Great, just great. Last week's New Yorker had a very disturbing article about coronal mass ejections and the office that watches these things and our vulnerabilities to them. And, right on time, here it is!
What silly, preposterous theory is NOT somewhere out there?
And anyway, THAT was obviously the work of the Illuminati. Now, the Francis Scott Key bridge incident was patiently caused by CME combined with measles vaccines.
There’s just something viscerally upsetting about unfairness, often well beyond its material impacts on a person. Trump seeing his bond reduced from a half-billion to $175 million is not the worst thing in a material sense. It’s not like the people who died from covid or in the Capitol riot because of his sociopathic behavior. It’s not like the trauma E. Jean Carroll experienced after Trump sexually assaulted her. It’s not like his threat to democracy.
But boy, I’m betting I’m far from the only person who wanted to throw a TV through a glass window when I heard the news. Especially since, as far as I can tell, the only reason for it is rich criminals just get special treatment. We should all be loudly angry about this, if only to help shame the appeals court into not coddling him further.
That said, don’t give up all hope of justice. Yesterday, we also got the news that Trump’s criminal trial for fraud is back on in New York, and starting April 15. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised if he delays it again — the impunity well hasn’t run dry yet — but it’s okay to let ourselves feel for a moment like a jury might actually have a shot at him. And when Trump and his cronies actually face a court, they don’t tend to do well.
Still, we cannot lose sight of what I wrote when that trial is first delayed: We cannot expect people in power to act with the modicum of responsibility necessary to hold Trump accountable. If we want justice, the first step is for us little guys to keep Trump out of the White House.
But it’s a good reminder that one reason people are cynical about politics is travesties like this. The justice system needs drastic reforms to undo all this unfairness, or trust in institutions will continue to falter.
Some (awful) people still think PAB has some power, at least in NY.
GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson recently dined with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, POLITICO reported — at the same time she is trying to get a state license to build a casino at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
And the Trump-Adelson connection is likely to be fodder in the intense competition underway among gaming bidders to snag one of three downstate casino licenses.
Adelson, the majority owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, is expected to spend a chunk of her roughly $32 billion fortune to help elect the man who bankrupted the Trump Taj Mahal.
Adelson’s political giving is quite a gamble in proudly Democratic New York, where the 11 bidders fighting for three gambling licenses need support from elected officials — chief among them Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“New York is all about being anti-Trump,” said a Democratic operative familiar with the casino bidding process. So will competitors use it against Las Vegas Sands’ bid? “Of course,” the person said. “They all have consultants where that’ll be their first play.”
On one poker hand, things are moving on the casino front. A New York City Council subcommittee is expected to hold a hearing this morning on the zoning text amendment that would grease the skids for city bids.
On the other poker hand, state regulators don’t expect to be issuing any licenses until late 2025 , the state Gaming Commission said Monday. The slow process has endlessly frustrated stakeholders, POLITICO reported .
Still, it just gives more time for the bidders — and the consultants benefiting financially from the drawn-out process — to win over the political appointees and appointers making the choice.
Adelson is a leading Republican donor, and the Sands casino project is backed by Republican County Executive and certified Hochul-Hater Bruce Blakeman.
But the bid also has support from Democratic donor Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty, as well as former Gov. David Paterson and George Santos’ opponent Robert Zimmerman. Stu Loeser, a spokesperson for the casino bid, declined to comment.
Sands is hardly the only project working the political angles.
Billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen used to give to Republicans, including $1 million for Trump’s 2016 inauguration. Lately, the Mets owner has been taking Democratic electeds to games and showering Hochul and the state Democratic Party with donations. He also hired half the lobbyists in the city to boost his casino bid for Citi Field.
Another casino contender has distanced itself from a politically problematic founder.
A Democratic city pol said that when Wynn Resorts and Related Cos. pitched their plan for gambling at Hudson Yards, they made sure to mention that Steve Wynn — the Republican megadonor who resigned after sexual misconduct accusations — had left the company.
“It was the first thing out of their mouths,” the pol said.
Hey! All powerfull Creator/god wtf ever we wonks been tryna appease, make well / ok w our picadu picachus for seems like forever now… I think it’s ok we let go & let gaaaaaa, powers far beyond our control… obvi try not Be douchebag any given moment/ interaction… but… also too… let go &let gaaaaaa/ Creator of Universes & djt ascending power… it’s His shitshow, I can’t kill myself/ strain against infinite powers that can’t Be evolved most basic viABLE anymas… hey creator, u know where all ur creations stan @ this point, Ur call if we live or let go 🎶🌀💯
I have to admit I have a fear of edges, like when I'm personally close to any edge any higher than, say, 6 feet, or when there's any breakable object on the edge of something. I can't breathe until the object is moved. I know - I'm weird.
I was never really worried on heights at all until I did roofing on a steep northern pitch.
That cured me of being about to say I was not worried by heights.
Even being up in a skyscraper never really bothered me much though that time my brother near tossed me off the world trade center (not really, he was rough housing and I stumbled into the fence, no one was nearly pitched off, it just felt that way) was troubling
When I first came to live here I got a job with a company that had offices in the actual by-God Empire State Building. 74th floor.
Something you may not know about the ESB--the windows in many of the offices slide up and have NO FUCKING SCREENS. The ones in ours didn't even have safety bars. Most unnerving view out a window I have ever had in my goddam life.
I won't horrify you with the lecture all new employees got about what updrafts would do to you if you fell.
Yah. And ya know what really sucks? As I become more aged and decrepit, shit gives me the heebie-jeebies that never did as a yoot, to wit: Early career in The Theatre (1st 3yrs undergrad in conservatory before summary ejectment cuz Doesn't Work And Play Well With Others), which involved scampering about catwalks 5 stories above stage/house floor. After initial trepidation, no problem.
Fast forward 15 years and buddy and I decide to grab drinks at the top of the Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta--which is accessed via external glass elevator. 'Bout 3 stories up, lizard brain caused me to terror-death-grip the back railing while higher-order functions were, 'WTF is your problem?!?--fucking chickenshit...".
This curious phenomenon more recently manifested elsewhere, producing compromised performance and accompanying humiliation.
According to some rough calculations I just made, a medium-sized, 100,000 ton displacement container ship moving at 6 to 8 knots, will have kinetic energy equivalent to about 1 to 1.5 metric tons of TNT.
Some large fraction of that energy would be transferred at a point of impact with an inelastic bridge support.
Probably the equivalent of several missiles hitting simultaneously.
Some old engineers muttering this morning, "It wasn't meant to survive that."
So, I'm not seeing it referenced anywhere, but it looks to me that Bobak Ferdowsi, the JPL "Mohawk Guy" from the mission to land the Curiosity rover on Mars has a cameo in the final episode of season 1 of "3 Body Problem" on Netflix. Maybe it's just a look-alike actor to borrow some of his vibe.
OK, maybe a snack before turning in, and then I can follow up on this later in the day.
Ya know, I was just thinking the same last night. It seems like its been a minute, but they were here in the comments probably 2 days ago, maybe 3 at the most. The full, non-summary, report on Nex is slated for release tomorrow, so there's work coming up.
Yeah, this one has got me thrown totally off the rails. I mean upended. I just said to my org partner yesterday that I'm not sure how much of a role I'm going to have going forward, cuz the opposition is so goddam awful. Thank <insert deity here> for this place and the people in it - obviously I'm here more often than doing work these days.
Do these people just wake up with all the hate, or does it develop over the course of the day? Wow. I would say it's sad for them, except this attitude kills people.
That guy doesn't even know who to hate first. It started out as trans hate, then quickly became standard incel misogyny. I'm still kinda shocked that he's extolling the "unique strength" of men to do mass shootings.
It starts young, too, when you're stupid and ignorant. My students use Scratch, a coding website, and when you make your account, you're asked your gender, and you're given a choice to basically say "other" and put in your identification (it's run by MIT). A couple of my kids (3rd and 4th graders) thought it would be funny to put in things like "turtle" and "alien" and boy, did I give it to them. And I was especially thinking of Nex and how there are probably a few Nexes in my classes and how hilarious it was to make things that much worse for them.
I probably will too, since I was thinking about it already myself. I had run a search on my inbox last night to be sure I hadn't missed an email, and hopped over to PJ also...we're on the same wavelength here.
Something someone noted below and which I think bears repeating: if you watch the video of the bridge collapse, the Singaporean vessel hits it dead on. This was either a deliberate act, a complete technical failure, or a moment of monumental stupidity. Whichever, things are not going to go well for that captain from here on out.
In the past 30 or so years I developed a big phobia of driving over bridges, and driving over that bridge in Baltimore was the first time it really manifested itself--I knew I couldn't stop, but I was so scared and going so slow that I put my hazard lights on and crept over it in tears.
I'm always more afraid that I'll accidently drive off a bridge than I am of a collapse, but that looks like it could change.
We have to cross a bridge to do almost anything, and I'm pretty comfortable with them in general.
HOWEVER, the Chesapeake bridge at Annapolis, at 7 p.m. on the Friday before Labor Day, in the alternate-direction lane right next to oncoming traffic, made even Mr. V's sphincter do a little extra work :)
I have to drive in the left lane on it cause the height makes husband barf, even though the view is mostly water at that point
Mostly people behave but every once in a while you got someone in some godawful hurry who rides your ass for DARING to do the speed limit, on an impossibly tall bridge, and then switches in and out of lanes
I drive over Boston every day, coming and going, over the Zakim and the Expressway. I fear both - collapse and driving off - and white-knuckle it all the way. If there was any convenient way to avoid it, I would.
Tunnels are my irrational driving phobia. I sing "O, Canada" whenever I have to drive through one, though hubby and I try to arrange for him to drive the tunnels and me to drive the bridges.
I've met more people with tunnel phobias--they don't bother me, but there are a number of them near where I grew up and NO bridges really, so I think that might be it.
Edit: I will confess that I ease up on the accelerator however, but that is just to stop me from rearending the ass in front of me who did yank his breaks
Warning: do NOT investigate earthquake damage to bridges or freeway overpasses (or rather the cars caught in the underpasses). I still try not to stop under freeways since the Northridge earthquake (of 1994).
The way I used to go to work included driving under the eastern edge of the 112-year-old Rockville Bridge, the longest stone masonry railroad arch bridge ever built. One of my cheap thrills on my commute was to time my driving underneath at the same time the lead locomotive of a freight train was passing overhead.
Dallas & Houston have some that feel like you’re up in a skyscraper. I have to focus purely on the road and not ‘the view’ when we have to transverse them.
Erin Hawley is best known as the wife of Senator Josh Hawley, but now the spotlight is on her in a Supreme Court case.
It was 2014, and Erin Morrow Hawley was fighting against the egg-laying hens of Missouri. Specifically, a new requirement that chicken cages have enough space for the hens to stand up, turn around and stretch out.
A law professor from five generations of ranchers and the wife of Senator Josh Hawley, Ms. Hawley joined a challenge to California, which required more spacious enclosures for hens laying eggs to be sold there. The state where she taught, Missouri, sold a third of its eggs to California, and Ms. Hawley believed that a blue state had no right to impose its values and rules on Missouri’s farmers.
She joined in a lawsuit against California’s attorney general at the time, Kamala Harris. A judge found that the challengers could show no direct injury and dismissed the case. Ms. Hawley continued teaching, and Ms. Harris became Joe Biden’s vice president.
Ten years later, Ms. Hawley, 44, is now at the center of one of the country’s most heated cultural battles about bodily autonomy, gender roles and abortion. On Tuesday, for the first time since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court will once again consider nationwide limits on abortion access. And Ms. Hawley is slated to be the woman standing before the justices, arguing to sharply curtail access to the abortion pill.
Great, just great. Last week's New Yorker had a very disturbing article about coronal mass ejections and the office that watches these things and our vulnerabilities to them. And, right on time, here it is!
Are people linking the CME with the bridge collapse?
What silly, preposterous theory is NOT somewhere out there?
And anyway, THAT was obviously the work of the Illuminati. Now, the Francis Scott Key bridge incident was patiently caused by CME combined with measles vaccines.
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗵, 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘀
There’s just something viscerally upsetting about unfairness, often well beyond its material impacts on a person. Trump seeing his bond reduced from a half-billion to $175 million is not the worst thing in a material sense. It’s not like the people who died from covid or in the Capitol riot because of his sociopathic behavior. It’s not like the trauma E. Jean Carroll experienced after Trump sexually assaulted her. It’s not like his threat to democracy.
But boy, I’m betting I’m far from the only person who wanted to throw a TV through a glass window when I heard the news. Especially since, as far as I can tell, the only reason for it is rich criminals just get special treatment. We should all be loudly angry about this, if only to help shame the appeals court into not coddling him further.
That said, don’t give up all hope of justice. Yesterday, we also got the news that Trump’s criminal trial for fraud is back on in New York, and starting April 15. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised if he delays it again — the impunity well hasn’t run dry yet — but it’s okay to let ourselves feel for a moment like a jury might actually have a shot at him. And when Trump and his cronies actually face a court, they don’t tend to do well.
Still, we cannot lose sight of what I wrote when that trial is first delayed: We cannot expect people in power to act with the modicum of responsibility necessary to hold Trump accountable. If we want justice, the first step is for us little guys to keep Trump out of the White House.
But it’s a good reminder that one reason people are cynical about politics is travesties like this. The justice system needs drastic reforms to undo all this unfairness, or trust in institutions will continue to falter.
-- Amanda Marcotte, SALON
https://read.letterhead.email/standing-room-only/36567
$175M is not like the trauma E Jean Carroll suffered but its probably something like the judgement in her next suit because he just can't shut up.
Some (awful) people still think PAB has some power, at least in NY.
GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson recently dined with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, POLITICO reported — at the same time she is trying to get a state license to build a casino at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
And the Trump-Adelson connection is likely to be fodder in the intense competition underway among gaming bidders to snag one of three downstate casino licenses.
Adelson, the majority owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, is expected to spend a chunk of her roughly $32 billion fortune to help elect the man who bankrupted the Trump Taj Mahal.
Adelson’s political giving is quite a gamble in proudly Democratic New York, where the 11 bidders fighting for three gambling licenses need support from elected officials — chief among them Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“New York is all about being anti-Trump,” said a Democratic operative familiar with the casino bidding process. So will competitors use it against Las Vegas Sands’ bid? “Of course,” the person said. “They all have consultants where that’ll be their first play.”
On one poker hand, things are moving on the casino front. A New York City Council subcommittee is expected to hold a hearing this morning on the zoning text amendment that would grease the skids for city bids.
On the other poker hand, state regulators don’t expect to be issuing any licenses until late 2025 , the state Gaming Commission said Monday. The slow process has endlessly frustrated stakeholders, POLITICO reported .
Still, it just gives more time for the bidders — and the consultants benefiting financially from the drawn-out process — to win over the political appointees and appointers making the choice.
Adelson is a leading Republican donor, and the Sands casino project is backed by Republican County Executive and certified Hochul-Hater Bruce Blakeman.
But the bid also has support from Democratic donor Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty, as well as former Gov. David Paterson and George Santos’ opponent Robert Zimmerman. Stu Loeser, a spokesperson for the casino bid, declined to comment.
Sands is hardly the only project working the political angles.
Billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen used to give to Republicans, including $1 million for Trump’s 2016 inauguration. Lately, the Mets owner has been taking Democratic electeds to games and showering Hochul and the state Democratic Party with donations. He also hired half the lobbyists in the city to boost his casino bid for Citi Field.
Another casino contender has distanced itself from a politically problematic founder.
A Democratic city pol said that when Wynn Resorts and Related Cos. pitched their plan for gambling at Hudson Yards, they made sure to mention that Steve Wynn — the Republican megadonor who resigned after sexual misconduct accusations — had left the company.
“It was the first thing out of their mouths,” the pol said.
Hey! All powerfull Creator/god wtf ever we wonks been tryna appease, make well / ok w our picadu picachus for seems like forever now… I think it’s ok we let go & let gaaaaaa, powers far beyond our control… obvi try not Be douchebag any given moment/ interaction… but… also too… let go &let gaaaaaa/ Creator of Universes & djt ascending power… it’s His shitshow, I can’t kill myself/ strain against infinite powers that can’t Be evolved most basic viABLE anymas… hey creator, u know where all ur creations stan @ this point, Ur call if we live or let go 🎶🌀💯
Up early on vacation? Sure. Let's do my morning routine then, so I can fuckabout properly.
Get everything done before the *tourists* wake up.
Someone call HQ. We have a problem.
7.30 in the morning, and I already feel like I slipped 3 tabs of blotter acid into my coffee.
OK, problem solved.
So that Troll-B-Gone really works.
They just wait for you to turn your back
snerk
I have to admit I have a fear of edges, like when I'm personally close to any edge any higher than, say, 6 feet, or when there's any breakable object on the edge of something. I can't breathe until the object is moved. I know - I'm weird.
I was never really worried on heights at all until I did roofing on a steep northern pitch.
That cured me of being about to say I was not worried by heights.
Even being up in a skyscraper never really bothered me much though that time my brother near tossed me off the world trade center (not really, he was rough housing and I stumbled into the fence, no one was nearly pitched off, it just felt that way) was troubling
I just panicked for you, even though you're fine.
I am sorry, I meant to alleviate with lol rather than add to the anxiety XD
failure at 7 am.
I had some coffee and I am now calm :D
I can't watch video of people standing close to or looking over cliff edges, etc. I feel fear and want to vomit.
Yes, and there is currently a horrible fashion in advertising for vehicles (trucks and suvs usually) stopping just short of a high cliff edge.
Right? Even in movies, when I know the person is safe, I get that feeling right behind my knees.
I regret to inform you that you are not a cat.
That's not what the Zoom call shows..
Your honor, I am NOT A CAT!
Ooh, harsh news in the morning.
WHY??? I want to be a cat.
I guess--maybe that's why they enjoy knocking stuff off edges? Maybe it brings relief?
If we were cats, we would be practically fall-proof, and curious about things that aren't?
The way they automatically twist over to land on their feet will never not be fascinating to me. Like the slo-mo videos of the twist.
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at.
I have that as well. Standing next to an office window in Manhattan 35 floors up ...
And yet, flying a small plane doesn't bother me.
When I first came to live here I got a job with a company that had offices in the actual by-God Empire State Building. 74th floor.
Something you may not know about the ESB--the windows in many of the offices slide up and have NO FUCKING SCREENS. The ones in ours didn't even have safety bars. Most unnerving view out a window I have ever had in my goddam life.
I won't horrify you with the lecture all new employees got about what updrafts would do to you if you fell.
<432 Park Ave. has entered the chat>
::fainted::
You would have loved the balcony of my flat in Brisbane, 50 stories up overlooking the river. Kinda windy up there also, too!
Monster!
Maybe because you're contained in a plane?
IDK, but it makes me feel a bit better that I'm not alone.
You are definitely not alone. I don't like edges one bit.
I think it's because I'm controlling the plane? Something like that ...
Humans are weird.
Yes, that might be it. And we are.
Yah. And ya know what really sucks? As I become more aged and decrepit, shit gives me the heebie-jeebies that never did as a yoot, to wit: Early career in The Theatre (1st 3yrs undergrad in conservatory before summary ejectment cuz Doesn't Work And Play Well With Others), which involved scampering about catwalks 5 stories above stage/house floor. After initial trepidation, no problem.
Fast forward 15 years and buddy and I decide to grab drinks at the top of the Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta--which is accessed via external glass elevator. 'Bout 3 stories up, lizard brain caused me to terror-death-grip the back railing while higher-order functions were, 'WTF is your problem?!?--fucking chickenshit...".
This curious phenomenon more recently manifested elsewhere, producing compromised performance and accompanying humiliation.
Oh man, I would not like the external glass elevator. Congratulations in getting to the top!
I'm also impressed with walking on catwalks. I could not have done that, even in my 20s.
According to some rough calculations I just made, a medium-sized, 100,000 ton displacement container ship moving at 6 to 8 knots, will have kinetic energy equivalent to about 1 to 1.5 metric tons of TNT.
Some large fraction of that energy would be transferred at a point of impact with an inelastic bridge support.
Probably the equivalent of several missiles hitting simultaneously.
Some old engineers muttering this morning, "It wasn't meant to survive that."
Cargo ships are much bigger these days.
At least two rescued so far, one severely injured.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/mar/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-ship-collision-francis-scott-key-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-6602a45e8f081a847cec09d1#block-6602a45e8f081a847cec09d1
So, I'm not seeing it referenced anywhere, but it looks to me that Bobak Ferdowsi, the JPL "Mohawk Guy" from the mission to land the Curiosity rover on Mars has a cameo in the final episode of season 1 of "3 Body Problem" on Netflix. Maybe it's just a look-alike actor to borrow some of his vibe.
OK, maybe a snack before turning in, and then I can follow up on this later in the day.
Better him than the guy who showed up in the nudie lady shirt.
I have not seen CD in some days. Going to email them this morning.
Ya know, I was just thinking the same last night. It seems like its been a minute, but they were here in the comments probably 2 days ago, maybe 3 at the most. The full, non-summary, report on Nex is slated for release tomorrow, so there's work coming up.
That beautiful child. Justice for Nex!
Yeah, this one has got me thrown totally off the rails. I mean upended. I just said to my org partner yesterday that I'm not sure how much of a role I'm going to have going forward, cuz the opposition is so goddam awful. Thank <insert deity here> for this place and the people in it - obviously I'm here more often than doing work these days.
You have a strong stomach? You want some fire for the fight for justice on this? Get a load of THIS asshole. Really, read it. https://twitter.com/CraigNi40397745/status/1772387598922600759
Do these people just wake up with all the hate, or does it develop over the course of the day? Wow. I would say it's sad for them, except this attitude kills people.
That guy doesn't even know who to hate first. It started out as trans hate, then quickly became standard incel misogyny. I'm still kinda shocked that he's extolling the "unique strength" of men to do mass shootings.
It starts young, too, when you're stupid and ignorant. My students use Scratch, a coding website, and when you make your account, you're asked your gender, and you're given a choice to basically say "other" and put in your identification (it's run by MIT). A couple of my kids (3rd and 4th graders) thought it would be funny to put in things like "turtle" and "alien" and boy, did I give it to them. And I was especially thinking of Nex and how there are probably a few Nexes in my classes and how hilarious it was to make things that much worse for them.
Ah, that likely explains it. However, an excuse to Reach out is still an excuse to reach out, so I probably still will.
I probably will too, since I was thinking about it already myself. I had run a search on my inbox last night to be sure I hadn't missed an email, and hopped over to PJ also...we're on the same wavelength here.
I haven't seen Momo in forever. I hope they got that job and that they are doing ok
Yeah, I have been a bit worried about him, but I think he's just on a break.
Morning, Wonks.
Not used to being up this early. Didn't sleep as much as I wanted, but I shouldn't be a zombie today.
Just read what happened in Maryland. Fucking Hell. I hope search and rescue can pull as many people out of the water as possible before it's too late.
Off to Jury Duty. See y'all later. Take care today, Wonks. <3
Be sure to wear a Princess Leia costume ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynS3sQXjkbo
Have a good day, Random, thanks for doing your civic duty
Just a quick plug for my ᶜaᵗ & ᶜaˡₑⁿdᵃᵣ ₗᵃdʸ blog.
https://catandcalendarlady.substack.com/
Something someone noted below and which I think bears repeating: if you watch the video of the bridge collapse, the Singaporean vessel hits it dead on. This was either a deliberate act, a complete technical failure, or a moment of monumental stupidity. Whichever, things are not going to go well for that captain from here on out.
The captain wouldn't be at the helm. By law, a local pilot would be at the helm until the ship exited the Chesapeake.
That was something I didn't know--thanks Uncle Matt.
I shouldn't know. The result of clerking for a judge who spent 30 years as a maritime casualty lawyer.
There's plenty of quality control/ technical failures going on today.
As well as terrorism attempts. If this was that , it was probably bound to happen.
Either way someone is sleeping at the wheel...
Tiller?
I cannot imagine being the person in charge of that boat. I am vicariously mortified.
I am eagerly waiting to hear how he defends himself and his crew.
I will be curious to watch this play out going forward. The investigation is going to have me hooked.
In the past 30 or so years I developed a big phobia of driving over bridges, and driving over that bridge in Baltimore was the first time it really manifested itself--I knew I couldn't stop, but I was so scared and going so slow that I put my hazard lights on and crept over it in tears.
I'm always more afraid that I'll accidently drive off a bridge than I am of a collapse, but that looks like it could change.
We have to cross a bridge to do almost anything, and I'm pretty comfortable with them in general.
HOWEVER, the Chesapeake bridge at Annapolis, at 7 p.m. on the Friday before Labor Day, in the alternate-direction lane right next to oncoming traffic, made even Mr. V's sphincter do a little extra work :)
I drive that bridge whenever we go up north, cause fuck 95 is why.
Is a big one. I never take the alternate direction lane XD
it was a surprise or we'd have been on the right where I could chew my nails instead of gripping my seat :)
I have to drive in the left lane on it cause the height makes husband barf, even though the view is mostly water at that point
Mostly people behave but every once in a while you got someone in some godawful hurry who rides your ass for DARING to do the speed limit, on an impossibly tall bridge, and then switches in and out of lanes
I drive over Boston every day, coming and going, over the Zakim and the Expressway. I fear both - collapse and driving off - and white-knuckle it all the way. If there was any convenient way to avoid it, I would.
I hate the Zakim. It's so janky and looks all broken down.
It's lower, though, or so it feels, than the Expressway. You know that part that goes by the cement factory? Yikes. I focus on the car in front of me.
Just keep your eyes on the road.
And your hands upon the wheel!
You would like the GW from Jersey to Manhattan, it noticeably bounces up and down when you're stopped on it in traffic!
The Sunshine Skyway in Tampa is pretty exciting. Coincidentally another bridge that got whacked by a ship. Only 1,200 feet collapsed
And what a drop that one is! You'd have time to open a parachute.
The fear of bridges is why I believe flying cars should never be a thing
That and flying drivers.
If you're freaked out by the foreverness and no escape of bridges, the causeway going through the keys!
But those are low and it's pretty and I can swim :)
It's a really strange experience!
yeah but that one is lower to water level, innit? Like it is not skyscraper tall off the ground?
Yup, but the claustrophobia aspect of no escape/lack of control is at work.
Different phobias; it is possible to have both though.
I wonder how I'd fare on it. It is basically an open air tunnel by how you describe it
It's supposed to do that. Remember kids, steel is flexible!
Just so long as it doesn't hit it's natural period!
Resonant frequencies are tight!
OMG
It's OK, it's a short bridge compared to The Verrazano or The Tappan Z.
Tunnels are my irrational driving phobia. I sing "O, Canada" whenever I have to drive through one, though hubby and I try to arrange for him to drive the tunnels and me to drive the bridges.
This may change now
I've met more people with tunnel phobias--they don't bother me, but there are a number of them near where I grew up and NO bridges really, so I think that might be it.
And they all… every bloody one of them… hit their brakes when entering one, screwing up traffic.
OBJECTION! I never hit my break going into a tunnel. Probably because I am already doing the speed limit by that point
Edit: I will confess that I ease up on the accelerator however, but that is just to stop me from rearending the ass in front of me who did yank his breaks
Tunnels worry me because there's no way out. For whatever reason, in my head, I seem to think bridges are more survivable.
Course, that is likely just a lie I tell myself for comfort
Warning: do NOT investigate earthquake damage to bridges or freeway overpasses (or rather the cars caught in the underpasses). I still try not to stop under freeways since the Northridge earthquake (of 1994).
Tunnels are the natural gathering places for praying mantises embiggened by atomic radiation.
Still better than being squished by your car. And I HATE praying mantises.
Also, feral ghouls and irradiated molerats.
That’s ants. Them!
"Man's atomic age is here, horrifying hordes appear!"
Oops, right, the prehistoric mantises were already giants.
I just look straight forward.
I have always been scared going under train bridges. There are a few "flyover" ramps that scare me!
The way I used to go to work included driving under the eastern edge of the 112-year-old Rockville Bridge, the longest stone masonry railroad arch bridge ever built. One of my cheap thrills on my commute was to time my driving underneath at the same time the lead locomotive of a freight train was passing overhead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockville_Bridge
Texas is the WORST about flyover ramps and I hate them.
Dallas & Houston have some that feel like you’re up in a skyscraper. I have to focus purely on the road and not ‘the view’ when we have to transverse them.
The ones in Austin terrify me!
There is one on 93 that has very low sides and if I need that exit, I will travel to the next exit and backtrack to avoid it.
Uh ... this doesn't sound very good.
𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲, 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻. 𝗔𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟳 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿
https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/francis-scott-key-bridge-in-baltimore-collapses-19368553.php
The video is genuinely terrifying to watch. They're saying multiple cars and a tractor trailer were on the bridge when it went.
CNN reports 20 people.
There was a construction crew :( on the bridge. You can see the flashing yellow lights falling into the water. Let's hope for survivors.
Uh, doubtful.
fuck. Was hoping it had been clear, but yeah, any branch of 95 is never empty :(
𝗘𝗿𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝘄𝗹𝗲𝘆: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗹
Erin Hawley is best known as the wife of Senator Josh Hawley, but now the spotlight is on her in a Supreme Court case.
It was 2014, and Erin Morrow Hawley was fighting against the egg-laying hens of Missouri. Specifically, a new requirement that chicken cages have enough space for the hens to stand up, turn around and stretch out.
A law professor from five generations of ranchers and the wife of Senator Josh Hawley, Ms. Hawley joined a challenge to California, which required more spacious enclosures for hens laying eggs to be sold there. The state where she taught, Missouri, sold a third of its eggs to California, and Ms. Hawley believed that a blue state had no right to impose its values and rules on Missouri’s farmers.
She joined in a lawsuit against California’s attorney general at the time, Kamala Harris. A judge found that the challengers could show no direct injury and dismissed the case. Ms. Hawley continued teaching, and Ms. Harris became Joe Biden’s vice president.
Ten years later, Ms. Hawley, 44, is now at the center of one of the country’s most heated cultural battles about bodily autonomy, gender roles and abortion. On Tuesday, for the first time since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court will once again consider nationwide limits on abortion access. And Ms. Hawley is slated to be the woman standing before the justices, arguing to sharply curtail access to the abortion pill.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/26/us/erin-hawley-abortion-pill-supreme-court.html
Erin, in your current marriage, I'd venture that birth control is not an issue.
She's a piece of shit in lipstick.
So California can't "force" its rules on Missouri, but this christofascist cow can force her PERSONAL rules on 160 million American women.
Fuck. Right. Off.
It's hard being a human shield mouth piece so you can pretend it is about religion and not about control of women
So this lady really thinks the chicken comes before the egg...
Jesus fuck, NYT.
Puff piece on a quisling first thing in the morning is rough