I'll Miss the Chevy Volt

...but I don't think General Motors warrants a taxpayer (stop calling it a 'government' bailout, it's our money) rescue at this point. The tide seems to be against them. It does raise the question, if AIG was simply 'too big' to fail, why isn't GM the same? Put simply, GM has been in decline for years. It didn't get screwed by a sudden and total reversal in its credit default swaps, for which I'm still waiting to pillory someone, it got screwed by competition, declining domestic production, and not enough profit from its overseas ventures. There are many good arguments against preventing their bankruptcy, but perhaps this is the best.

Also, Baidu.com, the Chinese Google, has delisted unregistered pharma companies from its search results. Previously they had massively outranked the legit producers in most results. What does this say about Baidu? Nothing. Baidu is pretty good, even if its stock is stupidly overvalued and due for a crash. It simply goes to show what a god-awful mess the Chinese Internet is, and how easy it is for pirated goods in any industry to rise to the top. My question is, are these rankings determined purely by a Google-like algorithm, or are the fake companies paying their way to the top? Baidu has transparently allowed alteration of search results for money before, during the milk-powder scandal, so it's difficult to trust them. But I think this would be far more interesting if it was a consumer-driven trend and not Baidu being shady.

Also, CCTV doing investigative reporting? Pinch me?