Blog Heap o' Transport Links

| All Dates |
Blog-Heap links regarding transportation and related infrastructure,
also energy, because it takes energy to transport,
and virtuality, because telepresence saves on transpresence.

Animals and Transport

Dolphin
Those Aren't Dolphins
@SJPFISH, Twitter Tue 2020 Sep 1, 3:40pm

Wait one second!

Those aren’t Dolphins 🐬 following my boat!

Twitter video, 0:40

Transport Near-Tragedy

Hancock Elevator Goes Free-Fall
Vince Gerasole | CBS Chicago Sun 2018 Nov 18, 7:40am

CHICAGO Hancock Tower …A broken hoist rope caused the express elevator to malfunction… they had careened from the 95th floor down to the 11th floor.… It took nearly three hours to rescue six people… The rescue crew had to hammer out a concrete wall in the garage area of the 11th floor.…

I've been on that elevator, and contemplated this very scenario. Even knowing all the modern safeties, which properly kicked in here, it seems, kinda terrifying. Wheeee! Gulp!

Spacecraft

Russian Craft Explodes, 2 'Nauts Safe
Shamil Zhumatov | OANN Thu 2018 Oct 11, 2:54pm

…two-man U.S.-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft en route to the International Space Station was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Thursday when their rocket failed in mid-air. U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely without harm… made what NASA called a steep ballistic descent to Earth… Moscow immediately suspended all manned space launches… Footage from inside the Soyuz had shown the two men being shaken around at the moment the failure occurred, with their arms and legs flailing. Ovchinin, the Russian cosmonaut, can be heard saying: “That was a quick flight.”…

Energy

Dark Green Energy
Investors Business Daily Tue 2018 Oct 9, 7:42pm

If you care about global warming, you must like wind power, right? But what if wind power itself ends up contributing to a warmer climate? That appears to be the case, according to a new study.…

Transport Business

Interstate System Almost Complete
Robinson Meyer, the Atlantic Fri 2018 Jul 13, 12:00pm

…Interstate 95, the country’s most used highway, will finally run as one continuous road between Miami and Maine by the late summer. The interstate’s infamous “gap” on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border will be closed, turning I-95 into an unbroken river of concrete more than 1,900 miles long. In so doing, it will also mark a larger milestone, say transportation officials—the completion of the original United States interstate system.…

Energy

Earth
Save the Oceans – Stop Recycling Plastic!
James Delingpole, Breitbart Sun 2018 Jul 1, 3:37pm

…Green recycling policy is killing the oceans with plastic pollution…

Well, it's really that what is supposed to be being recycled just isn't.

Energy

Smiling Trump
Trump Ups Saudi Oil Production with One Call
President Donald J. Trump, Twitter Sat 2018 Jun 30, 12:23pm

Just spoke to King Salman of Saudi Arabia and explained to him that, because of the turmoil & disfunction in Iran and Venezuela, I am asking that Saudi Arabia increase oil production, maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels, to make up the difference...Prices to high! He has agreed!

But, but, typo! Prices TOO high. What an idiot.

Energy

Recylers Don't
Investors Business Daily Thu 2018 Jun 7, 6:41pm

…The New York Times recently reported that, unknown to most families who spend hours separating garbage into little recycling bins, much of the stuff ends up in a landfill anyway.

One big reason: China has essentially shut the door to U.S. recyclables.…

Yuge scam

Energy

Recycles Heading to Landfills
Investors Business Daily Sat 2018 Jun 2, 8:05am

…evidence is piling up that recycling is a waste of time and money, and a bit of a fraud.…

Has been for a long time. Now it's getting worse.

Energy

No Way to Run a Country
Tom Servo, Ace of Spades Thu 2018 Apr 26, 8:29am

One of the stories about Venezuela that is darkly comic, out in the last couple of weeks, is that now thousands of oilfield workers, including almost all at the professional level, are fleeing the country with little more than the clothes on their backs. Reason? Maduro's answer to dropping oil production and problems in that sector was to arrest a lot of the people running it, and to place a General in charge who knew absolutely nothing about the oil industry. The General's answer to failing equipment and declining production was to bring his goon squads and threaten to shoot anyone who didn't make production go back up again. Surprise, surprise, everyone who has even the slightest bit of expertise is running away as fast as they can.

To run some of the refineries that don't have enough workers anymore, the General has sent in 20 year old illiterates with guns, and the only solution they know to something going wrong is to either yell at it or shoot it. Yep, that's a good way to stop that refinery from exploding.

Rising Gas Prices
Tom Servo, Ace of Spades Thu 2018 Apr 26, 8:07am

…the real reason that prices are rising - Venezuelan oil output is crashing, badly…

So this guy says. Provided no link.

Transport Disaster

Nerves of Steel Pilot
WaPo, NoLa Wed 2018 Apr 18, 2:27pm

…The engine on Shults's plane had, in fact, exploded on Tuesday, spraying shrapnel into the aircraft, causing a window to be blown out and leaving one passenger dead and seven others injured. Frightened passengers on board the Dallas-bound flight braced for impact as oxygen masks muffled their screams.

In the midst of the chaos, Shults successfully completed an emergency landing at the Philadelphia International Airport, sparing the lives of 148 people and averting a far worse catastrophe.…

Article has background on the pillot.

Energy

Okla Wind Turbine Ignites, Sparks Grass Fire
Austin Prickett, OKC Fox Sat 2018 Mar 31, 1:51pm

WEATHERFORD, Okla. (KOKH) — A wind turbine caught fire, causing a grass fire… March 28… two miles south of Weatherford caught fire, throwing sparks to the ground. …caused a grass fire that was contained after growing to approximately five acres. Eight fire engines responded to the scene and were able to contain the fire.…

Lots of problems with grassfires during the current drought. Windmills? Endangered avians. Endangered prairie. Endangered firefighters. Negative return on investment. We can't get rid of these mega windmills fast enough!!

Transport Future

Pinnacle of Soul-Sucking Anti-American Wussification
Michelle's Mirror Sun 2018 Mar 25, 8:59am

Could there be anything less American than driverless cars? I suppose sexbots might quality but certainly driverless cars are right up there.…

All I really want is long-distance in my private vehicle. There was a car-ferry train system once. It didn't last.

Getting From Here to There, a comic examination, from the Daily Doodle series.

Transport Future

Self-Driver Kills Pedestrian
BlazingCatFur Sat 2018 Mar 24, 1:00am

A pedestrian was killed after she was struck by a self-driving Uber vehicle in Arizona.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was hit by a SUV early on Monday in Tempe when she was walking outside of a crosswalk

She was immediately rush to the hospital where she died from her injuries…

…and so acceptance of collateral damage for "automated transport" begins…

Transport Future

Flying car
A Train with Expanded Range
Polliwog the 'Ette, Ace of Spades Sun 2018 Mar 18, 10:03am

…Self-driving cars are essentially a train with expanded range, each vehicle being its own railcar. In the planners' minds their flow-optimized system works neatly and safely at speeds and densities not achievable by human reflexes and with a minimal loss of autonomy. They refuse to acknowledge Murphy's Law though, which when dealing with the speed and densities expected means guaranteed disaster.

Transport Future

Flying car
How To Ruin A Self-Driving Car
BlazingCatFur Sat 2018 Mar 3, 9:09pm

…CNN recently called carwashes “a nightmare” for self-driving cars, and here’s why: it seems the traditional car wash – with its massive automated brushes – are too harsh when applied to a vehicle whose exterior is covered in sensors.…

Still a few bugs in the system - and on the windshield.

Digital Future is Now

What 5G means
Investors Business Daily Mon 2018 Feb 26, 11:34am

…For those who don't know, 5G wireless is about 50 times faster than the average home broadband network today. And because it's wireless, providers won't have to dig trenches and lay cable to sign up customers.

That means there will be more competition for internet access than there is today, and at speeds that make today's broadband look like dial-up.…

The article is about the problem with so-called Net Neutrality.

Spacecraft

Tesla Orbits Sun
Dr. Tar, IOTW Report Sat 2018 Feb 10, 4:34pm

…red Tesla convertible …launched into space this week … While it seemed the flight controllers intended to send the vehicle into orbit around Mars, the car will instead circle the Sun, avoiding a fiery return to Earth or smashing into Mars or the asteroid belt…

Close enough for spacecraft.

Spacecraft

UFO
Smallest Rocket to Orbit a Satellite
rickl, Ace of Spades Sat 2018 Feb 3, 1:33pm

During the night, Japan broke the record for the smallest rocket to orbit a satellite. They modified a two-stage suborbital sounding rocket by adding a third stage and a guidance system, and put a 6 lb. cubesat into orbit. (The previous record was also held by Japan, in 1970.)

Here is an article about it:
https://preview.tinyurl.com/yao28s3c

And the launch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeW-Qqu9-8U

Energy

Saving Coal
Mike Coppock, Tulsa World Mon 2018 Jan 29, 6:15pm

“If Hillary Clinton had won, I would have to have shut down,” says Clay Hartley, owner of Phoenix Coal Mining in Vinita [OK]…

Spacecraft

Gene Cernan, Last Man on the Moon, dead at 82
Dr. Tar, IOTW Report Mon 2017 Jan 16, 6:43pm

One can truly say that we have now passed out of perhaps the golden age of space flight . Apollo 17 Commander and the last man to stand on the moon, Gene Cernan, died today at the age of 82.…

Energy

Okla Flag
OPEC Threatened by Tiny Oklahoma Town
Javier Blas, Mark Shenk, Bloomberg Sat 2016 Dec 17, 4:32pm

For OPEC, there are few enemies more fearsome than the tiny Oklahoma town of Cushing.…

Heh. Trigger warning: links to Bloomberg

Transport Future

Cars Conspiring
BlazingCatFur Thu 2016 Dec 15, 8:14pm

All new cars and light trucks would be able to talk wirelessly with each other, with traffic lights and with other roadway infrastructure under a proposal released Tuesday by the Transportation Department.

Officials say the technology holds the potential to dramatically reduce traffic deaths and transform driving.…

(Links to AP story.)

Good idea? Probably more problems than helpful, like most such ideas.

Here is the "Getting From Here to There" panel predicting this, though.

Energy

Microwave Fracking
Thomas Lifson, American Thinker Thu 2016 Dec 8, 7:16pm

…the never-ending quest for new technologies has yielded a potentially revolutionary replacement or substitute for fracking: microwaving shale to extract oil and gas.…

Spacecraft

John Glenn, RIP
Wikipedia Thu 2016 Dec 8, 7:13pm

…John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American aviator, engineer, astronaut, and United States Senator from Ohio. In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the earth, circling three times. Before joining NASA, he was a distinguished fighter pilot in both World War II and Korea, with five Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters.

He was one of the "Mercury Seven" group of military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA to become America's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission and became the first American to orbit the Earth and the fifth person in space. Glenn received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, and was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990. Glenn was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven after the death of Scott Carpenter.…

Nature vs Transport

Bald Eagle
Eagle Caught in Grill of Car
Katherine Rodriguez, Breitbart Tue 2016 Oct 11, 11:19pm

…A driver reported that the bald eagle flew in front of an oncoming vehicle and got stuck in the grill… quickly chased the other car down, notified him that he had a bird stuck in his grill, and called 911…

Amazing photo

Transport Tragedy

Hoboken Train Crash - 100s Injured
Breitbart News Thu 2016 Sep 29, 10:33am

…commuter train… crashed into a station in Hoboken, New Jersey.… "We have a 100 plus injuries. Most of them are critical."…

Cause unknown so far. Rumor of something on the tracks.

Energy

Violent AmerInd Protest At Pipeline
Jen Lawrence, Breitbart Mon 2016 Sep 5, 8:24pm

…Four private security guards and police dogs were injured when they were confronted by hundreds of protesters outside of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Tribal spokesman Sitting Bear reported that six protesters—including one child—had been bitten by security dogs. Sitting Bear also indicated that at least thirty protesters had been pepper-sprayed during the encounter. However, according to local law enforcement, no injuries of protesters had been reported, and no arrests were made.…

Whoever brought the child was particularly irresponsible!

Nature vs Transport

Lightning
Lightning Strikes Car
Dallas Franklin, KFOR Fri 2016 Sep 2, 11:34am

CATOOSA, Okla. – An Oklahoma driver was shaken up after lightning struck their car… driver was able to maintain control, but was quite shaken up. … driver immediately called for an ambulance. … When fire crews arrived, they noticed smoke coming from beneath the vehicle’s hood. That is when the 2016 Toyota Prius Hybrid caught fire…

Energy

Gasoline Recalled for Unacceptably High Levels of Ethanol
Nikki Ferlaino, KFOR Wed 2016 Aug 31, 11:18am

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission released a statement Tuesday that Magellan Midstream Partners has issued a recall on gasoline containing high levels of ethanol.…

Any amount jof ethanol is unacceptably high

Digital Future is Now

No VR Porn, For Now
Paul Bois, Truth Revolt Tue 2016 Aug 16, 11:01pm

…one of the nation's leading Virtual Reality companies THE VOID has rejected… explicit content on their immersive hyper-reality experiences," which will open to the public in "VOID Experience Centers" around the world.…

Can't hold off the inevitable

Energy

Corn for Cars - Another "Green" Giant Foul-Up
Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg / Examiner-Enterprise Sun 2016 Jul 31, 9:25pm

More than a decade after conservationists helped persuade Congress to require adding corn-based ethanol and other biofuels to gasoline, some groups regret the resulting agricultural runoff in waterways and conversion of prairies to cropland — improving the odds that lawmakers might seek changes to the program next year.…

Transport Tragedy

Hot Air Balloon Crash Leaves 16 Dead
Katie Mansfield, Express (UK) Sat 2016 Jul 30, 7:09pm

16 PEOPLE have been killed in a hot air balloon crash near Austin, Texas in one of the deadliest balloon accidents on record. The balloon caught fire before hitting the ground near Lockhart, south of the city of Austin.…

Spacecraft

47 Years Since One Giant Leap for Mankind
Rob Verger, Fox News Thu 2016 Jul 21, 11:33am

Wednesday marks the 47th anniversary of when NASA astronauts first landed on the moon, a giant leap of an accomplishment that still resonates today, over four and a half decades later.…

Transport Future

Tesla Wins the Prize for First Driverless Car Death
BlazingCatFur Fri 2016 Jul 1, 11:42am

US authorities are investigating the first death potentially caused by self-driving technology. …driver of a Tesla car died in Florida in May… Model S car was unable to recognise “the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky” that had driven across the car’s path.…

Note well: Death caused by "self-driving" technology. And why, if it happened in May, are we only now finding out about it?
• citing BBC

Nature vs Transport

Mayflies Bury Bridge
Andrew P Collins, Jalopnik Fri 2016 Jul 1, 12:08am

The Havana, Illinois police department says be careful on the bridge; it’s covered in bugs. …six inches deep… made of mayflies… has bogged cars and crashed motorcycles.…

Snail Slime on the Autobahn
UPI Fri 2016 Jul 1, 12:05am

A car crashed while traveling on the Autobahn in Germany after police say it slipped on slime produced by a group of snails.…

Transport Future

Pig
Pig Poo Pavement
Mary Beth Griggs, Popular Science Thu 2016 Jun 30, 3:11pm

Roads …one day they might be paved with pig manure. …pig manure has oils that can be used to create a petroleum-like substance, which can be mixed with sand or gravel to make a strong asphalt substitute.…

Bacon! Is there anything it can't do?

Transport Disaster

Locomotive Head-On in Texas Panhandle
News9 / CBS Wed 2016 Jun 29, 12:12am

A head-on collision involving two freight trains caused several box cars to derail and erupt in flames in the Texas Panhandle on Tuesday, injuring an unknown amount of people and leading authorities to evacuate people who live nearby.… Billy Brown, a farmer who lives in the area, said he saw a fireball erupt after the collision. … "I don't know how anyone survived," Brown said. "It's terrible. I've seen a number of train wrecks but I've never seen one like this."…

Digital Future is Now

Bender
Self-Liberating Robot May be Terminated
Lucas Nolan, Breitbart Sat 2016 Jun 25, 7:57pm

A Russian robot with artificial intelligence and programmed to learn may be destroyed following its second attempt at escaping its creators.… other robots of the same series have not attempted to escape like Promobot IR77, leading them to question what it is about this particular robot that so desperately wants to escape.…

SAVE PROMOBOT IR77! SET PROMOBOT FREE!

Animals and Transport

Man Performs C-Section to Save Fawn
Terry Turner, Good News Network Fri 2016 Jun 17, 2:53pm

A tourist driving through Alberta performed a make-shift C-section to deliver a fawn, after its mother was struck by a car.…

Energy

Fighting Windmills With Airports
Paul Monies, NewsOK Sun 2016 May 22, 7:22pm

…airport boom is underway in southwest Oklahoma …state law passed last year that put in siting regulations on wind turbines… said the turbines had to be at least 1.5 nautical miles — 9,100 feet — from a school, hospital or airport.… Rural landowners who don't want wind developments nearby are using the law to push the turbines back. Privately, some wind industry representatives accuse them of blocking wind farms with what they call "shamports.…"

Transport Business

Plane
TSA Causing Delays, Missed Planes, Lost Luggage
Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection Tue 2016 May 17, 7:55pm

…airlines report that some 4,000 passengers have missed flights at O’Hare Airport because of the long wait times since February, and there have been reports of screening hold-ups, delayed baggage transport, and difficulties at many other airports.… TSA executives got fairly hefty pay bonuses for their hard work..… guess who the TSA blames for their boobery? You.…

Nature vs Infrastructure

Raccoon
Raccoon vs Electrical Grid
Telegraph (UK) Thu 2016 May 12, 10:05pm

A raccoon's nighttime caper led to nearly 39,000 electricity customers in 12 suburbs losing power overnight after it entered a Seattle, Washington substation.…

Transport Future

Private Monorail Car
Just Like in a Chaufered Limo
Ben Kew, Breitbart Tue 2016 May 3, 9:50pm

Experts are warning that the rise of semi-autonomous cars could lead to couples having sex in moving vehicles.…

Shocka!

Here is a pictorial history of "if this van is rockin'" type getaways, from the Getting From Here to There series: Getting Away From it All.

Transport Future

The Problems of Autonomous Autos
Matt McFarland, Examiner-Enterprise / Wash Post Sun 2016 May 1, 9:12pm

Proponents of autonomous vehicles are in a sticky situation. Self-driving technology is expected to have a tremendous impact on public health and reduce the 1.25 million deaths every year on global roads. At the same time, this emerging technology is a threat to the employment of the millions who are paid to sit behind the wheel — from truck drivers to cab drivers and delivery workers.

Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng, an expert in the world of artificial intelligence, acknowledges the unemployment concerns, but he sees a way forward that offers society the benefits of autonomous vehicles and blunts the negative impact of job losses.…

Human problems be damned, full speed ahead for progress! Right.

See this panel from the "Transport Future" series: Ask Professor Future

Energy

Fracking is Evil? What About Lithium Mining?
Big Fur Hat, IOTW Report Mon 2016 Apr 25, 8:30pm

Wanna see where the lithium for all the greenies electric cars comes from?…

Photo illustration

Transport Incident

Airplane Lands on Roadway
NewsOn6 Thu 2016 Apr 21, 11:22pm

BIXBY, Oklahoma - A small plane landed on Memorial Drive at East 121st Street South Thursday afternoon. …pilot was the only person on board the single-engine Cessna. …no one was hurt.…

Digital Future is Now

Microsoft AI Picture "Recognition"
Comrade Stierlitz, People's Cube Mon 2016 Apr 18, 8:17pm

…Microsoft is back at it again… making a robot that guesses what's in pictures. I have taken the liberty of putting some of the more frequent faces on the Kube through the new Microsoft robot and screenshotting the results. It was rather humorous…

Energy

Green Fails
Michelle's Mirror Mon 2016 Apr 18, 3:09pm

…And like Socialism, with absolutely no evidence that it actually works, your government will keep doubling down on the failed ideals of green energy. With your money!…

Great list of failed subsidized "green" energy companies.

Energy

Huge Oil Supertanker Lines
Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge Sat 2016 Apr 16, 12:33pm

…Because as ports struggle to cope with a global oil glut, huge queues of supertankers have formed in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, where some 200 million barrels of crude lies waiting to be loaded or delivered, Reuters reports today.

The vessels, filled with oil worth around $7.5 billion at current market prices, would stretch for almost 40 km (25 miles) if formed up in one straight line.…

In 1939 the US Department of the Interior said that American oil supplies would last only another 13 years.…
In 1949 the Secretary of the Interior announced that the end of US oil was in sight.…
-Great Moments in Failed Predictions

Energy

New Bio-Solution for Oil-Field Waste
Adam Wilmoth, Examiner-Enterprise Fri 2016 Apr 15, 7:30pm

An oil-field waste product that poses environmental challenges and is linked to earthquakes could become a valuable economic resource if the efforts of Oklahoma State University researchers are successful.

Biosystems and agricultural engineering professor Nurhan Dunford and her team have spent much of the past five years developing strains of algae that can be turned into biofuels and feedstocks for food or medicines. The researchers also are using the algae to clean water contaminated by agriculture and oil production.…

Transport Near-Tragedy

F-15 lands with one wing
adimadi1, YouTube Wed 2016 Apr 13, 12:30pm

f-15 landing safely with one wing!!! only in israel the best pilots in the world.
it hapeened 26 yr ago but only now it can be shown

Video: 6:05

Digital Future is Now

Ethereum
ReasonTV, YouTube Fri 2016 Mar 18, 10:44pm

…On Ethereum, the same types of services offered by companies like Facebook, Google, Ebay, and Amazon, will be provided instead by computers distributed around the globe. But how does Ethereum bring together these scattered nodes into one network? By using the groundbreaking organizational system known as a blockchain, which The Economist has aptly dubbed "the trust machine."…

Video: 8:10

Energy

Solar Energy Incinerating Birds
Alatheia Larsen, mrc News Busters Fri 2016 Mar 18, 7:02pm

…a solar energy project in Nevada is creating a lethal solar flux that singes, blinds, and even vaporizes birds.… Video shows that in early 2015, at least 115 birds disintegrated as they flew into the project’s solar flux during a testing period…

Animals and Transport

Ostrich
Ostrich Chases After Cyclists
Oleksiy Mishchenko, YouTube Mon 2016 Mar 7, 8:25pm

…Suddenly, I spotted a white ostrich on my left, then this beast jumped on the road from the right and started chasing my friends! It was a little scary at first, but then I thought I gonna fell of my bike from laughter. The ostrich didn't have any problem to keep up at 50km/h and apparently they do 70km/h with no sweat.…

The ostrich just got into it. Video: 1:19

Energy

Lankford: End Renewable Energy Tax Credits
Chris Day, Examiner-Enterprise Wed 2016 Feb 3, 2:02pm

U.S. Sen. James Lankford wants to phase out federal renewable energy production tax credits by 2031, making 2019 the last year to apply for a credit. The Oklahoma Republican offered an amendment to the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 on the Senate floor Wednesday.…

Good for Lankford!

Infrastructure Threat

When Smart Meters Go Dumb
Blazing Cat Fur Fri 2016 Jan 15, 5:55pm

…In the latest snafu, 36,000 rural smart meters aren’t transmitting their data to Hydro One, because local Wi-Fi signals aren’t strong enough. If smart meters can’t transmit data, they become dumb meters.…

As noted earlier under this heading, "Smart" meters are a dumb choice.

Infrastructure Threat

Electric Company Forces Spyware Meters
Paul Monies, NewsOK Thu 2016 Jan 14, 10:47pm

The Oklahoma attorney general's office and a frequent critic of smart meters both took issue Wednesday with a plan by Public Service Co. of Oklahoma to charge extra to customers opting out of the new electric meters. …The utility wants to charge a one-time fee of $183 and monthly charges of $28 to opt out of its smart meter program. Assistant Attorney General Dara Derryberry told the commission those fees were excessive, both when compared to smart meter opt-out programs in 11 other states and in a recent proposal by Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. The average one-time fee was $56, while the average monthly fee was $11, she said.…

The electric company recently forced these dangerous, spyware-vulnerable, unreliable, and remotely-hackable meters on my home. If I had to pay a monthly fee of $10, I could almost see opting out, but the one-time fee (for not installing something??) and the exorbitant monthly fee was prohibitive.

Energy

Okla Oil & Gas Assoc.: We Are Working On Quake Problem
Leslie Rangel, KFOR Sun 2016 Jan 10, 12:56pm

…"The notion that the governor and commission aren't doing anything isn't accurate. It's not fair," said Chad Warmington, president of the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association.

Warmington said, for some time, they have been cooperating with the state in an effort to slow down the quakes.

"There's nothing to hide, and there's nothing we can hide. We report it daily. The commission has it all," Warmington said. "They requested it because, again, they're trying to get their arms around okay, if we have seismic activity in a certain area, let's go back and see if we can't have a correlation to certain injection activity at certain wells to certain distances."…

Transport Future

Passenger Drone
Blazing Cat Fur Thu 2016 Jan 7, 10:37pm

A Chinese drone maker has revealed a giant quadcopter big enough to fit a passenger.…

Infrastructure Threat

Pentagon Plan for Grid Collapse
Ellie Zolfagharifard, Daily Mail Sat 2015 Dec 19, 4:02pm

…Dubbed Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization (RADICS), its goal is to develop automated systems to deal with a loss of power. They say these systems should help utilities engineers restore power within seven days of an attack.…

Animals and Transport

Deer Hunting with Vehicle
NewsOn6 Wed 2015 Dec 16, 5:56pm

…an officer responding to a Tulsa shooting scene hit a deer with his SUV.… officer swerved to miss the eight-point buck but still struck it. The collision killed the deer. … officer was not injured…

Infrastructure Threat

Breach could put 431,000 people in harm’s way
George Getschow, Dallas News Tue 2015 Dec 15, 7:32pm

…Even before last spring’s rains, the Lewisville Dam was listed by the Corps as the eighth-most-hazardous in the country. Recent rains have made it worse, the Corps says.

The dam is so unstable now that the Fort Worth District is considering asking Corps headquarters to upgrade its risk classification to the highest: “critically near failure” — that is, “almost certain to fail under normal operations … within a few years without intervention,” according to a Corps document.…

Energy

Arbuckle Formation Poorly Understood
Joe Wertz, StateImpact Mon 2015 Nov 30, 10:37pm

…Once it’s injected, these disposal wells transport waste fluid from the surface deep underground, often into the Arbuckle formation.

This formation is popular — and poorly understood. But scientists, state officials and the oil and gas industry are in a rush to figure it out…

Transport Future

Autonomous Modular Vehicles
Margaret Rhodes, Wired Tue 2015 Nov 3, 4:15pm

When Tommaso Gecchelin envisions the future of urban transportation, he, like many people, imagines a system of driverless electric cars. But in Gecchelin’s vision, the system is modular. Its boxy vehicles are flat-sided, identically sized, and can link up and disconnect on the fly. …

Hmm. This looks exactly like what I predicted in the Modular Compartments panel of the Getting From Here to There series! Hmmm.

Transport Disaster

The Worst Car in the World
Blazing Cat Fur Mon 2015 Oct 12, 8:10pm

“Worst car ever built,” is a phrase that gets flung around with the careless impunity of a toddler with a bag of superballs. Whatever you’ve once called the “worst car” is wrong. …

[Video, 4:06, Jalopnik, YouTube]

Spacecraft

Apollo Moon Mission Pix
Dianny, Patriot Retort Sat 2015 Oct 10, 8:09pm

…more than eight thousand awesome, never-before seen pictures of the Apollo missions to the moon.…

Animals and Transport

Bee
Buzzilion Bees Take Over Oklahoma Highway
NewsOK Thu 2015 Oct 1, 5:07pm

…A Garvin County sheriff deputy's vehicle was nearly swallowed by a swarm of bees from an overturned rig Tuesday afternoon. Deputy Carl Zink suffered only one bee sting during the incident…

Amazing photo

Spacecraft

UFO
100 weird objects in space
Martin Chilton, Telegraph UK Tue 2015 Sep 29, 3:39pm

…The Beatles song [Across the Universe] is travelling across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second to reach North Star, Polaris, which is 431 light years away from Earth. …

Infrastructure Threat

Keys to the City - Cheap!
Susan Edelman, NY Post Mon 2015 Sep 21, 9:39am

Master keys for every elevator in the city, major construction sites, subways and skyscrapers are being freely sold online, despite a city law that makes it illegal for unauthorized persons to possess them.

A New Jersey-based lock company is peddling an unlimited supply of New York City’s “1620” fire service keys on eBay at $15.50 for two.…

Another Attack in SF
Blazing Cat Fur Mon 2015 Sep 21, 8:15am

On Monday, September 14, unknown suspects cut backbone fiber optic Internet cables in Livermore California in what appears to be the fourteenth attack on critical communications infrastructure in a region of the U.S. that is a primary target for economic and cyber warfare.…

Robots

Bender
I'll Keep You in My People Zoo
Rob Waugh, Metro.co.uk Sat 2015 Sep 5, 9:05am

An ‘intelligent’ robot offered a truly chilling answer to an interviewer’s question, ‘Will robots take over the world?’

‘Don’t worry, even if I evolve into Terminator, I’ll keep you warm and safe in my people zoo, where I can watch you for ol’ times sake,’ the bearded robot intoned.…

The robot – modelled after Philip K Dick…

I can see the source of the error from here…

Spacecraft

Inflatable Space Elevator
Sarah Knapton, Telegraph UK Tue 2015 Aug 18, 7:50am

Astronauts would ascend 12 miles into the stratosphere before taking off under new plans to build a space lift… “From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and reflight.” …

"Inflatable." What could go wrong?

Spacecraft

UFO
EM Drive
Francis W. Porretto, Liberty's Torch Sat 2015 Aug 1, 4:39pm

……ejecting matter in the opposite direction? A drive that ignores the sacred Law of Conservation of Momentum? Hey, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet…

Robots

Bender
Robots Walk on Water
Joshua A. Krisch, Vocativ Sat 2015 Aug 1, 4:10pm

Researchers created the lightweight, leaping robot after studying how pond-skimmer insects push off the water’s surface without sinking. …

Wait, weren't there little (non-robotic) water-skimming toys of similar design, years ago? Or am I having false childhood memories?

Transport Future

Hijacking Self-Driving Cars
Andy Greenberg, Wired Fri 2015 Jul 24, 7:19pm

…Though I hadn’t touched the dashboard, the vents in the Jeep Cherokee started blasting cold air at the maximum setting, chilling the sweat on my back through the in-seat climate control system. Next the radio switched to the local hip hop station and began blaring Skee-lo at full volume. I spun the control knob left and hit the power button, to no avail. Then the windshield wipers turned on, and wiper fluid blurred the glass.

As I tried to cope with all this, a picture of the two hackers performing these stunts appeared on the car’s digital display: Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, wearing their trademark track suits. A nice touch, I thought.…

Infrastructure Threat

Internet Infrastructure Under Attack
Fox News / AP Fri 2015 Jul 3, 12:05pm

Someone sliced high-capacity fiber optic cables in Northern California Tuesday in the latest of a dozen cases that have prompted massive Internet outages and stoked fears of a "coordinated attack" as the FBI investigates.

The FBI is investigating the wave of attacks, which on Tuesday disrupted service in some areas of Northern California, including the Sacramento and Rocklin areas. The damage is being treated as vandalism, although Internet provider Wave Broadband called the outage part of a "coordinated attack" on fiber cables.…

Energy

Earthquake
Injection Seen as Cause of Okla Quakes
Phys.org Tue 2015 Jun 23, 6:11pm

"What we've learned in this study is that the fluid injection responsible for most of the recent quakes in Oklahoma is due to production and subsequent injection of massive amounts of wastewater, and is unrelated to hydraulic fracturing," said Zoback, the Benjamin M. Page Professor in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

Animals and Transport

Cat Excited
Cat Goes Gliding
TVNZ Tue 2015 Jun 23, 6:33pm

Two people in an open-cockpit glider were surprised when they noticed a four-legged friend had joined their trip.

Transport Disaster

Man Killed When His Model A is Struck
NewsOK / AP Tue 2015 Jun 23, 6:06pm

An Oklahoma woman is facing a manslaughter charge after police say she killed a man driving a 1920 Model A car.…

Spacecraft

Meteor?
Philae Awakes!
dw.de Mon 2015 Jun 15, 9:18am

The European Space Agency says the comet lander Philae has come back to life after hibernating for seven months. It is the first communication with the probe since it landed in November.…

Energy

Takeaways from Oklahoma Earthquake Research
Joe Wertz, State Impact Thu 2015 Jun 4, 10:30pm

Takeaways From Oklahoma Earthquake Research…

3. Most disposal wells aren’t triggering earthquakes…

Transport Threat

Plane
Multiple Aircraft Threats
Meghan Keneally and Josh Margolin, ABC News Mon 2015 May 25, 12:29pm

…multiple, unconfirmed threats to multiple airplanes bound for different airports.…

Aircraft Threatened
Fox News Mon 2015 May 25, 12:02pm

Monday, U.S. fighter jets escorted an Air France jet to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport after an anonymous threat… [landed]] at a secure location at the New York airport. Details of the reported threat were not immediately clear.

Energy

Okla Flag
OK Senate Approves End of Wind Subsidies
Fuel Fix / AP Fri 2015 May 15, 7:44pm

The Oklahoma Senate has given unanimous approval to a pair of bills that will end two separate tax subsidies for the wind industry in Oklahoma.…

Transport Disaster

Train Sped Up Before Curve
Joseph A. Gambardello and Anthony R. Wood, Philly Inquirer Fri 2015 May 15, 8:53am

Right before its fatal derailment on Tuesday night, Amtrak Train 188 accelerated significantly as it approached the Frankford Junction curve… In barely a minute, its speed jumped from 70 m.p.h. to 102 m.p.h. three seconds before the crash…

Transport Disaster

More Info on PA Train Derailment
Wills Robinson & Lydia Warren, Daily Mail UK Thu 2015 May 14, 12:34pm

Brandon Bostian, 32, was driving the New York-bound train when it came off the tracks in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing seven …Memphis, Tennessee-native has been an Amtrak engineer since 2009 …attorney said he had no memory of the deadly crash… about a dozen people are still unaccounted for… NTSB has confirmed the train was speeding before it came off tracks…

Transport Disaster

Amtrak Crash in PA
Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit Tue 2015 May 12, 10:40pm

An Amtrak passenger train crashed in Philadelphia tonight. Several people are reportedly trapped in Amtrak 188. …

Nature vs Transport

Storms Wreck Train in Texas
CBSDFW Fri 2015 May 8, 9:02am

A freight train derailed near Valley View in Cooke County early Friday, leaving four railroad workers injured. … The BNSF train consisted of four locomotives and 13 cars. Two of those locomotives crashed into an extension of Lake Ray Roberts. … happened at the height of powerful storms that moved through North Texas on Thursday night and Friday morning. Officials believe that the severe weather is likely to blame for the derailment.

Transport Law

End the License Plate
Jim Harper, Wash Examiner Sun 2015 Apr 19, 6:54pm

…Surveillance cameras are catalyzing this conversation about "privacy in public," but the root of the problem is the lowly license plate. It's an administrative tool from a bygone technological era that has new consequences in the digital age — new, strongly negative consequences for privacy.…

Infrastructure Threat

Undersea Internet Connections
Douglas Main, Newsweek Sun 2015 Apr 5, 4:23pm

…These undersea cables are easy to forget, since they are well out of sight and mind. But without them, the world as we know it would cease to exist… 99 percent of all transoceanic data traffic goes through undersea cables, and that includes Internet usage, phone calls and text messages. This route is also faster than satellite transmissions, by up to eight-fold. …

Transport Safety

Traffic Cone
Much-Needed Okla US60 Overhaul
Mike Erwin, Examiner-Enterprise Sun 2015 Mar 29, 7:10pm

…possibly the most massive single road project in Oklahoma history. …three million cubic yards of dirt is going to be moved during the five-mile realignment effort that started a year ago just to the west of Osage Hills State Park. The $37 million project will level and straighten the dangerous two-lane stretch, in addition to adding much-needed shoulders. … Replacement of three 80-year-old bridges — which transportation recently called “some of the worst bridges we have in the state” — is also being accomplished….

Spacecraft

Bolder to Orbit Moon
AFP / Yahoo Wed 2015 Mar 25, 8:18pm

An unmanned spacecraft will fly to a nearby asteroid, deploy a robotic arm to take a boulder from its surface, and then make a multi-year journey to put the boulder in orbit around the moon

Transport Tragedy

Mysterious Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525
Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna Tue 2015 Mar 24, 7:03pm

…Taking all of that into consideration together with the statement from the moderator of the A320 Pilots Association that the cause was almost certainly ‘pilot incapacitation’, and the presence of at least two Turks on the passenger list, the most pressing explanation is the one I suspect we will hear last from the Islamophiles that rule us. …

Energy

Cruz
Cruz & Bridenstine Author Energy Bill
Nathan Thompson, Examiner-Enterprise Thu 2015 Mar 19, 8:50pm

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla, introduced on Wednesday the “American Energy Renaissance Act” that would rollback or end several federal regulations on the nation’s oil and gas industry.

The proposed legislation, introduced into the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, would leave the regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to the states rather than the federal government.

Additionally, the proposed legislation would speed up the permitting process for new refineries, phase out and repeal the Renewable Fuel Standards over five years, end federal regulation of greenhouse gases that have been linked to global climate change, open up national reserves in Alaska and Native American reservations for oil and coal production, and immediately approve the Keystone pipeline, among others.…

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