Blog Heap o' Transport Links

Drillers in Utah and Colorado are poking into a massive shale deposit trying to find a way to unlock oil reserves that are so vast they would swamp OPEC. … "In the past 100 years — in all of human history -- we have consumed 1 trillion barrels of oil. There are several times that much here,"

…isolating the key control systems of our critical infrastructure from the Internet should be a national goal. But the trend is in the opposite direction.

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!]

"We cannot, I don't believe, be energy independent, totally, in the United States. But what I've proposed and I've worked on the Romney plan—they have a good energy plan. Obama has no plan, he has only conversation," Pickens said.

“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,”

Taking the notion of online collaboration to a whole new level, VinylMint has created a cloud-based solution for musicians to jam and record in real time.

…presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains purportedly poisoning rural American towns. It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates. … produced “in association with” Image Media Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media … wholly owned by the government of the UAE.

Once the winning candy bar wrapper is opened, the tracking device will go off and Nestle officials will be able to find the exact location of the customer. [What could go wrong?]

The Solar Super Storm of 1859 -- named the Carrington Event after the amateur English astronomer who first reported it -- began as a sunspot array spotted on the morning of September 1. As Carrington watched, the spots suddenly erupted into two brilliant flares, twice as bright as the sun itself, peaking within 5 minutes and subsiding.

The following morning, brilliant aurora displays became visible over much of the world as far south as the tropics. Suddenly, telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed as wires melted and sparks sprayed out over telegraph poles igniting widespread fires.

On your phone or tablet… move your phone around in space… It’s like augmented reality, except it’s even more augmented because your phone is showing you things that aren’t there… phone becomes a moving window to the place and time in which the panorama was created… 360-degree panorama tool… when we played with these in the newsroom at VentureBeat we were soon moving our phones through the air like complete idiots … and enjoying every second of it.

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!]

“It’s time we focused on reality instead of rhetoric.” The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity released this powerful ad recently. The group boldly mocks the #occupy criminal movement in the powerful pro-American ad. [Video]

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]

Environmentalists have persuaded the Department of the Interior to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. These dams not only provide clean, green energy to the Klamath community, they sustain area ranches and farms with continual access to water. An environmentalist’s dream, right? But the fish! We must always put fish ahead of people!

America is addicted to chocolate. Foreign chocolate.

A majority of us consume chocolate each day. Although the U.S. produces only 6% of the world’s cocoa, we consume more than 20%.

The threat is obvious. It’s time for government to step in and promote alternatives.

[Former Okla. Congressman Ernest Istook, chocolate-covered tongue in cheek]

Officials with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said the demand for wind turbines in North America had stagnated, with new contracts difficult to obtain. The company is also in an ongoing legal battle with General Electric related to patent claims on wind-turbine equipment.

Resembling a futuristic visor, the £480 ($800) device is worn like a pair of chunky goggles and earphones in one. It is equipped with two 0.7in high definition organic light emitting diode (OLED) panels and 5.1 channel dynamic audio headphone. The gadget enables the wearer to experience cinema-like viewing, equivalent to watching a 750-inch screen from 20 metres away.... It seems unlikely that most people - or even technology enthusiasts - will want to buy a product that involves sitting alone and wearing a little helmet. [Oh, REALLY??]

There is so much junk in space that collisions could start to increase exponentially, leading to a continuously growing pile of rubble in orbit

My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy. More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not. ... Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago, when I was at Netscape, the company I co-founded. In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day. On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new employees. ...

An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying tons of supplies for astronauts on the International Space Station suffered a major malfunction after launching today and ultimately crashed back to Eart ... Ship was hauling 2.9 tons of food, fuel and supplies to space station; 2nd Russian spacecraft to be lost during launch in six days

After scrutinizing several of the natural gas articles produced by ProPublica, the Independent Institute uncovered several "errors and exaggerations" that cast the industry in very bad light. There is, for example, a 2002 study from the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission that could not find any evidence of groundwater contamination resulting from hydraulic fracturing contrary to what was reported in ProPublica. The commission surveyed agencies in 28 states. This effort spanned the entire history of hydraulic fracturing in those states. Another key player here is the Heinz Foundation, which has expanded the number grants devoted to studying the natural gas industry. Heinz is headed up by Teresa Heinz, wife of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) ... The slanted reporting and misinformation could come with a serious price tag

A U.S. businessman who went into a drunken rage on board a transatlantic flight to the UK was arrested after allegedly threatening to stab the pilots with a shard of glass. ... 'Petrified' passengers claimed 32-year-old ... was drinking large quantities of wine and beer before raving at passengers and attacking staff. [Petrified? Really? Over a "shard of glass"? In this post-9/11 day and age?]

a 22-year-old woman, her mother and grandmother were killed when the family's SUV blew a tire on northbound I-95 in Wilson County, the driver lost control and the vehicle overturned.

A 40-year-old Seminole County man arrested for allegedly attaching an improvised explosive device to a natural gas pipeline in Oklahoma... Daniel Wells Herriman of Konowa...

A historic Ford Tri-Motor will make a stop at the Bartlesville Airport on September 15 — 18. ...played a major role in the development of safe and reliable air transportation in the United States.... manufactured on August 21, 1929....

London's Metropolitan Police have created a Flickr page, entitled "London Disorder — Operation Withern," which includes the "first of many" CCTV images of rioters suspected of looting, committing violence and other criminal acts. Police hope the public can help identify the alleged criminals and bring them into custody. ... Police also launched the Twitter hashtag #tweetalooter, which they urge citizens to use if they have information about rioters or criminal acts. ... Police aren't the only ones setting up websites to help catch looters. ...

Wreckage from shuttle Columbia was uncovered in East Texas this week, the result of a prolonged drought lowering water levels in a lake. The spherical tank, which is about four feet in diameter, is stuck in the mud alongside Lake Nacogdoches. ...part of Columbia's power-producing fuel cell system. ...thought to be either a liquid hydrogen or liquid oxygen tank.

At least 32 people died when a high-speed train smashed into a stalled train in China's eastern Zhejiang province Saturday, state media said, raising new questions about the safety of the fast-growing rail network. The accident occurred on a bridge near the city of Wenzhou after the first train lost power due to a lightning strike and a bullet train following behind crashed into it.... The total power failure rendered useless an electronic safety system designed to warn following trains of stalled trains on the tracks up ahead, and automatically halt them before a collision can occur.... The flagship Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line has been plagued by power outages, leaving passengers stranded on stuffy trains for hours at least three times since opening a month ago.