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Is Our Infrastructure Ready For Rising Temperatures?
Hugh Pickens writes "Megan Garber writes that last weekend, a US Airways flight taxiing for takeoff from Washington's Reagan National Airport got stuck on the tarmac for three hours because the tarmac had softened from the heat, and the plane had created — and then sunk into — a groove from which it couldn't, at first, be removed. So what makes an asphalt tarmac, the foundation of our mighty air network, turn to sponge? The answer is that our most common airport surface might not be fully suited to its new, excessively heated environment. One of asphalt's main selling points is precisely the fact that, because of its pitchy components, it's not quite solid: It's 'viscoelastic,' which makes it an ideal surface for the airport environment. As a solid, asphalt is sturdy; as a substance that can be made from — and transitioned back to — liquid, it's relatively easy to work with. And, crucially, it makes for runway repair work that is relatively efficient. But those selling points can also be asphalt's Achilles heel. Viscoelasticity means that the asphalt is always capable of liquefying. The problem, for National Airport's tarmac and the passengers who were stuck on it, was that this weekend's 100+-degree temperatures were a little less room temperature-like than they'd normally be, making the asphalt a little less solid that it would normally be. 'As ironic and as funny as the imgur seen round the world is, it may also be a hint at what's in store for us in a future of weirding weather. An aircraft sinking augurs the new challenges we'll face as temperatures keep rising.'"
The other day, I stepped on dog shit. You know what means - global warming. It's clear as day how that comes about, unless you're a "denier".
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
There's no such thing as a trustworthy custodian, especially when that custodian ALSO wastes its resources assassinating children and subsidizing dying or corrupt industries, etc. I'm sure the Government will finally get around to dealing with infrastructure Real Soon Now!®
Political action (voting, or some other such nonsense) is a terrible way to establish management of services; it is subject to politicization just as before. It is better to let a bad company die in the Free Market and then auction off its holdings to more capable hands. At worst, there will be periods of discomfort, but that is no worse than what we have today with an endless, violent, useless monopoly controlling things; eventually, a robust system will evolve—one that is better than any would-be Intelligent Designer in the Government could hope to dream up.
it's actually more efficient to fund the roads through taxes than tolls.
Tolls are not the only solution.
Governments waste their money on other, fruitless endeavors, thereby leaving infrastructure to ruin; this is more apparent the larger and expansive Government becomes.
There is no "Free Market" mechanism for enforcing contracts, for example.
Sure there are. The last I checked, there is no One World Government; each sovereign nation represents a player in the Free Market of law and enforcement, with world-wide society evolving from the interplay between these little experiments.
There are interesting discussions to be had regarding further decentralization and localization (and privatization) of law, courts, and law enforcement. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Indeed, at one point in time, the notion of your precious democracy was considered harebrained.