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afeelgoodblog · 2 years ago

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The Best News of Last Week - August 21, 2023

🌊 - Discover the Ocean's Hidden Gem Deep down in the Pacific

1. Massachusetts passed a millionaire's tax. Now, the revenue is paying for free public school lunches.

Every kid in Massachusetts will get a free lunch, paid for by proceeds from a new state tax on millionaires.

A new 4% tax on the state's wealthiest residents will account for $1 billion of the state's $56 billion fiscal budget for 2024, according to state documents. A portion of those funds will be used to provide all public-school students with free weekday meals, according to State House News Service.

2. Plant-based filter removes up to 99.9% of microplastics from water

Researchers may have found an effective, green way to remove microplastics from our water using readily available plant materials. Their device was found to capture up to 99.9% of a wide variety of microplastics known to pose a health risk to humans.

3. Scientists Find A Whole New Ecosystem Hiding Beneath Earth's Seafloor

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Most recently, aquanauts on board a vessel from the Schmidt Ocean Institute used an underwater robot to turn over slabs of volcanic crust in the deep, dark Pacific. Underneath the seafloor of this well-studied site, the international team of researchers found veins of subsurface fluids swimming with life that has never been seen before.

It's a whole new world we didn't know existed.

4. How solar has exploded in the US in just a year

Solar and storage companies have announced over $100 billion in private sector investments in the US since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) a year ago, according to a new analysis released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Since President Joe Biden signed the IRA in August 2022, 51 solar factories have been announced or expanded in the US.

5. Researchers have identified a new pack of endangered gray wolves in California

A new pack of gray wolves has shown up in California’s Sierra Nevada, several hundred miles away from any other known population of the endangered species, wildlife officials announced Friday.

It’s a discovery to make researchers howl with delight, given that the native species was hunted to extinction in California in the 1920s. Only in the past decade or so have a few gray wolves wandered back into the state from out-of-state packs.

6. Record-Breaking Cleanup: 25,000 Pounds of Trash Removed from Pacific Garbage Patch

Ocean cleanup crews have fished out the most trash ever taken from one of the largest garbage patches in the world.

The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organization, saw its largest extraction earlier this month by removing about 25,000 pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Alex Tobin, head of public relations and media for the organization

7. The Inflation Reduction Act Took U.S. Climate Action Global

The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aimed to promote clean energy investments in the U.S. and globally. In its first year, the IRA successfully spurred other nations to develop competitive climate plans.

Clean energy projects in 44 U.S. states driven by the IRA have generated over 170,600 jobs and $278 billion in investments, aligning with Paris Agreement goals.

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That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

#blessed #best news of last week #Youtube

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dontborsch · 7 months ago

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Guuyyys just made a concept of Jeffery’s mother in her late school years

Also I have a few her life story headcanons

Sarah (aka Jeffery’s mother) was one of the popular girls in her school, she was a sociable but sharp-tongued girl who was constantly surrounded by the big company of friends, one of which was her best friend Nora (the last pic below), with whom she dreamed of going to the same acting university in California and becoming famous actresses.

Sarah's family, which was quite conservative (her grandfather was Italian-American, so the family still had echoes of a strict Italian upbringing), did not share her dream, on the contrary, they insisted that the girl stay in Virginia, but Sarah and her rebellious teen spirit were going to go against the family in this matter.

She had Jeffery in age 19, and this event forced her to stay in hometown. Nora was able to go where both girls dreamed of going, and they even kept in touch for a while, but in the end their communication faded away. At the same time Sarah got enrolled in a local college as an elementary school teacher, but after a little more than a year, she had to drop out due to lack of time (in addition to studying, she had to take care of a small child).

Jeffery's father studied in a parallel class, and they had been dating for about five years at the time of their son’s birth. Despite his promises to help his girlfriend with their child, their relationship quickly cracked, which hit Sarah's condition hard.

As I mentioned, Sarah's family was quite conservative, and her relatives, especially her mother, insisted on Sarah's marriage (and continued to do so even after breaking up with Jeffery's father). Such constant pressure finally upset Sarah and her family, and she left home, settling first in a college dorm, and then moving to the houses of her few remaining acquaintances until she had saved enough money for rent (at that time, Sarah took on any part-time job but even at the time of 2008-09 she works in a cleaning service).

Upd: I also think that she coddles Jeffery a lot because he’s literally the only closest person to her.

Bonus artwork with Nora and their nerdy classmate

#class of 09 #co09 #jeffery class of 09 #fanart #digital art

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fuckmeyer · 6 months ago

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Hey girl!! Love your works. Duh. And there are some themes and characters that you explore really well. Again: duh.

So I have a question: what do you think of Charlie as a father?

Like I know people tend to really love him (which I think is partly because of the daddyification and billy burke). But while he is not an horrible father he is far from a good father imho. From what I get from your twilight (I have to admit it's been a while since the first book), you kind of like him. Could you please tell me why?

first: thank you! really appreciate you reading and for taking time out of your day to let me know what you think! so glad you like it:)

second: i agree with you. i think a lot of love for Charlie actually stems from movie!Charlie who doesn't get enough screen time to showcase his flaws (& also is kinda daddy even tho Gil is RIGHT THERE).

but, like all parents, Charlie Swan is flawed. i think he's trying his best but isn't totally equipped to step into a fatherly role, especially for a daughter, & it shows.

canon Charlie let his wounds from his marriage consume him to the point where it affects his relationship with his daughter

we learn that Charlie only spent time with Bella during the summers, & on a few trips to California. granted, Bella hated Forks & refused to go after a while, but it's incredibly sad that 1) Charlie was only seeing Bella once every 9-10 months to begin with, and 2) he seemed to give up being in her life once she "put her foot down." especially knowing how selfish & chaotic Renee was, i find it sad that he didn't make more of an effort to reach out & make sure Bella was okay.

well, now Bella's back, & it's clear he has a hard time showing love outside of acts of service. kinda. he bought her truck and put snow tires on, but both those happen in book 1.

&...that's really it. they don't do anything together; it seems Bella has the option of watching TV with Charlie, or going out to dinner. but Charlie makes no attempt to find common interests or activities they can do together.

it's prob directly related to his relationship with Renee. last time he showed emotion & affection, he got burned. we can tell he still hasn't moved on from his heartbreak since he still has pics of her around the house in Twilight & has kept Bella's room almost untouched. i'm sure subconsciously there's part of him that's afraid to make the emotional investment in his daughter because for all the investment he made in Renee, it wasn't enough.

Charlie wants so badly to be helpful to others

credit where credit is due. acts of service is Charlie's love language, and he is consistently trying to help others. one of the reasons he & Renee split was because he didn't want to leave his aging parents alone in Forks. he forgives Bella & is there for her after she weaponizes his trauma. in NM, he picks Bella's lifeless husk off the ground, tries to help, checks in on her almost every time she has a nightmare, suggests therapy, prods her to start going out again, etc. he gets in a fight with Billy defending Bella when she & Jake were fighting. in Eclipse, he encourages Bella to develop other friendships outside of Edward and the Cullens. he's the Chief of Police, for god's sake. his whole life revolves around serving others, & he consistently tries to do so despite the aforementioned trauma.

however!

Charlie is misogynistic

i mean, he's a boomer. he grew up in a world with more traditional gender roles. he implicitly upholds patriarchal ideas that contribute to the internalized misogynistic views he extends to his daughter.

for one, Bella immediately picks up all of the cooking & cleaning when she moves in. yes, she wants to be helpful. yes, she should have chores. but Charlie never stops to think about why Bella feels compelled to run the entire household (you don't think she deserves a break after her lifelong parentification????). he never bothers to pick up any new skills to help out. even in the middle of Bella's depression, she keeps the house clean & running. we find out in Eclipse he is still so inept at cooking, the lifelong bachelor somehow doesn't know not to microwave jarred spaghetti sauce with its metal lid still on, or how to cook noodles. she says doing laundry is "out of character" for him. when she leaves and he gets with Sue Clearwater, suddenly it's Sue who's running the household for him. hmmm

SECOND (please stand back as i am about to get feral), Charlie's attitude toward Jacob & Bella's relationship in Eclipse is absolutely abhorrent. he pushes her to reach out to Jacob when she doesn't want to (because Jacob just told her he'd rather see her dead than a vampire!!!). when she refuses, Charlie calls her "petty" & her behavior "unattractive." he's "smug" when he assumes she and Edward are fighting. not only does he congratulate Jacob after learning Jacob kissed Bella without her consent, but he snarkily tells Bella to "pick on people your own size" AND asks Jacob if he'd like to press charges AND admonishes Bella when she suggests she should beat Jacob with a baseball bat. LIKE!!!! YOUR DAUGHTER WAS JUST ASSAULTED!!! BE FUCKING FOR REAL RIGHT NOW IF IT HAD BEEN EDWARD THE BOY WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOT--

Charlie admits his mistakes & shortcomings

after this horrid scene, Charlie admits "I feel like I don't always do everything for you that I should," and does reference her hand. although he does state she has the right to not be sexually assaulted (wow, nice), he seems to regret more that he never taught her how to throw a punch. he also admits feeling helpless at the end of NM.

ultimately, Charlie loves his daughter

even when she literally becomes a monster, Charlie is willing to swallow his overwhelming discomfort just so he can be in her life. despite all the turmoil she puts him through-- emotionally manipulating him in Twilight, suddenly running away in New Moon, faking her death in Breaking Dawn-- he's willing to stand by her.

tl;dr: i like him in the sense that he's a flawed character (& flawed father). i think he loves her & he's trying. & whether you consider Charlie a good father probably depends on how it compares to your relationship with your own father ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#i'd consider him a good father #you can draw your own conclusions of what my home life was like LOL #thank you anon!#asks #charlie swan #the twilight saga #twilight #twilight renaissance

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months ago

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Los Angeles firestorms, literal and political.

January 13, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

Watching a natural disaster unfold is a sobering and perspective-altering experience—all the more so as our president-elect, the GOP, and much of the media see the disaster as an opportunity to “own the libs” in California. In today’s newsletter, I reflect on several aspects of the firestorms in California that affect the national economy and political dynamic. I hope this is helpful in encouraging a productive dialog about how to respond to the firestorms in Los Angeles.

The political firestorm.

The firestorms that leveled three areas in Los Angeles will have national reverberations and, therefore, demand a national response. The failure of the incoming administration and members of Congress to comprehend that fact will compound the injury to the US economy. The effort of Trump and his loyalists to spread disinformation while dancing on the graves of victims and communities is reprehensible and counterproductive to the national interests.

It is difficult to comprehend the combined vastness of Los Angeles and California—and their importance to the US economy.

California is the world’s fifth largest economy as measured by nominal GDP ($3.9 trillion), trailing only Japan, Germany, China, and the US.

California contributes nearly 15% of the US GDP.

Los Angeles County, in turn, accounts for more than 25% of California’s economy, meaning that LA County contributes nearly 4% of the US GDP.

The economy of LA County ($790 billion) is greater than the GDP of 39 of the states in the US. For a sense of scale, the economy of LA County is greater than the combined economies of Alaska, Maine, Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming ($710 billion).

I note these statistics not to boast (as a proud Angeleno), but to highlight the fact that it would be madness for the federal government to refuse federal aid to help Los Angeles recover quickly. LA has lost more than 20,000 homes and businesses. Its infrastructure has suffered significant damage; over 200,000 residents are without power due to the destruction of high transmission power lines. Water quality in reservoirs has been degraded from smoke particulates, meaning that hundreds of thousands of residents whose homes survived the fires will not have potable water service. Hundreds of thousands more remained locked out of their homes due to evacuation orders.

When other parts of the nation experience natural disasters, aid is quickly delivered. Criticisms of aid tend to focus on the slowness of FEMA’s response. In the case of LA’s natural disaster, a Republican member of Congress from Ohio—Warren Davidson—has called for delaying aid to California until the state “improves its forestry practices.” See HuffPo, House Republican Threatens To Withhold Disaster Aid From California Amid Deadly Wildfires.

The notion that California has deficient forestry practices emerges from a 2020 statement by Trump that California was failing to “rake and clean” its forest floors like Finland. See Politico, (8/21/2020), Trump blames California for wildfires, tells state 'you gotta clean your floors'.

More about the “forestry practices” lie in a moment. The point is that no Democrats called for delaying aid after hurricanes until affected states revised their building codes regarding construction in coastal zones subject to repeated flooding during hurricanes.

To add insult to injury, California is ranked 49th in terms of “dependency on federal funds”—meaning its receives less “return” on its contribution to federal revenues than every other state (only New Jersey ranks lower). See Most & Least Federally Dependent States in 2025.

Rep. Davidson of Ohio should reflect for a moment on where federal revenue comes from. California contributes six times more in federal revenue than does Ohio. For every $5.00 California contributes to federal revenue, it receives $1.00 in federal funding.

Here’s my point: California is not a charity case. It pulls its weight in a nation where states have united for the common good. So please, MAGA, spare us the moralizing. I doubt appeals to your sense of fairness will be unavailing, so consider this: If the federal government refuses to assist LA County with a quick recovery, there could be a measurable, negative impact on GDP—and, possibly, inflation. How would that look for Trump?

The disinformation firestorm

The flames were still rolling through the Santa Monica Mountains when Trump began his disinformation campaign. Sadly, disinformation and conspiracy theories have become staples of the MAGA response to mass casualty events. After mass shootings, MAGA rushes to fill social media with false claims that the shooter was a Democrat, Muslim, transgender, gay, or an undocumented immigrant. After the floods and winds following recent hurricanes that caused devastating flooding in North Carolina, MAGA went into overdrive to interfere with FEMA’s efforts to provide emergency cash to victims.

The speed with which MAGA “floods the zone” with disinformation is becoming a significant impediment to disaster response by state and federal agencies. Disinformation not only sows confusion, it corrodes trust between victims and rescuers. It causes victims to delay in seeking assistance or claiming benefits that will speed recovery.

The fact that MAGA politicians are already talking about “delaying” aid until California revises its “forestry practices” is a case in point. I doubt that Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio would recognized a forestry practice if it hit in the ****. His statements betray ignorance about the state of California, forestry, and “practices” in general.

The state of California has 33 million acres of forests. California Forest Statistics. The federal government owns 57% of forest land, private industry owns 40%, leaving only 3% of forest lands under the control of state and local agencies. Thus, to the extent that “forest practices” are an issue in California wildfires, those practices are controlled by the federal government and private industry.

Still, both the federal and state governments use prescribed fire to control risk of wildfire in California. See Cal Fire, Prescribed Fire, a statewide program designed to reduce fuels and reduce the risk of wildfire. The Cal Fire program permits private owners to use prescribed burns to manage forests under their control in California. See CAL FIRE Prescribed Fire Guidebook.pdf.

Ohio also permits prescribed fires, but the documentation on its website is not as robust as that provided by Cal Fire, above. Perhaps Rep. Davidson of Ohio should suggest to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that it review California’s “forestry practices” manual to see whether there is anything Ohio can learn from its fellow state.

Moreover, the areas that were ravaged by the wildfire are under the jurisdiction of fire officials at the county and city level, not the “State of California.”

Trump and the MAGA media claim that the wildfires were more destructive because the City of Los Angeles allegedly decreased the fire department’s budget. That claim evinces a shocking level of ignorance about how wildfires propagate in California. On the night that the largest fires occurred, winds gusts hovered between 50 and 80 mph and humidity dipped to 8%!

With hurricane-force wind gusts, single-digit humidity, and dry brush due to an anemic 0.08 inches of rain over the prior six months, Pacific Palisades and other areas in LA were a tinderbox. The City of Los Angeles could have doubled its $800 million budget for the LA Fire Department and the outcome would not have changed.

Pacific Palisades was like a blast furnace. Hundreds of houses were on fire simultaneously. Many were reduced to fine ash in 30 minutes. As firefighters were in one location, the winds were spreading embers miles away, starting new house fires. By the time firefighters arrived at the new location, the fire had once again leap-frogged two miles away. The fire was unstoppable.

The lie that Los Angeles “ran out of water” has taken hold. Los Angeles did not run out of water. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power explains the facts on its website. The Pacific Palisades are in the Santa Monica Mountains. To create water pressure for hydrants (and homes) located at higher elevations in the Palisades, LADWP maintains 3 one-million gallon tanks.

Over 15 hours, firefighters drew down those tanks faster than they could be re-filled due to the unprecedented demand. Only 20% of hydrants (at the highest elevations) were affected and pressurized water remained in the trunk lines continuously. See LADWP, Pacific Palisades Fire: Correcting Misinformation About LADWP’s Water System.

When some of the hydrants lost pressure at the higher elevations, LADWP ferried in water in 19 water trucks with 4,000-gallon capacities—a standard fire-fighting technique used across the United States when hydrants are unavailable.

But the “LA ran out of water” falsehood is beside the point. Houses burned to the ground in areas with fully pressurized hydrants. The issue wasn’t the hydrants; it was hurricane force wind, the single-digit humidity, and the lack of rain over the preceding six months which made saving homes nearly impossible.

The fact that one of the LADWP’s reservoirs was drained due to failure to meet California drinking water standards is also irrelevant. The main trunk lines remained pressurized because LADWP has 114 reservoirs and tanks that maintain pressure in the main lines. Having one reservoir offline did not affect the pressure. See, again, LADWP, Pacific Palisades Fire: Correcting Misinformation About LADWP’s Water System.

Concluding Thoughts

Well, this isn’t the newsletter I had intended to write when I picked up my laptop several hours ago. But as a native Angeleno, I feel personally offended by politicians and media who know nothing about wildfires but who nonetheless attack Los Angeles during an ongoing natural disaster. No other state or city in the US has been subjected to such criticism and disinformation directed at the victims and their elected representatives during a natural disaster. (Hurricane Katrina strikes me as a justified exception.)

As I hope I have demonstrated, California and LA County are vital parts of the national economic engine. Threatening to hobble the LA region by withholding relief funds that are disproportionately contributed to the federal government by California and LA makes the moralizing and finger-wagging by clueless politicians and media personalities unbearable.

Thanks for listening to my rant. I will be back to my regular programming tomorrow evening, depending on how things go in the next 24 hours. But we cannot forget the tens of thousands of Angelenos who have lost their homes and loved ones.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#L.A.Fires #firestorm #Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B Hubbell newsletter #Pacific Palisades #MAGA #political #misinformation #disinformation

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mightyflamethrower · 9 months ago

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California has become a test case of the suicide of the West. Never before has such a state, so rich in natural resources and endowed with such a bountiful human inheritance, self-destructed so rapidly.

How and why did California so utterly consume its unmatched natural and ancestral inheritance and end up as a warning to Western civilization of what might be in store for anyone who followed its nihilism?

The symptoms of the state’s suicide are indisputable.

Governor Gavin Newsom enjoyed a recent $98 billion budget surplus—gifted from multibillion-dollar federal COVID-19 subsidies, the highest income and gas taxes in the nation, and among the country’s steepest sales and property taxes.

Yet in a year, he turned it into a growing $45 billion budget deficit.

At a time of an over-regulated, overtaxed, and sputtering economy, Newsom spent lavishly on new entitlements, illegal immigrants, and untried and inefficient green projects.

Newsom was endowed with two of the wettest years in recent California history. Yet he and radical environmentalists squandered the water bounty—as snowmelts and runoff long designated for agricultural irrigation were drained from aqueducts and reservoirs to flow out to sea.

Newsom transferred millions of dollars designated by a voter referendum to build dams and aqueducts for water storage and instead blew up four historic dams on the Klamath River. For decades, these now-destroyed scenic lakes provided clean, green hydroelectric power, irrigation storage, flood control, and recreation.

California hosts one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients. Over a fifth of the population lives below the property line. Nearly half the nation’s homeless sleep on the streets of its major cities.

The state’s downtowns are dirty, dangerous, and increasingly abandoned by businesses—most recently Google—that cannot rely on a defunded and shackled police.

Newsom’s California has spent billions on homeless relief and subsidizing millions of new illegal migrant arrivals across the state’s porous southern border.

The result was predictably even more homeless and more illegal immigrants, all front-loaded onto the state’s already overtaxed and broken healthcare, housing, and welfare entitlements.

Newsome raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $22 an hour. The result was wage inflation rippling out to all service areas, unaffordable food for the poor, and massive shut-downs and bankruptcies of fast food outlets.

Twenty-seven percent of Californians were born outside of the United States. It is a minority-majority state. Yet California has long dropped unifying civic education, while the bankrupt state funds exploratory commissions to consider divisive racial reparations.

California’s universities are hotbeds of ethnic, religious, and racial chauvinism and infighting. State officials, however, did little as its campuses were plagued for months by rampant and violent anti-Semitism.

Almost nightly, the nation watches mass smash-and-grab attacks on California retail stores. Carjackers and thieves own the night. They are rarely caught, even more rarely arrested—and almost never convicted.

Currently, Newsom is fighting in the courts to stop the people’s constitutional right to place on the ballot initiatives to restore penalties for violent crime and theft.

Gas prices are the highest in the continental United States, given green mandate formulas and the nation’s highest, and still raising, gasoline taxes—and are scheduled to go well over $6 a gallon.

Yet its ossified roads and highways are among the nation’s most dangerous, as vast sums of transportation funding were siphoned off to the multibillion-dollar high-speed rail boondoggle.

The state imports almost all the costly vitals of modern life, mostly because it prohibits using California’s own vast petroleum, natural gas, timber, and mineral resources.

As California implodes, its embarrassed government turns to the irrelevant, if not ludicrous.

It now outlaws natural gas stoves in new homes. It is adding new income-based surcharges for those who dutifully pay their power bills—to help subsidize the 2.5 million Californians who simply default on their energy bill with impunity.

What happened to the once-beautiful California paradise?

Millions of productive but frustrated, overtaxed, and underserved middle-class residents have fled to low-crime, low-tax, and well-served red states in disgust

In turn, millions of illegal migrants have swarmed the state, given its sanctuary-city policies, refusal to enforce the law, and generous entitlements.

Meanwhile, a tiny coastal elite, empowered by $9 trillion in Silicon Valley market capitalization, fiddled while their state burned.

California became a medieval society of plutocratic barons, subsidized peasants, and a shrinking and fleeing middle class. It is now home to a few rich estates, subsidized apartments, and unaffordable middle-class houses.

California suffers from poorly ranked public schools—but brags about its prestigious private academies. Its highways are lethal—but it hosts the most private jets in the nation.

The fantasies of a protected enclave of Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, and the masters of the Silicon Valley universe have become the abject nightmares of everyone else.

In sum, a privileged Bay Area elite inherited a California paradise and turned it into purgatory.

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wof-inbox · 3 days ago

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Winter, let me tell you a story. (About trains, duh)

This, is Cajon Pass. Or at least a section of it, it's so big I don't know where the summit is. Now it's not the steepest grade for railroads in America, but it is incredibly steep 4% average. Which for locomotives, is INSANE. Now, while it may seem innocent, it can be incredibly dangerous, as told in this story.

(You should watch this video if you find documentaries cool)

The year is 1989, may 11th. And it's 9PM at Mojve railyard in California on the Southern Pacific. A crew is tasked with taking a train full of Trona (A sand like substance) towards West Colton Yard. Things, aren't off to a good start. One of the locomotives won't start, and is dead in tow. It's never been reported what happened, but they had to swap out the locomotive. There's also worry of the weight of the train loosing control over the pass, so they arrange to meet with some helper diesels that will hook up to act as extra braking force. They get all the paperwork, and begin the journey. On may 12th at 12:15, they depart. Little do they know, chaos will soon insue.

As they past a westbound train over the pass, they stop and let the helpers from that train couple up behind. The crew of the helpers have no idea the weight of the train, and don't ask. All they know is they will be assisting over and down Cajon Pass. Just after 7AM, the train begins it's descent, and the crew slows the train to about 25 mph with a mixture of air and dynamic brakes (Air brakes use air pressure to apply friction pads to the wheels, and dynamics turn the traction motors into generators by reversing flow and converting momentum to heat). They even check with the helper crew to make sure they have the train under control. Little do they know, the have next to no functioning dynamic brakes on the train, and disaster is approaching.

The descent continues, and the lead crew notices they picked up speed to 30 mph, and they apply a full service application, which is full brakes, but nothing. This usually wouldn't be an issue, but the tracks aren't as curved and there's a long way to go down. The helper crew seeing the train speed up, thin it's a runaway and through it into emergency stop. The train tries to slow down, with a loud jolt. But seconds later, it was off to the races.

The train quickly picks up speed, going faster and faster. Smoke pours from the brakes and they light up a glowing red from the heat. The head end crew contacts dispatch in a panic, as the speedometer reads their doing about 90 mph. But that's as far as it could go. The black boxes (A device that monitors train data) clocked them doing 110 MPH.

Up ahead, there was a curve near the area of Duffy street near Sand Bernadino, with tons of houses. The speed limit was 30 mph, and this train is never going to make it through at the speed it's going.

The resulting wreck tossed train cars everywhere, plowing into homes and crushing the locomotives. One guy in a house destroyed by the train was encased in a makeshift cocoon for nearly the whole day until firefighters could clear the wreckage. Meanwhile, there was another issue. Gas was still being supplied to houses. However, they were able to call in and get it shut down before fires sparked. Four people total died, and four more were injured.

This wouldn't be the end of the chaos. No one knew there was a gas pipeline under the wreck, but inspections from those who did know said it was safe due to how deep in the ground it was, So the train didn't even touch it. However, there was still the odor of gas in the air.

The morning of May 25th, and the Trona clean up is still on going. Strange rains fall over specific houses despite the clear sunny day, and the gas smell is still in the air. Then, a sudden spark.

An entire section of the town is engulfed in flames, incinerating whatever it's in it's path. They all know it's the pipeline, and it's so hot the firetruck's headlights, turn signals, and light bars melt like butter. People fled for their life, and firefighters are struggling to contain the blaze. To make matters worth, no one can shut the emergency valves off, which weren't even working two weeks before the train derailed. 2 million liters of gasoline burned for hours, and by the time the flames were out? Two people died, three injuried. One only identified by the smoldering shoes on his corpse.

Know I know what you wanna know: How did this happen? Well, lets start with the train wreck. First, lets talk brakes. All air brakes worked, but were overwhelmed. Some wheels got so hot they deformed, and were still molten 12 hours later.

Now second, incorrect paperwork. No one actually knew how heavy the train was, and one of the employees decided to make an educated guess, based off his experience working with trona before. About 60 tons per car compared to coal, with a total of 4140 tons. But in reality the weight was closer to 69 hundred tons. No company will ship freight cars 60% full and leave 40% behind, right? Now, any unknown weight is required to be considered as heavy as is when full.

All this to say, the train was clearly doomed the minute it hit the grade. Even if they all had functional dynamics, it would have been a rough trip down the mountain. However, despite the acceleration, the train was only slowly accelerating due to the working dynamics that were on the train, until it was slammed into emergency stop. That automatically killed the dynamics. Usually, it's a safety feature to prevent wheels from locking and slipping down hill, but in this case it made it impossible to stop before they reached the curve. Nowadays this is reversed, and all trains are required to have all braking systems work in full. After all, any braking force you can get is vital in a runaway.

Long story short, the accident happened because of incorrect paperwork, miscommunication, and the gradient they were on.

Lets talk the pipeline. Inspections revealed an outward burst, meaning it had burst under extreme pressure. There were also scrape marks, which was discovered to had been from a backhoe during construction of some kind without anyone noticing. Inspections were clearly not thourough, because rich snobs in Las Vagas wanted it back up and running to supply fuel to their cars that they claimed were worth more than the houses in San Bernedino.

After the fact, lawsuits slammed Southern Pacific, which most were settled out of court.

Nowadays, more safety precautions are in place, such as scales to acurately check freight weight, and rules for helper crews to double check with the head end crew as needed for crucial information.

Most equipment of the train was scrapped on site, aside from the helper units that were rebuilt and continued service, and two others that were rebuilt, with only one surviving into the modern day. One crew member who continued work, could never go over the Cajon Pass, as he phsycologically just couldn't take it. And the crew member who made the miscaluclation? He was never charged for the trouble caused.

To this day, the houses wrecked weren't rebuilt, and there's no momument to honor those who died. And this wouldn't be the last runaway down the grade, as two more would happen. But those are different stories.

Long story short, double check. We don't want something like this to happen again.

“That sounds.. really terrifying. I’m glad we don’t have ‘trains’ or anything like them in Pyrrhia!” -Winter

[plain text: That sounds.. really terrifying. I’m glad we don’t have ‘trains’ or anything like them in Pyrrhia!]

#wings of fire #wof #winter wof #winter answers

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angels-window-washing · 11 months ago

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Pressure Washing Service in CA

Pressure washing is very helpful method of cleaning your house. There are numerous benefits of this practice that serve in preparing your house for renovation, white washing etc. At Angels Washing Window you can get the best pressure washing service in Modesto.

#Commercial Cleaning Company in Tracy #House Cleaning Services in California #Window Washing Service Tracy

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rjzimmerman · 5 months ago

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Electricity That Costs Nothing—or Even Less? It’s Happening More and More. (Wall Street Journal)

Excerpt from this Wall Street Journal story:

Most people pay a fixed price for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they consume throughout the day. The price is set by their power company and only changes at infrequent intervals—once a week, a month or even only once a year.

Van Diesen, a software salesman, recently signed up to receive electricity from two providers that charge him the hourly price on the Dutch wholesale power market, rather than a fixed price that resets monthly or annually. When the price of electricity falls low enough, smart meters in his house begin charging his two electric cars.

Wholesale prices swing wildly each hour of the day, and even more so as a larger share of electricity flows from wind and solar installations. Because the generation costs of wind or solar farms are negligible, market prices will be near zero when there is enough renewable power to cover most of a region’s electricity demand.

Electricity market dynamics get weirder when renewable-energy producers don’t have an incentive to stop feeding power into the grid, usually because of government subsidies. Then grids can be flooded with excess power, pushing prices into negative territory.

Van Diesen said he’s made 30 euros, equivalent to around $34, over the past five months charging his car, enough to cover the service fee from his power supplier, a Norwegian company called Tibber.

“I’m charging the car for free,” said van Diesen, who is part of a group of clean-energy enthusiasts in the Netherlands who call themselves green nerds. “To me it’s also like a hobby and a game—how far can I go?”

Doing laundry in the evening? The electricity could be free a few hours later when demand dies down and the wind picks up. Likewise, in regions with lots of solar power, charging an electric vehicle in the morning is usually far more expensive than powering up under the midday sun—or whenever the price is right.

In the U.S., most states don’t currently allow such real-time pricing, but many think that will change. Already, in some of the world’s biggest economies from Western Europe to California, the occurrence of zero and negative wholesale power prices is growing fast.

Wholesale prices across continental Europe have fallen to zero or below in 6% of all hours this year, up sharply from 2.2% in 2023 and just 0.3% in 2022, according to data collected by Entso-E, the group of European transmission system operators. In markets with lots of renewable capacity, this year’s figure was higher: 8% in the Netherlands, 11% in Finland and 12% in Spain. Analysts expect those numbers will grow as more solar panels and wind turbines are installed.

The changes sweeping Europe’s electricity markets, which were accelerated by the energy crisis brought on by the war in Ukraine, show what could happen in the U.S. in a few years when renewable capacity reaches a similar scale. In 2023, 44% of EU electricity was generated by renewables, compared with 21% in the U.S.

#renewable energy

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maid4youcalifornia · 11 months ago

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Contact us for a free quotation and schedule your cleaning service now! Experience the Maid4You difference today and discover why we’re the preferred choice for discerning homeowners and businesses in the California Bay Area.

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cleaningdowney · 2 years ago

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youtube

#Youtube #Cleaning Services Downey #House Cleaning Services Downey CA #airbnb cleaning service downey california #home deep clean service downey california #moving cleaning service downey california #move in cleaning service downey california #move out cleaning service downey california #deep clean house cleaning service downey california #best house cleaning services downey ca #office cleaning downey #Affordable residential cleaning in downey

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antaxzantax · 8 months ago

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Umbrella Pharmaceuticals - Chapter 51

Summary: Alex Paterson [Alex Wesker] murders James Marcus and associates with Oswell E. Spencer, her biological father.

The bullet pierced the skull and embedded itself in the frontal lobe. The barrel of the revolver burned.

The body crashed limp to the ground.

She grabbed a saw from the toolbox and cut off the head. She put the trophy in a vacuum bag.

She dialed an international number on the hacked phone.

“Who's calling?”

“Get me Mr. Spencer. It's urgent.”

“Lord Spencer won't see anyone without an appointment and without first meeting the caller.”

“Tell him I have the virus and James Marcus's head.”

She rode in the 4x4 with the virus and the head of James Marcus. A group of individuals in protective suits entered the basement of the ranch. A man with a thick British accent assured her that they would get rid of the body and the lab. The SUV started up. She would travel by private plane to Luxembourg.

III

Spencer examined the severed head of James Marcus with a clinical eye. A clean shot to the forehead had killed him. A single shot had extinguished the sullen Texan.

A single shot.

Spencer went to light a cigar but gave it up for the shocking sight of the head. The damned head with the glassy eyes and the jagged features, eaten away at the edges and yellowed with decay. He'd loathed Marcus in recent years, but cold-blooded murder and mutilation like that... On a par with what he'd done to Trevor.

He asked Patrick to turn his head away, for the putrid smell had congested his nostrils. He blew his nose into his handkerchief. The disturbing thing, however, had not been Marcus's death, but who had killed him: a twenty-eight-year-old woman who claimed to be the biological daughter of Oswell Ernest Spencer.

Alexandra Paterson.

“Hide the sample. It will be our secret,” he ordered Patrick.

The woman who claimed to be his biological daughter had inherited his blond hair, blue eyes and features. He recognised the mother at the mention of her name. The daughter of a millionaire rancher whom he had met at a party in California. The same mother who years before had sent him a letter to charge him for the care of a supposed daughter of his. And there it was: his worst nightmare.

Alex didn't drink tea and her American accent bounced off his ear canal as if he were at a rodeo. American on top. Stereotypically American. Spencer sipped from his teacup.

“And you're from California?”

“Arkansas.”

“Oh, cows and cowgirls.”

Spencer set the cup down carefully and smiled condescendingly at his appearing daughter.

“I worked with Brandon Bailey in Africa. I befriended him so he'd trust me. I gave him the ranch and the lab when Marcus wanted to escape,” Alex said.

“Why did you kill Marcus?”

Alex looked down.

“He attacked me. He suspected me. He pointed the gun at me and wanted to kill me so I wouldn't steal his research. He thought you'd sent me; that I was a spy. He went mad. He hated you.”

“Why did he hate me?”

“Because all you care about is money and politics.”

Spencer laughed.

“He was a good friend... Brilliant at science, but stupid at social relations. Anyway, and you brought me his head as proof of loyalty?”

Alex shrugged.

“I doubted you'd listen to me if I rang the doorbell.”

“And what do you want from me?” Spencer prepared himself a cigar. “Money? Connections? A house on the prairie? A new cowboy hat?”

“I want to be your daughter.”

Spencer smiled.

“Sure, with that accent and manners. My family will welcome you with open arms.”

“I want to work at Umbrella. I want to research that virus.”

“What?”

“I'm a virologist, and you're half physicist, half economist. Who have you hired to translate the reports for you?”

Spencer got serious.

“And you've come to save me, Alexandra. That's very kind of you. But I don't require anyone's services. No one. Let out of my house.”

“Marcus' virus is a variant T-virus untested in humans, only in insects and arthropods. It's capable of inducing exaggerated mutations in a very short time and replicating certain genetic structures.”

“Replicating?”

“Mimic the genetic structure of the host, like cloning. I started working with Marcus in 1983. I know how that virus works, and I know a few things about you and Umbrella. You're just gonna let me walk away?”

Tough as nails and twisted, just like her father.

“Let's make a deal. Suppose I hire you, you work for Umbrella, and I assign you to a lab. Suppose I let you research that virus and many others. Would I end up with a bullet in my head, or would you worship your father?”

“I can't inherit your fortune and your family will hate me, so why would I shoot my only safe conduct?”

Spencer finished his cigar.

“I'll give you one chance.”

One chance.

#resident evil #oswell e spencer #james marcus #alex wesker

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dertaglichedan · 3 months ago

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The Pentagon is funding alternatives to meat protein, which includes using fungi for food for U.S. service members as part of the White House’s sustainable bioeconomy agenda.

The Department of Defense is focusing on investments into fungi protein as an alternative to animal protein, after initially seeking to fund lab-grown meat earlier this year in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. Critics have pushed back on such initiatives, arguing that they are negatively affecting the military.

In November, the DOD announced that it had given 34 awards totaling over $60 million to bioindustrial firms under the Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program (DBIMP). $1.38 million was given to The Fynder Group “to plan a bioproduction facility for fungi-based proteins that can be incorporated into military ready-to-eat meals.”

The program is part of President Joe Biden's Executive Order 14081, "Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy," which is “aimed at bolstering America's bioeconomic strengths while helping the Department achieve advanced defense capabilities,” according to the DOD.

The projects that were awarded funding from the DOD program “will be eligible to receive follow-on ‘build’ awards providing access to up to $100 million to construct U.S.-based bioindustrial manufacturing facilities,” the DOD announcement added.

Fungi-based proteins

In August, as part of the DBIMP, the DOD awarded nearly $1.5 million to The Better Meat Company, which “harness[es] the amazing power of fermentation to make delicious, clean mycoprotein ingredients for food companies to use as the basis of their hybrid and fully animal-free meats.”

“The Better Meat Company, based in West Sacramento, California, was awarded $1.48 million to plan a bioproduction facility for mycoprotein ingredients that are shelf-stable, have high protein and fiber contents, and can be dehydrated,” according to the DOD.

To make the meat alternatives, the company explains that they “feed starchy foods to microscopic fungi and allow them to naturally turn into the meatiest animal-free protein on the planet.”

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