Transport Future

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.

…the real reason that prices are rising - Venezuelan oil output is crashing, badly… So this guy says. Provided no link.

…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.

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!!

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.

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…

…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.