and pollution would bring economic growth first to a halt and then cause it to collapse, probably at some moment during the first decades of the 21st century. Even with optimistic assumptions on the availability of natural resources and of new technologies, the calculations showed that the collapse could at best be postponed, but not avoided. Later studies confirmed these results: collapse turns out to be a typical feature of systems in overshoot, a phenomenon called the “Seneca Cliff”, derived from a sentence of the ancient Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
The base case scenario from the 1972 edition of “The Limits to Growth.” (Courtesy of copyright owner Dennis Meadows)
The coronavirus, in itself, is a minor perturbation, but the system is poised for collapse and the pandemic could trigger it. We already saw how the world’s economy is fragile: it nearly collapsed in 2008 under the relatively small perturbation of the crash of the US subprime mortgage market. At that time, it was possible to contain the damage but, today, the fragility of the system has not improved and the coronavirus pandemic may be a stronger perturbation. The collapse of entire sectors of the economy, such as the tourism industry (more than 10 percent of the world’s gross product), is already under way. It may be impossible to stop collapse from spreading to other sectors.
So, what exactly is it going to happen to us? Are we destined to leave an era of unprecedented prosperity to one defined by poverty? Will the coming crisis turn out to be so bad that it pushes us back to the Middle Ages?
It is true that all major epidemics in history have seen a robust rebound after the collapse. Consider that, in mid-14th century, the Black Death killed perhaps 40 percent of the population of Europe but, a century later, Europeans were discovering America and starting their attempt to conquer the world. It may be that the Black Death was instrumental in this rebound: the temporary reduction of the European population freed up the resources necessary for a new leap forward.
Could we see a similar rebound of our society in the future? Why not? After all, the coronavirus could be doing us a favor by forcing us to abandon the fossil fuels we use today. The current low market prices are the result of a contraction in demand and could be the straw that breaks the back of the oil industry. That will leave space for new and more efficient technologies. Today, solar and wind energy has become so cheap that it is possible to think of a society fully based on renewable energy. It won’t be easy, but recent studies show that it can be done.
That doesn’t mean that we can avoid a collapse in the near term. The transition to a new energy infrastructure will require enormous investments, which will likely be absent during the period of economic contraction we expect for the near future. But, in the long run, the transition is unavoidable and there is hope for a rebound toward a new economy based on clean and renewable energy, no more plagued by the threats of depletion and climate change.
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Ugo Bardi is a member of the Club of Rome and he teaches chemistry at the University of Florence, in Italy. He is the author of the book “Before Collapse” (Springer 2019).
Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, claims that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus that was accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Chinese researchers are said to have used coronaviruses in their work to develop an AIDS vaccine. HIV DNA fragments are believed to have been found in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
We knew that the Chinese version of how the coronavirus emerged was increasingly under attack, but here’s a thesis that tells a completely different story about the Covid-19 pandemic, which is already responsible for more than 110,000 deaths worldwide.
According to Professor Montagnier, this laboratory, known for its work on coronaviruses, tried to use one of these viruses as a vector for HIV in the search for an AIDS vaccine!
“With my colleague, bio-mathematician Jean-Claude Perez, we carefully analyzed the description of the genome of this RNA virus,” explains Luc Montagnier, interviewed by Dr Jean-François Lemoine for the daily podcast at Pourquoi Docteur, adding that others have already explored this avenue:
Indian researchers have already tried to publish the results of the analyses that showed that this coronavirus genome contained sequences of another virus, … the HIV virus (AIDS virus), but they were forced to withdraw their findings as the pressure from the mainstream was too great.
In a challenging question Dr Jean-François Lemoine inferred that the coronavirus under investigation may have come from a patient who is otherwise infected with HIV.
"No," says Luc Montagnier, "in order to insert an HIV sequence into this genome, molecular tools are needed, and that can only be done in a laboratory."
According to the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, a plausible explanation would be an accident in the Wuhan laboratory. He also added that the purpose of this work was the search for an AIDS vaccine.
The truth will eventually come out
In any case, this thesis, defended by Professor Luc Montagnier, has a positive turn. According to him, the altered elements of this virus are eliminated as it spreads:
“Nature does not accept any molecular tinkering, it will eliminate these unnatural changes and even if nothing is done, things will get better, but unfortunately after many deaths.”
Luc Montagnier added that with the help of interfering waves, we could eliminate these sequences and as a result stop the pandemic.
This is enough to feed some heated debates! So much so that Professor Montagnier’s statements could also place him in the category of “conspiracy theorists”:
“Conspirators are the opposite camp, hiding the truth,” he replies, without wanting to accuse anyone, but hoping that the Chinese will admit to what he believes happened in their laboratory.
To entice a confession from the Chinese he used the example of Iran which after taking full responsibility for accidentally hitting a Ukrainian plane was able to earn the respect of the global community. Hopefully the Chinese will do the right thing he adds.
“In any case, the truth always comes out, it is up to the Chinese government to take responsibility.”
Another 1950's Sci-Fi movie that's low on special effects, but high on moralizing. The Cold War implications are heavy handed. In the end, the stubbornness of the military overtakes science and almost ruins everything. Young Kenny ( Scotty Morrow ), however, gets a special gift.
In this March 13, 2020 file photo, a nurse at a drive-up coronavirus testing station set up by the University of Washington Medical Center wears a face shield and other protective gear as she waits by a tent in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
(AP) - Ten nurses have been suspended from their jobs at a Santa Monica, California, hospital after refusing to care for COVID-19 patients without being provided protective N95 face masks.
One of those nurses, Mike Gulick, says the decision was heart-wrenching but after a colleague tested positive for the infection he felt he had to take a stand.
Other nurses Tuesday protested what they said was inadequate personal protective equipment at a hospital in Fresno, California, where 10 nurses have tested positive for the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
Social distancing in a psychiatric facility is easier said than done. So far 34 people at Western State Hospital have tested positive for coronavirus.
The first patient at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Washington, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 16Ted S. Warren / AP file
By Kit Ramgopal
It's not unusual to hear patients screaming and crying at Western State Hospital, workers say. But lately, they say it's been worse than normal at the massive psychiatric facility just south of Tacoma, Washington.
Since COVID-19 hit the hospital a month ago, its Victorian-era buildings have felt "eerie" and "strange," according to workers.
The art room is empty, group therapy is canceled and patients eat alone in the cafeteria. A skeleton staff cares for more than 700 patients battling illnesses that range from schizophrenia to suicidal depression. Older patients are not so much quarantined as stranded, unwilling or unable to get up from their hard plastic beds without help, workers say. Other, younger patients are free to roam the halls with no masks.
Thirty-four patients and staffers have tested positive at Western State since the outbreak began, and one patient has died. The hospital says conditions have improved, with few new cases in recent days and no new sick patients in two weeks. But some workers — who actually outnumber patients 4 to 1, and who account for most of the coronavirus cases — tell NBC News they fear the real scale of the infection is unknown.
"This is a massive problem that is going to have continuing ramifications both psychologically and physically," said Lauren Smith, a forensic psychologist at Western State. "We have people who are sick, and we have people who are absolutely scared."
Meet Microsoft’s Windows 10 May 2020 Update. On Thursday, Microsoft said the latest iteration of Windows 10—known informally as Windows 10 20H1 or version 2004—has reached what Microsoft is calling its final build of the cycle, Build 19041.207.
The May 2020 Update build will begin rolling out soon to members of the “Release Preview” ring of the Windows 10 Insider program, which is reserved for those who wish to receive what are essentially final release builds early, with minimal risk to their devices. Microsoft isn’t saying when the Windows 10 May 2020 Update will roll out to the general public—beyond the general May 2020 timeframe, of course.
Microsoft is also apparently reserving its right to keep publishing new bug fixes until then. “We will continue to improve the overall experience of the May 2020 Update on customers’ PCs as part of our normal servicing cadence,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager of the Windows Insider program, in a blog post.
As with other companies, Microsoft’s efforts have been slowed by the coronavirus, too. In a Mixer broadcast, senior product manager Jason Howard noted that a scheduled “bug bash” this week had been cancelled.
It’s overwhelmingly geeky, but the Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux (WSL) has been overhauled, creating WSL2.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for May delivery tumbled by as much as 9.9 percent to $17.90 a barrel, its lowest since 2001.
“Lingering weakness in domestic demand alongside an extended period of global weakness will probably prevent GDP from returning to its pre-virus path until at least the middle of next year even amidst the ramp-up in policy stimulus,” wrote Julian Evans-Pritchard, a Singapore-based senior China economist at the research firm Capital Economics.
Click to enlarge
China’s first-quarter gross domestic product fell 6.8 percent year-over-year in the January-to-March period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, larger than the 6 percent drop that economists surveyed by Reuters were expecting.
The sharp economic contraction is a preview of things to come for the rest of the developed world, including the United States, as the COVID-19 pandemic originated in China, impacting its economy first.
Slower economic growth means there will be less demand for oil and its byproducts, including gasoline and jet fuel. In a report out Thursday, OPEC said global demand will fall by 6.9 million barrels per day amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a separate report out Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said 9.3 million barrels per day of demand has been zapped.
The weaker demand exacerbates a supply glut that was made worse when a price war broke out between Saudi Arabia and Russia on March 9.
In virtual talks last weekend, the world’s largest oil producers reached an agreement to trim global production by about 20 million barrels per day in May and June.
OPEC and its allies will lower output by 9.7 million barrels a day while the rest of the cuts come from major players such as the U.S. and Canada, mostly as a result of lower prices. The agreement also says OPEC producers and their allies will reduce production by 7.7 million barrels a day from July through next year.
RACINE — For Tesa Santoro, Blue Bear and Blue Bear Bakery are more than just businesses.
"I wanted a place that anyone could come and eat and feel comfortable, whether you had Lyme disease or an autoimmune issue, or you have a celiac issue," says Tesa Santoro, co-owner of Blue Bear.
Diagnosed with Lyme disease herself, Tesa says everything at Blue Bear is made from scratch and supplied by local vendors.
"If you order a sandwich, it comes on our bread, and our bread only has four ingredients, says Tesa. "We don't use any stabilizers or additives or preservatives in our baked goods, either."
Knowing that Blue Bear supports other local vendors, patrons are doing their part to keep Blue Bear open.
"We've had a tremendous amount of support from the community, just overwhelming. Especially the first couple of weeks when everything was going on, and no one knew how long this would last. Being able to work with smaller farms and vendors and having that one on one relationship, they realize we all have to help each other out during this time," says Tesa.
But the support hasn't stopped at Blue Bears kitchen. Instead of offering discounts, Tesa donates a portion of each order to local food pantries.
"We will call and say, what are you guys low on? Or we are literally making bread. We donated 50 loaves of bread to the local YMCA for their children's lunch program because the kids are all out of school. So the community is supporting us, so we are trying to do what we can to support the community," says Tesa.
They are proving that even during a pandemic, you can have your cake and eat it too. You just have to know the right recipe.
Blue Bear, located at 2920 Taylor Ave. in Racine, is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
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