Hobo Jungle

[Roy]

RS-1 pics working fine, now. Thanks!

[rogruth]

Wayne,
I really didn't want a larger picture, I just wanted to see what I would get.

[healey36]

Spent last week on Cape Anne, Mass for a bit of diversion. Family convened from various points (Michigan, New York, and Maryland) so it was good to reconnect en masse. It had been a long time since I’d visited the upper reaches of northern coastal Massachusetts…things have changed a lot.



First and foremost, the commercial fishing industry is crushed. If Gloucester had 150 fishing boats the last time I visited they might have ten now. The government’s moratorium on cod fishing has certainly devastated those that made a living doing this work. I live in Maryland, spend some time on the water and am well aware of the many issues surrounding the Chesapeake. While pollution, development, climate change, etc. have certainly played a part in the bay’s decline, over-fishing laid the foundation for the collapse of the fishing stocks, and to a great extent these numbers have not and may not ever recover. It’s the same thing going on in the Gulf of Maine.

The second thing of note is that the Cape is being gentrified. Just an hour from Boston by train, lots of year-round commuting residents have moved in or are moving in, pushing out many of the locals. The economy is shifting to one more centered on bedroom communities and seasonal tourism. A lot of the charm of the place is long gone. Rockport, once a haven for quirky artists and writers is now overrun with ice cream parlors and tee-shirt shops.

The house we rented was built in 1810. There wasn’t a plumb wall or floor in the place, but 207 years on I guess that’s to be expected. It had all of the modern conveniences (except air-conditioning), so it served well as a base of operations. Unfortunately parking was limited to two vehicles and we had three. We took turns parking one car on a town lot more than a half-mile away.

There are a few sand beaches to be enjoyed, which we did. I always forget the tide phenomena here…you throw your stuff down in a nice sandy spot twenty or thirty feet from the water and two hours later its 150 yards to the surf, lol. You have to pay attention to the high/low tides as the waterline is ever-changing. At low tide you can be swimming amongst the lobster pots.

My brother decided he wanted to try some deep-sea fishing. We’ve done a few of these off Ocean City, Maryland. Typically you’re chasing white marlin or tuna down there…wasn’t sure what we’d encounter off Cape Anne. The first few times I did this I found it a bit unnerving to be 30-40 miles out in a relatively small thirty-foot boat but I’ve gotten over that now. We found a couple of other guys to go in with us on a charter so it ended up costing a bit less than $400 each for a full day, including crew, tackle, bait, food and beer.

So the short of it is we didn’t catch squat. We made an early pass for blue-fin but got no hits. After a couple of hours of that we moved a few miles in for some haddock, one cod and a few other fish I didn’t recognize. Dog-fish were to be had by the bushel, nearly to the point of being oppressive. It’s clear these have moved into the vacuum created by the dwindling cod stock.

An hour or so before we decided to bag it for the day we hit a patch with quite a few fish…hadn’t been there ten minutes before this humpback showed up:



He or she just kinda drifted around the boat, rolling onto his/her side slapping the water with a big flipper. Lines up, we just sat there for thirty minutes or so getting a show…can’t say I’ve ever been humbled like that before. With a two hour trip back to Gloucester we caved after an hour and turned for home.

One last thing. I hit the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem one day…they were having a special exhibit on ocean liners. Now the PEM is primarily an art/design museum, so the liner exhibit was mostly about art-deco decoration, graphics, porcelain, clothing, etc. They had a bunch of stuff recovered from various liners before/after they were lost or scrapped (including a number of artifacts from Titanic). All very cool, but the best was this:



A model of RMS Queen Elizabeth made by Bassett-Lowke, the British toy-maker, for Cunard. This thing sat in the lobby of Cunard’s corporate offices through the late 1930’s. Lots of photos of its tinplate construction…the ultimate pond-yacht. Almost as cool as that damn whale.

Almost...

Healey

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Very interesting, Healey, Thank you for such an interesting read. I'll bet you felt refreshed but ready for a nap when you got home.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Very interesting, Healey, Thank you for such an interesting read. I'll bet you felt refreshed but ready for a nap when you got home.

Woke and changed his name to Ishmael,

[webenda]

He's back!

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, opens to limited release on July 28 in New York City and Los Angeles, and widely on August 4.
Message: Global warming is getting worse but it is not too late to save the planet.

[HONDO74]

Message: Global warming is getting worse but it is not too late to save the planet.

UK. Petrol and diesel ban:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40726868

Mercedes is building an electric SUV
http://www.businessinsider.com/mercedes ... sla-2016-9

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Message: Global warming is getting worse but it is not too late to save the planet.

UK. Petrol and diesel ban:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40726868

Mercedes is building an electric SUV
http://www.businessinsider.com/mercedes ... sla-2016-9

Volvo is already there.... http://www.volvocars.com/us/cars/new-mo ... gin-hybrid

And the new Tesla is rolling out now.

[healey36]

The turd in the punch-bowl no one is talking about is the grid-infrastructure updates that will eventually be required if we go forward with a migration to electric vehicles. From my working days I recall the semi-annual meetings we would have with BGE and Pot-Ed, desperate to get their corporate clients to agree to various mechanisms slashing their power usage. It seems that both utilities were basically max'ed out with little to no opportunity to expand their generation capacity. Their only avenue to additional power was to purchase off the grid, something they were loathe to do. Throw in a quarter-million automobiles recharging over-night every day and I suspect things tighten up considerably.

Healey

P. S. Is it my imagination or does Gore look like he's gone seven or eight rounds with Mike Tyson?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The turd in the punch-bowl no one is talking about is the grid-infrastructure updates that will eventually be required if we go forward with a migration to electric vehicles.

That seems to be normal on most new tech going forward - surrounding infra structure gets filled in afterwards by folks looking to score profit.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I suspect, and have all along, that the Achilles-heel in the whole electric car plan is the factor of batteries. They would continue to be a problem because they just do not hold a charge for long and are quite heavy.

Last night I heard a talking-head make the comment that such-n-such a car could go as far as 210mi on a single charge. Big deal! If I drive for an Upstate NY sojourn from my place in NJ , it takes me a few hours of leisurely driving in my Benz ML, doesn't need to take in gasoline along the way, and is farther than 200 mi. That's with a gasoline-powered car.

So, now I should be prepared to stop in my progress when using an electric-powered car before I get to my destination and wait for a charge - for how long ?!!

And anyolways, what if there is traffic along the way, or during any other trip? Even a casual drive to the Jersey shore from northern NJ can include several tie-ups of considerable length in time and distance. Waiting in traffic uses up the juice, electric or gasoline, so that would have an impact on my even getting the full 200+ miles in an electric-powered vehicle, and then strand me in traffic somewhere! And that could easily include numerous other stranded electric-powered vehicles around me and ahead.

Additionally, I can just imagine how the lazyass hoodlum hoodies would mine that market for victims stranded at the side of the road who are waiting for a power-charge (an action already well in progress in Paterson, NJ during the winter months when poor souls get stuck in the snow = they get mugged on-the-spot). No way. I would not touch an electric car even if you give it to me. I'm serious. Don't give me one. I'd give it away, and good riddance.

Tell me where I am wrong. Please. Straighten me out in my pessimism.
P.S. For example, a couple years ago I drove comfortably to a client's home in Kansas from NJ. It took a couple days and a few fill-ups and a few motel stays. No problem at all. It was a treat, actually. Now, picture that in an electric car! How many extra motel rooms would be involved in numerous stops for electric charge-ups!? Ridiculous, at least considering the state of battery science presently.

I've heard it takes HOURS to fully re-charge an electric car. Eh? Eh!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

For your specific distance and traffic scenarios, you are probably correct.

What about for the average person driving 20-40 miles each day to work and back, and maybe running a few errands on the way home, and maybe a few out & abouts on the weekend? The basic moderate commuter...... Charge in the garage every night.

I think it depends on who you are and what your driving patterns are - I do a lot of highway and distance driving, so I have an Outback with a 6 in it vs. my better 1/2 that has a city commute and nowhere near the amount of highway and distance driving in an Outback with a 4 in it.

Also, battery technology is not what it was a decade ago and it's evolving rather quickly.

[Roy]

In the old days, you'd drive your electric car to a service station, and they'd trade a new, fully charged battery for your pooped-out one.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

For your specific distance and traffic scenarios, you are probably correct.

What about for the average person driving 20-40 miles each day to work and back, and maybe running a few errands on the way home, and maybe a few out & abouts on the weekend? The basic moderate commuter...... Charge in the garage every night.

I think it depends on who you are and what your driving patterns are ....

You make a very good and a fair point, rounding out the picture nicely. However, if a family or individual has the driving habits you mentioned, are they supposed to buy a second car for long trips? And shouldn't that additional vehicle be gasoline powered, then?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

In the old days, you'd drive your electric car to a service station, and they'd trade a new, fully charged battery for your pooped-out one.

I've tried , but I do not know what that even means. Who? What? Where? When?