The Blogs of Geekesses dot Net

This is one of the reasons that NASCAR is a nice spectator sport that I don't mind my son watching:
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/05/26/kpetty.ride.along.surprise/index.html

It was interesting to see an entirely different crop of cars finishing in the top 5 in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday.

Thankfully my son already has small die-cast versions of the 25 and 18 cars :-D

Labels: nascar

(In case anyone *is* counting...)

Labels: politics

My little boy is :-D

He loves the cars - I don't think he cares as much for the fellows driving the cars. The #24 car (Jeff Gordon) seems to be a favorite, but the #20 car (Tony Stewart) is up there, too, but that could be the association with the sponsor, Home Depot (which calls into question his interest in the #48 car - Jimmie Johnson - sponsored by Lowes, the #20 car's competitor....).

It's very odd to say that I know more about NASCAR than I've ever known about any other Sunday-afternoon-televised event.

But that doesn't make me a fan, really...

A friend pointed this hilarious, yet thoughtful, editorial out to me a few days ago:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/columnists/orl-whitley0307may03,0,1723794.column

Best quote: "He always could tell his driver to renounce all 77 of his victories, give them to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and admit he likes to play with dolls."

Labels: nascar

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0703020315mar02,1,7744612.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed

A McHenry woman has been ordered to pay more than $310,000 to Illinois
charities that support members of the military and their families, a
state official said Thursday.

Arlyn McClaughry and her organization, Operation Military Pride, were
sued by the Illinois attorney general's office in January 2006 after
officials determined there was no way to tell what happened to money
she collected.

But, again, who's counting? :-D

http://tinyurl.com/yg6a3x

[the New York Time requires registration - printer-friendly format listed below]

December 31, 2006

Back in View, a First Lady With Her Own Legacy

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

PALM DESERT, Calif., Dec. 30 - It has been a while since America drew its face close to Betty Ford. But what the nation saw this week here in Southern California - an impossibly tiny face, lips pinched in grief and eyes blinking in the harsh midday sun - served as a poignant reminder of the woman whose reign as first lady, while brief and wholly unexpected, was among the most remarkable in modern history.

Former President Gerald R. Ford's death on Tuesday at the age of 93 thrust Mrs. Ford back into a public spotlight that she had largely avoided in recent years.

On Friday, with her children and other family members clustered about her, Mrs. Ford watched as her husband's coffin was carried by a military honor guard into St. Margaret's Episcopal Church here for a private prayer service. It was the beginning of six days of national mourning.

Mrs. Ford has taken pains to keep her husband's death as private an affair as possible for a former president - limiting the prayer service here to only the immediate family, followed by a visitation from a small group of invited friends and then a public viewing.

She has spent the last three decades living in a golf community and tending to her treatment center for alcohol and drugs. But her husband's death has served as a catalyst for an American trip back through the 1970s.

Thrown into the role of first lady during a period of deep distrust in government, she fulfilled the role of honest arbiter of American family life and of the modern woman, speaking candidly on just about any subject she was asked about, both shocking and delighting the country.

She was a product and a symbol of the cultural and political times - doing the Bump along the corridors of the White House, donning a mood ring, chatting on her CB radio with the handle First Mama - a housewife who argued passionately for equal rights for women, a mother of four who mused about drugs, abortion and premarital sex aloud and without regret.

Her candor about her battle with breast cancer, which led to unprecedented awareness among American women about detecting the disease, and her later commitment to alcohol and substance abuse treatment, stemming from her own abuse history, set the stage for widespread acknowledgment and advocacy that is commonplace today.

Given her impact on these crucial health issues and her influence over the modern East Wing, Mrs. Ford's effect on American culture may be far wider and more lasting than that of her husband, who served a mere 896 days, much of it spent trying to restore the dignity of the office of the president.

"I think that's true," said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a presidential family historian and expert on first ladies. "The impact of her influence on the general public extended beyond her tenure in the White House. It was a situation of somebody coming along in history who, in simply being themselves, ends up crystallizing something that the nation at large is feeling."

Born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer in Chicago in 1918 and raised in Grand Rapids, Mich., Mrs. Ford was passionate about dance. Not long after she graduated from high school, she studied with Martha Graham in New York City, becoming a member of the Martha Graham Auxiliary Group. In 1941, back in Grand Rapids, she became a fashion coordinator for a department store and formed her own dance group.

After a brief marriage to a furniture salesman, she met Mr. Ford in 1947 and married him the next year, two weeks before he was elected to his first term in Congress. Together they raised four children: Michael Gerald, John Gardner, Steven Meigs and Susan Elizabeth. Her husband's political career, including eight years as House minority leader, and its attending absences often left her lonely and depressed, and she looked forward to private life.

But instead of becoming the wife of a retired congressman, as she expected, in 1974 she found herself first lady when Mr. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president, after the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.

"I went to their house in Virginia," said Sheila Weidenfeld, who served as Mrs. Ford's press secretary. "She came down in her robe. I think it was such a shock when you find out your husband is president, and the next day you had to have a dinner for King Hussein."

There was no learning curve, Ms. Weidenfeld said, nor preparation. "I remember saying to Betty Ford, 'Well, what would you like me to do?' And she said, 'I don't know, what am I supposed to do?'"

Her role was defined in part less than two months into Mr. Ford’s presidency, when she discovered that she had breast cancer and then discussed her mastectomy openly in hopes of giving other women the tools to detect the disease early and treat it courageously. According to a 1987 article in The Journal of the National Archives, Mrs. Ford received 55,800 cards, or "92 cubic feet of material," in response to her openness.

The next year, Mrs. Ford took it upon herself to champion the Equal Rights Amendment. She personally phoned legislators, held a slide show in the White House for staff members and gave speeches across the country about women's rights.

She talked about her support of abortion rights and mulled the idea that her children might have smoked marijuana.

Perhaps most infamously, she told Morley Safer in a "60 Minutes" interview that she would provide "counsel" to her daughter, Susan, then 18, if Susan were involved in a sexual relationship, or, in Mr. Safer's words, "having an affair."

"Her husband threw a pillow at her, jokingly, and said, 'You just lost me 10,000 votes,'" Ms. Weidenfeld said. "And Donald Rumsfeld said, 'No, 20,000.' Susan asked her later, 'What's an affair?'"

Ms. Weidenfeld said the times called for candor, and Mrs. Ford was able to provide it. "When Ford said this will be an open presidency, we thought, 'O.K., let's let the first lady open up.'"

While Mrs. Ford drew hundreds of angry letters, public opinion ended up on her side, with "Betty's Husband for President" buttons decorating the campaign trail.

"One day we had finished an event on the floor and we were going back upstairs," recalled Maria Downs, her social secretary at the time. "And I said, 'You don't seem yourself,' and she said, 'I'm all right. I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers.'"

Mrs. Ford remained an accessible first lady, even as her days became consumed with details like choosing centerpieces for state dinners. She consulted with her aides while sitting at the edge of the bathtub, dabbing on her makeup; gave a twist to the scarves of staff members to give them a fashionable edge; and chatted about their furniture choices and children.

Her staff was also forced to tiptoe around late appointments and to scramble schedules stemming from Mrs. Ford's addiction to pain killers, which began when she was prescribed medication in 1964 for a pinched nerve. "She had to cancel events or couldn't leave the house sometimes," said Ms. Weidenfeld, who said she once asked the first lady's doctor to "lay off the pills."

In 1978, Mrs. Ford's family intervened in her drug and alcohol abuse, opening a new chapter in her life as a founder of a clinic in California. She described her recovery process in a 1987 book, "Betty: A Glad Awakening."

Until recently, Mrs. Ford, who is 88, continued to be in charge of her center in Rancho Mirage, and she has remained on the board after handing the helm to her daughter in 2005.

She continues to support treatment centers, attend charity events and speak about substance abuse and breast cancer awareness. Most of all, she enjoyed her expansive and close family, and her time with her husband, whom she remained enamored with through 58 years of marriage.

"Gerald Ford's father abused his mother, and she was a very strong woman and he was unthreatened by strong women," Mr. Anthony, the historian, said of the first couple. "You take that kind of a husband and you look at Betty Ford and you see part of what made her an unusual first lady was the context of her marriage."

Mrs. Ford's expressions of personal opinions, which several people who worked in the White House at the time say were never discouraged by the president, "were personally held opinions not suited for a political agenda," Mr. Anthony said.

"Even Eleanor Roosevelt, who did speak her mind, was much more politically savvy in terms of knowing what buttons would be pushed," he said. "Betty Ford inherited that role, and she already knew that it was not right for her to say things she didn't mean. In that act, she shattered a precedent and set up a new paradigm for first ladies."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8dnnx

[the New York Times requires registration - printer-friendly format listed below]

December 27, 2006

Farmers and Conservationists Form a Rare Alliance

By JESSICA KOWAL

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - The standoff here between farmers and environmentalists was familiar in the modern West.

With salmon and wildlife dwindling in the Skagit River Delta, some environmentalists had argued since the 1980s that local farms should be turned back into wetlands. Farmers here feared that preachy outsiders would strip them of their land and heritage.

This year, though, the standoff ended - at least for three longtime farmers in this fertile valley, who began collaborating with their former enemies to preserve wildlife and their livelihoods.

The Nature Conservancy, which usually buys land to shield it from development, is renting land from the three farmers on behalf of migrating Western sandpipers, black-bellied plovers, dunlins, marbled godwits and other shorebirds.

From private and public funds, including a grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the farmers, David Hedlin, Gail Thulen and Alan Mesman, will together receive up to $350,000 for three years of labor, expenses and the use of 210 acres, said Kevin Morse, the Skagit Delta project manager for the conservancy.

Each man has committed about 70 acres to this project, which is called Farming for Wildlife. A third of that land will be flooded with a few inches of fresh water in the spring, fall and winter. This will create shallow ponds to entice thousands of birds, some of them on their way to and from the Arctic, to stop and snack on tiny invertebrates and worms as they travel along the Pacific flyway.

More than a dozen shorebird species have declined primarily because of the loss of local wetlands, said Gary Slater, research director at the Ecostudies Institute here and a consultant for the Nature Conservancy.

The farmers see the Nature Conservancy's willingness to pay them as an acknowledgment that they should not be expected to sacrifice their land or their living for wildlife. This approach effectively turns shorebirds into another crop to manage, instead of grounds for a lawsuit.

"The stewardship ethic in this valley is incredibly strong, but it doesn't trump the bank," said Mr. Hedlin, 56, who, with his wife, Serena Campbell, grows farmer's market produce, vegetable seeds, pumpkins, winter wheat and pickling cucumbers on their 400-acre farm.

Mr. Hedlin's 70-acre Farming for Wildlife parcel has been under water since a heavy November rain breached a dike and flooded the field, in a preview of what environmentalists hope will happen. Edged with wild roses and blackberry bushes, this accidental lake quickly attracted wintering waterfowl like trumpeter swans, coots, and mallard, teal and wigeon ducks.

An hour north of Seattle and an hour south of Vancouver, British Columbia, this region's glorious tulip farms attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each April. Skagit farmers also produce about 80 crops of commercial significance, including seeds used to grow beets, spinach and cabbage around the world, many of the red potatoes eaten in the United States, and vegetables and dairy products sent to farmer's markets and restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.

Thousands of years of flooding on the Skagit River deposited a rich layer of topsoil in the "magic Skagit," as Mr. Hedlin calls the valley. European immigrants flocked here starting in the 1860s and built Victorian houses for their families on the board-flat green fields.

They also constructed an elaborate network of earthen dikes to capture land from the saltwater delta and prevent the rivers from flooding their farms. On this managed agricultural landscape, tens of thousand of acres of farmland were once tidal wetlands, Mr. Hedlin said.

Since the mid-1990s, residents have tried to slow development as strip malls and housing subdivisions marched northward from Seattle. Skagit County residents pay extra taxes to buy development rights from farmers, and a charitable group, Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, warns that "Pavement is forever."

Many conservationists have also decided that farms are better than pavement, and say they are willing to balance preservation with profitable land use.

Mr. Morse lives here and even volunteered to spend two days last spring selling Mr. Hedlin's produce at a farmer's market.

"We don't know anything about farming," Mr. Morse told the farmers recently over coffee and sandwiches at the Rexville Grocery. "You guys are the stewards of the land. You tell me what to do."

For this experiment, each farmer's 70-acre parcel has been planted with a mixture of clover and grass to enrich the soil. While a third of the land will be periodically flooded for birds, a third will be fenced as pasture for dairy cows, and the rest will be mowed and otherwise left alone.

Farms here are gradually shifting toward organic production because consumers willingly pay much more for organic food. As another incentive to join Farming for Wildlife, the 210 acres will be available for organic use after three years.

Mr. Mesman will start producing organic milk with his 225 Holstein cows next spring. Mr. Thulen sees a big market for organic potatoes.

"In my time, I can see our little valley was farmed very hard," said Mr. Thulen, whose 2,000-acre farm was begun by his grandfather in 1867. "That pendulum has swung to get the ground healthy again."

In an ideal world, the Nature Conservancy would love to persuade farmers to add wetlands to their regular crop rotation. To that end, the group's scientists will analyze soil samples to assess whether shallow flooding might improve soil fertility as much as cow manure and mowed grass do.

In a similar project on the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California, farmers reported better potato yields and fewer nematodes, a harmful worm, on land that had been purposefully flooded. But scientists say this may not apply in the Skagit Valley, where the soil has a higher clay content.

Whether or not they end up with more productive land, the three farmers seem pleased to try something new without financial risk.

"If 100 years from now," Mr. Hedlin said, "there are healthy viable family farms in this valley and waterfowl and wildlife and salmon in the river, then everyone wins."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/4778066.html

"Coroner reports show Joubert suffered a 4-inch blistering burn on the top of his head and blistering on both sides of his head above his ears."

I have only one word to say to that:

"Good"

(Not that I'm keeping track or anything...)

http://tinyurl.com/ylb2l8

"In tests in Canada, women who were told that men and women do math equally well did much better than those who were told there is a genetic difference in math ability."

I think that given equal intelligence and effort, either gender is capable of doing well in any subject - there is no innate male advantage for science and math (or computers).

What does interest me, however, is how much an interest in a subject affects how well one can do: I have male and female friends who claim to have no interest in math, and, in consequence have convinced themselves they do not do well at it. While I cannot profess to *love* math, I don't dislike it (not like, say, housework...), I find it quite useful, and I'm reasonably proficient at it.

Also interesting on CNN.com recently: http://tinyurl.com/y9sm9r - "The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy."

Hmmm...maybe I should lose some of that confidence...;-)

"For the Fallen"

by Laurence Binyon

They shall not grow old,
As we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.
We will remember them.

http://tinyurl.com/s8gyy

If Nebraska wants to avoid "brain drain" and other perils of being a largely rural state, it desperately needs to provide affordable broadband Internet service to all 93 counties.

I live inside the Lincoln city limits because of two things: my child's education needs (Lincoln Public Schools has a terrific Autism program) and Roadrunner cable modem service. So, even if the first were not a factor, the second keeps me in town - my dream of living in the country with that porch swing has to remain out of reach because my life demands constant Internet connectivity.

Frankly, I think the entire state should be on wireless broadband. Internet access is a need as much as electricity and the telephone are.

September 6, 2005

Dear HHV,

On behalf of the soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington D.C. we thank Help Hospitalized Veterans for their ongoing support and craft kits... the benefits our patients receive as a direct result of your contributions are endless. They truly enjoy these craft kits and the comments have been extremely positive. The sense of accomplishment that accompanies the completion of the crafts helps relieve stress and anxiety, while promoting self-independence through increased strength and fine motor control of upper extremity patients.

This motivates the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen and increases their ability to concentrate, thereby contributing to their health and well being.

Sincerely,

Col. William J. Howard III - Chief, Occupational Therapy Service - Walter Reed Army Medical Center

www.soldiertomovies.org

Operation: Take a Soldier to the Movies was started in 2004 by parents of a soldier stationed in Iraq. Even though their son isn't there anymore they are continuing the program "as long as there is someone else's son or daugher in the war zone and the people back home want to help support them and show them we care about them".

Folks are asked to donate:

• Letter of support from the donor with their mailing address


• New or used DVD


• Artificially sweetened powdered drink mix packets i.e. Crystal Light or Kool Aide (no tubs)


• Movie theatre style candy (no chocolate)


• Microwavable Popcorn


• Funds to help ship the packages (PayPal accepted)

Whatever your feelings about the wars, think of how you would feel if you were over there, or if your child were. Again, this is a more concrete way of showing support than the magnetic yellow car thing :-)

Karla the "Booth Babe" @ WWPC
Originally uploaded by Karlamagne.

The new Longhorn release date?? ;-)

[printer-friendly version of single crew article referenced in the Train of Thought post listed here by request]

http://tinyurl.com/c7h48

04/27/2005
UP goal: One person per train
By The Omaha World-Herald

Eight railroads, including Union Pacific, filed notice with the engineers and conductors unions of their intent to consolidate engineer and conductor jobs, but negotiations have stalled with the United Transportation Union, which represents conductors.

Since the 1980s, most freight trains have been operated by a crew of two - an engineer and a conductor.

That's one too many, the nation's largest railroads now say.

Eight railroads, including Union Pacific and BNSF Railway Co., filed notice with the engineers and conductors unions of their intent to negotiate one-person crews and to consolidate engineer and conductor jobs into a single category: transportation employee.

Monday, the railroads requested that a federal mediator step in, saying negotiations have stalled with the United Transportation Union, which represents conductors.

The UTU filed suit against the railroads in March in U.S. District Court in Southern Illinois, saying crew agreements are protected and are a local issue not subject to national bargaining.

The agreements require that every train have a conductor, the UTU says, and the union would discuss one-person crews only if that one person is a conductor and if safe and reliable technology is available for computerized trains.

"It may be 10 years off. The technology is not perfected enough today," said UTU spokesman Frank Wilner.

There's nothing to wait for, said one railroad official.

"We're ready now," Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said. "There are situations where one person could safely operate a train."

The railroads don't agree that pacts negotiated with the UTU in the '80s included a moratorium on reopening the issue of crew size, Bromley said.

The other railroads are: Alton & Southern Railway Co., CSX Transportation Inc., Kansas City Southern Railway Co., Manufacturers Railway Co., Norfolk Southern Corp., and Terminal Railroad Association.

The railroads could move to one-person crews without renegotiating the UTU crew-consist agreements, Wilner said. The agreements require only that every train have a conductor, not a certain number of crew members.

The union won't, however, discuss changing the crew-consist agreement itself.

"The UTU is not going to negotiate an end to a protective agreement that would perhaps permit engineers represented by another union to take work that is now guaranteed to the UTU."

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen - now part of the Teamsters - represents train engineers. A spokesman for the BLET said no one was immediately available to comment on contract negotiations.

Bromley said he had no information on how transportation employee jobs would be divided among engineers and conductors.

Generally, engineers rank higher and have a higher scale of pay than conductors.

The industry wants to lower labor costs as "it struggles to fund the enormous infusion of capital needed immediately to deliver service expected by our customers and to expand capacity," the railroads' notice to the unions reads.

Current agreements require more employees than are needed, producing "relentless labor cost inflation," it continues.

Bromley said crew size would vary depending on the conditions.

"If we determine that a one-person crew fits whatever operation, we would do it in a safe manner. We're not saying there would be one person in all situations. It would depend on what a train is going to be doing."

Wilner said the union believes the one-person crew issue is tied to technology that would allow computerized train operations, which is at least five to 10 years away, according to industry estimates.

The concept - called positive train control - is to use sensors and global positioning systems to prevent derailments and other accidents, even stopping a train remotely, if needed.

Some short-line railroads, Amtrak routes and other rail uses already have one-person crews in place, Bromley said.

Alerters and restrictive signals long in use in some situations require an engineer's response. If there is no response, brakes to stop a train are applied, he said.

Wilner said the UTU has deep reservations about the safety of such a change, especially considering the possibility that a train could be targeted by terrorists.

"It is not inconceivable that one person on a crew could somehow be incapacitated and a train with deadly chemicals be left alone," Wilner said. "And it's not uncommon for the various mechanisms that keep a train together to come apart, which would require the one crew member to go investigate. That could leave no one in the cab of the locomotive."

Nonetheless, Wilner said one-person crews are "highly probable" someday, and the UTU must move to protect its members.

"No union has ever stopped the introduction of new technology and no union ever will," Wilner said. "As a union, we would rather explain to our members why we have the work involving this new technology than why we didn't get the work."

If one-person crews are likely soon, how far off could unmanned trains be?

Bromley said, "On a freight train, I don't think that's too likely in the near future."

Copyright Kearney Hub 2005

[I was asked if I could post the printer-friendly format of the Chicago Tribune article I referenced in the Train of Thought post from yesterday.]

http://tinyurl.com/csy52

From the Los Angeles Times

Over the Long Haul, Fatigue Kills

Train accidents caused by human error are rising. Some experts blame overworked crews, especially in the deadliest crashes.

By Dan Weikel
Times Staff Writer

April 24, 2005

When a Union Pacific freight train thundered into tiny Macdona, Texas, just before dawn June 28, the engineer and conductor had clocked more than 60 hours in the previous week, working the long, erratic shifts that are common in the railroad industry.

They flew through a stop signal at 45 mph and slammed into another freight train that was moving onto a side track. No one even touched the brakes.

Chlorine gas from a punctured tank car killed the conductor and two townspeople, while dozens of others suffered breathing problems and burning eyes as the toxic cloud drifted almost 10 miles. Hundreds were evacuated within a 2-mile radius of the accident.

Federal investigators suspect that both of the Union Pacific crewmen had fallen asleep. In the weeks before the crash, each man's work schedule had at least 15 starting times at all hours of the day.

The Macdona crash illustrates a grim fact of life for thousands of engineers, brake operators and conductors who guide giant freight trains across the country: Exhaustion can kill.

Two decades after federal officials identified fatigue as a top safety concern, the problem continues to haunt the railroad industry, especially the largest carriers responsible for moving the vast majority of the nation's rail-borne freight.

"Engineers and conductors sleep on trains. Anyone who tells you different is not being straight with you," said Diz D. Francisco, a veteran engineer and union official who works out of Bakersfield for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.

Tired crews have caused some of the deadliest and costliest freight train wrecks of the last 20 years, a review of federal accident reports show. And although the government doesn't track fatigue-related crashes, the number of accidents caused by human error has increased 60% since 1996, a surge that some safety experts suspect is at least partly the result of weary crews.

"We have been talking about the same issues for more than 20 years," said William Keppen of Annapolis, Md., a retired engineer, former union official and past coordinator of Burlington Northern Santa Fe's fatigue countermeasures program. "We made some progress in the 1990s, but the whole thing is starting to go to hell. People are dying out there. The risk is increasing again."

National Transportation Safety Board records show that entire crews have nodded off at the controls of mile-long freight trains weighing 10,000 tons, some of them loaded with hazardous materials.

In a 1984 Wyoming crash, a Burlington Northern engineer had only 6 1/2 hours of sleep in the 48 hours before the accident; his conductor had five hours of sleep.

Outside St. Louis in 2001, a Union Pacific engineer who had been up for 24 hours with only a short nap failed to heed three warning signals and orders to limit his speed before triggering a chain-reaction crash involving two other trains. The wreck injured four and caused $10 million in damage.

A year later, in Des Plaines, Ill., a Union Pacific engineer fighting to stay awake after more than 22 hours without sleep blew past warning signals and broadsided another train, severely injuring two crew members.

After a Chicago & North Western train collision in March 1995, engineer Gerald A. Dittbenner sued the railroad — and received a $500,000 settlement, his lawyers say — over his incessant 12-hour shifts and irregular work schedules.

Dittbenner, 49, misread a stop signal after being awake almost 30 hours and hit the rear of an empty coal train outside Shawnee Junction, Wyo. Seconds before the impact, Dittbenner jumped from the locomotive and broke his neck. Unable to do strenuous work because of persistent pain, he now works as a locksmith in Scottsbluff, Neb.

At a freight terminal before the crash, Dittbenner wrote a prophetic letter to the railroad company — but never got a chance to mail it.

"I said something like, 'We weren't getting enough sleep. The railroad is always short-handed and working us to death. If nothing is done, someone is going to get hurt,' " Dittbenner recalled in an interview. "That someone was me."

U.S. Probes Few Crashes

Federal regulators believe that fatigue underlies many train accidents, though the number of crashes related to the lack of rest is unknown.

The government investigates few crashes, leaving most of them to the railroads to review. By law, those carriers submit reports to the government. Under cause, the only fatigue-related category is "employee fell asleep," which Federal Railroad Administration officials say doesn't provide a full picture of the problem.

In 2004, the industry reported 3,104 significant accidents to the railroad administration. About 1,250 were attributed to human factors such as poor judgment, miscommunication and failure to follow operating procedures — errors that experts say can be triggered by fatigue.

A 1997 survey of more than 1,500 freight crew members by the North American Rail Alertness Partnership — a group of industry, government and union officials — found that about 80% had reported to work while tired, extremely tired or exhausted.

Though fatigue can affect passenger train crews, it is primarily a problem for the 40,000 to 45,000 engineers, brake operators and conductors assigned to unscheduled freight service.

Many put in 60 to 70 hours a week, sometimes more. They can be called to work any time during the day or night, constantly disrupting their sleep patterns.

The irregular shifts often place bleary-eyed crews at the controls between 3 and 6 a.m., when experts say the body's natural circadian rhythm produces maximum drowsiness.

Engineers, brake operators and conductors liken on-the-job fatigue to being in a constant state of jet lag.

"There is no set rest schedule. It changes all the time, and it is hard to adjust," said Doug Armstrong of Huntington Beach, a veteran Union Pacific engineer who often works 12-hour days, six days a week. "People have a normal rest cycle, but a railroad is anything but normal."

Part of the problem is the federal Hours of Service Act, a 98-year-old law that requires at least eight hours off after each shift. Crew members say that often doesn't result in adequate sleep. Allowing for commutes, family obligations, meals and getting ready for work, four to six hours of rest is common, they say.

Moreover, it is legal under the act for engineers, conductors and brake operators to work up to 432 hours a month. In contrast, truckers can drive no more than 260 hours a month under federal law, while commercial pilots are restricted to 100 hours of flying a month.

"It doesn't make scientific or physiological sense," said Mark R. Rosekind, a past director of NASA's fatigue countermeasures program and a former consultant to Union Pacific. "It calls for a minimum of eight hours off, but people need eight hours of sleep a day on average."

Without adequate rest, engineers can significantly increase their risk of an accident, according to research in the late 1990s by the Assn. of American Railroads, the industry's trade organization and lobbying arm.

Donald G. Krause, then an analyst for the association, studied 1.7 million work schedules and found that engineers who put in more than 60 hours a week were at least twice as likely to be in an accident as those working 40 hours.

His work was intended to aid the industry in assessing the fatigue problem and finding ways to reduce accidents. But in 1998, the association canceled the research.

"They did not want this finding," said Krause, who once studied rail safety for the federal General Accounting Office and is now a business writer living outside Chicago. "The railroads fear it could lead to restrictions on hours and government regulation, which could cost them money. But something needs to be done. One of these days, they are going to wipe out a town."

Association officials say Krause's research was halted because of budget cuts, not out of a desire to bury the conclusions.

Not a New Problem

Exhausting schedules are nothing new in railroading. In 1863, long hours contributed to the founding of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, one of the nation's oldest unions.

Crew fatigue is even enshrined in American folklore. Engineer Casey Jones was killed when he rear-ended another train in 1900 — near the end of a double shift. The accident inspired a song, "The Ballad of Casey Jones."

Today's fatigue problem is the result of a variety of developments over the last two decades, say union officials, railroad consultants, company executives and train crew members.

Hiring has not kept pace with a steady increase in rail freight volumes, about 4.4% a year on average since 1991, federal data show.

Corporate mergers and cost-cutting during the 1990s led to staff reductions. In 2002, a change in pension rules led to 12,000 railroad worker retirements, twice as many as the year before.

Since 1990, overall railroad employment has declined more than 25%. Department of Labor statistics show that, until recently, the hiring of engineers has been flat for years.

Railroad unions have at times resisted proposed solutions to the fatigue problem if they threatened to limit the freedom of their members to work long hours and maximize earnings. With overtime and high mileage, salaries for engineers can reach $100,000 a year.

"It is a two-edged sword," said Brian Held, 47, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe engineer for 10 years. "The company wants to save money and doesn't hire what it needs to. Union members don't want the boards so full of workers they can't make the money they want. It makes for a dangerous situation."

Held said that fatigue led to a train collision April 28, 2004, in the Cajon Pass of San Bernardino County, a long, tricky grade that requires constant attention.

Federal records show that both the engineer and conductor of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train dozed off and struck a Union Pacific train at 5:15 a.m. Five cars derailed.

"There have been four or five fatigue-related incidents up there," Held said. "We're lucky no one was killed."

Interest in fatigue as a safety problem intensified in the mid-1980s, when the NTSB concluded that weary crews contributed to three collisions involving Burlington Northern trains that left 12 dead.

But the railroad industry did not launch a major initiative until two Santa Fe freight trains collided Nov. 7, 1990, in Corona, killing four and causing $4.4 million in damage.

The fiery head-on crash occurred at 4:11 a.m., when a westbound train ignored a stop signal and crept onto the main track from a siding. It collided with an eastbound freight train going about 30 mph.

Crew members on the westbound train tried to run from the wreckage but were consumed by a fireball. The brake operator on the other train was killed; the engineer and conductor suffered serious injuries.

A year later, NTSB investigators concluded that the crew at fault had probably fallen asleep. They noted that engineer Gary Ledoux and brake operator Virginia Hartzell had not slept for almost 27 hours, making them drunk with exhaustion. Conductor James Wakefield had no more than six hours of rest the day before.

Of Ledoux's last 54 shifts, 35 had different reporting times at all hours. The day before the crash, because of a last-minute shift change, Ledoux had only 5 1/2 hours of sleep before guiding a freight train from Los Angeles to Barstow, arriving at 12:40 p.m.

En route to Los Angeles, Ledoux exceeded speed limits 13 times. As he neared Corona, he turned on the cab's dome light and opened the window in an apparent attempt to stay awake.

Voluntary Solutions

The Corona accident prompted the formation of the Work Rest Task Force, which stressed a voluntary approach by railroad companies and labor unions to sponsor research and find solutions without government intervention. In 1996, the North American Rail Alertness Partnership was formed. The Federal Railroad Administration also organized related efforts.

Today, a variety of fatigue countermeasures are partially in place or under consideration at the nation's largest railroads, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific.

Some railroads have started voluntary work-rest cycles, though they are not available to most of their freight crews. A typical arrangement is seven days on and three days off. Educational materials are available, crew lodgings at hotels have been upgraded and most major railroads, after years of resistance, now allow short naps for those on duty.

Executives at some companies say they are moving to more regularly scheduled freight service, which can make crew members' hours more predictable.

At Burlington Northern Santa Fe, crew members are entitled to 14 hours of undisturbed rest after working eight hours. At CSX, they can ask for undisturbed rest for up to 10 hours, and fixed work-rest cycles are available at several major hubs.

Officials at all of the nation's largest railroads say they are hiring thousands of engineers and conductors to reduce crew shortages. The companies, which handle about 90% of the nation's rail freight, added more than 4,000 crew members in 2004, a 7% increase over 2003.

The Assn. of American Railroads contends that a voluntary effort is more likely to succeed than a "one-size-fits-all" approach that government regulation would create.

"We have made huge gains by working cooperatively," said Alan Lindsey, general director of safety and rules for Burlington Northern Santa Fe. "We have come a tremendous way as an industry."

Although accidents related to human error are increasing, the railroad association cites federal data that deaths and injuries of railroad workers from accidents are at record lows.

Fatigue "is not what I'd consider a major safety issue at this point, but it is an issue we take seriously," said Robert C. VanderClute, the association's senior vice president of safety and operations.

Industry critics, however, point to Union Pacific, the nation's largest carrier, in asserting that the voluntary approach isn't working.

Understaffing and crew fatigue have persisted at Union Pacific despite the railroad's participation in the Work Rest Task Force.

The largest team of safety inspectors ever assembled by the Federal Railroad Administration descended on Union Pacific in 1997 after five major crashes in eight weeks killed seven people.

Long hours, unpredictable work schedules and train crews that had worked days on end without time off were partly to blame.

Since last May, the Federal Railroad Administration and the NTSB have been investigating seven derailments and crashes involving Union Pacific trains near San Antonio, including the Macdona wreck.

Crew fatigue is suspected in at least two of the accidents.

In December 2003, Union Pacific unsuccessfully sued a group of unionized conductors alleging that they were taking too much time off during weekends and holidays, disrupting commerce along a major Kansas line in violation of the Railway Labor Act.

The United Transportation Union countered that the railroad was severely understaffed in the area and many conductors were exhausted from working for weeks - sometimes months - without a day off.

"We were running with a skeleton crew," said union official Greg Haskin. "Guys were burned out and calling in sick. They were working 12- to 16-hour days up to 90 days straight. You can't expect people to work like that and be safe."

Union Pacific declined to discuss the case.

The company has vowed to add 200 engineers and conductors in the San Antonio area, where the Macdona crash occurred, and 2,500 this year across its vast network.

The company also is experimenting with a two-days-on, two-days-off work-rest cycle for engineers at its giant freight hub in North Platte, Neb.

"Generations have been dealing with this problem," said John Bromley, a Union Pacific spokesman. "There are not going to be any overnight solutions."

Critics say the industry isn't doing enough voluntarily and that further government regulation is needed. But when it comes to combating fatigue, the wheels of reform turn slowly.

Bills requiring fatigue management plans and improvements to the Hours of Service Act have failed repeatedly in Congress since 1998 because of corporate and labor opposition.

Out of frustration, NTSB officials say they recently withdrew their long-standing recommendation for revisions to the act.

Amending the law to reflect modern sleep science had been on the NTSB's "10 Most Wanted List" of safety improvements since 1990.

George Gavalla, who headed the Federal Railroad Administration safety office from 1997 to 2004, said trying to reduce the fatigue problem "was one of my biggest frustrations."

"I'm disappointed we could not accomplish more," he added. "It is a huge safety issue."

Copyright 2005, The Los Angeles Times

Got 'em! The camera cell phone has triumphed! It dreamt the impossible dream!

I'm guessing the average person doesn't know the daily workings of the railroad industry and unless directly involved, probably is pretty content that way.

Train wrecks have been in the news a lot lately, though, and perhaps entering a "train" of thought. I recently read this article about how the NTSB is investigating how the major railroad companies, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific (UP) handle crew scheduling. Having once known someone who works in the railroad business, I can vouch for scheduling practices that if aren't plain dumb from a practical standpoint (if I told you even one story you wouldn't believe me - they are that inefficient), are ill-advised from a safety* - both the crews and the general public (those trains aren't carrying just coal and grain and stereo components and cars, folks...can you say "hazardous materials"?) - and an overall morale standpoint.

The latest insanity being advocated by the railroad barons is to run trains with just one person. (yes, that's from one of the labor union sites, but it's an exact copy of an Omaha newspaper article). Yep, one of those big, potentially hazardous multiple-ton machines, being run by one person, probably tired, if not cranky because he (railroaders are still mostly in the "he" category) has no regular schedule and spends way too much time away from home. That aside, things periodically go wrong with cars in the back and that one person running the train would have to stop the train, get out and walk all the way back, checking along the way to see which car is being troublesome. Lessee, leaves the train engine unattended...

Golly! I feel safe!

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I sure hope those railroad barons like all that extra money they will save by running trains with just one-person crews. Given that the major railroads not only own the rails, but also the trains, the cars, and the coal mines (deep irony: the cost of diesel is causing problems - perhaps they should go back to steam? ;-), nearly all the train trips are pure profit. They just have to pay those annoying employees who only suck profits from the company. (Bad employees! Bad!)

Seriously, someone in the general public, outside of the railroad and their trade unions, needs to be keeping an eye on this. This is a matter of public safety.

---

* Chicago Tribune requires registration

Hoping for the success experienced by the 50 State Quarters, the US is thinking again of trying out a dollar coin. We already have two other dollar coins, usually given out by US Post Office vending machines and shunned like the $2 bill, but this dollar coin would be hit not because folks would use it but because, like the 50 State Quarters, folks will collect them.

There are two giant windmills on the North edge of Lincoln. Perhaps it comes from having the same birthday as Cervantes, but windmills fascinate me, particularly these large modern ones. I've seen the magnificient windmill farm outside of Palm Springs, California and I highly recommend the experience.

So, I will be attempting to capture these Lincoln windmills on my camera cell phone. Yes, while driving. I do believe you can almost see them in the distance in this photo.

This one approaches "artistic"...

Wheee! Pretty scenery! OK, it's a road. But aren't those clouds cool?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/16/opinion/16mckibben.html

I've seen the huge windmill farm outside of Palm Springs and it's a spectacular view all in itself. There are a couple of these large windmills outside of Lincoln, near I-80 that I keep meaning to photograph in the sunrise.

That would mean being at the 56th Street exit near sunrise.

(Sunrise is substantially before 9am, isn't it?...)

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[the New York Times requires registration - printer-friendly format included here in its entirety]

February 16, 2005

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

Tilting at Windmills

By Bill McKibben

Johnsburg, N.Y.

FINALLY, American environmentalists have a chance to get it right about wind power.

News broke this week of plans for the first big wind energy installation in the Adirondack Park. Ten towering turbines would sprout on the site of an old garnet mine in this tiny town. They'd be visible from the ski slopes at nearby Gore Mountain, and they'd be visible too from the deep wild of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness, one of the loneliest and most beautiful parts of New York's "forever wild" Adirondack Forest Preserve, the model for a century of American conservation. In fact, it would be hard to imagine a place better suited to illustrate the controversy that wind power is causing in this country.

I know the area well; I've lived most of my adult life in this part of the world, and I've skied and backpacked through the old mine and the woods around it, searched for (and found) lost hunters, encountered its bears and coyotes and fisher, sat on its anonymous peaks and knolls and watched the hawks circle beneath. In fact, this very wilderness - these yellow birches, the bear that left that berry-filled pile of scat, those particular loons laughing on that particular lake - led me to fall in love with the world outdoors.

Which is precisely why I hope those wind turbines rise on the skyline, and as soon as possible.

The planet faces many environmental challenges, but none of them come close to global warming. In the past month new studies have shown that the trigger point for severe climate change may be closer than previously thought, and the possible consequences even more severe. Just to slow the pace of this rapid warming will require every possible response, from more efficient cars to fewer sprawling suburbs to more trains to - well, the list is pretty well endless.

But wind power is one key component. Around the world it's the fastest growing source of electric generation, mostly because the technology, unlike solar power, has evolved to the point where it's cost-competitive with fossil fuels. The Danes already generate nearly a quarter of their power from the breeze; the Germans and the Spaniards and the British are rapidly heading in the same direction.

In America, however, the growth of wind power has been slower. Partly that's because the Bush administration's stance on climate change has meant scant government support for renewable energy. But partly, too, it's because environmentalists, particularly in the crowded East, haven't come to terms with this technology. In fights in Cape Cod, the mountains of Vermont, and the ridgelines of Maryland, they've divided into bitter factions over almost every turbine proposal. On one side, national environmental groups like Greenpeace have backed many installations, arguing that the dangers of global warming far outweigh any local effects. On the other side, neighbors of proposed wind farms have joined with local chapters of big conservation groups to fight the Statue-of-Liberty-size windmills on environmental grounds, chiefly arguing that they'll destroy the scenic beauty of their areas.

That may be provincial, but it's not entirely inaccurate. These newer, more efficient turbines are enormous; part of me doesn't want to gaze out from the summit of Peaked Mountain or the marsh at Thirteenth Lake and see an industrial project in the distance. In the best of all possible worlds, we'd do without them.

But it's not the best of all possible worlds. Right now, the choice is between burning fossil fuels and making the transition, as quickly as possible, to renewable power. There are more than 100 coal-fired power plants on the drawing board in this country right now; if they are built we will spew ever more carbon into the atmosphere. And that will endanger not only the residents of low-lying tropical nations that will be swamped by rising oceans, but also the residents of the Siamese Pond Wilderness. The birch and beech and maple that turn this place glorious in the fall won't survive a rapid warming; the computer modeling for this part of the country, conducted at the University of New Hampshire, shows that if we continue with business as usual there won't even be winter as we've known it here by century's end, just one long chilly mud season.

That is not to say that every Adirondack ridgeline should be turned into a wind farm. Most are unsuitable - they're on constitutionally protected state forest preserve, they have no roads or power lines nearby, it would be criminal to wreck them in the name of clean energy. But this site is precisely the sort of place environmentalists should applaud, and insist on: it's privately owned, and there's already a road and a high-voltage line. Because of the mine, much of the land was even zoned industrial, a rarity in the park.

So here environmentalists should step back and say, especially in this cradle of American wilderness, that the price is worth paying. To see that blade turning in the blue Adirondack sky - to see the breeze made visible - should be a sign of real hope for the future.

Bill McKibben, a visiting scholar at Middlebury College, is the author of the forthcoming "Wandering Home: A Long Walk Through America's Most Hopeful Region, Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

http://tinyurl.com/4laga:

"The differences can be noticed from early childhood, Gurian said, such as when an adult gives a child a doll.

'That doll becomes life-like to that girl, but you give it to a two-year-old boy and you are more likely, not all the time, but you are more likely than not to see that boy try to take the head off the doll,' he said.

'He thinks spatial-mechanical. He's using the doll as an object'."

Two things:

1. What if the little boy bites the head off the doll - is he destined to be a rock star?
2. So, it's ingrained in men to treat women like objects?

;-)

http://www.kearneyhub.com/html/news/news_6.htm

I grew up in Holdrege (Phelps County). This kind of edgy reporting represents exactly how I remember my hometown area to be.

Smiley Lore :-)

Best quote: "First, not all people who post on boards have the literary skill of Shakespeare or Twain, and even those luminaries had bad days. If Shakespeare were tossing off a quick note complaining about the lack of employee parking spaces near the Globe Theater, he might have produced the same kind of sloppy prose that the rest of us do."

http://tinyurl.com/4xqzl

An innovation from my alma mater!

Is anyone else thinking of Toy Story 2??

http://tinyurl.com/5at8q

"In schools across the country, milk is replacing sodas, and nowhere is it more popular than in America's Dairyland."

This is great news! Kids should be drinking something with some redeeming nutritional value, and even flavored milk has protein.

Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission

Now this sounds like fun - follow Lewis and Clark's journey through Nebraska and South Dakota. Maybe I'll do that some year!

Nickel Series 2004.

We've had new nickels for two years now...

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United State Mint Westward Journey Nickel Series™ -- 2005 Designs.

In another of the "guess I'm the last to find out" series, we're getting new nickels! Wheee! While it won't alleviate the inherent problem of boring USA currency, it's a start. Now, if we can just have some pretty paper money like they have in UK...