China By Numbers Ep.13: Foreign Exchange Reserves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfl1levc_KM

With the help of the United States and other western powers, China has become an economic powerhouse. The idea was that prosperity would persuade China to align its interests with the other free nations of the world. But that’s not what happened. Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley explains why.

Script:

Communist China is the biggest challenge America faces on the world stage.

It’s a challenge that we’ve ignored for far too long.

For decades, United States leaders in both parties encouraged deep ties with China. The idea was that China would move away from Communism and embrace freedom and democracy.

This idea was wrong.

The Chinese Communist Party is now more oppressive at home and aggressive abroad than ever before. It uses every tool at its disposal to strengthen itself while weakening America.

Let’s start with trade.

Trade is a fundamental, and fundamentally beneficial, part of our economy.

But not all trade with all trading partners is the same.

The father of capitalism, Adam Smith, observed in The Wealth of Nations that Great Britain’s command of the seas must trump trade benefits.

“Defense,” he wrote, “is of much more importance than opulence.”

America has long understood this truth. During the Cold War, we limited trade with the Soviet Union. We didn’t want the communist country to use our innovation and economy against us and our allies.

Now it’s time to take a similar approach with China. For anyone who might have doubted the need for this, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a very loud wake-up call.

As Americans rushed to purchase medical equipment, masks, and gloves, it became obvious we had outsourced a lot of what we needed to China. We had become dependent on them for not only PPE but many of our everyday medicines.

Making America dependent on China for critical supplies didn’t happen by accident. It’s part of a strategic plan. 

China’s Communist rulers have manipulated supply chains to China’s advantage, often illegally, to give it an edge over America and the free world.

It wasn’t supposed to go this way.

As it gathered economic strength, China became less free and more aggressive. Now we face an expansionist Communist China whose economic power vastly exceeds anything the Soviets could ever muster.

China is using its growing economic clout to advance its authoritarian vision. The country’s rulers are determined to control or eliminate anyone who stands in their way.

This explains why China’s Communist rulers ethnically cleanse their minorities. They have forced at least a million Muslim Uighurs into concentration camps.

It’s why they impose a surveillance state on their own citizens.

Why they have moved to strip freedom from Hong Kong.

Why they threaten to take over Taiwan.

Why China’s spies have infiltrated American college campuses and classrooms.

Why China has stolen intellectual property from our most innovative companies.

And why they seek to dominate the United Nations and international agencies like the World Health Organization.

The simple fact is that Communist China will not stop. This is why America must respond — and lead.

That starts with American resolve. To stand up to China, we need to stand up for our principles.

While China has abused the free market to its own advantage, America must defend the integrity of the free market — the only pathway to economic prosperity.

We must ensure that our trade relationship is fair and that China isn’t using the rules to its advantage.

We must ensure that our most important security-related industries — from essential medicine to semiconductors — have American-friendly supply chains, instead of depending on an authoritarian rival state.

We must also end China’s intrusion into American business. That means limiting Chinese investment in critical parts of our economy.

And of course, we must support the Chinese people’s right to live free. It’s the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/china-friend-or-foe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLkQE6eF9oY

NoSQL databases power some of the biggest sites. They're fast and super scalable but how do they work?

Behind-the-scenes, they use a keyspace to distribute your data across multiple servers or partitions. This allows them to scale horizontally across many thousand servers.

NoSQL databases can operate in multiple modes: as key-value store, document store or wide column store.

You can run your own NoSQL database with software like Cassandra, CouchDB, MongoDB or Scylla. You can also use a cloud version like AWS DynamoDB, Google Cloud BigTable or Azure CosmosDB.

In this video, you will be able to learn the English names of the parts of a car which will grow your vocabulary and help you in communicating.
Download my English workbook: https://www.english.online/

Videographer: Oleg Shevchyshyn (https://instagram.com/oleg_shevchyshyn)

Accelerator (or gas pedal): The accelerator is a pedal that the driver presses on with his or her foot in order to control the car's speed. 油門

Brake: The foot pedal you use when you want to make the car go slower or stop it from moving. 剎車

Brake light: The red light at the back of the car that indicates the brake is being used and that the car is slowing down. 剎車燈

Dashboard: The part in front of the driver that has the controls like the Temperature gauge, Fuel gauge and the Speedometer. 中控臺

Exhaust (pipe): The pipe that takes the waste gases from the motor and lets them go into the air. 排氣管

Horn: The horn makes a sound to warn other drivers of a problem. The driver makes the horn sound by pressing a button, which is usually on the steering wheel. 喇叭

Turn indicators: The lights that let others know in which direction a car is turning. 轉向燈

Ignition: You put the key here to start the car. 點火裝置/啓動按鈕

License Plate: The license plate is a piece of metal with numbers and letters on it. There is usually one on the front and the back of the car. The government usually requires each car to have a license plate so the car can be identified. 牌照（框）

Radiator: Cools the water of the motor. 散熱器

Rear-view Mirror: The small mirror attached to the middle of your windscreen so that you can see what is behind your car while you are driving. 後視鏡

Seatbelt: The belt that is connected to the seat and you place across your body to help protect you in an accident. 安全帶

Speedometer: A part of the dashboard that lets the driver know how fast the car is moving. 車速表

Steering wheel: The round instrument that the driver uses to make the car go in a certain direction. 方向盤

Tires: The tire is a thick rubber ring that connects the car to the ground. Cars normally have four tires. 車胎

Visor: A visor is a piece of, usually, plastic that the driver can move into position to stop the sun from getting into the driver's eyes. 遮陽板

Wheel: The round parts that connect the car to the road and help the car move. 車輪

Windshield: The big window at the front of the car that the driver looks through as he/she drives. 擋風玻璃/前檔玻璃

Windshield Wipers: Windshield wipers are things that move back and forth across the windshield to remove rain so that the driver can see better. 雨刮器/雨刷

Time codes:
0:00 Car interior vocabulary
4:21 Car exterior vocabulary
8:08 About my English workbook

美國國家普查局（United States Census Bureau）發佈的統計學科普小視頻

One in a series, this video takes a fun and zany look at the importance of statistics. Host, Eric Newburger uses graphics, pictures and interesting stories to illustrate the relevance of statistics and how many different things can be learned about the nation and its communities through the study of statistics.

When Steve Jobs arrived back at Apple in 1997, he laid off general managers of all business units and combined disparate functional departments into one functional organization. (Part 1 of 3)

This is part 1 of 3
Part 2--The Leadership Model: https://youtu.be/d5enAGG51PQ
Part 3--Leadership at Scale: https://youtu.be/hczW4Bqf3Qk

The adoption of a functional structure may have been unsurprising for a company of Apple’s size at the time. What is surprising—in fact, remarkable—is that Apple retains it today, even though the company is nearly 40 times as large in terms of revenue and far more complex than it was in 1998. Senior vice presidents are in charge of functions, not products. As was the case with Jobs before him, CEO Tim Cook occupies the only position on the organizational chart where the design, engineering, operations, marketing, and retail of any of Apple’s main products meet. In effect, besides the CEO, the company operates with no conventional general managers: people who control an entire process from product development through sales and are judged according to a P&L statement.

Based on the HBR article, “How Apple Is Organized for Innovation" by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen: https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-apple-is-organized-for-innovation

How can an understated watch brand stand out against flashier, gem-encrusted offerings in China?

Wei Song oversees Greater China for Rochat & Schmid, a 100-year-old Swiss maker of luxury timepieces. China is a critical market for the firm, but sales of watches have stalled there. The firm's competitors are going after China's luxury shoppers, who are younger and flashier than the traditional customer base, with new gem-encrusted products that offer "bling." To compete with them, Pearl Zhang, Song's VP of marketing, wants to launch a campaign featuring a Chinese singer with a huge social media following among Millennials. But Simon Carbonnier, R&S's chief creative officer back in Switzerland, is dead set against celebrity endorsements and anything that deviates from the brand's long-term value of "understated elegance." Should Song fight for Pearl's new campaign--or not? Expert commentary on this case study is provided by Kent Wong and Martin Ganz.

Read more here: https://hbr.org/2017/05/case-study-a-luxury-brand-competes-against-a-flashy-new-rival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXKcAwZKjTk

From "Dancing with the Stars" to wartime leader, here’s what you need to know about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, all eyes are on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The politician, 44, has been hailed on social media as a hero, earning comparisons to George Washington and Winston Churchill for his refusal to flee his country as Russian forces closed in on the capital city of Kyiv. Despite being marked as Russia's No.1 target, Zelenskyy declared he'd fight back, telling U.S. officials, "I need ammunition, not a ride."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt5D0BrYtoo

Parler relaunches on new platform after ousting Former CEO John Matze.

Stuart Varney: social media censorship is a big deal, and we have this, just into this. Moments ago, Parler's website coming back online after more than a month. Susan?

Susan: So it looks like Parler has issued a press release as well, and they say that after being de-platformed(產品下架、業務下線) by Amazon on Jan. 11th they have now been able to bring back up the site . So you have to rejoin from what I see in this press release and set up an account in order to join the conversation(在線社區中的溝通之意), but we do know that John Matze, the former co-founder, he is the co-founder of Parler, he's been booted (out)(boot out非正式用法，意指被迫離開) as CEO. According to the Parler release, press release, is an outsider, so Mark Mechler is the interim(臨時的、過渡性的) CEO of Parler.com. He'll bring along with him a new Chief Policy Officer, as they look for a new permanent CEO, but I haven't tried to create a new account, I don't think anyone here has, but this is what we have so far. Parler dot com looks to be a little, up and running at least, maybe You can try to input some of your data there.

關聯閱讀

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/parler-back-online-on-new-platform

To many people, strategy is a total mystery. But it’s really not complicated, says Harvard Business School’s Felix Oberholzer-Gee. Companies should simplify and focus on two value drivers, he argues: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. By aligning strategic initiatives on these alone, leaders make their workers’ jobs less complicated and improve customer experiences.

00:00 To many people, strategy is a mystery.
00:25 Strategy does not start with a focus on profit.
00:52 It's about creating value.
01:00 There's a simple tool to help visualize the value you create: the value stick.
01:30 What is willingness-to-pay?
02:30 What is willingness-to-sell?
03:14 Remind me: Where does profit come in again?
03:48 How do I raise willingness-to-pay?
05:00 And how do I lower willingness-to-sell?
06:18 Real world example: Best Buy's dramatic turnaround

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Ik1OB4TaE

白宮官網發佈2021拜登夫婦新年賀詞

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRjf5ksFBgo