A Golf Blog

American's Into Insourcing

I'm sure you know about Northwest Airlines using replacement mechanics. Did you know that United announced they are turning Boeing 777 maintenance over to a Chinese company in Beijing?

It's refreshing to know that American, rather than outsourcing, is soliciting additional maintenance business. I guess they figure they can do better keeping it in-house.

Link (Free reg. rqd., sorry)

NWA to Pilots - 'Come on, let's talk'

I see where Northwest Airlines is wanting their pilots back in negotiations for talks on reductions in both wages and benefits as well as changes in work rules. It could result in about 1,100 jobs.

Brownout in Buffalo

I’m a regular reader of Jonathan Schwartz’s web log. I don’t always agree with what he has to say and I don’t always understand it either. But, I did agree with and understand yesterday’s post. It was all about the price of oil and how the increases are affecting industry not necessarily directly associated with oil.

What really struck me was that the President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun publicly recognized an employee for an analysis of electricity usage by the University of Buffalo. If you haven’t read it, Marc Hamilton’s analysis is quite telling.

RSS is Losing Relevance

At least that’s what Jim Rapoza at Ziff Davis would have you believe.

Help us understand how RSS and subscribing to feeds robs one of their independence. And Jim, if the feeds you have subscribed to become noise, un-subscribe. It’s that easy.

More on Niche Travelers

Gridskipper also did a post on niche travelers.

Niche Travelers

If you look at some of the online travel sites (here and here), you will notice that they market to niche groups. And, over time we’ve seen agents specialize – you can get package deals for gourmet cooking / dining, packages for romance, packages for high adventure and the list is only limited by your imagination. And, there is even a site dedicated to travel for college students (PubSub turned that one up yesterday).

You know what, though? I never really thought of classifying women as a niche. A short list of sites dedicated to all-female tour groups:
• Adventure Women
• American Woman Road and Travel
• Call of the Wild
• Diva Expeditions
• Gutsy Women Travel
• Journey Weavers
• Outdoor Beyond
• Senior Women’s Travel
• Unleashed Adventures

Sites consolidated by Mary Ann Anderson for Knight Ridder. I’d link to her story, but I can’t seem to locate it. At some point, the Star-Telegram will get it and loosen their choke hold on archived content.

National Hurricane Center RSS Feeds

I know my brother and his family are watching as Katrina is bearing down on Florida's Atlantic coast. They got pounded twice last year. If you are interested, the National Hurricane Center has several RSS feeds.

Pandora

Read about it on the Scobleizer. I got my invite today and I think that Tim Westergren has a winner.

Trouble is, with all this toe tapping going on, I'm having trouble keeping my mind on the task at hand.

21D

That was the seat next to me (yes, I had the dreaded middle seat) yesterday on a flight from Ft Lauderdale to Dallas / Fort Worth. I spent a couple of days there visiting Mom. She’s in therapy recovering from a procedure to prevent clots in her lungs getting into her system.

On some flights, mostly larger planes, American Airlines shows CBS’ Eye on America – usually two or three 30 minute sit coms and maybe a segment for 60 Minutes. Well, yesterday they showed an entire movie; Monster-in-Law. Now I’m not familiar with Jennifer Lopez’s work, nor am I much of a fan of Hanoi Jane Fonda. But the lady in 21D loved it; loved it so much she laughed heartily throughout the entire flick. I kept turning up the volume on the music I was listening to to drown out the snarks but all that did was give me a headache. And the guy in 20D never did get to sleep.

Glad to be home.

Too Connected

You know, there are times when I think we are a bit obsessed with staying connected. Kim and I were invited to speak at a VPs staff meeting earlier this week and everyone had a Blackberry device that seemed to be set to constant vibration. I must admit that whether it was a phone call or an incoming email, it was a distraction.

I’d go crazy.