Scanning the used car mail box stuffer today, just to see what's what. We have one year old Cadillac CTS (the four passenger Beemer wannabe) for $30K. Whereas we have bunch of pickup trucks going for more. Used to be a Caddy was worth twice as much as a pickup truck. Not anymore. For real value, try a Chevy Suburban for $47K. Plain four door drive-to-work and go-to-the-store sedans, Toyota, Chevy, Kia, and Ford run in the $16-$20 K range. Used.
I wonder what will be available when my Mercury Grand Marquis wears out and needs replacement?
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
What should Republicans do about O'care?
Well, the House has tried to repeal Obamacare, repeatedly. That is kinda worthless. The Senate won't go along, and even if they did, Obama would veto the measure. Repeal just ain't gonna fly, at least not until after the 2014 elections, and probably not then either.
What about half measures? Repeal the most obnoxious features, or roll it back a year? What's in it for us? Obamacare has pissed off the voters, but good. It's eating into Obama's credibility, and clout. Why do we want to stop that? Let the ObamaDamage continue. Sit back and watch the fun. Pass the popcorn. Let the Democrats figure how to wiggle out from under. We ought to refrain from saying "I told you so", because everyone understands that now, and repeating it just irritates voters, especially those who voted for Obama the second time.
We should point fingers at all Democrats who voted for Obamacare and are running for re election. As in "You did this to us".
What about half measures? Repeal the most obnoxious features, or roll it back a year? What's in it for us? Obamacare has pissed off the voters, but good. It's eating into Obama's credibility, and clout. Why do we want to stop that? Let the ObamaDamage continue. Sit back and watch the fun. Pass the popcorn. Let the Democrats figure how to wiggle out from under. We ought to refrain from saying "I told you so", because everyone understands that now, and repeating it just irritates voters, especially those who voted for Obama the second time.
We should point fingers at all Democrats who voted for Obamacare and are running for re election. As in "You did this to us".
What REALLY happeded at Benghasi
The night the consolate was attacked, they sent a call for help. The US military started to respond. They didn't have troops close enough to send a rescue party quickly enough, but they did have aircraft. The aircraft were sent.
Before the aircraft could arrive, Barack Obama ordered them to return to base. Two general officers,Gen Carter Ham and Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, refused to abandon Americans to Al Quada. Obama fired both of them that night. For good measure, he fired two more the next day.
And that's why Obama has been stonewalling the Benghasi affair ever since.
Before the aircraft could arrive, Barack Obama ordered them to return to base. Two general officers,Gen Carter Ham and Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, refused to abandon Americans to Al Quada. Obama fired both of them that night. For good measure, he fired two more the next day.
And that's why Obama has been stonewalling the Benghasi affair ever since.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Time Warner broad band fails again
Dunno about those Time Warner guys. But my broadband has been dropping out about once a week lately.
Maybe Time Warner isn't paying it's Internet backbone fees? NSA snooping is crashing their computers? It's not the cable system, my cable TV (comes on the same wire) stays on line, but computer just cannot reach any websites.
Maybe Time Warner isn't paying it's Internet backbone fees? NSA snooping is crashing their computers? It's not the cable system, my cable TV (comes on the same wire) stays on line, but computer just cannot reach any websites.
Going to Mars on a budget
The unmanned Indian Mars mission, Mangalyaan, was launched for a mere $80 million according to Aviation Week. Whereas the next US Mars mission, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN for short), due to launch in a week or two, will cost $671 million. eight times as much. Granted, the Indian mission only carries 15 kilograms of scientific experiments, but still the difference in cost is striking. "If India can make the world's cheapest car and the world's cheapest tablet, launching the cheapest Mars mission is no big deal," quipped one Indian space scientist.
Mangalyaan has a long way to go. It will be 10 months coasting out to Mars, at which point it has to make a burn to establish itself in an orbit around Mars. We all hope that after 10 months in interplanetary space, all the equipment will still be in working order. Mars is a tough target. Over half the missions to Mars have failed for one reason on another, including missions by Japan and China quite recently.
Good luck and God Speed.
Mangalyaan has a long way to go. It will be 10 months coasting out to Mars, at which point it has to make a burn to establish itself in an orbit around Mars. We all hope that after 10 months in interplanetary space, all the equipment will still be in working order. Mars is a tough target. Over half the missions to Mars have failed for one reason on another, including missions by Japan and China quite recently.
Good luck and God Speed.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
No nukes is good nukes
Aviation Week has a series of articles about selected nuclear powers, the US, the Russians, French, Indians, and Chinese. Other nuclear countries, the UK, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, are omitted. Interesting selection that. Dunno what it means other than perhaps Aviation Week just doesn't know anything about the non selected countries.
They give numbers for the US. We are down to about 2000 deliverable warheads as of now, and sequestration and budget cutting forecasts a further drop to 1550 by 2018. Which is WAY down from the bad old days when we had 10,000 warheads aimed at the Russians. Minuteman missiles are down to 450, from 1080 when Minuteman was first deployed back in the 1960's. To my amateur eye, the numbers are probably enough to do the job, namely convince everyone in the world that we could reduce their country to a glow-in-the-dark parking lot if they were stupid enough to really piss us off.
They give numbers for the US. We are down to about 2000 deliverable warheads as of now, and sequestration and budget cutting forecasts a further drop to 1550 by 2018. Which is WAY down from the bad old days when we had 10,000 warheads aimed at the Russians. Minuteman missiles are down to 450, from 1080 when Minuteman was first deployed back in the 1960's. To my amateur eye, the numbers are probably enough to do the job, namely convince everyone in the world that we could reduce their country to a glow-in-the-dark parking lot if they were stupid enough to really piss us off.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Computers get the new jobs.
The computers have moved into vast areas of the workplace. Back when I started as an engineer, we made pencil sketches of our designs on squared paper. We took these down to drafting and drafting would produce gorgeous D size vellum drawings. The master vellums were kept in drafting, and Ozalid copies were made for production. Engineering change orders did not take effect until drafting had updated the master vellum and gotten the engineer to sign off on it.
Then we got desktop CAD. It took a while to catch on, maybe ten years, but then we engineers did the drawings with a CAD program running on our desktop computers, and the drafting departments just withered away. By the time I retired, there were no drafting departments. That's a lot of good jobs, gone.
When I started in the business, to make a trip, we called a travel agency to get the air tickets, the rental car reservation and the motel reservations. By the time I retired, the travel agencies were gone, and I made my own reservations at Orbitz using my trusty desktop. More good jobs, gone.
Years ago, when we needed a memo, a letter to a customer, a proposal, an ECO, an instruction manual, a test procedure or anything formal, we wrote it out long hand on a yellow lined pad, and took it down to the typing pool. They would type up a rough draft, we would correct same, then a final draft got typed. Each department would have a typing pool. In addition to typing stuff, they kept the supply cabinets stocked with paper and pencils, distributed the interoffice mail, and served as information centers. The head of the typing pool always knew everything and everyone. If you needed to know who to ask, or what procedure to follow, anything, the typing pool would know. Then we got Word-for-Windows with spell check and we began to type our own stuff. Again, the typing pools went away. Interoffice mail just didn't get delivered, there was no one to deliver it. More good jobs gone.
Again, way back when, companies had salesmen, who traveled to customer's sites and sold parts to the engineers. The idea was, get an engineer to design their part into the circuit, and your company owned that socket for the life of the product. We engineers were always happy to see the salesmen, 'cause the salesmen always brought fresh new data books, with the specs on all the latest parts. A salesman was an opportunity to replace your 10 year old TTL databook, with an up to date version. Then we got the internet. Companies posted the datasheets on every part they made on the web. We didn't need data books anymore, we could run off the datasheet on the parts we cared about on the office laserprinter. I don't think I saw a parts salesman after 1995. More good jobs gone.
I wonder what all those draftsmen, travel agents, typists, and salesmen are doing now.
Then we got desktop CAD. It took a while to catch on, maybe ten years, but then we engineers did the drawings with a CAD program running on our desktop computers, and the drafting departments just withered away. By the time I retired, there were no drafting departments. That's a lot of good jobs, gone.
When I started in the business, to make a trip, we called a travel agency to get the air tickets, the rental car reservation and the motel reservations. By the time I retired, the travel agencies were gone, and I made my own reservations at Orbitz using my trusty desktop. More good jobs, gone.
Years ago, when we needed a memo, a letter to a customer, a proposal, an ECO, an instruction manual, a test procedure or anything formal, we wrote it out long hand on a yellow lined pad, and took it down to the typing pool. They would type up a rough draft, we would correct same, then a final draft got typed. Each department would have a typing pool. In addition to typing stuff, they kept the supply cabinets stocked with paper and pencils, distributed the interoffice mail, and served as information centers. The head of the typing pool always knew everything and everyone. If you needed to know who to ask, or what procedure to follow, anything, the typing pool would know. Then we got Word-for-Windows with spell check and we began to type our own stuff. Again, the typing pools went away. Interoffice mail just didn't get delivered, there was no one to deliver it. More good jobs gone.
Again, way back when, companies had salesmen, who traveled to customer's sites and sold parts to the engineers. The idea was, get an engineer to design their part into the circuit, and your company owned that socket for the life of the product. We engineers were always happy to see the salesmen, 'cause the salesmen always brought fresh new data books, with the specs on all the latest parts. A salesman was an opportunity to replace your 10 year old TTL databook, with an up to date version. Then we got the internet. Companies posted the datasheets on every part they made on the web. We didn't need data books anymore, we could run off the datasheet on the parts we cared about on the office laserprinter. I don't think I saw a parts salesman after 1995. More good jobs gone.
I wonder what all those draftsmen, travel agents, typists, and salesmen are doing now.
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