10.29.2021

Or not

Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company

“We have to fit hologram displays, projectors, batteries, radios, custom silicon chips, cameras, speakers, sensors to map the world around you, and more, into glasses that are five millimeters thick," Zuckerberg says.

10.27.2021

A footnote

'Hurricane-force' nor'easter smashes Northeast, cuts power to more than half a million

Emergency services vehicles of all kinds are in demand, as is heavy equipment needed to clear roads and repair power lines, not to mention increased strain on communications services.

What happens when all that depends, in turn, on electricity?

In our rush to electrify—and we really do need to do that—we'd best not outrun the grid.

A look at this morning's wind gauge


SUV rams pole: Power out

"As of about 2:30 p.m., police officers were still on scene directing traffic at the intersection of High Street and Silver Street, where a traffic light remained out. Earlier in the afternoon, as many as 120 customers were without power, according to an Eversource outage map."
A pretty run-of-the-mill story, not many people involved. No big deal except, well:

Longer, more frequent outages afflict the U.S. power grid…

…from a Washington Post story the other day:
"State officials are reluctant to ask ratepayers to foot the bill for investments experts say are needed to fortify the grid against increasingly severe weather."

Also that. Power out all over the place, small and big, more and more…

And yet the increasingly frantic demand from D.C. to electrify everything, including the entire vehicular fleet ASAP.

Even assuming we can generate all that power without fossil fuels, we'll still need to distribute it. And the grid's looking more and more, day by day, like a wreck.

Infrastructure.

10.26.2021

A sogggy day

No, I'm not going to say Wrong Brothers*

Ohio printed 35,000 wrong Wright Brothers license plates

COLUMBUS, OHIO (AP) — Ohio printed out 35,000 new license plates before realizing a banner depicted on the plate was attached to the wrong end of the Wright Brothers’ historic first plane, the Wright Flyer.

*You're welcome.