Seen in Print

[up148]

Wow, what a collection of stuff...something for everyone.

[webenda]

January 5, 2020
The genetic sequence for the atypical pneumonia virus, Wuhan-Hu-1, is submitted to the Department of Zoonoses, in Beijing, China by Yong-Zhen Zhang of Fudan University, Shanghai. The complete genetic sequence of the virus remains unavailable to the rest of the world as the virus spreads.

Reference: https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html

Department of Zoonoses

Illustration by Joe Mathieu

[up148]

[webenda]

Ever since I moved to Kentucky I have seen trucks and truck/trailers with way too many axles.


How do these trucks go around corners? The tires must scrub (slide sideways) horribly.

Then I got to see the trucks pulling these trailers make a left turn in front of me. None of the wheels steered around the corner, yet no scrubbing.
The three axles in front of the trailer lifted off the pavement as the truck began the turn and returned to the pavement upon completion of the turn.

Seen in Print: LIFT AXLES
Throughout the country, lift axles are routinely used on single-unit trucks, such as dump trucks and
cement mixers, as well as on semitrailers operating where GVWs over 80,000 pounds are permitted.
Lift axles are used on over 70 percent of all 4-axle, single-unit trucks. In several States, 5-, 6-, and
7-axle single-unit trucks with two to four lift axles are used. Federal TS&W laws, as well as most
State laws, do not address the use of lift axles.

Reference: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/tswstu ... apter3.pdf

[Mitch]

The blue Pete can still scale 80K and is legal on bridge laws. The front four axles with the smaller tires are called tag axles. The 4 axle spread trailer has at least the front three as air axles, and possibly the rear is also on air bags but can't be lifted. It makes it easier to cheat the state scales. Say it's a 5 axle rig; tandem power unit, and 11 foot spread axle trailer, both trailer axles air suspended, but an additional air bag on the front trailer axle, making it a tag axle. If you've weighed up at the shipping point or at a truck stop and found you are too heavy on the drivers, as you approach the scale, you blow air pressure into the front axle tag bag of the trailer, making the trailer take more weight from the drive axles. As soon as the drivers clear the scale, you blow the air pressure back down to normal. The trailer is now legal as the first axle comes across the scale, and the drivers got heavier. You're allowed more weight on a spread axle trailer than on a tandem. Used to be 34K on a tandem and IFIR, 38 or 40K on a spread. If you don't have air operated axles and you're heavy on the drivers, you can slide the 5th wheel forward to take weight off the drivers. You're allowed 12K on the steering axle. The trick is you hope the scale operator doesn't hear the excess air pressure blowin' off. If he does, you'll hear "Pull around back, driver" and you're in trouble. You get up into Michigan and along with 18 wheelers, you'll see 44 wheelers. Tandem truck with 3 axle 26' pup trailer, another set of tandems with a 5th wheel, and another 3 axle pup. They are allowed 126K GVW. You just pay a hell of a lot more for the licenses.

[webenda]

The blue Pete ...

Thank you Mitch, for additional information.

[webenda]

How Trains Derail, Explained by an NTSB Investigator.

Many derailments are caused by human error, like misaligned switches.
--NTSB

Reference: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-ex ... 81A22CF0F0

[webenda]

[webenda]

[webenda]

[up148]

I have everything that I wanted as a teenager, only 60 years later. I don't have to go to school or work. I get an allowance every month. I have my own pad. I don't have a curfew. I have a driver's license and my own car. The people I hang around with are not
scared of getting pregnant and I don't have acne. Life is great. I changed my car horn to gunshot sounds. People get out of the way much faster now.

Gone are the days when girls used to cook like their mothers. Now they drink like their fathers.

I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row. I decided to stop calling the bathroom "John" and renamed it the "Jim". I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.

Old age is coming at a really bad time.

When I was a child I thought "nap time" was a punishment. Now it feels like a small vacation.

The biggest lie I tell myself is... " I don't have to write that down, I'll remember it".

I don't have gray hair... I have "wisdom highlights"! I'm just very wise.

If God wanted me to touch my toes, He would've put them on my knees.

Last year I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet.

Why do I have to press one for English when you're just going to transfer me to someone I can't understand anyway?

Of course, I talk to myself. Sometimes I need expert advice.

At my age "Getting Lucky" means walking into a room and remembering what I came In there for.

I have more friends I should send this to, but right now I can't remember their na

[up148]

[up148]

A PLANE IS ON ITS WAY TO TORONTO , WHEN A BLONDE IN ECONOMY CLASS GETS UP AND MOVES TO THE FIRST CLASS SECTION AND SITS DOWN.
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT WATCHES HER DO THIS AND ASKS TO SEE HER TICKET.
SHE THEN TELLS THE BLONDE THAT SHE PAID FOR ECONOMY CLASS AND THAT SHE WILL HAVE TO SIT IN THE BACK.
THE BLONDE REPLIES, "I'M BLONDE, I'M BEAUTIFUL, I'M GOING TO TORONTO AND I'M STAYING RIGHT HERE."
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT GOES INTO THE COCKPIT AND TELLS THE PILOT AND THE CO-PILOT THAT THERE IS A BLONDE BIMBO SITTING IN FIRST CLASS, THAT BELONGS IN ECONOMY AND WON'T MOVE BACK TO HER SEAT.
THE CO-PILOT GOES BACK TO THE BLONDE TO EXPLAIN THAT BECAUSE SHE ONLY PAID FOR ECONOMY SHE WILL HAVE TO LEAVE AND RETURN TO HER SEAT.
THE BLONDE REPLIES, "I'M BLONDE, I'M BEAUTIFUL, I'M GOING TO TORONTO AND I'M STAYING RIGHT HERE."
THE CO-PILOT TELLS THE PILOT THAT HE SHOULD HAVE THE POLICE WAITING WHEN THEY LAND TO ARREST THIS BLONDE WOMAN WHO WON'T LISTEN TO REASON.
THE PILOT SAYS, "YOU SAY SHE IS A BLONDE? I'LL
HANDLE THIS, I'M MARRIED TO A BLONDE. I SPEAK BLONDE."
HE GOES BACK TO THE BLONDE AND WHISPERS IN HER EAR, AND SHE SAYS, "OH, I'M SORRY." AND GETS UP AND GOES BACK TO HER SEAT IN ECONOMY.
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT AND CO-PILOT ARE AMAZED AND ASKED HIM WHAT HE SAID TO MAKE HER MOVE WITHOUT ANY FUSS.
"I TOLD HER, 'FIRST CLASS ISN'T GOING TO TORONTO."

[up148]

[webenda]

Jet Fighters of the Future

The joke about Aerial charging of electric-powered jets is not too far-fetched.

MIT Unveils a Megawatt Motor for Electric Aircraft The electrification of regional jets is now within striking distance
EDD -19 JUN 20235

MIT aeroengineers are creating a 1-megawatt electrical motor that could help electrify commercial airliners and lead to new types of hybrid or fully electric aircraft, like the conceptual planes shown here.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-airplane#toggle-gdpr