Category: Business

Ultimate corporate remedy for 737 MAX safety woes – change the name!

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The first of the 737 MAXs ordered by low-cost carrier VietJet have just rolled out of Boeing’s paint shop…in mid-December. But you wouldn’t know it. VietJet has a very large order placed with Boeing for the 737 MAX and those orders were signed off on in a blaze of publicity. But there’s barely a squeak from the airline now as the first 737 MAXs in VietJet colors are parked at Boeing’s storage facilities in the USA. Indeed, it seems VietJet is very keen to downplay its ties with the 737 MAX.

…The usual telltale signage that denotes what type of aircraft a passenger might be flying on is missing. Instead, the airline’s branding dominates, and the 737 MAX 8 name is replaced with 737-8.


Here’s Ryanair’s contribution to the charade — the 737-8200

There are rumors online, today, that other big buyers of the model have officially – albeit not publicly – asked Boeing to make a change in designation of the 737-MAX. The wheels spin round and round and what comes out is just another propaganda stunt instead of material solutions to mediocre design.

Region by region, switch to renewable energy continues

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Tri-State Generation and Transmission, the power supplier for Southwest Colorado, announced Wednesday it plans to build solar arrays in the region as part of a larger plan to replace coal-fired power plants in Colorado and New Mexico.

Tri-State announced last week it plans to close the Escalante Station near Prewitt, New Mexico, by the end of 2020 and the Craig Station and Colowyo Mine in northwest Colorado by 2030. The move will eliminate Tri-State’s coal emissions in both states.

To help replace the power produced by those plants, Tri-State plans to build eight new solar and wind projects by 2024, enough to power more than 800,000 homes, Tri-State CEO Duane Highley said. The projects will increase the percentage of renewable power consumed by Tri-State customers from about 33% to 50% by 2024.

The transition is expected to drive lower rates for customers because the price of renewable power has fallen by 85% in 10 years and is cheaper than any form of fossil fuel, he said. He described the savings as a “green-energy dividend” that will also allow Tri-State to pay off its coal-power plants on an accelerated timetable…

Way too much good sense at play here for the clown show in Congress and the White House. Can you imagine for-real leadership away from polluting 19th Century technology and into renewable energy sources coming from either of the two old parties?

Waste Management 3 R’s

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Called the “three R’s” of waste management, this waste hierarchy is the guidance suggested for creating a sustainable life. Reduce, recycle, reuse. You might be wondering as to how can you incorporate these principles in your daily life. They are not hard to implement.

And if Walmart can manage to do it, I think we all can.

Our weekly shopping draws from 4 stores. Each Sunday morning, we head out to the 2 with the best deals/prices [mostly] for our groceries and consumables for the coming week. This Sunday morning started out at Walmart – followed by Trader Joe. Just happened to notice these boxes on our way to the self checkout.

AT&T’s first 5G speed tests suck

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While 5G has massive potential, the only major effect it has achieved so far in the US is confusing the general public. That’s due in large part to ill-advised marketing strategies and questionable 5G “launches” by the four major wireless carriers. In the latest addition to this frustrating saga, we’re finally seeing speed tests of AT&T’s fledgling 5G network, and the results are far from impressive.

The results were posted to Reddit and reported on by PCMag’s Sascha Segan…not a bad result, per se, but it’s also roughly the same as the gigabit LTE speeds we’ve been seeing these days…a 4G test from that same area…came back with a very similar result. How could this be?…

…The 5G hype machine has promised a whole lot more than marginally better performance, higher floors, and slightly lower latencies, so it’s fair to be somewhat perturbed by these early results which, it’s worth pointing out, are the only reports we’ve seen so far, due to AT&T’s refusal to hand out review units…

Most independent communications geeks agree that what American consumers will have available after another year or two of disinformation and crap outright lies — will be roughly 20% increase in overall capability compared to other nations who are actually installing the real deal.

My only hope is that we’re not forced to buy the “upgrade”.

Big Pharma does love our money

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Leading drug makers rang in the new year by once again raising list prices of their drugs—this time on more than 250 of them, according to an analysis reported by Reuters…

The larger price tags applied to a range of medications, from blood thinners to cancer therapies and treatments for respiratory conditions, HIV, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.

Nearly all of the increases were below 10 percent, according to the 3 Axis analysis. So far, the median price increase is around 5 percent, though additional price increases could still be announced.

Don’t worry. They’re not doing themselves any harm. As of November, the 2019 inflation rate was 2.1 percent.

The Social Media group based in Cyprus and run by Russians

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” TheSoul Publishing…is one of the largest media publishers in the world

” We focus on the bright side of life, with our many brands and platforms offering an abundance of universally shareable positive content.

We make it our mission to engage, inspire, entertain and enlighten people of all ages, everywhere.

…..

” What the heck is TheSoul Publishing? I’m still honestly not sure.

” “Here’s what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers, it had the third-largest reach of any group of entertainment channels on YouTube in November—outranked only by Disney and WarnerMedia. It is run by Russian nationals and based in and managed from Cyprus, with U.S. operations housed in a shared work space in New York. It funds itself with ad revenues from YouTube and Google worth tens of millions of dollars. And in 2018, it purchased a small suite of Facebook advertisements targeting U.S. citizens on political issues—and it made those purchases in rubles.

RTFA. Interesting. Mostly accurate…though the odd mistake in Russian history viewed by an American can show up.