Ford Staffing (or lack thereof)

Will and I were trading emails about the staff reduction announcements from Ford.

“Either way, some 50,000 U.S. Ford employees will leave the company over the next year, making this downsizing the biggest in the automaker’s 103-year history.”

That’s an awful lot of people, and Will poses the rational question:

“[Can] you can cut 50,000 and still be able to do your base job”

The announcement didn’t state specifics (AFAIK), but they’ll be replacing the necessary people with temps and part-timers – undoubtedly non-union.

The markets seem to like the news – up a few percent at the open. It’s been sad for me watching Ford fall apart over the years – hopefully this medicine will get the patient back on the mend.

‘Breakfast’ and ‘Lunch’

Oink!

During a conversation with an old friend of mine today, he explained how his family has started raising chickens and pigs. He’s a long-time high-tech exec – not a farmer, so this was amusing news. A back-to-the-earth type of exercise. Very cool, IMO.

They raise the animals throughout the year and then slaughter them as the fall winds down. I asked what his children thought of the whole idea of eating these animals that they help raise. His answer was that when they got the pair of piglets in the spring, they named them ‘Breakfast’ and ‘Lunch’ to immediately instill the end-game scenario in the kids.

Damn funny.

S

The Zen of Torrents

I’ve grown quite fond of torrents. Specifically, I’ve grown philosophically fond of them.

Unlike FTP sites or even the old music-sharing networks of yore, the fact that zillions of pieces of the files you’re downloading are being sourced from who-knows-where is intriguing. The data flows to you from where the network pleases, when the network feels like it, and only as fast as it does. There’s virtually nothing you can do to change any of this process. You fire. You forget. At some point it’s done. Or not. It ain’t fast. It ain’t network-efficient. But it works.

Very cool.

Clear Wheels – Whodathunkit?

Science is cool. Materials Science is especially cool. The 2006 SEMA Show wrapped today in Las Vegas. For the non-car-nuts in the audience, the Special Equipment Market Association members gather periodically to show off their new car toys.

One of the neat new products introduced at SEMA was a wheel with a clear center. Apparently (?) these were for show only (they had a motorcycle wheels too), but you know folks are working their butts off on this.

Practically speaking, it seems like (a) you’d have a bear of a time keeping the brake-side clean of brake dust and whatever else makes its way in there and (b) I assume that this sheet of plastic would not permit proper ventilation of the brakes – perhaps you’d have to have some active system to move air “out” of the wheel? Still theoretical, purportedly, but definitely neat! Gotta get a set for my Jeep!

S