b – I know, I know, but the Americans maybe don’t know…
“Europe” is not yet an enemy. Germany, not sure; UK and Spain, not really (yet, again, is the operative word). But “France” gets blood boiling in many places…
So, sorry. The whole point of Airbus is to show that Europe, when together, can actually get somewhere.

Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 18 2005 21:19 utc | 4

@CP
Bankrupted the freakers, too.
That A380 has a better looking snout than the other one, I’d say.

Posted by: Flashharry | Jan 18 2005 21:30 utc | 6

Condi is von Ribbentrop, without the champagne. She is doubtless intelligent, and would be a fascinating luncheon companion, but she was also possibly the worst National Security Advisor ever. She didn’t focus on terrorism, she parrotted the lies about Iraq, she failed miserably as coordinator for the occupation (remember that?)– so Bush is making her Secretary of State. The parallels with Nazi Germany are really starting to frighten me. Make no mistake — Rice will have absolutely no independent function. She will be Bush’ mouthpiece to the international community, pure and simple. Unfortunately for her, they know that. And remember what happened to von Ribbentrop. He actually had almost no real power, but the Allies hung him anyway.

Posted by: Aigin | Jan 18 2005 21:49 utc | 8

And before DeAnander complains that planes are unsutainable, pollute, etc…, I’ll link to this article in National Geographic

“Megajets are not the way to greener, or cleaner, skies,” said Alan Durning, executive director of Northwest Environment Watch in Seattle, Washington. “On almost no count is the A380 particularly green.”
(…)
Airliners rate as one of the most polluting forms of transportation, with the world’s 16,000 commercial jets producing over 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, according to one estimate.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that aviation causes 3.5 percent of man-made global warming, and that figure could rise to 15 percent by 2050.
Thomas, of Trucost, says technological improvements will help trim airline emissions by one percent a year. However, the aviation industry is forecasting 5 percent annual traffic growth worldwide for the next decades.
“Better technology alone is not going to solve this problem,” he said.

btw, De – what do you think of this (Global Warning – a closer look at the numbers) and that (Global warming – A chilling perspective)? (This is an honest question. Is this sleazy and easy to rebut?)

Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 18 2005 22:26 utc | 10

AIRBUS – home of the Flying Cheese Monkeys!

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) – European aerospace group EADS NV said on Tuesday it hired retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Silas Johnson to head its marketing effort in a high-stakes aerial tanker competition with Boeing Co.
Johnson retired in 2002 after 34 years with the Air Force, including positions as commander of the Mobility Warfare unit and commander of the Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, where the current tanker fleet is maintained.
The move comes a day ahead of an expected announcement by EADS North American Chief Executive Ralph Crosby to kick off a search for a U.S. production facility where Airbus could assemble a tanker or other aircraft, industry sources said.
The sources, who asked not to be named, said a big U.S. plant could help EADS build up political capital in Congress, where Rep. Duncan Hunter, the head of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, recently dismissed any EADS tanker bid as “a non-starter.”
Hunter said it would not serve U.S. foreign policy interests to reward countries like France and Germany, where much EADS production is based, who have not been “full partners” in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism.

So the Air Force will eventually run a tanker “competition” without Boeing’s only feasible competitor.
RE Condi. Unlike with Powell, I think her nomination has nothing to do with calculated public perceptions of race/gender, and everything to do with GWB’s weird relationship with her (though that relationship may have psychological vectors touching on race and gender). Powell was just a false “see how moderate and inclusive we are” front to parade in front of the 2000 electorate and to be ignored afterward, and was IMO a significant factor in the 2000 election being close enough to steal.
The Latino electorate is where the Bushies continually try to play the race card.

Posted by: OkieByAccident | Jan 18 2005 22:27 utc | 12

The A380 reminds me of John Steinbeck, Cannery Row and Sardines (BTW: if you ever get to Monterey you have to see the aquarium!)
Max capacity for tourist hauling is 880 pax and they are planing for a bigger version already.
Imagine the press when the first one comes down hard.

Posted by: b | Jan 18 2005 22:43 utc | 14

Yeah B, one of my first thoughts when I saw the pic was Geez how can we trust that thing? Just a feeling.
It is somewhat based on the decades-long porkfest built around the V-22, the Boeing vertol craft being developed for the marine corps. Billions and billions of $$$$$$$$ wasted so far, mainly because some politico non-engineer said “Make it bigger”… The original concept was perfectly OK and doable (the project has been in the works since the 1960s) but this vertol concept only works for a small-size craft.
Of course the Boeing guys said OK moneymen, we can do anything you want as long as you pay for it. So this thing will never accomplish more than crash and kill people, BUT it is still funded.
As for the A380, sure it is a “regular” airplane, expertly designed and tested, but I can’t help but believe that there are some unanticipated problems ahead. Hope not. Aircraft design can be a tricky business when you push the envelope.

Posted by: rapt | Jan 18 2005 23:54 utc | 16

Aigin: What are the odds that we’ll see Condi saying the Chinese ambassador “Please, tell Pekin I was opposed to this war” ?
Jérôme: First, I’m not sure it’s correct to pick water vapor. Then, the guy is on crack if he thinks just 5% of CO2 is manmade.
Basically, the only valid point there is that indeed Kyoto protocol is quite a joke and won’t stop anything; for that, you’d have to cut *now* 50% of the greenhouse gas human emissions.
Basically, if there was a big increase in water vapor since 1900, we would know it.
The stuff about increase in temps since the end of the Ice Age is obvious, though we hadn’t a 5° increase in 100 years back then, which is likely for the 21st century. The trick is that the current increase is weird given the current situation: the warming period has already happened and we should rather head for a drastic decrease in a few millennia. Having a major increase, as big or bigger than the one ending the last Ice Age is to say the less uncommon. BTW, I have strong doubts about his map of the world 18.000 y ago, notably the huge extent of deserts. And of course his “present world” is ridiculous; did you see that much forests in Europe? And the only thing his chart of the Little Ice Age shows is a pretty brutal ending; too brutal to be entirely natural, probably. Then, the data, and even more those for its beginning, aren’t that precise. It surely wasn’t a smooth curve.
But I think the guy’s bias is pretty obvious since he’s basically a shill for coal industry (see his links section).

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Jan 19 2005 0:14 utc | 18

“More broadly, she said there remain “outposts of tyranny” in the world that require close attention, citing North Korea (news – web sites), Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar, also known as Burma.”
Please send the Witch to the Moon on an A380:
WISDOM

Posted by: Ralph Cramden | Jan 19 2005 0:28 utc | 20

Looks like Condi has cut the work out for her.
Global poll slams Bush leadership – Negative feelings for Mr Bush extended to Americans as a whole – More than half of people surveyed in a BBC World Service poll say the re-election of US President George W Bush has made the world more dangerous.
Reading about Boxer, the first impuls was – well there is some candidate for 2008, but then I had to admit this is a silly idea. Someone like her is probably never going to make.

Posted by: Fran | Jan 19 2005 6:00 utc | 22

@jerome — the pages you cited above (by the Hiebs, Monte and Harrison) — I wouldn’t call Monte Hieb exactly a disinterested party.
Name: Monte Hieb
Email: mhieb@mines.state.wv.us
Title: Chief Engineer
Organization: West Virginia Office of Miners Health Safety and Training
W VA economy is heavily weighted towards mining (this is where the infamous MTR technique is being practised, disastrously). and the coal mining industry is, shall we say, not exactly thrilled with any critique of fossil fuel use. he is (emphatically) not a climate scientist, plant or marine biologist, etc. — though he does seem to be an enthusiastic amateur fossil-hound with a really nice web site on W VA fossils.
a brief rebuttal of the Hieb papers is found here (this is a decent site generally for debunking anti-environmentalist agitprop, a kind of Snopes for Filth Industry urban legends).
the Little Ice Age is thrown around a lot by the global warming flat-earthers, as “proof” that radical climate change occurs naturally and that humans have nothing to do with contemporary climate trends. there’s quite a good eponymous book, The Little Ice Age by Fagan, which balances (imho quite gracefully) the solar cycle with anthropogenic components of climate change. it’s a good read and a good antidote to the kind of simplistic, wilful denial that abounds among the Climate Pollyannas (whether boughten ones or freelances).
I see that the hack Crichton has recently announced he is no longer writing sensationalist novels about unrealistic scary scenarios — no, he has turned over a new leaf and his latest novel is soberly realistic: it’s about the destruction of western civilisation by environmentalists! yup, Lord of the Potboilers has found his new Scary Monster — from Gray Goo to Greens, in one easy contract. iirc he’s also hitting the US lecture circuit in what appears a coordinated rightwingnut echo-chamber campaign to rehabilitate DDT (his recent appearance at the elite Commonwealth Club seemed eerily synchronised with a Kristof essay in print) of all things.
Jim Norton takes Crichton down a peg or two but MC’s media appeal and name-recognition as an “airport novelist” is a powerful weapon in the all-out anti-environmentalist rollback campaign. the Stinks and Poisons Industries are on a roll with BushCo in power, and they’re making hay while the sun shines [less than it used to, see other thread].
if Armstrong is costing BushCo a quarter million to hype school vouchers, I wonder what Crichton gets? or Kristof? heck, are all these guys on the payroll? where does it end?

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 19 2005 6:29 utc | 24

Global poll slams Bush leadership

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 19 2005 6:52 utc | 26

I read an article on Libby, Montana a couple few years ago and was just struck by how (still, relatively) healthy members of the town were pissed off at the other half for suing the asbestos plant which had over the course of several decandes caused their asbestosis. The plant went backrupt from lawsuits but not after having turned the whole area into a HAZMAT zone and causing half of the town’s population sever lung reduction followed by death or disabilty, fated to be tethered to an 02 tank waiting to die, yet it was the people whoes lives had been ruined that were taking flack for shutting down the town’s main employer and scaring off potential employers looking to take advantage of able workers eager to sell their health and lives for that of their family members for a subsistance wage. Lost souls.
Speaking of lost souls, where the hell is Condi’s? Thank the dieties for Barbara Boxer. However, in my fantasy she would have told “Dr.” Rice that she find Condi to be completely lacking integrity, and that she will find no respect from this Senator as the Senator considers Rice, the President, Vice-President, and all of their advisors and cabinet members to be the worst of lyars. I wish Senator Boxer had said, Dr. Rice, you are obviously very intellegent, but your intellegence doesn’t account for much in face of your seeming complete lack of humanity, compassion, morality, decency and because of these flaws, total incompetance. It is this Senator’s firm believe that Mr. Bush is office and will continue in office because of fraud and in my view has no credibility or integrity.
A guy can dream….

Posted by: stoy | Jan 19 2005 7:47 utc | 28

I am half convinced if you could give Condi a light scrubbing with a damp washcloth not only would she be white underneath, she would conceal behind a metal door in her chest a mini-Dick Cheney covered in clear mucus pulling levers and cables.

Posted by: stoy | Jan 19 2005 8:04 utc | 30

Sorry, DoS (and everyone), you are absoultely right.

Posted by: stoy | Jan 19 2005 9:58 utc | 32

wonderful opportunity

Posted by: beq | Jan 19 2005 11:52 utc | 34

I think DeAnander’s nailed it above, in that what we are fighting now is more a battle of classism than racism/sexism. The fact that women and minorities happen to fall into the lower class category consistently is now a footnote to the whole problem (although clearly they often fall into it because of blocked opportunities due to prejudice.)
But America was founded on — and continues to live by — the doctrine that there simply are no classes in this country. Or, if there is an acknowledgement of different “income levels” (a different matter, IMO), individuals can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Until that myth is shattered, there is no going forward.
There have been classes here since the beginning, and they’ve only solidified further as time has gone on (and since the frontier closed).
I am not optimistic about the American people EVER recognizing this fact about society. We are a people in absolute thrall to our mythology, a very dangerous place to be in.

Posted by: SusanG | Jan 19 2005 15:18 utc | 36

I read an article on Libby, Montana a couple few years ago and was just struck by how (still, relatively) healthy members of the town were pissed off at the other half for suing the asbestos plant which had over the course of several decades caused their asbestosis.
Well, divide et impera for a start. Or, as my old chum rootlesscosmo says, “How you know you’re oppressed, is when all your choices are rotten.” Unemployment, or hideous lingering death — hey, this is America, you have freedom of choice, right? oh, isn’t it ugly to see how quickly drowning people will try to stand on each other’s choking bodies to get to the air?
iirc the Nazis used to do this to prisoners, or so the Allied propagandists told us — throw a father and son into icy water or a cesspit and see if one would climb on the other to get out. kind of a State-sponsored Reality Show, you might say. but isn’t the whole industrial-capitalist economy a Reality Show, pitting people against one another in an artificial arena like rats in some cruel laboratory experiment? penalising cooperation and rewarding bitter competition? frightening Person A with the everpresent stick of poverty, or tantalising them with the carrot of upward mobility, until they become capable of willingly sacrificing Person B’s (their neighbour’s, their relative’s) health to their own wealth?
or in the case of the global pharmacorps, sacrificing someone else’s health for the promise of our own health…

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 19 2005 19:23 utc | 38

text

Posted by: lonesomeG | Jan 21 2005 1:10 utc | 40

Barbara Boxer is asking Americans to sign her pedition.
HOLD CONDOLEEZZA RICE ACCOUNTABLE!

Posted by: Fran | Jan 21 2005 7:23 utc | 42

De – amazing all these articles critical of the European airplane industry coming at a time when the US airline industry is getting its butt kicked for caring too much about short term profit and not investing in the future… and all the dirty tricks of airplane diplomacy coming out and blaming, of course, only Airbus.
I’m not saying they are necessarily wrong, mind you, but they lack, let’s say, perspective and seem to be part of the political/diplomatic/economic war between Europe and the US – seen from one side (of course, I am partial to the other side and thus more sensitive to that bias).
I know that you usually put things in an even larger perspective, nut I think that in this case your enjoyment of the polemic made you take a cheap shot.
(And on actual fact, it would be interesting to decode what’s going on. Who had what official demand? i imagine Brussels (i.e. the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU) wants Thailand to put tariffs on its fish industry (this is probably worth a discussion of its own, “Brussels” has been trying very hard for years to limit over-fishing around Europe and elsewhere, with limited success due to local/national resistance everywhere). Airbus wants to sell its planes. The French and German governments want to support Airbus, which brings jobs, prestige, etc, and their diplomacies usually lobby for Airbus around the world. Who did the linkage between the two? A European bureaucrat, or a national politician who threatened a linkage between the Thais’ decision regarding the plance and whatever validation of the EU decision on tariffs? (Most “Brussels” decisions are approved by the European countries according to very precise voting procedures, with unanimity still being the rule in a number of sector – “Brussels” is a very convenient scapegoat for decisions that all European politicians take on their own – or at least contribute to in a very direct way).
All the English-speaking press has been engaged in a massive campaign to present – against all available facts – the A380 as a “white elephant” (a costly, useless and of course tax-payer financed uneeded gargantuan project) – I imagine at the behest of Boeing, who made the wrong bet on this one, and of the US administration, who do not enjoy the upstart Europeans beating them at this traditional “chasse gardée”.
And what’s the cheap shot with linking trade discussions with the tsunami? If we don’t give anything these ocuntries want, we are heartless bastards? How convenient.
So, boo-f-ing-hoo.

Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 22 2005 13:54 utc | 44

If there is anyone I do ‘like’ or ‘respect’ in the Bush Admin it is her. She has a brain whereas the others don’t seem to. However she is just as evil as the rest as the untiringly pursue world domination in under the banner of freedom.

Posted by: Wadard | Apr 20 2006 0:42 utc | 46