The Sam Bankman-Fried trial opened this week with jury selection. I have been fascinated by the case, not just because of the size of the losses of the investors or because some of the people he had paid were sports celebrities like Tom Brady and Steph Curry. The heart of the case, which makes me feel like I want to sit in a box seat, revolves around Bankman-Fried and his occasional girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, who has decided to become a witness for the prosecution. Has Ellison come down with a case of guilty conscience or is she trying to soften…
Author: Lloyd Graff
In 2009, we ran a short commentary about an intriguing product, a brass bell made on an Acme screw machine. The post generated a lot of commentary about the item, its creation, and the history of these machines in general. We are resharing this in a unique format with the comments, so that you might also add to the discussion. Though we do not have another bell to give away, we believe the subject matter to be of interest to our current audience, prize or no prize. The Original Post From https://todaysmachiningworld.com/precision-machining-rings-out/ Original Text By Lloyd Graff and Noah Graff…
American Ninja Warrior just completed its entertaining 2023 season with 17-year-old Vance Law winning a million dollars by completing incredible challenges of strength and coordination faster than any of the other contestants. All of the finalists were in their teens or 20s. Now we get to watch the not-so-entertaining American Bungling Warriors battle it out in Detroit for a new UAW contract with the Big Three auto companies. Unfortunately, everybody on this show will be a loser. The precision machining business will be a loser too, at least in the short run. The prominent players are all playing their roles.…
We will get an auto strike tomorrow. How do I know? Do I have a plant at the negotiating table? Have I bugged Shawn Fain’s phone (head of UAW)? No, no, no. But my gut tells me that the Union is aching to punch their company bosses in the gut. It’s just been too long to live under the guise of harmony as the truckers, pilots, and dockworkers have shown the world their power. The money differences while, they seem big on paper, will be compromised because labor costs for Union and non-Union auto workers will ultimately be within reach…
Wednesday last week was exactly 15 years since Risa drove me 55 miles to see a friend who was an infectious disease doctor. I thought I might have had pneumonia, but I suspected it was something worse. He was attending to a boy with a leg issue, but he saw me waiting and came out after a few minutes to say hello and listen to my heart. He put the stethoscope on my chest and with concern in his voice he said, “Lloyd, I’m going to wheel you into the emergency room myself.” The last thing I remember is the…
My son-in-law, Scott, bet a friend a fancy dinner that neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden would be the next president. No odds were given. I silently pledged that I would not write about the upcoming presidential election, but this contrarian bet gave me the entree to discuss politics without needing to pick a team. Scott is fairly apolitical, very smart and works in the artificial intelligence field, but when he told me about the bet several weeks ago, I considered it briefly and then told him to prepare to pick up the check. But now I believe he is…
My used machine tool company, Graff-Pinkert, has sold some used Davenport multi-spindle screw machines to China over the years. It’s impossible to know what type of parts they will make. Haas Automation stopped selling machines to Russia after the invasion in February, but according to a PBS news show Haas parts are still reaching Putin’s people. Gene Haas’ Formula 1 racing team’s top sponsor was a major fertilizer producer based in Russia. The son of that company’s owner, Nikita, was the car’s driver. The Russians no longer put their name on the Haas car and Nikita is out as a driver,…
It’s August. The 2023 Chicago Cubs have a shot at the playoffs, and my granddaughters have become avid fans. Life is good. Baseball. “The greatest game in the world,” according to the significant prophet, Harry Caray. I’ve written about my love of the Cubs before, but really, can you write about it too much? My passion for the game probably began when I was three years old. I was a late talker. My first word was probably “Cubs,” but who can remember? My mom loved the Cubs. One of my happiest memories as a kid was going to Wrigley Field…
There’s no good writing, only good rewriting. I wrote a lovely blog about the possibility of a UPS strike. Then they settled! ___ I should have remembered my interview with James Hoffa, Jr., in 2006 about the “impending” UPS strike. Hoffa was head of the Teamsters Union. He told me “don’t worry about it.” There are 23 Locals, and you must satisfy them. Then you can make a national deal. And there was no strike. This time around, the key issue was how do you deal with part-time people who are increasingly part of the UPS workforce. In previous negotiations,…
I feel like I’m at Manny’s Deli for lunch, walking down the buffet aisle almost overwhelmed by the tasty options. I’m writing this blog hoping to pick the tastiest threads to weave together. The Supreme Court ruled that Affirmative Action was unconstitutional at Harvard and the University of North Carolina last week. At long last, in my opinion. If there was ever a broken system it was Harvard’s admission to the Freshman class, limited to 2,000 students. First, Harvard had 30 percent of spaces allocated to legacies. These were the children of former graduates, particularly famous and wealthy ones. Then…