Thursday, October 14, 2021

Arriving Nantucket


 


25 comments:

  1. Notes on the last thread. 😊

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  2. 'Gen Z' Only Exists in Your Head [Click] “The dividing lines between generations are a figment of our collective imagination.” Ayup.


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    1. Starting from the 1960s and continuing today, I have always felt there is a difference between people my age and Boomers. I get the impression post-Booers beel the same. I have no idea whether post-Boomers have any sense of distinctions among themselves.

      "The Silent Generation, born from 1928 to 1945, was an anomaly, with only 25 percent of survey respondents associating themselves with their label; perhaps people are reluctant to embrace the identity of being “silent.” As Louis Menand pointed out in a recent takedown of generational labels in The New Yorker, silent is a preposterous descriptor for Silent luminaries such as Gloria Steinem, Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone, and Martin Luther King Jr." I am reluctantly willing to accept the term "Silent Generation." For understandable reasone (Nixon's HUAC, Sen. Joe McCarthy) many of us did not become politically active until later in life. However, I rather strongly prefer the label "generation in the gap".

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    2. The alleged general experience of the "boomers" doesn't fit me, born in an out of the way place in 1946. I just can't imagine any members of the Great Depression/WWII generation whom I knew calling themselves the "silent" or "greatest" generation--they would have responded to that with a snort at least, and probably a scolding. I and my cohort were more strongly influenced by the Beats than we realized at the time, and the "beatnik" stereotype was largely a rubbish creation of the popular press. I simply hoped that my family members of previous generations could be proud of me--or at least not ashamed.

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    3. And this does go along with the idea that not only are we talking about very broad generalizations but that the lines dividing generations can be more blurry that is generally acknowledged.

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  3. Reuters: U.S. supply chain too snarled for Biden Christmas fix [Click] “Target, Walmart, and other big retailers promise to move more goods at night.” Great—all we need is more big rig drivers nodding off at the wheel.

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    1. Just in time was not just a manufacturing strategy to avoid the expense of storing parts and equipment. Retailers also relied on having more samples and fewer products on hand. Internet sales took off because they saved a lot of time. Even Sears no longer kept appliances on hand. If an order has to be picked up a few days later, one might just as well have it deliverd to the house direct from the manufacturer.
      Retail has been destroying itself for decades. 2003 was the last time I drove around to 5 medical supply stores looking for a transport chair and finally ended up ordering one online.

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  4. NYT: As Western Oil Giants Cut Production, State-Owned Companies Step Up [Click] “In the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, government-owned energy companies are increasing oil and natural gas production as U.S. and European companies pare supply because of climate concerns.”

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  5. ‘Sophisticated’: ancient faeces shows humans enjoyed beer and blue cheese 2,700 years ago [Click] “Austrian Alps salt miners had a ‘balanced diet’, with an analysis of bronze and iron age excrement finding the earliest evidence of cheese ripening in Europe.”

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  6. Boeing pilot indicted for allegedly deceiving US regulators over 737 Max [Click] It seems rather convenient to blame one employee; certainly systemic dysfunction was a large factor.

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    1. Boeing directors to face investor lawsuit over 737 Max fatal crashes [Click] US judge says shareholders lost billions after board ignored safety warnings about aircraft

      Boeing and FAA ‘gambled with public safety’ in run-up to two deadly crashes [Click] “broken safety culture at Boeing” and “gaps in the regulatory system at the FAA that allowed this fatally flawed plane into service”

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    2. 'Designed by clowns': Boeing messages raise serious questions about 737 Max [Click] “Internal communications from 2017 show workers referring to plane’s ‘piss poor design.’”

      I rather think I should prefer to fly on an Airbus or Embraer aircraft than on any type of Boeing.

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  7. I was just reading up on Boeing's Starliner launch vehicle. The feds gave them about twice as much for development as they gave Space X, and the currently estimated charge per passenger seat is (depending on numbers of passengers) two or three times as much as what Space X has confirmed they will bill. And Boeing hasn't yet managed so much as one successful cargo flight.

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    1. NASA says they monitored and guided Space X much more closely, assuming that Boeing, as a long-established commercial entity, could manage on its on. This seems to have been a bad assumption.

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