Going back to the playbook of the Cold War, may be the only way to deal with Russia and China; U.S. Global Respect through a very capable and strong Armed Forces.

President Trump's New Defense Strategy Is a Return to the Cold War

President Donald Trump is bracing the Pentagon for a long-term, strategic competition with with Russia and China for the foreseeable future.

From article, (President Donald Trump is bracing the Pentagon for a long-term, strategic competition with the world’s major powers that puts the U.S. military on a Cold War footing with Russia and China for the foreseeable future, the administration said on Friday.

The National Defense Strategy, set to be rolled out by Defense Secretary James Mattis at John Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, directs the U.S. government to engage in a multi-year build-up of the military involving more troops, more weapons and stronger foreign alliances.

The document, which serves as the Administration’s roadmap for global security, says China and Russia aim to upend the global hierarchy that the United States has sat atop of since World War II. The strategy serves as the latest sign the Administration wants to pivot from the morass of violence and counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East to intensify great power competitions in the western and eastern hemispheres.

“Great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security,” Mattis told the audience. “This strategy is fit for our time.”

It harkens back to the Cold War-era where the U.S. and Soviet Union projected power and military might around the globe. Two versions of the strategy were drawn up: one secret, one public. The version released to the public was 11 pages long and documented a range of military needs for the coming years, involving everything from nuclear weapons to cyber capabilities to war-fighting strategies. The message was a familiar one to the Trump Administration: the military needs additional funding.

“Our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of warfare: land, air, sea, space and cyber space,” Mattis said.

A muscular military posture along with strong alliances ensured “what was a Cold War never became a Hot War on the plains of Europe,” he said. “The point is: How do we create a military that is that compelling?”)

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Me, "Going back to the playbook of the Cold War, may be the only way to deal with Russia and China; U.S. Global Respect through a very capable and strong Armed Forces. The U.S. armed forces have been decimated by cut backs, defense programs with numerous cost overruns, and a set of administrations, since the end of the first cold war, with the Soviet Union, not knowing what to do with the armed forces, in a temporarily, safer, world. 

Well, now we see with the start of the Second cold war with countries like Russia and China that we need to reinvest in the armed forces and show the world we are not to be played with.

Right now, Russia is building up its armed forces. It is showing it can strike anywhere with military drills and war games. Even challenging us in Syria. 

Make no mistake, Russia is playing a P.R. Game. Where they say the U.S. is the one who wants war, and we sit around trying to show the high ground and do nothing. In the meantime, Russia is building up its armed forces. We can't just sit around thinking that everything is going to be just fine. We are past the Soviet Union, and now are being challenged by a limited democracy; the presidential election is rigged, and Putin stays in office. 

China is also building up its armed forces, with cooperation from Russia. The Chinese are trying to take over the world economically, while building bases on reclaimed land in the South China Sea. You think they are just going to use these bases for peace?

 Our armed forces have been marginalized and other powers are trying to unseat our place as the government that has the strength that can negotiate all kinds of deals. While I believe a stronger armed forces is necessary. I also believe they need better oversight so as not to get stuck developing all kinds of lemon defensive systems like aircrafts that suffocate pilots, or are vastly inferior by the time they are deployed; this wastes valuable money. We all don't want war. But if other countries think they can play with us and we will just role over and play dead? Well, that is not a good position to be in."

Tesla Powerpack projects, streaming in from all directions, after its stunt to build South Australia's biggest backup battery in a hundred days.

Tesla wins another Powerpack project in New Zealand

Tesla's energy storage products are doing well in Oceania. After several major projects underway in Australia, Tesla now wins another contract for a Powerpack project in New Zealand. Mercury, a New Zealand-based energy company, made the announcement last week. Fraser Whineray, Mercury's Chief Executive, commented: "We've chosen to work with Tesla for this ambitious technology development.

From article, (Tesla’s energy storage products are doing well in Oceania. After several major projects underway in Australia, Tesla now wins another contract for a Powerpack project in New Zealand.

The company says that it is investing over $2 million to build this 1MW/ 2MWh energy storage project, which they claim will be New Zealand’s first national grid-connected battery.

 Albeit much smaller in size and capacity, Mercury compared the system to Tesla’s 100MW/ 129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia. Like the bigger system, it will help balance the grid and they will be trading energy stored in the battery in both the wholesale electricity and reserve markets.

The company expects to have the Tesla Powerpack 2 battery packs in a few months in order for the project to be online by August. They also plan to start selling Tesla’s Powerwall 2 this year.

This new project has been announced right after Tesla was chosen to build another big battery in Australia after the first one is starting to prove to be very impressive in the first few months of operation. The company is also working with Neoen in Australia for a potentially even larger battery projects.)

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While seen as a joke, at first, on late night talk shows, the fact is that there are corporations that take into account how they are perceived on the environment, and one way is to invest in renewable power.

GM's Expansion, Energy Goals Hinge on Renewables' Power Lines

General Motors is calling for greater access to wind and solar power through expanded transmission lines to feed growing demand for clean electricity by its future factories and customers.

 From article, (General Motors is calling for greater access to wind and solar power through expanded transmission lines to feed growing demand for clean electricity by its future factories and customers.

Access to renewables is a factor in the company’s decisions about where to expand or build new facilities, Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of renewable energy, told Bloomberg Environment.

Electric power lines delivering wind and solar power are not a constraint on growth today, but, between 2018 and 2050, new transmission connecting wind and solar farms to both GM factories and its customers—particularly those driving electric vehicles—will be critical for the company’s success, he said.

GM is one of the RE100 group of companies that have committed to obtaining 100 percent of their electricity from wind, solar, and other renewables. GM plans to go fully renewable by 2050 and expects 20 percent of its global electric power demand to be met with renewable energy by the end of 2018.

Corporate demand for renewable power is growing. Companies that are part of REBA, the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which includes GM, Walmart, and more than 100 other companies, plan to buy more than 60 gigawatts of renewable power by 2025. Only 9 gigawatts have been procured so far, according to the report.

The report estimates that if 90 percent of renewables transmission projects currently in development are built, they would meet 70 percent of the expected demand from REBA companies by 2025.

Some GM facilities are located close to high wind power production areas in Texas and Kansas, Threlkeld said, but additional transmission lines are needed to make buying renewable power for GM’s operations and customers elsewhere less costly in the long run.

Walmart, which is a RE100 and REBA member with a goal to obtain all its power from renewables, currently generates about half of the renewable energy it uses from solar panels and wind turbines built at its stores and other facilities. New transmission will be needed for the company to buy more renewable power.

“It’s certainly important in the sense that we recognize for us to meet our targets, we wouldn’t necessarily be able to install [enough] renewable energy at the store,” Mark Vanderhelm, Walmart’s vice president for energy, told Bloomberg Environment.)

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Everyday there are new advances in Rechargeable Battery Technology.

A new polymer raises the bar for lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries are promising candidates for replacing common lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles since they are cheaper, weigh less, and can store nearly double the energy for the same mass. However, lithium-sulfur batteries become unstable over time, and their electrodes deteriorate, limiting widespread adoption. Now, a team of researchers led by scientists at the U.S.

 From article, (Lithium-sulfur batteries are promising candidates for replacing common lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles since they are cheaper, weigh less, and can store nearly double the energy for the same mass. However, lithium-sulfur batteries become unstable over time, and their electrodes deteriorate, limiting widespread adoption.

Now, a team of researchers led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported that a new lithium-sulfur battery component allows a doubling in capacity compared to a conventional lithium-sulfur battery, even after more than 100 charge cycles at high current densities, which are key performance metrics for their adoption in electric vehicles (EVs) and in aviation.

They did it by designing a new polymer binder that actively regulates key ion transport processes within a lithium-sulfur battery, and have also shown how it functions on a molecular level. The work was recently reported in Nature Communications.

"The new polymer acts as a wall," said Brett Helms, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry and corresponding author of the study. "The sulfur is loaded into the pores of a carbon host, which are then sealed by our polymer. As sulfur participates in the battery's chemical reactions, the polymer prevents the negatively charged sulfur compounds from wandering out. The battery has great promise for enabling the next generation of EVs."

When a lithium-sulfur battery stores and releases energy, the chemical reaction produces mobile molecules of sulfur that become disconnected from the electrode, causing it to degrade and ultimately lowering the battery's capacity over time. To make these batteries more stable, researchers have traditionally worked to develop protective coatings for their electrodes, and to develop new polymer binders that act as the glue holding battery components together. These binders are intended to control or mitigate the electrode's swelling and cracking.

The new binder goes a step further. Researchers from the Organic Synthesis Facility at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, a research center specializing in nanoscale science, designed a polymer to keep the sulfur in close proximity to the electrode by selectively binding the sulfur molecules, counteracting its migratory tendencies.

The next step was to understand the dynamic structural changes that are likely to occur during charging and discharging as well as at different states of charge. David Prendergast, who directs the Foundry's Theory Facility, and Tod Pascal, a project scientist in the Theory Facility, built a simulation to test the researchers' hypotheses about the polymer's behavior.

"We can now reliably and efficiently model sulfur chemistry within these binders based on learning from detailed quantum mechanical simulations of the dissolved sulfur-containing products," stated Prendergast.)

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With China instituting Carbon Trading, and Europe's economy on the rebound, Carbon trading may turn out to work like it was supposed too.

European Carbon Trading Is Set For A Comeback

Just a few years ago, many thought the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme was finished. With a deflated price of carbon, and the lack of international schemes to partner with, many in Europe were questioning whether setting up the scheme had been a mistake.

 From article, (Europeans, in fact, had always been skeptical about whether market mechanisms were the best way to fight climate change. It was the Americans who pushed the idea in the late 1990s while the Kyoto Protocol was being negotiated.

The idea was that capitalism can solve the climate change problem much more efficiently than governments ever could. Companies are given a certain amount of free allowances to emit carbon, and anything beyond that they must purchase from the government or from other companies. There is therefor an incentive to emit less than your free allowances allow, because you can sell the remainder and make a profit. It was a very American invention.

In 2008, as the European Union was preparing to move from their ETS pilot phase to full trading, it was coordinating with people in the US Congress with the expectation that a similar scheme was on its way in Washington. In that year’s US presidential election, both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain were promising to start a carbon cap-and-trade system in America.

But it didn’t work out that way. In the intensely partisan environment that followed that election, Republicans in congress rejected Obama’s half-hearted attempt to create a US ETS in 2010. All plans for a US cap and trade system were dropped. The EU was left hanging on its own, stuck with a market mechanism that it was never enthusiastic about. And it was a system with significant problems.

An over-allocation of free allowances, combined with an economic slowdown, drove the price of carbon down. The price for purchasing an allowance to emit carbon fell to around seven euros per ton, far below the thirty euros per ton envisioned. Companies had little incentive to reduce their emissions, which was the point of the whole scheme. Emission credits were too cheap to buy.

The support for the system from European companies may not have been enough to save the system, were it not for the political support from carbon trading that has materialized around the world over the past two years - most importantly from Beijing.

This month China launched a national emissions trading system, uniting the handful of regional pilot schemes it has been conducting. It will initially only cover the power sector, but it will expand over time to eight sectors. The power sector is the source of almost half of China’s emissions. This means that the Chinese system will already be larger than the entire EU ETS.

China’s announcement followed another emissions trading declaration during the One Planet Summit in Paris this month. Leaders from several countries across the Americas — including Canada, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, as well as the US states of California and Washington - launched the Carbon Pricing in the Americas cooperative framework, with an eye to eventually linking their emissions trading schemes.

Suddenly, the EU’s pioneering system has found itself with potential partners to its East and West. There are now 42 national and 25 sub-national jurisdictions putting a price on carbon emissions across the world, and eight of them were launched since last year. For the first time, it looks like a ‘Global Coalition for Carbon Pricing’, which was called for at the 2015 Paris summit by former French President Francois Hollande, is a real possibility.)

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Dangerous High Intensity Density Lights are unsafe for oncoming drivers and pedestrians at night.

Ban Blinding Headlights

We've all experienced it - Blinding oncoming headlights! After moaning, groaning, buying night vision glasses, whining, cursing and complaining I finally decided to contact the National Highway Safety Administration via their website and via email at nhtsahotline@telesishq.com; or call1-888-327-4236.

Me, "As many of you night drivers can attest to, there has been an increase in glare from HID headlamps that make it very hard to see where you are going when you come in front of such a car. If you think you are looking at a car that has its brights on? these are HIDs. They are totally unsafe to try and stare past to see pedestrians. I encourage anybody who has been affected by these lights to read the following statements and to write an email to NHTSA to voice a complaint. The more voices heard will stop this dangerous vehicle light from causing accidents."

From article, (U.S. Department of Transportation’s Vehicle Safety Hotline Information Center.

High intensity density (HID) headlamps produce a light with a slightly bluish tint that appears to be whiter than the light from a conventional halogen headlamp. For the last 34 years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 (Lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment) regulated the minimum and maximum intensities for headlamps (1) to assure the driver of a vehicle sees as much of the roadway as possible and (2) to minimize glare for drivers of other vehicles using the road. Newer HID headlamps meet the intensity requirements currently specified in the FMVSS for lighting. However, NHTSA has received numerous complaints from concerned citizens that glare from these headlamps is unacceptable. In response to public concern of excessive glare from HID headlamps, NHTSA is sponsoring research at several universities to assess eye sensitivity to these new technology headlamps and the effect sensitivity has on vision. With the data from its research program, NHTSA will be in a better position to determine what changes to the lighting standard may be needed in order to ensure the appropriate balance between visibility and glare. Some of this recent effort may be viewed at www.nhtsa.dot.gov by searching for “glare.”

If you would like to provide a written statement lodging a complaint regarding HID headlamps, please e-mail NHTSA through the NHTSA Web site. (See website and email in first paragraph above).

If you need additional information on our services please feel free to contact us at 1-888-327-4236.

Thank you,

NHTSA.dot.gov Response Team

I encourage ALL to contact them!

There is also a petition to sign at: https://tinyurl.com/blinding-headlights

UPDATE: 

Robert Wight Letter to NHTSA United States Congress USDOT ”2015 saw a record increase in traffic related fatalities. So much so that the DOT has reached out to the public for help finding an answer. The signers of this petition have experienced first hand the dangerous glare of LED and HID headlights as well as distraction from LED daytime running lamps, tail-lights, brake-lights and turn-signals. We believe that these new technologies are to blame for much if not all of the recent increase in road fatalities. The bright glare can temporarily blind drivers. The multiple sources of overly bright light can distract drivers in a phenomenon known as ‘inattentional blindness’ or ‘the Las Vegas effect’ in which the brain becomes overloaded with signals and loses focus on the most important subjects on the road way such as pedestrians in the crosswalk. Finally, these lights cause pain to the eye and lead to driver fatigue and aggression.

“We ask that all blue-rich light be banned from automobiles, that existing technology be retrofitted at the cost of the automakers who have pioneered this dangerous trend. We ask that any new technology meet the AMA guidelines on blue-rich light and be drawn up under the guidance of independent ophthalmologists. Finally, we ask that the brightness of all daytime running lamps, tail-lights, brake-lights and turn signals be limited to that allowed for traffic lights.”)

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Life now has three ways now to feed itself: PhotoSynthesis (Sunlight to energy conversion) and Chemosynthesis (Chemical to Energy Conversion) and now Air(Synthesis) H2+CO+CO2 to energy conversion)

Antarctic microbe that can live on AIR could change how we hunt aliens

Microbe can scavenge hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from air Most organisms use energy from the sun or the earth to grow Researchers have found a new type of microbe that can survive on air alone - and say it could change the way we hunt for alien life.

 Me, "A new way for life to survive, beyond Photosynthesis and Chemosynthesis; Plain old air(synthesis)."

From article, (Researchers have found a new type of microbe that can survive on air alone - and say it could change the way we hunt for alien life.

The microbe can scavenge hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from the air to stay alive in extreme conditions.

It is the first time the behaviour has been seen, and most organisms use energy from the sun or the earth to grow.

We propose that atmospheric H2, CO2 and CO provide dependable sources of energy and carbon to support these communities, which suggests that atmospheric energy sources can provide an alternative basis for ecosystem function to solar or geological energy sources.'

"We found that the Antarctic microbes have evolved mechanisms to live on air instead, and they can get most of the energy and carbon they need by scavenging trace atmospheric gases, including hydrogen and carbon monoxide,' said study senior author and UNSW scientist Associate Professor Belinda Ferrari.

The find has implications for the search for life on other planets, suggesting extra-terrestrial microbes could also rely on trace atmospheric gases for survival.)

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Northeast states already have an agreement to reduce emissions, despite, the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Accord.

No Paris climate accord? No problem, say New England, Mid-Atlantic states

HAMPTON, N.H. - Since President Donald Trump vowed this summer to pull the United States out of an international climate accord, states looking to tackle carbon pollution have been forced to go it alone. More than a dozen formed an alliance committed to reducing emissions in line with the Paris accord, an international agreement that aims to halt the rise in global temperatures.

 Me, "Who says cap and trade is dead? Northeast states don't."

From article, (“The clear signal from the Trump administration that they were going to pull back on environmental policy throws it back at the states and says, ‘OK, it’s your game,'” said William Shobe, a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia. “A number of states are responding, saying, ‘OK, we’re up to that and we’re going to go ahead and implement policy.'”
Others, wanting to be more ambitious, are taking a look at the country’s only regional program that mandates emission reductions in the power sector. Known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, it covers nine states in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic and is poised to expand.

The program sets limits on power plant emissions and requires them to purchase allowances equal to the amount of those emissions. Money raised through those allowances at quarterly auctions goes back to the states.

Since it began in 2008, RGGI has led to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent in the states stretching from Maine to Maryland — 16 percent more than other states without emissions programs. The program has also sent $2.8 billion back to the states, money that has funded a range of environmental programs, including energy efficiency upgrades at a middle school and library in Massachusetts, expansion of solar power in New York, and green measures at a brewery in New Hampshire.

Virginia’s climate strategy, approved last month, would limit emissions from most power plants starting in 2020, followed by a 30 percent reduction over a decade. Eligible carbon emitters would have to participate in the regional greenhouse gas program.

“We do not have the luxury of waiting for Washington to wake up to this threat — we must act now,” Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

“We have a great success story to tell,” said Katie Scharf Dykes, who chairs the RGGI board and the Connecticut public utilities agency. “At this moment, this story is more relevant than ever before.”)


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Better Laser technology is Driving Hydrogen-Boron Fusion which directly creates electricity and no neutrons; thus no radioactivity.

I-Connect007 :: Article

Reading time ( words) A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers. Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossible: creating fusion energy based on hydrogen-boron reactions.

 From article, (A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers.

Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossible: creating fusion energy based on hydrogen-boron reactions. And an Australian physicist is in the lead, armed with a patented design and working with international collaborators on the remaining scientific challenges.

Rather than heat fuel to the temperature of the Sun using massive, high-strength magnets to control superhot plasmas inside a doughnut-shaped toroidal chamber (as in NIF and ITER), hydrogen-boron fusion is achieved using two powerful lasers in rapid bursts, which apply precise non-linear forces to compress the nuclei together.

boron3.jpgHydrogen-boron fusion produces no neutrons and, therefore, no radioactivity in its primary reaction. And unlike most other sources of power production – like coal, gas and nuclear, which rely on heating liquids like water to drive turbines – the energy generated by hydrogen-boron fusion converts directly into electricity.

An Australian spin-off company, HB11 Energy, holds the patents for Hora’s process. “If the next few years of research don’t uncover any major engineering hurdles, we could have a prototype reactor within a decade,” said Warren McKenzie, managing director of HB11.

“From an engineering perspective, our approach will be a much simpler project because the fuels and waste are safe, the reactor won’t need a heat exchanger and steam turbine generator, and the lasers we need can be bought off the shelf,” he added.)

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Move over AC. High Voltage Direct Current is the wave of the future, in transporting large amounts of electricity, long distances, cheaply.

Tesla vs. Tesla: The Juice In Your Car Will Increasingly Come Through HVDC, Edison's Preferred Current

So that's HVDC and why the electricity you use will increasingly come through HVDC transmission. It gets more power delivered over longer distances, it's increasingly economically viable, it works better underground, it works better underwater, it can dodge NIMBYs and it reduces the challenge of variable renewable generation.

 Me ,There has been a lot of news about HVDC electrical wires. Here is an article that explains why they are better than AC electrical wires. I have taken a few snippets out but it is an interesting article to read in full."

From article, (This is partially a Thomas Edison vs Nikola Tesla story. Edison was committed to direct current, but Tesla liked alternating current. Alternating current was easier to step up and down and DC couldn’t be transformed reliably, so it became the transmission and distribution standard for electricity. Edison did some ugly things to try to win the fight, but lost. Then he won economically anyway.

Until 1954, there was no real alternative. That’s the year that the problem of reliably changing the voltage of direct current up and down was cracked. ABB, a major player in this space, built a submerged 96 kilometer HVDC transmission line between the Swedish mainland and an island.

HVDC lines always deliver more of the power put into them regardless of the distance that the electricity travels. But the big reason this is important is that it’s cheaper at longer distances and at very short distances underwater and underground.

“Over a certain distance, the so called ‘break-even distance’ (approx. 600 – 800 km) [373 - 497 miles] , the HVDC alternative will always provide the lowest cost.

“The break-even distance is much smaller for subsea cables (typically about 50 km) [31 miles] than for an overhead line transmission.”

alternating current, means huge towers and lines marching across long distances. And that means a lot of people protesting because they hate change, they don’t want their views spoiled, they think that their land is somehow special and shouldn’t have a tower on it, or because they have an irrational fear of the electromagnetic spectrum.

HVDC holds the promise of being able to dodge this problem in a lot of places. Where it’s impossible to overcome local outrage at the thought of big metal towers, it is possible to bury the line for a few miles. It’s more expensive, but it’s a way to dodge a lot of the problems.

And the last thing you can do with HVDC that’s interesting is that you can string it on existing AC tower paths, effectively making your existing, accepted transmission route deliver a lot more electricity to highly populated areas. That typically avoids NIMBY complaints too.)

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Seven Years for a BRT system in Charleston Area? This seems way to long to build out a BRT system. It should take on average 1-2 years.

Accelerate bus rapid transit

The Charleston area has pursued with varying degrees of urgency true mass transit to complement the existing CARTA bus system for decades. None has materialized. Now, a planned bus rapid transit (BRT) system connecting Summerville to downtown Charleston stands to change that. But it could take another seven years or so, assuming everything goes exactly according to schedule.

 Me, "I totally agree. Public transit projects take too long and cost too much. The U.S. used to be the leader in Monorails, High speed trains, Subways, street cars, etc. Now all th news about new piublic transit projectys are in other countries where they are constructing projects within a 2 or 3 years period. Here it takes 10 if you are lucky. And, the costs for overseas projects are way lower than in the U.S. Its a shame."

From article, (There is simply no reason it should take a decade to plan, permit and build a bus line from Summerville to Charleston.

the worst part is that such an absurdly long project timeline is the rule rather than the exception not just in Charleston but around the country, because the United States has lost its ability to build infrastructure cheaply and efficiently.

Labor wage laws, a misguided “Buy American” provision and exorbitant administrative costs all drive up the cost of infrastructure projects in the United States far beyond those in peer nations around the world. A mile of new subway in New York costs about 600 percent more than it does in Paris, for example.

And well-meaning but excessive permitting reviews add years to project schedules, further driving up costs in the process. A federally mandated environmental assessment for the planned bus rapid transit system is expected to tack another two years onto an already alarmingly long planning and construction timeline, for example.

It’s all incredibly inefficient, and the federal government is almost entirely to blame.

“The timeline itself is dictated at the federal level,” explained Doug Frate, director of intermodal and freight programs at the state Department of Transportation. “Across the country, there’s frustration. It’s the nature of project review and approval.”

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, which is spearheading the BRT project, is apparently moving things along as quickly as possible. But a mess of federal bureaucracy is holding things up.

The state’s congressional delegation should take action. President Donald Trump has promised to make infrastructure a priority, and Congress is expected to work on legislation sometime next year. Any proposal should include sensible regulatory reforms and changes that streamline permitting processes for mass transit.)

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Sales Tax could help fund Cincinnati Metro and speed up service

Cincinnati Metro sales tax could mean faster service, longer hours for bus riders

CINCINNATI -- Transit officials will have more options to pitch Hamilton County voters than first thought when trying to sell a county-wide sales tax levy this November. The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority in June voted to explore the feasibility of proposing a new sales tax levy for Hamilton County.

 Me, "That's the thing. Where to find money for public transit even just to provide better service."

From article, (The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority in June voted to explore the feasibility of proposing a new sales tax levy for Hamilton County. The levy would seek to fill a $150 million budget gap facing Cincinnati Metro bus service over the next decade.

Cincinnati Metro has been under fire the last several years as ridership numbers have dropped, reliability has staggered and staff morale has dwindled. The diminishing ridership traces back to the board's decision in 2009 to reduce service without reducing the system's reach throughout the region. This resulted in longer waits between bus arrivals.

For Ferrell, Metro's biggest challenge boils down to three factors impacting ridership: wait time between buses, how long buses run each day, and time spent on the bus. The solution always boils down to money available.

Ferrell and his staff presented six sales tax rate options, including .6-percent, .7-percent, .8-percent and .9 percent options, in addition to the original half-cent and 1-cent options.

Each comes with varying levels of service enhancements, Ferrell said.)

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NASA wants to send a probe to Alpha Centauri in 2069. The downside is people alive today may never see the data produced because it will probably take 44 years to get there

NASA is Planning a Mission to Alpha Centauri in 2069

Exploring our current solar system is so passé. At least, it will be in about 50 years. NASA scientists, not content with simply putting humans on the surface of Mars or launching probes to blow up one of Jupiter's moons, are developing plans to send a probe all the way to Alpha Centauri, the closest solar system to our own.

 From article, (NASA's plan will have their probe visiting Alpha Centauri and checking out one of the system's planets, Proxima-b, for signs of life. The planet does hold some potential as a fertile world, and even if that particular rock doesn't hold life, it's hoped that other planets in the system might prove promising as well.

[NASA wants] to send a craft that will travel at 10% of the speed of light. This is dramatically greater than the one man-made object outside of the solar system thus far, good old Voyager 1, which is traveling at a mere 0.001% of the speed of light (although in fairness to Voyager 1, it was never actually designed for long-distance travel between star systems).

this probe probably won't reach Alpha Centauri in our lifetime - even traveling at 10% of the speed of light, the journey is going to take a while. The star system is 4.4 light years away, which means that at the cruising speed that NASA is hoping to achieve, the trip will take forty four years - as such, it won't be landing on Proxima-b for almost a century from now.)

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A Red Giant star's surface is photographed by an Earth Observatory.

Astronomers spy a red giant's bubbling surface | EarthSky.org

With just a few exceptions, throughout the ages, whether using the eye alone or telescopes, astronomers have seen stars as pinpoints. Stars are really great balls of roiling gases, shining powerfully into space via thermonuclear reactions taking place in their interiors.

 Me, "Just the first of many pictures we will see as telescopes get much more powerful and new instruments are developed to see further."

From article, (With just a few exceptions, throughout the ages, whether using the eye alone or telescopes, astronomers have seen stars as pinpoints. Stars are really great balls of roiling gases, shining powerfully into space via thermonuclear reactions taking place in their interiors. But all stars besides our sun are so very distant that, even with telescopes, we’ve had very few direct glimpses of their surface features. Now, for the first time, astronomers have directly observed granulation patterns, caused by massive convection currents rising from the star’s interior, on the surface of a star outside our solar system. It’s no coincidence the star is a huge one, the aging red giant Pi1 Gruis, whose diameter is about 700 times that of our sun. The astronomers have seen the giant convective cells that make up the surface of this huge star. These new results are being published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

These astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope to make this observation, along with an instrument called PIONIER (Precision Integrated-Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment).)

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Want Solar Power cheap? Buy with a Group.

Cheap Ways to Get Solar Panels for Your House

Solar panels are a good investment, but the start-up costs can be prohibitive. Here are some ways to get your solar panels for free. So you want to supplement-or perhaps even replace-your electrical grid power consumption with rooftop solar panels, but you don't want to pay thousands of dollars for a solar panel kit.

 From article, (Solar panels are a good investment, but the start-up costs can be prohibitive. Here are some ways to get your solar panels for free.

So you want to supplement—or perhaps even replace—your electrical grid power consumption with rooftop solar panels, but you don't want to pay thousands of dollars for a solar panel kit. There are, fortunately, a number of cheaper solar power options available—if you know where to look.

One popular solar purchasing model that has sprung up in recent years is the group purchase, which operates on the idea that everything is cheaper when bought in bulk. San Francisco-based startup One Block Off the Grid offers city-based collective purchasing for solar panels. The startup vets solar installers and negotiates for the lowest prices it can get based on how many people in a city join a particular solar purchasing campaign (each campaign only goes on for a limited amount of time). One Block Off the Grid also helps homeowners navigate city and state solar rebates, making the purchasing process significantly less headache-inducing.)

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DOTs turn to these alternatives When Rock Salt is Not Enough to Melt Snow and Ice on Roads

8 innovative, environmentally safe alternatives to rock salt for deicing roads

Government agencies across the United States are tasked every winter with maintaining roads during snow and ice events, and some highway maintenance experts have turned to unconventional sources instead of rock salt for their road clean-up needs. More municipalities are using organic brines, food-based treatments or high-tech plows and pavement to lower costs and limit environmental impacts.

 Me, "Some tricks that municipalities use to melt snow from roads."

From article, (Some roads in Wisconsin are treated with cheese brine from local dairy companies.

Salt baths used in making cheeses like mozzarella or provolone need to be discarded as a waste product, and it costs money to have it treated off site.

When government leaders in Polk County, Wisconsin, were looking for ways to reduce the use of rock salt, they teamed up with a neighboring dairy operation to take the salty liquid off their hands.

Today, Polk County uses up to 30,000 gallons of cheese brine each winter to spray on the roads in a pre-wetting technique. The dairy disposes it for free and the county acquires it for free -- a win-win, according to authorities.

De-sugared sugar beet molasses is described as an agricultural byproduct created when sugar beets are used to make commercial grade sugar, according to CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. A form of beet brine has become a useful tool for many highway departments.

"Beet Heet” is an organic based, liquid deicer that contains processed beet molasses. It’s been used by more than 200 agencies in eight states, according to a brochure from K-Tech Specialty Coatings, Inc.

When combined with the traditional deicing agent of salt, the beet product freezes at a lower temperature than just a pure salt brine, so it can be used in subzero temperatures.)

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Snow a Problem for Tesla Model 3? Surprisingly not.

Best look yet at Tesla Model 3 handling snowy conditions on standard tires

Tesla owners from around the world have managed to help the company brand its Model S and Model X vehicle as having world-class performance, both for its supercar-destroying acceleration as well as for its winter handling capabilities. The current versions of Tesla's flagship vehicles control power to all four wheels through dual independently operated electric motors, ...

 From article, (Tesla owners from around the world have managed to help the company brand its Model S and Model X vehicle as having world-class performance, both for its supercar-destroying acceleration as well as for its winter handling capabilities.

The current versions of Tesla’s flagship vehicles control power to all four wheels through dual independently operated electric motors, providing unparalleled traction in even the worst of winter conditions. Short of driving your Tesla through a snow-covered off-road track with deep, muddy ruts, Model S and Model X’s all-wheel drive system will largely handle snowy conditions with relative ease. But, how does Tesla’s newest Model 3 compact sedan with rear-wheel drive fare on winter roadways, let alone on factory tires? Surprisingly well.)

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Guidelines for autonomous cars, and trucks, due out this summer.

US will reveal revised autonomous car guidelines this summer

When the guidelines reached the Senate late last year, it reportedly didn't include trucks -- far from ideal, considering quite a few companies are already working on autonomous big rigs. Daimler tested a platoon of them in Oregon, while Toyota and Volkswagen joined a full-scale autonomous truck platooning trial in Singapore.

 From article, (We'll see the latest revised set of guidelines for autonomous vehicles this summer, US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has revealed at the annual Detroit auto show. According to Chao, her agency has been preparing for the arrival of autonomous vehicles, conjuring up ways on how to regulate them to keep everyone safe while promoting innovation at the same time. She said the revised guidelines cover not just autonomous cars, but also "barriers to the safe integration of autonomous technology for motor carriers, transit, trucks, infrastructure and other modes."

Automakers have been asking the government to make changes to vehicles' safety standards for a while now, so that they don't have to meet all 75 of them to be able to start deploying their fully autonomous products. Most of those standards don't apply to cars without steering wheels and pedals anyway. They've also been asking the administration for favorable laws that apply to all states, preventing individual states from blocking autonomous vehicles on their roads.

We might only have to wait a bit to start seeing level four or five autonomous cars on the road once the new rules are in place. GM recently detailed its plans to release a no-steering-wheel, no-pedal car in 2019, and its rivals will likely follow suit.)

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When you are a big producer of Wind Turbines and they grow bigger and bigger year after year. How are you suppose to transport them, from factory, to its intended location? Why not try an airship?

Turbine makers look for airship solutions

The two leading turbine manufacturers are working together to explore the potential benefit of wind power players using airships. Manufacturers transport several thousand blades every year, and with blades measuring up to 80 metres (which is likely to rise) and weighing up to 25 tonnes, transportation is costly both in terms of time and price.

From article, (The two leading turbine manufacturers are working together to explore the potential benefit of wind power players using airships.

Manufacturers transport several thousand blades every year, and with blades measuring up to 80 metres (which is likely to rise) and weighing up to 25 tonnes, transportation is costly both in terms of time and price.

This also poses challenges for drivers navigating winding roads.

 "Turbine components are growing bigger and bigger, and transport is reaching its limits in terms of reaching the most remote areas and areas with complex infrastructure systems," he explained.

"Airships may be a cost-effective alternative to what we have today. Transportation costs are different around the world, and airships may be less sensitive to geography."

Petersen explains Vestas has previously explored other alternatives to traditional road transportation for its turbines, and continues to look at other solutions.

In their invitation, Siemens Gamesa — which for now did not wish to comment on the partnership — and Vestas map out a short-term timeline of the dialogue between the wind and airship industries:

• Vestas and Siemens Gamesa would first brief interested companies about their logistical requirements and invite them to introduce their business.
• By March, the two OEMs would discuss with airship companies how the specific technical requirements — weight and payload, for example — can be met.
• The manufacturers would then internally carry out ‘high-level due diligence’ of the technical and commercial requirements and how they can be met.
• From July, they hope to begin a procurement 

Craig Neal, a post-graduate research student at the University of New South Wales in Australia, analysed the scale of potential cargo airships expected to enter production in the next four years, in industry magazine, the International Airport Review.

Aeroscraft’s ML868, the largest such craft mentioned, would be 235 metres long, 90 metres wide, and 56 metres high with a cargo bay volume of 30,590 cubic metres.

Aeroscraft spokesman John Kiele told Windpower Monthly the ML868 would have a payload of 250 tonnes. The airship successfully completed tethered testing in September 2013, but is not yet operational.

Neal writes that modern and future airships are "well-suited to the transportation of cargo with its reduced priority on speed and the airship’s ability to offer a more cost-effective service".

But current operational designs are currently only capable of lifting cargo of between two and three tonnes — a capacity Petersen describes as "really too little.

Barry Prentice from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Supply Chain Management is the president of ISO Polar Airships, a research institute that promotes the use of airships for sustainable transportation in northern latitudes.

He confirmed the cargo payloads of airships currently in operation — but suggested an upgrade enabling a payload of between 15 and 20 tonnes would be possible if a stable supply of customers would emerge and provide certainty to anxious potential investors.

"Demand has been a problem that has plagued the industry," he says. "The people who might buy, or at least invest in, airships are uncertain about demand, so the possibility of having customers is marvellous."

Prentice, meanwhile, is more optimistic of the rejuvenating role the wind industry could play: "Currently there is not the assurance that there is going to be a market, but I think the wind turbine industry could kick-start this. That is a great economic incentive."

He points out that in Canada, for example, roads in some areas are only accessible on 20 days of the year, posing challenges to maintaining food supply for the country’s more remote communities or establishing grid networks for them. Airships could be used instead of more traditional modes of transportation, he suggests, and could therefore meet other needs.

"You need demand," Prentice explains, "and I don’t think the wind turbine market will slow down."

He estimates building a demonstration airship might cost somewhere between C$25 and C$30 million ($20-$24 million), and possibly "four times as much" to reach the certification stage.

As for how much an airship company might charge per journey, Prentice said there were "too many variables" to say. But he added: "I think it would be fair to say it would be competitive with current systems."

Ernesto Soria, who is in charge of business development at Varialift, boasts the British airship company will complete a demonstration project capable of carrying a 50-tonne payload at altitudes of 30,000 feet at a ground speed of 300km/h — about a third the speed of a commercial passenger aircraft — in two years’ time.

Further, the designs for the $30 million airship could be scaled up to carry 3,000 tonnes, he says.

It would also minimise helium loss — a costly barrier to investors and the industry — by compressing and decompressing the gas to control pressure and prevent it escaping.)

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