From budding trends to mature industries, Novem Group works hard to stay abreast of developing news. Here’s what caught our eyes this week:
Semiconductors
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Semis are a major choke-point for the global economy.
- Bottlenecks are holding up production of major goods like autos. Semiconductors now represent 40% of the cost of a new car!
- Concentrated production from Taiwan, and the numerous military applications of semis, means that semiconductors are now a point of strategic focus in the US/China rivalry.
- As a non-tech-forward person, much of this is Greek to me. Regardless, the constraints and changes to the semiconductor market will continue to be a significant theme across investments, innovation, and geopolitics.
- U.S. chip startups, long shunned in favor of internet bets, stir excitement again
- 3 Ways Chiplets Are Remaking Processors
- The Good And Bad Of Chiplets
Crowdsourcing, Ideas, Organizations and the Power of Dissent
- “Stock-market bubbles contravene a crucial condition of a smart crowd: that there should be a diversity of judgments. When a group herds toward one answer, it effectively becomes like one very fallible individual, rather than a sum of different guesses made independently. The wisest crowds are composed of individuals who disagree with one another”
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Examples:
- Lincoln filling the Cabinet with a team of rivals
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How Israeli intelligence failures led to a ‘devil’s advocate’ role
- “The Tenth Man is a devil’s advocate. If there are 10 people in a room and nine agree, the role of the tenth is to disagree and point out flaws in whatever decision the group has reached.”
- Bonhoeffer Letter – Always some differentiated views on interesting companies. Worth a read.
Bee Facts
The other day I learned that my daughter Kennedy volunteered me to go into her preschool class to teach a class about bees. I really don’t know why. We do not keep bees. We have never kept bees. We also have not had a bee problem at our house. Nonetheless I’ve dug into the subject and it’s actually pretty interesting.
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There are over 16,000 species of bees!
- In NYS there are 416. I believe my dog has sampled most of these. Verdict is still out on her favorite flavor.
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Honeybees maintain the core of their nest at 92-93 degrees Fahrenheit regardless of the outside temp.
- To heat – they pack in and increase activity.
- To cool – some bees leave the hive to increase airflow. Some bees “fan” the hive with their wings. Some bees actually fly off and drink water. When they return, they regurgitate the water to help cool the nest.
- Honey bees have a great homing sense. In experiments, bees moved over 14 miles form the next were able to return!
- When they’re back at the hive, honey bees do a waggle dance which shows other bees the direction and distance of food.
- During a single collection trip, a honey bee will visit 50-100 flowers.
- Bumble bees can sting. As a small child, I was told the opposite. Also, bumble bees can sting you repeatedly unlike other bees! The good news is that they’re pretty docile. Getting stung by a bumble bee sounds a little like getting bit by a Golden Retriever- if it happens you probably deserve it.
- A hive of honey bees can have from 75,000 to 90,000 bees!
- Yellow jackets are wasps, not bees. Wasps do not have hairy bodies which makes them poor pollinators. Also, wasps can’t make honey.