Whither the 787?

It's pretty clear now that lithium batteries are molotov cocktails waiting to light off.  The anode and the cathode are separated by merely a sheet of plastic.  Any flaw, crack, or pin hole in the plastic and the electrodes touch, a dead short, and they get hot.  The lithium melts at only 350 some degrees, and molten lithium is as reactive as sodium.  Sodium is so reactive that it will burn underwater. 
  So what to do?  In the real world, the fix is straightforward, replace the lithium batteries with Nicads or nickel metal hydride, or even plain old lead acid.  And replace the battery charging unit with one designed for the new battery chemistry.  A few days of design work, run off some CAD drawings, write up change instructions, email them out to the field. 
  In the FAA and airline world, nothing is that simple.  At a guess,  the FAA paperwork, reviews, design studies, test procedures, parts lists, and plain old stuff, could take half a year.  Leaving the 787's,. Boeing's world beating new product, grounded for half a year.  It's already years behind schedule, and another 6 months delay might be more than Boeing and Boeing's customers can stand.  Watch for cancellations in Boeing's 800 airplane backlog.  And watch for new orders for the Airbus 350, which competes with the 787 even thought it hasn't flown yet. 
   Clearly FAA is hoping that something will turn up that will allow the 787 to keep flying with the existing lithium batteries.  Could be anything, a defect in the battery charger, a manufacturing flaw at the battery maker, an extra inspection every flight, some extra insulation installed somewhere, anything.  Otherwise, FAA will be under intense pressure to  get the paperwork done and let the plane fly again.  FAA (any any other bureaucrats)  hate that.  Plus remember that FAA is the outfit that OK'ed use of the lithium batteries in the first place, and nobody likes to admit they made a mistake. 

  

Hillary dodges a bullet

"We had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans.  What difference at this point, does it make?"

Well Hillary, if they are Al Quada terrorists you shoot them as they climb over the embassy wall.  If they are just teen age protesters you use tear gas on 'em.  I know that.  Do you know that?

And if Washington doesn't know who they are at this point,  it's a good bet they didn't know the night it happened.  Which might account for Washington abandoning our diplomats to an Al Quada mob who killed them. 

Questions not asked that should have been.
1. Where was air support for the consolate?  We could have had fighters overhead within an hour.  We could have had helicopters there inside of two or three.  Where were they?
2.  Where were the Marine guards?  Benghazi was so dangerous the British Consolate closed up and left town.  And we stayed put, leading with our chin, without a guard force.  A dozen US Marines probably could have held the place against any number of raghead terrorists.
3. Why were two US general officers relieved of duty right afterwards?

British to vote on leaving the EU

Hmm, getting serious.  The Economist had a cover story on this some weeks ago.  Now the Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced he will hold a referendum, sometime in 2014 to 2017, if his Conservative party stays in power that long.  The EU is not popular with the average Briton on the street, and everyone expects the referendum will be a massive vote to leave. 
    Trouble is, the bulk of British trade is with the rest of the EU.  As an EU member, it's all tariff free.  After Britain leaves the EU, it will have to pay tariff on exports to the EU.  And the EU is just chock full of underemployed farms and factories who will  be all too happy to offer tariff free goods. 
   And, scheduling this referendum so far in the future creates uncertainty which discourages investment.  Not exactly the best way to pull the economy out of Great Depression 2.0 
   I suppose we shouldn't criticize our British friends, but is sure looks like they are stuck on stupid with this one.

Ten degrees below zero this morning

No snow to speak of. Sun is out this morning.  Poor little furnace is working hard, on $4 a gallon oil. 

Kids get school buses in NewYork City?

Apparently the school bus drivers are on strike.  Long article on the issue here.
Question.  Why not have the kids ride the subway to school?  I rode public transportation to grade school in Framingham MA.  Surely street smart NY kids can manage the subway.   Settle the strike by eliminating the school bus service. 

Striking fear into Third World Sweatshops

Walmart suffered public relations disaster some months ago.  A fire in a Bangladeshi clothing factory killed 112 workers last November.  Piles of garments with Walmart labels were found in the burned out ruins.  Walmart had stopped doing business with that factory, but other companies that Walmart was doing business with subcontracted Walmart work out to the sweatshop that Walmart had cut off. 
  So, in today's Wall St Journal Walmart announced that it was posting a list of firms that it will not do business with on the Walmart corporate website.
  Wow.  Screw up and get yourself on the Walmart blacklist.  Worldwide no less.  Have the world's largest retailer publically blacklist your firm.  That ought to kill a lot of sales, in fact kill enough sales to put just about anyone out of business. 
   Lesson to be learned.  Stay on Walmart's good side. 
   Later in the article it is mentioned that "labor activists" don't think this is enough to curb bad behavior by third world suppliers.  What do they want?  Walmart can't nuke 'em.  Telling the world that the So-and-So Company is too sleazy for Walmart to buy from isn't enough? 

Blowing in the the Wind.

Drove out Tenny Mountain Highway (NH Rt 25 going west from Plymouth).  The wind farmers have been active, we now have shiny new windmills all along the ridge.  This is new, so new that not all of them are turning yet.  They are eye catching.  Probably not as ugly as a power line, but I wouldn't say they improve the view.
  And they raise my electric rate.  PSNH pays outrageous prices for "renewable energy".  And they get serious tax breaks.  And since you cannot count on the wind blowing, PSNH has to build real power plants to handle their load.  Which is the major cost of electricity, the cost of the generating plant.  Fuel cost is small compared to paying off the generators.