News Miscellany

[specious_reasons]

The Seattle Times has a big article on the history of why Boeing is so fucked right now:
How Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout | The Seattle Times

The headline is pretty accurate. The company basically took a "stock price first" approach to building airplanes. It was idiotic on its face, but a series of Jack Welch acolytes thought they knew better.

Boeing executives chose to play hardball with suppliers and employees, they were anti-union and treated their skilled employees as interchangeable and expendable. They pushed airplanes through the manufacturing process to meet schedules at a cost of quality. They relied on outsourcing designs because they cut back on those departments in house. They chose to do incremental changes to existing planes rather than create new ones, even though the success and reputation of Boeing was made on building new planes every generation.

As a result:

Analysts project it will take considerable time for Boeing to restore its culture and regain anything like its former glory.

“Boeing’s delivery volumes are unlikely to catch up to Airbus this decade,” Melius Research analyst Rob Spingarn told investors at the end of March. “If Boeing does not launch a clean-sheet aircraft, it may not catch up to Airbus in the 2030s either.”

It's so sad.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

The Seattle Times has a big article on the history of why Boeing is so fucked right now: ...
The headline is pretty accurate. The company basically took a "stock price first" approach to building airplanes. It was idiotic on its face, but a series of Jack Welch acolytes thought they knew better.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver had an episode on Boeing recently, with largely the same "stock price first" themes.

Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, who were primarily known for military planes, and had a lousy reputation for commercial airliners — most notably the DC10, which had multiple accidents resulting in over 1,100 passenger fatalities. And look — was merging with the McDonnell Douglas areospace manufacturing corporation/murder emporium that Boeing CEO’s worst decision? Probably not, because he also — and this is true — married his first cousin, so the last decision I’d ask this guy to make is who it’s a good idea to couple up with.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Why improve the product when it would be cheaper to lobby Congress to do to Embraer what the last lobby did to Bombardier?

[specious_reasons]

OMG. I just had my favorite movie tainted by the presence of a child molester. The attacker of Drake Bell (and possibly others) was Scuz from Return of the Living Dead.

I watched a video that was an infodump on the awfulness exposed about Nickelodeon, starting with the accusations from the "Quiet on the Set" documentary series. The video showed the person, but I didn't recognize him because he had gained a lot of weight recently, but the video showed an earlier image of him, and then I recognized him.

The rest of the video was disturbing as hell. Nick seemed to allow an insular group of friends around powerful producers run rampant over the production of shows for and starring children.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

What to know about Vietnam tycoon sentenced to death in $12.5 billion fraud case | AP News

[Miss Shelby]

I heard a tipsy employee of the DNC let it slip that they're planning on replacing Biden. This is completely unsubstantiated and fifth hand news. But I wonder how he will take it if they do.

[Stephen Maturin]

I suspect he'd react much the same way neurologists would react upon discovering that REM sleep is the result of invisible bunnies wearing velveteen gloves masturbating us to completion as we sleep, which strikes me as substantially more likely than the replace Biden thing.

[Ari]

NPR editor Uri Berliner resigns, blasting CEO Katherine Maher : NPR

Angry old white dude resigns after being suspended for creating public drama.

He claimed NPR has a heavy lean to the left because,
•NPR heavily covered Trump's collusion with Russia but wouldn't entertain the right wing lie that Mueller found nothing wrong.
•NPR wouldn't report on dirt pushed by Trump's personal lawyer about the president's son right before the election.
•NPR wouldn't give the bigoted and baseless lab leak theory more coverage despite the number of bigots, himself included, who believed it the moment they heard it.
•NPR acknowledged the existence of systemic racism, in 2020, and he's still really on the fence.

So no loss for NPR.

[Miss Shelby]

I heard it's going to be the governor of Michigan on the democrat ballot in November.

[erimir]

The Simpsons Ralph Wiggum Quote Baby Looked at me...

[Miss Shelby]

Biden claims that when he's traveling through red rural small town neighborhoods, six year olds stand on their front lawns and greet him with their middle fingers.

[JoeP]

Surprised Miss S hasn't posted this one...

“Lost for words”: Joe Biden's tale about cannibals bemuses Papua New Guinea residents | Joe Biden | The Guardian

Biden spoke about his uncle, 2nd Lt Ambrose J Finnegan Jr, while campaigning in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, describing how “Uncle Bosie” had flown single engine planes as reconnaissance flights during the war. Biden said he “got shot down in New Guinea”, adding “they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea.”

“And they would find this kind of categorisation very offensive. Not because someone says ‘oh there used to be cannibalism in PNG’ – yes, we know that, that’s a fact.

“But taking it out of context, and implying that your [uncle] jumps out of the plane and somehow we think it’s a good meal is unacceptable.”

Cannibalism was practised by some communities in the past in specific contexts, said Kabuni, such as eating a deceased relative out of respect, to prevent their body from decomposing. “There was context. They wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky,” said Kabuni.

[Miss Shelby]

Biden Describes Seeing Sign That Says 'F Biden' And 'A Little Kid Standing With His Middle Finger' - YouTube

[Miss Shelby]

lol, yeah I saw that, too. Who amongst us hasn't lost an uncle to cannibals in New Guinea?

[Miss Shelby]

I guess some dude set himself on fire outside the courthouse where the Trump trial is taking place.

[JoeP]

Four taken to hospital after military horses break loose in central London | London | The Guardian

Four people have been taken to hospital after several military horses broke loose during a morning exercise and bolted through central London, colliding with vehicles.

Astonished witnesses described “total mayhem” as the runaway horses, including one white horse drenched in blood, ran through the rush-hour streets.

Two horses were seen running in the road near Aldwych. One collided with a parked taxi outside the Clermont Hotel in Buckingham Palace Road, smashing the windows of the Mercedes people carrier. One horse also crashed into a parked doubledecker tour bus, smashing the windscreen.

A group of seven horses and six soldiers from the Household Cavalry based at Hyde Park barracks were on an extended exercise in Belgravia on Wednesday at about 8.40am when chaos erupted.

[JoeP]

Blood-covered Household Cavalry horses run loose...

[Miisa]

Will they be charged as terrorists? I mean, the white one was clearly coerced by the others, but... terrorism.

[Miss Shelby]

Harvey Weinstein sex crime conviction overturned and new trial ordered | CNN

[LarsMac]

‘Vampire facials’ were linked to cases of HIV.

"Three women were diagnosed with HIV after getting “vampire facial” procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report last week, marking the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through cosmetic services using needles."


Well, THAT is certainly an attention-getter headline.

[JoeP]

Sword attack in east London this morning!

Hainault: Boy, 14, dies after five people including two police officers attacked in sword rampage — The Standard

5 injured I think, one boy has died.

Hainault isn't far from my London house, and Little Miss JoeP was there last week on some errand.

[Miss Shelby]

Is the Daily Beast currently thought of as a rag? I just viewed their page and it presents like a fucking tabloid.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by Miss Shelby

Is the Daily Beast currently thought of as a rag? I just viewed their page and it presents like a fucking tabloid.

I can't say that I've ever given much thought to that rag.
It looks pretty cheezy.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

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Farts to the left or to the right. Extra scrutiny to either based on the Mixed rating.

[Miss Shelby]

Whistleblower Josh Dean of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems has died | The Seattle Times This is the second such case in as many months. Not to sound like a conspiracy nut or anything but I bet Boeing employees are getting the memo to keep their yappers shut if they know what is good for them.