Friday, September 25, 2026
Thursday, September 24, 2026
the origin of the words waiter and waitress, they were called waiter carriers.... but the source is a very long read... so, summed up, selling food to rail car passengers involved waiting, and carrying, due to racist bastards in Virginia.
They were called waiter carriers. Because
In 1879 the town council started charging these women a license tax to stand on the platform they had made famous.
Gordonsville Virginia would not hire black women at the hotel and would not hire them in the stores, then worked out how to take a cut of the only trade left to them.
They paid it and were back at the stove by four the next morning.
That is not resilience, that is somebody being charged rent on the one square foot of ground they were allowed to stand on.
She was not allowed inside the train car.
So she sold her food through the window.
That window was not a convenience and it was not a charming little detail. It was the only opening in a wall built to keep her out, and she turned it into a storefront.
Fifteen cents bought a chicken leg or a breast through it. A back or a wing went for a nickel or a dime.
This happened in Gordonsville, Virginia, a junction town where two railroads crossed.
The window opened when the first line reached the town in 1840, and it stayed open for about eighty years.
The women who worked it came from Brown Town, the Black community on the far side of the tracks.
By the town's own account the Exchange Hotel would not employ them, and neither would most of the businesses on Main Street.
Right beside the platform stood the hotel that would not have them.
They cooked in their own kitchens instead and sold in the twenty feet of open air in front of it.
proof that good people still exist
things like this make me really happy to have a place to share them with so many like minded people
license plate readers make up a lot or articles in the news now a days... and the federal govt, including senators and the DOJ
A bipartisan pair of senators are pressing the head of Department of Justice to provide guidance to state and local law enforcement agencies to prevent the misuse of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) as backlash against the technology grows across the country.
In a letter sent Monday, Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) urged Attorney General Todd Blanche, urging him to issue the guidance and disclose details about any DOJ use of ALPRs.
An investigation by The Washington Post found that more than 50 officers had been accused, charged with or convicted of misusing Flock or other license plate readers to spy on exes or romantic interests.
The lawmakers’ letter was sent just two days before the Senate’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hosts a hearing on Flock’s “nationwide AI surveillance network.”
The CEOs of major surveillance technology companies, including Flock Safety, did not attend a Senate hearing called by Sen. Josh Hawley to examine the proliferation of their products, which have come under scrutiny for potential breaches of privacy.
Flock's network of privately owned and operated cameras and its nationwide database have drawn bipartisan concern over the past several months. Beyond mass surveillance concerns, critics have pointed to incidents of false positives, cooperation with federal agents on immigration enforcement, and even tracking women seeking abortions across state lines.
Whitney also cited a California department that found that most of its stolen-vehicle and felony alerts over two years were due to misread plates. Later in the hearing, Whitney described what he called "side door" access to Flock's database, in which federal agents ask local officers to run searches that state law would not allow federal agencies to run directly.
Witnesses at the hearing warned against treating Flock as the only target. Jordan said Axon and Motorola are rolling out the same kinds of features Flock is being criticized for.
Abbott withdrew state funds for the cameras in August as The Texas Tribune prepared to publish an investigation exploring how a small state agency had directed at least $30 million to help cities, counties and law enforcement agencies pay for more than 3,200 Flock cameras across Texas.
That support from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority had been set to continue into 2027, with $10.9 million earmarked to help local agencies afford subscriptions for more than 2,600 Flock cameras, a Tribune review of approved grants found.
very interesting side effect of all the electric cars that Californians have bought, and installed home charging stations for - 140,000 of them, resulted in a power reserve that carried the state through the recent heat wave
It marks the largest residential “virtual power plant” dispatch event on record, supplying enough electricity to power every home in California’s Sacramento County at the same time.
The electricity dispatch happened during a severe heat wave on September 9. It was a late-summer extreme weather event
Millions of air conditioners operating simultaneously created massive demand spikes on the power grid, especially during the late-afternoon and early-evening hours.
Tesla Powerwalls provided 517 MW (via 110,000 devices), while other residential batteries provided 63 MW. Sunrun also dispatched over 30,000 customer batteries made by other manufacturers.
“Sunrun’s distributed home batteries are operating at a scale larger than many peaker power plants combined,” said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell.
State utility regulators requested the push through two crisis programs: the California Energy Commission’s Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program and the Public Utilities Commission’s Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP).
ntegrating home batteries eases wholesale price surges during extreme heat events and helps prevent rolling blackouts without the need for expensive new transmission lines. Plus, homeowners participating in these initiatives receive direct cash compensation for sharing their stored energy with the grid.
The following evening, on September 10, Southern California Edison called for a separate discharge that pushed another 140 megawatts onto the grid.
I think this makes it clear, that there is no longer enough power generation ability, as you'll probably agree, there is more demand than ever when you factor in more people using more Air Conditioning during more heat waves, and all the other electrical demands, like AI data centers.
it was only a couple years ago that I was reporting on the VERY narrow amount, under one megawatt, that California avoided a blackout, during a heat wave a couple years ago
Also in the news,
Hawaiian Electric installed the first Tesla batteries for Maui’s largest standalone storage system. The utility installed 6 Tesla Megapacks. The full project will have 54 units providing 160 MWh of energy storage strengthening Maui’s grid & supporting more renewable energy.
Brightline could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to address more than $1 billion in debt as early as this week
The prospect of bankruptcy has been considered significant since the company released financial statements earlier this year in which its auditor, Ernst & Young, said there was “substantial doubt” the company could “continue as a going concern” [see “Brightline finances create ‘susbstantial doubt’ …,” Trains.com, May 4, 2026]. The company has deferred bond payments several times since while seeking a way to address some $5.5 billion in long-term debt [see “Brightline defers bond payments …,” Trains.com, June 16, 2026.
Brightline West, the sister company’s effort to build a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, would not be part of the bankruptcy proceeding involving Brightline in Florida.
Brightline West, the sister company’s effort to build a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, would not be part of the bankruptcy proceeding involving Brightline in Florida.
new about oil and gas
Commercial crude stockpiles grew by 3 million barrels to 426.4 million barrels, pushing U.S. inventories 2% above the five-year average.
Gasoline stocks dropped 1.7 million barrels and distillates fell 400,000 barrels, leaving distillate supplies 12% below historic norms.
Crude futures rallied despite the build, with Brent climbing to $101.40 and WTI reaching $92.00 amid strong overall demand at 20.6 million bpd.
Gasoline stocks dropped 1.7 million barrels and distillates fell 400,000 barrels, leaving distillate supplies 12% below historic norms.
Crude futures rallied despite the build, with Brent climbing to $101.40 and WTI reaching $92.00 amid strong overall demand at 20.6 million bpd.
Smaller supply due to closed refineries means higher demand and higher fuel prices... leading into winter heating oil purchases raising profits
Click that link if you want to keep up with oil supply information
Caltrans needed a way to build an off ramp embankment on a foundation of 30 feet of mud from San Francisco Bay, a weak layer of soil that cannot support heavy structures, without it settling or sinking unevenly over time - so they innovated - and used 6,627 tons of shredded tires (thank you George!)
Dr. DingXin Cheng of California State University, Chico, who documented the project for a CalRecycle usage guide, calls it the first embankment project where Caltrans used shredded tires this way, and notes that the same layered approach became standard practice on later projects of this kind.
The main goal behind using shredded tires was reducing stress on the fragile bay mud, and the numbers back that up. The built embankment put pressure of 2,250 pounds per square foot on the foundation ground. By comparison, a similar earth-filled embankment would have exerted 3,750 pounds per square foot
So, since shredded used tires have proven to be really good for something, why are landfills still full of them, instead of them being shredded and preventing mosquitos from having a place to create many more generations of blood thirsty skeeters?
wow and god damn! There is a Patton tank in the Yoop! You thought we were KIDDING about seceding from the lower peninsula? Nope!
Factually, it is a monument in honor of Edward James Doran who served in WWII during the invasion of Italy. (not the glider pilot POW) The tank itself is a M47 Patton, which was designed for the Korean War.
The M47 Patton was the result of severe time pressure on the U.S. Army to develop a competitive armored vehicle.
Before the Korean War no tanks were in production, and the factories for World War II models had been converted back to civilan purposed long ago. In addition, the Army was in the process of converting 800 M26 Pershing tanks to M46 Pattons
Not only did America not have tanks in production, but there was also a shortage of modern tanks available to the armed forces with the majority being M4 Shermans and M26 Pershings.
Based on this, the War Department Equipment Board recommended that new tanks be developed in May 1946. This recommendation led to the start of development on several new tanks; however, progress was slow as the army was demobilizing in the years after WWII.
According to Cameron, “the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 added urgency to the Advisory Panel’s recommendations. Not only did the war catch the Army unprepared, the fear that it might become a global conflict highlighted the U.S. tank fleet’s weaknesses, both in numbers and quality”
read ALL about tanks from 1946 to 56 at https://ss.sites.mtu.edu/mhugl/2016/10/16/germfask-mi-m47-patton/
I'm just going to recommend you not use Zeus Transport out of Miami
They arrived like this, then told the car owner to pay up and get his car off - himself - or they haul it away
I'd just flatten their tires, and let them figure it out.
New York’s only fraction of a street, (the only street with a fractioned number in New York City) 6 1/2 Avenue was given its official signposts in July 2012 by the Department of Transportation.
The thoroughfare is part of the over 500 areas in the city that are known as Privately Owned Public Spaces. These POPs originated in the 1960s when the city gave property developers incentives for creating public spaces as part of their new buildings. These privately owned public spaces usually took the shape of plazas, atriums, walk through arcades.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Keller winery in Petaluma has a couple race car sculptures, one is of the founder in a 29 Benz
Above was made by sculptor Lawrence Braun
I haven't found out anything about this one yet
https://www.sonomamag.com/local-winery-shines-spotlight-on-under-the-radar-petaluma-gap/
a cool statue was duplicated and placed at Monza, the Nürburgring, Monaco and Buenos Aries
an interesting photo of the Nardi Bisiluro 750 LM55
if you want to see more of this car, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/12/coolest-photo-ive-seen-in-while.html
and for something similar but maybe cooler, the Pegaso Bisiluro, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/04/pegaso-z-102-bisiliuro.html
Drunk driver hit the the truck and trailer while it was parked in Kansas for kustomville this past Sunday around 4am.
Railroad lettering from engineering departments and draftsmen, who would create letters and designs which their railroad would use when painting its equipment. Very few lettering fonts existed in the signpainters era
Lehigh Valley never used the letter "S" but the draftsmen drew up a complete alphabet.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Putin blew up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border Saturday morning, in what seems to have been an assassination attempt on former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, former CIA chief David Patraeus, and security advisers from several European Union states.
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