What thoughts do you have on the passing of John Glenn? Not an engineer, but certainly an iconic figure who rode into space on the accomplishments of engineers.

Curious for your back-of-the-envelope assessment: Let’s say EPA stops enforcing air and water rules for power plants. Would doing so ease regulatory pressure enough on coal-fired power plants to put them back in the money and farther up the dispatch curve? Or is the regulatory structure such that state enforcement would mean that “turning off” environmental controls would not be an option?

It would seem, too, that the economics of natural gas remain a tangible factor in coal’s viability, not to mention state-by-state renewable energy targets, as well as regional market structures that some believe are making nuclear power uneconomic.

Your thoughts?

Parts 1 and 2 of our series on corrosion basics are available. Part 1 can be found here. And Part 2 can be found here. Weigh in with your comments!

Plans for the New Glenn rocket were unveiled by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Have a look at the article, then tell us about your earliest memory of a rocket launch. Could be a backyard launch of a model rocket or a Cape Canaveral (or elsewhere!) launch.

Joe Sutter, chief engineer for the Boeing-747, died August 30. Here's an article remembering some of his lifetime achievements. What's your favorite airplane and why?