Topic: The unimportant news thread

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The so called "yield curve inversion" occurred today. (Long term federal debt is going for a lower interest rate than short term debt.) This has been highly correlated with the onset of a recession. The rational is that the long term interest rate is indicative of confidence in long term growth of the economy.

[LKB]

Regarding the recent accidents involving the 737 variant, l would also caution against hasty judgement and invite readers to (re-) acquaint themselves with the DC-10 accident at O'hare, American Airlines flight 191, which happened years ago.

From Wikipedia:

 " The National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB) officials discovered that a maintenance procedure was the cause of the accident. American Airlines mechanics had removed the engine and its pylon as a unit, rather than removing the engine from the pylon, then removing the pylon from the wing, as recommended by McDonnell Douglas. The faulty procedure was done using a forklift, which resulted in inadvertent structural damage. It was subsequently discovered that this short-cut procedure, believed to save many man-hours on maintenance, was being used by three major airlines, although McDonnell Douglas had advised against it.[76]In November 1979, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fined American Airlines $500,000 and Continental Airlines $100,000 for using this incorrect maintenance procedure.[76][78] "

Within hours ( If not minutes ) of this accident becoming public knowledge, widespread condemnations of the DC-10 and McDonnell Douglas had begun, which turned out to be largely unjustified as regarding this incident.

It may well turn out that Boeing are culpable in these accidents, but the disaster at O'hare serves as a reminder not to be hasty in our conclusions.

LKB

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I think the people whose job it is to investigate these incidents are being appropriately cautious. So cautious that second brand new plane went down under identical circumstances just a few months later, even though this model plane has only recently been introduced and there are relatively few in service.

As to our speculations on this web site, they are for entertainment value. We have no obligation to due diligence.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The treasury department imposes sanctions on North Korea, and the next day Trump announces that he has lifted them. The reason given, he likes the murderous dictator of North Korea.

This seems normal now. 

[LKB]

I think the people whose job it is to investigate these incidents are being appropriately cautious. So cautious that second brand new plane went down under identical circumstances just a few months later, even though this model plane has only recently been introduced and there are relatively few in service.

As to our speculations on this web site, they are for entertainment value. We have no obligation to due diligence.

Agreed. It's just that l was a fan of McDonnell Douglas & the DC-10, though it was not without its problems. And as some in my family have had connections with Boeing since before the Korean War, I'm finding myself hoping the ultimate fault will reside outside the company... but we'll see how things resolve.

LKB

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Agreed. It's just that l was a fan of McDonnell Douglas & the DC-10, though it was not without its problems. And as some in my family have had connections with Boeing since before the Korean War, I'm finding myself hoping the ultimate fault will reside outside the company... but we'll see how things resolve.

LKB

I suspect the airlines won't entirely escape responsibility, since if the pilots were sufficiently trained they would be able to recognize the problem and perform whatever arcane procedure is needed to disable the faulty control system. On the other hand, according to Boeing, a major selling point of the plane was that anyone qualified on a 737 was qualified on a 737 max if they took a self-administered primer on a iPad. I'm guessing that if the truth be known, Boeing will be found to be criminally negligent.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Think of it this way. Suppose you had a car, and it had a special safety system that detected the pressure in the two front tires and if it detected a pressure difference, it automatically applied a correction to the steering wheel to keep the car going straight. But if, say, the left pressure sensor fails, it goes berserk and turns the wheel hard right. This happens to your loved one, who plunges to his or her death off the golden gate bridge, desperately pulling on the steering wheel, fighting with the safety system.

The car manufacture tells you it was your loved one's own fault, because if he or she had read the manual your loved one would have known that all he or she had to do was type "ASSC-0" onto the car's touchscreen to disable the system.

You're satisfied?

[André]

The Seattle Times (home of Boeing) has its own in-house aerospace reporter. The following article is an excellent read and, as far as I can tell, quite well informed:


https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/failed-certification-faa-missed-safety-issues-in-the-737-max-system-implicated-in-the-lion-air-crash/

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The Seattle Times (home of Boeing) has its own in-house aerospace reporter. The following article is an excellent read and, as far as I can tell, quite well informed:


https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/failed-certification-faa-missed-safety-issues-in-the-737-max-system-implicated-in-the-lion-air-crash/

That's the same article I posted above (reply #2855)

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,6347.msg1207275.html#msg1207275

[Todd]

The Seattle Times (home of Boeing)

Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago years ago. 

The newest crash really hasn't tanked the stock enough to make it particularly attractive yet.  Turns out the two airlines with crashes didn't buy all the safety upgrades.  That means liability can be spread across multiple firms.  Good for Boeing shareholders.  I'd like to see what Boeing's E&O policies look like to get a better understanding of the potential hit to shareholders.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

That's the same article I posted above (reply #2855)

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,6347.msg1207275.html#msg1207275

Curious, that you both selected this thread

[Ken B]

Anyone hear about the church burnings in France?
https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2019/03/20/twelve-french-churches-attacked-vandalized-in-one-week/

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Apple "privacy" seems to be bullshit. Supposedly their iMessage system is end-to-end encrypted. But someone sends me an iMessage mentioning an obscure web site I have never visited. I confirmed this by searching my browser history. The next day ads for this web site are appearing in on GMG when I access using a different Apple device. 

[Ken B]

Apple "privacy" seems to be bullshit. Supposedly their iMessage system is end-to-end encrypted. But someone sends me an iMessage mentioning an obscure web site I have never visited. I confirmed this by searching my browser history. The next day ads for this web site are appearing in on GMG when I access using a different Apple device.

Interesting. I am assuming you did not visit the site; if you did there is an obvious explanation.
I suppose it could be that the browser leaked your history search. But if Apple is at all like facebook, they sold access to your data and lied about it.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Interesting. I am assuming you did not visit the site; if you did there is an obvious explanation.
I suppose it could be that the browser leaked your history search. But if Apple is at all like facebook, they sold access to your data and lied about it.

An obvious explanation would be that I tapped the link in the iMessage. I don't think I did, and I searched the browser history on the phone and it didn't come up. When Apple says iMessage is end-to-end encrypted I tend to think they are not outright lying. But I've read about apps being kicked out of the Apple store for saving screenshots. Maybe something like that. Or maybe the person who sent the iMessage had visited the site and it was correlated with me. (Our phones are often on the same WiFi network.)

In any case, any privacy on a smartphone is an illusions, by Apple or any other vendor.

[JBS]

If Apple does what Chrome does for me,  the mere presence of that link in the message sent to you is enough to connect it to the algorithm that decides what ads to show you.

At least, that seems to happen in Chrome.....

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

If Apple does what Chrome does for me,  the mere presence of that link in the message sent to you is enough to connect it to the algorithm that decides what ads to show you.

At least, that seems to happen in Chrome.....

The information was not in a browser, it was in iMessage. Apple claims that the two iMessage clients (you and the person you are exchanging messages with) encrypt the communications so that Apple does not have the ability to decrypt the data in transit. Presumably it is some variation on a public key encryption system.

https://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/

No one but me should have known that the web site was mentioned. It is not iron clad that the iMessage was sniffed. Maybe the person who mentioned the web site had visited it and the advertisers know that I have a relationship with that other person.

[Ken B]

The information was not in a browser, it was in iMessage. Apple claims that the two iMessage clients (you and the person you are exchanging messages with) encrypt the communications so that Apple does not have the ability to decrypt the data in transit. Presumably it is some variation on a public key encryption system.

https://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/

No one but me should have known that the web site was mentioned. It is not iron clad that the iMessage was sniffed. Maybe the person who mentioned the web site had visited it and the advertisers know that I have a relationship with that other person.

That is certainly possible, or perhaps he searched it in google, etc.
Remember too how psychics and faith healers make their living: people forget information they give out. How did you search your history? Did you search for a string match?

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

That is certainly possible, or perhaps he searched it in google, etc.
Remember too how psychics and faith healers make their living: people forget information they give out. How did you search your history? Did you search for a string match?

On Safari (both OSX and iOS) I opened full history and searched for a a string in the URL. It turned up web sites with the substring going back years, but not the site that was advertised to me.

I don't think it's likely that Apple is lying about the encryption of iMessage. More likely that advertisers are more clever than we can imagine in building up shadow profiles and correlating data.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Think of it this way. Suppose you had a car, and it had a special safety system that detected the pressure in the two front tires and if it detected a pressure difference, it automatically applied a correction to the steering wheel to keep the car going straight. But if, say, the left pressure sensor fails, it goes berserk and turns the wheel hard right. This happens to your loved one, who plunges to his or her death off the golden gate bridge, desperately pulling on the steering wheel, fighting with the safety system.

The car manufacture tells you it was your loved one's own fault, because if he or she had read the manual your loved one would have known that all he or she had to do was type "ASSC-0" onto the car's touchscreen to disable the system.

You're satisfied?

This NYTimes article had interesting additional information. It is anonymously sourced, but gives the impression of being plausible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/business/boeing-simulation-error.html

Takeaway, Boeing ran a test on a 737 Max simulator, replicating the Lion Air situation. This was before the second crash. The pilots had to successfully disable the flight control system within 40 seconds or the plane was put in an unrecoverable dive.

Activating a thumb switch on the stick would temporarily override the system and and allow the pilots to pull up but then the system would reactivate itself and push the nose down again. To disable the system they would have to shut off power to the electric motor powering the system, then they would have to turn some sort of crank to undo the corrections that the system had put in. They have 40 seconds to figure this out and perform the two required operations.