Love thy enemy - even Walmart?

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Tuesday March 04, 2014 · 9:15 AM PST

2014/03/04 · 09:15

I am not a fan of Walmart. Never have been and probably never will be given the ownership, business philosophy, employee management practices, and overall bullying attitude. I maintain my own personal boycott of the store and am willing to pay more at even a different chain than enter one of "those" places.

That said, they have done something I have a hard time complaining about. They built a green concept truck pushing the limits of technology for improving fuel efficiency and effectiveness.

Now, I have no doubt that it will be used for the embodiment of evil that Walmart exudes. But - if they do put this into use, they might just have contributed a bit of good to the world despite their intentions.

Fox News vs. Global Warming

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Saturday January 25, 2014 · 11:47 AM PST

2014/01/25 · 11:47

It is a cold weekend. Days with low temperature are the only time Fox talking heads will even mention Global Warming. So, I was contemplating the correlation between the number of media talking heads and the increase in global temperature over time.

It seems as likely as any other item on Fox News that the reality of Global Warming is denied by Fox talking heads not because they do not believe it, but rather because they do not want to be blamed for it and have the legal liability to reverse it.

Thoughts?

Modern Traffic Studies

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Tuesday January 14, 2014 · 12:10 PM PST

2014/01/14 · 12:10

When I was working as an environmental consultant, traffic studies relied on knowing how many cars passed by a particular location in each lane. For a better understanding, a breakdown of the types of vehicles during the various times of day would increase the accuracy of predictions. From this data alone, we could predict the effects of closures, additions, and detours.

In modern times, especially in places like the entrance to the George Washington Bridge, the data is easily accessible due to constant video monitoring. It is easily accessible without affecting traffic.

Patrick Thibodeau recently researched and wrote an article for "Computerworld" (A New Jersey 'traffic study') discussing these methods in compison to the "Traffic Study" done under Chris Christie's watch:

On busy roadways, though, engineers are likely to use camera video detection with software that can count vehicles. That's the least intrusive method, and the documents released last week suggest that such a video camera system in installed on the George Washington Bridge.

The ice supporting Chris Christie's presidential bid just got a bit thinner.

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