Down To Earth With A Bump

Long before the shuttle Columbia was destroyed on re-entry last month, NASA scientists had considered literally hundreds of problems that might threaten the craft’s safety — and decided to launch anyway. Columbia had accumulated a thick sheaf of what the rocket business calls safety waivers — problems that NASA had noted but decided posed too small a risk to bother with.

“That’s a pretty deep stack; it really is,” one member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board told TIME. “A lot of these [waivers] are legitimate — every launch is going to have them — but others are things you’ve learned to live with.” The board is still weeks away from determining what caused Columbia to crash. But the overuse of the safety waivers hints that some blame may lie with NASA’s approach to risk assessment. Many of the waivers, from snapped pins to broken foam, had been carried over from flight to flight during Columbia’s 22 years of use.

“Engineers are raising the same concerns they were years ago,” says Sheila Widnall, who is on the investigation board. “I sympathize that you can’t hold up a launch every time you have a concern. But there needs to be a way to put those concerns into an actionable form.” — By Broward Liston

Bitten By The Big Apple Besieged by falling poll numbers and a $3.4 billion budget deficit, New York’s Mayor and self-made billionaire Michael Bloomberg is leaving the city to do a little hunting — in his $10 million London townhouse. Next week, Bloomberg will host London’s élite business leaders and try to sell them on moving their companies to New York. And he’ll also meet London’s Mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone. The odd couple will talk about London’s new congestion charge — something else Bloomberg is interested in importing. Does it pay to decamp? Here’s Biz Watch’s tale of the tape. New York London $62.80 Office leasing costs, per square foot $118.60 $43,990 average wages $55,742 50% top corporate tax rate 30% $1.50 Price of a subway ticket $3.20 26% working-age population with a university degree 21%

Bitten By The Big Apple Besieged by falling poll numbers and a $3.4 billion budget deficit, New York’s Mayor and self-made billionaire Michael Bloomberg is leaving the city to do a little hunting — in his $10 million London townhouse. Next week, Bloomberg will host London’s élite business leaders and try to sell them on moving their companies to New York. And he’ll also meet London’s Mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone. The odd couple will talk about London’s new congestion charge — something else Bloomberg is interested in importing. Does it pay to decamp? Here’s Biz Watch’s tale of the tape. New York London $62.80 Office leasing costs, per square foot $118.60 $43,990 average wages $55,742 50% top corporate tax rate 30% $1.50 Price of a subway ticket $3.20 26% working-age population with a university degree 21%

Bitten By The Big Apple
Besieged by falling poll numbers and a $3.4 billion budget deficit, New York’s Mayor and self-made billionaire Michael Bloomberg is leaving the city to do a little hunting — in his $10 million London townhouse. Next week, Bloomberg will host London’s élite business leaders and try to sell them on moving their companies to New York. And he’ll also meet London’s Mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone. The odd couple will talk about London’s new congestion charge — something else Bloomberg is interested in importing. Does it pay to decamp? Here’s Biz Watch’s tale of the tape.

New York London $62.80 Office leasing costs, per square foot $118.60 $43,990 average wages $55,742 50% top corporate tax rate 30% $1.50 Price of a subway ticket $3.20 26% working-age population with a university degree 21%

New York London $62.80 Office leasing costs, per square foot $118.60 $43,990 average wages $55,742 50% top corporate tax rate 30% $1.50 Price of a subway ticket $3.20 26% working-age population with a university degree 21%

New York		London
$62.80	Office leasing costs, per square foot	$118.60
$43,990	average wages	$55,742
50%	top corporate tax rate	30%
$1.50	Price of a subway ticket	$3.20
26%	working-age population with a university degree	21%

New York London $62.80 Office leasing costs, per square foot $118.60 $43,990 average wages $55,742 50% top corporate tax rate 30% $1.50 Price of a subway ticket $3.20 26% working-age population with a university degree 21%

THE BOTTOM LINE
“Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction”
WARREN BUFFETT, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, in his annual letter to shareholders, lashing out against the $127 trillion market in complex futures contracts

See Also: Comeback Crusader

THE BOTTOM LINE
“Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction”
WARREN BUFFETT, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, in his annual letter to shareholders, lashing out against the $127 trillion market in complex futures contracts

See Also: Comeback Crusader