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To the left is Ravenea glauca. The small palm next to it is Phoenix laureirii. Far right is Livistona nitida. Waterfall when it rains. Far left is Brahea edule Far left is Trachycarpus latisectus

This is a very informative and pretty amazing two and a half minute video that shows the entire process of how a Boeing 737 is built. This particular video shows the construction of Boeing 737-7H4 N945WN, which was delivered to Southwest Airlines on March 31st, 2010. The aircraft is painted in a special "State of Florida" colorscheme, and was the 336th Boeing 737-700 delivered to Southwest. Should add that all Boeing 737 fuselages are built in Wichita, KS, and then shipped via train to Renton, WA, for final assembly. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=zKnsyYbfC60&feature=popular

Well, QANTAS is using the A380 on the Sydney-Los Angeles run. And considering all the initial problems, which caused a two year delay for the entire project, and their subsequent production problems, and a very obvious lack of interest from the airlines around the world to order the A380, Airbus is probably right about now accepting the inevitable - they will never make any money on the A380. As long as they keep building it, it will always be a financial drain on their resources. It's pretty well known that every single airline that has placed an order up to this point for the A380 paid considerably less than list price. As a result, no airline executive in his or her right mind will EVER pay list price for the A380. They will always expect a major discount, which will basically force Airbus to sell them at cost. Once they get tired of doing that, then that's the end of production. But it will take quite a few years, since they first have to exhaust the current backlog of 174 aircraft, plus any new orders they may acquire in the meantime.

If you're referring to the A380, then yes, they're still not "on track". What that means is that the production line is still not working the way it was envisioned. A few years ago, Airbus was planning to produce 4 A380s every month right about now, and deliver 48 every year. They have a lot of "post production line issues" and all those issues have to be addressed individually, aircraft by aircraft. If they deliver 20 A380s in 2010, they'd be lucky, and if the production stabilizes at around 2 aircraft per month, that's probably the best they can ever hope for. Lufthansa just took delivery of its first A380, and expects the second one very soon. It was just made public that there were so many post-prodction problems that had to be fixed that Airbus did not have the manpower to handle all those issues and they actually had to pay Lufthansa Technik (a Lufthansa subsidiary in Hamburg that specializes in major overhauls, and not just for Lufthansa) and Lufthansa Technik spent a total of 24,000 manhours working on these two A380s. That's an astounding amount of time and additional work, and you can imagine the unexpected extra expense, which of course Airbus was responsible for.

I love this one by Denny Martin. I used to professionally dance to this many years ago. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Susan, I agree with your landscaper - I think it looked just as nice with its leaf bases attached. Although it still looks good. I've seen plenty of palms wrecked by removing old leaves, particularly Phoenix canariensis, which can be a great looking palm if left to form a natural crown. Who would want to remove the skirt from a W. filifera - they look cute, like some sort of Muppet in a fur coat! As for the Trachy's, they do look cool and tropical when first stripped, but when it gets out of reach you will have one ugly, mishapen, unbalanced monster. Also why not just grow a T. latisectus or martianus which are naturally bare trunked? Thats my opinion, for what its worth.... Cheers, Jonathan

I just noticed this on my juvenile leaf form Chamaerops. It's been a male up until this year, but appears to have gone hermaphroditic on me. Also my Chamaerops var. argentea went through a complete sex change from male to female. Is this common in Chamaerops or am I seeing things? The whole enchilada Closer Closer

Hi Dick, Thank you for the insight, it's pretty interesting that some can transform between sexes, naturally. Does the Trachycarupus set seed? Matt

Dean, How about monitoring your nephew, and tell him to shave that ugly beard too! Dick

It takes after it's father.

Matt, I have 3 species that have the same trait as your Chamaerops, a mutant Chamaerops, Tracheycarpus wagnerianus and Rhapidophyllum hystrix. Even stranger, the specimen Chamaerops growing by my pool has 8 trunks, 7 being female and one trunk is a male. I'm positive all the trunks belong to the same plant.That's an excellent photograph showing the fruit forming mixed with the male flowers. I guess it's not to unusual for Rhapidophyllum to have both sexes. I have one that some years has all male flowers and other years both sexes and it produces viable seeds. I was told once by Dr. Natalie Uhl that the botanical description for this phenomena, in what is normally a dioecious plant, is called polygamo-dioecious. Dick