QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a relic of days of yore.”
Brian Jacobsen, Wells Fargo Advantage Funds chief portfolio strategist, on the Federal Reserve’s decision to not tie borrowing costs to a 6.5 percent unemployment rate.
Article, 1D
FAA faults 787’s development oversight
U.S. regulators and Boeing Co. didn’t exercise enough quality control over subcontractors during the 787 Dreamliner’s development, according to a review prompted by battery failures that led to the longest grounding of a commercial airplane since the 1950s.
The review found the Dreamliner is safe, meets design standards and is about as reliable as other Boeing jetliners were after being introduced. The Federal Aviation Administration issued seven recommendations, four for Boeing and three for itself, to improve the way new aircraft design and manufacturing are overseen.
The report was posted Wednesday on the FAA’s website.
“The review team identified some problems with the manufacturing process and the way we oversee it, and we are moving quickly to address those problems,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement.
The FAA’s review of the 787’s certification and manufacturing, announced in January 2013, was separate from an ongoing investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board into what caused the battery failures.
The two cases in which 787 batteries overheated and emitted fumes in the U.S. and Japan came after manufacturing delays and production problems that pushed introduction of the more efficient plane more than three years behind schedule.
IBM’s Watson to sequence cancer DNA
NEW YORK - IBM is teaming up with the New York Genome Center to help fight brain cancer.
The company said Wednesday that its Watson cloud computing system will be used in partnership with a New York-based genetic research center mainly to help sequence DNA for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most common type of brain cancer in U.S. adults.
The center, a consortium of academic, medical and industry officials, will use Watson to sequence the DNA of cancer tumors. The DNA information will then be combined with clinical information and fed to Watson to help determine the best way to treat a particular patient.
Watson isn’t programmed like most computers. Instead of relying on the information that’s put into it, Watson learns by “reading” vast amounts of information and combining it with the results of previous work to find answers to problems. Those characteristics make Watson ideal for extremely data-heavy work in fields such as health care and finance.
John Kelly, a senior vice president and director of IBM research, said there’s a vast amount of data involved in DNA sequencing that then must be combined with all of the clinical data regarding a particular patient’s case. The resulting pool of information is so big that it’s impossible for people to deal with.
“This is sort of big data on steroids,” Kelly said.
Comair orders fuel-stingier Boeing 737s
British Airways franchisee Comair Ltd. ordered eight Boeing Co.’s 737 Max 8 airliners in a deal that will make the carrier the first African customer for the re-engined, narrow-body model.
The planes, with a combined list price of $830 million and offering 14 percent lower fuel consumption than current single-aisle models, will be delivered from 2019 through 2021, the Johannesburg-based airline and Chicago-based Boeing said Wednesday.
Comair’s 25-plane fleet comprises earlier versions of Boeing’s 737, the world’s most widely used airliner. The purchase of the 737 Max 8s, which will be equipped with the Leap-X engine from General Electric Co.’s CFM International venture with Safran SA, are part of Comair’s effort to cut jet-fuel usage while adding destinations to a route network serving southern Africa and Indian Ocean islands.
- Bloomberg News
Louisiana rail link put at $262 million
BATON ROUGE - Startup costs for a passenger train linking Baton Rouge and New Orleans on existing freight tracks would be $262 million with federal funds underwriting up to 80 percent of that amount, a study said.
The study by HNTB Corp. said the cost is substantially less than the $448 million estimated in a 2010 study for Louisiana.
“Our reaction is very positive,” said John Spain, executive vice president of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, one of the groups that commissioned the HNTB study.
“There is a lot of interest in a passenger train and still a lot of support.”
HNTB performed the study for the foundation, the Capital Region Planning Commission and the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission.
The Advocate of Baton Rouge reports HNTB advised leasing trains instead of purchasing them to reduce upfront capital costs. Tickets could be as low as $10 each way. Ridership for twice-daily service is estimated at 210,000 in the first year, HNTB said. The service would include stops in between the two cities, and could ultimately grow to more frequent service with a possible station near the New Orleans International Airport.
The earlier plan recommended rail improvements for speeds of up to 110 miles per hour.
HNTB recommends intercity passenger rail operations with maximum speeds of 79 mph, a rate that it said is competitive with car travel.
A trip would take 95 minutes, with seven stops on the route. A morning and afternoon train for commuters would start in each of the two cities on similar schedules.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 28 on 03/20/2014