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Ford opening Silicon Valley research lab in 2012
Posted by Andrey Malskiy Categories: Corporate News, Transportation,
Living in the northwest, the weather can make of break your day. From sun, to snow, to rain, it can all be seen in one day, depending on the season. So as any Northwesty, I'm constantly checking my iPhone for updated weather conditions. But alas, no two weather apps, let alone forecasters, can agree on Seattle weather.
Ford has announced that they will be neighboring next to Intel, Google, and other Silicon Valley giants. Other automotive giants such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW have already moved into the Valley, and Ford will be moving its Research and Innovations (R&I) Unit into the neighborhood. The question you might be asking is, "what does Ford and Northwest weather have to do with each other?" The answer is real-time data. Ford is aiming to utilize the sensors in its vehicles to transfer data to the client services we use.
Put it this way, when you're driving down the highway and it begins to rain, the sensors on the wipers transmit a signal to a client service; say a weather app you might use on your phone. The more vehicles equipped with this technology, the more accurate our weather forecasting becomes. Furthermore, I can see this technology also providing real-time traffic congestion info. In conjunction with a solid GPS, your commuting time could be reduced.
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Werd: Bailout - Part Three
Posted by Patrick Snajder Categories: Business, Domestic Policy, Editorials, US Economy,
So the much belabored point of Part Two was that, in my opinion, we all realize that a bailout is needed.
There are some dissenters that would argue that no taxpayer money should rescue financial organizations or our American auto makers. But anyone that seriously supports this philosophy is following the terrible advice that pushed us into the Great Depression:
Even today, with an economy much less dependent on bank loans than it was in 1930, a wholesale failure of the banking system, together with an extended fall in prices, could have a devastating impact. The reason most economists discount this possibility is that they don’t believe policymakers will make the same disastrous mistakes their predecessors made in the 1920s and 1930s, when the authorities stood by as the financial system imploded and withering deflation developed. [Full article here.]
The lesson learned from the Great Depression was that no government intervention at all is a sure-fire way to see the system collapse severely. There are many debates about what the government should specifically do, but all the debaters agree that doing nothing is the worst option of all. Nonetheless, many citizens seem to be opposed, in principle, to any bailouts at all that move taxpayer money towards rescuing banks or our automakers.
Click to continue reading Werd: Bailout - Part Three
Read More | Portfolio's Economic Predictions for 2009
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