中國航空公司頻繁失誤的背後：經驗不足、壓力大又疲憊的飛行員 |
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2018年11月28日 星期三
2018年11月27日 星期二
川普威脅要取消對通用汽車的補貼：GM stock tumbles after Trump threatens to cut all subsidies
通用汽車宣布在北美裁員15%
通用汽車公司周一宣布，計劃裁員至多14,800人，並將停止幾家北美工廠的生產。這是10年前踏上破產重整之路的通用汽車首次大幅減產。目前該公司正在努力調整以適應乘用車需求下滑局面。
GM stock tumbles after Trump threatens to cut all subsidies
CNN
美國總統川普發推文稱，
Volkswagen emissions scandal：福士(VW)重金賠償 難解環保問題
2018.11.28
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court has ruled Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) must reimburse the owner of a Golf the full original price of his vehicle bought in 2012, dealing a blow to the carmaker as the legal battles over its emissions cheating scandal drag on.
Volkswagen (VW) said it believed the court in Augsburg had misapplied the law and that it would appeal the ruling at the higher regional court.
The Augsburg civil court ruled on Nov. 14th that VW had acted immorally by deliberately installing emissions-cheating software to increase sales and profits, a spokesman for the court said on Friday.
The court ordered VW to repay the owner the original price of almost 30,000 euros ($34,200), according to a copy of the ruling.
"In our opinion, there is no legal basis for customer complaints. Customers have suffered neither losses nor damages. The vehicles are safe and roadworthy," VW said in a statement.
It added that around 9,000 judgements had been issued in connection with its diesel emissions scandal, which came to light in 2015, and the majority of customer complaints had been unsuccessful at district and higher courts.
"The decision of the district court in Augsburg thereby stands in contradiction to multiple decisions of other courts in comparable cases," VW said.
Its shares were little changed at 151.88 euros at 0844 GMT.
VW has said about 11 million diesel cars worldwide were fitted with software that could cheat emissions tests designed to limit noxious car fumes.
The German carmaker has agreed to pay billions of dollars in the United States to settle claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers. It offered to buy back 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles.
The company has not reached a similar deal in Europe, where it faces billions of euros in claims from investors and customers in the worst business crisis in its history.
German court rules Volkswagen must reimburse owner full price of car
Reuters Reuters•November 23, 2018
Reuters Reuters•November 23, 2018
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Mark Potter)
VW to appeal German court ruling ordering diesel car buyback
Associated Press Associated Press•November 23, 2018
BERLIN (AP) -- German automaker Volkswagen says it will appeal a court ruling that orders it to buy back a six-year-old diesel vehicle at the original sales price.
In a statement Friday, Volkswagen said it expects an appeals court to overturn the verdict issued last week by judges in the southern German city of Augsburg.
The company has paid billions of dollars in fines and compensation to diesel car owners since 2015 for cheating on emissions tests.
But until the Augsburg verdict, courts in Germany had deducted a usage fee when ordering VW to buy back affected diesel cars.
In their ruling, judges in Augsburg said VW had acted "immorally" by manipulating the emissions control software in its cars in order to increase sales.
Volkswagen insists that "customers suffered neither loss nor damage."
2016
Inside Volkswagen's Diesel Fraud - Fortune
fortune.com/inside-volkswagen-emissions-scandal/
How the massive diesel fraud incinerated VW’s reputation—and will hobble the company for years to come.Volkswagen emissions scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal
The Volkswagen emissions scandal erupted on 18 September 2015, when the United States ...... equivalent of the E.P.A. and a co-founder of the International Council on Clean Transportation claims “It's not just fraud — it's physical assault.”今年6月，美國各大監管機構陸續登上新聞頭條。因為他們與在柴油車廢氣測試中作弊的福士汽車（Volkswagen）達成150億美元的和解協議，然而，這項重金協議卻在一個關鍵方面存在不足：就算對相關車輛進行召回和修理，它們也無法完全符合當前美國清潔空氣法案的標準。
從協議來看，此案涉及482000台2.0TDI柴油機，包括早至2009年的Jetta、Golf和Beetle等車型。其中最老的車所排放的污染物，超出了排放標準的許可範圍。多年來，福士一直在偷偷規避這些標準。作為補償，福士將向美國環保項目投資數十億美元。
可惜的是，政府談判人員並未要求經過修理的汽車符合當前的排放標準，這引起了一些清潔空氣倡議者的不滿。「安全氣候運動」負責人貝克爾（Daniel Becker）表示，「不知道為什麼，他們竟然允許修理過的汽車仍然存在問題，允許那些車排放規定兩倍的污染物。」
福士同意出資100億美元，用於回購受影響的車型和補償車主。公司還將支付27億美元用於減輕污染的工程，並將額外拿出20億美元用於清潔技術項目。福士還與44個州達成了價值6.03億美元的和解協議，用於應對消費者和環境方面的索賠。福士集團行政總裁穆勒（Matthias Müller）在當時的一份聲明中說，「我們將嚴肅對待糾正錯誤的承諾，而且我們也相信這些協議是非常重要的一步。」
但是，福士的法律糾紛並未就此結束。 7月19日，紐約州、馬里蘭州和馬薩諸塞州都宣布將在近期提起訴訟。這些指控「表明了公司存在一種根深蒂固的傲慢，而且刻意罔顧法規，無視公眾健康與環境保護，」紐約州檢察長施耐德曼（Eric Schneiderman）在聲明中稱，「福士必須受到重罰，僅彌補美國消費者的損失遠遠不夠。」
案件還將指明福士旗下Audi和保時捷（Porsche）品牌，以及這些品牌的美國分部。據投訴，在接到德國一名高級內部律師的消息後，很多福士員工都銷毀了罪證，而且在多次調查中，都未向監管者透露事實出入背後的真正原因。福士發言人吉尼凡（Jeannine Ginivan）說，「很遺憾，有些州決定就環境問題進行起訴，儘管它們開始也支持聯邦與各州的協同行動。」
對於6月的和解協議，加州空氣資源委員會（California Air Resources Board）估計，修好之後，福士柴油機將減排80%至90%。但監管者還估計，這些車排放的氮氧化物可能會高達規定量的40倍。所以，就算減排90%，這些車的排放量還是會高於完全符合清潔空氣法規定的車輛。
「福士故意違背法律規定，還撒謊，並不是車主，」空氣資源委員會發言人克萊根（David Clegern）表示。「所以，對於如何處理自己的車輛，車主獲得了很大的自由。」
克萊根說，與福士的法律協議，將全面減少加州各地受影響車輛過去及未來的排放對環境造成的危害。作為協議的部分內容，最初揭發福士排放作弊的加州，還將獲得8億美元用於發展清潔能源。
福士可能會進行召回，但是在發出召回通知前，修理方式必須先經過監管機構批准。自然資源保護協會（Natural Resources Defense Council）能源與交通負責人黃生表示，相關研究，以及與福士的談判已經進行了數月之久，但雙方並未達成此類協議；給這些車輛安裝尿素罐——大多數柴油車都用它來淨化廢氣——費用將非常昂貴。不過，監管機構和福士在消除空氣污染的其他方式上達成了協議。「他們告訴我們，他們正在計算成本，」黃說，「有了緩解策略和回購策略，監管者有信心，將來和過去的排放將得到全面，甚至更多的補償。」
對於美國國家環保局（Environmental Protection Agency）而言，首要問題是「盡可能多和快地減少過度污染，以便同時對車主進行保護」，環保局發言人康格（Nick Conger）表示，「協議既能保護消費者，又能保護公眾，」他說，「車主們可以選擇自己想要的解決方案，福士則需要全面解決過度的氮氧化物所造成的污染。」
根據與美國政府的協議，福士需要在2019年6月30日前，召回85%的受影響車輛。如果未能達成目標，每少一個百分點，就必須多向環保信託機構支付8500萬美元。在加州，如果召回車輛未達85%，每少一個百分點，公司還需額外向信託機構支付1350萬美元。
儘管無法通過州排放測試，福士車主目前還是可以繼續駕駛車輛。將來，各州可能會要求這些車按規定減少排放。選擇回購的車主，將獲得車輛去年9月——福士承認作弊前——的以舊換新值和賠償金。
「污染越嚴重，就意味著疾病越多，過早死亡的人越多，」貝克爾說，「這是件壞事。我想政府已經權衡過各種選擇，而這是他們能拿出的最好方案。」――Jeff Plungis、Kartikay Mehrota、Erik Larson
2018年11月26日 星期一
Three WAYS TO MEASURE POVERTY： America Is Poorer Than It Thinks
Statistics don’t quite capture the extent of U.S. poverty. A new measure could change that.
Politics & Policy
America Is Poorer Than It Thinks
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-26/poverty-in-america-greater-than-statistics-indicate?utm_content=business&utm_source=facebook&cmpid=so
Statistics don’t quite capture the extent of U.S. poverty. A new measure could change that.By
Noah Smith
2018年11月26日 下午9:00 [GMT+8]
Anxiety about hunger is debilitating, too. Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaNoah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.Read more opinionFollow @Noahpinion on Twitter
COMMENTS
What does it mean to be poor? Currently there are two basic ways to define poverty. To get a better measure of who needs help — and a better sense of how to provide it — society needs a third definition.
The first definition is absolute poverty — essentially, material destitution. Human beings need food, water and shelter, and if we can’t afford these things, life is pretty miserable. In the U.S., the federal government has poverty guidelines that are based on food consumption: If you make less than about three times the minimum amount people need to spend on food each year, you’re poor.
By this measure, a single adult living on $12,140 or less is considered poor as of 2018. For a family of four, the figure is $25,100. There is also a Supplemental Poverty Measure that includes not just food but clothing, shelter and utilities. Thanks in part to increased government assistance, U.S. poverty according to this measure has fallen, especially for children.
Critics of the federal poverty guidelines argue that these numbers are too low, thanks to growing inequality — in the 1960s, the federal poverty level was about half of the median income, but is now well below that. Moreover, as a country grows richer, hunger becomes less common, so using it as measure of poverty becomes less useful. When the middle class is defined by having “a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard” (a campaign slogan from 1928), then simply having a chicken would seem to indicate that you’re not poor. But when your middle-class neighbors have several cars, several televisions and spacious homes, you might feel poor.
This is where the second measure — relative poverty — comes in. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines poverty this way: If you earn less than half of the median income, you’re poor. By this measure, the U.S. is doing a bit worse than other rich countries:
Poverty Is Relative
By one measure, the poverty level in the U.S. is higher than in many other wealthy nations
Source: Statista.com
Data from 2015.
But this, too, feels unsatisfying. Imagine a future U.S. in which the median American is fabulously wealthy — with flying cars, robot servants, and multiple overseas vacations every year. Should someone with half as many flying cars, robot servants and overseas vacations be considered poor? That seems like a stretch.
Intuitively, then, it seems that a third definition of poverty is necessary — one that measures more than just material well-being but also takes into account economic growth.
Luckily, there is just such a concept: It’s called material security. Psychologist Abraham Maslow believed that safety ranked second only to food and shelter as a basic human need. Someone who has food and a roof over their head today, but doesn’t know whether they will tomorrow, should be considered poor.
Imagine a 55-year-old single woman with diabetes working a part-time job making close to minimum wage. Thanks to government assistance, her total income is $15,000 a year. But if she loses her job or has a medical emergency — both of which, as Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” illustrates, are sadly common — she will probably become homeless. That in turn will make it very hard to get a new job, or to pay for her future health-care needs. In short, her situation is very precarious.
As Maslow would predict, this kind of insecurity causes extreme stress. And this precariousness exists along several dimensions — housing, health care, income, the risk of violence — which makes it hard to capture in a single measure. Still, there are some existing measures that could be used to help create a composite picture of security-based poverty.
For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tracks food insecurity, a survey-based measure of how worried people are that their food will run out. Economists track income volatility, which measures swings in earnings from year to year. This kind of risk has been on the rise in the U.S.:
A World of Uncertainty
Index of two-year income variance by age group
Source: Robert Moffitt and Sis Zhang, "Income Volatility and the PSID: Past Research and New Results," Johns Hopkins University; author's calculations
The risk of eviction, meanwhile, can be roughly measured by the percentage of people’s incomes that they spend on shelter each month. As of 2015, 17 percent of Americans spent half or more of their incomes on rent.
A reasonable, common-sense definition of poverty should include not just an absolute measure of material deprivation and a relative gauge of a person’s situation compared to the rest of society. It should also strive to measure how secure people feel — in their homes, their health, and their jobs.
This new measure might well show that poverty in the U.S. is worse than the current statistics say. But an accurate view of a problem is the first step toward addressing it. And eliminating poverty should be a priority of any wealthy society.
2018年11月22日 星期四
『幻滅 外国人社会学者が見た戦後日本70年』； British sociologist Ronald Dore traced slide of corporate values in Japan
| VOX POPULI: UK researcher Dore traced slide of corporate values in Japan
During the postwar occupation of Japan by Allied forces, British sociologist Ronald Dore, who died on Nov. 13 at the age of 93 in Bologna, Italy, visited ...
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2018年11月16日 星期五
Redefining the Kilogram kilogram定義改定成 物理定数，
表面の汚れや傷で重さがわずかに変わる可能性がある分銅「国際キログラム原器」から、物理学の「プランク定数」へ。重さの単位「キログラム」の定義が約130年ぶりに変更されました。
2018.11.16
BREAKING
Redefining the Kilogram
Officials will vote to overhaul the SI system of measurements, basing units such as the kilogram not on physical objects but on fundamental constants
By Clara Moskowitz | Scientific American November 2018 Issue
Kilogram No. 20, in the U.S., is one of several “working standards.” Credit: Science SourceThe kilogram is shrinking.
The official object that defines the mass of a kilogram is a tiny, 139-year-old cylinder of platinum and iridium that resides in a triple-locked vault near Paris. Because it is so important, scientists almost never take it out; instead they use copies called working standards. But the last time they did inspect the real kilogram, they found it is roughly five parts in 100 million heavier than all the working standards, which have been leaving behind a few atoms of metal every time they are put on scales. This is one of the reasons the kilogram may soon be redefined not by a physical object but through calculations based on fundamental constants.
“This [shrinking] is the kind of thing that happens when you have an object that needs to be conserved in order to have a standard,” says Peter Mohr, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who serves on the committee that oversees the International System of Units (SI). “Fundamental constants, on the other hand, are not going to change over time.”
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The redefinition of the kilogram will be part of a planned larger overhaul to make SI units fully dependent on constants of nature. Representatives from 57 countries will vote on the proposed change this month at a conference in Versailles, France, and the new rules are expected to pass. Along with the kilogram, the ampere (the unit of electric current), kelvin (temperature) and mole (amount of a substance) will get new definitions. The four will be based on Planck's constant, the elementary charge, the Boltzmann constant and the Avogadro constant, respectively. All these constants are determined by laboratory measurements, which have some inherent uncertainty. But if the vote is successful, countries using SI will agree on a fixed value for each constant based on the best data available and use them to derive the units.
What will happen to the old kilogram artifacts after the redefinition? Rather than packing them off to museums, scientists plan to keep studying how they fare over time. “There is so much measurement history on these,” says physicist Stephan Schlamminger of NIST. “It would be irresponsible to not continue to measure them.”
2018年11月4日 星期日
2018年11月3日 星期六
交情千千( 第129卷；2018.11)
訪客：熊維強夫婦
| Peter Hsiung shared a photo with you | ||
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重頭戲：
11月8日(週四) 漢清講堂聚會上午1000- 1600 恭賀繆詠華(Miao Yung Hua) 女士榮獲 "2018年台法文化獎"；莊垂勝、林莊生父子與我的林莊生加拿大訪談
https://hclectures.blogspot.com/2018/10/118.html
Simon U宋繆女士的賀禮：謝謝David Hsu的幫忙採購
Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris: The Story of a Friendship, a Novel, and a Terrible Year Hardcover – April 4, 2017
2018年11月2日 星期五
普悠瑪脫軌：日本車輛製造株式會社出面坦承線路設計有失誤
Japanese maker of train in deadly Taiwan crash finds design flaw
TOKYO/TAIPEI (Reuters) - The Japanese manufacturer of a train that derailed in Taiwan killing 18 people said it had discovered a design flaw that ...
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