Clearing Out The In-Box -- March 22, 2022

Terrorist incident or distraught pilot? From CNBC regarding that downed Boeing 737-800:

For an aircraft like China Eastern’s Boeing 737-800 to crash in midflight is “simply unprecedented,” said one aviation analyst who cited the plane’s excellent safety record.

“Air travel is the safest form of transport. But when we do suffer incidents or accidents, we don’t see anything like what we have seen in China over the last 24 hours,” Alex Macheras, an independent aviation analyst, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Tuesday.

No bodies or survivors have yet been found from the crash as of Tuesday morning, Chinese state media said. The domestic flight, which was carrying 132 people, nose-dived Monday afternoon in the southern region of Guangxi.

Stormy:

• loses appeal;
• owes former president $300,000 (or almost that much);
• news you won't see in the evening news tonight
  

Fifty best science fiction books of all time.

• as compiled by Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
• "plenty of imitators have tried to match the heights of our #1 but none have come close."
• #16: The Complete Robot, by Isaac Asimov
• #12: 1984, George Orwell
• #3: The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
• #2: Dune, Frank Herbert
• #1: at the link
• hint: author, female
• hint: author, a teenage
• hint: author, married to a rock star
• hint: also ranked #1 among horror fiction (needs to be fact-checked)
  
• hint: resulted in at least one movie

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The Apple EV Page

Re-posting:

Apple: if Apple is going to deliver their first EV by 2025, they need to sort out where their EV is going to be built: Foxconn? Kia? Porsche? Apple is involved with a lot of different auto manufacturers. Most intriguing? Porsche.

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said that the company has discussed "exciting common projects" with Apple, but it it is currently too soon to make any firm decisions on future projects. It is unclear exactly what the seemingly off-hand remark refers to, but it could relate to Apple's long-rumored electric vehicle project.

Blume said that Porsche and Apple traditionally cooperate closely and are "on the same wavelength," and managers from Porsche travelled to the United States late last year to discuss joint projects with Apple.

Porsche: wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen

• has sprinted out to the forefront in the EV space
• has set ambitious targets in the domain
• 40% of Porsche's deliveries in Europe, last year, were already at least 40% partly electric;
• target:
• generate half its annual sales from EVs by 2025
• 80% of all new vehicles by 2030 to be all-electric
• globally: Porsche delivered 301,915 vehicles, exceeding the 300,000mark for first time in its history:
• 2021-end (numbers rounded):
• revenues: $40 billion
• up $5 billion
• operating profit jumped 27% to $6 billion

Apple likes winners.