Book Page -- Tech Notes -- April 10, 2025

Locator: 48453ARCHIVES.

The Great Gatsy, the 100th Anniversary Edition, Annotated: published March 4, 2025! I assume this would be in the $50-range. In fact, $26 -- at Amazon, 25% off. Barnes and Noble, as members, the best we could get, a standard 10% discount. Ordered. Will arrive in two days. Not affected by tariffs!

Breaking: helicopter crashed in Hudson River. Likely a tourist helicopter. One pilot, two adult passengers and three children. Apparently, based on eye-witness account, the blades broke apart in mid-air. We will know the results of the investigation one year from now.

Back home: had a great trip to Portland. It's surprisingly nice. If any US metropolis survives volatility, it will be Portland (and has been Portland). They are a feisty bunch. In the big scheme of things, I might prefer a pied-à-terre on the far east side or the far west side of downtown Portland if I had all the money in the world. Seriously. I liked the tolerance, the feistiness. 

Trump: the news cycle never, never, never quits. Now he' suggesting the US government "install" federal oversight of Columbia University. Of course, it isn't going to happen, but ... link here. Clearly, federal funding of US universities at risk. Hopefully, Trump will use a surgical scalpel this time, and not a sledgehammer.

Budget: US House moves forward. Congrats to Mike Johnson. Let's see what "the invisible man" can do. Link to The New Yorker.

Trade wars: if one wants a bit of insight -- read 1177: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric H. Cline, 2021. Notes here. 

Clearly Trump misread this one. He needed to use a surgical scalpel, not a sledgehammer. Sledgehammers are so yesterday. My hunch: he pivots, makes the right changes.

Having said that, I part company with Eric H. Cline's thoughts on the future.

Biggest story not being reported: US Navy chief "regrets" over-spending to fight asymmetric wars. Links hard to find. This is one link.

First time I've heard such a regret. I wonder what his thoughts are on algae-based jet fuel?

Tech notes today:

Intel's CEO with China: not good news for the company. Puts Trump in a difficult spot.

The grid: PJM, Google, and Tapestry. The sixth industrial revolution has started.

Polestar: can sell a lot of cars; can it make a profit?  

A Chinese car company. Another plaything for the elite. Polestar uses two different charging systems, neither of which is owned or developed by Elon Musk. One system, AC system, is designed for Europe; the other charging system, a DC rapid charging system, is for US EV consumers.

Apple: airlifted six hundred tons of iPhones out of India ahead of tariffs to beat the tariffs. 

• 600 * 2000 = 12 * 10^5 = 1200000 = 1.2 million phones
• the shipping weight of an iPhone, including packaging, generally ranges from 10 to 12 ounces, or approximately 1 lb. The iPhone itself typically weighs between 5.78 and 8.46 ounces depending on the model.
• this is really cool: how I help Sophia do the math
• 6 x 2 = 12
• so, Sophia, remember, the US has a population of about 350 million people:
• did Apple ship
• 10 phones?
  
• 100 phones?
• one hundred thousand phones: sounds like a big number but way too small
• a million phones?
• a billion phones?
• so, then 12 becomes 1.2 million or 1.2 billion 

Apple sold approximately 234.6 million iPhones in 2023, surpassing Samsung to become the world's top smartphone seller. In the previous year, 2022, Apple sold about 225.3 million iPhones. If all the above is accurate, that 1.2 million phones shipped out of India is trivial.

250 million / 12 months = 20 million iPhones being sold per month (global, of course, but America would be the biggest market, I assume).

Idle rambling: all of the above could be wrong but it gives me an idea where to begin. And regardless, it's a good exercise for Sophia for critical thinking

 Later: value here.

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The Book Page

Having completed these four books over the past couple of weeks, I was led to this book which arrived from Amazon yesterday:

• Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire, Eckart Frahm, c. 2023.

The author: a professor of Assyriology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University.

I bought the book specifically to track the interaction and progression of hieroglyphics, cuneiform, the alphabet, and written language. I have no idea how this will play out; I've not seen reviews of the book, but my first impression: it's gonna be a great book. Comes in at 509 pages including notes to chapters and the index.