Doesn't mean you are uninsured. You aren't uninsured until the cancellation notice takes effect. So sayth Allan Colmes, Fox News liberal gadfly. So all of us who received cancellation notices effective in January, we aren't uninsured.
Great. Thanks Allan for letting us know.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Picky software reduces dispatch reliability of 787 Dreamliners
The 787 has more powerful computers than anything flying, more sensors for temperature and pressure and such than ever before, and the software checks all the sensors and keeps issuing warnings to the crew when there is really nothing wrong. But the crew has to do something when the computers are crying "Failure". Especially, when the computer issues an alarm before takeoff, the aircrew will call maintenance to check it out before they taxi out, leading to late departures. Boeing claims a dispatch reliability of 97.5% which sounds pretty good, but it means that out of 100 departures, 2 or 3 will be delayed by computers crying wolf.
Any how Boeing is updating the software to make it less hypochondriac. They want to get dispatch reliability up to 99.2%
Dunno how we ever flew anywhere back in the '60s and '70s before microprocessors.
Any how Boeing is updating the software to make it less hypochondriac. They want to get dispatch reliability up to 99.2%
Dunno how we ever flew anywhere back in the '60s and '70s before microprocessors.
NSA snooping kills jet fighter sale
Brazil was close to buying Boeing F/A 18 fighters to replace their ancient F5E (1960's) fighters. But revelation that NSA was eavesdropping on Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and national oil company Petrobras has soured relations with the US. The fighter deal may now be dead.
Thanks NSA. Keeping America safe by throwing Americans out of work.
Thanks NSA. Keeping America safe by throwing Americans out of work.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Obama goes for the deal
TV news reports that a deal was reached with Iran last night. No details are given. What ever happened to "open covenants, openly arrived at"? (One of Woodrow Wilson's 14 points from 100 years ago). One suspects that the deal isn't that good for us.
Oh By the way. The right to enrich is the right to make nuclear weapons. Iran lacks any right to enrich, or to have the bomb.
Oh By the way. The right to enrich is the right to make nuclear weapons. Iran lacks any right to enrich, or to have the bomb.
Iran goes for the bomb
All the Iranians (or anyone else) needs to make a nuclear bomb, is enough fissionable material, either 90% uranium 235 or plutonium. U235 occurs in nature. 0.7% of natural uranium is the fissionable U235, the rest is stable U238 which won't make a bomb. Plutonium does not occur in nature, it has to be made in a nuclear reactor.
The Iranians have built up a huge battery of 19,000 centrifuges to separate the fissionable U235 from the inert U238. They have been running the centrifuges long enough to create tons of uranium enriched to 20%. Concentrating from 20% to 90% is easier than what they have already done, concentrating from 0.7% to 20%. Iran is withing spitting distance of the bomb.
The last thing the world needs is nuclear weapons in the hands of Iranian crazies.
So, as the Iranians moved closer to the bomb, we set up an economic blockade on Iran. The US Senate made it law. They can't import anything technical, not even auto parts, they can't sell their oil. Surprisingly, this is working. Iran is hurting enough to start bargaining.
Only the deal the Iranians are offering is "We promise not to make a bomb, and you lift the blockade."
Such a deal. And Obama wanted to accept it.
Fortunately the French were wise enough to reject this "deal". And probably the US Senate won't fall for it either.
The deal we want is "You Iranians turn all your uranium and all your centrifuges over to us, and permit no notice inspections of every place in your country. And you don't get to have reactors. After that is accomplished to our satisfaction, then we will lift the blockade."
If we let the Iranians get the bomb, their neighbors, Saudi and Iraq will build their own bombs. The Pakis and the Israelis already have the bomb.
The Iranians have built up a huge battery of 19,000 centrifuges to separate the fissionable U235 from the inert U238. They have been running the centrifuges long enough to create tons of uranium enriched to 20%. Concentrating from 20% to 90% is easier than what they have already done, concentrating from 0.7% to 20%. Iran is withing spitting distance of the bomb.
The last thing the world needs is nuclear weapons in the hands of Iranian crazies.
So, as the Iranians moved closer to the bomb, we set up an economic blockade on Iran. The US Senate made it law. They can't import anything technical, not even auto parts, they can't sell their oil. Surprisingly, this is working. Iran is hurting enough to start bargaining.
Only the deal the Iranians are offering is "We promise not to make a bomb, and you lift the blockade."
Such a deal. And Obama wanted to accept it.
Fortunately the French were wise enough to reject this "deal". And probably the US Senate won't fall for it either.
The deal we want is "You Iranians turn all your uranium and all your centrifuges over to us, and permit no notice inspections of every place in your country. And you don't get to have reactors. After that is accomplished to our satisfaction, then we will lift the blockade."
If we let the Iranians get the bomb, their neighbors, Saudi and Iraq will build their own bombs. The Pakis and the Israelis already have the bomb.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Death Spiral
For taxpayers that is.
TV talking heads worry about Obama care going into a death spiral. By which they mean only older and sicker patients sign up for Obamacare and the young and healthy won't. Which means the insurance companies have to raise premiums to pay the bills, which means fewer and fewer healthy patients would sign up, 'cause it costs too much. As the TV newsies tell it, the entire Obamacare plan would emit black smoke, burst into flames and make a big hole in the ground where it hits.
Don't you wish.
In real life, the insurance companies will cry a lot, and head to the White House for a taxpayer funded bailout.
TV talking heads worry about Obama care going into a death spiral. By which they mean only older and sicker patients sign up for Obamacare and the young and healthy won't. Which means the insurance companies have to raise premiums to pay the bills, which means fewer and fewer healthy patients would sign up, 'cause it costs too much. As the TV newsies tell it, the entire Obamacare plan would emit black smoke, burst into flames and make a big hole in the ground where it hits.
Don't you wish.
In real life, the insurance companies will cry a lot, and head to the White House for a taxpayer funded bailout.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Nuking the opposition.
Harry Reid decided to do it, he pulled some kinda magic and now the Senate Dems can approve Obama appointments by a simple majority, instead of the supermajority that has been required since Thomas Jefferson's time. Needless to say, the Republicans are pissed.
They been talking about doing this for a decade. I'm wondering why Harry decided to do it now. Is it cause he figures the Dems are gonna loose the Senate in 2014, so he might as well stack the courts with as many liberal judges as he can? Is it to give the TV newsies something besides the Obamacare disaster to talk about?
Harry must not care much about bipartisan anything. The Republicans are now mad enough to give the Dems trouble just for spite. And, when the Republicans do take the Senate, they have a whole list of crusty conservative judges to appoint.
On a longer term viewpoint, Harry has thrown the classic Senate mission into the trash. The Senate rules on filibusters/super majorities have been there since the beginning, to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Used to be, the majority had to have a lotta votes to jam anything thru that the minority hated. Not any more. Granted, yesterday's nuclear option only covered presidential appointments, but next week, we can go for legislation and Supreme Court appointments.
They been talking about doing this for a decade. I'm wondering why Harry decided to do it now. Is it cause he figures the Dems are gonna loose the Senate in 2014, so he might as well stack the courts with as many liberal judges as he can? Is it to give the TV newsies something besides the Obamacare disaster to talk about?
Harry must not care much about bipartisan anything. The Republicans are now mad enough to give the Dems trouble just for spite. And, when the Republicans do take the Senate, they have a whole list of crusty conservative judges to appoint.
On a longer term viewpoint, Harry has thrown the classic Senate mission into the trash. The Senate rules on filibusters/super majorities have been there since the beginning, to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Used to be, the majority had to have a lotta votes to jam anything thru that the minority hated. Not any more. Granted, yesterday's nuclear option only covered presidential appointments, but next week, we can go for legislation and Supreme Court appointments.
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