Booo BREXIT

I'm very sad about Brexit.

I hope the British well.

I created a video goodbye. Have a Look: 

https://thoughtsmart.com/RuleBritannia!.mp4

I'm particularly concerned for Scotland.The EU flag will continue to fly outside the Scottish Parliament, and this week Scottish lawmakers voted 64-54 to hold a referendum "so the people of Scotland can decide whether they wish it to become an independent country." (But no binding referendum can be held without the government in London's approval).

ALOHA 

Thirty-Meter Telescope International Observatory LLC

TMT (Thirty-Meter Telescope International Observatory LLC) is a foreign entity demanding trespass on Hawaiian Maunakea. Partners include Government components from Japan, India, Canada, China; State of California & Caltech; while US Federal Government maintains continuous expropriating interest "in the event of military necessity."

Trespassers deliberately corrode indigenous communities. Cosmopolitan invaders disrespect & misframe native communities, aiming to disrupt inheritance and dismantle local sovereignty. 

BEWARE the suffix LLC - the invading consortium already contrived legal protections to abandon problems in case of trouble.

XX TMT LLC = X NO NO NO

Japanese Justice SHAME

A few months ago I posted about Japan's troubles with Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan Motors (link: "Business Beware! Japan's Jellyfish Justice"). It's tricky to discuss this delicate topic. The Rule of Law in Japan seems brutal, arbitrary & unreliable, so it's generally better to shut up. "出る釘は打たれる"  - "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down."

Ghosn, under indictment in Japan for financial crimes and contrary to his bail conditions, recently was able to leave the country and to meet with his family.

Illegality is bad. I don't personally know Carlos Ghosn. I believe Prosecutor's unwise entanglement in Nissan Motors' corporate fight damages Japan.

The case highlights a very disturbing unjust "crime" in Japan - Ghosn was humiliated & imprisoned for many months in the infamous Tokyo Kōchisho detention centre (東京拘置所). Even when released on bail he was not allowed to use email or the internet, or to communicate with his wife & family. He was not accused of crimes of violence, nor were people damaged or injured from his supposed crimes. Ghosn became a high-profile Enemy of the State for the crime of being non-Japanese.

I'm reminded of the Stallone film I first saw 25 years ago in Japan - "First Blood" (in Japanese ランボー  "Rambo") where a small town harasses a highly-decorated US military veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor winner, mistreating him as a vagrant. Carlos Ghosn, a supremely successful global businessman, has been bullied by Japan on suspicion of minor bookkeeping lapses.

Japan's corporate corruption is legendary (click for links): Food fraud (such as at prestigious Hotel Okura), deliberately substandard manufacturing (Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi Materials, etc.), deadly pollution (Chisso poisoning of Minamata, etc.), circumvented building codes (hundreds of substandard buildings by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction, Kimura, etc.), cronyism & bribery (PM Abe's Moritomo Gakuen scandal), inattention to nuclear safety, karōshi (death from overwork, e.g. Dentsu), links to yakuza criminals,  etc., etc. Bureaucrats & politicians seldom publicly interfere.

(True, the huge $1.7 billion Olympus scandal generated some suspended prison sentences when great sums over many years couldn't be covered-up with apologies. It may even be Ghosn suffers as proxy for Olympus whistleblower Michael Woodford, another of the few foreign devils near the Japan Inc. power centre).

But Ghosn was taken-down, detained, and subsequently hobbled in unprecedented ways for suspected accounting irregularities. This attracts criticism for Japan's justice system when considering the many modern Japanese corporate actions which escape indictment - neglecting widespread public harm & deaths.

Japan's Nissan Scandal involves great international & financial intrigue, far beyond the personal circumstances of Carlos Ghosn. Businesspeople around the world are quietly alarmed. The Nissan case has been very badly mishandled -- and brings SHAME on Japan.

Magnesium Batteries

The potential for rechargeable magnesium batteries is hugely exciting, a truly disruptive technology. Properly constructed, Magnesium (Mg) batteries have a better energy density than lithium batteries, offering superior output at lower weight. Component cost and availability is also superior to rechargeable lithium battery components, e.g. cobalt, with positive implications for energy security.

Magnesium can be harvested from seawater if necessary.

MgBatteries.com aims to become a key platform for promoting these emerging energy technologies.

Advances in surface preparation of magnesium electrodes, and new developments with electrolytes and anodes, offer great opportunity. European research very much recognizes the potential, with the European Magnesium Interactive Battery Community (E-MAGIC) as a leading light (reported as predominantly guided by Spanish / Israeli partners). Tough competition is also already developing from other major players including the US Department of Energy, IBM, assorted transnational consortia (example link), and Asian producers now heavily invested in lithium battery technology.

We've entered the decade of Magnesium Batteries (Mg Batteries)

Inheriting Hawaiians

What do I want for New Year? I'm Hawaiian & 100 years after the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, I'd like that the Act's Hawaiian ancestry (50%) rights be recognized for those who died before application or processing, and the benefits fully inherited by their descendants. Hawaiians are still robbed of land by US colonial treachery - it's time for change.

If a Hawaiian qualified in the early 1920s under US federal HHCA, the Native Hawaiian benefits should be inherited by their progeny.

http://dhhl.hawaii.gov/hhc/laws-and-rules/