Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
The vacuum tube lineup:
Converter: 12BE6
IF amplifier: 12BA6
Detector and first audio amplifier: 12AV6 or 12AT6
Audio power output: 50C5 or the less-common 50B5
Rectifier: 35W4
I'm not aware of any significant safety problems with the Westinghouse reactors, and a quick DuckDuckGo came up with nothing relating to safety concerns, but plenty with respect to financial misadventure.
With respect to RCA, it's parentage was act…
@DrVenture- In further reading of El Pais I came across this report, which examines Russia's avoidance of import sanctions and restrictions.
Here are a few excerpts from that article:
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Armenia, former members of the Soviet…
@hank- Not having direct access to the official report of the Indian government Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau Preliminary Report three days ago I believed the cautionary use of "seemed" to be appropriate. I have a major aversion to informat…
"Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder data seemed to indicate the fuel control switches were physically moved to the cutoff position. Deliberate human intervention was involved."
U'mmm... yes. I thought that had been pretty well covered …
@hank- All I can say is that the official investigation by reputable officials has so far said nothing about any cause other than those switches. Switches don't turn themselves on and off. Q.E.D.
My morning orange juice will increase cost by 50%, as most of the orange juice now comes from Brazil due to crop infestation and failure in the U.S.
The tomatoes that we buy at COSTCO just increased by 30% as they come from Mexico.
Presumably U.S…
The following excerpts are taken directly from the official Government of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau Preliminary Report.
Flight Recorders
The aircraft is equipped with two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recor…
@hank- Well, not drivers switching off the ignition, but some serious problems with the ignition switch shutting itself off, with some results similar to Air India. I'll bet that you remember this:
From Wikipedia-
On February 6, 2014, General Motor…
Thanks for that, @Observant1. An aspect that I'm finding a bit disturbing is the seeming conflation of the physical RUN/CUTOFF switches and the TCMA system. I would surely think that the "black box" flight recorder would know the difference between …
Re TCMA: Following is an description of the Boeing "TCMA" system as generated by the DuckDuckGo AI "search Assistant". It seems pretty decent.
The Thrust Control Malfunction Accommodation (TCMA) is a system in Boeing aircraft that detects and correc…
@hank- There's this from the Hindustan Times:
"The Air India plane, registered as VT-ANB, had been in service since 2013 and had recently cleared routine maintenance checks. Investigators confirmed that all Airworthiness Directives were complied wit…
@WABAC- Your comment certainly didn't seem snarky to me, but then I may have a higher threshold for "snarkiness" than some. And then of course there's a bit of difference between regular ol' "snarky" and "troll level snarky", isn't there?
:)
Thanks for that, @hank. Here's an excerpt and graphic from that source:
“In order to move the switch from one position to the other under the condition where the locking feature is engaged, it is necessary for the pilot to lift the switch up while t…
I have no specific knowledge of the fuel cutoff circuitry involved, but I do have significant experience with electronics generally, and I have never heard of a switch with an operating lever that is operated mechanically (i.e. by hand) and that als…
@Crash- To my surprise, this evidently happens more often than anyone would think. Check out this from Wickipedia: Suicide by Pilot
The main chart is down on the page, and I suggest that you click on the "Flight Type" column to group the commer…
I always appreciated David Gergen's commentary, especially because it frequently was inconsistent with my own inclinations, so it gave me a perspective on the other side of issues. That's always valuable.
David Brooks fills that role for me these d…
Yes, I've reviewed numerous reports from varied sources on this, and the consensus is that it's not possible to place the fuel switches into the cutoff position inadvertently.
The recovered cockpit audio indicates that one of the two pilots asked t…
You don't suppose that Trump just raised the price of beef for everyone in the US, do you?
I am absolutely appalled. If anything like this had happened in previous administrations many members of Congress, of both parties, would be standing on thei…
@hank- If I remember correctly the last time that we ordered checks from Schwab Bank they took a couple of weeks to get here from the printer via snailmail.
Along these lines there's also a new post over at the OT morgue- "Heads up for Citi Double Cash Card users" also deals with checks vs digital/electronic payment.
@hank- We still pay for almost all miscellaneous purchases by credit card, and a few repetitive expenses, such as subscriptions to news media, are automatically charged to a credit card.
Monthly all credit cards are paid by check, and additionally…
"if it gets folks on the road to saving and investing, that's a good thing"
Absolutely. In our case it was an advisor who made his living peddling American Funds, which at the time had a hefty front load. However, his knowledge and advice went well…
This is very informative... I never thought about checking account exposure while waiting for a check order. We use a Schwab Bank checking account which is associated with the brokerage account, and I try not to have much more in that account at any…
