Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling infrastructure, Boettcher Mansion, denver, hit and run, local government, traffic accidents, urban cycling, vulnerable road users
Not yet sure what that means. Could be good or bad, probably a combination of good and bad.
Denver City Council met for several hours Friday morning at the scenic Boettcher Mansion atop Lookout Mountain, agreeing that pedestrian and bicycle safety should be among the city’s the top budget priorities for 2014.
[…]
Recent high-profile hit-and-run crashes that have killed pedestrians and increasing interest in creating a more walkable and bike-able Denver prompted the council to order the budget office focus on improving the city’s pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure.
via Denver City Council sets budget priorities for 2014.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: energy, fuel prices, gas prices, gasoline, pain at the pump, petrol
The long view.
click to enlarge
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Destination Cities, employment, fracking, Houston, National Migration Trend Report, peak oil, Texas, U-Haul, unemployment
…
PHOENIX (April 12, 2013) — U-Haul International, Inc., today released the results of the annual 2012 U-Haul National Migration Trend Report, titled “The U-Haul 2012 Top 50 U.S. Destination Cities.” According to moving data reflective of nationwide statistics for calendar year 2012, families moving to Houston took the No. 1 spot again, for the fourth year in a row.
via U-Haul: About: U-Haul Names Houston as Top 2012 U.S. Destination City.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BMC, BMC RAcing, Campagnolo, Campagnolo Hyperon, carbon, carbone ultimate, Crampngoslo, Europcar, Garmin-Sharp, katusha, Lotto-Belisol, mavic, Movistar, Orica-GreenEdge, Shimano, Shimano C50, Sky, Velonews
Not an aluminum rim in sight on the cobbles this year.
Via Velonews:
Carbon ruled on Sunday. Sky, Argos-Shimano, Blanco, Orica-GreenEdge, BMC Racing, and others had only their normal Shimano C50 tubulars on hand; Garmin-Sharp and Katusha brought only their usual Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate, a wheel so abhorrent of metal that it uses carbon spokes and a carbon hub shell; Movistar, Lotto-Belisol, and Europcar used Campagnolo’s ultra-light Hyperon and aerodynamic Bora carbon rims. There was no discernible spike in rim failures, long considered the Achilles heel of carbon on cobbles.
via The Torqued Wrench: Ambrosio Nemesis wheels expire in the pro peloton.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cesium, Fuckushima, Fukushima, radioactive contamination, radioactive water, radioactivity, Tepco, utopia
The biggest scare at the plant in recent days has been the discovery that at least three of seven underground storage pools are seeping thousands of gallons of radioactive water into the soil. On Wednesday, Tepco acknowledged that the lack of adequate storage space for contaminated water had become a “crisis,” and said it would begin emptying the pools. But the company said that the leaks will continue over the several weeks that it will likely take to transfer the water to other containers.
Plant workers dug these underground ponds about six months ago to store the ever-growing amount of contaminated water at the plant. There is about 400 tons daily from two sources: runoff from a makeshift cooling system rigged together after the site’s regular cooling equipment was knocked out by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and a steady stream of groundwater seeping into damaged reactors.
Tepco stores more than a quarter-million tons of radioactive water at the site and says the amount could double within three years.
But as outside experts have discovered with horror, the company had lined the pits for the underground pools with only two layers of plastic each 1.5 millimeters thick, and a third, clay-based layer just 6.5 millimeters thick. And because the pools require many sheets hemmed together, leaks could be springing at the seams, Tepco has said.
“No wonder the water is leaking,” said Hideo Komine, a professor in civil engineering at Ibaraki University, just south of Fukushima. He said that the outer protective lining should have been hundreds of times thicker.
via Fukushima Nuclear Plant Is Still Unstable, Japanese Official Says – NYTimes.com.
Remember when we thought Japan was leading the world into a utopia of capitalist industrial perfection?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: climate change, CO2, coal, coal-fired plants, emissions, energy, EPA, EPA rule, greenhouse gases, Natural gas
…on that whole renewable energy thing, let alone make real changes.
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it would delay issuance of a new rule limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from new power plants after the electric power industry objected on legal and technical grounds.
The rule, proposed a year ago and scheduled to be finalized on Saturday, would have put in place the first restrictions on climate-altering gases from the power sector in the United States. Agency officials said it would be rewritten to address the concerns raised by the industry, which said that strict new carbon standards could not be met using existing technology.
via E.P.A. to Delay Emissions Rule at New Power Plants – NYTimes.com.
If we did start moving in the right direction, people would complain bitterly about the ‘inconveniences’ caused.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: baby stages of development, baby teeth, development baby, eruption chart, incisors, molars, stages of development, tooth emergence, tooth eruption
Never know when you might need it.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Fukushima, Fukushima Dai-ichi, Fukushima Daiichi, Jackz, Jaczk, Japan, Masayuki Ono, meltdown, NRC, nuclear accident, nuclear accidents, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, radioactivity, tank factory, Tank Game, Tanks, Tepco, wastewater, water
Seems pretty clear at this point. In the future all of our time, energy and material resources will go toward making tanks to store an ever-increasing amount of radioactive wastewater that we have dumped in desperation onto melted reactor cores and ‘spent’ nuclear fuel, and which has leaked out of some other tank or tanks. Unfortunately, though we can look forward to full employment, and lots of good times with our colleagues down at the tank factory, the Tank Game is un-winnable.
Did Kafka write this passage:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. previously said two of seven huge underground tanks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had been leaking since Saturday if not earlier.
The latest leak involves a tank that was being used to take water from one of the two that were leaking, TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono said. …
TEPCO has halted the transfer of water to the third tank, diverting it to a fourth tank that remains intact. Two of the seven tanks are currently unused.
Ono said TEPCO has decided to stop using the two most damaged of the three leaking tanks as soon as they are emptied, but will use the other because of a tank shortage.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bici, bicycle rental, bicycle shring, bike share, Bike sharing, Manhattan, New York, New York City, NYC, Sadik
Maybe. Previous launch was delayed for rather mysterious reasons. Keep an eye on it.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the first 293 docking stations have begun to appear. Most of them will at first be in Manhattan.
The DOT hopes to eventually expand the program to include 600 stations and 10,000 bikes.
via Sadik-Khan: NYC Bike Sharing System Set To Launch Next Month « CBS New York.
“Most of them will at first be in Manhattan.” — a sentence published by a major news organization.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ANE, China, China oil consumption, China oil imports, Chindia, crude oil, peak oil, The Yergin Gap, westtexas, Yergin
“China is importing an increasing amount of crude, which is the most crucial issue for the country’s energy supply,” said Zhang during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference
And the most crucial issue for the world’s energy supply too.
One way to look at it is that we in the west are being outbid by people in Asia for available oil exports. The price is high because if it were any lower people would want to consume more than can currently be produced.
via China depends more on overseas oil |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cesium, congenital hypothyroidism, fallout, Fukushima, hypothyroidism, I-131, infant mortality, iodine, meltdowns, nuclear accident, nuclear weapons tests, pediatrics, thyroid
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=28599
Mangano and Sherman, “Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US States and trends in hypothyroidism among newborns after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown” Open Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 3, Number 1, March 2013.
1.2. Exposure to Radioactive Iodine as a Factor
in Congenital HypothyroidismAnother potential environmental risk factor is prenatal
exposure to radioactive iodine isotopes, which seek out
the susceptible fetal thyroid gland. For decades radioactive
iodine has been recognized to cause adverse effects
(including hypothyroidism) to the thyroid gland. The
fetal thyroid, the first glandular structure to appear in the
human embryo [14], begins to concentrate iodine and
produce thyroid hormones by the 70th day of gestation
[15]. In the mid-1950s, during the period of atmospheric
nuclear weapons tests, I-131 produced by fission was
first detected in the adult human thyroid [16,17]. I-131
concentrations were calculated to be about 10 times
higher in the human fetal thyroid vs. the human adult or
hog thyroid [18], and maximum elevations in fetal thy-
roids were detected approximately one month after nuclear
explosions [19]. The main path of exposure to shortlived
isotopes such as I-131 is via dairy products due to
radioactive fallout deposition on forage [20].[…]
It gets all over the grass, the cows eat the grass, and the I-131 and Cesium are thus concentrated in cheese and milk.
…Large amounts of fallout disseminated worldwide from the meltdowns in four reactors at the Fukushima-Dai-ichi plant in Japan beginning March 11, 2011 included radioiodine isotopes. Just days after the meltdowns, I-131 concentrations in US precipitation was measured up to 211 times above normal. Highest levels of I-131 and airborne gross beta were documented in the five US States on the Pacific Ocean. The number of congenital hypothyroid cases in these five states from March 17-December 31, 2011 was 16% greater than for the same period in 2010, compared to a 3% decline in 36 other US States (p < 0.03). The greatest divergence in these two groups (+28%) occurred in the period March 17-June 30 (p < 0.04). …
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alberta, bitumen, dilbit, diluted bitumen, Exxon, heavy oil, Keystone XL, Mayflower, oil, oil transportation, pegasus, pipeline rupture, tar sands, unconventional oil
I’m sure you’ll be able to sell your house, no problem..
Many photos of Exxon’s Mayflower, Arkansas spill (definitely not oil) via EPA On-site Coordinator website: http://epaosc.org/site/image_list.aspx?site_id=8502
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: abaya, America's Gas Station, bicycle ban, bicycle smile, bicycling, cycling ban, desert cycling, KSA, MIA, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian oil consumption, this is largely our fault
The kingdom’s religious police are now allowing women to ride bikes in parks and recreational areas.
However, they have to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the full Islamic head-to-toe abaya.
via Saudi Arabia lifts ban on women riding motorbikes and bicycles | Mail Online.
No cycling for transportation of course. Not in the Big Gas Station. A strange policy considering that every time somebody gets into a car in SA, it comes straight out of the profits of the princes.
I guess the Saudi religious police have never heard of ‘bicycle smile.’
Filed under: maps | Tags: bitumen, crude oil, Enbridge, environment, Exxon, oil sands, oil spill, oil transportation, pegasus, pegasus line, pipeline rupture oil, tar sands
The Pegasus line through Arkansas is spewing its contents into a subdivision.
click to enlarge
Filed under: maps | Tags: block group level, california, census block, Chinatown, climate, electricity consumption, energy, energy consumption, energy use, kilowatt hours, Los Angeles, sustainable communities, unsustainable communities, urban
Here: http://sustainablecommunities.environment.ucla.edu/map/
This map displays average monthly energy consumption in kilowatt hours (kWh) at the Census block group level between January 2011 and June 2012.
Goes nicely with the NYC report “NYC Energy Benchmarking Report for Non-Residential Properties”.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: does this make sense, FHWA, say huh, vehicle miles traveled, Vmt, x axis
Notice anything weird about this VMT chart (other than its unusual downward trend that is)? I never noticed it before..
via http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/13jantvt/index.cfm
[Mexico vs. USA en vivo ahora..]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: california, car culture, FHA, Gloria, Hecox, mode share, National Household Travel Survey, patterns of use, San Diego, transportation, trip distance, vehicle trips, Vmt, Voice of San Diego
Saw this first at http://www.cyclelicio.us
The new definition of 40%.
The 2009 study [National Household Travel Survey] showed 40 percent of trips recorded by more than 300,000 participants were two miles or less.
The statistic incorporated all forms of transportation — cars, bicycles, subways and more, said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.
[…]
If one simply focuses on car trips, the percentage of short trips increases significantly.
According to the research, 69.1 percent of trips were two miles or less, Hecox said.
via Driving When You Could Bike: Fact Check – Voice of San Diego: San Diego Fact Check.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: electricity, energy, Paul Dastoor, renewable energy, solar, solar cells, solar energy
Professor Paul Dastoor and his team have been working to create solar cells that can be printed directly onto surfaces like metal sheets, and they are aiming to eventually develop solar cells that can simply be painted directly onto surfaces.
via Solar Tribune: Australian team developing low-cost solar paint – Solar Tribune.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: carbon dioxide emissions, China, Chindia, climate, CO2, Econbrowser, James Hamilton, natural gas liquids, NGLs, oil consumption, Peak Demand, peak oil, total liquids, transportation
And it’s worth remembering why that happened– we didn’t have a choice. Global field production of crude oil (excluding natural gas liquids, which are not used as transportation fuel) stagnated at about 74 million barrels/day between 2005 and 2008. It is up a couple of million barrels since then, but more than 100% of this increase has been consumed by China alone, forcing the U.S. and other countries to reduce our oil consumption.
via James Hamilton: Econbrowser: Declining U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 