Archive for the ‘Roads’ Category

Obit watch: February 1, 2024.

Thursday, February 1st, 2024

This is an obit that made me say “Wow.” when I read it.

Jack Jennings has died at the age of 104.

Mr. Jennings was a private in the British Army (1st Battalion Cambridgeshire Regiment) and was serving in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese in 1942. He was one of “an estimated 85,000” soldiers captured and taken prisoner.

…Mr. Jennings spent the next three-and-half years as a prisoner of war, first in Changi prison in Singapore and then in primitive camps along the route of the railway between Thailand and Burma (now Myanmar).

He and the other POWs were put to work building the Burma Railway.

He survived the searing heat of the Indochinese jungle; a daily diet of rice, watery gruel and a teaspoon of sugar; and a battery of ailments: malnutrition, dysentery, malaria and renal colic. He developed a leg ulcer that required skin grafts, which were performed without anesthesia.
“At least 15 soldiers died each day of malaria and cholera,” Mr. Jennings told the British newspaper The Mirror in 2019. “I remember sitting in camp just counting the days I had left to live. I didn’t think I’d ever get out of there alive.”

His memoir, Prisoner Without A Crime, is available from Amazon in the US.

This is also in the linked NYT obit, but if you don’t want to click over there to watch it, here’s the commercial Mr. Jennings did for the British National Lottery.

An estimated 12,000 to 16,000 P.O.W.s died during construction of the railway. Many civilian prisoners perished as well.

Two months after he came home, he married. He had at least two daughters. (“Complete information on survivors besides Mr. Jennings’ daughters was unavailable.”) The daughters believe he was the last survivor of the captured soldiers.

Many small bloodsucking insects.

Monday, June 5th, 2023

I usually don’t like to cover politics here, even Texas politics, because it tends to drive me up a tree.

In this case, I haven’t seen anyone else pick up on this, and it’s an interesting story.

The Texas Legislature has eliminated annual safety inspections for cars, starting in 2025.

The Libertarian side of me thinks this is swell: as far as it was concerned, the annual inspection didn’t do much of anything except put money in the pockets of certified state inspection stations for “adjusting your headlights” and “replacing your wiper blades”.

“This will make the roads more dangerous. I’m sure you guys have thought about that. I could also talk about the small businesses that will be put out of business and many people will have to be fired and lose their job,” owner of San Antonio-based Official Inspection Station Charissa Barnes said. “If this bill passes, then it would destroy our inspection industry, right in the middle of us bringing on emissions testing.”

The less Libertarian side of me is skeptical for a few reasons. While I think most people are motivated not to drive with bad tires and brakes, and those kind of things can be picked up when you take your car in for an oil change anyway, there probably are some folks who got some warning out of the annual inspection process. Then again, the people who did drive with bad brakes and bad tires probably would be driving even if they didn’t have an inspection or registration, and these days the odds of getting caught seem to be slim.

If safety is really a concern, the insurance companies can start requiring a “voluntary” inspection: you get a discount if you get your car inspected yearly at an approved facility. Or even better, no inspection, no insurance. Worst case, you go through the assigned risk pool.

Secondly, this doesn’t eliminate the state inspection fee: the state is still going to make you pay $7.50 (or $16.75 if it is a new car) as part of the annual registration.

Also, if your car is registered in one of the areas that requires emissions testing (that includes Travis, Williamson, and Harris counties, among others: full list in the article) you still have to get your car emissions tested before you can register it. (There’s an exception for cars that are 25 or more years old: I managed to get out of emissions testing for a few years before my old Honda blew a head gasket.)

I thought most states still required at least a safety inspection, but I was wrong, according to Wikipedia: “Fifteen states have a periodic (annual or biennial) safety inspection program, while Maryland requires a safety inspection and Alabama requires a VIN inspection on sale or transfer of vehicles which were previously registered in another state.

Interestingly, Louisiana requires a safety inspection, and “New Orleans requires a “brake tag”. In addition to the state requirements, if the vehicle is registered in New Orleans, the brakes must be tested annually with a short stop test.

Must be fun to get your car inspected in the Big Easy.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 408

Thursday, May 13th, 2021

Travel Thursday!

Since I know there’s at least one person out there who loves Greyhound (“…the awful smell of stale cigarettes, recirculated air with the BO of 50 other people that would linger for a day or two after my 6 hour Greyhound ride from college to home.“) here’s a promo film: “Would You Believe It?” from 1957, promoting the company’s “Escorted Tour” services. In color, even.

The one time I took the ‘Hound on the ground, it was only about three hours each way (Austin-Houston and back), and I think by that time smoking was verboten on Greyhound buses. However, in the interest of fairness…

Bonus #1: “10 BAD Things That WILL Happen on the GREYHOUND BUS” from the “Frugal Travel Guru”.

Bonus #2: This one’s a long one, but probably somewhat more pleasant than traveling by bus. Especially if you have a good car: a man with a good car doesn’t need to be justified.

“100 Years on the Lincoln Highway”, a Wyoming PBS documentary about the first coast to coast road.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 346

Friday, March 12th, 2021

Today’s videos go out to FotB Andrew, because.

“The Original Mackinac Bridge Story”, about the history and construction of the bridge.

Opened in 1957, the 26,372-foot-long (4.995 mi; 8.038 km) bridge (familiarly known as “Big Mac” and “Mighty Mac”) is the world’s 24th-longest main span and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.

Bonus #1: because one bridge documentary isn’t enough. “Building the Mighty Mac”. This one is a little better quality, I believe.

To the best of my recollection, I have never been on the Mackinac Bridge. I wouldn’t mind making that drive someday, but the last time I was in Michigan, I wasn’t anywhere near the bridge.

Bonus #2: “Challenge at Glen Canyon”. Back in 1983, the Glen Canyon Dam had a problem. There’d been a heavier than expected snowfall that winter, which in turn led to more runoff as the snow melted. This in turn required the dam operators to open the spillways.

At the beginning of June, dam operators opened the gates on the left spillway, sending 10,000 cubic feet per second (280 m3/s), less than one-tenth of capacity, down the tunnel into the river below. After a few days, the entire dam suddenly began to shake violently. The spillway was closed down for inspections and workers discovered that the flow of water was causing cavitation – the explosive collapse of vacuum pockets in water moving at high speed – which was damaging the concrete lining and eroding the rock spillway tunnels from the upper ends of the diversion tunnels, which connect to the bottom of the reservoir. This was rapidly being destroyed by the cavitation and it was feared that a connection would be made to the bottom of Lake Powell, compromising the dam’s foundation and causing the dam to fail.

While some people might have enjoyed seeing the dam fail, it would have caused a lot of problems downstream. So the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had to fix the spillway issue. But how?

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 216

Sunday, November 1st, 2020

Science Sunday!

Today, random. First up: “RMS Titanic: Fascinating Engineering Facts”. This actually talks about both Olympic and Titanic, and (unlike a lot of Titanic stuff) concentrates more on the engineering and shipbuilding: basically, how do you build and launch something that big?

This is only science adjacent, but I wanted to post this as a tribute: James Randi appears on “I’ve Got a Secret”.

And since that was only science adjacent, James Randi’s TED talk on homeopathy, quackery and fraud. I generally hesitate to link to TED talks, but this is an exception.

More Randi: this time, talking about Uri Geller and Geller’s “repudiation” of his claims to have psychic powers.

(As a side note, when Randi died, I got to wondering what Uri Geller was up to these days. I ran across this amusing bit from Geller’s Wikipedia entry.

In 1997 he tried to help the Second Division football club Exeter City win a crucial end of season game by placing “energy-infused” crystals behind the goals at Exeter’s ground (Exeter lost the game 5–1); he was appointed co-chairman of the club in 2002. The club was relegated to the Football Conference in May 2003, where it remained for five years. He has since severed ties with the club.

I think if Geller offers you his assistance, you should probably run in the opposite direction.)

(The James Randi Foundation channel on YouTube.)

Have you ever wondered, “How do they build those massive freaking mirrors for really big telescopes?” I’ve read some stuff about how the mirror for the Hale Telescope was built in the 1930s and 1940s, but today?

Finally: you’ve seen the footage. But do you know the engineering reason(s) why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed?

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 196

Monday, October 12th, 2020

I had a late night last night, and I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so I’m being a little lazy today.

“Magic Highway, USA”, an episode of “Wonderful World of Disney” from 1958.

This episode from 1958 mostly looks back at the history of roads and travel in America, from the time that America was discovered right up through the creation of the super highways in the 1950s. It shows how slow progress was back when pioneers such as Daniel Boone moved west in the 19th century, how the railroad nearly sounded the deathnell of the highway, and how the creation of the automobile and it’s popularity just after the dawn of the 20th century changed things.

Bonus: the reason I had a late night last night was that Andrew and I went to see Greg Gutfeld at the HEB Center in Cedar Park. Spoiler: it was a lot of fun, like a giant tailgate party. But the staff (the HEB Center staff, not Mr. Gutfeld’s staff) were curiously obsessed with “the box”. You had to park squarely in the box. You had to back into the box (even though that put your car facing away from the stage, so you couldn’t sit in the front seats and watch). You could take off your mask if you were in the box, but if you left the box you had to mask up. You couldn’t jump boxes (move up to a closer box if your friends were there). You couldn’t get too close to the box surrounding the stage or they’d chase you back.

But I did get a free book and an autographed coffee pod out of it.

Why do I bring this up? No particular reason…

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 98

Monday, July 6th, 2020

This is a little longer than I’d like, but it popped up in my recommendations, and pushes several buttons at once:

  • The Bell System
  • Lee Marvin
  • The 1970s!
  • From 1970, “It Couldn’t Be Done”, a Bell System film about “impossible structures”, featuring Mr. Marvin and the 5th Dimension.

    Bonus video: since we’re talking about what we can accomplish when we want to, “They Came To An Island”. From 1946, a documentary about the Navy Civil Engineer Corps (aka the Seebees).

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 92

Tuesday, June 30th, 2020

It has been months since I’ve seen my friend Andrew, who is semi-retired from the road business (or, as we say in Texas, “bidness”).

Here’s a little something for him: “Anatomy of a Road”.

Made in the late 1960s or early 1970s (probably 1971) to promote the construction of new highways and the cars that drive them, the ANATOMY OF A ROAD is an unapologetic paean to progress.

“an unapologetic paean to progress”. I like that.

Bonus video: “We’ll Take the High Road”, a 1950s promo film for the Interstate Highway system, brought to you by “The American Road Builders Association”.

I thought I’d check something, and I’m glad I did: the American Road Builders Association was founded in 1902, and is still around (so they are 118 years old). The organization renamed to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association in 1977.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 71

Tuesday, June 9th, 2020

I was going to post the Golden Gate construction video. Really, I was. I had it in my YouTube history and everything.

Then ASM826 beat me to it. Drat. So something else.

This might be a day for more travel on Pan Am. I’ve got a couple of these in the queue. What exotic destination sounds good?

Well, right now, it is 99 degrees in Austin. And 71 degrees below the equator, in the exotic land of…

“Wings to Brazil”, another 1960s travelogue.

Carnival starts at about the 24 minute mark, if you’re interested.

And as a bonus totally unrelated to travel (except you need these to get places): “The Suspension Bridge”, from the United States Steel Corporation.

And now here’s something we hope you really like…

Wednesday, October 30th, 2019

A little late on this one, but: Ken Whisenhunt out as offensive coordinator of the worthless Los Angeles Chargers.

The Arena Football League (also apparently known as Arena Football One) has “shut down all local business operations and services for all six of its teams“. I think I speak for everyone here when I say: they were still in business?

The paper of record asks the musical question:

Just How Bad Are the Miami Dolphins?

Summary: pretty bad.

And something non-sports related for my people: the Squibb Park Bridge, a pedestrian bridge in Brooklyn, is being demolished and replaced.

By the time the new bridge is completed, the group that operates Brooklyn Bridge Park will have spent about $14 million — $7.5 million for the original bridge and the failed attempts at repairs, and $6.5 million to $7 million for the new one.

Why? Well, the old bridge was designed to be bouncy. Turns out, it was a little too bouncy.

It was fun, at least at first, and it was deliberate. Its designer, Ted Zoli — the winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2009 — intended it to bounce underfoot as people walked along.

It also was moving in unintended directions. Hilarity (and lawsuits) ensued. And then it turned out the wood was rotting…

Public service announcement.

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

Partly as a reminder to myself, partly as a warning to any Austin area readers who may not be aware yet:

The weekend of December 3rd through December 5th, MoPac is going to be completely hosed going northbound.

A short stretch of northbound MoPac south of Enfield Road, for the last several months already reduced from three to two lanes, will be closed completely from midnight to 6 a.m. early Dec. 3 and 4, and midnight to 5 a.m. on Dec. 5. During the day and evening on Dec. 3 and 4, starting at 6 a.m., a single northbound lane will be open.

TMQ Watch: January 6, 2015.

Wednesday, January 7th, 2015

Sex! Gambling! After the jump, this week’s TMQ

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