Industrialized Cyclist Notepad


Bike of the Day: Mike’s Waltworks 29er



US diesel price per gallon
June 18, 2012, 11:18
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Typhoon Guchol
June 17, 2012, 18:48
Filed under: maps | Tags: , , , , ,


click to enlarge

via Typhoon Guchol : 5 Day Forecast Map | Weather Underground.



Fort Worth mayor wipes out hard in bike wreck

Joining former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter in the annals of history.

What started as a routine Saturday morning bicycle ride for Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price ended with a broken collar bone, a concussion and some scrapes.

Despite her injuries, Price is in good spirits and still has a sense of humor, said Jason Lamers, chief of staff for Price and the City Council.

via Fort Worth mayor breaks collar bone, suffers concussion in bike crash | Fort Worth | New….



Delta thinks it can manipulate the price of jet fuel by running a refinery

Yeah, I don’t think so.

“We’re probably the largest private purchaser of jet fuel in the United States but we don’t get to participate in the pricing function,” Anderson told reporters after the Delta’s annual meeting in New York. “It’s our intention to begin to participate in the pricing function and put a lot of downward pressure on the cost of refining a barrel of jet fuel.”

The Trainer refinery will produce 52,000 barrels a day of jet fuel, according to slides published in an April 30 8-K filing by the company. Delta will exchange all other products with BP Plc (BP/) and Phillips 66 (PSX) for an additional 120,000 barrels a day of jet fuel in other locations around the country. The airline consumes about 210,000 barrels a day in the U.S.

via Delta CEO Says Airline to Pressure Prices as Jet Fuel Seller – Bloomberg.



Habshan-Fujairah

Will help a little bit with the whole Strait of Hormuz thing.

via http://www.ekemeuroenergy.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53:uae-crude-pipeline-to-downgrade-role-of-strait-of-hormuz&catid=47:middle-east-a-the-gulf-&Itemid=74



Leak found at Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant last week

While we’re on the subject of super old and leaky nuke plants. This plant’s near Toledo, and is also up for a controversial license renewal.

During the performance of MODE 3 engineering walkdown inspections in accordance with procedure DB-PF-03010 (ASME Section III, Class 1 and 2), with the RCS at Normal Operating Temperature and Pressure, a pressure boundary leak was identified on the Reactor Coolant Pump (RCP) 1-2 1st seal cavity vent line upstream weld of 3/4 inch small bore pipe socketweld at a 90 degree elbow between the RCP pump and valve RC-407 (1st Seal Cavity Vent Isolation). The plant was in MODE 3 at Normal Operating Pressure and Normal Operating Temperature (NOP/NOT) for the inspections.

“The plant entered Technical Specification (TS) Limiting Condition for Operation (LCO) 3.4.13, ‘RCS Operational Leakage,’ Condition B and procedure DB-OP-02522. ‘Small RCS Leaks,’ abnormal operating procedure. Plant cooldown to comply with LCO 3.4.13, Condition B, Required Action B.2 is in progress. The cause and resolution are under evaluation.

via Leak found at Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant during restart from month-long outage | Enformable.



50-mile radius around Palisades nuke plant

…which is leaking, perhaps exploding, etc.

The 41-year-old plant’s license was due to expire, but in 2007 the NRC granted a 20-year extension.


click to enlarge
Via the Palisade license-renewal application (pdf): http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/palisades/palisades_er.pdf



Tracking the Tour Divide

Everybody’s pulling for Eszter…

http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide



Another Smoke Map

High Park Fire filled Denver with smoke this morning, but the plume has since pulled back.

Via NOAA: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm



Seven-minute release of UF6 gas at Honeywell plant in Illinois
June 7, 2012, 15:32
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , ,

By preventing the guy from asking the question, the question goes viral.

youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DRoKRI62s&w=420&h=315



Total Public Debt
June 6, 2012, 18:17
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,

Of the U.S.



Related to VMT: public transit use up in 2012

And another USA Today story…

He says ridership on what’s called heavy rail — subways and elevated trains — increased in 14 of the 15 systems that have such transit. Use of light rail — streetcars and trolleys — rose in 25 of the 27 cities that have it. And 34 of 37 large cities saw increases in bus ridership.

via Use of public transit is soaring in 2012 – USATODAY.com.



Tinker Juarez

After skipping the series’ second round Juarez showed why he is a legend at 51, taking his second Pro UET victory on the season and regaining the overall lead on Sunday. Juarez was challenged heavily throughout the 50-mile race by U23 prospect Brendon Davids (RSA/Sho-Air – Specialized). The veteran eventually used his knowledge of the endurance format to dislodge Davids late in the second and final lap to take a 35 second victory….

via Juarez Takes Back Pro UET Lead, Mata Soars at Big Bear 50 | Mountain Bike Review.



VMT tax is being kicked around

A tax based on miles driven. This also seems to imply GPS tracking of individual vehicles. Politicians can’t even propose an increase in the gas tax which is unreasonably low. So don’t hold your breath on a VMT tax with privacy issues.

The efforts are being prompted by the fact that gasoline taxes no longer provide enough money to pay for roads and bridges — especially when Congress and many state legislatures are reluctant to increase taxes imposed on each gallon. The federal tax of 18.4 cents a gallon hasn’t been raised in nearly two decades. More than half the states have not raised their gas tax this millennium. Fuel-efficiency also is behind the efforts. Electric-powered vehicles are growing in numbers.

We can hear about gains in ‘efficiency’ because that’s something the politicians want to take credit for.

What the politicians/media studiously ignore, for reasons I’ll leave you to ponder: VMT (vehicle miles traveled) has been below its previous peak for about 4 years, after climbing almost uninterrupted for a half century or more, which is remarkable. People are driving less. Probably this has a great deal to do with the increase in people sitting on their couches instead of going to jobs; the demography of our aging population; and the cultural shift away from teen driving; as well as the price of fuel.

via States explore new ways to tax motorists for road repair – USATODAY.com.



Timmy Duggan’s Nationals Power

Lotta Joules for a Timmy.


click to enlarge

Via Velonews:

Timmy Duggan Nationals Power.



Actual unemployment versus the Administration’s ’09 predictions

Even in the ‘nightmare scenario,’ everything gets better, better, better.

This chart says a lot about American politics.

Also, remember that the ‘actual unemployment rate’ … isn’t.



Teach your kid to ride a bike

It’s that time of year!!



Hurricane likelihood will be slightly below average this year, CSU predicts

From Colorado State University hurricane predictors (pdf): http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu/Forecasts/2012/june2012/jun2012.pdf

Information obtained through May 2012 indicates that the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season will have slightly less activity than the average 1950-2000 season. We estimate that 2012 will have about 5 hurricanes (average is 5.9), 13 named storms (average is 9.6), 50 named storm days (average is 49.1), 18 hurricane days (average is 24.5), 2 major (Category 3-4-5) hurricanes (average is 2.3) and 4 major hurricane days (average is 5.0). The probability of U.S. major hurricane landfall is estimated to be about 90 percent of the long-period average. We expect Atlantic basin Net Tropical Cyclone (NTC) activity in 2012 to be approximately 90 percent of the long-term average. We have increased our numbers slightly from our early April forecast, due largely to our uncertainty as to whether an El Niño will develop later this summer and to marginal Atlantic basin conditions. A brief update on El Niño conditions may be issued prior to the next forecast update on August 3 if conditions warrant.

This forecast is based on a new extended-range early June statistical prediction scheme that utilizes 29 years of past data. Analog predictors are also utilized. Overall, conditions are expected to lead to a slightly below-average hurricane season.



Wildland fire potential

Via http://wildfiretoday.com




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