Top E-Commerce Sites in 2011

Internet sales during the holidays went up 15.3% to 35 billion; Online sales for November and December 2011 were 59 billion.

Who are the big players? Obviously Amazon. I buy too much stuff there, but who can compete with them?

	Company	Headquarters	2010 Rank	Main Product
1	Amazon.com	Seattle	1	general merchandise
2	Walmart.com	Bentonville, Ark.	2	general merchandise
3	eBay.com	San Jose, Calif.	3	online marketplace
4	BestBuy.com	Richfield, Minn.	4	electronics
5	JCPenney.com	Plano, Texas	5	apparel
6	Kohls.com	Menomonee Falls, Wis.	7	apparel
7	Target.com	Minneapolis	6	general merchandise
8	Macys.com	Cincinnati	11	apparel
9	Sears.com	Hoffman Estates, Ill.	10	general merchandise
10	Google.com	Mountain View, Calif.	8	information

Logo for ecommerce consultant Sienna

According to stores.org, these are the top ten stores. Click here to see the longer version of the list. There are seven brick and mortar stores, and three electronic-only retailers. 

What is google.com selling? This refers to its sales of data to other marketers which does not sound like regular retailing at all. Google.com dropped two ranks from 2010. 

Surprisingly, nearly-dead Sears in the top ten! It looks like starving the maintenance budget is not hurting online sales. Could be helping since no one wants to go to the real stores.

On-line sales together are13% of all retail in November and December -- important but not dominating. Consultants say that 36% of retail sales have an internet component -- such as getting information, reviews, or comparing prices.

Amazon sold $44 billion all electronically. WalMart sold 208 billion; mostly in the store. I guess they would be selling
425 billion online.

Amazon's stock is selling at 103 times its earnings.  That's crazy high; Walmart's is 13, BestBuy's 9.

Z-Coil Running Shoe

Z-Coil Freedom shoe 

I got a new running shoe with an actual spring on it. Looks pretty gimmicky, but it is very well cushioned.

It is a "Freedom" model from Z-Coil, who makes elaborate footware for people with sore feet. I found them at a store in Dearborn.

The company is based in Arizona, but the shoes themselves are made in Korea. They have a whole line of shoes with different styles, but all with the big bulky spring in back. They make different strengths of springs for different people, and the springs do wear out.

I don't really have a foot problem, but I did have an Achille's tendon injury last August, and I have not really come back. Unlike my Nikes, this running shoe is rigid, and so tendons in my foot don't flex. All the cushioning is done by the big spring.

The disadvantage of this shoe is that it is heavy, at 1 pound, 8 ounces it is literally twice as heavy has my Nike Lunarglide at 12 ounces. The weight of the shoe is noticeable, but OK for training in. It occurs to me that the spring may provide some mechanical advantage like the spring steel limbs that amputees run in, but this is too heavy to race in.

The hope is that as time passes, my foot will get stronger, and I won't have to wear them all the time.

Table Top Gene Sequencing Machine Can Read Your DNA in a Day.

It can read your DNA in just 24 hours.

It seems like science fiction, but Life Technologies, has a table top sequencing machine for $100,000 to 150,000.  It does a whole human genome in a day.

Life Technologies sequencing chip. Note the tubes that deliver
reagents. 

The secret is a multi-parallel sequencing device. The press release text is pretty impenetrable, but they say it: "perform[s] direct, real-time measurement of the hydrogen ions produced during DNA replication. A high-density array of wells on the Ion semiconductor chips provides millions of individual reactors, and integrated fluidics allow reagents to flow over the sensor array.  This unique combination of fluidics, micromachining, and semiconductor technology enables the direct translation of genetic information (DNA) to digital information (DNA sequence), rapidly generating large quantities of high-quality data." Link

More recently Life Tech's archrival Illumina is suing them for patent enfringement on their analysis chip design.

Just eleven years ago, a collection of the scientists across the world worked to sequence the human genome the first time, and finished in 2003 after thirteen years. Just eight years later, we can do it in an day.

I remember how crazy it seemed when Star Trek NG's Dr Crusher put a few drops of blood in her "tricorder," and this little box sequenced it in a minute. Crazy because that would take a whole lab years, but now, it is not so crazy.

World Stock Market Performance in 2011

Percent change in eight stock markets in 2010 and 2011. January 2011 is normalized to zero.

Everyone who is paying attention knows that the stocks were flat in 2011, which means that the S&P 500 went up by only 0.1%.

The graph above has eight stock market indexes, all normalized to 0% on January 1 2011. You can see the big crash in mid-July. The Wilshire 5000 changed less than 1%, and the Nasdaq actually went down.

On the bright side the Dow 30 are actually up. Of course the Dow is often talked about, but isn't really that important.

Foreign indexes are down big. The formerly high flying Chinese Hang Seng crashed 20%. Japan's Nikkei continues its losing streak, going down another 17%. Germany's Dax went down 15% due to the fraying Euro-zone.

Gains and losses in eight stock markets since January 2010.

Still grasping for a silver lining? Two year returns were decent in the US, and bad everywhere else.  This does not make sense, since business in the US has obviously been bad. First, the market must have been over-sold in 2009. Second, corporate profits have been pretty good.

What does this mean going forward?  Past results usually foreshadow the opposite result in the future since stock traders usually overplay the underlaying trend.  Since Europe and Asia are over-sold today,  then they probably will do better next year.

Poison in Baby Shampoo Update

Did you know I use Johnson Baby Shampoo?  I use it to avoid an allergy that I have to some preservatives used in shampoos. I often get rashes from the cheap hotel shampoo.

I was really surprised when I learned that Johnson's Baby Shampoo has two strikes against it for health and safety.

One is that it is using Quaternium-15 a preservative that emits formaldehyde as it degrades, and the second is that it contains less than 4 ppm of dioxane. It should be pointed out that dioxane, a carcinogen, is not dioxin. Dioxin is the short name given to chloronated dibenzodioxins which are very toxic, but not very similar to dioxane, but it sounds similar.

Dioxane; found
in shampoos

Dioxane is an unintended biproduct of ethoxylation processes; these are used to make milder detergents. To make a gentle baby shampoo, sometimes this is needed.

Quaternium 15, is a complicated amine that many people are allergic too. It degrades into formaldehyde, because it was made from formaldehyde and simpler amines.

Susan Nettesheim from J&J says that there are only tiny amounts of formaldehyde and dioxane in the product, and that they will try to get rid of the problematic preservatives. I know that in polymers the industry has been switching away from these preservatives for years, and that J&J is behind the curve, although the replacements might be too irritating for a baby shampoo. J&J promised advocacy groups to do this.

In the meantime, I am going to continue using the Johnson's product, though I am worried about Quaternium-15.  I have no way of finding out which products have it, and which don't.

How Organic is Organic?

A central entertainment at Holiday dinners at our family is an argument about what food is healthy, and what isn't healthy.

This year so-called "organic" food was in focus, pushing aside vegetarianism, hi-carb and lo-carb.

There are two ideas: that the "organic animals" are better treated, and that organic food is healthier.

Being a chemist is completely natural to me to divorce the question of animal treatment from the additives used to make the agricultural product. Organic advocates are always saying that organic animals are treated better by their "loving owners" as opposed to "evil corporate wage-slaves" raising other animals. I was surprised to learn there are animal husbandry standards in the FDA organic regulations. I still don't think that organic farmers love animals more than other farms. For example, egg farmers have standards on how to treat chickens in their large cage-based  chicken farms. Here is something similar for dairy cattle from a farmers group.

I downloaded the approved additives in organic foods lists from the FDA. This puts forth when synthetic materials can be used in "organic" foods, and still be organic. There are actually two lists, one of synthetic materials that are OK, and another of bio-derived materials that are not OK.

One surprise is the amount of antibiotics that "organic" beef can receive, for example Atropine -- which is a weak toxin and dilates the eyes.

Another is a list of synthetic or non-organic biomaterials that can be used in organic foods, for example, like hops or pumpkin juice for color.

The bottom line is that "organic" does not mean what most consumers think it means. Food is actually a more technical and more complex product than anyone cares to know. Having said that, organic food is not any less healthy than standard foods, although it is less healthy for the wallet.

Christmas Eve Novel in Six Word Shopping List

I found this shopping list in my shopping basket at Wal-Mart this morning, which is Christmas Eve morning.  It is a whole novel in six words. Who wrote the shopping list, and what is her story?  Just three items, probably in a woman's handwriting:

Egg Nog
Shoes (Dad) 

p test 

Egg Nog -- sounds like a Christmas Party. Or is it a treat just a treat for herself? Hard to think you'd make a special trip to the store for Egg Nog to drink alone.

Are the shoes a gift for Dad? Probably, looks like she only has one more gift to buy. Dad is going to get his new shoes from Wal-Mart. I have looked at the shoes at Wal-Mart, and they are not fashion-forward, but they are practical and cheap. On the other hand, maybe Dad is sick and can't buy shoes for himself for some reason. 

I think she going to give the shoes to Dad at the Christmas Party.

Most interesting is "p test," which has to be a pregnancy test.  There are other things a "p test," could be, but only a pregnancy test is available at Wal-Mart.

How old is she? I'm guessing she was shopping by herself, and so she is old enough to drive. Is she 16 and hoping to be not be pregnant? Is she wondering what she is going to tell Dad at the Christmas Party? Maybe she is she 38, and wishing to be pregnant instead.

Maybe she is a little ashamed, and that is why she wrote "p test," instead of "pregnancy test." The list is torn out of a spiral notebook, and usually students have those, so most likely she is younger than 23. 

Is she poor?  Not too poor, she has enough money to buy shoes and Egg Nog. If she were wealthy though, she'd be buying Dad's shoes at Macy's instead of Wal-Mart.  

Looks to me like a young woman with a little money, not too much, who might be pregnant, and is going to bring Egg Nog to a party. Maybe she even lives with her parents. 

I wonder a million other things: Is she really pregnant? Is she happy about it? Who is the guy? Does she live with her parents? Is she still in high school? What do her friends think? Oh, and what shoes did she buy, and did Dad like them? Is her boyfriend going to be at the Christmas party? 

Whoever she is, she lives within a few miles of me, and I'll never know her story. 

Good Luck to her this Christmas Eve.

What Countries Work the Hardest?

Where do people work the longest? The Organization for Economic Development calculated it all out.

The most surprising thing is that nearly broke nations like Greece work far more than thrifty nations like Netherlands and German.

Not surprising is that France has a short workweek, but suprisingly it is far shorter than places like Mexico or Italy.

It seems that high wage rates enable people to work less. This is data from 2008, so it is from before the recession. No doubt that the work week is shorter now.

It seems to be more important to work smart than to work hard.

BASF is Number Five on the Happy Employee List

I was surprised and pleased that BASF has popped to top of the happiest employee list from CareerBliss. CareerBliss is a website that rates employers like Yelp rates restaurants; it also has consulting operations.

This rating should help recruiting at BASF because BASF does not have a lot of visibility. 

CareerBliss interviews employees to obtain its ratings.  How are the winners selected? According to the company: "CareerBliss data evaluates the key factors which affect work happiness, including: work-life balance, one’s relationship with their boss and co-workers, their work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, their daily tasks, and job control over the work that they do on a daily basis."

The 2011 Top Ten.                                       .

Who Do Americans Like? Me! or Maybe You? Jesus!!

Maybe the political process is broken, and partisans all hate the other side. Who is the person that everyone likes?  Happily, everyone likes someone -- themselves.

A polling company called Public Policy Polling did the study, and found that nearly everyone likes Abraham Lincoln and Jesus -- besides themselves.  I adjusted their numbers so that only people who have an opinion are registered. For example, people who don't know who Mahatma Gandhi are not counted in the Mahatma Gandhi total.

Caravaggio's Narcissus

But people like themselves most. It is too easy to quip that Americans are narcissistic, since I suspect 99% of the world's population think highly of themselves. There are a lot of people who hate themselves too. That would be another interesting poll. 

Everyone on the list, except for yourself, is dead -- although Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela have not been dead that long. 

Why don't we like anyone alive? Some of the answer is the rapid communication we have. Spreading information around makes us think that no one is better than anyone else.  There is always someone to knock down everyone else -- look at the way the Republican presidential candidates keep knocking each other off.  People learn quickly that their hero is just a human like them. 

Superbowl quarterback Aaron Roger does pretty well, at least in Wisconsin with 89%. 

Another interesting statistic is that Santa only has an 84% favorable rating. I will assert that Santa is not a historical person  -- sorry kids. The 21st Century Santa is more complicated than my Holiday English Toffee Recipe. He is a concoction of myth, religion, a poem, a song, and a Coca-Cola ad. He is as real as Ronald McDonald.  How real is Ronald McDonald?