Tuesday, July 3, 2012

DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE

Drive safely and avoid a shipment from Batesville Casket Company.



                   Photo posted by Sabrina Estrada, Springfield, Missouri

TRAFFIC


ABC Radio, Melbourne, Australia

And what about buses? Bus Vic exec director Chris Lowe says more on-street parking should be sacrificed to give buses a better run

Is this Chinese motorway coming to a town near you soon?

Peter’s Comment

Sorry, Chris, the city fathers are unlikely to do anything as radical as making room for buses. It’s the same here in New Zealand cities where car drivers make up the majority of taxpayers and politicians are afraid of them. They would rather see traffic backups like the picture above.

But it makes sense to provide easier access for buses (much more efficient and adaptable than trains) at the expense of car parking and car traffic lanes.

Monday, July 2, 2012

SAVING FUEL


The shape of things to come
If the styling on the new Mercedes trucks is intended to reduce air resistance and generate fuel efficiency, then truck designers still have not got it right.

Compare both ends of these trucks with the Boeing 747 below, note the difference and ask yourself why the Boeing designers put the sharp end at the back.
Aerodynamic resistance can be explained in simple terms using a square box passing through the air. Ignoring skin friction which depends on the total area of the box sides, about 30% of the remaining air resistance can be attributed to frontal drag and the remaining 70% can be attributed to drag from the rear surface.

Since air resistance quadruples as velocity only doubles, air resistance is naturally more critical at the near supersonic speeds of the Boeing. However, it is still vitally important to the truck fleet operator who could save thousands of dollars a year in fuel costs with better equipment.



The difference in drag between front and back comes about because the air "hears" the object approaching and parts easily to let it pass through. But at the rear of the object the air becomes confused and curls and eddies behind the object (turbulence) and there is a sharp decrease in air pressure behind the object.

The object, rather than being held back by the air resistance at the front, is pulled back by the larger resistance at the rear.

A practicle way to prove this fact is to compare the visible difference in road dirt after a journey in bad weather. The dirt will be divided about 30/70 between front and back (assuming both ends have relatively flat surfaces).

The first major step must be to eliminate the large flat doors at the rear of the truck or trailer. That will be a challenge but it will not be impossible.

Wings or fairings attached to the rear of a tractor do little to lower air resistance and will substantially increase air resistance when traveling without a trailer. 

FLYING OFF THE HANDLE



Flight attendant loses rag with passengers
June 29, 2012, 2:32 pmYahoo! New Zealand

A flight attendant fed up with dealing with passengers' complaints after a delay told them to get off the plane if they had "the balls" to do it.

A flight attendant fed up with dealing with passengers' complaints after a delay told them to get off the plane if they had "the balls" to do it.

American Eagle flight attendant Jose Serrano was rostered on a flight from New York destined for North Carolina on Monday.

Poor weather meant the flight was delayed and passengers couldn't board until 4pm - nearly three hours after its scheduled departure, the New York Post reports.

Then, as the plane was taxiing towards the runway, it got stuck behind 20 others. It waited there for 40 minutes before heading back to the gate to refuel.

Passengers were told to disembark and it was 6pm before they could get back on. But again there were delays and tempers started to flare.

"People were getting really amped up at this point," passenger Jon Wurster told the Post.

"It took forever to get back on the plane. The fuses were getting pretty low."

A frustrated Serrano then confronted complaining passengers saying: "I don't want to hear anything."
Asked if people could get off, he said: "If you have balls."

Passengers told the Post he said: "I don't care anymore. This is probably my last flight."

One passenger, David Abels, told the Post he was "abusive verbally" and made his daughter cry.

Three families are believed to have left the plane, refusing to fly with the flight attendant on board.

Airport police were called in and the Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating the incident.

The flight was eventually cancelled at 8pm. The Post reports this is because Serrano was taken off the plane for questioning.

No arrests were made.

Peter’s Comment

The flight attendant does not fly the aircraft, make the safety rules, or create the weather and traffic delays. Furthermore, flight attendants are subject to the same frustrations as passengers. So what on earth got into the heads of these passengers?

There was a time when employers taught their employees that the customer was always right. That was good advice but there is often an exception to the rule and it seems that in this case the customers were all shite.
No employee should ever be subjected to this kind of abuse and intimidation. 

American Eagle should rename this part of the aircraft Cattle Class.

Watch a video about the incident here:

Sunday, July 1, 2012

London City Airport


Is there a runway someplace?

AirSpace user Flightstar posted this shot of a Lufthansa Regional Embraer 190 aircraft climbing steeply out of London City airport. 

It makes one wonder where the runway is.

BLACK AND WHITE


Bottom of Form
Los Angeles riots:
Rodney King funeral held

A number of donors helped pay for Rodney Kings funeral

The funeral has taken place in Los Angeles of Rodney King, whose beating by white policemen led to deadly riots in the US city 20 years ago.
At the service, King was praised for showing no bitterness to the officers who beat him in 1991.
The officers involved in the beating were acquitted the following year, sparking clashes in which 50 died.
Rodney King
King was found dead at the bottom of a swimming pool last month at the age of 47. There was no sign of foul play.
'Symbol of forgiveness'
The funeral service was held at Los Angeles' Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills on Saturday.
"People should not be judged by the mistakes that they make, but by how they rise above them," Rev Al Sharpton said.
"Rodney had risen above his mistakes. He never mocked anyone - not the police, not the justice system, not anyone."
Mr King's famous words during the riots "Can we all get along?" were embroidered on the lid of the coffin, next to his portrait.
"He became a symbol of forgiveness," Rev Sharpton said.
A number of donors helped to pay for the funeral.
LAPD racism
Rodney King's beating at the hands of the police, which left him with brain damage, was filmed by a bystander and shown by media outlets across the world.
He had been stopped for speeding on a dark street on 3 March 1991. The four LA police officers who pulled him over hit him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns.
The iconic images of his beating had a huge impact at the time on an already tense Los Angeles.
Eventually, the whole chain of events had a profound impact on the way race was dealt with in the US.
King recently told the Los Angeles Times that while he had come to terms with his broader legacy, dealing with the past had not been easy.
"Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero," he said.
"Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction, like I'm a fool for believing in peace."
A later trial resulted in two of the four officers being jailed. King sued the City of Los Angeles and won $3.8m (£2.5m) compensation.
The rioting that gripped LA in the wake of the original not-guilty verdict went on for days, leaving 50 people dead and causing $1bn of damage to the city.
The Los Angeles Police Department itself was shown to have serious problems with racism, and instituted an overhaul.
King got engaged to one of the jurors from his trial and published a book in 2012 titled The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption.
But he also struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, had several brushes with the law over the years, and he eventually lost all his money.
Peter’s Comment
Rodney King had a previous record of offending, but so also do lots of other people pulled over for speeding. The LAPD had a culture of one law for blacks and another for whites and King was black.
In the 1990s the anti black culture was not confined to the police alone but extended to many areas of society too. Add to that a majority of jurors going into court with a firm belief that the police can do no wrong and a verdict unfavorable to King would have been a foregone conclusion regardless of the evidence.
Rodney King had an unfortunate life and a tragic end but his life should not be forgotten. In terms of tolerance he was an excellent example of what a real man should be.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

WHEN TRADE WAS SLOW


AUSSIE OUTBACK TOILET
                  Only those who have used an outside toilet will appreciate this.

The service station trade was slow
The owner sat around,
With sharpened knife and cedar stick
Piled shavings on the ground.


No modern facilities had they there,
The log across the rill
Led to a shack, marked His and Hers
That sat against the hill.

"Where is the ladies lavatory, sir?"
The owner leaning back,
Said not a word but whittled on,
And nodded toward the shack.

With quickened step she entered there
But only stayed a minute,
Until she screamed, just like a snake
Or spider might be in it.

With startled look and beet red face
She bounded through the door,
And headed quickly for the car
Just like three Sheila's did before.

She missed the foot bridge - jumped the stream
The owner gave a shout,
As her silk stockings, down at her knees
Caught on an acacia sprout.

She tripped and fell - got up, and then
In obvious disgust,
Ran to the car, stepped on the gas,
And faded in the dust.

Of course we all desired to know
What made the gals all do
The things they did, and then we found
The whittling owner knew.

A speaking system he'd devised
To make the thing complete,
He tied a speaker on the wall
Beneath the toilet seat.

He'd wait until the dams got set
And then the devilish tike,
Would stop his whittling long enough,
To speak into the mike.

And as she sat, a voice below
Struck terror, fright and fear,
"Will you please use the other hole,
We're painting under here!"

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