A “time travelling woman” has appeared in the Shanghai Metro. Recently, a woman who claims to have been “sent through time” sits lengthwise at the exit to the subway station asking pedestrians for money so she can return to her home town 500 years in the past. What is even more dumbfounding is that this ancient woman even takes out and iPhone 4 to ask for mobile phone numbers from the passing crowd. Is she "real" or merely engaged in COSPLAY?

Translation of the hand-written Chinese sign on the ground:

I am from the Qingyuan village and have unwittingly time traveled here. I have nothing upon me and am begging for traveling expenses to return home, a debt I will repay in the days ahead [future].

Cosplay “The Goddess Athena” in the China`s Subway | China View

mychinaviews.com › Life - Cached

Jul 21, 2011 – An Internet user recently posted a series of photos on baidu.com of a young woman dressed as The Goddess Athena - clad in an otherworldly ...

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I don't get it. I ride the bus every day and I'm always baffled as to why passengers thank the driver when they get off at their stop. Thank-you. Thanks for what? For letting me off the bus when I pulled the cord? For not getting into an accident along the way? For accepting my fare in the wake of increasingly poor service?

The bus driver is likely the highest-paid annual wage earner aboard the vehicle. He should be thanking US for giving him a cush job where he can sit all day long as he tools around town.

Pictured: a "600 series" GM motor coach, used by CDTA's private sector predecessor, United Traction Company. These small-diesel powered workhorses were so efficient and economical, they remained in daily use through the 1970s!

Let's see how many people are thankful come this fall when CDTA "revises" bus routes. Based on previous performance, here's what they'll possibly do:

(1) eliminate more bus stops like they've done in the past, especially where a disabled person or a small child may have been getting on, forcing them to walk a long distance under sometimes treacherous conditions to get to an "official" stop - especially in a suburban area - or smaller town

(2) extend some routes to enable busses to pollute more and damage roadways - like the Second Avenue line. It was extended over Whitehall Road to St. Peter's Hospital. The noisy vehicles whiz by with a single passenger (most of the time they're empty) and badly damaged a portion of Hackett Boulevard, where a cement slab had to be put down to accomodate them. (The buses draw traffic from the #9 Whitehall Road bus, and I'll betcha the CDTA is going to announce #9 is shutting down because "fares are down" because about ten people a day hop aboard the Second Ave. line, because they travel about a minute in front of #9)

A more LOGICAL thing to do: KEEP #9 because it's the only way one might travel from Whitehall Road to near Central Avenue (get off at Partridge, Quail or Lake) without having to pay more $$$ for another bus, since the transfer system was abolished. And why not EXTEND #9 at the Morton Avenue area to run all the way down Morton and over South Pearl instead of crossing Eagle?

NOW I "get it" ::: CDTA just doesn't get it.

Let's hope they don't raise bus fare again.

You "thank-you" folks would be smarter to run out and hug and thank the guys who take your garbage out on trash day.


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With just 17 months to go before the US Presidential election, none of the emerging Republican candidates impress me more than Michele Bachmann. I kinda like "the businessman" Herman Cain. Everybody else favors Mitt Romney, but I can't imagine him defeating Barack Obama. And we still aren't exactly sure what Sarah Palin will do. Out with you, damned Newt! The great thing about a democracy is that you can have a pack of candidates like this to pick and choose from. We just have to wait and see where it all goes.

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot

Marcus and the Amazons: Links! Links! Links! - Caribbean Today Cheap Lit Sample Caribbean Life News Giving thanks for all the links (especially in the blog rolls--every little bit help*s...

The GoodYear Blimp burns and crashes...

When a tour bus operator found he had more passengers than seats, he put six people in the luggage compartment with mattresses and pillows.

Michelle Malkin: British Study: Electric Cars Not So Green - Emission Accomplished!

Puerto Rican ladyblogger YuYu was dissed in D.C. and fired back by dropping an internet bomb.

The Electric's "Toot Toot" is HUCK Magazine's Video of the week! Electric Fans note: Pugz Aromz is on tumblr.

I ran across a really neat art blog today: In Stillness - Artworks by Rebecca Ladds... when I look at blogs like this one, I get inspired... my brain gets stimulated! Great art = great thinking!

Of interest to upstate NY readers ::: It was just a year ago that John Mulrooney joined Cumulus rocker WPDH (101.5 Poughkeepsie) as part of the "Coop & Mulrooney Show," but now the station says "the time is right to move on from having a four-person show," leaving Mark Cooper and sidekicks Kricket and Deuce in place - and Mulrooney as the odd man out. Mulrooney was probably better known to Albany listeners for his long stint as part of the "Wolf and Mulrooney" morning show on PYX-106. Also via fybush, of interest to NYC readers: He's best known for his big hit "Someday, Someway," but now Marshall Crenshaw is trying his hand at radio. Crenshaw will join the staff of WFUV (90.7) beginning next Saturday for a one-hour weekly show called "The Bottomless Pit," which will air at 10 PM, following Vin Scelsa's venerable "Idiot's Delight."

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I filled up the gas tank this morning. I wondered to myself whether I REALLY had the 20 gallons that the pump read-out said I had. The gas gauge on my car doesn't tell me how much petrol is in there. (I wonder if any carmakers now include an option for a dashboard digital read-out of what's in the tank?)

All gas pumps bear stickers which declare they've been checked for accurate delivery. But exactly HOW accurate is that?

Look what happened to a motorist in China:

A Sinopec gas station in Anhui city of Suzhou province pumped 45 liters of gas into a 35 liter gas tank

Real person real story, yellow plate-less [Chery] QQ, 0.8 L displacement, dealer and manufacturer confirm gas tank is indeed 35 liters.

May 4th, filling up gas. The car still had a little fuel, but the pump kept going until it reached 335 kuai[RMB]. Surprised, thought gas prices have increased to 10 kuai [per liter], because in the past it was always a 200-some kuai.

This car owner is from Suzhou, and hasn’t driven the car out of the gas station after filling up, and instead has been seeking an explanation from the gas station, but there hasn’t been a reasonable explanation up to today. On the afternoon of May 5th, Sinopec brought the people from Bureau of Quality Inspection, as well as from television news. The Bureau of Quality Inspection checked that gas pump and then surprising said there was nothing wrong with it! So a gas tank can suddenly become 10 liters larger out of thin air?

Asked the gas station to drain the gas on the spot [to measure it], but no one from Sinopec accepted [the challenge], all of them hiding.

Still have the receipts, and some replies to what some friends have asked.

No [separate] gas canister.
I pumped gas directly into the [car's] gas tank.
Everyone can check for themselves the gas tank capacity of the 0.8L QQ.
How did it add up to 335 yuan?

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Here's a little snippet from an article that appeared in the New York Daily News, just in time to escape major notice (thanks to the timing with the Memorial Day Holiday weekend). The author is NYS Senator Daniel Squadron. I'm going to "cut to the chase"

Two families want to save money on gas. Family A upgrades from a 10 mpg to a 15 mpg light truck. Family B upgrades from a 25 mpg to a 45 mpg sedan. Over the next 1,000 miles, who has saved more gas?

If you chose Family B, you'd be like most people - and you'd be wrong. Over 1,000 miles, switching from 10 to 15 mpg will save you 33 gallons. Switching from 25 to 45 MPG will only save you 18 gallons.

Don't worry, studies show that most consumers get miles per gallon comparisons wrong, as I did when I first took the quiz. But at the dealership, getting this question wrong is bad - for your wallet and the environment.

Ultimately, the most important question for consumers is basic: Given the numbers of miles I drive (the daily commute, trips to soccer practice, the annual pilgrimage to Florida) and the type of car I need (most people are not choosing between a Hummer and a Prius), how many gallons of gas will I actually need to buy?

To answer this question correctly consumers need to know their GPM - their gallons per mile.

SO, how do you figure out your "Gallons Per Mile?"

You can either

• Click on "comments" below for the answer, or
• Read the full article on the DN website.

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Trains have been dominating the headlines - with warnings of terror attacks against the Amtrak system, announcements of funding for new rail construction projects, plus a plethora of recent derailments and other mishaps, the public is suddenly hyper-aware of the nation's rail service.

Data recovered from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout indicated the Al-Qaeda leader had been mulling the possibility of attacking the nation's railways, whenever he could tear himself away from watching his own videos. (All kidding aside: haven't terrorists in the al-Q network been thinking about THAT for years and years and years? What ELSE were they thinking of?) That data discovery has prompted US Senator Charles Schumer to call for creation of a “do not ride” list for Amtrak. He explains list would be modeled after the "no-fly" list that keeps those suspected of terrorism from flying in or out of the United States. The New York Democrat says the U.S. has to remain vigilant in protecting itself from future attacks.

There may be a few bumps on the rails: Here's a sampling of what various individuals have brought up on blogs and social networks...

1) Every Amtrak station is wide-open. Currently there are no provisions for a secure area to board the trains – that means "they" will have to undertake a massive redesign to make the stations more like airports with secure & insecure areas. This would be pretty costly, especially for small stops like Croton-on-Hudson, yes?

2) A passenger would no longer be able to board the train and purchase a last-minute ticket. (Something that's saved my backside many times!)

3) Buying a ticket would require presentation of proper legal identification – what about those among us who can’t afford proper identification? If it is a barrier to vote, it’s a barrier to riding the train, right?

4) Since we have identified trains as a possible terrorist target, how long until we must submit to body scans, pat-downs, strict limitations on fluids, and of course, baggage inspection?

5) How, exactly, will making it harder to board a train encourage people to use their planned “high-speed trains”? The 30 to 40 minutes that might be shaved off the ride from Albany to New Yrok City and vice-versa would be useless if one has to arrive 2 hours ahead of time at the station just to go through the security procedures, so in the end it will be just as hard to get on a train as a plane, and in most cases the plane will be faster.

What's next? Security for those wanting to ride the bus? And wouldn't terrorists be looking at screwing with the rails? It's not like they'd be able to hijack a train and crash it into a skyscraper! There are bajillions of spots along the Alb-NYC route where somebody could monkey with the hardware.





Tags: Chuck Schumer, amtrak safety



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As the financial collapse continues on its merry way to the second dip of our double-dip recession, those $35 round-trip Chinese buses are looking a lot sweeter.

Air travel is already a joke, with airlines gouging passengers by charging for anything they can think of (I'm surprised they don't make us pay for the air we breathe in flight). Now comes word that soaring jet fuel prices have wiped out profits for United and American Airlines, with JetBlue and Southwest just about breaking even. So look for fares to go up up up and that means that for most struggling Americans, going anywhere by airline will soon be out of the question: an unaffordable luxury.

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Paul Slazas drove to the Albany presser in his brand new Chevy Volt...(it's the red one in the video below --- which also shows Mayor Jennings driving up in a white Volt --- Albany County Legislator Brain Scavo, who is active on the Mass Transit Committee and has been in the car business for 25 years, hams it up for the camera --- Mr. Slazas also appears in the vid. please excuse the bad sound as the wind was blowing quite fiercely) Slazas lives in Stockport, Columbia County, and told me that he discovered the press conference while online googling EV charging stations in the vicinity of Albany.
[Hover and click on the image to enlarge]

This reporter today enjoyed an interesting field assignment and got a firsthand look at EV technology. [LINK]


It's all for the greater good: Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings today announcing a partnership with NYSERDA and the New York State Department of Transportation to prepare the Capital city infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Bob VanAmburgh at City Hall explained the study is expected to take two to three months, and results will be made public in mid-to-late summer.

The effort includes a feasibility study and pilot program, which will include installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure throughout the City. In addition to the government agencies, DeNooyer Chevrolet, National Grid, the University of Albany, and VHB Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture, P.C. have all agreed to partner with the City.

“This program is an exciting and important step forward for the City,” said Mayor Jennings. “Albany’s position as a major juncture between Boston and Buffalo, New York and Montreal, makes it an ideal hub for electric vehicle recharging infrastructure as we plan for regional adoption of electric vehicles. This is yet another program that my Office of Energy & Sustainability is implementing with the goal of creating a more livable and sustainable Albany.”

Earlier this year, the Mayor's Office of Energy and Sustainability released the city's greenhouse gas inventory and priority initiatives for 2011 which includes a goal to replace at least 10% of the municipal fleet with alternative fuel vehicles by 2030...


NYSDOT Commissioner Joan McDonald said, “At Governor Andrew Cuomo’s direction, the State Department of Transportation is working to develop environmentally-friendly transportation options and reduce transportation’s carbon footprint by decreasing greenhouse gases from vehicles. We’re pleased to work with Mayor Jennings on the City of Albany’s electric vehicle pilot program, which will help expand our knowledge of energy efficient alternatives to traditionally-fueled vehicles.”

“I congratulate Mayor Jennings, the City of Albany and the partners in this important step in the transition to electric vehicles,” said Joe Martens, Commissioner of DEC. “Under Mayor Jennings’s leadership, Albany was an early adopter of the state’s Climate Smart Community pledge and continues to embrace programs that will make our community more livable, while saving residents money and moving us closer to the clean-energy economy. I applaud the mayor’s investment of local resources to promote the city's sustainability, and his leveraging of additional state and private resources to bring those concepts to fruition.”

This is the fifth joint research-and-development solicitation between NYSERDA and NYSDOT. The program this year focuses on transportation energy efficiency, transportation demand management and low carbon transportation fuels. The transportation sector accounted for 77 percent of petroleum consumption and nearly 40 percent of GHG production in New York State in 2009, leading both categories that year and increasing since. That can be improved by lowering fuel use and emissions, which is the focus of these new contracts.



Tags: Albany EV, Chevy Volt, Jerry Jennings

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We've seen an awful lot of him on network TV newscasts in recent days - US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has had his feet put to the proverbial fire, dealing with sleeping air traffic controllers, bumped flights, flights bumping into one another and the First Lady's jet coming to close to a transport plane.

I'm sure he has "had it up to here" and looks exactly so! What must he be thinking?





Tags: Ray LaHood, air traffic controllers

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Photo by Saki Tumi, taken in Albany, NY at 3:45pm Saturday, April 9, 2011

In reaching this "high point" I can only say it took the oil industry longer than anticipated to get here (the Gulf Oil Spill forced them to cancel the $4 plan last year) ... I recall hearing back around the time Sadaam Hussein was forced out of power how "gas would be cheaper" ... BUT ACTUALLY there were many many other voices constantly reminding us "gas is $5 or $6 a gallon in Europe" and "they're paying $5 and $6 a gallon in Europe" and "Europeans are used to paying $5 or $6 a gallon for gas" etc. etc. ad nauseum.

The so-called economic "recovery" along the housing market and unemployment and all that should come to a boil-over relatively soon, with President Barack Obama right in the path of the fallout (Betcha Hillary is glad she lost the nomination now!)...

Speaking of government, what happened to those "strategic reserves" and have you ever noticed that whenever gas goes through this crisis mode, "strategic reserves" get mentioned, and then as time passes, they're not brought up again?

And what happened to those 70mpg Honda Insights? You know, the cute little hybrids that looked like vacuum cleaners? Were they persuaded out of existence the way GM got rid of the EV2's (and conspired to ruin the nation's light rail system)?

Watch out for the double-dip!

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...by making the country addicted to foreign oil. Whine and cry about the gasoline crisis all you want. That "dependence" we Americans have on oil was forced upon us decades ago...

The proof is in the posts!

At left, behold the one and only great "green" product that General Motors ever made, the EV1, thousands of times better than any Prius, Leaf or Volt, "the little car that could" was recalled and crushed so GM factories could mass-produce gas-guzzling HUMMERS instead!

Let's hope that we won't get fooled again!

No Country for Old GM

From the "They Said I was Nuts" department:

I've blogged in the past (and once discussed on my old radio program) about how General Motors got us into our modern transportation mess by making sure the US trolley system died, much the same way GM made sure all of the EV1 electric cars were junked. Edwin Black's four-part investigative series "Hitler's Carmaker" appeared locally a few years ago in The Jewish World newspaper. It tells how it all went down. The accompanying photograph of Hitler was one of several in a series of booklets given to German citizens in return for donations to Nazi charity Winterhilfswerk. The booklets came with strings so they could be hung on the Christmas tree! For what it's worth, General Motors issued a response to the JTA investigation.

GM was playing both ends to the middle in the 1930s and 1940s. While GM was busy getting wheels under Hitlers's Third Reich, here at home GM was hatching a lucrative criminal conspiracy to undermine electric mass transit in dozens of American cities.

The war in Europe had only been over for 16 months when on October 2, 1946, a memo from the Department of Justice landed on the desk of J. Edgar Hoover, outlining the elements of the GM conspiracy.

At the center of the conspiracy was National City Lines, an Enronesque company that suddenly arose in 1937, ostensibly run by five barely educated Minnesota bus drivers, the Fitzgerald brothers. Yet the Fitzgeralds miraculously marshaled millions of dollars to buy up one failing trolley system after another. Soon, through a patchwork of subsidiaries, the brothers owned or controlled transit systems in more than 40 cities. Generally, when National City Lines acquired the system, the tracks were pulled from the street, the beloved electric trolleys were trashed or burned, and the whole system was replaced with more expensive, unpopular and environmentally hazardous motor buses that helped addict America to oil.

The Justice Department discovered that National City Lines was just a front company for General Motors, in league with Mack Truck, Phillips Petroleum, Standard Oil of California and Firestone Tires - all petroleum interests. The companies became the major preferred stockholders of National City Lines, but operated behind the scenes.

The scheme worked this way: The manufacturers purchased NCL preferred stock to acquire transit lines on condition that when the systems were acquired, the trolleys would be dismantled and replaced with motor buses. That is exactly what happened. All the conspirators gained immensely when non-polluting electric systems were replaced by oil-burners. Phillips and Standard sold oil products. Firestone sold the tires. GM and Mack divvied up the bus manufacturing and sales market according to an agreed-upon formula.

Transit systems in 16 states were converted, adversely affecting millions of Americans, who had to pay higher fares for lesser, more unpopular service. Dozens more cities were targeted in the $9.5m. scheme.

The series is available online:

Hitler's carmaker (Part I), (Part II), (Part III), (Part IV)

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Is the Spirit of Revolution that spread across North Africa about to sweep across the United States?

If it is, it will likely start in the State of Utah, where officials are considering using silver and gold coins as legal currency.

Another indicator that the seeds of revolution may be germinating: the price at the pump! CRUDE OIL is heading in one direction, and that is UP!


Continued fighting and tensions in Libya sent oil futures higher Friday to hit their highest intraday price in nearly 2-1/2 years. London Brent crude [LCOCV1 116.10 1.31 (+1.14%) ] rose above $116 a barrel as fighting in Libya intensified and on news of protests in Saudi Arabia's oil-producing Eastern Province. U.S. light, sweet crude [CLCV1 104.39 2.48 (+2.43%) ] jumped above $104 a barrel, levels not seen since September 2008.

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Libya Supply Disruption Could Push Oil to $130... where's Jed Clampett when you need him?

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a potential presidential contender, accused the Obama administration Wednesday of favoring a run-up in gas prices. Politico blog offers a counterargument: that Barack Obama is repeating Jimmy Carter's energy policy mistakes.

Whenever gasoline prices go up up up... elected officials in the U.S. start calling for the President (whoever that may be) to tap into the National "energy reserve" [The reserve, created after the 1973 Arab oil embargo to protect against oil supply interruptions, holds 727 million barrels of government-owned crude oil in salt caverns near the Gulf Coast. While running for the presidency in 2008, Obama was among the lawmakers calling for the government to draw on the reserve. So far, the White House has been noncommittal, with Press Secretary Jay Carney telling reporters that all options are open.(LINK)]: Latest politician to grandstand on this - Kirsten Gillibrand!

Washington, DC – With gas prices rapidly increasing due to turmoil in the Middle East, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is urging President Obama to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). In the last year, gas prices in New York State have increased by 25 percent. This action would immediately stabilize gasoline prices which, according to the Energy Information Administration, were higher last month than in any February on record.

“Gasoline prices are at an all time high this month and are up $0.71 per gallon from a year ago,” Senator Gillibrand said. “Our families are already struggling in this difficult economy, and the last thing we need is rising gas prices. Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is critical to relieve this extra burden on our families here in New York and across the country.”

How to have Gas at $1.50 per Gallon and do good for the Environment and our Health too...
Do what China is doing, which is to operate all the Top energy companies on Nationalize basis. As a result of which Chinese Government subsidies the price of Gas so that Chinese pay MAXIMUM of $1.50 per Gallon. This would be the same as if US Government Nationalized Exxon, Chevron, Texaco, etc. and took the $100s of Billions of Dollars in profit that these companies make per Year, and their $30Mill per year salaries and multiple $50Mill private Jets for their top brass, and passed these SAVINGS to American people/businesses by subsiding Gas to be $1.50 per Gallon. ~ contributed by No2RepublicanConJob

Gas prices have climbed more than 50 cents per gallon over the past 12 months and are now above the $3 mark. These prices are putting a significant dent in the budgets of middle class families across the country. The price of oil has risen over $10 per barrel in the last month, a price that would cost Americans an additional $40 billion annually, according to the Petroleum Marketers Association of America. Source: Gillibrand Press Office

In a letter to the President, Senator Gillibrand wrote, “The current price spike couldn’t have come at a worse time. When gas prices last peaked in July 2008, unemployment was 5.8%. Now, unemployment has been at or above 9% for 21 months. The Consumer Price Index increased 1.5% for all items in 2010, but for gasoline, the increase was 13.8%.”

Geoffrey Styles is Managing Director of GSW Strategy Group, LLC. He bloggeth this: "even if the current crisis in Libya and the Middle East resolves itself quickly and without further impact on world oil supplies, it provides another unwelcome reminder that we live in a world in which the President and other world leaders might need to call on our strategic oil inventories on very short notice to prevent a catastrophic breakdown of the economy."

Tags: peak oil, Gasoline Prices

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We're at a crossroads. The entire future of the "recovery" depends on what happens next with the price of crude oil and ultimately, gasoline.

With gas now at $3.45 here in the Capital Region, beyond that $3.25 per gallon "tipping point," it won't be long before we start hearing again how "people are cutting back" so they can feed the family car. Retail sales will suffer. (It's happening already, but the "wave" won't make landfall for a month or two or three.)


Last night local economy watchdog Hugh Johnson was on teevee, telling me there was not going to be "double-dip" recession.

"It's not going to turn the current recovery into a renewed recession,” Johnson said. “Sometimes popularly referred to as a 'double dip' -- that's not in the cards. But it will slow this recovery, and slow the important part of the recovery -- which is the addition of jobs to payrolls." ::LINK::

Johnson's half right. There won't be any dd IF things calm down in Arab-rich nations like Libya and the Suez Canal remains safe and free. But until the outcome of the Arab Revolution is finalized, all bets are off.

Worst-case scenario: forces in the middle east put the squeeze on oil. Investors panic. Crude prices skyrocket. $4.50 at the pumps! (By the way, it's already $4 in some parts of California). Now, factor in all those unemployed Americans who have fallen off the unemployement rolls but remain jobless. Factor in rising food prices. You've got a double-dipper on your hands, brother... as in "brother can you spare a dime dollar."

PS - Nowcasting, defined

Tags: Libya oil, Suez Canal

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