Michael G. Frost: Oct. 2, 1950 – Dec. 31, 2016 – Whidbey News

Michael Gene Frost, 66, passed away Dec. 31, at WhidbeyHealth Medical Center in Coupeville. He was born Oct. 2, 1950 in Seattle.

He was the only child of Russell and Betty (Wakefield) Frost. Mike grew up in various communities around Puget Sound and was a 1969 graduate of Coupeville High School. He also attended Skagit Valley College and Western Washington University.

Mike worked in the field of electronic design, running his own business for the last 30 plus years. Before that, he worked with design teams at Phase Linear Corp. and was a part-owner of Trace Engineering for a time.

Mike was a man of great integrity and always sought out opportunities to expand his knowledge. In his career he designed many interesting and successful products for his clients. His kids called one of them the “Martian Light.” To quote a recent client, “He was always a source of brilliance and inspiration.”

Mike married his high school sweetheart, Mary Yake, on the beach at Ebey’s Landing in 1972. He was a loving father to their four children, helping them with school projects, especially math classes. He taught them how to use tools and accomplish a task.

Mike and Mary worked together in the family business in Stanwood, later moving back to Whidbey, where they have lived for the last 27 years.

As a young man, Mike loved building and flying radio-controlled model airplanes. He was an enthusiastic bicyclist for a time. He could build or fix just about anything.

With a little help from family, he built

Article source: http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/obituaries/michael-g-frost-oct-2-1950-dec-31-2016/

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Boeing jet sales fell by 100 last year, but outdelivered Airbus

Boeing delivered 748 jets last year, 14 fewer than in 2015 but still enough to leave it well ahead of rival Airbus in 2016 production.

However, overall sales for the year slumped despite a year-end rush that saw the company book 202 net orders in December, according to data released Friday.

Boeing’s final 2016 tally was 668 net orders, exactly 100 fewer jets sold than in the previous year.

In a message to employees Friday, the new chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Kevin McAlister, also listed the successful achievement of a series of milestones during the year.

He cited the first flight of the 737 MAX and its international debut at the Farnborough Airshow; the delivery of the 500th 787 Dreamliner and the start in South Carolina of final assembly of the latest Dreamliner model, the 787-10; and the opening of the 777X Composite Wing Center in Everett.

At list prices, the total value of Boeing’s 2016 net orders was $94 billion. According to market-pricing data from aircraft-valuation firm Avitas, the real value after standard sales discounts is estimated at about $44 billion.

Because the sales total lags the delivery total, Boeing’s backlog of unfilled orders drops by 80, the first time it’s fallen in seven years.

Airbus won’t release its corresponding order and delivery figures until next week, but at the end of November its deliveries lagged Boeing’s by more

Article source: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-sold-100-fewer-jets-last-year-but-it-outdelivered-airbus/

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Mr. President, Cancel the F-35

Our incoming president’s willingness to boldly challenge the status quo is arguably the main reason he was elected. And no defense project is more representative of a disastrous status quo than the 20-year-old Joint Strike Fighter program — the F-35. The F-35 program showcases all that is wrong about our military’s vendor-dominated, crony-capitalist procurement system. Unless dealt with decisively, its massive cost and its lack of capability will have a dramatically negative impact on our military’s effectiveness for decades to come.

Therefore, President-elect Trump’s willingness to publicly call out this $1.5 trillion program is good news. However, getting involved in negotiating a better price on incomplete, crippled fighters will not save taxpayers any money in the long run — because the prices being negotiated between Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon are prices designed to fool the public about the F-35’s true costs. Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon both know that any “discount” or price reduction negotiated in public will quickly be made up on the back-end, where a plethora of upgrades, airframe life-extension programs, and uber-expensive spare-parts purchases over the life of the program will easily generate over $200 million for each plane delivered. Consequently, if Trump expends presidential prestige to save a few percent off the top, it won’t solve the underlying problem. Instead, he will only validate a failed program that is a big part of the swamp he is eager to drain as part of his plan to restore our depleted military.

In place of counter-productive price

Article source: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443612/f-35-donald-trump-should-cancel-failed-f-35-fighter-jet-program

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Boeing jet sales fell by 100 last year, but it outdelivered Airbus

Boeing delivered 748 jets last year, 14 fewer than in 2015 but still enough to leave it well ahead of rival Airbus in 2016 production.

However, overall sales for the year slumped despite a year-end rush that saw it book 202 net orders in December, according to data released Friday.

Boeing’s final 2016 tally was 668 net orders, exactly 100 fewer jets sold than in the previous year.

In a message to employees Friday, the new chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Kevin McAlister, also listed the successful achievement of a series of milestones during the year.

He cited the first flight of the 737 MAX and its international debut at the Farnborough Airshow; the delivery of the 500th 787 Dreamliner and in South Carolina the start of final assembly of the latest Dreamliner model, the 787-10; and the opening of the 777X Composite Wing Center in Everett.

At list prices the total value of Boeing’s 2016 net orders was $94 billion. According to market pricing data from aircraft valuation firm Avitas, the real value after standard sales discounts is estimated at about $44 billion.

The fact that the 668 jet sales total lags the 748 jet delivery total means that Boeing’s backlog of unfilled orders drops by 80, the first time it’s fallen in seven years.

Airbus won’t release its corresponding order and delivery figures until next week, but as of the end of November

Article source: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-sold-100-fewer-jets-last-year-but-it-outdelivered-airbus/

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Boeing to Supply 75 737 MAX 8 Jets to GE Capital Aviation

Leading commercial aircraft maker The Boeing Company BA received an order for the 737 MAX 8 airplanes from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric GE .

Details of the Deal

The value of 75 737 MAX 8 airplanes at current list prices is nearly $8.25 billion. However, it goes without saying that the General Electric unit will enjoy a substantial discount on this amount.

The new jets are intended to help GECAS meet customer demand with innovative technology, fuel efficiency and high reliability.

Single Aisle Aircraft in Demand

Over the next 20 years, Boeing envisions demand for over 39,620 airplanes, valued at more than $5.9 trillion. Single-aisle airplanes will comprise nearly 70.6% of the new deliveries, with airlines requiring over 28,140 jets of this category.

Although Boeing, with its 737 MAX model, is expected to grab a major share of the new orders, Airbus Group SE’s EADSY A320neo is expected to pose a significant competitive challenge.

Boeing 737 is one of the best-selling planes in the single-aisle market, primarily due to its fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. To maintain its dominance in the commercial aerospace market, Boeing continues to invest in research and development to upgrade and churn out upgraded versions of its existing models.

Article source: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/boeing-to-supply-75-737-max-8-jets-to-ge-capital-aviation-cm729740

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Why car and tech companies have different visions for self-driving cars

For much of the 2010s, Google was the only company putting serious resources into the technology underpinning self-driving cars. That started to change in 2016, as almost every major automaker announced technology partnerships to develop their self-driving capabilities.

In 2017, we’re going to start to see the fruits of those announcements on our streets. By the end of the year, there will be a lot more self-driving car prototypes on the streets of cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Austin. And a lot of them are pursuing a vision for self-driving vehicles that’s different from that of Google, long seen as the technology leader.

Most car companies expect to develop self-driving capabilities gradually over time, with software gradually taking over human capabilities. In contrast, Google (like Uber, which started testing self-driving cars last year) hopes to come out of the gate with fully automated vehicles, which would open the door to their use in ride-hailing services.

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, almost every major carmaker announced plans to accelerate its self-driving car efforts. Many showed off their latest prototypes, and some announced new partnerships. And almost all are vowing to have their cars on public streets before the end of the year. The big question facing many of them, however, is whether the gradualist approach they’ve chosen is the right one.

Car companies love the gradualist approach

Fiat Chrysler’s concept car, unveiled at CES, is electric, self-driving, and aimed

Article source: http://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/1/5/14170046/ces-self-driving-cars

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ISIL’s Virtual Planners: A Critical Terrorist Innovation

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On December 19, Anis Amri plowed a hijacked truck through the Christmas market in one of Berlin’s main public squares, killing 12 people. The following day, the Amaq News Agency of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) released a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. Although some characteristically skeptical commentators suggested that ISIL could just be taking credit for an attack to which it had no real connection, the militant group left no doubt four days later when it released a video showing Amri pledging his loyalty to ISIL’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Investigators also determined that Amri had communicated with ISIL operatives at least once, through the encrypted Telegram messaging app.

Although much remains unknown about Amri’s case, it bears many of the hallmarks of ISIL’s “virtual planner” model of managing lone attackers. In this model, operatives who are part of ISIL’s external operations division coordinate attacks online with supporters across the globe. Most of these supporters have never personally met the ISIL operatives they are conspiring with. Most of ISIL’s prominent virtual planners appear to be based in the group’s “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq, in large part due to proximity and access to ISIL’s top leadership. But since

Article source: https://warontherocks.com/2017/01/isils-virtual-planners-a-critical-terrorist-innovation/

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