First Blog

The Hyperloop Elon Musk (i.e. Mr. Tesla Car) has received “verbal” approval from the government to build the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line to connect New York to Washington.*  Called a Hyperloop , this tunnel is a mere 204 miles long, as the crow flies. Basically, this means the creation of a tunnel into the earth of a very slight angle and linear, i.e. perfectly straight, to Washington DC. The length of this underground tunnel will be about 203.98 miles.  Not much savings there from the crow’s flight. The interesting point is this tunnel will, at its lowest point be 1.3 miles or about 6866 feet below the earth’s surface.  This is deeper than most oil wells.   So you take a trip on the new train in this new tunnel, and it gets stuck midway.  Will happen sometime. At this depth, the tunnel temperature has increased by 98 degrees F above the mean surface temperature.  It’s hot down there. All this implies system failure at this depth will be fatal.  P

Dateline, 3/25/13: The Strongsville, OH teachers on strike for higher wages. They have been on strike for several weeks. Students are being taught by substitutes.  The District's active goal is to make a deal with the teachers.   A bargaining session is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday, March 26, 2013) morning.*  According to Superintendent John Krupinski on the requested demand, his answer was short and to the point: "It's unsustainable and unaffordable."  True or not true?  Let's take a look.  I don't see what the fuss is all about in Strongsville, OH.  The unions are protecting their constituency, namely their members.  When all is said, the students are their product, and the school building is their factory. When has any union going on strike worried about their product or the factory for that matter.  Go union!  As long as they are producing a product of competitive excellence, they should go for the gold, the benefits, the job security, the

The costs of education are astronomical - and rising. Jobs lost to automation, a hot topic in the past century, have been lost for centuries.  There once was a job "purifier" in old England and other countries wherein the job holder would collect animal feces and sell them to tanneries. Until the 1920's (horse) harness makers made a good living. Then came cars.   Until the 1960's there was the job of elevator operator.  No longer as the vast majority of elevators are now automatic.   There are hundreds of examples.  Large categories of jobs have been lost only in the past few decades. Consider Auto Plant Assembly Workers Factory Jobs Farming Telephone Operators Cashiers Tollbooth Collectors Many are no more or a shadow of their former prominence.  What is the reason for these changes?  Technology is one reason and it figures high.  Some jobs just disappear because they were no longer needed.  Equally important is the cost of these jobs as c