Ash Stopping production at BMW - The Interconnected World #ashtag

Here is a link I picked up on Twitter and had Google Translate convert - It's not just fresh veggies and flowers but high end components that are caught. 

Munich (apn) BMW (Xetra: 519000- News ) stops the car production in three German plants, because the flight ban electronic components missing as a result. The world's largest BMW plant in Dingolfing Lower bands are the late shift from the quiet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday suspended the work in the plants in Regensburg and Munich. How BMW spokesman Matthias Schmidt said, so is the production of cars from 7000. But customers should not fear any delays. The backlog should be caught as soon as the parts could be delivered again.

Again the issue is system design. The underlying assumption is that the world we know is stable. It's not!

Think of your travel plans now as you look ahead. Will you take your flights for granted? Then think of how you work. Can you schedule tight travel as a norm now?

Then think of say where your food comes from. Nit just your Kenyan beans but where all your food comes from. Think about where the oil comes from and how vital it is. With most food coming from over 1,000 miles away and no more than 3 days inventory locally, is that smart? With our entire way of life dependent oc cheap easy to get oil from far away - with the key amounts coming from very unstable places - is that smart?

We have made a huge bet on cheap easy to get oil and on a global transportation system. We have no back up plan.

Do you have car or home insurance? Of course you do. So why have we been so blind about more important things?

Food, energy and shelter.  These are non negotiable issues. You can live without a BMW but not without food.

Time to put our dependency on the table. Time to plan to grow our local resiliency.

Flights cancelled as ash cloud heads toward Canadian airspace #ashtag

Volcanic ash from a massive plume drifting over Europe may be headed all the way to Newfoundland and that has caused many flights out of St. John's to be cancelled for Monday morning.

That means musicians and other revellers in St. John's for the Juno Awards over the weekend could have a difficult time leaving the Rock after a night of celebrating Canadian music.

An erupting volcano in Iceland has been pumping a massive cloud of ash into the sky for days, forcing the closure of airspace over much of Europe.

Transport Canada and Nav Canada have advised St. John's International Airport that there's a chance the ash spewing from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano will reach St. John's airspace Monday morning, said a spokeswoman for the airport.

via theglobeandmail.com

Oh Oh - I am off to St Louis today - when will I get home?

Finnish fighter jets damaged by volcanic cloud - Would you Fly? #ashtag

HELSINKI - Finnish fighter jets which flew through the volcanic dust covering much of Europe suffered damage and the air force warned Friday the cloud could have a significant impact on planes.

The air force F-18 Hornet jets were on training flights in northern Finland on Thursday morning, when airspace was still open, and the engines were later found to contain fine, volcanic ash dust.

via www2.canada.com

"Based on the pictures, it was discovered that even short flights in ash dust may cause significant damage to an airplane's engine," the Finnish Defence Forces said in a statement.

Images taken inside one Hornet engine with a fibroscope camera indicated that the heat of the engine - around 1,000 degrees Celcius - had melted the ash inside the engine, blocking ventilation channels. "Blockages of ventilation channels caused by melting ash lead engine components to overheat and material to weaken," it said, adding this could fracture rotating engine parts.

In the worst case, the weakening of component materials could cause "parts to detach and the engine to be destroyed," it said.

The Hornets exposed to the dust from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland would be checked thoroughly, with "at least some" of the engines detached and sent for further studies and repair.

A growing question is "Are we over reacting - this suggests not. What would you do? Would you fly?

HT Ton Z