Get your pilot's license!

After a nearly four-year drought of openings, the airline industry is on the brink of what’s predicted to be the biggest hiring surge of pilots in history. Boeing has forecast a need for 466,650 more commercial pilots by 2029 – an average of 23,300 new pilots a year. Nearly 40% of the openings will be needed to meet the soaring travel market in the Asia-Pacific region, but more than 97,000 will be in North America, predicts Boeing. A shortage of pilots is already being seen in some countries. The hiring surge is being fueled by rapid growth of travel to Asia, a wave of mandatory pilot retirements in the U.S. (federal law requires mandatory retirement age of 65 for pilots), flight rule changes that increase the time pilots must train, rest and work, and a rebounding-increase in air travel in the U.S. There is also competition from corporations and freight moving firms. The airline industry is facing the questions of where are the new plots going to come from and how are they going to finance them? Beginning pilots make around $22,000 per year after incurring about $100,000 in training and education costs, while the most senior pilots at major airlines earn more than $186,000 annually. (usatoday.com, June 21, 2011)

thouoghts dreams words

Your words, your dreams, and your thoughts have the power to create conditions in your life. What you speak about, you can bring about. (thanks Ajay)

Nevada Legalizes Self-Driving Cars

by John Stossel | June 25, 2011

I reported earlier this year about a cool new technology: cars that drive themselves. Google already designed one, and it drove more than a thousand miles on public roads using just a computer chip and a sensor to detect other cars. It only crashed once, and in that case it was rear-ended while it was stopped at a red light.

So why can’t you buy one yet? Because they’re illegal. Outdated government rules in every state require a driver always to be in control of the wheel.

But today, Nevada – at Google’s urging – became the first state to pass a bill that allows driverless cars. Wow--a government that actually repealed a law.

It could have a big impact. According to transportation expert Randal O’Toole, self-driving cars could safely drive close together at higher speeds, since computers have better reaction times than people. About 6,000 robot cars could drive on highways that currently supports 2,000 regular cars – and that means fewer traffic jams, less congestion and fewer idling cars wasting fuel.

We should stop wasting taxpayer money on high-speed rail and move to this cleaner, more convenient technology, that's just around the corner.

Service

"Sometimes the nicest thing you can do for someone is to allow them to do something for you.” John Steinbeck