Weather report

[LowRyter]

12 hours ago, activpop said:

And if you come to Oregon, diesel pickups still rule, and most folks who have them like to let you know it. 

guilty.  Dirtymax pulls my toy hauler.  I'm think about selling the whole rig.

OTOH, my Corvette was t-boned this week by a woman running a stop sign her SUV.  Even though her left front got me on the right rear as I was nearly out the intersection as she turned right, they're calling it 50/50.  Don't know if the car is totaled. 

Actually, the family hauler is 4cyl Accord stick.  Gets 30+ mpg, quiet, quick, handles.  Then there's my 25-year-old Trooper for bad weather. 

a tool for every use if you're fortunate enough.

Edited October 8 by LowRyter

[Pressureangle]

16 hours ago, p6x said:

 

Then there is the hidden pollutants that revolve around electric cars.

tely, there is no H2 distribution in Houston. I also read that H2 distribution is also unreliable in California. But the concept of H2 refueling works a lot better than electric charging. H2 refueling takes the same amount of time as gas. Gas stations could be easily overhauled to accomodate H2 distribution. After all, like today, it is only a tank to be installed. No need for electricity grid improvements.

Then again H2 is expensive, and requires a lot of electricity to be manufactured. Unless you build a Nuclear plant to make it cheaply.

We are still not there yet. It is not only the cars, but the people need to accept the fact, and do something about it. If you come to Houston, you will see that massive V8 powered pickup trucks still rule.

 

Well said, overall. 

I followed hydrogen cell evolution in it's initial development; ultimately it hit the same wall as battery power- the scarcity of critical resources, in this case *water*. It seems plentiful until you calculate how much you need to supply a city full of cars, and in many cases in cities where water is already expensive and scarce at times. LA? Phoenix? Never going to happen. 
I am a big fan of electric vehicles, in operation, but I don't fool myself about their viability. Hydrocarbons and internal combustion are here to stay, says 3 Billion Chinese and Indian users.
Until someone survives the attempt to revive Tesla's universal free power theory, we're stuck with what we have enough of. Those who hate the status quo are free to imagine themselves helping by riding a boutique chassis.

[audiomick]

20 hours ago, p6x said:

... a Nuclear plant to make it cheaply.

Except that it isn't really cheap. Admittedly, I haven't researched the topic myself, but from what I have read there are "hidden" costs with nuclear power. Amongst others, what do you do with waste that stays dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years?

 

EDIT: Don't get me wrong. I'm not fundamentally opposed to nuclear power. I just don't reckon we have got enough of a grip on it yet to be using it indiscriminately.

Edited October 8 by audiomick

[p6x]

8 hours ago, Pressureangle said:

Well said, overall. 

I followed hydrogen cell evolution in it's initial development; ultimately it hit the same wall as battery power- the scarcity of critical resources, in this case *water*. It seems plentiful until you calculate how much you need to supply a city full of cars, and in many cases in cities where water is already expensive and scarce at times. LA? Phoenix? Never going to happen. 
I am a big fan of electric vehicles, in operation, but I don't fool myself about their viability. Hydrocarbons and internal combustion are here to stay, says 3 Billion Chinese and Indian users.
Until someone survives the attempt to revive Tesla's universal free power theory, we're stuck with what we have enough of. Those who hate the status quo are free to imagine themselves helping by riding a boutique chassis.

I looked at the Toyota Mirai;

First its 50k USD + the usual add-ons.

With the purchase, you get 15K USD free fuel or 6 years whichever comes first.

402 miles autonomy on a full tank; 5 minutes typical refueling time on an empty tank.

8 years or 100000 miles warranty on all Fuel Cell Components whichever comes first, extensible 3 more years or 35000 miles whichever comes first.

The main perk, they have it in Supersonic Red.

In the US 1 kg of H2 is about 33 dollars. Compared to Japan 1 kg is 7 dollars.

You need about 5.6 kg to refuel; ... with 15k free, a 400 miles autonomy, you have about 30,000 miles free H2 upon purchase. Not much.

[Tomchri]

Modern performance diesel's smells like freshly cut hay and lily of the valley.

Cheers Tom.

[audiomick]

Yeah. And this is a real phenomenum...

[LowRyter]

It would really be cool if hydrogen cars could be run by sucking air and using a converter to remove the hydrogen.   Never needs fuel, it runs on air.  Cool.

I suppose the next best deal would run on water, but you'd have to fill it with a garden hose.  The O would be the exhaust? 

[p6x]

39 minutes ago, LowRyter said:

It would really be cool if hydrogen cars could be run by sucking air and using a converter to remove the hydrogen.   Never needs fuel, it runs on air.  Cool.

I suppose the next best deal would run on water, but you'd have to fill it with a garden hose.  The O would be the exhaust? 

You know that Kawasaki made a concept Hydrogen bike? it is not something they are planning to commercialize at present. Mainly because H2 refueling stations are inexistant outside of Japan.

Actually, if Tesla had not developped all those supercharging stations, you can bet the adoption would have probably be worse.

As expected, this project bike looks like a monstercycle.

 

[HRC_V4]

Took a ride down to Jonesborogh and Greenville today, I should have had a GoPro on, the worst hit area I saw was right around where 107 and 81 spit, there used to be a KOA camp ground right on the river.  Half the land is gone and the building has a partial collapse.

https://koa.com/campgrounds/jonesborough/site-type/rv-camping-sites/

 

I was on the far side river, Arnold Rd runs right along the river, 15ft off the river and 15ft above the river, there were root balls stuck 20ft up in a tree where it split.  There was debris on both sides of the road, trees, building material, lots of coolers...  The other side of the river was worse, land is gone, houses partially collapsed, maybe some houses gone.  There is a farm on that side, tomatoes, some were gone, some covered in mud, some being picked today.

 

Lots of churches and Fire Departments had donations for people, saw a few military vehicles out to help, lots of police and volunteers.  Further down the road, you could not see the Nolichucky river, but there was what looked like a dry river bed about 10 times wider than the river itself.  Once away from the Nolichucky, everything looked normal, very few trees down, people might had lost power for a while, also water, but no physical damage.  There are more closed roads due to bridge issues, I had to take 107 all the way until it was closed, then take 350 south to get to Greenville.  The pictures are from the Bridge near Greenville, TN.  Look are the one picture close and you can see the hay bales in the debris, just for reference of how much is there.  On the other side of the bridge was 50 trees right next to the river that had blow/washed over with the root balls still holding them in place.

[audiomick]

20 hours ago, p6x said:

As expected, this project bike looks like a monstercycle.

I dunno (apart from the  Transformers design), it looks like it isn't a great deal bulkier than the 1000 GTR, and perhaps even a little more compact than a 1400 GTR.

 

I wont even start with Harleys and such like...

[p6x]

19 hours ago, HRC_V4 said:

volunteers

There is a team of people from Texas that go onsite to provide assistance after those disasters.

I was wondering what kind of support you can provide to anyone in those incredibly difficult circumstances? aren't you becoming part of the problem rather than the solution?

Those people that have lost everything need basic necessities; in those devastated towns, you are in need of these as well?

I agree that you try to bring moral support, people not affected show them they are not alone.

Or am I missing something?

[Pressureangle]

22 minutes ago, p6x said:

There is a team of people from Texas that go onsite to provide assistance after those disasters.

I was wondering what kind of support you can provide to anyone in those incredibly difficult circumstances? aren't you becoming part of the problem rather than the solution?

Those people that have lost everything need basic necessities; in those devastated towns, you are in need of these as well?

I agree that you try to bring moral support, people not affected show them they are not alone.

Or am I missing something?

There is an Army of support from pretty much everywhere, though largely invisible because they're not interested in PR. Florida sent a large National Guard component; one of the Tennessee State Representatives made himself a point of access for people to send essentials and incidentals, to be certain they were delivered to those to whom they were intended. Regular people are peripheral with moral and economic support; my Sister-in-Law and Neice are taking their scheduled vacation in Pigeon Forge with their camper; She works for Meals on Wheels in Michigan, and carried a pickup bedful of donated frozen foods along and is distributing them amongst the displaced near them. 
Remember too, this area is not a big city like New Orleans where thousands have nowhere to go; this is a *relatively* rural area, where there is a lot of nearby community to support immediate needs of water and shelter, even if without power. A very high percentage of the residents know how to live off the land, and electricity is a convenience not a necessity. We should all be as prepared as they are. 

[audiomick]

The trick is to keep the help going long enough. Short term water, food and shelter is really important, of course.

Then there is the clean-up, and the re-build. The disaster goes on for months, even years, long after the TV news stop reporting on how tragic it all is.

[HRC_V4]

What I saw was about 20 miles of disaster at the base of the mountains, so this should be the least impacted areas, they can drive 5-30 miles and be in an area not impacted at all.  But the number of bridges that are shut down is scary.  There was probably 1/4 mile of fresh asphalt put down just to open a road to a bridge that was still standing so people could cross the river.  I saw farm equipment on it's side half buried in mud.  Cleaning mud, trees and debris is the biggest cleanup item.  I pretty sure up in the mountains roads are still covered in mud and trees, but untill the bridges are repaired/replaced, not going to be able to get equipment in to clear the roads, after roads, then power and water, then you can rebuild/repair homes.  Then you can clean up all the trees and debris along the roads and rivers/streams.  It is going to take them untill mid to late 2025 to open I-40 and I-26, so I'm thinking 3-5 years before the area is somewhat back to normal.

[audiomick]

1 hour ago, HRC_V4 said:

... But the number of bridges that are shut down is scary. ...

Completely off topic, but "bridges":

A bridge collapsed in Dresden about 4 weeks ago. Fortunately at about 3:00 in the morning, so no-one was hurt. It was this one

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/264360408

zoom out a bit, and you can see how critical it is to traffic in Dresden. It is (was) more or less the main bridge across the river close to the city centre.

Here is what it looks like now

The bit that collapsed carried a tram line and a bike path and pedestrian path. Alone the tram line will cause huge problems. And then...

They will obviosly have to minutely examine the parallel span that carries the road traffic, and the river is blocked. The river is a major transport route for river-boat cargo.

They're going to have problems for at least the next ten years. A new bridge doesn't just happen overnight.

 

Getting back to the weather, same deal. Things that got destroyed in a few short hours can take years and decades to be restored.

Edited October 11 by audiomick