Temperate Thoughts

We are headed to Boulder for a weekend visit with the in-law cousins to celebrate a 60th birthday. Ah, to be 60 again…with a lifetime of hopes and dreams ahead of you… It was snowing there yesterday…I hope global warming kicks-in before we arrive.

Due to the fact that no one has yet invented a working version of Transporter[1], we will be forced to travel by conventional means, which unfortunately means we will be again the voluntary prisoners of the Sadistic Airways. Thus, it seems time for another of my periodic anti-airline rants.

In the WSJ today, there is an article reporting that the European company Airbus has, after years of problems – cost overruns, etc , delivered the first A380 – billed as the world’s largest passenger jet. The customer is Singapore Airlines. Note to self: do not travel on Singapore Airlines for a few years.

I’m not predicting doom or anything, but one cannot be too careful when one considers that the A380 Project required cooperation between German and French engineers and the senior management of the company seemed more interested in backdating their stock options than meeting production schedules.

I have been on too many similar projects during my working days. I often say that I miss the money, the actual work and other social aspects of a job, but I am daily reminded that it is truly a blessing to be free from the politics of employment: No status reports, no self-absorbed egomaniacs[2], no meetings, no performance reviews.

Another article in the paper observed that as they rise in the corporate hierarchy, executives lose touch with the reality of their operations. They never get to talk candidly with anyone, because no one dares to be the messenger who tells the Emperor that his ideas and plans are crap.

Speaking of global warming, guess who got the Nobel Peace Prize for being a monomaniac with a mission? I am still not sure how Al Gore’s PowerPoint presentation has advanced world peace, but then I did not understand some of the previous award winners, either. Just a few examples: Yasser Arafat, whose minions regularly carried out terrorist bombings of Israeli civilians. Then there was the corrupt UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who presided over (and reportedly skimmed millions from) the now embarrassing Iraq oil-for-food program. If these recipients had not already made a mockery out of the award, I might feel more perplexed.

There was another story in WSJ about how climate changes in Western Canada are encouraging a nascent wine industry. It seems that the farmers there have observed that the local temperature has indeed registered a few degrees warmer over the past decade or so. This means a later killing frost date, which has enabled some of the less risk averse to plant more tender European grape vines.
After a few more years of warming, assuming the arctic melt doesn’t make the Pacific ocean rise and flood the West coast, Sonoma wine country will just become an extension of Death Valley. We will all be living in Iceland and getting our Chardonnay from Calgary Vineyards. Time to invest in future beachfront property?



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[1] I don’t know much about quantum physics or electronics, you would think we could figure out how to cut-and-paste a steaming hot Pizza from Papa Gino’s to your house - at the very least. Cripes! How hard can it be?



[2] Well...except for the resident Blogster.