Stephan Segraves - badice.com - musings for the masses

Delta Wants to Buy a Refinery

April 18, 2012 ssegraves

Delta Bid for Trainer Refinery Gaining Momentum (philly.com) →

When I first saw the news that Delta Airlines was looking at the former ConocoPhillips refinery in Philadelphia I had to do a double-take. An airline running a refinery is just that strange. At first I thought it was a move by Delta to stir up the market a bit but this most recent news makes me think the Atlanta based airline is very serious about buying the facility.

The Trainer refinery is configured to produce a higher yield of jet fuel – about 13 percent of its output, or 23,000 barrels a day (966,000 gallons). Delta could ship the fuel by pipeline or barge to New York, where it has a large presence at LaGuardia and JFK airports.

Delta would ostensibly receive all of the jet fuel from the facility, but would probably swap much of the gasoline and diesel for jet fuel in other locations near Delta hubs.

I am still trying to understand where Delta thinks they will save the money. They will still be buying oil at the market price, the difference now is that they will be a refiner of said fuel. Refining crude oil is not a “value-add” process, it is a necessity. You can’t fly a plane on crude oil.

“The objective would be to achieve a 10 percent price reduction on a large portion of its fuel needs – which, if were achieved, would represent significant savings,” reported Linenberg, the Deutsche Bank analyst.

How? How are they planning to achieve that much of a reduction? Are they simply offsetting their fuel costs by selling the jet fuel on the wholesale market? If so, then how are they financing the operation of the refinery? Refineries are not cheap to operate and certainly not cheap to maintain. As stated earlier, oil companies do not view them as moneymaking facilities but rather, as necessities to compete in the market. The margins in refining are so small that it is hard to make money from fuel alone. Now, maybe if Delta is going to sell chemicals from the facility they can make the revenue that the article hints at.

I would love to have a sneak peek at Delta’s game plan. They must have some kind of strategy up their sleeve to make this work, but they’re going to wait to make it obvious to the rest of us.

Dog Shootings and Restraint

April 18, 2012 ssegraves

Patrol Car Recording Released After Officer Shoots Dog →

The 911 call features a woman who said she was driving past a home in the 2600 block of East Fifth Street and saw a man who appeared to be drunk and a woman trying to get away from him. The video shows Griffin arriving about 4:45 p.m., and he can be heard trying to verify which home was referenced. Not long after leaving his patrol car, Griffin is heard shouting, “Show me your hands” and then, “Get your dog!” That was followed by Cisco’s bark and a single gunshot.

I can understand why the officer had his gun drawn, he was told there was a disturbance and did not know what he was walking into. However, he was at the wrong address. If I was the Austin Police Department I would want to know why the address was not verified by the officer before he left his car. He can be heard asking which apartment unit the disturbance is at. Clearly there was a breakdown of communication.

As a dog owner, I am well aware that spooked dogs are scary. Though they may not bite, a scared dog looks intimidating. It makes me wonder though, had the officer clearly identified himself while walking up to the house whether or not Paxton would have returned the dog to the back yard. The officer says, “Show me your hands” and then immediately “Get your dog!”. If I have a gun pointed at me and am being told to show my hands, my brain is trying to figure out whether or not I should actually get the dog.

I look forward to hearing what the investigation from the Austin Police Department reveals. I know that restraint is not always an option, but I would think a little restraint in instances like this would not be too difficult. It just sounds like the officer was a little on edge walking into an unknown situation (again, at the wrong address) and that adrenaline lead to the shooting of the dog.

There is a Facebook page for Cisco, if you’re interested in that.

Foxtrot for iPad

April 17, 2012 ssegraves

Foxtrot for iPad announcement →

Bill Amend, the author of Foxtrot, is going the self-publishing route.

I’m calling them FoxTrot Pad Packs, because I like the metaphor of collectable cards and how you build up your collection via booster packs. I made them myself using Apple’s free iBooks Author software.
…
My hope is to release new ones every couple of months or so. Assuming people like these first ones. This is all a big experiment for me.

I’ve always been a Foxtrot fan. I hope this venture is successful for Mr. Amend.

Dip That Wing at Intercontinental Airport

April 16, 2012 ssegraves

I had the chance to head to George Bush Intercontinental Airport during some really strong winds this past weekend. With wind speeds around 17-19mph and gusts to 35mph the landings were interesting. On this particular one, I decided to take a short video. It came out a little shaky since I was on top of one of the parking garages and feeling the effects of the wind myself. There is music, because I figured people didn’t want to hear wind blowing over the mic.

Around the 17 second mark is when the fun occurs. The pilot dips the right wing and kicks the left rudder to counteract the effects of the crosswind and keep the 757-300 on the center line.

United Boeing 757-300 Landing from Stephan Segraves on Vimeo.

I also grabbed a few pictures of landings, one of which is this Bombardier Q400 doing the same as the 757-300 above, dipping the wing and throwing in the left rudder to keep it straight.

You can view the entire set of shots from Saturday here.

Music Awakens the Mind

April 11, 2012 ssegraves

Alive Inside is a documentary that follows social worker Dan Cohen as he reintroduces music to those who are suffering from diseases involving degenerative memory loss. The results are fascinating (YouTube video).

Having experienced what memory loss can do to a person and their loved ones and knowing that many families endure such a challenge on a daily basis makes me want to go take iPod Nanos to every nursing home in the immediate area. Even if the results are temporary and limited, there is something uplifting in the knowledge that a loved one is still themselves, even when their memory may no longer be sharp.

(via swissmiss →)

The Birds (A Travel Story)

April 9, 2012 ssegraves

A cool, crisp morning in Peru’s capital. I am up early after a late arrival from Houston the previous night. My goals start with the immediate future, find coffee, find food, and get my bearings in the nearby neighborhood. Little did I know, by the end of the day I’d be accosted by winged creatures while minding my own business.

The hotel I am staying in during this trip is the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center, located pretty much smack dab in the center of Lima. The front desk suggested a cab to the historic center but after looking at a map over breakfast I opt to walk.

The fog has not burned off yet, making Lima feel a lot like San Francisco. The streets and sidewalks are alive. There are vendors selling the day’s paper, fresh squeezed orange juice, slices of pineapple or watermelon, and pastries. Oh the pastries. I can’t help but stop and grab a few of the items, one of which is a ring covered in cinnamon. Sure, I had already had breakfast, but how do you say no to a little sweet treat in the morning?

I continue walking northeast and reach Plaza de Armas where a large crowd has gathered to watch that day’s World Cup matches. Knowing I will want to explore this square and the surrounding area more, I decide to continue my journey northeast and end up at Iglesia de San Francisco. It’s a small church/convent and I am sad to learn that there are services going on all day and access to the interior is not allowed.

What catches my eye is the number of people gathered around the church. Not tourists, locals. They are enjoying the nice day as the fog finally starts to lift. What I did not notice was the massive amount of pigeons that had realized free food was a very real possibility in the immediate area. I lift my camera to take a picture of the church. As I am pushing the shutter release something jumps in front of me. I lower the camera to try and figure out what is going on and see every single pigeon headed toward me.

It is over as quick as it started. The pigeons realize they are not getting any food from me. All except one. He continues to swoop down on me, following me away from the church and down the street for a block. To this day, I think that one particular pigeon is the one that incited the other pigeons to bring their winged vengeance upon me.

Is the Boeing 737 Safe? Or is this Scaremongering?

March 28, 2012 ssegraves

Is Boeing’s 737 an Airplane Prone to Problems? →

Clive Irving on skin cracking on Boeing 737s:

For decades, Boeing had had that market to itself. Then, in the late 1980s, Airbus introduced a competitor, the A320, loaded with the latest technology; Boeing seriously underestimated the European upstart—until itrealized that it could lose a world market that it had created and monopolized. The result was the NG series, which arrived in 1997 and was a huge improvement on the old Classics. The NG had new wings, engines, and avionics systems to match the Airbus. But, surprisingly, the original fuselage was retained, albeit with some refinements.

It is an interesting posit by Mr. Irving but in the entire article he fails to lay out why the Airbus A320 is supposedly so much safer. While the A320 has not been involved in any decompression incidents it has been involved in around twelve fatal accidents.

The other piece in all of this that does not really fit is Mr. Irving pointing out that hard landings have generated concerns about the bulkheads in the aircraft. Of course it should generate concerns. Any hard landing puts a lot of stress on an aircraft and that’s the reason most airlines put aircraft through extensive inspections after such incidents.

The whole article comes off as scaremongering masquerading as a investigative reporting. I fly Boeing 737s just about every week and I’m not going to change my booking habits to avoid them.

In-Flight Wi-Fi Usage Numbers Increase

March 28, 2012 ssegraves

To Tweet From 30,000 Feet: Picking Planes Wired for Wi-Fi →

Scott McCartney on some interesting trends:

Airlines say Wi-Fi usage-the percentage of passengers paying for Internet access—is picking up, driven partly by the popularity of tablet computers and partly because more planes have the service. Currently about 8% of passengers use the service, up from 4% at the end of 2010, according to In-Stat, a research and consulting firm. That likely will reach 10% of passengers by the end of this year, In-Stat says.

In-Flight Wi-Fi usage growth is no surprise. We are addicted to being connected just about everywhere we are. Why should an airplane limit that addiction? My opinion on this is two-fold. Sure, it is great to get your e-mail, work on your website, post photographs, etc. while you’re in the air but as someone who travels for work, I relish being cut off from the outside world for a while.

Since United announced a push to install Wi-Fi on a number of their aircraft, I will see if my perception and opinion changes over the next year. I tried to use in-flight Wi-Fi on a trip from Seattle to Frankfurt on Lufthansa in December but it was inoperative the entire time. On a flight of that length, it would have been quite nice.

Hitchhiking In Germany

March 12, 2012 ssegraves

A delay. We’re sitting in the Bremen train station trying to figure out what is going. We have run down one set of stairs and up another to get to a new platform and now it looks like our train will actually leave from a completely different platform. Welcome to regional train travel to remote parts of Germany.

Originally, the goal was to make it to Bremerhaven, a port city on the northern coast of Germany west of Denmark, before 2pm. Why you ask, are we going to Bremerhaven? It is the city where my wife was born. Her parents were stationed there as Air Force personnel and we wanted to see the city, the barracks, and just visit a little bit of our family history.

Everyone is standing around a Deutsche Bahn employee. I try to listen with my minimal German skills and hear what is keeping us from making it to our destination. Sadly, it sounds like an accident on the tracks to Bremerhaven ended in a fatality. The official assures us that the train will leave in 15 minutes.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later and we are onboard a train and moving toward Bremerhaven. The train is packed with all of that day’s passengers to Bremerhaven being onboard. We stop at two or three stops and everything seems normal. At the last stop, in a town called Lunestedt, an announcement is made that this is the final stop and everyone must leave the train. What I had missed in the earlier discussion with the Deutsche Bahn official was that from Lunestedt all passengers would be required to take a bus the rest of the way to Bremerhaven.

The tiny train station in Lunestedt is overflowing with people, a light rain driving them to take cover under the shelter for the bicycles. It becomes clear that only one bus is in use to shuttle passengers to Bremerhaven and the roundtrip for the bus takes 30 minutes. There is no queue for the bus, when it shows up people just scramble for it.

I start asking around to see if anyone speaks English and happen upon a woman about our age. She explains that it is going to be a long wait but that her boyfriend is coming to pick her up, then taking pity on us, asks if we’d like a ride. Normally, I would hesitate, but she seems like a nice lady and the line for the bus is overwhelming.

Twenty minutes later and the woman’s boyfriend drives up. At first I do a double take, then a triple take. The car is a four dour sedan with a hatchback but there are three other people already in it, the boyfriend and his two friends. The hatchback area is stuffed full of luggage, clothes, and other small items. The boyfriend gets out of the car, kisses his girlfriend, then shakes my hand and takes our suitcase, shoving it on top of the stuff in the back of the car.

I look at my wife. I am sure she is trying to telepathically communicate her uncomfortable feeling but at this point, we’re committed. We stuff ourselves into the car and the music starts. No one in the car is talking, just listening to death metal as we drive through the northern German countryside. My brain was trying to do the math on how to escape should these good Samaritans turn out to have nefarious plans. It, my brain, came to the conclusion to push my wife out of the car then quickly follow.

Thirty minutes later and we’re arriving in Bremerhaven and the first real conversation with us is started. “Do you know where your hotel is?”. “What’s it called? Oh, we know that place”, and five minutes later, there’s the hotel. We get out and I am trying to figure out the proper thing to do. I pull out 30 Euros and hand it to the boyfriend, thank him for driving us and my wife and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking back at this experience a couple of years later, I wonder if I would do the same thing today. In one word, probably. We were desperate. Was it the right thing to do? Probably not. But we have a funny story to share with you and our kids. And last but not least, these were actually really nice people who went out of their way to help us, who would have otherwise been stranded in a small town in northern Germany.