tingilinde

ev specific tires

Important note if you have an electric car.

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Yes, tires intended for conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles will fit your EV car's wheels, but using them in this way would be a bad idea. Tires meant for EVs are engineered to withstand the additional weight, dynamic loading, and tractive demands of an EV, among other things. Using non-EV tires will likely result in far more accelerated wear, heat-related issues, and the potential for wheelspin from a rest, which, even with traction control, could conceivably induce a loss of directional stability.

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the southwest airlines meltdown

A look by someone who follows the industry closely.

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When it suits them Southwest says, in effect, “we’re a small carrier serving small places, the rules shouldn’t really apply to us” (whether it’s safety or anything else) but the reality is that they’re a major airline. They should be considered as such, and treated accordingly.

However, Southwest is highly unusual. Their IT is almost entirely homegrown, with software they built themselves. It’s creaky and antiquated – you’ll observe this if you watch their schedules. They’re irregularly and manually loaded into the system. The majority of airlines use standardized reservations systems like Sabre, Amadeus, etc. which integrate well with other standardized tools. While Southwest has kinda sorta migrated to Amadeus, they only support limited integrations in specific circumstances.

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hype machine

Krugman on Tesla

 

good news for clean air

The EPA has issued emission standards for trucks and buses, 

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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the strongest-ever national clean air standards to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions from heavy-duty trucks beginning with model year 2027. The new standards, which is the first update to clean air standards for heavy duty trucks in more than 20 years, are more than 80% stronger than current standards.

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a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

european vs us rail

It turns out the European system is optimized for passengers and is a poor match for freight.

 

wright brothers day

On December 17, 1903 the  aircraft flew 120 ft in 12 seconds at 10:35 a.m. at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Orville Wright was at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with his hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright ran alongside to balance the machine, and just released his hold in the photo.  The first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air, powered flight.

another airship renewal

Every five years or so there's a piece describing how the time and/or tech is ripe for an airship renewal.  

Here's the latest.

 

 

fixing dangerous streets

A piece by Jeff Speck.

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On the twin blights of the traffic-overrun main street and the traffic-clogged suburban strip, he reminds us that there should be only two types of throughfares: streets and roads. Streets are for local wealth generation and welcome traffic only at slow speed, because high speeds destroy the value of place. Roads are for moving vehicles quickly, and should be kept free of businesses, because every curb cut impacts speed and also threatens safety. Our mistake over the years is that we have allowed streets to become half roads and roads to become half streets. On one, commerce has been sacrificed to speed. On the other, speed has been sacrificed to commerce. Chuck calls these places “stroads.”

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engineering on a massive scale

killer cars in america

The problem is known along with solutions, but there's no will.