Raytheon and Analog Devices make WSJ 250 best managed companies

Interesting and kind cool.  I worked at Raytheon, Equipment Division in Wayland in the '70s and at Analog Devices in Norwood in the '90s.  Cool to see that places I used to work are considered well managed by the Wall St Journal.  I was a little disappointed that Bernie Gordon's Analogic didn't make the list.  I worked for Bernie for quite a few years, he was a difficult and demanding boss, but he did know what he was doing. 

To Jerusalem

Looks like Trump is going to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  The US Congress voted to do this some years ago.
On the Pro side, the Israelis love the idea. A lot of US citizens are in favor.
On the Con side, all the Arab countries, who have never accepted Israel, are against it.  It will surely make diplomacy with Arab regimes more difficult in the future. 
   We could punt on the idea, yet again.  The Israelis will be disappointed, but they are on our side no matter what.  On the other hand, the Arabs are difficult to deal with no matter what.  Maybe moving the embassy to Jerusalem will send them a message.
   This looks like a judgement call to me.  I don't have any experience in the Middle East, so I will defer my judgement to those who know the area better. 

Gobble-de-gook overload

According to the Wall St Journal writing about the tax bill currently in a House Senate reconciliation hassle, "It appears to prohibit  mortgage-interest deductions for all second homes."
Appears???  This is a law.  Things in law don't "appear".  They are either legal or illegal.  Sounds like the lawyers have laid on the legal gobble-de-gook so thick that nobody can understand it. 

DACA

Delayed Action for Child something or other.  Bad acronym.  We are talking about people who were brought into America as children, who have grown up in America, and are still illegal immigrants pursued by Mr. Migra. 
   I have a lot of sympathy for these people.  I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack.  Those that have served in the armed forces ought to get citizenship right then and there.  Those who have graduated high school and/or college, are gainfully employed, are paying taxes and are staying out of trouble with the law, we ought to let them stay in the country, and apply for citizenship.  I'm sure plenty of other Americans agree with me. 
   It's a powerful issue.  Congress ought to deal with it by passing a law.  And, that law ought to stand on its own, for an up or down roll call vote so we voters can see where our Congress critters stand on the issue.
  Right now they are talking about hitching a DACA bill onto a "must pass" bill like extending the federal budget.  The idea being, that the must pass bill will drag the less popular DACA bill thru and offer cover to Congress critters who can say "I had to vote to pass the budget lest the government shut down" 

The Euro's are still bailing out the Greeks.

Small piece in the Wall St Journal today.  The Greeks and the Euro's have reached a "preliminary agreement" on the austerity measures the Greeks must adopt in order to qualify for E5 billion handout next month.  The Euro's keep insisting upon reduction of Greek government workers, and pension payments, and better tax collection.  At one time 25% of the population of Greece was drawing pay from the Greek government.  And humongous numbers of people were drawing pensions.  Every time the Greeks make a move, or even a whisper in the papers, about accepting Euro austerity demands, they get riots in the streets. 
   The E5 billion is down from the old days.  In past years the Greek bailouts were much higher, say E50 billion.  The Euros think the money will let the Greeks make the payments due on Euro bonds and loans.  Let's hope that works out.  The Greeks are having trouble making payroll, and so Euro bail out money might be diverted into other things. 
   We think the Euro's are doing the handouts to prevent the Greeks from defaulting on their loans, which would impose serious losses on the Euro banks stupid enough to still be holding any Greek debt.  So the idea is to dole out money to the Greeks to use to pay off their debts.
   Smarter would be to tell the Greeks to suck it up.  No more bailouts.  Go ahead and default.  You won't be able to borrow a plugged nickel anywhere in the world, and you will have to balance your budget.  
   Far as I can see, the bailouts just allow the Greeks to spend other people's money for no good reason.
 

How far will we go to stop the NORKs?

From getting nukes that is.  They are really really close to having nuclear tipped missiles that can reach the US.  The last test flight showed enough range, and then some, to hit Washington and Boston.  There are reports that the missile broke up on reentry, but they ought to be able to fix that.  Then they need to build a nuke small enough to fit on the rocket, a nose cone that can withstand reentry, and a reliable fuse.  I don't think any of these will take very long to do.  The NORKs could have it all together within a year.  After that, Katy bar the door.
   The NORKs want missiles to keep us from doing regime change on them, the way we did on Saddam Hussein.  As it is, they have enough conventional artillery within range of Seoul to deter damn near anyone, with nukes in their hands, they figure to deter even us.
   And the NORKs are dead set on getting nukes.  I cannot imagine Rocket Man backing off his nuclear program for anything less than the Chinese cutting off all trade with him.  And the Chinese clearly don't want to do this, they like having the NORKs around as a buffer state, and as a semi tame attack dog to let out to bite the Americans every so often.
   We could slap a good stiff trade killing tariff on Chinese exports to the US.  That would hurt China, and it might get them to cut off the NORKs.  The Chinese would not like it but we could do it.  If we have the stones.  Nobody knows if Trump would do this, and if the country and the Congress would back him up if he tried it.  I have not seen any Gallup polling on this subject.
   Or we could try straight forward military action, air strikes followed with ground forces.  This amounts to starting up the Korean War all over again.  Last time was bad.  This time would probably be just as bad.  And the South Koreans would take a lot of damage and casualties, something they certainly are not happy about.
   Or we could do the paper tiger act, keep on snarling at the NORKs but not actually do anything.  This would probably cause the Japanese, the South Koreans, and maybe even Viet Nam and Taiwan to go for their own nukes.  Which is bad, but at least these countries are all US allies or friends.  It would shake up the Chinese though.

King Solomon's Mines 1985

Some how I missed this one back in 1985.  It's a fun, lightweight African adventure story featuring Richard Chamberlain as Allan Quatermain, intrepid great white hunter, and Sharon Stone, American beauty searching for a father lost in darkest Africa.  Also has John Rhys-Davies as villainous Turkish war lord.  A lot of scenes put one in mind of/were ripped off from, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Lots of action, including funny scenes of African cannibals popping the lead characters into a giant cooking pot filled with water and sliced vegetables.  
   The title of the movie comes from an old H. Rider Haggard adventure story, published a hundred years ago.  It was a best seller back then, it's been mentioned repeatedly in other fiction stories, but I have never read the book.  I suspect the movie takes little from the novel other than the title and the names of the characters.  There were older movies of this title, one from 1937 and one from 1950. 
   All in all, an enjoyable flick.  Lightweight but fun. 

New Product Design, Winners and Losers

Maybe a dozen years ago Boeing and Airbus were casting around for an idea for a new aircraft.  Airbus decided to build the largest plane that available engines could hoist off the runway, the A380.  It was a double decker, four engines, seating 500 passengers.  Boeing did some market research and decided that more modest aircraft, seating 250-280 passengers was about right for the market.  After all it takes some doing to round up 500 paying passengers to fill an A380.  The Boeing plane, the 787 has only two engines (engines are the most expensive part of an aircraft), a very high tech "composite" fuselage and lithium ion batteries which gave a lot of grief. 
   As of right now, Boeing has sold several hundred, and has a backlog of close to 1000 787's.  They judged the market right.  The A380 has only one customer, Emirates, who has an order for another 42 A380's.  After which, the production line will shut down.  And as things are, Airbus is loosing money on every one they build.  Emirates (and no one else) is thinking about ordering some more, but they fear that Airbus might stop building A380's at a loss.  So they have not committed to an order. 
   Looks like Boeing's marketeers called it right.  The Airbus marketeers followed the Field of Dreams marketing plan (If we build it they will come).   Airbus has taken a big hit on the A380.  So big that they might not stay in business at all.   

CongressCritters want a tax hike without voting for it

New twist to the tax bill.  A "snap back" clause that pops taxes back up if the deficit gets too large.  "Too large" is not defined, so it can happen anytime.  The effect is a tax hike but Congresscritters don't have to vote for it.  Constituents don't like tax hikes which accounts for Congresscritters reluctance to stand up and vote for them.  They like this trick better, where they can cancel the tax cuts, pretty much anytime they like, with out voting for it. 
  This should not be allowed.  When Congress raises taxes, each member must take a vote, in public (rollcall) so we taxpayers can know which Congresscritters are taking our hardearned money.
   Speaking of the tax bill, I have been noticing some TV ads denouncing the tax bill because it will raise the deficit.  The ads don't have sponsors, I don't know for sure who is running them, but I suspect Democrats.  Might be RINO's.  I'm thinking we voters ought to ignore political ads that don't declare their sponsors.  The deficit argument is kinda bogus too.  It really means that Congress wants to keep on spending, that shutting down the gravy train is just too painful to think about. 
   The deficit could be reduced by better economic growth, and shutting down worthless programs.  Start with shutting down the federal education department.  Education from preK thru college is funded and controlled by state and local government and parents.  The feds just draw their salaries, they don't actually educate anyone.  Then shut down the federal Housing and Urban Development department.  Let the state and local governments do the work. 
   Those few ideas will do good things for the deficit. 

Sexual Harassment bags three more newsies today

Wow.  NBC fired Matt Lauer, host of the Today show.  That hit my FM radio this morning at 7 AM.  Then Garrison Keillor, who used to do the Prairie Home Companion on PBS  announced the Minnesota Public Broadcasting had fired him.  David Sweeney, a senior news editor for NPR, was also canned today.
  Three down in just one day.  Does not look like the sexual harassment crusade is letting up at all.
In these three cases, the accusations, and the accusers are still secret.  Could be anything, or anybody.
   Talk about a target rich environment. 

Lawrence of Arabia uses Facebook in the Sinai desert

After the horrible attack on the Sinai Al Rawda  mosque, Bedouin leaders in the Sinai have issued a call to their people to assist the Egyptian army.  This was posted on Facebook by the Union of Sinai Tribes. 
   Our culture is spreading.

Just how did the US Navy collide with two different merchant freighters??

I have done a bit of yachting in my time, various places, from the Chesapeake Bay up thru Maine.  When at the wheel (or tiller, same-same) you have to stay situationally aware.  You need to keep track of wind direction, state of the tide, buoys, lighthouses, landmarks, other vessels.  You need to know where your vessel is on the chart.  You have to keep an eye on the radar.  You have to stay in the buoyed channels lest you hit a rock or get stuck in a mudbank.  As a 30-40 foot vessel you have to give right of way to the big steamers,  who draw much more water than you do, and don't dare steer outside the buoyed channel.  The big boys find it cheaper to just run down a yacht than pay for the tugboats needed to pull them off a sandbar if they were to leave the channel even for an instant. 
   So just how did those two Navy destroyers manage to collide with freighters?  At what distance did the destroyer's radar pick up the freighter?  Who was officer of the deck?  How much real sea time did he have? When was a plot of the freighter's course and the destroyer's course made, and did it indicate a collision was coming?  At what range did the lookouts see the freighter thru binoculars and report it to the bridge? What did standing orders say about avoiding merchant traffic?  Were the destroyer's navigation lights burning?  Had anyone on the bridge read Admiral Dan Gallery's book where he wrote "Steer well clear of any merchie, lest he decide to liven up your day by ramming you."  When was any change of the destroyer's course ordered? 
   I haven't seen any discussion of the seamanship leading up to collision[s].  Probably the newsies are all landlubbers and  don't know what to ask.  And the Navy is embarrassed to say what went wrong.

Why I do my Christmas Shopping on line

There is more cool stuff on line.  Cooler than anything Walmart carries.  Littleton NH, my local shopping emporium, has been loosing good shopping for years.  It is down to La Houte's Sporting Goods, some second hand and antique shops.  Years ago, I would go Christmas shopping in downtown Boston, Washington street.  There used to three good department stores, Jordan Marsh, Filene's, and Raymond's.  The original Radio Shack, Lafayette Radio, Eric Fuchs Hobby Shop, a flock of good camera stores on Bromley St, book stores, jewelry stores, FAO Schwatz toy store.   The department stores had Christmas decorations, shop windows, Santa Claus, huge operating electric train layouts, and the department stores carried a lot more than just ladies clothing.  Not only was there cool stuff to buy, they put on a show for use shoppers. 
   All that is gone.  About the most exciting store left down town is a CVS pharmacy.  Boring.  So I thumb thru my stack of catalogs, fire up Windows XP, and start placing orders.  Plus the internet stores wrap it and mail it for you. 

How can anyone talk politics over Thanksgiving??

What is there to say, other than I Like Trump, or I Hate Trump?  That won't led to much of a discussion.  I am a news junkie, and I just don't have anything worth discussing.  Trump's first year hasn't accomplished much that you can put your finger on, let alone support or condemn.  Stock market is up, GNP growth is up, unemployment is down, wages are up a little bit.  All good things, but they might have happened no matter who won the 2016 election.  I like Trump, but I cannot point to things Trump did that led to those good things happening.  I like to believe that Trump's attitude and activity had something to do with it, but that's just a belief, I cannot back it up with concrete examples. 
  So what political can I say to all the left and hard left family members coming for Thanksgiving?  Particularly now they all have smart phones, and will summon up facts and arguments to support their lefty beliefs at the drop of a hat.  And now that politics is a religion that sees compromise as sin.
  Best to stick to talk about grandchildren, home projects, cars, the model railroad, the great windstorm that put my power out last month, recipes, wildlife (I have bears, wild turkeys, weasels, moose, deer about the place).

Wall St Journal opposes suit over Verizon- Time Warner merger.

Verizon, ($211 billion) wants to take over Time Warner (($79 billion).  The Justice Department is objecting upon anti trust grounds and is threatening (or perhaps actually has) file an anti-trust suit to block it. 
   The Journal, in an OpEd and some coverage in the business section, is saying that the merger in not anti competitive because Verizon and Time Warner are not competitors.  They offer different products and services, and so merging them doesn't reduce competition. 
  Hogwash say I.  They are both in the cable TV and Internet business.  Just cause their services have different names, it's still providing TV and internet. 
   Verizon is too damn big already.  Letting them get even bigger is bad for me.  I'm getting ripped off on TV and internet cable by Time Warner right now.  It got so bad that Time Warner changed its name to "Spectrum" hoping that a lot of Time Warner bad feelings might go away if they changed their name.  When last month's storm took out my electric, telephone, and Time Warner Cable, guess who was the last one to restore service.  You guessed it, Time Warner took two days more than the electric and telephone companies did to restore my service.   Does anyone think that a much  bigger Verizon would be any better?
   We passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act two centuries ago to limit the size and power of big companies. In the past, Sherman Anti Trust was strong enough to break up Rockefeller's Standard Oil.  They tried to break up IBM in the 1960's but wimped out in the end.  The last gasp of anti trust action was the suit against Microsoft over the browser wars.  Anti-Trust wimped out on that one too, which is why we still have Internet Exploder  letting viruses onto our PC's
   And all those "too big to fail banks" that Dodd Frank is so kind too.  If the damn banks are too big to fail, then they are plenty big enough for anti-trust action. And the humongous InBev merger that Justice OK'ed just this year.
   The Justice Dept should be encouraged to do some more anti trust work. 
  

If you are gonna do crime,you last longer doing it at home

Three dumb ass UCLA basketball player made the news 'cause they were picked up for shop lifting in China.  President Trump claimed some public relations points by talking the Chinese president (Xi?) into letting them off to go home. 
   Advice.  If you are gonna do a crime, do it at home, in a place you grew up, where you speak the language, where you have some connections that might get you off, where you know the hideouts, the fences, the cops, the judges. 
   Doing a crime in a foreign land, like China, where you don't speak the language, where nobody cares if you get put in slam for 20 years, where you don't know where you can hide, where you can fence stolen stuff, is just plain dumb.  You will get caught, and the locals will have no mercy on you.
   UCLA is admitting some real stupid students.  I guess you don't need brains to play basketball for UCLA.

Artichokes, a light meal in one pot

If you haven't tried an artichoke you are missing a taste treat.  They have a light, slightly nutty flavor, they are an honest green vegetable, of which we all need to eat more, and they are fun to eat.  Allow one artichoke for each diner.  They are eaten by pulling off the leaves, dipping the leaf in a little mayonaise, and putting the broad end into the mouth and scraping off the delicious edible part with your teeth.  The bulk of the artichoke leaf is stringy fiber too tough to eat.  You discard it.  BTW, never put artichoke leaves down a disposal, they will clog your drain but good.  After you eat all the leaves, you still have the artichoke heart to eat.  Cut the furry looking growth off the top of the heart, those are baby leaves waiting to grow, and entirely too tough and prickly for humans to eat. 
   Cooking is straightforward, put 'em in a pot, with a couple of inches of water on the bottom and steam them for 40 minutes or so.  Bring the water to a boil on high heat and then cut back to medium, enough heat to keep the water bubbling gently. Cut the prickly top of the artichoke off, leaving a round spot maybe the size of a silver dollar.  Before steaming them, drizzle some olive oil over the leaves and tuck some slivers of garlic inbetween to looser leaves. 
  One artichoke is enough to make a light meal, say lunch.  And they go well with anything to make a bigger meal. 

Will there be anyone left in public life?

After the sexual assault accusations finally run down?   They sank three newsies on Monday.  Who is next?  How many are next? 

Garage Door Opener goes crazy.

Got home last night and found my garage door wide open, wind and rain blowing into the garage.  I know I had hit the button on the door opener remote control to close the door, and actually seen the door start to close, before I had left.  I tried the close button and the door would start to close, get to within a foot of the threshold, and then pop into reverse, drive full open, and flash the garage light furiously.  I tried a couple ot times, no joy.  Since it was dark and raining, I just pulled the emergency release, unhooking the door from the door opener, and closed the door by hand.
  This door opener has a safety circuit, an electric eye that looks from rail to rail, and if the beam is interrupted by say a child, or a car, or a pet, or whatever, it kills the close cycle and opens the door all the way.  Next day, I heaved the door up by hand and felt a light feathery touch from a twig that was stuck to the bottom of the door.  So I took the shop broom and swept off the entire door bottom, and the threshold for good measure.  Bingo, that did it, the door opened and closed perfectly.  Must have been something stuck to the door bottom that stuck out enough to break the electric eye beam and send the door opener into it's emergency panic open response. 
   And a good thing too.  That door opener has been working steadily for ten years now.  I don't know if I could find the instruction sheet, or even the makers name, let alone a spare parts place. 

Beat the Press

They spent a whole hour talking about sexual assault, Roy Moore, Al Franken, and why they think President Trump deserves more heat over that tape that was dredged up shortly before the election.  Boring.  Probably they ran the hour long piece because it was cheap and easy to produce.
  The suits who run American media think they are running entertainment.  The stories they select are intended to boost TV ratings or circulation, not to inform the public.  The media workers are mostly Social Justice Warriors who see their duty as getting Democrats elected.  Only Rupert Murdock was savvy enough to realize there is a large audience for news without to heavy layer of socialist propaganda you get on the networks and even PBS.

Thor Ragnarok

It had decent reviews, the proceeding comic book movies with Thor had been amusing, and it's run at the Jax Jr is over today.  So I went to see it last night. OK but not great. 
   Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, and plays him fairly well.  They got Cate Blanchette to play the part of Helle, goddess of death, and general purpose bad guy (bad chick?).  I'm surprised she took the part, 'cause she didn't get much in the way of a speaking role.   No sign of Jane Foster, Thor's earthly girlfriend, played by Natalie Portman, back in the first Thor movie. 
   There isn't much in the way of plot in this movie.  It just drifts from fight to fight.  We have Thor going up against The Incredible Hulk, Thor going up against Helle, assorted armies of guys in armor carrying spears going up against each other, and various minor characters hacking and whacking on each other.  The Thor vs Hulk fight takes place on a distant planet, in a huge arena, packed with screaming fans, presided over by a sadistic, but wimpy looking nameless ruler addressed simply as "The Grand Master".  How the Hulk gets transported from Earth to this mysterious distant planet is not explained.
   Other features unexplained.  Asgard now has a civilian population, under attack by Helle, that Thor manages to save, loading them all onto a giant spacecraft, obtained by mysterious means.  Asgard used to be just the home of the gods, now it has a civilian population in need of evacuation.
   Thor has finally wised up about Loki, and out wits him a couple of times.  Thor used to be a sucker for Loki's treachery, in this flick he keeps one step ahead.  Although there is a lot of swordfighting, Thor and Loki both find automatic firearms convenient for clearing out snake infested areas.  And everybody, even Bruce Banner, can fly the numerous aerospace craft that turn up.
   If you like Marvel's Thor character, go see it.  If you are only lukewarm on comic book movies, you haven't missed anything with this one. 

Do I believe in battery 18 wheelers with 500 mile range?

That's what Elon Musk  claims.  He even has a prototype to show.   Of course he didn't demonstrate the range.  Cruising on the interstates at 70 mph such a truck needs 7-8 hours to travel 500 miles.  Which is a good day's run.  I think there are regulations, honored as much in the breach as on the road, limiting driving shifts to 8 hours.  In short that battery, if it lives up to spec,  will keep the truck moving as long as the driver is supposed to be driving it. 
Nor did Elon mention a price.  Last I heard you could get a conventional diesel tractor, new, for maybe $65K.  Can Elon even come close to that?  Who knows?  How long does it take to recharge? 
   On the other hand, heavy trucks have the room for a massive battery pack.  More weight just gives a tractor more pulling power.  And heavy trucks run a lot more miles in a year than private autos, so a small improvement in operating costs will pay off sooner.