Random Thought of the Day

There was a story about a train and car collision today.

I think they quoted the stat that every 3 hours in the US there is a train and road vehicle (cars, trucks, etc.,) collision. And also a stat (think it was around 80%) that the collision was the result of poor judgment and decision making.

Now...it's a freaking near Earth rumbling train. Not like it's appearing out of the blue? If you're on the tracks, how long are you going to try to start a stalled car.
And if you can't pass over the tracks and miss a train, maybe you deserve to die.

Just sayin'

I live near train tracks and people are
bad at judging the speed of the train.
In the cab, I used to pick up train guys
and ferry them to a stops
out in the boonies. They all said they
see lots of accidents all the time and
they think people in cars are morons.
They see tons of people who just squeak
by.

We have zillions of grade crossings with nothing but CrossBar markings.
Kids seem to love to race trains but don't get prizes for winning or demerits for losing. Its all in the Tie Bet.
In the UK tracks are fenced and at grade crossings fences open up to close the road.

In the US it is so easy to go around long arms that come down. Drive on the wrong side of the road and loop through, but vehicles do get stuck and often it takes more time than realized. A cement divider down the road for 100 yards would help. Alot would help.

Power blackouts are the worst. Those arms slowly come down and the red lights glow but don't flash. It can be hours even if no trains are scheduled.

Quote: rxwine

Now...it's a freaking near Earth rumbling train. Not like it's appearing out of the blue? If you're on the tracks, how long are you going to try to start a stalled car.

I'd spend exactly zero seconds trying to restart the car if a train is coming.

It's harder to judge the speed of a train than that of a car, and much harder to estimate the time available. This is so even though in cities and urban settings trains run at lower speeds than usual.

The energies involved are completely against you, too. Kinetic energy equal 1/2 times mass times the square of the speed. A train travelling at a low speed, say 20 kph, nevertheless has a huge mass of several tens of metric tons. It carries enormous kinetic energy. Even if the engineer sees you and manages to slow down to 10 kph, the impact will very likely be fatal. In comparison a car striking you at that speed might not do more than leave a bruise.

I'm not up to date, but it sounds like this lady allowed herself to get stuck on the tracks in a traffic jam.

I have a huge instinct not to let that happen, nobody from the safety dept. had to clue me in. I suppose there could be a unique situation where the car in front stopped unexpectedly ... but I am damn good about "not staying between the lines" and going around people when needed ... lastly, I think of myself as quite ready to abandon the vehicle all else failing

Fishing wire is the bane of the Roomba.

So what if Panda's go extinct? Humans spend a lot of capital on taking care of them. But what do they provide for us.. or even the area they live in? Are they food for some alpha predator?

Quote: Ayecarumba

So what if Panda's go extinct? Humans spend a lot of capital on taking care of them. But what do they provide for us.. or even the area they live in? Are they food for some alpha predator?

Guilt, mostly.

Said guilt is a powerful weapon, IMO, for those who want to control unrelated things. While I may lean towards ecomentalism and would very much like a viable alternative to petroleum for utilitarian reasons, I completely get each and every one of AZD's rails against it. I really do think that most of the push towards "Green" totally has to do with lining pockets, and very little to do with the Arctic Fox.

Species go extinct and have gone extinct at alarming rates well before the industrial revolution. I would like some numbers to compare, but I'm not sure that's possible.

And then, of course, there's human nature. People don't like to "lose" what they already have. I know I've had my own worries about the proliferation of invasive species and fears that it would harm or even eliminate the things I already valued; strong native steelhead, great bass size and numbers, etc. As it turns out, many of the invaders have become a boon, not only for me as a fisherman, but for a great deal of other people.

And duh, they so fluffy and cute. If this was an invertebrate, you'd never hear a peep =p

My sister works with invasive plants in Florida.

As you probably could guess, stopping the illegal importation of plant and animals is next to impossible. After all, reproduction is on their side and too often there is a fair lag between the foot hold point and the discovery.

However, the process proceeds (at least from the plant side) with searching out bugs (mostly) in other countries that feed on the plants.

They are brought in and quarantined and then there is long testing phase. Can they survive in the climate, for one thing. But the longest phase involves exposing them to other native plant species and making sure they are specific enough to the invasive plant and not harmful to something else.

This whole process takes years. Then there is a release. Then collection of data about success.

A success is when the invasive species is rolled back significantly. They are still here, but for instance aren't overgrowing and smothering other native plants.

People bring plants in with pretty pink blossoms or whatever, and then next thing you know, you can look at an area smothered in that plant in a few years and see almost nothing else. And of course, there is also actual crop concerns for some of these things.

Quote: rxwine

My sister works with invasive plants in Florida.

As you probably could guess, stopping the illegal importation of plant and animals is next to impossible. After all, reproduction is on their side and too often there is a fair lag between the foot hold point and the discovery.

However, the process proceeds (at least from the plant side) with searching out bugs (mostly) in other countries that feed on the plants.

They are brought in and quarantined and then there is long testing phase. Can they survive in the climate, for one thing. But the longest phase involves exposing them to other native plant species and making sure they are specific enough to the invasive plant and not harmful to something else.

This whole process takes years. Then there is a release. Then collection of data about success.

A success is when the invasive species is rolled back significantly. They are still here, but for instance aren't overgrowing and smothering other native plants.

People bring plants in with pretty pink blossoms or whatever, and then next thing you know, you can look at an area smothered in that plant in a few years and see almost nothing else. And of course, there is also actual crop concerns for some of these things.

We have biological interdiction in Florida, but it pales in comparison to Hawaii's routine. You have to answer written questions, all your bags get searched both coming and going (via xray screening then hand-searched), and they don't just confiscate, they fine and even jail people. You couldn't bring so much as a bag lunch; only certain prepackaged products could leave, and almost nothing could come in.

They had their reasons, though. Almost everything grows or thrives there, and the indigenous plant and animal life have few defenses against incoming plants or animals that have evolved in tougher climates. No mosquitoes, but big flies that reproduce very quickly. Leave raw hamburger in an open garbage can overnight, you have maggots by morning. Came out to the kitchen for coffee after a party, wondered how the rice got spilled. Then my eyes focused and I saw the grains were moving. Freakout.

They also have this insane centipede, about 8 inches long with poisonous pinchers. I was on the lanai one night and one dropped 2 inches from me; I about killed myself jumping out of my chair away from it. It was dead; I think maybe a bird had it and dropped it by accident. Thank God.

The gekkos really do have those cute pink cheeks, just like the Geico lizard.

Couple pictures of the monster centipede.