Author: Noah Graff

As everyone knows, GM and Ford are suffering big time – burning billions every month, desperately begging the government for bailout money – but you might be surprised that Toyota, the “intelligent” auto company that has been showing up the Big Three for almost two decades is also in its own house of pain. Its stock dropped 20 percent last week when it announced that it will make almost no money during the second half of its current fiscal year and expects full year profit to drop by 68 percent. Much of this pain of course is the result of…

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By Lloyd Graff About five and a half years ago my son Noah and I went to the Big Ten basketball championship at the United Center in Chicago. It was an early round and the stadium was pretty empty, but seated a few rows beneath us were a couple of guys I recognized – David Axelrod, and Rahm Emanuel. It is no huge leap of faith to believe that these smart young politicos were discussing how they were going to put Barack Obama into the White House.Today Axelrod is considered the genius behind the masterful Obama campaign and Emanuel is…

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By Lloyd Graff Today is an exciting day for me and an exciting day for America. I voted early this morning, and the line forced me to wait more than an hour to get a ballot. I live in a beautiful southern suburb of Chicago named Olympia Fields. I’ve lived there for 30 years. I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes to vote. This election is different. The waiting line was comprised of almost all black people – probably 90 percent, but who’s counting. When I moved to Olympia Fields you would have seen the reverse number. And I could…

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By Noah Graff Chicago Public Radio discussed a study today showing that employees giving gifts to bosses generally improves their treatment at work, even if bosses know they are trying to kiss up.Ron Deluga, Professor of psychology at Bryant University in Rhode Island, surveyed 150 people and their bosses. Bosses graded their employees on a scale of one to five on a variety of ingratiating behaviors like giving compliments, gifts, agreeing with opinions etc. The employees also graded themselves on that same behavior.Even though both the supervisor and the given subordinate agreed on the extent to which that subordinate would…

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Apple recently released their new MacBook notebook computers. The company put out an excellent video which spends a great deal of time discussing the machining of the computer’s unique one piece design composed of aluminum. Apple set out to create the lightest, thinnest, most robust and sexy notebook of its kind. Aluminum was chosen as the material because it has a great strength to weight ratio and potential for a high quality finish. The video shows the extensive precision machining involved in the computer’s production, from the extrusion process to produce single blocks of aluminum through the 13 separate milling…

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Eighty-year-old, billionaire, oil baron T. Boone Pickens believes that America’s oil era is over. He is now going full speed into the alternative energy business, building filling stations for CNG cars around the U.S. and spending $2 billion out of what he hopes will be $10 billion to build an enormous wind farm. This is the beginning of his “Pickens Plan,” the goal of which is to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil by 30 percent within 10 years. The plan will require $500 billion more in private investment and $150 billion in government subsidies. He wants the next…

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By Noah Graff A recent article in Modern Machine Shop discussed the dilemma of using video cameras to monitor the daily activities of employees. In their research they found that managers and employees are divided on whether cameras are necessary in a plant. Some people felt that managers shouldn’t need cameras if the employees are valued and trusted, other people argued that employees shouldn’t mind the cameras if they are working as they should.I’d be very interested to see a study on whether the introduction of cameras in plants boosts productivity or hurts it. Monitoring with cameras could be a…

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By Noah Graff A recent article by wired.com suggested that one of the best remedies for the struggling U.S. economy would be an extensive overhaul of the country’s crumbling infrastructure. Obama and McCain talk a lot about alternative energy, electric cars and high speed trains but those aspirations will take a great deal of time to come to fruition (assuming they do), and would be not be worth much if the roads, bridges, drinking water, and transit systems are a shambles.A report card issued three years ago by the American Society of Civil Engineers gives those things listed above a…

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By Lloyd Graff I think we got an important signal Tuesday when Bank of America decided not to raise credit lines for McDonalds franchisees to buy new equipment such as coffee machines. They’re keeping credit lines as they are – that doesn’t mean they’re cutting them, it just means they’re not raising them as a general policy. This is important because it shows that the Wall Street mess is starting to filter down to the lending habits of major banks. I think this is going to affect industrial equipment purchases because it affects the money available to borrow. It’s going…

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Today’s Machining World has produced a video that will give you insider tips on using public transportation to get from O’Hare airport to downtown Chicago and then from downtown to IMTS at McCormick Place. There are also recommendations on some great restaurants close to the show.

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