Good move by this flock camera installer!
Why are journalists following and filming flock camera installers in the first place!
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
Flock camera installer calls police: 'I'm getting followed' and police officer intervenes
UN chief calls for end to violence in southern Lebanon, urges Israeli forces to withdraw. Really!
Has the UN ever asked the Hezbollah to disarm, dissolve and face criminal indictments?
The UN is such a joke!
US Secretary of State Rubio threatens Iran with brutal response after attacks on US naval ships and more
Recommendable! Rubio talks about Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.
The Secret of the Mona Lisa Smile: Mystery Solved?
Recommendable, however only two segments are really interesting. First segment around 5-6 minutes and the last part starting around 8:30.
How much has been said and written about the Mona Lisa just over the last 1-2 hundred years! Amazing!
Was Netanyahu Warned Before October 7 by the UAE? with Palki Sharma. Really!
I have some serious doubts about this story! For once, is it not very convenient that this story comes out just shortly before elections? Why not earlier!
Judging from this report, the warning (if there was any) was too vague. How many warnings does a Prime Minister of Israel receive on a weekly basis?
Saudi Refineries Ablaze After Houthi Missile Barrage with Palki Sharma
Serious stuff!
Where are the coward European powers when you need them!
Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will US consumers trust it?
Good news! It is a new technology and the safeguards still have to be figured out!
That Meta is immediately asking for a method of payment (if confirmed) is not such a great idea to get started, in my opinion.
If it is useful and if the benefits significantly outweigh the disadvantages, why not.
What about piecemeal adoption? Apparently, the user has control over how much the user wants to share etc.
"On Tuesday [9/8/2026], the company introduced Muse, its new personal AI agent that helps consumers with everyday tasks and projects for users in the U.S.
To use Muse, consumers will have to trust Meta with more of their personal information than ever before. The AI agent works by connecting to the user’s apps and services that are a part of everyday workflows, like email, calendars, payments, and other things the individual may regularly use, like apps for health and fitness, the smart home, dining, shopping, music and events, and more. ...
Muse will initially be available via the web at muse.ai, through apps on iOS and Android, and through chats in WhatsApp.
It will soon also make its way to Meta’s AI glasses, the company says. It will be free to use, with subscription plans kicking in as usage increases, which is why Muse requires a payment card to get started. ..."
"Takeaways
- Muse is a personal AI agent. It doesn’t just answer questions, it actually does the work. It helps people stay on top of things, takes tasks and projects off their plate, and turns long-term goals into action plans.
- Meta built Muse from the ground up to be a safe, secure, private, and widely available personal AI agent.
- Muse runs on Muse Secure VM, a dedicated secure computer with its own browser, and can work on a person’s behalf across the apps they use daily, learning from conversations, reflecting on what matters to them, and getting sharper along the way.
- Each person stays in control of their Muse and decides how much access it gets.
- For a deeper look at how Muse was designed and how safety, security, and privacy were built into it, read How We Built Safety Into Muse and How We Designed Muse.
..."
Introducing Muse: The World’s First Personal AI Agent Built for Everyone (official news release)
On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem | OpenAI
Amazing stuff! Exciting times for math!
However, OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU mathematician. "OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU mathematician: There is a $1 million bounty for the first person providing a solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem." OpenAI admits there was apparently an intense competition going in the last few days or so on who would come out first.
"We’re sharing a solution to the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of the Millennium Prize Problems. This proof, produced by an internal OpenAI system, shows that the dynamics of the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid motion can develop a singularity in finite time. We’re sharing both a writeup of the proof and a formalization in Lean. ...
The agents arrived at their resolution on Saturday, September 5, about 88 hours after the first agents were launched. Lean formalization and verification took an additional 17 hours via GPT‑6 Astra. ...
In the process of resolving the Navier–Stokes problem, the agents sent 2.7 million messages and used approximately 130 billion output tokens. ..."
Credits: The Wall Street Journal What's news
A snapshot of local incompressible motion. Orange marks faster angular rotation; teal marks slower rotation. Circulating speed also depends on radius. The trajectories show inward spiraling and axial stretching.
We have to thank this one male juror in the Clancy triple infanticide case who would not acquit the defendant
I blogged here about some the grave issues surrounding this case.
Presumably, the the three prosecutors in this case were not sharpest knives in the kitchen!
Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Sprague. She looks tame to me! (Source)
District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. He was overseeing the case. (Source, official photo)
A Business Baby Boom in the US in 2026, but it started under the 46th President
Good news!
"Americans filed 578,926 new business applications in July, an increase of 8.1 percent from June and 23.4 percent from a year earlier.
That was the highest monthly total in the Census Bureau’s seasonally adjusted series, which stretches back to July 2004. It exceeded even the extraordinary July 2020 pandemic surge by 5.9 percent.
This is broader than a spectacular month. Applications in
creased in April, May, June, and July. The three-month average reached a record 547,848, up 9.8 percent from the preceding three months"
creased in April, May, June, and July. The three-month average reached a record 547,848, up 9.8 percent from the preceding three months"
Business Formation Statistics Monthly Data Release — July 2026 (original news release)
The careful observer will notice that the monthly business formation data already picked during the term the 46th President and stayed high ever since (Source)
US Treasury Secretary Bessent declared the administration is making America more business-friendly and it is “reprivatizing” the economy
Good news! Way to go!
Remember "After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world." (President Calvin Coolidge 1925)
"... Speaking at Breitbart News’s “State of the Economy” event, Bessent pointed to the entrepreneurial surge as evidence that the administration is making America more business-friendly and “reprivatizing” the economy. He also highlighted artificial intelligence’s role in making it easier to start a business. ..."
US Treasury Secretary Bessent
It’s time to take the gloves off during vaccination
Food for thought! Unfortunately, over the past 2-3 decades or so wearing gloves has become sort of a requirement for many daily activities. It is probably excessive and is a form of government paternalism
What are the alternatives to gloves? What about more latex gloves instead of nitrile or vinyl?
Do these gloves have to be disposable!
Example: "If all 18 million health care workers in the U.S. get a flu shot, that equals 36 million gloves, or 108 metric tons of garbage."
There is even a color guide for medical gloves (Source)
Smithsonian head Lonnie Bunch announces retirement amid pressure from Trump
Good news! Thanks Mr. Bunch (age 73)! Time for retirement?
I suspect, he too was a DEI choice (first black American etc.).
His professional career is not impressive at all. Apparently his research focus was almost exclusively the history of black Americans. He published very few publications.
One of his publications of 2019 is titled "Bunch, Lonnie G. (2019). A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the age of Bush, Obama, and Trump. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. " There is certainly some irony here.
"Product description: Founding Director Lonnie Bunch's deeply personal tale of the triumphs and challenges of bringing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to life. His story is by turns inspiring, funny, frustrating, quixotic, bittersweet, and above all, a compelling read."
12 countries (EU, Canada, and UK) announce boycott of goods from settlements. Really!
Maybe another bad move by the new British Prime Minister Burnham!
What kind of deplorable foreign interference into the internal affairs of the only democracy in the Middle EAst is this? Bullies (Canada & EU) against a small country!
"Twelve countries (11 European countries and Canada) today announced that they will boycott products made by Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The joint move reflects a new low-point in relations between Israel and Europe over the situation in Gaza and the territories.
Britain led the announcement, with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband declaring that the UK had "taken a central role" in formulating the sanctions. The announcement by the list of countries, some of which have already taken the step and some of which have only declared their willingness to do so, was made following a failure to move forward with sanctions at the EU level due to the position of pro-Israeli countries. ..."
Argentina files criminal suit against Israeli Navitas over Falklands oil
This seems to be a bad move the UK to allow offshore drilling for oil near the Falkland Islands!
Holding on to the Falkland islands is one thing, another is to exploit any natural resources in this very contested territory.
Did the UK try to establish a joint project?
Britische Privatschulen verlieren 30.000 Schüler wegen 20% Mehrwertsteuer. Wirklich!
Deutschland ist nicht die einzige Bananenrepublik in Europa!
Wer hat sich den Unsinn ausgedacht! 20% MwSt???
Mehr als 100 Schulen mussten schließen. Auch einige Internate wackeln."
President Trump EPA Takes Transformative Approach to treating some plastic recycling as a form of manufacturing rather than waste disposal
Good news! It started already latest in April of 2026.
Of course, if recycling was good business, then private companies would already do it. This recycling effort probably will take a lot of government regulation and subsidies etc.
Almost every day you can read an article about the successful effective and efficient recycling of plastic by different means!
"The Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump has launched a quiet revolution in the approach the EPA takes toward some forms of plastic waste, removing regulatory barriers by treating some plastic recycling as a form of manufacturing rather than waste disposal.
The EPA’s new approach aims to incentivize advanced recycling of plastic, contributing to the economy while addressing the spread of plastic waste into oceans and other ecosystems. ...
The agency also highlighted a proposed rule to speed cleanup of the nation’s roughly 48 million abandoned scrap tires by making it easier to use recovered tires as fuel;
work on a federally required battery recycling framework; ongoing grants supporting recycling infrastructure; and
research into removing impurities from recycled materials so they can be used more consistently in industrial processes. ..."
"... “The world is moving on this, and quickly. Europe, which already has at least twice as many advanced recycling facilities as the U.S., is projected to have 65 by 2030. It is on track to lead the global market in revenue. And the Asia-Pacific region is emerging as the fastest-growing market for advanced recycling technology, with projected revenues of $7.3 billion by 2030. ..."
A white hat hacker stole $340M or about 4,000 bitcoins in a crypto heist on Liquid Network, then he returned most of it after
I guess, he proved he could do it! This was not a theoretical attack approach!
"A hacker stole thousands of bitcoins worth about $340 million in a heist at a settlement exchange used by several cryptocurrency exchanges, representing one of the largest known thefts of crypto this year.
Liquid Network, launched in 2018 by crypto firm Blockstream, said in a post on X on Sunday that a “white hat” hacker stole the funds from the network’s wallet, and that it has paused operations until the incident is resolved. ...
The hacker said they would return the funds if Blockstream fixed the bug. ...
Former Blockstream executive Samson Mow said in a post on X on Monday that the company had fixed the bug, and around 3,400 of the roughly 4,000 stolen bitcoins had been returned. The remaining about 600 bitcoins (about $47 million) were still under the hacker’s control. ..."
Smart Phones or Smart Kids: Pick One | National Review. Really!
What a nonsense! What a false dichotomy! It is definitely not either or!
The push should be to get more tech into the classroom! E.g. for individualized/personalized education.
In the 21st century reading will not be the same anymore!
"... Students of all ages increasingly struggle to read proficiently or perform basic mathematical tasks. ..."
Caveat I did not read the whole article.
Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asks President Trump to pardon killer of her three children. Really!
That is a cheap publicity stunt or a setup for President Trump before the midterm elections!
Presumably, the prosecutor will go for a retrial. Hopefully, this time, the husband will be indicted too if possible.
It is appalling! It is far too early in the process to ask for a presidential pardon! The attorney could have waited until a verdict is announced!
Monday, September 07, 2026
Thailand and Singapore prime ministers perform The Beatles' 'Let It Be' in Bangkok
Nice! A late Beatlemania in Southeast Asia? Just kidding!
Israeli government-owned company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems signs agreement to buy VW plant in Osnabrück, Germany
Good news!
"... The factory will be repurposed for the production of components for the Iron Dome air defense system. Confirmation of the deal came this morning after long months of complicated negotiations.
The deal that has taken shape circumvents the opposition of the Qatar investment fund, which holds 10% of Volkswagen shares, to cooperate with Rafael in the production of defense systems. The deal will save thousands of jobs at the factory, which is scheduled to be closed next year by the car giant. ..."
Volkswagen Osnabrück and Rafael set for Strategic Partnership (original news release) "Aurelius and the State of Lower Saxony, together with Rafael, are planning an initial anchor project in the field of air defense. Further industrial partnerships and project are to follow Strategic Partnership for a Center of Excellence in Security and Defense Technologies"
Digitale Diplomatie und Wahlkampfhilfe: Wahlsieger Ulrich Siegmund bedankt sich bei Elon Musk
Gute Nachrichten! Wieweit darf der externe Einfluss auf deutsche Wahlen gehen?
Die völlig unsinnige Brandmauer muss weg! Zustände wie in einer Bananenrepublik!
"Die Nähe der AfD zu Trumps MAGA-Bewegung ist bekannt. Dass der US-Präsident und Elon Musk regelmäßig die Werbetrommel für die größte Oppositionspartei in Deutschland rühren, kontrastiert das eingeübte Promi-Verhalten auf erfrischende Weise. Ulrich Siegmund bedankte sich auf X für Elon Musks Unterstützung. ...
Nach dem Wahlsieg bedankte sich Ulrich Siegmund artig bei Elon Musk für dessen wiederkehrende Unterstützung und schrieb in einem Tweet auf X:
„Thank you, @elonmusk, for your support and for your clear and highly important perspective on the political developments of our time — including here in Germany.
If we take responsibility here, I would very much welcome the opportunity for strong and constructive cooperation. Germany would once again be a place worth investing in. Best regards from Saxony-Anhalt!“ ...
Dass auch Präsident Donald Trump am Wahlabend eine Hochrechnung postete und diese unkommentiert auf seiner Plattform Truth Social stehen ließ, spricht Bände.
Während sie in Berlin, Brüssel, Paris und London darauf hoffen, dass Donald Trump bald wieder Geschichte ist, um zur Tagesordnung im globalistischen Gewand zurückkehren zu können, hofft man im Weißen Haus ganz offensichtlich auf eine politische Wende im blauen Ton. ..."
Hippocampus-free memory consolidation
Amazing stuff! It took only two years from preprint to publication! Caution irony!
"During sleep, consolidation of all types of memories is thought to be initiated by hippocampal replay of spatiotemporal context. However, whether the hippocampus is the driver of, and needed for, memory consolidation in all conditions remains a matter of debate.
Thompson et al. showed that the consolidation of procedural memory occurs in the striatum, without the involvement of the hippocampus. Bilateral hippocampal lesions did not affect memory consolidation, suggesting that the hippocampus is not necessary for triggering procedural memory consolidation."
From the abstract:
"Sleep is crucial for consolidating all forms of memory and a core mechanism underlying this process is offline replay.
Current models propose that replay originates in the hippocampus and triggers reactivation across cortical and subcortical networks. However, conflicting evidence about the role of the hippocampus in offline consolidation of nondeclarative memories raises the question of whether hippocampal replay drives their consolidation.
Here we show that replay occurs in the dorsal striatum during offline consolidation of a procedural memory in mice, independently of the hippocampus, and that its content predicts subsequent performance improvements.
Neural sequences linked to salient behavioral events were prioritized for replay, with positive and negative behavioral outcomes having opposing effects on individual replay events.
All features of replay persisted despite complete bilateral hippocampal lesions. These findings demonstrate that procedural replay occurs independently of the hippocampus, indicating that replay-driven memory consolidation can operate through parallel, independent mechanisms."
Replay of procedural memory is independent of the hippocampus (open access, preprint published in 2024)
Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Learning and execution of the sequence learning task is dependent on the DLS.
Fig. 3 Replay of procedural neural activity in the striatum during sleep
Alternative for Germany party wins big in regional election but falls slightly short of majority
Good news! This outcome was expected for several months.
It is absolutely disgusting that almost all news media outlets call the AfD a far-right party (as if the Nazis were resurrected).
The AfD is right of center, but not extreme. However, how do you define center for German politics? Has the center not clearly moved to the left since reunification in 1990? The Wall fell and socialism spread everywhere in Germany.
Perhaps one of the biggest issues with the AfD is their relation to Putin the Terrible! Does the AfD properly distinguish between Russia and the megalomaniac, warmonger and war criminal Putin the Terrible!
Let's find out which party is willing to form a coalition government? Maybe the CDU would be the best choice. However, Chancellor Merz is a fool!
Had I been a citizen of Sachsen-Anhalt, I would have voted for the AfD too. Let's give them a chance to prove that they can make a positive difference in the banana republic of Germany! If the AfD fails, then don't vote for them anymore!
Erststimme means voting directly for a candidate
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The Zweitstimme determines the seats in parliament
Putin the Terrible Burns Through $29 Million Every Hour to Fund Its War Against Ukraine
When will the lethargic, apathetic Russian Slav(e)s/Serfs finally get rid of their last tsar, the megalomaniac, warmonger and war criminal Putin the Terrible! He is an ugly remnant of the Cold War and a former KGB agent. He is a wannabe Stalin. Please Russian people make the world a better, more peaceful place again! How many more young Russian men will be killed or maimed before you act!
In addition, Russia reportedly suffers over 30,000 war casualties every month!
"... But Russia’s economic elites have plenty of reasons to be worried: The fiscal situation is deteriorating quickly as the costs of the war continue to soar.
Newly released data on Russian spending in the first half of 2026 shows that military spending rose by 30 per cent compared with the same period last year, reaching 10.7 trillion rubles, or 4.7 per cent of projected GDP for 2026. Russia had originally planned to cut military spending this year. So far, the opposite is happening: If military spending continues at this pace, it will exceed 9 per cent of GDP by December, marking a new record in Russia’s post-Soviet history. ..."
Russian military spending soars, upending the Kremlin’s budget plans (original news release) "At the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin tried to dispel concerns about the state of Russia’s public finances. But the numbers tell a more troubling story for the Kremlin, adding to doubts about how long Russia can sustain the war, says Janis Kluge."
IRS Rule To Strip the Tax-Exempt Status for Private Schools' at all levels when Using DEI
Good news! Long overdue! DEI is racism, no doubt it is about skin color and illegal discrimination!
Just look around how many US companies and schools of higher education still feature DEI prominently on their websites!
"The Trump administration is hitting private schools where it hurts the most: their tax-exempt status. A new rule proposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday would strip private schools at all levels of education of tax-exempt status for using racial preference policies like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The Treasury Department estimates that the new rule could affect the statuses of 18,000 private elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, including colleges, universities, and trade and professional schools. ...
Harvard University may have started the trend in 2023 after the Supreme Court decided Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, ruling that race-based admissions schemes like affirmative action are unconstitutional. Immediately after, then-President Claudine Gay, the disgraced plagiarist who still retains a job at the school after resigning the presidency, signaled that prospective students could still benefit from communicating their race on their applications, hinting that admissions boards would still consider that factor. ..."
The Big Problems with the "Biggest Oil Deal" Ever by Jonah Goldberg. Really!
Is this prominent conservative journalist having another fit of Trump Derangement Syndrome?
"Yes, conservative writer Jonah Goldberg is widely known as a prominent "Never Trumper"." (Google Search)
It is amazing how many journalists make total fools out of themselves when they report about President Trump!
When timid US oil company executives refuse to grab the opportunity, then perhaps the Pentagon has to step in (most likely only temporarily).
"... I have no love for the Venezuelan regime, run by, in Trump’s words, “the Highly Respected Interim President” Delcy Rodriguez. But this is a “deal” that Rodriguez couldn’t refuse. We invaded [???] her country, abducted her criminal dictator boss, Nicolás Maduro, and made her our satrap [???]. ...
And who is the American partner? Well, the Pentagon, of course. Trump couldn’t get American oil companies to invest billions in Venezuela’s decrepit oil industry. ..."
Jonah Goldberg
The Emergent Symbolic Structure of Artificial Neural Networks
This could be an interesting paper by Paul Smolensky & Tal Linzen and their team.
Unfortunately, I could not find any other interesting figure in this paper other than Fig. 1.
From the abstract:
"Modern systems in artificial intelligence (AI) somehow excel in domains for which they seem poorly suited.
Intelligence has traditionally been modeled as operating over structured combinations of symbols, such as logical formulas.
However, the strongest modern AI systems are based on neural networks, which instead represent information in continuous vectors. Vectors seem inadequate for capturing the structure of language, logic, and other cognitive domains, yet neural networks achieve impressive performance in these areas.
How do they do it? In this work, we propose a potential answer: Despite appearances, perhaps the internal representations of neural networks implicitly realize symbolic structure.
In support of this hypothesis, we show that the vector representations of a variety of neural networks can be closely approximated with symbolic structures: we can replace the network's entire representation-generating process with a closed-form equation instantiating a symbolic structure, and the network's behavior remains largely unchanged.
This finding holds for both small-scale neural networks trained to manipulate lists as well as large language models (LLMs) operating in four domains that are central in symbolic traditions: arithmetic, logic, computer code, and language. Further, our symbolic approximation allows us to modify an LLM's behavior in targeted ways via precise interventions on its internal representations, showing that the LLM's behavior is reliant on the symbolic structures we have identified. This work provides a potential way to reconcile longstanding symbolic conceptions of intelligence with the vector-based nature of modern AI."
President Trump posts AI image depicting himself stock trading in Oval Office: ‘I do this for our country‘
He is having too much fun in office and it gives his many opponents another fit! 😊
If you had survived multiple assassination attempts, what would you do?
The United States struck a light-touch AI regulation accord with G20 members at the Innovation Ministerial, establishing America’s preferred global framework
Good news! Bravo! It would be a serious mistake to shackle machine learning & AI for reasons of hysteria and alarmism!
"The United States secured unanimous consensus from G20 members at the Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to adopt the non-binding Carolina Principles.
The Carolina Principles
Hands-off approach: Urges governments to avoid creating new regulatory bodies or broad, AI-specific rulebooks.
Novel considerations: Recommends reserving new rules strictly for unprecedented or high-risk situations rather than treating every tech evolution as an isolated policy crisis.
Industry alignment: Backed heavily by U.S. tech executives—including leaders from OpenAI, Nvidia, Meta, and SpaceX—who argued that heavy oversight threatens global competitiveness and slows breakthrough innovation. ..." (Google Search)
The White House weekly briefing
G20 Innovation Ministerial Concludes with Consensus Statement
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Cissy Houston Performs "Always On My Mind"
Enjoy! Wow, the voice of Whitney Houston's mother is also very impressive! I did not know!
Whitney & her mother Cissy Houston • ("Ain't No Way/You Send Me") • LIVE 1983
Enjoy! Whitney was only 20 years old. She grew in a house of music and love!
TUTTI: Toward generalizable audio-to-score transcription via fully synthesized data
This could be an interesting, new paper by Maosong Sun and his team! Tutti frutti!
What about bidirectional, i.e. from Score-to-Audio (S2A)?
From the abstract:
"Generalizable Audio-to-Score (A2S) transcription is fundamentally constrained by the severe scarcity of high-quality, real-world paired data.
Relying solely on existing human-annotated datasets often restricts the generalization of A2S models, limiting their efficacy primarily to single-instrumentation domains.
To break this dependency on scarce real-world data, we introduce TUTTI (Transformer for Unified audio-To-score Transcription trained on Synthetic multi-Instrumentation Data), a pre-training paradigm driven by a purely synthetic, large-scale dataset.
Rather than using human-composed scores, we leverage a symbolic music generation model to generate a massive, highly scalable multi-instrumentation corpus and create audio-score pairs with expressive acoustic characteristics. Capitalizing on the generated data, we employ a standard Transformer encoder-decoder architecture.
We empirically demonstrate that pre-training a unified attention-based model on generated, multi-instrumentation data yields a consistently stronger foundational representation than single-instrumentation training.
When fine-tuned with downstream real-world datasets, TUTTI outperforms previous approaches, establishing new overall state-of-the-art results across various A2S baselines.
Notably, TUTTI shows remarkable cross-instrument transferability, effectively adapting to unseen instruments with highly competitive performance. ..."
A High Burden: The Growing Cost of Permitting Compliance in Arizona’s Home Improvement Market
Bad news! Are the bureaucratic hurdles in Arizona even for home improvement too high! It seems so!
From CSI email: "
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Comparing Business Investment per Worker In Canada and the United States, 2007–2024
Bad news! This blog post is delayed. The study was published in mid July 2026.
And now Canada's PM Carney wants a carnage with the US over bilateral trade? If you are in a glass houses don't throw stones!
"Comparing Business Investment per Worker In Canada and the United States, 2007–2024
- Economists have warned of Canada’s weak business investment, particularly compared to the United States. This should concern Canadians as strong business investment is key to higher incomes, greater economic prosperity, and improved living standards.
- Real ($2017) non-residential business investment per worker in the United States exceeded that of Canada in every year from 2007 to 2024:
Canada’s business investment declined by $852 per worker from $17,345 to $16,493 while US investment grew by $11,203 per worker from $19,352 to $30,555. - The gap between Canada and the United States increased significantly after 2014 as real business investment began to decline in Canada.
In 2014, Canada invested about 87 cents per worker for every dollar invested in the United States; in 2024, investment was 54 cents for every US dollar. - In 2014, three Canadian provinces had significantly higher real business investment per worker than the United States ($23,263):
Alberta ($56,401),
Newfoundland & Labrador ($53,779), and
Saskatchewan ($48,715)
By 2024, real US business investment per worker ($30,555) exceeded that of any Canadian province except Saskatchewan ($33,386).
..."
Staatsquote in der Schweiz ist laut IWP deutlich grösser als gedacht
Haben sich die Schweizer schön gerechnet?
"Der Schweizer Staat dürfte in den nächsten Jahren grösser werden. Bundesrat und Parlament wollen für die Armee und die AHV mehr Geld ausgeben – und dafür die Mehrwertsteuer erhöhen. So wird wohl bald ein grösserer Teil dessen, was jährlich in der Schweiz erwirtschaftet wird, durch die Kassen des Bundes fliessen. Und dadurch wird auch die sogenannte Staatsquote zunehmen. Sie ist definiert als der Anteil der Staatsausgaben gemessen am Bruttoinlandprodukt (BIP)."
"Die Schweiz ist stolz auf ihren schlanken Staat. Das bekannteste Mass scheint ihr recht zu geben: 2023 entsprachen die Staatsausgaben 33,4 Prozent der Wirtschaftsleistung.
Nach Irland war das der zweittiefste Wert Europas. Auch über die Zeit blieb diese Staatsquote bemerkenswert stabil.
Ein neues Policy Paper ... zeigt, dass hinter der tiefen Staatsquote mehr staatliche Dynamik steckt, als sie vermuten lässt. ...
Das BIP umfasst allerdings auch Abschreibungen, also den Wertverlust von Maschinen, Gebäuden und Software. Dieser Teil der Wirtschaftsleistung wird benötigt, um den bestehenden Kapitalstock zu erhalten, und steht daher weder dem Staat noch Privaten für zusätzliche Ausgaben zur Verfügung. Zieht man die Abschreibungen vom BIP ab, erhält man das Nettoinlandsprodukt (NIP). Der deutsche Finanzwissenschafter Prof. Dr. Alfons Weichenrieder hat jüngst gezeigt, wie stark die Wahl zwischen BIP und NIP das Bild verändern kann ...
Für die Schweiz macht dieser Wechsel des Massstabs einen besonders grossen Unterschied: Die Abschreibungen entsprechen hier 23,4 Prozent des BIP, dem zweithöchsten Wert im EU/EFTA-Vergleich. ...
Was hinter den ausgeglichenen [öffentlichen] Haushalten steckt
Neben der tiefen Staatsquote gelten auch die seit der Jahrtausendwende meist ausgeglichenen öffentlichen Haushalte als Beleg für die Schweizer Ausgabendisziplin. Doch die Entwicklung von Ausgaben und Einnahmen zeigt, wie dieser Ausgleich zustande kam.
Die Ausgabenquote blieb zwischen 1995 und 2024 mit 33,4 beziehungsweise 33,6 Prozent nahezu unverändert.
Die Einnahmenquote stieg im selben Zeitraum hingegen von 31,5 auf 34,2 Prozent. Der Haushaltsausgleich kam damit vor allem über höhere Einnahmen zustande. ..."
Who Was Eva Reuter? Ukrainian Artist-Turned-Medic Killed Rescuing Strike Victims at 25 engaged to an American serviceman
R.I.P heroine!
"... Born on Oct. 4, 2000, Eva was known as the woman who set aside brushes for tourniquets, paint for blood. ..."
Mourners gathered at Kyiv's St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral before processing to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, where her fiancé, an American serviceman known as "Exile," delivered an emotional tribute to her courage and sacrifice."
A photo of Eva Reuter, brought by mourners to St. Michael’s Golden Domed Cathedral on Sept. 3, 2026, to honor Reuter, who was killed in a Russian double-tap strike on Kyiv.
Home delivery of groceries in the US is very disappointing
I spent a few hours checking out Instacart, Uber Eats, Aldi, Fry's Food Markets, Doordash here in the Phoenix Metro area!
Compared to how easy it is to get almost anything (including fresh) delivered to your home in China, this is a total failure in the US! The US is far behind!
There at least two issues that make it quite inconvenient to place orders for groceries to be home delivered:
- Separation of groceries and alcohol (a typical US problem)
- Separation of grocery stores. Do I as the customer care which store delivers the item that I ordered? At least one of the above mentioned services than has customer stuck with that same store for any following order for other items. This needs fixing! My suggestion have stores deliver ordered goods to a distribution warehouse and then to customer.
For now, I have settled on Amazon for home delivery of groceries. The ordering process was much more intuitive than those of the competitors. Unfortunately, Amazon only offers Bashas and Whole Foods. Amazon also tries to sneak in their Amazon Prime offerings. What I did not like was the goods were delivered to our entrance door without being boxed nor bagged.
The search function on many of these websites are a disaster! Here is a very typical example, I looked for "box red wine 5 liters". What did Doordash show me: White wines, 3 liter boxes, other bottled wines and so on.
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