deicer

If it were better, why aren't the Executive on the new plans instead of staying with the DB?

Yes, smart money. Investing in companies investing in renewables and storage has been profitable for me

Yes, until they need hospitalization. It will follow the same pattern as last time. Darwinism.

Isn't this following the same spread of covid? Prepare to get jabbed again...

I believe articles like that are being used to scare away small retail investors. The big money wants it all to themselves. The smart money is investing... https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240814473793/en/TEP-Will-Build-New-Battery-System-to-Support-Reliability https://about.bnef.com/blog/global-energy-storage-market-records-biggest-jump-yet/ https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Battery-Storage-Is-the-No-1-Energy-Investment-Playground.html

How to play basketball and lawn darts...

Test driving BYD, Nio and other Chinese EV rivals of Tesla (cnbc.com) It's the video.

Faster charging technology is coming. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investing/2024/08/13/zeekr-tackles-ev-range-anxiety-with-10-minute-battery-charge/ Zeekr Tackles EV Range Anxiety With 10-Minute Battery Charge By Peter Vercoe August 13, 2024 at 7:10AM EDT (Bloomberg) -- The race to end electric car range anxiety has taken a giant leap forward with Chinese automaker Zeekr unveiling a battery that can charge in just over 10 minutes. The upgraded lithium iron phosphate battery will charge from 10% to 80% in 10 1/2-minutes when connected to Zeekr’s V3 ultra-fast charging station, the company, which is part of auto conglomerate Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., said in a statement Tuesday. Range anxiety — the fear an EV battery will run out of juice before reaching your destination or drivers will get stuck in long queues at charging stations — is one of the main impediments to electric car adoption. That has seen hybrids gain popularity as the initial wave of EV purchases peaks, and sparked an arms race among battery makers for ever-more powerful and quicker-charging cells. The new batteries will be available in the 2025 Zeekr 007 sedan, with deliveries to begin next week. Even in cold conditions as low as minus 10C — when batteries degrade faster — the cells will be able to charge to 80% in around 30 minutes, the company said.

Happy Sunday!

Now that the weapons supply issues are sorted out, let's see what happens in the next few months.

I believe the possibility of that will come when Putin realizes that he is losing.

I think this is the most pertinent passage. We are just getting back to 'normal'... “I think the post-pandemic travel behaviors are over, where people were taking longer trips,” said Nicholas Jones, analyst at Citizens JMP Securities LLC. “The pent-up demand for travel has abated. We’re shifting back to normal prepandemic travel patterns.”

Two things to think of here... Ukraine is getting Russia to split it's forces. If they capture Russian territory, it could lead to a land swap.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10675060/air-canada-tgv-train-company-bidder-electric-fast-rail-project/ Air Canada, TGV train company join group bidding for high-frequency fast rail project Air Canada and French train operator SNCF Voyageurs have joined a consortium vying to build and operate a new multi-billion-dollar fast electric train between Windsor, Ont., and Quebec City. Cadence, one of three groups Ottawa picked in 2023 to submit detailed proposals for the future high-frequency train project, disclosed the last-minute additions of Air Canada and the TGV train operator as it submitted final bid documents to the government in late July. Canada’s flagship airline, which has historically opposed high-speed rail projects involving cities on its most popular routes in Eastern Canada and Alberta, confirmed involvement but won’t share details, triggering criticism among rail advocates.

With the latest update, they are saying the two could return in February 2025 with the regular crew rotation on a SpaceEx capsule. Can you imagine the conversation with their family? 'Hi Honey, I know I was only supposed to be at work for a week, but I'll see you in 8 months!' I feel Boeing is pushing hard to return the crew on their capsule to avoid the scandal of another failure. Why is it taking so long to say whether it is safe or not? The longer it takes, the more doubts would grow. IMO just have it return empty. If it lands safely, then they can claim they were right. I think even they have too many doubts though. Just to add, why is it taking so long for them to come up with a solution? Back in 1970 Apollo 13 engineers, with far less resources, were able to come up with a solution in hours to bring the astronauts home safely. What's taking Boeing so long? https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/science/boeing-starliner-nasa-astronauts-return/index.html Starliner contingency planning Officials said they had several return scenarios they are considering if Starliner is deemed unsafe to bring Williams and Wilmore home. One option is to launch a planned SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, Crew-9, with two astronauts on board instead of four. That would leave two seats empty for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on the Crew-9 flight home, but that would also make the astronauts part of the overall Crew-9 rotation on the International Space Station. That means Williams and Wilmore would remain on the station for an additional six months — the length of a routine mission to the ISS — pushing their return to at least February 2025. In that case, Starliner would be left to fly home empty. And NASA would then have to decide whether the data the mission gathered on this flight is enough to give the space agency the confidence to officially certify Starliner to make routine trips to orbit. Still, NASA noted, it is not certain that the space agency will need a contingency plan at all. “We haven’t approved this this plan,” Stich said. “In other words, we’ve done all the work to make sure this plan is there; we have the suits identified to fly up on Crew-9 (for Williams and Wilmore to wear aboard Crew Dragon). … But we have not turned that on formally, as that’s the path that we’re going to go down.”

63 days in and still no idea of a return date for the Starliner capsule and two crew people. https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/science/boeing-starliner-nasa-astronauts-return/index.html Boeing Starliner astronauts have now been in space more than 60 days with no end in sight Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — two veteran NASA astronauts piloting the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft — have now been in space for 63 days, roughly seven weeks longer than initially expected. There is still no clear return date in sight. CNN confirmed on Tuesday that NASA has not yet started a “flight readiness review” for the Starliner crew’s return from the International Space Station. The agency had said on July 26 that it would begin that process in the first couple days of August. But Boeing and NASA teams appear to be working still on a return date as officials evaluate testing data and conduct analyses about the propulsion issues and helium leaks that hampered the first leg of the Starliner capsule’s flight. The delay of the flight readiness review process indicates that Starliner’s return remains uncertain as officials work to come to an agreement on how the rest of the mission that had launched June 5 should play out. NASA will host a briefing about the mission’s status at 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. The US space agency is set to face a flurry of questions about recent reporting from media outlets suggesting the space agency is considering returning Wilmore and Williams on a SpaceX vehicle instead. NASA has always had such a scenario in place as a mission contingency, but the primary goal is to bring the two astronauts home on Starliner. Boeing maintains that its spacecraft is safe for astronauts. However, the space agency announced Tuesday that it was delaying the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, a routine flight slated to fly with four astronauts to replace the Crew-8 mission on board the International Space Station. Crew-9 had been slated to take off as soon as August 18 — with the expectation that the Starliner capsule would have returned home with its astronauts before then. Now, Crew-9 will not take off before September 24, NASA said. “This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test,” NASA said in a Tuesday news release.

They're still not inspiring confidence.... https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/business/boeing-ntsb-hearing-alaska-airlines-door-plug/index.html Boeing still doesn’t know who removed and reinstalled the part that blew off an Alaska Airlines jet Seven months of investigations. Nearly 10 hours of hearings. And yet neither Boeing nor the National Transportation Safety Board know how a 737 Max was delivered to Alaska Airlines without the four bolts needed to keep a door plug in place. What is known: Boeing’s procedures and training – by employees, and by safety investigators – has drawn enormous skepticism and criticism from regulators. That was on full display in the first day of a two-day hearing. The NTSB called a rare public hearing to examine the near tragedy on the January 5 Alaska Air flight in which a door plug blew out, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane – and in Boeing’s already battered reputation. The door plug was removed at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, last September so that problems with some rivets could be repaired. But the necessary paperwork for that temporary door plug removal was apparently never created. So when workers replaced the door plug temporarily, other workers were unaware that bolts needed to be reinstalled, said Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. But under questioning from the NTSB Lund admitted that it’s not clear who and when that door plug was put in place. That lack of information concerned members of the NTSB. “We don’t know and neither do they and that’s a problem,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters during a break in the hearing. To avoid the problem in the future, Boeing is considering adding a warning light in the cockpit that would alert pilots if the door plug moves even a little bit – well before it could blow out in the kind of accident that occurred on the Alaska Air flight. All 737 exit doors have such an indicator light in the flight deck if one of the plane’s doors moves out of locked position. But because the door plugs are not meant to be opened and shut except as part of maintenance, the same feature is not included on them. But that change will likely take about a year to implement, and should be available to retrofit onto existing planes that have door plugs. In the meantime, Boeing revealed it has a much more low-tech answer to ensure that planes at the factory don’t have door plugs removed and then reinstalled without the necessary bolts: The company is hanging a laminated blue and yellow tag on all door plugs when they arrive in the factory with with relatively large lettering that says “Do not open.” And in smaller font it says “without contacting quality assurance.” Employees raise concerns Boeing employees’ testimony to NLRB regulators released as part of Tuesday’s hearings showed employees questioned the training they have to do for initiatives like reinstalling door plugs and making other changes on planes. They also complained about a relentless pressure for speed, planes hitting the assembly line floor rife with defects and employees for suppliers at Boeing factories treated like “cockroaches.” Overall the testimony described a company in chaos with thin training and occasional confusion about who was doing what. All told the hearings so far paint a picture of a company that has yet to recover from a series of safety lapses that have left everyone from regulators to ordinary passengers rattled, lapses severe enough that the company has agreed to plead guilty to charges of defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration. Boeing faces the possibility of further criminal charges related to the Alaska Air incident. Under its announced guilty plea it will be required to operate under a federal monitor for years. Boeing executives and those from supplier Spirit AeroSystems did their best to assure the NTSB that they have made changes in their operations that will prevent another near tragedy from occurring. “We feel this will not be a recurring trend,” said Lund. She pointed to improved metrics and increased training and inspections that have taken place since the January 5 accident, and promised the changes at Boeing are permanent. “These things won’t be taken away,” she said. But she and other Boeing executives faced tough questions and criticisms from board members. “I just want a word of caution here. This is not a PR campaign for Boeing,” Homendy said at one point in the hearing, chastising the company for focusing too much on what has happened since the accident and not enough on the problems that allowed the accident to occur. “You can talk all about where you are today, there’s going to be plenty of time for that,” she said. “This is an investigation on what happened on January 5. Understand?” As part of the public hearing the NTSB released 70 documents running nearly 4,000 pages, chock full of disturbing statements from Boeing workers and other experts, including from the Federal Aviation Administration, about the problems at Boeing. Related article‘Cockroaches of the factory’: Workers paint a picture of chaos and dysfunction at Boeing Workers, many of them not identified in the transcripts released by the NTSB, spoke about being pushed to do more work than they could do without making errors, of problems on plane after plane moving along the Boeing assembly lines, with a large portion of them regularly needing to be reworked. The problems with the planes put the workers “in uncharted waters to where… we were replacing doors like we were replacing our underwear,” one worker told NTSB investigators. “The planes come in jacked up every day. Every day,” the worker added. ‘Lean manufacturing’ eliminates inspections One former FAA official told investigators that he blamed problems on Boeing moving to a “lean” manufacturing model to try to cut costs, and that it cut inspections as part of that process. “A couple of ex-Toyota managers were brought in to build airplanes the way Toyota builds cars,” said James Phoenix, a retired manager of the FAA office that oversaw Boeing. He said when the FAA demanded that Boeing restore inspections, “they complied with all of that, but slowly, very slowly.” Phoenix told the NTSB it took two fatal crashes of the 737 Max in 2018 and 2019 for Boeing to give in to FAA demands to restore inspections it had stopped doing. “That really didn’t change until the Max 9 accidents where it brought a lot of things to light. So you need a lot of leverage to get Boeing to change and then when Boeing changes, it’s very slow and it took a long time for them to really understand that their quality system needed to improve.” Lund defended Boeing’s use of lean manufacturing, saying it’s not at odds with the goal of safer, better quality aircraft. “We really believe in is the number one way to improve ‘lean’ is to improve quality,” she said. While Lund said Boeing is committed to making further improvements, Homendy said the company had plenty of evidence of quality issues and didn’t do enough to improve its practices until the Alaska Air incident. “Where are we going in the future? So we don’t end up in another situation… (where further change comes from) a reaction to a terrible tragedy,” she said.

Yes, it's gotten to this... https://www.facebook.com/reel/1154336452350090

I know it's expensive to keep them airworthy, at least it's going to be preserved in a museum!

Some background on the caldera. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/when-sleeping-giant-awakes/