Len: ‘Who is Peter Copperfield?’
☞ The magician David Copperfield. His close friends call him Peter. (Or so my fingers must have imagined yesterday when they typed that. Don’t blame me, blame them.)
BOREALIS
So now the Borealis web site lets you jump to the Chorus Motors web site, which lets you jump to a new Wheel Tug web site, which links to the company’s analysis of the per plane benefit of installing its system – $860,000 a year. This, of course, from the same company that not so long ago estimated annual profits of $1 billion by now (or some such – I lose track). But even if the airlines look at this analysis and decide that, no, a $250,000 annual saving might be more realistic, that could still make for a good business.
There are thousands of commercial jets in service, with thousands more likely to come on line. And the cost of making the motors themselves, in quantity, is probably pretty trivial. So maybe the company can come up with a business model that nets them $25,000 of that $250,000 (or $86,000 of that $860,000) per year per plane . . . that’s $25 million (or $86 million) for each 1,000 planes. Not bad – especially when you consider that this technology, and the company’s other technologies, may have other applications as well.
But let us never forget to say – and with feeling – this is risky! Less so, I think, than before the plane went zipping around the tarmac. But risky.
JESUS LOVES THE CHINESE PEOPLE
A great overview of our relationship with China – which is, obviously, fundamental to our future. Thanks, Ralph. Click here.
I LOVE DAN RATHER
I know it’s popular to pile on, but I think Dan Rather deserves great praise, and thanks, for his career to date. My favorite quote from the current Esquire interview:
The press [should be] a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can’t be right all the time. He doesn’t bark only when he sees or smells something that’s dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.
