Model Airplanes

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — On the way home from his job at Boeing South Carolina, a young engineer stops to explain why he moved last year from the company’s Puget Sound operations to this rising counterpart in the South.

“I sensed the writing on the wall in Seattle, that most of the opportunities would be here,” the engineer says.

On his company polo shirt, the slogan “Made with Pride in South Carolina” hints at the positive profile Boeing has developed here.

The South Carolina site, which last month delivered its 100th 787 Dreamliner, has expanded from manufacturing the 787 to designing and producing parts for the 737 MAX and the forthcoming 777X. It now boasts a growing research center with nearly 400 engineers doing work that was moved from the Puget Sound region.

The site is a vital supplier to Boeing’s Washington state plants, with every 787 assembled in Everett including huge sections of fuselage from North Charleston.

Yet South Carolina is also a rival for future work.

Comparing complexes

North Charleston, S.C.

Employees: 7,500

Major work:

• Fabrication of 787 fuselages and interiors
• Final assembly of 787
• Propulsion systems on 737 MAX and 777X
• Engineering research. Corporate IT support

Jets delivered last year: 44

Puget Sound (Renton, Everett, Seattle, Frederickson)

Employees: 78,000

Major work:

• Final assembly of 737, 747, 767, 777, 787
• Fabrication of parts for

  Article source: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/inside-boeing-south-carolina-puget-sound-plants-rival-no-longer-playing-catch-up/

TEMPE, Ariz. — From the rooftop of Klaus Lackner’s seven-story building on the Arizona State University campus, photovoltaic panels seemed to glisten in every direction. The school claims to have more solar capacity installed than any other university in America — part of a plan to offset the carbon emissions of this institution of more than 80,000 students.

But the odd little box Lackner had come to check might someday take things a big step further. If it works on a larger scale, what’s in the box could make the university a negative emitter — more than offsetting the amount of carbon it releases into the air.

Lackner’s box is part of a new wave of technology aimed at heading off climate change. Such devices were considered a pipe dream until recently, but more and more, they are seen as indispensable. That’s because a goal

Article source: http://kdhnews.com/business/technology/arizona-state-university-researcher-takes-on-quest-for-negative-emissions/article_c0c01536-e273-11e5-8a81-971c69ebdb9e.html

One odd note jumped out at me in Amanda Taub’s impressive Vox essay on “The rise of American authoritarianism.” After a thorough and helpful summary of political science research into authoritarianism, Taub presents the findings of some polling informed by this research to parse “What authoritarians want” in terms of specific policies and goals:

Authoritarians generally and Trump voters specifically, we found, were highly likely to support five policies:

1. Using military force over diplomacy against countries that threaten the United States
2. Changing the Constitution to bar citizenship for children of illegal immigrants
3. Imposing extra airport checks on passengers who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent in order to curb terrorism
4. Requiring all citizens to carry a national ID card at all times to show to a police officer on request, to curb terrorism
5. Allowing the federal government to scan all phone calls for calls to any number linked to terrorism.

That list is pretty disturbing and, frankly, kind of dumb. The disdain for diplomacy, in particular, seems like a Neocon wet-dream. Let’s invade and occupy a whole bunch of countries, because Iraq worked out so well. This is especially unnerving given that the idea of “countries that threaten the United States” seems to be a vague, elastic category shaped more by nightmare figments of the imagination than by any actual assessment of meaningful “threats” to the safety or national interests of this country.

In general, this list of policy preferences shows there’s significant demand

Article source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2016/03/06/the-national-id-card-and-the-mark-of-the-beast/

___

Strong US job growth in Feb. helps dispel recession fears

WASHINGTON (AP) — A robust February jobs report showcased a resilient U.S. economy just as fears of a new recession had begun to surface.

Economic reports in recent weeks had fueled anxieties about a looming downturn: Manufacturers were slumping. Stocks had plummeted. China was slowing sharply along with other emerging markets. The rising dollar had crushed exports.

But last month, U.S. employers sent a clear message of confidence. They added a healthy 242,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate held at a low 4.9 percent, the government said Friday. The gains showed that the economy is surmounting its challenges without suffering much damage.

———

US investigates 420,000 Ford F-150s for brake failure

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government is investigating complaints that the brakes can fail on Ford’s F-150 pickup truck, one of the most popular vehicles in the nation.

Ford’s F-Series pickup is the top-selling vehicle in the U.S., and the F-150 accounts for two-thirds of those sales.

The probe covers about 420,000 pickups with 3.5-Liter, six-cylinder engines from the 2013 and 2014 model years, according to documents posted Friday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.

———

Federal probe of bid-rigging goes beyond Chesapeake ex-CEO

DALLAS (AP) — As advanced drilling technology opened untapped sources of oil and natural gas, it triggered fierce competition among energy companies to scoop up rights to drill on vast swaths of land across the country.

The rush caused lease prices to skyrocket in the most promising fields. In a few cases, gas companies responded

Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/business-highlights-37412795

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — On the way home from his job at Boeing South Carolina, a young engineer stops to explain why he moved last year from the company’s Puget Sound operations to this rising counterpart in the South.

“I sensed the writing on the wall in Seattle, that most of the opportunities would be here,” the engineer says.

On his company polo shirt, the slogan “Made with Pride in South Carolina” hints at the positive profile Boeing has developed here.

The South Carolina site, which last month delivered its 100th 787 Dreamliner, has expanded from manufacturing the 787 to designing and producing parts for the 737 MAX and the forthcoming 777X. It now boasts a growing research center with nearly 400 engineers doing work that was moved from the Puget Sound region.

The site is a vital supplier to Boeing’s Washington state plants, with every 787 assembled in Everett including huge sections of fuselage from North Charleston.

Yet South Carolina is also a rival for future work.

Comparing complexes

North Charleston, S.C.

Employees: 7,500

Major work:

• Fabrication of 787 fuselages and interiors
• Final assembly of 787
• Propulsion systems on 737 MAX and 777X
• Engineering research. Corporate IT support

Jets delivered last year: 44

Puget Sound (Renton, Everett, Seattle, Frederickson)

Employees: 78,000

Major work:

• Final assembly of 737, 747, 767, 777, 787
• Fabrication of parts for

  Article source: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/inside-boeing-south-carolina-puget-sound-plants-rival-no-longer-playing-catch-up/

Tony Atti gets frustrated when he hears people complaining that U.S. companies don’t make anything anymore.

As proof to the contrary, Atti points to his own Durham startup, Phononic.

“We make stuff,” says Atti, the company’s founder and CEO. “We make and sell stuff. It’s tangible. You can hold it.”

Founded in 2009, Phononic makes semiconductors and other components at its 20,000-square-foot facility on Capitola Drive in Durham. Of the company’s more than 100 employees, about 40 are involved in manufacturing.

Phononic has spent most of its short life developing its patented cooling and refrigeration technology. While the company isn’t disclosing its revenue now that its first products have hit the market, Phononic – backed by nearly $90 million in outside funding – has grand ambitions to become a force in multiple billion-dollar markets.

“We are daring to be big,” Atti said.

Phononic’s devices are the foundation for its next-generation laboratory and medical refrigerators, which the company began shipping under its own Evolve brand after Labor Day. (Although Phononic makes the semiconductors and other components in Durham, those devices are shipped to a contract manufacturer in China that incorporates them in the final product.)

Phononic’s technology also is being deployed in home refrigerators and wine chillers that will be sold later this year by Haier, a Chinese company that was the world’s largest appliance maker even before it agreed in January to buy General Electric’s appliance business for $5.4 billion. Initially, Haier will sell the wine chillers in the U.S. and the

Article source: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article64071817.html