Rants from the West

[newluddite]

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes it is my birthday.

I am getting older as is everyone, but I cannot be considered as middle-aged anymore. I am old. Still for an old person I am pretty strong and fit. I keep numbers with sport watches and bike computers. My resting heart rate this morning, was 50 bpm. My maximum heart rate is far above 200-age. If my age was 50 it would be right, and I was 50 a couple decades ago. Yup old.

I tell people that the worst thing about getting pretty old is you know more and more dead people. I mean people you knew, or met, or worked with die in increasing numbers. At my previous job 4 people have died, that I know of. At my current office a guy died last month and we only have a handful of people here. My parents are long dead. My wife's parents are long dead. Friends from school, the list only gets bigger.

That makes you pretty aware of death.

Contrasting there are good things too. I have grand kids. I have two daughters and the younger one is to be married soon after a fairly long co-habitation thing. Perhaps more grand kids soon? Children are the opposite of death. It is a strong contrast.

Age also gives you perspective. I have seen the journey the world has taken.

I am disturbed by what has happened in the United States. It is regressing to an earlier not-very-good state of being. They have always been conservative, even repressive to minorities. I grew up in New England and saw the Vietnam war, and the civil rights movement on TV news every night. Everyone could see these were wrong in some way. A lot of people want to go back to that place. Deny voting rights. Invade countries you do not like. Promote fear to maintain power.

Oh and corruption on an epic scale.

Another thing is that news media is more and more politically distorted. When I was young news was controlled by wise men who had seen and survived wars. They had a long view and could be trusted. Now especially in the US the news is controlled by billionaire business people who want their views to rule. That is actually going back a century when news through newspapers were controlled by men named Pulitzer, and Hearst who used their platforms to make themselves wealthy with distorted truth.

They caused a war because it was good for business. That was the Spanish American War which was triggered by an accidental explosion of a coal bunker in an American Warship visiting Cuba. Coal was notoriously prone to exploding in closed spaces. The business was good. Weapons and reports from the front. Legends were made like Teddy Roosevelt and his "rough riders" attacking a fort in Cuba. The Spanish empire was dying and on life support. Spain had no hope of winning a fight with the USA and did not want to fight. They tried to apologize and avoid a war, but the US newspapers pushed and complained and called Congress and the US government cowardly for not going to war soon enough. They ended up with an empire when it was over. The shortest lived empire in history.

Historians and academic journalists called that "yellow journalism" as if they were putting it long behind them. No it is just returning once the wise old men of news died off. News is product and entertainment and serves masters looking for more money.

Ironically news by government funded institutions has become the more reliable source. The BBC in Britain, CBC in Canada, for me are far more reliable, honest, and accurate for English speakers.

The online media is anarchy. There are crazy people, fascists, idiots, and any reasonableness is lost in the noise. Access is controlled by algorithms that are in turn controlled by those billionaires. Funny how that works.

I hope the world survives the next few years, and the US comes to it's senses. I think of that old Chinese Curse. "May you live in interesting times."

[newluddite]

Google Lies.

It is all for a good reason. Money.

I often check out YouTube (a division of the Googleverse) and am subject to some very curious advertisements. I will be looking at a video on say a sports car. Every so often there is an ad. Other things to. I guess the all wise algorithm has pegged me as a old man. What does an old man want.

One ad was a deep voiced man talking about a great super sharp knife he ordered by accident (??) but found it was great. I think it was an AI Clone of Sam Elliot. You hear that voice a lot.

Another is a cure for diabetes using common household products. If they are common what are you selling? Oh and that same voice. AI crap.

The most stupid is the AI porn woman wearing an apron but the reflection in the mirror behind her shows her to be nude under that. She is at a kitchen counter, as all good AI women should be, talking about the secret mix of common household products that make her man hard for hours. Weird thing is there are several versions of this with different faces, and hair color, but the exact same script. Well sometimes the invention is from a professor at Harvard, or a scientist in New York.

Common household products are so useful.

Then there are the investment opportunities pushed by people who look and sound like Elon Musk, or some respected political personality.

One day when work was slow I counted up the ads in a 45 minute video about a mechanic. Most of the ads were these AI bullshit fraud ads. Who the hell buys this stuff? If the products are common household things, what are you actually buying? Making AI ads is not free, and Google charges for the placement, how do they make money?

But the big thing is why are they allowed to lie so blatantly? On-line publications are immune from charges when they push fraud. People will pay. The criminals will disappear into North Korea, or Russia, or India without a trace and set up again.

A newspaper or magazine would be sued into oblivion and criminally charged if they did this. They are held responsible for the content they push. The on-line platforms do not care. Just give us the money.

[newluddite]

Mars and Elon.

Elon Musk is very lucky cuz he does many stupid things. He must have a battalion of minions and helpers who actually do the work as he seems remarkably incapable himself. Though he is very good at taking credit for other people's work.

His famous car company only makes money by selling carbon credits to car companies that burn fuel. It loses money otherwise.

He must have read a lot of science fiction in his youth since much of his endeavors follow themes from many old Sci Fi stories.

His obsession with Mars is only one of his impractical verging on impossible goals. "Stranger in a Strange Land" was certainly on his reading list.

More modestly he had or maybe still has a thing called the "boring company". Boring as in boring holes in the ground for diverting traffic in dense cities. One variation is an old Sci Fi nugget of vacuum tunnels for supersonic underground travel over great distances. He dug some tunnels in L.A. thinking that could solve congestion. He bought an expensive tunnel boring machine and went digging. He may still be at it.

Interesting that the only saleable product they made was a flame thrower for home use. So much fun! Revealing aint it?

His tunnels are an ambitious naive and rather stupid thing. He gets buy in from officials because it is Elon Musk talking. I am an expert on capacity of call it single track conveyances. It is just another road, and offers no advantages aside from possible death from fires in a tunnel when toxic smoke erupts from one of his cars. No emergency escapes and critically very low throughput. I am sure his minions throw numbers at him to prove what he wants them to prove. Numbers can lie, except to those who know how to read numbers.

A longer term effort that recently shut down was a vacuum tube transit scheme. It is theoretically possible to build a long steel pipe and put vehicles in it. In a vacuum there is no air to hold you back or slow you down. With maglev type cars there is no friction. No air means no speed limit. Supersonic ceases to mean anything without air. It shut down as it was proving very difficult and expensive, and more than a bit dangerous.

The concept pops up every so often with people saying a tunnel could be bored under the Atlantic Ocean and traversed in less than an hour. It is such a difficult thing that practically it is impossible. Certainly the unstable volcanic mid-ocean ridge would have to be bridged and at extreme depths the steel tube would need to be VERY thick. (insert prohibitively expensive)

All the vehicles for this would have to be space ships (vacuum) and work perfectly. (How about those rapid unscheduled disassembly events Elon?)

But his biggest thing is Mars. He wants to colonize Mars.

Mars is a dead world. It is dead as it has no magnetic core creating a field that protects the planet from the Solar wind. Earth has that which is why we still have an atmosphere and oceans. Mars used to have those some billions of years ago. Now nothing to protect the surface. The atmosphere is a vestige of what it once was.

A colony would need a constant supply of food, materials, and energy to get established. It takes tens of millions of dollars to send a robot there. Actually the Opportunity rover cost 1 billion to send and operate and it weighed only 400 lbs. Freight to supply a colony is measured in many tons.

People would have to live underground or in pressurized domes. The Domes would have to be pretty heavy and anchored down as the air pressure for life would push up an order of magnitude more than a modest dome shipped in a space ship could manage. (I happen to know a lot about domes).

I guess underground get the win as there is also lethal cosmic radiation at and near the surface. (and on the trip there) I guess the tunneling expertise he has bought could be handy.

In fact the problems of colonizing Mars are so great that it is easy to colonize the Moon in comparison. That has the added advantage of being close enough that rescue and return trips become possible. Still living in underground tunnels, but much closer to home.

I think there could be a real tourism thing on the moon. You weigh so little there that in a big underground dome you could put wings on your arms, flap them and fly. I would sign up for that.

[newluddite]

I have been avoiding this.

Here I am again. Things in the world have become really weird. Lies are true and truth is a lie. At least in the American Media. Being just above the 49th parallel the noise is unavoidable. I wish there was a wall to keep the nonsense down in Usania.

Last night on TV, a comedy program was interviewing a young woman about her new book. Her name is Sanna Marin and was the youngest person ever to be Prime Minister of Finland. It was one of those book promotional tours they do. The host was impressed with her story.

Finland is a modern and socialist democracy. A socialist democracy is based on the idea that the government's job is to take care of the people. It is a free society and there is excellent health care and education. She pointed out that part of her story was she did not come from a wealthy family but she was given the same opportunity for education as a wealthy person would have. Her government was a coalition of several parties that had to work together and operate by consensus.

The host looked almost wistful to compare that with what the USA has become. A free country that uses consensus to govern and takes care of its people, rather than pander to billionaires. He asked " what do we have to do to get that here?" She diplomatically demurred.

I know!

I know what could have occurred back in history for that to have happened. The American colonies could have lost the revolutionary war.

That war was won by France. It was the French king sending troops, weapons and fleets to fight the British forces. Most people in the American colonies did NOT support the revolution. The people who were at the forefront were wealthy, mostly slave owners. They saw the writing on the wall that slavery was about to be outlawed everywhere English law was in force. The French king had a thing about England and bankrupted his country to give the historical finger to King George III who had just beat them in a continental war.

American Ranters love to dump on France, but they owe their history to them. Land of the free, not so much. The descendants of slaves are still fighting for their rights 250 years later.

And of course the French had a revolution because the King had bankrupted them and was increasing taxes to compensate. Bad move upon bad move Louis.

Imagine if the Revolution failed in the Americas. Likely a different and much larger country comprising the geography of the 48 states and Canada. It would be a Parliamentary democracy (like Finland) and would have had a much better place in the world. A better place to live.

Perhaps if the US democracy fails because the Billionaires solidify their hold there will be another revolution. It could be nasty, but make a great history book.

[newluddite]

Eagles

One of my kids went on a school trip to Florida. That is a long way from here as it is on the other corner of the continent from where I am. They did Orlando for fun, but also NASA. While on a bus tour of the Launch complexes the driver stopped the bus and in a hushed and reverent voice said, "There is a real bald eagles nest right there." The kids responded with oohs and aaahs as if they were impressed. They were not. There were two eagles nests near their school play field. Bald Eagles are very common here.

Driving to work in an industrial area I pass about a dozen Eagle's nests. I on any given day will see five or six eagles. They stay close to the big river that we all live near. Bald Eagles are a type of sea eagle. They have white heads and tails which makes they harder to see from under water as fish travel near the surface. They love fish. They also eat seagulls and the occasional goose or duck as those migrate past.

If the usual prey eludes them they will hunt rabbits and other rodents in the nearby farmers fields. A Stray cat that moved into our company's yard was taken by an eagle. Hey they gotta eat. They are dramatic and impressive animals.

Nearby there is a place called Brackendale where in the winter they have an eagle count. That takes place during the end of a salmon run where there are lots of fish to eat. This past year in one day they counted 1288 along this one river run. So there are lots of eagles.

They are almost common. On any given day it you go outside in our city you will probably see at least one. Last weekend at my grandson's baseball game there were 7 circling over the town. Many were juveniles as they had not yet grown the white feathers on the head and tails.

[newluddite]

The New Age.

It is March 2025 and the USA has changed. It was the land of the free according to the song. But protest against a war and be arrested.

The US president was once the "leader of the free world", but no more. He has aligned with what a previous Republican President labelled the "Axis of Evil". USA voted with North Korea, and Russia against Ukraine in the UN.

Donald Trump is using Adolf Hitler's playbook. Get elected. Ignore legislation. Identify an arbitrary (and innocent) enemy, Make executive orders, and dismantle the system of justice. Welcome to 1936.

It makes me wonder who is the leader of the free world? Not Mr Trump. Is it the president of France, or the EU?

The United States of American has a new title.

The land of the Greed.

Expect Kid Rock to put out a new anthem soon.

In an Ironic aside the origin of the Trump fortune was a brothel in northern British Columbia. D Trumps grandfather owned a "Hotel" in Bennet BC on the Chilkoot trail. Good food and "clean women" rented by the hour. He made good money serving food and sex to gold miners.

Trump family fortune began in a Canadian brothel-hotel

In one of history's little-known ironies, the Maple Leaf country pushing back against Donald Trump’s annexation bid is also host to a tiny,

Is this the real reason he wants to erase Canada?

[newluddite]

The 51st State is Puerto Rico idiots

I am Canadian, but I grew up in the USA. Specifically Connecticut, in Fairfield County. By grew up it was from 2 months old to 21 years.

I was born in Winnipeg Manitoba. My father got a job in a research lab just outside of New York City. That is why this situation occurred. I could have and perhaps should have got a US citizenship, but I did not.

All countries have their myths and legends. England has King Arthur, France has Napoleon. The USA has the founding fathers. I know the US national anthem, when it was written and the music it was based on as Francis Scott Key was not a composer, but a poet. I know that the story of the US revolution was not about freedom and liberty.

I can go on about that and I may later.

When I graduated University I moved to Western Canada. Jobs for engineers were not easy to find in New England, which is what they still call that part of the USA. I found a good job in Alberta as an Engineer. Had I not I may have got US citizenship like my brother did.

Part of my decision was an unease I had with the stories and myths the US puts into the heads of school kids. They are a very conservative society. In Elementary School we had to recite the lord's prayer and pledge allegiance to a flag. This was in Liberal left wing New England. Imagine the stuff they did in the conservative south. By the time I was in middle school the prayers and pledge were no longer required. On the TV news the two main subjects were black people fighting for the same rights white people had, and a war in Asia against a small country.

A nation that beats its chest about freedom but denies it to some people? A nation that is proud that it threw off the yoke of a colonial foreign nation is at war to impose its will on another country? This was the daily news and weekly magazines, and a message pounded into the population. And it was not right. It was not true.

When as a child I knew things. I had no allegiance to that flag, my flag was different. The tyrant that was overthrown was the few times great grandfather of the sovereign I was supposed to be loyal too. I did not believe in that god as the stories made no sense. But I went along so as to not be an outsider. I grew up with heavy doubts.

So when I moved back to Canada it was with a sense of relief and hope and a feeling of not really belonging there either. But the myths were gentler and mostly true. There was no range wars against Indians. There were unfair treatment and other things. But Canada proved to be a loyal and reliable friend and ally when called upon. World War One started in 1914 for Canada. The US did not show up until it was almost over in 1917. World War 2 started in 1939 for Canada. Canadian soldiers were dying in battle while the US was debating and a nascent American Nazi party was formed. The USA joined the side of good and true in late 1941.

Canada has a real tradition of trying to be just. Perfect, far from it.

The destination of the underground railroad for escaped slaves was Canada, not northern states. There was a federal law to capture and return to the South those that got only as far as the Northern States.

Land of the Free, its Canada not the US.

Every nation in West Europe is free and democratic. There are rights for people and the rule of laws applied equally to all. A minority of people elected a US president that has bragged that laws do not apply to him. He is a convicted Felon. Convicted by a jury. (By minority I mean of eligible voters. Trump had 31% of all those who could have voted.)

The US has serious dangerous problems, and they are all of their own making. There are too many guns. There is digitally spread hate and racism. There is a failed health system, that is so bad the life expectancy of an average American is lower than any other major nation. But worst of all is the leadership is based on lies. Truth is a stranger to most of the elected US government. That is exacerbated by a extreme right wing media company (owned by a foreigner) that supports radical right views far beyond reason or truth.

So what rational intelligent nation would submit to the fate of being forced under threats to join the US. Not Canada.

If 20% of people here think it would be good, fine. That is a minority. If they want they should just move there and be done with it. They mostly look and sound just like Americans. Trump may even not deport them.

Under force it would put Canada at war with the US. For the record the worlds longest sniper kill was by a Canadian Sniper. Snipers are allowed in a state of war.

So if you want to add a star to the flag just give it to Puerto Rico, they want it. If you do not want to change the flag just give Hawaii back to the people the US took if from illegally. Or I like the Idea of Canada annexing Alaska. We could pay every Alaskan a million bucks to vote for that. It would make the map so much nicer.

Oh about the US revolution. That was because Slavery was about to become against the law in the English Colonies. A series of court cases in England in 1763 to 1772 found the state of Slavery not supported by law. That would lead to it being codified and enforceable in the Colonies. The leaders of the Rebellion were mostly southern plantation slave owners. Slavery was a major item in the Colonial economy and making it illegal would be crippling. So other reasons and excuses were invented. Those became the history as history is written by the winners.

[newluddite]

Its Been a while

There is so much that has gone wrong in the past few months. Before I can come up with a cogent rant another worse thing happens. There are several wars going on.

in Ukraine Russia has even bought some North Korean mercenaries to feed the meat grinder. Thousands have died. We will soon see if Trump will solve that war in two days as he boasted. He boasts a lot.

Oh the orange evil person has convinced the US electorate that he actually is worthy, notwithstanding his criminal convictions now and in the future. If anything proves the US is past its prime and the empire is falling what more could there be?

Oh I found a linguistic Geek who reveals that the word "Trump" is what British people use to describe farts. Ironic or what?

The hard right wing of the Israeli government has made war on a small enclave of poor oppressed people of the same race, but different religion in the name of peace. They have convinced the world that criticism of a government policy made by officials is actually antisemitism. The are effectively pursuing a policy of "killing a thousand of them for every one of us." War crimes what war crimes?

Rather than wipe out an admittedly evil terrorist force they are recruiting the next generation from the children that survive.

It seems as there in no hope for the near future unless you are already a billionaire.

[newluddite]

I Saw a Cybertruck!

Actually as of this morning I saw two.

I saw reviews online, but in person you can really appreciate how ugly the thing is. Designers usually sculpt shapes in clay or computer modelling to try different ideas. Musk's designers saved a fortune by giving a bunch of kids lots of plywood. Every side and top surface is flat. Flat surfaces will show every ding dent and flex that happens. Generally intelligent designers avoid them. Curves make things stronger too. Oh and those sharp edges...Yikes!

It looks like a "future car" from a very low budget Sci-Fi B movie.

The first one I saw when I was on my bike. The thing is frighteningly sharp on the front. It will shred any human body on contact. I do not want to ever be on a collision course with that thing. That is not a designer being insensitive it is outright hostility to human health and safety. I guess Musk was deeply involved in the design and appears to be a psychopath.

The second one I followed through a tunnel on my way to work. I sometimes notice if a car or truck rides funny like the shocks are worn out and this was just like that. As these are brand new worn out shocks is not likely. They are supposed to ride over bumps like that I guess. It also darted from side to side randomly in the narrow lane of the tunnel. And it was loud. Wind noise like crazy, and tire noise, while I am in a following car. Apparently they are quiet inside using fancy windows and insulation.

They are not a truck as in a Ford F150. You cannot haul stuff in that rear that is of any size. One online review went head to head with an F150 and when the Tesla got stuck in mud they used the Ford to pull it out. Then the Ford got stuck and when they used the Cybertruck to return the favor it had its bumper torn off and totaled the unibody frame. Dear dear me. Nope not a truck. Just a very weird big 5 passenger SUV that is a pedestrian's nightmare.

Well it actually makes the Hummer look good.

In Europe the safety regulations require smooth surfaces and crumple zones to protect pedestrians from injury. As a result the Cybertruck cannot be used there. Good for Europe. I think it should be banned in North America too. Oh that is why Musk is supporting Trump for Fuhrer.

If you want you can buy a Ford F150 that is fully electric. That at least is a real truck. It is very heavy but you can plug tools into it and tow stuff.

[newluddite]

A strange AI experience.

I love a good story.

I tripped over a series of stories that purport to be from diaries and memoirs of World War 2 Veterans. They are read out with a cultured English accented voice. Thing is it isn't human. There are weird and interesting errors which made me doubt the humanity of the voice.

WW2 Tales

Welcome to "WW2 Tales" – Unveiling the Untold Stories of Valor and Resilience! Step into a world where history comes alive – "WW2 Tales" is

The Errors were pronunciation and reading of some words. For example if the text said the time was 6:00 the voice did not read out "Six o'clock." It would say Six and an unpronounceable sound with an OOO on the end. Some simple words like disgusting would come out "Dis Goo St ang." Of course it could be a person who is not perfectly fluent in English. The pronunciation of French place names seems perfect to me.

There was also a remarkable lack of variation of tone or emotional expression. These stories were about war, about being wounded, in pain, getting fixed up and returned to battle. Monotone is one way to describe it. Not human is another.

The stories are intriguing and seem to be from real documents. There are accurate historical references. The stories are from both sides and are from survivors obviously. It expresses the basic absurdity of war. Young people are convinced that it is good to fight and die for old people who make bad decisions. The stories are also evidence that the US was key to winning that war not because of any inherent superiority of people or culture, but straight forward industrial capacity safe from bombs.

There are problems with indexing and labeling. For example I got into a story of an English Naval Fighter pilot but lost the thread and cannot find it.

In any case it it good way to kill time.

I can see how using AI makes production of the narratives fairly easy. Just feed the words in and record. It may even be part of a project to educate our digital overlords on how futile and wasteful wars is. On the other hand it may inform them on how easy it is ti manipulate people to kill each other on an industrial scale.

[newluddite]

Julian Assange the final chapter.

Well he his home in OZ and free of the charges the USA laid on him. So he has managed to prove how utterly bad his judgement is. He spent 7 years hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK. They kicked him out as he was a very poor guest. Then 5 years in jail first for violating bail then pending extradition. Oh and there was a rape accusation from Sweden in there somewhere.

He spent 12 years of not being free in fear of facing espionage charges for publishing stolen secrets from US authorities. To be clear he really did the things the US accused him of which are serious crimes.

The person who stole the secrets spent 7 years in confinement and had their sentence commuted by the US President. They got out in 2017. Makes you think that he should have manned up and faced the music. He could have been out years ago. But manning up is not in his nature.

So now he is a hero or martyr or something. Did he actually prove press freedom is paramount? No. He did a deal so everyone could put it behind themselves. The US justice Department gave him a plea deal that effectively let him claim time served in that Embassy and in a UK Prison was time enough. More time than the soldier who stole the data served.

The files were an embarrassment to the US. They showed soldiers committing war crimes. That is also what caused the crisis of conscience leading to the Army Private's theft. The US is not a signatory on the global treaty regarding war crimes. Just saying.

Before he was a hero / martyr he was a hacker who did or claimed to have broken into military and government sites in the US and Australia. He claimed to be an ethical hacker. But he was implicated in the theft of half a million dollars from a bank when he was in his teens. He knew his way around computers and network security.

So back home. Probably will write a book or two and do speaking engagements. Ok fine.

But really stupid decisions over and over again.

[newluddite]

Assassin Potters.

My Wife is taking a pottery class. She came home with the set of tools she needs to make pots and things. One of the items is a Garrotte.

It is is thin wire strung between two small dowel handles. It is identical to what I saw in a Commando display at a museum. Was there a desperate fight in a pottery studio and the commando grabbed what came to hand or was there a trained assassin taking a day off for meditative clay manipulation? Hey this can be used with pots they think.

Sentries searching a potter's sack could find this lethal tool; "Whats this for?"

"It's just for cutting my pots off of the wheel." So innocent and not threatening. Then the sentry turns his back and.....

Which cam first the potters or the assassins?

[newluddite]

More on the Key Bridge Collapse.

I saw a few streams and the comments are interesting. Engineering professors saying there was nothing wrong with the bridge. Other experts saying there is no bridge that could survive such an impact. It is not a fault in the bridge.

But actually it is.

If abutments are vulnerable they can be and often are surrounded by protective barriers. Sometimes heavy piles sometimes full artificial islands.

Here is a photo.

Look to the left side with that very tall slender pole. That is a high tension power line support. And look around the base. That is protection from ships. They worried more about the power lines than the bridge.

A ship collision is an obvious possible failure. It should have been considered. If it was considered and bean counters decided to not spend the money on protection then it gets political. The Engineers should have known better.

Oh and to be clear I am an engineer and have worked on bridges.

[newluddite]

Another Bridge goes down.

Getty images off the BBC.

This is in Baltimore Maryland, USA. March 26 2023. It would have been much worse if it happened in daytime, it was in the wee hours after midnight. Worse with respect to human casualties, but still very bad economically. The collapse cuts off a major container port from the sea.

This bridge opened in 1977. It is a large complex truss bridge. I graduated engineering in 1977. Up till then certainly truss bridges were popular. They are efficient and economical to build and use material wisely. Minimal first cost which is perfect for government work.

BUT!

As is the case in all such failures, trusses will totally fail if ONE place is overstressed. It is called single point failure. It has a name as engineers have realized it is a problem. New bridges are designed to be redundant. If any single part fails the load has another place to go. You do not see big truss bridges being built anymore.

There is video and it is disturbing. Not that you see bodies falling or anything. You see a big ship just touching the bridge support and the whole thing falls in a few seconds. Aside from the truss thing it is apparent the support pier was weak and badly designed. It should have either been protected or made much tougher. Ships hit things.

It is suspected that there was a power failure on the ship and control was lost. The details about the ship are actually immaterial. It was a flaw in the bridge waiting to show itself.

civil.jhd.edu

It was a handsome bridge intact. I believe it was the triangular support on the right that got hit. Since ships are big, clearance needs to be high so this kind of bridge is fairly common over harbors. Ships pass under them thousands of times every year.

It will take a few weeks to fully clear the wreckage and if they replace the bridge it will take 10 ish years as they cannot just put up another one like it. Likely a really tough cable stayed bridge. One with heavily armored support piers to protect them from the next ship.

Oh and lawyers will make a lot of money.

[newluddite]

Brian Mulroney.

He died and everyone is praising his time as Prime Minister of Canada. With all the nice things people are saying I just have to balance that a bit.

Full disclosure I voted for him to get in and later to get rid of him. He had both the greatest majority and later caused the almost total destruction of his party.

He also almost destroyed the country by exacerbating Quebec and Western Canadian separatism. He is responsible for a lot of damage.

I knew a person who was a player in the federal Conservative Party who met and got to know Mr. Mulroney. He described his formula for power to my acquaintance was to give Quebec whatever it wanted no matter how unreasonable. (Direct Quote) His constitutional "accords" were attempts to put that into the basic law of the land. It was that which doomed both to failure when English Canada understood the imbalance. That lead to Western Separatism and eventually the "Reform Party". Failure to deliver was what prompted the Bloc Québecois to rise and pull the other way.

But the thing that really pissed me off is he took money for contracts. The bugger was already wealthy he did not need the money. He swore he never met Mr K. Schreiber who provided cash in brown paper bags directy to Mr Mulroney in exchange for Air Canada buying Airbus Planes, and for the military to buy MBB helicopters, companies he represented. Even if the money went to fund the Conservative Party it stunk and that is what did him in.

When it started to come out he sued the RCMP and Government prosecutors for libel who timidly settled, but the facts got out.

He was a dirty bribe taking liar. Oh but a good husband and father and respected by everyone except those with a memory.

With all the warm breezes blowing over his reputation I had to put this down in black and white.

[newluddite]

Conspiracy and needs.

TV and movies go on and on about spies and assassins. Conspiracy fans think there are roving teams of killers doing the will of mysterious cabals etc.

The real world disagrees.

In Russia Putin has sent people to kill opponents. They tried to kill Navally several times and missed. they tried to kill that ex-spy in the UK and missed. Both times with poison. More success with blowing up airplanes and throwing people out high windows by accident.

That seems to be it. But the botched jobs do not speak to highly capable operatives. More like clumsy thugs.

Yet if there were such elite star chamber operations there are a few people that would benefit the world with a bullet to the head. Top of the list is Putin himself. He is ruining one country trying to ruin another. He lives in fear so stays well away from threats. those meeting tables are epicly large. It is most likely he will be ended violently. The sooner the better.

Next on the list would be D Trump. He has single handedly made fascism fashionable again. Adolf Hitlers speeches on his bedside table for many years. He also lives in fear and apparently lives off of fast food bought from random outlets to avoid poison. Heart disease is ok though. Ironically he has his lawyers argue in court that a president has a right to order the death of their political opponents. Obviously he has plans. So he thinks the present POTUS can order his death legally? Such a moron. Doesn't he know who commands his protection detail?

As no shots have been fired is that not evidence of absence?

[newluddite]

More trouble in Electricarification land.

A recent news item was for a new electric car that had a small dent. The dent was in the underside probably from running over something on the road. A stick, or maybe a rock, but nothing crazy.

The repair was $60,000 or way more than the car cost new. Why?

The dent was on a cover over the battery pack. If a battery pack is damaged it can fail spectacularly. Flames and explosions type of spectacular. So this not unusual event totaled the car. It is now junk.

The problem is you cannot fix or replace electric car batteries. They wear out, and should be replaceable, but no you cant. Most are buried deep inside the bottom of the car and to get to them you need to disassemble the car down to the frame. Some "converted" cars can get at them from below like the short lived Fiat 500e. Cars designed for electric power like to hide the batteries deep inside.

There is a safety aspect in that batteries need protection from impact as a serious crash can make them explode. They are much worse than a leaking tank of gasoline. Wrapping a protecting frame and armor plates around them makes it hard to access them if you need to.

These batteries have a short life. My evil (small) gas powered car is 8 years old. If it were electric the battery would likely need to be replaced now as it would have less than half the original capacity. Since you can't replace one the car would be trash. It is a good business model you have to buy a new car every 5 to 8 years or even more often. Lucky for me I can drive it for years to come as long as there is fuel which there will be for the foreseeable future.

No manufacturer has any recycling or refurbishing programs for electric car main batteries.

There is an obvious solution. Standardize battery packs into simple modules that bolt in from below. When they age out replace them with fresh and send the old ones for refurbishment.

So governments should not just say build electric cars. They should require manufacturers to:

Establish standard modular battery packs for all cars. There can be many types, but all must fit one of several agreed upon standard module specifications.

The battery packs shall be removable from below with common shop tools in a reasonable time.

The manufacturer shall only use batteries that can be refurbished and recycled.

Refurbished battery packs shall perform as good as new ones so an older electric car can stay on the road long enough to pay off the environmental impact from making it.

Add that to the list of things they didn't think about like the fact there is not enough electric generating capacity to fuel a full fleet of electric cars. Care to buy a Nuclear power plant or ten?