Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Africa, African athletes, altitude training, Colorado, high altitude, Iten, Kenya, Kenyan Riders, Kipchumba, Mount Evans, Tour de France
I call dibs on the movie rights.
We could all get together and sponsor a high-altitude training camp for these guys. I know a lot of people who would love to host these athletes in their homes as they train in the high mountains. We have uniquely high paved roads here in Colorado.
Since joining the team two years ago, Kipchumba, 26, has excelled. He says that running success translates smoothly to cycling, but that athletes in Iten remain reluctant to make the switch.
“When you come from running, the lungs are very big,” Kipchumba said. “When I started to train on a bike, I was breathing well. My legs were also used to pain. I had less pain than the others. The only problem is the fear of the sport of cycling. They don’t know much about the sport.”
via In Country of Runners, Kenyan Cycling Team Faces Uphill Climb – NYTimes.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Estus Whitfield, Florida, Florida Aquifer, freshwater springs, Rainbow Spring, Silver Spring, suburban development, Wakullah Springs, water use
Just watch.
Just a few years ago, a request for 13 million gallons would not have turned many heads.
But water experts and environmentalists say the effects are cumulative. Although water use has recently decreased, the amounts over all have been set too high for too long and the consequences are only now becoming obvious, they say.
Florida’s population boom led to an increase in the number of people and businesses demanding sprinklers (more water is used outside the home than inside). All of it is groundwater from the Florida Aquifer. The decrease in rainfall in central and northern Florida has worsened the situation.
“We are either in or headed for a water crisis,” said Estus Whitfield, a former principal environmental adviser to five Florida governors.
via Florida Worries as Growth Threatens Its Freshwater Springs – NYTimes.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fake choices, how to get 'liberals' to defend or even fight for a fascist system, kill me now, neo-liberals, Obama, Obomney, Robama, Romney, the new fascism, what a joke, Won't get fooled again? Yeah we will..., write in Snuffles the Clown, WTF
Ugh.. Robomney…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bay of Fundy, Canada, heavy water, hydrazine, nuclear accident, nuclear plant, nukes, Point Lepreau, Rzentkowski, tritium
“Heavy water…” Doesn’t sound so dangerous does it?
About 300 litres of tritiated heavy water spilled on May 21 when a valve opened too soon during pressure testing at the plant.
NB Power crews were testing the system that transfers heat from the reactor up to steam powered turbines as part of preparations to restart the plant when they overpressurized the system.
Poor planning, training led to leak
Rzentkowski said poor planning, training and human error led to the leak, which officials have said was contained in a sealed room and cleaned up without endangering staff or the environment.
“Supervisors were not trained in the operation of the test equipment. Supervisors could not provide active oversight and guidance over the test,” said Razentkowski.
…
There were two previous spills at Lepreau.
On Dec. 13, less than six litres of heavy water splashed to the floor, forcing an evacuation of the building.
The following day, NB Power issued a statement saying that three weeks earlier another spill had occurred. About 23 barrels of water laced with the toxic chemical hydrazine was released into the Bay of Fundy.
Both incidents occurred as part of preparations for restarting the plant.
via Nuclear watchdog unable to closely monitor Point Lepreau – New Brunswick – CBC News.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bike racing, cross country, Georgia Gould, London, mountain bike, mountain biking, Olympics, XC
… says that UCI winnings for cyclocross races were ten times more for elite men than they were for elite women.
“This looks like a pretty strong case of discrimination,” Gould said. “I understand men’s fields are deeper. There are more guys racing. OK, you don’t make it equal 20 places deep. But the top few people? You don’t get a discount like, ‘Oh, you’ve got (breasts). You pay less for your plane ticket.’ Or when I buy my license from the UCI, they’re not, like, ‘Oh, you’re a woman. You pay 10 percent of what the men pay.’ I train just as hard. You don’t go the same distance.
“‘Oh, you’ve got (breasts)'” is among best ever newspaper quotations, lovin’ those parentheses.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bike rental, bike rental NYC, bike share, Bloomberg, Citi, Citibank, Citibike, NYC
I enjoyed the weirdly negative headline on this Bloomberg article, and the way they got the ‘rental’ part right for once.
NYC Risks ‘Bikelash’ as 10,000 Rental Cycles Hit Streets – Bloomberg.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cargo, diesel, energy, peak oil, transportation, trucking
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Betsy Price, bicycle, bicycle accident, bicycle crash, bicycle safety, bicycling, bike accident, bike crash, bike path, Bill Ritter, Fort Worth, MUP
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….
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 30 8-K, air travel BP, Anderson, Delta Airlines, energy, jet fuel, peak oil, Trainer refinery, transportation
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Davis Besse, electricity generation, energy, nuclear accident, nuclear energy, nuclear power, power generation, radiation leak
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.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: all terrain bicycling, bicycling, continental divide, endurance mountain bike racing, endurance racing, Eszter Horanyi, mountain biking, MTB, singlespeed, SS, TD, Tour Divide, travel, vacation, WaltWorks, Waltworks 29er, XC
Everybody’s pulling for Eszter…
http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: climate, Elk, Honeywell, UF6, uranium, Uranium gas, uranium processing
By preventing the guy from asking the question, the question goes viral.
youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DRoKRI62s&w=420&h=315
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: deficit, FRED, government debt, national debt, total public debt
Of the U.S.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: buses, elevated trains, light rail, public transit, trains, transport, transportation, transportation policy, USA Today, Vmt
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Big Bear, Big Bear 50, Brendon Davids, David "Tinker" Juarez, endurance mountain bike racing, endurance racing, Mata, mountain bike, mountain bike racing, Pro UET, RSA/Sho-Air - Specialized, Specialized
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: driving in the United States, federal gas tax, gas taxes, peak oil, road maintenance, road repair, transportation, urban cycling, Vmt, VMT tax
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boulder, energy, joules, kilojoules, national championship, power, powermeter, the human engine, Tim Duggan, Timmy Duggan, US champion, US cycling champion, Velo, Velonews, watts, watts-per-kilogram
Lotta Joules for a Timmy.
click to enlarge
Via Velonews:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advertising, climate, economy, Obama, politics, predictions, projections, reelection propaganda, unemployment
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BBC, comedy, hurling the child into the bushes, ride a bike, time of year, transportation, travel
It’s that time of year!!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cone of probablity, CSU, hurricane, hurricane prediction, landfall, Net Tropical Cyclone activity, tropical storm
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.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 