Transport
"I dispatched the scissors-jack altogether, and got a 2 ton hydraulic bottle jack which you simply place under the lift bracket along the frame and pump up and down. 16 bucks at evil walmart. 4-5 ton rated ones are only 29."
You know those scissor jacks that most cars come with? They have that articulated crank thingy that invariably leads to scraped bloody knuckles? Takes forever to get the car high enough to remove the tire?
Toss the crank thingy, and use a cordless impact wrench, and suitably sized socket instead. (Those universal sockets, with all the pins inside, work rather well).
Even at home, when rotating, or swapping winter/summer tires, it works better than my hydraulic floor jack.
"GALENA, Ill. — At least eight railcars derailed this afternoon south of Galena, sparking a massive fire and smoke that can be seen for miles. … No injuries have been reported…."
Ted Cruz: "We must refocus our investment on the hard sciences, on getting men and women into space, on exploring low-Earth orbit and beyond, and not on political distractions that are extraneous to NASA’s mandate. I am excited to raise these issues in our subcommittee and look forward to producing legislation that confirms our shared commitment to this vital mission."
…Bounds grabbed his cellphone off the bed and walked into the kitchen. As soon as he did, he heard the harrowing squeal of colliding metal and looked outside into the snowstorm. Just 50 feet away, he could see a train crashing.
He bolted out the front door as fast as his bad knees could take him. He didn’t have time to grab his shoes and trudged through the snow in his socks. Temperatures were in the teens. …
As he ran, the wreckage burst into spectacular fireballs that shot into the sky. The yard was on fire and “it blew that hot oil on both sides of me, all over the house, my trucks.” …
"The U.S. Coast Guard and its Canadian counterpart are working to free a 647-foot freighter that got stuck in the almost completely frozen Lake Erie Wednesday near Conneaut Harbor. …"
"…92-year-old man told officers he became confused and panicked behind the wheel."
The interstellar spacecraft builds on previous designs that thoeretically allow distant travel by bending space-time… Called IXS Enterprise… Alcubierre's theory was published in 1994 and involved enormous amounts of energy being used to expand and contract space itself - thereby generating a 'warp bubble' in which a spacecraft would travel. Allowing space and time to act as the propellant by pulling the craft through the bubble would be like stepping on an escalator….
NASA Is About to Test a Mega-Parachute at the Edge of Space - If the largest ever supersonic parachute works, we'll be a step closer to putting a human on Mars.
how computer geeks can enable the electric car, save the planet and millions of lives using near-term A.I. to make taxis and trucks deliver, park, recharge and drive themselves.
[Some good, and maybe not so good, discussion of pros and cons of Driverless Cars in Ace of Spades morning comment thread 2014 May 29. Some selections follow.]
No steering wheel or brake? What could possibly go wrong?
—Zombie John Gotti
It can only go 25 mph. They haven't made a driverless car, they made a driverless golf cart.
— nnptcgrad
Very cool news overall. I can wait to put the taxi cartels out of business.
—HoboJerky
It's basically the same as turning every car into public transportation… no government would allow the software of a driverless car to not have a 'back door' to allow them to control it.
— chemjeff
Why not? We have a driverless country!
—Cicero Kaboom! Kid
…researchers hooked study participants to a cap containing dozens of electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes, sat them down in a flight simulator, and told them to steer the plane through the sim using their thoughts alone. … Seven people underwent the experiment… all were able to pilot the plane using their thoughts to such a degree that their performance could have satisfied some of the criteria for getting a pilot's license.
Google Inc. has designed its own self-driving vehicles… The vehicles will initially have a top speed of 25 miles per hour and won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal or brake pedal
…19-year-old who held his breath while driving [through a tunnel] and fainted, causing a three-vehicle crash on U.S. 26 that injured four people….
...She posted her sign right under the DOT's parking sign in her Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, neighborhood and left a spot for people to leave comments.
"The first person wrote like, 'The mayor should hire you. This is great,'" she says. "Things like that."
Projects like Nkki's are part of a growing trend called "tactical urbanism" in which regular citizens using tactics to try to improve the urban environment without the government's help.
[IOW what people outside the Big Dependencies do all the time!]
...the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs.
The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling....
Fisker released the following statement: “It was reported today that several Fisker Karmas were damaged by fire at the Port of Newark after being submerged in sea water during Superstorm Sandy. We can report that there were no injuries and none of the cars were being charged at the time…. [Yes, that's warmly comforting, isn't it!]
“My frustration is that, Minnesota and North Dakota Departments of Transportation would allow these deer crossing in such high traffic areas. I mean, I’ve even seen them on the interstate,” Donna began. “Why are we encouraging deer to cross at the interstate? I don’t get it,” Donna said to two stunned radio hosts. [VIDEO (slideshow/audio)]
When he pulled up to a traffic light in East Providence, another driver told him there was a dog wedged in the front grill of his car. … “It had a concussion from a bang to the head (and) a small rupture in its bladder. It was a very lucky dog,”
For decades, city centers and intercity roads have suffered from heavy traffic congestion and air pollution from car emissions. To diminish these effects, governments have tried to get people out of their cars and onto public transport such as trains, trams, buses and metros, as well was using non-polluting bicycles. Unfortunately, this has mostly proven to be unsuccessful. At least partly to blame here are poor connections between different modes of transport, longer traveling times and delays, as well as a lack of comfort and privacy. Designers and engineers are now exploring new public transport concepts, which are more capable of competing with the car by offering quicker, and in some cases individualized, transportation, as well as introducing a new range of personal city vehicles. [Mostly to blame is that mass transportation is not what people want! That said, there are some nice designs here. And flying cars!]
At around four o’clock they decided to move from the playhouse to the side yard 200 yards away. It was a decision that kept them from becoming the first Americans killed by a nuclear weapon released on U.S. territory. Minutes later the woods behind the playhouse were destroyed by a nuclear bomb. [Sort-of]
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