Thursday, July 8, 2004

America's Gilded Ages: Context of Problems A hundred years ago The headlong consolidation of so many industries of the past ten years has a precedent. In fact, a similar scramble to market domination by a few companies happened a hundred years ago. At that time, business was synonymous with manufacturing, while today's consolidation is in an even wider spectrum of companies, but the parallels are instructive. I quote from the introduction to a book called The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895-1904 (Cambridge University Press, 1985), by Naomi Lamoreaux: Between 1895 and 1904 a great wave of mergers swept through the manufacturing sector. Nothing like it had ever been seen before, or has been seen since. Although subsequent waves of mergers have occurred, they have typically involved the acquisition of one or more small firms by a large competitor or, more recently, by a firm in a completely different industry. By contrast, the turn-of-the-century mergers, the predominant process was horizontal consolidation-the simultaneous merger of many or all competitors into a single, grand enterprise. Of course, things are different. From "single, grand enterprises" (monopolies), we are now seeing a few competitors (oligopolies). But the parallels between 1895-1904 and 1995-2004 are striking. How long-lasting were the rollups? Some mergers led to short-lived domination (American Linseed, American Writing Paper, United States Bobbin & Shuttle). These companies were soon or later done out of business because of disruptions in their industries. On the other hand, a number of the firms Lamoureaux traces are, or have been dominant now or in recent memory: Eastman Kodak, U.S. Steel, International Paper, DuPont, and Pittsburgh Plate Glass (now PPG Corp.). Other companies of the time now form key parts of oligopolies: American Chicle (now owned by Cadbury Schweppes), Otis Elevator (part of United Technologies), National Biscuit Company  (now part of Altria), Union Bag & Paper (now part of International Paper). The history of Continental Tobacco shows both of these consolidation waves at work. It was merged into American Tobacco (1901) to make Consolidated Tobacco, later renamed American Tobacco again. American Tobacco, which ended up owning over 90% of the domestic market, was broken up by the US government into five companies (1929). These companies were American Tobacco, Liggett & Myers, BAT, Lorillard, and R.J. Reynolds, each of which got some of the old company's brands. The new American Tobacco eventually became American Brands. American Brands was sold to BAT in 1994. Now BAT is acquiring R.J. Reynolds, so there will be only two big tobacco companies standing. [Oligopoly Watch] 10:30:16 PM

'The Inner Reaches of Outer Space' Brains Supernovas. It is funny how much the inner can look like the outer sometimes.  Very fractal (yes, yes, I understand I am being very loose w/the use/definition of that word.) Imaging technologies let us see inside ourselves, telescopes of all stripe let us see far beyond ourselves, and computers wrap it all together.   Check out these two images below.  One is a human brain and one is a frame from a simulation of a supernova after it has blown itself up.  Find the supernova and click on it to see the quicktime of the explosion. [The Gordon Gould Weblog] 9:43:18 PM

Ken Lay Kenny Boy who? [Salon.com] 9:39:16 PM

Re: The Fabric of Cosmos The coolest job in the world.. I must admit that I have always wished I had the sort of mind suited to be a theoretical physicist or cosmologist as I think they have possibly the most interesting jobs in the world, at least as far as subject matter goes.  (Of course, the narcissist in me would want to be a mediagenic, articulate cosmologist who made great tv shows and wrote cool books, not just spend all my time locked in some weird observatory w/lots of computers.  On the other hand, playing w/the Hubble or a super-collider must be a lot of fun too….)  So it was w/a mixture of great anticipation and a touch of envy that I got Brian Greene’s latest book, The Fabric of Cosmos: Space, Time and the texture of Reality.  As I expected, Greene eloquently delivers a brain-bending tour of the universe(s?).  The book is filled w/simply mindblowing ideas that will force you to rethink your understanding of concepts like “now”, the flow of time, the role of entropy, and the ultimate limits/fate of the universe.  (By extension, for those more metaphysically inclined, the book raises many questions about the concept of Self as well.) [The Gordon Gould Weblog] 7:09:27 PM

Uploading... Swimming Upstream with Uploads. From P2P to VoIP, demand for upload capacity is surging--but broadband providers have skimped on bandwidth. Will they finally get the message? By Eric S. Brown. [Technology Review Feed v2.1] 7:24:53 AM