Slashdot Mirror
AI Predicts Manhole Explosions In New York City
reillymj writes "Every so often, a 300-pound manhole cover blows sky high in Gotham, followed sometimes by a column of flame and smoke. (There are a few hundred 'manhole incidents' per year in the city, not all of them this dramatic.) Researchers from Columbia University applied machine learning algorithms to Con Edison's warren of aging electrical wires and sewage access points around Manhattan. As the system learns where dangerous mixtures of sewer gas and decrepit wiring are likely to come in contact, it makes forecasts about trouble spots, including where the next explosion may occur. The team has just completed rankings for manholes in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and plans to return to Manhattan's grid, armed with the most recent inspection and repair data." The research was published in the July issue of Machine Learning.
the problem is that just about any bolting scheme will fail due to the bolting frame getting ripped out of the street if something big enough goes BOOM.
oh btw i think most manhole covers in major cities are bolted down for security reasons
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
oh btw i think most manhole covers in major cities are bolted down for security reasons
sure, they're bolted, but it's usually just a pentagonal head that's not particularly difficult to come up with. further, if you really want in, you can use a vehicle-mounted welder to weld a rebar handle onto the bolt so you can turn it with a cheater bar, or a vehicle-mounted plasma cutter to cut it out. This can be done in a surprisingly short period of time and there is ample opportunity around 3am in most cases.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
New York is Metropolis.
Chicago is Gotham.
Gotham is New York. This is a popular name for the city that dates from the Nineteenth Century (Washington Irving in 1807 to be precise).
The association with Bat Man is due to a DC writer's decision to invoke this nickname of the actual city of New York to evoke its essence in the fictional city.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
The News Building in New York was the basis for the Daily Planet in the first two Superman movies. For reference: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID014.htm
As a side note, if you're in New York go visit the lobby of the building and walk around the globe exhibit therein. Look at the floor and note the distances to various locations. The walls surrounding the exhibit have clocks for different parts of the world as well.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Too bad, because if it had been published in the Journal of Machine Learning Research instead, people might actually be able to read it.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
It's New York, no one will care.
Or notice.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Two points. The first is that while there are plenty of frivolous lawsuits, the plantiff in the McDonalds coffee was hospitalized for over a week and had to have skin graphs because the coffee was almost boiling when served. The second is that your quote isn't applicable to bad wiring because bad wiring has to be replaced eventually, and the cost for maintaining that wiring is likely rising until it's replaced.
A friend of mine who does some professional photography takes some really cool pictures while "draining". There are a lot of neat places down there!
Yes there are.
But you can die in the drains - and it can happen very quickly.
Sewer gas is mostly methane but may include hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Improper disposal of petroleum products such as gasoline and mineral spirits can add to the fun. [freely adapted from the Wikipedia]
Methane is something to be feared:
Two kids among five killed by methane gas
The gas involved here is from the sewer system, not "gas lines". Access to the sewer system is through the passageways for electric, water, etc., which are above.
Well, apparently McDonalds and Starbucks are both being sued right now for burns caused by tea. The McDonalds suit doesn't look very serious though.
But, really, anything that can cause third degree burns shouldn't be served. Most people have never seen worse than a mild second degree burn. Third degree means that the skin was burned all the way though and you can see the fat or bone that's underneath. If you drank something that hot, it'd literally burn a hole in your stomach or esophagus.
BTW, for the McDonalds hot coffee suit, it was her thighs and genitalia that got burned. If the femoral artery was hit, she'd have bled to death within minutes. I'm trying not to picture what a third degree burn on the genitalia looks like, though fortunately they're relatively painless since the nerves have been destroyed.