Maine ‘Mystery Beast’ could be a ‘Chimichanga’! Run for your lives!
The United States and five other world powers announced a landmark accord Sunday morning that would temporarily freeze Iran’s nuclear program and lay the foundation for a more sweeping agreement. Now, the hard part: the Obama administration must convince U.S. lawmakers to back the plan. Let the games begin!
According to the Department of Defense’s Military Sexual Assault Report for 2012, an estimated 26,000 members of the United States military were sexually assaulted in that year. Of those sexual assaults, 53 percent (approximately 14,000 in 2012) were attacks on men.
Monty Python adds four dates after their reunion show sells out in 43.5 seconds.
‘How does a plant make their food? Do they use a microwave?’: The failure of science education in the United States.
Southern fried boneheads have been arrested in connection with a fire that destroyed the LeBeau Plantation house in St. Bernard Parish. The men were apparently looking for ghosts at the mansion, which has long been the subject of ghost stories in St. Bernard. When no ghosts emerged, the group set the mansion on fire. Drugs and alcohol were involved, along with just being a bunch of dumbasses.
An Ex-Cop’s Guide to Not Getting Arrested. Rule #1: stay invisible. And don’t burn buildings down. Sheesh!
From Dangerous Minds: ‘EEFING’: CAN YOU HANDLE HILLBILLY BEATBOXING? I knew I hadn’t just imagined this!
Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions. Could this explain why the poorest states keep voting for the GOP/Tea Party candidates, thus making things ever worse for themselves?
A British academic believes she has identified the precise spot of the elusive Hanging Gardens of Babylon… only it wasn’t exactly in Babylon.
More on Public Transportation in Tulsa
I found an interesting discussion at Stack Exchange on public transit bus efficiency. An analysis of the average BTUs/passenger-mile figures for U.S. cities shows:
- Cars: 3,437 BTUs/passenger-mile
- Buses: 4,348 BTUs/passenger-mile
This is aggregate data for all buses in all cities in operation, with some cities doing better than the average, others considerably worse. Passenger-miles are a summation of (passenger_n * miles_n) for all passengers (1 passenger mile = 1 passenger travelling 1 mile, 2 passengers travelling 0.5 miles, etc).
The state of Oklahoma shows something over 5,500 BTU/passenger mile for buses, reflecting the outcome of running empty buses on routes at times of low ridership. Running ‘behemoth buses’ at any time other than high-load times is obviously a complete waste of money. Smaller, more flexible vehicle options (such as jitneys) would address this problem while cutting costs and improving service.
Considering that the busses used by Tulsa Transit carry sticker prices somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 each, maybe its time Tulsa Transit, INCOG and the powers that be get their heads together and come up with a transit plan that makes more sense than just throwing more ‘behemoth buses’ at the problem? I mean, if they really want a sustainable, working public transportation system. That IS what they say they want, isn’t it?
It’s probably good GM’s gas-guzzling “Leisure-Mobile” never got made, or Tulsa Transit would want to run it.
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