Domain: mediaroom.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to mediaroom.com.
Comments · 25
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Re: Wrong Again
Of course given the FAA is pushing towards more industry self-regulation, I'm sure Boeing would be jumping at the opportunity to ground their airplanes and bring into question the safety of their products, and the inevitable drop in stock value...
Funny you should say that
...."Boeing continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX. However, after consultation with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and aviation authorities and its customers around the world, Boeing has determined -- out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraftâ(TM)s safety -- to recommend to the FAA the temporary suspension of operations of the entire global fleet of 371 737 MAX aircraft."
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Additional sources
Since the alternative source link in the summary appears to link to an article about stock prices, here's some alternative alternative links that actually contain more relevant information:
- Boeing press release
- Gizmodo
- Washington Post -
Re:editor fail
Jesus you suck at being an editor, msmash
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Re:I don't blame them
But McDonnel Douglas did market it to the civilian market under the designation MD-17, and they achieved FAA certification for it in 1997.
http://boeing.mediaroom.com/19...
So my point stands.
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Re: Give it to the Iranians to run! O gave 'em nuk
The US had no legal grounds to keep holding the money. Continuing to do so would just make it look riskier to do business in the US. A LOT of that money is coming back to the US via orders for Boeing airplanes. That's almost 100,000 well-paying jobs.
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Re:Weak
So let's allow the monopoly and reduction consumer options, but we'll delay it's full impact for 5 years. This doesn't make much sense, except to the Judge, who will be getting one hell of a kickback in 5 years.
Read the whole thing, there are some gems.
One particularly expensive gem the requirement that they must roll out to rural areas and low-density housing areas under their own funds. These areas would be expensive for the state and the companies don't want to pay the bill either.
They need to provide up to 45% coverage for a bunch of areas, and offer deep discounts to anyone earning less than 1.5x poverty level. They need to support the Lifeline program (communications equipment to elderly and disabled) through their entire coverage area. They must support Ethernet for the last mile for everywhere they cover. They must pay to hook up k-12 schools and libraries up to the same ratio as their subscribers in the area. They've got about 1.7M subscribers in the bay area, Google suggests there are about 2.3M homes in the area, so roughly 70% of the population. There's several hundred million dollars they'll need to pay for supporting schools and libraries. Running all that cable and fiber to the more sparse areas will also be expensive. Some quick back-of-the-envelope estimates show they're looking at around a $2B-$10B cost for that. Yes they could afford it, but it will certainly sting.
Then this line could also sting: "Comcast shall take action to improve customer service including respecting customer choice and competitive choices, and meet the Commission’s minimum service quality standards as set forth in GO 133-C". The standards include timeliness requirements that comcast currently does not meet, so they'll be hiring lots of service techs and buying lots of service trucks to get them out fast enough.
From their response "some of the penetration rates and time frames suggested by the conditions are simply unattainable under market conditions, especially with populations that have been slowest to adopt broadband." Which is true. "market conditions" means never installing fiber or high speed connections to those areas because it is expensive.
So on the one hand it does grant them permission to merge, on the other hand they're looking at quite a few billion dollars on government-mandated action.
No, this is just like Comcast's advertising: What the big print gives, the small print takes away.
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Re:There's nothing to change
Please explain why a 747 from 1969 flies with the same engines and fuel, and takes the same time to fly the same distance at the same altitude as today?
Just about everything in that sentence is wrong.
A 747 from 1969 doesn't have the same engines as a modern 747, nor does it take the same time to fly the same distance. A 747-100 had a maximum range of 4500 NM, a top speed of mach .8 and burned fuel at an average rate of 15 970 kg / hr. The 747-400 which is currently in service has a base range of 6400 NM (and up to 8000 NM for the 747-ER, nearly double!), burns about half as much fuel per hour, and cruises at about mach .85. And the 747-400 was first introduced 30 years ago! I don't have the stats for the newest iteration, the 747-8i, but Boeing claims it will be "be 30% quieter, 16% more fuel-efficient, and have 13% lower seat-mile costs with nearly the same cost per trip" than the 400.
And that's without going into the increases in capacity, passenger comfort, and avionics that have happened in the past 50 years. This is just minor advancements on an old airframe; the biggest applications of advancements in materials science and aircraft design are for clean-sheet designs like the 787 or new military aircraft like drones.
The point of this article, though, is that the military-industrial complex's days of cozy, no-bid contracts and inflated vehicle costs are quickly coming to an end, not that we'll never be able to design better aircraft than Kelly Johnson's team did in the 1950s. -
Re:That ship sailed long ago
Westinghouse employee here. The AP1000 final design certification was approved in 2006, and the design (including the predecessor AP600) began long before that (mid 90s).
Toshiba acquired Westinghouse in late 2006. Prior to that, Toshiba had partnered with our domestic rival, General Electric to build plants in Japan. We sell Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), they sell Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs). They're pretty different.
Even now that they own us, there is very little technical collaboration between our two entities. If there's a technological connection between Westinghouse and Toshiba that predates any of that, I'm certainly not aware of it.
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Re:No, the BBC Changed the Story
If you use the wrong tool for the job, I call that failing. But it's not the tool that failed. It's you.
Perhaps you should speak to the company that sells the tool and advertises its use in military combat:
Raytheon's Active Denial System 2 provides military, civilian law enforcement, and security organizations with a truly non-lethal system that is optimized for situations where the use of lethal force may not be appropriate or warranted.
You know as well as I do what happened. The military took our tax dollars and dumped it into the development of this project under the guise that they wouldn't have to kill as many people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And now who is it going to end up being used on? Only you and me. No military value, surprise surprise.
Yes, the tool failed the purpose it was marketed, sold and purchased to fulfill. It worked in all tests and demonstrations except the one that counted. -
Mach 5 - Not Mach 6
Boeing announcement here:
http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1227"In its first flight attempt, the Boeing [NYSE: BA] X-51A WaveRider today successfully completed the longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight in history -- nearly three and a half minutes at a top speed of Mach 5."
My understanding is that it didn't reach the 300 seconds Mach 6 burn it was hoping for. 200 seconds and Mach 5 isn't all that bad though...
More here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/27/x51_first_shot/ -
Re: I work on SM3...
You mean the YAL-1 Airborne Laser, which just recently conducted its first successful test against a ballistic missile? Nope, guess that doesn't exist.
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Re:HFC
And now, with this study, we can state with a fair degree of certainty that the AMA was wrong. So now, hopefully, this will put to rest the question of whether the rise in HFCS has caused the temporally coincident rise in obesity in the U.S. (which was previously only suspected due to correlation) so researchers can focus on the more important question of why the body treats it differently.
But it won't. This isn't the first study that has suggested a strong causal link between HFCS and obesity. This one will be ignored by the nay-sayers just like all the others. (Note that some of those links aren't to studies, but rather to papers about the studies, etc., but the links in their references are staggering.) *sigh*
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Already Obsolete (Go Navy!)
The problem with the ABL is that it is a chemical laser based system and as such it is almost already obsolete in the laboratory. Chemical lasers have huge logistical problems and can only fire so many shots, and require huge space, which is why the ABL has cost a fortune and requires a 747.
The future really belongs to the Free Electron Laser, which is making leaps and bounds. If we were to wave the mantra of intraservice rivalries around, then one should say that while the US Navy has had an awful time actually building ships, they've pretty much been whipping on the US Air Force when it comes to both aircraft and lasers and missile defense systems.
Jefferson labs has pushed a Free Electron laser to 14kw.
And, the US Navy has Raytheon has been awarded a contract for a 100KW Free Electron Laser
http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1292&pagetemplate=release
And indeed, some are noting that it will soon be possible to carry these things in the nose of a fighter aircraft, not just a 747.
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Press Release
Movies, TV Episodes Streamed Instantly From Netflix Headed to Nintendo’s Wii Console This Spring
Millions of U.S. Wii Owners Will Have the Opportunity to Access the World’s Largest Online Movie Rental Service
REDMOND, Wash., and LOS GATOS, Calif., Jan. 13, 2010 – Nintendo of America Inc. and Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] today announced an agreement that will allow Netflix members who are also owners of Nintendo’s Wii home console to instantly watch thousands of movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs. Netflix is scheduled to go live on the Wii console this spring in the United States at no additional cost to Netflix members who have a plan starting at $8.99 a month, a Wii console and a broadband Internet connection.The partnership between the two companies will extend the reach of content streamed from Netflix farther than ever before, thanks to the mainstream popularity of the Wii console. Wii remains the fastest-selling home console in history, and reaches more consumers than any other device that currently supports streaming movies from Netflix. In December 2009, Nintendo sold well in excess of 3 million Wii consoles in the United States. Wii is the top-selling home video game system of this generation, and as such brings the Netflix experience to a broad and diverse mass market.
“Our research shows that 86 percent of all U.S. Wii consoles are located in the living room,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “The Wii console is the social hub around which friends and family members gather to play games and have fun. Soon both new and longtime Wii owners will enjoy the benefits of Netflix – and a variety of informational and entertainment options – by being Netflix members and connecting their consoles to the Internet.”“Our goal is to offer Netflix members as many ways as possible to watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix right to their TVs and to give non-members more and compelling reasons to consider the service,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. “Joining forces with Nintendo, which has been so immensely popular with consumers since its introduction, is a very meaningful step in that direction.”
With 11.1 million U.S. subscribers as of Sept. 30, 2009, Netflix continues to expand the ways in which its members can watch movies and TV shows streamed directly to TVs via a range of Netflix-ready devices such as the Wii console. Netflix memberships start as low as $8.99 a month, and members also can receive unlimited DVDs delivered quickly to their homes. At the same time, consumers continue to demonstrate a preference for Wii consoles, which offer tremendous value, whether measured in fun games, shared experiences or the suggested retail price of just $199.99.
To enable their systems to stream content from Netflix, Wii owners will need a Netflix instant-streaming disc for the Wii console, which will be available at no additional cost to Netflix subscribers. The free disc looks and operates the same as a disc-based Wii game, and the entire user experience will feel natural and intuitive to Wii console owners. Netflix members and Wii console owners can now reserve a free instant-streaming disc by going to www.netflix.com/Wii. Once available in the spring, the discs will be delivered for free by first-class mail.
When the instant-streaming disc is inserted into a member’s Wii system, an array of movie and TV choices will be displayed right on their TV screen. These titles will be conveniently organized into a variety of categories based on members’ personal preferences and will include popular genres, new arrivals and members’ individual instant Queues. Using the Wii Remote controller, members will be able to choose a movie or TV episode to watch from their instant Queues or pick one directly from any of the lists. They wil
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Re:High-Res Image?
Good idea! I'll try. But if you look at the image... http://boeing.mediaroom.com/image.php?id=2629
... it's already pretty blurry. I doubt that a higher-res version would contain any more detail. -
Wind power costs the same, with no nasty cleanup
At a cost of $5.85 billion, and assuming a lifetime of 40 years, an interest rate of 6%, this nuclear plant will have an annual mortgage of $389 million. With a nameplate rating of 1100 MW, if it runs 92% of the time, it will produce 8.9 billion kWh per year, so the capital repayments will amount to $0.044/kWh, assuming it doesn't go over budget. Assuming an optimistic cost for fuel around $0.005/kwh, this gives a total cost of $0.049/kWh, neglecting the cost of maintenance, waste disposal, and any risk of contamination or weapons proliferation.
Now let's look at a new wind farm. A 50 MW wind farm would cost around $96 million (at $1923/kW), which yields an annual capital repayment of $7.5 million (assuming a lifetime of 25 years). If the plant runs at a 35% capacity factor, it will produce 153 million kWh per year. So the total cost will be $0.049/kWh.
So, which would you rather spend $0.049/kWh on -- a nuclear plant that might go over budget, might leak radiation at some point during its life, whose waste will need to be carefully controlled and permanently stored somewhere that hasn't yet been identified; or a wind farm whose costs are much more certain and which comes without all those ancillary risks?
Yes, any individual wind farm will not provide a firm supply of power. But if a lot of wind farms are used, and they are combined with solar, geothermal and other renewable resources, they will provide a fairly stable power supply. There is also a lot of potential for reshaping electricity loads to match the supply of power (e.g., recharge electric vehicles when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining). And finally, if you must have a firm supply of power, you can convert a wind farm into a completely firm supply (at 35% of its nameplate rating) by spending about 10% extra and building rarely-used natural gas peaker plants ($634/kW * 35% = $222kW). -
Re:12 megawatts?It's actually 1100 MWs:
An 1100MWe design that is ideal for providing baseload generating capacity
I don't know where the submitter came up with his number.
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Re:Stem cells have been used before for heart surg
The cells that would be used are progenitor cells obtained from the blood or bone marrow,...
The word you're looking for to describe those cells is stem cells. But it wasn't the poster's fault. The poorly written article makes the same mistake.
Well, actually, they were progenitor cells, or at least that's what the investigators called them. http://americanheart.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=471
Stem cells are able to differentiate along different pathways, to become the cells that form tissues, such as the lining and structural tissues used to form blood vessels. But progenitor cells also differentiate along different pathways to become cells that form tissues. If cell A is on the pathway to cell B, then A is a progenitor of B. Cell A might or might not be a stem cell. Some researchers do refer to the cells that lead to specific tissues, like heart muscle, as stem cells. But people also refer to them as progenitor cells. The source of funding might have something to do with the choice of language.
Actually, I think it was a pretty well-written article. (Disclosure: I know Ed Edelson.)
But I don't think Edelson would mind the criticism. Good science teachers always want students to show off how smart they are and try to prove them wrong. Better to be cocky than stupid.
Don Ho had this surgery done where his own stem cells, extracted from his blood, were injected into his heart. He died soon after but his surgeon claims that the surgery was so successful that Don didn't recover fully before resuming touring and put too much strain on his heart and died.
Actually, there were several studies that infused heart muscle stem cells into damaged hearts, over the last few years. Some German researchers are widely regarded as the most aggressive, or the most irresponsible, depending on who you talk to. The problem is that their patients also died. As I recall, the treatment didn't do any harm, but it didn't do any good. (That was dumb luck; patients can die in these studies.) There was a good review article in Science magazine that I'm too lazy to look up. A lot of people thought that human trials were premature, and they should go back to the mice and get it working first.
The problem with mice is that they don't pay doctors' bills. The advantage of mice is that, if the mouse dies, you can always get another mouse.
The Harvard researchers went back to the mice, which is what they should be doing. The interesting thing they did was mix the endothelial progenitor cells with the mesenchymal progenitor cells (or stem cells, if you prefer). And they got it working in real, living mice. The vessels lined up just right, and joined each other just the way real blood vessels are supposed to. I'd like to read the Circulation article and see what growth factors they used (probably VEGF and some other stuff).
To put this in context, it's important to realize that circulatory heart disease damages blood vessels, which then damages heart muscle. These Harvard guys are repairing blood vessels. Other people are working on heart muscle.
Here's the Bishchoff lab http://chbresearch.org/bischoff/research/index.htm
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Re:Monsanto...
According to a recent Monsanto news release, they do not use "Terminator" technology.
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Has been known since June.
Death of Sys Admin Magazine was quietly announced on june 13. by the parent company, CMP, in a subsentence.
http://cmp.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1722
A few days later, I got a polite letter saying they wouldn't be needing the article I'd proposed for publication. -
Re:Obligatory Conspiracy
Sorry, there's no conspiracy. Blockbuster separated from Viacom in 2004. http://blockbuster.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=pres
s _releases&item=571 -
HmmmFTFA:
Cingular will allow people to download music to compatible phones for free, although consumers will pay a monthly charge in the range of $15 for the ability to download songs from those services to a portable music player. "
Then you go to their press release and realize that they're not just talking about one monthly fee, but a whole bunch of monthly subscriptions. Napster for $14.95/mo, yahoo! for $11.99/mo, emusicgives you 50 songs free (what kind of songs?), and XM satellite for $8.99 a mo. A full load costs almost as much as your plan...
The one redeeming quality seems to be that it doesn't add cingular DRM on top of Napster and Yahoo DRM - they're willing to share your blood\h\h\h\h\hmoney instead of adding their own tap. As with all DRM services, the scary part seems to be this quote:
"Right now, we're focused on getting people to view mobile music as something that's interesting and exciting. You've got to build a base. Once you do that, there are all sorts of ways to drive revenue from it," says Jim Ryan, vice-president of consumer data services at Cingular.
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Iridium and Raytheon Provide First Responders
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Re:slow news...
Actually that story was also slow news . . . http://officemax.mediaroom.com/index.php/press_re
l eases/47 . . . since it looks like the OfficeMax press release was back on May 26th. -
Re:They're trying to get it done quick.Fortunately, I'm a cable subscriber, so I'm not too worried about any direct effects...yet. However, BellSouth's position on net neutrality isn't much better than AT&T's. They start by proclaiming themselves strong supporters of net neutrality, then go on to define exceptions to that support:
However, BellSouth opposes those proponents of net neutrality who seek to render DSL service as nothing more than a "dumb pipe." Under BellSouth's view of net neutrality, the essential consumer protection is clear disclosure in the service plan agreement...Broadband networks providers should be able to manage bandwidth...[and] should be able to curb network usage (such as peer-to-peer file sharing) that consumes a disproportionate amount of bandwidth and may adversely impact other network users....Broadband network providers should be able to offer different plans that feature enhanced levels of service or that promote their own brand names and products or the services of selected vendors. For example, BellSouth should be able to enter into arrangements with content providers by which the content provider pays for special treatment, such as preferential listing or faster downloads from that provider's website or receiving a higher quality of service. (emphasis and length-editing mine)