What is the Internet of Things?

You probably didn't notice anything different when you accessed the web on June 7th 2012, but a new and improved internet had replaced the old one virtually overnight. The new version, referred to as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), had been in the works for years and will shepard in the next generation of internet usage where the various and sundry items of everyday life are connected. This is what is being referred by the moniker “The Internet of Things” as potentially every “thing” can be connected over the web.

To get to the point where the next generation of “things” could be connected, the old internet with a paltry 4.3 billion URLs available had to be replaced with the current version, which has trillions more addresses available, according to Vint Cerf, one of the original inventors of the internet. The explosion in available addresses paves the way for next paradigm of internet connectivity where everything from cattle on the north 40 to the refrigerator in the kitchen can be accessed.

The key to this new paradigm is the evolution of sensor technology, which has dramatically reduced prices while increasing their functionality to enable the assessment of local environments, provision of location data, and the ability to transmit information over the internet via wireless technology. The number of “things” that will be connected to the internet is estimated to reach 50 billion by the year 2020, which could spur the development of new industries, products and services dedicated to the simplification of connecting items in homes and business. In other words, the Internet of Things, despite its current low profile could be one of the biggest things to hit the web in a long time.

China Sneezes and the World Catches a Cold

The powers that be in China, after seeing growth heat up to 11.9 in the first quarter of the year, decided that is cooling down the economy with lending and investment curbs was needed to prevent overheating. These curbs went to work immediately, slowing the growth rate more sharply than expected with a result of reducing demand for U.S. and European factory machinery, industrial components from Asia and iron ore as well as other raw materials from Australia and Africa.
The timing of China’s slowdown comes at a bad time for exporters that have seen sales go slack just about everywhere else. Already a huge trading partner for many of these countries prior to the recessions that hit the U.S., Europe and others, China had taken a role as the only game town due to a stimulus-driven expansion program designed to compensate for slowing sales elsewhere.
Even with slowing growth China overtook Japan as the second-biggest economy in the second quarter. It is a buyer of 28 percent of Taiwan's exports, 25 percent of South Korea's and more than 20 percent of Australia's mining and raw materials production. Japan just reported sharply lower growth for its second quarter as the growth of exports was almost halved from the first quarter
That being said, it is the producers of iron ore for steel production and other construction-related raw materials which are expected to take the hardest hits from China’s self imposed slowdown. The winding down of a construction boom pushed by China's $586 billion stimulus program as well as billions of dollars in of bank lending is already being felt. These producers include Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and parts of Africa.
New construction projects dwindled as Beijing wound down its stimulus and tightened credit in the second quarter to take the air out of inflating bubbles in real estate and stock prices, slashing demand for steel, cement and other construction related materials. Factory output slowed as well and is expected to head lower in the third quarter as well.
Overall, China’s import growth slowed by about one-third in July, sending tremors throughout the world as the most robust buyer of imported goods for many countries took a step back from the table. An example of the bind China’s slowdown is putting countries in is Taiwan, a major source of components for Chinese factories that make televisions and other electronics, which are in turn sent as finished products United States. China’s slower growth, combined with slowing sales in the U.S. at the same time could hit Taiwan’s manufacturing industries particularly hard.
China, at this point, sits in the enviable position of trying to restrain growth while the rest of the world either relies on them for their relatively healthy economies, such as Australia or tries to recover from recession, like the U.S. With China expecting slower growth over the next several quarters, it could be a rough ride for everyone.

Where We Were, Where Are, and Where We Need to Be

Quantifying the global warming problem is as easy as understanding three numbers; 275, 388, and 350.
* 275 – During all of human history, up until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Measuring in parts per million is a standard method of calculating the concentration of different gases in the atmosphere. This number provides the ratio of the number of carbon dioxide molecules to all of the other molecules in the atmosphere. The 275 parts per million that carbon dioxide historically represented in the atmosphere was a relatively constant number. Its presence is also a necessity because without some carbon dioxide and other gases, heat would not be trapped in our atmosphere and the planet would be too cold for humans, plants and animals to survive.
* 388 – As humans began to burn fossil fuels to power the Industrial Revolution, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began to rise slowly. Over the last 200 years, fossil fuels have become incorporated into many aspects of daily life including gasoline for cars, heating fuels, as a component of plastics, etc. The broad use of carbon dioxide emitting fossil fuels has now increased the level of carbon dioxide to 388 parts per million, a level scientists now agree is an unsafe level if we are interested in preserving our way of life. The rise in atmospheric carbon has resulted in the warming of the Earth with results that include massive melting of glaciers, the disappearance of Arctic Sea ice, droughts, and a variety of extreme weather. Sea levels are also rising and the disappearance of beaches is already occurring. Left unchecked, the rise in sea levels could be as much as several meters this century, which would be a disaster of epic proportions.
* 350 – This is the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide that represents stasis for the world’s environment as well as the safety level for maximum carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Returning to this level will require that humans reduce their fossil fuel usage and replace it with renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Taking these actions as well as improving agricultural and forestry practices around the world could get carbon levels back to the 350 level by the middle of the century.
The problem is, the longer we stay in the danger zone above 350 parts per million, the greater the risk for disastrous events. The time to start is now.

What the Freeh Report Says About Penn State University and the NCAA

The "Freeh Report" a detailed examination of the sexual abuse scandal and cover up at Penn State University "...is a 267-page message about the danger of unchecked sports power." according to Tom Goldman of NPR. The report, conducted by the law firm of former FBI director Louis Freeh, exposes the culture and cover up of the scandal, which reached the highest levels of authority at the university.

The report states that the president of Penn State, Graham Spanier, had been informed about an accusation in December 1997 that longtime Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had been seen molesting a young boy while showering with him in the Penn State locker room. Instead of taking the initiative to investigate the accusations, Spanier stood down saying that looking into the accusations wouldn't be the "humane" way to handle the situation.

At approximately the same time, Spanier was lowering the boom on Penn State running back Curtis Enis and his agent Jeff Nalley because Nalley had bought a suit for Enis to wear on an ESPN awards show. Spanier declared Enis ineligible for the upcoming Citrus Bowl and Nalley was reported to the NCAA and declared as "persona non grata" at Penn State. Spanier said at the time "He fooled around with the integrity of the university, and I won't stand for that."

While enabling Sandusky to continue molesting young boys, Spanier used his positions on the NCAA Board of Directors and the NCAA management council to consistently oppose reforms created to provide assistance to athletes for admissions and other reforms aimed at helping athletes from disadvantaged programs and high schools.

His non-action regarding Sandusky while opposing anything that empowered athletes while trumpeting the superiority of Penn State's morality and ethical standards stands as the epitome of hypocrisy at the highest ranks of both Penn State and the NCAA. Two of the people under Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley have already been indicted for their roles in the scandal. It is entirely possible that Spanier will be indicted as well. For the victims that suffered Sandusky's attacks because Spanier thought it wouldn't be "humane" to intervene, an indictment might just be another step down the road to closure.

Anthony Ricigliano: How to Innovate your own Business into Existence

Innovation isn’t the province of a select few. It exists in everyone waiting to be discovered. Learning any new skill always takes time and it's the same with developing an innovative mindset.  Don’t be disappointed if you’re not innovating 24/7 immediately. It will take a bit of practice and probably a couple of changes in the way you go about your day. Here are a few ideas on how to bring innovation into your life to bring your own business into existence.
* Ignore the doubters – Don't listen to other people that cast doubts on what you’re trying to do. People cast doubts for a variety of reasons and most of those will have nothing to with you. If you’re working on a new business, don't waste your time and effort trying to convince people that you’re doing the right thing. The great entrepreneurs never listened to the doubters and neither should you.
* Seek guidance – Getting a mentor or guidance from someone that has done what you want to do can give you confidence in what you’re trying to accomplish and help you avoid common mistakes.
* Commit the time – Spend time on your project because if you don’t, nobody else is going to do it either. This will require some time management and discipline to make sure you can fit everything in to your life.
* No excuses – Make do with what you’ve got and don’t get bogged down because you don’t have the hottest IPad on the market. Many people use fewer tools as they become more proficient at their craft. You may have to be resourceful but that’s also a part of being innovative.
* Develop your passion – In starting a new business, you may be caught up in learning the ropes and executing your plan. If you’re truly doing something you want to do, your passion will likely build as you become more proficient and your belief than you can succeed strengthens. This passion can turn you into an unstoppable force under the right conditions.
* Don't worry if you’re not inspired 24/7 – Not everything you do in your business will provide inspiration. If you’re following your passion, inspiration will arrive at the most unexpected times. For example, JK Rowling got the idea for Harry Potter while she was stuck on a train that was in the middle of a four hour delay.
* Take care of yourself – You’re at your best, at your most creative, and you are most innovative when you’re healthy. Great things and ideas can come when you’re exercising so don’t think of it as time that you’re taking away from your business.
Keep in mind that your business is your business and that you’re doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else's. A little success will bring the doubters around soon enough.

Social Engineering by Anthony Ricigliano

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Just when you thought you had your company resources locked down tight, a new type of security breach rears its ugly head. Social engineering is taking corporate theft to a personal level. Unlike a traditional hacker who works from a remote area to slip through your electronic defenses without any desire to walk through your actual doors, social engineers use both low- and high-tech strategies to exploit any weakness in your “human firewall.”

By launching an unrelenting assault on any weaknesses in your processes or employees, these unscrupulous groups or individuals almost always find a way in before they’re detected, if they’re detected at all. However, all is not lost. The best protection against social engineering attacks is to educate your employees about this growing threat in addition to developing a strong security program that takes every possible weakness into account.

What Exactly is a Social Engineering Attack?


Social engineering looks for any weakness, no matter how small, in your human firewall. This multi-dimensional approach uses the following strategies to gain entry into your organization either physically or virtually:
• Use small pieces of information as building blocks to learn even more
• Repetitive attacks
• Leverage technology
• Use of social skills and knowledge of basic human psychology

Social engineers are patient and detail oriented. They run through an endless cycle of finding information, developing a plan based on that information, executing the attack, and analyzing any new information. Each time, any new knowledge is used as a launch platform for the next cycle of attacks. This continues until the individual or group breaks into your facility, gets caught, or gives up. Needless to say, they rarely give up.

How Do Social Engineers Get Their Information?

They get tiny bits of information from all over the place and put it all together to create a complete picture of your business. In fact, when they’re done, they may know more about your operation than many of your employees. Here are some methods that have been used in the past:
• Google -Social engineers use Google Earth, Google Street View, and similar sites to “case the joint.”
• Phone Calls – With a simple phone call, social engineers can find unpublished locations, the names of important employees, and whether an employee is in the office or on vacation.
• The Company Website - With just a few clicks, social engineers can find the names, titles, email addresses, pictures, background, and phone numbers of the company’s top executives.
• Social Networks - Facebook, Monster, and LinkedIn are a social engineer’s best friend. In addition to looking at pages belonging to employees, these experts connect to the pages of friends and family, too.
• Campaign Contributions – This is public record and can give an insight into an employee’s personality or political tendencies.
• Impersonating a Vendor or Maintenance Person– Some companies don’t bother to verify every representative if they appear legitimate, and maintenance people often go unnoticed.
• Faking, Spoofing, or Stealing Electronic Credentials

Social engineers take this information and use a variety of techniques to either get more information or gain access to important company resources. They may befriend an employee, impersonate someone in a position of authority, threaten an employee in some way, or simply beg for help. By knowing how to use one piece of information to get more, how to read people for potential weaknesses, and how to manipulate any situation, Social Engineers can often achieve their goals without detection.

What Can I Do to Protect My Organization?

To combat the social engineer’s four-pronged attack strategy, implement a similar plan of your own. Your security program should include the following four constantly-repeating steps:
• Observe – Open your eyes and really look at your operation to find weak points.
• Document – Document what is happening as well as what should happen.
• Educate – Don’t think that your employees will completely understand the document. Teach them good practices and procedures with a hands-on approach.
• Test – Test the system to make sure it’s working as expected. This can include posing questions from time to time or launching a test attack.
• Refinement – Continue to circle back through the process to refine the program.

Here are a few best practices to include in every social engineering defense program:
• Verify Information – Trust your employees, your customers, and your vendors, but verify everything.
• Denial Should Be the Default – If there is any question, deny access to both physical and electronic resources. Make sure everything is locked down.
• Create a Notification Process – Give your employees a tool to use if they think they may have been the subject of a social engineering attack. This could be as simple as a number to call or an email to send. Include a method that passes communications up and down the chain of command if an attack is suspected.
• Restrict USB and CD access to prevent infections from viruses and other malicious code.

By using a mixture of both simple and complex methods, social engineers are available to learn an amazing amount of information about a company and launch sophisticated attacks. Educating your employees and continuing to improve your security procedures is the best way to thwart their efforts.

Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano: Five Fracking Facts

As the proponents of "fracking" (short for hydraulic fracturing) continue to tout its virtues, the side opposing fracking continues to press forward with its own information on why the practice should either be heavily regulated or stopped altogether. The practice, which pumps water, sand, and a cocktail of viscous fluids into shale formations to release hydrocarbons, has prompted both factual and widely exaggerated claims from proponent and opponents so taking a look at some unassailable fracking facts may be a good place to start.

These facts include:

1) The cocktail of viscous fluids used for fracking can contain several components that should not come anywhere near a supply of drinking water. These chemicals include antifreeze, a variety of oil-based products, soap, and diesel fuel.

2) Fracking that is conducted at deep enough levels will not affect aquifers and wells that are thousands of feet above the shale formation. This is due to the fact that cracks caused by the fracking process typically do not reach further than a thousand feet from the location where fracking is occurring.

3) Natural gas can accumulate and rise to the surface naturally. This is particularly true when a sandstone formation rests on top of one composed of hydrocarbon-bearing shale.

4) Fracking
can cause problems that are avoidable with planning and restraint. There needs to be regular monitoring of retention pits and well sites to prevent dumping and leaks into drinking water supplies. Fracking should be avoided in situations where the shale formation sits close to the surface or is separated from the surface by porous formations like sandstone.

5) The fracking process in a vacuum is not unsafe. Like any other extraction process there is a time and place factor that should be observed, which basically comes down to using common sense. Where there is the potential for problems, fracking should be avoided. Where the process can extract hydrocarbons efficiently without exposing the surrounding areas to harm, it can be employed.

The two sides of the debate remain polar opposites in any conversation regarding the safety of fracking. Maybe, by starting with the facts of the technique, the proponents and the opponents of fracking can find some middle ground that allows for safe extraction while doing no harm to the surrounding environment.      

Anthony Ricigliano: What "Grid Down" is Teaching Us - Again

After a series of sudden and violent storms which were followed by soaring temperatures, the Governors Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio declared a state of emergency due to storm damage and a power outage that has affected millions of people. The outage, or "Grid Down" situation has left people without air conditioning on days when temperatures went well over 100 degrees, without refrigeration, and scrambling to find food and water.

Grid Down has happened before and will happen again and each time the same lessons are taught. Here are a few things we can learn this time - again:

* As people and industry demand more from our aging power grids, they become more fragile. Demand continues to increase, placing a burden on grids that they were not built to bear. Electric companies in California and other states are already warning residents and businesses of rolling blackouts if temperatures spike this summer.
* A Grid Down situation can turn into a major emergency for people with specific circumstances if electricity can't be restored quickly. Anyone vulnerable to high temperatures or relying on electricity to power medical devices is at serious risk without electricity. Having a small generator to power up appliances and devices in Grid Down situations could be the difference between life and death.
* People who are unprepared for outages make dealing with an emergency more difficult. The most recent Grid Down had people calling 911 even though they didn't need help. This prevented people in emergency situations from accessing the help they needed.
* Cell phones require electricity. Without electricity, recharging a phone becomes a lot more difficult. Transmission towers need electricity too so if they're not powered up, cell phones in the area will all read "no service".
* In a crisis, emergency services will be overwhelmed. In almost every municipality emergency services are geared toward handling day-to-day demands, which means that most people will be left to their own devices in a large-scale emergency for at least in the early stages of the crisis.

We hear this so often from an early age that it has almost become background noise but crisis preparedness is important and becoming more so. If we can't rely on the electrical grid, emergency services, cell phones, etc., we can only rely on ourselves.

Anthony Ricigliano Blog - The Evidence Rolls In

Anthony Ricigliano - Anthony Ricigliano News and Advice: Within days of each other, two extreme events occurred on opposite sides of the planet; the 2000 mile wide snowstorm that saw 25 foot waves in Lake Michigan and a monster cyclone that smacked into Australia. It increasingly appears that 200 years of burning coal, oil and gas and dumping their carbon byproduct into the atmosphere is now bringing the chickens home to roost.

The planet has always had extreme events, but what makes them extreme is the fact that they are rare. The change that is occurring before our eyes is that extreme is actually becoming the new normal. In 2010, 19 nations set new all-time temperature records. The 19 new records was also a record. While Big Oil and Big Coal may be denying it, Munich Re, the biggest insurance company on earth, summed up recent events with this clinical phrase: "The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change." In the case of Munich Re, it’s hard to deny something that seems to be taking money out of your pocket on a weekly basis.

The common perception of global warming is that the Earth will turn into a massive desert. While that may be true in some areas, a warmer atmosphere can also hold more water vapor. With studies showing that the warmer atmosphere is 4 percent moister than it was 40 years ago, the stage is also set for massive storms which bring record breaking levels of rain and snow. In this light, it’s fascinating to watch global warming deniers gleefully stating that all this rain and snow is actually proof of global cooling. If you unfamiliar with this, you’re apparently not watching Fox News.

According to studies, atmospheric temperatures have been raised by one degree, which may not sound like a lot. Unfortunately, atmospheric warming tends to magnify other temperatures, like those in the oceans. This magnification has caused the Atlantic current, which flows into the Arctic, to increase by over 10%. This has been enough to melt the sea ice in the Arctic. Without dramatic action to reduce the use of fossil fuel, the popular consensus is that atmospheric temperatures will increase by five degrees by the end of the century. Considering that a one degree increase has melted the Arctic, what will be happening on planet Earth at five degrees warmer?
Anthony Ricigliano News

Anthony Riciglaino News - Laissez Faire in Hi Tech by Anthony Ricigliano

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With an economy burdened by a slow recovery from the great recession and the government hamstrung by skyrocketing deficits, the suggested solutions for getting us back on track seem to be coming from all directions. The thing is, the answer for hi-tech lies in the same model it has operated on for the last few decades, not a new plan based on theoretical economics.

This model is based purely on building the best mousetrap possible, and if there is intense competition, so be it. Using this model, U.S. companies kept high value talent in-house and outsourced the lower value skill sets. In this model, product designers would stay in-house while tasks like assembly would be outsourced.  
 
The environment in hi-tech has always been one of high risk and high reward with promising companies attracting funding from venture capital firms and the like. Successful companies reaped huge rewards as they either went public or were acquired by other hi-tech companies. This bred an environment that encouraged risk taking with rewards that reached into the billions of dollars.

The highly competitive nature of the field meant that there were losers in the process as well. For the uninitiated, the industry felt like it was made up of parts from the Wild West combined with a healthy serving of anarchy. The system worked however, enabling start ups to get to market and then compete and win against slower moving competitors.

The foundation of this model is still basically intact, but the recession and credit crunch have tamed the industry to an extent. With capital more difficult to come by, the appetite for risk has been muted as well. The financial crisis has changed the political winds as well with a seeming preference to focus resources on past industries as opposed to advancing tomorrow’s technology winners.

At this point, the best thing that can happen is for small innovative companies with great products to rack up a few “wins” to start re-building that appetite for risk which will in turn start bringing capital back to market.

It’s quite possible that the environment could remain somewhat muted as confidence is rebuilt in the industry but once it begins building momentum money will surely start flowing back in. America has the talent, the capital, and the guts to innovate our way back in hi-tech. As soon as the industry is being compared to the Wild West again we’ll know we’re back in full swing.


By Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano - The Evidence Rolls In by Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano - News From Anthony J Ricigliano: Within days of each other, two extreme events occurred on opposite sides of the planet; the 2000 mile wide snowstorm that saw 25 foot waves in Lake Michigan and a monster cyclone that smacked into Australia. It increasingly appears that 200 years of burning coal, oil and gas and dumping their carbon byproduct into the atmosphere is now bringing the chickens home to roost.

The planet has always had extreme events, but what makes them extreme is the fact that they are rare. The change that is occurring before our eyes is that extreme is actually becoming the new normal. In 2010, 19 nations set new all-time temperature records. The 19 new records was also a record. While Big Oil and Big Coal may be denying it, Munich Re, the biggest insurance company on earth, summed up recent events with this clinical phrase: "The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change." In the case of Munich Re, it’s hard to deny something that seems to be taking money out of your pocket on a weekly basis.

The common perception of global warming is that the Earth will turn into a massive desert. While that may be true in some areas, a warmer atmosphere can also hold more water vapor. With studies showing that the warmer atmosphere is 4 percent moister than it was 40 years ago, the stage is also set for massive storms which bring record breaking levels of rain and snow. In this light, it’s fascinating to watch global warming deniers gleefully stating that all this rain and snow is actually proof of global cooling. If you unfamiliar with this, you’re apparently not watching Fox News.

According to studies, atmospheric temperatures have been raised by one degree, which may not sound like a lot. Unfortunately, atmospheric warming tends to magnify other temperatures, like those in the oceans. This magnification has caused the Atlantic current, which flows into the Arctic, to increase by over 10%. This has been enough to melt the sea ice in the Arctic. Without dramatic action to reduce the use of fossil fuel, the popular consensus is that atmospheric temperatures will increase by five degrees by the end of the century. Considering that a one degree increase has melted the Arctic, what will be happening on planet Earth at five degrees warmer?

Author Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano - EPA Chooses Political Expediency over Doing the Right Thing

Anthony Ricigliano - News by Anthony J Ricigliano: In exempting up to twenty industrial facilities from new federal controls on air pollution and the gases blamed for global warming, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signaled that the Obama administration does not have the political will to move aggressively on any kind of global warming initiatives.

This cave-in was confirmed recently when a high ranking EPA official told a federal court that a California power plant which had been delayed would not have to comply with the rules. The agency rationalized in statement, that “…it was not fair or appropriate to require facilities with applications in the final stage of the review to comply with standards that have just recently taken effect.”

The delay for the facility was originally caused by the EPA’s demand to the federal court that the Avenal Power Center, LLC in central California would have “…to prove that its 600-megawatt, natural gas-fired power plant would not cause violations of a new standard on smog-forming nitrogen oxide”. The Avenal Power Center sued the EPA, citing prolonged delays on approving its permit, which was first submitted in February 2008.

The EPA’s reversal comes as Republican leaders in the House and Senate continue their attacks on the Obama administration’s proposed air pollution regulations which, the Republicans say, will kill projects and jobs. In their continuing efforts to neuter the EPA, these same leaders recently proposed legislation that would prevent the agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA announced that between ten and twenty new facilities waiting for air pollution permits could also receive exemptions from the new pollution requirements.

After reviewing the court documents Michael Gerrard, an environmental law professor at Columbia University said, "It creates a strong argument for 'treat us the same way you treat this guy." Gerrard also said the move "is part of the administration's effort not to stop or be accused of stopping too many new projects."

The issue now is that removing the restrictions on up to twenty new facilities could open the door for hundreds of other projects to challenge the EPA’s pollution restrictions. If the administration and the EPA think that this reversal will quell the ongoing political attacks, they’ll be in for an unpleasant surprise as emboldened Republican leaders fight to lift restrictions on every plant waiting for a permit to be approved. 
   
If, as it looks now, the agency and the administration lack the political will to make a stand the legislation will be effectively gutted. That would be to detriment of everyone, including the Republicans who seem so intent on heating the globe.
By Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano News - Four Industries Where China has Passed the U.S

By Anthony Ricigliano: America was known for the better part of the last century as the single greatest producer of just about everything in the world. It was during the 70’s that we started to cede our dominance in major industries to other areas of the world.

Oil production went to the Middle East, automobile production went to Japan, and the cracks in America’s manufacturing dominance began to grow by the year. Since that time, U.S. manufacturing has eroded but in total, we still lead the world.

China has had one of the fastest growing large economies in the world for the past several years.  China passed Japan in total manufacturing to take the number two spot in the world. Economists are now going about forecasting not if but when China will pass U.S. in total manufacturing output.

The U.S. is now trying to stay competitive in the global arena across a wide spectrum of industries, handicapped in the fight by annual deficits, expanding national debt, and an unemployment rate which stubbornly remains well above 9%. 

Here are four industries that illustrate how far the U.S. has fallen behind in industries that it used to dominate. In each industry China, the world’s second largest manufacturing economy, has taken a huge lead:

* High-tech – China manufactured $381 billion in 2008 versus U.S. production of $231 billion. If current trends remain in place, the U.S. is going to have a tough time catching up as China’s exports of high-tech products grew by 78% between 2005 and 2008 while the U.S. saw a 21% increase over the same period.

* Coal production – Once the world leader in coal production, the U.S. has fallen far behind China. In 2009, the U.S. produced a little over 1 billion short tons of coal, less than one-third of China’s production which totaled 3.3 billion short tons. Trends indicate again that China should remain firmly entrenched as the leader with production growing by 34% since 2005. U.S coal production actually decreased slightly during the same timeframe. 

* Pork production – While the U.S. is still the world leader across a broad range of agricultural commodities, pork production isn’t one of them. Due to heavy demand for the commodity by its own population, China produced 51.5 million metric tons of pork in 2010, more than five times America’s production of 10.2 million metric tons.

* Beer – The U.S. led the world in beer production at the turn of the century but has now ceded the leadership to China. Since that time, China has doubled its production to 423 million hectoliters, while production decreased slightly in the U.S. to 232 million hectoliters.

Competing globally while hindered by financial issues, the U.S. looks like it has its work cut out for it. One area that could play a growing role is innovation at the micro-level which then ramps up from there. Without government assistance, mass innovation looks to be our best hope for remaining competitive in the global arena.  

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Anthony Ricigliano - The Entrepreneurial a Fresh Start

Anthony Ricigliano - Read News and Advice by Anthony Ricigliano: If you starting a new business, the beginning of a new venture that provides a fantastic opportunity should be accompanied by a bunch of excitement and anticipation, right? Setting your goals, developing your strategy, an imagining your life once you’ve achieved what you set out do should have you jumping out of bed before the alarm feeling fresh and ready to go each day.

If this isn’t happening, what is? Have you taken on starting your new business with the same attitude and low level of energy as you put into the job you’re trying to replace?  Not everyone is passionate about every aspect of starting a new business. This is true even for people who have achieved success at the highest levels of the industry. What is also true is that success for most people requires a passion for something.

For many, that passion may lie in reaching the goals that were set out at the beginning of the venture. This should be exciting enough to generate some passion for what you’re doing but if it’s not, there could be a couple problems with the goals you’ve set.

The first issue could be that the goals you’ve set don’t match up with what you truly want in your business or your life. Take some time to check your goals to see if they’re really going to bring you what you want. If reaching these goals leaves you flat there’s something wrong in there somewhere.

The issue that could be muting your enthusiasm is the possibility that in starting your business you’re not giving yourself a fresh start. Whether it’s because you’ve had reversals in your job or have tried other ventures that haven’t worked out, there is a possibility that you have some doubts about your ability to reach your goals.

The worst thing about this negative baggage is that it really subtracts from the positives that should be occurring as you start your business. This subtraction doesn’t eliminate the possibility of success, but it makes it tougher, less fun, and probably makes it take longer to attain.

In its simplest form, business success is a matter of setting goals and then doing the work the achieve them. If your journey has more complications than that, it’s time to make an honest self-assessment. If your goals are in line, maybe you’re carrying around some old and unnecessary baggage that is standing between you and the life you want. The time is now to release the death grip on that old baggage and start moving directly toward realizing your dreams.

Anthony Ricigliano Blog

Another Sputnik Moment by Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano - News and Articles by Anthony Ricigliano: We probably didn’t see it coming but the decline of education in the U.S has been crystallized by a book titled “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” written by Amy Chua. The book and its author have come under intense criticism for a tough love on steroids stance on parenting. The book’s premise is that American’s coddle their children at the risk of settling for something which is far less than their full potential.

Combined with the December release of the latest test results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” has put an unflattering spotlight on primary and secondary education in the U.S. as well as American parenting styles.

The results from the PISA test showed that American had slipped badly versus those in other countries, finishing in 17th place overall. Students from the U.S. ranked 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math, getting squashed by students from Shanghai who won each category by a comfortable margin.
President Obama called the dismal scores a “Sputnik moment” as the realization sunk in that the U.S. had fallen behind badly in a race that it comfortably ruled for years.

The stunning results from the Shanghai students have at their foundation a few simple facts; “Chinese students work harder, with more focus, for longer hours than American students do”. According to Time Magazine, “Chinese students already have a longer school year than American pupils — and U.S. kids spend more time sitting in front of the TV than in the classroom.” The education race is reminiscent of the rivalry between the U.S and Russia which spanned from sports to space as well as the later rivalry with Japan which was focused largely on the financial arena.
The U.S is still the biggest economy in the world but China is coming fast, having taken the second spot from Japan in 2009. With the U.S. mired in an anemic recovery from its real estate induced recession, China’s economy is on a tear. Not only is their economy growing exponentially, they’re the biggest of America’s creditors with the Treasury Department estimating that our total debt to China is approximately $843 billion. That is over $10,000 in debt for the average American family and just a fraction of our total debt of $14 trillion.

Despite the outcry from American parents, there are elements of Amy Chua’s tough love regimen that are supported by studies in psychology and cognitive science. Her criticism that American parents over-protect their children from distress is backed by a book fittingly called “A Nation of Wimps”, authored by Hara Estroff Marano. Marano states "Research demonstrates that children who are protected from grappling with difficult tasks don't develop what psychologists call 'mastery experiences. Kids who have this well-earned sense of mastery are more optimistic and decisive; they've learned that they're capable of overcoming adversity and achieving goals. Children who have never had to test their abilities grow into "emotionally brittle" young adults who are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.”

Judging by the ubiquitous advertisements for depression meds, it looks like the “Tiger Mom” is on to something. 

Author Anthony Ricigliano

BP Pays a Crony - News by Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano - Latest News: BP's much publicized compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims has received over 91,000 requests for final damage settlement payments from people and businesses across the Gulf but has only issued one. Give them credit, it was for a hefty sum of $10 million dollars but it comes with one caveat; the recipient is an existing BP business partner that was paid only after BP intervened on their behalf.

BP has not divulged the name of the recipient due to disclosure issues. BP has admitted that it went to bat for their partner to make it the first one to be paid from the $20 billion compensation fund, known as “The Gulf Coast Claims Facility”.  The amount paid to BP’s partner company dwarfs the stopgap payments which have been parceled out while people wait for final settlements.

Another galling aspect of the $10 million payment is that final payments to the remaining 91,000 claimants won’t begin until February at the earliest, according to the administrator of the facility. The fund's administrator is Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, whose firm is being paid $850,000 per month to run the facility. To no one’s surprise Feinberg’s firm has come under intense criticism as well by lawmakers, plaintiffs’ attorneys and claimants who have repeatedly complained that Feinberg’s the facility has no transparency, is running at the behest of BP, has shortchanged claims, and is dragging its feet on payments. You can’t blame Feinberg for this; he is currently negotiating with BP to revamp the pay structure and extend the administration of the facility through August 2013.

While a BP spokesperson claimed that the funding facility "reviewed our positions and made an independent decision regarding the outcome of the claim," Feinberg was independent enough to say on Monday that the facility was never requested to review the claim that BP lobbied for. Feinberg stated that BP struck an outside deal with the business and told the fund to make the payment.

Feinberg told AP that, "At the request of the parties, the settlement reached between BP and the other party was paid out of the GCCF fund. It was a private settlement and we paid it, but we were not privy to the settlement negotiations between BP and that party.”

There is also an appeals process which runs through the U.S. Coast Guard for disgruntled claimants, but that agency isn’t doing claimants any favors either. Of 264 appeals that have been processed, the finding in every one of them was that the facility acted correctly in either denying claims or paying small fraction of what was requested.

It appears that residents and businesses that incurred damages from BP’s blowout are still being held in complete disregard by the people with the money. It’s still rough, unless of course you’re a crony of BP.
Author Anthony Ricigliano

Presenting Your Private Company to Investors

Anthony Ricigliano - Business News and Advice by Anthony Ricigliano: If the time has come to raise funding to expand your business, you’re likely to be presenting your business to a variety of investors. Assuming that you are past the “friends and family” funding stage, you could end up presenting to investors referred to you by your friends and family or to angel investing syndicates. First of all, your company either has a product/service or has something in the concept phase. Either way, there are points to be made and mistakes to avoid. One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is over-emphasizing how great an idea their product/service is. Don’t get me wrong, differentiating yourself from the competition is important. The problem here is, quite frankly, your idea is probably being pursued by other companies right now. If it’s a really great idea, there will more people chasing it in a few weeks or months.

Here’s another crack in the “My idea is so great that we’ll take over the world” pitch. Getting a patent for it may or may not protect you. If a patent isn’t allowed or doesn’t protect you for some other reason, that’s one thing. If it does, you may be taking on a problem that kills your company anyway; a long drawn-out court battle.

Don’t toss up your hands and walk away yet. There is a way to differentiate your business, impress investors, and realize your business’ potential; focus on execution. A detailed roadmap of how you’re going to outwork and execute better than your competition is what is going to matter both to your potential investors and to your company.

It’s quite possible that the reason you started your business is that you see endless potential with opportunities dovetailing out to other endless opportunities. You see the market as broad and deep with revenues sitting out there for the taking. Here’s another mistake to avoid; spending more time on the huge potential that exists from these dovetailing markets as opposed to the opportunity that exists in the short term. It doesn’t matter if the first market opportunity is infinitesimal compared to the downstream markets, your potential investors are going to want to hear how your company is going to grow on a step by step basis.

Next, presenting your business as having no competition may sound great but a space with no competition really isn’t a space at all. An investor hearing that there’s no competition should immediately wonder if a market exists and, if it does, ask why no one is addressing it. Having the answer to a question that isn’t being asked is a sure way to lose an investor and a lot of time waiting for that market to develop, if it ever does. A great example of this type of situation is Corning’s “Gorilla Glass” which was patented in 1962 and sat on the shelf for almost half a century before markets developed in high tech and high definition televisions. Corning could afford the wait but that luxury isn’t available to startups. Competition in a space confirms that there is a market, now it’s up to you to out-execute the other players that are already out there.
Author Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano - A Movement Based on a Number - Anthony Ricigliano Blog

Anthony Ricigliano - News by Anthony J Ricigliano: The challenges facing the citizens that want to take action on global warming are many. First and foremost, there’s the fossil fuel industry, which is the single most profitable enterprise in human history. Challenges dovetail off from the industry due to its money to advance their political agenda and the fact that oil and coal are relatively cheap sources of energy. By the way, part of the reason oil is so cheap is that Big Oil and Big Coal get to dump their byproducts into the atmosphere free of charge.

One of the other challenges is defining what exactly global warming is. The lack of that definition has made the presentation of a convincing global warming argument a complicated issue. Granted, we can easily see that extreme events are occurring on a more frequent basis but defining why is a little fuzzier. Saying that greenhouse gases are to blame may be correct but without a data point the debate can be run all over the board, done as much to confuse the issue as anything else. It’s kind of like saying speeding is dangerous without actually having a speed limit on which to base the conversation.  

This confusion has allowed the agendas of politicians and big oil to be pushed forward even while extreme weather events occur seemingly on a weekly basis. Politically, it now appears that President Obama is now making any concession possible to get re-elected. This includes concessions on the regulation of carbon emissions as monitored by the EPA. The administration is now backing away from proposed regulations to avoid being seen as anti-business and anti-jobs as framed by the Republican Party.

The good news is that a data point has been determined on which we can now define what level of carbon emissions is too high, much like adding a speed limit to a conversation about the dangers of excessive speed. The data point was determined by the planet's foremost climatologist, James Hansen, who found that any carbon value higher than 350 parts per million in the atmosphere was "not compatible with the planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted."

That number serves to give global warming a black and white reference point to start working on. The problem is that carbon levels in the atmosphere now measure 390 parts per million, about 11% higher than the level we need to maintain life as we know it. This number has fostered a movement known as 350.org which is now mobilizing people that are interested in saving the planet from global warming.
This mobilization includes the coordination of almost 15,000 global warming demonstrations in 188 countries. Foreign Policy magazine called the demonstrations “the largest ever coordinated global rally" about any issue, ever. If you’re concerned about global warming, 350.org is definitely a great place to start.

Anthony Ricigliano

Anthony Ricigliano News - Amazing and Depressing Stats on our National Debt

Anthony Ricigliano -  Anthony Ricigliano Business Advice: The national debt is the amount that the United States has borrowed and is currently paying interest on. The national debt of the U.S. is now over $14 trillion, a number that is larger than the gross domestic product of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined.

Here’s a list stats that are amazing but that you may not want to read:

* In 2010, the United States accumulated over $3.5 billion in new debt each and every day. That’s more than $2 million per minute.

* The cost of executing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is well over $1 trillion and counting.

* The Treasury Department estimates that our debt to China is approximately $843 billion and counting.

* According to the January 2010 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the federal budget deficit in 2009 was $1.4 trillion (9.9% of GDP). The 2010 deficit was approximately $1.3 trillion (9.1% of GDP). Not since 1945 have deficit been that high relative to GDP.

* According to the March 2010 CBO report, at proposed spending levels, the national debt will increase to 90% of GDP by 2020, at about $20 trillion.

* The government is also borrowing from itself, having borrowed from Social Security and Medicare, which have had surpluses.

* In 2009, according to the CBO, $187 billion of tax receipts were used to pay interest on the national debt. This is interest only and does nothing toward reducing the debt.

* The share of the national debt for each employed American is more than $90,000.
Recession and extended war efforts have exacerbated the numbers attached to the national debt as tax receipts have decreased while war and entitlement spending have increased. It’s entirely possible that these expenditures could be decreased (by ending the war effort) while tax receipts increase in an improving economy.

The issue at this point is that both parties seem intent on blowing up the national debt regardless of the factors in play at the present time. Politicians seem intent on continually delivering the message to their constituents that spending can continue and that we’ll deal with the debt monster at a later date. This shifts the debt burden to future generations who will suffer as the debt piled on by earlier generations consumes the lion’s share of the country’s GDP. It seems that everyone is living for today while leaving the bill for our kids, grandchildren, and the generations that follow.    

Author Anthony Ricigliano

Virtual Storage - By Anthony Ricigliano

Author Anthony Ricigliano - News and Articles by Anthony Ricigliano: While it’s true that information is king, he’s definitely a greedy ruler! As the business world continues to demand the storage of more and more data for longer periods of time, the need for increased amounts of disk space grows exponentially larger each year. To compound the issue, the low price of storage space means that many software developers no longer feel the need to make their products space efficient, and government regulations seem to increase legislative requirements for the retention of critical information each year. As the business units see the price tag on servers and disk space become more affordable, they can’t understand why adding just one more should be a problem. They fail to recognize that the cost of a growing computer room includes more than just the initial cost of the storage units.

The Shocking Cost of Maintaining Storage Units

Most non-IT workers would be shocked to find out that the cost of managing each storage unit can be as much as four to 10 times the original purchase price. In addition to putting a big dent in the IT budget, ever increasing storage units lead to server sprawl and a constantly declining operating efficiency. Increased maintenance can also be disruptive, expensive, and burdensome to the entire enterprise. To solve this problem, system engineers have been working on file virtualization methods to eliminate these issues. Their goal is to reduce storage and server inefficiencies while permitting infinite growth. Let’s take a look at exactly how they intend to accomplish this lofty goal.

Breaking the Tight Connection between Clients, Servers, and Storage

The old strategy of tightly coupling storage space with clients and servers is a big reason that adding a new storage unit becomes expensive to maintain. When machines from a variety of vendors are added to the network, they may not all integrate seamlessly creating individual islands of storage to manage. When applications are physically mapped to a specific server for storage, any changes, including additions, require modifications to this complex mapping algorithm. In some cases, adding a new device or moving a system to a storage unit with more space requires expensive and annoying downtime. This often leads to an under-utilization of the actual storage space, an expensive proposition, because system administrators over-allocate space to minimize the need to take an outage. To break free from this outdated methodology, file virtualization relies on the ability to remove this static mapping process to allow storage resources to freely move between applications as needed without restricting access to the data.

Adding a Layer of Intelligent Design to the Network

File virtualization adds a layer of intelligence to the network to decouple logical data access from the physical retrieval of the actual files. This separates the application and the client from the physical storage devices so that static mapping is no longer needed. With this change, the existing bank of servers can be maintained without disrupting the core system or the user’s access to valuable information. After implementing a file virtualization strategy, many IT shops find that they can consolidate storage units and increase their overall utilization. In this way, they may be able to simplify the system configuration by decommissioning older storage devices that are no longer needed or that they can go much longer than anticipated without adding additional disk space.

In today’s IT world, most shops are finding that using a file virtualization system is not only a “best practice," it’s a must-do to continue operating. IT shops with budgets that continued to rise each year just a short time ago are seeing their available funds shrink more and more each year. With increasing pressure to reduce costs or keep the flat, file virtualization is also a virtual requirement.

Anthony Ricigliano