Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bike racing, Cadel Evans, Chris Horner, Nibali, Radio Shack, Schleck, sports, TDF, Tour de France, Wiggins
Sure looked like it to me.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boulder, Denver plutonium, Full Body Burden, Kristen Iversen, Leroy Moore, Plutonium, plutonium fire, Rocky Flats, Standley Lake
That’s right, 2003.
Toward the end of Kristen Iversen’s remarkable book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, she provides a detailed account of a severe plutonium fire that happened in Building 371 at Rocky Flats in May 2003 in which Rocky Flats firefighters put their lives at risk in order to protect innocent people both on and off the site. By the time of this fire, I had for a decade been attending Rocky Flats-oriented meetings at the rate of two or three per month as a member of a number of advisory and oversight bodies focused on trying to get a responsible cleanup at Rocky Flats. When the fire happened, those of us engaged closely in Rocky Flats matters were awaiting publication of the final legally-binding Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement by the Department of Energy and the cleanup regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Despite all this close attention to what was happening at Rocky Flats, I and others around me never heard that there was another serious plutonium fire at Rocky Flats in May 2003. No one from the federal and state agencies responsible for day-to-day activities at Rocky Flats, no one from Kaiser-Hill, the cleanup contractor, no one informed us of this fire.
It might as well have been 1957 when a plutonium fire at Rocky Flats resulted in the largest single release of highly toxic plutonium to the offsite environment and the public heard not a peep. Forty-six years later, not a peep.
via Rocky Flats « LeRoyMoore's Blog.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: American oil production, crude oil, crude oil production, Econbrowser, energy, James Hamilton, oil production, peak oil, Texas oil production, Texas Railroad Commission, tight oil, transportation, westtexas
A historical perspective.
via Econbrowser and James Hamilton: http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2012/07/shale_oil_and_t.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken, Bakken Shale, crude oil, energy, horizontal drilling, James Hamilton, Jeffrey Brown, marginal costs of production, natural gas liquids, Niobrara, oil price, oil shale, peak oil, shale oil, shale plays, tight gas, tight oil, tight oil formations, unconventional oil, westtexas
Throwing a little cold water on some recent, loudly reported unscientific predictions. When you read Hamilton, always be sure to read the comments by Jeffrey Brown for an important Big Picture view.
In addition to the uncertainties noted above about extrapolating historical production rates, the rate at which production declines from a given well over time is another big unknown. Another key point to recognize is the added cost of extracting oil from tight formations. West Texas Intermediate is currently around $85/barrel. With the huge discount for Canadian and north-central U.S. producers, that means that producers of North Dakota sweet are only offered $61 a barrel. Tight oil is not going to be the reason that we return to an era of cheap oil, for the simple reason that if oil again fell below $50/barrel, it wouldn’t be profitable to produce with these methods. Nor is tight oil likely to get the U.S. back to the levels of field production that we saw in 1970. But tight oil will likely provide a source of significant new production over the next decade as long as the price does not fall too much.
via Econbrowser: Shale oil and tight oil.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: banksters, currency devaluation, debt, devaluation, employment, fraud, Iceland, Krugman, unemployment
again..
via Krugman: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/the-times-does-iceland/
Here’s an idea: Make the banks, rather than the public, eat the losses that the banks created.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycle parking, bicycling, bike parking, bike racks, bike theft, cycling, denver, Downtown Denver Partnership, dumb racks, pedalcycle, urban cycling
The Downtown Denver Partnership advises cyclists to lock bikes to bike racks rather than trees, street lights or other sidewalks furnishings. There are 600 racks scattered throughout downtown Denver.
via More cyclists in Denver — and record numbers of bicycle thefts – Denver News – The Latest Word.
You mean one of these racks….
HURST CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING. In other downtown abominations, check out these new racks, which have plates welded where one would most like … to stick … one’s … lock. I should be happy you say, grateful that these things are being installed — racks is racks right? I mean, they are still useable. Unfortunately I can’t get past the sheer stupidity represented in these curious artifacts. Every time I am compelled to use one I find myself grumbling, so I avoid contact.
As the sticker there proudly proclaims, they are brought to you by the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District, an organization which until now has seemed to view bicycling as a hindrance to business, something to be stamped out rather than facilitated. These pants-suited business boosters never exhibited any appreciation for potential customers on bikes, or the workers downtown, from lawyers to dishwashers, who use bikes to get to their jobs. They certainly had little appreciation for the messengers who served their tenants, I mean overlords. Then the cycling renaissance of the ’00s took the BID by surprise. What are all these people doing riding bikes around down here? Now they present these awkward racks to their friends the cyclists with the prime rack area welded shut to create a place to put their sticker or some other form of advertisement. Am I on hidden camera here? This is a bit like getting a delicious sandwich with a huge bite taken out, and a sticky note there with ‘Brought to You by Mo’s Deli’ written on it. And of course the racks are popping up everywhere — except where they would be most useful. That’s about a D+ for execution, BID.
from http://www.industrializedcyclist.com/92809_Hope_You_Had_a_Nice.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bici, bicycling, bicycling in the city, bike rental, bike share, Bike sharing, bikes, biking, Chris Holben, Citibike, city biking, District of Columbia, NYC, transportation, urban cycling, Washington, Washington D.C.
Whereas, if you look at the actual facts presented in this USA Today article, the bike share program in question is incredibly safe.
Washington’s Capital Bikeshare program began in September 2010, has grown to include more than 1,500 bicycles and recently recorded its 2 millionth ride. At the same time, bicycle-related accidents have increased on city D.C. roads.
Bicycle-related accidents have increased from 312 in 2009 to 601 in 2011, according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Pedestrian-related accidents also rose from 657 in 2009 to 935 in 2011.
…
Chris Holben , a bicycle program specialist for the District Department of Transportation, says Washington has actually become safer since the number of people riding their bikes has increased. He said only 24 Bikeshare crashes have been reported to police since the program stated.
So that’s roughly 1 reported crash per 100,000 trips! And even those are likely to be minor crashes. Oooh, danger. Hope they’re all wearing their helmets…
Now check out the headline:
via Bike sharing stokes conflict between drivers, cyclists – USATODAY.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: construction, construction employment, employment, housing, housing bottom, jobs numbers, peak oil, suburban development, unemployment, urban, zero hedge
…skittering along down there…
click to enlarge
via http://www.zerohedge.com/news/point-out-housing-bottom-chart
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Al Jazeera, Arafat, Litvinenko, PLO, poison, polonium Francois Bochud, whodunnit
Whodunnit.
Al-Jazeera says the tests on his clothes, including his toothbrush and kaffiyeh, were conducted by the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” Francois Bochud, the director of the institute, tells Al-Jazeera.
Additional tests, conducted over a three-month period from March until June, concluded that most of that polonium found in samples of body fluids — sweat and urine — on Arafat’s clothes, was “unsupported,” meaning that it did not come from natural sources.
Al-Jazeera says there is little scientific consensus on the symptoms of polonium poisoning, mostly because it is so rare.
Litvinenko suffered severe diarrhea, weight loss and vomiting, as did Arafat, in the days and weeks before he fell ill.
Severe diarrhea and vomiting …. in the days and weeks before he fell ill. Must mean before he died. Ah well. The editor was probably working on a big chimp attack story.
via USA Today: Al-Jazeera: Tests suggest Arafat died of polonium poisoning.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: chimp attack, chimpanzees, Fukushima, journalism, LIBOR, NBC, nightly news, reactor 4, spent fuel pool
UPDATE: SFP cooling restarted 307 PM per TEPCO via http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/06/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-reactor-4-spent.html
————————————————————–
Could make these Colorado fires look pretty insignificant.
Note that NBC’s top story tonight was about a college kid who got attacked by chimps in S. Africa. No mention of Fukushima or LIBOR. They’re not even pretending any more.
The cooling system of the spent-fuel pool in reactor 4 at the Fukushima No. 1 plant automatically suspended operations Saturday and the water temperature is starting to rise, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The utility has been unable to activate a backup cooling system for the pool since operations halted at around 6.25 a.m., and is looking into the causes, Tepco officials said later in the day.
The pool’s water temperature stood at around 31 degrees Celsius when the cooling system ceased functioning and was increasing by 0.26 degree per hour late Saturday afternoon, according to the officials.
If Tepco remains unable to start up the system or its backup, the temperature could reach 65 degrees by Tuesday morning — the maximum limit specified by safety regulations.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Liege, Metz, route map, Switzerland, TDF, Tour de France
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike racing, biking, cycling, dopers, EPO, Fabian Cancellara, PEDs, prologue time trial, stage racing, TDF, Tour de France, TT
…TDF IS ON… somewhere …
There were murmurs that Cancellara was no longer the powerhouse he used to be, his legs slowing as younger riders developed, and despite uncertainty within his team surrounding missed wages and in-fighting, the experience and most importantly the power were there for all to see in Liège.
via Tour De France 2012: Prologue Results | Cyclingnews.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle safety, bicycling, bike, Bike accidents, bike commuting, Bike to Work Day, car versus bike, car-bike collisions, common sense, cycling, denver, energy, Linkhart, looked-but-failed-to-see errors, Mayor Hancock, transportation, urban cycling
He was my favorite mayoral candidate. He has almost no TV charisma, which is a major plus for a public official. He would have made a fine mayor. He liked libraries.
Fortunately, he’s fine, but the incident did prompt a conversation between council members and the mayor about road safety regulations and the interactions between cyclists and vehicles.
…During which, of course, scofflaw bicyclists somehow came out the villains, and education and/or reprogramming of scofflaw bicyclists was re-hurled to the tippy top of the bike safety priority list. This even though Linkhart’s crash (1) did not involve a scofflaw bicyclist and (2) car-bike crashes involving adult bicyclists typically do not. The most likely scenario for an adult bicyclist is to be caught out by another road user’s looked-but-failed-to-see error while riding lawfully. But hey, we’ve all seen bicyclists run lights right? People like Mayor Hancock make no attempt to understand the truth about urban cycling safety. Why bother — everyone knows it’s “common sense.” Common sense is good politics. Let’s not let any facts get in the way of our “common sense” about bicycle safety.
According to Linkhart, he was heading west on 23rd Avenue — on a bike route — approaching Downing Street when a pickup truck went to make a left turn and collided with him.
“I was going straight. He turned left in front of me, and…hit me across the side, and I fell down,” Linkhart recalls.
… Linkhart was scraped up badly, his bike got a bit bent and he had to get several stitches in his leg.
“I kinda went flying,” he said. “I kind of plowed into the sidewalk. I had a helmet, which didn’t help.”
Linkhart, going straight, had the right of way over the pickup truck, which was turning left.
23rd and Downing is classic left cross territory. I’ve been through that intersection a hundred times. Got to ‘keep your head on a swivel’ so to speak.
via Westword Doug Linkhart, ex-councilman, hit while cycling to Bike To Work Day event – Denver News – The Latest Word.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Cedar Heights, Colorado fire, Colorado Springs fire, fire map, fire perimeter, forest fire, IR map, Manitou Springs fire, Mountain Shadows, Rampart Reservoir, Waldo Canyon, Waldo Canyon Fire, wildland fire, Woodland Park
As of 0600 6/28 June.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Colorado, Colorado Springs, forest fires, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, Mountain Shadows, Ormes Peak, Palmer Reservoir, Rampart Reservoir, Scar on the Mountain, Waldo Canyon Fire
Early AM 6/27, via http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20928988?nstrack=sid:4529940|met:300|cat:0|order:3
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Air Force Academy, Colorado fires, Colorado Springs, forest fires, Garden of the Gods, Green Mountain Falls, Mountain Shadows, Peregrine, Waldo Canyon Fire, wildfire, Woodland Park, Woodman Road
The latest iteration, Wednesday 27 June AM. It ate a good chunk of west CS yesterday.
via http://www3.gazette.com/fire/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, exurbs, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, mountain homes, Mountain Shadows, Waldo Canyon Fire
Don’t have a good map, because the fire is way faster than the map-makers.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Colorado fires, Colorado wildfire, Garden of the Gods, human-caused environmental disaster, Hwy 24, infrared, Manitou Springs, Palmer Reservoir, Pikes Peak, Pikes Peak Toll Road, Rampart Reservoir, Ute Pass, Waldo Canyon, Waldo Canyon Fire, Woodland Park
According to the IR heat map from last night..
InciWeb the Incident Information System: Waldo Canyon Fire Large Map.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 