Why we can't afford 99-cent gasoline

If you like the very low gasoline prices, even though we are not supposed to drive anywhere, get used to it. Oil's spot price may drop some more, yes (it plummeted today after Thursday's highest-rate increase ever in one day). But production is going to drop. Usually, that means gas prices rise. Not this time. And that is actually very bad news.

Cheap gas and nowhere to go. That's bad.

American oil frackers operate at a loss much below $60 per barrel (depending where they are located). The largest such operation, the Permian Basin, needs about $65 per barrel to make a profit. It straddles Texas and New Mexico.

The drop in oil price was triggered by Russia's refusal to cut production at the Saudis' request. So the Saudis jacked production up to drive the price down and punish the Russians. Well, good luck with that:

After oil prices collapsed in the worst drop in nearly three decades—courtesy of the renewed Saudi-Russia rivalry on the oil market – Russia’s Finance Ministry said on Monday that Moscow had enough resources to cover budget shortfalls amid oil prices at $25-30 a barrel for six to ten years.  

Not coincidentally, both the Saudis and the Russians would like to see America's frackers permanently closed and the United States to return to a major importer of oil, not net exporters as we are right now.

One way or another oil prices will rise. That seems a cloud but actually it is the silver lining. The cloud is cheap oil. Active-rig counts fell this week in the US by 160, year over year, to 722. On the other hand, US oil production remains near an all-time high at 13.1 million barrels per day. Go figure.

And next month may be even more dramatic.

Analysts say that the month of April could see the largest supply overhang in the history of the oil market.

“We now expect the y/y demand loss to peak in April at 10.4 million barrels per day (mb/d), and annual demand to fall by a record 3.39mb/d in 2020,” Standard Chartered wrote in a note.

In the short run, the oil market surplus could reach a peak of 13.7 mb/d in April, Standard Chartered said, with an average surplus of 12.9 mb/d for the second quarter. The inventory buildup could reach a gargantuan 2.1 billion barrels by the end of the year, “stretching the midstream of the industry to its limits,” the bank wrote. That figure represents an upward revision of 50 percent from the 1.4-billion-barrel inventory surplus the bank predicted…just a week ago.

Other analysts have even more dramatic scenarios. Eurasia Group says demand could fall by as much as 25 mb/d in the next few weeks and months. The historic glut means that the world could run out of storage space. “The combination of weakening demand and excess supply is hardly going to be accommodated by onshore storage,” Giovanni Serio, head of analysis at Vitol, told the FT. “At a certain point…we will need to fill all the boats.”

 So severe is the situation that for practically the first time in long memory, "Texas Weighs Curtailing Oil Production for First Time in Decades."

Texas regulators are considering curtailing oil production in America’s largest oil-producing state, something they haven’t done in decades, people familiar with the matter said.

Several oil executives have reached out to members of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the industry, requesting relief following an oil-price crash, the people said. U.S. benchmark oil closed around $25 a barrel Thursday.

Texas, which hasn’t limited production since the 1970s, was a model for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has sought to control world-wide oil prices in recent decades. OPEC and Russia were unable to reach a deal on reducing output in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which helped trigger the current collapse in prices.

It is unclear whether regulators will ultimately act to curtail production, but staffers are examining what would be required in such an event, the people said.

Oil prices have always been manipulated by producers. Even so, at the end of the day, demand has always been in control. And now the worldwide demand has dropped like an anvil and will continue to do so. The largest users of petro products - shipping and aviation - are harboring vessels and canceling flights. That will likely accelerate.

That said, oil production is going to plummet because, as stated above, we are running out of places to put it. That does not mean that gas prices will suddenly rise. The huge over-supply will see to that. But cheap gas prices are not going to offset the real pain dropping demand will cause: higher unemployment not only of oil-industry workers, but businesses whose revenues depend on customers using oil just to buy or get to their products or locations, such as hotels, tourist attractions, airline workers, dock workers, gas station owners and workers, the list is very long.

I am not an economist by a long shot, but unless we stop our "insane over-reaction," there is going to be a lot of pain to come that 99-cent gasoline will not pay for.

Update: How low can it go? "How Low Can Oil Go? One Forecast Sees $5 a Barrel." Which means that gasoline will be not much higher than free - and yet it will be also more difficult to find because gas stations will be closing at accelerated rates as oil prices plummet.

Friday Stuff Going Down

If you get it wrong predicting the end of the world, just predict it again. Doomsdays that didn’t happen: Think tank compiles decades’ worth of dire climate predictions. But this ain't all, because Environmental apocalypse predictions have failed for half a century and get a good dose of schadenfreude:

Al Gore predicted in 2009 that the North Pole would be completely ice free in five years. A U.S. Navy scientist in 2013 concluded that the Arctic’s summer sea ice cover would all be melted by 2016.

Bogus predictions confidently made are not always harmless. The Maritime Bulletin reported that on Sept. 3, 16 “climate change warriors” making a documentary film on the melting polar icecap had to be rescued by helicopter from their ship because it was stuck in the ice halfway between Norway and the North Pole.

And Time Mag has been on it from the beginning!

If you sin against the climate - and who doesn't? - you can now confess for all to see at NBC News. But who will there be to give you absolution?

Environmentalism is religion with sin but no salvation and now it wants confession with no pardon. In other words, it has become a cult.

Noted scientist Freeman Dyson wrote that, "Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion." I demur. Environmentalism has not replaced socialism at all. Instead, the old-line socialists, faced with decades of the failure of political socialism, have jumped on the environmentalist bandwagon to keep socialism alive.

I wrote that 11 years ago. Today, observe the Democrat candidates and discern how socialism and environmentalism have merged so that they are now the one and the same.

Because the Ruling Party there is really just a Destructor: Why California Keeps Making Homelessness Worse. In fact, half of all America's homeless people are in California.

No matter who wins next November, people will be killed in the civil unrest to follow.

Should Donald Trump prevail in his bid for a second term, the left will go insane, deploying every “insurance policy” weapon at their disposal to negate four more years of the Orange Man.  What Obama, Comey, and Brennan et al. did to Trump in his first term will seem mild in comparison to what the left is planning should he win.

If the Democrat wins,

Eventually, the president will overreach, signing an order for gun confiscation ... .

And for the right, that will be the last straw (plastic or paper). 

The left doesn’t understand that every gun owner is a single-issue-voter; millions will refuse to give up their guns.  And, many gun owners in this country will not go “meekly into the night,” there will be “rage” against what they will see as a usurpation of their constitutional rights. 

But as I explained in November 2016, we entered that month a low-intensity civil war in the true meaning of the term. After next November, it will not be low intensity any more.

Beto O'Rourke tore down the curtain concealing what Democrats really want ("First, let's shoot all the gun owners"), and now Senator Elizabeth Warren rips it to shreds: Sen. Warren Reveals Democratic Socialists' Hidden Agenda.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, made this quite clear on Wednesday when she introduced the "Accountable Capitalism Act." A more accurate name would have been the "First Step to Overthrowing Capitalism Act," because a long-term objective of the Democratic Socialists of America is crushing capitalism. They want an economy that isn't free and open but subject to their boot on its throat.

Under what we'll call Warren's Decree, "American corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue must obtain a federal charter from a newly formed Office of United States Corporations ... . The new federal charter obligates company directors to consider the interests of all corporate stakeholders — including employees, customers, shareholders, and the communities in which the company operates."

Read the whole thing. And when a Harvard economics professor characterizes the bill "as a means for destroying capitalism," then even a blind person can see what the Democrats really have in mind.

Are you retired or nearing retirement? If you vote for a Democrat next year, enjoy eating your Campbell's condensed soup for breakfast after Jan. 20, 2021. And for lunch. And for dinner. Because your retirement accounts will be drained by the socialists. Remember, Warren excitedly exclaims she is not going to tax mere income. She is going to tax every dollar you have, no matter how long you have had it and no matter what taxes you have already paid on it.

Her “Accountable Capitalism Act” would wipe out the single greatest legal protection retirees currently enjoy—the requirement that corporate executives and fund managers act as fiduciaries on investors’ behalf. ...
 
Under this new Warren charter, companies currently dedicated to their shareholders’ interest would be reordered to serve the interests of numerous new “stakeholders,” including “the workforce,” “the community,” “customers,” “the local and global environment” and “community and societal factors.”

Eliminating corporations’ duty to serve investors exclusively and forcing them to serve political interests would represent the greatest government taking in American history. Sen. Warren’s so-called accountable capitalism raids the return that wealth provides to its owners, the vast majority of whom are present or near retirees.

Oh, you say, she is only going to tax "the rich." But in their minds, if you have a job, you're rich.

You won't be able to afford a car, but Andrew Yang is going to take them all away anyway.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said the United States may have to eliminate private car ownership to combat climate change during MSNBC's climate forum at Georgetown University Thursday morning.

Instead, he wants a "constant roving fleet of electric cars" for everyone to use - as common property, like all proper socialists.

And finally, the Democrat debate:

Ban on cell phone use while driving - just a cash cow?

Last July 1, a law went into effect here in Tennessee that makes it illegal for anyone driving a car to hold a cellular phone in his or her hand. Reports the Knoxville News Sentinel,

The Tennessee law banning hand-held cell phones went into effect July 1. Drivers can eat, drink, converse, sing, look at roadside sights, talk to their kids in the back seat, and it’s all perfectly legal. Pick up a cell phone, however, and you’re a distracted-driving lawbreaker. Law enforcement and first responders, however, are exempt from the safety measure that the legislature and governor determined is required for Tennessee drivers.

The Sentinel is not a fan of the law, mainly because such bans, in effect in some other states for many years, have not once been shown to affect the accident rate at all. They cite a number of such studies.

But it does roll cash into county and state coffers.

At $50 per ticket, the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s cell phone ban enforcement netted, it would appear, a minimum of $21,200 for the 424 tickets the THP wrote in July, Knox News reported. Tickets increase up to $200 depending on the situation.

And yet . . .

Yes, the ban here in Tennessee is really just another way to tax people. OTOH, the worst accident scene I ever got called by the sheriff's dept. to go work was directly caused by a young woman driving on a two-lane state highway in Franklin, Tenn. It was before smart phones were invented. She was trying to punch a number into her cell phone and wandered into the other lane. An oncoming 18-wheeler swerved to miss her, bounced back onto the road and went head on into a Chevy pickup behind the woman's car.

The impact was so violent that it completely separated the truck's body from its frame, knocking the truck body 20 or more feet away from the frame assembly, which was solely occupied by the driver, married only three weeks, on his way home from work. He had been ripped into three separate pieces. The 18-wheeler's driver was injured.

The woman phone caller was wholly uninjured but when I spoke with her she was not very coherent. She was still holding the phone in her hand, up next to her head, though of course there was no call connected, and basically just walking in a small circle at the rear of her car.

A highway patrol trooper told me that in his 26 years in the THP, this was the most violent accident he had seen. After seeing the truck driver's remains, I could see why. Before the medical examiner's team went to retrieve the remains, I held a time of prayer and Holy Communion for them (I always took my Communion kit responding to sheriff's department calls).

So I cannot argue with Tennessee's law.

Electric cars pollute more than diesel

So says the University of Cologne as reported by The Brussels Times, Belgium: "Electric vehicles emit more CO2 than diesel ones, German study shows."

Electrics' killer? Life-cycle pollution, compared to diesel cars - what it takes industrially to obtain the raw materials and turn them into finished, operating vehicles, operate them during their life span, and dispose of them when the reach the end. And the core of the problem is batteries.

When CO2 emissions linked to the production of batteries and the German energy mix – in which coal still plays an important role – are taken into consideration, electric vehicles emit 11% to 28% more than their diesel counterparts, according to the study, presented on Wednesday at the Ifo Institute in Munich.

Mining and processing the lithium, cobalt and manganese used for batteries consume a great deal of energy. A Tesla Model 3 battery, for example, represents between 11 and 15 tonnes of CO2. Given a lifetime of 10 years and an annual travel distance of 15,000 kilometres, this translates into 73 to 98 grams of CO2 per kilometre, scientists Christoph Buchal, Hans-Dieter Karl and Hans-Werner Sinn noted in their study.

The CO2 given off to produce the electricity that powers such vehicles also needs to be factored in, they say.

When all these factors are considered, each Tesla emits 156 to 180 grams of CO2 per kilometre, which is more than a comparable diesel vehicle produced by the German company Mercedes, for example.

The German researchers, therefore, take issue with the fact that European officials view electric vehicles as zero-emission ones. They note further that the EU target of 59 grams of CO2 per km by 2030 corresponds to a “technically unrealistic” consumption of 2.2 litres of diesel or 2.6 litres of gas per 100 kms.

These new limits pressure German and other European car manufacturers into switching massively to electric vehicles whereas, the researchers feel, it would have been preferable to opt for methane engines, “whose emissions are one-third less than those of diesel motors.”

ZeroHedge explains:

A battery pack for a Tesla Model 3 pollutes the climate with 11 to 15 tonnes of CO2. Each battery pack has a lifespan of approximately ten years and total mileage of 94,000, would mean 73 to 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer (116 to 156 grams of CO2 per mile), Buchal said. Add to this the CO2 emissions of the electricity from powerplants that power such vehicles, and the actual Tesla emissions could be between 156 to 180 grams of CO2 per kilometer (249 and 289 grams of CO2 per mile).

An electric car such as a Tesla is not powered by electricity. It is powered by coal; the electricity is just a means of transfer.

The same problem, btw, exists in the nearly-mythical hydrogen-powered car. The hydrogen has to come from somewhere. Atoms of H It do not exist in nature unbound to other elements. And you always use more energy to obtain free hydrogen than you get from oxidizing it. Guess where that energy comes from?

I covered hydrogen's problems years ago in, "Buy a Honda, kill a polar bear."

Here is a good video that explains hydrogen's potential advantages but very present difficulties very well.


And then there's this:   GAO: "Biofuels Don't Lower Gas Price or Emissions" But biofuels give so much political mileage that this report will disappear without a sound.

Used cars: The market will soon be flooded

Forbes: 11 Best Bargains in Three-Year-Old Used Cars

Get 'em while you can, because before long the used-car market will be flooded (heh!) with coded-out cars from Hurricane Harvey areas - and the sellers will not tell you (and may not even know themselves).

How to win a brand new Corvette

Yesterday the frau and I went to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. I have never been a Corvette fan, actually, but after being there I can see why so many people are. Of course, that means they got to me just like they intended to!

It's a mere $10 to enter, parking is free, and active-duty military are admitted free. Vets get in for $8.

And for a mere sawbuck you can buy a raffle ticket for one of these:

Yes, I did. Side view:

I figured that since the car was red, it had to be a sign, right? Red is a twofer for me. One, it's the color of the US Field Artillery and two, the traditional color to represent the Holy Spirit. Two careers in one color!

How could I pass up a deal like this? The drawing is Sept. 2. The sticker price of this Vette is more than $73,000. The only problem with winning (the odds are remote) is that a total tax bill of more than $16,000 is due to claim the car.

You can view the upcoming raffles here. Some raffles are limited to 1,000 tickets, others to 1,500. But note that those raffles have vastly elevated ticket prices so buying all 1,000 tickets at $150 each will cost you twice as much as the sticker price of the car.

The main display room caved into a sinkhole in 2014, which swallowed eight 'Vettes. Six or seven were irreparable and five of them are on display in the same room.

This is the definition of totally destroyed:

However,

Of course, driving a Corvette will be a step down for me after driving an Indy car. I am in the middle car below, note that it is red also, of course.

Here is the security cam of the sinkhole opening up. It happened at night so no one was there, thankfully. It is still there and is very deep.



If you are really ambitious you can watch a 43-minute HD video of the recovery of the cars. Actually it is pretty interesting.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a $500,000 Rolls-Royce today

OK, who wouldn't want one of these? Rolls-Royce Unveils Its Grandest Car Yet, the Phantom VIII

R-R is owned, btw, by BMW.

Rolls-Royce has introduced the Phantom VIII.

This is Rolls-Royce’s largest and grandest car ever, born from the same line as those used by Elvis and Queen Elizabeth II and 50 Cent, plus myriad tycoons and oligarchs the world over. The revamped saloon will cost 375,000-euro ($440,000). 

Unveiled to the public in London today, just days after the U.K. moved to ban combustion vehicles by 2040, the 2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom is only the second modern version of the flagship state car that Rolls first introduced in 1925. BMW Group unveiled the first truly modern Phantom in 2003 and used it until 2011; Phantom VIII is the first time since then that the car has been updated completely. In the years before 2003, Rolls was producing the Phantom VI on an incredible run from 1968 to 1990.

...
 Enter Phantom VIII, with a glass case installed in the dashboard if the buyer so wishes. Anyone who buys one can install whatever he or she wants inside along the dash, behind the glass. It’s like a viewing gallery.

“Every one of our customers—each a connoisseur of luxury in the extreme—[was] asking for something more individual to them, not less,” said Müller-Ötvös. “We were adamant that that was what they should have.”

The gallery does come with one permanent installation: an analogue clock that will be “the loudest sound you can hear in a Rolls-Royce,” one presser bragged. Giles Taylor, the director of design for Rolls-Royce, told me the glass is treated so that it is not a safety hazard in the event of a crash. One would hope.

One can always dream.

(Classical reference in headline)

Humor break

Actual Exchanges Between Airline Pilots and Control Towers… These Are Priceless

"Were we shot down?"

Airline jokes.

The 21st century isn't turning out like I hoped

To make us all safer, robocars will sometimes have to kill. More accurately, they will have to electronically decide who will live and who won't. And the "won't" may turn out to be the guy or gal who bought it.

Maybe car makers will have to bring on philosophers to discuss Utilitarianism and help them find a way to program it in.

If they'd ever get off their duffs and give me the flying car I was promised 60 years ago, we'd not have to face this mess.

What I want for my birthday

I gotta get me one of these!



The design has been around since the 1970s. It is a kit; some owners build them themselves, others pay someone to do it who already knows how. I scanned message boards about the plane and saw that for some reason owners who built it themselves said that it took years to do so. Of course, that's part time and presumably they paid as they went. I assume that a full-time assembler who knew what he was doing would require mere weeks, maybe less.

The plane comes in both propeller and jet. More accurately, the owner decides what propulsion he wants and fits it, within limits of course. It seems that the two jet engines on this model (which I definitely would want) cost about $4,000 each, but what the heck. Commonly, the prop versions only have a few dozen horsepower combined, sometimes as few as 30. And they still cruise at 115 mph.

I learned to fly when I was only 21, but have not piloted an aircraft in many, many years. But jeepers, does this look great!

More here.

Update: One of this machine would be really nice, too.



More on this device:

What is it?
The Flyboard Air is an “independent propulsion unit,” Zapata says, with the ability to fly up to 10,000 feet high. A real-life hoverboard.

How does it work?
It is powered by four engines of 250 horsepower each. Similar to the original Flyboard, the flyer can control the direction of the board with their feet. However, A “logic system” is built into the Flyboard Air containing a series of algorithms to assist the flyer with stabilization. The flyer also wears a backpack full of kerosene, jet fuel, to give them ten minutes of flight time.

One thousand hp is only 200 less than the famous US Navy F4F Wildcat fighter of early World War 2, and 60 hp more than the Wildcat's chief enemy, the fabled Japanese Zero. With 1,000 hp aboard I can well believe the Flyboard will reach 10,000 feet, although with only 10 minutes or so of flight time I sure would not risk it! Also, its top speed of 100 kph (about 62 mph) is more than a vertical, unprotected pilot can withstand. The inventor, Franky Zapata, said he "hit the wall" of forward speed at 55 kph, or about 35 mph.

Fuel duration is of course set by throttle openings, so low altitude and slow speeds yield longer flights than gaining altitude and going fast, just like any other aircraft. Presently, though, the Flyboard Air is not on the market. Zapata says it takes at least 120 hours to learn to fly, which is a lot more than a private pilot's license! It is receiving some attention from the Defense Dept., though. There is also said to be a sit-down version in development.

My wife does not support me getting one.

Timing is everything

If you are going to pass out and fall seriously ill on an airline flight, do it like this guy did: "Plane Passenger Falls Ill on Flight Full of Doctors"

Is there a doctor in the house? It was a plane, but a woman's cries for help Monday were answered all the same — by around 20 medical professionals on board, officials said.

The Southwest Airlines passenger's husband, retired Air Force Col. Tom McCay, a retired Air Force colonel, fell ill on an Atlanta-to-Houston flight and was stabilized by five of the doctors who stood up to help.

"I was seats behind the couple but the wife started panicking and calling out for help. It became obvious that it was an emergency and I rushed to jump right in, squeezing through the tight seats to get to the patient," Dr. Jeffrey Aycock, an oral surgeon at University of Texas Medical Branch, told NBC News.

Aycock said the patient became semiconscious, sweaty and cold 30 minutes upon descent into Houston. He had to lay him down across three seats that acted as a bed to open the patient's airway and ensure his brain was getting oxygen.

"He had a strong but very, very low pulse rate which we were worried about. We knew, however, that he was going to be OK from his stable blood pressure counts," Aycock added.

Around 20 doctors — all returning from an annual conference — stood up to help, but five concentrated on treating the stricken passenger with the others standing aside.
It took the doctors approximately eight to 10 minutes to fully stabilize the patient, and McCay said someone given him an aspirin.

Ft Lauderdale attack not an amateur event

Shots fired, five dead at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

A gunman opened fire inside a baggage claim area of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday afternoon, killing five people and injuring eight more before police arrested him, the Broward Sheriff’s Office reported.

About an hour after the shooting, a second incident occurred at a different terminal of the airport, causing panic and sending dozens of passengers fleeing across the tarmac as police in armored gear responded with drawn weapons. Police and passengers at the terminal took cover behind parked cars.

BSO said in a Twitter post that one subject was in custody, but police did not identify the individual. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said on MSNBC that the shooter is named Esteban Santiago and that the man was carrying a military identification.

"First reports are always wrong." As I write, the cable news channels are covering this almost exclusively, live. The airport is being evacuated and reports are that there is at least one other gunman at large and apparently still active.

Mark Lea, who said he was a witness to the shootings, told MSNBC that the shooter was a man, wearing a Star Wars T-shirt, and that he walked into the baggage claim area of Terminal 2 and opened fire with a single handgun.

Lea said the man said nothing as we he went through three magazines before giving up and sprawling spread-eagle on the flood as a police officer took him into custody.

“He had no intention of escaping,” Lea told MSNBC.

But who is the other shooter, and in fact is there really another shooter? As is always the case in events like this, which are so sadly no longer rare, what we think we know now will turn out to be incorrect in whole or part.

But from reports, this was not an amateur hour at the airport. Mark Lea's account is does not describe a suspect who acted tentatively or uncertainly. His actions are those of a planned attack, indeed, a practically rehearsed one.

If there is a second gunman, which has not been confirmed, then what are the odds that two men, quite independent of each other, would decide to shot up the same airport at the same time? Zip, nada, nil.

But this is very bad, no matter how it turns out.

Update: Santiago is reported to have received a general discharge from the Alaska Army National Guard. A general discharge is a lesser one than an honorable discharge but is considered to be "under honorable conditions," as the Fort Hood Sentinel explains:

[A] “General, Under Honorable Conditions” Discharge (commonly referred to as a General Discharge) is for service members whose service was satisfactory, but involved situations where the Soldier’s conduct and/or performance of duty were not so meritorious to warrant an Honorable Discharge. Recipients of General Discharges usually have engaged in minor misconduct or have received nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, UCMJ. While the “under honorable conditions” terminology is slightly confusing, there is a clear disadvantage to receiving a General Discharge in contrast to an Honorable Discharge. While recipients of a General Discharge will receive entitlement to benefits such as VA medical and dental services, VA home loans and burial in national cemeteries, they will not receive educational benefits under either the Montgomery or Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Santiago's brother is reported to have told media that Santiago was grappling with "mental issues," but the brother said he did not know what they were.

Santiago was reported to have arrived at the airport on an Air Canada flight, with a firearm and ammunition in his checked baggage (which is legal to do). Presumably, after receiving is baggage he went somewhere, locked and loaded, and started shooting. However, Air Canada has stated that no passenger named Esteban Santiago is recorded on any Air Canada flight, nor was any firearm and ammunition declared and checked on its flights.

A statement from a Florida official that the shooter had traveled to Florida on a Canadian flight sent officials in Ottawa scrambling, but Global Affairs Canada said the shooter had not been a passenger on any Canadian flight, and the plane on which the gunman arrived did not originate in Canada. ...

Air Canada and WestJet, which service Fort Lauderdale, said they had no record of any passenger with the name of the suspect or of any checked guns on any of their Friday’s flights to the U.S. city.

Link.

Are Teslas Christine-mobiles?

Christine is the name of a Stephen King novel that tells the story of a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury that kills people all by itself.

There is nothing supernatural about Tesla automobiles, but one has to wonder whether the company is turning out Christine-mobiles because of software faults that may pop up.

Two days ago I waited at a stop sign to turn after an oncoming car passed by. I happened to notice that it was a Tesla as I pulled out behind it. The state highway's speed limit was 50 so the Tesla pulled away smartly as I accelerated.

Before long the road curved to the right but the Tesla did not. It crossed the double-yellow centerline with both front and the left rear wheels before the driver apparently intervened and brought the car back into its lane. Luckily there was no car coming the other way so no harm was done.

Tesla features an unfortunately-named electronic package called Autopilot that it promotes as 100-percent capable of driving its cars wholly without human intervention. And in the company's website video it does, most impressively:



I have no idea whether the driver of the Tesla in front of me this week had Autopilot engaged; he may have simply been inattentive. But as you can imagine, lawyers have been all over perceived defects in Autopilot's operation.

Here is the latest: "Tesla owner files lawsuit in California claiming sudden acceleration."

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc was sued on Friday by a Model X owner who said his electric SUV suddenly accelerated while being parked, causing it to crash through the garage into the owner's living room, injuring the driver and a passenger.

The Model X owner, Ji Chang Son, said that one night in September, he slowly pulled into his driveway as his garage door opened when the car suddenly sped forward.

"The vehicle spontaneously began to accelerate at full power, jerking forward and crashing through the interior wall of the garage, destroying several wooden support beams in the wall and a steel sewer pipe, among other things, and coming to rest in Plaintiffs' living room," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, seeks class action status. It cites seven other complaints registered in a database compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) dealing with sudden acceleration without warning.

That said, self-driving cars are coming whether we want them or not. Every major manufacturer is working on them. And whatever erratic commands Autopilot may or may not send, the system never nods off, never rubbernecks at cops stopping someone for speeding, never leaves task. As this video shows - listen for the warning beeps before the wreck occurs.



The Tesla's radar and computer computed that the following car would hit the leading one and started braking the Tesla before it happened. Could an alert driver have done the same thing? Probably, but probably not likely.

But I predicted the new legal field way back in 2005:

If there will be self-driving cars then there will be self-crashing cars. Automakers will rethink making such cars when their legal departments start to figure out where tort law will go on this technology. And the lawyers will love it of a whole new field of case law is opened up.

Indeed, they already do.

Los Angeles to Sydney in three hours?

Or maybe London to New York in two hours.



As the Professor would say, "Faster, please!" (Heh!)

Prepare for impact

Well, this would make you sit up and take notice:



SAN ANTONIO

A few people suffered minor injuries Sunday when an airplane made an emergency landing at San Antonio International Airport after reporting landing gear issues.

The SkyWest flight left Houston and was headed for Monterrey, Mexico, when the pilots noticed landing gear issues and declared an in-flight emergency, according to multiple reports. The plane turned around and landed in San Antonio about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, causing the nose gear to collapse, KHOU reported.

The emergency exit slides were deployed, and 55 people got off the plane with a few minor injuries, KSAT reported.

They won't forget that day.

Think I'll do this for my third career

Would be nice!



And a daytime view:

Cincinnati's American claim to fame

Is this:

This is a segment of the largest abandoned subway in the United States. It is in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a history going back a century.

A fascinating story with lots of eerie photos - click the link above.

How trickle down socialism ruined American air travel

Flying is miserable, and Democrats helped make it that way

Summary: When American Airlines and US Airways decided to merge the Obama administration fought it - until the airlines hired the right Democrats to lobby for their behalf.

Three years ago, the Obama administration unleashed its might on behalf of beleaguered American air travelers, filing suit to block a mega-merger between American Airlines and US Airways.

The Justice Department laid out a case that went well beyond one merger.

“Increasing consolidation among large airlines has hurt passengers,” the lawsuit said. “The major airlines have copied each other in raising fares, imposing new fees on travelers, reducing or eliminating service on a number of city pairs, and downgrading amenities.”

The Obama administration itself had helped create that reality by approving two previous mergers in the industry, which had seen nine major players shrink to five in a decade.

In the lawsuit, the government was effectively admitting it had been wrong. It was now making a stand.

Then a mere three months later, the government stunned observers by backing down.
It announced a settlement that allowed American and US Airways to form the world’s largest airline in exchange for modest concessions that fell far short of addressing the concerns outlined in the lawsuit.

The Justice Department’s abrupt reversal came after the airlines tapped former Obama administration officials and other well-connected Democrats to launch an intense lobbying campaign, the full extent of which has never been reported.

Funny thing: when the right people's palms get crossed with lucre, the Left just looooves the 1 percent. Remember that Leftism is a big shell game designed to make Leftists wealthy.

Luxury air travel, 1930s German style

The age of the German zeppelins was brief, only a few years of the 1930s, but they still live on in pop culture and memory, such as a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade of 1989.



The set designers evidently did their research. Here is what luxury air travel was like 80 years ago.

An example - the Hindenburg's dining room:

Zeppelins were quite dissimilar to modern airships such as the Goodyear Blimp. For one, zeppelins were much larger. In fact, nothing flying since has even come close:




Second, the blimp is elevated with helium, which is inert, while zeppelins were elevated with hydrogen, which is not.

Third, zeppelins had a rigid internal structure to which the gas bags were attached, meaning that its design type was a dirigible, not a blimp:

Technically, a dirigible is any type of lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered through the air under its own power, but commonly the word is used to distinguish zeppelin-type airships from blimps, which can also be steered, or balloons, which cannot.

But in a blimp, the blimp is the gas bag. Here the blimp part of the Goodyear Blimp uninflated:

 Inside this outer skin are individual gas bags, though I recall only two, that hold the helium. You can see why the word "blimp" is assumed to be an abbreviation of "balloon, limp," which supposedly was the way military specifications referred to the airship type.

Of course, the most famous zeppelin was Hindenburg, which burned and crashed on May 6, 1937, while attempting to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Well, that's hydrogen for you. The cause of the conflagration was never definitively decided. Investigators settled on four possibilities: static spark, lightning, engine failure, and (weakly) sabotage. But neither contemporary nor present-day investigators have been able to solve the mystery.

Thirty-five of the 97 souls on board died in the crash. Most of the survivors were badly burned. The crash was extensively documented by news photographers and movie crews because zeppelins were the still the only decent alternative to ships to cross the Atlantic and did so much faster. A radio reporter named Herbert Morrison was there to record the Hindenburg's arrival for broadcast the next day on of station WLS in Chicago. It has become one of the most iconic recordings of all time ("Oh, the humanity!").

Later, Morrison's recording was overlaid atop newsreel footage of the crash, timed so that the video showed the flames just as Morrison's voice announced it. Transcript:

It's practically standing still now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's... the rain had (uh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from... 

It's burst into flames! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast. And all the folks agree that this is terrible; this is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... [unintelligible] its flames... Crashing, oh! Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's in flames now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity! And all the passengers screaming around here. I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed.

The most famous newsreel is in black and white, but there was also at least one color camera there, too, and it's footage got the Morrison recording, too:



The iconic reel is here. Very clear British Pathé footage, without the Morrison overlay, is here.

The crash marked the end of the zeppelin age. It would have ended soon anyway, with World War 2 only two years away. But ordinary airplanes were just starting to achieve the range, speed, comfort and reliability to cross the Atlantic, too, and would soon do so much faster than zeppelins.

The United States Navy used rigid-frame airships also, though filled with helium, not hydrogen. They were intended to be flying aircraft carriers,  F9C Sparrowhawk fighter planes that could be launched and recovered while the airship was in flight.

Only two were built, USS Akron and USS Macon, entering service earlier than any zeppelin and only slightly smaller. Their service life was short-lived, however. Akron was destroyed while flying in a thunderstorm in April 1933, killing 73 of 76 aboard. It remains the deadliest airship crash in history. Macon was forced to ditch into the sea in a storm in 1935, but 70 of 72 aboard were rescued. Afterward, the Navy abandoned using dirigibles.

Modern blimps are very safe but not crash proof. In 2011, a Goodyear blimp crashed in flames at Reichelsheim airfield, near Friedberg in central Germany.

The blimp caught fire close enough to the ground for the three passengers aboard to jump to safety, but then the ship zoomed to 150 feet above the ground, then plummeted to the earth. The pilot, still aboard, was killed.

And sometimes airships just plain crash.

Still if I had the chance to fly on one I would in the snap of a finger.

Update: Thanks to correspondent David Foster of chicagoboyz.net and photoncourier.blogspot.com, who emailed to let me know that there is still a true zeppelin, rigid-frame airship flying in (where else), Germany. It's not nearly as large as the 1930s models, but still impressive, offering rides for tourists, operating out of Friedrichshafen.