The official un employment figures show a slight (0.1%) improvement this month. Then the Lehrer Newshour spent a lot of time explaining about how this was a statistical fluke, and if you looked at the real figures things are worse, and on and on. Seems like the Newshour would have been happier with worse unemployment numbers.
For me, I want the un employment numbers computed the same way this month as they were last month and the month before. Doesn't matter if the method has some problems, I just want to see if the economy is getting better or worse. If you change the accounting rules, you change the results. I want the results to reflect changes in the real economy, not changes in the way the statistics are computed.
I wonder why the Newhour seemed unhappy that the economy might be getting better, or at least not still getting worse.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Hunt for Red October, or calling Sean Connery
Sunday pundits (the Mclaughlin Group) were waxing indignant about Russian submarine operations in the Atlantic. While I'd just as soon the Russians stayed in port and let 'em rust in peace, they do have a perfect right to steam in international waters. It's called freedom of the seas, and has been a big thing in US foreign policy reaching all the way back to Thomas Jefferson's administration.
Used to be, international waters started three miles offshore. We held to that standard for a long long time. Only in the 1980's did the US finally assert the right to control fishing for 200 miles offshore. Not sure if that included the right to exclude ordinary shipping or foreign navies that far out, but even so, the Atlantic is 3000 miles across, and most of it is still international waters.
Used to be, international waters started three miles offshore. We held to that standard for a long long time. Only in the 1980's did the US finally assert the right to control fishing for 200 miles offshore. Not sure if that included the right to exclude ordinary shipping or foreign navies that far out, but even so, the Atlantic is 3000 miles across, and most of it is still international waters.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Time to write your Congressperson
Two astoundingly bad bills, health care and cap & tax, are in Congress. Congressional mail is running against them, and the recent town hall demonstrations have made the popular opposition to these measures clear. If we keep up the pressure, we can defeat both of these two nation wrecking bills.
Write your Congressman a letter. Use a good strong lead sentence such as "Please vote against the Health Care bill". The letters are opened and read and counted by staffers. You don't have to be eloquent about why, just make it clear in the first sentence which way the Congress person ought to vote.
These matters are balanced on a knife edge right now. Just a few more letters will tip the issue.
It's worth a 44 cent stamp.
Write your Congressman a letter. Use a good strong lead sentence such as "Please vote against the Health Care bill". The letters are opened and read and counted by staffers. You don't have to be eloquent about why, just make it clear in the first sentence which way the Congress person ought to vote.
These matters are balanced on a knife edge right now. Just a few more letters will tip the issue.
It's worth a 44 cent stamp.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Tolerances, from Aviation Week.
The F-35 fighter (the latest, even later than F22) is having a few problems with costs. Some parts have having a 50% scrap rate, i.e. half the parts produced are out of tolerance and are tossed into the scrap bin.
Then we enconter this odd statement.
"The issue is not just producing parts that are within tolerance, Brig. Gen Heinz says, but insuring the variability within the tolerance band in minimized so that when parts are assembled the tolerance "stackup" is also within limits. "It's too early to tell" whether GE/Rolls will encounter problems."
Uh Oh. General Heinz doesn't understand manufacturing. Each part has a drawing, which calls out the dimensions, and the allowable tolerance on those dimensions. The shop folk work from the drawing. If the drawing says dimension "x" has a tolerance of + or - 0.005 inches, then the parts will vary by 0.005 inches. If the tolerance is tighter, the parts will be held to tighter tolerances. The shop builds to the drawing.
Tolerance "stackup" is a problem when the overall design isn't right. If all the parts in the assembly are at the limit of the tolerance, say they are all slightly oversize, they may not fit together, or require excessive force (a big hammer) to jam them together. The solution is to tighten the tolerances on the parts until the worst case will fit.
This in the principle of interchangeable parts. In the bad old days, parts were filed to fit the assembly. This required a lot of expensive skilled handwork, slowed production, and made it impossible to fix assemblies in the field. If the parts don't interchange, you can't cannibalize parts from a wrecked unit to fix another one. In this country Eli Whitney pioneered interchangeable parts way back in the end of the 18th century, and it is the basis of mass production.
If the F-35 requires "minimizing the variability within the tolerance band" before things fit, it's a good bet that parts don't interchange, they have to be custom fitted. Which is a bad thing.
Then we enconter this odd statement.
"The issue is not just producing parts that are within tolerance, Brig. Gen Heinz says, but insuring the variability within the tolerance band in minimized so that when parts are assembled the tolerance "stackup" is also within limits. "It's too early to tell" whether GE/Rolls will encounter problems."
Uh Oh. General Heinz doesn't understand manufacturing. Each part has a drawing, which calls out the dimensions, and the allowable tolerance on those dimensions. The shop folk work from the drawing. If the drawing says dimension "x" has a tolerance of + or - 0.005 inches, then the parts will vary by 0.005 inches. If the tolerance is tighter, the parts will be held to tighter tolerances. The shop builds to the drawing.
Tolerance "stackup" is a problem when the overall design isn't right. If all the parts in the assembly are at the limit of the tolerance, say they are all slightly oversize, they may not fit together, or require excessive force (a big hammer) to jam them together. The solution is to tighten the tolerances on the parts until the worst case will fit.
This in the principle of interchangeable parts. In the bad old days, parts were filed to fit the assembly. This required a lot of expensive skilled handwork, slowed production, and made it impossible to fix assemblies in the field. If the parts don't interchange, you can't cannibalize parts from a wrecked unit to fix another one. In this country Eli Whitney pioneered interchangeable parts way back in the end of the 18th century, and it is the basis of mass production.
If the F-35 requires "minimizing the variability within the tolerance band" before things fit, it's a good bet that parts don't interchange, they have to be custom fitted. Which is a bad thing.
Put AIG on Ebay
Yesterday's Wall St Journal front page mentioned that Wall St firms might get $1 billion in fees for breaking up AIG and selling off the pieces. That's one hell of a commission, to be paid for by us long suffering taxpayers.
We could put all of AIG up on Ebay for $10 or so.
We could put all of AIG up on Ebay for $10 or so.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Obama's cybersecurity person resigns
Wll, I'd resign too. It's an impossible job. We standardized on totally vulnerable Windows computers. With every computer on the net vulnerable to any highschool hacker, what can anyone do to beef up security?
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Why don't they?
Why don't car manufacturers mark the places a tow chain can be attached? The other night I managed to get the car stuck in a deep ditch, in the dark, in the rain. With the rain running down my collar, I'm on my knees in the mud, with flashlight, looking for somewhere solid enough to take a towing hook. Can't use the bumpers, the various plastic undercar bits ain't strong enough, and a unibody car has no frame.
How nice it would have been to see a proper sized hole, outlined in bright yellow, with "tow here" stenciled next to it. This wouldn't cost all that much to put on at the factory. While we are at it, how about giving the jack pads the same bright yellow treatment? Make a mistake locating the jack, and it will punch a hole right thru the floorboard.
How nice it would have been to see a proper sized hole, outlined in bright yellow, with "tow here" stenciled next to it. This wouldn't cost all that much to put on at the factory. While we are at it, how about giving the jack pads the same bright yellow treatment? Make a mistake locating the jack, and it will punch a hole right thru the floorboard.
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